Joseph Vigorito
The Colorado Legal Eagles
P.O. Box 879
Nederland, CO 80466
(303) 258-7892 or 258-0506
March 22, 1995
PURPOSE: Press release; Colorado Legal Eagles complaint against the DEA to the US Attorney General; Results of Eagles investigation in connection with the Colorado Hemp Re-classification Act and other states;
The Colorado Legal Eagles will call for a Senate investigation of the activities of the DEA in connection with questionable and possible illegal actions by the agency during the recent Agricultural Committee hearings on the Colorado Hemp Re- classification Act. The Eagles will file complaints with the Office of Attorney General. The Legal Eagles will call for the resignation of the Special Agent in Charge, Rocky Mt. Division, Philip W. Perry.
The controversy arose around an eleventh hour FAX submitted to the Colorado State Senate AG Committee by the Special Agent in Charge of the DEA. The FAX contained numerous false statements the Eagles maintain he "knew or should have known" were false. The FAX made threats against farmers toward arrest should any of the farmers actually plant a hemp crop.
Mr. Perry specifically misstated the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR's) to the AG Comm. and defined to the Committee that all parts of the Cannabis plant is marijuana.
Mr. Perry specifically impugned and slandered the reputations and misrepresented the intentions of the sponsors of the Bill. Senator Casey is, 69 years old, and a highly regarded public servant to the State of Colorado. The environmental coalitions and various farming interests that coalesced around this Bill were publicly ostracized:
"I can tell you that, in my professional opinion, this legislation is no more than a shallow ruse being advanced by those who seek to legalize marijuana. The people of Colorado deserve to be protected from this sort of subterfuge", (DEA/Perry FAX).It is obvious that Mr. Perry and the DEA are misrepresenting the law they charged with enforcing. Further research by the Eagles has revealed that Colorado is not an isolated incident, or a minor error on behalf of a single agent. Specifically, the Eagles have major concerns with the current activities and undue influences placed upon State of Kentucky and the Governors' Task Force on Hemp."And let us be clear that what we are talking about in this Bill is marijuana. Calling it "hemp" on the basis of an artificial threshold level of psychoactive ingredient does not erase the fact that it is botanically and legally the same plant. An illegal drug by any other name is still an illegal drug (DEA/Perry FAX).
The US has fashioned its' laws on Hemp for more than fifty years to permit it as a crop. Thousands of duly elected and authorized representatives have had hand in legislation in forty-six states. The Federal Congress provides for hemp as a legitimate crop. The widespread abuse of authority on behalf of the DEA has usurped the Legislative intent of the law makers. Using tactics such as threats of felony arrests to farmers, the bullying of state congressional committees and others, false and perjured testimonies, harassment and unwarranted interventions in the pursuit of livelihood in the completely legal hemp industry, and entered into the political arena in direct violation of the "Hatch Act".
The Legal Eagles will contend, through these procedures, that the DEA has engaged in a national conspiracy of deceit, misleading statements, false accusations and slander, "knowingly" and "with malicious intent", did commit acts in furtherance of conspiracy, (Bivens VS Six Unknown Us Narcotic Agents, 1972).
Finally, the Eagles will contend that the activities of the DEA has brought about a situation in Colorado and other states, where citizens seek legislation to permit an activity which they already have every right under current law to pursue. The continued and knowing false interpretations by the DEA, has convinced a majority of Americans that the activity of growing hemp is 1) illegal and 2) is a drug, both of which are false.
Joseph Vigorito
The Colorado Legal Eagles