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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,538
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Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State
#13417547 - 11/01/10 10:35 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State October 31, 2010 - AlterNet
The simple truth about America's marijuana prohibition: any law that allows the easy incarceration of any citizen any time those in power want to do it is the ultimate enemy of democracy. With 800,000 annual arrests over an herb used by tens of millions of Americans, it is the cornerstone of a police state.
The newly energized movement to end prohibition in California -- home to more than 10% of the nation -- is one of the few healthy developments in this otherwise horrific election.
To help pass Proposition 19, go here and sign up to make phone calls in these last crucial hours.
Part of the battle has already been won. By all accounts the California campaign has thrust the issue to a new level. The terms of repeal are not perfect. But the acceptance of marijuana use has taken a giant leap forward. When joints are openly lit and smoked on national television, it's clear that sooner rather than later, this travesty will fall.
The California campaign has drawn the sides clearly. Demanding continued prohibition first and foremost are the drug dealers who profit directly. As Dan Okrent has shown in LAST CALL: THE RISE & FALL OF PROHIBITION, organized crime booms around such bans.
With them are the prison builders and operators, plus the lawyers, judges, guards and street cops who make their livings off the human agony of this endless stream of meaningless arrests. To their credit, some of these -- especially cops who actually care about controlling actual crime -- have come out for legalization.
Then come the alcohol and tobacco pushers who don't want the competition from a recreational substance that -- like renewable energy -- can be raised and controlled locally. Ditto Big Pharma, which fears marijuana as a superior anti-depressant with healing capabilities far beyond a whole multi-billlion-dollar arsenal of prescription drugs with deadly side effects. They fear an herbal medicine whose warning labels will be limited to statements like: "Caution -- use of this healing herb may lead to excessive desire for chocolate cup cakes."
Ultimately it's the politicians who cling to a prohibition that enhances their power. One after the other they endorse more arrests and fiscal insanity.
Never mind that virtually every farmer in Revolutionary America -- including Washington, Jefferson and Madison -- raised marijuana's kissing cousin, hemp, and profited handsomely from it. Never mind that Ben Franklin made his best paper from hemp. Forget that the last three presidents of the United States and the current governor of California (among so many others) have smoked marijuana, and may still do so.
Never mind that hemp looms behind marijuana as a far greater cash crop, with huge profits to be made from ecologically superior paper, clothing, shoes, textiles, rope, sails, food, fuel and more. A core agricultural mainstay throughout human history, hemp requires no chemical pesticides, herbicides or fertilizers. A nitrogen-fixing weed, it replenishes the soil in which it grows. As the stock for cellulosic ethanol, fuel pellets and seed-based diesel oil, it is the key to a green revolution in sustainable bio-fuels. As such, hemp is legal in virtually every country on Earth except the United States.
Many believe the decentralizing economic power of hemp is the real reason its corporate industrial competitors want marijuana to stay illegal. The literature on both is deep and wide.
This ghastly 2010 mid-term election is like a horrendous death spasm for a dying empire. The cancerous flood of corporate money pouring through the process has taken the corruption of what's left of our democratic process to new post-imperial depths.
But nature always provides an healing herb that grows near a poisonous one. We work and hope for repeal in California. But we know the issue has already gone to a new level.
The accelerated corporate rape and pillage of what's left of our nation is all too evident. Sending this tool of official repression up in smoke will help mitigate the disaster.
Vote YES on California's Prop. 19, and make sure to call those you know who might.
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Annapurna1
liberal pussy


Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,646
Loc: innsmouth..MA
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: veggie]
#13417717 - 11/01/10 11:29 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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the message from the 2010 elections..at least the way the media has framed it.. is that the amerikkkan ppl are voting overwhelmingly for the authouritarian right.. and that includes voting to continue prohibition in CA...
the good news..that the article missed..is that marijuana possession has been decriminalized in CA under SB1449...
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"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...
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Keen
Buy the ticket, take the ride.


