(Como complemento, indispensable entendemos, de la iniciativa legislativa estadounidense, recomendamos echar una ojeada a Algunas propiedades terapéuticas del cannabis, que ni la DEA ni la CIA ni el lobby farmacéutico transnacional, y sus inmensos recursos económicos y coercitivos, han conseguido silenciar ni ocultar por completo).
México D.F., a 24 de junio de 2011
El Universal
Plantean a Congreso de EU legalizar mariguana
La aprobación, estiman, sería un golpe a los traficantes
Viernes 24 de junio de 2011 J. Jaime Hernández/ Corresponsal | El Universal
Washington.— En una propuesta que difícilmente tomará cuerpo de ley, pero que habla de las tendencias y la dinámica del debate sobre el consumo de la mariguana en Estados Unidos, una comisión bipartidista de legisladores presentó ayer ante el Congreso una iniciativa que legalizaría el consumo de la mariguana a nivel federal.
La propuesta, presentada por los congresistas Ron Paul y Barney Frank, republicano y demócrata respectivamente, permitiría a los estados “legalizar, regular, fiscalizar y controlar el cultivo y comercio de la mariguana sin la interferencia del gobierno federal”.
“No creo que pase en el Congreso. Pero creo que hay que dar el primer paso, que va más allá del tema de la necesidad médica y es parte de un proceso de educación”, aseguró Barney, un legislador instalado en el ala más liberal del Partido Demócrata.
Aunque la propuesta intenta evitar que desde el gobierno federal se persiga a quienes representan a la próspera industria de la mariguana desde los 16 estados que ya la han legalizado con fines medicinales, sus promotores han defendido el impacto que esta legalización tendría en los ingresos de los cárteles de la droga mexicanos.
“Cerca de la mitad del dinero de los cárteles es generado por el comercio de mariguana, de modo que legalizar la mariguana y ponerla en un marco regulador sería un enorme golpe para los cárteles”, consideró el congresista Jared Polis, demócrata por Colorado, al defender el ángulo económico de una iniciativa que difícilmente llegará a buen puerto en una cámara dominada por el Partido Republicano.
Al presentar su iniciativa, tanto Frank como Paul aseguraron que “la legislación limitaría el papel del gobierno federal a la hora de controlar la mariguana (y) permitiría a los ciudadanos plantar, usar o vender mariguana legalmente en los estados donde sea legal”.
Actualmente, plantar, vender o distribuir comercialmente cannabis es ilegal, según la legislación federal y la administración del presidente Barack Obama ya ha advertido que se opone a toda forma de legalización a nivel federal.
Pero, en opinión de los legisladores que respaldan la propuesta, ésta “acabaría con el conflicto entre estados y gobierno federal sobre la política a seguir respecto a la mariguana”, cuyo consumo con fines medicinales ya está regulado en Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Hawai, Maine, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, Nueva Jersey, Nuevo México, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont y Washington.
La oficina de la líder de la minoría demócrata en la Cámara de Representantes, Nancy Pelosi, se abstuvo de señalar si acaso la representante por California apoyaba la propuesta que sí han respaldado, en cambio, los demócratas John Conyers, Steve Cohen y Barbara Lee.
Cambiar la estrategia
Hace tres semanas la “Comisión Global de Políticas de Drogas” —que incluye a prestigiosos líderes como el secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, Ban Ki-moon; los ex presidentes de Brasil, Colombia y México, Henrique Cardoso, César Gaviria y Ernesto Zedillo, además de los escritores Carlos Fuentes y Mario Vargas Llosa—, se pronunció a favor de cambiar de estrategia y de hablar abiertamente de la necesidad de descriminalizar drogas blandas como la mariguana.
A ellos se sumó el ex presidente estadounidense James Carter, quien en una carta abierta publicada el pasado día 17 en las páginas de The New York Times habló de la necesidad de despenalizar el consumo de la mariguana.
– Relacionados:
Legalización de drogas, insuficiente e ineficaz: Poiré página 2
Cobertura Narcotráfico. La lucha por el territorio página 3
Absurdo pensar en legalización: ‘Zar‘ antidrogas página 6
Ron Paul: End Marijuana Prohibition Now!
By RonPaul.com on June 23, 2011
Ron Paul is America’s leading voice for limited, constitutional government, low taxes, free markets, a return to sound monetary policies, and a sensible pro-America foreign policy.
By any honest measure, the so-called War on Drugs has been an utter failure. And it’s time to end the wasted billions, the injustice, the human suffering and the total political lunacy that began this Nixon-era scheme in the first place. Rep. Ron Paul has joined forces with Rep. Barney Frank to introduce legislation that would legalize marijuana across America and end the failure of prohibition.
