Congress is About To Expand The Drug War

[firefox]

Pleas distribute widely.

Marijuana Policy Project Alert June 2, 2005

Congress is About To Expand The Drug War

From Rob Kampia, Executive Director, Marijuana Policy Project

The Marijuana Policy Project is forwarding you the message below on behalf of http://www.DownsizeDC.org

New legislation currently making its way through the House of Representatives poses a grave threat. If passed, H.R. 1528 will force Americans to inform on their friends, family members, or neighbors within 24 hours of acquiring any knowledge about their involvement in drug-related activity, including marijuana.

Please click here to stop this bill in its tracks. http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=28

As is often the case with new federal violations of civil liberties, this bill is constructed to appear as though it is designed to protect children from drugs, but its implications are far more sinister:

* Observe one student passing a joint to another, and you could fall under this law. You would be required to report the incident to authorities within 24 hours or risk prosecution and a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison.

* If a neighbor under 21 mentions buying some marijuana for a party, you would be required to report him or her to the government or risk jail time yourself.

* If your brothers or sisters have children and mention to you that they and their spouses sometimes smoke marijuana in their bedroom after their kids are asleep, you would be required to immediately inform on them or face prison time.

You can see what a threatening new environment this proposed legislation would create for everyone. It would erect barriers of paranoia between friends, family members, and neighbors and is rife with potential for police abuse, extortion, and the creation of false informants.

DownsizeDC.org is mounting a campaign to defeat this bill. Click here -- http://action.downsizedc.org/wyc.php?cid=28 -- to learn more and then take action by sending a message to Congress telling them what you think of this bill. Please send a message now, while we can still stop this terrible legislation.

Thank you.

P.S. H.R. 1528 is supposedly designed to protect children — but the bill is actually anti-family. It expands mandatory minimum sentencing and increases the ways those minimum sentences could kick in. It's absolutely draconian.

Passage of this bill would be a setback. It's almost always harder to repeal a bad law than it is to stop it from passing in the first place. Please act now.

[sweetheart]

1. sensenbrenner's senseless stupidity

I'm shocked that such a stupid law could get anywhere in the congress,
but it seems the load of jokers on capital hill are so daft they'd
pass mein kamf if it was introduced as a law.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

2. If you are Rob Kampia, "hi"

We went to PSU together and you just might remember me.
:hi:

[firefox]

5. No, I am just spreading an e-mail alert

It is difficult sometimes to get people to look through the window of cannabis policy/attitude. If you take just a second and think of the few times you ever have seen cannabis policy discussed/debated on television, it should be clear that we have controlled media.

Cannabis Prohibition is a fraud with the most unbelievable penalties of something that should be quite legal in a free society. Look at the unbelievable nature of these proposed laws. If you study cannabis policy you will come to see that there is a real criminality on the part of Congress.

We have to work together in spreading the vile acts of Congress and this is an effort in running the media blockade on everything cannabis.

Free Cannabis For Everyone.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

6. I know

I did it for years. That's how I know Rob. Keep up the fight!

[elehhhhna]

3. Please. People don't even report their neighbors for abusing their kids.

[frictionlessO]

9. True unless they want to get them in trouble... imagine

how this will play out for the more hippie looking of us. I can seriously see more than one of my asshole repug neighbors getting their rocks off by phoning in on any hippie they see... and that would include my famliy.

[DistressedAmerican]

4. Talk About Moving In The Wrong Direction!

Why do they think legistating morality will EVER be effective?

I for one am sick of seeing my tax dollars going to a drug war that does nothing but put profits in the hands of terrorists, cartels and dealers!

[firefox]

7. It takes money out of everyone's pocket

We have built the largest prison system in the world locking up drug users. The racket the drug Czars like McCaffrey get in on after public disservice is drug testing. Now how many tax dollars do you think goes into testing pee in what used to be the land of the free? Think of the competitiion lawyers would face if the criminal justice model were replaced with harm reduction principles under a health care approach for substance abuse.

Free Cannabis For Everyone

[me b zola]

62. Those pee tests

Those pee tests are also a tool to keep people locked up and in the criminal justice system. A person may be convicted of a non-violent misdomeaner not even drug related, but are required to pass pee tests as a condition of probation/parole. Smoke-out on the wrong week-end, get tested, & wham, you're back before the judge. It is a huge fraud.

