I don’t normally like to get off topic on the site, but as we close in on the tenth anniversary of the WTC attacks I’d like to stop and remember those who lost their lives that dreadful day! Please join me in a moment of silence before we move on to the hard facts! 09/11/2001 never forgotten!

9/11 is a topic that is normally frowned upon by others who have never done research on the event. When discussing 9/11 to deniers and uninformed people, we must keep things “simple” and “precise” with solid facts that cannot be discredited. The “official story” is the conspiracy theory that does not stand up to scientific scrutiny. A list of 24 HARD FACTS about 9/11 has been comprised that we should mainly focus on to generate awareness and acceptance.  

1) Nano-thermite found at Ground Zero. Peer reviewed at The Open Chemical Physics Journal (Bentham). “Molten Metal,” “Red-Gray Chips”.

2) 1500+ Engineers and Architects support a new investigation. Richard Gage, Founder. “Blueprint for Truth”.

3) The total collapse of WTC 7 in 6.5 seconds. Larry Silverstein “Pull it”. (Look below for WTC 7 Facts)

4) Dick Cheney was in command of NORAD on 9/11 while running war games. “Stand down order”. “Of course the orders still stand, have you heard anything to the contrary?” “Norman Mineta testimony.”

5) 6 out of the 10 Commissioners believe the 9/11 Commission report was “Setup to fail,” “It was a 30 year conspiracy,” “The Whitehouse has played cover up,” “Max Cleland resigned.”

 6) FBI confiscated 84/85 Videos from the Pentagon. “Missouri trial,” “Sheraton Hotel.” Released Pentagon Security Camera in 2006 (FOIA). This camera does not show a 767. “Missing a frame.”

7) Osama Bin Laden is not wanted by the FBI for the 9/11 attacks. “No hard evidence connecting Bin Laden to 9/11.” At least 7 of the 19 listed high-jackers are still alive. CIA trained and funded “Al Qaeda/Taliban” during the Mujahedeen.

8) Firefighters and witness testimony to bombs, explosions, and molten metal in the Towers and Building 7. “Explosions in the lobby and sub levels,” “Like you're in a foundry.” NIST's John Gross denies the existence of Molten Metal.

9) No steel framed high rise building has ever collapsed from fire or structural damage...EVER. 3 fell on September 11th, 2001. “Madrid Building” burned for over 20 hours, and did not collapse.

10) “5 Dancing Israeli's” and “Mossad Truck Bombs.” “We were there to document the event.”

11) On September 10th, 2001. Rumsfeld reported $2.3 TRILLION missing from the Pentagon. “Dov Zakheim” Pentagon Comptroller.

12) 220+ Senior Military, Intelligence Service, Law Enforcement, and Government Officials question the official story. “9/11 Whistleblowers.”

13) Frank De Martini, deceased Manager of the WTC Construction & Project Management, says in documentary before 9/11 that he believes the WTC towers could sustain multiple hits from large jetliners.

14) History of American False Flag attacks. “Operation Northwood’s,””'USS Liberty,” “Gulf of Tonkin.”

15) BBC correspondent Jane Standley reported the collapse of WTC 7 (Soloman Brothers building) 20 minutes before it happened. CNN/FOX as well.

16) “Flight 93” debris was spread out over many miles. “Chris Konicki” “Coroner Wallace Miller.”

17) Bush waited 441 days before starting the 911 Commission. “Jersey Girls.” Bush's first choice to lead the commission was Henry Kissinger.

18) The 911 commission was given extremely limited funds. Only 15 million to investigate the worst attack on American soil, (over 60 Million was spent investigating Clinton's Blowjob).

19) Bush said he watched the first plane crash into the North tower on TV before entering the classroom, and was informed about the second impact while reading “My Pet Goat” to the children.

20) The USA PATRIOT ACT was written before 9/11, and signed into law October 26th, 2001. PNAC needed “a New Pearl Harbor.”

21) Marvin Bush was director of Stratasec (Securacom) which was in charge of security at the WTC, United Airlines and Dulles International Airport. All three were breached on 9/11.

22) "Who killed John O'Neil?" (Former FBI Agent) Was taken off the Osama Bin Laden file and transferred to head the security of the WTC just before 9/11, and replaced Marvin Bush. John O'Neil died in the Towers.

23) Insider trading based upon foreknowledge. “Put Options,” “UA/AA/Raytheon.”

24) Pilots of the 4 planes never squawked the “Highjack codes.” No video footage of 19 high-jackers boarding the 4 planes. Flight Data Recorders were never recovered from Ground Zero.  

WTC 7 (The Smoking Gun) http://rememberbuilding7.org/   Building 7 was a 47-story skyscraper and was part of the World Trade Center complex. Built in 1984, it would have been the tallest high-rise in 33 states in the United States. It collapsed at 5:20 pm on September 11, 2001 in 6.5 Seconds at free fall acceleration. It was not hit by an airplane and suffered minimal damage compared to other buildings much closer to the Twin Towers.  

7 FACTS about Building 7

1) If fire caused Building 7 to collapse, it would be the first ever fire-induced collapse of a steel-frame high-rise.

2) Building 7’s collapse was not mentioned in the 9/11 Commission Report.

