Tough love?

A parent reacts to their teenage boy smoking pot by selling his Christmas present on Ebay. As a radical leftist feminazi I offer my heartfelt sympathies to the poor child that is being deprived of the video game he earned. It's child abuse I tell ya!

Hey, at least it wasn't beer. That stuff is really bad for you.

On a slightly more serious note, I would ask this parent why his son smoking pot bothers him so much. While it is true that smoking pot is an illegal activity, it is a fairly common behavior that is unlikely to have longterm health effects. But as a parent, you absolutely have the right (and the responsibility) to set limits on your childs' behavior. If you would react the same way to your child drinking beer or smoking cigarettes, then it seems pretty reasonable to me.

Personally, my biggest parenting concern is the continued pornification of young girls. Bratz dolls and strip-pole Barbie piss me off to no end. Pot-smoking is barely a blip on my parenting radar screen.

Dennis Kucinich goes bye-bye

I thought Kucinich was pretty cool. But then he had to go and say that he wishes to have Ron Paul as a running mate.

WTF???? I guess I have no choice left but to support Hillary.

Conservative Drug Strategy a Resounding Success

I agree with Neil Horner. We can't have the price of weed going down or we might have to fire those RCMP drug warriors.

Decriminalization would have hit hard at the families of both pot growers and RCMP drug enforcement officers - particularly in this province. That's unacceptable, and Stephen Harper, bless him, knew it.

Won't somebody please think of the pot growers and drug cops?

Now, if the government really wanted to cut down on pot use, it seems logical for it to attack one or both of those two branches. First, disrupt the market. This has actually been done by the crackdown at the border. B.C. People can grow kickass weed, but they can't smoke all of it themselves. They need help from the U.S. With the market flooded, local pot growers are seeing less bang for their hazardous buck.

The idea that the border between the US and Canada is secure is indeed laughable. Ron Paul is running a campaign based on his fear of Mexicans. I wonder if he will promise to secure the Canada/US border once he cleans up the Mexican border.

The real reason that the price of weed is going down in Canada has nothing to do with enforcement. The worthless US currency is the reason for the falling price of domestic marijuana.

There would be nothing good about an increase in the price of marijuana. It just means that organized crime will make more money and mom and pop marijuana grows will become more risky. If they seriously want to harm organized crime, small marijuana grows should be legal. When people like myself are allowed to have beautiful, backyard gardens, organized crime will no longer make money selling an easily grown weed. It's too simple.

I wonder...

How "Dr." Ron Paul will respond to this. Should be almost as interesting as the money story.

Conservatives stand to benefit from outbreak of gang mayhem

I have a completely scientific theory (that I pulled straight out of my ear) about Vancouver's recent crime wave.

The US dollar has sank like a stone recently. This is going to kill BC's marijuana industry. It is no secret that BC exports a lot of marijuana to the US. Exporting high-quality marijuana is what BC does. But thanks to the crashing US dollar, there is just no money to be made in exporting marijuana to the States anymore. So what is going to happen to all of that excess marijuana that is not going to go south?

A lot of people are going to get stuck with marijuana that they can't sell. This is good news for Canadians that love pot. The price will crash domestically, meaning that by Christmas time, Saskatoon will be swamped with cheap and high-quality weed. But this also means an increase in gang violence. There will be debts that can not be repaid and those issues will not be resolved by marijuana growers going bankrupt. It will be resolved with violence. And tragically, that is what we are already seeing.

But there is another evil side effect of the increase in gang violence. The victims of gang violence will be used by the Conservative government to push tough-on-crime initiatives that will not decrease crime.

- Crack down on money laundering by organized crime.

- Earmark $64 million for a "National Anti-Drug Strategy."

- Announce the hiring of 1,000 new RCMP officers as well money to help municipalities hire 2,500 more police.

- Introduce legislation to limit house arrest so that those committing violent crime would be forced to serve jail time; to require mandatory minimum sentences for gun crimes, and tougher sentencing for violent repeat offenders; to establish a reverse-onus principle in bail hearings for firearm-related offences.