[acmejack]

8. Sensenbrenner is an idiot

I had to check and be sure he wasn't from Appleton*. He's not, but Appleton appears to be in his district.

* Home of Sen. Joe McCarthy

[Pushed To The Left]

33. Amen!

The drug laws and vice laws in this country are an absolute disgrace. Sensenbrenner needs to be soundly defeated next time he's up for re-election!


www.mpp.org
www.drugpolicyalliance.com
www.aclu.org
www.drcnet.org

[elehhhhna]

10. No rider requiring the call-in of drunk drivers?

Fireworks lighters? Neighbor beating the wife & kids?

Coming next: report when you think your neighbor might be pregnant.

This is just a way to justify more illegal searches. (Well, we got an anonymous phone call).

[EC]

12. Not just illegal searches

what's to stop them from arresting protesters just by saying someone saw a joint, or someone told them that they heard someone talking about pot?

This will also hold any family member accountable, with the courts saying there was no way the family didn't know, that they must have heard the drug user talking about it or "noticed" signs, therefore the whole family is guilty too...

[elehhhhna]

14. Upside: The Secret Svc will have to report GW for something.

[firefox]

17. The conspiracy laws expanded the police state

The drug wars brought us a new definition of conspiracy into law. If you know your neighbor is selling pot and you do not turn him in, you are guilty of selling pot too in the eyes of the law.

If you buy a joint you are guilty of selling because of the conspiracy laws.

The reason it is important to study the drug war is because of the way it was used to trample the Constitution and build the police state we now have. It also paints the Dims the same color as the Repukes, because they are both in on it. The drug war is a huge deal in the discussion of freedom in America, yet both parties have agreed not to raise the issue in any presidential race since like forever. Even Congressmen of the duopoly do not raise any scrutiny on the drug war when they seek office.

[EC]

19. You can add the School Property Laws to that too,

just by being in the area, selling or using gets you increased sentences....

[sweetheart]

23. And as well community outreach workers

To work with homeless and drugs problems individuals is to be a quiet
and firm good friend who sees and loves. This law will make it a crime
to be in touch with drugs-affected person's lives. It is an unbelievably
stupid piece of legislation, and i can only see it as a joke... but
that's what capital hill has become... a stupid joke run by losers
who can't get real jobs.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

32. If this law were to go into effect, then wonderful people will stop

helping others. For instance.... 6 years ago I was hooked on meth. For 7 years, I fought it, but you can't keep a job while you're trying to kick, cause you have to sleep constantly. My boyfriend's parents were so amazing... when their son lost his job for testing dirty, he fessed up to them, told them I had a problem too, not to mention his sister and her husband. They supported us for 4 months while we kicked it but they got their moneys worth. We revamped their 40ft boat so they could sell it, put in a huge garden and waterfall in their backyard. Because of their help, I have been completely clean for 5 years. Under this law, they would have gone to jail. It's completely idiotic and counterproductive.

[Mythsaje]

42. Congrats

on kicking the meth addiction. That's a nasty one...I've seen a few people go through it. It's not easy, and it can drag people in again before they even see it coming. Back in the day I saw as many people walk away from the stuff as get hauled into it, but I hear it's a lot worse now than when I was around it. Different chemicals involved, I guess.

I'd sooner take a blowtorch to my face than mess with that stuff nowadays.

[Occulus]

61. That's... fantastic.

Congrats on kicking that. It must have been hard work.

After dealing with that, you must be able to deal with just about anything. :toast: Good job.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

11. thanks

did the letter thing, sent a message to congress.

[Blue_In_AK]

13. Good God, they'd have to put the whole state of Alaska

in prison ... Half the people who toke and the other half, their friends who wouldn't turn them in. This proposed law is a sick joke, right?

[firefox]

15. It's for real alright

You must not keep up with the madness of drug warriors. There is a Rave Act that is unbelievable that got beaten back only to be attached to the Amber Alert bill. If your friend smokes a joint at your home bbq they can take your house. People doing drugs in your nightclub can result in its seizure. It is unbelievable and it is law.

