Cannabis News DrugSense
  A Time for Patriots To Rebel
Posted by CN Staff on December 16, 2005 at 08:56:28 PT
By John Calvin Webster 
Source: North County Times  

medical San Diego, CA -- Today is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party. In a legendary act of defiance, Massachusetts patriots donned feathers, blankets and face paint, and boarded a cargo ship in Boston Harbor loaded with 342 trunks of dried and processed leaves from the Camellia sinensus plant ---- British East India tea. In an act of defiance that was repeated in five other ports, they dumped the entire shipment into the harbor and helped spawn the revolution that founded our nation.

The tea parties were political protests, symbolic gestures against a British-imposed tax on tea and the tyranny of a distant government.

Two hundred thirty-two years later, folks living in the "Land of the Free" are still struggling with the tyranny of government controls, and once again a plant is at the center of the controversy. This time the plant is marijuana, and specifically its medicinal use. In 1996 our state's voters had their own "California-style" tea party. They passed Proposition 215, which threw federal marijuana laws overboard. The message that the federal ban on medicinal marijuana was unacceptable could not have been clearer.

However, San Diego County supervisors, who appear to be living on the other side of an ocean of public sentiment, elected last week to defy the will of their constituents, and are seeking to have Prop. 215 overturned by suing the state. Their position is that federal laws banning all use of marijuana are correct and supersede state law, and that allowing sick and dying patients to follow state law and use marijuana with a doctor's recommendation sends the wrong message to children.

Witch hunts like this don't protect children, they burn lives. It's a vicious way to practice one's ideology ---- evasive, cruel and vindictive.

The supervisors' decision to sue the state is based on irrational fears, political expediency and the faulty intelligence from a war on drugs that America has waged against itself for more than 30 years. A war that we lost long ago.

Think I'm wrong? Watch the news this evening and count the drug ads. From toe fungus to erectile dysfunction, there isn't a problem that can't be solved by drugs. And it's not just on TV, it is everywhere we turn. We are bombarded with drug sales pitches day in and day out.

It is hard to imagine that America will ever be a drug-free society when one in 14 Americans is on anti-depressants and the hottest new job for college grads this year is a career as a pharmacist. Pharmaceutical companies are even hiring cheerleaders to push their products.

Drug manufacturers are major lobbyists and big political donors too. My congressman, Darrell Issa, doesn't want to talk about fixing the federal anti-marijuana laws, he wants to run seminars to explain the cornucopia of new Medicare drug plans available.

And then there are the true gateway drugs, alcohol and tobacco. In spite of limits on advertising, these two commodities are still heavily promoted to young adults. Between the Viagra and bikini-clad babes in beer ads, life looks pretty good on drugs. What message are our kids getting from all this?

San Diego County can't fix any drug problem by arresting medical marijuana users. The fact is, the supervisors' abstinence-or-else message will never reach the kids they fawn to protect. It will fade into the background noise of the pro-drug pitches that permeate daily life.

Our supervisors need to get on board with their constituents and stop the frivolous suit against Prop. 215. The time has come for citizens to sink the federal ban against medical marijuana ---- just like my ancestors sank the tea tax in 1773.

John Calvin Webster lives in Vista.

Source: North County Times (CA)
Author: John Calvin Webster
Published: December 16, 2005
Copyright: 2005 North County Times
Contact: editor@nctimes.com
Website: http://www.nctimes.com/

Related Articles:

Supervisors Wrong on Medical Marijuana
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21377.shtml

Marijuana Brought Relief To My Dying Father
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21368.shtml

County To Sue To Overturn Medical Marijuana Law
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21363.shtml


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Comment #25 posted by AgaetisByrjun on December 20, 2005 at 17:33:24 PT
I'm listening to "New Face in Hell" right now
by the Fall:

Wireless enthusiast intercepts government secret radio band and uncovers secrets and scandals of deceitful type proportions.

Aghast goes next door to his neighbor, secretly excited, as aforementioned was a hunter whom radio enthusiast wanted friendship and favor of.

A new face in hell

Nearly a new face in hell!

A muscular, thick-skinned, slit-eyed neighbor is at the table poisoned just thirty seconds before by parties who knew of wireless operator's forthcoming revelation.

A new face in hell!

A prickly line of sweat covers enthusiast's forehead as the realization hits him that the same government him and his now dead neighbor voted for and backed and talked of on cream porches have tricked him into their war against the people who enthusiast and dead hunter would have wished torture on. A servant of government walks in and arrests wireless fan in kitchen for murder of his neighbor

A new face in hell!

The dead cannot contradict Sometimes the living cannot

A new face in hell!