In light of the recent tasering incident in the Vancouver International Airport, more police just might lead to an increase in crime. At any rate, the National Anti-Drug Strategy is the subject of my ire. Cracking down on grow-ops won't affect the crime rate, it will just make selling and growing pot way more profitable for the people that don't get caught.

At least they are paying attention to treatment. But I have to wonder what the prevention strategy will entail. What kind of reefer madness are they going to have to come up with in order to convince people that marijuana is the devil's own weed? Will they have contests to come up with the best "Just Say No" poster? Or will Canada come up with their very own version of Pete's couch? I just can't wait to find out, so I can make fun of it. In the meantime, I will make fun of the ONDCP for coming up with this bit of worthless reefer madness propaganda.



"Smoking marijuana is the safest thing in the world."

PS: While googling I came across this impressive debunking of reefer madness propaganda at Daily Kos. Enjoy.

Ron Paul Money

I was thinking of starting my own religion but maybe I should just start a kingqueendom instead. We'll call it Tanyaland and I promise that everybody will get kittens. The best part is that I can have money printed with my picture on it. Just like Ron Paul. He sure does have some devoted fans.

I wish that money had pictures of bunnies and kittens on it instead of old, dead white males.

A Use for the Canadian Wheat Board

This is the way to fix Afghanistan.

Sex Toys for Troy King

Have I ever told you how much I love Loretta Nall? She is just way too cool.

Apparently things are so grand and wonderful in the state of Alabama, that the attorney general has to look for busywork to keep himself occupied. This means calling for a crackdown on sex toys.

No, no you did not misread that. Douchebag Attorney General Troy King wants to pass a law to make it easier to crack down on stores that sell sex toys. Consenting adults having too much fun in the privacy of their own homes is giving this turdlinger the vapors.

In response, the charming Loretta Nall responds with:

Now, I only have six words to say to AG King about his anti-dildo crusade..FROM MY COLD DEAD FINGERS TROY!!!

Can I get an AMEN?

I understand how frightening and threatening it must be for Mr. King to imagine that there are people (women!!) that get their rocks off in ways that he finds distasteful and sinful. However, what happens between myself and my tool box is none of your jizzwax.

I endorse Loretta Nall's campaign to send this weenie some...weenies. Fill his mailbox full of sparkling new sex toys.

US dollar devestates BC Bud industry

The falling US dollar has accomplished what the DEA never could: made BC's marijuana industry unprofitable.

WHITEFISH - For years, backpacks crammed with cash have slipped north into Canada, followed closely by hockey bags packed with premium marijuana skating south into Montana.

A favorable exchange rate (not long ago, one American dollar bought one and a half Canadian dollars) made the smuggling profitable, and thus popular.

But last month, for the first time in more than 30 years, the two currencies were at par, matched in value, and today a Canadian dollar buys $1.10 U.S.

They will be giving pot away around these parts by Christmas. It's too bad that this will lead to more gang violence and more tiresome calls for a crackdown on grow-ops. When will we learn?

Link Dump

A few things to chew on:

Here is the relationship between poppies, war and drug policy.

Bill Piper at HuffPo has an interesting article called Are Higher Cocaine Prices A Good Thing? He presents his view that the War on Drugs is a failure and the increase in cocaine prices that the Drug Czar has been bragging about leads to increased violence and drug-trafficking. I am in total agreement with Bill until he suggests that the US should increase funding to decrease the demand for drugs at home. While helping people get out of drug addiction is a worthwhile cause, trying to decrease the demand for drugs with treatment programs seems doomed to fail. Maybe we need to rethink the ways that we view drug addiction.

Speaking of re-thinking addiction, Walrus magazine has a thought-provoking article about the ways that we view addiction.

“There’s no drug policy that will have much effect on addiction,” he says from his home in Vancouver. “I think that’s one of our diversions: ‘If we could just get the drug policy right, we’d solve our addiction problem.’ I don’t think that would touch it. The only way we’ll ever touch the problem of addiction is by developing and fostering viable culture.”

Drug use is a very normal part of our culture. Catholics have wine, Aboriginals have sacred tobacco and many cultures use cannabis. I can go to school and drink buckets of caffeine to keep me going during the day. Why are some drugs OK while other drugs are demonized?

