- 11 years ago
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00♪♪
00:12♪♪
00:22♪♪
00:32♪♪
00:40I think we got a pretty thing going in the United States right now.
00:42I mean, it's got rough spots undoubtedly, but I think it's the best.
00:45These dirty kids, Jay, that have never contributed anything to humankind. Never.
00:51It's very much now a moderate issue.
00:53It's not one of those leftist-type radical, you know, I don't know where it's gonna go issues.
00:57And if it is a credibility gap, do not want to engage in ugly rumors that can destroy innocent human beings.
01:05Then I am guilty of a credibility gap.
01:07Doctor should indeed has the right to talk about all health-related matters to this place.
01:12Mine is not to do and die. Mine is what to reason why. And I'm gonna do that till I die.
01:18People are suffering greatly, not only at the medicinal level, but at the legal level.
01:23Dirty longhead.
01:26It's really important people get empowered in their spirit,
01:29enough that they step out and begin to change the community around them.
01:34Everyone started dancing.
01:36People got out their paint and started painting a really pretty flower right on his belly button.
01:42Slop each other's bodies full of paint.
01:45They were painting Britain.
01:47The Britons did that long before the Romans even came into Britain.
01:51They were painting each other blue.
01:53There's gonna be a lot more use. And with a lot more use, there'll be a lot more use.
01:58And as a health care person, I don't want to see that.
02:00Turn on, tune in, and drop out.
02:0511-22 Code Run.
02:07Why live for just existing in a world? I mean, not caring for only yourself?
02:12Get out of yourself, you know.
02:14Why not help somebody else out if they need the help?
02:17Absolutely the most effective medicine, hands down.
02:20If they go for marijuana, stop.
02:22We love, that's lovely.
02:24It's the greatest. I wish we had it when I was young.
02:27The likelihood of getting bronchitis from marijuana is less
02:29than the likelihood of getting bronchitis from the air in Los Angeles.
02:32They haven't written anything, haven't created anything.
02:35They just live mostly on the bounty of the state.
02:38And it should be my country, right or wrong.
02:41This may be the answer for all of humanity for the next 200 years.
02:46Prove peace in the world by our drugs and for our children.
02:5111-24 Code 6.
02:56My name's Craig Lee. I'm the coordinator of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative.
03:01I got to really wondering why hemp wasn't being grown here in Kentucky.
03:06After the rich heritage, rich culture, history that we had,
03:12I worked here for 125 years.
03:151775 was when the first crop was grown.
03:19It was grown here extensively up until the turn of the century when imported jute.
03:25The tariffs had been taken off of it and they started importing it.
03:28We're looking at a building here that was the old Versailles hemp plant.
03:33It was used to dry hemp in the 1940s.
03:37It was built by an Illinois and Kentucky-based company
03:41that had a contract for some 2,000 acres of hemp right here in this area.
03:45We don't have one of them here today, but it's a hemp break.
03:49It's made out of wood. It's a field decorticator
03:52that they actually used to break hemp with by thousands of farmers.
03:57Well, the hemp was brought in.
03:59It was dried, it was processed,
04:01and the fiber and cordage was probably sent out of here
04:05and went to New York or went to some of the rope walks here in Kentucky.
04:09From 1937 to 1942, it was outlawed in the state of Kentucky of growing hemp
04:15because the big industries knew that World War II was about to happen.
04:19The hemp industry was going to prosper from rope that was going to be used
04:23in this war that was coming.
04:25Nylon was on its way in.
04:27They outlawed a crop for five years
04:29to give nylon a chance to get in the front of the hemp industry.
04:34In the 50s, they really started eradication worldwide of hemp.
04:40According to the readings of Emperor Wears No Clothes by Jack Harrah,
04:45the investigations of Chris Conrad,
04:48many other people that wrote books about the so-called conspiracy
04:53and the outlawing of hemp.
04:55The law enforcement just started eradicating it around the world
04:58that if you didn't have hemp or a marijuana eradication program
05:03set up within your government,
05:05then you would not get foreign aid from the United States government.
05:10And this was taken to the United Nations by Harry Anslinger,
05:15who was the head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics at that time.
05:19The Treasury Department intends to pursue a relentless warfare
05:24against the despicable dope-peddling vulture
05:28who preys on the weakness of his fellow man.
05:31They declared a genocide war on a plant called hemp
05:36that they had changed to the name of marijuana,
05:39which most people don't even know what marijuana stands for,
05:43which is locoweed.
05:45And I say marijuana is a killer drug.
05:49Actually, marijuana is a horticultural-type plant
05:52that is grown like a real fine-tuned garden
05:56versus hemp is an agricultural crop
05:59which you put in the ground, let it grow like a weed,
06:02and then go back and harvest it just like hay.
06:04Really, if you just let it grow wild
06:06and just took some high-grade marijuana seeds
06:09and throwed them out in a field
06:11and just let them grow continuously year after year after year
06:14without any cultivation or horticulture,
06:17you're going to sit here and you're going to end up with nothing but hemp.
06:21You couldn't get high off of it if you wanted to.
06:51♪
07:21If I could sell hemp legally grown in America a lot cheaper,
07:25I'd probably sell a lot more.
07:27But it's a store, I'm only going to sell so much hemp.
07:30If I could sell pot here,
07:32maybe I'd do a million dollars a year retail of clothing,
07:35I'd do a million dollars a month in pot sales.
07:38Because every person who walks in here and buys a hemp shirt
07:41and buys a pot, shoes, and buys hemp hats and whatever else they're buying,
07:45asks me, do you know where to get some pot?
07:47And I say, I wish I did.
07:49And maybe I do, but I couldn't tell you
07:51because I'd be out of business in a minute.
07:53We're pioneering a new adventure here.
07:56We've experienced through the years
07:59that a lot of the shops that are like this
08:02tend to present a seedy kind of feeling
08:05and don't make people feel very comfortable when they go in there.
08:08So basically our idea is with the 90s and with the whole marijuana,
08:11medical marijuana movement, all the hemp movement,
08:14we're just trying to pioneer a smarter way of doing things.
08:17We're just trying to pioneer a smarter outlook upon that
08:20and really represent the intelligent people
08:23who smoke and are out there.
08:25And we know they're out there, but unfortunately,
08:28because of the laws, half of them can't admit they're smokers
08:31because of their job situations.
08:33We have all kinds of clientele.
08:35I mean, I've seen lots of actors, singers, musicians,
08:38doctors, lawyers, all kinds of people, really.
08:43I went and sold pot at the Super Bowl.
08:46I have my pot dealer's license here
08:49for the Arizona Department of Revenue.
08:52Cannabis dealer's license here.
08:55Cannabis substance dealer's license.
08:58And I sold pot at the Super Bowl, and I paid my taxes.
09:01It was 35 cents a gram.
09:03I sold $2,000 worth of marijuana in an hour, OK?
09:06In an hour.
09:07We looked it up on the books.
09:09It was legal.
09:10They've now changed the law, so this is no longer in effect.
09:13We were in a class-action suit against the state
09:15because we invested money in there in a business,
09:18created a business, and then had it pulled away from us.
09:25Back is going out, hemp's coming in.
09:28You can make clothes from it.
09:30You can make heating oil.
09:32You can actually make building materials out of it.
09:35The list goes on.
09:39Hemp seed meal, here's a printout of hemp seed meal.
09:42I'm sitting on a bag of it right here.
09:45This is just one of many, many thousand
09:48different items that can come from this.
09:50We have Saudi Arabians come in here.
09:52We have people from all over the world
09:54come in here to Keeneland.
09:55They come here, and we're feeding hemp seed meal
09:57to horses out here today.
09:59If somebody would have told me this last fall,
10:01I would have completely laughed in their face.
10:04I told Craig, I said, I'm worried about my marriage.
10:07I said, I'm scared to death I ain't gonna have enough milk.
10:10Reckon that hemp meal would work.
10:13We was putting one ounce a day to their regular feed.
10:17We rode them about seven miles.
10:20And they were just getting ready to go
10:24when we got back to the trail.
10:26These mares were both shot the same day.
10:29They're both holding shoes good,
10:31but you can see the growth difference
10:33on this mare versus this one.
10:36I've never seen nothing that would grow higher
10:39in hoofs like it does.
10:41Doc Billings will very well tell you.
10:44We started doing some studies.
10:46We wanted to see if there were any adverse effects
10:49on these animals.
10:51We drew blood samples, sent them to the lab in Ohio.
10:57Got a test run.
10:59Got the reports back.
11:01Extremely satisfied.
11:03They were all essentially normal.
11:07No toxic effects or any adverse effects that I could see.
11:12What I'd like to see is several hundred horses
11:15and cattle put on a balanced diet
11:18using the hemp meal as a protein source
11:21to see what effects we really would have.
11:25It's not a drug.
11:27It's just, it could be maybe one of the biggest cash crops
11:32we have ever known.
11:34We need research.
11:36We need numbers.
11:38We need involvement.
11:41Well, I've been a criminal defense lawyer for 31 years.
11:44I started my law practice in 1967
11:47at a time when I saw many young people coming to California
11:51were really abused by the marijuana laws.
11:57Nothing unusual.
11:59A car parked in an alleyway.
12:01A driver and two passengers.
12:03But to the officer whose suspicions are already aroused,
12:06there is something unusual.
12:08On a warm, sunny afternoon,
12:10all the windows are rolled tight shut.
12:13One distinctive mark of a marijuana party.
12:16Yeah, my name is Dan.
12:18Back in the late 60s, I went on the California Highway Patrol.
12:22After graduating from the academy,
12:24I was assigned to the West Los Angeles area.
12:27Was responsible for the Sunset Strip,
12:29which was part of West Hollywood.
12:32Had a lot of hot night spots up there at the time.
12:36Whiskey a go-go.
12:38There was a number of different clubs,
12:40and the place was just packed full of old people.
12:43In those years, and I was a young lawyer, only 25 years old,
12:46I saw that, you know, these kids were getting busted.
12:49Basically hippies coming from all over the country
12:52to come to L.A.
12:54West Hollywood, or the Sunset Strip area,
12:56was basically second only to Haight-Ashbury
12:59and the hippie generation, marijuana use.
13:02Near the scene of the party, officers prepare to investigate,
13:06using care not to attract attention.
13:09And I saw that, as a new young lawyer,
13:12that there was something very unjust and unfair
13:15about the situation with regard to this,
13:18what appeared to be otherwise harmless plant,
13:21causing people to be put in felony tanks
13:24and held in jail with other serious offenders.
13:29AVENUES OF ESCAPE ARE CUT OFF
13:37We would stop cars, pedestrians,
13:40people that we thought were under the influence,
13:43especially in a situation where you have a car.
13:47MANY NARCOTIC SUSPECTS WILL ATTEMPT TO DESTROY EVIDENCE
13:50EVEN AFTER CAPTURE.
13:52WHEN POSSIBLE, THE HANDS ARE HELD
13:54UNTIL THEY ARE EXAMINED OR CUFFED.
13:59OFFICERS MUST EXPECT AND ANTICIPATE
14:01A VARIETY OF TRICKS.
14:03BEFORE THE SUSPECT IS TAKEN FROM THE CAR,
14:06IT IS ESTABLISHED THAT THE GROUND IS CLEAN.
14:09ANYTHING THAT FALLS THERE IS HIS.
14:11If we smelled marijuana or anything like that,
14:14in those days it was a felony.
14:16And if you smelled marijuana,
14:18you'd shine your flashlight into the car
14:20or you'd look for anything.
14:22Seeds was sufficient for a felony arrest.
14:24A KNOWN STRATEGY OF THE NARCO SUSPECT
14:26IS TO CARRY DRUGS IN A POCKET WITH THE BOTTOM CUT OUT.
