cannabisnews.com: Pot or Politics?





Pot or Politics?
Posted by CN Staff on October 10, 2002 at 15:13:33 PT
By Laurel Chesky and Bruce Willey
Source: Good Times
Just before 7 a.m. on Sept. 5, before the sun had risen over the slope above his house, Mike Corral awakened to the sound of vehicles driving over the narrow gravel road leading to his property. He peeked outside the second-story window and saw five U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, dressed in black combat gear and wielding automatic weapons, marching towards his door. Like an episode out of Cops, the agents busted in the unlocked house and screamed at Corral to hit the floor.
“Stay calm, I’m not going to resist, you don’t have to do this,” he recalls saying before the agents pushed him to the ground, frisked and handcuffed him. Mike’s wife, Valerie, and two friends slept in an adjacent house on the couple’s 106-acre property—a quarter of which they own in the hills near Davenport—when Valerie heard heavy boot steps in her home. One of her friends, Suzanne Pfeil, a paraplegic who requires a respirator to breath, was being ordered out of bed. Because she couldn’t stand without the aid of crutches, agents handcuffed her to her bed. Meanwhile, Valerie, wearing the green silk pajamas that her mother had given her for her 50th birthday, walked through the door of the room and demanded, “What are you doing in my house? Get out.” The officers told her several times to hit the ground, while Valerie asked to see a search warrant and their badges. Instead, the DEA shoved her to the ground and cuffed her. The bantam, five-foot-tall Valerie was no match physically for the heavily armed agents, but she stood her ground, telling them that what they were doing was wrong. “The only way you’re going to shut me up is with duct tape,” Valerie told the agents gathered in the house. “You’re causing harm, you’re causing suffering and you need to know it.” For the past decade, the Corrals have run the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), a cooperative that grows marijuana and shares the harvested crop among its membership of medical marijuana patients, who swear by the reefer’s relief. WAMM patients suffer from cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, polio, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy (Valerie Corral suffers from seizures herself) and a host of other afflictions. And conventional pharmaceuticals, they say, just don’t do the trick.But that’s none of the DEA’s concern. The Corrals were taken, handcuffed, to jail in San Jose, where they spent the next eight hours in a holding cell. Meanwhile, agents took a chainsaw to 167 marijuana plants growing on the Corrals’ farm. As shocking as the morning proved to be, the Corrals feared a bust might be imminent. The WAMM bust is just one in a recent rash of raids on mom-and-pop medical marijuana cooperatives across the state. In the past year, the agency has raided gardens producing as few as six plants—chump change in terms of the feds’ goal of eradicating illicit drugs. And the DEA promises more to come.Slash and Burn  Nestled on a hill at the end of a long, bone-jolting road, sits the Corrals’ home, where the couple has lived for 16 years. The defunct WAMM garden is discreetly set 20 or so yards from the side of the ranch-style house, behind an old wooden gate. Aside from a small crop of corn, squash and a few heavily laden tomato plants, the wheelchair-accessible garden is stripped bare, weedless and dusty. Every 10 feet there are craters where the marijuana’s roots once grew, the only hint of what was. Up until Sept. 5, the Corral’s regularly doled out pot to 238 card-carrying medical marijuana patients, 85 percent of whom suffer from terminal illnesses. WAMM is touted as a model medical-marijuana cooperative. Patients and caregivers help grow the weed, which is given away, not sold. And the organization is picky about who gets it. It’s an unusual co-op—more hospice than pot club—and it’s a place where patients not only get pot to relieve suffering but find emotional support. WAMM enjoys the support of the Santa Cruz City Council, the county Board of Supervisors and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department. “Valerie Corral, of all people, is probably the most responsible of all the medical marijuana providers we’ve dealt with,” says sheriff’s spokesman Kim Allyn.Never mind, the feds say. The Corrals were breaking federal law, which deems marijuana a controlled substance with no recognized medical value. Federal law enforcement has never taken a hands-off approach to medical marijuana, legalized by state Proposition 215 in 1996. However, under the Clinton Administration, federal prosecutors targeted the largest and most public medical marijuana distributors.As far as growing operations, the DEA would rarely take on cases involving less than 1,000 plants. But in the past year, the DEA has taken to raiding small-time growers and distributors in California. “Up to a couple of years ago, the DEA never stepped in until there were thousands of plants,” says Dale Gieringer, the state coordinator of the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). “WAMM would not have typically been a DEA bust in past