The political and cultural victories for the marijuana legalization movement continue to accumulate as new developments lead us closer to the ultimate goal of full legalization. Just in the last couple of weeks, we’ve seen the powerful, unambiguous endorsement of full legalization by the most influential newspaper in America: The New York Times.
That endorsement was followed by a series of six follow-up editorials explaining in more detail precisely why the Times decided to join the fight to end prohibition. Additionally, The Brookings Institution, a highly respected Washington, DC think tank, published a very favorable report card on the first six months of the legal sales of marijuana in Colorado.
These were both significant events, because they involved respected institutions known for their careful and thorough analysis of important public policy issues. Neither has a history of backing a pro-pot agenda, so their support both elevates the issue and makes a strong argument for regulation.
Go to Marijuana.com for the rest of this column.
Marijuana is our Holy Tree of Life Communion NOT eating dead flesh and drinking blood. Marijuana is brain food for Reasoning Together. That’s why it is illegal: to break up our community and stop us reasoning together. You can’t have a sensible talk drinking alcohol.
All Cannabis charges are MALICIOUS PROSECUTIONS and the police and the court know it. Tell the jury they are being used to criminalize and enslave for a victimless crime they have completely failed to control.
The jury must know someone who smokes!
Misinformation and Reefer Madness is still a big problem. I’m looking for an article that I saw in a local North Georgia paper, in which the author states that teen use, crime rates, and traffic fatalities are on the rise, and how much more dangerous today’s cannabis is, due to it’s higher potency. This all runs contrary to actual reports coming out of Colorado, of fewer teens using, fewer traffic fatalities, and the murder rate cut in half.
These authors of misinformation need to be confronted, and called out for their fraud, and in many cases, even face criminal charges. If you use false pretenses to trick someone out of $2,000, you have committed a felony. Well, multi-national corporations are using this misinformation to rake in billions of dollars (research Harry Anslinger’s connection to Hearst, Dow, and DuPont).
We have been lied to, robbed, and laughed at for over nine decades, millions of lives every year are systematically ruined, and every Law Enforcement Badge has been turned into a License to Commit Armed Robbery, and to Kidnap for Ransom.
A day will come when those who have profited from this act of fraud will face severe penalties for their Crimes Against Humanity.
They should pray that they are shown the mercy that they have denied to the rest of us…
I hope with all my heart to be able to legally grow and consume my favorite herb and this article gives me great hope! 🙂
It is fantastic that the will of the people is winning out over the trillion or more tax dollars that our Govt has spent to prohibit marijuana. For now, there are a few eggheads in power that are continuing to stop it, but I don’t think the idiocy can last for much longer…
Steve very we’ll said
@Keith,
I just watched the clip (again) of you on Pen and Teller’s Bull$#!+. (Good work, by the way). What amazes me most is that Pen says he’s never smoked marijuana, done any drugs, or even sipped any alcohol, (which I find most difficult to believe, but they are in the business of busting bull$#!+…)And yet he advocated ending prohibition so eloquently.
Another entertaining 2 hours to watch when your having your evening bud is here:
Listen to the introductions of these Congressman who express fear and concern for marijuana legalization, yet simultaneously reject the regurgitated denial from the ONDCP. Even the Republican from Florida is like, “What about this gateway theory?”
(To which Dep. Director Boticelli has no answer).
The ONDCP is trying to scramble to save themselves by going down the “middle,” (Or what they THINK is compromise), where we don’t do full legalization, but we don’t arrest and prosecute low level offenders for marijuana possession… we treat addiction as a medical problem we can’t arrest our way out of.”
Sounds good, but…
Problem is even our legislators can smell the bull$#!+. I mean where do you get the hubris to admit, “Yeah, marijuana is safer than alcohol, but we’re gonna just keep prohibition anyway cuz marijuana is bad… yeah… that’s it.”
