Speaking out against the "war" on medical marijuana -- my MeTube spot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOR0P3jicuw

Good early morning, all y'all:

As many of you know, my life has been defined (for the past six years) by my involvement in the medical marijuana movement. I could say twenty years, but the past six years have really racheted up my involvement and visibility, due to my pleading guilty to a federal marijuana charge based on my growing and providing cannabis to sick and dying people here in Tennessee. (At the time of the raid on my farm, I was helping four people, all of whom died within months of the raid.)

Back in June, I attended the premiere of a new short film by the Marijuana Policy Project, "The Human Cost of Marijuana Prohibition", at a gala fundraiser held at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles. That film highlights four marijuana-related cases, including my own. You can see the entire film at the mpp.org web-site. You can also see a short film shot at the Playboy Mansion event, which includes four snippets of an interview with me there, at this link:

current.com/items/89063715_why_isn_t_it_legal_marijuana_policy_project_the_playboy_mansion

Fortunately, MPP has supported our excerpting my segment of the film as a "stand-alone" video on YouTube. We have now done that, thanks to the kindness of two friends who are much more tech-savvy than your favorite felon. (Thanks, Roger and Ember).

The link at the top of this thread will take you to that YouTube spot. It has just been up a few days, so there are no comments posted by anyone yet. Please take a few minutes to view the spot. If you are so moved, please post your comments on the issue and forward the link to others you know and ask them to do the same. That would be most appreciated.

Now I will spend my morning finishing my review of the latest draft of the New Mexico med pot regs. Those regs include the conditions under which large-scale production of the medicine by state-licensed contractors can occur in New Mexico -- the first state to do that, thanks (in part) to input from me. I hope to be back out in New Mexico on September 8 to testify about those regs.

We must ALL continue to fight our absurd laws regarding medical marijuana. Senator Obama's statements on this issue are certainly praise-worthy. But we must ALL do our part.

If we never stop fighting, we cannot lose.

I was unaware that seizure of your farm was a possiblity. When will you find out?

As a MM patient, I admire what you've done greatly and detest what the feds have put you through. In the video you ask, "Where did we go wrong?" The only thing that we have done wrong, is to not learn how to battle greed.

Thank you for helping those four people find some comfort in their dying days.

Recommend.

As I understand, once a case is filed by the feds, there is no statute of limitations on when it must be resolved.

on the matter. Thanks.

I also hung around there and watched the video of your appearance before the TN senate on the issue.

You did well, for what little real attention they gave in asking you hardly anything.

Those senators are a prime example of what is wrong with TN Govt
and not just on the issue of MM, on everything.
Though it was nice for that sweet old lady senator to bring the bill before committee.

So the senator opens with " i took an oath, and i know all of you others did too, when I started this job,
to uphold the Constitution of the US, and I guess that means all it's laws and resolutions too. And the
federal govt. has this to say on this issue.....i learned a long time ago not to fight the federal and I haven't
.well, I guess we did once back in the 1860"s....and we lost.
(so now he and another senator do a little southern comedy)

"Oh wait, Senator Gymshorts says we won that one.

(And everyone does the southern racist Yucetty Yuck)

These guys are just so fucking evil in every way.

... I have hopes that we can bring change to this state re: medical cannabis just as we did on paper ballots. When we started the paper ballot fight, everyone laughed at us. The final result: 32 to 0 approval in the Senate and 92 to 3 approval in the House.

I'd love to put up similar numbers to reduce the pain and suffering of sick people with a medicine that the Goddess happily provided. So I may become a (paid - finally) lobbyist for medical cannabis in Tennessee real soon. (That is, if I don't move to New Mexico to assist their program. Decisions, decisions...)

If we never stop fighting ...

insane policy against marijuana, you will be among the heroes mentioned. And because of your involvement and dedication, thousands -- millions? -- of sick people will have a little relief from their nightmare. :hug:

seriously flawed. And the fact our federal government is spending money to hire contractors (blackwater) guilty of killing innocent civilians in Iraq to raid legal and state licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in LA is Kafkaesque.more power to you m'friend.

Now if those warehouses could sell ALL the beautiful flowers that the Goddess provides, this would indeed be a kind world.

Keep up the good fight, my Brother... you *will* prevail. The draconian laws of this state *NEED* to be changed.. with a quickness. Don't forget that the very first marijuana prohibition laws were put into effect in Utah by the MORMON CHURCH.... thus they *should* be overturned for that alone.. separation of church & state, ya know..

Peace to you, my Brother... please don't ever give up in your quest. millions of people are depending on you and your voice... I'll gladly add my name and voice to the fight any time... just tell me what you need me to do...

Ghost

I wish I could say I was dumbfounded as to why these ignorant, counter-intuitive, and fear-mongering laws are still on the books, but we all know why there still there: $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$. Plain and simple.

Go and make history, Bernie. Help us bring some sense to this land.

Sometimes, it helps to be backed into the corner.

But, hey, as I've always said, "If God (and the feds) are watching, let's give 'em a good show."

One day he gave me his Marinol, saying that I could try it if I wanted, because it wasn't doing him any good. He was lucky enough to get the real medicine the government was telling him he didn't need.

K&R.

You are doing great work, keep it up and I hope you are able to keep your farm as well as change the archaic laws of your state and bring them into the twenty-first century.

to the Night at the Playboy Mansion thread (Pictures!)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3624105

some info for those who may pass this way -

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

Mayor La Guardia did the first study of marijuana in the U.S. It was published in 1944 and stated that marijuana did not cause "reefer madness"

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/lag/lagmenu.htm

However, Harry Anslinger wanted to have a cause after prohibition and marijuana became that cause. Since it was associated with blacks and Latin Americans, that made it easier to sell the bullshit (prejudice works against reason) about its "dangers."

