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Why The Oregon Attorney General Race Has National Implications For Marijuana Laws

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Some simple facts:
* Prohibition has been a slow but relentless degradation (death by a zillion cuts) of all our cherished national institutions, that will leave us crippled for numerous generations.
* The USA federal government is now the most dangerous and corrupt corporation on the planet.
* Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.
* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so.
* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.
* Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.
* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement - even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death.
* Apart from the fact that the DEA is the de facto enforcement wing of the pharmaceutical industry, the involvement of the CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan, and Cocaine from Central America has been well documented by the 1989 Kerry Committee report, academic researchers Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb.
* It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.
* The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.
* In the near future, Obama, Biden, and every single last one of the so called 'drug warriors' will all stand trial for serious crimes against humanity.
* As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, or even simply tolerate it by looking the other way while others commit it, you are an accessory to a very serious moral transgression against humanity.

malcolm kyle of NY 8:49AM May 12, 2012

Hey IMPACTS! Is Mr. Holton working diligently to dismantle our food stamp program as well due to the "train-wreck" of abuse going on in there? How about social security disability? Surely there are illegitimate people accessing that program as well? WAKE UP AND SMELL THE SCIENCE!! Go and visit www.pubmed.gov (YES, this is our FEDERAL Gov't scientific repository of knowledge) Enter "cannabinoids cancer" or "cannabinoids chronic pain" or "cannabinoids alzheimers" or "cannabinoids gastrointestinal" and spend about a half hour reading the abstracts!!! This is REAL SCIENCE we're talking about, just because the research is not taking place in the USA due to our draconian laws (Yes, we have the worlds largest prison population....greater than CHINA even....thanks to your "impacts" btw)
Look, the argument is quite simple once distilled down to a few numbers. Let's say 3 people are stranded on a desert isle. 2 of them like to ferment fruit and drink the nectar thereof producing drunkeness. The 3rd, however, enjoys rolling up and smoking a native plant on the island, laughing, becoming more spiritual with his/her God, etc. The 2 booze hounds decide they will have NONE of this so they put him in a cage for the rest of his existence on the island. Who is truly crazy here I ask you?!?!
Please please please please please look into the congressional record as to the how and why cannabis was made illegal! You will see that the medical association of it's day testified to the medical utility of marijuana, and stated that our gov't would look foolish when in the future it's medical utility were re-discovered! How right he was!! Cannabis has been a medicine historically for about 5,000 years....it's only NOT been one for the last 70. Modern science is re-establishing it's place back in modern medicine. WAKE UP YOU PROTOPLASMS......IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SEE THE TRUTH AND REACT POSITIVELY TO IT!!! STOP PUTTING HUMAN BEINGS IN CAGES FOR ATTEMPTING TO REGAIN THEIR HEALTH!!!!!!!!

Thomas Serveux III of OR 5:35AM May 12, 2012

Sounds like Holton isnt who you should vote for if you want to protect patients (who mostly can't protect themselves, who can when they're ill?). Find it sickening that some political worker probably was paid to post that below for his campaign (twice even!). Anyway, I'm just an informed outsider, who thinks people shouldn't be put in jail or fined for a substance (cannabis, which I must remind everyone is just a plant!) that's safer than asprin. We've got to stand up for patients that can't make this argument clearly! It's a total double standard that the federal government has (or had) 7 medical cannabis patients they supply with tins of pre-roller joints, but at the same time they attack others for doing the same thing. Anyway, down with Holton if he's against cannabis. Eddie out.

Eddie of CA 1:23AM May 12, 2012

@Impacts of Marijuana:
A substantial majority of Oregon Democrats (and a slight majority of all Oregonians) oppose marijuana prohibition entirely. Dwight Holton has sought to intimidate and prosecute Oregonians for actions which the people of his adopted state do not consider criminal in nature. It is for this reason that he will not be the next Oregon Attorney General.
If you don't feel people ought to use marijuana, then by all means educate them as to why they shouldn't. You have no right, however, to demand that the state harrass and incarcerate people for actions which do not affect you (other than offending your personal sensibilites).

pfroehlich2004 of NY 1:16AM May 12, 2012

@Impacts of Marijuana:
A substantial majority of Oregon Democrats (and a slight majority of all Oregonians) oppose marijuana prohibition entirely. Dwight Holton has sought to intimidate and prosecute Oregonians for actions which the people of his adopted state do not consider criminal in nature. It is for this reason that he will not be the next Oregon Attorney General.
If you don't feel people ought to use marijuana, then by all means educate them as to why they shouldn't. You have no right, however, to demand that the state harrass and incarcerate people for actions which do not affect you (other than offending your personal sensibilites).

pfroehlich2004 of NY 1:14AM May 12, 2012

In our community prevention work we have worked closely with Dwight Holton our former interim US Attorney's to strategize ways to rid our communities of illegal drug Crime. Dwight’s character is amazing! He has a great ability to utilize his law enforcement talents to build bridges around all realms of political fences from working with the media, community members and other State, Federal and County agencies. He listens, he works as a team, and then he is willing to take action on those issues that provide safety to our communities. He will also take a stand to draw the line with State programs that are being abused and misused and he is not afraid to verbalize the truth about some of these programs. He is quick to identify fraud and misuse and makes it clear that it will not be tolerated! His presence, personality, approachability, and truthfulness are like a breath of fresh air to those of us who work with him in the trenches to find solutions to dealing with illegal crime in our communities and State.
It is clear that Holton’s opponent is out of touch with Oregon Voters and her only supporters seem to be those who are illegally opening marijuana distribution centers around the State and black marketing their so-called medical marijuana. The Oregon Voters have said NO twice to pot peddling centers in our communities.
The results of the Southern Oregon Raids from last year are in the below article.
Feds Charge Six Tied to Raided Marijuana Gardens in Region
http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120502/NEWS/205020318/-1/rss01
Holton will hold accountable Oregon Laws that are being abused.
Holton for Oregon!

