I am President and co-owner of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps, a 60-year-old company founded by my German-Jewish grandfather, Emanuel Bronner in 1948. Our family and over 60 employees in California produce the best-selling natural brand of soap in the United States. We use certified organic and fair trade vegetable oils, including non-drug hemp seed oil to super-fat the soaps for smoother lather and moisturizing after-feel.
Dr. Bronner's caps executive compensation at 5 to 1 of the lowest paid position. Our commitment to fairness takes profits not needed for business development and debt payment and devotes them to various causes, including the Boys & Girls Club, Organic Consumers Association, Vote Hemp and the Fair World Project.
Dr. Bronner's buys 20 tons of hemp oil for our soaps from Canada annually. For nearly ten years the Bronner family has financially supported bringing back non-drug industrial hemp farming in the US as an environmentally sustainable crop that can be made into a wide variety of products including food, cosmetics, clothing, building materials and more.
I have decided to personally give a $75,000 donation to Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) for "Get Out the Vote" efforts to pass Prop 19 in California, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010. Adam Eidinger and Alan Amsterdam, co-founders of Capitol Hemp Clothing and Accessories, have donated an additional $25,000 as well. Dr. Bronner's will also provide the company's promotional fire truck to "sound the alarm" on college campuses across California. We hope to mobilize younger voters who are the primary victims of the war on cannabis who know first-hand the lies of cannabis prohibition.
My decision to support Prop 19 also stems from experience with medical cannabis in the case of a close friend who used cannabis to get through chemotherapy and survive stage-IV Hepatitis C. Her local dispensary was raided and shut down by drug war zealots from the local DA's office. Since the proposition will make it easier for adults to have access to cannabis, citizens will enjoy improved access to a safe and effective medicine useful in treating a number of illnesses. As long ago as 1988, DEA's own Administrative Law Judge Francis Young concluded:
"In strict medical terms marijuana is far safer than many foods we commonly consume. For example, eating 10 raw potatoes can result in a toxic response. By comparison, it is physically impossible to eat enough marijuana to induce death. Marijuana in its natural form is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man. By any measure of rational analysis marijuana can be safely used within the supervised routine of medical care."
As usual in the long sordid history of cannabis prohibition, drug war hysteria trumped science and reason.
Business leaders should stand up and do the right thing, unlike hypocritical politicians who oppose Prop 19, yet admit they used marijuana but continue to support laws that they themselves broke. I want this donation to be a challenge to people who know that cannabis prohibition is a disfigurement of our democracy but have not contributed to Prop 19.
Business people know legalizing cannabis will decrease the massive waste of taxpayer money and the bloody violence across the border that threatens to spill into our streets, but they need to support Proposition 19 before it is too late. I'm calling up businesses like ours that I know are socially and environmentally conscious with a simple message, "Just Say Now, now is the time to step up support." Prop 19 will free up police for fighting real crimes and stop renegade cannabis cultivation by gangs that are destroying our national parks. Cannabis prohibition, not the herb itself, has been ruining productive and upstanding citizens' lives with courts and jails for decades.
As a successful business owner, father and soccer coach, I thank God for the gift of cannabis. Cannabis for me is a daily sacrament and communion that at the end of each day helps me get past my small petty self and find my moral center. At the next corporate picnic, listen to what Bob Marley is singing. Why should anyone so righteous be thrown in jail?
We are grateful that Richard Lee had the faith to put Prop 19 on the ballot with $1.5 million of his own money. He has given us all an unprecedented opportunity to make a difference this November - Yes we Cannabis!
For more information and to make a donation, go to www.YesOn19.com
Prop 19 will set you and your ganja FREE.
