Legalized Medical Marijuana and Shrubs DEA

[FOTD]

Just another component of Big Pharma owning Bushes donkey too. OMG.. we couldnt have natural pain killers to compete with big pharmas killers could we ? The War on Drugs is as bogus as war on teror and poverty in USA AND the War in Iraq. Just another behemoth arm of the gov that feeds off itself.

Legislator asks DEA to explain pot club raids

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/07/MN7C10IO0L.DTL&tsp=1(05-07)

"17:40 PDT WASHINGTON -- A congressional leader, citing complaints from Bay Area mayors and lawmakers, wants the Drug Enforcement Administration to explain its increased use of "paramilitary-style enforcement raids" and property forfeiture orders against medical marijuana patients and suppliers in California.

With drug trafficking and violence from international cartels on the rise, "do you think the DEA's limited resources are best utilized conducting enforcement raids on individuals and their caregivers who are conducting themselves legally under California law?" House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said in a letter to the agency.

He also noted the DEA's recent tactic of sending letters to hundreds of property owners who rent to medical marijuana dispensaries, advising them that they could be prosecuted and lose their property under federal law.

Property forfeitures, Conyers said, have typically been reserved for "the worst drug traffickers and kingpins" and might have the unintended effect of driving medical marijuana distribution underground. Medical marijuana advocacy groups say the letters have led to evictions and closures of dozens of supply shops that had been operating with state and local approval.

The congressman also asked how much the DEA was spending on the raids.

The letter, dated April 29, was addressed to the DEA's acting administrator, Michele Leonhart. Agency spokeswoman Rogene Waite declined to comment on the questions Wednesday, saying only that "the federal government does not recognize medical marijuana. ... The DEA, of course, would be part of the federal government."

Conyers attached a copy of a resolution approved by San Francisco supervisors in February, attacking the DEA for "its irrational policy and hysteria" and calling on the city attorney to support property owners facing prosecution or forfeiture for renting to medical marijuana dispensaries. The Los Angeles City Council also has condemned the federal agency's actions.

Conyers also cited statements by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom and Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums criticizing the DEA, and a resolution introduced by state Sen. Carole Migden, D-San Francisco, urging that Congress pass a law ending federal raids and prosecutions in states that have legalized medical marijuana."


Now I get it! This is the core of the "Compassionate Conservatism," that Bush promised. So, there is no record of anyone ever dying of an overdose of pot. However, Alchohal related deaths are higher than ever, deaths attributed to tobacco are still killing millions, addiction to prescription drugs is rampant, a bumper crop of Heroin in is coming out of US occupied Afghanistan (The Taliban had almost reduced its production to nothing), the cocaine cartels of Central and South America are having bloody shootouts in the streets, but the DEA has to put an end to all of these, mostly older, terminally ill and chronically sick people. I thought the idea of Conservatism meant LESS federal government intrusion in State issues. The Republicans just want to control everyone else's lives so that they don't have to deal with their own misreable, Faux-Christian existance. Take away their alchohal, tobacco, illegal prescription drugs (Rush Slimebaugh), and they will all start committing suicide when the smoke and mirrors. disappear.

[FOTD]

http://www.urbantulsa.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A21209
Bongs, Tommy Chong and Cancer
How the federal government protects Americans from these dangers

BY JAY K. RAMEY

On September 11, 2001, United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into a lonely field in Pennsylvania. I need not explain what else happened that day. The area of Pennsylvania that Flight 93 crashed in fell within the jurisdiction of the United States Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania. Mary Beth Buchanan was confirmed by the United States Senate as the U.S. Attorney for this district just days after the September 11th attacks.

With the threat of homicidal maniacs flying airplanes into office buildings hanging over America, actor and comedian Tommy Chong was awakened at 5:30 am on February 24, 2003 by federal agents pounding on his front door. The agents were clad in their ninja uniforms complete with helmets, flak jackets, automatic weapons, and even helicopters hovering in the air above the house. The ninjas had a search warrant for Mr. Chong's house.

Just 18 months after the September 11th attacks, one must believe that Mr. Chong was a serious danger to the security of the United States. Perhaps he was planning an attack or was financing the terrorists. Mr. Chong's crime?: Selling bongs on the internet! This raid was all a part of Operation Pipe Dreams. This operation was headed by our heroine, Mary Beth Buchanan.

While our country was, and still is, engaged in a war on terror, Mary Beth Buchanan prosecuted 55 individuals during the Operation Pipe Dreams domestic invasion. Eventually, Tommy Chong was sent to a federal prison for 9 months. Convicting Tommy Chong of a felony and locking him up in a prison for 9 months was keeping America safe we were told by Miss Buchanan and the Justice Department. Ironically, Tommy Chong was sentenced on September 11th, two years after the attack on America.

