Cannabis vs. "Global Broiling": An Inconvenient Priority

by Paul J. von Hartmann
revised 3/22/2011

Human disregard for ancient operating systems of the Natural Order has imposed fundamental imbalances on Earth's environment over a relatively short span of evolutionary time. In just half a century, critical insults imposed on our atmosphere are resulting in increasing levels of midrange ultraviolet solar radiation (UV-B) "broiling" the surface of the planet. I trust this brief introduction to the problem and an ecologically realistic strategy for resolution will serve to initiate the timely, purposeful, coordinated polar shift in values required to avoid extinction. A proportionate organic agricultural response to the compounding threats is available, if we choose as a global community to survive.

UV-B exposure causes genetic mutation, impaired immune response and abnormal cell growth in plants and animals. Increasing incidence of cancers, cataracts, falling agricultural production, declining forest health and a catastrophic decline in the world's "indicator species" (including bees, bats, birds, amphibians, coral reefs, juvenile fish species, shrimp & crab larvae, phytoplankton and krill) consistently indicate profound systemic imbalance. Though single causes are impossible to neatly isolate, health trends in all species indicate the synergistic break down resulting from increasing UV-B radiation.

For example, marine science has implicated "enhanced" UV-B in its disorienting effects on solar-sensitive krill, in the Antarctic. Increased UV-B interferes with krill mobility and reproduction, effectively undermining the foundation of the oceanic food chain. On land, half of the crops studied for UV-B sensitivity produced less food under conditions of elevated UV-B. In people, it can take two decades for the effects of a single intense exposure to manifest into symptoms of terminal illness.

Measurements taken by the National Science Foundation Ultraviolet Monitoring Network since 1988 show an alarming increase in UV-B levels. Comparing UV-B intensity between 1990 and 2010, at sea level in San Diego, California, there was an 118% increase in the number of days with UV-B readings rated as "Very High" (11 days at 10+ in 1990, 24 days at 10+ in 2010). At the South Pole (where the krill live) readings as high as 65.78 have been recorded (01/05/2001). When the UV index is greater than 9, UV-B is considered extreme. You will sunburn in less than 15 minutes. Higher elevations receive less protection from the Sun than lower altitudes.

Recent scientific understanding of the protective, "radiative" influence of atmospheric aerosols, historically produced in abundance by the boreal forests, makes further destruction of the northern "Taiga" regions an immediate primary concern. The boreal forest is the world's largest terrestrial biome, encircling the cold Northern Hemisphere. The forest covers 6.4 million square miles (11 percent of the world's land surface area) from Siberia to Alaska, Canada, Northern Europe and Northern Asia.

Boreal forests consist mainly of pine, spruce and fir trees. In addition to sequestering and storing atmospheric carbon, the forests exude a fragrant concoction of volatile aerosol compounds, including "monoterpenes." It's what you smell when walking through a pine forest.

Monoterpenes rise from the forests into the stratosphere, where they reflect solar radiation away from the planet and "seed" exceptionally bright and persistent clouds. The clouds produce a dilute, monoterpene-enhanced rain. Before they are washed from the sky, monoterpenes serve as a refractive "sunscreen," shielding the planet against UV-B. Possessing powerful antibiotic, anti-fungal, and anti-viral properties, monoterpenes may also serve as a water purifying agent, circulating through the our mycilially integrated aquatic ecosystem.

Since 1950 about half of the Taiga has been lost to logging (primarily to make toilet paper, newsprint, and magazines), oil & gas extraction, flooding (for hydroelectricity) and increasing insect pest infestation (attributable to global warming). Increased instability in the Middle East, advanced technology for working in freezing conditions and increasing, unaccountable extraction methods are expanding natural resource exploitation into areas and technologies previously considered either impossible, too environmentally destructive or unprofitable for plundering. The current rate of logging has been estimated to be five acres per minute, all day, every day. The remaining forests are being catastrophically decimated by unprecedented insect infestations attributable to continuous breeding cycles, made possible by increasing global temperatures.

The vast boreal region that previously served to sequester and store atmospheric carbon, is turning from "carbon sink" to "carbon source." Additional carbon dioxide and methane are being liberated from warmed soils as accumulated plant matter thaws and decomposes. If this continues, eventually no recovery will be possible. As UV-B levels continue to increase and the planet gets hotter, the impending release of stored carbon on such a vast scale poses an incalculable threat. Release of greenhouse gasses on such a vast scale will exacerbate global warming beyond predictability. More UV-B also increases temperature, which increases UV-B, resulting in further warming. As temperature and radiation levels increase, monoterpene production by the forest declines.

Under present conditions the slow-growing coniferous forests will never recover. As the forests are cut, dry up, get eaten and die, protection from the Sun, afforded by homeostatic concentrations of monoterpenes established over thousands of years, is plummeting. At the same time carbon, methane, chlorine, methyl bromide and other atmospheric "weapons of mass destruction" are quietly eroding protective atmospheric ozone, the precipitous decline in monoterpenes is leaving the planet exposed to unprecedented levels of UV-B.

We truly have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself. Increasing UV-B is an ubiquitous, immediate threat to individual health and the functional integrity of the ecosystem. Due to the deadly nature of elevated UV-B radiation, credible science appears to indicate that we are faced with imminent global extinction unless all possible remedies are applied in time to have an effect. Unless we are successful in addressing elevated UV-B radiation, it won't matter much what other problems we do manage to solve.

