Ä [48]  IN*TOUCH DRUGS (1:375/48) ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ TALK.POLITICS.DRUGS Ä
 Msg  : #2460 [100] - 2433 + 3780                                               
 From : Weihnachtsfrosch                    1:2613/335      Sun 16 Jan 94 20:45 
 To   : (crosspost 1) All                                                       
 Subj : Washington State Marijuana Initiative!                                  
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
From: crw@universe.digex.net (Weihnachtsfrosch)
Organization: Society of Expatriate Hoosiers

In article <boutellCJqttw.EBz@netcom.com>,
Thomas Boutell <boutell@netcom.com> wrote:

>Learn to manipulate the media to your advantage. Smart activist
>groups on the left and right have been doing it for years. Ranting
>against the only people who can get your cause to the entire
>country is foolishness.

As things stand right now, even if a marijuana legalization initiative
were to make it to the ballot in Washington State, it would pass in
Wallingford, parts of Olympia, a few little towns around the sound,
and maybe some parts of the Skagit Valley, and lose in the rest of the
state.

The best reasons for legalizing marijuana - reasons that people will
buy - are articulately set forth in _Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine_,
by Lester Grinspoon MD of Harvard Med and James Bakalar, Yale, 1993.

Whining about your right to toke will get you nowhere, and the problem
is NOT WITH THE LOCAL MEDIA. The problem is back here in DC, where Your
Tax Dollars are At Work to stifle discussion of and research into valid
medical applications of marijuana.

Anyone who has objectively looked at the issue knows that marijuana is
nowhere near the threat to society that alcohol and tobacco are. The
problem is that the average voter is willing to have the FDA do his
thinking about drugs for him, because he's too busy with other stuff,
and the FDA is not willing to even have the issue discussed.

Lots of federal bureaucrats know that marijuana brings medical relief
to thousands of people who cannot be helped by any other presently
available treatment. They're just keeping their mouths shut.

And you're not going to change that until you succeed in convincing
51% of the people in Bellevue that society needs marijuana. And you're
not going to do *that* by whinging about the second amendment, or any
of the others. In 1994, the Constitution doesn't have any more of an
unambiguous meaning than the Bible does, and people in general get a
lot less worked up about the Constitution than they do about the Bible.
Your average couple with children in Port Orchard is not going to vote
for legalizing pot just because you have the right to it, and the average
parent in Bellevue is SURE AS HELL not going to vote with you, even if
he agrees that, theoretically, you're right, because HE KNOWS THAT HIS
KIDS ARE SMOKING POT (the last number I heard was that 80% of Bellevue
High students use illegal drugs.)

So if you want to legalize hemp, SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS.
Start talking about the medicinal benefits. Tell the stories of the people
whose careers and homes have been destroyed because they needed hemp, and
couldn't get it legally. See what you can do about getting the media to
tell the story of how marijuana was criminalized in the first place.

Show the farmer how hemp makes him money; show the Boeing aero mechanic
how his Aunt Bessie's glaucoma can be cleared up by marijuana; figure out
how the State Patrol will be able to keep the highways safe if pot is
legal.

But for God's sake, quit whining about rights. See what it's doing
for the NRA?



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