A little stirring of the hornets nest.

Been doing some reading. Visited Petes blog at Drug WarRant.  A guy that goes by malcolmkyle left a comment about stirring the hornet’s nest. It’s over at NewsBusters about Arianna Huffington: Drug War a ‘War on Our Own People’

Heres a snippet of the comments going on there:

Some simple facts:

Submitted by malcolmkyle on Wed, 02/15/2012 – 8:04am.

* Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.

* A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.

* The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally – getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.

* Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. – approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc.

* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so.

* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.

* Prescription drugs kill over 200,000 Americans every year– even when taken as directed and not abused.

* Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.

* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement – even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death.

* Apart from the fact that the DEA is the de facto enforcement wing of the pharmaceutical industry, the involvement of the CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan and Cocaine from Central America has been well documented by the 1989 Kerry Committee report, academic researchers Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb.

* It’s not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.

* The United States jails a larger percentage of its own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.

* Prohibition is the “Goose that laid the golden egg” and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of the opium poppy. An estimated 44 % of the heroin produced in Afghanistan, with an estimated annual destination value of US $ 27 Billion, transits through Pakistan. Prohibition has essentially destroyed Pakistan’s legal economy and social fabric. – We may be about to witness the planet’s first civil war in a nation with nuclear capabilities. – Kindly Google: ‘A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST GROUPS’ Only those opposed, or willing to ignore these facts, want things the way they are.

* The future depends on whether or not enough of us are willing to take a long look at the tragic results of prohibition. If we continue to skirt the primary issue while refusing to address the root problem then we can expect no other result than a worsening of the current dire situation. – Good intentions, wishful thinking and pseudoscience are no match for the immutable realities of human nature.

Never have so many been endangered and impoverished by so few so quickly!

* The urge to save humanity is almost always a false-face for the urge to rule it. – H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American editor, essayist and philologist.

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2012/02/13/arianna-huffington-drug-war-war-our-own-people#ixzz1mZ44P3um

⇒  Thank you Arianna

Submitted by Cool  Arrow on Mon, 02/13/2012 – 4:45pm.

On the contrary, Arianna, Whitney seems to have lived exactly the life of  legalized drugs.

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Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2012/02/13/arianna-huffington-drug-war-war-our-own-people#ixzz1mZ9kesb6

Exactly.  Essentially, drugs

Submitted by robert108  on Mon, 02/13/2012 – 5:22pm.

Exactly.  Essentially, drugs are as if they were legal in the entertainment  industry and the music business.  If you want to see what would happen to the  general population under drug legalization, just look at those two  industries.

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Last  time I checked these industries were both very successful!

Submitted by malcolmkyle  on Wed, 02/15/2012 – 8:11am.

You Prohibitionists dance hand in hand with every possible type of criminal  one can imagine.

An unholy alliance of ignorance, greed and hate which works to destroy all  our hard fought freedoms, wealth and security.

We will always have adults who are too immature to responsibly deal with  tobacco alcohol, heroin amphetamines, cocaine, various prescription drugs and  even food. Our answer to them should always be: “Get a Nanny, and stop turning  the government into one for the rest of us!”

Nobody wants to see an end to prohibition because they want to use drugs.  They wish to see proper legalized regulation because they are witnessing, on a  daily basis, the dangers and futility of prohibition. ‘Legalized Regulation’  won’t be the complete answer to all our drug problems, but it’ll greatly  ameliorate the crime and violence on our streets, and only then can we provide  effective education and treatment.

The whole nonsense of ‘a disaster will happen if we end prohibition’  sentiment sums up the delusional ‘chicken little’ stance of those who foolishly  insist on continuing down this blind alley. As if a disaster isn’t already  happening. As if prohibition has ever worked.

To support prohibition is such a strange mind-set. In fact, It’s outrageous  insanity!  –Literally not one prohibitionist argument survives scrutiny. Not  one!

The only people that believe prohibition is working are the ones making a  living by enforcing laws in it’s name, and those amassing huge fortunes on the  black market profits. This situation is wholly unsustainable, and as history has  shown us, conditions will continue to deteriorate until we finally, just like  our forefathers, see sense and revert back to tried and tested methods of  regulation. None of these substances, legal or illegal, are ever going to go  away, but we CAN decide to implement policies that do far more good than  harm.

During alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, all profits went to enrich thugs and  criminals. Young men died every day on inner-city streets while battling over  turf. A fortune was wasted on enforcement that could have gone on treatment. On  top of the budget-busting prosecution and incarceration costs, billions in taxes  were lost. Finally the economy collapsed. Sound familiar?

So should the safety and freedom of the rest of us be compromised because of  the few who cannot control themselves?

Many of us no longer think it should!

Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/matt-hadro/2012/02/13/arianna-huffington-drug-war-war-our-own-people#ixzz1mZ97jBDL

If a vast majority of the public were aware of these facts, the drug war( and much more) would be over in a hurry. Thats the reason it’s not. TPTB depend on ignorance and poor information to continue their little Empire games.

Time to put an end to it all. Get the information out there, inform your self, inform those around you.

The owner of this blog does not advocate violence in any manner. Any allusions to this course of action by any user or commenter is not the responsibility nor the opinion of the administrator.

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

The Fast and Furious ATF Gun-Runners Perpetuate The Drug War Lie

I’m sure most of you that have been following and/or debating America’s Drug War have heard about the recent expose’ by CBS where a new hero has stepped up to admit that the US ATF dictated that they allow guns to be sent from complicit American gun shops across the border. If not watch this:

March 3, 2011. CBS Evening News. Gun Walking. Interview with ATF Federal agent John Dodson. ATF was intentionally sending heavy weaponry to Mexican drug cartels. The secret operation was called Fast and Furious.

Some suggest that this is simply being used to make a case for a gun ban in the US. You can see that argument here and see how the government propaganda machine does lie to propagate this attempt:

I am not suggesting there is no truth, whatsoever in that claim (for I believe that many in our government would love to strip us of our second amendment to be able to control us completely). What I am suggesting is that this latest ATF sponsored gun-running has another agenda. The perpetuation of the lie that is the War on Drugs (especially marijuana).

There have been more than 35,000 people who have been killed since President Felipe Calderón began following his puppet master’s directive to bolster Mexico’s version of the War on Drugs. But to assume that it is America’s fault or the lie that “90% of those guns come from America” is not seeing the picture and simply believing the attempts to continue what is a totally failed policy.

Sane voices understand that the militarization of the drug war in Mexico is a key reason for “extortions, kidnappings, and murders“. To me this seems obvious.

But not to America’s puppets. It takes decency and truth. It takes leaders who refuse to be our puppet; People like Bolivia’s President Evo Morales to discuss “The Big White Lie” openly.

But let me ask you, why would the ATF not only condone the gun-running, but also try to cover up their own participation?

It’s not like Americans aren’t waking up to the outright lies and it is crucial to note that Americans are more and more convinced that marijuana legalization is what we need to do. The Pew Research Center For The People and the Press polls prove this:

None of this even speaks to the corruption and blatant murder on America’s soil by those that are supposed to “serve and protect”. See this reminder:

During a Sept. 16 raid by the Weber-Morgan Narcotics Strike Force, Todd Blair was shot and killed in his home. The Weber County District Attorney’s Office has ruled the shooting justified under Utah law. Blair’s family believes he was shot unnecessarily. Read the entire story at http://bit.ly/hlawOF or www.sltrib.com

Justified? These criminals with badges didn’t adequately plan this invasion, didn’t warn this man to “put down your weapon” (which was a freaking golf club) and then murdered him in cold blood. Not even a slap on the wrist. Condoned murder, plain and simple.

There are several states that are awakening to this. MPP (Marijuana Policy Project: of which I am a member) tells us that Hawaii has a bill to decriminalize marijuana possession.

In addition to two medical marijuana regulation bills being considered in Hawaii, a separate bill that would remove criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana is moving through the state Senate. Last week, it passed through two Senate committees and is now headed to the full Senate for a vote before advancing further. Considering that 20 of 25 members of the Senate are co-sponsors, it should be a breeze.

