A funny thing happened on the way to Russia’s stomping of the Ukraine, a country they expected to take control of with little fight and, as some predicted, in less than 72 hours. The world responded with a massive anti-war message. Social media lite up, the networks were ablaze with live coverage, streaming, and on-the-ground reporting. The most famous incident being the Russian warship attack on Snake Island where the Ukraine soldiers guarding a remote small island of the coast of the Ukraine told the Russian warship to bleep off when signaled to surrender their position and lay down their arms.
Game, set, war.
Thanks to the marvels of instant live streaming the world fell in love with the Ukrainian spirit, whether the soldiers on Snake Island or the Tik-Toc dancing military unit waiting for the Russian army to arrive. To be clear, make no joke about the invasions, thousands are being slaughtered and the latest updates show Russia bombing civilians, the young, the old, and even children.
So, wait, what does cannabis have to do with all this? For the practical matter of how the Ukrainian invasion affects the cannabis industry, check out this article titled “How the War in the Ukraine Will Effect the European Cannabis Industry” by Marguerite Arnold. In a broader, worldwide sense, is cannabis playing a role in the evolution of humanity right now, and how we see needless killing over rocks in the ground or easier access to an ocean?
You bet!
Cannabis Culture is Worldwide
What started with the anti-war movements in the 1960’s and 70s with flower children and Woodstock, has spread to a worldwide movement of, well, peace, if you will. Back in the 60s and 70s cannabis use was limited to a small percentage of the population because it was dangerous to get, and access to the plant was very limited. Hence the hippies of the 1970s and the flower children of the 60s were a segment of society, but a small one, and looked down upon by most of the masses.
The hippie culture fueled by cannabis use was about peace and love, no more war, and as Cheech and Chong would say, “Heyyyyyyy man, why can’t we all just get along”.
Fast forward to 2022, and now you have a worldwide cannabis legalization movement that is moving forward at different rates around the world, but from state-by-state legalization in America, to recreational legalization at the country level like in Canada and soon-to-be Germany, the peaceful plant is making its mellow and anti-war sentiment felt.
Wait, what?
The combination of live streaming technology, pulling us in and creating empathy and emotional attachment to the Ukrainians, combined with an evolving worldwide human race that is now consistently using cannabis, has created, dare I say, a “global hippie” movement. Now, are there constant threats and areas of human rights abuse going on in China and Africa daily, yes. Is human trafficking and the abuse of children whether in slave labor or sexual exploitation a big problem, yes. The world is not completely “kumbaya” right now, but the movement toward a more mellow outlook on things such as violence, competition, and life has started. The COVID pandemic caused the world to stay home and ponder life for over 2 years, and the version of pot-smoking, empathetic people emerging has a completely new outlook on society.
The great resignation? You bet. Is life more important than the never-ending rat race? You bet. People in their 40s and 50s coming out of COVID are realizing that more than ever life is precious and they, at best, have half of it left. Competing and working endlessly to end up dying with the most stuff seems like an archaic view of life now. Fighting wars over liquids in the ground and having an ocean-view seems asinine when it comes at the cost of so many human lives.
As cannabis smokers inhale and see poor 19-year-old kids being forced to fight other poverty-stricken 19-year-old kids, where none of the invading soldiers know why they are fighting, or why they are being asked to shoot people. The mind wonders as well, “What are we doing, what has become of humanity, seeing civilians bombed out of their homes and shot in the street?”.
Cannabis is leading the world, whether you like it or not, to a more empathic and sympathetic view of each other. As they say, be gentle, everyone is on a journey, and you have no idea what the other person is going through right now. One interesting thought is that alcohol has been available to the masses now for hundreds of years, and we have seen thousands of wars. Cannabis arrived on the worldwide scene maybe 10 years ago at max, and while it is still very restricted, we are seeing a resounding “NO” to aggression and war when placed in front of our eyes on social media and streaming services.
While countries must be cautious due to the nuclear arsenals possessed by the US and Russia, citizens are joining in the support of peace as if they were countries. Elon Musk, while being a very rich and unique person, is sending cutting edge internet space technology to the Ukraine to support the Ukrainian government. Elon is not a country giving aid, he is a super-rich guy who smokes weed. Polish versions of Costco and BJ’s are sold out as Polish civilians spend their own money buying up food and diapers and are driving their personal cars to the border to hand out supplies and offer help.
Getting dusty where you are yet?
These are not counties, but humanity responding to the desperate pleas of other humans. It isn’t your war? It sure is, it is a war against human principles and decency. It is to protect the innocent, regardless of what flag flies in their sky or how close they are geographically to the US. The US shouldn’t get involved? Russia now has supersonic nuclear missiles that can read the US in minutes. You bet its’ our war. Throw in all the space weapons currently over our head controlled by China and Russia, and you can bet this is our war. Putting your head in the sand and saying this is a war between the Soviet Union and countries that were once part of the Soviet Union is greatly naive. There will be 8,000 US soldiers as part of the official UN army, what happens when 2,000 Americans come back in body bags due to a Russian dictator who will stop at nothing to put back together the Soviet Union of 1982, before Regan and Gorbachev “tore down that wall”.
There is a meme that says, “If everyone smoked cannabis there would be no more wars”. Well, not everyone is smoking cannabis per say, but the threshold of cannabis users has reached a point now where wars over rocks and soil just don’t make any sense, millions upon millions of people around the world are protesting the war, including in Russia itself. Even the Taliban have issued a declaration declaring the invasion as unethical. Think about that, the Taliban is even saying, “What the hell, bro?”. and they have some of the best opium and landrace strains in the world. The same Taliban that sees a lucrative marketplace for their marijuana grows, and may, or may not, be talking to Canadian companies about supplying cannabis strains to them as part of broader economic goals.
Cannabis use may not stop WW3, but it has already turned a united world and Europe against this Russian invasion and killing of so many innocent people. While Putin hates weed and is a relic of prehistoric cold-war era, the rest of the world moved forward, expanded their mind, and tried and legalized cannabis. Thailand of all places, home of the harshest drug laws on the planet no matter what your nationality, is positioning itself to be a marijuana tourism destination with full medical and recreational industries.
How on God’s green earth, no pun intended, did we get to the point where the Taliban and Thailand are telling Russia to chill out? To pile on, even North Korea issued a statement against the Russian invasion. While publicly against marijuana, North Korea is one of the largest hemp and marijuana growing countries on earth, and the plants supply the country with much needed cash as they are blacklisted around the world due to their dictatorship.
Would we be here if the US had legalized cannabis 10 years ago and the UN dropped cannabis from all their drug treaties? That would have allowed a worldwide marketplace for cannabis to grow to billions of people more than are actually using and have access to the plant right now. Are the Taliban, Thailand, and North Korea all saying this is wrong if we don’t have any legal cannabis in the world today?
If Thailand, home of the secret drug police squads who used to shoot dealers and users on site, the Taliban, the most notorious “chop you head off on TV” terrorist group, and North Korea, home of Kim Il Jong, can all start changing their tune around cannabis, why can’t Russia? It is because their leader and his closest 12 advisors are all 70 years old fans of the War on Drugs? Putin underestimated social media since he banned most open platforms and free speech in Russia years ago. He also underestimated the power of the peaceful plant cannabis, and how people who use cannabis evolve and change their desire for aggression and material gains.
As Tommy Chong would say to Putin, “Heyyyyyyyyy man, why can’t we all just get along?”
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