Latest Major Action: 4/28/2008 Referred to House subcommittee. Status: Referred to the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security.

A very important thing happened on April 17, 2008 in the House of Representatives. Congressman Barney Frank from Massachusetts, along with eight other congressman from across the United States introduced HR5843. If we can remember from our School House Rocks days , this bill is the first steps towards brighter days for marijuana smokers.

If the resolution becomes law it will remove federal penalties for possession of marijuana under 100 grams.  The bill does not however address dealing, growing, or trafficking of large amounts. There are currently 38 states with laws against the possession of cannabis where the legal status would not change immediately. Of course once the policy becomes publicly accepted there will be a lot of momentum for grass roots efforts to get legislation on the ballot.

This is the most sensible piece of legislation I have ever comes across, and it is worded quite eloquently by Barney Frank. The main theme is that the government has no place in attempting to criminalize cannabis, and that we can spend the resources that go into the war on drugs elsewhere. I’m not saying it’s a perfect solution, but it’s a start. I think a lot of the fear that people have surrounding marijuana is stemmed by a lack of knowledge. Things you don’t know about can be scary, it’s all about baby steps.

I personally would not mind is the government regulated and taxed marijuana.  Even if every penny of those taxes went towards campaigns to keep people from smoking, I’d be it’s biggest cheerleader. Now while the governments raking it in hand over fist from a willing public, I’ll be happily tending to my garden.

We’ll finally be able to know that dream of making a more perfect nation, where an individuals freedoms are given the highest priority. Whatever misguided moral or uninformed reason someone may have for supporting a ban on marijuana will not matter. No one person has the authority to stop another person who is harming no one by his actions.

Keep up with the latest status of HR5843 here

Please contact your local congressman or congresswoman and tell them how you feel about HR5843 and the failed war on drugs policy for cannabis.

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Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA)

Barney Frank has been in Congress since 1981. He is the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee. Previously he was a Massachusetts State Representative and an assistant to the Mayor of Boston. He has also taught at several Boston area universities.

Congressman Barney Frank
2252 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
tel: (202) 225-5931
fax: (202) 225-0182

Senator Barney Frank from Massachusetts 4th district has been a called one of the “brightest and most energetic defenders of civil rights issues”. He  is  both a very well spoken, and thankfully one of the most outspoken politicians on capital hill today. Recently Congressman Frank Introduced HR5843 which will remove federal  penalties for possession of marijuana under 100g for adults.

Here are some our favorite quotes from Barney Frank regarding marijuana

“When doctors recommend the use of marijuana for their patients and states are willing to permit it, I think it’s wrong for the federal government to subject either the doctors or the patients to criminal prosecution. More broadly speaking, the norm in America is for the states to decide whether particular behaviors should be made criminal. To make the smoking of marijuana, whether for medical purposes or not, one of those extremely rare instances of federal crime – literally, to make a ‘federal case’ out of it – is wholly disproportionate to the activity involved. We do not have federal criminal prohibitions against drinking alcoholic beverages, and there are generally no criminal penalties for the use of tobacco at the state and federal levels for adults. There is no rational argument for treating marijuana so differently from these other substances.”

“To those who say that the government should not be encouraging the smoking of marijuana, my response is that I completely agree. But it is a great mistake to divide all human activity into two categories: those that are criminally prohibited, and those that are encouraged. In a free society, there must be a very considerable zone of activity between those two poles in which people are allowed to make their own choices as long as they are not impinging on the rights, freedom, or property of others. I believe it is important with regard to tobacco, marijuana and alcohol, among other things, that we strictly regulate the age at which people may use these substances. And, enforcement of age restrictions should be firm. But, criminalizing choices that adults make because we think they are unwise ones, when the choices involved have no negative effect on the rights of others, is not appropriate in a free society.”

“If the laws I am proposing pass, states will still be free to treat marijuana as they wish. But I do not believe that the federal government should treat adults who choose to smoke marijuana as criminals. Federal law enforcement is a serious business, and we should be concentrating our efforts in this regard on measures that truly protect the public.”

And of course some video for you to enjoy

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While we here at the healthy toker are spending Christmas with our friends and families, we encourage all you to  please take time to remember the victims of the war on drugs. As the year comes to a close there has already been over 800,000 marijuana related arrests. The consequences of which will extend to many aspects of the victims and their families lives.

On a state and federal level the United States has spent $49 billion on the drug war in 2008 alone. This number has been steadily increasing and is  projected to continue to do so. Marijuana related “crimes” make up nearly half of all drug arrest.

Imagine now that billions upon billions of dollars ARE NOT spent trying to arrest its own citizens for smoking cannabis. Imagine this money was suddenly freed and able to be used differently. What would you do with this money?

Perhaps we could spend some of it to help the estimated 12.4 million children living in hunger right here in the United States*. Maybe we can put just a fraction of it back into our school system to try and balance the distribution of wealth that has for so long kept a good public education out of the reach of the poor. Rebuilding a weakening infrastructure, or focusing it towards science and technology. The potential to do good things is only limited by our current policies, and we can make them change.

So we have just a few holiday wishes

Please

And let the rest of us

In peace.

During this time of giving, remember these injustices in the world so that we can one day work towards making them right. Be thankful for what you have, share a bowl with your friends and have a great holiday season.

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Well, as you all know, we here at the Healthy Toker only enjoy one thing more than a good bowl of some high grade ganj, and that’s a good bowl of high grade ganj that doesn’t require us to inhale smoke.  Nothing revolutionary in this post, just some quick thoughts on alternatives to the usual flame to bud technique.

Vaporization -  The great thing about Vaporization is you get all the effects of smoking marijuana, including the fast high, with out the smoke.  The downside is vaporizers can be a little expensive in general.  Keep an eye peeled as we intend to eventually roll out comprehensive reviews on devices and vendors, but we’re still in the research process. The way a Vaporizer works, (especially a well made one, as
opposed to the one you tried to rig out of a soldering iron or light bulb using some random “how to” guide from Google) is that it heats up the cannabis to around 365-405 degrees farenheit.  At this temperature, THC will vaporize, but the plant its self does not catch fire.  What winds up happening is all of the THC (what we’re all after) is vaporized into a steam like substance that hits smooth and clean, and contains no smoke at all.  That’s right, no smoke, no carcinogens, no lung filling tar, just gaseous THC to get you stoned.  What’s more is, there’s little to no loss from combustion, which is a usual after effect of the tried and true fire and smoke method.  The big difference between a home made vaporizer and a retail one is the controls for the temperature.  Most home rigs will require you to keep an eye on the vaporizer and remove your heat source before it gets too hot, as opposed to the retail jobs that you simply turn on and control themselves with a thermostat.  Though some that are out there will still require user attention, such as the convenient, portable, Ubie.  The point is, vapor is healthier than smoke, and less wasteful, and being the green friendly guys we are at Healthy Toker, there’s no better solution.

Cooking – Now, cooking is something most of us have heard of, and probably tried.  It basically boils down to bonding the THC with a saturated fat (commonly done by simmering in butter) and then using said saturated fat in a recipe.  The upside is, you can get stoned from anything you’re willing to put butter on.  It’s great for taking pot treats out in public.  Once, I worked at a convenience store, and had a friend who regularly baked cookies and brownies.  She’d often give them to me back then.  I can’t tell you how many nights I stood at the counter, ringing people up, on the security cameras, reaching into my smock and grabbing a cookie from the bag I kept in my pocket.  It filled me with a strange delight to know that I was, in fact, getting stoned off my ass in front of strangers and regulars, cops and crooks, and even the man’s camera, but none was the wiser.  It made the end of my shift in the cooler more fun, too.  The downside is, saturated fat is fat.  If you really want to eat all your bud, you better figure out some ways to counteract the fat intake, like exercise and diet controls.  We’ll look into suggestions along these lines in later posts.

The Magnifying Glass – Now, when Healthy first mentioned this idea to me, part of me laughed.  After all, if you’re inhaling smoke, why worry about a little butane?  But after pondering our site, and its goal, I realized that some people might not have the means or ability to find a healthier alternative to inhaling the smoke, in which case, shouldn’t we at least try to suggest one way (if not more, presuming we can come up with them in this haze we lounge so often in) to help reduce the health risks when smoking?  Well, this idea is simple.  You skip the butane, you skip the phospherous of a match, and instead, you park yourself in a well lit area where you wont be disturbed and bust out a trusty magnifying glass to create a mini heat ray you can use to spark your bowl (this will work better if you have a bowl designed to keep the burning material burning, such as a ceramic bowl or something) or joint.   Sure it sounds geeky, sure its probably less practical than the previously mentioned Ubie, but it’s a lot better than when you used to sit in the yard frying ants with the magnifying glass, instead of getting your self fried.

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10 years ago when I had the idea for the Johnny Weedseed project, I was too proud to ask for help.  I wanted to do it alone, so I kept it to my self.  Foolish, I know, and it mothballed for a decade.  I’m confident I am not the first to come up with the idea that I have named the Johnny Weedseed Project, and now I’m hoping to share it with as many others as I can so the dream can become a reality.

At this point you may be wondering, “So what the hell is the idea, wordy?”  Well, it’s simple.  I don’t think marijuana should be illegal.  I’m guessing if you’re reading this, you probably agree.  The thing about laws though, is they’re only as good as the enforcement, and enforcement is a matter of logistics.  Number of officers, vehicles, dogs, etc, all of these are finite and limited things.  If the police didn’t have budget problems, they wouldn’t set up monthly speed traps to boost their revenues. Even still, as we all know, crimes go unpunished.  Well, simply put, the Johnny Weedseed Project is an initiative to make marijuana enforcement so expensive and impractical that it can’t be done.  To make the “situation on the ground” be that marijuana is just too damn common place to hope to try and contain it or enforce laws prohibiting ownership of it.

Now, this may sound like a pie in the sky dream, but its not.  There’s a reason that cannabis is nicknamed weed.  It grows like one.  It needs little attention, can grow in almost any climate, and spreads quickly.  I’m not proposing anybody go out and plant fields of weed.  There’s already lots of those, and law enforcement will concentrate their efforts on such obviously dense regions.  I’m talking about all of us, however many millions strong we marijuana users are, just planting our seeds at random.  Throw them in your neighbor’s yard when walking your dog.  Toss them out the car window on the highway.  Plant them at rest stops.  Hide them amongst the potted shrubs at your work place.  If there’s dirt, and sun, put seeds in it.  Never a lot, a few in any one spot should do fine.  Ideally, in a few seasons time, cannabis will start to truly spread like the weed it is.  When there’s 3 bushes on the side of the road and random plants sprouting up in every neighborhood, it will eventually become impractical to continue enforcing possession.  At that point, well, victory will have been achieved.

None of us could hope to do this alone.  Together, we can each make an individual contribution to make a lasting change on the society in which we live.  In short, “Yes, we can.”  Heh

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