Bush Targets Cannabis Consumers

Well, I'll give the Bush administration this much credit; unlike the Kerry camp, they're realizing the power of the drug policy reform voting bloc. Kerry has pretty much ignored us but Bush is now vowing to *take it on* and has ordered more resources to be taken away from pursuing the more dangerous white powder drugs and have them reallocated to cracking down on cannabis instead.

Bush and his thugs at ONDCP want you to believe that marijuana is the new scourge of today's youth. They say this is not your grandmother's pot and it's so much more potent and more dangerous... Pure hogwash. I am the grandmother who smoked that pot and I'm telling you it's no better now than it was in 1960. There has always been really good pot that no one but politician's kids could afford and then there's the commercial grade Mexican that everyone else smoked. And when you did get high grade herb, you smoked a lot less of it. The dose is controllable.

In terms of the health, safety and social impact, marijuana still is and always has been the least destructive drug available to society. Alcohol, tobacco, meth and heroin are all much more dangerous and exact a far greater toll from our youth.

Also keep in mind, NIDA, the same agency that is telling you pot is more dangerous and is causing more medical and rehab interventions, is also saying the ONDCP cut the use of marijuana by 11% through use of their ineffective anti-drug programs. Both cannot be true about the same demographic group and these deceitful statistics and irrational policies are actually putting our youth more at risk, not less.

And what's up with the government-funded Mississippi growing facility we've been talking about naming it's anti-legalization program the Marijuana Potency Project -- a direct play on words on the privately run pro-legalization organization, Marijuana Policy Project. It's practically a copyright violation and clearly designed to confuse a young person looking for real information instead of NIDA propaganda.

Make no mistake about it. This new focus has nothing to do with public safety. The Bush administration feels sufficiently challenged by our numbers and effectiveness at organizing, that they are targeting our issue with a proposal that is sheer folly. Kerry would do well to acknowledge the abject failure of these policies and start courting our ranks by coming out of the convention with a plank on drug policy reform.