Greetings, dear readers, my name is Cedar Gardner, and I am one of the many cannabis users in Arizona. I’m also a photographer, journalist and the Weekly’s new cannabis correspondent.
In the following article, I hope to provide a casual introduction to my personal involvement and experience with medical marijuana so as to provide context as to where I stand on this issue on a personal level and conversely as a journalist.
Medical marijuana is a hot topic right now, and for good reason. In the United States, a generationally engrained stigma still points a judgmental eye at cannabis use, despite the proven medicinal applications of the plant.
It’s 2019, and stigma around drug use is still barring people across the U.S. from receiving the medicine they need. The profit-driven pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. stands to gain nothing from the implementation of medical marijuana, and cannabis is being used by many as an alternative to opiates and other pharmaceutical drugs.
I plan to investigate and inform, but also provide much needed context in these columns. After all, I can’t pretend I’m not an advocate for the implementation of medical marijuana.
I use cannabis recreationally, more like a cold beer at the end of a long work day than medicine. But I also recognize that thousands of medical marijuana patients in Arizona have experienced first-hand the medicinal applications of cannabis.
My mother is a qualified medical marijuana cardholder. She swears by the medicinal uses of cannabis and its application as a stand-in for opiates and other pharmaceuticals.
Yet, cannabis remains a Schedule 1 drug under federal law. Until federal legalization becomes a reality, the full medicinal potential of the plant simply can’t be fully taken advantage of. In the meantime, cannabis sits on the sidelines as an alternative medicine, and dispensaries operate in opposition to federal law.
I have been detained overnight traveling from Canada to the United States for simply admitting to a Border Patrol agent that “of course I had smoked marijuana in my life… in my home state of Washington I had partaken just days before.”
My cousin’s joke that I’m not allowed to be in the driver’s seat in such a situation again, for everyone’s sake.
In high school, I was denied the position of student council vice-president in “a complete disregard of the democratic process,” as we called it at the time. After being voted in by my classmates following a nerve-racking speech in the school auditorium, I was called to the principal’s office. My girlfriend had tagged me in a post on Instagram. It was a photo of me hitting a bong on Christmas Day. I was depicted scantily clad with a Santa hat adorned crooked on my head.
On these grounds, I was disqualified from the race. Yet there was no further punishment because, well, there was no actual criminal offense. Stigma and perception of drug use is, come to find out, quite complicated. I believe that the movement away from these engrained stigmas begins with an open dialogue about drug use and safety; one based in science, free from persecution and judgment.
The war on drugs—the broader underlying issue—is what began the stigmas and faulty rhetoric surrounding cannabis use in the United States.
Tracing back to the Nixon administration’s creation of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the harsh Rockefeller Drug Laws of the 1970s and the criminalization of LSD in reaction to the counterculture of the 1960s—one of the most stigmatized societal movements and substances in history.
You won’t find politicians talking about the applications of LSD assisted psychotherapy— not yet, at least. Change doesn’t happen overnight.
The 2020 Democratic presidential debate brought up some of the most important issues surrounding marijuana and the war on drugs. Candidates discussed the pharmaceutical industry’s hand in the opiate crisis and the mass imprisonment of people for low-level drug offenses.
“It’s the largest prison population on the planet,” Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) said. “Many are there for non-violent drug crimes, including possession of marijuana at a time that half of the states have legalized it or decriminalized it.”
Since diving into the local cannabis industry here in Tucson, I’ve come to realize that there is no shortage of local news to investigate or larger issues to analyze. So as a beginning to this investigation I’m asking you, our readers, what you think the most pressing issues surrounding medical marijuana are, and what you would like to see covered in this column.
You can submit your input online at tucsonweekly.com in the comments section of this article.
Based on this polling information, in the coming months I will dig deep into these issues, uncovering how the government, private industry and public are affected by cannabis. ■
This article appears in Jul 25-31, 2019.
It is so easy to list Nixon and his scheduling of marijuana to 1. Then to talk about the pharma industry and the pushing of opiates. This too was a republican plot is this the spin?
Lets look at more recently and creepy Joe. This was one of the most ardent put in prison for simple posession. Now creepy Joe say he has a plan for marijuana that does not include legalization. (gawd help us) While his son leaves coke in Polk country this elitists walks as Jones sit in prison for legally bought concentrate. This is the same guy that fought for Oxycotton to be prescribed for terminally ill. While at the same time hawking for civil seizure on posession of money allows for the government to steal your assets without a hearing.
