The best solution to our environmental problems is to end prohibition. There is no other viable option short of the immediate end to military conflict that will have the same positive impact on the ecosystem. Our first step towards a sustainable existence should begin with cannabis. Its assimilation into our civilization is the safest, simplest, most efficient immediate solution that we can implement in time to prevent an ecological catastrophe.
Cannabis is a plant, and its use is as old as civilization itself. It has thousands of immediate and potential applications. Its cultivation rejuvenates the soil, it can replace wood products, it’s medicinal, and it can be used as building material, textiles, paint, plastic, fuel, paper, food and body care. It is one of the most important bounties of nature. It’s a plant that we were meant to use.
So what’s the hold up? The short answer is America’s “War on Drugs”. The United States started a legislative war on this plant genus almost a century ago and they do not want to give up the fight.
The war on drugs is not a war between nations; it’s a corporate war on people, irrelevant of their nationality or ethnicity. It is a war against citizens of the United States and those of other nations. It’s a war without borders. It has gone through multiple mutations and over the last few decades grown into the monstrosity that it is today. It is a one sided war declared by nations on their citizens. A conflict not reciprocated by the citizens. It is a war that is sustained entirely due to ignorance, fear, and greed.
If there is such a thing as a just war, then the war on drugs is on the other end of the spectrum. It is the most unjust war that has ever been. It is a war exclusively waged for money. Every other war throughout history has had at least one other fathomable pretence. The war on drugs doesn’t.
The irony is that this war and the destruction that it unleashes can be brought to an end within an instant, if it was so desired. All that is required is to end prohibition, to repeal one law.
We know that the end to prohibition will have positive effects for our society because precedent for this has already been set. When prohibition of alcohol ended, so did most of the violence associated with gang warfare, as did much of the corruption in government. When prohibition ended, precious resources were made available again and a major source of revenue and employment was established through the sale of alcohol and its associated paraphernalia.
These same results have also been observed in Portugal’s experiment with drug decriminalization. The United Nations has also confirmed these findings in its annual report on the state of global drug policy, and many countries have been paying-heed and following Portugal’s example. Decriminalization is sweeping through major parts of Latin America as well as numerous municipalities and States within the United States of America.
The only reason that America’s Federal “War on Drugs” still continues to this day is because its so-called adversaries, criminal organizations and certain sectors of government, don’t want it to end since its continuation guarantees them flow of funds.
All of the above is common knowledge to anyone who has remotely researched this topic, or for that matter, even thought about it. After all, who in their right mind would ever approve of a war on nature, a war on a plant, a war on a plant that’s not even poisonous, a war on a plant that is actually beneficial for us, our society, and the ecosystem? You would have to be deranged to do such a thing. But this is exactly what we have done. We have been waging a war on a plant for almost a century. We have been waging a war on cannabis that spans the globe, costs trillions of dollars, destroys millions of lives, and consumes precious resources.
On the behest of certain corporations and a small minority that profit from prohibition, we have been waging a war on a plant that has the potential to help us reduce our ecological footprint. This must be the ultimate definition of stupidity, and if it isn’t, then it most definitely is the ultimate definition of psychotic.
So, the question is; how do we end this madness? How do we end the war on drugs? The instigator, the aggressor in this war was, is, and continues to be the United States of America. They started this war and they are the main obstacle to peace. To end the global war on drugs, prohibition laws in the United States must be repealed.
To accomplish this task the mantra for many over the last few years has been to overgrow the government. A very valiant and valid strategy, but, unfortunately, there are casualties associated with using such tactics, as most Canadians and one Marc Emery, a champion of this mantra, recently discovered.
There is, however, another way to end prohibition that does not include sacrificing ones life. One of the best ways to end America’s “War on Drugs” is to support grassroots organizations that are actively working towards repealing prohibition laws. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) actually admitted this fact in 2005 when they began proceedings to extradite Marc Emery from Canada to the United States for drug trafficking related to his activities as an online cannabis seed retailer. Following Emery’s arrest, the head of the DEA at the time, Karen Tandy, released the following statement:
“Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group - is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement… Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on.”
If the DEA is willing to spend millions of dollars and years in proceedings to extradite a Canadian to the United States in the hopes of preventing a few hundred thousand dollars from flowing to “marijuana legalization groups”, then it is to our interest to make sure that funds continue to flow to these organizations. Many of their employees and volunteers have made it their life’s work to end our global war on a plant, and they need our help. Our monetary support of organizations helping to repeal prohibition laws in the United States and Canada is what the DEA and those who oppose legalization fear. We should do our best to give them cause to fear us.
Keep in mind that many of these organizations are very efficient at what they do, as most grassroots organizations are, hence the US government must spend a few orders of magnitude more than they do to counter the effects that our donations will have. By funding these organizations we become the government’s nemesis, since they will have to spend a lot of money to neutralize our contributions. This, of course, may prove to be a daunting task for a cash and credit strapped United States, they are, after all, facing an out of control Federal deficit and a national debt that is estimated to double in the next ten years - a gross underestimation some would argue. It should only be a matter of time before citizens of the United States realize how foolish it is to allow their tax dollars to be spent on waging war on a plant, or so every sane person on this planet hopes.
