December 20, 2009 -- Farm Wars (US) Fighting to Save the Family Farm! Marijuana -- Reefer Madness or Cure-all? By Barbara H. Peterson

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Original: http://farmwars.info/?p=2072

Controversy surrounding the use of marijuana, whether it is for recreational or medical purposes, is heating up.

The first state to legalize marijuana for medical purposes, California leads the country in decriminalizing the sale and use of cannabis. Other states are considering the issue Now, a new initiative that will allow local governments to oversee and regulate cultivation, distribution, and sales -- and to determine how and how much cannabis can be bought and sold within area limits -- will be on the November 2010 ballot. National advocates say that regardless of the vote -- signature gathering went fast and easy, according to reports -- a major corner has been turned in national acceptance of marijuana use. (CSMonitor)

The real question is, why should a harmless plant that anyone can grow at home elicit such controversy. Why does the government care? Why criminalize it in the first place, and then keep it under control by regulating it after determining that people are going to use it anyway? The answer might lie here:

The pharmacological actions of THC result from its binding to the cannabinoid receptor CB1, located mainly in the central nervous system, and the CB2 receptor, mainly present in cells of the immune system. It acts as a partial agonist on both receptors, i.e., it activates them but not to their full extent. The psychoactive effects of THC are mediated by its activation of the CB1 receptor, which is the most abundant G protein-coupled receptor in the brain. (Wikipedia)

In other words, THC, which is the active chemical of the marijuana plant, boosts the immune system.

The War on Drugs

Why would the United States government conduct an active campaign spanning years and wasting billions of dollars on declaring war on a beneficial plant?

Maybe the answer lies in the fact that it is not in Corp USA's best interests to have a healthy population that thumbs its nose at the medical/pharmaceutical establishment, and takes its health care to the home by using what nature provides without a dollar sign attached. And what better way to discourage this natural health solution than to demonize it and the people who use it.

Could it be that this is why marijuana was placed in the same classification as heroin, opium, methamphetamine, cocaine, etc., under the Federal Bureau of Narcotics' jurisdiction, which is a part of the Treasury Department?

People around the world have been smoking marijuana for thousands of years while also using the hemp plant for everything from fabric and rope to ethanol fuel. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way, a man with a bit of power and enough determination decided pot was wicked, evil and narcotic. He moved mountains to make it illegal worldwide. In the U.S., the struggle continues to this day to overcome the lies and misconceptions about marijuana that the government spent billions to spread. (Brainz)

Corp USA has determined that you are nothing more than a consumer, destined to live and die for the state. If you don't pay the medical establishment for its treatments and pharmaceuticals, and find something natural that is good for you, and without harmful side effects, you become an enemy of the state along with your cure because the state cannot make enough money off of you. Cure yourself and get criminalized by the Treasure Department because you didn't pay your "pharmaceutical bill" determined by the state that you should owe for your lifetime.

Truth or Consequences

It is amazing how easily people can be manipulated by government-sponsored propaganda because they trust their government not to lie to them. It is time to wake up to the fact that our corporate government is in the business of lying to us and using whatever tactics it feels necessary to manipulate and achieve total control over we the people and the choices we are allowed to make.

What better way to steer the people away from natural health care to pharmaceutical addiction under the control of the medical establishment and for-profit drug companies than to demonize a natural substance that can be grown at home for free. We are living a lie created by Corp USA, using the mainstream media and entertainment industry for propaganda dissemination.

So, what is the truth? The truth is "there are hundreds of alcohol overdose deaths each year, yet there has never been a marijuana overdose death in history". In fact, marijuana is less dangerous than nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine.

There is also evidence that the THC found in marijuana is able to cure diseases such as cancer.

After a serious head injury in 1997, Rick Simpson sought relief from his medical condition through the use of medicinal hemp oil. When Rick discovered that the hemp oil (with its high concentration of T.H.C.) cured cancers and other illnesses, he tried to share it with as many people as he could free of charge. When the story went public, the long arm of the law snatched the medicine -- leaving potentially thousands of people without their cancer treatments -- and leaving Rick with unconstitutional charges of possessing and trafficking marijuana! (Cannabisni)

For those who would like to try Rick Simpson's cancer treatment, and whose governments have not criminalized hemp or marijuana cultivation, there are instructions for making your own medicinal hemp oil, as well as some good tips.

Founding Fathers' Endorsement

There must have been a reason for George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and John Adams to have endorsed the cultivation of hemp, or marijuana, for personal use:

The founding fathers of this nation George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were both promoters of hemp, as noted in their farm diaries as hemp farmers. Washington's farm diary spoke about the quality of seeds, always taking care to sow seeds in best areas on his farm. He also documented the importance of cultivating seeds at the proper time taking care to pull the male plants from the females. In 1790's he began cultivating "Indian Hemp" which he said produced the best quality of plant, and noted its superior quality to common hemp mostly grown during that time. Both Washington and Thomas Jefferson disliked tobacco, and on occasion they would exchange gifts of hemp smoking mixtures.

"Make the most you can of the Indian Hemp seed and sow it everywhere." -- George Washington, U.S. President

"We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption." -- John Adams, U.S. President

At this point, it will be useful to delineate the difference between hemp and marijuana. Were the founding fathers actually talking about marijuana, or industrial hemp? The difference between hemp and marijuana is the level of THC. The term has been and still is used interchangeably, but technically the difference is that what is termed industrial hemp today does not contain enough THC to be useful. What we now call marijuana is hemp with a high THC level. It is like the difference between sweet corn and field corn. Both are corn, but the variety is different.

Botanically, the genus Cannabis is composed of several variants. Although there has been a long-standing debate among taxonomists about how to classify these variants into species, applied plant breeders generally embrace a biochemical method to classify variants along utilitarian lines. Cannabis is the only plant genus that contains the unique class of molecular compounds called cannabinoids. Many cannabinoids have been identified, but two preponderate: THC, which is the psychoactive ingredient of Cannabis, and CBD, which is an antipsychoactive ingredient. One type of Cannabis is high in the psychoactive cannabinoid, THC, and low in the antipsychoactive cannabinoid, CBD. This type is popularly known as marijuana. Another type is high in CBD and low in THC. Variants of this type are called industrial hemp. (NAIHC)

Industrial hemp is not smoked. Therefore, decide for yourself if George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were talking about industrial hemp or what is now known as marijuana when they exchanged gifts of hemp smoking mixtures.

The Crux of the Matter

Whether for recreational or medical use for curing disease by boosting the immune system, marijuana seems to be the axis of a crucial turning point regarding how we the people start taking back personal responsibility for our health and welfare by wresting it away from the pharmaceutical industry and Corp USA. After all, if we learn that we can use nature's own remedies to cure ourselves, what profit is there left for the drug companies? And that is the bottom line, isn't it. PROFIT. Profit at the expense of a nation's health and well-being.

You decide. Don't let Corp USA decide for you. Either believe the lie that marijuana is a "killer weed" that will drive people insane as the government propagandists have spent billions of dollars fomenting, or the truth that marijuana just might be an extremely beneficial plant designed as nature's way to increase immunity against disease, which stands as such an alarming threat to the pharmaceutical industry that Corp USA has spent billions of dollars making sure that the American public does not get its hands on it.

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