Jeremy is a tragic story of our ridiculous cannabis laws. This is a young man 33 years old never in any kind of trouble; a very kind soul caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Trying to be a Good Samaritan; now in jail because of cannabis; and the prosecuting attorney wanting a conviction. This is costing thousands of dollars in legal fees, all while he sits in the cook county jail months of his life wasting away with the fear of years to be spent in prison. He lives in deplorable unhealthy conditions he endures sleep deprivation, lack of sunlight, depression and inadequate diet. You can read Jeremy’s story here http://tinyurl.com/26dws4b His address is Jeremy Woolf CCDOC ID# 20100121182 Division 2 annex Dorm C2 P.O. Box 089002 Chicago IL 60608 Please write him. He needs outside contact. He is hopeful and confident with his Lawyer Mr. Rascia. He needs help beyond anything you might ever imagine. This could take years just to get to trial hope he holds out that long. Other contact info: Cindy Mattson 251-342-9886 cynthiamattson@bellsouth.net. It is so important he knows he has not been abandoned by his past friends.
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Robert DuPont is a respected authority on drug issues, but he also has strong anti-cannabis beliefs that apparently caused him to leave out important facts in his writing on medical cannabis ["Where there's smoke, there's a health concern," Local Opinions, April 25]. He stresses the dangers of smoke but doesn't mention that cannabis can be inhaled smoke-free by using a vaporizer. He says that dosages are uncertain, but legally regulated cannabis could be produced with a known THC content. Similarly, cigarette packs show tar and nicotine amounts. Finally, he ignores the fact that for conditions such as pain and nausea, the therapeutic dose can vary, so inhaling small increments of fast-acting vapor (or smoke) is a superb delivery system because it allows the patient to adjust the dose as needed.
There are millions of people across this great nation that suffer from present-day pain medications.
Oxycontin and Percocet, for example, even when taken as prescribed by doctors, cause a patient to suffer from horrible side effects. These side effects cause constant vomiting or constant nausea at minimum. Other side effects cause a patient to fear violent withdrawal that could be caused from matters outside of patient’s or doctor’s control. You have heard of insurance companies denying coverage of medications after a length of time or the computers being down at the pharmacy. Cannabis has little to no side effects. It is time to give patients and doctors the first sound night’s sleep in awhile. The American Medical Association urges the federal government to reconsider its stance on cannabis, to change the classification of cannabis as a Class 1 drug. This means the AMA recognizes that cannabis has medicinal qualities that could be beneficial to a patient’s health. The AMA also states that cannabis deserves more research. Latest polling shows 65 percent of Americans support medicinal cannabis with doctor supervision. Doctors would much rather prescribe a plant grown in the most natural form meant by God, Mother Earth and the Universe. Do you feel these celestial forms of life would provide us with cannabis if said plant did not have benefits? Everything has its purpose and unless you are a doomsday scenario sort of human, you can see the fact that cannabis has medical purposes today. A randomized placebo-controlled trial was conducted at San Francisco General Hospital (with) nine doctors and 50 patients involved. Patients suffered from HIV-associated neuropathic pain. “The first cannabis cigarette reduced chronic pain by a median of 72 percent versus 15 percent with placebo. No adverse events reported.” Throughout length of trial “pain was reduced by 34 percent.” Conclusion: “Smoked cannabis was well tolerated and effectively relieved chronic neuropathic pain from HIV-associated sensory neuropathy. The findings are comparable to oral drugs used for chronic neuropathic pain.” If comparable to pain pills, should not the doctor and the patient decide whether or not cannabis is the better medicine for them? Doctors and patients should not have to fear imprisonment or the horrible side effects of pain medications, especially when there is scientific facts that favor cannabis’s medicinal use. This matter is not about the legalization of drugs. We do not condone the use of drugs without doctor supervision. This is about compassion and understanding of others suffering and knowing cannabis can help them regain their lives and get on with living life to the fullest, not suffering from unnecessary side effects from pain pills. Cannabis can help America’s health and states’ finances. Contact your senators and representatives. Ask them to support medical cannabis. If you are still against