Just Say Know Weekly News: 3/8/08

[Courtesy of Just Say Know] Visit Our Web Site: If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home If you’re using any other web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html Please pass this message on to ALL your contacts in the USA and ask them to join our mailing list using the form on our website. THANK YOU! We never share email addresses from our mailing list with anyone. Just Say Know works on your behalf toward drug policy reform, preserving and re-instating your legal rights. Drug policy and enforcement tactics are out of control and removing your rights at an alarming rate. Your financial contributions are greatly appreciated. To make a donation reply to this message with “donation” in the subject line and an associate will contact you by return email. Thank you for your consideration. Don’t hesitate to contact us by replying to this message; we appreciate your comments, questions and concerns. Together we will make a difference! The drug war is being used as an excuse to remove your rights, steal your property destroy your ability to earn a living and many other harms to citizens and society. There’s a mountain of evidence supporting the need for policy reform that makes citizens, their family, their livelihood and their property more secure. One very good first step will be taking away the ability of criminals to profit from cannabis. How? Just like it was done with alcohol, remove the prohibition and regulate legal adult use. As soon as alcohol prohibition ended, the crime and violence caused by alcohol prohibition ended. The year alcohol prohibition was repealed violent crime fell by sixty five percent. Tell your friends about the "Enough is Enough" petition to stop the reckless overuse of SWAT tactics and save the lives of civilians and police alike. This petition is sponsored by: StoptheDrugWar.org Click here for details. Feature Story: YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS DENIED BY THE DRUG WAR In the next few weeks we’ll be looking at several Constitutional rights and how the drug war has been used to remove them. This week we look at: FREE SPEECH Freedom of speech is being eroded in the name of the drug war, retaining this right is one of the primary benchmarks that define a free society. When government seeks to infringe on this right it’s a major step toward a tyrannical policy which we must not tolerate. The “bong hits for Jesus” case is a flagrant example of the wrong direction our policy is sometimes taking. In that case a high school student displayed a banner reading “bong hits for Jesus” in an attempt to catch the attention of news cameras. The act was nothing more than a youthful prank intended for no other purpose than to get his banner on the news. Morse v. Frederick, 127 S. Ct. 2618 (2007), was the result. A First Amendment student free speech case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that a school principal may, consistent with the First Amendment, restrict student speech at a school event when that speech is “reasonably viewed as promoting illegal drug use”. This banner in no way promoted drug use. A bong is sometimes used for smoking drugs but can also be used for smoking tobacco. The word “hits” is used to refer to taking a puff and also does not necessarily refer exclusively to drug use. Although the action in this case was a prank and obviously had nothing to do with any political issue, the right of students or any citizen to make a statement or express an opinion is necessary to allow for views about existing policy to be considered, discussed and changed when appropriate. Right now in the “land of the free” someone is being charged with a “drug crime” every 17 seconds. Any law that causes the arrest of non-violent otherwise law abiding citizens in such frequency is in dire need of revision. Students are often on the front line of policy change when their government chooses to follow a harmful path. Such was certainly the case with the Vietnam War. Young people had a major influence on ending that war. Restricting the voice of our students about illegal drugs is a direct move toward government oppression and promoting government policy against the will of the people. Since this ruling interprets the use of the words on the banner to promote drug use and particularly cannabis, it raises interesting questions. Cannabis has been proven to be one of the safest drugs and possibly the safest drug known. In all of recorded history there has never been a death attributed to the drugs in cannabis. We permit the use of aspirin, caffeine, alcohol and tobacco which kill thousands of Americans each year, so are we truly in danger because of cannabis which has never killed anyone? In the “bong hits for Jesus” case the “dangers of illegal drug use” was mentioned many times. There simply are no significant dangers from the use of cannabis. Here’s another notable free speech case. At issue in ACLU et al., v. Norman Y. Mineta (civil action no. 04-0262) was the constitutionality of Section 177 of a federal spending bill regarding the protection of the First Amendment. The law, known as the "Istook Amendment," cut off more than $3 billion in federal funding from local transit authorities nationwide that accept advertisements critical of current marijuana laws. The coalition of national drug policy reform groups filed the lawsuit on February 18, 2004 after the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority rejected an advertisement they submitted that criticized marijuana laws. "This victory is just one of many recent legal victories for the drug policy reform movement," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. "From overturning federal infringements on free speech to declaring DEA raids on medical marijuana patients unconstitutional, courts are realizing that the war on drugs is really a war on the Bill of Rights and they're striking down the excesses of the drug war left and right." These cases and many others over illegal drugs and Constitutional rights provide evidence of the lengths prohibitionists will go to in their quest for tyranny and profits. Since they’ve managed to influence our lawmakers into blindly following lies, and myths rather than seeking out the truth, the only way this will change is with your help. It is imperative that you contact your elected representatives and make them aware of the truth about drugs and how you feel about losing your rights to the drug war. Right now our lawmakers are hearing a lot more from prohibitionists than they are from those of us seeking drug policy reform. One of the best civic duties you can participate in is contacting your elected officials at least once a month and bringing the problems with the drug war to their attention. Be sure you know the truth about the issues. Your going to get the same old answers, so be prepared. Visit our web site and learn the truth so you can pass it on to lawmakers. You will be amazed at how often they recite political drug war propaganda such as “marijuana is a gateway drug”. When you hear that lie you can and should quell it immediately. An easy way to do that is to ask if that representative ever used aspirin, caffeine, alcohol or tobacco, or knows anyone who did. When they answer yes, ask if the use of those deadly drugs caused the user to begin using more harmful drugs, when they say no tell them; “most people use those drugs before using cannabis, so if they are not gateway drugs, why do you believe cannabis is?” If there is anything at all to the gateway theory it lies in the legal status of cannabis and it being controlled because of prohibition by gangsters who often sell many different illegal drugs which despite the drug war are easily accessible. Your right to free speech is under attack as you can see by just the two cases sited in this article. Free speech is the right that gives you the ability to voice your opinion to your elected officials about unfair laws without fear of persecution. Contact your representatives and USE IT before prohibitionists take free speech away from you, which they are working hard to do. The research we’ve done documents beyond a shadow of a doubt that the illegal status of cannabis was brought about by lies told on the floor of the senate. The cannabis plant has tens of thousands of uses in products which could benefit society. Cannabis continues to be illegal not because it’s a dangerous drug but most likely in order to prevent it from competing with the interests of oil companies, timber companies, alcohol companies, chemical companies and others that gain financially from cannabis prohibition. We could all benefit from this renewable natural resource which is safer for the environment than thousands of the legal but harmful and sometimes deadly materials it could replace. Cannabis is also a threat to pharmaceutical companies due to its medical uses and vast degree of safety when compared to FDA approved drugs that it replaces. All of these well financed special interest groups lobby Congress to protect their profits. As long as our elected officials don’t hear from the people the illegal status of cannabis will go on. Someone is needlessly arrested over cannabis alone about every 38 seconds in the USA. Since 12:00 AM January 1, 2008 over 158,600 people have been arrested in the USA on cannabis charges, mostly for simple possession. These people will have a permanent criminal record that will follow them the rest of their life. Even if they are found innocent they will still have an arrest record. It will almost certainly have negative affects on their ability to get and keep a job. This is just one example of how the drug war is doing more harm than the drugs it is trying to prohibit. Sources that contributed to this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morse_v._Frederick http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm http://www.mpp.org/news/press-releases/following-legal-challenge-from-aclu-and-drug-policy-reform-group.html Be sure to click “Issues Need Your Immediate Attention” on our home page and use the links to locate and email your representatives about the Hinchey-Rohrabacher medical marijuana amendment which will prohibit the Department of Justice from using any funds to interfere with state medical marijuana laws. If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home If you’re using any other web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html The United States now has more people incarcerated than any other country on earth, far ahead of even more populous China. About half the prisoners are prisoners of the drug war. Does this sound like “The Land of the Free” to you? Its time to take action! Contact your elected representatives and tell them to end the drug war. You can look up your representatives by visiting our website and clicking “Tools” in the site map. If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home If you’re using any other web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html This country is still governed by the people but if you sit around waiting on someone else, it may be your door that gets kicked in, it may be you that ends up losing life, liberty, freedom, property and more, it may be you that gets shot by the government, it may be your children, money, livelihood or property that get taken away for possessing an herb created and given to you by God according to the Bible. The Bible was considered to be the inspired Word of God by the vast majority of the founding fathers of the United States and was used as a reference for writing many of our laws. Thanks to the drug war private property is sometimes confiscated with no evidence and no legal recourse. If you think this is a fairytale or only happens by mistake, or is a rare occurrence go here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/readings/hidden.html "Anyone concerned about the failure of our $69 billion-a-year War on Drugs should watch this 12-minute program. You will meet front line, ranking police officers who give us a devastating report on why it cannot work. It is a must-see for any journalist or public official dealing with this issue."-- Walter Cronkite, commenting on a video produced by “LEAP” Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. We think it’s a must see for every voter in the country too. If you haven’t seen it yet take a few minutes and view it now using this link: http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Content&pid=28 You can get a wealth of information by visiting our web site and clicking “Web Links” in the site map. If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home If you’re using any other web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html