Mike Adams, NaturalNews [[- Para facilitar la lectura del texto de Mike Adams, hemos preparado Links related to «Four decades of drug war tyranny may come to an end with Ron Paul’s new effort to legalize marijuana«, desde donde se accede directamente, en cada una de las palabras clave de NaturalNews, al artículo/s que pueda interesar:
News, articles and information; Concept-related articles to:
*Drugs (pág. 5)
*Drug (29)
*Violence (53)
*Government (63)
*Ron Paul (87)
*America (91)
*Business (116)
*Tyranny (141)
*The DEA (148)
*Monopoly (150)
*Big Pharma (156)
*People (181)
*Society (192)
*Smokers (194)
*Tax (200)
*Taxes (212)
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*Criminals (225)
*Prisons (230)
*Crime (231)
*Money (242)
*Child (266)
*DEA (289)
*Waste (295)
*Alcohol (312)]], June 23, 2011
The War on Drugs, through interdicting street supplies of drugs, has only made the drug gangs wealthier by driving up the value of the drugs that remain readily available. And it is now admitted that the ATF actually placed tens of thousands of weapons directly into the hands of Mexican drug gangs, giving rise to the very gang violence the agency claims to be preventing [[U.S. agents slam gun sting effort on Mexico border
Washington | Wed Jun 15, 2011
(Reuters) – U.S. firearms agents told lawmakers on Wednesday they were instructed to only watch as hundreds of guns were bought, illegally resold and sent to Mexico where drug-related violence has raged for years.
Agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Arizona told the House of Representatives Oversight Committee they were told not to arrest the so-called straw buyers and instead see where the guns went.
Republicans and Democrats on the panel expressed outrage about the ATF program — «Operation Fast and Furious» — and demanded answers from the Obama administration about why arrests were secondary to tracking the firearms.
«We monitored as they purchased handguns, AK-47 variants and .50 caliber rifles, almost daily at times,» John Dodson, an ATF special agent in Phoenix, told the committee.
«Rather than conduct any enforcement actions, we took notes, we recorded observations, we tracked movements of these individuals, we wrote reports but nothing more.»
Dodson said agents were never given reasonable answers why their activities were limited.
An ATF supervisor in Phoenix, Peter Forcelli, said some tried to raise concerns with supervisors but were rebuffed.
«My concerns were dismissed,» he told the committee. «I believe that these firearms will continue to turn up at crime scenes, on both sides of the border, for years to come.»
The agents complained they were ordered to break off surveillance of the firearms and instead follow the original gun purchaser rather than track where the weapons went.
Drug violence and the flow of guns over the U.S. border into Mexico has developed into a major sore point between the two countries, straining diplomatic ties and leading Mexican officials to openly criticize the United States.
Thousand of Guns Traced Back to U.S.
Of the nearly 30,000 firearms recovered in 2009 and 2010 in Mexico, where gun possession is illegal, some 70 percent were determined to have come from the United States, ATF officials told lawmakers last week.
The program has renewed the political debate over tougher gun control laws.
Republicans, who largely oppose more limits, control the House and President Barack Obama’s Democrats, who generally want stricter rules, control the Senate, making it unlikely that such legislation could pass before the 2012 election.
Republicans and Democrats expressed outrage at the ATF program, particularly about two weapons being found at the scene where a U.S. Border Patrol agent, Brian Terry, was killed in a shootout with illegal immigrants.
It still has not been revealed whether either of those weapons were responsible for his death.
«What we find is that people at the local level overwhelmingly objected to this program but were assured that it was approved at the highest levels,» said House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa.
A report by Issa and the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Charles Grassley, said whenever there was a shooting incident in Arizona, ATF agents feared they would be traced back to guns that were supposed to be watched.
That included the shooting in January of Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was gravely wounded. That gun has not been linked to the ATF program.
«The allegations that have been made are very troubling and new information we have obtained raises additional concerns about the roles of various actors involved in these incidents,» said Elijah Cummings, the top Democrat on the panel.
Republicans on the panel have demanded documents and information about the program from the Justice Department, which includes the ATF, but the Obama administration has resisted pending its own investigation and prosecutions.
The Justice Department’s inspector general is looking into any impropriety in the program. Prosecutors have also brought charges related to the death of the border patrol agent.
(Editing by John O’Callaghan)
Source: Reuters.]].
The U.S. government, it turns out, is actually contributing to the drug war violence!