Even other countries are seeing the light. The UK’s former Drug Czar, Bob Ainsworth, is advocating the only sane pursuit, which is legalization (and mind you, he is talking about legalizing ALL drugs). The Transform Drug Policy Foundation explains and shares Mr Ainsworth’s position:

However, prohibition has failed to protect us. Leaving the drugs market in the hands of criminals causes huge and unnecessary harms to individuals, communities and entire countries, with the poor the hardest hit. We spend billions of pounds without preventing the wide availability of drugs. It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children. We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists.

Wow! Isn’t that amazing? But it takes a “former” Drug Czar to make this kind of sensible statement. Can you imagine “why” that is? To the contrary, for some reason, any current Drug Czar (like the US’s Gil Kerlikowske) cannot be allowed to say such a thing (even tho the predecessor of his previous position as chief of police in Seattle, Norm Stamper, has come out in favor of a more sensible and sane policy of total drug legalization):

Retired Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper thinks we should legalize drugs after what he witnessed fighting on the front lines of the “war on drugs.” Norm is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which any citizen can join at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

Even a former US Surgeon General, Dr Joycelyn Elders, has called for legalization of marijuana:

“What I think is horrible about all of this, is that we criminalize young people. And we use so many of our excellent resources … for things that aren’t really causing any problems,” said Elders. “It’s not a toxic substance.”

The fact is that once these guys leave their job, they are able to pronounce the dismal failure of the Drug War. They are able to admit that it is all a lie. But not the current internal puppets. Maybe that is why it angers Gil that his hometown paper, The Seattle Times ran an article that is pro-legalization. Thank God they aren’t intimidated and are sticking to their guns.

So, what is he forced to do? Lie, of course (that is his only recourse):

http://KCTS9.org
Gil Kerlikowske, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, discusses legalizing marijuana, the epidemic of prescription drug abuse, and comments on recent problems within the Seattle Police Department.

To put it simply, it is time to stop listening to those that are paid to keep Americans in bondage and listen to the sane ones; the ones that speak truth and understand the very nature of this bogus affront to our liberties (not to mention keeping miracle drugs from doing their miracles). It is time for Americans to understand the “why’s” (Big Meds, Big Prison and Big Money) and to call for an end. The truth is out there, but you won’t get it from those, like Kerlikowske, whose very livelihood depend upon the lies (and this includes small time cops and legislators). They gain from this corrupt and evil system.

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All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Revolt or WordPress.com

Real Conservatism Rears Its Head

I have mentioned Bruce Fein here before (mainly because he was one of the very few “conservatives” that was calling out the monstrosity we call the Bush Administration). I, too, have commented many times about how true conservatism has disappeared and has been replaced with some false suggestion that is anything BUT conservative. Neoconservatism is not conservative… it is anything but.

The fact is that most of the congressional leadership and ranking file members are more “right wing” corporatists, funded and indebted to Big Money, with none actually representing what used to be known as the “Left”. Sure, the MSM talking heads still tout some imaginary divide, but truly, where is that line? It is so far right to make true lefties non-existent.

So, thank you, Bruce for being real.

h/t MPP

All posts are opinions meant to foster comment, reporting, teaching & study under the “fair use doctrine” in Sec. 107 of U.S. Code Title 17. No statement of fact is made or should be implied. Ads appearing on this blog are solely the product of the advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of BuehlahMan’s Redstate Revolt or WordPress.com

“Now!”

Just Say Now

General… oh General….

Nation building in Afghanistan is not our job— it is theirs.

