Drug WarRant

Wednesday, December 3, 2003

I was wondering? Cannabis, is it or is it not medicine? Is cannabis as harmful as tobacco or alcohol. Does tobacco contain over 600 undisclosed additives? Were these additives discussed by the Congress as possibly effecting the health of a smoker? Would these chemicals have an effect when comparing tobacco to cannabis? Do the prohibitionist ever disclose this when they compare tobacco to cannabis? Is it competition out of the way under prohibition? Is prohibition more costly to society in monetary terms and human suffering? Does it provide the prison industry (construction, linen, food, vehicles, guards, uniforms, etc) huge profits and the government taxes on these profits? Are there 2 million prisoners? Are 60% of these non-violent drug offenders? Does the Bush family have stock in the prison food supply industry? Cannabis in its hemp stage has or has not the greatest mass of any plant or animal? Does cotton require 270 million tons of chemicals, does flax destroy the soil and is soybeans hard on seniors digestive tracts? Can cannabis sativa (helpful hemp)grow almost anywhere, aerating the soil, without the chemicals (growing wild in many states providing 99.28% of the cannabis eradications in the US) replace cotton? Is it competition out of the way under prohibition? Do living trees filter up to 5000 gallons of water each day? Do they require more chemicals than any process in paper making? Is hemp stronger than trees? Does it have greter yield? Do tree's provide oxygen? Do they remove carbon dioxide? Do they support thousands of living species in a co-operation that can not survive when they are hewn down? Can hemp replace the industrial use of trees? Is it competition out of the way under prohibition? Is meat the best source of protein? Does it cause health problems? Do poor countries without meat have the same diseases as countries using meat? Do cows require 80% of the US agriculture in grains? Have these corporate grain farms half emptied the Midwest fresh water underground reservoir called Ogalala with irrigation? Are dairy products nutritional? Do waste from daily cow bathings run off into the drinking water? Are corporations burning tropical rain forest to graze cows? Is Hemp Seed the most nutritionally complete food source known to man? Is it used by cultures? Is it competition out of the way under prohibition? Is the use of fossil fuels the most devastating thing to ever hit humanity? Do 15,000 gallons leak into lakes rivers and streams each year? Do crude oil gasoline fueled cars emit harmful emissions? Do they contain lead and sulfur adding to the acid rain? Do they burn as clean as biomass? Could all of the nuclear, coal, crude and natural gas fossil fuels be replace with hemp biomass? Does Bush have crude oil interest? Did Henry Ford shelve a hemp/soybean biomass fueled automobile in the 30's? Did he produce and shelve an auto body from hemp and soybean fiber steel? Is petroleum carcinogenic? Is asphalt from crude tar breaking down and contaminating the soil and water? Do we really have to "protect" our oil rights with wars in South America, Vietnam, Kuwait, Iraq, Albania, and do states producing oil have the harshest cannabis sentencing? Are the herbicides pesticides made from crude oil? Can Hemp replace crude oil and fossil fuels? Is it a lubricant? Does hemp plastic biodegrade in compost? Is it legal? Is it grown in over 30 countries worldwide? Is it imported at higher cost? Is it on the list of things to become illegal? Can hemp produce paint. Can hemp make paper without the crude chemicals used in process the less cellulose tree paper? Can hemp grow without the crude oil pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers? Is it competition out of the way under prohibition? Many have passionate reasons for choosing the side they stand on, many will profit from prohibition on both sides. The urine tester labs and the labs that make the antidotes to urine testing. The lawyers defending and prosecuting. The Bars and Taverns, Tobacco and hard drug dealers. The growers and the cops, the prisons, peddlers and pharmacies. The drunks released if they snitch and the prohibitionist propagandist receiving corporate funding. And they all spend it on everything advertised putting a big smily face on the tax collector.Is it competition out of the way under prohibition? Who makes money growing it for personal use at home? No one, and maybe thats also why its illegal. No taxes, and it doesn't raise the GNP. Peace, Love and Liberty or the Merchants of DEAth - submitted by DdC 10:50:27 AM    comment []

