Pubdate: Fri, 03 Dec 2004
Source: Today (Philippines)
Copyright: 2004 Today
Contact:  http://www.today.net.ph/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3458
Author: Rene Saguisag
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?236 (Corruption - Outside U.S.)

WHO'S AFRAID OF SJ AND MJ?

Indulging in MJ should be considered a weakness or a sickness, not a crime. 
The money wasted every year in going after MJ traffickers can be channeled 
to rehabilitation purposes.

T.G.I.F

There is so much in what guru SJ says that I agree with that I am surprised 
when I see something he writes that puzzles me. He just wrote: "19 farmers 
demonstrators were killed near Malacanang because [oligarchic President 
Cory] refused to see them." So she should be the one to put in the death 
certificates as the cause of death? In her time in Malacanang, she could 
not see a lot of people (including then US defense secretary, now VP, Dick 
Cheney). It is hard to see thousands in Malacanang.

What might have happened was that the march leaders could have asked for a 
few of them to see us in the Guest House; that we would accommodate from 
time to time, gladly, particularly when it came to friends we had marched 
with. May pinagsamahan po ba. But, quite incredibly, what happened was that 
the marchers, as we gasped, did not halt to negotiate and just went on 
marching (chilling TV footage should be extant). Death wish? Cannon fodder 
behind whom shots were said to have been fired?

I see that SJ, dismissive of President Cory, apparently despises Senator 
Lorenzo M. Tanada even more and may detest him some more when I say that 
when Ka Tanny and I saw the remains of the victims in Mount Carmel Church, 
he drew me aside and said, "They were not farmers."

When the likes of SJ sound so apodictic without looking at the record, I 
despair. We are a people with no strong commitment to truth, prone to 
sacrifice accuracy for effect. Conclusions, even of icons, should not be 
based on "negligence, ignorance and folly" which SJ was quick to attach to 
President Cory.

Yesterday, I felt even more forlorn. Francis Garchi wrote that "the 
impeachment proceedings . . . laid it all out." All out? In fact, it was 
aborted over the "second envelope" which the prosecution never presented in 
the Sandiganbayan; it is now part of the defense's evidence. The 
impeachment prosecution team could not accept a democratic ruling. 
President Erap never got to present his side at all. What chance do we have 
if Justices Isagani Cruz, Garchi, et al. keep conditioning us to accept 
only one conclusion? Due process means hearing out both sides.

Dumb Sonny Marcelo ain't. He dare not go after ubiquitous fellow Ateneans 
Nani Perez, Jose Pidal, et al. He would not charge Caloy Garcia, his wife 
and kids with plunder or graft, and then make him an offer he cannot 
refuse: talk and all of them will walk. He makes deals with the military 
not to turn over Caloy to the Sandiganbayan, cooing 
let-me-call-you-sweetheart. Had this happened during Garchi's watch, 
Sonny's ears would be frayed cauliflower by now. The Swiss gave us leads on 
Nani, which Sonny ignored. The US leaked leads on Caloy, which he has 
exploited. Switik thinking? Francis, baby, give us a break.

Meantime, President Cory, who sounded so cool, as always, when we spoke the 
other day, will get yet another award, across the water, where, for the 
fourth consecutive election, Americans elected a bet stretching a streak 
suggesting that Mary Jane (MJ) or marijuana use is a requirement for the 
American presidency.

User Bill Clinton's judgment got clearly impaired. In the early days, it 
would be the likes of Sally Perdue, a former Miss Arkansas. But, how else 
could one explain why much, much later he romanced Monica Lewinsky? I 
attribute it to MJ.

As to user Dubya Bush, there is no question that his judgment was also 
badly impaired in seeking to destroy a society in order to save it, in 
Iraq, whose civilization well antedates America's. He is clearly a gross 
human rights violator, a war criminal. But he virtually monopolizes weapons 
of mass destruction and can bully much of the rest of the world. For one 
thing, Christians could freely worship in Saddam's Iraq. Not anymore, 
thanks to that warmonger MJ transmogrified.

Who has refuted the proposition that experts demonstrate "conclusively that 
most of what harm has been claimed to stem from marijuana use-physiological 
damage, crime, aggression, psychosis, apathy, progression to other drugs-is 
based on myth"? Nicotine, on the other hand, is clearly toxic. (We may have 
lost venerable Ka Pepe Diokno due to this scourge.) But the deadly vice 
enables us to earn a lot in taxes. So our society tolerates this massive 
suicide on the installment plan. Alcohol, as demon rum, has destroyed 
families and ruined lives. So much fatal violence has resulted from it. 
Again, we need the money we earn from this vice. We also look the other way 
then.

Since many swear that MJ has eased their pain, why should these desperate 
patients be denied the therapeutic effects they believe it to have? Would 
civilized societies legalize a crime without victims if they were convinced 
of its destructive effects?

Indulging in MJ should be considered a weakness or a sickness, not a crime. 
If that is the perspective, and the profit motive is removed, the money 
wasted every year in going after MJ traffickers can be channeled to 
rehabilitation purposes.

That is why respected personalities such as Secretary George Shultz are for 
legalizing smoking MJ. Sadly, when Rep. Mikey Arroyo carefully said he was 
for considering legalizing medical MJ, he got booed for thinking out of the 
box. He quickly somersaulted, instead of standing his ground. So young and 
so trapo. Shabu and cocaine are something else. There is no similar 
justification for treating MJ the same way.

The United States Federal Supreme Court is now weighing arguments on the 
use of medical MJ in California, where it is legal. We can only learn from 
this constructive, edifying exercise. I do not know who has been driven to 
crime for using MJ, save for Bill, whose offense was poor judgment, and 
Dubya, a war criminal of the first water who has made Iraq a wasteland.

Even on the basis of anecdotal "evidence," I have yet to hear of anyone who 
died of cancer because of MJ or caused domestic or community violence 
because of it. It may be no more dangerous than eating fatty foods or 
staring at somebody else's mate; these have proven hazardous to one's 
health indeed. Fatal attractions. A debate about basketball or politics has 
shown to be one way of reducing our population, but there is no way this 
can be criminalized.

The Dutch ain't dumb either, and for the Commies, no country which is so 
clean and liberal, tolerant and freedom-loving it harbors warmonger JoeMa 
Sison, can be wrong in legalizing MJ.

Many of those in authority have become affluent by planting MJ on hapless 
citizens. The higher the penalty is, the stronger the scalawags' bargaining 
power. It happened to a son of a member of Ateneo's HS Class '55, now gone. 
Luckily, we had his conviction reversed recently by the Court of Appeals, 
which damned the MJ planting by officer Rodrigo Bonifacio, who planted 
evidence against another client of ours. In another ruling we just got, a 
city prosecutor held that drugs were also planted on another client of ours 
by Western Police District elements.

This kind of planting disturbs. You up the penalty and you strengthen those 
who come from the "Bureau of Plant Industry" who have nice homes and cars 
and fat bank accounts.

Meantime, tell the kids not to touch marijuana to avoid becoming presidents 
with impaired taste and judgment.
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