10,000 Pot Smokers Have Marijuana Smoke-Out While DEA Says No To Industrial Hemp
Anyone See The Irony Here?
You’ve probably read the story about an estimated 10,000 people gathered on the University of Colorado’s Norlin Quadrangle Sunday, puffing joints till the air turned blue. University police stood by to maintain order, but no one was busted for smoking pot.
In the meantime, the DEA is staunchly defending its policy against American farmers legally growing industrial hemp, citing the law that says all hemp is marijuana.
How’s your war on drugs coming along, anyway, DEA? The sun is shining, and if you’d pull your heads out, you’d see it. Pot is here, lots of it available, if this number of people can show up and get loaded on just one day in one city and no one is arrested.
Where did these pot-heads get their stuff, it surely didn’t come out of a couple of bags, and there was apparently enough to go around to get some 10,000 heads high. How many more smoke-outs were held on April 20th, the annual, internationally recognized celebration of marijuana? How many tons of pot went puff?
Now I’m not in favor of marijuana, primarily because of its affect on the lungs. Pot heads will tell you there’s no danger, but the cigarette companies told us that decades ago, and a lot of us are dying of COPD everyday.
My point here is that while these young people are getting loaded on an illegal drug in public as cops stand by, two farmers in North Dakota are trying desperately to legally grow industrial hemp. Their fight is now in Federal Appeals Court, hoping to overturn a lower court’s decision upholding the DEA’s position.
You can read more about the campaign to legalize industrial hemp cultivation in the U.S. at Vote Hemp.
Farmers in Vermont are ramping up their efforts to the the government to allow farmers there to grow hemp, and other states have passed, or are considering legislation to change the law.
Currently before congress is H.R. 1009, (PDF) the “Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2007″
Why have legal hemp? It’s one of the most useful plants on earth. It’s been cultivated for thousands of years and used for everything from food and medicine to clothing and automobile parts. It’s grown legally in many countries, except in the US, so to take advantage of the many products made from hemp, we must import them.
So what can we do to get the government to change it’s position on hemp? Do you think it will ever change?
Source: Daily Camera
Breathe Mother Nature, Breathe
UPDATE: We’re so pleased that so many of you are chiming in on this topic, and have created a discussion forum for this topic. Come by, and continue to chime in…
Good article. I just wanted to comment on what you said about -
“Now I’m not in favor of marijuana, primarily because of its affect on the lungs. Pot heads will tell you there’s no danger, but the cigarette companies told us that decades ago.”
Now i agree that smoking cannabis in a joint with or without tobacco is harmful to the lungs and although it is the primary way which cannabis is taken, it’s not the only way. Vaporising is growing in popularity everyday and ’space cakes’ and other foods prepared with marijuana are a most delicious way to get your high.
It’s all a matter of education, smoking is bad for your lungs and will eventually have a detrimental effect to your health, but there are many many alternatives.
I don’t believe people should smoke anything. Why do anything that harms onself?
Regardless, government has no right to deny people the right to smoke pot. Plus, it costs us, the taxpayers, billions to lock them up.
Vaporizer?
A comparison to tobacco simply because both are consumed via combustion is far too simple a view.
The effect to the lungs by cannabis is significantly different than tobacco. Tobacco damages the small pathways in the lungs, which in turn causes things like emphysema. Cannabis irritates the large pathways instead, and irritation is limited to at most a few minutes of coughing after inhalation.
There is also the matter of radioactive tar, which is present in tobacco but not in cannabis. There is growing suspicion that this radioactivity is more to blame than anything else for cancer. Tobacco cigarettes leave radioactive deposits in the lungs that persist for years after cessation. Cannabis leaves no radioactive deposits.
I would like someone to make one legitimate argument for the criminalization of marijuana. Alcohol by comparison is many times more potent and dangerous than weed. How many people have died in alcohol related incidents as compared to marijuana. It is not a “gateway” drug as many close minded people would want you to believe. It does not promote a sedentary lifestyle. I wish the vast majority of people would wake up and realize there are bigger problems in the world than locking up innocent people for using a harmless PLANT!!
‘effect’, not ‘affect’
it’s will be changed , view details about that http://runningthebeauty.com.ua/
IT MUST BE LEGALIZED! My art would not be what it is without this magical plant.
lol “mans’s laws are a burden to god’s people”….. depends on who you ask…
Romans 13:1-7 states: “Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.
You say that Marijuana is harmful due to findings by tobacco companies. This is a completely biased statement from organizations that lobby against their largest potential competitor (Marijuana).