cannabisnews.com: Marijuana: Just What The Doctor Ordered?










  Marijuana: Just What The Doctor Ordered?

Posted by CN Staff on November 12, 2005 at 08:08:16 PT
By Joe Eskenazi 
Source: Jewish News Weekly  

California -- Irvin Rosenfeld smokes marijuana. A lot of it. Every day. He also buys and sells stocks. A lot of them. Every day. And he’s very up-front about this with everyone, most of all his 500 clients. “I handle millions and millions of dollars on a daily basis, and all of my clients know I use marijuana. I don’t want them to see me on TV and say, ‘Hey, that’s my stockbroker!’” says the Jewish activist with a laugh.
You probably haven’t heard of Rosenfeld, and, for that, the federal government is no doubt thankful. For the past 23 years, he has received a parcel from the government every month containing 11 ounces of marijuana packed into 300 cigarettes — marijuana grown by the federal government on a farm run by the University of Mississippi and given to Rosenfeld free of charge. Rosenfeld is enrolled in an extremely limited federal marijuana program, which will be phased out once the last participant dies. Considering the government’s draconian stance on marijuana (medical and otherwise), this isn’t a program it trumpets too often. But Rosenfeld does. “I’ve been smoking marijuana for 33 years. [The government thinks] I should be lethargic. My lungs should be destroyed,” he says in his machine-gun Virginia-accented pitter-patter from his Florida office. Rosenfeld suffers from a condition in which his bones are infested with tumors — he’s had more than 30 surgically removed, and there are more than 200 remaining within his body. After the serious onset of the malady just after his bar mitzvah, doctors told him he’d be lucky to see his 20th birthday. But the 52-year-old proudly told j. he went 3-for-5 a few Sundays ago in his weekly softball game. He even had a pair of two-out RBIs. “I’m everything the government says I should not be,” he says, just before taking his umpteenth business call in a typical morning on the job and shouting into his cell: “You got some good news for me? Yes!” A disproportionate number of the movers and shakers behind the medical marijuana movement are Jews — sometimes it’s half the room at a seminar or conference, says Marsha Rosenbaum, director of the San Francisco office of the Drug Policy Alliance. And while Rosenfeld travels the country and does scores of radio interviews bolstering medical marijuana, many of the most successful advocates — Jewish and otherwise — live in the Bay Area. And make no mistake, it’s not just long-haired hippies calling for medical pot. The Reform movement officially called for its legalization years ago, spurred on by enthusiastic support by local members of the Women of Reform Judaism. In 1996, the East Bay Council of Rabbis unanimously supported a petition in favor of Proposition 215, which legalized the cultivation of medical marijuana. Jews, notes Rosenbaum, have always been at the forefront of civil rights issues. There are a wealth of reasons why this is a strongly Jewish movement, but no one sums it up more succinctly than Oakland attorney Bill Panzer. “Doctors, lawyers and injustice. Where you find doctors, lawyers and injustice, you find Jews,” he says somewhat brusquely. Rosenbaum adds that Jews are “more critical and less convinced of official or government rhetoric” than the population at large. And though she’s not speaking with Panzer in mind, she might as well be. The plain-spoken Panzer describes himself as one of “eight-to-10 lawyers in the state who really knows what he’s doing” in marijuana cases, and it’s a job he was born to fill. “In seventh or eighth grade, a cop came to our school to give us a talk. He told us that marijuana came to our country when we were building the railroads; it was brought along to plant along the side of the tracks because no living creature will go near marijuana. That’s how evil it is. And the thundering herds of bison would come across the great plains 5 million strong and stop dead in their tracks,” he said. He pauses for effect. “And even at that point, I knew this was bulls—t.” The federal government isn’t pushing the buffalo story anymore. But its position on medical marijuana remains unequivocal. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 bans the manufacture and distribution of marijuana, and contains no exception for medical usage. Statements from the Drug Enforcement Agency have referred to the benefits of medical marijuana as “a myth,” and make the government’s position on the drug crystal clear. “[The] DEA is unequivocally opposed to the legalization of illicit drugs” reads a release made by the agency in response to state initiatives pushing for acceptance of medical marijuana. “Any proposal with the potential to do [this] is unacceptable. As public policy, it is fundamentally flawed.” Testifying before the House Committee on Government Reform last year, Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse, warned that “marijuana has been and continues to be the number one illegal drug in this country … Marijuana is not a benign drug. It has many adverse health and social consequences.” Oakland’s Robert Raich is one of the guys on Panzer’s short list of “eight to 10” marijuana lawyers. And Raich takes his work home with him, quite literally, every single day. Raich’s wife, Angel, has an inoperable brain tumor. He goes on to list her myriad other conditions but opts to cut off the list after two solid minutes. He could have gone much, much longer. Angel was confined to a wheelchair for four years, pumped with a wide variety of heavy narcotics and getting worse every day, when her nurse suggested smoking marijuana. And Angel was not amused. “She’s a mother of two children from her first marriage and she believed, as many parents do, that marijuana is bad, drugs are bad,” said Robert Raich. Angel, a non-Jew, now consumes eight pounds of marijuana a year. She smokes it, vaporizes it, mixes it into an oil that is blended into food or drink or applied topically. She must imbibe a stiff dose every two hours. It’s the last thing she’ll do before she goes to bed, and the first thing she does every morning. If, by chance, she wakes up in the middle of the night, she’ll probably have a little. She is no longer confined to a wheelchair and lives a relatively normal life, all things considered. Raich this year took his wife’s case all the way to the Supreme Court. He argued that Angel’s marijuana consumption did not constitute interstate commerce; the crop is locally grown and donated free-of-charge by well-wishers, making it nether interstate nor commerce. Or so he thought. To Raich’s chagrin, by an 8-3 vote, the court did not buy his argument, remanding the case back to San Francisco’s 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. He and other marijuana advocates stress that the decision was not the death knell many reported it to be. Instead, the status quo is merely sustained: Medical marijuana remains illegal federally but legal in California, with the whole issue officially muddled and Angel Raich still at risk of being busted at any time. Robert Raich has more legal arguments to justify his wife’s case to the courts, but it was his understanding of Jewish law that justified it for himself. “There are parallels to Jewish law. It’s OK to drive on Shabbos if you do it to drive someone to the emergency room. It’s OK to steal a boat and row it out to save a drowning person. And it’s OK to violate the federal prohibition against marijuana possession in order to save a life,” he said. And to those who would question Raich’s understanding of Jewish law, he invites you to address your complaints to his father, Abe Raich, an Orthodox rabbi in Colorado. The elder Raich is an unabashed supporter of his son and daughter-in-law. Meanwhile, San Francisco’s Brian Klein is the grandson of two Orthodox congregational presidents. They’re both long gone but he believes they would have supported his right to get the medicine he needs. The 47-year-old was infected with both AIDS and Hepatitis C, and the drugs he was prescribed for nausea left him “zonked out” to the point that even getting out of a chair was a tenuous proposition. Klein’s hepatologist worked for the Veteran’s Administration, a federal agency, and that precluded her from prescribing marijuana. But his AIDS doctor signed a prescription and Klein found himself, for the first time, in one of the city’s roughly 30 marijuana clubs. “There were all different kinds. It was like buying coffee!” he recalled. Klein has since conquered his Hep C (“one down, one to go”), and he says he wouldn’t have been able to stomach his chemotherapy treatments without medical marijuana. Which, in the eyes of the federal government, makes him a criminal. “It’s totally galling. It’s ridiculous. What’s crazy is making everything black and white,” he said. “Any medication can be misused. But what’s ridiculous is saying ‘this is all bad’ when, clearly there is a legitimate, useful purpose in this.” Dr. Mike Alcalay might argue against that, however. He’s not sure how easy it is to misuse marijuana. The Jewish Oakland pediatrician remembers memorizing the “therapeutic index” back in his days at UCLA medical school. While “therapeutic index” sounds reassuring, it’s actually much graver than that. Quite simply, it’s the number of simultaneous doses it takes to cease treating and start killing a patient. Alcalay pegs morphine as a 10, as 10 times the prescription will be a lethal dose. (Alcohol is also a 10, notes the doctor sternly.) He estimates Tylenol and ibuprofen drugs at around a 25 or 30. Penicillin is roughly 100. But what about cannabis? Lab rats have been exposed to up to 40,000 times the standard dose of marijuana and “all they do is go in the corner and sleep it off,” Alcalay says. While trained in pediatrics, Alcalay has shifted his focus to medical marijuana. As an AIDS patient since the 1980s, he counts himself among