Healing for Luna\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHealing for Luna, Julia Butterfly, Winter Solstice, Dec. 22. Colombia\r\ndrug war.<\/i><\/b>\r\n<\/p>
Make this multiply. Spread this seed of truth.<\/p>\r\n
Healing for Luna & Julia Butterfly. Winter Solstice, December 22, 2000.\r\nAlso, Colombian environmental destruction in the name of the U.S. Republicrat\r\ndrug war.<\/p>\r\n
Summary: The ancient redwood tree, named Luna, where Julia Butterfly lived\r\nfor over two years has been wounded. There will be a collective global healing\r\nfor Luna during the Winter Solstice. Cannabis hemp saves trees! The drug war is\r\nheavily involved in the madness of planetary destruction by the corporate\r\npetrochemical-pharmaceutical complex. In Colombia the Republicrat, corporate\r\nflunkie, Clinton continues to OK damaging herbicide spraying in the name of the\r\ndrug war.<\/p>\r\n
See Colombia article after Luna news. Be sure to check out the attached Julia\r\nand Luna-repair photo at the end. It is very inspiring.<\/p>\r\n
Julia Butterfly and Renee Boje are both worthy activists who have taken\r\ntremendous risks for their beliefs. Only a few images can be put on most\r\n56K-modem-loaded webpages. Space was made for their faces on my home page:
\r\n*World Drug War Home Page.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.angelfire.com\/rnb\/y\/ <\/p>\r\n
Cannabis Hemp saves trees. 1 acre of hemp produces the same fiber and pulp as\r\n4 acres of trees. And hemp fiber in paper and clothing lasts longer than tree or\r\ncotton fiber, paper, or clothing.<\/p>\r\n
--- forwarded message ---<\/p>\r\n
From: \"renee boje\" rboje@hotmail.com\r\n
\r\nTo: freerenee@drugsense.org
\r\nSubject: RB: Healing for Luna & Julia Butterfly
\r\nDate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000 01:45:08
\r\nReply-To: freerenee-request@drugsense.org\r\n
\r\nAttachments: LUNA_2copy.jpg<\/p>\r\n
Please spread this message throughout the universe...<\/p>\r\n
Dear Friends,<\/p>\r\n
The ancient redwood tree, named Luna, where Julia Butterfly lived for over\r\ntwo years has been wounded. Please See the attachment to this email and visit
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.circleoflifefoundation.org \r\nfor an update on Luna.<\/p>\r\n
There will be a collective global healing for Luna during the Winter\r\nSolstice, on December 22nd, at 7:30pm(Pacific Standard Time). We will be\r\nvisualizing the sap flowing through Luna, healing her wound and binding her\r\ntogether solidly, so that she is able to withstand the wind this Winter. We are\r\nalso asking winter to be gentle with Luna this season.<\/p>\r\n
Please take a moment to light a candle, say a prayer, or just send energy in\r\nyour own magical way toward Luna & Julia at that time.<\/p>\r\n
Thank you! In unity and Love,
\r\nRenee Boje
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.reneeboje.com <\/p>\r\n
---------------------------------------<\/p>\r\n
Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http:\/\/explorer.msn.com\r\n<\/p>\r\n
--- end of forwarded message ---<\/p>\r\n
Julia Butterfly Hill and the Luna Treesit. Dec. 9, 1999, 34 degrees\r\nFahrenheit, day number 729 of her continuous treesit to protest logging of\r\nold-growth redwoods by Pacific Lumber\/MAXXAM.
\r\nhttp:\/\/circleoflifefoundation.org \r\nCircle of Life Foundation.
\r\nhttp:\/\/earthfilms.org EarthFilms.org
\r\nhttp:\/\/lunatree.org LunaTree.org
\r\nhttp:\/\/havc.org HAVC = Headwaters Action\r\nVideo Collective.<\/p>\r\n
\"Julia is a powerful voice in the California medical marijuana movement,\r\nas well, speaking out for B.E. Smith, Todd, Peter, Renee, and many others.\"
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.egroups.com\/message\/hemp-talk\/7305 \r\nHas day number 729 photo above.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.egroups.com\/message\/hemp-talk\/7304 \r\nHas quote above.<\/p>\r\n
====================<\/p>\r\n
====================<\/p>\r\n
Rachel's Environment & Health News<\/p>\r\n
#713 - Echoes of Vietnam, December 07, 2000.
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.rachel.org\/bulletin\/bulletin.cfm?Issue_ID=1917\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Echoes of Vietnam<\/p>\r\n
by Rachel Massey*<\/p>\r\n
In July, President Clinton signed into law a $1.3 billion aid package to step\r\nup the \"war on drugs\" in Colombia and neighboring countries in South\r\nAmerica. Of this sum, $860 million is designated for Colombia itself, mainly as\r\naid to the military.[1] For three decades Colombia has been torn by civil war,\r\nand the Colombian military has a well-documented record of human rights abuses\r\nincluding disappearances, arbitrary detentions, kidnappings, and torture of\r\ncivilians.[2, pg. 20] The U.S. Congress made its \"drug war\" military\r\naid dependent upon the Colombian government improving its human rights profile,\r\nbut in August President Clinton waived this requirement so that funds could\r\nbegin to flow south. This month Mr. Clinton may waive the human rights\r\nrequirements once again so a second installment of aid can be released.<\/p>\r\n
For a number of years the U.S. has sponsored herbicide spraying in Colombia,\r\nintending to curb illegal drugs at their source. Starting in January 2001 under\r\nU.S. oversight, the Colombian government will escalate its \"crop\r\neradication\" activities, in which aircraft spray herbicides containing\r\nglyphosate to kill opium poppy and coca plants. Glyphosate is the active\r\ningredient in the well-known herbicide called Roundup. Opium poppy and coca are\r\nthe raw materials for making heroin and cocaine.<\/p>\r\n
Representatives of Colombian indigenous communities recently traveled to\r\nWashington, D.C. to explain how they have been affected by spraying that has\r\nalready occurred. Glyphosate, they said, kills more than drug crops -- it also\r\nkills food crops that many rural Colombians depend on for survival. In some\r\nplaces, the spraying has killed fish and livestock and has contaminated water\r\nsupplies. One photograph from a sprayed area shows a group of banana trees\r\nkilled by herbicides; nearby a plot of coca plants remains untouched.[3]\r\nSometimes the spray also lands on schoolyards or people's homes. Many Colombians\r\nsay they have become ill as a result.[4]<\/p>\r\n
According to the NEW YORK TIMES, in one case several spray victims traveled\r\n55 miles by bus to visit a hospital. The doctor who treated them said their\r\nsymptoms included dizziness, nausea, muscle and joint pain, and skin rashes.\r\n\"We do not have the scientific means here to prove they suffered pesticide\r\npoisoning, but the symptoms they displayed were certainly consistent with that\r\ncondition,\" he said. A nurse's aide in the local clinic said she had been\r\ninstructed \"not to talk to anyone about what happened here.\"[4]<\/p>\r\n
