Category Archives: War on Drugs
“Remember. Remember The 5th of November”
V FOR VENDETTA (Photo credit: Adam Crowe)
So…once more we come to Guy Fawkes day. The day celebrated and, of late, remembered as a result of the 2005 movie ” V For Vendetta“. My question to you is this. Can any of you think of a reason to protest anything your government is doing currently?
Obviously I am not advocating any form of violence against individuals or even infrastructure as that path becomes self-defeating rather quickly. What I am saying is this. Find a way to voice your anger. Write on your blog. Add something to your Facebook page. Hell-send a letter to the editor of your local newspaper but do something.
The Governments of the world are in direct opposition now to the interests of the people who live on this planet. It is time we stood up, for those who have not been doing so, and let them know we know!!! The truth of the matter is that they are a bunch of rats that live in the dark and only attack when they can gang up on those who have become separated from the crowd. The young, the poor, the aged, the disabled.
When the rest of us choose to become protective of those who cannot protect themselves and say NO MORE, things will begin to change. One example where people can stand up is in Colorado where this tax on cannabis will put the use of pot back into government control and will push the people who truly need it, or just want to use it for their own pleasure to a place where it is financially beyond their reach. A new black market will then start up and the drug war will continue.
Whatever the cause you choose, choose something today to speak out against. The Wars in…well where aren’t we fighting wars now? Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria, Iraq, several African nations and soon Iran. How about the NSA, CIA, TSA, DHS ect. ect. Or Fracking for gas or Fuckishima (It was deliberate). Or the fact that our President is quoted in a new book as saying he is “good at killing”.
Anyway, I am sure that everyone can come up with at least one thing that really bothers them about the US Government or whatever government claims to rule over them. Speak out. Be An Anarchist for a day!
Anarchism is a set of political philosophies that hold the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, or harmful
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“Remember, Remember the 5th of November!”
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New Research: CBC Cannabinoid Sparks Brain Cell Growth
This is just another in a long line of studies that invalidate the arguments that the mind control propagandists have used to put fear in people about drugs in general and Cannabis in particular.
They’re going down hard. (E)
Related articles
- Cannabis And Basics About Cannabinoids (cannabisactivistus.wordpress.com)
- 20 Medical Studies That Prove Cannabis Can Cure Cancer (collective-evolution.com)
- Science for potheads: Why they love to get high (salon.com)
- Why Pot Makes You Feel Good (alternet.org)
- New Marijuana Ruling Shows The Age of Deception On The Most Medicinal Plant In The World Is Coming To An End (the-tap.blogspot.com)
IS HEMP A MIRACLE PLANT THAT CAN SAVE THE WORLD?
Click on the Truth Theory Logo for more articles, videos and other media on topics ranging from health to science, politics to conspiracies, as well as information on UFO’s, 911, historical mysteries and more. Great site! (E)
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by Jeffrey Green
Hemp is perhaps the answer to most problems in the world. Ambitious, yes. An exaggeration, no.
If grown extensively, its diverse uses can be of significant value to the environment, the economy, world hunger, personal health, and so much more.
For the environment, hemp can reduce deforestation, pesticide use, provide a sustainable biofuel, and replace GMO cotton among other benefits. It grows like a weed without the need for pesticides or heavy fertilizers.
Hemp does just about anything wood can do and it only takes 6 months to renew, not 20 years. It can be used to make paper, to build homes with, and as fuel for fire.
Hemp clothing is far more durable than cotton, which is an industry still operating a form of slavery from cultivation to production. GMO cotton has led to indentured servitude for Indian farmers where failed crops and debt result in shockingly high suicide rates. Hemp is simply a better material for clothing.
The oil in the hemp seed can be made into biodiesel just like any vegetable oil. Most arguments against biofuels are that their crops take up too much valuable farm land that should be used for food, and it takes more energy than it gives back when all things are considered (fertilizer, pesticides, planting and harvesting machinery, refining).
With hemp, biofuel is merely a bi-product of this crop, not it’s main use. The fiber of the plant is still an extremely valuable commodity. Whereas corn ethanol needs a lot of land with tons of intensive chemicals, and the process of turning corn into ethanol is then a net energy loss.
As today’s economy falters due to a variety of systematic problems, the world is in desperate need of a new industry. Worldwide hemp legalization and promotion would lead to a revolution in nearly all major industries. Entrepreneurs would have a field day with textiles, plastics, body care, construction, etc.
Industrial hemp’s female counterpart, marijuana, provides effective natural medicine for a number of ailments. Cannabis is one of mankind’s oldest recorded healing plants. As its prohibition lessens, modern man is only just beginning to discover the exciting medical uses of marijuana, which are provably vast already.
Cannabis can ease pain, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, PTSD, arthritis, and has even been proven to have anti-cancerous properties. When eaten or vaporized, cannabis is entirely beneficial as a natural alternative because any unwanted tars are not inhaled. Furthermore, juicing raw cannabis has many benefits and zero psychoactive effects.
Hemp alone is powerful enough to be a game changer for the environment and for human society as a whole. It’s time to unleash the hemp seed.
Please watch the very entertaining video about how hemp can save the world and share this information with everyone you know.
Related articles
- The Seed from Above (hempitblog.wordpress.com)
- Hemp vs Cotton: The Ultimate Showdown (naturalblaze.com)
- Hemp farming hits snag with DEA as cannabis plant (triblive.com)
- Vt., 8 States Allow Hemp Growth; Fed Law Conflicts (abcnews.go.com)
- Giz Explains: Why You Can’t Get Stoned From Smoking Hemp (gizmodo.com.au)
- Hemp goodness! (fgxpressdreamteam.com)
Federal: Bipartisan Coalition of Lawmakers Introduce ‘Respect State Marijuana Laws Act’
The Less Federal interference the better (E)
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
United States Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), along with a bipartisan coalition of three Republicans (Reps. Rohrabacher, Rep. Justin Amash [R-MI], and Don Young [R-AK]) and three Democrats (Reps. Earl Blumenauer [D-OR], Steve Cohen [D-TN] and Jared Polis [D-CO]) are sponsoring House Bill 1523: the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act.
This measure seeks to amend the federal Controlled Substances Act to exempt from federal prosecution individuals and businesses, including marijuana dispensaries and/or retail outlets, who comply with state marijuana laws.
“This bipartisan bill represents a common-sense approach that establishes federal government respect for all states’ marijuana laws,” Rohrabacher said in a prepared statement, “It does so by keeping the federal government out of the business of criminalizing marijuana activities in states that don’t want it to be criminal.”
You can write to Congress in support of HR 1523 using a pre-written letter when you visit NORML‘s ‘Take Action Center’ here:
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51046/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=10475
Sincerely,
The NORML Team.
Related articles
- Dana Rohrabacher Introduces (and Justin Amash Cosponsors) the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act (reason.com)
- “Feds scoop up medical marijuana patient records in Oregon investigation…” (althouse.blogspot.com)
- House bill would bar Feds from acting against legalized marijuana in states (q13fox.com)
- Marijuana Legalization Proposed By SoCal Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (blogs.laweekly.com)
- House Members File Bipartisan “Respect States’ Marijuana Laws Act” (informationliberation.com)
- H.R. 1523, The Respect State Marijuana Laws Act, introduced (cannabistheory.com)
Pew Poll: Majority Of Americans Say Marijuana Should Be Legal
One of those other broken promises that the man in the Oval Office failed to keep to his constituents. The man is a traitor. Need I remind readers what the so-called founding fathers said about traitors. Oh and BTW he isn’t the only one. Most of the US Congress, Senate, Military, Courts and all agencies of the US Government have betrayed the American people. Non-Violent opposition to bring the government to a stop is the best answer. Find one way to stop cooperating with them. Decide how much of a price you can afford to pay and do that thing which will irritate, cost them money or resources or in some other way clog a wheel.
Something as simple as creating a blog, Facebook page, standing out in front of a local court house handing out Jury Nullification Pamphlets. There are so many ways.
Hell, I even drove with an expired license for several years as a matter of principle. Literally years without being caught and the only reason I was finally caught was new technology that reads every plate and automatically runs it. I wasn’t speeding, didn’t run a stop sign etc. I am a good driver and that was the point. Why do I need to ask the state permission to drive when I have proven my abilities for years. (of course they and many of you who have been brainwashed into thinking we need a state would disagree with me which is why I will no longer drive until after I take the test and get a license). BTW just as a matter of fact I haven’t had an accident in over 20 years.
