Food, Fiber, Fuel, Clothes, SacramentHave a happy day!2004-06-18T14:38:55ZUser 323https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/OrgSpace NewsLogFerre 2004Update on complaint for permanent injunctionUpdate: June 16, 2004
Our first appearance in Federal court
on our complaint for permanent injunction
is now set for June 28 at 9 A.M. in the
Federal District Court, Honolulu, Hawaii. We have heard that Judge David Ezra has recused himself due to a conflict of interest. We do not yet know what that conflict is. The rumor is, another Federal judge from California will come in to hear the case.
The Justice Department has responded to our complaint with a Motion to Dismiss. Although we have not seen it yet, we hear that the motion is approximately 30 pages of their attempt to diminish the THC Ministry as illegitimate and its founder Roger Christie as insincere.
We will keep you updated as events occur.
Please pray for our success in court on that day. Mahalo and Aloha.
Read the full law suit here]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000012.htm2004-06-18T14:38:55Z2004-06-18T14:39:26ZThe hard way forward to another drug policyThe following is a summary of the experiences of a representative of the European NGO Council on Drug Policy while attending the conference called "The Way Forward", on a new European Union strategy on illicit drugs, which was held in the Hotel Conrad, Dublin, Ireland, on 10 and 11 May, 2004.
...The conference was meant to draw the first global guidelines for the next EU Drug Strategy (2005 - 2012) and Action Plan (2005-2008) which has to be designed during Autumn of 2004 and finally approved in the springtime of 2005.
I was asked to participate in a plenary panel session on Monday morning, just after the opening speeches. This panel consisted of four people: one representative of the UK police, two Irish doctors and me. I was the only panel member to propose a fundamental change of logic in drug policy, with which I referred to the need to start creating political `room for manoevre' for policies that are not based on prohibition. We all had about 6 minutes to speak during the entire panel session.
The panel discussion also contained the screening of a video film in which 8 people were interviewed. They were Tomas Zabranski (Czech expert), Andria Efthimiou-Mordaunt (UK activist), Mike Trace (UK expert), Ian Oliver (UNDCP consultant), Jan van der Tas (NL activist), David Liddell (UK harm reduction), Danny Kushlick (UK activist) and Krzysztof Krajewski (Polish expert). Every single person interviewed concluded with a call on the audience to work towards a review of existing policies.
After this the floor was opened to discussions and the first three governments to re-act (Belgium, Italy and Greece) immediately protested against my presence. The Belgian government even used the word "scandalised" to describe their feelings on my presentation and the content of the video, accusing the organisers to be extremely biased in their choice of speakers. They also felt scandalised by the fact that ENCOD had dared to use the EU symbol in our flyer which can be seen at http://encod.org/encod_lo-res.pdf
This incident influenced the entire conference. In the corridor, a lot of discussion was going on concerning the fact that our ideas had been allowed to enter the conference room.
After lunch, in the workshops that followed the plenary session, it was clear that some governments (especially Sweden, Italy, France and even Germany) were quite outraged about the fact that the call for change in drug policies had been at the center of attention in the morning. This meant that in all the four workshops (Demand Reduction, Law Enforcement, Information & Evaluation and International Co- operation) several representatives acted with a high degree of Pavlov: every time the word harm reduction was mentioned, they would fly up and state that this could not be the objective of EU drug policy, which still had to be based on reduction of drug consumption etc.
Meanwhile, several representatives came to me and said that on a personal title, they agreed with lots of the things we were saying. Especially the representatives of the new EU Member States were very positive, saying that they did not agree with the Belgian representative. They said that from own experience, they knew all too well how `civil society' is treated by authorities and that the future is ours.
