More Mexican Bloodshed

It is now more dangerous to live in Mexico than it is in Afghanistan, and with this most recent news of mutilated bodies being uncovered this fact comes as no surprise. The number of these atrocities and the brutal manner in which they are carried out should serve as a gruesome warning that America is not properly addressing the drug war in the correct manner.How many Mexicans need to die before we decide to end this losing war on drugs? I'm afraid that this number is astronomical. I'm also afraid that it will take the discovery of decapitated American bodies to entice our government to start to pursue these cartels in an aggressive manner. Below I have included a link to a story about another 49 beheaded and dismembered bodies being uncovered in Mexico due to drug cartel violence. It doesn't take a war to help quell the violence in Mexico, but rather a stroke of the pen to pass legislation that will take marijuana off of the black market.

America Powered by Hemp!

I haven’t made many posts addressing the legal cultivation of industrial hemp, but looking at my blog you can probably guess why. I’ve put it on the back burner only occasionally bringing up the subject when it tied into marijuana, and now I’d like to bring the subject back into the spotlight. Industrial hemp is an incredible opportunity for this country; however it has been unfairly stigmatized with mostly anecdotal evidence. Yes, the plant is part of the cannabis family but really that’s the only problem the prohibitionists address when speaking of it. The conversation usually starts with this argument then somehow mutates into a marijuana and illicit drug discussion. It usually starts like this “Hemp should not be cultivated in America because it is part of the cannabis family like marijuana and, as we all know, marijuana is a gateway drug and leads to harder drugs like heroin.” So the conversation started with hemp and ended with heroin. Why is this? There isn’t a lot of drug abuse statistics concerning hemp for one. Even with marijuana there are all sorts of theories and statistics that prohibitionists love to quote and exploit, however hemp isn’t associated with drug use. Think about it, when was the last time you heard of a massive hemp bust anywhere in the country? Or the last time you or anyone you knew scored hemp off of a drug dealer. No one smokes hemp! The reason is that you can’t get high off it. Drug users know this and drug dealers know this. You are more likely to die of smoke inhalation before feeling any effects from hemp. There is no one in any rehab facility for hemp addiction. Likewise no one has died because of a hemp overdose. People don’t smoke it, dealers don’t sell it, no one kills for it yet the government will arrest you for it. The cannabis family gets a bad rap but if it wasn’t for this family of plants we wouldn’t have any beer to drink. That’s right, the hops that are thrown into the brews that we drink are also part of the cannabis family, and what’s more is that we are actually consuming it legally with every sip. Yet we can’t grow hemp to make paper or rope because of a belief that the American population will be strung out on it. As absurd as this sounds I haven’t heard of another argument why we shouldn’t grow this crop. One negative stigma is all that keeps this plant from being grown on American soil. America uses hemp in everyday items and the government buys it from other countries like Canada and China. God forbid we start growing it for ourselves! The stigma surrounding hemp is so stifling that it keeps us away from economic growth. A more prosperous America is achievable but because of our fear and misunderstanding of marijuana we keep our potential wealth locked away. What sense does this make? Did we become a world super power out of fear and anecdotal theories? It’s hurtful to see this country keep itself from greatness and it is shameful when hearing the ridiculous logic as to why. Will we let our fears overpower our logic and knowledge? We don’t have to.

ASU Marijuana Debate

I found a great professional debate on marijuana legalization and by professional I mean a debate you won't find on FOX or MSNBC where the person who yells the loudest wins. Each person is given a time to present their opinions without interruption and in a civil manner.I must warn you it is a rather long video but it is definitely worth watching. As always feel free to leave comments. Enjoy!

Obama and Marijuana

I don't like to throw greater political discussions into my blog posts such as who I'm voting for in the election or why I think Obama is a good or bad President. I feel this takes focus away from the issues at hand. In this short post I will not give my opinion on the Obama administration, however I will leave some links to articles that speak of his policy on medical marijuana. None of these are glowing praises of the President but the facts within them are true. The Obama administration has cracked down on medical marijuana dispensaries more than any other administration in history. All I wish to do is share the facts of what is occurring in America and within my home state of California. Knowledge is power people!!! The more we know the less likely we are to be taken advantage of.