The U.S. State Department denies that there are human health effects from\r\nspraying glyphosate on the Colombian countryside. A U.S. embassy official in\r\nColombia told the NEW YORK TIMES that glyphosate is \"less toxic than table\r\nsalt or aspirin\" and said the spray victims' accounts of adverse effects\r\nwere \"scientifically impossible.\"[4] A question-and-answer fact sheet\r\npublished by the State Department says that glyphosate does not \"harm\r\ncattle, chickens, or other farm animals,\" is not \"harmful to human\r\nbeings,\" and will not contaminate water. The fact sheet asks the question,\r\n\"If glyphosate is so benign, why are there complaints of damage from its\r\nuse in Colombia?\" and answers: \"These reports have been largely based\r\non unverified accounts provided by farmers whose illicit crops have been\r\nsprayed. Since their illegal livelihoods have been affected by the spraying,\r\nthese persons do not offer objective information about the program.... \"[5]<\/p>\r\n
But medical reports link exposure to glyphosate herbicides with short-term\r\nsymptoms including blurred vision, skin problems, heart palpitations, and\r\nnausea. Studies have also found associations with increased risk of\r\nmiscarriages, premature birth, and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. Formulations in which\r\nglyphosate is combined with other ingredients can be more acutely toxic than\r\nglyphosate alone.[6, pgs. 5-8] Monsanto, a major manufacturer of glyphosate-based\r\nherbicides, was challenged by the Attorney General of New York State for making\r\nsafety claims similar to those now being repeated by the U.S. State Department.\r\nIn an out-of-court settlement in 1996, Monsanto agreed to stop advertising the\r\nproduct as \"safe, non-toxic, harmless or free from risk.\"[4,6]<\/p>\r\n
Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, a vocal critic of the \"drug\r\nwar\" military aid, visited Colombia last week. During his visit he was\r\ntreated to a demonstration of aerial crop eradication, in the course of which\r\nthe Colombian National Police managed to spray Senator Wellstone himself with\r\nherbicides. According to the Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, this accident occurred\r\nshortly after the U.S. Embassy in Colombia circulated materials explaining that\r\nthe spray was guided by \"precise geographical coordinates\" calculated\r\nby computer. Colombian police said the accident had occurred because the wind\r\nblew the herbicide off course.[7]<\/p>\r\n
Both common sense and scientific studies tell us that wind can be expected to\r\nblow aerially sprayed chemicals off course. For example, a 1992 study in Canada\r\ncalculated that a buffer zone of 75 to 1200 meters (243 to 3900 feet) could be\r\nneeded to protect non-target vegetation from damage during aerial spraying of\r\nglyphosate.[8] And a 1985 article on glyphosate says, \"damage due to drift\r\nis likely to be more common and more severe with glyphosate than with other\r\nherbicides.\"[9]<\/p>\r\n
Proponents of the \"war on drugs\" would like us to believe that the\r\nmore acres of South American countryside we spray with herbicides, the fewer\r\nNorth American children will fall prey to drug pushers. But studies show that\r\nherbicide spray campaigns are ineffective at stemming the flow of drugs. So long\r\nas there is a demand for drugs, someone somewhere will supply them. Therefore\r\ncrop eradication programs simply waste tax dollars. Furthermore, a 1999 report\r\nby the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), a federal agency, concluded that\r\ncrop eradication efforts to date have failed.[2, pg. 16] According to the GAO,\r\nthe U.S. State Department escalated its support for aerial spray campaigns in\r\n1996, and during the 1997-98 period, over 100,000 hectares (254,000 acres) of\r\nthe Colombian countryside were sprayed. But during this same period, net coca\r\ncultivation in Colombia increased 50 percent.[2, pgs. 16-18]<\/p>\r\n
On the other hand, tackling the drug problem within the U.S. by reducing drug\r\nuse can succeed. A study by the RAND corporation found that drug treatment\r\nprograms for cocaine users in the U.S. are 23 times as cost effective as efforts\r\nto eradicate drugs at their source.[10] And yet, according to a 1999 U.S.\r\ngovernment report, the majority of Americans needing drug treatment went\r\nuntreated between 1991 and 1996.[11]<\/p>\r\n
