One of the policy areas in greatest need of reform involves the typical response of our child custody system in this country when they learn that a parent smokes marijuana; in all states today, including those that have legalized marijuana either for medical use or for all adults, the child custody agency stubbornly maintains an unfair bias against parents who smoke marijuana.
I suspect most of us have personally witnessed the disruption to someone’s life that results when, for any of a number of possible reasons, a parent’s marijuana smoking becomes known to the state’s child welfare agency. Sometimes it is because the couple are going through a hostile separation or divorce, and one parent attempts to use the other’s use of marijuana to gain advantage, either to limit that parent’s access to the children or to get a more favorable financial arrangement. Other times it begins with the complaint of a nosy neighbor who claims to have smelled marijuana (or to have seen someone smoking it), and who calls the authorities.
Regardless of the origin of the complaint or the motivation of the complaintant, once the state’s child welfare agency is called into the dispute, a legal process is begun that will all too often be disruptive to the health and welfare of the child, the very opposite of the stated intent of the inquiry. It is also an expensive and heartbreaking experience to a parent or parents who have to hire lawyers and focus their life for months on end jumping through any number of legal hoops to demonstrate that, despite their marijuana smoking, they remain loving parents who provide a safe and healthy environment for their minor children.
To understand this awkward legal squeeze all too many parents find themselves facing, it is important to realize we have parallel legal systems in effect in these states: one deals with what conduct is or is not criminal; the other focuses only on what is in the best interests of the child. And even as we continue to make progress removing the responsible use of marijuana from the criminal code, either for medical use or for all adults, the child custody courts in those same states continue to begin any inquiry with the presumption that marijuana smokers are not fit parents, and marijuana smoking by adults, even when it is protected conduct under that state’s laws, is dangerous to any children and evidence of an unhealthy environment in which to raise a child.
Something like this may be warranted with alcohol or even tobacco, but with marijuana this approach is pointless, cruel and not in the best interests of the children these agencies are supposed to protect.
Thank you NORML for bringing this critical issue forward. It is an outrage that this is happening to law abiding adults, just the DHS grasping for straws and they need to be confronted about it ASAP.
They took my kids away in 1999 gave them to foster homes all because my husband & I smoked pot! And now look it’s being legalized everywhere!
The problem is control freaks: Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.
Thank you Keith, for drawing attention to the dark and ugly center of hypocrisy in marijuana prohibition.
It never ceases to amaze me that the very same Department of Health and Human Services that can take state custody of one’s children for nonviolent or even a fundamentally necessary medicinal marijuana use and then place that child into private, potentially violent, unsupervised foster care for profit also happens to be THE SAME AGENCY of our government that owns U.S. Patent 6630507 for “cannabinoids as neuroprotectants.”
So the D.H.H.S. is punishing and prohibiting loving parents as marijuana consumers on one hand, and then PATENTING marijuana on the other. It is a RELIEF of some form or another that this hypocrisy was accepted as testimonial evidence in the recent trial with pending Federal Judgement in the U.S. v. Pickard, et al, in Sacramento. Much needed attention to this evil Federal hypocrisy was brought to light in Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s Weed 2 documentary, concerning parents of weed refugees in Colorado who are afraid to take their epileptic children across state lines for fear of Child Protective Services taking their children away and potentially killing them by denying them the medicinal marijuana they need to stop the seizures. Worse yet, federal guidelines insist on providing pills with lethal side effects, incentivized with more money to private foster parents by fabricating disabilities for pills and profit.
How ironic that in the District of Colombia soon the greater threat on the corner, while consuming weed 5 blocks from our nation’s capitol, will less likely be your local drug dealer, and more likely be a paid informant disguised as a social worker paid off in $5,000 kickbacks from the DEA through their Special Operations Division, just to settle drug related cases.
And private adoption agencies have multi-million dollar federal contracts that provide more incentive to separate nonviolent families to profit off of state custody than those parents who consume harder drugs. In order to fundraise, private “child placement centers” or shelters for children are motivated by providing hopeful adopting parents and adopters for profit alike with children who are less likely to be violent… Such as the children of parents who primarily consumed marijuana.
