Sunday, November 28, 2010

The question remains,

"Does NORML recognize Cannabis as BOTH unique and essential to achieving sustainable human existence on Earth?"

That's the REAL 'yes' or 'no' question that people everywhere on this planet need to understand the right answer to in record time.

So far I haven't heard any of the foremost experts or expensive lawyers at NORML point this out. $990,000 !! and you can't communicate the fact that Cannabis (with a capital 'C' -- don't you have a CBE Style Manual in the NORML library?) is both unique and essential?

Since Cannabis IS, in fact, both unique and essential, then, factoring in the power of truth and the urgency of the crises we face, then your better choice is to hope I'm right and that 5 grand a day for a week (in Sacramento -- NOT New York) IS enough to successfully exercise "essential civilian demand" for a federally recognized "strategic resource."

The amount of money it takes to end prohibition is beside the point anyway. 35 grand or 35 million won't matter soon. There is no money on a burned-out planet. We can always print more money, but we can't make more time.

Strategically located in the middle of an agricultural cornucopia, Sacramento is where the national and international momentum generated by Prop 19 was and may still be waiting for a proactive continuum. Since Jerry Brown is California's homegrown governor, again, and a smart politician, all Californians have to do is to show him that we know what he would be politically savvy to acknowledge (i.e. the true value of Cannabis) -- or face charges for "misprision of treason" for failing to act in the interest of national security.

Instead, as soon as Prop-up Prohibition #19 failed to pass, all the groups packed-up, & ran to Colorado, hypnotizing the public into waiting for 2012 while they busily write the next 'magic 'Prop.

The shift in values from "illegal" to "essential" is the point. Prohibition can't last if Cannabis is recognized for what it is truly worth. NORML (and you personally) have failed to recognize the simple truth, ultimately powerful truth that Cannabis is both essential and unique. An objective, comprehensive science-based review of Cannabis, is what Jack Herer strived for all of his life.

It's not endless amounts of time, misdirected human effort and piles of money that will end prohibition. It's the increasingly urgent necessity of avoiding synergistic collapse, combined with the power of the truth and the ability to communicate the strongest arguments, objectively and comprehensively in the court of national and international public opinion.

NORMLDPAMPPASA continues to fail in this by ignoring the legitimacy of the First Amendment, under-estimating the power of State and Federal Constitutions, casting dispersions on the legitimacy of the THC Ministry and minimizing Roger Christie's decades of public service, spiritual study and Cannabis scholarship.

$5,000 a day is enough of a catalyst to secure a week of venues in Sacramento before Spring. Fund-raising strategies would be initiated to extend the effects to a national campaign of grassroots activists and social leaders who support ending the "drug war" completely, nationalizing the effect of essential civilian demand in Sacramento.

I'm working for your kids too, Russ. Your self-indulgent sarcasm and contentious response to science-based information is counter-productive & comes off as adolescent. Did you know about "monoterpenes" and UV-B radiation before I told you about it? Do you GET it?

There y'go, two more questions.

Cannabis is "the savior" -- I'm simply a determined messenger.

35 Gs, one week. Don't say I didn't tell you so...

Saturday, November 27, 2010

What good are State medical marijuana laws when patients are still getting busted?

Half-assed, bureaucracy-style "semi-legalization" creates a paper trail for law enforcement, who then bust "honest" ganja people, who have naively placed their trust in an outlaw government by registering to toke. Be glad P19 didn't pass or it would have been a feeding frenzy.

Reclaiming our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the only way to end prohibition. Half-measures are a trap If the Cannabis culture in this country would get its ass off the couch between political elections (more accurately, "political erections" -- you can't screw a whole country without one..) and exercise "essential civilian demand" for the "strategic resource" that's been identified as critical to national security by SEVEN AMERICAN PRESIDENTS (in one simple statement and six Executive Orders) we'd have been done with 'marijuana' prohibition a long time ago.

Obviously! it's the perverse economics of toxic chemical addiction to fossil fuels and unevenly distributed natural resources that keeps "Propping-up" prohibition -- OBVIOUSLY!! The economics of industrial hemp and all industries related to hemp agriculture DWARFS the marijuana trade. Protein production, herbal medicines, biofuels production, paper, cloth, paints & varnishes, lubricants, plastics, building materials, bio-pesticides, etc. are worth trillions compared to the mere hundreds-of-billions that marijuana is going for on the black market.

Ending hemp prohibition is more supported by a greater percentage of Americans anyway, compared to outright marijuana "legalization" which is supported by about half the people already.

Hemp education is the most proximate route for ending marijuana prohibition, yet none of the monied drug policy "reform" groups (DPA, NORML, MPP, ASA...) advocate the end of hemp prohibition much. None have responded to this Cannabis filmmaker/photographer/writer/spokesperson's applications for funding -- not even a tiny little bit.

The drug reform groups also play a key role in perpetuating the "drug war" by neutering the grassroots effort in two ways. First by manufacturing legitimacy-through-consent for the illegal, anti-Constitutional prohibition statutes that also siphon-off public support for more effective individuals, like Roger Christie. Roger and i used to sit around wondering why we weren't being financially supported by the porky groups, and I think that's one possible reason why.

It may have been part of the reason Roger finally started a group ministry, after struggling out in Hawaii for more than twenty years of individual Cannabis scholarship, entrepreneurial ventures and selfless, penniless activism. Roger needed and deserves public support. He certainly wasn't getting much help as just a regular guy. By formalizing his beliefs, he created a service designed in such a way to support himself at a bare subsistence level, and demonstrated for others the value of teaching people about the true value of Cannabis.

Cannabis seed: "Gateway" to Health

Nutritional properties of high- and low-THC strains (a.k.a. 'marijuana' and "industrial hemp"[sic] respectively) are the same in possessing three essential fatty acids, protein, essential amino acids, vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and a digestive enzyme to aid with assimilation of hemp seed nutrition. Because of hemp seed's preventative and therapeutic effect on health, Cannabis can truly be considered a "gateway" herb (i.e. Drugs don't make seeds, herbs do).

To be continued...

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Re: “Roger Christie absurdly considered “danger to the community”, held without bail” By “Radical” Russ Belville on November 23, 2010

Thanksgiving that Russ has finally figured this much out. Really, the very least you could say, understating the obvious to regain some credibility as a capable spokesperson for the pot culture. I agree with appreciate how you state a lot of the rationale for ending prohibition, but Russ, you’ve still got a hellllluva long ways to go before you’re anywhere near “radical.” Listen up young man…

Roger has already admitted mistakes, that are minor issues anyway. What is important is the good the Reverend Roger Christie has achieved (which he also, typically, fails to mention, but I won’t) is so much greater than you apparently comprehend, the courage demonstrated so much more to be respected, that I am actually concerned for you. When you come to understand how miniscule and effectively treasonous your issues with the Ministry are; when understand how important it is to forgive Roger’s over-enthusiasm and optimism (which has propelled his incredible successes for almost thirty years!) in appreciation for the great, then I trust you will be proportionately ashamed of not flying to Honolulu on the fat budget NORML has, to demand of Governor Lingle and Governor Elect Abercrombie that they immediately effect the release of Roger Christie!

