Who Am I? Political Beliefs Who WIll You Vote For? What Will You Vote For?

Who am I and where do I come from? Those are not just questions I have asked myself. They are often things people ask me. Those questions follow with where do you live?

The truth is I rarely tell anyone where I live because honestly does it matter? And as we travel the country telling people about the benefits of medical marijuana I may live anywhere at anytime. That sounds weird I know, but it is the truth.

My answer is usually Somewhere in the Universe. For me, my home is where my heart is and that remains with my family. So it has been a lot of different places. Missouri, Branson, West Plains, Springfield, California, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, so on and so on.

Part of the overall reason I rarely tell the world my location is my way of keeping as much turmoil and drama from my life. Being bipolar is an ongoing struggle and remaining as far away from drama helps. There is plenty of chaos in my head without the world throwing in crap. It may seem hard to understand, but it is important to my mental state to remain as calm as possible.

So we live our life as we see fit, we have met people, we have interacted with countless lives as we experience what the world offers. And that has taught me so many valuable things.

When we moved to California, I was still enmeshed in my uninformed beliefs about the evil qualities of weed. Then as if a cloud lifted learned just how ignorant it was to fear a plant. After all, this little plant had been created by a higher power, by God himself. So how could it be so evil?

That was the feelings I held firm. Weed, marijuana, ganja and the million other names describe just a plant.

It was uninformed, ignorant of me to fear and hate something that honestly I simply didn't understand. I had always considered myself a reasonably intelligent individual, but I knew very little in reality about marijuana. All I truly knew was it was smoked, and people got high.

The past media blast of telling the world about the 'evil reefer' had apparently gone deep within my mind. Maybe it was only osmosis that this was my thoughts because my parents felt firm about the evils.

Daddy was adamant about his philosophy regarding 'flower children' or 'blooming idiots' as he called the hippies of the 60s. They both felt that smoking the evil marijuana meant they were worthless, lazy and a lower society.

My parents grew up in a time when people were firm with their patriotic pride. They like all of their generation believed in our leaders even when they didn't agree with the policy.

I remember so many times how angry with jokes made about the President. And when it came to the American flag, Daddy was. Anytime I carried the flag at a horse show or rodeo he gave me the same lecture. If my horse bucked and threw me to the ground, I always was to make sure that the flag stayed off the ground. I was to protect the Red, White, and Blue no matter the consequences.

To this day I still shutter when anyone disrespects the flag or jokes about our President. I am not an Obama fan, but I still believe the office deserves respect. I will gladly admit that the politicians of today make it extremely hard not to laugh at them.

Political opinions on marijuana change for the politicians as the winds of the day change. Sadly, most of our politicians whether they are candidates or elected, their views and statements seem to alter depending on what group they are addressing.

As far as what they are promising, does it matter? It is what they do once elected. Will they stick to their beliefs or will they alter as most have done in the past?

Who Am I? My Journey to Enlightenment After 8 Months Catatonic

Who am I? Well as a kid that grew up in the Ozarks during the 60s during a time of rotary phones and only a few numbers to dial. A time when we had a black and white tv that got if we were lucky two channels, we chased fireflies at night, played outside till the streetlights came on, and build forts on the vacant lot next door. We also explored the entire sewer system under the town with the prodding instruction of my Uncle. But then again that is a different story. The one I will save for later.

But I grew up in this small little town where we didn't lock our doors or cars, and all the neighborhood kids roamed free. Or at least we thought we were free. The actual reality was that the entire town was watching us and protecting us.

I didn't know people told lies, and I thought if it was in the paper or on television it was absolute truth. Now don't get me wrong I was not quite like my Granny, who would sit and argue with the television when her stories were on because in her mind she thought they were real.

As a teenager, I would be lying if I said I had never been around weed smoking and drinking. The reality is that in small towns there isn't a lot of other things for kids to do. That was a terrible thing for me. Because I was around people I loved and cared for and they were smoking marijuana.

It has been particularly hard because my parents taught me that the Reefer Madness propaganda about it being the Devil's Weed was the absolute truth. So my soul was torn between what I was seeing and those teachings. What was right?

Were those I watched smoke it the devil's spawn? Or was there another side to the story? For me, I never saw anything but the evil.

But my life would go in a direction that would take me on a strange epiphany. I suffered an infinite amount of difficulties in a short period. For someone who is Bi-polar, that can be devastating. And for me it was. So as I tried to handle the still fresh wounds of my Mama's death, and fact that my Daddy died not too long after. Those things followed with the house fire that ripped us of nearly everything. And, I had my identity was stolen after that (and the thief had a lot of fun to my name), there were government audits in my company which made me spend every dime of my savings, and the world began to spin.

I went back and forth to my doctor, my psychiatrist, and my cardiologist who sent me deeper into a spiral. The road to treatment led me down the pharmaceutical road of add this to the medications and then add this to that.

The next thing I knew I woke up. It had been eight months, and I didn't remember any of it. I woke to Lynn taking the medications away, and he said things had to stop.

It was so hard, but that was the beginning of a journey that I would have never thought I would take. We moved to California, and I began to meet people treating their medical issues with marijuana.

It was unreal. How could those patients be helped by the one thing I thought was so evil? But I spent time with parents who were treating their autistic children with drops of CBD oil, cancer patients who relied on marijuana so they could eat and take their chemo treatments. Then I got to spend an afternoon with the most remarkable young man. A young man who would change my life.

I first met Mikie, a wonderful boy with the need to be tied to his wheelchair. The straps were the only thing that could contain his shaking body from falling to the ground. He wasn't even able to put two words together to have a conversation. But I was supposed to interview him about his medical treatment.

Sure I had seen what I thought was evidence that marijuana had real medicinal properties but that afternoon my eyes became wide open. This remarkable young man with a beautiful smile sat before me, and I watched as he took two hits off of a joint.

It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Mickie's entire body relaxed right before my eyes. There was no denying it, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was not faking it. I watched as that young man relaxed and then we had the most wonderful talk. All because he had taken two hits that relaxed all the muscles and tendons in his body that he struggled with every moment.

Now I was hooked I needed to see more. So I spent time with some of the autistic children and was witness to the effects that two tiny drops of CBD (Cannabinoid oil) had on them. I watched as children that were having hundreds of regular seizures on a weekly basis.  Children that because of those seizures were not able to participate in life at all. They didn't play. They didn't talk, they only suffered. Then I watched as those same children became fabulous little people who ran around playing, laughing and being what God intended in a child.

So as my world and my eyes opened to a possibility of good. The right in what I had always seen as evil I began to see that this natural plant. This plant that doesn't have to be altered to help people. This plant was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

So who am I? I am a believer. I am an advocate for the use of medical marijuana. And I am a new person who realizes that not everything taught in the past was the truth.