If dousing the Colombian countryside with herbicides is not an effective way\r\nto diminish the drug problem in the U.S., it is worth asking what drives our\r\ngovernment's enthusiasm for this costly and destructive approach. One\r\nexplanation is that the \"war on drugs\" is a pretext for policies that\r\nhave little to do with drugs. Several U.S. industries stand to gain from U.S.\r\nintervention in Colombia's civil war. The Occidental Petroleum Corporation, for\r\nexample, lobbied hard for the \"drug war\" military aid; and U.S.\r\ncompanies that manufacture the military helicopters used in Colombia were major\r\nsupporters of the aid package.[12]<\/p>\r\n
Waging an ineffective \"war on drugs\" abroad also helps to divert\r\nattention away from the political role of drug policy within the U.S. A recent\r\nreport by Human Rights Watch, an organization that monitors and documents human\r\nrights abuses throughout the world, says that drug control policies within the\r\nU.S. have been the primary driver of this country's incarceration crisis, in\r\nwhich the prison population has quadrupled since 1980. The U.S. now has more\r\nthan 2 million citizens behind bars. Rates of conviction and imprisonment are\r\nmuch higher among nonviolent drug offenders who are black than among their white\r\ncounterparts.[13] Thirteen percent of black men in the U.S. -- more than one in\r\nten -- are not allowed to vote because they are in jail or were previously\r\nconvicted of a felony.[14]<\/p>\r\n
Without the rhetoric of \"fighting drugs,\" U.S. officials would have\r\nto admit to the American public that we are intervening in another country's\r\ncivil war -- bringing back memories of Vietnam and other disastrous failures of\r\nU.S. foreign policy. Unfortunately, the analogy to Vietnam is appropriate as\r\nU.S. military involvement in Colombia deepens. During the Vietnam war, the U.S.\r\ndefoliated and contaminated Vietnam's forests with Agent Orange, a herbicide\r\ncomposed of the chemicals 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T and routinely contaminated with the\r\ncarcinogen dioxin. American veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange suffer\r\nelevated rates of diabetes and certain cancers, and veterans' children have\r\nelevated rates of major birth defects (see REHW #212 and #250). Under the banner\r\nof the \"war on drugs,\" in Colombia once again we are waging a toxic\r\nwar against another country's unique ecosystems and the health of innocent\r\ncivilians.<\/p>\r\n
=====<\/p>\r\n
* Rachel Massey is a consultant to Environmental Research Foundation.<\/p>\r\n
[1] See http:\/\/www.ciponline.org\/colombia\/aid\r\n<\/p>\r\n
[2] U.S. General Accounting Office Report to Congressional Requesters,\r\n\"Drug Control: Narcotics Threat from Colombia Continues to Grow.\r\nGAO\/NSIAD-99-136 June 1999. Go to http:\/\/www.gao.gov \r\nand search for the report by number.<\/p>\r\n
[3] See http:\/\/www.usfumigation.org\r\n<\/p>\r\n
[4] Larry Rohter, \"To Colombians, Drug War is Toxic Enemy,\" NEW\r\nYORK TIMES May 1, 2000, pgs. A1, A10<\/p>\r\n
[5] U.S. State Department, \"The Aerial Eradication of Illicit Crops:\r\nAnswer to Frequently Asked Questions,\" Fact sheet released by the Bureau of\r\nWestern Hemisphere Affairs, November 6, 2000, available at
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.state.gov\/www\/regions\/wha\/colombia\/-fs_0011-6_faqs.html\r\n<\/p>\r\n
[6] For a thorough review of glyphosate's adverse effects, see Caroline Cox,\r\n\"Glyphosate (Roundup)\" Herbicide fact sheet, JOURNAL OF PESTICIDE\r\nREFORM Vol 18, No. 3 (Fall 1998), updated October 2000, available at
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.pesticide.org or from Northwest Coalition for Alternatives\r\nto Pesticides, Eugene, Or.; Tel. 541-344-5044.<\/p>\r\n
[7] Rob Hotakainen, \"Colombian Police Spray Herbicide on Coca, Wellstone,\"\r\nMinneapolis STAR TRIBUNE December 1, 2000.<\/p>\r\n
[8] D. Atkinson, \"Glyphosate damage symptoms and the effects of\r\ndrift,\" in E. Grossbard and D. Atkinson, editors,THE HERBICIDE GLYPHOSATE\r\n(London: Butterworth Heinemann, 1985), pgs. 455-458. ISBN 0408111534.<\/p>\r\n
