What works?

Emails to government "leaders" does not work, email to newspaper editors does not seem to work.
I think protest is the only way - peaceful protests with absolutely no pot or any other drugs present.
Signs saying hemp reduces pollution, hemp is renewable fuel for our cars. Hemp saves trees, etc.
The key is holding up signs in small groups on a regular basis. VIP, can't be one person, should be 5-50.
Too many is a mob, too few risks being attacked.

I think we have to push the Patriotic button. The patriotic thing to do is wake up everyone
and help the economy and pollution by making all forms of hemp legal, then telling everyone to
look what everyone was doing in 1910-1930 or so, running cars and machines on hemp oil.

Writing to politicians and writing letters to the editor work at informing people about hemp. They should not be discouraged. The movement to re-legalize hemp and cannabis needs work on every facet. Many people can do many different forms of activism; they are all needed.

Writing is an oppertunity to inform people about the issue and to open people's eyes about the very shocking parts of prohibiting cannabis and hemp.

The Media Awareness Project (MAP) is one place to read news articles which contain hemp related issues. These articles also have a contact button which is helpful. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n004/a05.html?1345

Examples:

US CO: PUB LTE: Cannabis Prohibition Isn't Funny http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n023/a09.html?1345

US CO: PUB LTE: Prohibition Isn't Funny http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1157/a12.html?1345

US CO: PUB LTE: The Billion Dollar Crop: Hemp http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1150/a07.html?1345

US NY: PUB LTE: Support Hemp http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1101/a01.html?1345

US CO: PUB LTE: Bring Back Hemp http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n1067/a09.html?1345

US ND: PUB LTE: Anti-Hemp Is Anti-American http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n026/a07.html?1345

US CA: PUB LTE: Foolish Cannabis Laws http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1448/a03.html?1345

US NY: PUB LTE: Hemp Should Be Grown in U.S. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1437/a04.html?1345

US GA: PUB LTE: The Red Weed Menace http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1340/a10.html?1345

US CA: PUB LTE: Growing Hemp http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n458/a06.html?1345

US TX: PUB LTE: God Says Hemp Is OK http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n145/a05.html?1345

US CO: PUB LTE: AP Story Proves Value Of Hemp Farming Pubdate: Sun, 21 Jan 2007-
Source: Summit Daily News (CO)

It was encouraging to read "Man Aims To Become Licensed Hemp Farmer" ( Jan. 15 ) on the Summit Daily News website's AP section about David Monson in North Dakota who may be allowed to grow hemp ( though he has to be fingerprinted and pay the Drug Enforcement Administration's annual registration fee of $2,293, which is non-refundable even if the application is denied ).

Encouraging, because U.S. farmers have been prohibited from growing hemp since World War II, when the U.S. government needed American farmers to produce hemp to help save America due to its value for human survival.

Since the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco effectively ended the Federal Government's attack on hemp food products in 2004, Americans may now purchase hemp products, yet American farmers are excluded from cultivating the plant. Locally, citizens may purchase hemp food products available at Alpine Market in Frisco, although the hemp in those products must be imported.

American farmers are unable to compete in the free world market due to unfair DEA laws prohibiting hemp cultivation. The U.S. is almost the only developed nation that doesn't allow its farmers to grow hemp. In fact, communist Chinese farmers grow hemp ( nearly 2 million acres ), and neighboring Canada's hemp industry doubled last year where hemp had a better profit outlook than any other Canadian crop in 2006.

Although hemp seeds and oil contains Gamma Linolenic Acid, which contributes to a strong immune system and is only available from five obscure places including mother's milk, hemp cultivation isn't limited to food products. Hemp should and could get more attention as an alternative fuel especially considering the original diesel engine was designed to run on hemp seed oil.

Currently American hemp cultivation is gaining support from all political parties and since hemp can grow almost anywhere including harsh climates like Canada and North Dakota; it can grow in Colorado.

