Police using  military helicopters raided a New Mexico school looking for marijuana growing in a greenhouse last month, but all they found there were a bunch of tomatoes.

To All Of Our Native American Indian Relations, Political Representatives, Religious Teachers, Chiefs, Councilmen and women, Elders, Shamans, Medicine societies, Fortune Seekers and Educators-
According to history books and treaties to date. Somewhere along the line we became Federally recognized. Are all people Federally recognized or just the Native American Indians or when you work for the Federal Government or become Federally incarcerated? We are not recognized as people unless we are Federally recognized. No matter if your from Canada or United States of America
As people of a community or tribe when exactly do we practice our Federal Rights or our recognition? During elections when all politicians need our votes. But when issues arise hands are tied, because we are Federally recognized. By the very same offices we elected in. Is it a privilege or a mockery of our heritage?. Do we as tribes or Councils use and practice our rights as being Federally recognized? I’ve participated in marches every year in the late 60’s and 70’s across the U.S. and Canadian border in Niagara Falls in honor of the Jay Treaty.
I now would like to speak out to all and for all of our Native American People.
This Federal recognition, exactly what is this meaning for Our People, Land and Traditional Cultures?. I myself, feel this Federal is an (excuse the term, expression) a Chinese jump rope. If anyone has ever played Chinese jump rope the competitors can put the rope anywhere they would like and you have to jump it.
There are certain ideas and proposals in regard of Native American Indian issues that are automatically refused because we are Federally recognized. There are tribes that were allowed to build casinos to help the tribes revenue, while others were denied.
To see a future where our elders, council and communities would rather see oil wells and our land have the natural minerals and oils sucked from the Mother Earth. What I’ve witnessed is certain landowners getting prosperity, wealth lining their own pockets only too become failed alcoholics and drug addicts, most not all. How does this help the tribes economy?.
For everyone to be so quick and judgmental about medical marijuana, to refuse the rights to grow and industrialize it to profit our people and the land is unthinkable.
Our ancestors fought centuries to protect the Mother Earth from the natural resources being stripped and drained from the very soil that provides our daily bread and other vitalities to life. To be drilled and have gases and oils on the face of the earth to which there is too much of to where there’s billions of dollars spent on cleanups mishaps and etc.
Understand-Medical Marijuana has been one of the many medicines our ancestors implied for centuries. The difference between the yrs is this, our medicine Shamans only used the medical marijuana when needed. Unlike the people outside our culture are the ones that made it recreational and misused it and misrepresented the medicinal use. Our well respected Shamans did not pass a bag of so called joints or peacepipes filled with Marijuana and stated it’s Friday night here distribute to all Tribal members teenagers elders and whoever wants to party. No! No! No! that is not the way of our people or our medicines, like the land and the people of our medicines are also sacred. This is why, it was not spoken of because only people of the medicine societies were allowed to grow, care for and distribute the medicine to those that were ill and needed the medical marijuana to survive.
Let’s be real – Look what we allowed society to do with Our Sacred Tobacco. Whether it is acknowledged or not this also was worthy for our prayers and healing. But the Federal government overed, capitialized on our tobacco. Down the road theyadded additives, filters etc., which now they are claiming causes cancer.
Today it is a multibillion dollar industry-which spreads to all revenues.
According to the law, we the Federally recognized Native American Indians are the only ones that can legally grow this, or once again shall we again wait for the government to over on the whole idea of us as people can too make a legal and financial contribution too the people of and these countries and communities.
How many times have at one tome or anther a non native told us how lucky we are because we get free education healthcare and land. News flash, not so, we have student loans to pay back, health bills, medicine bills etc.. Sounds Good! But Not So.. There are societies out there that do believe we get everything free.
Our ancestors made use and purpose or our tobacco. I don’t ever remember hearing of our great or grandmothers or fathers dying of cancer, this disease became known in the early 60’s.
There are too many graves of all races because of alcohol, prescription drugs and street drugs. But none that say smoked one too many marijuana cigarettes. If we were to take a walk with a knowledgeable medicine elder through a pharmacy and checked the ingredients I wonder how many of those were plants their elders had used one time or another too heal. Our ancestors planted, cultivated, nourished, picked, preserved and passed down to those worthy and respectful of the medicines.
Instead of rotting our land with oil and gas drills. Let’s cultivate the land the way it was intended for the people of the creator and the mother earth. Let’s heal and cultivate and grow medical marijuana.
I grew up in eastern Canada on a tobacco farm at a very young age watching my elders work. I do have an idea of how the process needs too be from planting, priming, hanging and curing in smoke houses et..
We need to at least took into the whole idea of doing something for ourselves our children, land and the future of our people.
Realize there are doors that will be opened for all. We’re not talking about giving drug dealers business. Were actually putting them out of business.
This type of industry requires educated professional of all different fields from chemists to horticulturists, doctors, lawyers, accountants, receptionists, laborers etc. the list goes on. Job opportunities for the children that we’ve been sending to school to educate them for professional needed jobs.
Before the federals over on the whole industry again! Let’s practice our Federal Rights, Land and Businesses. Our elders please at least seek out education about the medical marijuana issue before totally closing that door.
My mother went back to school after she already obtained her hairdressing license. She continued to further her education, completed college and university graduated to be a teacher to only have gone blind before she could enter a classroom. Before her blindness her and a colleague went to council to ask permission to build a day care. The council than refused. They claimed that mothers were leaving their children too much and this would give them reason to leave them more. The same with the nursing homes, no way, no how was that to be approved. Now look ten yrs or more there’s day cares, nursing homes, radio stations, police, jails etc. on the federally recognized reservations.
The question is are we Federally recognized Native American Indiand gonna let the Mayflower sail by us again, once again enriching themselves with the medicines that were given to us by the creator for healing and medicinal use that will prosper the land, provide jobs and well being of peace of mind. Our land will be useable for centuries to come.
It’s our choice, Federally recognize-RIGHT! My name is Jacqueline L. Nicholas I am a full blood Oneida, Iroquois. My Oneida given name given to me by my greatgrandmother a well respected medicine woman and fortune seeker named me Kuwanhl. Which english meaning is “One Who Speaks the Word”, Wolf Clan.

