T
The420Guy
Guest
Pot and politics fueled the 14th Annual Freedom Rally Saturday, where
50,000 people gathered on Boston Common for Hempfest,an event sponsored by
the Massachusetts Cannibis Reform Coalition and the National Organization
for the Reform of the Marijuana Laws.
Event planners wanted to use the event whose theme was Fight Terrorism, End
Prohibition to question the Bush administration's idea of tying marijuana
users to terrorism to justify an expansion of the War on Drugs,according to
Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Dr. Ethan Nadelmann.
Other topics addressed at the event were the full-out legalization of
marijuana, the non-recreational uses of hemp and the medicinal benefits of
marijuana.
We cannot afford to have our terrorism efforts fail as has the war on
marijuana consumers,said Keith Saunders, a MassCann director. The link
between ending marijuana prohibition and fighting terrorism is the money.
Police officers' time spent enforcing prohibition could and should be spent
fighting terrorism.
The afternoon featured non-stop entertainment and speeches. Top Boston
bands, including several winners of the 2003 Boston Music Awards, cannabis
experts and political activists took to the stage.
Ed Rosenthal, a cannabis expert and member of the International Cannabinoid
Research Society, urged attendees to register to vote and change the laws
prohibiting marijuana. Several tables were set up on the Common for voter
registration.
We know that marijuana has to be legal,Rosenthal said.
At one point, Rosenthal, also a member of the Garden Writers Association of
America, had audience members chanting these laws are doomed at the 60
police officers patrolling the Common. He labeled the ABC team of Ashcroft,
Bush and Cheney the axis of evil and said they were taking away
constitutional rights.
The war on drugs has weakened The Bill of Rights,said Nancy Murray,
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts' Bill of
Rights Education Project, who also spoke at the event.
She spoke out against the USA PATRIOT Act, saying it invades Americans'
right to privacy, and asked people to sign a petition to repeal the act. As
of Saturday afternoon, the ACLU had gathered 75,000 of the 150,000
signatures it is hoping to collect during the effort, Murray said.
Others joined in attacking the government for cutting down on civil liberties.
The prohibition of the hemp plant is depriving people of their freedom and
their liberty,said Jean Magic Black-Ferguson, founder of Grammas for Ganja
and one of the festival organizers.
Black-Ferguson helped set up the Hemposium, where people could learn the
many uses of hemp. A display showcased hemp products like food items from
Canada and Europe, including hemp ice cream and hemp waffles, hemp
clothing, hemp insulation, hemp shampoo and hemp rope. Hemp can also be
grinded up and used to absorb oil spills.
Black-Ferguson said hemp is a benign plant that is strong, lightweight,
non-toxic and biodegradable. She said she started Grammas for Ganja in
Seattle to bring awareness to women.
Women are the ones who are going to change the laws,she said.
One speaker pushed for the medical uses of marijuana.
Pot is my Prozac,said Marcy Duda, an advocate and user of medicinal
marijuana. Duda said she uses pot instead of prescription pain-killers for
her nerves and to ease the pain of five aneurisms; she was originally
prescribed Oxycontin, but became addicted to it and sick from taking it.
David Captain JointBunn, a Hempfest Board of Directors member and High
Times 2003 Freedom Writer of the Month, also said pot is a therapeutic and
inexpensive alternative form of medication. Bunn said he uses pot to soothe
his arthritis, asthma and anxiety attacks. He said many of his doctors have
recommended use of the drug to ease his pain.
Bunn said he was prescribed pain medicine for the four surgeries he has
undergone in the last year, but said he only uses pot as a medicine,
because the pills prescribed did not work.
But Bunn also said recreational use of marijuana is less harmful than alcohol.
Drunks are having testosterone battles on one side of a party, and the
stoners are laughing at them,Bunn said. Potheads are peaceful.
Attorney Michael Cutler said the United States should have a policy of
treatment instead of punishment for marijuana use.
The death of prohibition is inevitable, Cutler said. The government is
making crooks rich, and should legalize pot in order to regulate its sale
and distribution.
If we can tolerate alcohol and tobacco, we can certainly regulate and make
safer marijuana,he said. The pot distribution process works fine. Anyone
can get it without any regulations. We need to legalize it to provide a
safer framework for children.
Many attendees signed cards at ACLU tables supporting a bill to make the
possession of less than one ounce of marijuana a civil infraction,
punishable by $100 fine in the state of Massachusetts.
Pubdate: Mon, 22 Sept. 2003
Source: Daily Free Press (MA)
Author: Cassandra Miller
Contact <mailto:letters@dfpress.com>letters@dfpress.com
Website: <The Daily Free Press – The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University>The Daily Free Press – The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University
Fax: (617) 232-0592
Copyright: 2003 Back Bay Publishing, Inc.
