The Legalization
Letter II - The Final Push
September 13, 2004
Dear Friends,
I wrote a previous letter to many of you over nine years ago.
It was titled "The Legalization Letter" and it detailed a plan designed
to bring about instant legalization of marijuana. Obviously,
the plan didn't work. It did, however, cause Newt Gingrich
to address our campaign during a press conference, which I believe
may have helped energize the legalization movement. I thank
all of you who participated back then. Especially those of you
who really signed on and helped make it spread enough to be effective to
the degree that it was.
I wish to apologize to you all for a number of mistakes which
I made in that attempt. First of all, I apologize deeply to
any of you who tried to correspond with me. I did all of this
as anonymously as I possibly could. The name I used, John
Galt - as many of you may know - was rather arrogantly taken from the name
of a hero in Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". I picked
that name because of the character's extreme libertarianism.
I was trying to reach out to many of the non evangelical Republicans and
Libertarians - particularly among the then Freshman Congressmen.
And as you might remember, in 1994 most of the Freshmen WERE Republicans.
I say "arrogantly taken" because the character in question was an idealized
superman. I am certainly not that by any estimation - particularly
my own. I did see parallels, however, which while maybe
pertinent, do nothing to further the current conversation.
The next thing I wish to apologize for is the existence of spelling
errors in my initial versions of the letter. These were the
result of my wish for secrecy and my excitement over the idea causing
me to not have someone proofread my work until many copies had already
gone out. Regardless, it was a tactical blunder because it gave our opponents
ammunition to play a "stoopid stonerz can't evun spel" misdirection,
and use it to discredit the message by discrediting the messenger.
I'm truly sorry for giving them that opportunity.
I also wish to apologize for having only a partial
plan the last time. I picked the dates and manner of execution
more for their symbolism than for strategic advantage. For
those of you who are only now learning about this, here is briefly how
the old plan worked:
1 - I sent out what was essentially a chain letter starting in
late March 1995.
2 - Recipients were urged to send copies to everyone they knew
who might be sympathetic to the cause.
3 - Starting on July 4, 1995 everybody was supposed to send copies
of the letter by mail, fax, or email to both of their U.S. Senators,
their Congressman, their Governor, and President Clinton.
4 - The plan was for everyone to do this once a week for
as long as it took.
The idea was that with everyone randomly choosing which day of
the week to use, Congress would be under constant barrage and would
eventually give in. Instead it kind of fizzled out.
Newt, in the middle of a press conference said something like "And
as far as these people who want to legalize marijuana go, you need
to put it out to the voters - have a referendum. I don't think the
voters of the United States want marijuana to be legal." That's
not an exact quote, but is as close as I can remember. Of
course he knew when he said it that there is no mechanism in the U.S. Constitution
for any form of direct voter referendum. It's not like we could
get Proposition 420 onto the national ballot in 1996. (Or 2004 either.)
Anyway, I recently realized that this was a plan which diluted
it's resources and did not apply them at the most effective time.
(Although the chosen date actually wasn’t too bad, it wasn’t an election
year and the pressure was not the same.) I believe that
a plan which concentrates our resources at the opposition's weakest point
would be both easier to implement, and far more effective.
I also realize that, given the lack of success the last time, it's going
to be much more difficult to persuade you that we CAN be successful this
time. But please, hear me out.
First of all, there has been enormous progress over the past
nine years. Much of that has been accomplished through the
hard work and dedication of the very people who are wearing your shoes
this week. You have much for which you deserve to be acknowledged.
And while there's still this final push needed to get this over the top,
there are many more people on our side than there were nine years ago.
The abuses of the Ashcroft Justice Department have highlighted the need
for action, have won widespread sympathy outside the movement, and have
caused our numbers to swell.
In addition, the recent moves to relax the laws everywhere but
here - or so it seems - have provided ample evidence that LEGALIZATION
IS THE RIGHT THING TO DO and is inevitable. The reinvigorated
war against marijuana has become a cruel national joke. Youth
drug use goes up as a direct result of their idiotic anti-pot commercials
and they're planning to spend close to a billion over the next five years
doing more of the same. It may be counter-productive, but
it plays well to parts of the Republican base.
(I can remember myself being far more curious about drugs AFTER
the anti-drug program they gave us in school. I truly believe
that it hastened my experimentation with several substances.
Hmm, I wonder what "a general feeling of well-being" feels like?
It SOUNDS pretty cool. Wow, visual and aural hallucinations
sound interesting - I wonder what they're like? I mean sure,
there were all those nasty warnings about addiction and brain damage
and chromosome damage and blah blah blah blah blah. None of the warnings
were nearly as sexy as "a general feeling of well-being.", or “euphoria“
- ooh how exotic, or those seductive words “visual hallucinations“.