The point is that for ten years, Roger has risked his life and the safety of his loved ones by mitigating the hard drug epidemic and abuses of power in Hawaii so successfully, that the feral DEA is now suspending due process and shred the Constitution in order to persecute a good & honest man. One whom you continue to help disrespect by harping on the minor, understating the obvious and ignoring the enormous. Impinging on the motivations and legitimacy of the THC Ministry from within the Cannabis culture helps the DEA characterize Roger as a black market charlatan in the court of public opinion. This is the only court where he can and will be saved, for all the right reasons.

Obviously, the federal courts are not objective. We are an occupied country.

Do you really want marijuana prohibition to end Russ? Then sign on to federal “essential civilian demand” for “hemp” a “strategic food resource” as stated in Executive Order 12919 and FIVE other Executive Orders signed by five other Presidents.

Ending hemp prohibition will do more to end marijuana prohibition than any other tiny step we could take, yet NORML, MPP, DPA, ASA and other publicly funded non-profits fail to present the strongest arguments for ending all Cannabis prohibitions — without taxes to the insolvent, anti-Constitutional regime that occupies our government.

Do you understand how critical Cannabis agriculture manufacture and trade are to our survival? Do you under-estimate the power of the truth?

I’ve asked you before to openly recognize Cannabis as both unique and essential, for three very good reasons, and you disappeared from the conversation. Then I read your post-mortem on “Prop-Up Prohibition#19″ (a.k.a. “Whoring the Diva” — A short story of political tar baby seduction, cashing-in bigtime on people’s sincere desire for “legalization” and an end to the world’s most violent, cruel and destructive social element). Essential civilian demand recognizes the legal suspension of Cannabis prohibition (and the outlaw operations of the DEA) through objective, comprehensive, international, science-based assessment.

Dammit, NORML must be a sham. I could end Cannabis prohibition with fifty grand in one week. THAT’s the power of the truth. That’s the true value of Cannabis. It will be enough to end prohibition as soon as people in positions of responsibility within the Cannabis culture begin to present the strongest arguments.

Checkout my blogs, videos and radio shows for this pilot’s manual for flying Spaceship Earth. Radical begins in extreme attitude combined with extreme acceleration.

Monday, November 22, 2010

What is potentially the most available and complete source of essential nutrition?

Answer: Cannabis seed.

Current food security concepts fail to recognize the unique and essential properties of hemp seed. For this reason, they are doomed to continue failing until the shift in values in achieved. Until Cannabis seed is considered objectively and comprehensively, this discussion is incomplete.

On a broader more ominous scale,"global broiling" by increasing UV-B radiation is increasing, impacting the immune response of all life on Earth. Among other effects of UV-B are the contributing influence of global broiling on the collapse of pollinator populations and insectivores, both of which impact crop production. Exacerbating the problem are the boreal forests being cut and the pine trees dying from global-warming related epidemic pest infestation.

Among other consequences of losing the boreal forests is the reduction in the amount of atmospheric aerosols called "monoterpenes." That's what you smell in a pine forest. Monoterpenes reflect solar radiation away from the planet and seed cloud formation. Aside from being nutritionally complete, unique and essential, Cannabis also happens to produce more monoterpenes than any other food resource, in a shorter span of time in more soil and climate conditions than any other agricultural resource.

To solve the food security equation, all organic, rotational solutions need to be implemented immediately, inclusive of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade. Presently, the only thing that inhibits the free agricultural market is the very thin misconception that it is difficult to tell industrial hemp from psychoactive strains of marijuana. In fact it is quite easily to distinguish between the varieties, each having distinct physical structure, plant spacing and the presence of pollen-producing males growing among the female hemp flowers.

Please consider information in the following interview

What Now, 11-15-10
Extended interviews with accomplished thinkers, writers, artists, farmers and scientists addressing the global crisis

Paul von Hartmann // On Cannibis the plant
http://www.pantedmonkey.org/

Time is the limiting factor in the equation we are behind the curve in solving. If we don't figure out global broiling, then it won't matter what other problems we do manage to solve.

Note: This was posted to

Do current Food Security concepts serve the fight against hunger?
http://km.fao.org/fsn/fsn-home/en/?no_cache=1

Sunday, November 21, 2010

An Open Letter to Hawaii's Governor-Elect Neil Abercrombie

Dear Governor-Elect Abercrombie,

I am writing to formally invite you to issue the first "pre-trial pardon" in American history, to effect the immediate release of Reverend Roger Christie, before Thanksgiving Day. He has been held in federal prison in Honolulu since July 8th, been denied bail four times, and had his trial postponed until next April. For Roger Christie to remain in prison on Thanksgiving would be an egregious insult to the inconceivable sacrifices made by previous generations to secure the American freedoms that are our primary obligation to defend.

As the responsible person in Hawaii for defending both State and Federal Constitutions, and their First Amendments in particular, I am asking you to convey this request to Governor Lingle before Thanksgiving, in order to achieve unity on behalf of the Law of the Land, in a bi-partisan call for Roger's release.

You must be aware that due process has been suspended in your State. In denying Reverend Christie a fair trial before imprisoning him the foundations of freedom have been suspended by a failed drug war.

Roger is a dear personal friend and an internationally respected Cannabis cultural ambassador. Reverend Christie has been a productive, progressive community rights activist on the Big Island for more than a quarter of a Century. I trust you will see the importance of prioritizing his release in defense of all our Constitutional rights at this critical time in our social evolution.

With every good wish,

Paul J. von Hartmann
Cannabis scholar
California Cannabis Ministry

Saturday, November 20, 2010

The legal purchase of documentation

The legal purchase of documentation
WHAT a waste of time...It is SUCH a shameful, counter-productive mistake to disparage the THC Ministry.

If it wasn't WORKING, then the 'feral government' wouldn't be violating due process to find Roger guilty-without-trial! SHUT THE FU, Russ&Peeair, Roger's accomplishments DWARF any suck-face criticism of his methods. The sheer validity and functional integrity of Roger Christie's work of the past twenty-five years makes Pierre's self-stroking essay stupidly self-indulgent and unconscionably obscene. What a twat...

Roger has KICKED ASS for TEN YEARS! with the truth. THAT's why he's being spanked by the dick-less, lying, anti-Constitutional feds.

By jumping on board the bitchwagon, and casting Roger's considerable achievements in a disrespectful light (while he's sequestered in prison, DISALLOWED visitors AND illegally denied bail four times!)) Belville and Pierre have banished themselves to the 'purgatory' of mediocrity.

TOO bad Russ, you were ALMOST "radical." As it is, by FAILing to act in the interest of national security, by FAILing to honor the First Amendment, and by dismissing a potent FEDERAL legal strategy, that's been painstakingly constructed over the past three decades by Roger Christie, and sacrificed for by previous generations; for ALL the good you may have done in the past; you've suddenly rendered yourself intellectually inconsequential in the larger scope of ultimately compelling rational argument. WHATEVER WORKS IS FAIR in ending Cannabis prohibition!!!! Don't you get that? Who the hell are you to judge the validity of religious freedom? however Roger chooses to define it?

