In Maryland we have a "medical" law that if you have a prescription for weed from a doctor you can only be fined a hundred dollars. There are no dispensaries or anything. It's pretty messed up. I mean you have a prescription and the state recognizes that it can be used as a medicine, yet you have to buy it illegally and they can still fine you a hundred dollars.

Wee bit pessimistic, rude even. Cannabis is illegal because it being legal does nothing for the monetary gain of the corporations that control our governments. This said, in a sense people are rallying in the streets, like Occupy, saying no to the status quo will open more doors than the legalization of cannabis which is a small part.
All we're doing is punching in our two cents on the matter, guessing when we personally believe enough will have changed for us to smoke a joint and not get thrown in jail.
The internet, recent news polls, studies etc all indicate that the masses are now aware of why Cannabis is a good thing if you choose to use it and that we've been lied to for a generation.
Settle down buddy, hate isn't an emotion you need to disperse when you don't agree with someones point of view.

Before 2015 for sure. I live in Mexico.

I am not pessimistic. I have been in the trenches on this issue since the early 80's.

I am pragmatic, and a little bit tired of the pessimism (read apathy) displayed by so many of my friends and colleagues who like to whine about the situation and make negative prognostications while doing next to nothing about it.

I stand by everything I said, but you misinterpret me if you think it is based on hate. It most certainly is not. It is based on love... love of the nearly 900,000 US citizens who are arrested for cannabis every year. Love of the stoners who could fix this thing lickety split if they would just get up and do it. Love for the people who are put to death for drug possession in countries like Malaysia & Indonesia.

I may be hardcore... and a wee bit rude, even... but people need to get a kick in the butt sometimes. It is people like me who have done all the heavy lifting on this subject for generations. And I don't even smoke weed anymore.

I completely agree with this statement and would love to see energy diverted from archons and/or demons to real action in the physical world collapsing around us. It's time once more to stand up and fight for this idea of Freedom and personal responsibility lost in the media haze. The county which I am a part no longer fights for issues of freedom and it is time to stop talking and start acting.

-A concerned United Stated citizen



-Thomas Jefferson, 1776

50$ bet for a Nexus donation on 31.12.2014 ?

I'm with HF on this one, it's about time we stood up and kicked up a real fuss rather than bitching and moaning. The injustice has gone on for far too long, and I for one am sick of it.

I agree with what Hyperspace Fool is saying here. However, without a proper action plan even Hyperspace Fool's words are hollow ones. Just another rant on that we need to fix this problem. Perhaps it is a good idea here on the Nexus to come up with a plan to mobilize the population of cannabis fanatics and create a worldwide movement that will take this 'battle' out of the living rooms and into the real world.

To do that, we need an action plan; We need a movement in order to actually get this done. I suppose the best way to approach this is to form a global unified movement that is united under one banner. We share the same arguments, the same pros and we try to tickle our politicians by sharing tactics. Otherwise we'll be re-inventing the wheel in every country and be using different arguments. Imagine that we can organize a protest in many countries around the globe, to take place at the same day in order to voice our opinion on these ridiculous laws. If we go down that road they cannot ignore us.

Cannabis Social Clubs

Don't have one ? Start one

I can very much guarantee it is the reality here (PT - and yes, even though decriminalized - only ~26% of the population can even read english, so the official propaganda holds. Just a month ago some idiot minister was going on on national TV about how much worse than tobacco Cannabis is), and I dare say in most European countries, the Netherlands being the obvious exception.

Altough I'm not personally familiar with the reality in America, in a country where you can go bust for years for having a joint on you, I would guess that the same is true.



Perhaps that is true in your reality (America?) - and I have my doubts. But here, France, and in a miriad of other European countries that is not so. All the publicity you'll see in the media about drugs is strictly negative. The people who comment the news online are for persecution of "junkies" and commend the police when they bust people at music festivals. Just the other day I was riding my bike and saw the police bothering some kids who were smoking a joint without bothering anyone. Think they won't do that because it's decriminalized? Think again, not only can they confiscate the dope, you'll be sent to a social worker who'll try to dissuade you from your "addiction".

In France, as you may guess from their retarded laws about dmt-containing plants and harmalas, it's even worse. The UK is pretty bad. Word is they are not very tolerant in NZ or Australia about this stuff, but again, no personal experience there.



See above. It depends on where you are. I can tell you from personal experience that in my reality, most people will. Christ man, I've had people who stopped speaking to me when they were told I tried LSD, because that stuff makes you crazy, of course.

And mind you, I used to live in the capital, where supposedly the most educated people are.

Within the US I dunno, but if I had to guess, it's more accepted in places like California.



It doesn't matter how loud you scream if people think you're crazy for voicing these opinions



You're assuming too much here, and quite frankly being rude too.

I have indeed spoken with my grandparents about it, to my mother, my aunt and uncle, my cousins, my brother, and many (close to a hundred, easily) other people. Because I care for the truth, because I see a great wrong with this issue (not just cannabis, psychedelics in general), because I truly believe changing this would improve society.


With few exceptions in between, they do not understand it, do not want to hear about it, project their negative views on to me and generally label anyone who consumes drugs (magically alcohol and tobacco, the real killers, are OK) deranged.

As I wrote above, I've even had "friends" who started giving me the silent treatment once they knew I was experimenting with psychedelics.


So you have your local reality and I have mine, but at the end of the day I don't think most people, here or in the US, are pro-cannabis. If they were, wouldn't the laws have changed already? Would there be a need for so much activism?

@ VoidTraveler There are a number of good organizations that one can involve themselves with, and even here on the Nexus we have our Coalition For Entheogenic Liberty... admittedly a bit stalled at the moment, but certainly there is room for someone with good ideas (as you seem to have) to take up a torch.

I may have been doing a bit of ranting here on this thread, but it comes from literally 30 years of actual activism... and with a number of clear victories no less.

**********

@ nexalizer I feel you that your personal reality may not be as liberal and progressive as it is on the West Coast, and Europe has certainly taken a number of steps backwards in recent times... but in historical perspective, things are nowhere near as bad as they have been in times past. I have been traveling Europe extensively since I was a teenager. Trust me when I say that the gestapo feeling of the 80's makes anything going on now seem like playtime.

Sure, Switzerland closed their hemp stores... but you can still grow 4 plants per person. France may have a bug up its ass, but the penalties for small possession are still rather minor. Even in places like Bavaria & Austria (traditionally the most right wing zones) the level of acceptance for cannabis use is at record highs. The Dutch are going in reverse with their trying to limit drug tourism, and banning mushrooms... but the Danish are going forward, and you would have to try really hard to get in trouble for minor drug use in the Baleric islands like Ibiza and Mallorca.

Perhaps you missed it in my ranting, but I did quote an accurate statistic when I said that 51% of the US population polled pro-legalization for cannabis. http://www.gallup.com/po...egalizing-marijuana.aspx This particular Gallup Poll shows it at just over 50%, but I can't be bothered to find and link to the 6 other polls that show even higher stats.

The answer to your question about the laws changing is no. None of our countries are actually democracies. We have representative republics that are overrun with lobbyists and corporate money. If you understand that the root of the drug war has nothing to do with drugs and everything to do with economics and profit, you will see that a mere plurality of the populace on an issue is not enough to change jack shit.

After all, when they illegalized cannabis in the States, most paper in circulation was still made from hemp linens... in fact, cannabis was so essential that when the Japanese took the Philippines and cut off our source of Manila Hemp, we had to not only relegalize cannabis, but insist that all farmers who had the capability to grow it, grow it on penalty of losing their farms. Google Hemp For Victory.

Marijuana was America's number-one analgesic for 60 years before the rediscovery of aspirin around 1900. From 1842 to 1900 cannabis made up half of all medicine sold. The early Karl Benz internal combustion engine (the 1st patented for automobiles) ran on a hemp biomass fuel (as well as a number of Fords & Rudolph Diesel's original engine), and the hempseed oils used in aviation were so superior to petrochemicals in terms of viscosity that they could not be replaced until well after WWII. The parachute that saved Bush Sr.'s life in the war was made out of hemp... as was the majority of US military clothing, ropes, sails and canvas.

All it took was a small cabal of wealthy industrialists like William Randolph Hearst, with his buddies who started DuPont & Dow, some timber and cotton interests, and the help of a little weasel named Harry Anslinger who worked for 32 years as the Commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department's Federal Bureau of Narcotics... with a healthy dose of racism of course... to completely demonize a plant that was widely accepted and absolutely needed at the time.

At any rate, despite the flood of bad press for drugs... it is becoming more and more acceptable to show it in a positive light. Film, music, comedy, TV are filled with weed references, and other psychedelic drugs too. On the popular Fringe TV show (on ABC, a broadcast network not cable, no less) they show Walter making LSD in his lab, smoking grass, taking cocktails of ketamine and DXM, and even mention Bufo! Walter is not a villain, but the hero of the show no less. We have shows like Breaking Bad, Weeds, The Wire, Treme and a host more that show drug use in a positive light among the stars of the show.

Your reality might well be less progressive than mine, but if you live in Portugal, I guarantee you that things are better there now than they were in the 90's when they were clubbing the junkies in Lisbon and handing out multi-decade sentences for mere possession. Way better.

I may be somewhat rude from time to time (usually more on the peace & love tip, but hey)... but I would rather be rude than apathetic, lazy and pessimistic. The younger generation these days are often a bunch of whiny, entitled, cry babies. When I got involved in drug legalization protesting, the cops used to shoot us with rubber bullets, and tear gas... and THEN the crack epidemic hit.

Given your elaboration, I revoke my earlier statement and now you've swayed me to agree with your point of view. It would indeed have to be a big movement for people to take it with any amount of seriousness beyond "a bunch of hippies".