The
First 30 Hour Smoke Out was held in State College, PA during the
Central
Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts
July
9, 10, 11, 12
TABLE OF CONTENTS
OPENING
SPEECH
by Dr. Julian
Heicklen
Hello! Welcome to the 30-Hour Marijuana
Smoke Out.
The reasons to re-legalize marijuana are several:
1. Moral
It is immoral to arrest someone for owning a vegetable. We have the
right to keep and bear vegetables.
The most fundamental of all human rights
is to have control over your own body.
As long as you are not harming
others, your body belongs to you to
do what you wish.
2. Economic
It costs about $26,000 per year to keep someone in prison. In
addition, the inmate is not earning,
so his tax dollars are lost to the
community. Often an inmate's family
has to go on welfare. The total cost
for imprisonment can run up to $50,000
per year per inmate. There now are
about 50,000 people incarcerated in
the U. S. for non-violent marijuana
offenses. The total cost to keep these
people in prison is about $2.5
billion per year.
3. Social
We are criminalizing an enormous percentage of the population. In
1994, 7% of all U. S. males of age
18 or older entered prison or jail.
A male has a 9% chance of being incarcerated in state or federal
prison during his lifetime based on
1991 incarceration rates.
Two-thirds of convicts now entering prisons are doing so for
non-violent crimes.
One-half of these are for non-violent narcotics violations.
From 1980 to 1995, the incarcerated population in the Pennsylvania
Department of Corrections quadrupled.
4. Agricultural
Hemp is a valuable agricultural product. It is used to make
clothing, shoes, diapers, rope, cellophane,
paints, fuel, chain lubricants,
biodegradable plastics, paper, fiberboard,
cement blocks, food, cosmetics,
and soap. The Declaration of Independence
and the U. S. Constitution were
written on hemp paper. Hemp was the
number one crop on George Washington's
plantation at Mount Vernon. It was
the number two crop on Thomas
Jefferson's plantation at Monticello.
5. Food
Hemp seed is a highly nutritious source of protein and fatty acids.
Hemp seed has the second-highest amount
of protein of any food (soya being
the highest). It is low in saturated
fat. One handful of hemp seed per day
will supply adequate protein and essential
oils for an adult.
6. Environmental
Hemp normally requires very little fertilizer and grows well almost
anywhere. It is pest resistant, so
it requires no pesticides. Hemp puts
down deep roots, which is good for
the soil. Hemp has been known to grow on
the same soil for 20 years in a row
without any noticeable soil depletion.
One acre of hemp can produce as much
paper as four acres of trees. Hemp
paper is more durable than paper from
trees. Hemp requires a growing season
of 100 days, while trees must be grown
for 20 years or longer before they
can be used commercially.
7. Medical
Marijuana has been used as a medicine for 4800 years. It helps
epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, and
glaucoma. It is a pain killer and an
anti-nauseant. Many very sick people
are being denied appropriate medical
care, because it is a crime for a
doctor to prescribe, or even advise, his
patients to use marijuana.
8. Pleasure
Finally a reason to legalize marijuana is because it provides
pleasure to some people. That is what
the anti-drug people really detest.
You will notice that there is no movement
to outlaw glue, which probably is
much worse for you than marijuana.
That is because glue sniffing does not
provide much pleasure.
The reasons against
re-legalization of marijuana are:
1. We must protect our youth from
harm
It is often heard that drugs must be illegal, because we love our
children and must protect them from
harm. This argument is insincere. The
prohibitionists do not care one bit
about our children. If they really
wanted to protect our children from
harm, they would outlaw football. Now
there is a dangerous activity. It
glorifies violence. Every single football
player suffers some permanent injury
that nags him for the rest of his
life. Some are paralyzed from football.
Occasionally one dies. Those things
do not happen from marijuana use.
Unlike marijuana, football is highly criminogenic. It leads to
student riots, public drunkenness,
gambling, and ticket scalping. Football
has completely corrupted our universities.
Football players are terrible
role models for our youth. Any prohibitionist
that seriously wants to
protect children would not be interested
in marijuana, but would be
fighting to ban football.
2. Marijuana is a gateway drug
to hard drugs
Many people, especially government officials, propagate the belief
that marijuana is a gateway drug;
it leads to use of harder drugs. The fact
is that 83% of marijuana users do
not graduate to hard drugs.
However, these people will tell you that 95% of cocaine users used
marijuana before they used cocaine.
They are wrong. Marijuana is used by
99.8% of cocaine users. But let me
tell you something else. Milk was used
by 100% of cocaine users before they
started snorting coke or crack. Milk
is the true gateway drug, and it should
be made illegal.
Unlike marijuana, which is not
addictive, milk is highly addictive
to a certain segment of the society;
that segment under 6 months of age. Do
you know what happens if you take
milk away from a milk-addicted baby? The
withdrawal symptoms are excruciating.
The baby gets terrible stomach pains
and screams uncontrollably. It is
terrible to hear. Eventually if deprived
of the milk, the baby gets sick and
dies. There is nothing else known that
is this addictive.
If we are going to stamp out hard drugs, we must stamp out milk
first. Milk should be made illegal.
If a woman gives her baby milk, she
should have her breasts removed. Some
of you bleeding hearts may say that
without milk many babies will die.
Probably so, but isn't this preferable
to the disease of addiction that inflicts
and undermines our society?
3. Irresponsibility should not
be rewarded.
It is not right that the responsible people have to care for people
that harm themselves. Why should the
taxpayers support with welfare and
medicare, those irresponsible people
that have abused their bodies by using
drugs? I say we shouldn't do it. Anyone
that abuses his or her body does
not deserve government support. That
includes illicit drug users, as well
as users of alcohol, caffeine, and
tobacco. It includes any one that has an
athletic injury or medical problem.
Any person that recklessly endangers
his or her body should not receive
government benefits. That includes
anyone that rides a bicycle, drives
a car, or flies in an airplane. Many
accidents happen in a shower or bath
tub. Any person that bathes should be
prohibited from partaking in government
programs. Mining, farming, and
cooking are particularly dangerous.
Anyone engaged in these activities
should be barred from benefits of
all government programs. Why should we
responsible people pay the bills of
the irresponsible?
Of course, it is only fair that anyone
barred from all government
programs should be exempt from income
and social security taxes. I have
just recited for you the Libertarian
Party Platform. If you agree with it,
register Libertarian, sign up with
the Party, and sign the Party petitions.
All the necessary papers are available
at the Libertarian Party table at
this Marijuana Smoke Out.
Summary
We are involved in a struggle for the soul of America. The issue is
not marijuana. Marijuana is the messenger,
not the message. The issue is
whether we will live in freedom or
under tyranny. Choose freedom. The
lighted marijuana weed is the torch
of freedom.
I ask that no-one under 18
years old smoke marijuana. We appreciate
your support, but if minors smoke,
it will hurt our cause. If arrested,
give only your name and address. Go
limp and make the officers carry you
away from the demonstration. Plead
not guilty and ask for a speedy, jury
trial.
If you are attacked by either police or bystanders, go into the
fetal position, and use your hands
to protect your head. Under no
circumstances, even if provoked, use
violence. Thank you for your
cooperation.
Smoke a weed and enjoy the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the
Arts. Thank you for coming.
TOP
Summary
of the events during Dr. Heicklen's arresst
by Dr. Julian Heicklen
The opening talk at the 30-hour Marijuana Smoke Out, which
began at noon is posted above. I was
using a bullhorn, so about 400 people heard this talk.
I then smoked a marijuana cigarette.
The Penn State Police approached and
did not care about the marijuana cigarette.
In fact when asked about the
marijuana cigarette by a FOX news
reporter, two police officers denied that
they smelled marijuana.
However the police were upset about the use of the bullhorn. They
pointed out that the use of bullhorns
was against University policy, and
they wanted me to stop using it. I
pointed out that the University had no
legislative authority, and that my
policy was to use it. Since they could
not arrest me for using the bullhorn,
they snatched my cigarette. At 12:45
PM, I was arrested. I went limp and
was dragged into a patrol car. I was
taken to the Campus Police headquarters,
where I remained limp until
dragged away to the district magistrate's
office for a 2:40 PM arraignment.
District Magistrate Carmen Prestia set my bail at $50,000 straight
bail for an offense with a usual bail
of $500. The purpose of the high bail
was not to insure my appearance at
court, but to keep me incarcerated until
the 30-hour Marijuana Smoke Out was
finished. It was a violation of my 8th
Amendment right to no excessive bail.
Then I was dragged into a patrol car,
driven to Centre County Prison in
Bellefonte, and dragged into the prison.
I remained in prison for 4 days until
Charles Andrew generously posted the
$50,000 bail money.
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30
HOUR SMOKEOUT SUMMARY
by Carla Moquin
On Thursday, July 9th, 1998 the rally
began at noon. Some of the organizers
appeared early in order to set up
the table for passing out
literature. There were chairs
and some small boxes for holding papers. By
12:30, there was a need to set up
a second table to help pass out
literature. Dr. Heicklen was
the first speaker and used the megaphone
(bullhorn). The police felt
Dr. Heicklen was too loud and ordered him
first to turn the volume down, then
they threatened to take the bullhorn,
but they did not have the power to
pass legislation and became frustrated
by Dr. Heicklen's refusals. Finally,
the police arrested Dr. Heicklen for
possession of small amounts of marijuana.
Dr. Heicklen was told he had to
post $50,000 straight bail or stay
in prison until Wednesday. $50,000 was
posted on Monday.
After the arrest, the police demanded
that the tables, chairs and boxes be
removed or that they would be discarded
as litter. There was no electronic
amplification allowed. The protesters
were not allowed to sit down and all
literature and signs also could not
be set down. Several out-of-town
speakers became frustrated by the
lack of electronic amplification and
declined speaking.
On Friday, we brought a few signs
and boxes of literature. One person had
suggested using a transmitter with
a microphone that would tune to a static
radio station and thus be audible
across the street if someone were carrying
a portable radio. A policeman
came over to tell us that if we persisted in
trying to use amplification, then
the University would probably have an
injunction filed against us, shutting
us down completely.
In spite of this, the rally went on
successfully. The support was
tremendous. Throughout the weekend,
over 100,000 people passed by the rally
and saw the crowd protesting for the
legalization of marijuana. We managed
to collect over 600 signatures on
our decriminalization of
marijuana petitions as well as over
330 signatures on two other petitions we
had. We had 3 on-the-spot conversions
to our cause. We also passed out
hundreds of "Free Julian Heicklen"
buttons.
On Saturday, Ken Krawchuk, the
Libertarian candidate for governor,
attended the rally and made three
speeches in the course of the day.
He was able to draw crowds and engage
people in conversations, and he collected
dozens of signatures for his
candidacy. (Note: In order to
be on the ballot, Libertarian candidates are
required to collect 24,000 voter signatures,
while Democratic and Republican
candidates need only collect 2,000.)
He considered his visit to be a success.
On Saturday night, there was a riot
in the streets of State College.
Several policemen, bystanders, and
rioters were injured. Nearly every
article written about this riot commented
that it was "alcohol-related." On
Sunday, when we protestors arrived
at the rally site (very few of us
having even heard about the riot),
the police asked us if we had anything
special planned for the day.
We realized only later that they may have
thought that we had a hand in inciting
the violence that occurred. We found
it ironic that the people who are
fighting for the legalization of
marijuana were either not aware of
the riot or were bystanders to it (one of
our people was pepper-sprayed in the
eyes by an indiscriminate policeman as
he unknowingly walked out of a building
into the middle of the riot), while
the riot itself was fueled by the
effects of alcohol, a legal substance.
By Sunday, we decided to use the radio
transmitter and just see what the
police did. They took no action.
Apparently, since we weren't using
direct amplification but merely playing
radios at a moderate level, there
was nothing in the ordinance about
electronic amplification that would
allow them to stop us. Therefore,
on Sunday we were able to have speeches
that were audible across the street
in the State College borough.
Lawyers are currently working on analyzing
the State College Borough and
University Park ordinances to find
unconstitutional clauses in them. We
will continue to hold our weekly marijuana
smokeout rallies every Thursday
at noon at the corner of College and
Allen in State College, PA. Again, we
welcome all who wish to attend.
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Roughly,
the 20 violations of the Constitution that the protestors witnessed this
weekend.
Article [I.]
Congress shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting
the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech,
or of the press;
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to
petition the
Government for a redress of grievances.
1. We were not
allowed to use the bullhorn
(freedom of
speech).
2. We were not
allowed to hand out political fliers in State College
(freedom of
press).
3. We were not
allowed to have tables that were to allow us to pass out literature
(freedom of
press).
4. We
were not allowed to sell buttons
(is this freedom
of press?)
5. We
were not allowed to set boxes containing literature on ground
(freedom of
press)
.
6. We
were not allowed to set signs on ground
(freedom of
speech).
7. We
were not allowed to sit on the ground
(freedom to
assemble).
