Stoned Mountain's Blog Bhang

http://www.physorg.com/news237124153.html

I would like to thank all those who read my blogs. As you all know, this web site is dedicated to the decriminalization of marijuana. To do so, I invite you to visit and purchase our “headshop“. 10% of all purchases are donated to NORML or what ever organization you specify.

Also, if you have a request for something on a t-shirt, cup or what have you, please let me know. Make sure though, that we can comply with copyright law. |-)  Thank you for your wonderful support!

How to See Reality On Drugs is an excellent scientifically based argument about the politics of drug criminalization. After you read it, please feel free to comment here on Stoned Mountain’s Blog Bhang!

My wife was robbed in broad daylight at a gas station. On her way to the Atlanta Federal Building to change her name on her social security card, my wife stopped for gas in Hampton, Georgia. Being a Philippine citizen, she had her green card, passport, and other I.D. in her purse. It was late morning and the gas station was filled with customers. Casually, she left her purse on the floor between the driver and passenger seat.

According to witnesses, moments after she locked the doors and walked away from the van, a car crawled very close to the passenger side of the van. The occupants broke the window and took her purse. Despite the myriad of witnesses, the thieves got away clean. A description of the vehicle and a partial plate was taken and given to the police. Though a police report was filed, the officers told my wife that there was nothing they could do. They claimed they did not have the manpower or budget to go after the criminals.

Less than a week later, when we received the police report in the mail, we discovered a couple errors. When we called the police station, we were told we had to correct the errors in person. The next day, we drove to the Clayton County Police Department.

As soon as we walked in with our three-year-old son, the officer behind the bulletproof glass window immediately treated us as if we were the criminals, asking rudely, “What are you doing here?” My wife, being intimidated did not answer right away, which apparently angered the cop. Again he asked more loudly, “What are you doing here?” I answered politely, “There’s an error on my wife’s police report and we were told to come in person to correct it.”

The officer argued with us and claimed that they never make errors. We explained to him that Homeland Security and the Social Security Office required the information be corrected, but this merely infuriated the officer. After spending 15 minutes with a very aggressive and argumentative cop, we left and never did get the report fixed. We were fortunate that our insurance company and Homeland Security were sympathetic enough to let the errors pass.

It’s obvious that the drug war is much more important to the police nowadays than real criminals. According to 11 Alive News in Atlanta, after a drug bust in Clayton County in 2007, the sheriff, Victor Hill said, “In Clayton County, we’re gonna have road checks every day,” said Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill. “There’s gonna be drug interdiction every day. Criminals are now gonna have to ride through Clayton County at their own risk.” Sheriff Hill pre-judges those who choose to alter their consciousness as “criminals”… not the thieves, rapists, and murderers. Apparently, property and violent criminals are not a top priority with Clayton County, Georgia. Interestingly, this seems to be a pattern for most counties in the U.S.

Here, I will use Clayton County as a microcosm for what plagues our United States. Consider all the cities and counties in this country and ask yourself how many tax dollars are spent toward the Drug War.

Even though larceny and violent crimes are alarmingly high in Clayton County, the cops still pursue the drug war as the more serious crime in their county. If only the police pursued physical and financial crimes with half the vigor they do drug users, Clayton County might be a better community to raise children. 

 Interestingly, I cannot find specific drug arrests for Clayton County, however, cited are arrest statistics for the state of Georgia. This should allow us to extrapolate the number of drug users in the county. Also interesting is that the total number of property crimes in Clayton County is well over 3000 more than the state’s total records. This can be accounted for by assuming Clayton County prosecutes property crime under local jurisdiction and is not recorded under state statistics, or that Clayton County is recording raw arrests and not prosecution while the state statistics are of those prosecuted and serving a sentence. It may also be a combination of the two.

Regardless of how the numbers are tallied, it is obvious that Clayton County has more than enough on their plate handling property crimes, let alone violent crimes. It seem quite amazing that they would show any interest in drug “crimes”, unless they mingled with violent or property crimes (which in most cases they do not).

