Getting High, yes, that’s the goal: To rise above the maddening crowd, looking at life from a loftier point of view. Upon smoking or eating, the sacred green herb releases inhibitions and lets us experience the absurd nature of life and play on! Yeah. We want to tell our truth, laugh, dance, sing, fuck, eat, or jump in a river. Sometimes it’s emotionally; scary and sad, but those emotions were just looking for an outlet. Herb is the relief valve. Ganja is an elevator going up when I’ve been in the basement all day. Lest we forget, because we are too busy, booked, and broke to enjoy her blissed ways, cannabis can be the antidote, the remedy for what ails us all.
I’ll spend my time in this column sharing the benefits, the stories, the wisdom, and the essential oils of the Mother Plant, the feminine in all her glory. There are so many topics she touches on, and I’m here to translate her high vibrations for you.
As “Recreational” hijacks the stage thanks to bilious billionaire corporate conquerors, they are still clueless when it comes to the medical benefits of Hemp and Cannabis. I’ve seen IBS cured; I’ve seen chemo nausea recede. I’ve seen cancer go into remission. I’ve seen depression lift and Bipolar conditions find balance.
Who am I? Ma Sherry Glaser. I’m legendary because I have barreled thru barricades to create mischief and curiosity. I opened the first Medical Cannabis dispensary LOVE IN IT, with my then-wife, Sheba Love, in the Village of Mendocino on Valentine’s Day 2011.
Obama was Prez, and we felt like the coast was clear. It was time to come out of another closet. We were already legally married dykes, but our budding abundance remained secret, underground. It was time. We found a storefront in Mendocino. We got a lawyer, the infamous freedom fighter Matt Kumin to legitimize us through rigorous cooperative paperwork even still, he warned us, It’s still illegal federally, “no matter what.” We chose to pay taxes too. We even got a credit card machine, unheard of in those early days. (Only a .25 cent surcharge). Yes, we were legends breaking through the Grass Ceiling. Those tales of the “Grey Area” and the wild west will razzle and dazzle you too.
I’m also a published author and comedian. I have written five complete one-woman shows – all comedies with a healthy splash of tears. In fact, my solo show about my life as a potwife was called, Taking the High Road, Comic Confessions from Behind the Cannabis Curtain. It made audiences laugh and cry. What’s better than laughing thru your tears or vice versa? I believe the cannabis industry has lost its sense of humor, and that’s a huge advantage of using the plant. Still, all the movies about our lives are crazy, dangerous, and violent. Drama. That’s true but disregards the #1 benefit of smoking a joint: Joy. I’d like to offer more of that element.
I know there’s pain, especially economically and politically. Folks still in prison for simple possession haunt the legal market in this country. In Mendocino, we grieve the unnecessary and clumsy loss of our golden goose, our sacred industry that we organized and executed efficiently for modest profits. And then the Damn Mendo B.O.S. shut it down with massive regulations, permits, and costs. Oh, the farmers we lost. The legacy, the old women in the hills bringing us the finest handmade butter and goo too. The old ones in Albion holed up in their grow rooms tending and regulating temp, humidity, fungus, mites, and water, singing to the girls to become those leggy sour diesels. Oh, those Dank Mendo purps, Sour D, epic Durban Poison, and of course, our beloved Blue Dream.
I got stories I’d like to leave you with because I’m an old witch now. And it’s time to lay my stories down on a page, a hard copy on paper, like in a magazine. It’s the real thing, and it’s yours. So, thanks for picking up Skunk, and thanks to Julie Chiarello, my Huro and modern iconoclast, one who slays dragons and smashes false gods. She’s Kali, Editor in chief and I humbly serve here as a cannabis advocate, ally, activist, abolitionista, and old auntie delivering the good news, and that is: Cannabis and Hemp may not save the world, but they can make it a whole lot better. I’ll explore that kaleidoscope in this column, Taking the High Road, because it’s got the best view.
Follow on social media: @ohmygoddesssherryg2
Photo Credit: Larry Wagner
Co-Oping – Working Together to Move Forward