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11 Enemies of Marijuana Legalization

11 Enemies of Marijuana Legalization

From President Obama to NYC Mayor Bloomberg, the authorities are still bent on keeping pot illegal.

October 18, 2012  |

“In 1990, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates told a Senate committee that people who smoked pot occasionally “ought to be taken out and shot.” That kind of fanaticism, which dominated the debate on drugs 20 years ago, seems to have faded. Today’s politicians are more likely to dismiss cannabis concerns as “not serious” than to rail against the demons of dope—but the powers that be are still bent on keeping pot illegal. U.S. cops bust an average of almost 100 people every hour for pot, and an array of think tanks and nonprofit groups continues to pump out prohibitionist propaganda.

Here are 11 of the worst—the most powerful and the most vehement.

1. DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart

A holdover from the Bush administration, Leonhart was formally appointed to head the Drug Enforcement Administration by Barack Obama in 2010. The antiprohibitionist movement strongly opposed her, citing the DEA’s raids on medical-marijuana growers in California—including one on a 69-year-old woman who had been the first grower to register with the Mendocino County Sheriff.

As the DEA’s acting director in January 2009, she overruled a DEA administrative-law judge’s recommendation and denied the University of Massachusetts a license to cultivate marijuana for FDA-approved research. “This single act has blocked privately funded medical marijuana research in this country,” NORML head Allen St. Pierre said in July 2010.

Leonhart often carries hardline views to absurd extremes. In 2011, asked about the drug-cartel carnage in Mexico, she told the Washington Post that “It may seem contradictory, but the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success in the fight against drugs,” because the cartels were fighting each other “like caged animals.” In June 2012, asked by Rep. Jared Polis (D-CO) if crack, heroin and methamphetamine were worse for your health than marijuana, she repeatedly answered, “I believe all illegal drugs are bad.” Asked if opioid painkillers like OxyContin were more addictive than marijuana, she answered, “All illegal drugs in Schedule I are addictive.””

ten more……http://urlet.com/each.carry or

http://www.alternet.org/11-enemies-marijuana-legalization

 

Pot Market Crashing? SacBee Thinks So

via Sacramento Bee:

ARCATA – The pot market is crashing in California’s legendary Emerald Triangle.

The closure of hundreds of marijuana dispensaries across California and a federal crackdown on licensing programs for medical pot cultivation are leaving growers in the North Coast redwoods with harvested stashes many can’t sell.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/05/4467516/californias-emerald-triangle-pot.html

Don’t Tread On Me!

link here: http://urlet.com/lined.manager

Should California pursue, through peaceful and democratic means, independence from the United States?

or at polldaddy: http://poll.fm/32hxe

Federal Fascists Attempt Seizure of Sacramento Medical Marijuana Dispensary

via SacBee:

“U.S. authorities filed suit Thursday seeking to seize the building of a Sacramento dispensary, charging the marijuana store violated federal laws against drug transactions near schools.

The forfeiture complaint filed over the Sacramento Holistic Healing Center – a Southside Park dispensary also known as “Grass on 10th” – marks the first formal federal seizure action against a medical marijuana outlet in the city.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/13/4184457/feds-target-sacramento-marijuana.html

 

Arcata Medical Marijuana Dispensary Closes Due to DOJ Letter

Safe Access:

http://safeaccessnow.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?id=9036

“Humboldt Medical Supply is PERMANENTLY CLOSED.

The US Justice Department and US Attorney, Melinda Haag, have determined that our business is located within the prohibited 1000 ft distance from a children’s playground, the Arcata Crabs Ball Park.

Regretfully, we have no plans to reopen.
NO files, information or records were seized or viewed.”"

 ”Over 100 catastrophically ill patients who received their cannabis for FREE are now left with no truly compassionate source of meds. My heart is so heavy. . .

HMS was first officially permitted collective cultivation in the emerald triangle.

DOJ/USAO considering the Arcata Crabs Baseball Park as a children’s playground is unjust.
It’s open 2-3 months a year when the Crabs summer collegiate baseball team plays, and they serve beer.”