The D.E.A. says this about Georgia, “Marijuana, the most commonly abused drug in Georgia, is readily available throughout the state.” Despite the fact that cocaine arrests are almost 200 times that of marijuana arrests! The use of the word, “abused” is interesting as well because it infers that everyone who is caught with a joint is “abusing” marijuana. To the D.E.A., there are no casual or occasional users. Even if I concede that half of those arrested for marijuana are abusing it, this does not give credence to the number of dollars that are spent attempting to eradicate marijuana use. Let’s look at some numbers.

According to ‘The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition’ by Jeffrey A. Miron of the Department of Economics, Harvard University, Georgia spends more than 300 million dollars on marijuana prohibition alone. That’s not including any other drug. Law enforcement spends a large chunk of that money on ‘search and destroy’ missions to eradicate marijuana plants. With 1181 marijuana related arrests, many of which are for possession and small distribution, and 50,447 plants eradicated, $300 million seems an enormous amount of money for a plant that’s been growing for at least tens of millions of years. That’s nearly $6,000 for each marijuana plant and arrest.

So back to Clayton County… what you have is an enormous budget for busting a few people who like to toke after work or school. Imagine using that money to investigate and arrest property and violent criminals. Maybe Clayton County would become a much better and safer place to raise a family. A better use of that money could go into their failed school system! Instead of trying to find a few potheads in the classrooms, they can invest that money into real education and educational tools. But this may be more than a corrupt county can handle.

In conclusion, it is obvious the Drug War is failed and worse, bloated. Not only does it cost we taxpayers an enormous amount of our hard-earned money,  but more importantly, it utterly violates our individual liberty to do what we want to our own bodies. As I mentioned above, The Drug War allows real criminals to go free and it derails our educational system, forcing our children into a poor economy. The Drug War also distracts from other more important infrastructure in our society, such as roads, bridges, plumbing, electrical grid and many others. Change is coming but it’s frustratingly slow. I urge all of you who read this blog to do what you can to spread the word and take action! We can no longer afford the Drug War and it’s not fair to leave our kids with this massive debt and deteriorating society.

TIME TO ACTIVATE!!!

Offenders, by Most Serious Offense, Selected Drug Offenses, Georgia, Sept. 2009

Number of Marijuana Plants Eradicated and Seized, Georgia, 2008

Federal Sentencing Statistics, Drug Cases, Georgia, FY 2008

State-level Expenditures Attributable to Drug Prohibition, Thousands of 2008 Dollars
The Budgetary Implications of Drug Prohibition 

Two articles in USA Today made my heart jump; “Obama to detail health care vision” and “A consumer-focused agency: Protection or just red tape”.

The first article has a nice list of things government wants for healthcare changes. One of the things in the list is to “REQUIRE ALL U.S. residents to buy insurance OR face a fine up to $3,800 per family” (emphasis mine). What happened to my choice to not have health insurance for my family? My wife and I made a financial decision to forgo insurance and do cash only. Even with my wife delivering a baby with all the follow-up pediatric visits, we’ve saved nearly $2000 this year. Cash only is our choice because we went out to do the legwork of how much physicians and services cost. Now the government wants to take that choice away and force us into buying insurance or pay a $3800 fine. What kind of choice is that?! Is this really healthcare reform? Again, government wants to put a gun to our heads so insurance companies and government cronies can profit from this sector of what’s supposed to be a free market. Isn’t it MY choice and decision between the doctor and my family whether to pay her cash? The government now wants to decide what option is best for my family.

The second article is about a woman, among others, being over charged by the credit card company. People are paying off their cards but a few companies are still sending them bills for surcharges and other service fees. But because these few companies were turned into national banks, states no longer have the legal clout to defend their clients. President Obama’s solution? He wants to create an independent agency to police the financial market place! WHAT???? Isn’t that what the SEC and FBI are for? He wants to create a whole new bureaucracy just to police what should already be policed by other agencies…. and again, at taxpayer expense!

Where does it end? At what point do we say, “That’s enough”? But congress, senate and the administration only want more and more government involvement so they can sit on their lazy asses and collect kickbacks or profit directly from those they supposedly serve. The government is OUR servant, not the other way around. But they want to punish innocent people for making everyday decisions via taxes, fines and criminal prosecution. This has got to stop!

