The Uses of Poppies

Minoan Goddess wearing Diadem of Poppies

The Uses of Poppies; The Need for a Human and Sane Drug Policy


I was wondering about the ancient use of poppies, and particularly spending time gazing at the Poppy Goddess - or, more correctly, the Goddess crowned with poppies - from ancient Crete.

It strikes me that God created the universe as it is, with joy and suffering. Suffering always seems to be on the score-card... the game is not an eternal series of runs... love and joy will sooner or later strike out... and the other side comes up.

Continuing on, when there is suffering, the Creator provided ways of reducing the pain by providing analgesic substances for mankind to use. If, indeed, the World is a place of Joy and Suffering, and Joy is closer to God's intention than is suffering, then the proof of creation lay within our joys and within the amelioration of our sufferings, and these things are inherent in the very structure of the World and our being.

Furthermore, the things that reduce pain - the analgesics (Greek an - not  plus  algia - pain)  or narcotics very often possess the ability to induce trances and non-normal states of reality. This intimate connection between the States of Rapture and the States of Relief is not an accident! To me it seems a fingerprint of the creator on the world:  the world is not perfect from our viewpoint, because the complexity of our intelligence contains within it the seeds of our pains;  this connection between Rapture and Relief  is proof of ongoing intent to amend a complex Universe not quite perfect!

This must come as a shock to people who believe in timeless perfection. I trust it is not a surprise to them to learn that Cannabinoids - variants on the molecules of cannabis: marijuana - are produced by the human  body itself.

Where are we today?
We condemn all such substances, even those produced by our own bodies. For the ill and suffering to get marijuana, there is a maze of regulations and the DEA. We allow only those which are most alien to the simple ways of nature. Our approach to almost every problem is a sea of regulations, a large bureaucracy, a small army of armed enforcers, and demands for our complete and absolute compliance.
Yet cannabinoids are produced inside our bodies.
Do we hate ourselves?
Perhaps that is why we abuse these substances... our own self-hatred. The high sounding illusions of the War on Drugs is a bitter joke to the world. As Mexico witnesses its bloodbath of Suppliers, We - the Demanders, the Users - sit and watch the tragedy on our doorstep and calculate ways to forbid poor immigrants entry (drug lords always have a way in). Is our concern for a sane drug policy in this country carried on at the same fever pitch as our effort to deny the right to speak Spanish? or to deny the right to ethnic classes in school? By addressing our own problem realistically, we automatically solve Mexico's in this area!
Why are we so intent on pursuing the paths of oppression to allow full and real-time suffering to all who fall under our power? So far we have relied on faith that what we are doing is right; it is a faith of genocide.

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A much better meditation on the topic is at
http://cariferraro.com/2009/06/11/poppy-goddess/#comment-482

It is reasonable, whereas I issue jeremiads against the modern age. Nobody likes that.

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