The Right of Polygamy Illustrates It Best

Most People Do Not Know That The 9th Amendment Protects Polygamy

Accordingly, I have requested a recordable interview with Mark Henkel.  See below.

Saturday, June 06, 2009

Interview Request:  Mark Henkel – NationalPolygamyAdvocate.com

Reporter:  Ron Bartels

This investigative reporter, for http://justicetimes.com would like to schedule a phone interview for a recordable report on polygamist’s civil rights.  To help my readers and online listeners understand the importance and value of personal liberty, please be prepared to discuss what true liberty really is and that limiting anyone’s personal adult liberties, grants you the right to limit any or all of their personal liberties.

The discussion points I want to cover are stated below.  Please advise of any discussion points you would like to include.  Please plan on keeping this discussion narrowly focused and on the points.

Please be prepared to discuss the difference between liberties and morals as well as the liberty to have differing moral values.  Cover why our governments need to stay out of our personal lives.

Please be prepared to discuss how the 9th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was designed to protect personal moral liberty.  Explain why polygamy does not come under the “commerce clause” that the Federal Government has used to create over 4000 illegal laws.

Please be prepared to discuss how the 10th amendment to the U.S. Constitution was designed to prohibit the Federal Government from making any liberty destroying law.

Please be prepared to discuss how the related rights in the various State Constitutions actually prohibit certain States from making laws limiting personal liberty.

Please be prepared to discuss what a crime is and just how polygamy is not legally a real crime.  Please explain how an illegal law is not legally an enforceable law.

Please point out how polygamy is NOT prohibited in either the New Testament or the Old Testament.  Discuss actual scriptures that reveal that the mandate of one wife (spouse) applied only to a certain category of church leader, not to the church at large.

Please explain how a person could be anti-polygamy and yet still support pro-polygamy rights.  Point how why they should support polygamy rights.

Please be willing to organize this discussion into either segments or one grand interview.  Please be willing to email the proposed discussion back and forth in order for our listeners are able to more clearly understand liberty.

Please focus on the 3 principle advantages of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness and how the founders of our nation used those 3 principles to form the Constitution of this once great nation.

Please be prepared to put emphasis on how giving back the Liberty that Polygamists once had is import to non-polygamists.

I realize that this may take some preparation time be both of us, and that several email versions will need to go back and forth, but the value to everyone of being able to enjoy personal liberty from oppressive legislation is so vital and so important to everyone.

As compensation, please be prepared to appropriately interject, several times, why folks should as well as how folks may invite you for a paid speaking engagement. You may include legal counsel before and during the interview to answer any legal questions or to advise you on how to answer legal questions.

Reporter’s Note:  While Polygamy is not my personal choice, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is.  For me to have my rights, I must protect their rights.  Polygamists are consenting adults with a different set of values.  Polygamy is moral to them and does not harm you or me.  Let them regain their liberty so we maintain our liberty.  Do you want to keep the right to bear arms?  Do you want to regain your rights to grow, make or otherwise produce your own pharmaceuticals?  Congress has used the “Commerce Clause” to illegally make over 4,000 illegal laws in order to remove your liberty, one right at a time.

I got this book for a legal history research paper on the free exercise clause. it was easy to read, interesting, and well cited. I highly reccomend it. S. McMurray (Real Name)

From Publishers Weekly

While numerous studies have examined life in plural marriage, this is the first to explore how the Mormon practice of polygamy transformed the U.S. legal system. Gordon, a professor of law and history at the University of Pennsylvania, deftly handles complicated issues of religion, states’ rights, constitutional theory and the separation of church and state. When Mormons fled to Utah in the 1840s, they brought with them a deep suspicion of “local sovereignty,” feeling that individual states had persecuted them terribly while a weak federal government did nothing to protect them. In Utah, however, they turned this local sovereignty principle to their own advantage, publicly revealing their polygamous society in 1852 and taking measures to ensure the seamless fusion of church and state.

Anti-polygamist legislators, novelists and activists were galvanized to subdue both the Mormons’ political power and their polygamous unions even if this meant reversing longstanding constitutional precedent by centralizing power in the federal government rather than the states. Gordon does an outstanding job of clarifying complex legal issues and demonstrating change over time. At no point was the anti-polygamists’ eventual victory a foregone conclusion; as this study shows, the Mormons had powerful legal precedent on their side, and they proved to be tenacious opponents until they abandoned the struggle in 1890. Gordon is a fine scholar whose penetrating research and interdisciplinary approach break new ground in the fields of Mormon studies and legal history.

Reporter’s NOTE: While the anti-polygamists were successful in destroying polygamist’s rights, they also destroyed the protections of the 9th and 10th amendments in doing so and thus have opened the door to the destruction of religious liberty as well. This door must now be closed and the Constitutional Republic Restored or the present powers in Washington, D.C. will continue to erode our rights, one liberty at a time.

Reform Is Needed!

Originally created to deal with emergency or other very-high intensity situations (e.g. snipers, hostages, barricaded suspects), drug war SWAT teams were deployed on fewer than 3,000 occasions in all of 1980. Today, drug war SWAT teams conduct raids more than 50,000 times per year, mostly while doing low-level drug enforcement, not major crimes or the search for terrorists.

The driving force behind the rise in drug SWAT team deployments has been drug war funding streams such as the Byrne police grants program.  Americans for drug war SWAT Reform holds that drug war SWAT teams should be available but only rarely used. Every time police enter a home with sudden, overwhelming force in the way that SWAT teams are trained to do, a trauma is caused to the people inside from which they may never recover.  

Too many times, the drug war raids are conducted on phony and/or false intelligence and accountability is lacking.  It is therefore the job of the press to expose the problems and it your job as a citizen to demand reform or kick the politicos out on their duff.  There are just way too many do-gooders in our Governments.  They are government vigilantes with guns, badges, judges, juries and jail.

Many of the buildings targeted, in the drug war, house completely innocent people — roommates, spouses, children, victims of wrong address reports — and the vast majority are low-level offenders at worst. Even more troubling, using a drug war SWAT team when a situation is not already close to violence risks creating an altercation that could otherwise have been avoided.

Drug war reports have detailed numerous cases in which unarmed people were shot by drug war police officers who had become trigger happy due to the rush of doing a dynamic entry. In some cases police officers have themselves been killed doing drug war SWAT raids, by people inside who were taken by surprise and who in fear of losing their lives opened fire. Reports of drug war SWAT officers killing pets are common. The “Petition for Responsible drug war SWAT Reform” calls for drug war SWAT teams deployments to be limited to mainly emergency situations.

Copies of signatories drug war petitions are sent by email to their federal and state legislators, with the initial goal of putting the issue of drug war police militarization on the radar screen for policymakers. “SWAT Raids — No One Is Safe” is a short online video (see video at the bottom of this page) that draws attention to the overuse of drug war SWAT teams. It is built around a famous 2008 case in the small town of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, in which the county’s drug war SWAT team raided the home of Mayor Cheye Calvo, handcuffed him and his mother-in-law, and then shot Calvo’s two dogs.
“SWAT Raids — No One Is Safe” uses sophisticated graphics to communicate the basic points about the issue, and makes background use of actual drug war SWAT raids footage.

This drug war video also makes background use of news reports about three infamous raid cases:

1. Tarika Wilson: In January 2008 the Lima, Ohio, SWAT team burst into the home of Tarika Wilson, her one year old son, and her boyfriend, and immediately opened fire. Wilson was killed and her son’s finger shot off. The SWAT team also killed one, and even one of the family dogs.
2. Cheye Calvo: A SWAT team raided the home of Cheye Calvo, mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, and his wife Trinity Tomsic, after delivering an intercepted box containing 32 pounds of marijuana to the house and observing Calvo bringing it inside on returning home. Police, who were unaware of who lived in the house, shot and killed Calvo and Tomsic’ two dogs, and handcuffed Calvo and his mother-in-law while searching the property. The Calvos were cleared after it was determined that the family did not have any knowledge of the contents of the package, which a UPS deliveryperson intended to intercept before their return home.
3. Kathryn Johnston: In November 2006, Atlanta police stormed the home of 92-year-old Kathryn Johnston, stunning her into opening fire as the intruders, who were of unknown nature to her, broke in through her living room window. Police returned fire and killed Ms Johnston, shooting her 39 times.

“SWAT Raids — No One Is Safe” was funded by a grant from the Marijuana Policy Project, with additional support from Richard Wolfe. Production and Editing was done by Robin Bell. Motion Graphics were provided by Erik Loften. Music was created by dubpixel.

CITATIONS:

• Information about the Calvo case is widely available from numerous news reports. Background news report imagery about this case is from the Washington Post.
• The figure of 2,884 SWAT team deployments in 1980 is from “Militarizing the American Criminal Justice System: The Changing Roles of the Armed Forces and the Police,” edited by Peter B. Kraska — page 7, chapter 1, “The Military-Criminal Justice Blur” by Prof. Kraska.
• The figure of over 50,000 SWAT deployments per year today is from private communication with Prof. Kraska. ·

The idea that SWAT raids can escalate the danger inherent in a situation, including to the police conducting the raid, is one that has been discussed by academics who have done research on SWAT teams. For example, in the late 1990s, Prof. Samuel Walker, a leading scholar of policing, was commissioned by the Albuquerque Police Dept. to study their increasing number of killings by police officers. Walker told the New York Times in 1999 that the SWAT team “had an organizational culture that led them to escalate situationi upward rather than de-escalating” (Timothy Egan, “Soldiers of the Drug War Remain on Duty,” 3/1/99 — via the Cato Institute report “Overkill, page 18).

In 2006 Prof. Walker told Drug War Chronicle, “Bursting in on people can get you shot; it’s a very risky tactic.” · The Jarrod Shivers/Ryan Frederick case is an example of how the choice by police to do a SWAT raid instead of an ordinary knock-and-announce search caused the death of a police officer. · Background news report imagery of the Tarika Wilson case is from the Toledo Blade. · Background news report imagery of the Kathryn Johnston case is from CNN.

Americans for SWAT Reform is a project of http://StoptheDrugWar.org.

The use of illegal drugs should not be treated as a crime, but as a public health problem, argue Eva Bertram, Morris Blachman, Kenneth Sharpe, and Peter Andreas. Though the idea is hardly new, Drug War Politics revitalizes public debate over whether tax dollars are better spent suppressing drugs and pushers or rehabilitating addicts. Through interviews with health-care specialists, law enforcement officials, and drug users, the authors–who constitute a drug policy think-tank–illustrate that America’s war on drugs must be revamped before it exacerbates the problem.

