I am not telling ANYONE not to enjoy themselves this 4/20. By any rational means, you should BE ABLE TO enjoy the beneficial effects of one of the most incredible plants on earth: cannabis.

Whether sativa or indica, whether grown outdoors or inside, whether raised in soil or hydroponically, cannabis is a wonderful plant, one with multiple healing properties that medical science is only beginning to scratch the surface of.

Unfortunately, the powers that be — namely the oil, timber, cotton, plastics, alcohol, tobacco, pharmaceutical, law enforcement & prison, and drug-screening industries, have joined forces with a lying, histrionics-prone media and the “anything that’s fun is sin” wing of the religious right. Together, this unholy triumvirate, joined by an increasingly tyrannical federal government, ensure that anyone who uses this plant, or even advocates it use, is subject to harassment, defamation, ridicule, and/or imprisonment.

So today,while you’re celebrating, I want you to think about people like Marc Emery, a US political prisoner currently serving 5 years in a federal prison. I want you to think of William Reddie, killed in front of his 3-year old son (allegedly armed with a knife) when authorities moved to take the child from the home because an officer stated he smelled cannabis in the house. No drugs were found in his system. Think about everyone who is denied employment in even the most menial of positions because they choose to relax with a joint rather than a beer. Let’s not forget about the approximately 50,000 people in prison right now for cannabis offenses. Imagine the better uses for the approximately $1,000,000,000 of taxpayer money that went to pay for these incarcerations. Picture the families of these prisoners, and what they go through–a tragedy so perverse no less than PAT ROBERTSON has called for the legalization of cannabis.

It is not my intent to come off as preachy. If, however, the cost in dollars and human suffering by keeping a relatively benign substance such as cannabis illegal infuriates you as much as it does me, then TAKE ACTION. Write your local politicians, your state politicians, your federal politicians. Write editorials to your newspapers. Reblog this. Blog about it yourself. Join a group such as Stopthedrugwar.org or NORML. If you get jury duty, GET ON A JURY. If you happen to draw a cannabis case, vote NOT GUILTY. Follow me on twitter @phdinweed. Vote for Ron Paul or Gary Johnson. Tell all your friends to do the same.