14:29WHEN HE STANDS, THE EVIDENCE FALLS TO THE GROUND
14:32WHERE HE DISCLAIMS IT.
14:34THE NARCOTICS PRISONER IS HANDCUFFED
14:36WITH HANDS BEHIND AND PALMS OUT.
14:38THIS HINDERS ANY ATTEMPT
14:40TO GET AT EVIDENCE HIDDEN ON HIS PERSON.
14:42The reason it was so important and so relevant
14:45is because this is when the laws were developing
14:48with regard to search and seizure
14:50in the federal courts were just being developed
14:53during the 60s, the late 60s.
14:55When I was a young lawyer,
14:57I just got out of law school,
14:59I was very up to speed on these new laws.
15:01So I was able to know the law
15:03certainly better than the cops knew the law.
15:06WHILE THE SECOND BOY IS REMOVED FROM THE CAR,
15:08THE DRIVER IS RESTRAINED
15:10BY PUTTING HIM IN A TEMPORARY WINDOW PILLORY POSITION
15:12TO AVOID ESCAPE.
15:14IN MAKING ANY ARREST,
15:16OFFICERS KNOW THAT EVEN A MOMENTARY SLIP
15:18CAN BRING SUDDEN DEATH.
15:20THIS DANGER BECOMES ENORMOUS
15:22IN THE CASE OF A NARCOTICS ARREST.
15:24California reduction from a felony
15:26to a straight misdemeanor infraction type crime
15:29which means that the most you can get
15:31is a $100 fine for up to an ounce of marijuana,
15:33no longer an arrestable offense
15:35if you have identification.
15:37The feds finally had their way
15:39and shut us down about a month ago.
15:43Free Radio Berkeley, yeah.
15:45So we're not on the air at the moment,
15:48but we're working on alternatives again.
15:52It's hemp and freedom related.
15:55And I weave powerful songs together
15:58to create more powerful sets
16:01that if you're listening,
16:03you can't help but get up off your ass
16:05and go, yeah, we're gonna do something here.
16:08I'm recommending Chris Conrad
16:11and Mickey Norris, Virginia Reznor's book,
16:14which is about to hit the bookstore.
16:16And if you didn't catch his previous book,
16:18Hemp Lifeline to the Future,
16:20very important.
16:22What I did with the book
16:24is to look not only at the question
16:26of how to use medical marijuana,
16:28but also about the way we treat our health care.
16:30So we look at the Ayurvedic system
16:32which treats your spiritual health
16:34as well as your physical health.
16:36You have homeopathy, which has a approach
16:38kind of like inoculation against health problems.
16:40You've got herbalism that deals with tonics
16:43and just using plants to deal with specific problems.
16:46And then you've got the dominant medical structure
16:49that we use today,
16:51which is called allopathic orthodox medicine.
16:53And cannabis actually fits very well
16:55into each of these because it has the effect
16:57not of curing the disease,
16:59but of treating the symptom.
17:01And we had a volunteer
17:03who came to work for us,
17:05a volunteer named Charlie,
17:07who was an Olympic shot putter
17:09who had Hodgkin's and had
17:11such terrible nausea and vomiting
17:13that he decided he'd rather die
17:15than continue with chemotherapy.
17:17A physician, another physician from elsewhere
17:19had heard about marijuana's anti-emetic properties,
17:21got Charlie to try it.
17:23He never took alcohol.
17:25He was really anti-drug.
17:27It totally changed him.
17:29However, he was able to take the chemotherapy
17:31without any nausea and vomiting.
17:33He decided he would live,
17:35and he would live and give back to teenagers.
17:37And he came to work for us
17:39and he had only one request,
17:41and that was someday would I please
17:43do some research on medical marijuana
17:45if what happened to him was really true
17:47and could be documented.
17:49Charlie died about 5 years later.
17:51He was still in remission,
17:53but he had an overwhelming infection
17:55from the Hodgkin's,
17:57and I guess that's what it was from.
17:59And so that's when I applied
18:01for an IND, an Investigational New Drug Permit,
18:03to do research with marijuana.
18:05We started with the chemotherapy
18:07and nausea and vomiting in our studies
18:09of the oral, and it definitely worked.
18:11We compared it to compazine,
18:13and we did it with radiation therapy
18:15for cancer, and that worked.
18:17And we went out and did it for multiple sclerosis
18:19for spasticity relief.
18:21That seemed to help.
18:23I believe to a certain extent that the psychoactivity
18:25of cannabis is also important in that
18:27because it deals with the depression
18:29and the psychological stress
18:31of a patient.
18:33It helps them to relax.
18:35It helps them to maybe accept their own mortality
18:37as it were, without having to be
18:39so depressed about it.
18:41It's got a wonderful effect.
18:43William B. O. Johnessy,
18:45the British physician who discovered,
18:47as we say, hemp medicines
18:49and hemp drugs in India
18:51in the 1840s, he called it
18:53that if you could use cannabis
18:55to strew the path to the grave with flowers
18:57that people would be able to accept it
18:59and deal with their own death more equally.
19:01Along the way, in a peculiar way,
19:03we stumbled upon
19:05the intraocular pressure,
19:07and it was kind of a serendipitous finding.
19:09This is before 1975.
19:11Police were arresting people
19:13for being under the influence of marijuana
19:15because of dilated pupils.
19:17And at that time,
19:19marijuana was legally a narcotic,
19:21and if you were convicted of being under the influence,
19:23you had to serve 90 days,
19:25minimum mandatory.
19:27You could not be on parole or probation.
19:29My next-door neighbor, Dr. Bob Hepler
19:31from Jule Stein Eye Institute here,
19:33and I were talking
19:35over the back fence one Sunday,
19:37and I was telling him
19:39I was doing these marijuana experiments
19:41with the smoked marijuana.
19:43He said, of course I could do it,
19:45I'll do a test, and he did.
19:47And he also did a complete eye exam
19:49and he called me and said,
19:51I don't know what to make of this,
19:53but in these normal volunteers,
19:55the intraocular pressure has dropped.
