Please let's end this war on cannabis!

I’m really sorry to hear about fellow Reiki teacher, lady of the moon and healer, Lucia Faith’s sentencing, highlighting the patriarchal world we are still living in. Us healers and witches may no longer be burnt at the stake but we are still being silenced for trying to heal with plants from the earth.

I get it, that there is a law in place and the law was broken, but what’s really broken is the law itself and our attitude towards cannabis usage, which is frankly archaic. It’s also nonsensical, because here on Guernsey we can obtain cannabis on prescription for medicinal purposes but if we are caught in possession without a prescription then we face a criminal and potential prison sentence, this because we’re using cannabis ‘recreationally’.

Yet let’s be honest the line between medicinal and recreational purpose is super thin. I know this from my own experience of being an ex-cannabis user back in the day when I used to travel regularly spending months at a time in Nepal and India where cannabis was readily available. While I may have told myself it made me more spiritual and creative, opening me up to expanded states of consciousness and creative potential, this wasn’t really true, and actually it was only when I stopped smoking cannabis that I truly started deepening my spiritual practise and finally wrote something worthy of reading.

Over the years I have reflected on my cannabis usage and I am aware that while I may have labelled it ‘recreational’ as I did enjoy smoking with friends from time to time, really I was self medicating because life was tough, I still suffered bouts of depression and I was carrying a lot of emotional ‘stuff’ that I still hadn’t worked through. It didn’t help that I’m sensitive and sometimes the sensitivity would just get too much, I’d feel too much and I’d be keen to do anything I could to numb myself from my feelings and temporarily ease me from my perceived suffering.

Immersing myself in yoga, Reiki and Ayurveda I threw myself into my healing journey. All of these healing modalities focus on the root cause of any loss of wellness so seek causative factors - this much like pulling out the root of a weed rather than just removing its leaves. I began to notice how cannabis was just another way of creating symptomatic relief, it wasn’t helping me to get to the root cause of what was out of balance in me and, actually, it was keeping me stuck in old patterns that were not longer serving me.

Over time, as I healed and came back to myself and to my true nature, easing energetic imbalances, connecting more with my heart and soul and letting go of some of the unhelpful mental conditioning and core beliefs, my need for cannabis dropped away and I haven’t touched it ever since. I just simply lost my taste for it, a bit like alcohol and junk food over the years.

However I am still grateful for the role cannabis played in helping me on my healing journey because it served a purpose beyond just being used recreationally. But even then, what’s the big deal? Yes, I know that in excess cannabis can create health concerns; it certainly didn’t do my mental state any favours if I smoked too much of it, the paranoia at times could be severely anxiety inducing and I did sometimes live for days in a fog, let alone the implications of smoking. Plus I have seen people lose themselves to it to the extent that they cannot function in the ‘real’ world and can suffer mental disorder as a result of this.

But the thing is, anything used to excess can create issues, just look at the legal recreational activities of alcohol drinking and food eating. Excessive alcohol drinking is hardly healthy and can lead to increased rates of violence both in the home and in public, causing huge harm for those involved, let alone all the health implications, liver damage, heart disease and depression. Over here in Guernsey we are currently experiencing higher rates of drink driving, a hangover (no pun intended) from the trauma of the pandemic and the squeeze of life generally perhaps, but putting other people’s lives at risk let alone the driver. We just don’t think so clearly when we’ve been drinking.

Excessive recreational eating has also become more common place in recent years with increasing rates of obesity to prove it. While this is normalised to a certain extent, the motivation is still very similar to the reason people take cannabis - a form of self-medication to numb their inner pain. Many people eat recreationally to fill that big black hole within them, easing the intensity of their emotional pain and numbing themselves from the world and from their mental suffering. This excessive eating not only harms the individual but places additional pressure on over-pressured health services.

The truth is, most people are self medicating from the pain of life in some way. Life is hard and sometimes we need something to numb ourselves from the intensity of it. I don’t see why alcohol and junk foods should be classed legal and cannabis not. Cannabis is a plant after all and is used medicinally, so why not decriminalise it and let people access it for themselves without the need for a prescription. One thing is for certain, less lives would be destroyed and the States of Guernsey wouldn’t have to waste money policing cannabis importation, usage or resulting incarceration.

And good try Deputy Prow, writing in today’s Guernsey Press, page 15, with a bunch of reasons why cannabis shouldn’t be legalised, including the perceived negative impact to the island’s finance centre and the impact on the island’s reputation. Really Deputy Prow, I think its time we all let go of our outdated perception of cannabis and expand the awareness a little. Imagine how much more tourism we would receive here in Guernsey if we did indeed become the Amsterdam of the British Isles - at least then we wouldn’t be so reliant on finance and there would be more career options!

Furthermore, Deputy Prow’s listing the impacts of cannabis usage as detailed on the NHS website just seems lame when we’re talking about plant medicine - drinking alcohol can make you feel demotivated, confused, anxious and paranoid. Eating too much food and doing no exercise increases your risk of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Smoking cigarettes can be harmful to your lungs. Stress can affect your fertility, so too mobile telephones. Really, in the grand scheme of things, the pace of modern day life can all have an effect on our health in more ways than cannabis usage, if used moderately.

We really need to wake up here in Guernsey and do something to shift this nonsense. There is absolutely no benefit in my mind from incarcerating individuals for cannabis growing, possession, usage and selling. It achieves nothing other than further destroying lives. It certainly doesn’t help the community, nor the family members left behind, especially those children separated from their parents, and particularly when their parents were simply trying to ease their pain and suffering and/or the pain and suffering of others.

At the end of the day we should be free to choose our own form of healing. I’m not a fan of the drug industry, or of drugs that harm people, pharmaceutical as much as recreational. As a holistic practitioner of Reiki, Ayurveda and Yoga, I wholeheartedly suppoort an approach to healing that helps people get to the root cause so that symptomatic relief is not required, and people can live without the need for numbing out.

But nonetheless I do appreciate that at times medicine is required, to help with the healing, and to ease ongoing pain and certainly this has been my experience with cannabis - it can help medicinally, but as with everything, we have to be careful not to abuse it, otherwise we merely become a victim of it and it does more harm than good (I have experienced this too). But ultimately we should be free to choose and to work with plant medicine in a respectful way, with thanks to the plant entity, and in a moderate and intuitive way, not as crutch but as a true medicine. And heck if its used moderately for recreational purposes then why not? if alcohol is legal, why not pot.

I really hope Lucia that you are not silenced by this state. I really hope that you are able to use this as a platform to truly bring about change here on Guernsey, and move us into the 21st century from a drug legality perspective. Every cause brings with it a sacrifice and I am sorry that your sacrifice has been so great, but take comfort that the moon and the stars and Mother Earth are holding you strong, and to keep trusting in your inherent knowing and wisdom. All good will come.

Love Emma x