> To: eurodrug@encod.org
>
> Dear friends,
>
> With all respect, I take issue with the statement,
>
> “Freedom to Farm”, aimed at mobilising people behind the proposal to legalize the
> cultivation of drug-related plants, as a first element in the fundamental
> reform of drug policy."
>
> To begin with, the phrase "drug-related plants" is a dangerous contradiction. It buys into the
> prohibitionist idea that herbs and drugs are roughly the same thing. They are not at all
"related," neither legally, economically, practically or physiologically. Some drugs are
"plant-derived" but no plants are "drug-derived." People's perversion of plants should not be used
against the plant.
>
> Let us be clear about the legal distinction between drugs and herbs. At least in the case of the
> U.S., our government was based on protecting Natural rights. This is spelled out in first
> paragraphs of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. Presumeably there are other governments
> where
> Natural rights are specifically mentioned as sacrosanct. Contemporary International treaties
> also
> claim to defend peoples' Natural rights.
>
> The King James Bible, from which many countries and moral philosophies derive their legal
> direction, refers to "every herb bearing seed" on the first page. There is no mention of "every
> herb bearing drugs". The right to use Cannabis has always been beyond the rightful jurisdiction
> of
> any court. The illusiom of illegality has successfully suppressed awareness of what is within
> the
> realm of the court and what is not.
>
> As it happens, Cannabis is nutritionally unique and essential, further removing it from the
> rightful, legal jurisdiction of government. In addition to that, Cannabis is the most
> vertsatile,potentially abundant and useful agricultural resource on Earth. This planet is on the
> verge of synergistic environmental, economic, and social collapse, which will only become more
> extreme as Global Broiling continues to destabilise all integrated systems and critically
> determinate conditions at once.
>
> That the courts and the media have been successful in re-classifying any herb as a drug is a
> threat to the legal definition of all herbs. When the distinction between plants and chemicals
> is
> made unclear, then the confusion will result in further loss of our Natural rights.
>
> As a sign of respect for Nature, and for Cannabis, I suggest that people return to the practice
> of
> capitalizing these words. Taxonomic, genus names are always capitalized, as in "Homo sapiens."
> Because of the current fashion for disrespecting Cannabis, somehow even people in the Cannabis
> movement have stopped honoring this plant with the proper punctuation.
>
> Challenging the government over jurisdiction is the quickest way to disempower illegal
> prohibition
> stautes. That's why the Swiss court failed to address this argument. They are hoping that people
> will just go along with their definition of what is a drug, so they can perpetuate the illusion
> of
> rightful jurisdiction.
>
> Herbs are not drugs. Drugs don't produce seed. Cannabis is an herb, and therefore more than
> legal.
>
> for peace,
>
> PvH