3) According to a Zogby poll in 2006, 43% of Americans did not know about Building 7.

4) It took the federal government seven years to conduct an investigation and issue a report for Building 7.

5) 1,500+ architects and engineers have signed a petition calling for a new investigation that would include a full inquiry into the possible use of explosives for the collapse of Building 7.

6) Numerous witnesses say the possibility of demolishing Building 7 was widely discussed by emergency personnel at the scene and advocated by the building’s owner.

7) Building 7 housed several intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and the NYC Office of Emergency Management’s Emergency Operations Center, more commonly known as “Giuliani’s Bunker.”

Simple Facts of Temperatures: 1535ºC (2795ºF) - melting point of iron ~1510ºC (2750ºF) - melting point of typical structural steel ~825ºC (1517ºF) - maximum temperature of hydrocarbon fires burning in the atmosphere without pressurization or pre-heating (premixed fuel and air - blue flame) Diffuse flames burn far cooler. Oxygen-starved diffuse flames are cooler yet.

If we all follow these HARD FACTS, we can't go wrong. It's when people start speculating and creating new theories is when we run into problems and discredit the truth movement. Many of these facts can all be found by reliable sources and mainstream outlets by online searches of the “key words” followed by 9/11. STICK WITH THE FACTS AND KEEP THINGS SIMPLE! People don't believe because people don't know! Print this page and send it out to everyone you know. 9/11 Truth Now!  

     Something remarkable happened in Mexico last week; tens of thousands of Mexicans gathered in the main squares of cities across the country to demand an end to the "war on drugs".
     In the Zocalo, in the heart of Mexico City, they chanted "no more blood" and many called for the resignation of President Felipe Calderon, who began the war by using the army against the drug cartels in late 2006.
     Some 35,000 people in Mexico have been killed in drug-related violence since then. Even as the crowds chanted, news came in of another 59 bodies discovered in mass graves in Tamaulipas state.
     In the words of poet-journalist Javier Sicilia, who inspired the demonstrations after his own son was killed last week, the war is "tearing apart the fabric of the nation".
     But what does he know? In fact, the United States and Mexico claim to be on the brink of winning the war on drugs.
     At an international conference in Cancun Michele Leonhart, head of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, said "It may seem contradictory, but the unfortunate level of violence is a sign of success in the fight against drugs."
     She presumably means that all the Mexican drug-traffickers will be dead soon and that nobody else will be tempted by the easy money to take the place of those who are killed. Americans will then stop using drugs because they simply aren't available, or at worst they will be so scarce and expensive that only the very rich can afford them. And we'll all live happily ever after (except the very rich, of course).
     There’s a small problem with this theory. Drugs in the United States have become cheaper, stronger, and more easily available over the past 40 years; despite annual claims by the DEA that victory is at hand. To go on doing the same thing every year for 40 years, while expecting that next time will have a different outcome, is sometimes seen as evidence of insanity. We shouldn't be judgmental though.
     We could try to be rational for a minute. Former Mexican president Vicente Fox has been doing well on the rationality front recently.
     Last August he wrote in his blog: "We should consider legalizing the production, sale, and distribution of drugs. Legalization does not mean that drugs are good. But we have to see it as a strategy to weaken and break the economic system that allows cartels to make huge profits, which in turn increases their power and capacity to corrupt."
     This would mean that Mexican drug-users could get any drugs they want, of course. Just like now. The only differences would be that the drugs, being state-regulated and taxed, might cost slightly more and there would be fewer deaths from impurities and overdoses. It wouldn't actually break the power of the cartels as long as drugs remain illegal in the huge American market.
     Former Colombian president Cesar Gaviria addressed this issue head-on in a recent interview with Time magazine: "US drug policy has failed. So please, change it. Don't force us to sacrifice thousands of lives for a strategy that doesn't work simply because American politicians lack the courage to change course."
     Well said, but why did these men not act when they had the power? One answer is because they were afraid of the American reaction.
     The United States has repeatedly made it clear that it will inflict grievous economic pain on any Latin American country that defects from its war against drugs. That is becoming an empty threat, however, for US economic power is nothing like it used to be, even in Latin America.
     That's partly because of the recent near-collapse of the US economy, but it's also the result of the rapid growth of the Latin American countries. Mexico, for example, is a rising industrial power with tens of millions of educated middle-class people and an economy that's growing at 7 per cent a year.
     It can now say no to Washington without being crushed. It is the American refusal to allow its consumers legal access to the drugs they want that creates the demand and American weapons that arm the Mexican gangs that compete for that market.
     Since no American politician will commit political suicide by advocating gun control or the legalization of drugs, Mexico can only escape its agony by refusing any further co-operation with the US Drug Enforcement Administration.
     Ending the war on drugs in Mexico would not instantly stop the killing, most of which is between cartels competing for control of the routes by which drugs transit Mexico on their way to the United States.
     Just ending the army's involvement would greatly lower the level of violence and legalizing drugs in Mexico would diminish the epidemic of corruption too. You don't need to bribe officials if the drug trade is legal.
     The current wave of demonstrations against the drug war is only a start. The policy won't change as long as Calderon is president as too many people have been killed for him to repudiate it now.
     But by the end of next year he will be gone and his successor, from whichever party, will be free to change the policy. One of these days, Mexico will just say "no".

