THE DOPING OF AMERICA - PART FOUR - LETTER FROM WASHINGTON...

HAPPY 420!!! (ok, 5 days late)

I've been busy.

Now from the White House...

In Response to a Petition sponsored by President Obama, the "We The People" public petitions forum he enacted, President Obama urged citizens to petition the White House on any subject meaningful to them. It turned out, cannabis legalization was near the top of the numbers for signatures by people asking to end the madness that cannabis prohibition has brought about!

By cannabis, I'm referring to the plant called marijuana, or by legal decree, marihuana.

It seems of benefit to a class of people, law-makers, CEO's, investors and aliens to continue to call cannabis, marijuana. Why, I don't know. In general we as a society avoid name-calling. We like to call an onion an onion, not a tear-jerker!

Well the following White House response to We The People cannabis reform initiative should leave some of you reassured and feeling better. It's not from the President himself, but one of his trolls.

I felt it was appropriate to share with my readers the e-mail I received based on the We The People cannabis petitions - there were several; And the following is an e-mail from the White-House I received in regards to those petitions.

I've interjected my opinion, in bright red.

Our Government on the subject of Hemp, Marijuana and legalization...

What We (the White House) Have to Say About Marijuana and Hemp Production
By Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

America’s farmers deserve our Nation’s help and support to ensure rural America’s prosperity and vitality. Federal law prohibits human consumption, distribution, and possession of Schedule I controlled substances. Hemp and marijuana are part of the same species of cannabis plant. While most of the THC in cannabis plants is concentrated in the marijuana, all parts of the plant, including hemp, can contain THC, a Schedule I controlled substance. The Administration will continue looking for innovative ways to support farmers across the country while balancing the need to protect public health and safety.

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The Administration will continue looking for innovative ways to support farmers across the country...balancing the need to protect public health and safety. To accomplish this goal millions are/have been given misdemeanor sentences for simple possession, millions more are incarcerated, ordered into rehap, lose their children, their jobs, their humanity. And many around the world die and continue to die as a result of these zero tolerance regulations. 

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Does the federal government really believe people will be hurt, let alone be tempted to smoke the near-beer equivalent of pot? Hemp is prohibited because of minor traces of THC? Wow... heavy! I'm sure American farmers are breathing a sigh of relief on that statement. 

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Oh, and the human body manufactures it's own scant trace of THC, in the brain, so cut down the human race while you're enforcing your regulations that make zero sense.

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For more about what we have to say about marijuana, please see the President's National Drug Control Strategy, as well as this earlier petition response below:

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Yeah, I read it. Essentially, there is the worse stuff clogging our lives than Satan.

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What We (Gil Kerlikowske*) Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana

*By Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy

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When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug's effects.

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So why still call it marijuana? Why not call it what it is??? Cannabis. As it was known prior to 1937. The term marijuana is based on racial prejudice - towards Mexicans, dating back to the 1920's. It's time to be respectful.

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According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world's largest source of drug abuse research - marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, andcognitive impairment. We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms. Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20's. Simply put, it is not a benign drug.

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Nice propaganda... but the NIH is a branch of the Federal government. Isn't your claim a bit unethical? Bias and a conflict of interest? The NIH is literally, with scant exceptions the only lab allowed to conduct research into cannabis, and it has already stated cannabis has zero medical benefits - that dispite tons of opposing research. 

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Also, per Schedule One protocol, "it is forbidden to conduct research..." for beneficial uses of a Schedule One drug. Period. So how will the NIH help? How can they even be trusted? 


The answer. They can't be trusted. That to me is a big problem.

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Like many, we are interested in the potential marijuana may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. That is why we ardently support ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine. To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have foundsmoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.

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Since when has the federal government "cared about the potential marijuana may have..."? The language here is extremely calculated. "Serious illness". "...ardently support ongoing research." "...smoked marijuana..." 

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Seriously, the federal government can't even talk brownies. Unlike tobacco, cannabis can be eaten, and used in unlimited ways. It's a plant, and it's one of the safest plants known to humans.

