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3 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Classifieds Jobs Autos Real Estate FEATURED » NEWS NOW Earthquake hits 12 miles east of Eugene ... Our View: All's well that ends well ... Jeffrey Gillespie: A landmark in the history of love ... Earthquake hits 12 miles east of Eugene ... Our View: All's well that ends well ... Jeffrey Gillespie: A landmark in the history of love ... GUEST OPINION Guest Opinion: Lies about marijuana are finally being debunked Comment By R.L. Tokareff DailyTidings.com By R.L. Tokareff Posted Jul. 2, 2015 at 12:01 AM By R.L. Tokareff Posted Jul. 2, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Social News Why haven’t I ever seen a cannabis op-ed from NORML or Paul Armentano, the deputy director, in your paper? Believe it or not, there are thousands of studies conducted over 50-plus years disproving everything the prohibitioists have said. You would never know that if you fallow the mainstream corporate media, would you? A little history about the big lie: The big lie about Cannabis and Hemp started in the early part of the 19th century and had two major players: Harry J. Anslinger and his partner in crime William Randolph Hearst. Hearst would invent “yellow journalism” with Anslinger feeding the press, Congress and the American Public tales of violence and the rape of white women by black men. In 1937 Anslinger testifies to Congress, “Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.” This big lie was so big and so great that it took until the early 21st century for the reality to get out even the most basic knowledge that cannabis and hemp are two different plants. The perpetuation of this lie fit in nicely and helped the oil, chemical and timber industries dominate the plastics and paper industries. This big lie killed Henry Ford's hemp plastic automobile bodies that he developed in the 1920s and tried to market in the 1930s, much to the delight of the DuPont family, and William Randolph Hearst’s paper business did quite nicely with his vast holdings of timberlands in the Pacific Northwest and the removal of hemp fiber from competing with  paper. From 1948 to 1950, Anslinger stopped the violence talk about blacks and switched to red-baiting, a la Joe McCarthy. Anslinger testified before Congress in 1948 that marijuana makes its users not violent at all (now that’s what I call a spin job), but so peaceful and pacifist that the Communists could and would easily use it to “weaken our American fighting men’s will to fight” So, completely ignoring the fact that Anslinger’s testimony was 180 degrees different than 11 years earlier, Congress proceeded to outlaw the world's oldest medicine. No quid pro quo here? In 1976, Eli Lilly, Abbott Labs, Pfizer, Smith-Kline and French, by spreading lobbying dollars all over Congress, got the Ford administration to make sure the feds would stop all positive research into medical marijuana. In typical fashion, the government and the media, with their own agenda, ignore this and perpetuate the big lie. State and local governments are not immune to this paranoid propaganda from the prohibitionists' big-mouth minority, as evidenced by the destruction of Measure 91 by the Oregon Legislature. In September 1988, the Drug Enforcement Administration's own administrative law judge, Francis Young, stated, “marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man”. It has only been recently that the National Institute on Drug Abuse has backed off somewhat from its totally negative research into cannabis. The Oregon Legislature has decided that the cities and counties that voted 55 percent or more against Measure 91 may refuse to ignore its mandate. OK, fair enough. However, they should not share in any revenues generated by Measure 91. So things are changing fast, and the dam of damned prohibition is cracking. Those on the side of prohibition are dying out, and science and reason are winning the battle over ignorance and superstition. This fight has never been about a plant. It's about freedom. Happy Independence Day! R.L. Tokareff lives in Ashland. By R.L. Tokareff DailyTidings.com By R.L. Tokareff Posted Jul. 2, 2015 at 12:01 AM » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Southern Oregon Directory Featured Businesses Loading... 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