By Eugene Robinson
Friday, June 25, 2010
Washington Post

The good news? Nobody has to pretend anymore that Gen. Stanley McChrystal knew how to fix Afghanistan within a year. The bad news? No
President Obama was absolutely right to sack the preening McChrystal, whose inner circle, as portrayed in Rolling Stone magazine, had all the seriousness and decorum of a frat house keg party. And it was a brilliant political move to turn to Petraeus, who is made of purest Teflon. Critics who might have been tempted to blast the president for changing horses in midstream can hardly object when he has given the reins to the man who averted a humiliating U.S. defeat in Iraq.
Note that I didn’t credit Petraeus with “winning” in Iraq. He didn’t. What he managed to do was redeem the situation to the point where the United States could begin bringing home its combat troops. If the Obama administration’s aims in Afghanistan are recalibrated to accommodate objective reality, then Petraeus can succeed there, too. But this means that the general’s assignment should be a narrow one: Lay the groundwork for a U.S. withdrawal to begin next summer, as Obama has pledged.
After relieving McChrystal of his command Wednesday, Obama called in his national security team and read the riot act. No more bickering, sniping, backbiting or name-calling, the president ordered. Play nice.
But all the comity in the world doesn’t resolve the essential tension between those who believe our goal in Afghanistan should be defined as “victory” and those who believe it should be defined as “finding the exit.” Two thousand years of history are on the side of the “exit” camp, and the fact is that at some point we’re going to leave. The question is how much time will pass — and how many more young Americans will be killed or wounded — before that inevitable day comes.

McChrystal, who designed the counterinsurgency strategy being attempted in Afghanistan, didn’t disguise his opposition to administration officials such as Vice President Biden, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry and special envoy Richard Holbrooke, who questioned whether the strategy could work. Petraeus is far too good a politician to fall into that trap. He won’t allow any daylight between himself and the civilian leadership.
But ultimately, there’s going to be no way to avoid the central question: What kind of Afghanistan will we leave behind?
One answer would be that we have to leave in place a durable, functional central government that has full legitimacy and control within the nation’s borders. This would provide the United States with a reliable ally in a dangerous region and also ensure that Afghanistan would never again be used as a launching pad for attacks by al-Qaeda. But to get the country to that point, given where it is now, could take a decade or more of sustained, concentrated attention. It would mean not just defeating the Taliban but molding the regime of Afghan President Hamid Karzai into a reasonably honest, effective government. This would be a tall order even if Karzai were a stable, consistent, loyal partner. Does anybody believe that he is?
A better answer would be that it’s enough to leave behind an Afghanistan that no longer poses a serious threat to the United States or its vital interests. Nation-building would be the Afghans’ problem, not ours.
Petraeus was successful in Iraq because he realized that he couldn’t create an Athenian democracy in Baghdad. But the highly imperfect Iraqi government is light-years beyond what the general is likely to be able to achieve in Kabul. Even after the war, Iraq was left with modern infrastructure, a highly educated and sophisticated population, and a sizable percentage of the world’s proven oil reserves. Afghanistan has none of these advantages. The political culture is stubbornly medieval; the populace is poor, uneducated and wary of foreign influences. Afghanistan does have great mineral wealth, apparently, but no mining industry to dig it out and no railroads to get it to the marketplace.
In recent testimony before Congress, Petraeus was less than definitive when asked about Obama’s July 2011 deadline. Because he has such credibility and standing in Washington, his view on when we can begin to leave Afghanistan will be more important than McChrystal’s ever was. I hope that by putting Petraeus in charge of the war, President Obama hasn’t consigned us to a longer stay. His comments Thursday seem to indicate the possibility.

Oh– and I can bet you that Petraeus told the President that he would accept this position with a few conditions– Like ‘Hey I am a Battle Field General.. And I want to WIN, [ like there is such a thing as win] not mandy-pandy around. I am going to make a few changes to your rules of combat– LIKE allow the men to shoot!!!!!” “ Oh and by the way, Rolling Stone Mag, set up McChrystal!”

B’Man’s Marijuana Watch: Dr Laura Knows Her Weed

Not.

But at least this shit was actually said on Fox.

Steve Fox outfoxes Fox.

h/t Drug War Rant

Here is a link to the footage of the Domestic Policy Committee’s hearing (chaired by Dennis Kucinich) with ONDCP “Drug Czar” Gil Kerlikowske and later in a second panel, Ethan Nadelmann from Drug Policy Alliance

h/t Just Me

B’Man’s Wacky Weed Watch: Bruce Mirken on CNBC Power Lunch

An absolutely amazing interview. Something is stirring in America.