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #24 posted by FoM on December 18, 2005 at 09:25:40 PT
Related Article from The North County Times
Supervisors Right To Question Medical Marijuana

***

By Pam Slater-Price

December 17, 2005

As members of the San Diego County Board of Supervisors, we recently voted to clarify the laws surrounding implementation of Proposition 215, an initiative authorizing medical marijuana identification cards.

State law says the sale of marijuana to medicinal users is legal. Federal law says it is illegal. My colleagues and I on the board voted not to distribute user cards. Later we voted to challenge state implementation of the law.

The courts will now decide whether federal law pre-empts or supersedes state law. That's the clarification we need. Holding a card may give medicinal users a false sense that what they are doing is legal. Additionally, the board might very well be in violation of federal law if we distribute the cards.

Tuesday's troublesome events shed more light on this issue. Federal agents executed search warrants on 13 medical marijuana dispensaries in the cities of San Diego and San Marcos. Since the latter city was once known to law enforcement officials and newspapers as the Methamphetamine Capital of the World, the proliferation of marijuana dispensaries there should make anyone sit up and take notice.

Apparently, marijuana, easy to grow and cost-efficient, and now tacitly "legal," is a more lucrative trade. For there to be 13 illegal dispensaries already in business begs the question, where's the oversight?

Most telling was that a state judge issued the warrants and federal agents raided the dispensaries. This is precisely the quandary about mixed authority that prompted the Board of Supervisors to seek clarification of this issue.

Should you have any remaining questions about the effect of medical marijuana dispensaries on law enforcement and our neighborhoods, I urge you to discuss them with the sheriff and other law enforcement officials. Our public safety agencies have a tremendous problem with these outlets.

Frankly, if this was really a legally approved drug you would go to a pharmacy to buy your prescription.

In closing, the state has at its disposal many ways to issue medical marijuana ID cards. For instance, driver's licenses or Medi-Cal cards could be altered to signify allowed use.

Establishing political cover by forcing local governments to challenge state law is not the answer.

Pam Slater-Price is chairwoman of the county government's Board of Supervisors.

Copyright: 2005 North County Times

Link: http://tinyurl.com/9p9lt

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #23 posted by whig on December 18, 2005 at 01:58:50 PT
Toker00
Man does not make laws, we can only discover them. Nor can man defy laws, we can only understand them well enough to use them advantageously. Gravity is the law of universal mass attraction, no king, judge or legislator can make it otherwise by proclamation. So too are the laws which govern people in their choices and their social interactions, we have free will to act but not to avoid the consequences of our actions.

Setting man above God, respecting statutes and regulations and rulings as superior to the laws of the universe, is folly and it is idolatry. Nor rely upon priests, scribes and pharisees, hypocrites, but seek within yourself. Not of yourself, but that which yourself is of, and be wary of the self-deceiver.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #22 posted by FoM on December 17, 2005 at 12:54:05 PT
Toker00
That is great. I believe if a person owns a place to rent we need to make it right for those who rent from us. We have invested near $8,000 dollars in the one home over the last year. We still have this dream that we could build a four unit retirement apartment in the future. I have ideas as to a layout but it is a few years away from doing. I think we could put up double that amount and have a nice place to retire for people who want to live in the country. We have free hospice care and home health in our county. We have meals on wheels and a senior van that will pick up people and take them shopping. Dreams sometimes do come true.

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Comment #21 posted by Toker00 on December 17, 2005 at 12:39:38 PT
I like my landlord
I fix everything that goes wrong in this house I rent till I find what I want to buy, or build. My landlord just says bring them the receipts and they will knock it off the rent. It saves me waiting for them to respond, and them the trouble of "figuring it out". They told me they love me as a renter. That's fair. No matter where I have ever lived, I have had to live in a place where everything works. And looks decent. Even if I have to do it myself. I have a long list of happy landlords, actually. They never interrupt me with rude appearances at wrong times.

Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!

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Comment #20 posted by FoM on December 17, 2005 at 09:21:07 PT
I Agree Toker00
You said: This is why the government hates us "dirty Hippies". We push sharing and caring over greed and profit-sharing!

We are good landlords. My husband is going along with the people who rent from us to pick up the dishwasher we bought for them and for the house they rent. It benefits them and us. When my husband needs help they come running and that is how it all can work.

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Comment #19 posted by FoM on December 17, 2005 at 08:27:13 PT
My Thoughts
I look at a solution this way. Taxing and regulating Cannabis and selling it at state stores is fine but a person can brew their own beer so why wouldn't people be able to grow their own Cannabis and share it with friends like a person can do with home brew?

