Dear reader, find your voice and stand tall for self government, support the American dream! It could be a fatal flaw, for those who can do little to do nothing. Write your leaders nationally and locally. Petition them! March for the American dream of very limited government if you are able. People of all faiths and goodwill can stand together for a more just, science based and compassionate alternatives to current senseless policies.
In a few days, a group of powerful world leaders will ask the UN to "end the war on drugs and move towards regulation." But drug warriors still say that the public will not support alternative drug policies. Let's grab this unique opportunity for massive public support and take urgent action. Pass the word to like-minded individuals.
This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment, if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Let's show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy; we demand it. Click here to sign the petition and pass on the link. When we reach 1 million voices, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission. I just checked and 353,128 have signed already!
Reports that show the war on drugs has failed!
Reports that show alternative approaches of decriminalization and regulation are working!
General report on drug law reform in practice!
The Global Commission on Drug Policy that will call on the UN to end the war on drugs.
Drug War by the Numbers
Final Report of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy
I am a portrait artist. Since 2006 I have awarded two Rebels with Just Cause portraits yearly.
Ron Paul is a true patriot taking a stand for the American dream of self-government, free of big government waste, tyranny and oppression. He would be a truly great president. He instigated the Love Revolution that is sweeping America and was one of McCool's 2008 Rebels with Just Cause.
Drug warriors live in the state of denial and that's a lousy coping strategy. It is Un-American, overkill and morally bankrupt to arrest nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs. Stop this tyranny in the guise of good intentions.
Morally bankrupt policy is a violence triggering nightmare! Control illicit drugs similar to alcohol and tobacco.
Less than 1% of US are actually addicted to anything illegal. About 9% are alcoholics but much of the public health burden of alcohol use is caused by the non-addictive use; including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, incest, child molestation, spouse abuse, other family violence, fatal car crashes, accidents, and homicides. On college campuses alone, almost 2000 deaths, 100,000 sexual assaults, 600,000 injuries, and 700,000 assaults are the annual consequences of alcohol use.
I dare say if more would use cannabis instead of alcohol like Willie Nelson, one of my 2010 Rebels with Just Cause, we might see a drop in some of the gloomy statistics listed above.
If more could use safer cannabis to replace dangerous opiates and other harmful pharmaceuticals or tobacco, many more lives would be saved. If those who report overdose to medical personnel did not fear arrest, overdoses would virtually disappear.
Its not a perfect answer just better.
Texas is one of the 5 Worst States for Getting Busted with Marijuana. Cannabis arrests comprise over half of all annual arrests in the Lone Star State. It is easy to see why. In 2009, more than 97 percent of all Texas marijuana arrests, over 77000 people, were for possession only.
Drug warriors can get their adrenaline rush chasing murderers and other violent predators. They don't have to look far for something better to do. Many murders and rapes go unsolved every year; the cumulative effect is horrendous! More resources could be spent on DUI and keeping drugs from minors. We can spend more on effective education instead of ineffective incarceration. Prison costs seven times treatment.
We are punishing people because servants of tyranny ignore science in naming their choice unwise when in fact it is a scientifically proven safer, wiser health choice, compared to legal alternatives. Taking children from the homes of parents who made a safer health choice in a medicinal or social drug is insane policy. Taking property from these same, destroyed by government families, is legalized extortion! States have seized billions. End asset forfeiture!
Save the Children, from Prohibition! In reality we owe reparations for the destroyed lives and destroyed families this appalling demented policy has created!
A"Run From the Cure – the Rick Simpson Story," suggests big pharma may be withholding a potential cancer cure, hemp oil, from the people in the interest of their bottom line. Cannabis oil is that cure all some of our ancestors used! Thank God, they did not let us all be brain washed into forgetfulness about the wonder of it! Oooops, they spilled the beans, in spite of the oppression promoted by medical profiteers.
The tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals gangs deal drugs causing more death annually than all illicit drugs We tolerate their salesmen!