A scholarly attack on America’s drug policy. The authors of this tome, all public policy analysts or academics, study the history of the current war on drugs and conclude that it has been misguided from its inception.

The question of drug use, they argue, is a public health issue, not the moral quandary that so many politicians claim it to be. Despite their doctoral-thesis-like approach, the authors make fascinating points about America’s complex relationship with drugs: In the 1897 Sears Roebuck catalogue, for example, a kit containing syringes and a vial of morphine could be had for just $1.50. By 1914, laws were in place to control drug use.

But these early laws did not prevent drug use; they merely restricted it to those who purchased it from a physician “in good faith,” and records were kept of all such transactions. This tolerance, however, had worn thin by the Nixon era, and it was at that time, the authors write, that America’s real trouble with drugs began.

From then on, America has pursued the zero-use goal typified by the “Just Say No” campaign. The costly Pyrrhic victory of the drug war has indeed lowered the number of drug users, but the authors note that only casual use has dropped; the number of intravenous drug and cocaine users, who are responsible for 80 percent of the costs associated with drug use, has skyrocketed. The authors conclude that the zero-use model is outdated and that the war on drugs should be refocused to a war on the roots of drug use–poverty, poor health education–and a change in our culture’s heavy reliance on licit drugs to cure our ills. Compelling arguments and an excellent use of data make this report invaluable in an election year.

In a retrospective look at the war on drugs in the United States, journalist Dan Baum calls the nation’s drug policy “as expensive, ineffective, delusional and destructive as government gets.” He examines the Nixon White House’s effort to turn the drug war to political advantage and the Carter Administration’s brief flirtation with decriminalizing marijuana. He also details the cover-ups and blunders of some of the biggest drug busts in the country’s history. Yet despite the policy’s ineffectiveness, at least 85 percent of Americans oppose legalization. Baum sheds light on the reasons for this issue and calls for radical compromise. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Eldredge, a former Reagan campaigner and entrepreneur, believes that America’s War on Drugs is an utter failure, and he pleads for legalization. Arguing that nothing seems to have been learned from the experiment with Prohibition, he points out the negative impacts of the drug war on crime rates, corruption, prison crowding, public health, civil liberties, and race relations. He proposes that the government sell illicit drugs in a system similar to state liquor stores, with the profits used for treatment and education. He argues that realizing there will always be a market for mind-altering substances will permit us to search for a “good” realistic solution rather than the “perfect” chimera of total interdiction. Eldredge’s suggestions are not novel, but his book is a concise review of the case for legalization of drugs.

Sheriff for 19 Years Needs Public Defender

Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin, who has been sheriff for about 19 years, was arrested and charged with selling marijuana while on duty.  Usually, when law enforcement personnel commit crimes, they do so with the expectation of invincibility.

Invincibility is seldom successful forever as the watchful eye of the public becomes ever more vigilant on holding public servants accountable.  Citizens are growing more and more concerned about the levels of integrity of both their elected and appointed public officials.  Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin should know that the citizens are watching and reporting.  Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin is a Democrat who has been re-elected 4 times.

The charges are serious; Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin was arrested Monday and appeared in court on three counts of distributing marijuana and two counts of carrying a firearm while trafficking drugs.  Some of the pot came from the evidence room and from seizures, which may not have been logged, into the evidence room.

The complaint accuses the 46-year-old sheriff, Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin of distributing more than 1,100 grams – (over two pounds) – of marijuana between April 27, 2009 and May 11, 2009.

So just how did the sheriff get caught?  Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin plotted with a local drug dealer who later got cold feet after Drug Enforcement Administration Investigator Glenn Rountree set up the sting.  No one is invincible when the DEA goes after him or her.

Here is part of how Sheriff Raymond Martin was taken down.  Sheriff Raymond Martin handed the drug dealer, who is unidentified in the court papers, two pounds of pot and asked if the unidentified man could “get rid of that” for the sheriff, who promised he’d use his power to protect him if he ever got caught selling. If the unidentified drug dealer didn’t comply, Rountree wrote, Sheriff Raymond Martin threatened the unidentified drug dealer by saying he could “make up” a crime against him. 

Making up a crime is common in some law enforcement venues as we here at JusticeTimes.com are finding out daily.

What is really interesting is that Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin needed to have a public defender appointed.  One wonders where he hid all his loot!  Maybe the Feds got it or it is still hidden in a missing mattress.  There is more than one sheriff who has a case of a missing mattress.  I wonder if Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin is another one of those miscreants.

If any type of corrupt political official is victimizing you or someone you know, you may contact us in confidence.  Please be prepared to help us with enough information to investigate your story.  Please do not fabricate your story in any way as we drop investigations where the facts do not check out.  We know that honest officials are sometimes falsely accused.  We are an investigative reporting organization, not a tabloid so the facts need to be accurate and truthful.  Sometimes, it does take a while for us to dig out the facts.

If you would like to learn to be an investigative reporter in your area, please contact ron@justicetimes.com for more information.

by Ronomundo

Medical Marijuana Will Be Legal in Most States by 2012!

Medical Marijuana is now legal in 13 states, and by year’s end Medical Marijuana could be legal in several more. Legislatures in at least 19 states are, have, or will be considering Medical Marijuana bills this year, and while in most of them efforts are just getting off the ground or stand little chance of passing a Medical Marijuana law this year, significant progress has already been made in at least five states and bills are just a handful of votes and a governor’s signature away from passage.

