Peaceful Sky Alliance » Uncategorized

LTE in Hawaii Tribune Herald

Peaceful Sky Alliance — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 07:58:37 +0000

What we know

Published: Wednesday, August 18, 2010 9:57 AM HST

Putting someone in prison for cannabis is the only crime. We know that.

The lawman’s obsession with ganja is driven by the needs of corporations. We know that.

Every politician that speaks too ignorantly about weed has something to hide. We know that. Our right to the plant cannabis is a God-given right. We know that.

Pot is safer than our government. We know that.

The persecution of cannabis practitioners is a hate crime. And we know that.

Not actively defending your rights is the only reason we are denied them. And you know that.

Dwight Kondo

Pahoa-

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2010/08/18/opinion/your_views/letters04.txt

LTE in Hawaii Tribune Herald

Peaceful Sky Alliance — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 23:32:15 +0000

German drug policy

Published: Friday, August 13, 2010 10:34 AM HST

I am visiting family and friends in Germany. One of my cousins is a police captain in a small city. As it is in the United States, the debate over drug liberalization and the effect it will have on German society exists here, as well.

Recently, the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen passed a bill allowing citizens to possess 10 grams (approximately one-third ounce) of cannabis for personal use, up from a previous amount of 6 grams. Some argue that this will encourage people to take more drugs. However, the state’s police president, Hubert Wimber, stated that since small amounts of cannabis for personal use went into effect, the problems experienced with abuse have not increased. He argues that harsh laws do not deter people from taking drugs, and that the number of prosecutions for cannabis has not increased since citizens were allowed to possess cannabis legally.

He also said that a humanitarian drug policy based on “support, harm reduction and prevention” is preferred to criminalization. Would it not be refreshing if our council, mayor, police and prosecutors could view drug policy in such an enlightened manner?

Andrea Tischler

Hilo

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/articles/2010/08/13/opinion/your_views/letters03.txt

Community March to support the “Green 14″

Matt Rifkin — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 02:52:10 +0000

WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 18th starting at 3:30pm - HILO BANDSTAND

Free the Green 14…Freedom of Religion…Freedom of Speech…Free the Earth…Free Political Prisoners…Free Roger Christie…

Please bring your own sign or banner. After speeches we will march to the Federal Building.

Together we must stand for freedoms…join in making a statement

Roger Christie’s mailing address

Matt Rifkin — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 12:13:26 +0000

Here is Roger’s address in Honolulu.

Rev. Roger Christie
Federal Bureau of Prisons
Inmate #99279-022 Unit 6A
Box 30080
Honolulu, HI 96820

Also, there is a Facebook page for Roger, and you can support him by joining. http://www.causes.com/causes/506680

If Rev. Roger Christie and the Ministry have been a Light in your life, the best thing you can do at this time is to write Roger’s attorney with your POSITIVE, NON-POLITICAL testimony about the good influence Roger’s Ministry has had on YOUR life.

Matthew Winter
Federal Public Defender
300 Ala Moana Blvd, #7104
Honolulu, HI 96850

Matthew_Winter@fd.org

A blogger’s thoughts about the recent raids and arrests..

PSA — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 13:08:52 +0000

And this from a blog by Joan Conrow..

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Musings: Twisted Image

I’ve been following Roger Christie’s pro-cannabis/anti-drug war efforts for about 20 years now, ever since I ran into him on the Big Island while working for the now defunct Honolulu Advertiser. He’s had some successes, including winning a selective prosecution lawsuit against Hawaii County, helping to get voters to approve an initiative that makes marijuana cultivation and possession the lowest police priority and convincing that island’s County Council to reject funding for “Green Harvest.”

Now, however, he’s facing serious federal charges of conspiracy and marijuana manufacturing [how, exactly, do you manufacture a plant, except through genetic engineering?], possession and distribution related to his THC Ministry in Hilo.

The feds, who actually used a Coast Guard C-130 plane to bring Christie and the other 13 defendants to Honolulu, played up the bust at a well-covered news conference, prompting a friend to observe, “Of course. They gotta shoot him down in the media first before they shoot him down in court.”

I was astounded to read that Christie and a few other defendants may not be released on bail pending trial, and that some of them could actually face life in prison for growing marijuana plants. This prompted one Star-Advertiser reader to comment:

Our justice system is grossly disproportionate compare BP to Roger Christie. Roger is in Jail. BP still making millions. Who did a greater disservice to our country? Where is the Sanity?

Really, where is the Sanity? Btw, did you know oil production is among the most heavily subsidized businesses, and that BP was getting a tax deduction of $225,000 per day for renting the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig? And people bitch about welfare….

