We do not just advocate for legalization, we fight for it! :)

Cannabis Movement

The Hackivist group Anonymous have a campaign for pot legalization “Operation Cannabis” (or OpCannabis as it appears on Twitter and in Anonymous dispatches). While pot smoke pours from pro-pot demonstrations in cities across the globe, Anonymous and it’s supporters will be behind computers, trying to raise awareness of the benefits of the herb.
The Automated voice, a staple of Anonymous videos says

“We have heard and we have watched your governments lie and deceive on all of the dangers of cannabis. For far too long, cannabis has been oppressed by big corporations, Big Pharma and government when it could be benefiting all of mankind in many different levels”.

Anonymous elaborates in an OpCannabis press release, citing the versatility of cannabis and most notably it’s medicinal properties.
“Why aren’t we legalizing marijuana” Anonymous ask
Currently a large part of marijuana sales is in the hands of criminal organizations all around the…

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Parents and the Prohibition of Pot

Citizens of the World,

If life has no other purpose, it is to continue itself. While there remains much debate about when and how life began on this planet, we know that humanity in its modern form has only come into existence in the most recent of Earth’s history. Since that time we have spread our species across the entire globe, driven by our innate desire to improve our own quality of life, as well as the lives of those to come. Built into us is this need to propagate, to create offspring that will be an improvement upon their predecessors, because we do not wish our children to struggle as we had to. In light of this, we have reached a point in our apparent progression where it is necessary to re-examine our actions, specifically in terms of how they will affect future generations.

Presently, we live in a world that mostly criminalizes the cultivation, use and distribution of Cannabis. Those who have faith in the righteousness of law do not recognize how this drug policy hurts them and therefore feel no need to question its continuation. Increasingly though, many are becoming aware of the danger to themselves and their loved ones that this societal situation imposes.

Those of us with kids realize the awkward position this puts us in. We are forced to choose between advocating that they abide by the law or that they minimize harm to themselves. On one hand we have civilization, which denounces and punishes marijuana use, while promoting more destructive substances such as alcohol and tobacco. If left unaddressed, it is likely that our children will use these legal drugs if they seek out altered states of consciousness. On the other hand, we have our sense of protection as a parent, which compels us to inform our kids about the dangers of different drugs and suggest that they use the least detrimental one possible – pot.

Regardless of how we approach the marijuana issue with our children, they still remain in harms way due to the legislation in place. If they choose to smoke weed (the healthier choice) they risk incarceration, a criminal record, loss of financial aid, etc. If they choose to use alcohol or tobacco (the legal choice) they risk detriments to their physical well-being.

All the while, when faced with the same choice that our children must resolve, cannabis use is completely out of the question for us. Doing so would risk not only our current and future employment; we’d be taking a chance at having our kids taken away from us. In this way, our government has completely removed our ability to lead by example.

All things considered, the role of a parent under marijuana prohibition is a needlessly stressful one. Inconsistencies between our actions, the law, and what is the right thing to do may result in confusion and mistrust in our children. As the ones who will carry our legacy into the future, we only wish to prepare them the best we possibly can. It is unfair to us and them that we can either be safe or lawful, but not both. For the sake of all future human generations, this problem must be confronted. The solution is legalization.

– Anonijuana

“End the Drug War, Do it for the Kids“

The Synthetic Marijuana Epidemic

Citizens of the World,

Since the middle of the 20th Century we have been deprived of access to legal cannabis, leading to many noticeable negative consequences including the increasing cases of cancer, the increase in incarcerated citizens, and the increased cost of healthcare. One of the less publicized aspects of marijuana prohibition though, is the fact that it has in no way lowered the demand by society for what this plant provides: chemical comfort.

While marijuana remains illegal, it also remains one of the least dangerous substances know to humankind. There is not a single recorded death from it in all of history, due to the fact that it is physically impossible to overdose on. However, man-made “alternatives”, although legal, cannot be said to be as safe at all.

Synthetic marijuana is sometimes sold as “legal bud” and other times under the guise of household items such as incense and bath salts. Many of these products, which go by flashy names like K2 and Spice, are labelled Not For Human Consumption, but are sold solely for that purpose anyway. These are substances are designed to create an effect similar to smoking weed, and are put out on the legal market without regulation, nor certification of safety. These substances have led to many health problems, including heart attacks and the tragic “zombification” of users, as was seen in Miami this past Memorial Day. Unfortunately, because they are legal while natural marijuana is not, they are very accessible. They can even be ordered over the internet, and are advertised for in a very misleading manner.

