cannabisnews.com: Yes: Federal Crusade Brutalizes Ill People Yes: Federal Crusade Brutalizes Ill People Posted by CN Staff on October 11, 2002 at 09:42:48 PT By Ethan Nadelmann, Special To The Times Source: Seattle Times The war on drugs keeps getting bigger and meaner. Just when you think the tide is beginning to turn, someone in charge takes it a step further. What happened in California last month could happen in Washington soon. On Sept. 5, Drug Enforcement Administration agents armed with automatic weapons raided a hospice on the outskirts of Santa Cruz because it grew and used marijuana for its patients, most of them terminally ill. The founder and director, Valerie Corral, who uses marijuana herself to control debilitating seizures as a result of head trauma following a 1973 car accident, was taken away in her pajamas. Suzanne Pfeil, a paraplegic patient suffering from postpolio syndrome, was told to stand up and then handcuffed in bed when she could not. All the plants were destroyed. Of all the medical-marijuana clubs, this was the one most true to the hospice spirit. It was a collective, run on a nonprofit basis. Valerie and her husband had created a place that brought peace, love and some measure of freedom from pain to those who came. Like the Brompton Cocktails found in British hospices, which can contain heroin or morphine, cocaine, alcohol and other pharmaceutical ingredients, the medicine was unconventional but effective. Valerie's hospice was legal under California law, a product of Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot initiative in which 56 percent of voters endorsed the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes. She was and is a member of California Attorney General Bill Lockyer's 1999 medical marijuana policy task force. Her hospice was run openly with cooperation from state and local authorities. The DEA's raid, and the clear directive from the Bush administration and Attorney General John Ashcroft to assault and close this facility and others, is a travesty of justice — one that did much to terrorize American citizens and absolutely nothing to protect or improve their health, welfare or safety. More than two-thirds of Americans believe that marijuana should be legal for medical purposes. Medical-marijuana initiatives have won in all eight states where they've been on the ballot, and would likely win in all but a handful. The Canadian government is taking steps to make marijuana available to patients north of our border. Federal drug policy now lies in the hands of those who might best be described as the John Birchers of the drug war. Today's drug-war politicians are out of step with the public but they don't care. They're on their own crusade, one in which marijuana is as sinful as miscegenation was to the Southern racists. They're also practitioners of the big lie. "On the face of it," says John Walters, director of the federal Office on National Drug Control Policy, "the idea that desperately sick people could be helped by smoking an intoxicating weed seems ... medieval. It is, in fact, absurd." Never mind thousands of reports by patients and doctors, dozens of studies and the National Academy of Sciences' conclusion that marijuana is therapeutically effective for a number of painful, chronic and terminal medical conditions for which pharmaceutical drugs are often ineffective or introduce negative side effects. The hundreds of thousands of Americans who use marijuana for medical reasons, and the doctors who care for them, deserve a hearing in which they can defend their use of this unconventional medicine. They deserve the opportunity to give sworn testimony, and to confront the sworn testimony of those who persecute them. That's a job for Congress. The raid on the Santa Cruz medical marijuana facility was, of course, about more than marijuana. It's part and parcel of the same insanity that drives the bigger war on drugs ... one that now incarcerates more people for drug-law violations in the United States than all of Western Europe (with a much larger population) incarcerates for all crimes; one that prefers to sacrifice tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars rather than make sterile syringes legally available to reduce the spread of HIV and AIDS. More than that, it provides insight into the potential abuse of police power in another war without end on which we have now embarked. Ashcroft ordered a raid on a medical-marijuana hospice not because he had to, but because he possessed both the will and the power to do so. A Congress and a country preoccupied with many other concerns barely noticed. Is the Santa Cruz raid, and more generally the war on drugs, a preview of what lies ahead in the war on terrorism? Is the future one in which increasingly empowered and emboldened federal police agencies intimidate, arrest and even terrorize not just those who pose true threats to security, but also those who challenge little more than the moralistic convictions and political prejudices of power-holders in the nation's capital? I live for the day when our children will look back on the drug wars of today the way we now look back on Jim Crow and the Palmer raids after World War I, the Japanese American internment camps of World War II and the McCarthyite persecutions of the 1950s. That is my moral crusade, one shared by more and more other Americans as well. Ethan Nadelmann is executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based organization that promotes alternatives to the war on drugs based on science, compassion, public health and human rights. Source: Seattle Times (WA)Author: Ethan Nadelmann, Special To The Times Published: Friday, October 11, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The Seattle Times CompanyContact: opinion seatimes.comWebsite: http://www.seattletimes.com/Related Article & Web Sites:Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/News Articles - WAMM Raidhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmNo: Addictive Drug Has No Medical Value http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14428.shtmlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #8 posted by DdC on October 11, 2002 at 14:33:23 PT Thanks pokesmotter, I stole it from Dylan. ¶8)Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues by Bob Dylan http://bobdylan.com/songs/birch.htmlDylan songs http://bobdylan.com/home.html [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Ethan Russo MD on October 11, 2002 at 13:54:26 PT: ibn Sina (Avicenna) on Cannabis Ibn Sina. "Canon of Medicine." The 2nd Book. SHAHDANAJ [cannabis] Translated from Arabic by Farid Alakbarov, Baku, AzerbaijanEssence It is seeds of the Cannabis plant. We have already spoken about cannabis, and now it is necessary to bring together the two descriptions given before.There are two species of cannabis - the well-known garden plant and the wild cannabis. Huneyn says that the wild cannabis is a plant that grows in the desert places, reaches 1 cubit at height and has the whitish leaves. Its fruit looks as the pepper's [fruit], and seeds resemble the garden plant's seeds, which are pressed to receive oil. We already said about them from the chapter about hemp seed.Nature Hot and dry in the third degree.Effects and Properties [Cannabis] resolves winds and strongly dries out [an organism]. The humor created by it is slender and bad.Tumors and Pimples The compress with the boiled roots of cannabis decrease fever and resolve the indurations if applied on the hot tumors and hardened places [of the body]. Organs of the Head Owing to its warm nature [cannabis] causes the headache. The juice pressed from this [herb] is dropped into ears to heal pains caused by corking, as well as moisture in ears; the hemp seed oil has the same properties. Its leaves remove dandruff from the head.Organs of Eyes Cannabis darkens the eyesight.Organs of Nutrition It is harmful to stomach.Organs of excretion. Cannabis dries out the man's sperm, and the milk (latex) of the wild cannabis is a mild purgative. Half ritl of its juice treats constipation and removes mucus and bile [from an organism]. It has the same properties as the wild saffron (Carthamus tinctoria). [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by DigitalFeonix on October 11, 2002 at 12:24:01 PT Medieval huh? "On the face of it," says John Walters, director of the federal Office on National Drug Control Policy, "the idea that desperately sick people could be helped by smoking an intoxicating weed seems ... medieval. It is, in fact, absurd."Know what else is just medieval medicine? Leeches! Did you know Mr. John "Pee in a Cup" Walters that Doctors use leeches today? I know what your thinking, "they must be quacks!" Nope, they are not. They Doctors have looked beyond the fear and paranoia and used science (musn't do that!) to realize that these little blood suckers help people that have limbs or fingers reattached. Imagine that.The human races biggest weakness is fear of the unknown. We make up stories, demons and monsters to fill in the void of the unknown. Mr. Walters is just another person who can't deal with the unknown, so he spreads his stories about 'demons' because of his fear.The prohibitionists are beginning to sound like Chicken Little, "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by pokesmotter on October 11, 2002 at 12:00:34 PT: DdC that song was great! i luaghed and i laughed again. i feel inspired to write a guitar part of it and sing it to people like walters would. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by p4me on October 11, 2002 at 11:10:34 PT medieval, Avicenna, Opera, and what not "the idea that desperately sick people could be helped by smoking an intoxicating weed seems ... medieval. It is, in fact, absurd."No John Boy-brain, it is not absurd. You are absurd and lying again. Get some lithium. Get a clue. Get a noose. Get out of the country, but get. You are a sorry example for the children and their grandmother. You are sorry, period. Begone,liar.And Walters talks about medieval. Well, here is a link to an article titled,"Marijuana - The First Twelve Thousand Years": http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/8.htm It was medieval medicine and it is medicine today because 600 million years of evolution have used cannabinoids. We are biologically linked. Dr. Melemede, from Denver did a phone interview today on pot-tv talking about it. Steve Kubby also talked about the definition of freedom in Canada and it sounds a lot better to me than the Black Parrot's definition. Go up there and fight coca tea, and please don't come back, Traitor Walters.The College of Pharmacy of Washington State University has a little history of pharmacy with 40 pictures with narrative to tell the tale. I would suggest you view it sometime and bookmark this link so that you have it when you need it: http://www.pharmacy.wsu.edu/History/index.htmlBut first I want to say the Internet is our most powerful tool in fighting for Free Cannabis because the media is mostly controlled by the fascist or the prohibitionist, however you prefer. Just look at how few articles are published in Canada, the UK, and here in the US. Thousands of papers in this country don't say squat about anything cannabis month in and month out. The articles that appear at Cnews are not a selection of the best of a multitude of articles. They are for the most part, all the articles that appear in the English speaking world. I used to read the Australian everyday, and even yesterday I read the website of three Jamaican newspapers. They have elections next Tuesday by the way and their is a lot of violence and it grabbed both editorial cartoons in the Gleanor and the Observer, the largest two newspapers in Jamaica. Ganja is not a political issue in Jamaica and the last time I read anything about ganja in Jamaica was when $700 million worth of pot was seized on the docks. Now if it were worth that much it reduced the national wealth of the