Getting back to Roger, his arrest prompted some interesting responses from the pro-cannabis crowd, including this apt observation from the California Cannabis Ministry blog:

Arresting Roger Christie is thuggish — more of the same from our military industrial corporate chemical government, that shoots innocents with drones; induces birth defects for generations using depleted uranium munitions; bankrupts our country then rewards the guilty bankers; pokes a gaping petroleum wound into the Gulf of Mexico; “fraks” our water supplies; and engenders a two trillion dollar black market while creating essential resource scarcity in the world by banning industrial hemp agriculture.

You can’t say they don’t have a good point. But so does “Radical” Russ Belville of the NORML Stash blog, who earlier this year took Roger to task for promising ministry practitioners a religious use defense that thus far hasn’t held up in court:

Never mind that civil rights attorneys who went to law school and studied and litigated the issue for decades now have been unable to get one single US court to recognize a First Amendment right cannabis as a sacrament.

[H]ere’s the point upon which all attempts to recognize a First Amendment right to religious cannabis use have failed:

The Sherbert Test consists of four criteria that are used to determine if an individual’s right to religious free exercise has been violated by the government. The test is as follows:

For the individual, the court must determine:

• whether the person has a claim involving a sincere religious belief, and
• whether the government action is a substantial burden on the person’s ability to act on that belief.

If these two elements are established, then the government must prove:

• that it is acting in furtherance of a “compelling state interest,” and
• that it has pursued that interest in the manner least restrictive, or least burdensome, to religion.

As Belville notes, a Colorado judge didn’t buy the THC Ministry defense, and I found that a Pennsylvania man who attempted to use that same defense in a hearing before a judge was sentenced to 9 to 23 months in jail.

Roger, who is totally sincere in his efforts and beliefs, may do better in a jury trial. Since this is not his first barbecue, I assume he has a good attorney and is going to use the trial to further champion the cause. And that’s really what this is all about. Roger has been too outspoken, made too much headway, and the feds want to shut him up and put him away.

In the meantime, Hawaii sent the world a bizarre message last week: it opposes civil rights and religious freedom, but welcomes war games with open arms.

That’s kind of a twisted image for the so-called Aloha State.

Posted by Joan Conrow at 9:43 AM July 11, 2010

An update on the case of Roger Christie and ‘The Green 14′..

PSA — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:50:03 +0000

This report came in from an unidentified source..

“You probably already know that Roger Christie and 13 other people were arrested last week in Hilo. Roger has been denied bail, as a “danger to the community.” He was simply out-lawyered. His public defender filed a competent, 4-page brief. The DA filed 36 pages, with headings, sub-headings, table of contents, table of authorities. They obviously had a sizable staff working on it. An attorney who is helping, Don Wirtshafter of Ohio, gave the following report:

Roger is pretty much incommunicado while being held in the Oahu jail. Even I, a lawyer, have been unable to speak to him. Roger has a public defender. In fact, all 15 defendants pulled into this case qualified for the public defender. What does that tell you about the religious/non-commercial motives and sincerity of the people involved? The government swept in, arrested all 15, flew them off the Big Island as cargo on the world’s biggest military transport airplane. The US Marshalls took their IDs promising to mail them back to their homes. After a couple nights in jail, while being denied their prescription medications, all were brought to a bail hearing. All but Roger were offered recognizance bonds and were dumped outside the courtroom with no money, no ID and no way to get back to the Big Island. They got home to stripped houses, seized cell phones and IDs, seized address book and computers. And frozen credit. Their properties are up for seizure. And thanks to the local paper that published the defendants addresses, at least one defendant has just returned home to find a house broken into and all personal valuables stolen.

Roger on the other hand was turned down for bail. Yes, we have a Constitutional right to bail in this country, but the Constitution was written before we had drug crimes and Nixonian laws. Being accused of a drug crime with a potential sentence of more than ten years is now grounds to make you ineligible for bail. In Roger’s case though, the government maintained Roger is a present danger to the community and had to be jailed until trial. The basis of this claim: he might sell marijuana again! Roger had already promised Pre-Trial Services, the agency responsible for supervising his bail, that he would refrain from church activities while on bond. That did not stop the persecutors.”

———

Note: This Monday July 26 at the Mo’ohea Bandstand, a protest/rally is planned in support of Roger Christie, the THC Ministry and ‘The Green 14′.. more details posted as they are available…

Demanding Answers about recent raid and arrest of ‘Green 14′..

