I’m elated about the recent victories in cannabis reform. However, I’ve come to grips with the idea that it simply isn’t feasible for me to cover weekly highlights on this platform. Instead of standing on its own, I’m moving “The Seed” to my monthly newsletter The Grey Way, where it will grow as a column dedicated to the latest highlights in the world of cannabis. Come find me there!
Issue 2: Vote Your Voice on Cannabis
Down ballot measures for criminal justice reform make all the difference, plus a back-to-school video and moving message from Melissa Etheridge on cannabis & grief.
We’re now months into the pandemic, with less than 30 days remaining before a historic US election. While selecting the next US president remains a top priority, down ballot measures will have the greatest impact on cannabis reform.
I recently began an exciting collaboration with Healthline on a series about cannabis. My most recent piece highlights 5 ways to be a cannabis advocate and emphasizes the importance of using your right to vote to elect pro-cannabis officials at the local, state and federal level.
However, another way to support the overarching movement to end the drug war is voting in favor of criminal justice reforms that minimize the penalties inflicted on people arrested for cannabis-focused crimes. This election, those measures most notably include ending cash bail and relieving restrictions on convicts’ voting rights.
I’ll share my Healthline pieces here when they run, as well as my forthcoming Inside the Jar essay about the intersection of cannabis, psychedelics and spirituality.
For now, scroll down to access NORML’s cannabis-centered guide to the upcoming election and some of the most striking cannabis stories I’ve discovered lately. One illustrates how cannabis reform is a racial justice issue. The other provides a touching look at how musician Melissa Etheridge embraces heroic doses of cannabis and music and pathways for emotional healing and processing grief, especially in the wake of her son’s recent death.
Since knowledge is power and school’s back in session, I’ve also included TED Ed’s informative animation about the long-term effects of cannabis use. I like that the video takes such a realistic approach to explaining both the potential benefits and potential drawbacks of cannabis. I shared it with my twelve-year-old on 4/20 this year and encourage more parents and teachers to provide tweens and teens with realistic messages that encourage critical thinking and informed decision making when it comes to navigating cannabis culture.
Until next time—stay home and stay safe. If you liked this, pass it on.
Pictured above: The photo I posted when announcing my attendance at the 2017 Women’s March. When I took the bus from Atlanta, Ga., to Washington, DC, legalizing cannabis was at the forefront of my mind. To read more about my march experience, click the link right here.
Weed + Read This Week:
Help decriminalize drug possession: Renee Cherez, Anti-Racism Daily
Melissa Etheridge Speaks True: Stephen Laddin, High Times
TED Ed, Is Marijuana Bad for Your Brain?
And then click here to for NORML’s guide to the upcoming election!
Content of The Seed is free, but tips via Venmo or PayPal are always welcome and needed. Curious about the other projects I’m developing outside the world of cannabis? Head over to The Grey Way and sign up to stay in touch. Moved by Melissa Etheridge’s thoughts and want more music in your life? I may be able to connect you with an instrument. Take a listen to this video by Kelly Richey, and message me at kellilynngrey@gmail.com if you’re interested.
Issue 1: Cannabis & Quarantine
Thoughts on pot, the pandemic and the beauty of boundaries by Kelli Lynn Grey.
Two weeks into the COVID-19 quarantine in Georgia, I’m dealing with a debilitating toothache. My daughter’s virtual communities and art supplies are keeping her sane. Meanwhile, my autistic, verbally limited son recently declared that he loves games, toys and math. Across town, my 63-year-old father is blithely setting up a garden. Outside US borders, my children’s father is navigating the pandemic within Costa Rica. Last year we finalized our divorce, and this year we are completing a major chapter of the instrument business we own together. I have cancer. Life is strange.
I’ve been attempting to lean into writing, activism and my penchant for magical thinking to help me navigate 2020, but nothing has really taken hold. I’ve had the feeling that I needed to wait. A shift was coming. Now, it’s here. Regardless of how you view it, COVID-19 has already forced unprecedented change across the world, and it will have a lasting impact not just on global politics and economics, but also on the way we approach death and process grief.
What role does cannabis have in this? For many, it’s the key to managing quarantine- fueled anxiety, as well as to wrapping our minds around the idea that it’s natural for life-as-we-know-it to change. From a political perspective, cannabis reform happens to overlap with some key issues onto which COVID-19 shines a light—the need to release and de-stigmatize non-violent prisoners, the need for healthcare reform, even the potential downfalls of capitalism itself.
However, one of the most immediately compelling cannabis issues highlighted by COVID-19 is boundaries. As shelter-in-place orders blur the lines between home, work and school, they also invite us to re-imagine the boundaries of our cannabis use. It’s an opportunity to evaluate our personal line between using to be more present and using to escape. It’s also a time to evaluate how open we are when it comes to discussing cannabis with our children.
Personally, I resist the notion of absolute right and wrong. Instead, I think all actions have consequences, the weight of which always depends on the circumstances. For this inaugural issue of The Seed, I’m sharing links to the stories within which the authors explore their personal boundaries with cannabis. I’m also linking to an insightful podcast in which Broccoli Magazine’s Mennlay and Lauren provide a global perspective on the intersection of pot and the pandemic.
Until next time—stay home and stay safe. If you liked this, pass it on.
Pictured above: Me in quarantine, rocking a tank top from Colfax Pot Shop, the first dispensary I ever visited in Denver, CO. To read more about that trip, click the link right here.
