Bob Fleck

Out of the hands of the People

1969

      Related

Smokin’ more now and enjoyin’ it less?

The Feds would rather see heads come up to the cool taste of speed and smack than stay down in the valley of harsh reefer fumes (and they’ve been plenty rough lately).

Sound unreal? Hardly.

Courtesy of the R. Miltown Nixon thugs, Operation Intercept is underway, a marijuana eradication program tailored to keep the weed from the minds and lungs of our nation’s youth.

Why, we wonder, would our government waste our $ and time trying to abolish a drug commonly accepted as harmless.

Over the past 5 years, research and medical investigation has steadily been piling up kilo’s of evidence that friendly ‘ol cannabis is just that—a pleasant euphoric now used by somewhere between 12 and 20 million Americans, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

In an “Untitled Paper on Marijuana”, Dr. Lowinger of Detroit’s Lafayette Clinic explains that it is not a narcotic and “does not require an increasing amount or frequent use.” When consumed, “a dreamy state is induced. Ideas appear disconnected and the perception of time, space, and body image may be disturbed.”

He continues to explain that “A chronic state of indolence or lack of interest that has been ascribed to marijuana is primarily a function of the person who is taking it rather than the drug itself.”

And pot isn’t just a recent discovery. A Chinese herbal from 3,000 B.C. recommends marijuana as an anesthetic. 19th century M.D.s used it to treat headaches, tension, mood depression, as an anesthetic and to cool out a cough.

Up until 1937, Hashish (the resin from Cannabis’ flowering tops—very potent) was a main ingredient in an analgesic compound marketed by Parke-Davis.

Indeed, it wasn’t until the ‘30s here at home in the U.S. of A. that one Harry Anslinger successfully ran a hysterical crusade against marijuana as the “weed with roots in Hell” that reportedly drove teenagers into lust-frenzied rape, murder, and finally tragic insanity (just like masturbation, hey?)

Half-truths, lame research, faulty logic and outright lies were the weapons that won the war against weed.

One of the most famous posters illustrating the terrors of grass depicted a man (of the mafia-greasy-Eddy type) shooting up a half-clad girl with a huge hypodermic needle.

But all the refutation in the world hasn’t even dented the drug laws carried over from the hysterical 30’s.

Instead, prexy Dick has mobilized everybody from NASA to the graft-riddled Mexican narco department in an attempt to cut off the dope “at its source” so as to “drive prices sky-high and effectively take it out of the hands of 90% of the kids.” (Deputy Attorney General R. Kleindienst)

And replace grass with what?

The public thieves have a short memory or just don’t care to recall prohibition when the same line of reasoning led thousands of Americans into grain-alcohol blindness or the hands of mafia bootleggers.

For it was then that organized gangsters got firmly entrenched as an institution and became as American as Lawn-order. When alky came back, they just switched to prostitutes and smack (the two go hand in hand).

So just guess what’ll be appearing now that grass isn’t in the hands “of the kids.” Heroin and amphetamines.

It’s no accident, either.

Under this fine new 1969 package drug legislation, possession of speed is punishable by only one year in jail as opposed to two for a joint.

‘Cause that’s right where the system wants us. In a hyper-driven 9–5 suit and tied track, listening to muzak and Billy Graham, our lives as varied as a monorail route.

Speed to get us adjusted into a mechanical compulsion to produce and consume and smack (or tranquilizers) to keep us from caring about it.

For the politicos see what is happening. The government report states:

“Persistent use of an agent which serves to ward off reality during adolescence is likely to affect adversely the future ability of the individual to cope with the demands of a complex society...At least some users show evidence of a loss of conventional motivation. They seem to prefer instead a non-goal-oriented life style, which emphasizes immediate satisfaction to the exclusion of ambition and future planning.”

They’re afraid.

They’re scared that enough people will see through their thin arguments for a society based on persons as objects, life as servitude to an impersonal and manipulative system of behavior and economics. They’re frightened that we might discover that we’re living a lie.

So that’s why the grass is burning in the fields and not in our pipes.

Thought-police and Big Brother are a fantasy? Consider the stated facts. Repression comes in many forms and this certainly is one of them.

Fight back: join the movement of your choice and discover what this whole system is up to. You’ll be surprised.

In the meantime, write for free information on indoor hydroponic (that’s chemical bath instead of soil) farming from: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture Washington, D.C.

Related

See “Operation Intercept” in this issue.


Fifth Estate #89, October 2–15, 1969