Just Say Know Weekly News: 3/2/08

Just Say Know Visit Our Web Site: If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link, http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home. If you’re using any other web browser use this link, http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html Please pass this message on to ALL your contacts in the USA and ask them to join our mailing list using the form on our website. THANK YOU! We never share email addresses from our mailing list with anyone. Just Say Know works on your behalf toward drug policy reform, preserving and re-instating your legal rights. Drug policy and enforcement tactics are out of control and removing your rights at an alarming rate. Your financial contributions are greatly appreciated. To make a donation reply to this message with “donation” in the subject line and an associate will contact you by return email. Thank you for your consideration. Don’t hesitate to contact us by replying to this message; we appreciate your comments, questions and concerns. Together we will make a difference! The drug war is being used as an excuse to remove your rights, steal your property destroy your ability to earn a living and many other harms to citizens and society. There’s a mountain of evidence supporting the need for policy reform that makes citizens, their family, their livelihood and their property more secure. One very good first step will be taking away the ability of criminals to profit from marijuana. How? Just like it was done with alcohol, remove the prohibition and regulate legal adult use. As soon as alcohol prohibition ended, the crime and violence caused by alcohol prohibition ended. The year alcohol prohibition was repealed violent crime fell by sixty percent. Tell your friends about the "Enough is Enough" petition to stop the reckless overuse of SWAT tactics and save the lives of civilians and police alike. This petition is sponsored by: StoptheDrugWar.org Click here for details. Feature Story: YOUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS DENIED BY THE DRUG WAR In the next few weeks we’ll be looking at several Constitutional rights and how the drug war has been used to remove them. This week we look at: FREEDOM OF RELIGION Google “marijuana religion” and you’ll find about 530,000 references; a Yahoo search of the same words referenced 10,500,000 listings. Obviously there are more than a few people that believe marijuana has something to do with their religious beliefs. The first amendment to the constitution says “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” yet almost every time anyone has dared claim they use marijuana in their practice of religion as a legal defense in court, their Constitutional right to practice their religion using this well documented religious sacrament has been denied. Our research for this article documented beyond any doubt that marijuana has been used in many religious beliefs dating back as far as recorded history. We expected to find many obscure religions using cannabis but the eye popper was learning that Christianity and its root religion, the Jewish faith of the Old Testament used cannabis extensively as a sacrament. Not surprisingly it wasn’t called by any of the names we recognize today since the translators failed to translate the words for cannabis into English words we would recognize. In Exodus, instructions are given for building the Tabernacle (the dwelling place of God on earth and the place where the Jews worshiped God). The original Tabernacle was an elaborate tent. According to the Bible instructions were given by God for incense to be burned in the Tabernacle. The ingredients were myrrh, cinnamon and 'fragrant cane'. The Hebrew words translated to 'fragrant kane' are 'kanneh bosm'. Etymologist Sara Benetowa of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw discovered in 1936, the connection between kaneh bosm in the Old Testament as the original Semitic Hebrew origins of the word cannabis. Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1980 confirmed this information as correct. The "m" is the plural form so "kanneh bos" is the singular. There are many references to cannabis translated using various words throughout the Bible. Kaneh bosm was also one of the ingredients in the anointing oil which is frequently mentioned in both the Old and New Testaments. So there you have it, the fathers of Christianity worshiped God in a Tabernacle, which was commanded by God to have incense burning inside it consisting of cannabis. This is documented proof straight from the Bible but our judges have ruled that marijuana has no place in “legitimate” religion. It might bare noting here that this country was founded by Christians and evidence of our government accepting Christianity as a legitimate religion can be found engraved on our government buildings and monuments, printed on our money and in our pledge of allegiance. The Bible is often misinterpreted to fit modern puritanical philosophy that is in direct conflict with the true words of the Bible. If you listen to most Christian preachers long enough eventually the subject of smoking will be included in their sermon and they’ll almost invariably say that smoking “defiles” your body and the Bible says you shouldn’t defile your body because your body is the temple of God if you’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior. Here are a few verses from the King James Bible that contradict that directly, provide more information about what God says defiles you and the creation along with some of the God ordained uses of cannabis… (An herb with seeds): Ge:1:1: In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Ge:1:11: And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. Ge:1:12: And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. Gn:1:29: And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. Ps:104:14: He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth; Ps:104:15: And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man's heart. Eze:34:29: And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. Mt:15:10: And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Mt:15:11: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Mt:15:17: Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught? Mt:15:18: But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. Mk:7:18: And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him; Mk:7:19: Because it entereth not into his heart, but into the belly, and goeth out into the draught, purging all meats? Mk:7:20: And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. Mk:7:21: For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, Mk:7:22: Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: Mk:7:23: All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. Mk:7:15: There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. 1Tm:4:1: Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; 1Tm:4:2: Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; 1Tm:4:3: Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. KJV We did find one reference to a successful defense on grounds of freedom of religion. February 8, 1996 - San Francisco, CA, USA. "The court's decision to negate the marijuana possession charges against these defendants is a significant ruling," stated NORML Deputy Director Allen St. Pierre. "To the best of NORML's knowledge, this decision is the first time that a marijuana conviction has been overturned on the basis of freedom of religion." You can read the article here: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=3515 . As the use of psychoactive substances is recognized to be an integral, historically legitimate, socially accepted, legally protected choice for advancing individual spiritual development, the minor statutes prohibiting cultivation and use of "sacred plants" are coming into conflict with our fundamental "self-evident" natural right to freedom of worship. How ironic that the religious argument, typically imposed as an irrational moralistic dogma, may be the most effective and conclusive legal strategy for ending prohibition, when considered from a non-secular, human rights perspective. http://www.thc-ministry.net/forum/archive/changing-brains-changing-values-changing-laws-3944.htm According to THC-Ministry: The Hawai`i Cannabis Ministry: Cultivation and enjoyment of Cannabis sacrament is a fundamental human right provided by God and protected by the first Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. It is our opinion that Cannabis is the original sacrament of Hebrew, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Shinto, Buddhist, Rasta and more… http://www.thc-ministry.org Nothing in our research indicated that kanneh bos aka cannabis is considered divine or that it should be worshiped according to Christian or Jewish faith. It is highly documented however as a sacrament in both Christianity and the Jewish faith. Religious freedom is part of the first amendment to the Constitution and has been denied almost absolutely when anyone wanted to use cannabis as part of their religion. Freedom of religion was one of the fundamental rights our founding fathers provided in the Constitution and it has been taken away in the name of the drug war. Over and over the drug war has been used to remove your rights. Just this week it was announced that the United States now has more people incarcerated than any other country on earth, far ahead of even more populous China. About half the prisoners are prisoners of the drug war. Does this sound like “The Land of the Free” to you? Its time to take action! Contact your elected representatives and tell them to end the drug war. You can look up your representatives by visiting our website and clicking “Tools” in the site map. If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home If you’re using any other web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html This country is still run by the people but if you sit around waiting on someone else, it may be your door that gets kicked in, it may be you that ends up losing life, liberty, freedom, property and more, it may be you that gets shot by the government, it may be your children, money, livelihood or property that get taken away for possessing an herb created and given to you by God according to the Holy Bible. The Bible was considered to be the inspired Word of God by the vast majority of the founding fathers of the United States and was used as a reference for writing many of our laws. Thanks to the drug war private property is sometimes confiscated with no evidence and no legal recourse. If you think this is a fairytale or only happens by mistake, or is a rare occurrence go here: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/snitch/readings/hidden.html "Anyone concerned about the failure of our $69 billion-a-year War on Drugs should watch this 12-minute program. You will meet front line, ranking police officers who give us a devastating report on why it cannot work. It is a must-see for any journalist or public official dealing with this issue."-- Walter Cronkite, commenting on a video produced by “LEAP” Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. We think it’s a must see for every voter in the country too. If you haven’t seen it yet take a few minutes and view it now using this link: http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Content&pid=28 You can get a wealth of information by visiting our web site and clicking “Web Links” in the site map. If you’re using internet explorer web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home If you’re using any other web browser use this link: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html