his 1,000-plus patients. Most controversially, one of those patients was an 8-year-old. He came to Alcalay with diagnoses of obsessive-compulsive disorder and hyperactivity. He had been institutionalized for violent behavior, and was on “15 different medications, some of which were very harmful to him.” Alcalay prescribed “a quarter of a brownie” a day. “And within half an hour, he loosens his grip on [his mother] and says, ‘You know what? I’m not angry anymore.’” The doctor says the child even went back to public schools for two years, until the farm that provided his marijuana was shut down by federal authorities. He’s not sure what became of the boy. For those readers whose heart rate leapt when considering the possibility of giving a child marijuana, Alcalay has little pity for you. He would have been easily within his rights and society’s norms if he’d prescribed hardcore narcotics such as OxyContin or even morphine to the boy. What makes marijuana worse, he asks? Nothing, he answers. In fact, “half the medicines of the 19th century contained cannabis. Cough medicines, sleep medicine, whatever. Queen Victoria used it for menstrual cramps,” he says. So why is marijuana still illegal when watered-down heroin is not? Ed Rosenthal has an answer for that. You might remember Rosenthal’s name. He was the self-proclaimed “Jewish Ganja Guru” deputized by the city of Oakland to cultivate medical marijuana, busted by federal authorities, and tried as if he were a drug lord. A jury found Rosenthal guilty of several charges in 2003 but flew into a rage when it was revealed to them — after handing down the verdict — that mention of Rosenthal’s accreditation by the city of Oakland had been deemed inadmissible in court. In the end, the prosecutors — and, by proxy, the federal government — sustained a public-relations shellacking, and Rosenthal received a sentence of 24 hours, time served. Since he was actually detained for 36 hours, he figures that someone owes him 12 hours. Rosenthal sits in the Oakland home he once lived in and now uses as a large office building. The décor is reminiscent of a college co-op, and homemade art abounds; more than 20 portraits or sculptures of faces hang on the turquoise walls of the room where Rosenthal gazes out at Lake Merritt in the distance. He calls it his “Head Room.” Outside, a shoebox-sized cottage serves as Rosenthal’s “writing room,” housing back issues of High Times magazine dating to 1974 and a photo of Rosenthal with Willie Nelson. When asked if he would have devoted his life to marijuana advocacy if he’d been, say, an Episcopalian, Rosenthal laughs good and hard. “No, no, I’d be at the country club! Another round of drinks? Try the shrimp cocktail, it’s marrrrrrvelous!” Unlike Christians, who often prize sacrifice and martyrdom, Jews are copasetic with “doing well by doing good,” Rosenthal indicates. It’s all right to make a decent living helping people get their medicine. But you can’t if you’re incarcerated. The Temple Sinai congregant has avoided prison thus far but, should he go, he’d be a far more productive worker than, say, a heroin addict. And that, he says, is at the root of why marijuana is illegal. “There’s only one reason why. And that’s because it’s a job issue for the criminal justice system. All the opposition to marijuana comes from the criminal justice system. All of the prison industries are associated with that: commissary suppliers, uniform suppliers, prison industries where they have prisoners working civilian jobs at very low pay,” he charges. Three-quarters of a million people were arrested in this county last year for marijuana-related crimes, he says. “That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs. And that’s what this is about. “It’s not about whether marijuana is harmful or not. If you wanted to start with harmful substances, start with tobacco. Make that illegal. Alcohol, make that illegal. Make certain risky behaviors such as parachute jumping or skiing illegal. No, this is about jobs and money and spending $30 billion of taxpayers’ money on a totally useless special interest.” But Rosenthal is optimistic about the future, and he sees his own trial as a watershed moment. Not for the American people — numerous polls have shown widespread support for medical marijuana for some time now — but for the media. That was Ed Rosenthal wearing a clinician’s white coat on the cover of the New York Times and profiled in several sympathetic articles (Rosenthal, incidentally, is neither a doctor nor a pharmacist, but that white coat did lend him a sense of gravitas). “They used the term medical marijuana without quotes. This changed the way medical marijuana is reported by the press in the United States,” he says. “It was no longer a joke. Taglines used to say ‘His dreams are going up in smoke’ or ‘maybe it was just a pipe dream.’ That’s over.” There are other reasons to be optimistic about the future of medical marijuana. For one, there’s money in it. Alcalay reports that conventions and meetings that were once largely attended by empty folding chairs are now overflowing — with representatives of the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, the giant corporation Bayer has even come up with a marijuana tincture that a patient can squirt into his mouth like a Binaca breath spray. But a bright future cannot overshadow a difficult present. Stephanie Landa has been using medical marijuana ever since she was struck by a car in Los Angeles and crashed through the windshield in 1999. In 2002, she was invited by San Francisco police and political officials to grow medical marijuana here; various supervisors even described the city as a “haven.” Then-District Attorney Terrence Hallinan assured her, personally, that she was legally in the clear. Of course that wasn’t so. Landa’s warehouse was raided, and her 800 plants destroyed. She and her two co-owners were tried on the federal level. On their lawyer’s advice, they kept out of the press, which was a questionable call considering one of her co-defendants, Kevin Gage, is a working Hollywood actor with some name recognition. Gage and Thomas Kikuchi (who is Landa’s domestic partner) have just finished 41-month terms in federal prison. Landa, who had been caring for her elderly parents and son until Kikuchi’s release, is now due to report to prison. While Gage and Kikuchi were in a minimum-security facility, there are no minimum-security women’s prisons. Her lawyers are fighting, but Landa doesn’t like her chances. “I think I’m going to jail. I’m just prolonging it as much as I can. My parents are going to be devastated,” she says, matter-of-factly. “I’m a nice Jewish girl with a 19-year-old kid. I don’t want to go.”Note: Jews lead the charge for medical pot.Source: Jewish News Weekly (CA)Author: Joe EskenaziPublished: Friday, November 11, 2005Copyright: 2005, San Francisco Jewish Community Publications Inc.Contact: edit jweekly.comWebsite: http://www.jewishsf.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml

Home    Comment    Email    Register    Recent Comments    Help





Comment #32 posted by Matt Stover on November 23, 2005 at 07:44:07 PT:
edited letter: within 200 words
Re: "Just What The Doctor Ordered", from JWEEKLY.Dear Editors:I view with alarm that virtually all Jewish folks have forgotten that it took one million acres of "Marihuana" to win WWII. This much was needed in America, between 1942 and 1943 - to sew all of our military's shoes, boots, backpacks, firehoses, parachutes, to lubricate engines of tanks and aircraft, and manufacture dynamite.I am appalled that virtually all history professors have forgotten that the U.S. Census of 1850 counted 8,352 "Marijuana*" Plantations - each with more than 2,000 acres. (*As the U.S. Govt strictly defines the same plant, cannabis sativa, today.)You overlooked the most heroic, Jewish Mensch, Jack Herer, in writing your article. In so doing, you overlooked the most crucial history that has ever been so tragically forgotten.
You overlooked another quintessential Jewish Mensch, David Bronner - who singlehandedly defeated the DEA in the recent lawsuit that protects hemp products from being imported.OPEC-related industries have invested billions of dollars in what has been the most expensive propaganda campaign in history: surpressing and stigmatizing the truths about Cannabis sativa.Only "Marijuana" - as the U.S. Government strictly defines is - can completely independicize us from petrol, save the trees, and house and clothe and feed and fuel the world, while providing superior paper and lumber, and thousands of other products...All Jewish folks should be the first in line, to learn what's going on, about these matters - then help to teach the world!www.jackherer.com  www.votehemp.com  www.drbronner.com
        
         - Educate yourselves!Thanks, Sincerely, Matt Stover
http://www.jackherer.com
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #31 posted by global_warming on November 14, 2005 at 18:18:23 PT
In This World
Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
If I should die before I wake,
I pray the Lord my soul to take.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #30 posted by global_warming on November 14, 2005 at 17:56:34 PT
Green
May be able to deal with arctic shelvesDrifting into our backyardsGlobal Annihilation Is not a party i would attendWhat choice have i?This next sunriseMay TwinkleIn your eyeThat first sparkleThat reflectsYour butyAnd Gentle Hand
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #29 posted by global_warming on November 14, 2005 at 16:18:31 PT
Amen, brother/sister
Only "Marijuana" can completely replace petrol, feed and clothe and house and run the world, save the trees, independecize us all from OPEC, and make us live longer...You have my vote for the Cannabis World, Green, I can smell the clean and healthy scent.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #28 posted by Matt Stover on November 14, 2005 at 11:14:48 PT:
What About How "Marihuana" Won WWII?
