American Brothers Blog

As a marijuana smuggler during the 70’s era, I concentrated on spiritual growth & freedom from emotional pain as opposed to today’s cut-throat Mexican drug cartels

In 2008, marijuana became the cartels biggest revenue source; 8.5 billion dollars, cocaine at 3.9 billion dollars. World leaders believe it’s time to debate over the legalization of illicit drugs. But some leaders believe decriminalization of drugs might bring down violence—there would be social damage.

There are twists and incongruities to every story. In this one; I went to work for my older brother. For five years, during the 60’s/70’s era, we were marijuana smugglers.

It was at the height of the Brotherhood Era. As harbingers of a new age, we were among millions of young men and women who devoted our lives to making love, not war. We experimented with drugs and altered our consciousness; “rights” bestowed on us by our forefathers; freedom to pave paths to higher consciousness.

The war in Vietnam was our springboard. Acting on our rights, we protested the insane blood letting. Armed with facts that marijuana was a far safer relaxant then alcohol, and that all wars were military theatrics created by men who wanted us to follow in their footsteps,  the Brotherhood Era of the 60’s/70’s came to be.

Now there’s a drug war being waged. This one is between the Mexican drug cartels and the Mexican and U.S. governments.

I find this of particular interest because I have lived in Mexico and spent time in their jails. I well know of the corruption that has been going on for decades in a 3^rd world nation where the rich seemingly grow richer. Now the drug cartels want a huge piece of the action. As of 2003, drug money accounted for 8% of the GNP of Mexico.

It’s well accepted fact that our nation has an insatiable appetite for illicit drugs. In cooperation with Mexico’s government, the U.S. government works to stem the flow of illicit drugs. But in the past three years the battle has grown to major proportions.

Mexican drug cartels are slaughtering innocent people as you read this article.  6,500 Mexicans were brutally murdered last year. It’s insane. When and how can anyone put a stop to this war?

Every time a drug cartel kingpin is arrested and incarcerated there are others who will gladly replace them. There’s really no end, no feasible way to eradicate the cartels.

Back in the 60’s/70’s era, making money inspired us, but we were also fighting for the legalization of marijuana. I, for one, believed, that would come about in 15 to 20 years. What resulted is; our government has “hardened” its stance on marijuana but the States have taken a different stance. Many State governments will not prosecute anyone who is in possession of and once of marijuana or less. There has to be a solution to all of this. Our federal government believes it can win the war on drugs—but its costing taxpayers billions each year. They are in denial over how to solve this.

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Economist Jeffrey Myron believes legalizing (all) drugs would greatly reduce violence.

“Over the past two years, drug violence in Mexico has become a fixture of the daily news. Some of this violence pits drug cartels against one another; some involves confrontations between law enforcement and traffickers.

The U.S. and Mexican responses to this violence have been predictable: more troops and police, greater border controls and expanded enforcement of every kind. Escalation is the wrong response, however; drug prohibition is the cause of the violence.

Prohibition creates violence because it drives the drug market underground. This means buyers and sellers cannot resolve their disputes with lawsuits, arbitration or advertising, so they resort to violence instead.

Violence was common in the alcohol industry when it was banned during Prohibition, but not before or after.

Violence is the norm in illicit gambling markets but not in legal ones. Violence is routine when prostitution is banned but not when it’s permitted. Violence results from policies that create black markets, not from the characteristics of the good or activity in question.

The only way to reduce violence, therefore, is to legalize drugs. Fortuitously, legalization is the right policy for a slew of other reasons.

Prohibition of drugs corrupts politicians and law enforcement by putting police, prosecutors, judges and politicians in the position to threaten the profits of an illicit trade. This is why bribery, threats and kidnapping are common for prohibited industries but rare otherwise. Mexico’s recent history illustrates this dramatically.

