In reading my viewpoint, you will see that somewhere along the line I diverge from NORML, MPP, SAFER, SSDP and all the others. Actually, I don't diverge, I simply carry it to the logical conclusion. None of the organizations has a model for safe access. None of them define what they want. I sometimes think what they want is more active chapters and more donors. Lets talk about legalization. Safe access for everyone of age. Not half measures and for heavens sake lets stop arguing about minutia. Take the luxury of "false choice" arguments away from the prohibitionists. Show them a model that is bullet proof. Make them deny 2.5 million jobs to the American people. Make them aware that we know the corporate model enriches a few well connected, already wealthy people and would provide inferior product. Don't simply take what they offer because we are too timid. We know far better than they do what needs to be done to insure the best outcome. We must not allow them to do it to us, we must do it for them.  

  We have been subjected to laws since 1937 that are an abomination to humanity. The history of cannabis prohibition is shocking in its bigotry. The unholy alliance of drug lords, soccer moms, law enforcement, prisons for profit and corporate big wigs is uncomprehensible. But, it persists!  If we are ever to have something better, we must try something different. If we are ever to end this prohibition we must carry the same message and speak as one voice. Clear and unwavering we must all ask for exactly the same thing...abolish the prohibition of cannabis and replace it with A Better Way-The Plan to Regulate Cannabis. Nothing less.

  Consider what happens if we beg for any form of legalization. Corporate America will build build billion dollar factories, corporate big wigs will fly here and there in 50 million dollar Gulfstreams, be paid obscene salaries and bonuses, sloshing and spilling money where ever they go. However, none of that money will spill onto you unless you are one of the professional boot lickers these guys employ and patronize. Dick Cheney and his ilk will sell you what they choose not what you want. They will grind up billion dollar fields of cannabis in huge processing plants, homoginizing it to the point it would all taste the same except for the artificial colors and flavors they use to "improve it." We must not let that happen.

  If we leave the details to the government I can't even imagine what the system would look like. The implications are just too scary to imagine. Just picture Dick Cheney on a fascist power trip. We really can't put our trust in a government that has perpetuated failure for 73 years and counting. But, we can't do it without the government. Which means, we must design the system for them. We must explain to them what needs to be done and how to do it. We must train them and we must monitor their performance. To do anything less would lead to a series of new failures that they would turn around and blame on cannabis users.

  I believe that goverment and goverened can work together in a symbiotic fashion that benefits all. I for one am tired of an adversarial relationship with my own government. I am tired of my tax dollars not only being used to perpetuate prohibition but also being used for the propagation of opinions that I abhor. It is not and has never been a duty of goverment to engage itself in the promotion of public opinion. But they do it constantly on the issue of cannabis. They have spent billions on public service announcements demonizing cannabis in an effort to influence your opinion. Its funny that other frequently broken laws don't receive the same dollars. Have you ever seen a public service announcement about illegal immigration. Twenty million or so illegals in the country but not a single word from the government. The government wants you to rat out your parents, your children or your neighbors for cannabis but don't say a word about the illegals cutting their grass on the cheap. It is beyond hypocracy and it doesn't have to be that way.

A Sure Thing

  As a part of our message is the concept that the only way it doesn't work is if Americans stop using cannabis after legalization. That would interupt the cash flow and all great things are built on a reliable cash flow. The investment in the real estate, the mortgages on those buildings, the incomes of the participants, the mortgages on their homes, the tax collections, the jobs; all of it, a sure thing. Because of the reliable cash flow and the simplicity of design. We can count on Americans to continue smoking weed. We can count on corporate America learning to exploit industrial hemp in ways never imagined. We can count on the parmaceutical industry to exploit THC, engineering the specific properties into tinctures or inhalers. It is a sure thing.

  The failure of prohibition is overwhelming. It did not stop the illegal commerce. It did not stop the illegal use. Both of these are mis-nomers, as there was no illegal commerce or illegal use.  It did stop people from filling a prescription for tincture of cannabis at the local pharmacy. It did stop people from growing hemp, or buying a reefer at the jazz club. It prohibited all commerce or use of cannabis in any form. It eliminated the hemp business, which was a billion in 1937. No more tincture, couldn't buy a jay at a jazz club. Still can't. The prohibition has done a good job at prohibiting everything that would be legal. It created the illegal trade. There was no illegal trade in cannabis. No illegal use. Now we have sixty million criminals. Eliminate prohibition and you have sixty million less criminals, you have industrial hemp, pharmaceutical THC, and of course the well regulated commerce of recreational weed. This is what prohibition protects us from; industrial hemp, pharmaceutical THC and well regulated commerce. These are the only activities successfully prohibited. That is what we will have if we abolish prohibition. How could it be otherwise. It is de facto. It is once again, a sure thing.