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Tuesday, July 29, 2003
from
http://lastonespeaks.blogspot.com/
Last One Speaks
INCOMING WOUNDed
It's been a busy week in the War On Users of Natural Drugs. To begin with we lost the McGovern amendment to divert Columbian drug war funds to AIDS relief in Africa. It was a little disappointing, but it was a close vote - 195 to 226. I thought we might have taken that one, particularly in light of Bush's newly professed concern for Liberia, but I'll take the margin as a sign of hope in this ungodly war. We are making progress.
Speaking of amendments, the rest of the ones I've been working for this week were attached to the transportation bill.
It's mindboggling that the Drug Enforcement Administration will get a healthy budget increase over this year, considering this report by the White House Office of Management and Budget giving the agency a 0 rating in Results/Accountability, while the FBI will have a level budget and aid to state and local law enforcement agencies will be cut.
What a concept. Pump money into a failed program that persecutes non-violent people and take it from the agencies responsible for protecting us against violent terrorist acts. Meanwhile, Bring Em On Bush is out there trying to incite some mayhem that he can take decisive action against and look presidential again, just in time for election season. And they wonder why I smoke cannabis.
In another colossal waste of tax dollars, the Connecticut State Forensic Laboratory is spending $340,000 of federal money to map the DNA of seized marijuana in order to track growers. Should this really be a priority in our federal budget when schoolchildren have no books?
On the brighter side, the FCC amendment to bar federal regulators from letting broadcasters own television stations serving 45 percent of the country's viewers -- compared with 35 percent today -- passed and has drawn a White House veto threat. One little win for as long as it lasts.
Daniel Forbes, who writes on social policy and has testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House, recently published an excellent analysis on where we currently stand in the battle for drug policy reform. It's a sobering look at how far we have to go, but offers hope as a review of what we have accomplished so far.
Other encouraging news comes once again from North of the Border. In Nova Scotia, Marijuana Party Candidate, Michael Ronald Patriquen, is proving a decisive factor in a hotly contested local race. Michael is conducting his campaign from a jail cell where he is serving a 6 year sentence on conspiracy to traffic marijuana. One more thing to love about Canada. There's no law to prevent him from running.
On the subject of medicinal marijuana, the last word and the quote of the day goes to Alison Myrden, a medical marijuana patient living in Burlington, Canada who offers this response to Andrea Barthwell's screed. I don't have a link to this so I am publishing it in its entirety.
I'm the proof
I have just finished a second perusal of Dr. Andrea Barthwell's synopsis of the medicinal utility of cannabis. As a young woman living with chronic progressive MS, and as a legal medical marijuana patient in Canada, I am truly thankful that Barthwell -- deputy director at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and a past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine -- is not in my country.
As far as I am concerned, Barthwell is in the same category as Health Minister Anne McLellan -- misinformed. Barthwell doesn't frighten me. It will just take a little longer to educate her. She argues that the proof of medicine is in the patient's getting better, not just feeling better. Well, I am her proof.
Ten years ago, I couldn't get out of a wheelchair and could not stop shaking violently when I tried to cross a room. I was taking more than 32 pills plus 600 to 2,000 mg of morphine a day. I lost full control of my bladder and bowel. Next came the worst pain known to medicine that was also incurable -- Tic Douloureux.
Before too long and many, many doctors later, I was introduced to marijuana. The results were instantaneous.
Over the last four years, I have halved my prescription medications that were my life for more than 10 years. I am also out of a wheelchair more often and not using my walker at all. Would Barthwell believe I could do this if I weren't improving?
I am one of hundred of thousands of Canadians who have shown the Canadian government just how much our quality of life has improved. My health is better now than it ever has been. I am walking every day of my life now with a cane, I have everything under control when I have the proper strain of cannabis and things could not be better.
I feel sorry, not only for Barthwell because one day she may need this incredible plant, but for her patients who will obviously be denied an indisputable service while she cages the suffering innocents of her country. Shame on her.