Prohibition erodes protections against unreasonable search and seizure because neither party to a drug transaction has an incentive to report the activity to the police. Thus, enforcement requires intrusive tactics such as warrantless searches or undercover buys. The victimless nature of this so-called crime also encourages police to engage in racial profiling.

Prohibition has disastrous implications for national security. By eradicating coca plants in Colombia or poppy fields in Afghanistan, prohibition breeds resentment of the United States. By enriching those who produce and supply drugs, prohibition supports terrorists who sell protection services to drug traffickers.

Prohibition harms the public health. Patients suffering from cancer, glaucoma and other conditions cannot use marijuana under the laws of most states or the federal government despite abundant evidence of its efficacy. Terminally ill patients cannot always get adequate pain medication because doctors may fear prosecution by the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Drug users face restrictions on clean syringes that cause them to share contaminated needles, thereby spreading HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne diseases.

Prohibitions breed disrespect for the law because despite draconian penalties and extensive enforcement, huge numbers of people still violate prohibition. This means those who break the law, and those who do not, learn that obeying laws is for suckers.

Prohibition is a drain on the public purse. Federal, state and local governments spend roughly $44 billion per year to enforce drug prohibition. These same governments forego roughly $33 billion per year in tax revenue they could collect from legalized drugs, assuming these were taxed at rates similar to those on alcohol and tobacco. Under prohibition, these revenues accrue to traffickers as increased profits.

The right policy, therefore, is to legalize drugs while using regulation and taxation to dampen irresponsible behavior related to drug use, such as driving under the influence. This makes more sense than prohibition because it avoids creation of a black market. This approach also allows those who believe they benefit from drug use to do so, as long as they do not harm others. iReport.com: Do you think it’s time to legalize marijuana?

Legalization is desirable for all drugs, not just marijuana. The health risks of marijuana are lower than those of many other drugs, but that is not the crucial issue. Much of the traffic from Mexico or Colombia is for cocaine, heroin and other drugs, while marijuana production is increasingly domestic. Legalizing only marijuana would therefore fail to achieve many benefits of broader legalization.

It is impossible to reconcile respect for individual liberty with drug prohibition. The U.S. has been at the forefront of this puritanical policy for almost a century, with disastrous consequences at home and abroad.

The U.S. repealed Prohibition of alcohol at the height of the Great Depression, in part because of increasing violence and in part because of diminishing tax revenues. Similar concerns apply today, and Attorney General Eric Holder’s recent announcement that the Drug Enforcement Administration will not raid medical marijuana distributors in California, suggests openness in the Obama administration to rethinking current practice.

Perhaps history will repeat itself, and the U.S. will abandon one of its most disastrous policy experiments.”

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“It’s time for change” was the mantra politicians chanted to constituents this election year. Both democrats and republicans used this as a device to win elections. As usual, mantras like this are ambiguous. The solution to bringing and end to the drug war is basically a simple one: legalize all illicit drugs and foster credibility through connectiveness.

I truly believe that we can become a better society if our government responds to what is best for our society instead of playing hardball with our minds and hearts. If we bring about radical changes, such as legalizing all illicit drugs then use tax revenues from the sale of those drugs they can be used on research, and our government will have done us a favor. Why so many denizens are drug addicts has much to do with past abuse they suffered either at home, or traumas they suffered from other forms of abuse. All of this suggests  that our society has social diseases and tax revenues can be sent to the many drug clinics across the nation to assist those who need it.  Favorable radical changes will  also assist in bringing about creditability with the people, a sore spot that has been overlooked and under thunk way too long.

“Many in body and one in mind”, is not a new concept by any means, but we have yet to implement this in the U.S. or worldwide. I believe the foundation of this country, and all the other nations, is fear based. Change that to love based and we’ll have made the changes that those politicians not only promised but are too fear based and in denial about, to implement. President Obama has to step up and bellwether this movement. This would be fortuitous, but would signal the rest of the nations that we are ready and willing to deal with a huge social problem in a more humane way.

