My RIGHT To Bear Arms Supersedes My Ability To Fight For What's RIGHT!

Legalizing cannabis will be a huge step in returning liberties to The People! The way it works right now is officers have the right to take firearms from a person if they are ‘addicted’ to ‘any’ narcotic, not just marijuana. Legalization and removing cannabis from the list of illegal narcotics will remove any chance of losing your guns over cannabis use in the future. It’s been up to the police to either take your guns, or not take your guns. In most cases where people have received an arrest citation for small amounts of cannabis they did not lose their guns. Where you typically see a person’s guns removed is when they appear to be trafficking.

However, in medical marijuana only states they have seen more folks lose their guns because law enforcement in those areas are still operating off the assumption that a person is trafficking because those folks in medical marijuana states assume they can possess more than they normally would have if they still feared going to jail, and in most cases their new limited legislation does allow this.

Not all police chiefs are conducting business as usual in these medical marijuana states and not all Police chiefs and prosecutors in ‘illegal’ states are still arresting and prosecuting for minor possession either. The writing on the wall is becoming more and more clear everyday.

Many cities and counties across the country have been given the ok to STOP arresting folks for minor possession and they have created ordinances to prevent such arrests.

Louisville is one of those cities within an illegal state and they passed an ordinance (LLEPO) a few months ago to stop arresting non-violent people using cannabis, and for the most part, even if you get an arrest citation in Kentucky you are NOT going to lose your guns unless you are trafficking, a danger to law enforcement, or the community.

If you believe medical marijuana laws will cause you to lose your guns, you are not entirely wrong; it's also happening with hemp legislation, and I’m certain many people will continue to have marijuana use used against them which will result in the loss of their guns, property, and other rights and possessions; and until we push forward and pass legislation, and ordinances, to prevent this, NO ONE using marijuana for any reason, whether it may be medical marijuana, or HEMP, will have a defense to keep there guns.

In fact, this red Flag Law ‘both parties’ (even Mitch McConnell) have been talking about, will make it even more difficult to keep guns if you use anything from aspirin to alcohol, and even prescription drugs.

Nevertheless, the current law allowing people’s guns to be taken isn’t a new law. It’s been on the books for decades and it’s being challenged in every state moving forward with legalization, and Kentucky will do the same.

We cannot make decisions based off fear, we must make them based off knowledge and facts. And the fact here is that we must move forward or folks will continue losing their right to health, happiness, and freedom from illegal search and seizures which are currently taking place at an alarming rate across our state.

The fact is, legalization saves lives, saves communities money, frees up law enforcement to fight violent crime, increases revenue for states, reduces opioid abuse, does not increase fatalities on highways, creates tens of thousands of high paying jobs, restores liberties spelled out in our constitution, and it removes ‘tools’ used to destroy families all across the bluegrass.

Doing nothing is not the answer!

Doing nothing is essentially like looking the other way when you have the chance to save someone’s life.

Doing nothing will only strengthen the status quo and eventually ‘no-one’ will be protected by our constitution.

Medical marijuana only legislation isn’t working in the states it has been passed in and that is why we are seeing states quickly go to full legalization.

Even though the right to bear arms is very important to a constitutional republic, nevertheless, that is not why medical marijuana isn’t working for other states.

'Legal' states found out real fast that medical marijuana laws, just like hemp laws, which are all just an attempt to create an industry for people to get rich, doesn’t produce revenue needed for the program, the business owners, or the state's general fund, and further adds to the already confusing cannabis laws which created prohibition to begin with.

Legalization that provides protections for folks medicating with cannabis, relaxing after a tough day at work with cannabis, or those farmers saving their farms by growing cannabis, is the only way to truly protect everyone from losing anything because of cannabis prohibition.

I understand the concerns about medical marijuana and how it will, or will not, work in conjunction with our right to bear arms. I also understand that full legalization is our only real protection from prohibitionist era policing.

I have found myself looking at all of this like a parent with teenagers sometimes will have to do when they have exhausted all other options, and their wisdom through their words just isn't enough.

It is impossible to explain to a person anything if they are not willing to learn, or they lack the supporting knowledge required to fully grasp the concept you're trying to convey.

I believe we only know what we know and until we are ready to actively seek out any additional information that will help us move beyond our limitations we cannot possibly make the best decisions for ourselves, or others.

When a parent gets to this stage in their child’s development they either fight and argue with them so much they drive a wedge between them, or they can make the tough decision to push them into the real world, so they can get the real experiences they need to understand the things they couldn’t understand just by hearing the words.

I have been watching this marijuana movement very closely as it unfolded over the past decade. I, like many others, started out watching it with an anti-marijuana, anti-drugs, anti-alcohol mindset, and not fully understanding why anyone would want to legalize products that would kill.

