Sunday, January 29, 2012

“THE SYNTHESIS” 1-29-12 SPECIAL EDITION: OBAMA’S FAILURE TO APPEAR IN GA COURT 1-26-12 EARNS HIM THE TITLE OF “OBAMA THE COWARD”, GOP CORRUPTION SO DISCONCERTING AS TO PUT OBAMA-ROMNEY-NEWT ALL HOLDING HANDS UNDER THE BAIN UMBRELLA, HELD UP BY ERICK ERICKSON, AND THE 700 CLUB (no, I don’t mean Pat Robertson) the 700 like Romney, who have evaded paying taxes, of the 535 Congress members (tax evading/insider trading), and 165 rich putzes who haven’t paid their taxes, causing us to borrow and creating the deficit:

“THE SYNTHESIS” 1-29-12 SPECIAL EDITION: OBAMA’S FAILURE TO APPEAR IN GA COURT 1-26-12 EARNS HIM THE TITLE OF “OBAMA THE COWARD”, GOP CORRUPTION SO DISCONCERTING AS TO PUT OBAMA-ROMNEY-NEWT ALL HOLDING HANDS UNDER THE BAIN UMBRELLA, HELD UP BY ERICK ERICKSON, AND THE 700 CLUB (no, I don’t mean Pat Robertson) the 700 like Romney, who have evaded paying taxes, of the 535 Congress members (tax evading/insider trading), and 165 rich putzes who haven’t paid their taxes, causing us to borrow and creating the deficit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FoSYHTVdM8tMwE-qMB6MPSMtZvkxvWpo9mMyA9vTERw/edit?hl=en_US
“OBAMA THE COWARD” CHARGED WITH FAILURE TO APPEAR BEFORE THE PEOPLE 1-26-12, AS ALLEGED, DOES NOT VERIFY THAT HE IS INDEED A NATURAL BORN CITIZEN!!



Friday, January 27, 2012

BirtherReport.com Leads to Arrest of Obot who Threatened to Kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio

OBAMARELEASE YOURRECORDS ON 4:31 PM
BirtherReport.com/ObamaReleaseYourRecords.com Leads to Arrest of an Obot who Threatened to Kill Sheriff Joe for his Investigation into Obama's Eligibility


Back in October of 2011 an Obot left numerous comments at this blog threatening to kill various people that have pursued Obama's ineligibility to be president. One comment was directed at Sheriff Joe and his family where the commenter posted the following:


"I plan to kill Joe Arpaio first.. He will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out., I promise you this. He won't fuck with Obama. He will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him. Don't like it? Come stop me. Come die before me."


Right after that comment was submitted we grabbed the IP address from the commenter and the location was in Tennessee. We then sent the pertinent information and the actual death threat to Dr. Corsi, among others, and informed them we were not 100% certain that was the commenter but we were pretty sure it was and it could be easily verified by contacting Blogger owner Google to confirm. Dr. Corsi later informed us that Sheriff Joe's office was now investigating the death threat.


Arrest made in death threat to Arpaio
by Clayton Klapper/KTAR


PHOENIX -- A 33-year-old man in Phoenix has been arrested for threatening to kill Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his family.


Deputies in Knoxville, Tennessee worked with Maricopa County Sheriff's deputies to serve a search warrant and seize a computer and other evidence from the home of Adam Eugene Cox.


The investigation into an internet death threat started in October, and Cox was arrested Friday on an unrelated warrant for assault. He is now being investigated in the internet death threat of MCSO Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his family. Deputies obtained a search warrant at Google, where they were then connected to Cox.

His threat reads in part: I plan to kill Arpaio first. He will be filled with a thousand bullet holes before the year is out. I promise you this. He won't f**k with Obama. He will be buried 10 feet under and his whole family will be murdered along with him.

The threat comes in response to the Sheriff's office's investigation into the legitimacy of Obama's birth certificate. Cox's mother confirmed with police that he is an avid supporter of president Obama and police say he has a history of assault.


VIDEO: Deputies go to Google to ID blogger behind Arpaio threats

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AZ Sheriff: TN man threatened to kill him because of Obama investigation

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TN man arrested in death threat against Sheriff Arpaio

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MCSO: Obama fanatic threatened to kill Arpaio

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TN man arrested in death threat against Sheriff Arpaio

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Knoxville man suspected of threatening to kill Arizona's 'Sheriff Joe'


Hat tip to Mara Zebest.


ARTICLE II ELIGIBILITY FACTS HERE: http://www.art2superpac.com/issues.html


THE REASON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION IS SO DASTARDLY EVIL TO OUR ECONOMY IS IT'S CHRONIC TAX EVASION, THAT OBAMA COMMITS TOO https://t.co/9Tm1Kaj

William James Wynne
How is santorum ineligible? I've been getting emails questioning Romney's eligibility.
Unlike ·  · Share · January 15
You like this.
Aja Brooks Santorum's parents emigrated here, so he has to pass the 1795 Act, he passes by Native American standards, Obama does not. The 1795 Act requires the paperwork of the 2 step process that shows you actually applied for citizenship: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural-born-citizen_clause_of_the_U.S._Constitution
en.wikipedia.org
Status as a natural-born citizen of the United States is one of the eligibility ...See More
January 15 at 4:56pm · Like ·  1 ·
Aja Brooks Santorum has his documents, they were not sealed by the RNC like Obama's sealed by the DNC.
January 15 at 4:57pm · Like
William James Wynne The question is, was Santorum's father a US citizen at the time of his birth? If yes, Rick is a natural born Citizen and eligible.
January 15 at 5:08pm · Like2012_TeaParty Tea Party Chief
@SohlUSA Yes, to not teach pro-life sermons is to deny their Creator and Maker.
Should Pastors Preach #ProLife Sermons?personhoodfl.com/pastors/ #Abortion #tcot
Retweeted by 2012_TeaParty






Aja Brooks shared a link.
House concurs Tea Party's Order of Impeachment, expressing disapproval on any further misappropriation by Obama, via HJRES98 http://www.speaker.gov/blog/?postid=275677
Weekly Address Highlights: Rep. Hensarling on the State of the Union, GOP Jobs Plan, & Keystone | Sp
www.speaker.gov
The latest news, press releases, blog posts, and other information from Speaker John Boehner.


It is time for a Tea Party skit: life-sized dolls of Pelosi, Reid, the crew, and throw their chairs out to tune of 'throw 'dem bitches out'!

POLITICS ALLEN WEST TO OBAMA, REID, PELOSI: ‘GET THE HELL OUT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA’

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) said Saturday President Barack Obama and other liberals should "get the hell out of the United States of America." (AP)
Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.) had a strong message Saturday for President Barack Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz: “Get the hell out.”
West made the comments during a speech at a Palm Beach County GOP event in West Palm Beach.
“This is a battlefield that we must stand upon. And we need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and my dear friend, chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain’t on the table,” West said.
The audience was booing by the time West got to Pelosi’s name.
“Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else,” he continued. “You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”
As the audience cheered and many rose to their feet, West added, “Yeah I said ‘hell.’”
“This is not about 1 percent or 99 percent. This is about 100 percent. It’s about 100 percent America. And I will not stand back and watch anyone defame, degrade or destroy that which my father fought for, my older brother, my father-in-law, myself, my nephew and all my friend still in uniform,” he said.
“I will not allow President Obama to take the United States of America and destroy it. If that means I’m the No. 1 target for the Democrat Party, all I got to say is one thing: Bring it on, baby.”
WITH THAT SAID, OBAMA’S AMNESTY PROPOSAL, THE “DREAM ACT” IS A MOCKERY OF CITIZENSHIP, EVASION OF IMMIGRATION FEES AND TAXATION: GEORGIA LOST $20 MILLION IN IMMIGRATION FEES AND 2-3% OF TAX REVENUE FOR 10YRS., BECAUSE OF NEWT’S LAISSEZ FAIRE IMMIGRATION POLICIES!!

January 16
Occupy = Niggify -- all those people are not solely black, it is a mix of people who think everyone owes them something, when the top 10% pay 70% of all the taxes. MLK JR. is ashamed to see "The Dream" as Niggified.
Like ·  · Share


Aja Brooks ‎"The Dream" is for everyone to be held of equal regard by the law and government, not for preference and certainly not for handouts... these people have completed trampled the message of service !!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 16 at 10:07am · Like
Brian S. Lindsey I couldnt agree more and couldnt of said it any better
January 16 at 11:13am · Unlike ·  1
Luis Daniel Amaro-Ortiz In NYC was the opposite: the weathy was paying lower and the lower was paying the highest until Gov. Cuomo made it possible for both group to pay equally.
Before Gov. Cuomo was not updated for fear companies might move out of NYC. I believe that's a poor excuse.
January 16 at 11:27am · Like
Aja Brooks That is for federal taxes, you have to change that where you live, not complain on my page....
January 16 at 11:29am · Like
#1 DNC MISRPRESENTATION TO VOTERS: THIS WILL BE THE MOST TRANSPARENT ADMINISTRATION EVER
deteaparty Delaware Tea Party
Friday night document dump shows Holder informed of Fast and Furious connection to Brian Terry’s murder on day he died thedc.com/w2ojGW

HOLDER AND CLINTON FAIL TO INVESTIGATE OBAMA OR DEPORT HIM OVER LACK OF CITIZENSHIP, AND HOLDER AND OBAMA ARE INVOLVED IN THE COVERUP OF BRIAN TERRY’S DEATH

Latest Friday night document dump shows Holder was informed of Brian Terry’s murder on day Fast & Furious weapons killed border agent




By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller Published: 4:27 PM 01/28/2012 | Updated: 11:52 AM 01/29/2012
By Matthew Boyle - The Daily Caller
Bio | Archive | Email Matthew Boyle Follow Matthew Boyle Get Matthew Boyle Feed
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WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 08: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder testifies during a Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing about the controversial the "Operation Fast and Furious" gun running program on Capitol Hill, on November 8, 2011 in Washington, DC. "Operation Fast and Furious" was set up to be a sting set up by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives that allowed weapons to be purchased from Arizona gun shops by Mexican drug cartels to trace cross boarder gun trafficking. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Attorney General Eric Holder’s Department of Justice dumped documents related to Operation Fast and Furious on congressional officials late Friday night. Central to this document dump is a series of emails showing Holder was informed of slain Border Patrol agent Brian Terry’s murder on the day it happened – December 15, 2010.
An email from one official, whose name has been redacted from the document, to now-former Arizona U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke reads: “On December 14, 2010, a BORTAC agent working in the Nogales, AZ AOR was shot. The agent was conducting Border Patrol operations 18 miles north of the international boundary when he encountered [redacted word] unidentified subjects. Shots were exchanged resulting in the agent being shot. At this time, the agent is being transported to an area where he can be air lifted to an emergency medical center.”
That email was sent at 2:31 a.m. on the day Terry was shot. One hour later, a follow-up email read: “Our agent has passed away.”
Burke forwarded those two emails to Holder’s then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson later that morning, adding that the incident was “not good” because it happened “18 miles w/in” the border.
Wilkinson responded to Burke shortly thereafter and said the incident was “tragic.” “I’ve alerted the AG [Holder], the Acting DAG, Lisa, etc.”
Then, later that day, Burke followed up with Wilkinson after Burke discovered from officials whose names are redacted that the guns used to kill Terry were from Fast and Furious. “The guns found in the desert near the murder BP officer connect back to the investigation we were going to talk about – they were AK-47s purchased at a Phoenix gun store,” Burke wrote to Wilkinson.
“I’ll call tomorrow,” Wilkinson responded.


Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/28/latest-friday-night-document-dump-shows-holder-was-informed-of-fast-and-furious-connection-to-brian-terry%e2%80%99s-murder-on-day-border-agent-died/#ixzz1ksEoiYSO


Yesterday1Like ·  · Share
‎"The 2011 Immigration Diplomacy, Border Policy, and Drug Enforcement Reform Act" effective 1/1/12: the failure to adhere to this act will further strain state budgets weakened by the federal deficit, making us less safe by less effective response to the security issues on the border for the problems spilling over into our local communities: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Jrbw7qnUFymrqedJi-Zs0XCx4LhqsEWsJrwJx7RGMt0/edit?hl=en_US
Yesterday at 1:40am · Like

Most transparent administration ever seals Gunwalker records on agent’s death

BY JAZZ SHAW

 
We mentioned it earlier today, so I suppose I shouldn’t have been quite as gobsmacked as I was to find out about this. Eric Holder doesn’t like to have people asking questions about Gunwalker. Obama is doing “everything he can” to make sure he gets to the bottom of it. But even if we assume he will get to the bottom of it, he may be the only one to know when he does.
Obama Admin Seals Records of Murdered Border Patrol Agent Implicated in Fast and Furious
The Obama Administration has abruptly sealed court records containing alarming details of how Mexican drug smugglers murdered a U.S. Border patrol agent with a gun connected to a failed federal experiment that allowed firearms to be smuggled into Mexico.
This means information will now be kept from the public as well as the media. Could this be a cover-up on the part of the “most transparent” administration in history? After all, the rifle used to kill the federal agent (Brian Terry) last December in Arizona’s Peck Canyon was part of the now infamous Operation Fast and Furious. Conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the disastrous scheme allowed guns to be smuggled into Mexico so they could eventually be traced to drug cartels.
I’m not going to issue a complete and total condemnation on this one… yet. This is, after all, an investigation involving the murder of our law enforcement officers and the actual shooters are not definitively wrapped up. I suppose it’s possible that they want to keep something in the bag until all the bad guys are safely behind bars or at room temperature. But this all happened some time back, and at this point the investigation isn’t pointing so much at the drug cartel bad guys as at the amazing – if not criminal – incompetence which allowed them to get the weapons in their hands to do the deed in the first place.
It looks bad. And of course it may well turn out to be every bit as bad as it looks. But if a reasonable explanation is forthcoming, the details are all opened up at the appropriate time and all accountable parties are brought to justice… OK. That’s a lot of “ifs” there. But we’ll definitely keep an eye on it.
 
State Revenues in Georgia
Every government must have money to operate, and state governments are no exception. If there is to be a public school systemwith teachers, buildings, and textbooks; if there are to be roads connecting the major cities of the state; if there are to be parks and protected wilderness areas, then state government must have money to pay for those services.
The money that a government takes in is called revenue. The state of Georgia has a number of revenue sources, including several forms of taxes, fees, and lottery funds. Between 2000 and 2003, the total amount of state revenue averaged more than $15 billion each year. The creation of the various revenue sources and the terms for collecting revenue are determined by the legislative action of the Georgia General Assembly. The Department of Revenue, a state executive agency, administers and collects most of the state's revenues. The governor, as the state's budget director, is also heavily involved in revenue decisions.
The state of Georgia is required by its constitution to maintain a balanced budget, meaning that the government cannot spend more money than is available through revenues and funds saved from previous years. When revenue levels change, so does the budget, as do the programs and services provided by the state government for its citizens.
Thus, the success or failure of the state's revenue-raising efforts directly affects the amount and quality of services offered to the people of Georgia.
Georgia Tax Sources
Taxes are the most visible form of government revenue. A tax is a mandatory payment made by individuals, families, or businesses to the government. Taxes are levied on income, property, and most purchased items. Different kinds of taxes are often referred to by the base, or source, of the tax. Income, property, and retail sales are major examples of tax sources or tax bases. Most state-levied taxes are paid as a percentage of the value of the tax base (such as 4 percent of the cost of an item bought at a store or 6 percent of a person's taxable income). Typically, taxes are deposited into a general fund or account, out of which many different government services are funded.
The individual income tax is a graduated tax (i.e., a tax with rates that rise as taxable income increases) on a portion of the income a person or a married couple earns in salaries, wages, or investments. State income-tax rates in 2005 ranged from 1 percent for a married couple whose taxable income is less than $1,000 annually to 6 percent for a married couple whose taxable income is greater than $10,000. The individual income tax is Georgia's top revenue source, generating between 40 and 45 percent of the state's total revenue.
The corporate income tax is a flat tax (6 percent since 1969) on the income that a corporation generates within Georgia. Companies are not taxed on income generated outside the state. This tax is typically Georgia's fourth- or fifth-largest revenue source and accounts for 3 to 5 percent of the state's total revenue.
The insurance premium tax is placed on insurance companies operating in Georgia and generates about 2 percent of Georgia's annual revenues. The tax rate varies, with companies that conduct most of their business outside Georgia paying a higher rate than those companies that are more heavily dependent on Georgia business. Because of this tax, insurance companies are not subject to Georgia's corporation income tax.
The general sales tax (or "sales and use tax") is placed on customer purchases of most items bought at retail stores. The sales tax is a percentage of the price of an item. Georgia has a 4 percent sales tax rate, but because local governments are allowed to add on optional sales taxes, customers may pay up to 7 or 8 percent on retail sales. The state revenue department collects all of the sales-tax revenue and returns the local portion to the appropriate counties, cities, and school systems. Some retail items, especially most food products, have been exempted from the state sales tax. Before exemptions for food items were enacted, the sales tax was the leading tax source in Georgia; now, it is second, usually generating about 30 percent of the state's revenues.
The property tax, while one of the major sources of revenue for local governments, generates only a small portion (less than 1 percent) of the state government's funds. County and city governments administer and collect property taxes, and in doing so, they add on a small state property tax (1/4 of a mill, or 0.25 percent), which is forwarded to the state. The state revenue department provides some supervision of local government property-tax administration to ensure a degree of uniformity from county to county.
Excise taxes are special taxes placed on the purchase of such items as gasoline, alcoholic beverages, and tobacco products. Excise taxes are usually fixed amounts per item, rather than percentages of the price. For example, Georgia's motor fuel, or gasoline, excise tax in 2005 was 7 1/2 cents per gallon of gas, regardless of the pump price per gallon; the excise tax on a package of cigarettes was 37 cents, regardless of the price of the package. The motor-fuel tax was the largest excise tax, contributing about 4 to 5 percent of state revenues. The Georgia constitution specifies that the state must spend whatever amount is raised by the motor-fuel tax on roads and bridges. The excise taxes on alcoholic beverages and tobacco products together make up between 1 and 2 percent of state revenues; these dollars go into the state's general fund.
The estate or inheritance tax is tied closely to the federal government's estate tax, which is payable from the estate of deceased persons. With changes in federal law, receipts from this tax (sometimes called the "death tax") have decreased recently and make up less than 1 percent of state revenues.
Nontax Revenues
The state government charges fees for various services, such as entry fees into state parks, which are maintained by the state. The government also collects fees for licenses, which are permits granted by the government after the payment of a fee so that an individual can practice an occupation or take part in a certain activity, like hunting, fishing, or driving a car. Licenses can be called regulatory fees in that, by issuing the permit, the government also regulates to some degree the occupation or the activity. Whereas taxes are mandatory, fees and licenses are to some extent voluntary. All regulatory fees combined amount to 3 to 4 percent of state revenues.
The major nontax revenue in Georgia is the state lottery. With all of its various games, the lottery has on average contributed (subtracting costs from the total proceeds) more than $700 million annually since the year 2000. The lottery is the state's third-largest revenue source, averaging 5 percent of total state funds each year. By law, lottery funds can be spent only for special programs, including the HOPE Scholarship for college and technical-school students, pre-kindergarten programs, and educational technology.
Georgia, along with several other states, has participated in the tobacco-settlement-funds program since 1998. Through this program five large tobacco-manufacturing companies make annual payments to states to cover the costs borne by state governments in dealing with cigarette smoking–related health-care problems. Georgia's share of the tobacco payments has averaged more than $170 million annually since 2000 and has amounted to more than 1 percent of the state's total revenues.
Georgia also maintains an indigent-care trust fund, which is composed of payments from hospitals around the state. This trust fund, in conjunction with federal Medicaid funds, helps those same hospitals cover some of the costs of providing health care to the poor. This fund has averaged about 1 percent of state revenues.
Suggested Reading
Irene S. Rubin, The Politics of Public Budgeting: Getting and Spending, Borrowing and Balancing, 4th ed. (New York: Chatham House, 2000).

Michael F. Digby, Georgia College and State University

Published 8/12/2005
General Information and Forms
The Individual Income Tax Section handles individual income, trust, and estate tax returns. The Georgia individual income tax is a graduated tax based upon a taxpayer's federal adjusted gross income. The tax is paid by:
  • All resident individuals, estates, and trusts who file a federal return.
  • All nonresident individuals, estates, and trusts who file a federal return which includes income from sources in Georgia, however, nonresident individuals whose only activity for financial gain or profit in Georgia consists of performing services in Georgia for an employer as an employee when the remuneration for services does not exceed the lesser of 5% of wages in all places or $5,000 are not considered as “taxable nonresidents” subject to tax and filing requirements.
  • All residents or nonresidents who have income subject to Georgia income tax that is not subject to federal income tax.


