I just saw this on Facebook. It brought back some not so pleasant memories. It takes me back to my days in Colorado Springs, prior to my arrest. Looking back, most certainly those memories were a harbinger of things yet to come.
This picture, in particular, points to a bit of history we as Cannabis consumers must NEVER forget.
Prohibitionist law enforcement used ads like this to make home production of Cannabis oil, in all of its many forms, illegal in Colorado, but it had very little to do with safety, and everything to do with crippling caregiving across the state.
Some months before, at the start of an annual statewide police event, a representative for the function stated to a Colorado Springs news crew that their most important focus for the weekend would be,
“…lost revenue due to caregiving.”
Law enforcement spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in newspaper and television ads during that year to scare the public. Their efforts were publicly deemed to curb the home production of BHP and PHO, but in effect shut down many caregivers who were producing FECO (Full Extract Cannabis Oil) for the chronically and terminally ill.
I have personally demonstrated the safety of FECO production to Thornton police officers, El Paso County deputies and a member of the Colorado State Highway Patrol. All but one left red faced, but enlightened. The highway patrolman took me aside to tell me how only a few years prior, he and his brothers had brought their father out to Colorado so that he could “get the medicine he needed to kill his cancer.”
At the “emergency” City Counsel Meeting that was called in Colorado Springs to ban the home production of Cannabis oil, all present were forced to sit through a number of fire videos that were implied to be from Colorado. In reality, NONE of the videos were from state.
I was one of only two who stayed the 3 1/2 hours to testify on behalf of the patients they were harming.
Now, this particular ad may have had to do with illegal meth production. From the missing teeth, that would lead one to believe it is. But that’s not really my point. Showing a burned out building next to growing Cannabis plants no doubt carries a different connotation to Colorado caregivers and it most certainly begs the comment,
when it comes to Cannabis, NEVER accept anything at face value.
Make careful assessment of those who run quickly to your side. Know where their allegiances lie. Most particularly, those who have opposed us for decades, subverting the truth and preying on us through Civil Forfeiture. Until Cannabis is truly legal, the greed of law enforcement leadership and their unions will never allow them to do anything but subvert the rights of the Cannabis consumer.
Never forget the hardships that have been endured to get us this far. Likewise, never forget the names and faces of those who have so gleefully preyed on us, so that we might ensure that they will never be in a position of authority to have that opportunity again.
Education, and the truth will ALWAYS be our greatest tools toward ending prohibition and the intentions of those who profit by it.
Cannabis is nontoxic. Cannabis is food. Cannabis is the single most important medicine of the 21st century.