The last thing was to make it a crime to even discuss harm reduction as a strategy for substance abuse. I think that got beaten back because it is unconstitutional on the surface of it. Can you imagine even suggesting such a thing? If people really knew they took people's cars without a trial over one marijuana/cannabis seed it might shock them. If people knew much of anything about how onerous the cannabis laws are they would be shouting treason the way I do.

[Blue_In_AK]

20. I guess we get complacent up here

because as of right now possession of less than 4 oz. of marijuana in one's home is protected by Alaska's constitution which has a very strong privacy clause. Our guv, Frank Murkowski, is currently pushing for tougher laws here but he will ultimately have to get it past our court of appeals which has consistently ruled against tougher state laws since the 1975 Ravin decision. What you have written about is definitely a step in the wrong direction.

[Kazak]

16. What's next?

The national random drug testing system?

:puke:

[firefox]

18. You are about right

The federal government is strong-arming the states with highway funds to adopt per-se laws concerning driving while impaired. This means that if you have some pot metabolite in your system a month after smoking some kind bud, you would be charged with driving while impaired. It is unbelievable really, but this is the drug war and this is America in 2005.

I had a friend that was homeless and this last winter he went to the Salvation Army hoping to spend the night. They gave him a drug test and when he tested positive for pot, they refused him. Just wait until I see a guy at a kettle asking for money from me. My words will be "You guys can go to hell for all I care."

[rock]

21. Could you pour some more oil on that slope?

* Observe one student passing a joint to another ...
And I can recognize marijuana on sight, can I?

* If a neighbor under 21 mentions buying some marijuana ...
What if he's lying?

* If your brothers or sisters have children and mention ...
What if they're lying?

What a crock!

[stickdog]

22. This is god damn reefer madness!

[arcos]

24. kick nt

[bonzotex]

25. Insane....

This is classic. Once again when you think the christofascists have peaked out, they manage to dream up something even stupider and more-counterproductive while simultaneously reducing civil liberties.

[AirAmFan]

26. "Hello 911? My neighbor just said he has a weed problem"

[lumpy]

27. Fodder for the gulags.

n/t

[tabasco]

28. The police state exists no longer to protect us ...

but to perpetuate ITSELF. We have lost more liberty thanks to these stupid drug laws than any terrorist could ever dream of taking.

[shanti]

29. KICK!

this is really some bullshit! :grr: you do know what they plan to do with this, don't you? it will be attached unnoticed to some other law, just like they did with the rave act! draconian ain't even the word for it!!!

[Nevernose]

30. I'm a schoolteacher. I see at least 20 or 30 kids on drugs every day

There's no mechanism to deal with them all, not a support mechanism, a family mechanism, a rehab mechanism, or a police/judicial mecahnism. Hell, there's barely an educational support system in place.

If they're high on meth it's more serious, but the kids who're stoned out of their gourds? We just kick them out of class for the duration of the period (if they're not disruptive), tell them not to come back high, and generally scare the hell out of them. The drug problem is goddamned pervasive, especially pot, that there's really not that much that can be done about it.

Now I'm supposed to turn them all into the feds? ACtually, 20 or 30 tips a day times one hundred teachers per school times 30 high schools... Maybe we the union should INSIST that we follow this law.

[firefox]

31. Controlled substance is an oxymoron as applied to pot

Judge Gray that ran for the Senate as a Libertarian in California is the one that says that controlled substance is an oxymoron in the drug war. It would be one thing if the criminal justice model actually produced results, but it is an abysml failure.

The Canadians were the last to call for "more studies" on cannabis and in September of 2002 the Select Senate Committee Report on Illegal Drugs called for the legalization of cannabis for everyone over 16. A young person is still physically developing their nervous system and it is very desirable to keep cannabis from young people. The present system is a failure and defies my favorite sentence from that Senate Committee report- "The goal of governance is freedom, and not control."

We as a country do not talk honestly about substance abuse and the lies we tell about cannabis (Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the tooth fairy) are subject to the law of unintended consequences. We need a regulated market for cannabis like alcohol and tobacco and we need a policy of honesty with open discussion. The present system brings children into contact with the black market that have addictive substances that have high profit margins driving sales with the addicted drawn in on distribution to pay for their habit.