Meanwhile the 100 copies of the statement I had with me (also represented on www.encod.org/warsaw.htm ) disappeared quite quickly from the information table. Also I had quite positive talks with delegates of the Irish, Dutch, Slovenian, Czech, Finnish, Cypriote, Slovak, Bulgarian and Hungarian, European Commission and Council of Europe delegations and even a constructive conversation with someone from the Swedish Ministry of Justice, who also said that he found the drug debate too dogmatic…
THE FIGHT FOR MONEY
What resulted clearly from the conference is that most governments are aware that in the 1990s, there has been a shift in drug policies from repression to harm reduction. They are of course aware that this shift has not been enough to solve the problems, and that a second shift is needed from harm reduction to legal regulation. But in order to do this, they need to have the tools to question the current approach within the law enforcement apparatus. And that is a problem, as the law enforcement lobby is well established.
In the workshop there was a lot of talking about the need to investigate and evaluate health related initiatives: prevention, treatment, new health hazards concerning ATS (Amphetamine Type Stimulants) and cannabis (French and Germany both highlighted the "increasing health problems of cannabis consumption), harm reduction initiatives and so on.
The conclusion of these talks was usually that the European Commission should invest more money, the EC then pointed at the EMCDDA, and the EMCDDA pointed again at the member states. Conclusion: we want research but others should pay for it.
This way, the participants escaped the real discussion: about the result of current policies on drug consumption (according to a Dutch researcher, there is virtually no impact at all from any kind of policies on drug consumption), about ways to use each other's research results (for instance on heroin distribution in Switzerland, Germany, Holland and Spain) and about other things that could be applied in order to save money in stead of investing more etc.
But also, there was virtually no talking at all about the need to evaluate law enforcement. Here the discussion went more in the direction of enlarging co-operation between European police forces, supporting Europol, and designing new action plans to "new threats" such as ATS production and trafficking. Again this would create the need to use more money (see above).
In personal conversations, one could feel however that even repressive governments (like Denmark and Sweden) do not have a real response to the argument that more law enforcement on drugs means more money to organised crime. They typically respond by saying that we do not have a proposal of how to do things in a post-prohibition system, and as long as we do not have answers to many questions on how such a system could function they will never take us serious…
THE LACK OF DIALOGUE
For someone from civil society, representing a large contingent of tax payers, it was quite astonishing to see that the participants at the event were not able to reach any kind of clear consensus on even the most minimal definitions on what should be considered as ideal outcomes of a new EU drug strategy. This was perhaps partly because the organisers had been a bit too ambitious in defining these objectives. Although it is remarkable to see how a formulation like "Improving the effectiveness and sustainability of drug prevention aimed at vulnerable young people and by increasing awareness about drug related risks through the dissemination of reliable information of high quality among young people in the age of 12 to 25" can already be considered as "too ambitious".
Mainly, the lack of results can be explained by the reluctance of certain governments (especially Sweden, Italy, Belgium, France and and interestingly enough, Germany) to enter in a real discussion. Their goal seemed mainly to sabotise the debate, to make sure no mention was made that would open the pandora box…
Of course this left a bitter aftertaste among all participants. In the closing remarks, Europol and EMCDDA representatives could make a final call for more money to do law enforcement and research. But the real question is if there will be room for further dialogue with civil society on the drug issue, as this dialogue seems to be the only way to close the box of pandora, that is: to obtain a real view on the harms of drug prohibition and start reducing them by reforming the policies.
But this dialogue is undoubtedly going to come. Especially the presence of the new Member states is interesting in this aspect. Still they are reluctant to join the discussion (as someone said: "they have taken a seat in the bus but do not try to come closer to the steering wheel") also because they are used to obey orders (first from Moscow, now from Brussels), but if they do, it is quite sure that they will come with many questions, as they are aware of the difficulties that prohibition is bringing.
Also some kind of dialogue took place with the United States government. Its representative, called David Murray, already had been annoyed by the lack of receptiveness among participants for his ideas about how the EU should copy the succesfull approach of the US in drug law enforcement. But when the ENCOD-representative challenged the success of the US drug war and suggested that he was only defending it because that was his job, Mr. Murray responded literally: "That is an insult, you son of a bitch".