Only one million acres of "Marihuana" - as 'patriotic American farmers' were formally licensed to grow, from 1942 on - was able to sew all of our military's shoes, boots, backpacks, firehoses, parachutes and tackle and gear, lubricate engines of our tanks and aircraft, and manufacture munitions and dynamite with... Haven't we all seen the USDA's, "Hemp For Victory!" ? Don't we all know what the Great Jewish Mensch, Jack Herer himself, had to go through, to prove that "Hemp For Victory!" was not an elaborate hoax, as the Reagan Adminsitration insisted, in 1988?Why did the Jewish Weekly also never mention the fact that the U.S. Census of 1850 counted 8,352 "Marijuana" Plantations - each, by definition, holding more than 2,000 acres? (Tens of thousands of smaller pot farms were not so counted - making 'marijuana' the real King, over cotton)OPEC related, synthetic industries have invested many billions in making even the world's history professors completely ignorant of what used to always have been the #1 industrial crop - what is today defined by the government as "Marijuana". Why would even the Jewish Weekly so ferevntly contribute to this evil endeavor: erasing such crucial world, national, and even WWII history?Only "Marijuana" can completely replace petrol, feed and clothe and house and run the world, save the trees, independecize us all from OPEC, and make us live longer...Why pretend that it is only surpressed medicine, for humans?Dumbing us down like this is a terrible disservice... but is it intentional? Is it just another broad success for the likes of OPEC - and even the old, Nylon-Axis-Powers?"Hemp For Victory!" And Shame, on the ignorance!
http://www.jackherer.com
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #27 posted by global_warming on November 13, 2005 at 14:00:26 PT
Fresh Linen
Before you know itNovember 14th is comingAnother sunriseIlluminates all of usOne blinkTwinkle TwinkleCan we prepare the table of the Lord?Bring fresh linen 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #26 posted by global_warming on November 13, 2005 at 13:34:54 PT
Loving Filthy Whores
i once read about some rabbiwho loved some whorehis bloodon that wooden crossspeaks to mein this 21st century
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #25 posted by Hope on November 13, 2005 at 13:21:54 PT
E_Johnson
That's so cool. He is lucky, of course, he got you to marry him.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #24 posted by global_warming on November 13, 2005 at 13:17:22 PT
Hey EJ
Did they share a bone?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #23 posted by FoM on November 13, 2005 at 13:07:26 PT
Wow EJ
That's really something.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #22 posted by E_Johnson on November 13, 2005 at 12:57:09 PT
My lucky husband
Long before we met, my husband (quite by chance) ended up watching the Nixon resignation with Robert Redford and his wife and they shared a bottle of wine. It happened suddenly and everyone rushed to the nearest TV, and they ended up meeting around the nearest TV in the city they were both visiting at the time.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #21 posted by global_warming on November 13, 2005 at 12:12:40 PT
Farewell
the serious onset of the malady just after his bar mitzvah, doctors told him he’d be lucky to see his 20th birthday..“In seventh or eighth grade, a cop came to our school to give us a talk. He told us that marijuana came to our country when we were building the railroads; it was brought along to plant along the side of the tracks because no living creature will go near marijuana. That’s how evil it is. And the thundering herds of bison would come across the great plains 5 million strong and stop dead in their tracks,” he said. ..And even at that point, I knew this was bulls—t.” ..The federal government isn’t pushing the buffalo story anymore. But its position on medical marijuana remains unequivocal. The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 bans the manufacture and distribution of marijuana, and contains no exception for medical usage. 
