Back in 1967, a 24 year old man was arrested for having a decorative pipe than tested positive for marijuana residue. Forty-five years ago, Adrian Dorst was given a suspended sentence. The now almost 70-year-old British Colombian is a professional nature photographer and was planning on taking a dream trip to a forest village in Ecuador, for two months of hiking and photographing birds that can be found no where else on the planet. But US officials discovered Dorst’s criminal pass last week and denied him access to fly through the US, costing the photographer a $1250 airline ticket, and untold income from his trip to Ecuador.

Last week at the beginning of his journey, Dorst was waiting at Vancouver International Airport for his flight to Ecuador that involved a two-and-a-half hour layover in Houston, Texas. Just before boarding the Airline, a US border agent in Vancouver checked his passport and asked him a few questions, but then instead of allowing him to board, asked him to step into a second room for additional screening. After a few hours, the US agent finally reveled that she knew of a suspended drug sentence from 1967.

The charge came after police raided some communal apartments in Ontario that Dorst was living, and found the pipe in question hanging on a wall as a decorative piece. Dorst told them that at the time, even the judge in the case publicly criticized the police for arresting him. When the border agent asked about other arrests, Dorst admitted that he was locked up in 1988 and spent one night in jail with fellow anti-mining protests, and that same year he was put in jail for contempt over another anti-logging protest.

After the extra hours being detained at the Canadian Airport by US officials, Dorst was fingerprinted and let go, but not allowed entrance to the US. He is sending an invoice to US Homeland Security for the $1250 he is out for the ticket, but he doubts they will pay. He said that he has crossed the border many times since 1967 without incident.

Typically, at the US border crossing, all those crossing or entering the US get a primary check, are asked a few questions, and if you aren’t wanted, you are on your way. Red flags to stop someone for further questions would be a warrant, or a criminal record that shows “moral turpitude”.  That would be crimes like assault or robbery on your record, which would be grounds for a denial. Drunk driving won’t get you denied access, but a drug conviction will. It doesn’t matter if it was for a tiny amount of pipe resin from 45 years ago, or a truckload of ecstacy and heroin last week. They look at all drug convictions the same and you will get denied if they happen to look into your criminal records.

People like Dorst are allowed to apply to US Homeland Security for a waiver to travel through, but that would cost about $1000 and the waiver is only good for travel up to year, and can take at least that long for the process. Often times, border guard might look at a record like Dorst, and let them go with a warning to get the waiver next time they fly. When asked if he will try for the waiver, Dorst said absolutely not. Even though it will be very expensive, he will choose to fly around the US at all costs, saying he never wants to deal with those people again, wondering what purpose is served by declaring him a threat to the US.

External Links:

http://www.canada.com/news/national/Knox+marijuana+resin+conviction+grounds+border/6009650/story.html

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(Globe and Mail) Hemp is fast becoming a staple of daytime TV as Oprah, Dr. Oz and others extol the health virtues of hemp oil, protein powders and pasta. At the same time, industrial interests tout it as a potential base for products ranging from textiles to car parts. As a result, demand is surging in the United States, Germany and Japan.But American farmers are prohibited from growing hemp. That leaves farmers in Canada – where it’s been a legal crop since 1998 – free to tap the growing U.S. interest in hemp-based products.

Now the market, while still small, is growing by about 10 per cent a year, with annual sales estimated between $350-million and $400-million, according to some estimates.

Canadian hemp exports have increased by 500 per cent over the past four years. Even so, total exports were worth just $10.38-million in 2010.

The industry’s goal is to generate more than $100-million for the Canadian economy by 2015, partly by boosting production from 10,855 hectares to 40,000 hectares over that time.

Just try and find an American farmer whose exports have increased 500% in four years.  It is a travesty that our farmers are not allowed to grow this useful crop that is no more a threat to maintaining drug-cannabis prohibition than is corn, wheat, or soybeans.

According to the 2007 Agricultural Census, we have over 125 million hectares of harvested farmland in America out of 373 million hectares of total farmland.  We have a far better climate than Canada for growing industrial hemp.  Forty thousand hectares dedicated to hemp wouldn’t even merit a slice on a pie chart of American farm production.

Yet thanks to Reefer Madness and our addiction to prohibition, we are going to continue growing zero hectares of hemp and just leave that $400 million + 10% / year industry to the Canadians, Australians, Europeans, and Chinese to supply.

(Toronto Sun) A Toronto cop who threatened to Taser two burglary suspects in the testicles to force them to surrender a cohort wept on the witness stand Tuesday as he apologized to his victims.

Const. Christopher Hominuk burst into tears at his sentencing hearing before Justice Hugh Fraser on Tuesday, while reading letters of apology.

He said his judgment and behaviour was affected by a hypoglycemic incident, which is characterized by dangerously low blood sugar levels.

Somebody get Betty a Snickers, quick, before she shocks someone's nuts!

Hypoglycemia, huh?  Yeah, that must be it.  It couldn’t be a police culture that sees the Taser not as a “non-lethal” tool to prevent injury to police and suspects, but rather as a tool of compliance to be brandished anytime a suspect commits “contempt of cop”, could it?

My good friend Pam Spaulding has been compiling “Taser Files” for years now if you’d like to read about the horrific misuse of these torture devices.

"Aren't you glad we're using non-lethal interrogation techniques?"

Yes… torture devices.  If the bad guys in “Rambo” hooking Stallone up to a bedspring frame hooked to a car battery are torturing, then so are cops using the same tactic packaged in a handheld unit.

As for “non-lethal”?  Judge for yourself.

“If you are lying to me, when I get back to the station, I’m Tasering you in the f—ing nuts,” Hominuk barked at Bolgan.

Bolgan had redness to the side of his face where he was struck, court heard.

Hominuk confronted his second victim, Roger William Bradshaw, 39, who was lying in a nearby cruiser’s backseat.

Hominuk pressed his Taser into Bradshaw’s neck and repeated his demand for the identity of the fugitive. When Bradshaw emphasized he didn’t know him, Hominuk snapped: “If I find out you’re lying, I’m going to f—ing Taser you in the nuts.”

Visit the Toronto Sun if you want to see the in-car video of how hypoglycemia affects handcuffed men’s family jewels…

When one of your cities has more Drug War murders than California, it refocuses your attention on ending the Drug War

The marijuana internets are abuzz with the latest headline about world leaders declaring the War on Drugs to be a failure and calling for the legalization of marijuana. Here are a few:

World Leaders: Time to End Marijuana Prohibition

Who’s Who of World Leaders Call Global Drug War a “Failure”

World Leaders Recommend Ending The ‘Failed’ Drug War

These headlines cover the report released by the Global Commission on Drug Policy yesterday.  However, I think the preceding headlines fail to make an important distinction, one that was not lost on the editors at NPR (emphasis mine):

‘Global War On Drugs Has Failed,’ Former World Leaders Say

MEMBERS OF THE GLOBAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY

– Asma Jahangir; human rights activist, former U.N. Special Rapporteur on Arbitrary, Extrajudicial and Summary Executions; Pakistan.
– Carlos Fuentes; writer; Mexico.
– Cesar Gaviria; former president of Colombia.
– Ernesto Zedillo; former president of Mexico.
– Fernando Henrique Cardoso; former president of Brazil.
– George Papandreou; Prime Minister of Greece. [The exception that proves the rule? --"R"R]
– George Shultz; former secretary of state.
– Javier Solana; former European Union High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy; Spain.
– John Whitehead; banker and civil servant, chair of the World Trade Center Memorial; United States.
– Kofi Annan; former secretary general of the United Nations.
– Louise Arbour; former U.N. high commissioner for human rights; Canada.
– Maria Cattaui; member of the board, Petroplus Holdings; former secretary-general of the International Chamber of Commerce; Switzerland.
– Marion Caspers-Merk; former state secretary at the German Federal Ministry of Health, Germany.
– Mario Vargas Llosa; writer; Peru.
– Michel Kazatchkine; executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria; France.
– Paul Volcker; former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
– Richard Branson; entrepreneur; founder of the Virgin Group; U.K.
– Ruth Dreifuss- former president of Switzerland.
– Thorvald Stoltenberg; former minister of foreign affairs and U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees; Norway.

It’s rarely current world leaders expressing these sentiments.  They seem to only speak out after they are out of office and lacking the power to help end that “failure”.  I’ve been reporting on the “former leaders” who call for an end to the Drug War since 2008:

Former Mexican President Vicente Fox calls for debate on marijuana legalization

Latin American ex-presidents urge US to decriminalize marijuana, rethink drug war

Former UK Drug Warrior: “What harms society is the illegality of drugs…”

Fortunately a few brave leaders speak out while they are still in office:

Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use

Jamaica lawmaker calls for legalizing small amounts of marijuana for private use

And when they succeed in decriminalization of drug use, they get amazing results:

United Nations backs drug decriminalization

The success of drug decriminalization in Portugal

The report itself makes many of the same recommendations NORML has been touting for four decades now.  The former world leaders recommend that we stop ”the criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others.”  They point out that “models of legal regulation of drugs” should be instituted by governments to reduce the power of organized crime and protect the health of citizens and that this “applies especially to cannabis.”  They explain that a realistic government drug policy would avoid “simplistic ‘just say no’ messages and ‘zero tolerance’ policies in favor of educational efforts”.  It’s nice to finally have world leaders, even former ones, recognizing we were and are right.

"It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it." - Upton Sinclair

Unfortunately, it’s the current ones – the ones who have the power to make these changes – we have to convince… and they’re not budging from their “Schedule I dangerous drug what about the children?!?” rhetoric:

(Los Angeles Times) ”Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe,” said Rafael Lemaitre, spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

More available?  Almost 1 in 4  high school kids can get a bag of weed within an hour and say it’s easier to buy than beer and prescription drugs.  Twenty-five million American adults are using cannabis annually and fifteen million use monthly.  Marijuana is already quite available, it’s just a question of who controls and profits from the market – regulated businesses or violent criminals.

“Legalizing dangerous drugs would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences,” drug czar Gil Kerlikowske said this year.

Administration officials dispute the idea that nothing can be done to reduce the demand for drugs in the United States. A spokesman for the White House drug agency said U.S. consumption peaked in 1979, when surveys showed that 14% of respondents had used illegal drugs in the previous month. Now that figure has dropped to 7%.

Remember that when Gateway Gil says “drugs”, he means “marijuana”.  Among 12th graders, monthly use of marijuana peaked in 1978, but amphetamines peaked in 1981, cocaine use peaked in 1985, ecstasy use peaked in 2000, hallucinogen use peaked in 1975, heroin use peaked in 2000, and sedative use peaked in 1975.  Since marijuana is far more popular (15 million annual users) than all other drugs combined (6 million annual users), any movement of the marijuana numbers moves the “drugs” numbers.

And since he brought it up, I’d remind Gateway Gil that his claim of that monthly drug use dropped in half since 1979 came as sixteen states passed medical marijuana laws and two states decriminalized marijuana possession.  Your predecessors warned us that if we legalized marijuana, even in those very specific and limited ways, it would be a profound mistake, leading to more use, and more harmful consequences.  It’s understandable, since you and your predecessors are bound by law to oppose any move toward legalization, so you can understand when we completely ignore your Chicken Little warnings about legalization.

Double Jack rocks Canada and the World!

Double Jack, from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada was formed in November of 2004 and have played over a hundred shows. They have won battle of the bands competitions and have been featured for a Cage Match showdown!

Double Jack is hard at work and hoping to have there new album out by the end of the summer. Double Jack’s sound can be described as a mix between grunge metal and riff rock, with a tendency to write strong ballads. With influences such as Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Black Label Society, noway this band can disappoint!

The song “Free” is a fast and tight Rocking song with a touch of some alternative Rock and illustrates Double Jack’s diversity! Just give them One Chance and they’ll rock your Deuces Wild!!!

Turn it up stashers, take a hit, laugh, and check out Double Jack serving you some FREE!!!

http://www.myspace.com/doublejacktheband

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