Members of Guadalajara’s Colectivo 4:20 are gearing up for the Global Marijuana March, which has been held worldwide on the first Saturday in May since 1999.
Colectivo 4:20 is hoping that Guadalajara will join other cities around the globe in calling attention to the many benefits of the famous weed.
According to biologist José Luis Ortiz, a spokesman for the group, marijuana helps stop metastasis in people who have cancer, “assuring that the sick cells die in the cleanest possible manner.” And Ortiz insists this has been proven by the celebrated Complutense University of Madrid, one of the oldest universities in the world.
Whenever the subject of marijuana for medical purposes comes up, my mind drifts back to the late 1960’s, when I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Jamaica. While the idea of smoking “ganja,” as it’s called on the island, is universally associated with Rastafarians and Reggae, my long-distance hikes through remote Jamaican villages taught me the real reason why a little bit of cannabis grows in so many rural back yards.
“It was never just for smoking,” a thin, “witch doctor lady” with jet-black skin told me. “The most common use of the plant here in Jamaica is for making a nice cup of tea to fight off a bad cold. I don’t know of any better remedy.”Somehow, we foreign volunteers never seemed to get the colds which inevitably attack Jamaicans whenever they get caught out in the rain, so I never had need to try ganja tea.
With medical marijuana becoming an ever more popular subject, and Colectivo 4:20 suggesting that Tapatíos should “come out of the closet” on this issue, I decided to ask my Mexican friends whether they had ever heard of marijuana tea as a cold remedy. No, they said, “but here lots of people rely on the weed as a pain reliever.”
Just a bit of inquiry revealed that many of the people around me – no matter how conservative and proper they might appear – use something rather similar to ganja tea as a balm to soothe their aches and pains.
“But it’s illegal,” I replied. “How do you even get it?”
I learned that it’s “available everywhere,” although you won’t find it on the shelves of the local pharmacy (yet). Crudely hand-labeled “Remedio Natural para Dolor,” it may come in a second-hand Gatorade bottle and may look a bit like spinach soup. The ground cannabis leaves are, in fact, suspended in that same inexpensive alcohol you can find in any supermarket. All the user has to do is rub a bit of this green liquid on a sore arm or leg at night for a peaceful sleep without pain. “It’s an alkali,” says an informant knowledgeable about chemistry, “and it neutralizes the body’s typical acidity.” It’s also said to reduce inflammation.
I asked if marijuana was used here in Jalisco for medicinal purposes other than relieving aches and pains and was surprised to hear that impoverished workers would smoke it – just as their counterparts in other countries would chew coca leaves – in order to put in a full day of hard labor without collapsing from fatigue.
Medicinal marijuana may soon be legally available everywhere, but, like so many other things in life, it needs to be used in moderation, as one informant pointed out to me, with a chuckle. “I’m going to tell you a true story that still circulates on the rancho where I grew up …”
“Once upon a time,” they say, “there was a man and a horse. And the horse was sick – very, very sick. So the man sought advice and was told the best remedy for this problem was yierbabuena tea, by which they meant tea made with marijuana. So the man made the tea, one liter of it, and he gave it to the horse to drink. And the horse got better instantly … and for good, I might add. Yes, it seems that poor horse just went plain crazy. It jumped up and ran around the corral like a headless chicken. Then it ran straight for the fence, jumped right over it and tore off towards the river. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there, but plunged right into the ice-cold water – and the river carried the hapless creature off. De veras, nobody ever saw that horse again.”
It appears that cannabis is already being used “in moderation” by many people in Jalisco. Maybe it’s time for politicians to take notice.