Bringing you the stories of smokers and smugglers.

Growin' Our Own (page 5)

Marijuana. Why is it a Prohibited Drug?

By: Panama Red

This article explores the reality of the War on Drugs, marijuana prohibition and its damage to society. The prohibition based on our health and safety takes away constitutional rights and the privacy of millions of Americans. The War on Drugs is a failure as it has not stopped drugs coming from into our country. As for marijuana, people will always smoke dope for recreation and medical reasons. The failure of congress to reclassify marijuana from a Class 1 drug and into a less restrictive class has enabled law enforcement to harass millions of pot smokers. This issue is about government control and our freedom of choice. The feds praise themselves every time they get a load of marijuana, but the reality is, millions of pounds are never confiscated and it all gets smoked. US homegrown is taking a strong position in this marijuana market. What you do (non-violently) in the privacy of your home should be your own business and not the business of law enforcement. The cops shouldn't get a tip and bust down your door. The US should have learned that prohibition of booze can't be legislated, and neither can prohibition of pot. We must distinguish pot as a "soft" drug, not to be confused with other "hard" drugs. Marijuana is claimed as a gateway drug, or a drug that leads to other hard drugs. This claim is due to its classification with harder drugs, and not to practice. If pot were legal, there would be no reason to buy it as you could easily grow it. Drug Lords and smugglers would make no profits off marijuana if it was legal to grow. In our conclusion we compare marijuana [joints] to legal "killer" cigarettes and explain that the prohibition is strictly due to taxes and court fines. Marijuana, outlawed under the guise of our heath and safety, is no comparison to killer cigarettes, which are totally legal. Does this health and safety reason hold any water? No, and it's not all about smoke.

What's wrong with the marijuana prohibition picture?

A plant called cannabis, marijuana and by other names, is a common weed. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to grow marijuana. Marijuana, if left alone, grows wild. It's an annual seed producer. After producing its seeds for the next year, it dies out every year. If you ever go to Iowa, Missouri and other mid-western states, you will probably see marijuana "hemp" growing along the gravel country roads, under mailboxes, and along creeks. We've seen it. All this weed was grown during WWII when the Japanese invaded the Philippines and cut off the US hemp supply. Our farmers came to the rescue and grew hemp at the request of our government. Ropes and other products were made from hemp for the war effort. My great uncles grew hemp on the old Missouri farm. Hemp helped win that war and now there's a war against hemp. This sounds like a typical government maneuver. Our government used hemp and then it outlawed hemp. Hemp from old WWII days is no longer farmed, it has given way to soybean and other cash crops as due to the laws, there's no market for hemp in the US. But the plant can't be killed off either. For 60 years hemp has survived on it's own. We don't recommend smoking this low THC marijuana but it has picture taking value. In a few months Bud Life will have a photo shoot of wild hemp growing on the old family farm. Back in Missouri nobody bothers to pick the stuff and sell it, as it's just accepted like any other weed. Wildwood weed is what they call it.

1,000 years of Marijuana

The Native Indians of North and South America, the Chinese, eastern Indians, and middle eastern cultures all used marijuana for over a thousand years. Shiva the Indian god with 6 arms and hands was believed to drink a liquid potion from hemp and dance his ass off. This plant produced fiber for ropes, clothes, shelters, and oil for cooking. The buds and leaves produced tea, and other types of oils and pitch. These were used in making butter, smoking for relaxation and religious experiences.

A Plant with so many uses should be exploited for those uses, not suppressed and eradicated

If George Washington Carver had studied the hemp plant instead of the peanut, we would have hundreds of other known uses. This might be a science fiction story for somebody to pursue, i.e., "Carver takes on Hemp." In fact, we encourage you to send Bud Life all the uses for hemp and we'll compile them like our dictionary. In recent times hemp was still used in paper making, rope, and clothing. Seeds for bird feed. Do you ever see any birds flying high? It is reported that fuel for powering combustion engines has been distilled from this plant. Hemp is grown on farms in Canada for bird seed and other uses. Experimentation using hemp as car parts (fenders, etc.) has been done in other countries. As you can see, this plant has many legitimate uses despite its outlawed religious  and recreational uses. So why is hemp unlawful in the U.S. to possess and experiment? Hemp is only a wild plant.

