by Gatewood Galbraith and Friends
LETTERS ... WE GOT LETTERS ...
We got piles and piles of letters ...
Dear Gatewood ...
They came from France and they came from Amsterdam, they came from New York and California, Arizona and Vermont and all places in between. They came in long envelopes, short envelopes and no envelopes, thin with money and thick with bad news and good tidings. Big envelopes and little envelopes, some with brash statements as to their politics on the outside, painted to catch the eye of everyone they could and others came bare of signature, both inside and out, as if by signing their name or their return address they might become immediate suspects. They might have.
The letters on the inside ranged from one word to tens of thousands, from hand-written scrawls to professionally printed information sheets. They came with lots of money in them and a little money in them, no money in them and some of them even asked for money.
The ones I remember the most were those with one dollar or two or three dollars in them, dozens of them with no note or letter, just a dollar bill between two sheets of white paper, no track to trace from, no tale to tell. I tried to imagine the human circumstances of the people who mailed these to me and how they would want me to use their dollars and their representation. I felt very humbled and very empowered by their actions. Their tokens of hope and support never failed to lift my spirits and resolve that yes, darn it! Our voices will be heard.
Most letters were filled with their own voice, seeking further information and literature, offering advice and encouragement, seeking answers and often solace. There were endless renditions of tragedy visited upon everyday people by the police state depicted elsewhere in this book and present everywhere in this country. They told of warrantless midnight searches by dozens of mean, heavily armed "peace officers" with an attitude, guns drawn and pointed at parents while the awakened children watched their moms and dads get violated and harrassed, physically and verbally.
Sometimes the parents would get arrested and the children put in a foster home if contraband was found (even if it was not what was listed to be found in the affidavit for the warrant) and sometimes there was nothing found.
Routinely, where nothing was found, many times with the house virtually destroyed in the search, the parents were threatened with further investigation and the "officers" left without so much as an apology, much less an offer to help clean up.
These kinds of letters came from everywhere and they convince me that there is a nation-wide and uniform effort by the federal government to encourage this kind of treatment of individual citizens at the hands of federal and state agents ...
... We are a small group of veteran police officers who feel that it is our civic duty to expose certain unwritten policies and attitudes of our officials and fellow officers regarding the "War on Drugs," an attitude that the civilian population is the enemy and the policy is to advance and attack.
Another attitude is that we must assist our department in obtaining more funding and to expand our powers to the point that we have totally disregarded the rights of others. We have all participated in a large number of drug raids and over the last few months, the nature of these raids has changed. Slowly, but steadily, it has become an unwritten policy and practice with some of our fellow officers to carry what are known as "throwaway" drugs, just as it has always been the practice for some officers to carry "throw away" pistols. Until a few months ago, it was rare to use these "throw aways" unless we had strong circumstantial evidence that the suspect was a dealer or user of drugs.
We know that, because of the stepped-up efforts in enforcement, a good share of the raids that we go on are instituted by a vindictive neighbor, an overzealous neighborhood-watch participant or maybe an angry relative or something of that nature. We know that some of the officers are dumping drugs on these people during raids, but we don't know how many innocents are affected by this practice.
To our amazement, we are able to obtain a search warrant from almost any judge by giving nothing more than the person's name and address.
During our weekly card games, our group has discussed this matter at length and we feel that, if left unchecked, the system will reduce us, as officers, to nothing more than feared S.S. officers.
We know that we are systematically displacing large numbers of black males and poor white males through arrest and imprisonment, and we are getting increased pressure to get into the middle-class areas, to confiscate more property of higher value.
We are not offering any political solutions to the situation and we are not suggesting that we stop the war on crime, but we feel that the public and the courts should be more concerned with individual civil rights if we are not to become a brutal police state.
Unfortunately, already, we as police officers must protect our identity and our location from our union, department heads and fellow officers in fear of serious reprisals from within for voicing our criticisms; therefore we are mailing this letter at our own expense to various people whom we feel may effectively inform the public in one way or another ...
Before it is too late please help us: Recopy and Redistribute! ... unsigned, The Man
Hundreds of letters came to us from the victims of this runaway "War on Drugs," those men and women locked away behind bricks and steel for major parts of their lives because of their association with a green, natural plant. What kind of free society outlaws its own farmers?
These letters came from everywhere but mostly they came from the heart, from hearts filled with pain and grief to hearts filled with hope and expectation. Mostly those hearts are better writers than I am so I will let them tell you their stories ...
... I am incarcerated at Wyoming Correctional Facility and would like to congratulate you on your stand on hemp. I know what it means to have your Constitutional rights violated with no hope. Let's put it this way, I will be receiving a "random" urine test for just writing this. Myself, I can never touch it for a long time, but I will be getting out soon and I am glad after all that is happening in this world that there are still people like you out there.
This system we are in is more corrupt than the people in here ...
... I pray for you each and every day. If I had money I would be more than happy to send a contribution. Unfortunately what you are fighting for (is what) I am in prison for and can't send you anything, except for my most humble gratitude and prayers ... I just want to tell you on behalf of all those incarcerated because their freedom has been taken away -- because of the prohibition of pot.
Dear Gatewood ...
... I am an inmate serving a seven year sentence at FCI (Federal Correctional Institute), Lexington, for importation of marijuana. My hope is that one day marijuana will become legal.
