In his high school days in Hawaii, Barack Obama hung out with a circle of friends nicknamed “the Choom Gang” — “choom” being Hawaiian slang for smoking marijuana. Almost all the students in this group went on to be entirely productive and successful citizens — writers, lawyers, businessmen and, of course, President of the United States.

This is by way of reminding everybody out there that cannabis is still listed by the DEA as “Schedule 1″, along with meth and heroin, and that Obama could start the descheduling process for marijuana himself instead of passing the buck to Congress. Obama himself is living proof that cannabis should be descheduled; his legacy could only be improved by ending a program of persecution based entirely on the deceptions and racism of Harry Anslinger and Richard Nixon.

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Continue reading "Hail To The Choom" »

The initial decision to criminalize marijuana in 1937 wasn’t based on a study of the science and biology of addiction or pharmacology, but purely on politics and racism. Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics — precursor to today’s DEA — was a notorious racist and liar who based his opinions on marijuana on pure, raw racist stereotypes and who believed that marijuana was a sure gateway to violence, sedition and social discontent. It was Anslinger’s inflammatory lies which led to the passage of state marijuana laws as a component of Jim Crow and stoked the hype for propaganda films such as Marihuana: The Devil’s Weed and Reefer Madness.

As a follow-up to their wildly epic April 2nd event and their historic meeting with White House representives from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, DCMJ — the people who brought you legal weed in DC — are throwing a sequel to April 2 on May 20, the one-month anniversary of 4/20, to highlight the fact that Obama is late on descheduling cannabis, and to remind folks of the racism behind the 1937 marijuana ban which is still a major component of the War On Drugs.

And, here’s more of the wit and wisdom of Harry Anslinger…

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Continue reading "Weed War is Race War!" »