The following is what I shared with the committee:

Thank you for allowing me to speak today with regards to “Bill H01371 — An Act to regulate and tax the cannabis industry.”

Before I share my views, I would like to open with a quote, “Legalizing drugs is the coward practice of combating cartels, it is an insult to our men and women in law enforcement, and the laziest form of parenting…” That is a quote from El Paso County Commissioner Willie Gandara Jr., elected to the Commissioners Court in 2008.¹ Not long after saying that he was arrested on federal drug-trafficking charges.

The past three Drug Czars of Mexico, from 1997 until 2008, have all been investigated or arrested for accepting bribes from the Drug Trafficking Organizations (DTOs). One allegedly garnered about $12.5 million, and another was allegedly taking payments of around $450,000 per month!²

Every week, the Drug War Chronicle³ reports multiple instances of politicians, law enforcement agents, judges, border guards, prison guards — you name it — who are caught and convicted of working on the side of drug pushers, looking for a slice of the huge black market given its lack of accountability and lack of regulations. And no amount of humiliating and expensive urine-testing is going reveal their involvement.

Let’s not forget Zero-Tolerance and Abstinence-Only advocate Senator Mark Souder; shockingly vehement and cruel in his positions; speaking out and making videos against what he claimed to hate, and yet, what he was also engaged in.⁴

Then there’s Pastor Ted Haggard who persecuted gays and the gay life style, only to be outed by his gay prostitute friend, who also happened to buy methamphetamine for Pastor Ted. I wished I could have found a quote by Pastor Ted condemning meth users, but evidently his criticism of gays overshadowed whatever comments he made about crystal meth.^{5 6}

Or the VP of a police equipment company who has a $15,000 a month cocaine habit⁷; I bet he hid behind a “I’m the wise one” and a “get tough” persona.

Ok, I hope you see where I’m going with this. For too long those who favor Prohibition have gotten away with calling us reformers “druggies,” “hippies,” “losers,” “mentally unstable,” “morally decadent,” but the time has come for this honorable body and our society at large to realize that we are the ones who are calling for sanity and control.

The tipping point is here. Not only does the majority of the population support ending this failed and counterproductive 100-year-old marijuana prohibition; those who support it should be viewed with increasing skepticism.

CIA Station Chief John Stockwell said, we (the CIA) created, “the Golden Triangle in which the CIA Air America airplanes were flying in arms to our allies and flying back out with the heroin.”⁸

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition reports that the Department of Justice believes drug cartels were active in 230 U.S. cities in 2009, but in 2011 they operated in more than 1,000 cities.⁹ If you think they haven’t infiltrated government or businesses through payoffs or moles, then I want to bring your attention back to my opening quote and examples. In many cases, those who speak the most vociferously against a thing are trying to cover up their involvement in it.

The time to take away the corrupting power of this underground economy is now. The time for the downfall of the black market’s financial incentive to push drugs is now. The time for us mature adults to take responsibility for the intelligent regulation of marijuana is now.

Make no mistake, as has been the case for well over 5,000 years: marijuana will be grown, marijuana will be processed, shared and sold. Cannabis will be consumed. The question before you now is should it continue to remain in the hands of the underworld and the fakers — the wolves in sheep’s clothes and False Prophets of Prohibition — who pretend to care while reciting a litany of long-debunked “refer madness” scare stories?

Or should we face God’s honest Truth that dealers don’t ask for ID to check age, that licensed entities can be held accountable, that studies around the world¹⁰ and throughout the U.S.¹¹ prove youth use rates go down in areas where there’s an above-board regulated system?

Clearly the extremist position of Prohibition is intrinsically flawed and exacerbates every ill the Prohibitionists decry. Prohibition is by definition a complete lack of regulation, control is completely turned over to the black market.

But neither am I here to advocate for the other extreme: re-legalized marijuana with no checks and balances.

There is a straight way before you, between those extremes, an open door, this bill, H01371.

Do I like every aspect of this bill? No. But I know this, bringing things into the light is a command from God; and in my opinion that’s what this bill aims to do.

I thank you for your time.

Additional penned in notes based on comments made by previous testimony:

• Legalizing drugs sends the RIGHT message to teens! It tells them, “drugs are not to be dispensed by other teens or gangs or pushers.”¹²
• In regards to a comment by a Prohibitionist that marijuana destroys brain cells … Health and Human Services (HHS) has patent (#6,630,507) titled, “Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants.”¹³

Footnotes:
¹ Daniel Borunda (dborunda@elpasotimes.com; 546-6102), El Paso Times, 2012-02-23 01:06:35 AM MST, Updated: DEA arrests County Commissioner Willie Gandara Jr. on drug trafficking charges, http://www.ElPasoTimes.com/ci_200...
² CNN, Former Mexican drug czar arrested on corruption charges, http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-2...
³ Phillip Smith, Drug War Chronicle, http://StopTheDrugWar.org/taxonom...
⁴http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark...
⁵http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_...
⁶http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15536...
⁷The Boston Globe, Off-color text messages damage FBI sting in foreign bribery case, http://articles.boston.com/2012-0...
⁸ What I’ve Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy: The War Against the Third World, A Video Compilation by Frank Dorrel, 00:03:00 - 00:09:15, http://www.AddictedToWar.com/dorrel
⁹ ONE DRUG ARREST EVERY 19 SECONDS IN THE U.S., http://CopsSayLegalize.blogspot.c...
¹⁰ Netherlands - links online
¹¹ Rhode Island Hospital, Rhode Island Hospital Study Finds Legalizing Medical Marijuana Does Not Increase Use Among Youth, http://www.RhodeIslandHospital.or...
¹²https://ChristiansAgainstProhibit...
¹³http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/np...

I did not read from a script, although after I spoke it was suggested to me I should have. In any case, here is the full text of what was said.

I want to … [speaker tries to figure out if video is being recorded] … in keeping with the Martin Luther theme … [speaker interrupts videographer due to thumb over lens] …

I want to — and the persecutions he went through — I want to thank God for teaching us that being persecuted is in fact a blessing — and tough character assassinations that people go through, and all the other horrible and uncomfortable things you have to go through on your walk.

I would also like to try to offer some comfort for people who have lost family members to deaths for substance passing and they need comfort; and I would also like to pray for Prohibitionists, Drug Warriors, and the people with a Prohibitionist mind-set. This [holds up Winchester Star newspaper, cover story: Heroin a growing problem] is due to it.

I hope everyone saw the Winchester Star this week, if not, I’d be glad to share this with you [so you can] read it. It has … some information … it’s not all good …

Prohibitionists are causing the problem. Prohibition is the problem.

When you go to the funeral of someone who died from a substance overdose, whether it’s your friend, daughter, anyone; I want you to ask yourself, question yourself, “when did my son demand heroin?” He did not demand heroin!

It was spread because of Prohibition. It was spread because of the black market.

The Prohibitionists need our prayers. They are driving us to destruction.

Please let’s pray for them.