Roger Christie is a modern day hero, for his forthright and righteous representation, demonstrated regard for the spiritual legitimacy of the world's OLDEST global culture. Roger's success is about WHO HE IS and how he represents one perspective on an infinite CANNABIS SPIRITUALITY, on behalf of ALL of people who feel a spiritual connection to the Cannabis plant, "RELIGIOUS" OR 'spiritual' or 'recreational' or 'nutritional' or 'industrial 'or NOT!

How can you not get that? Love is the limit of law, NOT the other way around. Roger represents the love of the Cannabis plant translated into legal, Constitutionally potent religious terms. The government said "this," & Roger did "that" in order to comply, codify, legitimize, cooperate... and you don't support it. Shame on you for all the sorrow perpetuated by divisiveness.

Others have attempted to invoke a religious defense and failed because they didn't have the legitimate spiritual foundation, the demonstrated spiritual regard, the holistic comprehension, the dedication and purity of motivation that Roger has -- even in prison, ROGER STILL BELIEVES in the power of the truth -- the true value of Cannabis -- the spiritual legitimacy of Cannabis -- the REAL meaning of "every herb bearing seed" the first test of religious freedom. .. Roger's Ministry opened the doors, and faced-down prohibition in downtown Hilo, everyday! and won for ten years!

Roger's effort has been characterized by his enormous courage, unimpeachable sincerity, capable diplomacy and multiple, considerable, successes in giving a legitimate defense to prosecution. NO! It didn't work in every case as it should have--it just worked in a LOT of cases, where people's rights were respected by law enforcement!!!!!! How dare anyone minimize the importance of that. Even ONE instance of a person's rights being honored is reason to respect Roger's work !

Roger has given a (quite handsome) human face, high moral integrity, enormous grace, inarguable intellect, functional rationale, and public dignity to the spurious, fraudulent arguments against Cannabis freedom for twenty-five years! Roge has been brave enough to recognize the spiritual dimensions of the world's oldest global culture while others jaw-boned about piss-ant, self-interested propositions (#19) and superficial statutes. Roger's work means more than all the bullshit I've listened to for the past twenty years, including wading through all the bickering to get to this comment.

Oh, and by the way -- just to set the record straight -- NORML SCKS. HOW much money has NORML gotten from people to end prohibition? And how miserably have they failed? And how limited have NORML, MPP, DPA, ASA and all the other well-funded reform groups been, in presenting neutered arguments to end prohibition?

I am quite frankly DISGUSTED with the mealy-mouth divisiveness of the drug reform movement. Shame on Ethan and Keith and HT and all the rest of the stoner crowd for failing to raise the full force of reason to end this stupid, extinctionistic "debate."

How's this for a clear and proportionately realistic argument of the drug policy situation:

If we don't end Cannabis prohibition,
by this spring (!), then
we're ALL going to fucking die!

Google "global broiling" if you doubt this.

GET IT -- Extinction OR survival? Our choice! You don't have to be "religious" to understand that. By the way, Russ religious freedom includes the freedom to be an atheist, so you better hope Roger isn't convicted if you enjoy your unreligious freedom.

Why haven't I read a comprehensive argument on NORML's impotent website? Or DPA's? Or eMPeePee's, or ASA's? Does anyone who knows more than just a little about marijuana doubt that this is true?

If you still have doubts, then PLEASE! for the sake of your children and mine, GO to http://www.pantedmonkey.org/ and listen to sixty minutes of undiluted truth (See Ken's broadcast of 11/15/2010). If that isn't enough to wake you are up then you're far deader much sooner than you know.

Oh, and Don't look to me for amiability and diplomacy while my best friend is in prison. That's Roger's forte, not mine.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Civilian demand for Reverend Roger Christie's immediate release

Roger Christie's imprisonment-without-trial is a blatant threat to national security of the United States. Everything this country stands for is being disrespected as long as Roger remains behind bars.

The newly elected Democratic governor of Hawaii, Mr. Neil Abercrombie, has stated that

"This election was about a call for change. And I know that desire for change was in the minds of those who voted for me and those who voted for my opponents. Everyone knows that Hawaii needs to and can do better. Everyone wants to have renewed confidence that our best days are ahead of us.

"Our campaign was based on a fundamental belief that government belongs to all of us. Government doesn’t exist to serve politicians or powerful interests or the loudest voices. Government exists to serve all the people, and if things are to improve, we must all take responsibility to make it so...

"This campaign was about people, reaching out to one another, and drawing on their talents and initiative. This is how we campaigned and how we will govern."

http://www.neilabercrombie.com/

So, how many people would be willing to sign on to a formal "civilian demand" for Roger Christie's release, to be formally registered with Mr. Abercrombie, the newly elected Governor of Hawaii? Roger's imprisonment-without-trial is a threat to national security in the extreme.

As screwed up as it is that Roger is in prison, the situation presents a great opportunity for the Governor to do the right thing, politically. By making Roger's release the first act of his administration, Mr. Abercrombie could establish his progressive realistic leadership in the direction of healing Hawaii's hard drug epidemic while respecting the legal potency of a fundamental human rights argument.

The Governor is point-person for defense of the Constitutions (both State and Federal) that Mr. Abercrombie is about to swear to uphold and defend. If we call on Hawaii's Governor to issue a "pre-trial pardon" it could transform the dangerous absurdity of Roger's imprisonment into a pivotal shift in political consciousness around the true values of marijuana, the counter-productivity of Cannabis prohibition and the functional legal integrity of the First Amendment.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Safe Access?

There is no "safe access" on a burned-out planet. The relatively minor issues concerning 'marijuana' will finally balance only after the larger issue of industrial/feral hemp is thoroughly discussed. Aside from everything else Prop 19 would have done wrong, it would have given the state-by-state-marijuana-industry-stumblefolk-approach to Cannabis freedom (a.k.a."legalization") priority over the much more critical urgency of growing industrial hemp across this entire country beginning in the spring of 2011.

I trust that people in the midwest are about through harvesting the so-called "ditchweed" seeds that are this nation's most precious repository of "strategic" genetic material. The genetics contained in the ditchweed seeds have developed adaptive ability that recent strains don't have. The ability to respond to soil and climate variations is a key attribute that must be regarded in the selection of which seeds to plant. The planet's atmosphere is changing, weather patterns shifting. Cannabis is an adaptive species that we can't survive without. That realization within the Cannabis movement will do more to provide safe access to marijuana than any other shift in consciousness we could make.

You might think that marijuana activists and the monied reform groups would push for assessment through presentation of the most potent comprehensive argument.

Ever notice how DPA,MPP,NORML, ASA all avoid the industrial hemp debate, as though having the world's most nutritious plant on your side is a handicap. Whose "side" do you think THEY'RE on?

