Search Results: rakontur/ (5)

PeterMcWilliams.org
R.I.P. Peter McWilliams (1950-2000)

By Robert Platshorn
The Silver Tour
Long before he was incarcerated, Peter McWilliams wrote about the injustice of our cannabis laws. Peter’s death is significant only as statistic in our insane drug war. There have been thousands of Peters who lost their lives as a result of a cruel and impersonal system that incarcerates hundreds of thousands of our citizens — ordinary, hardworking Americans who have committed no crime against person, property or society.
If you believe that Peter was singled out for his activism, you have nothing left to fight for. He’s gone! The truth is he was treated like every other prisoner in the federal justice system. There are hundreds, maybe thousands of marijuana offenders, both in and out of prison, who are in exactly the same situation as Peter at the time of his death.
In my 30 years in federal prison for marijuana, I saw dozens of pointless unnecessary deaths, and hundreds who lost limbs or contracted debilitating diseases simply for lack of treatment.

rakontur
Robert Platshorn spreads the truth about cannabis through The Silver Tour, even as he battles cancer. Now the federal government has moved to silence him, and has forbidden him to use the only medicine that helps

Sunlight Into Darkness

By Robert Platshorn
The Silver Tour
After spending almost 30 years in prison for importing marijuana, I met Tony, who was to be my parole officer for the next three-plus years. A big, strong guy in his late 40s, he looked like the kind of fed I had hoped never to see again. 
For the first year, it was touch and go. Tony was trying to convince me he was a decent human being and me confident that he was just waiting for a chance to put the Tuna back in the can. 

rakontur
Robert Platshorn spreads the truth about cannabis through The Silver Tour. Now the federal government has moved to silence him

You’d think that Robert Platshorn, the former 1970s marijuana smuggler who became, after almost 30 years in the federal pen, the longest-serving cannabis prisoner in United States history, had already paid his debt to society.

Platshorn, author of Black Tuna Diaries and whose story is told in the documentary Square Grouper, now promotes the legalization of medical marijuana, aiming his message at senior citizens with The Silver Tour.

And there’s the rub. Platshorn’s new parole officer, Scott Kirsche, on Wednesday afternoon phoned the Black Tuna and gave him notice that the recently granted permission to travel to Chicago to address the American Bar Association has been rescinded on orders of his superiors, Reginald Michael and Frank Smith.

Sun Post Weekly
Robert Platshorn spreads the truth about cannabis through The Silver Tour. Now the federal government has moved to silence him

Federal Officer Threatens To Return The Black Tuna To Prison

Robert Platshorn became the longest serving marijuana prisoner in United States history, doing almost 30 years in federal prison for importing Colombian pot in the 1970s. When he got out four years ago, Platshorn — a weed warrior through and through — didn’t take the easy way out and opt for a quiet retirement. Instead, he took up the cause of medical marijuana, launching The Silver Tour to bring the good news about cannabis to senior citizens.

Platshorn did his time, and when he got out, he started trying to make the world a better place and to help sick people. Now, even though he’s been officially released from the jurisdiction of the U.S. Parole Commission, the federal government is trying to silence him, ordering travel restrictions — which would effectively end The Silver Tour — and forbidding him to associate with fellow Silver Tour director, federal medical marijuana patient Irvin Rosenfeld.
The Showtime movie Square Grouper featured Platshorn’s story; federal agents dubbed him the Black Tuna. But today, millions of senior citizens call him the Pied Piper of medical marijuana, and often refer to him as “the secret weapon for legalization.” Last year, after being released from parole, he joined with Rosenfeld to found The Silver Tour to teach seniors the benefits of medicinal cannabis.
After getting home from a book signing tour (he wrote an autobiography, Black Tuna Diaries) and an international medical cannabis conference hosted by Patients Out of Time and the University of Arizona, Platshorn got a surprise visit from a new parole officer. The stranger demanded a urine sample and made it clear to Robert and his wife that Platshorn could be returned to prison if he refused.

Revolution Live

​The 14th Annual Medical Marijuana Benefit Concert will be held Sunday, February 19, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to raise funds for NORML of Florida (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), The Silver Tour, Patients Out of Time (POT) and PUFMM’s (People United For Medical Marijuana) campaign to protect medical marijuana patients’ rights. The event will be hosted by NORML of Florida, Ploppy Palace Productions and Revolution Live.

Currently a statewide campaign is underway to change the medical marijuana laws in Florida. There is legislation currently in both the state House and Senate — a first in 30 years! — as well as a statewide petition signature drive.
As part of the benefit concert — which will be a three-stage extravaganza — some of South Florida’s top bands, spoken word artists and community activists will join together to support patients’ right to use and physicians’ right to recommend medicinal cannabis.