The limitations of man

The resources that earth, which is only a fraction of nature, has are vast. Nature is endowed with resources so staggeringly abundant that man is yet to fully comprehend their full extent.

With good thinking on his part inspiring judicious usage, man, as a collective, should surely have a good life for an indefinite period of time.

Dear reader, many of the definitions and categorisations that presently exist and upon which your everyday life and understanding of your environment are based are false.

You have heard of the classification of substances into poisonous and non-poisonous ones. You have been told that there are bad and good things on earth. As an attempt at guiding people on earth, such categorisations ought to be respected and whoever came up with them should truly and sincerely be commended.

Nonetheless, the fact is, these categorisations are grossly misleading. They are not a reflection of the whole truth.
Dear reader, to stretch your mind a little, be informed that there is no such thing as a poison. This is the truth.

Granted, to say that a given substance can terminate life or kill is correct. On the other hand, to label a substance a poison is not good human practice. It is that kind of behaviour that should be discouraged. It is misleading.

Note that a given substance is a poison only because we say so not because it is. Further, take note that it is the utility, the utilisation or mal-utilisation of a given substance that makes it a poison or not. It is not that the thing is poisonous; it is its utility that makes it so.
Worth noting is that the same substance which can kill, under different circumstances, can also cause life to be preserved.

Interestingly, water too can be poisonous!
Dear reader, I want you to know that I do not smoke. I do not smoke cigarettes or anything. This is important for you might misunderstand what I am about to tell you if I do not say so.
Now listen to this. It might surprise you.

There is nothing wrong with marijuana. In addition, there is nothing wrong with tobacco. This, dear reader, is the immutable truth. Think about it for a while.
That the two plants form part of the whole gamut of the resources that earth is replete with is not at all in dispute.

You see, way before marijuana was banned, in primeval times, it was beneficially being used in the everyday lives of the people that had access to it then. Whether they used it properly or not is a moot point.

The banning of the smoking of marijuana by many countries is understandable. One empathises with the authorities behind these bans because their action, though not fully informed by the whole truth, is indeed cautionary. The authorities behind these bans really mean well, you see.

Nonetheless, these bans are a veritable reflection of our limitations as people. Banning the use or smoking of marijuana is an action founded on fear inspired by ignorance. Though such action is supposed to protect people it does not, in the long run, advance human development and neither does it help humanity in the end. Such bans have only phasal benefits.

Banning marijuana is not sustainable. Arresting those that possess or smoke it is yet another of those fallacious and ridiculous acts of man. It clearly depicts the folly of law; the criminalisation of the innocent.

You see, in the coming years, growing marijuana, possession of marijuana or smoking it will not be a crime. This development is indeed coming. It is inevitable. The inevitability of this development is ensured by the inevitability of enlightenment.

Similarly, banning tobacco smoking is understandable. Nonetheless, it is still only a pathetic attempt at protecting people. It too, is neither practicable nor sustainable for there is indeed nothing wrong with tobacco. Tobacco is useful.

Granted, the current use of tobacco leads to the development of many diseases but that is not the same as saying that tobacco causes disease or that it is bad. Tobacco itself, you see, does not cause disease. It is the use, or rather misuse or abuse, of tobacco that does that.
It might shock you, dear reader, that the current way of consuming tobacco, via cigarettes such as Guards, Peter Stuyvesant or Consulate is wrong. Present cigarettes are only a poor approximation of what ought to be the right way to consume tobacco but which way has not yet been invented or discovered.

What ought to happen is that tobacco smoking needs to be made safe. Similarly, marijuana processed in the right way can be of immense value to human health.

The banning of the smoking of tobacco or marijuana if it was intended to lead to the manufacture of better products or use would be welcome but it does not presently do that. In so far as it serves the interests of public health, it is welcome but note that a ban that does not lead to heightened research aimed at finding better ways of using tobacco or marijuana lamentably fails to advance the case for human development.

Truly, such a ban shall repeatedly be flouted.
Truth be told, in future, people will be able to use tobacco without developing cancer or hypertension in the process. It might even be used for the reversal of these conditions.

For example, that tobacco smoking today predisposes to the development of many diseases is a clear reflection of the limitations of man. It simply means that man has not yet understood the full value intrinsic to the tobacco leaf. The value of tobacco to his wellbeing is yet to be fully harnessed by man.
Fact: Tobacco is a valuable resource for the well being of humanity.
Fact: Marijuana is a valuable resource for the wellbeing of humanity.

It is the un-informed or poor utilisation of earth's substances which gives rise to the classifications of these substances into poisonous ones and non-poisonous ones, lethal and non-lethal ones.
The truth is that any substance that is said to be poisonous, at the right dose or taken in the right quantities and in the right way, that same substance, could save lives.
Further, note that substances that enhance human life can be taken through the skin, mouth, lungs, anally and so on.
Yes, as the title of this paper says ‘The Transient Limitations of Man,' are indeed transient because, in time, and inevitably, knowledge shall dawn on man, and with this eventual lifting of the cloak of ignorance off him, he shall then begin to cherish and treasure the very things that he today bans and treats as poisonous or dangerous.

Indeed that man has limitations ought to make him humble. This realisation ought to make man less willing to exact untold punishments on fellow man under the guise of doing the right thing.
Today's wrongs will be tomorrow's rights. That this is going to happen is supported by history. History is replete with examples of such changes.

The tobacco industry is a multibillion, cutthroat one. However, in its current form it is veritably a sorry fixture that peddles danger. This industry requires urgent reforms that should be occasioned by research. Its present complacency is inimical to the wellbeing of humanity.

Nicotine gums or patches, albeit marginal, are a good effort at change. Cigarettes too can be made safe. The industry can do better!

Presently, the transient limitations of man are a veritable source of unmerited torture for many that are sanctioned and they represent a clear and dangerous barrier to human advancement.

Dear reader, begin to re-wire your understanding of things. Retain an open mind. What you presently steadfastly hang on to as the truth may indeed be a lie, a half-truth or simply false.
Nonetheless, the journey in pursuit of truth continues.