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Comment #18 posted by Toker00 on December 17, 2005 at 07:06:12 PT
Whig
So, the answer is not to Legalize, Tax, and Regulate, but rather to end ALL restrictions by ending Cannabis PROHIBITION. Complete Liberation. Like Oxygen. Like The Wilderness. Like NATURE. And Like We Should Be, Without Man's Laws. And like all the growers who grow their own.

Just one question. Who would be responsible for marketing the Cannabis to those who don't grow? Who would profit? I don't think every single person who tokes is going to tend a garden, or be able to. Would they just be allowed to share everyone else's weed who do grow? Now that's not a bad idea! No profit sharing, just sharing! Here, have some Rain water. Here, have some Air. Here, have some Sunshine, and, here, have some Cannabis. I love it!

That's really the answer to everything we need. We have to stop doing things for profit, and start doing things because they need to be done. If you wash cars for a living, would you wash cars all day for free knowing you were going home to a decent house you paid no rent on? For food grown and prepared by people who do this all day? For clothes that others make all day? And all the other GOOD things people do all day for free? If you knew that was the only way to have the things you want or need? Instead of doing it for "Money"? It's called bartering. It's been done through out history. Not by governments, but by PEOPLE. The government doesn't like that, because they make no PROFIT from good things. They make no profit from healthy people. They make no profit from peaceful people. They make no profit from law abiding citizens. Everything that profit touches is corrupt. If we trade among ourselves for things we need, capitalism would DIE. I have a list of things I do for profit. I have a list of things I need. But, instead of for profit, I'll sweep your store for a bag of groceries. I'll roof your house for that fine leather sofa you make. I'll join with millions of other barterers and build an infra-structure to support a balance with nature, as long as I have food to eat, a form of transportation, a house to live in, and my curiosities satisfied (and freedom that respects the laws of nature). And some of that FREE CANNABIS! But let's call it Humanism and not Communism, K?

This is why the government hates us "dirty Hippies". We push sharing and caring over greed and profit-sharing!

Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!

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Comment #17 posted by whig on December 17, 2005 at 05:42:43 PT
JR Bob Dobbs
"I always forget about homegrown since the current government makes the penalties against it so harsh. Yes, hooray for homegrown. My diatribe was directed solely against the black market."

Even insofar as the "black market" is subject to unscrupulous actors, so is the above-ground market, and this is particularly so in the government-regulated industries.

Take a look at commercial cigarettes, and tell me what resemblance most of them have to natural tobacco. Yes, there is American Spirit Organic. And that's really it.

If you let the government regulate cannabis production and distribution, you'll have RJ Reynolds and Philip Morris given a privilege to sell chemically-drenched "marijuana cigarettes" while honest growers will be subjected to no less enforcement than now.

I'm sorry, but I still disagree with you.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #16 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on December 17, 2005 at 04:40:21 PT
True
I always forget about homegrown since the current government makes the penalties against it so harsh. Yes, hooray for homegrown. My diatribe was directed solely against the black market.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #15 posted by whig on December 17, 2005 at 04:22:41 PT
JR Bob Dobbs
"This only shows very vividly the need for a regulated, legal system of manufacture and distribution. When's the last time someone went blind from a bad bottle of gin?"

In a word: No.

Distilling alcohol is dangerous, and can leave impurities such as methanol. It is the latter which leads to the problems you identify with moonshine.

Growing pot, though? Excuse me, but there is absolutely no better way of knowing that your herb is free of contamination than tending your own garden.

Homegrown. It's the way it should be.

HAND

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Comment #14 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on December 17, 2005 at 02:55:14 PT
Purity Of Essence - Peace On Earth
No matter where the heroin in the pot in Denver comes from, it does make one thing strikingly clear: Decriminalization of personal possession is not the end-game. This only shows very vividly the need for a regulated, legal system of manufacture and distribution. When's the last time someone went blind from a bad bottle of gin?

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #13 posted by ekim on December 16, 2005 at 21:11:26 PT
anyone know the percentage of state to feds
received this email today asking about how much state and feds split up on drug busts. anyone know if stats are stored somewhere. say on the last years busts. man i bet the number is unreal as Kapt is allways sayen we can not afford this nightmare anymore-- here in MI we are losing thousands of jobs and papermills by the dozens while farmers get less than 2 bucks for a bushel of corn.

do you have any idea of the value of the property that's been confiscated in drug raids?

I'm trying to educate some people about what the hell is going on that they know nothing about.

And understanding that cooperating with the DEA gets state, county and local LEA"s a percentage of what's confiscated can make them more aware of what's going on.



