I do not remember the first time I got high. That may be surprising considering how many of my peers remembered their experiences, and some reactions to cannabis are better than others! However, I know my actions in the consumption of this drug have always surprised my peers and none the less devalued my ‘god given natural’ spirit in the eyes of my Chinese parents.
大麻 (dàmá) is the Chinese word for Cannabis. This magical plant frees my mind from omnipresent societal stresses. It can also be used to relieve someone from skull-splitting migraines. The plant’s main active constituent “is mainly composed of essential fatty acids and proteins” which is essential to the development of the human body. The research that I compiled allows me to emphasize the both the history and health benefits of Cannabis Sativa L. as well as the social stigma that accompanies the use of cannabis. I investigated why such a negative connotation has been given towards cannabis in the eyes of a Chinese American when there are plenty of other medical pharmaceutical drugs, which are legal, but lethal to the human body and liver if consumed in great quantities. It is interesting how some states are trying to prevent this medical remedy from reaching its full medical potential, even though it has already won its own war against the use of cannabis in the United States. The historical and legal systems tied in with the use of the cannabis plant sparked my interest within my sheltered residence of Connecticut, as well as being a Chinese American in the 21st century where social norms are constantly changing.
Medicalization:
Medicalization has been a recurring theoretical term that pops up when a “nonmedical problems become define and treated as medical problems, usually in terms of illness and disorders," says Peter In the most recent years, "a whole range of life's problems have now received medical diagnoses and are subject to medical treatment, despite dubious evidence of their medical nature." The one downfall to medical research is that we have access to too much technology. It’s not that the research is bad, but all information we gather is purely subjective within a given research parameter, for a selfish but intellectual endeavor. Medicalization is not an overcompensation of health because medical research is essential to understanding the human body, however, the meaning of the term medicalization is “to make medical." It is because of social standards and norms that the term medicalization has created such a large controversy in the treatment of migraines, PTSD, and other diagnoses.
Conrad redefines medicalization as “behaviors that were once defined as immoral, sinful, or criminal have ben given medical meaning, moving from badness to sickness." Smoking cigarettes is bad while smoking medical marijuana has its own stigmas. However, how is it looked upon when someone comes into the doctor’s office trying to obtain a medical marijuana card? Conrad hits the nail on the head when he states "what constitutes a real medical problem may be largely in the eyes of the beholder or in the realm of those who have the authority to define a problem as medical. In a sense it is the viability of the designation rather than the validity of the diagnosis that is grist for the sociological mill." China puts emphasis on education, more specifically shows preference to high standing positions. Doctors are the ones who hold the most knowledge and power in society, through education and wealth, or at least in the interpretation of education to Chinese people. With wealth, one can obtain the necessary technologies needed to do scientific research, however, research in the Chinese eye is rather difficult due to the fact the Chinese fell behind Europe in all forms of technology advancement in the late 19th century. Thus, it makes sense that the social pressures on education, and becoming a doctor is very much emphasized in any Chinese family. On the same note, with power, medicalization has an interesting perspective because it can be bidirectional; something can be remedicalized, such as medical marijuana currently, but something can also be demedicalized.
One is able to think of many things being turned medical if they were asked to imagine anything being a deviation from the social norm. Arthur Barsky and Jonathan Boros state that the public's tolerance of mild symptoms has decreased, "progressive medicalization of physical distress in which uncomfortable body states and isolated symptoms are reclassified as diseases." A form of medicalization rose from the strict history we have with a Christian Era. Masturbation during the “19th century was considered a disease." It makes sense that the idea of self pleasure being something to be frowned upon especially when we come arose as a country that was based on Christian belief. However, a century and half later, medical intervention was no longer necessary! Thanks to the transition of social constructs, just as masturbation no longer falls under the realm of needing medical treatment, "as well as the remedicalization of medical marijuana has finally appropriately gained the title as one of 'humankind’s supreme resources and cursed as one of our utmost burdens.'
My interest in this idea of medicalization within society is channeled through my frustration in human’s misconception of prescribing drugs to cure symptoms that can be caused by many different factors. Along with these human thought fallacies, I find it ridiculous that marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, which puts marijuana in the same danger zone as heroin, while Schedule II drugs are considered less lethal. Schedule II drugs include: cocaine, methamphetamine, methadome, oxycodone, Adderall, Ritalin, among other drugs. How is it possible that all Schedule II drugs are synthetic and stimulants that take place or add to the natural neurophysiology of the brain are considered less maladaptive to cannabis? Cannabis contains active cannabinoids which the body has surprisingly adapted to; "the brain even has an endogenous cannabinoid called anandamide!" Why is it necessary to categorize medical marijuana in a way that twists the truth about the drug?
History of Cannabis
Marijuana, Cannabis, weed, ganja, herb have all been names given to this multipurpose plant. The only difference between the consumption of cannabis now and 2,500 years ago is the social interactions generated through the use of cannabis and the societal price tag on everything that has any effect on our bodies. The issues arise through the succession of human ability to create their own therapies and remedies, forcing one to fall at the feet of medicalization and left to kiss and worship the trail of dirt, inside and out of the human body, that pharmaceutical companies leave as one becomes engulfed and feeds into the capitalistic system. Medicalization has transitioned our time of wanting to help one another, into a place that favors the people with power through money.
The first documented use of cannabis took medicinal form in an ancient, 200 AD, traditional herbal writing called the Pên-Tsao Ching. This devalued remedy of a cannabis plant is one of the oldest documented, psychoactive, and domesticated plants! “Cannabis, is generally treated as a single, highly polymorphic species, called Cannabis Sativa L,” which is “probably indigenous to Central Asia." It all began as if it were a story tale: after a long ice age ended, the people indigenous to that area were venturing further into unknown territory, making a means on their own. Given a new environment, these people had unknowingly arrived upon territory “in the remote location under pressure from other more powerful and aggressive human groups." These people had strict procedures in which women would be the ones to searching for edible plants, roots, fruits, fibrous foods, while men hunted for meat. As time progressed, because of these nomadic people and their ways of living, it inadvertently created nitrogen-rich soil environments by depositing organic waste materials in dump heaps." From this nitrogen enriched soil sprouted the “tall herb [Cannabis] that [colonized the heaps and] is naturally adapted to disturbed or summer habitats." “Common daily tasks such as food gathering and preparing, cooking, cloth weaving, shelter construction, medicine, ritual and even intoxication have been accomplished primarily use of […] Cannabis [and] has long been especially useful because it can be utilized for all these purposes." I completely agree with Clarke when he notes within The Cultural Diffusion of Cannabis that “Cannabis is a remarkable, multipurpose genus. Its plants can produce strong fiber, edible seeds, medicines, and psychoactive resin."
The discovery of Cannabis is Pandora’s box for the nomadic people of Central Asia, but also world wide. Humans around the world, of any race, “have found diverse uses for Cannabis. Examples of this remarkable variety include the cloth of Hmong tribal weavers in rural villages of south western China, snack seed foods sold in eastern Chinese cities, ritual clothing worn in traditional Korean Confucian funerary worship and contemporary Western recreational and medicinal drug use." Once consumed, it comes close to being one of the first multipurpose medical plants that can not only contribute to daily food consumption with its oils, but also to “medicine and psychoactive substances in its resin glands"! The most potent part of the plant is found within the resin glands that are often found at the tips of the trichome stalks. The anatomy of this plant is quite interesting due to the fact the most intoxicating area is found the farthest from the root.
Analysis:
Cannabis is often linked with a negative portrayal of medical remedies. Remedies wouldn’t render as medical practices because “remedies fall in and out of favor." However, medical remedies don’t counteract the sustainable research that is geared towards medicalizing this domestic plant that, if it were not illegal, has a right to be obtained by everyone. These therapies either have very little proof of actually working or still under scientific investigation. Social structures are put in place to guide people, limiting open mindedness. Limitations of any sort cause distress, hence in a “patients and other laypeople can be active collaborator sin the medicalization of their problems of downright eager for medicalization, although sympathetic professionals are usually needed for successful claims-making" (Brown, 1995, Conrad 8). One of the most commonly referred to documents would be the DSM, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders. It is a file that was created solely for the purpose of catering to feed the need to know and understand what is wrong with the human body that our personality takes form in. The DSM validates people’s feelings of other diseases and illnesses only to be treated with more medication and drugs that are not only detrimental to certain areas of the body but also come from big pharmaceutical companies. On another note, there are so many Chinese people that fall under the field of medical research. This specific type of research is the closest anyone can be to obtaining endorsement to any medical fallacy that occurs to the human body.
In Chinese American culture, the Chinese medical gaze has always been focused on the technologies and developments that originated in the West due to the Christian Era where many Christian ministers that traveled to China were also doctors. A prime example of this would be Peter Parker. He was a medical missionary during the 18th century who treated medically ill Chinese patients whom had massive tumors and documented his patients. “Parker also trained several Chinese students in Western medicine, traveled to the United States and Europe to raise funds for his group of medical missionaries, and served, from 1852 to 1857, in a number of official diplomatic capacities for the U.S. government." Western ideals were always implemented within Chinese culture, starting from the little gadgets used to study meteorology, to the rudimentary building blocks of creating a house that is hospitable for men, women, and children, but also under the confinements of separate sex areas of the house, which also includes a garden. With the basic understanding of health, wellness, and the “medicinal purposes” (Zuardi 154) what were some of the plants that these households planted and if they were of any medical purpose?
The United States has an interesting relationship to this plant due to the fact in “1941, Cannabis preparations were dropped from the United States Pharmacopeia (U.S.P)” in correspondence to the Supreme Court’s ruling “which gave States the right to control commercial transactions and, in practice, meant banning the use of cannabis in the whole American territory.". In this case, legalization under subjectivity gets very tricky.
Now medical marijuana is reemerging and again remedicalized, but only in the states that allow the medical use of marijuana. “The state’s effort to improve and regulate the lives of citizens in terms of hygiene, disease, mental health, and education not only produced the social sciences but also mobilize state power in ways that touched every citizen."
The rise in the number of people and their need to feel self-sufficient and fulfilling their desires to enjoy the effects of consuming cannabinoids, clearly indicates under no circumstance will people stop using cannabis, legally or illegally. The social associations of smoking cigarettes in the interest of the public has always had a negative outlook due to the health risks, such as tar in lungs, blood clots, as well as the concern of second hand smoke all factor into the negative glance that people including myself have experienced. While smoking cigarettes does temporarily relax, there is addiction to nicotine that comes hand in hand with smoking cigarettes. “Modern technology as well as modern social science provided the means for constant social improvement as the nation-state form developed, constructing for citizens an imagined future in which health was to be an endless horizon of better living and part of an increasingly secure world." Does it matter if one is no longer smoking cigarettes but instead uses nicotine patches to keep their addiction up? The way of consumption is different but on the anatomical level, the body is still getting the intake of the drug. Cannabis can be consumed through multiple functions, the most popular being smoking.
However, before consuming the cannabis, one must understand the different psychoactive types of Cannabis. All three types have “psychoactive effects well known in India, possibly due to the way it was prepared for use." “The weakest type, Bhang, consists of dry leaves from which flowers are carefully removed. A stronger type, Ganja, is prepared with the female-plant’s fowers. The strongest of them all is the Charas, made exclusively of the resin that covers female flowers." Despite the level of potency, all parts of the plant were of good use to people. Through this example, I hope it’s clear that even though there shows to be nothing has been truly found detrimental, by means of “cerebral atrophy,” even after tests were conducted with the use of Computerized Tomography on patients who used cannabis. Whatever the causality may be, everyone has their crutch. I would rather walk with the natural crutches, the “endogenous cannabinoid in the human brain, anandamide,” than not walk at all.
Medical marijuana is legalized in 24 states and was a main trade item for its multipurpose, and made its presence longer than Christianity has in any other country, one being China. It is astounding how the Western Ideals, technologies and methodologies, are idolized in the eyes of a Chinese American. It’s noticed in many areas with dense populations of Chinese Asian Americans that the language used is not English, even here at Wesleyan! In the Honors Thesis that Amy Pei-ting Lum wrote in 2010, Liu Xue Sheng: An Ethnography of the Socialization of Chinese Students Attending College in the United States, Lum finds that “contemporary Chinese Students are socializing more successfully than students who came earlier." Proceeding that idea, she notes that the socializing factors are not only unique to Wesleyan, “but reflects the evolution of the Chinese State and Society." Under Lum’s terms, what I am focusing on is considered to be narrow socialization, more specifically within the Chinese American culture of being a first generation student.
Many students when first transitioning to college find it very difficult; however, I have never really associated myself with the students that were of my same race. These students are known colloquially as FOBs – “Fresh Off the Boat" Asians – and have a more difficult time socializing because it is not embedded in them to be outspoken, bold or unsure of what they want to achieve in life. Lum agrees with my idea, citing that when “first generation students entered America, they found it very difficult to adopt the types of values common to American Society." It is due to the fact that “American classmates had grown up believing that personal freedoms and rights are inalienable. On the other hand, the Chinese students had been socialized to believe that personal freedom was dangerous and violated the Communist Doctrine. Consequently, Chinese Students found it very difficult to learn to be individualistic."
Both my parents were born and raised in China, which understandably puts them at the fault of Lum’s theories. Furthermore, both parents also had no other choice but to either pursue their education independently while growing up, or join the work force. My mother actually had to take three years off during her middle school years, and once she returned to school, she had no understanding of what the Pi symbol meant. Both my parents had to be the top of their class to attend university once the college entry exam was opened up at the fall of the Cultural Revolution. My father had studied throughout his entire youth and was part of the first class to take the college entry exam in 1974, when only the top five were selected to attend medical school. Ming Lu, my father was one of those students; my parents met at the Har Bin Medical School. Given that the Cultural Revolution was on going during the time my parents were educating themselves, it makes sense that my parents have a strict rudimentary approach to medicine and to abide by the laws of a nation that isn’t native to them.
Conclusion:
I am a real person. Not to say that other people aren’t real people, but if it were an ideal world, everyone would have the fundamental building blocks of socializing and developing lasting friendships through the development of respect, honestly, and remove the judgments from the eye of the beholder. Medical Marijuana has yet to be legalized throughout all of the United States, however, through the research I have gathered, I can confidently conclude that the negative stigma associated with smoking cannabis originates from the understanding that cannabis is still illegal to use if one does not have an approved medical card. I know I am not a perfect human being; that fact is what brought me to research a topic such as this. However, this project is more out of personal interest as well as written with the frustration and anger of a Chinese American student whose parents have gone through the rigorous training of medical school, as well as having been in a position where there was cannabis present. However, they just chose not to smoke. Regardless of what their opinions are, my parents are owning up to their actions by naïve to the medical benefits of consuming cannabis.
It is almost as if my parents are trying to demedicalize me. I contradict all these norms that I have stated and accumulated through my observations and interactions with native Chinese American college students. My motivation in the use of cannabis arises from not only the social constructs that arise with the use of cannabis, but as well as from the subjective state legalization. On the other hand, the illegal use of cannabis under medical domain is where the social stigma rises. The research I have accumulated reevaluates the use of cannabis through the lens of medicalizing symptoms that should not be classified as medical and the misconceptions of the use of medical marijuana. It is interesting that my parents are refuting an idea that generated at the roots of my race. Even though my parents are no longer in China and are United States citizens, their opinions will always follow them. However, they can not deny the medical and economic improvements seen ever since the legalization of medical marijuana. Asians have always fallen into the stereotype as smokers. Perhaps it is that stereotype is what my parents fear when I told them I recreationally smoke cannabis. Parents, seemingly often, do not smoke, in attempt to shelter their children from the negative things that arise from illegally consuming medical marijuana in Connecticut. Despite the legal actions and social stigmas that surround the use of cannabis, no one can deny the fundamental and origins of medical marijuana use revolves around medicine