Tuesday, December 2, 2003

America Divided Americans today are being divided by the American government through use of propaganda campaigns specifically designed to divide its citizens into several very polarized camps.. This is done using a very simple technique known as the "straw man" argument. The two main fronts of this propaganda campaign are the war on "Terrorrism" and the war on "Drugs". "Terrorism" and " Drugs" being the "straw men" in that they are easy to knock down and they are not "real"men. Terrorism is a concept of projecting fear or terror for some sort of personal gain against a civilian individual or group of individuals. This would have to include acts of aggression and war . By using "Terrorism" as the "straw man" or the Objective in a war, you create a perpetual war , because the straw man can never be eliminated as long as war continues. The instigator commits "Terrorism" through aggression and the defender commits "terrorism" through retaliation . With both parties guilty of acts of "Terrorism" there can be no winner , which perpetuates the activity. Terrorists are not countries or societies , they are individuals or groups of individuals who are guilty of acts of physicsl assault causing injury to others and must be prosecuted through legal means. Terrorism cannot be prosecuted through military actions against entire countries of peoples, simply because any group of people contains both the innocent as well as the guilty. Prosecuting the innocent civilians is an act of terrorism in itself!! This paradox divides our country into three main camps , (1) those in favor of dominating the world through intimidation (war) ,(2) those blindly seeking revenge against anybody our government says is the enemy and (3) those who seek honest justice through the rule of law and honestly want to see the world as a place where ALL are truly endowed with certain rights. Modern warfare is a massive jobs program!! Thus the need to have perpetual war is to have perpetual jobs!! This brings us to our second "Straw man," the War on Drugs !! Drugs are inanimate objects !! War cannot be waged on such objects!! We as a nation must admit that there is no such thing as a drug free society, drugs are used by the vast majority of people in the world in various forms. therefore there is no such thing as a war on drugs !!! By declaring that there is a war to create a drug free society which is physically impossible to obtain , the government has created a perpetual situation behind which it can hide a vast array of controls on society . This is a war or police action against certain segments of the population that use substances that other segments of the population have demonized. Through the use of propaganda , half truths, sensationalism and outright lies, our own government uses this issue to divide the citizens into many camps. The abuse of any drug is a social and medical problem, not a criminal one, thereby creating a myrad of social problems. Creating a criminal prohibition on this type of behavior has created a huge police and prison industial complex allowing our government to supress large segments of minorities by imprisoning them, stripping them of the right to vote, denying them a method of voting to oppose such policies. It has also created a huge criminal enterprise out of dealing in illicit substances creating massive organized crime, violence and money laundering. Large fiancial institutions profit form this activity and the goverments both federal and local generate huge budget requirements by sustaining this unwinnable perpetual war. I promise you that neither the Democrat or Republican leadership in our government wish this situation to end. Their desire is to perpetuate this lie and continue on the path of reforming the United States into a police state controlled by multinational corporations. My geatest fear is that the average american will remain ignorant of this until it is too late !! The only hope I see is to educate every person I come in contact with and hope that there are others like me who are commited to do the same. - submitted by jeff shivers 9:10:56 AM    comment []

Monday, December 1, 2003

Another Drug War Victim The wicked flee when no one is pursuing, but the righteous are bold as a lion. (Proverbs, 28:1) My mother had lived in Vermont since 1991, the same year Howard Dean became governor of that state. She moved into a very rural community about an hour north of the state capitol, Montepelier. The drive to my mother's house was mostly over dirt roads with few other houses to be seen among the small valley farms and thick northern woods. My mother of course became extremely close to the few neighbors she did have. In that area, a "neighbor" qualifies as nearly anyone within a ten mile radius of your own home. The most popular members of my mother's community were two brothers who had lived together in a farm house most of their lives. I've changed their names for this essay but the community had a nickname for them that was affectionate and funny. I'll call them Phil and Stan Boiz, or as they might have been named together, the Boiz brothers. As is common in rural Vermont, the Boiz were subsistence farmers. They had a small number of meat livestock which they cared for well. They had a two acre patch of various vegetables that they would eat fresh in the warm months and have canned in the fall for winter. They tapped maples for syrup every year which they would sell for processing for some extra cash. The Boiz were active in the community and would always show up with a lending hand whenever a new barn was being built or repairs were being done. They were often trusted to care for the livestock of their neighbors if the owners had to travel for some reason. They were the guys you could trust your kids with. Then one day the Vermont state troopers came by with their SWAT team in full commando raid gear. These guys tore the whole farm up and found all of three marijuana plants. Even a subsistence farmer likes to get high every so often and usually can't afford to buy intoxicants. So Stan, the older of the Boiz brothers, copped to the charges to shield his younger brother and to keep the farm from being seized (since it was jointly owned). It seems the cops had earlier busted some college kid who was growing his own in his apartment. They made the kid play the "if you give up your dealer, you won't stay in jail forever" game. The Boiz brothers were the only other folks he knew that weren't just users. So some months later, Stan is facing some really stiff mandatory minimums. He was a 50 year old man. Rather than sitting in jail till he's sixty he opted instead to jump off the rafters of his barn with a noose of aviation cable tied round his neck. Being the smart and efficient farmer he was, the attempt severed his head clean off. I understand that the authorities aren't directly responsible for Stan's death or the chaos that erupted in the community following the tragedy. I also understand that when someone commits a crime against society they should be removed from that society or punished. However the Boiz brothers weren't any threat to society or anybody. On the contrary, they were a huge benefit. They didn't sell their pot to anyone. They only grew it for themselves and visitors. These guys weren't corrupting children or shooting cops. They weren't doing anything but minding their own business and helping out where they could. They didn't deserve what they got. The state police organized the arrest but I don't really blame them. They were acting on a policy decision of the governor, who at the time was Howard Dean. I hold Howard Dean responsible. I also hold Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, George Bush, and all the elected officials that allow these laws to exist responsible for the death of a really nice guy who never did anything wrong. These laws do not need to be passed, enforced, or upheld by any part of our government. I'll never again vote for a party that supports the continuation of the war on drugs. - submitted by Casey 12:10:20 AM    comment []