Article after article, documentary after documentary, I kept hearing the same thing and I eventually realized society was tricked into believing something that was not entirely true. Even though I was reading this stuff and watching these shows it wasn’t until nearly seven years later and after getting involved with legislators and elected officials across the state, I thought I had a really good grasp on what was really going on and what needed to be done to fix the problems.

At this point, I really thought I understood the negative impacts of prohibition and I became even more active and more vocal about the liberties prohibition strips from society, and how just the mere mention of marijuana in our legal system strips away justice, and the liberty of due process.

Boy was I wrong!! Well, not Entirely....

Nevertheless, you really cannot know anymore than you know!!

At the beginning of my quest for answers and truth, I was warned by many folks that I didn’t even know to be very careful posting anything pro cannabis. And for the most part I was! I would not allow any posts about glorifying smoking/consuming. I would not allow dispensaries from other legal states to post on my Ky Medical Marijuana page, and until Buillitt County rescinded the medical marijuana resolution I was very careful about mentioning local marijuana politics, all the while, actively working with local and state politicians.

After the Bullitt Fiscal court rescinded the medical marijuana resolution, all because of special interests trying to gain votes, I posted my thoughts on the matter.

A few weeks later I attended a fiscal court meeting where they had a Reefer Madness Prohibitionist give a scary presentation meant to persuade the magistrates from voting (yes) on a future marijuana resolution, which was a failed attempt, and during the next meeting a new resolution supporting medical marijuana in Bullitt County passed.

Sounds like a win, right?

Yes, and no!

The meeting I attended during the Reefer Madness BS was the beginning of some additional 'real-life' education for me, and my family.

After arriving home from the meeting I noticed an unmarked DEA agents car creeping past my house...How could I be certain it wasn’t me just being paranoid, right? Cars go past everyone’s homes everyday? Not mine! I live a half mile back a ‘private’ gravel road where we only see the mail carrier, UPS, and FedX.

Instead of writing a book to explain the rest of the story I’m gonna simply say that I’m not a drug dealer, no one had any proof I consume cannabis, no one could use the ‘I smell weed’ tool, and the heat signature helicopter had to be flown over my house because I live back a private road, on private land, surrounded by a bunch of other private land. The amount of money spent to investigate me because of a FACEBOOK post was ridiculous, and the only thing the images showed was the heat from my wood burning stove, and nothing else!!

After obtaining a search warrant using misleading information and then busting in my house with guns in my face, and my families faces, handcuffing us and searching our entire property for hours, only because of a Facebook post exercising my right to protest fiscal court, I was charged with my first and only misdemeanor I have ever received in my 40+ years.

Their are folks that probably think that wasn’t a big deal and I should just get over it: and that’s what the politics surrounding prohibition would like for everyone to think but, unless you actually experience the trauma and the damage something like this causes you cannot accurately make the assumption that its not a big deal.

The costs are still coming in in many different forms but, on the surface it cost me around $1500 actual cash, not the couple hundred law enforcement prohibitionist legislators want you to believe.

It has been the cause of many arguments with my family.

It cost me to lose the trust I had for my friends and family. (which cost all of us)

It cost me the benefit of the doubt that I gave our legal system.

And as I get further away from that day I realize more and more what losing my,

First amendment rights,

the freedom of speech, infringing on the freedom of the press, interfering with the right to peaceably assemble or prohibiting the right to petition the government

Fourth amendment rights,

(Prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and sets out requirements for search warrants based on probable cause)

Sixth amendment rights,

(to confront the accuser)

Eighth amendment rights,

(Prohibits excessive fines and excessive bail, as well as cruel and unusual punishment)

and my

Ninth amendment rights,

(Protects rights not enumerated in the Constitution)

actually costs, not only me but, my family, my friends, and my community.

If someone like myself can lose these rights simply because someone in my town doesn’t think I have a right to protest laws, and regulations, that are hurting my community, then we (The United States), have a very serious problem, and Prohibitionist ideology is just the tip of the iceberg but, it's also a great example of where tyranny prohibitionist ideology will lead to.

Going through what we went through that day wasn’t as much traumatizing as it was eye opening.

It taught me that it really does take brave men and women to stand up to taranny because those so passionately fighting to be the ‘party’ in control are mostly unaware that democracy is the key to success, not one party rule which is dictated by the one with the perceived power.

It really does take all types of people for (any) one person to be successful. Garbage collectors are just as important as CEOs and in many cases today’s CEOs were once those people cleaning up after those fortunate enough to be wasteful. And tomorrow, in many cases, today’s CEOs will be those drawing welfare and cleaning up after the next round of money motivated puppets.

Even though my family and I did lose a lot that day, we didn’t lose out right to bear arms! The right to bear arms is a very important right we must protect but, if we are willing to look the other way while our elected officials steal all our other rights, then the argument that we cannot support cannabis legalization because we will not give up our guns is irrelevant, and based off a lack of information and understanding.