DRUGS
Instead of fighting the growing heroin and crystal-meth epidemics, the BAD has instead focused on the activities of severely ill and crippled users of medical-marijuana. In Santa Cruz, California on September 5, 2002, more than 20 armed federal agents raided a hospice without warning, holding their rifles to the heads of cancer, AIDS, and other patients and their caregivers.[i] When a paraplegic named Suzanne Pfeil was awakened at gunpoint and ordered to stand and could not oblige for quite obvious reasons, she was handcuffed to her bed like a criminal. Federal agents terrorized these people, some of which were dying and suffering from various maladies such as multiple sclerosis, AIDS, and cancer. These patients and their innocent caretakers were terrorized because they were marijuana users with doctor’s approval in a state and city where medical marijuana is legally permitted. (California is one of ten states that have so far legalized medical marijuana.) In another example of abusing the ill, a quadriplegic named Jonathan Magbie died while serving a 10 day sentence for marijuana possession in a jail in Washington D.C. in September 2004. (46) The jail was unequipped with the medical technology Magbie needed in order to breathe; he could not breathe on his own and so he died. Or should we say he was killed by the BAD and their crusade to stop marijuana?
So while there are now more crack dealers in the projects, more ecstasy in the nightclubs, more heroin in our suburbs, and more crystal-meth in our schools, there are now also less cancer patients with marijuana! The BAD is wasting money and time on the one drug that’s never killed anyone— marijuana. Meanwhile, thousands die every year from drunk driving incidents. Well, Bush wouldn’t want to be a hypocrite and stop those drunk drivers, now would he? Here’s a president who has a drunk driving record, is a known confessed alcoholic, as well as a rumored past cocaine user, yet he’s bothering the people who choose the one drug that never hurt anyone else. The worst part of this hypocrisy is they’re bullying around a group of unfortunate people who have diseases and permanent injuries. Some of these permanently injured medical marijuana users are veterans, so now they’re even disrespecting the troops who fought and suffered for this great country. What a slap in the face!
This mistreatment of disabled civilian and veteran Americans can be blamed on the BAD drug czar John Walters, who has some strange vendetta with marijuana and has linked its use to terrorism, claiming it supports the likes of Al Qaeda. What if I told you the truth right now, that our government sanctioned millions of aid to Afghanistan farmers in 2001 just prior to 9/11, which directly helped the revitalization of their heroin crops—Heroin that went directly to our American youth? (10) That is the truth, yet this Walters character has the gall to link marijuana to terrorism cells! The BAD has capitalized on terrorism 110% in every department haven’t they? The sad part is Afghanistan has once again become the world’s biggest producer of opium.
There are roughly 700,000 marijuana arrests every year in the United States now under the BAD. Prisons are overcrowded with people caught with a minimal amount of marijuana. Lives are ruined and many of these lives had legal prescriptions in states where it is legal to use marijuana. You may ask whether I am promoting marijuana or not, but that is not the question you should be asking. In case you really want to know, I am not promoting marijuana; I know it has many negative effects on people if misused. The questions you should really be asking are, why isn’t the BAD doing they’re job and protecting our children from the really serious drugs? Why is the BAD mistreating the ill and dictating how they should spend their last days? Why is the BAD wasting precious time and energy on a drug that’s never killed anyone and doesn’t come close to the damage that someone does to their life when abusing heroin, crystal meth, cocaine, alcohol, or even food. Is it because those drugs are too profitable for our government to attack them?
Perhaps the BAD should go after the fast food companies instead of marijuana, a crusade that is urgently needed in America. More than 65% of Americans are overweight and thousands are dying due to weight-related illnesses such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, and stroke. President of the American Obesity Association, Dr. Richard L. Atkinson, M.D. even acknowledged, “We know now the health effects of obesity are similar or greater than smoking, problem drinking and being poor… One would think, then, that the health care industry including programs of the federal government would be actively involved in stemming the obesity epidemic. But they are not. If one looks at research, education, prevention, treatment, consumer protection or discrimination, the health care field treats obesity as a second-class citizen.” The BAD, especially Dick Cheney, won’t touch this crisis though; too much money and too much satisfaction in the fast food industry for the government to interfere.
A February 2005 Wall Street Journal poll found that 83 percent of American adults believe “public schools need to do a better job of limiting children’s access to unhealthy foods like snack foods, sugary soft drinks and fast food.” Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy recently proposed a Prevention of Childhood Obesity Act, and Iowa Senator Tom Harkin proposed a Healthy Lifestyles and Prevention (HeLP) America Act, but how far will these bills go when there are millions of dollars at stake? Millions of dollars of profit for the big junk-food companies and millions of dollars that go to the GOP in the form of contributions.
Coke lobbyists Kirk Blalock and Marc Lampkin are both hundred-thousand-dollar contributors. Joe Weller, CEO of Nestle is also a huge contributor. Altria also gave $250,000 to Bush. According to research in an article published in The Nation, “Junk Food Nation” by Gary Ruskin and Juliet Schor, these contributions are all in addition to substantial sums given during the 2000 campaign. The article further states, “For their money, the industry has been able to buy into a strategy on obesity and food marketing that mirrors the approach taken by Big Tobacco,” which is to claim they’re helping people quit while they’re really still feeding the addictions. The BAD can’t be bothered with fighting real American problems like obesity and health; there’s too much money in it for them.
Republicans on a whole don’t have the time for real issues that affect real Americans. They’re too busy pretending to go to church. Too busy with their own lives. Too busy to worry about “vagrants in the bad section of town” or the unemployed who should “get a job,” even though they can’t because there aren’t any left. Too busy to worry about wildlife and environmental safety. Too busy to worry about anything that happens outside of their own backyards. Apathy is their greatest weapon.
I pledge allegiance to the flag
of the divided states of America
And to the Republicans for which it stands now
one nation under their God
invisible
with no liberty
and injustice for all.