I Don’t Smoke Marijuana

It’s true I don’t. When I first started writing my blog and telling my friends about it I got the same response from them every time “But you don’t smoke weed why do you want it legal?”. They say this like the only motivation I have for all of my writing and hard work is so that I’ll be able to smoke a joint on a Friday night without legal repercussions. But I see beyond that. I see that cannabis can actually have a positive impact on the country as a whole as it relates to crime, the economy, and personal freedom. Should I be angry at my friends for assuming that I have such a short sighted and self centered goal about this plant? The answer is unequivocally no! The response that I am given does not reflect on my friends’ inability to see the bigger picture, but rather it shows the effects of years of conditioning from society’s stereotypes. The specific stereotype that we must address is that of the traditional marijuana supporter. You all know the type, the twenty to thirty something loser that lives in his parents’ basement baked out of his skull lecturing to his friend who is passed out on the floor about how marijuana should be legal all while he is eating five pizzas at once and surfing through a porn site on his laptop. Yeah that guy! It doesn’t matter if you hold a good job, own a house, or earned a PHD you are automatically grouped into the same category as this individual. It’s not only insulting it is incredibly ignorant but worry not ignorance can be remedied with knowledge.

                More people need to address this stereotype as a falsehood. It is a large part of the reason why debates about marijuana do not take place in the larger public eye. We are discredited as knuckle dragging Neanderthals before we have a chance to present our opinions. As poised and articulate as an activist may be these attributes do him no good if he is labeled as a degenerate before he has been given a chance to speak. How are we to rise above these commonly held misconceptions about us? The good news is that we are starting to. Polls now show that about fifty percent of Americans believe that marijuana should be a legal substance and America wouldn’t be the great country that it is if this was the number of losers that inhabited our nation. Furthermore organizations such as L.E.A.P. and NORML help our cause by presenting intelligent arguments to the general public. It cannot stop here however. More people need to take a stand and share their stories and experiences with marijuana. I truly believe that people are going to be surprised when they discover that individuals they admire use marijuana, support its legalization, or both.

                The more we gravitate away from the common stereotypical myths about ourselves the more we will start to gain credibility among our peers, and the respect we earn from them will grow exponentially. Don’t be afraid to share your stories and opinions with the people around you for fear you’ll be labeled a fool. I can assure most of you reading this are far from one.  The only way to eradicate ignorance is to share your knowledge. For knowledge is power and it is the key that unlocks the shackles of ignorance that bind us.           

                        

Marijuana Can’t Even be Kept Out of Our Prisons!

If any of you have ever watched an episode of “Locked Up” on MSNBC then you have probably seen how prisoners are often able to obtain some sort of drug even though they are confined in top security prisons. For those of you who haven’t seen it “Locked Up” is a show that reveals the daily lives of prisoners in the country’s most infamous prisons. In a lot of these episodes prisoners are interviewed about their experience with drugs in prison. Whether it’s homemade alcohol, marijuana, or heroin these inmates in every prison are able to acquire some sort of illegal intoxicant. How can anyone claim that we are making any significant progress in the drug war when our most secure correctional institutions, which are locked down 24/7 by law enforcement professionals, can’t even keep drugs out of the facility? If an environment such as this is porous enough to allow drugs and money to flow in and out regularly, then how do we expect to keep it out of the country entirely? This should be a major indicator that our current strategy is fleeting.