"Every herb bearing seed" is pretty simple, clear, broad. Conceding rightful legal jurisdiction over Cannabis, by voting to get back our natural right to farm any plant gives away far too much. It concedes the natural right to farm any plant and dismisses the spirituality of agriculture, our most direct link between the economics of our society and The Divine, whatever you choose to call it. Whatever puts life into seeds says that every seed is a legitimate sacrament.

What happens in the extraordinary, illegal-imprisonment-without-trial, anti-First Amendment case of Roger Christie is the measure of safe access for me. Is there enough cohesion left in American culture to recognize such a blatant threat to the Constitution, and insist that -- by virtue of the fact that we're headed for global extinction, the governments are insolvent, and the social order is breaking down --that we have the right to grow Cannabis, the world's most nutritious, useful, ecologically beneficial crop?

Can Roger Christie be set free immediately? to assert the potency of the Constitution, demonstrate the power of the First Amendment, and serve as a directional first step in the direction of survival using the momentum gained from the Prop 19 debate?

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

The Perverse Effect of Roger Christie's imprisonment

"As US economist and Nobel laureate
Milton Friedman observed in a 1991 interview
on the public television program America’s
Drug Forum: “If you look at the drug war from
a purely economic point of view, the role of the
government is to protect the drug cartel.” From
a global perspective, prohibitions on all presently
illegal drugs have resulted in a massive illegal
market that the United Nations has estimated
is worth $320 billion. These profits remain
entirely outside the control of governments.
They fuel crime, violence and corruption in
countless communities and have destabilized
entire countries such as Colombia, Mexico and
Afghanistan.

"Regarding the link between drug law enforcement and
violence, a recent systematic review of English
language research papers that evaluated the
association between drug law enforcement
and violence demonstrated that, rather than
improving community health and safety,
drug prohibition contributes to violence in
communities by empowering organized crime
groups that use violence to gain or maintain
market share of the lucrative drug market.
This review described a literature indicating that
successful law enforcement interventions appear
to have the perverse effect of making it more
profitable for new suppliers to get involved in the
market by removing key players."

International Centre for Science in Drug Policy (ICSDP)
"Tools For Debate"
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES OF CANNABIS PROHIBITION, Page 15
http://www.icsdp.org/Libraries/doc1/Tools_for_Debate_-_US_Federal_Government_Data_on_Cannabis_Prohibition.sflb.ashx

It is criminal that Roger Christie remains in prison, when the government that keeps him there has admitted that doing so has "the perverse effect of making it more profitable for new suppliers to get involved in the market."

Friday, November 5, 2010

An Expanded Letter to Congresswoman Woolsey from West Sonoma

Dear Congresswoman Woolsey,

I am an international Cannabis scholar, a concerned father, and a sorrowful friend. As the responsible father of a bright three-year-old son, I am concerned for his future. Precious time is being wasted in small-scale bickering about 'marijuana' where essential civilian demand for industrial hemp is much more urgently needed, at the federal level. Please understand that there is ample evidence to support the conclusion that Cannabis farming in the United States is critical to resolving crises of global climate change, ending the drug trade and many other undesirable results of prolonged, induced, essential resource scarcity, for several important reasons.

Please consider my request for a meeting to discuss the following, in total quite critical to national security. If it is not critical to national security, then I would like to have it explained to me where I am mistaken.

I've also been asking the same question for almost twenty years: Is there a protocol for exercise of "essential civilian demand" referred to in Executive Order 12919? Would it not be timely to exercise civilian demand in the apparent absence of functional leadership in the failure to recognize the true value of Cannabis agriculture, ecology, manufacture and trade to issues of food security, nutrition, climate change mitigation, and disparity of wealth?

I wrote the "Fundamental Challenge of Our Time,"* a formal challenge of rightful jurisdiction over any "herb bearing seed." It was and is my responsibility to point out that our freedom to farm every herb bearing seed is the first test of religious freedom. It has been reported in the King James Bible that God's first order was so important that He referred to "herbs" and "seeds" three times on the first page . Doesn't it follow then that our right to "every herb bearing seed" is a primary, fundamental human right, inarguably protected by the First Amendment? I feel that any presumption of jurisdiction over Cannabis agriculture is unwarranted. Due to the unique and essential properties of Cannabis it is a critical crop for the wealth and security of our nation. Failure to act in the interest of national security is called a "misprision of treason." Prohibition of the world's most nutritious and useful agricultural resource is precisely that, a direct attack on ancient traditions of agriculture, inexorably melding spirituality and farming, that are protected by State and Federal Constitutions.

I feel that research and broad ecological perspectives I've developed are critical to recognizing the true value of a crop that's been identified in six Executive Orders as critical national security. In spite of my efforts to deliver what I consider to be very good news, it is not being acknowledged or acted upon by the State Attorney General's office.

I would not want to file a legal action against our new governor for "misprision of treason" but in fact, AG Brown has failed to act in the interest of national security. I sent a registered letter to his office in February, and got a form letter back.

The critical stature of the "strategic food resource" hemp has increased with recent reports completed in the field of atmospheric science involving "radiative forcing."

Our most useful "strategic resource" continues to be misclassified as a "Schedule One drug" (i.e. possessing no benefit to humankind). You and I know that is false, as is the definition of hemp on the DEA's website. It is a blatant threat to national security and highly illegal for the DEA to characterize a strategic resource as having no value.

"The marijuana portions of the cannabis plant include the flowering tops (buds), the leaves, and the resin of the cannabis plant. The remainder of the plant — stalks and sterilized seeds — is what some people refer to as “hemp.” However, “hemp” is not a term that is found in federal law.

"DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson stated that “many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana.”
http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr100901.html


Please meet with me to implement "essential civilian demand" or send a protocol to me so I can proceed to prepare for the reintroduction of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade in California. I believe that the freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. Traditions of agriculture connecting farming and spirituality predate written history and continue to this day.

The First Amendment is being shredded in Hawaii, with the illegal imprisonment of Reverend Roger Christie, a personal friend and cultural hero. Roger's been denied bail four times, and had his trial postponed until April. I'd appreciate your help in effecting Roger's release in whatever way you can. Everyone's right of due process is being violated in deference to unconsidered slanderous accusations.

If you knew Roger Christie like I do, you would be outraged at the characterization of his activities that enforces additional imbalance into a situation created by law enforcement itself. How far will the drug war deteriorate before We the People stand up for our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed"? It's pretty simple. Either we farm hemp or the increasing UV-B radiation will fry everything on Earth.

With the destruction of the boreal forests comes an atmospheric imbalance in the form of monoterpene depletion. That wonderful pine fragrance is also sunscreen for the planet. As temperatures increase and logging continues, the "radiative forcing" effect of the boreal forest is decreasing.

Cannabis agriculture is the most time-efficient, available, affordable and effective strategy for resolving the depletion of atmospheric monoterpenes and other atmospheric aerosols that protect the planet from increasing UV-B rdaiation. Time is an important element, the limiting factor, in our chances for success in avoiding global catastrophe in the form of synergistic collapse of environment, economics, and social structures that determine the quality of life on Earth.

Thank you for your time in consideration, and for your many good works. I look forward to meeting with you at your convenience.