years. They’re now going after people we haven’t seen before.” In March, the DEA busted a 660-plant medical marijuana garden in Sonoma County. In August, the DEA seized 281 plants from a six-patient caregiver garden in Lake County; 128 plants from a 10-patient cooperative in Santa Rosa; 35 plants from a garden in Ventura County; and six plants from a garden in Butte County. Last month, following the raid of WAMM’s 167-plant garden, the DEA confiscated 26 plants grown by Steve McWilliams for six patients in San Diego. Federal prosecutors have yet to seek indictments related to any of these busts.Will Glaspy, DEA spokesman in Washington D.C., says raids on medical marijuana groups are not intensifying. “I think what you see is that we are enforcing the law consistently throughout the country,” says Glaspy. “However, due to circumstances in California, there’s certainly more media attention. Additionally you have people there who are openly discussing the fact that they are in violation of federal law, which adds to the information we have into the probable cause to initiate an investigation. If they flaunt the fact that they are in violation of federal law, that is something we are obligated to look into.” Does that mean that medical marijuana advocates invite a raid every time they go public? It’s a question Glaspy can’t or won’t answer. Still, California must be easy hunting grounds for the DEA. All they have to do is pick up the local paper, mark the spot and put on their boots and flak jackets.Seeded in Politics  Nevertheless, it’s the paltry size of recent busts, along with the U.S. Justice Department’s habit of not bothering to formally press charges on alleged criminals and therefore denying them legal recourse, that proves worrisome. The nature of the recent raids suggests that they have more to do with politics than fighting crime. To medical marijuana advocates and state and local officials, it seems that the federal government is flexing its sovereignty in a not-so-subtle way—the people be damned. “We’re pawns of a bigger issue—state versus federal rights,” Kim Allyn says. “Unfortunately, sick people and voters of California are caught in the fray.” In 1996, Prop. 215, carefully titled the Compassionate Use Act, decriminalized the use of medical marijuana for the seriously ill, thus setting a precedent—California became the first state to recognize the medical benefits of marijuana. Voters passed the ballot initiative by a 56 percent margin, a victory partly fueled by television ads that featured the heartbreaking stories of cancer patients who had found relief from their pain by smoking marijuana. After Prop. 215 passed, the state Attorney General’s office set up a task force to determine how it should be implemented. In the end, local law enforcement agencies were left with broad discretion of how to enforce the law in their local jurisdictions. Many organizations, such as WAMM, worked closely with local law enforcement and have for years operated with the cops’ blessing. Despite the will of the people, the federal government didn’t buy it from the beginning. Nor was President Bill Clinton about to inhale a law that would make him appear to be soft on drugs. In fact, Clinton devoted more funds and resources to the so-declared War on Drugs than Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr. combined. The Clinton Administration, including then drug czar General Barry McCaffrey, was wary that medical marijuana created a slippery slope towards outright legalization. Much in the way that marijuana is often accused of being a “gateway drug” into harder drugs like heroin and LSD, medical marijuana was, and still is, considered by many a guise, a gateway towards full-blown legalization. But medical marijuana and legalization advocates lay the blame for recent, stepped-up efforts to squash Prop. 215 squarely at the current administration’s feet. While it’s difficult to ascertain whether or not the crackdown on medical marijuana is being executed directly form the Oval Office, the busts do fall in line with the Bush Administration’s hawkish political agenda.“I think there is a different attitude in this administration,” says Rep. Sam Farr. “It’s one that is essentially—you feel it here in Washington—of a tightening of the reins.”Moreover, medical marijuana raids seem to reinforce the battle lines already drawn between the White House and California early in Bush’s term. People like WAMM’s Mike and Valerie Corral and the ill patients they serve could very well be collateral damage caught up in the political crossfire between the president and California Governor Gray Davis. “We saw in the energy crisis, the Bush Administration definitely trying to draw a line between a Democratic governor and a Republican president,” Farr says. “I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a hidden political agenda here. California didn’t vote for Bush.” A clearer trail leads straight to the U.S. Justice Department. The decidedly right U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has made no secret of his priority to escalate the War on Drugs and has even stretched it so far as to weave it inextricably with the War on Terrorism. In a March 19 speech to the DEA, Ashcroft declared: “In an era in which we know more than ever before about the ravages of drug abuse, surrender is not and cannot be an option. At a time when we see clearly the evil interdependence between the terrorists that kill American lives and illegal drugs that steal American potential, to surrender to either of these threats is to surrender to both.” Somehow, “never surrendering” translates to a focus on medical marijuana. California NORML research reveals that medical marijuana accounts for half of all the marijuana cases that ended up in the U.S. District Court in San Francisco this year. “Clearly there has been some sort of decision made internally within the Justice Department to not look the other way, one could say, at some of the most prominent marijuana operations in California,” says Paul Armentano, a spokesperson for the national NORML in Washington, D.C. “Whether it’s (DEA Administrator Asa) Hutchinson or Ashcroft or a combination of both, clearly with the new administration, there are some Drug War hawks in positions of power who clearly have decided that federal marijuana laws need to be enforced in California regardless of the will of the voters and regardless of the state law and, in particular, regardless of how this plays out in the court of public opinion.”Even more disturbing, the Justice Department has failed to press charges following the six small raids this year, including WAMM’s. Federal prosecutors have up to five years to press charges, but because they have yet to do so, it leaves would-be defendants living in limbo. Meanwhile, their plants are destroyed and growers are left without an opportunity to fight the DEA’s actions in court. “They told us it could be a day, it could be a week, it could be a year [before charges are pressed],” Mike Corral says. “I try to let go of it, otherwise you’ll be paranoid every second of the day, looking over your shoulder and fearful. We’ve never lived our lives like that, and we’re not going to start living our lives like that.”One explanation for federal prosecutors’ failure to seek indictment is that they know the cases would never fly in court. The WAMM bust prompted a Sept. 6 letter from California Attorney General Bill Lockyer to John Ashcroft, in which he requested a meeting with Ashcroft and the DEA’s Hutchinson. In the letter, Lockyer lambastes the DEA for conducting raids “without apparent regard for the likelihood of successful prosecution. … Conversations with DEA representatives in California have made it clear that the DEA’s strategic policy is to conduct these raids as punitive expeditions whether or not a crime can be successfully prosecuted.”If that’s not insidious enough, the federal government, under civil forfeiture laws, can seize property allegedly associated with illegal drugs, even if the owner is never charged or convicted. While the DEA says it’s raiding medical marijuana clubs in other states as well, California is bearing the brunt of the agency’s wrath, advocates say, because California led the charge in legalizing marijuana for medicinal purpose, and because the state is home to some of the most sophisticated and prolific medical marijuana distribution systems in the country. In other words, California has demonstrated that medical marijuana can work, and the feds don’t like it one bit.“I think by going after some of the most public and most outspoken (medical marijuana providers), arresting them and taking their marijuana, they are trying to send a message and have a chilling effect,” Armentano says. “They’re trying basically to squash a political movement.”10th Degree of Separation During a Sept. 17 media event in which WAMM distributed marijuana to its patients on the steps of Santa Cruz City Hall, Robert Anton Wilson, author of the conspiracy theory classic “The Illuminatus Trilogy,” was the first to receive his dosage. Wilson, 70, suffers from post-polio syndrome and uses pot for pain relief. Not one to shy away from criticizing the government, Wilson delivered perhaps the most poignant sound snippet of the day. “Of all the signs out there, the one I like the best is the one telling the government to read the 10th Amendment,” he said, peering out at the 1,000 or so protestors gathered to support WAMM. “The 10th Amendment says all powers not relegated to the federal government are reserved to the states or to the people. Nowhere does it say that a goddamn czar will be in charge of my medical care and interfere between me and my doctor. If anybody in Philadelphia in the 18th century had suggested putting something like that in the Constitution, they would have been considered a raving lunatic. This Constitution was not created to establish a czarist tyranny, it was established to create a free society.”And therein lies the confusion. If the voters of California declared marijuana to be a legitimate medicine, why doesn’t federal government respect the people’s decision?