Former Gov. Jesse Ventura hawks his forthcoming book, "American Conspiracies: Lies, Lies, and More Dirty Lies that the Government Tells Us," with a column at Huffington Post today in which he decries the "staggering" hypocrisy of the Obama Administration in continuing George W. Bush's "drug war" policies and concludes with a call to legalize pot.
In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai's brother is getting CIA payments while also being involved in the ****** trade, Ventura writes. And while Obama has said the drug problem needs to be looked at from a public health perspective, his "drug war" budget directs twice as much money to the criminal justice system than to treatment and prevention, he writes. He then criticizes Obama for nominating Michele Leonhart, a Bush-era appointee, as DEA director.
"She has a history of cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries, and most recently denying the research application of a University of Massachusetts botanist, he writes. "This is a ludicrous appointment, since Attorney General Eric Holder has already ordered federal agents not to go after medical marijuana outlets. So is the administration talking out of both sides of its mouth?"
Ventura concludes with an excerpt from his book, which comes out March 8. In part, it reads:
...One hundred million Americans have sampled marijuana, and that includes almost half of all the seniors in high school. More than 35 million Americans have tried ******* at some point, and almost as many have taken *** or other hallucinogenic drugs. Meantime, we've got "grows" or "gardens" of pot springing up all across our western states on public lands—and that includes almost40 percent of national forests. About 3.1 million marijuana plants were confiscated in national forests over a one-year period, September 2007 to September 2008, carrying a street value calculated at $12.4 billion.
I mean, how stupid are we? Go back to Chicago and Prohibition, when Al Capone became more powerful than the government because we'd outlawed the selling of liquor. Legalize marijuana, and you put the cartels out of business! [...]
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 Magazine - Cannabis Culture News & Reviews
Source: The Minnesota Independent
Author: Paul Schmelzer
Contact: The Minnesota Independent
Copyright: 2010 The Minnesota Independent
Website: Ventura, pushing new book at HuffPost: Legalize it!
In Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai's brother is getting CIA payments while also being involved in the ****** trade, Ventura writes. And while Obama has said the drug problem needs to be looked at from a public health perspective, his "drug war" budget directs twice as much money to the criminal justice system than to treatment and prevention, he writes. He then criticizes Obama for nominating Michele Leonhart, a Bush-era appointee, as DEA director.
"She has a history of cracking down on medical marijuana dispensaries, and most recently denying the research application of a University of Massachusetts botanist, he writes. "This is a ludicrous appointment, since Attorney General Eric Holder has already ordered federal agents not to go after medical marijuana outlets. So is the administration talking out of both sides of its mouth?"
Ventura concludes with an excerpt from his book, which comes out March 8. In part, it reads:
...One hundred million Americans have sampled marijuana, and that includes almost half of all the seniors in high school. More than 35 million Americans have tried ******* at some point, and almost as many have taken *** or other hallucinogenic drugs. Meantime, we've got "grows" or "gardens" of pot springing up all across our western states on public lands—and that includes almost40 percent of national forests. About 3.1 million marijuana plants were confiscated in national forests over a one-year period, September 2007 to September 2008, carrying a street value calculated at $12.4 billion.
I mean, how stupid are we? Go back to Chicago and Prohibition, when Al Capone became more powerful than the government because we'd outlawed the selling of liquor. Legalize marijuana, and you put the cartels out of business! [...]
NewsHawk: Ganjarden: 420 Magazine - Cannabis Culture News & Reviews
Source: The Minnesota Independent
Author: Paul Schmelzer
Contact: The Minnesota Independent
Copyright: 2010 The Minnesota Independent
Website: Ventura, pushing new book at HuffPost: Legalize it!
Thanks Jessie !! 
