It's a 25 pound sledge hammer. Big difference between a 9 oz hammer and a 25 pound hammer :)!

SPLAT! With the least effort!!

Too bad there is no study on cocaine during the early 80's. Exact same reason.

And today, it is same thing with Piss testings..

So many excellent postings here to ponder about and spread the word.

Find a prohibitionist and use this sledge hammer!

SPLAT!!

Let's use it baby! in letters to papers, congress, legislators, governors, presidents, magazines and in casual conversation with freinds, family and co-workers!

This report is drug warrior evidence which demonstrates our point that the War on Drugs is counterproductive.

More specifically and more directly, the War on Marijuana is leading to a growth in the market for far more dangerous substances.

This information is useless to us if we overanalyze it rather than simply taking the message, in it's clearest, most concise form and using it to HAMMER our point home.

Sarcasm is fun, but the reality is scary. While flipping around the channels last night, I stumbled on a show on the History channel on Angola State Prison in Lousiana. Before the Civil War, the prison was "Angola Farm", a huge and productive slave plantation, named for the country of origin for most of the slaves.

Immediately following the Civil War, the state turned Angola into a prison, and contracted with a man who ran the prison for free, in exchange for the free labor of the inmates. The History channel announcer said that after being freed, many uneducated blacks turned to crime. He mentioned robbery and rape. But you know damn well that they filled that thing up with violators of the "Jim Crow" laws. Up until the 1960's, it was a crime in New Orleans for a black man to look a white woman in the eye. It was a crime for a black person to NOT step off the sidewalk to let white people walk by.

The announcer claimed that prisoners fared much worse at the prison than they had as slaves; as slaves, the plantation owner had a personal investment in each person and tried to keep them healthy. As prisoners, they were quickly worked to death to make room for the next wave. Guards would walk up and down the line of working prisoners, beating them with a wooden bat if they slowed too much. Chronic slow workers were held down and lashed with a huge whip. I think the average life expectancy in the prison was like 5 years.

A couple of wings of the prison featured medieval dungeon-like cells, tiny rooms with only a shelf of concrete for sleeping. Men would get 2 bowls of water a day, they could either use it to flush the toilet, or drink it. The units had open windows, so rain and mosquitos poured in constantly. As bad as anything in medieval days.

In 1972, the prison was reformed. Now the inmates work fewer hours, but the prison is still a very productive and profitable farm. It remains the biggest prison in the US. Run by white people, full of blacks. The show was fascinating - you rarely see it reflected in the media, but as a society we love prison and see it as answer for all our problems. We are the world's leading prison state.

I'm fascinated by Southern history and it's impact on modern day America. I think Northerners and West Coasters need to realize that much of the reason for our culture and laws today is directly related to what happened after the Civil War. Instead of the Union persevering and rebuilding the South, educating the ex-slaves and integrating them into society, the North backed off and let the South revert to quasi-slavery, with lynchings and segregation that persisted all the way until the 60's and 70's. It seems like many of the black people moved into Northern cities during than time, and the South was able to export its racism and associated problems along with the people.

Now, we're stuck in the same country and government with those states. Our representative system of government lets them have a huge stake in what happens in this country. Everything in our political system is a trade off or a compromise. In the 60's the feds forced them to give up segregation and lynchings, but as compensation for reform, the Southern Congressmen extracted the Drug War as a compromise - the Northerners threw 'em a bone.

Mostly younger kids...

When I was way younger, and going for some cannabis, and it was not available, I was told the guy had some T, or THC... and I figured, it's just THC, right? and then snorted some and went gone for a bit, got way paranoid and had to call someone to come pick Me up, to get away from where I was.

That example is not alone, I would imagine.

That is how the gateway effect really happens, with hard drugs, and people simply wanting cannabis.

Think about it. If you couldn't score for awhile, would you run out and get on crystal meth? How many people would?

Shame on the US Gov. for they have no shame.

However, they're the dumbest bunch of critters on the face of the earth.

They're the modern day 'Know Nothings'. Corrupt and insane, there is no help anyone can give that will save them, save The Honorable Ron Paul.

The lot of them must be taking meth.

For those unaware, Asa has been on a clandestine tour of various locations (recently Fort Worth) ostensibly to rally the troops in his Methamphetamiine war.

Of course we all know that it's really just the same old Marijuana war dressed up in the much scarier Methamphetamine and Club Drug menace.

I say clandestine because there's no advanced public notice of the meetings. They inform the press at the last minute but leave no time for organized opposition to crash the party.

It's obvious to me, Asa's afraid of us.

I do realize that sometimes common sense is proven to not be the greatest wisdom, but that is usually true for those who mislabel their lack of intelligent thought on a particular subject as common sense. Human behavior is not easy to define for individuals, but thousands of years of recorded history have given us a pretty good idea of what we humans tend to do en masse.

Here's a hint, prohibs: we humans desire to use substances to achieve euphoric feelings. The object should not be to stamp out those desires (we obviously developed them for a reason), nor should it be to rid the world of those substances. The object of "substance control," if such a term can be applied to this strategy, should be to analyze and inform everyone of the relative risks and dangers associated with these different substances and attempt to divert the majority of us who use one or more of them to the less harmful ones--not by force, but by thoughtful persuasion based on solid scientific facts. If such were the applied strategy, cannabis would be at the top of every health-conscious person's list of less harmful substances. Alcohol and tobacco would be at the bottom.

Of course, coupled with the above strategy, we should set up a system that adequately addresses addiction, which should not, under any circumstances, include forcing people to recite the mantra that they are powerless over X substance--so powerless, in fact, that only a supernatural being can now help them. Any thoughtful person can take one look at that system (the 12 steps, whose efficacy has been highly overrated) and realize that such a mantra is ultimately a harmful self-fulfilling prophecy. We need to be telling people that they are capable of overcoming their addictions, not that they are not. And we should be willing to supply ever-decreasing amounts of highly physically addictive substances to addicts to help them wean themselves completely. We do it for nicotine (the patch, gum, etc.); why can't we do it for heroin? We can (Switzerland's program is proof), and we should.

Finally, we should educate people about measures they can take to diminish the harmful effects of any substance that they choose to use. Doctors should be in the habit of telling their patients that while any substance in excess can be harmful, there are ways to prevent serious harm in many cases. Brochures should be drawn up that effectively address the measures people can take to limit the harmful effects of using certain substances.

I could go on, but I think that sums up my position to an adequate degree.

William J. Whitfield 3rd, an unarmed African American man, was shot dead in a New York supermarket on 25 December 1997 by police who said they mistook the keys he was carrying for a gun. Although the officer who shot him was cleared of wrongdoing, it was revealed that he had been involved in eight prior shootings. The New York Police Department (NYPD) Police Commissioner subsequently set up a monitoring system for officers involved in three or more shootings.

Throughout the USA people are being injured and even killed by police using excessive force or deliberately brutal treatment. Police officers are punching, kicking, beating and shooting people who pose no threat, or are causing serious injuries, and sometimes death, by misusing restraints, chemical sprays or electro-shock weapons. Most reported incidents take place during arrest, searches, traffic stops or in street incidents.

If a lot of cannabis is circulating, crack use goes down.