Hey everybody the pot smoking hippie is back. I got my hemp shirt, and I have my protest signs... because you should never go any where with out your protest signs. I see the NORML guys are handing out their fake joints again this year. I am supposed to tell you that there is no truth what so ever to the rumor that someone mixed a bunch of real joints in. But then I am not sure my source is reliable. I usually start out with a who is John Galt bit, but for a change most of you know who I am. Mike wanted me to give a long speech but I know I really want to hear the next speaker. So I guess we should get right into why I am up here.

I am up here because I am crazy.
I am crazy because I always write these long speeches, then I go off on crazy some tangents.
Three years ago some said I was crazy when I started publishing Web Station #19, my Internet site, it is in part a re-legalization page. One of a 10,000 re-legalization sites, that I know of, that's a lot of people trying to get the same message out....
I know, if your here and into the Internet you've probably checked out a lot of these web sites, I know I have. Do you know what sets mine apart from the rest? Everybody has a link to hightimes, so I do I, but hightimes has at least a dozen links to my site, I like that .
This spring they said I was crazy when I joined Professor Heicklen to smoke marijuana on College ave.
Then they said I was crazy when I quit my job to become a full time activist.
They were certain I was crazy when I drove over 8000 miles this summer to speak and mix with the citizens of this country.
Of course there always is that off beat chance that I am not crazy,
but in order to prove that I would have to justify my actions,
and give good reasons for all that I have done and said.

As summer comes to an end, I find myself reflecting on many things all the protests, events and festivals I have attended this year, and I do wonder... Do I have good reasons for my actions and am I causing positive change? and how I am going to pay those credit card bills...
I have to answer those questions not only for you but for myself.
A couple of weeks ago I was at a festival, talking to my new friends Brad and Cathy. I had a good buzz on because at least a dozen people had stopped by for conversation or to share a bud. The people were caring sharing and loving,
It was paradise, sun, music, and kind buds. I thought to myself why the hell is this illegal?
That is certainly one of the reasons I am an activist, because marijuana prohibition does not make any sense.
I also did these things because the founding fathers guaranteed us the pursuit of happiness,
the right to protest and the rights to be secure in one's person, property and home..
I did these things because I wanted to, I did these things because I have freewill!
This means that I am free to chose what I what to do, as long as I do no harm to others.
I did these things so that my grandchildren will not have to live under the same tyranny,
or in the same world my children are being handed.
I did these things because I want other people to discover the true meaning of freedom.

I am the most protesting man in America. Today is number 44 of this year. You might think that means I have been listening music and hanging out at festivals, not true.
What I did at most of these protests is talk to people, pass out literature and hold protest signs.
So I would like to take time right now to talk about drugs and herbs and the difference between the two, because Congress doesn't seem to have the slightest idea. THC is a drug Marijuana is an herb. Cocaine is a drug, Cola leaves are herbs. Heroin is a drug, poppy flowers are herbs. The difference is simple. Drugs are pure, manufactured and toxic substances, herbs are natural and healing.
I used to have a friend in the Bronx, he painted his room black, including the window shades and taped them down so no light could show through.. The room was lit by blacklight only. Did I mention my friend was a little strange? Anyways other than some stars painted on the ceiling the room's only adornment was hand painted message on one wall. The words said Man made alcohol, God Made weed who do you trust? Now that is a philosophical way of looking at things, why don't we look at it from a more scientific position. There was a study released not so long ago in far east, that showed that people chewing poppy flowers or cola leaves don't suffer from withdrawals or the pains of addiction when quitting. hmmm
Well lets look at one of our favorite legal drugs alcohol, where it exists in nature is old fruit juices. Man has developed beer and wine, that's about as natural as it gets. Now the biggest short term danger of drinking alcohol is poisoning causing death. Does it occur to anyone that it's a lot easier to kill yourself doing shots of grain alcohol than quarts of wine? The more concentrated alcohol is the more dangerous it is, and this is true of all drugs. Doesn't this tell us that the natural concentrations are likely the safest? The animals know which plants to eat when they don't feel well, why don't we? The pharmaceutical companies and the government would rather we did prozac, than smoke a joint? They don't want us to know that everything we need has been provided by mother nature. Doesn't make much sense to me...

I learned a lot this year, Among the things I have learned , is that the marijuana movements are a sleeping dragon, waking from a long hibernation. A lot of people think the movements are just about getting high, but there are plenty of reason to re-legalize hemp I'm just going to briefly touch on some because the other speakers have made the point already today.

You notice I keep saying movements. There are five marijuana movements in this country. There is the Medicalization movement, Who's proponents believe that many very sick people are being denied appropriate medical care, because it is a crime for a doctors to prescribe, or even advise, their patients to use marijuana. I like them believe that Doctors and their patients are best qualified to decide what is the best medicine not Lawyers in Washington

There is the Decriminalization Sector, who believe that Americans should not be locked up for using the drug of their choice There is the Industrialization movement. They believe that hemp should be used for clothes, building materials, paper, fuel and dozens of other uses. These are the first three, the fourth is called re-legalization, which encompasses the first three. For those of you curious about those movements, there is plenty of literature around.
The last movement is called incarceration. Now 95% of the American people believe in the first four movements, 95% of the politicians believe in incarceration. What does this mean? It is time for the four movements to wrap their threads together and form a strong hemp rope. It means it is time to protest! It means it is time for change!

Protest has been consistent through out our history not only as a right but as a means of change. In the sixties the people remembered they had the first amendment! we had smoke-ins , bra burning, draft card burning, flag burning, occupations, civil disobedience and many other forms of protest. These brave pot smoking hippies protested the Vietnam War and civil rights issues. In the seventies Environmental issues took the front in the protest movements.
This country was founded on protest! The first protest Document in our country's History was called the Declaration of Independence. It was and is a statement to an unfair government stating that we will not take it any more, that we no longer recognize your control over us. The Revolutionary War was a response to that document.
During the eighties protest was squashed and , our constitutional rights were stripped away one by one in the name of the war on drugs. These protests, going on all over the country are a public response to that farce of a civil war . They call it the War on Drugs, but it is a war on culture and more and more on children. A couple of states are now trying to lower the incarceration age to fourteen. They say only for felonies, those same states have the largest drug problems and have classified drug sales including marijuana as felonies. So if a 14yr old sells a joint to a school pal on school grounds he will get shipped off to prison until he is 25 or 30 years old? How would you like to grow up in jail?
The first amendment tell us is that we have the power to ask the government for change when we think something is wrong... The war on drugs is wrong, very wrong and we are all here today to protest that war on the American citizens. The founding fathers by including the right to protest in the Bill of Rights as the first amendment, assuredly thought it was the most important! The founding fathers are telling us not only can we protest, but that we are expected to protest.

I have been running Web Station # 19 for almost three years, doing my part hidden behind monitors and modems. Only this year have I made myself visible and started doing public speeches. By mixing directly with the people I have learned Perhaps the secrets of the future success of these movements

One is ritual protest, like the Thursday get together at the gates.. This weekly protest keeps us in the mind of the present. The more people thinking about a problem the more likely it will be solved. Ritual protest firmly plants those idea upon society. The truth is it doesn't matter if you light up once a week at a public protest or every day at 4:20 you are protesting these laws and affecting the consciousness of society.
Another is showing up at non hemp events. The fear factor keeps many people away from events like this one. At a non hemp event we can reach people who wouldn't dare show their faces here.
What about stubbornness? Week after week year after year we make ourselves known. Next year will be the 30th anniversary for the oldest protests in this country. I find that sad very sad, Thirty years and things have gotten worse not better. We need basic changes in the way we allow government to direct and run our lives. We need a more direct democracy. The founding fathers believed that WE THE PEOPLE are smart enough to govern ourselves, to change and adjust things to a greater fairness as time passed. They did not envision a government run by corporations and a corrupt government legislating morality and "undesirable cultures" out of existence just because those in power don't like the way a certain group acts or looks.
The pursuit of happiness was important enough to mentioned by our forefathers, but for their ancestors, now it is nonexistent. We must take our government back from the self-centered, self motivated fools who are running our great country in to the ground. We must protect and find balance among our Environment, personal freedoms and the economy.

Never underestimate the power of a single person. A single drop will send tiny ripples across an entire pond. Every person who gets involved touches the lives of dozens of other people. If you only reach a single person, you keep the chain going. When all the drops gather together we will wash away not only marijuana prohibition but discrimination and hate as well.
If you are fired up, if you are thinking about getting involved, I say just do it. Get high on the empowerment of activism. The feeling you experience, when you realize you are really changing the world is at least as good as most drugs. Earlier this year I decided to become a activist, now I am an activist, it's really that simple. Remember you don't have to be arrested to protest or make a point !!!

I would also ask you to remember the most important way to protest, the most under used. It's called voting, so before you leave here today Register to vote and when you vote, treat your vote like you are the only person voting, believe that you can cause change to happen and get these self-centered idiots who are running our country now on unemployment where they belong.

Getting back to being crazy, some people think I'm crazy because I have done all this at my own expense. But I get paid in many ways, Like the day Stephen Gaskin said he wanted to shake my hand. That was a big paycheck! Often I get letters from people I have encountered on the road, I would like to share one.

Trip Naked, here. We met at the Colorado Springs Hemp Rally. I just wanted to write and let you know that people DO remember you. They DO take notice of what you say. Your words DO sink in and effect people. I wish you only the best of luck and
I pray that the gods will bless you on your quest.
I've got some rather big plans. I've been in the trenches with the grunts for a long time. Now it's time for me to become an officer! I got tired of the fact that we (the road-dog community of America) have very few supporters. Even the ones we do have are few and far between, or they just don't have the resources to help. So, I'm working on connecting them, as well as devising a way to educate our community in a manner that would allow us to live on the road and cruise into any town in America and be able to earn a decent living by simply utilizing the talents and gifts that
each one of us already possesses.

So In closing I would like to address the dangers of Marijuana. The truth being to the users, the biggest dangers are the consequences of being busted . But marijuana is really dangerous to the government.. Why? Because of being the safest of compulsions, even safer than overeating, gambling, drinking, tobacco products and hard drugs. Because, those who have in the past or in the present, have partaken of the evil weed represent a majority in this country. Over fifty percent of the voting population admit to having smoked marijuana, at some point... most of the rest lie about it. Is there any question in the mind of the group assembled here today, that if every person who ever took a drag, whether they inhaled or not got behind a single candidate in any election at any level of government he or she would win by a landslide... With that thought in mind, I remind you get out protest, and register to vote, and get out and vote because I'm running for president in 2000 and those politicians haven't seen nothing yet.... Thank you

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