December 18, 2010 will forever remain in our collective memories as a huge milestone, a momentous victory for Civil Rights in general, and for the Gay people in particular, as the US Senate repealed the outdated “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy as a “stand alone” Legislation proposed by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT).  For 17 long years our men and women in uniform were forced to hide their identity, to lie about their sexual orientation, to wear a “mask” if they wanted to serve their country, or be dismissed from the military if their true Selves of being “gay” were discovered. And, in fact, almost 14 thousand of men and women have been dismissed from the military during these past 17 years for no other “violation”, but simply for being who they are!

Only a few days ago the change in this policy looked all but dead in the US Senate, where a strong Republican minority, led by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) managed to temporarily defeat the measure by parliamentary maneuvering, even as it was abundantly clear that the majority of the Senate, along with the strong majority of the American People, wanted the repeal of this discriminatory law, widely known as “Don’t ask, don’t tell” in the Military Service.

As we celebrate this long-overdue victory for Reason and common sense, we should not forget the struggle and sacrifice so many have made for Gay Rights in general, and for repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell” in particular. I remember well how in 1979 Jerry Falwell proclaimed on the steps of the Capitol itself that “Homosexuality is not acceptable”, and he did not mean “not acceptable in the military”, he meant “not acceptable”, period.

At that time no one even mentioned the military in this context, as the debate raged as to whether gay people should be fired from most “civilian” jobs if they had been “discovered”, especially from teaching jobs because the perennial scare-tactic of “what will happen to our children” was used then, as it is used now, to stifle Progress.

“What will happen to our children” – wailed the opponents of even the most rudimentary gay rights just a few decades ago, “if they start getting an idea that “it is OK to be Gay”! Even much more recently the Republican candidate for Governor of New York, Carl Paladino, espoused the same platform, and was soundly rejected by the people of New York who can no longer be swayed by this bigoted nonsense.

However, if 35 years ago someone even had suggested that the US Congress, with the firm and unequivocal support from the White House,  would actually vote to allow Gay people to openly serve in the military, such a person would have been “laughed out” of the room as someone who was “missing a screw” in a very serious way.

Despite the hysterical fear mongering by the Gay Rights opponents, nothing at all happened to “our children” as they became exposed to the “idea” that it is “OK to be gay”. Nothing adverse, to be sure, as our children continue to assimilate the value of diversity in many areas that go beyond racial or ethnic, or gender, or religious beliefs. There was no “increase” in the numbers of gay people as gays became more accepted in society, but this is something that the scientists had said many times before as well, for our sexual orientation is a function of “nature” and not “nurture”.

Sexual orientation is just not a matter of “choice”, and so it should not be a matter of “moral judgment”. In ancient Greece, for example, being “gay” or “straight” was considered to be akin to, let’s say, one person liking football and another one preferring baseball. Those who like “football” will continue to enjoy it, and they may even wonder as to how is it possible that the next person likes “baseball” more, but no moral judgment will be attributed to one group as opposed to the other. And, of course, the ancient Greeks would have laughed at the idea of excluding gay people from their military, for if they had been doing that, they would have had to exclude even Alexander the Great, among others, and this was definitely not something that the ancient Greeks would have ever chosen to do!

I will venture to say that the current struggle for Cannabis/Medicinal Cannabis Freedom is somewhat reminiscent of the gay struggle for equality. Especially noteworthy are the scare-tactics of Medicinal Cannabis “opponents” who yet again invoke “what will happen to our children?!” concept as they have done many times in the past, only to see that nothing negative happens to “our children” as they progress in the consciousness of tolerance, equality and freedom. Yes, our children will see that Cannabis is used as medicine, but so what? Codeine and morphine are also used as medicine, and they are far more dangerous than Cannabis, and alcohol (which is also far more dangerous than Cannabis) is used as both the “recreational substance” and as “medicine”, and its “use” is not automatically equal to “abuse”, although it can lead to abuse much more easily than the use of Cannabis.

What is extremely important to “see” is that Cannabis prohibition pushes the people (and young people, as well) to experiment with alcohol and hard drugs as those “clear” from the “system” much more rapidly than Cannabis and are not detected on “random urine drug screens” as easily; little do these people realize how dangerous these other substances, such as alcohol, cocaine, heroin, or pain or “nerve” pills are, and how high their “addiction potential (including physical dependence potential)” is! Cannabis is NOT physically addictive as its use lacks what is known as “documented physical withdrawal syndrome”, and the so-called “gateway drug” theory has been pronounced totally false by the science, although many politicians still act as if the “theory” were valid.

In the recent study by the Feds, teenage smoking and binge drinking were down, while the Cannabis use was slightly up. This is actually a positive development, because even though I am not for any teenage “substance use”, I recognize that if the young people were to “experiment”, I would much rather for them to experiment with Cannabis than with cocaine, alcohol or opiate “pain pills”! Sometimes when we look back at our actions in the past, we are aghast at what we had done, and we want to say, “How could we ever….”?? This is true about many areas of our lives, including racial equality, women equality, and now Gay equality. When we look back at these struggles, we are incredulous that we were actually capable of treating these issues differently from how we are approaching them now.

The same understanding will dawn on us with regard to Cannabis/Medicinal Cannabis freedom sooner rather than later, and we will be just as shocked at our past ignorance as we are now shocked at how we treated Blacks, and women, and gays… In 35 years from now (or, hopefully, much sooner) people of the future will look back and say, “Oh, my God, do they mean to tell us that they actually incarcerated people for growing a natural plant that helped their cancer symptoms??? How could they ever have done such a terrible thing??” And it will appear upon their “looking back” at our present reality exactly as it appears to most of us currently when we “look back” at sex, gender, race, or sexual orientation discrimination, and it will also appear to their consciousness of the future as equally incomprehensible, ridiculous and deplorable.

As Georg Hegel taught in his philosophy, our evolution is the evolution towards our “consciousness of freedom”, and I believe that in this teaching Hegel was right! We are progressing in our “consciousness of freedom”, and our very next milestone will be the universal acceptance of Medicinal Cannabis, which is even less a “partisan” issue (as the brave citizens of Arizona just showed us in their rather Conservative State), than the issue of “sexual orientation” as we all, and our loved ones, can get sick and be helped by the remarkable medicinal properties of the Cannabis Plant!

I have to admit that, even with all its problems, including technical difficulties, privacy concerns, or an outright censorship, as was the case with “Just Say Now” Campaign, I still love the Facebook. Facebook provides a forum for millions of people to communicate, organize, advocate for “causes”, share their worries and beliefs, or simply be heard on a vast array of issues. For me this is especially fascinating, as I remember well another time and another place, which was the Soviet Communist Empire, where human rights advocates had to re-write forbidden books and other news on scraps of paper, even on cigarette papers, (something that was called “Sumizdat” or “self-publishing”), and circulate those materials among their supporters, always in fear that the KGB would catch up with them and accuse them of “anti-Soviet propaganda”, an offense that carried a five-year sentence in the GULAG, as a minimum.

When Arkady Shevchenko, a high-ranking diplomat who was the Soviet Ambassador to the United Nations, no less, defected to the United States in 1978, he said that he was “breaking with Moscow” because the Soviet system was “against the human nature”. I myself strongly believe that the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Communist Empire was caused, among other reasons, by millions of people feeling “trapped”, repressed, hopeless, demoralized, alienated…. Indeed, when large numbers of people feel “trapped” in any society, including the United States itself, to a point where they simply lose hope, such a situation gives rise to highly negative, and often unpredictable, social consequences. Stigmatization and “alienation” play an important role in an inevitable eventual “explosion” which can take many forms, one of which may even be stealing of the highly sensitive secret information and giving it to the “whistle-blower” website, WikiLeaks, thus inflicting a serious damage to the United States’ interests on a global scale.