     (The Missoulian) In a Missoula County courtroom, an eight-woman, four-man jury found Matthew Otto, 27, guilty of a single charge of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs; in this case, 3 grams (well under an ounce) of marijuana. Otto faces a maximum penalty of life in prison and a $50,000 fine.
     Well under an ounce? How about more like a tenth of an ounce! Regardless, Montana Law defines sales or distribution (giving) any amount of cannabis as a felony and allows for a one year to life prison sentence and a $50,000 fine. Otto is lucky he wasn’t within 1,000 feet of a school or an additional three years minimum would be added.
     Otto stood accused of sharing a bowl of his medical cannabis with two friends in a car traveling down Reserve Street, where the trio passed a Missoula County Sheriff’s detective on his way home from work last November.
     This gives reason as to why you shouldn’t smoke in your car, even though we all like to space cruise…
     Both Deputy Missoula County Attorney Andrew Paul and Public Defender Chris Daly questioned potential jurors closely as to their experiences with and attitudes toward marijuana, medical and otherwise. Roughly half the 24 people from whom the eventual jury was chosen raised their hands in response to a question as to whether they’d smoked cannabis. While none had medical cannabis cards, five had family members with “green” cards.
     If that’s going to be a disqualification for jury duty, you’re going to find it increasingly hard to seat juries (as happened in Montana last year).
     Jordan Lambert who was driving the car and Samantha originally told Missoula County Sheriff’s Detective Jon Gunter that they’d gotten the grass from Otto, according to court papers. Wednesday, they testified they didn’t remember who lit the bowl or where the cannabis in it came from.
     Daly repeatedly pointed out that neither of the Lamberts was charged with possessing or distributing marijuana, even though the bowl was shared among the trio.
     “The detective told me if I was honest with him about taking a hit off the pipe, I would not be in trouble,” Jordan Lambert testified.
     Missoula County Sheriff's Detective Jon Gunter testified that as a narcotics investigator, he felt it was more important to hone in on the source of the herb.
     So this terribly dangerous 3g of medical cannabis that Otto distributed to Jordan Lambert wasn’t so dangerous that we needed to charge the pot-smoking non-medical-marijuana-patient driving the car; it was “more important to hone in on the” legit medical cannabis patient who was “the source of the herb?” Otto didn’t hold a gun to Lambert’s head and force him to take hits while driving by an off-duty sheriff. Lambert made a choice to endanger other drivers on the road but the police feel the real danger is the patient medicating in the back seat?
     Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Burt, who questioned Otto while Gunter was talking with the Lamberts, videotaped that encounter.
     On the tape, Otto told Burt that he had a medical cannabis card and that he used the herb for back and knee pain.
     “I’ve got all kinds of pain from carrying all this equipment,” Burt replied. “… My point is, you’re doing it for the recreation.”
     How do you know that, Deputy? Living with chronic pain is just that, chronic. It exists at all times. Just because Otto shared a bowl with two healthy people doesn’t mean he wasn’t using medically himself.
     The point, Paul said after the trial, was that Otto’s legal cannabis became illegal the minute he gave it to someone else.
     District Court Judge Dusty Deschamps had reminded jurors as they began 3 1/2 hours of deliberations that marijuana is classified as a dangerous drug and that the amount of cannabis is immaterial.
     Let this be a lesson to all patients out there. That pipe on your lips is medicine. But that pipe on your healthy friend’s lips is transformed into a “dangerous drug” and you are no longer a patient. Here in Oregon, the mere sight of your medicine in public transforms it into a dangerous drug and you into a criminal. You can carry around a pound and a half of usable cannabis, but if anyone can see even a single stem or flake of it, a mere 29 grams of usable cannabis is enough to get you a felony.
     Otto was unwise in sharing his bowl with the driver of a moving car, but that driver deserves more punishment than Otto does, and neither of them deserve anything remotely close to life in prison and a $50,000 fine.
     Another lesson for patients, hire a real lawyer don’t depend on the public defender.

     Meanwhile, the Montana House has passed a bill to increase the penalties for sexual assaults:
     (KAJ18 TV) Currently a person convicted of sexual assault is fined up to $500 and can be imprisoned for up to six months. But under Sen. Taylor Brown’s bill, the penalties double for a second time offender then increase to $10,000 and five years in prison for a third offense.
     “When we look at this bill, we find kind of an inconsistency with a lot of other statutes that we have, drunk driving, partner family member assault, the third offense is a felony and typical sentence is five years, violation orders for protection, stalking has progressively increased penalties, even cruelty to animals has increased penalties,” said Rep. Cary Smith, (R-Billings).
     Got it? If we catch you for the third time sexually assaulting someone, we could put you in prison for five whole years. But if you pass someone a bowl of your medical marijuana, we could put you in prison for life. Because in Montana, people like Missoula County Sheriff’s Detective Jon Gunter and Deputy Missoula County Attorney Andrew Paul have their priorities in order.

