This is just plain false. Over one million Americans are arrested for simple possession of drugs every year. The FBI stated that in 2011 "The highest number of arrests were for drug abuse violations (estimated at 1,531,251 arrests)

In my county they send people to Pam Lychner State Jail(day for day prison for fourth degree felonies/state jail felonies) for personal amounts of drugs. I had a friend who did six months at Pam Lychner for possession of DMT. I've done a lot of time in county over possession of less than one gram of a controlled substance. I've seen hundreds of people sent to prison and state jail for possession of methamphetamine for amounts 3.5 grams and less, cocaine less than one gram, marijuana for four ounces, and even half a gram of MDMA. If that's having my cake and eating it, I don't want to eat it anymore. To call drug laws lax or unenforced, mainly in reference to the US, is a completely false statement. All you have to do is look at the statistics or be familiar with ANY part of the system here. People take plea bargains DAILY in my felony court, DAILY, for one year in county to avoid prison sentences, for six months in prison to avoid the risk of being found guilty at trial and receiving a harsher sentence, all for simple possession. I witnessed a 19 year old kid plead guilty to possession of three grams of hash(any amount of hash is a felony in Texas) and he signed for 32 months in TDC. I think it's the other way around really, more people are prosecuted for simple possession of drugs than large amounts, IME. Not only do people receive prison sentences, they also receive convictions and may be placed on probation. There are thousands of people on probation for possession of marijuana in my county, and I live in a smaller county.

This thread.

Been a lot of good info/perspectives to read and contemplate over the past few days for sure...

I think just that... Relate to eachother as human beings and try to understand the reasons for decisions that others make which don"t make sense to us, rather than demonising or deifying people. If you talk to someone like they are a human being, they are far more likely to respond positively than if you scream a load of vitriol at them. It is just viewed as hot air spoken by someone who loves the sound of their own voice. And yes, i think we have been a selfish species for a very long time and the current Western state of affairs is the latest, disfunctional model. There will be no Utopia, we are all donald ducked.

We blame politicians for these laws but society at large is just as much to blame for being complicit. The argument that we are all sheep and get fed filtered information just doesn"t cut it for me.

On a brighter note: http://www.guardian.co.u...stop-and-frisk-oversight

I feel very similar to posts #4, 28, 68 of this thread.

Please read my post (#31) within “PRISM a.k.a the NSA is reading your eMail, listening to your calls etc.”

https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&m=466205#post466205

Jamie said it all for me. But I know I'm supposed to put it in my own words so...

No.
For making this country a police state, jailing people, taking their children and their homes, destroying their careers, and even killing them over simple recreational drug use ( or sale of recreational drugs) it is unforgivable what they are doing to people. Then they create private for profit prisons like the concentration camps of ww2 to house the prisoners. How else can it be said but WTF are we allowing this government to do to its own citizens!!!
A government is needed. All the "little villages" ideas are overly simplistic and unrealistic. And by the way, all the "little villages" of the Native Americans were not peaceful or just either. They waged war on each other and many even killed their own indiscriminately. But this government has some very unjust and evil aspects to it such as the war on drugs and all the pain and terror inflicted from that both here and abroad ( Mexico for example.)
It may be well meaning people who are doing this because they think it is right, but being "well intentioned" does not free them from the guilt of their inflictions upon others.

This is no joke, I completely agree. But what do you have in mind, I'm all ears. I have realized this for over 10 years now, almost moved from US to Costa Rica, but I stuck around, watching things get worse the whole time.

Besides embodying our principles, treating others with love and compassion, and trying to educate those who are receptive to it, what can actively be done to "stand up"? With the population successfully divised & conquered over bullshit like clip size, abortion, gay marriage, and prayer in schools, resistance seems futile.

That said, I do firmly believe that one should "never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

But it seems like most forms of activism presently are just removing pollution downstream while new and greater pollution is added all the while upstream... it seems a radical shift is needed. I'm very interested to hear your thoughts.

If a flock of birds decides to fly a new direction, it's not a conspiracy, they simply all realized it was in their best interests to fly a different way.

