In the twenty first century, humanity can access knowledge from global computer information networks. We can hurl satellites into space to land on distant planets, and we can heard crowds of people onto great flying machines to travel across the expansive oceans. But, science still has NO standard model for human consciousness. Modern science can describe how the Sun works, but we can't do the same with the human mind. Even the best evolutionary biologists can only speculate on how the human mind evolved.

Yet, the fact remains that PLANTS, and countless varieties of plants at that, can produce chemicals that mimic the action of neurotransmitters in the human nervous system. Not just that, plants produce the neurotransmitter analogues of ALL animals, including insects. How has this come about? There is only one correct answer.

EVOLUTION (either that, or an Intelligent Designer made it so).

One may state logically and accurately that plants represent the foundation of all animal life on Earth, if for no other reason than plants are the foundation of the animal food chain. Every food that a human eats is either directly or indirectly connected to plants.

So, in light of the hundreds of millions of years that PLANTS and ANIMALS have co-evolved together, it is no surprise that profound symbiotic relationships exist between flowering plants and animal nervous systems.

The human nervous system is driven by the chemical signatures of alkaloids and hormones alike. Is it a coincidence that the human nervous system produces cannabinoids like the "illegal" THC produced by marijuana, or endorphins like the opiates produced by poppies, or tryptamines produced by countless plants, such as Psychotria, Punica, Delosperma, and mushrooms? There is no coincidence; instead, the fact that these plants produce mammalian nervous signalers is an indication that humans and these "drug" producing plants have shared an evolutionary relationship for a very long time.

Cannabis has been a botanical resource for humans since pre-historic times. The same is true for Coca, iboga, mushrooms, peyote, and many other "illegal" plants. Before the onset of "modern history", these "illegal" plants were integral to many native cultures in the form of medicines, "money", foods, and resources for accessing "the divine." In such a context, these plants have many thousands of years of ethnobotanical definition that are contrary to the definitions of the Controlled Substances Act produced by Congress in 1970.

Today, most Americans think "marijuana" is an addictive, dangerous drug. This conclusion is not reasonable, or logical relative to the evolutionary facts of Cannabis. Just a century ago, Cannabis was used as an industrial and medicinal resource on EVERY continent that supports human life. That was before powerful politicians began banning it around the globe under false definitions based more on racism than scientific fact.

Still, today, more people have died from the enforcement of marijuana prohibition than from marijuana itself... American citizens, cops, and mentally ill individuals alike... all for a LIE. As a citizen of the U.S., this makes me sick. As someone who seeks truth, pursues the methodologies of scientific investigation, and works hard to understand better that which we do not know, I am deeply angered that my "constitutional" government would distort the truth and senselessly ruin the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans just to support misinformed and racist LAWS that ONLY obfuscate the pursuits of science, religion, history, and medicine.

THIS HAS GOT TO STOP!!!

There is a reason why America is facing an economic crisis. There is a reason why Americans struggle with paying for healthcare, and medicines that are easy to profit from. There is a reason why our "free" nation leads the world in prison incarcerations. There is a reason why we do not understand our own minds. We have BLINDED ourselves to our own biological history. We have censored our own economies, and we have limited our access to natural medicines. Under the Controlled Substances Act, we have embraced dogma, and political oppression at the expense of the objective search for truth.

So, Cannabis is illegal, but Datura, Solandra, and Ipomoea are legal. Coca is illegal, but coffee, tobacco, and synthetic pharmaceutical amphetamines are legal. Peyote is illegal, but Trichocerus, Delosperma, and Acacia seeds are legal. The point is, CLEARLY, Congress did not do its research when it wrote and enacted the C.S.A., and we have a troubled nation drowning in drug-related crime and debt as a result. Never mind the overcrowded prisons, the increase in gang violence, or the incarceration of the mentally ill. Instead, Congress needs to reform the Controlled Substances Act, if for no other reason, because state and federal officials, including law enforcement, are losing civil integrity and suppressing the ideals of the Social Contract.

The only people that benefit from "drug prohibition" are narco-cartels, organized crime, and those with a vested interest in creating and processing criminals. This is not any basis of a "free, constitutional" society. In a time of global and national economic crisis, we can not afford to create or enforce maladaptive laws.

Why does the plant Cannabis produce a family of chemicals that regulate nervous function in the human nervous system? Why is THC illegal, when the endogenous cannabinoid analoge "anandamide" is legally tolerated as it naturally occurs in human breast milk? The answers to these questions deserve our attention. This is why reforming our understanding of "drugs" is change we MUST believe in.

