Barely legal

How ludicrous is the state's position on cannabis.

The courts, usually so reluctant to punish law breakers, seem to relish making an exception when it comes to little old ladies caught growing the herb for medicinal use. All of a sudden, the Law’s the Law, notwithstanding how happy these bewigged fools are to indulge a real criminal, say someone who had broken into an old woman’s house and beaten and robbed her - that’s all excusable in the eyes of our judiciary, indeed the ‘justice’ minister Ken Clarke would be issuing on-the-spot fines for rape, if he thought he could get away with it, but I digress.

Doctors are moaning because they can't prescribe Sativex, a pharma product derived from the sacred plant, no doubt developed with tax-payer-funded largesse. It sits idle, due to tight-fisted bureaucrats who doubt its efficacy justifies the cost - £77 per week.

I think I see a solution. It’s called freedom. All the government has to do is get out of the way and bin its destructive prohibition of the plant. That will not happen in the short term, because the government is populated by a bunch of gutless hypocrites, who are happy to smirk over their own use of the drug, but won’t dare do anything radical. The problem, or one at least, is these politicians have no principles in the ordinary sense of the word. A principle to them is something to conjure with only when necessary to mislead the public.

Peter Hitchens on drugs

Chance would be a fine thing. If ever a man needed a toke, it would be Peter Hitchens. He bewails the failure of the state to prosecute the war on drugs, but ignores the fact America has aggressively done so, without much success, unless you count the huge number of non-violent so-called criminals now working in the prison industrial complex as success. He dismisses the clear parallels to alcohol prohibition, and he gives the most spurious reasons to support his views, even though they run counter to everything he's ever said to defend traditional English civil liberties.

In his latest missive, he justifies his views by claiming that drugs make people more likely to rob, cause car accidents, under-perform in work etc. So, what? Punish the robber for the act of robbery, punish the drugged up driver for the actual harm they have done and sack the lazy worker. In the first case, he is falling for the exact same bullshit that our tender-hearted judges do, every time a criminal plays the violin about how 'it was the drugs wot made me do it'. The day judges stop treating drug addiction as some kind of mitigation is the day criminals stop claiming addiction as the cause of their wrong-doing.

Hitchens' main error, in my eyes, is that he believes that the state should outlaw immorality. When he says that taking drugs is immoral, he has a point, but it is not for the state to rule on questions of morality, which will always be subjective. The only valid basis for declaring something a crime is that the act aggresses against another person or their property. Taking drugs does not do this. It may indeed harm the body, but that body belongs to the perpetrator. You cannot commit assault against yourself, any more than you can steal from yourself.

The state does not own me. It is none of the state's business what I do to myself. I do not need the state to protect me from myself, and I will not accept its claim to do so as a valid justification for violating my liberty and my property, so bring back some Victorian values and get rid of these ridiculous drug laws.

Cannabis: big pharma gets high

Oh joy. GW Pharma has been given a licence to produce a cannabis-based product. The rest of us can still fuck off, as far as the monopoly-men are concerned, because it's so fucking dangerous.

Fuck off, you cunts. Nobody needs GW fucking Pharma to get the benefits of the mighty herb. All you need is a seed, and a little bit of time. God gave it to us. Got a problem with that? Take it up with Him.

(pic)

One to watch

Following on from 'American Drug War' Kevin Booth's latest documentary focuses on the legal cannabis trade in a number of states, including California, and how the feds continue to violate state sovereignty by sending in the swat teams. Definitely worth checking out.

"Should drugs be legalised? Of course, and as soon as possible"

The Guardian has got together a bunch of 'leading voices' to assert their views on drugs and the law. Here's Philip Pullman talking sense:

"Should drugs be legalised? Of course, and as soon as possible. Every human society we know about has used drugs to dull pain, to bring about sleep, to prolong wakefulness, to increase physical endurance, to induce hallucinations, or just to feel better and promote good fellowship. The war on drugs, so-called, is a policy of utter and unforgivable folly; you might as well make war on human nature.

Legalising drugs would have three huge and immediate benefits: it would cut the link between drugs and crime, and empty the prisons; it would ensure that supplies were pure and reliable and not cut with chalk or worse; and it would provide a vast new source of tax for the Treasury. No one was a bigger fan of Prohibition than Al Capone."

Willy Nelson on hemp

Quotes from the 'father of the war on drugs'

After watching Barry Cooper's speech (below), I googled Harry J. Anslinger to find the quote Barry cites. Judge for yourself; if the reasoning of Anslinger is questionable (not to say racist and contradictory), then the policy based on the reasoning is likewise questionable.

From Drug War Rant's article entitled 'why is marijuana illegal?'

"Anslinger was an extremely ambitious man, and he recognized the Bureau of Narcotics as an amazing career opportunity -- a new government agency with the opportunity to define both the problem and the solution. He immediately realized that opiates and cocaine wouldn't be enough to help build his agency, so he latched on to marijuana and started to work on making it illegal at the federal level.

Anslinger immediately drew upon the themes of racism and violence to draw national attention to the problem he wanted to create. He also promoted and frequently read from "Gore Files" -- wild reefer-madness-style exploitation tales of ax murderers on marijuana and sex and... Negroes. Here are some quotes that have been widely attributed to Anslinger and his 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."

A sinner repenteth

Via the peerless Alex Jones Radio Show, I come across Barry Cooper, ex-cop, now campaigner against America's unconscionable drug laws and producer of the documentary series 'Never get busted again'.

Here's an excerpt from a speech he gave at the University of North Texas:



Here's an excerpt from 'Never get raided':

Beverley Lunt: Judge or rhyming slang?

The laws against cannabis are an abomination, an insult to God the Creator who gave us this incredible plant. It can be used to make cloth, paper, plastics, biofuel and many other things. It is an incredibly rich source of protein and a medicine with thousands of uses. On top of all this, you can smoke it and get high. Little wonder that the corporations conspired to destroy its cultivation in the 1930s.

Up in Burnley, one old man is facing jail for doing his Christian duty and helping his neighbours, by delivering a bit of the beneficial herb along with the daily milk to alleviate their aches and pains, and the so-called judge Beverley Lunt has warned him to expect an immediate custodial sentence - notwithstanding the fact that he has done absolutely nothing wrong.

Perhaps this so-called judge is a hard-liner who routinely dishes out harsh sentences... or perhaps not.

So, in summary: arsonists - slap on the wrist; attempted murderers - slap on the wrist; knife-wielding muggers - slap on the wrist; old geezers who bring a little herbal medicine to those in need - lock 'em up, throw away the key.

My only criticism of the guy is that he pleaded guilty, when he should have taken his chances with a jury. There's no way I'd ever give a guilty verdict in such a case, and I'm sure I'm not alone. Mind you, these days, now that fascist labour has abolished the rule against double jeopardy, there's no guarantee the authorities wouldn't drag the poor man back into court until they got the verdict they wanted.

(Hat tip: Looking for a voice)
(Pic: Woodcut of Hemp or Cannabis sativa as illustrated in the herbal Kreuterbuch of Leonard Fuchs. 1543)

Sunday sermon from Rev. Biafra

Wise words from Jello Biafra, highlighting the insanity of hemp prohition.

(Part 2 here) (Here are some of the many products that can be made from the miracle plant)

Reefer Madness, indeed

'This is so well known to every good housewife in the country, that I shall not need to write any description of it.'

So wrote Nicholas Culpepper in his famous encyclopaedia of English herbs, published in 1653, going on to list some of the many medicinal uses of cannabis sativa, commonly known as hemp, arguably the most useful plant known to man. This gift from God can be used to make paper, textiles, fuel, provides medicine, is a great source of protein, and on top of all that, you can smoke it and get high!

It can produce four times as much paper from the same amount of land than can be produced from wood. You want to save the forests? Grow hemp.

The hemp fabric is far stronger than cotton and requires nothing like the amount of pesticides that cotton needs. You want to stop poisoning the ground water? Grow hemp.

Hemp can be converted into ethanol fuel, having a high cellulose content. You want to reduce pollution and reliance on the oil industry? Grow hemp.

At this point, one may begin to wonder why on earth such a manifestly beneficient plant was not more widely cultivated. The answer is of course, as with so much in this world, the evil in men's hearts. Some may believe that hemp was the unintended victim of the criminalisation of marihuana in the USA in 1937. In fact, conversely, marihuana (a Mexican term for hemp) was demonised and then banned IN ORDER TO DESTROY THE HEMP INDUSTRY, to the great benefit of William Randolf Hearst's business interests and those of the du Pont chemical company.



Once the USA had entered WWII, the ban became prohibitively counter-productive, and the government launched a campaign to get farmers to grow hemp for the war effort, hence the film 'Hemp for Victory.'



Once the war was over the plant was again quietly banned, to the relief of a small band of greedy plutocrats, and the great detriment of mankind.