Sincerely,

Paul J. von Hartmann
California Cannabis Ministry

"Our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom."
http://www.californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com

Between the Dreams Productions : projectpeace channel on You Tube
"Video documentation is the most efficient way of communicating a complex message."
http://www.youtube.com/user/projectpeace

Cannabis vs. climate change
"We have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself."
July 4th, 2009 BlogTalkRadio Broadcast
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/projectpeace

"Shastashares" a "Gaiatherapeutic" currency option
http://www.shastashares.com

Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
"There is no money on a burned-out planet."
http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace

* "The Fundamental Challenge of Our Time"
Adopted as the manifesto for the Cannabis College Amsterdam in 1998
http://fundamentalcoot.blogspot.com/

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Prop 19 gave us the momentum to exercise federal "essential civilian demand". Will we use it or lose it?

Support "essential civilian demand" for the "strategic resource" Cannabis "hemp" RIGHT NOW, for planting this Spring 2011.

We'll find out who the REAL Cannabis advocates are when we see who shows up for a federal action to reclaim our First Amendment freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed." NO PERMISSION ASKED, BECAUSE NONE IS NEEDED. NO LIMITS ON CULTIVATION. NO TAXES ON POT.

The true value of Cannabis is what will end the prohibition of it. Any "Prop" that fails to identify Cannabis as both unique and essential just Props up the lie that Cannabis is "dangerous" enough to require "control" by the government. Cannabis isn't dangerous, it's therapeutic, nutritious, and ultimately useful, abundant and critical to our survival.

Passage of Prop 19 would have perpetuated and further impacted the lies of "Reefer Madness" by adopting the false values of "drug war dinosaurs" who refuse to acknowledge Cannabis as "the safest therapeutically active substance known to man."

Marijuana prohibition will end as soon as everyone in the world who wants Cannabis to be "legalized" realizes the true value of the herb as both unique and essential.

It's easy to see who Prop 19 favored by counting up how much marijuana can be grown in a 5'x5' indoor garden, as opposed to how much can be grown in the same amount of space outdoors. Prop 19 would have made it tough for the outdoor growers to compete with the indoor market.

Finally, the "carbon-footprint" of the indoor market is obscene. Growing indoors is irresponsible & selfish. Grow outdoors, share generously, be thankful for the harvest. If those were the only "rules" around Cannabis, THERE WOULD BE NO PROBLEMS associated with the plant and considerable benefit to all creatures.

The plop thickens....Peron busted, again...

Having been a target of America's outlaw regime's slanderous mudslinging, I can assure people that egregious lies are the currency of an outlaw government.

Reading what is said about people who oppose Cannabis prohibition, a surreal gravitational pull, carring reality far away, to the self-serving tunes of the extreme 'right.'

Dennis Peron is being spanked (by the cops who work for the courts who work for the corporations), for standing up and speaking his widely respected truth, in natural competition with the "oilgarchy." Dennis is a courageous friend who's paid a heavy price for his integrity. Let him be. San Francisco better rise up to defend him or shame on you, after all he's done for our generation and The City.

It's easy for minions of the unobjective court to characterize people like Dennis Peron, Reverend Roger Christie (founder of Hawaii's THC Ministry) and other peaceful Green Prisoners as "dangerous to society" as long as the myth of Cannabis being dangerous is kept alive by "drug war dinosaurs" working for Monsanto, et al.

If people ever want freedom from chemical servitude, then we have to take back our "freedom to farm" from corrupted, unobjective, economically vested courts. The most insidious harm of prohibition may be that it undermines the objectivity and integrity of our legal system and our moral values as a society, at a fundamental level. Even experts/true grassroots heroes like Chris Conrad are willing to promote a flawed initiative, calling it "legalization" when "Prop-Up Prohibition#19" wasn't legalization at all.

The fact is that ending Cannabis prohibition doesn't require a vote. Laws are in force to protect traditions and spiritual practices associated with organic agriculture that pass the test of the Golden Rule. Ending Cannabis prohibition merely requires an objective, comprehensive global valuation of Cannabis as both unique and essential, beyond the rightful jurisdiction of any court. That could happen in a week, electronically, globally, rationally.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

National Institute On Drugs Report 1991-1994

"Plenty guys I know use ice because they can't get pot."

This is a key perspective, albeit an obvious one, that's been edited from public scrutiny by the "drug war dinosaurs" who seek to control our lives.

In the absence of marijuana, hard drug use is more prevalent.

Thanks to Roger Christie, who is sitting in federal prison right now, for this one.

http://www.thc-ministry.org/NIDA_Report.jpg

Albert Einstein Quotes on Spirituality

"The scientists' religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."

"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after knowledge."

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."

Sighs matter...

... but they won't end Cannabis prohibition.

"Essential civilian demand" for a federally recognized "strategic resource" will.

Don't let up, Prop 19's 'failure to thrive' be mistaken for a wasted effort. It wasn't. It brought people together, got people talking, got people thinking and got us all rolling in the same direction. Thanks to Richard Lee and everyone else who achieved a major victory for human consciousness. Whatever happens is another step toward our full-on freedom to farm.Prop 19 HAD to fail, in order get us to where we need to be.

Prop 19's NOT passing makes room for a bigger law, Freedom of Religion, to kick-in.

Prop 19 served as an important step in the right direction. Don't give back an inch of that progress.

Let's make more, before spring...

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

a different horse

I know some people are disappointed that Prop 19 didn't pass. You have my sincere and deepest sympathies. Now that that's over with, total Cannabis freedom will have the room to ride in on a different horse than expected.

The San Francisco Giants won the World Series yesterday! With about the same odds, we can end Cannabis prohibition before this year is out!

We can best use the energetic momentum and media storm surrounding Prop 19 to fling this thing into the Federal ring, by exercising "essential civilian demand for the "strategic food resource" referred to as "hemp" in six Executive Orders, signed by six American Presidents -- Roosevelt, Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, & Clinton; Singled out by Thomas Jefferson as being "of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country. "

Jefferson also stated, "The greatest service
which can be rendered any country
is to add a useful plant
to its culture."

Consequently, the greatest harm that can be inflicted against any country is to remove its most useful plant from its agricultural rotations. Cannabis hemp prohibition is clearly a prolonged and insidious threat to national security.

A lawsuit for 'misprision of treason" must be leveled against the US "drug czars" who have misled the American people by promulgating a simple lie that crippled the hemp industry in the U.S. for seventy three years -- that it's hard to tell the difference between rope and dope. In fact it's easy to distinguish between high- and low-THC strains without even getting out of your helicopter. See my blog to see the differences.

The rationale for reintroduction of Cannabis hemp is plenty potent enough. This magical moment of publicly focussed attention on Cannabis will fade quickly if we fail to act. We can reintroduce Cannabis hemp to California by next Spring 2011, if we start RIGHT NOW! Ask me how.

Industrial hemp in California is sure to fly if Prop 19 loses. It's a classic opportunity to show the world that the people of California won't take "Just Say No" for an answer. With industrial Cannabis legalization, marijuana prohibition will fall away quickly as the two major Cannabis varieties balance each other out through cross-pollination. It has to happen to avoid global extinction.

