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Mar-23-2009 02:02printcomments

Are Former Homeland Security Undersecretary Hutchinson's Words a Death Sentence for American Kids?

Telling people a dangerous drug like methamphetamine is the same as pot is a dirty lie, why would the Arkansas legislator do it?

Asa Hutchinson
Hutchinson would rather give kids deadly information than relent in his position over voter-approved medical marijuana.

(SALEM, Ore.) - The turning of the tables on the anti-marijuana crowd is a fascinating lesson in the evolution of American culture.

Misinformation and paranoia are the trademarks of anti-pot hysteria. It is sad in many ways, because police officers are told many things about marijuana in training that are not true. They believe what they are told, who in their shoes wouldn't?

But the half truths and outright lies generated by the Just Say No crowd create an environment where truth is constantly at battle with fiction and it is time for it all to stop.

The sin is that as the federal government continues its embarrassing crusade against marijuana, they are leading kids to their deaths, quite literally.

Honestly, it is nothing short of criminal for pot foe Asa Hutchinson, a former Homeland Security undersecretary and Republican congressman from Arkansas, to lump marijuana in with methamphetamines.

But he does it and you will see it in the video posted below. His feeble and outdated fantasy jargon about pot being "dangerous" leaves confused parents and kids thinking that meth and pot must be about the same. Damn you Hutchinson for your deceptive informational ploy, and for playing with the minds of people who deserve and need credible and solid information so they can raise their kids and have them turn out to be productive people.

He should be exposed for the liar he is; Asa Hutchinson is trying to tell kids that a flower that makes them stoned and hungry is the same thing as using meth, and I am angry as Hell about it. Methamphetamine makes people become haggard wrecks sometimes within just weeks from the time they start using it. The drug contains things like Drano and sulfur from match heads. It ruins lives and leads to death and always the break-up of families. Marijuana has no such ill effects.

Hutchinson is as dumb as a rock and about as much good, seriously. You can't do what he does and get away with it, or can you? Has the government's propaganda machine that came to life from the hand of Nancy Reagan given him a liar's pass?

People like this are THE reason that there is drug abuse in this country, and pot isn't even a drug. If I didn't know better I'd say this man doesn't have an honest bone in his body. People like Hutchinson create things like the "Gateway Theory" that specifically programs kids to instinctively want to move on to harder drugs in some cases, because that is what everyone told them they would do.

The only kids who know better are the kids of people who actually understand how all of this works. That would put marijuana using parents at the top of the list of people who will give their kids the straight scoop on everything when it comes to drugs.

Nobody wants their minor child to do anything they shouldn't do, especially if it is illegal, but time and time again, year after year and now decade after decade, I see the same dynamic repeat itself over and over.

That is the overly-sheltered kid who seeks out opportunities to behave like a lunatic every time his or her parents are out of sight, versus the kid whose parents have a more relaxed and less paranoid approach to parenting. The second group (of kids) are the ones who aren't as driven to explore taboos. That kind of exploration can lead to tragic circumstances for kids. They are often the kids of extremely straight and "religious" parents who end up in the worst circumstances.

I know from experience that talking to your kid about pot and not necessarily demonizing it in the process, does not lead to a pot smoking youth.

We should all hang our heads in shame for the ridiculous BS that we as a society have allowed to progress.

Truth Does Exist

The list is long, but the first thing that sets marijuana apart from every other substance is that it is natural. Completely and utterly natural. There are various treatments and products used in the growing stage, but the end product is not something that evolves from a laboratory.

It doesn't cause cancer according to all credible sources, and cannabis use probably prolongs the lives of cigarette smokers who also use it.

While growing techniques have been refined, and people as a rule are better agriculturists today than twenty or thirty years ago, the police and anti-marijuana groups constantly tell kids and even church congregations that "marijuana is much stronger than in the past."

I try to give these misinformationalists a break, because they think they know what they are talking about, but they don't.

Marijuana history

In the 1970's Americans on the west coast and beyond, were sold "lids" of pot called "Commercial" and that was about an ounce. It cost ten bucks and was measured as being about three and a half fingers tall in a bag. That was a lid.