PSA — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 12:35:32 +0000

Pot bust a huge waste of money

And now.. here’s an excellent letter just published this week in the Star Bulletin on the subject of the recent raids and arrests of 14 Big Island residents..Thank you to Sara Steiner of Pahoa:

see the link to the publication here: http://www.staradvertiser.com/editorials/20100722_Letters_to_the_Editor.html

The people of Hawaii deserve the truth about how many taxpayer dollars were spent arresting Roger Christie and the 13 THC Ministries members.

Let me set up the scenario: 13 federal, state and local agencies working for at least two years; extensive phone taps; countless hours for the lawyers, prosecutors, judges and grand jury members; prison costs; and the bill for the use of that C-130 military plane. Plus public defenders we will be paying for for years.

I would venture to say that busting the Green 14 cost at least several million dollars.

So, do all you residents of Hawaii feel safer now that this “major drug ring” has been broken? Do you really think that makes a difference in your quality of life?

Sara Steiner
Friends for Justice
Pahoa

a letter from Dr. Baiko

Peaceful Sky Alliance — Thu, 20 May 2010 03:10:12 +0000

I write concerning a recent email I received about the N.E.D. Officer Keith Kamita is apparently giving public presentations in which he questions the motivations and integrity of patients who use medical cannabis and the physicians who certify their eligibility to do so. This news is consistent to my personal dealings with Mr. Kamita, who has expressed to me his suspicions that physicians are certifying patients that are not truly qualified by the law, at least as far as the law “originally intended”. He implied that he would be scrutinizing the medical cannabis card applications we submit and stated that it would be a “good idea” for us physicians to elaborate on our patient’s condition in the “comments” section of the “Physician’s certification” (Page 3 of application). He actually stated that he hopes to avoid pursuing RICO charges against physicians. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act) Obviously, Mr. Kamita does not want to see the rising tide of medical marijuana tolerance that is sweeping the nation to spill over into Hawaii legal precedent any more than it already has. It is my opinion that his attitude and behavior can be used to exemplify why certain changes in Hawaii’s current medical cannabis law need to be implemented. Mr. Kamita’s presentation confirms that he is collecting data to build cases against physicians (and perhaps patients too.) No wonder he wants us cannabinoid friendly physicians to elaborate on our patient’s conditions. He is looking for diagnostic patterns in our certifications to argue that we are breaking the law repeatedly. However, Mr. Kamita is neither professionally nor intellectually qualified to analyze our diagnoses or judge us or our patients based on any medical information submitted to the N.E.D. or otherwise. He’s a police officer. While it could be countered that Mr. Kamita is “just doing his job” as an officer of the N.E.D., I find it disturbing that his presentation singles out physicians who certify medical cannabis patients. It would be telling to know whether he makes such presentations citing which physicians prescribe the most oxycodone or hydrocodone in the state, publicly questioning their professional integrity. The N.E.D. is certainly privy to such information along with the birth date information required with prescriptions for controlled substances. But state law (HRS 329: Uniform Controlled Substance Act) does not require diagnostic justification in such prescriptions. In fact, no where in HRS 329 does it state that physicians are required to provide diagnostic justification (i.e. “for pain” or “for AIDS”, etc.) for providing written certification for the use of medical marijuana for qualifying patients. The law states that to be a qualifying patient, the patient must have a “debilitating medical condition”, which it defines as: (1) Cancer, glaucoma, positive status for human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune deficiency syndrome, or the treatment of these conditions; (2) A chronic or debilitating disease or medical condition or its treatment that produces one or more of the following: (A) Cachexia or wasting syndrome; (B) Severe pain; (C) Severe nausea; (D) Seizures, including those characteristic of epilepsy; or (E) Severe and persistent muscle spasms, including those characteristic of multiple sclerosis or Crohn’s disease; or (3) Any other medical condition approved by the department of health pursuant to administrative rules in response to a request from a physician or potentially qualifying patient… “Written certification” means the qualifying patient’s medical records or a statement signed by a qualifying patient’s physician, stating that in the physician’s professional opinion, the qualifying patient has a debilitating medical condition and the potential benefits of the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the health risks for the qualifying patient. The department of public safety may require, through its rulemaking authority, that all written certifications comply with a designated form. “Written certifications” are valid for only one year from the time of signing. (HRS 329-121 “Definitions”)And so the law in itself does not require that physicians do more than notate in their patient records “that in the physician’s professional opinion, the qualifying patient has a debilitating medical condition and the potential benefits of the medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the health risks.” The catch is that “the department of public safety may require, through its rulemaking authority, that all written certifications comply with a designated form.” This “designated form” compels patients to consent to allow their physicians “to release any protected health information” pertaining to their “debilitating condition”. It further compels the physician to furnish the patient’s medical information that Mr. Kamita is citing in his presentations. It also requires physicians to certify that the patient was “seen and examined” at a permanent business location registered with the N.E.D., meaning that if your bed-ridden auntie needed a medical cannabis card, she’d have to travel to an N.E.D. approved medical office of one of us few physicians who provide written certifications in the state. House calls are not allowed – no matter how debilitated auntie is.

