Freedom of Medicine and Diet: Sociopathic Police Tools for Mercantilism

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Sociopathic Police Tools for Mercantilism

South Carolina's Tobacco Legacy- Continues

Smoke anything other then carcinogenic tobacco,
and get assaulted by criminal sociopaths who would go to any length to prevent you from getting high

Reckless endangerment so that people don't smoke anything other than cigarettes

http://www.policemag.com/News/2008/03/06/S-C-Sheriffs-Department-Armored-Vehicle-with-Belt-Fed-Machine-Gun.aspx
hoovis @ 9/1/2008 3:09 AM

I'm not a member of law enforcement, but a gun enthusiast who frequently checks out the site for its firearms related content (which I think is very good). Anyway, I felt compelled to comment on this article, simply because I don't see any good reason why a police department servicing civilians needs to have an APC in its arsenal. I can really seen no legitimate use for such hardware that wouldn't warrant a call to the National Guard. In what situation would a county police department need to use an APC (complete with a .50 cal machine gun)? For those concerned about the militarization of civilian police forces and the bad things that happen as a result of the use of excess force during (what should be) routine police work, this is disturbing. Thanks - Burt Hoovis

As a reminder of what BS the 'drug war' its notable how jurisdictions that are so gung ho on the 'drug war' have such significant stakes in maintaining this criminal mercantilsm.

http://www.state.sc.us/scda/relatedaglinks/boards/tobacco/legacy.htm
The South Carolina Tobacco Legacy

Tobacco has been an important crop in the state since the colonial days. English colonists arriving from Barbados and settling near Charleston first brought tobacco seeds into the state over 300 years ago. The first permanent settlement in the new colony of Carolina (present-day North and South Carolina and Georgia) was in 1670 to Albemarle Point on the Ashley River. The colonists later laid out a capital city, Charles Town, across the river on a more defendable peninsula. The city, with its almost land-locked harbor and system of forts, would later become the most important seaport of the Southern colonies.

Since the colonists were already familiar with the island leaf culture, they immediately began producing tobacco. Only a shortage of manpower hindered greater tobacco production. To increase the labor force in South Carolina, land was offered to those who would come and inhabit the area and plant tobacco. The golden leaf prospered for the next 200 years in South Carolina until the Civil War and Reconstruction brought tobacco as well as almost all of South Carolina's agriculture, industry, and commerce to halt.

Plantations spread up and down the tidelands during the 1700's. Towns emerged and the colony was divided into North and South Carolina in 1713 by Parliament because of religious differences and lack of defense for the large area. South Carolina grew and prospered. The British Navy protected commerce, indigo was subsidized by Parliament, and rice was allowed direct export to France. South Carolina reluctantly supported the Declaration of Independence and participated in the Continental Congresses, because the colony was already thriving under good trade policies for tobacco and other products and was undisturbed by Parliamentary restrictions that the colonies to the north found infuriating. However, in March of 1776, South Carolina also declared its independence from England. After the American Revolution, South Carolina introduced regular warehouse and inspection procedures. Much of the leaf from the state was sent to Virginia and North Carolina, where processing and manufacturing centers were evolving.

With the invention of the cotton gin in the mid-1800's, many planters turned away from the leaf and toward the boll. Cotton made the slave system profitable, and federal efforts to restrict its production polarized the North and South. By 1860, South Carolina ranked third in per capita wealth in the United States, and cotton, rice, and tobacco cultivation dominated agriculture.

On December 20, 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union and plunged headlong into the Civil War. The war proved to be a devastating blow to the people and the economy---the state's greatest tragedy. The army of the North cut a path of destruction across the state, ravaging almost half of the tobacco crop. As the textile industry developed in South Carolina during the late 1800's, agriculture in general began to decline, but tobacco made a comeback toward the end of the century after a new type of leaf was introduced into the state from its neighbor to the north.

By the end of the 19th century, the economy was renewed, and South Carolinians were again growing tobacco---the new variety, "bright leaf". Bright leaf tobacco, which turned a lemon yellow during curing, was a lighter, finer leaf and sold at premium prices. Because of the oversupply of cotton and its increasing unprofitability, "bright leaf" tobacco production spread throughout the sandy areas of the coastal plain. Tobacco acreage planted fluctuated with prevailing cotton prices.

W. H. (Buck) Daniel, a native North Carolinian and a Confederate soldier imprisoned in New York, pioneered the development of bright leaf tobacco in South Carolina's northeast Pee Dee area. He founded a supply store, the first tobacco warehouse in Mullins (Planters Warehouse), a redrying plant, and the Bank of Mullins. He also helped organize the Merchants and Farmers Bank of Marion, the first institution in the Pee Dee to make direct loans to farmers and to finance crop production.

Frank M. Rogers was also a pioneer of the bright leaf. He began planting in 1882 in Florence County, he broken even in his second year, and he made a profit in his third. In 1886, many of Rogers' neighbors joined him, and a $50 prize was offered for the best tobacco in each county. Rogers won the money.

With the increased demand by manufacturers for more bright leaf, officials, newspapers, and warehousemen promoted production. The Atlantic Coast Line Railway prepared and distributed over 20,000 pamphlets, aimed at persuading coastal plain farmers to abandon cotton for tobacco. A Charleston newspaper, The News and Observer, distributed seeds and instructions and hired professional demonstrators to advise prospective growers. Auction warehousemen from North Carolina went into the coastal plain to teach cultivation. Local growers organized markets, and in 1890 other manufacturers were persuaded to send buyers to Marion County for its first marketing season. Prior to this, growers had to send their crops to northern manufacturing centers. By 1900, South Carolina ranked sixth in the tobacco producing states. Ten years earlier, it had been 19th.

The manufacture of tobacco products in South Carolina was short-lived. At one time tobacco manufacturing employed as many as 500 people, but competition from the north proved too much for South Carolinians.

In the 1940s, South Carolina growers began to produce another type of tobacco in the northwestern Piedmont---Turkish tobacco, an aromatic type used in blended cigarettes which were popular during and following World War I. Overseas markets gradually regained preference, and South Carolina returned to bright leaf and other crops.

Today, tobacco barns still dot the Pee Dee area of South Carolina where most of the tobacco crops are grown, harvested, and sold. The golden leaf remains closely woven into the economic and social fabric of South Carolina, and because of improved quality, South Carolina tobacco is among the best in the nation. No other crop brings so great a per acre profit to the Palmetto State.