On or about 11-18-10, a preliminary confirmation hearing was held in the US Senate for Michele Leonhart, a known anti-scientific Cannabis/Medicinal Cannabis prohibitionist who single-handedly suppressed important scientific research into the medicinal properties of the Cannabis plant, including in January of this year from the University of Massachusetts. Agent Leonhart is a well-known anti-scientific despot, who is actually a “leftover” from the Bush Administration, and whom President Obama saw fit to nominate as the next “head” of the DEA despite vigorous protests from human rights groups and many members of scientific community, and from practically entire Democratic “base” that helped elect the current President, who ran in 08 on a message of “hope” and “returning the country back to its people”. Nominating someone like Leonhart as a future “head” of the DEA does not inspire hope, and neither does it serve to “return this country to its people”.

Not when, according to a recent research by the University of Iowa, 65% of the US population support the Medicinal Cannabis Legalization, while Leonhart promised a continuing DEA repression with respect to this ancient herbal remedy that has been considered “medicine” for thousands of years. During the Senate hearing, Leonhart and an extreme right-winger, Senator Sessions (R-AL), publicly “stroked” each other invoking imaginary “social costs” of Cannabis/Medicinal Cannabis Legalization. Leonhart even promised to disregard the Administration’s own directive of 10-19-09 to defer to the State Laws when it comes to the Medicinal Cannabis, which was, in my view, a public defiance towards her own superiors; this certainly reminded me of the “State within the State” that was KGB in the former Soviet Empire which defended the unsustainable Marxist “dogmas” with such a vigor that occasionally it was hard to decide who was ruling the Empire – the Kremlin or the “Moscow Center”.

Let’s hope that there has been no “coup d’etat” in this country which could make it possible for Leonhart and for the DEA to publicly challenge their superiors in the Justice Department. Speaking of which I certainly hope that, during the upcoming full Senate Confirmation Hearings, the Senators from States which Legalized Medicinal Cannabis  make their Constituents, whom they claim to “represent”, be heard on this Federal level.  Indeed, it is becoming harder and harder for the “Leonharts” to uphold the “dogma” in “defense” of Cannabis illegality. It is now a fairly common knowledge as to how Cannabis Medicinal Plant became illegal in the first place, and how this “illegality” has been supported by the Prison-Industrial Complex for its own nefarious ends for decade after decade. The “father” of Marijuana Prohibition, Harry Anslinger, was not especially “shy” when he articulated his “reasoning” for outlawing and demonizing the Plant:

“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos, and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz, and swing, result from marijuana use. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers, and any others.” And also: “…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

Harry Anslinger said many other things, equally revolting, but we already have an idea, even based on those two examples. When the reputable Shafer Commission decisively recommended to President Nixon to decriminalize marijuana, as it’s “dangers” were nowhere near being enough to justify overriding the “Presumption of Liberty” of the Citizens with respect to cultivation and consuming the Plant, President Nixon blatantly disregarded the Commission’s findings, saying to his Chief of Staff H.R. Heldeman that

“Every one of the bastards out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish”.

So, here we go: two racist, crooked, unsavory individuals, Harry Anslinger and Richard Nixon, shoved the Cannabis illegality down America’s throat, while their “ideological heir”, Agent Leonhart and her “crowd” vow to continue with this ridiculous prohibition.

There have been the statements of truth and reason, however, including from Professor of psychiatry Lester Grinspoon, who said to the L. A. times in 2005:

“Cannabis will one day be seen as a wonder drug, as was penicillin in the 1940s. Like penicillin, herbal marijuana is remarkably nontoxic, has a wide range of therapeutic applications and would be quite inexpensive if it were legal”. Even earlier, in 1988, Administrative Law Judge Francis Young said that “Marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man”.