Thanks David
We trace proposition 19 to Oakland, California to a place called Oaksterdam University, and Oaksterdam University where you can learn everything there is to know about growing marijuana extracting THC from marijuana, and also the politics and laws regarding marijuana. It was founded by a man named Richard Lee. He’s been a pro legalizing marijuana activists for the past 20 years. I had a chance to sit down with him and ask him why he founded Oaksterdam University , why he got proposition 19 on the ballot. He told a story that dates back 20 years ago he was involved in a serious crime and that’s what got him thinking there ought not to be laws against simple possession of marijuana. Here is a clip of Richard Lee. http://www.kpbs.org/news/2010/oct/08/prop-19-primer/
RICHARD LEE: “Well, I was the victim of a carjacking and then the police took a long time to respond and that made me as mad as the carjacking. So I started thinking about how the police were wasting their time looking for people like me instead of the real criminals, the real sociopaths and predators out there. So that is how I got started working towards ending cannabis prohibition.â€
It looks like SB 1449 already solved Richard’s problem. Now, this is just a pure entrepreneurial venture for Richard Lee with his fledging Oaksterdam University.
Ephedra is used to make crystal meth. That's why it's illegal. Defend ephedra if you want, but Meth is bad news.
The “Form SS-5†that one uses to apply for a S.S.# is a federal employment form. You became a “taxpayer†as defined at 26 CFR 2.1-1(a)(5) as a member of the Merchant Marine and 2.1-1(b) states this is the definition in the Code for all calculation of taxes.
The Founding Fathers fought to establish a country and wrote the Declaration of Independence that states “all men are created equalâ€. They fought to establish a government and adopted the Constitution. The Constitution acknowledges that “all men are created equal†by only granting the government jurisdiction over foreign commerce, interstate commerce, and trade with the Indians.
Which of the Founding Fathers would have run to the government for any “benefits� NOT ONE !
The Founding Fathers gave America a government with absolutely no power over the individual and then Americans went running to the government for Social Security.
The government has jurisdiction over its own employees. The Merchant Marine is involved in foreign commerce. Now the government is proceeding in foreign commerce.
At title 28 USC, Judiciary and Judicial Procedureâ€, chapter 85, “District courts; jurisdictionâ€, section 1340, “Internal revenue; customs dutiesâ€, is the foreign commerce jurisdiction.
The drug and medicine laws, including marijuana, are internal revenue laws.
With Social Security in place the federal gov’t has an unlimited reservoir of revenue from the “taxpayers†that can be used to expand the government’s apparent powers.
See the “Social Security Scam†at LLSTULER.wordpress.com.
Although I have pondered from time to time
Isn't domestic tranquility a benefit? I sure think it is. Significant
It says a lot of things in the Declaration. But the document has no legal authority. The more accurate description of the Declaration would be that it was an eloquently written 'Dear John' letter. OK, dear George for this specific version.
Dear George, this is it. We never want to see your face again. You'd better believe we're going to keep all of the stuff you've left over here when you were screwing us.. Go exploit the Canadians. They're all wimps and can't even decide on a national language. Some of them even parlay voo francais. The US doesn't have that problem. everybody here speaks and will always talk Inglish. Don't call on the phone because we're changing the number and have the answering machine set to hang up in your ear if you call. Harass us enough and we'll get a restraining order from a friendly judge.
http://shanghaiist.com/2009/08/25/shanghai_is_swimming_with_drunk_dri.php
get out and vote and puff puff pass prop 19 californians!
then legalize throughout the americas in 2012!
What will Prop 19 do to improve the life of a non-pot smoker? None!!!
It will actually make it worse with all the unwanted smoke, skunk smell and seeing red-eyed zombies.
"Besides that you'll put a lot of them out of jobs"
Really? If they can't find any REAL crimes to solve, then yes, by all means they should find other employment. Last year our country sent 100's of thousands of teachers to the unemployment line. Why should cops be exempt?
"you don't support ripping police families apart I hope?"
Again, really? They've been ripping apart families for 70 years for smoking pot. They've ruined the chances of 1000's to go to college, and have tainted MILLIONS of people with criminal records for a victimless crime. They are the last group that should expect sympathy. Honestly, I'd argue that's part of the benefit of legalization-save a few teachers by putting that money to a useful cause.
A 'YES' vote on prop 19 is a vote for common sense.