Having my eyes opened to cannabis
My parents were very strict when I was growing up.
- This meant doing a lot of chores, having a lot of rules, and going to church twice a week.
There was no alcohol allowed in our home, and only on the holidays might my dad enjoy a glass of wine. I don’t mean to imply they were cruel, or bad people at all, they were just very old school and hardline in their beliefs. One day after church I had my eyes opened, and it changed the way I saw the world. I was just walking around, killing time, when I saw the preacher smoking cannabis. At first I thought it was a cigarette but when I smelled it, I knew that distinct cannabis odor, and I was stunned. The preacher laughed a little, and explained to me that Jesus had never said cannabis was wrong, or a sin. Cannabis is a gift from the earth, a gift from God, that was put here for all of us to enjoy, and it’s sad that so many good people didn’t understand that. I asked him why he didn’t talk about cannabis in service, and he answered truthfully that the congregation was not ready for that message yet. After that his use of cannabis stayed a secret between me and the preacher, I never mentioned it again, but it changed me. If my parents were wrong about cannabis, what else were there wrong about? It was just a couple of years later that I went to a high school party and was offered cannabis for the first time. You know I tried it!