I trust you won't mind if I repost this report I wrote six years ago. I can't find it anywhere on line anymore. It was apparently deleted from all original release sites. As far as I can tell (by Google-searching key words from the title) there is no transparent reporting of research activity in this direction at the moment.

Enjoy the absence of federal retaliation for Prop 19. It's our move to bring up the subject of industrial hemp, immediately.

Cannabis isn't illegal, it's essential. The following report takes on an ominous feeling in retrospect. Perhaps the prospect of such a grave mistake coming so close to having been made, that people will see the urgency of reclaiming our individual right to Cannabis, as the single voice of many hearts.

Love is the limit of law.

: ) }-***********

PvH

U.S. Congress Heads Up ARS Project

Reposted here since it was deleted from it's original release site. As far as I can tell, there is no research activity being openly funded by tax dollars at the moment.


FOR RELEASE: June 10, 2004

U.S. Congress Heads Up ARS Project:
"World's Most Useful Plant" targeted for Biological Attack



Even as medical 'marijuana' patients and the hemp foods industry are racking up Supreme Court victories against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA); even as Canadian and European farmers are cranking up Cannabis production to keep pace with public demand for industrial hemp oils, resins, fiber and cellulose; even as Cannabis is being recognized as being "the world's most useful plant," researchers at U.C. Davis are indulging in "Reefer Madness," preparing to infest North America with insect pest species from Eurasia.

Since 1999 the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Research Service (ARS) has been preparing to attack the 'marijuana' plant, targeted for "classic biological control" in 2005. "Secure facilities" have already been built in California, where scientists will grow 'marijuana' in order to study the eating habits of various Eurasian agricultural pests.

According to the ARS annual report for 2003, "The problem is quite serious as marijuana is a controlled substance in the United States and is often grown and sold illegally. It is relevant to local and national law enforcement agencies and was initiated through Congressional mandate." The Department of Agriculture's report continues, "Research was initiated on this project at the request of Congress and the State Department to identify new biologically based methods of controlling marijuana. Cooperating foreign institutions in Italy, Russia, China and Kazakhstan conducted both field and literature surveys for natural enemies of Cannabis sativa and selected two primary candidates, Psylliodes attenuata (Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and Cardipennis rubripes (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to begin further host-specificity and biology research on."

According to the ARS report, "walk-in plant growth chambers" were constructed at Davis last year, that "allow 'marijuana' to be grown under secure conditions and used in quarantine." DEA certification was expected to occur in the fall of 2004. "These plants will be used in the final stages of testing for the effectiveness and environmental safety of selected biological control agents. This should lead to the availability of new biological control agents for this narcotic plant." [sic]*

Faced with such monumental conflict of reason, and accelerating deterioration of our environment, at some point people must ask themselves several questions. First, it seems imperative to question the underlying motivations of a drug policy that, after almost seventy years, has had only tragic, counter-productive results for the Earth's environment, human economics and social evolution.

Creation of a black market economy is the most obvious and predictable result of any prohibition. "Forbidden fruit" is always more expensive, leading inevitably to violence and corruption of police and politicians. When a critical agricultural resource is prohibited for three generations, the destructive illusion of a "free market economy" is even more dangerous, insidious and persistent. Industries that would otherwise succumb to the laws of fair economic competition, have become institutionalized, dominating the evolution of human values. Our generation is approaching the end of that dead end road, fighting for limited energy resources when we could have been farming biofuels all along.

By devaluating the most useful and potentially abundant organic agricultural resource on the planet, and inducing a prolonged condition of essential resource scarcity, mankind has been diverted from a course of sustainable energy development. After three generations of Cannabis prohibition, degenerative, anti-natural imbalances in economics have steered a toxic course for our social and political structures as well. Teetering precariously on the edge of synergistic collapse, the very real possibility of extinction looms in our foreseeable, predictably tragic future.

The absence of balancing influence, inherent to a free market, has institutionalized anti-natural values to desperate extremes. Such mad science as is happening at Davis, being directed against humankind's best hope for sustainability, is clearly agricultural espionage carried out by a chemically vested government, subverting the best interests of its own people. Unsustainable values, combined with the unpredictable instability of atmospheric carbon imbalance, are no longer theory, capable of being characterized as "gloom and doom" scenarios. Scientists agree that global warming is a real and present danger, even if political frontmen for toxic industries would have us believe otherwise, in the interest of protecting the short-term bottomline.

Corporate influence of political leadership, the economics of punishment at home and abroad, and the market dynamics of chemical industrial food and fuel production, has engendered corruption blurring the lines between industry and government. At U.C. Davis, government science is being employed by hemp's economic competitors to strengthen the advantage that chemical industry already enjoys, over agricultural solutions and common sense.

As conditions of imbalance increase it is critical to assess the impact that corporate/politcal hybridization is having in perpetuating a self-serving prohibition. After decades of conclusive studies and clinical reports in many countries, identifying Cannabis as "the safest therapeutically active substance known to man," which holds considerable benefits for mankind,
it is inevitable to conclude that government health concerns used to justify prohibition are not to be taken seriously. In fact, considering all available credible science, it is obvious that prohibition only serves to increase profits for multi-national corporations protecting chemical-industrial interests against competition from agriculturally-based industries.

It is common knowledge that there are many substances approved by the U.S. government, that are much more dangerous to people's health than 'marijuana.' Alcohol and tobacco are America's primary recreational drugs, far more lethal and addictive to both users and non-users than 'marijuana.' Chemical pharmaceuticals and even some foods that are commonly consumed with deadly result are readily available to people who choose to assume the risks associated with them. Even peanuts can kill. Obviously, realistic concerns for public health and safety have nothing whatever to do with 'marijuana' prohibition.

Cannabis prohibition is clearly motivated by industries concerned with the plant's potential to compete in a truly "free market" economy. More than ever it is essential to understanding which industries and corporations currently control the present "un-free market," exercising disproportionate economic influence, usurping control of the American government, leads to more questions.

The petroleum industry and the pharmaceutical industry are two of the most obvious competitors. Americans pay the highest drug prices in the world. Annual spending for pharmaceuticals, is up to $250 billion, doubling every five years. More than 120,000 people die every year in the U.S., from "legal drugs" taken in accordance with their doctor's prescription.

Virtually everything that is being made from petroleum hydrocarbons, can be made better, cheaper, and with less pollution using Cannabis, a carbohydrate. Less obvious, but equally powerful are the soybean industry with interests tied to biotech and chemicals for agricultural. Monsanto controls more than 80% of the biotech industry, and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pfizer pharmaceutical. These are the economic forces driving prohibition, through political influence and lobbying groups such as Partnership for a Drug Free America.

It's no secret that America's second generation oil president is the petroleum & pharmaceutical industry's favorite son. The CEO of Pfizer donated $200,000 to Bush's campaign this year. Other blatant examples, of government officials serving billions of dollars worth of prohibitionist interests on behalf of chemically-dependent industries, abound. In America's present administration there are no fewer than six top ranking officials, directly associated with Monsanto, including the Supreme Court Judge who put GW Bush in office (Clarence Thomas), the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (Anne Veneman), the Secretary of Defense (Donald Rumsfeld), the U.S. Secretary of Health (Tommy Thompson), Chairman of the House Agricultural Committee (Larry Combest) and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

"The Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), a coalition of militant peasant groups, has called for a boycott of Monsanto products. KMP is attempting to block the use of the genetically modified YieldGard Bt-corn and is protesting Monsanto's interests in the United States-led war on Iraq. Rafael Mariano, KMP chair, said the program boycott on Monsanto products is part of a civil disobedience campaign to protest against US industry's attacks on the Iraqi people.

"The US military campaign to topple the Iraqi leadership was for the benefit of US war industries like the US-based Monsanto, the proponent of the genetically engineered Bt-corn in the country and manufacturer of Agent Orange...Monsanto is no less than a war industry," Mariano said.

Mariano further stated that it was a "clear mockery" that US President Bush launched the strike on Iraq under the pretext of disarming it of its weapons of mass destructio, because the US itself is the primary producer of weapons of mass destruction.

The forest products industry is another cash cow tied to chemical production. Recent estimates put the potential market for hemp paper at between $15 to $30 billion a year worldwide. About 20 paper mills around the world use hemp fiber, with an estimated annual world production volume of 120,000 tons. This represents about .05 percent of all paper. India and China dominate this potentially vast market. In the U.S., the "green" paper industry (including recycled and natural fibers) accounts for about $20 million in a $230 billion industry. Expanded use of agricultural crops and other tree-free materials for paper would not only spare trees but would also produce paper with minimal environmental impact from the chemicals used to manufacture paper.

In the U.S., hemp food products are a small but fast-growing sector of the natural foods industry, with annual sales of about $5 million. Canadian farmers seeded 3,800 acres of hemp in 2002 and harvested about two million pounds of the crop. In 1994, President Clinton signed Executive Order 12919, specifically identifying hemp as a "strategic food resource" subject to "essential civilian demand."

Consider that the nutritional value of Cannabis seed makes hemp the most nutritious and healing food on Earth. This is an inarguable fact, since Cannabis is the only common seed with three essential fatty acids (EFAs) in proper proportion for long-term consumption. Cannabis seed is also the best available source of organic protein on the planet.

Consider that neither the U.S. government, nor the United Nations, has any research projects, anywhere in the world, where Cannabis is being considered as a source of vegetable protein. Even in countries where it is perfectly legal to grow Cannabis, (even subsidized by the European Union in some places), there are no U.N. Food & Agriculture investigations being carried out. Not one.

Instead of growing organic Cannabis, humankind is growing soybeans for protein. This is a relatively poor choice, since there are several good reasons not to eat soybean, unless it is properly fermented. Also, from an agricultural perspective, soybean is much more difficult to grow than Cannabis, requiring substantial chemical application to suppress competition from weeds.

Cannabis naturally defends itself against most insect pests, and crowds out competition from most weeds. This and many other beneficial agricultural characteristics make Cannabis an excellent rotational crop, useful as a companion plant to help with cultivation of other crops, re-mineralization of nutrient-depleted soils, for preventing soil erosion, as a seasonal windbreak, and to break up compacted soils.

Cannabis is such a valuable plant, capable of producing so many products, that it may not
be possible for mankind to achieve sustainable existence on this planet without it. Certainly, without hemp the United States of America as we know it would not exist. As most people know by now, all of the founding fathers of this country were hemp farmers, including George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and Alexander Hamilton.


"Make the most of the hemp seed and sow it everywhere."
--George Washington (1794)

"We shall....want a world of hemp more for our own personal
consumption." --John Adams (1783)

"Hemp is of first necessity....to the wealth and protection of the
country." --Thomas Jefferson (1791)**

"Hemp is an article of importance enough to warrant the employment of
extraordinary means in its favor."--Alexander Hamilton (1791)

Cannabis is capable of producing more food, fuel, medicines, fiber, cellulose,
and resins organically, sustainably than any other plant on Earth. Not
only is it imperative to stop the waste of money and obviate the destructive impact of the research being done at U.C. Davis, it is as important to ask why this research has been allowed to continue for five years, in light of what is common knowledge about this critically important agricultural resource.

Such obvious abominations as the importation of invasive insect species from one continent to another, serve to make the absurdity and economic motivations of prohibition that much more blatant. As nothing else could, this plan to self-inflict a bio-terrorist attack on the world's best hope for sustainable agriculturally-based industry, should finally wake up America to the sinister character of corrupt economic forces that are running our government.

Unless people recognize (before the election) the insidious predation of impacted economic forces, perverting the human economic structure, treasonous influences imbedded within our political fabric will continue to impose essential resource scarcity, capitalize on, and exaggerate the imbalances which result from it.

Walt Kelly is as right as he everlovin' was, "We have met the enemy and he is us."



* Note: While Cannabis can be "psychoactive" it is non-narcotic.

** Thomas Jefferson even smuggled hemp seeds into the U.S. from China.

#

Paul von Hartmann is an international freelance photjournalist, Cannabis scholar, and Natural rights activist.

This essay may also be found posted at the P.E.A.C.E. blog entitled
"Cannabis and Iraq: Why Prohibition Leads to War"
http://cannabiswars.blogspot.com/


Thursday, June 10, 2004

Paul J. von Hartmann
12931 85th Avenue NE
Kirkland, WA 98034 USA
(425)814-4980

Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
http://www.webspawner.com/users/projectpeace/

Contact:
e-mail: projectpeace@yahoo.com
or projectpeace@gmail.com (for files larger than 1Mb)


(c) PvH 2004


1. Research Project: Classical Biological Control of Narcotic Plants
http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/projects/projects.htm?ACCN_NO=402468&showpars=true&fy=2003

2.Medpot stars give for patients
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2569.html

3.Study Shows Therapeutic Benefits, No Adverse Effects in Long-Term Marijuana Users
http://www.infoimagination.org/ps/drug_war/articles/mj_study.html

4. War foes urge boycott of US products
http://www.geocities.com/kmp_ph/strug/032403.html

5. Asia Farm & Consumer Groups Denounce UN FAO Support for GMOs
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/asia052404.cfm

6. Big Biotech Silencing Critics of Pesticides & GE Crops
http://www.organicconsumers.org/ge/bigbiotech060304.cfm

7. Organic Consumers Association
Campaigning for Food Safety, Organic Agriculture, Fair Trade & Sustainability
Millions Against Monsanto
If you're talking about PCBs, Agent Orange, Bovine Growth Hormone, water privatization, biopiracy, untested/unlabeled genetically engineered organisms, or persecuting small family farmers, you're talking about the Monsanto Corporation.
Monsanto's Government Ties
http://www.organicconsumers.org/monlink.html

8. Scientists Demand Action on Invasive Species: National Environmental Coalition on Invasive Species (NECIS) issued a "Call To Action on Invasive Species."
http://www.ucsusa.org/global_environment/invasive_species/page.cfm?pageID=1275

9. Executive Order 13112 of February 3, 1999 -- Invasive Species
http://www.invasivespecies.gov/laws/execorder.shtml

10. Top selling prescription drug (retail sales 2001): Lipitor (Pfizer) a cholesterol reducer $4.52 billion (increase of 22.3% from 2000). Source: National Institute for Healthcare Management Foundation

Monday, November 1, 2010

Crumbs of freedom

HolyShoot!! -- Michael K! hapbpby to have you onboard the discussion. Welcome to the clothing-optional brainpool...

