cannabisnews.com: The Redistribution of Marijuana Wealth The Redistribution of Marijuana Wealth Posted by CN Staff on February 23, 2005 at 08:39:21 PT By Joe Pietri Source: Counter Punch Today the USA is the largest producers of marijuana in the world and it's not enough. Marijuana has been quasi legal in Mexico the past 50 years and is grown commercially and exported to the US. Canadians would love to make marijuana legal and for the US to keep the status quo that would continue to generate billions of dollars going North. The Californians complain that BC Bud is being dumped on the market and that wholesale prices have gone down 25%, which is great for the consumer. The drug Czar warns of the danger of Canadian weed and the high 20% THC content. (I guess he hasn't smoked any because BC Bud generally pales when compared to most Californian varieties.) The DEA chomps at the bit in anticipation of kicking every medical marijuana grow ops' door down and seizing everything as well as their souls. They well remember the 1980s when Reagan for the first time let the police sell you loads of marijuana as a way to infiltrate marijuana syndicates. And the biggest mass redistribution of wealth in the history of the US occurred when they shut down the good old boy marijuana networks that operated in the 1960's thru the late 1980s. It was Vietnam style body count, the more people they arrested the more possessions they confiscated. The best properties, the best of all the spoils went to further power the police state that had all ready been created when they declared a Drug War. They only other country in the history of mankind to have such search and seizure and confiscation and forfeiture laws was Nazi Germany. Is it strange that we are still haunted by Richard Nixon's drug war when his own Shaffer commission recommended legalizing under an ounce of Cannabis? This report infuriated Nixon who sent it back, and when it came back around the word legalize was changed to decriminalize and by 2005 millions of Americans have been sent to prison for marijuana possession some working at slave labor as we speak!Stranger yet instead of attacking the Shaffer Commission NORML jumped on the decriminalization bandwagon, and in 1980 came out with their own report on the harmful affects of marijuana and I guess jumped on Nancy Reagan's Just say no bandwagon! Hey I thought they were for legalization?The drug rehab racketeers and Judges that own the Halfway houses they sentence you to, then get money from you, the state and the government! The billions generated by one word illegal. Is it that so much money is being made because it's illegal that no one really wants it legal? Are they afraid to lose the Goose that lays golden eggs?First thing I asked people is why is marijuana illegal? Marijuana is illegal because it promotes free thought and expression and the society we live in does not want us to think for ourselves. It's as simple as that! The Patriot Act is an extension of the Drug War and really it's out to get you and I! The DEA is in a panic because California is wide open with some Cannabis shops in Oakland featuring 60 or more strains of marijuana as well as hashish and all you need is a doctor's note! Can you believe that some of those guys are pulling a hundred grand a month. The Government has infiltrated the Medical marijuana movement completely! As an example Eddy Lepp sold one pound of pot to a friend and an undercover DEA agent. Lepp famous for his Medicinal Marijuana Garden was raided and over 32,000 legal plants were confiscated. Clearly Lepp was out of his league!Everyday more and more extol the virtues of marijuana use and how it improves their lives. One medical patient went from 600 milligrams of morphine a day to just pot! Most profits that are made illegally in the marijuana trade are funneled back into our economy, except for the small percentage that goes to Canada and Mexico. The American marijuana trade does not fund terrorism but instead puts shoes on little Bobby or Suzie. The huge underground marijuana economy keeps many of us alive in these lean and mean times. The lies the government spreads about marijuana funding terrorism when the reality is that it helps keep the economy humming. The American marijuana industry is home grown.Cannabis has become the Golden goose and neither side is letting go, too much money on the table. Complete Title: The Redistribution of Marijuana Wealth: Cannabis: the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs!Joe Pietri author The King of Nepal. He can be reached at: jpietri msn.comSource: Counter Punch (DC)Author: Joe PietriPublished: February 23, 2005Website: http://www.counterpunch.org/Contact: counterpunch counterpunch.orgURL: http://www.counterpunch.org/pietri02232005.htmlRelated Articles & Web Site:Eddys Medicinal Gardenshttp://www.eddysmedicinalgardens.com/Lepp Pleads Not Guiltyhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20261.shtmlLake County Medical Pot Activist Jailedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20255.shtmlPeron: Marijuana Battle Heats Uphttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread20253.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #11 posted by rchandar on February 25, 2005 at 17:03:23 PT: ngeo he's just a stupid, stupid man. And history will remember that he was unashamedly stupid, and will castigate us as a people for being swayed and swept up with his bulls %t rhetoric.They will look back and say, "How could a people believe what this guy said? How could they be so..."stupid. Yeah.