Support HR Bill 5843

Representative Barney Frank (D – MA) has introduced a bill effectively ending the raiding of medical and recreational marijuana user’s homes by the federal government. This bill would also allow for the production of plastics, food, fuel and the replacement of petroleum based products with those made of industrial hemp, a non-psychoactive cousin of Cannabis Sativa.

This legislative move represents a great number of themes – states rights, personal rights of American citizens, and the refusal of our national government to permit industrial and medical use of a plant which has been described by Thomas Jefferson as being “…Of first necessity to the wealth and protection of a country.” ( http://www.hempcar.org/jefferson.shtml ) Instead of paying $4.00 per gallon and sending our hard earned money overseas, we could be growing our fuel domestically, thus keeping our money in the own country. Lumber companies also have great reason to lobby against it – One acre of hemp produces as much paper as 4 acres of trees. Hemp needs no pesticide, does not remove nutrients from the soil as other crops do, in addition to being remarkably fast – growing.

The matter of legalization is impeded by two things:

1) Intense lobbying by lumber, pharmaceutical and oil companies, whose products will be replaced by more effective and environmentally friendly hemp products and

2) A level of apathy and public ignorance of the benefits of industrial and medical use of hemp. Were the people of this nation informed as to the extortionist activities of the oil, lumber and pharmaceutical companies, they would not be able to act with the impunity with which they conduct themselves.

The issue is also a matter of federal – versus – state sovereignty with regards to the will of the people. Whereas many states have decriminalized marijuana, federal law continues to cling to ideas and assertions proven incorrect by science, which are in many cases detrimental to our overall national health.

Congressman Barney Frank summarized his views and validation for pushing this move in the following manner:

“I think it is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime something which in fact society does not seriously wish to prosecute. In my view, having federal law enforcement agents engaged in the prosecution of people who are personally using marijuana is a waste of scarce resources better used for serious crimes. In fact, this type of prosecution often meets with public disapproval. The most frequent recent examples have been federal prosecutions of individuals using marijuana for medical purposes in states that have voted – usually by public referenda – to allow such use. Because current federal law has been interpreted as superseding state law in this area, most states that have made medical use of marijuana legal have been unable to actually implement their laws.

“When doctors recommend the use of marijuana for their patients and states are willing to permit it, I think it’s wrong for the federal government to subject either the doctors or the patients to criminal prosecution. More broadly speaking, the norm in America is for the states to decide whether particular behaviors should be made criminal. To make the smoking of marijuana, whether for medical purposes or not, one of those extremely rare instances of federal crime – literally, to make a ‘federal case’ out of it – is wholly disproportionate to the activity involved. We do not have federal criminal prohibitions against drinking alcoholic beverages, and there are generally no criminal penalties for the use of tobacco at the state and federal levels for adults. There is no rational argument for treating marijuana so differently from these other substances.”

Write your congressmen – Help this issue to snowball. The will of the people must triumph over the environmentally destructive effects of petroleum and the economic stranglehold on our economy which the government executes and maintains.

Write your congressmen

Henry Ford and Hemp, as fuel, building material.

If anyone would like informational materials, leave me a comment. There’s a wealth of information out there, and I’m happy to help others in this endeavor.

UPDATE: Tuesday, September 23, 2008:

Track This Bill

Comprehensive study finds no link between Marijuana use and Cancer