Finally, I bring you Larry Campbell's solution to our drug problems and the influence of the United States on Canadian drug policy. I <3 Larry Campbell.

Jumping off of the Ron Paul band-wagon

Although I was never infatuated with Ron Paul in any way, I have to admit that I have avoided dumping on him as forcefully as I should have. I was impressed by his opposition to the war in Iraq and to the war on drugs. Those are two important issues and it's very refreshing to see a Republican presidential candidate oppose them so forcefully. But I was very unimpressed by his fetus-worshiping platform. An obstetrician-gynecologist that does not understand the profound harm to women caused by abortion bans sets off huge alarm bells for me. He introduced the Sanctity of Life Act in 2005. The act would define human life as existing from conception and call a fetus a "person" deserving of protection. It's too bad that Mr. Paul regards women as little more than fetus-incubators. This alone should be enough to damn Ron Paul's presidency. But it gets even better.

Ron Paul is opposed to the following:

- public education
- stopping genocide in Darfur
- aid for Katrina victims
- affirmative action
- Civil Rights Act of 1964. He believes that property owners should have the right to keep the brown hordes off of their property.

There is even more creamy goodness about the wingnuttiness of Ron Paul. Daily Kos diarist phenry has a must-read four part series about Ron Paul and his voting record. Don't take my word for it that Ron Paul is wack and does not deserve the support of so-called progressives. Read for yourself. His ideas about the Federal Reserve are pretty wacky too.

Ron Paul sucks so many noodles that I am devoting an entire category to him. Stop supporting this knob and stop giving him money. Support a democrat, any democrat (even Hillary, with her scary tooth-filled vagina) before supporting Ron Paul.

Update: Fixed a typo. Thanks for notifying me in a way that preserves my delicate ego. The lively debate in the comments is a refreshing change. I had no idea I would touch a nerve with so many of you Paul supporters.

Also, via Jesus General, I bring you Storm Front's endorsement of Ron Paul's candidacy. Very interesting stuff.

Election 2007

Now for the election analysis that you all have been dying to see. Health care? Waiting lists? Equalization? Election reform? Fixed election dates? Screaming leaders' debates?

Who cares?

I know you are dying to hear about the real issues.

What else did premier-elect Brad Wall do bad while he was in university?

Poor Brad had to confess that he did indeed smoke marijuana once when he was young. It just makes me wonder what else he had to tell his poor mother after she got off of the fainting couch. I simply must know.

Has Brad Wall ever:

- looked at a naked pic?
- forgotten to wash his hands after peeing?
- had sex before marriage?
- picked his nose?
- used potty no-no words?
- left the toilet seat up?
- cheered for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers?

At least he is honest. Calvert and "No Wacky Tabacky Karwacki" are either liars or just plain pathetic. To go your whole life without even once experiencing the demon weed is a life not worth living.

Also, Tom Shapiro beat the Green party in Regina Coronation Park. Take that!

YAY! We're not the worst. I would hate to be the PC's right now. Our candidate in Saskatoon Nutana, Christine King, stomped the PC's by several votes.

Naomi Wolf and Creeping Fasism

This scares the crap out of me. We are all doomed. Here are the ten steps to fascism.

Growing Fear

The National Post has done it again. They have an absolutely fabulous bit of uninformed reefer madness propaganda. They rant on and on about the danger posed by growops run by gangs. And what is their solution to this problem, pray tell? To throw more money at this problem. Fill up the jails with gang-bangers. We all know how well that has worked in the US.

It drives me absolutely crazy to read this garbage. All you have to do to avoid the violence associated with grow-ops is to legalize pot. But such a simple, straight-forward solution is not embraced. Instead we force peaceful pot people to subsidize criminal organizations. Meanwhile, we have a provincial election going on and not a single one of our provincial leaders has the courage or the intelligence to do the one thing that would provide a huge blow to the problem of gangs and violence in this province - legalize marijuana.

Blog Neglect

I just haven't had time to keep this blog alive lately. I feel kind of bad but I have just been too busy to care. Anyway, here is a nice attack ad to laugh at. This is how well the election is going!

SKMP Press: The good, the bad and the ugly

Saskvotes saw fit to blog about Tom Shapiro's candidacy in this provincial election, but they didn't bother to tell us his name. Patrick Book refers to him as "A Regina man suffering from AIDS". How rude! A person is identified by their name, not their physical condition. Luckily, John saved the day and wrote a very supportive blog post over at Abandoned Stuff.

So far I haven't heard any stoner jokes, references to grass-roots activism or smoky-filled back rooms. I am very disappointed. :(

Trouble in My Constituency

According to Celestial Junk, Sask Party campaign signs are being vandalized in my constituency of Saskatoon Meewasin. I noticed this myself, as I was driving down Warman Road in my ugly little car.

I want to make it clear that I deride these tactics. But I don't think anybody would like my hippy, liberal, environmentally friendly solution to this problem:

Ditch the campaign signs.

We humans are such sheep that we need flashy, pretty campaign signs to decide who should represent us for the next four years. We need to fill the landfills with this nonsense and our candidates need to spend all that money on this crap. Who cares? Quit being a bunch of sheep and quit letting yourselves be influenced by advertising.

If I ran Elections Saskatchewan, I would only let candidates spend $1000 and have no billboards or campaign signs. They could have a web-site and a few speeches to sell their ideas. That's it. There wouldn't be any campaign signs to destroy and there would be less crap in the landfills. Everybody wins and I never have to look at butt-ugly campaign signs ever again.

Pot 2.0

While I fiddle around trying to fix this $#^$(%^# bog, go ahead and read this reefer madness from the Drug Czar. They are at it again.

Where did my comments go?

I changed my template and my haloscan comments disappeared. Being a n00b when it comes to all these technical matters really sucks. As soon as I have a minute I will try to fix it. In the meantime I will re-activate blogger comments.

Have you ever been?

Marijuana

Canada's number one google search.

From the Brits

Drug prohibition gets kicked in Britain in the Independent. The North Wales Police Authority deserves credit for endorsing Chief Constable of North Wales, Richard Brunstrom.

Canada chooses cannabis, not so high on steroids

So it isn't just Ross Rebliati, the famous Olympic snow-boarder that tested positive for weed.

Do you think cannabis is a performance-enhancing substance?

Saskblogs Meet at Jerry's Food Emporium

*WARNING* Contains self-satisfied, blogger-ific navel-gazing. If you want to read about the drug war and why it sucks, go and read some of the links in the side bar until I decide to write about the provincial election.

Against my better judgment, I went to a Saskbloggers luncheon at Jerry's Food Emporium. It was a lot of fun and very educational to meet some of the faces behind Saskatchewan bloggers. I met Lance from Catprint in the Mash,Saskboy from Abandoned Stuff and Kate of Small Dead Animals. There were a number of other people there, including the leader of the Liberal Party, David Karwacki. If I have left you out, please put your name in the comments.

Update: I also met Twyla.

While it was a great experience meeting these people and chatting, the experience was ruined by the realization that I hate blogging. All the petty internet bickering and blog wars and email wars and on and on. I hate it completely. And it is pretty much impossible to blog if you are as bored by this stuff as I am. Just to keep up with all the petty blog wars is difficult. So when Kate was talking about an internet poll that was rigged by a bunch of bloggers, my only thought was "Why does anybody care about an internet poll in the first place? Hasn't everybody figured out by now that they are completely irrelevant?" I have a hard time believing that anybody takes that stuff seriously. But I guess that they do. The emperor has no clothes?

Also, Kate was talking about a photograph of smog that was photo-shopped. Again, who cares? That has nothing to do with anything. It says nothing about the validity of global warming. It just means that that reporter was stupid and lazy. Kate certainly got a lot of attention by mentioning it. If anybody has a link to that story and is so inclined, please link it.

Although I absolutely love writing and putting my ideas out on the internet and I love engaging people about the drug war, I despise blogging. I will continue to put my left-wing, hippy liberal views out there but don't be surprised if I shut down the comments.

Don't ever let me write about blogging ever again. It's giving me a migraine.

The Provincial Election

I get to help the SKMP run in the election. This is going to be a lot of fun. We go to the polls on Nov. 7th. As soon as we get candidates registered I will blog it and put it on the SKMP site, as soon as I figure out how it works*. I am not so techno-literate, I probably fried my brain with all the drugs that I have supposedly used.