8. We
were threatened to not be able to have political rallies if we broke any
of the laws
(right to assemble).
9. Our
inability to have tables or boxes made it difficult for us to collect signatures
for our petitions.
10. We
were told that we could not use any form of electronic amplification
(freedom of
speech).
Luckily, reporters
were allowed to use microphones to record speeches. Automobile drivers
were allowed to use FMtransmitters in their cars to listen to CDplayers
placed in their car trunks. People are allowed to record radio stations
for personal use.
10a. We
were told that an FM transmitter was a form of electronic amplification
even though its output could not be heard.
10b. We
were not allowed to listen to a radio if it was tuned to the FM transmitter
as this would be in violation of the electronic amplification law (freedom
of speech). We were threatened that the radio would be taken and
an injunction would be placed against the person using the radio.
10c. We were
not allowed to use the FM transmitter to record speeches for personal use.
11. The removal
of tables stopped us from distributing books pertinent to our cause.
Article [IV.]
The right of
the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and
effects, against
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated,
and no Warrants
shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or
affirmation,
and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the
persons or things
to be seized.
12. The
police threatened to take any boxes we set on the ground (we were
not secure in
our papers and effects against unreasonable seizure).
13. The
police threatened to take any signs we set on the ground (we were
not secure in
our effects against unreasonable seizure).
14. The
police threatened to take any tables that we use (we were not
secure in our
effects against unreasonable seizure).
15. The
police threatened to take our FM transmitter and any radios used
to listen to
speeches.
Article [V.]
No person shall
be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous
crime, unless
on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in
cases arising
in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in
actual service
in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be
subject for
the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb;
nor shall be
compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against
himself, nor
be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process
of law; nor
shall private property be taken for public use, without just
compensation.
16. Dr.
Heicklen was asked if he would smoke marijuana if he was released
on bail (witness
against himself).
17. Dr.
Heicklen was asked if he would attend the Pennsylvania Arts
Festival if
he was released on bail (deprived of liberty).
18. The
witness's account of Dr. Heicklen's previous arrests (in spite of
no convictions)
was not stricken from the record. Judge Prestia stated
that he was
tired of playing games (Double jeopardy).
Article [VIII.]
Excessive bail
shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor
cruel and unusual
punishments inflicted.
19. Bail
was set for Dr. Heicklen at $50,000: one-hundred times the
normal amount
for the crime of which he was accused. Consequently, he
served 4 days
of prison time.
Article [IX.]
The enumeration
in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be
construed to
deny or disparage others retained by the people.
10d. Even
though FM transmitters were not specifically mentioned in the
Constitution,
their use falls under the freedom of speech issue.
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15
REASONS WHY WE SUPPORT MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION
1. People need to be able to make
mistakes (be able to harm themselves) in
order to learn.
2. A person should be able to do what
he or she wants as long as he or she
does not harm others.
3. People should be held responsible
for their actions and not let drugs be
an excuse.
4. Prison does not help anybody.
Drugs are more readily available in prison
than outside of prison.
5. The Prohibition of alcohol led
to a dramatic increase in violent crime
that was reduced when the Prohibition
ended. The Drug Prohibition has led
to an even larger increase in violent
crime. We believe that legalization
of drugs will reduce the violent crime
rate.
6. The Drug Prohibition has made drugs
expensive, giving dealers incentive
to push them and addicts incentive
to steal in order to support their habits.
7. The drug war has resulted in tremendous
amounts of government and police
corruption in the U.S. and other countries.
8. The drug laws give individuals
working for the government the legal
ability to spy into people's homes,
tap phone lines and steal property.
9. Marijuana is not addictive.
Congress legislating on marijuana's
addictiveness will not change nature.
10. Marijuana is a medicine.
The existence of substitute medicines does not
negate the medicinal value of marijuana.
11. Nobody has ever died from an overdose
of marijuana.
12. Drug laws originated as a strong
response to racial fear. Cocaine was
made illegal to prevent blacks from
being able to resist arrest, opiates
were banned to stop Asians from corrupting
white youth; marijuana was banned
to help stop the immigration of Mexicans.
13. The U.S. government has resorted
to using blatant lies and scare tactics
to convince people of the fictitious
dangers of marijuana use.
14. Few Americans had heard of marijuana,
cocaine or heroine before they
were criminalized.
15. Marijuana is not a gateway drug.
A large majority of marijuana users do
not conduct farther drug experimentation.
More to come...
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