19:57Let's tell the government,
19:59let's tell the Eye Institute,
20:01glaucoma is an elevation of intraocular pressure,
20:03maybe that would help.
20:05I'm a journalist.
20:07A lot of my research occurs on two different levels.
20:09The first is where I do
20:11review of other people's research.
20:13So, for example,
20:15I've read thousands, not really thousands,
20:17I guess you'd say, but scores or hundreds
20:19of clinical studies that have been done
20:21with marijuana, historical reports,
20:23patient
20:25case histories
20:27and things like that,
20:29to analyze what the recorded historical
20:31medical literature has shown us about it.
20:33A lot of cases you find
20:35a situation where the way that the media
20:37represent it is not accurate at all.
20:39Like, for example, the study that claims
20:41that marijuana is more damaging than tobacco
20:43is actually a misrepresentation of the data
20:45in that case. What the data in that case actually showed
20:47was that the way that people smoke marijuana,
20:49inhaling it more deeply and holding it longer
20:51puts the lungs in contact
20:53with the smoke longer, and that that's what causes
20:55the damage. But you need to read the report
20:57to find that out. And the other thing that
20:59a common health risk from smoking marijuana
21:01is not from the marijuana itself,
21:03but in the germ theory of
21:05disease transmission,
21:07that there are germs that can be transmitted
21:09by the saliva from person to person.
21:11And so if you're smoking a marijuana cigarette
21:13and you pass it to someone else
21:15and they have a cold and they get their saliva
21:17on the joint, then you take it back,
21:19chances are you could get that cold.
21:21So what we advocate is
21:23healthy, or safe,
21:25smoking practices.
21:27You smoke the joint, instead of putting
21:29your fingers directly
21:31excuse me, instead of putting the joint
21:33directly to your lips, like if this was a joint,
21:35instead of putting it like this,
21:37you put your fingers on the end and you touch
21:39your fingers to your lips and inhale.
21:41That also takes in oxygen from the sides
21:43so it's less
21:45intense smoke, which is safer for you.
21:47And it keeps you from touching
21:49the actual joint. Another way is the
21:51chillum way of smoking, in which you would take the joint
21:53and you put your hand like this, create a little
21:55passage here, and you smoke it
21:57like this. This is a traditional way of smoking
21:59in India, if my finger was a joint,
22:01that is.
22:03And when you do it that way,
22:05again, you're not touching your lips to the joint.
22:07I have specific concerns
22:09about young people, particularly young people,
22:11using marijuana. Anybody
22:13can become dependent on it, like any other
22:15drug that we call psychotropic.
22:17A particular concern,
22:19I've seen a number of teenagers
22:21who spent their young, formative years
22:23smoking marijuana
22:25and linking it with anything pleasurable
22:27they did. A good meal,
22:29a concert, a movie,
22:31sex, and later on in life,
22:33in their twenties, when they
22:35decided they wanted to stop and did stop,
22:37all these other things were not
22:39pleasurable. Be aware of
22:41the risks and the benefits. You don't want somebody
22:43smoking as a young person day and
22:45night. It's one thing if it's cancer chemotherapy.
22:47Of course, once
22:49a week, once a day for two days, once
22:51a week for six weeks, not a big deal.
22:53So, the clinical
22:55judgment, I guess, is the bottom line.
22:57The key is that the government,
22:59instead of telling people scare stories
23:01and false allegations about
23:03cannabis having these
23:05hysterically described
23:07health problems, is that it's very simple
23:09to deal with the one known health problem,
23:11which is bronchitis, and that is that
23:13when you smoke marijuana, you don't
23:15inhale it as deeply, and you
23:17exhale it more quickly.
23:19A lot of people saw the movie Easy Rider,
23:21and they see Peter Fonda telling
23:23Jack Nicholson, well, you hold it in,
23:25and you smoke it really deep and hold it in,
23:27and so people got the impression that that's
23:29really the way that you're supposed to smoke cannabis.
23:31In reality, the cannabinoids are
23:33transferred very rapidly. They're
23:35extremely small molecules, and so they're
23:37assimilated directly into your bloodstream
23:39through the lungs
23:41almost immediately upon inhaling it.
23:43The other compounds,
23:45the carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide,
23:47particulate matter, these things are absorbed
23:49more slowly, and so the longer you hold
23:51it into your lungs, after the
23:53cannabinoids are assimilated,
23:55you continue to assimilate
23:57the harmful compounds. That's why you don't
23:59want to hold it into your lungs more than, say, 3 to 5
24:01seconds. You want to exhale that smoke,
24:03and then bring in fresh cannabis so that you get
24:05possibly bringing in the
24:07cannabinoids, but at the same
24:09time letting go of the deadly
24:11compounds. For these medical marijuana
24:13initiatives, what was interesting to me was that
24:15Congress passed a
24:17resolution that marijuana
24:19was too, quote,
24:21addicting ever to be used in medicine.
24:23Emboldened by this, Senator
24:25Jesse Helms put a bill, SB40,
24:27in. He put that
24:29into the Senate saying if a doctor talks
24:31to a patient and gives a suggestion
24:33on the patient, even if he's dying,
24:35he's not yet dead and he's not 21 at the time,
24:37the doctor must serve 8 years in the
24:39federal penitentiary.
24:41People went crazy. They kept saying
24:43if doctors talk to patients,
24:45dying patients, it will give
24:47young kids the message that marijuana
24:49should be used in recreation.
24:51And we physicians can prescribe morphine.
24:53All the opiates. Heroin is
24:55metabolized in morphine. We can
24:57prescribe cocaine. Cocaine is in
24:59crack cocaine. Cocaine
25:01part of it. We can prescribe
25:03methamphetamine as in speed, speed kills.
25:05And nobody ever, ever, ever
25:07suggests that we're telling young people
25:09to go out and misuse drugs.