The bottom line could be this: We can have what we want if we “will” it to be—for the higher good of all.  December 21, 2012 is coming. Countless millions know that this date will either usher in a golden era or great catastrophes would be produced. Reading between the lines of time, an age of truth is being ushered in. Truth is: The changes that are necessary have everything to do with consciousness of mankind who live on this planet, and who are passing through its portals and are now been given a chance to help transform our civilization based on fear to a vibration more condusive to creating  harmony.

Destructive forces formed our universe. This 70’s era marijuana smuggler offers candid understanding as to why those forces are imprinted in all of us

The 60’s/ 70’s era brought about expansive changes for millions of young minds. A year prior to becoming a marijuana smuggler, my older brother introduced me to a new way of life. I was fascinated, much like millions of other like-minded souls of the 60’s/70’s era, and so embraced the absolute laws of the universe and studied anything there was about All That Is.

Most everyone is highly interested in TV programs like Discovery. “How the Universe was Formed” is a primary example: We now know all of us are made of star dust. And, too, that the known universe got off to a rocky start. The rocky part had to do with the “Big Bang” that took place eons ago when a very small amount of matter, somehow formed, and a mighty explosion took place giving birth to our present day universe. We well know that the known universal depends on growth and expansion by way of destruction and reconstruction. It is a process that has become the cornerstone of building our ever-expanding universe.

But those provocative TV programs never mention the primary reason the Big Bang took place. That would ruin everything because science, physics and religious reasoning are at odds with one another; one is all about mathematics, the other about faith, conviction and love. And so it is we, the individual, who must conclude on our own that the Big Bang had everything to do with love and that this nanosecond in time brought light into what was before nothing but darkness. Everything was Yang and Prime Creator, God, Yahweh, The Forces That Be, whatever your conviction is, unfolded the power and the mystik of Yin; components complementary to one another and each incomplete alone. Light, we have come to accept, is love, which is capable of transmitting conscious information. Absence of light—darkness—is the yang force that compliments yin; the component of light, love and information. How these two components—seemingly in opposition with one another—operate as what mankind differs with.

Nonetheless, destruction/rebuilding processes are here to stay and never take a break. This process plays a crucial role in our everyday existence. The forces that be imprinted in our lives from day one a means by which all of us can learn from and share in. So what if all of this is seemingly provocative and unusual! All mankind can gain experience about life by experimenting—in some cases by pushing things to the limit. When we were children we experimented constantly, much to the chagrin of our parents. But it is our nature to experiment and as we reach adulthood, we learn through all that experimentation and experience how to deal with All That Is. In short, we were designed by the forces that be to figure out is how to steer clear of destruction.

It’s all rather simple because all of us are connected to the grand designs of the universe. We are conscious beings with immense capabilities. We can empower ourselves as well as others. By making use of “source power” we’ve formed independent beliefs. Basically put; through conscious thought we create though form and out to that comes form. Many of us fail to understand this process or that a process of this magnitude is at work in our lives. The bottom line in this case is that our lives depend on what we believe in, such as an empowered existence, whereby all people and all existence is valued. We’ve, or at least many have failed to realize, is that it is our responsibility to initiate understanding what it takes to get “desired results.”

Please take a moment to think just how familiar this process is to mankind and as a result we have failed to use the gifts we’ve been given. Self-destruction reigns. Our society is deeply concerned as to why so many are addicted to illicit and prescription drugs. Alcoholism destroys the lives of millions; and innocent people who are harmed by drunken behavior also suffer. Depression haunts countless millions and countless varieties of compulsions plague us– with new ones cropping up everyday. We are constantly warring and subjugated to hatred and self-righteous people who place unreasonable judgments; people who feel they have the right to hate and to judge. Truly, we are stumped as to the real reasons why we destroy our lives and those around us. When I dare suggest that all of this is connected to what took place eons ago you might hedge and condemn me, but before passing judgment and rising up in hatred, judgment and fear, keep reading.

