“Former public servants, from DEA chiefs to cops, are using their clout to lobby for drug policies that enrich themselves.”
That’s the sub-headline on today’s exceptional feature story on TheFix.com highlighting the revolving door of moneyed interests in perpetuating the war on cannabis.
Author Kevin Gray, whose work has appeared in numerous outlets including The Washington Post, articulately summarizes the role of former drug czars, cops, federal bureaucrats, and others who lobby the keep the drug war machine moving forward — and, as a result, line their own pockets.
“The time-honored revolving door between government and business swings fast and often. It can be straightforward, like the appointment of banking behemoth Goldman Sachs’ alumni as economic policymakers by recent presidential administrations. But when it comes to the drug war, the family tree is more like a thicket of interests among law enforcement, federal and state prisons, pharmaceutical giants, drug testers and drug treatment programs—all with an economic stake in keeping pot illegal.”
The whole story is really a must read. Here is the link to the full text.
But…but…but what about the children?!!
I thought the “war on cannabis” was to protect the children, and have them become future prohibitionist.
We must fight to make cannabis legal!
Much of the recent talk generated by the 10-year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq focused on how so many in politics and the news media had been so wrong, so unwilling to question the rationale for that war and jump on the bandwagon. To me, the elephant in the room has always been the drug war, and especially the war on all things cannabis. The same denial dynamic is at work there as was with Iraq. Kevin Gray’s story shows one big reason, maybe the primary reason, why this insanity has become so entrenched with regard to marijuana, the most popular illegal substance and primary focus of the drug war.
Cannabis prohibition has always been a scheme:
– to profit, to control, and to inflict
EVEN if we assumed, (however incorrectly), that the supposed potential issues regarding the impact of cannabis WERE true-
-none of them are reasons it should remain illegal.
Cigarettes, due almost exclusively to the additives, are among the absolute most addictive elements for consumption found on the planet.
Alcohol causes almost as much physical, psychological, and societal harm as even the nastiest of abused pharmaceuticals and underworld chemicals. – YET it has had its prohibition REPEALED because leadership saw that its prohibition was far more costly than even its impact.
=
Cannabis is almost completely risk-free:
physical and physiological addiction are almost nil, if at all possible.
(‘habit-forming’ is more of a Pavlovian response, where even getting dressed in a certain order can be deemed ‘habit forming’)
—
Again and again -> thanks NORML
for leading the way.
Back NORML and we will finally win this fight, and NORML will stay with us and help lay the foundation of liberty in a well-reasoned structure.
They’re not called PIGs for no reason.
You would expect such things as this happening in other countries but not in America. Not in the land of the free. How do those people sleep at night doing what they do? They don’t want it legalized and you can just bet they don’t EVER want it completely stopped. Either way would end their cash cow. Unreal!!
This conflict of interest is rampant in the drug war. And, so many young people’s lives are ruined with a marijuana conviction. It is clear to me, this is the new slavery. Corporations and banks are hiding behind a thin veil of morality when it comes to marijuana and marijuana use, that is crumbling. Eventually, these “drug warriors” are going to be seen for what they are: senseless exploiters of selective human beings for their own financial gain. How barbaric that this still goes on.
2 yea 2 years ago I told you to follow the money
Bob DuPont once said that marijuana is “10,000 times more likely to produce mild intoxication than alcohol”…..this found it’s way into a Jehovah Witness book called Reason….I have confronted several witnesses about this reefer mad statement that they they have been reprinting now for 30 years!
I love it……this is one serious problem our society faces everyday, and that is how are we going to pay our bills, where is our next meal going to come from. I tell my wife everyday, where we need to cut spending to adjust our budget, but we cant do anything about it but hold our breath and see what happends on the other side. Greed of the war on drugs is still in conflict that those who have proffited from its establishment are now becomming closer and closer to the spot light, and in my opinion , some are trying to hold on to the ” pay no attention to the mad behind the curtain” while others are thinking ” ok, first things first lets start a new agency thats almost like our old one with a bigger smile”kinda like petting a barking dog for the first time.
I wish federal government would see that just because cannabis is off of the 1970 CSA, that there is still plenty of monies to be made from controling contraban from hitting our public , like the new waves of synthetic drugs, that will harm our future , that is still in place because its more less untraceable in the human system, this stuff was bought legal right in front of the cops in my area because there was no harm in it. as a matter of fact the cops told me and my friend to have a nice day after i held the package of it in public walking past him. After using this new wave of legal cannabis the only question i could find myself asking over and over and over was , why is cannabis illegal? I not ashammed to talk about something that was once legal and now is not, um kinda like cannabis, I stick to my decission that the synthetic drug market will hurt our future and should be on the CSA list , um but isnt? Now I dont believe that all our un registered grow site should be allowed,like those close to schools and those un gaurded where children can access , because just like sex and national security it has a place and out in the public view for all , is not it. The world is filled with people who think what they do and how they act is only a problem for those around them, when the rule of society clearly states people can only function as a whole when we accept the actions of those around us, meaning you cant be drunk in public, we should use foul language a church…ect…
We are regulated in a sence by moral value, and those who arent will be the first ones in line to be arrested even with cannabis legal , because they are the first ones while its not legal.
In the end my main purpose of this post is that if we cant win a war on drugs , and we see how much it cost….then maybe its time to regroup and get the ducks in a row. Cannabis prohibition needs to be ended , but war on drugs will never die, because of all the bureaucracies that feed off of it, and the fact remains , somethings we need to be protected from….because of the destruction they cause…….and will.
as always
thanks for reading
Countries such as Denmark have been looking at legalization of cannabis and the possibility of importing product from Colorado and Washington States. A meeting is set for this Friday with US Officials in this matter. I read this in a story on medical marijuana inc.website.Their site holds a plethora of information about what is happening with marijuana.
Pot laws are a jobs program. It’s time to move on.
Gotta fight fire with fire. Who can counter the prohibitionists’ lobby efforts? The answer lies in who stands to gain enough from legalization that they have more interest in legalizing it than the prohibitionists have in keeping it illegal. When the pro-legalization entities unite and lobby hard enough, then we’ll finally have a showdown and things will change. Until then, it’s up to democracy and legislatures, and they move like molasses. Too bad it’s not just obvious to everyone in the world that prohibition is just a fundamental infraction on civil rights and that’s all there is to it. Free country? Sort of.
@Mark– Try this acronym for why they’re called PIGS: “Prison-Industrial-Government Syndicate.”
Exposed are those who profit from outdated policy. The more Americans know this, the less they can keep getting away with it.
Slowly but surely, we are winning.
No more oppression!!!
We as American adults with free will
have the right to use marijuana
if we choose to!!!
ENOUGH government profiteering
under the guise of morality!!!
ENOUGH with this phony “War On Drugs”!!!
Dont forget the emergence of private prisons and the fact that undercovers can sell seized weed back onto the street if its in an attempt to fry a bigger fish
Hi everyone i have medical condition that,has not,or cant not even be explain to me from the DOCTORS so if i get some relief from the use of marijuana, legal or not but as a person be told do with my on physical body and physical well being? neatsheet1@att.net
Wow. The intelligence and liberty that flows through this blog is amazing. I’m very proud of Normal and all those who follow. Don’t ever want to hear my cannabis called dope again.
