Wedsday May 26th 2010

Today i will begin with a subject i found to be very interesting and upsetting to me.The subject is medical marijuana and legalization in general.I am unhappy because the Federal Governments propaganda campaign against this substance has gone on for decades.This deceitful attack is based on a failed "war on drugs"that was started long ago and has been proven to be a dismal failure.In order to continue keeping this substance as a schedule 1 on their list of illegal drugs the Federal government has created basically a terror campaign against the 14 states where it has been legalised for medical purposes.This includes a no tolerance position for federal housing projects,and a policy of threats and intimidation on VA doctors to keep them from prescribing this beneficial substance to veterans suffering from chronic pain and PTSD just to mention a few.I am going to write as much as possible on this subject and will research it to the best of my abilities.The DEA uses its enforcement power to continue arresting and incarcerating citizens by the tens of thousands for simple possession.This coming November there are many ballot initiatives involving this subject,and many states are addressing it through legislation.The states where it is already legalised it is in my opinion a travesty of justice for law enforcement to continue arresting and incarcerating
people for simple possession.This is because i believe that a large part of many law enforcement institutions derive huge sums of money from seizure and forfeiture related to arrests on marijuana charges.The loss of this income could seriously jeopardise their use of this money to continue their unfair attack on citizens freedoms.I personally believe that without being able to use marijuana as an excuse to search and seize peoples property and possessions they are going to lose literally millions if not billions of dollars of law enforcement budget funding.This forces Police Union Lobbyists in Washington to push not only the DEA but Congress to continue this failed campaign against the citizens of our nation.The fact that many traffic enforcement stops result in searches of vehicles revolve around an officers ability to overpower citizens constitutional rights against unlawful search and seizure by saying they smell marijuana or see something suspicious related to simple possession, allowing them to bypass fourth amendment protections.This has been going on for decades and has resulted in many lives being ruined,families being broken up,property and possessions being lost to the state and countless other unjust results.I am sickened by this unAmerican ridiculous attack on my fellow citizens,all for simple possession of this substance.The Federal Law Enforcement branches actually train their officers that there is no such thing as medical marijuana in the states where it has been legalised,usurping the States authority over its citizens.The federal attack on our rights does not end there,it continues to go farther with threats against Honest hard working Doctors and scientists using licence revocation or loss of grant monies to further their agenda against this beneficial substance.
To rely on money derived from a campaign such as this one is truly sad and should prove to many that the true motivation behind keeping this substance as a schedule 1 drug is money.It has absolutely nothing to do with public safety at all,in fact i believe public safety is more threatened by this than any other tool they have in their bag of tricks to arrest honest hardworking citizens.The fact that they are supposed to protect and serve the citizens of our nation has been lost to an atmoshere of us against them with law enforcement becoming a tool used to push a federal agenda that has been proven broken and failed long ago.For these officials to admit let alone actually believe this is a beneficial substance flys in the face of all the training they have received over the years,not to mention the money i mentioned in their budgets related to this issue being lost.They are going to continue to wage this war against our freedoms until enough people stand up to face them and speak the truth no matter what the consequences are.Not many people in the research or medical fields will risk loss of money or licence just to point out the facts around this substance.There is ample evidence of the medical benefits of this substance and the truth that none of the negative consequences they predict would occurs have manifested in the States where it is already being used for medical purposes.
The fact that Tobacco and alcohol are legal causes me to believe that these industries also pay Washington lobbyists to attack legalization as well.The horrible consequences of these toxic substances are well known and documented,but yet we can go into most areas of the country and make a personal choice to use these things.How they can continue to lie about this substance and arrest citizens for using it is just stupid and should be attacked by citizens as an illegal overuse of the authority granted to Law Enforcement by the citizens of this great nation.We should not only be allowed to use it for medical purposes,we should be allowed as adults to decide if we want to use it recreationally.This is a matter of freedom of choice to use this and i believe eventually this will occur.Americans take freedom seriously and when they see something wrong it is usually changed for the better very quickly.This particular issue has been lied about on such a massive scale it is going to be difficult,costly and time consuming to begin a truth campaign against the propaganda machine that has been in place for decades.I personally believe the whole of "the greatest generation"as some call it will have to die off before this is possible.The majority of folks who were alive during WW2 have a propensity to believe the Government has their best interests at heart and believe most of what they are told related to marijuana.The propaganda machine has been honing their misguided information for a very long time and with most of the advocates for legalization having the appearance of long hair and sandals on their feet makes older folks tend to dismiss them.It is very easy to put two sides against each other and have them judged on appearance before the facts are even presented,which in my opinion is one of the main reasons these older folks have a tendency to side with the straight laced business suited anti legalisation crowd.