Maybe it didn’t change anything or maybe the butterfly thing is real and seemingly insignificant things do matter in the end. Maybe my act will eventually be the thing that brought the whole friggin’ thing down on their heads.
It doesn’t really even matter but you should be choosing to do something! Otherwise ya git what ya git. BTW we are winning the war for hearts which proves our efforts are having an affect. (E)
Washington, DC: Fifty-two percent of Americans say that the adult consumption of cannabis ought to be legal, according to national polling data released last week by the Pew Research Center. The total is the highest percentage of support ever reported by Pew, which began surveying public opinion on this issue in 1973.
This year’s percentage marks an 11 percent increase in support since 2010, the last time Pew posed the question. Forty-five percent of respondents said they opposed liberalizing marijuana laws.
Democrats, (59 percent), males (57 percent), African Americans (56 percent), and those respondents between the ages of 18 and 29 (64 percent) were most likely to favor legalizing marijuana. Female respondents (48 percent), Republicans (37 percent), and those age 65 and over (33 percent) were least likely to back legalization.
Pollsters also reported that 77 percent of Americans – including 72 percent of self-identified Republicans and 60 percent of those respondents age 65 or older – believe that cannabis possesses “legitimate medical uses,” a position that directly conflicts with federal policy.
According to Pew, a solid majority of Americans also question present federal efforts to enforce the criminalization of cannabis. The poll reported that 72 percent of respondents agreed that “government efforts to enforce marijuana laws cost more than they are worth,” and 60 percent of Americans said that the government should no longer enforce federal anti-marijuana laws in states that have approved of its use.
In recent months, national polls by Gallup, Quinnipiac University, and Public Policy Polling have all similarly reported majority public support for legalizing and regulating the adult use of cannabis.
For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, or Erik Altieri, NORML Communications Director, at (202) 483-5500.
Related articles
- The day in cannabis: Medical marijuana group rebrands, Pew poll shows majority want legalization (miamiherald.typepad.com)
- Majority of Americans support marijuana legalization, new poll finds (denverpost.com)
- ‘A majority of Americans now say marijuana should be made legal, with far fewer viewing it as a gateway to harder drugs or as morally wrong, according to a poll released Thursday by the Pew Research Center.’ (refreshingnews99.blogspot.com)
- New Bill Would Protect Legal Marijuana Users From Federal Law (usnews.com)
- Legislator again files bill to allow medical marijuana (newsherald.com)
- Marijuana Research Funding Cut as Support for Drug Grows (bloomberg.com)
The Will Of The People Doesn’t Mean Jack To Drug Warriors
Center for a Stateless Society
building public awareness of left-wing market anarchism
I can not say I always agree with all this site stands for but much is worth reading including the following article. (E):
Posted by Dave Hummels on Mar 7, 2013
The Associated Press reports that eight former DEA administrators are urging the Obama administration to sue Washington and Colorado over their voter-approved moves toward marijuana legalization.
One former chief, Peter Bensinger, fears that successful legalization efforts will lead to “a domino effect” in the US. Where have we heard that phrase before? Bensinger continues breathlessly, “My fear is that the Justice Department will do what they are doing now: do nothing and say nothing … If they don’t act now, these laws will be fully implemented in a matter of months.”
So drug warriors are losing their minds over Colorado and Washington. Good! We can only hope that Bensinger’s dire predictions come true and that more Americans are indeed waking up to the absurdity of marijuana prohibition.
The former DEA bureaucrats argue, accurately, that marijuana remains illegal under the Controlled Substances Act. Even in cases involving medical marijuana, the federal government may abuse the commerce clause as a rationale to criminalize users, growers and sellers of marijuana (per Gonzales v. Raich). The commerce clause has become the federal government’s drug war equivalent of catch-all disorderly conduct statutes in the states.
Unfortunately, these goons have a solid case to present to US Attorney General Holder. In New State Ice Co. v. Liebmann (1932), US Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis said, “It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.” But today’s political class views federalism as archaic.
Hopefully the administration will choose to ignore this thuggish recommendation. But if they do decide to litigate, this will be another sign that the feds don’t give a damn about the will of the people. Liberty-loving Americans should respond to this federal intrusion with a massive wave of civil disobedience.
Let’s start by publicly shaming the DEA heads mentioned by the AP: “Bensinger, John Bartels, Robert Bonner, Thomas Constantine, Asa Hutchinson, John Lawn, Donnie Marshall and Francis Mullen.” Get to know their names, libertarians. They are your enemies!
Then, let’s publicize the efforts of these authoritarians to undermine the voters of Colorado and Washington. Ask them why they continue to support a policy with openly racist origins which has resulted in mass incarceration. Publicly reveal the motives of the police agencies that enforce these laws . When drug warriors drone on about “protecting the children,” confront them with the horrific reality of wrong door raids, slaughtered family pets and children terrorized with flash-bangs. Wherever an apologist for prohibition gives a speech or attends a meeting, he or she should be met by throngs of boisterous picketers.
As we expose these petty tyrants, we should also seek opportunities to throw a wrench into the machinery of prohibition. A mass movement of jury nullification in drug cases may be a promising tactic. Prosecutors can use voir dire to remove one or two questionable jurors, but what if nullification becomes widespread? They can’t remove all of us. In the future, we should view jury duty as a chance to liberate non-violent people from the state’s clutches.
In Tao Te Ching, the Chinese sage Lao Tzu writes, “The more laws are posted, the more robbers and thieves there are.” Time and time again, this observation has been proven correct. The violence of the drug war is perpetuated by government, yet officials insist they must keep fighting. In their vile attempt to protect their old turf, former DEA bosses show their true colors. They are gangsters with federal pensions. They will do anything to ensure that they and their ilk continue to get their cut of drug war booty. It is up to us to expose their racket and to finish the job sensible voters in Colorado and Washington started in November.
C4SS Fellow Dave Hummels is a Left-libertarian writer from Central Illinois. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Illinois-Springfield. Dave has over a decade of experience in the field of healthcare security and is also a licensed emergency medical technician.
Related articles
- Ex-DEA heads: Feds should nullify state pot laws (kansascity.com)
- Ex-DEA Chief Lobbying Holder to Nullify Marijuana Legalization Owns a Drug Testing Company (activistpost.com)
Folks-This is Just Plain wrong. Nothing Else Can be Said That describes it.
WRONGRelated articles
- it’s a plain cut. (sickocean.wordpress.com)
This is an update about Kevin “Rashid” Johnson, a prisoner activist and intellectual who is currently in a dire situation in Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon. As was reported last week, Rashid has been in the midst of a health crisis for almost a month now, which has included periods of severe disorientation. For a time he was refusing to eat or drink; as far as our most recent information if concerned, he is currently accepting liquids but still not eating. Rashid has spent most of his adult life in prison, and almost all of that time has been spent in various isolation units. This is a direct consequence of his actively resisting abuse from prison guards and their lackeys in the 1990s, and to his continued political writing and exposing conditions in America’s carceral nightmare ever since. A New Afrikan Communist and the founder and…
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Straight From Oz: Real Reason Elites Intend to Legalize Some Drugs?
I really appreciate the folks over at The Daily Bell, This article is very insightful. Take the brain out for a stroll and stretch a few of those synapses 🙂 E.
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Australia foreign minister calls for decriminalisation of low-level drug use … Bob Carr, Australia’s foreign minister, whose brother died after a heroin overdose, has urged the decriminalisation of low-level drug use, after a report concluded the war on the scourge was lost … “A bit of modest decriminalisation, de facto decriminalisation at the edges, simply freeing up police to be doing the things they ought to be doing, would be a sensible way of going about it,” Mr Carr told the Seven Network. He added to fellow broadcaster ABC that by doing so “we wouldn’t have armies of police patrolling outside nightclubs and pubs hoping to snatch someone who’s got an ecstasy tablet in his or her pocket or purse”. – UK Telegraph
Dominant Social Theme: This drug war hasn’t worked. Time to be more reasonable about it.
Free-Market Analysis: Last week we thought we detected a trend: The top elites via politicians and the mainstream media in the US were embarked on creating some sort of dominant social theme aimed at legalizing some drugs.
