Okay, I'm a new member here, and I obviously support smoking weed. I was on this site the other day looking at the calendar of events and the 2009 Ontario Hemp Fest caught my eye. Being a stoner and a hippie, I naturally got really excited and automatically started planning to see if I could attend this year. Then something that troubled me caught my eye in the advertisement...apparently, this is the last year the Ontario Hemp Fest will be happening, due to the Police over enforcing the R.I.D.E. (Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere) program. It was issued in 1977 in Etobicoke, Ontario as a policing effort to put an end to drinking and driving, in which police can pull you over at random and ask you a multitude of questions to determine if its necessary to enforce breathalyzer tests. I've done some further research and apparently the police are stopping vehicles on the way to and from Hemp Fest and searching them, most cases without probable cause. This is in Canada, so I did some research into the US's similar programs and found that going through our own state boarders, police are stopping and searching our citizen's vehicles with little to no probable cause. I say 'little to no' because apparently its a crime to state your rights to these designated officers and refuse a search of your vehicle without a good enough reason or a search warrant.
First things first, our fourth amendment rights clearly state "The right of 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 persons or things to be seized."
I was (and still am) enraged at finding MORE proof that we, as American citizens, do not have nearly as many rights as we would like to think. We do not have freedoms, we are simply treated as if we're children that need their so called guidance and we are given few privileges...and perhaps, to some extent that assumption would be true, but it would only be true because of the government stepping in one to many times to cover their own asses and to make themselves as comfortable on their pedestals as possible. THEY ONLY HAVE AS MUCH POWER AS WE LET THEM HAVE. And we gave them far too much power to run with in our petty search for global recognition. So now we have to fight a more difficult fight. We have to yell twice as loud (so to speak) to get our voices heard. This is clearly an attempt to keep their thumb on even the most peaceful of people, because they are afraid of us. They should be, but not because we're going to go to war with weapons and more unneeded violence, but because we have one thing they don't- understanding, knowledge, and regard for all the life in this wonderful and spacious earth.
The thought of our Government growing more corrupt by the day, and knowing that politicians can sit in their own filth and greed and get away unscathed because of their god damn job title and their yearly salary, makes me sick. And all this is going on while people who are suffering from any number of ailments have to HIDE in fear when they smoke a little pot to feel better. And even worse still, people who strongly believe in this cause and effectively exercise the rights of their citizenship by saying 'no' to unwarranted searches are going to prison. I, for one, have had enough of the government oppressing my own people.
TOKE ONE UP IF YOU WANT SOME CHANGES MADE.
First things first, our fourth amendment rights clearly state "The right of 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 persons or things to be seized."
I was (and still am) enraged at finding MORE proof that we, as American citizens, do not have nearly as many rights as we would like to think. We do not have freedoms, we are simply treated as if we're children that need their so called guidance and we are given few privileges...and perhaps, to some extent that assumption would be true, but it would only be true because of the government stepping in one to many times to cover their own asses and to make themselves as comfortable on their pedestals as possible. THEY ONLY HAVE AS MUCH POWER AS WE LET THEM HAVE. And we gave them far too much power to run with in our petty search for global recognition. So now we have to fight a more difficult fight. We have to yell twice as loud (so to speak) to get our voices heard. This is clearly an attempt to keep their thumb on even the most peaceful of people, because they are afraid of us. They should be, but not because we're going to go to war with weapons and more unneeded violence, but because we have one thing they don't- understanding, knowledge, and regard for all the life in this wonderful and spacious earth.
The thought of our Government growing more corrupt by the day, and knowing that politicians can sit in their own filth and greed and get away unscathed because of their god damn job title and their yearly salary, makes me sick. And all this is going on while people who are suffering from any number of ailments have to HIDE in fear when they smoke a little pot to feel better. And even worse still, people who strongly believe in this cause and effectively exercise the rights of their citizenship by saying 'no' to unwarranted searches are going to prison. I, for one, have had enough of the government oppressing my own people.
TOKE ONE UP IF YOU WANT SOME CHANGES MADE.