The prohibition of drugs in America has its roots in racism. Neither it, nor the so-called "war on drugs" was ever meant to protect anyone from anything, except, perhaps, paranoid whites from the minorities they oppress. In fact, there isn't, and never has been, a war on drugs -- there's a war, all right, but even its name is a lie -- it's a war on people. You don't wage war on people to protect them. You wage war on people to take what they have or destroy it. When drug czars say that the war is being won, it's the one thing they are NOT lying about.

rita wrote:

The prohibition of drugs in America has its roots in racism.

Yes.

racism, and still, censorship, and an obsession with obtaining political power through the promotion of paranoia, none of which have any validity under the U.S. Constitution.

Still, taxpayers keep paying for the War on Drugs, as if it worked, or had any substantial moral basis. Americans are crazy for tolerating this.

Lets see, if cannabis were legal:
-farmers could make their own diesel to fuel the tractors
- truckers could fuel the big rigs with a fuel that isn't also a major food crop
-American farmers would benefit from the sale of hemp oil foods (instead of the Canadians).
-America's sick and elderly could grow their own natural, non-toxic medicine with a broad spectrum of healing applications ( afterall, they are smart enough to own guns and drive cars, they should be smart enough to use a plant effectively).
-American industries and businesses could produce paper, boxes, clothing, rope, and thousands of other products from a crop that grows almost everywhere, and doesn't require a lot of fertilizers or even water for that matter.
- and those American farmers would have a crop that can organically regenerate burned out or locked soil, instead of sterilizing the soil with synthetic fertilizers.

This is what Americans could do if Congress reformed just a few racist laws. But, sometimes the reasonable thing to do is the hardest to understand (especially for crowds). This is convenient for government, especially ones bent on controlling social perspectives.

So, for now, our government thinks We the People are too stupid to be able to use Cannabis sativa safely (even though humans have used cannabis for thousands of years), and the government might be right (but not really). Most Americans are government educated anyway, and this is where the vicious cycle begins.

It's not about the drug; it's about the choice. The relative merits and/or dangers of using specific drugs DON'T MATTER.

The war on drugs is being waged against all of us, not just pot smokers. Sure, marijuana's a great drug, and those who deny its comfort to the sick are sadistic monsters. But making it available by prescription only STILL gives those sadists control over your body. And legalizing marijuana while leaving other drugs prohibited will only turn the full fury of the war on the rest of us.

Any person considered competent enough to vote, marry, raise children, drive a car, pilot a plane and carry a gun should be considered competent enough to decide what substances to put into his or her own body.

whoever thought making plants illegal was a good idea, or pragmatic even, this person was an idiot... and still, today, there are lot's of idiots running around making and enforcing laws... too many idiots.

it's a damn shame.

What kind of idiot thinks it's a good idea to kick in people's doors in the middle of the night, shoot their dogs and point guns at their children, just because their drugs of choice are different? What kind of idiots think it's a good idea to put people in prison for years for victimless activities?

At the risk of being jumped on, it's not totally victimless, it's just that the victims are the users themselves. This is not to say that some of them can't manage their usage, I guess some can. So those people are not quite victimizing themselves (their bodies) to the extent that someone with little-to-no self control does. Then we possibly enter into the "biological" and "rights" discussion, which I will readily admit 1) I am not a doctor and don't have deep medical knowledge and 2) I acknowledge people's right to do to themselves what they will. (But I have a few lines from Pink Floyd's "The Wall" in my mind.)

With regard to the drug of choice. While there are many people who take great pride in not doing any "drug," no matter how minor (coffee, soda, even aspirin) I would venture a guess that some percentage of them are adrenaline addicts. And the victims of many adrenaline addicts are often others as much as themselves.

sourmonkey, I agree with you. Your using a variation of one of Obama's slogans reminds me of this post by AnthonyTollis, here:
www.leap.cc/cms/index....=1388#1388

You can read the various responses to it after it.

Basically the theory is that Barack wants to wait until his second term to tackle this issue. Of course, there aren't many people in this forum who would advise that.

Some worry that Barack is worried about racial stereotypes that will most definitely come from many directions. Lousy logic that will sound like this, "blacks just want to do drugs and he's doing this just to help his druggie friends."

Speaking as someone who was a nerd before it was cool to be one, as you get older, you deal with lies being thrown at you and you ignore them and do what's right because you've come to the conclusion that ______ is right. Even if someone is tossing bogus reasons around for the motives.

I feel certain Barack has reached, or gone beyond, the level of maturity to needed to cope with skinhead slander. I feel sorry for adults who get their nose out of joint when another adult engages in "name calling."

So my questions from that post still stand:
Who is pressuring him to "back off?" What special interest groups are running interference for other special interest groups to make this seem less important, or to distract us?

If he's looking to cut a lot of waste from the budget, I think we know where some of that can be done. And it's going to take a real leader to deal with the issue of releasing the many prisoners in jail on non-violent drug charges, and finding them gainful employment.

At the risk of sounding like I wrote this to toot my own horn, I have some ideas already. Teach many of them the various blue-collar trades, turn some of those 77 prisons TX built in the 1990's into vocational schools of sorts. Teach them remodeling, plumbing, electrical work, etc... right on the facility they are living in; remodel them in to vocational schools to teach others!

Next, instead of worrying too much about the "smart grid" and keeping huge mega corpses power over us, with regard to supplying us electricity, spend money on a REAL investment. Pay 100% of the cost to install "vertical axis wind turbines" (aka a small windmill that goes on a house) on every building where it makes sense. Let the building dwellers receive the free energy and what's not used is sold back to the grid. The govt. gets all the funds of electricity sold back to the grid to recoup 200% of its initial investment, so they actually make money from it. It helps us little people, it's "green energy" and much more. (Note that VAWT are not propeller-style blades but more like the vents you see on roof tops.)

You can read my short essay I wrote to Barack:
http://NewOldSalt.com/Idea_Focusing_on_Green_Energy_and_Jobs_for_Stimulus__Govt_Invests_in_VAWT
There are links to YouTube videos as well, showing them in action.

We would have all loved to hear Barack come out the day after the innaugration and legalize but I think we all also knew that wouldn't happen. He hasn't even been in office a full two months! While this is the biggest thing on our plates, it's not necessarily the biggest on his. He needs time and we need to give it to him.

He's already made a statement, through the AG, that he would make policy the non-invasion of Compassionate States. And they're starting to line up. New Jersey is poised to become #14, with Illinois and Minnesota in progress. And we'll see more and more states get involved within his first term.

While I, too, would like to hear the term "legalized," I am of the opinion that we first have to prove our position through the medical avenue. Sure, it'll take longer but it's a process we've not seen before.

"Give me, give me, now, now, now" isn't going to happen and you know it. It takes time. I doubt any of you eat a Big Mac in one bite. Let alone, a full steak dinner. Obama is opening doors for us to walk through. That's obvious. I'm paying attention to the little things he's doing, rather than the media-hyped big things. He didn't make all states "Compassionate." He opened the door for them to become "Compassionate." It may not be tomorrow but tomorrow is a lot closer than it was yesterday.

EZ

ez I agree with you.

It is good to hear of many states' recent actions to finally acknowledge that marijuana has medial uses. I was deeply saddened when I heard about the musician from VT who had nausea, then got gangrene from the drugs they gave her for it. (I wrote a few paragraphs about this on the web, about how green ganja is better than gangrene.) (I'm going to guess that most folks on this board are aware that for decades people have smoked it to alleviate nausea.)

The more states that take this action, the more palatable it will be for those in Washington.

But there is another problem that everyone knows about, and that is what's happening in Mexico. On the News Hour with Jim Lehrer last night Napolitano (Homeland Security) discussed this a little and avoided a lot!

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/politics/jan-june09/nepolitano_03-04.html - Transcript

Circumstances are forcing this to a head sooner rather than later. Like John Lennon sang, "life is what happens when you're busy making plans."

I'm also of the opinion that the sooner he tackles this the better the chances are things will settle down before the next election. If he tries this in his 3rd or 4th year, certainly it will be harder to win a second term.

BTW - I've written them a bunch recently telling them to invite LEAP on their show and to take their message seriously. Please let me encourage everyone here to as well. Just look for the Feedback link at the bottom of the web page.

NewOldSalt wrote:

At the risk of being jumped on, it's not totally victimless, it's just that the victims are the users themselves. This is not to say that some of them can't manage their usage, I guess some can.

Who gets to say whether I can handle my own usage or not? And if I'm the victim, why do I go to prison? If you break into my house and steal my TV, I call the cops, they go arrest you. They're protecting the public from a thief and either getting my TV back or making you pay restitution. If I'm the victim of my own drug use, who calls the cops? Any witnesses will likely be involved in the crime, so "law enforcement" becomes a matter of sneaking around, peeking in windows, listening to rumors and paying informants. And who are they protecting by putting the victim in jail? Should I go to jail when you steal my TV? Why should I go to jail for possibly hurting myself?

In any case, no drug in the world is dangerous enough to warrant the level of violence used in drug raids.

I understand that reforming drug laws is a step-by-step basis, what with all the saving face and reluctance to admit wrong-doing. It's just that someone needs to hold unconstitutional policies to the fire, and the politicians that support these policies too.

possessing illegal plants that have been used by humans for thousands of years is a stupid crime. Distorting facts, censoring science, promoting propaganda, and using inhumane force to support inhumane laws, these are far greater crimes against civil liberty, and our government is responsible for this. someone needs to hold the government responsible. otherwise, step by step, we will continue to lose constitutional civil liberty.