The best part of celebrating the end of Prohibition is watching nut jobs like Boticelli try to explain their own hypocritical existence.
Smoke on Keith. Victory is a slowly unraveling bud of emerald-green, fragrant lemon diesel. Enjoy.
Marihuana is to cannabis
what gay marriage is to marriage:
An unnecessary, prejudiced distinction
made merely for bigots in powerful positions
to subsequently forbid its legitimate use
from those whom they dislike.
This straightforward definition of marijuana
will identify the substance which we should
control, and provide guidance for reasonable
cannabis policy:
The term ‘marijuana’ means all parts of the smoke
produced by the combustion of the plant Cannabis
sativa L.
As an example of this, see the cannabis joint in
Mr. Stroup’s hand, the smoke wafting up from it,
and that there are no children present.
Imagine what the world would be like today, if
our elected leaders respected our Constitution,
and had enacted this definition at any point
in the past 4 decades. Imagine what the world
would be like tomorrow if they enacted it today.
Now is a good time to call upon them to enact
this definition, because, of course the current
definition has failed.
It took a really long time and a lot of casualty but the truth is finally coming out. A lot of brainwashed people are resisting the marijuana changes but science and logic is wining. The same thing happened in 1933 when alcohol prohibition ended.
The worst thing about marijuana prohibition is that the U.S. government has used as a bartering tool in foreign policy. The DEA would offer a few surplus aircraft and a ton of money in the name of “The War on Drugs” in order to infiltrate and monitor foreign countries. It’s all a nasty mess and it won’t die any time soon.
Has any one been pressing 60 minutes to do a full so miutes on the facts from Colorado? If they do that will be and extra straw to help break the cammel back.
I support marijuana legalization.
I was crippled in 2008, and have been on several types of narcotic pain medications since that time. Even though I do not abuse these medications, after six years of using them, they have done damage to my body that is impossible to ignore. I have also paid thousands of dollars, encountered terrible people working in the world’s worse organization (The US Healthcare system) and been accused of being a drug addict.
If marijuana would be a safer alternative for pain, not make me paranoid (I haven’t used marijuana since 1995, but quit because it did make me paranoid) and be available in a form that I wouldn’t have to support, I would gladly rally for it.
If marijuana would be a safer alternative for pain, not make me paranoid (I haven’t used marijuana since 1995, but quit because it did make me paranoid) and be available in a form that I wouldn’t have to support, I would gladly rally for it.
**I meant, wouldn’t have to SMOKE, not support
Had to attach this post I wrote to the Times over the new Colorado “anti-” marijuana ads aimed at teens;
Thanks Governor Hickenlooper; Thank you for placing teenagers in cages all around the State of Colorado. Because if ANYTHING is going to stop kids from drinking alcohol, THAT’s the way to do it. (What? That’s an anti-MARIJUANA campaign? BULL$#!+!)
Didn’t we figure out that D.A.R.E. PROMOTED drug use? This isn’t a campaign, it’s a frickin ADVERTISEMENT! And we unilaterally REJECT the idea that responsible marijuana use lowers IQ. Don’t smoke or vaporize while you’re in school. Otherwise, vape all you want. It will expand your mind and raise your IQ.
And one last thing; Can we PLEASE stop using the word SCHIZOPHRENIC to describe our drug policy? Our drug policy is IMMORAL, UNJUST and creates VIOLENT law enforcement & cartel corruption.
Marijuana can TREAT schizophrenia if you select a Charlotte’s Web style of cannabis high in anti-psychoactive CBDs and low in THC. That’s right, cannabis high in CBDs is ANTI-psychoactive! Why doesn’t Governor Hickenlooper promote THAT? (Or try some himself!… And I thought Robyn Williams was bi-polar! Jeez!)
We should really get the media to stop calling it “marijuana” its so racist and sexist. It implies it makes “Mary wanna” (marijuana) have sex with African Americans and Hispanics. Just bring that up.
