The LEAF THE LEAF May-June 17 | Page 17

which include the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. As health, by definition is the level of functional and/or metabolic efficiency of an organism and in humans it is the ability of individuals or communities to adapt and self- manage when facing physical, mental or social changes as defined by (Huber M, Knottnerus JA, Green, L., van der Horst H, Jadad AR, Kromhout D, Smid H. (2011) In their article How should we define health.) Up until 1937 people have for thousands of years grown and benefited from cannabis therapeutically, socially, economically and spiritually. It is only due to a small group of greedy racist morally corrupt business men that prohibition was initially enacted. There is no scientific basis for prohibition. All of the propaganda that has been so deviously distributed throughout the years since 1937 has confused and misguided people into believing that cannabis is unsafe. When in fact cannabis is the safest medicine and recreational plant known to man far superior to alcohol and pharmaceutical products. There has never been a recorded death and this is stated by the United Nations. The social effects of cannabis being sold in places like Colorado have shown that opioid deaths dropped significantly, violent crime and domestic violence dropped, the amount of young people who tried cannabis stayed the same ( it is believed with the appropriate education this will drop). Motor vehicle accidents dropped. The cannabis industry is now a billion-dollar money maker for Colorado with funds being used for schools, roads, hospitals and improvements being made to all services. Employment has risen exponentially. All of the studies that have portrayed cannabis in a negative light have been for one funded by industries that do not want cannabis to be made legal such as the pharmaceutical, alcohol and incarceration industries. And two they have been incomplete with no co-morbidity factors taken in consideration, which the authors have stated themselves and further stated that more research was needed to be effective and when publicized have been cherry picked to discredit cannabis as the effective therapeutic medical plant that it is. As the scientific community moves from studying the effects of cannabis on hundreds of illnesses to looking at cannabis as a preventative dietary staple to stave off many of the diseases and illnesses that cannabis effectively treats we will move into a situation where the wellbeing of our population will change dramatically to end the scourge of many of the illnesses that plague our society and create a quality of life never seen before that will end our reliance on pharmaceutical poisons. This factor is why pharma companies have pushed so hard to keep cannabis prohibited. All of the above is why we need to get together in our own communities and grow cannabis in our own back yards. Prohibition is not only allowing a massive black market to prosper it is stopping every single Australian from having access to an essential dietary staple, therapeutic agent and recreational product. All of us who are able bodied need to form groups, procure seeds or clones and together as communities start growing. There is safety and power in numbers. Just one person growing here and there gives only those people power in some respects by taking advantage of the unavailability of cannabis supply with those of low moral fibre making money from other people’s misery and in other respects sets up good people who are only in it to help others to be persecuted by unjust laws. By everyone growing we put an end to all of this bullshit. I am advocating for integrity based civil disobedience. This is not about being a rebel or a criminal. This is about collectively disobeying an unjust immoral law that is causing suffering. People need access to whole plant cannabis and the Australian government is never going to allow this to happen. I am asking that we organize ourselves for spring 2018 for all of us to start growing cannabis. It time to change this system. Evil conquers when good men do nothing. We will defy…….