When I was 14 years old my buddy Zach brought over a Peter Tosh cassette tape (yes I’m that old). Which was my introduction to Reggae music, as well as Bob Marley as well as cannabis. Similar to cannabis, Reggae was love at first listen. The tape was “Legalize it” also the song I was listening to when I smoked my first recreationally legal cannabis in Denver in 2016. Reggae music incorporated so many things that I had an affinity towards, but the two most obvious elements were, weed and defiance of corrupt and evil systems.
Fast forward 26 years later and I just got back from Jamaica and 9 Mile, Bob Marley’s home town. So much emotion went through me as I saw the local farmers and felt a sense of community, humbleness, love and respect that is seldom seen in the US commercial retail markets.
What I Learned at 9 Mile
The plants that I saw were amazing, growing naturally off of the nutrient rich natural soil, basking in the Caribbean sun and the cool mountain island breezes. I met the kind gentleman in the picture below who generously gave me two of the fattest joints I’ve ever smoke. We took the sacrament together and discussed growing and some of the challenges of living in Jamaica. One of the most humbling things to learn was that this area of 9 mile had no running water and the town generally lived in poverty, complete with makeshift houses and the like.
I couldn’t help but notice that even with all this adversity the people generally seemed to be happier than Americans; putting into context the bigger picture of life and gave me real perspective. I always encourage people to get out of the United States whenever possible, as Americans stand alone in so many of our predispositions about the world and what we believe it should be.
Politics and Government in Jamaica
As someone that has been persecuted for cannabis my entire life (enough for another blog) being at the epicenter of early political activism for ganja was a very emotional to say the least. Something that I didn’t realize before visiting 9 mile was that a lot of Jamaicans (rightfully so I believe) believe that Bob Marley and Peter Tosh were both murdered for political reasons. The stories that we are told are that Bob died of melanoma and that Peter was murdered during a home invasion. But these cultural juggernauts broke the golden rule, he with the gold makes the rules, and the unrest of people propelled by a defiant genre of music and culture were too much for the government to abide.
Similarly I also learned that Jamaica never really became independent from Great Britain. This was news to me as an American because we are taught (like so many other lies) that Jamaica was independent. But this is a false narrative which makes it easier for countries like Great Britain and China to exploit the land for profit, all while the citizens toil in poverty.
We can make no progress in this world until we can be honest about our abysmal shortcomings as human beings and put ourselves in a position to liberate and help people that have been systematically oppressed, abused and kept silent through murder and lies. One day at a time, one step at a time, one love.
