This is one of the first responses I received after starting this blog. On 7/14/2012 Johnny Hickman posted this under the comments of Legalize Marijuana. It is very well written and has links to a wealth of information. Thanks for sharing.

Randy Johnson

Freedom and cannabis legalization go hand in hand.

by Johnny L. Hickman

It’s time to end marijuana prohibition.  The events and facts I present here are documented in “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer,  The Congressional Record, The Library of Congress, Medical journals, and other trusted publications.  My opinion, as stated here, is shared by millions of intelligent, productive, tax paying Americans.

Everyone knows that the American Drug War is a total failure. Having spent a trillion dollars in the last 40 years, we now find that marijuana is cheaper, more potent and readily available.  During the last ten years, polls show that public school students say that marijuana is easier to get than cigarettes or alcohol.  Drug dealers don’t ask for ID’s.  Prohibition didn’t work with alcohol and it won’t work with drugs either.

The Drug War is all about greed, power and control… The government and law enforcement lose more credibility every day that they maintain their irrational, narrow minded stance against re-legalization. We The People need to stand up and speak out for full legalization of marijuana and industrial hemp as soon as possible. We need cannabis hemp for medicine, food, fuel and fiber. In spite of common knowledge and widespread scientific support, the federal government has for almost 30 years kept cannabis in Schedule 1, thus denying patients access to medical marijuana.  http://norml.org/library/recent-research-on-medica…

We know an healing herb when we experience it. Marijuana has been to shown to alleviate asthma, epilepsy, PMS, IBS, Crohn’s, migraine headache, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis and lately, the National Cancer Institute has admitted to having known that it is effective against cancer since 1974!  According to a statement by the National Cancer Institute, March 17, 2011: “In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect.” An illegal cancer cure = genocide!  http://patients4medicalmarijuana.wordpress.com/201…  Here’s another link:  http://bighealthreport.com/1407/government-study-p…

We should be allowed to light up a joint for relaxation and recreation.  It is not nearly as bad for you as alcohol.  What we do in privacy is our own business, not Big Brother’s. Let’s keep cannabis illegal for minors, just like alcohol. No one has ever died from a marijuana overdose; it is not toxic to the human body. Alcohol and tobacco ARE bad for you, and addictive too… but still, they are legal. Think about how many people die each year due to aspirin (7,000), prescription drugs (32,000), alcohol (85,000) and tobacco (435,000). Cannabis is less addictive than coffee! http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/28   Do you ever wonder why marijuana is illegal?

Big business was afraid of the competition then and they still are! Greed, yellow journalism, racism, outright lies and vicious, misleading propaganda were used by W.R. Hearst (newspaper publication,timber and paper industry), the DuPonts (plastics made from oil), the Rockefellers (Big Oil, Big Pharma), Andrew Mellon (big money) and our government to get hemp banned in the first place.The Drug Czar in 1937, Harry Anslinger, used lies, racism and underhanded politics to further the agenda of the Rich and Powerful. Every Drug Czar since then has followed in Anslinger’s footsteps. Eighteen billion dollars was wasted during 2011 on cannabis prohibition. Our government forces marijuana prohibition on other nations, causing hardship and increased crime.  Look at what it’s doing to Mexico…

Want to talk about addiction? Our banks and our government are addicted to the profits from the Drug War. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPGWc0eNfpE  It is a sad fact that our own government no longer has the best interests of the American People at heart.

Stand up for your rights. The Powers That Be who are pulling the strings that control our federal government are doing everything they can to keep knowledge about the benefits of marijuana and industrial hemp from you.  The CIA, the FBI, the DEA, the Federal Reserve, along with other Global Banksters (money laundering) and the global corporate/media/industrial/prison/military complex realize that their cash cow (the lost Drug War) is at stake. America has become a prison nation, with 5% of the world’s population and 25% of the world’s prisoners.  Something is very wrong here.