This “designated form” has got to go! It undermines doctor-patient confidentiality. It denies physicians their right and ability to go to their patients and serve them directly in their communities and homes as has been done since the dawn of time. Simply removing the phrase: “the department of public safety may require, through its rulemaking authority, that all written certifications comply with a designated form” would go a long way towards getting the N.E.D. out of the physician-patient relationship. “Written certification” could stay where it belongs – in the patient’s medical records.” But I don’t believe that this is enough. Mr. Kamita’s public attempts to discredit certifying physicians and their patients also hinges on this state’s very narrow definition of “debilitating medical condition.” Without a doubt, a host of other debilitating medical conditions, including psychiatric disorders, are safely and effectively treatable with cannabis. Hawaii patients would be much better served if, as in other states, their physicians merely had to offer their professional opinion that the benefits of medical cannabis outweigh the risks for their patients. No other medication is required such diagnostic cubby holing. And yet cannabis is safer than the majority of medications available by prescription and even over the counter. I am trying to organize my fellow physicians who provide cannabis written certification evaluations to draft a consensus standard of care professional opinion. My goal is not to dictate how physicians should practice medicine in Hawaii, but rather to form a united front amongst the few of us in the state who include such services in our practice. I’d be comforted to know that if the N.E.D. comes after one of us for practicing within the guidelines of our standard of care, they’re coming after all of us. I invite all physicians to come on board with me on this. The sooner we do this the more protected we will be in our practices and the better served our patients will be. I am also investigating the Department of Health’s administrative rules to request that the list of qualifying medical conditions be expanded to also include anxiety, insomnia, ADHD and PTSD. However, preliminary phone conversations indicate that this probably won’t yield much owing to such conditions not being “intractable” nor conditions for which “no other treatment is available.” I am so not naïve to think that my involvement with the medical cannabis movement is going to change state public policy much, but the tide is shifting in our favor, and agents of the N.E.D. know it. Since my name was listed in Mr. Kamita’s presentation, I have attempted to contact him to ask for a copy of his slide show and a list of times/places where he’ll be making future presentations. He has yet to return my call. Regardless, rather than being threatened by Mr. Kamita’s drug war misinformation talks, I choose to look at them as ammunition that can be used in letters to our congress to change the law in positive directions – not to mention as free advertisement. ;)

Wishing Well,

Kevin Baiko, M.D.

doc@BigIslandMobileClinic.com

(808) 854 – 6335

“Love connects all the dots and colors outside all the lines.”

Obama Administration ‘Firmly Opposes’ Marijuana Legalization — Here’s Why

Peaceful Sky Alliance — Wed, 12 May 2010 17:45:47 +0000

So this is your administration on drugs. Any questions?

Obama drug plan ‘firmly opposes’ legalization as California vote looms
via The Hill

The Obama administration said Tuesday that it “firmly opposes” the legalization of any illicit drugs as California voters head to the polls to consider legalizing marijuana this fall.

The president and his drug czar re-emphasized their opposition to legalizing drugs in the first release of its National Drug Control Strategy this morning.

“Keeping drugs illegal reduces their availability and lessens willingness to use them,” the document, prepared by Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske, says. “That is why this Administration firmly opposes the legalization of marijuana or any other illicit drug.”

Is anyone surprised? You shouldn’t be. After all, this is the same Gil Kerlikowske that has said repeatedly that legalization is not in his vocabulary, and publicly stated, “Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit.” And this is the same administration that recently nominated Michele Leonhart to head the DEA — the same Michele Leonhart who overruled the DEA’s own administrative law judge in order to continue to block medical marijuana research, and publicly claimed that the rising death toll civilians attributable to the U.S./Mexican drug war “a signpost of the success” of U.S. prohibitionist policies.

Yet, given that national polls now indicate that an estimated one out of two Americans nationwide support legalization, and that a solid majority of west coast voters and Californians back regulating the retail production and distribution of pot like alcohol, it seems politically counterproductive for the administration to maintain such a ‘flat Earth’ policy. So what could possibly be their reasoning?

It’s actually spelled out here, in the White House’s 2010 Drug Control Strategy:

We have many proven methods for reducing the demand for drugs. Keeping drugs illegal reduces their availability and lessens willingness to use them. That is why this Administration firmly opposes the legalization of marijuana or any other illicit drug. Legalizing drugs would increase accessibility and encourage promotion and acceptance of use. Diagnostic, laboratory, clinical, and epidemiological studies clearly indicate that marijuana use is associated with dependence, respiratory and mental illness, poor motor performance, and cognitive impairment, among other negative effects, and legalization would only exacerbate these problems.