Marijuana Suppression by Congress - 1937

You already know that this plant is subject to extinction by order of congress. Why does this

versatile plant deserve the status of "Public Enemy Number One"?  This is true even though Osama Bin Laden is at large. We are treated like children and the plant is kept from our research and curiosity. Become curious and go to jail. Common sense dictates that people in a free capitalist country would want to experiment with all the possible uses for this plant. However even the hemp plant, with little or no THC, can't be experimented with. Try to get a permit. In California there has been a bill pending to allow hemp farming and experimentation at Davis University. This bill has gone nowhere. What is it about hemp/marijuana that scares congress? Why won't it take another look at hemp and marijuana, which has a higher THC content? Recently congress (to snub France over its rejection of the war in Iraq) was able to change its menu from french fries to "freedom" fries. However congress can't come to change its 66 year old restrictions on marijuana. This accounts for the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act and the 1971 CSA, classifying marijuana as a dangerous Class 1 drug along with heroin.

Let's take a history tour. It took a constitutional amendment to outlaw booze, and one to repeal the failed amendment. It was repealed as congress determined morality cannot be regulated. This should be a precedent for marijuana. For marijuana prohibition, it only took a health and safety bill. It was outlawed for our health and safety because we don't know how to decide for ourselves. Now let's follow the money and taxation trail. If you look at the IRS Code, marijuana isn't even listed. With marijuana outlawed killer cigarettes with addictive nicotine became the only legal smoke. Imagine for a moment: cigarettes are known to kill, but because they produce a tax and government revenue they're legal. Why wouldn't congress outlaw killer cigarettes under health and safety?  Big taxes and corporation political donations of course. With cannabis prohibition, cigarette and pharmaceutical companies didn't have any competition from the previously legal medication. Prior to 1937 you could buy pot and its derivatives in drugstores. Lumber companies didn't have to worry about an alternate source of paper and secured their position as primary producer for the paper industry. These industries and their retail sales all generate tax while the free growing weed marijuana does not.

Did you ever wonder "who" requires us to use so much paper? It's the government of course. Paper for keeping our tax records. Paper for our court filings. Paper to keep track of us. Paper for our mail, etc. Computers have not yet replaced paper, and they won't until a tax is in place. Paper is taxed and it will remain our predominant medium until the internet gets taxed. Hey, how do you tax a marijuana smoker who grows his own? How do you tax one who picks his crop along a creek? You can't tax this person. If such a tax were attempted it would be like taxing you for pulling weeds out of your garden. Supporting taxes is the main reason why marijuana is outlawed.

We're surprised that no Boston Tea Party supporting marijuana hasn't been reenacted.  

The blanket prohibition of marijuana and its experimentation must be questioned. Could hemp help save our forests? Could hemp become our main renewable source of paper. How many old trees could this alternate source of paper save every year? What about cattle feed? Could acres of 8 to 12 foot tall hemp produce more feed than hay? Would cattle and sheep fatten up without hormones if hemp was their feed? In this country we'll never find out as congress won't allow any research into these areas. Don't you think we should be researching this renewable resource?

Marijuana Prohibition gives Law Enforcement an Excuse to Intrude into Your Private Life

If you're holding some pot, you can be cited or arrested. Either way you join the ranks of citizens

pulled into the court collection [fine] system. It's gonna cost you if you've got a joint. You might

get jail for a joint, or fined for a joint, or your judge might give you both. At the very minimum you'll get hassled, searched, and be paranoid about the cops who are there to serve and protect

you. In the movie "A Night at the Roxbury," a cop gave Will Ferrell a traffic ticket. He said, "I

feel better now that you've served and protected me."  What a display of satire in this scene. Are

we safer when we get tickets and get arrested? Let's say you're parked at a red light at 2 am. No cars are around for a mile. The light won't change and impatiently you decide to run it. In 2 weeks you get a ticket issued from a red light camera. Are you safer now? You're not safer and now you're in the court justice [collection] system. You pay the fine and now you're right with the system.

