Freedom for Sale, Weed Justice Delayed

_{Filed Under: Independence Denied}

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The first thing I’m doing this Fourth of July is lighting up a joint.

Not for fun, not for the flavor, not even for the high. I’m lighting it because somewhere in America, somebody still can’t. Somebody’s sitting in a jail cell for doing the same thing I’m doing in daylight. Somebody’s got a probation officer checking their piss while politicians cut weed ribbon ceremonies and post victory selfies. Somebody’s serving ten years for what corporations are now flavoring with watermelon and dropping into seltzers for tourists.

So yeah, I’m lighting up. Not for the flag. Not for the anthem. Not because I feel patriotic or particularly lucky. I’m lighting up because in a country that built its myth on freedom, lighting a joint is still one of the only honest acts of rebellion left.

This country outlawed a plant, criminalized a culture, and sold our trauma back to us in tamper-proof packaging. They made careers off arrests, built budgets off forfeitures, and called it justice. And now they want us to pretend it never happened, to pose smiling with our dispensary bags like we forgot what it cost to get here.

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But we didn’t forget. We remember the raids. We remember the ankle bracelets, the court dates, the whisper networks of who had what and when. We remember that weed was never the problem. The system was.

So I’m lighting up for the ones who can’t. For the ones who did. For the ones still inside. I’m lighting up for the right to breathe, to feel peace, to exist without asking. I’m lighting up because the government sure as hell won’t light the way. Because every spark matters, and every exhale is proof we’re still here.

And because in a country this full of lies, fire is the only thing that tells the truth.

Texas legalized medical cannabis in 2025, but only for low-THC, limited-use products. Federal cannabis remains a Schedule I drug, despite recommendations from the Department of Health and Human Services to reschedule. The Controlled Substances Act, signed into law in 1970, still governs federal cannabis enforcement. Over 30,000 people in the U.S. remain incarcerated for cannabis-related offenses, even as state markets boom.

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