cannabisnews.com: To Legalize or Not to Legalize
To Legalize or Not to Legalize
Posted by CN Staff on October 05, 2002 at 12:43:33 PT
Editorial
Source: Times-Advocate
The debate is on at very high levels - no pun intended. Canada is apparently drawing closer to legalizing marijuana.Some people already have permission to consume the drug for medical reasons. It has some benefits in controlling the pain and nausea which often accompany chemotherapy. Migraine sufferers find relief in the drug, as do people with chronic pain from a variety of conditions. Their complaint is that while they can consume the drug legally, they are forced to buy it on the street.
People against legalization state the same pain-control benefits are available from prescription drugs. As long as physicians are willing to prescribe them in sufficient dosages to be effective, and make quality of life a priority, there should be no need to seek relief from an illegal drug purchased from criminals.At the same time, it would make sense to conduct studies to determine the medical effectiveness of marijuana, compared to other treatments. And if we are going to provide marijuana to sick people, it would make sense to get some quality control involved.A fairly vociferous lobby group insists the only thing wrong with marijuana is growing it and selling it are against the law. They claim if people could grow, sell and consume it legally, it would not be a “gateway” drug which leads to worse drugs. Their theory is if people did not have to deal with criminals to get marijuana, they would not be exposed to the really bad drugs such as heroin. Then again, some people are in favour of legalizing - or at least decriminalizing - heroin, too.Many Canadians are less accepting than they are pragmatic. The drug is widely used, and some of us feel it is time for our legal system to give in to the inevitable - stop trying to enforce laws which are basically unenforceable, slap a tax on the drug and make the government some money. It worked with gambling casinos.Many of us are angered that consuming a mild intoxicant, which is to the younger generation what alcohol is to the older generation, has earned thousands of people in this country criminal records. They want this changed, and to a large extent, it has been. People caught by police with a small quantity of the drug are routinely warned without being arrested. Simple possession these days means nothing more than a small fine.More people might be in favour of legalizing marijuana and treating it like alcohol if there were a readily available test for it. A person driving erratically can be pulled off the road and lose his driver’s licence if a simple breath test indicates consumption of too much alcohol. There is no simple roadside screening device for marijuana. While someone driving stoned on marijuana can be charged with impaired driving, the charge of driving with an excessive blood alcohol level is a lot easier to prove. Courts prefer, “Breathalyser readings were 180 and 190,” to, “His eyes looked bloodshot and there was an odour in the car.”Most of us, particularly youngsters, know marijuana will not eat the brain and trigger instant depravity, as was portrayed in the old movie “Reefer Madness”. But we also know it is not a completely benign, harmless drug.Take a young person with poor impulse control and difficulty concentrating, get him high on marijuana, and you will get an individual with no impulse control and the learning capacity of a potato chip. This drug has no place behind the wheel, and certainly no place at school. As long as the drug remains illegal, the authorities have at least some leverage. The final point goes back to quality control, or lack thereof. Smoking tobacco is recognized as a health hazard. Communities all over the province are enacting bylaws to ban smoking in public places. Meanwhile, the highest political body in the country (hopefully, no pun) wants to legalize smoking another leafy substance. Something is wrong with this picture.Complete Title: To Legalize or Not to Legalize - That is the Question Source: Times-Advocate (CN ON)Published: October 4, 2002Copyright: 2002 Exeter Times-AdvocateContact: editor southhuron.comWebsite: http://www.southhuron.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmCanadians Suggest Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14333.shtmlU.S. Warns Against Liberalizing Laws on Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14331.shtmlSenate Report on Cannabis: Get Whole Story http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14319.shtmlOttawa Considers Decriminalizing Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14312.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by endoppression on October 06, 2002 at 18:57:32 PT:
Hemp Revolution is a great documentary
"...and watch the movie "Grass" or the movie "The Emperor of
Hemp",..." - p4meJust to add my two cents, I think the documentary "The Hemp
Revolution" directed by Anthony Clarke is superior to both of those
films, its availbale on amazon.com.Its time to end consenual crimes and end the opression.
PEACE
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Comment #8 posted by DANA on October 06, 2002 at 00:11:50 PT
...DdC and p4me...