“We voted on this issue, and I don’t understand why the federal government can [bust medical marijuana cooperatives].” says Santa Cruz resident Jim Cotter, a caregiver to an AIDS patient who uses medical marijuana. “There’s such a thing as states’ rights, and I don’t understand why the federal government is not working with the state.”But the truth is, states’ rights have been eroding since the Civil War, before which the amendment was used to justify slavery. Later, it was used to defend racial segregation. Meanwhile, over the past several decades the federal government has been handed more and more power by the courts (despite the fact that the current conservative U.S. Supreme Court leans towards favoring states’ rights). In particular, the constitutional responsibility of Congress to regulate interstate commerce has been broadly interpreted to give the federal government a legal trump card over state laws.In 1970, Congress delegated to the federal government the power to enforce drug laws via the Federal Controlled Substances Act. And in May of 2001, the U.S. Supreme Court—which has a history of respecting ballot initiatives passed by the people—made it clear that federal drug laws do not recognize the medicinal value of marijuana. So in the case of medical marijuana laws, federal law—at least as it stands right now—trumps state law.In the case of WAMM, the organization’s lawyers argue that because WAMM was a privately run operation where pot was homegrown and given away, the federal government’s constitutional obligation to regulate interstate commerce doesn’t come into play. In other words, the federal authorities have no jurisdiction, and state law should prevail.“This is not interstate commerce,” says the Corrals’ attorney Gerald Uelman. “This is grassroots Santa Cruz compassion.” But as far as the DEA is concerned, busting small-time medical marijuana cooperatives simply adds up to law enforcement. “Typically the DEA focuses on higher echelon drug traffickers,” says DEA spokesman Will Glaspy. “However, if we develop any information on somebody trafficking drugs, we are still responsible or obligated to follow-up on that issue.”Be that as it may, the DEA’s stepped-up attacks on medical marijuana seem hardly worthy of the federal government’s attention and resources in fighting its War on Drugs, a point not lost on California Attorney General Bill Lockyer. In his letter to John Ashcroft, Lockyer noted: “A medical marijuana provider such as the Santa Cruz collective represents little danger to the public and is certainly not a concern which would warrant diverting scarce federal resources away from the fight against domestic methamphetamine production, heroin distribution or international terrorism, to cite just a few more worthy priorities.”That’s not to say that the federal law enforcement should never interfere with state issues. “There are many instances in history when the federal government stepped in,” Sam Farr says. For example, “Kennedy’s federalization of the national guard in Alabama during the civil rights movement. Shouldn’t the federal government be able to come in and usurp violation of civil rights? So it can go both ways.”Yet raiding medical marijuana operations “isn’t a civil rights issue,” Farr says. “It’s simply about an administration of justice. In this case you have a law, by initiative, presented by the people and adopted by the people. The details of that law have been established in California, and local law enforcement and state authorities have been a part of that.“This is a case where you have a conflict between a state approach and a federal approach, and the federal government ought to respect that,” he says. “The federal government ought not to be working against the will of the people.” Cultivating Change Federal indictment or not, the Corrals will have their day in court. On Sept. 24, their lawyers, Benjamin Rice and Gerald Uelmen, filed a motion in federal court to return WAMM’s property taken by the DEA—namely, the 167 pot plants, a computer, a video, photo albums and two antique guns—on the grounds that the couple’s constitutional rights were violated during the raid. A hearing on the motion is scheduled for Nov. 4. While Rice has been successful in convincing state courts to return marijuana, nobody contacted for this story could recall an instance when a federal court had handed back pot. The Corrals still face possible indictment and time in prison, and they could lose their home and farm. The federal government could initiate civil forfeiture proceedings against their property. “That’s what dictatorships do,” Mike Corral says. “They come into your house, they take all your possessions, confiscate what they want, and then they either kill you or they let you go. You’re never charged or anything. That’s exactly what happened here.”For now, the DEA shows no signs of slowing its attack on medical marijuana cooperatives. In a Sept. 30 response to Bill Lockyer’s letter, DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson vowed to continue his mission. “Until Congress decides otherwise … when marijuana is observed in the ordinary course of law enforcement duties, DEA is legally mandated to seize it, even if no prosecution results,” he wrote.Santa Cruz County’s congressman, meanwhile, is doing his part to keep the DEA at bay. As a member of the House Appropriations Committee, Sam Farr is attempting to rein in the feds. Farr has introduced limitations on the DEA’s funding, which would prohibit the agency from using federal funds to conduct raids on medical marijuana operations