CONCLUSION
My conclusion of this conference is that the debate on drug policies is arriving to the EU forum. Prohibitionist governments are slowly becoming nervous at the direction the process is taking, and will do everything to block it. But they are also aware that they do not have any responses to some of our arguments, and some individual people among government apparatus are increasingly aware that they need to go into debate with us in order to find the true response.
It will now be very interesting to see how the reactions will be on the results of the evaluation of the current EU Action Plan (to be published in October 2004) and what the Dutch Presidency will do with those results in order to design the guidelines for the new strategy, which has to be concluded in December 2004. The first Action Plan 2005-2008 will then be adopted in the springtime of 2005.
ENCOD will surely follow this process and perhaps, if we get funding, organise an event to comment this EU strategic process with a broad range of NGO's from all around Europe.
EUROPEAN NGO COUNCIL ON DRUG POLICY Lange Lozanastraat 14 2018 Antwerpen Belgium Tel. 00 32 (0)3 237 7436 Fax. 00 32 (0)3 237 0225 E-mail:encod@g... Website: www.encod.org
]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000011.htm2004-05-14T15:35:35Z2004-05-14T15:37:28Z---- PRESS RELEASE ----March 24, 2004
Honolulu, Hawaii
ASHCROFT AND D.E.A. SUED TO PREVENT RELIGIOUS AND THERAPEUTIC CANNABIS ARRESTS
A Complaint for injunctive relief was filed today in the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, D.E.... The case has a strong probability of success based upon the recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions serve as precedent in Hawaii) in Raich v. Ashcroft. Angel Raich and other Californians and caregivers can now consume and cultivate therapeutic cannabis absent the often realized fear of federal prosecution for their use of a non-toxic and natural herbal medicine.
The Plaintiffs also rely upon the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act to secure their definitive right to free exercise of religion.
That Act was recently used to prevent the federal government from prosecuting a New Mexico based, Brazilian Uniao Do Vegetal themed religion for their importation and distribution of Ayahoasca, a hallucinogenic-laced tea from the Brazilian rainforest.
According to Michael A. Glenn, Esq., the Hawaii attorney for the churches and patients suing Ashcroft, “The Federal Government has zero compelling interest in preventing either the religious or therapeutic consumption of cannabis by Hawaii’s citizens. More people died last month from eating peanuts, jaywalking or taking aspirin than have ever been harmed by cannabis in the entire history of its use. And, even if you take the federal government at face value and accept that they have the power and duty to protect one from one’s own folly, the mandatory terms of imprisonment faced by cannabis users have zero relationship to the goal of harm reduction and indeed smack of Draconian punishment for freethinking, non-violent Reverends and patients leading law abiding lives.”
Local cannabis activist and founder of the THC Ministry Reverend Roger Christie is ready to change the government’s views on cannabis. “The conspiracy against marijuana will be replaced with the truth of cannabis.”
THC Ministry.org THC Ministry.net]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000010.htm2004-03-31T14:16:08Z2004-03-31T14:21:05ZMarijuana and My Fear of DeathBy Anonymous
The author is a second-year graduate student in 20th century U.S. history.
I am a male graduate student, twenty-four years old, at a major public university in the Pacific Northwest. I am an alumnus of a small, highly regarded, academically demanding liberal arts college. I...Starting with my first true marijuana high, I began to experience a number of benefits. I find the herb to be uplifting - sometimes relaxing and sometimes invigorating. I usually smoke or eat it with groups of friends, and among us it is a boon to conviviality. I also enjoy doing it alone on occasion, though. In general, I prefer to avoid making unnecessary rules around its use, and play things most of the time by ear. I have asthma. While being around tobacco smoke can irritate my lungs, marijuana (even when I smoke it) can often provide me, during the period of its acute effects, with relief from bronchiospasm and the associated anxiety at least as great as that afforded by the prescription drugs I also take. This notwithstanding, I do not now conceive of marijuana's role in my life as a patient does that of a medication. I do support the laws enacted by citizens of increasingly more states in order to permit the medical use of marijuana, whose unquestioned legality was so cruelly abrogated in 1937. I have worked on such a campaign myself.
Marijuana enhances the sensations of sex for me. While sex plays an important, positive part in my life, however, I rarely if ever use marijuana with the sole purpose of spicing up a sexual encounter. Marijuana also heightens my appreciation for the beauties of nature. I do not generally find my highs as soporific as some commentators make theirs out to be. I have been a hiker all my life, and I love to use marijuana in the wilderness and go for a nice long walk. I often take a stroll after getting high in the city, too. When I do so there, I seem to notice the non-human lifeforms all around (the plants, in particular) more than I do when I have not used marijuana.
Marijuana is great for museums, as well. On trips to Europe, especially, I have enjoyed ingesting it before going in to see works of art, as well as such things as anthropological dioramas. Music, too, is richer and more engrossing when I am high. This is so whether I am listening to a recording or at a concert. Marijuana does not typically induce agoraphobia in me. Rather, the crowd dynamics become even more a part of the show when I go out to see a band after having used it.
While marijuana does change my perception of external stimuli (usually for the better), it also has aesthetic aspects all its own. In part, I love to use marijuana for the same reason that I love to eat roast lamb or steamed broccoli or ripe mangos, or to drink heavily hopped beer or strong black coffee or fruit smoothies. These are some of my favorite biological products, and it feels purely glorious to merge myself with them. One of the many problems our culture has with marijuana is that both sides of the debate have invested it with such weighty moral significance that it's hard to appreciate its purely material qualities anymore. The simple animal physical pleasures cannot be neglected, however.
We so impoverish ourselves when we draw overly distinct boundaries between human and other forms of life, or between our bodies and the rest of the universe. Sensually opening ourselves to food or drink or smoke, acknowledging our permeability, is a way out of the neuroses this false division engenders. Living (solipsistically) on the inside, it can feel like our bodies are semi-permanent objects that hold their shape and change only slowly. Marijuana reminds me that a vast river of molecules is constantly flowing through my body, with ingestion and excretion ensuring that little but the form persists. This deep feeling of connection has much to do with the most important change that the use of marijuana has helped to bring about in my life.
As my parents can attest, from a relatively young age I had a distinct awareness of mortality and a mounting horror of illness and death. It may have had its start with my hospitalization for an asthma attack when I was five. At any rate, this fear reached its peak during the summer after my freshman year of college, when I suffered a spasm of hypochondria and visited a succession of doctors, convinced I was dying of one imaginary disease after another. My world seemed to be spinning out of control, and try as my relatives and friends might, I refused to accept their assurances that everything was going to be fine.
My concrete concerns were laid to rest after a talk with my longtime family physician, who assured me that what I actually had was "medical students' disease," acquired by reading too many books on illness. Once the temporary relief this gave me had worn off, though, I came to realize that the underlying cause of my literally pathological obsession was my fear of death. I could not stand the strain of living with this recurrent panic, so I resolved to root it out. After nearly six years of talking with my loved ones about death, reading spiritually and scientifically oriented books about it, and taking plenty of solitary time to think it through, I experienced a series of epiphanies, which reached its peak earlier this year. My mortal terror has now melted away. The chief tangible catalysts in this process have been psychedelic drugs. I have now had valuable experiences with LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, and tincture of peyote, but I have mainly used marijuana.
One day when I was fourteen or so, I was standing in the shower when the thought of my own death as the beginning of personal nonexistence hit me with overpowering force. Then and there, I had the first of what was to become a long series of panic attacks, which often left me shouting out loud in an attempt to prove I was still here. No fear I had ever felt was as awful as the terror that came to me when I contemplated how easily all my thoughts and memories would be destroyed. And psychedelics, in general such a beneficial presence in my life, seemed to multiply this terror tenfold.
Going for a long period without using these drugs did not end the recurrent panic attacks, whose onset had in any case antedated my drug experience by over three years. I eventually decided that I had to look within myself, to come to grips with my fear. I wrote down the Bene Gesserit Litany against Fear, from Frank Herbert's novel Dune, on a piece of paper. "I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain." I was copying from memory, so I got some of the words wrong, but I had the sense. I carried the paper around with me in my wallet, and waited.
As I have explained, it took a while for things to change. There was no single cathartic event that broke down the walls inside me. The key, however, seemed to lie in thinking through my own death and not letting the thought send me into a panic. Once I could do that straight, it was time to try it while high, when it all seemed so much more real, so much worse. Again and again, I was overwhelmed, and ran to my friends begging them to tell me that I was all right, that I wasn't dying.
Eventually, though, with practice, I was able to relax. I didn't ask for it to come to me, but when I got high and the fear of death showed up, I didn't freak out quite as much. One day it was there and I said, "Okay, so what if I die? Right now?" And nothing happened. I had thought the unthinkable and I was still there. That wasn't the end there and then; I had to come back to that point several times. But thanks to my friends' and family's patience with me, and my own slowly developing courage, death gradually stopped tapping me on the shoulder. On the infrequent occasions that I do have panic attacks anymore, I surrender to them, and remember to breathe, and when they find I am not willing to give them the excitement of a struggle, they melt back into my consciousness, and are gone.
Marijuana and the other psychedelics provided me with an opportunity to experience that most intimate activity, my thinking, differently, without losing touch with the values and facts I had learned from my life to date. What I gained thereby was the mental analogue of depth perception. I was able to step outside my ego, which left to its own devices had blindly clung to life as though life were not itself characterized by ceaseless flux. I experienced a profound sense of dissolved boundaries akin to the one I described earlier with regard to the body - only this time, the boundaries were those supposedly rigid ones between "life" and "death." I now feel that the world is a living entity in its own right, of which no part - that is to say, none of us - is truly created or destroyed, only transformed one into another throughout time. I am constantly amazed by the multiplicity of benefits that marijuana, within a larger context of education, experience, and dialogue, has brought to my life. I don't even have to use marijuana very often in order to realize these benefits. Though I will generally smoke it or eat it when it is set before me by a generous friend, the constraints of Prohibition (primarily the financial ones) keep my use slightly less frequent than it will probably be when the laws change.
The ramifications of these laws also, unfortunately, keep me from being willing to use my name in this account. Still, I want the world to know that I do use marijuana. I am not afraid to say that to the people I meet. I am not afraid to say that I am glad the cannabis plant shares the Earth with us. I am not afraid to tell all who read my words that I am committed to working ceaselessly for the reform of laws and attitudes that infantilize my fellow adult citizens of free countries. These laws do so much more harm than marijuana itself could ever be conceived to do. They do it in an attempt to keep others from choosing for themselves whether to join me in its use - an attempt that is ultimately futile.
www.marijuana-uses.com/essays/016.html ]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000009.htm2004-03-13T23:17:53Z2004-03-13T23:25:38Z1912 : Plants of great commercial value.Politics changed since 1912...not for the best. Politics changed since 1912...not for the best. ]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000008.htm2004-03-06T21:04:37Z2004-03-06T21:04:54ZCan Hemp be used as food?Hemp seed is a highly nutritious source of protein and essential fatty oils. Many populations have grown hemp for its seed -- most of them eat it as `gruel' which is a lot like oatmeal. The leaves can be used as roughage, but not without slight psycho-active side-effects. Hemp seeds do not cont...Hemp seed protein closely resembles protein as it is found in the human blood. It is fantastically easy to digest, and many patients who have trouble digesting food are given hemp seed by their doctors. Hemp seed was once called `edestine' and was used by scientists as the model for vegetable protein.
Hemp seed oil provides the human body with essential fatty acids. Hemp seed is the only seed which contains these oils with almost no saturated fat. As a supplement to the diet, these oils can reduce the risk of heart disease. It is because of these oils that birds will live much longer if they eat hemp seed.
With hemp seed, a vegan or vegetarian can survive and eat virtually no saturated fats. One handful of hemp seed per day will supply adequate protein and essential oils for an adult.
What are the benefits of hemp compared to other food crops?
Hemp requires little fertilizer, and grows well almost everywhere. It also resists pests, so it uses little pesticides. Hemp puts down deep roots, which is good for the soil, and when the leaves drop off the hemp plant, minerals and nitrogen are returned to the soil. Hemp has been grown on the same soil for twenty years in a row without any noticeable depletion of the soil.
Using less fertilizer and agricultural chemicals is good for two reasons. First, it costs less and requires less effort. Second, many agricultural chemicals are dangerous and contaminate the environment -- the less we have to use, the better.
How about soy? Is hemp competitive as a world source of protein?
Hemp does not produce quite as much protein as soy, but hemp seed protein is of a higher quality than soy. Agricultural considerations may make hemp the food crop of the future. In addition to the fact that hemp is an easy crop to grow, it also resists UV-B light, which is a kind of sunlight blocked by the ozone layer. Soy beans do not take UV-B light very well. If the ozone layer were to deplete by 16%, which by some estimates is very possible, soy production would fall by 25-30%.
We may have to grow hemp or starve -- and it won't be the first time that this has happened. Hemp has been used to 'bail out' many populations in time of famine. Unfortunately, because of various political factors, starving people in today's underdeveloped countries are not taking advantage of this crop. In some places, this is because government officials would call it `marijuana' and pull up the crop. In other countries, it is because the farmers are busy growing coca and poppies to produce cocaine and heroin for the local Drug Lord. This is truly a sad state of affairs. Hopefully someday the Peace Corps will be able to teach modern hemp seed farming techniques and end the world's protein shortage.
alt.hemp CANNABIS/MARIJUANA FAQ ]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000007.htm2004-02-16T14:13:44Z2004-02-16T14:24:18ZMarijuana laws : good source for the slave industryThe avarage marijuana users are no trouble makers, not violent, healthy hard working people.....the ideal slaves, as the US government has found out.Most people don't realize how this slave labor system backs up the economy. Most people believe the statistics provided by the government. Those statistics are made to make people believe that the prison system costs money to society. I think that's a load of crap, those prisoners WORK. They also work for a few cents/hour and make REAL PRODUCTS. Those products are paid for by consumers who use them. When those products would be made in low wages countries, this would mean US $ going out of the country, this is a hidden economical factor but can be counted as profit, on top of the profit there is for slaves that only need to be housed, fed and guarded. Any manager would love to get labor at those conditions; many managers of private owned prisons already got their private slaves, all in the name of justice?
Click here to see the slave industry at work: www.unicor.gov ]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000006.htm2004-02-14T23:19:07Z2004-10-24T07:23:05ZNeed for a peacefull candidate in the USLately the American government has seen it's popularity drop in most parts of the world. Reason for this could be the invasion of Iraq and the motives to start this war. Questions also appear when it comes to things like the 'Patriot act', taking away most of the American people's constitutional r...None of the outside world's busyness but it makes you wonder how democratic this nation is lead...and by who. Never in history there were so many conspiracy theories as today. Besides coca cola and mc donalds, we now get a new product : "fear", and a new kind of war, a war on 'terrorists', terrorists have no name, no country, they can be anyone the American government declares to be terrorists, "If you are not with us,...you are against us." is what the US President warned the world for before he started to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Not a good move in terms of public relations and I think a more peacefull president would do a lot of good to the US and the rest of the world. Looking at the candidates for the elections in the US for this year I can see only one candidate who has the right vision to change things and that is Dennis Kucinich. If I was American I would vote for him. ]]>https://newciv.org/nl/newslog.php/_v323/__show_article/_a000323-000005.htm2004-02-14T20:40:53Z2004-02-14T20:46:20ZTHC Ministry'sLegal protection on religious grounds for the use of cannabis is a very peacefull way of keeping people out of prison. what it needs is a global based religion that is represented in different countries and continents. The "Global religion" status will get more international credits towards member...Legal protection on religious grounds for the use of cannabis is a very peacefull way of keeping people out of prison. what it needs is a global based religion that is represented in different countries and continents. The "Global religion" status will get more international credits towards members in (international) courts when they are backed up by many ministries on this planet.
