Go Home, Drug War, You're Drunk!

Read the story: NYPD Spent 1 Million Hours Making 440,000 Marijuana Possession Arrests Over Last Decade

"We cannot afford to continue arresting tens of thousands of youth every year for low-level marijuana possession,” Alfredo Carrasquillo, a civil rights organizer with the activist group VOCAL-NY, said in a release. “We can't afford it in terms of the negative effect it has on the future prospects of our youth and we can't afford in terms of police hours."

It's bad enough that the United States alone has already squandered over a TRILLION dollars fighting The War on Drugs; now we get a glimpse of all of the time that is wasted on it as well.

Just think of all of the other things that could have been properly addressed with this kind of precious time and tax-payer money!

• Schools
• Health Care
• Elder Care
  
• Veteran Support
• Early Childhood Education
• Mental Illness Support
• Substance Abuse Rehabilitation
• The Environment & Green Jobs
• Homelessness and Affordable Housing
  
• Infrastructure
  
• Fraud

Law Enforcement Officers could be solving exponentially more homicides, assaults and cases of child abuse and paedophilia.  Instead of building and staffing more jails we could be funding laboratories and skilled workers that process crime scene evidence and expedite the processing of sexual assault forensic exam kits. (Something that is obviously lost on the likes of Ol' Sheriff Joe!*)

We must evaluate where our priorities lie as citizens of our communities and as members of the Human Race.  Ask yourself where *you* want your hard earned taxes to go.  Where do *you* want police to focus their attention?  "Herbal" offenses?  Or on actual crimes that really do hurt us all?

Visit the updated website for the NORML Women's Alliance of Canada and get involved!

Along with the NORML Women's Alliance of Canada, there are many, many organizations working to reform and change our drug policy laws.  Check them out today!

Moms for Marijuana

NORML Women's Alliance

NORML

NORML Canada

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Canada

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Sensible BC

Drug Policy Alliance

Students for Sensible Drug Policy

Marijuana Policy Project
Dads For Marijuana International

Unconventional Foundation for Autism

SAFERChoice

Marijuana Majority

*Sheriff Joe! ~ Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio's office spent so much time and money seeking out non-violent people that he prompted an internal investigation which discovered at least 32 reported child molestations in which the sheriff's office failed to follow through, even though suspects were known in all but six cases.  El Mirage, a community near Phoenix, alleged there were many cases in which sheriff's investigators wrote no follow-up reports, collected no additional forensic evidence and made no effort after the initial crime report was taken.  Arpaio's office eventually reopened more than 400 of its sex-crime cases countywide after finding they were inadequately investigated or not examined at all. Read about this tragedy here at THINKPROGRESS: Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Failed To Investigate Over 400 Sex Crimes, Including Molestations Of Undocumented Children

Additional Info

Count the Costs - 50 Years of the War on Drugs

Unless present policy is redirected, we will perpetuate the same problems, tolerate the same social costs, and find ourselves as we do now, no further along the road to a more rational legal and social approach than we were in 1914. - "Drug Use in America: Problem in Perspective", issued 40 years ago today. (March 22 1973 - March 22, 2013) From "Shafer Commission Report on Marijuana and Drugs, Issued 40 Years Ago Today, Was Ahead of its Time"
by Eric E. Sterling.  Please read this, it is an amazing article! 

"Ironically, these policy failures are often cited by law enforcement as a justification for continuing current policies. Just as the costs of enforcing marijuana laws are cited as a cost of drug abuse rather than public policy, these social problems are misrepresented to the public as evidence that marijuana use requires criminal sanctions rather than regulation. Policy failures brought about by this lack of effective controls is not a valid justification of current policies. The statistical data cited in this report on the supply, availability, use, price, and value of marijuana demonstrate that the amount of lost taxes and other fiscal costs of current policy are increasing and proliferating over time."
From Lost Taxes and Other Costs of Marijuana Laws by Jon Gettman - Read the full report of the tremendous annual cost of marijuana prohibition in the October 2007 issue of the Bulletin of Cannabis Reform

14 Reasons Why Marijuana is Good for the Economy (HuffPo Slideshow, scroll down the page)

Hey Harper! Get Off My Lawn!

My response to this article:

It's time for Canada and all nations to admit that the War On Drugs is lost, in fact, just like The Noble Experiment it could never have been won to begin with.  We do not respect the laws of drug prohibition because they are unenforceable.  To prohibit the use of a plant that we have used for thousands of years for medicine, relaxation, paper, food, fabric, fuel, etc. is not only unjust, but an impossible endeavor.
 
I respect laws that are created to keep society safe from truly violent and dangerous people.  As a Mother I believe a majority of police and judicial resources must be focused on those who truly pose a threat to society.   But the law of Cannabis Prohibition is so ridiculous that it causes disrespect for the law and law enforcement, which is a shame because there are many great police, lawyers, judges, etc. out there who really do care about people, most notably members of L.E.A.P. ~ Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Politicians must concede that they cannot legislate human behavior when it comes to what we eat and drink, how we medicate or what we grow in our gardens.  It is the ultimate persecution of our freedom(1) of personal autonomy and wreaks of ownership!  We're not perfect, we're Human, we use drugs, we always have, deal with it!  The mere notion that government believes laws can stop plants from growing in the ground is ludicrous.