People who use synthetic marijuana are citizens that wish to be law-abiding, who do not deserve a detriment upon their health for doing so. The fact of the matter is that this situation shouldn’t exist at all, we should not have individuals faced with the decision of legal/harmful vs illegal/safe. It is an unfair and immoral choice to force on consumers, that completely undermines the purpose of the free market.

During Alcohol Prohibition, there existed an atmosphere conducive to crime and a general disregard for the authority of law, which exists again today. Marijuana Prohibition is why the Drug Cartels are selling a safer product than the one available in the store. Cannabis needs to be legalized, simply as a matter of public health.

– Anonijuana

“Nature has been making marijuana for centuries… how long have we?“

Ganja, Greenhouse Gases and Global Climate Change

Citizens of the World,

Let’s take a moment to reflect upon where we have come to so far as a species, and afterwards another few moments to discuss the path we are currently on.

Whether or not you believe in the evolutionary process, intelligent design, a combination of the two, or something completely different, no one can deny the interconnectedness of nature and humans. Being our planet’s most intellectually developed creatures, we have not only the capacity to protect or destroy it but also the ability to choose which we will do. With 7 Billion+ of us now inhabiting the Earth, we are the single-most largest consumer of it’s natural resources. Our increased population’s demands have led to much deforestation for the sake of creating agricultural space and harvesting trees, the raw material for many everyday products such as paper. Because of this, experts say that in the next 40 years, the rainforests could be completely gone.

The problem of deforestation is dual-sided: aside from permanently altering sensitive ecosystems, we are changing the composition of our planet’s atmospheric gases. Plant life, especially trees, act as a natural converter of the greenhouse gas Carbon Dioxide back into Oxygen. In this way, humans and plants can live symbiotically, as we continuously recycle each others byproducts. But, by removing so much plant biomass from the global climate equation, we are left with an excess of CO2, resulting in the increase in average temperatures being witnessed all across the world.

While some may say it is an unfortunate, inevitable side-effect of human progress, they are wrong. This rate of deforestation is firstly unnecessary and secondly, inefficient. We need not destroy these places for our own benefit, because nature provides us with a better way: the Cannabis/Hemp plant.

This renewable resource can be harvested yearly, rather than the lifetime it takes a tree to grow. It can grow in ANY climate, and will outcompete surrounding weeds. It is naturally resistant to many pests, eliminating the need for pesticides. To produce the same amount of fiber as 4 acres of forest, only 1 acre of hemp is needed!

For a safer more prosperous future, we must embrace nature, rather than prohibit and destroy it. Power must be returned to the People, and our Hemp plants to the Earth.

We cannot change the past, but everyday we make the future. We cannot undo the damage which has already been done, but we should make an effort to leave this place better than we found it. Hemp will help heal our world, and must be freed from the bounds of law.

Legalization is needed, it will slow Climate Change and strengthen local communities!

– Anonijuana

“Go green, by growing green“

Cannabis and the Cancer Industry

Citizens of the World,

There is a disease of which you are all aware, that has plagued humankind throughout the ages.  It is a terrible affliction, called Cancer. As far back as we have been able to look into the past, we have found evidence of its existence.  In recent history, this disease has become more prevalent and more notorious a killer. You may have heard someone say, “These days, everything causes Cancer”.

In 2008, 7.6 Million deaths across the globe were directly due to the disease, and that number has been and is expected to continue to rise every year. This is a huge burden upon our healthcare systems that also weighs heavily on our hearts. The loss of any human life is a shame, but 1 out of every 8 deaths coming from a single cause is nothing less than a tragedy.  For decades people have donated what they’ve been able to, to the effort of finding a cure. As the death toll increases though, it’s apparent that these undertakings have done little to stop this trend.

^^ 2012s Expected New Cases of Cancer, in the U.S. alone. ^^

Aside from Cancer accompanying us throughout our existence on Earth, there has been another companion of ours, which has acted as a counter agent: the Cannabis plant. Although, due to its modern legal prohibition, marijuana’s anti-cancer properties have been made hard to research. The results are nonetheless miraculous! Consider the case of young Cashie Hyde, whom without the plant’s oil would’ve died.

 

What these facts bring into question is the legitimacy of our purported search for a cure, when there already exists one that naturally occurs.  Rather than trying to cure a person after they’ve become diseased, we could take a preventative approach to Cancer. People could grow Cannabis plants in their own homes, and keep themselves from becoming Cancer patients! Can you imagine all of the pain, suffering and lives that could be saved?

There are forces though that would keep us from achieving this reality. I am speaking of the profiteers of our illness, the perpetuators of our poor health and the designers of our deaths. Follow the money trail. They are Big Business. They are the Cancer Industry, an enemy of We The People, and one of the reasons Cannabis is still illegal.

– Anonijuana

“A toke a day keeps the doctor away“

Barack Obama’s Smoke and Mirrors

Citizens of the World,

As we progress further into the 44^th presidency, more and more cannabis activists are coming to understand that Barack Obama is not the hero we’d hoped:

• He spoke out against the failed War on Drugs in 2004, but his administration has done nothing to alter it’s status, aside from increasing it’s spending and attempting to change it’s name.

• Having acknowledged the medical benefits of marijuana in an interview with the  Marijuana Policy Project in 2008, he has made no effort to federally reschedule marijuana so that doctors across the country may prescribe it.

• Even though he vowed in an interview with Oregon’s Mail Tribune in 2008 to respect state medical marijuana laws, he has instead done the opposite, best exemplified by the federal raid of Oaksterdam.

• After he admitted to using it himself, he has done nothing to reduce the number of Americans in prison for marijuana related “crimes”.

On his original presidential campaign trail, Barack Obama’s mottoes were Change and Hope. On the White House website, one would get this impression that these promises had come to fruition, as his administration claims to practice a “21st Century Drug Policy, reliant upon science, research and evidence”. When comparing Obama’s national drug strategy to that of his predecessor though, this statement falls apart, as little distinction can be made between the two. Apparently we cannot hope for any change from the current U.S. President, when it comes to addressing the many flawed marijuana laws.

– Anonijuana

“YES WE CANnabis”

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RELATED POSTS:
Rolling Stone: Obama’s War on Pot
Stop The Drug War: Obama’s 2012 Drug Strategy – The Same Old Same Old

Profiteers and Prisoners of the Drug War

Citizens of the World,

It has been considered common knowledge that when a war is conducted there will emerge one side as victor, and the other as loser. There is a particular war that defies that logic and whose battle lines are not so clearly drawn. To which am I referring is the United States of America’s War on Drugs, declared by President Richard Nixon in June of 1971.

The expressed goals of this shift in U.S. Domestic + Foreign policy was to counteract the rise in drug use that had characterized the previous decade, which Nixon described as “Public Enemy #1”. Overlooking the argument that the right to choose drug use is up to the individual, it would appear as if Nixon did want to keep Americans safe. However, regardless of sincerity of his intentions, it has become apparent that his approach to the issue of drug usage has done little to achieve it’s stated goals + actually has done much to the opposite end:

Not only has drug use not declined, at all…
…self-proclaimed “Land of the Free” leads the world in incarcerations, directly due to the criminalization of Cannabis use. Rather than regulating marijuana in a legal manner, it would appear as if the Federal Government would prefer to imprison…

…What’s worse is the recent trend to privatize prisons for profit, in the name of saving taxpayer dollars. Some even require a minimum occupancy, creating a system of incentives where police officers are pressured not only to meet their personal + department quotas, but also that of the prison company. A prime example of the profit-motive being used to obstruct justice…

…Private Prisons aren’t the only entities profiting off the Drug War. The fact that substances like cannabis are illegal forces their consumers to turn to the black market to acquire them. This funnels much money into criminal organizations, funding their other, most likely violent, illegal activities…

…With nature’s most prominent medicine locked away + anyone who uses it locked up, Pharmaceutical companies are able to synthesize chemicals that target single symptoms rather than the array of ailments that marijuana assists with. So, not only can you not grow the cure-all in your own home for free, you must pay for your relief on a case by case basis.

Amidst all this is an emerging acceptance of alternative forms of drug use than the traditional alcohol, caffeine and nicotine. In 2011, the public approval of marijuana legalization reached 50% of all Americans, a reflection of the inability of our elected officials to properly gauge and/or react to the will of the people, as no federal efforts to reform marijuana laws have come to fruition.

In conclusion, when one looks beyond the rhetoric and promises of prohibition, it becomes more clear that in practice this policy is not working and is overdue to change. When one looks closely enough, they may come to the realize that the Drug War is actually a
War on the American People and their Rights.

Winners: For-Profit Prison Companies, Drug Lords + Pharmaceutical Companies
Losers: Us

– Anonijuana

“People before profits!“

Hypocrisy: The Federal Government and Marijuana

Citizens of the World,

There is an issue of much importance that I would like to discuss with you, which is the issue of hypocrisy displayed by the U.S. Federal Government.

As you may or may not be aware, a portion of every American’s taxes are used to fund the War on Drugs, a zero-tolerance drug policy that has resulted in the incarceration of millions of non-violent marijuana users. The purported reasoning behind these arrests is the supposed danger that marijuana poses to humans. If the substance is not safe, society isn’t safe around it. Seems like sound logic.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Justice, schedules marijuana on its highest tier. This classification is reserved for substances that have the coupled characteristics of no medical value + high abuse potential. Which in other words means drugs that are used strictly for recreational purposes.

