Read about the significant barriers which exist at the federal level to keep serious scientific research from being conducted on the efficacy of medical marijuana.
We’ve all seen the Talking Head Bureaucrat on CNN in the “debates” over the issue of medical marijuana, the distinguished gentleman who claims that marijuana cannot be considered a medicine because adequate study has not been conducted for the appropriate leadership bodies to give their nod of approval to the medicine, despite the mountains of empirical evidence which exist worldwide. Know what? That bureaucrat is correct.
He is correct because good scientists have been trying for decades to do real scientific research, but they cannot because the federal government will not release marijuana from its ridiculous status as a Schedule I drug, a drug with “no medicinal value, and a high propensity for abuse”. Thus, no funding exists, no licenses will be issued to grow the plant for new research, and generally, legal study is not allowed. So yes, that bureaucrat is correct, but he is Wrong at the same time.
We’ve all heard the empirical evidence, it is everywhere and cannot be denied. Glaucoma, HIV-AIDS, multiple-sclerosis and other patients have been telling doctors, and the media, for decades that they have experienced relief from their particular ailments from smoking, eating, or vaporizing cannabis.
The system is broken, and in a feedback loop on itself, and no one buys it anymore. Trust in the government is already low, so why do the bureaucrats continue to put up screens to block the truth? Bureaucrats are exhibiting the same “short timer” mentality that wall street executives displayed when they worked for bonuses, not for the wellbeing of their company, shareholders, or customers. What could be causing the fat cats to act in such a way? Follow the money. Here is another article which may help you understand this issue more deeply. The people are fed up with the lies. We demand a change to this ridiculous way of conducting government, and we demand it now. You fat cats work for us, remember?
Read the New York Times article about the landmark case which begins to codify into law protections for suspects from unreasonable searches of their cell phones by police. Protections like these are difficult to achieve in modern law, which makes this case especially interesting to freedom loving people all throughout the United States.
Who better to teach us about the continuing abysmal failure of the drug war than the people on the front lines, the police? Retired Police Chief Norm Stamper delivers the message of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, L.E.A.P., to the world through this powerful speech. Mr. Stamper speaks about this history of the drug war, tying President Richard Nixon and two other Watergate conspirators to the beginning of the modern push for the war on drugs, but not for reasons of national interest or even for the good of the people. Nixon declared open war against “undesirables” in our society, the poor, the young with ideas in conflict with the administration, and, of course, against blacks and other people of color. The height of hypocrisy may be that Richard Nixon was aided in his planning for the war on drugs by his nightly intake of gin.
Mr. Stamper goes on to share his account of the grotesque violence which is spreading in Mexico, and the alarming trend of greater Mexican cartel influence in the drug trade in a growing number of cities in the United States.
Norm Stamper has reached the professional conclusion that the drug war can never, ever, ever be won. Prohibition of alcohol couldn’t work, didn’t work, and the prohibition of illegal drugs also cannot work. End the drug war now.
When a man’s income depends on bad policy, that bad policy gets perpetuated. Retired Police Chief Norm Stamper no longer has that problem. He now calls the war on drugs “the most destructive and damning policy since slavery”. Wow! Mr. Stamper sees the respect which has been lost over time for police officers, as they are regularly pitted disproportionately against young people, and people of color across the United States. Acting police chiefs will agree with Mr. Stamper about the failures of the drug war in private, but their jobs depend on them giving different answers in public. Norm Stamper doesn’t blame them for this problem, instead he blames society at large for allowing these poorly conceived, and completely ineffective, laws to be forced upon us by a small handful of dedicated drug warriors. What is the real objective of the drug war? Since the war has made drugs cheaper, more pure, and more readily available today than ever before, making our society “drug free” cannot be the true objective. Something much more sinister is afoot, and we as a people, in this society, in this country, today, must stand up against these destructive laws to say that enough is enough. Slavery in a private prison system for mere possession of drugs, even a drug so relatively benign as marijuana, is not something we can accept as a society today, and it never should have been something we ever accepted.
Please note that Norm Stamper thinks our individual bodies are sovereign, that we may do with them what we wish, including taking drugs. However, Mr. Stamper draws a firm line by not accepting criminal behavior against another person or property once an individual comes under the influence of drugs. In short, Mr. Stamper is a reasonable man who is interested in policies which create the most good and do the least harm. I couldn’t agree more.
The drug warriors have brought the fight to us, and now we must stand our ground as a society. No longer will people toil away their lives in a system which is not looking out for their best interests. End the drug war today.
Norm Stamper is a current leader of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, LEAP, and he needs our help to spread the good word far and wide.
Click to read Hugh Hefner’s commentary about the corrupting influence of the war on drugs in the United States. Mr. Hefner has been a champion of freedom since the 1950′s, and although he has never taken illegal drugs himself, he strongly condemns the path our federal government has chosen to try to affect the social and medical problem of drug abuse. Just as the East German Secret Police persuaded Germans to spy on one another, our own version of the Stasi, the D.E.A. has persuaded Americans to snitch on fellow citizens in order to protect their own hides from the horrible fate of rotting in prison for “crimes” that harm no one but the drug abusers themselves.
Hugh Hefner became a victim of the war on drugs when his secretary was driven to suicide by officials who trumped up cocaine transporting charges against her in a failed attempt to get at Hefner himself.
America, I have a question for all of us: How much misery, how much pain, how much tragedy, how much good money thrown after bad must we endure before we come to our senses and handle drug abuse issues as medical problems which can be made less harmful through proper medical and social, not judicial, attention? Enough is enough. The time to end the war on drugs is now.
Click to read what children really hear in school about drugs. We absolutely must be careful about what children learn about drugs while they are a captive audience in public schools. Adults have long been aware that half-truths and outright lies have been told to them by public officials who were “looking out for their best interests”. Why would we think that children would get anything less than the same lies? Need proof? Click the link above to read how tobacco is promoted as safer, in the short run, than marijuana. Wow! Even in this crazy mixed up world of the war on drugs, promoting tobacco use always seems like a bad idea to me.
D.A.R.E. is a drug education program in public schools for children and is a product of the punitive prohibition model that the United States Federal Government has spread to countries around the world. I hope D.A.R.E. Canada does the right thing by immediately removing all tobacco promoting language from its curriculum and website.
Click to read about the successful signature drive to put the question of marijuana legalization on the ballot in California in 2010. Richard Lee, owner of Oaksterdam University and Coffeeshop Blue Sky, as well as other cannabis related businesses, worked with a professional signature gathering firm to collect enough signatures from citizens to put the question of ganja legalization before the people of California in a statewide initiative. Federal and State bureaucrats have long been paralyzed by the fear of losing votes if they tried to lead us out of this failed war on drugs, so the initiative process has been vital to the issue’s progression into sensible law.
The current marijuana legalization initiative in California supported by Richard Lee would “…allow cities and counties to adopt their own laws to allow marijuana to be grown and sold, and the localities could impose taxes on any aspect of marijuana production and sales. It would make it legal for adults over 21 years old to possess up to an ounce of marijuana and to grow it in a 25-square-foot area for personal use.” 2010 is not a presidential election year, but with issues like this on the state ballot, I think we may see record voter turnouts in the 2010 election. Hallelujah!! THIS is what democracy looks like!
Chloe Harris presents the best in electronic dance music with her Further Radio December Mix Part 1.
Track list:
01. Pitch Black – 1000 Mile Drift Featuring Brother J (Simon Flowers Lost At Sea Mix)
02. – My Dreams (Deep Mix)
03. Inaya Day & DJ Dealer – My All (Hideo Kobayashi Instrumental Mix)
04. Uricane – Break Air (Hakimonu Remix)
05. Himan – My Deep Toy
06. Addex – Synthetic Life
07. Kresy, Hadrus – Solbel
08. Nick Chacona & Sasse – Integral (Dub)
09. Terry Lee Brown Jr. – Soul Digits (Harold Heath)
10. 6th Borough Project – Miss World (Soul Tourist)
11. Soul Clap – 3 Wheel EMotion
12. Brillman – 5
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