cannabisnews.com: The New Politics of Pot










  The New Politics of Pot

Posted by CN Staff on October 27, 2002 at 07:52:34 PT
By Joel Stein 
Source: Time Magazine  

The drug czar is ready for pro wrestling. He already has the name, and now he's got the prefight talk down cold. In every speech he makes in Nevada, where Bush appointee John Walters has traveled to fight an initiative that would legalize marijuana, he calls out his three sworn enemies as if he were Tupac Shakur. The czar has a problem with billionaire philanthropists George Soros, Peter Lewis and John Sperling, who have bankrolled the pro-pot movement, and he wants everyone to know he's ready for battle. At an Elks lodge meeting in Las Vegas, he ticks off their names and says, "These people use ignorance and their overwhelming amount of money to influence the electorate. 
You don't hide behind money and refuse to talk and hire underlings and not stand up and speak for yourself," he says. By the end of a similar speech at a drug-treatment center in Reno, he says, "Let's stop hiding. I'm here. Where are you?" The czar is bringing it on. Before the new czar was appointed in December, it was the government's preference not to address the legalizers. But the pro-pot movement has gained so much ground they can't be ignored as a fringe element. Americans, it turns out, aren't conflicted in their attitude toward marijuana. They want it illegal but not really enforced. A Time/cnn poll last week found that only 34% want pot to be totally legalized (the percentage has almost doubled since 1986). But a vast majority have become mellow about official loopholes: 80% think it's O.K. to dispense pot for medical purposes, and 72% think people caught with it for recreational use should get off with only a fine. That seeming paradox has left a huge opening for pro-pot people to exploit. Eight states allow medical marijuana, and a handful of states have reduced the sentences for pot smokers to almost nothing. The midterm election Nov. 5 has lighted up the issue even more. While control of the House hangs in the balance and the race for the Senate is a dead heat, the political trend for marijuana is clear: support is gaining. The most interesting battles on the November ballot are over pot initiatives: to allow the city of San Francisco to grow and distribute medical marijuana, to replace jail with rehab in Ohio and decriminalize marijuana use in Arizona. Many of these proposals are relatively modest, but the pro-pot forces are also raising the stakes. In spite of the electorate's contentment with the paradox of loose enforcement, some particularly powerful people on both sides have taken extreme viewpoints in an effort to end the political stalemate and force Americans to choose. Either pot is not so bad and should be legal, or people should be arrested for smoking it. The battlefield for the showdown is Nevada, where Question 9 would allow adults to possess up to 3 oz. of pot for personal use. In fact, the state government would set up a legal market for buying and selling pot. To almost everyone's surprise, the race is too close to call. While the pro-pot forces have pushed their agenda at the polls, opponents have tried to use legal muscle to fight back. After a Supreme Court decision last year reiterating that federal drug laws trumped state ones, the Drug Enforcement Administration sent federal agents to California to bust medical-marijuana growers, a move that  tended to outrage California voters who had approved this use. In fact, as the Administration pushes harder against the pro-pot forces, pot supporters seem to gain ground. Among the biggest pro-pot players, medical marijuana was actually kind of a ruse. Sure, there are sick people who really feel they need marijuana to numb pain, relieve the eye pressure of glaucoma, calm muscle spasms or get the munchies to help with aids wasting. But they are not the people who put the debate into high gear. A few years ago, the Drug Policy Alliance--an organization founded by billionaire philanthropist Soros, who wants to legalize marijuana and reform drug laws by replacing jail time with rehab--decided it would fund only those initiatives that could be won. So the group ran a bunch of polls to find out how America feels about the drug wars, and the reformers came up way short on everything but three policies: people preferred treatment over incarceration in some cases, people hated property forfeiture, and an overwhelming majority felt medical marijuana should be legal. So Soros & Co. set out to get medical-marijuana legislation. The ! fight has done quite well, especially when, to their surprise, the Federal Government took the bait and started arresting little old ladies and storming peaceful pot-growing cooperatives. In fact, the pro-pot people have done well enough that some of them feel it is time to drop the ruse and fight for full legalization. Plus, with Britain experimenting with a "seize and warn" policy instead of arresting pot smokers and Canada flirting with doing the same, the blunt-friendly were