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If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may your chains set lightly upon you. May posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. Samuel Adams * LIBERTY (557) *Where the spirit of the Lord is – there is liberty. 2 Cor. 3:17 (1750) *Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof. Lev. 25:10 (1779) (Motto of the Liberty Bell) *Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few. It is the universal right of all God’s children. Reagan (2332) *LIBERTYDOLLARBILL (2816) (www.librtydollarbill.org) In December 1997, an ingenious teacher and his students at Liberty Middle School in Virginia, came up with the idea of putting an abridged U. S. Constitution on the back of our one dollar bill. They realized that with seven billion one-dollar bills changing hands every day around the world with our Constitution on them, the people of the world will know why Americans are free. The people of the world will also know why American soldiers go to foreign countries to fight. These Virginians wrote up a Congressional Bill to accomplish this, and have been working for its passage ever since. This Bill, called “The Liberty Bill Act,” is S.244 and H.R.1785, so tell your Congressfolks that you support its passage. Check out their website. *Can the liberties of a nation be sure when we remove their only firm basis – a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are the gift of God. (1781) (Thomas Jefferson) *Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it almighty God. I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death. (129) (Patrick Henry) *I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice and all. (135) (#129 & #135 are attached into one necklace.) *The people of the world know that in these United States, more liberty hasbeen realized for more people than in any nation or in any other time in history. Pat Robertson (1778) *Freedom and progress are the purpose of art and of all life. Beethoven (1745) *Congress shall make no law abridging the right of the people peaceably to assemble. (2056) (Part of Article 1 of the Bill of Rights) *A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our country was founded. (690) (Abe Lincoln) *LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND HEMP. (2422) First I should explain the difference between marijuana (cannabis indica), and hemp (cannabis sativa). Marijuana is the kind that people use as medicine, and to get stoned. It has a high concentration of the chemical THC. Hemp is the kind that is used for food and industrial purposes. It has little if any THC in it, so you can’t use it to get high. In the olden days, both kinds were called hemp or Indian hemp. Can marijuana (cannabis indica) be used to the point of being detrimental to a person’s mental and physical well being? Yes. Should marijuana be illegal because some people will over-indulge in it? Should cigars, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, alcohol, over-the-counter drugs, prescription drugs, processed sugar, and animal fat be made illegal because some people will over-indulge in them to the point of being detrimental to their mental and physical well being? Is marijuana a gateway drug? Yes – to some people. To other people who use it, they couldn’t care less for hard drugs or alcohol. Did making marijuana illegal keep it off the streets? Gimme a break. Anyone can buy marijuana anywhere in the U.S. at any time of the day or night. Did making marijuana illegal fill the courtrooms and jails with non-violent drug offenders? Definitely. Did making marijuana illegal make millionaires out of gangsters? Yes – same as back in the 1920’s when prohibition made millionaires out of booze runners. Did Americans give up booze because the government told them to? No, but prohibition did make criminals out of millions of Americans who still wanted to drink, and the murder rate did skyrocket because of gang warfare. Prohibition also created gangster empires that are still in existence today. Here in Washington State, if you want to but booze you have to go to a special store that is controlled by the state. Even with all the exorbitant taxes, it works pretty good that way - there’s not a booze runner in sight. Government officials like to say that marijuana is more “dangerous” now than it used to be, because it’s more potent. That’s not true. You can buy marijuana today that is just as worthless as the stuff back in the 60’s, or just as potent as the stuff back in the 60’s. It just depends on how much money you want to spend. Do I have the right to tell my neighbors if they can or cannot get stoned on booze or marijuana? I don’t read that anywhere in our Constitution or Bill of Rights. And it’s their Constitution and Bill of Rights too, you know. As Abe Lincoln said, “A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our country was founded.” During alcohol prohibition many people’s lives were ruined by drinking booze that was contaminated with dangerous chemicals to give it “kick.” During marijuana prohibition many people’s lives are being ruined by using marijuana that is