I am writing to you to ask you to take whatever action is allowed your office under the law of the land to pardon and release from custody in Federal Prison my friend Eddy Lepp.Mr. Lepp currently resides at the address below.
Charles Edward Lepp
#90157-011
Federal Correctional Institution
3600 Guard Rd.
Lompoc, CA 93436
Mr. President, thank you for stopping federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries that follow state laws.Now we need you to stop the trials and release those incarcerated for actions that were allowed by the people’s initiative law on medical marijuana in California.While there are limits of cultivation and possession in federal law, our initiative law contains no limits of this kind.
Mr. President the country is ready for leadership on the entire subject of marijuana and hemp.The two are joined at the hip.The “founding fathers” grew hemp and we can’t.This makes no sense.Hemp is necessary crop for survival in both medical and environmental uses.
Eddy Lepp understands this and should be free to speak the truth.Plants belong to the people, Mr. President, so no one should be incarcerated for what is their inalienable right.
Please respond.You have both books and mini-museum by the USA Hemp Museum.
President Barack Obama is again asking the American public for our comments. The last time we told him what we think we should do to solve our problems, end hemp prohibition and utilize the plant, he said he didn't know what that said about us.
Given that we don't care what that says about us as long as it is the truth, it is time again to TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA - LET OUR HEMP GO.
We've made nature illegal and wonder why we have a problem with the environment. Though hemp scrubs the air of excess CO2 as it grows, has a 6' root system that aerates soil, and can be easily grown in most environments it's still illegal.
We've made the peace pipe illegal and wonder why we have a problem with violence & war. Hemp is a natural plant that opens minds to greater, deeper solutions and promotes talking things through rather than fighting them out.
We've made hemp biofuel illegal to grow and wonder why we're on toxic energy. Hemp biofuel burns clean and hemp biomass can be used in many electric power plants.
We've made inexpensive hemp medicine illegal and wonder why Medicine, Inc. is one of the leading causes of death. The medical system is overworked. In 5,000 years of use, there is not one recorded death by hemp, other than murder by government.
We've made an easily renewable resource material, capable of making up to 50,000 products illegal and wonder why our economy is shattering. Presidents Washington and Jefferson were hemp farmers and Ben Franklin was a hemp paper merchant. Yet, we are slaves to toxic energy, building materials, paper making, etc.
The president says science will drive policy yet pretends not to know how many of our problems are caused by hemp prohibition. He is trying to solve things at the level of effect rather than dealing with the science, which leads to the cause issues of our problems. .
The science of hemp in undeniable and extensive. When Jack Herer wrote THE EMPEROR WEARS NO CLOTHES he documented extensively the many uses of hemp. When Chris Conrad wrote HEMP: LIFELINE TO THE FUTURE he wrote a how to manual for hemp use. More than a decade later, Richard M. Davis, founder and curator of the USA Hemp Museum tried to put his hemp exhibits in one book. He's working on volume 5 of his HEMP FOR VICTORY series.
PLEASE TELL PRESIDENT OBAMA TO LET SCIENCE DRIVE POLICY AND LOOK AT THE SCIENCE OF HEMP.
Here's the page and contact link. Happy, healthy hemp.
"The memorandum requires the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) to craft recommendations for Presidential action to ensure scientific integrity in the executive branch. We hereby seek public input to inform the drafting of those recommendations.
Comments from the public will help the OSTP determine what should be included in these recommendations. Over the next six posts on this blog, we will seek your comments, as they may pertain to each of the six different principles outlined in the memorandum. To provide some seeds for thought, we have asked one or two framing questions after each principle. Feel free to respond in other ways to the principle, or even to other comments. You may want to consult the Fact Sheet for the Memorandum before commenting.
This comment period will end on May 13th. Thank you in advance for your input.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 9:33 pm and is filed under Requests for Comment, Scientific Integrity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
"FACT SHEET ON PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM ON SCIENTIFIC INTEGRITY
"Today, more than ever before, science holds the key to our survival as a planet and our security and prosperity as a nation. It’s time we once again put science at the top of our agenda and worked to restore America’s place as the world leader in science and technology." - President Barack Obama
Today, President Obama is signing a Presidential Memorandum on scientific integrity. This memorandum helps to implement one of the President’s key campaign commitments on science policy, which was to "restore scientific integrity in government decision making."
Science and technology are essential to achieving a broad range of national goals: driving economic growth and job creation; allowing Americans to live longer, healthier lives; developing clean sources of energy that reduce our dependence on foreign oil; protecting our environment for future generations of Americans; strengthening national and homeland security; and more.
Realizing the potential of science and technology to help achieve all of these goals requires that the Administration’s decisions about public policy be guided by the most accurate and objective scientific advice available. The public must be able to trust that advice, as well, and to be confident that public officials will not conceal or distort the scientific findings that are relevant to policy choices.
Accordingly, the President is assigning to the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) the responsibility of ensuring the highest level of integrity in all aspects of the executive branch’s involvement with scientific and technological issues.
Within 120 days, the Director of OSTP must develop a strategy for ensuring that:
- The selection of scientists and technology professionals for science and technology positions in the executive branch is based on those individuals’ scientific and technological knowledge, credentials, and experience;
- Agencies make available to the public the scientific or technological findings or conclusions considered or relied upon in policy decisions;
- Agencies use scientific and technological information that has been subject to well-established scientific processes such as peer review; and
- Agencies have appropriate rules and procedures to ensure the integrity of the scientific process within the agency, including whistleblower protection."
Now that it's 4/20/09, it's time to revisit what President Barack Obama said about using hemp to empower our economy.
The President said he doesn't know what hemp being a popular question says about the on line audience.
What it says is that a lot of us support & consume hemp. We are part of the commerce that is the number one cash crop in this nation. Do a search on Twitter (Search at bottom of the home page) to see many folks are talking about hemp.
The internet's hemp supporters read and think. We research and vote. We're cool with the sacred knowledge of how to use technology to communicate. We've offered to pay hemp taxes. The feds would rather spend money putting us in jail than restoring our freedom to interact with a plant that has never killed anyone other than murder by government policy. We are a community of common sense.
The president said science would drive policy. WHAT!!! How is such a contradiction about hemp ‘science driving policy’? On what science did he make the decision that ending hemp prohibition would not be a good economic strategy? Giving big business a trillion dollars or so, while regular folks are loosing jobs, homes and retirements with no one to turn to for help is a good policy?
"Since Popular Mechanics deemed hemp a billion dollar crop in 1938, it must be a trillion dollar plus crop today" said Richard M. Davis in his upcoming book Vol 5. HEMP FOR VICTORY: THE TRILLION DOLLAR CROP. It is time to stop pretending not to know hemp can help us end our economic woes so we can enter an age of abundance.
The simple historic truth is that hemp motivates people to exchange dollars. Medicine, recreation, religion and other industrial uses for the hemp plant can keep dollars flowing fast.
The USA Hemp Museum's founder and curator, Richard M. Davis wrote in his book HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION in the chapter Hempification, that if we make available only 10% of unused federal land, about 60 million acres, people could save themselves economically and environmentally (page 105 - gift ebook available at www.hempmuseum.org - hard copy at amazon). A hemp farm can be a prosperous experience for an entire community from farmers to happy children playing outside of their wonderful, strong non-toxic hemp homes.
It is time to step beyond illusions. Current hemp policy was established by folks who M. Scott Peck describes examples of in People of the Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil. Use the truth to correct all errors. Hemp prohibition is an error in need of correction.
We must stop wasting time. The ice caps are melting and hemp pulls excess CO2 as it grows, regardless of the source, helping create a healthy environment to experience our economy in. Regardless of the source of the excess CO2, energy pollution, industrial farming or carbon atoms from outer space, hemp is a powerful ally in our fight to reduce carbon levels quickly.
We need to be using hemp to heal the damage we've done to the earth. It was reported that in Chernobyl hemp was used to help clean the soil because it is an environmental biomass champion. Cleaning up the environment will reduce the strain on our health care system by reducing the number of sick people. Reducing the number of medical bankruptcies will reduce other negative economic situations. Delicious hemp foods can help stave off famine. Hemp’s up to six foot root system restores burnt soil that can be used for other crops too.
Hemp can also stimulate the economy by saving the government an estimated $77 billion ($44 billion in arrests and $33 billion in taxes) according to Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron.
Legalize hemp, tax recreational at 20%. Incorporate hemp deeper into our lifestyles.
Hold a series of town hall meetings to develop a modern hemp for victory strategy. Do it on line with a Skype type style. Openly discuss the information available on how hemp can help us save ourselves. Tell the president the results. Hemp was voted legal in 9 out of the 10 states where it was on the ballot. so the people are ready for the task at hand.
Visit the USA Hemp Museum. Talk with the museum’s founder and curator, Richard M. Davis, author of two books HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION and HEMP FOR VICTORY: THE WONDER HERB that provide supporting documentation on how hemp can help in these fields. There are free ebook editions posted on the site until at least May 31, 2009 and more books coming in this dynamic series. Jack Herer and Chris & Mikki Conrad are heroes of Richard's who have also done extensive research in the field of ‘hemponomics.’
Steve Kubby, who recently began selling stock in Cannabis Science, Bill Maher, Woody Harrelson, Dana Beal and others could create a hemp council. The council can work with various parts of government (starting farms, processing companies and workers, hemp lifestyle designers, food industry, etc.). We can use the successful HEMP FOR VICTORY program to provide solutions.
Use technology to empower the people with hemp business tools. With the wise use of computers and other technology, many will be able to set up companies, find jobs and other opportunities, i.e. community based investors, to thrive in the Information Age. Anyone with access to soil can grow their way out of poverty.
Instructions should be on line at the Department of Agriculture. Government hemp business programs, from land prep through paying taxes, can put the feds in a primary payment position as the plant goes from the fields to the consumers.
The Lord has given us the keys out of Babylon in our technology. We can speak the same language through programs. The keys are cyber in the era of truthful information guiding policy. It’s up to us to use the information wisely.
Once all the science is on the table, we're confident that hemp prohibition will end.
We urge the President and others to take a look at the science of hemp and let science drive policy.
"When the White House put out a call for town hall questions, it might not have been expecting this.
The more than 92,000 people who responded either have Cheech and Chong senses of humor or there is a deep concern in America — undetected by the media — about the decriminalization of marijuana, its possible use for medicinal purposes and its potential as a new source of tax revenue.
Given the opportunity to say what’s really on their minds without going through the filter of the mainstream media, people “buzzed up” a series of questions that seemed to suggest broad interest in legalizing marijuana and taxing it."
President Barack Obama is not president for what he thinks. He said he was going to change government. He said science would drive the process. Yet, we are still slaves to Medicine/Prison/Insurance, Inc. The horror. The necessary change is to restore the will of the people and end hemp prohibition.
We've made nature illegal and wonder why we have a problem with the environment.
We've made hemp medicine illegal and wonder why our health care system is strained.
We've made the peace pipe illegal and wonder why we have a problem with violence.
Time to rethink hemp Mr. President. Time to stop acting ignorant on the subject and come on by the USA Hemp Museum. Hemp heals.
The webeo below is on a movement in California that is based on using hemp to help solve the state's economic crisis. Even if the president wants to pretend not to know hemp can help fix the economy, there is wisdom in California.
February 25, 2009
CNN - LOU DOBBS: Pot tax "legalizing marijuana"
Common sense says that when the problem is a lack of tax revenue the solution is to increase tax revenue. Hemp legalization would do that quickly because hemp is a low cost easily renewable resource material that can make 50,000 products.
End Hemp Prohibition. Tax recreational hemp at 20%.
I would like to meet with you and explain my position on hemp and the economy, but that is unlikely so I’m sending you a Mini-Museum to put hemp into your hands. Imagine as you go through the box of goodies an economy based not on fossil fuels but hemp. Hemp is energy produced by the sun – renewable and sustainable.
We need hemp in California, North Dakota, and all other states willing to stand up for the plant. We need hemp in the United States. We need hemp in the world. We are the only member of the G-8 Group of industrialized nations that does not grow hemp. This is akin to getting left behind with Sputnik in the space race.
It is a waste of our tax money to enforce cannabis prohibition when we have so much violent crime and a budget deficit. There were 841,000 arrests for marijuana in the USA last year. This must stop and you can make this happen in about five minutes with pen in hand. This could save billions and reduce violence along our borders.