More broadly, medical marijuana has become part of the legislative landscape. Medical Marijuana is now either the law of the land or under consideration in more than 30 states. Most of the states where it is not on the political agenda are in the South. On the West Coast, Medical Marijuana is a done deal; in the Rocky Mountain states, half are already there; in the Midwest, progress is slow but ongoing; and in the Northeast, the Medical Marijuana issue has been red hot in recent years.

Here’s what things look like right now, followed by some discussion below. Note that this is the assessment by the publishers of JusticeTimes.com; based on legislative histories and the analyses of the people that JusticeTimes.com talked to below, they discovered:

States where a bill was introduced and is already dead:
· Iowa – Citizens in Iowa will not give up on Medical Marijuana
· Kansas – Citizens in Kansas will not give up on Medical Marijuana
· South Dakota – Citizens in South Dakota will not give up on Medical Marijuana

States where bills have been in play, but are unlikely to pass this year:
· Alabama – Surprising progress on Medical Marijuana has been made here!
· Connecticut – Medical Marijuana should do well in the next two years here!
· Massachusetts – Libertarians are growing in this State. Medical Marijuana will be possible.
· Missouri – Medical Marijuana is a tough sell here but is doable!
· Ohio – Medical Marijuana here is experiencing a major awakening!
· Tennessee – Medical Marijuana will take a while here but don’t give up.
· Texas – Medical Marijuana is be soon coming to Texas!

States with bills either just introduced or not introduced yet, but promised, and thus unlikely to pass this year:
· Delaware
· Idaho
· Pennsylvania
· Wisconsin

States with the best chance of passage this year:
· Illinois
· Minnesota
· New Hampshire
· New Jersey
· New York
· Rhode Island

The whole point of all this is the fact that Congress has violated the 10th Amendment to the Constitution over and over again! They have absolutely no right whatsoever to make any drug laws.

The Constitution gives the Congress only 17 discrete powers. One of them is the power to regulate interstate commerce and another is the power to tax incomes. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, almost from the time the first Congress sat, it used its Commerce Clause power to tax goods, to control private behavior, and even to prohibit items in interstate commerce.

Every new Congress has used that power to control the conditions for production and sale of goods that eventually made their way into interstate commerce. And modern Congresses have used that power to regulate any human behavior they wish, so long as the behavior, when combined with other similar behavior, might conceivably affect the movement of goods or persons in interstate commerce.

Thus, today, the water you drink, the air you breathe, the size of the toilet bowl in your bathroom, the number of legs on your desk chair, the strength of the water pressure in your shower in your home, the amount of wheat you can grow in your yard, the amount of sugar manufacturers can put into ketchup, the words you can utter in public or private, are all regulated by the Congress, claiming power under the Commerce Clause.

And the feds, as well, use their enormous horde of cash from our income taxes to bribe the states by paying them to regulate in areas that the Constitution prohibits Congress from regulating.

Here is what the 10th amendment says:  The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

It is an uphill battle to get the U.S Congress to obey our laws. (They have us worried about obeying their laws.  They think their job is to remove liberty, not enhance or preserve it.)  The 10th amendment is our law prohibiting them from making any law whatsoever that violates the U.S. Constitution. Some people ask, “why does the U.S. Supreme Court allow them to do this?”

The answer is very simple and here it is.

When an issue is before the court, the justices have to consider what is “on the record” in that particular case.  It is the lawyers who control just waht is on the record.  The legal system is not as much about justice as you would like to believe. It is more about procedure and the specific rules of the court. It is about employing more and more lawyers.

Many lawyers would go unemployed if the 10th amendment were fully upheld. We could employ them enforcing the Fair Access Amendment and leaving Medical Marijuana alone.  Think of the number of lawyers employed defending drug cases! Drug offenders of one sort or another populate most of the U.S. Prison system. Sure, some belong there, if they hurt someone else.  If we enforce our immigration laws, we’ll have plenty of jobs for everyone.

How Do We Fix Our Political System?

We need an amendment to the Constitution that expressly limits Congress to exercising only the 17 specific powers that are delegated to it in the Constitution and defines and limits the regulation of interstate commerce to its original meaning of keeping commerce regular by preventing all governments, state and federal, from interfering with it.

Secondly, we need to rescind the 16th Amendment and affirmatively prohibit any federal tax on persons, as individuals or as groups.

Thirdly, we need to pass the Fair Access Amendment. This amendment separates the politicians from the lobbyists and puts them directly under the thumb of the people.  They won’t be going off the Washington to make deals behind our backsides.

These three measures will starve the federal government back down to the footprint established for it by the Constitution.

The Constitution can only be amended by enactment of an amendment by three-quarters of the legislatures of the states. In order to get to the state legislatures, an amendment can only come from an affirmative vote of two-thirds of both houses of Congress, or from a constitutional convention, which Congress must call if asked to do so by two-thirds of the state legislatures.

What should Liberty Lovers Do?

Here are a few simple steps:
· First, agree on the wording of three amendments addressing Fair Access, Commerce and Income Taxes.
· Second, write and pass the Fair Access Amendment to the Constitution.
· Third, persuade the state legislatures of 34 states to enact a resolution by a simple majority vote of each house of the states’ legislatures instructing Congress to convene a constitutional convention for the express and sole purpose of considering these three amendments.