What this whole discussion boils down to is
“HOW do we pay our social workers and law enforcement?” And
“Is their a better way to pay them so we can prioritize our children’s health and safety, such as rewarding bonuses and promotions to law enforcement and social workers who detain violent criminals instead of seizing property and children of non violent marijuana consumers?”
De scheduling marijuana comes to mind… Passing Dem. Representative Steve Cohen’s (TN) amendment that allocates $5,000,000 from the DEA’s budget and spends it on rape kit backlogs sounds like a GREAT place to start.
But ultimately we all as Americans must be charged with neglect; We are neglecting our Democratic responsibilities to participate actively in the accountability of our government when we fail to vote, be informed, or provide our neighbors with the intervention they would rather take from us than the government if they knew they would be intimidated with incarceration in exchange for signing the rights of their children away.
Unfortunately, the parents’ cries of government failure to account for the safety of their child came too late for the parents of 2 year old Alexandra Hill 2 years ago in a town North of Austin Texas. The happy little toddler was taken from her parents after they admitted to smoking marijuana after the child’s bedtime. Alex was placed in a foster home with four other children with a woman who admitted to “looking for more children” to support herself. Mr.Hill complained of “moldy backpacks” and “Bruises ” on little Alex’s face, and at one point refused to return his daughter to authorities until they threatened him with jail. It would be the last time he saw his daughter. 2 year old Alexandra Hill was murdered by her foster mother in a fit of rage, body-slamming the little girl to her untimely death onto the floor. The foster mother was under private contract without adequate supervision from theTexas Mentor Program (STILL in operation) which receives a $10,000,000 federal contract to house children in the State of Texas, and is merely a subsidiary of larger private adoption facilities that receive even larger federal contracts without adequate supervision.
And if the parent is an alcoholic? They get an AA program and retain custody. You can smoke a cigarette with a baby in your hand and pass a child welfare inspection, but lose custody for providing marijuana to stop the same baby’s seizures.
I can’t imagine of a better reason to vote and donate to NORML. This evil must end by shedding the disinfecting light of truth on prohibition. And while we have blindly made concessions to these dark laws that profit off the weaker members of society, too afraid or sick to demand a search warrant, we cannot idly stand by and do nothing as babies and children are exploited for profit by our own government. End Prohibition. Donate to NORML now.
So I wonder why they don’t call for the removal of all alcohol from restaurants and bars since it gives someone the opportunity to drink and drive, thus putting you, your children and others in danger. I once asked a cop if drinking and driving is illegal, why are there parking lots in bars? He couldn’t answer me. He tried the whole “well, there is a cut off limit” and I was like dude how many times have you been to the bar and saw someone get cut off? He said, true and that was the end of our conversation.
Having your kids taken away is absolutely still a major problem, as is cannabis banking!
These agencies need a complete fucking overhaul of their SOPs (standard operating procedures). They need their budgets either de-funded so they can’t keep pulling this shit, regardless of whether they’re in a state where it’s legal or not. Regarding cannabis banking in states where it’s not yet legal, it ought to be, except that there are a lot of states without the ballot initiative that are prohibitionist strongholds. Barry’s showing he’s got some huge balls with his executive order on immigration, and now I’d like to see his balls on legalizing cannabis banking and ending this bullshit of taking away people’s kids because the parents are cannabis consumers. I mean, hey, what the fuck, if the parents are NOT letting their kids do it they are NOT corrupting minors in the same way that parents who use tobacco or alcohol in front of their kids are corrupting minors. You can take your kids to a restaurant that serves booze and tie one on and no fucking cop is gonna say shit, no fucking child protection agency is gonna say shit or lift a finger to take your kids away. WTF, Barry!
