Mom’s Marijuana

My Mother breathed fire toward the Devil’s own weed,

She classed it with heroine, cocaine, and speed.

If I took but a toke, she feared for my brain–

That I’d wind up a pothead, and then go insane.

The law made it criminal, no matter the cause–

But God made men foolish, and men made those laws.

My Mom warned, “No toking!” and she stood her ground.

I could be jailed for life for just owning a pound.

When I got cancer, a thing or two changed–

I was puking from chemo and looking quite strange.

I had some “no hair days”, ’cause it all fell out.

Then I told my Mother what I’d heard about.

She had tears in her eyes when she glanced at me.

She slipped me a fifty and said, “Well, let’s see.”

But when I came home with my baggie of weed,

She said, “That’s outrageous! Now give me those seeds.”

Mom’s marijuana grew eleven feet tall,

There by her sunflowers against our back wall.

From out of the street, no one could see

How Mom’s marijuana did good things for me.

One day at the Doc, I saw Sheriff Stone.

He’d been diagnosed, I wasn’t alone.

I slipped to the lobby, called Mom on the phone.

She said, “He’s a big boy. Let him grow his own.”

Now I’m no dope fiend, I don’t even use.

Thank God, I’m better, ’cause Mom changed her views.

Today there’s just sunflowers in our back plot–

But up in her spice rack is Mom’s stash of pot.

Mom’s marijuana grew eleven feet tall,

There by her sunflowers against our back wall.

From out of the street, no one could see

How Mom’s marijuana did good things for me.

c2011 Skip Johnson

All rights reserved

Author’s Note: Unlike at least two in three of our most recent Presidents of the United States (and probably half of our current Congress as well), I have never used marijuana on any occasion, ever. In fact, I do not, and never have used drugs, either illegal ones, nor even the two All-American top killers and enslavers–cigarettes and alcohol. I even avoid caffeine products.

That being said, I support decriminalization of marijuana, particularly for treatment of medical conditions that are best addressed by use of this herb. In some cases, it is the only thing that can alieve human suffering on an ongoing basis.

As for the Drug War, America is winning it. We are killing more people in Third World countries through our export of the known killer, tobacco, than from all the illegal drugs coming across our borders from all other nations combined. We are also spending incredible amounts on locking away people for possessing substances with a track record of being far more benign than other substances our lawmakers are addicted to, both physically and politically. This is not something to be particularly proud about.

Whatever is done concerning alcohol and tobacco should apply equally to marijuana. Otherwise, our current policy is nothing more than class warfare, with the dominant culture making its own drugs of choice legal, while making the drugs of the minority culture illegal.