..Outstanding comments!..On the HDTV thing,,,did you know,that the FCC has made a law,that requires manufacturers to disconcontinue producing analog TVs by 2007...In other words,,standard antennae,(rabbit ears) TV will probably be extinct around 2010.This will open up the present analog TV VHF spectrum for various other communication applications....It will also make it so you will not be able to watch TV,without subscribing to a cable or sattelite service...............On the subject of computer TV monitors,,,,last week,I installed a new TV for a customer.It was a Plasma TV,,Phillips,,made in Belgium..It was only about 6 inches thick,with a 42 inch screen.It cost about $8000.00.....As I was installing it,I noticed that it was equipped with several inputs for direct hookup to a computer....and concerning one of my favorite topics,,,p4me wrote:".....................But to be
relative to DdC's comment about people being blissfully ignorant, I would say that would be the case with my crowd. I
asked Johnny if he knew who the drug Czar was and he did not understand the question. I said the drug Czar is a
cabinet level position and of course he still did not know. I said his name is Walters and unless you read the Internet
you would not know he goes around the country spreading lies. Here you have a cabinet member lying all over the
country and people don't know who he is much less that he is a liar. It is not that people are informed and come to the conclusions they do. They think like they do because of ignorance
and brainwashing. We have to tell them the media is not telling you the news and that if they read the Internet they will
come to a new reality. We are the media. We are WE. We are Us. We have to reach the ignorant and brainwashed
through any means possible.".Well said........It's sad,,,,I wonder what the percentage of people are politically unaware?,,..There are alot of people who cant even name the vice president,much less the drug czar,or attorney general........I think most people feel that they are well informed,and 'up on the news',,because they watch TV news,or read the newpapers,and magazines....This brings us to the topic of "brainwashing",and the definite domination and control of all major media that has been acheived through federal/corporate collusion.........This is BIG!!...This is the stuff empires are made of!..If you can control the "news",,then you can control the nation,or perhap even the world!....I've been harping on this topic for years.I think it is the single,most significant factor in the poisoning of our former "democracy".(..let me qualify;of course MONEY,is more significant...money is the grand-daddy of all significance when it comes to corruption and evil tendencies!).....Just imagine,if national network television had a channel that was completely independent of corporate/commercial/government influence......hard to imagine.......The "news",is designed in certain ways to subtly influence the masses,and it is,indeed,,a form of brainwashing! The things that the "news " does say,is no less important than the things the "news" does not say.......In a way,,I think that Americans are so spoiled,that most dont really care about the political realms.As long as they are comfortable in their own padded exsistance,,they just think that everyone else will pay attention to the festering corruption that infects our ruling entities.....The media will be allowed to report on selected fiascos and shenanigans to detract from the actual important,and legitimate news.We wont see a Palestinian victim of an Israeli Homicide Bomber,firing missles from a US made death chopper,,,but we will get to see limited gore from a suicide bomber in Israel.....We never get to see pictures of maimed Afghanis,,totally innocent victims of crude US military slaughter...Babies and grandmothers whose brains got splatterred into oblivion by mistaken bombings...I guarantee you,that one day of national network news pictures of the gore and terror caused by US military in Afghanistan,,would put the "war on terror",out of business!..The "war on terror",,is actually ;"The War of Terror!"........I'm glad to see DdC finally use some "profanity",,because in todays world,it's not easy to express oneself without using proper profanity!.....
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Comment #7 posted by afterburner on October 05, 2002 at 21:57:41 PT:
If the antis can keep lying, we can keep truthing
NORML New Zealand - International Medical Societies Endorse ...http://www.norml.org.nz/Medical/International_Medical_Bodies_Endorse_Medical_Marijuana.htmThe following link was written by my man Paul Armentano , who sent me the email regarding U. N. treaties.
Rescheduling prohibition
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on October 05, 2002 at 21:10:45 PT
p4me
All that stuff you mentioned to DdC sounds really great. My computer can somehow be viewed on my 37 inch TV but I've never tried it. I can make CDs too but I don't want to break my computer. I hope it lasts for a while. I love http://www.direcway.com and if it wasn't available I couldn't get a high speed connection. We will be TV soon! TV will still be needed I don't mean that it won't but communication in real time we will be almost as fast as the News Networks.Motto: Cannabis for Everyone! La La La La! LOL!
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Comment #5 posted by p4me on October 05, 2002 at 20:53:15 PT
Way to say, Ddc
That was good stuff in Comment3, Ddc. I am trying to bookmark some of your bookmarks and have found some no longer function. It is wearing me out checking them out, but someone needs to organize an information campaign like you. I am trying but I am old and slow.DdC said in comment3: "Geesh, sometimes I wonder how we're even able to drive a car or keep a job when such a large portion of "society" is so damn blissfully ignorant...No blame, just an observation."Yes, that is how I come to see it. Tonight we had our annual get together from UNCC and after 27 years there are still right many of us. I made it a point to one couple that both went to our University in Charlotte about how the media is just representing their own interest, that to call the press conservative does not go well with me, that a fascist press that looked after the interest of the huge media companies was more accurate and that I did not expect them to know what I meant by fascist.The host handed me a pina colada when I walked in which was very nice and at first I said no, because alcohol was bad for you. I said I smoke pot because it doesn't hurt you like alcohol and everyone was thinking that guy must be high to say that. Sensing that I said "I don't have any pot and if I did I wouldn't have any." I said the last drink I had was October 23,2000 and that now I would have to remember a new date and then drank that one drink.Now most of us met 30 years ago, so we pretty much no everyone and spouses. Kids are hard to keep up with for me. One guy who is a saleman named Johnny in the pair that both went to UNCC pretty much got an earful. But to be relative to DdC's comment about people being blissfully ignorant, I would say that would be the case with my crowd. I asked Johnny if he knew who the drug Czar was and he did not understand the question. I said the drug Czar is a cabinet level position and of course he still did not know. I said his name is Walters and unless you read the Internet you would not know he goes around the country spreading lies. Here you have a cabinet member lying all over the country and people don't know who he is much less that he is a liar. It is not that people are informed and come to the conclusions they do. They think like they do because of ignorance and brainwashing. We have to tell them the media is not telling you the news and that if they read the Internet they will come to a new reality. We are the media. We are WE. We are Us. We have to reach the ignorant and brainwashed through any means possible.I guess this Christmas will bring us what has long been talked about in computer technology. HDTV will be selling better than last year but this year the computers are coming that will make your tv and monitor converge. My computer is fine for now, but my next computer will bring me to a convergence that many will reach this Christmas.I think they call 1200x1600 resolution the UXGA standard which would require a 2.1 megapixel camera to fill. Anyway the HDTV standard does not follow the 4 to 3 ratio of DVD as in 480x640 on the low end. It is 1080x1920 with a 9 to 16 ratio. Some monitors and video cards will be 1200x1920 to add to HDTV, but anyway the long awaited days of convergence are upon us. I thought it worth mentioning, because convergence is here and with broadband and the hard drive replacing the VCR, it is going to rock our world. The block of information the controlled media has will be broken and the blissful ignorance DdC and I so despise will start to diminish.Ralph Nader had an article- http://www.counterpunch.org/nader1004.html -that attacked the problem of corporate power. I did not hear much of anything about the protest/rally in New York on Friday. The article had the following paragraph: Candidates would also pledge to support the establishment of a Congressional Commission on Corporate Power to explore various legal and economic proposals that would rein in unaccountable giant global corporations. The commission would seek ways to improve on the current state corporate chartering system and propose ways to correct the unfair legal status of corporations such as the doctrine of corporate personhood.Someone put a link up to http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm?ID=5063 that contained this paragraph illuminating characteristics of the upper 1%:Senator Edward Kennedy gave an important speech on January 16, calling on Congress to undo about $280 billion of the $1.35 trillion tax cut it enacted last year. (Wouldn't it help us fathom those numbers better if they were written out as $280,000,000,000 and $1,350,000,000,000?) Pointing to pressing needs in education, health care, and the like, Kennedy urged his colleagues to repeal future reductions in the top rates affecting just the top 20 percent of all taxpayers -- people making over $72,000 a year -- and primarily those in the top one percent, who make over $373,000. He also called for reinstating the estate tax, but raising the exemption to $4 million for couples, effectively protecting all but 0.3 percent of all estates from the so-called "death tax."The organization that tracks the statistics of the upper 1% that Al Martin and this article speak of has its website here: http://www.americanpolicy.org/DAD-D,1,2
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Comment #4 posted by p4me on October 05, 2002 at 14:30:21 PT
Comment2 became an LTE with the following lead
Your article appeared at Cannabisnews.com on Saturday, October 5th at 12:33PT. You can find comments relating to your article including my comment2 that is pasted to this notice at http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/14/thread14360.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by DdC on October 05, 2002 at 14:30:11 PT