I don’t have to read the story because i was telling everybody this long before anyone figured it out .Usually i got laughed at before anyone figured out what i was saying was the truth . I also tell you pharma invented along with alcohol the ” drug testing kits ” .
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/endorse-hr-499-and-end-federal-prohibition-marijuana/VfjCHHTN
The for profit prison industry is very dangerous. The for profit pharma industry dangerous – profits are more important than people. This inversion of priorities is a misbalance that needs to be adjusted. Legalizing MJ is a part of that process – keeping the profiteers honest is a difficult job. Keep up the fight for justice – this article shines a bright light on a dark and sinister community.
I was in a bar the other day with a couple friends and I mentioned smoking herb. I believe the one guy has a stance that “all drugs are the downfall to society and anybody that smokes pot needs to be thrown in jail.” I could be mistaken but I believe that’s how he feels. Yet he’ll go to this bar on a regular basis and drink one of the most dangerous drugs known to man. Makes perfect sense…
The privatized prison system may have been planning all along for a sinister plan to provide the demand for quality cheap labor when some of the jobs comes back from China.
The struggling well trained middle class citizens of the U.S. will also be on secret probation for future prospect while our government continues to competes with China.
Is your urine safe?
Do well and you might win a chance for a vacation outside the walls with your earned credits.
Are there more prisons being built with a ribbon cutting ceremony and smiling faces?
Norml can you help me with this? Yesterday on Sunday morning Senator Rand Paul said something to the effect: I support decriminalizing marijuana, but not legalizing it because young people use it and become de-motivated. However, he said kids should not be left with criminal records because they often, like President Obama grow up and go on to become successful. Now I’m 56 years old what was I like when I was 20? One of my first jobs living in Phoenix Arizona was working at a Truck wash cleaning big rigs, and washing manure out of cattle trucks. Because my motorbike had been stolen I walked to work. About 3 1/2 miles a day 8 hours a day 6 days a week for 6 dollars an hour. You might have called me a dirty stinking hippy, walking home covered with grease and cow shit from the rigs! But we’re not done yet because on Sunday a guy has to do some house cleaning, and clothes washing. At 20 years I was honest to a fault, and not a lazy bone in my body. Yet it was a happy time in my life. Friends would come over after work and, there was always plenty of weed around. Not that 300 dollar an ounce stuff we put up with today neither. So yesterday when I heard Senator Paul’s comments I felt the same indignity I often did back then working at the truck wash when manure would sometimes splash back across my face and mouth. So Norml, can you guys help me get Senator Rand Paul to honest up on television and take back his words about lazy kids that get high, and don’t show up at work?
[Paul Armentano responds: Rand Paul’s actual comments are below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/24/rand-paul-marijuana_n_2945307.html
“I don’t want to promote that but I also don’t want to put people in jail who make a mistake,” Paul explained. “There are a lot of young people who do this and then later on in their twenties they grow up and get married and they quit doing things like this. I don’t want to put them in jail and ruin their lives.”
… “Look, the last two presidents could conceivably have been put in jail for their drug use, and I really think, you know, look what would have happened, it would have ruined their lives,” Paul added. “They got lucky, but a lot of poor kids, particularly in the inner city, don’t get lucky. They don’t have good attorneys, and they go to jail for these things and I think it’s a big mistake.”
… States should be allowed to make a lot of these decisions,” Paul said. “I want things to be decided more at a local basis, with more compassion. I think it would make us as Republicans different.”]
There are so many paid television commercials on pharmaceutical drugs with a very long list of possible and very harmful side affects, and they want YOU to ask your doctor if their drug is right for you. They also mentioned that patients should not drive or operate heavy machinery while taking this drug.
The pharmaceutical companies trust you on that last sentence and they do get away with almost all of the liabilities by saying don’t take it if some harmful side affects occurs.
So it is a risky and also a gamble with your life with the dream that it might work for you. And does those advertising actors with their smiling faces turn you on and makes you want to rush and make a doctors appointment?
(It isn’t news, but it is constantly being drilled into your mind many times everyday.)
Cannabis is not at all risky, except for the draconic laws provided by lobbyist who benefits on making cannabis illegal.
And don’t forget the big money alcohol companies making their large donations for anti-cannabis and pro-alcohol politicians along with moderate donations to “Saving the Children from Pot” organizations in order to get some favorability from prohibition groups.
Look Folks, Ron Paul is stupid about marijuana. He is not stupid about our laws. The War on Drugs is a trap for people, not drugs. Dr. Paul knows this, but he doesn’t know much of anything accurate about marijuana in particular.
Of course being called a “criminal” is demotivating. Being told you’re not good enough is demotivating. Having a criminal record as a “justice option” is just to demotivate you. What ever else might it be for?
Yes indeed, could someone let Ron Paul know that marijuana doesn’t “demotivate”. Having to listen to drivel like this does.
Oh no, the ruse is almost over.But think of all the new opportunities for other mind and body altering substances that can be high-jacked with new infrastructures. The simple definition of a “drug” is: a chemical substance that affects the processes of the mind or body.’
Protein-carbohydrates-sugars? “I know a boy that became morbidly obese from eating large amounts of pizza’…Should we ban pizza or arrest the parents? Opportunities unlimited!!!
Slow Slow Slow SLow! Get this campaign moving faster.
Ooooh it must be nice to live in california. Where I can get what I want regardless of laws. Weeee Weeeee!
We know that marijuana prohibition has been a scheme from the get-go, and our previous presidents-George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison to name a few, grew hemp and smoked pot long before government policies took over. Just imaging if thousands of people just lit up joints in every city town and square on a particular day, our government wouldn’t know what in the hell to do, there wouldn’t be enough jails to lock folks up in. It just like the Hippies-they were right about a lot of things-wars kill-but pot doesn’t.
@ Voice of The Resistance, I too was taken aback at what Rand Paul said about marijuana. (Read quotes on Reason website.) It’s not clear to me if he actually believes that stuff or if he is just trying to pander to the brainwashed in an attempt to get them on board.
Every “pot head” I’ve known has been hardworking, generally intelligent, and honest. A far cry from the stereotype we are beaten over the head with , i.e. does nothing but consume TV and junk food.
“Voice of Resistance” has a legitimate, and I’ll bet resounding issue that I expect a lot of us have been dumbfounded over many times… this pseudo-scientific fact that cannabis causes a condition known clinically as a-motivational syndrome. President Nixon’s Blue Ribbon Shafer Commission found that cannabis contributes to unconventional thinking, another dumbfounded finding. I’m 58 and was quite unmotivated until I started using cannabis in the mid 1970’s… in HS and my first two years of college (I quite after 1 1/2 years) my GPA was around a 2.3. After discovering pot I went back to college, got my degree and transferred to a university where I got my BA – my GPA increased to a 3.4. By age 50 I graduated yet again with a medical degree and my GPA was a 3.9. I used cannabis everyday from the mid – 1970’s until I was around 50 when I lost track of people to get my weed from. I’ve been gainfully employed all those years working in schools, colleges, auto and computer technology. I have to laugh that Senator rand expects that growing up means quitting pot by the time you’re 30 as if it’s a childish thing. Meanwhile, growing up also implies we switch from beer to bourbon or whiskey! Likewise there is a certain something called, clinically, “self-fulfilling prophesy”… which dictates that if you treat someone as if they are unmotivated or you continually tell them that, most likely they will eventually cave and become that. Since drug testing especially for cannabis use is widespread in many high tech and even blue-collar jobs, use of alcohol rather than cannabis is encouraged, and if you prefer cannabis then your prospects for a good job go down and you may even have a cannabis arrest record and guess what, you’re unmotivated. Simply admitting to the wrong red neck you like pot means you’re a lazy ass hippy. Or as one cute woman said to me once – after I proudly told her I’d quit tobacco for over a year and how I loved my pot instead, she said: “you’re an idiot, you quit the wrong thing! Grow up.”
One delegate replied to the action mail here in wv.
I have had all kinds of requests regarding this bill. The biggest concern is the regulation of marijuana. If it could be put into pill form and distributed it would be much easier to pass a bill to make it legal. I have been told there is research which shows promise in this area. Hopefully this will be a reality in the near future.
David Evans-D
Thank you Paul for your timley response.
The one thing a dictator fears the most is the loss of power.
Some rich guy pot smoker needs to start a franchise in which random drug testing is a requirement for employees.The only difference being,if you don’t test positive for marijuana you are fired on the spot.Lets get back to work America.
We’re indoctrinated from early childhood to believe that one of the reasons the USA is superior to other countries is that we have a “free press.” And as a teenager growing up in the 1970s I honestly believed that, believed that’s what made us superior to the old Soviet Union.
By the 1980s I stopped believing that myth. There is very little that’s “free” about our press. It’s bought and paid for by the corporations and the super rich, and in many ways is no different from the old Tass and Izvestia propaganda machines of the Soviets. When the super rich bastards who run our media start to believe they can profit from pot, they’ll begin having their producers show it in a positive light. The ugly truth.
The notion that once people get past their twenties they should “grow up,” and stop smoking pot, is one I’ve heard before. (Usually from hypocrites who routinely that “pick-me-up” after work, or that nightcap before going to bed.) It’s funny, I’m 58 years old and most of the people I know my age or thereabouts obviously haven’t yet grown up. I’m pretty surprised to hear Rand Paul echo those sentiments.
@ Joe Nickelsack:
March 27, 2013 at 4:45 am
Great idea!!!
(except for the “fired on the spot” part).
At least give the employee a chance to bring their
cannabinoid levels up, via employer-mandated
Edibles, Tinctures and/or Vapor Lounge… ]:) B-)
I was watching Weed country last night. One of the police officers said the dumbest thing possible. “Marijuana (racially loaded term) is more dangerous the alcohol”. Really? This is who we trust to fly around waving machine guns? He shoud educate his self by reading the book Marijuana: Safer than alcohol.
I juts finished reading a story about a navy pilot shot down in 1964 and imprisoned in the Hanoi Hilton. In one part of the story he tells another American pow. Don’t let your mind be overcome by anger, and hate. Instead you need to keep a clear head, and figure a way to mousetrap these sons of bitch’s. I thought Rand Paul’s comments might make a good mousetrap! Thanks for your comments everyone.
@Evening Bud: I was 20 in 1974. I listened to my first Beatles’s album in 1962; was home alone and sick in 1963 when President Kennedy was assassinated; I escaped the draft by 3 days – the draft ended just before I turned 18, in 1972. I never really questioned the news or newspapers… I never questioned authority. I grew up believing that conformity was a genetic trait, something that couldn’t be changed, nor was there any right or wrong about it. I was too young to appreciate hippies, free love, even asking questions. I trusted everything I needed to know would be told to me. Growing up I learned that marijuana was a very bad drug. VERY BAD!!!
Around age 16, I almost called the police on my younger sister when I found out she was using marijuana. That same year on a family vacation in Florida, at a young people’s, beach gathered campfire, a joint was passed to me at least 3 -4 times. I was with my sister and I toked on it, feeling free and different there on that beach, but nothing happened. I got drunk on a couple beers instead.
The news was just an unquestionable fact of life, all carefully judged and edited; but so was the whole of being a teenager, and things are even worse today.
I think it’s important to understand: President Nixon’s crown of thorns was passage of the Controlled Substances Act in 1970. It and other Acts reestablished marijuana in particular as a dangerous drug, as the Marijuana Tax Act and laws that came about because of that were found to be Unconstitutional in the early ’60’s. All those laws were set to expire if not reinforced by the time Nixon took office. Marijuana was temporarily placed in Schedule One status after passage of the CSA, until Nixon’s “Shafer Committee”, a Blue Ribbon panel of US experts thoroughly examined the use of cannabis. Wikipedia Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Commission_on_Marihuana_and_Drug_Abuse
By age 19 I was a mindless unhappy robot. My future and my life had been decided for me. I’d been taught to “respect, honor and obey”.
The Viet Nam war made it a little difficult to completely accept that, to accept conformity. But I had no thoughts of my own, at least thoughts and ideas that I was aware of. I was simply a honeycomb of following, walking in lockstep and hating anyone I was taught to hate.
All that changed around age 19 when a childhood friend surprised me and another friend with a dime bag of Panama Red. I got exquisitely high, and everything changed. I stopped hating people, I went back to college, I actually wanted to learn! I grew up out from a shell of a future American. I excelled in whatever I strived for. I became a non-conformist, exactly what the Shafer Commission warned about. It doesn’t matter I wanted to live suddenly and find a good life for myself. It matters that I was like Adam and Eve, having eaten the forbidden fruit, and I knew right and wrong, I had found myself.
That is why marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol. Your “Free America” Evening Bud has little to do with the news, but it everything to do our Constitutional Rights as Americans – to pursue our own dreams, something some people find in a guru, others in a lover, but for me it was cannabis. And that made me a public friend and enemy.
@ evening bud,
I was watching tv the last couple of nights and there is this beer Comercial that keeps playing about how years ago his family or uncle believed in this beer so much he went to the public fountain and pumped in this beer through the fountain i guess for the public to enjoy or see(looked like a party of sorts), im not sure, however I am like you when is the cannabis comercials going to be able to gain popularity?
When you can not only talk about beer in public places , but now can put a comerical on tv that projects not only is it ok to have beer in public but lets use it as a public display of arrogance by allowing a company to pump beer to the public at a party, and who was there to make sure “no child was left behind”?
Its just when were put under the micro scope, were “convicted” of wrong doing just by mentioning the word cannabis because the anti- cannabis groups want people to believe were irresponsible and by that we would put children in harms way , but with a little soft music and a great old story of how great things were, and bammmm, you can just allow alcohol to be thought of as a harmless drug.
This just reminds me of the north korean movie that was pushed into the light a couple of weeks ago…….”there are no birds, because they have been eaten, and americans lover hot snow to drink” I think it was called how north koreans think americans live
meaning how ignorance is in control of the media.
real quick im not for sure but i think rand’s comment was to gain the help from accross the isle, just a thought, maybe he is working the system backwards, lie then change for the good. just my thought or opinion…
well thats all from me
as always
thanks for reading
chris
Hey Chris,
Sorry, brother, but that wasn’t me who mentioned the pot commercials. But hey, sounds like a good idea–if they can have Bud commercials, why not bud commercials?
I personally have come to the conclusion, however, that part of America’s obesity problem has to do with all of the food commercials. I know when I see a big juicy slice of pizza or a cheese-dripping hamburger, I suddenly feel hungry. Ahhh, free enterprise.
Hey BobKat,
I was typing a reply to you, checked out your link, then accidentally, I think, erased my post halfway thru. So I’ll try to rewrite it:
Just wanted to say thanks for the recollections and insights. And that we’re pretty close in age. My last year in high school was 1973, and I remember seeing on TV that my draft number was 8! I thought that had happened in 1973, but you mentioned 1972, and you’re undoubtedly correct, my recollections must be off somehow. Anyway, I knew that with my luck, I’d be in the first wave of draftees, the next year, or after I graduated. But, like you, I was given a reprieve when the draft ended. Yeah!
I didn’t register for the draft thereafter, because it had ended, but about a year later I received a threatening letter from the draft board; they wanted an explanation as to why I hadn’t registered, then spelled out the penalties. I wrote ’em back, and registered, and was glad to never hear from them again.
Regarding Tricky Dick, I recall those years well, tho not the legislative details like you. I do recall his war on drugs, vividly, and also the big paraquat scares. Everyone I knew, it seemed, was worried about getting a bag of paraquat-tainted weed, worried the next lid they scored might sear their lungs. He was a complete Dick; and I shed no tears when he was forced from office.
Your introduction to good smokes was not too different from mine, I guess. I was a drinker as a teenager, and when my cousins or friends pushed the smokes on me, which they constantly did, I usually resisted. And I was usually so buzzed on the brew, that I couldn’t tell if I was buzzed from pot or not, and always told them it wasn’t doing anything to me.
When I was still in high school, my brother came home on leave from the Air Force. He was a cook, stationed on Guam, and served flight lunches to the pilots who were bombing North Viet Nam. Well, I noticed one night, when the rest of my family was asleep, that he’d gotten up and had gone outside. I couldn’t sleep and went and joined him. He was toking, and offered me a hit–with no pressure like I got from my friends and cousins. Well, I felt that buzz, and then some. And I liked it. Never looked back. I stopped drinking in my late thirties–alcohol of any sort began giving me bad headaches. I get a throbber halfway through bottle of beer. So the sweet smoke is my only vice, albeit a damned good one (tho I do smoke cigars and pipe tobacco very occasionally).
You’re right, btw, about MJ and our rights and such. Still, I can’t wait for the day that the corporate propaganda against pot is a thing of the past.
Best regards, Woody
The goal is to reform the Controlled Substance Act that gives cops and the DEA the unconstitutional authority to legislate marijuana. Since Nixon signed the act, the DEA created unlawful amendments such as assets forfeiture, funding to keep the FDA from admitting the obvious truth that marijuana is medicine, and as such the DEA creates private civil wars that drag our armies in to clean up the mess. We don’t have to get uneducated and say “wipe the DEA” out like Ron Paul suggested. Perhaps without the C.S.Act the DEA could play more of a role like customs and protect hemp from foreign trade. But we can no longer stand by while the DEA enslaves foreign nationals by taking their passports and forcing them to risk their lives and ruin their marriages as informants while the DEA slowly and deliberately milks a druglord dry.
We cannot afford to be complacent while the DEA lobbies to deny medicinal marijuana to people like my nephew with chrone’s disease who says he’d rather die of his symptoms than suffer the side effects of all the presribed pills the pharmaceutical companies have his insurance make him take. He was busted by his parents with some pot and that was the last time he had a decent appetite and reduced inflammation in his intestines.
Thank you everyone at NORMAL for what you are doing. The wave of truth is hitting every mountain and valley of our great nation and together we can be proud to be Americans in a land that let’s freedom ring.
Hey Julian, you make good points about the DEA. It is a shame that their primary goal seems to be attacks on citizens–US and foreign.
Sorry about your nephew; sincerely hope that situation can change for the better.
@Woody… aka “Evening Bud”
I found mixed results for when the draft actually ended! I saw official sources suggesting 1973 or even 1974. I know simply for a fact that when your draft # is 16 and the draft is on, in full speed ahead, my 18th birthday wasn’t something I looked forwards to. So when I heard news that the draft ended Aug. 31, 1972 I will never forget it.
Had #8, did you? How interesting. We might have served together, mate.
I was also very happy to see Nixon get his. I love those pictures of him pitching the peace sign, and yes he did end the draft but not because of us Americans, but rather the same thing that ended alcohol prohibition – money!
And now we have the Patriot Era… when patriotism is pushed down our throats in the name of national security. Kids are arrested for squirt guns in school. Sick.
I mentioned in my last post but failed to clarify, and thanks for the kudos on my knowledge of history, but to clarify, with passage of the CSA in 1970 cannabis was in legal limbo. Since nearly every law on the books was based upon the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937, and since that Act had been found to be unconstitutional; cannabis was in fact legal, per se, for a time, it’s just no one was told the truth. The political machine moved on, and cannabis was temporarily put in Schedule One classification until the Shafer Commission provided it’s opinion. Whatever it’s findings, they were to determine the fate of marijuana.
The commission found:
Wikipedia Link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_Substances_Act
“Part F of the Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970 established the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse—known as the Shafer Commission after its chairman, Raymond P. Shafer—to study marijuana abuse in the United States.[8] During his presentation of the commission’s First Report to Congress, Shafer recommended the decriminalization of marijuana in small amounts, saying:
[T]he criminal law is too harsh a tool to apply to personal possession even in the effort to discourage use. It implies an overwhelming indictment of the behavior which we believe is not appropriate. The actual and potential harm of use of the drug is not great enough to justify intrusion by the criminal law into private behavior, a step which our society takes only with the greatest reluctance.”
President Nixon ignored the commission’s findings and ordered permanent placement of cannabis as a Schedule One narcotic. There was literally no evidence to support his actions, other than money and subterfuge.
His actions resulted in my being spared the draft, but being subjected to Draconian rule.
Don’t like it… leave… that is our motto today. Peace anyone?
@ evening bud
my post to you was about your post on “Free press”
When The corporational world decides they want to be apart of the movement of medical cannabis, or recreational cannabsis, then they can and will allow for media coverage on television.
At our current time and presence we only have the said “tel”-(it’s now we need to find the)”e-vision” and put them together. That’s what i was getting at, It’s how they make us believe their way is correct by allowing us to view what they want us to allow as “socially acceptable” ect pumping alcohol into the square fountain…..Even if cannabis were fully legal. If you stomped out a joint and left it, much like the fountain of beer( un-gaurded), it would be thrown into our faces at how we allowed for this substance to be obtained by our children..when we as resposible consumers are not that ignorent.
When we all know how the truth is , and if they can get past their stage of “denial-of-service”, then maybe the media can play in our favor as well………..
Sorry if i led this one out there, as pointed out to me by an “old guy” at one point in my life….lol…. I hope it makes more since now.
Peace to all on this day of “Resurrection”
as always
thanks for reading
chris
@Evening Bud,
Thanks Bud. I’m more of a “morning bud” myself. A good view, some good coffee and a good morning bud would make one hell of a commercial to me.
Commercializing marijuana by ending the DEA’s cartel control through the C.S.Act would force the rest of the cartels to settle their disputes in court instead of the bloody streets of Laredo and Nuevo Laredo. How about a commercial like “I’d like to buy the world a toke… for perfect har-mo-ny…” and show a couple of Mexican cartel bosses shaking hands and sharing a big churro outside of a courtroom? “Mexi-Churros; Viva la Paz!”
I have some good political and personal reasons to see these made to fail drug wars end. I believe it’s the personal voice at the grassroots that’s going to move our vote. On the political side, rogue government agencies pay off the media, sell their “marijuana madness and brand activists as “conspiracy theorists.” Allow me to share a few short stories and essays of my activism, first political and then personal, and you tell me which one will get the votes out.
SEXPIONAGE AND THE POLITICAL BULLET
On the political side I don’t know whether to cry or laugh. It turns out the DEA was showing our secret service where all the prostitutes were in Cartagena. Remember the Summit of the America’s last year? Memory refresher: It was the event at which that Secret Service scandal occured. It also happens to be the first time since Nixon signed the Controlled Substance Act that a U.S. President (Obama) had to respond to international scrutiny over the failed drug wars. The Presidents of Honduras, Guatemala and even Mexico would not attend unless they had a response which had never happened before. Obama responded; He said “We will not be changing our drug policy at this time,” (during an election year of course), But the problem is nobody heard his response because we were all too busy soaking up the drama of whether some Colombian prostitutes committed SEXpionage? REALLY? I brought this point up verbatim to the Dianne Rheams Show on NPR. I said, “Which brings me to my final question; is it Secret Service policy to defend the President from political bullets? Because… if that’s the case, then it appears the Secret Service did their job after all.” I had some former SS officer rolling. Dianne turns to him and says, “What ARE we talking about?” And in true political fashion, the Officer replies, “I don’t know but that’s the best conspiracy theory I ever heard.”
While I was glad Dianne put me on the show, the show ended with me labeled as conspiracy theorist. Funny thing is my last comment was complete satire. Only intelligent people would have caught on to that. But we’re trying to sway a broader audience; Not just some dumb agent who fails to pay a hooker.
My 3 Personal Reasons to End the Drug Wars
and the Controlled Substance Act.
My wife is Mexican. We have two kids and travel to Mexico at least once a year. Also, my friend of twelve years, A Mexican foreign national we’ll call “Al”, was just placed under witness protection after 3 marriages and 11 years of slavery to the DEA. He was busted with some coke back then and from there on agents used him to infiltrate the same drug lord for more than a decade. Sure they had enough evidence on the guy, but Al was a good soldier. The DEA could make their quotas on the small fries buying from the kingpin and meanwhile the crooked cops were raking in a fortune in drug money, prostitution and rent from all the clubs the kingpin owned downtown. Meanwhile Al was forced to tell his first, then second wife, that he had a night job but couldn’t tell when he’d be home or what he was doing. Even when he told his third wife, against the “rules” of his agent overseers, she has been shifty and lonely at night.
Al called a few days ago and said,” This is the last time I can use this cell phone, and I don’t know when I’m coming back,” the marriage was already on the rocks. I wonder if she went with him? Leave her family for a man she could hardly get to know? Would the DEA finally give Al his passport back and the VISA they had been promising all this time? The J Visa from the Justice Department only works while you work for them. A kind of modern day bondage– entrapment if your line of work involves drug dealers playing Russian Roulette to your head at night. Al lost count of how many times the trigger pulled empty to his head. He said his blood turned cold. I wonder if they finally give him that VISA, IF he fianally gets out of hiding, who will he BE then to enjoy the freedom he sacrificed so much for? Will the agents ever be satisfied, close their case and let Al go? Will his third wife stick around for that?
Al’s story needs to be told. All the Glamour in Hollywood films like “The Departed” or “Goodfellas,” doesn’t even pierce the hell-on-earth of being an informant. Drug informants are merely slaves of the U.S. Justice Department that perpetuate the Beurocracy of made to fail Drug Wars for profit.
The Political Interpretation; Made-to-Fail
Drug Wars.
Every war we’ve been in since Nixon took office has been about selling drugs and guns, and outlawing hemp and marijuana has been the worst racket of all. The iron triangle sold heroin out of Vietnam, and the source of opium is where we’ve been for more than a decade now in Afghanistan. What the hell is the DEA doing THERE may we ask? I mean, besides regulating the opium trade for the sale of weapons. The only good news is that hemp and marijuana are now the leading crops in Afghanistan, giving the world our only glimmering hope for peace in that harsh country. Lord knows I’d gladly buy an Afghan carpet made of hemp if it ment we could send our agents and soldiers home, and keep the profits for the farmer instead of the Taliban who ransomed the farmer’s daughter. I certianly don’t want to go deeper in debt using our precioous tax dollars on NATO troops who block the roads while the Afghan police pillage the opium farm conveniently around harvest time.
Fear and Forgiveness in the Drug War.
Last Christmas was the first time I was afraid. Calm on the surface, but not as willing to forgive the stares from men in uniform holding Ak-47s at the Mexican border or the uncertainty of the road ahead. We were driving. All the way to Jalisco, land of the agave, my wife and I and daughter of 5 and son of 2. My first impression of Piedras Negras when we crossed though Eagle Pass was, “Wow. I don’t remember seeing everything so clean.” Then it hit me– not just the speedbumps– but the realization that the roads were freshly paved. The permit office, or “Aduana,” was much further inland and secure than the one in Laredo. I was pleasantly shocked; President Calderon really DID spend on infrastructure. No WONDER Mexicans were going home; there was more work in Mexico during the recession than there was in the States. As my mind wandered through the open desert mountains of the Sierra Madres, I wondered about freedom and fear; Anger and forgiveness. I wondered about the freedom to drive my family safely from Texas to Mexico without fear of being hijacked or caught in the middle of a gun battle in the streets. I wondered what all these cartels would do if marijuana incorporated. Would it be enough to cut the funding out of all the meth they started purchasing from the Chinese after California opened up their pot-shops? Then I started blaming the DEA, the principal cartel, for dragging us into these civil wars that no one wants. Selling guns like the botched Fast and Furious Scandal where the ATF sold guns to the Mexican cartel while the DEA supplied the Mexican armies. Are we no better than Russia selling to both sides in Syria?
