Ted’s essays

drug war warrior: Ron Paul

In the movie Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a non-political protagonist ended up with a congressional seat and attacked the entrenched perverse power. The popularity of that movie was due to widespread knowledge that little good comes out of those seats of power. Moreover, most people feel that good people go to Washington and inevitably, universally, catch “Potomac Fever”, which is the love and abuse of power. Ron Paul is the exception that proves the rule. His long career in Congress, multiple presidential runs, huge popularity with Libertarians and reputation of voting NO on nearly every bill because they were unconstitutional make him stand out as unique among his peers. The Future of Freedom Foundation published an interview with Ron […]

cannabis in Montana

Imagine trying to run a grocery store, auto shop or dentist office where legislation limited you to serving THREE customers. That is what the legislature and governor did to medical cannabis in Montana. Mind you, this is a substance used by humans for over a thousand years with zero deaths, quite unlike legal pharmaceuticals with very short histories and thousands of deaths every year. In Montana, possession of even a single joint for non-medical purposes can land a person in jail for six months, while possession of 60 grams or more (a little over two ounces) can result in a sentence of up to five years. These stiff marijuana penalties cause related negative consequences. In 2012, there were 1,502 arrests […]

more honorables against prohibition

The American Legion urges Congress to reschedule marijuana By Oscar Pascual on September 8, 2016 at 1:58 PM A group representing millions of U.S. military veterans has called on Congress to reclassify marijuana as a drug with potential medical value. The American Legion passed a resolution at its annual convention last week imploring Congress to “amend legislation to remove marijuana from schedule I and reclassify it in a category that, at a minimum will recognize cannabis as a drug with potential medical value,” reports Marijuana.com. Cannabis researcher Dr. Sue Sisley, who has researched the medical efficacy of cannabis towards veterans and symptoms of PTSD, believes that the support of the American Legion can help break through to more federally-funded […]

More evidence drug prohibition must die

By Perry Willis Recent stupid moves by the FDA and the DEA highlight the need to END Drug Prohibition. The sample letter to Congress below explains the details. If you agree with us that drug prohibition must end, please send Congress a letter. The hardwired message to Congress for this campaign reads simply… End Drug Prohibition. You can copy or edit the following sample text to create your own letter to your elected reps… It’s abundantly clear that my so-called government can’t be trusted to behave sanely on this issue. It must be taken out of your hands completely. Two recent aggressions against the American people by Executive Branch agencies highlight the case. First, the DEA recently decided to […]

Irate in drug war … again … still

The drug war profits organized crime in both public and private sectors, along with the trillion-dollar big pharmaceutical industry. Which, in turn, is a major perverter of our political system. The campaign finance reports are published, available to any and all, but widely ignored. Big Pharma buys our politicians. We have the best politicians money can buy – Will Rogers The costs of all this profiteering are obviously borne by the peasant and trade classes, us. This iteration of prohibition is no more popular among the people than the one a century ago, but the bread and circuses are more successful this time at keeping us from threatening our masters enough to repeal their profiteering. Two news articles jumped in […]

Marijuana Legalization: Give Peace a Chance

by Thomas L. Knapp (Thomas publishes Rational Review Digest) The Garrison Center.org On November 8, voters in eight states will decide whether or not to legalize, to one degree or another, the possession, use and sale of marijuana. If all of the measures pass, more than 86 million Americans will enjoy increased legal access to the plant: For medical use in Arkansas, Florida and Missouri, for recreational use in Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts and Nevada. Earlier this month, the US Drug Enforcement Administration announced it wouldn’t reconsider marijuana’s ridiculous Schedule 1 status (“no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”) — but the states seem to be leaving the federal government behind. Medical marijuana is already legal […]

DEA’s death throes

The DEA and ATF are perfect examples of bureaucracy in search of a reason to exist. Both, in spite of the efforts of very expensive administrators, have failed to find legitimate answers. And both succeed in assaulting life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a distinctly less free country thanks to them. ATF started life to pursue producers and consumers of alcohol when that substance was prohibited by an over-reaching federal government. Picking off an occasional producer or distributor made the product more expensive and riskier. As we all know, it did nothing to slow consumption, but did create a huge profitable industry on both sides of the illegal booze war. When that social program went away, the bureaucracy […]

intended consequences

I was about to title this “unintended consequences”, but realized that would be quite false. The entire “asset forfeiture” scam has been a boon to immoral, police-state, law-enforcement since its inception. It serves no other purpose. By the way, in case you are new to my blogs, peace officers are a world apart from law enforcement officers. The “war on drugs” has enabled officials to snatch up enemies of the state for minority life choices, or planted contraband. This has been used to great effect chopping off the heads of groups threatening to the elites. Meanwhile, the ruling class uses all level of drugs with impunity. Taking it to the next level was surprisingly easy. We mostly sat complacently by […]

cannabis in Montana

Led by the multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical industry, enemies of the valuable cannabis plant have kept it expensive in both money and risk to individual liberty for over 50 years. A plant that costs no more to grow than basil or oregano sells for 100 times what those non-prohibited herbs do. The worst part of this irrational war are the many costs to our society. Topping the list is our awful incarceration rate. A close second is that 99 dollars of the product cost goes to organized crime… with huge negative implications for liberty of all, even those not involved in either side of cannabis transactions. The United States is home to less than 5 percent of the world’s population but nearly […]

why pharma hates medical marijuana

from libertyblitzkrieg.com By Michael Krieger The Real Reason Pharma Companies Hate Medical Marijuana (It Works) Former Federal Judge Nancy Gertner was appointed to the federal bench by Bill Clinton in 1994. She presided over trials for 17 years. And Sunday, she stood before a crowd at The Aspen Ideas Festival to denounce most punishments that she imposed. Among 500 sanctions that she handed down, “80 percent I believe were unfair and disproportionate,” she said. “I left the bench in 2011 to join the Harvard faculty to write about those stories––to write about how it came to pass that I was obliged to sentence people to terms that, frankly, made no sense under any philosophy.” She went on to savage the […]

Cannabis Oil gathering momentum as a world class healer

Cannabis oil is used in cancer treatment. There are already numerous cases around the world which confirm the healing aspect of cannabis oil. Cannabis oil has healed some very serious diseases, including anxiety disorders, epilepsy, MS (Multiple Sclerosis), cerebral palsy and cancer. What’s the difference between cannabis, hemp and marijuana? First of all, let’s clear up some definitions. Cannabis sativa is the plant and species; hemp and marijuana are both varieties or subspecies of it. Marijuana is actually a Spanish slang term meaning “Mary-Jane”. Marijuana is simply considered to have a higher THC content than hemp. THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) is one of the unique phytonutrients or plant chemicals of cannabis. However, both hemp and marijuana contain various cannabinoids, a class […]

Over 5 million American children have a parent in jail

from RT.com A new report examining the devastating toll of incarcerated parents on children, families and their community has found that over five million children have a parent in jail, leading to poor education outcomes, economic strife and psychological problems. “The saying is all too familiar: Do the crime, do the time. But in America’s age of mass incarceration, millions of children are suffering the consequences of their parents’ sentences and our nation’s tough-on-crime practices,” stated the report, A Shared Sentence released on Monday by The Annie E. Casey Foundation. Over a period of four decades, the report found that the number of children with a father in prison or jail at some point in their childhood rose by 500 […]