TELLING THE TRUTH IS A REVOLUTIONARY ACT

Dear Reader,

This article contains some very important internet links so you may want to
keep it as a reference.

When I first started writing a recurrent column for the CT I figured on
writing a few articles to get my readers caught up on current drug war
research and then I would be on to more easy topics like perhaps the
deepest possible sociological lessons to be learned from the movie Matrix.
I am a computer engineering student after all. J Unfortunately given the
feedback I have received there is a greater deficit of understanding than I
expected so this column is dedicated to getting a few basic facts straight.

First, marijuana is a Mexican girls name used by William Randolph Hearst
and Harry Anslinger to enable them to turn innocent Mexican Hemp into the
killer "marihuana". The given Latin name for the plant in question is
Cannabis Sativa. The plant grown here is called Cannabis Americana by
science and those in the know.

Read more about William Randolph Hearst and Harry Anslinger at the award
winning website of the Shaffer Library of drug policy at:

http://www.druglibrary.org/

Cannabis Hemp came here with the first settlers. The founding fathers
enacted laws requiring its cultivation. Medical use of Cannabis came to the
US from India by way of UK in about 1850 and by 1900 every major
pharmaceutical house manufactured Cannabis products for pain etc. Read the
original full Pharmacopoeia entry for Cannabis here:

http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclectic/usdisp/cannabis.html

Cannabis was still legally prescribable in the United States until 1970
after Timothy Leary won a case in the Supreme Court showing the federal
marihuana laws unconstitutional.

When the US drugczar asked the Institute of Medicine if pot had a gateway
effect, had medical value or hurt kids they replied in several hundred
pages No, Yes and NO!!

Read the full Institute of Medicine report on medical marihuana here: Note:
Don't just read the executive summary and think you know what the report
says because that didn't work for the drug czar either.

http://books.nap.edu/html/marimed/

Alcohol prohibition and marihuana prohibition aren't the same thing!
Marihuana prohibition is worse! Not only is marijuana, for so called
recreational use, prohibited thereby earning the name "prohibition"
medicinal drinking of alcohol under doctors orders was made possible by a
special certificate given out by the US treasury department, the same dep't
that outlawed marihuana, by not allowing prescription access to Cannabis
since 1970 the US government has been heading out into the snow covered
valley of shame.

There are tens of thousands of US citizens using Cannabis under doctor's
orders right now and those patients either have to be farmers and grow
their own or venture into the DEA's creation, the black market. The DEA
recently admitted they created the black market in a medical marijuana case
that is in the Supreme Court right now being considered.

Read more about the current Supreme Court medical marihuana case here:

http://angeljustice.org/

Most people support Cannabis medical use. Most people support not arresting
marijuana users. Most people are against the so-called recreational use of
marihuana. Read the current statistics I am basing this statement on by
visiting The Virginia Tech Center For Survey Research here:

http://www.csr.vt.edu/qol/index.html

There is a chapter of The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
laws at Virginia Tech. They have small weekly meetings and big annual
gatherings and pass out literally tons of information.

Visit VPI&SU's NORML chapter here:

http://www.norml.org.vt.edu/

This is one of the key documents distributed by NORML, ask at norml@vt.edu
and they will give you a hard copy free, I have one and it's pretty cool
for winning arguments since it is full of US government facts the US
government is spending billions [yes billions] of dollars to cover up.

Drug War Facts Book:

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/

Check out this material well and if you want to talk about it write a
letter to the editor and or send me an email at mkrawitz@vt.edu

With love, peace, Liberty and understanding, I remain yours truly,

Michael Krawitz