Thinking like this, about a year ago, and knowing Roger Christie, founder of The Hawai'i Cannabis Ministry ( thc-ministry.org ) I desided to take the "Cannabis Sacrament" religion into the world, got ordained at the ULC and founded the THC Ministry Amsterdam as a member of the Hawai'i Cannabis Ministry (THC Ministry) and with a website, promoting (Spreading the world) the THC Ministry to be founded throughout the world. We welcome all people from all religions.
I also host the "THC Ministry Global Community Forums", a platform for ALL Hemp related religions. I'm also organising an annual international congress/festival for those religions, hopefully starting with the first edition in Amsterdam in 2005. I believe we can get some results with numbers and unity.
At present times, "THC Ministry's" have been founded in several US states, Canada, Holland (of course), England and growing by the day.
I want to kindly invite you to check out our boards, when you register you will be able to access, and read "hidden" members forums, and meet many well known activists and cannabis related religion founders.
We have heard that Judge David Ezra has recused himself
The conference was meant to draw the first global guidelines for the next EU Drug Strategy (2005 - 2012) and Action Plan (2005-2008) which has to be designed during Autumn of 2004 and finally approved in the springtime of 2005.
The case has a strong probability of success based upon the recent ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (whose decisions serve as precedent in Hawaii) in Raich v. Ashcroft. Angel Raich and other Californians and caregivers can now consume and cultivate therapeutic cannabis absent the often realized fear of federal prosecution for their use of a non-toxic and natural herbal medicine.
Starting with my first true marijuana high, I began to experience a number of benefits. I find the herb to be uplifting - sometimes relaxing and sometimes invigorating. I usually smoke or eat it with groups of friends, and among us it is a boon to conviviality. I also enjoy doing it alone on occasion, though. In general, I prefer to avoid making unnecessary rules around its use, and play things most of the time by ear. I have asthma. While being around tobacco smoke can irritate my lungs, marijuana (even when I smoke it) can often provide me, during the period of its acute effects, with relief from bronchiospasm and the associated anxiety at least as great as that afforded by the prescription drugs I also take. This notwithstanding, I do not now conceive of marijuana's role in my life as a patient does that of a medication. I do support the laws enacted by citizens of increasingly more states in order to permit the medical use of marijuana, whose unquestioned legality was so cruelly abrogated in 1937. I have worked on such a campaign myself.
Politics changed since 1912...not for the best. ]]>
Hemp seed protein closely resembles protein as it is found in the human blood. It is fantastically easy to digest, and many patients who have trouble digesting food are given hemp seed by their doctors. Hemp seed was once called `edestine' and was used by scientists as the model for vegetable protein.
Most people don't realize how this slave labor system backs up the economy. Most people believe the statistics provided by the government. Those statistics are made to make people believe that the prison system costs money to society.
None of the outside world's busyness but it makes you wonder how democratic this nation is lead...and by who. Never in history there were so many conspiracy theories as today. Besides coca cola and mc donalds, we now get a new product : "fear", and a new kind of war, a war on 'terrorists', terrorists have no name, no country, they can be anyone the American government declares to be terrorists, "If you are not with us,...you are against us." is what the US President warned the world for before he started to invade Afghanistan and Iraq. Not a good move in terms of public relations and I think a more peacefull president would do a lot of good to the US and the rest of the world. Looking at the candidates for the elections in the US for this year I can see only one candidate who has the right vision to change things and that is Dennis Kucinich. If I was American I would vote for him.
Legal protection on religious grounds for the use of cannabis is a very peacefull way of keeping people out of prison. what it needs is a global based religion that is represented in different countries and continents. The "Global religion" status will get more international credits towards members in (international) courts when they are backed up by many ministries on this planet.