Follow the Money

Our politicians play on our fears to make us more accepting of their waste of our precious lives and resources. Flushing $70 billion per year down the drug war drain fails to prevent cannabis, hemp or marijuana from being America's number one cash crop! For perspective, a billion minutes ago Jesus was alive. Flushing those billions of tax dollars failed to staunch the flow of black market drugs and made our teens more aware and curious about them!

"Over the lifetime of the drug war, we have given U.S. law enforcement more than $1 trillion to stop the flow of drugs." rants Dean Becker, Producer of Drug Truth Network. What a waste of precious lives and resources! Over that same period more than $10 trillion untaxed dollars flowed to terrorists, dangerous cartels and violent gangs.

Use those funds to fight violence, cut taxes, repair our crumbling infrastructure or pay back the I.O.U.s in social security's general fund!

According to Harvard economist Jeffery Miron, Texas (alone - one state ) spends $644,477,000 every year enforcing federal marijuana prohibition and loses potential tax revenue of $171,430,000. Philadelphia, one city, save $2 million in first year of not arresting nonviolent cannabis users.

Follow the money, if you are in business our drug policies are hurting you. The return on your investment is reduced, your expenses and taxes are higher, plus you face competitors financed by criminals enriched by our drug policies.

Drug abuse is a disease. Compassionate treatment is the answer. How can drug warriors look themselves in the mirror when across the US last year 38.8% of the murders, 60% of the rapes and 45.9% of the aggravated assaults became cold case files! The horrendous cumulative effect of this is becoming obvious. While we police individual recreational and medicinal use of drugs; murderers and violent sexual predators roam free.

Save the American Dream of self-government; free of tyranny and oppression! Construct science based drug policies about saving and rehabilitating instead of ruining lives.

Get tough on violent crime! Restore justice! Warriors can earn their pay and get their adrenaline rush solving homicides, molestations and rapes.

All major religions believe that life is sacred. The war on drugs devastates the lives of drug users and their families. People of all faiths and goodwill can stand together for more just and compassionate alternatives to the current senseless policy. What does the Bible say about cannabis?

Our founding fathers knew a great deal of God, the Bible, human nature, history and government. On that firm foundation, they made a major LEAP for freedom. Knowing our Christian heritage is key to remaining true to the "Spirit" of our constitution and to our founding father's vision of self-government leading to abundance - free of tyranny and oppression. Church, financial and government leaders have problems with addictions to power and money. Addiction is treatable in most cases.

In the spirit of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. with our Bible and Constitution always close at hand, "We will overcome," drug abuse with compassion, education and treatment. Support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with support for individual freedom, constitutional government and the teachings of Jesus. Leaders responsible for current quagmire will have to answer to a higher power for their crimes against humanity. It's time to end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable.

Changing whose in charge will not effect much. The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on downsizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and future generations. The World Trade Organization and the United Nations are more big government, money hungry beasts that we must tame or cut down to size.

I was one of over twelve hundred concerned citizens including many experts from around the globe who attended the 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference held in the French Quarter of New Orleans! Crossing the mighty Mississippi I imagined building bridges of tolerance to the differences in religion, race and lifestyle that flood our society. The statistics reveal that racism is epidemic in the drug war. Treatment of drug abuse saves precious lives and money.

Mark Plotkin, a renowned ethnobotanist and President of the Amazon Conservation Team gave a most informative presentation on natural medicines. He says he is living proof that Amazon nutmeg cures skin fungus which modern prescription medicines (currently available) treat but do not cure.

Another conference highlight for me was an as it happened report by Steph Sherer, Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access telling the audience that the House Judiciary Committee had just issued a statement condemning the DEA raids on cannabis dispensaries in California.

Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of Drug Policy Alliance is a passionate spokesperson for drug policy change. One of his thoughts on changing cannabis laws had to do with its ability to enhance sex. This drew laughter and the usual embarrassed titters that follow the mention of orgasmic sex in public. Cannabis medicines were once the “drugs of choice” in the United States. Until they were declared illegal, they had been used in about 30 prescription medicines for a 100 specific medical problems, without the bad side effects of current prescribed medications for these ills.

America, Intoxicated: Conference Tackles Disasters of the Drug War, current policies cause more harm than good. Ira Glasser, President of Drug Policy Alliance had a Point of View article in the Times-Picayune pointing out, "How the drug war targets black Americans." Here's more expansive coverage of the Conference.

