cannabisnews.com: After I-75










  After I-75

Posted by CN Staff on December 06, 2005 at 14:35:58 PT
By Eli Sanders 
Source: The Stranger 

Seattle, WA -- What kind of drug experts are awake at 8:00 a.m. on a Thursday morning?Normally, one would expect to see only the most ragged tweakers on Capitol Hill up at such an hour. But in Seattle last week a bunch of middle-class professionals—drug experts all—were gathered bright and early in a dim conference room at the downtown Red Lion. They wore business attire and academic eyewear, carried laptops and lattes, and shared one common goal: to dismantle the war on drugs.
This was decidedly not the Hempfest crowd. Instead, the people at this conference represented the intellectual vanguard of the drug-law reform movement: physicians, psychiatrists, attorneys, policy experts, teachers, and social workers who feel that the current drug war is a failed policy in need of radical revision. They had come to Seattle from across the country because it seemed the natural place for a gathering of those at the forefront of thought on illicit drugs. While Americans may tend to think of San Francisco as the likely center for any drug-related movement, and while it may seem surprising to think that Seattle could be at the vanguard of anything at this moment, given the prevailing feeling of stuckness on civic issues in this city, it turns out we’re ahead of the rest of the country on this one. Largely below the radar, Seattle has moved to the new cutting edge of American social policy on adult drug use.The most obvious example of this is Initiative 75, passed by a strong majority of Seattle voters in 2003. The measure mandated that arrests of adult marijuana users would become the lowest priority for law enforcement agencies in the city, all but decriminalizing pot smoking in Seattle. It was opposed by drug warriors from U.S. Drug Czar John Walters on down to Seattle City Attorney Tom Carr, but it nevertheless succeeded in radically altering the climate for pot smokers here, and has become the model for subsequent similar measures in Oakland, Denver, and Columbia, Missouri. Add in Seattle’s innovative drug court, which allows people convicted of drug crimes to choose treatment over incarceration, and the King County Bar Association’s new and groundbreaking blueprint for drug-law reform in Washington State, and this city emerges as something of a demonstration project on drug reform for the rest of the country.It’s all part of an intentional, coordinated effort by local activists. The aim, says Roger Goodman, director of the bar association’s Drug Policy Project and an organizer of the conference, is simple and exceedingly ambitious: “Change the culture.”First, here in Washington. Then, slowly, across the United States.Initiative 75, if you believed those who warned against its passage in 2003, was going to confuse kids, lead to an explosion of marijuana use, and squander taxpayer money on a citizen review board to study the effects of the new law. None of this has happened, even according to Carr, the city attorney, who had warned before the law’s passage that I-75 was “wrong for our children and our community.”Marijuana-related case filings by the city attorney’s office have dropped sharply since I-75 took effect, from 178 filings in 2003, the year the initiative passed, to 59 filings in 2004. That’s a 67 percent reduction in arrests, prosecutions, and jail sentences connected to marijuana use—and a similarly large reduction in the angst felt by local dope smokers, the lives altered by jail time for smoking some pot, and the taxpayer money spent sending stoners through the legal system. (As of this November the number of marijuana-related filings by Carr’s office was set to decline again in 2005, with only 35 filings reported in the first 11 months of this year.)At the same time, the predictions of mass confusion and increased pot smoking among Seattle’s youth have not come to pass. A survey of students in the Seattle Public Schools, conducted by researchers at the University of Washington, found that the number of 10th and 12th graders who reported using marijuana within the last 30 days had actually declined slightly between 2002 and 2004. As opponents of I-75 point out, the percentage decline is very slight (less than 2 percent in both grades). But the backers of I-75 respond that they never promised that pot smoking among high schoolers would disappear as a result of the initiative; they just said the concerns of an explosion of pot smoking among Seattle’s younger generations were unfounded—and the survey appears to prove that this position was correct.In addition, the “waste of taxpayer dollars” predicted by Carr is nowhere to be seen. He now describes the financial cost of I-75 as “a small marginal cost”—the cost of, for example, photocopying data on marijuana arrests for the Marijuana Policy Review Panel, whose members are not paid for their time.Faced with this evident lack of I-75-induced cataclysm, Carr now openly admits he was wrong about some of the law’s predicted negative impacts. But he is still not any closer to thinking it might have been a good idea. “It’s a silly law that was enacted for political purposes,” he says. These days he employs a strategy of minimizing the law’s positive impact, suggesting it was unnecessary in the first place, and ineffective as a program for social change in the second.Perhaps as part of that minimizing, Carr told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last month that there were only 74 marijuana cases filed in Seattle in 2002, making it seem like the drop to 59 cases in 2004 was statistically insignificant. I-75, he told the paper, “had little to no effect.” In fact, data provided by his office to the Marijuana Policy Review Panel shows there were actually 161 cases in 2002, making the drop to 59 cases two years later much more significant.When I contacted Carr’s office about this discrepancy, his special assistant, Ruth Bowman, at first blamed the error on the author of the P-I story, Mike Lewis, whom she said had misquoted Carr. Shortly after I contacted Lewis about this claim, Carr’s story changed.Bowman recanted, and said Carr had not been misquoted by Lewis. She told me support for the 74 figure would be coming soon. A few minutes later, Bowman e-mailed me a dense page of data that it turned out had nothing to do with 2002 marijuana filings. When I pointed this out, she sent me new data, without comment. It was the correct data, and it directly contradicted Carr’s 74 figure. It showed that the number of marijuana filings in 2002 was 160, almost exactly the same as the 161 filings claimed by the Marijuana Policy Review Panel (and more than twice as many as Carr claimed when speaking to the P-I in November). I asked Bowman if Carr still stood by his statement to the P-I. The next day, Carr e-mailed to say he was sorry if he’d made a mistake, but added defiantly: “If you want to go ahead and suggest that the marijuana initiative made a difference, you will be mistaken. It made no difference whatsoever.”Funny numbers aside, on a more philosophical level, Carr argues that I-75 is bad for democracy. “In a democracy, you change the law if you don’t like it,” he says. By downgrading enforcement of state and federal law to the “lowest priority” in one particular city, I-75 actually “undermines law,” he says. If activists want to decriminalize marijuana possession, Carr believes, “the place for marijuana reform is really at the state and federal levels.”Dominic Holden, a longtime Carr adversary on marijuana issues who came up with the idea for I-75 and chaired the initiative campaign, admits that on a purely philosophical level, I-75 is imperfect. But it’s not meant to be a permanent fix. Rather, it’s meant as a temporary object lesson on the benefits of drug-law reform, en route to broader reform at the state and federal levels.