March 18, 1992

Dear Sonya Friedman:

Thank you very much for your coverage of the medicinal use of Hemp (Marijuana) during mid March, ‘92. I thank you very much for the open mind you exhibited. In your show like almost every circumstance I can recall over my past five years as an activists to End Prohibition of Hemp, I realized the opposition, even on your show, only defense is to go back to the “hippie, druggie, hype”.

Technically, physically, in the human brain, the cerebrum, and the cerebellum, the nerve endings, have many jagged endings, much like a jigsaw puzzle. When the human body intakes Hemp, all the properties of the Hemp plant fit exactly into place in the jigsaw puzzle of the mind. Like it was always suppose to be there. The scientists do not understand why it works, but they do know that it seems to align all the senses of the body, the known, and the unknown. The more speeches I make, the more people I meet, and because of the nature of discussions, I am asked often by people in retirement homes if I know where they could get some Marijuana, which of course I do not, but it saddens me that they are refused a stimulate that places smiles upon the heart. Instead they are given drugs from George Bush’s pharmaceutical empire, which keep them so sedated that they don’t even know what day it is. Is it not amazing that the King of the Pharmaceutical World George Bush originals Drug Testing (Hemp Testing) to all working companies in the United States? Is it not amazing that during George Bush’s administration, the cost of pharmaceuticals in medicine, is the fastest growing expense?

I personally am drug free, no prescriptions, no aspirin, I teach classes for the Free University in Wichita, Kansas, on Hemp Education. I travel all over the United States speaking to groups on the real issues. I would like to present these to you right now, and hopefully, you can be inspired to do your own research, and help us get the real issues in full sight of the people of the world, who are the ones who suffer under Hemp prohibition.

Energy Farming, Fuel Independence, No More Foreign Oil!

These are the issues.

With 6% of the land in the United States cultivated in Hemp, less land than we pay farm subsidiaries on, this country could be fuel independent. Hemp is the largest fiber producing plant on this plant. One acre of Hemp will produce 1,000 gallons of Methanol.

If we are going to stop the countdown clock on the greenhouse effect, we must immediately stop using fossil fuels, and leave our trees in the ground.

Fossil fuels, when burned produce CO2 and sulfur. Sulfur causing acid rain. In only a few short years of using Fossil Fuels, we have filled our atmosphere with so much CO2 our very existence on this planet is now in danger. Should we begin Bio-massing for fuel, the growth of the crop would remove CO2 from the atmosphere, while it is true the burning of Bio-Mass also produces CO2 \it is necessary for the growth of next years crop, thus completing the ecologically balanced cycle. Hemp Bio-Mass contains no sulfur.

If Energy Farming of the Hemp Plant was exploited, since it is the greatest fiber producing plant on the plant, no only could the United States become energy independent, but the seventeen outdated, dangerous, nuclear reactors, the former peoples of the Soviet Union are dependent upon, could be closed saving the planet from possible, almost certain future radiation contamination.

With the end of Hemp Prohibition we could exploit the paper making benefits of this wonderful plant, which until 53 years ago was the number one agricultural crop of the whole world. Until the time that William Randolph Hearst brought all the forest, and Dupont bout all the railroads, and invented wood pulp paper chemicals, until then, the majority of all paper was made of hemp. Hemp hurds for paper, produces 4.5 as much per acre as does would pulp paper. Wood pulp paper only recycles 4-5 times, Hemp pulp paper recycles 12-14 times. Hemp pepper, can be made from the rags of Hemp textiles, which is as it was in the formation days of the country. (Rag was a term that was to be used in the newspaper industry for the paper it was printed upon.) The constitution of the United States was written upon Hemp paper. The first flag of Betsy Ross was woven on Hemp paper. The first flag of Betsy Ross was woven of Hemp fiber. Hemp fabric sailed all the great ships, and covered all the wagon headed west, as well as making the first Levi jeans durable. Ben Franklin, opened the first Hemp paper mill, so the Colonies would no longer be dependent upon England for paper.

