Canadians Are Smarter Than Americans

Oh, Canada! This summer when my local newspaper reprinted Gordon Sinclair's classic Good Neighbor article, it was the first time this American had seen it. It exhilarated and inspired me. When I lived near the border, where cows outnumber people, the CBC helped me keep my sanity.

The National Lampoon did a shot at Canada several years ago. Several questions asked: When will Canada...? Each answer was: "The Next Day."

Now you are ahead of us. America is behind you. Ironically, tragically, the first colony to declare its independence, to demand the Right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness, to fight and kill and die for them, is now far down the road toward a Police State. What would the soldiers of the Continental Army, who suffered and died for freedom, think if they could see us now?

How do we restore freedom and liberty, rights and responsibility? Author Robert Heinlein advised: when you don't know what to do next, do whatever is easiest first. For me, sending information is easiest.

You're smarter than we are. We were both brain-polluted by modern Prohibitionists. Lied to. In his novel 1984 George Orwell described a simplified language - Newspeak - which made it impossible to explain minor differences. Words were redefined and history was rewritten constantly. Oh, Canada! We were both brain-polluted but you are realizing it before us.

People are astonished when I explain how and why we were brain-polluted. Some of them get angry, as everyone should. Prohibitionists changed the name and image of one of our most useful plants – Cannabis sativa, Hemp – to marijuana, flowers enjoyed by Mexican immigrants, so they could demonize and kill one of our best medicines.

Imagine this as a Star Trek episode. A Federation starship orbits earth on a survey mission. Many – too many – of the bipeds at the top of the food chain have little respect for other species, especially those they most depend on: plants. Insanely, they attack the most useful plants on the planet. They condemn genocide, but would make species extinct.

Why? Because plants compete with synthetic chemicals. Many chemicals pollute the planet. Hemp’s thousands of uses would minimize toxic chemicals.

Hemp flowers offer us a unique magnifying glass on our senses, enabling them to focus. Focusing reduces awareness in other directions, causing tunnel vision, but we are aware of this when we "change our minds." This need to change our consciousness is natural, like hunger, thirst, and sex. Every species does it.

Fighting natural desires, politicians declared war on human nature, calling it in Narkspeak a "war on drugs." Xenophobia and Puritanism were powerful and voters were lied to, so Hemp and the coca leaf, which never killed anyone, were outlawed. Never killed anyone. We can't say that about ourselves.

Many humans have not evolved past mob mentality into individuals who think for themselves. Mobs fear individuals. Individuals are not afraid to be alone. Mobs attack individuals. Mobs arrest, rob, imprison, and enslave over half a million Cannabis enthusiasts every year, all because we are exercising one of our fundamental rights, our right to change our minds! Lawmakers encourage violence and drug war; they encourage and tax the distilled waste of fungus, alcohol, which causes over half the violent crime. They subsidize and tax an addictive, carcinogenic plant, tobacco, which kills over a million people thruout the world every year.

We are in a race between education and catastrophe. Global survival is at stake. One big problem: major portions of our planet will run out of drinkable water within ten years, or already have. You're smarter than we are. You have RE-legalized Hemp and soon ideally will restore people's right to grow and possess and enjoy all parts of the plant - any way they like - as long as they don't violate other people's rights. How long until "the leader of the Western world" catches up?

Oh, Canada! Thank you for showing us the way! America: Try it; you’ll like it.

Ed Hughes