ready to take off the camouflage and fight. And where else to try this but in Nevada? That's why the czar is in Vegas, sitting in a room at the Venetian Hotel guarded by U.S. marshals. The czar, a smart, likable, earnest man who believes he can help Americans by fighting the drug war, is derided by the opposition as "Bill Bennett's Mini-Me." Indeed, he worked for Bennett under Reagan in the Department of Education and then as Bennett's deputy drug czar in the first Bush Administration. When George W. appointed him, the President told the czar to watch the movie Traffic as a way to understand the problem. The czar, who told Time he has never smoked pot, believes marijuana to be not only a gateway drug but also incredibly detrimental in its own right--causing driving accidents, domestic violence, health risks and crippling addiction. He thinks the legalization argument is absurd, especially when proposed by libertarian Republicans who are so doctrinaire he finds them to be outside his party. "This is great talk at 2 a.m. in a dorm room, that all laws should be ! consistent. But the real world isn't consistent. It's ludicrous to say we have a great deal of problems from the use of alcohol so we should multiply that with marijuana," he says. It doesn't take long for him to get back to the three billionaires: "It's unprecedented, the amount of money put in by such a small amount of people over one issue." The marijuana legalizers, including the billionaires Walters vilifies, don't have much kinder things to say about him. In fact, for old rich men, they can sound a lot like Tupac. One of them, Sperling, 81, is founder of the highly profitable nationwide chain the University of Phoenix. He has spent $13 million on drug-reform campaigns and lots of other money on other pet projects, including cloning his cat. "Mr. Walters is a pathetic drug-war soul who is defending a whole catalog of horrors he's indifferent to," Sperling says from his office in Phoenix, Ariz. "The government's drug-reform policy is driven by a Fundamentalist Christian sense of morality that sees any of these illegal substances used as evil." Sperling says he smoked pot to combat pain associated with the cancer he fought in the 1960s. Lewis, 68, former ceo of Progressive, an insurance company, doesn't despise the czar quite as much, but he has been battling him even harder. The reasons for Lewis are more straightforward. He has been referred to by colleagues as a "functional pothead." He spends half the year on a $16.5 million, 255-ft. yacht, where he smokes pot regularly; he even got arrested in New Zealand on drug charges a few years ago, he told the Plain Dealer. He is one of the main backers of the radical Nevada proposal, having given heaps of money to the Marijuana Policy Project, which is running Question 9 there. "The absurdity of its illegality has been clear to me for some time. I learned about pot from my kids and realized it was a lot better than Scotch, and I loved the Scotch. Then I went to my doctor, and he said, 'I'm thrilled. You're drinking too much. You're much better off doing pot than drinking.'" Soros (who has smoked pot but no longer does) declined to be interviewed, and like the rest of the troika, he won't debate Walters. They are probably refusing for two reasons: 1) they would likely lose, since none of them are politicians; and 2) if you were going around the world on a 255-ft. yacht, would you list "Drug Czar" as one of your ports of call? So instead they fight federal policy with initiative after initiative, while also defending local pro-pot laws. Their side got a major media boost in California in September, when federal agents busted Santa Cruz's Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in an early-morning raid. The feds dragged the farm's owners, who were legally growing pot under California law, to a federal building in San Jose for breaking federal law and held a paraplegic resident at the farm for hours. "I opened my eyes to see five federal agents pointing assault rifles at my head. 'Get your hands over your head. Get up. Get up.' I took the respirator off my face, and I explained to them that I'm paralyzed," said Suzanne Pheil, 44, who is disabled by the effects of postpolio syndrome. Her story was broadcast everywhere, since the pro-pot people had basically been waiting for her to be harassed, punching every phone number on their media list minutes after the raid. Pot people, surprisingly, can move p! retty fast when they want to. The bust couldn't have gone better for the pot folks. California attorney general Bill Lockyer fired off an angry letter to dea chief Asa Hutchinson, who wrote back saying that federal law allows the feds to seize pot. "During the Clinton years they didn't do this," says Lockyer. "It disappointed me that they would be using precious resources to act like a bunch of bullies." San Jose police chief William Lansdowne was so annoyed by the raid that he withdrew his officers from the local dea task force, ending 15 years of close work. Even Governor Gray Davis, who has been quiet