President Nixon's Task Force, which Nixon put together b/c he wanted to clamp down on marijuana smokers because they were among his fiercest critics (chicken or egg??... Vietnam, Assassinations, Black ops) Nixon didn't like what he heard and so he acted against evidence. They recommended that marijuana be decriminalized. This was a task force with conservatives. But they were honest. You could still find an honest conservative back then.

http://www.csdp.org/news/news/nixon.htm

In 1995, The Lancet, the top British medical journal, released a study and findings on marijuana and after talking about possible negatives, noted -

Marijuana is ''less of a threat to health than alcohol or tobacco, products that in many countries are ? tolerated and advertised.'' On the basis of the available medical evidence, The Lancet concluded that ''moderate indulgence in cannabis has little ill effect on health.''

so, for about half a century the U.S. has prohibited marijuana even tho studies did not support the prohibition.

The 2007 work from The Lancet raised the issue of mental illness and marijuana.

http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2007/07/27/reefer-madness-the-lancet-cut/

unfortunately, or fortunately for propagandists, there is NO WAY to show cause and effect. the wsj article notes this, to their credit. Alcohol has just as many if not more mental health issues.. FOR SOME but not all. The percentage is minor in the Lancet study.

http://www.aph.gov.au/library/pubs/RN/2006-07/07rn21.htm

more on this issue.

as is often done with alcohol, marijuana is probably used to self-medicate... again, this is still the case with alcohol and yet it is not illegal.

And I'm just talking about marijuana as a mood-altering substance, like a glass of wine, not as medication. However, the benefits are such that it is cruel to punish ppl for medicinal marijuana.

Liberalism in the classic sense (what we call conservatism) and enlightenment ideas held that personal freedom was integral to the idea of a populace that governs itself (even if by representation.) I wish people these days would remember this. How many people should be in jail over how many decades because they smoked a joint? Should someone lose voting rights because they smoked a joint? Should someone be considered a felon because they smoked a joint? Not in a democracy.

EVERY federal commission since Nixon that has been charged with studying marijuana has recommended that it be decriminalized. Even two DEA administrative law judges -- who also studied the issue in depth -- have made the same recommendation. In just the past six months, both the American College of Physicians (the second largest organization of physicians in this country) and the Medical Student Section of the American Medical Association (the largest physicians group) have made the same recommendation. And still we have prohibition.

We must act. Supporting Senator Obama is a good step in the right direction. But we must act at all levels -- local, state and federal -- to overcome this barnacle-encrusted nonsense.

"We are now faced
with the fact,
my friends,
that tomorrow is today....

"We are confronted with
the fierce urgency of now....

"We must move past
indecision
to action."

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
April 4, 1967
Riverside Church, New York City

If juries just stop fucking convicting because they are fed the fuck up with paying to fill up prisons for this stupid shit, then maybe the law will finally grind into the ground.

The upshot is that those cases began to go federal (i.e., from bad to worse).

But I agree. Juries can put an end to this nonsense. The problem is that there are so many risks inherent in refusing to accept a plea bargain, including the inability to receive the "safety valve" that removes defendants from under the mandatory minimum sentences that are imposed for pot cases -- in my case five years (to 40 years) in prison.

However, I will request a jury trial if my civil asset forfeiture case moves forward. Even citizens who know little about medical marijuana believe that no one should lose their home for that offense.

More people need to get involved. I missed the time frame to recommend this. On my way to check out the video. Thank you.

I don't want to have to wait until I am sick to use it legally. I have a place in my garden reserved for it

One does not have to be against medical marijuana to be for decriminalization. In fact, the first might help the second.

This whole thing was my sick attempt at sarcasm.

Today, more than three-quartes of the American public supports availability of medical marijuana. Fewer than 40% support decriminalization. (That doesn't involve surveying politicians, whose fear of putting their heads above the foxhole in the "war on drugs" is palpable.)

If we're going to have one sooner than later, it is likely to be medical marijuana.

I recommended this yesterday.


The shadow of having that looming over your shoulder... justs sucks. I thought after your release it was over. Please let me know if status on the farm changes for the negative.


I was seriously thinking of have this made into an Avatar.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=389&topic_id=3624105#3624816

"Ya clean up pretty good" Bernie.

Peace Mark

I'm sure, to those for whom you've risked everything to help.

:thumbsup:

This country needs to slip the grasp of the corporations and zealots who've been in control of OUR public health policies for far too long...

each time it said waiting for approval. It never posted ANY comments.

I didn't post anything inflammatory and still nothing was "approved". :shrug:

Oh, Bernie. I never ever ever want you to lose your farm. Period. BUT I would love for you to move to New Mexico. I went to one of the NM Dept of Health hearings on medical marijuana and spoke out. We've had forums in my very conservative county down south (and I was thinking of you, the card with the painting of your cabin you sent me and the Hopi prayer) and there are people, libertarians and republicans as well as progressive democrats speaking out against the War on Drugs or at least on the need to decriminalize cannabis. I feel hope on this one matter alone, even when I'm feeling pretty hopeless about the war, the environment, the economy (and even my hopelessness lasts a short time, but happening more often. Sigh.)

I'll try to post on youtube later, but I wonder how many have posted comments and they just got 'lost?'

Since we just set it up, we hadn't figured out the review process for posted comments. But my web-mistress is forwarding all comments to me for approval, so they should appear soon. Thanks and keep 'em coming!

:hi:

I wonder if people realize the irony and hypocrisy of
a government who is actively failing to serve the
best interests of its citizens punishing one
person for actually easing the suffering of fellow
men/women.

BHN

:kick:

I had no idea your farm was in the balance. Damn that Republican War on Americans.

No matter what they say, you're right and they're wrong.

:patriot: