As I sat in the studio being interviewed on Marijuana Radio last month, I was asked a question by Paul, from the on-air team. He asked if my mother knew of my book, the Plant - meaning whether or not I had revealed my commercial promotion of Hemp or Cannabis legalization to my parents, implying that I would have revealed a love of marijuana by doing so. I answered, "My mom died", not out of anger or resistance to the question, but as a matter of fact. And it got me thinking.
My mother died five years ago of complications due to breast cancer - actually, specifically, a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot. Several years before, she had gone through chemotherapy, and surgery, and was told it was cleared up, as they always say. Then it came back, as it often does. She didn't take advantage of Medical Marijuana, because the state in which she resided didn't allow the relaxed laws regarding Medical Marijuana at the time. I know for a fact that she had enjoyed recreational pot in an earlier time in her life, not regularly, but at the occasional party, among friends. Based on what she told me, her chemo experience wasn't so difficult to endure as others, considering the stories I have heard. It was a short term of chemo followed by the surgery, then a couple years of good health and remission. The recurrence arrived in the form of lung cancer, rather than breast cancer, and forced her to rely on an oxygen system - one in the home, and a portable one for travel. She retired from her job, and became homebound. Due to the oxygen system, she couldn't have flames in the house. Had she wanted to alleviate her pain with illegal marijuana, she couldn't have smoked it. She would have been left to devise cooking methods, and take her chances with the effectiveness, and the long wait for its effects to take hold.
The availability of prescription drugs, funded by her insurance, made this a much more viable alternative to a natural, healthy pain alleviant. But I cannot help remembering the discussions I had with my brother during the weeks just before and after her death, as well as with sympathetic friends and acquaintances. "The drugs killed her" was the most common agreed-upon belief. Others had had experiences with the same circumstances. Besides various pain killers, she was taking blood thinners, obviously to prevent blood clots (her killer). But the side effects of the blood thinners were a weakening of all the bodily systems that would have combatted the onslaught of the lung cancer, thus the savior became the enemy.
So was this euthanasia? Was the alleviation of pain, the prevention of a sudden, painful, deadly blood clot, and the hope for a calm death a form of mercy? My mother knew six months before her death, that her time had come. She had made her peace with the world, squared away her finances, made a living will, in addition to a post-death will, and told those she loved that it wouldn't be long. This was logical to her, and the actions of a sane, mature adult under these circumstances. But was the treatment she received from the medical center, her physician, her cancer specialist, her insurance company, and the medical industry logical, mature, or sane? They all were convinced that various prescription drugs, chemotherapy, surgery, and crossed-fingers would provide some sort of an outcome for my mother's condition, one which no one was willing to honestly predict, save for my mother.
Is this what our modern world, with all the scientific advances and medical research can offer? A slow, yet somewhat painless death, facilitated by dangerous chemical concoctions is our best guess, in some cases it seems. Nonetheless, my mother died from a blood clot. With the cocktail of painkillers and blood thinners in her system, she died suddenly, and painfully, from a blood clot due to complications from lung cancer, which resulted from a failed attempt to rid her of breast cancer.
I didn't know my mother's stance on Medical Marijuana's legality in her state, because it wasn't up for vote. We didn't discuss it. I know she would have, in general, been for, rather than against. But it wasn't an issue in the last few months of her life, because she wasn't suffering from the side effects of chemotherapy, since she wasn't going through treatment. She suffered more from shortness of breath up until the last few weeks, when she suffered from a failing body. Had she asked me for marijuana, I would have found a way to acquire it for her. Of course, as a good mother would, she didn't exactly admit to the truth of her condition, or her pain, to hers sons, leaving me without the knowledge of a possible need for an ingestible form of THC, something which I am convinced would have been a far better pain allayer than she had.
Even more so than the question of her choice of drugs, is the question of the symptoms - the symptoms of her predicament - a question that needs consideration, and maybe an answer. Her doctors were experimental, out of lack of knowledge. The cocktail of prescription drugs were only a guess. The insurance blindly paid for the recommendations of the doctors. The alternatives were never recommended to her. The state didn't provide the legality of alternatives. The culture of the state blindly obeyed the doctors opinions and knowledge - or lack thereof.
