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       DRUGS, CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS, AND AMERICAN DESTINY

It appears that in Helena Montana, residents are resorting to domestic terrorism in order to prevent medical marijuana (MMJ) dispensaries from opening in their area.

Perpetrators reportedly hurled Molotov cocktails through the windows of two of the new locations, and spray painted “NOT IN OUR TOWN” on the walls. This allegedly occurred just before the Billings County Council was expected to engage the issue of a ban on any new MMJ shops.

An article in the San Mateo local periodical, The Daily Journal, also cites evidence of many states which, after legalizing the use of medical marijuana, are experiencing a backlash. Public discord and protests are prodding politicians to pass laws seeking to abate the proliferation of dispensaries, and curb the disorder which has ensued in what is termed by the article as a “wide-open, Wild West sort of industry.”

However, what is most astonishing, is the fact that the federal authorities still intend to maintain their strangle-hold on Marijuana, while at the same time increasing people’s ability to distribute it.

This keeps the costs of production and distribution high. Therefore, the price per ounce of Marijuana still reflects that of a prohibited substance, and further increases its appeal to illegal drug dealers.

Then there are those who simply cannot afford the $90 to $150 required to acquire a medical prescription, and $60 to $130 for a state recognized MMJ card, and instead are forced to purchase their marijuana from other, less official, sources. This then fosters an environment of criminality where quality decreases, and the affects of the drug can vary significantly.

One might be inclined to inquire -- and rightly so -- if this nation has ever truly intended to live in a constitutionally free society, or if much of the population only ever sought to find ways of surreptitiously exploiting the image of freedom with feigned democratic principles, veiled by a mob-rule mentality, and thereby justify employing acts of aggression and oppression against the opposition, with the express intent of illegally imposing their personal will upon others.

Unfortunately, most American citizens are not personally aware of the many arduous struggles the founders of this nation were forced to endure, or the heinous indifference and criminal powers which they suffered under, in order to reach the consensus whereby they agreed that collectively holding the individual in the highest regard is paramount to the very survival of the free and just society they envisioned.

The insidious practice of mayhem and terrorist acts as a means to deny others their inalienable rights appears to have become insipidly commonplace in the United States, and it is remarkable that this nation has been able to preserve what meager portion of constitutional values still currently prevail.

One would certainly have to agree that it was those indefatigably honorable and wise statesmen of the past who many times saved this nation’s people from a certain demise of their own making.

How perfectly simple it is to rile the hubris masses. How infantile is their bawling rhetoric and feral cries when some public figure or governing body rules in favor of a constitutionally protected right the majority does not agree with or understand.

It is a very sad day in this author’s life when it becomes apparent that a state or federal agency, part and parcel of a government so regularly mistrusted and denigrated -- often with good reason -- is proved to be the only sober and reasonable voice benevolently fighting to protect the civil and constitutional rights of what amount to be nothing more than a disloyal gang of petulant fools masquerading as a legitimate constituency.

Regardless of the levels of immorality that now must be slowly weaned out of a darkly collaborative and criminalized drug culture in this nation, the fact is that it was almost all of it caused by prohibition.

It was not so long ago that people could buy any kind of drug they wanted at the corner store. However, there was no alienating stigma, at that time, which is so prevalent today, and which drives people deeper into whatever condition caused them to first seek some form of escape.

The attitude toward drug use these days is so demonstrably inhumane and exclusive in nature, and people regularly use it as a competitive method to unjustly destroy other human beings and their reputation, or mollify potential colleagues who would otherwise mistrust a newcomer or subordinate.

Furthermore, there are a paltry amount of people in this nation who -- like myself -- are unwilling to put any type of mind-altering substance in their body. Therefore, the majority of the population is entirely hypocritical in the denigration of anyone’s personal use of a mind or mood altering substance, regardless of what it is.

Anyone who uses pharmaceuticals or drinks alcohol has absolutely no right whatsoever to even question another’s choice to consume Marijuana. This plant has never once in the history of the planet been conclusively proven to harm anyone, either while under the influence, or by any long term effects of damage to the body. Neither has it ever been said that a person under the influence of Cannabis was violent or unruly. Furthermore, tests of those under the influence of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main ingredient in Marijuana which causes the euphoric effects, have conclusively proven that reaction times are nearly identical to those not under the influence.

On the contrary, pharmaceuticals and alcohol are extremely debilitating, even in small doses, and kill hundreds of thousands of people per year, and leave many grieving families and friends in shock and bewilderment, due to their volatile nature in the society.

Prohibition will never do anything but exacerbate these effects. Education and rehabilitative tolerance are the primary weapons in winning the conflict against social substance abuse.

The path that leads to true constitutional freedom in this country is a well-worn road with many deep ruts, potholes and broken vehicles, because it has been traveled often…in the wrong direction. To now be so far beyond the horizon and unequivocally bound to an opposing course on the road this nation was so sure it could forget, offers no expectation whatever that the cliff ahead will provide a better outcome for those unwilling to meet the challenges behind us.

The black markets of the nation, and the drug smugglers who proliferate within them, are a direct result of ignoring the real and present dangers exuded by a near-sighted society which expects to violently impose a collective will upon itself that is ulterior to its founding principles.

This nation and its peoples have, far too many times, demanded to be afforded inalienable rights for a majority. However, this is in no way compliant with the United States Constitution, nor the principles of liberty that empower its citizenry. The inalienable rights in this nation are extolled on each and every citizen equally, and as far as the intent inured by its founding documents, are rights which shall be extended to all other human beings in kind.

For any individual or group in this country to ever act in disregard of these inalienable rights is deplorable and un-American in every way, regardless if they are privately motivated or publicly elected.

No citizen in this country has a right to tell any other person of consenting age what they can or cannot put into their body. Neither does a community have the right to circumvent the tenets of the constitution, simply because they are against the distribution of any such substance.

This does not imply that “anything goes” or that one shall not oppose the implementation of a proposed distribution. It simply means that the United States Constitution requires the citizens of this nation to seek logically viable, respectable, and cohesive measures to prevent the proliferation of those things that present a hazard to the common good.

This nation’s freedom becomes a double-edged sword when the people do not comply with the will of its founding documents; a will which demands that communities engage all issues honorably, with an indefatigable dedication to just action, and thereby exude within their cities and towns a cooperative mechanism of social behaviors that respect the individual’s right to choose, while at the same time employing practical measures meant to engage the true causes of any possible negative ramifications.

Drug abuse is a downward spiral that is created by the swirling winds of social discord, and are exacerbated by a nation that has, for over a century, been tricked and tormented by lies and denial.

Seeking to legitimize the individual, and cultivate social reforms which first build self-esteem and cognizant assessment of one’s place in the natural order of free expression, are critical to instilling manageable parameters in the hearts and minds of this nation’s most precious resource…its citizenry.

The more this society engages this harmony, the faster the nation will grow sound ,structurally, and progress forward, directionally, toward a stronger, wiser and more fulfilling destiny.