WTF Thursday: Slap Me! I MUST Be Dreaming

Tenn.: Senate debates marijuana decriminalization bill

Dear Redneck:

Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee deferred action on SB 1942, which would make possessing or distributing less than one-eighth of an ounce (about 3.5 grams) of marijuana a Class A misdemeanor punishable only by a fine of between $250 to $2,500. Currently, possession or distribution of this amount is punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of up to $2,500.

SB 1942 is now awaiting further action, so please contact your senator today and ask him or her to support this sensible legislation. Let your senator know it’s time for Tennessee to stop wasting its resources and jail space locking up non-violent marijuana users.

We need as many people sending e-mails in support of SB 1942 as possible, so please pass this alert along to anyone else you know in Tennessee who supports keeping responsible adults out of jail for using a substance that is safer than alcohol.

You can also help create support for this legislation by submitting a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.

Thank you for supporting the Marijuana Policy Project and all of our allies.

Sincerely,

Nathan Miller
Legislative Analyst
Marijuana Policy Project

Giggly Gibbs Going Ganja Goofy

Its hilarious, huh? Can’t help but snicker and giggle, trying to minimize what you know is an extremely important issue. One that you people are lying through your grinning teeth about. We know the truth, Giggles.

White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs is asked to clarify President Obama’s position on legalizing marijuana and on medical marijuana after he brought up the topic in the first Online Town Hall. Questions involving marijuana reform appeared in several categories and received far more votes than any other policy issue.

h/t MPP

MPP Alert: 10 Signs of Progress in The Last 4 Months

I have felt an attitude shift on the legalization rationale for a while. It is obvious that a majority of people want it decriminalized, if not re-legalized totally. With The Greatest Depression facing America, many individual states will likely pursue this route, for the tax benefit alone. But there are a multitude of reasons why it should be made legal and one that has recently grabbed my attention as a means of securing a financial living is hemp farming. Jim Rogers believes that farming will become one of the next great careers.

It just so happens that I have access to 150 acres of farm land that I could begin immediate planting on. I have all the farm equipment and implements to start today, if it were legal (or if everyone begins to starve and food stuff will be the world’s best commodity). I wouldn’t even bother with the smokable stuff as a cash crop (although I can see myself growing and experimenting with different strains, etc).

Many probably just consider me a conspiracy nut, but I am not imagining the actions and attitude that is being thrust upon us. I study these issues in great detail and I am telling you that we are nowhere near the bottom of this mess. Things are about to get bad. Starvation bad.

As Jim Rogers pointed out at the link, if we are not prepared, we are setting ourselves up to take a hit from a “two by four” that will hurt “very, very, very badly”.

So, I see some solutions and as Mr Kampia points out (my name changed to protect the innocent) there is reason to be excited about this particular issue. I wish this were a simple civil rights issue, but if it takes such a financial hit for people to realize how fucking stupid we have been conducting ourselves with this medicine, so be it:

Dear Rednecks:

After MPP passed the medical marijuana ballot initiative in Michigan and the marijuana decriminalization ballot initiative in Massachusetts — both on November 4 — I thought the MPP staff might get a little downtime to regroup for the 2009-2010 election cycle. Not so.

In the last four months, the MPP staff and our allies have been working almost nonstop to respond to — and take advantage of — the many opportunities that have been presenting themselves across the country. I’ve never seen so much evidence of positive change in such a short amount of time …

1.  MARIJUANA THE BIGGEST ISSUE: Two huge surveys of citizen activists across the country — one on Change.gov on December 12, and one on Change.org on January 15 — showed that the number-one issue on people’s minds is ending the government’s war on marijuana users.

2.  BONG HIT SEEN AROUND THE WORLD: On February 1, the world learned that Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps had used marijuana a few months before, demonstrating yet again that using marijuana is compatible with being wildly successful in our society. When Kellogg’s dropped its endorsement contract with Phelps — and MPP and other organizations responded by calling for a boycott of Kellogg’s — the public’s perception of Kellogg’s took a nose dive.