What did it bring the user? A headache, most of the time. This product was the non-desirable part of the pot plant, but people didn't really understand very much about it back then. For the record, the leaf is not the part of the plant a smoker wants, they want the bud or flower.

If a person in the 70's had good connections then they scoffed at Commercial and bought Acapulco Gold, Oaxacan spears, Thai stick, or the whole series of "Colombians" which came in shades of gold and red and even "Rainbow Colombian".

Then there was Michoacan and lots of extremely high quality pot coming back from Vietnam. The police are completely inaccurate when they preach about pot being "stronger". They simply don't know, and why would they? They're cops, and unless they are tricking people and pretending to be someone they aren't as in an undercover "narc" or something like that, they would never have a chance to really understand how the culture works, especially in regard to past generations.

Marijuana has never caused a human death, and that in and of itself attests to the overall safety of marijuana use. There are many people who used to be anti-pot but became sick and ended up needing it to keep food down. Cancer treatment and wasting diseases like HIV/AIDS are very real examples, but the list of things that marijuana can treat goes on and on.

The cannabis or marijuana plant can be used to generate food, rope, paper, clothing, fuel for automobiles, shoes, art, energy; you name it. The plant bears the strongest natural fiber known to man.

We have been so stupid; beaten by a joke of a movie called Reefer Madness that our physician/writer Dr. Phil Leveque considers to be the primary source of propaganda that brainwashed a nation into believing that marijuana smokers became killers who murder their families with axes.

While this non-fatal (and non-toxic) plant has remained criminally classified by the feds right alongside meth and heroin, the Food and Drug Administration has approved so many drugs that hurt and killed people that you could scarcely name them all on a page.

These are the businesses that want marijuana to remain illegal - because it is going to put them out of business. We're talking about the big pharmaceutical industry that has helped run the U.S. economy into the ground from greed and greed alone. People are at the end of their ropes and sick of watching loved ones die who can't afford the outlandish prices of drugs.

Marijuana is not an answer for everything, but it is a partial answer for helping the economy and freeing up prisons so dangerous, violent offenders currently walking our streets and threatening our families, can again be locked up. And most importantly, so sick people can exist with a better quality of life.

Elected Officials Ignore Law

At the time of this writing, two substantial medical marijuana cases are taking place in the states directly above and below Oregon.

SLO Town Sheriff Pat Hedges

The case against Morro Bay medical dispensary owner Charles Lynch has attracted support from Drew Carrie and Melissa Etheridge, but Lynch is still being railroaded on trumped-up charges by a California sheriff because a security guard who worked for Lynch sold pot to a DEA narc when he was off work, and miles from Lynch's dispensary. Soon thereafter, black outfitted federal police "thugs" as they are frequently called these days, knocked down his door and put a gun to his head.

Now he's looking at five years in a California prison, even though he followed every law in the book and in reality violated not a single state law. Even though AG Holder and President Obama say those days of DEA raiding businesses that are legal in the medical marijuana states are over, Lynch still faces a hefty sentence.

None of it restores faith in America, if anyone cares about that. It isn't about pot, it is about state's rights.

Russ Hauge in Kitsap

Kitsap County Prosecutor Russ Hauge in Washington, like San Luis Obispo, California Sheriff Pat Hedges, simply doesn't seem to care about what the voters in their states want. They are men who operate on their own; political powerhouses on small levels who don't believe they need to be bound by things like voter-approved state law.

They say the slogan in Kitsap County, Washington, is "Come on Vacation and Leave on Probation"

That isn't the only slogan though; "Kidnap County" is the other new reference for this strange place in Washington state, which closely resembles a police state most days of the week anyway. Police here sneak around in unmarked cars, often driving erratically, and they treat people with zero respect. I can't say this represents all of them, but the stories from Oregon motorists who deal with Washington cops are often ugly.

I'm going to keep going on this for one moment; it is important to help understand a particular story when you have some amount of background on the culture of thought taking place in certain regions and in this case, law enforcement agencies.

