By Steve Kubby
Wed, 18 Oct 2000
For years the police told us, "We don't make the
laws, we just enforce them," and, "If you
don't like the law, then change it." So in 1996, my
friends and I put Proposition 215 on the California
ballot to legalize medical marijuana, which the voters
ultimately approved by a stunning 55.6 to 44.4 percent.
Unfortunately, as we soon learned, the police DO make
the laws and they DON'T tolerate anyone who wants to
change them. The California attorney general, sheriffs,
district attorneys, police chiefs, and narcotic officers
all officially denounced us and campaigned against our
initiative, using public money to pay for their
expenses. These law enforcement officials even went so
far as to issue the following official warning in the
California Voter Pamphlet regarding Prop. 215:
This initiative allows unlimited quantities of
marijuana to be grown anywhere ... without any
regulation or restrictions. ... It is marijuana
legalization.
Although these law enforcement officials were quite
clear in the ballot arguments that Prop. 215 would
"legalize marijuana," once this initiative
passed, these same officials pulled together to announce
that Prop. 215 was "only an affirmative
defense."
Outraged by law enforcement's efforts to gut 215, my
friends and I decided I should run for governor and
speak out publicly about this terrible assault on our
American values and principles. Fortunately the
Libertarian Party was anxious to help and even gave me
their first-ever unanimous nomination.
From that point, I campaigned for governor of
California, hounding my opponent, Attorney General Dan
Lungren, faulting him as a Republican who ignored
states' rights and refused to uphold the results of the
election.
Trials and Tribulations
Lungren and his buddies were not amused, however, and
we soon found ourselves under surveillance. We would
learn later that the four agencies were investigating us
based upon an unsigned letter with alleging something we
were already admitting publicly, that we were growing
our own medical marijuana. Our friends warned us to be
careful, because the word was out that the police
intended to punish us. Angry that such tactics were
being used against us, we vowed to turn the tables and
create the perfect test case to uphold 215 and expose
these rogue police and prosecutors who were attempting
to overthrow the election of 1996.
With the help of our attorneys and activist friends,
we carefully documented the medical marijuana garden my
wife and I had started and even sent a notice to the
police, via our garbage, informing them I had cancer,
that we both had doctor recommendations, and that we
were growing our own medical marijuana as specifically
provided by the new law. Our "trash note" even
invited the police to come to our home and inspect our
crop.
Although the police later admitted receiving this
letter from us in our garbage, our status as bona fide
patients meant nothing to them, and they continued to go
through our garbage and peek through our windows until
Jan.
19, 1999, when 20 heavily armed SWAT team members
raided our house with laser guided assault weapons and
body armor. You may wonder why such a brute show of
force was required against an unarmed third-party
politician and his wife attempting to lawfully assert
their rights, but we can only speculate that the police
were afraid we would flush our entire garden down the
toilet in the few minutes gained by an armed invasion of
our home.
Our garden was based upon the standards adopted by
the City of Oakland, Calif., which in turn were based
upon the 7.1 pounds of medical marijuana the U.S.
government gives every year to each of the eight federal
medical marijuana patients. Under the Oakland
Guidelines, we were allowed 144 plants each, or a total
of 288 indoor plants, which were expected to produce a
one-year, 7-pound supply. Along the walls leading to our
garden we posted a copy of 215 and the Oakland
Guidelines, as well as a recent notice from the attorney
general that if patients presented credible evidence of
a physician's recommendation, the police should just
take some samples and photos and leave the garden
intact.
None of this meant anything to the police or
prosecutors who arrested both my wife and me, treated us
as common criminals and demanded $200,000 in bail.
Suddenly we found ourselves guilty until proved innocent
and stripped of virtually every protection guaranteed by
the Bill of Rights to every American. Remember, we were
not disobeying any law, but attempting to lawfully
uphold rights won in a democratic election. Unless we
defended our right to grow our own medical marijuana, as
specifically granted in our new law, those cultivation
rights would quickly be lost.
It's been 614 days since our arrest. Although we
managed to get our bail reduced to zero, the police took
virtually everything we owned, including all our office
equipment used to operate our online magazine. As a
result, we were forced into bankruptcy. All this time,
we have also been forced to deal with my cancer and
obtaining the medical marijuana that keeps me alive.
