"Bong Hits For Jesus"

Effective drug education based on medical science builds student's confidence to make informed responsible choices. Present policy falsehoods and scare tactics undermine our credibility. We want to encourage drug free behavior not awaken their curiosity. Truth, trust and reason encourage open
communications between youth, parents and faculties.

This case is also about religious freedom and in that way, "Bong Hits for Jesus," is right on, as well. Holy smokes, cannabis is often used as a sacrament just like wine. Why does that scare people of faith instead of excite them?

Carl Sagan said, "The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world."

It is down right sinister, a crime against humanity, for the medicinal uses of cannabis to be suppressed. Some scientific researchers speculate that cannabinoids play a protective role in the brain, slowing the rate of disease. Ooooops! Who spilled the beans? Scientists and patients all over
the world, that's who!

Patients testify to Cannabis' help in treating Alzheimer's, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, gastrointestinal (GI) tract disorders, Cancer and HIV/AIDS! A 2007 Columbia University in New York study reported smoking average strength cannabis was as effective as taking 8 times the US FDA recommended dose of Marinol!

Joe Federick and his buds were led down the garden path by their legal counsel and adult mentors. Joe should have been encouraged to go on defending the banner, as he did initially on the grounds of political free speech and religious freedom. Out of fear or greed his "supporters?" chose "to defend?" the banner as a nonsense prank to get on TV, instead of an on target political statement. Speech promoting science based drug law reform should be free against speech, "reasonably viewed as promoting" current policy in America, surely. Our corrupt justice system is milked for all its worth by lawyers and many others, who have the power to make it run with the milk of human kindness.

"The Court does serious violence to the First Amendment in upholding—indeed, lauding—a school's decision to punish Frederick for expressing a view with which it disagreed." Justice John Paul Stevens wrote: in dissent. Stevens said, " Just as Prohibition in the 1920s and early 1930s was secretly questioned by thousands of otherwise law-abiding patrons of bootleggers and speakeasies, today the actions of literally millions of otherwise law-abiding users of marijuana, and of the majority of voters in each of the several states that tolerate medicinal uses of the product, lead me to wonder whether the fear of disapproval by those in the majority is silencing opponents of the war on drugs."

Throughout history people have found ways to alter their consciousness. In primitive societies psychoactive plants were sacred and ingested with care, with supposed spiritual intent, but use was often limited to a corrupt powerful few who used fear and superstition to control the masses.

Today to celebrate, to relax, to just feel better, to live without pain, fear, uncertainty, depression and doubt we use our favorite legal or illegal drug. Nationally, globally, enmasse, we are a High Society!

Dr. Albert Hoffman, LSD inventor, is dead at 102, a son died at 53 of alcoholism. Dr. Hofmann called LSD "medicine for the soul," and believed LSD could be "used to awaken a deeper awareness of mankind's place in nature and help curb society's ultimately self-destructive degradation of the natural world." Before his death, he said, "I go back to where I came from, to where I was before I was born, that's all."

When we stand in awe of the wonders of creation, all the animals, all the plants and are struck with the magnificent power and beauty of nature, our spirit connects with our source. This feeling of oneness or love gives us more self control, more compassion for others. It heals our spirit. If some carry on the ancient tradition of using drugs as a sacrament, to enhance spiritual growth, it is cause for rejoicing not incarceration.

The Almighty Creator is the source of all creativity. Our individual dreams, the American dream and all dreams of freedom around the world come from our source. The Holy Spirit has the power to make them manifest.

What kind of life, what kind of world do we want to create? Focusing on the true nature of creativity as a spiritual issue, not an ego issue, can help us transform ourselves and our world. This simple shift in focus creates the nurturing atmosphere needed to work together to overcome obstacles and solve problems.

Big government plays on our fears to make us more accepting of their waste of our precious lives and resources. Our founders knew big government would always mean a gang of evil doers. "All men having power ought to be mistrusted," said James Madison the primary author of our Constitution. What we need is narrow-eyed, deeply skeptical attitude, if our concern is a political issue or a health issue.

The plan was for America to have small, open, (no secrets in government by the people, for the people) and fiscally responsible government. The real visionaries, who laid down our laws, those who defined what an American patriot would be, were rebels with just cause. They made it not just our right but our patriotic duty to rebel against big government corruption.