Medical marijuana is now a $1.7 billion market in the US. This means that sales of medical marijuana rival the annual revenue generated by Viagra, a $1.9 billion business. According to MSNBC: "The cannabis industry as a whole (including the underground black market and medical gray market) generates anywhere from $18 billion to $35.8 billion a year."
Blood is on the hands of all who support this demented Drug War II. It is soft on public safety, out-of-control, historically ignorant policy. The carnage and crime associated with illicit drugs are triggered by our insane, punitive policy. Notice alcohol distributors no longer kill off the competition! The people believe in self-government and self-medication.
Restore public and law enforcement safety! Save lives instead of ruining them. Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
If anyone doubts that our fearless leaders are bordering on insanity, consider the fence (costing $7mil a mile) that cut Brownsville, Texas in half. The Mexican border follows the meandering Rio Grande in this area and the river's muddy banks are too soft and too prone to flooding to support a fence.
The hated barrier was constructed on a levee that follows a straight line from half a mile to two miles north of the river, leaving the homes and land (roughly 50,000 acres) of dozens of angry US citizens unprotected and marooned in no man's land on the Mexican side. Is this a sane solution?
One resident's response, "Round these parts, people like alligators a whole lot more than politicians."
Tyranny's growth depends on keeping the people fearful and begging for more protection from an infinite number of invented or exaggerated enemies and hazards.
Educate the powerful, be brave and end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary and environmental costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable. Bring our troops home! Reduce our military presence and spending around the world. Cut the interventionists, military industrial complex, warmongering budget to the bone!
Support a strong defense but DON'T support unnecessary wars. We're in more than 200 TIMES the danger of being killed in our own cars than by terrorists. When we resolve conflict diplomatically within the rule of law, we create peace and abundance. Do not escalate to war, good for absolutely nothing.
The best way to spread the freedom philosophy is by being a shining example not by intervention. Often those foreign regimes we support are just as bad or even more corrupt than those we help fight and this creates hard feelings inciting terrorist retaliation toward US.
Audit the Fed!! End the destruction of the dollar and our economy by bringing real accountability and transparency to the Fed! Cap the debt of a government gone wild!
The web is the fastest growing communications medium in the history of the world. A powerful tool, a window of opportunity, in our war of good over evil; the Internet continues to revolutionize the way we communicate and has enormous potential for reshaping the political process.
"The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it. The ultimate tragedy is not the oppression and cruelty by the bad people but the silence over that by the good people. Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal." - MLK
Save lives instead of ruining them. Join LEAP, COP and DownsizeDC!
Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
Track your Senators' and Representative's votes by e-mail.
Changing who's in charge will not affect much. The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on down-sizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for future generations and ourselves.
Compiled and written by Colleen McCool
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Friday, May 6, 2011
Legislating Under the Influence
Our Founding documents are based on great spiritual principles. We are seekers of truth and justice, as are all liberty lovers worldwide. That spirit unites us. It is the Holy Spirit and our True North. Many leaders are outright servants of tyranny; good at ignoring the rule of law, history and science while catering to the needs of special interests but awful bad at determining what is best or safer for the individual or society.
In a speech on "Leadership and Spirituality in America," Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said, "the United States should legalize drugs to end the violence in Mexico." The audience applauded. He also called for tearing down the fence we built to reduce illegal immigration. "Instead of building walls, we should be building bridges." Celebrate our similarities, build bridges of tolerance to differences in race, religion and lifestyle. That's how we create peace and abundance.
"More than 35,000 people have been killed, and thousands more have simply disappeared, since Calderon sent the military to battle Mexican organized crime with $1.6 billion in US support." Blood is on the hands of all who support our soft on public safety, out-of-control, historically ignorant drug policy. It is tyranny in the guise of good intentions.
The carnage and crime associated with illicit drugs are triggered by our demented, punitive policy. Notice alcohol distributors no longer kill off the competition! We tolerate these salesmen.
Murderers and other violent predators roam free, while we police nonviolent adult social, medicinal and religious drug use.
