The More you Know

     Greetings fellow Outkasts.  Today I’m going to get straight to the point, right after I tell you to expect my next Matrix post within the month.  For the past couple of years I have made it a personal goal to enhance my personal knowledge in a journey of self-fulfillment.  During this journey I have taken much time to observe the world around me.  In one of my observations I realized that one particular media station ran advertisements that encourage their viewers to educate themselves in order to make “the right” choices in life.  So to counteract these “educational” promos and at the risk of being sued I bring you, The More you Know: Marijuana

Fact: The term marijuana actually comes from a Mexican word derived from a Brazilian-Portuguese term for inebriation.  American anti-cannabis lobbyists coined the term to support a negative stereotype of association with a growing number of Mexican immigrants.
Fact: American politicians in the mid 20th century enacted a $100 per pound tax on cannabis using the same stamp enforcement as a similar restriction on machine gun sales.
Fact: Henry Anslinger, then-Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, was at the forefront of the movement to criminalize cannabis.  He was hoping to use public support of a ban on cannabis to revive a prohibition of alcohol.
Fact: Many of the supporters for the criminalization of cannabis came from organizations who felt threatened by the hemp industry, mainly DuPont, which was suffering from low post war textile sales, and William Randolph Hearst, an American newspaper publisher who had significant interests in the timber industry.
Fact: Hemp is most commonly used to refer to cannabis’ non-drug uses.  Hemp products use parts of the cannabis plant that have an insignificant amount of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), cannabis’ main psychoactive substance.  Modern uses for hemp include, but are not limited to:
-Housing constuction
-Food products
-Nutrition
-Clothing
-Paper
-Biofuel
-Plastics
Fact: THC is the main psychoactive substance in cannabis and the main reason behind its recreational use.  So far, studies have found that THC is not physically addictive and is less harmful than legal recreational drugs like nicotine and alcohol.
Fact: Cannabis grows wild in many parts of the world, the most common wild species being Cannabis satvia.  Wild cannabis commonly contains very little THC.
Fact: The recreational use of Cannabis has been traced as far back as the Neolithic Age, or Stone Age as it is more commonly referred to.
Fact: Cannabis has been used as a spiritual drug for millenia and is still used in the same manner today.  Some of the more prominent examples are certain Hindu practitioners and the Rastafari movement.
-The Rastafari movement is a Christian sect that see themselves as standing against the white culture that enslaved their ancestors and removed them from their native Africa.  They worship Emperor Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia as a god and part of the Holy Trinity.  Selassie I was the only African monarch of a fully independent state at the time.  Rastafari see the recreational use of cannabis as a way of defying white culture
-Cannabis has been used by sadhus for centuries.  In Hinduism, a sadhu is a name for a practitioner of yoga who has given up the first three Hindu goals of life: kama (pleasure), artha (wealth and power), and dharma (duty).  Sadhus dedicate themselves to achieving moksha (liberation).
Fact: Cannabis has many medicinal uses which include, but are not limited to:
-Appetite stimulant
-Pain reliever for terminal illnesses such as AIDS and cancer
-Relief for glaucoma and neurological illnesses such as migraines, epilepsy, and bipolar disorder
-Nausea relief for chemotherapy patients
-Reduce arterial blockage
-Treatment for multiple sclerosis
Fact: Although 11 states have declared cannabis legal for medicinal purposes, the United States Supreme Court has ruled that because cannabis is listed as a schedule I drug any possession other than approved medical research is illegal.
Fact: Because of restrictions on cannabis, cultivation techniques have rendered new strains of the plant.  These strains are known as sinsemilla, Spanish for without seed.  Because of local laws cannabis often must be grown indoors, reducing the chance of pollination.  Once pollination occurs THC potency and production drops off.  These new techniques allow the dried, seedless female flowers to be grown without exposure to the males.
Fact: Opponents of cannabis legalization argue that these sensemilla strains are more dangerous than previous strains while proponents counter by saying that because less cannabis must be smoked to achieve the same effect the sensemilla is actually safer and less potentially carcinogenic.
Fact: THC is not proven to be carcinogenic or to have any other long lasting detrimental effects.  Any studies that say otherwise are marred with accusations of bias against the drug and poor methodology.  Many tests are tainted by the presence of other drugs such as alcohol and tobacco.  Funding and approval of testing is hard to acquire in most parts of the world due to restrictions.
Fact: Some studies of THC are purely coincidental, the most prominent having to do with a correlation between cannabis use and schizophrenia.
Fact: Conclusive studies on cannabis show that it is less likely to cause emphysema than tobacco and that sustained use does not increase the user’s risk for developing lung cancer.
Fact: Studies show that cannabis is unlikely to cause birth defects.
Fact: Cannabis has a wide range of cognitive, behavioral, and physiological effects that may vary depending on the user, the user’s state of mind, and the dose.  These include, but are not limited to:
-Increased paranoia and anxiety, possible due to fear of being caught by law enforcement
-Loss of coordination
-Distorted sense of time
-Impairment of short term memory
-Auditory or visual hallucinations
-Increased awareness of sensation
-Increased mental activity
-Stress reduction
-Mild entheogenesis
-Varying degrees of euphoria
-Initial wakefulness followed by drowsiness
-Gain or loss of inhibitions
-Lowered intraocular pressure
-Dilation of blood vessels resulting in increased blood flow and heart rate and dry, red eyes
-Lower blood pressure while standing, higher when sitting, often resulting in a head rush
-Stimulation of the endocannabinoid system resulting in increased appetite.  This effect also lends itself to cannabis’ use as an appetite suppressant
-Temporary dry mouth
-Dilation of alveoli in lungs resulting in deeper respiration and increased coughing
Fact: Research has deemed it impossible to attain a lethal overdose by smoking cannabis.  Based on lab rat tests, a 165 lb man would have to ingest all of the THC in 21 one gram cigarettes of high potency cannabis buds at once without losing any THC to smoke.  A lethal dose could not be attained through oral ingestion.  Only through intravenous administration could enough THC be ingested to attain a lethal OD.
Fact: There has only been one recorded verdict of fatal cannabis overdose.  In January 2004 the coroner’s report for one Lee Maisey of Pembrokeshire, Wales listed his cause of death as probable cannabis toxicity.  Mr. Maisey reportedly smoked 6 joints a day and had 130 nanograms per milliliter of the THC metabolite THC-COOH in his blood.  However, findings by Dr. Rudolf Brenneisen stated that the data of the toxological analysis was “scanty and not conclusive”.  Another expert, Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen, stated that, “A concentration of 130 ng/ml THC-COOH in blood is a moderate concentration, which may be observed some hours after the use of one or two joints. Heavy regular use of cannabis easily results in THC-COOH concentrations of above 500 ng/ml.”

