cannabisnews.com: Poison Pot 





Poison Pot 
Posted by FoM on July 09, 2001 at 06:49:10 PT
By Joel Miller
Source: WorldNetDaily
Authorities in England announced last week that they would no longer bother chasing after smugglers and dealers of cannabis. Apparently, time, personnel and resources are better spent elsewhere – maybe, if I might suggest it, knocking some sense into the hard heads of American drug warriors. Next time you hear about a neighbor robbed, a shop burgled or see the mug of some victim of violence flashed on the TV news, be thankful that your local law enforcement are on the case, "searching trenches, roadways and farm fields for suspects." 
Er, scratch that. According to the July 6 Munster, Ind., Times, "law enforcement officials have begun searching trenches, roadways and farm fields … for … ditch weed." That's right friends, while shoplifters lurk, crooks creep and purse-pinchers prowl, Indiana cops are tossing time and manpower after an effort to poison wild-growing hemp plants – which, if you're up on your botany, you know don't have enough THC (marijuana's active ingredient) to get you any higher than eyelevel to an earthworm. Nonetheless, armed with an annual budget of $330,000 state police are quick to affix brown thumbs to their blue arms as they spray herbicide up and down the territory. In 2000, DEA shelled out $13 million to aid local efforts like Indiana's. Nearly a decade ago, Indiana destroyed some 23 million plants, which the Munster Times credulously reported had a street value of $10 billion. Never mind that no one in his right mind is going to waste good money buying ditch weed. It was, in reality, worth no more than garden mulch because, for drugs, people don't pay if there's no play. And play there isn't. It takes four or five hours for a sprayed plant to die, according to Indiana state trooper Don Hartman, who said that the poison won't kill someone who tries to smoke a treated plant, but "They won't get the same high," he chuckled. Of course, they wouldn't get high anyway. Since hemp only contains trace amounts of THC (just as the poppy seeds on your muffin contain trace amounts of opium), people who pick the leaves in hopes of a cheap high wind up with the same sense of euphoria that comes with raging headaches and sore throats. All of that dopeless smoke only makes you sick. At least for those foolish enough to try, the results are only temporary and instructive – one more valuable, but basically harmless, lesson from the school of hard knocks. The same cannot be said with the drug warriors' penchant for poison. In the late '70s, the U.S. was actively helping Mexico obliterate its cannabis and opium crops with logistical and technical advice on the use of the very same chemicals we had stopped using only seven years prior in Vietnam, partly because of their awful effects on the civilian population. I wonder if Mexican authorities were told by the U.S. about the sickly citizens of Vietnam, their defoliated food crops and deformed babies? As the April 17, 1978, issue of Inquiry magazine pointed out, some of this nastiness no doubt came home to roost. It was estimated at the time that more than 50 percent of cannabis in the rolled paper and bongs of America's estimated 15 million marijuana smokers came from Mexico. In an all-new sort of Montezuma's revenge, the principal poison used in Mexico's herbicidal cocktail was paraquat, which, when ingested, causes irreversible lung damage. In 1971, President Nixon quit poisoning Vietnamese peasants. Still, even after admitting the dangers again in 1978, the Carter administration refused to stop the spraying in Mexico – a position more than a little ironic and hypocritical from, as Inquiry observed, "a President who has called for the 'decriminalization' of marijuana, on the grounds that it is a relatively harmless substance. …" Apparently, Carter's convictions didn't stay too warm under that cardigan. Likewise today, as part of U.S. antidrug efforts in South America, natives along the Colombia-Ecuador border are suffering the ill effects of mass-defoliant spraying. According to one study reported by Kintto Lucas for the July 5 Inter Press Service, 6,000-some residents along the border showed symptoms of poisoning. Lucas reported last year in October that at least seven deaths had been attributed directly to the herbicide fumigant on the Colombian side alone. It's easy to forget Carter's poisoning; it was a while ago. It's easier still to overlook Plan Colombia's poisoning; it's far away. But when state police pull into your town armed with tanks of herbicide looking for ditch weed, think about your kids running through a field or along a roadside rubbing up against those chemicals. Think of the effects such promiscuous spraying has in your local area. It's easy to blame the Brits for all sorts of stupidity. But while they're moving in the right direction, we're being taxed so the DEA can send money to states to hire folks to stand along the roadside, squirting poison on a bush that won't get you any higher than crabgrass. Worse, instead of tracking down real offenders and harmful criminals – people actually endangering property and lives – cops are making out like the Keystone Gardeners, piddling away time and resources after a harmless plant, while possibly exposing the same people they are charged to protect to poisons that could harm them. Someone should tell me if I'm missing something here. Joel Miller is the commentary editor of WorldNetDaily. His publishing company, MenschWerks,recently published "God Gave Wine" by Kenneth L. Gentry Jr. Due to time constraints, he cannot get back to every reader's e-mail, but he does enjoy receiving feedback – both pro and con – and swears that's what keeps the joy in it. E-mail: jmiller worldnetdaily.com Source: WorldNetDaily (US Web)Author: Joel MillerPublished: July 9, 2001Copyright: 2001, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc.Contact: letters worldnetdaily.comWebsite: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/CannabisNews Articles - Joel Millerhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Joel+Miller
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Comment #4 posted by Charlie on July 09, 2001 at 15:53:07 PT
My story...
I'll admit to being a 'johnny potseed' also. My motto is 'sow every seed'. As a jogger for 22 years and daily pot smoker, (try that with tobacco), I'd take some seeds along and let them loose on the municipal building flower beds, police station, train tracks, known policeman lawns, local park etc.I was popped for growing herb indoors, using a Phototron, had done so for 6 years (90-96)prior to getting busted. Take note: my alarm system called in a fire, a false alarm, my wife was out, I was at work. I received a call from the alarm company and went running home and my worst fears came true. There were 2 detectives, 2 uniform cops and a fireman waiting for me inside my living room! They forced entry to inspect the house for fire, funny no smoke, and discovered my lil' tron with 6 plants getting ready to bud. Must say they were a little embarrassed to be there at all. They asked me some questions, I told them that what I pick today, I smoke tomorrow, 'tis all. They brought in a dog, didn't find anything, no guns, no cash, no other drugs. They believed I was a decent bloke who only liked to smoke herb rather than drink beer for recreation. They took the tron, any books I had on the subject, a scale. I was scheduled to leave on a summer vacation the next day so they didn't take me in and let me turn myself in after I returned from the shore, to be booked. They left my wife out of it, she's a school teacher. They left. Not having found my stash, (I sometimes hid it from my wife;-) I promptly smoked a big, fat bowl and mused over the fact that I've been busted, first time in 25 years of tokin'. Bastards. I ended up getting 16 hours community service, (the six plants weighed not quite an ounce, they didn't weight the sticks, I recall), a years probation, $1000 fine. For community service, I had to cut grass at a state hospital. I thought it was ironic to have to cut grass for growing it. I did plant quite a bit of seed around that place though! Wonder if any of it sprouted later on?!And so it goes...
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Comment #3 posted by dddd on July 09, 2001 at 10:52:57 PT
yup,,,Joel Miller is cool
I've often wondered the same thing J.R.B.D.,,,about the garbagedumps,and seeds.......In fact,,years ago,I actually made a sortof hobby out of it,,,instead of simply putting seeds directly intothe trash,I would save a bunch up,and do a mass germination ofthem,,then I would take a roll of paper towels,and some pottingmix,and make a bunch of little little bundles of ready to growplants,and then disperse them in the trash,or plant them in thewoods.Johnny Potseed....My random plantings had little success,mainly because this was in the Pacific Northwest,and the climate wasnot very good for outdoor growth.... I have had several occassions in CA,when a random sproutletgrew into a nice plant,,,but then what to do??..try and innocentlysneak it home,,or leave it there to bud until some lucky personavails themselves of the harvest?...To the trained eye,plants standout bigtime,,and there are plenty of trained eyes out there...Thenthere was the time,back in the 80s,,when I said the heck with it,andstarted a nice little crop right in the planter boxes outside my frontdoor....My landlord dropped a dime on me,and officer Stedenko camea knockin' on my door.He asked me who was growing the plants.I lookedhim in the eye and told him they were mine,,that really took him offguard,,,he looked at his partner,,and then looked back at me and said,"you know that's illegal dont you?",,and I said,"yea".....He said,"youbetter get rid of them.",,,,and walked off up the driveway.......Those were the days!dddd
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Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on July 09, 2001 at 08:52:03 PT:
Joel's done it again!
Bang on target, as usual. And right between their purblind, anti eyes.Years ago, when I was in the Chemical Corps, we didn't touch anything that had the slightest bit of doubt. Not without a MOPP4 level suitup, which was torture. We were especially spooked of organo-phosphates - and I don't mean just the damn' nerve agents. I mean the roadside stuff as well. You get sensitized to any exposure to organo-phosphates because of their straying power; they can hang around in your fatty tissues for decades. And it's cumulative. It builds up. Today you might be okay; tomorrow, you get a dab on your skin and you start having trouble breathing and your vision gets tunnelled. No fun, children, no fun at all. And the antidote can make you just as sick. Too much antidote, and it kills you just as quick as the first poison.And we are spraying this s**t on little kids?
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Comment #1 posted by J.R. Bob Dobbs on July 09, 2001 at 07:20:44 PT
Plant your seeds!
  So the answer seems to be, at least during prohibition, that if you don't want the police on the street to have the time and energy to looking for your actual THC-laden cannabis, all you should do is recycle your seeds. Put them in a straw, and shoot them out the car window at random grassy spaces along the highway. Go out at 4:20AM and plant them on your chief of police's front lawn. The more time they spend fighting ditchweed, the less they can do with the good stuff. Of course, legalization would solve all this silliness, but until then, everybody should plant their seeds whereever and whenever they can! (I often wonder if the local garbage dump has patches of weed growing from where people threw out their seeds...)
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