cannabisnews.com: Humans Warring with Substances Humans Warring with Substances Posted by CN Staff on February 20, 2007 at 08:56:22 PT By Tristan Abbott, NI Opinion Columnist Source: Northern Iowan Iowa -- There’s these things called “blunts.” They’re cheap cigars, essentially, and the most popular brands are Swisher and Philly. They can be bought at gas stations and most other places that sell tobacco, are usually sold singularly or in packs of five and sometimes come in a variety of fruit flavors. Oftentimes, people buy the blunts, remove all or some of their tobacco and then they replace the tobacco with marijuana. They then smoke the marijuana blunts to get high. Blunts are legal because, well, there’s nothing essentially illegal about them. You can turn just about anything into a device that can be used to smoke pot. I’ve personally seen people smoke pot out of hollowed-out apples, old Tupperware containers, regular cigarettes, discarded pieces of PVC piping, and even once (gloriously) from an old, broken television. Seriously: If you can name it, someone has smoked pot out of it.Once upon a time, before the Drug War became a multi billion dollar industry, the legality of substances and their paraphernalia came down to whether or not those things had any legitimate use aside from getting people high. Blunts were legal – and so were pipes, rolling papers and those little glass tubes that they sell at gas stations that people smoke crack out of – because they have legit, legal uses.Sadly, things have changed.Last week, the Washington Post reported on a double blind study recently done at a west coast hospital. During the study, terminal AIDS patients with severe pain were allowed to smoke some government-grown marijuana, in order to measure the drug’s potential analgesic effects.The patients who smoked actual government pot (which is only about one-fourth as strong as regular street marijuana) reported a significant decrease in pain, more than they got from traditional narcotic painkillers. The group that was given placebo pot reported only negligible relief from their pain.The study reported an approximate 34 percent decrease in pain from the subjects who smoked pot, which compared well to opium-based painkillers, which are between 20-30 percent effective and come with much more severe side effects. If weak government pot can produce such good results, it is assumed that street-grade pot would be even more effective.Nonetheless, the government refuses to listen to the results of this study, and refuses even to allow more studies to take place. The University of Massachusetts just won a six-year-long legal battle against the federal government in which U-Mass was trying to gain permission to cultivate street-grade marijuana to use in highly controlled medical studies. Even though they have been given legal clearance to do so, however, U-Mass officials remain pensive, noting that the federal government could still obstruct their legitimate medical research.In spite of the very promising results of the aforementioned study, the White House (and the entire federal government) continue to dismiss the prospect of medical marijuana without even giving it a chance. According to the Post “The White House belittled the study as a ‘smoke screen’ short on proof of efficacy and flawed because it did not consider the health impacts of inhaling smoke.” This is stupid on two counts: One, terminal AIDS patients really don’t need to worry about the long-term health impact of smoke. They’re going to die soon, and they want relief from their pain. Two, the long-term health problems associated with the opium-based painkillers currently prescribed by hospitals far outweigh those associated with smoking pot. Still, the federal government is dead set in its position, too many powerful people are making too much money to risk having the potential benefits of marijuana brought to light, and so the government is more than willing to let terminally ill patients suffer. This brings me back to the topic of blunts. Recently, the city of Philadelphia outlawed the sale of blunts and all other forms of “drug paraphernalia,” as part of a piece of legislation called the Pennsylvania Controlled Substance, Drug, Device and Cosmetic Act.The Act prohibits merchants from selling products when ““the seller knows, or under the circumstances reasonably should know [that what is being sold could] convert, produce, process, prepare, test, analyze, pack, repack, store, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale or otherwise introduce into the human body a controlled substance.”This is an immensely bad law. As I pointed out earlier, anything can be used as drug paraphernalia. Were this law to be prosecuted fairly, Home Depot stores and most pharmacies would have to rid themselves of about half of their inventories. Brillo pads would have to be outlawed, and so would tin foil, aluminum cans, and watch batteries. Of course, this law is designed to be selectively enforced, and as with any other law that’s so unreasonably broad, it will certainly be abused by both police and prosecutors. The law essentially make it illegal for merchants to sell anything that police or public officials suspect could be used for drug-related purposes. There is no litmus test for what can or cannot be banned, all it takes is suspicion. This means that any politician or cop who has a personal bent against any product or manufacturer can outlaw anything he or she pleases, so long as it’s done under the pretense of stopping drug use. Originally, drug laws were supposedly introduced for the protection of the US