Over the decades, I learned much about the purpose of our physical body and its multitude of properties. Each body is a sacred “living library” that contains a vast storehouse of information that was imprinted in your cells since time began. Within the DNA of our blood, generations of family behavioral patterns are stored. Science has yet to discover this, but when researchers prove this, we can then begin to comprehend and overcome the many behavioral patterns imprinted in us and that seemingly control our lives.

Meanwhile, we are all subjugated to the destruction/ rebuilding process that brings light, love and information to us. How else is it that we have come to learn how to pick ourselves up after a disaster and through our belief process, augmented by free-will (yin) find ways to rebuild our lives?  It is our destiny to comprehend and overcome the disastrous side-affects of cellular imprints. Through evolutionary progression, we will one day learn how to fully utilize universal laws by tapping into universal source power. Many millions of us are familiar with the absolute laws of the universe. And millions more will soon join in and begin opening up to higher realms of consciousness. If you already have begun this journey, then you know that the foundation of the absolute laws are love-based. Love is light and without light consciousness, as we know it, would not exist. Think about it this was; what would life be like if we could not say “I love you” to the ones we cherish?

When I first decided to write a memoir about the five years I spent as a marijuana smuggler, I became lost, not only emotionally but as to what to write about. I wrote the book anyway then tucked it away. Two decades later, I once again began. Along the way much had been learned. For one; the three main characters had self-destructed due to our emotional shortcomings; all of which were directly linked to destruction/rebuilding patterns imprinted in the very cells of our bodies and the blood lines of our parents, and in our parents, parents—and on down the lines of time. Captivated by this realization, I began making use of all the available knowledge and found a way to tap into information that was stored in the cells of my body. Then, by employing free-will, I began learning how to comprehend my shortcomings. Then another realization came to past; healing what has hurt us is a never-ending process by design. The cornerstone to this design has a unique feature, and it is this feature that supplies us with all we want and need.

What we want is freedom. The pathway to freedom lies with gaining freedom from emotional pain. But how do we conquer freedom from emotional pain? By design, there are portals open to each and everyone. It’s the law, and the law has everything to do with feelings; exploring them and comprehending what ever moment means to you. What moment would you rather live in? One’s that bind you to hurt and pain or ones about past moments when you loved what you were doing and where you were? Or perhaps fantasies about what you want and the places and people you’d love to be with. We have such powers. One only need realize that the withdrawal or absence of love is at the root of all pain, and you may have to discover that you have to learn how to give love in order to receive it. Freedom from emotional pain involves expressing your feelings in a mature and responsible manner and affirming that you love yourself; that you have a right to have a pleasant, safe, healthy and productive life, and that your present circumstances are the result of your own volition.

Consciousness is awareness, and awareness is the ability to notice. Everything we think about and reach out for is at our disposal. It only stands to reason that we were designed to find ways to gain relief from traumas. The “out” we were given is we must be willing to open your heart with the intention of healing whatever it is that has hurt us.

This learning process is now the cornerstone of my existence. The enormity of this sometimes carries a heavy weight and frightens me. But sharing this data with you is what is important to me. If I can help bring relief to just one person, that person will be there to pass it on to another. On my end, what I now want more readily comes to me. And even though life still throws nasty curve balls, I now have a foundation built on strong beliefs and the power of free-will at my disposal. Combining this with the power of unconditional love and a growing compassion for mankind, information I ask for always brings much needed relief.

Experimentation, experience, love and realization—the cornerstones of rebuilding—taught me that wisdom may come at a price but all the good effort I’ve put forth has proved worthy.

Is what I present here hog wash or is it reality writ large?