cannabis in our health-care system, ask your doctor what he or she thinks. Maybe hearing the benefits from your doctor would get you to reconsider. Fifteen states have passed legislation in favor of medicinal cannabis. We are well on our way to helping all people understand that cannabis is not the harmful drug Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan demonized. The money generated in connection with medicinal cannabis would supersede their wildest dreams. Think about the possibilities! The state of California collects $8 billion in taxes a year, directly connected to the growth and sales of medicinal cannabis. Think of the benefits to schools or hospitals or infrastructure that state tax money could bring. The outreach of funds from the medical use of cannabis would benefit millions across our great nation. We must change legislation to support better medicine, to support medicinal cannabis. We must change the laws. We must free our countrymen and women from the ill side effects of pain medications. We must give patients and doctors the right to pursue happiness as stated in our Constitution. We must allow patients and doctors to regain the ability to choose the best course of action in medical matters without fear of imprisonment. Cannabis has proven itself time and time again. We have the evidence. Help us help our brothers and sisters, our mothers and fathers, our sons and daughters, our aunts and uncles, our grandmothers and grandfathers and people we don’t even know. This topic does not need you to agree or disagree. This topic needs you to be compassionate and understanding of others. There are people suffering this very second and cannabis can help. Get educated on the facts. CHRISTOPHER DAVID MOORE In 2001 Portugal decriminalized personal possession of all drugs. Opponents predicted a “parade of horrors.” Since 2001 drug usage rates have decreased. Most notable was the large decrease in the 13-19 age group. From 2001-2005 Cannabis usage was the lowest in the E.U. Drug-related disease and mortality ats have also decreased. There is no serious push to reverse policy as by virtually every metric, decriminalization has been a “resounding success.” The American government and media however have ignored this story.
The Cannabis moveent took a significant loss Thursday. Now is the time to stand up and finish what many great man have believed in. Don’t let these people have passed in vein. Let’s finish the movement!
Jack Herer, the father of the cannabis legalization movement for whom a strain of cannabis is named, died Thursday in Eugene, Ore. after suffering a long illness related to a 2009 heart attack. He was 70 years old. Herer was an outspoken and committed activist who dedicated his life to decriminalizing cannabis, even going so far as to run for president twice as a member of the Grassroots Party. He is the author of the books Grass and The Emperor Wears No Clothes; the latter (which is in its 11th printing) is filled with facts about the uses of hemp throughout the past 10,000 years. Herer suffered a debilitating heart attack in 2000 that left him with impaired speech and partial immobility on the right side of his body. He recovered after a treatment regimen that supposedly included psychoactive mushrooms. He suffered another heart attack in September 2009 while backstage at the Hempstalk Festival in Portland and was hospitalized for nearly a month. When he was discharged, the medical facility where he was sent to recover did not allow the medical use of cannabis, so several supporters donated money to allow him to live out his days in a rented home in Eugene. His wife Jeannie was at his side when he passed away yesterday. "I never accepted that he was really going to go," Jeannie Herer told the Oregonian newspaper. "I'm sad that it happened, but I'm glad that it happened in Eugene. Everyone has been wonderful to us here." Cannabis activists around the world reacted to Herer's death, including in Denver where in 1992, Herer brought a group of supporters from California to campaign on behalf of the state's first legalization effort, the Cannabis and Hemp Relegalization Act. The Cannabis Therapy Institute, an advocacy and education organization in Denver, said in a statement that Herer would be "appalled at the bills currently being promoted in Colorado's legislature that seek to restrict patient access to medicine." "Jack worked hard for cannabis freedom and refused to compromise on patient rights," the statement continued. "His dedication to cannabis liberation made him a hero to generations and an inspiration to all who knew him. He will be missed greatly." Funeral arrangements have not been announced. Have you ever wondered why cannabis is/became illegal? Knew why it became illegal but wanted to know how? Maybe you thought you knew the truth about prohibition but didn’t? Well there’s more to it than you may have thought!
