The politics of cannabis

[Agamemnon]

Can you guess which country is the biggest producer of cannabis???

Read the article below......

February 23, 2005

The Redistribution of Marijuana Wealth

Cannabis: the Goose that Lays Golden Eggs!

By JOE PIETRI

Today the USA is the largest producers of marijuana in the world and it's not enough.

Marijuana has been quasi legal in Mexico the past 50 years and is grown commercially and exported to the US. Canadians would love to make marijuana legal and for the US to keep the status quo that would continue to generate billions of dollars going North.

The Californians complain that BC Bud is being dumped on the market and that wholesale prices have gone down 25%, which is great for the consumer. The drug Czar warns of the danger of Canadian weed and the high 20% THC content. (I guess he hasn't smoked any because BC Bud generally pales when compared to most Californian varieties.)

The DEA chomps at the bit in anticipation of kicking every medical marijuana grow ups door down and seizing everything as well as their souls. They well remember the 1980s when Reagan for the first time let the police sell you loads of marijuana as a way to infiltrate marijuana syndicates. And the biggest mass redistribution of wealth in the history of the US occurred when they shut down the good old boy marijuana networks that operated in the 1960's thru the late 1980s. It was Vietnam style body count, the more people they arrested the more possessions they confiscated. The best properties, the best of all the spoils went to further power the police state that had all ready been created when they declared a Drug War. They only other country in the history of mankind to have such search and seizure and confiscation and forfeiture laws was Nazi Germany.

Is it strange that we are still haunted by Richard Nixon's drug war when his own Shaffer commission recommended legalizing under an ounce of Cannabis? This report infuriated Nixon who sent it back, and when it came back around the word legalize was changed to decriminalize and by 2005 millions of Americans have been sent to prison for marijuana possession some working at slave labor as we speak!

Stranger yet instead of attacking the Shaffer Commission NORML jumped on the decriminalization bandwagon, and in 1980 came out with their own report on the harmful affects of marijuana and I guess jumped on Nancy Reagan's Just say no bandwagon! Hey I thought they were for legalization?

The drug rehab racketeers and Judges that own the Halfway houses they sentence you to, then get money from you, the state and the government! The billions generated by one word illegal. Is it that so much money is being made because it's illegal that no one really wants it legal? Are they afraid to lose the Goose that lays golden eggs?

First thing I asked people is why is marijuana illegal? Marijuana is illegal because it promotes free thought and expression and the society we live in does not want us to think for ourselves. It's as simple as that!

The Patriot Act is an extension of the Drug War and really it's out to get you and I! The DEA is in a panic because California is wide open with some Cannabis shops in Oakland featuring 60 or more strains of marijuana as well as hashish and all you need is a doctor's note! Can you believe that some of those guys are pulling a hundred grand a month. The Government has infiltrated the Medical marijuana movement completely! As an example Eddy Lepp sold one pound of pot to a friend and an undercover DEA agent. Lepp famous for his Medicinal Marijuana Garden was raided and over 32,000 legal plants were confiscated. Clearly Lepp was out of his league!

Everyday more and more extol the virtues of marijuana use and how it improves their lives. One medical patient went from 600 milligrams of morphine a day to just pot! Most profits that are made illegally in the marijuana trade are funneled back into our economy, except for the small percentage that goes to Canada and Mexico.

The American marijuana trade does not fund terrorism but instead puts shoes on little Bobby or Suzie. The huge underground marijuana economy keeps many of us alive in these lean and mean times. The lies the government spreads about marijuana funding terrorism when the reality is that it helps keep the economy humming. The American marijuana industry is home grown.

Cannabis has become the Golden goose and neither side is letting go, too much money on the table.

Joe Pietri author The King of Nepal. He can be reached at: [email protected]

[nabraxas]

interesting article. thanks

[waterdragon]

an 'illegal plant'. dwell on that and FEEL the stupidity of the statement. take the 'illegal' out of the equation and the money goes with it.

[apothecary]

I don't like the "it's just a plant" rationale.

Replace the word marijuana with opium. Opium is defnitely a different kettle of fish, but it's just a plant!

I think people should have the choice to do with themselves as they please, as long as it isn't to the detriment of other people.

Why do we have to rationalise it by saying it's just a plant? Petrol just comes from the ground! Big sticks I hit you with just come from trees!

Things like marijuana don't need to be rationalised like that. How about we rationalise them based on their risk to us, to other human beings, and to the world everyone lives in?

[ 28. February 2005, 18:29: Message edited by: apothecary ]

[Salviador]

People have no troubles staying away from stinging nettle and other truly poisonous plants with no need for law enforcement. I think that the concept of an illegal plant is rather silly and insulting. But then again its not like i own my body, the government owns me, im just renting.

[gomaos]

First thing I asked people is why is marijuana illegal? Marijuana is illegal because it promotes free thought and expression and the society we live in does not want us to think for ourselves. It's as simple as that!

couldn't have put it better myselfe...

[apothecary]

I'm not saying there should be a law for opium and not for mj, just that they shouldn't be lumped together just because they're plants.

They should be lumped into categories based on things like are poison content, does growing them affect native wildlife detrimentally, etc.

[Rev]

gomaos:

First thing I asked people is why is marijuana illegal? Marijuana is illegal because it promotes free thought and expression and the society we live in does not want us to think for ourselves. It's as simple as that!

couldn't have put it better myself...

I know too many and have been myself at one time a Heavy MJ smoker. I have trouble reconciling that someone who want a fully productive life with all their faculties could do it as a heavy smoker

While thought and expression are certainly 'free' in some sense i think they are myopic and attentuated by the depressant activity and antimotivational effcst of weed. Weed can give you a million new ideas and 'pipe dreams' but the next day you dont remmeber them all. And add to that smokers are more likley to go putting their efforts into finding another smoke than achieving their vision.

That said i admit the majority of any population has no great ambition or gift other than to be good neighbours and citizens to one another.

I think the powers that be hate weed because its still foreign (esp in the USA where it trad came with mexicans from mexico) so it insults their air of cultural superiority, it can give people the sense of mysticism and inner peace they crave so disempowering institutional religion, it is a panacea for many aches and pains of daily living that are chronically under treated - like pain - so disempowering the medical fraternity and pharma company monopoly. It is essentially a grow at home form of green currency that is highly liquid and is non taxable and doesnt involve financial institutions or credit - thus disempowering the taxman and banks. Also being an easy home produced drug it exists both in and outside the realm of the underworld - the home hydro revolution meant people can get their fix without associating with career criminals. It is the opium for the masses, a respite from consumer culture of more more more. A person with weed is more likely to be happier in life wih less material goods than one without IME thus undermining the cult of the consumer - and one can be self sufficient in that aim

As a social and economic force it tips the balance in exactly the opposite direction to the running tide

This is why i think its illegal and why conservative govts and their collaborators hate it

[ 01. March 2005, 00:39: Message edited by: Rev ]

[gomaos]

While thought and expression are certainly 'free' in some sense i think they are myopic and attentuated by the depressant activity and antimotivational effcst of weed.

can't really agree with that, the activity of weed is not "depressant' but "anti-depressant".

In comparison, the action of alcohol is "depressant".

Also, weed by itself, is not antimotivational. It is however so if mixed with alcohol.

Weed can give you a million new ideas and 'pipe dreams' but the next day you dont remmeber them all.

Also not true. Weed has given a million inspirations to artists, musicians etc. and they haven't forgotten, but expressed it all in their art. What you claim here, fits more for "fly agarics" and similar dissoziative(sp?) drugs.

And add to that smokers are more likley to go putting their efforts into finding another smoke than achieving their vision.

oh well this would be true for most substances, including coffee, nicotine, alcohol and what have you (h, speed etc).

Not sure about shrooms and dmt they would be different.

I know there's pro- and anti-cannabis-people.

For example, I was a heavy drinker and am now against alcohol.

However, I don't deny that there are people who may actually "benefit" from the stinking stuff. (i.e. being able to handle it, not getting addicted, just having a little, healthy amount every day.)