I'm not a fan of Rev. Jesse Jackson but recently he made a great observation. Jesse said: "Why do we have second rate schools and first class prisons?" Jesse, my answer to you is: "Because we have politicians coming up with more and more idiot laws, requiring fines and jail. If you can't pay the fine you do the time. If you don't go to jail (in lieu of the fine) you'll do [CS] community service. CS is involuntary or slave labor. It's legal because YOU can chose it over jail or paying a fine. This helps the government with the small chores like litter cleanup, mowing lawns, raking leaves, etc. Our government gets your labor for free. Using your free labor our government buildings can look beautiful without having to pay you for the service. Our free labor is just one benefit that government takes from us. It has been said that the purpose of a bureaucracy is to perpetuate itself, and thus its power over us. Since we have cops, all the cops want to keep their jobs and expand their powers. Same with judges and the court collection agency system. Same with politicians. As they make laws they take away more and more rights and replace them with privileges, licenses, and permits. As our rights evaporate, we get charged more money for these government issued privileges. You pay the government beast for your licenses and permits. If you cut corners (violate the laws) you pay for that too. The pay starts off small but gets bigger every year. Red light tickets were $271 last year and to help the budget deficit, they're $340 this year. Think about all the safety devices we are required to have. For example, a helmet to skateboard or ride a bike. In the 60s we never had any of this. I'm surprised that we survived. When these safety devices are required, the politicians get all the sales tax money for millions of sales. Let's take CA with required safety helmet sales of say 10 million. 10 million helmet sales at $20.00 each, brings in sales tax revenue of $15 million. Get the idea? Unless the state makes some money they'll cop out every time. No money to be made by the state then the area will be left alone. We're herded into spending money for our safety, which is merely bringing in sales taxes. The sales tax money raised will be poured down the drain by our politicians. If we don't comply, we get in trouble with the gun toting, revenue agent cops. Then we're forced into court and into paying money by some judge's order. This is the reality of government and its relation to us. We're the mark and they are always trying to come up with schemes to fine us. People as revenue producers is our government's ONLY goal for us. If money comes to government from a bill, the bill will pass. We're the slaves providing the "Roman Empire" its power via money. The revenue increases the size of the beast and its hold over us. Some day it will stop. Since we are in a depression (people with no jobs or money) it may stop very soon. However the beast understands our plight, and for another fee, accepts payments for our transgressions. Even GOD forgives us of our sins with no payment. Whereas the government is an unforgiving beast (unless we pay) who is consistently on our backs.

Marijuana and the Money Sucking Beast

Marijuana became the vice sought after by law enforcement ONLY after liquor prohibition ended. Those alcohol cops needed something else to do after prohibition ended. If they hadn't found another enemy in marijuana they would have been clean out of jobs. Congress helped them with marijuana prohibition. With about 800,000 arrests every year this has become a lucrative source of court fines. Think about it. You score some weed and are driving home to smoke it. You get stopped and some drug dog goes wild. Your car gets searched and you get arrested for drug possession and transporting a drug in interstate commerce. You were on a road, right, so you were involved in interstate commerce. The feds control interstate commerce. Nobody got killed, and no accident happened.  Who was injured by the passive crime in this scenario? Nobody was injured in your brush with the law. No cop was injured, you had no auto accident, so it must be you who was injured. You got arrested, went to jail, hired an attorney, went to court, and went to drug rehab, all for a victimless crime. You paid to get your car out of impound too. You had to pay between $2,500 - $5,000 for your bad luck. What was the worse offense, you driving sober and holding, or what happened to you? Jail for a joint does not equal the crime. Don't forget that you're now a certified criminal, branded as some druggie. If you're on formal probation you don't have any rights, and are subject to search without a warrant. While on probation you can't have a beer in your refrigerator. The time and fine don't fit the alleged marijuana crime.

So in conclusion, what the brainwashing of America about weed has done is criminal. What has the prohibition done? It's made a whole new class of new criminals. Peace loving people who want their privacy are made into criminals for choosing to smoke marijuana. Marijuana smokers are victimless crime criminals. This was all done under the guise of our heath and safety, while killer cigarettes thrive in stores. Nicotine is a more dangerous drug and is addictive. Cigarettes kill, but you can legally buy them. Can you ever see politicians outlawing the tax producing, killer cigarettes? It won't happen and nobody will go to jail for possession of a cigarette. Put it in the proper perspective. Remember that congress too has found no medical benefit in cigarettes, but it's not a class 1 drug. What are these jerks doing to us? Judge for yourself that there is no equality in these laws. It's all about taxes and getting you into court so you can pay a fine to support the beast.