Salem-News.com Article Inspires BBC Radio Program

Salem-News.com article on Oregon's upcoming campaign to legalize marijuana and sell it in liquor stores, inspires a BBC Radio Program also heard on OPB in Oregon.

(SALEM, Ore.) - With expertise and guidance from one of the nation's most esteemed medical marijuana physicians, Dr. Phillip Leveque; Salem-News.com has blazed new trails with our stories, interviews, and question & answer segments on the legal use of cannabis.

I was pleased today to receive a BBC Radio Producer's email stating, "Dear Tim King - We read your article on the Oregon Cannabis Law with great interest. It has inspired a whole BBC radio programme. (which can also be heard via OPB in Oregon)"

This is the type of development that is happening all over the world right now, and the sobering knowledge that marijuana is very close to finally reaching true and unfiltered legality is riling many anti-pot activists. One of the biggest groups raising a voice against legalization, are members of the medical professions that financially benefit from marijuana being illegal.

You have to remember that million and billion dollar annual industries and businesses have been allowed to spring up since Nancy Reagan began her "War on Drugs". People cringe in 2008 for the most part when you talk about it. Some believe it is a failure because it was too much, too fast. Terms like "Zero-Tolerance" gained popularity and suddenly the urinalysis industry took off like a wildfire driven by a Santa Ana Wind.

I used to ask people, "What would it be like if you took a soldier in 1945 who just stormed the beaches of Normandy and said to him, 'Hey G.I., before you take another step, come into the bathroom with me so I can physically watch you whip it out and pee in this little bottle.'

What would that G.I. Joe think? I wouldn't want to be the moron asking that guy to degrade himself to the level that he is submitting his body fluids so the Army knew what he was doing with his spare time. What happened to our society?

I have personally watched the development and ultimate failure of the nation's "War on Drugs", all along decrying the misinformation that this campaign relies upon. This is a government that lumps a simple herb like marijuana in with things like heroin and cocaine and meth. There are problems with drugs; real hardcore problems and they are almost all related to methamphetamine use and abuse. This is a manufactured drug that rots a user's teeth and does things to their brains that they often never recover from. As a news reporter and photographer, I have witnessed and reported some of the most heinous examples of what meth abuse can lead to.

One story involved a recently released prison inmate who had been up for two straight days, after having ingested a large amount of meth. He ran down a man who was taking a morning walk, and drove a pick-up truck over him repeatedly. This man, the criminal, was in a "meth psychosis" and this is the point where a person may not even know their own name.

In the BBC Radio Program which we listened to via the Portland PBS station, I felt like the accurate information was limited, and overwhelmed by "experts" from these medical industries who always cite false and even outright deceivingly wrong information. I felt bad for the hosts, who seemed to be trying to draw useful information out of people who simply droned the same medical mumbo-jumbo, low on fact and high on hype, that keeps usable knowledge always out the common man's reach.

I was particularly entertained when one self-described "psychologist" talked about how many young people smoking pot are under a "teenage psychosis". I shook my head, and thought of that poor older man in that story I mentioned above, pinned under the spinning wheels of a stolen half ton pick-up, the victim of a prison convict undeniably undergoing meth psychosis, and I wonder if people like that radio show caller who said he was from Tanzania, believe a word they are saying, or are simply paid off by big money sources that are bent on keeping pot illegal.

I'll bet they fear the back room meetings that have to be taking place at American tobacco firms. Most know that they could switch from tobacco to cannabis and begin saving lives, rather than taking them.

Another person at Salem-News.com who has studied the real evidence regarding medical marijuana, is Bonnie King, our General Manager. She said, "Teenager's psychosis? I call foul on them blaming marijuana for those problems because it is those problems themselves that caused these people to seek out self medication in the first place. If it weren't for marijuana, they would be drinking, stealing their mom's pills. I would like to see them compare teen drinking problems with marijuana and examine the real facts. Instead, they use marijuana as a scapegoat and blame all of today's problems on this ancient medicinal herb, while meth and alcohol abuse are so much more harmful to society. It is almost as if they are encouraging these kids to drink."

