Do we need five tips for using 4/20 as a wedge issue? What does that even mean?

It may seem strange in 2023, but depending on where you live, there are plenty of alcohol drinkers, cigarette smokers, pill-poppers, and caffeine addicts who still think “marihuana is bad, mmkay?”

Of course, reefer madness exists on a spectrum. You might have anti-cannabis rednecks on one end, but on the other, you’ve got a pharma-pill-popping boomer who’s too afraid to try CBD.

And then you’ve got your busybody who comes in all ages, sizes, and degrees of annoyingness. You know who I mean. The busybody. The “Karen” who thinks THC levels are too damn high.

This 4/20, as always, the majority of the world struggles with prohibition. Even where it is legal, government laws often skew favours to benefit the few at the expense of all.

But as well, drug war propaganda is still alive and stronger than ever. The emphasis may have shifted to fentanyl. But right alongside it are headlines about children, edibles, and “cannabis intoxication.”

So on this April 20th, here are five tips for using 4/20 as a wedge issue with friends and family. Reefer madness needs to die out once and for all. Using 4/20 as a wedge issue is an excellent way to do it.

5 Tips To Using 4/20 as a Wedge Issue

5 – Prohibition Doesn’t Work, and It’s Rooted in Racism 

If you’d never heard of aspirin before, or even the concept of taking a pill for a headache, and suddenly, I offered you one, how would you react? Aside from thanking me for alleviating your headache.

What if I told you this headache-reducing substance has been available for centuries, and history is full of its uses? But it’s been banned for the last hundred years because of racist propaganda.

That’s the situation with cannabis. When using 4/20 as a wedge issue with friends and family, metaphors can be your best friend.

They might have preconceived concepts about cannabis that cloud their thinking. But stripped to its bare essentials, cannabis prohibition makes zero sense. Using 4/20 as a wedge issue is one way of reminding friends and family of that fact.

4 – CBD Is As Important as Eggs and Vitamin D 

What do CBD, eggs, and vitamin D have in common? Have all three in your system, and you likely won’t catch the forever-evolving covid bioweapon.

But CBD does more than block a covid infection.

Double-blinded placebo-controlled studies have confirmed CBD’s role in reducing anxiety. It is also promising in treating schizophrenia and psychosis. (So much for cannabis causing psychosis or schizophrenia).

CBD is also an anti-inflammatory. It works with other cannabinoids (called the entourage effect) to reduce pain and suffering. When you hear about “medical cannabis,” people often mean CBD.

Touted as non-psychoactive (which it technically isn’t), CBD won’t leave you feeling high or stoned like you would with THC. This makes CBD a great introduction to medical cannabis for those still hesitant.

5 Tips To Using 4/20 as a Wedge Issue

3 – Cannabinoid Therapy Has Real Potential & Benefits 

As mentioned above, CBD is often taken with other cannabinoids to create an “entourage effect.” The plant compounds, including their terpenes, work with our endogenous cannabinoid system to create a synergistic relationship.

This makes all cannabis use therapeutic and medicinal, even if you’re using it for recreational purposes. Once people remove the old drug war stigma from their minds, the implications for medicine and therapy are massive.

Consider the number of studies suggesting cannabis engages in antitumour activities. We’re not saying cannabis cures cancer. Cancer isn’t just one thing. But to deny the potential of plant cannabinoids in fighting cancer is to deny reality.

2 – Hemp Can Save the Planet 

Using 4/20 as a wedge issue can help drive home the importance of hemp. Not just for replacing petroleum-based plastics but also to preserve the soil and reduce the need for trees.

The fact that 10 million trees are cut down annually for toilet paper when we could be using hemp (or, as South Park aptly pointed out, Japanese toilets) is criminal.

We’ve written about hemp industrialization before. We’ve even addressed critics. Cannabis can save the planet. And there’s nothing wrong with using 4/20 as the wedge issue to drive home that fact.

5 Tips To Using 4/20 as a Wedge Issue

1 – 4/20 Farmers’ Market 

Of course, using 4/20 as a wedge issue to promote free and fair markets has become the entire point of 4/20 in legal regimes like Canada.

Sure, many of us can visit a private retail store and purchase legal cannabis like any other specialty good. But cannabis in Canada is far from perfect. And every 4/20, cities like Vancouver see an organic display of pot vendors flaunting the rules.

“Trafficking” cannabis without government papers is still a crime in Canada. Yet this herb belongs in a farmers’ market, not a government bureaucracy. 4/20 is the wedge issue to bring about free and fair markets.

And that is the goal of 4/20 protests and farmers’ markets worldwide. Cannabis is a gateway drug to liberty and prosperity.