Oh Judas priest!! I grew up in foster-care, and Ive wrote about the sad experience that was my child-hood here before, and I’ve been fighting fascism in America since long before I knew what it was I was fighting. Running down the hallway of Lewis, and Clark elementary in Great Falls Montana as fast as I could go. The school principal hot on my tail with one of those board of education paddles with holes in it. The Vietnam war era when adults acted like children, and children fought a war for freedom.
For more information on this issue and to help bring change, check out Family Law & Cannabis Alliance (FLCA) at http://www.flcalliance.org/.
I wonder if there’s any legal recourse against the glaring incompetence high lighted in the article and expressed in Julian’s and Peggy’s comments.
I don’t know beans about the law. Could a class action suit be brought against the kind of gross incompetence and malfeasance seen here?
The problem is the goverment.
Although I don’t agree with the legalization of marijuana for recreation, I believe there should be additional research on the positive effects for certain medical conditions. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research regarding this topic recently and there are definitely several positives and negatives of marijuana. First of all, after speaking with law enforcement and paramedics, they’ve all said that there has been about a 30% increase in both emergencies related to the drug. My feeling on the edibles after speaking with them, is that it’s not regulated enough. People are not responsible enough to use it recreationally. On the positive side though, if it truly can help people who are suffering from Alzheimer’s, anxiety, arthritis, glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, cancer, epilepsy and Parkinson’s, it’s worth the research.
The sad truth is that the “establishment” will always seek to use your children against you to ensure your conformity. The legalization of cannabis would only remove one of the BS reasons CPS uses to make you their bitch. The fact is that these organizations break up functional families, while frequently failing to remove abused children from their homes. They rely mostly on the McCarthy model of information gathering.
Ive been investigated now 4 times and all times I was honest about my use drug tested came out positive and have been left with only positive things from the child protective services intervening in my life. They never felt my children were in danger from my smoking and time and time again I only proved that it has had zero negative affect on my parenting. I prove weed has noting to do with the quality of parenting you’re willing to provide your child.
@Jan, congratulations on your success so far, even more security might be in order since the prohibs are getting desperate now– and might launch a get tough assault on the agency branch you dealt with. Check out VAPORIZATION instead of “$moking”.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/27/opinion/mass-imprisonment-and-public-health.html
America imprisons more of it’s own Citizens than any other Country on this Planet…The Land of the Free…?…?
This is a most egregious example of Law gone terribly awry.
Earthlings are born free…anyone…who tells you otherwise… has an overt or covert agenda… for your life…Give it a think?…Thinks are free!
I recognize the connecting dots are punctually incorrect…I know they’re only dots …but I like um…like um…Yes I do!
Many roads to distruction are paved with good intentions. Using the excuse of protecting our children during corrosive and draconian responses to ignorance and intollerance, disrespect and jealously, disbelief and irreverence has the slight of hand final billing that shows no regard for the care and direction of the children. Too many of the corrupt civil servants have no children and received no training from pediatric mental healthcare professionals.
Twenty “cigarettes” per pack + seven “puffs” (doses) per cigarette @two packs per day = Two Hundred and Eighty doses of nicotine per day.
280 doses per day!
The above dosing schedule is far greater than the number of doses a heroin or cocaine addict uses per day.
What is dope?
Are deadly Tobacco/Nicotine and Alcohol “products” FDA approved?
Tobacco is more addictive than Heroin.
What schedule is Tobacco?….Alcohol…?
Are Parents who expose their children to these potentially lethal substances guilty of child abuse?
So what have we learned from our government kids, you can have a lit cigarette in one hand, a baby in your other, in your purse is a handy bottle of perfectly legal xanax (or any fun OxyCocktail of choice, maybe even both and that’s fine with the feds…but the minute you choose Cannabis, you can’t have that baby any longer?! Hey, maybe the FEDS should be forced to research their own patent a little better before telling us it makes us crazy. Parents who choose pot over alcohol or any other substance will almost ALWAYS recall a loving compassionate relationship with their parents…one where they were fully lucid (for whatever they used it or currently use it for). IF and big IF this is so controversial enough to take the child away, maybe children of pot smoking parents should be interviewed and let’s see what these children have to say….WE ARE AFTERALL PROTECTING THEM, RIGHT? This is madness and it turns happy homes into traumatizing ones.
so many folks are still so ignorant about the effects of cannabis in peoples minds. I… am by nature, short tempered. I am a.d.d. I have anxiety issues. YET, I have helped to raise an awesome family. I found that cannabis has helped me in those areas muchly! I consume it AWAY from my children.i keep it responsibly put away. only takes a little and, patience,understanding, comfort, all come out. I become even tempered, I have a great relationship with my children and, I don’t have to consume all day long for them to benefit. it has been a lifestyle for me . i am thankful that cannabis has helped me to keep a perspective of life and love. i have found NO medicine that have been prescribed to me over the years that benefit like cannabis. i have living proof of that in a close loving family.
@Eric,
Thanks for great question! “Dope” = Dobacco + Opiate.
Someone else once asked, “What is Truth?”–Tree + Root + Growth.
Trees are the world-leading custodians of fresh water, and they Create the Heavens (oxygen) and the Earth (topsoil) without which you and I don’t exist.
Relevance of Cannabis: it’s the best precursor crop for Reforestation!! (Plant Trees, Save Our Climate.)
PS. “Joints” (half-dozen or more tokes each, reaching 700C/1200F, providing mind-numbing heat shock, carbon monoxide and 4221 Combustion toxins) are described in a document from the Australian Department of Health as a “Trojan Horse” luring children to experiment with “real $igarettes” (Zap! hooked for life!– you described that insanity perfectly).
Thank you Sara for mentioning the FLCA, which was formed to help families threatened by our hypocritically destructive federal drug policy. And thank you, LockedOut, for your encouraging testimony over how cannabis helps build family relationships even despite internal forces that threaten to separate us from our loved ones.
Families under threat of an investigation need to know their rights. Be respectful but Don’t be intimidated. Read the law but Don’t sign anything. Seek legal advise from the FLCA but Never trust your lawyer.
But at the same time its important to celebrate what we’re already achieving by reforming archaic drug policies. I cant wait for the polls showing rates in domestic violence that will drop in states that have legalized. This is a real opportunity for Americans to reflect upon their choices and make better, more family-oriented decisions. Thanks NORML.
This is why America is in decline. This is the same reason myself and thousands of others have refused to get married and have kids in the communist country of America. America is a anti-family country. The roads are not safe due to the drugged-up-cops and our houses are not safe from the Communist-American Government.
I can’t wait for the polls showing rates in domestic violence that will drop in states that have legalized. – Julian
Just imagine the possible transformative societal/ /behavioral benefits that may occur from changing our current Male Dominator…Alcohol fueled…too Yang…War/Rape/Violence loving culture… to an Egalitarian/non-aggressive…Cannabis moderated/influenced/enlightened… Yin/Yang balanced…Peace/Consensual Sex Loving Culture!
I know the dots are punctually incorrect…but I like um…like um…
Yes I Do!
@mexweed
You are a truth teller!…the Tree of Life depends on aware rational people like you and everyone who comments here…and those who agree with the comments posted at this wonderful site… especially those who are courageous enough to speak their own mind…in their own time…which may be their only time?…it’s always now and now is the time!
“The squeaking wheel gets the grease”
It would be hard to prove, but I believe that the vast majority of cannabis users are good responsible people; at least everyone I know is. They all work hard and don’t break any laws with the exception of the laws regarding cannabis.
President Obama wants for people to start trusting Law Enforcement again. It seems that many people don’t and actually fear law enforcement. Well, guess what? If he is serious, then he needs to do more to end prohibition. Surely there is nothing that causes more mistrust of politicians and law enforcement than laws based on lies, predjudice, and greed.
So Mr. President, I have to ask: Are you serious? If so, you should immediately unscheduled cannabis since anyone who has done the slightest bit of homework knows it is not the dangerous drug that is has been made to appear and it clearly does have numerous medical benefits.
If the president does nothing on this issue, I think we can all assume he is not serious or that he truly has no power and is merely a puppet on a string. I wonder if he realizes that a big big reason he was elected to be our president, twice, is because we all believed in him to do the right thing with regards to marijuana prohibition.
@Miles,
The position that Holder and President Obama are in between executive action over marijuana scheduling and growing distrust of law enforcement is interesting and precarious at best. The heat is on to do something, but remember we have a Congress that wants to sue Obama for any executive decision he makes. But perhaps this could be a good strategy for Democrats; deschedule marijuana, framing the law for what it is; a racially biased law that disproportionately incarcerates and kills nonviolent minorities, and gives incentive to law enforcement and district attorneys to prioritize asset forfeitures, prison and violence over education and treatment which actually reduce violence.
The C.S.Act resulted in the unconstitutional authorization by Congress for the executive branch to legislate marijuana policy. Obama can tell Congress, “You want to reduce executive privilege and authority? Get rid of the C.S.Act.” Replace the ONDCP with a Federal NORML office. Let’s stop prioritizing drug enforcement and eradication over treatment and education.
Let’s face it; after nearly a decade and a half of the longest war in American history, and despite 7.5 billion dollars spent on eradicating poppy drug lords in Afghanistan since 2001 (and 7.5 billion a year on drug enforcement budgets) the drug lords are more powerful and there is more heroin being exported from Afghanistan than ever before. Replace the poppy fields with marijuana and hemp so Afghans can use their traditional skills to create hemp rugs and textiles. Treatment and good jobs stop the chain of addiction, not sending our NATO troops to block roads from the Taliban while the DEA use Afghan “police” to conveniently “eradicate” the poppy around harvest time. And what does the poor farmer do? Too poor to escape, he is forced to plant somewhere else in the fleeting hope of retrieving his ransomed daughter back from the Taliban. (Frontline:Afghanistan)
We need to implement a new drug strategy here at home.
The corruption in our our government has its roots in the Controlled Substance Act that places a quota, gives kickbacks and rewards law enforcement, prosecutors and social workers for punishing, exploiting and arresting non violent marijuana consumers instead of solving real crimes such as rapes and murders. Prohibition congests crime labs and fabricates evidence to prioritize drug related evidence while rape kits and unsolved murders get backlogged into cold cases that are so badly neglected that most prosecutors have no idea where to find dna evidence in the evidence room and most U.S. Counties have a working drug lab with no medical examiner.
When we look at the joke our justice system has become, with all the secret courts, the conflict of interest between prosecutors and law enforcement, (and WHY does the U.S. Still HAVE grand juries if not to let crooked cops get away with murder?)… Its no wonder we have people marching in the streets. Prohibition has corrupted the very core of our so called “justice” system. If we wish to ever regain the trust between average Americans and law enforcement we need to begin with ending the incentives for corruption created by prohibition. The executive branch has no business writing drug policy. But if Congress wont do their job, maybe NORML can work with the DOJ to write some real guidelines so Obama can show us all what “change” is all about.
The law regarding stripping children from a parent which happen to smoke marijuana should be pissed on and buried as they don’t have any scientific proof that marijuana makes them any less of a caring parent. From the parents I have seen use marijuana it relieves there stressful daily repetitive teachings that are extremely difficult and stressful from day to day. They are actually more of a caring human being from my experience. These people are not putting there children in closets and beating them while duct taped… Which I have seen in the news and think that anyone that considers the idea does not deserve the respect to belong to the human race. As for the governments classification for marijuana GET SOME SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH instead of lieing to the American Public to cover your ass. It’s absolutely despicable what marijuana prohibition has put me through. As my family has distanced themselves and it has become hard to find a job due to my record for a simple plant that will probably save these ignorant POLITICIANS and/or There families life one day. I’m a caring individual that thinks everyone deserves pure freedom of there body and we all should be obliged to that true freedom. Alcohol is simply legal still because it’s an “American” thing and the United States Government funds a beer festival because it is supposedly an American Tradition. How many lives has ALCOHOL destroyed and taken too early from us. If u choose to stand by ALCOHOL and against Marijuana which is less toxic and a better release of stress than alcohol by far with no comparison then you are just as ignorant as the people who classified it a SCHEDULE 1 NARCOTIC TO SCARE THE PUBLIC and i never wish to hold an intelligent conversation with you ever.Goodnight and May Mary Bless Us All With Her Presence:)
@Julian – Thank you for the great response. Clearly, our Govt and it’s militarized police force are more like George Orwell’s world (1984) than the one George Washington envisioned for us all. The outrage over the racism and brutality shown by police across this country should rightly spill over to our totally failed drug policies which have caused so much of it.
