The Responsible Serious Adults are forever rolling their eyes when this subject is broached, but screw them! This issue remains considerably bigger and more important that the run-of-the-mill RSA ever cares to consider, knowing everything like they do, ya know.
Well, another measure of how big cannabis relegalization is, why the Democratic Party MUST be the ones to fix this ridiculous situation (once they are done fully-supporting continuing it that is)is this "little" situation wherein Barney Frank has filed a bill to add some very limited and sp[specific changes to medical marijuana laws and the Bush Administration felt the need to crash his press conference and alienate pretty much everybody with his bizarre reefer mad screed.
All on the flip. (RSA's click here so you don't have to hear all this terrible talk.)
Now the RSA's can listen to an important and informative a traditional lecture on the eeeeeevils of marj-u-wanna, perhaps we can talk at some length about Bush drug warrior crashes pot press conference
The Office of National Drug Control Policy's "chief scientist" and two aides who were dispatched to provide instant rebuttal to Frank and the bill's cosponsors, all of whom acknowledged that marijuana was likely to remain very much illegal in the foreseeable future.
Given the bill's essentially non-existent chances of passage, ONDCP's Dr. David Murray's impassioned arguments that seemed more appropriate in Reefer Madness were greeted with plenty of puzzled glances.
First of all: if it weren't for Raw Story, I don't think this would have ever been reported - you KNOW how the MSM is: marijuana reform is a taboo subject for the airwaves, despite being a mainstream issue now. CNN has an article on Frank's bill, including the requisite crap cut from the DEA website and a standard "balancing statement" from Allen St. Pierre of NORML.
Actually, the CNN headline is quite misleading, party due to the ceaseless need for article titlers to seem witty: Legislators aim to snuff out penalties for pot use. That's not exactly what Frank's bill would do. It's a very specific set of changes to medical marijuana laws and that's it.
The article notes that the Republican Marijuana Propagandist brought several copies of the most recently updated marijuana propaganda. It is the SUCCESS of cannabis reform moving ever forward that prompts the Bush Adminsitration (the GOP) to have to crash in on Frank's press conference to inject their reefer mad bullshit into every last nook and cranny.
We see the importance of the propaganda effort clearly on display. Whenever ANY meaningful discussion of cannabis and cannabis reform starts up the media or the Government (GOP controlled - Don't give me that Democratic majority bullshit) it has to be smacked down and the scary lies we grew up have to be re-told and re-told and re-told.
This is why I sent the RSA's off to watch the reefer mad Joe Friday deliver a Resonsible, serious adult lecture on why marj-u-wanna is so bad and evil: because the RSA's still - amazingly - believe this shit! I think it's simply fear that keeps them at the back of the Awareness Bus.
I am truly sorry, but there is nothing at all responsible about believing bullshit and bragging about it.
Back to the article: Dr. Murray has a PhD. He's not a medical doctor. He's a trained and highly-paid mouthpiece for a failed republican policy that still enjoys more US government support than children's healthcare.
The Marijuana Policy Project's Rob Kampia, who stuck around to listen to Murray's post-press conference diatribe, said he suspected ulterior motives behind the propagandistic pontificating.
"Nothing's going to happen on this before he loses his job," the decriminalization advocate said, acknowledging that Frank's bill won't move forward until at least next year, when President Bush -- and his appointees -- would be out of office. "This is him emptying the clip."
Here we see the overarching need to have impeached Bush reflected again: from now until January 20th this ugly administration will be pulling out the stops and crashing through whatever remains of their agenda to utterly destroy this country.
Keeping the very unimportant marijuana plant illegal is a higher priority for the GOP than those who do not contemplate this issue can possibly imagine. We spend approximately $0 to $50 billion a year on the "drug war". I am told that $40 billion would fund a SCHIP-like program for more than 2 years.
Thus we can assert with confidence that enforcing pot laws directly prevents children from having access to healthcare. Good show! VERY Republican.
The "drug war" is about 90% marijuana prohibition, 10% about genuinely serious drug issues. Mostly its about enforcing the stupidity of reefer madness: laws against the cannabis plant, and maintenance of the propaganda stream, making sure that accurate information and genuine intelligent discussion are obliterated any time they break out.
That's why the highly-paid PhD liar was sent to crash Barney Frank's press conference: because Frank's bill represents serious, if incremental, progress in reforming these stupid cannabis laws.
Finally, the press conference gets information into the MSM, or at least sets up that risk. Team Bush sent the liar to disrupt the potential for proper information to see the MSM light of day.
Fixing cannabis laws ought to be a core element of Democratic party reform. It's a bad situation that can be fixed easily because it is entirely arbitrary. THere was never a salient reason to make pot illegal. People will cite a thousand reasons, none of them are remotely legitimate. It's all based on lies.
When we get verifiable factual assertions in the MSM, it will be like the collapse of Communism. When the lying finally stops the whole thing will just crash down.
Get on the right side of this issue now: you won't want to be one of those uncool people who keep on believing nonsense.....