LOOKING FOR A FEW GOOD DUDES

Potheads Taking Up Arms In The War On Drugs

The tactics used by activists to voice their dissent against the
prohibition of marijuana have changed very little since the 1960s. Despite
the fact that the drive to legalize cannabis began in an environment that
spawned such violent, armed groups as the Weather Underground and the
Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), today's hemp advocates are firm adherents
to the peaceful protest. Each year a myriad of non-threatening marches,
candle-light vigils, demonstrations, and sit-ins are held in the hope of
ending the herb's illegal status. Although the tireless efforts of these
many tie-dyed warriors are to be commended, the war against America's pot
smokers keeps escalating.

Casualties of war

The government's own statistics betray this fact. Consider the FBI's 1995
Uniform Crime Report, which shows a record 600,000 Americans arrested on
marijuana charges. Of these, 86 percent were charged with the simple
possession of a substance that has caused far fewer fatalities-zero, to be
exact-than alcohol, tobacco, prescription medications, or aspirin. Will
Foster is a living example of a victim of the hysterical anti-pot crusade
popular among politicians. The father of three and a successful owner of
his own software company sits in an Oklahoma prison after being handed a
93-year sentence for the "crime" of growing a few plants to help assuage
his painful arthritic condition. High Times magazine reports that over 25
percent of the 1,630,000 prisoners in America's prisons and jails are doing
time for drug crimes, with the majority of these non-violent offenders
serving sentences for growing or possessing marijuana.

"In 1994, at least 25 marijuana users were killed by police officers or
died while in custody," hemp activist Ed Rosenthal notes in Why Marijuana
Should be Legal. This statistic alone gives evidence that these laws which
were originally intended to protect the health of the public have long
since strayed from their dubious goal. As the criminal prohibition of a
herb that has yet to be linked to a single death continues, those who
aren't arrested (or dead) often live in constant fear of anonymous tips,
urine tests, asset forfeiture, and other components of the "zero tolerance"
juggernaut that continues to victimize law-abiding citizens.

When a militia ... isn't a militia

Today, many a casual smoker must fearfully wonder if a paramilitary team of
black clad "no-knock ninjas" brandishing semi-automatic weapons will break
down their door in a dramatic pre-dawn raid. Out of this miasma of fear,
oppression and intolerance emerge the Green Panthers.

Shifting their focus from protest to resistance, the Panthers-referred to
as the "fanged mouthpiece" of the hemp movement-are adjusting their tactics
to a drug policy they predict will one day devolve into outright bloodshed
on the cannabis using community. They openly reject the posture of
non-violence and pacifism adopted by their ideological peers and have given
up trying to "change the system." This loosely based cadre of activists is
boldly choosing to move in a different direction.

Fiercely asserting their Second Amendment right to bear arms, the Panthers
represent an interesting social phenomenon: They are the first marijuana
group preparing to openly espouse armed rebellion against federal drug
policy. Their strong defensive position is not unlike today's burgeoning
patriot movement. But although the two may share a common mistrust of the
federal government and a firm belief in the right to own and bear arms,
Terry Mitchell, one of the founding members of the Panthers, finds the
comparison inaccurate. "We found, with very few exceptions, [members of]
the militia movement think the drug war is a good idea," he scoffs. The
Waco siege, a rallying cry for militia groups, registers little with these
new-model pot heads who have a strident dislike of drug war supporters. "As
a group the Panthers have very little sympathy for them [Branch Davidians]
because they were anti-drugees-Heaven's Gate, too," Mitchell says.

Opinions such as these have not endeared him to local patriot groups and he
says they have threatened his life on four different occasions. However,
they aren't dealing with your typical bong-toking peacenik. "I can shoot
the asshole out of a rat at a thousand miles and you can print that," snaps
the native Texan.

Pipe bombers?

Headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio, these hard-liners are mainly recognized
by drug policy activists for their incendiary publication Revolutionary
Times.

However, if events occur as they predict, they may be the forward guard in
a revolution among the nation's tokers. The Panthers foresee a time when
stoners will be forced to take up arms for their right to use the holy herb.

"The actual dynamics of an armed struggle haven't formed up yet," says the
47-year-old activist. Articulate, well-read, and politically astute,
Mitchell is emblematic of a growing segment of society who at one time
"played by the rules," but now views the Washington establishment as
corrupt, and any attempts to change the system futile. Far from a backwoods
political neophyte, the ex-'60s radical carries extensive experience with
the Libertarian party of Texas and in 1988 served as Interim-Director for
the Washington, D.C. office of the National Association to Reform Marijuana
Laws (NORML).

The Panther finds no ethical dilemma in activists arming themselves. "We
think an armed society is a polite society," he says in his rich Texas
twang which crackles over the phone like machine-gun fire. Mitchell
believes the virulent anti-gun stance found among the modern left is
unrealistic in the post-Waco 1990s. "That actually is some hangover
politics from the '60s," he observes. Above all, Mitchell says the Panthers
hope to sound a much needed wake-up call to those who still believe these
pernicious laws can be reformed. "What we're trying to convey to the pot
movement is that the system isn't the one we grew up with ... the Tenth
Amendment is a myth," he says bitterly.

Birth of a movement

The genesis of the Panther weltanschaung began ironically in the backyard
of the nation's most powerful drug war hawks. Some eight years ago, a small
core of firebrands gathered in Washington, D.C., hoping to provide a "new
wrinkle" to end the senseless criminalization and harassment of America's
estimated 10,000,000 pot smokers. Seeking to provide tools, strategy and
political focus to other groups across the nation, they began to study the
tactics used by fellow dissidents with other agendas. "We had to get out of
the narrow focus of the pot movement," Mitchell says. Analyzing the methods
of such successful political factions as Aids Coalition to Unleash Power
(ACT-UP), Queer Nation, and Earth First!, Panther experts came to an
interesting conclusion: The entrenched powers had quickly learned how to
nullify these confrontational tactics, which the Panthers are convinced
have become obsolete. "Our enemies learn real fast-you try these methods of
direct action now and you'll get zilch," he says heatedly.