Statements from the Drug Enforcement Agency have referred to the benefits of medical marijuana as “a myth,” and make the government’s position on the drug crystal clear. Oakland’s Robert Raich ..Raich’s wife, Angel, has an inoperable brain tumor. ..Angel was confined to a wheelchair for four years, pumped with a wide variety of heavy narcotics and getting worse every day, when her nurse suggested smoking marijuana. ..Raich this year took his wife’s case all the way to the Supreme Court. ..“There are parallels to Jewish law. ..those who would question Raich’s understanding of Jewish law, he invites you to address your complaints to his father, Abe Raich, an Orthodox rabbi in Colorado.Most controversially, one of those patients was an 8-year-old. He came to Alcalay with diagnoses of obsessive-compulsive disorder and hyperactivity. He had been institutionalized for violent behavior, and was on “15 different medications, some of which were very harmful to him.” ..the child even went back to public schools for two years, until the farm that provided his marijuana was shut down by federal authorities. He’s not sure what became of the boy. Three-quarters of a million people were arrested in this county last year for marijuana-related crimes, he says. “That’s hundreds of thousands of jobs. And that’s what this is about. ,,“It’s not about whether marijuana is harmful or not. If you wanted to start with harmful substances, start with tobacco. Make that illegal. Alcohol, make that illegal. Make certain risky behaviors such as parachute jumping or skiing illegal. No, this is about jobs and money and spending $30 billion of taxpayers’ money on a totally useless special interest.” The time is coming, hope you have a nicely written farewell card for those DEA peoples, when I examine my ledger and my bottom line, I no longer want to spend my hard earned money on such filthy and bad practice.This war on people, this war on drugs is coming to an end.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #20 posted by Had Enough on November 13, 2005 at 10:41:18 PT
Say Good Bye
Mr. Nixon while boarding the helicopter as he was leaving the White House for the last time, held his arms outstretched in the air with his fingers in a “Peace Sign” manner. Both hands.Kevin Smith to do 'Green Hornet' film  02-11-2004http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/02/19/film.smith.hornet.ap/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #19 posted by Hope on November 13, 2005 at 10:32:33 PT
The term, "the new loony bin" might be
an apt description of a Congress full of "mad men".
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #18 posted by Hope on November 13, 2005 at 10:30:17 PT
Because they're "mad men", too.
"Why has Congress been so blind as to support the ravings of a "mad" man, codified into an illogical, unscientific, and medically false scheduling error? Why are they so reluctant to correct this error and to restore the medical standing of the wonder plant unless they share his superstitious prejudice?"
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #17 posted by afterburner on November 13, 2005 at 10:25:12 PT
RE Comment #12
Nixon resigned from the the U.S. Presidency in disgrace. My wife and I were having a vacation dinner when the news of his resignation appeared on television.Yet, Nixon's deadly legacy still endures: "Richard Nixon launched America's 'war on pot' 30 years ago." Why has Congress been so blind as to support the ravings of a "mad" man, codified into an illogical, unscientific, and medically false scheduling error? Why are they so reluctant to correct this error and to restore the medical standing of the wonder plant unless they share his superstitious prejudice?"I am not a crook," proclaimed Nixon, but he was--a disgrace to the Presidency. It's time to remove the dark shadow of ignorance, which removed this useful plant from the legal markets of our fair society.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #16 posted by Had Enough on November 13, 2005 at 08:48:35 PT
Cato Says
CATO Handbook for the 108th CongressPgs 171 – 177http://www.cato.org/pubs/handbook/hb108/hb108-17.pdfWasn’t Cato the name of the Green Hornets sidekick?
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #15 posted by Hope on November 13, 2005 at 08:23:46 PT
Jewish people
I love them. One of them is everything about my life.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #14 posted by Hope on November 13, 2005 at 08:22:27 PT
herbdoc215
Hang in there, friend. A better day is surely coming. Maybe it's just around the bend.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #13 posted by Dankhank on November 13, 2005 at 08:04:38 PT
Nixon
Had Enough good one ...check this out, site since 1998, full story with credit to Kevin Zeese since I first found it ... 2002 ... yes?http://hbaca.freeyellow.comkeep searching for truth ...Peace to all who search for truth .....