In the archives of the world, Hemp paper as old as 2,000 years is on display. It is unfortunate that the history of our times is at risk of existence for its records and books recorded on wood pulp paper, are turning to ash on the shelves in the libraries, which is why there is a big push to try to microfilm our culture before it is lost forever. One hundred years of information, reduced to microfilm.

The ending of Hemp prohibition answers two important environmental issues. The ability to have energy with out adding to the Greenhouse, and a avenue by which to stop cutting down our trees.

What about building supplies? In 1942, Henry Ford, illegally grew Hemp on his private estate, in order to produce his “car from the ground”, which externally was made from the cellulose fiber of the Hemp plant, and was run on methanol made from Hemp.

I have presented Governor Bill Clinton with these facts, and asked him to make it part of his political platform. Last week in my home town when Hillary made a campaign stop, I had the opportunity to personally present her with my information on Energy Farming. It is estimated that 85% of all people in jail, are there because of drug charges in the United States. I have proposed to Mr. Clinton, if elected, he immediately release all people from jail that are there sole for Hemp Prohibition Charges. This would save millions of dollars in every state, and restore originally productive persons to their proper place in our society. When you consider that George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Payne, all of our forefathers were Hemp farmers, for it was law, in order to own land in the new colonies you must grow Hemp. Hemp was so valuable you could pay your federal income taxes for over 200 years with hemp.

When the honorable Hemp farmers, wrote the words, “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they never intended for George Bush o use Hemp 220 years later to single handily destroy the Bill of Rights which made this country the greatest in the world. With George Bush’s War on Drugs, he developed a way for the government to confiscate land, all property, and moneys, for the possession of a fertile Hemp seed.

Presently, and for at least four years, the “Gitano” company has produced Hemp clothing in China, calling it ramie. Ramie is Linen, Linen is Hemp, Hemp is not Marijuana, it depends on where you live, what ever the law is at that time as to which name is most popular.

Hemp seeds themselves have very unique qualities, and it is plausible that it would end world hunger. Our current prohibition has obscured the fact that gruel is hemp seed porridge, naturally delicious flavor consumed by man for 8,000 plus years. Hemp seed is a food highest in total essential fatty acids 55% linoleic, 25% linolenic) responsible for the strength of the cell membrane against disease organisms and a preventive to cancer and heart disease. With 65% edestine, the complete protein in hemp seed gives the body easily digestible essential amino acids to produce antibodies which heighten immune response and overcome nutrition blocking diseases.

Considering that Hemp at one time grew all over the planet, and besides being naturally nutrition’s for humans, it is also the preferred food of all wild birds. Since Prohibition began in 1935, we have developed the diseases of cancer, and now in the 90’s we have to deal with full blown AIDS. Both immune deficient diseases. Is it not at least worth consideration that these are products of the ecological chain being broken because there are no longer hemp seeds for birds and squirrels to pass through the chain. Also worthy considerations, is the lack of the natural airborne THC crystals which as all pollen are parts of our ecological chain. Perhaps the lack of these airborne THC crystals could be resulting in the violence in our society.

On February 25-27, 1992, I was able to attend President Bush’s Drug Summit in San Antonio, Texas. Two hundred of the strongest Hemp activists from all over the United States were there along with me to talk to the press, police, and the Presidents of Venezuela, Ecuador, Mexico, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, to enlighten them to what the real issues of Hemp are.

As the President left the Majestic Theater Wednesday evening, President Jaime Paz Zamora of Bolivia, stopped his motorcade in front of me, and had his press-secretary come to where I was standing with a twenty-five foot banner listing at least forty fields of industry that would benefit from the end of Hemp prohibition. (Jobs for Machinists, Tool and Die Makers, Chemists, Truckers, Mechanics, Auto Part Suppliers, Engineers, Textile Yard Good Makers, Textile Workers, Manufactures of Equipment , Profitable Farming, Biodegradable textiles, Drug free stimulants,) I was saying, $6,100 an acre fro the economy, Fuel Independence, No More Foreign Oil”. The press secretary asked that I put into his tape recorder in Spanish the things I was saying. For instance, one acre of Hemp will produce 1,0-00 gallons of methanol. The over all moneys to be derived from Hemp cultivation for protein, paper, fiber, and fuel amounts to $1,117,550,000,000. Annually. This is some serious money. A total redistribution of the wealth in this country from the money lords, right back into ht hands of the people in the inner counties.

The press-secretary for President Zamora, shared with me the concerns of his country with the environmental effect of the massive eradication of the cocoa fields, which are natural to the area. Cocoa is a plant chewed by the native Indians to enable their bodies microbiologically assimilate oxygen to cope with the altitudes in excess of 14,000 feet. Cocoa was made by God, man made cocaine.

There have been several attempts to get the government to stop Standard Oil from shipping billions of tons of acetone to the Andes Mountains every year. (The chemical required to turn Cocoa into cocaine.) I have read sufficient proof, to believe that our government CIA division is directly involved in drug trafficking. Few people realize that John poindexter, Oliver North, are wanted for drug trafficking in Panama, on the same charges that we are holding their former President Manuel Antonio Noriega for. Why hasn’t CNN covered these trials? We all know why, and proof is in the Christic Report.

“The War on Drugs is a complete and unabrogated fraud,” say Daniel Sheehan, chief counsel and co-founder of the Christic Institute, an interfaith center for law and national policy in the public interest. “It is a knowing and willful act of disinformation and he knows it,” continues Sheehan.

Daniel Sheehan is a Harvard Law School graduate who has worked in the law office of F. Lee Bailey, on Wall Street, for the ACLU, and on such cases as the “Pentagon Papers” case, the Wounded Knee trials, and the Attica Prison suit.

In case people don’t believe President Bush capable of such behavior, Sheehan lists a number of instances where Bush has lied. President Bush maintained that we knew nothing about the illegal shipment of weapons to the Contras. However, during the North trial the government issued 42 pages of admissions that proved that Vice President George Bush not only knew of illegal shipments of weapons to the Contras but actively participated in them. The documents showed that Bush traveled to Honduras to meet with the President of Honduras to set up an illegal quid-pro-quo arrangement. Honduras would provide additional weapons to the Contras in return for increased US Aid.

Donald Greg, then Vice President George Bush’s National Security Advisor, sent exBay of Pigs veteran and Christic defendant Felix Rodriquez to Illopango - El Salvador’s main air base - to oversee the contra-resupply operation. It was at a time when all aid to the Contras had been banned by the Boland Amendment.

It was also the time when Rodriquez talked to Gregg and Col. Sam Watson, another top Bush aid, seventeen ties and Bush three times. One memo setting the agenda for a meeting with Bush said that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss “resupply of the Contras.” Col. Watson said that the memo was typed wrong, but the secretary who typed it said that she typed what Watson dictated. It was also interesting to note that the first person Felix Rodriquez called when Eugene Hassenfus” plane went down in Nicaragua in October 1986 was Col. Sam Watson.

Bush swore he knew nothing of the Iranian arms deal. But when he was confronted by Dan Rather on national TV he admitted he did know something, but that all he was trying to do was to get CIA station chief William Buckley out of captivity.

Bush claims not to have known that General Noriega was a drug trafficker until February 1988 when the latter was indicted on drug-running charges. However, Donald Gregg, Bush’s national security advisor, testified in May 1988, before attorneys for the Christic Institute, that there was a meeting in 1985 between Bush and Everett Ellis Briggs, the American ambassador to Panama. Here Noriega’s drug problem was made known to all, according to Gregg.

So while Bush’s credibility is low, the Christic Institute’s is high. The Institute, founded in 1980, has won all their cases, some of which are: the famed Karen Silkwood case against Kerr-McGee, nuclear contamination at Three Mile Island, and the Greensboro Civil Rights Case. They choose their cases based on their potential to advance human rights, social justice, and personal freedom. Their present case, based on a press conference bombing in 1986, revealed an off-the-shelf, stand alone, self-financing “Enterprise” that has been involved in gun-running, drug-smuggling and political assassination for thirty years in defiance of the US Congress, beginning with the Contra war against Cuba. In 1965, the “Enterprise” moved their operation to Southeast Asia where they used opium to finance their secret war in Laos. They also worked in the Middle East and South America.

In May 1986, before anyone had heard of Albert Hakim and Richard Second, the Christic Institute filed their Federal Racketeering complaint against these men (29 in all) charging that the “off-the-shelf” covert operation “Enterprise” was in fact being financed in part by massive smuggling of cocaine into the US between the years of 1979 and 1986.

The Christic Institute discovered that the drugs were shipped through John Hull’s ranch in Costa Rica and then transported to Frigorificos de Puntarenas, a major frozen shrimp company in Costa Rica owned by Dagoberto Nunez. From there the drugs were shipped to the Ocean Hunter Seafood Co. In Miami owned by Paco Chanes. The cocaine was then distributed and a portion of the profits was used to purchase weapons by Ronald Joseph Martin, owner of the Tamiami gun ship in Miami for the Contras. His partner Mario Delamico ran the Honduran branch of the operation.

The sources for the Christic Institute information are: Ramon Milian Rodriquez, the chief bookkeeper for the Medellin Drug Cartel, Jose Blandon, chief of Intelligence for Manuel Noriega in Panama, George Morales, the chief pilot of the cartel, other drug pilots like Michael Tolivar, Gary Betzner, and Geraldo Druan who gave tail numbers to their planes and details and dates of their flights, and Jack Terrel who worked with the civilian Military Assistance group of Christic defendant Tom Posey.

In July 1983, Christic defendant John Hull traveled to Washington and met with Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana. There Hull was introduced to Quayle’s legislative assistant, Christic defendant Rob Owen. Owen then introduced Hull to Olive North. Later Owen served as North’s liaison to the Contras and the private aid network during the congressional ban on Contra aid.

Sen. Kerry’s Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee report also confirms many of the Contra-drug allegations made by the Christic Institute. The report states, “(U.S.) Foreign policy priorities toward such countries as Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama have halted or significantly interfered with U.S. Law Enforcement efforts to keep narcotics out of the U.S. Within the U.S. the drug traffickers have successfully manipulated the U.S. justice system by providing certain services in support of U.S. foreign policy. U.S. officials involved in Central America have failed to address the drug issues for fear of jeopardizing their war effort against the country o Nicaragua...There is substantial evidence of drug smuggling on the part of the Contras, Contra suppliers, Contra pilots, mercenaries who worked for the Contras and Contra supporters throughout the region.”

The report also quotes Gen. Paul Gorman, head of the U.S. military command in Panama, as saying, “If you want to move arms and munitions in Latin America, the established networks are owned by the Drug Cartel.”

Finally, the report found that the State Department paid over $800,000 in Contra “humanitarian” aid to companies which were either run by indicted drug traffickers or were under investigation by the DEA.

The report, Sheehan states, shows “that a fundamental compromise has struck the heart of the law enforcement program in our country against cocaine importation because of an alliance between those who are engaged in drug smuggling and those who are charged with enforcing the law in our country. It is a campaign in a collation of virulent anticommunism and that is the fundamental problem that we have to deal with.”

Keeping all of the above in mind, it is interesting to take a look at Bush’s new drug plan of September 5th, 1991. First he called for tougher penalties; more prisons, more jails, and more prosecutors. This in spite of Sen Kerry’s report that cites a recent study of the criminal justice section of the American Bar Association that states this: “The major problem reported by all criminal justice participants is the inability of our justice system to control the drug problem through simple law enforcement of the criminal law.” It goes on to state, “The narcotics problem in our country is instead a problem or national security and foreign policy,” i.e., the Reagan-Bush Administration believed that it was more important to support the Contras than to stem the flow of cocaine into the U.S. In fact, the Contras were supported, in part, by moneys from the massive smuggling of cocaine into America which was orchestrated by “super-patriots” within the Reagan-Bush Administration.