Weed + Read This Week:
I’m a Marijuana Addict, and I’m Okay with It: Evelyn Martinez, Invisible Illness
I Do Drugs: Timothy Kreider, Human Parts
On Honesty, Weed & Parenting: Amber Fraley, The Bigger Picture (Part 1, Part 2)
Broccoli Talk, ep. 014: Cannabis & Coronavirus
Content of The Seed will always be free, but tips via CashApp, Venmo and/or PayPal are welcome. Curious about the other projects I’m developing outside the world of cannabis? Head over to The Grey Way and sign up to stay in touch.
by Kelli Lynn Grey
I developed the idea for The Seed in November 2019. Then the holidays hit, and I lost momentum. During this period, some things also changed. One of those things is the platform I use for newsletters. I’m making the shift from Constant Contact to Substack, as I feel this approach is more intuitive and streamlined for me to manage. If you originally signed up via Constant Contact, I have transported your address to Substack, and I thank you deeply for hanging in there with me during this process. As a sign of my gratitude, I would like to offer you some free samples of CBD. If prompted for my username, it’s KelliLynnGrey.
Now, I want to share a little more of The Seed’s background with you. (For those of you who have already signed up, some of this may be repeated. Soon, we will have a complete re-set and fresh start.) I am currently 37-years-old. Like many people, I first encountered cannabis in high school, but I refrained from ever using any product related to it all the way up until age 29. Soon thereafter, I became a cannabis writer for the blog-based column NORML Mom.
The swift journey from “noob” to NORML Mom starts with a car crash.
I had just been rear-ended and pushed into oncoming traffic on Georgia’s Highway 41. (You probably know the one. The Allman Brothers sing about it in “Ramblin’ Man.”)
While not held responsible for the crash, I was arrested and placed in jail due to missing traffic court the week prior for a minor speeding violation.
As a result of that experience, I gained a deeper understanding of how bench warrants work. I also received 9 hours of forced meditation which I broke conveniently into thirds:
First, I absorbed my cellmates’ life stories.
Second, I ruminated on my paranoid feelings about whether I’d be given a drug screen.
Finally, I reflected on how, back in high school, I’d been chapter president of Amnesty International and directly involved in social justice work. I had liked the feeling of that work, and I realized in jail that I missed it.
As soon as my bail posted, I dedicated myself to marijuana law reform.
My first step was joining Georgia’s Peachtree NORML Foundation. My next was beginning NORML Mom.
The premise of NORML Mom was that I would wear NORML merchandise out into the word, take selfies and then write about the experiences I had. That project worked out about halfway according to plan. Some of my favorite pictures from that time are in the collage below this paragraph. Some of the best writing from that time is re-posted here.
Looking over those posts, you will see that the last ones come from a time when I had just delivered a short speech at Liberty Plaza and was preparing to begin a local chapter of NORML closer to my home in northwest Georgia. However, life happened.
I got very sick and was later diagnosed with cancer. I also reached the point in my marriage where it was time to ask for a divorce. My focus shifted from engaging with NORML’s members to basic survival, but I never lost my appreciation for cannabis or my dedication to advocate for decriminalizing and legalizing responsible adult use and medical use for all.
The Seed is my new effort to bring fresh writing about cannabis to a much broader audience. Some features subscribers can expect in their inbox each week are here:
A unique letter from yours truly in the style of NORML Mom.
A compilation of current essays by some of the best cannabis writers on the internet.
Calls to action, opportunities & reviews which support various aspects of the cannabis community.
It’s my mission to insure that these elements together cultivate conscious cannabis culture.
So, what exactly is conscious cannabis culture?
In my opinion, it is widespread, popular support for responsible cannabis practices and policies which honor the intersection of industry professionals, activists, artists, and medical users who are all integral to the present wave of marijuana law reform.
Here are 6 ways you can begin cultivating conscious cannabis culture today:
Acknowledge that ending cannabis prohibition once and for all is about more than allowing people to legally buy and sell weed. Rather, it is also about protecting our environment, addressing discrimination within the criminal justice system and asserting our right as individual citizens to claim ownership of our own personal well being without stigma or shame. A conscious cannabis culture passes and responds to reform measures which support all these areas.
Support the Walk 4 Change, a movement which calls definitively for an end to prohibition while openly voicing and supporting the multiple reasons why this is necessary. You may share your story, attend an event, participate in a leg of the walk itself or submit a sponsorship.
If you are a woman with experience in the cannabis industry, sign up here to participate in a historical global study of Women in Cannabis.
Remember that the United States House of Representatives recently passed a landmark measure which would decriminalize marijuana at the federal level and allow states to set their own policies. If you are a US citizen, use this link to encourage the Senate to support the House in passing this measure.
Spread the word about best practices for responsible adult use of cannabis and remove the stigma! Sharing The Seed is an excellent way to start!
Finally, if you have the chance to responsibly enjoy cannabis related products today, do it! Savor every moment. Really allow your body and mind to feel and enjoy whatever sensations and thoughts arise. Also, if you would like some CBD, click right here to explore some excellent options. While I don’t identify as a “hippie,” I do believe that vibrations are real and matter. Being grateful for what you’ve got really can change the world.
Welcome to The Seed by me, Kelli Lynn Grey. I became a cannabis writer in 2015 via my blog-based column NORML Mom. The Seed is my new effort to bring fresh writing about cannabis to a much broader audience. As subscribers, some features you can expect in your inbox each week are here:
Unique letter from yours truly in the style of NORML Mom
Calls to action, opportunities & reviews which support various aspects of the cannabis community.
A compilation of the best cannabis writing from across the web
It’s my mission to insure that these elements together cultivate conscious cannabis culture.
Sign up now so you don’t miss a thing!
In the meantime, tell your friends!
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