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Letter-to-the-editor: March 19, 1999 So, the big news is that government "experts" have finally begun to acknowledge the medicinal value of marijuana. Big deal! Cannabis was widely and safely used as folk medicine for thousands of years before the brain-numbing effects of prohibition took hold of the American psyche and gave (some of) us selective amnesia. Marijuana laws are 20th century Jim Crow laws, first imposed on us by the corrupt politicians of our grandparents’ day as a means to "keep the darkies down" and, incidentally, to crush hemp competition for the new plastics and synthetic fibers industry. To hide the racist nature of marijuana prohibition, the Federal Bureau of Narcotics fabricated outrageous lies about cannabis causing violent behavior. Then they changed medical history, Orwellian (1984) style. These early narcs purged the US Pharmacopoeia of over 100 medicinal preparations of cannabis, harassed the old doctors into silence, and created a new generation of doctors and patients ignorant of the long, safe history of medicinal marijuana. The big question today is, after 70 years of this institutionalized bigotry we now call the War on Drugs, how will the corrupt politicians of our day respond as the truth begins to resurface? Less than a year ago, Congress overwhelmingly passed a resolution to keep cannabis a Schedule I controlled substance, the category for "dangerous, highly addictive drugs with no known medical value." Supposedly passed to "avoid sending the wrong message to the children," this act of ignorant arrogance worked to avoid losing those big campaign contributions/payoffs from the liquor and pharmaceutical lobbies by keeping the competition illegal. Ultimately, the drug warriors work to deprive us of our liberty. A free people would be able to choose and even grow their own medicines and recreational drugs without being attacked by agents of their government. But we, "free" Americans, are not allowed to choose between alcohol and expensive patented chemicals or a non-toxic medicinal herb we could be growing in our gardens. No, unless we are prepared to risk a DEA/Gestapo goon squad kicking in our doors, killing our dogs, terrorizing and taking away our children, ransacking and stealing our homes, and setting us up for long mandatory-minimum prison sentences, we Americans cannot grow our own marijuana. So, on second thought, considering the viciousness and corruption of the lie-based narcocracy under which we live, the emergence of a little truth about marijuana IS a big deal! Bruce M. Bush
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