(Transcription and traduction in english needed to be done again (Turboscript) as Youtube is really a joke, and they talk about AI greatness and still it can't be done flawlessly by its site...)
Michka
(0:05)
When I smoke weed, all of a sudden, a dimension opens up.
(0:14)
The world is bigger, it's more significant, it's brighter, it's more open to creativity.
(1:08)
The world is bigger, it's more significant, There's parsley, salads, green beans, tomatoes, zucchini.
(1:19)
We go from one plant to another.
Interviewer
(1:22)
Do you like plants, Mishka?
Michka
(1:24)
I love plants.
(1:27)
Plants are my friends.
(1:29)
Why?
(1:31)
Because as soon as I'm with plants, I feel better.
(1:35)
I feel good.
(1:36)
Exactly.
(1:39)
And when I'm near a tree, I really feel like I'm with a guardian.
Interviewer
(1:47)
Do you have any tree friends?
Michka
(1:52)
Do I have any tree friends?
(1:55)
I love fruits, so all the fruit trees seduce me deeply.
(2:05)
Today, we're in a time where humans feel so separated from nature, that it's a real wound.
(2:18)
And all that tends to give us this awareness of belonging to nature is the equivalent of a care for the Westerners.
Interviewer
(2:32)
And do you think that the interest for cannabis is a return to nature?
Michka
(2:38)
No, I'm not saying that.
(2:40)
But people who smoke weed and who like it sometimes feel more strongly the feeling of belonging to nature.
(2:56)
The pleasure I have with a weed plant that grows in the ground, for example, is a pleasure that I also have sometimes with tomato plants that also have a smell that delights me.
(3:21)
But my life unfolds in such a way that I first lived on a sailboat for years, then in the Canadian forest for years, and then I found myself in Paris again.
(3:36)
And so, in fact, I rarely had a garden, which is paradoxical.
(3:41)
I, who love plants and who love gardens.
(3:46)
So my relationship with grass is rather with the dried flower that has been cultivated most of the time by friends than with the living plant.
Interviewer
(4:10)
How did you discover cannabis?
(4:13)
How did it happen?
Michka
(4:15)
Well, what happened is that in 1970 I went to Canada.
(4:21)
And Canada is very different from France in many ways, but in particular in terms of cannabis, we have to see what is happening now.
(4:31)
In France, we are still living in repression, while in Canada it is legalised.
(4:39)
Medical cannabis has been legal for years and recreational cannabis has been legal for two years.
(4:46)
So there is this huge difference between France and Canada that already existed when I was there in 1970.
(4:55)
And so I was a teacher at the time and in a party, teachers that I liked a lot passed me a joint.
(5:04)
And of course, I wanted to do like everyone else, although it was very scary for me at the time because I arrived with the French judges.
(5:13)
So I pretended to shoot at it.
(5:15)
Of course, I didn't feel anything.
(5:17)
But it allowed me to familiarize myself a little with the atmosphere.
(5:22)
The second time, it was only the third time that I let myself go enough to feel the effect of the herb.
(5:34)
And it was the beginning of a great love story.
(5:38)
Which continues today and I think it will continue as long as I live.
Interviewer
(5:45)
Do you love her?
Michka
(5:47)
I love her.
Interviewer
(5:48)
She loves you.
Michka
(5:49)
We love each other.
(5:52)
I have the impression that, on the one hand, she does me good.
(5:57)
I have a use for her that I can only congratulate myself.
(6:02)
We can go back to what is, in my opinion, the modalities of a good use.
(6:09)
But I have a use for her that I can only congratulate myself.
(6:12)
And I have the impression that, in my turn, I do her good in the sense that I show her, and that's what I hope, that we can be a good person and smoke grass.
(6:28)
And it's something that no one feels free to say in our society.
(6:34)
Repressive.
(6:36)
Because saying it means exposing oneself to all kinds of tricks.
(6:43)
We have to go back a little to what we mean by this plant.
(6:47)
Because even when we say wine, we don't know if we're talking about a pick of a woman or a pick of a man.
(6:55)
And with grass, it's the same.
(6:58)
There are varieties of grass that don't tempt me at all, that astonish me.
(7:03)
And for me, that's not what I want to smoke.
(7:05)
What I want to smoke are varieties of grass that stimulate, that stimulate the mind, that stimulate the imagination, that stimulate creativity.
Interviewer
(7:17)
Okay.
(7:17)
So you have to know that well.
Michka
(7:20)
That's an important thing.
(7:22)
Another important thing is that there are cultural differences in consumption, which means that in North America, and I think in Latin America too, but in any case in North America, when you smoke grass, you smoke grass, cannabis, marijuana, pure.
(7:39)
In Europe, however, where the habit of smoking comes from the Maghreb, and in the Maghreb, traditionally, we smoke kif, which is a mixture of tobacco leaves and ground hemp.
(7:53)
So we mix tobacco and grass.
(7:56)
And it came to Europe, and in Europe, everyone smokes grass with tobacco.
(8:06)
Which is regrettable in a way, from my point of view, because when you mix them, it complicates the relationship because already, tobacco is very addictive in relation to grass.
(8:27)
And so, we don't know if we want to smoke grass or tobacco.
Interviewer
(8:38)
And do you want people to try this grass, live with it, build love stories too?
Michka
(8:46)
I don't want people, what I want is for people to be free to do what they want to do and what they feel is good for them.
(9:01)
I don't want to encourage people to smoke.
(9:04)
I want those who want to smoke to be able to do it freely.
Interviewer
(9:19)
Why are we late in France?
Michka
(9:24)
I think there are very deep roots to this which are perhaps partially linked to the fact that France is the land of wine and that there is an ancient antinomy between these two drinks, let's say.
(9:45)
The one that comes from the grass and the one that comes from the wine.
(9:52)
Besides, in India, traditionally, cannabis is a sacred plant.
(10:02)
The wine is considered as impure, as bad.
Interviewer
(10:15)
The wine is considered for the plant itself, for the root, for the stem.
Michka
(10:19)
When I discovered the gap between my experience of the grass and my preconceived ideas, I started to study the question.
(10:33)
I read a lot and my means of expression is writing.
(10:46)
To explain to people who were mistaken.
(10:51)
Believing naively at the time that it was enough to tell the truth to be heard.
(10:57)
And so, by looking at the subject, I discovered how incredibly versatile and generous this plant is.
(11:08)
Just as we said that in the pig, there is a plant that is almost impure that was used as a base for sailing for a long time.
(11:28)
That its seeds are very nutritious.
(11:32)
That its flowers offer paradises that Baudelaire called artificial and yet very natural.
Interviewer
(11:48)
Is it the only plant like that?
Michka
(11:51)
At this point, I think that there is a saying that says that if plants had to vote to elect a king, they would elect the chamber.
(12:06)
And so, we are in a situation where we have re-emphasised the textile chamber, the medical chamber and there is still the psychotropic chamber that is banned, forbidden, clandestine.
(12:25)
And so, it is a bit my role in a certain way to defend it.
Interviewer
(12:34)
Very well, thank you.
(12:37)
Very well.
Michka
(12:43)
There is no lightness in the word "need" whereas my relationship to grass is very light.
(12:52)
It is joyful.
Interviewer
(12:59)
Thank you.