25:11We were able to
25:13put together, with the aid
25:15of some very wealthy people,
25:17an initiative to go on the ballot
25:19in 1996
25:21that called for the
25:23medicinal use of marijuana to be
25:25not criminally punished in
25:27California. It's under the proposition
25:29that says that in order to be a
25:31caregiver, you have to be a caregiver in order to be
25:33able to distribute marijuana.
25:35So the Buyers Club also tried to put together
25:37co-ops, marijuana co-ops.
25:39And Oakland also, Oakland City of
25:41Oakland, tried to deputize
25:43the marijuana distributors
25:45in the clubs as being part of their city
25:47deputies.
25:49We started doing lobbying back in
25:51the later part of 95 in Oakland
25:53and nobody else at that time in the East Bay
25:55was doing anything. We got really
25:57motivated. Got the city council
25:59to endorse the operation of our
26:01then delivery service.
26:03And then as soon as we got an endorsement, we found a real estate
26:05place right here to move into.
26:07And we changed the format of our
26:09agency. We didn't
26:11do deliveries in a major way.
26:13We more or less had to pick up pharmacy.
26:15Had some city people come and tour it
26:17to check it out. And once they saw that we were
26:19really trying to do what we say we were doing, they
26:21decided to fully endorse us.
26:23In the middle part of 98, they actually made
26:25us a city agency, an independent contractor.
26:27But none of that
26:29has flown as a result of a recent case that
26:31just came down. And it's been interpreted
26:33that the caregiver means someone that
26:35aids an individual with
26:37all of their necessities if they're disabled.
26:39They have to be someone that takes care
26:41of their food and their clothing
26:43and their other matters that are necessary
26:45in their lifestyle.
26:47And not simply be a marijuana provider.
26:49In the federal court
26:51saying basically, you can't have
26:53buyers clubs. This is the third floor
26:55of 1755 Broadway where we moved
26:57down to this floor in July of 97
26:59and took over 7,000
27:01square feet on this floor. The front side
27:03of the building was member services
27:05massage therapy, support groups,
27:07intake, administrative
27:09things like that and a meeting room.
27:11And the other side of the building was member
27:13services that had a suited guard
27:15that allowed people to go in and out after checking
27:17their card.
27:19We had, when we closed down
27:21in October of 98, we had just
27:23over 2,200 members in an active member
27:25base of about 1,500.
27:29It's kind of drab because we took
27:31everything down.
27:33To kind of
27:35heal it or renovate it or whatever
27:37and it didn't work so they
27:39actually came in and closed us down
27:41and re-keyed all the locks.
27:43Screwed in all the windows.
27:45It's kind of funny, they thought we were going to come in
27:47so they like screwed the windows shut
27:49so we couldn't come in. Like it wouldn't be that hard to bust a window.
27:51And it just doesn't make sense.
27:55This was the member room though.
27:57We had an arm, a suited guard right there
27:59to check identification cards
28:01and photo IDs from the state.
28:03Members would come in here
28:05our buzz bar was set up right where that glass case is
28:07and we
28:09served probably about 200
28:11to 300 members per day here
28:13I would say.
28:15Well most of our members have HIV related condition.
28:17A lot of the other
28:19ones, I mean that's about 60% is HIV
28:21about another 20% are chronic
28:23pain related with quadriplegia
28:25paraplegia, spinal cord injuries
28:27different types of arthritis, things like that.
28:29About another 5%
28:31were cancer chemotherapy, another 5%
28:33were glaucoma.
28:35From that
28:37we'd have a small miscellaneous category that would make up
28:39the rest of them like Tourette's Syndrome
28:41multiple sclerosis.
28:47We had over here
28:49we had a small display of what members
28:51who grew in their own closet. We had four in one
28:53high pressure sodium bulb over
28:55some hydrophones which were growing
28:57probably about a quarter pound to a half pound
28:59every couple of months.
29:01And then in here we had full huge
29:03racks full of clones. We had about 3,000
29:05plants here when they actually said
29:07stop. And by the time
29:09they came in and looked, we looked at the inventory
29:11list from U.S. Marshals, they found no marijuana.
29:13So we had gotten rid of everything
29:15gave it away, you know got it
29:17to people that wanted to use it.
29:19We also had right here
29:21another display, you can kind of see where
29:23this is laid in the ground
29:25Another display of hydroponic growing where we were growing
29:27probably about a half a pound
29:29every couple of months.
29:31And then we would usually give away everything
29:33that was cultivated here. We'd give away to the
29:35injured members, the members that didn't have money
29:37didn't have the ability to pay. And we're picking up
29:39on our care program which we've been disseminating
29:41about a gram and a half to three
29:43grams every day to members when they come in
29:45and say they don't have any money. We'd give them
29:47some of that. Kind of really be lost out
29:49when we closed down the most.
29:51You know the members that couldn't find other supplies
29:53the members that were getting cannabis
29:55here for free. You know because nobody on the street
29:57gives it to them.
30:01Back here is our
30:03staff area and it was also our weigh room
30:05where we'd weigh up all of the medical cannabis
30:07that came in the door. We stored it
30:09during the off hours in two FBI file safes
30:11that had combinations on the front of them
30:13and allowed it to be safely
30:15stored and nobody would be
30:17getting into it. We had a couple of
30:19long tables set up here with some digital scales
30:21out on them and
30:23pretty much were known to be pretty accurate with
30:25what we were giving out. I mean members would check us
30:27consistently with what they felt would
30:29be the right amount and it was pretty accurate.
30:31I mean we tried to pride ourselves in providing a quality
30:33service not just something where you know
30:35it wasn't being honored any other place.
30:37And so we in a roundabout way tried
30:39to set a standard.
30:41These are actually the bins that
30:43were right behind our bug bar and
30:45we would have grams in these smaller bins
30:47on the top and our staff members would go
30:49in and pull out a couple of bags
30:51bring them to the table and show members what
30:53they needed. These held 8 ounce bags
30:55in them. This has a bunch of
30:57inventory in it.
30:59Oh yeah. I'm sure
31:01they copied all of that.
31:03So it is a
31:05recognized law. It is a valid law
31:07and it is a law that has been
31:09passed by the people of the state of California
31:11and notwithstanding whether or not they closed down
31:13the buyers clubs, it doesn't affect the
31:15overall validity of the law or the right of
31:17individuals to be able to have this
31:19medicine. As each group of people
31:21becomes aware of this terrible
31:23situation, they become more and
31:25more outraged that the federal government would do
31:27this. And there are many within the federal government
31:29who bitterly oppose it. I've had DEA
31:31agents call me and say
31:33we are apologizing for our
31:35federal government's role in this.
31:37I say why call me? And they say because you've
31:39been outspoken about this and we agree with you
31:41we would lose our jobs if we spoke
31:43about it. People at NIDA, the National
31:45Institute of Drug Abuse, won't even talk to me
31:47anymore. Good friends. For decades
31:49they say I can't talk about that. I can't
31:51talk about that political issue.
31:53And then privately people will
31:55contact me and say keep up the good work.
31:57Speak out. These people are terrible
31:59terrible, terribly mistaken.
32:01Good people who do evil things.
32:03I started out
32:05by moving to California in the early part of
32:071994 after
32:09my dad passed away from cancer and I did
32:11some research through the internet and through
32:13different abilities of finding stuff
32:15about this issue and found out that
32:17medical cannabis was something that helped
32:19people that had terminal diseases. My dad
32:21died from cancer when I was 14
32:23and it was something that I was very
32:25moved by. Having a relative pass
32:27away from a terminal disease is not something
32:29that just
32:31passes you by and doesn't change your life.
32:33This is something that I felt at that
32:35time I didn't want other young people in
32:37America suffering from something like this
32:39that could be alleviated by something that's natural
32:41and is not harmful
32:43to humans and I found
32:45out the absurdities that the
32:47government has been throwing around with rhetoric
32:49about this plant and decided
32:51to start working on changing that.
32:53When it came to people that needed
32:55marijuana as a medicine
32:57which was always evident
32:59in the history of marijuana use
33:01and evident by the people that would come
33:03forward and saying that they found it very effective
33:05in a lot of different kinds of problems.
33:07When you
33:09see a buyer's club and you talk to patients
33:11about how they go from a situation
33:13of gut wrenching nausea
33:15to where they can't even get to the bathroom
33:17to throw up, they have to keep a bag by their bed
33:19a bucket by their bed because they're so
33:21sick from AIDS or cancer chemotherapy
33:23and the
33:25agonizing pain and misery and then
33:27they tell me how just a couple
33:29puffs of marijuana have made them so
33:31they can get out finally and get their life
33:33back together. Or I've even actually seen
33:35patients who are in wheelchairs
33:37to where physically their body is spasming
33:39they can't control themselves
33:41and then someone else has to hold the
33:43joints to them in order to take a puff of it
33:45and then see their muscles relax
33:47and the body, again, the person
33:49getting control of their life and see where
33:51the relief that comes over this person
33:53or a chronic pain patient who's like
33:55they're just gripped and almost
33:57in tears with the
33:59misery, the suffering of their entire body
34:01wracked with pain and then a couple
34:03puffs of marijuana to see the relief.
34:05My mother called me
34:07with an article in the Jewish Bulletin
34:09and it stated that
34:11some rabbis were supportive of
34:13medical cannabis.
34:23I have chronic pancreatitis.
34:25I've been using it since I was
34:2716 or 17.
34:29I've tried morphine, Dilaudid,
34:31Prilosec,
34:33but it's gone forever.
34:47My name is Joanna McKee.
34:49And what's your organization, Joanna?
34:51Green Cross Patient Co-op.
34:53We give people
34:55notes to take to
34:57their doctor and
34:59their doctor signs and then
35:01they give us back the
35:03notes and we call the doctor and
35:05sit, sit.
35:07We call the doctor and
35:09verify them and then
35:11we put them in touch with a way to get
35:13their medicine. I have to go to a holistic
35:15doctor to get my
35:17prescription. You know, you don't
35:19regular ACK western
35:21medicine doctors don't
35:23care for medical cannabis because it's
35:25too easy and it cares for all the problems
35:27that they can't find
35:29answers to like fibromyalgia.
35:31Those are just all the things that happen to people's bodies
35:33that they don't know what to do with them so they give them a name and
35:35they say, okay, go off.
35:37From January
35:3993 to December
35:41of 96
35:43two to three grams a week
35:45I had six
35:47seizures. They were all about
35:49six months apart.
35:53All of them were
35:55on days that I did not
35:57want.
36:03AIDS,
36:05MS,
36:07cancer,
36:09spinal cord injury which I have,
36:11lupus,
36:15it allows them to take the
36:17medicines that they need to take.
36:19It's too easy for doctors because they get paid by
36:21pharmaceutical companies and
36:23healthcare companies and us and if we don't have
36:25a reason to go to them, if we find something that works
36:27for us, then we'll get paid.
36:29And if they could, the ones that do want to prescribe it
36:31don't because the federal government
36:33will take their licenses away if they threaten to
36:35them.
36:37The present drug czar who's an ex-general
36:39really changed the war on
36:41drugs into a war on physicians.
36:43What he did was say if any doctor even
36:45talks to his patient, not
36:47prescribes, you can't prescribe
36:49marijuana, the smoked marijuana,
36:51it's not in any pharmacy.
36:54If any doctor decides
36:56he feels, even a dying patient,
36:58I won't have that doctor criminalized,
37:00I will take his DEA license away,
37:02he'll lose all his managed care contracts,
37:04he won't be able to make a living, and we'll put him in jail.
37:06Now, I know that sounds
37:08unbelievable, but it's true.
37:10Todd McCormick who is now facing federal indictment
37:12for growing his own medicine in
37:14Bel Air, he was
37:16living in Amsterdam,
37:18has been a medical patient since he was
37:20nine years old, he's had several
37:22cancer that were supposed to
37:24end his life.