Should Illegal Drugs be Legal? How about Prostitution? "I think the government's role should not be involved in personal habits. When you defend freedom, you defend freedom of choice, and you can't be picking and choosing how people use those freedoms . . .whether it's personal behavior or economic behavior, I want people to have freedom of choice," Ron Paul asserts. He also said we shouldn't treat addicts as criminals. "We treat 'em as criminals rather than sick people, we have pushed a lot of people into prostitution. So prostitution is related to the mistakes we've made in the drug war." Definitely, less poor souls would get stuck on skid row or in prostitution with compassionate policy offering helpful treatment.

Why don't more Americans vote? During the last four decades of presidential elections only 54 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots. America ranks 35th in voter turnout out of the world's prominent democracies. Our numbers are embarrassing compared to Italy's 90 percent, Germany's 80 percent, France and Canada's 76 percent, Britain's 75 percent and Japan's 71 percent.

Voters on the bottom rung of income and education in America are voting at rates half those of their wealthier, well-educated counterparts. Fueling this indifference are feelings of oppression, alienation, powerlessness and cynicism with no real hope for change. In Nevada, for example, 3,688 persons voted for "None of These Candidates" in the 2004 presidential election (Nevada is the only state that allows this option). Many around the country are so disenchanted with the American dream of self- government they rarely vote or just ignore the whole process.

The federal war on drugs is largely responsible for voter apathy. Getting children to snitch on their parents; getting parents to drug test and rat on their children; harassing the sick and dying is despicable and against American ideals. Prohibition tries to destroy families without compunction or compassion. There are millions of orphaned American children because of the drug war. It does destroy the family value of practicing health safety first.

Abstinence from recreational drugs is safest for all, especially youth but few will choose it. Parents do need to set an example for their children. However, most parents who use drugs and alcohol do not abuse them. They are responsible drug users, especially marijuana users as it is the safest choice.

Have you heard about the latest cancer study in California which showed that people who smoke marijuana are less at risk of developing lung cancer than tobacco smokers? Have you read what Cancer Monthly has to say about marijuana?

In a cannabis study on cancer conducted in 1974, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institute of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, instead found that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice - lung and breast cancer, and a virus-induced leukemia. The Drug Enforcement Agency shut down that study and buried that life saving information. In 2000, it was validated again when researchers in Madrid announced they had destroyed incurable brain tumors in rats by injecting them with THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

Some scientists speculate that cannabinoids play a protective role in the brain, slowing the rate of disease. A study has shown THC is far more effective than available Alzheimer's drugs to treat symptoms and halt the disease's progression. Ooooops! Who spilled the beans? Scientists and patients all over the world, that's who!

Alcohol prohibition taught us, when a drugs production and distribution is left to gangsters and cartels, it triggers more danger to users and society by increasing violent crime and corruption of public officials. It was called ''the noble experiment,'' but did we learn anything? The White House continues to ignore the lessons of history, and truth has been suppressed about marijuana's medicinal use, giving drug prohibition a very sinister aspect.

Tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals kill about 25% of the people who die each year in the US The drug war hysteria is created to take our minds off these legal killers we tolerate. Less than one 1 percent die from all illicit drug use, none, nada, no deaths are attributed to marijuana. Clearly, our policies are more about profit than the well being of the individual. Look at the cost of our medical care compared to our neighbors in Canada and Mexico. Most border violence is related to drug prohibition.

We can't keep drugs out of prisons or teacher's lounges, Eagle Scout's honor, we will never be a drug free America!

The Controlled Substances Act is one of those bad laws like the Fugitive Slave Act and the Volstead Act. When juries refuse to convict on "drug crime," drug warriors will be politically dead bodies. Jury nullification is a constitutional power tool we the people pack! These Amarillo Jurors ROCK!

"We said users were dealers. We lied about the amount. We lied about the street value." Said Jack Cole of LEAP, Law enforcement Against Prohibition and former undercover narcotics officer, at the 2005 International Drug Policy Reform Conference, in Long Beach, California. Discussion panelists were lawyers, judges, clergy, doctors as well as leaders of the many reform organizations.

What a shocking admission coming from former cops! No wonder so many in enforcement have problems with alcohol and commit suicide. Their job puts them in a constant double bind. In the '70s the real mission in American drug law enforcement changed from, "Serve and Protect" to, "Lie to Justify" (your salary). "We created our own monster, police have to take responsibility," said Jack Cole demonstrating his accountability as founder of LEAP.

While we certainly created a monster prison industry, the drug problem was blown out of proportion by these lies. Less than 15% of us (American's 12 and over) have used an illicit drug during the previous year according to the most recent (2004) National Survey on Drug Use and Health. All illicit drugs are 10% addicting except marijuana. If ten percent of those users are addicts (abusers) then only 1.5% of us are not responsible drug users. Less than 1% if cannabis users are counted as responsible users as they should be.

