Cheryl and I have been to Washington, DC nine times in the past five years. She must use a reclining wheelchair to get around. She can only move her head after 30 years of MS. We are going to go back a tenth time in early April if Cheryl is alive and able to travel. I hope we are not alone when we confront Czar Walters. We hope to be joined by other patients for our week of lobbying congress for Rep. Barney Franks new State's Rights to Medical Marijuana bill. John Walters is going to be a pleasant addition to our trip. Others that want to take part may be needing various kinds of help to tell John Walters "We're here, where are YOU!" Details will be on cherylheart.org and immly.org soon.
Jim Miller
Toms River, NJ
Perpetual drug war for perpetual peas
Truth to tell, the drug warrior politicians, officials, media and civilians (*secretly*) don't list victory as an objective in their expensive and oppressive trillion dollar war. When they do spout their "zero tolerance/total victory" rhetoric, how many of your readers actually believe them? How many actually believe that this year's multi billion dollar drug war budget will be the one that will achieve total victory after decades of billion dollar budgets have totally failed?
Just remember that the drug czars' and warriors' jobs depend on the perpetual prosecution of, but NEVER a victory in, the drug war. Also, remember that the politicians depend on the drug war and its rhetoric to scare up votes (by scaring voters). The politicians also rely on the drug war to sustain their constituent industries that depend on the economics of prohibition in order to make generous profits and campaign contributions that keep the drug warrior politicians in power and, therefore, keep themselves in business.
Remember what H.L. Mencken said: "The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
Cannabis has no lethal dose and its pharmacological effects have never caused a single death in over 5,000 years of recorded history.
The (unseen) driving force against medical (or unrestricted adult) legalization of cannabis is the fact that cannabis can't be patented. This precludes the need for big business to be involved and that fact makes cannabis commercially unattractive to the pharmaceutical, tobacco and alcohol industries (lobbies). It seems that if it can't be profitized successfully the government can't justify legalization even for the sick and dying.
Furthermore, the war on cannabis drives the war on drugs. Without cannabis prohibition, the drug war would be reduced to a pillow fight. This is the politics and the economics of cannabis prohibition.
Maybe the corrupt politicians and media are required to adhere to the party line of cannabis prohibition because law enforcement, customs, the prison and military industrial complex, the drug testing industry, the "drug treatment" industry, the INS, the CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the politicians themselves et al can't live without the budget justification, not to mention the invisible profits, bribery, corruption and forfeiture benefits that prohibition affords them. The drug war also promotes, justifies and perpetuates racist enforcement policies and is diminishing many freedoms and liberties that are supposed to be inalienable according to the constitution and bill of rights.
Myron Von Hollingsworth
Ad hominem
Brian Doherty was much to kind in his diatribe against that Human Cockroach, the inveterate lying, Scuttling Grotesque known as the "Drug Czar". This individual has never uttered one word of truth regarding marijuana. I.e. "60 percent of those in drug treatment are there for marijuana addiction, a drug worse than heroin or cocaine". Uh, Bozo, your minions force them there--treatment or jail, your "choice". Worse than heroin? Where does he come up with this bilge? 3, 4, 6 times stronger(his scare numbers) than your "father's"--(me)-- marijuana. I'm sorry, your Czarness, it was not tested in the 60's, and is only marginally stronger than in the day. I, and most others, had no trouble finding excellent smoke way back. Besides, you smoke only what you need, it's not "cocaine", dude. This lying sack of Bush bamboozled the easily manipulated in the latest voting, which unfortunately, is a majority of Americans. Walters, Witchcraft, Assa Hutchinson, and George II will ultimately fail--the Barbarian IS at the gate!
John McKee
Columbia Falls, Mt
Re: The Accidental Conservative (12/2)
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