Posted on 09/23/2002 8:56:33 AM PDT by Commie Basher
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NEWS FROM THE LIBERTARIAN PARTY
2600 Virginia Avenue, NW, Suite 100
Washington DC 20037
World Wide Web: http://www.LP.org
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For release: September 23, 2002
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For additional information:
George Getz, Press Secretary
Phone: (202) 333-0008 Ext. 222
E-Mail: pressreleases@hq.LP.org
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Libertarians urge California Gov. Gray Davis to protect medical marijuana patients from federal agents
SACRAMENTO, CA -- Should California Governor Gray Davis call out the National Guard to defend medical marijuana patients from federal agents? That's the question Libertarians will be asking today as thousands of medical marijuana advocates descend on the state Capitol in Sacramento to send the federal government a message.
"The National Guard is charged with defending lives and property when disaster strikes and the federal raids on medical marijuana clinics have been a complete disaster," said Libertarian Party Political Director Ron Crickenberger, who is attending the rally.
"These DEA bullies with badges have ransacked clinics, brutalized helpless, dying people, and trampled state law. Now the only question is whether Davis will live up to his responsibilities as the state's chief law enforcement officer or continue to kowtow to the federal government."
Agents from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration have raided dozens of marijuana clinics over the past few months, despite the fact that the possession, use, and cultivation of medical marijuana was legalized statewide with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996. But now Californians are fighting back. Santa Cruz and other localities are making "medipot" available during public rallies at City Hall as protesters chant, "DEA, go away!"
Monday's Medical Cannabis Freedom Day rally, which kicks off at noon on the south steps of the Capitol, was created as a way for medical marijuana supporters statewide to demand an end to federal interference.
But will calling out the National Guard be necessary? Libertarians hope not.
"No such confrontation would be needed if Davis and Attorney General Bill Lockyer had the backbone to speak out more forcefully against this unwarranted federal intrusion," Crickenberger said. "Davis has asked the federal government to stop the raids. And last week, Lockyer sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and DEA head Asa Hutchinson 'questioning the ethical basis' for the raids.
"But meekly asking the DEA to stop hasn't worked. Davis and Lockyer should publicly and unequivocally demand that the raids stop. They should remind Ashcroft and Hutchinson that their boss, President George Bush, pledged during the campaign to 'respect states' rights' on medical marijuana. And they should inform the federal government that any future harassment of medical marijuana patients will be treated as an assault under state law.
"If Davis lacks the courage to stand up to the federal bully when lives are at stake, he should have the decency to resign."
Other groups participating in the rally include the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP); the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML); Students for a Sensible Drug Policy; and the Drug Policy Alliance. Organizers are also demanding a federal pardon for Bryan Epis, a Libertarian Party member who faces 10 years in prison for cultivating medical marijuana.
Perpetual chaos is part of the Libertarian agenda and the libertarian agenda.
The LP agenda is clear, to get unlimited immigration, we must have open borders.
Libertarians are against the initiation of force in any circumstances. I doubt you'd see many of them killing for cannabis. To fight tyranny and unconstitutional abuse of power, maybe.
Before anyone starts the inevitable flame as to my motives, I am a Libertarian and have never touched a drug in my life.
Awww, shucks ... now, they're going to make me turn in my Libertarian Party tie-tack and cuff-links for forgetting that.
Unlike Repulicans, who strongly embrace quotas, affirmative action, and forced "diversity."
Just ask Ward Connerly. He was shunned by Jeb Bush when Connerly tried to promote an anti-affirmative action initiative in Florida. Connerly is so disgusted with the GOP that he recently spoke at a California Libertarian Party event. He's thinking of switching to the LP, becaues the GOP shuns him.
The GOP supports war, socialism, and racist affirmative action.
The Dems support war, socialism, and racist affirmative action.
Yeah, I know the GOP gives good phone sex, talking about liberty and the Constitution. But the GOP behaves like Dem Lite.
The Netipot, good for what ails you, and it's 100% legal.
They're not thugs? Rent TRAFFIC, a film that comes highly recommended by Libertarians.
Lexington, MA - 1775. Fort Sumter, SC - 1861. Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, Santa Cruz, CA - 2002.
One of these doesn't fit very well...
On the contrary, the core libertarian philosophy is no offensive use of force or fraud, or stated differently, the Golden Rule. It is a moral absolute.
Modern conservative and liberal philosophy is relativist at its core, as it purports to justify the offensive use of force or fraud against individuals to benefit a collective, and therefore allegedly "greater," good.
WRONG again! The golden rule and the libertarian philosphy are at opposite ends of the spectrum. As for moral absolutism, I think you forget, libertarian beliefs aren't holy scripture. Life isn't always based on blacks and whites, because man is an imperfect creature and liberals and libertarians, are the most imperfect of all.
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