In 1930 Harry J. Anslinger recognized the Bureau of Narcotics as an amazing career oppurtunity. After quickly realizing that opiates and cocaine wouldn’t be enough to build his agency he latched on to pushing for marijuana prohibition. Harry immediately drew upon themes of racism and violence to draw national attention to this herb. He also promoted and frequently read from “gore Files” wild reefer-madness-style exploitation tales of ax murderers on marijuana, sex, and Negroes. Here are some quotes that are recognized from anslinger’s “gore files.” “There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.” “Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.” “Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.” “Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing” “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.” “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind” Going back to the quote on pacifism; Isn’t criminality and murder complete opposites of pacifism? Harry loved to pull out his own version of the “assassin” definition: “In the year 1090, there was founded in Persia the religious and military order of the Assassins, whose history is one of cruelty, barbarity, and murder, and for good reason: the members were confirmed users of hashish, or marihuana, and it is from the Arabs’ ‘hashashin’ that we have the English word ‘assassin.’” Anslinger got some additional help from William Randolf Hearst owner of a huge chain of newspapers. Hearst had lots of reasons to help. First, he hated Mexicans. Second, he had invested heavily in the timber industry to support his newspaper chain and didn’t want to see the development of hemp paper in competition. Third, he had lost 800,000 acres of timberland to Pancho Villa, so he hated Mexicans. Fourth, telling lurid lies about Mexicans (and the devil marijuana weed causing violence) sold newspapers, making him rich. Here’s a few samples from the San Francisco Examiner: “Marihuana makes fiends of boys in thirty days — Hashish goads users to bloodlust.” “By the tons it is coming into this country — the deadly, dreadful poison that racks and tears not only the body, but the very heart and soul of every human being who once becomes a slave to it in any of its cruel and devastating forms…. Marihuana is a short cut to the insane asylum. Smoke marihuana cigarettes for a month and what was once your brain will be nothing but a storehouse of horrid specters. Hasheesh makes a murderer who kills for the love of killing out of the mildest mannered man who ever laughed at the idea that any habit could ever get him….” These are from other nationwide columns: “Users of marijuana become STIMULATED as they inhale the drug and are LIKELY TO DO ANYTHING. Most crimes of violence in this section, especially in country districts are laid to users of that drug.” “Was it marijuana, the new Mexican drug, that nerved the murderous arm of Clara Phillips when she hammered out her victim’s life in Los Angeles?… THREE-FOURTHS OF THE CRIMES of violence in this country today are committed by DOPE SLAVES — that is a matter of cold record.” Hearst and Anslinger were then supported by Dupont chemical company and various pharmaceutical companies in the effort to outlaw cannabis. Dupont had patented nylon, and wanted hemp removed as competition. The pharmaceutical companies could neither identify nor standardize cannabis dosages, and besides, with cannabis, folks could grow their own medicine and not have to purchase it from large companies. This set forth the stage for the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, and the future prohibition of marijuana. After two years of secret planning, Anslinger brought his plan to Congress, complete with a scrapbook full of sensational Hearst editorials, stories of ax murderers who had supposedly smoked marijuana, and racial slurs. It was a remarkably short set of hearings. The one fly in Anslinger’s ointment was the appearance by Dr. William C. Woodward, Legislative Council of the American Medical Association. Woodward started by slamming Harry Anslinger and the Bureau of Narcotics for distorting earlier AMA statements that had nothing to do with marijuana and making them appear to be AMA endorsement for Anslinger’s view.vHe also reproached the legislature and the Bureau for using the term marijuana in the legislation and not publicizing it as a bill about cannabis or hemp. At this point, marijuana (or marihuana) was a sensationalist word used to refer to Mexicans smoking a drug and had not been connected in most people’s minds to the existing cannabis/hemp plant. Thus, many who had legitimate reasons to oppose the bill weren’t even aware of it. Woodward went on to state that the AMA was opposed to the legislation and further questioned the approach of the hearings, coming close to outright accusation of misconduct by Anslinger and the committee: “That there is a certain amount of