At the time we didn’t understand why this promotion would be launched, given that the elites have shown no compunction about putting people in jail for years for doing something as innocent as smoking a marijuana cigarette.
We received interesting and insightful feedbacks to our questions about this seeming emergent elite meme, but as is so often the case, a little more time seems to be revealing what may be the truth of the matter. You can see the initial article here: Have Elites Decided to Legalize Some US Drugs?
The US has jailed tens of millions in the past decade over drug infractions. But now we seem to be seeing some re-thinking … First Pat Robertson writes about legalizing marijuana and then CNN‘s Fareed Zakaria writes about it as well. And that’s not all.
A random search of Google shows that a bill to legalize medical marijuana is moving forward in the Tennessee House and that the Rhode Island Senate is discussing legalization as well. In Yakima, Washington, a former Seattle police chief and a former state senator will hold a public forum on the legalization of marijuana.
Now, in this article excerpted above, we think that the purpose of this theme, if that’s what it is, is beginning to emerge. Australian foreign minister Bob Carr may have given the game away by referring to, “A bit of modest decriminalisation, de facto decriminalisation at the edges, simply freeing up police to be doing the things they ought to be doing… “
What Carr is saying is that the “authorities” are stretched. The system, he is indicating, has other priorities that are not being addressed because of the “war on drugs.”
What might those priorities be? We can only speculate, but as the Western world tends to move in lockstep when it comes to such things (given that nation-states are pretty much an illusion at this point), we would tend to think that a decision has been made to point the resources of Leviathan at the emergent freedom movement that is roiling the Western world.
We’ve long predicted this moment, of course, writing over and over that the Internet is a kind of Gutenberg Press and that the same sort of society-transforming trends are taking place now as did back then.
Then, from what we can tell, the elites started a number of wars, including a so-called Peasant War that lasted about 30 years. War is a great way to control the masses because all the rules of civil society can be thrown out based on “security considerations.” That’s what is happening today, as then.
There are many other parallels between the circumstances surrounding the Gutenberg Press and today’s Internet. We’ve often mentioned them in these pages. Copyright was invented in Britain after the advent of the press in order to slow the transmission of information – and now today, again, copyright is being used, this time as a weapon against the Internet.
The elites are neither imaginative nor facile. They tend to select repetitious stratagems from a sparse and brutal tool kit. They are not disappointing now. Brutality is increasingly the order of the day. Wars, depression, torture and general intimidation via Draconian laws and regulation are the order of the day.
People are perpetually and increasingly astonished at what’s going on. Just the other day, CNN leftist Rachel Maddow appeared on-air with a rant against the Supreme Court for determining one could be strip-searched at the discretion of US law enforcement no matter the reason.
Maddow laid the blame on a “conservative” Supreme Court but, in fact, the stale right-left paradigm has no relevance to what’s going on. The emergent fascist state throughout the West has all the hallmarks of a deliberate policy.
Of course, Maddow would have to admit that there are dynastic families based out of the City of London that want to run the world and are willing to create a kind of generalized Western Third Reich to do so.
The power elite that wants to rule the world has been destabilizing the US for several centuries – really ever since it came together as a libertarian republic. It took the Civil War to really set in motion the trends that have blossomed today, including a massive military-industrial complex, an intel-industrial complex and a penal-industrial complex.
Australia has all the signal hallmarks of an emergent fascist state including a feverish green lobby, incandescently dishonest politics, an emergent carbon tax, etc. But we have to think that the “stick” of this decriminalization is aimed at the US.
The emergent authoritarian TSA has just ordered 400 million hollow-point bullets and the US is building a trans-national spy facility out in Utah at a cost of billions. The elites have always hated and feared US exceptionalism and its general republican orientation.
Under former President George W. Bush, the US also built numerous detention facilities across the US, giving the contract to Dick Cheney’s Halliburton. While there is a large intimidation/propaganda factor to all of this, the elites are probably dead serious about a transfer of resources away from petty drug matters in order to focus on social unrest, “domestic security” and “the war on terror.”
Does the real reason for the War on Drugs stand revealed? Was it really intended simply to build a kind of trans-national gulag that can now be employed for the security purposes of the elite? Did people really waste away their lives in prison simply to provide a pretext for the construction of a blossoming Security State?
Conclusion: Having created and staffed this monstrosity, are the top elites now prepared to put it to “better” use. Think about the “great debates” of prohibition that have raged for the past century, the billions of words and books and white papers that have been written. Was it really nothing but an excuse? And if so, how they must have laughed …
Gutenberg Press : View Glossary Description l View Site Contributions
Military-Industrial Complex : View Glossary Description l View Site Contributions
Source: http://www.thedailybell.com/3761/Straight-From-Oz-Real-Reason-Elites-Intend-to-Legalize-Some-Drugs
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Related articles
- BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Argentina rules on marijuana use (worldwright.wordpress.com)
- War on drugs is just a political smokescreen (thepunch.com.au)
- Legal high Quietly, cannabis has in effect been decriminalised in Britain (julianbuchanan.wordpress.com)
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The Truth About Hemp
The devastated environments and job markets of the American Northwest and other timber regions stand to make a dramatic comeback once hemp is reintroduced to the domestic paper industry.
Recent studies indicate that depletion of the ozone layer threatens to substantially reduce world loblolly pine production (the major source of pulp for paper)—by up to 30% or even 50%, depending on the fluctuation of the density of the ozone shield. But hemp not only resists the damage caused by increased ultraviolet radiation – it actually flourishes in it.
Paper mills can return to full production levels and loggers will find new work in hemp trades.
Truck drivers can continue to haul pulp to the mills, and lumber for construction, although the price of lumber will go down as other demands on our timber resources are reduced by substituting farm-grown hemp for forest-grown wood pulp.
There will also be a lot of work to do in reforestation. Our rivers will go through a period of recovery when hemp replaces woods pulp in the paper industry resulting in a 60-80% reduction of papermaking chemicals being dumped into them.
This means more fish and more fishing, as well as increased camping and tourism in the beautiful and vital new-growth forest regions-and the spared old-growth forests.
Jack Herer, Ah-ha Publishing, Austin, Texas, June 2011, pp. 86-87
Thanks to my friend Henry for this information. It is obvious to any thinking person that the return to legalized hemp production would go a long way toward healing much of what is wrong with this country.Henry has a newsletter in which he regularly places these quotes on hemp, mostly from Jack Herer, in order to educate people on it’s many benefits. I plan to begin regularly placing some of them here as well for the same reasons Anyone who is interested in receiving Henry’s Health Newsletter please contact me and I will be more than happy to put you in contact with him. Many people have benefited from his advice including myself. He has developed protocols for many conditions from diabetes to cancer and has seen some good success in helping people. Blessings E
Related articles
- How Hemp Is Used for Food, Clothing, Building Materials and In Cars Like Lotus (dandelionsalad.wordpress.com)
- Hemp: Power Food or Just for Smoking? (diet-blog.com)
Wrong Ideas Are Sinking America
Recently by Michael S. Rozeff: Get Off the Road to War: Stop the Sanctions on Iran
The beliefs of America’s leaders are deeply ingrained. They have been recruited and made leaders because they have those beliefs and hold them quite inflexibly. For example, American leaders believe in making wars conducted by the state, including such military wars as Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, and such social wars as the war on drugs and the war on poverty. In this belief, America’s leaders are supported by large numbers of Americans, enough so that they can institute and carry on these wars.
Military wars entail the suspension of ordinary morality. They are viewed as extraordinary events in which ordinary people don uniforms, take up arms, fly airplanes, launch bombs, throw grenades and routinely kill other people without fear of punishment. War is supposedly a case when the ends justify nasty and immoral means. By creating the appearance of wars or semi-wars or crusades against drugs, poverty, terror, discrimination, obesity and diseases, to name a few causes, the same kind of suspension of morality can be invoked. The leaders make it seem “all right” to suspend people’s rights and to force them to do what they want.
Look at what the war on terror has done in this respect. It now is supposed to be all right to detain suspects, torture them, hide them away in prisons in foreign countries without charges, trials or due process of law. The President is taken to be doing the right thing by assassinating whom he wants to or arresting whom he wants to, even if they are Americans, and if only he suspects them of terrorist wrongdoing. The TSA is allowed to assault travelers sexually. Travelers are forced to pass through x-ray machines. Police have become militarized. Searches and seizures face vanishing barriers. Probable cause is a memory. Border crossings are no longer routine.
