There was little doubt of his passing, with parkinson stiffening the muscles even in sleep. Not the peace I was witnessing. I was the primary private coordinator/live in home health aid surrogate family rep head cook shoeffer and bottlewasher who easily found Love from and for this strong small man and his wife, and family from the beginning of our relationship. She, my hesitant yet curious 88 year old ganjamed/hemp student reading the many articles I would find at cannabis news or elsewhere on the net or books. Yet never quite sure what to do with it. When I would point out various cannabis items in her home she would smile, and raise her eyebrows quizzically almost unbelieving that her canvas painting could not be grown by American farmers or that burlap was a schedule #1 narcotic. She said who would be silly enough to smoke this? I said apparently its mostly Republicans but Democrats are just as guilty for possession, regardless of inhaling. Another raised eyebrow and a cute little chuckle.

She remembered cannabis tarps and gunny sacks and oakum and found cannabis tow of interest, being the prefix of towels. Though I reminded her the cotton today used 270,000 tons of chemicals and the polyfiber was the same crude oil companies she read in shadow of the swastika. The trees not replaced with hemp wood or paper can't reduce CO2 or produce oxygen and fresh water, dead. And interest in the medicinal/nutritional value of the seed and oil aiding the immune system over the red meat and chemical foods they both reduced after finally becoming politically correct to do so. Yep your Boy Scout tent and the rope that held it and the knapsack and canteen cover or the waterbags on covered wagons chilling it as they traveled. That fine linen not killing the soil as flax does or the burial cloth of hemp. The fuel that Diesel made doesn't fund terrorists or paramilitary governments. The car body of hemp doesn't strip mine down mountains or smog the air with hydrocarbon plastic and fiberglass pollutants . And as I might not have expected, she didn't just patronize me or the info. It was interesting. Hashish Incense?

As I said, I assumed it would be a simple process all along after giving directions to the Mortician before all this 911 fluxom, I assumed he would pick him up and that'd be it. It was apparently the Mortician who called 911 when he couldn't reach the doctor for confirmation. But as far as I knew it was what I had experienced on past cases and no reason not to burn one in the meantime. So needless to say I was in a somber Cali coast homegrown buzzing mood from the gitgo. Now the cops and the coroner want to talk to me and make sure I'm not a Kovorkean follower. Said they were going to test the bodily fluids and I said well in that case...He was a cannabis patient. Though usually only occasionally before bedtime and that he had none since the previous night before last, providing a restful sleep.

I told them I was solely responsible, though with 3 doctors giving me verbal authorization and the families ok, not to mention the patients ok the past half dozen years. I knew I was at least morally right in giving it to him as I have helped patients find it for over 20 years. And using it personally over 30 years I know my past few years of a 24/7 responsibility wasn't anti motivation or the other Nihas theatrical symptoms with fascist lies attached. To my surprise the coroner said no problem. Took the parkinson meds and other pharmaids and never even mentioned the left over ganja which I properly and personally, even if unprofessionally disposed of in memory and thanks of knowing such a fine human being and open minded friend who will be sorely missed in this dysfunction junction we all call home. ¶8) Then I started asking this Quincy about the war on drugs and cannabis. Getting the typical wod junkie replies I verbally pounced on that poor dude like white on rice. Scolding him for perpetuating this war on sick and dying people as he inched his way out the door and backwards down the sidewalk towards his car. Realizing, awkwardly that his back up cops had already escaped. I raised my voice that a kid could be a gateway to stolen tv sets the same as his rhetoric of seeing 3rd graders on heroin starting on pot. Bushit! Every other common reefer mad utterance was shot down in flames as I could feel I had some kind of authority over this so called public servant. It was called truth.

The thought had to cross his mind of his "duty" to drag a 90 year old dying patient to prison for bypassing the pharmaids to treat side effects of the heavy duties. Especially the Rox Cocktails and dope em up and strap em down techniques of the typical Unkle Bushit dying warehouses left as options to the working class over the usually unaffordable agency+tax cost of living it out at home. phwheeeew! I believe Jake was smiling down cheering me on. Then it was finally over...again. I then turned and fired up a joint in his memory, not caring if Rudy and his entire haggle of Rough Riders dragged me off to the cages. As another episode of Cannabis Caregivers winds down I have once again had the privilege of sharing cannabis and witnessing life's much better than tv's comedies and dramas and the "healing by re-leaf" and bonified credibility to assure me the fight for total cannabis freedom is a righteous one... ¶8)

Cannabis Peace, Love and Liberty or the Merchants of D.E.A.th!
DdC

"It's a good crowd," said Ms. Baptiste, who works in real estate. "You will see nothing but peace here."

I have yet to see a pro-cannabis rally erupt in violence...participant-caused violence, that is. But as soon as the police enter the equation, it's like mixing nitrogen tri-iodide; the stuff is so unstable, it blows up with a dirty look.

Not that the crowds are unstable...though I have seen some people who should have done their serious tripping under less chaotic circumstances. (Smile) Nope, I mean that as soon as the police show up, there's a palapable sense of impending 'git some!' (you Vets know what I mean) about to be unleashed against the crowd...which up to that point was just as the nice lady said - full of 'nothing but peace'.

Cops know that cannabis is not a violence-inducing drug. they have even publicly admitted it; though not directly. Ask any cop who he'd prefer to bust, drunk or 'pothead'. He'll pick the 'pothead' every time; he doesn't want to spend time in the hospital from a mad drunk slashing at him with a busted bottle. But they also know that the surest way to provoke violence is to threaten violence.

Which their very presence promises.

They know that too. All they have to do is be too rough in arresting someone, and the match is lit, the fuze is burning, and an explosion is forthcoming. Which they know from experience they can weather easily, because the present Conservative control of the LE apparatus excuses the shotgunning of children in wrong house drug raids as acceptable 'collateral damage' to win this interminable 'war'. Sick.

As the rest of the world goes decrim, and Uncle is left with an increasingly dwindling coterie of sycophant nations addicted to his largesse, public attention will gradually be turned to why we are continuing to whip a dead - and disgustingly decomposing - horse called cannabis prohibition. I wouldn't want to be a cop, a judge, a probation officer, or anyone taking a paycheck for ruining cannabis consumer's lives.

Friends,

If you're up late tonight (or know how to program a VCR) you can see me on Politically Incorrect. I'll be debating Bob Weiner (former Drug Czar McCaffrey's spokesperson), actress Rachael Leigh Cook (who did the ONDCP ad swinging they frying pan a few years ago), and comedian Steve Marmel. The entire show is devoted to the drug war. Check your local listings for times or go to