I watched my family sleeping in the car in silent thought. I watched the still blue mountains in the distance while the large saguaro cactus flew by like telephone poles on the highway. Maybe it’s all just a matter of perspective, I thought. Like the fact I was going 100 miles an hour where it said 100 kilometers per hour. There are no cops to enforce me here, I thought. Through the desert mountains before the red and white soil converted into the dark green and brown Jaliscan tropics that opened up the earth with sights and smells we saw an SUV overturned in the median with a whole family hanging dead from the flattened windows. A single teenaged soldier held a gun from outside a lonely little red pick up truck. No ambulance in sight. I slowed down quickly when I saw the soldier which woke my wife who inhaled loudly and quickly. The kids shot up out of sleep and I told them to “look at the bird!” pointing the other way. As we cruised at a lower speed my wife and I crossed ourselves and prayed for the family. We talked about how greatful we were for air life support and cops who were paid a decent wage in the States. But as the flat desert ended and the warm jungle greeted our long ascent up the cliffs of Juentitan, I couldn’t help but appreciate the bitter irony of the situation. My kids have a more dangerous
As a young man of eighteen years in 1970 , i joined a group calling itself the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. I donated twenty five dollars , a tidy sum considering I only made $150.00 a month back then. Guess I would be considered a founding member these days. I am glad to see my money was well spent and the struggle has made slow but true progress. Back in 1970 , backing an organization like NORML was dangerous and considered treasonous. I did it solely because I believed it was the right thing to do. Glad to see I was not wrong. Keep up the good work, It has been forty three years and I am still hopeful that I will see marijuana totally decriminalized in my life time.
@ BobKat,
Very interesting, that Shafer report. I was completely unaware of it. Shafer seemed like a fairly level-headed sort. As for the Tricky One, well . . . like you said . . .
That old phrase, I hated it–“America, Love it or leave it.” But it does seem to ring true once again. This patriot stuff is already getting old. All this chest thumping. Look what it got us in Iraq–a near Depression.
And the powers that be have used that zeal and nationalism to shove the crap down our throats, like you said. Can’t believe we still have such strict airport regulations, because of that one shoe bomber. What would’ve happened if he’d actually been successful? No more flights, period? Armed guard on every aisle? Full cavity searches for everyone? Very weird times we’re living in. Talk about the fall of the Roman Empire. We had to endure our own Caligula, and Praetorian Guard, just a few years ago.
BTW, regarding your research of the end of the draft, it appears maybe we were both right after all. I remember looking up at the TV–same thing, it seems indelibly burned into my mind, seeing my birthday listed there, so high on the list. And I was sure it was 1973, the year I graduated. I was already 18 because I’d started first grade in Texas, and you had to be 6 years old at that time to start first grade there; I was an October baby, so that meant I had to wait a whole year to start school, when I was almost 7 y.o.! But, maybe that was my saving grace, what kept me from getting drafted one year earlier.
Take care.
Jerry, my friend, thanks for your contributions. You were one of the pioneers.
Chris, everything you say is true. I think those bad days are slowly changing! I would say I will “hit” one for you tonight, but, alas, have to go “cold turkey” for about a month! Lol.
@ Chris,
Hey pal, just read your earlier post about the pot and beer commercials. Totally agree. I honestly do think some people’s minds are changing about pot. My mom, who’s over 80 y.o. now, used to fall for all the crap about it. But, she’s seen personally the destructive effects of alcohol on her family–nephews, etc–compared to the effects of pot, and now understands alcohol is far more destructive. My mother-in-law, a staunch conservative, also seems to understand that.
So, minds are indeed slowly changing for the better. Take care, buddy.
@Julian,
That’s a very funny idea for a commercial, LOL. One I know I’d very much enjoy!
You’ll have to excuse me for the moment, till later, Julian, I have to get going now, but will return and finish your comment; looks very interesting. I’ll be back.
Hey, Julian, made it back.
Re Sexpionage and the political bullet, I saw a snippet of that on the news–probably MSNBC. And I was of course very disappointed with Obama’s response–felt it was a total cop out. I suspected he must’ve discussed the matter more comprehensively with those other state officials once the cameras were gone; but wish he’d been a bit more revealing to us (his own citizens). BTW, that’s funny, your comment on NPR, wish I’d been tuned in.
Regarding your friend, Al, that’s a tragic story. After seeing on the news all the stories about our CIA’s practices on detainees, I’m not surprised at all what they did to Al. Hope his life can have a semblance of normalcy. Hope he can finally get freed of their clutches.
Re the American occupations of Viet Nam, Afghan, etc., I agree. Seems we’re always sticking our noses around the world. Our sticky fingers in those places reminds me of Britain’s “Opium War” in China in the 1800s. Slimy stuff. We got bloodied in Afghan, like Viet Nam, for no useful purpose, and caused total misery to the citizens of those countries in the process. It only took one generation, or slightly more, for Americans to forget the lessons of Viet Nam; hopefully we’ll recall Afghan and Iraq before desiring to rush into the next occupation. I have a good friend, btw, whose son is over there now, in Afghan, with one of the Ranger outfits, hope he can return safely.
Regarding your trip to Mexico, very interesting stuff as well. I’ve also noticed the big decrease in immigration, and figured our poor economy had something to do with it. Your experience in Mexico is very revealing. I live in the Southwest, and my wife and I used to go to Juarez now and then. You couldn’t pay me to go there now, it’s so dangerous. But, as you’ve eloquently described, it’s a problem that we–the USA–have helped create. Very sad and troubling. Hopefully, Mexico can keep getting it together; seems they can’t rely much on us for real help.
As an aside, I was always against States rights, because of all the racial connotations. Now, I’ve come to believe it’s the only way we’re gonna get MJ legalized in this country.
Take care, friend.
@Evening Bud…
It became obvious 20 years ago that the only way to remedy change in Washington was via State’s Rights. As can be seen by Nixon’s body-slam to the original intent of the CSA with the law to be based on the findings of the Shafer committee, and his total defiance in the face of the law, States were the only solution. NH has an interesting article of it’s Constitution, #83 which in my opinion legalizes cannabis and makes it off-hands for the state of NH to interfere with personal use of cannabis, although they do – but in my opinion it violates our Constitutional Rights. If only I was or had an attorney!
The federal gov’t likes to quote the federal commerce clause to prohibit cannabis. This is totally an overreach of what was conceived of in the commerce act. To say that an individual growing their own cannabis is in violation of the Commerce clause is like saying prostitution in NV does the same thing. Or gambling in Las Vegas or Atlantic City does the same thing.
Fact is… as another commenter posted some beer ads go way overboard suggesting public fountains of beer… bad enough alcohol ads suggest happy go lucky people when so many people suffer health problems. How about ads for mountains of sugar or salt that people flock to for divine intervention and energy?
What people chose to do cannabis wise in the privacy of their home is not criminal… don’t care what the laws say, and ironically for every dollar spent pushing the fact that government has a right to tell you “NO”, the Constitution speaks a lot louder.
In God We Trust needs to be followed up by what God gave humans in Genesis. Anything less is totally unacceptable. It’s ironic once again that any mention that the US doesn’t deserve the right to print “In God We Trust” on money is attacked by Christians that atheists are attacking our Christian heritage. Yet, all we’re saying is put your money where your mouth is… if you’re going to condemn people using a plant that requires no manufacturing except by God’s hands, then take the fucking motto off US currency, because it’s obvious if you trust in alcohol, sugar, salt and tobacco, then you sure as shit ought to trust in cannabis.