Thank You Richard Nixon. No really, without his starting the War
on Drugs, I might never have tried pot, or at least might have missed
several years of getting stoned.)
The anti-marijuana rhetoric of the Bush administration as voiced
by Drug Czar John Walters is another indication of the progress we’ve
made. They’re running scared and its making them do stupid things.
I’m sure many, if not a majority of the nation’s prosecutors recognized
the lies when Walters claimed in a recent letter that marijuana represented
the greatest threat to the U.S. of all illegal drugs - including
cocaine and heroin. Most Americans who have heard about this letter
and/or this statement have been left scratching their heads and wondering
what planet this man is living on. His rallying them to aggressively
prosecute marijuana cases is a last gasp of desperation to try to
contain our movement. They still fail to grasp that they can’t arrest
us into silence. There are just too damn many of us for that to work.
Meanwhile, every year three-quarters-of-a-million Americans are arrested
for marijuana offenses, the great majority of these arrests are for simple
possession. But instead of convincing us that marijuana is evil,
as they’ve been trying to do for close to seventy years, all they’re
doing is angering more of us and convincing us that this destruction of
innocent lives by a run-amok legal system needs to stop.
If you add in affected family members and friends, the anti-marijuana
crusade is adding at least two million people to our ranks every year.
If we can get even 1% of this base activated, we can be a truly potent
political force. If we can get 3% we’re unstoppable. Think
of the numbers. There are, very conservatively speaking, 10
million current active pot smokers in the U.S. In addition, there
are millions more who choose for various reasons to not actively smoke,
but who are solidly in favor of legalization. There are also millions
of family and friends of pot smokers who would and do support legalization.
Then there is also the whole medical marijuana world which would be so much
more at ease if pot was just plain legal.
All told, we have at least 20 million potential activists.
If we can get just 1% of this number to concentrate efforts for anywhere
from a few days to a few weeks, we will win this thing. Think about
it. That’s 200,000 daily calls, faxes, emails and snail-mails to
the White House. That’s an AVERAGE of 2000 contacts per Senator
per day. Their state’s governors will receive twice as many
Of course some offices would receive far fewer. But more importantly,
the Senators from the larger states will receive far more than this -
we should be able to wear them down fairly quickly. If we can get
3% we will have them on their knees.
Furthermore, if any of our traditional foes such as the
Christian Right get involved in trying to counter us, they’ll just be
contributing to the effort of completely tying up Congress’ communications
indefinitely. By fighting us they’ll be unwittingly helping us.
Maybe we should make sure they know about our efforts!
And also, when you consider that SOME of us have had too much time on
our hands due to the “robust” economy, I can think of at least a few people
who might spend several hours a day emailing and calling as part of a final
all-out push to get this over the top. The prospect of tens-of-thousands
of motivated activists should be enough to keep John Walters awake
at night. And that’s good. Considering the damage he’s done,
the man deserves to lose at least a few nights sleep.
I truly believe that this is doable. The growth of the
internet since the first Legalization Letter attempt in 1995 makes the
communications so much more efficient. Also, since I’m now working
in the open, I’ll be coordinating with the various national organizations
- at least to the extent that they’re willing to cooperate with this effort.
I’m not pushing anyone to do this, but I’m URGING EVERYONE. Let’s try
again, but this time focused and prepared for victory.
For this last reason, one of the things I have drafted is
“THE MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION ACT OF 2004”. (This is a first-cut
document which outlines the removal of marijuana from Schedule I status,
and gets the Federal Government out of the business of enforcing
laws against cannabis.) After all, it helps to have something
there for them to vote for. We can’t press for a vote on vapor-legislation,
and we can’t let up the pressure when we’ve got them on the run
in exchange for some equally vaporous promises. What is needed is
a sponsor in the House, preferably a Republican, who can rewrite this in
congressionalese and influence their leadership to allow the final legislation
come to the floor. After all, although it is currently a Republican
administration which is cracking the whip, the arrest rate ramped up all
through the Clinton years to where it is today. This is TRULY a
bi-partisan issue.
Now there will predictably be people like Tom DeLay howling that
we’re using extortion. Yes, you are correct Mr. DeLay we ARE.
This is no different from the tactics the Christian Right have perfected
over the past thirty years. And it just so happens that we have
the core American principles of Liberty, Justice and Freedom on our side.
And ours is truly a righteous cause. We represent far more American
voices than the right-wing Christian groups ever have. Our position
on this issue is far closer to the current mainstream than theirs is.
If they have a right to bully Congress into passing their legislation,
then we should have a right to steamroller ours through.