I’ve read responses in blogs where people have said we need to demand change if we really want anything to change with regards to marijuana prohibition. Okay then, I’m demanding… I wonder if they’ll listen…
As a cw worker, it isn’t our choice sometimes. We make recommendations in my state/county. We never removed children born with a positive drug test for marijuana. A new ADA about 6 months ago, and we are now FORCED to remove these children. My thought is that if is a reaction to the medical/legalization movement, with the medical being unexpectedly strong petition this year. Just info from my side.
I think we can all assume he is not serious or that he truly has no power and is merely a puppet on a string. – Miles
I can not think of a third cause.
New Boss same as the old boss.
Who is pulling the strings?
I hope the String Pullers recognize the historical fact that every string comes to an end…but… those who would be “The Entitled Masters of the Universe” always seem to delude themselves into believing the string goes on forever.
Even diamonds aren’t forever.
@Jon, in which county & state (or whatever you’re willing to share) is an ADA requiring a CPS department to remove all marijuana-related substance-exposed newborns (SENs)? That’s a pretty big deal.
If you’re not comfortable sharing that information on this blog, please contact Family Law & Cannabis Alliance (FLCA) — website should be linked at my name. Myself & my colleagues would love to hear from you regardless; we agree that removals are increasing due to marijuana liberalization and would love to hear more of your thoughts and experiences as a child welfare professional. It is so important that you get involved in this issue, even privately. Hope to hear from you!
@Sara,
I would like to thank you on behalf of my family and all of those i know who have been negatively affected by our archaic and evil domestic drug policy; How can we donate directly with a credit card without having to sign up to paypal? Please continue to campaign with education, which will always be the most significant tool we have to prepare families for defense, make Americans more aware of the hypocrisy in our health and justice systems, and ultimately CHANGE BAD LAWS, which is a goal we all share regardless of our strategy of achievement. 😉
@Keith,
I’ve been reading in some tweets on the FLCA that “We respectfully disagree with you Keith that adding parental custody law regarding cannabis would kill legislative efforts,” or to some degree or another. Could you clarify your position and explain NORML’s strategy?
I understand compromise has to be made when were dealing with the Devil, which I find very curious that Prohibitionists are holding on to the card that separates families while conceding to overwhelming marijuana legalization efforts such as in D.C., where one can grow some m.j. 5 blocks from the capitol very soon but can have their neighbors report them and have their children taken away. Sadly, despite our momentum, this does not sound like “compromise” and more like malicious entrapment. Are we planning to expose the hubris of the government’s position like was done in the U.S. v. Pickard, et al? If so, we will be very interested to hear Judge Mueller’s verdict.
I personally regard the legal status regarding family cannabis law of the Department of Health and Human Services to be the root of all evil in the Prohibition plague. We could even change the C.S.Act alltogether, but as long as the D.H.S. can both patent and prohibit cannabis; So long as Child Protective Services can take custody of our children for non violent marijuana … Or even suspicion of possession in some cases… Than no matter how many heads of the Hydra we cut they will grow back from the evil heart and root cause of this evil domestic policy.
@Jon,
I encourage you to contact Sara and continue your dialogue with her. You can contact her as easily as emailing info@fclalliance.com .