on the marijuana issue, expressed concern over the feds' bust. A week after the raid, Santa Cruz officials gathered at city hall to supervise public distribution of marijuana to members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in front of TV crews, a way of giving Washington the finger. To many Republicans, this looks like bad politics for Bush. "It seems to me about as far from Compassionate Conservatism as you can get," says former Nixon and Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger. "There are an awful lot of people in their 50s and younger who smoked pot when they were younger and don't look on it as something that destroyed their lives. I think there is a lot more open-mindedness toward pot than there used to be." In Nevada, popular Republican Governor Kenny Guinn refuses to take a stand on Question 9, the pot-legalization amendment to the state constitution, saying he'll go with whatever the people vote for. And he won't really have to worry about it for a while, since the constitutional amendment will go into effect only if Nevadans vote yes on Nov. 5 and again in 2004. So Guinn may be smart to stay out of the debate, because the rhetoric from both sides has gone out of control. The drug czar's latest commercial, which was actually focus-grouped with teens and their parents, shows two teens getting stoned in their father's study, talking apathetically about a bunch of stuff. One pulls out a gun from his dad's drawer, the other asks lazily if it's loaded, and the gun-toting teen shrugs and shoots the other kid. "The suggestion is not to say too many children are being shot in their dens who are marijuana users," Walters said. "It's meant to show that marijuana alters your ability to ! use judgment." In the other camp, many of the workers lied to voters in the course of gathering signatures to get Question 9 on the ballot, saying it was a medical-marijuana proposition, according to several pro-pot Nevadans. The two camps even fight regularly about how many joints can be made from 3 oz. of pot, the proposed legal maximum. The pro-pot people claim 80, while the anti-pot people carry around bags of 250 joints to illustrate their case. Yes, moms across the state are spending large parts of their nights rolling parsley and oregano. The Marijuana Policy Project in Nevada has a chance partly because it is far better organized than its scattered opposition. The project made a smart move in hiring Billy Rogers, a Democratic political consultant from Texas, to run the Nevada campaign. Rogers sends people door to door daily to target supporters he can call on Election Day and bus to voting booths. This could make the difference in what the polls show is an almost evenly split electorate. Rogers' office is situated in a Vegas strip mall, just above an Asian massage parlor, which is right next to a children's tutoring center, which is all you need to know to understand why the project is staging this fight in Nevada. The office looks more like a sorority fund drive than a '60s dorm room. Posters drawn by children depict images like a teddy bear with a heart labeled vote yes on 9. Rogers, wearing a collarless white shirt, is still at work at 1 a.m., editing a commercial. "In college we'd sit around and talk abo! ut this--that when we grew up we were going to change these laws. And now we're doing it," he says. Rogers, who says he hasn't smoked pot in 15 years, doesn't have a personal connection to the fight, but it's pretty easy to get him into a James Carville mood. When he talks about Walters' oft repeated claim (an assertion shared by the National Institute on Drug Abuse) that marijuana has much higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (thc) than it used to, that, in Walters' words, "it's not your father's marijuana," Rogers goes ballistic. "It's a plant. What--it's not your father's broccoli? Its genetic structure hasn't changed in 30 years," he says, eating steak for a late-night meal. "These guys will say anything. If I had a billion-dollar budget, I'd say anything to stay in business." That's one of the major conspiracy theories of the pro-legalization movement--a rant right out of the Eisenhower era, that the government is keeping pot illegal so it can maintain its giant drug-war bureaucracy. Its advocates also believe--as put forth directly in the pro-medical marijuana commercials of billionaire independent New York gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano--that politicians are in the pocket of the pharmaceutical companies, who fear marijuana is such good medicine that their own products will suffer. The pro-legalization forces also believe, more convincingly, that the right wing of the Republican Party connects drug use with sin and radicalism and the failure of the family. "I've known John Walters for about 10 years, and I don't think this is about drugs for him," says Ethan Nadelmann, head of the Drug Policy Alliance. "John is a reactionary ideologue. It's the broader battle about what we tell kids about life. It's a vehicle for promoting a tougher, meane! r approach to life and government." Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of Massachusetts claims the war on drugs is really a war against the Other. "Alcohol does more damage in many areas of society than drugs, particularly marijuana, but we treat marijuana as much worse, and that's because it's associated with the counterculture." Some Republicans, however, are ready to legalize medical marijuana. Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a doctor and onetime Libertarian Party presidential candidate, has been fighting for medical marijuana. "From a humanitarian standpoint, people should never be denied this kind of help," says Paul. But fellow Republican Hutchinson stands behind the decision to prosecute. "Why would they want to authorize behavior under state law that is still a violation of federal law?" he says. "It endangers a population, to me. It gives the green light on the one hand and a go-to-jail ticket on the other." Among cops and other law enforcers, there are sharp divisions too. Some, like Joseph D. McNamara, a former San Jose police chief and now a Hoover Institution fellow, call for an end to the criminalization of marijuana. "Most of the police officers I hired during the 15 years I was police chief had tried it," says McNamara. Like many pot legalizers, he believes the system, which he says arrests more people for marijuana than for any other drug, is racist. "Ninety million Americans have tried marijuana. When you look at who's going to jail, it is overwhelmingly disproportionate--it's Latinos and blacks." Not surprisingly, the topic is radioactive in the police profession. Andy Anderson, who was head of his state's largest cop organization, the Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs, announced that his board members unanimously supported the pro-pot initiative so they could focus on more serious crimes. A few days later, Anderson was forced to resign. The voice for Nevada cop! s then became Gary Booker, deputy district attorney in charge of the vehicular-crimes unit, until he told members of the press he believed the wild claims of political extremist Lyndon LaRouche that Soros is pro-legalization because he bankrolls drug cartels. When talking to Time at the Elks lodge where he introduced the drug czar, Booker awkwardly tried to explain away his statement: "The word cartel was used, not drug. A cartel is a group of businessmen who control price, and that's what we've got here. Three or four guys are controlling the thing." He too stepped out of  the role of Nevada police spokesman. The pro-pot people feel that victory--even if it comes not this year and not in Nevada--is inevitable. Each year there are fewer members of the pre-boomer generation, who tend not to distinguish between heroin and pot. In 1983, only 31% of Americans surveyed had tried pot; the new Time/cnn poll puts the figure at 47%. And though pot use among teens is down from its '70s highs, parents sneaking joints when their kids are asleep is a fresh phenomenon. But the polls show that Americans still cling to pot's forbidden status, which is why the pro-pot people are working so hard. "You would think you would get a change, but you're not going to," says Charles Whitebread, a law professor at the University of Southern California who has written extensively on marijuana law. "Even though it did nothing to them, the fear that it will somehow pollute their children has made some of the people who used marijuana extremely freely now say, 'Oh, gee, I wouldn't be in favor of the change in t! he legal status of marijuana.'" It may be that the major dividing line between the pro- and anti-legalizers is not party affiliation but parental status. And even among parents, moms see more against pot than dads. So, barring another wave of '60s-like radicalism or a lot more poorly thought-out co-op busts by the feds, Americans' complicated feelings about pot aren't going to be reconciled overnight. And recent studies showing that marijuana can have addictive properties, though in a small percentage of cases, is going to make some parents more nervous about their kids turning into potheads. While alcohol and cigarettes may be more dangerous, a lot of parents would rather smell beer on their kid's breath than have a 29-year-old living at home, eating Cheetos and watching SpongeBob.  --With reporting by Matt Baron - Chicago, Laura A. Locke - San Francisco, Viveca Novak - Washington & Sean Scully - Los Angeles Source: Time Magazine (US)Author: Joel SteinPublished: Saturday, October 26, 2002Copyright: 2002 Time Inc.Contact: letters time.comWebsite: http://www.time.com/time/Related Articles & Web Sites:NRLEhttp://www.nrle.org/Drug Policy Alliancehttp://www.drugpolicy.org/Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/News Articles - WAMM Raidhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htm'Relax Your Muscles as Much as Possible' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14571.shtmlNevada Should Back Question 9 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14539.shtml