Hammer, hammer, hammer them on this until we win. Every
day, start early and end late. How many years have we had to put
up with being paranoid? What’s a week or two of concentrated effort
compared to the potential payoff of being able to live without the constant
paranoia of knowing that you’re just a freak incident away from being
busted? (No matter HOW careful you are it can happen in an instant.
A tree crashes through your bedroom window in a storm and in the confusion
your stash is displayed for all the world to see - maybe you aren’t even
home when it happens. Your life has just been upended all because
you had a naughty weed in a little plastic baggie in your nightstand.)
Aren’t you sick and tired of this? Let’s put an end to it once
and for all. If we can get enough of us behind this plan there is no
way we can lose.
By the moral authority inherent in the righteousness of this
movement, I declare tomorrow, September 14,th to be MJ-day - the day
the offensive begins This should maximize the impact of our efforts
because they will all be wanting to get their legislative work complete
before recessing to resume campaigning back home. They are already
on a tight schedule because of the lack of passing many of this years
spending bills. It is also rumored that they plan on introducing
a number of partisan issues between now and their October 8th recess
to try to gain electoral advantage. This puts pressure on them
to get this done, and also puts them on a short enough deadline that
we should be able to sustain the effort.
As we spread the word and our effort builds its momentum, by
next week we can have their phones ringing when they get there in the
morning and keep them ringing all day. We can repeatedly
run their fax machines out of paper due to the volume of communications.
We can keep their in-baskets stuffed throughout the day, both for physical
mail and electronic mail. East Coast people get up early and keep
at it until late afternoon. West Coast people start in the late
morning, but go late. Don’t let them off the hook during your early
evening hours - this extends them three hours later than you back in D.C.
The next morning - same thing. Do what you can. Give
an hour a day if that’s all you can spare, but DO IT PLEASE. Do 15 minute
blocks in between other projects if that’s what works for you. Work
it out, fit it in to your life somehow. The true hardcore soldiers
in the movement will be giving it all they’ve got, but we need EVERY VOICE
WE CAN RAISE as often and as loudly as possible. We need numbers
so overwhelming that we first generate, and then dominate the news coverage.
It will be almost like watching the Berlin Wall being knocked down, only
we’re going to be the ones doing the knocking. Don’t let up until
they pass our legislation. I figure if we can keep up the pressure
for two weeks we can win this thing, maybe even before then.
Now, do everything you can to get this out to everyone you think
may possibly be supportive. Please don’t sit on it and wait.
Get your address book out NOW and start mailing. Please, I’m
serious. The quicker the message spreads, the larger our force
for action potentially becomes. Each and every one of us is the
key to making that happen - we are all a network of friends. DO
IT NOW. Those with friendly media contacts, clue them in as to
what is happening. Use every means available to spread the word.
Now is the time for action.
One final thought. I realize that I have not given much
time for this idea to spread. But given the speed of information
transfer on the internet, this should not be a barrier. I encourage,
indeed implore, herb-friendly webmasters to post this plan on their sites,
send action alerts to subscribers, and join in this push get the
Feds out of our gardens. I had considered starting this up months
ahead of time. But considering the current politicization of the Justice
Department I thought better of having the plan hanging out there for months,
to be defused and defeated before it ever had a chance to build. With
the current approach, as more people come on board each day, our fearless
leaders in Congress can watch the groundswell before their very eyes.
Proceed with Courage,
John Galt aka Keith Blevins
THE MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION ACT OF 2004
-The Drug Enforcement Administration is directed to reschedule
cannabis, also known as marijuana, into the category, “Generally Recognized
As Safe”.
-All Federal restrictions on the possession, use, sale, and cultivation
of cannabis are lifted as of the date on which this legislation is signed
into law by the President.
-All persons currently serving Federal sentences for possession,
use, sale, and/or cultivation of cannabis shall be released from prison
immediately upon this legislation becoming law.
-All pending cases regarding the possession, use, sale, and/or
cultivation of cannabis shall be dismissed upon this legislation becoming
law.
-All current Federal investigations of cannabis-related activities
shall be discontinued upon this legislation becoming law.
-No resources of the Federal Government of the United States
shall be used to monitor, control, or regulate the possession, use,
sale, and/or cultivation of cannabis, either acting independently, or
in conjunction with any state or municipality.
-No resources of the Federal Government of the United States
shall be used to influence, directly or indirectly, the internal politics
of any state or municipality regarding their laws concerning the
possession, use, sale, and/or cultivation of cannabis. This includes
attempts to influence state legislatures, and also attempts to influence
voters who are considering ballot initiatives.
-Considering that cannabis metabolites remain in a person’s body
long after it’s effects, and the ambiguous data regarding the effects
of cannabis on driver safety, all state laws regarding drugged driving
must be based on physical performance standards, and not merely on the
presence of drug metabolites in a person‘s system.
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