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Affirmation for Election Day:
ENERGY FOCUS: A Peaceful Conclusion to the American Culture War
INTENTION: We weave a web of love over the earth that brings love where there was fear.
POT IN THE NEWS
Editorial pages are filled with commentary on the herb these days. Following are some words from this weeks' News
"Getting Over Getting Stoned"
An impolitic proposal forthe post-pot generation
by Garry Trudeau (Creator of Doonesbury)
Published in Time magazine, Sept. 16, 1996
Excerpts:
By now, 80 million Americans have tried marijuana. That's a lot of people using a substance we all say we abhor. Before we can get any traction on controlling pot (which accounts for most of the rise in teen drug use), the generation that popularized the stuff has got to finally come clean about what made it so alluring in the first place--and then square that with current marijuana policy. A good start might be for every middle-aged public official in America to take the following oath:
Let it be known that I, an educated, middle-class baby boomer, do declare that I have knowingly utilized a delta-9-THC delivery system (hereinafter referred to as "TOKING UP") for the purpose of inducing intoxication. My actions cannot be described as "experimental," as their outcome (hereinafter referred to as "GETTING STONED") was known to me in advance.
I further acknowledge that my memories of TOKING UP are fondly held . . . I concede that I once did not view marijuana as dangerous, knowing that it is not physically addictive or lethal. (A fatal dosage would be three-quarters of a ton smoked over a 15-minute period.) Accordingly, I believe marijuana laws to be draconian, a view once shared by Jimmy Carter, Dan Quayle and Richard Nixon's marijuana commission, all of whom favored decriminalization. It was only after my appetite for recreational drugs had abated, and I had produced children whom I did not believe capable of "handling" marijuana as responsibly as I had, that I came to oppose decriminalization. I acknowledge that it was this fear, and not new medical evidence, that caused me to subsequently support mandatory sentencing for other people's children caught emulating the actions of my generation. . . .
"Pardon My Pot-Smoking Past"
Isn't it about time for an amnesty on youthful indiscretion?
by Christopher Buckley
Author of the novel, "Thank You For Smoking" & cousin of John Buckley, Dole's communications director, who allegedly used pot in college.
Excerpts:
On a recent morning I was a guest on C-SPAN and . . . it seemed as good a time as any to suggest that we all might save ourselves a great deal of misplaced indignation if we declared here and now a general amnesty for anyone who did what so many in my generation did when we were young--namely smoke pot. . . . In any given year throughout the 1970s and 1980s, about one-third of college-age Americans said they smoked pot, and in some years the number was close to half. That's a lot of people. And I knew most of them.
To paraphrase Allen Ginsberg, the angel-headed hipster of an earlier era, I saw the best minds of my generation giggle hysterically and empty the refrigerator of chocolate ice cream late at night. The potheads I went to high school and college with have gone on to: perform open heart surgery, start new businesses, raise families, win Pulitzer prizes, pay taxes and pilot fighter jets in time of war. They have contributed to the health and prosperity of our country.
Let me come clean or, if you will, dirty. In my misguided youth, I smoked so much pot that you can still get a contact high from shaking my hand. I moved on to more reputable pleasures--like martinis. For a while, I worked at the White House. I had a security clearance. I was privy to TOP SECRET/CODE-WORD documents, and this was during the Cold War, when all those Russian missiles were aimed at us. One document was a real lulu. It said--well, none of your business. See, even former potheads can keep a secret.
On one occasion, a military aide asked me to watch the football, the briefcase containing the nuclear codes to start World War III. It was at a baseball game, and he needed to go to the bathroom and didn't want to walk through crowds alone with the briefcase. For 10 minutes I had the power to destroy the world! Good thing I was mellowed out from all those years of pot smoking. . . .
Pray for Peace News est. 1995
Pray for Peace News was founded to spread awareness, education and devotion to the Great and Holy Mystery that is God. We accept all paths as true; all religions are but branches of the same tree. We promote interfaith dialogue and exchange programs to develop tolerance between religions.
Pray for Peace News is dedicated to nonviolence (vegetarian diet) and daily meditation. Pray for Peace News editors are committed to the legalization of sacred natural medicines for spiritual healing, for all people.
End the War on Drugs
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