cannabisnews.com: America's Dope Paradox





America's Dope Paradox
Posted by CN Staff on July 15, 2002 at 09:10:12 PT
By Rowland Nethaway, Senior Editor
Source: Waco Tribune-Herald
The day after the U.S. Senate approved using Nevada's Yucca Mountain as a stash for the nation's nuclear waste, the Associated Press reported that voters in Nevada will decide whether to legalize small stashes of marijuana. There's nothing like a few ounces of giggle weed to take your mind off 77,000 tons of nearby nuclear waste. Who cares if you glow in the dark as long as you have weed and Cheez Doodles? 
The proposal, which will be voted on in November, allows adults to have up to three ounces of marijuana as long as they don't smoke it in public places, assuming pot heads will recognize public places. Nevada's blackjack dealers and snack food salesmen should support the law, which must get around a federal law that bans marijuana possession and a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says states cannot make exceptions for medical use. A Reuters news story reports that Britain is expected to relax marijuana laws and allow millions of marijuana users to smoke without fear of arrest. This decision should go a long way toward relieving concerns over Britain's bad weather and lousy food. I do not mean to insult people who like Britain's weather and food, since I conclude they already are stoned. Pot in same class with steroids By making marijuana a Class C rather than a Class B drug, pot will be put in the same category as anabolic steroids and growth hormones, non-arrestable offenses. Speaking of baseball, home run records are falling like leaves from a dying tree amid accusations that up to 70 percent of major league players are juiced up on steroids, which improve performance and often cause abusers to fly into 'roid rages. The 70 percent figure, which came from a retired player who admitted to pumping up on steroids, is suspect since some active players think the figure is no more than 50 percent. The thing is, no one knows what percentage of coddled multi-millionaire players take steroids since there is no drug testing of big league players, who often sound like ACLU lawyers when talking about their rights of privacy, illegal searches and presumption of innocence. Some of these role-model players support drug testing as long as it is voluntary. That's nearly as big a joke as the recent All Star game that stopped with a 7-7 tie thanks to Commissioner Bud Selig, who evidently was hired to ruin baseball. A sports reporter recently asked Chicago Cubs slugger Sammy Sosa if he took steroids, which he denied. Sosa said that if there were drug testing, he would be first in line. Anticipating this canned response, the reporter gave Sosa the address of a nearby drug testing operation and asked him to do it now. Sosa flew into a rage. Hmmm — 'roid rage or not, no one knows. Former tennis great John McEnroe recently was ratted out by his former wife who said McEnroe took steroids for years, which might explain his outrageous outbursts. Maybe, maybe not. No one knows. The U.S. Supreme Court believes that the drug problem is so severe in the nation's schools that it is OK to drug test the chess team and the choir. A few years earlier the justices said it was OK to drug test the jocks who are role models. Now it's OK to drug test every youngster who bothers to to get up off his or her rump and participate in rewarding, character-building activities. It would make more sense to drug test all the zoned-out kids who never bother to play sports, become involved in extracurricular activities or hold down after-school jobs. Trying to follow the logic people use to combat drug abuse is enough to make you want to take two Valium tablets along with your evening cocktails. Rowland Nethaway's columns appear on Wednesdays and Fridays. Source: Waco Tribune-Herald (TX)Author: Rowland Nethaway, Senior EditorPublished: July 15, 2002Copyright: 2002 Waco-Tribune HeraldWebsite: http://www.accesswaco.com/Contact: letters mail.wacotrib.comRelated Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Britain to Stop Arresting Most Users of Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13368.shtmlNevada Voters to Consider Marijuana Legalizationhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13409.shtmlDEA Director Criticizes Marijuana Ballot Measurehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13388.shtmlMarijuana Proposal To Be On Ballothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread13351.shtml 
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Comment #12 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on July 15, 2002 at 19:38:18 PT
"because I got High"
the Ultra-lame "song" by Afroman last year, was supposed to be "humorous", or sarcastic, but the way it goes over in the media is reinforcing the media-perpetuated stereotypes. Sort of like its no longer funny to make racial jokes.
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Comment #11 posted by goneposthole on July 15, 2002 at 17:30:09 PT
sometimes sarcasm is not humorous
To make the British the butt of a joke isn't all that humorous.An attempt at humor is not always funny.I also thought it might be sarcasm, but I don't like it.I'm tired of such foolishness. One can be humorous without making fun of others.Tt is so hot in Texas, Texans brains have been boiled out. Is that humorous?
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Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on July 15, 2002 at 17:21:42 PT
The real dope paradox
is how a dope like this guy got his job.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on July 15, 2002 at 15:56:59 PT
Thanks mr greengenes
I copied where CannabisNews is mentioned. That's way too cool! She got one direct hit from the Internet search. Cannabisnews.com had the Sept. 5 South Bend Tribune story listed on its site. The story identified Vanessa as being 18 and from Quincy. Rogers had a feeling she had struck gold.
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Comment #8 posted by mr greengenes on July 15, 2002 at 15:50:40 PT
Off topic Rainbow farm story
http://southbendtribune.com/stories/2002/07/14/local.20020714-sbt-FULL-A1-After_17_years__.stoThought everybody might enjoy this story that was in the South Bend Tribune last Sunday. Cannabisnews.com is mentioned about three quarters of the way through. It's too long to post the whole story, but the rest of the story with pictures can be seen at the above link for one or two more days.July 14, 2002 
After 17 years, dad locates daughter Tribune story of Rainbow Farm standoff leads to reunion By CHRISTINE COX Tribune Staff Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- It almost doesn't seem right to link the pain of the shooting deaths at Rainbow Farm last September to the joyful reunion of a father and the grown daughter he hadn't seen since she was 2 years old. But Rick Hunkler of Texas may never have met his 19-year-old daughter, Vanessa Alham of Nashville, if it weren't for the Rainbow Farm events. The tenacity of his tough Texas girlfriend, a story in The South Bend Tribune and other touches of fate contributed as well. Because of those things, Hunkler, 42, hugged his daughter for the first time on July 5 after searching for her for 17 years. He also met his son-in-law, Cassopolis native Omar Alham, who also unwittingly played a part in the reunion. And Hunkler delightedly held his 3-week-old granddaughter, Aliyah Louise Alham, in his arms, quieting her cries when everyone else had failed to that day. Hunkler, a muscled biker and career diesel mechanic who stands 6 feet 7 inches tall, laughed at himself the day of the reunion, joking about someone so big misting up so easily. 
The separation Hunkler was born Oct. 10, 1959, in Flint, Mich., to a father from Detroit and a mother from Paris, Tenn. He grew up on a 4,000-acre family farm in Paris, which is still in operation, raising cows and growing tobacco, corn and soybeans. He went to high school in Nashville. In 1977, at a Waffle House restaurant in Nashville, Hunkler met Kathie Williams, a Franklin, Tenn., native who is also dark-haired, tall and good-looking. The two were married in 1981. After living in Missouri and California, the couple settled in Quincy, Ill., where Rick attended Quincy Technical School and became an auto diesel repair technician. Hunkler worked at various jobs in Quincy. Vanessa Konstance Hunkler was born March 3, 1983, in Quincy. "We were good parents," Hunkler said. "We did everything we could do with our income at the time." The family stayed in Quincy until 1984, when the steel mills and other businesses started closing. Hunkler found a job in Oklahoma with Reliance Truck Co. fixing diesel trucks. He was transferred to Houston in 1985, and moved there a couple months ahead of his wife and daughter to secure housing. About a month after Williams and Vanessa joined him, Hunkler broke both wrists in a work accident and was forced to stay home to heal. The pain medication he took for his injuries made him sleep heavily. One day in the winter of 1985, he woke up from a deep sleep and discovered his wife and 2-year-old gone. "I didn't know what happened," he said. "I filed missing persons reports, but I never heard anything back." He called Williams' mother, asking her to tell him if she heard from Williams, but she never did. Through the years, Hunkler hired private investigators to try to track down his daughter. They looked in Quincy, where Williams took and raised her daughter. But the investigators never found Vanessa. "Every year me and my mom would talk about it," Hunkler said. On Vanessa's birthday, he would run newspaper ads, looking for any scrap of information about his missing daughter. Meanwhile, Hunkler had moved to Magnolia, Texas, remarried and had three more daughters: Kether, 16; Sheldon, 13, and Miranda, 12. He and his wife are currently in the process of divorce. Even with his new family, Hunkler never forgot Vanessa. "I thought about her all the time," he said. "I've always had pictures of her. Her sisters know about her. ... She's always been my daughter." 