And all of this and more are things that America’s leaders want us to think are right. Well, they are not. They are wrong. They are as wrong as the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. They are as wrong as every one of the social wars instituted by the U.S. government. All of them violate rights. All of them violate any decent morality. All of them are pragmatically wrong as well.
By now it is or should be obvious that all of these wars, without exception, have been and still are losing propositions for America. This is beyond debate, but neither Democrat nor Republican partisans, who criticize the policies of their opponents, admit that their particular hobby-horses are failures. Both sides are always ready to tinker around the edges with a government program or add to it, but neither side presents radical criticism of longstanding assumptions and institutions. Meanwhile, the American people are largely fast asleep at the wheel. They present no systematic resistance to the immoralities of their state and empire.
Consistent failure of their wars does not sway America’s leaders, who are now prepared to start an aggressive war on Iran. The very concept of such a war is wrong. The policy of domination of Iran that goes back well over 50 years is wrong. It should be replaced, but this is not obvious to America’s leaders because they have been taught otherwise and have taken power while firmly believing the opposite. A notable exception occurred when Nixon went to China.
Obama hasn’t gone to Iran. He completely failed to follow up on his 2009 “new beginning” speech in which he mentioned a sound basis from which to proceed with Iran, namely, “mutual respect”. He and his appointees instead followed through with the very threats that he said at that time wouldn’t work: “This process will not be advanced by threats.” Is it any wonder the Iranians suspect duplicity?
In making all of its wars, military and social, the American leadership regards people as mere names and numbers, mere parts of a social puzzle that can be moved around and manipulated at their will. This is a wrong idea in practice and it is a wrong idea morally. It is at root immoral, since it is anti-person and anti-humanity. America’s leaders do not see their wars in that way.
America’s leaders believe in their own power and superiority, and this implies that they believe in the powerlessness and inferiority of the masses in America. A fortiori, they regard foreign states and their peoples as inferior and objects to be manipulated. These ideas are also wrong morally and practically. There is literally nothing that endows America’s leaders with an inherent superiority that justifies treating others as inferiors. Their power doesn’t make them superior. A robber who points a big gun at one’s head has power, but that doesn’t make him better or superior. His aggression in fact makes him morally suspect. Nor does the decision to pursue or attain power make one superior any more than does the decision to become a robber. Treating others as fodder for American bombs or as political or economic pawns that are subject to threats and manipulation is bound to backfire in the long run.
America’s leaders believe in their ability to achieve their ends, and they believe in the rightness of their having the power to choose and shape these ends. These too are erroneous ideas. Anyone but them can see easily that their wars have been failures for mankind. Had they been successful as leaders, these wars would have not occurred. They would not even have been regarded, even mistakenly regarded, as needed.
It is surely not right to believe that one or a few persons should have the power as leaders to choose the ends of everyone else or the power to shape those ends. Such an idea is obviously directly at odds with the idea of liberty for every person.
All of these wrong-headed ideas and beliefs of the American leadership are more and more clashing with reality. The false and immoral beliefs outlined above when put into practice are bankrupting the nation, causing misery and retarding the progress of Americans. More and more it is evident, even to the true believing leaders, that something is rotten in their empire. Some see the light and abandon their unworkable ideas. They leave government. Others remain but become cynical. Others retain their statist faith but are unsure what the sources of the rot are. They keep up the heart and soul of their failing philosophy of power while making cosmetic changes. They continue to repeat the past errors. They even redouble their failing efforts out of the erroneous belief that others before them just didn’t try hard enough.
Americans need to understand that there are educational and media institutions in place that support the state and empire by continually raising new crops of leaders who keep up these false beliefs and wrong ideas.
Class after class of American youth have been taught that Americans may kill other peoples to achieve American political aims and that this is good, for other peoples are children or savages or inept or ignorant or inferior, while the American ways are superior. Americans have in the past imagined themselves the reluctant killers and victors, without the aims of conquest of past civilizations. They have imagined themselves as the kind, generous, and beneficent empire while not counting those whom they have murdered. For America is good. It has a big heart. It may make mistakes, but its intent is noble. It has a good heart. These have been the myths cultivated in the breeding grounds of those who man the machinery of empire.
The murderous intentions and false ideas are coming more and more out into the open. The reluctance to kill is disappearing. How many Americans joke about “nuking” other peoples? In the 2007 movie “In the Valley of Elah,” one young soldier back from Iraq has these lines:
“You know Mike, he loved the army. Couldn’t wait to get there, save the good guys and hurt the bad guys.
“They shouldn’t send heroes to places like Iraq.
“Everything there’s f****d up.
“Before I went, I’d never say this, but you ask me now…they should just nuke it and watch it all turn back to dust.”
This captures a naive belief in American superiority and a belief that it was right to invade Iraq as if the invasion were some kind of heroic rescue operation. It also captures the psychology of blaming the victims and wanting to nuke them. Get them out of one’s mind. Remove the burden of having lived through war’s horrors and not having achieved anything.
Laurence Vance quotes from the deadliest American sniper in Iraq:
“Savage, despicable evil. That’s what we were fighting in Iraq. That’s why a lot of people, myself included, called the enemy ‘savages.’ There really was no other way to describe what we encountered there. People ask me all the time, ‘How many people have you killed?’ My standard response is, ‘Does the answer make me less, or more, of a man?’ The number is not important to me. I only wish I had killed more. Not for bragging rights, but because I believe the world is a better place without savages out there taking American lives. Everyone I shot in Iraq was trying to harm Americans or Iraqis loyal to the new government.”
This soldier believes in his right to kill, under the American flag, even if uninvited to a foreign land. He believes in the rightness of the American presence and cause, and therefore if someone is trying to kill Americans in Iraq, to him they must be evil savages. And he believes the converse as well. Since they are savages, we have a right to fight and kill them. The sniper’s account is valuable. It expresses openly a few of the hidden immoral presumptions of American leaders. It expresses the hidden beliefs of a great many Americans who, with their leaders, usually hide them.
Generations of Americans have been schooled in myths that have subverted mankind’s moral knowledge and replaced it with a devotion to the state and to empire, all the while proclaiming that Americans were doing God’s work. A system was erected by which youths were selected who were the most willing and able supporters of state and empire. Internships were granted as were scholarships and fellowships. Universities were funded to act as ways to filter and credential those willing to support the state. Military service became one route to election. The myth of public service was cultivated. Military service was made out to be attractive to young men (and women) with the requisite propensities.
A deep belief in the goodness of the state and of government was inculcated. A deep distrust of the masses and of freedom naturally accompanied it.
A system of ensuring the continuity of the empire and its guiding myths was built up. Now centered in Washington, D.C. but with tentacles that reach deeply into every major university and into a ring of centers, foundations, think tanks and the like, America raises up generation after generation of men and women of empire. The moral influences from other sources are dwarfed by the devotion of these cadres to their careers and to state and empire. While there are numerous cynics among them, many of them believe in the goodness and rightness of their chosen course. This is what allows them to be part of the machinery within which they pay others mercilessly to murder foreign peoples when they decide to. This belief in their own rightness and goodness is what allows them to cloak their deep immorality in the language of the morality that they have rejected and that is absent from their hearts, having been extinguished by long years of the opposite training.
By no accident, America is a ship headed for the rocks. This course has been built into America and Americans for many years. Entire generations have been born and bred to man the government that is steering the ship to its final collision. Generations of Americans have been born and bred to accept state and empire.
America’s leaders charted this course for America many decades before 9/11. For years the seas looked calm and the winds favorable. Most Americans were blind to the collision course, supported it and applauded it. Even as large an event as the Vietnam War did not cure the blindness. Economic woes have not cured it. An event like 9/11 made matters worse. Far from being a warning beacon to change course, 9/11 has been a Siren luring America to its destruction. In one of the worst decades for liberty in American history, Americans turned to aggressive wars, to more and more intense monetary and economic manipulations, to new forms of welfare, and to the destruction of the Bill of Rights. The ship is being torn apart on reefs and draws closer to the jagged rocks that threaten to sink it altogether.
