A Veterans Plea for Common Sense on the Drug War, Racism, and Cannabis policy.

 

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws” -Martin Luther King Jr.

 

 

People of Boston and the Nation. A tragic and inequitable situation has risen…

Racism, ignorance, and immorality are destroying our communities…

We must educate ourselves and fight to change this reality or in the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “perish together as fools”

The following ideas are absolutely not original to this post and can all be found researched through links on BostonCannabis.Info …

Mass incarceration is an immoral tragedy created through racism and ignorance.

Cannabis is the scientific name for what propagandists have referred to disparagingly as Marijuana.

Cannabis possession is the most popular drug crime and is responsible for the most drug arrests and charges.

Cannabis is a super-food and provides complete protein (hemp-seed), can be used safely to treat many diseases and ailments, and can be made into over 30,000 legal products.

Please stay with me as I elaborate…

Cannabis was the number one agricultural crop in the world and was listed in the American Pharmacopoeia of drugs and their approved uses until 1940 when American Politicians and officials campaigned for it to be illegal on purely racist and ignorant grounds.

 Only made illegal after extremely racist public officials lied repeatedly to the American population. They said false, ridiculous, mean, hateful, racist, and ignorant things to support a wave of new drug laws that were not aimed at decreasing drug use, but were ONLY aimed at controlling ethnic populations, Blacks, Mexicans, Chinese…

Our public officials are rarely held accountable for their numerous lies that lead us to wars and new policies. The Iraq war is a modern example of American politicians and officials lying to the public to create new policy. Cannabis prohibition policy is simply an older version of the same thing. This has become normal and commonplace. We know this occurs and should work to fix these things when we are aware and able.

Cannabis was made illegal only twice in American history. The first time was for racist purposes, 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. They said cannabis (marihuana) made Mexicans and African-Americans violent, and then later they said it makes them communist and pacifist, all lies of course.

Whites felt threatened by communism because it promised blacks respect and equality, something they were lacking in America up to this point. White supremacist propaganda, which was extremely popular then more so than now; already spread fear and prejudice of black people, so adding drugs to the lie was not a big stretch or leap.

The truth was that cannabis was being used and then associated with use by black workers, entertainers, and musicians of the very popular jazz age. Used as a cheap, affordable and healthy medicine as well as relaxation, social, and creative aid for so many that dealt with violent racism on a daily basis in both their professional and personal lives. Cannabis became part of African-American culture then as it is now. Songs were made and sung about “Reefer” by black artists of the day, popularizing its use. Snoop Dogg comes to mind as the modern reincarnation of the same Jazz artists that first popularized smoking cannabis in America. They said black music was “Satanic” and pointed to their use of cannabis as linked to “the devil”. These were ignorant lies of course.

White society has been known to see foreign or different ethnic cultural elements as scary or satanic. Just as certain Christian societies have viewed things non-Christian or not conforming to their culture as satanic. The only party invoking Satan into the discussion was the fearful white society.

Cannabis use is and always has been therapeutic and sacramental/religious, but modern Christian rejection of cannabis betrays the hidden truth… that cannabis is and always has been used as a sacramental and can be historically and intimately tied to not just all Abrahamic Religion including Christianity, but the evolution of man-made religion itself.

Cannabis is a main active ingredient in the Holy Anointing Oil and Holy Incense of the Torah and the Bible. ?!!? Go check it out for yourself if you don’t want to believe Chief! Cannabis was used by ancients to receive revelation directly from god, heal the sick, and search for a spiritual connection within the human body, god, and the universe. Christ was “The Anointed One” for Pete’s sake!

Cannabis is used to worship Shiva by Hindus, one of the oldest world religions and protected State religion of India, and Rastafarians of course which are recognized by peoples throughout the world.

Why doesn’t freedom of religion here in America protect cannabis use, as it is indeed used for religious worship the world over and through all time? Research will lead you once again to ignorance and racism folks!

 

 

Drug laws were first used to oppress the Chinese-Americans that were now coming to America at the turn of 20^th century (1900s), and had become the focus of hostilities due to economic and social struggles. A popular Chinese cultural practice was the use of opium.

This opium use was used to criminalize the new Chinese-Americans of the time and some of the first drug prohibition laws dealt with Chinese and Opium specifically while still recognizing the need for White person’s opium use in private and through approved hospital and pharmacy channels. The enforcement of these laws was always designed to be arbitrary.

“Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes… A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.” – Abraham Lincoln

They were not under the false notion that they could stop opium use throughout the nation. They just wanted to be able to criminalize and control the Chinese populations which they blamed for certain problems of society.

Anslinger and others used this precedent to improve upon their system of oppression and inflate their new government agency using our society’s most vulnerable populations to be the nation’s punching bag. After alcohol prohibition failed so miserably, new civil rights laws were being enacted in congress leading to racist filibusters on the Congress floor; The Dust Bowl, Great Depression, and the Dirty Thirties laid waste to economies families and farmers and destroyed their way of life. Jobs were scarce. Charlatans whipped up vulnerable crowds into the politics of hatred and blaming others for all problems of society, Not unlike Donald Trump does today.

Lynching of African-Americans was commonplace at this point in US history, as is the modern gunning down of black-men by police, vigilantes, blacks and other Americans who have internalized the racial hatred and dysfunction of American society today.

 

The new law forced people to get a stamp for their cannabis but few stamps were handed out. The issue was tax revenue NOT public safety! They didn’t make any money in taxes if you grew your own medicine and supplies or decided to grow and sell the same. Department of Treasury NOT a public safety agency was who the New Federal Bureau of Narcotics would be under. Public safety concerns were racist fears of Blacks, Mexicans, and Chinese not the effects of medicine or drugs on individuals. Americans of the time transferred their fear of the black and Mexican population to a common, useful, household herb. Marijuana Tax Act was challenged and overturned by Timothy Leary and The Supreme Court in 1969. It was found to be unconstitutional.

 

 

The second time cannabis was made illegal was 1970 by the racist and soon to be criminally disgraced political monster President Richard M. Nixon. He ignored all scientific evidence and made a political decision to benefit him and his party. He buried and hid American University research that clearly showed cannabis kills cancer cells in 1974. How many people die and suffer with cancer everyday in this country?   He had defeated democrats with a new strategy for republicans that relied on racism to get into the white house. “The Southern Strategy” This became the textbook for ALL future republican Presidential nominees and would be the ONLY way that Republicans would win Presidential office going forward.

The previous president, Lyndon B. Johnson, had started a war on poverty to focus funds and the national will on the problems of poverty and racism. Nixon’s response after winning office with his racist strategy was to start a new war. One that would make sure his political opposition would always be on their heels. He created The Controlled Substances Act (1970) and placed cannabis as “marijuana” in the most dangerous category of substances, which has NEVER been supported by science or the American Medical Association. The federal drug schedule lists cannabis as having no accepted medical value but that didn’t stop the US Government from seeking and receiving a patent on cannabis and cannabinoids for medical treatments in 2001!

Hypocrisy? Yes! But when you have a system of discrimination in place hypocrisy is always a side effect.

Nixon started the racist and immoral modern “Drug War” to focus the national will and pocketbook against his political enemies. That depraved act has now resulted in a society on the brink of civil war. His war was designed to criminalize non-violent Americans and allow law enforcement to disrupt, destroy and seize any work they may do. Keeping them under violent physical threat, he and other republicans became free to conduct their racist agenda and solidify their position of power. His tactics got him thrown out of office (he left willingly), but his racist republican policies stayed in place.

 

This became a very valuable political dynamic for racist republicans and effectively silenced the political voices of millions. The drug war has been a war on Americans, a war on families, and a war on truth and liberty itself.

 

Other Republicans like Reagan doubled down on Nixon’s policies. Democrats too. Leading us to the situation we have today. Reagan’s fake push to cure cancer in the 1980s was a lie to raise money while they hid cannabis related cancer research with the help of the DEA.

Feel safe lately? No? Thank your leaders for lying to us all and creating a dangerous, uninformed system of oppression and misery, that is destroying the country.

Drug prohibition made our streets and cities dangerous in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s just like Alcohol Prohibition did (1920-1933). Al Capone and the new American organized crime wave of the 1920s has become Pablo Escobar and El Chapo Guzman of the 80s, 90s and 2000s. We ended alcohol prohibition and now people do not shoot each other over a barrel of beer. Hopefully if we get smart and end drug prohibition… people will no longer shoot each other over drugs either. Drugs are not bad or dangerous on their own, their monetary value has been multiplied and inflated because of their imposed illegality. Illegal drugs and medicines are simply worth more money than other products because of prohibition. Drugs are medicines. NOT dangerous but helpful to all when used properly.