Anyway, the idea of going door to door and engaging the public about the harm caused by the war on drugs, makes me very happy indeed.

* If you know how to use Joomla, let me know.

Harper’s “war on drugs” regressive and irresponsible: Green Party

I have to give credit where it's due. The Green Party has taken a non-cowardly stance in support of reforming our drug policy.

Jared Giesbrecht, Justice Critic for the Green Party, added that the 2002 Senate Special Committee on Drugs and examples from European countries have led the Green Party to the conclusion that it is time to legalize the adult use of marijuana, developing a taxation rate for the substance similar to that of tobacco.

“Mr. Harper’s plan to impose tougher penalties on users of marijuana and other drugs is a misguided approach. Substance abuse is a medical issue, not a criminal issue. Simply spending more tax dollars on drug law enforcement is not the answer. Canadians want to see a comprehensive anti-drug strategy that gets to the root of the problem, not Harper’s patch-work agenda that seeks the quick fix.”

Good job Green Party! I just wish that the other parties could get on board with the legalization of marijuana. The Liberals and the NDP take the cowards way out and strongly support the Insite safe injection site while completely ignoring the drug war. I won't waste my time supporting the NDP until they live up to their policy resolutions and get serious about ending the drug war.

Of course, if a party dared to speak of legalizing all drugs, they would get two gold stars from me. But that's asking a lot, I know. I wonder if people are ready to hear that message.

"No, I can't tell you where to buy weed."

Harper's new drug policy emulates proven disaster

Thanks for the editorial, Danger lurks in Conservative drug strategy (SP, Oct. 3), but the blow has fallen just the same. The wilful ignorance of Stephen Harper's drug policy is dangerous indeed.

For example, Harper says: "If you sell drugs or produce drugs, you will go to prison." No, not really. I know this because his policy is copied from our good neighbours to the south, who now have more than two million people in prison while drug use grows.

The FBI reported 820,000 drug arrests in 2006 but still the U.S. is flooded with illegal drugs. The Office of National Drug Control Policy tracks the prices of heroin and cocaine -- prices that have consistently fallen as drug penalties and enforcement have increased.

Any economist will tell you that as supply increases beyond demand, prices fall. And why does supply increase? Because Americans really, really want drugs and will do anything to get them: harsh criminal penalties are no deterrent.

And where is drug use less prevalent? It's where drugs are legal. Yes, addiction, disease and overdose are less frequent where people are not "protected" by ridiculous laws. That's because social norms are far more effective than the government in controlling drug use.

What is worst about Harper's drug policy is that it sins against the fundamental principle of democracy. The genius of democracy is that when a man has the freedom to make his own choices, on average he'll live better and more happily, even though he has the freedom to make mistakes.

If you like paying taxes for no reason, if you like putting people in jail to make them worse, if you like increased fear, crime, disease, death and addiction, then Harper's your man. If you long for a safer, freer, happier world, however, the Conservative drug policy is a disaster.

Ken Sailor

Saskatoon

Good job on the letter, my friend. Except for that man-talk at the end. Male as standard, female as secondary is a good example of insidious sexism. It's lazy to write this way and just goes to show how underhanded sexism is, when a highly enlightened man who hates the drug war, falls into this trap.

Down with Hippies

From the Ottawa Sun we are treated to this gem:

The federal government's proposed drug strategy simply won't work. It smacks of a strategy driven by hype, emotion and political expediency. It will do absolutely nothing to reduce the use of drugs in this country.

Can we not learn something from our southern neighbours about a failed drug strategy, a strategy that dates back to the 1970s. Or as Canadians are we slow learners? The most punitive, draconian drug laws in the world has not stopped the flow into and the use of drugs in the U.S. "Say no to drugs!" What a joke.

It's about time we start treating drug addiction for what it is, namely, a public health problem.

Emile Therien

(Most punitive? Some countries execute drug dealers)

The editors at the Ottawa Sun seem to think that Canada should get some credit because we aren't like those bad places that execute drug dealers. That's like me going to work teaching kids and expecting a gold star because I don't call them names and beat them with a strap.

