cannabisnews.com: Marijuana Grower Freed from Jail by Clinton Marijuana Grower Freed from Jail by Clinton Posted by FoM on January 21, 2001 at 15:15:25 PT By The Associated Press Source: Florida Times-Union A Myakka City man serving a life sentence for his role in a $30 million high-grade marijuana ring joined more than 30 people released from federal custody by President Bill Clinton in his last hours in office.Donald R. Clark, who served less than 10 years in federal prison, was one of the leaders of the Sarasota-area drug ring. He and his two sons were among more than 25 people indicted for participating in the decade-long drug operation. Clark, 60, was convicted in 1991 of conspiracy to grow and sell "Myakka Gold," an especially potent type of marijuana. The former watermelon farmer and son of a former Manatee County commissioner went home with his daughter and sister to Parrish after his release Saturday from a federal prison north of Tampa."I've been numb ever since," Clark said Sunday at his sister's home before leaving for his 2-year-old nephew's birthday party. "If you don't harm persons or property, I don't think there should be laws like that."The marijuana was grown on a 600-acre former sod and watermelon farm which was protected by a gator-infested swamp and sharp steel booby traps. The farm was leased by Clark in Myakka City in eastern Manatee County.Clark was the only member of the drug ring to reject a plea bargain in which he would have received a nine-year sentence. Instead, he received a life sentence for his role in growing and selling the marijuana.Clark said he doesn't regret his decision to stand trial."If I had to do it all over again, I'd have to do the same thing," he said.As for his future, Clark said he may help his wife and daughter in their real estate business. He can't farm anymore, since the ranch was given to the government after jurors ruled the land and buildings had been used for illegal purposes."I want to thank everybody who supported me," he said.Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of 140 people, including businessman Almon Glenn Braswell, who served three years in federal prison in the 1980s on a mail fraud and perjury conviction for selling a supposed cure for baldness and a cellulite remover.Braswell, who has homes in Miami and California, is the head of vitamin company Gero Vita International, which since his release from prison has been investigated for alleged violations of federal food and drug laws.The Florida Republican Party and George W. Bush last fall returned $175,000 in contributions from Braswell after learning he was an ex-felon. Complete Title: Myakka City Marijuana Grower Freed from Jail by ClintonSource: Associated PressPublished: Sunday, January 21, 2001Copyright: 2000 Associated PressRelated Articles:Clinton's Last-Day Clemency Benefits 176 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8387.shtmlClinton Pardons McDougal, Deutch, Others http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread8385.shtmlClinton's Pardon Listhttp://mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n111/a06.htmlCannabisNews Articles - Pardonshttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Pardons Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by observer on January 22, 2001 at 16:01:46 PT bitterly attacked as part of the problem 8. Anyone questioning any of the above assumptions is bitterly attacked and characterized as part of the problem that needs to be eliminated.(Themes in Chemical Prohibition, NIDA, 1979 http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/ticp.html ) It is well known that drug warriors regard those who oppose their war as being addicted to drugs or as subversives who wish to see children addicted to drugs or as enemies who 'rip at the soul of our nation'.I've encountered this many times. Any disagreement with the fundamental premise of modern American law and politics -- that cannabis users are bad people that deserve prison or worse -- brings down a rain of verbal abuse laden with accusations of drug use. After all, who but "dopers" and "druggies" could possibly ever disagree with drug-warriors' self-serving desire to constantly ratchet up the jailing of cannabis users?I believe that many people in our government and private drug-war industry would, if they could walk away from it, have me rubbed out simply for posting comments opposing the war.A letter to the editor questioning antimarijuana laws irked an Idaho drug squad, which went to the letter writer's residence, searched the writer's trash, and arrested the writer when marijuana stems were found. A police spokesman explained that only a person who is a law violator would seek change in the law7 (an interesting attitude, considering that police and prosecutors continually seek changes in law). Although the official charge was marijuana possession, the Idaho writer was punished for his speech. Similar thinking was seen in 1935 when the SS journal Das Schwarze Korps and the Ministry of Justice journal Die Deutsche Justiz called for punishment of Jews who complained about a boycott action against Jewish businesses.8 Punishment not for thwarting the boycott, but just for complaining about it. Prosecution of an Aryan for a 10-pfennig purchase violating the boycott occurred in part because he questioned the policy of zero tolerance for commerce with Jews.9 When using criminal violations as a subterfuge to punish Americans for questioning the drug war, police follow a well-established model.(Richard L Miller, Drug Warriors and their Prey, 1996, pg.38)http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0275950425/ "Casual drug users should be taken out and shot."-- Daryl Gates, Chief of the LAPD, before the US Senate. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Lehder on January 22, 2001 at 15:22:12 PT in for a penny, in for a pound I always use a firewall (zonealert) and idcide too, to ward off advertisers, volumes of junk email, criminals looking for personal information on my computer etc. I don't know if these measures do much good, but they're easy to use and both are free. I have never had any expectation that such measures would thwart government curiosity. My firewall is activated automatically when I boot the computer. But if it were not available, I would use the Internet anyway.One does not have to incriminate oneself or be involved in illegal activity to become the object of persecution by drug warriors. It is well known that drug warriors regard those who oppose their war as being addicted to drugs or as subversives who wish to see children addicted to drugs or as enemies who 'rip at the soul of our nation'. More realistically, we do pose a threat to the corrupt and destructive livelihoods of millions of drug-warrior zealots and bureaucrats. I believe that many people in our government and private drug-war industry would, if they could walk away from it, have me rubbed out simply for posting comments opposing the war. A governemnt that permits widespread pejury by police officers to convict innocent and guilty alike has no interest in fair debate, only in crushing the opposition and making a profit. I think a government that takes the trouble to suppress and ignore findings of its own studies on drugs and the effects of the drug war and that manipulates the storylines composed in Hollywood most likely also has an interest in who you and I and i_rule_ are and what can be done about our criticisms.Perhaps there will be a deep recession in the U.S. or a depression and displacement of people in South America. Lots of things could happen that would create a climate amenable to intensification of the drug wars. An expanded U.S. war in South America could force that continent's European and Oriental trading partners to choose sides. We could end up in a global econocomic and political conflict, or worse, and forget it ever started with drugs. A depression or political collapse in Mexico could bring millions more illegal aliens across the border, many of them carrying drugs to sell since they would have little money. In any sort of "national emergency", people with contrary opinions could be rounded up just as the Japanase here were after the attack on Pearl Harbor. I do not expect that our present leaders would be capable of taming a monster like the drug war if they wanted to - and obviously they don't. I think the drug war will get more vicious before it abates, and many unpredictable events could catalyze a sudden intensification. Tulia was just practice for Krystallnacht.Or, now that it's bedtime, perhaps we will see a tempering of the drug war, its hatred and its rhetoric. Perhaps, after decades of propaganda and persecution, the government will begin considering the findings of its own studies and begin listening to the wisdom and warnings of this country's true patriots like Johnson, Nader, Ventura, Grinspoon, Buckley, Chomsky and a lot of others. Perhaps the Feds will graciously decide to respect the medical marijuana laws enacted in numerous states by popular vote. Then i_rule_ and I will look like silly alarmists. I hope so. Perhaps that's why Bush, a compassionate conservative, has hired Ashcroft. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on January 22, 2001 at 13:04:13 PT My 2 cents Hi Lehder,I guess I just want to say that I have always believed that anything I type becomes public knowledge. Maybe that's not so but I am very careful to avoid topics that could be incriminating if that makes sense? I read a long time ago that free speech allows us to talk about when we did a drug in the past but a person doesn't want to talk about illegal activities, if they are currently involved in any, in my opinion. I don't use any firewall if that's the right thing to call it.When I post on The Political Board of Cann.com that gives a person an options about protection but it slows me down but I do use it there but nothing here. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Lehder on January 22, 2001 at 11:46:21 PT Jeepers, i_rule_ Does this mean that you won't be reading the posts, either(asked rhetorically)?>...there is present monitoring of my messages by adverse factions....I expect that i_rule_ is probably correct. The society of god-fearing brutes that has the money for helicopters and special cameras that look through your walls to make sure you are living right can certainly afford a second-rate hacker to find out who you, and I, are, where we live and how we could be eliminated. It may well be that, where we see the Internet as a new dimension for freedom and debate, the government sees it as a useful and welcome tool for gathering information on citizens who access information and facts (or are suspected of accessing information and facts).I listened to Bush's inaugural address, and I gotta admit, he said so very little that my mind kept drifting away from it, not enough substance to the speech to find anything there to latch onto. I read about it later, and found that someone had counted the number of references to "god", "angels" et cetera for me: fourteen in fourteen minutes. Now that is enough to give one pause right there, and coupling this religious instruction from a Texas executioner with the appointment of John Ashcroft, a man so poorly respected as to be defeated by a corpse in the recent election, - well, i_rule_ has a point.What is your evidence of monitoring, i_rule_ (rhetorical)? I use a firewall during Internet sessions, and, sometimes - it started a few months ago when I was on this web page - a box on my screen appears telling me it has been turned OFF. Then a few minutes later another box will appear asking if I want it turned ON. Yes. It occurred to me that this is the work of the government, but I don't care so I did not investigate, and I still don't care. I have assumed all along that after 3 or 4 posts I had made it to some special government lists. Well, so what? If the present totalitarian movement evolves in the historical manner, then its denouement will be accompanied by widespread destruction and the deaths of millions on each side. The "War on Drugs", like George Bush, has not even reached puberty.But back to the speech, because it has a bearing on i_rule_'s comment. I thought I could just lift the one sentence that interested me, as I heard it on Saturday, from an Internet text of the speech, and discuss it with you from there. It's a small thing, but there was only the one sentence that caught my attetion. This is where I obtained the text:http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010120/pl/bush_speech_text_3.htmlThis is what it says:"The enemies of liberty and our country should make no mistake, American remains engaged in the world, by history and by choice, shaping a balance of power that favors freedom."Well, it doesn't even make sense or use proper diction. "American" should be "America". And what I heard Saturday was not "enemies of liberty and our country", but "enemies of liberty IN our country". Oh, yeah, I thought, like who? me? i_rule_? I wish I had that speech recorded. Who recorded it? Wha'd he say? AND or IN? Was there a slip there? Has George detected more ashbowls? Maybe I'm making much of nothing. Maybe. When the new drug czar is selected from among the "Boys from Brazil", we shall see. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Dankhank on January 21, 2001 at 16:19:09 PT: Too snide? i_rule_ rules what exactly?With apologies to the author of the original which is much better than this humble soul could write ..."When they came for the junkies I was quiet for I wasn't a junkie ...When they came for the cokefreaks I said nothing because I wasn't into nose candy ...They came for the cranksters and I stayed quiet that day since I liked to sleep ...They busted the raves and I ignored it knowing I was safe ...then one day they came for me and there was no one to speak for me, they were all gone ...see ya ... or maybe not ... HEMP n STUFF [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 21, 2001 at 16:17:41 PT E Mail Me Hello i rule,No one here monitors anything. I hope you email me and explain what's wrong. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by i_rule_ on January 21, 2001 at 15:49:36 PT Farewell my friends Due to my belief that there is present monitoring of my messages by adverse factions, I am terminating my membership with this message board, to avoid retaliation, and or charges. Even though there is reportedly free speech in America, situations have progressed to the point that my free speech may be used against me. I love you all, and I wish you continued success in your effort to liberate Cannabis. Signing off. Nuff said.i_rule_ [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: