How the DEA Scrubbed Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Poppy Garden from Public Memory

Thomas Jefferson: Drug Criminal.
The third president of the United States and principle author of the Declaration of Independence cultivated and used Opiates. Is this fact so disturbing to some Americans that it warranted a DEA raid? Apparently:

Thomas Jefferson was a drug criminal. But he managed to escape the terrible sword of justice by dying a century before the DEA was created. In 1987 agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency showed up at Monticello, Jefferson's famous estate.

Jefferson had planted opium poppies in his medicinal garden, and opium poppies are now deemed illegal. Now, the trouble was the folks at the Monticello Foundation, which preserves and maintains the historic site, were discovered flagrantly continuing Jefferson's crimes. The agents were blunt: The poppies had to be immediately uprooted and destroyed or else they were going to start making arrests, and Monticello Foundation personnel would perhaps face lengthy stretches in prison.

The story sounds stupid now, but it scared the hell out of the people at Monticello, who immediately started yanking the forbidden plants. A DEA man noticed the store was selling packets of "Thomas Jefferson's Monticello Poppies." The seeds had to go, too. While poppy seeds might be legal, it is never legal to plant them. Not for any reason.

Employees even gathered the store's souvenir T-shirts -- with silkscreened photos of Monticello poppies on the chest -- and burned them. Nobody told them to do this, but, under the circumstances, no one dared risk the threat.

Jefferson's poppies are gone without a trace now. Nobody said much at the time, nor are they saying much now. Visitors to Monticello don't learn how the Founding Father cultivated poppies for their opium. His personal opium use and poppy cultivation may as well never have happened.

This selection from Jim Hogshire's "Opium for the Masses: Harvesting Nature's Best Pain Medication" continues to outline many misconceptions about Poppies and Opiates, such as the fictional mass addiction of Civil War veterans. To me, this is an example of how blurred the battle lines of the War On Drugs truly are. Are we so confused as to allow the DEA to desecrate the estate of one of the most influential founding fathers? I greatly recommend reading the full selection.

reply to post by MarlboroRedCowgirl


Jeez. So many things wrong with this.

Well, the government thinks that for medicine requires you to supply funds for the government for enforcement, the drug manufacturers to distill the patented concoctions, the doctor to prescribe, the pharmacist to prepare instead of the FREE way of growing your own plants.

Let me see, what was the life expectancy of people like TJ?

See, the government is helping you can you not see this.

All those EVIL plants have to be destroyed for your own protection.

That is why HISTORY has to be scrubbed for your own protection.

Now go back to listening to the AMA and do not worry when they decide to outlaw nutrients that are evil DRUGS also. Do not worry about getting your vitamins or natural foods, they have much better GMO foods that can survive being sprayed with poisons, so TRUST THEM, they are good for you.

See, all of these laws, regulations, statutes, controls, etc are for YOUR own good.

Quit worrying about how you are going to be able to afford all these things. Your government has plans for you. Do not worry about a simple thing like-




[size=50]FREEDOM

And the same government is protecting a new record of opium production in Afghanistan.

First opium war

[edit on 4-3-2010 by Grey Magic]

Seriously I am sick of living on planet Earth.

Can I move someplace else?

I'm moving in with the gorilla on Mars.




I am tired of not being able to make simple decisions for my own body. If Thomas Jefferson met the DEA he wouldn't hesitate to do to them what he did to the British.

My body is my body, my land is my land. Period.

[edit on 3/4/2010 by dalan.]

WEll we must understand that laws change. Can you imagine the battle we would have if people discovered booze today??

I am pretty sure that after observing the effects of over imbibing TPTB would have no hesitation in banning it.

"Employees even gathered the store's souvenir T-shirts -- with silkscreened photos of Monticello poppies on the chest -- and burned them. Nobody told them to do this, but, under the circumstances, no one dared risk the threat."

But destroying the T-Shirts is completely wrong and goes against law-abidding freedom of expression.

Originally posted by MarlboroRedCowgirl
This selection from Jim Hogshire's "Opium for the Masses: Harvesting Nature's Best Pain Medication" continues to outline many misconceptions about Poppies and Opiates, such as the fictional mass addiction of Civil War veterans. To me, this is an example of how blurred the battle lines of the War On Drugs truly are. Are we so confused as to allow the DEA to desecrate the estate of one of the most influential founding fathers? I greatly recommend reading the full selection.

Sorry Mr. Hogshire but many thousands of civil war veterans were addicted to opium. It was the pain killer of choice and the war produced many painful wounds and amputated limbs. Only they didn't call it opium back then, it was known as Laudanum .
OPium is chemically addictive, to claim otherwise is pure foolishness. While not as strong as todays derivatives (oxycodone, morphine) it was still a powerful drug. I'm sure he was trying to push the point that criminalizing drugs has been a disaster which it has but there's no need to modify history to make that point.

As for Jeffy I wonder if he and Sally smoked a lil' before they hit the hay?

reply to post by MarlboroRedCowgirl

Thomas Jefferson: Drug Criminal.
The third president of the United States and principle author of the Declaration of Independence cultivated and used Opiates. Is this fact so disturbing to some Americans that it warranted a DEA raid? Apparently:

Thomas Jefferson was a drug criminal. But he managed to escape the terrible sword of justice by dying a century before the DEA was created. In 1987 agents from the Drug Enforcement Agency showed up at Monticello, Jefferson's famous estate.

No he wasn't. Not in anyway, shape, form, or twisted slant of an author's search for notoriety.

It is certainly possible that it is historically accurate that he grew opium poppies. He certainly grew hemp. Of course, both of these plants are illegal to cultivate without permit, TODAY. But not when Thomas Jefferson was a farmer they weren't.

But in Thomas Jefferson's time, opium was a vital medicinal product (as it remains to this day, by the way) and hemp an even more vital fiber source for rope, paper, lubricating oils, and food additives (as it should still be today). The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence are written on hemp paper.

The author is a nitwit.

Monticello could cultivate California Poppies as a substitute. Not strictly accurate, but none the less informative.

" I like to think of laws as mere "Suggestions" of the government".

good thread, thanks op!

reply to post by rnaa


I agree totally with you, I was attempting to be sarcastic. sorry if it didn't read that way

Originally posted by Ahmose
" I like to think of laws as mere "Suggestions" of the government".

good thread, thanks op!

Just think, two hundred years from now if we follow the same path, Obama's smoking of tobacco will have to be scrubbed from the history books.

I wonder what other things will be outlawed for our own good?

Sugar?
Meat?
Speech?
Arms?
Thought?

The road to perdition is a long highway, it usually passes through hell to get there.

reply to post by endisnighe
Good question with the codex alimentarius, on the horzion.

Both Jefferson and Washington grew Hemp, I know Washington made alot of money, selling to the US Navy, boy you know those guys like to smoke rope.

The pentagon is built on land that used to be covered in hemp...

www.abovetopsecret.com...



Really makes you wonder where we'd be as a society if we never allowed all this government meddling...

reply to post by endisnighe


Wow great insight! I didn't even think to link obama's tobacco use. I was living in Chicago during his historic election, and every black person on the street was bragging about how the President smokes Newport's, they same cigarettes they smoke. Its shocking how brainwashing and thought control can destroy historical fact.


reply to post by alaskan


WOW! Thank you so much for enlightening me to this interesting fact!

Life is perception.

What is it that you actually want to perceive?

Do you want to disbelieve that the WAR ON DRUGS has an actual purpose?

Do you actually think that it has ANYTHING to do with keeping us safe?

Think about it, how do you solve a problem? By escalation? Or by actually removing the problem?

NOW, think about it, how many people are incarcerated because of this "supposed" drug war.

Is it a drug war, or is it a war against the American People?

What is going on the border? What is going on in the poppy fields of Afghanistan?

Are they TRULLY trying to stop the flow of drugs? Or just CONTROL it? Just like EVERYTHING else?

Oh well, there is some sand over here to bury your head in.

reply to post by endisnighe


The lines have been drawn in the War On Drugs, what I like to call the Second Civil War. Except this time, instead of fighting each other-we are fighting the very government elected to protect us. It is a battle we will win with time, resistance, and non-violent protest. Life is perception, and we are able to see things clearly while they only see darkly.