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #12 posted by mrjimm1 on December 16, 2005 at 19:03:51 PT:

Re: Happy New Year
A brand new congress & president? I doubt it. Nice pipe dream, but I have a suggestion that's even more radical. It would solve this whole drug war once and for all. It's God's Chosen Fast, and it starts with loosing the chains of injustice. Not enforcing illegitimate laws like the one that outlaws "one of the safest therapuetically active substances known to man" based on it being "dangerous" and having "no medical value." That law is a lie. Besides, God gives plants of the field to everyone, and hemp qualifies. This is a nation that claims to be "under God," but is anything but. Visit my website and listen to my message. Don't be turned off by its dated nature; 1994 was the year of favor, and that was when I was supposed to call for God's Chosen Fast. I'm still calling for it now in 2005, and I'll be pitching it next year too. This Bible-reading President should listen to my message and heed it, while there's still time. (And there's no pressing rush to do this, other than that it's really easy to do and will lead to justice quicker than any other method.) I feel like a broken record, repeating this stuff continually. But someday this position will be able to enter into the public discourse, and that's when the true nature of our war on drugs will be fully revealed. I want to see the prisoners set free, and an end to the current rule of idols. (Can't avoid mentioning them, since they're at the heart of the problem.) Isaiah 2:18 states that "the idols will totally disappear." Gotta happen sometime. Now is as good a time as any. In this bone-headed war on drugs, God is on the side of the victims, not the world forces of darkness that constitute our government.

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Comment #11 posted by runruff on December 16, 2005 at 14:21:37 PT:

A hppy new year.
Yes, a brand new congress and a brand new fearless leader would make a very happy new year for as all. Do ya think that could ever happen? If I were king I'd fire every one of them and hang their fearless leader.

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Comment #10 posted by Max Flowers on December 16, 2005 at 12:38:47 PT
jared3602
Sorry to tell you, LOTS of people smoke heroin. It works a whole lot better than smoking mushrooms does. They smoke the "black tar" type but the salt (white powder) can be smoked too.

But this business about them finding heroin laced pot is definitely highly suspicious as a DEA operation, or perhaps it was the pissed-off local cops who did it. You're right of course about heroin being a lot more expensive per-dose than cannabis---there's no comparison actually. So the idea of pot dealers putting heroin on their pot is absurd, they would never do it, mainly for the money reason (they would LOSE money instead of making it).

The goal was the same as it always is with these creeps: SCARE SCARE SCARE. They want to scare the populace with manufactured "emergencies" into cowering down and asking for help out of this "dire sudden threat." Sound familiar? It is EXACTLY the same Modus Operandi employed on a much larger scale by the Bush administration regarding the "terrorist threat" and 9/11.

Speaking of that deception, this is a good spot to vent something I've been needing to vent for quite a while now. I hope that a lot of you will resonate with this and will like seeing it expressed, so bear with me (sorry FoM, but I have to purge this).

I reject totally the idea that the Bush Administration and Congress and the entire government structure are basing all of their post-9/11 actions on: the premise, the assumption, the presumption that the vast majority of we Americans on September 11, 2001 immediately began living in a state of abject fear. This is the foundation for everything that they're doing, and I submit to you all that it is totally fabricated and has no basis in reality. I don't know a single person who has expressed fear of becoming a victim of terrorism. Not one. And I talk to a lot of people. I don't think that such a mindstate is even available to us; it simply is not the way we here live our lives, and even if terrorism began to break out in the USA, I believe that rather than cower and cry and beg for protection (as these government morons would love to have us do), Americans would simply come up with their own uniquely American response to it, whatever that may be.

But whatever that would be, it would certainly not involve all of us deciding that for "protection" we are willing to trade overnight all of the values, freedoms and principles we have been trying to live under and which the entire nation and its traditions are founded on! I just don't see it happening. Yet they've already assigned us and painted us with that cowardly and pathetic attitude!

That is one of the WORST aspects of this whole tragedy---that they assume we are all cowards who on September 12, 2001 all began huddling, cowering if not outwardly, inwardly, very afraid of "terrorism", and that this makes us willing to give up the country we had treasured before, trading it away for "safety"! I never did this, and I don't think 99.9% of us did either! THEY (neo-cons and congresspersons and senators) are PRETENDING that we have, and saying that we have.