In order to defend ourselves, we have been compelled
to retain eight different attorneys to defend our
constitutional rights against seven different judges who
tried to prevent us from using the 215 defense, because
it would, "confuse the jury." For the past 560
days our family of four has been forced to live in other
people's homes.
During this time we have raised and spent about
$200,000 through our defense fund.
Now, after all this, we finally have the attorneys,
defense and witnesses of our choice. Finally, we will be
able to take this issue back to the people, just as we
did on Election Day and accomplish in the jury box what
was denied to us at the ballot box -- implementation of
our new medical rights.
Currently we are halfway through a three month trial
and we are confident that the jury already sees that we
are innocent. Furthermore, everyone is beginning to see
that this issue is no more about marijuana than the
Boston Tea Party was about tea. This is about freedom,
the Bill of Rights and using juries to force the
government to obey those rights, just as Thomas
Jefferson and the founders of our country
intended.
Protecting Rights
In 1776, Adam Smith published a book called "The
Wealth of Nations," which argued that government
is, by nature, non-productive labor and functions as a
parasite, sapping strength from its host. Our founders
appreciated Adam Smith's views and that is one reason
the Constitution and Bill of Rights were so carefully
crafted to limit the scope of government. Our experience
with Prop. 215 has shown us exactly how the Bill of
Rights was quickly perverted by government parasites,
who provide nothing of value to society and are intent
only upon expanding their powers and feeding their own
voracious appetites.
Only by defending the rights of each individual as
MORE important than government regulations and demands,
can we ensure that the state is kept in check. The Bill
of Rights is clearly worded as a statement of individual
rights, and the 9th and 10th Amendments were
specifically added to protect the rights and powers of
individuals against encroachment by government.
A moral society can never be accomplished though
immoral acts against those we deem as criminals, despite
what the cowardly drug warriors tell us. Only when we
have driven off these parasites and created a government
that respects each citizen's right to be left alone, can
we look forward to a truly prosperous and enlightened
society.
Every important paradigm shift from the Copernicus to
Darwin has ended up as a court trial; why not medical
marijuana? Opening day at our trial was covered by CBS,
NBC, and FOX, as well as the Sacramento Bee and Orange
County Register. Our trial is allowing us to educate
millions of people about medical marijuana as well as
exposing corrupt law enforcement and the urgent need for
each citizen to uphold and defend the Constitution and
Bill of Rights against all enemies -- especially those
hiding behind their public offices, or badges.
The Bill of Rights is truly the greatest document
ever written, because it outlines a magnificent
blueprint of checks and balances for human freedom.
Two centuries after it was written, we are failing
miserably to follow these simple instructions and, as a
consequence of our ignorance, have deprived ourselves of
the true blessings of a genuinely free and open society.
What are these blessings? More than anything they are
the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
These rights are inalienable and can never be separated
from us by any law or government parasites.
The drug warriors and other useless parasites who
have infected our once great nation, have had their day.
Now it is our turn and we must do everything in our
power to wake people up, re-ignite our freedom-loving
American Revolution and restore our precious Bill of
Rights.
Newshawk: Amanda
Pubdate: Wed, 18 Oct 2000
Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)
Copyright: 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.
Contact: letters@worldnetdaily.com
Address: PO Box 409, Cave Junction, OR 97523-0409
Fax: (541) 597-1700
Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/
Section: Commentary
Author: Steve Kubby, steve@kubby.com
Shortcut: Kubby articles - http://www.mapinc.org/kubby.htm
Steve Kubby is the national director of the
American Medical Marijuana Association and was the
Libertarian candidate for California governor in 1998.
Playing a key role in the campaign for California's
medical marijuana initiative, Prop. 215, he has written
two books about drug policy reform, "The Politics
Of Consciousness" and "Why Marijuana Should Be
Legal," both of which are available at Amazon.com.
For trial updates, check The Kubby Files website (http://www.kubby.com).
Related Links:
THE
UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
AMENDMENTS
TO THE CONSTITUTION
(Bill of Rights)
THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF FLORIDA
(This is a large document 650k)
THE AMERICAN
MEDICAL MARIJUANA ASSOCIATION
15 Monarch Bay Plaza, Box 375, Dana Point, Ca
92629
Web site: http://www.drugsense.org/amma/
E-mail: amma@drugsense.org
Join our List: http://www.drugsense.org/amma/