--rchandar [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by rchandar on February 25, 2005 at 17:01:09 PT: mexico QUASI-LEGAL???!!! WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN!!! How many tourists have been locked up and brutalized for the minor crime of smoking grass???I don't think we should be saying this. I think that pressure should be put on the Mexican government to review its marijuana policy.--rchandar [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on February 23, 2005 at 11:30:57 PT Max Flowers I was able to fix grow ops but I didn't get the rest done. I hope that is ok. Editing posted article on CNews is hard since it's all in html. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Max Flowers on February 23, 2005 at 11:23:17 PT Now I feel bad... sorry, Joe It was early. I was reading too fast and didn't realize it wasn't supposed to be on the level of a newspaper article. Sorry everyone. I take it a litle too seriously perhaps, being a proofreader myself. I just bristle when things are released for worldwide publication that no one has proofread first.If he's a retired hash smuggler, then he's okay with me. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on February 23, 2005 at 09:47:03 PT Max Flowers I'll try later to fix the problems in the article. I can't do it now because if someone posts a comment while I'm editing the article their post gets lost in cyberspace. I can fix errors but I can't add or remove anything. I do fix somethings before I post an article if it is obvious to me but most times I miss them. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by ngeo on February 23, 2005 at 09:37:54 PT: Simple As That "Marijuana is illegal because it promotes free thought and expression and the society we live in does not want us to think for ourselves. It's as simple as that!"Bush parrots 'freedom'. Doesn't it seem like 'freedom' would be a good slogan for the cannabis movement? How dull does someone have to be before Bush's parroting of 'freedom' begins to ring hollow? It already rings hollow in the rest of the world. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on February 23, 2005 at 09:35:00 PT Max Flowers Joe Petri is not a professional journalist.He's a retired hashish smuggler who has decide to stand up for himself and show the prohibitionists what self respect really looks like. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Max Flowers on February 23, 2005 at 09:28:16 PT FoM I didn't mean you... I actually had no idea that you felt it was your responsibility to edit writers' work that you post here. In fact I would have assumed that that is a no-no in the web world, since you would have to change the content...?But since you asked: the fourth paragraph says "grow ups" when he meant "grow ops" Also it is possessive so it needs a plural possessive apostrophe (ops') Also he's inconsistent, writing 1960's and then 1980s The sixth paragraph needs a comma after the word possession.The next paragraph needs a comma after "Stranger yet"Sorry but I have to run, so I'll finsh in a bit.In the eighth paragraph the word judges should not be capitalized, nor should "halfway" be [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on February 23, 2005 at 09:02:08 PT Press Release from The Drug Policy Alliance California Activists’ Conference: Measure Z and BeyondWednesday, February 23, 2005This past Saturday over 150 people from 23 counties in California attended the Drug Policy Alliance co-sponsored conference "Measure Z and Beyond" in Oakland. Speakers hailed the conference as groundbreaking because it was the first to discuss a larger movement to tax and regulate marijuana in California. The Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance organized the event, with California NORML, Marijuana Policy Project, and Americans for Safe Access also co-sponsoring.Oakland’s Measure Z, the Oakland Cannabis Regulation and Revenue Ordinance, passed with 65% support by voters on November 2, 2004. It calls on the city to make private, adult marijuana offenses (including possession, sales, and cultivation) law enforcement’s lowest priority and to tax and regulate marijuana legally (to sell through licensed businesses) as soon as possible under state law. See: http://www.taxandregulate.org for details.Panel participants shared an overview of the Measure Z campaign from the perspective of hands-on campaign proponents and consultants. Activists from around the state asked questions about how to implement similar measures in their own areas. The conference also included a larger discussion the benefits of taxing and regulating marijuana, of the medical marijuana movement and included a lawyers’ panel providing practical advice to patients. http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/022305measurez.cfm [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on February 23, 2005 at 08:50:37 PT Max Flowers Please tell me what is wrong and I'll try to fix it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Max Flowers on February 23, 2005 at 08:46:50 PT Is this "journalism"? Did this guy get paid to write this?? He doesn't even know how to use punctuation. Couldn't someone have proofread it? Sheesh. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment