Message from the Lighthouse - or Plant Your Seeds

This isn't the first time I have painstakingly agonized over how to em-passion people to take action to end the war on drugs.

I remember struggling in the dim light over an electric typewriter in my dollhouse sized apartment in Elkhart, Indiana. President Bill "I didn't inhale." Clinton had been elected and there was a movement afoot to change marijuana laws.

Each year- just before April Fools day, fliers circulated pointing us to Ann Arbour Hash Bash, rumored to be a virtual utopia for pot smokers. Any fool knows an April Fools day joke when they see it - but High Times assured loyal consumers that change was coming. Who knew the Hash Bash was real and the "just say no" message to the Dare Generation would destroy so many lives.

My solution- a chain letter - A Message from the Lighthouse, bringing hope and lighting the way. The letter asked people to keep the chain alive by sending a copy to six of their friends and one to the White House. It reminded recipients we could overgrow the government by simply planting our seeds.

My distribution plan was simple - 50 copies hand delivered in the lot at the Rosemount Horizon (Chicago IL). The Grateful Dead was playing (3-9-93) and the crowd was like-minded. A year later, a friend in Ohio, knowing my interest in changing marijuana laws, sent me a copy. That circle was complete but the legalization of cannabis was a long ways off.

In 2000, when Phish played their Millennium Show in the Everglades, I was there. Still planting seeds, this time as a director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. We spent four days educating concert goers about the virture of cannabis, hemp's value in a green economy and ways to stay safe while advocating for a sane marijuana policies.

Another decade has passed since that New Years weekend and the War on Drugs has claimed more victims, the violence has surpassed our wildest estimations and the estimated revenue from regulated cannabis is enticing.

Cannabis legalization can happen in my lifetime.