There would be a lot of high ranking fear mongers who would try to scare 34 states into not agreeing with this; but I firmly believe that as the number of agreeing states approaches 34, Congress will become terrified, and will begin to curtail its regulation of our behavior and lower our taxes.  If the convention does come to pass and sends the three proposed amendments to the states, the goal is then to get 38 states to adopt the amendments.

Note: The state legislative process of demanding a convention and the state legislative process of approving an amendment only requires a simple majority in each house of a state legislature, and neither is subject to a governor’s veto.

We can also elect state legislators who are intelligent and courageous enough to challenge and defy the federal government. Wyoming, Montana, Texas, and Oklahoma have many legislators who are prepared to direct their law enforcement to refrain from enforcing any federal laws whatsoever.

They also wants to dictate to the Federal Government that the products that originate and remain within their borders not be subject to any federal regulation. If the Feds don’t back down at that point, then these states will begin the process of seceding from the Union. Once a State secedes from the union, the corporations and individuals in those States will no longer have to pay income taxes to the Federal Government. This will leave the remainder of the States holding the debt they pushed on the other States.

Even states with more liberal attitudes can be recruited into this effort by persuading them to save money and enhance freedom by prohibiting state and local law enforcement from prosecuting persons for possessing small amounts of controlled substances. The federal government simply cannot enforce all its criminal laws (there are over 4,000 of them) without the active assistance of state and local law enforcement. So if a few States refuse to enforce Federal Laws, which are ONLY authorized under the Commerce Clause, the people will be liberated once again.

What is the biggest fear that the Federal Government has? Secession, even under the biggest of Big Government theories, this is perfectly lawful and can lawfully be accomplished by the consent of three-quarters of the remaining state legislatures.

Many people are under the mistaken idea that the Federal Government is supposed to be our nanny from cradle to grave. They mistakenly think the Government should be our parents. It is well past time for us all to wake up and smell the coffee. We are adults. We don’t need them meddling in our businesses, homes, cars, trucks or anything else. Let us take back our liberty! NOTE: We have to take it back. These Federales want to nurse maid us from dawn to dusk and from dusk to dawn. Let us all just say no more!

Here is why: The federal government did not come into existence in order to right every wrong. The feds are obliged to recognize our natural rights. When the government behaves with no self-recognized limitations, when its only restraint is whatever it can get away with, when it actively attacks rather than forcefully protects our natural rights, then, as Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, and as federal law still states, “it is the duty of the people to alter or abolish it.” The time to act is now! Start a discussion group wherever you are. Start with your best friends first. Realize they will need a lot of discussion before most of them will jump on board. Have you noticed all the Tea Parties lately? There was a big national Tea Party on April 15th and there will be another this coming July 4th, 2009.

We can’t afford the present Federal Government anymore. They have spent us into the poor house to get us into this mess and now they are going even deeper and deeper into debt. It turns out that spreading the wealth really meant taking more and more from us the people and giving it to AIG Insurance Company, CitiBank, Wells Fargo, Chrysler, General Motors and the list just goes on. I don’t know about you but I’m tired of paying car companies to overcharge me for any more cars. I don’t think rich executives should get bonuses paid for out of my pocket!

Email the link to this article to everyone you know and ask them to read it!

Review

Marijuana Medical Handbook is the only book written for people who have little or no experience with marijuana, but want an honest and informative account of its medical value, especially concerning symptoms related to cancer, AIDS/HIV, glaucoma, and many more ailments and illnesses.

Marijuana is an invaluable and safe medical resource when used properly. Now everyone can explore its healing powers with confidence as the Marijuana Medical Handbook answers such serious questions as: What is marijuana’s effect on the Body? What illnesses is is suitable for? How can you administer it safely? What are the real side effects? How can you guarantee a consistent supply? What are the legal consequences?

The Marijuana Medical Handbook provides a comprehensive profile of the properties, effects, dangers, and uses of marijuana, along with a step-by-step guide to maintaining your own personal garden. The Marijuana Medical Handbook is an important reference guide and a valuable contribution to today’s medical and political dialog affecting national and state laws and ordinances regarding marijuana and its medical applications. —

Midwest Book Review –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

An estimated 40 million Americans have medical symptoms that marijuana can relieve. Marijuana Medical Handbook is a one-stop resource that gives candid, objective advice on using marijuana for healing, understanding its effects on the body, safe administration, targeting illnesses, side effects, and the various delivery methods from edibles and tinctures to smokeless vaporizer pipes. The book also details supply issues, cultivation solutions (in a chapter by renowned expert Ed Rosenthal), and legal consequences. This thoroughly revised edition incorporates the most up-to-date information on the ever-changing politics of marijuana, the plant’s usage, and medical research on it.

Review

The information presented was clear, concise and easy to understand. –Jaye Keener

Product Description

The nicest produced video on the subject. Medical Marijuana Education created this “how to” video to walk someone step by step into growing at home like a pro. They talk to experts giving you the inside knowledge and secrets they use. You will see first-hand from professional, experienced growers how to control every aspect of the plant as it flowers. You will experience 3D walk through animations of creating a grow space and see how easy it is to instantly get started growing at home.

by D.L. Sletrab

God Said It Was Good

“There was one question that voted on that ranked fairly high and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation,” he said. “And I don’t know what this says about the online audience, but … this was a popular question. We want to make sure it’s answered. The answer is no, I don’t think that’s a good strategy to grow our economy. All right.” (Wink – Wink)

See the video. HuffingtonPost or is it the puffington post?