50,000 people gathered on Boston Common for Hempfest,an event sponsored by
the Massachusetts Cannibis Reform Coalition and the National Organization
for the Reform of the Marijuana Laws.
Event planners wanted to use the event whose theme was Fight Terrorism, End
Prohibition to question the Bush administration's idea of tying marijuana
users to terrorism to justify an expansion of the War on Drugs,according to
Drug Policy Alliance Executive Director Dr. Ethan Nadelmann.
Other topics addressed at the event were the full-out legalization of
marijuana, the non-recreational uses of hemp and the medicinal benefits of
marijuana.
We cannot afford to have our terrorism efforts fail as has the war on
marijuana consumers,said Keith Saunders, a MassCann director. The link
between ending marijuana prohibition and fighting terrorism is the money.
Police officers' time spent enforcing prohibition could and should be spent
fighting terrorism.
The afternoon featured non-stop entertainment and speeches. Top Boston
bands, including several winners of the 2003 Boston Music Awards, cannabis
experts and political activists took to the stage.
Ed Rosenthal, a cannabis expert and member of the International Cannabinoid
Research Society, urged attendees to register to vote and change the laws
prohibiting marijuana. Several tables were set up on the Common for voter
registration.
We know that marijuana has to be legal,Rosenthal said.
At one point, Rosenthal, also a member of the Garden Writers Association of
America, had audience members chanting these laws are doomed at the 60
police officers patrolling the Common. He labeled the ABC team of Ashcroft,
Bush and Cheney the axis of evil and said they were taking away
constitutional rights.
The war on drugs has weakened The Bill of Rights,said Nancy Murray,
director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts' Bill of
Rights Education Project, who also spoke at the event.
She spoke out against the USA PATRIOT Act, saying it invades Americans'
right to privacy, and asked people to sign a petition to repeal the act. As
of Saturday afternoon, the ACLU had gathered 75,000 of the 150,000
signatures it is hoping to collect during the effort, Murray said.
Others joined in attacking the government for cutting down on civil liberties.
The prohibition of the hemp plant is depriving people of their freedom and
their liberty,said Jean Magic Black-Ferguson, founder of Grammas for Ganja
and one of the festival organizers.
Black-Ferguson helped set up the Hemposium, where people could learn the
many uses of hemp. A display showcased hemp products like food items from
Canada and Europe, including hemp ice cream and hemp waffles, hemp
clothing, hemp insulation, hemp shampoo and hemp rope. Hemp can also be
grinded up and used to absorb oil spills.
Black-Ferguson said hemp is a benign plant that is strong, lightweight,
non-toxic and biodegradable. She said she started Grammas for Ganja in
Seattle to bring awareness to women.
Women are the ones who are going to change the laws,she said.
One speaker pushed for the medical uses of marijuana.
Pot is my Prozac,said Marcy Duda, an advocate and user of medicinal
marijuana. Duda said she uses pot instead of prescription pain-killers for
her nerves and to ease the pain of five aneurisms; she was originally
prescribed Oxycontin, but became addicted to it and sick from taking it.
David Captain JointBunn, a Hempfest Board of Directors member and High
Times 2003 Freedom Writer of the Month, also said pot is a therapeutic and
inexpensive alternative form of medication. Bunn said he uses pot to soothe
his arthritis, asthma and anxiety attacks. He said many of his doctors have
recommended use of the drug to ease his pain.
Bunn said he was prescribed pain medicine for the four surgeries he has
undergone in the last year, but said he only uses pot as a medicine,
because the pills prescribed did not work.
But Bunn also said recreational use of marijuana is less harmful than alcohol.
Drunks are having testosterone battles on one side of a party, and the
stoners are laughing at them,Bunn said. Potheads are peaceful.
Attorney Michael Cutler said the United States should have a policy of
treatment instead of punishment for marijuana use.
The death of prohibition is inevitable, Cutler said. The government is
making crooks rich, and should legalize pot in order to regulate its sale
and distribution.
If we can tolerate alcohol and tobacco, we can certainly regulate and make
safer marijuana,he said. The pot distribution process works fine. Anyone
can get it without any regulations. We need to legalize it to provide a
safer framework for children.
Many attendees signed cards at ACLU tables supporting a bill to make the
possession of less than one ounce of marijuana a civil infraction,
punishable by $100 fine in the state of Massachusetts.
Pubdate: Mon, 22 Sept. 2003
Source: Daily Free Press (MA)
Author: Cassandra Miller
Contact <mailto:letters@dfpress.com>letters@dfpress.com
Website: <The Daily Free Press – The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University>The Daily Free Press – The Independent Student Newspaper at Boston University
Fax: (617) 232-0592
Copyright: 2003 Back Bay Publishing, Inc.