.Our prisons are full of minorities and the poor. The drug laws replaced the segregation laws for those with racist inclinations in power, in some cases. Mostly it's less sinister but just as devastating. Simply put, we are all products of our conditioning or experience. If asked, most of us agree all men are created equal. However, a fascinating tool called the Implicit Association Test, IAT shows more than 80% of all those (of all races) who have ever taken it have pro-white associations. We have to train our decision makers to overcome their conditioning. Most of us have pro-tall associations because in the past we wanted be able to see our leaders on the battlefield. We can overcome our conditioning. You can take IATs at www.implicit.harvard.edu.

More members of minorities are needed at the movement's grassroots level. The National African American Drug Policy Coalition is made up of 254,000 black professional association members and growing daily.

Being poor is the key factor to prison population. The poor, no matter what color, receive little legal council of any use. "In America you can have all the freedom and justice money can buy you." Says Rusty White, another recovering drug warrior from LEAP.

"That wiser strategy understands how dramatic reductions in global poverty and effective responses to crises such as the HIV/AIDS pandemic are both morally required and critical to our security. And in those struggles, the worlds religious communities could provide the "tipping point" for change. In an era aflame with war, the gospel vocation of peacemaker has never been more important." - Jim Wallis author of "God's Politics". He says the religious right's Bible is full of holes! They have taken out all references to helping the poor and oppressed.

"In 2000, after a decade of unparalleled prosperity, it was somehow not a campaign issue that 13.5 million children, one out of every five, were hungry; and that three out of four of the hungry children had parents who work. Nor was welfare of $125 billion a year to politically-wired corporations and industries. Nor was the massive transfer of cash, securities and other assets to foreign tax havens." Morton Mintz wants that to change, don't you?

The core problem is poverty. If we must wage war, let's defeat this age old enemy. As our founding fathers did, all libertarian thinkers believe in individual freedom and the free market. Less government is the best, only enough to protect us from violence and fraud, with no government poverty program or welfare redistribution of the wealth. Freed from our excessive tax burdens more of us could afford to donate to carefully chosen trustworthy charities. Philanthropists, churches and other humanitarian organizations would be able to win a war on global poverty, one life at a time.

"The Improving State of the World:: Why We're Living Longer, Healthier, More Comfortable Lives on a Cleaner Planet," is a guide to how human well-being has steadily improved with economic growth, technological change, and free trade combining to power a “cycle of progress” that has led to unprecedented improvements in human well-being.

Increases in the food supply have reduced chronic undernourishment in developing countries from 37% in 1970 to 17% in 2001, despite an overall 83% growth in their populations. The real global price of food commodities has declined 75% since 1950. Yet percentages here are decieving because this chart shows that the actual number of starving people has increased.

Economic freedom has increased in 102 of the 113 countries for which data is available for both 1990 and 2000. Disability in the older population of such developed countries as the U.S., Canada, France, are in decline. Between 1970 and the early 2000s, the global illiteracy rated dropped from 46 to 18 percent.

View Charts from the Book
1. Infant Mortality Rates
2. Life Expectancy
3. Global Poverty
4. Overall Improvement in Human Well-Being

Both as world citizens and as individuals we must learn to love ourselves to be happy and truly at peace. We can celebrate our similarities and be tolerant of our differences in matters of race, religion and life style.

Churches are coming on board. Twenty-two for sentencing reform, fourteen for educational opportunities and the United Methodist Church, Progressive National Baptist Convention, United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist Association, Episcopal Church and the Union for Reform Judaism, all have supportive positions on medical use of marijuana.

"Prohibition is the problem, the solution is regulation and control. God made the cocoa, opium and cannabis plants. The UN's (150 nations) drug strategy is officially committed to eradicating these plants, that are evidence of God's mercy and compassion, from the planet. The attendees of the conference are safely back home working for policies based on sound reasoning, filled with compassion, returning true justice to our system. Self-government, the bold vision of our founders is an idea whose time has come to stay for good in America and the world!

A UNITED NATIONS report concludes:"Overall there seems to be a high correlation between human development and human freedom. Freedom seems to have unleashed the creative energies of the people.... and leads to even higher levels of income and social progress."

Marijuana is a miracle medicine for many, the only plant that mimics the way our bodies try to maintain balance! Yet, those who worship the almighty dollar have demonized it. Greed rules America!

Patients all over the world testify to Cannabis' help in treating chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, gastrointestinal (GI) tract disorders and HIV/AIDS!

Texas polled at 75% overall for medical marijuana. At the center or heart of this great state that number jumped to 83%!