Ron Paul, Barney Frank join forces to end the insanity
In an effort to end the insanity, Rep. Ron Paul [[Ron Paul Vs. Stephen Baldwin Sobre la Legalización de la Marihuana
Ron Paul debates Stephen Baldwin on Legalizing Marijuana. Subido por ronpaulspanish el 01/04/2009.]] [[Estados Unidos: El Sueño de Todo Dictador
Informe Semanal 30/05/2011 – Por Ron Paul
Estos son días verdaderamente preocupantes para la libertad en los Estados Unidos. La semana pasada, el plazo de 60 días para que el presidente obtuviera la aprobación del Congreso para nuestra participación militar en Libia bajo la resolución “War Power” (Poder de Guerra) se fue como vino. Los medios apenas lo cubrieron. Los bombardeos continuaron. Tuvimos una audiencia en el Capitolio sobre el tema, pero la administración se niega a preocuparse por la legalidad de esta nueva guerra. No está claro si Obama alguna vez obtendrá el consentimiento del Congreso y, sorprendentemente, se está discutiendo si es que lo necesita.
– El artículo 1, sección 8 de la Constitución lo ve de otro modo. Establece claramente que el poder para declarar la guerra descansa dentro del poder legislativo –el poder más representativo de la población. Los fundadores eran personas cansadas de las guerras, y el requisito de una ley del Congreso para ir a la guerra fue intencional. Creían que no se debería entrar en guerras a la ligera, por ello se negaron a dejar tal decisión en manos de una sola persona. Se opusieron al poder bélico absoluto de los reyes. Sería increíblemente ingenuo pensar que un dictador jamás podría hacerse con el poder de este país.
– Nuestros presidentes ahora pueden, por sí solos: ordenar asesinatos, incluyendo ciudadanos estadounidenses; operar tribunales militares secretos; torturar; encarcelar indefinidamente sin debido procedimiento; ordenar registros e incautaciones sin orden judicial; descuartizar la cuarta enmienda; ignorar la regla de 60 días para presentar ante el Congreso la naturaleza de cualquier operación militar, como lo requiere la War Power Resolution (Resolución Poder de Guerra); continuar con los abusos del Patriot Act (Ley Patriota) sin supervisión; iniciar guerras a su antojo y tratar a todos los estadounidenses como sospechosos de terrorismo en los aeropuertos, con los manoseos y la máquina de Rayos-X de la TSA.
Quienes no se alarmen con todo esto no están prestando atención, o confían demasiado en los funcionarios del gobierno como para estar preocupados. Quienes estén en el gobierno hoy en día podrán ser personas confiables y maravillosas. ¿Pero qué hay de los líderes del futuro? Ellos heredarán todos los poderes adicionales que les cedemos a los actuales titulares del puesto. ¿Podemos confiar en que no se aprovechen de ello? Las mejores intenciones de hoy crean lagunas y oportunidades para los tiranos del mañana.
Quizás el incremento de poder más preocupante es la reciente expansión de la misión asociada con los ataques del 11 de septiembre y con las guerras de Irak y Afganistán. Algo que comenzó como ataques específicos a los autores del 11/9 continúa luego de 10 años con una guerra que se expande. ¿Y contra quién? La semana pasada el Congreso aprobó un proyecto de ley de “Autorización para la Defensa”, de un lenguaje muy inquietante, que explícitamente extiende el poder de guerra del presidente a casi cualquier persona. La sección 1034 de la ley dice que estamos en guerra con los Talibanes, con al Qaeda y con sus fuerzas asociadas. ¿Quiénes son estas fuerzas asociadas? También incluye a cualquiera que haya apoyado las hostilidades que hayan ayudado a cualquier organización que ayude a estas fuerzas asociadas. Esta autorización no está limitada geográficamente, y no tiene fecha de caducidad. No importa si estas fuerzas asociadas son o no estadounidenses. Tus derechos constitucionales ya no aplican cuando los Estados Unidos están “en guerra” contigo. ¿Sería tan difícil, para alguien del gobierno, “conectar” a algún enemigo político con al Qaeda, aunque sea tenuemente, y declararlo una “fuerza asociada”?
Mi colega, el Congresista Justin Amash, encabezó un esfuerzo para hacer que se elimine este lenguaje tan preocupante, pero desafortunadamente fracasó por una votación de 234 contra 187. Es realmente lamentable que tantos en el Congreso respalden una autoridad bélica ilimitada en manos del Poder Ejecutivo.
