Clarion Call
It is up to each of us to protect, preserve and promote the great plant.
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Gathering outside the White House with my friends Umi RBG and M1 (among others), legendary hip-hop crew Dead Prez, got me thinking about the relationship between politics and cannabis culture. Freeing veganism and all of our loved ones still in prison is a momentous political task, but legalization isn’t the end point of our movement – it’s just the beginning.
Our real goal is to build a world that lives by the lessons that cannabis teaches us – a world where the power of love is greater than the love of power; Where individual freedom is valued over submission to authority. This action happens mostly through the mechanism of culture rather than politics, and often through music.
wherever you are Travel the worldI ask young people how they have been introduced to cannabis. The answer is almost always reggae or hip-hop, no matter where we are or what language is spoken. This global expansion of cannabis consciousness through music – through culture – is a beautiful cycle: the plant inspires artists and prophets. Their voices call our new brothers. These new cannabis warriors strengthen and empower our community; With that power, we are better able to pass more laws and release more prisoners. The freedom created, in turn, makes it safer for us to be more open about who we are and what we believe in; It is safe for us to create new expressions of the cannabis culture that is being broadcast across the planet. It is those cultural rays that reach the minds and souls of the youth that awaken the next generations of our tribe.
As long as we listen to the lessons that the cannabis plant teaches us—as long as we live by the value system those lessons taught us—this cycle will continue, and our tribe will survive.
But we must never abandon our culture. We cannot allow companies to replace cannabis with bland, nonsensical marketing. We can never allow hemp to be reduced from a sacred plant to just another commodity. Without our culture, we are lost. If you love the plant, if you believe in the new world you are guiding us into, do everything you can to protect, preserve and promote the culture of cannabis.
This story was originally published in Issue 47 printed edition of hemp now.