America’s leaders are now bringing America again to the brink of a new war, with Iran the target.
The two options regarding Iran are now and always have been the same: develop peaceful relations based on mutual respect, live and let live, peace, neutrality and non-interference; or else attempt to control and dominate Iran for the U.S.’s own ends.
Option 2 is the empire’s option of choice. It is an option consistent with its immorality, self-righteous attitudes and long held assumptions.
Following option 1 means a comprehensive settlement of the issues relating to Israel. The U.S. keeps rejecting offers to negotiate such a settlement, not only because the U.S. prefers power plays, but also because U.S. foreign policy is catering to Israel in important respects, and any such settlement will have to settle thorny issues such as the “nature and character” of the state of Israel that Israel’s leaders prefer to avoid. They’d have to give up something in order to get some of the things they want.
It is the responsibility of all those states that participated in Israel’s creation, those peoples who have been most affected by it, and those that have a stake in the region to settle these issues by negotiation. For the U.S. (or Israel) to go to war with Iran partly as an indirect result of failing to confront the issues is both morally wrong and irresponsible, being unresponsive to the underlying problem, which is the nature of Israel and its relations with its neighbors.
The wrong ideas of America’s leaders got us to this point, and now, if these ideas do not change or if Americans do not rise up and stop them from being put into practice, the leaders are going to pursue them to their logical and destructive end. A disaster for America and Americans looms directly ahead because a military attack on Iran opens up all kinds of unpredictable consequences, some of which could last for another 100 years. This is no way to build a constructive world.
February 4, 2012
Michael S. Rozeff [send him mail] is a retired Professor of Finance living in East Amherst, New York. He is the author of the free e-book Essays on American Empire: Liberty vs. Domination and the free e-book The U.S. Constitution and Money: Corruption and Decline.
Copyright © 2012 by LewRockwell.com. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit is given.
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10 reasons why even democrats, liberals and progressives are choosing Ron Paul over Obama
Thursday, January 12, 2012
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com
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(NaturalNews) It’s a seemingly absurd idea on the surface: Why would democrats and liberals want to vote for Ron Paul (a Republican) over President Obama? Maybe because they want freedom instead of tyranny, it turns out. Because if you’re a total slave to the police state, it doesn’t really matter whether you’re on the left or the right, does it?
Here, I give you ten solid reasons why even liberals and progressives are supporting Ron Paul. And by the way, I don’t worship Ron Paul or any individual. What I honor is the principles that Ron Paul stands for — the very same principles President Obama has outright abandoned in his broken promises and disturbing reversals against the American people. Out of all the candidates, only Ron Paul has the ethical and moral strength to carry out his office from a place of principle rather than betrayal.
#1) Ron Paul supports decriminalizing marijuana and ending the War on Drugs. Obama does not.
Remember when Obamapromisedhe would decriminalize marijuana, but now his own administration continues to raid legal drug dispensaries in California? That’s a classic Obama lie: Say one thing to get elected, then turn around and do the exact opposite.
Ron Paul, on the other hand, openly supports decriminalizing marijuana and ending the failed War on Drugs. Although he doesn’tpromoterecreational drug use (and neither do I), he understands that treating weed smokers as hard-core criminals is ethical, morally and economically wrong. See my related article on Snoop Dogg and his recent drug bust in Texas: http://www.naturalnews.com/034612_Snoop_Dogg_marijuana_War_on_Drugs.html
#2) Ron Paul supports the freedom to choose what you eat and drink, including raw milk, but the Obama administration continues to run armed raids on raw milk farmers
Under Ron Paul, the FDA would be forced to end its vicious armed raids on Amish farmers and raw dairy producers. Obama has openly allowed such armed raids to continue under his watch, refusing to even take a stand for food freedom in America.
Ron Paul understands that liberty is the most important component of abundance. If you are not free to choose what you want to eat, smoke what you want to smoke, and choose your own type of medicine and health care, then you are a slave, not a citizen. Ron Paul seeks to get Big Government out of your life, away from your kitchen, out of your medicine cabinet and away from your children.
#3) Ron Paul would seek to eliminate FDA censorship of the scientifically-validated health claims for herbs, nutritional supplements and natural remedies
Under Bush and Obama, the FDA’s continued censorship of truthful statements about medicinal herbs, homeopathy and nutritional supplements has been fully supported by the White House. Obama is just a corporate puppet, of course, and that means he does whatever the powerful corporations tell him to do — especially the Wall Street and Big Pharma corporations. So it’s no surprise he hasn’t taken a stand to support health freedom for foods and supplements.
But Ron Paul has pushed the Health Freedom Protection Act year after year (http://www.naturalnews.com/019382_Health_Freedom_Protection_Act.html), tirelessly working tolegalize nutrition in Americaand restore Free Speech for Chinese Medicine herbs, Western medicine herbs and dietary supplements. Where Obama wants people to remain ignorant and malnourished, Ron Paul wants to restore your right to know the truth about supplements and natural medicine. As Ron Paul said in late 2005:
“The Health Freedom Protection Act will force the FDA to at last comply with the commands of Congress, the First Amendment, and the American people by codifying the First Amendment standards adopted by the federal courts. Specifically, the Health Freedom Protection Act stops the FDA from censoring truthful claims about the curative, mitigative, or preventative effects of dietary supplements, and adopts the federal court’s suggested use of disclaimers as an alternative to censorship. The Health Freedom Protection Act also stops the FDA from prohibiting the distribution of scientific articles and publications regarding the role of nutrients in protecting against disease.”
#4) Ron Paul would shut down secret military prisons like Gitmo, but Obama wants to expand those prisons and fill them with Americans!
It is now common knowledge that Obama lied when he said he would shut down Guantanamo Bay. As it turns out, Obama actually signed the NDAA (National Defense Authorization Act) on New Year‘s Eve (when no one would notice). The NDAA grants the U.S. government the claimed “legal” right to “indefinitely detain” U.S. citizens, throw them in secret military prisons, interrogate them and even kill them with no due process. All this can now take place without a person even beingchargedwith a crime, much less given their day in court. (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html)
Obama quietly signed this bill on New Year’s Eve, hoping no one would notice. This is how low his morals have stooped, by the way — to signing traitorous bills in the dark of night, on the evening before a major holiday where half the nation is hung over from alcohol. Why no signing ceremony with full coverage by CNN, huh? Maybe it’s because nationaltraitorsdon’t want their crimes against the United States Constitution to be filmed on camera.
In signing this, Obama violated his own oath of office, nullified the U.S. Bill of Rights, and essentially committed an act of mass civil rights violations against the People of America. Rep. Ron Paul, on the other hand, is one of the very few people who has openly and sternly opposed this unlawful NDAA which blatantly and arrogantly violates the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights.
This single point alone outweighs everything else you might think about Ron Paul. Even if you disagree with Ron Paul on other issues, none of that really matters if you’re rotting away in a secret military prison for daring to protest in a public park, for example. Without the Bill of Rights, nothing else really matters because tyranny takes over. The Bill of Rights must be defended first and at all costs. It is the only thing limiting the power of government and protecting the People from tyranny. Without it, we are all little more than slaves to a military dictatorship.
#5) Ron Paul is anti-war, Obama is pro-war.
Remember when Bush was the President, and everybody on the left was screaming about getting us out of all those wars in the Middle East? Funny how they suddenly fell silent when Obama took over the reins from Bush and continued running those same wars, isn’t it?
Ron Paul is solidly anti-war. Although he agrees with the need to “defend our shores,” he also believes that the United States has no moral authority (nor financial stability) from which to engage in running around the world as some sort of global police force, intervening in the business of nations,especially in the Middle East.
He is solidly against a war with Iran even as all the other candidates seem to be almost desperate to throwother people’s sons and daughtersonto the front lines of violent conflict. Only Ron Paul truly honors the troops by bringing them home. All the other war-mongers who say “support our troops” are really screaming, “Let our troops get killed overseas!” And unlike Gingrich, Ron Paul actually served his country as a military man, even with a child to care for:
http://www.prisonplanet.com/ron-paul-i-went-photo-going-viral-on-internet.html
#6) Ron Paul’s wants to end the Fed and stop bailing out wealthy banksters, while Obama is a Wall Street sellout
Don’t you find it astonishing that, under the Obama administration, wall street crooks like Jon Corzine have been involved in the theft of billions of dollars from American farmers and investors, yetno one has been indicted, prosecuted or criminally chargedfor those crimes?
