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2007 January 26
Copyright © Brian Wright
The Coffee Coaster™
Save the Species,
Legalize Weed:
Free State bill (HB92) provides head start
Liberation is bound to happen eventually.
Throughout the country, powerful humanitarian resources have already created a healthful matrix of medical marijuana havens that, with few exceptions, have been left alone by agentbots of the central state power (CSP).
I'm using CSP as my term for the aggregation of political power at regional and superregional levels. In the US, that CSP is the aggregate power of state and federal governments.
Let's stipulate three definitions:
1) hemp: the native strain of the cannabis sativa having
several agricultural, environmental, industrial, and
bioenergy uses. Hemp contains negligible amounts of the
psychoactive chemical THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).
2) marijuana (marihuana): the cultivated strain of cannabis
that contains enough THC for various medicinal or
recreational uses, including stress relief, pain reduction,
sensory stimulation, appetite encouragement, and
mild euphoria.
3)
weed: either or both of the above, i.e. the entire species
of cannabis sativa and its strains, with all their uses. The
term weed is colloquial, but appropriate here.
To get the full, nearly miraculous benefits of the life-enhancing cannabis industry, all its uses must be free from prohibitory, protectionist, unconstitutional laws.
Briefly, on the hemp side of the equation, what Al Gore hasn't told you in An Inconvenient Truth is that widespread cultivation and use of hemp solves global warming and sets us on a sustainable natural course of world prosperity:
• Hemp as biofuel is cleaner and easier to produce than corn
and 4x as productive. One acre of hemp produces 1000
gallons of ethanol annually.[1] Hemp improves soil,
requires little water, and entails no toxic chemicals.
• Hemp grows on marginal soil without pesticides or
herbicides. Unlike so-called "switchgrass," hemp provides
other important products besides fuel: e.g. oil (lubricating
or cooking), paper, cloth, rope, seed, and protein.
Hemp is legal in Canada and Europe. These are exciting times at the founding of Hemp Planet and all that it promises, making Oil Planet look like the Dark Ages.
On the other side of the legal weed issue lies the "personal freedom" thing, which is the more important side to passionate advocates of liberty like my friends and me.
Simply stated, the state has no moral authority over an individual's elective biochemistry... or legal authority for that matter. The complete right self-ownership is enshrined in the Bill of Rights of the Constitution. Don't make me come over there and read it to you! :)
But we're in Temporary Bizarro World now where too many fellow citizens aren't up to speed on their constitutionally guaranteed rights. Enter the Free State (New Hampshire) and a mod to HB 92 to decriminalize marijuana.
This bill—proposed by a Republican and two Democrats, and endorsed by several law enforcement professionals—doesn't pussyfoot around; it strikes marijuana from the list of substances outlawed by the state.
I'm proud to be part of this effort, and encourage everyone to support the particular organization lobbying most strongly for reasonable decrim: www.nhcommonsense.org. Give us a hand if at all possible.
Paraphrasing Willie Nelson on the NORML site, "Every year more than half a million marijuana users are arrested and their lives destroyed... these are regular people like you and me." Where's the humanity, intelligence... or even the sanity of treating your peaceful neighbors as violent criminals?!
That's the true reefer madness. And
now we have a chance to move toward putting an end to it.
[1] I'm only providing one reference here, The Hemp Industries Association (www.thehia.org), but Web surfs can give you a lot of good info. I particularly want to draw your attention to a recent bold hemp legalization effort in California (Assembly Bill 1147) that Conan the Barbarian inexplicably vetoed. |
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