We see Ducey hawing for decriminalization before a proposition for legalization makes it to the ballot. We see AZ state senators build a system where everyone gets paid at the patients expense. If a truly needy medical patient has need for a larger quality they are for fortunate to tax the need right out of their reach and back to the underground.
Cedar is the new cannabis writer for the weekly I hope all can benefit. Cedar uses cannabis as a relaxant for an end of the day is that his qualifying ailment tired ? Or did you perjure yourself with a false pain testament if so why even have a doctors approval.
I hope the medical marijuana community thinks about what is happening here. Some who might need a doctors advise on doses combined with other medications will only see his doctor every two years dont leave to a bud tender. Wait maybe I can go on line and watch some worn out old scab like myself talk about how marijuana suppositories help him sleep hardly a testament to therapy.
There is little if any difference between big pharma and big cannabis. One can go by any shopping and see CBD products at every turn. These were tested for contaminates and giving FDA approval long before this BS testing and license grab of SB 1494 came around.
Cedar…You asked for suggestions for column topics. The base of prohibition goes back to dark money and influence by corporations like Hearst newspapers and Dupont in 1937. It continues today with “sponsors” like big pharma, private prisons, etc. legally bribing politicians to keep marijuana schedule I and highly illegal in many states. Although their numbers are shrinking each year….many in these states are still being sent to jail and prison for simple possession—while across a state line it is legal and sold freely. Talk about the politicians who “drink the Koolaid”served by lobbyists.
Greg Hale;
Very true of profiteers on marijuana over the years. Least look at attorney’s, police confiscation of property, aberrations of the legal system by civil servants on fee’s. millions of monies going to fake education and studies on the perils of use. felonies that preclude civil service in one state not in another. New industries that rent lease contract to subvert the perils of loss like rent a home car bank account or like remediation.
Now the feds will lose billions in company write offs when legalized and the overhead cost can be deducted as operating expenses. That coupled with automation will take production down to less than .0027 gm in cost. More and more time means conflict between a legal business and creative legal maneuvers to subvert profits as it is not federally legal. (not in the public interests any of it)
Ducey is hawking legalization the government elitists want to corner the market under the guise it’s for the kids and protections of quality of product. To build a separate department to handle this is incredulous and no doubt the director will be retired law enforcement handing out dollars. Like the the Sheriffs department seizure funds Radtke prosecuted and Gagnapin that was murdered over it. That had no accounting process in place for 20 years county Attorney is elected because right gender identity politics not oversight.. The director of marijuana will be a sub department within the AZDHS that hasn’t done the job it was empowered to do in the first place. I have read the feeble excuses just a way to stall to get players in place.
AND THE BEAT GOES ON >LA DA DA DEE LA DEE DA DEE DA. DRUMS KEEP POUNDING A RHYTHM TO THE BRAIN LETS KEEP THIS INSANE LEGALIZE LIKE THIS IS IN VAIN
The marijuana consumer now owns the market dont let this SB1494 steal this away by the producer supplier we dont need police supplying directing drug use, track record has shown time and time again this has not and does not work not the job of law enforcement or direct funding from.
Could you please find out why dispensaries in the area no longer carry ACDC flower, which is low THC and high CDB? In fact, you cannot find any high CDB and low THC flower here anymore. This is used for pain and anxiety, among other things, not for getting a buzz. Also, there is a shortage of pure Indica flower,like Granddaddy Purple which is used by people who cannot use hybrids or sativa due to anxiety or heart issues and are great for sleep. They were both around and easy to get here until a few months ago. What happened?
Discussion of prohibition generally esp contextualized with America’s Prohibition era and the lessons we can extrapolate and apply from that. Related, a history of Tucson’s place within the marijuana community/economy, over the last one or two hundred years. Discussion of the classist limitations imposed by state law on marijuana entrepreneurship. Also things like: is there a marijuana craft community in Tucson, like there is for craft beer and spirits and coffee? Are there pop-up events for learning or sampling or otherwise exploring the marijuana space? What are some individuals’ experience over time with marijuana in Tucson? What is the community consuming? What is it making?
Cedar, what is going on between the owners of Downtown Dispensary and Prime Leaf? Thanks!
I hope that there will be some education/knowledge available for those of us new to Medical Marijuana and trying to segue from anti-inflammatories and such to some dose of THC/CBD. Having to experiment (I was really cool one week) to make this happen is not great for a chronic condition.