It is time to re-introduce hemp as a component of American agriculture and to help achieve that goal, citizens can request congressmen support American farmers and hemp cultivation. Urge Congress to refuse funding the DEA's enforcement actions against law-abiding, state-licensed industrial hemp growers as these bills may arise this summer.

Eastern Colorado farmers may even consider supporting Amendment 44 type election ballot questions in the future, which legalize cannabis ( marijuana / kaneh bosm ) since it stands to reason, if citizens may use cannabis with THC then farmers may cultivate hemp with practically no THC. Further, farmers might consider how the Federal government has unfairly treated them and support hemp farming.

To allow ignorant politicians to continue prohibiting hemp farming isn't leading, it's draining; vote for politicians who get it and do what is right for America, Earth and our solar system. http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n075/a09.html?1345

US AZ: PUB LTE: Cannabis Prohibition Unbiblical http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1209/a06.html?1345

CN BC: PUB LTE: Thanks for the Hemp Seed Oil http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1459/a09.html?1345

US AL: PUB LTE: Ashcroft's Way http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n004/a05.html?1345

US TX: PUB LTE: Using Hemp In Auto Industry Isn't New Concept http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1665/a06.html?1345

Thanks for posting that, this forum needs more post. I guess my point is maps, and norml and other have been around for decades yet nothing really changed - the medical pot was supposed to be the camel's nose under the tent - but instead it's a whack-a -mole game by the feds to stamp it down...

I believe there are many changes.

One big one is attitudes.

The change that breaks the sick camel's back hasn't happened... yet.

We don't know when the one hole in the dike will break the dam, but We see bigger and bigger leaks all the time.

Right now many locations are experiencing financial problems and are facing hard choices. That's going to make legalizing cannabis and hemp more attractive.

-0-

A Neglected Revenue Source for CA - Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/24/thread24424.shtml California is in trouble.

City's Pot Fine Takes a Hit http://cannabisnews.com/news/24/thread24423.shtml Source: Denver Post (CO)
Marijuana advocates say the city was reacting to the dire economic climate and how prosecuting someone for a small amount of marijuana would be a financial hardship for both the suspect and the city.

Sometimes it is funny watching the dea try to stuff the cat back in the bag, the cat just don't want to go.
But when they do things like;
DEA Quashes Medical Marijuana Research Project

by Bruce Mirken

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has rejected the decision of Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner and blocked a medical marijuana research project at the University of Massachusetts Amherst — a project considered vital if marijuana is ever to be an FDA-approved medicine. The DEA’s ruling, dated Jan. 7, was only released today.

MPP and other supporters of research reacted with outrage. “It’s no surprise that an administration that has rejected science again and again has, as one of its final acts, blocked a critical research project,” said Aaron Houston, MPP’s director of government relations. “With the new administration publicly committed to respecting scientific research and valuing data over dogma, this final act of desperation isn’t surprising, but the true victims are the millions of patients who might benefit.”

Professor Lyle Craker had applied for permission to cultivate marijuana for use in medical research. At present, marijuana for research can only be obtained through the National Institute on Drug Abuse — a government monopoly that does not exist for any other Schedule I drug. Because NIDA’s marijuana is of notoriously poor quality and has only been inconsistently available to researchers, scientists and advocates consider Dr. Craker’s project essential to the advancement of medical marijuana research.

The long and difficult process of seeking approval culminated on Feb. 12, 2007, in a ruling by Judge Bittner that Craker should be allowed to proceed. But such administrative law judge rulings are not binding on the DEA. In the nearly two years since the ruling, several small, pilot studies have shown marijuana to safely and effectively relieve nerve pain that afflicts millions suffering from HIV/AIDS, multiple sclerosis and other conditions, making more advanced research — including strains custom-tailored for various conditions, which was one of the goals of Craker and his colleagues — vital.

“Once again, science has taken a back seat to ideology in the Bush administration, with research that could benefit millions needlessly stalled,” Houston said. “They can delay progress, but they cannot stop it.”


http://blog.mpp.org/?p=278#comment-2828

It is not funny anymore.
The enforcement division now runs the judicial,
and research is outlawed.
Guess the world really is flat.