California Cannabis Ministry

Mainstreaming Marijuana to Capitalize Cannabis

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:27:00 +0000

If you have any remaining "Reefer Madness" twitchiness about marijuana finally being recognized as more than merely "legal," then this would be a really good time to just get over it. Indecision is a luxury we cannot afford. 'Time' is the limiting factor in the equation that determines the quality of life on this planet. Delaying an end to Cannabis prohibition for even another day is a threat to the integrity of the ecosystem upon which we depend for our existence.

Aside from the well-documented, beyond obvious, egregiously repetitive, heinously counter-productive effects of the so-called "drug war" (including exacerbating all drug problems, and creating a trillion dollar global black market), the unique and essential environmental benefits of Cannabis agriculture are finally too critical to ignore any longer.

I perceive too much time and money and human talent & effort being spent by the global drug policy reform community, struggling for incremental changes (i.e. too little too late) when it is a radical shift in values that's required. Cannabis isn't illegal, it's essential. That's the message that must be made before next spring. Conceding rightful jurisdiction is the sucker-punch of the reform movement that's got prohibition in our asses and sooner is always better than later to stop being screwed by the chemical military industrial economic system.

Why mainstream 'marijuana' ? Because it's the fastest way to bring the price down.
Why capitalize Cannabis? Because it's a genus name, and out of respect for the most nutritious, most useful, most potentially abundant "herb bearing seed" that can save our species from extinction if we just let it work. And because we need an new basis for our economic system that includes an element of spirituality.

Respect for Nature, appreciation (to The Great YouNameIt) for the gifts we've been temporarily blessed with, entrusted to receive and pass on, gratitude for everything we've got -- the spiritual connection to agriculture that's been severed is a fatal wound to humankind's chances for sustainable existence on Earth. Give thanks for Cannabis, and every other creature on this Earth.

"Make the most of the hemp seed sow it everywhere..."-- George Washington

Questions for Karen Armstrong, Charter for Compassion

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:54:00 +0000

Would you agree that our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom? Do you agree that food insecurity and malnutrition are antithetical to a compassionate society?

Specifically, are you aware of the essential resource scarcity that prohibition of Cannabis hemp seed has imposed? Do you know that seven U.S. Presidents have signed Executive Orders identifying hemp as a strategic food resource, yet in the US it's treated as a Schedule One "drug"?

Finally, will you help me to educate people about the nutritional value of hemp seed? I invite everyone's participation in exercising essential civilian demand for hemp before next spring, so that hundreds of millions of people can feed themselves.

Charter for Compassion
http://charterforcompassion.org/

My contribution to the Sphere Project via the UNFAO Food Security & Nutrition Forum

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:59:00 +0000

The Sphere Project
http://www.sphereproject.org/content/view/461/251/lang,english/

=============

Two of the three micronutrients* widely recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as limiting: iron, zinc, and vitamin A (beta-carotene) are present in hempseed, it's the best available source of vegetable protein, essential fatty acids, and all of the essential amino acids, and yet it's not even mentioned in the Sphere Handbook.

*Hemp Seed Nutrition (hulled hemp seeds)

Calories/100 g 567
Protein 30.6
Carbohydrate 10.9
Dietary fiber 6
Fat 47.2
Saturated fat 5.2
Monounsaturated fat 5.8
Oleic 18:1 (Omega-9) 5.8
Polyunsaturated fat 36.2
Linoleic 18:2 (Omega-6) 27.6
Linolenic 18:3 (Omega-3) 8.7
Linolenic 18:3 (Omega-6) 0.8
Cholesterol 0 mg
*Vitamin A (B-Carotene) 4 IU
Thiamine (Vit B1) 1 mg
Riboflavin (Vit B2) 1 mg
Vitamin C 1.0 mg
Vitamin E 9 IU
Sodium 9 mg
Calcium 74 mg
*Iron 4.7 mg

Regarding human protein requirement: "Qualitively, it is considered desirable to secure amino acids similar to those of human tissues, both as to kinds and relative quantities of the various kinds." [Textbook of Anatomy and Physiology, Kimber, Gray, Stackpole, 1943]

During digestion proteins in food are broken down into amino acids. The amino acids are then taken into the body and reassembled into human proteins according to need and the availability of the amino acids necessary to make specific proteins.

The body needs the necessary kinds of amino acids in sufficient quantity in order to make proteins such as the globulins. Proper quantities of the right kinds may not be available to the body much of the time. So even though the body has enough essential amino acids available to prevent deficiency diseases, it may not have enough to build quantities of immunoglobulins necessary for the immune system to repel infection.

The best way to insure the body has enough amino acid material to make the globulins is to eat foods high in globulin proteins. Since hemp seed protein is 65% globulin edistin, and also includes quantities of albumin, its protein is readily available in a form quite similar to that found in blood plasma. Eating hemp seeds gives the body all the essential amino acids required to maintain health, and provides the necessary kinds and amounts of amino acids the body needs to make human serum albumin and serum globulins like the immune enhancing gamma globulins.

Eating hemp seeds could aid, if not heal, people suffering from immune deficiency diseases. This conclusion is supported by the fact that hemp seed was used to treat nutritional deficiencies brought on by tuberculosis, a severe nutrition blocking disease that causes the body to waste away. [Czechoslovakia Tubercular Nutritional Study, 1955]

HEMP SEED: THE MOST NUTRITIONALLY
COMPLETE FOOD SOURCE IN THE WORLD
Part One
by Lynn Osburn
Hemp Line Journal, July-August 1992, pp. 14-15, Vol. I No. 1
http://www.ratical.org/renewables/hempseed1.html

Committee for World Food Security

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:48:00 +0000

"Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

"It is estimated that more than a billion people, one in every six human beings, may be suffering from under-nourishment."

Committee for World Food Security
http://www.fao.org/economic/cfs09/cfs-home/en/

The most time efficient way to bring UNFAO into a position of accountability for the nutritional value of hemp seed may be
to implement the following procedure to the Committee for World Food Security

Human Rights Council Complaint Procedure
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/chr/complaints.htm

Ending the drug war influence on food security and nutrition may be the most effective way to make complete, essential hemp seed nutrition more widely available.

If you would care to help, please contact me.

Food Security & Nutrition Forum

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 16:08:00 +0000

In reference to Kioko Munyao's two recent questions on the UN FAO Food Security & Nutrition Forum
http://km.fao.org/fsn/fsn-forum/main-forum/fr/?view=single_thread&cat_uid=30&conf_uid=316&thread_uid=649

1)"Are there practices that rural communities had that have been discarded that would have assisted in achieving a greater effect on poverty and hunger?"

Yes, absolutely. Cannabis agriculture has been banned, regardless of it's unique and essential food value.
Hempseed as a nutritional resource: An overview
J.C. Callaway, Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, University of Kuopio, Finland
http://www.finola.com/HempseedNutrition.pdf

The world's most complete and potentially available food and fuel crop has been legislatively banned from organic agricultural rotations, by the misanthropic "war on drugs." Hemp has also been torn from the wild lands where it would otherwise grow, expanding the arable base.

Cannabis is the only crop that makes biofuels and food from the same harvest. Identified as a "strategic food resource" in Executive Order 12919, Cannabis agriculture is as critical to sustainable human existence as it was to the founding of civilizations all over the world.

The earliest nomadic people planted Cannabis along their seasonal routes, for essential seed protein, oil, fiber, intoxication and entheogens that grew well without tending.

In "The Dragons of Eden" Carl Sagan wrote of the pygmy tribes that Cannabis was [i]"their only cultivated crop."[/i]
http://www.rexresearch.com/hhist/hhist1~1.htm

And

(2)"Is there evidence of communities blending 'traditional' production and livelihood systems with modern practice that has shown some success?"

Yes. In Switzerland, Chanvre Info
http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/

has demonstrated that Cannabis can be used to produce food, fuel, building materials, paper, biodegradable plastics, herbal therapeutics.

The agronomic characteristics of Cannabis make it an effective crop for expanding the arable base, and for increasing production of crops grown in rotation with it.

Cannabis also produces biogenic pesticides that have therapeutic applications for humans and wildlife.

Atmospheric aerosols called "monoterpenes" are produced in abundance by Cannabis in a wide variety of soil & climate conditions. Monoterpenes reflect solar radiation away from the Earth and seed cloud formation.

Google "Hemp Climate Zone Map" to see all of the places in the world that hemp can be grown.

I invite people who share concern to consider the question,
"How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edZw3hXkGJo

Hemp grows well in Canada, and is subsidized by the European Union in every country. Why can't hemp be used in every country to help people and heal the environment?

I am wondering if Mr. Andrew MacMillan has had any success in finding fertile ground for Dr. Callaway's work?

Leche Verde

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 13:14:00 +0000

Here's a recipe that will blow your mind in a different way...

Harvest and wash your Cannabis ROOTS!

Chop up and make a tea from the roots.

Put the tea in a blender with a few hand-fulls of Cannabis SEEDS (fertile, organic, ofcourse)!

Blend the seeds and the root tea, then throw in a few fresh LEAVES !

Strain the LECHE VERDE ("Green Milk") seperating the particles of root, seeds & leaves from the light green seed milk...

Give thanks to The Great YouNameIt, and imagine what magic there is in synergistic nutrition of the sacred herb...ROOTS, SEEDS & LEAVES -- the whole plant in a drink!

Drink the sacred milk with consciousness and gratitude, and feel the healing power flow through you...

Blessing to all,

PvH

PS. My experience drinking this for a year and a half, while living in Holland, was that it reverses the degenerative aging process, and cut my need for sleep from 9 hours to 5 hours...
_________________
Project P.E.A.C.E.
Planet Ecology Advancing Conscious Economics
invites you to replicate and submit this formal individual complaint to the U.S. government
http://formalcomplaint.blogspot.com/

Cannabis has never been truly illegal. The "laws" prohibiting the most useful agricultural resource on Earth are truly unlawful because Cannabis is unique and essential, beyond the rightful jurisdiction of any court.

The question is...

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:19:00 +0000

...why drink processed cow's milk when there's something that's better for most people's health, much better for the ecosystem than dairy farming, and tastes better than processed cow's milk?

If you're not yet aware of the nutritional benefits of Cannabis hemp seed, then look into it to realize that hemp is nutritionally unique and essential. The only common seed with three essential fatty acids, Cannabis is also the best available source of organic vegetable protein on Earth.

Harms induced by the counter-productive prohibition of 'marijuana' have included outlawing research into the many benefits of Cannabis agriculture, therapeutics, manufacture and trade. Cannabis is the only crop that produces biofuels, herbal remedies and complete nutrition from the same harvest.

Why isn't the government telling you this, instead of just some hemp fanatic blogging into the wind? Because "they" are not on our team. Look at the warmongering, radical economic disparity and racism that continue to define contemporary American politics. Despite endless rhetoric propping up people's naive hopes with empty optimism, "drug war" inertia is carrying us further into endless wars leading to global extinction.

God Forgive America for the synergistic collapse of environment, economics, and social structures that U.S. prohibition is orchestrating all over the world. Wonder why people are mad the US? Look at the misery we've imposed on the world by legislating essential resource scarcity. Consider the fundamental chain of conflicts and imbalances resulting from banning the world's most useful, potentially abundant, globally distributed, safely therapeutic, essentially nutritious, environmentally beneficial agricultural resource.

The real question is, how can people continue to accept the prohibition of Cannabis when there are so many reasons to be growing it and time is running out? How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?

Hemp seed milk is the healthiest drink on Earth, and tastes great. There does not have to be malnutrition anywhere. Hemp seed has no growth hormones, no mutant A1 genes, doesn't require pasteurization, and contains natural preservatives in the form of antioxidants. Every one could be growing hemp seed, fresh, alive and fertile. We could all be making seed milk, ice cream, yogurt, and cheese at home if we wanted to. It's easy to grow and it's easy to eat.

The food industry is a $643,467,000,000 industry in the United States. If you see the enormous potential of this information, then contact me directly to give real value to your wealth. It's past time to be timid about our common future. We need to shift the economic base from soulless chemicals to spiritually vital organics.

"Essential civilian demand" (E.O. 12919) for industrial/nutritional hemp is entirely justified, considering the extreme conditions that threaten our species. We have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself.

Search You Tube and BlogTalkRadio for projectpeace. Answers are presented there, when people are ready to accept the truth about Cannabis. The longer we wait the harder the transition will be and the less likely we will be to make it.

There is no money on a burned out planet. Invest in hemp, of unique and essential values. Hemp is the currency of the 21st Century. Anyone who doesn't have fresh fertile hemp seed when the music stops will be poor.

The most ancient and evolved economic system on Earth is demonstrated by the most ancient species, including Cannabis, dolphins and whales: "Help me help you help everyone."

Contact projectpeace {a} yahoo dt com
to shift human values through practical support for accelerating electronic global education of hemp's true essential value.

###

Posted online by: P.E.A.C.E. on Sep 7, 2009
"Milk May Endanger Your Health, and the Dairy Industry Knows It"
By Ari LeVaux, AlterNet.
http://www.alternet.org/story/142377/milk_may_endanger_your_health,_and_the_dairy_industry_knows_it/?cID=1314473#comments

CANNABIS LEAF IS THE MOST EFFICIENT AND AVAILABLE SOLAR PANEL ON EARTH

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:23:00 +0000

"In 2005, total worldwide energy consumption was 500 exajoules (5×1020 J) with 80 to 90 percent derived from the combustion of fossil fuels.

"Most of the world's energy resources are from the sun's rays hitting earth.

"Mostly thanks to the Sun, the world also has a renewable usable energy flux that exceeds 120 PW (8,000 times 2004 total usage), or 3.8 YJ/yr, dwarfing all non-renewable resources."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_energy_resources_and_consumption

An obvious question is, "What is the most globally available, sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective way to maximize energy production from the Sun?" The answer appears to be " Cannabis (i.e. industrial hemp) agriculture." Growing biofuels abundantly, organically, in more soil and climate conditions to the greatest benefit of soils and other crops grown in rotation with it, Cannabis produces more energy per acre, sustainably, organically, than any other crop that also produces food from the same harvest.

So that means if we can maximize our use of solar energy, then we can eliminate dependence on fossil fuels.

Isn't that, by itself, a good enough reason to end Cannabis prohibition?

SO MUCH MORE TO IT THAN WE'RE BEING TOLD

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:12:00 +0000

Prohibition is not about the pot or the coke. Black drug market fortunes are measured in mere hundreds of billions of dollars.

The 'economics of punishment' are profitable too, prison construction, law enforcement, electronic & weapons industries, etc...but the real money is being made by industrial giants who fear competition from the eventual return of industrial hemp industries.

Isn't it odd how silent Obama is about hemp? Only if you still believe he's other than a frontman for the chemical industry.

It's about food, fuel & fiber, measured in trillions. Obama isn't leading on hemp, but he could be smart enough to follow the growing majority of people who are demanding answers about the obvious values being ignored.

Prohibition is about the fortunes and power to be made by grabbing unevenly distributed resources. Cannabis is globally available to produce energy, food,fiber products and herbal therapeutics. If Cannabis were available in the US, the global awareness would shift more quickly.

If we don't solve global climate change it won't matter what problems we do solve.

Return to Reason trailer
http://www.youtube.com/projectpeace

Cannabis agriculture vs. climate change
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/projectpeace

We have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself. How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?

Freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom.

Come on people, what's left to debate? The quickest way to end prohibition is by "essential civilian demand" for hemp. It could happen next spring if DPA, LEAP, Dr. Bronner's, ASA, NORML, MPP and the rest of the drug policy reform community all said the same thing at the same time. Executive Order 12919 identifies hemp as a "strategic food resource" critical to national security.

Cannabis-based industries or extinction? It's a simple shift in values that's needed. Eventually we have to stop throwing the baby food out with the bongwater, but time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival.

Consider that industrial hemp is banned in the US because law enforcement claims that it's hard to distinguish between industrial hemp and marijuana.

The truth is that it's easy to tell the difference between the two types of Cannabis because there's a difference in how they're planted. Industrial strains grow 4" apart, while commercial pot plants are grown a minimum of six feet apart.

Consider that a "strategic food resource" is concurrently classified as a "Schedule One" drug. The extremes of absurdity are consistent throughout the "drug war," posing a serious threat to the integrity of our legal system, and therefore a primary threat to national security.

The degree of criminal negligence for failing to recognize the incomparable nutritional value of hemp seed, particularly during a time of radical food insecurity and malnutrition, is staggering. Essential nutrition is the first line of defense against illness, so Cannabis seed nutrition ought to be fundamental to the healthcare discussion -- but it's not even mentioned in the White House.

What's up with that, Mr.& Mrs. President? Don't you want your children to enjoy the unique and essential nutrition contained in hemp seed? Please don't tell me that you don't know about it.

I am personally outraged and ashamed that it's taking this long for our generation to remember what our grandfathers knew. Hemp is an essential agricultural resource. Without it the United States would never have been founded. Without Cannabis our species will not see the end of this century.

Without the many benefits of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade, we're all working for extinction.

Bad news Good news Bad news

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 22:03:00 +0000

‘We Are Heading Towards an Abyss’
U.N. chief tells 150 governments that time running out on climate change
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/09/03#comment-1288491

Good news: There is a way to get from where we are to where we need to be.
Bad news: It means everyone saying the same thing at the same time. " Freedom to farm."

Organic agriculture is the only, immediately globally available, affordable proportionate response to climate change. Carbon sequestration and monoterpene production are just two of the reasons to end Cannabis prohibition, but there are many more. Global warming & global broilng (increasing UV-B) need to be addressed in every possible way.

Cannabis is the only crop that produces food and fuel from the same harvest, sustainably. The argument against biofuels, (supposedly inducing food insecurity) is worse than wrong -- it's backwards. When Cannabis is added back into the equation the most nutritious seed on Earth will be available everywhere, inexpensively.

Time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival. Every spring planting season that passes without the benefits of Cannabis agriculture manufacture and trade is an opportunity that's lost forever.

Good news: Essential Civilian demand for Cannabis is provided for in Executive Order 12919. We have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself.

Here's a glimpse into one possible future, if we choose peace instead of war.
http://www.youtube.com/projectpeace

No less than a criminal negligence lawsuit against the "drug war dinosaurs" is needed before next Spring. The only reason we can't grow industrial hemp in the United States is because law enforcement claims that they can't tell the difference between marijuana and industrial hemp. That's a self-serving lie that's crippling the most "Gaia-therapeutic" industry stream on the planet, at the bidding of the chemical industries and other symptoms of the economics of punishment.

If we achieve extinction, it will be because our generation lacks the courage to shift its values in the face of the coming synergistic collapse of spirit, environment, economics and social evolution. All are connected. All are dependent upon the integrity of the others. Our economic system has been detached from the spirituality of organic farming.

Cannabis is an essential rotational tool for organic agriculture. The 60+ cannabinoids protect the plant from myriad assaults and pest infestations, and can be used to protect other crops .

How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered? There are several time lags to consider, that are hardly mentioned.

Cannabis seed is nutritionally unique, complete and essential. The freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. If we reclaim the Constitution, then the First Amendment ought to be enough to rediscover our individual right to grow everything we need, in abundance.

www.cannabisvsclimatechange.com

projectpeace [at} yahoo {dot] com

No tax on pot

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:49:00 +0000

The following opinion was written in response to a recent press release regarding the marijuana tax, written by Ken Reed, at the Green Cross in San Francisco. http://thegreencross.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=466

Taxing Cannabis is a very bad idea. It never should have happened in 1937 and it shouldn't be happening again now. A tax on medical marijuana will do nothing more than legitimize the dysfunctional government's unwelcome interference in our lives and our individual health.

Time is short. There is a more direct avenue to ending prohibition. Freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed is the first test of religious freedom.

With all due respect, Cannabis is not "medicine." Cannabis is in fact an unique and essential herbal therapeutic. Medicines don't make seeds. Herbs make seeds. The vast differences between drugs and seeds erodes the credibility of anyone who presumes to equate them.

I agree that some people may benefit from consulting professionals regarding the use of marijuana. But to put the world's safest and most healing herb into the hands of doctors dismisses the subcultural evolution, prejudice and ignorance against Cannabis inclusive therapies that has developed during seventy two years of prohibition.

Taxing Cannabis will have several really bad effects. The biggest drawback is concession of rightful jurisdiction over unique and essential natural resources. When valued properly, Cannabis is not illegal -- it's essential.

Secondly, taxing marijuana will drive the price up, enlarge an already unaffordable bureaucracy, and perpetuate the black market in untaxed marijuana.

Cannabis remains prohibited because people in the Cannabis culture persist in under-valuing the world's most useful, nutritious, potentially abundant, globally distributed, safely therapeutic agricultural resource. Seeking incremental change, we forfeit our own strongest argument.

I invite you to consider the "big picture" and recognize the opportunity and obligation of facing the fundamental challenge of our time head-on.

Please contact me if you would care to know more about the strategy I've developed for ending Cannabis prohibition by next spring. Your help is needed to make "essential civilian demand" for Cannabis an effective tool for implementing Cannabis freedom.

IRS & DEA the deadliest letters in the USA

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 22:53:00 +0000

On Mon, 7/6/09, David Borden wrote

> My view, for whatever it's worth -- if a moderate level of
> taxation is what
> political research shows is needed to get marijuana
> legalized, we should go for it.

Hi David & friends,

Your views and work are worth alot to the drug reform effort. Perhaps you're right to have more faith than I have in political research and the system it studies.

The way I understand it, the end of the "drug war" that's currently happening came from the grassroots finally reaching the majority of the people, recognizing the idiocy of prohibition -- not our political system's reasoned wisdom and brilliant leadership. I think the opportunity for people to see the degree of harm & ignorance being imposed on us by a dysfunctional bureaucracy has never been more clear.

The US government has been worse than merely wrong about Cannabis nutrition, bio-fuels, therapeutics, and other dimensions of this plant that are suddenly being recognized as critical to individual health and global security. U.S. "drug war dinosaurs" have institutionalized criminal negligence, imposed scientific censorship and persited with cruel intransigence in failing to acknowledge (let alone secure) our basic human rights.

I definitely agree we should go for it too. In fact if we truly care about the future of this planet and the quality of life on it, we had better go for it all the way -- to a degree that will be certain to work from now on.

The present system doesn't work. If it did, then we wouldn't be headed for extinction. The dysfunctional prohibition was spawned and dragged out to absurdity by the dysfunctional system that now presumes to tax it. That doesn't sound like much progress to me, and is a terrible "message to send to the children."

'IRS' and 'DEA' are the six most expensive letters in the USA. Hardships imposed by the gross corruption and inefficiency of a predatory bureaucracy run amok has made the world unlivable for the vast majority of the people on this planet. We can afford neither the present drug policy nor the present tax system.

Prohibition has shown us how a government can be criminally wrong, beyond moral accountability. How many conclusions can be drawn from an unique and essential "strategic resource" being concurrently classified as a "Schedule One drug?"

Ultimately, the opportunity for shifting from a military industrial, chemically saturated society, to a sustainable, organic economy is what we are talking about. The shift from dependence on government providing energy and food to the people producing their own essential resources makes taxation obsolete.

The income tax system is the most inefficient form of taxation there is. Innumerable hours of people's lives are wasted computing the degree of "involuntary servitude" when simply taxing what people consume, not what they produce would achieve more equitable funding for a vastly reduced bureaucracy.

If we want both a free-market economy and a sustainable society we would eliminate production taxes on industries that heal the planet (gaiatherapeutic industries), and increase consumption taxes on luxury goods and services, not essential ones. The "luxury tax" would include costs associated with the net carbon component of production and delivery of any good or service. The more people spend, the more taxes they would pay.

Getting marijuana legalized is such a
> difficult thing that not a
> single country has achieved it yet, not even the
> Netherlands. People are
> getting arrested for marijuana every day, about 2,000 per
> day here in the
> US. We should not "make the best the enemy of the
> good" by insisting that
> marijuana have tax-free status, while time goes by and
> people continue to
> sit in prison and the arrests continue.

Absolutely. Releasing "drug war" prisoners is at the top of the list of priorities. Every day spent in jail is gone forever. Every day that a child spends without its parents is a crime against family that erodes the foundations of society. Recognizing prohibition as counter-productive to its own stated objectives will achieve the release of prisoners faster than taxing 'pot' to prop up an insolvent government.

That's why some in the drug policy reform community have always advocated the most direct avenues of legal challenge, frustrated as moderate mainstream activists conceding rightful jurisdiction over unique and essential resources. The Cannabis culture has been raped for decades by the system you are proposing we now pay taxes to. Asking for permission to grow the world's most valuable crop is weak.

To hell with the petrochemical war-mongering system. The world's oldest global culture can fund itself. We don't need permission to survive from an expensive, dysfunctional bureaucracy when we can produce our own fuel and food from the same harvest. The government of the U.S was dead wrong about Cannabis all these years, and it still won't recognize the true value of the plant.

Now that prohibition is imploding out of sheer economic necessity, the military/industrial government is trying to retain control by perpetuating rightful jurisdiction, in spite of criminal negligence that's been revealed.

Paying taxes on Cannabis would impact the Cannabis industry's competitiveness with established, toxic industries that are not being taxed.

Personally, I am not willing to settle for "what we can get," when what we need is so much more.

We should do
> whatever is realistic
> and effective that will end prohibition as soon as
> possible.

Extinction is presently realistic. It makes so much more possible and necessary. Are you willing to exercise "Essential civilian demand" for a "strategic food resource?" That's what made Cannabis illegal in the first place, so why doesn't DRCNet help initiate procedures identified in Executive Order 12919?

What about claiming our First Amendment Right to "every herb bearing seed" and "every green herb" ? Not another law needs to be passed if the spiritual relationship between nature and agriculture is appreciated.

>
> Besides, as long as there is government, and government
> services, tax
> revenues have to come from somewhere.

Eliminate the IRS and the DEA and we will have trillions to work with. Taxes don't have to be gathered from our income.

Alcohol is used
> safely by most of its
> users, and it is used religiously in many traditions.
> I don't get a tax
> exemption if I buy alcohol for a Jewish ritual, and I don't
> feel that that
> violates my freedom to participate in my familial cultural
> traditions.

Parallels between alcohol and Cannabis don't work. They are at opposite ends of several spectrums, beginning with the difference of their effects on human health and behavior, how they are produced, environmental impacts of crops, etc. Taxation of Cannabis will perpetuate the inertia of the drug war against un-taxed pot.

If I
> were to get such a tax exemption, I would not assume it to
> apply if I went
> to a bar. In some states here in the US there is a
> tax on food, in fact.

Money spent in your community is the most direct and efficient form of "taxation." This isn't figured into the equations around the current Cannabis economy, though it does operate to the benefit of communities where ordinary people profitm from growing & selling 'marijuana'.

>
> If the tax rates go too high, but it's legal, there will be
> many more
> activists than there are now working to reduce the taxation
> rate.

Better to consider a simpler route, even if it requires thinking outside the bong.

And
> personal cultivation will follow in short order too,
> because it will be
> politically untenable at that point to arrest people for
> it.
>

People are already growing marijuana everywhere, because it's increasingly impossible to make ends meet, and marijuana is so easy to grow well.

To the eurodrug group regarding taxation of Cannabis

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:57:00 +0000

Dear Jorge and friends,

Most people would agree that our generation is facing the proximate reality, if not the likelihood of global extinction. Drug policy is being revealed as fundamentally related to many issues, including most notably, climate destabilization. If radiative forcing with monoterpenes hasn't registered with people yet, it may be time to focus on it as a final argument in favor of intensifying Cannabis cultivation.

In my opinion, if we don't meaningfully address "global warming" by recognizing the opportunity afforded by reconstructing drug policy, then it probably won't matter what problems we do solve. There is no drug policy on a burned-out planet.

As it is, far too many decades of intransigence regarding drug policy has had an enormous impact on environment, social justice, food security & nutrition, health and most other issues experiencing critical imbalance. A priority seems then, to determine how rationale drug policy reform can maximize benefit in all of the areas effected by drug prohibition.

For example, in regard to climate change, the effects of prohibition on organic agriculture have economically empowered chemical companies, including fossil fuels, big pharma and chemical agriculture. Our governments are being steered by those wealthy few, enriched by chemically-based industries waging wars all over the planet.

Ending prohibition is proving that the world has been deceived by those who pretend to solve problems rather than create them. The magnitude of harm inflicted and the amount of time and energy it's taken the grassroots movement to end prohibition provides an opportunity to see the "glitch in the maxtrix" that we were all born into.

If we impose taxes and bureaucratic regulation on something that could help mankind to achieve a much more efficient system, then we are delegating our well-being to the same economic structures that have been waging a counter-productive "war" on the majority of the world's people. As the majority awakens to the fatal deception of the "drug war" I trust we can make the most of being awake, and really "go for it" in time to have maximum beneficial effect on our common future.

This is the process I presently envision:

Step One:
Release all people convicted of minor drug charges from all of the world's prisons -- immediately. Redirect the money being spent on incarceration to provide practical support, helping people reintegrate into healthy, productive lives. This would mean redirecting "drug war" related bureaucracies (i.e. the DEA) into community-based enterprise for helping people recover from the harms of having been imprisoned.

Step Two:
Make hard drugs legally affordable and available by prescription, while discarding all laws pertaining to Cannabis and coca cultivation, manufacture and trade.

Step Three:
Teach individual responsibility for choices made from an early age. The importance of "sending the right message" of accountability to young people, by holding elected officials and industry leaders accountable for their crimes and gross negligence, cannot be underestimated.

Step Four:
Provide employment by initiating organic, non-GMO Cannabis agricultural projects in every country, to allow regional adaption of hemp seed strains to produce food, fuel, paper, cloth, building materials, etc. This will produce a global abundance of sustainable resources on which to base hyper-efficient, carbon positive ("gaiatherapeutic") regional economies.

Step Five:
Redirect "drug war" and other wasteful government funding to healthcare, drug education and harm reduction measures.

Step Six:
Establish the true value of Cannabis using all existing peer-reviewed studies, while increasing research into the benefits of Cannabis therapeutics, agronomics and ecology. Educate people about the unique and essential benefits of Cannabis nutrition, organic crop rotation, conversion from chemical ag and other health benefits associated with the Cannabis plant.

Step Seven:
Expansion of the arable base using a full range of organic pioneer crops, to regenerate depleted, compacted and toxic soils and desertified lands.

When Cannabis is allowed to compete unencumbered on the free-market, the true value of it will make obsolete those polluting industries and the economic political structures built upon unevenly distributed poisons. Predictably, the dangers and pitfalls of chemically intensive mono-cropping need to be guarded against.

Not taxing Cannabis-based production will afford the industry a stimulus that will increase its competitive position in relation to industries that currently enjoy no taxation or are so favored by economic monopoly and the influence that affluence buys, that they may as well be operating untaxed.

Discontinuing income taxes altogether would eliminate countless hours wasted in accounting, and save hundreds of billions that prop up the bureaucracy that exists to controls us. Greater efficiency between an individual's income and the direct community support that comes from people spending money on goods and services would result in a higher standard of living, which is the most effective way to reduce drug abuse.

Why taxing Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade is a bad idea

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 04:20:00 +0000

Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade are critical to the survival of our species. Burdening the growth of an industry that's been vilified, persecuted, and suppressed for seventy years; an industry that also heals the planet in several crucial ways; and could rejuvenate organic agriculture; with a tax paid to a government that's killing the planet will effectively weaken not only the growth of organic farm-based industries at a time when we should be supporting them; it will also cloud the primary reason for ending prohibition --"the "drug war is counter-productive. Corrupt misdirection inherent to the political system that perpetuated the "drug war" epitomizes the abject failure of that system.

The greatest benefit of ending prohibition is the crystal clear view of how dysfunctional our social structures must be, if such a perversely harmful policy as prohibition could be imposed by governments for so long.

taxing cannabis vs. religious freedom

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:23:00 +0000

Hi Alun,

I'm replying to you directly because as a non-European contributor to the Eurodrug list I am reluctant to post too much of my personal philosophy, which may or may not be relevant or interesting to others. Anyone who may care to is welcome to read further at my blog:

http://californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com/2009/07/taxing-cannabis-vs-religious-freedom.html

Thank you for your thoughtful reply. Personally, I agree with much of what you write. You bring up some very interesting questions that I don't pretend to know "The Answers" to -- for anyone but myself. What I am attempting to do is to articulate a legal defense for total Cannabis freedom, regardless of taxation or any other conditions for ending prohibition.

As I understand it, in the context of U.S. law, "religious freedom" was stated vaguely by design, in order to allow for the broadest possible interpretation.

How the courts of various countries reconcile "religion" in relation to our 'freedom to farm' Cannabis depends on things that I'm sure I don't fully comprehend. I guess my point is that, regarding Cannabis laws in the US and other countries, "religious freedom" seems to be inconsistent with the realities we face as a species facing foreseeable extinction.

Because prohibition is so obviously counter-productive to its own stated objectives, I find it impossible to respect anything other than total Cannabis freedom. What seems (to me) to be needed, obviates government taxation of profits from my labor.

Your statement that "...the Human Rights Article that
grants for every man, the freedom to hold or to change his
(or her) religion or belief .... to practice it alone
or with others." ...which is not exactly "religious freedom""

is confusing to me. I only speak for myself, ofcourse. That's why the ministry I started is an individual one. I certainly don't presume to "know" what religious freedom means to anyone else. For myself, religious freedom includes the freedom to farm. This seems to be specifically referenced in legal provisions associated with "every herb." The Biblical quote serves as a cross-over between widely accepted religious doctrine and relevant legal provisions.

If "the freedom to hold or to change his
(or her) religion or belief .... to practice it alone
or with others" isn't religious freedom, then how else would it be defined? As I understand it, what "legitimizes" any spiritual path is baseline philosophy known as "The Golden Rule" -- "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

If someone is an "atheist" and chooses to reject "religion" that's their choice and I totally respect that choice. I don't know what rights the courts would convey to a person who doesn't acknowledge a spiritual relationship with Cannabis, but I feel I ought to be protected by the law if I am sincere about how I feel about it.

For myself, I'm spiritually thankful to whatever energy or process or "God" created such a wonderful plant, without having to define it. If there is legal purchase in this then I ought to be legally protected from prosecution for growing and selling any Cannabis products.

Here's an interesting essay that you may be interested in:

"Can Engaging with a Radical Religion Help Save Progressives from Self-Indulgence?"
By Robert Jensen, Soft Skull Press. Posted July 3, 2009
http://www.alternet.org/story/140993/can_engaging_with_a_radical_religion_help_save_progressives_from_disastrous_self-indulgence/

"But back to taxation - do we agree that profits from the SALE of legalised cannabis ought be taxable?"

Perhaps I'm the wrong person to ask. I was convicted as a "tax protester" in 1996 because I think being forced to pay taxes on personal income is a Constitutional violation of individual choice.

On the other hand, excise taxes paid on goods and services ARE an individual choice, and require no "free accounting."

Taxation of profits is essentially "involuntary servitude" (i.e. wage slavery) administrated in the most inefficient, bureaucratic and expensive way possible. To make Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade conditional on taxation eliminates a "god-given" right.

Willing compliance with taxation is understandable, considering that it's the system we were all born into, and brought up to think of as "how things work" -- but we were all born into prohibition too, and we know that doesn't work. And neither is income taxation, so why construct a system around Cannabis agriculture that will burden it with taxes?

As lies, absurdities and injustices characteristic of drug prohibition become more apparent, they provide an opportunity for a broader awakening.
Unjust and inefficient income taxation is being imposed by the same predatory machine that has been waging the "drug war" against us. If it was working, maybe I'd support it, but the system is not working.

For the first time in human history our species is aware that we're heading for extinction. There is an immediate urgency for finding solutions that have never existed before.

The priority is to figure out how to support the healing of our planet. Giving money to a criminally negligent, dysfunctional U.S. bureaucracy seems like madness, so I find it impossible to advocate for half-measures.

The "religious freedom" argument seems to provide the most direct, lawful alternative by making the distinction between drugs and herbs. Taxation of any environmentally unique and essential natural resource seems to me unlawful, unnecessarily complicated and inefficient in a time of global emergency.

I absolutely agree that "it does not matter what a person's religion or belief is, they have the same Right to hold or to change it, and to practice it, and any interference from the authorities seems to be to be illegal..."

Best wishes,

PvH

Cannatax help? I don't think so...

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:02:00 +0000

"personally I am against taxing cannabis - I would only agree with taxing the profits" - Alun

If there still exists a legitimate spiritual connection between farmer, land and harvest, then any tax imposed on any "herb bearing seed" is a violation of religious freedom.

Taxing what people spend on non-essential items and for whatever harm they do to the environment/society are the most equitable and most efficient means of raising revenue to run a much smaller bureaucracy.

It's been my experience that people who make money from Cannabis generally spend most of it in their communities. That's a direct, voluntary, efficient kind of taxation. Additionally, people who have lots of Cannabis typically share it with people who need it. That's an even more direct sort of tithing that has the same effect as taxation.

The six most expensive letters in the USA are IRS and DEA. If we eliminate those two predatory "bureaucrazies" we'll save enough money to pay for Americka's much-needed national psychiatric treatment.

About Portugal

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 15:26:00 +0000

Dear Jorge and friends,

I am very happy for you and for the people of Portugal. Your progress is a heartening example of national intelligence, directing courage and reason in leadership. Thank you for keeping us in the light of your process & changes.

For whatever it may be worth, I suspect that by anticipating the effects of liberalizing Portugal's marijuana laws, projected benefits can add momentum to the shift. In particular, the legalization of marijuana for personal use in Portugal could be extend to visitors, allowing for Cannabis tourism, if new policy is made with such freedom in mind. I believe this would be good for Portugal and good for the rest of the EU.

Cannabis tourists are typically a peaceful, voracious bunch, given to much dancing. All this is good for local restaurants, music events, etc. I'd be interested to see research on how much more food people eat -- and the percent increase in restaurant bills -- when stoned. I'd guess it's at least 10%.

Legal Cannabis production contributes to local economies whether it's taxed or not. People earning money in Cannabis-related industries inevitably spend money in the regions where they live. Not taxing Cannabis would keep the price of it down, and eliminate a huge tax-related bureaucracy, of the kind that California presently seems to be stumbling toward.

Imbalances created by national extremes in prohibition policies is not a healthy one. Perhaps Portugal will recognize the opportunity in taking some of the pressure off of Holland, currently the destination of choice for people who appreciate the peaceful absence of a "drug war" around Cannabis.

The people of Portugal are encouraged to support as liberal and tolerant a policy as possible for both marijuana and industrial hemp. The rest of the EU is encouraged to support the change.

Best wishes,

PvH

PS. Tune-in to BlogTalkRadio to hear "The Final Argument" for ending Cannabis prohibition:

"Cannabis agriculture vs. Climate Change"
presented by the California Cannabis Ministry
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/projectpeace

Saturday, July 4th, 2009
9-10am, Pacific Daylight Time (PDT) = GMT+7
so 4-5pm GMT

Listener dial-in number: (347) 202-0195

Perhaps BlogTalkRadio would be an efficient way for ENCOD and others on this list to communicate and possibly raise financial support. Anyone interested in sponsoring (or calling in) to Saturday's program is invited to participate.

34 Harms of Cannabis Prohibition

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:14:00 +0000

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Thank you for your courageous acknowledgment of the importance of a Cannabis debate. I am writing to offer my services as an international Cannabis scholar, biodynamic agroecologist, green economist and filmmaker. Please contact me to further understand how important a resource Cannabis truly is.

The following list is meant to serve as an introduction to a vast debate. There are many more harms yet to be articulated. People are being invited to add to this list, so that we may assess the true cost of Cannabis prohibition, in time to avoid extinction.

34 Harms of Cannabis Prohibition

1. Induces essential resource scarcity. Cannabis is not an optional natural resource. Nutritionally, Cannabis seed is both unique and essential.
2. Imposes radical energy inefficiency by limiting regional production and availability of several bio-fuels, including cellulosic hydrogen, ethanol, pyrolytic charcoal, diesel seed oil, methane gas and compost heat.
3. Induces global food insecurity and malnutrition by limiting the production and availability of an unique and essential foods. Three essential fatty acids, the best organic vegetable proteins, critically important vitamins & minerals, and all of the essential amino acids in nutritionally significant amounts.
4. Induces scarcity of affordable, recyclable and biodegradable building materials.
5. Reduces the carrying capacity of wildlife habitat by reducing the availability of essential food and cover.
6. Institutionalizes a black market economy in god-given herbs by misidentifying them as "drugs."
7. Corrupts governments, locally and globally.
8. Creates radical resource disparity, that inevitably leads to wars over energy, water and other essential natural resources.
9. Creates an economic vacuum that has addicted and corrupted our economic system into dependence on toxic, unevenly distributed, finite resources.
10. Degrades the environment on regional and global levels. "Global Broiling" (increasing levels of UV-B radiation) is perhaps the least discussed example of the "extinctionistic" effects mankind's addiction to chemicals is having.
11. Engenders poverty, illness and violence, where abundance, health and peace could otherwise exist.
12. Causes epidemic malnutrition.
13. Threatens everyone's health by inducing essential food scarcity, which obviates optimum human development and potential.
14. Perverts human social evolution toward synergistic collapse of environment, economics, and social structures.
15. Largely responsible for the rise of GMOs, having created protein shortages.
16. Economically and politically empowers the most greedy, least conscious people.
17. Disrespects and interferes with science.
18. Institutionalizes disrespect for Nature.
19. Inhibits free individual spiritual evolution
20. Robs us of our Natural Rights, which government was founded to protect.
21. Robs the other creatures with whom we share this planet of unique and essential food and shelter.
22. Creates conditions of irrational acceptance of government misinformation, undermining the credibility of government.
23 Accelerates the spread of HIV/AIDS between infected mothers and nursing infants.
24. Creates a "forbidden fruit" which makes adolescent experimentation with 'marijuana' and other psychoactive substances more likely.
25. Makes the wild places into war zones, driving illegal growers further and further back into remote wilderness areas.
26. Interferes with regeneration of damaged lands, and expansion of the global arable base.
27. Cripples organic agriculture by banning environmentally benign biogenic pesticides and interfering with rotational cropping methods.
28. Disrespects the sacrifices made by previous generations, for the freedoms we are losing, because of the counter-productive, hypocritical, selective and expensive "drug war."
29. Results, on average, in the pointless death of one police officer per month, whose lives are wasted enforcing anti-Constitutional laws, that are counter-productive to their own stated objectives.
30. Constricts the global agricultural production of atmospheric aerosols called "monoterpenes" which have been shown to reflect solar radiation away from the planet, and seed cloud formation to protect the Earth from "global broiling" by increasing UV-B radiation.
31. Inhibits the use of a safe and effective herbal therapeutic by people who are intimidated by the misinformation and violence that characterizes 'marijuana' prohibition.
32. Destroys families and undermines social structures that are the most effective means of addressing substance abuse and other symptoms of imbalance.
33. Interferes with the spread of knowledge that is critical to social evolution.
34. Suppresses the peaceful side of human nature. Cultures that use Cannabis are invariably more peaceful than societies that don’t.

Paul J. von Hartmann
California Cannabis Ministry
http://www.californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com

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

Sustainable Agriculture Mitigates Climate Change and has Climate Adaptation Potential

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:33:00 +0000

Cannabis agriculture is a critical component of sustainable, organic agricultural rotations. Add to this the production of biofuels and food from the same harvest, and production of atmospheric monoterpenes, and organic hemp agriculture has the potential for making an enormous difference in the quality of life for future generations.

A report by the International Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO and FIBL (Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Switzerland) (2007) provides a detailed assessment of the benefits of organic farming regarding climate change. The benefits are summarized as follows (Khor, 2008):

—Organic agriculture has considerable potential for reducing emissions.

—In general it requires less fossil fuel per hectare and kg of produce due to the avoidance of synthetic fertilisers. Organic agriculture aims to improve soil fertility and nitrogen supply by using leguminous crops, crop residues and cover crops.

—The enhanced soil fertility leads to a stabilization of soil organic matter and in many cases to a sequestration of carbon dioxide into the soils.

—This in turn increases the soil's water retention capacity, thus contributing to better adaptation of organic agriculture under unpredictable climatic conditions with higher temperatures and uncertain precipitation levels. Organic production methods emphasizing soil carbon retention are most likely to withstand climatic challenges particularly in those countries most vulnerable to increased climate change. Soil erosion, an important source of carbon dioxide losses, is effectively reduced by organic agriculture.

—Organic agriculture can contribute substantially to agroforestry production systems.

—Organic systems are highly adaptive to climate change due to the application of traditional skills and farmers' knowledge, soil fertility-building techniques and a high degree of diversity.

The study concludes that: "Within agriculture, organic agriculture holds an especially favourable position, since it realizes mitigation and sequestration of carbon dioxide in an efficient ways. Organic production has great mitigation and adaptation potential, particularly with regard topsoil organic matter fixation, soil fertility and water-holding capacity, increasing yields in areas with medium to low-input agriculture and in agro-forestry, and by enhancing farmers' adaptive capacity. Paying farmers for carbon sequestration may be considered a win-win-win situation as (a) carbon dioxide is removed from the atmosphere (mitigation); (b) higher organic matter levels in soil enhance their resilience (adaptation), and (c) improved soil organic matter levels lead to better crop yield (production)."

Crucially, for farmers who have to face increased climate variability and extreme weather events in the near future, sustainable agriculture, by increasing resilience within the agroecosystem, increases its ability to continue functioning when faced with unexpected events such as climate change. For example, organic agriculture builds adaptive capacity on farms as it promotes agroecological resilience, biodiversity, healthy landscape management, and strong community knowledge processes (Borron, 2006).

Improved soil quality and efficient water use also strengthen agroecosystems, while practices that enhance biodiversity allow farms to mimic natural ecological processes, which enables them to better respond to change. Sustainable farming practices that preserve soil fertility and maintain, or even increase, organic mater in soils can reduce the negative effects of drought while increasing crop productivity (Niggli et al., 2008).

from "Sustainable Agriculture Mitigates Climate Change and has Climate Adaptation Potential"
http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/?q=node/view/494

Prohibition is counter-productive and costly -- so what's to debate?

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 16:20:00 +0000

The strongest possible arguments against the prohibition of Cannabis have not yet been articulated. If they had, then the world's most valuable and nutritious agricultural resource would have been made readily available to everyone on Earth decades ago. Failure to communicate the unique and essential values of Cannabis means that weaker arguments for Cannabis "legalization" continue, where the debate could have and should have ended long ago.

It's past time to honor Cannabis-inclusive agricultural economics in full appreciation for the many benefits it affords over chemical-dependent farming and industry. Unless we accomplish that small step in consciousness, as a functioning, rational society, then anything else we might do may be too little too late to avoid synergistic collapse.

I've wondered for decades, what particular combination of words would achieve the fundamental healing in the shortest amount of time, that's so critical to everyone's quality of life? Which aspect of the comprehensive, overwhelming rationale constructed of common sense would result in an uncompromising call for immediate Cannabis freedom, loud enough to reach the hearts & minds of the greatest number of people, in the shortest span of time? Perhaps it is simply the fact that this sudden and extreme shift in values will decide the fate of everyone's children.

Cannabis is unique and essential for several reasons. Nutritionally, Cannabis seed is unique in that it is the only common seed with three essential fatty acids (EFAs), making it essential for optimum health from conception to death. Cannabis unique in that it is the only agricultural crop that sustainably, organically produces the greatest abundance of food and fuel from the same harvest in the widest variety of soil and climate conditions. Cannabis also produces more atmospheric monoterpenes than any other crop, offering a proportionate agricultural response that is essential for resolving problems of climate destabilization.

We now know that our present leadership is leading us towards global extinction. Why would we continue to think that the solutions to our problems will come from the system that has brought us to the brink of catastrophe? Since Cannabis has been in the service of mankind for Centuries, why would the world's oldest global culture suddenly need permission from a dysfunctional government to exist? That Cannabis is considered both a "strategic food resource"* and a "Schedule One drug"** demonstrates the contradictory values that have resulted in counter-productive policies in the U.S. and created misery in countries that replicate U.S. drug policy.

What has been presented as true by the succession of predominant leadership for the past seventy years, stated as false and continues to be false. Cumulative knowledge and empirical data gathered over more than eighty years of prohibitions, obviate the option of continuing the most destructive policy ever. While it may not count for much with some people, I recognize that total Cannabis freedom is by far the best available, cost effective and time efficient remedy for the scarcity that's being imposed under false pretenses.

The false claim that Cannabis is a "drug," and an undesirable "weed" that's bad for our health has been disproved many times over in several countries. It wouldn't matter even if that were true. People will always have unlimited access to marijuana, and young people will want it all the more if it's made a "forbidden fruit." The glamor of money surrounding the black market makes 'marijuana' even more attractive to young people.

Drugs don't make seeds. Herbs do. That fact makes it impossible to keep people from growing pot, and the harder you try to, the stronger the black market gets. Leadership that doesn't recognize this is either corrupted, confused or ignorant. Prohibition laws that cripple America's organic agricultural industries is clearly a threat to national security and Earth's Natural Order.

So what's The Answer? How do we end prohibition immediately? I believe the solution is so simple it's practically invisible: our common future depends on a simple shift in values. What was once considered an undesirable "drug" can now be recognized as our best chance for survival, and a tool for achieving sustainable existence.

By recognizing the true essential value of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade in the context of 21st Century crises, prohibition will give way to a better quality of life for everyone. It's our choice to open the bag of hemp seed with which to heal Earth Island, or not. It will be our children who pay the price for our failure to consider the true value of Cannabis in time to avoid synergistic collapse of environment, economics and social structures upon which we all depend.

See:

*Executive Order 12919 (Clinton 1994)

** Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Schedule of Drugs [sic]
Schedule I
(a) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
(b) The drug or other substances has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
(c) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision.

NORML, MPP, DPA, and ASA are indeed part of the problem

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 20:31:00 +0000

First of all, I honestly appreciate Mr. Amentano's talent and ability in arguing for a normal relationship with Cannabis -- as far as you go. It's not nearly far enough since we are still arguing over "legalization" after decades of "drug war" induced negligence. NORML, MPP, DPA, and ASA have all conceded rightful jurisdiction over unique and essential natural resources. How do you justify that?

Do you accept that an agricultural crop identified as a "strategic food resource" (EO 12919) is also a Schedule One drug? If not then why not force the DEA to resolve this obvious contradiction. Do you really believe that cops can't tell the difference between "rope&dope"? That flimsy excuse is all that blocks a trillion dollar green energy industry from reawakening in the USA.

By misdirecting the Cannabis culture into an endless political morass, the world's oldest global culture is begging legitimacy from a dysfunctional, corrupted government at the helm of crumbling economic and social structures, potentiating extinction. Why not revalue Cannabis as unique and essential and finish the argument?

What I fail to understand is:

How & why you, NORML, and others in the reform movement fail to make the obvious connection between "every herb bearing seed" and the First Amendment. Drugs don't make seeds, herbs do. Not another law needs to be passed to end prohibition of the world's most nutritious and useful agricultural resource. Period.

The world's oldest global culture has centuries of inarguable precedent, fundamental to the most potent state and federal "substantive due process" defense. Is the drug policy reform reform movement so comfortable collecting membership fees and coordinating conferences, arguing for more laws & regulation, that you fail to see the larger truth?

Cannabis has never been truly illegal because it is too valuable to be within the rightful jurisdiction of any court. Why don't NORML , MPP and DPA use the millions you all have to challenge the rightful jurisdiction of the court over unique and essential natural resources?

Have you forgotten that it is the many uses of industrial hemp that originally motivated marijuana prohibition? Why don't you remember the ancient historical relationship between agriculture and religion and invoke Constitutional protections for Cannabis agriculture?

Why don't you recognize that Cannabis is an essential crop, that may be critical to the continued existence of our species on a livable planet? Cannabis vs. climate change is a broadly compelling argument that has yet to widely considered. Google "global broiling" to find my blog entry on this subject.

Honestly, I get disheartened being denied funding by organizations who seem to think that asking for permission to grow Cannabis and establishing another bureaucracy to tax and regulate 'marijuana' (with no mention of industrial hemp) is the way to end prohibition.

Well, it's not. Taxing 'marijuana' another expensive misdirection. The money to be made from industrial hemp dwarfs the revenue stream from a pot market that allows for home cultivation.