in states that have legalized medical marijuana, without first checking with that state’s attorney general. Besides California, those states include Washington, Oregon, Hawaii, Alaska, Maine and Colorado. Farr doesn’t expect the funding limits to be voted on before the November elections. As for legalizing medical marijuana on a national level, a bill to legalize it, introduced by Rep. Barney Franks of Massachusetts, has languished in Congress for the past 10 years. Farr, at least, remains hopeful nonetheless. “State laws are changing, and federal law simply hasn’t caught up,” he says. “It’s interesting that Congress is not so much a leader of the nation as it is a follower of the people. I think once you start changing people’s attitudes, people come around to a common sense approach.” Note: DEA’s recent raids on small medical marijuana cooperatives in California are rooted in politics. Newshawk: DdCSource: Good Times (CA)Author: Laurel Chesky and Bruce WilleyPublished: October 10, 2002Copyright: 2002 Pacific Sierra PublishingWebsite: http://www.gdtimes.com/Contact: letterstoeditor gdtimes.com Related Articles & Web Sites:WAMMhttp://www.wamm.org/CaNormlhttp://www.canorml.org/News Articles - WAMM Raidhttp://freedomtoexhale.com/valc.htmThe Thrashing of a Dying Dinosaur's Tail http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14202.shtml Why I'm Fighting Drug Laws From City Hallhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14195.shtmlMedicinal Pot Issue is About The Sick, Dyinghttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14193.shtml
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Comment #15 posted by DdC on October 11, 2002 at 00:37:55 PT
Letting it unfold...
Each day brings a new hope. Santa Cruz is special,but has a lot of pressure to develope and spread the tourism. The Beach Boardwalk Corps won't hire longhairs and many of the newly rebuilt downtown business are divided on cannabis. But it is refreshing compared to many other parts of the state and country. The book stores have many speakers not found in most places. Many characters round town. Living here and teaching at UCSC. But its a constent battle and the fight is local for all of us. As each day unfolds. In 89 my engine blew up a little north of Santa Cruz and I've been here ever since. The town was just starting to recover after the Loma Prieta Earthquake and looked like a combat zone. This mayor says he won't run again. I saw him a few weeks ago riding his bicycle talking on a cell phone. Some of the replacement canidates are pro-development and pro Bush or Davis the Waffle. The past mayors are mostly regular people too when it comes to cannabis. Very supportive of its use, especially medicinal. But that didn't come from wishes. It won't come anywhere with just hope and crossed fingers. People have to advocate in the grocery and the doctors office and Bingo games. In the opinion columns and workplace. When they ask plastic or paper, say Hemp! Then tell em why. So its a never ending battle here as well as anywhere. Its good v evil and it ain't ever over. It ain't the score, its how you play the game. Truth and Common Sense will prevail, if its heard... Thats our job. When the politico's hear enough of us they will side with us or lose their livlihoods. As long as Thugczars dictate lies to the media and one side is heard, then the laws will stay one sided. When the cops and politico's cheat, remove them from office. No one knows the power of a determined induividual or group of like minded individuals, backed by truth and love for their fellow humans. Its always been too high to measure. The light is at the end of the tunnel and I think it will burst into a fireworks of brightness soon. Someone just informed the 99th monkey, its only a matter of time...Peace, Love and Liberty or the silly D.E.A.th!...DdCPS...I was to the left of those pictures. Take a rest FoM, you of all people soitenly deserve it. Jus kick back and Stoke up that ole JH!!! ¶8)
The 100th Monkey
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on October 10, 2002 at 23:06:14 PT
DdC
I just checked in and am checking out soon for a little rest. I wanted to thank you for this article. I feel you are very lucky to live in such a place. Your Mayor is wise beyond his years. You're town gives me hope that other towns can someday be as kind, forward thinking and truly compassionate. The world will then be a better place.http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/rw.jpgRobert Anton Wilson, who says he suffers from post polio syndrome, is wheeled away after receiving marijuana from Jeremy Griffey, left, and Kathy Nicholson, second from left, both with the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, at City Hall in Santa Cruz, Calif., Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002. Calling Santa Cruz a "sanctuary" from federal authorities, medical marijuana advocates _ joined by city leaders _ passed out pot to about a dozen sick and dying patients from City Hall Tuesday.http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/wilson.jpg
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Comment #13 posted by DdC on October 10, 2002 at 23:02:46 PT
All Politics is Local! D.A.R.E the FRCn P.D.F.A.!
As far as polls go, will it make a difference? Who knows? On the Federal level probably not a whole lot. Fascist feed on the bottom line. Blind and deaf to the needs of the people. D.A.R.E. exist or not, on the local level. The same as using cannabis without persecution. Initiatives don't just happen. If you vote for them, more realistic politicops will come! If you have a local politicop looking at Washington. Or working under someone who is. DARE happens. If you don't want any of the propaganda clones infecting the kids, then its up to the citizens to just simply say no. Local town initiatives lead to cities, leading to states. Don't vote for representatives unless they mean to represent your community. Sheriffs especially, and District Attorney's on up. If they stand for Justice and protecting the peace and tranquility of regular everyday Americans. They have to eventually see the devastation of the war on cannabis, or be lead by the ear to it. It takes citizens to educate the politicops. They have it easy with funding and propaganda printed. Vans painted all black and cool looking. Cops overzealous to cage people for the D.A.'s tally. Or too eager with the billy clubs and triggers. Citizens revue boards can balance that. Voting pro cannabis officials and collecting signatures for an initiative is a good start. MMMarch the first Saturday in May. Write LTE's or run for office just to spread the word. Keep it in the news. Buy hemp.Its mostly the same corporations in competition with cannabis, behind cannabis prohibition. Getting tax write offs donating to the anti's, laundered by the thugczar's Philanthropy Roundtables. Advertising against cannabis' organic, natural abilities to provide food, fuel, fiber, medicine and a safer alternative to booze. The 200 Pharmaceutical lobbyist, hundreds of crude oil, cotton, meat, booze, grain and pest and herb poison companies all paying big money to keep the war going. Thousands of copshops funds depend on keeping the war. Hit them where it hurts them. Vote, Picket or Boycott. Much of the profits of maintaining the war will filter to real terrorist, and cartels selling the poppies and coca leaves. Nothing to do with cannabis. Yet every cannabis lie from these commercials has to bring in poppies and coca to the debate. Never are the chemical and lab equipment corporations questioned or implicated in the actual processing nature into a white powder.. Or the cost of processing and what the peasants get for the nature compared to the streets after corporate cuts...The same corporations and taxes funding DARE and DARE clones. The same corporations profiting on poisoning the Midwestern states or Colombian kids. Lots of this money will influence the local governments. Depressed work conditions and $millions in highway funding depend on going along with antidrug programs. Such as smoke a joint lose your license. C.A.M.P. and other cannabis suppression funds to pull up ditchweed. Numerous Constitutional violations local cops can use if the people remain silent. The Sheriff can't disobey the wishes of the community, forever. If there is no "community", then the politico's will be overjoyed to make rules for you to follow. Not living your life, but theirs. As this proclamation says, W Bushit disregards all logic and science and will perpetuate this war for profits and power. And only each citizens can determine how they will live and what their community does. They all have public forums. It is time to speak, or forever hold your peace...Just say NO to the child mind molester Partnerships lies and terror tactics. Caging healthy adults for using cannabis is a tragedy. Only difference in caging sick or dying is by degree. Destroying hemp to raise numbers in tally sheets, to impress Nationalist leaders to send even more funding next year is also a tragedy. Stop the war on cannabis, period. Search for the Truth, then tell somebody about it. Below shows Bushits loyalty, despite the volumes of evidence, he stays true to his dadya's wishes. With his paranoid, deceptive delusional minions of Evangelic D.E.A.th following blindly.Peace,Love and Liberty or D.A.R.E. the F.R.Cn P.D.F.A.of D.E.A.th!...DdCD.E.A.th Deceptions
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.htmlU.S.Al Qaeda!
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/39/39670.gifA wise man will hear, and will increase learning: and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels. (Proverbs 1:5) If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. (Prov. 29:12) NATIONAL D.A.R.E. DAY, 2001BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICAA PROCLAMATIONToday, we recognize Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.), the largest and most widely known substance abuse prevention and anti-violence curriculum in America. For over 18 years, D.A.R.E. has brought specially trained community police officers into America's classrooms to teach children how to resist destructive peer pressure and to live productive drug-and violence-free lives. Every day, millions of children across the United States participate in the instruction given in the D.A.R.E. drug prevention curriculum. Parents, teachers, community leaders, law enforcement officials, and fellow students have an important role to play in keeping our children away from illegal drugs. Research has shown that ongoing reinforcement of drug prevention skills at home and at school play a critical role in decreasing the likelihood of drug use by our youth. This year, D.A.R.E. has pledged to reach out to thousands of parents with a new parent-specific curriculum to help them talk with their kids about drugs. Today, we recognize D.A.R.E. as a useful partnership between the research community, educators, law enforcement, parents, and students, and we commend D.A.R.E. officers for their dedicated efforts to help educate the children of America about the importance of remaining drug- and violence-free. NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of
America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 12, 2001, as National D.A.R.E. Day. I call upon our youth, parents, educators, and all people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate activities. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand one, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and twenty fifth.George W. BushGiving teens facts about drug war
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/metropolitan/895706Students Find Drug Law Has Big Price 
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/thread.shtml?1x36262"Project DARE: No Effects at 10-Year Follow-Up"
http://www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/209.html?TuesdayOctober1919991154pmThe assassins of youth...DARE the FRCn PDFA!
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=105.topicIncludes Analysis of DARE,
The DARE Program and a Parent's Concerns,
DARE Impaired,
Just Say No to DARE,
Study Questions Effectiveness Of DARE,
DARE is ineffective,
DARE to be Honest,DARE doesn't work, study finds
"Kids in the suburbs who were exposed to the D.A.R.E. program, who participated in D.A.R.E., actually had significantly higher levels of drug use than suburban kids who did not get the D.A.R.E. program, said Rosenbaum. This was very disturbing to us." http://www.tfy.drugsense.org/uicstud.htmCannabisNews DARE Articles & Archives:
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/list/DARE.shtmlDare has stranglehold on Drug education!
Communities should have alternatives to using the DARE program, becuause of it's ineffectiveness. There are other programs out there infinitely more effective, but DARE has a stranglehold on drug education. DARE has, you stated contributed to increased drug use, and should be replaced with a more effective program. DARE gets some of it's funding from Pharmaceutical companies, so there lies a dubious fact right there. http://www.mamas.orgBush. Religious drug treatment in Texas  
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=13.topicJack Griffin anti-DARE
http://www.geocities.com/lone420ranger/station.htmlHow FIJA Saved My Life!
http://serendipity.magnet.ch/jsmill/fija1293.htmErowid Freedom Vault : Jury Nullification
http://www.erowid.org/freedom/jury_nullification/jury_nullification.shtmlJames Geddes-47....90 YEARS-5 PLANTS!
Release Petition
http://hr95.org/geddes.petition.htmFree James Geddes
http://hr95.org/Geddes,J.htmlPREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS
http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch13.html
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Comment #12 posted by DdC on October 10, 2002 at 22:53:03 PT
Robert Anton Wilson...
"I suggest a simple experiment. Everytime you hear the expression "the war on drugs," change it mentally to "the war on some drugs." At the same time call up to mind all the Drug Stores and Bars/Saloons in your town or neighborhood and all the cigarette shelves in your friendly supermaket and remember that the government has started no war against them. When you understand that we have no "war on drugs" but only a "war on some drugs," consult the passages on double-think and duck-speak in Orwell's "1984" for further enlightenment on neurolinguistic mindwarping." - Robert Anton Wilson http://www.rawilson.com/thought.htmlThe Wilson-Bush Letters:19 Hermes 80 p.s.U.Your Royal Fraudulency King George II:I wish to support your efforts to abolish as much as possible of the federal government and transfer its functions to faith-based organizations. I suggest that you should apply this idea especially to the controversial matter of capital punishment.Let faith-based organizations take over our seasonal rites of human sacrifice; after all, they invented the institution in the first place, and it requires ardent faith to believe in it in the 21st Century. Distribute the boodle evenly to all faiths, so that Roman Catholics can burn offenders at the stake, in accord with their own faith-based system, Protestants can revive the public hanging, Moslems and orthodox Jews can employ stoning to death, Mormons can use bullets, Sikhs can chop off heads again, etc.The federal funds so spent will not only boost the power of faith-based groups, but will proportionally decrease the influence of research-based groups, who often destroy faith and encourage doubt anyway.Think how much this will aid the drug war alone, along with most of your other programs, and you will see the long-range benefits of this modest proposal.Hoping that this will meet with your approval, I remainYour serf and servant,
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on October 10, 2002 at 21:59:47 PT
BGreen
I think because of the Internet our world has become closer together and we've all learned from each other. Cannabis News is on a Canadian Server and Matt is a Canadian. I know that there are Canadians who don't like the USA and I understand why more now then ever. We are powerful and pushy as we know but that is only the ones that run our country that give us a bad reputation. It isn't us as individuals. We're just stuck with it.
