Katje van Dijk

“The drug is really quite a remarkably safe one for humans, although it is really quite a dangerous one for mice and they should not use it.” – J.W.D Henderson, Director of the Bureau of Human Drugs, Health and Welfare, Canada

Today’s Merced Sun Star had an article about me.  Check it out.

There is nothing that can describe the past year of Life in California better than ‘a time of change’.  Marijuana law reform is first on the agenda of many gatherings, formal or otherwise.  The teenagers follow the news, the parents talk with the farmers, the doctors buzz about the money going out of the county, the police talk about the card program and how it has foiled their routine; it is definitely this year’s most talked about subject.

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What follows is an essay written by my son for his high school AP English class (and we have since learned that he received a 96% score).

“Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth and protection of the country,” said Thomas Jefferson, third President of the US and a life-long hemp farmer. One hundred and thirty years later, the same government (that Mr. Jefferson helped form) declared complete and total prohibition against all forms of hemp. Warned Albert Einstein on the dangers of prohibition, “The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably by the prohibition law, for nothing is more destructive of respect for the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot be enforced.”

For seventy years America has lived under the dark cloud of prohibition. Trends indicate, however, that in more and more places, the majority of the adult voting population want it legalized. Where is this support coming from? Why would generations of people schooled on the evils of marijuana and steeped in the belief that it is a gateway drug, suddenly take a position of acceptance? It might be the economy, but it is far more likely that the general public is finally taking a look at the plant’s political history, and with that knowledge, no populace would chose to leave things as they are. The process of gaining understanding is fueling the process that will ultimately abolish prohibition.

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