RESIST
Civil Resistance in the 21st Century
'By the People, For the People and Of the People'
Informing, Supporting and Embracing those activly resisting
ignorance and indifference and the injustice they create.
Current Agendas:
1) Help bring an end to the zero tolerance war waged against marijuana users.
A) Effecting local, state and national policy changes regarding the laws
that imprison medical marijuana patients by:
1) Educating the public and government representatives with accurate
information about the medical benefits of marijuana.
2) Showing how ineffective and oppressive the current use of
American zero tolerance drug policies are.
3) Supporting those willing to bring the injustice to light in the
court of public opinion with an act of personal civil resistance.
4) Resisting the zero tolerance policies of due process that create
victims while supporting due process that seeks to eliminate victims.
B) Supplying information and contacts to the public at large to:
1) Overcome the fears and disinformation regarding medical marijuana.
2) Support those that want to take an active role in seeing justice
done in any of the compassionate methods listed in this document.
2) Confront the injustice and civil rights violations of Drug Testing!
A) Currently collecting information on this topic.
3) Help organize and take part in the Journey For Justice March to be held in June 2000.
"You may well ask, "Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches, etc.? Isn't
negotiation a better path?" You are exactly right in your call for
negotiation. Indeed, this is the purpose of direct action. Nonviolent
direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative
tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is
forced to confront the issue. It seeks so to dramatize the issue that it
can no longer be ignored."
- Martin Luther King Jr., Letter from Birmingham City Jail, 1963
Resist - Why?
There are many wonderful organizations trying to educate and effect changes
in our national drug war policies. In their own unique ways they are
resisting the injustice of this failed attempt to 'save us from ourselves.'
This is a blatant case where the attempted cure is far worse than the
original symptoms and many lives are being disrupted and destroyed. Costs
to fight this insane war on American citizens are skyrocketing to the
point we spend far more on prisons and enforcement than we do to educate
our children.
Resisting the oppression caused by this misled campaign is a simple matter
of common sense. With 3.2 million marijuana related arrests since 1992 and
more occurring all the time, it's only a matter of time before you, or someone
you know and love becomes a victim of this failed war on drugs. The war has
proven it has been ineffective in curving drug use in the US. It's time to
rethink what can be done to help those trapped by drug abuse and address the
indifference of our legal system. We need to learn and teach the benefits as
well as the dangers of drugs in a compassionate, rational and workable way.
We need to work together and fight! Fight to heal, fight to effect positive
changes and stop fighting to hurt and punish!
If ignorance is no excuse for the law then we must in turn conclude that
ignorance is no excuse for injustice! There are many double standards
at work in the attitudes that perpetuate the war on drugs.
RESIST - What can I do to resist?
There are many ways to make your resistance known. The following list
of ideas will progress from the almost passive to the very active and
aggressive. We at Resist can help at any level you choose to become
involved in with information, examples and contacts. Please ask for
our help if you need it.
- 1 -
STUDY what is actually going on in the growing movement to restore sanity to the problems of drugs in society.
The following link will offer a listing of many organizations with comprehensive and well presented information concerning many topics and elements of the Drug War.
Organizations at Resist
- 2 -
BECOME compassionately aware of the human suffering the war on drugs is creating by reading about the victims and their families. Here are a few links to websites that tell the heartfelt stories.
The November Coalition Casualties of War.
Resist - Victims of Propaganda.
Heroes of the medical marijuana
movement -- putting their health and lives at risk.
- 3 -
TALK about it. By now you should be moved to help in the efforts to bring much needed change to the social and political climates by helping to educate your fellow Americans, so talk to them. Your friends, your family your neighbors and peers. They need to hear from you about what is really going on. Send this page to them, and then follow up to see what more you can do to show them we need to act now to stop the pain we are causing. If looking closely at the real facts and lives hasn't shown you the injustice and pain it creates, then look closely at your motives and the confusion and fear that the misinformation has produced in you.
- 4 -
JOIN and offer your support to one or more of the organizations listed in item #1. These dedicated groups issue important alerts and bulletins that ask for your help in writing officials and friends of the movement. Participate by voicing your opinions and concerns to your representatives.
- 5 -
GENERATE letters to your local editors proclaiming your intentions to resist the injustice you see taking place. Use this forum to offer the real story of the war on drugs. Invoke emotion and courage in others to speak up and get involved.
- 6 -
ORGANIZE community meetings and call your neighbors to join you in taking a hard and responsible look at the circumstance and options surrounding this failed war on drugs. Work as a collective to voice a larger opinion.
- 7 -
STUDY the successful motives and methods of Civil Resistance and see if this is something you personally would like to use to help bring the injustice to light. Here are a few links to web sites featuring stuborn, brave souls that have used civil resistance to restore civil rights, freedom and justice.
The M.K. Gandhi - Institute for Nonviolence
Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau 1849
Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau link 2
Civil Resistance - Michael Randle 1994
Civil Resistance - Good resources and links.
Kids-Right page on Civil Disobedience
Civil Obedience - A Nonviolent Political Methodology
to Repeal "Victimless Crimes" by Kurt St. Angelo
- 8 -
LEARN who in your community has become a victim of the drug war. Organize a march, sitin, demonstration and/or protest denouncing the indifference that has imprisoned them. Stand firm with those in your community that want to put compassion back into the human adventure. There is a lot of strength in numbers, and the victims of the drug war need your help.
- 9 -
THINK! There are many ways right in your town that are both nonviolent and responsible that would show your resistance. Get creative! Your ideas, your talents, your involvemenet will make this happen. Hopefully we can get the job done before too many more of our family and friends become another statistic.
- 10 -
RESIST! If you become involved with the courts as the result of your use of marijuana, resist the courts of due process that intend to process you as a criminal.
This is the front line of the war!
Words, truth, courage and honor are your weapons.
Science and public opinion support you.
We do, too!
RESIST - Civil Resistance in the 21st Century
Join the Resist email list and help us help you to overcome the injustice in a way that works for us all!