Lexington, KY – “I’m a farmer, and that’s why I’m here tonight,” said State Senator Joey Pendleton, Hopkinsville-D, speaking at the Lexington Public Library after a showing of a documentary film, The Hemp Revolution, sponsored by the Good Foods Market and Cafe. Pendleton has represented Kentucky’s Third District since 1992, and that district’s economy is largely based on agriculture.
“The time is right for industrial hemp in Kentucky,” he said. On stage with him was Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffet, who has made industrial hemp a major issue in his campaign. Craig Lee, appointed in 2001 to the Industrial Hemp Commission, sat between them.
Pendleton said that, just a few years ago, he would have never thought he would be advocating for the reintroduction of hemp into Kentucky agriculture. Education about hemp, he added, is key. He now sees the potential for a $400 million to $500 million hemp industry in the state.
“I’m for the agriculture end of it, for industry and putting people to work,” he said. “The ethanol plant in Hopkinsville told me that within a week they could be making ethanol from hemp, and we’ve got harvesting equipment in place.”
Hemp, he said, would provide at least twice the amount of ethanol per acre when compared with corn, and it could produce two crops in a year’s cycle. Hemp also has the advantages of growing pesticide-free and leaving a more enriched soil.
Holding up a postcard that had side-by-side images of an industrial hemp fiber crop and a crop of marijuana, Pendleton said, “Anyone who can’t tell the difference between the two doesn’t belong in law enforcement.”
Industrial hemp is grown in tight rows to maximize stalk yield, the part of the plant that is rich in the long bast fibers that line the outside of the stalk and is rich in cellulose in the stalk’s inner hurd. Marijuana or seed crops are grown with more space between them to favor the flourishing of leaves and flowers. Different strains of the same plant, cannabis sativa l., have varying amounts of THC, the psychoactive component. Industrial hemp, whether grown for industry or seed stock, has less than one percent THC, making it a non-drug crop. Marijuana strains of the plant can range from five to 20 percent THC content.
Pendleton has pre-filed a bill containing a plan for the reintroduction of hemp into Kentucky agriculture, should the federal government end its prohibition of industrial hemp cultivation.
“It’s actually the same bill that we had last year,” he said. That bill was titled “An Act Relating to Industrial Hemp,” and it never made it to the floor.
“I think there’s a lot of support there (for industrial hemp) from other members of the Senate,” said Pendleton. “I think if they ever had the opportunity to have a committee hearing and get it to the floor to vote, I think it’d be something we could pass in the Senate.”
State Senator Jimmy Higdon was in the audience that night at the library.
“Kentucky farmers are suffering and looking for alternative crops to tobacco,” Higdon said. “We understand it (hemp) has great potential, but it really needs to be researched.”
He would like to see the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University conduct research on industrial hemp. He would also like to see the Industrial Hemp Commission, which was formed in 2001, funded and activated.
According to Pendleton, many law enforcement officials in the state, particularly in Western Kentucky, see the potential of industrial hemp farming and would be willing to deal with any enforcement issues. He said he has toured farming communities, speaking about industrial hemp, and was accompanied by a Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force officer, who also voiced support for industrial hemp. In eastern Kentucky, Pendleton said, the view is much dimmer on industrial hemp, and he thinks that’s because hemp may be seen as competition in the energy sector.
Pendleton also has the support of his constituency, which includes many farmers.
“All of them I’ve talked to are very much interested in it (industrial hemp),” said Pendleton. He cited Phillip Garnett, of the 20,000-acre Garnett Farms, the largest farming operation in the region, as having a keen interest in hemp.
Moffet, like Pendleton, never foresaw himself as an advocate for hemp.
“When I got into this race, I had no interest in advocating hemp,” he said. “I got asked about it and started doing research.”
He now sees it as a leadership issue for the governor’s office. “There are 31 countries that have legalized hemp,” he said. “We need to start the fight at the state level and start pushing back (against federal prohibition).”
Outside the library theater, a display table showed an array of products made with hemp: diesel biofuel, particle board, roof shingles, automobile parts, a plastic Frisbee, animal and fish feed, horse bedding, tennis shoes, hats, clothing, cosmetics, shampoo and conditioner, cereal, milk, ice cream, energy bars and nutritional oil.
“This piece right here is a $250,000 piece,” said Lee, holding a molded piece of hemp composite that represented a tremendous investment in research and development. He explained that it was an armrest designed to fit the door of a Chevrolet Luma, part of a project with hemp fibers in Canada in the late 1990s. This harkens back to Henry Ford using hemp and soy in automobiles. He had a vision for the wedding of agriculture and industry. The petrochemical industry came to displace that vision. Now concerns about peak oil, national security in regard to dependence on foreign oil, and the environmental impact of fossil fuels have made plant-based fibers, oils and cellulose more attractive. British car-maker Lotus has reinvigorated Ford’s vision with the Eco Elise, a sports car that uses hemp fiber in body panels, interior door panels and seats.
Kentucky-grown hemp once provided rope and sailcloth for ships and canvas for covered wagons. It was hemp paper upon which the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written. Pendleton’s bill will seek to return industrial hemp to Kentucky agriculture in the hope of reinvigorating farms, boosting the state’s economy and adding tax revenues to a strapped state government.

