Show Me the Facts

Original post by Ron Paul is copied below, but can be found HERE.

End the War on Drugs

We have recently heard many shocking stories of brutal killings and ruthless violence related to drug cartels warring with Mexican and US officials. It is approaching the fever pitch of a full blown crisis. Unfortunately, the administration is not likely to waste this opportunity to further expand government. Hopefully, we can take a deep breath and look at history for the optimal way to deal with this dangerous situation, which is not unprecedented.

Alcohol prohibition in the 1920’s brought similar violence, gangs, lawlessness, corruption and brutality. The reason for the violence was not that making and selling alcohol was inherently dangerous. The violence came about because of the creation of a brutal black market which also drove profits through the roof. These profits enabled criminals like Al Capone to become incredibly wealthy, and militantly defensive of that wealth. Al Capone saw the repeal of Prohibition as a great threat, and indeed smuggling operations and gangland violence fell apart after repeal. Today, picking up a bottle of wine for dinner is a relatively benign transaction, and beer trucks travel openly and peacefully along their distribution routes.

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As many of you know, I am doing my best to update the medical marijuana portion of the web site as fast as possible (it has been using about 90% of my free-time since I started the site).

While I am attempting to go alphabetically (for efficiency reasons), I have skipped ahead a bit to write a resource article for Multiple Sclerosis. My reasoning for this has a lot to do with my respect for Montel Williams’ dedication to spending time to help the cause.

It also turns out that two dear friends of mine have family and friends also suffering from MS. I hope this resource helps them.

If your interests were piqued from the last post about Montel Williams and Irv Rosenfeld, then you may enjoy this one.

This article, by Pete Guither, provides a bit more information on the hypocrisy of the US government claiming no medicinal value of marijuana, yet providing FDA-approved marijuana to people, such as Irv Rosenfeld.

Here’s an excerpt:

You see, Irv Rosenfeld is one of a small group of patients who actually gets medical marijuana legally from the federal government — yep, that same federal government that sends storm troopers to arrest California patients doing the same thing. He is part of the Compassionate IND (Investigational New Drug) program and gets about 300 marijuana cigarettes in a metal tin prescribed to last 25 days.

He was a real hit at the Illinois House Committee hearing yesterday. The press was particularly fascinated by the notion that someone could be legally carrying around a tin of marijuana in the State Capital. (seen here examining Irv’s tin and supporting letters)

The full article can be found at: http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2005/02/18/irvRosenbergAndTheCompassi.html

This 10 minute special features Drew Carey narrating the story of Owen Beck and Charles Lynch. Click through to read more and watch the video…

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A friend sent me a link to a very detailed video in which David G. Ostrow, MD, PhD, founder and director of the Medical Marijuana Policy Advocacy Project, discusses how marijuana works and other aspects of marijuana use. Click “Continue reading” to watch the video.

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UPDATE: I found a copy of the full-length interview, better quality, etc. The Baldwin vs. Williams segment starts at 7:45. I will keep the lower-quality segments posted in case this gets taken down:

Double Edit: I just realized that this video only gives the first half of the Stephen Baldwin vs. Montel Williams debate. For the second half, scroll down below and watch the lower-quality part 2. Really sorry I didn’t catch this.

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Today I received a link to an article by Art Toalston of the Baptist Press. In it, Toalston asserts that the current violence in the drug war is directly related to marijuana consumption and use.

I find the article not only interesting due to it being complete and utter mythology, but that it was written by the same man who only a few years ago wrote a very detailed, long article about forgiveness and why he embraces people, such as Ted Haggard (the man who was caught using a male prostitute despite publicly preaching against homosexuality), as “hypocrites” who only temporarily give into sin yet ultimately continue to follow the path of Christ.

So, to be clear, according to Toalston, if you are a marijuana user you are negatively affecting the “good of humanity”, yet if you are a Christian who commits adultery with a homosexual prostitute while preaching against such actions, you are a man that fell victim to sin and will find forgiveness in the eyes of God? Did I miss something, or is Toalston treading on very murky moral waters?

Now, for full disclosure, I will say that I am a proud Christian and have been for a vast majority of my life. I do my best to pursue the path of Christ, however, no where in the Bible can I find Jesus endorsing the use of ignorance and propaganda to get your way; I believe facts are facts, despite your religious affiliation.

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While I had no real assumptions that Obama would completely legalize marijuana, I had hoped that a man in his position would respect something that he himself started (the interactive town hall). A few of the top questions posted to the White House’s website referred to legalization of marijuana; asking not only if the President would support legalization or not, but why he wouldn’t.

Obama took time to go over many of the top questions, yet when it came time to answer the most popular one:

“There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation, and I don’t know what this says about the online audience ,” Mr.Obama said, drawing a laugh. He said he wanted to make sure the question got answered. “The answer is no, I don’t think that was a good strategy.”

(NY Times)

I personally don’t understand why he did not take it as a serious question and–even worse–seemed to alienate much of his audience by saying, “I don’t know what this says about the online audience”.

You know what it says, Obama? It says that the internet audience is curious why you will continue to allow corporate needs and greed outweigh the will of the people. Marijuana as a drug aside, Hemp is aboslutely, unquestionably a non-issue when it comes to the “health and safety” of the American public.

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I got the Cannabidiol section updated, but most of today was spent on the back-end, fine tuning the organization and labeling of the site.

If you find that some links are not working, please let me know!

Hey guys, I’m spending some time updating various parts of the site so its more streamlined, organized, and efficient.

If anyone has any recommended WordpPress plugins that might work well on this site, let me know.