Romney would lock up MJ Patients

What a knob.

I get mail

One Robert Jereski sent me an email asking for my thoughts and opinions about Plan Mexico. Plan Mexico is the $1 billion the Americans are giving to the Mexican government to fight the drug war. John Walters and Co. have been frantically trying to sell the drug war by claiming that the price of cocaine has gone down and thus the Drug War is not a failure. Don't listen to those drugged-up hippies!

Of course, calling a temporary increase in the price of cocaine in the drug war a victory just goes to show how delusional the powers-that-be really are. Despite the demonization and otherization of scary, evil drug addicts, the fact remains that they are people. They are just as resourceful as those of us that choose to limit our drug-taking to legal and socially acceptable drugs such as alcohol, tobacco or prescription drugs. A poor, determined, desperate addict will simply turn to crimes such as prostitution or break and enter to afford their habit. Middle-class and wealthy people that can afford to pay for their habit simply find another supplier for their drugs. Also, new dealers will come in and supply the drugs that the ADDICTS are looking for. Any price increases thanks to law enforcement are temporary at best. As the eloquent blogger at I was the state says, when supply of a product decreases, the price goes up. With a highly profitable commodity like cocaine, there will always be people willing to risk jail time to make the big bucks.

At any rate, I am rambling again, as I like to do. I am writing this post to address Robert Jereski, who was kind enough to solicit my opinion about American interference in Mexican foreign policy. He pointed me to the fact that the Clinton administration supported an equally disastrous program known as Plan Columbia. Thanks for reminding me that Democrats and Republicans are equally imperialistic when it comes to the drug war. Apparently, Amnesty International are opposed to plan Mexico unless it targets the deep flaws in the judicial and security systems.

I have to admit, that while I am flattered that strangers on the internet value my opinion on the drug war and foreign policy, I feel deeply unqualified to comment. There is no question that the incidents at Oaxaca show that there is corruption in the criminal justice system and it needs to be cleaned up. I would love nothing more than for the corrupt Mexican regime would stop murdering disobedient left-wing dissidents that don't approve of the government. I am nothing, if not an opinionated dissident school marm mom with a blog full of opinions that will change the world.

However, let's not lose sight of the big picture. This blog is not called "Blame the drug war" for nothing. I am trying desperately to emulate the great feminist blogger Twisty Faster. I Blame the Patriarchy steps back and shows how patriarchy should be blamed instead of the individuals living within it. I want to put the blame on the drug war instead of on the individual drug addicts and dealers living within this system. Why blame them when it's the entire, corrupt system that needs to go? How is it helpful to rail against the no-good drug pushers preying on the addicts, when so much of the harm caused by drugs is caused by the drug war and not the use of drugs? Talk of punishing pushers and healing addicts distracts everybody from the real issue: The drug war sucks.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Amnesty International says nothing about the drug war. The number one cause of police corruption and the state abusing its' power against its' own people and Amnesty International says nothing about it? Where is the policy statement at AI calling for the immediate end to the war on drugs? Like I said before, I am but a lowly school marm mom with a whole lot of opinions and please correct me if I'm wrong. But I did not find anything at AI calling for an end to the drug war.

The UN is another international organization that supports the drug war. They have the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and resolutions reading like a drug warriors' wet dream.

Until these international organizations and ngo's can pull their heads out of their butts and support ending the drug war, they will get criticism from me. *BURN* Calling for reform of Mexico's corrupt judicial system is great but we should not forget to call for an end to the drug war as well.

Also, to answer your question about US president's, here is a really good summary of the war on drugs. Jimmy Carter supported the legalization of marijuana but it never went anywhere. It's hard to expect a lowly US president to be able to counteract all those years of reefer madness propaganda.

All of the US presidents have supported the war on drugs. All of them had a number of drug war pushers for Drug Czar. The Drug Czar title has always reminded me of a bunch of teens playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement. At any rate, all of the Drug Czars lived up to the pointy-hat authoritarian image and spent piles of money on enforcement while drugs have gotten increasingly cheaper and more available over the years.

What's Harper Smoking?

Dan Gardner rocks. Go and read it right now.