Russ Jones, who has spent more than 30 years fighting the War On Drugs, has something to say about his life’s work: it is a complete failure that should be ended.

Peanut, Almond, Cashew, and Macadamia nut butters, are familiar to most Americans. It is safe to say that Peanut butter is the most favored of these, used in traditional ways handed down by generations of caring parents, who were concerned about their children having good protein in their diet. The problem is that some proteins are potential allergens, which include soy, and dairy, as well as peanut proteins. Peanuts may also carry unacceptable amount of a potent carcinogen found on other field crops as well. They are known as Aflatoxins, and are derived from the presence of mold before they are harvested.

The good news is that hemp butter is made from hemp seeds, and no hemp seed allergies have ever been reported. Although most nut butter users have not heard of Hemp Butter, times are changing, and hemp butter is now available in the marketplace. Not the least important fact about hemp butter is that it is a dark green color due to the rich content of chlorophyll,which is a powerful antioxidant.
However, what makes hemp butter so important is its unusual proteins. They are edestins, and are globular in structure. Biologically active proteins in our bodies are mainly globulins, and include such things as hormones, hemoglobin, immunoglobulins (antibodies), and enzymes. Although the human body can make globular proteins out of any protein, it is much easier to make globulins out of globular starting material.
So then, hemp butter is rich in the globular proteins that are precursors to some of the most vital chemicals in the body:
a)hormones, which regulate body processes
b)hemoglobin, which transports oxygen, carbon dioxide, and nitric oxide
c)enzymes, which catalyze and control biochemical reactions
d)antibodies, which fend off bacterial invasion, many pathogens, as well as toxins or antigens as they enter the body
The total protein content of hemp seed is about 65% edestins. Even more remarkable, the other protein found in hemp seeds is albumin, which is highly digestible because it too has a globular structure. It is a major free radical scavenger, and the industry standard for protein quality evaluation. As the hemp seeds are ground adding hemp oil to create a smooth butter-like spread, there is nothing lost in the process. There is more good news.
Hemp protein contains all twenty-one known amino acids, including thenine essential ones adult bodies cannot produce. Proteins are considered complete when they contain all the essential amino

Why would it be “hard to legalize marijuana with a Mormon majority population” (SSDP petitions to legalize marijuana, Sept. 30)?

Another reason to stop caging responsible adults for using cannabis that doesn’t get mentioned is because it is Biblically correct since Christ God Our Father indicates he created all the seed bearing plants saying they are all good, on literally the first page, see Genesis 1:11-12 and 29-30. The only Biblical restriction placed on cannabis is that it be accepted with thankfulness, see 1 Timothy 4:1-5. Caging or punishing responsible adults for using what God says is good is immoral and just plain wrong.

Stan White,

MADISON: Sunny skies and pleasant fall-like temperatures combined with low winds to bring thousands of marchers to the annual Harvest Fest parade Sunday.
Smoke billowed over blocks of marchers making the annual trek from Library Mall at one end of State St. to the Wisconsin State Capitol on the other. Longtime Harvest Fest organizer Ben Masel estimated that around 3200 people paraded this year. Not only were crowd numbers up, but attendees seemed very enthusiastic about flexing the activist muscles gained in the fight for medical cannabis in Wisconsin.
Before heading to the Capitol, attendees warmed up with live music from Venice Gashouse Trolley and Nama Rupa. Rocker-T, returning to Harvest Fest from the West Coast, joined Nama Rupa onstage part way through their set. Speakers included Ben Masel, Jim Miller, Jacki Rickert and Gary Storck, Charmie Gholson of the Michigan-based Midwest Cultivator, SAFER’s Mason Tvert, T. A. Sedlak and State Supreme Court candidate Joel Winnig. Sedlak reprised his Saturday speech about having to leave Wisconsin because of a recent cannabis bust and the need to change the law so people do not have to live in fear as well as the brain drain cannabis prohibition is triggering.
March organizers made certain that the 2010 parade pace was a leisurely one. Medical users in wheelchairs and other medical cannabis patients marched at the beginning. Farther back, the scene was festive as marchers, chanted slogans, drummed and toked their way towards the Capitol, enjoying the fall weather and sun.
The Milwaukee reggae band Recalcitrant was in place playing as the march walked and rolled the last few blocks to the Capitol. In the first speaker break, Jim Miller led off, exhorting attendees to stay active, particularly for the Tuesday Oct 5 protest at a Madison fundraiser for State Sen. Julie Lassa. The Stevens Point Democrat, who is attempting to move up to the congressional seat being vacated by Rep. David Obey, joined Senate Health committee Republicans in killing state medical marijuana legislation earlier this year. Miller literally had the crowd roaring as he revved them up for action.
Miller was followed by fellow Medical Marijuana Commando Squad colleagues Jacki Rickert and Gary Storck. Both talked of their long personal battles with both health problems and to obtain legal access to medical cannabis. They noted how they recently traveled to Oregon to take advantage of the program’s availability to out of state patients. Storck noted that he had just uploaded a video he made of Rickert registering for the Oregon medical cannabis program on YouTube. Attendees cheered loudly as he urged they continue to keep up the pressure on marijuana prohibition.
Storck also noted how Sunday – Oct. 3 – was the 38th anniversary of the date he smoked cannabis before a glaucoma checkup, discovering that it lowered his eye pressure to normal levels. He also recalled Rickert’s battle for legal medicine and how it will be 20 years Dec. 20, 2010 since federal authorities approved her for legal federal marijuana supplies, a contract they broke. He also urged support for the MMJ advisory referendums on Dane County and River Falls city ballots Nov. 2.
UW alumni and current NYC resident Dan Goldman, the former Director of Outreach and Alumni for Students for Sensible Drug Policy, added some more fire after the MMJ Commando Squad, talking about how marijuana prohibition is in NYC a war on young minority men and how it had to change, inciting the crowd to roar in approval.
After more music, the day was closed out with speaking from Charmie Gholson, Mason Tvert, Joel Winnig and Ben Masel. By then most of the 3200 paraders had drifted off into the fading afternoon sun.
Ben Plunkett, who organized a voter registration effort for Harvest Fest reported over 200 new voters were registered with an additional 100 forms passed out over the weekend.
Clearly, Harvest Fest 40 can be proud of a great event and the many volunteers from those who made it happen, individuals, bands, sponsors, etc. are to be both thanked and commended for a very memorable 40th Annual Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival!