Below you will find the names and websites of some of the more prominent groups spearheading the battle to end prohibition in the United States and Canada. They are trying to bring sanity to our lives and I’m sure they would appreciate our help as much as we appreciate their efforts. A few hundred thousand dollars in donations to these organizations brought the full weight of the United States government onto Marc Emery. Considering the economic crisis in the United States of America, there has never been a more opportune time to end the war on drugs by forcing the US government to commit resources to this war that they do not have. Let’s help plant the seeds of their destruction by funding organizations working towards repealing prohibition. It’s one of our best options in our attempts to build a sustainable civilization.
Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) www.maps.org
Part 3 of “In Reaction to Marc Emery’s Extradition: What I plan to do to help end the ‘War on Drugs’” (Part 1, Part 2) is turning out to be a very delicate piece, and since it is meant to partially explain why, after 5 years on this site, I am about to take a major sabbatical, I’m going to take a few extra days putting it together. I hope to have it finished by the beginning of next week.
I know some here like to read referenced articles in the posts, so for those interested, the following are some of the articles that are being referenced so far.
I will soon be taking a sabbatical from this site to work on another project. The following is Part 2 of a three-part explanation of why this needs to be done and what I plan to do. Part 1 is available at The Incident - The Promise. The project will be directly related to The Language of Mathematics. Full explanation will be given in Part 3.
Part 2: The Implications - Why I made this Promise
Civilizations are remembered based on how they treat the most vulnerable in their society, and based on our performance so far, history will not have a favorable record of us, if any.
We have allowed greed, ignorance and apathy to victimize our children, to discard our elders, to brutalize our delinquents, and to dehumanize our invalid. Fear has consumed our collective. Its toxicity has rotted our humanity, which is why compassion seems to have vanished from our vocabulary.
Jonathan Magbie had never been convicted of a criminal offense and although he required private nursing care for as much as 20 hours a day, he was sent to jail. “The marijuana conviction was a first offence for Magbie, who was paralyzed from the neck down at age 4 after his school bus was hit by a drunk driver. Since then Magbie had been under almost constant nursing care, and got around on a chin-operated wheelchair.” Judge Judith Retchin “chastised Magbie for honestly saying that he would probably continue using marijuana, because it made him ‘feel better.’”
source - A young Jonathan Magbie meets with President Reagan in 1982. The irony in this picture is nauseating.
We, in Canada, are about to hand over a Canadian seed seller to a bunch of savages that five years ago sentenced a quadriplegic man to death through asphyxiation, just because he smoked weed. And we call this civilized?
It’s difficult to explain what it feels like to witness our society condemn a human being for selling seeds to a plant. Maybe even having the need to explain such a horror, explains why we are at the tipping point, facing an ecological collapse.
For those who have not realized it yet, the essence of America’s “War on Drugs” is the destruction of the ecosystem. It is a war on nature.
The message shared by all marijuana activists, not just Marc Emery, is the same: We have to be psychotic to want to continue America’s “War on Drugs”. It’s not only detrimental to our health, it’s also detrimental to the health of the environment and an abomination. It’s that simple.
The Murder of Christ
A couple of years ago I came across a passage by Wilhelm Reich that resonates true today, as it did in 1953 when he wrote it, as it did 2000 years ago from which he referenced it. The passage is from the book “The Murder of Christ” and is as follows:
“This is the way it has been and has remained to this very day and will go on being for quite some time. They will not cease to kill this way until they have been rendered powerless to kill the soul in every human fruit already in the womb before it saw the light of day.
“They will kill Jesus Christ for a crime they themselves imputed, they themselves invented, they themselves committed a thousand times; a crime Christ never dreamed of, never was close to, never possibly could have concocted.”
'The Murder of Christ' by Wilhelm Reich, p.87, The Noonday Press, New York, sixth printing, 1971
Countless scholars throughout history have shared this message. The message is simple: The ruling class have persecuted and crucified all who have dared to challenge their power. The oligarchy have been able to do this by manipulating the masses through fear and misinformation, and by placing slaves in positions of power to do their bidding.
Bill Hicks paraphrased the above passage during his performances with his “It's Just A Ride” routine. He, like Reich, was disgusted by society’s persecution of our visionaries. Fortunately for us we were privy to their work since both men were wise enough to see the folly of our choices as a society, and both knew themselves well enough to choose freedom rather than conformity.
Bill Hicks: What is the point to Life
Both Reich and Hicks highlighted the fact that we have been blinded by our apathy and have forfeited our freedoms by accepting our bondage of ignorance. Their words evoke the memory of those that we have sacrificed, and those that we continue to sacrifice by maintaining the status quo, even though it paves the way for our destruction. From innocent women burned at the stake, to the persecution of those who have been brave enough to speak a truth that is plainly visible to all but hidden from our conscience, we have been persecuting for profit.
