Pubdate: Thu, 15 Aug 2013
Source: Brighton Independent (CN ON)
Copyright: 2013 Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Contact:  http://www.insidebelleville.com/brighton-on/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1596
Author: Alan Coxwell

IF GOD MADE IT, IT HAS TO BE GOOD

Sometimes when Jehovah's Witnesses knock on my front door I politely 
take time to talk with them. From different witnesses I have learned 
that drinking alcoholic beverages is okay within their belief system 
but drunkenness is frowned upon. When I ask them what they think of 
using marijuana they simply say it is illegal and they have been told 
it is bad stuff. When I ask them if they also believe God created 
everything in Heaven and on Earth they say the Bible told them so. 
Continuing with my logic I point out that according to their beliefs 
God must therefore have designed and built the cannabis plant. Then I 
ask them why they think God put the cannabis plant on His Earth.

I usually get a perplexed look in return. So, I continue with my 
questioning by asking if they think their God made different strains 
of the hemp plant to provide humanity with a plant capable of 
creating materials for clothing, paper, building materials, fuel from 
both pressing of its seeds and distilling ethanol from its stocks, a 
host of medicines for the ill, the highest protein seeds (next to 
soybeans) for our food, resins from which we can make plastics, 
paints, etc. etc. The list could go on, but they get the picture. To 
bolster this list I add this plant is the only plant I know of which 
will grow in all climates anywhere around God's planet and perhaps 
most encouraging of all we do not need to spray hemp with pesticides 
or herbicides and it thrives on even the most marginal of soils with 
nowhere near the fertilizer needed to grow corn. It actually fixes 
nitrogen into the soil as it grows and so makes a great rotational 
crop. If used for paper-making it takes huge am! ounts of carbon 
dioxide out of the air in its four-month growing season and could 
stop humans from cutting down all of the forests God clothed his 
planet with in the Beginning.

Or, did their God create this plant so some politically powerful men 
could build prisons and throw young people into little cages for many 
years because they grew a few of these amazing plants? Did their God 
create this situation so that corrupt officials and gangsters could 
become fabulously wealthy because of prohibition? Perhaps God was 
creating police, prison guard, lawyer and judge jobs by locking up 
over one million Americans for possessing this plant? Despite the 
obscenely high ratio of African American and Hispanic pot possessors 
in the vast U.S. prison system I did not bother asking if they 
thought their God was racist in any way.

But, back to Canada ... recently Justin Trudeau had the political 
courage to publicly call for the legalization of cannabis in Canada. 
He made his public statements in British Columbia where, just across 
the border in Washington State, along with Colorado, enlightened 
Americans have legalized cannabis already. Justin's Liberals would 
legalize, regulate and tax cannabis.

Money would flow to taxpayers instead of organized crime. Our kids 
would be safer as the dealers on the street would disappear, along 
with the meth, cocaine and heroin they offer to kids who come looking 
for a bit of pot.

And then we have the Harper Government approach to cannabis. Despite 
all evidence on the incredible values of this plant and the fact not 
one person has ever died from inhaling, compared to the unbelievable 
costs of the 40-year-old, total failure of Nixon's "War on Drugs," 
Harper & Co. reiterate all of the old propaganda which is nothing 
more than a pack of lies. As usual the Harperites are in their 
ideological black box where evidence-based policies will never see 
the light of day.

Conservative MP Rick Norlock had his ignorance of the topic on full 
display last week. Scaring people is his conservative-approved 
tactic. People will start smoking marijuana and driving! We don't 
need that! Earth to Rick: Those drivers are already out there along 
with the other irresponsible louts who drink too much alcohol, work 
double shifts with no sleep and then drive home or consume nasty 
combinations of legally prescribed drugs some doctor gave them for 
pain or depression. The standing joke is that a pot smoking driver is 
much less dangerous because he is more likely to be sitting at a stop 
sign waiting for it to turn green than he is to be running it.

Here is the real wake up call for Canadians. U.S. Patent 
#6,630,507B1. It was first filed in 1999 and approved October 7, 
2003. Three American doctors are listed as the "inventors." What they 
claim to patent are the active ingredients of the cannabis plant 
called cannabinoids. The assignee is "The United States of America 
represented by the Department of Health and Human Services, Washington DC."

Our American "friends" who forced "The War on Drugs" on the rest of 
the world know the value of this plant and are quietly trying to 
control the coming market for the supply of cannabinoids with patent 
protection. If MP Rick Norlock cannot track down a copy of this 
patent he can ask his neighbouring MP Daryl Kramp for a copy because 
I gave one to Daryl a couple of years ago. Ignorance of the facts is 
not at play here. Only blindly compliant followers of the Harper 
regime are willing to ignore the evidence.

But "we the people" know where the truth lies. Locking people up for 
growing this plant is a highly immoral act. It is time we quit 
following the American's lead and became intelligent, courageous and 
compassionate leaders in our own right.

Sincerely

Alan Coxwell

Stirling
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom