Bloomberg.com: U.S.
Cocaine and marijuana have been tried by more Americans than residents of 16 other countries surveyed, researchers said, even though tough U.S. laws seek to discourage the use of the drugs.

In the U.S., 42 percent said they had used marijuana and 16 percent had tried cocaine, according to the study published in the journal of the Public Library of Science. In the Netherlands, where people can go to cafes to smoke marijuana, 20 percent have tried that drug and 1.9 percent sampled cocaine.

The higher incidence of drug use in the U.S. may be linked to the nation’s relative affluence, not its anti-drug laws, said James Anthony, chairman of the epidemiology department at Michigan State University’s medical school in East Lansing, Michigan, and an author of the study.

“Drug use is related to income, but does not appear to be simply related to drug policy, since countries with more stringent policies toward illegal drug use did not have lower levels of such drug use than countries with more liberal policies,” the study’s authors wrote.

“In the Netherlands, despite a less restrictive approach, the population hasn’t taken up cannabis smoking to the extent that’s true in U.S., or New Zealand,” Anthony said.

Trying to find a link between drug use and drug enforcement doesn’t make sense, said Tom Riley, spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington.

“The U.S. has high crime rates but we spend a lot on law enforcement and prison,” Riley said yesterday in a telephone interview. “Should we spend less? We’re just a different kind of country. We have higher drug use rates, a higher crime rate, many things that go with a highly free and mobile society.”

Yes, Mr. Riley, we should spend less.  Or, more accurately, we should spend a lot of that prison and drug war money for funding education and drug treatment.

I’m confused by the idea that we have higher crime and drug use rates because we are a “highly free and mobile society”.  I’ve never been outside the United States (a sin I will repent for someday), but aren’t Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Israel, Japan, and New Zealand “highly free and mobile societies”?  (You also have the irony of a spokesman who represents an agency sworn to lock you up if you smoke cannabis saying we are “highly free”.)

And if you do a little more digging, you’ll find that the racist underpinnings of the drug war are really what they are referring to by a “highly free and mobile society”.  I’ve read this line from the Drug Czar before, when confronted with the metrics of their own failures in reducing drug problems in the US: you can’t compare the US and Europe (the Netherlands) because we have different cultures.

“In addition to the factors measured in this study, the role of culture, drug availability and knowledge about drug use are likely to be important in the types and patterns of drug use throughout the world,” said Dr. Nora D. Volkow, NIDA director. “Even within the United States, rates and patterns of substance use differ based on geographical location and ethnicity, among other factors.”

According to your own NIDA report on Drug Use Among Racial / Ethnic Minorities (pg 51), use of marijuana among whites is more prevalent than Hispanic use, but less prevalent than black use.  However, all drug use, legal and illegal, was far less prevalent among Asians/Pacific Islanders.  So, couldn’t you say that the ethnic problem in America regarding drugs includes the white Americans, too?  The white folks in the Netherlands aren’t using as much drugs as the white folks in America.

State to allow farmers to grow hemp | NEWS.com.au
NEW laws will allow New South Wales farmers to grow cannabis crops for industrial use, the state government says.

But the hemp plants will not be varieties containing any significant amount of the active substance in illicit cannabis.

The Hemp Industry Bill will allow farmers to grow hemp (cannabis sativa) for use in skin care products, paint, load-bearing masonry, insulation and as an additive to wool, Primary Industries Minister Ian Macdonald said.

Such production is already permitted in Victoria, Tasmania, Queensland, the [Australian Capital Territory], Victoria and Western Australia.

The NSW Department of Primary Industries would work with farmers to make sure crops were only grown under a licence by applicants of good repute, Mr Macdonald said.

The licensing system would stop industrial hemp being used as a camouflage for the marijuana variety of hemp, which contains a high concentration of the illicit cannabis drug THC, he said.

The legislation would pave the way for a potentially lucrative industrial hemp industry, providing farmers with the additional option of another fast-growing summer crop, Mr Macdonald said.

Yet another sensible government allowing its people to grow non-drug cannabis.  Yet another place overseas for our American dollars to flow to fulfill the domestic demand for hemp products that our struggling family farmers aren’t allowed to grow.  And, interestingly, yet another scenario where ignorant politicians don’t realize you can’t use industrial hemp to camouflage consumer cannabis, because hemp will cross-pollinate the cannabis and ruin its potency, and cannabis will cross-pollinate hemp and ruin its fiber potential.

Reyes relative kidnapped; U.S. helps secure release - El Paso Times
A woman who reportedly is a relative of Congressman Silvestre Reyes was kidnapped in Juárez, then released with the help of U.S. law enforcement agencies.

Reyes, D-Texas, declined to comment. The kidnapping was first reported on the Narcosphere Web site, which attributed the report and knowledge of the victim’s relationship to Reyes to a DEA official in El Paso.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement was the lead U.S. agency in the incident, but the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration were also involved. However, neither agency would release any details, including when the incident took place.

The incident comes as kidnappings have become more common in Juárez possibly due to drug trafficking gangs snatching victims targeted for death or marks held for ransom to raise funds for the ongoing war for control of the region’s smuggling corridor.

Fears of kidnappings, extortion and violence that has claimed nearly 500 lives this year have caused some Juarenses to move to El Paso and even seek asylum in the United States.

The killings have continued daily. Monday, an unidentified man’s dismembered body was found in Rancho Anapra, state police said. The head, arms and legs were found in separate backpacks about 50 meters away from the torso, which was wrapped in a blanket. At least four deaths occurred Tuesday.

A group of about 300 owners of junk yards, mechanic shops, used-car lots and other auto-related businesses have closed down because of kidnappings and robberies, the Norte de Ciudad Juárez newspaper reported Tuesday.

Last week, four members of the union of yonkeros (junk yard owners) were kidnapped and released after paying thousands of dollars, the Norte reported.

A current U.S. State Department travel alert for Mexico mentions that dozens of U.S. citizens were kidnapped or murdered in Tijuana in 2007.

As the US has strengthened its efforts to interdict cocaine and marijuana smuggled in boats through the Caribbean, smugglers have now switched to land routes through Mexico to move the drugs we Americans demand.  This has turned the northern border of Mexico into a war zone, with the Mexican police, army, bureaucrats, and judges often targeted by vicious Mexican drug gangs for kidnapping and assassination.

Just like the brutal criminal gangs of the ’20s and ’30s that terrorized our citizens the last time we enacted a prohibition against a popular drug.  Prohibition creates profit, potency, and violence - always has, always will.

Understanding the Netherlands’ marijuana policy - USATODAY.com
Cannabis is technically an illegal substance in the Netherlands, although you won’t get arrested for buying or smoking it in a coffee shop.

The Dutch have adopted a policy of “gedogen,” or blind eye, to its sale and use since 1976. The government distinguished between so-called “soft” cannabis drugs and “hard” drugs such as heroin or cocaine. That’s when coffee houses sprang up to sell and let people smoke.

In 1996, the Dutch government began to crack down on cannabis cafes. It now licenses them, bans them advertising their product, prohibits sales to anyone under 18, and limits sales and possession to 5 grams a day per person. Before, people could possess up to 30 grams. Since then, the number of shops in the country has fallen by about half — to 720 in the country. Last year, shops were forced to choose between serving alcohol and cannabis. Most chose cannabis. The sales aren’t subject to tax. However, owners pay taxes on the income they make from selling it.

The government and cannabis advocates say that regulating the sale and use of soft drugs results in less hard-drug addiction.

The facts speak for themselves (references to 2001-2002):

• Percentage of citizens aged 12 and over who have ever used cannabis:  US 37%, Netherlands 17%
• Percentage of citizens aged 12 and over who have used cannabis in the past month:  US 5.4%, Netherlands 3%
• Percentage of citizens aged 12 and over who have ever used heroin:  US 1.4%, Netherlands 0.4%
• Rate of incarceration per 100,000 residents:  US 701, Netherlands 100

There are smarter ways of dealing with cannabis and hard drugs than locking people up.

Report Clears the Air on European Marijuana Use | Europe | Deutsche Welle | 26.06.2008
Cannabis is the drug of choice in Europe, with 13 million people lighting up each month. A new report by Europe’s drug agency EMCDDA aims to debunk misconceptions that persist about the drug.

Twenty percent of European adults have tried cannabis at some point in their lives, according to a mammoth 700-page report by the EU’s The European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).

The report examines Dutch dope-selling in coffee shops, hashish smoking in London during the heady 1960s, and the state of Moroccan marijuana production. The report was released on Thursday, June 26, and coincides with the UN’s International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

The study doesn’t push for EU-wide legalization of marijuana, nor does it advocate harsher punishments. Instead, it aims to serve as an authoritative reference work on scientific research, legislation and policy issues associated with the drug in Europe.

Most European cannabis comes from Morocco, which supplies 80 percent of all resin seized in Europe. The report also looks at emerging supply lines from countries such as Thailand, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia.

Not that all marijuana is being imported. In Britain, home-grown marijuana accounts for 50 percent of the market, according to the report.

The report also points out the differences between legislation in European countries. Portugal decriminalized cannabis use in 2000 and Luxembourg punishes possession with a fine. Meanwhile both Denmark and Italy have toughened laws.

It also examines the cost of cannabis, which gets more expensive as one heads north. Cannabis sells for 1.40 euros ($2.20) per gram in Spain while costing on average 21.50 euros per gram in Norway.

The report also claims to debunk the belief that modern-day cannabis is much stronger now than in the past. The report said that is an “urban myth” based on flawed data.

A 700 page report that tells the truth about cannabis without calling for harsh punishments and debunks the US drug czar’s “Not Your Father’s Woodstock Weed” scare tactics?  Well, Happy International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking!  Maybe this will help Europe recognize that if they took the “illicit” out of the “trafficking”, they could tax the proceeds to fight “drug abuse”.

Drug use cost NZ society $1.3 bn, index shows - 24 Jun 2008 - NZ Herald: New Zealand National news
The Drug Harm Index, released yesterday, will help police determine the socio-economic costs from drug seizures and track the value of the drug trade in New Zealand.

It found that 373,310 people used cannabis, but only 17 per cent of these were frequent users.

There were 38,390 cocaine users, of which 88 per cent were frequent users.

Nearly 23,000 people used crystal methamphetamine (36 per cent of them often) and 81,890 took Ecstasy (24 per cent often).

So 83% of New Zealanders who use cannabis use it infrequently and responsibly, and the 63,462 who use cannabis often are almost as numerous as those who use coke, meth, and X (61,717).  Plus, we can’t say how many of the frequent users use more than one drug.

Male cannabis users took about 8 per cent more sick days than the average male worker and opioid users took 40 per cent more days.

I’m curious about how many more sick days were taken by alcohol users?  No matter - I can’t speak for New Zealand, but in America, the average number of paid sick leave days for first year employees is eight.  So if cannabis smokers took 8% more, that works out to an extra five hours off for sick leave.

But I also doubt the reality of those numbers.  How do male cannabis users track across the various fields of endeavor?  For example, you’re going to find more cannabis smokers working in a restaurant than in a boardroom.  Drug testing restricts the fields where cannabis smokers can work.  Are there more overall sick days taken in those fields than others?

While stimulants contributed 41 per cent of the total costs, figures showed that in 2006, police and Customs seized 33,480kg of cannabis compared with only 155kg of stimulants.

And police dealing with drug offences spent 55.8 per cent of their time addressing cannabis, against 43 per cent of their hours dealing with stimulant-related issues.

Sounds like a lot of time and effort spent by the New Zealand authorities to fight cannabis, a relatively-safe, socially-benign drug that 83% of users are using infrequently, to the detriment of fighting meth, a very dangerous, socially-devastating drug that 36% of users are abusing.  Kinda like here, huh?

There is a strange series of cases in Ontario, Canada, that call into question whether marijuana possession is truly illegal in the Great White North.

Clifford Long’s constitutional saga began in September 2005 when he was a passenger in a car stopped by police for a seatbelt infraction.

The officers conducted a search, allegedly found $40 worth of marijuana and Long joined the ranks of the more than 40,000 people still charged each year across Canada for simple possession of cannabis.

Long was acquitted in July 2007 when provincial court Justice Howard Borenstein accepted an argument by Long’s lawyer that Canada’s marijuana possession laws were unconstitutional because of flaws in the medical marijuana regulations.

Earlier this year, a Federal Court of Canada judge also found the medical marijuana regulations to be unconstitutional, a decision that is under appeal.

That got me to Googling, because I couldn’t figure out how a medical marijuana regulation would affect a non-medical possession case.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

Examining the US-Mexico Gun Trade - International Business News - Portfolio.com
When Americans think about the border, they tend to picture undocumented workers or clandestine river crossings. They don’t think about war. But what’s happening in Mexico now is a war—no other word seems suitable—and the most gruesome battles are taking place within miles of the U.S.?So far this year, more than 1,350 people have been murdered in drug-trafficking-related crimes in Mexico. Last year, according to tallies kept by Mexican newspapers, 2,500 people died; since 2001, the number is close to 10,000—twice the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These killings have become such an everyday part of life that there’s a special word for them: narcoejecuciones, or narcoexecutions. The murdered include police, judges, prosecutors, soldiers, reporters, politicians, and innocent bystanders. Shootouts in broad daylight, mass executions, and public assassinations have become routine.