Vanessa's story Vanessa grew up in Quincy without hearing much or ever seeing even a photograph of her father. Every once in a while, her mother would tell her bits of information about her father -- that he liked science fiction like Vanessa did or that something she did reminded her of Hunkler. Williams never bad-mouthed Hunkler. Nor did she explain to her daughter why she had left Hunkler or that he might be searching for them. "It wasn't like we were hiding," Vanessa said. But Vanessa also didn't search for her father. "I always wondered" about him, she said. "I thought he might be married and didn't want me in his life." A calm, gentle flower child at heart, Vanessa dropped out of school in 10th grade and worked at a "hippie store" in Quincy, making jewelry and doing silk-screen printing. In the summer of 2000, the store got a flier for Roach Roast 2000 at Rainbow Farm in Vandalia, a festival that celebrated marijuana. A few people from the store decided to travel to the campground to sell their goods, jewelry and other items. A week at Rainbow Farm was enough to make Vanessa fall in love with the place. She decided to head back the next year for Roach Roast 2001. She and two friends from Quincy traveled to Michigan in August 2001. On her way to the campground showers, fate intervened. Omar Alham, now 19, saw Vanessa and asked her friends who she was. They met later that night and have been inseparable ever since. (snip)
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Comment #7 posted by Dan B on July 15, 2002 at 14:37:58 PT
Speaking of Valium
Trying to follow the logic people use to combat drug abuse is enough to make you want to take two Valium tablets along with your evening cocktails. I think you are correct, Nasarius, and--by the way--I don't recall seeing you here before, and so I offer you my welcome, with apologies if you have been here for a long time and I somehow missed you.One may recall, if one has been here at C-News for a while, that my Mom had come around on drug policy reform, so you may be surprised, as I was, at her recent disclosure that she thinks cannabis is the same as Valium. Ridiculous, I say, but I felt like the argument was better for another time, another place. She at least agree with the ballot measure in Nevada insofar as it corrects a problem with government-sponsored oppression, so I decided that her misunderstanding of this particular drugs, no doubt fueled by years of government propaganda, was not as important to discuss in terms of the big picture.But here is my reaction to her statement. This is what I would have quoted if I had confronted her description:Common Valium side effects might include: drowsiness, fatigue, light-headedness, and loss of coordination. Operating automobiles or heavy machinery is not recommended while taking Valium. Be aware of how this medication affects you before attempting any potentially dangerous activities. Less common Valium side effects: abdominal cramps, constipation, dry mouth, hyperventilation, blurred vision, nausea, chest pain, change in sex drive, confusion, headache, change in appetite, insomnia, unusual dreams, change in salivation, low blood pressure, racing heartbeat, fainting, nasal congestion, difficulty urinating, sweating, weight change, skin irritation, twitching or tremors, nervous or anxious state, sun sensitivity, respiratory infection, memory impairment, menstrual difficulties, and loss of coordination. Speak to your doctor about any of these effects; your dosage may need to be adjusted or treatment discontinued. Rare Valium side effects: difficulty concentrating, slurred or unusual speech, double vision, fear, altered sense of taste, lack of inhibition, muscle cramps or spasms, urination problems, tingling, incontinence, warmth, weakness, change in muscle tone, or yellow eyes and skin. Speak to your doctor if you experience any of these effects; your treatment may need to be discontinued. Valium treatment should be discontinued if any of the following occur: hyperexcitement, muscle spasm, anxiety, hallucinations, rage, tremors, insomnia, sleeping difficulties or overstimulation. Cautions: Valium has been known to interact undesirably with certain medical conditions. Tell your doctor if you have, or have a history of, any of the following conditions: Alcohol or drug abuse - may increase likelihood of Valium dependence Allergic reaction to Valium, or other benzodiazepine. Always tell your doctor about any allergies before starting a medication. Brain disease - may increase likelihood of side effects from Valium Breathing difficulties such as asthma, bronchitis, emphysema, or any other chronic lung disease - Valium may worsen this condition. Difficulty swallowing - This condition may become more pronounced in children. Epilepsy or seizures - Abruptly starting or stopping treatment with Valium may increase seizures. Although Valium can be used as an aid to anti-convulsive therapy, it should be used cautiously and strictly according to a doctor's instructions in these cases. Glaucoma - Valium should not be prescribed to patients with acute narrow-angle glaucoma. Patients receiving treatment for open angle glaucoma should consult their doctor, as Valium may be an acceptable treatment for them. Hyperactivity Kidney or liver problems - In isolated