Kevin L. Hoover

Eye Editor

“ARCATA – Arcata’s Humboldt Medical Supply (HMS) cannabis center closed yesterday following receipt of a warning letter from U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag.

The letter, apparently sent in early December, was sent to HMS’s landlord, Danco Group and the bank which hold the loan for financing the property….”

via Arcata Eye

http://www.arcataeye.com/2012/01/cannabis-clinic-shuts-down-after-doj-warning-letter-developing-january-3-2011/

DON’T TREAD ON ME

link here:  http://urlet.com/lined.manager

Should California pursue, through peaceful and democratic means, independence from the United States?

or at polldaddy:  http://poll.fm/32hxe

California’s Largest Doctors Group Comes Out for Marijuana Legalization

via SF Gate:

California’s largest industry group for doctors is calling for the legalization of marijuana even as it maintains that the drug has few proven health benefits.

Trustees of the California Medical Association adopted the new stance at its annual meeting Friday in Anaheim, according to a Los Angeles Times report ( http://lat.ms/qR96hb).

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/10/16/national/a112533D28.DTL#ixzz1b0GKpXTV

more http://news.google.com/news/more?pz=1&cf=all&geo=detect_metro_area&ncl=dme81Obd8AVEaeMarzJmrdzP0ArlM

Ludicrous Pro Drug War Propaganda

I can’t believe that the kind of land piracy described in this article is a big problem in California.  Maybe this happens on private land sometimes but it can’t be widespread.  Just think this guy had 300 acres, 80 head of bison, a supposedly illegal marijuana crop that covered one third of his land and he didn’t have a clue. 

Bullshit.

When I see something like this, whether it is a large outdoor grow out in the sticks or a grow house in Arcata or Eureka, I think sharecropper.  Deniability, baby.  The folks described in this article could be innocent victims of course, but I think there are lots of landowners who grow by proxy with sharecroppers.

This propaganda  is designed to gin up support for the police/prison/industrial war on drugs complex.  It originated on a site called californiawatch.org 

http://californiawatch.org/public-safety/private-lands-are-new-frontier-california-s-pot-wars-9985

have a peaceful day,

Bill

“Nearly one-third of [Lake County Supervisor] Brown’s land was covered with the crop. The teams eradicated nearly 5,000 plants that day. A couple of days later, Brown discovered 2,500 more. Brown, who also works as a bail bondsman, acted on his instinct to go after whoever planted the illegal crop.”

 http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/04/23/MNO41J376E.DTL#ixzz1KUffP1wK

“

The War on Cannabis is Unconstitutional

Your Constitutional Right to Cannabis

You and I have a Constitutional Right to grow, to possess, and to consume cannabis sativa and its variants.

Really you do.

I have pointed out to people in debates for years that it says right in the Constitution that you have a right to grow, possess, and yes! smoke cannabis sativa if you so choose.  These people (some of them are well meaning but just ignorant) challenge me to point out the words in the Constitution that guarantee me the right to use cannabis sativa.

I tell them it is right there, right next to the words that guarantee them the right to manufacture, possess and consume alcohol.  It’s right there, can’t you see it?  Of course you can.

Because when the Constitution was ratified and the Bill of Rights was ratified the cultivation and processing and yes! the smoking of India hemp (cannabis sativa and its cultivars) was perfectly legal in the newborn United States of America.  As a matter of fact, so was the production and use of alcohol.   That is why a century later that miserable exercise in prohibition against alcohol required a Constitutional Amendment to outlaw alcohol.

It is time for the government to give up the war on hemp and move on.  The War on Cannabis  is Unconstitutional!

This fraudulent “war” has no moral basis.

We the People have the Constitutional Right to use cannabis in any one of its four uses: spiritual, medicinal-nutritional, industrial, and recreational.

have  a peaceful day,

Bill

shortlink here:  http://wp.me/pbr9G-2rU  mnemonic here: http://urlet.com/amends.sober