“Despite the president’s flippant comments today, the grievous harms of marijuana prohibition are no laughing matter. Certainly, the 800,000 people arrested last year on marijuana charges find nothing funny about it, nor do the millions of Americans struggling in this sluggish economy. It would be an enormous economic stimulus if we stopped wasting so much money arresting and locking people up for nonviolent drug offenses and instead brought in new tax revenue from legal sales, just as we did when ended alcohol prohibition 75 years ago during the Great Depression.”

More harm to American comes from getting arrested, by far, than enjoying one of God’s greatest Herbs. You think I am blaming God? No but I am giving Him credit. Consider the 3rd day of creation. I quote now from the Message Bible: The Message (MSG)

Passage Genesis 1:11:

^{11 -13} God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties
of seed-bearing plants,
Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.”
And there it was.
Earth produced green seed-bearing plants,
all varieties,
And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts.
God saw that it was good.
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Three.

Now, I will skip down to Day Six.

^{29 -30} Then God said, “I’ve given you
every sort of seed-bearing plant on Earth
And every kind of fruit-bearing tree,
given them to you for food.
To all animals and all birds,
everything that moves and breathes,
I give whatever grows out of the ground for food.”
And there it was.

³¹ God looked over everything he had made;
it was so good, so very good!
It was evening, it was morning—
Day Six.

So why does mankind make what God gave us as illegal? God said is was good!

Oh, I know, you think I just make this stuff up? Here is the link for yourself!

http://bibleresources.bible.com/passagesearchresults.php?passage1=Gen+1&passage2=&passage3=&passage4=&passage5=&version1=9&version2=65&version3=51&version4=48&version5=15&Submit.x=11&Submit.y=6

Have a mellow day!

Editorial Reviews
Review

Excellent photographic images give the reader a picture-perfect look at all the successful ways to grow great weed. A+ read. — Soma, Soma Seeds

Fun, informative, illustrative, hands-on and authoritative. Whether for approved medical use patients or prohibition pragmatists.

–Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director, NORML, Washington, DC, January 2006

I love the Bible–packed with authoritative and practical information on every aspect of cannabis. It is a compelling read!

— Jan Sennema, Dutch Cannabis Journalist, Soft Secrets/Highlife magazine

If you want to grow weed, this is the only book you need!

–David Bienenstock – Editor, High Times Magazine, January 11, 2006

In 1986 Jorge Cervantes had surpassed all other cultivation authors. Jorge proves again he remains far ahead of the pack.

— Steven Hager, Cannabis Cup Founder

Jorge Cervantes is an expert cultivator. His 512 full-color page “Medical Grower’s Bible” is a must-have for any ganja lover.

— Kaya Spring, Editor, Heads Magazine

Jorge tackles the subject of mariuana cultivation. No stone left unturned for those on the path to cannabis cultivation enlightenment.

— David Strange, Editor in Chief, Skunk magazine

Jorge’s Medical Grow Bible confidently explores the fundamentals of growing and provides insight into all facets of the garden environment.

— Breeder Steve, Spice of Life Seeds

Jorge’s Bible is truly a collector’s item: well-researched, well-written, quality knowledge that’ll definitely prove itself. A must-read for every grower!

– Cliff Cremer, International Editor, Soft Secrets magazine

Jorge’s Growers Bible is all a Bible should be. Weighty, comprehensive, beautiful. The world leader in books on the subject.

— Lyndon, Editor in Chief, CCNEWZ Magazine

The new Bible is without a doubt the best grow book on the market.

— Phil Kilv, Editor in Chief, Weed World Magazine, January 2006

The new Bible is without a doubt the best grow book on the market.

–Phil Kilv, Editor in Chief, Weed World Magazine, January 2006

World famous cannabis cultivator, Jorge Cervantes, strikes back with new edition of his green bible. This is a must read!

— Rob Tuinstra, Chief Editor, Highlife Magazine

Product Description

With 512 full color pages and 1120 full color photographs and illustrations, Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower’s Bible is the most complete cultivation book available.

The Fifth Edition of the former Indoor Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor Bible was originally published in 1983, when it immediately became a best seller. More than 500,000 copies of the Indoor Bible are in print in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. New greenhouse and outdoor growing chapters make this a book both indoor and outdoor growers will keep under thumb. The other 15 chapters (17 total) are all updated with the most current information, completely rewritten and significantly expanded.

For example, Dr. John McPartland contributed an all new medical section – The books credits list more than 300 contributors and reads like a who’s who in the world of cannabis cultivation.

Product Details

* Actors: Jorge Cervantes
* Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
* Language: English
* Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
* Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
* Number of discs: 1
* Rating: NR (Not Rated)
* Studio: High Times Prod
* DVD Release Date: August 29, 2006
* Run Time: 100 minutes

by Ronomundo

Stolen Money Was From Evidence Room

BIRMINGHAM, AL -  FARON EUGENE WHITE, 48, of Falkville, Alabama, and SARAH ELIZABETH RICHARDSON, 29, of Decatur, Alabama have been indicted in U.S. District Court in Birmingham.  WHITE was charged with theft from a program that receives federal funds and RICHARDSON was charged with Accessory after the fact.

At the time alleged in the indictment, WHITE was employed by the Decatur City police and RICHARDSON was a civilian volunteer in the Decatur drug unit.