Fuente: Ron Paul en español.]] has joined forces with Rep. Barney Frank [[- Abren vía para legalizar la mariguana en EU, La Jornada/David Brooks, 24-Junio-2011, Vanguardia, México, 24-06-2011
Congressman Barney Frank, The Fourth Congressional District of Massachusetts, Media Coverage:
* “Ron Paul and Barney Frank: End the pot prohibition«, CNN Money, 22-06-2011
* “Ron Paul, Barney Frank: Legalize it”, Politico, seattlepi, 23-06-2011
* “Barney Frank and Ron Paul team up to legalize marijuana”, Salon.com, War Room, 22-06-2011
* “Ron Paul, Barney Frank to jointly introduce bill to end federal war on Marijuana”, Los Angeles Times, 22-06-2011
“Call Off the Global Drug War”, by Jimmy Carter, The New York Times, The Opinion Pages, 16-06-2011]] to introduce legislation legalizing marijuana in America. President Obama, you may recall, promised voters on the campaign trail that he would do this, too, but it seems he’s been too busy bombing Libya and using the U.S. Constitution as a floor mat to bother keeping any actual promises. (GITMO is still open for business, too, in case you haven’t noticed …).
Of course, the War on Drugs is a very effective tool of tyranny to be used against the American people. It empowers the DEA and the federal government to conduct surprise searches of any home or business for any reason whatsoever (even without a warrant), it keeps the prison industry overflowing with endless cheap human labor, and it grants the big drug companies a monopoly over all those recreational drugs that are now sold as pharmaceuticals.
«Speed,» for example, is now sold as an ADHD treatment for children. Big Pharma is also going after THC chemicals in marijuana and hopes to sell them as prescription drugs. By keeping the War on Drugs in place, Big Pharma is assured a monopoly that even the drug lords haven’t been able to accomplish.
An issue that crosses political boundaries
One thing that’s especially interesting about the so-called War on Drugs is how the best-informed people on both the left and the right now see it all as a complete fraud. Perhaps that’s why Rep. Ron Paul (Republican) and Rep. Barney Frank (Democrat) are the perfect sponsors of this bill. Each has staked out positions on the opposite ends of the political spectrum for some issues, yet they both agree that it’s time to end the failed Nixon-era policies that have only brought this nation suffering and injustice.
Ending the failed War on Drugs is not a conservative idea nor a liberal idea; it’s a principle of liberty whose time has come in America.
Because in observing the War on Drugs, the prison crowding, the drug underground economy and all the other unintended consequence of marijuana prohibition, we must ask the question: Is society served in any way by criminalizing marijuana smokers? How does taking a medical addict and throwing them behind bars accomplish anything at all?
The prohibition against marijuana accomplishes nothing for society
For starters, it halts the contributions of a tax paying citizen. Most pot smokers actually have jobs and pay taxes. They are functioning citizens –lawyers, accountants, musicians, administrators and more. By throwing them in prison, you’re destroying their own ability to participate in the economy while actually placing a new cost burden on the rest of society.
Secondly, from a moral perspective, pot smokers need medical support, not criminal indictment. If someone is suffering from a substance addiction, how does throwing them in prison and surrounding them with other addicts and hardened criminals serve any positive purpose whatsoever? Today, U.S. prisons actually function more like criminal training camps where people come out as far more violent criminals than when they went in. So the justice system actually ends up capturing people who are relatively peaceful, tax-paying citizens and then turning them into hardened criminals who are eventually released onto the streets.
How insane is that?
Wouldn’t it make more sense to allow them to continue to function in society but help them with their drug addiction through a medical / health perspective? Addicts need support, not incarceration. And today’s justice system does absolutely nothing to rehabilitate prisoners. It only makes them far worse criminals.
And finally, from an economic perspective alone, can any U.S. state really afford to continue incarcerating people for non-violent crimes that have no victims? Who is harmed with a guy down the street lights up a joint? No one. There are no victims. There is no crime, either, other than the fictional crime the State fabricates to incarcerate people.
A «real» crime is a crime that has a victim: A rape, a burglary, a mugging, or a murder. Those crimes deserve proper consideration by the justice system, and people who commit such crimes are precisely the kind of people society can justifiably put behind bars. But carrying a few ounces of marijuana in your pocket –or even lighting up a smoke– violates no person or property. Nor does it violate any moral or ethical principle. It is, in every way, an act that is improperly and unjustifiably criminalized through legal fictions engineered by the state.
The solution to marijuana prohibition is finally at hand
It is time to end those legal fictions and end the War on Drugs in America. The solution is to:
#1) Legalize marijuana across the country.
#2) Regulate marijuana and allow it to be sold through licensed retailers.
#3) Tax marijuana sales and use the tax proceeds to fund addiction support programs for those small percentage of users who end up addicted.
The results of these actions will be:
#1) A Collapse of the drug gangs. If marijuana is suddenly legal, who would bother buying it from a street dealer?
#2) A Collapse of drug profits. If it’s legal, the price goes down. Suddenly there’s no more money in trafficking the drug, either, so the drug gangs are instantly out of business.
#3) A Huge Increase in revenues to the states from collecting taxes on the legal sale of marijuana.
#4) A Reduction in young people trying the drug. What teenager wants to try something if it’s Legal? Legalizing pot takes all the «fun» out of it for many young people. It’s no longer cool. Kinda boring, actually. And it makes you cough.
#5) A Savings of billions of dollars off all the money states are right now spending arresting, prosecuting and incarcerating people for possessing marijuana. This money could be used to build schools, roads, job re-education programs and more. And don’t court judges have better things to do than sentence pot smokers?
#6) An End to prison overcrowding. End the sentences for those incarcerated merely for marijuana possession. Set them free and end the prison crowding. Save the prisons for the real criminals such as murderers, child molesters and Wall Street bankers.
#7) A Freer, more just society that respects human dignity. If you treat addicts like criminals, you take away their dignity, and your entire society suffers a net loss. By recognizing the humanity behind the addiction, we can restore human dignity to the entire process of how we deal with drug addicts in society today.
Action item: Call your Congressman to support this bill!
Here’s what you can do right now to help support this bill: Call your Congressman in Washington D.C. and tell them you want to support the bill to end the federal ban on marijuana.
The switchboard number is 202-224-3121.
If you live in the U.S. or are a U.S. citizen, call this number now, ask to be connected to your Congressperson, and verbally express your support for the bill to legalize marijuana across America.
It is time to end the failed War on Drugs, stop the useless incarceration of millions of innocent people, and halt the tyranny of the DEA and other federal agencies that waste billions of dollars every year stalking and assaulting people who merely want to smoke a weed.
I don’t smoke weed, by the way, but as a person who believes in the principles of freedom and liberty, I fully support the rights of others to smoke marijuana if they so choose. Similarly, I don’t drink alcohol, but I support the rights of other to drink alcohol if that’s their decision. As a nation, we tried prohibition with alcohol and it was a disaster. Now we’re living through the era of marijuana prohibition, and it is a disastrous failure as well. Isn’t it time we grew up as a nation and allowed people to take responsibility for their own actions as long as they aren’t harming anyone else in the process?
Smoke all you want, folks! I’m gonna have a superfood smoothie instead [[Sources for this story include:
Yahoo! News
Canada
Lawmakers to introduce bill to legalize marijuana
By Luis Robayo | AFP – June 23, 2011
A group of US representatives plan to introduce legislation that will legalize marijuana and allow states to legislate its use, pro-marijuana groups said Wednesday.
The legislation would limit the federal government’s role in marijuana enforcement to cross-border or inter-state smuggling, and allow people to legally grow, use or sell marijuana in states where it is legal.
The bill, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday by Republican Representative Ron Paul and Democratic Representative Barney Frank, would be the first ever legislation designed to end the federal ban on marijuana.
Sixteen of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia have legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
But planting, selling or commercially distributing marijuana remains illegal under federal law.
Last year, California citizens voted not to legalize recreational marijuana use, although the debate continues in about half a dozen other states.
Three weeks ago a group of ex-presidents of Latin America as well as former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan denounced the failure of the global war on drugs and called for urgent changes, including the legalization of cannabis.
Between 1998 and 2008, worldwide consumption of opiates increased 35 percent, with cocaine use growing 27 percent and marijuana use growing 8.5 percent, according to the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
June marks the 40th anniversary of the «War on Drugs» launched by President Richard Nixon in 1970, the first major US anti-drug initiative.
Source: Yahoo! News Canada.]].
– Articles Related to This Article:
• The FDA Exposed: An Interview With Dr. David Graham, the Vioxx Whistleblower
• The great direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising con: how patients and doctors alike are easily influenced to demand dangerous drugs
• Psychiatric Drugs: Chemical Warfare on Humans – interview with Robert Whitaker
• 28 Senators vote to maintain Big Pharma monopoly over U.S. consumers; Republicans oppose free trade for medicine
• FDA accused of suppressing drug safety information (commentary)
• The raw (and ugly) truth about the war on drugs
Source: NaturalNews
(24 de junio de 2011)
