cannabisnews.com: Pot Festival Draws 400 Pot Festival Draws 400 Posted by CN Staff on October 07, 2002 at 11:35:42 PT By Samara Kalk Derby Source: Capital Times Elvy Musikka admits she smokes 10 joints a day. A 63-year-old poster girl for medicinal marijuana, Musikka has smoked marijuana for 26 years. And for more than half that time she's smoked it with the consent of the federal government. Heck, she gets her weed from the U.S. government. "Three quarters of a million Americans are incarcerated for a plant that we should be thanking God for every day of our lives," the Sacramento, Calif., woman told a crowd of about 400 Sunday afternoon on the steps of the State Capitol as part of the 31st annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival. Musikka, who suffers from the eye disease glaucoma, is one of a handful of people in the country - she claims seven - whom the federal government supplies with marijuana. The government closed the program to new patients in 1992. Pro-legalization advocate Ben Masel, who organized the two-day festival and rally held this weekend on Library Mall, said he sent invitations to all of Wisconsin's 132 legislators inviting them to speak at the rally, which ended Sunday after a march to the Capitol. Only one agreed, said Masel, handing the microphone over to state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison. Pocan told the gathering that the nation has failed in its war on drugs. There are 2,100 inmates in the state's prison system because of marijuana and they cost the state $1 billion annually, he said. "That's billion with a B," Pocan said, adding that the state's budget deficit is estimated to be about that large. Wisconsin pays $26,000 per inmate annually, he noted. Pocan, along with Rep. Frank Boyle, D-Superior, sponsored a state Senate bill that would legalize the use of medical marijuana, but the legislation never got a hearing. A recent poll indicated that 80 percent of the people in Wisconsin support the use of medical marijuana, Pocan said. "We need to have our voices heard by the people who work up in the Capitol building with me," he said. Gary Storck of the Madison organization Is My Medicine Legal Yet? criticized the partisan politics stalling medical marijuana legislation and praised U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, for co-sponsoring a medical marijuana bill on the federal level. "The DEA is coming into hospitals and handcuffing patients and confiscating their gardens," he said. "There is no space in prison for medical marijuana patients." Valerie Gremillion, a Santa Fe, N.M. neuro-scientist who runs the Global Dialogue Program, warned that the war on drugs has been extended to the war on terrorism. "They are throwing out the Constitution. They are throwing out the Bill of Rights," she said. "The winds of change are blowing," she said, to laughter as winds whipped leaves around the Capitol. She encouraged the crowd of mostly young men to reclaim the Constitution. "When you feel that fear to speak out, that's the time to speak or we won't have that right anymore," she said. Activist Claude Tower of the Madison chapter of The November Coalition said that marijuana smokers don't need treatment, just to be left alone. "This is a war on the helpless and the harmless," he said. For the march up State Street, led by reggae-ska singer Rocker T, activists held a banner that read "Safe Access Now" and signs like "DEA, the real terrorists." Jen Munson, 24, who works part time at Borders bookstore, said she thinks marijuana ought to be legalized for medicinal purposes. "We feel alcohol is a lot worse," said Munson, who joined the march up to the Capitol. "And it feels really good to get high." Note: State Rep. Pocan: Drug war a failure.Source: Capital Times, The (WI)Author: Samara Kalk Derby Published: October 7, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Capital TimesContact: tctvoice madison.comWebsite: http://www.captimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:I.M.M.L.Y.http://www.immly.org/November Coalition http://www.november.org/ Weed Stockhttp://www.weedstock.com/ Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org/ Festival Allows Voice for Marijuana Defendershttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14370.shtmlFestival To Highlight Marijuana Legislation http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14348.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #5 posted by afterburner on October 07, 2002 at 21:04:10 PT: "And it feels really good to get high." The The Declaration of Independence reminds Americans "that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."God gave us every seed-bearing plant for our food and medicine.Prohibition of cannabis and hemp was based on lies and propaganda.The U.N. treaties parrot the panic laws of the nations.We continue to cage humans for using God's plant.We deny medicine to sick people.Who made the mistake? [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by p4me on October 07, 2002 at 17:16:13 PT The pill companies Well everyone knows the power of the pill industry. Over 2% of our $10 trillion economy is spent on pills. Who knows the exact numbers and talk about accounting scandals. Who knows how much is really spent to bring a product to market. The companies do not report R&D on their income statement in such a way that Bill Moyers and company could discern when they covered the subject on Now. The industry says it cost $800 million, but why would you believe them.I have mentioned before how states tried to develop a preferred medicine list and negotiate better prices because of the financial interest of the state in Medicaid and the industry began lawsuits because this threatened their profits and the most profitable industry in America wants it to stay that way even if they have to spend a couple of million on lawyers.It was Bill Moyers that talked of the ability to negotiate better prices with the pill companies while the 600 lobbyist of the pill industry made any financial concerns of Congress over the price of pills go out to lunch and dinner and anywhere they wanted except the task of representing the people.I finally did what I had hoped someone else would do. There is a Canadian company, PharmacyOnline, that list its top ten products on this page: http://www.pharmacy-online.ca/brand/letter_search.jsp?criteria=A&page=1. I then took a website somehow associated with RiteAid at Drugstore.com: http://www.drugstore.com/category.asp?catid=20211&atrx=dps-16&atrxp1=32668&atrxp2=0&atrxp3=%2Fcategory%2Easp%3Fcatid%3D20211&atrxp4=10Below are the top 10 drugs listed on the homepage of the Canadian website, PharmacyOnline. Now #2 is Prilosec in America and it's generic equivalent is Losec in Canada. I believe it is Prilosec had its patent extended for 5 6 month periods as the pill companies gamed the system. If it was not Prilosec it was another popular drug. So when it became generic, its manufacturer came up with the purple pill so heavily advertised because it is patented. That pill would be Nexium. So, #6 is the chemical Omeprazole, with it being sold in Canada as Losec and at DrugStore.com as Prilosec with no listing for Losec. Underneath it at about the same price is Nexium. Prices are similar to Prilosec and generic but they are the identical pill from the same manufacturer and are just added information to PharmacyOnline's top 10. The names and the milligrams are the same but the number of pills has to be stated seperately because ordering quantities cannot be matched up.But take for example how expensive Prilosec is and if it is used for heartburn look how much people could save just using Tums. 30 pills of 20mg. Prilosec at drugstore.com is $115.80. That is only .6 grams. 454 grams in a pound, divided by .6 equals 757. So one pound of the active ingredient Omeprazole is 756.7 times $115.80= $87,265 a pound. No wonder the pill industry is so profitable. A person would be lucky to make 10 pounds worth of pills in a lifetime. Good grief. No wonder the country is going broke paying for Medicare/Medicaid.Prices are current as of this hour. Canada-PharmacyOnline U.S.-Drugstore.com1.-25mg Vioxx-------100-$115.02--------------90-$211.502.100mg Celebrex----100---64.04--------------60---84.953.-20mg Lipitor--------90--159.87--------------90--254.704.-20mg Zocor-------100--192.49--------------90--327.865.-30mg Prevacid------30---62.00--------------30--113.706.-20mg Losec---------28---63.31----Prilosec--30--115.80---20mg Nexium-------28---61.03--------------30--115.517.-.3mg Premarin------25---15.12---------------30---18.278.-10mg Fosamax-----30---56.01---------------30---65.169.-60mg Evista--------28---49.18---------------30---67.0210-75mg Plavix--------28---67.91--------------30--101.28Maybe we should just contract Canada to negotiate for us since Congress has no ability with them. If you get sick it is your money or your life.Now you can see what we are up against with MMJ.DAD-D,1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by DdC on October 07, 2002 at 12:58:13 PT Congrats Wisconson...Thank You! "Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935Can't Find It http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/36/36609.gif Clarence the Crosseyed Liar http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/36/36678.gifIt is proper to take alarm at the first experiment on our liberties. We hold this prudent jealousy to be the first duty of citizens and one of the noblest characteristics of the late Revolution. The freemen of America did not wait till usurped power had strengthened itself by exercise and entangled the question in precedents. They saw all the consequences in the principle, and they avoided the consequences by denying the principle. We revere this lesson too much ... to forget it -- James Madison.George McMahon, one of eight patients in the federal medical marijuana program and a founding member of Patients Out of Time http://www.trvnet.net/~mmcmahon/AN INCIDENT IN KANSAS, An interview with ELVY MUSIKKA and RICHARD DAVIS, by R Givens c 1995 http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/incident.htm"I realize now that I was never blinded by glaucoma, I was blinded by ignorance" Elvy Musikka Blinded by Ignorance. Interviewed by Dana Larsen http://cannabisculture.com/backissues/jul96/elvybod.htmlComments from Elvy Musikka, glaucoma patient and one of only eight people in the U.S. allowed to receive marijuana legally as medicine from the federal government. December 14, 1997, Hollywood, Florida, http://www.levellers.org/elvy1.htmNot One Tear Forgotten http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/articles/not_one_tear_forgotten.htm"America's drug war is so stupid that if you pay close attention to just how stupid it is -- it'll drive you to use drugs." -- Jim HightowerConstitutional Patriots Opposing Prohibition Http://www.cpop.org"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law." - Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on October 07, 2002 at 11:52:28 PT: Heroes Elvy and Gary are my heroes. They disprove the Schedule I lie. Only in America can this myth persist when the government had to acknowledge the medical benefit of cannabis for the Compassionate Use IND patients. In 1992, they closed the program, and would like to deny it altogether. Public speaking by Elvy, George McMahon, and Irvin Rosenfeld makes them look like propagandists rather than leaders. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Gary Storck on October 07, 2002 at 11:49:56 PT a slight correction The article quoted me as saying, "The DEA is coming into hospitals and handcuffing patients and confiscating their garden."What I actually said was "The DEA is coming into hospices and handcuffing patients and confiscating their gardens."Otherwise great article, great Harvest Fest. Lots of great speakers. Could have used a few more folks, but having it as a 2 day event may have skewed the Sunday attendance a little.The march to the Capitol was very cool, and once we arrived, speaker after speaker lambasted the drug war until the PA batteries died, and the event was declared over at precisely 4:20!Gary Is My Medicine Legal YET? [ Post Comment ] Post Comment