"Global broiling" by escalating intensities of UV-B requires that all solutions be immediately, objectively considered. There may yet be enough time remaining to implement a biotherapeutic response to the insidious, lethal effects of increasing UV-B. All possible solutions must be prioritized and effectively implemented; Regardless of existing so-called "political realities" determined by obsolete, extinctionistic, economic inertia and critical wealth disparity, misdirecting incumbent, self-empowering, corporate political regimes that perpetuate imposed essential resource scarcity. If we are to avoid synergistic collapse of environment, economics and social structures upon which our lives depend, expansion of the organic arable base for maximum production of atmospheric monoterpenes is a global priority, regardless of any perceived constrictive influence. Freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom.

At present, because of the blatantly irrational, counter-productive agricultural prohibition of Cannabis, the most likely remedy to global broiling is not even being considered. Potentially the world's most widespread, prodigious source of monoterpenes, the Cannabis plant is exceptional in producing copious amounts of 58 monoterpenes in less time, in more soil and climate conditions, with greater ecological and economic benefit than any other agricultural resource on Earth. "Hemp" is also capable of sequestering nine tons of carbon per acre in a growing season, while respiring an abundance of oxygen and detoxifying contaminated soils.

Cannabis is an ancient, highly adaptable, globally distributed, agronomically beneficial, pioneer crop. Six American Presidents have signed Executive Orders identifying "hemp" as being a "strategic food resource," available by "essential civilian demand."

Cannabis is inarguably the most complete and potentially available source of organic vegetable protein on Earth. Hemp is the only common seed containing three essential fatty acids (EFAs) in proper proportion for long-term consumption. Hemp is also the only plant that produces complete nutrition and sustainable biofuels from the same harvest. This eliminates the mistakenly perceived trade-off between biofuels energy production and food security. In addition to being the world's most useful, nutritious and safely therapeutic "herb bearing seed," hemp also produces biodegradable plastics, paper, cloth, resins, therapeutics, pesticides, and building materials. Cannabis is potentially the most rapidly, globally distributed crop on Earth. In just three growing seasons, Cannabis can adapt itself to virtually any soil and climate condition, excepting the radical extremes.

It is all too apparent that the integrity of Earth's environment is quietly unraveling under the effects of increasing UV-B radiation. Accelerating loss of atmospheric monoterpenes is an unpredictable, under-regarded "loose cannon on the deck" of Spaceship Earth. Expansion of the arable base, timely production of atmospheric monoterpenes, and rates of carbon sequestration we are able to achieve will largely determine our survival or extinction. A polar shift in values and an expansive global campaign of Cannabis agriculture is urgently needed to compensate for the decline in monoterpenes from the death of the boreal forests.

In the context of compounding, accelerating crises we face in the 21st Century, it appears that 'time' is the limiting factor in the equation of survival. The irrational prohibition of 'marijuana' has intransigently obstructed timely, objective consideration of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade as proportionate global response for addressing multiple conditions of irreversible imbalance. The most advantageous sequence of remedial measures must be implemented immediately, to effect timely resolution of interrelated imbalances. Organic Cannabis farming appears to be mankind's most time-efficient and cost-effective strategy for resolving problems of climate, food insecurity, economics and energy production. If humans plant Cannabis intensively this spring, there may yet be enough time remaining for agricultural remedies to have an effect.
 
Because 'time' is the limiting factor in the equation for healing the planet, Spring 2011 is the most critical planting season in human history. If humans don't make the best use of every growing season we may have left to heal Earth's atmosphere, then there is something very wrong with our society. To ignore an historically revered solution in deference to a so-called "drug war" that's known to be counter-productive to its own stated objectives, risks sudden, irreversible synergistic collapse. Regardless of perceived limitations attributed to so-called "political realities", the unavoidable fact is that what’s needed is an immediate, massive global planting of Cannabis.

Humankind faces a simple choice which must be decided before the Spring planting season of 2011. Either our species recognizes Cannabis as both unique and essential, and we use Cannabis as a pioneer crop to expand the arable base, planting hemp everywhere that it can possibly grow; Or the Earth will be "broiled" to eventual extinction, under elevated, increasing intensities of UV-B radiation.

An immediate, fundamental shift in values is urgently called for, out of critical global necessity. At the moment, in Hawaii, an opportunity currently exists to end prohibition by applying knowledge of the true value of Cannabis to free Cannabis Ministry Reverend Roger Christie. Hemp is valuable because it is unique and essential for several reasons. Petrochemicals aren't valuable because they are insidiously toxic to our health & environment. There are so many variables and uncertainties regarding the synergistic causes of imbalance, the focus needs to shift to an active change in what is considered valuable.

Extrajudicially imprisoned-without-trial and shamelessly denied bail five times since July 2010, Reverend Christie’s immediate release from prison is an epic legal milestone that could punctuate the end of essential resource scarcity in the United States. The Constitutional supremacy of "religious freedom" empowered through public right of "essential civilian demand" for a "strategic" "herb bearing seed" "of first necessity" is currently being focussed on the blatantly unobjective federal court proceeding.

Ending Cannabis prohibition can be most expeditiously accomplished by regarding polls showing the majority of Americans in favor of reclaiming public access to Cannabis over the unaccountable control of the blatantly disingenuous, criminally intransigent, viciously counter-productive, obscenely expensive and tragically deadly DEA. Legal supremacy of our Constitutionally protected "religious freedom" applied to nationwide public exercise of "essential civilian demand" for a "strategic" "herb bearing seed" "of first necessity," using a campaign of jury nullification, combined with lawsuits against blatantly unobjective court proceeding will be revealed as sufficient to end Cannabis prohibition at the federal level.

In essence the true value of Cannabis must free Roger Christie, through public nullification of disingenuous laws, before his trial that's been postponed until next Summer. Because of what is at stake, and the ham-fisted dismissal of due process by the court, Reverend Christie’s case presents a "perfect storm" in which to convene “The Trial for the Century” in the court of public opinion. In essence, Reverend Chrisitie's pre-trial exoneration will end Cannabis prohibition, potentiating the timely reversal of climate catastrophe.

The 'limiting factor' in the equation of survival, time is the only thing we can't make more of. Every spring that passes is gone forever. Either our species will succumb to the inertia of a functionally obsolete, chemically corrupted, outlaw political regime that's usurped control of the United States, leading us to extinction; Or people will wake up to the truth and wisdom of abandoning a viciously counter-productive prohibition in time to reintroduce the world's most "Gaiatherapeutic" resource and let the free organic agricultural market work.

As people continue to discover that Cannabis agriculture is the most effective "phytotherapeutic" plant remedy to the most fundamentally toxic problems we face, eventual implementation of sound organic agricultural policy will be implemented. The real question then is, "How bad do things have to get before all solutions are considered?"

#


References

1."Has the Earth’s sixth mass extinction already arrived?"
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v471/n7336/full/nature09678.html

2. National Science Foundation
Ultraviolet Monitoring Network
http://uv.biospherical.com/
http://uv.biospherical.com/student/CSVRequest.asp

3. Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW)
http://www.wmo.int/pages/prog/arep/gaw/gaw_home_en.html

4. "Climate Change and the Northern Forests" June 1998
http://archive.greenpeace.org/climate/arctic99/html/content/factsheets/oldreports/forests.html

5. Ozone Depletion and UV Radiation
http://www.ehso.com/ehshome/OzoneDepletionEffects.htm

6."Climate Projections Based on Emission Scenarios for Long-lived and Short-lived Radiatively Active Gases and Aerosols" (2007), Review of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program's Synthesis and Assessment Product 3.2, Board on Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (BASC)
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12035&page=5

7. "Fragrance of pine forests helps to slow climate change" | Science | The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2006/apr/14/environment.climatechange

8. Hemp: Our Lifeline to the Future: The Consequences of Hemp Prohibition
OCTOBER – NOVEMBER 2010, Dr Andrew Katelaris.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/48475419/Hemp-Our-Lifeline-To-The-Future-by-Dr-Andrew-Katelaris-c-2010-Nexus-Magazine-October-November-2010-Issue

9. Reverend Roger Christie and The Last Marijuana Trial
http://the-last-marijuana-trial.com/

10. Boreal Forest is World’s Carbon Vault
 Breakthrough Mapping Analysis Looks at Peatlands, Permafrost and Soil Carbon in Canadian Boreal
 http://www.interboreal.org/globalwarming/

11. The Ho‘omaluhia or "Peacemaker" Award
http://www.dpfhi.org/index.php?id=89

12. First Freedom Project
http://www.justice.gov/crt/spec_topics/religiousdiscrimination/brooklyn_flyer.pdf

13. US HI: OPED: 'Ice' Addiction Is Booming, Thanks To Anti-Pot Efforts
Pubdate: Tue, 2 Sep 2003
Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1319/a01.html

14. 1991-94 Final Report, "Ice and Other Methamphetamine Use: An Exploratory Study"
http://christie-et-al.s3.amazonaws.com/necessity/Ice-Methamphetamine-Exploratory-Study.pdf

15. An Open Letter to Hon. MICHAEL B. SHAPIRO, FLORENCE T. NAKAKUNI! and MICHAEL K. KAWAHARA
http://californiacannabisministry.blogspot.com/2010/09/open-letter-to-hon-michael-b-shapiro.html

*References to "essential civilian demand" in government documents

*16. 44 C.F.R. PART 334—GRADUATED MOBILIZATION RESPONSE
Title 44 - Emergency Management and Assistance,
§ 334.6 Department and agency responsibilities. (f)
http://law.justia.com/cfr/title44/44-1.0.1.6.83.html

*17. THE DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT OF 1950,AS AMENDED[50 U.S.C. App. § 2061 et seq.]Title VII - General Provisions Sec. 708. VOLUNTARY AGREEMENTS AND PLANS OF ACTION FORPREPAREDNESS PROGRAMS AND EXPANSION OF PRODUCTION CAPACITY AND SUPPLY [50 U.S.C. App. § 2158]
http://law.justia.com/cfr/title44/44-1.0.1.6.83.html

[*See also, #23. William J. Clinton Executive Order 12919, below]

Six Executive Orders identifying "hemp" as a "strategic food resource"

18. Franklin D. Roosevelt Executive Order 9280 - December 5, 1942
Delegating Authority Over the Food Program.
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=16211&st=hemp&st1=hempstead%2C+hemphill#axzz1Gylt2Jf6

19. Harry S. Truman Executive Order 10161 - September 9, 1950
Delegating Certain Functions of the President Under the Defense Production Act of 1950
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=60772&st=hemp&st1=hempstead%2C+hemphill#axzz1Gylt2Jf6

20. Dwight D. Eisenhower Executive Order 10480-- August 14, 1953
Further providing for the administration of the defense mobilization program
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=59221&st=hemp&st1=hempstead%2C+hemphill#axzz1Gylt2Jf6

21. John F. Kennedy Executive Order 10998 - February 16, 1962
ASSIGNING EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS FUNCTIONS TO THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=58936&st=hemp&st1=hempstead%2C+hemphill#axzz1Gylt2Jf6

22. Richard Nixon Executive Order 11490 - October 28, 1969 -Assigning Emergency Preparedness Functions to Federal Departments and Agencies
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=60479&st=hemp&st1=hempstead%2C+hemphill#axzz1Gylt2Jf6

*23. William J. Clinton Executive Order 12919 - June 3, 1994
National Defense Industrial Resources Preparedness
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=50295&st=hemp&st1=hemphill%2C+hempstead#axzz1Gylt2Jf6

24. American Presidency Project
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/

25. MANAGING TERRORISM’S CONSEQUENCES: LEGAL ISSUES http://www.law.depaul.edu/centers_Institutes/ihrli/downloads/managing_terrorisms_consequences.pdf

26. The Taiga or Boreal Forest
http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/biomes/boreal.htm

"The Trial for the Century"

The true value of Cannabis as both unique and essential makes Roger Christie's trial the most proximate opportunity for ending the illegal war on "every herb bearing seed" through "essential civilian demand."

"The Trial for the Century" will determine whether we are in time to plant hemp this Spring. One planting season may be all that's left to effectively mitigate global broiling by increasing UV-B radiation. The true value of Cannabis in the context of multiple crises makes Roger's trial globally significant, and worthy of international support and attention.

Pray for Roger, and pray that we are not too late to make this critical shift in values, "of first necessity to the wealth and protection of our nation" and planet...


“Trial of the century” is an idiomatic phrase used to describe certain well-known court cases, especially of the 20th century. It is often used popularly as a rhetorical device to attach importance to a trial and as such is not an objective observation but is the opinion of whoever uses it.”

“It’s a way of saying, ‘This is really fabulous. It’s really sensational.’ But it doesn’t really mean anything.” – Attorney F. Lee Bailey

Ref: Wikipedia

Adding substance to hyperbole, Hawaiian THC Ministry Reverend Roger Christie’s trial is surely and magnificently “The Trial for the Century” potentially advancing legal distinctions that are critical to national security and global integrity. Whether our species has the capacity to evolve into conscious active respect for Nature, rather than blindly achieving violent extinction, will be presaged by what happens to Roger Christie and the Green 14.

This is true because, in the end, it’s not really about the “pakalolo.” Roger’ trial is about Cannabis vs. climate change. If we don’t solve changes in our atmosphere, using Cannabis in a proportionate organic agricultural response to increasing UV-B radiation, beginning this Spring, then it won’t matter much what other problems we do solve.

There is no ‘marijuana’ on a burned out planet, so let’s deal with the biggest problem first. We can worry about arranging the deck chairs after we steer clear of the iceberg we’re about to plow into.

You don’t have to be a Harvard economist to know that once the U.S. loses “reserve currency status,” as we’re about to, then things are going to get really, really hard. If we don’t have the world’s most unique and essential agricultural resource in our fields, seeded and ready to harvest by this fall, America will be poor.

Invest in heirloom seeds now, while your money still has perceived value. Hemp inclusive regional economies are the future, so get started planting for seed, not just sensi, this Spring.

Restoring integrity to the Natural Order and honoring the primary relevance of Natural Law in determining the quality and sustainability of life on this planet is fundamental to our survival, and to Roger’s release from federal prison — before any trial.

The ‘trial’ must happen first in the objective Court of Public Opinion, but it isn’t Roger’s trial. It’s the trial of the Cannabis plant itself.

Is “Santa Maria” is a gift from “God” or a botanical harlot sent by “The Devil?” The true, unique and essential values of Cannabis makes the question seem as ridiculous as it is. Prohibition is soon to be revealed as the absurd circus that it is.

In Hawaii the circus will be rolling into town two months before Roger’s trial to saturate the Islands with jury nullification flyers.

Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody who knows someone who has money to invest in the future of this planet. Roger’s case is potentially the most legally explosive focal point for a polar shift in values, favoring “Gaiatherapeutic” industries.

If hemp can heal the atmosphere, as Roger Christie, I and others insist it may be able to do (if there are enough growing seasons left), then Roger is a visionary cultural world leader, entitled to due compensation for the time he’s served and for the libelous characterization, that has been the only justification for the egregious violations of his civil liberties.

Conscious realization of ‘time’ as the limiting factor in the equation of survival makes Roger’s a defense of global necessity. The Trial for the Century could be a turning point, punctuating the global shift in values that has already started.

Discovery of the endogenous endocannabinoid system makes the punitive scheduling of Cannabis dangerously primitive by comparison and functionally obsolete. The nutritional value of hemp seed as both unique and essential; the ecological importance of Cannabis monoterpenes for reflecing solar radiation away from the Earth; the critical importance of a return to organic/non-GMO agriculture; the extreme urgency of planting Cannabis in every possible soil and climate condition.

Add to that the clear and present threat to national security, global integrity and the functional integrity of the United States Constitution whose First Amendment has been traded for the insultingly obviously libelous contradictory characterization of Roger Christie as “a danger to his community” by an unobjective court where the judge works for the plaintiff, that’s imposing a hard drug epidemic on Hawaiian society by eradicating marijuana; where violent offenders are being released on bail at the same time that Hawaii’s first Ho‘omaluhia Drug Policy Award recipient languishes in federal prison; an dfinaly, “the whale in the living room”, the stark hypocrisy of a President who admits to smoking marijuana who continues to enforce marijuana prohibition.

The irrational social prejudice against Cannabis is humankind’ s most self-destructive bias, obviating the possibility of a morally grounded, free organic agricultural market. Marijuana prohibition has infected human ‘politiconomic evolution’ with a Mutant Government Outcome (MGO) “terminator gene” which inevitably conveys disparate economic advantage to those who are willing to compromise the integrity of the ecosystem by valuing toxic wealth over environmental health.

"the center of true religion"

The most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience
is the sensation of the mystical.
It is the sower of all true science.
He to whom this emotion is a stranger,
who can no longer wonder and stand rapt in awe,
is as good as dead.
To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists,
manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and the most radiant beauty,
which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive forms-
this knowledge, this feeling,
is at the center of true religion.

~ Albert Einstein ~

The Disastrous War on Drugs Turns 40: How Does the Grassroots Stop the Misdirection by an Oxymoron?

The following is my reply to Ethan Nadelmann's essay concerning the future of drug policy reform

"The Disastrous War on Drugs Turns 40: How Do We Stop the Madness?"
http://www.alternet.org/story/149895/the_disastrous_war_on_drugs_turns_40%3A_how_do_we_stop_the_madness?page=entire

==========


The surest way to end Cannabis prohibition is to recognize Cannabis as both unique and essential to the survival of our species. The ecological argument of Cannabis vs. climate change has yet to be considered by the drug policy reform establishment, so how can we expect anyone else to understand that reintroduction of Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and trade to the free market economy is critical to the survival of our species?


DPA tripping to extinction
Or...
UV-B radiation is blocked by Cannabis monoterpenes -- so what's "illegal"?

What is it about Cannabis vs. climate change, that the drug policy reform establishment doesn't want to recognize the strongest argument in favor of ending prohibition -- Cannabis monoterpenes potential for radiative forcing as a biogenic way of addressing "global broiling" by increasing UV-B radiation?


If DPA won't bring attention to Cannabis vs. climate change, then all of you DPA $upporter$ who really want prohibition to end this year, instead of "someday,maybe" can stop sending money to George Soros, and start sending it to Reverend Roger Christie in Hawaii. As far as I know, DPA hasn't sent Roger a thin dime in twenty-five years of Cannabis activism.


Expanding upon my previous hurried comments, offered ultimately as good news (in harmonic tones effecting world peace)...

We the People must consider that prohibition of Cannabis could end in a week through a simple, objective shift in values. Cannabis is both unique and essential, not illegal. A matter of historical, religious and scientific fact, any other assessment of Cannabis as other than "strategic" treasonously undermines national security.

Cannabis is healing. Fossil fuels are toxic. Cannabis is globally distributed and free to anyone who wants it. Petroleum is unevenly distributed and expensive in every way. How could our species ever achieve balance as long as our money is based in toxins that are "Gaiacidal" and spiritually bankrupt, from inception?

Game over. The DEA has been begging to be sued for ten years of public fraud based on this spurious and fatally misleading definition of "hemp":

"...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 Clarifies Status of Hemp in the Federal Register, October 9, 2001
http://www.justice.gov/dea/pub...

Neither statement is true.

It is a "misprision of treason" for failing to act in the interest of national security by refusing to recognize the true value of a strategic resource. Cannabis can't be both a "strategic resource" and a "Schedule One drug," so who is responsible for perpetuating this legal contradiction?

Come on DPA, MPP, NORML, etc. what EXACTLY is the hold-up in applying a fraction of your massive combined annual budgets to supporting the magnificent grassroots exercise of the Law of the Land, over anti-Constitutional prohibition statutes being tested in "Trial for the Century" of THC Ministry Founder, Reverend Roger Christie? If you recognize the historical significance of Cannabis, then you must see the power of Roger's challenge of wrongful authority. Why won't you support it?

Cannabis is not, cannot, and never has been truly illegal because without it our species won't see the end of this Century. Time is the limiting factor in the equation of survival. We don't have another planting season to waste.

The First Amendment is the first line of defense against prosecution by any objective court. Genesis 1:29 makes the end of Cannabis prohibition a matter of religious freedom. Our freedom to farm "every herb bearing seed" is the first test of religious freedom. On page one of the King James Bible used in U.S. courts and swearing in of elected officials, "God" is quoted on the first page, referring to "herbs" three times.

Drugs don't make seeds. Herbs do. The legal distinction is enormous. Yet with all of the resources of the drug policy reform establishment applied to the argument against the horrid, inevitable results of prohibition, the most fundamental truths are still not being presented or supported.

Why does the drug policy reform establishment continue to fail in presenting the most straight-forward and powerful arguments? Millions upon millions of dollars have been applied to pointing out the problems and lobbying for legislative action. How much has really changed as a result of all that time and money spent?

My frustration with the drug policy reform establishment has to do with the oxymoronic paralysis of progress that is the direct result of a disparity of wealth that exists within the drug policy reform culture. Over the past twenty years of being involved with the global effort to end the "drug war" I've witnessed talented, intelligent communicators of truth, such as Reverend Roger Christie (See http://the-last-marijuana-tria.../) be roundly ignored by the inefficient and ineffectual expenditure of millions of dollars, countless volunteer work hours, and much too much precious time, to be content with another of Ethan's lucid, eloquent, informed, though practically incomplete, accountings of the harms of prohibition. What's missing is a cohesive, comprehensive, objective valuation of Cannabis as a "strategic resource""of first necessity""critical to national security""unique and essential""beyond the rightful jurisdiction of any court" as Jack Herer, Roger Christie, I and many others in the grassroots Cannabis culture have been writing, filming, and speaking in public about for decades, over and over again. And conditions continue to deteriorate at an accelerating pace without a proportionate response, and in the case of Ethan's recent NORML conference outburst, counter-productive public rudeness.

As brilliant and passionate and dedicated to a righteous cause as Ethan Nadelmann is, why is he and how can he not recognize Cannabis as both unique and essential? It is baffling to me. Prohibition cannot exist in the presence of true value, so what's blocking that shift?

Six American Presidents have recognized Cannabis as a "strategic resource" available by "essential civilian demand" yet DPA fails to acknowledge the power in that. Will President Obama be publicly mandated by the drug policy reform establishment to recognize Cannabis as both unique and essential, an historically revered "strategic resource" deserving of sacramental legitimacy? How bad do things have to get before Cannabis is recognized by the drug policy reform establishment as critical to national security and global integrity?

How long will it take before common awareness that (at last!) the majority of American's polled understand the urgent necessity of ending Cannabis prohibition leads to victory over unaccountability, falsehood and illogic? Instead of keeping the keep the ball rolling on the most recent wave of positive energy generated by Prop 19, by focussing on Roger Christie's "Trial for the Century" the drug policy reform establishment is ignoring (or in the case of NORML's St.Pierre & Belville, taking pot shots at) a major legal opportunity.

The Constitutional battle that's about to happen in Hawaii presents an opportunity to actively engage the 'feral government' that has blatantly traded due process for slander & libel, in the unlawful imprisonment-with-out-trial-or-bail of Roger Christie. Simply by accusing Christie of being a "danger to his community" the rights and privileges guaranteed by the State and Federal Constituions protcting freedom of religion have been suspended to silence a recognized "Peacemaker."

Roger Christie's trial is several magnitudes of significance larger than Prop 19, with a fraction of the investment from the monied elements of the drug policy reform establishment -- which includes the wealthy pot growers and most of the rich dispensary owners making bank on prohibition, whose vested interests don't favor seeing the Cannabis plant liberated.

There is so much to be said by the grassroots that has not been heard because the "freedom to complain" is being eloquently choreographed, scripted and substituted for the larger truth applied in direct action. On January First, 1992, Roger Christie and I set a legal precedent when we planted 'marijuana' in a public exercise of peaceful civil disobedience in Lahaina, Maui, after I sent a registered letter to Hawaii's State Attorney General, Warren Price. The formal challenge of rightful jurisdiction was six pages long (with references) and demanded that AG Price take individual responsibility for the true value of Cannabis. Once again a contest between Price vs. value. Price lost, and resigned from public office a few months later.

As I've written to DPA, MPP, NORML, etc. for years, the arguments in favor of Cannabis vs. climate change are the most broadly compelling, along with food security and nutrition, two areas where Cannais is both unique and essential. Why have there not been Congressional hearings to weigh the value of Cannabis agriculture against the lingering vestiges of "Reefer Madness"?

Ofcourse the conditions of environment, economics and social imbalance has created a condition of extreme global emergency, poised on the edge of synergistic collapse. The Earth's boreal forests are dying from pest infestation, logging, increasing UV-B radiation and warming of the atmosphere. The pines used to produce copious quantities of atmospheric aerosols called "monoterpenes." Presently, the balance of monoterpenes in the atmosphere is plummeting. If we don't start planting Cannabis as fast as we can, everywhere we can, it will soon be too late to avoid irreversible collapse. Expanding the arable base, increasing efficiency of our economic model to mandate accelerated reforestation with the help of the "Tree of Life" is humankind's only chance for survival.

If I am wrong, then I invite anyone to give me one good reason that's true not to grow Cannabis. If anyone has a better idea than Cannabis agriculture, manufacture and free, untaxed trade, for mitigating climate change, then I'll work on your idea for free for the rest of my life.

We have nothing to fear but the atmosphere itself. If we don't solve the climate change equation, it won't matter what problems we do solve.

There is no money on a burned out planet Mr. Soros, Mr. Lewis, Mr. Branson, Mr. Nadelmann... while US currency still has perceived value, please, invest in Roger Christie's "Trial for the Century" in order to reclaim the world's most useful crop. This is where the real progress can be made in a timely way.

Bans on irreversible plant technologies (GMOs) need to be immediately imposed on agriculture as unnecessary and counter-productive to feeding the world, and a threat to global integrity.


Free Roger Christie! Now!!

Substantive Due Process & the curious case of Roger Christie

"Substantive Due Process" is the fundamental constitutional legal theory upon which the Griswold/Roe/Casey privacy right is based. The doctrine of Substantive Due Process holds that the Due Process Clause not only requires "due process," that is, basic procedural rights, but that it also protects basic substantive rights. "Substantive" rights are those general rights that reserve to the individual the power to possess or to do certain things, despite the government’s desire to the contrary. These are rights like freedom of speech and religion. "Procedural" rights are special rights that, instead, dictate how the government can lawfully go about taking away a person’s freedom or property or life, when the law otherwise gives them the power to do so.

