cannabisnews.com: DrugSense Weekly January 28, 2000 #134





DrugSense Weekly January 28, 2000 #134
Posted by FoM on January 28, 2000 at 13:37:46 PT
Volunteer Of The Month R. Givens
Source: DrugSense
Volunteer Of The Month: R. GivensNOTE: This has been a busy week with a lot of drug war news developments. Due to the length of this weeks newsletter we are substituting our Volunteer of the Month feature for the usual feature article. Congratulations to R. Givens our Volunteer of the Month.
Mr. Givens has been actively supporting MAP since the very start, through the writing of Letters to the Editor and other efforts. His letters have been published in three countries and include the following newspapers: Amarillo Globe-News, Austin-American Statesman, Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Centre Daily Times, Chicago Tribune, Colorado Daily, Daily Vidette, Edmonton Sun, Fairfield County Weekly, Halifax Daily News, International Herald-Tribune, Irish Independent, Our Times Santa Monica, Prince George's Journal, San Francisco Bay Guardian, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, Skagit Valley Herald, Standard-Times, The European, The Sudbury Star, The Sun, The Washington Monthly, Toronto Star, Victoria Times Colonist, and the Wall Street Journal (3 times!) - plus probably a dozen or more that we missed. Check out his published letters at:http://www.mapinc.org/lte/rgivens.htmWe asked Mr. Givens a few questions:DS: You have been involved in drug policy reform issues for a while. When and why did you become involved?Givens: One day I heard about somebody getting five years for marijuana.I'd been completely unaware of the drug crusader escalations going on. I was just cruising through life with no awareness of the drug war insanity going on. It came as a shock. I was astonished because I thought we settled all of the nonsense about pot in the 70s.I had no idea of how to express my indignation until Jack Herer came along and I worked one of his petition drives. I've been escalating my activities against narcomania ever since.DS: How did you get into writing Letters to the Editor? Givens: A friend got a LTE published about his poetry and I saw that anybody had a shot at getting a letter printed. It was something I could do without an organization or anybody's approval. After I got a few letters published I was hooked. DS: What do you consider the most significant story/issue of the past months?Givens: There's so much going on it is hard to say. The big story is the constant exposure of drug prohibition for the fraud it is. Not a week goes by without editorials, magazine layouts and TV exposes revealing the madness of an out of control drug crusade. http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htmThe increasingly hostile journalistic attitude toward narcomania is probably the biggest thing happening because it is fueling so much resistance to drug war insanity. This will only increase if we keep fanning the flames.If you want a specific item, the Hatch Act demonstrates the desperation of the narcomaniacs. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n071/a01.htmlIt could be a last gasp before the pendulum begins swinging back. If this lunatic legislation makes it through the House, we'll see if the Supreme Court will allow different 1st Amendment standards for print media and snail mail than the Internet. If they get away with censoring the Internet...........Everyone should hound their Representatives relentlessly to defeat this Draconian legislation.DS: What are your favorite websites, besides the MAP/DrugSense sites? Givens: Schaffer's Library of Drug Policy gets the nod for research.http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/index.HTMThere are a dozen other good sites and I use them all. The Internet is critical for ending drug prohibition and right now we OWN the net drugwise.DS: Is there anything else you would like to tell the readers of the weekly?Givens: We are in the midst of an inquisitional witch hunt and we have the privilege of being called to oppose this madness. We must raise the level of public awareness about the fraudulent drug crusade going on. The narcomaniacs will destroy every shred of freedom and liberty if we do not stop them.DS: Thank you, Mr. Givens, for all that you are doing! Your name will be added to the list of honored volunteers on the following web page within the next few days: http://www.drugsense.org/dswvol.htm Click The Link To Read All Of DrugSense Weekly's Update News:DrugSense Weekly January 28, 2000 #134 http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2000/ds00.n134.html
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