I to have smelled the rotten breath of jack-booted nazi drug warriors. Fortunately, I only spent one night in JAIL. Why? Because I had the misfortune of smoking pot at a concert. A concert that had nazi drug warriors patrolling the grounds looking for people smoking pot. Mind you this was over 20 years ago. The fear created by that bust stays with me today. It didn't change my mind about pot, it changed my mind about the role of government into ones life!

One big blow that I'm anxious to see is one of the states' governors, maybe Johnson, to tell the federal government to keep its lousy highway money. The feds use the threat of withholding federal money for highway construction and maintenance to jam all kinds of programs down the throats of fifty states. Personally, I would far rather have a few potholes busting cars that a potwar busting lives. Screw federal highway money. A lot of states would follow.
Eventually, the warriors will be just as isolated as Hitler in his Berlin bunker in the spring of 1945, and it will be plain to everyone then what a bunch of deranged criminals they really are. War-crimes trials will be sure to follow.

If it is necessary to make generalizations, then I would say that I'm cynical about the intensity and stubborness of the drug warriors' resistance to reform. They'll have to be dragged kicking and condemning and persecuting spewing propaganda every inch of the way. But I am more than optimistic, I am absolutely certain of their ultimate defeat. I wish it could be brought about in a day, like the tearing down of the Berlin wall in 89 or the fall of communism two years later. But I think more likely it will be a dragged out hundred round bare knuckle fight.

I would never think of you as "Polyanna",,and your optimism is
far from "mindless",,,,,,,If I ever think you're talking wimpy,
unsubstantiated crap,,,,I'll let you know,,,.

...that's one thing that's so good about commenting here,,there's
a nice balance of opinions,and outlooks,,,,although it is rather
sad that our friends Joyce,Mary,and Frances are so shy and
easily spooked,,,,,it's almost as if they are chicken to enter
into any discussions....I feel kinda bad sometimes because we
always shred them whenever they comment,,,but this is true
of most all of those in the Anti club,,they are afraid to seriously
discuss these matters,because they are WRONG!

But as I said, I've seen the Face of the Enemy. It can smile when it wants to, but prefers to snarl at the very people who pay for it's predations. Like a rabid guard dog that threatens it's owner, the DrugWar should have been 'put down' long ago for the unConstitutional threat it is.

But I remain guardedly optimistic because they don't have everything sewn up yet

All around the planet, nations are signalling they've had enough of the American-led DrugWar.

It would seem, given all the latest moves by Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands (Ik hou van Holland!) and others, that they are sick and tired of the Big Fat Rich Bully's poorly orchestrated dance and going it alone. Forgive me if I sound like there's a scratch on the CD when I keep pointing out something very significant: nearly all of these moves have taken place after Uncle was calmly but firmly shown the door at the UN Narcotics Control Board. Almost immediately afterwards, we start seeing progress on the international front.

Coincidence? Hardly. A very sick balance exists in American foreign policy: when it can't wheedle the international community into giving it what it wants, it rattles sabers in hope of intimidating nations dependent upon it's good will to cough up 'support'.

But the rest of the Developed World doesn't need Uncle's largesse - and they have militaries, too. So Uncle, in classic bully fashion, goes overboard in meddling in the affairs of militarily weaker nations.

The antis have lost the propaganda war in the Developed Nations; the counterbalance has been lost. Like a playground see-saw, when one rider jumps off quickly, the other is left to crash to the ground. All that's left for the US now is to brazenly, blindly, reflexively, stupidly escalate matters in Colombia to the point the situation becomes so untenable, Joe Sixpack wakes from his beer-induced torpor and asks 'why'?

Yes, I do believe we are seeing the end of the DrugWar. But it will not be the decorous, neatly organized, sedate, well-orchestrated and sensible withdrawl from madness that it could be.

Nope, it will probably take a series of out-and-out clusterf**ks that will require some more innocent blood spilled before enough people get pissed off enough to do something about it.

The Bowers Incident is a perfect example. The Religious Right, which has always been a vocal supporter of the DrugWar, has had several of their own shot down as a result of it's support. People doing God's work have been murdered - by other people who were ostensibly doing God's Work. Embarrassing, eh? Now they're not so keen to chearleaders for the DrugWar, since it wasn't some 'welfare breeder' (yes, I heard that come from the mouth of a local preacher, some years ago. A 'fine, Christian man') who got whacked, but Children of God.

Yes, things are changing, slowly, painfully, fitfully, for the better. But like a child afflicted with Down's Syndrome, the lessons you and I learn in a heartbeat takes years for the antis to comprehend.

.."no matter how bad things are,,they could always be worse"

The objective is as simple as the minds of those being
tested: To see how long it takes a government to realize
that it is engaged in monkey-motion. Finger-painting.
Twaddle of the most useless and pointless nature.

Like balky children shy of a few hundred million neurons,
governments around the world, to greater or lesser
extents, have tried to put all manner of roadblocks
between you and cannabis. The measure of their success is
that weed has better quality and is more plentiful than
ever.

Some success.

So, now that they are losing the fight, they are engaging
in foot-dragging. This foot-dragging is just more
road-blocking and speed bumping, but with a difference;
they believe they can wear us down.

They are going to be proven wrong...and if they don't quit
it, the proof will come at the ballot box. And in the form
of much-deserved 'pink slips' informing them that their
'services' are no longer required; clean out your desk on
the way out.

How long this takes will depend upon how long people are
willing to put up with this mean-spirited poor-loser-ism.
How long before the affected parties get righteously
fed-up with the foot dragging and lower the boom on the
pols, and inform them the game is over.

These latest circus-animal hoops the Canucks are being
forced to jump through - for now - will, as M. St. Maurice
has pointed out, be challenged. And in the process of the
challenge, the Canadian government will be forced to admit
that any supposed reason for the 'safety regulations'
regarding access to cannabis are totally without any
scientific underpinning.

The truth about the origin of Canadian cannabis
prohibition was made public in the OCA deliberations last
summer; that particularly rabid dog is dead. It's
former handlers are now left with only one mangy mutt
remaining in the prohib kennel: the present
rationale for continuing something so laughably flawed as
cannabis prohibition on the pretense of scientific
studies which fail to prove the claims made by
prohibitionists.

Drag that into the cold hard light of scientific
inquiry - and peer review - and watch it wither. And with
it, the government's, any government's reason for
continuing a stupid, vindictive policy. The Canadian antis
are teetering on what was formerly a three-legged stool.
With the latest victory of common sense over "cave-man
ethics" (Ugh! Me not like potheads, me kill!), one leg has
been snapped off, and the antis are desperately trying to
maintain their balance.