Talking Medical Marijuana Blues

An Introduction

Since 2007 I’ve been a member of a number of different collectives in Long Beach.

I’ve volunteered, built websites, taken photos of over 300 different strains of medical marijuana, and grown to care about a number of incredible people.

I’ve also watched one collective after another crumble under the burden of legal fees, changing city regulations and other costs associated with always having to fight to stay open…

My personal history with medical marijuana goes back much further than that however, back to when I first started using marijuana in 1983.

I’ve spent a lot of years watching the medical marijuana story get to where we are today, and in this series I share my motivation for being an activist, talk about being a collective member, and about my own medical use of marijuana.

And then there’s this – RIGHT NOW, in Long Beach, our collectives are facing the prospect of having our city council ban them on Tuesday evening, and all my thinking about this has given me the talking medical marijuana blues – Enjoy!

Talking Medical Marijuana Blues – Part One

Includes the story: The Man On The Other Side Of The Wall

“On Tuesday night, November 18th, I got home from work, sat in my big chair, kicked back, and for the first time in my life smoked marijuana legally…”

Talking Medical Marijuana Blues – Part Two

I Get By With The Help Of My Friends - a brief look at my personal history with medical marijuana…

“There was a time, not very long ago, when I would often have to wait for days, sometimes a week to get my medicine. Sometimes nothing would be available from the few friends I knew, who knew a friend, who knew a friend who could get marijuana for them…”

Talking Medical Marijuana Blues – Part Three

Talking ‘Bout My Medication – looking at the different ways to use medical marijuana and how I use it…

“I wasn’t diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder until I was 33 years old. This revelation – that there was a medical reason, of some kind, behind my most confusing moods and actions – caused a paradigm shift that made me look back over my life through a new perspective…”

Talking Medical Marijuana Blues – Part Four

Rev. Martin Luther KingWe Shall Overcome! – talking about the situation here in Long Beach, right now – about the City Attorney’s effort to ban the collectives, and how you can help!

“Rev. Martin Luther King stated over 40 years ago in a speech that “the arc of the moral Universe is long, but it’s bent towards Justice…”

During my long, personal civil rights march towards medical marijuana justice I’ve seen that this statement is true, just as I also believe that one day ‘we shall overcome!’”


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Making Buttons for the Collective

Jon, onehumanbeing making buttons...Spending Time At The Collective

Today was my first day behind the counter at AAC – Apothecary’s Assistants Collective – as a volunteer staff member. Before I left home this morning I made a bunch of buttons to bring in with me.

That’s me in the little movie pressing the buttons with my button machine. Tania took the photos and suggested the little movie – nice idea :) You can click on the moving image to see a larger version…

I’ll be volunteering there several times a week and learning about how a Collective works, from a budtender’s view (note: a “Budtender” is the person who hands the herb and helps members select their medicine) – a different way of seeing my project, and it has already given me some things to think about for The MMJ Project.

You can follow my project about medical marijuana at The MMJ Project – my ongoing art project about this moment in time and the unique world of medical marijuana in Southern California.

As a user of marijuana for 26 years, and a long time legal patient under Prop 215, I’ve become a solid believer in the use of marijuana as a legitimate medicine.

I have an acquaintance through the collective who is a terminally ill patient. She is still alive 4 years longer than her doctor gave her because of the herb – just one of many stories of health and wellness I’ve heard over the years.

Medical Marijuana Is No Laughing Matter

People giggle about marijuana, but for us patients that have found a safe and easy solution to some of our health issues this is no laughing matter…

Unfortunately for us we have to wait for our political leaders to grow-up and stop treating this with a snicker and wink…

And while they giggle more people get put through the legal grinder for making choices that don’t concern anyone but that person and their doctor.

There seems to be something very immoral and irresponsible for leaders like Obama to make a joke about other’s health concerns. I’m still saddened by Obama’s response and I’m starting to view his agenda with suspicion… just another politician.

Meanwhile… back to the Collective

I took a bunch of photos of AAC while I was there today, and I’ll post those over on The MMJ Project later on.

Have a great week, and remember; 420 -  The International Marijuana Day - is next Monday – April 20, 2009!


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