Have you noticed, btw, the federal gov’t/Obama has yet to make a statement about legalization of cannabis in WA and CO? The reason why is they think they have the best hand… as cannabis was illicitly placed into Schedule One by Nixon in violation of the intent of the CSA, they think the two states will never be able to make a profit due to federal banking regulations. So they play the three monkeys… totally abandoning working with those states, as well as 18 others with medical cannabis laws.
Yeah Obama has bigger fish to fry… after spending over a trillion dollars aggressively attacking cannabis they do nothing???
Think about it?
@ BobKat,
Many interesting points here. That commerce clause, I have to admit, still confuses the heck outta me. Seems almost like a catch-22 sort of thing, where the govt can impose sanctions almost arbitrarily. Am I completely wrong on that?
As regards Obama and Holder, et al, I am still a bit worried. I’m definitely glad Obama didn’t come out directly against Colo and Wash on their legalization votes; but he does seem to be playing coy. (Perhaps he is focused for the time being on other issues.) Or, like you intimated, waiting/hoping perhaps for the illegality of it to play out–citing the Schedule One conflict and so forth–so they don’t have to take direct action themselves.
It’ll be interesting to see how the Feds/Obama react once Colo and Wash send in their recommendations or procedures to the Feds, and actually begin to implement their new laws. Also, it’ll be interesting to see how they react if (read, when) other states begin legalizing. They can resist the wishes of two states much easier than they can a dozen.
PS–I have mixed feelings on the issue of taxing a natural plant. While I definitely understand your point about it being a product of nature/God, I also know that that’s never stopped most govts from taxing many other natural or God-given plants or resources–tobacco, corn, even water . . .
@ Evening Bud…
The federal commerce act or clause is sound in principal and necessary for a safe country, however, it’s easily corrupted by politicians with bigger or smaller fish on their minds, especially fish in a particular state that may not like what the federal gov’t wants. It’s not a catch-22 at all… a catch-22 is a situation of two opposing forces of which there is no possibility of mediation or compromise. In this case the federal gov’t uses the commerce clause as a weapon or tool to bully a state into getting what it wants.
Yes, I’m also concerned about Holder/Obama… it would have been considerate and polite to make an immediate statement about CO and WA. The federal gov’t has spent over a trillion $$$ on cannabis eradication and prohibition in the past 43 years… the fact that two states legalize it? And they do nothing? Imagine a psychotic kid who’s suddenly been threatened to have his favorite toy taken away… how do you think that kid feels – well he doesn’t feel, he’s psychotic. At first he doesn’t say a thing. He pretends he doesn’t care. Then in the dark of night… well you get the idea.
CO and WA don’t have to submit anything to the Federal gov’t. The state is not breaking any state laws and states have a right to sovereign governance. Yes, if legalizing cannabis violated any federal laws they would be wise to work with the feds, but as long as they don’t conduct interstate commerce they are antonymous. In this case however, the feds were clever in that since the 1920’s-30’s they gained a monopoly on banking regulations. It’s an interesting history as prior to that states and even businesses controlled their own banking… but due to a few very large corporations secret meeting were held on Jekyll Island in with the federal reserve was hatch to protect large corporations. Look it up.
The feds can no more dismiss the laws of one or two states than they can many. True, if only one or the other had passed legalization laws, they might, like they did CA, bully them. But two states… ? Plus CA, plus 18 with medical cannabis laws… the feds are facing the ultimate… “you all took my favorite toy away from me”.
What will they do? I pray they do the right thing and get out of the cannabis control as it’s obvious most tax-payers, over 50% of us don’t like their involvement.
Alcohol was decriminalized when the federal gov’t was broke in the 1930’s… so if they want to tax cannabis fine by me. But it’s not a manufactured product as alcohol and tobacco are (yes, tobacco is highly subject to manufacturing and adulteration processes, where few would stand for adulterated cannabis which is why the tobacco industry is venomously opposed to legalization, although they claim they aren’t. American’s don’t want manufactured cannabis, they want the plant God produces.
Even God is on trial here… God is the only manufacturer of pure cannabis. Even the idea that the cannabis of today is not the cannabis of the 70’s is flawed, as no genetic manipulations of cannabis are responsible if in fact it is more potent now. If so, it is because of natural marriages of different strains and breeding practices. Unlike alcohol, what thy blatantly ignore and disregard is that more potent cannabis only means one needs less to achieve the high, whereas with alcohol, more alcohol is always required.
A fallacy pushed by the feds and NIH is that the stronger the cannabis the more dangerous it is. That is true when comparing beer to whiskey, but quite untrue when comparing the cannabis of the 70’s to the cannabis of today.
Yet ignorant people believe it because most of the time “stronger” is more of a threat… but with cannabis, it only means if you smoke it or eat it you need less. More does nothing… and if the concern is mental illness the cannabis of yesteryear is no more less harmful than the cannabis today, but fortunately, or tragically, alcohol still will cause more mental illness than the most potent cannabis. That’s science. That’s what Obama/Holder/ the NIH don’t want to admit because corporations that currently exist have a lot of power when it comes to political decisions and law.
Cannabis is technically simply a herb, and nontaxable. But WE are saying if collecting taxes on cannabis will allow you to accept it as a part of a persons right to be free than by all means tax it – simply stop making criminals out of US! Stop The Hurt!
@ BobKat,
Thanks for the enlightenment on the commerce clause. It’s somewhat as I suspected, given your explanation, that it’s a tool used by the feds . . .
As regards the taxing of natural plants, what I consider gifts of nature, you consider gifts of God, but for our purposes, that’s semantics–differing opinions. Concerning the issue of taxing altered plants like tobacco, compared to “non-altered” plants, like MJ, again I’m wondering if this is your opinion. I personally don’t believe one is necessarily right and the other wrong, don’t see a real difference; when you make that case that there is, are you giving your opinion? Or are you citing actual laws?
Govt’s throughout history have taxed natural resources, pure or not, including plants, salt, water and even land. How does MJ differ?
Also, when you write that CO and WA don’t have to “submit anything” to the Feds, again I ask, is that your opinion, or a fact? You mention that those states aren’t breaking any state laws, which of course, is true, but they are running counter to Fed law in regards to legalized MJ. You seem to be saying that it’s solely an interstate transport issue . . . enlighten me, brother. I would actually like to know.
I’m not saying I agree with the Feds on these issues, or that you’re wrong, just playing the devil’s advocate here. I guess I’m wondering if some of these issues are more your opinion or are in fact based on legislation. They may be issues that come up.
Take care, E. Bud.
PS–I wholeheartedly agree on the issue of stronger strains, and such. I stopped messing with swag years ago, for those very reasons.
@ Evening Bud
Well are you a devil or an advocate? LOL
Consider everything I say my “Educated opinion”, and I say that as (disclaimer)I am not in any way, shape or form a legal eagle.
I am not an attorney, nor in law enforcement or gov’t. I have a BA in English and have studied cannabis and prohibition of said plant since around 1975 – I say studied cannabis as I had jobs at schools and colleges that gave me access to material previously only available at libraries, when there wasn’t an internet advantage.