Same thing here, if people are making money off war and killing and oppression, you don't need back room meetings to decide what to, it's obvious.

It's the same reason the church restricted sex and made it evil outside of procreation. If people could freely experience brotherly love and cosmic oneness with all creation, the military-industrial-congressional imperial war machine would NOT be allowed to continue. Whoever is profiting from these things knows that, so monied interests work to keep these drugs illegal. Like you said, cui bono? It's as simple as that.

I'm focusing on entheogens rather than drugs like cannabis, which are illegal simply as a way to arrest and disenfranchise vast numbers of people who would otherwise be in opposition.

Well, it is my opinion that the old methods are not going to get it done. I think that the idea of beating them at their game is ludicrous and absurd.

BUT, we do have consciousness and history on our side.

I think we should concentrate on waking people up. We already have passed a major milestone last year when over half of the people surveyed thought marijuana should be legalized and 2 states legalized recreational use. If anything these poll numbers keep going up. Last I checked we were over 60%.

Of course recent events show that even when 90% of people support something it doesn't mean the government will respond.

But I feel drug use will become the next civil rights movement after gay rights. Just like with gay rights, it took years of oppression and struggle to get into the public eye. It took a lot of famous and not famous people "coming out" and putting positive images in the media. Shows like Modern Family are probably responsible for the rapid and sudden shift in public opinion.

We need to follow that model. We should begin "coming out" to our loved ones and taking the time to explain to them that current policies are not only unjust and harmful, but are actively targeting us. People tend to change their tune and how they vote when they know some people being affected. Even Dick Cheney changed his tune on gay rights when his daughter came out as a lesbian.

There is hope. We just need to stand up and be strong.

Hope in various degrees. Hope for marijuana legalization in our lifetime, yes. Hope for legalization of entheogens...I think not. I wonder what the poll for LSD legalization would look like?

I'll forgive anyone who realizes their actions caused harm/pain to others, and correct themselves.

As far as the government, I'll forgive myself, and the citizens when we clean up the mess we let get to the point at which its at.

The government, as has been said, is a reflection of the people. Or rather a consequence of neglect to take part in it, and inform yourself about who we vote into positions of power.

The abusers of those positions share no more blame than you or I, since we failed to hold them to a standard of excellence our elected officials are supposed to be held to. The ones who committed crimes while serving the public, and got away with it, need to make it right, and for some that means imprisonment. But mainly they need to admit what they did was wrong, and take a look at the consequences of their actions upon others. Not all will be willing, so, i don't think its wrong to advocate criminal prosecution/social & ethical re-rehabilitation of elected officials who broke the law though.

The populace, needs to forgive themselves for neglecting the state of affairs in our governance, accept what the reality is, then do better, and never stop pursuing to those ends. Its the only way democracy works.

At the end of the day though, we made the mess, and were going to have to clean it up. That means forgiving anyone who realizes they hurt people who did not deserve it. And trying to help the people who don't see how their behavior in office did so.

Its not forgive and forget, its forgive, and remember, forgive and learn from your mistakes. At that point i think an individual is absolved from their wrongs, perhaps the most erroneous offenders need to give back and help, but i don't advocate retribution or revenge for those people. They just need help, and if they cannot stop acting in a way that harms/causes pain to others, perhaps involuntary incarceration/rehabilitation is necessary.

Forgiveness is limitless, no matter what the misdeed was, to the extent the individual changes to rectify their behavior and try and ameliorate some of the suffering they caused.

It is a matter of one step at a time. When we passed Medical Marijuana in California, no one thought we could succeed. The climate was brutal at the time. Then they said it would never stand. Now we are 17 years or so into it and it is not only not going anywhere, but has spread across the country and across the world. People in CA can grow and smoke with impunity by and large... even buy cannabis in plush dispensaries where one can sample many sorts in comfort from a large menu.

Once people saw that weed was medicinal and that their friends and relatives were using it without the world coming to an end, it opened the door to recreational use. I think we will see the 2 states with recreational weed inspire others and recreational weed will spread across the land as well. Even the police officers are for legalization now. They don't wanna waste time busting stoners for the most part either.