The Crucifixion of Emery
The most recent victim of our collective is Marc Emery. Like Reich, the ruling class has branded Emery as one of its greatest adversaries. The reason that Mr. Emery is considered to be such a danger to the Empire is because he is, just like Reich was. The philosophy of both these men threatens the status quo, hence the witch-hunt. Reich’s words in the above passage can easily be re-written as follows:
They will kill Marc Emery for a crime they themselves imputed, they themselves invented, they themselves committed a thousand times; a crime Emery never dreamed of, never was close to, never possibly could have concocted.
If, collectively, we, as a society, begin to realize that our attempts are futile at waging war on nature, then the elite would no longer control us. We will be able to break this cycle of madness. We will be free. The ultimate question is, are we ready to govern our own lives or are we about to crucify another Christ?
I, for one, am sick of our stupidity, which is why I made my promise to try all peaceful means necessary to prevent us from crucifying anymore human beings for consuming what grows naturally on this planet, cannabis, one of the most important bounties of nature.
As for the “War on Drugs”, the following documentary is an excellent introduction to this disastrous policy (please note that the first few minutes are in Dutch, but the rest is in English).
I will soon be taking a sabbatical from this site to work on another project. The following is Part 1 of a three-part explanation of why this needs to be done and what I plan to do. Part 2 is available at The Implications - Why I made this Promise. The project will be directly related to The Language of Mathematics. Full explanation will be given in Part 3.
The United States was seeking to extradite Greg Williams, Michele Rainey, and Marc Emery to face charges for drug trafficking in the US for selling seeds for the Cannabis plant from Canada. Their punishment at the time of their arrest if they were extradited would have been between 10 years to life in prison, served in the United States.
“The long-time cannabis crusader said he originally agreed to the jail time in part to spare his associates and co-accused Michelle Rainey and Greg Williams from prosecution and prison.
“‘I was willing, the Americans were willing and all that we needed was the Conservative government to also agree,’ the 50-year-old said. ‘I certainly didn’t think that would be a problem.’
“‘After all, I was agreeing to serve five years for a crime that would result in little over a month in jail for any one of the many seed-sellers operating then, and now, in Vancouver and across Canada.’”
“Emery’s fate now rests entirely with Justice Minister Rob Nicholson, who has the authority and legal grounds to refuse to extradite the marijuana policy reformer. Nicholson could instead charge and prosecute Emery in Canada for activities related to his marijuana seed business, a move that would assert Canada’s sovereignty over drug policy and likely lead to a sentence that better reflects the attitudes of Canadians toward marijuana prohibition.” This, however, is unlikely since the introduction of US style mandatory minimum sentencing to Canada with the passing of Bill C-15 - a futile attempt by Harper’s Conservative government to transplant America’s devastating “War on Drugs” policy to this country.
“Adults in Canada believe the consumption of cannabis should be allowed in their country, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 53 per cent of respondents support the legalization of marijuana.”
Contrary to what some would like us to believe, what is happening to Marc Emery is not about agreeing with what he has done or what he is doing. This is not about condoning a life style or about liking the man. This is about Canadian sovereignty, about the United States of America dictating to Canadians what type of business we can participate in and whom we can conduct business with. You see, the Canadian Federal Government and the Government of British Columbia endorsed Emery’s behaviour by collecting taxes from his business. In six years we, as a society, collected $578,000 and invested that money into our collective. By handing over Marc Emery to the United States of America we are in reality handing over all of Canada.
“From 1999 until he was arrested in 2005, Marc declared on his income tax return that his occupation was ‘marijuana seed vendor.’ He paid $578,000 in income taxes into federal and B.C. government coffers. He gave Canada Revenue Agency access to his bank statements and explained all his cash flows to them. The CRA graciously accepted his money without ever taking any action to put a stop to all this criminal activity.
“If you believe that all Canadians benefit from taxes being collected and governments spending that tax money (I don’t, but most Canadians do), then logically you will have to concede that Marc has been a huge benefactor to the Canadian people.”
Jodie Emery speaks out on Marc's extradition
What we are witnessing is the collapse of Canada. If a foreign power can dictate the laws that Canadians must abide by, then we are no longer free. By stating that we are Canadian we are taking on the responsibility to protect our laws and our citizens. By refusing the plea bargain, Harper’s Conservative government has, in essence, refused to protect Canadians. They are sacrificing Marc Emery to protect their own personal ideals, not Canada. This is treason.
As for my promise, I promised myself if any of the above three Canadians were extradited to the United States of America I would try all peaceful means necessary to stop this stampede to our destruction, and this is exactly what I plan on doing.
As for the facts about cannabis and drug prohibition, the following documentary, The Union, is an excellent introduction to the topic. You may also consider reviewing some of the information that I have compiled at Happy 420!
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