** Side note: according to feds, cocaine has more medical value than marijuana **

Such a scheduling seems appropriate, as the most common use of marijuana is smoking it to get high. However, If we look closer into the Federal Government’s stance on marijuana, things seem much less clear.

In 2001, a patent on Cannabinoids (the psychoactive component of marijuana), was granted to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They received it on the basis of the chemical’s antioxidant + neuroprotective properties, as well as the treatment potential for diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

At least to me, those properties appear to have huge medical value! Imagine the millions of people that could be helped! Nonetheless marijuana remains on Schedule I.

In conclusion, what we are presented with is a Federal Government that holds a patent on the main ingredient of marijuana for it’s medicinal properties, that at the same times claims that such properties are non-existent AND states that marijuana is actually harmful. This is blatant hypocrisy by elected officials, whose sworn duty is to serve and protect their constituents and society as a whole. Such two-facedness cannot and should not be tolerated.

– Anonijuana

“We the people want weed legal!“

Anonijuana: Legion of Advocacy

The following is an article entitled “Legion of Advocacy”, which resulted from an interview between myself and @Iconicles, founder of TRAMP- Tea Party Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition

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Beginning nine years ago as a meme on the message board 4chan, Anonymous quickly became a syndicate and has grown dramatically in a short time.  Most know them for their role in the recent Occupy protests or from LOIC (Low Orbit Ion Cannon), a group of linked computers which they use to launch Denial of Services attacks against their enemies.  Though best known for its cyber-warfare, the leaderless coalition grows more multi-faceted with each passing second.  Anonijuana makes for a prime example.

When asked about personally consuming marijuana, the smirk from behind the Guy Fawkes mask resonated across the internet, “I do not advocate breaking the law, as the purpose of laws is supposed to be the safety of the public plus the protection of each human’s individual rights.  However, the marijuana laws in existence do not meet either of those criteria, and rather do much to cause harm. For this reason, I believe disregarding those laws is justified.”  Anonymous thrives on intimidation, and thusly many outsiders overlook how most of their aims are compassionate ones.

Overcoming history proves impossible without organization and motivation.  Both forces move slowly, but these conflicts have been brewing for some time.  Anonijuana began to advocate marijuana legalization when, “I realized that I had been lied to my entire life regarding every aspect of marijuana, including: its psychoactive effects, the reason for its illegality, its medicinal properties, its context in human history, etc.” And also, “There are many potential benefits to be had from this plant, which we have only deprived ourselves from in the last 100 years or so. The movie The Union: The Business Behind Getting High was particularly influential on my path to advocacy.”

Art drives Anonymous.  They borrow their persona from the movie “V for Vendetta” and most of their endeavors focus on entertainment.  An activist has many choices of activities, but Anonijuana chose to become part of Anonymous because “I believe in universal camaraderie, justice, and the rights of every person.”   People see Anonymous and they perceive a nefarious international hacking organization, but the fact is:  All types of people comprise the branches and facets of this leaderless syndicate, and the only sign of membership is participating towards the common goals.

A group that values collective good might not be the place for an individualistic ideology like Objectivism, but Anonijuana had an opinion on that as well, “Proponents of Objectivism, like the U.S., promote the idea of pursuing one’s own happiness, but not when it comes to substance use, unless it is alcohol, nicotine or caffeine.  The government oppresses the people in that it limits the way in which one is expected to achieve personal satisfaction.  An objective argument is that marijuana harms no one and makes some people happy, and therefore should at least be available as a legal option for one to partake in if he or she would so choose.”  Anonijuana’s words prove true.  America has turned its back on Objectivism in favor of communities with impersonal goals.

Everyone has become more centered on the common good, and the government has begun to trim away in favor of political correctness.  When asked about the idea of rights not specifically listed in The Constitution, Anonijuana replied, “Every human being is characterized by certain qualities that distinguish us from other living creatures, notably the ability to make intellectual considerations and reflections.  This unto itself demands respect for the mental processes of all individuals.  Every one of the 7 billion people on Earth is able to and required to make choices about how to live their life, and I believe that the decision to use marijuana or not should be decided in the mind of each person.  Instead of this being the case, though, the decision is imposed upon the population due to the drug’s illegality.  This is an offense to all of humanity, and disallows us from exercising our own discretion without threat of artificial consequences such as arrest or incarceration.”  With the billions of dollars spent on marijuana every year, it is no surprise that Anonymous moved into this genre.  Whether or not they, and the rest of the marijuana activism community, are successful depends on you.

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ORIGINAL POST: http://www.trampandtheonlygame.com/Sunday_Issue_31812.html