(Phillip Smith, StopTheDrugWar.org, December 08, 2010)
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Heavily-armed state and federal lawmen raided a pair of medical marijuana gardens in the town of Okemos, outside Lansing, breaking windows, throwing smoke grenades, and seizing thousands of dollars worth of equipment and medical marijuana plants — all in a raid of a facility that is undeniably within the confines of Michigan’s medical marijuana law. . . . ”This was an operation of the state police and the DEA,” said Detroit medical marijuana activist Tim Beck. “The state police couldn’t even get a warrant from a local judge, so the DEA had to get one from a federal judge in Grand Rapids. The state police claim that they are captives of the local prosecutor, but in this case, the local prosecutor didn’t cooperate with them, so they went around him to the feds.” . . .  » Continue reading “Federal Goons Steal Marijuana Crop At Gunpoint”

I realize that my opinion will alienate many of my friends who are medical marijuana advocates, but I found their anti-Prop 19 position to be hypocritical, misguided, and ultimately racist. Here is why.

While vigorously pushing their supporters to vote for a particular candidate for Attorney General, they stood on the sidelines in the fight to end prohibition. Basically, their attitude seemed to be that they already have their good thing going and they didn’t want anyone to muddy their pristine waters. Cowards!

Here is part of what one of these groups had to say in a recent email message:

Medical cannabis patients and allies have apparently defeated Steve Cooley’s bid to become the next California Attorney General, although the final decision in this tight race has not been certified. In defeating the medical cannabis opponent, patients and allies have protected years of progress in establishing safe access, and proved that they are a powerful voting bloc in state politics. . . . [We] launched the “Not Cooley” campaign because we knew Steve Cooley would use the Office of Attorney General to dismantle the gains made by medical cannabis patients over the past fourteen years. Cooley would certainly have fought against patients’ rights in court, repealed the current Attorney General’s medical cannabis guidelines, and opposed sensible regulation. But we stood up to Cooley’s harmful agenda and made a difference. Now elected officials know that when you oppose medical cannabis, there is a political price to pay! . . . Our members and allies did an amazing job! We distributed tens-of-thousands of posters, flyers and stickers statewide. [We] and our allies sent millions of emails. Our viral videos helped frame the debate, and we reached a nationwide audience with our message – including an important Election Day op-ed on the influential Huffington Post! . . . This is a big victory for patients.

A few comments about those statements:

It seems to me that ALL cannabis supporters and not just the medical cannabis patients came together to defeat Cooley. The non-patient population most definitely helped and voted to support the medical users. However, a significant number of those same medical users failed (refused?) to support the rest of the cannabis community. To the average pot smoker this came across as “I’ve got mine so fuck you.”

Have we come to a moment in the War on Drugs where we have quit pushing for an end to prohibition and now the only function of advocacy groups is to “protect years of progress”?

Granted, it was an “amazing job” of defeating Cooley, but that same amazing job did nothing, absolutely nothing, to help those who still can’t afford the price of getting what is essentially a Get Out Of Jail Free Card from a doctor and thus are still being arrested for simple possession (61,000 of them in California alone in 2009, overwhelmingly young Black and Latino kids).

In the struggle to end prohibition you are either a part of the solution or a part of the problem. Sadly, it seems that the medical marijuana community (and the handful of rich growers in Northern California) have become part of the problem. Divide and conquer has always worked for the screwheads in power, and now it appears that they have also divided the cannabis community. … So screw politics. Support your neighborhood grower!

(Michael Whitney, Firedoglake.com, November 3, 2010 )
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Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske issued a two-sentence statement applauding the defeat of Prop 19:

“Today, Californians recognized that legalizing marijuana will not make our citizens healthier, solve California’s budget crisis, or reduce drug related violence in Mexico,” read the statement. “The Obama administration has been clear in its opposition to marijuana legalization because research shows that marijuana use is associated with voluntary treatment admissions for addiction, fatal drugged driving accidents, mental illness and emergency room admissions.”

Aside from none of that being true, it’s clear that the Obama Administration will continue to stand in the way of marijuana legalization efforts in 2012. The drug warriors are dug in, and will keep their $1 trillion war going at all costs.

Don’t forget to catch the video Just Say Now’s petition delivery to Kerlikowske to end the war on marijuana.

Dump Obama in 2o12

(Jon Walker, Firedoglake.com, November 3, 2010)
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With 97.1 percent reporting (results by county), there were 3,359,776 votes for the measure (46.2%) and 3,906,895 votes against (53.8%). The measure lost by 7.6 percent, which is significant but not particularly large for ballot measure.

Prop 19 was more popular than the statewide Republican candidates

Despite this being one of the best years nationally for Republicans in decades, more Californians actually voted for Prop 19 than for the Republican candidates in the top four statewide races. In the Governor’s race, Meg Whitman got only 3,029,919 votes (41.2% of the vote), in the Senate race, Carly Fiorina got 3,094,338 votes (42.5%), in the Lieutenant Governor’s race, Abel Maldonado got 2,812,582 votes (39.4%), and in the race for Attorney General, Steve Cooley got only 3,215,104 votes (45.6%). A quarter of a million more voters supported Prop 19 than they did any of the major Republicans on the ballot.

Support for Prop 19 statewide in California is apparently less “fringe” than support for the Republican Party.

(HEATHER HORN, The Atlantic Wire, November 01, 2010)
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Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa has this theory, which he calls the Savanna-IQ Interaction Hypothesis. Here’s how it goes: intelligence evolved as a way to deal with “evolutionary novelties”–to help humans respond to things in their environment to which they were, as a species, unaccustomed. Thus, smart people are more likely to deal with new things and try them. Those new things seem to include drugs.
» Continue reading “Smart People Do More Drugs–Because of Evolution”

(Harvey Wasserman, AlterNet, October 31, 2010)
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The simple truth about America’s marijuana prohibition: any law that allows the easy incarceration of any citizen any time those in power want to do it is the ultimate enemy of democracy. With 800,000 annual arrests over an herb used by tens of millions of Americans, it is the cornerstone of a police state. . . . The newly energized movement to end prohibition in California — home to more than 10% of the nation — is one of the few healthy developments in this otherwise horrific election. . . . To help pass Proposition 19, go here and sign up to make phone calls in these last crucial hours. . . . Part of the battle has already been won. By all accounts the California campaign has thrust the issue to a new level. The terms of repeal are not perfect. But the acceptance of marijuana use has taken a giant leap forward. When joints are openly lit and smoked on national television, it’s clear that sooner rather than later, this travesty will fall. . . . Never mind that virtually every farmer in Revolutionary America — including Washington, Jefferson and Madison — raised marijuana’s kissing cousin, hemp, and profited handsomely from it. Never mind that Ben Franklin made his best paper from hemp. Forget that the last three presidents of the United States and the current governor of California (among so many others) have smoked marijuana, and may still do so. . . . Never mind that hemp looms behind marijuana as a far greater cash crop, with huge profits to be made from ecologically superior paper, clothing, shoes, textiles, rope, sails, food, fuel and more. A core agricultural mainstay throughout human history, hemp requires no chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. A nitrogen-fixing weed, it replenishes the soil in which it grows. As the stock for cellulosic ethanol, fuel pellets and seed-based diesel oil, it is the key to a green revolution in sustainable bio-fuels. As such, hemp is legal in virtually every country on Earth except the United States. . . . The accelerated corporate rape and pillage of what’s left of our nation is all too evident. Sending this tool of official repression up in smoke will help mitigate the disaster.

Vote YES on California’s Prop. 19, and make sure to call those you know who might.

Holder: “US will enforce marijuana laws despite how Californians may vote”

THE TENTH AMENDMENT to the U.S. CONSTITUTION:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

Screw Holder and the entire lying Obama administration. This gang of Wall Street insiders has declared war on the citizens of California. Well, so be it. . . . Come and get us Holder. Are you and your goons going to lock up every young pot smoker in our state?

I haven’t seen anyone go to prison for torturing prisoners or for starting illegal wars or for collapsing the world economy. No, it’s only the young pot smokers who are targeted by Obama and his Washington, D.C. goon squad. I say ignore them all. Why obey any laws when they are only designed to protect the rich Establishment?

If you want to send the D.C. Fascists a message then VOTE YES ON PROPOSITION 19!

ALSO SEE: » Continue reading “SECEDE! or at least Dump Obama and Holder”