The Dutch law reflected the terms of the treaty. Seeds were legal. I pondered the implications of this. The Law is all about what you can't do. If it's not in the Law Books, it's legal by definition. Extrapolating the idea further, if it is legal to possess seeds, then it's legal to buy, sell, import and export seeds, by International Treaty.
I went back to the couch. Smoking Oaxacan, I started to dream a new reality. I dreamed of a world where people like you and me could grow the best dope in the world. We could throw off the yolk of the slave masters and say "fuck you" to the system that oppresses and enslaves us. No more taking crap from the Man. Like Duncan McCloud in the Highlander I gained power every time I went to battle. I had a vision of a revolution and ideas began to crystallise. It was time to make hash.
I went to a lawyer and got him to confirm in writing that it was legal to possess, buy, sell, import and export cannabis seeds according to International Law. At the very least, I would be able to go to foreign countries and collect landraces and ship them to Holland legally and export them legally. I had the framework of a legal company and nobody could do anything about it. So called foreign imported seed was by definition proof that I didn't grow it. I had one of those Spiritually Enhanced moments that I knew with absolute certainty, "I'm a fucking genius!".
I contacted the High Times, who eventually put me on to their legal department. My logic was unassailable. I was running a legal business according to Dutch and International Law and I could prove it. I wanted to place an ad for my legal business. Why would the High Times discriminate against legal cannabis seed merchants? My ad got placed. I was a very small ad, Columbian and Nigerian seeds 4 for $1. You might have missed it, if you weren't paying attention. It was one of those defining moments in history that put the ball in our court.
Brutus:
There is a tide in the affairs of men.
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Julius Caesar Act 4, scene 3, 218–224
The heavens split and cleaved off a new world. Probable realities became the new reality. I was captain of this ship and I could see where we were going. The future was mapped out in my mind's eye. The consequences of placing that ad was that people who had the good strains could now find me. All roads would lead to Rome and I'd just become Caesar. A bit presumptuous you might think, but I'd thought about this long and hard. My model of the future was based on millions of people being just like me. We were all crying out for what the '60s had promised us. It never happened, The US Federal government booted down the front doors of the peaceful revolution and tarnished the symbol of peace with their wars, but to me the other symbol of transformation was the Marijuana leaf. It was and is irrepressible, you see it everywhere. This was the symbol of hope and change. (get in line Obama)
It was still the dawning of the age of Aquarius and I was born under an Aquarian sky, with the Sun and the moon in Aquarius and I loved pot. If you lay on the couch and smoke enough dope, it all becomes clear to you. It was predictable that those who had worth while genetics would sell or swap seeds with me. It was just a matter of time and I was going to pull those buds out of the High Times and smoke them! Then I was going to breed even better varieties and my buds would be in the High Times.
One of the unchangeable laws of creation is, "What you put out is what you get back". The only way to get everything I wanted was to give everything I had. It was also a blow for freedom. I was putting seeds into peoples hands that could change their lives. If any of you chucked in a shit job and grew a lot of dope and made some money, then the plan worked. If it relieved your suffering in any way, then I have been blessed. If any of you grew any of my strains and became Spiritually Enhanced and want to share my crown, then that's OK too. If any of you feel that your lives are better because of what I've done, then I am twice blessed.
For some of you, more self empowerment lead to greater battles, that was my path too.
So this was the long answer to the question of whether I regret handing out pure strains. The short answer is ; "Not for one moment, for I am the master of my fate and I am the captain of my soul".
N.
I Am The Captain Of My Soul
Out of the night that covers me
black as the pit from pole to pole
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud
Under the bludgeonings of chance
my head is bloody, but unbowed
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
looms but the horror of the shade
and yet the menace of the years
finds, and shall find me, unafraid
It matters not how strait the gate
how charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul
"Invictus,"
by William Earnest Henley