There are, in fact, two drug wars raging in Mexico. One is between drug-trafficking organizations—in particular, the Sinaloa cartel and its main rival, the Gulf cartel—over control of smuggling routes to the U.S.?The belligerence is easily understood, given the stakes. The U.S. government estimates that the cross-border drug trade was worth as much as $25 billion last year. According to Mexico’s attorney general, Eduardo Medina Mora, $10 billion worth of drug proceeds crosses from the U.S. into Mexico each year in the form of bulk cash.

The other war is between the government and the cartels. Mexican presidents have pledged to end trafficking before, but [President] Calderón, who took office in 2006, seems, in contrast to his predecessors, to be sincere, and his policies are having some effect. He has dispatched tens of thousands of troops, locked up hundreds of traffickers, and undertaken sweeping reforms of the police and judiciary. With each salvo, however, the violence intensifies. The wars aren’t just Mexico’s problem, either. The U.S., with less than 5 percent of the world’s population, consumes more than half of the world’s drugs; most of the marijuana and methamphetamine, much of the heroin, and 90 percent of the cocaine comes from or through Mexico. “U.S. consumers are already financing this war,” Medina Mora tells me, “only it’s on the wrong side.”

In late 2007, the Bush administration, which counts Calderón as one of its few friends in Latin America, announced the Mérida Initiative. If passed by Congress, it will provide Mexico with $1.4 billion in equipment and training over three years. But the initiative, with its unprecedented outlay of funds, is fraught with contradictions, since it would go to fight the flow of weapons coming in illegally from the U.S. More than 90 percent of the A.T.F.’s traces of guns seized in Mexico lead to the States. The Mexican ambassador recently estimated that 2,000 guns cross the border every day. Even if that figure is halved, it’s a trade worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year.

So prohibition of cannabis fuels the profit in trafficking marijuana across the border. With those profits, traffickers finance the flow of easily-purchased guns over the border. Our prohibitionary policies are funding the execution of innocent Mexicans and arming the executioners. Were it legal, Americans would buy, sell, and grow domestically and completely undercut the profits of these murderers as well as destroy much of their business. If Mexico followed suit their poor farmers could grow vast fields of industrial hemp or fine connoisseur cannabis, and some of those trafficking in the border drug war could turn into legit import/exporters.

But a prohibitionist will tell you the blood is on the hands of the US recreational marijuana smoker. Why, if only nobody smoked cannabis, nobody in Mexico would have to die! Because the prohibitionist sees the world in black and white and “Just say no” makes sense to him or her. The fact that humans used cannabis for thousands of years and will continue to use it despite all prohibitions doesn’t come up.  It’s evil and it must be eliminated, they think, and any idea of accepting evil in the name of harm reduction is unthinkable.

Besides, from a business point-of-view, unlimited funding for a project whose goal is to eliminate something that cannot be eliminated sounds like a pretty good profit-making venture for law enforcement, private prisons, and gun manufacturers.

The Irony of Holland’s Smoking Ban: You can Still Have Your Joint, but Only if it’s Pure - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News
In July, the Dutch government will introduce a nationwide smoking ban in bars, cafes and restaurants, aimed at protecting workers. But it will also make life a lot harder for the country’s infamous coffee shops, where customers will only be allowed to smoke pure cannabis.

…Dutch Health Minister Ab Klink has no plans to make any exceptions. Coffee shop employees, he argues, also have the right to protection from tobacco smoke.But [a coffee shop owner] claims it’s a specious argument. After all, people who apply for jobs in a coffee shop know that smoking is the company’s core business. “If the boys are old enough to be sent to Afghanistan, then you can’t tell me that people want to protect them from smoke in the workplace. They’re old enough to decide on their own. They can vote, they can go to war — but now they won’t even be allowed to make this decision?”

Perversely, the law, intended to protect workers from smoke, only applies to tobacco. In the Netherlands, that has resulted in a rather bizarre result: Smoking pot or hashish in coffee shops will remain legal; it just can’t be mixed with tobacco. If someone wants to roll their joint with tobacco, then they have to smoke it outside….

Besides, it will be difficult to monitor whether someone has secretly rolled his joint with tobacco or not. [Another coffee shop owner] feels the world has been turned on its head in Holland. “In every other country they do just the opposite — there they check whether there is cannabis inside,” he says with a laugh.

There are exceptions to the ban. If an establishment can set up a separate room or add a glass partition to ensure that employees are not exposed to tobacco smoke, then smoking is permitted in those rooms as long as service is not provided.

It’s also possible that officials will place a low priority on policing the smoking ban in coffee shops and, in a typically Dutch fashion, a situation would be created in which smoking would be officially banned but still tolerated.

I’ve always been leery of the indoor tobacco smoking bans being promulgated in the US and around the world.  I was a musician for many years and would have loved to have sung in a smoke-free room.  I get the point about employees not being subject to dangerous secondhand smoke.

On the other hand, some jobs have risks.  We still let men go into the bowels of the earth and mine coal for thirty years and they’re breathing far worse air than a part-time server would at a smoky tavern.

I can see banning smoking in public buildings, but I wouldn’t have banned smoking from bars (or in this case, coffee houses.)  Instead, I would tell workers that they have the choice whether they wish to work in an environment with dangerous air, but I’d also tell the management that they must cover at 100% any health care costs of their workers (that’s a US argument, obviously, since the rest of the world has some form of national health care.)  You’d see these business owners doing what they could to provide cleaner air, whether that was air scrubbers or banning smoking.

Knesset outlaws sale of bongs, often used for marijuana consumption - Haaretz - Israel News
The Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee approved on Sunday a law banning the sale of bongs — water pipes often used for the smoking of marijuana.

The law, which was approved in the second and third readings, prohibits the sale and import of apparatuses geared for the production and consumption of illicit drugs. The main objective of the new law is to put an end to the sale of bongs at stores adjacent to educational institutions.

The law stipulates that the punishment for the sale of bongs will not exceed five years incarceration. However, the Knesset committee withdrew the clause that prohibits the possession of paraphernalia used for personal drug use.

Even before the new law was approved, the existing law prohibited the sale and possession of devices used to produce or consume drugs, and even attached a maximum 20 year jail sentence as a penalty to such a crime, but the existing law is difficult to enforce because the courts insist that the device in question contain at least traces of illicit substances.

The new law still awaits approval in the second and third readings before the Knesset plenum.

If you think laws against marijuana are silly, try enforcing one against marijuana paraphernalia.  What, exactly, is the difference between an unused glass bong and a creative glass sculpture?  Under the old law, the glass “art” was paraphernalia once it has marijuana residue on it, but now, it’s illegal if it is “intended” for marijuana smoking.

We’ve seen this in other situations.  An article in this month’s High Times mentions how glass pipe importers have to not drill through the carb on pipes being imported and run a string through the pipe, because if the glass has one hole and is on a string, it’s “jewelry”, but if it has two holes, it is paraphernalia.

I anticipate clever Israeli stoners circumventing this law quite easily - unless Israel plans on making illegal two-liter soda bottles, apples, paper towel tubes, surgical tubing, little plastic bears that contain honey, or any of the myriad assortment of items with which one can fashion a bong.

ABC News: Record Drug Bust: 262 Tons of Hashish Seized
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration has announced details of the largest drug seizure ever, as the result of a multi-year investigation in Afghanistan.

The DEA and Afghanistan’s National Interdiction Unit, along with the U.S. military and NATO forces, captured and destroyed 262 tons of hashish June 9 in a two-year operation dubbed “Albatross.”

The DEA executed search warrants at five narcotics processing centers and discovered numerous underground bunkers in the Kandahar province, which is still under control of the Taliban. Afghanistan’s National Interdiction Unit and the DEA arrested 12 suspects during the operation and seizure of the drugs, which had an estimated value of $400 million.

Some officials estimate that the drugs would have filled 30 double-decker buses. Hashish is resin derived from marijuana plants.

Drug production has increased sharply in Afghanistan since 2001, with estimates, for instance, that more than 90 percent of the world’s heroin comes from the country. The DEA has been operating in Afghanistan since 2002 to train Afghan narcotic forces and gather intelligence.

“People have traditionally thought of Afghanistan having a vibrant heroin crop, but we’re seeing more marijuana,” DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney told ABC News.

Because local police don’t enforce laws against the growing of marijuana, it has become more of a cash crop in the region. In late 2006, Canadian forces on patrol in Afghanistan encountered dense marijuana forests with plants at least 10 feet tall that the Taliban used for cover and protection.