3.  EL PASO RESPONDS TO MEXICAN VIOLENCE: Responding to the prohibition-caused violence just over the border in Mexico, on January 6 the El Paso City Council unanimously passed a resolution calling for “an honest, open national debate on ending the prohibition of narcotics,” which drew the ire of some Texas politicians but also sparked a great deal of positive media coverage nationwide.

4.  NATIONAL POLLING HIGHEST EVER: Between January 11 and February 14, three different national polls indicated that either 40%, 41%, or 44% of the American people now support ending marijuana prohibition.  This is the highest level of support since marijuana was first prohibited in 1937, with support having risen by 1% a year since 1995.

5.  REVOLT IN LATIN AMERICA: On February 12, a commission led by three former presidents from Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico released a long-awaited report that blasted the U.S. drug war and called for the decriminalization of marijuana.

6.  ENDING THE DEA’s RAIDS IN CALIFORNIA: On February 25, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the DEA would no longer be raiding medical marijuana clinics in California and the 12 other states where medical marijuana is legal.

7.  MEDICAL MARIJUANA BILLS MOVING: MPP’s medical marijuana bills are moving through the Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York Legislatures, and the Drug Policy Alliance’s similar legislation is moving in New Jersey. We have a real chance of making medical marijuana legal in four of these six states this year and — in the meantime — it’s very possible that Montana and Rhode Island will expand their existing medical marijuana laws, too.

8.  BROADER MARIJUANA BILLS MOVING: California shook the nation when a bill to tax and regulate marijuana was introduced on February 23. And even before that happened, the Hawaii, Montana, Vermont, and Washington Legislatures had already begun considering bills to decriminalize marijuana.

9.  MPP DOMINATING ON YOUTUBE: As of today, MPP’s channel on YouTube.com is the 10th most subscribed of all nonprofit channels, and MPP’s videos are consistently in the top 10 most-viewed of all nonprofit videos in any given week. (And our 65,000 friends on MySpace.com places MPP among the top 10 most popular nonprofit organizations there, too.)

10.  ONGOING MEDIA EXPLOSION: According to the weekly reports we get from Google, MPP has been getting its message into the news in the last month at 10 times the volume of previous months. And four different national TV specials are tentatively scheduled to look at marijuana over just a two-month span: CNBC looked at the marijuana industry in northern California on January 22, NBC’s “Dateline” covered the Rachel Hoffman tragedy in Florida on January 23, ABC’s “20/20″ with John Stossel will be looking at medical marijuana on March 13, and MSNBC with Al Roker will be looking at the multi-billion-dollar marijuana industry on March 15.

Thank you for anything and everything you’ve done to help bring all this attention and success to our movement. If you’d like to help even more, please make a donation today so that we may continue with the onslaught of work that continues to pile up on our plates.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I’ve mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

P.P.S. You can opt out of receiving fundraising mentions in the e-mail alerts I send you in 2009 by visiting www.mpp.org/2009optoutpreference at your convenience.

A Warm Redneck Thanks

If you read my Letter to The President and it inspired you to write him, as well, I just want to say, “Thank You”!

Perhaps this is the first step into stopping the jailing of sick people simply for making themselves better.

Having Federal Authorities circumvent the state laws due to bogus Federal Laws and a failing and erroneous “War on Drugs” is just not right. It is wrong and harmful on every level. So, along with my thank you, I wanted to share the same wishes from Rob Kampia of MPP (who initiated the letter event). BTW: I plan to write President Obama today to thank him.

Yes You Did- Obama Vows to End Raids

More than 10,000 of you have written President Obama and Congress to ask that the president send a clear signal to Bush holdovers at the DEA about their continuing raids against medical marijuana dispensaries in California.

It worked:

On the front page of the Washington Times today, a White House spokesman said:

“The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind.”

Your letters paid off. Would you take one minute to use MPP’s easy online system to e-mail the president and thank him for his commitment to protecting medical marijuana patients?

Change is happening, and you’re a part of it.

Sincerely,

Rob Kampia
Executive Director
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington, D.C.

P.S. As I’ve mentioned in previous alerts, a major philanthropist has committed to match the first $2.35 million that MPP can raise from the rest of the planet in 2009. This means that your donation today will be doubled.