Registered: 10/11/10
Posts: 182
Loc: United States of Opressio...
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: Annapurna1]
#13418056 - 11/01/10 01:07 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Essentially the cat is out of the bag, now that the issue is on the table it is only a matter of time before it passes. Even if it doesn't pass this year it will be an issue next year, so on a so forth. What is a nightmare for those in power, is a dream for millions upon millions of Americans. We're watching California, and we're hoping. The entire nation is on the brink of a revolution in the drug war, it's literally become the people VS the government. It's high time the people took the power back.
I'm excited about tomorrow, my hopes aren't too high, but there is always next year. This won't be over until justice prevails.
Great article.
-------------------- The truth is often the last thing people will believe - it's not what they want to believe. Do you believe me?

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Annapurna1
liberal pussy


Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,646
Loc: innsmouth..MA
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: Keen]
#13418164 - 11/01/10 01:31 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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are you fucken kidding??...hitler was a liberal democrat compared to the human excrement that are about to take over congress.. and in 2012 they will have the POTUS too...their all about power..and that means the drug war...
whenever marijuana has managed to gain a political foothold in the past (eg 1980)..voters have retaliated swiftly and brutally at the polls.. and this time it stands to push us over the edge altogether...
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"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...
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SuperD
Cacti junky


Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: Annapurna1]
#13418196 - 11/01/10 01:38 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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The difference between 1980 and 2010 is the sheer number of voters who no longer swallow the bullshit propaganda regarding marijuana and it's unjust prohibition.
A funny thing happens when a beloved family member goes to prison over pot. It makes that person really wonder who the bad guy is in the situation. My parents thought of weed as spawning from Satan himself until I was unjustly incarcerated for a non-violent mj offense.
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   D Manoa said: I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), me if you have any for trade
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Annapurna1
liberal pussy


Registered: 05/21/02
Posts: 5,646
Loc: innsmouth..MA
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: Annapurna1]
#13418238 - 11/01/10 01:47 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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if thats so..then why are voters in such a big hurry to elect a congress that obviously means to accelerate the drug war as a means to power as an end to itself??...
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"anchor blocks counteract the process of pontiprobation..while omalean globes regulize the pressure"...
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psilyguy


Registered: 12/03/08
Posts: 3,305
Last seen: 12 years, 4 months
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: Annapurna1]
#13420870 - 11/01/10 10:12 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
Annapurna1 said: the message from the 2010 elections..at least the way the media has framed it.. is that the amerikkkan ppl are voting overwhelmingly for the authouritarian right.. and that includes voting to continue prohibition in CA...
the good news..that the article missed..is that marijuana possession has been decriminalized in CA under SB1449...
thats more like ok news. the decriminalization hardly changes anything for pot smokers in California and it is basically meaningless to the country as a whole.
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nachohippie
asshole



Registered: 09/19/09
Posts: 2,623
Loc: right around the corner
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: psilyguy]
#13420904 - 11/01/10 10:20 PM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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I feel the best chance "legalization" has of sweeping the nation is under the guide of medical compassionate use. People see the problems that pharmaceuticals are causing on the folks that get adicted . I feel if a bible thumper who has a son addicted to pharms saw a law advocating the medical use of marijuana for pain might think twice before automatically voting no because it is marijuana . Just look at Montana and Nevada who would of thought these states would of ever opened up to pot?
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send guns, money ,lawyers, and drugs its been a long night everything i post is a lie im a pathological liar
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Alan Rockefeller
Mycologist


Registered: 03/10/07
Posts: 48,392
Last seen: 3 days, 6 hours
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Re: Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State [Re: nachohippie]
#13421885 - 11/02/10 03:53 AM (13 years, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
nachohippie said: I feel the best chance "legalization" has of sweeping the nation is under the guide of medical compassionate use.
That is great for sick people, but most people are not sick.
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