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Further, the We The People petitions were not about "help from the federal government, but rather, get out of the We The People's faces about cannabis, decriminalize it now. We really were not asking for your help, other than reform federal marihuana laws!!!

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As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.

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You recognize? How is then that you recognize the opposite of the obvious??? Prohibition and the dangers of cannabis were artificially created, are still unsupported, and an illegal act that has created a humanitarian crisis for decades; the Federal Government simply cannot pass a laws that outlaws Nature. They cannot. The apple that Eve ate may have sentenced us to eventual death, it did not give a government the right to damn us too, nor prohibit a plant we already paid the ultimate price to possess! It is an inalienable right (of adults) to possess and use and grow all plants given to us by God. We live in a Country that boasts, among Liberty and  Freedom, that in God We Trust.


Do we???

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Making millions of dollars every minute, from busting otherwise law-abiding adult citizens, for plant possession and/or use, sale or growing, and making these people criminals, just doesn't add up or make any sense. Especially with the violence associated along with the War on Drugs. So, sorry, but I don't see how the White house is helping! To me they create a lot of hurt.

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That is why the President's National Drug Control Strategy is balanced and comprehensive, emphasizing prevention and treatment while at the same time supporting innovative law enforcement efforts that protect public safety and disrupt the supply of drugs entering our communities. Preventing drug use is the most cost-effective way to reduce drug use and its consequences in America. And, as we've seen in our work through community coalitions across the country, this approach works in making communities healthier and safer. We're also focused on expanding access to drug treatment for addicts. Treatment works. In fact, millions of Americans are in successful recovery for drug and alcoholism today. And through our work with innovative drug courts across the Nation, we are improving our criminal justice system to divert non-violent offenders into treatment.

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Innovative, my ass. Time to outlaw coffee addicts. Big money-maker there! Just call it "DRUGS", like you do with all substances you really don't understand. I do know myself what a "drug" is - a chemical that has an effect on a living thing. That pretty much includes everything on our planet! Wow. What potential... controlling the planet.


Coca-Cola wouldn't like it either, would it? Remembering 1904... covered in my last post. 

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Our commitment to a balanced approach to drug control is real. This last fiscal year alone, the Federal Government spent over $10 billion on drug education and treatment programs compared to just over $9 billion on drug related law enforcement in the U.S.

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Anything less than 0 dollars would be my vote! Thank-you!

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THE DOPING OF AMERICA - PART THREE - THINGS RECONSIDERED

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I've been absent for awhile, yes. Life kind of gets in the way sometimes, if you know what I mean? It's been a whirlwind of stuff happening. Lots of things...

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And I felt obligated to post something after several weeks of not writing.

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Premature.

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There was some news today, a drug-bust gone bad in NH. A police chief is dead, several officers wounded, a reputed EMT that sold steroids from his home, with a woman who is also dead and not being publicly disclosed. The drug bust was BIG... Members of the team included police officers from many towns, without warning they burst into the alleged drug-dealer's home, causing and encountering "immediate gunfire".

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And why wouldn't they? No matter how stealthy a bust is, your job in law enforcement is to invade a home and seize a substance. In the case of Jose Guerena Ortiz, an ex-marine who had served several tours of duty in Iraq, had returned home and become a miner, marijuana madness caused a similar hail of bullets, when he was gunned down in his home while his wife and young son watched in horror as a SWAT team burst into their home with little warning. And with a storm of gun-fire.

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He took over 70 bullets to his body... for suspected sale and possession of marijuana. I'll cover his case in my next post.

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It's at this point, I stop and wonder, why does/did this ever happen. Why has the violence common in Mexico, come to the US now, and my neighbors? Has the threat from steroids, marijuana and other personal substance consumables increased? It hasn't... And what is there to gain with newspapers glorifying such violence? "Drug Bust and the Death of a Police Chief in Greenland, NH"? Without complete and comprehensive information?

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The person allegedly selling steroids was reputed to be an EMT/firefighter. The woman, no one is talking about her - she's simply a Jane Doe at this point. That's not what I call transparency. It's collusion and delusion on the part of our safety net, aka, law-enforcement and our law-makers that such violence occurs.

