happy 420

[mellowtigger]

It's weird that the number 420 is associated with smoking a joint, but there's a long history behind this association.  This strangeness is especially apparent on the date "4/20" each year.

It’s both more and less than people make it out to be. The term ‘420’ began its sub-rosa linguistic career in 1971 as a bit of slang casually used by a group of high school kids (known as “Waldos”) at San Rafael High School in California. The term ‘420’ (always pronounced “four-twenty,” never “four hundred and twenty”) came to be an accepted part of the argot within that group of about a dozen pot smokers, beginning as a reminder of the time they planned to meet to light up, 4:20 p.m.
- https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/420/

I've tried a joint or two over the decades, but they've never had the expected effect.  In college, I adopted the habit of simply "passing the joint" without smoking because it seemed a waste to take something that wouldn't benefit me like it did other people.  Why waste a precious resource?

In contrast, have you seen the recent high-anxiety, armed protests over the pandemic lockdowns?  They decry government interference in a process that has already killed 40K people in the USA and could potentially kill many times that number.  Do you suspect these same folk also protest the war on drugs?  Or government control over women's bodies?

I don't understand the "war on drugs" that targets marijuana in particular.  For all the outcry, how many people have ever died from marijuana?  It's a serious question.  In all of medical knowledge, there are exactly 2 cases of death by marijuana.  Two.  That number is on par with the number of humans killed by falling meteorite, which is one.  All of this nonsense... for that?

Cannabis simply does not warrant the interference that it currently receives.

Cannabinoid receptors are also found in many areas of the brain, but not so much in the breathing center of the brainstem (pre-Bötzinger complex). CB1 receptors, one of the most abundant receptors in the brain, are found in many regions.  In a 1990 study of cannabinoid receptors, researchers with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reported that “sparse densities [of cannabinoid receptors] in lower brainstem areas controlling cardiovascular and respiratory functions may explain why high doses of THC are not lethal.”
- https://www.leafly.com/news/science-tech/can-you-overdose-on-cannabis

Translated to plain English: marijuana will not stop your heart or breathing, therefore you cannot overdose on marijuana.

Sure, it can have other unpleasant side effects, but those are discussions we can have after fully legalizing cannabis as a non-lethal plant.  I want to grow some in my garden without harassment from the government.  Partly, I want a leaf that I could chew before going to bed to help make me calm and drowsy.  (The ones particularly recommended to me for this effect are Ingrid, Blackwater, and Northern Lights.) 

Partly, I just want to grow some pretty plants.  Some of them are just amazing to look at.  They can have silver, pink, gold, blue,or purple highlights that shimmer over the green.  I want to look in my backyard and see some of those colors among the other flowers and plants.

So, happy holidays!  I hope Minnesota legalizes marijuana soon.  I have more seeds to buy for my garden.