Riffin' On Prop 122

Prop 122, a ballot measure aiming to (re) define certain psychedelic plants and fungi as natural medicine, including dimethyltryptamine (DMT); ibogaine; mescaline (excluding peyote); psilocybin; and psilocyn; decriminalize the personal use, possession, growth, and transport of natural medicines for persons 21 years old and older; and create the Regulated Natural Medicine Access Program for licensed healing centers to administer natural medicine services passed in Denver during the general election on November 8th, 2022.

Wow! Historically, psychedelics have been a “brand” of Oriental devotional practice here in the West…under the guise of recreational drugs. When consumed as recreational drugs, there is a tendency for people to have spiritual experiences, to awaken to a sense of Universal “oneness” in some deeply physical/emotional way that absolutely reconditions their entire Being, shaking them justtt out of their habitual living tendencies so as to give them extra conscientiousness once they do go about re-establishing it. Running concurrent to the culture of the recreational use of psychedelics has been the ancient ritualistic use of psychedelics for the sake of both physical and emotional healing. In the modern era, many people begin dabbling with psychedelics recreationally, realize that they do have some sort of undeniable potential as something healing/profound/life changing, and then seek out the paradigms of sacramental use in hopes of potentiating what they were in the midst of/simply because they were touched by power and they really are a ragdoll in some sort of absurd larger flow that is encouraging the active violation of drug law (not in Denver!).

For many, since psychedelic use entered the culture during the Flower Power era… the use of them has accidentally brought them face to face with God/the Universe/the Source. It just sorta happens, and it’s not uncommon given how rare psychedelic use is. If you like research common things that happen to people who consume psychedelics… there’s nobody schizing out and ending up permanently deranged (although there is abuse induced drug psychosis out there…temporary… being super unbelievably high; an honest assessment of most psychedelic situations which do go bad out there is that the set and setting of the experience wasn’t at all appropriate… and a lot of that has to do with the substances being illegal and treated moreso like normal street drugs by those handling them) but there are a butt ton of people who end up suddenly growing super spiritual..often times out of outright agnosticism or atheism.

Also too… you get the sense that maybe there are chat boards out there, or once were, with alluring cultures…undeniably hip and on the pulse places where people were gathering to discuss their experiences with psychedelics… and really these places were out there on the internet, and they were fascinating because the people were brilliant. And I’ve noticed most of the people I personally know who have dabbled with psychedelics seem to have grown more intelligent after the fact. There’s a magnetism there that truly is at the level of Universe, nearly going entirely unrecognized to conscious awareness… it’s survival of the fittest, and this is like a Megachurch concept apparently in its appetite, because it’s evidently trying to maintain it’s public image.

But where does it end?! We can’t exactly be throwing LSD into our toothpaste…it isn’t the solution, but a path to…

Well, it’s all in the paradigm of the ballot measure, Prop 122, which passed itself. You see, Prop 122 (re) defines certain psychedelic plants as “natural medicines”. This secular framework quietly nods to the ultimate endgame of psychedelic therapy/use… an evident spiritual experience…one potentially as profound as meeting God himself, one hopefully that awakens you to a foundation of Being which is rooted deeply in unconditional love for the universe which surrounds you, a foundation in which unconditional love can flow seamlessly in the midst of the world of conditions.

Some of us can induce this with cultural modalities…philosophical curriculums and the such. But to create a substance which seems to be able to induce this by being consumed once…

Otherwise, instead of passing Prop 122 they would have reserved the cultivation and distribution of these psychedelic substances for the pharma industry, or at least some sort of commercial venture. If the secret really was the mushrooms or the dmt in and of themselves, the government wouldn’t even allow a ballot measure to allow you to have it until they seized the means of production first. They’d create a few fake mega-companies and hide their monopoly over the industry…

The medicinal aspects of these natural medicines must and do exist in a purely scientific way… and the passing of Prop 122 will allow for the study of such. But somehow I sense that framers of this social situation truly are after more… that they are in some sense letting Jesus take the wheel while spinning the Who’s The Kids are Alright.

It wouldn’t be the first time…

The language “natural” medicines implies it’s a medicine of nature’s design… and we do know that the planet is sentient, that plants have feedback loops that are in dialogue with us in profound ways (call me crazy but a tree knows a great deal about you in just the same way that you really do know a good deal about the strangers you pass by on the sidewalk, simply by perceiving them for a short time)… it’s not so crazy to have a vision of a harvest based product being a tonic for us… it’s considered socially crazy but many have a vision that a Monotheistic God is responsible for all that transpires in existence (at least in name alone, it’s like a service inherent in the concept itself that is “God”… God did it)… perhaps these are vehicles for his schemes. “Natural” medicines ironically implies something super-natural…transcendence… and ultimately the potency of these substances to heal is utterly mysterious at some level.

The types of experiences some people are having? Every single time re-dosing from a same batch, the therapeutic benefits are evident, and are the focus of the experience, but they are entirely different every single time in stark ways, until eventually the impression is deeply imprinted that there is only one Source for everything medicinal/positive/life-filling that transpires in existence, and it’s not the thing you just consumed, but the thing you just consumed brought you face to face with it in a very loud way and it’s trying to say something.

It's like a pack of that Zebra gum where every stick is wildly different flavor than the last!

Random things people who don’t use psychedelics don’t know about them: people who start experimenting with them often stop consuming alcohol, forevermore. People microdose them to quit smoking cigarettes and it works really really well. They often times make you crave water… which leads to an insatiable appetite for vegetables which are perceivably moreso filled with this delicious water than other foods…they can do odd things to you quickly but none of it makes sense at a physiological level… why would your entire perceptions of food change to a seeking of the water inside of the food because you ate a federally prohibited drug? It’s obviously some sort of universal joke.

And the jokes always lead you to healthier decisions and stereotypically…oriental notions…such as the cessation of meat in the diet or things of that nature. It’s the only pattern that makes sense of the randomness.

Btw there are probably vegetarians out there in the sense that they revere the ideology and are choosing to opt into it who probably would pay thousands of dollars for an experience like that, something to deeply recondition their being to crave vegetables in a visceral way. And I eat a lot of meat still, because I suck.

When it’s all said and done, life is a grind. Every single life form is faced with rising to the occasion. We naturally and, at times, foolishly seek a remedy to this situation. Much like Huey Lewis…we want a new drugggg.

These substances are as close to a singular, simple solution as it can come. When it’s all said and done we really will have to rise and grind, and in time it’s the wisdom that the psychedelic vehicles bring you to that remains… but still there’s something in the psychedelic experience which rather mysteriously improves our ability to live effectively in regards to initial exposure. Culturally I am excited to see what progressive changes in our legal approach to these substances will yield!

Despite what the crochety old-timers try to tell you, recovery is supposed to be fun (if you're doing it right!)