Note: This diary involves an action email from Brian Sonenstein of firedoglake. While I understand that there are those here who spit in the general direction of anything from FDL, that pie fight is not the topic of this diary. I do not write to praise FDL, nor to criticize them, merely to relate some quasi-censorship from our corporate overlords. Please leave the "FDL sux-rox" out of the comments. Thanks!
Anyway, a while back FDL asked folks at their site and on their mailing list to choose a topic for activism. The overwhelming choice was the legal status of marijuana. This being one of my areas of interest, I have them on my safe senders list at my Hotmail account. Today, for the second time in recent memory, an email from them that advocated marijuana-related action was flagged with the following:
This message looks very suspicious to our SmartScreen filters, so we've blocked attachments, pictures, and links for your safety.
Funny thing, they never have that warning for emails from Big Lots which also have photos and links. They never have that warning for emails from various political groups soliciting funds. But THIS one is suspicious. GMAFB.
...
And for those who are interested, here is the action item that was the topic of the email. It is perfectly fine to take action independently of FDL, and to avoid ruffling feathers I'll leave out the link to their action page.
When she testified before congress last month, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart refused to answer Rep. Jared Polis repeated questions as to whether marijuana was as harmful as other Schedule I drugs such as heroin. Her only response was that "all illegal drugs are bad."
However, science disagrees. A recent study sponsored by the State of California and published in the Open Neurology Journal called the federal classification of marijuana as a Schedule I drug "not accurate" and "not tenable" and concluded that marijuana does indeed provide relief to patients who suffer chronic pain.
Can you call DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart and ask her if she still believes marijuana is "bad", even if government-funded science disagrees.
(202)-307-8000
The government is running out of excuses. They can no longer claim that not enough is known about the effects of marijuana. All they can do is stonewall and lie. And as time goes on, more and more people are seeing through those lies. We have recently crossed the 50% support threshold nationwide for full legalization. And it is high time the damn fools in Washington, DC start listening to us.