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Comment #39 posted by Trystan on October 28, 2002 at 08:18:47 PT
Regulate it
 If 72% of Americans do not want to have cannabis users end up in prison, why not legalize, regulate and tax it instead of imposing fines only on those who get caught?  Regulate and legalize it. Cut out the black market. The black market and overzealous drug laws/czars have done more harm to people than the drug itself.
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Comment #38 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 23:33:38 PT
The C-I-R-C-L-E 
I'm done now. That was funny! I always listen to my body language. When my eyes cross I quit for the day and they are crossed! Good Night and good luck with your new baby that is on the way.
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Comment #37 posted by The C-I-R-C-L-E on October 27, 2002 at 23:25:37 PT
PST!! That's good!
It's a more natural version of PDST which is only available on the market from April and October. Although in some parts of Arizona and Indiana I hear you can get it all year long!! I'm hooked on it until April rolls around again. LOLWP! (Laughing Out Loud While Peeing) Now I'm feeling a little silly...you have a nice rest and dream of lush gardens. MW
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Comment #36 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 23:08:50 PT
The C-I-R-C-L-E 
You sure are busy too! Thanks for the compliment. When you said I'm not on PST I first thought it was initials for a drug! LOL! I'm tired and no I'm on east coast time. I'm about done for the day. I'm tired. Maybe I did take some of that PST! LOL! Thanks again!PS: Maybe make shorter hours for registration and allow people to register themselves again. I only had to stop doing it the way it was because of the abuses. 
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Comment #35 posted by The C-I-R-C-L-E on October 27, 2002 at 23:01:48 PT
FoM
You mean you have to personally enter each person that registers?The job you are doing is wonderful and I have no idea how you do it! But where O where would we be without CNews? I usedta check marijaunanews.com every day but then entered cannabisnews.com one day to see what happened - and POW! I suddenly had a cannabis newsclipping service that was comprehensive!I met Richard Cowan at this years NORML conference on 4/20 and love the commentary he provides throughout the articles, but you provide what i really need. I spend whatever free time i have (between running a business and my second child due in 3 weeks) operating The C.I.R.C.L.E. which stands for The Cannabis Information Resource Center Legally Entitled. It's just me mostly and I get overwhelmed between the monthly meetings and radio debates (thanks for the support on that one!) and meetings with congress-creatures and meetings with the local district attorney and calls from patients being busted and blah balh blah.I have had a taste of what your going thru when I had 49 messages waiting on the answering machine, with some more than a month old. i did find a volunteer to help with the call backs but more importantly I just let people know to expect a delay and let the messages pile up. Maybe instead of one extreme or the other (which is what i do under stress) consider just a message for all new attempted registrants that allows them to enter their info ona list and for them to please be patient because there is a backlog.What keeps me going is the thankfulness of those I've helped for being there for free and being supportive and friendly. You have been all of those and let me be another person thanking you to help you keep going. As a co-worker at a bar years ago used to say "Keep your whiskers up , tiger!"By the way, you're not on PST right? What are you doing up so late!?
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Comment #34 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 22:41:38 PT
p4me
We had a guest type situation before and it was abused that's why we have registration. I have been registering a couple people every few days. I really do believe most people that want to take part in our discussions here are already registered. I figure if someone here knows someone that wants to get registered to comment they can post it and tell me in a comment and I could take care of it that way. The registration is my biggest problem but I'm not sure how to handle it yet but am thinking about it a lot. After elections are over everything will get a little easier.
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Comment #33 posted by p4me on October 27, 2002 at 22:23:22 PT
I have an idea
It is ashame if there are people that want to comment and can't. I just wonder if you couldn't set up an account with the name "guest" and password "guest." That way people that are not registered would have a way of getting access to the comments. I could see how it could get abused, but it is one idea. Time is doing some really good fence sitting in these three articles. I hope you cancel all your subscriptions to any of the AOL-TimeWarner conglomerate. And there are plenty of ISP's that can serve you just as well as AOL at a better price. Vote with your money and don't feed the yellow parrots.1
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Comment #32 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 22:19:08 PT
firedog
Thank you. I sure will keep it in mind. All I know is I can't do email and news. It has become too much to take care of. Maybe we can figure something out in the near future. For the time being I've stopped checking my CNews email. These next 10 days are going to be very busy I think. We are down to the wire. I want to keep my mind on all the different news on different ballot initiatives. I'm walking around trying to memorize them so I don't miss any articles. I'll mention it again if any solutions are worked out. Thanks again.
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Comment #31 posted by firedog on October 27, 2002 at 21:52:09 PT
FoM - need help?
Hey,If you need help with registering members or responding to emails, I'd be happy to volunteer some time. Maybe this is the way to solve the problem, by getting some people to help out with it for a certain amount of time each day.I've definitely learned a lot from cannabisnews and I've always wanted to contribute in whatever way I could. I don't always have a lot to say, but I'm always reading the site - I don't think I've missed an article for a year and a half.So if you could use the help, I'd be glad to do what I can. I don't have a huge amount of time but I do have some.
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Comment #30 posted by Sam Adams on October 27, 2002 at 18:58:10 PT
Circle I totally agree
