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The American media are organs of the government. The American government is repressive. Note the government's downplaying and undoing of the will of the voters of California and Arizona regarding medical marijuana! Or marijuana legalization in general.
America is not the freest country on earth and the media have aided oppressive government. The well-being of the government is not more important than the well-being of the individual. The government should no longer be supported by the media in defining the well-being of the individual. The individual owns private property, and one of the things s/he owns is her/his body. That is part of what it means to live in a free society. When government prohibits abortion, it assumes control of the individual's body. When government prohibits marijuana to sick people or even to people who prefer marijuana over the politically approved drugs of tobacco or alcohol, the government actually has ownership of the individual's body since it has made the decision for the individual. It has determined what is good, what is bad, for that matter, who is good and who is bad. Government regards individuals who defy this government control as criminals.
Government has enlisted the aid of employers in usurping the freedom of the individual, the ownership of the individual. The government mandates drug testing, which violates individual's Fourth Amendment rights. It has encouraged employers, through financial manipulation, to mandate drug testing. This drug testing dictates what the individual is allowed to engage in when his/her skills are not being utilized in return for compensation from the employer. In essence, the employer now has ownership of the individual because the drug test is the tool of law enforcement used by the employer, so the government can circumvent Fourth Amendment issues or avoid having to seek yet another exception from the Supreme Court to force its will on the individual.
Current drug tests are inaccurate and unjust. Current hair or urinalysis tests cannot show whether or not the individual is under the influence during the time in which the individual is being compensated for skills by the employer or only during his/her off time. The employer has the right to stipulate that the employee shall not be under the influence during the time of employment; however, private time is another matter entirely. If the same types of tests were used for alcohol, then a truck driver, for example, could be pulled over and tested. The urinalysis test could give a positive result for alcohol use, although the driver was not under the influence at the time. A breathalyzer or some other kind of test for other drugs would no longer confuse off-time use with on-time use. Also, hempen ale, hemp oil, and hemp shampoo are being sold in the US. Such products, although made from the seeds, leave enough residue in the hair or metabolites in the urine to cause positive results. These individuals can very well be completely innocent of what repressive government and their puppet law enforcement tools, employers, would label as marijuana abuse. Use does not automatically constitute abuse. Not everyone who uses alcohol is an alcoholic or a danger to others. Likewise, it is the same for marijuana.
Why should the government or employers or anybody else be allowed to dictate what an individual can do during her/his personal time as long as the individual is a productive, contributing and nonviolent member of society? Why should employers or government be allowed to own an individual? Why should government be allowed to define the well-being of the individual?
Why do the American media not defend the rights of individuals and, in turn, help those who submit willingly to government propaganda, as well as those who are ursurping ownership of individuals to understand how citizens' rights have been lost to government and its organs? The government essentially controls the media, doesn't it?
The media do not rail against the Supreme Court for eroding Fourth Amendment rights used in self-incrimination, i.e. an individual's body being searched via excretions to incriminate the individual, a violation of the Fifth Amendment. The media remain relatively silent against exceptions granted to permit drug testing. They remain willing helpers in the semiotics of propaganda by spreading and perpetuating the notion that just because government officials, law enforcement officials, military personnel, and others are being tested for drugs and test negative that they are not corrupt or vulnerable to bribery, for example. The media help perpetuate the propaganda that the war on drugs is successful, when Barry McCaffrey admits that only one third of the amount of illegal drugs that ends up on American streets is confiscated. That is only 33%. A failing grade by any measure. Only in theory is it possible to check every single package in every container and every person in this country for drugs, unless the US becomes a complete police state.
The media need to help create a movement in the US to regain individual rights. The American intelligentsia ought not to sit on its hands any longer. Where will the free thinkers of the world go when America is no longer the free country it once was, no longer the country of choice? What country will be willing and able to take in the everyday American who is seeking a freer place to live? American intelligentsia have the assets to leave the country when it becomes too oppressive, but what will happen to those who remain? Will the US government crush the individuals by calling in the military against its own people? That depends on who really owns the individual, doesn't it, the government or the individual himself or herself? How arrogant will the media let government become? How many more obedient military or ex-military people will be placed in charge of forcing the government's will on the individual, or hired by the media for the same purpose?
Apropos, marijuana? How much research will the $ 1 million allotted by the Clinton Administration for marijuana in 1996 buy? How many of the 400 different compounds in marijuana will it be able to research to determine if any more of them are helpful and ought to be synthesized to improve medical treatment? Or can the American public expect more research that supports the official government doctrine, let's say like the Heath/Tulane Study?
Journalists are just going along to get along to collect a salary, while allowing the government to erode individual rights. The media disseminate government propaganda by presenting the government's official doctrine more often and for longer periods of time and at prime positions in time slots or pages of print far more often than they present viewpoints opposing official doctrine and official government slogans. Since the government position gets more exposure, it is the one that has the most influence. Freedom in American has become a farce, and the media are to blame. They have a role in educating the American public on the opposing viewpoints with balanced coverage, at least!
The media are cowards! If people in the media fulfilled their obligation to a free society, there might be less extremism in the US. The only thing the media have protected, successfully, are their own necks and their own financial well-being. They've help screw the rest of us!!! The media need to retire or otherwise get rid of the old guard propagandists who work for them, those reporters who are euphemistically referred to as "opinion leaders" by government and their toadies, and get some new people who will fight for individual rights with a vengeance. Silence is acceptance in the erosion of individual freedoms! Being a willing accomplice is a crime against humanity!