Once weed has gone mainstream, entheogens will follow suit. It makes no sense to illegalize wild plants. Shrooms and Aya will probably become legal due to religious freedom... the way peyote is for the Native American Church.

The truth is that our drug policy is so ludicrous it could unravel in no time flat. We have a lot of entrenched powers to overcome, but having DMT (an endogenous chemical) be scheduled is ridiculous to anyone who thinks about it for 2 seconds. We could go and arrest all the members of congress on possession... that would wake them up.

Sadly, I don't think we live in a real democracy, though. A democracy with only 2 choices is not a democracy. I don't think we can blame the people for the government we have. The people have no power at all. They may not even count our votes for all we know (look up Diebold and electronic voting machine fraud)... and even if our elections are on the up and up, lobbyists have far more influence than voters.

It is a mistake to say the status quo represents the will of the people. But like a lot of such impossible situations, we will overcome. No one thought Civil Rights, Women's Rights, or Gay Rights would come to pass either.

Fact is we are an oppressed minority. When we have the courage to demand our rights and are willing to endure some hardships to get them... things will start to change even faster than they already are.

^(hyperspacefool)^

the people have more power than any government.

What they lack, is motivation and information to realize they need to stop what they are doing, go outside, and occupy the country until we can get a legitimate government again.

We created this form of governance, we perpetuated it, it our fault (as a society, perhaps generational differences make that a bit more complex).

I don't think that there's a conspiracy shadow government, and the people cannot overcome that. I think democracy, while never truly existing in the first place in this country i might add, can prevail. We just have to start from the beginning again since it was flawed from the start (just off the top of my head, slavery, women's rights, manifest destiny, native american genocide, destruction of the ecology of the north american land mass, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.........).

But to say the status qwo represents the will of the people, no it doesn't. But apathy and neglect to fix the status qwo, thats our fault, and our responsibility to fix. Ignorance is no excuse. Even if propaganda keeps the populace placid and misinformed, the reality they perceive doesn't match up.

I think ignorance led to the rise of the american empire, and will be its downfall. Ignorance of the populace, and intelligence of thieves/lairs/crooks in the uptick, and intelligence of the populace while the crooks/liars/thieves get lazy since were so detached their job is easy, will be the downtick/downfall of the house of cards.

But you cannot place blame on the government, whilst absolving the populace because the government runs a propaganda system. Ignorance is no excuse, especially recidivist ignorance.

"What they lack, is motivation and information to realize they need to stop what they are doing, go outside, and occupy the country until we can get a legitimate government again."

You mean what YOU lack?..because if you are not out there doing that you must lack motivation and information by your own standards..Why arent you out there doing that? Dont enjoy being imprisoned, beaten and shot at, or both?

We are obviously not the government. If that is not clear by now you are either delusional or new. Saying this is everyone elses fault is a fallacy. Most people are not the people out there making the decisisions..they are mislead through the media and back into the corner where they reside in society, by force. What do you expect people with children and families to do?.. pick up the a shotgun and go to war?

If you have to go that far just to take back some rights than I can only conclude that obviously there is a government conspiracy working outside of the "law" that does not not have any of it's citizens well being in mind.

Saying ignorance is no excuse is of little relevance when you are dealing with a sick, malnourished foggy headed population raised on generations of brainwashing. Ignorance was the point.

I am not going to pretend that it is my fault or my neighbours fault for how fucked up this system is. It is not about who's fault it is, or who is evil or who is good. It is about the centralized power structure currently sitting behind all of this that is unwilling to move, and that is screwing everyone else over. They have all the guns, they have bombs, they have jet fighters and tanks..they have the mainstream media..and they have plently of cages to lock people they dont like in.

For people to take back a country is going to result in a lot of death. It is hardly fair to point the finger at all of them and say they are just ignorant but that is no excuse..unless maybe your gunna lead them?

wow, here we go i guess-

Yes, i do mean myself, and the rest of the populace. When was the last time you saw a demonstration protesting the abuse of civil rights in america in relatively recent history (post 1960's)?

I think its comical how people think the government is to blame, the centralized power structure, whatever. How did this structure come about? The people elected an official into office that either voted for, created, or signed the laws that make our country what it is today.