The U.S. Supreme Court this Monday upheld the California’s 4th District Court of Appeal’s ruling that patients enjoy a federally protected property right to their medical marijuana.
The main point I would like to make here is that this federally protected property right also applies to hemp. One strategy here is to report this new ruling has changed your mind about hemp, and for the cause of global warming you can now support industrial hemp. Enclosed is the first book in our Hemp for Victory series: HEMP FOR VICTORY: A GLOBAL WARMING SOLUTION. Cap and trade could be a boom for farmers who sequester carbon and reverse global warming using hemp.
What we find in the aftermath of the 1937 Tax Act, is that agricultural production of Cannabis hemp was the probable big target of the law. Hemp (same species as marijuana, different variety) was poised to become the first billion dollar agricultural crop in 1938. Hemp has multiple uses: clothing, textiles, paper, fiberboard, clean biomass fuels, seed protein and oil, and plastics. Hemp had 25,000 viable industrial applications in 1938. We now estimate 50,000 uses for hemp. Now with agricultural production necessary for medicine, what possible reason do we now have to prohibit farmers from growing hemp which may have a medical response, but can not even get you a little high?
Our NAFTA trading partner Canada is now in its tenth year of growing hemp. California would benefit greatly by being the first state to return hemp growing to the American farmer free of the drug war scare. To ignore the bigger picture is to languish in the mistaken belief that the federal government controls everything a state does through the interstate commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution. Our state has the sixth largest economy in the world. California would benefit greatly by forging ahead with hemp growing and research of industrial potential, which is allowed by Article 28, of the Single Convention Treaty on Narcotic Drugs (U.N.), 1961. This is the very treaty on which our federal Controlled Substances Act is based.
All over the world and the United States, the truth about hemp and marijuana is flooding our information highways. We must correct the industrial/political conspiracies, misinformation, and overall mistakes of the 1930’s and legalize hemp and marijuana. Especially considering that “marijuana is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man,” as ruled by DEA law judge Francis Young, in September of 1988.
To be ignorant of the history of Cannabis is to invite bad lawmaking. Cannabis sativa is a plant, not a synthetic compound. Any plan to provide for “safe and affordable distribution...” must take into account that it must be grown as an agricultural crop. Not all people have back yards or extra rooms in which to grow plants, or time to grow with a surprise illness. Given that agricultural production is necessary, history suggests we look deeper into the reasons for the morass of law we find ourselves in now.
The plant Cannabis sativa was illegally controlled by the government, through lies and deception, in passing the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Depicted as a fatal and dangerous drug marijuana in the hearings of this Act, Cannabis medicine had been used in western medicine since the 1840, and was known to have never been responsible for a single death in 1927 medical literature. Court review by the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1988, stated, “Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.” (DEA Docket #86-22). Medical use in China started more than 5000 years ago.
Finally, we have to look at the legal due process questions of putting people in jail for using such a safe, natural herb for personal recreational purposes, while allowing the proven poisons of alcohol and nicotine to be legal. It is obvious to me from a public health standpoint that we would be better off by replacing both these death dealing drugs with a safer alternative. Competition not prohibition is the American way. Prohibition of alcohol produced a black market, prohibition of marijuana produced a black market, and prohibition of tobacco will also create a black market. Regulation and freedom will reduce criminal activity, and return a valuable medicine called Cannabis to the California community. And of course even the legal drugs are illegal for children.
The barriers to industrial use of hemp for food, fuel, and fiber damage our environment, our farming industry, and our entire economy. They must be removed at once so we can plant hemp this year.
I appreciate your taking whatever action is necessary to bring clarity and justice to this enviro-economical, constitutional travesty. I would also appreciate a written reply.
The people are talking about hemp, but not the government. That has got to change because the government is suppose to reflect the Will of the People, not the other way around.
Here's the list of questions from Jack Herer's piece Obama-Biden Health Care Discussion - Jack Herer TV . Jack is filling in the blanks with hempsters answering the questions, awesome folks who are using hemp to empower their lives. We're blessed with Jack Herer, who inspired Richard M. Davis, the founder and curator of the USA Hemp Museum and millions of others.