less that 3 million Jamaicans by an average of $35 per person.But anyway, I just want to give Opera a plug as a browser. It has helpful hints that display when you first use it to inform you of its details of use. It has a website that can tell you anything. I think it is faster than Netscape and I abandoned Explorer for Netscape. But if you want to copy a link address, you open up your hotlist(Bookmarks)and right click anywhere on the screen and up comes a menu where you click to add it to the folder you have indicated in your hotlist. Also, take my folder for newsources. I have a Top 10, a second tier, and a third tier. When I want to read the news I do not do it with onezies and twozies. I just click the folder with top 10 and it opens them all. But regarding the history of pharmacy link. It has 1-10, 11-20,21-30,and 31-40 on four seperate pages. Now the way I would view these is to go to the left side of the page where the 10 frames are named and right click on each one, and on the same menu that allows you to bookmark pages, I would hit open in background and open all 10. Anyway on Walter medieval slur, I want to copy #13 from that History of Pharmacy. Once it is copied a right click will bring up a place to click copy and here it is:13. AVICENNA - THE "PERSIAN GALEN"Among the brilliant contributors to the sciences of Pharmacy and Medicine during the Arabian era was one genius who seems to stand for his time - the Persian, Ibn Sina (about 980-1037 A.D.), called Avicenna by the Western world. Pharmacist, poet, physician, philosopher and diplomat, Avicenna was an intellectual giant, a favorite of Persian princes and rulers. He wrote in Arabic, often while secluded in the home of an apothecary friend. His pharmaceutical teachings were accepted as authority in the West until the 17th century; and still are dominant influences in the Orient.Avicenna wrote the Canon of Medicine that was used in Europe up until the 1600's. He also wrote a book titled, "The Book of Healing" which I have read was mostly spiritual in nature. Anyway, I have not yet found the entries for cannabis in his Canon of Medicine or I would copy it. I think that it might could be accessed through the Univ. of Mass. Library, if you know what I am talking about, but I have no membership. That is one reason we need journalist reading this site. Maybe they could participate and find stuff like that for us. I have said enough. I will try to find out what Avicenna wrote about cannabis in the Canon of Medicine, but it isn't that easy to find.DAD-D,1,2 [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by DdC on October 11, 2002 at 10:55:21 PT Talkin John Walters Marijuana Paranoid Blues Well, I was feelin' sad and feelin' blue, I didn't know what in the world I was gonna do, Them Marijuanists they wus comin' around, They wus in the air, They wus on the ground. They wouldn't gimme no peace. . .So I run down most hurriedly And joined up with the D.A.R.E. Society, I got me a secret membership card And started off a-walkin' down the road. Yee-hoo, I'm a real WoD Whacko now! Look out you Marijuanists! Now we all agree with Hitlers' views, Although he killed six million Jews. It don't matter too much that he was a Fascist, At least you can't say he was a Marijuanists! That's to say like if you got a cold you take a shot of malaria. Well, I wus lookin' everywhere for them gol-darned potheads. I got up in the mornin' 'n' looked under my bed, Looked in the sink, behind the door, Looked in the glove compartment of my car. Couldn't find 'em . . . I wus lookin' high an' low for them potheads everywhere, I wus lookin' in the sink an' underneath the chair. I looked way up my chimney hole, I even looked deep inside my toilet bowl. They got away . . . Well, I wus sittin' home alone an' started to sweat, Figured they wus in my T.V. set. Peeked behind the picture frame, Got a shock from my feet, hittin' right up in the brain. Them Potheads caused it! I know they did . . . them hard-core ones. Well, I quit my job so I could work alone, Then I changed my name to Sherlock Holmes. Followed some clues from my detective bag And discovered they wus hemp in the American flag! That ol' Betty Ross . . . Well, I investigated all the books in the library, Ninety percent of 'em gotta be burned away. I investigated all the people that I knowed, Ninety-eight percent of them gotta go. The other two percent are fellow WoD Whacko's . . . just like me. Now Eisenhower, he's a Beatnick spy, Lincoln, Jefferson and that Roosevelt guy. To my knowledge there's just one man That's really a true American: G. Dubya I know for a fact he hates Marijuanists cus he selling tickets to the movie Reefer Madness. Well, I fin'ly started thinkin' straight When I run outa things to investigate. Couldn't imagine doin' anything else, So now I'm sittin' home investigatin' myself! Hope I don't find out anything . . . hmm, great God!Thugczar Wally http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/35/35838.gifPeace, Love and Liberty in Solidarity or The Brutal D.E.A.th!...DdCD.E.A.th Deceptions http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.htmlU.S.Al Qaeda! http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/39/39670.gif [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 11, 2002 at 10:28:51 PT News But No Article Yet I haven't found any articles so far but it appears they arrested Steve McWilliams. When I find one I will post it.Pot Garden Uprooted in Raid: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14240.shtmlLocal Pot Advocate's Home Raided: http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14238.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by canaman on October 11, 2002 at 10:20:27 PT Thank-you Ethan Nadelmann, for another well written story about the horrors of prohibition. And thank-you Seattle Times for presenting both sides again. I would think any open minded person could tell who is telling the truth. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment