Cannabis News DrugSense
  Bad Ideas, Good Ideas
Posted by FoM on March 20, 2002 at 07:56:42 PT
By Dana Larsen  
Source: Cannabis Culture 

cannabis American drug warriors are preparing to swarm into Vancouver, for an anti-drug conference sponsored by the International Drug Education and Awareness Society (IDEAS).

In a series of ads placed in Vancouver newspapers, as well as one in the Journal of the Canadian Medical Association, IDEAS claimed that medical pot is pseudoscience that kills, and that Canada should adopt the "zero-tolerance" drug policies of Sweden over the harm-reduction of Holland.

IDEAS is an organization co-founded by Lynda Bentall and her real-estate mogul husband Robert. They have supplied $200,000 in funding to pay for the symposium and advertising campaign.

The Bentalls are acting in collaboration with the US-based Drug Free America Foundation, which is the reincarnation of Straight, Incorporated, a horrendous youth mind-control program which used emotional and physical abuse, strip searches, food deprivation, forced enemas, and other torturous techniques to keep kids off marijuana and other drugs.

Betty and Mel Sembler, Straight's founders, founded the Drug Free America Foundation after the Straight name had been discredited through numerous lawsuits and media exposés of their abusive ways. They have sponsored a number of conferences in Florida to oppose medical marijuana and any liberalization of drug policies.

The IDEAS conference is scheduled for May 1-3, 2002, at the Vancouver Trade and Exhibition Centre. Over 3000 representatives from policing, educational and government agencies are expected to attend, along with 100 students. IDEAS is keeping a strict control over who will be allowed to attend and participate, and all the speakers at the conference oppose liberalization of drug laws.

"It's a question of the validity of the studies," Lynda Bentall told the Vancouver Courier. "Every leading expert around the world comes to the same conclusion. It's not that we have chosen people for a viewpoint. They all end up being against liberalization. All educated people on the topic end up being conservative."

Bentall also called the BC Compassion Club Society "a scam," saying "There's not one bit of evidence that smoking marijuana is good medicine." Ironically, the Compassion Club had been in negotiation to rent out a second location in a building managed by Bentall Real Estate Services. The Compassion Club was told the deal was a no-go two days after the plan for the IDEAS conference was made public.

Good ideas

The many American anti-drug conventioneers should feel comfortable in Vancouver, as there's already a number of US anti-drug organizations that have agents permanently stationed in the city. The US Justice Department and the US Drug Enforcement Agency both have agents and offices in Vancouver, and according to US Attorney General John Ashcroft, the US Marshals Office will soon have agents here as well.

Yet the IDEAS symposium is also up against some tough competition. Cannabis Culture magazine is organizing a home-town rally outside the convention centre, to distribute information about the horrendous Straight program and the need for an end to the drug war. The day after the conference ends, May 4, is the date for the Million Marijuana March, a massive public protest event being held in over 130 cities around the globe, including Vancouver.

Finally, in an even more fun way of defying those who want to oppress us, we are sponsoring the first ever Cannabis Culture Tokers Bowl from May 2-5. This exciting event will be limited to only 200 people – the first 200 who cut out the form on page 27 and send it in with their payment! Those who attend this special event will be entertained in high style, with samples of the very best BC Bud, as well as food, fun and ever more phatties!

Clearly the IDEAS organizers see the pro-pot movement in Vancouver as an enemy to be eliminated. As with the federal med-pot raids in California, the forces of prohibition are stepping up their efforts to break the back of the "legalizers." Yet by coming into the hempen heartland of Vancouver, challenging us on our own turf, we hope they have bitten off more than they can chew.

Note: US anti-drug crusaders to swarm Vancouver – activists plan protest and pot party.

• IDEAS: http://www.ideas-canada.org
• Drug Free America Foundation: http://www.dfaf.org
• Cannabis Culture Tokers Bowl: http://www.tokersbowl.com

Newshawk: anon
Source: Cannabis Culture
Author: Dana Larsen
Published: March, 17, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Cannabis Culture
Contact: ccmag@cannabisculture.com
Website: http://www.cannabisculture.com/
DL: http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2296.html

Related Articles & Web Site:

FTE's Canadian Links
http://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htm

New Politics of Pot Emerging
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread12286.shtml

Chasing Potheads Called Waste of Time
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11258.shtml

Drugs in Canada - Gone To Pot
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10571.shtml


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Comment #8 posted by Richard Lake on March 20, 2002 at 19:59:53 PT:

There is a whole lot more going on
than the article covers.

Check out the counter IDEAS site, under construction yet.

Note that it is a real .ca Canadian site!

http://www.ideas-canada.ca/

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #7 posted by goneposthole on March 20, 2002 at 19:23:40 PT
IDEAS
International Drug Education and Awareness Society need to be aware of a few facts about drugs.

Here are a few:

Walt Disney liked cocaine. Carl Sagan liked pot. Sigmund Frued was a cocaine user. Warren G. Harding loved booze during prohibition. Ulysses S. Grant was a drunk.

Army forts in the west had stills to manufacture alcohol to sell to the Indians and was illegal to do so. In fact, up until the end of the 1950's, it was illegal for a Native American to enter a bar.

IDEAS is in the dark and it seems they will remain there. Their IDEAS hold no water and they are all wet. Their brains must be pickled from booze.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #6 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on March 20, 2002 at 15:35:53 PT
Plan British Colombia
**there's already a number of US anti-drug organizations that have agents permanently stationed in the city. The US Justice Department and the US Drug Enforcement Agency both have agents and offices in Vancouver, and according to US Attorney General John Ashcroft, the US Marshals Office will soon have agents here as well.**

Soon I see helicopters, SWAT Raids, and shootings: all the comforts of the USA, really.

The Royal Canadian Marijuana Police are down here in Atlanta this month "learning" how to " interdict drug trafficking vehicles": ie - learning American-style racial profiling.

The Cannabis war has kicked into high gear and the DEA is feverishly exporting their war to Canada. The waves of these stupid new Drugs = terrorism ads along with the age-old Gabriel Nahas-inspired propaganda is starting to choke the print media.

This is PsychWar: run disinformation campaigns, run total disinformation, then move in with raids, dynamite people's doors, shoot a few to death...the Canadians will quickly be the 52nd state, just before the addition if Colomia South.

It's WAR.

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #5 posted by Jose Melendez on March 20, 2002 at 10:33:59 PT
link
more info on debunked marijuana myth at: http://groups.google.com/groups?q=claim+debunked+marijuana+group:sci.skeptic&hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&selm=ccd55c9c.0109081930.16015470%40posting.google.com&rnum=1

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by Jose Melendez on March 20, 2002 at 10:33:02 PT:

Claim Debunked: "Marijuana Causes Brain Damage&quo
Exposing Marijuana Myths:
A Review of the Scientific Evidence

Lynn Zimmer Associate Professor of Sociology, Queens College

John P. Morgan Professor of Pharmacology, City University of New York Medical School

October 1995 © Open Society Institute/The Lindesmith Center

CLAIM #8: MARIJUANA CAUSES BRAIN DAMAGE

Critics state that marijuana has been shown to damage brain cells and that this damage, in turn, causes memory loss, cognitive impairment, and difficulties in learning.

THE FACTS

The original basis of this claim was a report that, upon postmortem examinations, structural changes in several brain regions were found in two rhesus monkeys exposed to THC. 51 Because these changes primarily involved the hippocampus, a cortical brain region known to play an important role in learning and memory, this finding suggested possible negative consequences for human marijuana users.

Additional studies, employing rodents, reported similar brain changes. However, to achieve these results, massive doses of THC - up to 200 times the psychoactive dose in humans - had to be given . In fact, studies employing 100 times the human dose have failed to reveal any damage. 52

In the most recently published study, rhesus monkeys were exposed through face-mask inhalation to the smoke equivalent of four to five joints per day for one year. When sacrificed seven months later, there was no observed alteration of hippocampal architecture, cell size, cell number, or synaptic configuration. The authors conclude:

"while behavioral and neuroendocrinal effects are observed during marijuana smoke exposure in the monkey, residual neuropathological and neurochemical effects of marijuana exposure were not observed seven months after the year-long marijuana smoke regimen." 53

Thus, 20 years after the first report of brain damage in two marijuana-exposed monkeys, the claim of damage to brain cells has been effectively disproven. (snip)

 

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #3 posted by Spookk on March 20, 2002 at 09:35:26 PT
Woot!
Good plan!

Wish I could go =(.

Good luck all.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by Ethan Russo MD on March 20, 2002 at 09:28:48 PT:

Big Weekend
It is unfortunate, but these events are the same weekend as the Clinical Cannabis Conference in Portland, OR. I wish that I could attend the IDEAS event, to better know the other side.

People in a position to attend should make every effort to travel to Vancouver or Portland. The former will appeal to prohibitionists, contrarians or party-goers, while patients, physicians or those seeking more scientific knowledge about clinical cannabis should strongly consider the latter.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by p4me on March 20, 2002 at 09:27:17 PT
more lies
"It's a question of the validity of the studies," Lynda Bentall told the Vancouver Courier. "Every leading expert around the world comes to the same conclusion. It's not that we have chosen people for a viewpoint. They all end up being against liberalization. All educated people on the topic end up being conservative."

That is one whopper of a lie.

As with the federal med-pot raids in California, the forces of prohibition are stepping up their efforts to break the back of the "legalizers."

The numbers of the reformers is increasing and the numbers for prohibition are decreasing. In Canada the magic 51% has been reached on the legalization side with 56% of the BC people in favor. I am curious as to when the next big poll will come out in the US. The poll that Governor Johnson uses with 35% in favor of legalization is 6 months old and the number has surely risen.

These people are fanatics in this day and age and my definition of freedom is quite different than theirs. There idea of Utopia is different than mine also, because how could you ever expect anything like Utopia without freeing the weed?

VAAI

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