Freedom For All Citizens

Review of NY Times Article

It's rare that in the mainstream media pot is given a fair go, but the New York Times has done just that in their article from June 27, called "In Colorado, Pot-Selling Pioneers Try to Turn a Profit". The language of the title should be enough to show you that there are at least some who correctly see weed dispensary owners for what they really are - i.e., not dangerous criminals, but pioneers that can be compared to 'our forefathers, four score and seven years ago'. This kind of language is particularly apt considering the season. With Independence Day here yet again, we are reminded of what our forefathers fought and died for. The freedoms they earned so hard for us.

The article presents various dispensary owners in the precarious situations that they really are in and relates some of the logistical and legal problems and hurdles they must encounter to do their work and as is often the case, their calling. For example, Ravi Respeto, manager of the Farmacy, a dispensary that offers exotic strains of weed for up to $16 a gram recounts some of these issues and problems. One of the first is the culture shock weed growers are faced with when they are given checks and asked to give receipts. It's hard to believe that something which carried outrageously disproportionate criminal penalties just a few years ago is now legal and taxable according to the government today. Then there are all the legal by-laws and hurdles - for medical marijuana dispensaries are legal, but the amount of regulations is a nightmare legal battle to navigate through and really does put a lot of potential locales out of business well before they even start.

While President Obama announces that federal law officials won't bother users and suppliers as long as they comply with state laws, many are still wary of the feds. More than 80,000 people in Colorado now have medical marijuana certificates, which are in essence just like a prescription and entitle them to buy and use marijuana from legal dispensaries. Some often wonder though why the government needs to issue certificates for something which is supposedly legal for medical use now. I mean, the notion in itself is nonsense and just another invasion of privacy. If you are prescribed Valium for insomnia, you do not need a certificate for the right to use Valium! The registry is in the mind of many just another way to control and limit the rights of people. In a way, it's more like the controls that come with the use of a drug such as Methadone, which is prescribed to opium and heroin addicts to control their intake of the drug. The registry simply classes medical marijuana users into a group that the government can deal with easily if it needs to. The registry should be questioned, challenged and purged from sight. It is a violation of human rights in the same way that Japanese Americans' human rights were violated when they were required to register with the government and police during World War II.

For more information, check out the article here. It's really quite a good one!