The case of Hemp-Info:
Swiss Courts Corrupted by Chemicals

> Last week the District Court of Morat, Switzerland, sentenced Cannabis agriculturist, André
> Fürst, the owner of Hemp-Info, to 29 months in prison and a fine of 150.000 Swiss francs (approx.
> 98.000 euros). Mr. Fürst's "crime" was years of open and public development of agro-industrial
> ecological
> methods of hemp utilization, demonstrating realistic solutions to major environmental, economic,
> and social problems.
>
> Unfortunately, a free market in Cannabis is an economic threat to the black market in drugs, and
> the corrupted political establishment, economically vested in chemical- and prison-based
> industries. After years of global activism and harrassment by Swiss authorities, André has
> finally
> become a casualty in the global "war on herbs" being orchestrated by the United States. The U.S.
> has been exerting its economic influence on Swiss drug policy for years, interfering with
> progressive development in a nation which has traditionally been politically independent.
> 
> The authorities in many Swiss states (cantons) were, until recently, applying a
> pragmatic and humanistic approach to drug policies. Now the Swiss authorities have begun a
> "witch
> hunt" of their own, caving into temptations of money and power the fruits of the bad example set
> by the U.S. "War on [Some] Drugs [and Herbs]."
>
> For decades, the U.S. prohibition has proven to be invariably disastrous environmentally,
> economically and in its tragic consequences eroding fundamental human rights. Only by dismissing
> the fact that Cannabis is an "herb bearing seed" and categorizing the world's most useful plant
> as
> a "drug" have the economically corrupted courts been able to usurp control over this unique and
> essential, strategic natural resource. The anti-natural precedent set by Cannabis prohibition is
> incalculably dangerous, because it unlawfully extends the legal jurisdiction of governments over
> people's Natural rights, that are the original basis for those governments.
>
> In the future, perhaps after the Natural Order has collapsed, beyond recovery, maybe the Swiss
> people will wake up to reclaim the role of social progressive, properly adjusting to local
> attitudes of tolerance. In the meantime, free market activists, supporting the god-given right
> to
> farm "every herb bearing seed," are under pressures from the corrupted judiciary, which is
> absolutely unworthy of any society claiming to be "democratic."
>
> If the Swiss National Council had agreed to revise drug legislation as federal authorities had
> proposed, the case of Hemp-Info would have been dismissed. André Fürst offered Switzerland a
> future without farmer's subsidies, that included a workable plan to protect Swiss youth from
> drug
> criminality, that disempowered the black market, and cut off a lucrative source of financing for
> international terrorism.
>
> Fribourg justice, short-sighted and dogmatic, rejected all of André's reasonable arguments,
> which
> are based on irrefutable scientific, political, sociological and economic evidence. The Fribourg
> judges have failed to uphold laws that protect the Swiss people's collective interests. The
> judges
> in Fribourg have choosen instead to favor the wealthy corporate conglomerates, the parallel,
> chemically-based economy and the pervasive, hypocritical, pseudo-morality that is poisoning
> human
> society with "legal" drugs, while starving most of the world's children.
>
> In judging André Fürst a criminal, the judiciary is pushing all farmers in the direction of
> corporate control. People who are ill, that rely on the proven therapeutic properties of
> 'marijuana' and other forbidden plants, will now be forced to seek their chosen herbal remedies
> amid the dangers of the black market, as before. Cannabis users are being forced by the courts
> to
> support organized crime, while risking their health in purchasing products of unknown purity and
> quality.
>
> Besides the incalculable personal tragedies inflicted on the Swiss Cannabis culture, this policy
> will cause considerable harm to the whole of Swiss society, and the rest of the world. The
> inevitable, disasterous impacts of prohibition effect everyone.
>
> All this is happening because a phytotherpeutic ("plant healing") herb, which is safer and more
> useful than either "legal" tobacco and alcohol, presents a threat to the pharmaceutical,
> petroleum, and other chemically-based multi-national industries in Switzerland and the U.S..
> Hemp-Info demonstrated that Cannabis can be used to produce everything that is currently being
> made from petroleum and timber, using chemically intensive methods and anti-natural resources.
>
> When criminal groups (like the Hell's Angels and the Yakuza) take over the Swiss Cannabis
> market (as has already happened in Canada, Sweden, Hawaii, and other places), everybody will
> bitterly regret André Fürst's conviction. The organic products and realistic, healthful control
> measures which he was prosecuted for pioneering will be looked back upon as visionary.
>
> The judiciary authorities in Fribourg must be held accountable for their limited thinking
> leading
> to an illogical decision. By favoring policies which are proven to be counter-productive to
> society their decision is a direct threat to the integrity of the Swiss justice system.
>
> As a result of inducing scarcity of herbal Cannabis, predictable increases in the use of
> dangerous
> chemical drugs (including alcohol, methamphetamines, crack, heroin, cocaine, and
> benzodiazepines)
> will certainly begin to plague Switzerland, just as they have infected the U.S. and other
> prohibitionist countries. Organized crime, increasing spread of HIV/AIDS, deteriorating
> economics,
> and a "drug war"-impoverished infrastructure will soon degrade the quality of life for all Swiss
> people.
>
> In spite of Hemp-Info's obvious determination to base their activities on Cannabis
> laws proposed and supported by Swiss federal and parliamentary committees, the Fribourg Court
> has
> advanced the repressive poliices advanced by the prosecution. In particular, the Fribourg Court
> failed to render a clear legal decision regarding the different methods of Cannabis analysis.
> The
> results of these tests can be so erratic that they can show THC levels, varying from 0.3% to
> 3.0%
> in the same sample of hemp. The Fribourg Court also refused to assess the legal juridiction of
> the
> THC standard established by French law.
>
> This arbitrary measure is missing any proven scientific or agronomic basis and has no authority
> in
> regard to Swiss legislation. The Court inexplicably ignored the fact that hemp is an herb, not a
> "drug" and certainly not a "narcotic." This decision insults the Rule of Law and the spirit of
> authors of the drug legislation, by disregarding or changing established legal and historically
> relevant definitions.
>
> As far as Hemp-Info has not received any response to these fundamental questions
> and because there are other critically compelling reasons to reject this sentence, André
> Fürst will continue his struggle for freedom to farm Cannabis and will register an appeal of
> this
> decision with the Cantonal Court of Fribourg.
>
> If the people of the world recognise why this case is of pivotal importance to all of our
> freedoms
> and the quality of life on this planet, then perhaps there is still hope for reversing the
> symptoms of imbalance that have resulted from imposed essential resource scarcity. The years of
> agricultural development that André Fürst has shared with the world at the demonstration project
> called Hemp-Info, is too valuable to be lost in such a sad and meaningless miscarriage of
> justice.

For more about Hemp-Info
See http://www.chanvre-info.ch/