37:26His mom finally
37:28decided through several doctor's
37:30recommendations that she would try marijuana
37:32because he had gone through years and years of
37:34chemotherapy, years and years of everything else,
37:36and nothing seemed to help him.
37:38She finally was like, well, why not try this
37:40natural herb. Three other doctors said
37:42it might do him some good.
37:44Sure enough, as soon as he started smoking it, he regained his
37:46appetite, started eating again.
37:48Within a couple years, he was
37:50playing with his friends again and
37:52was totally fine because of this herb.
37:54And his mom, you know, never
37:56looked back on it twice as far as being a bad
37:58thing. I mean, here it saved her son's
38:00life.
38:02A lot of people who are taking the AIDS
38:04drugs can't keep them down,
38:06can't take them because
38:08of the
38:10large variety of
38:12what they do to them.
38:14But if they smoke marijuana, then they can take
38:16the AIDS drugs, then they can take all the
38:18stuff that they need
38:20to stay healthy.
38:22Patients I know of, I think she's six, maybe
38:24she's seven now. Her parents did an
38:26interview and sort of told
38:28what they've been through, and they've been through
38:30a lot trying to help her problems and stuff,
38:32so they found that marijuana
38:34works the best, and they make it in a milk, and they
38:36extract it and put it in her feeding tube, and she
38:38takes it, I think, three times a day.
38:40Maybe even more. She used
38:42to have, I think she told me like 200 a day,
38:44and now they're down to five.
38:46It's pretty amazing, yeah.
38:48She's great.
38:50My last seizure I had was on
38:52December 10,
38:54December of 1996.
38:58I have went
39:00over a year and a half,
39:02over a year.
39:04I wrote this letter in January.
39:06I have went over a year
39:10without having a seizure.
39:16You know, for people who have experienced
39:18illness or have known somebody who's been
39:20seriously, seriously ill, you really can't
39:22say anything to somebody like that.
39:24They need to experience it. They need to come step a
39:26day in my shoes and
39:28feel my pain and see the pain
39:30of the people that I deal with every day, and then they
39:32would be able to understand. And maybe
39:34understand.
39:36Until they get sick themselves, I really don't think
39:38you can understand.
39:46For every
39:48pulping plant that makes
39:50paper in the United States of
39:52America, we see
39:54land that is clear cut,
39:56we see trees that are
39:58absolutely cut down to the stump,
40:00even with the ground, located
40:02on some remote
40:04river that is being polluted
40:06by the chlorines and the
40:08bleaches that are used to
40:10bleach out the pulp
40:12that's made from wood.
40:14We're not only tearing down
40:16a filter system by cutting down the trees,
40:18we're also destroying
40:20the number one living
40:22liquid on Earth,
40:24and that's water. We've poisoned
40:26streams by bleaching
40:28out wood pulp. Working
40:30with North Carolina State University
40:32and head researcher Med Bird
40:34at NC State, he
40:36bleached hemp pulp
40:38with hydrogen peroxide,
40:40which is environmental friendly, and
40:42has done a great job.
40:44Some a year and a half later,
40:46the same pulp that was used
40:48there is still yet
40:50as white as it was the day it was made
40:52and has not molded
40:54or mildewed. Why should
40:56you cut down 25, 30-year-old
40:58trees just to make pulp to put
41:00into recycled paper, which
41:02after the third or fourth time, you're going to need
41:04more new pulp? Why do we need to
41:06cut down trees for
41:08paper? Why do we need to
41:10cut down trees for timber?
41:12When we can use this crop that's grown
41:14year after year after year,
41:16it could very well be the tree of life.
41:18There's
41:20studies of this going on for
41:22recycled paper, using hemp,
41:24and it's going to work. This is
41:26something that's going to happen in the future.
41:28Get prepared for it, whether you're
41:30against this crop or whether you're totally for it.
41:32This crop is coming to
41:34mainstream America, and it's going to be
41:36one of the biggest crops in the 21st
41:38century for Kentucky and for
41:40a lot of agricultural states across
41:42this country.
41:44You know what this is? Yeah, that's an American
41:46flag. It is, huh? Wrapped
41:48up. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, that's
41:50holy God, that's a marijuana
41:52wrapped up in an American
41:54flag. Right. Yeah. If you ever smoke
41:56one, you don't have to be a prisoner. Want to be honest?
41:58Truthfully, I tried one about
42:0030 years ago, and I ate three
42:02steaks, T-bone steaks, three
42:04orders of French fried potatoes, three
42:06ounces of apple pie, three cups of coffee,
42:08and three orders of toast. That was what
42:10Robbie and I said, no, not for me, because I didn't want to get
42:12fat. There's
42:14more than one way to eat cannabis. One
42:16of the most common ways, of course,
42:18people cook it or put it
42:20into a food item. The important thing with that is
42:22when you heat the cannabis, that it actually
42:24potentiates. It makes it more
42:26effective for releasing the different
42:28compounds in it. About one time
42:30it's all the leaf. We take
42:32it off the main stalk and all that
42:34and then cook it down that way
42:36and then strain it. Strain
42:38it off. All the leaf off and
42:40squeeze the butter out of it. It's also
42:42important to know that the
42:44resinous characters, the
42:46cannabinoids, the compounds that are in the resin
42:48of the cannabis plant are oil-based
42:50and so when you cook it, you want to cook
42:52it into something that's got oil in it or else
42:54if you're making tea, for example, it's better
42:56to use a milk-based tea or to
42:58add milk into the tea to help bring out the
43:00cannabinoids and make it more accessible
43:02to the body when people are doing it.
43:04What we do is we boil it in water
43:06and then put the butter in and mix it up
43:08and cook all the goods out of it
43:10and then freeze the whole thing
43:12and it separates. The water freezes
43:14and the butter
43:16rises to the top so we skim
43:18all the butter off. And then we pull
43:20the leaf out, rinse out in hot water
43:22and squeeze out whatever is remaining
43:24and get the last of the butter out of there.
43:26There's a big difference when people
43:28eat it compared to when they smoke it though
43:30which is that when you smoke it, the THC
43:32goes into your bloodstream and into your brain
43:34and throughout your system directly as THC.