     When following the news feeds on cannabis I pass by so many stories of busts and plant eradications because, frankly, they aren’t news. They’re daily occurrences, bothersome, but usually not noteworthy.
     When I came across this headline from The Gothamist, I had to take a look:

“To avoid getting high, pot-busting cops wore protective gear”

     So how much was this huge pot bust worth on the street? According to the DEA the haul of 3 tons of grass from 6,000-7,000 plants (earlier reports of 8,000 were apparently a little, umm, high) is worth about $10 million. This makes it the largest bust of an indoor cannabis-growing operation in New York State history.
     The Sullivan County Sheriff’s office discovered the grow houses after approaching an SUV that reeked of reefer on Tuesday. “These guys stank; it was coming out of their pores,” one investigator said before hammering the point home. “They stunk out loud. They were very pungent.”
     Once the plants were discovered “DEA agents, NYPD cops, and members of the Sullivan County Sheriff’s office wore protective gear to avoid getting contact highs from the veritable forest” according to the Post.
     The notion of the “contact high” is a myth. In order to get “high,” the amount of active THC in your bloodstream has to spike. That THC passes the blood-brain barrier and you experience euphoria.
     Normally, “contact high” is expressed in the context of someone “hot-boxing” a room and a non-smoker inhales enough second-hand cannabis smoke to experience a “high”. This is not possible as the people who ware exhaling that smoke have already absorbed the THC from it within three seconds of inhaling. There is no way to get such a “contact high” unless copious amounts of cannabis are left to burn openly within a small room and people smoking it are so inexperienced they inhale and exhale almost immediately.
     Another context would be the open burning of cannabis, like police burning a pile of pot they seized, again, they’d have to have a lot of it and be standing close to the smoke for any THC to reach their lungs. But this isn’t what these cops were wearing protective gear for; they were just removing live plants from the grow houses. We’re supposed to believe the buds are exhaling THC right in those cops’ faces and getting them high.
     The “pungent stank” you’re experiencing comes from the flavinoids and turpenoids of the cannabis plant. Those don’t get you high. THC is contained in the resinous trichomes of the buds. Wear a pair of gloves. The only reason you put on the full hazmat meth lab protective gear was to propagandize the danger of grow houses to the media.

     According to the story from the New York Post:    

     DEA agents, NYPD cops, and members of the Sullivan County Sheriff’s office wore protective gear to avoid getting contact highs from the veritable forest of 6,300 pot plants with a street value of $20 million taken from the homes.
     The plants would account for the equivalent of 3 million joints, according to DEA spokeswoman Erin McKenzie-Mulvey.

     By my calculations this tells me that a pot plant is worth $3,175 in New York. I wonder how many of the 6,300 plants were seedlings? And now we know that a pot plant will produce over 475 joints each, which means these must be going for about $6.75 apiece.

     It cracks me up whenever the DEA tells us the value of a pot plant as if it would be brought to harvest and sold on the street as joints. We always get these incredibly inflated numbers to scare the public; but when a patient is suing the local sheriff to get his lawful medical plants returned, suddenly those plants aren’t worth $3,175 apiece anymore.

     Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, reported head of the Sinaloa cartel in Mexico, ranked 701st on Forbes' yearly report of the wealthiest men alive, and worth an estimated $1 billion; today officially thanked United States politicians for making sure that drugs remain illegal. According to one of his closest confidants, he said, “I couldn't have gotten so stinking rich without George Bush, George Bush Jr., Ronald Reagan, even El Presidente Obama, none of them have the cajones to stand up to all the big money that wants to keep this stuff illegal. From the bottom of my heart, I want to say, Gracias amigos, I owe my whole empire to you.”
     According to sources in the Mexican government, President Calderon is begging American officials to, in the words of reggae great Peter Tosh, legalize it. “Oh yeah,” said an official close to the Mexican president, “Felipe is going crazy. He's screaming at everybody who comes in, ‘Why don't they make this shit legal already! You're killing me here!’ Look, everyone knows, when you have Prohibition, you create gangsters. And the more you prohibit, the more gangsters you make. El Chapo is hero now to all those slum dogs who want to be millionaires. Kids in the street, when they play games, they all want to be El Chapo, the baddest man in the whole damn town.”
     Meanwhile, many speculate that rich and prominent Mexican families are in cahoots with American businessmen in the alcohol industry, wealthy industrialists who launder the unprecedented profits from the drug business
with their legitimate enterprises, and lawmakers who get gigantic kickbacks and payoffs to make sure that these drugs remain illegal; so they can remain rich, fat and happy. According to sources on both sides of the border, tens of millions of dollars in payoffs and kickbacks are stashed in Swiss banks every year; blood money from the brutal business made possible by a corrupt system supported by laws that don't, and have never worked.   
     Rather than putting El Chapo and his kind out of business by modernizing outdated laws and in the process making billions of dollars from taxing drugs (as is done with cigarettes and alcohol), United States government has spent hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars chasing its tail, and has now offered a $5 million reward for the capture of El Chapo. Many have said that the offer is unofficially: Dead or Alive.
     Meanwhile, as an epidemic of murderous violence rages on the Mexican-US border, and the American government wastes boatloads of badly needed money on the illegal drug business which results from the Prohibition laws, El Chapo is laughing all the way to the bank. “Whoever came up with this whole War on Drugs,” one of his lieutenants reports he said, “I would like to kiss him on the lips and shake his hand and buy him dinner with caviar and champagne. The War on Drugs is the greatest thing that ever happened to me, and the day they decide to end that war, will be a sad one for me and all of my closest friends. And if you don't believe me, ask those guys whose heads showed up in the ice chests.”