: ) ]-********briefly,

It's still a federal offense to cultivate in California & every other state, even if you do have a medical exemption, which I don't. I'm a Cannabis minster and a patient, but the way I see it, legal protections afforded by the former cover the latter.

The decrim bill in California was mostly a matter of Arnold being too broke to bust people for dime bags any more. That's an economic dynamic that you attribute to PeeWee 19 even before it passes? I don't think so. It's nice but it's not enough to recover AS's integrity after vetoing two industrial hemp bills.

Prop 19 is a crumb of freedom in the trap of prohibitionist illusion, keeping everyone happy&stoned enough to accept that the government has legitimate authority to disqualify our ancient spiritual relationship with the agriculture of any herbs bearing seeds.

Prop 19 appeals to people who are content with what they think is all they can get. I hear the argument for incremental change, but it's like riding a skateboard on a tsunami -- it's generally the right shape, but ultimately it's a poor choice of equipment. The big picture will continue to get lost in the distraction of repercussions against Peepee 19.

CB, yes BP (unfortunate initials - no relation) is "holding [his] nose and voting "yes" (really "yeah, welllll, okay") for the "message effect" and I'm not saying that it wouldn't be good for P19 to lose by a slim margin, for the same reason, but think of all the endless crap we won't have to deal with adjusting to what follows the passage of prohibition-lite.

Better to know we're still fully at war with lying dinosaurs, than to cow into complacent acceptance of the illusion of freedom and get entangled in a maze of endless legal confusion and directional diversions.

Comment on Viv's statement

Lots to comment, not so much time...

You may be surprised to know I don't support Prop 19, mainly because it will confuse the path to complete legalization. If it doesn't pass, we will have a clear shot at a national strategy for ending Cannabis prohibition. If it does pass, people will go back to their little 5x5 gardens and be placated with that.

Sorry to say that Prop 19 only allows a 5'x5' (a 25 sq ft) garden, not even big enough for a single outdoor plant. Prop 19 pushes people toward indoor cultivation for max yield in a 5x5 space.

The best I can say about "Plop 19" is that it has generated the energy & public attention that has to be followed through with a national exercise of "essential civilian demand" for the "strategic resource" hemp, that's known to be critical to national security -- by this Spring 2011. To miss another hemp growing season in the US would be sheer madness.

I could care less whether the fossil-fuel-burning indoor pot grows are legitimized and taxed, because that dynamic does more harm than good in the long-run.

Grow outdoors! Support sunshine energy, not petrol pot! The increasing price of energy will keep the price/profits up on indoor Frankenweed. Taxes and regulation will further prostitute and distort the cost of Mary Jane. Instead of treating her like the scared Diva that she is, Prop 19 continues to make a whore of the world's most useful and nutritious agricultural resource.

Reply to Chris Conrad

Come on Chris, I'm disappointed you don't understand the complexities of sociopoliticoeconomic dynamics better than that. A vote bought buy annonymous corporations don't mean squaT, for starters. We're an occupied country Chris. The people need to take back the truth about Cannabis -- Right now. Before the confusion and expense of disingenuous debate plunges us into endless legal bickering and a flood of meaningless news.

"First of all Prop 19 is not "legalization" (Bill Panzer). How imprecise for you to use that word. At best, Prop 19 is a mixed adolescent message: "we're gonna grow & smoke pot, no matter what you say, Dad, but we'll share some with you since you can't pay the mortgage on the state.

It concedes rightful jurisdiction and misdirects away from efficient progress at the Federal level. If we perpetuate the lie that Cannabis is other than the most useful, nutritious, ecologically significant...then shame on us for watering down the message and the legacy of what we've been entrusted to deliver intact and complete.

Dear Chris & Mikki,

Beautiful video & music. Very seductive.

Honestly, I wish I could jump on the bandwagon with you & all the other beautiful people who yearn for Cannabis freedom and an end to the "drug war" so badly that they are branding Prop 19 as "legalization."

It's not -- Prop 19 embraces & perpetuates the lie about Cannabis being "dangerous" to young people, and continues to waste law enforcement resources to terrorize the world's oldest global culture. Imposing taxes on herbal therapeutics is unfair to people who are not well.

The "message effect" that W.Panzer referred to isn't worth the federal/municipal legal confusion, the de-energizing effect of passing weak permission, and the willing public concession of rightful jurisdiction over a god-given natural resource that is both unique and essential.

Roger Christie is in federal prison right now, standing up for EVERYONE's First Amendment right of free religion. Prop 19 would do nothing for him if it passes. Prop 19 would have made no difference to him even if it had passed before he was arrested.

Passage of "Prop-Up Prohibition#19" will legally entangle, confuse, placate and fragment the national activism that needs to happen to end Cannabis prohibition by this spring.

A 5'x5' limit on gardens (not even enough space for one decent outdoor plant) means that, for maximum "legal" yield, people will be pushed toward growing indoors.

If Prop 19 doesn't pass, can we use the momentum generated by what looks to be a close vote to initiate federal "essential civilian demand" for the "strategic food resource."

Come on Chris & Mikki, you are leaders in this movement. Lead toward strength, not confusion. The credible science exists to revaluate Cannabis as essential to national and global security.
It is a "misprision of treason" to fail to recognize the true value of Cannabis.

Conditions of ecological necessity make the opportunity for Cannabis freedom much bigger than Prop 19 and more urgent than people apparently realize.

The bees are dying! The Bats are dying! The coral reefs are dying! UV-B radiation is increasing as the boreal forests are cut or die from global temperature increase. Check out my ministry blog to understand more about why Cannabis monoterpene production is essential to our survival-- not illegal!

Feel free to publish anything I write in the West Coast Leaf. Isn't this "newsy" enough ? You've been doing great work much longer than I have. It was chris who got me into the hemp movement that's steered my life for the past eighteen years, and I thank you for that sincerely. But I think you're wrong on backing a move that concedes what you know to be true in the interest of what you think we can get if we go along with the stale, intransigent dogma and lies, the vestiges of "Reefer Madness."

No corporate government tax on pot. No corporate government domination over organic agriculture. If even a fraction of the money that's been poured into Prop 19 is directed toward national essential civilian demand, prohibition could be over in ONE MONTH. The truth about Cannabis is THAT strong in the context of multiple, accelerating crises we face.

[The preceding statement was written and posted in response to a lovely pro-Prop 19 video shared on Facebook by Chris Conrad and Mikki Norris.]