Consider the potential billions to be made from biofuels and protein production, to name just two income streams from hemp, compared with the mere millions to be made from the sale of 'marijuana' -- after people who grow start to share it FOR FREE between friends, as we do RIGHT NOW -- even in a black market.

The freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom.

Looking forward to your reply,

PvH
California Cannabis Ministry

“The greatest service
which can be rendered any country
is to add a useful plant
to its culture...”

-Thomas Jefferson, Cannabis farmer

An inconvenient solution whose time has come

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:34:00 +0000

The wave is finally breaking on the extended credibility of dysfunctional governments. For too long, people have trusted in the promise of moral power. The actions of the United States in waging wars and inflicting harms betray the illusion. Wars are foundational to the chemical industrial economy. The apparent, abject failure of the present system in terms of environmental sustainability invites all solutions to be considered.

Collapsing economies, blatant abuse of power, environmental catastrophe, social upheaval, crumbling infrastructures and rampant illness are among the cruelest returns afforded by the present economic base. A shift in values along with a heathy dose of respect for Nature might still be able to change that.

All "Reefer Madness" misinformation and bad stoner puns aside, what if suddenly, Cannabis agriculture were seen for what it truly is? Cannabis is the most useful, potentially abundant, globally distributed, environmentally beneficial, essentially nutritious crop on Earth. How can a resource this valuable be prohibited? By a simple, persistent, critical mis-valuation.

Rather than acknowledging what the founding fathers knew and wrote about extensively, the present political coterie of chemical economists has pronounced self-serving prohibitions on those "herbs bearing seeds" that were given to mankind to be received with thanksgiving. Doesn't the First Amendment protect that?

From the perspective of an international spokesperson, standing up for the world's oldest global culture for the past seventeen years, it seems to me that the span of time it has taken to get where we are is unacceptable in that such an extended timeframe will not allow for timely
expansion of the arable base.

Comment on 'Water Stress, Ocean Levels to Unleash 'Climate Exodus' on Common Dreams

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:32:00 +0000

When things get bad enough for all solutions to be considered, then I recommend we begin by revaluing Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade in the context of 21st Century crises. We must reverse the perception of value that has dominated our degenerative economic disrespect for the Natural Order and snap out of the confused perception that a "strategic food resource" can also be a Schedule One drug.

We all need to start utilizing Cannabis to its fullest potential, or go over the falls in synergistic collapse of environment, economics and social structures. Cannabis is far too valuable to be truly illegal. Unless mankind faces that reality, then in fact we are doomed much sooner and surer than anyone can imagine. If the nutritional and atmospheric benefits of Cannabis were the only things to consider they would be more than enough, but there's much much more.

Google "global broiling" if you need another thing to be really worried about. Fortunately, there is a solution, but it's an inconvenient one. And time is running out.

Letter to Governor in Sacramento Bee

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:40:00 +0000

Dear Governor Schwarzenegger,

Doesn't it seem to you like there's a piece of the puzzle missing, like California is playing solitaire with a deck of 51? In truth, that's precisely what's happening.

California is an agricultural cornucopia. But organic agriculture and the free market are incomplete, and cease to function, without the benefits world's most useful, nutritious, healing agricultural resource. What if Cannabis were too valuable to be truly illegal? Wouldn't that simplify the State's problems immensely?

We could farm hemp and grow marijuana openly, without punishment for cultivation or use. If people abused pot, then they could be treated according to their need, whether by treatment or legal penalty. The economics of prohibition are invariable. Corruption, violence, black market...How can you continue to ignore what's so commonly known?

Identified as a "strategic resource" in Executive Order 12919, Cannabis is prohibited merely because (supposedly) cops can't tell "rope" from "dope." The absurdity of concurrently classifying hemp as a crop that's critical to national security, and as a Schedule One drug amounts to criminal negligence.

Please consider the unique and essential value of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade, the counter-productive effects of the drug war, and the ancient traditions that honor religion and farming as inseparable. In fact, our right to farm Cannabis is protected by the First Amendment, if we are truly, proportionately grateful for the harvest.

The freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. Cannabis is valuable beyond the rightful jurisdiction of any court. Time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival.

Cannabis sis the only crop that produces food and fuel from the same harvest. Cannabis produces 58 monoterpenes that go up into the atmosphere and reflect solar radiation away from the plant, while seeding cloud formation and making rain.

To ignore the true value of Cannabis potentiates extinction. Cannabis is neither dangerous nor illegal -- it is in fact, unique and essential to sustainable existence on this planet.

The most direct route to ending prohibition is essential civilian demand. I would sincerely appreciate it if your office would provide me with the proper protocol for exercising essential civilian demand for industrial hemp.

I think the debate regarding hemp agriculture is of an even greater immediate urgency, and has enormous potential for state funding compared with the contentious and emotional issue of marijuana.

Marijuana problems would all be is simply remedied by allowing everyone to grow outdoors. Indoor cultivation would no longer be cost effective and a major consumer of electricity shut down by the free market. The product of artificial light and chemical intensive growing techniques lacks the CBDs that balance the THC. Indoor cultivation is a perversion of the herb. which otherwise needs no chemicals to thrive.

The world's oldest global agrarian culture doesn't need permission to exist from an economically insolvent, morally bankrupt, dysfunctional government. Unless respect for nature and a spiritual dimension are reintroduced into all dimensions of human society, then our species will not see the end of this century.

The sooner we wake up to the real value of Cannabis, the better our chances for avoiding synergistic collapse. If you would like my help in navigating this issue, I am ready to offer you 18 years of Cannabis scholarship and international communications experience pertaining to this subject from every conceivable aspect.

Healing Strategy for the War on People

projectpeace@gmail.com (Paul J. von Hartmann) — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:16:00 +0000

The following is the personalized letter sent to US "drug czar" Gil Kerlikowske from the DPA website at
https://secure2.convio.net/dpa/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=356

The drug czar said he "wants to banish the idea that the U.S. is fighting 'a war on drugs.'" Urge him to back up the rhetoric by supporting real policy change....

Dear Gil,

I am relieved to learn that you reject the counter-productive idea of a "war on drugs." I trust that your demonstrated commitment to compassionate justice and reason goes deeper than a simple change in terminology. It is past time for meaningful policy change: an exit strategy for the drug war is a majority supported national imperative. There is much healing to be done from the harms created by a prolonged, failed policy.

It will take innovative thinking to get us out of the mess created by the policies of the last several decades, and a wide range of solutions should be up for debate. I urge you to put ALL ideas on the table, including letting people grow as much Cannabis as they want.

The "forbidden fruit" aspect of Cannabis is what creates the problems, from the black market to teen marijuana abuse. In Holland, where marijuana is grown, sold and used without government interference, teen use is a fraction of what it is in the US and other intolerant countries.

When is this administration going to acknowledge the true value of Cannabis agriculture, as Dennis Kucinich and Ron Paul have done? How can you continue to ban the world's most useful organic agricultural resource, in the midst of economic collapse, just because cops can't tell rope from dope?

Shame on you for turning your backs on the immense sacrifices made for freedom. Our forefathers didn't die for the freedom to complain. Shame on you for disregarding the rights of the world's people to grow and eat the most healthful seed on Earth. Shame on you for stalling the end of prohibition when the future of this planet could depend on how much Cannabis we grow, how fast.

The administration is off to a good start with its support for ending federal raids on medical marijuana patients, fixing the crack/powder cocaine sentencing disparity, and repealing the federal ban on syringe exchange funding.

However, I remain concerned because so far, there has been more talk than action. Medical marijuana raids have continued and the syringe ban is still in the budget President Obama submitted to Congress.

Please back up your call for an end to the war on drugs by considering bold policy changes that will end this misguided war in practice, not just in name.