narcotic addiction of an objectionable character no one will deny. The newspapers have called attention to it so prominently that there must be some grounds for [their] statements [even Woodward was partially taken in by Hearst's propaganda]. It has surprised me, however, that the facts on which these statements have been based have not been brought before this committee by competent primary evidence. We are referred to newspaper publications concerning the prevalence of marihuana addiction. We are told that the use of marihuana causes crime. But yet no one has been produced from the Bureau of Prisons to show the number of prisoners who have been found addicted to the marihuana habit. An informed inquiry shows that the Bureau of Prisons has no evidence on that point. You have been told that school children are great users of marihuana cigarettes. No one has been summoned from the Children’s Bureau to show the nature and extent of the habit, among children. Inquiry of the Children’s Bureau shows that they have had no occasion to investigate it and know nothing particularly of it. Inquiry of the Office of Education— and they certainly should know something of the prevalence of the habit among the school children of the country, if there is a prevalent habit— indicates that they have had no occasion to investigate and know nothing of it. Moreover, there is in the Treasury Department itself, the Public Health Service, with its Division of Mental Hygiene. The Division of Mental Hygiene was, in the first place, the Division of Narcotics. It was converted into the Division of Mental Hygiene, I think, about 1930. That particular Bureau has control at the present time of the narcotics farms that were created about 1929 or 1930 and came into operation a few years later. No one has been summoned from that Bureau to give evidence on that point. Informal inquiry by me indicates that they have had no record of any marihuana of Cannabis addicts who have ever been committed to those farms. The bureau of Public Health Service has also a division of pharmacology. If you desire evidence as to the pharmacology of Cannabis, that obviously is the place where you can get direct and primary evidence, rather than the indirect hearsay evidence.” Committee members then proceeded to attack Dr. Woodward, questioning his motives in opposing the legislation. Even the Chairman joined in: The Chairman: If you want to advise us on legislation, you ought to come here with some constructive proposals, rather than criticism, rather than trying to throw obstacles in the way of something that the Federal Government is trying to do. It has not only an unselfish motive in this, but they have a serious responsibility. Dr. Woodward: We cannot understand yet, Mr. Chairman, why this bill should have been prepared in secret for 2 years without any intimation, even, to the profession, that it was being prepared. After some further bantering… The Chairman: I would like to read a quotation from a recent editorial in the Washington Times: The marihuana cigarette is one of the most insidious of all forms of dope, largely because of the failure of the public to understand its fatal qualities. The Nation is almost defenseless against it, having no Federal laws to cope with it and virtually no organized campaign for combating it. The result is tragic. School children are the prey of peddlers who infest school neighborhoods. High school boys and girls buy the destructive weed without knowledge of its capacity of harm, and conscienceless dealers sell it with impunity. This is a national problem, and it must have national attention. The fatal marihuana cigarette must be recognized as a deadly drug, and American children must be protected against it. That is a pretty severe indictment. They say it is a national question and that it requires effective legislation. Of course, in a general way, you have responded to all of these statements; but that indicates very clearly that it is an evil of such magnitude that it is recognized by the press of the country as such. And that was basically it. Yellow journalism won over medical science. The committee passed the legislation on. And on the floor of the house, the entire discussion was: Member from upstate New York: “Mr. Speaker, what is this bill about?” Speaker Rayburn: “I don’t know. It has something to do with a thing called marihuana. I think it’s a narcotic of some kind.” “Mr. Speaker, does the American Medical Association support this bill?” Member on the committee jumps up and says: “Their Doctor Wentworth[sic] came down here. They support this bill 100 percent.” And on the basis of that lie, on August 2, 1937, marijuana became illegal at the federal level. The entire coverage in the New York Times: “President Roosevelt signed today a bill to curb traffic in the narcotic, marihuana, through heavy taxes on transactions.” |
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