WRITTEN BY: ZACH CHAMP
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THE POWER OF SACRED PLANTS
Magic is real, and plants are the gateway to this realization.
Plants are sacred gifts that allow mankind to fully realize and appreciate this known truth.
Sacred plant teachers, those which contain natural entheogenic chemical properties, have been traditionally used for thousands of years by indigenous groups all over the world, as well as in the mysterious cults of past ancient civilizations.
Plants can reveal the magic of the world in vibrant and illuminating ways, and it is for this reason that they are utilized as sacraments during ceremonial rites and initiations.
However, these once culturally significant and important instruments for communicating with the divine have become demonized and criminalized during the past few decades.
Ever since the beginning of the War on Drugs, sacred plants have been forced underground and into the hands of dark criminal networks and drug trafficking rings. The same mushrooms that were used in healing ceremonies by the Medicine Man or Priestess are now sold in zip-loc baggies by local dealers for a quick buck.
The criminal and civil penalties for the possession or use of sacred plants can be severe and life-changing. Most psychedelic substances including mushrooms, acid, and DMT are classified as Schedule II uncontrolled substances, meaning that the United States Federal Government has classified these drugs as illegal due to their ‘harmful’ effects on individuals and society. Their possession can result in felony charges and imprisonment.
How did these sacred plants become illegal in the first place?
It all goes back to when the War on Drugs officially began in 1970 when President Nixon signed into law the Controlled Substances Act.
This Congressional Law authorized and constituted what substances could be legally bought, sold, possessed, or manufactured in the United States. It also placed the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the Food, Drug, Administration (FDA) in charge of scheduling all substances.
Why are sacred plants so severely restricted and criminalized… but harmful synthetic drugs are actively pushed in the market, even when they do more damage than good?
Just what is really at stake with the laws regarding drug and substance use?
It ultimately boils down to the idea of whether individuals have the freedom to alter their consciousness at will with the use of substances.
Any state or government ultimately wants to control your freedom and control your mind.
Governments do this because it enhances their control of the general population.
States and Governments know that when they control people’s consciousness they can influence the daily reality for millions of people. This is societal and cultural mind control, and all governments and states, past and present, are guilty of this.
Today in the United States, DEA and law enforcement at the Federal, State, and Local levels have spent an estimated $51 billion annually on fighting the War on Drugs. This hefty price tag comes at the taxpayer’s expense.
What’s worse is how the War on Drugs has left havoc and chaos in American communities across the country from the opioid epidemic in Appalachia to several inner cities’ plight with crack-cocaine and gang violence.
Drug addiction and crime know no colors or class… but the War on Drugs has cast a dark shadow on people of color.
Black and Hispanic Americans have been devastated by unparalleled rates of incarceration and arrest compared to their White peers!
What the hell is going on in the World?
THE ANSWER: TURNING WHAT WAS ONCE SACRED INTO SOMETHING DARK, CRIMINAL, AND SINISTER… AND FOR WHAT PURPOSE AND REASON?
MONEY! (I.E CONTROLLING YOUR WALLET)
It’s no secret that drugs can cost a lot of money. Habitual use can be costly to maintain for most individuals and hardcore drug addiction can easily bankrupt any person.
Just what exactly makes drugs so valuable and profitable? It turns out that most of the sacred plants listed above are coincidentally also considered “cash crops” meaning they have real market value and demand.
Farmers grow these crops and sell them in bulk at wholesale prices to buyers who then flip them (often through a wide and dense network of dealers and suppliers) at a marked up ‘retail’ or street price.
These cash crops easily can build their own economies — demonstrated by the prevalence of drug cartels and organized crime in the illegal sale and manufacture of illicit drugs and substances.
Growing these plants is extremely risky and often occurs south of the border in Mexico and Central America or in legalized states.
Many indigenous communities rely on growing sacred plants to make a living.
The War on Drugs doesn’t start in the ghettos of America’s cities, it starts in rural communities in Central and South America where poor farmers rely on the cultivation of illicit crops to feed their families and survive.
In areas where few if any other jobs are available, the cultivation of crops like cocaine and poppies for heroin production is a vital economic necessity. It is the only source of income that puts food on the table.
Often these rural communities become organized under the influence of powerful criminal and drug trafficking organizations. Corruption spreads like a disease. Police and politicians get bought out and complicit with the drug trade.
Sometimes these criminal groups are well-armed and even military trained. Before long these drug cartels end up destabilizing the community with the violence that is a trademark with their trade.
The manufacturing and distribution of illegal drugs is a fiercely competitive and treacherous business. Territories (plazas) and routes are fought for and constantly shift hands between rival organizations. Civilian casualties are acceptable and sometimes happily encouraged to provoke fear in the local population and to seek revenge.
The endless cycle of violence that makes up the War on Drugs south of the border has led to unprecedented levels of immigration as regular hard-working families and individuals seek to escape the chaos and live a better life in America.
Years of steadily rising immigration rates have made immigration a hot topic of debate in American politics.
The Border Patrol and Immigrant Customs Enforcement (ICE) have become the secret police under the Trump Administration. ICE and Border Patrol go around conducting sting operations that allow them to arrest and detain families including their children who are then separated from their parents and held in concentration camps along the border. It is a sad and miserable state of affairs.
Latinos are Native Americans. Spanish is the language of the conqueror.
The truth is that Latino-Americans are proper Native Americans and are indigenous to this land and this country.
There is a famous saying in La Frontera (the border region of Texas/Mexico) which Latinos commonly quote:
“We didn’t cross the border, the border crossed us.”
THE WAR ON DRUGS IS A RACKET… LITERALLY!
What is the War on Drugs? Why does it matter? The War on Drugs represents the single biggest illusion perpetrated by the US Federal Government in modern times!
The War on Drugs has compromised the integrity of our country and has resulted in wide-spread and rampant corruption resulting in the destabilization of American communities both North and South of the Border.
One of the long-term consequences of the War on Drugs has been the decades of mass incarceration of nonviolent drug offenders for the possession or sale of illegal drugs like marijuana.
Many of these individuals were arrested for crimes that are now legal in many states across the country.
Even worse, these arrests have statistically been proven to have racially targeted Blacks and Latinos over White Americans.
Today, there are more than 2 million people incarcerated in the United States. Of this total of 2 million people, nearly 34% of these incarcerated persons are minorities or people of color.
Almost 9% of people incarcerated in the United States today are in privatized prisons that companies profit off of.
In comparison to countries around the world, the United States accounts for nearly 25% of all incarcerated individuals worldwide. This number is sure to grow unless significant reform or change is implemented.
Penalizing the use of drugs doesn’t deter organized crime, it rewards them by giving these groups a new revenue stream!
The United States of America is directly involved in the manufacturing and distribution of the very same illegal drugs which the government has arrested thousands of people for over the past few decades.
The American Federal Government has several times provided guns, drugs, and money to the same Drug Cartels which they are pledged to fight.
One recent scandal that has put the Federal Government’s loyalties and morals into question are the so-called "Fast and Furious Case" where the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives) was caught selling military-grade assault weapons to Mexican Drug Cartel members.
This tactic, known as “Gun-Walking” which is designed to entrap and capture cartel members has been used various times before by law enforcement agencies, but with only varying degrees of success.
In many cases, the weapons end up in Mexico where they are used to commit horrific crimes.
In the 1970s and 1980’s the American Federal Government operating through the Central Intelligence Agency sold weapons to the Iranian government led by the Ayatollah. Their goal was to use the funds acquired through the sale of the weapons to boost the efforts of the Nicaraguan Contras, a far-right antisocialist revolutionary group seeking to overthrow the communist government of Nicaragua at the time.
Clandestine operations like this are common tactics by the US Government which allow it to exert its influence on countries abroad while maintaining some degree of culpability.
However, these types of operations have opened Pandora’s box over the years. By creating working relationships between the volatile Middle-East and Central America, the American Federal Government has created precedents that have allowed modern drug cartels to form partnerships with terrorist groups abroad like Hezbollah and Al-Qaeda.
The situation has grown more dangerous and precarious than before.
The various Drug Cartels operating within the United States, Mexico, and Central America are violent, genocidal, and treacherous.
These organizations have no morals or ethical considerations. They are responsible for unimaginable atrocities including mass disappearances, femicide, child-trafficking, and terrorism.
The situation in Mexico and Central America is no different than the War in Iraq or Syria. As it escalates, so will the humanitarian consequences.
“Combining the Eagle of the North with the Condor of the South”
It is a tragedy that the United States of America, the so-called greatest democratic country on Earth, lives in an isolated bubble here in the Western Hemisphere surrounded by the corrupt and inept governments of Mexico and Central America.
Our closest neighbors deserve better, after all, they are Americans too, deserving of the same birthright and liberties!
It is the United States of America’s duty to properly integrate Central America as part of our great Union and to ensure that democratic rule of law and constitutionally granted freedoms are widespread and available to all.
The Mexican Government and other Central American authorities have failed to lead by example and to address the domestic issues which inspire emigration.
Instead of worrying about illegal immigration from south of the border, I say we simply redraw the borders and welcome our new friends…
Spanish is currently the second most spoken language in the United States with Hispanics/Latinos making up the largest growing ethnic majority.
It is only a matter of time before we see the United States of America grow across the border! The War on Drugs is provoking American intervention sooner than later…
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