U.S. forces, the DEA and Afghan forces destroyed the massive stash with explosives.

The Taliban?  Didn’t we oust those guys a few years ago?  Looks like that War on Terror is proceeding as successfully as the War on Drugs.

Regardless, once again, the prohibition of cannabis creates a lucrative market for drug dealers.  The Taliban wouldn’t be able to make much money off of hashish if Americans and others around the world could grow their own marijuana, press their own hash, or buy it at a liquor store.  But it would be a crop with enough potential that legit farmers could grow it and sell it on regulated international markets - not enough profit for a terrorist, but plenty of profit for a small family farmer.

Now experts say cannabis should be legal - Scotsman.com News
CANNABIS should be legalised and taxed, an influential Scottish think tank recommended yesterday, just weeks after the Government hardened its attitude towards the drug, reclassifying it as a class B substance.

The Scottish Futures Forum yesterday published a report on drugs and alcohol in Scotland, saying one way to tackle the problem of addiction to harder drugs was to tax and regulate cannabis.

Forum chairman Frank Pignatelli said studies of San Francisco, where cannabis is illegal, and the Netherlands, where it is decriminalised, showed that the idea is worth considering because it breaks the link with class A drugs. In the Netherlands, only 17 per cent of cannabis sellers were also selling drugs such as crack, cocaine and heroin, while in San Francisco it was more than 50 per cent.

The idea was one of several aimed at halving drug addiction in Scotland by 2025.

The forum’s suggestion has been welcomed by the Legalise Cannabis Alliance UK, which claimed Scotland is leading the way on the issue.

Don Barnard, a spokesman, said: “The Scots seem to have been taking a more mature view and I hope the recommendation is taken seriously.”

The idea has also been backed by the Greens. Patrick Harvie, MSP, said: “The current approach to criminalising drug users has been one of the most obvious failures of social policy over the last 50 years, and the Futures Forum should be thanked for their efforts to move the debate on. We broadly welcome their report.”

The only way that marijuana is a gateway drug is that it takes you to the gate of the drug dealer who is also selling harder drugs.  You know why scotch isn’t a gateway drug?  Because there is no shelf full of cocaine next to it at the liquor store.  When 1 out of 6 Dutch pot dealers offer hard drugs compared to 3 out of 6 San Francisco dealers, it becomes obvious that criminalization of cannabis is exacerbating hard drug use.

Sometimes I find the most interesting marijuana articles.  This one comes from Bermuda where they are having trouble recruiting players for their national cricket team because of the ban on marijuana.

We need to get players to stop smoking weed
If we really want to increase the number of players available for the national team and get guys into training, we need to do something about the drug problem in this country.

We’ve heard more talk this week about the number of players not turning out for the national squad and as someone who has been around cricket my whole life I can tell you the biggest problem is marijuana.

If we could stop people smoking weed we would have triple the amount of players available.

It’s a serious social issue and it’s something we really need to address. If you can’t give up marijuana to play for your country and reach the pinnacle of your sport then you have a serious, serious problem.

Here’s a thought: how about removing the ban on marijuana?  It’s not as if you could call it a performance-enhancing drug.  If you can’t give up prying into your citizens’ private lives to determine their urine fit to play for your country, then maybe you just don’t get to field a decent cricket team.

Since it has been shown that Canada has the world’s highest rate of cannabis use, the reefer madness has expanded to epidemic proportions.  First we had Barbara Kay and her illogical anti-cannabis ravings in the National Post, now we get Margret Kopala writing in The Ottawa Citizen:

What we know about marijuana
Leading the recent National Post debate on cannabis, columnist Barbara Kay can’t have anticipated Vancouver’s safe injection site, rather than legalized cannabis, would be the Trojan Horse for the legalization of all addictive drugs.

This week, the right of addicts to continue use of illicit drugs was upheld by the B.C. Supreme Court even though no treatment of which I am aware uses the substance that caused the problem to cure it. Smokers use nicotine gum, not more cigarettes, to kick the habit, don’t steal to feed their habit and if heroine [sic] and cocaine are so helpful, why aren’t doctors prescribing them in pill form?

(I agree the heroines are very helpful.  Like Wonder Woman.  I don’t know how you out a heroine into a pill form, though.  I think she’d be quite upset.)

First of all, doctors are prescribing cocaine every time you get that numbing shot in your gums at the dentist, and other opium derivatives, like morphine, are routinely prescribed.