Here's the questions asked. It's amazing how many, as demonstrated, have hemp as the answer. Comments are in ( )
1. What does the group perceive as the biggest problem in the health care system?
(Effective hemp medicine is illegal and toxic medicine is legal. It is illegal to grow hemp foods, but genetically modified foods are legal).
2. How do attendees choose a doctor or hospital?
(Qualifications - know your grower - medical hemp helps manage disease at the level of cause, stress and effect, illness.)
3. Where do attendees get information in making that decision?
(Experience, common sense and research. Richard M. Davis is almost ready to release his ground breaking work HEMP FOR VICTORY: THE WONDER HERB which shatters the myth about medical hemp research. It's a great walk through the medical wing of the USA Hemp Museum, a private museum with a virtual wing.)
4. Should public policy promote quality health care providers?
(Public policy should promote quality health empowerment from the first to the last moments of life. Non toxic hemp foods, medical hemp, hemp's environmental healing abilities, and more are positive impacts we can experience by adding hemp to our health empowerment system.)
5. Have attendees or their family members experienced difficulty paying medical bills?
(no)
6. How can policy makers address this problem?
(End hemp prohibition now! Finance the restoration of the family farm to grow hemp. Help coordinate markets and set quality standards. Tax medical and lower grades at standard sales tax rates, and recreational grades of hemp at 20%. Use that money to solve problems like financing universal health care. Let there be departments of Hemp in Commerce, Agriculture and Health, Education & Welfare. Tap Cong. Dr. Ron Paul for medical hemp.)
7. In addition to employer based coverage, would the group like the option to purchase a private plan through an insurance-exchange or a public plan like Medicaid?
(Medical coverage needs to be financed by the recreational hemp tax while reducing the need for health care. In addition to hemp, the old "water cure" or hydrotherapy, meditation and other alternatives should be considered. Employers have enough to deal with and would prosper more if the job of health care went to the medical community, financed by tax revenue.)
8. Do attendees know how much they or their employer pays for health insurance?
(Yes. None.)
9. What should employers role be in a reformed health care system?
(Take a pro citizen stance for the government to provide health empowerment. Business needs to can focus on building their commerce. They can share what they save on health care as a health cash - vitamins, meditation classes, gym memberships, safe driving and anger management class - dividend to employees.)
10. Were attendees familiar with the types of preventative services Americans should receive?
(Yes - hemp.)
11. Had attendees gotten the recommended government services?
(No - not receiving government services - not applied.)
12. If not, how can public policy help?
(Public policy can end hemp prohibition immediately. Use the web to promote hemp, exercise, hydration, good nutrition and other healthy elements. )
13. How can public policy promote healthier lifestyles?
(Re-incorporate hemp into healing.)
So let's add this specific question to the list.
14. How can hemp help us turn our health care crisis into a health empowerment system?
Here's a note from www.change.org, President Barack Obama (I love writing that) Ideas for Change in America site. It's about the ideas with the largest number of votes concerning hemp.
Please visit www.change.org and www.change.gov and vote to end hemp prohibition. Let them know that the way to solve our problems now is to end hemp prohibition immediately, and apply a fair tax to the plant, while encouraging growth in the industry.
For more information on hemp, please visit the USA Hemp Museum, Richard M. Davis, Founder, Curator and an awsome hempologist.
"We’re happy to let you know that the final round of voting for the Ideas for Change in America competition begins today, and 2 of the ideas you voted for have qualified for the final round!
Voting has been reset to zero for the final round, so each of these ideas needs your vote again. You may vote for a total of 10 ideas. Here are the ideas you voted for that qualified for the final round and need your support:
....The final round of voting ends on January 15, and the following day we are co-hosting an event at the National Press Club with the Case Foundation to announce the top 10 rated ideas and present them to the Obama administration.
We will then launch a national campaign in coordination with our nonprofit partners to ensure that each idea gets the full consideration of the administration and 111th Congress.
To select your "Top 10 Ideas for America," go to www.change.org/ideas today. We look forward to seeing you on the site! - The Change.org Team
. Use the truth to correct all errors. Hemp prohibition is an error in need of correction.