They Can Keep Their Fireworks. I’m Fighting for My Medicine.

Let’s have a real conversation.

Every year, when the Fourth of July rolls around, I see the fireworks and flags and hear all the loud talk about freedom. And every year, I find myself sitting here asking the same damn question: Whose freedom are we really celebrating? Because it sure as hell doesn’t feel like mine.

I’m a Black, disabled, queer woman who uses medical cannabis. Every single part of who I am comes with its own fight, its own target, its own demand for my energy. I’m constantly caught in the middle, trying to figure out which battle to fight first.

My freedom—the freedom to choose my own medicine and heal my own body—is still treated like a crime.

So forgive me if I’m not celebrating. I’m too busy fighting for a freedom that actually matters.

This fight is personal. As a disabled woman, cannabis isn’t a party favor – it’s a lifeline. It’s how I manage my health and reclaim a quality of life that was slipping away. But this fight is also bigger than just me. As a Black queer woman, I see the war on cannabis for what it truly is: a weapon used to police our bodies, criminalize our communities, and protect corporate interests.

Let’s be clear about who we’re up against. The opposition to cannabis isn’t about public safety; it’s about profit and control.

You have Big Pharma, which loses money every time a patient chooses a plant over a pill. You have Big Alcohol, which sees a safe, natural alternative as a threat to its market share. And you have the for-profit prison industry, which has built an empire on the incarceration of non-violent offenders, disproportionately Black and brown people, for cannabis “crimes.”

These industries lobby millions to keep cannabis stigmatized and illegal because our wellness is a direct threat to their bottom line. This isn’t a new strategy. It’s the same racist playbook Harry Anslinger used to launch the war on cannabis in the 1930s—a campaign built on fear and lies to demonize a plant and the communities that used it. Today, the propaganda is just slicker.

And the government? They’re caught between a history of failed policy and a future they’re too cowardly to embrace.

For nearly a decade, patients in legal states have been protected by a flimsy, temporary measure called the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment. It was never a solution, just a truce. It was a band-aid slapped on a bullet wound to stop the federal government from prosecuting patients and providers. That band-aid is set to be ripped off on September 30th of this year.

We are facing a cliff, with the health and safety of millions of patients hanging in the balance. While we are fighting for our lives, billion-dollar cannabis corporations are fighting each other in legislative turf wars, more concerned with market dominance than patient access. What kind of freedom depends on a temporary budget rider? How can we call ourselves free when a patient’s access to medicine is determined by their zip code, their income, or a politician’s whim?

This is why I’m done waiting for permission. I’m done hoping that the same systems that created this mess will somehow fix it. Organizations like Americans for Safe Access are on the front lines, pushing for real, comprehensive reform like the Medical Cannabis & Cannabinoid Act of 2024 (MCCA), but it’s a grueling battle.

“True freedom isn’t granted by Washington D.C. It’s reclaimed by us.”

It’s reclaimed every time a patient chooses to heal. It’s reclaimed every time we share our stories and shatter the stigma. It’s reclaimed by refusing to be treated like criminals for making a choice about our own health.

READ: Meet the Duo Leading Georgia’s Fight for Medical Cannabis Access

So this Fourth of July, while others celebrate a historical idea of freedom, remember the fight that’s happening right now. The real struggle for American liberty is being waged by patients, caregivers, and advocates who demand the right to be well.

That is the freedom that matters. That is the freedom worth fighting for.

Yolanda Bennett is the Co-Founder of Georgia Medical Cannabis Society. Learn more about society’s advocacy and education in Georgia.