Impacts of Marijuana of OR 7:18PM May 11, 2012

Totally ashamed of holton for having absolutely ZERO respect for the voters of Oregon and OUR program. send him home to virginia, they can have him back. what a redneck hardliner
obama, a total and complete LIAR promising to end the raids to get elected, then doing a gwbush impression TIMES 1000 raiding everything in site.
Millionaires and billionaires dont need tax breaks either but obama voted himself one anyway as a republican impersonating a Democrat.
the federal government thinks they are God.
the war on drugs is funded by the cotton industry, petroleum industry, pharmaceutical industry and the top 1/10th of one percent richest in the world because they make trillions of dollars keeping it away from the people God put this EXCELLENT plant on this earth to use and benefit from.
one would think the government would have more important business to attend to.
Cannabis legalization would send the wrong message?
what message does storing nuclear waste in inadequate steel casks send? giving the super rich the advantages? letting the scamming banks off the hook
wall street off the hook?
they could care less about the people in this country.
these greedy turds pocket billions every year to keep it illegal and us quashed under their draconian laws.
that crap in and of itself deserves a measure eleven charge or two.
another law that holton wants to double down on and screw citizens with. for slave labor and sex favors in their for profit prison system.
anybody else completely sick of and ashamed of this bullcrap from our government jams down our throats? other countries are sick of it too.
holton is an extension of the very horses rearends that declared this BOGUS war on us, and who are having us fund this war with our tax dollars aghains ourselves.
sweet setup for them, an ABSOLUT SCREWING for us!

donnie farr of OR 4:48PM May 11, 2012

What I still find amazing is Mr. Holton doesn't understand the concept of "low priority". While his office last year sent out search warrants to remove medicine that "might" make it to the black market, the sick folks it was designated to go to end up suffering. Meanwhile, METH is still a very pervasive problem in our State yet his lack of priorities leave them cooking all they want/need. Let's not even go into the illegal cartel grows that are in our national forests. His offices would much rather bust legal medical grows as they will receive ZERO resistance from sick people who only want to try and follow the laws. I call this going after the low hanging fruit. Lame work Mr. Holton. Go back to Virginia where you belong sir while awaiting your next FEDERAL appointment. Your attitude and actions have given you away here in Oregon, and we are wise to your ways!
There are solutions to our problems, if only our State legislature would wake up and realize that REGULATION of these "pseudo-dispensaries" would be much more lucrative and advantageous than attempting to put the program out of reach for the sickest of the sick. I'm not sure if Oregonians are aware, but our State Medical Marijuana Program produces a financial surplus each year (it's about the ONLY state program that can make this claim, btw) yet they decided to QUADRUPLE the fees for folks on social security disability and DOUBLE them for everyone else. This is how the will of the people are thwarted as a quick glance of the original act CLEARLY states that program fees are to match the cost of administering the program. Don't get me wrong, clean drinking water and EMT training are admirable programs worthy of funding....but on the backs of the sickest folks in Oregon? Your actions last year were unconscionable and I pay attention and vote accordingly, so be aware to ANY politician who my attempt to thwart the will of the people!! Go Ellen!!! Down with the out of stater Holton!! :D

Thomas Serveux III of OR 3:30PM May 11, 2012

Oregon has long been a forerunner in State Law issues all of them have turned out well, such as the original bottle law which helps Oregon and the whole
country stay clean. Holton's attitude toward the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program is a direct attack on those of us that utilize this herb and stay away from harsher Pharmaceuticals. The top law person in any State should fight to protect those laws voted in
by the State Citizenry especially when it is about health care. I believe you will see the citizens of Oregon make the right choice. Compassion over Jackboots.
Medicinal Cannabis is 3000+ year old God Send and already saves lives. The most harmful thing about Cannabis is going to jail over it, money Oregon does not have going down the drain of ridiculousness and policing priorities going after
the harmless and ill while unsolved rapes and murders turn into cold case crimes.
The most abusive part of the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program is law enforcement using it and its system of reference the LED system to fish for
criminals just because they use it medicinally and
the repercussions over housing, schooling, and jobs
just for having the card.
I have served on the Advisory Committee on Medical Marijuana since its inception in 2006, with
2 terms as Chair and now the Vice-President and
see a conflict of interest when the AGs office is
the controller of the Rules and Regulations and Advice we give for the benefit of the sick. We need an independent council and we need an AG
that backs the voters of the State, not a blue-dog
federalist.
Sorry if I sound cranky but after 9 years of abstinence from a herb that worked for my condition that has me on a transplant list and
now cannot use or be pulled from the list, it's time people know. There are many dieing due to this Federal regulation, one brought about because of greed and grants over life. In which they block they research that proves Cannabis's attributes then say "There's no research." Is a lot of horse hockey pucks.
So LEO can cry about the abuses of the Program
because someone want to be worker and not a slave. But where is the Greed and Abuse really, in the hands of Big Pharma wanting total control. And where am I ... Just wanting to say that the next time I fall in the 'donut hole' and have to move from out of my cheap apartment to a dry spot under the bridge. Oh well all I have to do is
plant a seed.

Jim Klahr of OR 1:25PM May 11, 2012

Make sure to check out http://www.NotDwightHolton.Com and http://www.BeatHolton.Com to find out why Dwight is not right for Oregon Attorney General. Vote for a REAL Oregonian - VOTE FOR ELLEN ROSENBLUM!

Johnny Green of OR 12:11PM May 11, 2012