cases, Valium has been reported to cause jaundice. If you experience yellowing of the skin or eyes, seek medical treatment immediately. More Valium may end up in your bloodstream if you have a pre-existing kidney or liver condition, increasing the likelihood of side effects. Major Depression - The central nervous system depressant effects of Valium may worsen this condition. Myasthenia gravis - This autoimmune disorder characterized by muscle weakness may be aggravated by Valium treatment. Porphyria - Valium (diazepam) is listed as an unsafe drug for porphyria, an enzyme deficiency that can cause fragile skin that is sensitive to sunlight, digestive difficulties, anxiety, and reddish-brown urine. Psychosis or other serious mental illness - Valium has not proved to be an effective treatment for these conditions, and is not recommended. Sleep apnea (temporary suspension of breathing during sleep) - Valium may worsen this condition. Individuals with sleep apnea should not generally use sedatives as sleep aids. (See Sleep Disorders) Dependence: Valium has been known to be habit-forming. Withdrawal symptoms may occur if treatment is discontinued abruptly. Follow your doctor's advice about how much, and how often, you should take Valium. If you are considering stopping Valium treatment, ask your doctor how to safely decrease and then stop Valium. Physical withdrawal symptoms should not be interpreted as addiction unless you crave the medication even when you feel well, or desire to take it more often than suggested by your doctor. Physical withdrawal is common in individuals who have been taking Valium for long periods of time, and can be minimized by following your doctor's advice. 
Any of those who have followed the issue of cannabislaw reform for any substantial length of time will be able to pick out at many, many side effects of Valium that are not side effects of cannabis. In short, cannabis is a relatively benign substance when compared with Valium, and its rather mild intoxicating effects cannot be legitimately compared with the debilitating effects of Valium. Aside from all of this, buying cannabis does not increase the profits of corrupt pharmaceuticals companies. That in itself makes cannabis preferable.That's enough for now.Dan B
Valium Information
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Comment #6 posted by Nasarius on July 15, 2002 at 14:11:00 PT
Please
Come on, people. It's clearly intended to be humorous, and it's obviously not anti-marijuana, as evidenced by the last sarcastic remark about Valium.
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Comment #5 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on July 15, 2002 at 12:32:20 PT
what a terrible piece of work.
This incoherent article is pure anti-pot trash of the "dopey ol' pothead" form. Notice the lack of reference to the well-heeled secretive finaciers the dopey ol' potheads rely on to manipulate entire states.In fact, this article is so bad, I must wonder if the author gets an ONDCP grant. Legal weed in the UK means eveybody is stoned?The real story with nevada is the outrageous context for cannabis reforn there:You can test atomic bombs in Nevada, but you cant have pot.They will send Nuclear Waste to Nevada, but make it illegal to smoke pot and dance at a party, especially with a glo-stic. You can gamble, buy hookers, smoke cigarettes, and get drunk and you're all within the State Law. Grow pot for really sick people in a State that legalized it for that very purpose and you get an unfair trial and a 10 year mandatory prison sentence.What the hell kind of message does THAT send to any person with an IQ over 75??That is just insane in da membrane.... Monty Python Insane....."You're not my King... I didnt vote for you""Help! Help!! We're bein' oppressed!! Come witness the violence inherent in the System!" 
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Comment #4 posted by goneposthole on July 15, 2002 at 12:24:56 PT
corrected the spelling mistake
Hemorrhoid.Back to work, more dreaded drudgery.Not as bad as what this guy must experience, though.
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Comment #3 posted by goneposthole on July 15, 2002 at 12:18:13 PT
A hemorroid, not a steriod
After he swallowed two valium, he drank about 18 double martinis before he thought up this pile of cowpie.A hemorroid rage. Is there a test for that? The one he has turned ou to be his head.
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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on July 15, 2002 at 10:12:15 PT
Idiot
The proposal, which will be voted on in November, allows adults to have up to three ounces of marijuana as long as they don't smoke it in public places, assuming pot heads will recognize public places.I could smoke three ounces and still make more sense than this incoherent, rambling, waste of print.What the heck was this guy trying to say?
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Comment #1 posted by bongathon on July 15, 2002 at 09:52:14 PT
alienation
English food rules! (especially if you are stoned)Drug testing merely furthers the alienation some students feel already. Drugs didn't cause this, it is the rigidity of the system and the cruelty of the other students.
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