Under the Obama administration, white-collar crime gets a wink and a nod. That’s because people like Vice President Joe Biden actually worship Jon Corzine
Wall Street crooks were some of the largest contributors to the Obama election campaign, and they continue to promote both Obama and Mitt Romney.
Ron Paul, on the other hand, gets no support from the criminal banksters. That’s because he pledges to reign in the Fed, end the disastrous trillion-dollar bailouts and halt the theft of money from U.S. taxpayers by the wealthy elite.
Once again, this reason alone is enough of a reason to vote for Ron Paul. He’s the only candidate who doesn’t support the financial criminals on Wall Street. Maybe that’s why the crooked corporate media keeps smearing him in the news… they’re all tied in with the same crooks who run Wall Street.
#7) Ron Paul does not need a teleprompter to tell you what he believes, and his message has remained consistent for over 25 years
Obama needs a teleprompter to figure out what to say. That’s because he’s mainly a puppet who says what he’s told to say and signs what he’s told to sign (like the NDAA, which he of course promised he wouldn’t sign but did anyway).
Ron Paul needs no teleprompter. He doesn’t have to keep track of which lies he told in which speech to which group. That’s because Ron Paul tells the truth every time, and his message is the same whether he’s in Iowa, New Hampshire or Texas.
Ron Paul isn’t sexy, trendy or hip. Instead, he’s honest, reliable and ethical. Gee, those might be good qualities for leaders to possess, ya think?
#8) Ron Paul is not really a Republican loyalist
This should come as quite a relief to the Democrats out there. Ron Paul is really aLibertarianwho is running on the Republican ticket thanks to the necessary mechanisms of our two-party system. Most of today’s Republicans are just as corrupt as status quo democrats. They start wars, stage false flag terror events and hand out trillions of dollars in bailouts and government contracts to their corrupt buddies.
Ron Paul is none of that. He’s a humble, highly intelligent and principled individual who often votesagainsthis fellow Republicans on bills that run counter to the United States Constitution.
If Ron Paul wins as a Republican, that would of course give Republicans some additional power in Congress, but Ron Paul answers to no one other than God and the People. As all the corrupt corporate lobbyists realized long ago, Ron Paul thinks for himself and cannot be bought off, no matter how high the offer. He sticks to principles, he honors the Constitution, and he is dedicated to improving the future of our nation, period!
#9) Ron Paul wants to legalize Free Speech (again)
Isn’t it interesting how many of the OWS protesters are now being forced to pay daily fees for the “privilege” of protesting? Gee, I thought America was a free country, and I thought you could peaceably assemble anytime you wanted and shout your grievances to your government. Guess not: http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=FF2F1E3B23AEACE48AB3559AB17B857F
Now the police state pepper spraying has begun, all under Obama of course, who now wants to send Americans into secret military prisons and deprive them of their due process rights. If you believe in the First Amendment and freedom of speech, youcan’tbelieve in Obama! He is the polar opposite of freedom (plus, he flat out lies a lot).
Ron Paul has fought for the Bill of Rights and the U.S. Constitution fordecades, and he has a PERFECT voting record in defending it. He does not waver. He does not bend. He fights for your freedoms in a way that no other Democrat or Republican has ever done.
If you want Free Speech to be legal again in America, vote for Ron Paul.
#10) Ron Paul wants to criminally investigate the crooks in Washington
Most Democrats and Republicans are all crooks who just cover each other’s backs. Yeah, you raped a little kid, but I stole a billion dollars from the taxpayers, and we’ll just agree to both remain silent. Sound familiar? That’s what happens in Washington D.C. almost daily.
Ron Paul thinks elected officials should follow the law. Shock! What a concept! Along with that, he also believes that Attorney General Eric Holder should not run guns into Mexico as part of a staged scam to blame the Second Amendment. Gasp!
Who else dares to say the bureaucrats in Washington are crooks who should be criminally investigated for their crimes against the People? You won’t find status quo officials pursuing any of this, of course, becausethey’re all corrupt!
Only Ron Paul stands out above the lawless corruption and criminal-mindedness of the status quo in Washington D.C. He is the “anti-insider,” the one man who actually threatens the entire corrupt system (which is why the press smears him every single day). This is why the recent voting in Iowa was falsified and rigged to make sure Ron Paul wouldn’t win (this was openly admitted by the Republican leaders on local radio). The crooks in Washington absolutely do not want Ron Paul to become President, and that alone should be sufficient reason to put Ron Paul into office!
You want real hope? Real change? Support Ron Paul
If you love the way things are today — unemployment on the rise, a government drowning in debt, soldiers coming home in body bags, your friends and neighbors rotting in prison after getting caught with a little weed — then vote for Obama! He’s happy to carry on the insane policies that have led us to this point in history.
But if you wantreal changein America, support Ron Paul.Make a donation today, so that he can raise the necessary funds to clobber “Mittens” Romney and win the Republican nomination. Then we’ll have a faceoff between Barack Obama and Ron Paul, and there’s no question Paul would win that contest if the voters still have a couple of brain cells functioning when they go to vote.
Make your donations at:
www.RonPaul2012.com
Or support the South Carolina money bomb by donating here:
http://ronpaul-2012.org/mbpledge_sc.html
Original Article:
http://www.naturalnews.com/034630_Ron_Paul_democrats_liberals.html#ixzz1kDlPDjcW
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More Evidence that Cannabis Cures or Mitigates Many Diseases-From IMVA
Multiple Sclerosis
Posted by Mark Sircus – Director on 21 November 2011 | Filed under Medicine
http://blog.imva.info/medicine/multiple-sclerosis
Marijuana-Magnesium-Iodine-Mercury Exposure
An estimated 350,000 people in the United States are living with multiple sclerosis (MS), a painful, debilitating, and sometimes fatal disorder of the central nervous system, and the United States government could care less and would doom this population to more suffering than can be imagined. A long list of ugly words comes to mind when one thinks of any person, organization or institution that would keep helpful and safe medicines away from MS sufferers.
MS is the most common debilitating neurological disease of young people, often appearing between the ages of 20 and 40, and affecting more women than men. Symptoms vary considerably from person to person; however, the one most frequently noted is spasticity, which causes pain, spasms, loss of function, and difficulties in nursing care.
MS exacerbations appear to be caused by abnormal immune activity that causes inflammation and the destruction of myelin, the protective covering of nerve fibers, in the brain or spinal cord. MS most frequently presents at onset as a relapsing and remitting disorder, where symptoms come and go. Current treatment of MS is primarily based on symptoms, focusing on such problems as spasticity, pain, fatigue, bladder problems and depression.
Anecdotal reports and a small controlled study have reported that cannabis improved spasticity and, to some extent, improved tremor in MS patients. Many studies of the pharmacology of cannabis have identified effects on motor systems of the central nervous system that have the potential of affecting tremor and spasticity. A recent carefully controlled study of the efficacy of THC in experimental allergic encephalomyelitis, the animal model of MS, demonstrated significant amelioration of these two MS symptoms. Moreover, cannabis has demonstrated effects on immune function that also have the potential ofreducing the autoimmune attack that is thought to be the underlying pathogenic process in MS.[1]
MS patients report that cannabis has a startling and profound effect on muscle spasms, tremors, balance, bladder control, speech and eyesight. Many wheelchair-bound patients report that they can walk unaided when they have smoked cannabis.
A House of Lords report states that the British Multiple Sclerosis Society (consisting of some 35,000 MS-suffering patients) estimates that as many as 4% of their population already use cannabis for the relief of their symptoms despite the considerable legal risks associated with prohibition. The chairman of the committee went on to state that, “We have seen enough evidence to convince us that a doctor might legitimately want to prescribe cannabis to relieve… the symptoms of multiple sclerosis and that the criminal law ought not to stand in the way.”
Numerous case studies, surveys and double-blind studies have reported improvement in patients treated with cannabinoids for symptoms including spasticity,[2],[3],[4] chronic pain, tremor, sexual dysfunction, bowel and bladder dysfunctions, vision dimness, dysfunctions of walking and balance (ataxia), and memory loss.[5],[6],[7]Cannabinoids have been shown in animal models to measurably lessen MS symptoms and may also halt the progression of the disease.[8]
A recent British survey of MS patients found that 43 percent of respondents used cannabis therapeutically. Among them, nearly three quarters said that cannabis mitigated their spasms, and more than half said it alleviated their pain. A survey published in August 2003 in the Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences reported that 96 percent of Canadian MS patients believe that cannabis is therapeutically useful for treating the disease. Of those who admitted using cannabis medicinally, the majority found it to be beneficial, particularly in the treatment of chronic pain, spasticity, and depression.[9]
A U.K. study published recently in the journal Lancet looked at 630 multiple sclerosis patients after 15 weeks of orally delivered treatment. Fifty-seven percent of the patients taking a whole cannabis extract said their pain had eased compared with 50% who took capsules containing THC and 37% who were given placebo capsules.
Scientists have long been exploring the potential of cannabinoids to inhibit neurodegeneration. A 2003 study that the American MS Society calls “interesting and potentially exciting” demonstrated that cannabinoids were able to slow the disease process in mice by offering neuroprotection against EAE.[10] After analyzing the findings, authors at London’s Institute of Neurology concluded, “In addition to symptom management,cannabis may also slow down the neurodegenerative processes that ultimately lead to chronic disability in multiple sclerosis and probably other diseases.” [11]
Over 40 medicines are listed by the Multiple Sclerosis Society as commonly used by MS patients. Drugs commonly prescribed for muscle spasticity and tremor include Klonopin, Dantrium, Baclofen (Medtronic), Zanaflex and Valium. Klonopin (Clonazepam) and Valium (diazepam) are both benzodiazepines, central nervous system (CNS) depressants manufactured by Roche. Overdoses of these medications, especially when taken with alcohol, may lead to unconsciousness and death.
These drugs frequently cause people to become drowsy, dizzy, lightheaded, clumsy, or unsteady. Other common side effects include slurred speech, abdominal cramps or pain, blurred vision or other changes in vision, changes in sexual drive or performance, gastrointestinal changes, including constipation or diarrhea, dryness of mouth, fast or pounding heartbeat, muscle spasm, trouble with urination, and trembling. Studies in animals have shown that clonazepam and diazepam can cause birth defects or other problems, including death of the animal fetus. Overuse of clonazepam during pregnancy may cause the baby to become dependent on it and it may pass into breast milk and cause drowsiness, slow heartbeat, shortness of breath, or troubled breathing in nursing babies. By comparison, the side effects associated with cannabis are typically mild and are classified as “low risk.” Euphoric mood changes are among the most frequent side effects.
Some doctors are exceptionally dense when it comes to using medical marijuana. Dr. Jacqueline Friedman would rather inject botulinum toxin injections instead.[12] In 2009 the National Multiple Sclerosis Society released recommendations on marijuana as a treatment for MS, stating, “Although it is clear that cannabinoids have a potential for both management of MS symptoms such as pain and spasticity, as well as for neuroprotection, it cannot yet be recommended because … studies to date do not demonstrate a clear benefit compared to existing symptomatic therapies and… issues of side effects, systemic effects and long-term effects are not yet clear.”
Magnesium and MS
Although the cause remains officially unknown, multiple sclerosis is widely thought to begin as an autoimmuneinflammation with magnesium deficiency at the core. In studies it’s been shown that there was a significantly lower value of magnesium than that seen in control cases. The most marked reduction of magnesium content was observed in CNS white matter including demyelinated plaques of MS samples.[13]
Magnesium protects the cells from aluminum, mercury, lead, cadmium, beryllium and nickel. Evidence is mounting that low levels of magnesium contribute to the heavy metal deposition in the brain that precedes Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s. Research has shown that the symptoms of MS are very similar to mercury poisoning.[14] Mercury contamination is one major cause of inflammation in our bodies.
The rate of relapse in multiple sclerosis was found to be
decreased with dietary magnesium supplementation.[15]
Magnesium deficiency causes and underpins chronic inflammatory syndrome. Inflammation is the missing link to explain the role of magnesium in many pathological conditions. Dr. Mazur says, “Magnesium deficiency contributes to an exaggerated response to immune stress and oxidative stress is the consequence of the inflammatory response.” Magnesium deficiencies feed the fires of inflammation and pain and it is magnesium that modulates cellular events involved in inflammation. Increases in extracellular magnesium concentration cause a decrease in the inflammatory response while reduction in the extracellular magnesium results in cell activation.
Magnesium is central to immunocompetence and
plays a crucial role in natural and adaptive immunity.[16]
MS sufferers have a wide variety of symptoms that often begin rather abruptly and proceed at a highly variable and unpredictable pace. Common early symptoms include numbness, pins and needles sensations, incoordination, weakness especially in the legs, painful loss of vision in one eye, double vision, dizziness, pain at various sites, urinary symptoms and impotence. Symptoms of MS that are also symptoms of magnesium deficiency include muscle spasms, weakness, twitching, muscle atrophy, an inability to control the bladder, nystagmus (rapid eye movements), hearing loss, and osteoporosis.
What is essential to remember about treating pain with
magnesium is it treats both the symptom and the cause of pain.
Researchers have found oral magnesium therapy effective on patients with multiple sclerosis. In one formally reported case a 35-year-old woman suffered with severe spastic paraplegia resulting from multiple sclerosis (MS). A significant improvement in the spasticity was found after only one week from the onset of the treatment on the modified Ashworth scale, an improvement in the range of motion and in the measures of angles at resting position in the lower limbs.[17]
Nystagmus is characterized by an involuntary movement of the eyes, often noted as a shaky or wiggly movement and has been directly tied to magnesium deficiencies. People with MS also have higher rates of epilepsy than controls. Epilepsy has also been linked to magnesium deficiencies. Without doubt magnesium supplementation accompanied by pH control via diet and the use of sodium bicarbonate will do wonders for not only multiple sclerosis patients but also Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease sufferers.
Iodine
The relatively low prevalence of multiple sclerosis in Japan, despite its temperate latitude, has puzzled many researchers. We know though that their soils have some of the world’s highest known levels of iodine caused by the use of seaweed as a fertilizer. Deficiencies of this essential trace element appear to be associated with many diseases, or birth defects, including goiter, cretinism, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and cancer of the thyroid and nervous system. People with MS may also have low levels of selenium or of glutathione peroxidase, an enzyme produced from selenium. A theory explaining the pathogenesis of MS concerns an increased stickiness of cellular plasma membranes, hampering normal vascular function of the brain. In agreement with that theory researchers have found significantly lowered selenium values and lowered glutathione peroxidase activities.[18]
MS and Mercury Exposure
The central nervous system is extremely sensitive and reacts to a combination of factors that allopathic doctors don’t normally consider or address. Toxic exposures, nutritional deficiencies and emotional anguish converge most pointedly on the nervous system with often catastrophic results. Toxic substances such as mercury, which the body is chronically exposed to, accumulates in the brain, pituitary gland, CNS, liver, kidneys, etc. and can damage, inhibit, and cause imbalances at very low levels of exposure. Heavy metals can cause major neurological, immunological, and metabolic damage.
Each individual will be seen to have their own unique combination of neurological, endocrine, and enzymatic imbalances along with autoimmunities that result from the above factors. Symptoms will vary resulting in different diagnoses: multiple sclerosis (MS), amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Alzheimer’s disease (AD), or Parkinson’s disease (PD), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), and even rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
Dental amalgam is documented by medical studies and medical lab tests to be the largest source of both inorganic and methyl mercury in most people who have several mercury amalgam fillings. Very low levels of exposure have been found to seriously affect individuals who are immune sensitive to toxic metals, or have an inability to detoxify metals due to deficient sulfoxidation or metallothionein function or other inhibited enzymatic processes related to detoxification or excretion of metals.
Amalgam exposures are commonly above government health guidelines. This is due to continuous vaporization of mercury from amalgam in the mouth, along with galvanic currents from mixed metals in the mouth that deposit the mercury in the gums and oral cavity. Mercury is one of the most toxic substances in existence and is known to bioaccumulate in the body of people and animals that have chronic exposure.
A large epidemiological study of 35,000 Americans by the National Institutes of Health, the nation’s principal health statistics agency, found that there was a significant correlation between having a greater than average number of dental amalgam surfaces and having chronic conditions such as epilepsy, MS, or migraine headaches. MS clusters in areas with high metals emissions from facilities such as metal smelters have been documented.
Mercury has been found to accumulate preferentially in the brain, major organs, hormone glands, and primary motor function related areas involved in ALS—such as the brain stem, cerebellum, rhombencephalon, dorsal root ganglia, and anterior horn motor neurons, which enervate the skeletal muscles.
Exposure to mercury and magnesium deficiencies are at the root of inflammation. Chelation of mercury will relieve many of the problems caused by it and restoring magnesium levels will protect our cells from the inflammation that mercury causes. Magnesium is a necessary factor in chelation, for without it chelation will not be successful.[19] Heavy metals like cadmium, lead, and mercury compete with nutritional magnesium, keeping it from availability to protect our cells. The healthy cell wall favors intake of nutrients and elimination of waste products and this is one of the reasons magnesium is so important in detoxification and chelation.
MS Seen through a Vascular Surgeon’s Eyes
Dr. Paolo Zamboni, a former vascular surgeon and professor at the University of Ferrara in northern Italy, has come upon an entirely new idea about what causes MS and how to treat it. He found that scientists who had studied the brains of MS patients had noticed higher levels of iron in their brain, not accounted for by age. The iron deposits had a unique pattern, often forming in the core of the brain, clustered around the veins that normally drain blood from the head. No one had ever fully explained this phenomenon, considering the excess iron a toxic byproduct of the MS itself. Using Doppler ultrasound, Dr. Zamboni began examining the necks of MS patients and found that almost 100 percent of the patients had a narrowing, twisting or outright blockage of the veins that are supposed to flush blood from the brain. He then checked these veins in healthy people, and found none of these malformations. Nor did he find these blockages in those with other neurological conditions.
What was astounding was that not only was the blood not flowing out of the brain, it was “refluxing” or reversing and flowing back upwards. Zamboni dubbed the vein disorder he discovered CCSVI, or chronic cerebrospinal venous insufficiency, and began publishing his preliminary research in neurology journals. He soon found that the severity of the vein blockages corresponded to the severity of the patient’s symptoms. Patients with only one vein blocked usually had milder forms of the disease; those with two or more damaged veins had more severe illness.
If key veins of MS patients are blocked, perhaps we can open them and restore normal blood flow? Yes doctors use balloons to open up blocked arteries that feed blood from the heart but there are many natural treatments that can help, such as using niacin and different enzymes as well as removing the heavy-metal buildups with chelation.
[1] Cannabinoids are chemicals that are found naturally in Marijuana. Researchers believe that these naturally found cannabinoids could create immune suppression. Much like steroids, but with fewer side effects, cannabinoids can “switch off” a portion of the immune response and bring down inflammation and hyperactivity of immune cells, possibly preventing or slowing some of the damage caused to the myelin by immune cells. The cannabinoids do this by interacting with the receptors on specific immune cells.http://ms.about.com/b/2009/05/19/chemical-in-marijuana-to-slow-multiple-sclerosis.htm
[2] Meinck H et al (1989). Effects of cannabinoids on spasticity and ataxia in multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neurology, 226: 120-122. http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/ms1.htm
[3] Musty RE, Consroe P. (2002) Spastic disorders. In: Grotenhermen F, Russo EB, editors. Cannabis and cannabinoids: Pharmacology, toxicology, and therapeutic potential. Binghamton, NY. Haworth Press. p. 195-204.
[4] Petro DJ (2002). Cannabis in multiple sclerosis: Women’s health concerns. Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics, 2(3-4):161-175
[5] Consroe P et al (1997). The Perceived Effects of Smoked Cannabis on Patients with Multiple Sclerosis. European Neurology, 38: 44-48.
[6] Petro DJ et al (1981). Treatment of Human Spasticity with Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 21: 413-416. http: //www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/medical/spast1.htm
[7] Ungerleider J et al (1988). Delta-9-THC in the treatment of Spasticity Associated with Multiple Sclerosis. Advances in Alcohol and Substance Abuse, 7: 39-50.
[8] Growing L et al (1998). Therapeutic use of cannabis: clarifying the debate. Drug and Alcohol Review, 17: 445-452
[9] Baker D et al (2000). Cannabinoids control spasticity and tremor in a multiple sclerosis model. Nature, 404: 84-87.
[10] Achiron A et al (2000). Dexanabinol (HU-211) effect on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis: implications for the treatment of acute relapses of multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neuroimmunology, 102: 26-31.
[11] Pryce G et al (2003). Cannabinoids inhibit neurodegeneration in models of multiple sclerosis. Brain, Jul 22
[12] Commentary by Dr. Jacqueline Friedman:
“Cognitive deficits are increasingly being appreciated as a significant symptom in MS, affecting daily lives and careers. Given the variable and subjective results of cannabis findings thus far, the clear cognitive negative effects, and given that there are alternative treatments for spasticity and pain, including muscle relaxants, botulinum toxin injections, anti-epileptics, and tricyclics, which can be carefully measured and dosed, I see no current place for medical marijuana in our armamentarium at this time.” Her peer review comment to a study showing the benefits of cannabis treatment in MS. http://www.clinicalcorrelations.org/?p=2688
[13] Magnesium concentration in brains from multiple sclerosis patientsACTA NEUROL. SCAND. (Denmark), 1990, 81/3 197-200)
[15] Multiple sclerosis: Decreased relapse rate through dietary supplementation with calcium, magnesium and vitamin D; MED. HYPOTHESES (UK), 1986, 21/2 (193-200)
[17] P. Rossier , S. van Erven and D. T. Wade Rivermead Rehabilitation Centre, Abingdon Road, Oxford England (DOI) 10.1046/j.1468-1331.2000.00142.x
[18] Biol Trace Elem Res. 1988 Jan-Apr;15:179-203. Selenium in chronic neurologic diseases. Multiple sclerosis and Batten’s disease. Clausen J, Jensen GE, Nielsen SA. Institute for Life Sciences and Chemistry, University of Roskilde, Denmark.
[19] Magnesium ions constitute the physiologically active magnesium in the body; they are not attached to other substances and are free to join in biochemical body processes.5 This is one basic reason magnesium helps to detoxify toxic chemicals and helps eliminate heavy metals from the body. Another reason would be the part it plays in glutathione production but undoubtedly, as Dr. Haley indicates, the Mg-ATP provides the crucial energy to remove each toxicant. A magnesium ion is an atom that is missing two electrons, which makes it search to attach to something that will replace its missing electrons so it is actively and directly involved in diminishing heavy metal toxicity. Magnesium appears to be a competitive inhibitor of lead and cadmium. An increased level of magnesium has been shown to eliminate lead and cadmium through the urine and has also been reported to reduce the toxic effects of aluminum.
Related posts:
- Cannabinoids in Cancer Treatment
- Transdermal and Oral Cannabis
- Diabetes, Cannabinoid Therapy & Magnesium
Thank you to Dr. Mr Sircus’ Blog and all the work he does in getting this information out. I would strongly recommend people purchase his books and other materials as he has done extensive research into health issues across the spectrum of human disease and ailments.
He is also an expert in keeping healthy for those who just desire to keep their bodies finely tuned. Here is is Blog where you can sign up for his newsletter. http://blog.imva.info/ and here is his research link called IMVA imva.info
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Cannabis Heals-And The Government Knows It!
Jack Herer
The Truth About Hemp
(regardless of what this lying government says)
In 1974, Virginia Medical College in Richmond, Virginia did research on tumors of the lung, brain, liver and kidney using mice and rats. Incredible things were done. The cancer stopped growing and in most cases even reversed itself 100 percent. Some of the mice who were given cancer and treated with cannabis actually lived longer than some of the control mice who were not even given cancer! It was found that marijuana is the best thing to treat cancer of the lungs, brain, etc. After that they were stopped from doing any more research at all, by first Nixon and then Ford. No research with positive results could be done, only research with negative results. That’s the way it’s been since 1975 until now, even though a 1999 marijuana study turned out to be positive also.
Jack Herer, Ah-ha Publishing, Austin, Texas, June 2011, pp. 71
Thanks to my friend Henry Garcia who writes a regular heath newsletter called “Divine Life”. Let me know if you are interested and I will give you contact info.
E
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