                No amount of law enforcement personnel and resources will ever be enough to stop the illegal drug trade. All the money that we pour into the drug war each year isn’t even enough to slow it down any significant amount. The proof of this is seen in the ever escalating violence south of the border. Many prohibition supporters argue that if we built a fence covering the entire length of the boarder and line the fence with National Guard and border patrol agents that this would be enough to stop the drug trade along with illegal immigration. First of all this idea is unrealistic, but for the sake of the argument let’s assume that this could be possible. This would slow down the amount of traffic that attempts to cross holes along the physical border such as people climbing over fences and cutting holes in the chain link; however, this would not stop the tunnels that are built under the fence nor would it stop drug traffic that travels by water. The cartels possess simple yet sophisticated semi submersible water vessels and submarines, and with so much man power focused on the border we would be left vulnerable to sea trafficking. This wouldn’t hinder the drug traffic that travels through the air in small aircraft either. Building a fence and lining it with troops does close a door but it also inadvertently opens many others for exploitation.

                We don’t have to build a large fence spanning the border or throw more money into the war on drugs every year to realize that more law enforcement is not a viable solution to illegal drug trafficking. We can see the ineffectiveness of this approach when we look at our prisons. These institutions which are locked down by guards, bars, locks, fences, security cameras, and razor wire do a good job of keeping inmates inside its walls but still cannot keep drugs from entering inside them. The best solution is not more guns and guards but more rights!          

What Convinced Me to End Marijuana Prohibition?

There is a more complex answer that addresses this question but I’ll delve into that deeper in another post, but I would like to reveal an important turning point in my journey to end prohibition. The video that I have included in this post was a major junction in my ideological development. The video takes a look at an organization known as L.E.A.P. (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition). This organization is made of active and retired law enforcement members who have fought on the front lines of the war on drugs only to discover that it is a loosing battle. Now they travel to schools and hold seminars that promote ending prohibition based on their personal experiences. I highly recommend listening to what these people have to say since they understand the drug war from a viewpoint many of us do not possess. What I hope this video highlights for you is that people who support ending prohibition come from many different backgrounds and differ greatly from the common stereotypical perception of an anti-prohibitionist (the common degenerate pothead). I felt that it was the right time to showcase this video since my last post addressed the topic of our law enforcement in relation to the drug war. Now you get to experience this same topic through the eyes of these very same individuals. Like I mentioned before this was a video that really resonated with me and contributed a great deal toward my activist ambitions. Enjoy the video and feel free to leave comments on it.        

Will Marijuana Legalization Belittle Our Law Enforcement?

This issue has to be addressed since it is often an argument politicians use to gain sympathy for our law enforcement agencies by means of victimization. Subsequently many people have accepted this argument as a legitimate reason to keep marijuana prohibition alive. It’s not unheard of for a person to argue that “legalizing marijuana will undo everything our federal and local police entities have sacrificed and worked so hard to achieve. How can you possibly want to make it legal?” This argument can be hard to combat since the individual making the comment has been convinced that ending marijuana prohibition is not a political idea, but another deviant strategy that criminals are utilizing to target our law enforcement members. How does an individual come to believe this fallacious argument? It comes with decades of conditioning. The government has demonized marijuana to the point that anyone who has a favorable opinion of it is labeled a criminal. If you buy weed you are breaking the law therefore you are a criminal! Since you bought it you are now in possession of a controlled substance which is illegal therefore you are a criminal! If you sell some to your friend you are a drug dealer therefore you are a criminal! If you smoke it you are breaking the law therefore you are a criminal! If you support it becoming legal you are either selling it, buying it, possessing it, smoking it, or all of the above therefore you are a criminal! As funny as this may seem it is true that many people have acquired this thought process. How can we change this perception and how can we make people realize that ending marijuana prohibition is not intended to harm our law enforcement officials?

                It all starts with debunking commonly held myths, something that I always try to accomplish through this blog. In this case prohibition supporters are victimizing law enforcement officials instead of the usual targets like the helpless addict or the child killed in the middle of a drug deal gone wrong. This victimization causes guilt and an otherwise intelligent individual is overcome by emotion instead of utilizing reason. “How could I possibly support legalization? Our poor police officer puts his life on the line to keep these drugs off the streets. I’m such a fool!” Thus the argument becomes “marijuana needs to be kept illegal because it’s illegal!” But wait, are these people really saying that? Yes they most defiantly are! Yet the individual does not notice that he or she is making this erroneous argument because it is cleverly disguised as a sympathetic appeal towards the poor cop walking his beat.

                Does marijuana legalization really belittle our law enforcement officials? The answer is a resounding NO! If it does anything it helps them by removing them from a failed drug policy that has lasted decades. If marijuana was legalized 10 years ago we would have fewer dead cops and failed operations like “Fast and Furious” would never have taken place. Violence in Mexico would have declined and our prisons would not be overflowing with petty drug offenders. To say that legalizing cannabis hurts our officers more than to continuingly throw them into dangerous drug busting operations is insensitive and offensive. Our law enforcement has done the best they can but the drug war failure does not fall on their shoulders, it falls on the shoulders of our lawmakers. And to create the illusion that our law enforcement agencies haven’t “quite done enough” is sickening.          

The 420 Counterculture

Marijuana is unique among controlled substances in that it has an unprecedented counter culture that surrounds it. Just Google marijuana and I will guarantee that that you will find an overwhelming amount of forums, activist pages, magazine websites, medical marijuana dispensaries, conventions, arguments for and against prohibition, paraphernalia stores, and of course blogs dedicated to the subject ;). There is such a large following that if you didn’t know marijuana was illegal you would have a hard time believing it is. What is so unique about cannabis that gives it so much appeal even though it is illegal to possess, sell, and consume it? Why are we not seeing this phenomenon with other controlled substances? Since there is such a large following then why hasn’t anyone seen the potential of legalization? There are many answers to these questions but I plan to highlight the big picture surrounding the subject of the 420 counterculture.

                Why is marijuana so appealing to so many people in the country? I guess a superficial answer would be that “it gets you high”, an answer I usually receive from people in favor of prohibition, but I’m not willing to accept that as the main reason. A lot of things get you high, cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, psychedelic mushrooms, meth, peyote, nitrous oxide, Oxycotton, Demerol, and a plethora of other prescription drugs. But none of these have the same dedicated following that matches marijuana. The simplest way I can describe why cannabis is so popular is by combining two broad reasons, it’s safer than other recreational drugs (including alcohol) and it’s enjoyable to use. These are the very basic reasons why marijuana has such a large following. Sure there are other reasons that are involved but most of them stem from these two categories. The fact that it is enjoyable seems to be an obvious reason for its use, but there are other drugs like heroin, meth, and crack cocaine that at first may be used for enjoyment but quickly transition into being used to maintain an addiction. Very rarely is anyone a slave to marijuana addiction and this allows people to continue using without many negative effects. This brings us to the next reason for its popularity which is its relatively safe use. No one overdoses on marijuana like many other drugs which is why marijuana maintains its popularity in numbers and which is also why we don’t see this phenomenon with other “harder” drugs. No one is killing themselves with it. This safe appearance of cannabis within the 420 counterculture maintains its popularity. Because it is so enjoyable and because it is safer to use marijuana has gained an epic fan base in this country and is also the reason why harder drugs do not follow this same trend.

                With marijuana as popular as it is why hasn’t anyone seen the potential of legalization? The answer to this question is much simpler. People have seen the potential for legalization and more often than not it is the marijuana user and activist that sees it. The user does not want to have to sneak around trying to find weed somewhere, they would much rather want to walk into a store and purchase it without having to look over their shoulder. People who want to end prohibition are not criminals but everyday people that want to see crime decrease and more jobs created from marijuana legalization. The main hurdle to leap over in order to end prohibition is to overcome the negative stigma that marijuana has acquired over the years. We can see that we are achieving this goal with recent polls showing that half of Americans would like to see marijuana legalized. After all overcoming this stigma and ending prohibition is what the 420 movement is truly all about.