It is overkill and morally bankrupt to arrest nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs. The people believe in self-government and self-medication.
Less than 1% of US are actually addicted to anything illegal. About about 9% are alcoholics but much of the public health burden of alcohol use is caused by the non-addictive use; including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, incest, child molestation, spouse abuse, and family violence, fatal car crashes, accidents, and homicides. On college campuses alone, almost 2000 deaths, 100,000 sexual assaults, 600,000 injuries, and 700,000 assaults are the annual consequences of alcohol use.
Treatment is seven times less expensive than prison. Restore public and law enforcement safety around the globe! Change to ethical policy and show fiscal responsibility; use resources to catch more violent and sexual predators or incarcerate more of those morally bankrupt selling drugs to children or driving intoxicated. Save lives instead of ruining them. Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
Prohibition destroys the lives of poor people of all colors! Race and features are differences that literally are only skin deep. Everyone on this planet's DNA is 99.9% the same; we descended from the same scientific Adam and Eve, out of Africa. We are brothers and sisters as Jesus taught us. Genetically there is no such thing as race, according to National Geographic's "The Human Family Tree." This should make us all more tolerant and reinforce our great shame over race hate crimes and policies enforced in a racist manner.
The US federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second, mostly on the enforcement of a marijuana market ban that serves to protect alcohol industry profits and drive more people to drink. (Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy) State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars. (Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010).
Texas should not be spending $300-400 million annually on the enforcement of a marijuana market ban that serves to protect alcohol industry profits and drive more people to drink.
Please support TX House Bill 548, which will reduce possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana from a Class B misdemeanor (punishable by up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000) to a Class C misdemeanor (punishable by a fine of up to $500). HB 548 would significantly reduce law enforcement and socioeconomic cost of arresting people for mere possession of marijuana and tagging them with a criminal record. Call Rep. Pete Gallego, the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chair, at (512) 463-0566 to allow a vote on HB 548.
"Chemical components of Cannabis, called cannabinoids, activate specific receptors found throughout the body to produce pharmacologic effects, particularly in the central nervous system and the immune system. Cannabinoids may have benefits in the treatment of cancer-related side effects." (Source Cannabis and Cannabinoids (PDQ), National Cancer Institute, March 2011)
Our marijuana laws tragically impact families in other ways. Please support Tx HB 1491, which would simply allow seriously ill patients to raise a medical necessity defense to charges of possessing marijuana for medical use. If arrested for possession of marijuana, a patient with a recommendation from his or her physician would have an affirmative defense in court to charges arising from his or her medical use of marijuana. If a court accepts such an affirmative defense, a patient could avoid jail time and fines. Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years prior to its current status as an illegal substance. Call Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the Public Health Committee Chair, at (512) 463-0600 to allow a vote on HB 1491.
HB 548 and 1491 are a small step in the right direction but will still leave intact the dangerous message to our society that alcohol is more acceptable than marijuana, perpetuating a “culture of alcohol” in our communities. Therefore, please ask your leaders to demonstrate their commitment to future marijuana policy reform by abstaining from alcohol industry campaign money until marijuana is regulated and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol.
The Women's Marijuana Movement is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to examine the potential impact of making marijuana a legal alternative to alcohol. Take action by contacting Linda Degutis, Director National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which is the division within the CDC that is responsible for studying the factors that contribute to sexual violence and investigating new strategies for prevention.
Elected Officials Legislating Under the Influence of Big Alcohol - Top 5 Texas recipients of alcohol industry contributions during the 2010 Election
Governor Rick Perry - $571,617
US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison - $392,135
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst - $402,638
State House Speaker Joe Straus - $273,658
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott - $158,424
Total: $1,798,472
A brilliant friend suggested all Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms just like NASCAR drivers, so we can have no doubt about their corporate sponsors.
NAACP calls shift in funding from education to incarceration "alarming." We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration. The truth about drugs will keep our children off them. Sound medical and unbiased scientific knowledge are the most effective moral persuasions.