I know a woman here in Salem who works for one of our sponsors, that was pulled over by what she described as a "creepy cop" in an unmarked pickup truck just north of the Oregon/Washington border. This cop treated this Christian woman like an ass and that is putting it nicely, and the week before, her very ill baby had died. So there was this Washington state trooper in his unmarked car, reading her the riot act after tailgating her for miles, right on her bumper.

I swear, these cops and their unmarked cars literally pave the way for criminals to strap on a red light and pull over people so they can victimize and brutalize them.

It is all out of control from the last eight years and from the ignorance before that. Unmarked police, DA's and sheriff's who think they are above their own state laws... it is all going to change very soon.

In the video below, Rob Kampia Discusses Marijuana Tax and Regulation on CNBC's Power Lunch, along with Asa Hutchinson on the other side of the aisle. Watch Hutchinson group a harmless plant in with heroin and methamphetamine and then if you have the time, call or email his office and tell him what you think of him.

Hutchinson said last September that he plans to open a law firm in Arkansas with his son. I don't have the information on the office but I imagine somebody does, and that would be excellent to post in our comments section.


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. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor.
Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 in Afghanistan with Oregon troops. Tim recently returned from Iraq where he covered the war there while embedded with an Oregon Guard aviation unit. Serving the community in very real terms, 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.
You can send Tim an email at this address: newsroom@salem-news.com




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March 23, 2009 6:01 pm (Pacific time)

So who has the experience: Asa or an experienced reporter like King?  Funny how in this case Asa doesn't know hardly anything about marijuana.  It is obvious that King knows far more.


stephen March 23, 2009 6:18 pm (Pacific time)

Deaths from FDA approved drugs is skyrocketing...death from marijuana = 0 Robberies while on marijuana only? I think someone stole a candy bar once :-) violent crimes while on marijuana? they thought about it, but decided to put it off til after they finished their video game, or a new song they were writing. :-) Stocks on things such as candy bars, video games, fast food, potato chips etc because of marijuana? Doing very well :-) The damage from alcohol is overwhelming.. but congress/senate wont say anything about that, because they consume so much of it. They wont mention the FDA approved drug deaths/crimes (latest school shooter was on anti-depressents) because they get campaign contributions from the pharmaceutical industries. Decades and billions of dollars on the war on drugs, and nothing has changed accept FDA approved drugs killing our children. Marijuana is still everywhere, and non-violent partakers of an herb go to prison. Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated many cities across the U.S. and are making billions. Some picture huh? Great article Tim, I am as upset as you are about this .. and I dont even smoke the stuff.


Some Guy March 23, 2009 2:59 pm (Pacific time)

In California, we DID change the law, and those federal thugs still harass innocent people for using marijuana to treat their illnesses.


Richard P Steeb March 23, 2009 1:40 pm (Pacific time)

I remember when Asa came to San Francisco to speak at the commonwealth club... 12 Feb 2002 to be exact. Ed Rosenthal remembers the date as well... Bob Barr needs to have a heart-to-heart with the man, eh?


Chris Fahrenkrug March 23, 2009 12:01 pm (Pacific time)

I dont believe that smoking weed is completely harmless, but it is WAY less harmless than alot of things. people should have the right to smoke if they want, after all, it is their own body.


Jack Herer March 23, 2009 11:38 am (Pacific time)

Call Asa Hutchison and let him know what you think about this. 479-878-1600 or 501-374-9800 or 202-344-4227

Editor: Jack, thank you! 


Anonymous March 23, 2009 11:00 am (Pacific time)

Tell it like it is man, that is the only way to penetrate the boundaries. Truth is important.


Subvet416 March 23, 2009 7:05 am (Pacific time)

Tim, a wise teacher of mine once said "Look for the cause behind the cause." Instead of letting this situation frustrate and infuriate you, keep digging and you will find these folks are all on the same page. All drugs, legal and prohibited, the secret societies, their government front men and the psychiatrists who are ready to brand anyone who dares test the reality they are selling as suffering from "mental illness" or PTSD.

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