cannabisnews.com: End The Drug War!





End The Drug War!
Posted by CN Staff on May 31, 2006 at 07:06:53 PT
By Josh Riesen
Source: University News 
Ohio -- Hempfest, happening on June 3rd, is a day-long festival dedicated to promoting the end of the Drug War, as well as teaching the average person about the many uses of hemp and its, shall we say, derivatives. Many vendors are available to sell food, trinkets, and tobacco pipes, as well as literature and music. Also featured on several stages are more than two dozen bands, performers, and spoken word artists. The styles of music will reach from reggae to trance to hippie-jam and more, and there will be plenty of great munchies around to last everyone well into the night.
As of this year, Hempfest has been around for twenty years, and the festival, sponsored by local businesses and Students For Sensible Drug Policy, has, until recently, been a force for positive change in local and state politics. Over the last several years, however, the organization has been entangled in problems with city and campus law enforcement, as well as local and state politicians. Federal courts ruled in favor of the SSDP in 2004 when OSU attempted to shut Hempfest down by citing technicalities with registering the event with campus police. The event was cleared to go just 18 hours before the gates were scheduled to open, but the damage was already done. 2005 was a slightly less eventful year, and the event went on as scheduled. I was originally scheduled to have a telephone interview with event representative Tara Stevens, but was declined at the last minute after her request to be paid for the short, seven-question conversation. This aspect worried me about the choice of representatives that SSDP has made in recent years. I have found that most of those who work for or with nonprofit organizations do not seek to receive personal compensation for their work if they truly believe in the cause for which they are fighting. I closed the conversation with a measure of disappointment in my heart at knowing just how many people really want to get the word out, only to be hindered by the greed of others. Through these actions, parts of the organization begin to look more and more like the empire they are allegedly fighting to stop.In lieu of the interview I wish to offer some of my own experiences of the last two Hempfests, at which I assisted a local vendor in selling assorted items. The crowd is usually a fair mix of hippie and anarchist, Phish fan, Dave Matthews frat-boy, and ICP junkie. Working a booth, one sees and talks to all these people. Most of them really don’t care much about the causes that the spoken-word artists and free-press journalists are fighting for. They just want to get stoned on the South Oval and see bands. I surely can’t fault them for that, but the bottom line is that this kind of apathy is exactly what’s working against groups such as SSDP, or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, as well as the other activist groups attending the festival to spread their message. Admittedly, these groups are speaking to a tough audience in the first place since again, most of them are there for the more obvious reasons. I implore the general public to go, and spend some time just listening to what people have to say there. Too many good ideas have died simply because of the artificial stigmas that surround them. The FDA’s recent findings that marijuana has no clinical or medical use despite physicians’ and patients’ own testimonies to the contrary is an example of this willing ignorance that in this and many other instances, has stymied public, unbiased, and serious discourse about the true benefits of the cannabis plant and its many extracts. We as a nation have become far too willing to simply accept what we are being told without question, that this plant, this weed, is still the nation’s biggest drug problem although methamphetamine abuse is skyrocketing in rural and suburban areas, prescription drug abuse is at an all-time high (no pun intended), and alcohol-related fatalities show no signs of slowing. There is no better time than now to show support for not just the express causes of Hempfest, but for all forms of public expression; and exercise our inalienable rights to assemble and discuss that which displeases us about the current State of the Union. If you’re available this Saturday, put down the bong, come out, hang out, munch out, and have fun. It’ll be groovy, I promise.“Ohio Hempfest 2006” will be held at the OSU South Oval on Saturday, 6/3 from 12:00 PM through Midnight. For more information please email: osussdp gmail.com or visit: http://www.ohiohempfest.com online.Put down the bong and head to Hempfest.Source: University News (OH)Author: Josh RiesenPublished: Issue 30 - May 31, 2006 Copyright: 2006 University Media Group Contact: osussdp gmail.comWebsite: http://www.uweekly.com/SSDPhttp://www.ssdp.org/CannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #10 posted by vote420now on June 05, 2006 at 16:56:45 PT:
Tara Stevens
Tara Stevens is no longer affiliated with this organization, her comments were made in an attempt to make the real organizers look bad, and it failed. For fairness, Hempfest is completely student and volunteer run and if we are lucky broke even this year.