Present policy falsehoods and scare tactics undermine our credibility.
We want to encourage drug free behavior not awaken their curiosity. Effective drug education based on medical science builds student's confidence to make informed responsible choices. Scare tactics, drug testing and fear don't work as well as truth, trust and reason.
Nearly 2.4 million people are incarcerated in the United States. According to the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), US policymakers should look outside our borders for examples of criminal justice policies that can save money while improving the well-being of both individuals and communities.
Educate the powerful, be brave and end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary and environmental costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable. Bring our troops home! Reduce our military presence and spending around the world. Cut the interventionists, military industrial complex, warmongering budget to the bone!
Audit the Fed!! End the destruction of the dollar and our economy by bringing real accountability and transparency to the Fed!
Save lives instead of ruining them. Join LEAP, COP and DownsizeDC!
Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
Track your Senators' and Representative's votes by e-mail
Changing who's in charge will not affect much. The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on down-sizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for future generations and ourselves.
Compiled and written by Colleen McCool
In a speech on "Leadership and Spirituality in America," Former Mexican President Vicente Fox said, "the United States should legalize drugs to end the violence in Mexico." The audience applauded. He also called for tearing down the fence we built to reduce illegal immigration. "Instead of building walls, we should be building bridges." Celebrate our similarities, build bridges of tolerance to differences in race, religion and lifestyle. That's how we create peace and abundance.
"More than 35,000 people have been killed, and thousands more have simply disappeared, since Calderon sent the military to battle Mexican organized crime with $1.6 billion in US support." Blood is on the hands of all who support our soft on public safety, out-of-control, historically ignorant drug policy. It is tyranny in the guise of good intentions.
The carnage and crime associated with illicit drugs are triggered by our demented, punitive policy. Notice alcohol distributors no longer kill off the competition! We tolerate these salesmen.
Murderers and other violent predators roam free, while we police nonviolent adult social, medicinal and religious drug use.
It is overkill and morally bankrupt to arrest nonviolent adults for making a safer health choice, cannabis or marijuana, compared to other medicinal/social drugs. The people believe in self-government and self-medication.
Less than 1% of US are actually addicted to anything illegal. About about 9% are alcoholics but much of the public health burden of alcohol use is caused by the non-addictive use; including fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, incest, child molestation, spouse abuse, and family violence, fatal car crashes, accidents, and homicides. On college campuses alone, almost 2000 deaths, 100,000 sexual assaults, 600,000 injuries, and 700,000 assaults are the annual consequences of alcohol use.
Treatment is seven times less expensive than prison. Restore public and law enforcement safety around the globe! Change to ethical policy and show fiscal responsibility; use resources to catch more violent and sexual predators or incarcerate more of those morally bankrupt selling drugs to children or driving intoxicated. Save lives instead of ruining them. Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
Prohibition destroys the lives of poor people of all colors! Race and features are differences that literally are only skin deep. Everyone on this planet's DNA is 99.9% the same; we descended from the same scientific Adam and Eve, out of Africa. We are brothers and sisters as Jesus taught us. Genetically there is no such thing as race, according to National Geographic's "The Human Family Tree." This should make us all more tolerant and reinforce our great shame over race hate crimes and policies enforced in a racist manner.
The US federal government spent over $15 billion dollars in 2010 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $500 per second, mostly on the enforcement of a marijuana market ban that serves to protect alcohol industry profits and drive more people to drink. (Source: Office of National Drug Control Policy) State and local governments spent at least another 25 billion dollars. (Source: Jeffrey A. Miron & Kathrine Waldock: "The Budgetary Impact of Drug Prohibition," 2010).
Texas should not be spending $300-400 million annually on the enforcement of a marijuana market ban that serves to protect alcohol industry profits and drive more people to drink.
Please support TX House Bill 548, which will reduce possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana from a Class B misdemeanor (punishable by up to six months in county jail and a fine of up to $2,000) to a Class C misdemeanor (punishable by a fine of up to $500). HB 548 would significantly reduce law enforcement and socioeconomic cost of arresting people for mere possession of marijuana and tagging them with a criminal record. Call Rep. Pete Gallego, the Criminal Jurisprudence Committee Chair, at (512) 463-0566 to allow a vote on HB 548.
"Chemical components of Cannabis, called cannabinoids, activate specific receptors found throughout the body to produce pharmacologic effects, particularly in the central nervous system and the immune system. Cannabinoids may have benefits in the treatment of cancer-related side effects." (Source Cannabis and Cannabinoids (PDQ), National Cancer Institute, March 2011)
Our marijuana laws tragically impact families in other ways. Please support Tx HB 1491, which would simply allow seriously ill patients to raise a medical necessity defense to charges of possessing marijuana for medical use. If arrested for possession of marijuana, a patient with a recommendation from his or her physician would have an affirmative defense in court to charges arising from his or her medical use of marijuana. If a court accepts such an affirmative defense, a patient could avoid jail time and fines. Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years prior to its current status as an illegal substance. Call Rep. Lois Kolkhorst, the Public Health Committee Chair, at (512) 463-0600 to allow a vote on HB 1491.
HB 548 and 1491 are a small step in the right direction but will still leave intact the dangerous message to our society that alcohol is more acceptable than marijuana, perpetuating a “culture of alcohol” in our communities. Therefore, please ask your leaders to demonstrate their commitment to future marijuana policy reform by abstaining from alcohol industry campaign money until marijuana is regulated and taxed in a manner similar to alcohol.
The Women's Marijuana Movement is calling on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to examine the potential impact of making marijuana a legal alternative to alcohol. Take action by contacting Linda Degutis, Director National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, which is the division within the CDC that is responsible for studying the factors that contribute to sexual violence and investigating new strategies for prevention.
Elected Officials Legislating Under the Influence of Big Alcohol - Top 5 Texas recipients of alcohol industry contributions during the 2010 Election
Governor Rick Perry - $571,617
US Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison - $392,135
Lt. Governor David Dewhurst - $402,638
State House Speaker Joe Straus - $273,658
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott - $158,424
Total: $1,798,472
A brilliant friend suggested all Members of Congress should be compelled to wear uniforms just like NASCAR drivers, so we can have no doubt about their corporate sponsors.
NAACP calls shift in funding from education to incarceration "alarming." We should invest in effective education rather than ineffective arrest and incarceration. The truth about drugs will keep our children off them. Sound medical and unbiased scientific knowledge are the most effective moral persuasions.
Present policy falsehoods and scare tactics undermine our credibility.
We want to encourage drug free behavior not awaken their curiosity. Effective drug education based on medical science builds student's confidence to make informed responsible choices. Scare tactics, drug testing and fear don't work as well as truth, trust and reason.
Nearly 2.4 million people are incarcerated in the United States. According to the Justice Policy Institute (JPI), US policymakers should look outside our borders for examples of criminal justice policies that can save money while improving the well-being of both individuals and communities.
Educate the powerful, be brave and end the terror by changing our intrusive, big-bully policies, both foreign and domestic. The monetary and environmental costs are staggering and the human suffering unconscionable. Bring our troops home! Reduce our military presence and spending around the world. Cut the interventionists, military industrial complex, warmongering budget to the bone!
Audit the Fed!! End the destruction of the dollar and our economy by bringing real accountability and transparency to the Fed!
Save lives instead of ruining them. Join LEAP, COP and DownsizeDC!
Get tough on violent crime! Restore Justice, the guardian of liberty!
Track your Senators' and Representative's votes by e-mail
Changing who's in charge will not affect much. The real cause of this huge quagmire of failed policy is the beast, big government, that money hungry beast, Uncle Sam! Ma Freedom tells it like it is! The beauty of it is when we focus on down-sizing our government we regain our roots of self-government and secure the blessings of liberty for future generations and ourselves.
Compiled and written by Colleen McCool
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