For far to long has America been a nation of Ostriches, mainly due to our corporate media. Denial of obvious problems is the American Way. We see this in our Financial Collapse. It was painfully obvious for the past 5 years our economy was going to collapse, but CNBC kept pretending the markets were doing great. It was painfully obvious the Iraq War was fraudulent from day one, yet CNN and the rest of the media sold it to the American people without any critical analysis of the facts. It was painfully obvious George Bush wasn’t qualified to be President in 1999, yet the media hardly attacked him until his poll numbers were below 40% in 2006/7. When will America wise up?

What will it take? 9/11 woke America up… for a couple days. Katrina woke America up… for a couple days. Lehman Brother’s collapse woke America up, but with outright lies and deception in our media, Americans are confused and don’t know what to believe… what are facts, what is propaganda, what is truth, and what are lies.

If I laid out the facts on a “controversial” issue, more people would deny them, or try and find flaws in my grammar, or judge the facts based on my political ideology, then listen and accept the reality.

How many times can the facts be laid out that Marijuana should be legalized? The facts are painfully clear. The potential negative health effects of Marijuana are less then Sugar, and immensely less then Splenda, and leaps and bounds safer then nearly any prescription drug available at your local CVS. If you don’t believe me, do your own research with a skeptical eye on what you read. You must understand the motivations behind most medical research that has been published on Marijuana. Many alignments that have extremely profitable pills marketed to the public could be treated with cannabis. From sleeping pill, depression and anxiety medication, to pain pills, all would loose a dramatic amount of sales if cannabis was legalized and used as a medicine. This results in the pharmaceutical industry funding studies designed to show the negative impacts of Marijuana. You must look to European studies, or certain California based organizations to get any real research on the health effects of Marijuana. In the end, Marijuana’s health benefits far outweigh any potential negative side effect.

Medical reasons are far from the only reason to legalize. As a recreational drug, marijuana is less harmful then the other legal recreational drug, Alcohol. No one dies from smoking too much pot on a Saturday night. Can Anheuser-Busch say that about their product? Compared to cigarettes, smoking marijuana cigarettes will still do damage to someone’s lungs, but so does burning incents. Cannabis is not addictive like nicotine, so the potential for long-term problems are minimized. Also, people who smoke marijuana cigarettes smoke much less of them then a tobacco cigarette smoker. But there are many other, healthier ways to consume cannabis without smoking. From vaporizers, to baked goods, to water pipes, the problems from inhaling smoke can be neutralized fairly easily.

Today, in California you can get a Marijuana Card that allows you to buy medical marijuana at a cannabis club. While illegal by federal law, California enacted medical marijuana in the mid-1990s. During the Bush Error, he directed his Department of Justice to go after these places. One of the biggest examples of wasted time and money was the prosecution and incarceration of Tommy Chong, for admitting to a undercover FBI officer that the water pipes his son was selling with his picture on them were meant to be used for Marijuana. Tommy Chong had no financial interest in the product, but ended up serving time in jail for it. Examples of this misguided and damaging use of the Justice Department under Bush are numerous, and a google search can shine much light on this topic.

The new attorney general has already said he will not use his office to go after marijuana dispensaries that are legal under state law. While this is good news, it has a horrible unintended consequence. MEXICO.

Mexico is currently near collapse due to drug cartels importing Marijuana into California and other Southwestern States. While most news reports on this escalating crisis fail to mention Marijuana, and instead talk about Cocaine, Meth, and Ecstasy, Marijuana is by far the number one drug being exported from Mexico into America. In a new article published by General Electric, http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29516551/, it went into detail about the drug cartel problem facing Mexico, but had just one mention of Marijuana. No wonder Americans don’t understand what is going on. Several years ago, Mexico wanted to out-right legalize Marijuana. The Bush Administration threatened Mexico with massive sanctions, so they were not able to do what they wanted, leaving Mexico in a near state of collapse.

If California, Denver, Massachusetts, New Mexico, Oregon, and a growing number of other locations are going to allow Marijuana, this only is encouraging more violence in Mexico, since our Federal Government is so far behind the ball on this issue.

The truth is, extremely powerful interests have been ensuring America would keep Marijuana illegal. Drug Free America Foundation, formally known as Straight Inc, is run and founded by Melvin Sembler. He has connections to the Republican National Committee, the Scooter Libby Defense Fund, 2008 Mitt Romney Presidential Campaign, Feedom’s Watch, George Bush Presidential Library Foundation, and numerous others. His organization was behind the “Just Say No” policy of the 80s. If you want to understand what this man’s motivations are, look no further then the Iran-Contra Crack Cocaine episode of the 1980s. http://notcia.com/blog/down-the-rabbit-hole/the-cia-drug-trade/.

Keeping Marijuana illegal keeps the prices high. There are no reasons marijuana should cost more then tobacco, other then the fact it is illegal. What is practically a worthless weed has become America’s number one crop, http://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=2735017&page=1. What used to grow on the sides of roads, throughout open fields, and spread like a weed, has been demonized to such an extent the reality of the situation has been lost on so many.

If this “drug money” was utilized by the states, not by criminal organizations, state budget problems would be a thing of the past. If New York, for example, sold Marijuana for half the price as street dealers, the billion-dollar budget gap will disappear. States that didn’t want legal marijuana would be free to keep it illegal, while other states could legalize it. It would clear up our prison population, it would help our nations healthcare system, it would bring into the light a peaceful activity that has been hidden in the sand for so long. Users of harder drugs would likely cut back, if not stop, in favor of Marijuana. Abuse of hard drugs and prescriptions have been increasing in recent years, and this trend can be reversed if bold, logical, sensible action is taken. Life is tough, and will only get tougher as our nation and planet go through this time of financial uncertainty, Why not do what is right, and let people smoke some marijuana if they so choose, without making them criminals?

NotCIA.com