[Nevernose]

37. I don't like the idea of 16+

Mostly because, IMO, most folks under 25 or so are absolute morons. I know that I sure was, as was every one I knew. Other than that, I agree with everything you said.

The other reason to keep kids from cannabis and other drugs (including alcohol), from my experience both as an educator, a parent, and a (former) kid who smoked a lot of pot and other stuff, is that it's impossible to educate or parent a child who is intoxicated.

I'd also just like to say, for the record, that I love my students as if they were my own children, and there's no way in hell that I would ever comply with that law, jail time or no. My primary responsibility is not to the United States government or some law passed by some asshole in another city, it's to my family, my friends, and my kids.

[Mythsaje]

41. "Impossible?"

Hardly. The problem is that they don't know HOW to learn while stoned. It's not like they've ever been taught how to do it. It's not impossible. Know THAT for a fact.

We simply process information differently when we're high. Our brain changes gears and stimuli that would ordinarily be ignored suddenly becomes more accessible. That makes us easily distracted--like suddenly having ADD or something.

One thought sparks a chain of thoughts that can lead somewhere completely different from where you started out. Like free association. The trick is learning how to re-associate information in new ways.

I read the whole Dune series stoned when I was a teenager. I read EVERYTHING stoned when I was a teenager. Getting stoned and reading was a favorite pasttime. Well, that and gaming. Me and my friends quickly got a reputation for pulling the most outlandish stunts while role-playing...because we knew how to 'think outside the box.' Stoned OR straight.

[Nevernose]

50. "State-Dependant memory" I think they called it in Psych 101

The problem is really a philosophical one. Most people, including myself, would say that the entire purpose of taking a drug is escapism. I don't have a problem with that; in fact, I'm drinking a beer right now, and if I still enjoyed smoking pot, I'd probably be doing that right now. But when one comes back to reality, it's a hell of a lot more difficult to remember what happened. In addition, I don't want to talk to my stoned daughter, I just want to talk to my daughter, period. The way we feel when chemicals are affecting our brains is not who we are; it's who we are with chemicals.

The problem with your argument is that people recall what they've learned best when they're in the same condition as when they learned it, and hopefully most people don't feel the need to go through life intoxicated. State-Dependant memory is very real; you would be AMAZED at how much astronomy and physics I could remember if I were to go smoke a bowl.

I also discovered something not so long ago about smoking pot: if you're eighteen and not smoking pot, there's something seriously wrong with you. But if you're thirty and still smoking pot regularly, there's probably something seriously wrong with you.

If I was a bookie, I'd lay odds that I've taken more drugs than 99.999% of the people on DU. I even have the FBI file to prove it :evilgrin: (I grin, but I'm also serious). While I regret some of the harder drugs I've taken, I'll never for a moment regret the LSD or the marijuana -- the mental expansion and alternative paradigms possible are not an experience to be missed. But that's not the way humans learn best, nor a life I'd wish on anyone.

(Sorry if I come across all Narcotics Anonymous with you, but we learn far more from personal experience than we do from school, and I've had far more personal experiences than most ;) )

[Mythsaje]

56. Then again

it's ALL in your perception. The universe is, ultimately, a subjective experience. If you choose to perceive it a certain way, that's what it will reveal.

We humans seem to have a natural inclination to alter our perceptions. You even notice it in small children when they first discover how to make themselves dizzy. As we grow older, our methods of altering our perceptions become more sophisticated.

I'm not sure I agree with the psych 101 argument--psychology is hardly an exact science. In fact, one might argue that it's far too easy to institutionalize a pattern of perception that avoids questioning its own assumptions, and that's exactly what modern psychology is doing.

Or so suggests a friend who used to work in the profession. He's too much of a free-thinker to simply accept what others think he should think and feel.

Or, as another friend puts it, "there's no such thing as a 'textbook person.'" That's one thing the psych profession doesn't seem to 'get.'

As far as "regularly" goes, I guess it depends on what one considers to be "regular."

I know a few people in their fifties and sixties who still smoke regularly. Hard to see where it's causing them any trouble.

[Occulus]

64. I beg to differ (this may not be a popular POV, but oh well)

"it's impossible to educate or parent a child who is intoxicated."

Not. True. At. ALL. At least, regarding education.

My ruminations while high on pot prompted me to investigate quantum physics. This was after a discussion of the nature of reality while stoned with friends.

I discovered that reality itself could be far more complex a system than we ever could have possibly imagined before we had the tools to measure the movements and behavior of quantum particles. This little gander led me to study the many-worlds interpretation of quantum physics, which even Stephen Hawking agrees with.

Basically, MWI states that for every irreversible event that occurs which has more than one possible result, an entire universe is created to accommodate the possibility. Multiply this by the myriad uncountable events that occur around you daily, and you end up with thousands or hundreds of thousands of universes created by your own choices and reactions and nothing else. The possibilities are staggering.

Try contemplating that while high on pot. I dare you.

The subjects of learning differ wildly when high, but it can take one into realms he never imagined.

I've also composed some of my very best music while high on pot, so I have not one but two personal examples of how using pot does NOT inhibit learning.

Absence of desire to learn inhibits learning, and pot can magnify that, just as it can magnify the desire to try new things artistically, be it writing or painting or music. The important part is the refinement of those ideas while sober, which I have always made a point to do. As a result, I have "Fantasy on the Old West", "Outlet", "Anthem for Manhattan" and "The Signature of God" on my plate. One is piano, one is concert band, one is drum corps, and the last is choral.

Marijuana does NOT inhibit education unless one allows it to do so. Other drugs- coke, heroin, meth- they are devastating, but marijuana should be legal for those over 21.

I almost said, "18". Go figure.

[Mythsaje]

39. Bingo!

-snip-

The present system brings children into contact with the black market that have addictive substances that have high profit margins driving sales with the addicted drawn in on distribution to pay for their habit.

-snip-

I've been saying this very thing for YEARS! If you want to keep kids away from hard drugs especially, you need to take the illegal dealers out of the system. They have every reason in the world to turn kids on to more expensive, more addictive substances, and only the (very slim) chance of getting busted to keep them from doing so.

This applies to adults as well, of course. Why should someone who smokes a little herb on the weekend have to take a chance dealing with some creep who also sells coke, crank, and god knows what else, just to get a little herbal relaxant to unwind after a hard week at work?

[Nevernose]

51. I agree wholeheartedly

That's the biggest argument in favor of legalization that I can think of. One of these days, I'll tell you about the time I went to buy pot and was forced at gunpoint to do a speedball to prove that I wasn't a cop...

[noamnety]

34. These are the same people who think Deep Throat was a traitor?

snitching is good bad good bad

[Mythsaje]

35. Must admit

this is one issue that really ticks me off about the Democrats. They're damn near as militant about the War on Drugs (or, as a friend refers to it, the "War on SOME Drugs") as the Reapers. Anything else would be "soft on crime." Right?

What a load. Soft on crime is over-burdening the justice system with a bunch of cases that impact no one, stressing both it and the prison system, while actual violent offenders fall through the cracks.

Clinton made a remark not too long ago that pot should just be legalized.

No kidding? Hell, Bill, you could have said that when you were getting impeached for getting a blowjob...LOL. THAT would've provided a wonderful distraction from the sex scandal. Talk about 'shock and awe.'

Remember, now, he didn't inhale. Okay, he TRIED to inhale, as he said on MTV back in the day. Whatever THAT means.

It's absolutely beyond my understanding that they think they can somehow WIN this WOSD by beating an equine corpse into dust. NOT working, people.

Capitulate on pot, legalize, regulate, and tax the stuff, and spend the resources to go after the nasty drugs like meth. No brainer.

The only reason it's not legal throughout most of the western world by now is that the bully known as the U.S. gets huffy if anyone even considers it.

You really have to wonder why... What do they know that we don't? And I don't mean the propoganda stuff that European researchers regularly debunk. I mean for real. Is it because, just maybe, it's harder to subliminally or subconsciously manipulate someone who's stoned? (Goes with a theory a friend of mine had many years ago--something about how we routinely shunt off unimportant stimuli that goes unnoticed UNLESS you happen to be stoned). He was quite literally a genius--he may have been onto something there.

