MARIJUANA PROHIBITION INSANE PUBLIC POLICY

Marijuana. Can you think of a more polarizing word? Say it to someone, with
no further context. The listener will recoil in disgust or fear, or
(s)he'll grin. Speak more definitively about the cannabis plant, and most
listeners will reveal only the most rudimentary knowledge of the world's
most polarizing herb.

Public school teachers are permitted only to speak of the evils of
cannabis, forbidden to teach its 5,000-plus years of history of service to
man. Politicians spout absurdity after slander when they speak of it at
all. Misinformed people are moved to anger, threaten violence, or wax
childish ("Oh, wow!") when the subject confronts them.

Within this melee of babble, a large and growing number of credible people
are expressing doubt about the efficacy of marijuana prohibition. The
politicians and their sycophants accuse us of advocating "giving drugs to
babies." They say we're "supporting terrorism." They even make absurd
statements like State Rep. Stan Adelstein made at a speech to the United
Campus Ministries luncheon at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology on
Nov. 22, 2001:

"I know the marijuana laws work, because only one of my three sons smoked
marijuana. The other two didn't smoke it, because it's illegal. They told
me so."

Adelstein refused to answer when asked if he thought his son who smoked
marijuana should have gone to prison for it, as millions of others have.

Fact is, Adelstein's family is squarely in the mainstream. The National
Institute on Drug Abuse's annual national household survey continually says
that about one-third of adults in the U.S. have smoked marijuana. Yet, we
continue:

- - Arresting people at the rate of one every 45 seconds for possession or
sale of marijuana.

- - Confiscating folks' cars, houses, cash and children for mere suspicion of
trafficking in marijuana. If they're convicted, we throw them in prison, also.

- - Paying snitches to create marijuana crimes so that law enforcement can
confiscate even more property and children.

- - Allowing law enforcement agencies to keep most of the plunder they steal,
thus perpetuating the vicious and counterproductive cycle.

- - Preventing legal access to marijuana for sick, disabled and dying people
who currently benefit from it, albeit illegally.

Caught up in this insanity is industrial hemp, which has a potential
worldwide market of $500 billion or more, but which is banned from
production in the United States (but allowed in Canada and 30 other
nations). Even more insanely and cruelly, the politicians maintain that
there is no medical use for cannabis, in spite of disagreement from
thousands of doctors and tens of thousands of patients.

How arrogant and stupid to make the statement that an herb has "no medical
use." A fifth-grader wouldn't even make such a blanket statement about
tomatoes or horseradish. Here is the simple truth. Cannabis was first taxed
out of the market, then made illegal in the United States in order to
benefit the stockholders in a large consortium of industries which now do
not have to face competition from industrial hemp. For that purpose, the
politicians are willing to imprison millions and cruelly deny medical
relief to tens of thousands of sick people.

When one understands that industrial hemp can be used for any purpose
served by trees, cotton or flax, and petroleum, and that hemp seed is the
most nutritious single food item in the world, one begins to understand the
scope of the industries served by keeping it illegal. One begins to grasp
whose ox will be gored by re-establishment of industrial hemp at the
forefront of American farm products.

These are some of the reasons I've staked my life, my possessions, and my
honor on exposing the truth about cannabis, knowing that, like countless
others, I could be stopped, "found" in possession of something illegal, and
imprisoned at the whim of the politicians. It's just one more of the cruel
truths of the so-called "war on drugs": that innocent people are sometimes
silenced by police who frame them by "finding" drugs on them. Cops have
unlimited access to drugs to use for such purposes. It's also sad that we
must paint all policemen and women with the same brush, because the bad
cops' and the good cops' uniforms look the same.

And it is for these reasons that SoDakNORML organized the Rapid City
segment of the Million Marijuana March, an educational event being held in
over 160 cities worldwide today. We're appealing to governments everywhere
to stop all cannabis arrests, to stop lying about cannabis, to release
cannabis as medicine to sick people, and to stop imprisoning people for
simply trying to feel better.

There's more good information about cannabis on the Internet than just
about any other subject. Simply inquire "hemp," "cannabis," or "marijuana"
on any search engine. For a tragic laugh, see what the major disseminators
of misinformation, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and
the Parents for a Drug-Free America (whose largest funder is
Anheuser-Busch) have to say on the subject.

It's time for all good people to help end this horrible cycle. Civilian and
soldier, cop and just-folks alike, we must hold our local politicians and
our federal delegations accountable for the carnage and economic damage
created by marijuana prohibition.