cannabisnews.com: Protesters Call for Legalized Marijuana





Protesters Call for Legalized Marijuana
Posted by FoM on October 05, 2000 at 21:06:27 PT
By Robert Mayer, Daily Texan Staff
Source: Daily Texan
A caravan of marijuana legalization advocates rolled up to the Capitol steps Friday, calling for a cease-fire in the war on drugs and a legalization of medical marijuana.Journey for Justice, a procession of convicted drug offender's family members, medical marijuana patients and citizens, concluded its week-long tour that started in Houston and highlighted Texas' record number of non-violent prisoners. "Our national policy of drug prohibition has failed," said Al Robison, executive director of the Drug Policy Forum of Texas. 
"It has filled our prisons with non-violent drug offenders to the point that the U.S. has become the world's leading jailer."According to the Justice Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., based non-profit research and public policy organization, nearly 90,000 people are incarcerated in Texas for non-violent crimes. In comparison, according to the Institute, Texas's non-violent prison population is second only to California and is larger than New York, the nation's third largest state.Robison said drug abuse and drug addiction are public health problems but are being treated primarily by the criminal justice system with disastrous results.But Howard Simon, spokesman for Partnership for a Drug Free America, said children would suffer if marijuana were to be legalized."We are opposed to anything that would make dangerous and illegal drugs more socially acceptable to kids," he said. "If you want to keep kids off drugs, you don't make them more available and more socially acceptable."Kevin Zeese, president of Common Sense for Drug Policy, said he was part of a small delegation that met earlier with Gov. George W. Bush's staff Friday addressing the legalization of marijuana for medical purposes."We focused on the needless suffering of people who turn into criminals just because they need medicine," Zeese said.Tiffany Landreth, who has chronic sharp pain resulting from surgery for a herniated disk, said she has tried many different muscle relaxers and pain killers. She said marijuana has proven the most effective in alleviating her symptoms with the least amount of side effects and should not be illegal."I'm a non-violent person," she said. "I've never hurt anybody. I love people; I work. There's no reason for me to be in jail."According to their policy statement on marijuana, the American Medical Association said it believes that marijuana is a dangerous drug and is a public health concern therefore sale and possession of it should not be legalized. However, it did encourage research and well-controlled studies of patients who smoke marijuana to alleviate chronic pain.Gretchen Michael, spokeswoman of the U.S. Department of Justice, said marijuana is a controlled substance under the Drug Control Act and that it remains in the hands of the legislature to change any drug laws.Source: Daily Texan (TX)Author: Robert MayerPublished: October 2, 2000Contact: texan utxvms.cc.utexas.eduWeb Site: http://www.dailytexanonline.comKevin Zeese's installments from on the road with the Journey is at: http://www.dpft.org/txj4jj.html & http://www.csdp.org/j4jtexas/Also, MAP has a new link to Journey articles, both for the current and past treks: http://www.mapinc.org/journey.htm Related Articles & Web Sites:Common Sense For Drug Policy: http://www.csdp.org/Journey For Justice: http://www.journeyforjustice.org/Drug Policy Forum of Texas: http://www.dpft.org/Compassionate Moms Homepage: http://members.home.net/amccormick/Tood McCormick's New Home Page: http://www.toddmccormick.org/Tulia Drug-Bust Critics Taking Journey for Justicehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7183.shtmlVigil Protests Jailingshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7155.shtmlMedicinal Marijuana Users March http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7135.shtmlMarchers Protest Medical Marijuana Ban http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7132.shtmlYour Help Needed To Make History http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6668.shtml
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on October 06, 2000 at 05:16:01 PT:
Rub their noses in it.
Americans presently have this kick for 'Reality TV'. They like the in-your-face cops shows (where if you educate yourself about your rights, you realize that in nearly every case a suspect's rights are violated on a second-by-second basis), the "Trauma" shows on the Discovery Channel, all the blood and gore they can swallow. All of which are preceded by warnings that the scenes about to be shown are too graphic for some viewers to watch - meaning pack the kiddies away before they have nightmares...or get the wrong ideas. Sometimes I wish I had George Soros's money. I like to make a few 'Reality TV' shows about the WoSD:A 48 hour observation of someone undergoing chemotherapy, complete with close-ups of the grimaces of pain accompanied by the flowing tears, as the Taxol is administered. The agony evident on their face in the aftermath. The inability to move without being wracked with pain so severe it requires massive doses of narcotics. The almost effortless, continual vomiting, which in turn leads to stomach cramps from muscles being torqued in ways God never intended. The weakness resulting from the inability to eat.Then I'd like to take every anti that spouts such mindless dreck as Mr. Howard ("Simple") Simon has, force them to watch this misery on parade, and then invite them to explain on TV, to the chemo patient, why they should not use cannabis to quell the nausea and relieve the pain. How it 'sends the wrong message'.My point is that, like the cops shows and the ER shows, it's so very easy to watch the horrifying experiences of others from the safety of your living room. The pols have gotten away with the equivalent of this for far too long. Like cockroaches, they scurry away at the prospect of being forced to confront the very results of their moralistic posturing.Knowing that the one thing which might help is illegal because of fat-headed, ignorant, racist pols 63 years ago declared it illegal, is infuriating. That 63 years later, pols who are simply too gutless to admit (some of them from personal experience; are your handlers reading this, Messrs Bush and Gore?) that cannabis is useful and benign is enough to make anyone 'go postal'. After all, if one is dying anyway, why not take a few arsenlochen with you? Now that's one "Reality TV" program I 'd love to see. 
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