We need a simple screening device for stupid Cops
There is no simple roadside screening device for marijuana. While someone driving stoned on marijuana can be charged with impaired driving, the charge of driving with an excessive blood alcohol level is a lot easier to prove. Courts prefer, “Breathalyser readings were 180 and 190,” to, “His eyes looked bloodshot and there was an odour in the car.”The entire FRCn point is reckless driving, god damn it! (I refrained from profanity as long as I could FoM, sorry. ¶8) It shouldn't matter if the person is too old to handle it, on over the counter pills or hung over from last nights binging. Its the bad driving stupid! Same with using cannabis, no problem, don't fix it! The cops job is done when he fixes or prevents the unsafe condition. Then its the DA's problem. But the WoD has created such a market cops become legal aids trying to make the case. It ain't your job! Busting someone becomes invalid without a conviction. Thats sick. F.B.I.protesting for death sentencing, cops politicing for laws. It ain't your job!!! Its against what we pay you for! Nor is it your job eradicating pheasant habitat for higher numbers. A urine test that could represent last weeks toking, busting otherwise long term safe drivers. While present and past drug czars profit on "testing" and "treatment". Deal with the reality and hire cops that aren't robotic machines! Cops that know the difference between reckless driving and profiling someone that looks like they might be getting stoned. Instead of video taping kids taking baths as in the Kubby investigation. Probable cause being a drunks testimony then released after he snitched, a very favorable method, besides releasing violent criminals or junkies. Any reason searches, no knock laws, 3 strikes, plea bargain fines vs mandatory minimum sentencing, profiling and lies agreed upon. The crime of Parefenalia. Grateful Dead stickers on a vehicle used to be probable cause. How convenient we have made it for the soldiercop/lawyers. Ends justifying the means is best known from Hitler's method of exterminating the Jews and minorities and "immoral". The profits perpetuating the war on cannabis and the profits keeping safe Sacramental Food Fuel Fiber and FARMaceuticals from being grown by broke farmers or used by American citizens as an alternative. Prison rape and violence as a deterrent to possessing cannabis is not in any way shape or form considered American or Civilized. It's as plain as the nose on your silly little faces. If this was consistent with other concerns for the health of the citizens, one might understand why people go along with WoD year after year. But we see it isn't. Kids get guns and kill their peers after missing a dose of ritalin. That calms the class clowns and bottles emotions.BANG! Tobacco chemicals kill and maim and aren't brought into the discussion. Booze kills more kids than aspirin killing 1000 a year. Pesticides cause more abortions than who Fallswell's Fortune 700 Club blames. Pollution from the SUV's driven by more doctors and yuppies caring about the soccer match, letting the atrocities of WoD swoosh right over their heads. Let the government deal with it. Food, fuel and fiber farmers could grow, homeless could live in and have jobs with. More revenue for schools while saving money on prison building. Cleaner air and water and soil without 270,000 TONs of petrochems used on cotton. Keeping the 2000 year old trees that produced fresh filtered water and oxygen for Jesus in person. Now ground into particleboard or decks for Home Depot. Why do we care about Enron and Monsanto more than babies getting asthma from fossil fuels, treated with more chemicals? Disease and crime treatment and petrochems and war toy sales are not the American Dream I was raised to understand. Corporations life, liberty and pursuit of profits aren't either.Geesh, sometimes I wonder how we're even able to drive a car or keep a job when such a large portion of "society" is so damn blissfully ignorant...No blame, just an observation. Peace, Love and Liberty or Paranoid D.E.A.th!...DdC
The Elkhorn Manifesto
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Comment #2 posted by p4me on October 05, 2002 at 14:22:55 PT
Just another journalist with nothing to add
"Something is wrong with this picture."Well, you are right in saying we should not be talking about legalizing cannabis. It should have never been made illegal in the first place. Why don't you tell your readers the story of how it went through both Houses of Congress with 90 seconds of debate back on August 2,1937. Or tell them how Canada beat them to it with a crusading idiot from the United States. Or tell them to go to RCCH.org or pot-tv and watch the movie "Grass" or the movie "The Emperor of Hemp", because it is too much to describe with a few hundred words.And maybe you could explain why the US government destroyed studies that were made as described by the Free Cannabis crusader and hero, Jack Herer, in his book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" with its online version at JackHerer.com.And for your next article since you are concerned about medical studies, could you call NORML and ask for details on the 70 studies they say have been concluded on medical properties of cannabis. You can email them at NORML.org and refer to the 70 studies they reefered to in the October 3rd press release that can be seen at this link: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5422DAD-D,1,2
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Comment #1 posted by DdC on October 05, 2002 at 13:07:00 PT
Prison or Pot? That is the question...
Prison is healthier than using cannabis???When will the Health of the people matter as much as the Health of Pharmaceutical and Prison profits? Kids getting raped as deterrants to pot? How sick is that?
When we answer that the war will end...Peace, Love and Liberty or the sicness of D.E.A.th!...DdC90 Days Turned into LIFE. FOUR GUARDS CHARGED IN INMATE DEATHUNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) Four prison guards were charged Wednesday in the beating death of an inmate who allegedly angered them by repeatedly crying out for his methadone treatment.DEA IS SUED OVER BORDER SHOOTING
SAN ANTONIO (AP) The family of an 18-year-old Mexican man shot in the back by a drug task force officer as he crossed the Rio Grande last month is seeking $25 million from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.UK Grandmother Gets 18 Months Probation For Drinking Cannabis Tea For Arthritis Pain
Hartlepool Mail By Ian Monaghan
A GRANDMOTHER who narrowly escaped jail for drinking cannabis tea to ease her constant pain today insisted: "It should be legalised".SPR seeks to end sexual violence committed against men, women, and children in all forms of detention."The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure."U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Farmer v. Brennan SPR - Stop Prisoner Rape
http://www.spr.org/SPR - Stop Prisoner Rape
http://www.igc.apc.org/sprHuman Rights Watch
http://www.hrw.orgMale Rape in US Prisons
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/prison/Childrens rights
http://www.hrw.org/children/Children in the US
http://www.hrw.org/children/us.htmStreet Children
http://www.hrw.org/children/street.htmJuvenile Justice
http://www.hrw.org/children/justice.htmChild Labor
http://www.hrw.org/children/labor.htmConditions of ConfinementHuman Rights Watch has documented abominable conditions for children in detention in countries around the world. In the United States (Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, and Maryland), Pakistan, Jamaica, among other countries, children are subjected to excessive force, inadequate medical and mental health care, and are provided with little or no education. Often, these children are placed in the facilities along side adults, exposing them to physical and sexual abuse.Close to Home: Juveniles in Adult Jails
Op-Ed by Michael Bochenek
The Washington Post
http://www.hrw.org/editorials/1999/crd-1199-wp.htmCorrectional Systems, Inc. (CSI) is a publicly-traded corporation that contracts with governmental agencies to operate correctional projects.
http://www.crxs.com/Abdul Malik Johnson & Stephan D. Mullen - Ohio Child Abuse Investigato...
http://www.join-hands.com/juvenile_justice/ohio_johnson_mullen.htmlBureau of Information Services Internet Website
http://janus.state.me.us/corrections/Juvenile/nmjdf.htmJuvenile Detention Study
http://www.dfwinfo.com/hs/juvdetention/index.htmlNational Juvenile Detention Directory 1997-1999; Paperback
http://www.netstoreusa.com/rabooks/156/1569910723.shtmlJuvenile Info Network
http://www.juvenilenet.org/Mental Health Issues and Juvenile Justice
http://www.juvenilenet.org/jjtap/mentalhealth/view.htmlThe Benefits of Treating Kids Like People
http://theboojum.com/childrens_rightsHouse approves $1.5b to fight juvenille crime Major new legislation, the Juvenile Crime Control Act of 1997 (H.R. 3), designed to assist states and local governments in combating serious juvenile crim
http://www.naco.org/pubs/cnews/97-05-26/juvenille.htmStories in the News page 4
http://www.handcuffgallery.com/StoriesintheNews4.htmSexual Assault Information Page
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~bartley/saInfoPage.htmlThe Real Price of Prisons
http://www.motherjones.com/prisonsDubya and Me: We've Got No Idea
http://www.motherjones.com/magazine/MJ01/dubya.htmlAmerica’s New Drug Pusher is John P Walters
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=42.topic
MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT
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