I’m rather disappointed in Obama’s decision to push forward more draconian fodder in support of the Drug War. He straight out lied to us during the campaign about how he was going to ease off States’ rights to legalize medical marijuana. In doing so, he lied about putting science before politics. Didn’t the people who voted for him do so at least in part because of those two necessary principles we hold dear?

I think it’s really time to make a change. Dozens of years wasted going back and forth between Democrats and Republicans. It’s finally time to vote 3rd party. If you know me at all, you probably know I’m a libertarian… however, ultimately, party lines have always been a bit blurry for me. I don’t care what people believe in politically, but I think we can ALL agree that corruption is our greatest rival. The Democrats and Republicans have both failed us miserably and equally. Not because of basic party principles but because they refuse to listen to We The People. As they argue back and forth over legislation we know helps no one, they gain power because they know most people will just vote for one of them. It really doesn’t matter any more if senators and congress people are one or the other party. They know the lever has only been swinging two ways for the last hundred years.

It’s time to stop! We shouldn’t have to beat ourselves over the head this many times to get that the powerful only stay powerful because we keep voting for them. We shouldn’t argue over which third party ‘wins out’ over the other by using the old excuses of “giving the vote to this or that democrat or republican”. If each person just voted for their choice of 3rd party electees, the numbers would minimally shock the system. But it shouldn’t be just one election… it needs to be over the next few decades. The two-party system is failed. Our forefathers predicted this over 200 years ago. Let’s not disappoint them!

“Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.” – Mark Twain

Comments, peaceful arguments and constructive critizisms are indeed welcome here.

It is rare that I am moved to read a book about finances. Fortunately, Alan Greenspan is both articulate and an interesting writer. The best thing about this book is that it is excellent evidence against central planning. Greenspan is brilliant, and suprisingly, also an advocate for the free market. Of all the people who have chaired the Federal Reserve, we ought to be lucky that he did. Why? Because, as a libertarian Republican, he did what ever he could to keep the Federal Reserve in check. It even blind-sided me that he claims to be against fiat money.

Granted, there are about two chapters in the book where I literally fell asleep. Mainly because they were mostly numbers and fiscal jargon that I am unable (well, unwilling is more accurate) to understand. But regardless, he shows adequate if not superior evidence that the free market works better and more efficient than centrally planned economies. “Age of Turbulence” also shows that our fiat money system is ill-conceived. We screwed ourselves when we moved from the gold standard to the printing press. Greenspan says he is not tied necessarily to a “gold” standard, but there must be some solid commodity that our money should be based. This from a former chairman of the Fed!

Greenspan is a wonderful writer and an excellent political scientist – and I use the word ‘scientist’ sparingly. He truly understands our economy better than most and has the ability to compare and contrast the American economy with centrally planned economies with great efficacy. It should be on every American’s nightstand.

Hell yes! All I hear about today are bailouts for the economy… basically, spend, spend spend… our hard-earned dollars. Government is notorious for not knowing how to spend that money! But we can slash BILLIONS of dollars from the budget by just ending the drug war! Talk about revitalizing the economy! First, we would save the billions we dump into the drug war itself. No more costly prison sentences for the poor bastards caught with a joint cause they have cancer… or the ones who toke responsibly for enjoyment. Second, the ridiculous amounts spent on destroying harmless, innocent plants just because a bunch of idiots don’t like the effect of it when smoked.

And how about all those gung-ho cops being paid to bust the little old lady or the college students? Maybe their time would be better spent catching the real criminals, like thieves, rapists and murderers. Just ending the drug war could save BILLIONS! If that’s not enough, then let’s take it to the next level and actually legally profit from the marijuana plant! Yes, coffee shops and head shops would thrive – albeit, with a reasonable age limit like alcohol. But that’s not all; how about the textile industry, fuel industry, paper and countless other uses for such an abundant and prolific plant? Fortunately, some of California’s legislature has the balls to go against our federal government.

Recently, a bill has been proposed to actually legalize marijuana in California. For the full article, read California NORML Report. One point two BILLION dollars per year for ONE state! Can you imagine if that was on a national level? That would be nearly 50 BILLION dollars per year that can be taxed (though I’m naturally against taxes) to create rehab facilities for serious addictions. The time is ripe and all we have to do is pull the fruit. Are you with me America? Click here to begin!