[9] Nicholas J. Payne, \"Off-Target Glyphosate from Aerial Silvicultural\r\nApplications, and Buffer Zones Required around Sensitive Areas,\" PESTICIDE\r\nSCIENCE Vol. 34, 1992, pgs. 1-8.<\/p>\r\n
[10] C. Peter Rydell and Susan S. Everingham, CONTROLLING COCAINE: SUPPLY\r\nVERSUS DEMAND (Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND, 1994), ISBN 0-8330-1552-4, pg. xiii.<\/p>\r\n
[11] Office of National Drug Control Policy, 1999 NATIONAL ANTI-DRUG\r\nSTRATEGY, Table 27, p. 130. Available at
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov\r\n<\/p>\r\n
[12] Sam Loewenberg, \"Well-financed U.S lobby seeks relief from Drug\r\nWars,\" LEGAL TIMES February 21, 2000, available at
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.forusa.org\/panama\/-0300_columbianaid.html<\/p>\r\n
[13] Human Rights Watch, PUNISHMENT AND PREJUDICE: RACIAL DISPARITIES IN THE\r\nWAR ON DRUGS, March 1999, summary available at http:\/\/www.hrw.org\/hrw\/reports\/2000\/usa\/Rcedrg00-03.htm\r\nor at
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.drugwarfacts.org <\/p>\r\n
[14] Mary Gabriel, \"13 Percent of Black Men in America Have No\r\nVote,\" REUTERS November 3, 2000.<\/p>\r\n
back to the top<\/p>\r\n
Rachel's Environment & Health News is a publication of the Environmental\r\nResearch Foundation, P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403. Fax (410) 263-8944;\r\nInternet: erf@r... Back issues available by E-mail; to get instructions, send\r\nEmail to INFO@r... with the single word HELP in the message. Subscriptions are\r\nfree. To subscribe, E-mail the words SUBSCRIBE RACHEL-WEEKLY YOUR NAME to:\r\nlistserv@r... NOTICE: Environmental Research Foundation provides this electronic\r\nversion of RACHEL'S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH News free of charge even though it\r\ncosts our organization considerable time and money to produce it. We would like\r\nto continue to provide this service free. You could help by making a\r\ntax-deductible contribution(anything you can afford, whether $5.00 or $500.00).\r\nPlease send your tax- deductible contribution to: Environmental Research\r\nFoundation, P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403-7036. Please do not send credit\r\ncard information via E-mail. For further information! about making\r\ntax-deductible contributions to E.R.F. by credit card please phone us toll free\r\nat 1-888- 2RACHEL. --Peter Montague, Editor<\/p>\r\n
=====================<\/p>\r\n
\r\n
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.cannabinoid.com\/wwwboard\/politics\/binaries\/32\/32346.jpg\r\n<\/p>\r\n
And the graphic above is also at the end of these copies of the message:
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.egroups.com\/message\/colombiavigil\/368\r\nand
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.egroups.com\/message\/drugwarnews\/594\r\nand
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.egroups.com\/message\/cia-drugs\/16559\r\n(a thread going on there)
\r\nhttp:\/\/www.cannabinoid.com\/wwwboard\/politics\/messages\/32\/32346.shtml\r\n<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n
<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\n","contact":"","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"The ancient redwood tree, named Luna, where Julia Butterfly lived for over two years has been wounded. There will be a collective global healing for Luna during the Winter Solstice. Cannabis hemp saves trees! The drug war is heavily involved in the madness of planetary destruction by the corporate petrochemical-pharmaceutical complex. In Colombia the Republicrat, corporate flunkie, Clinton continues to OK damaging herbicide spraying in the name of the drug war.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/12\/healing_fo.html","filesize":"19.1 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/12\/4900.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}