A Conversation With Cannabis Sativa

By “Pioneer” Pete Gendron

Oregon Cannabis Connection

I live to bring joy.

People find joy in me.

I live to bring health.

People find healing in me.

I live to bring beauty.

People find beauty in me.

I live to bring shelter.

People find shelter in me.

I live to bring nourishment.

People find sustenance in me.

I live to bring warmth.

People find heat in me.

I live to bring comfort.

People find cloth in me.

I live to bring relief.

People find respite in me.

… oh, Hello!

I didn’t see you walk up. I was just musing….

Have a seat on that stool. It was made from my mother, you know. The legs were the lower part of her stalk, and the top is made out of her fibers and a resin they made from her seeds.

In just a quarter of last year, she grew to almost as tall, and as big around, as a 20 year old fir!

The people who help my sisters stand on that very stool every day. They say it will last as long as any natural fiber.

Speaking of my kin, did you enjoy the branch of my Aunt they gave you last week? I hear she has great abilities to balance appetite and bring calm. But, I will treat you differently next fall. I’ll help to energize you and relieve your pain.

I see you are wearing a shirt made from one of my cousins. Very nice! Did you know she can be as soft as she is durable? Oh yes, we have been the pride of the seas, the envy of miners, the canvas for artists and their art. I hear that one of my, like, 200 times great-grandmothers even had your nation’s Constitution written on her! How cool is that?!

Speaking of my great-grandmothers, did you know we came from all over the world to be here? Silly me, of course you did. You come here every year to tend the field and help us all grow up big and strong to help people. You told me that we are a part of the economy.

Speaking of growing up, did you see how much more shade I can give you than last week? That organic fertilizer you gave me really helped me wake up early and produce lots of terpenes to keep the bugs away on these long sunny days. And, I’m digging way into the ground to help create better soil for next year’s garden.

Speaking of long days, are they getting shorter? Because I seem to be putting on some weight and stretching out a bit. I’m not pointing any fingers, but I think one of my sisters is getting kind of smelly, if you know what I mean.

I mean, I know I’m just a sativa-heavy hybrid, but I’m just now starting to learn I can be companion planted because people didn’t want us around for years! Maybe being in my “teenage” weeks I do tend to go on, but I just don’t understand why—if we’ve been so good for people for so long—they want to treat us so badly and won’t let us have companions! They want us behind big fences (as if I was going anywhere), and they say we smell bad; but I kind of think we smell a lot like the lavender plant over there outside of the fence, and nobody really complains about her … OhMyGosh!

But I haven’t stopped talking since you sat down, and you were coming over to tell me about that…. You were going to try to explain, again, why those people called “prohibitionists” hate me? You know I am just here because God put me here to bring you all those things that I was just musing about when you sat down. The joy and health and shelter and nourishment! My sisters, cousins and I have that in us for all people. I mean, jeez, we haven’t been here since the third day for nothing, you know!

You were going to tell me about how the legislature was deciding whether or not I could be free, even though your people said I MUST be freed? Doesn’t the legislature represent your people anymore? If not, you’d might as well rip up that document written on my great-grandma that they’re sworn to uphold.

I heard some other people playing a Free Bird song last week…. Can I have a Free Weed song? Or is that banned, too? It’s okay; you can write it over there, by that fire your friends built with the stored bits of my family from last year. We give off great heat and light when dried properly. I hear them listening to music about my family again. You know your people have been writing songs about us since the dawn of your civilization?

My cousins can fuel and lubricate your machinery, you told me, but you never finished the story of why they aren’t allowed to do their work. You even said that if people wanted, they could turn my cousin’s seed and fiber into resin and make really durable materials, and it would have many benefits for the environment and the people! Tell me again why people won’t let us work for them anymore? I know I’m just a sativa-dominant hybrid in my teenage weeks, but I think if I can just keep quiet and listen, I might understand and learn why.

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