Bernardo Ruiz’s
movie, Kingdom of Shadows, placed me squarely in the center of the debate on
drugs. I found myself sitting on stages, in front of crowds, like some wild indigenous
specimen: see there are white people who
do this shit.
I was uneasy.
I was uneasy
throughout filming.
I did not know
what Bernardo was after. I was sick of retelling tired stories. I’d been out of
the business a quarter century. I read the same shit you do. And the same shit
lazy, fearful reporters read and regurgitate.
I’m screaming, I am not qualified, all the while,
telling them what I think I know.
And then I sit
on a stage like a wooden Indian.
Afterwards:
reporters.
I am about as
close as they’ll get to interviewing a real smuggler. Those guys are dangerous.
I feel like a
fake.
I saw this one
long-haired Mexican man in the crowd after a San Antonio screening. Quanah
Parker. He looked at me. I looked at
him. Fake people all around and here’s this Shaman and I got to talk to
reporters.
Since, I took a
look around. Talked to the people.
I am now, once
again, an expert. I am not in the business.
I did what reporters are supposed to. Listened to those that know, without threat or coercion.
What I know
is fresh and real and I know more than the cops. They don’t believe this, but I
do.
You lost the
war, motherfuckers.
You have no idea
how bad you lost this war.
I am going to
stop asking for legalization of marijuana.
Legalization
sounds like some gift you have to offer. You were wrong to establish this law
in the first place and it remains wrong today.
Marijuana is a
medicinal herb placed on this planet by your creator.
Its’ uses are so
wide and varied, remain so un-explored, that I envision entirely new fields of
medical research that will arise once explored.
Truth is, it’s the
spiritual applications that scare white Europeans. (if you’re white, you’re
probably European [non-Native American]).
Jamaican
Rastafarians, Mexican Shaman, Colombian healers.
Supernatural
feats.
Oh….
Feel that hair start
to rise, feel that flesh crawl?
What was that?
Now we’re
getting down to the real shit.