During the Brotherhood era of the 60’s/70’s I chose a spiritual-growth path then became a marijuana smuggler. It took me decades to find what I was truly looking for

Many of you are mind, body and spirit seekers. It matters not at what age you start seeking only that you made a commitment. Mine came during the Brotherhood era of the 60’s/70’s when my older brother Bill, induced me to learn about the laws of the universe. Eager for knowledge, and turned on by the precepts of our Brotherhood era, I was mesmerized and ready to get going. So too was my younger brother Ray. For awhile we lived together, shared macrobiotics meals and best of all; we’d head downtown to the metaphysical book store in search of books that would expand our minds.

It was the dawn of a new era, and building a strong belief system was what we wanted. It would open up avenues of freedom, but what kind of freedoms we were really searching for remained obscure. But that didn’t’ matter. We were opening our imaginations and learning new ways to perceive life.

What I didn’t realize at this time was just how important all of this was; I was just happy to be tied into a self-realization process. I smoked pot and occasionally dropped acid as a means to heighten this progression.

Living in San Francisco was a boon. It was a drug and music mecca; warm San Francisco nights, the Haight/Asbury, and of course Golden Gate Park which served as a backdrop—free concerts and a cool place to hang out. There were the dance palaces; like Winterland, the Avalon Ballroom and the Haight Theater, where we would go and listen to music and dance—usually high on pot or acid.

By the time I went to work for my older brother and became a marijuana smuggler, my belief systems were just beginning to kick into action. But little had been learned about past emotional scars all of us pack around.  For me, internal conflicts and battles with low self-esteem were a constant. Later, I acknowledged that I’d become a smuggler in order to feel better about who is was.

When my father ditched us, I was 13. There were five of us; my mom and her four sons. We had to find a way to survive.  Jake, who also went to work for my older brother and later partnered up with me, was an aloof man and would sometimes fall into deep reticent behavior. I believe he was this way because he never met his father, and his mother sent him off to a foster home at age six.

There’s little doubt in my mind that past abandonment issues set the stage for our demise. Life doesn’t always work the way we want it to work and our shortcomings would, in this case, bring to light what it was we wanted in life.

My older brother, who had a powerful ego, was first to fall. An ex-Scientology associate, proclaiming he was now “total cause”, took a severe beating. Jake’s fall defied logic. The dramatic manner in which I fell nearly cost me my life, plus I lost everything near and dear to me.

The lingering effects of this disaster and the outrageous manner all of us had fallen stayed with me. Figuring writing would cleanse my wounds, shortly after I got out of jail I wrote the first draft of American Brothers.  Feeling accomplished, but aware my writing skills were terrible, I tucked it away and found solace in sailing and working on boats.

During the next two decades, I lived the good life, grew incrementally, but all the while low self-esteem came and went.

In the early 90’s, opening feeling centers and psychological awareness was all the rage. Inspired by this, I once again tackled the book.  The results were positive; layers of grief and anger melted away as feelings I’d never before confronted came and went.

One day, realization came: “True freedom, is freedom from emotional pain.” Reading these simple words struck a resounding note; releasing emotional pain would free me up to open doors to all the other freedoms I longed for, but first I had to find a way to release the emotional pain. The method that was suggested was simple and basic: little by little one can gain relief by living in your moment. The idea was to spend time looking at all the good things in life. There is much more to this process than I wish to explain in this commentary; only that what is simple in the beginning becomes more complex.

I will relate this: Our body cells are full of memories that are begging for attention. Each time we release bad memories, older; more complex memories come forward begging for attention, all of them related to love and nourishment and the hurt we went through. If we so chose, we will discover a way to live free of pain. This sentence below explains an avenue of insight.

“The ability to both give and receive love, in all its many shades of splendor, holds the key to healing because it is the most life-sustaining and affirming form of emotional expression.”

Believing in your worthiness and gravitating to that knowledge of well-being will assist us as we go about processing and releasing. Mental clarity and physical vitality will come when we make an ultimate decision to accept responsibility for creating our life experience. Empowerment will come as we as take the time to utilize the absolute laws of the universe. What we put into life we get back in return, and as we reachout answers will come. When they do, they will show us the way and, too, that each of us has our own unique path to process life-changes. Nonetheless, each of us must ask for answers to come, and then believe in our worthiness; feeling centers will open, and the opportunity to gain relief will become more accessible.

Life can be one big mystery considering there are plans within plans for each of us to weigh through as we go about life’s process. But through our desires, universal laws will provide answers and solutions as to what our true purpose is.

What my true purpose was had remained obscured, but clarity came as the years rolled by. Shortly after the new millennium, I began traveling a great deal and was homeless on many occasions. Hundreds of people came in and out of my life, and always I kept a journal and wrote stories about the people whom I shared a brief friendship with and the places I’d traveled to. There was magic in writing; it helped make what was around me real. Its healing powers were enormous. Through getting to know others and writing about them, I got to know who is was and what I wanted out of life.

Then I met a woman, and for the first time experienced unconditional love. This opened me up to new beginnings; a gateway to higher awareness. And even though this relationship went unfulfilled, locked within my memories were the uplifting moments this woman had imparted as well as the nourishment she so willing gave me.

Life is a process; we learn from others and in turn teach those who are willing, and through sharing we travel down roads that lead to unconditional love— the most ultimate, natural high of all.  I took all of this to heart when I assembled the book that took years to write. But that’s the way life works—it’s full of bumps and potholes, good memories a well as not so good. Was all of this worth the trouble? You bet! I’ve no regrets. What I do have is a curiosity about life that never seems to go away.

Physical imperfections stricken many of us; one begins to wonder if everyone and everything in life is flawed to some degree. “It’s life”, we say, but we say it’s life because most all of us grow up agreeing that life is flawed. Or could it be said truth resides in what we come to believe is truth? Besides; truth is always in a constant state of evolutionism.

Why it is that I received substandard grades in HS, especially in English? Dyslexia and ADD runs in the family blood. But we live  in a world that allocates  life goes on no matter what, so I made my way through life like all others—hearing and listening problems included.

“Hey, we’re all in the same boat!” It’s called life on planet Earth—a most provocative arrangement. It’s a “free-will” zone so we come to learn. Within this zone, we can overcome any and all problems by taking a ride on the stream of source power, which the universe  conveniently provides to each and every soul.

Millions of us are aware of universal source power, but we’re usually too busy with life and spent little time taking advantage of our inherent powers. We’d rather make money and live “the good life.” And why not settle down, marry, raise a family and get complex?  “Get real” is what we profess

I got married, then bought a house—but the marriage failed. Or was it that my wife knew more about what I really wanted than I did? Maybe she felt scorned and so ranted a time or two too many and off I went—still unaware of what I wanted in life?

What was I to do in that case? I could have given way to underlying desires. I didn’t and life caught up with me, like it does with everyone.

Shortly after I turned fifty, when an imposing prostate condition knocked at my door, I ran off to my family doctor. His recommendations were unsettling, but my holistic health therapist had a more realistic approach; “Write about all the women in your past.”  Survival instincts took over and I got down and started writing. Amazingly, within two months remission came. Then I bought a computer and continued writing. Within months the physical pain was gone. Inspired, I began, once again writing the book which I’d first written back in 1976. Dealing with emotional upheavals that came and went was no longer an imposing problem.

Writing is part of All That Is; all of existence is imbued with a form of power. Each letter of our alphabet holds within symbolic elements of imbued power.  As we sit and write and our thoughts create words, sentences and paragraphs, those thoughts soon become thought forms which soon enough become form. Writing is magic: Universal laws at work. In short, I learned that writing has healing powers..

It matters not how many times I revised American Brothers only that when emotions welled up, I stayed with it. Profound, uplifting sensations kept me company and relief would always follow— without fail. I experienced what it was like to feel whole, even though the quest I was on was not always clear.

I trust you’ll experience sensations of “wholeness” when you read American Brothers. The birth of the book came as a result of All That Is believing that all would make sense in due time.