Second, addicts wouldn’t steal to feed their habit if they could buy their drug or a patch-type alternative cheaply and legally, like cigarette smokers can.

And finally, there is a very common medical treatment that uses the dangerous substance to cure or prevent the damages from that substance; they are called vaccines.  A disabled version of a virus is injected into the bloodstream to promote the growth of natural antibodies.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

From a letter to the editor in Canada’s National Post, regarding the recent Barbara Kay / legalization debate, a Canadian who hits the nail on the head:

In responding to the Post’s recent editorial supporting the decriminalization of marijuana, letter-writers Akbar Hussain and Barry Lubotta make excellent arguments. John Stuart Mill made a much stronger one, however, in On Liberty: “That the only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not sufficient warrant.”

Al though one could question the dubious link between immorality and an individual’s decision to use certain substances, I believe Mill was explaining precisely how irrelevant that kind of discussion should be in a just society where laws are based on essential legal rights, not opinions or the morals of influential crowds.

Sandy Gibson, Toronto.

In a nutshell, the situation is this: If you are a legal Canadian medical marijuana patient, and you admit to that fact to US Customs at the border, you are classified as an “illegal drug user” and PERMANENTLY BANNED from entering the United States of America. Our government couldn’t be bothered to stop most of the 9/11 hijackers who entered our country from Canada, but they’re doing a bang-up job of keeping out the MS, AIDS, and cancer patients who prefer herbal remedies to pharmaceutical ones.

So if they ask if you’ve ever tried marijuana or are a medical marijuana patient, if I may borrow a phrase from Nancy Reagan, JUST SAY NO!

Canadian Medical Marijuana Users Banned from the US
The Multiple Sclerosis Newsletter - 10 May, 2008

From the Newsletter of the West Kootenay Chapter of the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Canada: The US will ban all ‘admitted drug users”, even legal ones.

Read the rest of this entry by clicking here

Pot industry ranks second in GDP contribution
A B.C. magazine now places the province’s marijuana industry in second place for its contribution to the B.C. gross domestic project.

BC Business magazine said recently that it now is in second place ahead of the forest sector and behind construction.

Forest Minister Rich Coleman reacted to the announcement by saying, “There’s nothing a ministry can do to change a marketplace.”

BC Business places the provincial marijuana industry at $7.5-billion with a labour force of over 250,000.

Eric Nash of Valley-based cannabis company, Island Harvest, reacted to the news by saying, “More than 156,000 people in British Columbia use marijuana for health purposes. Thousands of unemployed B.C. forest workers could become gainfully employed in the well-established cannabis industry.”

Island Harvest has been distributing and selling medical marijuana to customers for the past six years under federal licensing from Ottawa.

Wendy Little, his partner in Island Harvest, added, “Provincially licensed operations in B.C. have been supplying marijuana to thousands of people for over 10 years now. It’s time to integrate cannabis sensibly into our economy.”

Legally-licenced growers, Little and Nash have called upon the B.C. government to implement provincial policy and declare the cannabis production sector a renewable and sustainable health based industry to create employment and economic growth.

The economics of marijuana and hemp are likely to be the deciding factors in overturning adult marijuana prohibition in North America.  With farmers needing a cash crop, drivers needing biodiesel fuels, people needing affordable medicines, the world needing sustainable food and ecologically-friendly fiber crops, and governments straining to balance budgets, the prohibition of cannabis will soon become a money-losing proposition, even compared to the profits some industries make from prohibition.

Middle class relaxing with marijuana
A variety of middle-class people are making a conscious but careful choice to use marijuana to enhance their leisure activities, a University of Alberta study shows.

A qualitative study of 41 Canadians surveyed in 2005-06 by U of A researchers showed that there is no such thing as a ‘typical’ marijuana user, but that people of all ages are selectively lighting up the drug as a way to enhance activities ranging from watching television and playing sports to having sex, painting or writing.

The study was published recently in the journal Substance Use and Misuse.

The focus was on adult users who were employed, ranging in age from 21 to 61, including 25 men and 16 women from Alberta, Quebec, Ontario and Newfoundland whose use of the drug ranged from daily to once or twice a year. They were predominantly middle class and worked in the retail and service industries, in communications, as white-collar employees, or as health-care and social workers. As well, 68 per cent of the users held post-secondary degrees, while another 11 survey participants had earned their high school diplomas.

The study also found that the participants considered themselves responsible users of the drug, defined by moderate use in an appropriate social setting and not allowing it to cause harm to others.

