NOTE: This site does not endorse or hope that people will use products to be anything other than law-abiding citizens. We must advise against these things being used for anything but what your local Gestapo deem legal today.
Drugs an all American Big Business, with an emphasis on Plants like Marijuana.Drugs are varied, they are not all created equally. Some are mild and some are harsh, and many, including alcohol, cocaine, and some plant ephedrine made crystal meth, and black tar heroin all come from plants, luckily not all these plants can be grown anywhere.
These drugs are all made from plants. They’re being sold here in America everyday. Ordinary people, by the millions, refuse to obey the archaic laws that have been set about drugs. The government, around the time of the rise of the Jerk Wad Harry J. Anslinger, during the Tricky Dick, Nixon erra, "I am not a crook-Dick" actually declared war against these Americans who would dare question the validity of these laws or the motive of our government.
I would like to make some key notes right of the bat, some free speech issues and some other opinions of mine here, may or may not be shared by the parent company and are as follows…
The war on drugs has been going on for more then thirty years, and it has continued to fail Americans, a war that has cost the lives and liberty of real live people and has gone nowhere. Some drugs are available despite the best efforts of law enforcement. A gallop pole stated that nearly 50% of Americans have been around Marijuana and many of them admitted to using it! 30% of Americans have willing said they have used it at least once in their life. Makes me wonder how many other people have toked and now must deny it, officer Spragg?
I’m turn between the natural, no bias writing approach that should come with this kind of document, and the extreme negativity I harbor towards this stupid war against Americans like the 30% or more who have said: I did. My division of will is especially intense as of late because I am, as the judge put it, not aloud to consume anything, anymore that may cause the sensation of euphoria, that means no elation, exultation, ecstasy, bliss, joy, exhilaration, jubilation, rapture, or excitement. I never even wanted things like that until that order fail from on high.
This subject has always been an emotionally charged one for me because growing up I was on and off prescription drugs for adult ADHD, and numerous other childhood learning disabilities, I was told to have, as a kid and still am said to have into adult hood. These legal drugs got me through school when I was on them and off them, I just stop going. Physically I was there but mentally I was often somewhere else and more addicted to prescription drugs then I new at the time.
Back then all I knew about Marijuana was that it would permanently kill brain cells and cause me to need to use other drugs like heroin and cocaine, also plant derived intoxicants by the way. I would go to school for a while but then the Ritalin or Strattera eventual ate wholes in my stomach and the pain was too much to keep taking them, then I was off again.
Today is Friday April 8, 2011 and the House and Senate are currently filibustering the day away, concerning the possible shutdown of the United States government. “According to the National Office of Drug Control Policy, the cost of housing 'drug criminals' is almost three billion dollars per year. That includes $2.525 billion by the Bureau of Prisons and $429.4 million by Federal Prisoner Detention.
In 2009,13,687,241 Americans were arrested. 1,728,285 were arrested for crimes against property, A little less then that,100,000 fewer, were arrested for drug crimes. Approximately 1,663,582 Americans were arrested for drugs, 858,000 of the drug arrests were for Marijuana. Then there were about 580,000 people arrested for violent crimes. Millions of dollars are confiscated from botched transactions and unaccountable billions flow to places where cultivation of marijuana and other drugs is allowed.
The only thing that make since is, legalizing the drugs that are easiest to cultivate in America. That is the worse thing that could happen to those few who care not about American laws. Here that is mostly pot, it’s the plant best suited to our climate. Poppy’s may grow here but not as big and say in Afghanistan, coca freezes in the winter and while many local plant contain some ephedrine, abstracting it for the making of meth is not as easy as the drug policy makers would have us believe. We know simply making it illegal has not worked, there is more people today smoking pot then there was before Tricky Dick put it into the same category as heroin and p.c.p. We now know Nixon as a cold face liar and that he ordered the murdering of thousands of Cambodians for profit. He also declared this war.
Because there is now, and always will be such a demand on pot the only fair thing to do is to legalize it, of coarse you could not drive with it, nor drive after smoking it but other then that it should be as legal as liquor. This would make all those people who use it illegally, people who are otherwise law abiding citizens, total law abiding Americans. This would be devastating to organized crime and anyone “terrorists” who have been benefiting from the high prices cause by pot’s standing with law enforcement. The only thing that may not change is the people who use it now, they will still use it, but with a new found respect for law.
The coast of Northern California is blanketed with closed down lumber companies and various other types of non-operational factories. Yet the word used to describe hotels, restaurants, and recreational facilities would have to be "bustling". The money that runs their economy may be eighty to ninety percent medical marijuana revenue.
In the past, whenever our country has been seriously jeopardized, in the founding of it and in World Wars I and II, cannabis was briefly made legal, because of its crucial role in fibers, textiles, canvas, clothing, and for export. Now that there is cannabis with no drug properties you would think at least that would be legal, its not though. The fact that there is a plant with so many uses and no drug effects at all, that is illegal to grow in America is the biggest clew to why these plants are really illegal. Money.
In a time when our country's deficit is so sensationalized on the news, spending excess money to combat such a mild, non-threatening plant such as marijuana, is nothing short of superfluous and unpatriotic. This is why I picked people who have been arrested for selling, producing, or possessing large quantities of this plant that one of our most ruthless and scandalous presidents had deemed so dangerous.
Because this topic is about illicit drugs, and because most people understand there is an ever present risk of incarceration, fines, or loss of liberty, I have decided, and I assured everyone in the interview, that their real names would be withheld from my report in order to protect them from what I find are unrealistic expectations of a society forced to cope with the things that as a whole, our nation does. It's true that societies throughout history have used mind altering substances, whether it is hashish, alcohol, coca, opium, or some of the more obscure drugs we are now learning about, such as ayoasca, soma, or even some forms of morning glory, drugs have and will always be part of societies
Interviews 1 and 2. C. and Ted
C. is a 36 year old male, doing mandatory service at a composting facility in northern Utah. Where he works, a yard of compost soil is sold for $15.00, that is equivalent to about a truckload. It costs $3 to unload a truck full of green waste, and there is almost always someone there that helps me unload.
C., How long are you ordered to work for Weber county? 'Six months.'
How often do you work? 'Ten hours a day, five days a week. Sometimes less if the weather is bad.'
Why are you out here right now? 'I got busted with two pounds of chronic.'
For the sake of my report, can you explain what chronic is? C answers, "Sensemilla man. You know, seedless bud. High THC quantities. Skunk bud. Sticky icky blueberry crush."
So basically a high quality marijuana. What other plant drugs are you familiar with?
"Well there's pot, opium, and cocaine," he says volunteering that "Cocaine's a hell of a drug."
What drugs have you tried? "Just pot." He says he has only been smoking pot, and he has been smoking it for more then twenty years. However towards the end of our conversation he mentioned he recently smoked spice, which is a chemically enhanced sage, which mimics the effects of marijuana, but doesn't show up in a UA. UA is a urinary analysis drug screening that C is required to do regularly.
Without any names, what region did you think your pot came from? "Salt Lake City or Las Vegas. Mostly Salt Lake City."
How much could you have made off of two pounds if the police didn’t intercept you? "It depends directly on how much I smoke. Most the time I just break even, but you have the potential to make up to twenty thousand dollars on two pounds, sometimes more."
How much do you pay for two pounds of chronic? "Six thousand."
So does that mean you can sell it for twenty six thousand? Or do you make about fourteen thousand? "Just twenty thousand. I guess you only make about fourteen thousand."
Do you think weed should be illegal? "No." In your interaction with other people involved with marijuana have you ever been threatened at knife point or gun point, or have you ever been robbed? "If you don't count when your friends pinch your bag, I've never been robbed."
(Pinching your bag would mean when someone takes a little from your bag to smoke it.)
What are you going to do when you are no longer required to do UAs? Are you going to smoke pot again? "I'll smoke weed until the day I die."
At the Ogden re-use center, prices are lower, which benefits small companies like mine. Layton re-use center on Hill field Road, a yard of compost (based on quality) costs between forty five dollars and in St. George, UT, a yard of compost costs eighty five dollars. I personally have never noticed the difference in the quantity of weed seeds in the compost, so I try to use the cheaper facilities when I am in the area. This is one positive economic impact the war on drugs has had for me.
