An Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Francis I
In answer to your global mandate,
prioritizing mankind's return to respect for Nature.
Dear Pope Francis,
Thank you for facing climate change with a realistic and purposeful vision. Your expression of respect for God's gifts of Nature, elevates humanity into alignment with the Creator's systemic, integrated, web-of-life, at a pivotal moment in mankind's history.
I am writing to encourage support for your essential wisdom in considering every possible remedy for recovering environmental balance. The intricate, interconnected relationships in which mankind participates must be regarded with a genuine, functional morality. If our Earth Mother is to be healed of man's past errors, atmospheric balance must be restored soon.
I offer very good news, of an organic agricultural strategy for healing several major imbalances. A time-limited urgency accompanies the uncertainties concerning effects of increasing solar UV-B radiation. that has not yet been seriously acknowledged by political leadership in the United States.
I ask your help, in focusing your global influence on a novel, biogenic remedy, necessary to healing Nature. By recognizing the true, essential value of Cannabis, prohibition could be ended globally, by "essential civilian demand."
There are several properties of Cannabis that make the crop both unique and essential for mankind's sustainable, symbiotic existence within the operating systems of the Earth. Cannabis agriculture is mankind's functional interface with the Natural Order, an agronomic tool necessary for us to evolve values of balance between consumption and moral ecology.
By legislating a fraudulent value against Nature's most useful and uniquely essential "herb bearing seed," prohibition has imposed essential resource scarcity. Prohibition judge's God and Nature as criminals for this most useful plant. Essential resource scarcity has misled mankind to toxic values, at the brink of environmental collapse and moral bankruptcy.
I propose an achievable, affordable solution to several major global problems at once. Particular urgency exists for healing the increasing levels of solar UV-B radiation that accelerates climate imbalance.
Ours is a time-limited opportunity for survival as conditions degenerate toward irreversible, global systemic collapse. The shift in value from "illegal" to essential is inevitable. Cannabis prohibition must end. The question is whether it will end quickly and completely enough.
The true, unique and essential values of the plant, for healing our bodies and Earth's atmosphere, preclude rightful jurisdiction over Cannabis, by any court. Our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. "Every green herb" is our rightful legacy, that comes with the responsibility to pass those hard-won freedoms along intact to future generations.
Organic Cannabis is the only crop that produces complete nutrition and sustainable energy from the same harvest. Cannabis grown in organic soil is capable of sequestering twelve tons of carbon per acre from the atmosphere each growing season. This feature of the plant makes Cannabis essential. Cannabis is the only plant that produces sufficient volume of monoterpenes to replace what has been lost with the death of the boreal forests. Cannabis is the only crop that produces enough fiber to satisfy humanity's voracious appetite for paper. If you were to recognize that Cannabis is essential to resolving climate imbalance, then the shift into alignment with natural values would happen much sooner, as it must.
If prohibition of Cannabis "hemp" had never been imposed, mankind would have remained in balance with Nature. The fundamental challenge of our time is a pivotal, polar shift in values from "illegal" to essential. Mankind is far beyond its rightful authority in legislating scarcity of an unique and essential food resource upon which other species also depend for their survival.
'Time' has become the limiting-factor in the equation of survival. Time is the only thing we can' t make more of. I trust you will agree it is time to consider all possible Earth-healing, "Gaiatherapeutic" protocols, needed immediately for healing our planet.
Unfortunately, Nature's most gifted, essential plant partner was legislated into scarcity. Such was the impact of this mislead earshot, that over time, human morals and values have degenerated into complete disregard for the works of God, The Creator, what I refer to as "The Great YouNameIt."
The legitimate value of the Creator's finest gift to the world is finally being acknowledged for all of its many essential benefits. Perhaps most urgently is the need to generate atmospheric aerosol "monoterpenes," produced in abundance by hemp. Concentrations of monoterpenes in the atmosphere and hydrologic cycle have been reduced by about 50%, with the death of 50% of the Earth's boreal forests and about 40% of the marine phytoplankton.
As far as I can tell, there are seven uniquely essential properties that make Cannabis agriculture increasingly urgent. Please feel invited to consider further explanation in my book, available on Amazon, entitled "Cannabis vs. Climate Change."
I am also writing to ask that you intervene in the violation of religious freedom being inflicted on my dear, long-time friend and activist, Reverend Roger Christie, founder of the Hawai'i THC Ministry, in Hilo. Roger's ministry closed without regard to his state license, after ten years of open and public community service. He was indefinitely imprisoned without trial, denied bail eight times, and disallowed visitors for four and a half years.
After three and a half years in prison, Roger was coerced into signing a "plea deal" in order to be released. His wife, Share Christie (St. Cyr) is now threatened with 27 months in prison, pending their appeal.
Share, Roger and I are Cannabis ministers, spiritual seekers, among millions in the world's oldest global culture, people who have appreciated the blessings of the sacred herb throughout millennia. The first person awarded as a Ho'omaluhia Peacemaker, in 2001, Roger's ministry was raided in 2010 after ten years of open and much appreciated public service. Imprisoned without trial or bail for four and a half years, Roger stood strongly and honorably for religious freedom, without a single violation while in prison.
I invite you to stand with us for truth, religious freedom and due process of law, and. Ask that you intervene on Share's behalf so that this gentle woman can remain free, to be with her husband, friends and family.
In truth, drugs don't make seeds. Herbs make seeds. God gave "every herb bearing seed" to mankind and all of the other creatures of the Earth.I am writing on behalf of the contemporary Cannabis culture, to introduce you to "a plant of renown," uniquely qualified to heal climate imbalance. Perhaps you may also experience the same shift in value that completely reset Dr. Sanjay Gupta's awareness of the Cannabis plant's true value in healing people of illness.
We are asking your help in achieving a necessary polar shift in Cannabis value, from "illegal" to essential, based in respect for Nature and recognition of the hemp plant' s unique and essential value.
Thank you so much for your consideration, and for your great works.
Sincerely yours,
Paul J. von Hartmann, Cannabis scholar
California Cannabis Ministry
McCloud, California, USA
projectpeace@yahoo.com