     It is sad seeing some “Versativa” reps on video making claims that their company is the “first network marketing company based on hemp products.” You can see on the video that they know they’re lying (especially since these same individuals were part of the hemp network at one time)! Just watch their eyes and body language.
     It is sad to see good people become “MLMers” with no regards to the truth, and become part of the hype machine now that they have a financial interest in the success of their “new” company. If they want to sell a different “deal” more power to them, but having to make false claims as part of their presentation to attract others is very sad indeed.
     Here are the facts...The Natures Ancient Wisdom Product introduced by “The Hemp Network” long before “Versativa” was started has two ingredients 1) Medicinal Mushroom Blend and 2) Hemp Protein. If you look at the top 4 ingredients of the “V” product, based on the percentage of ingredients in the product, you will find 1) Dates, 2) Raisins, 3) Oats 4 Whole Fruit (Cherry, Blueberry, or Raspberry). Where is the Hemp? Oh yeah, coming in at a distant #5 is Hemp Seeds.
     Can you really consider a product with Whole Hemp Seeds as the 5th ingredient in a product more of a “hemp product” than one that includes Hemp Protein (much more potent than raw seeds) as part of an exclusive blend along with a Medicinal Mushroom Blend...Of course not. You can buy a bag of whole hemp seeds for less than $5 a pound! So what does this tell you about those who make such claims (knowing them to be untrue)?
     But hey, they are likely making money selling their bags of oats (another extremely cheap ingredient) and fruit using “The Hemp Network” presentation to others. It appears they will say anything to sell their products.
     What about their product that contains hemp seed extract? Well ask them about the Hemp Protein (non stated) or the Omega content (non stated)...each of which can be found in Hemp Milk and Hemp Oil but for some reason is not present in any measurable amount in their product and you will likely get a blank stare. You can be sure that any ingredient label would include any measurable amount of protein or healthy omega fats on the label if indeed in contained a measurable amount per serving. It does not.
     The fact is there is no measurable amount of any of the known beneficial nutrients found in hemp seeds (omegas/protein) in this product but rather, like their primary product, is made up of a bunch of other perhaps beneficial ingredients but only includes a dash of hemp seed extract to the slightest degree; that way they can make the claim that it contains “hemp” so they can market it as a hemp product...when in fact it is not.
     Clever marketing for sure, but this is not a “hemp product” by any stretch of the imagination. It is important that you understand the facts as it relates to product ingredients should you encounter anyone who may ask you about their products. Just keeping it real! I would not even bother posting this critical review if I there were not “testimonial videos” by some of their reps making inaccurate and misleading claims about being the “first network” marketing company offering hemp based products. 
     I have chosen not to post the entire ingredients lists, but it does validate the fact that there is more hemp in their products name, then in their products.
     As someone who is learning about the nutritional supplement industry, and understands that if a product has any measurable nutritional benefits not only may you be required to include them on your label but you WANT to include them on your label. The label for the most part is the real product presentation...it goes beyond the hype and directly to the substance.
     When a product label boasts having a concentrated hemp seed extract yet has no measurable amount of Omegas or Hemp Protein this tells you that the amount is insignificant. Hemp Milk and Hemp Oil are “concentrated hemp seed extracts”. Each boast real nutritional benefits, the “Versativa” fruit juice products main benefit claim is that it includes a “proprietary blend of peace and happiness!”
     When a product makes a conceptual claim and not a real nutritional benefit claim you know it lacks the latter.
     A single serving of Hemp Oil or Hemp Milk would offer more “hemp” benefits than drinking an entire bottle of the “V” concentrated fruit juice product, and at a fraction of the cost. Note that the entire serving size of the “V” fruit juice is 52mg which is composed of around 10 different concentrates of which the hemp extract is only one...our Hemp Omega
product (which we all know is more fish oil than hemp oil) contains a full 100mg of Hemp Oil (a very dense whole hemp seed extract!)
     So what you have is a concentrated fruit juice with a marginal amount of condensed hemp milk or oil. Again, if the amount was not “marginal” the product would boast either a protein benefit or an omega benefit, but it offers neither. This is not to say that drinking concentrated fruit juices with a little hemp is not good for you, but rather highlights that this product is not a “hemp based” product; rather it is a concentrated fruit juice that happens to contain a little bit of hemp juice.
     It is clear you would get more “hemp benefits” plus other REAL benefits from taking the Hemp Omega supplement which also includes a potent Aloe Extract, 1175mg of Omega 3s, Astaxanthin (one of the most potent antioxidants known to man!) and more; all in measurable and meaningful amounts.
     Likewise, eating a bag of fruit with some hemp seed could indeed taste good and be good for you... but when hemp is listed as the 5th ingredient on a label (ingredients are listed in order of percentage of content) you are not eating “hemp based” product but a “fruit based” product that contains
hemp.
     My beef is not with any product but rather with the hypocrisy of and the misleading claims made by those promoting these products...especially since they claimed that the Medicinal Mushroom and Hemp Protein product we offer was not a “real” hemp product!
     Just as the Hemp Omega product offers more “hemp” benefits than their concentrated fruit juice product, our medicinal mushroom and hemp protein product offers more “hemp” benefits than their fruit snack. Plus...it is my belief that medicinal mushrooms offer a more “unique” and powerful benefit than Dates, Raisins, Oats, Cherries, Blueberries, and Raspberries!
     I can eat a bowl of healthy cereal and get the key ingredients in their fruit snack products. In fact their ingredient list looks like a common list of ingredients from granola bars and cereals. Throw on some hemp seeds and I get the benefits they boast at a fraction of the cost. But an organic medicinal mushroom blend formulated to address specific health objectives is indeed a unique product offering that you cannot easily replace with a bowl of cereal or a granola bar.
     If you are not aware of the benefits of Medicinal Mushrooms you really do need to take a moment to view the following video: http://thehempnetwork.ning.com/video/medicinal-mushrooms-can-save
     Perhaps I am too blame in the sense that I too have fallen for the desire to have more “real” hemp products and not really looking at the current product line for what it is...a quality product line. Of course we will all be very excited as we get more “traditional” hemp products in the portfolio but perhaps we should embrace what we have with the same enthusiasm that the “Versativa” crowd seems to have for their fruit snacks!
     A least we can honestly boast that we are the first network marketing company to offer “hemp based” products, that we are the largest hemp based network marketing company in the world, and that our products really do offer unique benefits that combine hemp with other exciting and unique
ingredients!
     If you want to be a part of this revolution I'll see you at http://www.thehempnetwork.com/hemp4victory