Suspect dirty tricks; another big drug bust makes the evening news. Bales of coke, and heroin, stacks of money, row upon row of dangerous looking assault weapons, it’s confirmed marijuana is a gateway to harder drugs,gangs, and violence. I would not put it past our government law enforcement agency’s the Cia, Dea, or yes the Atf, to flood areas of the country, the western United States, Colorado, and Washington with cheap coke, heroin, and guns in a effort to discredit the legalization movement. Does the fast and furious jog your memory? I know my prohibitionists even on a personal level I know them. lies, and dirty little tricks.
“It is terribly important that these respected, credible, well-established think tanks, such as Brookings Institution, Rand, CATO and others, continue to follow carefully the progress of implementing legalization in the two states that now license legal dispensaries, and be prepared to inform the public debate on these issues. With the benefit of reports such as this recent Brookings report, we have the opportunity to win this battle for people’s hearts and minds.”
Man, does this paragraph bring a smile to my face.
Prohibition is the end of humanity. It is supported politically by making bullying threats and frantic excuses. Everything will become mandatory with no need to understand once it reaches it’s goal.
@Voice,
Yes, I remember the Fast and Furious Scandal during Obama’s first term, as well do many Americans who are concerned that the ATF has exclusive authority to disclose the tracking of serial numbers on weapons “traced” to contrived civil drug wars.
“We sold them to the warring cartels to see where the guns would end up.”
Wow, big surprise ATF, they ended up killing innocent civilians and a DEA agent.
I have a friend who is a Mexican national who was busted with some coke 14 years ago. The DEA took his passport and issued him what’s called a “J” Visa. Essentially, a “J” visa means “You get to stay in the U.S. as long as you work for (as an informant) for the Department of Justice.” Not even the Department of State knows you exist. Your only haven, possibly, is the consulate of your native nation. In other words, you risk the life of yourself and your family, don’t tell your wife what you do at night, grin and bear the Russian Roulette played to your head on a nightly basis and see how long you stay married.
Meanwhile the DEA let’s the kingpin free like a milk cow and busts all the little wannabe dealers surrounding the whole dirty racket, with federal agents paid off with money, prostitutes and drugs. That’s our “Justice” system with a capital “J.”
Or you could call it extortion, slavery and the denigration of American Democracy as we know it. However you prefer.
Recently, my friend has been sent repeatedly to every state to work as an informant conveniently at the same time a state chooses to legalize marijuana. Some coincidence, huh? The United States starts legalizing marijuana and federal and state law enforcement goes on some greedy, violent extinction burst tantrum taking as many asset forfeitures, drugs and money as they can confiscate, taking innocent lives as collateral damage.
It’s going to get worse before it gets better folks. We need to pray for poor communities under siege and we need to inform law enforcement about support groups like Law Enforcement Against Prohibition that can help us make the transition we need OUT of a police state and into a real Democracy governed by the people.
I am honored to participate with NORML in this endeavor, and believe me… there are some informants and crooked cops out there that want this freedom too… they just don’t know how to get there if we don’t show them the way.
I think that this is one of the greatist movements this country has seen in along time .we need to all stand together im almost 60 yrs old and have allot of pain osteoarthritus in my lower back .diabetic etc etc ..i have tried big farmas trash ..all it doe,s is make me more sick …there are so many benifits to the use of cannabis…its time for everybody to come out of the closet and vote heavy when it comes to your state for vote ..we are all tired of looking over our backs …time for this country to stand and fight for our rights …so please everybody vote yes ….take back our country.. our constitution was written on hemp paper our for fathers grew hemp why cant we ////stand together get the american people back together once again ..we can do it (peace to everybody ) bye for now cannabis rules
@Julian
“Yeah, marijuana is safer than alcohol, but we’re gonna just keep prohibition anyway cuz marijuana is bad… yeah… that’s it.”
lol, That sums it up very nicely.
If you want to use that is your business – legalization = yes
If you’d like to stop, maybe we can help. If you’d like help with drinking, hard drugs, or prescription meds issues, but believe in the use of cannabis, we would like to help.
Believe talk therapy & addiction education can work for you. It has work for 100s of thousands. Doctor’s Medicine assisted detox allows physically and emotionally comfortable. 949-292-2000 It is done unto us exactly as we believe. http://get.wirecovery.com/2014/08/we-are-saved-from-pain-and-suffering.html
Maybe the prohibitionists will just ignore all this again, like they did for the Schaeffer report all those years ago.
My licensed care physician , just informed me that I will no longer get my prescription for Tramadol (Ultram) that I use for Chronic pain relief since my accident and surgery in Dec of 2013. When I went to get my prescription refilled she did a piss drug test on me and because I tested positive for THC she say’s I no longer can receive this prescribed Tramadol. Taking Cannabis with the Tramadol medicine allowed me to take less pills of Tramadol. It balanced me out in order that I could function in school (College)and keeps me less dependent on the Tramadol. Cannabis also cancels the nausea and the decreased desire to eat when on Tamadol alone. I live in NW PA. Please help us end prohibition on Cannabis.
Blessings on all who work for this righteous cause to End Prohibition on Cannabis In Pennsylvania USA.
Michael lr
Check this out:
Marijuana Law Reform Opponents Are Dwindling. Public support for cannabis reform is at an all time high. More and more people are going public with their support to end the failed war against cannabis. Per a recent article from the Washington Post:
Public support for cannabis reform is at an all time high. More and more people are going public with their support to end the failed war against cannabis. Per a recent article from the Washington Post:
“It’s unbelievable what’s happened,” says Robert DuPont, a psychiatrist who was the first director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in the 1970s. “You can’t find anybody to speak on the other side. .?.?. The leaders in both parties have completely abandoned the issue.”
“These guys are in a full-court press coming at you from every angle,” says DuPont, 78, who runs the small, Rockville-based Institute for Behavior and Health. He sounds exasperated. “They have a bench 1,000 people deep. .?.?. We’ve got Kevin Sabet.”
Seems kinda funny to me that it took a bunch of evil potheads to stand up to a corrupt, greedy, controlling, lying,ect ect ect self richious bunch of beaucrates just to try and get a little satisfaction for the general public. Way to go people, don,t back off.
Im a mentally handicapped person iv noticed cannabis is the only medication that works wth my paranoia an hyperactivity The outher drugs perscribed by doctors only seem to compound my problems an are relatively new in the medical community (So i was wandering what all mentall disabilities medical marijuana are helpfull twards an is there any way to contact a group of doctors to develope more research)
we knew that work cannabis is more safe medical for us take it
I cant stand this crap anymore. I am so sick of the laws and all the waiting around. Let us all die on stupid Pharmacy pills that do nothing BUT make us worse. Kill us that way GOVERNMENT PEEPS…whatever. LEGALIZE CANNABIS. Stop playing games.
It’s about culture, not who’s stupid. Everyone tends to judge others by their own standards. “If you are different or think different then something must be wrong with you.” Though we won’t admit it, everyone judges others this way at some time. Our personal culture is part of who we are. Many times I would of liked to have been able to just say that magic statement and the other person would “see the light”. (which alway works when I visualize how the conversation will go). Truth is that we can’t just change other people, we can only change our self. But what we can do is change the world around them, and that is exactly what has been taken place for many years.
Social culture has been softening for many years. TV programs, news media, and general “water cooler” talk has gone from portraying Pot as the Devils tool to current day, silly and harmless. Social culture is rewriting how many people view Cannabis. As people generally want to fit in, they accept more social cultures as their own personal cultures. This is a very slow process, but it has been happening for a long time already.
So in the end if we focus on social culture an paint a better picture, change will happen. Though if we just try to change people by saying really condescending and stupid remarks in hopes to help them see the light, (which never works) we only solidify their personal cultures against Pot and make legalization a much longer and harder road. Change is happening and the way people think is changing whether they know it or not.
I’m so tired of hearing that Cannabis/Marijuana is like alcohol. That is simply not true. Is alcohol ever recommended for any disease, illness or condition? No it’s not! If anything Cannabis/Marijuana is food and nutrition. Marijuana is no more dangerous than cough syrup from the drug store or wine which comes from food also. Cannabis/Marijuana is probably the most nutritious plant on the planet with nutrients our bodies are deficient in because Cannabinoids that are in Marijuana cannot be obtained in other plant foods. By all Governments insisting that Marijuana is a dangerous drug when it is not they are basically condemning the whole population to a deficiency of Cannabinoids and keeping us all from optimal health we could otherwise have and enjoy. We have heard Sanjay Gupta and many other doctors say that the side effects of Marijuana are benign.
We the people are not responsible for the fact that Cannabis/Marijuana can cut into the profits of Big Pharma. We the people cannot help that people may prefer to giggle and get better sleep and relax with Cannabis rather than alcohol and cut into alcohol profits. We cannot help that Marijuana impairs less than alcohol and therefore is safer making Marijuana a better choice to relax and enjoy. We also cannot help that law enforcement has enjoyed many many long years of Marijuana being their baby and cash cow with asset forfeitures, fines, judges, attorney’s etc. We the people cannot help that the Gov. made prisons a private enterprise and prisons and prison guards are dependent heavily on Marijuana arrest. We the people are not responsible that so many police have been hired to enforce unjust laws on the peoples necessary nutritional food source. We the people are not to be blamed and punished that Cannabis can cut some medical cost and cost the Rehabilitation Industry some losses and other intertwined businesses. Healthcare should not be for profit anyway. Profits and cost should not have any bearing on peoples medical treatment or health.
In short We the people are not guilty of anything except wanting to be healthier and have and enjoy a better quality of life by using this plant for our health that nature has provided for us and much to the distress of Governments and competing corporations for profits. Governments by denying people the use of this plant are keeping people sick and suffering and denying people an improved quality of life. We the people cannot help this food is easily grown and is also a great medicinal medicine. Many plants are medicinal and people can make Rosemary extract, periwinkle extract or essential oil, peppermint oil or many other plant extracts or oils.
We the people cannot help that this highly nutritional food that everyone’s body absolutely needs everyday as a highly nutritional food and supplement and ancient herbal homeopathic medicine does not fit into your modern money perpetuating greedy corporate business model. We the people believe that the Government should stop trying to play God and Master of us all and try to completely control nature and other peoples body by dictating what we can and cannot eat, drink or consume ourselves. The Government needs to stop trying to squeeze every penny out of every person on this planet with every little excuse they can. Even to the point of denying necessary nutrients easily found through nature. Governments all of them spending trillions of our tax dollars to try to control and eradicate a simple health giving plant that is bottom line nothing like alcohol and should not be treated as such but should be treated like the nutritional garden food it is and the only restrictions on it should be don’t drive while drowsy or operate machinery like cough syrup. People can get high sniffing glue but because glue does not cut into so many big money corporations pockets glue has not been outlawed the only thing it gets is a warning label. Home cleaning products are more of a threat to children than Marijuana and they have only warning labels!
The protectionism of these large corporations must stop and let the people heal themselves with whatever we choose.
Where I live the conservatives are proud of denying jobs to people who smoke MJ (even minimum wage jobs). I was talking to one of these conservatives about this and asked him what he thought people that smoke should do for a living? I suggested living off of his tax dollars or turning to crime(I know that is not realistic but for arguments sake…). Suddenly when it could cost him something, maybe the punishment did not fit the crime after all.
We live in Alaska and just want to know where to get started with the license to start our growing business.Anyone know who to contact.