The findings should open the way for further scientific exploration into widespread use of marijuana, and government policies should move towards decriminalization and eventual legalization of the drug, the study recommends.

The cannabis community is a minority group that spans all social, economic, religious, racial, and national boundaries.  There is no “typical” marijuana user any more than there is a “typical” oxygen breather.

Canadian Majority Would Legalize Marijuana: Angus Reid Global Monitor
Adults in Canada believe the consumption of cannabis should be allowed in their country, according to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies. 53 per cent of respondents support the legalization of marijuana.

Less than 10 per cent of respondents believe other drugs—such as ecstasy, powder cocaine, heroin, crack cocaine and crystal meth—should be legalized.

In July 2002, Canada became the first nation in the world to regulate the consumption of cannabis for medical reasons. In the 2004 federal election, the Marijuana party—which seeks the outright legalization of the substance—received 0.3 per cent of the popular vote.

In November 2004, the Canadian federal government—headed at the time by Liberal prime minister Paul Martin—re-introduced a controversial bill that sought “alternate penalty frameworks” for the possession of small amounts of marijuana. The bill, which would have allowed any person caught with 15 grams of the drug or less to face fines instead of criminal charges, was never put to a vote in the House of Commons.

Earlier this month, Debbie Stultz-Giffin—a member of Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana—urged the current administration to abandon its proposal to authorize a mandatory six-month prison sentence for marijuana growers, adding, “With the federal government talking about pulling exemption holders grow permits and forcing us to buy our marijuana from the government, it’s going to put a lot of medical marijuana patients in a precarious situation.”

I believe we are close to reaching the tipping point where a majority of North Americans favor the legalization, or at least decriminalization, or marijuana.  It looks like Canada is there already, and I know we’re close to that here on the West Coast.  Soon, as more stalwart drug warriors are swept out of Congress and statehouses in the upcoming election, I believe that younger, more liberal officials will take their place.  As our representatives begin to match the population that has come of age with legal medical marijuana and a more relaxed cultural attitude toward cannabis, I believe that we will see the end of adult marijuana prohibition in my lifetime.

TheStar.com | GTA | Eatery won’t fight pot smoker
A Burlington businessman brought to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal after he told a medical marijuana user not to light up in front of his family restaurant has given up fighting the complaint because he couldn’t afford the legal fees.

“The financial burden, the burden on me and on my family was too much,” Ted Kindos, owner of Gator Ted’s Tap and Grill, said yesterday after reaching a settlement.

Kindos said his lawyer told him it could cost up to $60,000 to continue fighting the complaint; it was scheduled for eight days of hearings at the Human Rights Tribunal beginning yesterday. Kindos said he has already spent $20,000.

Steve Gibson, a long-time customer, complained to the Ontario Human Rights Commission in 2005 after Kindos told him to leave the premises for smoking marijuana in the doorway of the restaurant at Burlington Heights Plaza.

“The principle I was fighting for was to be able to have quality of life and to be able to go out without being stuck at home because I need my medical marijuana,” said Gibson, adding he was pleased with the settlement.

Although the commission’s lawyers do not represent the complainants, their positions are often similar, said commission spokesperson Jeff Poirier.

“For the commission, this case is about being treated the same as the other smokers. This is a smoker with a disability who uses medicinal marijuana that’s legally prescribed to him so he’s seeking access to the designated smoking area,” said Poirier.

Kindos said he originally refused to allow Gibson to smoke marijuana in the smoking room of the restaurant. Gibson then began smoking in front of the restaurant and patrons complained of the smell, said Kindos.

These cases are gaining ground in Canada and the twelve US medical marijuana states.  If marijuana is to be treated the same as other medicines, then we have to address the question of how patients are to use their medicine outside of their home.

In many states, smoking anything in or near a public building is absolutely forbidden.  But in this case, the restaurant made an allowance for tobacco smokers to be able to smoke in a designated area.  So if patrons have a right to smoke tobacco for no medical purpose - indeed, to the detriment of their own health, and the health of others through secondhand smoke - then it is hard to understand banning a medical cannabis smoker in the same area.

The only consideration would be a moral judgment that smoking cannabis is wrong, which seemed to be the situation here.  Kindos alleged that the patrons of his restaurant didn’t want their children exposed to the smell of cannabis.  There is no health risk associated with children smelling marijuana, but there is the risk that witnessing a harmless man smoking marijuana without any negative consequences will open the minds of those children and make them harder to fool with drug war reefer madness.