Washington, DC
Capitol Hill
Lobbyists from the world’s largest corporations, having locked in on cannabis and magic mushrooms as their next target for monopoly, conspire with lawmakers to bring maximally profitized and maximally taxed “legalization” to American citizens. Already starting to mirror the industrial-regulatory complex in the defense, pharmceutical, tech, and sports gambling industries, the emerging, yet-to-be-legalized-and-regulated cannabis market is the new target for the same theory of business leadership that brings us Amazon, Uber, Facebook, Home Depot, Microsoft, CocaCola, PepsiCo, and McDonald’s. But can corporate cannabis ever be cool?
Not “cool” as in popular or profitable. But cool as in authentic and individual, After all, where’s a person going to go for a little act of personal rebellion and self-liberation when the joint they would otherwise spark is itself approved, marketed, and sold to them by The Man?
“Stick it to the man,” “Chant down Babylon,” “I don’t need anyone’s stamp of approval to enjoy my natural freedom”—these are all instinctual human response to overreaching authority.
So to is the urge that has long drawn individuals to utilize these plants and fungi in the first place. If governance was merely about legal fairness and public safety, and not about those with the most power maintaining control of the social order, these extremely safe substances used since the earliest recorded history of man would neither have been criminalized in the past nor deviously commercialized in the present.
The hand-in-glove relationship between American government and global corporations, which act as the world’s de-facto legislative and regulatory consulting body, is most evident in this emerging but still mostly illegal market. The current approach to cannabis and mushrooms is a business style that doesn’t care about what’s good for either the worker or the consumer. The main focus is to create enough disruptive growth to monopolize the industry and sell it to investment funds run by policies, bots, and now artificial intelligence. On the legal side of gangsterism, investors intent on squeezing profit out of products they don’t themselves use lobby Congress for exclusive licensing and increased regulation and enforcement.
This is all the more interesting because until recently, cannabis and mushrooms were embraced only by the biggest nemesis of governments and corporations: namely free-thinking outlaws urging people to “Turn on, Tune in, and Drop out.”
We are told things are illegal for public safety, because man cannot take care of his own safety and because our fellow man is an untrustworthy beast from whom he needs protection in the form of legislation and regulation—until the legislation and regulation become the tools of untrustworthy beasts. When that happens, what we once did out of love we must now do out of obligation, leading only to resentment. We lose the simple joy of appreciating and making the most out of our one present moment here on earth, by living for a perpetually never-arriving “future.”
For now, it’s a paradise for mushroom and cannabis enthusiasts. High quality products are more abundant than ever. Users can choose to get them from the government-sponsored, lobbyist-created side of the industry, or buy from their longtime favorite independent suppliers. But choose wisely.
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