For at least two generations, smoking dope has become an American way of life. According to federal statistics, about 94 million Americans -- or 40 percent of 12-year-olds and up -- admit to having blown some weed; 15 million say they've had a joint within the last month. Eleven states have declared that the drug war has failed, passing laws that say, for adults, taking a toke is no longer a crime. In these states, from Oregon to Maine, from Alaska to Mississippi, holding a joint will no longer result in your sharing a cell with a murderer, rapist or larcenous CEO. Instead, you'll end up with something akin to a slap on the wrist or a ticket and a fine.

There are also 11 states that don't arrest those suffering from the side effects of chemotherapy or AIDS if they use marijuana to ease their pain. But not in Illinois. Despite more than 2-1 public support for medical marijuana legislation and endorsements from health groups, there was not enough support to pass Sen. John Cullerton's (D-Chicago) medical marijuana bill this month.

There is a huge body of evidence, argues Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, that marijuana prohibition today is working about as well as alcohol prohibition did in the Roaring '20s. In February, no less an authority than the U.S. Justice Department reported in its 2006 Drug Threat Assessment that "marijuana availability is high and stable or increasing slightly.''

The feds have been fighting marijuana since classifying it as a narcotic in the 1930s. Jealous that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was getting more press, Harry J. Anslinger, the first commissioner of the Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics, started his campaign on cannabis by singlehandedly giving weed a bad rep. Back then, marijuana was the drug of choice for black jazz musicians and Mexicans -- a fact Anslinger was careful to note, pointing out that "it makes the Negro feel as if he is as good as the white man'' and that "all Mexicans are crazy and this stuff makes them crazy.''

Cannabis has been demonized in the nation since, while the desire for it has risen. From the time Anslinger managed to get the drug banned in 1937, Mirken said, use has gone up 2,000 percent.

That has created what Mirken describes as the drug-war-industrial complex, an entire industry from bureaucrats to law enforcement agencies to penal systems that are making money by keeping marijuana illegal.

In the past year, the pot prohibition has produced record devil-weed arrests and a bumper crop of American POWs in our nation's prisons. In 2005, there 786,545 marijuana arrests -- 696,074 just for possession. About 34,000 state and 11,000 federal inmates are incarcerated for marijuana offenses. We're spending $1 billion a year to put them there and another $8 billion a year to keep them there.

We could regulate, license and tax marijuana. Instead we blow billions on busting and jailing peaceful citizens from whom we could collect millions in tax revenue -- much like we do with alcohol.

For our nation's lawmakers to not grasp such a commonsense approach, you've got to wonder what they've been smoking.

Source: Chicago Sun-Times (IL)
Author: Monroe Anderson
Published: November 12, 2006
Copyright: 2006 The Sun-Times Co.
Contact: letters@suntimes.com
Website: http://www.suntimes.com/

Marijuana Policy Project
http://www.mpp.org/

Fred Eisenberger 54,110 *Elected

Larry Di Ianni 53,658 *Incumbent - Defeated

Diane Elms 9,459

Michael Baldasaro 4,520 *pro-cannabis

Gino Speziale 1,274

Steve Leach 1,250

Freedom is another word for GOD

And Soul

It is our place to witness

i vOTE FOR CANNABIS TO BE FREE

we are living on just one planet, this 3rd rock from the sun.

Your place when you can press the button of FREEDOM

one place

It's about time Cannabis was legalised for the world.

Only we as Cannabis role-models, can change the world view of our wonderful spiritual sacrement.

Peace and one love ta all mi bredren&Sistren

I remember when Moses came down from the mountain

I remember when power was to God

And if you cannot see, then press the button that you hear, and the button you listen to every night, will fill your heart and soul, ever closer to that 'place'

Michael Baldasaro, 2006 Hamilton Mayoral candidate, and Stan White are obsessed with cannabis because they are thankful to and respectful of the Creator who gave it to humans as a blessing and a healing of the nations.

Pres that free button

Jesus and His disciples were invited to the wedding as well.

When the wine ran out, Jesus' mother told Him, "They don't have any wine."

"What has this concern of yours to do with Me, woman?" Jesus asked. "My hour has not yet come."

"Do whatever He tells you," His mother told the servants.

Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained 20 or 30 gallons.

"Fill the jars with water," Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim.

Then He said to them, "Now draw some out and take it to the chief servant." And they did.

When the chief servant tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from--though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom

and told him, "Everybody sets out the fine wine first, then, after people have drunk freely, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now."

Fine wine and alcohol.

Today If Jesus was dealing in Alcohol, some government agency would swoop down and take his property away from him, so he could no longer be a carpenter, no money, Jesus would die.

It is starting to crumble, and those ansligers and nixons may some day be remembered, I certainly will never forget the shitheads with their fedoras as they are laid to rest.

Good riddance now and forever.