STOP representing us all as these spineless cowards of your own invention! You might be, but We The People are not cowards ready to trade away our liberty for the promise of your dubious protection! Show us where this was asked for! I don't remember petitions and demonstrations demanding that the government protect us at all costs, including the loss of our civil liberties, the protections outlined in the Bill Of Rights, and the limited federal scope assured by the Constitution! We never asked for that, so why have those changes become our reality? The answer has to be that the congresspersons, senators and others who put through those changes---purportedly "on our behalf"---are themselves cowards who were willing to trade their own liberties and allow an illegal war to be waged for this alleged protection, and did it in OUR name, when we never wanted it.

Thanks... I think I got it all out. I would like to think that the vast core of American attitude about the subject is a close match to what I've written above.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #9 posted by FoM on December 16, 2005 at 10:17:29 PT
mayan
I agree. I can remember as clear as day when my mind first thought about marijuana and legalizing it. It was when they changed the laws in Ohio in the 70s. I thought to myself when our culture finally grows up and becomes the leaders of our country the laws will change. We are getting closer.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #8 posted by jared3602 on December 16, 2005 at 10:02:15 PT
runruff lol
i get a kick out of your comments.

herion laced pot? who in there right mind would do that? it costs a lot more so the dealer would be lossing money. That and i have never heard of someone smoking herion. That's like when people say they smoke magic mushrooms.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #7 posted by mayan on December 16, 2005 at 09:59:33 PT
FoM
Our culture is now accepted by the overwhelming majority of folks. It's only the corrupted government and the media whores who fail to accept us but that is their downfall. They have lost their credibility and any sense of legitimacy among real people. We will defend the truth and pass the defenders of the status quo by as they have failed to chart a progressive course. Theirs is a dying culture as ours is barely out of the cradle.

Every day our numbers grow as theirs shrink. Isn't that a pleasant thought? Time is on our side.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by FoM on December 16, 2005 at 09:42:08 PT
I'm So Tired
It seems almost everyday I see a person from the 60s on the news. Today it was Arlo Guthrie. Neil Young will be on Saturday Night Live tomorrow. The musicians that are Icons for many of us are getting unbelievable respect and rightfully so but what about the culture that has followed them all these years? Why can't we be legitimized too?

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by runruff on December 16, 2005 at 09:41:52 PT:

Heroin laced pot.
If this is true I'd bet my neighbor's dog that it is planted there by the DEA. This is exactly their modis operendi. From I know of heroin users the abhore cannabis. They even hate the smell of it. I have had to convince a couple of friends of mine, years ago, to use a good strong cannabis to help them through their sick period when they "kick". It works very well. Now more likely some opium laced herb might show up. I've seen and tried this compo and it was pretty good. Too heavy though. You have to be in a time and place to do nothing but space out. But putting heroin on herbs I think most people who use heroin would find this to be a waste. Just my opinion.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by Zandor on December 16, 2005 at 09:32:38 PT
I watched a TV show last evening
I watched a TV show last evening (12-15-05) about our Health care crisis. From what I got from that show the single largest problem with America’s health care system is that consumers use it. I can’t believe they said the largest problem is consumers let doctors write them scripts for pills they don’t need. There was little to nothing about all the uninsured people (legal and illegal) who receive medical treatments and don’t pay for it. It’s those of us who pay for insurance that are to blame because we use it. We let out Doctors treat us with the training they went to school for and I guess that is where we went wrong. We need to have more politicians tell us when we are sick I guess. The other problem they were talking about is we live to long too and I guess that’s our fault as well.

Now is the time to stand up to them and say NO. Bring in a new congress please do what you can to change congress the one we have not is not working (not that it ever has) but a change is better then keeping the status the same.

Get involved even at local levels please, the Christian way far right is and they need to be stopped now or it will only get way worse.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by runruff on December 16, 2005 at 09:30:54 PT:

My cousin the cop.
He is for all I know a standup guy. He is a Sargent on the vice squad in Stockton, Ca. One day at a family reunion I said to him,"So Scotty, You are chasing prostitutes and drug dealers around town now." "Is this true?" He said, "yes." I said, "Well I chase them around too but probably not for the same reason!" I was just joking as I like to do but you should have seen the look on his face.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #2 posted by mayan on December 16, 2005 at 09:25:51 PT
Idiots
It looks like the San Diego city supervisors have become the laughing stock of the land! What idiots.

Off topic...

Denver votes to legalize and suddenly there's heroin-laced weed floating around. Sure...

More students found with heroin-laced pot: http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_3314145

The Cincinnati Bengal's rookie of the year candidate, Chris Henry, busted for weed...

Henry arrested: http://www.bengals.com/news/news.asp?story_id=4922



[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by runruff on December 16, 2005 at 09:21:03 PT:

Two hundred and thirty two years later
we now live in the land of the pee.

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