contaminated with pesticides or spiked with hard drugs to give it “kick.” By buying it from the government or growing it yourself, those problems would be gone. Dr. Burke, president of the American Historical Reference Society, and consultant for the Smithsonian Institute says the following early Presidents of the U. S. smoked marijuana: G. Washington, T. Jefferson, J. Madison, J, Monroe, A. Jackson, Z. Taylor, and F. Pierce. And they inhaled. It has come to light that many of our highest (no pun intended) elected officials have smoked marijuana in their past. Are these particular people known to run their lives much more ineptly than their colleagues who never smoked marijuana? No. Would making marijuana legal solve all the drug problems? No, but at least all the marijuana barons and their dealers would have to get real jobs, the police could concentrate on catching real criminals, the jails could be emptied of pot-smokers and be used to hold real criminals, and the workload would be eased considerably for judges and other workers in the judicial system. 743,000 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses in 2000. 88% of them just for possession. How many hundreds of millions of law enforcement tax dollars are wasted trying to punish people who just want to catch a buzz. I should say trying to catch an illegal buzz. Getting drunk is fine. I could think of other things to do with those law enforcement dollars. How about spending it on the 500,000 “pending” rape cases across America? These are cases where the DNA samples of the rapist are sitting on shelves, unprocessed, because it costs $500 each to process them. Many of them have been there for so many years that the case will never be tried. Because of $500. Guess our government thinks it’s more important to get marijuana smokers than rapists. As a commodity, marijuana is more valuable than gold, and it hardly costs anything to grow. Wouldn’t it be something if our government could grow and sell gold? That way the tens of billions of dollars that are spent on marijuana each year would go to our government, and to Americans, instead of going to Columbia, and terrorist drug barons. As Harry J. Anslinger (Assistant Director of alcohol prohibition enforcement) said, “Prohibition, conceived as a moral attempt to improve the American way of life, would ultimately cast the nation into a turmoil. One cannot help but think in retrospect that prohibition, by depriving Americans of their “vices,” only created the avenues through which organized crime got its firm foothold.” Twelve states have stopped arresting people who were caught with marijuana in public. Several states have tried to decriminalize it. The problem is the Federal Government’s intractable policy to override state’s rights. When the American public becomes a little bit more enlightened, maybe we can get 2/3 of the states to pass an amendment to override the Fed’s dictatorial practices concerning cannabis. Who are the ones that oppose legalizing marijuana and hemp? People who are intolerant of a different lifestyle, well intentioned but misinformed busy-bodies, “anti-drug” government bureaucrats with multi-billion dollar budgets, law enforcement departments that make millions of dollars by confiscating private property and then selling it and keeping the proceeds, powerful self-seeking lobbies, drug barons along with their wealthy bankers on Wall Street, and street gangs. Another group are the ones who will sit there with a beer in their hand, and say that using marijuana is wrong because it will make you high, or the ones who will sit there with a cigarettes in their mouth, and say that smoking marijuana is wrong because it is detrimental to your health. This is called hypocrisy. The word of a hypocrite is not worth the energy it took to speak it. Now back to the “law enforcement departments that make millions,” etc. With the new asset forfeiture laws, your house, car, boat, plane, money, etc., can be confiscated even if you have no criminal record, or have nothing to do with illegal drugs. Sound impossible? To some law enforcement people, to have “no credible evidence” means nothing. “Actually, no property is safe from highhanded asset forfeitures,” says Randy Fitzgerald in the article “Guilty until proven innocent” in Reader’s Digest Magazine, March 2000, pg. 139. “The civil asset forfeitures law contradicts fundamental principles of traditional American jurisprudence” said Democrat Rep. John Conyers, Jr. of Michigan. Republican Rep. Henry Hyde of Illinois proposed a bill to reform these asset forfeiture laws, and it passed 375 to 48. Clinton shot it down. Do I condone recreational use marijuana use? Absolutely not. Smoking marijuana all day, every day, can turn a person into a lethargic, absent-minded dimwit. (Kind of like what happens when a person watches TV all day, every day.) There are much more productive things a person can do with his time. I would like no one to use it, except for medical reasons. Is everyone going to do what I like? No, this is America. As for hemp (cannabis sativa), if you want to smoke it, all you’re going to get is a splitting headache. If it