If our leaders do such terrible things, why do they get re-elected to positions of power?

You can either say its because the electoral system is rigged, which i consider CS theory, or you can say its because the people don't care enough about this process to make an informed decision. They do not look beneath the surface of a candidate.

I just don't understand how people can't accept its our problem, created by generations, not just citizens now, for the argument that the government has too much power over us for a non-violent change in political ideology in this country.

The fault and solution lies in the populace. Sure political drama keeps us relatively fragmented, but these leaks have the whole country on board that whats going on is wrong, and not legal.

And if you want to make the "were dumbed down" by the government/corporate powers through whatever means argument, whose fault is that? The people who choose to blindly and without forethought, make decisions. Same issue as the voting problem.

You really think, if the "big-dirty" leaked out, and the public outcry got to the point of mass protests, they would act with violence against non-violent non-cooperation?

I mean they're fools and crooks, but they know not to sign their own death warrant. Yeah they have guns, tanks, jetfighters, etc, etc. They will not use violence against a majority of the public protesting. The armed forces for one won't go along with it. The national guard, will defect en mass.

So what do you propose besides non-cooperation and advocacy of critical thinking when it comes time to vote? I don't advocate violence like you think i do, i never did, and never will.

If the public has beef with the government (we do), if we don't do anything about it its our own damn fault. If we don't inform ourselves about how the government/corporate entities attempt to influence public opinion, elections, the news, etc, its our own damn fault. If we eat crap that makes us dull and dumbed down, or consume media of the same characteristics i think its the individuals fault. It was the fault of the people at the time periods in which we wiped out almost all the native population, practiced slavery, etc. Everyone's to blame, unless you choose to use your mind when voting and spending your assets on corporation X not only because of their product, but their political agenda, and the effects they have on society, the world. Voting with your dollar.

Its our fault for not watching what was going on around us, objectively from what we were told what was going on. Its easier to let others think for you, but you get what we have now.

And I'll repeat it one more time, i said EVERYONE (or a significant majority) in the streets, non-violently refusing to cooperate until the officials in place now step down and a transitonary government run by civil pure democratic voting is put in place until we either ratify that as the new form of governance, or hold elections and keep the democratic-republic system.

Or you know, we could just do nothing since the government is big and scary and has guns, bombs, batons, jets, drones, etc. Explain how that does anything but make things worse.

Guys, I'm going to say something radical and want you to listen closely

It's not a conspiracy. Nobody is to blame. It all goes back to money. The debt-based money system is the root cause of our woes. Not media control, not the drug war, not ignorant sheep, but the fact that government has a monopoly on money issuance, and people who OWN money have the right to make more of it without lifting a finger to contribute anything to society, simply by charging rent, interest, etc., all the while accumulating a bigger and bigger share of the wealth by doing so. This is plain wrong. It's why Jesus kicked the money lenders out of the temple. We have become so blind and indoctrinated to it now that we have lost our collective imagination on how things could be different, and most people feel like debt-based money & capitalism is the only game in town that would work.

Even the decimation of the Aztecs by Cortes and the conquistadors, arguably of the most evil acts of the last half millenia, were spurred by debt they owed to Spanish monarchy. This is why they pillaged so thoroughly. Out of all that gold they stole, each man got about a handful each, and actually lost money if you account for paying for their weapons. How did Hitler gain power? Because Germans were indebted after the conference of Vienna, had nothing, and fell for the lies of a sociopath scapegoating the Jews for robbing them. You can trace the same thing all the way back to the very start of capitalism. Man is not evil. Debt is.

Anyone remember learning about how money is created in school? I thought not. Anybody research and learn it on their own? Quick answer, it's made out of thin air, typed into existence on a keyboard nowadays by the (privately owned) central bank or their delegates whenever anybody takes a loan out. However, the interest required to pay back these loans is never created, this is why we need endless monetary growth for the money system not to collapse. Without growth, there would be mass defaults on loans and social chaos would ensue. However resources are finite and we are running out of things to monetize into more debt. This has been the trouble the last 5 years since the GFC started.