"Supporters of Substantive Due Process...point to its long history and its dynamic ability to defend basic human rights from infringement by the government. They argue that Substantive Due Process provides comprehensive nation-wide protection for all our most cherished rights, which might otherwise be at the mercy of state governments. They argue that the doctrine is a simple recognition that no procedure can be just if it is being used to unjustly deprive a person of his basic human liberties and that the Due Process Clause was intentionally written in broad terms to give the Court flexibility in interpreting it."

http://www.stanford.edu/group/psylawseminar/Substantive%20Due%20Process.htm

Strict scrutiny
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strict_scrutiny

Strict scrutiny is the most stringent standard of judicial review used by United States courts reviewing federal law. Along with the lower standards of rational basis review and exacting or intermediate scrutiny, strict scrutiny is part of a hierarchy of standards employed by courts to weigh an asserted government interest against a constitutional right or principle that conflicts with the manner in which the interest is being pursued. Strict scrutiny is applied based on the constitutional conflict at issue regardless of whether a law or action of the U.S. federal government, a state government, or a local municipality is at issue.
The notion of "levels of judicial scrutiny", including strict scrutiny, was introduced in footnote 4 to United States v. Carolene Products (1938), in the context of the New Deal. Governmental restrictions on constitutional rights that undergo strict scrutiny are most commonly but not invariably found invalid. The first and most notable case to apply strict scrutiny and find the governmental actions valid was Korematsu v. United States (1944), in which the Supreme Court upheld racial-based curfews of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Strict scrutiny arises in two basic contexts: when a "fundamental" constitutional right is infringed[citation needed], particularly those listed in the Bill of Rights and those the court has deemed a fundamental right protected by the "liberty" or "due process" clause of the 14th Amendment; or when the government action involves the use of a "suspect classification" such as race or, sometimes, national origin that may render it void under the Equal Protection Clause. These are the two applications that were anticipated in footnote 4 to United States v. Carolene Products.

To pass strict scrutiny, the law or policy must satisfy three prongs:

First, it must be justified by a compelling governmental interest. While the Courts have never brightly defined how to determine if an interest is compelling, the concept generally refers to something necessary or crucial, as opposed to something merely preferred. Examples include national security, preserving the lives of multiple individuals, and not violating explicit constitutional protections.

Second, the law or policy must be narrowly tailored to achieve that goal or interest. If the government action encompasses too much (overbroad) or fails to address essential aspects of the compelling interest (under-inclusive), then the rule is not considered narrowly tailored.

Finally, the law or policy must be the least restrictive means for achieving that interest. More accurately, there cannot be a less restrictive way to effectively achieve the compelling government interest, but the test will not fail just because there is another method that is equally the least restrictive. Some legal scholars consider this 'least restrictive means' requirement part of being narrowly tailored, though the Court generally evaluates it as a separate prong.

Legal scholars, including judges and professors, often say that strict scrutiny is "strict in theory, fatal in fact," because popular perception is that most laws subject to this standard are struck down. However, an empirical study of strict scrutiny decisions in the federal courts, by Adam Winkler, found that laws survive strict scrutiny over thirty percent of the time. In one area of law, religious liberty, laws that burden religious liberty survived strict scrutiny review in nearly sixty percent of applications.[1]

the Big Picture

Call in to my Blogtalkradio show at noon today to discuss the Big Picture: "Cannabis vs. Climate Change."

Arguing inconsequential details of ending prohibition is "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic." If we have another growing season to make the coordinated transition from global hydrocarbon addiction/overdose to carbohydrate sustainability, we'll be very very very lucky.

Humans have got to grow as much Cannabis as fast as we can, in as many soil and climate conditions as we can, or increasing UV-B radiation is going to cook us. Google "global broiling, hemp" to read details of hemp monoterpenes replacing the monoterpenes from pine trees, declining as the boreal forests disappear.

Arguing about taxing®ulating pot (i.e. imposing an insolvent, politically corrupt, counter-productive, crippling bureaucracy on organic agriculture) is a potentially extinctionistic waste of precious time, the limiting factor in the equation of survival.

Cannabis is different than booze or tobacco because the quality of marijuana products is determined primarily by genetics, not agricultural method. While organic cultivation sets the standard for purity, relatively minimal gardening skill and attention to the plants is required to produce an enormous quantity of a very high-grade product. Dispensaries will wind up growing their own or buying from self-regulated caregivers & gardeners who grow more than they need to satisfy demand from community, friends and family.

Free market competition and personal reputations for excellence will determine whose Cannabis products are most in demand. Because of its exceptional degree of safety, marijuana has been traded under the worst possible conditions of social imbalance, without harming anyone.

Tainted products are an unfortunate reality in a black market, not in a free market. Testing and safety analysis is and ought to be more affordable and available for those who want to have their herb analyzed, but .

Individual responsibility for personal choices needs to be taught from a young age. Imposition of regulations on adults who make safe choices based on mature judgement is tyranny.

"Dolphin Economics and a polar shift in human values"
projectpeace
Date / Time: 2/8/2011 12:00 - 2 PM
Category: Energy
Call-in Number: (347) 202-0195

Sorry to disagree with you CB, but Flop 19 was a tar-baby that may represent "political reality" to some, but would have caused a shitstorm of legal confusion and a blizzard of media distraction had it passed. As it is, the way is clear in the US for a stronger grassroots movement in proportion to the crises we face: "essential civilian demand" for a "strategic resource."

DPA, abNORMLly tripping to extinction -- meet Reformus interruptus amongus.....