End the Drug War that empowers and enriches cartels and organized criminals.  Provide truthful facts to our children about all substances and regulate the sale of drugs to adults.  Revive the farming of the Industrial and food grade Hemp plant the world over so we can help our environment and conquer famine and malnutrition.  We can concentrate on more important things like our disastrous economy, health care, school boards and old and failing infrastructures.  Every taxpayer dollar we spend fighting this unwinnable war is a dollar stolen from proven programs that really do help support the health and safety of all of us.  When it comes to paying for helicopters flying through the air searching for plants(2) or schools and hospitals, I know without a doubt where I want my tax dollars to go!


via YouTube: David Bratzer, a police officer in British Columbia, Canada, says he has seen how marijuana prohibition and the failed "war on drugs" directly lead to the growth of organized crime and cause gruesome illegal market violence. David is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which anyone can join for free at CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com



"The Law Makes Us Lawless"
The awesome Ken Burns and Lynn Novick documentary
"Prohibition" can be viewed at PBS online.

"I, as a responsible adult human being, will never concede the power to anyone to regulate my choice of what I put into my body, or where I go with my mind. From the skin inwards is my jurisdiction, is it not? I choose what may or may not cross that border. Here I am the Customs Agent. I am the Coast guard. I am the sole legal and spiritual government of this territory, and only the laws I choose to enact within myself are applicable." 

~ Alexander Shulgin PhD, Chemist and author

(1) The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: http://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/charter/page-1.htmlhttp://laws.justice.gc.ca/eng/charter/page-1.html

(2)  “Globally, the annual risk of eradication is continually below 10% for each crop [of opium poppy, coca bush, and cannabis plant].” source

“Get off my lawn!” - Stay out of my business, my personal life.

Those Who Forget History Are Doomed to Repeat It

History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived,
but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.
~ Maya Angelou

On what may be the eve before the passing of Bill C-15, I implore all party members to realize just what is lying in store for our nation if we duplicate the mistakes of our neighbours to the South.

Sen. James Webb, (D-Va.) is trying to change things, before they can possibly get any worse and has launched an ambitious new effort to reform U.S. prisons nationwide.

From Slate.com:

"Webb has no problem locking up the serious baddies. In fact, he wants to reform the justice system in part so that we can incapacitate the worst of the worst. But Webb wants us to recognize that warehousing the nation's mentally ill and drug addicts in crowded correctional facilities tends to create a mass of meaner, more violent, less employable people at the exits. And unlike Guantanamo, there are always going to be exits.

The Justice Department estimates that 16 percent of the adult inmates in American prisons—more than 350,000 of those incarcerated—suffer from mental illness; the percentage among juveniles is even higher. And 2007 Justice statistics showed that nearly 60 percent of the state prisoners serving time for a drug offense had no history of violence and four out of five drug arrests were for drug possession, not sales. Webb also reminds us that while drug use varies little by ethnic group in the United States, African-Americans—estimated at 14 percent of regular drug users—make up 56 percent of those in state prison for drug crimes. We know all of this. The question is how long we want to avoid dealing with it."


Should we not be learning from the failed policies of the Americans? Why is the Canadian government attempting to follow down this road of failure and misery?

One thing is for sure, those Members of Parliament who support the draconian bill will be publicized, and summarily voted out of office by Canadians when our country falls further down the rabbit hole.

The future consequences of Bill C-15...... welcome to The United States of Canada!

The "Green Flu" - An Interesting Suggestion (Updated!)

I was reading the comments on a Digg article when I came across this suggestion:

"I think all the people who smoke pot should skip work for a day, so we can watch the Internet, the music industry, the movie industry, the television industry, and the video game industry, come to a halt.

Let's call it the "Green Flu".

April 20th fast approaches, maybe we should do it then."

I've often thought of that myself, what would happen if everyone who uses Cannabis responsibly, whether it be for recreational or Medical use, called in sick on a specified day? Would many an industry see a decline in their workforce that day?

For creatives who may not work regular 9-5 jobs or perhaps work for themselves, they could just "take the day off". Also, be sure to not buy anything unnecessary - maybe Government would take notice if millions of Cannabis users and people who support an end to the Drug War and the re-legalization of Cannabis withheld their beloved Tax Dollars, even if for only one day.

Who knows? But now that I think about it.... I am feeling a little (sticky) icky......


Stoners.... we have jobs too!!!

Afraid your Boss might try and call you out on your coincidental "Green Flu" absence? Make a pre-emptive strike - tell'em two weeks beforehand that you have a personal appointment on the 20th. of April and you'll need that (chosen) date off. When "Green Flu" Day rolls around, you got it covered!

UPDATE! ~ An awesome Event, the First Annual 420 Strike on April 20, 2012 has been started on Facebook:

"In an effort to stop the insanity that has criminalized 25 MILLION of us in this country alone -- which means we are arresting over 800 THOUSAND people YEARLY and wrecking 2,000 lives on a DAILY BASIS we are proposing this First Annual 420 Strike on April 20, 2012.

On April 20, 2012 let your lack of money speak for you loudly and clearly! We will all join together and refuse to spend our money on any items or wares except those items that are directly connected to cannabis, made out of cannabis, hemp, marijuana or connect to an event that supports the marijuana movement.

It is only through our withholding our hard earned money that are we going to be able to show the government - we mean business!"

One of the events organizers is none other than Elvy Musikka.

"Elvy Musikka is one of 4 patients in the USA that has a federal medical marijuana prescription (NOT JUST A MEDICAL RECOMMENDATION). She is proposing this event to raise awareness on how medical marijuana can help patients throughout the country. Join her in this cause of working with the government on changing the prohibition of medical marijuana.

So join in wherever you are and help spread the word - "Not a penny on 420!"