For Marijuana
I am pretty seriously depressed about the drug war. An organization
called The November Coalition at http://www.november.org/ presents a
whole bunch of case histories and statistics on their website that
indicate to me that the drug war lacks even a pretense of righteousness.
The unconstitutional cultural slam that presumably originated it doesn't
appear to affect the direction of actual prosecution activity. People
like me who completely lack experience with coping with gross interpersonal
corruption but who have drug dealing associates apparently have the highest
risk of a five to twenty year prison term without parole. In many of the
case histories even the facts of the case didn't matter; friendship with
a dealer or smuggler can effectively be a far more serious crime than
dealing or smuggling.
I abhor all the drugs. One of my roommates made a pie for his son's
birthday, with organic pears, bananas and flour and sincerely wanted me
at the event, but I felt too sickened at the time about celebration of
this kind. Even the smell of the pie made me wince. Mechanical attitude
adjustment seems so stupid and tragic; something I do only when desperate
and alone, to cope with the hallucinations of isolation, and only when
real people are hopelessly out of reach. Even ice water can confuse my
grip on knowing myself if my focus is really open, let alone sugar, coffee,
cigarettes, aspirin, television or the stuff that's called drugs. I hate
that so many of my friends and associates want this stuff and now I have
this added horror of prison threat unless I overtly condemn the few drugs
that have non-recreational use.
I sat on my front porch for several hours, crying my eyes out on and
off, and slept for awhile, before I felt any impulse to write. When I was
young I used to avoid all the escapist interests, even heated buildings,
just for the ease of a clear head. I feel driven back that way by this
wash of complete indifference to kindness, sanity or fair commerce in
formal relationships. Most of the illegal drug users I've gotten to know
just make their own internal double standard, but I can't bear to go that
way.
What I present below is a letter I wrote earlier to the fellow who
invented the marijuana license.
Hello Alan,
Your story and website are a huge morale boost for me. I rewrote your
license somewhat to better express my own convictions and thought you might
want to read it. My angle on this matter has been my easy friendship with
those whose religious orientation takes a form that often includes
marijuana for it's spiritually focusing value.
I have no interest or use for hemp or marijuana myself but I am quite
disheartened by all the secretive behavior that the law puts into people's
relations to me, especially my housemates. They have to be sly with me
because I worry that my house will be vandalized by the police searching
for suspected contraband. I was present when the Eugene police destroyed
Hungry Bears Seedy Sweety manufacturing operation and the mess they left was
horrible. The police showed no particle of conscience. Someone had mailed a
small box containing marijuana from that address. That I am aware of, no
dealing or growing ever occurred there.
A friend of mine was jailed for growing marijuana and was aquitted on
appeal eight months later. There was utterly no evidence against him at
all and there was none to find. The judge simply dismissed the jury and
ordered a guilty plea entered out of spite against him. He spent eight
months in jail trying to understand and engage the appeal process. That he
knows of there is no possible recourse against the judge. I think only a
media presense could have saved his ass in court.
The effectiveness of the license in my community may be feeble but I am
passing it around anyway, if for nothing but the hopefulness it creates and
the lifting of secrecy around me. I would like to be on your list of
"licensed" people. Enclosed is $15.
In appreciation for your nobility,
Eric Michener
ericmichener@hotmail.com
http://www.efn.org/~empal
Unpublished Marijuana License
The justification clause of the criminal codes of all 50 states, the
United States, and the US Model Penal Code (Art. III, Sec.3.01-02)
allows law-breaking if it prevents greater harm.
UV-B radiation and other sources of chemical free radicals such as
common modern pollutants can detrimentally over-excite the nervous and
immune systems of mammals, a radiation sickness-like condition called ENSR.
UV-B radiation and other sources of free radicals have reached abnormally
high levels since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, leading to serious
population-wide physical and behavioral illness, which I have personally
observed in my associates as apparent mental illness similiar to sunstroke
or hypothermia.
Prior to the Industrial Revolution, UV-B has been a naturally occurring
source of excessive free radicals, which has promoted the evolution of
production in marijuana (cannabis sativa l. and related subspecies) of
UV-B-colored pigments called THCs apparently to protect the seeds.
THC molecules act as drugs in mammals via receptors (called cannabinoid
receptors) on the surface of nerve and immune cells, signaling those cells
to alter their activities in a manner that is presently poorly understood
but clearly eases over-excitement of those cells.
Cannabinoid receptors are genetically nearly identical to UV-B-stimulated
suntan (melanin) production, a known UV-B adaptation.
The receptor-mediated and other effects of THCs have been shown to be
opposite to the symptoms of ENSR and are thus remedial of a serious and
otherwise neglected medical condition.
Marijuana is used as a spiritually exploratory and spiritually unifying
sacrament in the Rastafarian and Hindu renunciant religions, and similiarly
by some Americans. My aiding and abetting in the government suppression of
this practice on the part of another American is an illegal violation of
their 1st amendment Constitutional right to freedom to participate in any
establishment of religion. The sole purpose of the laws against hemp and
marijuana is this illegal suppression of religion and these laws in no way
suggest that hemp, marijuana or THC are significantly harmful in any way.
THC has never been scientifically demonstrated to cause any physical or
social harm unattributable to other sources.
I,___________________ on this _____ day of __________________ ______.
(PRINT name) (day of month) (month) (year)
having read the above statements and believing them to be true, do on this
day declare my legal right to use, grow and distribute marijuana, and
facilitate the same on the part of others, where doing so contributes to
preventing harmful over-excitation of my own or someone else's nervous and
immune system; and I declare that my pledge to support the U.S. Constitution
logically prohibits me taking part in the governmental suppression of the
religious or spiritual use of Marijuana.
By signing this document, I am in no way promising or pledging to break
the law. The intent of this form is only to assert my legal right to break
marijuana laws (provided that such law-breaking does not lead to greater
harm than the harms I seek to avoid) under the justification clause of the
criminal code. I will not distribute marijuana to any minor without the
advice of a physician, nor will I operate a vehicle or heavy equipment while
impaired by marijuana or any other factor.
____________________________________ ______________
(signature of declarant) (date of signing)
____________________________________
(witness name PRINTED)
____________________________________ ______________
(witness signature) (date)
The original idea of this license was presented on the internet on 11/18/97
by alan leonard gordon and the American Drug History Institute.
e-mail: alangordon23@hotmail.com http://www.groovyweb.com/adhi/
or c/o Deb Powell,143 Keller st #4, Waynesville, North Carolina, 28786
For a $15 donation to his organization he offers a guarantee of legal
advice and defense effort in the event of an arrest.
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