Through my own experience, i realize your job is bisect with contradictory rules that punish you for not punishing others with frivolous, hypocritical laws made for exploiting families with cruel enforcement instead of education and treatment. But there are ways to appeal corrupt local laws to a Federal Court… You could testify with the FLCA and NORML’s support. Of course, There IS such thing as nonviolent disobedience, but i will leave that to your discretion.
@all:
The truth is corrupt domestic policies change from state to state, and county to county. In each county it only requires 4 corrupt officials to create a corruption ring; 1 corrupt cop taking asset forfeitures, one corrupt judge taking “campaign contributions” during a pending case, (bribes called “kickbacks,” that while illegal to accept during a pending case, they happen all the time because local D.H.S.S. Has the authority to switch judges) …1 corrupt prosecutor getting paid off by the asset forfeitures and fabricated evidence from the DEA’sSOD program, and last but not least, 1 corrupt director of Health and Human Services who gets paid off by all and in between, including private adoption and child placement agencies that have lucrative federal contracts worth millions to spread about. Another kicker in the equation are all the corrupt lawyers and prosecutors who are interested either in the assets of people who cant or wont fight back, or drowning a person with valuable property in legal debt in order to steal their land. (If this is happening to you, go to your county clerk’s office or to a higher court and file what is called a “writ of certiorari” which essentially forces authorities to explain their case to a judge… Preferably a Federal judge… The Gluttoned Thieves aren’t expecting you to fight back.)
Taking drug-related cases out of the equation breaks a huge link in the chain of corruption rings. It means that corrupt officials will have to rely on real evidence instead of tying every one to a “drug-related” case… Anyone with a car, money and property to seize … or none of the above or the education and desire to defend their $300.00… Which adds up quick in a city budget. Children are exploited into some fabricated, Machiavellian feeding frenzy, using drugs and racism to disguise what can only be described as government-sanctioned violence against nonviolent families. What we have to ask ourselves when we compromise for partial legalization that appears to turn on the green light for growing our own marijuana while CPS can easily use these actions to take custody of our children, is are we really compromising or are we enabling a system of entrapment?
@Jon,
Sorry! That link is:
http://Www.flcalliance/author/sara.org
Or
Info@flcalliance.org
Godspeed.
“drowning a person with valuable property in legal debt in order to steal their land.”–Julian
Well put, reminds me of a related issue, the KIDDEN AGENDA behind foreclosures etc.: force families to MOVE TO A SMALLER DWELLING and hurriedly ABANDON some of their property that won’t fit– furniture, clothing, teddy bears, whatever– and if they are socially maladept (like me heh heh), to the point of not having the time or courage to approach and offer to give things away to others, donate to a church sale etc., that means it goes into the dumpster of course!
Then over succeeding years, such family may “repurchase” same/similar goods– “creating Jobs” for the politicians’ beloved huckster Economy at cost of killing more trees and dooming the Climate a little more.
Why eco-Scabs HATE CANNABIS– it helps the Imagination, helps individuals, like you or me, learn or invent ways to Rescue, Repair, Reuse and NOT DISCARD things– uh oh, that would “reduce sales” of virgin-killed materials, no? No a$$hole getting Paid to kill another tree because something wasn’t Thrown Away on schedule? (Or in Court buildings, paperwork wasn’t produced and shredded in timely fashion?)
@mexweed
During the years I served in Federal Prison(s) for a cannabis crime, I met many Lakota men who had committed minor offenses on the nearby “Reservation” (every crime on Federal land is a Federal crime)…so the Injuns get more time for a minor crime just to finally punish the RedMan out of existence?
A Lakota man named Leonard Middlesky once confided in me that the Native Americans were and are horrified by “The White Man who spits in his Mother’s face”.
Mother Nature and Father Sky will punish us all if We keep letting the “inmates” run The Asylum!
Earth First…or we won’t last!
Family courts suck all the way around. Joint shared custody with equal time for both parents eliminates court time and child support obligations by either parent. In my situation the court chose that domestic violence was less harmful than marijuana. We have joint shared custody but I have had to refrain during the most difficult time in my life. PTSD on the homefront.