You can't judge things that went on in the 70's by today's standards. Our culture has moved SO far since then. It's like talking about a different country. People in the 70's assumed drugs would soon be legal - why wouldn't you? It made sense - no one could have foreseen the militarization of American law enforcement, the 500% percent increase in prison population, the DARE brainwashing, high schools turned into prisons, the pimping-out of an entire generation of young people, programmed only to buy and work, work and buy, buy, buy. I was only a kid but I can clearly remember how extremely different things were. We're now in the age of materialism, of consumerism. There were no logos in the 70's. Music didn't make it onto the radio unless it was actually good. Parents came home from work at 5:00 and hung out with their kids (even high-level executives). My sister and I used to go play with the neighborhood kids, not sit in a dark room all summer sending IMs to friends. The main street of our town had all different types of stores, the same guy would wait on you at the clothes store the entire time you were growing up, no shit.

That's what bothers me - the drug war is just part of a larger regression. The quality of life has been dropping steadily since I was a teenager. The grand myth of technology, ha - it has enslaved us, not freed us. Just flip on the TV and watch a baseball game or and NBA game, the quality of play has plummeted in the last 25 years. You see guys earning 10 million a year drop a fly ball - some of them can barely run to first base cause they're so damn fat. I'm droning now, but it's true.

But there are entirely too many of us that are unwilling to look squarely at the failure of the earlier attempt at cannabis re-legalization...or they are simply ignorant of it.

Learn from history, yes...but also be aware that every activist, known and unknown, is busy in making history. That's right folks, it's not really made by the 'big names'; they are but focal points. History is really made by all the countless, nameless, faceless foot-soldiers, in every struggle. Like you and me. You are making history, in every little town and big city across the continent. What else would you call attempting to change a nearly century old policy based upon racial injustice?

We will win with harmony but we won't win with a scattered army.

The enemy (prohibitionists) knows that first you divide and then you conquer your enemies.It is old school military strategy that even 1st grade bullies understand. The prohibitionists consider anyone that wants to see the end of cannabis prohibition the enemy. Unfortunately, the prohibitionists also have the power to lock you up, take away your god given rights, confiscate your property, and basically end your pursuit of happiness. I think exploring the history of why this freaking situation even exists can only shed light on the movement to end prohibition not divide it. Anyway, that is my opinion that isn't even worth two cents anymore thanks to inflation.

We will win with harmony but we won't win with a scattered army.

It would imagine going to a convention on cannabis would be awesome. One of these days I would like to make one myself when it is safe to smoke a joint without the fear of federal handcuffs and iron bars awaiting me for doing so.

I am in a position where I feel I should not be alienating anyone. I can be more abrasive than the next guy, and have been labeled as not suffering fools gladly, but try to focus my rancor on the opposition. The way I see it, the vast majority of people involved with this cause are generous, and motivated by noble ideals. There have to clashes of opinion and personality, but as long as we have a common goal in sight, it is absolutely essential that it remain paramount, and not subjugated by infighting. Thus, you will not see my ire focused on anyone against the War on Drugs. If I have something too political on my mind, I trust my surrogates to carry the proverbial ball, as they do so ably.

I gleaned these illuminating and timely morsels from the introduction…

The slippery little Vietcong in Southeast Asia had become the dope-smoking hippie at home, and it was somehow imperative that the government's armed forces search out and destroy him. The same mentality that could say we had to destroy a village to save it in Vietnam could argue that we had to send a college student to prison to save him from marijuana.

If there is anything to be learned in a national campaign, as it moves endlessly from city to city, rally to rally, enclave to enclave, it is that America is an incredibly large, diversified, and potentially explosive nation, less melting pot than tinderbox. The divisions are all there-black and white, Protestant and Catholic, North and South, immigrant and blueblood-waiting for politicians to exploit them. Now to that list has been added the division between those who enjoy drugs and those who fear them.

Afghanistan terrorists and drug warriors.

Can anyone else see history repeating itself yet?

http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=496

This article may make some a bit uneasy, and in fact it does point out a sore spot between Mr. Cowan (whom I respect) and Rob Kampia (whose efforts I also respect). But I think the heart of it is that one person can ruin a good thing for everyone, yet the future of the movement looks bright precisely because people in the movement, now more than ever, are willing to set aside their differences in order to effect change.

One more word, if I may: this movement is not the place to look for our egos to be stroked. If we are going to learn from one another (which is the only way we will grow this movement and ourselves), we have to be willing to accept ourselves and each other in spite of our failures, and we have to be willing to learn from those failures so that we do not repeat them. Sometimes I make remarks to a specific individual that are meant to be corrective and likely sound harsh, and anyone who has spent some time at C-News knows I have received many such comments as well. We all mean no harm by this. Rather, we seek to help each other learn.

So, let's all make a pact. Let's agree that we can disagree all we want, but in the end what really matters is that we are all on the same side, working toward a common goal: the end of cannabis prohibition.

If you got this far, thanks for putting up with my rambling.

Most of us are aware of the matter regarding Anslinger's lies, Hearst's propaganda, DuPont's interests in keeping safe, natural alternatives to fossil fuels and plastics off the market, PFDFA taking money from distilleries, pharmaceuticals and breweries who don't want competition from cannabis, etc.

But many don't know of what went on in our own camp with regards to the personages - and their egos - which caused such dissention and confusion in our own ranks that the so-called 'parents movement' won by default.

I invite the curious to look here:

High in America: The True Story Behind NORML and the Politics of Marijuana http://www.druglibrary.org/special/anderson/highinamerica.htm

I realize that there are plenty of dissenting opinions concerning what happened; the book is 20 years old, and many of the players involved in the historical proceedings are still around...and will wish this matter wasn't brought up. It is, in a word, explosive. I am risking censure by even mentioning it, as some here hold some very strong opinions about what went on. But this matter must be examined, if only to keep this from scuttling our chances again..

(Recently, during the PBS special on the DrugWar last year, one of the major players - you'll recognize the name right off - confirmed the suspicions of many of us familiar with the history of the movement that he snitched on a major government ally in the Carter Administration. This sabotage was deliberate.)

The truth is the 'parents movement' couldn't have done what they did if they hadn't had help...from some of the 'leaders' of the re-legalization movement. Because somebody's ego got bruised, and in his narrow-minded, coke-fueled arrogance, wanted to retaliate... and in doing so, is partly responsible for condemning many of us to the Hell we've experinced these last 20 years.

Yes, we do need some flamboyant types to rattle cages and upset staid tea parties. Sometimes you have to have rabble-rousers who, as Kipling put it, 'make the cinders fly'. But we don't need loose cannons shooting us all in the foot.

President Jimmy Carter said in a speech that, regarding MJ laws, the punishment was worse than the crime, and that MJ should be decriminalized for personal use. (imagine, politically, how far we are from there now).

Then, things quickly went downhill. Apparently, Pres. Carter's drug policy guy (sort of like the drug czar, but back then, it actually was a scientific sort of thing, not militaristic enforcement) went to a NORML party, and did some coke with some people there, and it was leaked to the media and they had a field day with it. Carter fired the guy and quickly backpedaled from reform talk, in light of the scandal and the upcoming election. A year or two later, the Reagan revolution was underway. The window of opportunity slammed shut for 20 years. The economy turned around, we kicked some ass in Grenada, and everyone loved Reagan so much that they even elected his airhead VP, Bush Sr.

Anyone else with more info or more accurate info jump in....I'd was only a kid then so I'd love to hear a firsthand account of what happened.

Why are we not surprised that the distribution of medicinal marijuana, meticulously and expensively grown down in a disused mine in Manitoba at taxpayers' expense, has become mired in bureaucratic paper-shuffling?

The medicinal-marijuana program had been pushed ahead hard by Allan Rock, when he was health minister. As a result, the Canadian government now owns 250 kilograms of primo bud, currently stored in bales in a climate-controlled warehouse guarded by the RCMP, at your expense.

What happened to the program is what should have happened originally - medical experts were asked their opinion. Mr. Rock's custom-grown Manitoba Gold hasn't undergone the tests every other therapeutic drug must pass, and so Canada's major doctors' groups have advised their members to have nothing to do with prescriptions for the stuff. And there's a hint that Anne McLellan, the new health minister, is less than enthusiastic.

A dying person is willing to take risks. After all, what have they got to lose? This makes absolutely no sense whatsoever!

Some unrelated news:

Bush Aide to Leave White House(It must be her fault the Shrub's approval rating is falling!): http://www.cnn.com/2002/ALLPOLITICS/04/23/hughes.resigning/index.html

Venezuelan Legislator says U.S. Involved in Coup: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=584&e=8&u=/nm/20020423/pl_nm/venezuela_usa_dc_19

Police Shield Argentine Congress From Public Fury: http://rense.com/general24/from.htm

Anyway, cannabis is an herb, not a drug.

marijuana, ganja, cannabis, reefer, pot, cheeba, smoke, medicine are all acceptable words when referring to cannabis sativa.

My question about what's the prize is what I want to know.

If a Cannabis plant could talk it would say " O you dumb people, I am what I am and no one owns me. Now get over it and let me help people. "

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MedPot/message/268

Of this we can be sure: - the government just spent millions to grow the herb - every day millions of Canadian high school and college kids furiously smoke up tons of MJ - Thousands of dying people will go without herb and die more painfully

The saddest thing is that the reason the sick and dying won't get the herb seems to be the lobbying and protesting of the Canadian Medical Association. What a terrible, terrible thing to do.

Who's going to answer to wasting millions of taxpayer dollars? McClellan should be thrown in jail for theft of millions of dollars from hard-working Canadians.

What is the Marijuana Party's objective?

PS: I don't have any agendas. I want what ever comes first to come first in the USA, UK or Canada. What I mean is if marijuana is legalized or if marijuana gets medical approval either one is fine with me as long as something happens. Just something that's good. That's my agenda!