P.P.S. You can opt out of receiving fundraising mentions in the e-mail alerts I send you in 2009 by visiting www.mpp.org/2009optoutpreference at your convenience.

My Letter of thanks:

Thanks For Helping Sick People

Dear Mr President,

Thank you for your statement on medical marijuana raids. When you said that “federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws” you were correct and I am so very glad that you came out and said to the American public what needed to be said.

There is no amount of War on Drugs rhetoric that can help sick people. The WoD has only caused many more people to suffer needlessly and now is “the” time we become truly “progressive” about marijuana and use it for its benefits, which far out-weigh any negative effects or stigma.

The current mentality of marijuana being “evil” and compared to cocaine, heroin, etc, is simply ludicrous, when each and every comparison falls flat since it is untrue. Compared to alcohol and tobacco, marijuana is even less harmful… to the contrary, beneficial for users in many ways. There is a huge hypocritical discrepancy here and it can only be driven by ignorance of the American public and our leadership in Congress and the Judicial system.

And this is not to mention the tax incentive that could be utilized or the fact that hemp is the greatest biofuel substance grown on earth. It is time we begin to educate people and stop the lie of the War on Drugs and the scare tactics of the bogus “Reefer Madness” mentality.

So, thank you, Mr President for speaking up about these raids into sick people’s lives, destroying them in some of their hardest and most trying times of their lives.

But this is much deeper than that and this is only a first, brief step into rectifying the craziness that is America’s drug policy.

Dear Mr President

My Letter to Mr Barack Obama regarding medical marijuana. Please visit Marijuana Policy Project to write him yourself.

Dear President Barack Obama,

As a skeptic of all things political, I have to say that your election does inspire me to believe that things could be made better for this country and my fellow citizens. I have never been prouder than when this country could finally look past any perceived racial/color issues and finally find a thinking person of seeming integrity and honor (no matter the color). I would also be remiss if I didn’t admit that the bar was lowered greatly by your predecessor and that it would take little integrity or honor to do better.

My expectations of you and your administration are far greater now than ever before. You MUST right their wrongs. Sir, today this country needs MUCH better. Not small amounts. No incremental changes.

We need radical changes to policies that our government insists on using AGAINST its citizens.

I am writing today to ask you to adhere to your promises of stopping the medical marijuana dispensary raids. We need studies and a government that does not kowtow to the Prison Industrial Complex and a bogus and failing “War on Drugs”. We need a leader who is willing and ready to further advance the medicinal rationale regarding Marijuana and its healing benefits, without the lies and rhetoric.

My hope is that you will clean house of the Bush administration left-overs and shut down their intrusion into healing my sick compatriots of America.

I just attended a funeral yesterday of one of my dearest friends who passed from the same type of brain glioma that Sen Kennedy has been stricken with (she was 40). Early tests (outside of the US, which DOES, in many cases, study the benefits of this miracle substance) show that THC could have helped her, not with just the sickness of the chemical/radiation treatments, but studies have shown that these gliomi can actually SHRINK and go away when THC is injected in to the tumor, itself.

My friend was a patriot and would never do anything illegal, but she died in horrible agony and was afraid to use to even minimize her sickness.

Please, Mr President, help make the changes we need. Stop the crazy assault on sick people and at the same time help us focus our law enforcement on the real problems in society (which marijuana is not). How many poor kids must go to prison and lose so much, while the fat rich-cats get away with horrendous and most harmful things? The hypocrisy is stifling and surely is not beyond your comprehension.

You, yourself have experience with this drug and had you been caught, you would not have me calling you “Mr President”. That is a fact that should be highly recognized by yourself and the rest of America.

It is time to make things right. To help sick people with legitimate medicines.

All my thanks and every hope for your success in helping heal this nation devastated by the actions of your predecessors.

Lets get real, now. Help me change this country for the better. Prove to me that you want it as bad as I, for I am still not convinced.

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Reefer madness.. not!

 Twisting peoples minds with propagada— not with a joint!

 

Yes Reefer Madness… and that madness will continue until the Gov figures out how to control the market and tax it… as well as finding another bartering tool to use with and against other countries!