Ohio Hempfest
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by BGreen on June 01, 2006 at 14:17:12 PT
I've never been happier
than to be 43-years-old before. :)The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by Toker00 on June 01, 2006 at 14:03:11 PT
When they start the draft
it will be time to tell our government to go to Hell.Toke.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by Max Flowers on June 01, 2006 at 09:18:24 PT
The draft
Anyway, a draft might just be the thing to get young, apathetic folks off of their asses.I have a feeling that you're quite right about that, mayan. A whole lot of them have been silent, too busy playing PlayStation and whatever else. The news of this should spook them into action when they realize that now the neocons have their own pretty asses in their sights. I don't mean to slur all the ones who *have* been speaking out, we are grateful to them and there have been quite a few. But not nearly enough. We need to see them make noise the way we saw Latinos and Latinas in the streets of L.A. do it.By the way, how is it that this bill emerged in February and no one has been talking about it? More mainstream media collusion? Or has it been kept under wraps?If you read the linked document, it's really chilling because it keps saying "as prescribed by the President" about every parameter of this hoped-for draft. That should scare a lot of people, as the president's "judgment" is the very last thing most people want applied to their life and limb! Also, the fact that it's requiring women as well as men and all the way to age 42 is just insane. The economy would collapse overnight if that many people were forced to pack up and go to boot camp. 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by mayan on May 31, 2006 at 17:28:24 PT
Christen-Mitchell 
Of course there will be a draft. The PNAC agenda can't be fulfilled without one!Maybe that's what all of the Halliburton detention camps are for - to hold all of the folks unwilling to serve? Anyway, a draft might just be the thing to get young,apathetic folks off of their asses.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by Christen-Mitchell on May 31, 2006 at 16:18:23 PT:
You May Have Thought It Couldn't Get Worse - 666
US Mandatory MILITARY DRAFT 18-42 quietly snuck in! As described at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.4752.IH: on February 14, 2006, Congressman Charles Rangel (NY) introduced a bill (Universal National Service Act of 2006 - HR 4752 IH) aiming at drafting everyone - men and women alike - from the ages of 18 to 42 into the military for a minimum period of 2 years. Or to quote the bill: "To provide for the common defense by requiring all persons in the United States, including women, between the ages of 18 and 42 to perform a period of military service or a period of civilian service in furtherance of the national defense and homeland security, and for other purposes." The House is to convene on June 6 (06/06/06] to debate and possibly adopt this bill, that is, unless a vast public outcry succeeds in derailing this insanity, which you can do by writing a letter of protest to your congress person through http://www.conservativeusa.org/mega-cong.htm or http://www.webslingerz.com/jhoffman/congress-email.htmlJeff - www.Hemptopia.org
Earth Rainbow Network
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by ekim on May 31, 2006 at 16:11:41 PT
any word on Randy Bush of Ohio
there was mention of one of his children being in the National Spelling Bee -- when names were cked no Bushs were found. I hope more is written on his story.
http://www.spellingbee.com
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by Max Flowers on May 31, 2006 at 09:55:18 PT
The real deal behind "today's stronger pot"
The global warming angle may have a shred of truth to it, but here is what I think it is really all about, and it's more or less common knowledge."Stronger" always refers, I believe, to indoor, which had its advent in the 1980s. The difference they're seeing is just the difference between the degraded, semi-composted outdoor commercial (Mexican) of the old days, and fresh, non-degraded indoor. If one had the chance to smoke that same Mexican pot before they ruined it by throwing it on the ground in piles in the hot, bright sun and letting anaerobic bacteria start working on it (which degrades THCs), I'll bet it would be just as potent as any White Widow or G-13 (but in its own sativa way of course).Remember, THC and other cannabinoids are degraded by light, heat, oxidation (air) and biological pressure (bacteria, fungus).
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by Hope on May 31, 2006 at 07:38:35 PT
Excellent Headline...
No doubt.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by freewillks on May 31, 2006 at 07:27:32 PT
OT:Why todays cannabis is stronger
The most logical explanation as to why todays Cannabis is stronger, CO2 and Increased UVB light. It seems other plants are doing the same.WASHINGTON (AP) -- Another reason to worry about global warming: more and itchier poison ivy.The noxious vine grows faster and bigger as carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere rise, researchers reported Monday.And a CO2-driven vine also produces more of its rash-causing chemical, urushiol, conclude experiments conducted in a forest at Duke University where scientists increased carbon-dioxide levels to those expected in 2050.snipped
poison ivy
[ Post Comment ]


Post Comment