Click here to download or print individual income tax forms. If you do not see the form you need, or for additional information and assistance, contact the Individual Income Tax Section at 1-877-GADOR11 (1-877-423-6711) or by email to taxpayer.services@dor.ga.gov .
Retirement Income Exclusion
Taxpayers who are 62 years of age or older, or permanently and totally disabled regardless of age, may be eligible for a retirement income adjustment on their Georgia tax return. Retirement income includes income from pensions and annuities, interest income, dividend income, net income from rental property, capital gains income, and income from royalties. For married couples filing joint returns with both members receiving retirement income, the maximum adjustment for the applicable year may be up to twice the individual exclusion amount. Retirement income exceeding the maximum adjustable amount will be taxed at the normal rate.
See Form IT-511 to obtain the worksheet for calculating the maximum allowable adjustment.
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Who do I contact to find out why my return was changed?
You may e-mail the Taxpayer Services Division at taxpayer.services@dor.ga.gov or call 1-877-GADOR11 (1-877-423-6711) for assistance.
Who can I ask about my refund?
Click here for information about obtaining the status of your refund.
What are the filing requirements ?
More…

State Revenue Trends


Sunday, 13 November 2011
November 13--  State Senator Jack Hill of Reidsville analyzes state revenue trends in his "Report From the Senate."
ONE THIRD OF FY2012 COMPLETE-WHAT ARE THE TRENDS?
October revenue numbers continued a healthy overall trend showing a 5.4% increase for the month for a total contribution to the treasury of $1.3 billion.
Individual Income Taxes had another strong month coming in at a 9.8% increase.  The increase of $62.4 million came from an increase in Individual Withholding payments of $52.5 million and Individual Income Tax Return payments increasing by $10.5 million.
Net Sales Tax collections to the state continued to be lethargic at 2.3%.  We will look at recent trends in Sales Tax collections later in the column.
Combined Motor Fuel Taxes were up 10.5% or about $7.8 million for the month. Both sales taxes on fuel and excise taxes were positive for the month.
Corporate Taxes were down by some $4.2 million for the month.  We will look deeper into this category in the Year To Date section.
Tobacco Taxes were up slightly at 0.3% and alcohol taxes were negative at -6.5%.  More on this category later.
YEAR TO DATE NUMBERS - SOME BOTHERSOME, SOME POSITIVE TRENDS              
With one third of the year gone by, there is enough data to get a good feel as to how the state is progressing.  It is also a good time to examine trends, particularly as the fall has brought financial and business uncertainty.  It is a good idea to see if all the parts of the state system are pulling in the same direction.
Year to Date, total revenues are up 6.85% on an increase of $339.2 million on collections of $5.3 billion.  When we use our adjustment factor recognizing the one month increase in refunds in July of 2010, our "true" growth number is 4.94%--still very encouraging.  Leading the way by far is the Individual Income Tax category, about 50% of state revenues, showing an 11.1% increase or 7.56% if adjusted as above.  This income tax category totals $2.875 billion year to date or an increase of $286 million.  What is driving this increase?  Looking inside those numbers we see healthy increases in business activity.  Individual Withholding payments, an indicator of business activity, are up $135 million or 5.2% so far this year.  Individual Income Tax Assessments are up $13.5 million or 39.4%. All other Individual Tax Categories are up a total of 39.4%.
So, it does appear the increase in state revenues is being driven by employment and by income and not necessarily by sales taxes as we will see next.
SALES TAX COLLECTIONS-CATEGORIES TRENDING ONLY SLIGHTLY UP
Net Sales tax collections to the state have trended lower all year since June.  Year to Date, net sales taxes are only showing a 2.3% increase over the same four months last year.  So far the gain in this category is only $48.3 million for the year on total collections of $1.75 billion for the four months.
Here are the top sales tax categories and the individual increase over the same 4 months of FY2011:
           Wholesale Trade              Incr. 16.2%       Automotive        Incr. 4.3%           
           Retail Trade                     Incr. 7.4%         Manufacturing           Incr. 4.3%
           Food/Gro.                       Incr. 7.0%         Home Furn.               Incr. 2.8%
           Utilities/Energy             Incr. 6.1%         Accommodations       Incr. 2.0%
           Other Services                 Incr. 5.8%
The only two negative categories were Construction at -13.2% and Misc. services at -0.26%.
All of the factors involved in Sales Tax collections - Gross collections and distributions to local governments - appear to be level, so the only conclusion is that retail sales are little more than flat at the 2.8% level YTD.
Motor Fuel Taxes are up a combined 5.8% or an $18.6 million increase for the year.  If this rate keeps up, funds for roads and bridges will go up by over $50 million.  Of course, even though the last sales tax increase on fuel was suspended, due to the high price of gasoline; the sales tax rate is 12.9 cents per gallon versus the .104 cents a year ago.
Hard to find any positives in the Corporate Tax category.  Collections are down $23.5 million or -21.2% YTD.  The largest part of that category is refunds which are up after 4 months by $43.5 million or 46.5%.  Corporate Tax Payments were only up $13 million so there was more going out than coming in.
YTD, tobacco tax collections are up 17.5% or $11.5 million, which probably comes from two new large wholesale purchasers of tobacco products, one from a neighboring state.
Hard to figure what is going on in the Alcoholic Beverages Category and it makes me want to inquire about national and regional trends.  But malt beverages, beer, have been declining in taxes collected for 7 months, since April-down some $17.75 million or 33.5% during that period.  Paradoxically both liquor and wine excise taxes have remained "virtually flat" according to the Revenue Dept.
So, here is the billion dollar question:  Is the state growing economically like the growing withholding and income tax collections or is the state lurching along like the lethargic sales tax collections growth?


Revenue Sources by Type since 1900

In 1900, government revenues came mainly from ad-valorem taxes. Since World War II government revenue has come overwhelmingly from income-based taxes.
Chart 3.23: Federal, State, Local Revenue in 20th Century
At the beginning of the 20th century, government revenue came almost exclusively from ad-valorem taxes. The federal government obtained its revenue from import tariffs and state and local governments obtained revenue from property taxes.
Things began to change with the passage of the federal income tax in 1913. Income tax collections went to 4.71 percent of GDP in 1921 in the aftermath of World War I, before settling down at about 2 percent of GDP during most of the 1920s and 1930s. Meanwhile ad-valorem taxes went from about 5 to 6 percent of GDP in the early decades of the century to about 10 to 12 percent of GDP, peaking at 14.3 percent of GDP in the depths of the Great Depression in 1933.
Social insurance taxes began seriously in 1937 when FICA taxes, to fund Social Security, started up. Social insurance taxes were 0.70 percent of GDP in the first year of FICA, rising to 1.85 percent by 1940. Income taxes ballooned to 16.0 percent of GDP in the war year of 1944, but settled down to 11 to 12 percent thereafter.
Ad-valorem taxes declined after World War II. They yielded about 10 percent of GDP until about 1960 and then slowly declined to 7.5 percent of GDP by the 2000s. Fees and charges yielded about 0.5 percent of GDP in 1900 and slowly increased to about one percent of GDP by the 1930s. They started to increase again after World War II, reaching 2.5 percent of GDP by the 2000s.
All tax types refers to the total taxes collected by a state and it includes the following types: T01 - Property tax, T09 - General sales and gross receipts, T10 - Alcoholic beverages, T11 - Amusements, T12 - Insurance, T13 - Motor fuel sales taxes, T14 - Pari-mutuels, T15 - Public utilities, T16 - Tobacco products, T19 - Other selective sales and gross receipts, T20 - Beverage licenses, T21 - Amusement business licenses, T22 - Corporations in general, T23 - Hunting and fishing licenses, T24 - Motor vehicles, T25 - Motor vehicle operator, T27 - Public utilities business licenses, T28 - Occupation and business licenses, T29 - Other licenses taxes, T40 - Individual income tax, T41 - Corporation net income taxes, T50 - Death and gift taxes, T51 - Documentary and stock transfer taxes, T53 - Severance taxes and T99 - Other miscellaneous taxes
Source: U.S. Census Bureau
Note: Not all states report all tax types. If the amount is zero for all time, then it is likely that the state does not report or collect the chosen tax type.

WITHOUT NEWT AS SPEAKER, GEORGIA WOULD BE $20 MILLION IN THE POSITIVE, AND THE 2-3% OF REVENUE NOT SPENT ON IMMIGRANTS USE OF SERVICES, OUR ROADS WOULD BE REPAVED AND RESURFACED WITHOUT RAISING TAXES THAN TO CARE FOR THOSE NOT PAYING IN THEIR TAXES FOR SERVICES THEY ARE USING, AND IMMIGRANTS NOT PAYING IN THEIR INCOME TAXES!!!!

#2 DNC MISREPRESENTATION TO VOTERS: I WILL END THE WARS!

Aja Brooks shared a link.
A TOAST TO IRAQ: FROM OUR TEA PARTY TO YOURS!!!! FREEDOM IS OURS ONCE AGAIN, AS WE RECLAIM IT FROM THE DARK POWERS OF THE WORLD !!!!!!!!
Investing in Iraq requires patience, drinking tea
news.yahoo.com
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Foreign investors seeking a foothold in Iraq take heed: you'll need a healthy dose of patience, a flexible schedule, and a love of tea. Nearly nine years since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictator Saddam Hussein, Iraq remains a state-centric economy and, beyond oil, privat...

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IRAQ GOES TEA PARTY, IN AN ATTEMPT TO ALLAY SECTARIAN TENSION AND VIOLENCE:

Investing in Iraq requires patience, drinking teaBy Serena Chaudhry | Reuters – Wed, Jan 11, 2012



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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Foreign investorsseeking a foothold in Iraq take heed: you'll need a healthy dose of patience, a flexible schedule, and a love of tea.
Nearly nine years since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled dictatorSaddam Hussein, Iraq remains a state-centric economy and, beyond oil, private businesses have yet to play a significant role in the rebuilding of the once thriving Middle East bread basket.
Infrastructure remains dilapidated after years of war and economic sanctions, and investment is needed to reform banking, build houses and roads and fix a chronic electricity shortage.
That means plenty of opportunities for investors, but foreign executives already on the ground say it can take more than a year to become operational in Iraq, where security is one of the most costly risks.
Taking the time to build relations with local partners is the key to success, they say.
"Nothing is fast in Iraq," said Alan Morrell, vice president of American bottled water firm Oasis. "We're going to have to start with tea and relationship building and we may dance for three or four months if it's a big deal. If it's a simple deal, we might dance for two weeks, but we're going to dance."
Attracting foreign investment is essential to the rebuilding of Iraq and the OPEC-member state has already signed a series of contracts with oil majors to develop its vast oil reserves - the fourth-biggest in the world.
Iraq set a goal to attract $86 billion in investment by 2014 under a five-year economic development plan. The infrastructure, housing and electricity sectors need the most development.
The National Investment Commission (NIC) was created in 2006 to facilitate the process for international firms. It offers 'one-stop' shopping, including help with visas, registering a company and housing and security for investors during a first visit.
NIC Chairman Sami al-Araji said dozens of companies contact him a month regarding business opportunities in Iraq.
LOCAL PARTNERS ESSENTIAL
Iraq's market - an educated populace of 30 million with big requirements after years of war and sitting on huge oil reserves - is considered a potential gold mine in a weak global economy.
But risk factors - corruption, security against an ongoing and lethal insurgency and lack of legal safeguards - are high.
"I don't know anywhere else in the world where it's more essential (to have a local partner). There's so much uncertainty, so many unknowns to be navigating," said James Hogan, former chief executive of banking giant HSBC's business in Iraq.
"Even before you navigate, you've got to understand the socio, economic, political drivers. And it is complex."
A lack of clear regulation makes even a simple process like obtaining a visa an arduous task.
According to Araji, getting a 10-day single entry visa to Iraq should take 4-5 days and a six-month to one-year multiple entry visa about 10-14 days. Many foreign investors say it has often taken months to get visas for themselves or their workers.
Most businessmen say getting a good Iraqi lawyer should be the first step, especially to assist with licensing. The cost of a lawyer to facilitate registering a company can range from $1,000 to $40,000, investors say.
Some investors say the sheer number of different licenses needed makes the process of starting a business lengthy. Each ministry operates separately and has different requirements.
"We admit that right now we have some difficulties time wise but we are in the process of trying to simplify it," Araji said.
While the banking sector is undergoing reform with the help of the World Bank, Iraq remains a cash-driven society.
At the height of the war, it was common for businessmen to carry suitcases of cash into the country. Investors are now able to transfer money directly into bank accounts but some still use bags stuffed with greenbacks to pay for services.
"They're not big bags, they're very normal. Like the ones you get from the supermarket, just not transparent," said Daniel Zamfiropol, Iraq branch manager for Romanian firm Octagon Contracting & Engineering.
"That's the way you should carry (money). Don't carry it in a nice bag ... low profile, that's the key word."
HIGH OPERATING COSTS
Security remains a primary concern nearly nine years after the U.S. invasion, with bombings a daily occurrence, and most foreign companies hire personal security teams.
Hogan said HSBC spends around $3,000-$6,000 a day on security. Ground Works Inc, an engineering, construction and logistics firm, said security for housing and business compounds can run at $14,000-$18,000 a month, while a local bodyguard costs $1,500 a month and a foreign guard $4,000 per month.
Electricity is intermittent and having a generator is a necessity. Businessmen say fuel for generators can cost around $3,000-$8,000 a month.
While high overheads, low initial returns and delays in licensing are frustrating, many investors say the steepest learning curve is understanding the culture.
"What we found is that Iraqis don't appreciate a direct conversation of pressure associated with their performance. They would prefer patience and ongoing communication and relationship building," Morrell said.
"In a Western culture, we're used to going in and saying 'it's your job, sort it (out), what's the problem?' and demanding services. In this culture, that's not what they're looking for."
Face-to-face communication is highly valued but telephone calls and text messages are also acceptable. Iraq did not have a mobile phone industry under Saddam and the sector has since boomed. E-mails, however, are rarely answered.
"I stopped relying on e-mails as a means of communication. Either they don't get read, or even if they do get read, they might not necessarily generate a reply," said Hogan.
So what are the essential rules for doing business in Iraq?
"Throw your timeline out the window, stick to your budget, and your plan needs to be able to be fluid," Ground Works President Greg Holmes said.
(Editing by Jim Loney and Susan Fenton)
BreakingNews Breaking News
Oil minister: Iran will soon cut crude exports to 'some countries,' state news agency IRNA reports - @Reuters

After threats, Iran plays down U.S. naval moves

Related News


Analysis & Opinion


TEHRAN | Sat Jan 21, 2012 10:58am EST
(Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday it considered the likely return of U.S. warships to the Gulf part of routine activity, backing away from previous warnings to Washington not to re-enter the area.
The statement may be seen as an effort to reduce tensions after Washington said it would respond if Iran made good on a threat to block the Strait of Hormuz - the vital shipping lane for oil exports from the Gulf.
"U.S. warships and military forces have been in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East region for many years and their decision in relation to the dispatch of a new warship is not a new issue and it should be interpreted as part of their permanent presence," Revolutionary Guard Deputy Commander Hossein Salami told the official IRNA news agency.
The apparently conciliatory comments may be a response to the European Union and Washington's rejection of Iran's declaration it was close to resuming negotiations with world powers and with the Pentagon saying it did not expect any challenge to its warships.
Crude prices have spiked several times this year on fears diplomatic tensions could escalate to military clashes as well as uncertainty about the effect of sanctions on the oil market.
Along with the EU, which is set to agree an embargo on Iranian oil next week, Washington hopes the sanctions will force Iran to suspend the nuclear activities it believes are aimed at making an atom bomb, a charge Tehran denies.
There has been no U.S. aircraft carrier in the Gulf since the USS John C. Stennis left at the end of December at a time when the Revolutionary Guard was conducting naval maneuvers.
On January 3, after U.S. President Barack Obama signed new sanctions aimed at stopping Iran's oil exports, Tehran told the Stennis not to return - an order interpreted by some observers in Iran and Washington as a blanket threat to any U.S. carriers.
"I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf," Iran's army chief, Major General Ataollah Salehi, said at the time. "We are not in the habit of warning more than once."
NEW MANOEUVRES
Washington says it will return to the Gulf and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said any move to block Hormuz - through which around a third of the world's sea-borne traded oil passes - would be seen as a "red line," requiring a response.
Citing operational security, the Pentagon will not say when the next carrier will return to the Gulf but officials say it is only a matter of time and they do not expect any problems.
In the coming days or weeks, the Revolutionary Guard will begin new naval exercises in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf. Salami told IRNA these would go ahead as planned in the Iranian month of Bahman which runs from January 21 to February 19.
Iran has said it is ready to return to talks with world powers that stalled one year ago, but the West, concerned about Tehran's move of the most sensitive atomic work to a bomb-proof bunker, says it must first see a willingness from Tehran to address the nuclear issue.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Friday "time is running out" for a diplomatic solution and urged Russia and China to drop their opposition to sanctions on Iranian oil.
Iran is OPEC's second biggest exporter and blocking its crude exports - through the EU embargo or U.S. moves to punish banks that trade with Iran - could have a devastating impact on its economy but there are no signs so far such pressure would force it to stop what it calls its peaceful nuclear rights.
(Writing by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Sophie Hares)

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January 21
Subsequent to Obama being impeached on 1/1/12, the last directive he signed before it being effectual at midnight was to Sanction the Bank of Iran. With his impeachment, we may have averted a nuclear standoff between Iran and Israel for the time being, but Turkey says that it will not recognize the Sanction, due to the Impeachment Order unless it goes through and has approval by the United Nations, as all of their primary business and oil goes through the Central Bank of Iran, and it would kill their economy to uphold the Sanction by Obama.
Iran says U.S. presence in Gulf not new issue
www.reuters.com
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Saturday it considered the deployment of U.S. warships to the Gulf part of their routine activity, apparently backing away from previous
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Somalia and Africa in general, reopen original wound scratched by radicals in initial conflict leading to WWIII - Jihad and the Defense Against Jihad http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fworld-africa-16526212&h=DAQGiT4GyAQHqp56k-kr3FOGJFYiT5zVyta1aVYgY51oPfA
Islamists seize Kenyan officials
www.bbc.co.uk
Somali militants kill at least six people and abduct three others in the latest attack in Kenya since it sent troops into Somalia.
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  • Ann Bassett-Wrong likes this.
    • Ann Bassett-Wrong Marx and Engels stated that the world would be subject to a revolution by Third World Countries if we did not acknowledge their potential threat. Now that Kenya is ripe for islam we ought to in good faith should send our kenyan born islamic white house impostor to the country of his birth and that which will make him feel more at home. After all these are his people. Ann Magdalene.


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January 20
Remember Sodom and Gomorrah.....
Afghan Pedophilia: A way of life, say U.S. soldiers and journalists
www.examiner.com
Apologists say that Bacha Bazi or 'Boy Play' is a very old cultural practice in Afghanistan and part of that nation's mainstream.   Citing the Afghanistan
1Like ·  · Share
    • Rhonda Stiffey Worthington Interesting
    • January 20 at 7:36pm · Like
    • Aja Brooks yah gives new insight to the problems we've faced in dealing with that country
    • January 20 at 7:37pm · Like
    • Rhonda Stiffey Worthington Nah! You really don't want my opinion on that country, nor those people...
    • January 20 at 7:47pm · Like
    • Aja Brooks ‎;p lol
    • January 20 at 8:13pm · Like

29 January 2012 Last updated at 07:21 ET



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Afghan President Hamid Karzai 'plans talks with Taliban'

By Quentin Sommerville and Bilal SarwaryBBC News, Kabul

President Karzai was angered by the Qatar process

Taliban Conflict

The Afghan government is planning to meet the Taliban in Saudi Arabia in an attempt to jump-start peace talks, the BBC has learned.
The landmark meeting will come in the coming weeks, before the establishment of a Taliban office in Qatar, according to Western and Afghan officials.
The Taliban have refused previously to recognise the government of President Hamid Karzai.
They have insisted they would only talk to the US and other Kabul allies.
A senior Afghan government official told the BBC: "Even if the Taliban office is established in Qatar we will obviously pursue other efforts in the region, including Saudi Arabia and Turkey."
He continued: "Saudi Arabia has played an important role in the past. We value that and look forward to continued support and contact with Saudi Arabia in continuing the peace process."
The Taliban, contacted by the BBC, refused to comment on the move.
President Karzai was angered by US and Qatari efforts to kick-start the peace process without consulting his government fully.
In December, he recalled the Afghan ambassador in Doha. A delegation from Qatar is expected to arrive in Kabul shortly in an attempt to mend fences.
As reported by the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper, a number of Taliban officials have already arrived in Qatar.
The delegation includes Sher Mohammad Stanakzai, the Taliban's former deputy foreign minister and Shabudin Dilawari, a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia, and Tayeb Agha, a close aide of Taliban leader Mullah Omar.
However details for the establishment of a permanent office have still to be finalised.
There are worries that the Taliban are using the political office to raise funds, and as a ploy to buy time before foreign combat troops leave Afghanistan at the end of 2014.
There is also concern in the presidential palace in Kabul that those negotiations will be primarily focused on an exchange of prisoners between the US and the Taliban.
Five senior insurgents are being held at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay.
America wants the return of three of its citizens held by the Taliban and its affiliates.
They include a captured soldier, Pte Bowe Bergdahl, and kidnapped US aid worker Warren Weinstein.
All are being held in the town of Miranshah in the troubled Pakistani province of North Waziristan.
There are divisions within the Taliban leadership, with one faction continuing to insist that all foreign troops must leave before any talks take place.
Messages have been sent to the Taliban commanders from the Quetta Shura, the Taliban's leadership council, warning against dissent.
Separately, President Karzai's government is attempting to improve bilateral relations with neighbouring Pakistan.
Three of the main insurgent groups fighting in Afghanistan are based in Pakistan. Islamabad's support will be vital in any credible peace process.
Follow Quentin Sommerville on Twitter @mrsommerville

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2012_TeaParty Tea Party Chief
Let us pray for Syria: 5,400 people have been killed and Obama and our media have not lifted their fingers to pray, let alone, act in faith.
13 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete

2012_TeaParty Tea Party Chief
We need to ask Syria how they feel: would the UN negotiations help quell violence from Assad, or worsen their own endeavors to resolve this?
1 minute ago Favorite Reply Delete

2012_TeaParty Tea Party Chief
Syria is in an uproar: citizens do not trust the govt. for killing 5,400 people, and the govt. army was just attacked today, in full revolt.
4 minutes ago

Arab League: Syria Observer Mission Halted

BASSEM MROUE and AYA BATRAWY   01/28/12 01:29 PM ET   

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BEIRUT — The Arab League halted its observer mission in Syria on Saturday because of escalating violence that killed nearly 100 people the past three days, as pro-Assad forces battled dissident soldiers in a belt of suburbs on the eastern edge of Damascus in the most intense fighting yet so close to the capital.
The rising bloodshed has added urgency to new attempts by Arab and Western countries to find a resolution to the 10 months of violence that according to the United Nations has killed at least 5,400 people as Assad seeks to crush persistent protests demanding an end to his rule.
The United Nations is holding talks on a new resolution on Syria and next week will discuss an Arab peace plan aimed at ending the crisis. But the initiatives face two major obstacles: Damascus' rejection of an Arab peace plan which it says impinges on its sovereignty, and Russia's willingness to use its U.N. Security Council veto to protect Syria from sanctions.
Syria's Interior Minister Mohammed Shaar vowed the crackdown would go on, telling families of security members killed in the past months that security forces "will continue their struggle to clean Syria's soil of the outlaws."
Government forces launched a heavy assault on a string of suburbs and villages on the eastern outskirts of Damascus, aiming to uproot protesters and dissident soldiers who have joined the opposition, activists said.
Troops in tanks and armored personnel carriers attacked the suburbs of Kfar Batna, Saqba, Jisreen and Arbeen, the closest of which lie only a few miles from downtown Damascus, said the Local Coordination Committees activist network and the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Dissident troops were fighting back against the attackers, they said.
In a nearby suburb, Douma, gunmen ambushed a bus carrying army officers, the state-run news agency SANA, calling the attackers "terrorists." It said seven officers were killed.
The assault in the suburbs seemed to be a sign of the growing presence of dissident soldiers closer to the capital. Although the tightly controlled Damascus has been relatively quiet since the uprising began, its outskirts have witnessed intense anti-regime protests and army defectors have become more visible and active in the past few months.
"The fighting today is the most intense near the capital since the uprising began," said Rami Abdul-Rahman who heads the Observatory for Human Rights. "The Syrian regime is trying to finish the uprising militarily now that the case is being taken to the United Nations."
In Saqba, electricity and phone lines were cut off and mosque loudspeakers told residents to say in lower floors for fear high buildings might get hit in the fighting, said Omar Hamza, an activist in the district. "Random shelling and sound of explosions terrified the people," he told The Associated Press.
He said army defectors had managed to stop the advancing troops. The regime forces are putting all their force to finish the Free Syrian Army and protesters in the Damascus suburbs," Hamza said.
The Free Syrian Army force of anti-regime military defectors is based in Turkey, and its fighters frequently try to cross into Syria through the mountainous border area in the northwest. SANA reported that Syrian troops prevented gunmen from crossing in from Turkey on Saturday in fighting that it said left many of the infiltrators killed or wounded.
The LCC and the Observatory also reported intense fighting between troops and defectors in the town of Rastan near the restive central city of Homs.
The Observatory said at least 36 people, were killed across the country Saturday, including 17 civilians, three defectors and 16 troops, while the LCC said 20 died, half of them in Homs province, which has been one of the areas hardest hit by government crackdowns. The new deaths come after two days of bloody turmoil killed at least 74 people, including small children.
In the eastern oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour, an oil pipeline took a direct hit and caught fire as government troops shelled a nearby town, the two groups also said, reporting at least one person dead. State media blamed "terrorists" in the attack.
The month-old Arab League observer mission in Syria had come under widespread criticism for failing to bring a halt to the regime's crackdown. Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia pulled out of the mission Tuesday, asking the U.N. Security Council to intervene.
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said in a statement that the organization decided to halt the observers' work immediately because of the increasing violence, until the League's council can meet to decide the mission's fate.
He sharply criticized Damascus for the spike in bloodshed, saying the regime has "resorted to escalating the military option in complete violation of (its) commitments" to end the crackdown, Elaraby said. He said the victims of the violence have been "innocent citizens," in an implicit rejection of Syria's claims that it is fighting "terrorists."
Syria's state-run news agency quoted an unnamed official saying Damascus "regrets and is surprised" by the Arab League decision after Syria agreed to extend the observer's mission for another month. The official said the halt aims "to pressure the talks in order to call for external intervention in Syria's internal affairs," referring to the U.N. talks.
Elaraby's deputy, Ahmed Ben Heli, told reporters that the around 100 observers will remain in Damascus while their mission is "reevaluated." He suggested the observers could resume their work in the future...
Elaraby and the prime minister of Qatar were set to leave for New York on Sunday to seek U.N. support for the latest Arab plan to end Syria's crisis. The plans calls for a two-month transition to a unity government, with Assad giving his vice president full powers to work with the proposed government.
Syria has rejected the proposal, saying it violates its sovereignty. Elaraby had previously been due to travel Saturday, but his trip was pushed back to Sunday with no explanation.
The U.N. Security Council began closed-door negotiations Friday on a new Arab-European draft resolution aimed at resolving the crisis, but Russia's envoy said he could not back the current language as it stands.
Any resolution faces strong opposition from China and Russia, and both nations have veto power. Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters that the text introduced by new Arab Security Council member Morocco has "red lines" for Moscow, but he's willing to "engage" with the resolution's sponsors.
Churkin said those lines include any indication of sanctions, including an arms embargo. "We need to concentrate on establishing political dialogue," he said.
____
Batrawy reported from Cairo; Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, contributed to this report.
___
Bassem Mroue can be reached on twitter at http://twitter.com/bmroue

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Let us pray it is so, but we realize that peace only goes so far as Ahmedinejad's next threat: the ministry in Iran should put Ahmedinejad in check, and we can not bow to Turkey for fear of our own safety as Israel's.... TIME TO INVADE NIGERIA and get rid of the stronghold of suicide bombers then!!
Iran 'open to nuclear talks'
aje.me
Iranian parliamentary speaker says issues can be easily solved through negotiations as US supports more sanctions.
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Ann Bassett-Wrong likes this.
Ann Bassett-Wrong Last time I checked biology that was called parasitic. I will be damned if I let some parasite invade me. 911 was close enough. Turkey is an hospitable environment for islam to thrive. Women are already treated like disposable property. One of those places I won't visit again. We should concentrate on financially and militarily supporting Israel. That would be my international policy. Ann Magdalene.
January 13 at 12:20am · Like ·  1
Aja Brooks yeah what's in it for them.... just oil? exactly... as you said
January 13 at 12:39am · Like ·  1

NATIONAL DEBT SOLUTION – MASSIVE MILITARY CUTS

The national debt is the gorilla in the room that nobody really wants to talk about. Unfortunately, the gorilla has grown so large that there is no avoiding it any longer. Hard and difficult decisions will need to be made, decisions that are going to be unpopular politically. In this article, I take a quick look at the idea of cutting back the military.
As I write this, the national debt is about to hit the $14.29 trillion level. This is a huge number, but is actually the tip of the iceberg when it comes to describing the national debt problem. This is because this number does not include liabilities for Medicare, Social Security and other third rail programs moving forward. Depending on the source you use, the real national debt is anywhere from $60 to $120 trillion dollars. Neither figure is unsustainable and will do to us what no physical enemy ever could – defeat us by crushing our economy, the dollar and way of life.
The simple fact is we must cut important programs not because we want to, but because we must. Social Security and Medicare are going to be front and center soon, but so is the military which currently has an annual budget of roughly $700 billion. This is about 30 percent of the total tax revenue taken in each year by the federal government, to wit, a huge chunk.
The question is what do we do with the military? We spend far more on military expenditures than any other country. China is perceived as a rising military power. It’s 2009 budget for military expenditures was $98 billion, nearly 75 percent less than ours and it goes without saying they are a tad bit behind us in development. Cutting development on military technology by half would still leave us so far in front of anyone else it isn’t funny while saving a bundle of money.
Wars
Then we have the expenditures on our wars. Afghanistan has been going on forever and appears to have no end to it. Iraq appears to be slowly resolving. Both are extreme monetary drains on our budget and, frankly, need to be reviewed in that context. I am all against terrorists and so on, but surely there has to be some exit strategy here that would save us billions. As of the end of fiscal year 2009, the total spent on these two wars was estimated to be over $700 billion for Iraq and $299 billion for Afghanistan. That’s not chump change.
Bases
The United States uses military bases in other countries to maintain a strong presence throughout the world. I’m all for that. Having said as much, do we really need military bases in…Spain [Naval Station Rota] and Australia [Woomera Air Station]? We may well, but surely we can trim our overseas bases and the costs associated with them.
The time has come for the military to evolve. The powers that be seem to understand this given the development of unmanned aerial vehicles we see being deployed in the Mideast. We essentially need to find ways to maintain our current bang at much less buck.
As with other economic issues we will have to face, the choices related to military cuts will be very difficult. Given that the federal government is essentially bankrupt, we will soon have no choice but to make the hard decisions in relation to the military budget. The fact Tea Party conservatives are raising this fact, suggests the time may have come. Next up will be Medicare and Social Security.
Thomas Ajava writes about the current national debt forCurrentUSANationalDebt.com where you can get information on the debt and the latest amount owed.
Author: Thomas Ajava
Article Source: EzineArticles.com


#3 DNC MISRPRESENTATION TO VOTERS: I WILL LEGALIZE MARIJUANA AND GIVE YOU ‘FREE’ HEALTH CARE, INSURANCE FOR ALL!

TeaPartyChief_ Chief Brooks
@davidgregory Well this is most balanced show you've had since 2008: time to pull out Chuck Todd, Robin to Obama being Batman -- Fluffer 2.0
@davidgregory Ending the payroll tax is not balancing the budget on the middle class: it was always a part of regularly budgeted revenue!!
@davidaxelrod OBAMA FUCKING SUCKS, HE IS LAWLESS, AND HIS VISION IS NOT AMERICA'S VISION WITH A WELFARE STATE
@davidaxelrod Ending the payroll tax is not balancing the budget on the middle class: it was always a part of regularly budgeted revenue!!
@davidaxelrod NOT SOLYNDRA, NOT PACIFYING PEOPLE OF OTHER NATIONALITIES AND COUNTRIES, BUT DIPLOMATICALLY SEAL OFF THE BORDER
TeaPartyChief_ Chief Brooks
@davidaxelrod We want legalization and taxation for revenue, green energy, and to revive the agrosector in GA.
@davidaxelrod Venture capital is not separate gains, but gross income:-that's like saying you don't have to claim it because it ain't 9 to 5


My thoughts on Newt: Well the problem is Newt did not go about it from the correct angle: 16% of black youth are unemployed, a huge travesty of Obama's leadership when Obama isn't even a citizen. So instead of faulting Obama for not leading his own race, Newt implies that it is only blacks sucking off the system, then says, uh.... but there's more whites on food stamps then blacks, as if to say it is worse for whites and that makes it thus more unacceptable.... simply it is INTOLERABLE for everyone, and we must correct that immediately. Newt's ideas are inferior to Gov. Perry's job creation plans, and Newt and Erickson pressured him to drop out of the race with party politics because of their investment to Bain. It is not about us, it is about their party and protecting their money, and that is the problem. The black people are us -- I'm Native American, I don't see economy as inclusive to the white race. You can just call me: Chief Half-as-White-but-will-still-kick-yo'-ass

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LEGALIZATION IS A STATE ISSUE, NOT A FEDERAL ISSUE.
LET ME SAY SEVERAL THINGS ABOUT LEGAL VS. ILLEGAL DRUGS:

Prescription Drugs Kill 300 Percent More Americans Than Illegal Drugs


by: David Gutierrez  |  Natural News
Heath Ledger found dead from prescription drug abuse. (Photo: AP)
   A report by the Florida Medical Examiners Commission has concluded that prescription drugs have outstripped illegal drugs as a cause of death.
   An analysis of 168,900 autopsies conducted in Florida in 2007 found that three times as many people were killed by legal drugs as by cocaine, heroin and all methamphetamines put together. According to state law enforcement officials, this is a sign of a burgeoning prescription drug abuse problem.
   "The abuse has reached epidemic proportions," said Lisa McElhaney, a sergeant in the pharmaceutical drug diversion unit of the Broward County Sheriff's Office. "It's just explosive."
   In 2007, cocaine was responsible for 843 deaths, heroin for 121, methamphetamines for 25 and marijuana for zero, for a total of 989 deaths. In contrast, 2,328 people were killed by opioid painkillers, including Vicodin and Oxycontin, and 743 were killed by drugs containing benzodiazepine, including the depressants Valium and Xanax.
   Alcohol directly caused 466 deaths, but was found in the bodies of 4,179 cadavers in all.
   While the number of dead bodies containing heroin jumped 14 percent from the prior year, to a total of 110, the number of deaths influenced by the painkiller oxycodone increased by 36 percent, to a total of 1,253.
   Across the country, prescription drugs have become an increasingly popular alternative to the more difficult to acquire illegal drugs. Even as illegal drug use among teenagers have fallen, prescription drug abuse has increased. For example, while 4 percent of U.S. 12th graders were using Oxycontin in 2002, by 2005 that number had increased to 5.5 percent.
   It's not hard for teens to come by prescription drugs, according to Sgt. Tracy Busby, supervisor of the Calaveras County, Calif., Sheriff's Office narcotics unit.
   "You go to every medicine cabinet in the county, and I bet you're going to find some sort of prescription medicine in 95 percent of them," he said.
   Adults can acquire prescriptions by faking injuries, or by visiting multiple doctors and pharmacies for the same health complaint. Some people get more drugs than they expect to need, then sell the extras.
   "You have health care providers involved, you have doctor shoppers, and then there are crimes like robbing drug shipments," said Jeff Beasley of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. "There is a multitude of ways to get these drugs, and that's what makes things complicated."
   And while some people may believe that the medicines' legality makes them less dangerous than illegal drugs, Tuolumne County, Calif., Sheriff's Office Deputy Dan Crow warns that this is not the case. Because everybody reacts differently to foreign chemicals, there is no way of predicting the exact response anyone will have to a given dosage. That is why prescription drugs are supposed to be taken under a doctor's supervision.
   "All this stuff is poison," Crow said. "Your body will fight all of this stuff." Tuolumne County Health Officer Todd Stolp agreed. A prescription drug taken recreationally is "much like a firearm in the hands of someone who's not trained to use them," he said.
   While anyone taking a prescription medicine runs a risk of negative effects, the drugs are even more dangerous when abused. For example, many painkillers are designed to have a delayed effect that fades out over time. This can lead recreational users to take more drugs before the old ones are out of their system, placing them at risk of an overdose. Likewise, the common practice of grinding pills up causes a large dose of drugs to hit the body all at once, with potentially dangerous consequences.
   "A medication that was meant to be distributed over 24 hours has immediate effect," Stolp said.
   Even more dangerous is the trend of mixing drugs with alcohol, which, like most popularly abused drugs, is a depressant.
   "In the case of alcohol and drugs, one plus one equals more than two," said Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office spokesperson Lt. Dan Bressler.
   Florida pays careful attention to drug-related deaths, and as such has significantly better data on the problem than any other state. But a recent study conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) suggests that the problem is indeed national. According to the DEA, the number of people abusing prescription drugs in the United States has jumped 80 percent in six years to seven million, or more than those abusing cocaine, Ecstasy, heroin, hallucinogens an inhalants put together.
   Not surprisingly, there has been a corresponding increase in deaths. According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network, the number of emergency room visits related to painkillers has increased by 153 percent since 1995. And a 2007 report by the Justice Department National Intelligence Drug Center found that deaths related to the opioid methadone jumped from 786 in 1999 to 3,849 in 2004 - an increase of 390 percent.
   Many experts attribute the trend to the increasing popularity among doctors of prescribing painkillers, combined with a leap in direct-to-consumer marketing by drug companies. For example, promotional spending on Oxycontin increased threefold between 1996 and 2001, to $30 million per year.
   Sonora, Calif., pharmacist Eddie Howard reports that he's seen painkiller prescriptions jump dramatically in the last five years.
   "I don't know that there is that much pain out there to demand such an increase," he said. The trend concerns Howard, and he tries to keep an eye out for patients who are coming in too frequently. But he admits that there is little he can do about the problem.
   "When you have a lot of people waiting for prescriptions, it's hard to find time to play detective," he said.
   Still, the situation makes Howard uncomfortable.
   "It almost makes me a legalized drug dealer, and that's not a good position to be in," he said.
All republished content that appears on Truthout has been obtained by permission or license.

Background
A poisoning occurs when a person’s exposure to a natural or manmade substance has an
undesirable effect.  A drug poisoning occurs when that substance is an illegal, prescription, or
over-the-counter drug.  Most fatal poisonings in the United States result from drug poisoning.
Poisoning can be classified as:
• self-harm or suicide when the person wants to harm himself;
• assault or homicide when the person wants to harm another; and
• unintentional, also known as “accidental,” when no harm is intended. Unintentional drug
poisoning includes drug overdoses resulting from drug misuse, drug abuse, and taking too
much of a drug for medical reasons.
This document summarizes the most recent information about deaths and emergency
department (ED) visits resulting from drug poisoning. Information about deaths comes from
death certificates for deaths in 2007. Information about emergency department visits comes
from a national surveillance system, the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), operated by
the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
Figure 1: Rate of unintentional drug overdose death in
the United States, 1970-2007.
• Drug overdose death rates have risen steadily in the United States since 1970.
(See Figure 1)
• In 2007, 27,658 unintentional drug
overdose deaths occurred in the
United States.
• Drug overdose deaths were
second only to motor vehicle crash
deaths among leading causes of
unintentional injury death in 2007 in
the United States.




• Age-adjusted rates of drug overdose
death for whites have exceeded
those among African Americans
since 2003.
Drug overdose death rates in the United States have never been higher
Unintentional Drug
Poisoning in the
United States
Rates have increased roughly five-fold
since 1990.
Source: National Vital Statistics System
July 2010
Death rate per 100,000• Among deaths attributed to drugs,
the most common drug categories
are cocaine, heroin, and a type
of prescription drug called opioid
painkillers.
• “Opioids” are synthetic versions
of opium. They have the ability to
reduce pain but can also suppress
breathing to a fatal degree when
taken in excess. Examples of opioids
are oxycodone (OxyContin®),
hydrocodone (Vicodin®), and
methadone.
• There has been at least a 10-fold
increase in the medical use of opioid
painkillers during the last 20 years
because of a movement toward more
aggressive management of pain.
• Because opioids cause euphoria, they
have been associated increasingly
with misuse and abuse. Opioids are
now widely available in illicit markets
in the United States.
The increase in drug overdose death rates is largely because
of prescription opioid painkillers
Figure 2: Unintentional drug overdose deaths by major type
of drug, United States, 1999-2007.
Figure 3: Drug Overdose Death Rates by State, 2007.
• States in the Appalachian region and
the Southwest have the highest death
rates. (See Figure 3).
• The highest drug overdose death rate
was found in West Virginia, which was
nearly 7 times that of the state with
the lowest drug overdose death rate,
South Dakota.
• In 2007, states such as California
and New York had some of the lowest
overall death rates among all states
because of low opioid overdose rates.
In contrast, in the early 1990s these
states had some of the highest overall
rates, largely because of high heroin
and cocaine overdose rates.
Overall drug overdose death rates in the United States vary by state and region
In 2007, opioids were involved in more overdose
deaths than heroin and cocaine combined.
(See Figure 2)
Source: National Vital Statistics System
In 2007, the number of deaths involving opioid
analgesics was 1.93 times the number involving
cocaine and 5.38 times the number involving heroin.
Source: National Vital Statistics System
9.4

Age-adjusted rate per 100,000
population
3.1-9.0 9.1-11.4 11.5-21.1
Number of deaths
Opioid analgesic
Cocaine
Heroin• In 2007, 18,029 drug overdose deaths
occurred among males and 9,626 among
females. Male rates exceeded female
rates in almost every age group. Men
have historically had higher rates of
substance abuse than women. (See
Figure 4).
• Male rates have doubled and female
rates have tripled since 1999.
• For both sexes, the highest rates were
in the 45-54 years old age group. Rates
declined dramatically after the age of 54.
• After age 64, the male and female rates
become comparable, probably as a
result of the reduction in rates of substance abuse with age.
Figure 4: Unintentional drug overdose death rates
by sex and age group, United States, 2007.
Men and middle-aged people are more likely to die from drug overdose
Figure 5: Estimated numbers of ED visits involving legal drugs
used nonmedically and illegal drugs, United States, 2008
• The Drug Abuse Warning Network
(DAWN) estimates ED visits caused by
illicit drugs or the nonmedical use of
legal drugs, which includes taking more
than the prescribed amount, taking
drugs prescribed for someone else, or
substance abuse. Nonmedical use by this
definition does not include use of drugs
to harm oneself, e.g., suicide attempts,
or unintentional ingestions.
• In 2008, DAWN estimates show that prescription or over-the-counter drugs used
nonmedically were involved in 1.0 million ED visits, and illicit drugs were involved in 1.0
million visits (See Figure 5). Among the legal drugs, the most common drug categories
involved were drugs acting on the central nervous system, especially opioid painkillers, and
psychotherapeutic drugs, especially sedatives and antidepressants. Opioid painkillers were
associated with approximately 306,000 visits and benzodiazepines (a type of sedative) with
272,000 visits.
• Among illicit drugs, cocaine was involved in 482,000 visits, and heroin was involved in
201,000 visits.
• People who abuse opioids have direct health care costs more than eight times those of
nonabusers. A conservative estimate of the costs to society of prescription opioid abuse in the
United States was $8.6 billion in 2001 ($9.5 billion in 2005 dollars).

  • THE MAIN ISSUE IS THAT ILLEGAL DRUGS ARE ITEMS THAT ARE EITHER TRADED PRIVATELY, OR IT IS A COMMODITY IN BULK AMOUNTS THAT ARE SOLD, POSE ISSUES OF TAX EVASION: BEING SOLD UNLICENSED, AND WITHOUT PAYING SALES TAX, THIS HURTS THE STATE AND COULD POSE POTENTIAL HARM TO THE CONSUMER-WHO MAY NOT BE KNOWLEDGEABLE OF WHAT THEY ARE BUYING. OFTEN COMES WITH THE WARNING ‘BUYER BEWARE’.
  • PRESCRIPTION DRUGS HAVE PROVEN FAR LESS SAFE THAN ILLEGAL DRUGS AND MORE DEADLY: MOST PEOPLE CAN NOT AFFORD TO BUY MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF ILLEGAL DRUGS AND PRESCRIPTION PILLS READILY FEED AN ADDICT’S UNQUENCHABLE PENCHANT.  
  • AS SYNTHETIC MAN-MADE PILLS ARE A STANDARDIZED DOSE, AND PEOPLE THINK THAT THEY ARE SAFE COMING FROM A DOCTOR, THAT IS FALSE, WHEN PRESCRIPTION MEDICATION IS NOT. GRANTED, SOME LIMITED USE OF MEDICATION IS EFFECTIVE FOR SOME PEOPLE, BUT IT IS NOT CONSIDERED BENEFICIAL FOR EVERYONE AND IS NOT A LONG-TERM SOLUTION FOR DOPAMINE DEFICIENT INDIVIDUALS, WHO SELF-MEDICATE. SELF-MEDICATION CAN LEAD TO UNINTENTIONAL OVERDOSE, DOESN’T MATTER IF IT’S LEGAL OR ILLEGAL.
  • METHODS OF DRUG USE, OF ANY KIND, INCREASE FATALITIES WHEN DRUGS ARE INGESTED OR INJECTED: POISONING IS A REALITY WHEN TOO MUCH IS INGESTED OR A SUBSTANCE IS PERCEIVED BY THE BODY AS A TOXIN, INJECTION CAN BE A SURE AND SWIFT DEATH.
  • MOST SMOKERS DO NOT GET POISONED, AS AFTER 15-20 MIN., A PERSON DOES NOT NEED TO DO MORE OF THE DRUG; THE SMALLEST AMOUNTS USED TYPICALLY ALLAY STRESS, BOOST DOPAMINE, AND DO NOT POSE A DANGER, UNLESS THE SUBSTANCE IS TOXIC IN GENERAL, SEE HUFFING.


  • SMOKERS HAVE COMPLICATIONS AND UNWANTED SIDE EFFECTS, BUT WE ARE FINDING MORE PEOPLE ARE BEING POISONED BY K2, SPICE, AND SYNTHETIC POT, THAN WE ARE THE HARSHER ILLEGAL DRUGS, LIKE METH OR COCAINE, AS THE SYNTHETIC POT IS DOUSED WITH LEGAL CHEMICALS, LIKE OF THE DISPERSANT FAMILY, TO GET AROUND LAWS REGARDING THC OR ESTROGEN IN SOUPED UP POT, GROW METHOD HYDRO OR HYBRID PLANTS.
  • SYNTHETIC POT IS EVEN MORE DANGEROUS THAN CIGARETTES; NATURAL TOBACCO ALONE IS NOT THE SAME AS COMMERCIAL TOBACCO; DOUSED WITH 30 DIFFERENT CHEMICALS, CIGARETTES ARE DEFINED AS ‘NARCOTIC LEAVES’, HAVING MORE UNNATURAL CHEMICALS THAN MARIJUANA.
  • THE SYNTHETIC POT IS MANIPULATED MARIJUANA LIKE HERBS, DEVOID OF THE NATURAL THC AND ESTROGEN, AND DOUSED WITH MORE DANGEROUS LEGAL CHEMICALS WHICH INFLAME THE BRAIN AND BRAIN STEM, LIKE SOMEONE WHO IS A CHRONIC ALCOHOLIC.
  • THE DANGERS OF PRESCRIPTION PILL MILLS AND SYNTHETIC POT HAVE CERTAINLY KILLED THE MOST PEOPLE, AND THESE ARE LEGAL DRUGS/THE K2 BAN HAS BEEN INEFFECTIVE TO STOP IT.

Main » NORML Blog » GOVERNMENT » White House response to NORML’s “We the People” marijuana legalization petition

White House response to NORML’s “We the People” marijuana legalization petition

by Russ Belville, NORML Outreach CoordinatorOctober 29, 2011

 shareshare

The Obama White House has released its official response to the “We the People” online petition for marijuana legalization submitted by NORML.  The petition, which garnered 74,169 signatures, was by far the most popular petition submitted.  The government response (released late on a Friday to avoid news cycles, we’ll note) repeats the same tired lies and classic misdirections.  Most of all, it fails to answer NORML’s actual petition, which asked:

Legalize and Regulate Marijuana in a Manner Similar to Alcohol.

We the people want to know when we can have our “perfectly legitimate” discussion on marijuana legalization. Marijuana prohibition has resulted in the arrest of over 20 million Americans since 1965, countless lives ruined and hundreds of billions of tax dollars squandered and yet this policy has still failed to achieve its stated goals of lowering use rates, limiting the drug’s access, and creating safer communities.
Isn’t it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?
Following is the full official White House response, with NORML’s comments interspersed…

What We Have to Say About Legalizing Marijuana

By: Gil Kerlikowske
When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug’s effects.
Oh, good.  Then we’ll look forward to implementation the 1972 Shafer Commission Report or any of the other government and scientific studies that recommend the decriminalization of cannabis.
According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world’s largest source of drug abuse research – marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment.“Addiction” links to a NIDA page noting the lifetime dependence rate of cannabis to be 9% – that is, 9 in 100 people who try cannabis will develop a dependence.  Kerlikowske does not mention thatcaffeine has the same 9% rate, alcohol is a 15% rate, and tobacco is a 32% rate.  NIDA scientists also rated the addictive qualities of those substances and rated cannabis about equal to caffeine in risk.  The withdrawal from this rare dependence is characterized by the Institute of Medicine as “mild and short lived” and “includes restlessness, irritability, mild agitation, insomnia, sleep disturbance, nausea, and cramping.”  (Speaking of withdrawal, Mr. Drug Czar, you do know withdrawal from alcohol can kill a person and it’s legal, right?)
“Respiratory disease” links to a 2008 Science Daily article on a study entitled “Bullous Lung Disease due to Marijuana” which looked at the cases of ten people who came in already complaining of lung problems, who admitted they smoked pot over a year.  The subject was featured in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine as it found “insufficient evidence for a causative link“.  Matthew Naughton, author of the 2008 study, co-authored a 2011 study which noted “unfortunately, it is difficult to separate marijuana use from tobacco smoking which does confound these reports“.  (Speaking of tobacco, Mr. Drug Czar, you do know tobacco is much worse for the lungs and it’s legal, right?)
“Cognitive impairment” links to a 1996 NIDA fact sheet on studies of cognitive impairment involving card sorting.  Since then…
A 2001 study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry foundchronic users who quit for a week “showed no significant differences from control subjects”.
A 2002 clinical trial published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal determined,“Marijuana does not have a long-term negative impact on global intelligence.”
A 2004 study of twins published in the journal Psychological Medicine reported“an absence of marked long-term residual effects of marijuana use on cognitive abilities.”
A 2005 study published in the American Journal of Addictions used magnetic resonance imaging and found“no significant differences” between heavy cannabis smokers compared to controls.
Forgive the overkill, but as an organization that is honored to have regular cannabis consumer Carl Sagan‘s widow, Ann Druyan, as an Advisory Board Member, we’re particularly offended when the government claims science says that regular cannabis consumers are stupid.  (Speaking of cognitive impairment, Mr. Drug Czar, are you aware that frequent alcohol use is shown to have incredibly deleterious effects on cognition and it’s legal?)
But our petition wasn’t about whether or not cannabis is harmful, it was whether we should consider regulating cannabis like the far more harmful substances, alcohol and tobacco.
We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms.“Voluntary drug treatment admissions” links to 2007 TEDS data tables showing that 37% of the people admitted to treatment for marijuana hadn’t used it in the past thirty days.  These tables are based on admissions data that show 57% of marijuana treatment admissions were coerced by law enforcement (drug courts) and only 15% of such admissions are actually “voluntary drug treatment admissions”.  (This is much easier to debunk when the Drug Czar links to the government tables that make our point.  Thanks, Gil!)
“Visits to emergency rooms” links to 2009 DAWN data which contains this interesting bit of fine print,“Within DAWN, the drug misuse or abuse category is a group of [emergency room] visits defined broadly to include all visits associated with illicit drugs.” That is, if you mention pot, have pot on you, or your urine or blood tests positive for pot, that’s a drug-related emergency room visit.  If you smoked a bowl last night, broke your leg skiing today, went to the ER, and they found metabolites of THC in your pee, that’s going into the DAWN stats as a pot-related ER visit.  Meanwhile, a 2011 study in theAmerican Journal of Emergency Medicine found “marijuana dependence was associated with the lowest rates” of emergency room admittance compared to other drugs.why we shouldn’t end those charades and consider regulating cannabis like alcohol and tobacco?
Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20′s. Simply put, it is not a benign drug.“Marijuana potency has tripled” links to a paper (“Potancy [sic] Paper 2010″) at Ole Miss’s US Pot Farm showing potency tables from 1993 to 2008 (15 years, 20 years, whatever).  These figures include hashish and hash oil (concentrated preparations of cannabis), which is like throwing three Rhodes scholars into an eighth grade social studies class and then grading on a curve.  Figures for all samples (including the hash) show a rise from 3.4% to 8.8% THC (2.5x, not even “almost triple”), but what they call “marijuana” goes from 3.4% to 5.8% THC (1.7x, not even double) and “sinsemilla” goes from 5.8% to 11.5% THC (2x, double).
So today’s average marijuana is as good as yesteryear’s sinsemilla and today’s average sinsemilla is twice as good as yesteryear’s sensimilla.  Anybody recall any deaths, riots, or serious social disorder due to the sensimilla of 1993?  As we’ve said before, potency is irrelevant as cannabis smoking is a self-titrating behavior.  You smoke to get high.  If you have ditchweed, you smoke a lot to get high.  If you have kind bud you smoke a little to get high.  Less smoke in your lungs is a good thing and by that measure, smoking more potent marijuana may be a harm reduction strategy.  Besides, it’s hard to take seriously any concerns about non-toxic 11.5% THC sinsemilla when the government approves of 100% synthetic THC Marinol and marijuana of any potency has never killed anybody.
But nobody here said cannabis was a benign drug, only that it is far safer than the two current choices of legal substances, alcohol and tobacco, and we’re wondering why we couldn’t just regulate cannabis like them?
Like many, we are interested in the potential marijuana may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. That is why we ardently support ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine.  To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.
That “ardent support” consists of six ongoing FDA-approved clinical trials (two of which have already been completed) worldwide involving subjects’ use of actual cannabis and fourteen researchers allowed to study inhaled cannabis on human subjects.  It does not include a recent FDA-approved study of medical marijuana use to treat post-traumatic stress in our returning combat veterans.  That study was ardently opposed by NIDA, which wouldn’t sell any Ole Miss US Pot Farm marijuana for the researchers to study.  Furthermore, a NIDA spokesperson admitted to the New York Times in 2010, “As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use.  We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”“smoked cannabis reduces neuropathic pain, improves appetite and caloric intake especially in patients with reduced muscle mass, and may relieve spasticity and pain in patients with multiple sclerosis.”
It’s too bad our petition wasn’t about carving exceptions in federal law to allow medical use of marijuana, as 70% of Americans support.  It was whether we should regulate marijuana like we do alcohol and tobacco, like 50% of Americans support.
As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem.
If you recognize that, why were there virtually the same number of arrests this year for marijuana as last year, a number that still eclipses any arrest total under Presidents Bush and Clinton?  It seems you’re going to ignore our petition to end the strategy of arresting our way out of the problem by regulating marijuana like we do alcohol and tobacco.
We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.
Right, legalizing marijuana won’t address drug use.  It will address marijuana use by regulating it like we do alcohol and tobacco. Legal marijuana would be an answer to many Americans’ health challenges.  Legal marijuana would raise tax revenues to benefit society and community.  Legal marijuana would help replace the “reefer madness”-style youth education proven not to work with honest, factual information.  Legal marijuana removes the cost of arresting, prosecution, and monitoring on parole and probation and, by definition, eliminates crime.
That is why the President’s National Drug Control Strategy is balanced and comprehensive, emphasizing prevention and treatment while at the same time supporting innovative law enforcement efforts that protect public safety and disrupt the supply of drugs entering our communities.The president’s budget is only slightly different than the drug control budgets of his predecessor; still a two-to-one tilt toward “Supply Reduction” (interdiction and domestic and international law enforcement) versus “Demand Reduction” (treatment and prevention).  Which takes us to the second part of our petition asking how the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?
Preventing drug use is the most cost-effective way to reduce drug use and its consequences in America. And, as we’ve seen in our work through community coalitions across the country, this approach works in making communities healthier and safer. We’re also focused on expanding access to drug treatment for addicts. Treatment works. In fact, millions of Americans are in successful recovery for drug and alcoholism today. And through our work with innovative drug courts across the Nation, we are improving our criminal justice system to divert non-violent offenders into treatment.See our rebuttal above to TEDS treatment admission statistics and forcing cannabis consumers into rehab via drug courts.  Bless the millions of Americans in successful recovery for drug (?) and alcoholism who didn’t miss out on an open bed because it was taken up by a coerced cannabis consumer who hadn’t smoked weed in a month.  Those drug courts only work thanks to arrests of cannabis consumers and we were wondering how the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?
Our commitment to a balanced approach to drug control is real. This last fiscal year alone, the Federal Government spent over $10 billion on drug education and treatment programs compared to just over $9 billion on drug related law enforcement in the U.S.
Which is fuzzy math and see our rebuttal to President’s National Drug Control Strategy, which, as we mentioned, differs little from President Bush’s before him.  So how is the continued criminalization of cannabis going to achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?
Thank you for making your voice heard. I encourage you to take a moment to read about the President’s approach to drug control to learn more.
Thank you for wasting America’s time ignoring her wishes.  I encourage you to take a moment to actually read and answer the questions on these petitions.  Every answer you gave to “whether we should consider regulating cannabis like the far more harmful substances, alcohol and tobacco” was an excuse to make alcohol and tobacco prohibited like marijuana.  Every answer you gave to “how will the continued criminalization of cannabis achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?” illustrated that you’re continuing the same failed strategies as your predecessors.  We the People were hoping for some change.
(Updated for minor grammar corrections and additional hyperlinks –RB)
 shareshare

Tags : Gil Kerlikowske, Obama Administration, ONDCP, petitions, we the people, White House
Posted in : GOVERNMENT, LITIGATION

A BUDGETARY CASE FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION, IN SUPPORT OF IT; WHILE THE CALIFORNIA MODEL FAILED IN ITS STATE, PUSHING A $15 BILLION DEFICIT, WHAT CAN WE LEARN BY THE NUMBERS:




The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Prohibition
June 2005
Jeffrey A. Miron
Visiting Professor of Economics
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138
781-856-0086
miron@fas.harvard.edu
The Marijuana Policy Project provided funding for the research discussed in this report. Daniel Egan provided excellent research assistance.

Executive Summary

  • Government prohibition of marijuana is the subject of ongoing debate.
  • One issue in this debate is the effect of marijuana prohibition on government budgets. Prohibition entails direct enforcement costs and prevents taxation of marijuana production and sale.
  • This report examines the budgetary implications of legalizing marijuana – taxing and regulating it like other goods – in all fifty states and at the federal level.
  • The report estimates that legalizing marijuana would save $7.7 billion per year in government expenditure on enforcement of prohibition. $5.3 billion of this savings would accrue to state and local governments, while $2.4 billion would accrue to the federal government.
  • The report also estimates that marijuana legalization would yield tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco.
  • Whether marijuana legalization is a desirable policy depends on many factors other than the budgetary impacts discussed here. But these impacts should be included in a rational debate about marijuana policy.


I. Introduction

Government prohibition of marijuana is the subject of ongoing debate. Advocates believe prohibition reduces marijuana trafficking and use, thereby discouraging crime, improving productivity and increasing health. Critics believe prohibition has only modest effects on trafficking and use while causing many problems typically attributed to marijuana itself.
One issue in this debate is the effect of marijuana prohibition on government budgets. Prohibition entails direct enforcement costs, and prohibition prevents taxation of marijuana production and sale. If marijuana were legal, enforcement costs would be negligible and governments could levy taxes on the production and sale of marijuana. Thus, government expenditure would decline and tax revenue would increase.
This report estimates the savings in government expenditure and the gains in tax revenue that would result from replacing marijuana prohibition with a regime in which marijuana is legal but taxed and regulated like other goods. The report is not an overall evaluation of marijuana prohibition; the magnitude of any budgetary impact does not by itself determine the wisdom of prohibition. But the costs required to enforce prohibition, and the transfers that occur because income in a prohibited sector is not taxed, are relevant to rational discussion of this policy.
The policy change considered in this report, marijuana legalization, is more substantial than marijuana decriminalization, which means repealing criminal penalties against possession but retaining them against trafficking. The budgetary implications of legalization exceed those of decriminalization for three reasons.[1] First, legalization eliminates arrests for trafficking in addition to eliminating arrests for possession. Second, legalization saves prosecutorial, judicial, and incarceration expenses; these savings are minimal in the case of decriminalization. Third, legalization allows taxation of marijuana production and sale.
This report concludes that marijuana legalization would reduce government expenditure by $7.7 billion annually. Marijuana legalization would also generate tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco. These budgetary impacts rely on a range of assumptions, but these probably bias the estimated expenditure reductions and tax revenues downward.
The remainder of the report proceeds as follows. Section II estimates state and local expenditure on marijuana prohibition. Section III estimates federal expenditure on marijuana prohibition. Section IV estimates the tax revenue that would accrue from legalized marijuana. Section V discusses caveats and implications.

II. State and Local Expenditure for Drug Prohibition Enforcement

The savings in state and local government expenditure that would result from marijuana legalization consists of three main components: the reduction in police resources from elimination of marijuana arrests; the reduction in prosecutorial and judicial resources from elimination of marijuana prosecutions; and the reduction in correctional resources from elimination of marijuana incarcerations.[2] There are other possible savings in government expenditure from legalization, but these are minor or difficult to estimate with existing data.[3] The omission of these items biases the estimated savings downward.
To estimate the state savings in criminal justice resources, this report uses the following procedure. It estimates the percentage of arrests in a state for marijuana violations and multiplies this by the budget for police. It estimates the percentage of prosecutions in a state for marijuana violations and multiplies this by the budget for prosecutors and judges. It estimates the percentage of incarcerations in a state for marijuana violations and multiplies this by the budget for prisons. It then sums these components to estimate the overall reduction in government expenditure. Under plausible assumptions, this procedure yields a reasonable estimate of the cost savings from marijuana legalization.[4]

The Police Budget Due to Marijuana Prohibition

The first cost of marijuana prohibition is the portion of state police budgets devoted to marijuana arrests.
Table 1 calculates the fraction of arrests in each state due to marijuana prohibition. Column 1 gives the total number of arrests for the year 2000.[5] Column 2 gives the number of arrests for marijuana possession violations. Column 3 gives the number of arrests for marijuana sale/manufacturing violations. Columns 4 and 5 give the ratio of Column 2 to Column 1 and Column 3 to Column 1, respectively; these are the percentages of arrests for possession and sale/manufacture of marijuana, respectively.
The information in Columns 4 and 5 is what is required in the subsequent calculations, subject to one modification. Some arrests for marijuana violations, especially those for possession, occur because the arrestee is under suspicion for a non-drug crime but possesses marijuana that is discovered by police during a routine search. This means an arrest for marijuana possession is recorded, along with, or instead of, an arrest on the other charge. If marijuana possession were not a criminal offense, the suspects in such cases would still be arrested on the charge that led to the search, and police resources would be used to approximately the same extent as when marijuana possession is criminal.[6]
In determining which arrests represents a cost of marijuana prohibition, therefore, it is appropriate to count only those that are “stand-alone,” meaning those in which a marijuana violation rather than some other charge is the reason for the arrest. This issue arises mainly for possession rather than for trafficking. There are few hard data on the fraction of “stand-alone” possession arrests, but the information in Miron (2002) and Reuter, Hirschfield and Davies (2001) suggests it is between 33% and 85%.[7] To err on the conservative side, this report assumes that 50% of possession arrests are due solely to marijuana possession rather than being incidental to some other crime. Thus, the resources utilized in making these arrests would be available for other purposes if marijuana possession were legal. Column 6 of Table 1 therefore indicates the fraction of possession arrests attributable to marijuana prohibition, taking this adjustment into account.[8]
The first portion of Table 2 uses this information to calculate the police budget due to marijuana prohibition in each state. Column 1 gives the total expenditure in 2000 on police, by state. Column 2 gives the product of Column 1 with the sum of Columns 5 and 6 from Table 1. This is the amount spent on arrests for marijuana violations. For 2000, the amount is $1.71 billion.


The Judicial and Legal Budget Due to Marijuana Prohibition

The second main cost of marijuana prohibition is the portion of the prosecutorial and judicial budget devoted to marijuana prosecutions. A reasonable indicator of this percentage is the fraction of felony convictions in state courts for marijuana offenses. Data on this percentage are not available on a state-by-state basis, so this report uses the national percentage. Data on the percentage of possession convictions attributable to marijuana are also not available, so this report assumes it equals the percentage for trafficking convictions.
In 2000 the percent of felony convictions in state courts due to any type of trafficking violation was 22.0%.[9] Of this total, 2.7% was due to marijuana, 5.9% was due to other drugs, and 13.4% was unspecified. This report assumes that the fraction of marijuana convictions in the unspecified category equals the fraction for those in which a specific drug is given, or 31.4% [=2.7%/(2.7%+5.9%)]. The report also assumes that the percentage of possession convictions due to marijuana equals this same fraction. These assumptions jointly imply that the percentage of felony convictions due to marijuana equals the fraction of felony convictions due to any drug offense (34.6%) multiplied by the percentage of trafficking violations due to marijuana (31.4%). This yields 10.9% (=34.6%*31.4%).[10]
The second portion of Table 2 uses this information to calculate the judicial and legal budget due to marijuana prohibition. Column 3 gives the judicial and legal budget, by state. Column 4 gives the product of Column 3 and 10.9%, the percentage of felony convictions due to marijuana violations. This is the judicial and legal budget due to marijuana prosecutions. For 2000, the amount is $2.94 billion.

The Corrections Budget Due to Marijuana Prohibition

The third main cost of marijuana prohibition is the portion of the corrections budget devoted to incarcerating marijuana prisoners. A reasonable indicator of this portion is the fraction of prisoners incarcerated for marijuana offenses.
As with the percentage of prosecutions due to marijuana, state-by-state information on the percentage of prisoners incarcerated for marijuana offenses is not available. Appropriate data do exist for a few states, however, and this percentage is likely to be similar across states. This report therefore computes a population-weighted average based on the few states for which data exist; it then imposes this percentage on all states. This percentage is 1.0%, as documented in Appendix A.
The third portion of Table 2 calculates the corrections budget due to marijuana prohibition.[11]Column 5 gives the overall corrections budget, by state. Column 6 gives the product of Column 5 and 1.0%, the estimated fraction of prisoners incarcerated on marijuana charges. This is the corrections budget devoted to marijuana prisoners. For 2000, the amount is $484 million.

Overall State and Local Expenditure for Enforcement of Marijuana Prohibition

As shown at the bottom of Table 2, total state and local government expenditure for enforcement of marijuana prohibition was $5.1 billion for 2000. This is an overstatement of the savings in government expenditure that would result from legalization, however, for two reasons. First, under prohibition the police sometimes seize assets from those arrested for marijuana violations (financial accounts, cars, boats, land, houses, and the like), with the proceeds used to fund police and prosecutors.[12] Second, under prohibition some marijuana offenders pay fines, which partially offsets the expenditure required to arrest, convict and incarcerate these offenders. The calculations in Appendix B, however, show that this offsetting revenue has been at most $100 million per year in recent years at the state and local level. This implies a net savings of criminal justice resources from marijuana legalization of $5.0 billion in 2000. Adjusting for inflation implies savings of $5.3 billion in 2003.[13] [14] [15]

III. Federal Expenditure for Marijuana Prohibition Enforcement

This section estimates federal expenditure on marijuana prohibition enforcement. There are no data available on expenditure for marijuana interdiction per se; existing data report expenditure on interdiction of all drugs, without separately identifying expenditure aimed at marijuana versus other drugs. It is nevertheless possible to estimate the portion due to marijuana prohibition using the following procedure:
  1. Estimate federal expenditure for all drug interdiction;
  2. Estimate the fraction of this expenditure due to marijuana interdiction based on the fraction of federal prosecutions for marijuana;
  3. Multiply the first estimate by the second estimate.


This provides a reasonable estimate of federal expenditure for marijuana interdiction so long as this expenditure is roughly proportional to the variable being used to determine the fraction of total interdiction devoted to marijuana.[16]
Table 3 displays federal expenditure for drug interdiction. This was $13.6 billion in 2002 (Miron 2003b), and it is the figure that applies for all drugs.[17] [18] [19] To determine expenditure for marijuana interdiction, it is necessary to adjust for the fraction of federal expenditure devoted to marijuana as opposed to other drugs.

Table 3 next shows possible indicators of the relative magnitude of marijuana interdiction as compared to other-drug interdiction. These indicators include use rates, arrest rates, and felony convictions for marijuana versus other drugs. For the purposes here, the most appropriate indicator is the percentage of DEA arrests or convictions for marijuana as opposed to other drugs.[20]
The data therefore indicate that $2.6 billion is a reasonable estimate of the federal government expenditure to enforce marijuana prohibition in 2002.
As with state and local revenue, this figure must be adjusted downward by the revenue from seizures and fines. Appendix B indicates that this amount has been at most $214.2 million in recent years, implying a net savings of about $2.39 million. Adjusting for inflation implies federal expenditure for enforcement of marijuana prohibition of $2.4 billion in 2003.[21]

IV. The Tax Revenue from Legalized Marijuana

In addition to reducing government expenditure, marijuana legalization would produce tax revenue from the legal production and sale of marijuana. To estimate this revenue, this report employs the following procedure. First, it estimates current expenditure on marijuana at the national level. Second, it estimates the expenditure likely to occur under legalization. Third, it estimates the tax revenue that would result from this expenditure based on assumptions about the kinds of taxes that would apply to legalized marijuana. Fourth, it provides illustrative calculations of the portion of the revenue that would accrue to each state.

Expenditure on Marijuana under Current Prohibition

The first step in determining the tax revenue under legalization is to estimate current expenditure on marijuana. ONDCP (2001a, Table 1, p.3) estimates that in 2000 U.S. residents spent $10.5 billion on marijuana. This estimate relies on a range of assumptions about the marijuana market, and modification of these assumptions might produce a higher or lower estimate. There is no obvious reason, however, why alternative assumptions would imply a dramatically different estimate of current expenditure on marijuana. This report therefore uses the $10.5 billion figure as the starting point for the revenue estimates presented below.
Expenditure on Marijuana under Legalization
The second step in estimating the tax revenue that would occur under legalization is to determine how expenditure on marijuana would change as the result of legalization. A simple framework in which to consider various assumptions is the standard supply and demand model. To use this model to assess legalization’s impact on marijuana expenditure, it is necessary to state what effect legalization would have on the demand and supply curves for marijuana.
This report assumes there would be no change in the demand for marijuana.[22] This assumption likely errs in the direction of understating the tax revenue from legalized marijuana, since the penalties for possession potentially deter some persons from consuming. But any increase in demand from legalization would plausibly come from casual users, whose marijuana use would likely be modest. Any increase in use might also come from decreased consumption of alcohol, tobacco or other goods, so increased tax revenue from legal marijuana would be partially offset by decreased tax revenue from other goods. And there might be a forbidden fruit effect from prohibition that tends to offset the demand decreasing effects of penalties for possession. Thus, the assumption of no change in demand is plausible, and it likely biases the estimated tax revenue downward.
Under the assumption that demand does not shift due to legalization, any change in the quantity and price would result from changes in supply conditions. There are two main effects that would operate (Miron 2003a). On the one hand, marijuana suppliers in a legal market would not incur the costs imposed by prohibition, such as the threat of arrest, incarceration, fines, asset seizure, and the like. This means, other things equal, that costs and therefore prices would be lower under legalization. On the other hand, marijuana suppliers in a legal market would bear the costs of tax and regulatory policies that apply to legal goods but that black market suppliers normally avoid.[23] This implies an offset to the cost reductions resulting from legalization. Further, changes in competition and advertising under legalization can potentially yield higher prices than under prohibition.
It is thus an empirical question as to how prices under legalization would compare to prices under current prohibition. The best evidence available on this question comes from comparisons of marijuana prices between the U.S. and the Netherlands. Although marijuana is still technically illegal in the Netherlands, the degree of enforcement is substantially below that in the U.S., and the sale of marijuana in coffee shops is officially tolerated. The regime thus approximates de facto legalization. Existing data suggest that retail prices in the Netherlands are roughly 50-100 percent of U.S. prices.[24] [25]
The effect of any price decline that occurs due to legalization depends on the elasticity of demand for marijuana. Evidence on this elasticity is limited because appropriate data on marijuana price and consumption are not readily available. Existing estimates, however, suggest an elasticity of at least -0.5 and plausibly more than -1.0 (Nisbet and Vakil 1972).[26] [27]
If the price decline under legalization is minimal, then expenditure will not change regardless of the demand elasticity. If the price decline is noticeable but the demand elasticity is greater than or equal to 1.0 in absolute value, then expenditure will remain constant or increase. If the price decline is noticeable and the demand elasticity is less than one, then expenditure will decline. Since the decline in price is unlikely to exceed 50% and the demand elasticity is likely at least -0.5, the plausible decline in expenditure is approximately 25%. Given the estimate of $10.5 billion in expenditure on marijuana under current prohibition, this implies expenditure under legalization of about $7.9 billion.[28]
Tax Revenue from Legalized Marijuana
To estimate the tax revenue that would result from marijuana legalization, it is necessary to assume a particular tax rate. This report considers two assumptions that plausibly bracket the range of reasonable possibilities.
The first assumption is that tax policy treats legalized marijuana identically to other goods. In that case tax revenue as a fraction of expenditure would be approximately 30%, implying tax revenue from legalized marijuana of $2.4 billion.[29] The amount of revenue would be lower if substantial home production occurred under legalization.[30] The evidence suggests, however, that the magnitude of such production would be minimal. In particular, alcohol production switched mostly from the black market to the licit market after repeal of Alcohol Prohibition in 1933.
The second assumption is that tax policy treats legalized marijuana similarly to alcohol or tobacco, imposing a “sin tax” in excess of any tax applicable to other goods.[31] Imposing a high sin tax can force a market underground, thereby reducing rather than increasing tax revenue. Existing evidence, however, suggests that relatively high rates of sin taxation are possible without generating a black market. For example, cigarette taxes in many European countries account for 75–85 percent of the price (US Department of Health and Human Services 2000).
One benchmark, therefore, is to assume that an excise tax on legalized marijuana doubles the price. If general taxation accounts for 30% of the price, this additional tax would then make tax revenue account for 80% of the price. This doubling of the price, given an elasticity of -0.5, would cause roughly a 50% increase in expenditure, implying total expenditure on marijuana would be $11.85 billion (=$7.9 x 1.5). Tax revenue would equal 80% of this total, or $9.5 billion. This includes any standard taxation applied to marijuana income as well as the sin tax on marijuana sales.
The $9.5 billion figure is not necessarily attainable given the characteristics of marijuana production, however. Small scale, efficient production is possible and occurs widely now, so the imposition of a substantial tax wedge might encourage a substantial fraction of the market to remain underground. The assumption of a constant demand elasticity in response to a price change of this magnitude is also debatable; more plausibly, the elasticity would increase as the price rose, implying a larger decline in consumption and thus less revenue from excise taxation. The $9.5 figure should therefore be considered an upper bound.
These calculations nevertheless indicate the potential for substantial revenue from marijuana taxation. A more modest excise tax, such as one that raises the price 50%, would produce revenue on legalized marijuana of $6.2 billion per year.
Distribution of the Marijuana Tax Revenue
The estimates of tax revenue discussed so far indicate the total amount that could be collected summing over all levels of government. In practice this total would be divided between state and federal governments. It is therefore useful to estimate how much revenue would accrue to each state, and to state governments versus the federal government, under plausible assumptions.
Table 4a indicates the tax revenue that would accrue to each state and to the federal government under the assumption that each state collected revenue equal to 10% of the income generated by legalized marijuana and the federal government collected income equal to 20%. This is approximately what occurs now for the economy overall, except that the ratio of tax revenues to income varies across states from the 10% figure assumed here. The table indicates that under these assumptions, the federal government would collect $1.6 billion in additional revenue while on average each state would collect $16 million in additional tax revenue.
These calculations ignore the fact that marijuana use rates differ across states, so application of identical policies would yield different amounts of revenue per capita. Wright (2002, Table A.4, p.82), for example, indicates that the percent of those 12 and over reporting marijuana use in the past month ranged in 1999-2000 from a low of 2.79% in Iowa to a high of 9.03% in Massachusetts. Table 4b therefore shows the breakdown of revenue by state under the assumption that tax revenue is proportional to state marijuana use rates. A third possibility, which cannot easily be examined with existing data, is that revenue by state differs depending on the distribution of marijuana production.

V. Summary



This report has estimated the budgetary implications of legalizing marijuana and taxing and regulating it like other goods. According to the calculations here, legalization would reduce government expenditure by $5.3 billion at the state and local level and by $2.4 billion at the federal level. In addition, marijuana legalization would generate tax revenue of $2.4 billion annually if marijuana were taxed like all other goods and $6.2 billion annually if marijuana were taxed at rates comparable to those on alcohol and tobacco.

References

Baicker, Katherine and Mireille Jacobson (2004), “Finders Keepers: Forfeiture Laws, Policing Incentives, and Local Budgets,” manuscript, Department of Economics, Dartmouth College.
Bates, Scott W. (2004), “The Economic Implications of Marijuana Legalization in Alaska,” Report forAlaskans For Rights & Revenues, Fairbanks, Alaska.
Caputo, Michael R. and Brian J. Ostrom (1994), “Potential Tax Revenue from a Regulated Marijuana Market: A Meaningful Revenue Source,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 53, 475-490.
Clements, Kenneth W. and Mert Daryal (2001), “Marijuana Prices in Australia in 1990s,” manuscript, Economic Research Centre, Department of Economics, The University of Western Australia.
Durose, Matthew and Patrick A. Langan (2003), Felony Sentences in State Courts, 2000, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justices Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, NCJ 198821.
Easton, Stephen T. (2004), “Marijuana Growth in British Columbia,” Public Policy Sources, Fraser Institute Occasional Paper #74.
European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (2002), Annual Report 2002, available at (http://annualreport.emcdda.eu.int/pdfs/2002_0458_EN.pdf).
Gettman, Jon B. and Stephen S. Fuller (2003), “Estimation of the Budgetary Costs of Marijuana Possession Arrests in the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Center for Regional Analysis, George Mason University.
Harrison, Lana D., Michael Backenheimer, and James A. Inciardi (1995), “Cannabis use in the United States: Implications for Policy,” in Peter Cohen and Arjan Sas, eds., Cannabisbeleid in Duitsland, Frankrijk en do Verenigde Staten, Amerstdamn: Centrum voor Drugsonderzoek, Universiteit van Amsterdamn, 231-236.
Lewis, Minchin (2004), Report on the Syracuse Police Department Activity for the Year Ended June 30, 2002, Department of Audit, City of Syracuse.
MacCoun, Robert and Peter Reuter (1997), “Interpreting Dutch Cannabis Policy: Reasoning by Analogy in the Legalization Debate,” Science, 278, 47-52.
Miron, Jeffrey A. (2002), “The Effect of Marijuana Decriminalization on the Budgets of Massachusetts Governments, With a Discussion of Decriminalization’s Effect on Marijuana Use,” Report to the Drug Policy Forum of Massachusetts, October.
Miron, Jeffrey A. (2003a), “Do Prohibitions Raise Prices? Evidence from the Markets for Cocaine and Heroin,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 85(3), 522-530.
Miron, Jeffrey A. (2003b), “A Critique of Estimates of the Economic Costs of Drug Abuse,” Report to the Drug Policy Alliance, July.
Miron, Jeffrey A. (2003c), “The Budgetary Implications of Marijuana Legalization in Massachusetts,”Report to Change the Climate, August.
Murphy, Patrick, Lynn E. Davis, Timothy Liston, David Thaler, and Kathi Webb (2000), Improving Anti-Drug Budgeting: Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
Nisbet, Charles T. and Firouz Vakil (1972), “Some Estimates of Price and Expenditure Elasticites of Demand for Marijuana Among U.C.L.A. Students,” Review of Economics and Statistics, 54, 473-475.
Office of National Drug Control Policy (1993), State and Local Spending on Drug Control Activities, Washington, D.C.: ONDCP
Office of National Drug Control Policy (2001a), What America’s Users Spend on Illegal Drugs, Cambridge, MA: Abt Associates.
Office of National Drug Control Policy (2001b), The Price of Illicit Drugs: 1981 through Second Quarter of 2000, Washington, D.C: Abt Associates.
Office of National Drug Control Policy (2002), National Drug Control Strategy, Washington, D.C.: ONDCP.
Pacula, Rosalie Liccardo, Michael Grossman, Frank J. Chaloupka, Patrick M. O’Malley, Lloyd D. Johnston, and Matthew C. Farrelly (2000), “Marijuana and Youth,” NBER WP #7703.
Reuter, Peter, Paul Hirschfield, and Curt Davies (2001), “Assessing the Crack-Down on Marijuana in Maryland,” manuscript, University of Maryland.
Schwer, R. Keith, Mary Riddel, and Jason Henderson (2002), “Fiscal Impact of Question 9: Potential State-Revenue Implications,” Center for Business and Economic Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
US Department of Health and Humans Services (2000), Reducing Tobacco Use: A Report of the Surgeon General, Tobacco Taxation Fact Sheet. Accessed at
http://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/sgr/sgr_2000/factsheets/factsheets_taxation.htm.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2004), Treatment Episode Data Set (TEDS) Highlights – 2002, Washington, D.C.: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Statistics.
Wright, D. (2002), State Estimates of Substance Use from the 2000 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Volume I, Findings (DHHS Publication No. SMA 02-3731, NHSDA Series H-15), Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Office of Applied Statistics.

Table 1: Percentage of Arrests Due to Marijuana Prohibition
Total Arrests
MJ Possession
MJ Sale/Man.
Poss %
S/M %
Poss % /2
1
2
3
4
5
6
Alabama
215587
11501
258
0.053
0.001
0.027
Alaska
40181
1239
200
0.031
0.005
0.015
Arizona
304142
16288
1233
0.054
0.004
0.027
Arkansas
218521
6846
928
0.031
0.004
0.016
California
1428248
50149
12338
0.035
0.009
0.018
Colorado
282787
12067
604
0.043
0.002
0.021
Connecticut
146992
6751
773
0.046
0.005
0.023
Delaware
41515
2151
131
0.052
0.003
0.026
D.C.*
4009
32
0
0.008
0.000
0.004
Florida*
0
0
0
0.043
.006
0.022
Georgia
429674
24321
4093
0.057
0.010
0.028


TO SEE FULL TABLES AND INFORMATION, GO TO ORIGINAL DOCUMENT FORM:



Seizures:
The two main sources of federal seizure revenue are the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Customs Service. In 2002, the DEA made seizures totaling $438 million.[32] In 2001, the U.S. Customs Service seized property valued at $592 million.[33] These figures overstate revenue since some defendants recovered their seized property. The Customs seizures overstate revenue related to drugs because the figure includes seizures for all reasons, such as violation of gun laws, intellectual property laws, and the like. There may also be double-counting between the DEA seizures and the U.S. Customs seizures.
Summing together the two components yields $1,030 million (= $438+$592 million) as the seizure revenue that results from enforcement of drug laws. This figure must be adjusted downward, however, to separate out the portion due to violation of marijuana laws as opposed to other drug laws. As shown in Table 3, approximately 20% of the federal drug enforcement budget is attributable to marijuana, so it is reasonable to assume approximately 20% of the fines and seizures correspond to enforcement of marijuana laws.
Thus, seizure revenue at the federal level due to marijuana prosecutions is roughly $206.0 million annually.
State and local data on forfeiture revenue are not readily available for all states Baicker and Jacobson (2004), however, estimate using a sample of states that state forfeiture revenue per capita was roughly $1.14 during the 1994-2001 period. This implies aggregate state forfeiture revenue of $342 million. Deflating by 26%, the fraction of all drug trafficking arrests due to marijuana, implies that marijuana seizures yield $89 million to state governments.
Fines: In 2001, the total quantity of fines and restitutions ordered for drug offense cases in U.S. District Courts was just under $41 million.[34] Adjusting this by the 20% figure implies $8.2 million from marijuana cases. Assuming the ratio of state/local to federal fine revenue is similar to ratio of state/local to federal seizure revenue implies that state and local fines/restitution from marijuana cases is about $3.5 million.

MARIJUANA POLICIES AND THE CASE FOR LEGALIZATION:
1) REGULATION AND TAXATION INCREASES SAFETY:
  • CONTROLS PRODUCTION PROCESSES,
  • CREATES JOBS,
  • CLEANSES THE AIR FOR NEW GREEN ENERGY STANDARDS

2) DIPLOMATICALLY CLOSES THE BORDER, BY REVIVING THE SOUTH’S AGROSECTOR, FROM COTTON TO HEMP, BY ENDING THE DRUG WAR AND DEPENDENCE ON MEXICO’S DRUG IMPORTS, 50% WE BUY FROM THEM, WHEN WE SHOULD KEEP REVENUE HERE.

It is perfectly your constitutional right to cultivate, grow, harvest, and have in your possession a plant made by God. Gen. 1:29 GNT (other translations say seed bearing plants for food)

Genesis 1:29-31

Good News Translation (GNT)
29 I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat;30 but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food
        —and it was done.31 God looked at everything he had made, and he was very pleased. Evening passed and morning came—that was the sixth day.
THE CONTROVERSY COMES IN, WHEN IT COMES TO THE GOVERNMENT, NOT UPHOLDING THE SPIRIT OF THE LAW:
I think we have learned our lessons when it comes to alcohol, revenue, and consumption, in respect to abusive practices and making substance a god, or worshiping something, as if it were above God.

In part of Georgia’s Drug Policy Reform, the Tea Party issued a Treatise:

THE TEA PARTY TREATISE 2011 http://www.facebook.com/groups/thesynthesis/doc/141108292621174/

By Aja Brooks in SYNTHESIS · Edit Doc · Delete
THE TEA PARTY TREATISE 2011
From this day forth, the Tea Party: comprised of various social, religious, and political groups, whose focus is fiscal responsibility and government accountability; meaning that the government is accountable to the people whom they serve and represent, petition the powers that be to rescind the Patriot Act, because it is unconstitutional. Our citizenship binds us to an irrevocable Oath, to do what is best for our country. With that stated, there are many laws that impose the government’s will that are not shared by current American sentiment or reflect the will of the people. This dissent has grown to an unimaginable din within a few short years, due to economic and financial repression, coupled with government ineptitude.
The first order of the “The Tea Party Treatise” is to bring social order and peace to our communities with respect to individual rights and community responsibility. Existing laws have been abused by Public Safety entities and the Judiciary to violate Habeas corpus, under the guise of preserving national security. This causes people to mistrust our leadership and government, and rightfully so. The Patriot Act bolstered existing laws to trump the Constitution and The Bill of Rights, which was never its original purpose, as it was written initially with good intentions and composed to serve as a balancing mechanism of justice. However, it is the interpretation of this Act, in accordance with other laws, that we find to be beyond the original design of limited government.
The imposition of mandatory one year sentences for breaking any provision of the Act, even if done so to preserve oneself and countrymen from danger, betrays justice in thwarting due process by underscoring the presumption of innocence before conviction of guilt. The Act punishes citizens for crimes against their country and discounts the guarantee of a quick and speedy trial, often with delays and imprisonment that punish an individual prior to a hearing or trial taking place, as the punishment is mete prior to proper hearing or trial, with a result of unlawful detainment, hefty fines, probation fees, and five to seven years probation with voting rights restricted. Soldiers are being crucified as “war criminals” and meeting a similar fate by same unconstitutional processes.
For these reasons, and for these about to be discussed, we implore the rights of our citizens and soldiers be fully restored by repealing the Patriot Act. Studies have shown consecutively for four years, that more people are dying from prescription drugs, than any other legal or illegal drugs combined: http://drugwarfacts.org/cms/?q=node/30
Annual Causes of Death in the United States
  1. (2009 - opiate treatment and overdose deaths in Europe) "More than 60 per cent of drug treatment demand in Asia and Europe relate to opiates that are, especially heroin, the most deadly drugs. Deaths due to overdose are, in any single year, as high as 5,000-8,000 in Europe, and several times this amount in the Russian Federation alone."


Source:

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, "Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The transnational threat of Afghan opium" (Vienna, Austria: October 2009, p. 7.

http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/Afghanistan/Afghan_Opiu...

see table annual causes of death by cause)



Tobacco


435,000 1


Poor Diet and Physical Inactivity


365,000 1



Alcohol


85,000 1


Microbial Agents


75,000 1


Toxic Agents


55,000 1



Motor Vehicle Crashes


26,347 1



Adverse Reactions to Prescription Drugs


32,000 2


Suicide


30,622 3


Incidents Involving Firearms


29,000 1



Homicide


20,308 4


Sexual Behaviors


20,000 1



All Illicit Drug Use, Direct and Indirect


17,0001, 5


Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs Such As Aspirin


7,600 6


Marijuana


07



6. (2006 - alcohol deaths) "In 2006, a total of 22,073 persons died of alcohol-induced causes in the United States (Tables 23 and 24). This category includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of alcohol, but also accidental poisoning by alcohol. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to alcohol use as well as deaths due to fetal alcohol syndrome."


Source:


Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009, p, 11.


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf





7. (2006 - suicide) The US Centers for Disease Control reports that in 2006, there were a total of 33,300 deaths from suicide in the US.


Source:


Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009, Table B.


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf



8. (2006 - drug induced causes) "In 2006, a total of 38,396 persons died of drug-induced causes in the United States (Tables 21 and 22). This category includes not only deaths from dependent and nondependent use of legal or illegal drugs, but also poisoning from medically prescribed and other drugs. It excludes unintentional injuries, homicides, and other causes indirectly related to drug use, as well as newborn deaths due to the mother’s drug use."


Source:


Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009, p, 11.


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf





9. (2006 - homicide) "The US Centers for Disease Control reports that in 2006, there were a total of 18,573 deaths from homicide in the US.


Source:


Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009, Table B.


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr57/nvsr57_14.pdf





10. (2003 - HIV, leading cause of death, and race) The Centers for Disease Control reported that in 2003, HIV disease was the 22nd leading cause of death in the US for whites, the 9th leading cause of death for blacks, and the 13th leading cause of death for Hispanics.


Source:


Heron, Melonie P., PhD, Smith, Betty L., BsED, Division of Vital Statistics, "Deaths: Leading Causes for 2003," National Vital Statistics Reports, Vol. 55, No. 10 (Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics, CDC, March 15, 2007), p. 10, Table E, and p. 12, Table F.


http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr55/nvsr55_10.pdf





11. (2000 - illicit drug use) "Illicit drug use is associated with suicide, homicide, motor-vehicle injury, HIV infection, pneumonia, violence, mental illness, and hepatitis. An estimated 3 million individuals in the United States have serious drug problems. Several studies have reported an undercount of the number of deaths attributed to drugs by vital statistics; however, improved medical treatments have reduced mortality from many diseases associated with illicit drug use. In keeping with the report by McGinnis and Foege, we included deaths caused indirectly by illicit drug use in this category. We used attributable fractions to compute the number of deaths due to illicit drug use. Overall, we estimate that illicit drug use resulted in approximately 17000 deaths in 2000, a reduction of 3000 deaths from the 1990 report."


Source:


Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, "Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association, (March 10, 2004), G225 Vol. 291, No. 10, 1242.


http://proxy.baremetal.com/csdp.org/research/1238.pdf





12. (2000) "The leading causes of death in 2000 were tobacco (435,000 deaths; 18.1% of total US deaths), poor diet and physical inactivity (400,000 deaths; 16.6%), and alcohol consumption (85,000 deaths; 3.5%). Other actual causes of death were microbial agents (75,000), toxic agents (55,000), motor vehicle crashes (43,000), incidents involving firearms (29,000), sexual behaviors (20,000), and illicit use of drugs (17,000)."


Correction: According to a correction published by the Journal on January 19, 2005, "On page 1240, in Table 2, '400,000 (16.6)' deaths for 'poor diet and physical inactivity' in 2000 should be '365,000 (15.2).' A dagger symbol should be added to 'alcohol consumption' in the body of the table and a dagger footnote should be added with 'in 1990 data, deaths from alcohol-related crashes are included in alcohol consumption deaths, but not in motor vehicle deaths. In 2000 data, 16,653 deaths from alcohol-related crashes are included in both alcohol consumption and motor vehicle death categories."


Source:


Mokdad, Ali H., PhD, James S. Marks, MD, MPH, Donna F. Stroup, PhD, MSc, Julie L. Gerberding, MD, MPH, "Actual Causes of Death in the United States, 2000," Journal of the American Medical Association, (March 10, 2004), G225 Vol. 291, No. 10, p. 1238, 1240.


http://proxy.baremetal.com/csdp.org/research/1238.pdf

Source for Correction: Journal of the American Medical Association, Jan. 19, 2005, Vol. 293, No. 3, p. 298.



13. (1999 - marijuana) "Indeed, epidemiological data indicate that in the general population marijuana use is not associated with increased mortality."


Source:


Janet E. Joy, Stanley J. Watson, Jr., and John A Benson, Jr., "Marijuana and Medicine: Assessing the Science Base," Division of Neuroscience and Behavioral Research, Institute of Medicine (Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 1999), p. 109.


http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=0309071550&page=109


14. (1998 - hospitalization) "Our study revealed that experiencing an ADR [Adverse Drug Reaction] while hospitalized substantially increased the risk of death (1971 excess deaths, OR 1.208, 95% CI 1.184-1.234). This finding reflects about a 20% increase in mortality associated with an ADR in hospitalized patients. Extrapolating this finding to all patients suggests that 2976 Medicare patients/year and 8336 total patients/year die in U.S. hospitals as a direct result of ADRs; this translates to approximately 1.5 patients/hospital/year."


Source:


C. A. Bond, PharmD, FASHP, FCCP and Cynthia L. Raehl, PharmD, FASHP, FCCP, "Adverse Drug Reactions in United States Hospitals," Pharmacotherapy, 2006;26(5):601-608.


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/531809





15. (1998 - marijuana)


"3. The most obvious concern when dealing with drug safety is the possibility of lethal effects. Can the drug cause death?


"4. Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.


"5. This is a remarkable statement. First, the record on marijuana encompasses 5,000 years of human experience. Second, marijuana is now used daily by enormous numbers of people throughout the world. Estimates suggest that from twenty million to fifty million Americans routinely, albeit illegally, smoke marijuana without the benefit of direct medical supervision. Yet, despite this long history of use and the extraordinarily high numbers of social smokers, there are simply no credible medical reports to suggest that consuming marijuana has caused a single death.


"6. By contrast aspirin, a commonly used, over-the-counter medicine, causes hundreds of deaths each year.


"7. Drugs used in medicine are routinely given what is called an LD-50. The LD-50 rating indicates at what dosage fifty percent of test animals receiving a drug will die as a result of drug induced toxicity. A number of researchers have attempted to determine marijuana's LD-50 rating in test animals, without success. Simply stated, researchers have been unable to give animals enough marijuana to induce death.


"8. At present it is estimated that marijuana's LD-50 is around 1:20,000 or 1:40,000. In layman terms this means that in order to induce death a marijuana smoker would have to consume 20,000 to 40,000 times as much marijuana as is contained in one marijuana cigarette. NIDA-supplied marijuana cigarettes weigh approximately .9 grams. A smoker would theoretically have to consume nearly 1,500 pounds of marijuana within about fifteen minutes to induce a lethal response.


"9. In practical terms, marijuana cannot induce a lethal response as a result of drug-related toxicity."


Source:


US Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration, "In the Matter of Marijuana Rescheduling Petition" (Docket #86-22), September 6, 1988, p. 56-57.


http://druglibrary.net/olsen/MEDICAL/YOUNG/young4.html





16. (1998 - adverse drug reactions) "Adverse drug reactions are a significant public health problem in our health care system. For the 12,261,737 Medicare patients admitted to U.S. hospitals, ADRs were projected to cause the following increases: 2976 deaths, 118,200 patient-days, $516,034,829 in total charges, $37,611,868 in drug charges, and $9,456,698 in laboratory charges. If all Medicare patients were considered, these figures would be 3 times greater."


Source:


C. A. Bond, PharmD, FASHP, FCCP, and Cynthia L. Raehl, PharmD, FASHP, FCCP, Department of Pharmacy Practice, School of Pharmacy, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Amarillo, Texas, "Adverse Drug Reactions in United States Hospitals" Pharmacotherapy, 2006;26(5):601-608.


http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/531809


17. (1996 - NSAIDS) "Each year, use of NSAIDs (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) accounts for an estimated 7,600 deaths and 76,000 hospitalizations in the United States." (NSAIDs include aspirin, ibuprofen, naproxen, diclofenac, ketoprofen, and tiaprofenic acid.)


Source:


Robyn Tamblyn, PhD; Laeora Berkson, MD, MHPE, FRCPC; W. Dale Jauphinee, MD, FRCPC; David Gayton, MD, PhD, FRCPC; Roland Grad, MD, MSc; Allen Huang, MD, FRCPC; Lisa Isaac, PhD; Peter McLeod, MD, FRCPC; and Linda Snell, MD, MHPE, FRCPC, "Unnecessary Prescribing of NSAIDs and the Management of NSAID-Related Gastropathy in Medical Practice," Annals of Internal Medicine (Washington, DC: American College of Physicians, 1997), September 15, 1997, 127:429-438.


http://www.annals.org/content/127/6/429.full.pdf

Citing: Fries, JF, "Assessing and understanding patient risk," Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology Supplement, 1992;92:21-4.





The Tea Party also recognizes that cigarettes are considered by definition to be “narcotic leaves”, and by far the most dangerous because of the additives of 30 different assorted chemicals or more, which laces natural tobacco into a different class of legal and unregulated narcotic drugs! In an effort to balance good judgment and freedom that possesses responsibility, we demand the government to recognize the Constitution as the law of the land, and that the government can no longer impose criminal mandatory minimum sentences for personal amounts of illegal drugs, as defined by the laws of Canada and Mexico:

CANADA http://www.cfdp.ca/index.htm

  • March 2008:  Vienna NGO [Non-governmental organization] Committee on Narcotic Drugs, Final Report of Vancouver Consultation, February 4–5, 2008:  Beyond 2008: An International NGO Forum, Vancouver, Canada, prepared by the Centre for Addictions Research of BC


  • February 2008: Health Officers Council of British Columbia releases its paper, Regulation of Psychoactive Substances in Canada: Seeking a Coherent Public Health Approach: "Every year, psychoactive substances (alcohol, tobacco, illegal drugs, and certain prescription drugs) cost Canadians over $40 billion. They are linked to more than 47,000 deaths and many thousands more injuries and disabilities. Inadequate, inappropriate, and ineffective regulation of these substances contributes in large measure to this terrible toll. Conversely, adequate, appropriate, and effective regulation holds great promise to protect public health and reduce this devastating situation."

  • November 20, 2007: Conservative Government introduces amendments to Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, imposing mandatory minimum penalties for several offences and increasing the maximum penalty for cannabis grow operations.  To see the Bill (Bill C-26, introduced in the House of Commons on November 20, 2007), click here(version française).  Here are the Department of Justice press release (version française) and backgrounder (version française).  Remember that these are self-interested government documents that cast the Bill in a very positive light.  Here is an explanation of how the mandatory minimum penalties (version française) would work.  To see critical commentary in the press, click here.  The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has prepared a briefing document (version française) that is highly critical of mandatory minimum sentences such as those proposed in the Bill.


  • February 22, 2007: Press conference held in Ottawa to challenge statements by US drug "czar" John Walters and to discuss adverse impacts of US "war on drugs" approach to drug issues.  To see video of press conference, click here.


  • January 2007: BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS study criticizes lack of proof of effectiveness of current law enforcement-based drug strategies:  "Currently, through Canadaʼs Drug Strategy, the federal government continues to invest heavily in policies and practices that have repeatedly been shown in the scientific literature to be ineffective or harmful. Specifically, while the stated goal of the Canadaʼs Drug Strategy is to reduce harm, evidence obtained through this analysis indicates that the overwhelming emphasis continues to be on conventional enforcement-based approaches which are costly and often exacerbate, rather than reduce, drug-related harms." For full report, published in Canadian HIV/AIDS Policy & Law Review, click here.


  • December 2006: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network releases Model Law on Drug Use and HIV/AIDS.


  • New! Reform Options (options proposed by organizations interested in reform of current drug laws and policies)


  • Cannabis law reform in Canada (including Senate and House of Commons committee reports (2002), statistics, legislation and bills before Parliament)


  • Video archives: "Moving Beyond the War on Drugs", a conference at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston in April 2002 brought together experts from around the world to discuss drug policy issues.  A video of the entire conference is archived on the Rice University website.  To see the presentations, including that by Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy on American influences on Canadian drug policy, click here.


  • Terrorism and Drug Prohibition


  • August 22, 2001: Canada's Fraser Institute issues policy papers calling drug prohibition "a complete failure." Here are the Institute's media release and the policy papersthemselves. See also June 1998 Fraser Institute analysis of media treatment of drug policy issues in Canada.  Click here for report.


  • July 26, 2001: Britain's internationally respected The Economist magazine:  "Prohibition has failed, again.  It has long been clear that the laws on drugs are doing more harm than good.  For understandable reasons, governments and voters alike are reluctant to face the facts.  The case for legalisation is strong, both in principle and as a practical matter."  (Click here for The Economist's full survey on illegal drugs).





MEXICO http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-08-20-mexico-drugs_N.htm

Mexico enacts 'personal use' drug law


Updated 8/21/2009 11:59 AM |  Comments 177  |  Recommend 24


E-mail | Save | Print |


MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico decriminalized small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin on Friday — a move that prosecutors say makes sense even in the midst of the government's grueling battle against drug traffickers.


Prosecutors said the new law sets clear limits that keep Mexico's corruption-prone police from shaking down casual users and offers addicts free treatment to keep growing domestic drug use in check.


"This is not legalization, this is regulating the issue and giving citizens greater legal certainty," said Bernardo Espino del Castillo of the attorney general's office.


The new law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities no longer face criminal prosecution.


Espino del Castillo says, in practice, small users almost never did face charges, anyway. Under the previous law, the possession of any amount of drugs was punishable by stiff jail sentences, but there was leeway for addicts caught with smaller amounts.


"We couldn't charge somebody who was in possession of a dose of a drug, there was no way ... because the person would claim they were an addict," he said.


Despite the provisions, police sometimes hauled in suspects and demanded bribes, threatening long jail sentences if people did not pay.


"The bad thing was that it was left up to the discretion of the detective, and it could open the door to corruption or extortion," Espino del Castillo said.


Anyone caught with drug amounts under the new personal-use limit will be encouraged to seek treatment, and for those caught a third time treatment is mandatory.


The maximum amount of marijuana for "personal use" under the new law is 5 grams — the equivalent of about four joints. The limit is a half-gram for cocaine, the equivalent of about four "lines." For other drugs, the limits are 50 milligrams of heroin, 40 milligrams for methamphetamine and 0.015 milligrams for LSD.


Mexico has emphasized the need to differentiate drug addicts and casual users from the violent traffickers whose turf battles have contributed to the deaths of more than 11,000 people since President Felipe Calderon took office in late 2006.


But one expert saw potential for conflict under the new law.


Javier Oliva, a political scientist at Mexico's National Autonomous University, said the new law posed "a serious contradiction" for the Calderon administration.


"If they decriminalize drugs it could lead the army, which has been given the task of combating this, to say, 'What are we doing?' " he said.


Officials said the legal changes could help the government focus more on big-time traffickers.


Espino del Castillo said since Calderon took office, there have been over 15,000 police searches related to small-scale drug dealing or possession, with 95,000 people detained — but only 12% to 15% of whom were ever charged with anything.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.



In an effort to go after manufacturers and criminal elements of society, it is necessary to have the full cooperation of citizens, who are not placed under duress as a result of telling the truth or who may be threatened to be killed for standing up for what is right in cooperating with the authorities; especially if a citizen feels another person’s life, liberty, or property are endangered or are under threat of coercion.


In exchange for the reinstatement of our implied, lawful, and privileged rights as citizens of the United States, we do solemnly swear the following: that we support our law enforcement agencies and military groups, and that we assist them as required of us as citizens in any matter that may be of importance, no matter how seemingly trivial or inconsequential. We will willingly cooperate with search and seizure, if a warrant has been presented in writing and signed by a judge for lawful investigation; excluding the following as deemed by existing laws: evidence obtained by fruit of the poisonous tree, this is including but not limited only to “no-knock warrants”, violation of Habeas corpus/unlawful detainment, and unethical use of confidential informants who are not paid government employees/who do not work for the government. This includes other protocol: relating to proper arrest procedures, Miranda rights and so forth, and the admonition to completely eradicate confidential informants placing a $60,000 bounty on a person’s head, in a barter system or corrupt contract made between law enforcement and criminals that legally jeopardize another person without proper hearing/trial. That any law enforcement agencies and entities can and will be sued to the tune of $60,000 per person,  for each violation of the law, as they are required to uphold the laws that they are sworn to protect.

Our government must stop playing with a deck that is stacked against its own citizens. With this in mind, the Tea Party does not represent oppression, tyranny, or enslavement that exists in this world in various forms; the Tea Party is America, Commerce, and Freedom. In the interest of preventing the first three aforementioned and to preserve the last three as the latter is stated, the Tea Party hereby reclaims our full rights as afforded to us by the Constitution.


In an effort to reduce the number of deaths from prescription pills and to squelch profiteering from addiction and disease, the Tea Party pledges to not support destructive behavior, and to report it dutifully in the best interest of preservation of life, liberty, and happiness. While the Tea Party does not wish to nanny, we also do not wish to nurture or encourage life-threatening behavior or lifestyles, we will not remain silent to the demise of others!


Prescription pills have in recent years claimed the lives of some of the most beautiful, brilliant, and unique individuals of our time: Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith, and many others who sought help and relief and got death in return. May God forgive us if there was anything that we could have done to spare the thousands upon thousands who have died: well over 25,000 lives in recent memory, more than Iraq and Afghanistan wars combined.


Is it any wonder other countries mock our freedom, when our government has trod upon us and squished us like grapes, drunken with gluttonous greed from the power struggle from the War on Drugs? No longer does the Tea Party accept these limitations unlawfully imposed upon us, as the emerging Third Party, and we will no longer be surmised as the “silent or not-so silent Majority”, whose voice has been sold to representation of minority and special interest groups by way of seats, with political corruption and banking schemes! We hereby declare our freedom from tyrannical government, by our rights reserved from and by the Constitution of the United States! From this day forth, we are not expected to follow or observe laws and regulations that infringe upon our rights as citizens, in the interest of free and secure government. We stand for nothing less than this!


Anyone who stands for this may cite this as a legal document, in conjunction with other Patriotic documents, to support their position as a citizen under what has been penned here as “The Tea Party Treatise”. Signed this day, by my own hand, with applicable penalty of perjury in order to keep integrity, honesty, and ethical behavior as the expectations of ourselves and others, guarding against any enemies of our collective freedom.


I, x_________, sign this petition, known as “The Tea Party Treatise” in recognition of the Constitution, as a physical representation of my privileges as a citizen, in accordance to my duties and Oath as a citizen of the United States of America.





x___Aja Brooks__


Please fee free to sign your own copy, and send it to your representatives to restore the broken contract between us and them, to agree to unity and purpose under one flag, the United States of America.
Unlike · Unfollow Post · March 18, 2011 at 8:57pm

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Aja Brooks this is the biggest accomplishment of my life
March 18, 2011 at 8:57pm · Like ·  1
Aja Brooks thank u ttyl :D
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Aja Brooks TEA PARTY TREATISE WINS OVER GA GENERAL ASSEMBLY WITH PASSAGE OF SB 36:
April 14, 2011 at 8:04pm · Like
Statement from Sen. Buddy Carter on General Assembly Passing Patient Safety Act


ATLANTA (April 14, 2011) – State Sen. Buddy Carter (R-Pooler) released the following statement Thursday after the Georgia General Assembly approved the Patient...See More
April 14, 2011 at 8:05pm · Like ·  1

Ron Paul warns police state in America "growing out of control" after U.S. Senator Rand Paul unconstitutionally detained by TSA

(NaturalNews) U.S. Senator Rand Paul was detained by the TSA earlier today after refusing to consent to an illegal, unconstitutional "enhanced pat down." Such pat-downs are a total violation of the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Bill of Rights, and they even constitute felony crimes against private citizens as they involve TSA agents thrusting their fingers inside the anus or vagina of air travelers.
At 10 a.m. Monday, Sen. Rand Paul's staff tweeted that the Senator was "currently being detained by the TSA in Nashville." Ron Paul tweeted in a follow-up post that "My son Rand is currently being detained by the TSA at the Nashville Airport... for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner." (http://twitter.com/#!/RonPaul/status/161468829996826625)
The Daily Caller reports that Rand Paul's first scan produced an "anomaly" that prompted the TSA to demand Ran Paul consent to a full-body pat-down (http://dailycaller.com/2012/01/23/report-tsa-detains-sen-rand-paul-......). He refused, causing the TSA to detain him by refusing to allow him to proceed to his gate. In a strict legal sense, this is also known as "kidnapping."
TSA lies about the incident
The TSA, of course, is so morally corrupt and wholly incapable of telling the truth that they lied about the incident, claiming Sen. Rand Paul was never "detained" at any point. He was merely "denied" the ability to proceed to his gate.
This is the kind of deceptive, contorted mind game the TSA continues to play with the American people. Remember when the TSA strip-searched a couple of elderly ladies behind closed curtains? They insisted that removing their clothes wasn't a "strip search." (http://www.naturalnews.com/034323_National_Organization_for_Women_T......) And when the TSA promised to stop searching the diapers of infants and babies, they lied about that, too, and they continue to conduct such crude, highly inappropriate searches to this day.
Ron Paul lashes out at total police state tyranny
In response to all this, U.S. Presidential contender Ron Paul lashed out, saying "The police state in this country is growing out of control."
He continues: "One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors, and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe. That is why my 'Plan to Restore America,' in additional to cutting $1 trillion dollars in federal spending in one year, eliminates the TSA." (http://www.ronpaul2012.com/2012/01/23/ron-paul-campaign-statement-c......)
White House sides with TSA (and tyranny)
The White House responded today with what can only be called a declaration of a total police state dictatorship in America. White House spokesperson Jay Carney, who previously defended Obama's open killing of American citizens without due process (http://naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=1E3C8FBEAFD167D8F97A8ADBE8F2E451), said, "I think it is absolutely essential that we take necessary actions to ensure that air travel is safe."
This, too, is a total mind game. It presumes that the TSA makes travel safe (a complete lie) and that the TSA has the constitutional authority to even engage in such actions (also a complete lie). It is the height of executive arrogance from a White House that has repeatedly betrayed the American people to the point of outright treason with the signing of the NDAA (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html).
It's confirmed: Even U.S. Senators are now prisoners of the police state bureaucracy
Most astonishing in all this is that now even U.S. Senators are total prisoners in the police state run by the executive branch and all its out-of-control "fiefdoms" of regulatory tyrants. The FDA, EPA, TSA and DEA have all demonstrated a complete disregard for U.S. law and basic human rights. They are out-of-control agencies that openly murder citizens, steal private property, destroy wholesome food, intimidate the innocent and seek to exert their tyrannical power of the public at any cost.
I have warned NaturalNews readers about this on multiple occasions: We are witnessing the rise of the police state in America, week by week. The VIPER road checkpoints (http://www.naturalnews.com/030596_TSA_security_checkpoints.html), the sexual molestation of air travelers, the pepper-spraying of innocent protesters (http://www.naturalnews.com/033805_Occupy_Wall_Street_police_beating...), the total criminal theft of private property by the DEA in marijuana raids, the attempted SOPA act to shut down the internet (http://www.naturalnews.com/034682_SOPA_online_piracy_protest.html)... it goes on and on.
If we do not stand up and resist this police state tyranny RIGHT NOW, we will be left as road kill on the highway to Hell. The TSA is Nazi Germany rising up right in front of our very eyes just as I warned back in 2010 (http://www.naturalnews.com/030356_TSA_Nazi.html).
The TSA is illegal, unconstitutional, and operated in total violation of the fundamental principles of freedom and human rights. TSA agents are confirmed child molesters, child porn distributors, pickpockets, thieves and ego-tripping maniacs who should all be arrested, rounded up, and mass-indicted for their crimes against the American people.
The TSA is an agency out of control. It needs to be immediately cut to ZERO employees, completely de-funded, and subjected to Dept. of Justice indictments. Janet Napolitano is an unindicted criminal conspirator who is engaged in the planning and commission of acts of treason against our Republic.
The solution? www.RonPaul2012.com
If elected President, Ron Paul will seek to completely dismantle the TSA and restore dignity (and liberty) to America
Link
Tags: Ron Paul warns police state in America , after U.S. Senator Rand Paul unconstitutionally detained by TSA, control, growing, of, out

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AS IF THE TSA ISN’T THE DEVIL OF OUR FREE COUNTRY, IT IS THE MISAPPLICATION AND MISCARRIAGE OF LAWS BY JUDICIAL ACTIVISM AGAINST THE CONSTITUTION.

Therefore, possessing .25 oz of marijuana a month for ceremonial or medicinal purposes (inhalation/smoking, ingestion, or poultice) is perfectly legal and not an offense of the law, despite misinterpretation of state laws or as in bans; rather the letter of the law can not supersede Constitutional rights, in respect of the Constitution.

With that said: you will not see me, drinking more than 1 or 2 drinks in public, and you will not see me smoking in public: Native American ceremony dictates privacy, various plants are used for ceremony, and for personal health reasons, I do not engage in binge drinking or excessive smoking, as I make too much estrogen, and smoking and drinking disrupts my hormonal balance. I also think that practicing abusive behaviors, especially in public, sets a bad example for our youth, among other behaviors...

Aja Brooks recommended a link.
Kardashian empire collapsing following Kim's quickie marriage
www.foxnews.com
Kardashian empire collapsing following Kim's quickie marriage
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Aja Brooks ‎2012_TeaParty Tea Party Chief
@foxnation WOW Kardashian Empire Collapsing bit.ly/wskZes? That took all of 2 issues since "LUCKY" got called "BANGABLE" Magazine...
1 minute ago Favorite Reply Delete
January 13 at 2:18pm · Like
Aja Brooks shared a link.
IN CONCURRENCE
@CatholicNewsSvc I object: same-sex union is a vow to another god, not God, whether complicit or for what it stands for, which is not God.
13 minutes agohttp://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1200142.htm
CNS STORY: Letter objects to treating same-sex unions 'as if they were marriage'
www.catholicnews.com
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Aja Brooks cholorecords CHOLA
@BarackObama Therefore, simply changing the definition of what you want it to be, does not undo all laws or even DOMA, nice try - NOW LEAVE!
9 seconds ago Favorite Reply Delete
cholorecords CHOLA
@BarackObama Church not just morally right-legally correct-recognizing same-sex union as marriage changes countless laws-not just definition
32 seconds ago
The Constitution is most effective when lived with good conduct!
See why and the history of HEMP, below:

Medical Marijuana: Inhalation vs. Edibles – Why is it so different?


You have a choice as to how you want to take medical marijuana.  You can inhale marijuana either through smoking it or through a vaporizer.  Of course the healthier option is the vaporizer as there is no irritating smoke.   Cannabis experts now discourage smoking the plant as the only real downside to its use is the damage of the smoke to the lining of your lungs.  Both methods of inhalation put the active compounds in cannabis directly into your bloodstream, which carries them to your brain where they attach to receptors and cause the well known effects.
You can also eat cannabis in the form of what is called edibles: cookies, brownies, and other food products.  When you ingest cannabis, it goes into your intestines, then passes through your liver.  Your liver processes THC into a by product called 11-hydroxy-THC, which then travels to the bloodstream and then to your brain.  11-hydroxy THC is thought to be four to five times more potent than regular THC.  This is why edibles are known to be more potent when compared to inhaled cannabis. Edibles are also thought to be strong sedatives and many patients use them for treatment of insomnia.
Edibles take from 40 minutes to 1 hour to start working and the peak effect is at 2 hours.  The effects last from 6 to 8 hours which is very convenient for those patients who want to sleep or have longer control of pain.
The key to edibles is knowing how much to eat so as to get the best medicinal effect without going overboard.  The general rule of thumb is to cut the edible product into 4 pieces (or smaller if you are new to cannabis) and only eat one piece to start.  Wait at least one hour.  If you feel the effects of the medication, do not eat any more.  If you do not feel the effects of the medication, you can eat another piece.  There have been patients who unknowingly have ingested too much and have had the unfortunate side effects of feeling “too high”, nausea, vomiting, and very groggy.  If you follow the instructions above you should not have any problems with these side effects.
Whichever method you choose, knowing all of the advantages and disadvantages of the different methods of using cannabis helps you to make the best choice for your health.  Many opponents of medical marijuana state that smoking it is unhealthful – they are right. However you have other options like vaporizers, edibles, and tinctures so that the problems associated with the smoke are not an issue.
YIPPIE
   In the 1600’s, a group of enraged colonists marched on the government center of Carolina.  In one of the earliest recorded acts of civil disobedience in America, they defiantly lit up and smoked an illegal plant substance.  History didn’t record the consequences to those particular colonists, but eventually the laws were changed which banned the use of tobacco.
   On July 4, 1969, the Youth International Party, or YIPPIEs, held a similar civil disobedience in Washington DC; this time the illegal plant substance was marijuana.  They vowed to return every year until it was legalized and there has been a July 4 Legalization Demonstration in Washington DC ever since.  One DC NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) activist, who asked to remain anonymous, recently stated, “If hemp products such as paper, cloth, and oil are so valuable that we spend billions overseas to import them, why can’t we just spend that money on products grown and manufactured here in America?  Hemp and marijuana aren’t compatible crops; those who accuse us of only wanting to smoke pot and get high don’t understand that.  Hemp uses only the male plants, that grow taller and have longer fibers, while marijuana uses only the female plants, that have the flower buds, and the two have to be miles apart to prevent ruining both crops!  George Washington wrote about how to tell them apart.  America might not’ve even existed without hemp!  Ben Franklin used hemp that was grown here to start one of the first paper mills in the Colonies so they could have a free press without trying to get paper from England.  That’s why July 4th was chosen for the demonstration in the first place.  It was the birthday of freedom and liberty in America.”
   He really did his homework: hemp and marijuana are derived from the same plant, Cannabis; marijuana’s psychoactive properties are the crux of the legalization debate.  Hemp has one of the longest and strongest natural fibers on earth and has been used for several thousand years, throughout recorded history, in rope, paper and cloth.  The seeds are valuable for oil (usable in lamps, paints, engines, etc.) and for food (hemp seeds contain the highest amount of protein and essential fatty acids of any plant known.)  Marijuana has been used in China, India, and Africa as a medicinal tea, a poultice, and a smokable medicine for at least 3,000 years.  According to Jack Herer, author of “The Emperor Wears No Clothes,” cannabis was even used as money in the Colonies from 1631 until the early 1800’s.  Ironically, at the time of the 1600’s march, farmers were legally required to grow hemp in Virginia, Massachusettes, and Connecticut, and could be jailed for not doing so!  Under Bill Clinton’s crime bill, however, they, Thomas Jefferson & George Washington would all be growing enough acreage to be executed!
   In the first few years of the YIPPIE demonstrations, which were called “Light up for Liberty Smoke–Ins,” participants were sometimes tear–gassed and often scuffled with police. In the mid– to late 70’s they brought live plants with which to turn themselves in, insisting that the police arrest every single one of them or be guilty of selective enforcement of the law.  The police had learned from VietNam War protests just how tough it was to deal with mass arrests & wouldn’t arrest everyone, so pot charges were phased out in favor of disorderly conduct or other charges.  Over the years, the demonstrations steadily grew in size and decreased in antagonism on the parts of both the participants and the police.  Organizers no longer call for acts of civil disobedience, but for people to attempt to make changes in the laws in their respective home states.
   The focus has expanded; the personal liberty issue of legalizing “pot” for “getting high” is still important to many people, who point out that other much more dangerous substances are not just legal but widely advertised.  But recreational consumption has taken a back seat to calling for re–evaluation of the government’s stance against hemp being used even industrially and against the medicinal use of marijuana for AIDS & chemotherapy patients—people who really need to be able to smoke it since they cannot keep anything in their stomachs & therefore cannot take pills.  Several groups actively lobby Congress for changes in the laws.  Libertarians & strict Republicans favor keeping government regulation of personal behavior to a minimum, thus supporting marijuana legalization, or at least decriminalization.  American farmers (prime example: tobacco growers), textile workers, and paper industries, just to name a few, are being left behind in the world economy as many industrialized nations expand into the hemp market.  Britain has begun farming hemp, the Eastern European nations count on it for economic survival; we import millions of tons from China, but we won’t let our struggling farmers grow it.
   Those who support legalization know they are fighting the federal government through the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), as well as pharmaceutical manufacturers, the DARE (Drug and Alcohol Resistance Education) program, and the Partnership for a Drug–Free America, just to name a few groups who oppose legalization.  DARE is even required in many school systems across the country, despite a continued lack of success in lowering the rate of drug use among youth (based on published government studies).  Other anti–legalization forces, such as the Partnership, have large bankrolls paying for lots of TV ads, although some of the information they have put out is disputed even by government marijuana researchers.  Government researchers have shown that DEA claims of increased potency since the 1960’s and DARE claims of marijuana deadliness are patently false.
   In fact, in dozens of tests done at UCLA, Harvard and other universities using the Food and Drug Administration’s own toxicity standards, marijuana has been shown to have no toxic level at all.  Activists say misinformation makes young people question the validity of all given information, which is why the rates of use have gone up instead of down, and that since the yearly demonstration in Washington is their largest available forum to counter the false claims, they will continue to come back every year.  They cite a difference between use and abuse, stating that addiction to any substance is a health problem rather than a legal one, and that, since public education has helped decrease drunk driving and tobacco use, it could also decrease drug dependency.
   The annual event begins with a noon rally at Lafayette Park across Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House which draws about 3-5,000 activists from across the nation to hear speakers on such topics as medical marijuana for AIDS and other diagnoses, industrial uses (which includes hundreds more products than those already listed above), and alleged abuses by the legal establishment against casual and medical users.  This gathering is followed by a march to additional rallies with concerts.  The primary rally/concert is held at the ballpark at 23rd and Constitution NW, sponsored by the July 4 Hemp Coalition.  The event has been held at this site since 1984 and has music generally in the reggae and Grateful Dead genres.  A second rally/concert site, sponsored by YIPPIEs and DC Metro NORML (the local chapter of the organization, which is also part of the July 4 Hemp Coalition), was begun in 1993 on the Ellipse across from the back of the White House, and has usually had approximately 5-6,000 in attendance.  They feature harder rock music styles like heavy metal, punk, and death metal.
   Members of sponsoring groups (at least 15 are represented) believe it’s ridiculous that every year the U.S. spends billions of dollars to eradicate marijuana, plus billions more to import tons of hemp products, plus billions more to prosecute and jail the citizens arrested (one every 54 seconds) for marijuana.  The issue of regulating marijuana in a similar fashion to alcohol is hotly debated even within the ranks of those working for legalization, but there is general agreement on the issues of medical marijuana and industrial hemp.

HEALTH CARE REFORM RESIGNATION AND ENTITLEMENT REFORM APPROPRIATION ACT OF 2012, effective 1/1/12:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/124WK9eBJ2Q_shRz2384m7ZsIkV2Kr--81vECjtPVypU/edit?hl=en_US

Regarding the current reconciliation H.R. 4872, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1U318AW5XYBjzgEhPvvcW59RUHdSehnOVdGiquZyxj6Q/edit?hl=en_US current health care reform could not be passed as reconciled, nor upheld, or implemented as written, and was declared dead legislation: http://chiefbrooks.blogspot.com/

When using the budgetary process of reconciliation, as President, one must have a Senate approved budget. The Senate has been controlled by Democrats since 2006, the debt ceiling has been raised twice since then, and no reconciliation tool can be used when the federal government is operating on a continuing resolution, for the Democrats’ failure to approve a budget for three years.

H.R. 4872 is dead legislation, because there is no money to enact the funded provisions in a $15 trillion dollar deficit, and for the fact that it is outside the scope of constitutional government, in first providing for the common defense.

Colin Powell argued fiercely yesterday that the Tea Party was to blame; however, the Tea Party has found enough cuts and compromised twice, (not whatsoever, as he alleges), to find cuts to continue funding the government and put defense first in priority for operations through 12-16-11.

H.R. 4872, in its summation and appropriation, did not provide anyone with health insurance; it sequestered funding for unconstitutional use of taxpayer dollars: expansion of prisons/use of psychotropic drugs and mandating tax dollars be used to mass-fund abortions.

As anyone knows: spending money on abortions and psychotropic drugs tries to fix societal problems without the proper glue: therefore, there is no money to spend on reducing premiums and managing health care costs through: wellness exams, preventative cancer screenings, and structured surgery cost differential.

Both of these provisions, abortions and prison expansions/psychotropics are misappropriation: citing the 10th Amendment, the Georgia Patients’ Bill of Rights, the Commerce Clause, and moral objections to legislating morality. There is not only an effective moral argument against implementing the legislation, but a glaring lack of finance.

The power of rightful citizenship is to wield the power of the pen, rather than the sword, for the general good of all and is something President Obama does not possess:
he has exploited our legal system, has no authentic record of Hawaiian birth, as he eludes being charged with Social Security fraud and election fraud for dead people and Mickey Mouse voting for him in 2008.

While impeachment drags on, all of Obama’s felonious actions negate anything he has signed into law during this term, for committing perjury: violating Oath of Office, taking in fraudulent campaign donations through convicted Chief Fundraiser Tony Rezko, (who was just sentenced to 10 years in prison), and these donations add up to too many felonies that I have not the time to mention here and various crimes against the public that have warranted the usage of such words as treason and treachery.

H.R. 4872 does not do what it was designed to do, which is, control population growth ethically and responsibly: those who are innocent children conceived face a federally-funded fully-revolving door of the carcass harvesting machine, being sold for scrap parts and stem cell research, now proven ineffective by means of adult stem cells regenerating the heart of the original genetic donor.
Like marrow, stem cells only prove compatible for organ regeneration, so abortion and stem cell research do not require massive government funding, nor do we need to imitate the abortion policies of China, when this science is proven to be limited to those endeavors.

Unethical legislation should not be funded in favor of offering government funded sterilization after the third child, as an option, instead of abortion, which desecrates a woman’s temple!

In conjunction with responsible population control and finance, states were initiated through local courts to uphold these measures of entitlement reform, rather than absorb federal misappropriation:

The State Welfare and Child Support Enforcement Comprehensive Reform Act of 2011-2012
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SVZ_6BpS3i6BWtkeY58wYhknothG6S7Ba9EjwLS2pYQ/edit?hl=en_US

We also ask that every local state department audit their records of distribution of federal funds through food stamp allotments, welfare, and health care.

Taxpayers do not have to fund human farms: in which a mother is being used as a breeder for gang activity. These are known as “den mothers”, a transient residence for a man who has a child or children with the mother, as he floats from woman to woman. A den mother creates a haven or houses gang members, as the mother of a gang leader’s children, or she changes gangs and permits a rival gang to live in her home. This creates a very hostile and routinely upsetting environment for children to live in on a daily basis: children are starved, beaten, and neglected for the financial supremacy goal the gang tries to achieve.

A recent welfare fraud case involved a woman who had four different names for kids, but claimed 11 on her IRS forms and various local offices to suck tons of money from the system http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/people/l/judith_leekin/index.html

Given the need to curtail gang activity, and men who propagate children for this purpose who leave the mothers to care for the children solely and stick society with their tab, it is necessary that state DFACS and IRS agents coordinate their investigations for tax fraud. Any family over the 3-child-claim rule should be flagged and monitored for extra scrutiny if they are receiving aid of any kind!!!

Resultant to these inquiries and investigations, states may enact a cut off: to prevent misappropriation and abuse of taxpayers dollars, by refusing to fund aid to families not adhering to the 3-child rule; those who are contributing to broken homes, adoption mills, and pedophile farming and grooming.

States will be assisting the IRS with reports of suspected fraud, and neglect or abuse of children to DFACS, for the violation of policies involved with distributing state aid. Agencies who do not comply will be reported to the appropriate federal authority, and that local office’s funding will be reduced or eliminated.
Taxpayers don’t pay for your computer, transportation, and telephone for you to sit at a desk and ignore the tasks at hand in their communities!!!

Remember: what DFACS and IRS fails to catch then becomes collateral damage on our courts and taxpayer dollars!! The system must function lawfully and ethically, or its various departments are subject to budget cuts and disbanding, like any organization.
January 16
Now that GA has moved on from the 11th circuit ruling, declaring H.R. 4872 dead, the government has run out of money, so they're trying to force health care as a revenue issue, not insurance, or HSA would have been acceptable for state insurance exchange. We now must mount suit as private citizens against H.R. 4872, not just for unconstitutionality, but against Obama and Democrats for misappropriation, with a $15 trillion+ deficit!!! cholorecords CHOLA
@GovernorDeal @BarackObama No Supreme Court ruling trumps will of the people, you have no money to enforce/can be sued for misappropriation!
2 minutes ago Favorite Reply Delete

cholorecords CHOLA
@GovernorDeal @BarackObama I will also hire someone who will pursue this as a matter of tribal rights and heritage #Cherokee
3 minutes ago

cholorecords CHOLA
@GovernorDeal @BarackObama H.R. 4872 is unconstitutional, esp. without HSA's. You will not force this, or you and your party will be sued!!!
7 minutes ago

cholorecords CHOLA
@GovernorDeal Federal govt. can not exclude HSA's: if they do, our next suit will be private citizens against them for violating our rights.
7 minutes ago
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Aja Brooks shared a link.
January 21
Catholic Bishops and the Church to lead the charge against unconscionable acts by HHS on H.R. 4872 -- Tea Party will push for budget restrictions on these items in $15 trillion+ deficit:http://www.usccb.org/news/2012/12-012.cfm
U.S. Bishops Vow to Fight HHS Edict
www.usccb.org
U.S. Bishops Vow to Fight HHS Edict


U.S. Bishops Vow To Fight HHS Edict

January 20, 2012
Unconscionable to force citizens to buy contraceptives against their will
No change in limited exemption, only delay in enforcement
Matter of freedom of conscience, freedom of religion
WASHINGTON—The Catholic bishops of the United States called “literally unconscionable” a decision by the Obama Administration to continue to demand that sterilization, abortifacients and contraception be included in virtually all health plans. Today's announcement means that this mandate and its very narrow exemption will not change at all; instead there will only be a delay in enforcement against some employers.
“In effect, the president is saying we have a year to figure out how to violate our consciences,” said Cardinal-designate Timothy M. Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The cardinal-designate continued, “To force American citizens to choose between violating their consciences and forgoing their healthcare is literally unconscionable.It is as much an attack on access to health care as on religious freedom. Historically this represents a challenge and a compromise of our religious liberty."
The HHS rule requires that sterilization and contraception – including controversial abortifacients – be included among “preventive services” coverage in almost every healthcare plan available to Americans. “The government should not force Americans to act as if pregnancy is a disease to be prevented at all costs,” added Cardinal-designate Dolan.
At issue, the U.S. bishops and other religious leaders insist, is the survival of a cornerstone constitutionally protected freedom that ensures respect for the conscience of Catholics and all other Americans.
“This is nothing less than a direct attack on religion and First Amendment rights,” said Franciscan Sister Jane Marie Klein, chairperson of the board at Franciscan Alliance, Inc., a system of 13 Catholic hospitals. “I have hundreds of employees who will be upset and confused by this edict. I cannot understand it at all.”
Daughter of Charity Sister Carol Keehan, president and chief executive officer of the Catholic Health Association of the United States, voiced disappointment with the decision. Catholic hospitals serve one out of six people who seek hospital care annually.
“This was a missed opportunity to be clear on appropriate conscience protection,” Sister Keehan said.
Cardinal-designate Dolan urged that the HHS mandate be overturned.
“The Obama administration has now drawn an unprecedented line in the sand,” he said. “The Catholic bishops are committed to working with our fellow Americans to reform the law and change this unjust regulation. We will continue to study all the implications of this troubling decision.”
---
First Amendment, heath care, Archbishop Timothy Dolan, Freedom of Conscience, U.S. bishops, United States Conference of Catholic bishops, President Obama, Sister Carol Keehan
# # # # #
MEDIA CONTACT:
Sr. Mary Ann Walsh
O: 202-541-3200
M: 301-325-7935
Email
BOTH NEWT AND ROMNEY SUPPORTED THE INDIVIDUAL MANDATE, ROMNEY IS HIS OWN STATE AND NEWT IN HIS LOBBYING ENDEAVORS/CENTER FOR HEALTH TRANSFORMATION, THE PLACE TEST PILOTING OBAMACARE/H.R. 4872 SOFTWARE FOR MEDICAL RECORDS, VIOLATING YOUR PRIVACY AND USURPING PRIVATE HEALTH CARE DEBT AS PUBLIC DEBT:

Ron Paul dismisses Newt as a tea party leader


By MJ LEE |
1/29/12 9:21 AM EST
Ron Paul on Sunday dismissed the idea that Newt Gingrich is gaining support among members of the tea party movement, saying it seems “a little strange” that an “insider” would claim to be a leader of an anti-establishment movement.
“The tea party is not a tea party. I mean, it’s all over the place - everybody’s claiming they’re the tea party,” Paul said on CNN’s “State of the Union. “Somebody like Newt Gingrich who’s been in politics all these years and is an insider is claiming that he’s leading the tea party movement  - that to me is a little strange.”
There is no one tea party movement, the the Republican presidential candidate insisted, saying it represents a wide range of frustrated Americans, including the Occupy Wall Street protesters.
“It’s the frustration level that’s so high and I think that’s one of the things that’s energized our campaign," Paul added. "Our meetings and rallies that we have are made up of Democrats and independents and frustrated Republicans."
Read more about: 2012 Presidential Campaign, Newt Gingrich, Ron Paul, Tea Party
(ONE THING: CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERTARIANS AND TEA PARTY REPUBLICANS/FISCAL CONSERVATIVES DO NOT SUPPORT OR ENDORSE THE VIOLENT OR ANARCHIST LIBERTARIANS LIKE LOUGHNER, WHOSE CREDO IS ‘BY ANY MEANS’.)

ANOTHER THING: LOUGHNER SMOKED SALVIA, A HALLUCENOEGENIC LEGAL HERB, UNLIKE MARIJUANA, IT HAS EFFECTS LIKE ACID. THE ONLY THING LIKE IT OR SIMILAR IS PEYOTE, WHICH IS USED FOR TRANCE; LOUGHNER USED SALVIA FOR SELF-ACTUALIZATION, TO TAP INTO HIS ANGER, AND HE SAW HIMSELF AS SOME SORT OF QUASI-AVENGER VIGILANTE LIBERTARIAN PHILOSOPHER OF ANARCHY....


Aja Brooks shared a link.
DO AS I SAY, NOT AS DO, HYPOCRISY.... I SMELL SMOKE... YOU'RE BURNING DEBBIE, YOU'RE BURNING: Wasserman Schultz Blames Tea Party For Gifford Tragedy [Video] http://bit.ly/A37JVj
» Wasserman Schultz Blames Tea Party For Gifford Tragedy [Video]
bit.ly
By Tom Tillison The vile propagandist for the Democrat Party, DNC Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schulz, attacked the tea party in New Hampshire this morning for it's lack of 'civil discourse' and intimated indirectly that the tea party is responsible for the Gifford tragedy in Arizona. As she is f...

Like ·  · Share
    • Al Poe · Friends with Russ Alphin and 92 others
    • Someone needs to put a sock in that bitch's mouth before she over loads it.
    • January 11 at 2:48pm · Like
    • Aja Brooks She finally has begun to tire after a year since this, of running that motor mouthed, ratchet jaw of hers.... all of Obama's lies are unraveling, and she can't even lie confidently anymore!!! She also had Facebook change their design, because she got pissed that I posted the repeal bill on her page, and that no one supports Democrats anymore. The pen, is mightier than the sword... or the keyboard I should say: I busted her head in the cyber realm.....
    • January 11 at 2:50pm · Like ·  1
    • David Colwell · Friends with Brandon Baker and 1 other
    • This lady bemoans the fact that civil discourse is a lost art. She wants people to comment politely on the way her party is damaging the country. We should just quietly object and then take a seat. I think it's gone beyond the level of polite conversation. She is concerned if she disagrees with "tea party" types she is seen as the enemy. OH! Was there ever a question?
    • January 11 at 4:56pm · Unlike ·  2
    • David Colwell · Friends with Brandon Baker and 1 other
    • Well, Ms. Wasserman-Shultz didn't actually blame TEA party, (aka patriotic ) Americans for the shooting, but she seemed like she wouldn't mind if that conclusion were drawn. Just because a lot of citizens woke up suddenly to the farce that has been our government for decades and refuses to take it anymore doesn't mean they want to shoot people. Just to have their rights and constitution back.
    • January 11 at 5:11pm · Unlike ·  2
    • Robbin Marguerite Smith D'Alo LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FIRE!
    • January 11 at 5:55pm · Like
    • Aja Brooks It took me threatening to hire a lawyer to sue Diane Sawyer for slander and Huffington Post for libel for what they said about Sarah Palin and the Tea Party: Diane Sawyer got suspended for about 3 weeks, and then she apologized by wearing yellow and black to the last debate (our initiative and 2012 colors for Project Wounded Warrior), then the Huffington post printed the first honest article from a Marine who was shot in Tuscon in the legs, that he was there that day, and if Giffords' leadership wasn't so bad, he implies he wouldn't have been shot by Loughner. We have to remember that Sarah Palin's use of target sights was free speech to vote for 2nd Amendment rights to protect oneself; not to offend or to create human targets, but voting in which districts were too liberal in supporting other liberal initiatives, like Obamacare/H.R. 4872, for example.
    • January 11 at 6:07pm · Like
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BTW, GIFFORDS ANNOUNCED HER RETIREMENT SHORTLY AFTER MY COMMENTS ABOVE, BECAUSE WE ALWAYS FELT THAT THE TEA PARTY WOULD COMPOSE THE REPEAL LEGISLATION, WHICH WOULD CURTAIL AN OUTPOURING OF VIOLENCE, AND WE WORKED ALL SUMMER TO GET THE LANGUAGE CORRECT ON THE REPEAL BILL:



find it on the original document https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FoSYHTVdM8tMwE-qMB6MPSMtZvkxvWpo9mMyA9vTERw/edit?hl=en_US

Gabrielle Giffords' Retirement Causes Political Fallout In Arizona

The Huffington Post   Meghan Neal Posted: 01/26/2012 5:48 pm Get Politics Alerts

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With partisan political fever seemingly at an all-time high, every seat counts as the Democratic and Republican parties compete to win control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
This means that despite bipartisan good wishes for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), and a uniting sense of inspiration from her remarkable recovery, the race for the swing seat Giffords' retirement leaves open will be very competitive.
In 2010, Giffords won the Tucson-area seat by just 1.3 percent. Now Republicans are lining up to try to win it back.
Speaker of the House John Boehner (R-Ohio), whoteared up during Giffords' resignation ceremony Wednesday, said the GOP is well-positioned to win the seat, Politico reports. Already Jesse Kelly, the Tea Party-backed Republican who lost to Giffords in the midterms, has filed to run in the Republican special primary.
Still, if Giffords chooses to endorse a candidate, a backing from the very popular former congresswoman could give Democrats a leg up.
Democrats have said it's too early to tell who will jump in the race, but a few names have been floated: State Sen. Linda Lopez (a friend of Giffords), State Senate Minority Whip Paula Aboud, State Rep. Steve Farley, Pima County Supervisor Ramon Valadez, and businesswoman Nan Stockholm Walden.
Speculation swirled that Giffords' husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, would make a bid for the seat, but Kelly said definitively this week that he's not running.
Democrats also floated Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former two-term governor of Arizona, but she too said she has no intention of running. On the Republican side, State Sen. Frank Antenori and college sports TV broadcaster Dave Sitton have been named as potential candidates.
Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has set a special primary election for April, and the special general election will be held in June. No matter who jumps in the race, the district is bound to be closely watched in the coming weeks and months.
More election news from beyond the presidential field:
Republican Ex-Gov. Tommy Thompson leads the pack in Wisconsin's tossup Senate race [AP]
Former Nebraska Gov. Bob Kerrey will announce decision very soon about whether to run for Senate in his home state, and isn't worried about carpetbagger claim [New York Times]
Scott Brown is the second-most bipartisan senator, study says [Boston Globe]
Poll shows trouble for Illinois Rep. Joe Walsh (R), who's trailing a generic Democrat 35 percent to 49 percent [HuffPost]
First he was running for U.S. Senate, then Congress, and now Ed Martin announces he'll run for attorney general in Missouri [STLToday]
With less than a week until Oregon's special election, the knives come out [RollCall]
NO OFFENSE TO GIFFORDS EITHER, BUT ULTRALITE LEGISLATION WILL NOT STOP SALVIA, NOR WILL IT STOP THE DRUG WAR, WHICH IS POVERTY-BASED: HER BILL IS LIKE ONE STITCH IN A GAPING WOUND, WHERE REVENUE IS GUSHING ACROSS THE BORDER FOR 50% OF MEXICO’S DRUG EXPORTS!!!


WITH THE WOOL PULLED BACK FROM AMERICA’S SLEEPY EYES, AS YANKED DOWN BY THE TEA PARTY, 78% NOW BELIEVE THAT OBAMA WAS BORN IN KENYA, NOT HAWAII:





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