Behind 'The War on Weed': Christof Putzel's painful pot epiphany

[Uncle Joe]

http://current.com/shows/vanguard/blog/93558776_behind-the-war-on-weed-christof-putzels-painful-pot-epiphany.htm

(snip)

A month later, I was back in the field, running through woods outside Moscow to report on a guerilla training program for Neo-Nazi skinheads. My back began hurting again on the flight home, and after seeing 11 doctors, I was back in the hospital, unable to walk and with no diagnosis of what had gone wrong. The physicians pumped me full of pain meds, muscle relaxers and anti-inflammatories, but nothing helped.

(snip)

I lay in bed, almost paralyzed, but the slightest movement -- sometimes even just taking a breath -- triggered another body-twisting spasm. They seemed to be coming more often. Friends and co-workers came to visit and tried to help, but all I could think of was how I could possibly get to my wedding, now only days away. The medications numbed my mind somewhat but did nothing for the furious pain in my back or the wrenching spasms.

When a brave new co-worker stopped in, he offered me a carrot cake laced with medical marijuana. I was desperate but skeptical. He had a prescription for the stuff under California’s medical marijuana law, but I hadn’t smoked a joint since college, and my days of attending Phish concerts were long over. I had heard that medical marijuana helped people with glaucoma and reduced nausea in chemotherapy patients, but I was far from marching in a legalization parade. I cautiously ate a piece of the carrot cake and lay back, trying to relax my back enough to ward off the next awful attack. A few minutes later, I giggled, and it didn’t hurt. Within hours, I was sitting up in bed, higher than I’d ever been but also more relaxed than I’d been in two weeks.

(snip)

But in New York City under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a crackdown has racked up more marijuana arrests than the three previous administrations combined. Although possession in New York is a minor crime akin to jaywalking, marijuana is the city’s leading cause of arrest, and taxpayers bear about $100 million a year in costs of running the anti-grass campaign. Many residents of the city don’t even know it’s happening because the crackdown focuses on minority neighborhoods, and 90 percent of those arrested are black or Hispanic.

Much more on link.

[Blue Owl]

1. Bloomberg's IGNORANCE-BASED policy

Shove it where the sun don't shine, mayor.

[dtexdem]

2. No, politician's ideology-based policies.

I don't think they're really ignorant of the facts. Some do reject them on ideological grounds; others don't care about the facts but push the policies on political grounds to play to RW ideology.

[Uncle Joe]

3. I agree, there just can't be that many ignorant people in positions of power.

When a senior adviser in the Bush Maladministration in regards to a question about Bush not being in touch with reality stated "We create our own reality" I don't believe that mindset began nor ended with them.

In regards to cannabis, the corporate powers that be and their puppets have been creating their own reality since the 1930's era "Reefer Madness" propaganda vomit and they have been doing so in spite of the facts to the contrary or damage to the American People.

I do believe they're dying out either literally or politically but that day can't come soon enough, too many lives have been ruined, to much blood shed and too much treasure wasted because of their dysfunctional, draconian, greed based policies.

[Aerows]

4. The war on Marijuana has always come down to money

It's useful, can be grown easily, and can replace much more expensive drugs for ill people. Pharma doesn't like that. They can lock up non-violent people for possession, which keeps the prison system profitable, since non-violent prisoners that were arrested for possession are capable of working in most cases, and require minimum security.

Tying it all together, there is a healthy black market for marijuana.

And let me point this out - I don't even smoke pot and I know this. When going after sick people using any method they possibly can to improve their condition and quality of life is a priority, priorities are screwed up. If there are ten people abusing the MMJ system, but one person benefits, it's completely worth it in my opinion, because that's one person that is suffering less from illness.

If somebody doesn't understand that, they have no compassion and are more worried about tending to other people's business than is healthy or they are pro-authority at any cost.

[Uncle Joe]

6. I agree but I would also combine the greed motivation with the lust for power motivation.

I believe a prime prong of our draconian drug policies are based on disenfranchising and estranging the American People from their government via criminalization, for profit prisons complement this strategy as well as a means to further political power.

Turning what should be an educational, medical and personal privacy issue into a criminal one, only serves to cement the corporate supremacists hold over the people; as their civil rights are continually eroded and by extension "We the People's" government is weakened as its' separated from an increasingly estranged citizenry, thus furthering corporate supremacy; allowing this malignancy to metastasize into the power vacuum.

[RainDog]

5. k&r

thanks for the thread, Uncle Joe :)

I look forward to seeing this program. There are SO MANY stories of people who have benefited from cannabis use for health issues. It's simply wrong for these people to have to fear the criminal justice system.

[Uncle Joe]

8. Thanks for the thanks, Raindog.

Peace to you, :hi:

[RainDog]

9. I went to Current tv to see about the program

and, apparently, it goes into the stop and frisk actions that are ongoing in NYC (and Chicago, as a recent report from that city indicated) that target minorities and result in arrests for simple possession.

Bloomberg is really wasting taxpayer dollars by doing this.

I am so disgusted with the current political climate in this nation among the powers-that-be.

[Uncle Joe]

10. It's tragic how far away they've gotten away from respecting the Fourth Amendment

to the U.S. Constitution.

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

[RainDog]

11. Yes. The War on Drugs has been a war on constitutional protections

And has, in effect, overturned the fourth amendment - not only in the stop and frisk actions, but with home invasion.

Police have also been planting cannabis on people to be able to justify harassment - and the recent report on using cannabis arrests to make police dept. stats look good, while avoiding more complicated police investigations of real crimes should make anyone question the validity of current law.

[Huey P. Long]

7. kr