Or...UV-B radiation is blocked by Cannabis monoterpenes -- so what's "illegal"?

It was surreal, fascinating, though a sadly de-energizing trip, to observe the intentional immobilization of the grassroots Cannabis culture by the monied, drug policy reform establishment (oxymoron). DPA's duplicity was explicitly revealed in the spontaneous outburst by Ethan Nadelmann at the Berkeley NORML conference last Saturday. The mere mention of "essential civilian demand" was enough to cause Ethan to violate Robert's Rules of Order in a spontaneous outburst that was so panicked and vehement as to be unintelligible.

I wonder if anyone remembers what Ethan actually said, when he terminated my brief moment (perhaps 30 seconds?) at the public microphone. All I recall is Ethan's loud, unruly response to my question about a federal strategy of "essential civilian demand" (1,2), directed to Assemblyman Tom Ammiano.

Giving Ethan the benefit of the doubt that he is truly working to effect an end to Cannabis prohibition, rather than choreographing an industry coup under the direction of George Soros, has become impossible and incredible., In fact, at the Berkeley NORML conference, Ethan clumsily abandoned his usual composure to dismiss a potentially effective legal strategy to end prohibition, with subversive, authoritarian misdirection.

Rather than affording me a few minutes to introduce the most compelling arguments and strategies for achieving Cannabis freedom (as conference attendees were repeatedly invited & effectively prevented from doing), and raise support for Roger Christie in Hawaii, the NORML conference lined up attorneys and bureaucrats to further confuse the direct action element of the grassroots Cannabis contingent.

From his condescending reference to my writing as "stuff" to his failure to acknowledge the significance of hempen atmospheric monoterpenes, the leader of the drug policy reform establishment either doesn't want to believe in, or doesn't understand the significance of Cannabis vs. climate change. Even more disturbing is his obstruction of truth, and other people's right to hear and consider it.

I told Ethan immediately after the panel dispersed, that what's lacking in the drug policy reform establishment is a commitment to truth. Without it we are lost. Leaders sacrifice credibility when they lose respect for the truth and the responsibility for humility that goes with it. Too bad. For awhile, Ethan was a great leader toward reason, and an effective spokesperson for the inevitable, rational result. In derailing a critically important message of truth, that I have sent him for years, he has relegated himself to being just another footnote to an insolvent economy buying time on a dying planet.

If DPA refuses to participate in a moderated discussion on Cannabis vs. climate change, then all of you DPA $upporter$ who really want prohibition to end this year, instead of "someday,maybe" can stop sending money to George Soros, and start sending it to Roger Christie. As far as I know, DPA hasn't sent Roger Christie a thin dime in twenty-five years of activism.

Now that Roger Christie's Ministry has been arrested and charged federally; and Roger Christie (a recognized "Peacemaker" in Hawaii) is currently imprisoned-without-trial; denied bail five times; slandered as a "danger to his community"; been denied visitors; and had his trial postponed until April 26th, Roger has transcended himself by eliciting ham-fisted injustice from the prison industrial complex. Roger's "Trial for the Century" is the grassroots counter-point to the impacted, too comfortable, drug policy reform establishment, of which Ethan Nadelmann is the appointed head.

Only when Roger Christie walks out of federal prison, a free Cannabis Minister, will the integrity of the Constitution and the spiritual legitimacy of the world's oldest culture be restored, for the first time in our lives.

Federal references to "essential civilian demand"


1. Executive Order 12919 of June 3, 1994
National Defense Industrial Resources Preparedness

Sec. 103. General Functions.
Federal departments and agencies responsible for defense acquisition (or for industrial resources needed to support defense acquisition) shall:
(a) Identify requirements for the full spectrum of national security emergencies, including military, industrial, and essential civilian demand;

PART IX—GENERAL PROVISIONS
Sec. 901. Definitions.
(e) ‘‘Food resources’’ means all commodities and products, simple, mixed, or compound, or complements to such commodities or products, that are capable of being ingested by either human beings or animals, irrespective of other uses to which such commodities or products may be put, at all stages of processing from the raw commodity to the products thereof in vendible form for human or animal consumption. ‘‘Food resources’’ also means all starches, sugars, vegetable and animal or marine fats and oils, cotton, tobacco, wool, mohair, hemp, flax fiber, and naval stores, but does not mean any such material after it loses its identity as an agricultural commodity or agricultural product.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Executive_Order_12919


2. Code of Federal Regulations, Title 44 - Emergency Management and Assistance--CHAPTER I--FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY >
44 C.F.R. PART 334—GRADUATED MOBILIZATION RESPONSE
Title 44 - Emergency Management and Assistance

(f) At Stage 1, declaration of national emergency or war, the crisis is under the control of NSC or other central authority, with GMR being integrated into partial, full or total mobilization. At this point the more traditional mechanisms of resource mobilization are pursued, focusing on resource allocation and adjudication with cognizance of the essential civilian demand.
http://law.justia.com/us/cfr/title44/44-1.0.1.6.83.html


3. THE DPA-MONSANTO CONNECTION: GEORGE SOROS DONATES $1M TO PROP. 19 CAMPAIGN: WHY GEORGE SOROS WANTS MARIJUANA LEGALIZED
"The DPA is the leading organization spearheading the reform of Cannabis policies in the United States, and has been made up of some of the most powerful and influential characters in today’s global petro-bio-chemical-military-banking-industrial complex."
http://votetaxcannabis2010.blogspot.com/p/monsanto-connection-george-soros_27.html