There it is in black and white — in less than 100 words: The federal government’s entire justification for marijuana prohibition; their entire justification for a policy that has led to the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965, that is responsible for allowing cops to terrorize families and kill their pets, that has stripped hundreds of thousands of young people of their ability to pursue higher education, and that is directly responsible for the deaths of over 20,000 civilians on the U.S./Mexico border. And that’s just for starters.

Yet the entire premise for maintaining the government’s policy — that keeping marijuana criminally prohibited “reduces [its] availability and lessens willingness to use [it]” — is demonstrably false. Under present prohibition, more than 1/3 of 8th graders, more than 2/3rds of 10th graders, and some 85 percent of 12th graders say that marijuana is “easy to get.” Even according to the stridently prohibitionist group CASA (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University), more teens say that they can get their hands on pot than booze, and one-quarter say that they can buy marijuana within the hour. That means, President Obama and Gil Kerlikowske, that 25 percent of teens can obtain marijuana as easily — and as quickly — as a Domino’s pizza!

This is your “proven” method for “reducing availability?” Don’t make us laugh.

By contrast, dozens of studies from around the globe have established, consistently, that marijuana liberalization will result in lower overall drug use. For example, no less than the World Health Organization concluded:

“Globally, drug use is not distributed evenly, and is simply not related to drug policy. … The U.S. … stands out with higher levels of use of alcohol, *******, and cannabis, despite punitive illegal drug policies. … The Netherlands, with a less criminally punitive approach to cannabis use than the U.S., has experienced lower levels of use, particularly among younger adults. Clearly, by itself, a punitive policy towards possession and use accounts for limited variation in national rates of illegal drug use.”

In fact, NORML has an entire white paper devoted to addressing this issue.

Of course, the best option to truly reduce youth availability to cannabis is legalization and regulation. This strategy — the same one that we employ for the use of virtually every other product except cannabis — would impose common sense controls regarding who can legally produce marijuana, who can legally distribute marijuana, who can legally consume marijuana, and where adults can legally use marijuana and under what circumstances is such use legally permitted.

But we already know that this option isn’t in the administration’s vocabulary, now don’t we?

I’ve written time and time again that this administration ought to view marijuana legalization as a political opportunity, not a political liability. They obviously aren’t listening. Nevertheless, it is the voters who have led — and will continue to lead — on this issue, and it is the politicians who will follow. Could we expect it to be any other way?

After all it was the federal government that followed the states lead in 1937 — federally criminalizing pot, but only doing so after virtually every state in the nation had already done so. California, for instance, outlawed marijuana use in 1913 — nearly a quarter of a century before the Feds acted similarly. Likewise, it is going to be the states — and California in particular — that are going to usher in the era of re-legalization.

And it will be the Feds who eventually will have no other choice but to fall in line.

NewsHawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE
Source: alternet.org
Author: Paul Armentano
Copyright: 2010 Alternet
Contact: Alternet: Support | AlterNet
Website: Obama Administration ?Firmly Opposes? Marijuana Legalization — Here’s Why SpeakEasy

• Thanks to MedicalNeed for submitting this article

meet State legislators May 4 in Hilo

Peaceful Sky Alliance — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 05:09:29 +0000

Dear Friends & Neighbors,

With the close of the 2010 Legislature, I would like to take this opportunity to invite you to a post-session community meeting on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 at UH-Hilo in University Classroom Building (UCB) 127 at 6:00 p.m.

Senator Russell Kokubun and Representatives Jerry Chang, Clifton Tsuji, Faye Hanohano and I will provide a brief summary of the 2010 legislative session. You will then have an opportunity to share your concerns and provide input to us during a question & answer period.

We will also provide updates on Hilo area infrastructure projects including the new pier and related improvements at Hilo Harbor, Hilo airport, new additions to UH-Hilo and the Hilo High School Gym, and others. We will cover these state projects intended to cushion the current economic downturn by keeping people working while setting the stage for future economic activity and growth.

We face numerous challenges during these difficult economic times, and therefore I encourage you to attend to help us, as public officials, strive towards a better future by working together.

With warmest Aloha,

Melvin Jadulang on behalf of Senator Dwight Y. Takamine

Melvin Jadulang

Legislative Assistant

Office of Senator Dwight Takamine

Phone: 808-586-7335 or toll free 974-4000 ext. 67335

Fax: 808-586-7339