citizenry, to ban intoxicating substances that the government felt we could not be trusted to use responsibly. However misguided these laws were and whatever kind of racism or classism their inaction was founded upon, it can’t be denied that the people who introduced them at least thought they were operating under noble intentions and meant to do nothing more than ban the use of these substances, in order to help people. Modern drug laws can no longer hold claim to even this small shred of integrity. The drug war is now nothing more than an amoral racket, and the people who fight it—from DEA agents, to local police officers, even schoolteachers who continue to prop up the ineffectual DARE program—are nothing more than racketeers. These people don’t care about our well being. If they did, they wouldn’t be preventing terminally ill AIDS patients from getting pain relief. They only care about power, about keeping the drug war going so that they can keep getting paid huge amounts of money to ruin people’s lives. I can only hope that we stop trusting them sometime soon. Source: Northern Iowan (U of Northern IA, IA Edu)Author: Tristan Abbott, NI Opinion ColumnistPublished: February 20, 2007Copyright: 2007 Northern IowanContact: northern-iowan uni.eduWebsite: http://fp.uni.edu/northiaRelated Article:Research Supports Medicinal Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread22637.shtmlCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #7 posted by afterburner on February 21, 2007 at 22:09:05 PT Racket & Racketeers "The drug war is now nothing more than an amoral racket, and the people who fight it—from DEA agents, to local police officers, even schoolteachers who continue to prop up the ineffectual DARE program—are nothing more than racketeers. These people don’t care about our well being. If they did, they wouldn’t be preventing terminally ill AIDS patients from getting pain relief. They only care about power, about keeping the drug war going so that they can keep getting paid huge amounts of money to ruin people’s lives. I can only hope that we stop trusting them sometime soon."We know your names. As you become more vindictive and insensible, we will resist, educate, and overcome. "No army can resist the strength of an idea whose time has come." [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on February 20, 2007 at 15:56:31 PT Toker00 I hope everyone is ok. I think people are getting really concerned because everything is getting so bad. I totally understand why that could be where some folks are. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Toker00 on February 20, 2007 at 14:40:36 PT You have been reading my mind FoM. I was going to ask about Dankhank tonight. That's not good he is not answering. Keep us up on him. There are others I'm wondering about, too. Hey guys, post to let us know you are ok, ok?Toke. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on February 20, 2007 at 11:49:22 PT Toker00 I wanted you and anyone else that is interested to know that I sent two e-mails to DankHank and I haven't heard back from him yet. I hope he is ok because he was sick with a bad cold close to the last time he posted. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Storm Crow on February 20, 2007 at 10:21:34 PT Let's see.... Bobby pins, alligator clips, paper clips, plumbing supplies (to make pipes), apples, foil, aluminium and tin cans, Sobe' bottles, 2 liter soda bottles, soda straws (for inhaling fumes from "blading" hash), oh and the butter knives used to heat the hash on when "blading", matches, lighters, brownie mix, tampon wrapping paper (I've seen them used by gals out of rolling papers- heck, even the "extra" pages of Bibles have been used this way!)... the list can go on and on. Should all of these things be banned? Where do THEY draw the line? Absolutely ridiculous! Virtually anything can be used- will they ban everything? [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Toker00 on February 20, 2007 at 09:40:59 PT There are only two substances that we war with in the War on Drugs.They are: The Truth and The Lie. The Creator told the Truth when he made Cannabis, the FBN and now the DEA told and still continue to tell the Lie with Cannabis Prohibition. This is the Year of Cannabis. Kucinich needs to get very, very busy. The Truth is ready for victory! This YEAR! Toke. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Toker00 on February 20, 2007 at 09:27:38 PT Pressure. To: Legislators, Staff, and Interested PartiesFrom: Progressive States NetworkRe: Conference Call with Sen. Ted Kennedy: Follow-Up on State Response to Iraq EscalationThis is a friendly reminder to join Progressive States Network together with Americans Against Escalation in Iraq, Women Legislators' Lobby, MoveOn.org, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy and state legislators from across the country on a conference call to discuss progress and next steps in the nationwide state legislative campaign to prevent President Bush's escalation in Iraq.Details: Tuesday, February 20th 1:00pm EST 1-800-391-1709 Conference ID: 709424 Space is very limited. Please RSVP at http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/progressivestates/event/index.jsp?event_KEY=24058Please, visit http://www.progressivestates.org/iraq and return in the coming days to find resources to advance a resolution in your own state. And please join us, Senator Ted Kennedy, and our many partners tomorrow to discuss how we will move forward.Thank you,Joel Barkin Executive Director Progressive States NetworkToke. 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