cannabisnews.com: A Vote to Legalize Marijuana is a Vote for Choice





A Vote to Legalize Marijuana is a Vote for Choice
Posted by CN Staff on October 10, 2006 at 16:37:10 PT
By John Colson
Source: Aspen Times
Colorado -- We live in an enlightened county, at least politically speaking.Some may object to that statement, thanks to certain strictly proscribed boundaries of thought and tolerance that form the basis of the belief that if a government is wrong about one thing, it must be wrong about all things.
Well, I don't buy that one, and I would like to offer a tip of my hat to the Pitkin County commissioners for their endorsement of one of the most forward-thinking questions on the November ballot - Amendment 44, which would made it legal for anyone 21 or over to possess an ounce of marijuana or less.This is not about getting high, or whether it will be easier for kids to buy pot if this amendment becomes law. It is not about making it easier for drug dealers to purvey a "gateway drug" and thus ensnare foolishly naive consumers in a downward spiral of drug use and depravity.This is about choice, and whether the state has any business trying to legislate morality and good behavior. It's about control, and whether we want our government to be the arbiter of our most personal decisions about what we do with our leisure time, our bodies, our minds. It is about whether we feel it is prudent and wise to prop up a corrupt bureaucracy of drug agents and social throwbacks who make criminals out of otherwise harmless and productive citizens, and throw them in jail over their choice of relaxation techniques.It also happens to be about a whole range of other issues, such as the future of farming in the United States, the rationality of commerce, environmental preservation, the state of medical care in this country and the world ... jeez, the list goes on so long I'm not about to try to get it all down right here.Suffice it to say that the marijuana plant, far from being merely one more drug in the pantheon of pharmacology, is a vigorous and versatile constituent of the plant kingdom, with properties that lend themselves to a stunningly broad range of applications. From textiles to medicine, plastics to industrial lubrication, the potential uses of this plant are more varied than just about any other known to humanity. And we have been robbed to the potentialities of this marvelous gift from nature far too long.A vote to legalize marijuana (that's how I spell it, though there are variations) is a vote for rational governance, and is viewed as far more dangerous than most people realize by those who sit at the top of our national political dog pile. Because of the nature of the prohibitions against marijuana use, a vote to overturn those prohibitions is seen as potentially a vote against the entire power structure that has been carefully constructed by the elite over the past couple of centuries.A vote to legalize marijuana is a revolutionary act. It represents a refusal to believe the lies handed down since the 1930s, when racist and ambitious agents of what was then called the Federal Bureau of Narcotics figured out that they could use white apprehensions about blacks and Latinos in this country.The campaign against marijuana largely grew from the mind of one Harry J. Anslinger, once a high official of the Prohibition hierarchy who suddenly found himself out of a job in 1932. So he moved over to the Bureau of Narcotics and continued his self-aggrandizing practices. Anslinger and his kind realized that one primary tool in their drive to further isolate and degrade the image of black and brown U.S. citizens could be this relatively harmless and hitherto largely unknown weed, marijuana, which had grown increasingly popular among minorities during the years of Prohibition.From that dubious beginning, the war on marijuana has continued unabated down the decades, despite the fact that it now appears that a majority of Americans favor its legalization in some form. It is a crucial aspect of the War on Drugs, which wastes billions of dollars every year and incarcerates thousands of citizens for no good reason.I first awoke to all this in the mid-'60s, when I was an impressionable young high school student in the cultural backwater of suburban Maryland outside Washington, D.C. I discovered a book titled "The Marijuana Papers," copyright 1966, edited by David Solomon. It is a remarkable book, containing everything from a famous report commissioned by Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York, which basically concluded that the campaign against marijuana is based on lies and distortions, to treatises by doctors, psychiatrists and social commentators on the potential benefits of legalization.I highly recommend the book, although there are others of more recent vintage that might be easier to find. In any event, do the research yourself, check it out online, whatever you think is necessary. But be sure to think this one through before you vote, and be sure to vote on Amendment 44.Source: Aspen Times (CO)Author: John ColsonPublished: September 30, 2006Copyright: 2006 Aspen TimesContact: mail aspentimes.comWebsite: http://www.aspentimes.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:Safer Choicehttp://www.saferchoice.org/Safer Coloradohttp://www.safercolorado.org/MJ Initiative Backers Huff, Puff After Campus Votehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22256.shtmlPot Amendment Deserves a 'No'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22251.shtmlHippie-Hating and Baitinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22244.shtml
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Comment #13 posted by whig on October 12, 2006 at 03:08:52 PT
mayan
A day for all to smoke together in peace, at the end of the long cycle.
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Comment #12 posted by cannabliss on October 11, 2006 at 19:16:16 PT
fax
Fact 3: The stronger the dose, the more intense the reaction.Fact 3b: The bigger the cushion the better the pushin'.
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Comment #11 posted by cannabliss on October 11, 2006 at 19:14:31 PT
To boldly smoke....
"Fact 2: Even low doses of marijuana tend to distort time and space relationships..."Scotty! We need to get to Rigel 7 right away! Throw an ounce of White Widow into the hookah!But Cap'n! I dinna how much longer I can hold it in! I'm gonna hafta exhale!
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Comment #10 posted by mayan on October 11, 2006 at 17:14:33 PT
whig
Huh?
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Comment #9 posted by Celaya on October 11, 2006 at 07:30:48 PT
The demon behind the prohibition curtain
Because of the nature of the prohibitions against marijuana use, a vote to overturn those prohibitions is seen as potentially a vote against the entire power structure that has been carefully constructed by the elite over the past couple of centuries.So true. This is the dynamic that gets lost in all the heated discussion over "harms." The important fact is - WHY are they really persecuting people for consuming an herb that is much less harmful than alcohol?This is where we will win, and why Mason Tvert and SAFER have been so successful. It was so heartening to see Tvert crush AG Suthers in the debate. All Suthers could do was preach on about "morality" - which is even more nebulous and irrelevant than "harms."The Rainbow People cannot go into town. Love is too dangerous. Brings golden castles down.
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Comment #8 posted by lombar on October 11, 2006 at 05:29:11 PT
fragmentary thoughts with disturbed associations
Isn't that TV? Nightly News?Fact 10: None of the above facts justify prohibition even if they were facts.Fact 1: Even low doses of marijuana tend to induce intoxication, which includes alterations in thought formation and expression.And this is bad because...???Fact 2: Even low doses of marijuana tend to distort time and space relationships and impair coordination which can result in driving, occupational, or household accidents.Alcohol does far worse. Irrelevent to actual question.Fact 3: The stronger the dose, the more intense the reaction.'the more intense the reaction' supposes we are measuring something but this is just hand waving. Same is true of alcohol. You can huff all day on primo with a volcano and be completly saturated in THC, try that with booze and see how long you live.Fact 4: Marijuana contains more identified toxins and cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco smoke.Cannabis or cannabis smoke? Do tomatoes have cancer causing chemicals? Maybe if you smoke them?Fact 5: Marijuana is stored in fat cells for as long as several months.Too bad the psychoactive effect only lasts a few hours. Wait a minute, does that say 'marijuana' is stored in fat cells?Fact 6: Marijuana users experience the same health problems as tobacco smokers, such as bronchitis, emphysema, bronchial asthma, long-term risk to the lungs and reproductive system, and immune system suppression.Well I think the credibility is shot now, even if it were true, any critical thinker stopped listening. Still no reason to imprison people anyway.Fact 7: 
wow, she must have published or read a report I never read.substantial increase in heart rate
- used to get that just reading this craprapidly fluctuating emotions
- e meter? Is she a scientologist? I suppose giggling could be described like that.fragmentary thoughts with disturbed associations,
- like thinking this was any kind of justification for the war on some drugs?an altered sense of self identity- this really takes the cake, what is the smell of a non-burning joint smoking?impaired short-term memory and concentration
- if I am lucky I can forget this crud, certainly not worthy of even this much effort.hallucinations, paranoia and impairment of motivation and cognition making acquisition of new information difficult.- hey, fact seven is a lot of supposed facts. suppose they were all true (hey, it must be one of those fantasies), fact 7 is actually 9 facts. Math is as good as the research I suppose...
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Comment #7 posted by global_warming on October 11, 2006 at 05:22:52 PT
My hats off to John Colson 
Excellent article, Thanks.
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Comment #6 posted by ekim on October 10, 2006 at 20:37:27 PT
Questions for Candidates
You can started today by visiting The Great Warming page on the Questions
for Candidates site at http://www.questionsforcandidates.org/node/1499. Or start out at http://www.thegreatwarming.com/calltoaction/getonboard.html
and click on the Questions for Candidates logo
http://www.thegreatwarming.com/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by FoM on October 10, 2006 at 19:19:56 PT
potpal
Very good.
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Comment #4 posted by potpal on October 10, 2006 at 18:50:59 PT
Fact 8:
Fact 8: It's safer than alcohol and tobacco.Fact #9: It's never killed a soul.
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Comment #3 posted by whig on October 10, 2006 at 18:41:05 PT
mayan
How about we plan ahead for everyone to celebrate Christ mass on December 25, 2012.
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Comment #2 posted by mayan on October 10, 2006 at 18:22:05 PT
The Cannabis Threat
Because of the nature of the prohibitions against marijuana use, a vote to overturn those prohibitions is seen as potentially a vote against the entire power structure that has been carefully constructed by the elite over the past couple of centuries.Look at all of the problems this country faces. How many of those problems are caused by cannabis? How many can be solved by cannabis? As I've said many times before, the war on recreational cannabis is ultimately a war on medicinal and industrial cannabis. A sustainable society is a threat to those who control the finite resources. I am so frustrated that Americans are so slow to realize that relativity. The government's long-term social conditioning of the masses is very tough to counter but time IS on our side.  SHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA: The Real Reason the Government Won't Debate Medical Cannabis and Industrial Hemp Re-legalization:
http://www.hempfarm.org/Papers/Shadow_of_the_Swastika.html On an unrelated note, there is no time for silence...Kucinich to Hold Congressional Briefing on October Surprise “Is the Administration Ramping Up For A War Against Iran?”
http://benfrank.net/blog/2006/10/10/248/ THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN..."War is a Racket": 9/11 Message of an Ex-Marine to the Anti-War Movement:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=LWI20061009&articleId=3428More People Believe in 9/11 Conspiracies Than Approve of President Bush:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/adam-hanft/more-people-believe-in-9_b_31299.htmlAshcroft Responds To 9/11 Foreknowledge Charges:
http://prisonplanet.com/articles/october2006/101006ashcroftresponds.htm9/11 and The New Pearl Harbor: A Response to Bill Weinberg:
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/100906_new_harbor.shtmlChristopher Bollyn Fired From American Free Press: 
http://rense.com/general73/bollyn.htmWTC 7 Video From North, South & West Plus Rooftop Closeup:
http://911blogger.com/node/3594
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on October 10, 2006 at 17:05:30 PT
government parroted reefer madness
On the other end of the flat world:US CO: LTE: Facts about Amendment 44(Editor's note: This letter was originally addressed to elected officials in Eagle, Garfield and Pitkin counties.)Dear Editor:I find it alarming that the Pitkin County commissioners unanimously agreed to support Amendment 44, which legalizes possession and use of non-medicinal marijuana for adults. Please do not follow suit. What the commissioners failed to acknowledge are the extreme health and safety risks associated with marijuana use:Fact 1: Even low doses of marijuana tend to induce intoxication, which includes alterations in thought formation and expression.Fact 2: Even low doses of marijuana tend to distort time and space relationships and impair coordination which can result in driving, occupational, or household accidents.Fact 3: The stronger the dose, the more intense the reaction.Fact 4: Marijuana contains more identified toxins and cancer-causing chemicals than tobacco smoke.Fact 5: Marijuana is stored in fat cells for as long as several months.Fact 6: Marijuana users experience the same health problems as tobacco smokers, such as bronchitis, emphysema, bronchial asthma, long-term risk to the lungs and reproductive system, and immune system suppression.Fact 7: Other known side effects may include: substantial increase in heart rate, rapidly fluctuating emotions, fragmentary thoughts with disturbed associations, an altered sense of self identity, impaired short-term memory and concentration, fantasies, hallucinations, paranoia and impairment of motivation and cognition making acquisition of new information difficult.The potency of marijuana is much stronger than in days past, resulting in an inability to accurately assess how much was used, when the last use was and to what extent residual side effects are impacting the user. Any use nowadays is often problematic for days after. Shelley Evans CarbondaleViewed at: http://www.aspentimes.com/article/20060930/LETTER/109300052&SearchID=73259462556761
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