cannabisnews.com: The Illegality of Pot Is Criminal





The Illegality of Pot Is Criminal
Posted by CN Staff on August 13, 2004 at 07:53:14 PT
By Tracy McLellan 
Source: Press Action 
The illegality of marijuana/hemp is criminal. Its psychoactive properties are what are dearest to me. It is something other than society’s obey, consume, go to work, watch TV, no free thought. Marijuana’s illegality engenders so much stigma it is almost impossible to talk rationally about it at all. It is almost commanded to accept the underlying assumptions of the prohibition model. Because of that it is almost a matter of rite and necessity that to justify as positive marijuana’s psychoactive properties it is necessary to run through the litany and list of hemp’s industrial applications before even mentioning those others.
Hemp makes a fine paper. Ancient rainforests in Canada of 400-year-old trees are currently being clearcut to make pulp to turn into paper. What an absurdity! It would be sustainable—not to speak of more organic, natural and ecological—to rather make pulp out of hemp. The original Declaration of Independence is written on hemp paper. The nut of the problem always comes down to capitalism, which is to say, greed. Obey, consume, watch TV, go to work, no free thought. Hemp also makes a fine clothing. It is softer, more absorbent, and more durable than cotton. Hemp also requires less pesticides and herbicides and depletes the soil less than cotton. Which is why too it’s illegal—what use have we and capitalism for hemp when we are doing just fine in the capitalist sweatshop business thank you very much? Marijuana has a wide range of medical applications. It relieves stress. It is effective in relieving the pressure in the retina in glaucoma patients, thusly preventing blindness. It is an effective agent against spasticity in muscular dystrophy patients. It is effective in treating the nausea associated with chemotherapy in AIDS and cancer patients. It is a superb analgesic. Almost anything for which you have to take a pill, marijuana is probably effective in treating or mitigating. Marijuana doesn’t have the side effects that almost every pharmaceutical has. It is effective in treating the symptoms of the common cold. It is the best laxative. It has other medical properties. Its seed is excellent feed for pet birds and is a protein that has other food applications. I’ve heard it averred that the oil in the seed can be turned into a fuel. Hemp leaves can be used as biomass, like corn can, to create methanol. For all these reasons alone hemp’s illegality is criminal. But why should that be a surprise of the government, in which, just like you can tell that President Bush II is lying in that he opens his mouth—or, almost the twin too of Kerry in this, dissembling and canting—you can tell the U.S. government is acting with capitalist depredation whenever it acts at all. Most importantly, marijuana has spiritual affects. Getting high on pot and altering consciousness is a beautiful thing and in that, a rite of religion. For religion is nothing more, though nothing less, than how a life is lived from day to day. When the mainstream culture bothers to portray marijuana intoxication at all, it represents it as getting duh, being all dumb and stupid man. When it is being kind it portrays a lazy drug addict or homeless vagrant who wants nothing other than to veg out, sate the munchies and maybe watch TV. I beg to differ. I intuit the phoniness of TV and loathe it when high, along with the sickening commercialism. Although pot’s altered state of consciousness is, by definition not normal consciousness, by what leap of logic is it assumed that it is thusly worse? At worst, pot is innocuous. It is far more harmless than the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco. There is nothing but disinformation surrounding it as an issue in the corporate press and in received wisdom. I’d be embarrassed to admit what miniscule quantities I’m talking about here; how so much depends on so little. I don’t get lazy at all. On the contrary, I get a jolt of adrenaline, a foreboding of forbidden pleasures, and anticipation of happiness. My heartbeat quickens, and I want to do just about anything. That could mean listening to music (although I’ll admit here that I haven’t been listening to much music since I stepped in front of an SUV on the expressway on March 19, 2003), or playing sports (ditto), brushing my teeth or taking a shower, or just about anything else. In short, the urge is there. More, I’m a better reader, writer and thinker for getting high. All of these things are a raison d’etre for possession of pot, and a weight and a chore in its absence. I am not nearly as productive for pot’s prohibition both in what I get done, and in what I am unstressed enough to leave undone. Unemployed, I feel confident that pot’s legality would offer me job and career prospects because pot is such a remarkably diverse plant. Pot is the cornerstone of my happiness, a simple affair, yet one which causes so much needless suffering. I am deeper when I get high, and better for it. In that it’s a fundamental rite of my religion, and protected by the freedom of religion clause in the First Amendment. Pot’s illegality is criminal finally because for all these reasons marijuana/hemp could be an essential component of a sustainable world. Ours is not now and threatens cataclysm at every step. Especially subjective reasons are enough to illustrate the criminality of pot’s prohibition. And I hereby demand its decriminalization. Tracy McLellan is an activist who is recovering from hip surgery in the Chicago area. “Marijuana is a godsend and means nothing but the best” -Ken Kesey “Pot is a values-changing drug” -George Carlin Source: Press Action (US)Author: Tracy McLellan Published: Friday, August 13, 2004 Copyright: 2004 Press ActionContact: tracymacL yahoo.comWebsite: http://www.pressaction.com/What's New in Drug Policy Reformhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/whatsnew.htmCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #5 posted by runruff on August 19, 2004 at 06:40:33 PT:
preceeding artical, et. al.
In a free and open society drug use must be a personal choice, otherwise we must call it something else.In the Nafta agreement Canada won all hemp patents in the western hemisphere. The Nafta agreement is available on line. Look it up. I did.Capitalism was not the original ecconomic intent for our country but free interprize or free trade if you will. The front page of Popular Mechanics magazine(1937) bore the headline, Hemp, the next billion dollar industry. Translated into 2004 dollars would equal more than a trillion dollars.
Cannabis/hemp is easy to grow, easy to process, easy to use. Controlling the product by only a few special interest would be impossible.The seemingly Orwellian desire by our gov't to controll our thoughts, beliefs and desires is only a part of the war on Cannabis/hemp. The larger picture is to controll the greatest threat, goods production and product availability.
Capitalism means to destroy your competition and corner the market. Dog eat dog. You will be severely handicapped in this game if you have no taste for dog.Lilly Thomlin said, "The problem with running the rat race is even if you win you are still a rat."All of the great gurus' have said, the greatest treasure is inner peace and contentment. Our culture teaches otherwise.
The is more profit in it.The hemp stock is seventy-seven percent cellulose. For making wood alcohol or biodegradable plastics. Any thing we can make from the petro-molecule we can make from the bio-molecule.See my video "Let my people Grow" in documentries at CRRH.Org or write me at Runruff yahoo.com for a free copy.
Just pay postage.Namaste,
Blessings upon you,
Knowlege is power
Free the Weed
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Comment #4 posted by cannabliss on August 15, 2004 at 07:09:33 PT
Capitalism
Overall a good article, with one exception. Corporate fascism is not capitalism. Pure capitalism is selling (or refusing to sell) anything you want to anyone you want at anytime you want. If you want to excoriate laissez-faire capitalism for not mandating minimum-wage laws or handicapped-ramps, that's your prerogative, but it absolutely allows unfettered access to cannabis (and other drugs - remember opium at the corner store). On this issue at least, it's not your enemy.
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on August 13, 2004 at 22:20:35 PT
elfman_420 
I'm glad you liked the article. Good luck with your studies too!
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Comment #2 posted by elfman_420 on August 13, 2004 at 21:58:46 PT
What a great article!!!
An increase in cannabis use from frequently to daily actually caused my college GPA to increase every quarter for over two years. By the way...I have less than one week left before I'm done with my studies! (for now)
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 13, 2004 at 17:08:18 PT
Press Release from U.S. Newswire
'It's the Olympics -- Where's the Drug Czar?' Asks Former White House Drug SpokesmanWASHINGTON, Aug. 13 /U.S. Newswire/ -- "It's the Olympics - Where is the Drug Czar?" former White House drug policy spokesman Bob Weiner is asking."At Sydney, former Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey attended and was an omni-present force, holding news conferences, bringing athletes together with anti-drug leaders, and helping to formulate and strengthen the new World Anti-Doping Agency and its U.S. counterpart, the United States Anti-Doping Agency. He sent exactly the right example and helped to create the environment for today's strong testing that tells youth they can't cheat and will hurt themselves physically if they do."Now, four years later, with perhaps the biggest sports drug scandal in US history upon us, the Drug Czar is absent from the world's most important sporting event."This is not a partisan issue. President Bush was on the mark in January's State of the Union when he said, 'The use of performance enhancing drugs is dangerous,' and he called on sports to 'get rid of steroids now'. Now, he has sent his father to Athens, but he forgot to send his Drug Czar. "There are many reasons the Drug Czar needs to be at these Olympics. The world is attacking the United States as though we are alone in the drug problem. Just yesterday (Aug. 12), World Anti-Doping Agency head Dick Pound claimed at a news conference that USA Track and Field's actions are "sleazy" with "a lack of no tolerance for cheating". Pound failed to show knowledge of the US Track's new policy of a lifetime ban for cheaters and full and enthusiastic compliance with USADA's testing thousands of unannounced tests of our best athletes annually. The point must be made that the US is perhaps THE most serious country in cleaning up drugs. The recent busts of world and Olympic champions and medallists for cycling from Italy, weightlifting from Eastern Europe, swimmers from Australia, distance runners from Africa, sprinters from Britain, skiers from Russia and Spain, and many others show that drugs are world wide problem, not just one in the USA."Another reason for the Drug Czar to make his presence known is the deterioration of the message since McCaffrey left. More and more editorials, opeds, and letters in major papers across the country are calling for legalization including just this week in USA Today, the Economist, the New York Times, the Australian, the Guardian, the Chicago Tribune, to college papers like the Stanford University Daily, among others. The arguments against the purported 'solution' of legalization of sports drugs are clear: "The testing does work when it is done -- that's why the busts are occurring -- with good reason (a deterrent) and with good results. The positive test rates even when everyone in an entire Olympics is tested, and even for the newest drugs, are 1/2 of 1 percent: that's what it was in Salt Lake. So the desperation isn't merited when the system works."When you think that what the big guns do is paralleled by so many kids (a million teens used steroids last year), it's really important to set the model of non-tolerance."Why enforce this? Because not only are these drugs cheating, but they are highly dangerous -- ask the 10,000 East Germans now dying with diseases like liver cancer or diabetes, or Flo-Jo who ten years after competing died with enlarged organs, a steroid symptom, or Steve Bechler, who died from ephedra heart irregularities, or the women with irreversible hair on their chests or the guys with shrunken testes. The euphoria of winning a competition in the moment is hardly worth the life of painful illness -- or even the face you see in the mirror for cheating for a victory."No, we don't want to go to legalization. Anarchy is not an answer to a problem."But even with these kinds of powerful arguments, you have to be on the stage to make them heard. In Sydney, Drug Czar McCaffrey was all over the TV, radio, and press and all the Olympic venues calling for action - and the world's sports bodies heard and paid attention. "Current Drug Czar Walters is at home, and the silence is deafening," Weiner concluded.(Weiner was White House Drug Policy spokesman and Director of Public Affairs 1995-2001, directed White House Drug policy media at the Sydney Olympics, and was WADA's media outreach director for the Salt Lake Olympic Games. He is a public affairs and issues consultant.)Copyright: 2004 U.S. Newswire http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=129-08132004
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