This is how evil happens. People themselves are not evil, but they're in debt and they're just doing their job, following orders. Ignorance is not to blame either. It's hard to get someone to understand something when their livelihood depends on them NOT understanding it.

Overthrowing anything is not going to happen, especially when more than half the population relies on handouts from the government in the form of welfare, social security, subsidizations, etc etc. We need to rethink money and create a new system to leave the current one behind in the dust. I think bitcoin and other non-sovereign currencies are a huge move in this direction, gold and silver, LETS (local exchange trading systems), bartering, all are a positive step. Realize our interdependence and do more for each other outside of the financial system, stop paying taxes, and bleed the beast.

Changing the money system would appear even harder than getting entheogens decriminalized. However unlike entheogens, this issue affects each and every person alive. It is my view that if you want to weed out evil, you need to strike at the roots. And the current form of money is definitely the root of all evil.

Am I making sense? Or is this simply the ravings of a madman?

Since I typed post #85, many points you all made were good except this one, made by at least 2 members:

"It's not a conspiracy".

Let us please admit that there IS/ARE a conspiracy or multiple conspiracies that ARE happening in relation to at minimum- some these topics- even if we don't agree on the details. btw, 80%-85% of the most watched media in USA is owned by only 5 large corporations (that may have interlocking boards of directors).

I do not want this thread to be locked, and I don't consider myself peddling CT, just mentioning and agreeing with some arguably relevant conspiracy facts.

In addition, I have seen 2 documentaries about the possible stealing of elections:
1). "Stealing America: Vote by Vote"

2). Greg Palast's lecture on his book "Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps "

Electronic voting machines that read paper ballots have removable circuit boards with programmable chips attached; my understanding of its job = it counts the votes for each candidate and sees who wins. I KNOW 1st hand similar chips that happen to be utilized by satellite tv receivers have been reprogrammed for purposes of watching unauthorized channels and Pay-Per-View events... Documentary #1 lays out evidence and under oath testimony the voting machine ones can, and have been hacked/altered/reprogrammed to switch a potentially unlimited # of votes as they are cast, AND in the middle of the night. One person explains that it's not even necessary to visit each machine, it can easily be worked into the programming to switch votes automatically.

This might can be overcome with huge victory margins, or paper ballots counted by hand.
___________________________________________________________________________________________

Sadly, the difference between gays "coming out" and cannabis users coming out = if you're poor, you're likely an easy weed bust. Just saying "I'm a user of..." could get one targeted for incarceration; being gay won't get one incarcerated in USA. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

That being said, I think many things need changed that have been mentioned, including the money system; from what I've learned, I'd support the constitutional monetary system of greenbacks. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

"If our leaders do such terrible things, why do they get re-elected to positions of power?"

I believe this is because most politicians are forced do too much fundraising, and the funds mostly come from the super-wealthy, that's also why they get preferential treatment in many ways... -> Publicly financed elections. ___________________________________________________________________________________________

I may stop myself from posting in this thread in the future due to my increasing the risk of thread lockage... but let us please not say that there are not conspiracies actually happening in relation to some of these topics- if you did not read post #31 within "PRISM a.k.a the NSA is reading your eMail, listening to your calls etc." then do so... watch the above documentaries, as well as Coinelpro 101.

Post #31 https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&m=466205#post466205

P.S. I have not seen any credible evidence of FEMA camps.

Nothing radical about calling out debt-based monetary system and fractional reserve banking. These are two "conspiracies" that no one even bothers denying... and that are, as you say, behind much of what is wrong with the world.

If you don't know about these things, I urge you to watch a few documentaries, or better yet research the topic yourself. It is frankly appalling. The fact that money is created with debt already attached means that there is always more debt in the world than actual money... meaning if every bit of currency on the globe was gathered up and used to pay off debt, it would not be enough. It can never be enough.

Thus, in order for our system to keep going, the economy must grow at a rate that covers the interest on this debt. This forces us to keep growing economies for the sake of keeping up, and ignores the fact that economies can not grow infinitely... especially on a world of finite resources. This voracious growth is at least part of what is causing the destruction of our environment and the rapacious actions of corporations worldwide.