People who have just taken up using mj are prone to have some paranoid, schizophrenic experiences, since mj brings out into the open traits of one's personality which may have been lying dormant and hidden. The "new mj"-user gets frightened by this and thinks it's the mj doin it. But really it's all inside that person.

Once past the paranoia stage, it's easy sailing.

There's no other drug that has so many benefits and so little side-effects.

And yeah it doesn't fit into western culture.

Good.

Western culture, the 'american way of life" suck ass and bring everyone further away from happiness than what they would be without it.

To hell with western culture and american lifestyle!

That's what weed teaches the open-minded.

Hopefully!

[occidentalis]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4305783.stm

[apothecary]

creach that article is something I'd call bullshit on.

Firstly, it says they follow over 1000 people born in 1977 for 25 years.

Then it says they interview them at age 18, 21 and 25. How does that work?

Secondly, people have been using cannabis since time immemorial. Quite frankly, I'd like these New Zealand researchers to come up with a better explanation than "duh it changes the chemical makeup of the brain".

What chemicals? How? How constant use are we talking about? When do the effects start?

It looks to me like they went in, gave surveys to a large sample group and decided on a verdict based on that.

Why doesn't the article say anything about the regular cannabis users OTHER drug use? As far as I know, that's easily the single failing point of every single one of these studies. They never take into account that usually regular cannabis users also take other drugs.

[waterdragon]

apothecary:

I don't like the "it's just a plant" rationale.

Replace the word marijuana with opium. Opium is defnitely a different kettle of fish, but it's just a plant!

Why do we have to rationalise it by saying it's just a plant? Petrol just comes from the ground!  

opium is not a kettle, a fish, or a plant. it comes from a plant and if people choose to use it in a fashion which benefits them - all power to 'em. there's a bit of interference between what comes out of the ground and what goes into your fuel tank too, the key word being interference which is what a government does when it interposes itself between a gardener and their plants.

[waterdragon]

Rev:

While thought and expression are certainly 'free' in some sense i think they are myopic and attentuated by the depressant activity and antimotivational effcst of weed.  

would have to disagree with that. when i used to utilise it i found the effects were quite empowering. it enabled/motivated me to breathe more deeply, helped me to concentrate on boring shit ie hard physical labour, relaxed sore muscles in my back and gave me tolerance for the summer heat. maybe just a question of dosage?

[apothecary]

I'm not sure exactly what you're trying to say...

Just in the same way that opium comes from a plant, so do buds. The whole sinsemillia process of growing cannabis is literally human inteference to get just what we want. At least with opium it's simply part of the natural process.

If you're saying the government is interfering and everyone should be allowed to do what they want, then why don't we abolish rape and murder laws too?

Not all laws are irrational. Just because one is, and it is a freedom of choice issue, doesn't mean we should abolish all laws.

Opium addiction can easily be detrimental to society. Even if people were allowed to grow and harvest their own, if they ran out and were hooked they'd end up stealing it from someone or something.

"It's just a plant" simply isn't a good rationale. Lots of things are just things. Why can't we say mj has been used for millenia, has been found to have minor health affects and isn't likely to harm anyone in particular, therefore it is ok?

[waterdragon]

i'd be the last one to say 'it's just a plant' knowing full well what overindulgence in some plants can lead to. but people have a brain for a reason, a bee stings you - you tend not to go back for seconds. a government doesn't have the moral authority to dictate how people self medicate.

nowhere in my post am i even hinting at the notion that people should be able to do as they please, but where is the crime without a victim?

[occidentalis]

apothecary:

creach that article is something I'd call bullshit on.

I think we need to read the paper it's abstracted from before we draw any real conclusions. I was just playing devil's advocate and seeing if that article would generate any discussion.

My own mj consumption lead to experiences that resembled my conceptions of what schizophrenia would be like, which is why I stopped. However I had many creative, fun, inspiring, insightful, healing, and even entheogenic experiences with the weed, and I recognise it's value. I consider schizophrenia and many other mental illnesses to be sane responses to an insane society, and somehow chronic abuse of cannabis tips this over the edge for many people.