#1: I was raised “devout” Protestant… I am not a Bible trumpeter. To me “natural plant is obvious, but it’s also true that being a Christian nation (or at least in theory) it’s also true God gave all the plants of the world to humankind, and long before Jesus sacrificed himself, Adam and Eve were cursed (Eve especially) but, God forgave them while he/she were exiled from the Garden of Eden because now they had knowledge, something God apparently didn’t wish them to have. Frankly, the story speaks only to me that the “truth will set you free”, and freedom in a sense and knowledge is a curse of sorts. Conclusion – for a Country that prints “In God We Trust” on all it’s currency, ignoring the lesson of the Book of Genesis is unacceptable. A gov’t can’t Trust in God and not trust in God both at the same time. It’s one or the other.
RE: Taxation… the feds tax gasoline, income, and who knows what else. The states tax their specialties. In my state, sugar, salt, spices, meats, bread, rice, etc. are not taxed. But if you make a sandwich with those ingredients, they tax the sandwich. They tax alcohol and tobacco, partly as a sin tax, but also as they are processed, manufactured. Tax law is obviously complicated, and I really don’t know what laws govern what the feds and states must do to tax one something while not taxing another something. The “Marijuana Tax Act” was a reach by the federal gov’t back in 1937 because there was only one precedent to allowing such taxation, and that was to prohibit possession of machine guns by the average citizen. Prior to passage of prohibitive tax on machine guns there was no president to taxation of a plant like cannabis. And in fact, in the 1960’s (I don’t have the case ingrained in my mind) the MJ Tax act was found to be Unconstitutional as it required that you present your cannabis product to a federal tax agent to pay the tax, but since you hadn’t paid the tax you possessed it illegally. That was a Catch-22!!!.
RE: State’s Rights and states being subservient to the Federal gov’t… that is the battle our Founding Fathers fought, establishing the US Constitution and our Bill of Rights. Federalists believe the states have the right to govern themselves, and some other such term says the federal gov’t has the right to control the states. The fact is a balance of sorts was achieved, and as such, although gambling and prostitution is illegal under federal law, in principal, there are states that have laws legalizing those things. Now CO and WA have laws legalizing cannabis, and no, NV and NJ don’t have to submit anything to the federal gov’t, as far as I understand it so they can have legalized gambling and prostitution.
The case with cannabis is, on a federal level an issue of interstate commerce and banking regulations. Like a states refusal to enforce federal seat-belt laws or highway speed limits, the federal gov’t can without money as punishment to a state, but a state can pretty much do anything it chooses if it’s willing to suffer the wrath of federal authorities.
RE: Stronger strains… happy we agree on one front… like duh… the more cannabis I smoke the more dangerous I get, ahh, not quite… maybe for real the more I want to take a nap, lol. That is a real public safety issue, eh, hombre? – home alone, stoned and wanting to sleep. Or not wanting to drive. Quite different than getting drunk and wanting to scream down the road at 90 miles per hour to vent.
Hope I clarified my myself.
@ BobKat–
Thanks, you did clarify yourself adroitly (as you usually do). And no, BobKat, we actually agree on most fronts, I’m positive. I do have a tendency to get a bit stubborn–read contentious–on the issue of religion, but try to show respect. My wife is devout, a Catholic, and she and I occasionally cross swords on the subject, particularly organized religion, but always with healthy respect on both our parts, I’m happy to say.
Concerning your points about taxation, and the interaction between the Fed and states, I found the information very enlightening, as I’d hoped–and anticipated. Your knowledge of those subjects shows, and is quite helpful to those like me who are striving to sort out the often complex information.
Didn’t mean to seem contentious in my last post. Oftentimes, on message boards such as this, people give their opinions far more so than they do facts; and I’m certainly as guilty as anyone on that score. I thought I had detected opinion in your last post more so than I usually do in your posts, and so was, indeed, trying for clarifications. (You’ve spoiled me, BobKat, I’m used to getting the straight dope from you, lol!) But, I’m happy to say that you clarified your points with flying colors–as expected.
Take care, pal, E. Bud
@ Evening Bud
Who says on “message boards” individuals can’t have meaningful discussions?
For the record, although I was raised “devout Protestant”, I gave that up many years ago. But the lessons learned are still there. I consider myself a spiritualist now, not an atheist. I am saddened by conflict between organized religious groups, such as those who resist being a part of solutions together. I believe organized religion needs to grow up a lot and Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists need to learn to be more tolerate of each other and cooperate with each other. I believe those who feel spiritual outside of organized religions deserve to be accepted. I believe the federal government wears it’s religion like a pin, without significant reverence, and that’s troubling to me.
I forgot to mention that pharmaceuticals/medicine in my state is not taxed. Yet if cannabis were legalized as medicine it would be taxed, as it is in CA and other states with medical cannabis laws. This treats medicine as a commodity, which it’s not, and to me that’s wrong. Even taxing cannabis for “recreational use”, in quotes as it’s simply a plant, seems wrong, but I’d accept that for the betterment of society, but other simple (as in unadulterated plants) aren’t taxed so unless cannabis is sold as brownies, ice-cream, gourmet foods I really don’t see why it should be taxed or even regulated. I can’t think of any other natural plant that is taxed. So it’d be a “sin-tax”, but again, In God We Trust, so how can a plant that is unprocessed be a sin?
As to my opinions, educated ones, sure, I have obvious opinions sometimes. When my opinions are based on facts or legal precedents I try to make that clear. Not being an attorney, I don’t always use the best phrases however.
Detecting more opinion than I previously may have used is interesting to me. I appreciate I’ve spoiled you, but don’t know how that is so. I’m simply sincere and dedicated to stopping the hurt the War on Drugs has created. It is so blatantly obvious to me that the War on Drugs is not only perhaps the worse failure the USA has ever pursued, but also the most harmful war upon it’s citizens never recognized as such. Politicians have been so blindsided by the war that they fail to have seen how whole generations have been seriously injured – either by preventing cannabis minded couples from ever finding each other (where alcohol minded couples could) to prohibiting cannabis inspired art, literature, peace initiatives, medical research, therapies; as well as wrongful imprisonment, loss of life, loss of jobs and promising careers and an overall suffocation of anyone into cannabis while encouraging alcohol art, and proliferation. Every time I watch a movie or TV show where tow or more people enjoy alcohol I cringe. That is not reality. That is not my opinion. That is segregation and favoritism – perhaps not the correct terms, but an example of what’s wrong in the society I grew up in and will die in.
I have known a lot of violence within the alcohol community and actually none within the cannabis community. Except when it comes to being busted!!!
One last thing… although NORML is the National Organization for Marijuana Reform, it’s name is derived from the fact that government insists on calling cannabis marijuana, which a racial prejudice. Cannabis is cannabis, or if you prefer, we called it ganja prior to the 1930’s.
Time to end the War, and Stop the Hurt.
@BobCat: you make good points on the religions…all that you mentioned, save the Jewish faith, are the making of mankind. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship. See II Cor 5:18 “And all things [are] of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;” and let the spirit lead you from there. Just like he said in Gen 1:11-12: if God saw that the herb yielding seed was good, who dares say otherwise? Hopefully soon we can overcome the preponderance of lies and simply let the plant grow freely, and use it the same. May peace and grace be with us all.