I know it always kicked MY bullshit detector into high gear. Especially when it came to some line the television, advertisers, or a politician was trying to feed me.

Was it a coincidence that the counter-culture in the 60s that practically discovered pot stood up and said "hey, wait a minute... What bullshit you trying to sell us?"

Maybe. Maybe not.

I see tons of wild theories on DU all the time. I guess it's my turn to put one out there.

[firefox]

45. The US lead the war on drug prohibitions

Harry Anslinger wanted his agency to rival the power of the FBI and J. Edgar Hoover. He would lead the US charge to have the UN make prohibition a global effort with the UN Single Convention of 1961.

In 1999 the UN's arm of the DEA set as a goal to wipe the illegal drugs off the planet in 10 years. We are nearing the sixth year of that plan and the UN has yet to modify their goal much less admit the senselessness of such a goal. The European Union's position is much more softer than the US would like and if the US sabotage of the process were removed we would see true harm reduction principles adopted.

CEDRO is a drug policy group out of Holland. One of my favorite drug articles comes from them when Peter Cohen describes the prohibitionists as a world wide phenom with a belief system worshiped like a religion. The article is titled "The drug prohibition church and the adventure of reformation"- http://tinyurl.com/9qfhl Richard Cowan is a past director of NORML now living in Vancouver. He is a prominent writer on cannabis issues at MarijuanaNews.com and he borrowed on that idea in one of my favorite pieces by him when he ask "Is the war on cannabis a cult?"- http://tinyurl.com/3j3zs

The biggest thought I would like to convey in closing is that the prohibitionists never use the word prohibition and it prohibition that is doing a great harm. Now why can the prohibitionists not outline the harms of prohibition when evaluating their precious war on drugs? Why can they not use the word "Prohibition" and why do they contractually ban its use when they use taxpayer money to fund supporters for their failed "war"/fraud?

We had one prohibition on a real demon in substance abuse. Do people not remember the violence and corruption that prohibition spawned? The last article up at CEDRO talks about alcohol prohibition versus the current prohibitions- http://tinyurl.com/89aja

[LynnTheDem]

36. Can't we just lose ONE war at a time???

Rather than losing a whole bunch at the same time?

[elehhhhna]

68. lol!

[dejaboutique]

38. yikes

read about this last week. this could take down whole neighborhoods, what about a college town, the whole town would be in jail. my professors were toking too. the only people that will be left on the free streets will be cops and tattle tales

[bpilgrim]

40. they NEED this

to fill the camps and crush dissent

if this passes, i'm outta here, cya, but this is just CRAZY and you know it will be at the top of the list at all the D>A>R>E programs.

can we call'm FASCIST yet?!?

:crazy:

done and recommended

peace

[BattyDem]

43. So instead of getting your loved-one into rehab ...

you get to put them in jail. "Family values" at its best! :eyes:

[Warren DeMontague]

63. And dare I say it...

not every person who has ever used say, pot, recreationally is in NEED of "rehab" (much less jail). Any more than every person who has ever taken a drink needs AA or its secular alternatives.

[Redstone]

44. This bill will never pass.

Don't worry about it. It's too extraordinarily stupid and unconstitutional to pass even this brain-dead Congress.

Redstone

[converted_democrat]

46. I hope your right, I really do.

[Redstone]

53. Even in these strange days,

there are some things that are just too fucking ridiculous to warrant serious worry.

Redstone

[shanti]

54. but, but

what if they attach it surreptitiously to another bill, like they did with the rave act, a bill that NOBODY could kick against, or i should say, nobody WOULD?

they are power mad.

[Solly Mack]

47. Done. I don't honor bad laws. I see no reason to...

[Pushed To The Left]

48. Progressive groups need to target Sensenbrenner

We need to find a way to get him out of office!

[Octafish]

49. Let's start ratting now!

Hello, Ministry of Security? I want to turn in the Pothead in Chief.



Technically, it isn't weed. He's a drunken coke-whore.

[Swamp Rat]

52. You beat me to it!

Maybe folks should call the cops on republicans 24/7? :evilgrin:

[Octafish]

55. LMAO. Monopoly? What Monopoly?

The drug trade is only one of core businesses.



