Ten Reasons Why MMJ Is Cannabis Commerce’s Ball And Chain

Part 8:  Emphasizing MMJ in the present pushes true legalization back to the future

Commandment 11: Thou shalt not worship false MMJ gods.

The unholy matrimony of “medical” and “marijuana” has jeopardized the repeal of marijuana prohibition. Superglued into “medical marijuana,” the media and patients’ rights groups have fixated on the unhappy couple at the expense of the more worthy crusade.

Each of the patients’ advocacy groups scattered around the country has its own agenda. Those individual agendas are at odds with the concept of presenting a unified front against prohibition.

By emphasizing MMJ in the present, true legalization is reduced to an afterthought, one we may or may not come to fruition in the future.

If today’s media were covering the Exodus, we’d have a zillion one-paragraph “stories” describing the drama in the wilderness — with barely a word about the Promised Land. The Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years. The magical herb’s already got that doubled. Patient rights groups, states’ rights groups, and the media are so fond of MMJ in chains, if they had their way, the herb would have never even see the wilderness — it would have remained forever enslaved in Egypt.

As far as these entities are concerned, if the sick and wounded can trudge to an oasis which vaguely approximates the Promised Land, the Exodus is over. Done. Finito. The concept of everyone pulling together to will their way into Canaan [translation = “canna land”] is reduced to an afterthought.

Act One, where the oppressed are still in chains, is the favorite of patient rights groups, states’ rights groups, and the media. The Red Sea only parts for the right cause. And it’s not MMJ.

MMJ regulatory skirmishes, occurring as we speak in every state and hamlet [or if they’re not, wait a week], are tailor made for “hard hitting” news stories and news aggregation. They’re quick. Disposable. Digestible at a glance. Sending a reporter or a small film crew to cover a city council meeting is a snap. It’s just a short hop across town. Simple

Repealing prohibition is much harder to pin down. Where is it taking place? Who do you ask about it? It’s hard to know. What you know for sure is that you’re not going to be cobbling a story together about pot prohibition that you can run tomorrow. Maybe you’ll cover it next week, next month, next year, next lifetime.

Conversely, “Loveland votes tonight to expel dispensaries” is a guaranteed story for today — and a guaranteed story, with a guaranteed result, for tomorrow’s edition — and the nightly news.

Old guard media is just much better equipped to answer the question, “What happened?” than “What’s going to happen?” As a result, marijuana coverage has become, by and large, MMJ coverage. MMJ regulatory skirmishes are waged all over hill and dale. They provide an inexhaustible supply of usable stories and clips.

So the MMJ hits keep coming.

One can hardly blame the media for being the media. “Medical marijuana” has a nice ring to it. It flows off the tongue. It’s easily abbreviated as “MMJ.” Looks kind of snazzy on the page, or in a headline. When you sound it out, the acronym “MMJ” seems like an amalgam of “M&Ms” and “mary jane.” There just one problem with the pretty poison: MMJ requests your firm commitment to exclude ninety-five percent of the people who wish ganja could light up their lives. Indefinitely.

That’s right, in MMJ states your dog gets a ball and chain, too.

If blame must be meted out, look no further than patient rights groups — they’re all over the place. Every state’s got some.

But more is not merrier.

MLK’s Southern Christian Leadership Council was comprised of only six independent groups. Keeping those six groups on the same page was sufficiently challenging. There are probably six marijuana advocacy groups in New Mexico alone. Small wonder advocates can hardly agree on anything, much less come to a consensus on how to end prohibition.

But each advocacy group has a perfect idea of how to implement MMJ in their weed-infested fiefdoms. Unsurprisingly, it’s “their way.”

Groups like Americans For Safe Access, Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, and Rhode Island Patient Advocacy train our focus on MMJ. People and politicians on the fence — who are actually open to repealing prohibition — lose track of the larger objective. They can’t see the forest for the weeds.

The whole mess makes me close my eyes, inhale a deep breath, and sigh.

Then I have a vision. A large transport ship, The Repeal, waits offshore, ready to ferry Ganja Nation to the Promised Land. It’s there for all the world to see. But all anyone notices are a few kayaks and canoes, looking like minnows next to a whale, coming to take MMJ soldiers to regulatory skirmishes playing out all over the wilderness. Meanwhile, The Repeal drifts further and further from the shore. Eventually, it disappears over the horizon.

Then I snap out of it, waking to the startling realization that MMJ really could kill marijuana legalization.

It absolutely could.

But what do I know? I had no idea the word “marijuana” was lonely, longing for an adjective friend to keep it company. Yet “medical marijuana” appears to have replaced “marijuana” in the collective unconscious. That shift has begun a “chain” reaction producing all the negative consequences identified in this report.

It’s an epic mistake to keep asking the question, “How should we regulate MMJ in each state and locality?”

Rather, the pertinent question is, “Is MMJ something we should ever vote on at all?”

Ditto for, “Which state will be the next MMJ state?”

How about, “Why not organize across state lines instead of acting like there’s a Berlin Wall around each state?”

Consider:

• MMJ is a ball and chain for the five percent who have it and nonexistent for the ninety-five percent who don’t. If a big MMJ initiative is coming up at a polling place near you, are you thinking you can’t wait to wear a ball and chain like Colorado’s “industry” players? That’s how it begins. Google “exorcists” and add your zip code. If you act now, you may still be saved.
• MMJ is shortsighted, a stopgap measure, and a major distraction. Emphasizing MMJ in the present pushes true legalization back to the future.
• That brings us to MJ. Those initials represent nothing less than personal and economic freedom. They connote life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness for everyman. They signify Cannabis Liberation Day will someday dawn — if we keep our eyes on the prize and just say no to MMJ.