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Willie Nelson pot possession charge shows ludicrousness of marijuana prohibition

Sunday, November 28, 2010
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...)
Tags: Willie Nelson, marijuana, health news

Willie Nelson

(NaturalNews) Marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the U.S. police state. It gives cops a reason to search vehicles and keeps DEA employees on the payroll while filling the prisons with literally millions of people who have harmed no one except themselves.

Country singer superstar Willie Nelson is the latest victim of this police state marijuana prohibition. His vehicle was stopped at an immigration checkpoint (yes, immigration) in Sierra Blanca, Texas, where an officer claimed he smelled pot. A search of the vehicle turned up six ounces of marijuana for which Willie Nelson was arrested along with two other people.

For the record, Willie Nelson is 77 years old. The whole point of arresting people and sending them to prison is to isolate violent, dangerous people from the rest of the public in order to protect public safety. Does anybody seriously believe that Willie Nelson is a threat to public safety? He's practically the most harmless guy on the planet.

Immigration checkpoints used against U.S. citizens

The other important point here is that all this took place at an immigration checkpoint. This is supposed to be a place where U.S. officials look for vehicles full of people illegally entering the United States from Mexico. Did Willie Nelson look like an illegal alien? Of course not. He's obviously a U.S. citizen (and a well-known celebrity on top of that), yet that didn't stop this immigration checkpoint officer from searching his vehicle.

You see, there's something that all the people who support tighter illegal immigration fences, walls and checkpoints haven't yet realized: All that security is going to be used against YOU, too! Border Patrol officers and U.S. feds aren't just looking for illegal aliens, you see: They're also looking to arrest people who are obviously U.S. citizens -- and they will arrest you for things that have nothing to do with immigration.

Are you carrying some fertilizer in your truck? Ah, now you're a terrorist with "bomb making materials." Have some duct tape in your vehicle? Now you have materials that can be used "to bind the hands of kidnapping victims." And if you're smoking a joint, God forbid, now you're going to be hauled off to jail by these immigration checkpoint officers who apparently have nothing important to do.

Why marijuana prohibition makes no sense

For the record, I'm not a marijuana smoker, and I would never encourage any individual to take up such a habit unless they had a legitimate medical need for pain relief. However, I am totally against the continued persecution of individuals who buy, possess or consume this medicinal herb. They harm no one but themselves, and smoking marijuana produces side effects that are far milder than drinking alcohol.

In fact, in America today it's perfectly legal to drink alcohol, smoke cigarettes and even drug your own kids with "speed" in the form of prescription amphetamines for ADHD. And yet marijuana -- which makes people feel lazy and hungry -- remains illegal. You have to wonder: Why?

Why is marijuana criminalized in America? The answer is simply that marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of the American police state. Keeping this herb illegal keeps millions of people employed in law enforcement who otherwise wouldn't have jobs. It keeps the prison industry strong and gives cops a reason to search vehicles.

It even gives law enforcement officers yet another excuse to hold "terrorism drills." Seriously: A recent terrorism drill in Northern California imagined pot heads taking over Shasta Dam and blowing up vehicles (http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2010/nov...). These cops must have a lot of free time on their hands to dream up these wild (and highly improbable) scenarios. But keeping marijuana criminalized allows them to spend more taxpayer money running these useless drills that, after all, keep them all well paid.

At the same time, it causes billions of dollars a year to flow into the underground black market economy -- money that would otherwise be used to raise tax revenues for states. (http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2010/nov...)

The "War on Drugs" has been a complete and utter failure (http://drugpolicy.org/drugwar/). It's also a huge waste of law enforcement resources. I'd much rather see cops going after real criminals like the CEOs and executives of drug companies, Monsanto and Wall Street banksters.

Legalizing and taxing marijuana would end the illegal drug trafficking in marijuana and deny revenues to drug gangs and drug dealers. It would raise billions of dollars for states and eliminate the huge costs of incarcerating marijuana "criminals." It would free up resources throughout the court system and give cops the time to go after violent criminals such as murderers and rapists.

And it would end this moronic system that arrests a harmless 77-year-old country western singer for marijuana possession at an immigration checkpoint.

Learn more about ending the criminalization of marijuana possession

Here's some additional information:

www.Norml.org
www.DrugPolicy.org
www.StopTheDrugWar.org
www.FlexYourRights.com

Editor's note: Do not interpret this article as a "pro-marijuana" position. I am not pro-marijuana, I don't consume this herb personally and I don't advocate consumption of this herb. I do, however, advocate freedom and liberty for individuals, and I believe that individuals have the right to make their own decisions about what they choose to eat, drink or smoke. The argument that government must "protect" people from marijuana just doesn't hold water: That same government openly allows people to kill themselves with cigarettes, alcohol and FDA-approved prescription drugs that are far more dangerous than marijuana.

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About the author:Mike Adams (aka the "Health Ranger") is a best selling author (#1 best selling science book on Amazon.com) and a globally recognized scientific researcher in clean foods. He serves as the founding editor of NaturalNews.com and the lab science director of an internationally accredited (ISO 17025) analytical laboratory known as CWC Labs. There, he was awarded a Certificate of Excellence for achieving extremely high accuracy in the analysis of toxic elements in unknown water samples using ICP-MS instrumentation. Adams is also highly proficient in running liquid chromatography, ion chromatography and mass spectrometry time-of-flight analytical instrumentation.

Adams is a person of color whose ancestors include Africans and Native American Indians. He's also of Native American heritage, which he credits as inspiring his "Health Ranger" passion for protecting life and nature against the destruction caused by chemicals, heavy metals and other forms of pollution.

Adams is the founder and publisher of the open source science journal Natural Science Journal, the author of numerous peer-reviewed science papers published by the journal, and the author of the world's first book that published ICP-MS heavy metals analysis results for foods, dietary supplements, pet food, spices and fast food. The book is entitled Food Forensics and is published by BenBella Books.

In his laboratory research, Adams has made numerous food safety breakthroughs such as revealing rice protein products imported from Asia to be contaminated with toxic heavy metals like lead, cadmium and tungsten. Adams was the first food science researcher to document high levels of tungsten in superfoods. He also discovered over 11 ppm lead in imported mangosteen powder, and led an industry-wide voluntary agreement to limit heavy metals in rice protein products.

In addition to his lab work, Adams is also the (non-paid) executive director of the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center (CWC), an organization that redirects 100% of its donations receipts to grant programs that teach children and women how to grow their own food or vastly improve their nutrition. Through the non-profit CWC, Adams also launched Nutrition Rescue, a program that donates essential vitamins to people in need. Click here to see some of the CWC success stories.

With a background in science and software technology, Adams is the original founder of the email newsletter technology company known as Arial Software. Using his technical experience combined with his love for natural health, Adams developed and deployed the content management system currently driving NaturalNews.com. He also engineered the high-level statistical algorithms that power SCIENCE.naturalnews.com, a massive research resource featuring over 10 million scientific studies.

Adams is well known for his incredibly popular consumer activism video blowing the lid on fake blueberries used throughout the food supply. He has also exposed "strange fibers" found in Chicken McNuggets, fake academic credentials of so-called health "gurus," dangerous "detox" products imported as battery acid and sold for oral consumption, fake acai berry scams, the California raw milk raids, the vaccine research fraud revealed by industry whistleblowers and many other topics.

Adams has also helped defend the rights of home gardeners and protect the medical freedom rights of parents. Adams is widely recognized to have made a remarkable global impact on issues like GMOs, vaccines, nutrition therapies, human consciousness.

In addition to his activism, Adams is an accomplished musician who has released over a dozen popular songs covering a variety of activism topics.

Click here to read a more detailed bio on Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, at HealthRanger.com.

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