We really like war, though. More than our major revenue center,
it really makes us happy to go to work everyday.

Hey, Swamp Rat! My response was fast, but yours is truly great work, the Quality of Pirsig.

[Swamp Rat]

57. Thanks. Here's the latest:

[firefox]

58. The drug war is a perpetual war Orwell could not imagine

The drug war was conceived as a perpetual war. In 1971, Nixon declared war on cancer. In 1974 research out of Virginia determined cannabis could kill cancer cells. When the war on cancer met the war on drugs, the war on drugs won. It could have been a pivotal moment in history had we not gone down the wrong path.

Recent studies in Spain concluded that cannabis could kill cancer cells. It does this by triggering programmed cell death in cancer cells that do not know to commit suicide. This is called apoptosis. It also keeps a cancer tumor from developing a blood supply to keep it alive. It prevents angiogenesis.

Can you understand now why the fascists that now rule/govern want no discussion of the war on drugs? The war on drugs is a lot more important a topic to me than Michael and Janet Jackson put together.

[Mythsaje]

59. We're being played

and have been for quite some time. The Corporate Media hasn't taken a real, considering look at the issue for years. I remember Phil Donahue doing a show about legalization some years back...not long before they shuffled him off to wherever he went, but all the new research coming out of Europe and Canada has yet to find its way into the corporate media outlets here in the U.S.

The potential medical benefits are astounding, really. And even the alleged potential harm of cannabis (driving under the influence, for example) has been debunked through various studied in Jamaica and Australia (to name a few).

Sure, it's impairment, but how does it compare to the impairment brought on by lack of sleep, overwhelming job stress, or a the emotional upset after fight with one's spouse/significant other?

I think that falls under the category of "questions no one can answer."

[firefox]

60. We are being played alright

Cannabis use is not necessarily impairment. It can cause enhancement. One reason kids can challenge everything said about cannabis is because they can sit in front of their computer and read and play games with a new zeal. Cannabis use enhances music, sex, food, and thought. Driving while enhanced is one of my slogans that I created to oppose the prohibitionist demonization of cannabis by using people's thoughts on alcohol.

Anyway, one of the things prohibition has done is stalled science and medicine. The CB1 and CB2 receptors that are used by our natural cannabinoid system, that is in all mammals and reptiles too, were only discovered in the early 1990s. Only in the last month have I read of the discovery of CB3 receptors. So prohibition has not provided us answers that we would have had without this federal hegemony of a prohibition.

One of the newest areas of interest to medicine concerns the subject of inflammation in the body. We know that cannabis is good for IBS, Crohn's disease, and ulcerous colitis and inflammation in general. A few months ago a study came out heralding the finding that type 2 diabetes was triggered by inflammation in the liver. But because of prohibition we do not know if a cannabinoid can prevent this inflammation and thus prevent the trigger that causes diabetes.

Inflammation is a better indicator of an impending heart attack than cholesterol. People with low cholesterol have heart attacks too and the cholesterol "problem" is one of the greatest marketing bonanza's the pill industry ever solved/created. BTW, the statin drugs were created by analyzing red yeast rice that is a natural cure for high cholesterol. There is also the banaba tree. There is a PRT test for inflammation of the heart that should cause concern. Now could cannabis research have produced a safe solution for that inflammation? Without Cannabis Prohibition we would know. We can thank the drug warriors for that bit of ignorance inflicted on medicine.

Tuesday saw an unusual thread go up at CannabisNews concerning migraines- http://tinyurl.com/8klrc It might be interesting to read what are now 38 responses as people checked in to tell that there is nothing better than cannabis for migraines, including Marinol which is synthetic THC. Isn't it funny how manmade THC is quite legal as a schedule 3 "Narcotic" and wonderful while the identical natural molecule is schedule 1 and barred from medical use. In fact all cannabinoids are Schedule 1 and there are 60 or more in cannabis. Only THC is psychoactive. And that raises my point. It may well be that migraines can be prevented with cannabis with the THC removed.

Yes, we are being played. A key fact is that Marinol is the only substance in the Schedule of Narcotics listed under its trademark name. Everything else is listed by its chemical composition.