hemp n stuff 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #12 posted by Had Enough on November 13, 2005 at 07:53:03 PT
Once-Secret "Nixon Tapes" Show Why
Once-Secret "Nixon Tapes" Show Why the U.S. Outlawed PotNixon reacted strongly to the report (Shafer Report). In a recorded conversation on March 21, the day before the Commission released its report, Nixon said, "We need, and I use the word 'all out war,' on all fronts ... we have to attack on all fronts." Nixon and his advisors went on to plan a speech about why he opposed marijuana legalization, and proposed that he do "a drug thing every week" during the 1972 presidential election year. Nixon wanted a "Goddamn strong statement about marijuana ... that just tears the ass out of them."Shafer was never appointed to the federal court.Nixon's private comments about marijuana showed he was the epitome of misinformation and prejudice. He believed marijuana led to hard drugs, despite the evidence to the contrary. He saw marijuana as tied to "radical demonstrators." He believed that "the Jews," especially "Jewish psychiatrists" were behind advocacy for legalization, asking advisor Bob Haldeman, "What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?" He made a bizarre distinction between marijuana and alcohol, saying people use marijuana "to get high" while "a person drinks to have fun."He also saw marijuana as part of the culture war that was destroying the United States, and claimed that Communists were using it as a weapon. "Homosexuality, dope, immorality in general," Nixon fumed. "These are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the Communists and the left-wingers are pushing the stuff, they're trying to destroy us." His approach drug education was just as simplistic: "Enforce the law. You've got to scare them."Unfortunately, Nixon did more than just "scare them," whoever they were. His marijuana war rhetoric led to a dramatic increase in arrests. One year after his "all out war" comments, marijuana arrests jumped to 420,700 a year -- a full 128,000 more than the year before. Since then, nearly 15 million people have been arrested for marijuana offenses.Cut & Paste from:http://www.alternet.org/story/12666/
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #11 posted by siege on November 13, 2005 at 06:03:53 PT
HOW DRUG COMPANIES DECEIVE DOCTORS
Following doctor’s orders has become synonymous with danger. Every year, FDA approved drugs kill twice as many people as the total number of U.S. deaths from the Vietnam War.[1] Death by medicine flourishes because deceit, not science, governs a doctor’s prescribing habits. As an ex-drug chemist, I witnessed this first-hand.
http://www.newswithviews.com/Ellison/shane20.htm
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #10 posted by FoM on November 12, 2005 at 15:22:56 PT
Toker00
I hope you are having a good day. I am working on a wedding video for my sister and I am tired. I can get so far and then I can't figure out how to do what I want to do next. I think it's good to challenge ourselves with things that are new and difficult. I must keep my brain cell working. I'm sure I only have one left. !LOL!global_warming you're welcome.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #9 posted by herbdoc215 on November 12, 2005 at 13:37:39 PT
I still want to know why they get 7 lbs for FREE
and I get tortured for same thing? Can somebody PLEASE explain this to me cause I am just a dumb hillbilly and don't understand these complex things? Guess US gov't just gave me my Veterans Day present early this year...so here I am thanking them for it late? What happened to equal protection? How come I have to pay US $13,000 a MONTH for marinal or go to jail? At $13,000 a month they better let me back at my gold mine so I can live cause it will take one to py for this jell-filled shitcaps the feds have forced on me! Damn their evil souls to hell for all the pain they have caused. Peace, Steve Tuck
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #8 posted by global_warming on November 12, 2005 at 12:34:52 PT
Welcome
to the fire
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #7 posted by Toker00 on November 12, 2005 at 12:06:31 PT
Ya think?
If this becomes a widely accepted "Jewish" cause, it might be a good thing,huh? I've heard that the media belongs pretty much to the Jews. Isreal is printing medical reports about cancer research and cannabinoids. I keep hearing reporters say cannabis a lot more, lately. I wonder...Thanks FoM. Good weekend to ya. I'll be putting balusters and hand rails on a staircase and a second story loft this weekend. I love doing carpenty when I'm buzzing. And some Classic Rock just makes things flow... Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! 
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #6 posted by global_warming on November 12, 2005 at 11:54:25 PT
reckon
We are all on that moment,Indulge our soulsOr :pay" that "mortgage"Alms,To the poorReminds us of the poorTime is tickingi reckon that larger pictureWe are speaking fromHas some reconciling mechanismBewareSing to the starsReveal your innermostTo the starsThe starsThey can Listen'From the first breathTo the last breathThis LifeReflectsfrom the LightOf the stars!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #5 posted by global_warming on November 12, 2005 at 11:24:32 PT
and, Thank You
joe eskenaziThey treat so mean here LordI wish i never was born
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by global_warming on November 12, 2005 at 10:43:32 PT
Thanks FOM
Great article.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #3 posted by runderwo on November 12, 2005 at 09:21:09 PT
nixon
"What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?"
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #2 posted by FoM on November 12, 2005 at 09:10:26 PT
Just a Note
I hope everyone has a nice weekend. I can't find any more news to post but I'll keep looking though. Have a great day!
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #1 posted by FoM on November 12, 2005 at 08:11:09 PT
Something Nixon Said
Didn't Nixon say that he was afraid that Pot Smokers, Gays and Jews would rule the world or something close to that? Maybe he was right to a degree.
[ Post Comment ]




  Post Comment