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Comment #10 posted by BGreen on October 10, 2002 at 21:46:46 PT
Heroes
Spell check didn't catch "heros" and neither did I.
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on October 10, 2002 at 21:42:04 PT
The amerikans seem to be the only people
afraid of their totalitarian gov't. We always look at these other countries like they're just amerikans living in another place, but different cultures can be VERY different, and Canada and the Netherlands can very well be the citizen heros that stand up against tyranny and for freedom.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on October 10, 2002 at 21:26:14 PT
BGreen
I believe you are right. Once people taste freedom they won't give it up. I've never been to Amsterdam but I can't help but feel the love of liberty is very important to them.
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Comment #7 posted by BGreen on October 10, 2002 at 21:22:48 PT
The GCW
Don't worry about it. I was in Amsterdam at the end of May and I talked to a lot of people working in coffeeshops. Every person I mentioned this to just laughed and said "they'll never close the coffeeshops down; the people here won't let them."I'm going back in a month so I'll ask again, but I'd be shocked if anything has changed. Remember, it's NOT the cops over there who want things changed, so the political rhetoric from fake Christians doesn't mean much.
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on October 10, 2002 at 20:11:30 PT
Just a Note
Hi everyone, I just answered an email to a DARE Officer in NC. I invited her to join us and talk with us if she wants. I said we have the same hopes and goals for children but we feel there is a different way to help a child grow up safe and sound into adulthood. I hope she does tell us how she feels. I thought you'd like to know.
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Comment #5 posted by karkulus on October 10, 2002 at 19:48:49 PT
TV commentator/columnist/military psycho
David Hackworth once said"If there's a drug war,Where are the bodies?" um,does that work both ways..or..?
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Comment #4 posted by canaman on October 10, 2002 at 16:10:11 PT
Any Constitutional lawyers in the house?
When I read this story earlier (thanks DdC) I got to wondering about this states vs. federal rights thing. This is an issue heading for the Supreme Court right? Or might Congress get involved? I wonder what the possible scenarios might be. Any guesses? If the Court were to side with feds than we and compassion lose? Right? I'd hate to have all this come down to the opinion of a few old men.
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on October 10, 2002 at 16:09:59 PT:
Laurel Chesky and Bruce Willey 
Thank you for bringing us back to page one of the medical marijuana issue, with updates. We must never forget the brutal attack on WAMM and California rights. In the weeks to come the words will fly fast and furious on both sides of the issue. Most voters make up their mind only shortly before the election. Make sure they have the facts. And vote, vote, vote. Even if the medical marijuana issue is not yet on your state ballot, vote for people who will show compassion, common sense, and intelligence for WE THE PEOPLE.
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on October 10, 2002 at 15:56:51 PT
Holland / politics update.
Dutch coffeeshops under attack 
by Pete Brady (09 Oct, 2002) Is it the beginning of the end for Holland's policy of marijuana tolerance?
http://www.hempbc.com/articles/2589.html • Christian Democratic Appeal:  www.cda.nl
• Nol von Schaik:  www.wwwshop.nl
 
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on October 10, 2002 at 15:47:10 PT
DARE poll ends
The DARE poll on sheriffwalsh.com has just ended. It doesn't show the results, it just disappeared. Last I saw, it was seven-thousand and something YES (in favor of DARE) and eight-thousand and something NO. The difference between the two was close to, but not quite, a thousand votes. Now, the big question - what difference will it make? Will Onondaga county keep the DARE program anyway? You New Yorkers, please keep us informed!
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