     In the early 1930′s the federal government was faced with the continuous embarrassment of being unable to convict the infamous gangster Al Capone. They turned to the Internal Revenue Service, whose
examination of Al’s tax records, such as they were, was the cause of his
downfall. Now there is the ominous prospect of the federal government doing the same thing to another one of its enemies; the medical cannabis industry.
     According to reports, at least 12 dispensaries are currently under audit by the IRS. Their reasoning is that it is illegal to claim tax deductions for “trafficking” in Schedule I or II drugs (cannabis is Schedule I); and since that is what dispensaries do, their deductions must be illegal. There are currently efforts to change the tax code to accommodate legal medical marijuana in states that have it, but one wonders what the DEA will have to say about that.
     After all, changing the tax code would be another chink in the DEA’s federal armor. Once one federal agency starts making accommodations, it becomes a precedent. On the other hand, does the DEA really want the IRS encroaching on their turf and driving their cash cows out of business? If medical cannabis folds, who will the DEA raid? Who will they target without
the large signs in front of establishments clearly marking them as medical marijuana dispensaries or collectives?
     It will be interesting to watch this play out, and it just goes to show what’s always said at The 420 Times: until marijuana is fully legal on a federal level, no cannabis user will truly be free.

     I've been glued to the internet reports with the unfolding disaster in Japan. 1st an 8.9 magnitude earthquake strikes near the island, then a tremendous tsunami washes ashore leaving an estimated 10,000 dead and thousands more missing. Now the failure of power and back-up cooling units has led to potential meltdowns in the country's nuclear reactors.
     (CleanEnergy.org) As reported in the New York Times: Two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant 170 miles north of Tokyo appear to have suffered partial meltdowns and three reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daini plant are dealing with failures in the cooling system. Releases of volatile radioactive elements have occurred, though the exact amounts are not yet known. Reports have stated that radiation levels have exceeded permissible limits and over 200,000
people living around the two nuclear power plants have been evacuated. There are reports that several plant workers have experienced significant radiation exposure, a confirmation that at least one worker has died and more than 160 people outside of the plant are also contaminated with radioactivity. Radioactive cesium has been measured, a sure sign that the nuclear fuel has been damaged.
     I've been told by friends and family that no matter what the story is I can find a way to connect it to cannabis or hemp. The tie-in between marijuana and Japan can be found in the efforts to clean up the soil following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.
     (McGraw-Hill Higher Education) In 1989, three years after the explosion, the Soviet government asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess the radiological and health situation in the area surrounding the power plant. Among the most significant findings were radioactive emissions and toxic metals--including iodine, cesium-137, strontium, and plutonium--concentrated in the soil, plants, and animals. Such substances are potentially harmful to
human health. For example, although iodine tends to disappear within a few weeks of exposure, it can be inhaled or ingested and then accumulated in the thyroid gland, where it delivers high doses of radiation as it decays. Since 1991, the Canadian Nuclear Association has noted a marked increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in the area surrounding the nuclear accident. Cesium-137, radioactive cesium with a mass number of 137, can enter the food chain and deliver an internal dose of radiation before it is eliminated metabolically.
     Getting those toxic and radioactive elements out of the soil is crucial to restoring the ecosystem after a nuclear disaster. A technique called “phytoremediation” uses certain plants to leech these elements from the soil...guess which one is one of the best at that task? Good old industrial hemp, cannabis' non-drug cousin that our government bans because our police are too uneducated to tell the difference.
     (Hemp.net) In 1998, Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP), PHYTOTECH, and the Ukraine's Institute of Bast Crops began what may be one of the most important projects in history - the planting of industrial hemp for the removal of contaminants in the soil near Chernobyl.
     Phytoremediation can be used to remove radioactive elements from soil and water at former weapons producing facilities. It can also be used to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and toxins leaching from landfills. 
     Plants break down or degrade organic pollutants and stabilize metal contaminants by acting as filters or traps. PHYTOTECH is conducting field trials to improve the phytoextraction of lead, uranium, cesium-137, and strontium-90 from soils and also from water.
     “Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants we have been able to find,” said Slavik Dushenkov, a research scientist with PHYTOTECH. Test results have been promising and CGP, PHYOTECH and the Bast Institute plan full scale trials in the Chernobyl region in the spring of 1999.
