LETTER OF THE WEEK

HOLY SMOKE DECISION DOES NOT DO ISSUE JUSTICE

By David Malmo-Levine

My name is David Malmo-Levine. In 2003 I appeared self-represented at
the Supreme Court of Canada on "activist cannabis retail" charges
similar to those faced by the Holy Smoke staff. Currently I'm a herb
museum curator in Vancouver. I have been researching the history and
economics of cannabis since 1992.

I am an atheist, but I consider cannabis to be the "Tree of Life"
referred to in the first chapter of the Old Testament and the last
chapter of the New Testament, as well as the "kanneh-bosm" mentioned
in Exodus 30:23 in the Hebrew and Aramaic versions of the Old
Testament. Exodus 30:23 is part of the list of ingredients of the
holy anointing oil, where we get the words "Christ" and "Messiah"
from - the "anointed" one ... anointed with holy kannebosm oil. I
believe Moses and Jesus used cannabis for insight and for healing the
blind ( those with glaucoma ) the lepers ( those with pruritus ) and
those possessed by demons ( epilepsy ). Cannabis is a wonderful -
almost magical - medicine with the ability to replace many of the
over the counter drugs on the market today. To empower humanity with
this magical medicine was one of the ultimate goals of the Holy Smoke staff.

As well as being a wonderful medicine, cannabis is also the best
source of fuel in the plant kingdom. Did you know that you could
eventually crank out hemp ethanol for about 15 cents per litre? The
science to back that up is found in my article on hemp ethanol, found
online. Given Canada's consumption of oil rate is about 2 million
barrels per day, and the U.S. consumption of oil rate is about 20
million barrels per day, hemp ethanol stands to be a major industry,
if ever the red tape around industrial hemp is removed. A legal hemp
ethanol industry would end oil wars, reverse climate change ( through
carbon sequestration ) and eliminate oil spills. What stands in the
way of using hemp ethanol is the war on cannabis and cannabis users
that creates the red tape around industrial hemp. Removing this red
tape and helping humanity evolve into sustainable beings is another
goal of the staff of Holy Smoke.

There are other economic reasons to re-legalize medicinal and social
cannabis. Globally, the tobacco industry is worth about $430 billion
dollars. Tobacco is grown in radioactive chemical fertilizers.
Canadians drink over 240 million litres of alcohol every year, and
those living in the U.S. drink over 2.5 billion. 99% of all
"recreational"-drug-related deaths are due to alcohol and tobacco.
The global pharmaceutical industry is worth over $500 billion per
year. Over 100,000 US citizens die every year from synthetic drugs.
We could ease the burden on our health care system by getting people
to switch from deadly alcohol, tobacco and pills to cannabis - a herb
that has never killed anyone. We could save billions every year in
health-care costs. Not to mention the billions we waste in limited
justice system resources, and the billions of tax dollars currently
uncollected. And we could create hundreds of thousands of new jobs
farming and gardening. These are all worthy goals that would
dramatically change the quality of life of all Canadians for the better.

This is the holy mission that these men were on when they were
arrested - trying to set an example of how this harmless, helpful
herb could be fully taken advantage of. If they are punished, they
will be punished for trying to save their world from poisonous drugs
and fuels and trying to bring back the tree of life when the world
needs it most. To punish them now would be to harm the harmless,
given the fact that there are absolutely no victims from their
crime. There are no marijuana drunk tanks, no marijuana cancer wards
and nobody complaining of harm done to them.

Don't harm these harmless, helpful and holy people by taking away
their freedom.

David Malmo-Levine

Vancouver, B.C.

Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2008

Source: Nelson Daily News (CN BC)