was legalized, some economists say it would be a real kick-in-the-pants for our economy. In the February, 19 38 edition of Popular Mechanics, it was called “the billion-dollar crop.” If it was legalized, it would also help us to live more in concert with our environment. We could stop cutting down forests to make houses and paper. We could produce so much fuel that we could tell O.P.E.C. to go jump in a lake. Hemp could be used to make biodegradable plastics, and as a nutritious food – it’s tops! Literally and figuratively. Read on…. Using hemp for biomass production of methanol would give us 1,000 gallons of fuel per acre. Those people with land could grow their own gas. Wow! Energy independence! And it’s environmentally cleaner than gasoline. What do you think the petroleum lobby would say about that? Hemp paper is so strong it can be recycled seven times and still used. Tree-paper’s limit is three times. Hemp doesn’t need all those smelly chemicals like dioxin, to be processed into paper like tree paper. Ever live next to a paper mill? Hemp paper can last a couple thousand years, unlike acid-based tree paper that turns brittle and falls apart after a few decades. The oldest existing paper, made primarily of hemp, was made in China in the first century before Christ. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States are said to be written on hemp paper. What do you think the tree-paper lobby would have to say about that? Compressed Agricultural Fiberboard (CAF) is made by taking fiber and mixing it with a natural glue and resin. Then add heat and compression. You end up with a product that insulates as well as wood, is immune to termites, and is more resistant to mold and decay than wood. All this without the toxic fumes of petrochemically treated wood. It’s also fire resistant. CAF is only 40% as dense as wood, so it is much lighter, but it is strong enough to be used as primary load bearing materials. It can be pre-formed to make building a house much quicker and with less waste. So what were we cutting down the old-growth forests for? I forgot. What do you think the lumber lobby would have to say about that? Hemp produces two or three times as much fiber as cotton or flax, and is stronger, more durable, and more absorbent than cotton. In the early years of our nation, hemp cloth was used to make uniforms for our troops, and to make American flags. If a careful study is done on the politics surrounding the illegalization of cannabis, it would be discovered that it was King Cotton that played a major roll. What do you think the cotton lobby would have to say about that? Petrochemical synthetic cloth fibers can cause allergies and are non-biodegradable. Hemp cellulose can duplicate the positive aspects of petrochemical synthetic cloth fibers, and has many additional benefits as well. What do you think the petrochemical synthetic cloth fiber lobby would have to say about that? Hemp cellulose can be used to produce all kinds of plastics. It can be made into “hempefoam” so that we could do away with non-biodegradable Styrofoam. Henry Ford said that he could “grow automobiles from the soil.” His company had perfected a plastic car body made of hemp, wheat straw and sisal, with a resin binder. The panels could take blows ten times more violent than steel panels – and not dent. His plastic car was only 2/3 the weight of a steel car. His dream was thwarted by hemp prohibition. What do you think the steel and petro-plastic lobbies had to say about that? Hemp is two to three times as strong as, more pliable than, and more rugged than tropical hard fibers. Hemp is also unaffected by salt water. Hemp can withstand many other elements of nature that destroy tropical hard fibers. A cargo of hemp was found in the Mediterranean Sea that had been there since 300 years before Christ. I doubt if there is a tropical hard fiber lobby. A company in France uses hemp to make a substance called Isochanvre, which is an organic concrete. It weighs only 1/7 as much as cement concrete, and is more flexible. It is fire-proof, wind resistant, and insulates against heat, cold, noise, and water. Hemp is also made into loose-fill insulation. Any comments from the cement lobby? Hemp seed takes up about half the weight of a mature hemp plant, and has no detectable levels of THC. The oil in hempseed is used as fuel oil, machinery oil, paint, varnish, lacquer, cooking oil, cosmetics, soap, shampoo, skin cream and moisturizer, and ointments. Hemp seed is eaten as seed sprouts (like alfalfa or bean sprouts), or can be ground into meal. It is made into milk (like soymilk), tofu-styled curd, or texturized and spiced to taste like chicken, beef, or pork. It is made into hemp butter, which is much more nutritious than peanut butter. Hemp seeds can be roasted and seasoned like cashews. Hempseed oil is used like any other vegetable oil, and is used on salads, baked tubers, and baked vegetables. Hemp seeds are 25% protein. It is more digestible than soy protein so it can be used to feed infants and sick people. Hempseed oil is the highest of any plant is essential fatty acids at 80 – 81% total volume (51 – 62% omega 6, and 19 – 25% omega 3). These fatty acids do not raise bad cholesterol levels, but help keep arteries clear. They also guard against viral and other infections. “Essential fatty acids are responsible for our immune response,” says Dr. R. Lee Hamilton. Hemp seed protein is 65% globular edestin, which helps build gamma globular antibodies. They are the body’s first line of defense. “No other plant has the oils essential to life in as perfect a ration for human health and vitality,” says Lynn Osburn in “Hempseed: the most nutritionally complete food in the world.” Queen Victoria’s personal physician, Sir John Russell Reynolds said, “When pure and administered carefully, it [cannabis] is one of the most valuable medicines we possess.” The Encyclopedia of Psychactive Drugs – Volume Drugs and Sports says that as far back as 2737 B.C., cannabis was used as medicine in China. Discover magazine (Nov. ’99, pg 36) has an article about why schizophrenics use marijuana more than the general population. Our brain produces a chemical called anandamide, which is similar to THC. This chemical helps to counter the effects of overproduction of dopamine. Too much dopamine will interfere with the transmission of nerve impulses, and will cause psychotic symptoms. Scientists are looking for a way to build up the body’s own level of anandamide to help control brain disorders that are caused by too much dopamine, such as autism, Tourette’s syndrome and Huntington’s disease. Over the years cannabis has been used as an appetite stimulant, anti-convulsant, cough suppressant (You don’t have to smoke it – you can put it in food, or drink it by tea or by tincture.), ointments for burns and abrasions, and poultices for rheumatism and arthritis. It has been used to treat nausea (chemotherapy, motion sickness, migraine), insomnia, neuralgia, high blood pressure, glaucoma, and to ease muscle spasms. It has also been used to treat the withdrawal symptoms of alcohol and morphine. A recent medical study, which opposes legalization, says marijuana is no better at controlling pain than Codeine. Next question – can Joe Blow grow Codeine? What do you think the pharmaceutical lobby has to say about that? Hemp seed is used as an excellent fish bait and a highly nutritious bird food. It is fed to chickens to increase egg production. Hemp seed was such an important food for song birds that its eradication has been said to be a key factor in lowering song bird populations. Expressed hemp seed (seeds with the oil squeezed out) is fed to livestock as a nutritious staple. When the colonies first got started on this continent, hemp was such a valuable commodity that every household was required to grow it. Hemp was such a valuable commodity during World War 2 that our government lifted the ban on hemp and authorized nearly a million acres to be planted. Even the 4-H was urged to help out in this “Hemp for Victory’ campaign. Thomas Jefferson said in a letter to George Fleming in 1815, “Hemp…is abundantly productive and will grow forever in the same spot.” If this information is an new and unbelievable to you as it was for me, then I suggest you research it for yourself. These few pages are just the tip of the iceberg. A couple books I would recommend are: Hemp – Lifeline to the Future, 1994, by Chris Conrad, The Great Hemp Book, 1996, by Rowan Robinson, and Emperor Wears No Clothes, 1985, by Jack Herer. If you can find a set of encyclopedias from a hundred years ago, find out what it says about hemp. Since hemp is politically incorrect these days, almost everything about it has been deleted from modern literature. I think hemp is one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind. It is an absurdity and a travesty that Americans should have to import it to make use of it. As George Washington said in a note to his gardener in 1794, “Make the most you can of the Indian hemp seed and sow it everywhere.” If George Washington were alive today, police could bust down his front door, hold him and Martha at gunpoint (handcuffed on the floor), throw them into prison, confiscate Mt Vernon (and sell it and keep the money), and farm out their children to foster homes. Think about it. *JUST SAY NO. (2423) (First Lady Nancy Reagan’s advice to children who are being tempted with drugs.) *JUST SAY KNOW. (2424) ( New Mexico’s Governor Gary Johnson’s advice to people who would like to know the difference between the truths and the myths concerning drug use, drug abuse, and the “war on drugs.”) *When the people fear the government there is tyranny. When the government fears the people there is liberty. S. Adams (2079) *Those who would trade liberty for temporary security deserve neither. Franklin (84) *I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations. (1782) (James Madison) * Liberty must be limited in order to be enjoyed. Burke (1858) (Edmund Burke) *When neither their property nor their honor is touched, the majority of men live content. (2320) (Nicolo Machiavelli) *My definition of a free society is a society where it is safe to be unpopular. (2490) (Adlai Stevenson) *Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. Ronald Reagan (2233) |