If people actually understood how fractional reserve banking actually works, they would burn the banks to the ground. It is bad enough that money is created with debt, but when you realize that every time money goes into the bank, the bank doesn't just loan out 90% of it, but actually creates money to the value of 90% and loans that out while keeping the original money. This "new money" goes into circulation and comes back to banks who multiply it again... each time diminishing the value of the money you already have.

BUT... this is not the only problem. It may not even be the worst of them.



Either-Or statements are nearly always logical fallacies. These two things are not even close to all of the options or explanations.

You say the rigging of elections is CT? Well, it has only been proven time and time again. From disenfranchising voters in Florida and not counting the votes of minorities in an election where Bush's campaign manager in the state was overseeing the election (the well documented stolen election of 2000 that gave us W) to incredible voting machine irregularities in places like Ohio where a town of 5000 cast 50000 votes for Bush... that were counted!

But this is not the biggest factor in elections not representing the will of the people... I put that squarely on:

1) The 2 party system where both parties represent the corporate interest... often because of:
2) Money in politics... where there is no incentive to listen to the dirt poor populace, and politicians receive their marching orders directly from the corporations. (lobbyists and campaign financing etc.)

You make it seem like we have a democracy, and that we have real choices. In fact, we have no choice. Whichever party you vote for will still put the corporate agenda through. They put on a theater of being adversarial, with the Republicans taking ludicrous ultra right positions so the Democrats can paint themselves as liberal while pushing through an agenda that is to the right of the Republicans of the 80's and 90's by a large margin.


Ummm... yesterday, the day before that, and every day before that.

Sheesh. Occupy Wall Street alone was bigger than most Civil Rights demonstrations. You wouldn't know this because the media portrayed it as a trifling thing involving dirty hippies playing bongos.

I don't know about you, but I have participated in well over 100 protests going back to the early 80's on issues most of you won't even remember... like the war in El Salvador. I was part of protests that closed down South African embassies and consulates across the nation and helped end Apartheid.

If you are saying that EVERYBODY has to take to the streets, or else we are all culpable for what the greedy, soulless financiers, investor class and business magnates do, I have to say this is ridiculous. With their expertise in divide and conquer, we will never get even a super majority of people to agree on anything. They even get people to vote against their interests with their deceptiveness.

Besides, look at the countries where people have taken to the streets en masse. They might have ousted a dictator or two and gotten some show elections, but by and large the military and wealthy of those countries not only stayed in power, but solidified it... often pushing the country even farther into fundamentalist hands.

Our government and the people behind it keep people ignorant, and then say that the populace is too ignorant to be trusted with making decisions.

I actually agree with the second part of that, though... I don't think Democracy is a good idea personally. I think we need a Democratic Meritocracy. A system where people with the most knowledge on a given subject are given a larger say. How is it that Honey Boo Boo's mom should have an equal vote on foreign policy issues as veterans of the State Department and Professors on the topic? She can't be trusted to make a good decision about Syria... she has no idea where it even is or what language they speak there.

Anyway... we have strayed from the OP. I think maybe we can take some of these debates to a new thread, as this one is rather long already. Newcomers to this thread already have to read a small book to participate.

Awww I was waiting for a chance to jump in and talk about my friends that live in the parsons crater

Seriously though, if we had a proper resource based economy free from the curse of fiat currencies and conglomerated debts that are impossible to ever pay off I think it would be a lot harder to spread so much discord in the first place.

While such things are not the singular foundations of many a conspiracy theory, the old adage of "follow the money" does ring rather true.

A stable foundation is the key to any solid build. A purposeful case of Ordo Ab Chao perhaps.

Anyways.. Would it be so difficult for a small corner of the nexus to be open to more "theoretical" perceptions and opinions. It would keep it from bleeding into other categories over time and give people a specific place to air certain aspects of their psyche, as and when aspects of reality raise the potential.

"Room 33+1/3" or something (I know prob a bad idea or been mentioned and dismissed with reason). Would be a lot better than having threads like back in the day that seem to provide examples of why the attitude needed to be created.

Just some humble thoughts and meanderings