When consumed, kanna decreases anxiety, suppresses the appetite, causes euphoria and enhances the effects of other psychoactive herbs.

COLORADO SPRINGS — When it hit the streets here last week, the latest issue of ReLeaf, a pullout supplement to The Colorado Springs Independent devoted to medical marijuana, landed with a satisfying thud.

Forty-eight pages in all, it was stuffed with advertisements for businesses with names like Mile High Mike’s, Happy Buddah and the Healthy Connections (which enticed potential customers with promises of “naughty nurses” to tend to patients’ needs).
A full-page ad in ReLeaf costs about $1,100, making the publication a cash cow for The Independent, which has used its bounty from medical marijuana ads this year to hire one new reporter and promote three staff members to full time.
The paper has also added a column called CannaBiz that follows news from across the country; its author is the new marijuana beat writer.
What would happen in the many communities now allowing medical marijuana had been a subject of much hand-wringing. But few predicted this: that it would be a boon for local newspapers looking for ways to cope with the effects of the recession and the flight of advertising — especially classified listings — to Web sites like Craigslist.
But in states like Colorado, California and Montana where use of the drug for health purposes is legal, newspapers — particularly alternative weeklies — have rushed to woo marijuana providers. Many of these enterprises are flush with cash and eager to get the word out about their fledgling businesses.
“Medical marijuana has been a revenue blessing over and above what we anticipated,” said John Weiss, the founder and publisher of The Independent, a free weekly. “This wasn’t in our marketing plan a year ago, and now it is about 10 percent of our paper’s revenue.”
It is hard to measure what share of the overall market they account for, but ads for medical marijuana providers and the businesses that have sprouted up to service them — tax lawyers, real estate agents, security specialists — have bulked up papers in large metropolitan news markets like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Denver.
“This is certainly one of the fastest growing industries we’ve ever seen come in,” said Scott Tobias, president and chief operating officer of Village Voice Media, which publishes alternative weeklies across the country.
Alternative weeklies are not the only publications raking in medical marijuana lucre. Dailies like The Denver Post and The Bozeman Daily Chronicle in Montana are taking advantage of the boom and making no apologies.
“My point of view is, for the moment at least, it’s legal,” said Stephanie Pressly, publisher of The Daily Chronicle, adding that the paper generates about $7,500 a month in advertising from medical marijuana businesses. “The joke around here is that it’s a budding business.”
Newspaper publishers saw an opening for medical marijuana advertising after the Obama administration said last fall that it would not prosecute users and suppliers of the drug as long as they complied with state laws. Though many states have made legal allowances for medical marijuana for nearly a decade (the total now is 14 and the District of Columbia), that decision freed more people to market and sell it as a medical product.
Advertising demand for the drug grew so quickly in Village Voice Media’s Western markets that the company started publishing supplements late last year. It gave them cheeky names like “Chronic-le” in Denver and “The Rolling Paper” in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Orange County. The tag line in Denver displayed underneath a smiling, sauntering, sandal-wearing cartoon joint reads, “Your Guide to Medical Marijuana. Enjoy.”
In Colorado, where people have likened the explosion of medical marijuana to the state’s 19th-century gold rush, the market for ads and information about the drug has been especially strong. The summer 2010 issue of The Chronic-le, at 48 shiny pages, included features like “Toke of the Town,” a summary of the latest marijuana-related news, and a roster of the nearly 250 stores in the Denver area that sell marijuana.
Mr. Tobias said that in Denver money from advertising for marijuana-related businesses has totaled 15 percent of the weekly Westword’s revenue this year and nearly 40 percent of its classified advertising revenue. A small, eighth-page display ad on one of the paper’s glossy inside pages can cost $550.

It’s a nice day. And we need to avoid getting too wrapped up in the constant stress of fighting against prohibition (yes, I’m looking at you, darkcycle) or we’ll burn out. So I’ve recycled one of my old musings. I think it’s still enjoyable today. See what you have to add….
I have occasionally imagined how I would realistically change drug policy if I was President, or had some other poliitical power, and perhaps some day I’ll share that with you. However, today I decided to be different and imagined I was some kind of arbitrary King and decided to retaliate by being contrarian.

DEA agents who investigate doctors for prescribing pain medication must have other DEA agents perform any medical procedures (like heart transplants and brain surgery) that are needed by the agents. After all, if DEA agents know so much about medicine…
Putting a positive choice spin on drug testing, only those students not participating in extra-curricular activities can be drug tested, and only if there are extra-curricular options available and they still choose not to participate. In a related area, felons on parole can avoid drug tests by getting involved in community service volunteer projects. (actually, this one makes a little sense)
Law enforcement officers who are part of no-knock drug task forces must publicly list their names and addresses. Ordinary citizens are allowed to wander through their home between the hours of 11 pm and 4 am and look through their drawers.
Officers wishing to search a car for drugs must get a search warrant from a judge specifying the make, year, color and VIN, along with specific descriptions of the particular drugs they expect to find.
Law enforcement agencies wishing to keep proceeds from Asset Forfeitures must put up as bond an amount equal to the value of the assets seized. If a judge rules for the property owner, the property owner gets his assets back plus the bond, making a nice profit for his trouble.
School Principals who enforce zero-tolerance policies must get written permission from one of their students before taking an aspirin or any other medication (any time of day or night).
Any laws passed that have criminal penalties are automatically infinitely retroactive for those who voted for (or signed) the law. This means, for example, that any Congressmen who vote for enhanced drug possession penalties would be immediately liable under that law for any drugs they took when they were young.
The Drug Czar must wear a silly hat and a sign saying “I am a liar” whenever he goes out in public, and whenever he talks about drug statistics he must perform a leprechaun dance.
All DEA paperwork must be printed on hemp paper.
Inmates in federal prisons construct bongs and waterpipes, and these are sold through an online store run by the Justice Department, and administered by Tommy Chong.
Smugglers who are caught are sent back to their home country with their drugs and told to try again.
All law enforcement uniforms are made with material that smells just like marijuana to drug-sniffing dogs.

When I wrote this, Walters was the drug czar, but I think the “silly hat and leprechaun dance” mental image works even better with Kerlikowske.