Cannabis Freedom

www.cannabisfreedom.com

I’ve been working feverishly getting the new and improved Cannabis Freedom blog up and running. Ta Da, here it is! I’ve converted most of my posts and services from my Blogger account. If you’re already subscribed via email, RSS or ATOM, you don’t need to make any changes, Feedburner handles my feeds. If you normally go to Blogspot to read my posts, go to Cannabis Freedom instead.

I wanted to make these drastic changes in order to control my own destiny. I found myself to be at the mercy of Blogger’s limitations. Now that I own my own domain the potential is limitless. I also wanted this blog to be about cannabis and our re-legalization movement, and not so much about me, Ganja Blue. I’m still looking for activists, writers, musicians and photographers that would like to contribute original work to our effort here.

I’ve chosen Wordpress for my blogging engine and I’m really happy with it so far. Webhosting is provided by NearlyFreeSpeech which gives me the privacy I need at a cost I can live with. If you visit Cannabis Freedom from you mobile device you’ll find that the template is much more readable already.

Great New Features:

1. Mobile friendlier - Visit on your iPhone, PDA, or Cell phone to try
2. New Tag Cloud
3. Faster page loading
4. Enhanced privacy
5. More post options
6. Improved spam control

I’ll be working on the site template next. I you have suggestions for any features you’d like to see implemented, please email me. As always I’m looking for other Marijuana Activists to collaborate, trade links, and guest posts.

I'm instituting some pretty big changes here this week. I'm already thrilled about being able to provide you with a steady stream of marijuana legalization, activism, and drug war news. In addition to these services I'm instituting some major changes in an effort to protect your privacy and improve readability on mobile devices. As always send your feedback to ganjablue@gmail.com or direct message me on my twitter account.

First of all I want to make it clear that Young Avenue Glassworks sells custom glass pipes for tobacco use only.
I was at the Cooper Young Festival on Saturday when I noticed a small smoking accessories shop, Young Avenue Glassworks, at 2162 Young Avenue at Cooper. They feature their own custom glass pieces as well as Kaos glass. I can highly recommend the Kaos stuff.

The prices where very reasonable, especially for handblown custom work. Everything in he store looked to be high quality glassware. They don't carry junk or gimmick pipes. I'll be back soon to pick out what's going on my Christmas wishlist.

Bob Barr, the Libertarian Presidential nominee, has had a change of heart.

Bob Barr: Federal Drug War Rethought: "As both a U.S. Attorney and Member of Congress, I defended drug prohibition. But it has become increasingly clear to me, after much study, that our current strategy has not worked and will not work. The other candidates for president prefer not to address this issue, but ignoring the failure of existing policy exhibits both a poverty of thought and an absence of political courage. The federal government must turn the decision on drug policy back to the states and the citizens themselves."

I really don't know whether Barr is sincere or he just finds his new libertarian leanings on the drug war to be politically expedient. In any case, I think that Barr is probably our most viable, pro-legalization choice for president right now. However, I'd like to see him more contrite about his prosecution of the federal war on drugs as U.S. attorney. How many lives has he ruined in the course of his neo-con past?

On July 29th the mayor of Berwyn Heights, Maryland, Cheye Calvo was victimized twice. Mayor Calvo was the victim of a marijuana trafficking scheme where packages are dropped by delivery drivers, in this case UPS, and the package is then stolen off the porch by drug dealers. The raiding police then murdered the mayor's two Labrador retrievers in the process of serving a standard drug warrant.

The police were supposed to knock at the door and announce themselves. Instead they entered the home by force acting as if the warrant had the required "no-knock" clause. The incompetent police have been exonerated of any wrongdoing. Mayor Calvo was recently interviewed by the Cato Institute. You can listen to the interview below.



For more information on no-knock raids and the rising use of military-style tactics in the war on drugs read Overkill by Radley Balko.

I wanted to remind everyone that tomorrow, September 13, is the big Southern Heritage Classic game at the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium. The tailgate parties have already started, and from what I hear, it's the biggest party in Memphis.

The annual Cooper-Young Festival is also tomorrow . Over 300 artisans are displaying their works and over 80,000 people are expected to pass through.

Update: Citizens To Preserve Overton Park will be at the C-Y Festival at booth D31 in the First Congregational Church parking lot. CPOP will have organic cotton Save the Old Forest t-shirts for a $10 donation.

If going out isn't your thing and you have Comcast cable, you can always stay in and watch the University of Memphis Tigers play the the Thundering Herd of Marshal on CSS tomorrow at 6 pm. The Tigers are looking for their first win this season, and if we can't do it against Marshal then God help us.

Redwood National Forest has become the latest battleground in the War on Drugs. The ancient forest is now the home to guerrilla growers who plant their clandestine farms in the dense old-growth in order to hide their crop from law enforcement and rival gangs.

Five-Acre Marijuana Farm Found in Redwood National Park - FoxNewsAuthorities have discovered thousands of marijuana plants growing in Redwood National Park.
...
While marijuana has been found growing on public lands for years, officials say they're finding larger, more damaging operations — many of them connected to gangs with ties to Mexico.

I've written before on the environmental destruction caused by the drug war. Not only does this deadly war threaten the environment, but also the lives of every tourist, camper, and hiker that visit the forest every summer. If marijuana crops were legal crops could be planted in private farms and the environmental and public threat would be eliminated.

The photo above is in the public domain: Coastal Redwood