The reflective prices of free labor is one advantage for some but then the other side of the coin, at the Layton compost facility off of HW-193. Ted works for Intelligent Staffing. The company contracted him to supply temporary labor for local businesses at about 10.00 per hour. That represents the mandatory labor pool, used by counties like Weber county, is the job loss to people like Ted, who when asked if he has ever smoked marijuana, denied it emphatically.
Do you know all the plants that can be used as drugs? He said not really and then offered, that maybe he has one or two beers a week.
Ted lives in Ogden. When he is able, for employment, he finishes basements, doing things like drywall and carpet. He didn't realize the reason he was sent to that re-use center so far away maybe in part because the Ogden centers don't pay for their labor. The negative economic impact of this use of 'drug criminals' can be seen on a micro level with these two individuals. It is much more complex than that though. I myself am on three years of probation for indoor cultivation. I pay a monthly fee to be supervised. On top of that I pay for mandatory random drug tests, and an intense rehabilitation to help me with my “very serious” addiction to the deadly drug marijuana.
Ted, final question. Do you think Marijuana should be Illegal? I does not make since that it is illegal, he mentioned and aunt who swore by it. He said She had been using it to fight the apatite lose that came with stomach cancer. The government is always trying to protect us from our selves, maybe it should be illegal for kids but not adults.
Interview 3 S.
S. is a married mom, who has owned her own business for over a year, and works from home doing web design. She meats the qualifications of who it is exactly I am looking to interview about economic botany and illegal economics.
I started with simple questions, some that I thought I all ready knew the answers she would use having been arrested twice for use of Marijuana.
Do you think marijuana should be illegal? When I asked S. this, she answered 'Absolutely not. Look at all the plants that are legal that hurt people - like Salvia Divinorum, like Sacred Datura, like Jimson Weed. These plants, when used as drugs, can make you blind or deaf, make you crazy, makes you depressed and suicidal. I don't believe we as humans have the right to say a plant should be banned, but if we did, we should start with those plants that can harm people.
I asked S. what drugs she knows of that come from plants, non-synthetic chemicals, you know' non-pharmaceutical drugs. S.: 'Psychedelic mushrooms, marijuana, opium, salvia divinorm, jimson weed, sacred datura, coca, peyote, tobacco, even more innocuous plants like mullein can have a slight narcotic effect.'
Do you consider coffee and chocolate drugs? 'Definitely. People get addicted to them, and they do alter your mood'
Which drugs do you think is the most dangerous out of those you listed? 'Probably opium, salvia, jimson weed, sacred datura are the most dangerous'
Which drugs have you tried? 'Mushrooms, salvia, tobacco, and marijuana.'
Have you ever taken a course in Botany 'Yes.' Did you discuss drug plants in that class? 'No, we just studied the structure of plants, their cells, and stuff like that'
Is what you know now, after having been around drugs, different from what they taught you in school? And in what ways? 'Mostly I realized from experience that marijuana is not at all how they portray it in health classes in school. I was very disappointed with our school system and authority figures in general when I found that out, and then even more so when the information they gave about MDMA seemed to be advertising the stuff.'
MDMA, How do you mean? 'They showed us a video of teens dancing and partying and having fun, and there was exciting music, and it definitely appealed to, not deterred, the teens in that class room. '
Was there anything that could have been construed as a negative effect? 'It was like one of those antidepressant commercials, where they say in a very low voice, 'may cause swelled brain, seizures, and all that, but the whole time showing imagery that got you excited about it.'
Drugs are notorious for violence, gangs, and having a weapon with drugs is an enhance-able offense. I wanted to talk to 'drug criminals' to find out if this is accurate to what really happens in their lives, or if it is isolated incidence which are saturating media.
S., Have you been around a lot of people in the dealing of drugs? 'I did sell weed for a while and met other people who did as well. I met one or two people who sold more than just weed'
Would you elaborate? 'I met people who sold ecstasy and mushrooms and pain killers, but I didn't like being around all that.'
How did you get involved with marijuana? "I first saw it used by some friends of my sisters, and I heard about my older brother using it before he went on an LDS mission. Those were people that I trusted and respected their intelligence and logic, so I figured it wasn't that bad. I hung out with my sister’s friends while they were all smoking, and said no for a long time when it was offered, then one day I just jumped in. Up to that point in my life it was the awesomest experience I had ever had. After that, I spent a long time being a moderate user, starting and stopping whenever it was convenient or affordable. Eventually I realized what a huge demand there was in my area, and started to supply."
How much money did you make selling marijuana? "At first I would just break even, just basically be able to smoke for free if I sold to all my friends, but after a while friends told their friends, it got pretty big, I was doing it full time, and I would make a hundred dollars a day or so, sometimes more. I would make the most money with people that just bought really small amounts cause they didn't have a lot of money at one time, so I would see them every week for another fifty dollars."
Did you grow the weed to sell it. "No."
S., To the best of your knowledge, where did it come from? "At first I had no idea. I just got it from a friend. But after we started buying more at once, like 4 ounces or a pound at once, it was either from Las Vegas, or from a couple of different sources in XnoXsayX."
Do you think you would have met people who sold ecstasy if marijuana was legal? 'No. I think those people got involved in those other drugs specifically because marijuana can only be found in a black market type situation, and in that situation, customers feel more safe about asking for other illegal things'
How about as a dealer? Are you more comfortable approaching someone who is already breaking the law, even if the crime isn't as severe as what you are doing? 'Sure. What I did I never approached anyone, I just had a lot of friends that smoked weed and we all helped each other out. I never went up to anyone and asked if they wanted to buy.'
S., In all your time in, as you put it, the black market selling and buying illegal substances, have you ever had a gun pointed at you or been robbed at knife point? Yes or no. 'Yes. I've had cops pointing guns at me twice. Besides cops, nobody ever took anything from me against my will.'
When was it that cops pointed guns at you? 'Once when I was arrested for possession under an ounce, and once when I was arrested for cultivation. The guns they used for the cultivation charge were much bigger.'
If you were to do an employee survey on the officers you encountered, how would you rate their performance as far as customer curtiousy and information? 'The lowest possible grade. They threw me to the ground when I was pregnant, and I was obviously showing no threat. I was very compliant. They also ran around my house yelling to all my neighbors that our house was a possible meth lab, which is ridiculous.'
How far along were you? '4 months'
How do you feel about plants and the way people interact with them? Answer as generally as the question. 'I think people in general forget about or don't know about plants. Most people couldn't grow a plant if they tried. Most people don't know what plants there are out there that can help them with their physical problems. Most people wouldn't know how to use those plants, even if they knew about their helpful properties. I think the government tries to say that plants on their own are worthless, when that is just completely untrue. Also people should use less herbicides and pesticides'
What have you done in your area of plants, to affect the society you live in? "What I did was supply a plant that people use to be happier. If you have a really crappy job, or you have to wake up and work really hard at 4 in the morning, or your achy or have headaches or cramps, or have any problem that would prevent you from working efficiently and or having a good attitude, basically enjoying your job, then this plant helps that. It makes you more interested in the mundane things that you have to do anyways."
Where do you see yourself in the future concerning marijuana? "I want to be in a place where it is fully legalized. However, there aren't any places like that, so I would like to grow organic marijuana and supply it to cannabis clubs and medical marijuana patients. Whatever my involvement is, I would like it to be legal."
If it isn't legalized, will you stop using it? "Probably not."
Do you feel like most people feel that way? "There are people that definitely feel more strongly about it than I do, because I haven't used it for a while, so I'm used to not using it, but I wish it didn't have to be this way. I just know that using it isn't worth putting my family's life in jeopardy, but it isn't the plant itself or the use of the plant that causes that potential chaos. I will always believe that there is nothing wrong with using marijuana. I think at least half of our country's population feels the same way."
Out of the people you know, what percentage of those people think it should be legalized? "At least 80%"
Tell me about one of your friends that thinks it should be illegal. "I don't have any friends that I know of that think it should be illegal. I have friends that don't smoke, and have never smoked marijuana, but still they know that it is completely harmless; even more so than cigarettes and alcohol. Some of my family members may not think it should be legalized, but I don't really know because it is so stigmatized, and I don't talk to them about it."
S., last question; Do you feel like you did anything wrong when you were arrest those two times? 'No. I never do things that I think are wrong. I did something that was against the law, and I knew it was against the law, but I broke the law because the law is stupid.'
I interviewed four people. Three of them admitted to using drugs, and told me they would continue to use drugs for the rest of their life. These people basically feel the government has no business telling you sit and mandating your lifestyle, and telling you what drugs are ok, and what drugs are not, when all drugs have some unintended side effects.
