A crowd of about 100 people gathered to celebrate the 4/20 holiday at 4:20pm in front of the state house in Concord this evening. This years’ event was hosted by the NH Teapot Party, covering for the usual organizing of the 420 Foundation. Rich Paul, founder of the 420 Foundation and outspoken opponent of the war on drugs was convicted on Thursday afternoon by jury on multiple counts of cannabis distribution. He remains detained while awaiting sentencing, and today marked the first annual celebration without Rich since the rallies began in 2010.
While Rich was blasting his ideas through a bullhorn last year, the New Hampshire Drug Task Force as well as the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force were conducting an investigation into Rich’s not-so-discrete sale of cannabis. Multiple purchases totaling 81 years of prison time were made through a confidential informant who himself had been busted for heroin distribution. Despite the questionable ethics and honesty of the DTF, FBI, and the confidential informant, the jury did not find Rich’s victimless crime worthy of nullification. Unlike many involved in the drug trade, who profit from actions that they hide from public scrutiny, Rich’s openness made him an easy target, though he was incorrectly profiled as an easy mark. When told that his charges would go away if he would incriminate others for the FBI and DTF, Rich courageously stood on principle and said, ‘No’. In a way, Rich is going to jail in place of the unknown others whom he chose not to involuntarily substitute for his position. (more…)
Clocking in at nearly nine hours (spread over three days) – this is the full raw video of Rich Paul being tried and found guilty by a jury of his so-called peers of selling cannabis and something that the state claimed he said was LSD, but it was not and he never claimed it was. The trial video features FBI agent Phil Christiana who perjures himself and several cops including drug task force members as well as snitch and heroin dealer Richard DuPont Jr.
In case you haven’t heard the story of how the police and FBI released a heroin dealer to catch a pot dealer, in order to turn him against his liberty activist friends in the Free State Project, here’s some of the backstory:
As always, please feel free to download the video via keepvid.com and use the video how you want. I hope someone can make a highlight reel – there is so much footage!
In yet another sad jury decision, activist Rich Paul, the creator of the historic 420 celebrations in downtown Keene, was found guilty of multiple felony counts of selling cannabis to other consenting humans and one count of selling a substance prosecutors said he claimed was LSD. (Paul never claimed the substance was LSD but that didn’t matter to the jury.)
As is so typical, the jurors left the building together for protection from the raining questions from people who love the peaceful human the jurors sent to a cage. Not one juror would take $20 for a five minute interview.
However, there was one juror willing to speak, albeit only for a moment. He admits when asked why he didn’t make history today, that “We didn’t want to break the law.” and then accuses me of threatening him. He then gets into a dark blue minivan with a Romney sticker, tinted windows, and the license plate FISHERS:
They took three hours, so presumably some of the jurors were voting not guilty, but were turned. (more…)
The trial of Rich Paul continues into its third day. While the public waits on the full video, here is audio of the first day’s proceedings courtesy Free Concord:
Local mom Kimberly Diemond, understandably concerned about her children, has decided to turn in frustration to advocating for violence against her peaceful neighbors in a hopeless crusade against drugs. She calls for prohibition of synthetic pot in this feature story by the Keene Sentinel’s Danielle Rivard.
What Kim is advocating is prohibition. It didn’t work when they prohibited alcohol, it’s not working on cannabis and other illegal drugs, and it won’t work on synthetic marijuana or “bath salts”.
The article outlines some very scary stories that have happened to people who have smoked these synthetic research chemicals – there’s no doubt that they are untested and possibly dangerous. There’s also little doubt they would exist at all, were it not for Kim’s war on drugs. It’s because of the fact that cannabis is prohibited that the people marketing these other products are successful. Cannabis is nowhere near as dangerous as the research chemicals have the potential to be. Cannabis has been used for thousands of years. It’s a relatively benign drug and some would say it works miracles.
However, people with the same mindset as Kim Diemond are the reason why cannabis is still illegal. Little do they realize that their own prohibition is responsible for creating greater and greater threats to their children.
Arresting people is not a way out of the drug problem. Putting addicts in jail is not helping them. Adding even more people to the jails in the name of stopping these research chemicals is just continuing and expanding the insanity of the “War on drugs”, which is really just a war on our family, friends, and neighbors. (more…)
The April 14 2013 edition of Peace News Now was visually illustrated by Free Concord’s Garret Ean. In Sunday’s program, you’ll hear about the latest on Bitcoin, police accountability issues in Salisbury, NC, and how a recently declassified NSA document might reveal evidence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Check out episode #95 of the daily newscast produced by superactivist Derrick J Freeman below:
A crowd of about 100 people gathered to celebrate the 4/20 holiday at 4:20pm in front of the state house in Concord this evening. This years’ event was hosted by the NH Teapot Party, covering for the usual organizing of the 420 Foundation. Rich Paul, founder of the 420 Foundation and outspoken opponent of the war on drugs was convicted on Thursday afternoon by jury on multiple counts of cannabis distribution. He remains detained while awaiting sentencing, and today marked the first annual celebration without Rich since the rallies began in 2010.
In yet another sad jury decision, activist Rich Paul, the creator of the 
Local mom Kimberly Diemond, understandably concerned about her children, has decided to turn in frustration to advocating for violence against her peaceful neighbors in a hopeless crusade against drugs. She calls for prohibition of synthetic pot 
