REEFER MADNESS At the tone the time will be 4:20

Cannabis is indigenous to Central and South Asia. Evidence of the inhalation of cannabis smoke can be found as far back as the 3rd millennium B.C., as indicated by charred cannabis seeds found in a ritual brazier at an ancient burial site in present day Romania. Cannabis is also known to have been used by the ancient Hindus of India and Nepal thousands of years ago. The herb was called ganjika in Sanskrit. The ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas as a sacred intoxicating hallucinogen, was sometimes associated with cannabis.

Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who discovered its psychoactive properties through the Aryans. Using it in some religious ceremonies, they called it qunubu (meaning "way to produce smoke"), a probable origin of the modern word "cannabis". Cannabis was also introduced by the Aryans to the Scythians and Thracians/Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—“those who walk on smoke/clouds”) burned cannabis flowers to induce a state of trance. Members of the cult of Dionysus, believed to have originated in Thrace (Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey), are also thought to have inhaled cannabis smoke. In 2003, a leather basket filled with cannabis leaf fragments and seeds was found next to a 2,500- to 2,800-year-old mummified shaman in the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China.

Cannabis sativa from Vienna Dioscurides, 512 A.D.

Cannabis has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century B.C., confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus. One writer has claimed that cannabis was used as a religious sacrament by ancient Jews and early Christians due to the similarity between the Hebrew word "qannabbos" ("cannabis") and the Hebrew phrase "qené bósem" ("aromatic cane"). It was used by Muslims in various Sufi orders as early as the Mamluk period, for example by the Qalandars.

A study published in the South African Journal of Science showed that "pipes dug up from the garden of Shakespeare's home in Stratford upon Avon contain traces of cannabis." The chemical analysis was carried out after researchers hypothesized that the "noted weed" mentioned in Sonnet 76 and the "journey in my head" from Sonnet 27 could be references to cannabis and the use thereof.

Cannabis was criminalized in the United States in 1937 due to Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Several theories try to explain why it is illegal in most Western societies. Jack Herer, a cannabis legalization activist and writer, argues that the economic interests of the paper and chemical industry were a driving force to make it illegal. Another explanation is that beneficial effects of hemp would lower the profit of pharmaceutical companies which therefore have a vital interest to keep cannabis illegal. Those economic theories were criticized for not taking social aspect into account. The illegalization was rather a result of racism directed to associate American immigrants of Mexican and African descent with cannabis abuse.
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Enjoy and please feel free to leave your comments on this subject,

doc

Random, Unwarranted Drug Testing

I was recently drawn into a discussion on Facebook concerning random drug testing. The main impetus of the discussion, was the new law in the state of Kentucky, which requires that anyone receiving Medicaid or Food Stamps or other assistance, be required to submit to random drug screening. Those who are for this breech of liberty, point out the fact that they must submit to random drug testing by their employers, so those who are on assistance should be required to do the same.


Isn't this missing the point?


I don't think 'anyone' should be drug tested without just cause. If someone does something stupid that gets other people hurt or destroys property, then by all means drug test them. But it is a gross invasion of privacy to drug test people who have not 'first' shown just cause for such suspicion.


If you want to have people randomly drug tested based on the principal that working folks have to be tested, then perhaps it should be the politicians and cops who really need to be first on that list.


But I stand by my original statement that no-one should be tested without cause.


Drug testing is a pet peeve of mine. Damn near everyone in my town who works at a factory or a store or what-have-ya, has to get drug tested by their employer, meanwhile our cops go unchecked. The cops here used to get checked, but that was ended, due to the fact that not enough of them could pass and the city in their infinite wisdom, decided that suspending half of the police force was not in their own best interests.


I know that there are some who abuse the assistance programs, but from what I see, it is a very small percentage, especially now in this economy. I personally feel that many of those who are not able to find employment due to the current state of things, might really need to smoke one occasionally, just to keep them from rioting in the streets. That would not do any of us any good.


Speaking of the economy, where are the drug tests for the politicians and the bankers who got us into this mess in the first place? They must have been on drugs, so they fall under the category of those who need to be tested after causing harm to others.


Don't get me wrong, I personally think that most drug use is pretty stupid. Heroin, crack, meth and PCP are abused for the most part, by people who I would not really want to hang out with anyhow. But I don't see it as my place, nor the place of society to make a rule prohibiting others from doing stupid things, as long as they are not a danger to the rest of society.


While I agree that drug prohibition across the board should be ended, I currently am only fighting for the legalization of pot, mushrooms, mescaline and LSD. If any or all of them are ever made legal or at least decriminalized, then I will still fight just as hard to keep people from driving under the influence of those drugs as I do regarding keeping people from driving while they are drunk on alcohol.


I guess what I am saying, is do what you want so long as it doesn't hurt others, but don't expect mercy from me when it does hurt others.


Random and unwarranted drug testing for anyone should be what you are fighting against. To give in and say, if I have to be subjected to it, then they should too, is just willingly throwing away the liberty of us all. You should be fighting to protect everyone's liberty instead of giving in and allowing this atrocity to happen to anyone.


As far as some people's highly puritanical view of drugs goes, I strongly disagree with them, but I respect their right to state their opinion on the matter. But liberty is not something that we should throw away as if it has no value. Responsible use of drugs or alcohol should never be considered a crime and should not be legislated nor prohibited in a free society. That behavior is best left in totalitarian societies where freedom and liberty are not cherished as they should be here.


Imagine if you will, the tables being turned, and instead of prohibiting drug use, the government mandated the use of them. Basically legislated that you must take drugs in order to control the populous and keep the people in a calmed down state. (Not as far fetched as you might think, see 'Brave New World' by Aldous Huxley or THX 1138 by George Lucas and Walter Murch.) How would you feel if you had to be drug tested to insure that you were taking your Paxil or Prozac in order to keep your job? Would you then insist that those receiving assistance be tested to make sure that they too are medicated?


As was pointed out by a friend who was participating in the discussion, we all might be better off to decriminalize drugs in the first place. The war on drugs has costs way too much money and put non violent people in prisons. I cannot help but to agree with this, as it is a travesty of justice, when someone goes to prison with killers, rapists and muggers, just because he was growing a few pot plants.


I am really quite curious, as to how, if I decide to smoke a joint on my own time, I am hurting anyone? How is it the business of an employer or of the government?


If I am getting high on the job, then of course that is a concern for my employer. I will even go as far as to say, that if I got high a couple hours before work, that too might be my employer's concern. But if I get high on my weekend hours, it is in my opinion no concern to my employer. Same thing goes for the government sticking their nose into my business. If I am not driving while high, or committing any other crime while high, then it is simply not something that they should be concerned with.


For the record, I stopped getting high a while back, due to the fact that it exasperates a medical condition that I have, which involves a ringing in my ears. But that was my choice, as the decision to use or not use drugs responsibly, should always be the choice we are all free to make, when it does not impact the lives of others.


The main problem with drug screening in my opinion, is that it tests to see if a person 'ever' uses drugs, and has little bearing on any legitimate use of such testing, such as to see if a person was high at the time of an accident while driving or on the job. Imagine if alcohol testing were such, that a person could be convicted or lose a job or medical coverage for an accident on the job today, just because the test shows that they had a drink last Friday. There would be rioting in the streets. But since alcohol is a drug that is approved of by the government, it is treated in a much more fair manner than are the drugs that our government does not approve of.


For those who are frustrated by that small percentage who abuse the system, I hear you and I sympathize with your frustration. It is always bad when people abuse the system. This new law, will not change the fact, that a small percentage will always abuse the system though. It will not magically turn low-lifes into good parents and responsible citizens. It will not alter the fact that their children might be raised in squaller and neglect. It will not do anything at all to help in my opinion. It will merely give the government more control over all of our lives and indeed, will probably cause the low-lifes to be even more resentful towards their children. These people are not the way they are because of drugs, they abuse drugs, because of how they are. If they are tested for drugs, then they will simply switch to legal remedies such as alcohol or designer drugs that are not yet being tested for.


If you do not wish to do drugs, then I respect that. That is your decision to make and thankfully you are free to decide to not use them.


Drug use should remain a personal choice, when it does not cause harm to others. Random testing is wrong when applied to anyone without just cause.I am fighting against 'anyone' being drug tested without cause, that means not only those on assistance, but especially the hard working folks who just want to provide for their families.


This is in my opinion, a very bad piece of legislation and it is taking us all in the wrong direction. It is the very foundation of liberty that we are talking about here and random drug screening is an abomination of our liberty, it is as simple as that.


doc haynes


Just thought I would add the following song to this blog entry. I hope it makes us all think a bit about our crazy pot laws and the absurd idea of random piss testing.




Marijuana (The government wants to test me when I pee)
Words and Music: by Brian Robbins






Well once upon a time in 1776,
Thomas Jefferson signed his name on a piece of marijuana,
and this document was a symbol of freedom and of liberty,
at least for the rich, white gentry.


As time marched along,
this plant that I refer to has been used for everything,
from medicine to the American flag.
And now it seems to me
that somewhere along the way,
things got messed up, yeah, messed up.


Oh marijuana.
A gift of God to my brothers and me.
Oh marijuana
Now the government wants to test me when I pee.


Well some say a conspiracy
of the petro-chemical and pulp-paper industries combined
ha to kill the compitition.
Government hysteria,monopoly and conflict of interest,
with total impunity.


Yeah, so, if you don't buy the conspiracy,
just look at the reality
that your tax dollars go
to spray poison on the fields of a farmer in South America.
And as an added bonus,
your neighbor might be the proud recipions of that poison weed.


Oh marijuana
now the government wants to test me when I pee.
Oh marijuana
a gift of god to my brothers and me.
Oh marijuana
you cant legislate your own morality.
Oh marijuana
the government wants to test me when I pee


Reefer madness, chronic sadness,
what is the half-life of bad propaganda?
Policies fail, denied bail,
you made him a demon now pay for his trip to prison.
Hired to promote the status quo,
but what is the shelf life of bad legislation.
The hypocrite smirks, it's a moral disgrace
as he reads from a law that was written
about the same time that he had
his last original thought.


Well the men said he was dying,
and the nausea and the pain left him wasting away
and unable to keep a meal down.
So he tried everything a prescription could obtain
but to no avail.
The side effects were worse than the pain.
So now he breaks the law
to use the one thing that seems to help him out.
And the people say, Oh he's just getting' high.
But not to change the subject but,
didn't you ever wonder why getting' high's a crime,
yeah a crime.


Oh marijuana, a gift to god to my brothers and me.
Oh marijuana, now the government wants to test me when I pee.
Oh marijuana, the government wants to test me when I pee.
Oh marijuana, the government wants to test me when I pee.
Oh marijuana, the government wants to test me when I pee.
Oh marijuana, this is the part when everyone would sing along aha,when I pee...