Many things can kill you when misused, does that make them all dangerous to where we need prohibition? Cannabis can NOT kill you even when misused! Is cannabis dangerous?

No. Salt, Sugar, Caffeine, Alcohol, Tobacco are all dangerous people killers in the right dose and frequency. Cannabis is absolutely NOT a people killer and can’t kill you no matter the dose or frequency. The US government has been trying to kill animals in laboratories for many decades using cannabis to show its supposed dangers but they continue to fail repeatedly because cannabis simply is not dangerous but promotes health and wellness for most people and animals.

The bias against cannabis is cultural. Americans must stop supporting this corrupt, racist, ignorant, and immoral drug war! End institutional racism now! END DRUG PROHIBITION NOW!

If we do not find the courage to call out, expose, and honestly deal with all elements of oppression racial, gender, and otherwise, then we are all destined for complete failure due to cowardice. Cowardice to face the issues. You cannot ignore the systematic assault and oppression of so many people and then wonder why communities and institutions are failing. It is an ignorant and naive position and a vicious lie to say so. I challenge ANYONE to reference this course of events and defend any of this drug war behavior as not corrupt, not racist, not ignorant, not a tragic hypocrisy and morally right.  Please see definitions for the following terms corrupt, racist, ignorant, and immoral at end of article.

 

“In things racial… we have always been and I believe continue to be in too many ways a nation of cowards.” Attorney General Eric Holder United States Department of Justice

 Cowardice is defined as a lack of bravery. Fits well. You think? 

 

Modern politicians and voters that believe and buy into the propaganda of “Reefer Madness” are still acting in unison with the racist and immoral officials of the past. Supporting racist and ignorant policies decades after they have been proven to be illegitimate, harmful, misinformed, and unconstitutional.

The last few presidential campaigns illustrate very clearly that a republican party goal is to disenfranchise people of color. Republicans do not want African-Americans and many others to vote, and have acted on those goals regularly for decades but increasingly more so recently. How different are today’s white Americans than all of those White Americans watching on in satisfaction or indifference as black families were tortured and murdered in the public square, as a sign to others. Not unlike how modern terrorists and groups, ISIS and ISIL (Islamic State In Syria/Libya), publicly torture and murder their victims to warn others. And not unlike so many American Police Departments that broadcast the murders that they will be getting away with every day on tv and the internet. It is a powerful message that law enforcement has been sending the black community for so many years. It goes something like this…

“We are given the power to destroy you on sight, publicly or privately and wherever or whenever we so please. You have no recourse so when you see police officers know that they have the right to do as they please with you, your person, your property, and your family. You have NO rights when an officer is talking to you BOY so listen up or suffer whatever the officer decides your punishment or execution should be. We can beat you, shoot you, rape or sodomize you, and kidnap and imprison you to do it all over every day for the rest of your miserable black life. Our society says as a white officer I’m better than you and its my job to make sure you are oppressed. I take my job serious and you should too.”

The presidential campaign of Republican Nominee Donald Trump is openly encouraging physical violence against African Americans now in August of 2016 and is promising to punish Muslims, people of Mexican heritage, and foreigners as well.

Are citizens allowed to fight back against oppression? The culture in America and Boston must change. These changes must happen or we can all expect the pitiful situation that our culture has created today to continue. The drug war, racist institutions, mass incarceration, police terrorism of the black population, increasing racial violence and white supremacist media rhetoric and groups, the Jim Crow paradigm, all will continue to lead us as a nation towards ruin. No one will feel safe or content until agents of oppression cease fire. The public will NOT trust government, law enforcement, or any of their representatives because it has been their policy to treat so many Americans as targets of oppression and have not bothered to change the dynamic. We have been waiting a VERY long time.

END AMERICAN COWARDICE!!! STOP OPPRESSION!!! END JIM CROW!!!

Loyalty Duty Respect Selfless Service Honor Integrity Personal Courge L.D.R.S.H.I.P.

Nothing about the drug war can be said to embody ANY of these American Army Values which are required to be memorized and practiced by all US Soldiers.. The Drug War is and always has been immoral. So as far as this veteran is concerned, The Drug War has no place in our society. For those that wish to continue the racist and immoral drug war… please let us know why the oppression of  so many is necessary?

“He that would make his own liberty secure, must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself.” – Thomas Paine

None of the previous has been a secret folks.. when will reasonable people act?

Chief – from BostonCannabis.Info