I admire your courauge. These are very difficult times for the American public. Many of us are victims of this witch-hunt called the "Drug War." My offense is categorized and treated equal to cocaine and heroin crimes -- the government classifies marijuana as a narcotic. Because of this I am housed in a medium security facility, with no chance of 'camp' (minimum security) placement and an eventual half-way house.
Dear Gatewood ...
... We had seven small plants growing on our front porch in North Dakota. We are both facing Class B felonies for this. All kinds of scare tactics are being used by our fine police detective; he has spread more untrue stories against us, (among) my ob/gyn doctor and people we don't even know personally.
The informant was supposed to be a friend of ours. We were sharing our food and money with him that we didn't really have to give. He was in trouble for something in Minnesota non-drug related. He ratted on us to save his own ass.
Dear Gatewood ...
... I am a Vietnam veteran presently incarcerated for my indulgence in the pleasures of cannabis. Branded a criminal, due to a law that I consider unjust, I am otherwise an honest, peace loving, citizen who bothers no one and expects the same in return.
As our basic rights and freedoms are being eroded in the "War on Drugs," I am becoming increasingly concerned, not just over my present suffering, but that of future victims. Our current laws are not only draconic but also defacto (severe and unconstitional). I correlate the present situation, (which I consider a holocaust on our own people), to the history of alcohol prohibition.
For America to be truly free, adults should justly have the right of personal choice. I oppose appropriation of additional funds to expand the repressive police state that has been forming, and suggest using now wasted funds for education and social programs, rather than persecuting casual users.
Alternatives such as de-criminalization and licensing would devalue what is now contraband and effectively eliminate some facets of organized crime, reduce street crime and violence, and improve our sagging economy by keeping the money circulating within our borders. As evidenced by the Dutch, who legalized marijuana in 1972, consumption would decrease, contrary to myths being propagated by the Bush and Bennett (Drug Czar) regime.
I further urge re-classification of marijuana which is now classed with hard drugs. Its mild euphoric properties, alone, with many recognized medical uses, can hardly be compared to other drugs (legal and illegal) especially what many consider the most dangerous drug, alcohol.
I have used marijuana for almost 25 years since my introduction to it in Vietnam. I find it is mildly relaxing, stimulates my appetite and enjoyment of food, and enhances my sex life. I defend my personal and private usage and resent Government intervention.
I am confident my views are shared not only by the estimated thirty million plus Americans who indulge in marijuana but also free thinking individuals who are sympathetic to our plight and believe in freedom and liberty. I pray logic will prevail. ... Signed, P.O.W
Dear Gatewood ...
I am a hard working, respected, and law abiding citizen. I pay my taxes, go to church, wear my seatbelt and try to teach my children to respect the law. I also smoke pot. I resent the fact that because of this minor and harmless vice, I am a criminal.
I live in rural Kentucky and there are a lot of growers in this area. I have to watch that my children don't wander into the neighbor's fields during the growing season. Pot stealing is as common as pot growing. Taking a walk is dangerous. Legalization would take care of this problem.
At a time when dollars are being cut from school lunch programs, with more children falling below the poverty level and with education in shambles across most of the nation, why are our precious tax dollars being spent testing the urine of our brothers and sisters? ... Signed, a Supporter
Have we accomplished full employment when half of our sons and daughters are prison guards and the other half prisoners?
This new prohibitionist mentality is the cornerstone of a new, yet old, form of slavery where the "status" criminal is the fodder for dealing anew in human beings. Fathers and mothers are condemned to extraordinary prison terms, torn from the arms of their distraught wives and crying children, replaying those tragic scenes of forced family separation on the auction block 150 years ago. The privatization of prisons has further institutionalized this dealing in human beings as a form of commerce and it is just as immoral and unchristian in this century as it was in the past. The madness of slavery revisited!
Couldn't we at least use these tax dollars being spent against marijuana to search for the serial killers of the world before they claim more victims?
Even more inhumane than the treatment of prisoners trapped within bricks and bars is the treatment of millions of Americans who are imprisoned within diseases and debilitations and for whom marijuana is the safest, most theraputically active agent for their treatment. What must it be like to know from medical literature and common experience that marijuana could save your sight, or help your son or daughter eat and keep their weight on during cancer treatment, or a myriad of other beneficial medical results and then to know that your government forbids its prescription and use because it interferes with the corporate profits being enjoyed by the shareholders of pharmaceutical companies (including the Bush and Quayle families) who have a monopoly on medicine in the United States?
How truly free is an individual who can not medicate his or her self with a green natural plant that is the best medicine on the planet?
At a time when the Government seems powerless to stop Dr. "Suicide Machine" or the right of a person to pull the plug on themselves through "living wills," or the "right" of a person to voluntarily risk their lives by joining the armed services and engaging in unnecessary political wars being fought for corporate profits, then it seems contradictory, wasteful and illogical to spend scarce tax dollars to criminalize and enforce laws against patients and adults consuming this most beneficial and least harmful of all the green, natural plants given to us by our Maker.
Marijuana is the least expensive medicine on earth but its competitors, Bush, Lilly, DuPont and the gang want to raise the cost of its acquisition and use by making it illegal and burdened with black-market profiteering. They can't stand better and cheaper competition and they can't stand losing a single dollar's profit.
I wonder how they can stand their own consciences ...