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PROHIBITION NOW!
statement from ACT UP SF
According to the
Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala, "marijuana
is immunosuppressive." We of ACT UP SF have to laugh at her absurd
reefer madness like exaggeration concerning the so-called "dangers"
of marijuana. Over thirty years of government research and billions
of dollars worth of stoned monkeys have demonstrated one thing, marijuana
is benign, does not cause any harmful effects, and is considerably safer
than cigarettes and alcohol. Emaciation, neuropathy, blindness, dementia,
cancer, renal failure, birth defects and metabolic deformations are
only a few of the side effects of the so-called "AIDS" drugs
that Donna Shalala brazenly promotes in the name of health care. AZT,
DDI, DDC, D4T, 3TC, IL2, Saquinavir, Ritonavir, Crixivan, Sustiva, Viracept,
Ziagen and Thalidomide are the worst drugs possible for immunosuppression.
Of course synthesized THC (Marinol) is available in capsule form; it
seems marijuana fine if the pharmaceutical industry can profit from
it. But our civil right to alternative medicine continues to be a crime.
We see that our fight to expose the HIV lie and our advocacy for the
HIV positive as all part of the same battle. Bombarded with misinformation
from their doctors and other "authorities," subjected to psychological
terrorism, convinced of an imposed death sentence, and poisoned with
toxic pharmaceuticals, any individual designated HIV positive is well
deserving of a few stress busters, including marijuana. The sham policy
of Donna Shalala is in keeping with the whole repressive increasingly
totalitarian society we live in.
As gay people we
know that our history is to be found with the witches of Old Europe
who knew secrets and magics of herb lore. Healing, performing abortions,
attending births, our ancestors long ago found themselves at odds with
an utterly draconian Church. Rubbing their bodies with flying ointments
made potent with ergot, belladonna and henbane, our sisters and brothers
too flight to unimaginable regions of the mind and were persecuted and
burned for such activity by the prison guards of Christian Civilization.
For thousands of years marijuana, peyote, kavakava, morning-glory seeds,
coca leaves, psilocybin, yage and innumerable other sacred plants have
been used, and continue to be used, by indigenous people as both sacrament
and medicine throughout the New World. One of our favorite revolutionary
figures of the 20th century, Pancho Villa, is said to have smoked pot
before going to battle to become mas valiente (more valiant). References
to the marvelous effects of marijuana fill Mexican revolutionary corridos
(ballads) made famous by Villa's army. In the twenties marijuana entered
the bohemian crowds of NY and Chicago vis a vis the traveling jazz and
blues bands of the time. The psychedelic subculture of the 1960s only
rediscovered what was already in place as an oppositional underground
current. We mention all of this to point out the prohibition of marijuana
is rooted in Puritanical bigotry, racism, cultural chauvinism and fear
of the unconscious.
Most recently the
California State Attorney General, William Lockyer, has stated publicly
that he voted for 215. Welcome news! What is needed is an immediate
amnesty for all people in the courts and prison system and a complete
dismantling of the failed "War On Drugs." An abysmal policy
that has only proven to be a ruse to prepare the world for a global
police state. We of ACT UP SF believe that legalization is not enough.
Utilizing fear, hysteria, and media manipulation, the NIH, the FDA,
the CDC and their funding cohorts - the drug companies - continue to
divert attention away from the sociological and emotional causes of
illness while preventing focus on a holistic nontoxic approach to individual
healing. The much hyped "crisis in health care" is simply
a matter of people's needs being sacrificed for the sake of corporate
profits.
Pancho Villa smoking marijuana with his comrades on his ranch
in Chihuahua.
Photo by Agustin V. Casasola 1923