43:36It's not changed. But if you
43:38eat it, your stomach metabolizes it,
43:40your liver metabolizes it, and it creates
43:42this other compound which is Hydroxy-11-Delta-9-THC
43:44which is not found
43:46in marijuana itself. And it has
43:48some different effects. It's more potent, for example.
43:50And so when people
43:52eat it, it comes with a different effect than if they smoke it.
43:54So neither one is for everybody.
43:56Buddha, as a young man, went into
43:58the famine stages
44:00of not eating for three years
44:02and eat one hemp seed meal a day.
44:04And
44:06come out of it, I don't know how
44:08much weight he lost, but
44:10most pictures I've seen of Buddha, he's fat.
44:16We must work untiringly
44:18so that our children are of
44:20light for the moment.
44:22Not necessarily the government
44:24that my message is to,
44:26but it's to the industry.
44:28For the industry to open up their doors
44:30to allow this crop to come in.
44:32And then the government will pay attention
44:34to industry.
44:51I think if the U.S. doesn't do some things
44:53to change it,
44:55it would actually fall behind.
44:57We're not wanting to change the laws on marijuana.
44:59Leave the laws on marijuana the same.
45:01We don't care about that. Take a stroke
45:03of the pen and that can be done by the governor
45:05or the president of the United States
45:07or probably a top official out of DEA.
45:09Just deregulate hemp
45:11from marijuana. Anything
45:13containing 1% and less
45:15will be classified as industrial
45:17hemp. Anything over
45:191% will be classified
45:21as marijuana and let the standard be.
45:23It's very serious what we're talking about.
45:25This is not just fun and games.
45:27We're not talking about people that are just there for 6 months
45:29or a year or 2 years. We're talking
45:31about people with a certain life.
45:33I think industrial hemp is moving quickly ahead.
45:35I think that it's going to be the bigger issue
45:37coming out here because it has so many more applications
45:39and it's so
45:41more poignantly a natural
45:43resource. There's this big catch
45:45with medical marijuana. Smoked medicine doesn't
45:47work. That's just because they've got this
45:49hang up on how things are administered, not how
45:51they benefit the person. And it really
45:53causes me to have
45:55intense outrage that this government
45:57claiming to actually benefit the people
45:59is torturing its own citizens
46:01because it is nothing short of torture
46:03to deprive a person of
46:05medication that can help them
46:07regain control of their life and then
46:09to be deprived of that. I think it's torture. I think
46:11it's criminal what this government is doing.
46:13The peculiar situation now is that the state
46:15government, the municipal government
46:17and the local governments with the medical
46:19societies and the public are
46:21all against the federal government
46:23which
46:25has gone crazy over marijuana.
46:27A bizarre situation. Truly bizarre.
46:29It is only through knowledge
46:31that we can safely protect.
46:33People say to me, well aren't you afraid
46:35about what can happen to you because this is such a
46:37politically charged issue
46:39and the government has this crusade against drugs
46:41and here you are the enemy on the front line.
46:43But to me, if someone
46:45doesn't do this work, if we just
46:47abandon the sick and dying
46:49people to their misery, knowing that we
46:51can help them, then we're criminal too.
46:53I know 2,000 other people
46:55that feel the same way I do. If that's just
46:57the 2,000 that I know, how many thousands
46:59of others are there out there that don't know that
47:01cannabis works for them, are too scared to use
47:03cannabis because, you know, people
47:05say that it's taboo or
47:07because it's not available to them.
47:09To put it in perspective,
47:11is marijuana the first drug that one
47:13will try for any of these conditions? Absolutely
47:15not. Is it
47:17a drug that could help when other drugs don't
47:19help? Sometimes. In conjunction
47:21with other drugs or instead of? That's
47:23very possible. That's the big
47:25issue. Who should decide?
47:27Should law enforcement decide?
47:29Should the physician, using his
47:31clinical judgment, with his patient
47:33discuss and decide
47:35about the risk and benefit of any
47:37medication? My life is not
47:39manageable anymore. It is not manageable with
47:41things you're willing to prescribe to me. I've been sick a long
47:43time and I've tried everything that Western
47:45Medicine is willing to give me and it doesn't
47:47work. And cannabis works the best for me.
47:49And it makes my life manageable. It makes
47:51my family's life manageable. So who's the
47:53federal government to step into my family and tell me
47:55it doesn't work? The walls are falling
47:57like the walls of the Linfeld. These
47:59walls will fall too. These are rational
48:01walls that are unfair and unjust.
48:03Is this what we want? Is this
48:05what we want? Another crop that's going
48:07to be governed through law enforcement
48:09like hemp is being governed
48:11through law enforcement? Let's stop
48:13and take a look at ourselves as a nation
48:15and as a society and wonder
48:17where we're headed at for the 21st century.
48:41I sing like a champion.
48:43Sing like me mom bought me
48:45Sting like a scorpion.
48:47MZ wonder why.
48:51We'll say we're getting high.
48:53Creation.
48:55Spawn creation.
48:57My plantation grows
48:59imagination.
49:01No limitations on
49:03my innovations.
49:05Cause I meditate and separate
49:07and root from paraphernalia.
49:09Where's the ganja?
49:11Where's the ganja now?
49:15Where is the ganja?
49:19Put a filly to your mouth.
49:23Where is the ganja?
49:27Where's the ganja now?
49:29Spicy?
49:31Spicy.
49:33Put a filly to your mouth.
49:35Where is the ganja?
49:41Where's the ganja now?
49:45Where is the ganja?
49:49Put a filly to your mouth.
49:53Where is the ganja?
49:57Where's the ganja now?
50:01Where is the ganja?
50:03Put a filly to your mouth.
Recommended
2:20
|
Up next
1:57
1:01:34
2:05
1:15:23
0:17
2:27
2:10
2:48
1:13
2:59
1:28:39
1:58:03
1:20:13
1:54:35
1:57:30
1:23:17