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Did we learn nothing from from the era of the 18th Amendment which banned production of alcohol? Do we really believe firefights over plants and personal consumption of drugs is worth the deaths of police and civilians?

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The media blatantly hid the kind of drug that law-enforcement busted that house in Greenland, NH for... resulting in several deaths. They capitalized on the intrigue! Do the deaths of law enforcement officers and civilians serve to protect society when it involves illegal drugs? Shouldn't the substance be weighed in accurately, much like murder is, for a cause of reasonable threat? The couple may have been involved in the sale of a illegal drug, but when was the last time you saw such violence in the case of a child abuser, a internet hacker, so many similar crimes for which common sense is in charge.

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To me it's wrong.

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It mostly comes down to the fact that 1% of society makes the rules of what the real game is... whether real or not real; we the other 99% have no choice but to follow, do our jobs, stand in line. To get into lock-step.

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We're taught today that drugs are bad. We're also taught drugs are good. We're told there are drugs bad enough that police must take people who use and sell them down, like Al Capone, Bonnie and Clyde.

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Now, can you imagine something like this happening in 1909?

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It did, but it resulted in zero busts, and no deaths. In fact the biggest bust in history caused hardly a ripple in the space/time continuum.

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The Pure Food and Drug Act passed June 30, 1906. It became law. Brought about the following:

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In 1909, the federal gov't banned the sale of Coca-Cola. Not because cocaine was in Coca Cola any longer, that had changed in 1903, but rather, Coca Cola replaced the cocaine with caffeine in it's soft-drink. And the federal gov't busted Coke! Banned it!!!

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We're not speaking about coffee-beans here, which is considered crude plant product; btw. Raw plant material technically, by law, there can be no law. A drug can only be a drug if processed in a lab.

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Caffeine is a drug. It is. While coffee is a simply a natural plant product, "slow-roasted, and freeze-dried to perfection". Much like cannabis should be...

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The case was United States vs Forty Barrels and Twenty Kegs of Coca-Cola. The court upheld the ban initially, until Coca-Cola struck a deal behind closed doors with the gov't, agreeing to reduce the amount of caffeine they added to their soft-drink.

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In a future post I hope to put together the law and the control the federal gov't actually has over crude plant material. Most of the right of law-enforcement comes from politicians who often have ulterior motives passing laws.

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That this drug bust involved steroids seems to me important, that immediate disclosure to the public ensue. Many commenters on news-sites, wrote expecting it to be marijuana. No one knew.

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This is what I mean by: "The Doping of America".

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Who do we trust, who do we believe?

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Think about it.

THE DOPING OF AMERICA - PART TWO

What is a crime?

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There are several obvious crimes; others like camping on public lands, having the front of your car too low, these are questionable, with many more. Everyday, laws are questioned, considered, enacted.

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In the Winter of 1975 I was working the 3 - 11 shift as a custodian at a college. I had a partner and we split the building for cleaning and maintenance. I had half the basement and the second floor. We had floors to clean, restrooms, offices. The offices could be interesting, just what one sees, no snooping. I had started to write feverishly a few months previous. I happened to be discussing with a student, a story I was working on (long gone, hardly recall it). She said "you should talk with Doug, the English professor..."

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The professor Doug she was referring to had his office on the second floor. I cleaned it. I left him something I'd written on his desk. The next night was a reply... "he'd be interested in talking..."

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We did talk, became good friends. I consider him one of two college mentors I had between the age of 21 - 24. One issue that might be obvious is at that age sex is on one's mind, and I was lost in that dept. Professor Doug suggested Henry Miller, the author of "The Tropic of Cancer". "The World of Sex", he said, or something like that was somewhere in one of Henry Miller's many novels. I've read 90% of them. 15 years earlier you'd be sentenced to a misdemeanor for having one of his books. They were sold on the black market in brown paper bags. I was talking with the dean of another college I worked at years later and he remembered that. He remembered buying a Henry Miller book in a brown paper bag.

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Now imagine if shagging were a bad word. What the word means is sex outside of marriage . Imagine if it's a crime. based on questionable logic? But it's a crime all the same, and millions of people are locked up and fined. Happens all the time, though not in America.