“Theft of federal funds is a theft from taxpayers and will be prosecuted vigorously,” stated United States Attorney Alice H. Martin.

According to the Indictment, between August, 2007 to January, 2009,  WHITE stole in excess of $5,000 under the control of the Decatur City Police Department.

RICHARDSON, knowing that an offense had been committed, assisted  WHITE in order to hinder and prevent apprehension.

If convicted, WHITE faces a maximum penalty of up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.  RICHARDSON faces a maximum penalty of up to 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $125,000 for accessory after the fact.

The case was investigated by agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Integrity and Government Task Force.  Assistant United States Attorney David H. Estes is prosecuting the matter on behalf of the United States.

Members of the public are reminded that an indictment contains only charges. A defendant is presumed innocent of the charges and it will be the government’s burden to prove a defendant’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

White and Richardson also face state charges in connection with the theft of siezed drug money from a safe in White’s office.

White was the supervisor of the department’s Organized Crime Unit and Richardson was a volunteer worker in the office, and also had a romantic relationship with White, police said.

White and Richardson are accused of faking a physical altercation in White’s office to cover up the theft and for White to flee to Las Vegas.

In another story, the DEA is being legally attacked for being less than just in the classification of Marijuana.

by Ronomundo

US Attorney General Says; End of an Era?

This is a major change for folks in certain states.  More states will feel pressure to pass laws the mimic legislation in states that will not be actively persued.

US Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department will no longer raid medical marijuana dispensaries in states where they are legal under state law. The announcement marks the fulfillment of a President Obama “campaign promise“, and it marks the end of 13 years of stubborn federal resistance to state medical marijuana programs.

DEA raids of medical marijuana facilities in California continued after Obama’s election in November and even after his inauguration last month. Holder was asked if those raids represented Justice Department policy under the new administration.

“Shortly after the inauguration there were raids on California medical marijuana dispensaries. Do you expect these to continue?” the reporter asked, noting that the president had promised to end the raids in the campaign.

“No,” Holder responded. “What the president said during the campaign, you’ll be surprised to know, will be consistent with what we’ll be doing in law enforcement. He was my boss during the campaign. He is formally and technically and by law my boss now. What he said during the campaign is now American policy.” (See the video below.)

Nearly 75 million Americans live in the 13 states where medical marijuana is legal. But because of the federal government’s refusal to recognize state medical marijuana laws, dozens of dispensaries in California have been raided by the DEA, typically in over-the-top paramilitary-style operations. More than a hundred people are facing prosecution, sentencing, or are already imprisoned under draconian federal marijuana laws because of their roles in operating dispensaries.

“There has been a lot of collateral damage in the federal campaign against medical marijuana patients,” said Steph Sherer, medical marijuana patient and executive director of “Americans for Safe Access” (ASA), the nation’s largest medical cannabis advocacy organization. “We need to stop the prosecutions, bring the prisoners home, and begin working to eliminate the conflict between state and federal medical marijuana laws.”

At an ASA press conference hastily called for Thursday afternoon, Sherer elaborated. “I’m overjoyed to finally hold a press conference with some great news,” she said. “Today is a victory and a huge step forward in what has been at times a cruel and tragic period. My outrage over the raids was shared by millions of Americans, and now our collective voice has been heard in Washington. We look forward to working with the Obama administration to harmonize the conflicts with state laws once and for all.”

But for some patients and dispensary operators, the damage has already been done. Larry Epstein operates a legal medical cannabis dispensing collective in Marina Del Rey, California, that was raided by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on February 4, despite President Obama’s statements on the campaign trail indicating a change in federal policy.

“We had been operating as a legitimate cooperative dispensary per California law for a number of years,” said Epstein. “But the DEA came in here as if we were operating an illegal drug cartel. They stole all our property, all our product, and froze our bank accounts. Now, we can’t pay our taxes; that’s part of what they stole. It’s devastating when they do those types of actions, never mind the hundreds of patients who rely on our facility to get their medicine.”

Heather Poet operates a medical cannabis dispensing collective in Santa Barbara, California. The Justice Department has pressured her landlord to evict the collective using threats of prosecution and civil asset forfeiture. Her case prompted US Representative Lois Capps (D-CA) to ask Attorney General Holder to stop any and all prosecutions of property owners in a February 16 letter.

“Our landlord has twice been threatened by the US Attorney for the Central District of California, most recently just last month,” Poet said. “If he did not initiate the termination of our lease for the ‘illegal use’ of his property — we were operating legally under California law — they would begin forfeiture proceedings against his property. That’s when I contacted Rep. Capps. Within a week, she had contacted ASA and begun working on that letter. We are so grateful and proud of her for working so quickly to protect our rights and those of our patients. This has been a real travesty for so many sick people in California who have had to worry. Now, thousands of people will be able to breathe easier.”

One person who isn’t breathing easier just yet is “Charles C. Lynch“, a Morro Bay dispensary operator arrested and convicted on federal marijuana distribution charges. Lynch faces the dubious distinction of being perhaps the last person sent to prison under the federal war against medical marijuana; he faces at least a five-year mandatory minimum sentence when he is sentenced March 23.

