However, that fact certainly does not mean that the prohibitionist establishment is going to announce suddenly that they have been convinced of the error of their ways. On the contrary, we have seen -- and will continue to see -- counterattacks at every level. The Congress continues to block medical marijuana and forfeiture reform. Local law enforcement continues to ignore state medical marijuana laws, and often even elemental due process. In fact, the violation of the most basic human rights continues at an accelerated pace in most of the country from the Congress to the counties.

Consequently, the time has come to recognize what everyone really already knows: we did not get to where we are – and will not get to where we must go – by words and advocacy alone. Actions do not always speak louder than words, but facts move things when arguments go unheard. And many of the facts about marijuana prohibition have been created by the actions of those who would not and could not wait on "reform." The Communists used the phrase, "creating facts on the ground." That is what is happening with the marijuana resistance movement.

When I was at NORML I was repeatedly asked if we "advocated marijuana use." This question is also reflected in sloppy journalism and/or prohibitionist propaganda referring to NORML and other anti-prohibitionist groups as "pro-drug." My standard response was, "No, we do not advocate marijuana use. Quite enough people seem to be using it without our urging." They laughed, but got my point.

There are also both legal and political restraints that keep an organization from urging people to break the law. Personally, I have always been reticent about urging people to do anything that might get them arrested. I would say that I was trying to get people out of jail, not put them there. Also, there is the problem that an acceptable risk for one person in one location may be entirely unacceptable for another person in another place.

That is just common sense, but some people want a "one-size-fits-all" program. "If we all got arrested at the same time…" That just isn’t possible. Sadly, most marijuana users will even bother to vote or otherwise take political action. Alienation lays the foundation for tyranny. Moreover, it is a total misreading of human nature and history to wait on the majority to do something. While it may be true that there is nothing so powerful as an idea whose time has come, every idea has an entrepreneur who takes it upon himself or herself to champion that idea long before its time. That is what happened when Keith Stroup founded NORML almost 30 years ago.

That was bold and important, but something quite different was happening when Dennis Peron opened his first club in San Francisco well before the passage of Prop 215. Dennis was not just advocating, he was doing -- by breaking the law, federal, state, and local. That is what Todd McCormick was doing when he began large-scale experimentation with various strains of medical marijuana. While some have said that such a large scale operation was asking for trouble, and it certainly got it, the fact remains that others with very small operations have also been targeted, while others with large operations have been protected.
See
Was The Decision To Prosecute B. E. Smith Made At The White House?
The Key Question About The Selective Prosecution Of Medical Marijuana Activists.
Analysis -- By Richard Cowan

Such actions are not exclusively a DEAland phenomenon. Long ago in Holland, the move toward the current marijuana policies was forced by people who did not wait on the political process. They often got arrested. More recently, Marc Emory was doing the same thing when he opened his Cannabis Café in Vancouver. That is what he and many others are still doing by selling seeds. Others are doing the same by supporting marijuana growing, which has now reached a level that cannot be stopped.

Just as Dennis paved the way for many others in DEAland, Emory and others made it easier for Canadians -- and others -- to create facts on the ground – or in well-lighted rooms, as the case may be.
See
The Evolution of Freedom In "Vansterdam" -- Special To Marijuananews

Let Freedom Grow

The phrase is Steve Kubby’s. Marijuana prohibition has driven marijuana prices to such high levels that many people cannot afford to buy it. This is an inconvenience for the recreational user, but it is much worse than that for the medical users. It is also wretched social policy that encourages the use of much more dangerous drugs, such as alcohol and methamphetamine.
See
Criminologist Defends Constable’s Call For Legal Marijuana:
"Alcohol and tobacco much more harmful than cannabis."
and
And Now, How The Narcs Created Crack -- In Belize

However, the market responds. Growing marijuana can be so profitable that people are willing to take the risks. But then something else happens, too. Although the prohibitionist establishment classifies marijuana growing as "manufacturing," it is not that at all. When people grow plants -- roses, orchids, corn or cannabis -- they tend to fall in love with their plants. There is probably something in our psyches after millennia of agriculture. With cannabis growing, there are also other factors. After all, it is also a "secret lore" about an amazing and beautiful plant. One testimony to this, is the popularity of pictures of the plants, especially the "buds."

The leaf has become a symbol into which different people read different things. Consequently, both growing marijuana and the effort to suppress the plant – what an insane notion! – are very politicized.

Growing marijuana is a vocation, an avocation, and a political action.

Although there are parallel controversies around growing poppies and the natural psychedelics, they are relatively minor, involving far fewer people than cannabis. While the validity of an argument is not a function of the number of people involved, the fact is that marijuana growing involves many tens of thousands directly, and virtually everyone else, indirectly.

Everyone else? Yes, because marijuana prohibition effects everyone else, whether they know it or not, and marijuana growing is a major factor in the world of cannabis.

Most of the marijuana market is probably still filled by smuggled Mexican and other weed. However, the domestic marijuana industry in DEAland, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, and – of course – Holland, is an important part of the economy, and of the political drive for legalization. This has an even greater political impact because people are increasingly aware of the versatility of the plant. There are many different varieties of the plant, with different smells and tastes, and different highs -- and therapeutic properties. The knowledge of these facts has made marijuana growing a vital part of the struggle for freedom.

As noted, the phrase "Let Freedom Grow" was Steve Kubby’s. Kubby also pushed the envelope, because he had to.
See
Prominent Medical Specialist Says Steve Kubby Should Be Studied, Not Jailed;
His Case Has Major Medical Implications.
and
Three Years After Prop 215 Passed, Orange County Law Enforcement Is Finally Accepting It.
How Time Flies When You Are Not In Pain!
Steve Kubby At Work.
Steve’s case is but one of many that illustrate the fact that we probably would not know very much about the medical uses of marijuana if people had not broken the law and used it "recreationally."

Steve and many others would be dead. Still others would be blind or in great pain. For these people there was simply no choice.

It is absurd, but it is also very likely that without the recreational marijuana users, notably Jack Herer, many decades would have passed before the facts about hemp reached this country, ironically from bastions of prohibitionism, such as France and Communist China.
See
Documentary About Jack Herer   -- "Emperor of Hemp" -- To Be Released on Video

In short, if people had not broken the marijuana laws, there would be no medical marijuana and no hemp in DEAland. Can it seriously be argued that respecting a law with such immoral consequences is a moral option?

A Good Response to Bad Faith

In the early 1970s, NORML filed a lawsuit to get marijuana rescheduled so as to make it medically available. Over a decade later, when the DEA’s own Administrative Law Judge said that it should be rescheduled, the DEA simply junked his report.

In the early 1990s, when a large number of people with AIDS and other serious medical problems had qualified for access to medical marijuana, the Public Health Service simply closed the program.

When Prop 215 won in California by a greater margin than Clinton, his Administration threatened doctors with arrest or loss of prescription privileges if they exercised their free speech rights and said that it was alright for a patient to use medical marijuana.

When the Drug Czar’s own Institute of Medicine report said that "There is no clear alternative for people suffering from chronic conditions that might be relieved by smoking marijuana, such as pain or AIDS wasting," the Drug Czar lied about what the report said, and continued to threaten patients with arrest.

Finally, when 69% of the people of the nation’s capital voted in favor of medical marijuana, the Congress forbade even counting the votes.

In short, administrative rulings, bureaucratic procedures, scientific reviews, and popular votes mean nothing. In every case, the government has voided its own procedures and responded in bad faith.

Such bad faith justifies any response – short of violence.

It is easy for me to reject violence personally, but it is also important for non-violence to be explicitly recognized as the fundamental principle of the marijuana resistance movement. Gandhi, King, and Mandela are the greatest names of this century because they brought liberty to their people through non-violence. It is essential that we remember the words of the Czech "Velvet Revolution" that ended communism there without bloodshed. The Czech people told the Communists, "Don’t be afraid. We are not like you."

We are not like the prohibitionists. We do not kill. We do not lie. We do not steal.

But we must act! Many of course have long since begun to act.

In Oakland, Jeff Jones is leading an enormous medical marijuana movement that is tying the Federal government in knots of its own making. Jeff cheerfully acknowledges that what he is doing would not be possible without Dennis Peron having blazed the trail, but by being as shrewd as Dennis was flamboyant, he has gotten official cooperation from the city of Oakland.
See
Oakland Renews Its "Declaration Of A Local Public Health Emergency
With Respect To Safe, Affordable Access To Medical Cannabis."
The Declaration Will Be Renewed Every Two Weeks As Long As Necessary!
His legal action in the 9^th Circuit has become a mortal threat to the suppression of medical marijuana.
See
A Major Disaster For Marijuana Prohibition in Oakland
– Federal Appeals Court Rules For Medical Necessity Defense

Others with lower profiles are working throughout the Northwest, implementing the states’ new medical marijuana laws.
See
Washington Citizens for Medical Rights Hails Ruling In Oakland Case

In Philadelphia, Larry Hirsch has put together a medical marijuana Class Action lawsuit that is both a legal and political action. Although the criminal defense bar has long played a key role in fighting marijuana prohibition, the problem that defense lawyers have is that the client is being held hostage by the government, which can cut its losses at any time and strike a deal that the defendant usually has to take.

The great advantage of the Philadelphia suit is that it has taken the offensive and the government is the defendant. To date, their response has actually met the legal definition of "bad faith."
See
"The laws are what the laws are.
If people want the laws changed, there has to be a sound basis in science.
We haven't changed our position. Users could be prosecuted."
"Justice" Department Defiant In Philadelphia Class Action.
On the political side, Hirsch has put together a large group of patients. It is an inspiring group, but its sheer size presents the government with a problem of scale. If the suit had been brought for only one or two people, the government might have been able to cut its losses as it does in criminal cases without setting a damaging precedent. However, the objective of the Philadelphia case is to force the government to give medical marijuana to everyone who needs it, a huge number of people. Obviously, they cannot do that, so when they lose, that will be the end of the suppression of medical marijuana.

The Meaning of Resistance.

There is a continuum between "reform" and "resistance." As usual, it is not a question of "either/or" but rather "both/and." NORML will continue to be the most important part of the effort to bring the establishment to its senses and end this tragedy as soon as possible. NORML's Allen St. Pierre will continue to be the source of most of the media’s information on the issue. Of course, it is usually unacknowledged, so he will also continue to be largely invisible, even as the movement’s more problematic personalities promote themselves.

However, I know from experience that the establishment media were quite happy with the status quo, and they would continue to ignore – indeed encourage -- the monstrous injustices of marijuana prohibition, if it were not for the momentum started by activists like Dennis Peron. The Washington Post’s recent call for reopening the government’s medical marijuana program is proof of that.
See
Washington Post Defects On Medical Marijuana!
Calls For Reopening Program Making Marijuana "available to terminally ill patients."
Implicitly Endorsing Medical Marijuana Class Action Suit.

Actions

Stop making excuses!

Jesus said that it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness. Too many marijuana users seem to think that it is better to light a single joint than to defend freedom.

It is tragic that so many Americans, and Canadians, and citizens of other countries that have traditions of liberty do nothing as their freedom is lost. It is even more appalling that we often seem to be waiting for the sick and dying to liberate us through the medical marijuana movement. The fact that this is really happening does not make it morally acceptable.
See
The Reality of the Medical Marijuana Situation In Arizona:
Have The Sick and Dying Liberated Us Yet?

Some like to wear their alienation like a badge of honor.

It doesn’t do any good to vote, they say. But the medical marijuana initiatives have been devastating for marijuana prohibition.

It doesn’t do any good to write letters to the editors, they say. But look at the impact that www.Mapinc.org is having on editorial pages.

It may be dangerous to join NORML, they say. But name one person who has ever been arrested for joining. In fact, www.NORML.org remains the most basic way for most marijuana users to participate in their own liberation. After this is over, will anyone really want to look in the mirror and not be able to say that they did at least that much?

The marijuana reform movement will go on, and eventually marijuana prohibition will rot and fall, just as communism did. But how fast it happens, how many more victims it claims, how much more suffering and injustice it inflicts, how much more damage it does to our institutions, how many more children are driven into serious substance abuse, depends on what actions people take. Or fail to take.