Far from following this judicial decision, the DEA refused to follow the Judge’s recommendation of re-classifying Cannabis as a therapeutic substance and only intensified the repression, while also “demonizing” Judge Young and his opinion. But the information about remarkable medicinal properties of the Cannabis Plant could not be contained by the DEA and its prohibitionist allies! Fifteen States and the District of Columbia now have passed laws Legalizing the Medicinal Cannabis in those States.

A recent CNBC documentary, “Marijuana USA” is a fairly accurate description of the positive role that Cannabis/Medicinal Cannabis Industry plays in the middle of this economic recession. There was a significant inaccuracy in the Documentary, however, as the Historic Proposition 19 in California, which would have Legalized personal Cannabis possessions in that State, was defeated by a margin of less than 4%, and not by a 9% margin, as the Documentary reported.

California voters also were quite decisive in sending a clear signal that they were against strangling of the Medicinal Cannabis industry, advocated by a rabid prohibitionist, Steve Cooley, who was defeated by Progressive Kamala Harris, not an enemy of Medicinal Cannabis. Her election was also a sign of approval by the voters in California of the recently passed new Law in the State fully decriminalizing minor Cannabis possessions by individuals! To be sure, Bill 1449 to that effect was signed by the Governor into Law in California on 9-30-10. Those who truly impressed the heck out of me, however, were the Conservative voters of Arizona who rejected their politicos’ unified rant against Medicinal Cannabis and voted to Legalize it in their State on November 2!

Unfortunately, the Medicinal Cannabis Legalization Movement recently suffered a setback in Illinois where the State Representatives bowed to scare-tactics and enormous pressure by the dogmatic prohibitionists and defeated the Medicinal Cannabis legislation on 11-30-10, as the sick people watched how their hopes for relief were crashed by the fear-mongering despots. How can the people NOT feel “trapped” under these circumstances?! Under the deplorable state of affairs when cancer, multiple sclerosis, or glaucoma patients cannot legally receive their medicine on account of racist and anti-Semitic ideologies of Harry Anslinger and Richard Nixon, while the DEA and its allies use a perfectly “circular argument” saying basically that “marijuana is illegal because….it is illegal, and nothing is to be done about it!”

People of this country cannot simply acquiesce to this nonsense! Even the progressive politicians, like the new Attorney-General Elect of California Kamala Harris are beginning to listen, as she has stated that she has personally known people who are helped by the Medicinal Cannabis! Well then, Ms. Harris, this means that  remarkable medicinal properties of the Cannabis Plant have been “empirically” proven to you, and that, as far as you are concerned, Cannabis IS a Medicinal Plant, because under the First Law of Logic it can either be or not be a Medicinal Plant… there is no “middle” that is possible here! But let’s take a look at the enemies of democracy like Sen. Sessions, many other Republicans (and some Democrats) in Congress and the “hate-groups” that support them.

Indeed, Sessions and Company come out against the Human Rights legislation in many areas, not just on Medicinal Cannabis! The Republicans just voted down the repeal of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” despite 73% of the voters, and the Pentagon, being in favor of the repeal of DADT. It seems that Gay people cannot even die for these scoundrels while being true to their own Nature…

Or let’s look at the hate groups, such as “Family Research Council” and “Heritage Foundation”. These groups are the stale remnants of the infamous “Moral Majority” of Jerry Falwell which now advocate against ALL the progressive issues and ALL the human rights Initiatives; they are against Reproductive Freedom, Gay Rights, Stem-Cell Research, Immigration Reform, or Cannabis/Medicinal Cannabis freedom! I often want to say to President Obama and his Administration that since the “hate groups” are so wrong on all other major social issues, the “epistemic presumption” should be made that they are also wrong about Medicinal Cannabis! And yet again, who is their biggest supporter? The arch-hawk Senator Sessions, who else!