“Think of this as Seattle’s interim measure for dealing with a state and federal policy that we find ineffective,” he says. “People all over the country are looking at what’s happening here. And our positive experience with I-75 will act as armor against what the federal government and the conservative state legislators will argue when we move to decriminalize marijuana over a broader area than just Seattle.”Mikki Norris, a board member of the Oakland Civil Liberties Alliance, the group that in November of last year made marijuana busts the lowest law enforcement priority in that city, agrees with Holden. She said Oakland’s Measure Z was heavily influenced by the model of Seattle’s I-75.“It’s been real helpful to us,” Norris said. “It was inspirational to the movement in general. It gave a lot of people things to think about.” Next year, she said, similar measures will be run in four California cities, probably Santa Cruz, West Hollywood, Santa Barbara, and Santa Monica. (San Francisco and Berkeley both passed laws in the 1970s against allocating police resources toward marijuana busts, but these laws differ from the newer Seattle law, Holden says, in that they don’t establish a citizen review panel. They’re also more than 30 years old, remnants of a different historical moment in drug control, one that came to a close during the Carter administration.)The question, then, is not whether more American cities will follow the recent example of Seattle. It seems clear that many more will, establishing a chain of urban refuges from zealous enforcement of federal and state marijuana laws, and making the case to the rest of the country that marijuana decriminalization can work. The real question is: What comes next?That’s where last week’s conference in Seattle sought to enter the debate. The conference, sponsored by the King County Bar Association, aimed to imagine an “exit strategy,” not just from the war on pot, but also from the larger war on drugs, which conference participants unanimously described as a failure. (“A fool’s errand,” “Like shoveling water,” “A war on poor people and vulnerable people.”)Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper was at the conference, and in an editorial that appeared the following Sunday in the Seattle Times, he called for the legalization of drugs—“all of them.”“I’ve never understood why adults shouldn’t enjoy the same right to use verboten drugs as they have to suck on a Marlboro or knock back a scotch and water,” Stamper wrote. “Prohibition of alcohol fell flat on its face. The prohibition of other drugs rests on an equally wobbly foundation. Not until we choose to frame responsible drug use—not an oxymoron in my dictionary—as a civil liberty will we be able to recognize the abuse of drugs, including alcohol, for what it is: a medical, not a criminal, matter.”In a more than 100-page document produced by the King County Bar Association earlier this year, much the same argument is made, albeit with a lot more footnotes and slightly less accessible language than Stamper uses. The dense document, however, may end up being more significant than the editorial by Stamper, or even any of the “demonstration projects” in cities that make marijuana busts a low priority. It is part of a “grass tops” effort to give opinion leaders and policymakers a way of thinking about life after the war on drugs, and the fact that it comes from a deliberative body made up of well-informed lawyers makes it all the more persuasive for the many politicians and civic leaders who already silently doubt the drug war’s efficacy.The report imagines the State of Washington controlling the distribution of currently illegal drugs, with softer drugs like cannabis perhaps being taxed and sold only to citizens who meet certain requirements (old enough, a resident of Washington, not too intoxicated at time of purchase), while harder drugs like heroin and crystal meth might only be given out under medical supervision to addicts involved in treatment. It’s hardly the Bacchic free-for-all that backers of the status quo imagine when they talk worriedly about decriminalization. In fact, it could end up, in practice, being far more restrictive than the current drug-control regime. The aim would be to reduce crime by drying up the illegal markets for illicit drugs; improve public health by focusing state efforts on treating, rather than imprisoning, addicts; and protect children better by cutting down on the black-market drugs available to them while also cutting down on the incentive of drug gangs to lure children into black-market drug work.Roger Goodman, the bar association Drug Policy Project director who spoke of wanting to “change the culture” when it comes to drugs, oversaw the creation of the document, which has the kind of prosaic title favored by policy wonks, “State-Level Regulation as a Workable Alternative to the ‘War on Drugs.’” But rather boldly, it includes a resolution by the bar association calling on the state legislature to begin studying ways out of the war on drugs. The legislature declined to do so last session, but Goodman takes the long view. “You can’t accomplish something like this in a short period of time,” he says. The bar will be back this session, asking the legislature to do the same.In the meantime, as with I-75, bar associations in other states are now eager to mimic the work the King County Bar Association has done on drug reform, which differs from other earlier critiques of the drug war offered by bar associations in that it offers both a critique and a solution. Similar solution-oriented policy reviews are currently being prepared by bar associations in Vermont, Oregon, Alabama, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Georgia, New York, and Washington, D.C.It’s part of a process familiar to other long-term movements aimed at changing entrenched cultural attitudes and counterproductive laws: Take a small step forward, prove to doubters that the world hasn’t ended, then take another step forward, and repeat. “I-75 was a pretty big step,” Goodman says, echoing that strategy. “And the sky has not fallen.”Note: Seattle’s Move to De-Prioritize Marijuana Arrests Is Working—Arrests for Marijuana Use Are Down, Pot Smoking Is Not Up, and Other Cities Are Following Our Lead. So What’s Next? How About Ending the War on Drugs?Source: Stranger, The (Seattle, WA)Author: Eli SandersPublished: Dec 1 - Dec 7, 2005 Copyright: 2005 The StrangerWebsite: http://www.thestranger.com/Contact: postmaster thestranger.comRelated Articles & Web Sites:Seattle Hempfesthttp://www.seattlehempfest.com/Sensible Seattle Coalition http://www.sensibleseattle.org/Little Fallout from Seattle's Pot Initiativehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21330.shtmlSeattle Votes To Make Marijuana Low Priorityhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17340.shtmlVoters Scald Latte Tax; But Pot Measure Passinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17334.shtml

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Comment #77 posted by FoM on December 11, 2005 at 08:36:11 PT
Dankhank 
Yes it is an excellent song. It's as true today as when it was written. Somethings just never change.
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Comment #76 posted by Dankhank on December 11, 2005 at 08:23:06 PT
Eve O'
Destruction ....excellent song that is with me today ..."Don't you know, we're on the eve of destruction?"We fight the destruction ....
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Comment #75 posted by FoM on December 09, 2005 at 11:17:13 PT
Dankhank
One more thing. Eve of Destruction is another great song. I didn't like school but I loved that I was able to go to Catholic School because we got away with thinking outside the box with some of my teachers (nuns and priests). We had a gorgeous Wurlitzer JukeBox in out cafeteria and we played Eve of Destruction over and over again. It brings back memories.
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Comment #74 posted by FoM on December 09, 2005 at 11:06:12 PT
Dankhank
I thought it was good too and so true. I downloaded almost all of the songs. I made a CD and will make another one until I get it the way I want it. I would be so lost without music. The first song we listened to this morning was 16 Tons.