Salem-News.com will continue to publish real stories about marijuana developments and answer questions about medical marijuana as a legal substance. Most news organizations are nervous to devote much time to the subject, unless it involves police arresting people for it, etc. Our hats off, once again, to The BBC, for being one of the most credible news sources in the western world, and our particular thanks to Radio Producer Priya Shah with the worldwide program, "World Have Your Say" from BBC World Service.

Tim King is a former U.S. Marine with twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. Today, in addition to his role as a war correspondent in Afghanistan where he spent the winter of 2006/07, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Salem-News.com is the nation's only truly independent high traffic news Website, affiliated with Google News and several other major search engines and news aggregators. Tim's coverage from Iraq that was set to begin in April has been delayed and may not take place until August, 2008. You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com

Salem-News.com Marijuana Coverage

Cannabis Dispensaries and Medical Patients at Risk

Where and How to Smoke Legal Marijuana without Fear of Arrest in the U.S.

Eulogy of a Great Warrior: Hoss Plourde

The Ripple Effect How Marijuana Laws Are Impacting Society

Audit the Audit

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POT-YOU-MENTARIES.COM July 11, 2008 9:27 am (Pacific time)

UNITED WE STAND. DIVIDED WE FALL. Dr. Phillip Leveque and Mr.King have stood up for THE TRUTH and ALL people who know that the cannabis debate needs to END.It was THE PEOPLE that ended the Vietnam war and we can end the war on those who elect to use a plant-form that helps not only humans as a medicine,but has diverse uses for society. Make it legal and allow Americans to move on to finding solutions to the real problems we face as a nation and a world.

Patriotic USA July 10, 2008 6:38 pm (Pacific time)

The war on Cannabis has always been a farce. The war on cannabis user's is lost. Cannabis was grown and used here as important medicine and industry for almost 140 years. Then it was unjustly demonized, renamed Marijuana to confuse people, and prohibited. The demonization still goes on today. But, the war is a lost cause. Prohibition never worked for alcohol, and it will never stop cannabis use. The majority of the voting public have come around to understanding that cannabis is medicine and far safer than alcohol or tobacco. Though, neither, alcohol, tobacco, or cannabis use should be glamorized by advertising. We, the people, will no longer accept the Government's endless lies about cannabis. We need to do research on THC and other cannabinoids. To find out if it really does cure many forms of currently incureable cancers and other diseases. While, not damaging the surrounding body tissues. If anyone's worried about cannabis smoker's inhaling tar, they can use vaporizers. This appears to be the only true health concern that's ever been valid. But, smoking cannabis is still far safer than smoking tobacco. That fact isn't lost on Big Tobacco. They'll be the first to grow cannabis commercially. But, our politicians will never come around. They've been bought and paid for special interest groups to keep cannabis illegal. Like Pharmaceuticals, and Petro-Chemicals industries, and Organized Crime Cartel's, who don't want the competition from legal cannabis. So, voter's will simply oust the politicians who refuse to get with change with the times. I don't care to use cannabis myself. But, the people have spoken, and refuse to give up their right to decide what they put in their bodies. Cannabis use is so widespread that it's already legal by common law. Cannabis will be re-legallized in written, and soon. This may anger many prohibitionist's. I know, I was one of them not too long ago. But, reality overules magical thinking that say's cannabis use can be reduced by law. The war on cannabis user's will never meet even one of prohibition's goals. All that cannabis prohibition did is create every evil we had with alcohol prohibition. It's time people started discussing how to install true cannabis controls through legalization. We'll save $ Billions/yr by ending the war, and rake in Billions more in tax dollars. Say good buy to prohibition and reduce organized crime in the process. It's about to be a whole new world, and no, legalization will not cause the sky to fall, Chicken Little.

Susan Tackitt July 10, 2008 5:14 pm (Pacific time)

Way to go Tim! It's about time this all comes to a head and I just want to thank you for being out spoken on this issue. Hopefully soon our Vietnam Veterans will get the respect they deserve and our troops with PTSD can live a productive life with the medicine that has proven to work for our Vietnam Veterans. I know others will prosper from this too but my heart goes to our Veterans.. Thanks again Tim..

Lank Bodkins July 10, 2008 4:35 pm (Pacific time)

Now this is change I can believe in. Spark one up for the USA!!!

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