We spent the better part of Sunday working on the Omega Project. It was important that we put some finishing touches on the site before Valentine's Day. Why Valentine's Day? It's easy. Someone I love smokes marijuana. Someone I love is sick and cannabis makes them feel better. Someone I love will suffer and succumb to their illness without access to cannabis.
Floridians deserve to have access to cannabis if they are sick. 33% of America's live in a state that protects them from police when they use cannabis as medicine.
Last week, we had another legal support call. The man is over 60 years old, a retired vet - 23 years in the service of our country. He was arrested with less than 1 ounce of cannabis, he is facing a $1000 fine and upto 1 year in jail. He has traumatic brain damage due to his exposure to radiation in the service. How are we safer by using police resources to arrest him, tax dollars to prosecute and jail space to house him?
So - we launched the site yesterday. It has some bugs and areas we want to flesh out, but the new board is coming together, which means more voices to share their ideas here in After Thoughts.
I'm Excited about the Omega Project. The beginning of the end. You know why we need to end cannabis prohibition and we know how. It's time.
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Friday, February 12, 2010
That’s a Felony Folks
I was looking at a brief in Join Together, an on-line journal chronicling changes in drug policy, about raising the tax on cigarettes one dollar per pack. Ten dollars on a carton, in addition to the already high taxes in some markets means the illegal trade of cigarettes is about to blossom.
As a teen-ager I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, a small town outside of Dayton on the verge of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We were close enough to the borders of Kentucky and Indiana to take advantage of the discounted prices for alcohol and tobacco. We knew to buy a dozen cartons of cigarettes when we passed through – saving five or six dollars per carton, the cost in North Carolina – if you were going that far was even cheaper.
Indiana had great places to buy beer. Apparently, we weren’t the only one who took advantage of the border to get cheap beer – all the stores limited the amount cases you could buy. Luckily, there were plenty of stores to buy from before heading back across the border.
We bought beer and cigarettes for our own consumption and the savings we made were all part of funding the road trip. The people who chose to bring the legal products, beer and cigarettes back to Dayton and sell them (at cost or at a profit, it doesn’t matter) were criminals.
So what about the 9 billion dollars we can raise with that cigarette tax? Well, I still live near an Air Force base and I’m here to tell you, those service boys buy cigarettes on base at the commissary and sell then to friends without base privileges. That is a felony folks.
Diverting a legal drug into an illegal market is a crime.
As consumers, we have to be a reasoned voice that our lawmakers hear. I don’t smoke cigarettes but I know that when we place such a high premium on products, an underground marketplace is created. Underground economies, such as the illegal drug market, may fuel communities, but it also fuels violence. Illegal economies settle disputes with guns.
The tragedy of our good intentions is that when we increase the taxes, or worse yet prohibit the commodity, you create an uncontroled market. The economics of buying low and selling high is the American way. Trouble is that is a felony folks.
As a teen-ager I lived in Beavercreek, Ohio, a small town outside of Dayton on the verge of Wright Patterson Air Force Base. We were close enough to the borders of Kentucky and Indiana to take advantage of the discounted prices for alcohol and tobacco. We knew to buy a dozen cartons of cigarettes when we passed through – saving five or six dollars per carton, the cost in North Carolina – if you were going that far was even cheaper.
Indiana had great places to buy beer. Apparently, we weren’t the only one who took advantage of the border to get cheap beer – all the stores limited the amount cases you could buy. Luckily, there were plenty of stores to buy from before heading back across the border.
We bought beer and cigarettes for our own consumption and the savings we made were all part of funding the road trip. The people who chose to bring the legal products, beer and cigarettes back to Dayton and sell them (at cost or at a profit, it doesn’t matter) were criminals.
So what about the 9 billion dollars we can raise with that cigarette tax? Well, I still live near an Air Force base and I’m here to tell you, those service boys buy cigarettes on base at the commissary and sell then to friends without base privileges. That is a felony folks.
Diverting a legal drug into an illegal market is a crime.
As consumers, we have to be a reasoned voice that our lawmakers hear. I don’t smoke cigarettes but I know that when we place such a high premium on products, an underground marketplace is created. Underground economies, such as the illegal drug market, may fuel communities, but it also fuels violence. Illegal economies settle disputes with guns.
The tragedy of our good intentions is that when we increase the taxes, or worse yet prohibit the commodity, you create an uncontroled market. The economics of buying low and selling high is the American way. Trouble is that is a felony folks.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Would 2010 be soon enough?
I spoke with Mitch with Creative Loafing today. He is writing a story about the medical marijuana initiative. PUFMM, the Florida Political Action Committee circulating the initiative still lacks the signatures necessary to make the 2010 ballot. Mitch was looking for my thought on the cannabis situation in Florida.
Florida law makers should be ashamed of themselves for not having made cannabis legal already and it is time they went on the record. Patients who use cannabis really are caught in the crossfire. 2010 is not soon enough! For once I named names. I told Mitch about the South Florida Representative - Mark Pafford, who says he thinks we should get control over cannabis by taking it off the illicit drug market.
Tomorrow, a young man goes on trial in St. Lucie county because he refuses to plead guilty to possession of 6 grams of cannabis. Cannabis helps him treat his MS. Possession of cannabis should not be a crime. While the Florida Supreme Court allows for a medical necessity defense, the judge in the case refuses to let him present it. I wonder if the fine people of St. Lucie county believe this is how they intend their tax dollars be spent. Is a young man with MS the culprit we need to be protected against?
Most people caught with cannabis will plead guilty. Law enforcement, prosecutors and defense attorneys will bill hours getting the plea deal. The defendant will hang their heads, profess a bit of shame, take their punishment and go home (where they will promptly put their feet up, crack a beer or pour a scotch while rolling another joint). There is no justice in the war on drugs.
Florida law makers should be ashamed of themselves for not having made cannabis legal already and it is time they went on the record. Patients who use cannabis really are caught in the crossfire. 2010 is not soon enough! For once I named names. I told Mitch about the South Florida Representative - Mark Pafford, who says he thinks we should get control over cannabis by taking it off the illicit drug market.
Tomorrow, a young man goes on trial in St. Lucie county because he refuses to plead guilty to possession of 6 grams of cannabis. Cannabis helps him treat his MS. Possession of cannabis should not be a crime. While the Florida Supreme Court allows for a medical necessity defense, the judge in the case refuses to let him present it. I wonder if the fine people of St. Lucie county believe this is how they intend their tax dollars be spent. Is a young man with MS the culprit we need to be protected against?
Most people caught with cannabis will plead guilty. Law enforcement, prosecutors and defense attorneys will bill hours getting the plea deal. The defendant will hang their heads, profess a bit of shame, take their punishment and go home (where they will promptly put their feet up, crack a beer or pour a scotch while rolling another joint). There is no justice in the war on drugs.
Monday, November 9, 2009
48.2 Million reasons to legalize marijuana
Friday, November 6 - Florida Today published an edited version of the LTE I set. It was quite the suprise! My friend, Fran asked me on Saturday - at the Democratic Women's Club meeting- if they had edited me much. The paper didn't even call to confirm the letter so I was amazed to see it in print- guess they knew to expect letters on legalization from me.
Many Reasons to Legalize Pot
With the 75th anniversary of the repeal of alcohol prohibition in Florida on Nov. 6, I am dumb-struck by the fact we still choose a policy of prohibition over one of regulation and control.
Marijuana, if it helps a sick person find relief, isn’t bad.
The value of planting crops that require less herbicides and pesticides, while investing in American agriculture, doesn’t require an advanced degree to calculate. Hemp for fuel, fiber and food makes sense.
Wasting resources prohibiting otherwise responsible adults from using cannabis/hemp, and legitimate business people from bringing it to market is what doesn’t make sense.
CNN reports Florida would gain an estimated $48.2 million in revenue from taxing cannabis. Can we afford not to rethink this policy?
Alcohol prohibition is an accepted failure. We define that policy by reduced respect for law enforcement, health emergencies as tainted alcohol and abuse threatened lives and gangs reaping the rewards of a lucrative unregulated market satisfying disputes with violence.
While consuming alcohol still has risks, the danger of being caught in the crossfire between distributors, dying from tainted products and going to jail for manufacturing is greatly diminished.
Melbourne
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Message from the Lighthouse - or Plant Your Seeds
This isn't the first time I have painstakingly agonized over how to em-passion people to take action to end the war on drugs.
I remember struggling in the dim light over an electric typewriter in my dollhouse sized apartment in Elkhart, Indiana. President Bill "I didn't inhale." Clinton had been elected and there was a movement afoot to change marijuana laws.
Each year- just before April Fools day, fliers circulated pointing us to Ann Arbour Hash Bash, rumored to be a virtual utopia for pot smokers. Any fool knows an April Fools day joke when they see it - but High Times assured loyal consumers that change was coming. Who knew the Hash Bash was real and the "just say no" message to the Dare Generation would destroy so many lives.
My solution- a chain letter - A Message from the Lighthouse, bringing hope and lighting the way. The letter asked people to keep the chain alive by sending a copy to six of their friends and one to the White House. It reminded recipients we could overgrow the government by simply planting our seeds.
My distribution plan was simple - 50 copies hand delivered in the lot at the Rosemount Horizon (Chicago IL). The Grateful Dead was playing (3-9-93) and the crowd was like-minded. A year later, a friend in Ohio, knowing my interest in changing marijuana laws, sent me a copy. That circle was complete but the legalization of cannabis was a long ways off.
In 2000, when Phish played their Millennium Show in the Everglades, I was there. Still planting seeds, this time as a director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. We spent four days educating concert goers about the virture of cannabis, hemp's value in a green economy and ways to stay safe while advocating for a sane marijuana policies.
Another decade has passed since that New Years weekend and the War on Drugs has claimed more victims, the violence has surpassed our wildest estimations and the estimated revenue from regulated cannabis is enticing.
Cannabis legalization can happen in my lifetime.
I remember struggling in the dim light over an electric typewriter in my dollhouse sized apartment in Elkhart, Indiana. President Bill "I didn't inhale." Clinton had been elected and there was a movement afoot to change marijuana laws.
Each year- just before April Fools day, fliers circulated pointing us to Ann Arbour Hash Bash, rumored to be a virtual utopia for pot smokers. Any fool knows an April Fools day joke when they see it - but High Times assured loyal consumers that change was coming. Who knew the Hash Bash was real and the "just say no" message to the Dare Generation would destroy so many lives.
My solution- a chain letter - A Message from the Lighthouse, bringing hope and lighting the way. The letter asked people to keep the chain alive by sending a copy to six of their friends and one to the White House. It reminded recipients we could overgrow the government by simply planting our seeds.
My distribution plan was simple - 50 copies hand delivered in the lot at the Rosemount Horizon (Chicago IL). The Grateful Dead was playing (3-9-93) and the crowd was like-minded. A year later, a friend in Ohio, knowing my interest in changing marijuana laws, sent me a copy. That circle was complete but the legalization of cannabis was a long ways off.
In 2000, when Phish played their Millennium Show in the Everglades, I was there. Still planting seeds, this time as a director of the Florida Cannabis Action Network. We spent four days educating concert goers about the virture of cannabis, hemp's value in a green economy and ways to stay safe while advocating for a sane marijuana policies.
Another decade has passed since that New Years weekend and the War on Drugs has claimed more victims, the violence has surpassed our wildest estimations and the estimated revenue from regulated cannabis is enticing.
Cannabis legalization can happen in my lifetime.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)