Interview 4 O.
Do you think marijuana should be illegal? "No."
Do you think it's addictive? "Yes, in the same way that laughter and having a good time is addictive."
How many plants do you know of that are used for drugs? "Quite a few... Tobacco, marijuana, mushrooms, salvia, opium, cocaine, peyote."
To what extent have you been involved with illegal drugs? "I started smoking weed as a teenager, and I've also tried mushrooms and cocaine, and ecstasy, though not very much, just a couple of times. I also sold weed for a long time, and sold mushrooms a couple of times, and sold prescription pain killers to some of my friends."
Which drugs do you think are the most dangerous? "I would say meth, heroin, and cocaine."
O., How did you get involved with distribution of illegal substances? "I just really liked smoking pot. I never had enough money to do it, so me and my friends would pool our money together and buy a bag together. It started out that we would just get an eighth and only smoke when everybody was there together, but then we happened to come across a really, really good source of somebody that actually grew it, and we started selling it to our other friends. After a while the group thing didn't work out, and I just kept doing it on my own. And when your selling pot, people come and ask you for other things as well. Most of the time I would just say no, I only sell pot, but sometimes those other things make a lot more money."
Have you ever been robbed at gunpoint or knifepoint? "No. But my boyfriend was robbed in Las Vegas."
Have you ever had a gun pointed at you in this business? "Yes, when my house got raided and I got arrested."
Can you describe what happened? "I saw our dogs run to the door, and I thought that it was my friend who was on his way over, so I went to open it, and then they started pounding on the door and saying it was the police, and they busted in the door and I was so shocked, and so scared, I started to have a panic attack right there. They had to sit me on the couch and just let me calm down before I could talk to them at all."
How many were there? "About ten. Maybe more"
Armed? “Yes”
Did they find guns in your house? "No."
Did anyone that you know who was in this kind of business that has a gun for their business? "Probably but I never saw one. The only people I knew that carried around guns were the ones that sold ecstasy or coke, those were the guys that really freaked me out. They seemed really sketchy."
You said you got arrested. Do you know how much money your probation cost you? "Well it cost two thousand dollars to get out on bail, and then once I got into drug court I paid $120 per month for about two years."
O., What effect do you think you had on your immediate environment or your society? "I don't think I hurt anyone. I never sold anything that I thought was really harmful. There were actually a couple of times when I kind of ruined a friendship because I wouldn't sell something that I thought was inappropriate. Like a friend wanted some Ambien, and wanted to stay up all night and see what happened, and I told him no. He was mad at me for a couple of years and we were not on speaking terms. I know that selling weed I made a lot of people's lives better. I made it so they could relax, and not be in pain, and not turn to alcohol or other things. I live in a small town where there are a lot of young gay kids that are completely repressed and they would be disowned if their parents knew they were gay. I fell best about helping them, and helping them cope."
How much money do you think you made during your peak? “I don’t know, I paid my rent with it all my bills and bought cloths, I never needed anything but I could not tell you exactly how much”
Do you know how much you spent to buy your product at a time? “As much as 8,000$ every two or three weeks usually less though”
Do you intend to use drugs again once you no longer have to report to a probation agency and take urine analysis tests? "Definitely."
The people that I met for this interview where some of the nicest people you could hope to be stuck on a bus next to or trapped in an elevator with and they all had some very serious things in common. All of them had guns pointed at their faces, there lives and property destroyed just to be rebuilt from debris and under when intensive brainwashing. They have all been told that what they did was wrong but they all seem to realize that the only negative thing that comes from the selling of marijuana comes at the hands of the actual people who are meant to help.
Two of the people who where arrested for marijuana where young women that where first cut down to nothing then rushed into an environment where all drugs are created equal and are equally available.
The economic damage can be seen in numerous ways but mainly is found by the importation of drugs into our country by those who have even less regard for American laws then our own drug users here. For every measurement of drugs that come into America, or an area of America and equivalent amount of American money flows out without being taxed, regulated, or monitored. This has been true since they declared war on drugs over thirty years ago and has only grown to be a larger problem today. A 30 year war is long enough to realize that a new strategy is needed for America to win, especially when the people this war was waged against are also mainly good Americans.