During the Senate Confirmation Hearings, and this little “I love you” – ” I Iove you back” spectacle between Sen. Sessions and Agent Leonhart, the latter said something about “social costs” of marijuana. Social costs of Legalization? You’ve got to be kidding, Agent Leonhart! It is when people feel “trapped” because of the despots like you, the social costs are enormous; social costs of hopelessness, anger, alienation, perceiving DEA and other “law enforcement” as enemies to be avoided at all costs, instead of being friends and allies to be supported, praised and valued! You may think, Agent Leonhart, that if you just intensify the repression, if you just criminalize and imprison even more people in this country, your “dogma” about Cannabis will be strengthened. This attitude has been tried in many different societies, and it simply does not work! When a lot of people feel “trapped”, the collapse is inevitable, sooner or later! It is noteworthy that the right-wing extremists like Senator Sessions are also against the “Dream” Act that would allow young people who were brought into this country as children, and who broke no laws in this country, to have a “path” to legal status. In this, as in everything else, Sen. Sessions and his Republican allies are just as callous and obstructionist as they are about everything else!

These people, and not WikiLeaks, are, in my humble opinion, the true enemies of Democracy! And now a couple of words about WikiLeaks. There are right-wingers in this country, people like Newt Gingrich, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, Joe Lieberman and, of course, Senator Sessions, who are calling for criminal prosecution of WikiLeaks. What I am worried about as a Cannabis Freedom Advocate is that any interference with free flow of information on the Web will lead to an ever-increasing Government control and censorship of the Internet content. This would be an extremely ominous development, as “yesterday” it was WikiLeaks that needed to be prosecuted, “today” it is already some of the news media in this country such as N.Y. Times and Washington Post, and “tomorrow” it will be all the “content” on the Internet that the Government may deem “undesirable”! Some people think that it would take a giant step from destroying WikiLeaks to destroying the rest of the Internet Freedom, but those people are sadly mistaken: that would be a very small step indeed, the “step” that can be made practically overnight, with the United States becoming a “closed society”, which will then crumble into dust sooner, rather than later, just like all other repressive Empires that rose, declined and fell throughout history!

The news from Illinois in November 30, 2010 was unexpected as well as devastating: the State House finally voted on the Illinois SB 1381, that would allow chronically and seriously ill people to legally use Medicinal Cannabis; the vote was expected for months, and all the indications were that the Bill would pass. Unfortunately, it did not. In a cruel blow to the State’s sickest citizens, the Illinois House of Representatives defeated the Bill by 7 votes, with 53 representatives voting for the Bill, but with 60 “yes” votes needed to pass the legislation. The fear mongerers, including DEA and its prohibitionist allies carried the day, and can now celebrate the fact that the patients in Illinois continue to be deprived of their medicine. Even the pleas by Montel Williams, a former Naval Officer, talk-show host and multiple sclerosis patient to legalize medicinal cannabis in the State fell on many dead ears.

As we struggle for medicinal cannabis legislation to be passed in different States, we seem to act on a faulty assumption that if only we could present our case better, if only we could find yet another evidence for cannabis plant’s remarkable medicinal properties, if only we could show that most of currently used prescription medications (or alcohol, for that matter) are far more dangerous than cannabis, if only we could make the Nation’s leading medical specialists see the difference cannabis makes in many patients’ lives, medicinal cannabis would be made legal in all 50 States tomorrow!

But, alas, this is not the case. If Cannabis has been a safe and effective medicine for thousands of years it would be silly to presume that our opponents are unaware of its safety or effectiveness. Unfortunately, the scope of the web of deception with regard to Cannabis is absolutely staggering, and all of our “truth” or “reason” is totally “beside the point”. What the DEA and the rest of the so-called “law enforcement” seem to be saying to us when we present the undeniable evidence of Cannabis’ value, including its safety and effectiveness, is… “so what”! We are not interested in your “evidence”, your “evidence” does not affect our fundamental assertion that “Cannabis is an illegal drug with no accepted medical use”. Any “evidence” not supportive of this fundamental assertion is “irrelevant”, it simply does not exist for us.

Now, this is what is called “dogma”. In fact, the DEA actively suppresses any scientific research with a potential to show that the “dogma” is wrong. During the Dark Ages the Holy Inquisition acted the same way towards those who tried to present evidence that the earth is not flat, or that the sun does not revolve around it. “We don’t care about what you claim to be seeing through these devil’s contraptions you call telescopes”, Inquisition was saying, “because the only thing that matters to us is what the “Holy Mother Church” is teaching, and the rest is simply irrelevant together with all the so-called “evidence” on its behalf”. This is exactly what the DEA and its prohibitionist allies are doing with respect to Medicinal Cannabis, notwithstanding the fact that we live in 21-Century America and not in 15-Century Europe!

As the “Law Enforcement Against Prohibition” explains, the vehement opposition by the DEA and its allies to cannabis legalization is explained, at least in part, by their desire to keep wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on the so-called “marijuana enforcement”, which would assure the necessary “departmental funding” and jobs for the whole army of police, jailers, probation and parole officers and other leeches working for the Police-prison-industrial complex. It makes absolutely no difference that there is not a shred of evidence in support of cannabis prohibition, that cannabis prohibition itself was instituted as a result of racist rants by its “father”, Harry Anslinger, and the despotic actions by Richard Nixon when the latter blatantly disregarded the findings of Shafer’s Commission back in 1972, which found no scientific justification for keeping Cannabis illegal. Nor does it matter to the DEA that the Administrative Law Judge Francis Young ruled back in 1988 that “marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man”. The DEA simply refused to follow the Judge’s ruling and to reschedule Cannabis as a therapeutic substance. In its war against truth and reason the DEA and its prohibitionist allies always point out that “Marijuana is an illegal drug”, as if cannabis’ “illegality” was somehow an “intrinsic” property of the plant, and not a man-made label artificially attached to it. We cannot see a triangle, for example, as having anything but three angles, which makes “tri-angularity” an intrinsic quality of any triangle, but we can easily “see” cannabis not being illegal. By contrast, the medicinal properties of the cannabis plant can be considered an “intrinsic” property, totally independent of any human actions for or against the plant.

But the DEA uses the label of “illegality” to suppress the scientific research into the healing properties of the Cannabis Plant, and it is the fact that it uses a purely circular argument for its actions, the argument that “Marijuana is an illegal drug and so cannot be medically researched, but yet it cannot be used medically because it has not been sufficiently researched”. Neither are many people “free” to advocate for the Legalization of the Plant. Through its elaborate system of control, which includes practically all layers of society, the Prison-Industrial Complex keeps the whole subject of Cannabis Legalization as some kind of “taboo” that is much better to be left alone by anyone hoping for any advancement in this society. People cannot easily broach the subject of Cannabis illegality with their co-workers, for example, and it is definitely not the same as to express approval or disapproval for, let’s say, the new health care law. To even discuss the Cannabis Legalization is considered “heresy”, and it reminds me of the KGB control in the former Soviet empire, which made questions like “shouldn’t the Berlin Wall come down” seem almost like a question that only a few people dare to ask in contemporary America, namely, “shouldn’t the Cannabis prohibition be abolished”?

In its fight against the sick people’s rights, the prison-industrial complex has powerful allies, people whose money and influence are far more “important” than any evidence the truth-seekers can master. In a recent California race for the Office of the State Attorney General, the rabid Medicinal Cannabis prohibitionist, L.A. District Attorney Steve “jackboot” Cooley accepted donations from Big Tobacco, while the so-called “saveCalifornia” campaign that opposed CA Proposition 19 to Legalize small Cannabis possessions for responsible adults 21 and over, accepted sizable donations from Big Alcohol. Can anyone imagine a greater ugliness than for anti-Cannabis candidates to accept money from those whose products are infinitely more dangerous that Cannabis can ever be?! And then, as if all this were not enough, we have a “Big Pharma” with its huge army of lobbyists ranting against Medicinal Cannabis because if the latter’s wonderful healing properties were accepted, the drugs like Vioxx, or Avandia, or Reglan, or Darvocet, may have been withdrawn from the market much earlier than when they were actually withdrawn because of their disastrous side effects. How can many people still not see a profound difference between a multitude of “Big Pharma”’s poisonous chemicals and the natural Medicinal Plant known as Cannabis is totally beyond me.

And then we have “hate groups”, such as “Heritage Foundation” and “Family Research Council”, which are the stale remnants of what was known in the 80-s as Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority” which are opposed to any progress, be it gay rights, stem-cell research, or medicinal cannabis. Sometimes I want to ask the Obama Administration a very simple question, “What in the world makes you think that these hate groups could be so wrong with respect to gay rights and stem-cell research, yet be so “right” when it comes to cannabis! Quite ridiculous to suppose something like that, isn’t it?! It is amazing that President Obama chooses to pander to these enemies of Freedom instead of appealing to its own base, which would be the only correct course of actions for the President if he wants to win re-election in 2012!

Is there any hope for us considering the overwhelming power that the prison-industrial Complex and its “special interest” allies have mustered against seriously ill patients and their rights? I believe, there is! And the reason we will prevail in the end is that even the despots and their loved ones can get sick, and may be able to benefit from the medicinal properties of the Plant! Recent elections in California, the State that has the most experience with medicinal cannabis send a clear message that the People want medicinal cannabis Industry to be left alone! In Arizona, a conservative, Republican state, the voters approved the medicinal cannabis initiative despite the united chorus of the “politicos” and the so-called “law enforcement” against it. And as more research into the cannabis plant continues in the countries more of less free from the DEA despotism, it will become harder and harder to convince people that “black is white” or that “white is black”, or that the “day is night”, or that the “night is day”, when it comes to medicinal cannabis. There is one more point I want to bring up: on October 14, 2010 the Attorney General of the United States Eric Holder, bluntly told the California voters that their vote would not count even if the State passed Proposition 19, and that the Feds would enforce the “federal law” when it came to “non-medical use of marijuana”. To me the threat to the People of California, anti-democratic as it was, had a “silver lining”: it was an implicit promise to continue allowing for the medicinal use of Cannabis in accordance with the State Law, as was originally announced on October 19, 2009, by the U.S. Department of Justice. Well, Californians narrowly defeated Prop. 19, and now they have reasonable expectation of a fulfillment of implicit promise by the Justice Department to leave the Medicinal Cannabis Industry alone.

So, unless there has been a “coup d’etat” by the DEA of which I am not aware, I expect the political posturing by the DEA boss Michele Leonhart during her senate confirmation hearings to remain just that – a political posturing, because in the end she will do what her superiors tell her to do, or otherwise there will not be ANY trust in the future with respect to any of their promises, explicit or implicit.

So, what can we practically do? How can “We The People” stand up to the despots and their allies? How can we bring about the sufficient accumulation of quantitative data to make a “qualitative shift” with respect to medicinal cannabis legalization to become an “actuality” instead of a pure “potentiality”? Because it does not seem to me that we are doing enough. For one thing, it is disgraceful that only 11% of 18-29 year olds went to the Polls this midterm election. How in the world do we expect things to change if we do not utilize the only legal avenue open to us – to bring about change through our action at the Polls?! Not only do we have to come out and vote (because as the narrow victory in Arizona should teach us that every vote DOES count), we should make a real effort talking to people, and not just the people who support our points of view, but the people traditionally opposed to us, such as older voters, women, educators and even the law enforcement personnel. We should write to our elected Representatives and comment on line on the many articles that come out every day on the subject of medicinal cannabis.

Our opposition is well-organized, well-financed and well-united, so victories will not be easy, and they will not come on their own, but only if we are persistent enough to make change inevitable. We either do this, or these ridiculous anti-cannabis laws will be shoved down the throats of the next generation, and then the next one, just as it is shoved down our throats, right now. We either create our own destinies, or they will be created for us, whether we like it or not!