The realm in which we live is one of fear of what the authorities do not approve, or do not at least condone.
If the religious leaders of our era do not approve, or condone, premarital sex - with or without contraception - our modern American culture fears it. Sometimes that fear takes on the form of curiosity - especially in the young - and leads to secretly tasting the taboo, often with negative results, and also becomes a form of rebellion, something it should never be. That same fear in the hands of parents leads to a choice to hide the truth from the young, rather than discussing the logistics with them, offering options and reasons.
Similarly, if the elders of our era do not approve or condone public nudity, the public once again fears it - making it a taboo that tantalizes the young, as well as a tool of rebellion.
Take a look at the other side of this truth: The authorities approve, or at least condone alcohol consumption, and we have a reckless abandon of logic, safety, and regard for others - in all levels of society - resulting in life-destroying alcoholism, thousands of deadly automobile accidents every year, and rampant crime.
Now extend this argument to Medical Marijuana, and you have the same issue: an equal ignorance of a humanly natural occurrence, that is, taking advantage of what has been found to be helpful, as well as natural, throughout the history of evolution. Nudity is natural, but society's elders believe it should be hidden away, to prevent a reckless road to negligent sexual experimentation, throwing all caution to the wind. Premarital sex is natural, but religious leaders believe it should be quelled, to prevent a degradation of the sanctity of marital sex, to prevent a loss of interest in marriage, and to possibly prevent the end of monogamy, the very basis of the institution of the family. Alcohol is also natural, extending back through our history thousands of years possibly to, and assisting, the start of human civilization. However, being the only legal and approved thrill we have, it is abused to the level of insanity.
What does all this tell us? Glad you asked. If our culture was one of welcoming to the natural, as well as one void of fear of considering all options, without connotations, using logic to decide how to help each other prosper and survive, my mother might have had a better death. In other words, if American culture accepted things such as premarital sex - which has much more approval of the elders of other first world countries, and is, thus, in those lands less of a problem, and nudity - which again is less of an issue in other first world countries, without leading to reckless orgy, and finally, the use of the cannabis plant for its medical properties - something that the entire world should have embraced eons ago, and if American culture, in addition to accepting these things, also found ways to direct them toward a healthy position within society, making them beneficial - taking advantage, rather than simply managing - then maybe my mother would have been a happier person, with a more positive outlook for her world. And maybe her breast cancer, even though it is considered to be a hereditary disease, might have had less severity, because of her happiness and positivity. Then maybe, just maybe - in this alternate reality - our culture would have not relied on pharmaceutical profiteers to dictate how we treat illness, but rather would have existed in a world that loved nature and the natural, and there would have been a natural cure for her cancer, not necessarily from Medical Marijuana, but from something in our natural surroundings which may have, in actual reality, already died due to our ignorance of its existence, and our lack of concern for our planet's and her people's health and well-being.
Fact or fiction, it is my opinion. Truth or conjecture, wouldn't it be a logical, mature, and sane action for humans to consider anything that the earth offers, naturally, that may benefit civilization without adding to our self-destruction? Maybe our modern approach to living is, in fact, a form of euthanasia. We may instinctively know that we are on a course to elimination. Rampantly destroying our atmosphere with our oil and coal consumption in order to make life more comfortable, destroying the forestation that could slow the death of our air so we can build more, and denying ourselves natural cures for disease, but ingesting toxic prescription chemicals without regard to the consequences, may actually be the hedonistic immediate gratification of a species that has an intuition of its own demise, and just wants to dull the pain by satisfying its thirst for thrills. By accepting her impending death as something of a relief my mother may have subconsciously believed what I, and so many other supporters of Hemp legalization are yet too optimistic to accept: that our modern civilization has been given a terminal diagnosis, and just wants to "live it up 'til the light goes out". Yet, it may be that our society's cancer is treatable, and I, and those diehard anti-prohibitionists, are certain that there is still a chance to turn it around. Either way it is certainly worth thinking about.
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