     This technique of hemp phytoremediation has applications that extend beyond nuclear accident cleanups. If prohibition on hemp farming was lifted and the industry was allowed to flourish, there could be thousands of new jobs created.
     (Damn Interesting) All in all, the field of phytoextraction seems to be one of the most promising in the efforts to clean up the hundreds of thousands of sites worldwide (30,000 in the US alone, according to the EPA), that require hazardous waste treatment. Even if only modestly successful, the use of plants as contaminant removers could reduce cleanup costs considerably. Even more promising, phytoextraction is only one aspect of the whole field of phytoremediation, in which plants are being used not only to remove toxins, but sometimes to break them down (phytotransformation), enhance microbial activity (phytostimulation), or prevent leaching of contaminants in the first place (phytostabalization).
     In Belarus, site of the original Chernobyl disaster, they are not only using the hemp to clean up the soil, they’re making money on the processing of that hemp into bio-fuel!
     (CannaZine.co.uk) Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said: “We consider ethanol to be one of the
most promising and sustainable sources of cheap and nature-friendly energy, and we have several advantages for its production here.”
     Belarus is probably the only country in Europe with vast territories which can be used for biomass production, the lands affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe 21 years ago.
     The Minister concluded: “The Government of Belarus has declared ethanol a priority topic for energy development, so we are very happy today to see the first steps being taken, in what we are sure will be a successful and large-scale development of ethanol production.”
     Greenfield chairwoman Ann McClain said, “Greenfield's plan to produce bio-ethanol will use land which has been contaminated by radioactive isotopes to cultivate biomass crops for the ethanol distilleries and at the same time, we believe growing the biomass crops will work to clean up the affected areas.”
     Japan allows for the farming of industrial hemp, but acquisition of a license to do so is very limited, thanks to the US Government forcing the occupied Japanese to sign onto a Cannabis Control Law in 1948 which, like US law, confuses cultivators of non-drug hemp with those growing medicinal marijuana and consumer cannabis.
     (JapanHemp.org) However, the cannabis control law was enacted under GHQ under the United States occupation after World War II in 1948. As a result, an annual license from the prefecture governor was needed to grow hemp. It felt that the farmer was the same as making of the cultivation of hemp the narcotic drug because of the licensing system degree. After that, hemp products of the plant origin disappeared one after another by the spread of the life use goods of the oil origin in postwar days. And the number of farmers who grow hemp has decreased gradually.
     The hemp agriculture of Japan was 4049.2 ha the total planted acreage of the fiber harvest and the seed harvest, and a scale of 25,118 people in 1950. However, the planted acreage in 1996 was only 12.4 ha according to Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry today. Of that 12.0 ha was grown in Tochigi Prefecture, some 50 km north of Tokyo.
     There are only 102 hemp farmers now. (From the Ministry of Health and Welfare Pharmaceutical and Medical Safety Bureau Narcotics Division as of January 1, 1999).
     At least Japan does have some hemp farmers and laws that will allow them to get started on hemp phytoremediation as soon as possible. If an American nuclear reactor melted down we'd have to go through all the politics and argument and legislation necessary to repeal a federal prohibition of industrial hemp as a Schedule I drug before we could plant the first non-drug hemp plants to begin saving the land. Over in Oregon as well as few other American states we have already legalized industrial hemp and could begin planting it the minute the federal prohibition is lifted.

     A good indicator of the financial health of a public company is whether the CEO (in the case of Forever Green Ron Williams) is accumulating, holding, or selling the shares in their own company. In the case of Mr. Williams...he is dumping small quantities of the stock every few days (to prevent the collapse in the stock price) and has been doing so for month:

 http://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/own-disp?action=getissuer&CIK=000109...

     Of course, occasional sales are nothing to be concerned about (if you are an investor or a distributor), a large sale now and then to take some money out is routine, but when a CEO is selling every couple days and trying to “get out” of a stock under the radar by making multiple small sales it indicates that they believe the stock is likely going to become worthless as time moves on. If Mr. Williams was a true believer in the “V” product, that it would be a major success, he would not be selling the stock continuously...he would be scooping them up at these discounted prices!
     The fact that he is continuously selling represents that he believes the stock is heading further south. Perhaps trying to get out before the next quarterly statement is seen by the general public.