The second aspect of Bush’s drug plan is to send $250 million to the military of Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. This in spite of a report in the Washington Post of August 31. The article entitled. In Colombia the Military is Part of the Problem, states this: “the cartel simply could not impose their reign of terror on the Colombians without direct cooperation of their military authorities...The drug dealers have determined to wipe out left and progressive forces to ensure the perpetuation of the regressive social order.” The report suggests that “President Marcos should focus on the links between the drug lords and the military. That link originates in a shared ideology of virulent anti-communism. Military aid sent by the U.S. will be wasted on this unholy alliance.” In other words, any military aid sent to these countries will not be used to fight the drug cartels, but rather to fight leftist-insurgency, e.g., peasant groups.

Thirdly, it is designed to attack the casual user. Sheehan says,

“It is clear that this (Bush’s) plan is not designed to stop or deter the flow of cocaine, but rather to focus on the middle class so that they get the impression that something is being done. This plan is nothing more than a public relations ploy.”

The Christic Institute testified before Rep. Charles Rangel’s (D-NY) House Select Committee on Narcotics that the source of the problem was the Operational Directorate of the CIA and this group of men, Christic defendants Ted, Shakey, Tom Clines, and Richard Secord, who were fired from the CIA by President Carter and CIA Director Stansfield Turner. These were the men, Sheehan says, who set up the off-the-shelf government and forged the links with the leaders of the drug cartels so that when charges were brought against these drug men and their operations, the prosecutors were ordered to “stand down.” Consider just a few examples:

1. The “Frogman case in San Francisco where $36,020 was seized in a drug bust. The only money was ordered turned back over to the defendants when they said it was for the “Contras.”

2. In the book The Underground Empire by James Mills, Dennis Dale of the DEA said he quit his job because every time he was ready to close in on a major drug smuggler he was ordered off the case by the CIA for national security reasons.

3. The district attorneys from Arkansas to Florida have been ordered to stand down from investigations. In Mena, Arkansas, a major cocaine operation headed by Barry Seal was under way. The investigation was stopped because Seal was working for the CIA.

4. Leon Kellner, U.S. District Attorney in Miami, was obstructing drug investigations, so the Christic Institute filed a formal complaint to Judge King, who would not do anything about it. Kellner, however, resigned and Ed Meese replace him with Dexter Lehtinen, one of the attorneys for Christic defendant Jack Singlaub. Dexter Lehtinen is also the husband of Ilena Ros-Lehtinen, who has just won the runoff or Claude Pepper’s old house seat in Florida. Ros-Lehtinen is an outspoken supporter of the anti-Castro Cuban terrorist Orlando Bosch. Both Bush and Quayle made last-minute trips to Florida to campaign for Ros-Lehtinen.

Why were these investigations stopped? Because, according to Sheehan, these drug lords were providing the CIA with (a) intelligence about left-wing organizations throughout Latin America - peasant groups, co-ops, land reform groups, etc., (b) money to run these covert operations when Congress wouldn’t fund them, and (c) men to help fight these covert wars.

It is clear from the above that Bush’s War on Drugs is nothing more than a disinformation campaign. It is not meant to stop the flow of cocaine into this country and never was. It is designed to focus attention on the drug consumer, thereby diverting attention away from the Reag-bush Administration’s complicity with the drug producers and trafficker’s that served their own political agenda.

Abraham Lincoln said: “Prohibition...goes beyond the bound of reasoning in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. . . A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

The environment of this planet is at stake. With out change, nothing will happen, and we cannot afford to wait. It takes people of greatness like you Dr. Friedman, to enlighten people to the real issues, and I beg you seriously to investigate the ideas I am sharing with you.

Again thank you for your show on medicinal marijuana, while I believe that every one should have access to Hemp if they desire, Medicinal marijuana, like smoking marijuana, is a smoke screen to the real issues of Energy Farming for a Greener Economy.

Very Truly Yours,