[kitchencabinetforum] GARY JOHNSON REJECTS THE CRACK-DOWN ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Venitis Law of Selfownership: You own your body and your soul, and nobody should dictate what you take in and what you take out. Speech, education, heresy, habeas corpus, military service, mating, healthcare, abortion, cloning, drugs, guns, and euthanasia should be personal choices.

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, seeking the Libertarian Presidential nomination, assails the Obama Administration for a systematic crack-down on medical marijuana as allowed by state law. Johnson said the Obama Administration's action was contrary to the President's assurances on the issue in 2008 and a memo released by his Justice Department two years ago.

Prohibition is simply driving commerce underground, creating enormous black-market profits that attract the most ruthless criminal elements. http://venitism.blogspot.com

Responding to searches conducted Monday by federal agents of the home and business of a long-time Oakland, CA, marijuana legalization advocate, Johnson calls on the Obama Administration to find better things to do with our tax dollars than raiding Richard Lee's home in a selective enforcement of bad law.

Illegal drugs constitute a half-trillion-euro-a-year global industry. Those vast revenues enable the cartels to bribe, intimidate, or kill their opponents at will. Prohibition strategies have never worked. People should consider legalization, as a strategy to break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power.

A sensitive issue cannot be fully explained in a post, but only in a speech, in that magic eyeball to eyeball contact, baring my soul, and declaring truths that cause shock and awe. That's why I look forward to the invitation of your organization to speak at your conference. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com

Monday morning, federal agents executed search warrants at the home of Richard Lee, a well-known advocate for marijuana legalization in California, and at an Oakland cannabis industry trade school Lee founded. The school, as well as Lee's other medical marijuana businesses, are operated in accordance with California law and local ordinances. Monday's searches appear to be part of an on-going effort by the government to assert federal enforcement against California's medical marijuana laws.

Johnson, a vocal advocate for drug law reform, points out it defies belief that, at the very same time that President Obama is standing in the Rose Garden with the President of Mexico talking about efforts to reduce drug-related violence, his federal agents are harassing a respected advocate for sensible drug law reform by raiding his home and business and detaining him for questioning. Richard Lee isn't the problem. Failed marijuana prohibition is the problem, and making an example of a citizen who is operating within state and local law is not only offensive, but a massive waste of law enforcement time and money.

It wasn't enough to send in the DEA and the U.S. Marshals. They felt compelled to send the Internal Revenue Service in as well. The voters of California have made it clear that they regard medical marijuana, regulated and dispensed in a safe manner, to be acceptable in their communities. Do the Feds not have more pressing responsibilities than to persecute those, like Richard Lee, who are simply trying to provide a service those communities have clearly said they want?

Approved in 1919, alcohol prohibition led to a steady rise in both alcohol usage
and violent crime. Al Capone and myriad mafiosi showed up. The murder rate
rose 50% between 1919 and 1933, peaking at 10 murders per 100,000 population in
1933, when the country finally decided enough was enough. Immediately after the
repeal of alcohol prohibition, gangsterism went into a swift decline, with all
of the major gangs disappearing within 18 months, and the murder rate dropping
every single year for more than a decade.

Now, the drug prohibition is another tragedy. Millions of people are arrested
each year, trillions of euros are spent each year, and drug gangsterism is at a
level that dwarfs its alcohol equivalent and which has led to bloodbaths, not
because of drugs, but because of drug laws. Over 40% of Westerners have used
drugs.

This tragedy is the result of kleptocrats' refusal to allow people to engage in
peaceful choices as to what they consume. Even if drug use were to rise upon a
return to the tradition of tolerance, our streets would be safer, innocent
people would not have their homes raided and pets killed by narcotics agents
entering the wrong house, victims of asset forfeiture laws wouldn't have their
houses and other assets seized without due process, and resources would be freed
to spend on improving peoples' lives instead of destroying them.

Smart words are more effective than smart bombs! Mighty words of a charismatic keynote speaker can transform your people to a new dimension of organizational climate, efficiency, self-actualization, enthusiasm, belonging, and motivation. I would like very much to speak at your conference in order to explain critical points much further. Basil Venitis, venitis@gmail.com

Johnson would like to think America is not a place where the federal police come knocking on the doors of legitimate businesses and private homes just to enforce laws that make no sense and to shut down private enterprises that are, in fact, reducing harm and offering an alternative to the dangers of the illegal drug trade.

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