"Give me Liberty or give me death" - Patrick Henry, "Live Free or Die Hard" - Bruce Willis, Americans believe self-government is worth sacrificing our precious lives for.

The crafter of our Constitution were good Christian men led by the holy spirit but money the root of all evil was part of it. They wanted to create the land of abundance. They knew ethics would have to rule for it to work. The Spirit of '76 is the Holy Spirit and our true north.

Prohibition fuels corruption of public officials and injustice in our courts. It triggers violence in our streets and along our borders. It incites terrorists by forcing senseless policy on other countries. The black market supports despicable people who sell to children and who recruit them to sell to their peers. The statistics reveal that racism is epidemic in the drug war.

Alcohol makes domestic violence 8xs more likely; marijuana does not according to a 2003 study. Sadly, taking children from the loving homes of nonviolent cannabis users and placing them in homes where alcohol is the drug of choice happens to be a social "services" trend.

There is a link between psychotropic drugs and violence including school violence!

Big pharma, alcohol and tobacco and other major corporations have way too much control over our political leaders. Drug abuse is a health issue not a criminal activity.

Over a thousand people die each day due to tobacco use! Close to 300 a day die from prescribed pharmaceuticals. . The tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceuticals gangs deal drugs that kill many more annually than all illicit drugs. We tolerate their salesmen!

Abstinence from recreational drugs is safest for all, especially youth but few will choose it. Parents do need to set an example for their children. However, most parents who use drugs and alcohol do not abuse them. They are responsible drug users, especially marijuana users as it is the safest choice.

I taught my children that their bodies are the temples of their souls. However, when my children became young adults I told them the truth about drugs. Including that marijuana is a safer health choice in a recreational drug but the collateral damage from arrest can be devastating and life long.

"Save the children from Prohibition," was a slogan used to end alcohol prohibition. Punishing them for making a safer health choice today is absolute madness. Again we need to save the children from the drug war's collateral damage.

"Every child is an artist. The problem is to remain an artist once he grows up," said Pablo Picasso. It is up to us to choose how to use our creative gifts and which ones to cultivate. Time is limited, find the time to, as Elvis sang, "Follow that Dream". Hold fast to the American dream of self government free of tyranny and oppression. Our dreams come from God and God has the power to make them manifest! For those who don't believe in a higher power or a supreme being but do comprehend a super consciousness, substitute the word Universe, i.e., Our dreams come from the just, good, moral Universe and the Universe has the power to make them manifest.

Here's another crime against humanity, Plan Colombia. It has failed spectacularly. Ostensibly focused on drugs, now renamed the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, instead it got us involved in a
38 years old civil war.

Corporations that sell helicopters and drill for oil benefit from Plan Columbia at the price of human and environmental sacrifice. According to Columbians 12% of the acreage that we sprayed was coca, 88% was food crops, with over 8,000 complaints filed over erroneous fumigation of food crops.

Jan Egeland, a United Nations humanitarian coordinator, describes Colombia as "The biggest humanitarian problem, human rights problem, the biggest conflict in the Western Hemisphere." We are the bad guys, we are the problem.

Our own American Medical Assoc., at its 2004 convention, said the spraying is causing "widespread illnesses, destroying pastures, destroying food crops, poisoning livestock, displacing thousands of small farmers, and killing birds, mammals, aquatic life, and natural plants."

Our own government's 2006 survey showed that Colombia had more acres of coca being cultivated now than when Plan Colombia began. The black market supports FARC.and triggers violence in our streets, along our borders and around the world.

Our friends, neighbors and the free press in Mexico are threatened by horrifically violent drug cartels and big government corruption. Tejas is not Spanish for Texas, the name Texas comes from the Hasini Indian word "tejas" meaning friends, amigos, buds.

Drug abuse is a medical problem. We will do a better job preventing overdose deaths, of keeping intoxicated folks off the road and our children drug free with compassionate policy offering helpful treatment.

Legalizing and regulating drug distribution would immediately cut off the major source of funding for terrorists worldwide. When will we declare our independence from big government's scandalous waste of our precious lives and resources? Our founders believed the best way to spread the freedom philosophy is by being a shining example.

Restore justice in the world; construct science based drug policies about saving and rehabilitating instead of ruining lives. Warriors can get their adrenaline rush increasing public safety; chasing murderers and violent sexual predators. Support for the war on drugs is inconsistent with support
for individual freedom, small government and the teachings of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.