What a big load of crap! Time has been a sensationalist rag for years. Just compare this to the Economist's series last year.  It's a sad statement both to the politics of the US, and to the intellectual level of the average reader in each country.This whole series reads like something a split-personality 7th-grader wrote. It can't make any rational assertion without questioning itself in the next statement. Time seems TERRIFIED OF DIRECTLY CRITICIZING THE GOVERNMENT. Why? Doesn't that sell? I don't get it. But overall, I see just as much propagation of lies and myths in this series as any truth. I mean come on, seriously now. How can there be ANY ambiguity about how MJ affects the sex glands? There are 75 million of us, none having grown breasts or gone sterile. This is something I haven't really seen before: it's almost neurotic, paranoid journalism.
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Comment #29 posted by DdC on October 27, 2002 at 18:02:26 PT
Strange Stats...Most seem to know WoD's Hogwash
¶8) http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/story.html
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Comment #28 posted by DdC on October 27, 2002 at 17:50:24 PT
Time Poll and related articles listed, new pic
COVER STORY New Politics of Pot Use this link for the related articles and pollCan marijuana become legalized for everyone?
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/story.htmlNew Story pic
http://i.timeinc.net/time/covers/1101021104/images/story.jpgRelated...Is Pot Good For You?
Health risk from occasional use is mild and might ease certain ills
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/tgood.htmlMedical Marijuana: A History Inhaling to cure ailments is older than you think
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/history.htmlShould marijuana be legalized? (Scroll Down)
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021104/story.htmlYes 59.3%Yes, but only medically 2.7%No 38.8%Total Votes Cast: 3687 NOTE: This is an unscientific, informal survey for the interest and enjoyment of TIME.com users and may not be indicative of popular opinion.Time Mag
http://www.time.com/time/The New Politics of Pot Article this am, same article below with related and poll...
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,384744,00.htmlhttp://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread14572.shtmlPack pic from before...
http://i.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/rtcover_110402.gifLife Magazine "Marijuana" 1969
http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_magazine1.shtml
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionstuff.showMessage?topicID=68.topic
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 17:26:56 PT
Another Note
There is a lot more to this article and I am working on setting them up to post. It might take a little time because I really want to get this right. I will repost this article again as the last one with links attached but I will post each story by itself. Wish me luck.
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Comment #26 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 16:24:21 PT
Just a Note
I feel I need to mention this to everyone. I can no longer handle receiving email. It has become way more of a burden then it is worth. I want to provide you with news to read and comment on if you like and that takes all of my concentration. Until a way of registering new members is figured out no one new will be able to register. I always get way too much email when I am the busiest so I often don't get to respond. I also believe most people that really want to post on C News after 4 years of us being here are registered. I don't believe this will cause many problems. A few problems but hopefully it all will work out. I can only do so much and keep my focus and not getting email is something that would save me a lot of time.
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Comment #25 posted by The C-I-R-C-L-E on October 27, 2002 at 15:33:34 PT
TIME Magazine
We receive Time in the mail and it shows up in our mailbox on Mondays. I expect to catch this issue tomorrow but don't know iof the newsstand gets it the same day.I sure hope the rest of the issue has better reporting than this. What a crude way to end the whole serious subject by unfairly comparing "evidence of use" of one substance (alcohol) to the "evidence of misuse" of another (our miracle herb). Let's turn the tables and see if the same comparison would be fair if reversed:"While alcohol and cigarettes may be more dangerous, a lot of parents would rather have a 29-year-old living at home, wrecking cars and puking on the floor than smell pot on their kid's clothes. "Ludicrous - with a capital middle finger at the beginning. What a line to leave in people's heads as they finish. It's obvious some people can't even speak the truth, even if you paid them to. That's it, I'm writing in to Time. I'm subjected to their fecal propulsion every week because of a house member's subscription...
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Comment #24 posted by Dan B on October 27, 2002 at 15:08:36 PT:
That 72% thing
 80% think it's O.K. to dispense pot for medical purposes, and 72% think people caught with it for recreational use should get off with only a fine. Consider this: a "sin tax" is a built-in fine for buying a product that the government has labeled as "sinful," e.g. alcohol, tobacco. What is the difference between a "sin tax" on cannabis and a fine for being caught buying cannabis? The tax is collected every time. It seems to me that we need to make this argument plain for the American public. If 72% of Americans do not want to have cannabis users end up in prison, why not legalize, regulate and tax it instead of imposing fines only on those who get caught? Taxation along with regulation isn't 100% what we want, but it is a far cry from what we have now. I'd take legalized, regulated and taxed cannabis over imprisonment any day. Wouldn't you?Dan B
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Comment #23 posted by p4me on October 27, 2002 at 14:01:01 PT
4 to 1 escape the brainwashing
80% think it's O.K. to dispense pot for medical purposesThat means that despite all the lying and brainwashing by the government, the people believe 4 to 1 that marijuana is medicine. It is hard to argue with fact, but somehow the traitorous and professional liar Walters tries to. Does he not know he is making a fool of himself and his appointed President too? And it is not like Busch needs any help making a fool of himself either. We are being led to a WOSD and a AttackIraq war by two fools that are also traitors to a government forofby the people.80% of Americans have come to see the truth through all the government lies and destroyed and prevented studies. It should tell you something and the fact that the lies continue and ignore the 4 in 5 people that say medicine already should tell you something else. Have you seen your American fascism at work here today?1
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 13:31:06 PT