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Comment #73 posted by Dankhank on December 09, 2005 at 10:58:42 PT
school
That's a good one, just listened to it ...bunch o good ones there ...
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Comment #72 posted by FoM on December 09, 2005 at 09:00:29 PT
Dankhank
I just finished making a CD of different music from that one link and a few others and I feel like I'm Fixing to Die Rag was one of the songs I put on it. I like one song on that list I never heard called What Did You Learn in School Today by Pete Seeger.http://www.friendshipvillage.homestead.com/Music.html
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Comment #71 posted by Dankhank on December 09, 2005 at 08:51:53 PT
Feel Like I'm ...
Fixing To Die Rag ...Ah the memories ...I was drafted in april 1971, took basic at Fort Campbell and found myself on the porch of the barracks with three other "trainees" having a sing-a-long hosted by the drill sergeant one balmy Sunday Afternoon.We had sung a bunch of songs, patriotic, martial and other uplifting ditties when we ran out of songs.I had volunteered to get a song and the three and I had run into the barracks, found paper and hastily penned the words to the first verse and chorus of that great song, which we passed to the crowd.You should have seen the face of the drill sergeant when 200 trainees, all of whom must have heard that song before, were lustily singing ... Whoopee, we're all gonna die!Needless to say, the sing-a-long was over.
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Comment #70 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 20:29:50 PT
Good Peace & Protest Songs
I have been downloading many of these songs tonight while the news is slow and thought others might like to check out the link.Songs of peace, protest, struggle and freedomhttp://www.friendshipvillage.homestead.com/Music.html
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Comment #69 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 16:07:18 PT
Imagine: John Lennon
You can listen to Imagine on this link.http://www.dutchconnie.com/asfbeattlescarpenters.htm
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Comment #68 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 15:51:57 PT
So This Is Christmas: John Lennon
For many of us John Lennon was very special. I found this song for you all to enjoy.http://www.theminers.net/Music/John%20Lennon%20-%20So%20this%20is%20Christmas.mp3
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Comment #67 posted by hempologydotorg on December 08, 2005 at 12:40:16 PT:
Come on People smile on your Brother--Everybody-
ekim, I'm glad you like my site. It was a lot of fun collecting and posting the items. I wish I had the original article that explained how manure got it more common name! Keep up the fight and peace. I am, jd
http://hempology.org
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Comment #66 posted by runruff on December 08, 2005 at 12:18:27 PT:
Waiting?
If you are waiting for a video or dvd it is comming please
be patient and thank you for your interest.Namaste,Jerry
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Comment #65 posted by runruff on December 08, 2005 at 11:59:02 PT:
Contact me.
I'm at Runruff yahoo.com My address is Jerry Sisson P.O. Box 775 Cave Junction, Or.97523 I also have plenty of my 
homemade but very informative and entertaining video and dvd's. I'll send you one for free. I call it my humble attempt at fighting lies with truth. Confronting tyrany with my heart. Thank you all for your wonderful support. Yes a vicory for me is a win for us all. In fact this isn't about me at all.
It is about who we are and what we deserve and the honor 
owed to God and his/her great gift. To fight to free Gods gift is to honor it. This is my belief.Smile. God loves you.Namaste, Jerry
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Comment #64 posted by runruff on December 08, 2005 at 11:43:35 PT:
Dear John,
Rest in peace. Thank you for changing the world.
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Comment #63 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 11:01:04 PT
herbdoc215
If I only felt I could say what I think sometimes I'd probably crash the web site! LOL! It will soon be over for you. Just a little longer.
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Comment #62 posted by herbdoc215 on December 08, 2005 at 10:53:01 PT
FoM, I did that this morning already, 
I just wanted to confirm that he recieved it so I know he can reach me. This laying low stuff is hard on me:) Be glad when it's over soon...a few more days then I get my life back. I've been sicker than a dog but am getting better slowly, just making plans for a future again has been so different I keep pinching myself and waiting for somebody to say April fools. Peace, steve
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Comment #61 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 10:44:38 PT
herbdoc215 
Maybe runruff isn't sure how to get in touch with you. His email is posted and it might help if you contact him so he will have a way to contact you. Just a suggestion.
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Comment #60 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 10:35:43 PT
Toker00
When I first heard Imagine I didn't know what to think of it except I thought it was beautiful. Imagine there's no Heaven it's easy if you try. I didn't understand. Now when I hear Imagine I think that is exactly what Heaven will be like if a person believes in Heaven. It's funny as we get older we see things in different ways.The 4 Beatles were like a complete person. Paul was the middle of the road family type man. George was the spiritual seeker. Ringo was the fun loving, devil may care person and John was the activist in us all. John will always be that to me and my favorite of the 4 of them. Plus he look like what I thought Jesus would like like back then.
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Comment #59 posted by Kozmo on December 08, 2005 at 10:32:18 PT
runruff I am so .....
sorry to read about your situation. I cannot begin to understand the prohib thinking. I get so angry everytime I hear about cases like yours. I have a cousin sentenced to 4 years. After the sentencing several of the jurors told his wife they didn't want to send him to jail. I thought If you didn't want to then why did you. (exploding rage).I wrote a letter to the editor of my local paper yesterday, that I think will get printed, about a couple in one of the suburbs that were busted last week growing some plants. The lady had just been selected as "Teacher of the Year" last month at the elementary school where she teaches and her husband was a youth councilor for troubled teens. I just couldn't sit by and watch these people be sent to prison without sending a letter pointing out how wrong it would be to ruin these good peoples lives because of this ridiculous prohibition.Best of luck to you and I will be watching this website for info on action we can take on your behalf.
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Comment #58 posted by herbdoc215 on December 08, 2005 at 10:19:54 PT
runruff...for what it's worth I've brought
your case to the attention of some of my friends, so we'll see what they can do. They may need to contact you in the future and need a little more of your story, if you like you can e-mail it to me. I will spend the rest of my ife helping to keep good people out of that hell-hole, don't give up hope! Peace, steve
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Comment #57 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 09:53:05 PT
Rolling Stone Magazine: Lennon Lives Forever 
Twenty-five years after his death, his music and message endure. It has been twenty-five years, and it can still stop your mind. It had been a good night. John Lennon had just finished making music with his wife, Yoko Ono, that he regarded as some of the best music of his life, and his judgment wasn't off the mark. He had also learned, just a bit earlier, that his and Ono's album Double Fantasy -- the first collection with new music from Lennon in five years, following a mysterious sabbatical -- had gone gold that day. Now he and Ono were on their way back home from the studio to see their son, Sean, the five-year-old whom Lennon had devoted himself to more than to his career. Their car pulled up to the Manhattan apartment building where they lived, the Dakota, and Lennon got out. It was a balmy night, for December. He moved to the Dakota's entrance, then he heard a voice call his name.Link: http://www.rollingstone.com/special/8877932
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Comment #56 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 09:33:29 PT
Video: Merry Christmas by John Lennon 
 Santa Cruz, California Productions3 min 40 sec - Dec 3, 2005 
 
Song by British singer John Lennon- This video is an anti-war christmas video and I believe it includes the Iraq war where Amerika has brutalized another country and people of that country so much that it could be classified as war crimes for attacking and killing people for no reason except for greed of the american people, government or whatever-the american military has attacked and is occupying a country for oil and the american people are doing nothing except watching-it is a shame-shame on you america! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5673253495226992414&q=John+Lennon+Christmas
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Comment #55 posted by Toker00 on December 08, 2005 at 09:22:57 PT
Love is all you need.
All you need is love. All you need is love. All you need is love, love. Love is all you need.Give everyone you know love for the holidays. It's all they need. Here ya go...take all you want...I'll make more! I cried today. John is being loved today. By the people who understand his messages of peace and love. I love John Lennon. We need to imagine now more than ever. I wonder if the people who love money and power better than God and people, will ever experience what many the world over are feeling today over the violent loss of John Lennon's life, and the Joy of his message to the world. John's body died, but not his spirit. Can't you feel it? Those tears that are welling up in your eyes? That's LOVE. Enjoy! Love.Wage love on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! 
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Comment #54 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 09:22:19 PT
Video Tribute To John Lennon
John Lennon would be 65 if he was still alive. Thanks John!View popular videos Give Peace a Chance by British musician, John Lennon Santa Cruz, California Productions4 min 9 sec - Dec 3, 2005     
Anti-War video of the Vietnam era-Raise up - 
Stop the War in Iraq- Now- In San Francisco, Los Angelas, New York, people stood together and stopped the terrible war in Vietnam. Now is the time to stop the War in Iraq- an unjust war-Are you Americans really Pigs? http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1759666825540114628&q=give+peace+a+chance
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Comment #53 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 08:54:45 PT
Way Off Topic
Neil Young has been nominated for Best Rock Album of the year. I don't know if he will win but I'm sure glad he got nominated.http://www.grammy.com/awards/grammy/48Awards.aspx#04
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Comment #52 posted by FoM on December 08, 2005 at 08:05:56 PT
 Hope 
How are you? I wondered where you've been and if everything is ok. We are getting ready for a snow storm that is headed our way later on tonight. If you use IE you can check out the audio on my little Christmas page. It doesn't work with Firefox unfortunately. http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/merry.htm
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Comment #51 posted by Hope on December 08, 2005 at 06:23:18 PT
Holy Days
They are all Holy.I made a lovely Star of David for my Christmas tree star years and years ago. It was probably a foot from tip to tip. It took me ages to make and it was fragile. It was white parchment with blue velvet on all the edges and lit from within and at the edges with blue lights. It was so fragile.In the center of the star was written a scripture in black India ink, by staff and pen nib, as I recall, in fancy script. I was really into calligraphy then.It was "purty".
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Comment #50 posted by Hope on December 08, 2005 at 06:11:21 PT
Come on People smile on your Brother
Thanks, Ekim.Quick read. Holidays...Christmas...New Years and holidays holidays holiday. Funny, EJohnson about those "out and about" experiences. Funny and sweet or touching are so much better than bad.Moving mountains? Can we get the one off Runruff next? Quickly!
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Comment #49 posted by Jim Lunsford on December 08, 2005 at 03:43:28 PT
Another victim
of the war on us. Oh yeah, would there be a demand for smuggling drugs if they were legal? I think not? If this were a country of citizens, instead of just ignorant fools, we wouldn't have these situations. Go ahead and shoot officer, he's probably got drugs! Well, that'll save them. Put a few bullet holes in someone and they'll stop taking drugs. What an ignorant society we have. Here's the excerpt from Google:"Mary Gardner, another passenger, told a Miami TV station that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. "He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air," she said. "A woman followed, shouting, 'My husband! My husband!'," Ms Gardner said.Initial speculation was that, given the origin of the flight in a city virtually synonymous with South American cocaine production, the man might have been involved with drug trafficking.But, as more details emerged, it seemed all but certain that the entire episode was a tragic accident. According to Ms Gardner the woman saying she was Mr Alpizar's wife said he suffered from bipolar, or manic depressive, disorder and had not taken his medication.Another witness is said to have described the man as acting if he were " mentally unbalanced". Police later confirmed that no bomb was found, although three other bags were destroyed in controlled explosions on the runway ­ though it did not appear they contained bombs.After a delay of less than an hour, the airport concourse had been reopened for business."This was an isolated incident, no one else was hurt," Dave Adams, a spokesman for the air marshals service said. "They [the marshals] did what they were trained to do." Full link: http://tinyurl.com/784j7Compassion doesn't mean we have to tolerate stupidity and corruption and incompetence. It also doesn't mean that the stick is to be thrown out in favor of the carrot. Sometimes you really do need to beat a mule to get them to work. I believe we have the opportunity to change, and hopefully runruff will be the focus of that opportunity. C'mon! 2 million for Cannabis rehab? What a waste of time and money. Wonder why we have such a huge deficit? But our country doesn't want justice. For with it comes individual accountability, and we can't have that. No, we must always blame someone else for our mis-fortunes. It is each and everyone of us tha even pays attention to this government's notion of soveriegnty over us. Were we another country our government would declare us the most oppressive regime in the industrialized world and invade us to help free us. Instead, we are off "freeing" other countries for the corporate mill. What a country! Aren't you proud yet?
It is all of us.Rev Jim LunsfordFirst Cannabist ChurchFreedom: Isn't free
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Comment #48 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 22:19:54 PT
John Tyler
Here is an over 4 minute recording of Give Peace a Chance. I made a couple CDs and put it on them.http://www.beechwood.waterloo.on.ca/peace.wma
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Comment #47 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 22:15:55 PT
John Tyler 
I just ordered the best of John Lennon today for Christmas. 
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Comment #46 posted by John Tyler on December 07, 2005 at 22:07:44 PT
John Lennon and Christmas
Has anyone noticed that John Lennon is working his way into the Christmas scene? Since he was killed in December the media always do a short segment on him every year with a sound bite of his Christmas song. So now I always associate him with Christmas. Does anybody else see this? Personally I think it is great. Nice Imagine poem Toker00. Runfuff our thoughts and good vibrations are going out to you and your family. I hope things work out for you. 
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Comment #45 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 21:00:07 PT
Off Topic but Important
I wonder what we'll find out about this shooting in the coming days. ***Shooting Is Defended But Gets Mixed Reviews***By Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post Staff WriterThursday, December 8, 2005; Page A14Yesterday's shooting death of American Airlines passenger Rigoberto Alpizar at Miami International Airport by a federal air marshal was cited by some congressional leaders and air security experts as the first successful -- if deadly -- example of the government's ramped-up commercial airline security efforts.But others said that opening fire on passengers who threaten airline travel could lead to even worse consequences for bystanders.Complete Article: http://tinyurl.com/bntzs
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Comment #44 posted by ekim on December 07, 2005 at 20:42:43 PT
Come on People smile on your Brother--Everybody-
Namasten good luck to you and thank you for all you have given for others.
I will be helping set up speaking dates in Michigan and will on every occasion mention your DEA Rendition. 
Have found many a comfort scrolling thru Hempology cant help but feel you will also. see you mike:)TO HEMPOLOGY.ORG,
THE BOSTON HEMP CO-OP'S DIGITAL LIBRARY AND MUSEUMhttp://www.hempology.org/the 16th and 17th centuries, everything had to be transported by 
ship. It was also before commercial fertilizer's invention, so large 
shipments of manure were common. It was shipped dry, because in dry 
form it weighed a lot less than when wet, but once water (at sea) hit 
it, it not only became heavier, but the process of fermentation began 
again, of which a by product is methane gas.As the stuff was stored below decks in bundles you can see what could 
(and did) happen. Methane began to build up below decks and the first 
time someone came below at night with a lantern, BOOOOM! Several 
ships were destroyed in this manner before it was determined just 
what was happening.After that, the bundles of manure were always stamped with the term 
"Ship High In Transit" on them which meant for the sailors to stow it 
high enough off the lower decks so that any water that came into the 
hold would not touch this volatile cargo and start the production of methane.Thus evolved the term "S.H.I.T," which has come down through the 
centuries and is in use to this very day. You probably did not know 
the true history of this word.
http://www.leap.cc/events
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Comment #43 posted by Toker00 on December 07, 2005 at 20:25:44 PT
Now:
Let's see who Kolongoyski is.http://www.governor.state.or.us/Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
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Comment #42 posted by Toker00 on December 07, 2005 at 20:21:26 PT
First:
Let's see who Defazio is.http://www.house.gov/defazio/Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
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Comment #41 posted by Dankhank on December 07, 2005 at 19:39:50 PT
Legal Help
Runruff and all ...There is an interesting organization headquartered in Ada, OKhttp://www.prepaidlegal.com/free call, see if they can help.I know a fellow on a felony rap that signed up after he was arrested and still got half-price from a 15K lawyer.I use it to flog the legal biz. for me.If I have a legal question I call them and they research it and send me a report.
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Comment #40 posted by runruff on December 07, 2005 at 18:19:52 PT:
Here!
bop.gov FMC Devens at Ayers Mass.
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Comment #39 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 18:04:04 PT
Toker00
Imagine that. Yes John would understand and agree. I'm glad you liked the page. I've had lots of fun making it.
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Comment #38 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 18:01:59 PT
runruff 
I want you to know that we will do our best to help you. I believe we have people here that can talk to the right people and just maybe something good will happen. Never lose faith. No matter what we will try.
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Comment #37 posted by runruff on December 07, 2005 at 17:22:31 PT:
My location.
It's FMC Deven in Ayers Mass.Gee I edited my draft and it printed my sloppy 
draft instead of my cleaner looking post.Oh well, happy deciphering.Namaste
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Comment #36 posted by runruff on December 07, 2005 at 17:16:34 PT:
I'm a little misty here.
You have caused my spirits to soar. You all sound the way 
I have felt these last long years as I have been forced to watch my brothers and sisters devestaded by fanancial ruin.
Beated and bruised by tyrany. Families torn apart by legal
separation for the saftey of the kids while tearing the parents and kids heart out. I hate what I have sceen and I hate what they are doing to me. The horrors of prohibition have always been more devastating than the very thing they pretend to protect us from, Gods gift. The governor of Oregon is named Kolongoyski. DeFazio is my congressman. I never in my most hopful dreams thought anyone would be willing or able to help me. If the Fed monster is just too big and too stubborn to move I will be
a great compfort just to know I'm connected in spirit to so many great and enlightened people. I get plenty of visitation time. would be great to see real people.You guys just blow me away. Yes we will win this thing.
I've been at it for so long now.
It is getting better and better.
The truth grows stronger day by day
while the lies keep losing steam.I believe in love.
I believe in freedom.
I believe in our right to just "be".
I believe in being there for my friends.
I believe I have always tried to be.
I believe tyany has no place to be.
I believe Gods gifts are ment to be.
The planet can be healed.
People can be healed.
Our covanet can be sealed.
With this green gift from God.The capital is Salem Or. I think that's how you spell it. I've never really noticed. I'm going to a place about 50 northwest of Boston Mass.
Ayers I think. I'll look it up and makee sure. I found it under doc.gov fbp.gov something like that. I'll have to do some research and get back with you.
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Comment #35 posted by Toker00 on December 07, 2005 at 17:08:07 PT
John Lennon wants us to keep imagining.
FoM, that is such a nice Holiday Greeting. You're too cool. Imagine no Prohibition.Imagine there's no jail.Imagine no more hurting.Imagine no more hell.Imagine no DEAImagine no J. PeeImagine no more jackbootsTo stomp on you and meImagine all the PeopleSharing all the landImagine growing olderFree from the Laws of ManThat's what I'm Imagining, John...Sorry guys. I'm no poet. But John knew how to begin the process. First you have to IMAGINE...Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
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Comment #34 posted by Jim Lunsford on December 07, 2005 at 15:59:21 PT
runruff
Herbdoc has an excellent idea. Also, this site gets more and more visitors each month. How many of those visitors will live in the vicinity of your "hospital?" It seems that FoM's work has been going on long enough to draw quite the opportunity for people to put their beliefs on the table. I do feel anger at a system that is so full of itself. The federal government does NOT have the right to run roughshod over anyone. They were assigned a sacred duty to protect the rights of the people. ESPECIALLY those without the means to legally defend themselves.I think it's fitting the government placing you in a hospital because you have injested a plant that was shared by the founding fathers of this country. The idea of liberty and justice for all is a fundamental right of the citizenry. Any government that believes otherwise, represents a societal norm that sickens me. Guess they need to send me there as well. I'm certainly sick of this attitude.What business is it of ANYONE's what you do with your life, as long as you don't harm others? Unless of course the law is flawed. Drug war creates crime. But since drug companies can't make money off it, they must outlaw it and substitute poisons for medicine instead. What a sad country we have allowed ourselves to become. It is so embarrassing to be a part of a country that would allow such a pathetic government as this one to exist.C'mon Americans! Anyone who would allow such a corrupt government deserves to have such government. Land of the free, home of the brave? Heil Fuehrer more the tale. Protest marches across the country? Cannabis is such a unique plant that it covers just about every aspect of change that most people say they want. But what are we doing? Who gave this judge the right to judge anyone? Those little nazi bastards all came from lawyers. Always got their little brains going on behind their big egos. As if they were somebody worth noting.English common law was designed so the weak could steal from the strong. All about money and ignorance. Personally, I think it is unpatriotic to obey this government. They have failed the people and they continue to betray the trust of the people. So to all of you government beaurocratic types out there; how about when you can work on ways to enhance society by encouraging social programs, educational needs, art, freedom, etc, then, and only then, you can have my attention? Until then, this government can kiss my butt. Runruff, I am sure that there are enough people who come to this site that have enough connections to organize all of the legal tools and the protest marches you could ever dream of having at your disposal. How many causes could we link to this sentencing? Anyone concerned with politics, freedom, accountability of government funds (read government as people please), human rights, legal reform, civil rights, environmental causes, etc. Any group that could benefit by the government understanding that we, the people, are going to have our cannabis and they need to understand it now. To hell with them if they don't get the message.Rev Jim LunsfordFirst Cannabist ChurchFascism: See United States of America
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Comment #33 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 15:00:17 PT
herbdoc215 
You are so sweet.Happy Holidays!http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/merry.htm
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Comment #32 posted by herbdoc215 on December 07, 2005 at 14:57:04 PT
I for one can assure you that pressure by these 
people here and elsewhere can move mountains :) I have seen it with my own eyes...so all isn't lost yet and don't lose hope as Santa brought me a little freedom for Christmas so it's not impossible. First thing I would ask is have you tried calling NORML or any other organizations for help getting a REAL lawyer, because in Federal court that makes all the difference in the world. Please feel free to contact me if you like as I'm willing to help all I can. Peace, steve
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Comment #31 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 14:29:52 PT
Toker00 
We were thinking along the same lines.
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Comment #30 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 14:24:57 PT
 runruff 
Will you be able to have visitors at the Federal Hospital? If so where is it located and maybe we can find some activists in that area to come and visit you. That would make the time go quicker. I don't know if you will be restricted or will you be able to use a computer? If you don't know maybe try to find out. 
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Comment #29 posted by Toker00 on December 07, 2005 at 14:23:02 PT
runruff
Give us the physical address of the hospital when you get it. Dude, this is so damn wrong! I will organize a protest for you outside the hospital. What state is it in? You will be out before your 24 months are up. Somehow. This is so f**king cruel! This entire government needs to be shut down!We will be contacting you through your wife. Hang tough man. We will find a way to stop this non-sense. The right thing for them to do would be to give you a Christmas present of a pardoned sentence. Who is your Governor? Let's flood this Governor's office with Letters and E-mails for runruff, huh guys? Let's contact every single person involved in his case, and raise hell with them! This just ain't right. We're gonna do something.Ideas, guys!Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! 
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Comment #28 posted by runruff on December 07, 2005 at 14:07:36 PT:
alternative sentencing.
We tried everything. Even house arrest. The Judge had big problem with my relationship with my wife and said so. My wife is 40 years old bu she looks like she is in her early
20s. She really looks great. The judge didn't know how old she is but I could tell she thought I was a dirty old man robbing the cradle. She said after sentencing me that this separation would test our commitment to each other.
Along with her other god like qualities she felt a need to match make from the bench also. I had a court appointed lawyer. He could have been a cardboard cutout. Another friend of mine said these appointed lawyers don't give the court any trouble if they hope to get any cases given to them. I don't really konw how that works but my lawyer was mia during the whole process. He hardly knew who I was half the time. The federal courts run roughshod over you.
They act like, Yea we can do this what are you going to do about it? They do anything they like. They just do it nice and legal like and all, you know. The color of law I call it. It was all very unconstitutional but when you talk about your rights they just ignore you. I'm another flea flicker to them that's all. They follow guide lines and fill quotas. The bottom line is always more sinister than
the game they play on the surface.Hey! But thanks for asking. Smile.Namaste
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Comment #27 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 12:29:18 PT
runruff
Isn't there anyway that you could get community service? You could help people that way.
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Comment #26 posted by runruff on December 07, 2005 at 12:18:56 PT:
My grest confession.
And here it goes. Sort and sweet. I was a teenage alcoholic. I found pot. Discovered I could smoke pot without problems assoiated with alcohol. Used pot to 
treat my addiction to alcohol. After many alcohol related problems I became clean and sober at age 25. My life changed for the better ever since. Went back to college.
Started my own buisness. Built a wild west town at lake Comanche Calif. Wrote gunfights and street plays. Bought two franchiases from Coit Drapery and Carpet Company. Sold out moved to the foothills and became a devotee to the plant that saved my life. 30 years ago untill today.
My wife and now own the home, property, the health and fitness club located on our property which we operate. 
Our lives are dedicated to the health and welfare of our clients and communty.In contrast many of my old drinking buddies are in jail, dead or dying from alcohol related diseases At best they are living disfunctional lives.. I maintained friendship with many of them untill they died. One of my best friends, my former brother-in-law died at age 48 of accute alcoholism. I am now 59 I had what they call an inherited heart disease. In fact my doctor said it was the fact that I was in such great shape otherwise that I survived. The same has been true of my progress toward my recovery. In short if I had not stopped drinking when I did I would be dead a long time ago without having expierienced any quality of life. Cannabis made this all possible for me. NOW! Pardon me I'm not conceded. What I'm told, OK. I look 40 years old. I'm trim and fit. My wife and mother say I am quite handsome. But I blush. Mom says I'm a man ony a mother could love. Hey! What about my wife? Hee Hee!
She says I'm great. I say "she's great!" Must be why we're married. Hee hee! All this to illustrate the fine quality of life I now expierience. It's that Gods great gift, cannabis, needs to be set free from the grasp of what I know to be greedy evil people. Dick Cheeney could be a poster boy for these people. I believe God made him look like a toad for a reason.
I am a fananatic about freeing the herb I'm the type that 
appreciates good things and daily count my blessings. Cannabis became my friend when it saved my life and brought me closer to God. I am a loyal friend.So far my report date is still set for 1-10-06. Both of my doctors and many good people from my community have begged for my freedom. The judge Anne Aikin of Eugene Or. and my Probation officer Tracy Chapman of Medford or. are ice maidens of the coldest sort. In court Tracy ask the judge to give me a minnum of 10 years in prison for cultivating God gift. She called it marijuana. Which is a misnomer because "marijuana", is a brand name for a now defunct Mexican cigarette company. The judge gave me two years in a federal hospital at the cost of about $80,000 per month
or one million per year. I am told there will not be any fences, bars on the windows of prison guards, only hospital personal. Is it just me or do you think this government has to much money to spend?I'll be communicating with you all through my wife. She has agreed to do this for me. You can write to me through this web site and possibly I'll be able to post my address here. So " Happy Trails To You, Untill We Meet Again".Namaste
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Comment #25 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 10:22:21 PT
Thanks EJ
We are everywhere. I can only imagine what it must be like where Cannabis Clubs are allowed or at least tolerated. Maybe someday we all will know that feeling.
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Comment #24 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 09:07:40 PT
siege 
Thank you. The title I posted was in google search but nothing was there when I clicked on the link.
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Comment #23 posted by siege on December 07, 2005 at 08:45:33 PT
FoM
https://www.charleston.net/default.aspxdon't know what you where looking for...been into mostof it.
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Comment #22 posted by siege on December 07, 2005 at 08:23:26 PT
FoM
Server Error in '/' Application.
Syntax error converting the varchar value '57397ion=editorials' to a column of data type int.
Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code.Exception Details: System.Data.SqlClient.SqlException: Syntax error converting the varchar value '57397ion=editorials' to a column of data type int.Source Error:Line 35: 		objDR = objCmd.ExecuteReader()
Line 36: 		rpcNews.DataSource = objDR
Line 37: 		rpcNews.DataBind()
Line 38: 		objDR.close()
Line 39: 	Source File: C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\postandcourier_live\stories\Default.aspx  Line: 37Stack Trace:[SqlException: Syntax error converting the varchar value '57397ion=editorials' to a column of data type int.]
  System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataReader.Read() +176
  System.Data.Common.DbEnumerator.MoveNext() +44
  System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.CreateControlHierarchy(Boolean useDataSource) +510
  System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.OnDataBinding(EventArgs e) +49
  System.Web.UI.WebControls.Repeater.DataBind() +23
  ASP.default_aspx.BindData() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\postandcourier_live\stories\Default.aspx:37
  ASP.default_aspx.Page_Load() in C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\postandcourier_live\stories\Default.aspx:20
  System.Web.Util.ArglessEventHandlerDelegateProxy.Callback(Object sender, EventArgs e) +10
  System.Web.UI.Control.OnLoad(EventArgs e) +67
  System.Web.UI.Control.LoadRecursive() +35
  System.Web.UI.Page.ProcessRequestMain() +772Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:1.1.4322.2032; ASP.NET Version:1.1.4322.2032
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Comment #21 posted by FoM on December 07, 2005 at 08:08:52 PT
Bush Should OK Medical Marijuana
When I click on this link there is nothing there. Maybe it's my computer doing something strange. If anyone gets the article to come up please post the words to the article.http://www.charleston.net/stories/?newsID=57397§ion=editorials
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Comment #20 posted by Jim Lunsford on December 07, 2005 at 06:36:30 PT
Boycott?
Whig, I must agree with you on the boycotting the vote idea. However, I'm not sure this society is ready for it. Myself, I stopped voting long ago. I couldn't make any sense out of voting against, rather than voting for someone. I haven't liked a single person running for president or any office since I've been of voting age. Both parties are corrupt, and have always been that way. It is the nature of politics when anyone can buy a vote.In the late 1800's a robber baron was asked what he thought of the senate. He replied that he thought senators were great. Everyone should buy one. That is the inherent problem with politicians. They can be influenced by the money. Myself, I am for full legalization of all products that do not harm anyone other than the user. Education and purity controls will do the rest. I do not desire any of those drugs myself, but I do not believe I have any inherent right to tell anyone else what to ingest into their body. After all, if I tell them what they can ingest, then they have the automatic right to dictate to me what I can ingest into my body.For an alternate political party, I believe the Green Party would be an awesome choice. But hey, if you want to vote for me, that would be cool as well. I promise to scream I don't waste good weed by not inhaling! lol Peace, JimRev Jim LunsfordFirst Cannabist ChurchIgnorance and Greed: The heart of all evil deeds
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Comment #19 posted by Taylor121 on December 07, 2005 at 02:08:45 PT
Cool article; Bar Associations provide credibility
"The report imagines the State of Washington controlling the distribution of currently illegal drugs, with softer drugs like cannabis perhaps being taxed and sold only to citizens who meet certain requirements (old enough, a resident of Washington, not too intoxicated at time of purchase), while harder drugs like heroin and crystal meth might only be given out under medical supervision to addicts involved in treatment."That report is truly remarkable. I highly recommend reading through it if you haven't already.http://www.kcba.org/druglaw/proposal.html"Similar solution-oriented policy reviews are currently being prepared by bar associations in Vermont, Oregon, Alabama, Hawaii, Rhode Island, Georgia, New York, and Washington, D.C.
"Wow I wasn't aware of this. Very good news. 
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Comment #18 posted by E_Johnson on December 07, 2005 at 02:00:02 PT
One more cool thing FoM
I turned on the TV and some actor Anthony Anderson was on Conan O'Brien and lo and behold he talked about his botched hip operation and the "weed shop" where he buys medical marijuana.Then Patti Smith came on and played Redondo Beach in a more reggaed up than the original.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 22:01:29 PT
That's Another Good One
EJ have you ever noticed the grin that people who are familiar with Cannabis have? It's like a grin that says I know something that they don't know and poor them!
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Comment #16 posted by E_Johnson on December 06, 2005 at 21:54:56 PT
I have another story FoM
I stopped in at Ralph's grocery store in Malibu to pick up some things and I noticed they carry hemp granola now, so I bought two boxes. At the checkstand the bagger and the cashier were both Mexican. The bagger seemed curious about the hemp granola and the two guys had a conversation about it in Spanish. Then the bagger looked impressed and giggled and then he kinda looked at me funny, like wiggling his eyebrows. I tried hard not to laugh.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 21:25:19 PT
EJ That's Cool!
LOL!
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Comment #14 posted by E_Johnson on December 06, 2005 at 21:20:31 PT
I saw the funniest thing today
A scruffy young dude standing at the intersection of Topanga Canyon Road and Pacific Coast Highway, holding a cardboard sign that read:I NEED WEEDCASH, BUD OR FOOD APPRECIATEDI honked the horn and handed him five bucks.
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Comment #13 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 21:19:12 PT
whig
I don't believe a person who gets caught using a hard drug should be threatened with jail. That doesn't help at all. I don't believe and never will that legalizing drugs like Meth or Heroin would help either. Those drugs have a stigma about them and that might keep some people from getting in over their head and those that go off the deep end need help not jail. People who sell hard drugs for profit I don't have sympathy for. 
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Comment #12 posted by whig on December 06, 2005 at 21:08:29 PT
FoM
I'm a recovered GHB addict. I used H one time, and that is what hooked me. I substituted. It nearly killed me. I asked for help, and I threw out all of my drugs except for pot.Laws against drugs do not prevent people from getting them, nor do they make it easier for people to be helped when they need it.
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 19:56:01 PT
One More Comment
I do believe in harm reduction. I don't believe a person that is strung out will benefit from going to jail. I strongly believe that treatment centers are needed. A good treatment center is a place where a person isn't condemned but questioned as to why they need to do a hard drug. No drug testing because that puts a wedge between the person that needs help and the social worker. I also believe that the best counselors are those that are reformed hard drug users not people with degrees in something or another.
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Comment #10 posted by siege on December 06, 2005 at 19:47:47 PT
like this
Dominic Holden, a longtime Carr adversary on marijuana issues who came up with the idea for I-75 and chaired the initiative campaign, admits that on a purely philosophical level, I-75 is imperfect. But it’s not meant to be a *permanent fix*. Rather, it’s meant as a temporary object lesson on the benefits of drug-law reform, en route to broader reform at the state and federal levels
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Comment #9 posted by mayan on December 06, 2005 at 18:49:05 PT
WAAAAAHH!
By downgrading enforcement of state and federal law to the “lowest priority” in one particular city, I-75 actually “undermines law,” he says.Undermining the law IS changing the law.If activists want to decriminalize marijuana possession, Carr believes, “the place for marijuana reform is really at the state and federal levels.”The place for cannabis reform is at all levels. We will fight from the bottom up AND from the top down. We will fight on every front and we WILL find a way. Don't you just love to hear the prohibitionists whine?THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...Four years later, we still have ten big questions:
http://villagevoice.com/news/0549,murphy,70685,6.html9/11 Firefighters: Bombs and Explosions in the WTC:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/911_firefighters.htmlPolice Found Suspected Bombs In WTC On 9/11:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/051205foundbombs.htm
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 18:39:50 PT
lombar and kaptinemo
Thanks! but I don't mean that. I mean as individuals how many people are trying to legalize drug use that are recovered from shooting drugs? People could have smoked Cannabis and don't anymore but they still know that it shouldn't be against the law. The honest reason I ask this questions is because I am a recovered meth addict and I don't see legalization would have helped me with IV drug use. Do you see what I mean? Drug issues really upset me because I know them all to well from years ago.
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Comment #7 posted by lombar on December 06, 2005 at 18:23:16 PT
There are many things in play..
Fear of addicts and addiction. Hatred and fear of 'pushers' and the economic pressures; undeclared cash, large black market, political drug war trough and corruption. It is more likely relatives of the 'strung out' wanting the state to do something not accepting that they can't even stop illegal drug use in prisons. They think they can punish people out of seeking escape from suffering. It is maliferous. Make people suffer because they use drugs to escape suffering ... make everyone suffer rich untaxed thugs, drug cartels, narco-police states, and constant intrusion into citizens privacy BY making the drug users suffer more. Machiawellian (Machiavellian + Orwellian) in practice if not design.
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Comment #6 posted by kaptinemo on December 06, 2005 at 18:22:01 PT:
FoM, it's about cannabis
But the basic argument can be made that doing the same thing as I-75 has done for cannabis in Seattle would have the same effect for all drugs presently illicit. Namely, refocus the efforts of police on *real* crime, not the 'easy pickings' of 'druggies'. The only problem is, of course, that such people as real criminals have no compunctions against shooting back...
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 17:38:22 PT
A Question
Most people on CNews have at least tried Cannabis but I wonder how many people have ever been strung out on shooting a drug. I wonder if people that are trying to make policy about drugs have lived on that side of addiction and have recovered by themselves. I wonder if they really know how it is.
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 17:26:23 PT
Just a Comment
I guess this article is to complicated for me. Is it about marijuana or drugs? When an article blends together I don't get what they are trying to say. It's like I have a mental block or something. I understand issues about marijuana very easily but this seems complicated and I can't get the point.
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Comment #3 posted by lombar on December 06, 2005 at 16:10:16 PT
A needless war..
"A war on poor people and vulnerable people"The Supreme Court of Canada decided to keep the status quo and a few of the majority decisions included the notion that 'vulnerable groups' are protected by prohibition. Somehow a cage and a policemans boot is somehow better than just letting them have the drugs. Treating drug use as something that requires punishmnet, correction, whilst selling the biggest killers legally is wholly hypocritical.
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on December 06, 2005 at 16:03:50 PT:
An exercise in double-speak
I thought I'd heard it all, but DrugWarriors continue to amaze me with their ability to torture logic as if it were some poor soul in a CIA prison.*Carr argues that I-75 is bad for democracy. “In a democracy, you change the law if you don’t like it,” he says. By downgrading enforcement of state and federal law to the “lowest priority” in one particular city, I-75 actually “undermines law,” he says. If activists want to decriminalize marijuana possession, Carr believes, “the place for marijuana reform is really at the state and federal levels.”*Definition of democracy: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=democracyde·moc·ra·cy  ( P ) Pronunciation Key (d-mkr-s)
n. pl. de·moc·ra·cies 
1) Government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives. 
2) A political or social unit that has such a government. 
3) The common people, considered as the primary source of political power. 
4)Majority rule. 
5) The principles of social equality and respect for the individual within a community.'Government...exercised by the people'. As in lawfully exercising their sovereign franchise as citizens and voting. Voting for something DrugWarriors don't want, because it is as tacit a repudiation of their efforts as can be made without the language and actions getting very ugly, indeed. DrugWarriors 'love' democracy in much the same shallow way they love fast food; when it's convenient and handy for them, they're all for it.But when the people decide to do exactly as they have always told us to do ("If you don't like the laws, change 'em" they usually say with an unctuously sweet smirk) they p**-and-moan about the very system they swore to protect with their lives if need be. If anyone needs a refresher course in the importance of democracy, it is the DrugWarriors, for whom the system is proving increasingly hostile as more municipalities take the I-75 route. This literally is a movement from the ground up, and is the very thing the DrugWar can never be: truly democratic. If the DrugWarriors don't like it, I'm sure they could ply their trade in China. Given the Chinese predilection for executing drug users, they'd feel right at home...
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on December 06, 2005 at 14:37:22 PT

Just a Note
They fixed the coding problem in the article so I went ahead and posted it. 
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