“I became a medical marijuana patient in 2005 and decided we needed a dispensary here in the San Luis Obispo area so patients didn’t have to drive 90 miles to Santa Barbara,” Lynch explained. “Before I opened the dispensary, I called the DEA and asked them their policy. They told me it was up to the cities and towns, so I got a business license from the city of Morro Bay, and opened up on April 1, 2006. The mayor, the city attorney, and council members all came by to visit the facility. We even joined the Morro Bay Chamber of Commerce. I did everything I thought was necessary to run a legitimate business.”

But thanks to a recalcitrant local sheriff who, lacking any basis under state law to go after the dispensary, sicced the DEA on it, Lynch’s dispensary was raided. “In March 2007, they raided me, took all my money and froze my bank account. They made it sound like I was selling drugs to children in the schoolyard. The city of Morro Bay reissued my business license — the DEA had stolen it, too — and I reopened for business. Two weeks later, the DEA threatened my landlord with forfeiture unless he evicted us for good, so on March 16, 2007, the dispensary closed for good.”

That has been sufficient to slake the fed’s thirst for vengeance in many dispensary raids: Trash the premises, steal the money and property, and drive the business out of existence. But in other cases, federal prosecutors wanted an extra pound of flesh and actually prosecuted dispensary operators. Charles Lynch falls into that unfortunate latter category.

“On July 17, 2007, I woke up to federal agents banging down my door with an arrest warrant for federal marijuana distribution charges,” Lynch related. “I had a spotless record, but I had to post a $400,000 bond to get out of federal detention. The DEA and the sheriff did everything in their power to defame me, destroy me, and destroy my life. Now, I have been found guilty on five counts of distribution and await sentencing. I’m filing for bankruptcy, my friends are scared to talk to me because the feds are breathing down my neck. They’ve destroyed my life.”

Clearly, Attorney General Holder’s announcement Wednesday is a major breakthrough for the medical marijuana movement. Just as clearly, there are still messes to clean up and injustices to be righted. It is only when there is no one remaining in or threatened with federal prison for helping sick patients that the medical marijuana movement will have achieved real justice.

by Ronomundo

How Do You Tell The Bad Guys From The Good Guys?

(LAREDO, Texas) – Former United States Border Patrol agent Leonel Morales, 30, of Zapata County, has pleaded guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for escorting a narcotics load, acting United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced today.

Morales entered a plea of guilty to committing bribery before United States Magistrate Judge Scott Hacker this afternoon. Morales admitted that while working as a Border Patrol agent between June 2008 and Aug. 28, 2008, he accepted $9,000 in cash to ensure the safe passage of a 20-kilogram load of cocaine through Zapata County, Texas.

Morales was indicted in June 2008. During today’s hearing the United States informed the court its evidence at a trial would have included audio and video recordings of Morales planning, negotiating and coordinating the safe passage of the narcotics through Zapata County, as well his receiving the bribe payments.

A bribery conviction carries a maximum penalty of 15 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $250,000 or not more than three times the monetary equivalent of the bribe, whichever is greater. Sentencing is scheduled before United States District Judge Micaela Alvarez in Laredo on March 18, 2009, at 2:00 p.m. Morales has been and will remain in federal custody without bond pending sentencing.

Morales’ employment by the United States Border Patrol was terminated following his arrest.

The investigation leading to the charges was conducted by agents of the Laredo and McAllen Offices of the FBI, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Internal Affairs, the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General, U.S. Border Patrol and the Drug Enforcement Administration and is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael Wright of the Public Corruption Section.

by Ronomundo

…is Not a Schedule 1 Drug 

The “DEA” has rejected yet another “petition” seeking to remove marijuana from “Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act” (CSA), by marijuana reformer Carl Olsen, who lives in Iowa. He has been at war with the DEA to take marijuana off the Schedule I Drug List. The legal paperwork war has been going on since 1972.

But Olsen says the rejection by the DEA is only the opening phase of this particular battle, not the end of the line. And while Olsen heads to federal court to challenge the DEA ruling, another petition to reschedule marijuana is still in process, as it has been for the past six years.

Richard Nixon was just beginning his second term in office when the “National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws” (NORML) filed the first rescheduling petition. It took 22 years and numerous court challenges before the DEA finally rejected that petition.

In the meantime, the DEA has made some changes by rescheduling marijuana’s primary psychoactive ingredient, THC, as a Schedule II drug in 1985 and then loosened controls over “THC” even further by rescheduling it to Schedule III in 1999. That allows doctors to prescribe Marinol, but not marijuana.

Carl has worked diligently to get the government to see things as they really are. Another rescheduling

petition, filed by Olsen in 1992, was rejected years later, as was a 1995 petition submitted by former NORML head, researcher, and professor of public policy Jon Gettman. In 2002, Gettman, in association with a long list of supporters, submitted yet another “Cannabis Rescheduling Petition,” which remains pending. 

Under the Controlled Substances Act, he argues, substances must meet several criteria to be placed in Schedule I, the most restrictive schedule.

• The substance must have a high potential for abuse
• It must have “no currently accepted medical use” in the US
• There must be a lack of accepted safety for use of the substance

The Carl Olsen petition that was rejected last month and another pending petition by Gettman argue that marijuana no longer qualifies to be placed in Schedule I because it DOES have “currently accepted medical use” in the US. He cites in particular, the ever-growing number of states that have legalized its medicinal use.

The two petitions differ in the way they seek to remedy the situation, and it is this difference that accounts for the vastly different pace at which they have been handled by the DEA.

For the rest of this article click here.