That will do it for this week.  I hope you were able to educate yourself and learn some valuable information.  Remember, the more you know the more dangerous the government thinks you are, so watch your ass.

Hope and Faith

     Greetings, loyal readers.  Before I get down to business I have a couple of items on my agenda.  First of all, I have decided to name my audience.  As an avid wrestling fan I have come to realize that all the most charismatic wrestlers have named their following.  From Peeps to Testicles, wrestling has experienced a wide diversity of loyal followers, so I thought it only fitting that you, the most loyal audience of all, receive a moniker to call your own.  Due to my lack of ideas and the fact that this directly affects you, I am opening up the floor to ideas.  My only idea so far is Outkasts.  If you would like to voice your support for my choice or offer an idea of your own comment on this post or send me an email at zenrockoukast@hotmail.com.  Your input is greatly appreciated.  Secondly, I know that many of you are asking for the return of one of my most popular posts on the Matrix trilogy.  I would like to assure you that I have not given up on this project.  I am currently not residing at my parents’ home, while most of my things still are.  I hope to go back home within the next two weeks and retrieve, among other things, my Matrix movies.  Rest assured that once I do this I hope to make a Matrix post at least once a month.  
     One of my close friends recently posted a first class blog on religion and how it relates to the mentally challenged.  I strongly recommend checking it out at http://guenthercorp.com/blog.html.  The post title is Free Ride to Heaven Part 1, but don’t let that stop you from checking out the rest of his guentherific blog.  I would also like to say to him that if every family of a mentally challenged child cared about their child’s salvation as his does, hell would be devoid of the mentally challenged.  Inspired and a little enraged by the post, I posted a comment on it.  My comment and the reaction got me to thinking about how I come off to people, especially on the subject of religion.  I think part of how I come off is due to circumstance.  Many people today attribute morality with faith and faith with organized religion.  My faith is based on the rejection of organized religion.  Therefore, people assume that since I refuse to actively participate in organized religion I have no faith.  This leads to people assuming that the statements I make are meant to insult those with faith.  In reality, they are meant to encourage people to explore their faith.  I disagree with organized religion because I don’t believe it encourages people to explore their faith, which I believe is the only way to God.  I also believe that churches stifle the exploration of faith by setting down policy based on their interpretations of the Bible and ignoring any arguments that would challenge said policies.  Within my former church there are such policies, some that I agree with and some that I don’t.  Yet I refuse to take part in this church partly because of the way they deal with the dissent of these policies, which is not to deal with it at all.  I believe that there are a lot of grey areas in the Bible and how we interpret these grey areas shapes our relationship with God.  If we rely on a church to interpret these grey areas for us I think we put our relationship with God in jeopardy.  That’s not to say that all people who attend a church are in danger of eternal damnation, but I do think a great many may be closer than they think.  I know a lot of what I say may seem condescending, but I only comment out of concern.  I refuse to accuse anyone of being truly damned for many reasons.  The first is that I am not without sin so I cannot in good conscience throw the first stone.  The second is that no one knows who is truly damned and saved but God.  No matter how far gone they may seem, their relationship with God is a secret to everyone but them and God.  I like to assume the best in everyone, and I hope to see everyone on earth in heaven someday.  I realize that this probably won’t happen, but only God knows for sure.  As for those who feel insulted by my comments I would like to apologize, that was not my intent.  I believe that if anyone seeks salvation in Christ they will find it.  I realize that just as the number of people I hope to see in heaven may be high, the number of people I think will be there may be low.  When choosing an outlook, I prefer hope to despair.  I think in this world that is filled with despair, hope and faith are all we have.