[Fenris]

waterdragon:

nowhere in my post am i even hinting at the notion that people should be able to do as they please, but where is the crime without a victim?

Would the victim be the government? And the crime,

avoiding tax on such a profitable item? Or would the crime be self medicating with a substance that reduces the need to be a "good consumer"?

Either way, the Govt misses out and looses some control of its cattle, I mean people.

[apothecary]

moooo!

[waterdragon]

oh yes my hooooves, look at my hoooves, etc etc.

[apothecary]

LOL!

mooooo etcetera! MOOOOO etc etc.

Ah crap, I'm glad there was nothing in my mouth when I saw that, or it'd be all over the screen haha.

[mescalito]

I think we all know why MJ is illegal... simply control whether it be reduced down to the dollar or seen as an easy gateway to altering consciousness and therefore the questioning of authority and it's motives.

IME there is good pot and bad pot.They generally fall on the line between Indica and Sativa and are nearly always an individual preference in those that know the difference.Both these types(and all hybrids between)can open one up to healing on various levels.

The thing that falls in the favour of prohibition is that when you have to call in on numerous dealers to score, you inevitably buy whatever you can get and the dealer has no idea which particular breed he's selling nor does he care.I't just a cash crop to him which once again plays into the hands of authority.Prohibition keeps cops in over employment,raises revenue and keeps the rich "secure" in the belief that their taxes are fighting evil.

If one could legally learn their ally breed, grow it and consume it free of paranoia then one would have a higher chance of success with the herb and less chance of falling victim to dependance and/or psychological damage.

Keeping it underground starves us of the chance to openly explore the different breeds and to make our own minds up which is why most buyers continue to ride the good pot/bad pot roller-coaster continually chasing the medicine that they won't need so often if they could just have access.

2c

[gomaos]

Legalize it

don't criticise it

...moooo....moooomoooooo.....

[ 01. March 2005, 23:02: Message edited by: gomaos ]

[gerbil]

I like your thoughts maca.

People can't lump all cannabis simply as the same thing, there is incredible variation in the plant and it's chemistry, then even break that down further to all the different pharmacological effects on each individual user, after all we all are wired differently. Do all psilocybin mushroom species produce smack on the exact same effects as each other? It's a bit pointless comparing mushrooms and cannabis but you get the point.

I've never had good pure sativa, only some sativa dominant hybrids, but I can't imagine good pure sativa making a heavy user lazy. Maybe a bit drained, especially if you don't eat properly when smoking and in everyday life, but i couldn't imagine you wanting to sleep on the couch all day, feeling unmotivated. Then again different people different effects.

I find the effects of all the material i've tried to be very motivational, exactly like wd said. If it's a lazy day, a small dose and the next minute you are in the garden doing backbreaking work and loving every minute of it.

I actually like 'it's just a plant'. Basically anything can be dangerous to people if you don't respect it or simply over indulge. If people are educated in the matters of substances/intoxicants/visionary compounds whatever it is or what want to call it, all the bullshit hysteria goes away and things do come back to simply being molecules and plants, no big deal. Go up to a mother who has kids in primary school and talk about ayahuasca, watch the hysteria and fear of these drugs. Go up to a native mother who use ayahuasca culturally as medicine and it's simply a plant and medicine. (to clarify, i've never been to south america, but from my reading/viewing/discussions this is what i've come to understand)

My 2c anyway

[nabraxas]

If you're saying the government is interfering and everyone should be allowed to do what they want, then why don't we abolish rape and murder laws too? ---without a doubt laws have failed to stop most murders.

rapists & peodophiles seem to be sick people & again laws ov god or man have never seemed to stop the judges & priests involved.

the "laws are there for our protection" lie allows cops to carry guns.

the lie that "laws deter people from murder" sounds like a call for the death penalty.

if it takes a law to tell us as a society that rape & murder are "not good", we have no hope ov evolving.

[apothecary]

nabraxas, that's a bit extremist don't you think? They have laws against murder etc in Germany, but the cops there don't carry guns.