Cawthorne, Cocaine & Cannabis in Congress

Happy Monday, everyone!! Do y'all love numbers? I don't love numbers the same way my future wife does with that powerful math brain of hers, but I love the magical feel of numbers (I'm a fan of numerology), especially when it comes to dates. It's 4.4.22 and a new energy portal is opening. I'm here for all the energies of change and will pray that we do better tomorrow than we're doing today!

Today, I'd like to talk about how the House once again voted to decriminalize cannabis and about how Madison Cawthorne, Republican Senator from North Carolina, told on himself and his colleagues.

Last month, Cawthorne revealed to a conservative podcaster that politicians he respected invited him to orgies at their homes. On top of that, he said that those who are publicly talking about fighting addiction are the same ones doing "key bumps of cocaine" at these private GOP sex parties.

Whether it's true or not, is anyone really surprised that rich white people in DC are doing cocaine and getting freaky? And why does Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader, care more about these words and not the other incendiary language Cawthorne and other House members regularly use? 

Now, I get it; we don't like to think of our parents and grandparents as humans with sexual kinks who use drugs to party, but the truth is that some are and some do. Many of us have also deluded ourselves into believing that those in the GOP or those who talk a lot about God and family wouldn't dare go there because their values and faith disavow such things. But when people of any and all stripes have money to spare, they often invest it in their pleasures and vices.

"Don't yuck someone else's yum," is what my brother-in-law always says; so, I'm not here to condemn consenting adults for doing what they want in the privacy of their own homes. In my version of America, that's part of being free. But the fact that many of these elected representatives use their power and freedom to limit the power and freedom of people like me. And that's f*cked up; is it not?

Do I believe, Madison Cawthorne? Not really; why would I? He's denied the multiple sexual harrassment accusations against him AND he even lied about the accident that caused his partial paralysis, manufacturing a tale of his heroism that didn't belong to him. He's an opportunist so lying is a part of who he is, but this particular lie doesn't make sense given that it doesn't serve him well or does it? I don't think so, which is why I'm more inclined to consider that perhaps this time he spoke the truth.

Look, I don't know these folx intimately, but I imagine most rich and powerful people don't like it when someone spills the beans on their sexual proclivities, especially if they've made an attempt to include those same snitches in their rich and powerful activities. So, I guess we'll have to see if this rising star in the GOP falls out of favor entirely. Republican Party leaders may not care that Cawthorne regularly calls for violence, but I guess it's too much for them to have the youngest Congressman call out his elders. What was he thinking? His culture war antics are fine, but sparking up a scandal on his own kind is definitely NOT!

Beyond judging MC and other Republican politicians' reprehensible behavior, what gets most of us is the shameless hypocrisy on full display. The grandstanding and moralizing that we are forced to endure at the hands of these mostly rich, mostly white people, is hard to stomach. They get to break the laws without any or minimal consequences while the rest of us are at their mercy as they overreach and try to control our bodies; as they fight to take back our hard-fought, hard-won rights. This is our political class and it's a mess alright.

Now, do we think some of these cocaine-snorting politicians have the stamina and conscience to move forward progressive federal cannabis legislation? Well, the House just passed the Marijuana Opportunity Reinvestment and Expungement (MORE) Act, but they've tried before and the Senate, as usual, kills it. So, I dunno!

Still, I'll take it! It's a glimmer of hope for that thing we all say we want in our government the most - bipartisanship! Well, this is the extent of it in 2022.

According to this NY Times reporting "Democrats, with some Republican support, voted 220-204 to remove marijuana from the federal list of controlled substances, moving to catch up to the states." Again, the chances of this passing through the Senate aren't great, but I'll be using today's energies to visualize this bill passing.

Is it the most important legislation we need right now? No, it's not, but it's still quite consequential. Should the MORE Act pass, it would mean a lot of good for a lot of people. "Specifically, it...eliminates criminal penalties for an individual who manufactures, distributes, or possesses marijuana." This means liberty and freedom to many who've been criminalized by the system.

You see, folx, this is about criminal justice reform and an effort to course-correct the damaging effects of the war on drugs, which targeted Black, Brown, and poor communities. It's also about de-stigmatizing the use of cannabis and reversing the propaganda efforts against it that began in the 1930s with films like Reefer Madness, which ultimately made marijuana illegal in the U.S.

We did the same thing for alcohol in 1933, but for some (racist/classist) reason, we can't seem to do the same for a plant product that's been proven to have medicinal properties. There are tons of advocates that can personally speak to the merits of cannabis, but can the same be said for alcohol? Probably not. Still, our leaders are dragging their feet even though it's only a matter of time for cannabis to be approved federally.

Now, full disclosure, I do smoke pot; so, I'm definitely biased. But I grew up in a time and place where Nancy Reagan's "Say NO to Drugs" message was everywhere, especially on the tele with tons of anti-drug commercials on Saturday mornings and during after-school programming so I get the fears people still have. I was also a teen in the 90s and experimental drug use was part of the culture; so, I can speak to the differences between different substances. And out of all the drugs I've tried, pot was the only one that never led to some awful consequence like an overdose or an accident or some embarassing public display.

If I ever overdo it with my cannabis consumption, the worst that happens is I get the muchies or I fall asleep. Drinking has had the most devastating results for me and coke was definitely yum, but too rich for my blood, if you know what I mean. The issue here, as I see it, is the manner in which we classify drugs and, more importantly, how we apply the law and how we sentence folx for the various drug offenses. It's unfair and unjust and that's the end of it.

So, let's free the God's green herb from the control and stigma of its drug classification; shall we?

And, if you're into unwinding with a glass of wine every evening and hold a hard anti-cannabis position, please consider learning more about it. Some of us don't like liquor like you do, we prefer to smoke a bowl to relax and that really shouldn't bother you; so, think about it. Imagine Prohibition and how you'd feel knowing that the delicious red wine you drink is illegal. We all gotta cross bridges and try to see each other's point of view. I think so; don't you?