Big Pharma knows that marijuana is good medicine http://weedbay.net/index.php/component/content/art icle/1974 but they don”t want you to have it unless they can control it; they’re after the MONEY. But they can’t patent a natural plant. Many medical organizations agree that marijuana is good medicine.  The American Medical Association has called for rescheduling of cannabis in order to facilitate medical studies of this versatile herb.  Big Brother knows that re-legalization will put power and money back in the hands of the people and they hate the very thought of that happening. They are quite willing to be heavy handed, to use blackmail and to lie to the American public (all documented!) in order to keep marijuana from being re-legalized.

All the men and women who have been incarcerated for cannabis should be released so that they can resume their productive lives. Many of them are young and an inordinate number of them are young men of color.The war on drugs has become a war on the people.

Big Brother fears cannabis hemp.  Widespread production of cannabis hemp will cause them to lose their stranglehold on us and nations of the world. Hemp will grow anywhere, from deserts to mountains to rain forests… It is much better for our environment than other crops.  Farmers will have a way to make a better living. We can stop cutting down our old growth forests.  Canada, Central and South America can finally be allowed to legalize. The drug cartels will lose a huge portion of their business overnight. Crime will decrease. Mexico DID LEGALIZE IT a few years back but backed off quickly from that after much pressure was applied by the U.S. government.

Within three or four years, we can be making enough alcohol from hemp to allow us to wean ourselves away from using gasoline. Fuel prices will go down. Hemp oil is an excellent lubricant and can be used as biodiesel . You can make high quality paper, cloth and biodegradable plastics from hemp. http://www.hemphasis.net/ The federal government’s insistence that we must not grow hemp because there is no way to discern industrial hemp from marijuana is absurd; inspectors in other nations which do grow industrial hemp have no problem figuring out the difference. Hemp seed is the most nutritionally complete single plant food in the world. There’s only a trace of THC in the seeds; eating hemp seeds won’t get anyone high but it can make you healthy.

Inform yourself; study everything you can find out about it. Legalization is the right thing to do.  God put this herb on the earth for us to use. Let’s use it wisely. Cannabis hemp is the world’s premier renewable resource.  Legalize it, regulate it, tax it at a reasonable rate.

If the tax is set too high, it will only drive the market back underground. This new income will provide a much needed boost to our economy. Be wise. Listen to your heart. Then support re-legalization. America needs this. Our damaged environment needs this desperately. Support NORML, MPP, DPA, ASA, SSDP, the TeaPot party and other organizations working for re-legalization. Contact your state and federal legislators and let them know how you feel. It is no longer a question of IF cannabis will be legalized but WHEN…Big Brother is getting desperate, as clearly shown by the Fed’s recent crackdown on medical marijuana dispensaries and their legal patients!

Still skeptical?  Please understand that the events and facts I’ve presented here are well documented. The latest Gallup poll shows that 50% of all Americans favor full re-legalization of marijuana and that support is growing.  http://www.gallup.com/poll/150149/Record-High-Americans-Favor-Legalizing-Marijuana.aspx  You need to read “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Herer.  You can read it for free, online, at http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/  Fully documented, this book will open your eyes to the truth about marijuana.

Cannabis has been used for medicinal purposes for thousands of years prior to its current status as an illegal substance.  Freedom to use, grow and sell cannabis hemp is just the tip of the iceberg.  It’s always been about more than just that; it’s about all our freedoms that are protected by the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  Those freedoms are under fire right now.  Stand up and be counted for liberty.  Register and Vote!

“If a law is unjust, a man is not only right to disobey it, he is obligated to do so.” — Thomas Jefferson.

Abraham Lincoln responded to the kind of repressive mentality that we are seeing now, in December, 1840, when he said “Prohibition goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

“Make the most of the Indian Hemp; sow it everywhere!” –George Washington

“Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”

—President Jimmy Carter, August 2, 1977

Johnny Hickman (aka Clodhopper)      San Angelo, Texas      Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/johnny.hickman.589