cannabisnews.com: Straight Dope: Lookout for Big Narc 





Straight Dope: Lookout for Big Narc 
Posted by FoM on September 27, 2000 at 07:04:13 PT
Nobody looking but Gov By Joel Miller
Source: WorldNetDaily
If you thought the Fourth Amendment was endangered by things like drug-courier profiles, no-knock raids and bogus drug searches, get ready for something worse. As reported in the Sept. 22 Orange County Register, local government has approved a plan to aerially map every property in Orange County. And we're not talking a few snappy Polaroids either. "The county government will soon have at its disposal a digital database containing three-dimensional images of every square foot of Orange County." 
Roll over George Orwell, tell Aldous Huxley the news. The New York firm which will do the mapping promises for a mere $184,000 to deliver hi-res, 3-D shots of all visible exterior angles on homes, apartments, businesses, tool sheds and chicken coops. The reason the authorities are trying on their Big Brother costume is to keep tighter tabs on their less-than-law-abiding siblings -- like building-code violators and narco-nudniks -- to determine, as the Register later editorialized, "whether you're growing hemp alongside the cherry tomatoes." Don't want any cannabis growing near the cucumbers. "The question," as the Register pins it, "is whether we want to create this sort of society, in which -- in the name of fighting crime, drugs, terrorism or whatnot -- the authorities are empowered to use every conceivable technology to monitor individuals, law abiding or otherwise." The Streets of San Francisco: Amazingly enough, if the Fourth Amendment means little-to-nothing in Orange County, it still means something in San Francisco -- at least for the moment. Recall Supervisor Amos Brown's proposed measure that would have allowed cops to seize the cars of drug suspects, as they do across the bay in Oakland, even if no criminal charges are ever substantiated. On Monday, in a rare bout of sensibility, the Board of Supervisors hammered Brown's proposal, voting to send it to the place where bad ideas go when they die (probably to prepare for reincarnation in some other hapless town). "In this ordinance," said Supervisor Leslie Katz, "the forfeiting of vehicles runs the risk of forfeiting those rights we must hold dear, and that is my primary concern. The presumption of innocence is one of the primary tenets of American jurisprudence." Brown, of course, was bummed. "We've listened to the people who conveyed their fear, their trauma and their personal pain," he offered in justification for the measure, as quoted in the Sept. 26 San Francisco Examiner. Apparently, however, he never listened to someone who has had his property wrongfully filched by authorities and had to sue the city to get it back even though charges were either not filed or substantiated. Olympic Stupidity: Call your office, Ben Johnson. In its rabid attempt to purge the games of any drug stiffer than aspirin, the International Olympic Committee decided yesterday to strip Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan's gold medal from the women's all-around. Was the 4-foot-10, 82-pound, 16-year-old pumping herself full of human growth hormone and 'roids? Uh, no. She was suffering a few sniffles and her team doctor gave her an over-the-counter cold-and-flu med. After taking the medicine, she tested positive for pseudoephedrine. "We feel we have no choice," said IOC Director General Francois Carrard. "It's tough, but that's what it's all about. In the fight against doping, we have to be tough and be blind to emotions and feelings." He should have added, "and brains, too." Pseudoephedrine does not happen to be a performance-enhancing drug; it's the same decongestant used in Sudafed. Bet you didn't know that stuff could improve your softball game, did you? While the IOC will hear an appeal on the matter today, as it stands now, one protest poster summed the situation perfectly: "Thrown out for having a cold." A Bug's Life: Believe it or not, bees are the latest buzz in the treatment of America's drug of choice, booze. As Danny M. Boyd reported Sept. 21 for the Associated Press, honeybees and humans both share a taste for alcohol. In fact, bees hit the sauce so hard that, other than perhaps Boris Yeltsin, they are the only known organisms that drink straight ethanol -- a form of alcohol typically reserved for things like cleaning solutions, solvents, rocket fuel and college fraternity stunts. Given their naturally dipsomaniacal ways, researchers are attempting to use bees in alcohol-abuse testing instead of the usual vertebrates, like rats and monkeys -- tossing, I suppose, a bone to the frothy-mouth animal-rights protestors marching outside the lab with gigantic posters of vivisected kitties and Frankenbunnies. While bees are tremendously helpful in this area, the jury is still, unfortunately, out as to whether other invertebrates, such as congressional Republicans for instance, would serve well in other research testing situations. Thus far, the bees have been given Antabuse, a drug which makes boozers sick when they tip the elbow. Oklahoma State University comparative psychologist Charles Abramson, who published his buzzed bees findings in the August issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, says the drug testing has shown positive results. Interestingly, Boyd's story also touches on the 1888 experiments of naturalist John Lubbock who noted that drunken ants were often carried home by fellow nest mates. As my WND compatriot Ron Strom observed, friends don't let friends drink and crawl. But how about non-nest mates? A stranger ant would be dropped in a ditch to sleep it off. Reminds me of the words of King Solomon: "Go to the ant, thou sluggard; learn her ways and be wise." Notice how he didn't say, "Go to the IOC. ..." E-mail: jmiller worldnetdaily.comJoel Miller is managing editor of WorldNetDaily Publishing. Direct link to: Straight Dope: Lookout for Big Narchttp://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_miller/20000927_xcmil_straight_d.shtmlSource: WorldNetDaily (US Web)Web Posted: September 27, 2000Author: Joel MillerCopyright: 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.Contact: letters worldnetdaily.comAddress: PO Box 409, Cave Junction, OR 97523-0409Fax: (541) 597-1700Website: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/Related Articles:Straight Dope: Dispatches From the Drug War http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7134.shtmlThe Lord Giveth, The Police Taketh Away http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7109.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Joel Miller http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Joel+Miller 
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Comment #1 posted by observer on September 27, 2000 at 15:52:44 PT
But ... We're Only Saving 'The Children'
Roll over George Orwell, tell Aldous Huxley the news.How dare Joel Miller imply that the wonderful folks in government there don't have our best interests at heart! Remember, the nice officials and kindly authorities merely need to jail adults (for lots for newly-minted 'crimes') to save The Children? Why, anyone who is against this new "tool" for "law" enforcement, must hate The Children! (violins, please) Remember, it is all for The Children.(Seriously though, another winner here by Mr Miller. We want a book!) 
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