Alison Myrden, Burlington.
http://lastonespeaks.blogspot.com/
Last One Speaks
INCOMING WOUNDed
It's been a busy week in the War On Users of Natural Drugs. To begin with we lost the McGovern amendment to divert Columbian drug war funds to AIDS relief in Africa. It was a little disappointing, but it was a close vote - 195 to 226. I thought we might have taken that one, particularly in light of Bush's newly professed concern for Liberia, but I'll take the margin as a sign of hope in this ungodly war. We are making progress.
Speaking of amendments, the rest of the ones I've been working for this week were attached to the transportation bill.
It's mindboggling that the Drug Enforcement Administration will get a healthy budget increase over this year, considering this report by the White House Office of Management and Budget giving the agency a 0 rating in Results/Accountability, while the FBI will have a level budget and aid to state and local law enforcement agencies will be cut.
What a concept. Pump money into a failed program that persecutes non-violent people and take it from the agencies responsible for protecting us against violent terrorist acts. Meanwhile, Bring Em On Bush is out there trying to incite some mayhem that he can take decisive action against and look presidential again, just in time for election season. And they wonder why I smoke cannabis.
In another colossal waste of tax dollars, the Connecticut State Forensic Laboratory is spending $340,000 of federal money to map the DNA of seized marijuana in order to track growers. Should this really be a priority in our federal budget when schoolchildren have no books?
On the brighter side, the FCC amendment to bar federal regulators from letting broadcasters own television stations serving 45 percent of the country's viewers -- compared with 35 percent today -- passed and has drawn a White House veto threat. One little win for as long as it lasts.
Daniel Forbes, who writes on social policy and has testified before both the U.S. Senate and the House, recently published an excellent analysis on where we currently stand in the battle for drug policy reform. It's a sobering look at how far we have to go, but offers hope as a review of what we have accomplished so far.
Other encouraging news comes once again from North of the Border. In Nova Scotia, Marijuana Party Candidate, Michael Ronald Patriquen, is proving a decisive factor in a hotly contested local race. Michael is conducting his campaign from a jail cell where he is serving a 6 year sentence on conspiracy to traffic marijuana. One more thing to love about Canada. There's no law to prevent him from running.
On the subject of medicinal marijuana, the last word and the quote of the day goes to Alison Myrden, a medical marijuana patient living in Burlington, Canada who offers this response to Andrea Barthwell's screed. I don't have a link to this so I am publishing it in its entirety.
I'm the proof
I have just finished a second perusal of Dr. Andrea Barthwell's synopsis of the medicinal utility of cannabis. As a young woman living with chronic progressive MS, and as a legal medical marijuana patient in Canada, I am truly thankful that Barthwell -- deputy director at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and a past president of the American Society of Addiction Medicine -- is not in my country.
As far as I am concerned, Barthwell is in the same category as Health Minister Anne McLellan -- misinformed. Barthwell doesn't frighten me. It will just take a little longer to educate her. She argues that the proof of medicine is in the patient's getting better, not just feeling better. Well, I am her proof.
Ten years ago, I couldn't get out of a wheelchair and could not stop shaking violently when I tried to cross a room. I was taking more than 32 pills plus 600 to 2,000 mg of morphine a day. I lost full control of my bladder and bowel. Next came the worst pain known to medicine that was also incurable -- Tic Douloureux.
Before too long and many, many doctors later, I was introduced to marijuana. The results were instantaneous.
Over the last four years, I have halved my prescription medications that were my life for more than 10 years. I am also out of a wheelchair more often and not using my walker at all. Would Barthwell believe I could do this if I weren't improving?
I am one of hundred of thousands of Canadians who have shown the Canadian government just how much our quality of life has improved. My health is better now than it ever has been. I am walking every day of my life now with a cane, I have everything under control when I have the proper strain of cannabis and things could not be better.
I feel sorry, not only for Barthwell because one day she may need this incredible plant, but for her patients who will obviously be denied an indisputable service while she cages the suffering innocents of her country. Shame on her.
Alison Myrden, Burlington.
Media Awareness Project
US MA: Framingham Resident Advocates Marijuana Use
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1105/a10.html
Newshawk: Kim Hanna for http://www.commondreams.org/
Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jul 2003
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2003 MetroWest Daily News
Contact: mdnletters@cnc.com
Website: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619
Author: Andy Smith, News Correspondent
FRAMINGHAM RESIDENT ADVOCATES MARIJUANA USE
ASHLAND -- Jim Pillsbury is a pothead, and he doesn't care who knows it.
"We're all labeled in some way," he said yesterday. "So I don't mind having my name associated with drug reform.
"I play guitar, write, drive, make love, and do everything humanly possible after I've consumed cannabis. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
The Framingham resident and spokesman of MetroWest's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, said he won a victory of sorts last week when he and the town of Ashland settled a lawsuit over liability insurance for a pro-marijuana rally.
In spring 2002, Ashland imposed a $1 million liability insurance on a rally Pillsbury had planned to collect signatures at Stone Park to support a 2002 state ballot question to decriminalize marijuana.
Backed by NORML and the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, or MassCann, Pillsbury brought a free-speech lawsuit against the town.
The two parties settled last week, with the town agreeing to allow Pillsbury use of any recreational facility for $150 liability insurance. Ashland can also charge $25 per hour for use of the park.
Assistant Town Manager Dale Morris said yesterday the town was only concerned with its liability and the safety of its residents. The nature of the proposed rally was never an issue, he said.
"It's a free country and he has his constitutional right to voice his opinion," Morris said.
Pillsbury said he exercises his "rights" every night. He said he sparks up while reading, gardening or listening to Bob Dylan albums.
After a week spent working in a Cambridge biotech lab, he might even indulge in multiple sessions, with a couple joints on the beach.
"I'm a 50-year-old guy in excellent health, and I've smoked pot for 34 years," he said. "I think part of my good health is because at the end of the day I can consume a bit of cannabis and relax."
Pillsbury claims he's hardly alone.
"If all the people who smoke pot didn't go to work for one day, this country would come to a screeching halt," he said.
Movements toward loosening marijuana laws, both here and abroad, have encouraged Pillsbury. Canada recently proposed legislation to decriminalize the drug. And in November 2000, 67.5 percent of Framingham voters approved a nonbinding ballot initiative instructing their state representative to support a bill making possession a civil infraction.
Pillsbury drove support for that initiative, and said he plans to collect the 200 signatures needed to give Ashland a similar ballot question in 2004. Last year, he joked that the Ashland park was ideally suited for his cause.
"If I could get Stone Phillips to come to Stone Park to interview a bunch of stoners, that would be good," Pillsbury said at the time.
Pillsbury said he has no immediate plans to use Stone Park, except as a possible location for an episode of "The Jim Pillsbury Show," his live public access political program.
In 2004, he plans to run as the Libertarian candidate for state representative in Framingham's 6th Middlesex District. He was defeated by incumbent state Rep. Debby Blumer, D-Framingham, in 2002.
Until then, Pillsbury will continue with his activism.
"What motivates me is freedom," he said. "Freedom to ingest whatever it is that I want into my body. Cannabis is something I choose to use in the privacy of my own home or my back yard, and I should be able to do that."
Pillsbury said with the wrong user, anything from lawnmowers to milk can be abused. He believes pots only real drawback is the legal repercussions of getting caught. In 1985, he was convicted of selling marijuana, though he did not serve jail time.
"I want to break the stigma of the pothead who sits around all day and does nothing with his life," he said. "We're as good of human beings as anyone. I'm a volunteer at the Salvation Army, I'm involved with civic responsibilities, and I'm concerned about my neighbors and my community.
"I really think pot smokers are generally happier in life. There's a good perspective that people get after they've consumed pot, and I think that's good for society."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAP posted-by: Jackl
US MA: Framingham Resident Advocates Marijuana Use
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n1105/a10.html
Newshawk: Kim Hanna for http://www.commondreams.org/
Pubdate: Mon, 21 Jul 2003
Source: Metrowest Daily News (MA)
Copyright: 2003 MetroWest Daily News
Contact: mdnletters@cnc.com
Website: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/619
Author: Andy Smith, News Correspondent
FRAMINGHAM RESIDENT ADVOCATES MARIJUANA USE
ASHLAND -- Jim Pillsbury is a pothead, and he doesn't care who knows it.
"We're all labeled in some way," he said yesterday. "So I don't mind having my name associated with drug reform.
"I play guitar, write, drive, make love, and do everything humanly possible after I've consumed cannabis. It's nothing to be ashamed of."
The Framingham resident and spokesman of MetroWest's chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML, said he won a victory of sorts last week when he and the town of Ashland settled a lawsuit over liability insurance for a pro-marijuana rally.
In spring 2002, Ashland imposed a $1 million liability insurance on a rally Pillsbury had planned to collect signatures at Stone Park to support a 2002 state ballot question to decriminalize marijuana.
Backed by NORML and the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, or MassCann, Pillsbury brought a free-speech lawsuit against the town.
The two parties settled last week, with the town agreeing to allow Pillsbury use of any recreational facility for $150 liability insurance. Ashland can also charge $25 per hour for use of the park.
Assistant Town Manager Dale Morris said yesterday the town was only concerned with its liability and the safety of its residents. The nature of the proposed rally was never an issue, he said.
"It's a free country and he has his constitutional right to voice his opinion," Morris said.
Pillsbury said he exercises his "rights" every night. He said he sparks up while reading, gardening or listening to Bob Dylan albums.
After a week spent working in a Cambridge biotech lab, he might even indulge in multiple sessions, with a couple joints on the beach.
"I'm a 50-year-old guy in excellent health, and I've smoked pot for 34 years," he said. "I think part of my good health is because at the end of the day I can consume a bit of cannabis and relax."
Pillsbury claims he's hardly alone.
"If all the people who smoke pot didn't go to work for one day, this country would come to a screeching halt," he said.
Movements toward loosening marijuana laws, both here and abroad, have encouraged Pillsbury. Canada recently proposed legislation to decriminalize the drug. And in November 2000, 67.5 percent of Framingham voters approved a nonbinding ballot initiative instructing their state representative to support a bill making possession a civil infraction.
Pillsbury drove support for that initiative, and said he plans to collect the 200 signatures needed to give Ashland a similar ballot question in 2004. Last year, he joked that the Ashland park was ideally suited for his cause.
"If I could get Stone Phillips to come to Stone Park to interview a bunch of stoners, that would be good," Pillsbury said at the time.
Pillsbury said he has no immediate plans to use Stone Park, except as a possible location for an episode of "The Jim Pillsbury Show," his live public access political program.
In 2004, he plans to run as the Libertarian candidate for state representative in Framingham's 6th Middlesex District. He was defeated by incumbent state Rep. Debby Blumer, D-Framingham, in 2002.
Until then, Pillsbury will continue with his activism.
"What motivates me is freedom," he said. "Freedom to ingest whatever it is that I want into my body. Cannabis is something I choose to use in the privacy of my own home or my back yard, and I should be able to do that."
Pillsbury said with the wrong user, anything from lawnmowers to milk can be abused. He believes pots only real drawback is the legal repercussions of getting caught. In 1985, he was convicted of selling marijuana, though he did not serve jail time.
"I want to break the stigma of the pothead who sits around all day and does nothing with his life," he said. "We're as good of human beings as anyone. I'm a volunteer at the Salvation Army, I'm involved with civic responsibilities, and I'm concerned about my neighbors and my community.
"I really think pot smokers are generally happier in life. There's a good perspective that people get after they've consumed pot, and I think that's good for society."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAP posted-by: Jackl