Join me at http://thehempnetwork.com/hemp4victory

     Have no illusions about the true nature of the so-called "War on Drugs" and the actions of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency). The War on Drugs has always been about protecting the profits of the drug companies, which have a long and well-documented history of copying street drugs, repackaging them as "medications" and selling them to children as FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved drugs. A few examples include Morphine (synthetic opium), Adderall (synthetic speed/meth), and Oxycontin (synthetic heroin).
     Today, yet another example emerges as the DEA moves to legalize THC in Big Pharma's pills while simultaneously making it illegal for anyone else to grow, sell, or possess THC. The DEA, you see, is working to change the classification of THC from a schedule I substance (like street heroin) to a schedule III drug (pharmaceuticals). So if Big Pharma grows its own cannabis plants, extracts the THC and puts it into a "pot pill," those pills will be perfectly legal. They're already FDA approved, actually, when made with the synthetic version of THC.
     But if a guy grows the very same chemical in his backyard, and then extracts THC from those plants (even for his own personal use) suddenly he's guilty of committing a federal crime and will likely become the subject of an armed raid by DEA agents.
     Why would the DEA decide to legalize THC only for pharmaceutical companies? Well, because Big Pharma requested it, of course! The DEA answers to its Pharma slave masters

The DEA commented on this subject:
     “The DEA has received four petitions from companies that have products that are currently the subject of ANDAs (abbreviated new drug applications) under review by the FDA.” While the petitioners cite that their generic products are bioequivalent to Marinol, their products do not meet schedule III current definition provided above. Therefore, these firms have requested that 21 CFR 1308.13(g) (1) be expanded to include naturally derived or synthetically produced Dronabinol. You can read it all on the DEA's own website: http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/f...

The DEA goes on to say:
     “This proposed action expands the schedule III listing to include formulations having naturally-derived dronabinol and products encapsulated in hard gelatin capsules. This would have the effect of transferring the FDA-approved versions of such generic Marinol products from schedule I to schedule III.”
     
     Just so you can make total sense of this, the DEA's loopy logic is that since Marinol is already recognized as a pharmaceutical, the DEA is saying that other generic drugs containing natural THC from marijuana plants can also be recognized as a pharmaceutical. What they fail to recognize is that even the synthetic THC is, of course, based on natural THC grown in cannabis plants!
     Its classic Big Government pseudoscientific quackery: Only “synthetic” chemicals are considered authoritative, even when those synthetics were stolen from nature in the first place.
     So now, thanks to the DEA and its twisted position on THC, your doctor is now your dealer and Big Pharma steps in to take over the manufacturing and distribution of drugs that have traditionally been handled by street criminals and Mexican drug gangs. That's what this was always about of course: Big Pharma taking over the drug trade, and using its own private gang of armed enforcers known as DEA agents to do so.
     It's a lot like Mexico: Armed enforcers, drug profits, turf wars...except in the U.S., its all “legal” under the monopolistic protection of the FDA; Another agency that has always sought to protect Big Pharma's market monopolies.
     What's astonishing about all this is the DEA's insanity in saying that the very same chemical can be legal for corporations to sell you but illegal for you to grow yourself using a natural plant. THC is THC, after all, and if this chemical is so “incredibly dangerous” that the DEA must throw people in prison for daring to grow it, possess it, or sell it; why is it suddenly okay for corporations to do the exact same thing?
     You already know the answer: The DEA's position on cannabis and hemp has always been based on the king of warped logic you only get if you're smoking crack.
     The DEA is the armed enforcement branch of Big Pharma. The real job of the DEA, you see, is not to protect people from dangerous drugs, but rather to protect the profits of Big Pharma by shooting, arresting, or otherwise destroying anything that competes with Big Pharma; This competition namely being the street dealers of cannabis and other drugs.
     It's not the first time the DEA has done this, of course. Drugs that used to be sold on the street as “speed” are now FDA-approved pharmaceutical medications for ADHD, and they're being prescribed to children by the tens of millions!
     Every successful drug operation needs henchmen who run around with guns eliminating the competition. In a drug gang, that used to be the job of “Frankie” back in the Sicilian mob days. But today, with Big Pharma, it's the job of the DEA.
     Hilariously, this announcement by the DEA was posted by their “Office of Diversion Control” (http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/f...). For once, they're honest. It is a diversion: A diversion to prevent people from realizing the truth about the DEA, the “War on Drugs”, and the pharmaceutical industry.
     Because the DEA, of course, is the armed enforcement division of Big Pharma it works hand in hand with the FDA. The FDA legalizes Big Pharma drug dealing, and the DEA targets the competition for elimination. It's a bang-up job; a real one-two punch to protect the world's largest drug dealers of all, the drug companies themselves.
     I wonder how long it will take before a few DEA agents will wake up and realize they are the armed mercenaries; working for their corporate slave masters known as the pharmaceutical companies?
     The real criminals, you see, are not the joint-smoking hippies getting high in their basements but rather the Big Pharma CEOs whose entire careers are dedicated to addicting people to their patented, FDA-approved pharmaceuticals... even when they're the exact same chemicals the DEA claims are “illegal drugs” on the street.