The oppression of the poor/racism, corruption and uncaring destruction of lives to make a buck or feed an addiction to power is a bigger disgrace than sex in the oval office. In our name leaders have- sent our brave troops to die for oil, -taken funds from disaster preparedness for oil, -shamed, destroyed families, locked up and killed many ( including enforcement) all over a choice in a harmless recreational/medicinal drug, while allowing more pharmaceutical killers on the market.

War is a tool governments use to make us more agreeable to their waste of our precious lives and resources. War creates a booming economy for some on the suffering of many. The Iraq war and drug war are a smokescreen for corruption but something smells rotten! Politics and money, is there a way to separate them?

Our politicians excel at distorting reality. Big corporations control our government. Oil and finance back the Irag war against their competitors. We love our troops! They have been misled. I hope church leaders, independent Texans and all self-governors will consider this information:

The United States has about 500,000 nonviolent drug offenders behind bars, more people than are imprisoned in the European Union for all offenses and they have 100 million more people.

The,"World Prison Population List" (seventh edition), by Roy Walmsley is out with the latest available information. The US holds top ranking again at 738 poor folks imprisoned per 100,000 people. Our closest competitor Russia locks up 611 out every 100,000 of their comrades. Texas has an imprisonment rate pushing 1,000 souls caged out of every 100,000. No country, no dictatorship on this planet is as comfortable locking people up as the state of Texas

U.S. police arrested an estimated 873,000 persons for marijuana violations in 2007, according to the latest FBI annual Uniform Crime Report. That total, the highest ever recorded for marijuana violations, made up 42.1 percent of all drug arrests.

"After millions of people arrested and incarcerated, it is clear that the "war on drugs" has reshaped the way America responds to crime and ushered in an era of instability and mistrust in countless communities." According to a new report from the Sentencing project, a half million poor souls are presently incarcerated for drug offenses. Drug abusers deserve medical help. Instead we lock them in prison, a breeding ground for crime.

Annual marijuana arrests have more than doubled since the early 1990s. In spite of that, cannabis, hemp or marijuana is America's number one cash crop!.

Texas increased its spending on cell blocks by 346% between 1986 and 2000. During that same period spending for higher education increased 47%.

The drug war obviously exacerbates, rather than reduces, racial prejudice! The White incarceration rate nationwide was 393 per 100,000, Latino-957 and Black-2,531. Texas number of offenders supervised per 100,000 is 34.8% higher than the national average, incarcerating 3,734 Blacks, 1,152 Latinos and 694 Whites out of every 100,000 people, as of February 2005.

Shame on our system, it reeks! Harvey Silverglate, a Boston defense lawyer, says the rewards for informers encourages them "not only to sing, but to compose."

Prison is not the answer to drug use. Bob Owens, a former police chief in Oxnard, California, regards soft drugs such as marijuana "as too unimportant to use manpower" on. He calls the war on drugs "a straw-man that can distract people and stir the hysteria that accompanies it." Owens is a member of LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Prohibition policy creates the black market and triggers violence. Why not truthfully educate our young, treat our addicts and respect the rights of adults to chose their recreation/medicinal intoxicant. We would all be safer, especially our young. Law Enforcement would have more time to protect them.

The truth about drugs will keep our children off them. Sound medical and unbiased scientific knowledge are the most effective moral persuasions. Present policy falsehoods and scare tactics undermined our credibility.

Educators shouldn't offer too much information. We want to encourage drug free behavior not awaken their curiosity. Scare tactics and fear don't work as well as truth, trust and reason.

Drug testing does not build trust between the students and faculty. If there is a real problem with a child using or having been recruited to sell to his peers the current policy is too harsh because the best way to fight drugs in schools is with compassion, treatment and as little embarrassment and public shame as possible. The children involved will be much more likely to grow up as good citizens if treated in this way.

No legitimate business lasts long that kills their customers or shoots the competition. No legitimate business would sell drugs to children or recruit them to sell to their peers. This happened during alcohol prohibition and it is happening today. Once again, prohibition creates more danger to the user and society by increasing violent crime and official corruption.

Prohibition is responsible for children growing up with a total lack of respect for the Constitution and for the law.'' This statement made during the prohibition of alcohol by Pauline Morton Sabin, president of the Woman's National Republican Club from 1921 to 1926 is true today as well.. The Wickersham Report (1930) on alcohol Prohibition, "Official Lawlessness," emphasized corruption!

Current policy attracts those interested in working in a corrupt system and milking it, thereby creating a pervasive disrespect for the law. Our constitution is based on Christian principals. Constitutional policy would attract more of those interested in making things run with the milk of human kindness. Support for the federal war on drugs is inconsistent with support for individual freedom, constitutional government and the teachings of Jesus.