Nasarius
I see what you mean. They should have removed that (see following story) from the article but they must have forgotten. I'll try to remove it but I might not be able too. The extra article must be in the magazine. 
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Comment #21 posted by Nasarius on October 27, 2002 at 13:20:46 PT

More articles? Yes.
Near the top of the fifth paragraph:"Sure, there are sick people who really feel they need marijuana to numb pain, relieve the eye pressure of glaucoma, calm muscle spasms or get the munchies to help with aids wasting (see following story)."Hopefully Time will put them online soon...
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Comment #20 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on October 27, 2002 at 13:03:29 PT

Vote for who?
I got a flyer the other day from my local Republican candidate for Sheriff and I see a photo of him standing next to close to a ton of seized cannabis. I wasn't going to vote for anyone in this race, as there's no Libertarian candidate that I know of, but now I'm going to vote for somebody - anybody else. I hate doing the "vote against" thing, but anyone who mails me something like that deserves it.
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Comment #19 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 12:29:54 PT

Dr. Russo
I know I forgot to post the lead in but I looked and there isn't another or an additional article that I can find. We are going to try to find the magazine and hopefully more will be in it.MikeEEEEE Question 9 has to pass! It just has too.
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Comment #18 posted by MikeEEEEE on October 27, 2002 at 12:15:43 PT

The way I see it
The anti's with all their tax money are still losing, and will continue to lose. Hopefully question 9 will win and help push prohibition to its ultimate conclusion.
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Comment #17 posted by Ethan Russo MD on October 27, 2002 at 12:09:31 PT:

Now I'm Really Confused
I hope that there are additional articles in the magazine, as I (and several other people I know) were interviewed for this issue, and I do not see any of the topics covered, nor attribtion to the author in question.There should be additional information on cannabis research, governmental interference, progress in Europe, etc. The pony express does not stop here every day, so I'd be interested if one of you city dwellers could check out the newstand addition when possible----
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Comment #16 posted by canaman on October 27, 2002 at 11:12:10 PT

Legalize it and I'll advertise it, by George!.....
Watch out now, take care, Beware of soft shoe shufflersDancing down the sidewalks,As each unconscious suffererWanders aimlessly,Beware of MAYA.Watch out now take care,Beware of greedy leadersThey'll take you where you should not go,While Weeping Atlas CedarsThey just want to grow - Beware of darkness.http://www.georgeharrison.com/
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Comment #15 posted by afterburner on October 27, 2002 at 10:34:30 PT:

Message from Somewhere, Here in Grandmother's Land
Hello friends,People are reluctant to do business unless they can get weed. Sounds like Legalite It! by Peter Tosh. Canada are you listening? ...BBC report "Canada Considering Legalizing Cannabis." "Well what's so unusual about that, so are we." "But don't you want to keep torturing pot users." "Well, no, I might have been immature once and thought that was cool, but now I see that the planet needs the Love of cannabis and the Love of God." "By chanting the names of the Lord, and you'll be free. The Lord is awaiting for you all to awake and see." God, Jah, Yawah, Jesus, Allah, Krishna, Sun Ra, many names has He been called over the years, insert your favourite if its not on the list. __________________. "He will not deceive us my brethern, He will only lead us again. So take that veil from off of your eyes. Look into the future and realize." Whoever you are, if you love God, __________________, join us in making the cannabis business part of business as usual, without all the dodging and hiding. Refresh. Realize. Re-legalize.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.Opiates, sleepy-time or mind-expansions, more RAM, faster processors, more Internet, more data, more copying for your own use, more copying of original stuff produced locally, thought globally. It's a start. The universe is a vast place, a collective of planets and stars, animals, plants, fungi, algae, minerals, water, air, and vacuum. 

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Comment #14 posted by canaman on October 27, 2002 at 10:31:04 PT

FoM, works for me too, I like it!
On the war protest topic...I was watching FOX news (capital report?) Leiberman was on and the regualar talking heads. Well, they talked on and on about what should be done with Sadam. Not a word about 200,000 protesters in town. Bush may speak with one voice but 200,000 people in his front yard speak with a different one. After the discussion about Sadam FOX spent 15 minutes on the sniper. Next time maybe the marchers should plan their route thru the "news" studios?
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 10:10:47 PT

canaman
I made a search and used the gif for Question 9. I hope it works because it is long. It worked for me. http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/whatsnew.htm
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Comment #12 posted by knox42897 on October 27, 2002 at 09:47:40 PT:

MIDDLE FINGER FROM VIVA LAS VEGAS 
A week after the raid, Santa Cruz officials gathered at city hall to supervise public distribution of marijuana to members of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in front of TV crews, a way of giving Washington the finger. When we pass Question 9, Let that be a verbal and written equivalent of the middle finger!P.S. Czar's belong in Russia not America.LAS VEGAS NEVADANS FOR REPONSIBLE LAW ENFORCEMENT IN AMERICA
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 09:35:57 PT

Happy Happy Joy Joy
That would be so nice. Maybe someday that will be an option. I sure hope so or I wouldn't be doing this.
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Comment #10 posted by canaman on October 27, 2002 at 09:27:20 PT

I can't wait FoM
Maybe I'll get you a pack of those 'smokes' for your B-day!
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Comment #9 posted by CorvallisEric on October 27, 2002 at 09:20:58 PT

Not sure, but I'll bet on
The battle heats up over legalizing marijuana PLUS: The latest research on what it does to your health.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 09:17:00 PT

canaman
I must get that issue. If it is the 4th that is my birthday. That would be just too cool.
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Comment #7 posted by canaman on October 27, 2002 at 09:08:57 PT

I think you're right FoM
If you click on 'current issue' on left side of their page Oct. 28th's cover is different.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 08:58:39 PT

Thanks canaman
If anyone finds the magazine maybe they can let us know. We will check but I'm sure it will be hard to find. It looks like from the url of the gif that it might be the November 4th issue.
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Comment #5 posted by canaman on October 27, 2002 at 08:55:39 PT

Is America going to pot?
Is all I can read. 
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 08:52:15 PT

canaman
This should be the cover of Time Magazine. We are going to try to find the magazine today at the store. That would be one to keep. The gif is too small for me to read what the words say on the gif. I have my monitor on a high setting so it makes it look small. Can you or anyone read the words?http://i.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/rtcover_110402.gif
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Comment #3 posted by canaman on October 27, 2002 at 08:40:22 PT

Pretty objective reporting Time!
Only a little of the worn out arguments. Will this be on the newstands? If more large news outlets follow and really report both sides of the issue the drug war will collapse from the weight of it's own lies. I can see it now....Out of work drug war veteran, former czar...WILL LIE FOR FOOD! please help!
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on October 27, 2002 at 08:23:34 PT

Check Out The Cover of Time
http://i.timeinc.net/time/images/covers/rtcover_110402.gif
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Comment #1 posted by Nasarius on October 27, 2002 at 08:11:00 PT

ROFL!
>>"These people use ignorance and their overwhelming amount of money to influence the electorate."Gee, does this sound like someone we know?
If you can't win by telling the truth, just lie and hope no one sees it. All that tax money sure doesn't hurt.
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