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No, not America, but what does happen here are millions of people are locked up for drug possession, marijuana especially. There homes are raided, people shot and many killed. The sad truth is the people being raided may be your kindly neighbors, your friend, your co-worker. It's virtually an undeclared war against American citizens, declared only in a boisterous manner by President Richard Nixon in 1971. The "war on drugs" began as part of the Controlled Substances act of 1971 the Tricky Dick signed. That was also when the DEA was established... the foot soldiers masquerading as law enforcement. In truth they're a large federally mandated militia group that infiltrates the entire world, including the USA.

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The ONDCP (office of national drug control policy) is the public relations outlet, who's job it is to simply "lie" and make stuff up that adequately espousing the dangers of "drugs", especially marijuana once again (see my media list for a link supporting this fact). US taxpayer's pay all these salaries... all the expenses. Allegedly, it keeps us safe. Allegedly it's for the public good. Allegedly... !

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Welcome to America... the land of the doped! Where we'll believe anything, or be afraid not to, if our government tells us it's so. This is so weary a game... and it seems, it all began in 1937, the day cannabis was taxed, unconstitutionally (ruled so by the Supreme Court in 1970). The propaganda just keeps coming. The waste in wealth, human resources and life just continues unabated. 50,000 dead in Mexico our neighbor, and the prejudice continues... the same prejudice that was commonplace in the 1930's.

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In a recent ruling in California, a federal Judge ruled against NORML's legal team re: four issues... the one I found most compelling is (click the quote for the link):

Judge Burrell also cited court rulings finding that defendants in previous challenges have failed to meet the “heavy burden of proving the irrationality of the schedule I classification of marijuana.”

Proving "the irrationality of the Schedule One Classification..."??? Duh... Schedule on "drugs" have no medicinal value, and are extremely addictive, the NIH says so. ONDCP says so. Our own government owns a patent verifying extraordinary health benefits. (I'll post the link soon as I find it). There are pharmaceuticals based on cannabis. It's as addictive as coffee.

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RE: Shagging... just don't get caught!

THE DOPING OF AMERICA - PART ONE

Sebastianmarincolo - "Mind Altering Essays on Mind Altering plants". had me going too... his analogy to alcohol was unexpected, poignant and thought provoking.

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"...causes havoc, rape, murders, a lot of crime... the plant that people - millions of people use, everyday".

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I had never heard of the plant.

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My reaction when I first found out the plant was analogous to alcohol use? "You've gototbe kidding..." I didn't see it coming. But it's true.

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What's also true is I have a lot of ground to cover. So let's begin.

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Cannabis. Not anything like Sebastion's mythical plant. Not mythical, and not dangerous. Cannabis, that is.

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Daily, news reports of something termed "drugs" is aired. Often relating to those under 18.

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What's the truth about drugs?

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Well, not alcohol or tobacco. Alcohol is sometimes referred to as a "substance", but never as a drug. Tobacco, chemically processed to yield cigarette tobacco, is not listed as either a drug or a substance. Yet it kills thousands daily. Cannabis has yet to kill one person. Penalty for giving tobacco to a friend - their death. Penalty giving them cannabis... 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

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Regarding the definition of "doped"? As in, a "Doped America". The USA is the model of democracy. Yet it holds more people in prison than any other country. Many people are in prison for possession drug crimes.

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So I ask again, what is a drug?

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Is a plant a drug? Is heroin a drug? Is peyote a drug? Is alcohol a drug?

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We really don't know, we as a country, so convoluted are our regulations and understanding of drugs.

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There are DRUGS, but cannabis isn't one of them. It's a plant. But continued in my next post, I'll explain how Americans have been doped into believing plants are "drugs".

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In the meanwhile, stay away from the broccoli and spinach... they would be classified as "drugs" given current standards.

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The key question I have for you is, is a plant a drug? Can it be? If true, why aren't tobacco and alcohol products classified as drugs?

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Does integrity not count any longer? Does truth not matter?

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Next Post: The History of Drug Reform and Drug Prohibition...