As revealed in his ghosted autobiography Spare, Prince Harry appears to use cannabis for medical purposes. Does this mean anything?
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex (aka Meghan and Harry) have now infamously said (and I paraphrase) “if the world insists on looking at us, then look at what we look at.”
Personally, I don’t care to look at or know about the bitch fest that ensued when the long wayward Prince decided to marry Meghan for all her “controversies.” My family is way worse than anything so far described, and while being a public figure in the midst of strangled paterfamilial dysfunction must seem abnormally traumatic, it is far from pitiable. After all, most estranged black sheep don’t get to tell their family to go to hell internationally while collecting millions of dollars to do so.
Prince Haz Uses Cannabis
Regardless, one of the more interesting if not exactly surprising revelations to spill forth from Harry’s new book, Spare, is that Prince “Haz” as he is even more jaw-achingly referred to by Meg and friends, is a regular user of cannabis.
But what will this mean for anything, really, except another reaffirmation that medical cannabis works? Is an endorsement deal underway for Megs and “H.”? Not to mention would you buy cannabis from these two?
Rather tragically, the commercial cannabis industry in the United States at least is sure to be already thinking of ways to capitalize on this one. But such celebrity involvement, in general, is one of the larger problems facing the industry right now (and not just in California). What is needed is not huge sums of money paid out to influencers who push a strain from their princely palace in Montecito (for example) but rather medical trials, funds to support farmers, and research on the plant itself.
In the UK, conservative politicians have lately called for dramatic backtracking on the whole cannabis issue. It is hardly likely that the tabloids, which are currently excoriating Harry for both his outspokenness as well as his “treason,” for example, will change their tune on cannabis reform because of Harry’s “activism” on the issue.
None of this is sexy of course. And Netflix won’t come calling anytime soon for anything so banal.
Reform Takes Work (and Time)
Those in the trenches, those who have lobbied, or grown and sold in secret, those who have used the plant for either recreational or medical purposes and been punished, are the real heroes of this movement if not industry and are also the people, no matter how unsung, who have moved the needle forward.
The last thing this debate needs right now is an overprivileged celebrity showing up to lead anything. Much less lend his endorsement.
While it is great that Harry can be honest about his cannabis (and other drug) use finally, it isn’t particularly edifying. And leads to a giant so what?
The Top Five Ways That the Cannabis Industry is Like the Royal Family
And now for some fun puffery of our own. It is very obvious why Harry would gravitate towards the plant (beyond the medical aspects of the same, of course). Here are our top five reasons:
- There is a lot of fluff and puffery in both the cannabis industry and the various courts and stately homes of the British Royal Family, but very few people actually know what is going on.
- There are sex scandals, cash for influence, international offshore banking problems, not to mention money is very hard to come by if it is not inherited (and according to Prince Harry, you are not the “heir.”)
- Many of the initial licenses in just about every country and legalizing state (New York notwithstanding) go to the elite if not royalty everywhere else. This is not a meritocracy.
- Lineage and breeding are important, although unlike the British Royal Family, “wild” strains (called Landrace cannabis) are the most valuable kind precisely because they can be crossbred.
- The cannabis industry is based on a plant that is older than mankind, which is one of the few lineages that can compete with having William the Conqueror “in the family.”