Now i am also sure that there is another whole industry that has alot of money at stake in this battle.This is the drug rehabilitation industry,and they also pay out alot of money to Washington Lobbyists to maintain the current climate against legalization.The rehabilitation folks like to use the "gateway"theory as one of their main arguments against legalization.This is also been proven false on many levels and i will touch on one of them in this attempt to bring some reality to this issue.When using this "gateway"theory,it is said that folks who are predisposed to addiction have a pattern of going from one addictive substance to another moving up from marijuana and on to other substances that are horrible and devastating,such as cocaine,methamphetamine,and heroin.Well the fact is that,yes,there is a certain percentage of people who are predisposed to addiction.But what is purposely left out of this equation are two very addictive and harmful substances,and this is because you can buy them at most supermarkets,drugstores and corner stores.If it isn't obvious yet i am referring again to tobacco and alcohol.Most people,if these two addictive and dangerous substances were included would cite them,not marijuana,as the first addictive substances they had tried in their lives.Kids steal cigarettes from mom or dad,raid the family liquor cabinet or dads beer fridge long before they get anywhere near marijuana.This should be the one fact of many that shoots a huge hole in their "gateway"theory.An addictive substance is an addictive substance,but if you preclude alcohol and tobacco from the equation by say posing the question "what was the first ILLEGAL substance you ever tried?"it is very easy to twist the results against marijuana.The vast majority would admit to alcohol and tobacco use long before marijuana and the industry knows this and twists results to use them against marijuana legalisation.They do not want to see it legalized because it will bring down the numbers of people seeking help for addiction related problems because folks high on pot are not going to assault people,or crash cars,or many other offenses that land folks in court and then on to rehabilitation facilities.The money they would lose would hurt their bottom line,and they along with law enforcement,do not want to see that happen.You would think that if the number of people seeking help for addiction would be reduced they would be in favor of legalization,but this is absolutely not the case.They continue to rail against it and spread lies and innuendo to perpetuate the cycle that brings clients in the door.I have not gotten into all the many reasons why this would be true,but suffice it to say folks who use marijuana recreationally are more likely to munch on food and relax then go out and get in fights or drive dangerously as is the case with alcohol.
To turn to a similar but different substance that is very much on topic,i am going to now turn my focus on hemp.this wonderful and amazing plant is kept off our farmland using the same lame excuses they use on marijuana.We are the only industrialised nation on the planet that doesn't allow agricultural production of this beneficial crop.The fact that marijuana is illegal is used as the one and only reason this lucrative crop is not allowed.Many of the family farms that have been lost to giant global corporations like Monsanto could have been kept in the hands of the families that had held them for generations and could have been saved if only they were allowed to grow hemp.The DEA says it would be it too easy to grow marijuana in Fields of hemp undetected,but this is a false and misleading distortion of facts.Hemp grows tall,is reedy and ropey and light green,while most marijuana is small and bushy and darker in color and would not get the necessary sunlight if grown in a hemp field.They also like to say that there is trace amounts of the pshycoactive chemical THC in hemp and it could be used to produce products that would induce a high similar to marijuana.This is also a flat out misleading misrepresentation of facts.The United States currently imports tons of hemp and hemp products for use in many different industries.If the DEA had their way these imports would be ceased as well,but our trading partners have used their significant influence to stop that from happening.Why American farmers are kept out of this production and left to the mercy of giant corporations and forced to grow corn and soybeans at a loss is sickening to me.
I am going to list some of the many industries that lobby hard against hemp and marijuana due to the fact that it would present a competitive product that could cost them financially.This will only be a partial list,and i also would like to point out that it could also have a positive effect on the economy if it were allowed.The cotton and timber industries would love for hemp to remain illegal due to the fact that is represents a very viable alternative source of very strong and useful fiber,making stronger and better products superior to theirs,and that would affect their bottom line.Then we can move on to the food lobby,of which there are many giant global corporations that are lobbying against legalization.This is because hemp seed is more nutritious and versatile than the soybean.Hemp seed can make hundreds of food products just like soybeans,but is not as easily controlled as soybeans are.90% of the soybeans grown in the US are patented and owned by the Global Giant Corporation that i mentioned earlier in this post.This allows them to reap profits that are hard to calculate,and hemp seed would create competition they do not have any intention of allowing.This versatile seed also could be used to create bio fuel to operate diesel motors without changing any components on the motors themselves.This is an obvious threat to the oil and gas industry,of which there are many giant corporations with huge resources at their disposal to spend lobbying Congress to continue this war on a simple plant.There are so many uses for this plant that i could literally write a book about it,which of course if i did i would insist it was printed and bound by hemp paper and fiberboard.Then we move on to the Giant Dairy farm lobby,because hemp can,just like soybeans,be used to create hemp milk and ice cream.The production of hempseed products also doesn't create the millions of tons of waste produced by cattle,not to mention the antibiotics and pesticides used to create the feed the animals need to produce milk.It is also healthier and better for you than soybeans are,because of the high concentrations of gammalenolic(?)acid.This is also true of creams and lotions for the skin,hemp seeds make a wonderful base for products like these,which bring in the cosmetic lobby to rail against legalization.I could continue on and on with products and benefits surrounding hemp but i wanted to mention one other very powerful lobby who spends millions of dollars to keep marijuana illegal.This is the Pharmaceutical Industry.Why would they allow a product on the market that would compete with so many of their drugs,especially if patients could grow it themselves without any need for their services?This is one of the biggest industries in our nation,growing bigger and bigger every year.This travesty of justice being brought down upon the American people can and must be ended.Patients should be allowed access to this wonderful beneficial and healthy substitute for many harsh pharmaceutical products must be freed from the bondage that has been imposed on it since the mid 1930s.Please if you have taken the time to read this consider supporting any and all efforts to end the unfair advantage these and many other interests have spent billions of dollars against.The poor plant does not have a giant lobbying firm to speak for it in Washington,only sensible people like you who can vote to change this failed campaign against a useful and beneficial plant.Until next time,thank you for reading. spacewalker