Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Honoring Dr. Tod Mikuriya

It is with the greatest fondness, respect and appreciation that these thoughts are shared, to
honor Dr. Tod Mikuriya. Dr. Tod was a treasure, much loved by those of us who benefited from his
enormous works and enjoyed his delightful company. For those who aren't aware of how Dr. Tod
contributed to their lives, it may interest people to know that a true pioneer in healing passed
away last Sunday.

Dr. Mikuriya's initial curiosity about Cannabis as a student in the late 50s led to extensive
travels as a researcher of 'ganja.' His boundless energetic fascination with Cannabis fueled his
eloquent, defiant opposition to our corrupted government's interference in Cannabis research. The
backlash from his credible effectiveness, in standing up for the world's most healing plant,
elicited the usual bureaucratic response, blatantly unreasonable persecution from the chemical
pharmaceutically biased medical establishment -- the "legal" drug dealers.

We all owe a lot to Dr. Tod, including a loving prayer for his gentle passage. Condolences are
extended to his family, with a river of gratitude flowing to Dr. Tod, wherever you are.

Stop Fighting.

What No One Wants to Hear -- Stop Fighting.

All of the freedom "fighters" who are so valiantly fighting for medical 'marijuana' -- fighting, fighting "to the bitter end" -- are co-creating both, a costly never-ending fight and a bitter end. Being an ex-"fighter" turned spiritual healer is not without its adjustments in thinking, but it eventually serves to transform what we are attempting to do, into the social healing process that it needs to be.

Fighting is an ego-driven, jerk-off for those of contentious nature. Ultimately fighting is a huge, unproductive waste of energy, as is Ed's trial. Fighting leads to more fighting, which is profitable for those who have choreographed the conflict to make us all angry, frustrated, worn-down fighters. Well, enough is enough. Time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival. If we really want Cannabis prohibition to end, then we must simply end it.

What if it were true, and everyone finally learned, that Cannabis has never been within the rightful jurisdiction of any court? Would that not stop the fighting? If people were to claim their "self-evident, god-given, natural rights" which our government was specifically constructed to protect, then our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" ought to be the most obvious way of expressing our free exercise of worship. With sincere gratitude to "The Great YouNameIt" (that which created the Natural Order as a sort of demonstration project for mankind to grow into harmony with), I hold in highest esteem the Cannabis plant. Out of deepest regard and highest reverence, I consider sacramental the "green herb" Cannabis, a being of unique and essential value, that may produce enough environmental benefit as to heal the Earth's atmosphere.

Since Article One of the Bill of Rights protects our "first freedom" to worship as we choose, then the prohibition statutes are themselves illegal, in their anti-Constitutional effect. We don't need to pass more laws to "legalize" Cannabis. We do need to discard counter-productive prohibition laws as extinctionistic. Why is anyone still fighting against laws so transparently perverse that they no longer command respect? Is it out of some sort of socio-eoconomic inertia?

The answer seems to be that, even though every person who uses Cannabis will admit to enjoying spiritually significant benefits of 'marijuana,' particularly in inextricable synergy with the therapeuic benefits, relatively few Cannabis consumers recognize existing legal protections associated with our sincere "religious" use of Cannabis, for food, fuel, therapeutics, and much more.

Perhaps it is a reluctance to share that personal, spiritual dimension of ourselves with others who are in lock-step with a violent system, out of fear of being written off as insincere. No one likes rejection, especially on such a penetrating level of our being. Maybe the implied semantic divide between the words "religion" and "spirituality" makes the legal protections, afforded by the Constitution for "freedom of religion," seem legally disparate for people who have always quietly practiced their individual "freedom of spirituality."

If each of us individually claim our obvious, natural, spiritual right to mankind's most ancient, valued, sacred, healing, useful, nutritious, potentially abundant, globally distributed agricultural resource, then Cannabis prohibition statutes will look as criminally foolish and blatantly destructive as they certainly are. Anyone who still enforces prohibition laws is either economically conscripted in the punishment industry, or uninformed to the point of criminal negligence.

A lawsuit chaging gross negligence for the government's role in suppressing Cannabis' nutritional and agricultural value, at the international level, is a better use of legal fees, if you can find an attorney who is willing to argue for our spiritually motivated freedom to farm.

Why is Ed Rosenthal in court? Because, as far as I can see from the website, Ed's attorneys have failed to invoke Ed's freedom of religion. The Law of the Land is the Constitution. On the first page of the Bible, God said, "I have given you every herb bearing seed." Drugs don't make seeds. Herbs do. The distinction is legally and practically significant enough to end the argument, and the fighting, forever.

for peace,

Paul J. von Hartmann
California Cannabis Ministry
http://www.californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com
(831) 588-5095

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Letter to the Editor - Mount Shasta Herald

My sincere thanks goes out to the townspeople of Mount Shasta for attending, The Stage Door Cabaret for hosting, the Mount Shasta Herald for publishing, and journalist Paul Boerger for comprehensive reporting on Cannabis information I presented earlier this month.

I trust it serves everyone to clarify that the California Cannabis Ministry has always emphasized the need for on-going, open discussion of all types and uses of Cannabis, both high- and low-THC strains. To talk only of low-THC hemp would overlook the suppressive impact that 'marijuana' policy has had on reseach and avilablity of all strains of Cannabis.

Next to this there is the glaring factual impossibility of any government having rightful, Constitutional jurisdiction over 'marijuana' cultivation. God's first commandment was so important He said it on the first page twice, 'every herb bearing seed" and "every green herb." Drugs don't make seeds. Herbs do.

Cannabis prohibition creates a black market, increases teen use of hard drugs, and induces an increasing scarcity of essential food and fuel agricultural resources, and exacerbates "global broiling." Now that monoterpines in pine trees and Cannabis have been shown to slow global warming, there is one more excellent reason to grow as much Cannabis as we can, everywhere we can, as fast as we can.

As many good reasons as there are to grow Cannabis outdoors, there are however several reasons NOT to grow it indoors, at least until electricity is made from biofuels.If our children are to have a snowball's chance in Hell of surviving, then we all must progress beyond prohibitionist misinformation and immediately realize that time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival.

2007's Spring planting season for hemp has almost passed for Mount Shasta. I trust that anyone truly concerned about the future of this community and our planet will contact me sooner than later. I intend that the entire Mount Shasta spiritual community convene a review of this subject at a "First Freedom Seminar" in coordination with he U.S. Department of Justice's "First Freedom Campaign."See http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/religdisc/ff_regionalseminars.html

for more information.

for peace,

Paul J. von Hartmann
California Cannabis Ministry
projectpeace@gmail.com

Thursday, May 3, 2007

"The only way to attain salvation is to have complete loyalty to God. This dream of life will be taken away from you one day; the only thing that is real is the love of God. Nothing else; all are false dreams. Get away from them. Every minute I seee how necessary that is....and so I tell Him: "I shall work for you alone." Then I feel within His supreme joy.--Paramahansa Yogananda

I work for the Natural Order. Inconceivably complex, Nature was created by what some call "God." The lesson for me is that giving a name to something so huge and entirely subjective is limiting.

I have come to calling God, "The GreatYouNameIt," with humble respect for the inconceivability of what God is. I think in human dimensions, though somewhat broader perhaps than others' due to several exceptional experiences enjoyed at an early age.

Extraordinary experience in youth eventually mature into penetrating grown-up insights. Having visited "otherworldly" realms as a very young boy, I believe that such inexplicable experiences have deepened the breadth of my vision of what is possible.