[firefox]

66. The pot-tv archives

You talked about a Phil Donahue show on cannabis/marijuana. Pot-tv - http://pot.tv/ - has almost 500 shows on archive. I did a search and found a one hour special that mentions the Phil Donahue special on cannabis- http://pot.tv/archive/archive.cgi

The top 11 shows are listed on the bottom right of the pot-tv homepage. The second rated show is Jesse Ventura's show on laughing grass where he really lays into the ONDCP mouthpiece- http://pot.tv/archive/shows/pottvshowse-2365.html He went off the air right after that.

Here is a four-page explanation of the CB1 and CBs cannabinoid receptors- http://whyfiles.org/225drug_receptors/index.php?g=3.txt

Dr. Russo is a doctor from Missoula, Montana specializing in cannabis. He is now a researcher for GW Pharmaceuticals in the UK that recently had their cannabis extract, Sativex, approved for introduction into Canada. He has a theory that migraines are caused by endegenous cannabinoid defeciencies. There was a lawyer named Paul Peterson from Illinois that was disbarred because he tried using the medical marijuana laws on the books from the 1980s for his clients. As a Christian he is on a mission of healing and operates a health food store/restaurant in Chicago now. He has personally crusaded so that many cities along the north shore only give tickets for cannabis. But it was him in a comment at cannabisnews that said he had a cannabis concoction that would fix a migraine and he was referring to hempfood and not the THC varieties.

[spindoctor]

65. This is a fine example of how the will of the people is subjacent to the..

..will of the pharmaceutical imperium and organized crime.

After all, these are the only institutions that benefit from this bill.

Millions of people in the US consume marihuana. That is massive civil disobedience. It is not the purpose of the law to go against what is clearly something that a vast group of people WANTS to do and is not harmful to other people.

[firefox]

67. About 100 million Americans know Mary Jane

The problem the prohibitionists have with laughing grass is that is not some obscure thing like it was in 1937 when prohibition went through Congress with no debate. This link is one of the most crucial readings in understanding cannabis prohibition- http://www.pipes.org/Articles/history.html

Another problem the prohibitionist have with cannabis is that the biggest thing we have learned from the thousands of demonization studies by the government is that cannabis will define safety. Cannabis is the most used (arbitrarily) illegal substance in the world and that use has not produced one death.

Dr. Russo that I mentioned just above this, says there has never been lung cancer found in a cannabis only smoker. There I have a question of truthfulness because of second-hand tobacco smoke is everywhere and the inert fertilizers that contain radioactive Strontium 210 that are concentrated by tobacco leaves should kill cannabis smokers too, unless cannabis helps with radiation.

Cannabis does not cause emphysema like tobacco. It does not constrict airways like tobacco. It causes them to expand. Jamaica has had two powder cannabis extracts for medical use for several decades. One is for glaucoma and the other is for asthma.

The biggest question that I would like answered in regard to the pill companies and cannabis is this. What would Free Cannabis For Everyone do for sales? I recently read that the pill industry now has $250 billion in annual sales in the US. That is up from $200 billion just a few years ago.

I wish some real experts would answer that question. My own guess is that it could cut it by a third. That is because unlike the government position that holds that cannabis has no medical value, its uses are ubiquitous. Cannabis is the greatest medicinal plant on the planet and here we have a government saying it has no medical value, even when the federal government supplies 7 people cannabis it grows in Mississippi under a discontinued experimental program. It can provide a calming effect to replace tranquilizers. It can provide a good nights sleep to replace sleeping pills. Inflammation is a big cause of disease and cannabis surely helps fight inflammation. It reduces stress which causes diseases. It helps people with mental problems like ADD and could replace Ritalin. It might actually kill cancer cells when injected in concentration to a tumor.

Cannabis can help with addictions and can be recommended for alcoholism in California. It can reduce opiates for pain or replace them completely. It can cure some pains where opiates do not even work. And under the physicians mantra to first do no harm, cannabis should come first because of its safety and non-addictive nature.

The biggest question out there is what Free Cannabis would do to pill company sales and the health care industry. Nobody has answered the question, because nobody is allowed to ask any sensible questions. Prohibition is defended by stonewalling- well, silence first and then stonewalling.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

69. are there other sources for this?

I don't see any recognizable sources here.