Their continued studies led the Panthers to come upon what Mitchell calls
an "endgame strategy": secession. "Once the U.S. starts to rumble like the
old Soviet Union did, that is when our people have the biggest opportunity
in our cultural history," Mitchell says enthusiastically. He envisions a
day when a repressive federal government will declare martial law, and the
nation will be plunged into civil war-not unlike the post-Cold War
conflicts that arose in many nations, such as the former Yugoslavia. When
this time comes, the Panthers plan to be prepared. The armed pot smokers
and their supporters hope to stake out a coastal strip of land 20 miles
from the Pacific Ocean beginning due north of San Francisco and extending
ten miles south of Portland. If they succeed, they will create what they
call the first "Stoner Homeland." The nation will be based on libertarian
values, community-based government and the Gross National Product will be
high quality marijuana, and the many other products which can be produced
with the versatile Cannabis sativa plant. Mitchell is a fatalist who is
convinced this is the only choice left for the pot community. "If we don't
win, nothing is lost. We were marked for extermination anyway," he says.

A trend toward secession

Today's post-modern mindset may find such an idea laughable, but a number
of similar movements already dot the national landscape. The Nation of
Islam, the Aryan Nations, and the well-publicized Republic of Texas are the
most visible examples of the many divergent factions who view secession
within America's borders as the only antidote to an oppressive federal
government.

The national Libertarian party has noted this growing trend; their 1998
platform includes a plank calling for the "right to political secession-by
political entities, private groups, or individuals." The Panther's
designated homeland was chosen for a number of reasons other than the
high-quality buds indigenous to the region. Mitchell's previous experience
with NORML and the Libertarian party gave him insight into the
marijuana-sympathetic demographics of the Pacific Northwest. While
examining databases for both organizations, he found that the majority of
the nation's libertarians and card-carrying members of the pot legalization
lobby reside in this small section of the country. There is already a
steady flow of bud smokers who have been relocating to the Pacific
Northwest since the 1960s to escape draconian marijuana laws in their
respective states. Terry believes the recent increase in arrests has
exacerbated this trend. "According to our sources in the areas, the
migration has sped up considerably over the past five years due to the Drug
War-with property seizures being the way they are, they have fewer things
to move anyway," he comments.

The new prospective country already has its own set of by-laws based on the
U.S. Constitution, the Articles of Confederation, and other landmark
documents. "Some of the best forward thinking minds came up with the
by-laws," he says. Will the armed Panthers expect resistance from the
government when they declare their sovereignty? Mitchell doesn't expect it
to be an obstacle. "When our roadblocks go up on the highways and our
voices start coming over the radios and televisions ... we expect most of
the cops and National Guard will have left their non-paying jobs and there
won't be much trouble with them," he says optimistically. Those who choose
to remain and possibly obstruct the new homeland will be promptly asked to
leave.

"This will probably not be pretty," Mitchell says. "But it is a political
imperative. This calls for leadership that has nerves of steel and an iron
determination not to be stopped," he adds.

Currently, the Panthers believe the first step in achieving their homeland
is providing vital intelligence to other dissident groups who stand opposed
to the War on Pot. Their efforts include their unique "diagram of the war
on drugs." Posted on their website, the chart tracks major anti-drug policy
from the United Nations Office of Drug Control Policy in Vienna, Austria
all the way down to what they term "snitch groups," like the Girl Scouts of
America and Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) Mitchell says the
schematic that alleges the United Nation micro-manages US anti-narcotic
policy was originally met with skepticism by the reform community. However,
Terry points out that Global Days, a series of demonstrations held
worldwide in June to protest the UN's role in drug prohibition, was
directly influenced by their efforts. "A lot of people thought we had made
it up-now we're starting to see a real focus," he says.

The information war

Gleaning information from teachers, scientists, police officers, military
veterans, prisoners and others, the Panthers publish Revolutionary Times
(formerly the Revolutionary Toker), providing excellent coverage of the
drug war. The small periodical scooped Time magazine and their
non-mainstream competition last year when it reported on experiments
conducted on behalf of law enforcement in the use of allegedly "non-lethal"
weapons, such as infra-sound technology. Their publishing house, Panther
Press, sells important survival materials for the '90s pot smoker. Like a
pot-focused Paladin Press, the Panthers distribute publications on building
resistance groups, surviving police encounters, "guerrilla growing," cold
weather survival, and other vital resources for renegade bud smokers. They
also furnish free legal referrals for busted potheads, and their POW
support project raises the awareness of the prison population by sending
free copies of Revolutionary Times to inmates.

On toward a "stoner homeland"

These many activities lend credibility to a group of activists who appear
to take themselves and their mission seriously. Could we one day see a
stoner homeland enriched by hemp-related commerce flying their own flag-a
white field bearing a large green pot leaf? Mitchell hopes that if enough
people get involved, America's "last outcasts" will join them in fighting
for their "light at the end of the tunnel." "I believe that the odds for
the pot culture are better now than they ever have been for the formation
of an independent Homeland," he says. Mitchell grimly foretells a day when
many will be faced with the choice of joining the Panthers or death. "It's
either gonna be a stoner homeland or a stoner last stand," he warns.

Find more information on The Green Panthers at www.green-panthers.com, or
at the DRCNet site at www.stopthedrugwar.org.

Checked-by: Patrick Henry