Tommy's company, Chong Glass, was a legitimate small business operating in Southern California. The company paid state and federal taxes and provided employment to several individuals. However, General Buchanan executed her operation against Chong Glass and some other companies using a little known federal law prohibiting selling drug paraphernalia across state lines.

THE PEOPLE in California--as well as several other states--decided by the democratic process that marijuana with a doctor's approval may be used for medical purposes. However, the Imperial Federal Government will have none of this. Medical marijuana dispensaries in California are routinely raided by the ninjas that are clad in black and carrying automatic weapons.

Just an example of one of these raids was conducted on the home of Valerie Corral in the early morning hours of September 5, 2002. Apparently finding Osama Bin Laden and stopping Al-Qaeda was not a priority for the government just one year after the attack on America. Valeria Corral operated the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) in Santa Cruz California. WAMM had been dispensing medical marijuana to seriously ill people (mostly dying cancer and AIDS patients) for 9 years at the time of the raid. About 30 agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration showed up at Mrs. Corral's door. They shoved the 50-year-old-woman to the ground, handcuffed her behind her back, and, after handcuffing her, shoved an automatic weapon barrel into the back of her head. Fortunately, Mrs. Corral has not been sent to prison yet, but many other operators of dispensaries in California have been sentenced to federal prison.

Although none of the medical marijuana raids can be attributed directly to Mary Beth Buchanan, she was up to her antics again in May of 2008. General Buchanan rallied the troops for another operation: Operation True Test. This paramilitary operation headed up by General Buchanan targeted businesses that sell products that mask drug use in urine tests. One of the problems with this "operation" is that legal experts that are more experienced and scholarly than I can find no federal law that make these products illegal.

However, much more alarming than Mary Beth Buchanan heading up an operation to search businesses and seize products that are not prohibited by federal law is the assault on the First Amendment that occurred during these raids. One of the businesses that was raided under Operation True Test was a company called Spectrum Labs. As well as selling urine masking agents, Spectrum Labs also sold DVDs of the movie "a/k/a Tommy Chong." This movie is a documentary about the arrest, conviction and imprisonment of Tommy Chong. Parts of the movie make fun of Mary Beth Buchanan, mostly using her own words, by showing clips of press conferences she gave during Operation Pipe Dreams that show how much of an outrageously silly woman she is. Approximately 10,000 copies this movie were seized during the raid.

Even if the raids conducted pursuant to Operation True Test were actually based on violations of a federal law, what could possibly justify that seizure of a documentary film that was also being sold by the company? So far, Mary Beth Buchanan has declined to comment to the media.

We continually hear stories in the media about how American soldiers are spending more time on repeated combat tours in Iraq than they are in the U.S. Soldiers are also having their enlistments involuntary extended. I served as an infantryman in the United States Army in the 1980's. I support the War on Terror. Even though I am now in my 40's if the federal government called on me to be a soldier again because there are not enough men to fight, I would do it without hesitation. However, I do not think the government needs me. The government should send to Iraq and Afghanistan all of these big, tough guys that throw 50-year-old women that provide medical marijuana to dying patients down to the ground and raid the homes of non-violent people like Tommy Chong while clad as ninjas and displaying automatic weapons. Maybe the resources of the federal government would be better spent in the War on Terror rather than bringing terror to peaceful United States citizens.

Thank you Mary Beth Buchanan and the other agents of our federal government. While American soldiers are being blown up in Iraq and Afghanistan and while Al-Qaeda is undoubtedly planning its next attack on America, you are protecting me from bongs, Tommy Chong and Californian's that distribute marijuana to people that are dying from cancer.

[RecycleMichael]

"The 1960's were when hallucinogenic drugs were really big. And I don't think it's a coincidence that we had the shows then like The Flying Nun."

Ellen DeGeneres

[RecycleMichael]

A hippie was walking down the street one day when a pixie bumped into him. "Today is your lucky day!" said the pixie. "I'm gonna give you two wishes. What will the first one be?" The hippie thinks for a moment and then says, "I want a never-ending joint." So the pixie snaps his fingers and there is this king-sized joint. The hippie jacks it up and starts puffing. After five hits the joint is still the same length. Next the pixie says, "...And number two?" The hippie replies, "This is so cool man! Gimme another one!"

[FOTD]

I gather you don't see this as an issue, RM.

[RecycleMichael]

I was supposed to be outraged that they arrested Tommy Chong?

Yes. He was a bad comedian. Throw the book at him!

[FOTD]

Tell it to Urban Tulsa. Attach your jokes.

[Double A]

The Oklahoma Democratic Party passed a resolution supporting medical marijuana in the party platform at the last convention. An attempt to have it removed from the floor was overwhelmingly defeated by the delegation.

[FOTD]

http://waronyou.com/2008/06/legal-drugs-kill-far-more-than-illegal-florida-says/

Legal Drugs Kill Far More Than Illegal, Florida Says
 
I wonder if the autopsies were performed on the elderly who they over medicate in the nursing home industry...Pot will never make you kill someone, beat someone up, drive and kill someone on the road, and many other destructive things that alcohol does EVERY day! The money spent going after pot users and growers could be better spent on the prosecution of those who sell coke, heroin, speed, the KILLER drugs. Oh, and alcohol and tobacco-they kill more people than ALL illegal drug deaths combined! But this is a stupid, childish, puritanical society and will be so for many more years if the repugs have their way..... The Queen of England used pot to lessen her menstuation symptoms-did she go nuts when smoking pot? NO! The alcohol and tobacco industry lobby intensely to make sure pot is not legalized as it would take away from their business interests-anyone surprised by that?

What the drug war DOES do is create a situation that allows the tight-fisted blackshirts to break down doors, rough, cuff and terrorise people who are most often minding their own business. Not that it is good business mind you....but it certainly is voluntary. There is lots of money in the enforcement side....PLUS, the CIA really needs a market. Google CIA Opium Heroin Cocaine and you will be set with some fireside reading for a good stretch. There cannot be that much smoke without some criminal activity somewhere. Logic demands that the 'Drug Warlords' in foreign countries are dealing with people at a similar level in ours. Once and if the profit and sleeze factor was taken out of the game, a lot less people would be interested in playing it.

[cannon_fodder]

In the same vein, Oklahoma has recently outlawed the Salvia plant.  Not the extract, but the plant.  Chewing or smoking the Salvia plant is extremly weak and nearly impossible to enforce (it looks like about a dozen other plants).  

The extracts have been recently featured on youtube in the 20 to 80 times potency range.  People get high, act like an idiot for 5 or 10 minutes, and then get laughed at.  This is not a high in which the user is capable of driving (or walking for that matter), they can not be violent, nor is it addictive.  Certainly something worth throwing some kid in jail for YEARS as a schedule 1 offender (/sarcasm).

I can not longer buy as much cough medicine or antihistamine that I want.  I have to go to the pharmacy to get a decongestant.  I am ID'd to buy spray paint or bug spray.  Multiple plants are illegal.  But somehow people keep finding new ways of getting high... and they always will.

Why not concentrate on things that are actually a problem?  Addictive, leading to violence, etc.  Our drug policy needs to be seriously re-evaluated.  Just because a substance can be used to get high does not mean it should be illegal.  At least I can still get cheesed.

Pleasure = illegal?

/don't do drugs other than a cigar every now and then and alcohol, haven't since I had a son.  So no self interest here.

[rwarn17588]

Feh. I've never smoked pot, but I'm not going to get on my high horse and advocate keeping the stuff illegal.

Just treat marijuana like booze. Only licensed stores can sell it, tax the hell out of it, keep it out of the workplace, and bust people who are driving under the influence of it. End of story.

[patric]

quote:Originally posted by rwarn17588

Feh. I've never smoked pot, but I'm not going to get on my high horse and advocate keeping the stuff illegal.

Just treat marijuana like booze. Only licensed stores can sell it, tax the hell out of it, keep it out of the workplace, and bust people who are driving under the influence of it. End of story.

+1

Drug interdiction is a muli-billion dollar industry, and has resulted in the type of corruption not seen since Prohibition.  We could put our resources to better use.

[Rico]

Sorry it just seemed appropriate......... [}:)]

[FOTD]

Well, bravo Fadder.

A sea change is coming.....
I just think drugs should be decriminalized and not controlled except in the same vein as the over the counters and prescriptions are currently regulated.

Just categorize herb as herb or weed as weed without corporate involvement. It's innocent and contrary to the original intent which was to keep South American and Mexican illegals out of the USA and not even give them the opportunity for citizenship.

It's not popular to say it this way, but people who STILL worry about pot/marijuana/cannabis being a "problem" are just stupid. They have the most basic and fundamental shortcomings with the available facts. It's an indefensible assertion/false belief. Pharmaceuticals kill more people than al Queda every day. But they enrich the GOP because Big Pharma is a direct contributor as well as revolving door entity. (Don Rumsfeld worked for Searle, pushing Aspartame among other unsafe compounds.)

The war in Mexico and Afghanistan is nothing but loaded corruption and inefficient policy.

[tim huntzinger]

Pot is not like drinking tea, though, either.  It is clearly a victim of racial profiling and its propensity to avoid being taxed, but to glibly wax over its effects is self-defeating for advocates.