Petey's Pipeline E-zine

Issue #39

October 2, 2006

Contents

Business First Opportunity Revisited
Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings The Case for Hemp Legalization: A Rationale for Legalization
Write Thinking Punctuation – the Marks of Professionals (the Comma, Part l)

Business First (Editorial)

Opportunity Revisited

Back in issue # 27, I wrote about a business opportunity called MadeBig.com Since then, Yahoo! got involved, and so did MapQuest. The new MadeBig site launched and, suddenly, everything was different. Now, you can join the MadeBig online community, free of charge and without obligation. Build a network of friends, use the various features of the MadeBig Web site to promote yourself, your business, your Web site, or your blog in creative ways.

If you're interested in becoming part of the biggest thing to come along since MySpace.com, send me a blank e-mail (don't change the subject line), and I'll send you a link that will facilitate the application process. Sign up now and start taking advantage of the many opportunities offered through the MadeBig site. Hundreds of people are joining every day. There's no way you can lose on this deal, but there are lots of ways you can win.

• • •

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Random Ramblings & Miscellaneous Musings

The Case for Hemp Legalization: A Rationale for Legalization
by Phil Hanson

A sustainable economy and sustainable culture go hand in hand. One cannot exist without the other. Socioeconomic stability is the engine that will drive the evolution of human advancement in years to come. For that reason, and because of hemp's versatility and vast potential, hemp is poised to play a pivotal role in economic development, environmental cleanup, and global climate change solutions.

Hemp fiber's virtues are legendary, a primary reason why hemp is the logical successor to various market niches destined for abandonment by conventional but energy inefficient, environmentally destructive, unsustainable products now falling out of favor with growing numbers of aware consumers who put long-term sanity and survival ahead of short-term profits.

Not surprising, but also not generally well known, are the long-term environmental problems caused by hemp prohibition. The decades long ban has directly resulted in more pollutants entering streams, rivers and oceans, more air pollution, acid rain, topsoil depletion, and a host of other problems that cause needless suffering, loss of life, or financial difficulties among the general population.

In recent years, public perceptions about marijuana (cannabis hemp) have undergone profound changes, and this newfound awareness is bringing about the slow but inevitable collapse of the government's 69-year old ban against hemp. No one with a rational thinking brain can look at the body of scientific evidence and argue that the prohibitions against hemp should be allowed to stand.

Indeed, those on the religious right who profess a belief in God need also believe that God's plan for cannabis hemp is something far more noble than as an excuse for government thugs to lock people up—or to gun them down.

If the federal government lacks vision, a growing number of state governments do not. 11 states (AK, AZ, CA, CO, HI, ME, NV, OR, RI, VT and WA.) now have medical marijuana laws in place; several more have legislation pending.

In Alaska, it's legal for adults to possess up to one ounce of pot. In Colorado, a marijuana legalization initiative awaits voter approval. North Carolina is considering a measure to permit industrial hemp research, and Nevada is flirting with full legalization, a move that—if the measure passes—will put Nevada at the forefront of the sustainability movement.

The California Assembly recently passed a bill that allows farmers to grow industrial hemp. That bill now awaits Governor Schwartzenegger's signature. No word, yet, on whether the "Governator" will sign it.

Where states are slow to act, local communities take up the slack. Seattle, Washington, Oakland, California, and Columbia, Missouri successfully passed initiatives that make marijuana offenses the lowest law enforcement priority. Eureka Springs, Arkansas, seems poised to join Missoula, Montana, and the California cities of Santa Monica, Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz, which already have lowest-priority initiatives qualified for the ballot.

In Sun Valley, Idaho, an initiative that would legalize marijuana and/or ease restrictions against it is being allowed to move forward.

Police in some communities are motivated by popular sentiment to make the enforcement of anti-marijuana laws their lowest priority. In such diverse states as Massachusetts, Illinois, Indiana and Oregon, law enforcement agencies in some communities are acting independently of state and federal governments to back-burner marijuana offenses.

Former grassroots movements that have taken on national prominence include such organizations as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet), and the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). These groups are working actively to effect legislation that will bring an end to marijuana prohibition.

What began as a ripple in the '70's, subsided in the '80's, then became a ground swell in the '90's is, in the first decade of a new millennium, on the verge of becoming a tsunami. When that wave comes crashing down, 70 years of hypocrisy, bigotry, ignorance, paranoia, misunderstanding, duplicity and injustice are going to come crashing down with it.

It can't happen too soon.

Copyright © 2006 by Phil Hanson
All rights reserved.

Write Thinking

Punctuation – the Marks of Professionals

Getting punctuation right is critical to making your writing intelligible and coherent. As with misspelled and misused words, misused or missing punctuation takes your message off track and confuses your readers. To help you avoid the avoidable, the next few installments of Write Thinking deal with punctuation marks, in all their many forms, with example sentences provided for clarification.

The Comma (,), Part I of IV

• Use a comma to separate a dependent introductory clause from the main clause.

When the dependent clause doesn't begin the sentence, a comma is usually unnecessary.

• Use a comma when absolute or participial phrases begin a sentence.

Disclaimer

The articles appearing in Petey's Pipeline E-zine are based on information believed to be true at the time of publication. Neither Perfecttext.com, Petey's Pipeline E-zine nor their publisher assume any liability or responsibility as to the accuracy or efficacy of any information, products or services that are submitted, advertised or rendered by contributors to Petey's Pipeline E-zine. While we make every effort to screen out scam artists and bogus offers, you should still do your homework. Caveat emptor!

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