Tough on Drug Pushers, Soft on Users

The polarization of political issues into the two neat categories of right and left has always struck me as problematic. There are only two sides to every issue - right and wrong. The Tories are trying to cast themselves as the white-hat cowboys by promoting a tough-on-drugs campaign. The Conservatives want to crack down on pushers while going soft on the users. What this means is more money spent fighting grow-ops and also an increase in spending to save the addicts from themselves. Meanwhile the Tories are casting the NDP as black-hats while they gush on about the Insite safe injection site. But nobody is promoting the most important harm-reduction idea of all: repealing prohibition.

Why does the NDP spend so much time focusing on the safe injection site while Harper is promising to spend $22 million on busting grow-ops? I have yet to hear an NDP member publicly support legalizing marijuana, a measure that would eliminate grow-ops and do something about the underground black market economy that is crippling our society. All the drug-related violence that the police claim to care so much about is related directly to the drug war, not the use of drugs. Yet none of these cowards has the courage to say it.

The political left is not doing a good job of opposing the war on drugs. They focus on harm-reduction while completely ignoring the war on marijuana users. Meanwhile, there is $10 million promised for "prevention initiatives", meaning worthless reefer madness propaganda about how bad pot is for your health. Tony Collavano, the president of the Canadian Police Association recently stated that marijuana is more harmful than tobacco. I guess he didn't know that marijuana does not cause lung cancer and is far less harmful than tobacco or alcohol. Pot has never caused a single death in the thousands of years it has been used for both recreation and medicinal use. I am fearful for this world when the head of the police state Canadian police is promoting such blatant lies. We may have to ship them off to Jamaica for some education.

The NDP says they don't want no "US war on drugs" but they don't define what that means or why that is a bad idea. The US has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Black people are jailed at disproportionately high rates compared to whites. Since their war on drugs began when Nancy Reagan started her "Just Say No" campaign, drugs have gotten more potent and cheaper in price over the years. Since that time the American government has devastated Columbia with narco-aerial spraying raids that has had a tremendous and negative impact on the environment and the economy. Herbicides are poison and they ruin food and drug crops alike. American money has funded the Columbian army in war on their own people. The American government is not a role model for Canada to follow.

The war on drugs does not reduce the number of drug users. The black market encourages drug use in a million ways that you can only understand if you have spent some time connected to the drug culture in some way. Selling drugs is profitable and recruiting new customers makes money. Only a small percentage of users and growers get caught.

All you have to do to end the black market economy is legalize . Growing and selling the wrong plants shouldn't be a crime.

Harper Drug Strategy: He Really Hates Those Smelly Hippies

As I was watching this news clip, I couldn't help but be struck by the giant mountain of stupid this brand new Tory get-tough-on-drugs campaign is. First I get to be embarrassed to be Canadian by the sight of our Prime Minister bloviating on the harms of the drug culture. He rails against the evils of something he knows absolutely nothing about. Harry Pothead and the Marijuana Stone is the new Taliban.

While Harper tries to resell very old and very bad ideas under the guise of saving the children from drugs, I am subjected to weak and cowardly Tory pandering disguised as commentary from CTV. "The US drug war has had mixed results." Dude, mixed results? The US war on drugs has led to them having the highest incarceration rates in the world and the cheapest drug prices. They fail at failing.

The government and the knobs that run it don't care about you or fighting crime. They have a drug war to sell. It doesn't matter to them that it's a complete and utter failure. The lefties are in utter disarray, fighting amongst themselves (NDP, Greens, "Liberals") and now they can push tough-on-crime policies that will increase crime. The price of weed will go up and people will start lying about their pot use on anonymous surveys again. The pot rates will go down by 1/2 % and they will declare victory in the war on drugs.

All this talk of busting grow-ops or "dangerous drug pushers" is ridiculous. Why do people fall for it? Pot is a safe drug and is demonized for political reasons. It's less dangerous than chewing gum. Getting tough on grow-ops makes as much sense as going after Starbucks in a war on coffee.

Jena, O. J. and the Jailing of Black America

I am embarrassed to be a human being when such a blatantly racist and horrific diatribe gets posted in the New York Times. Give me a break! the following paragraph starts out good, as Patterson briefly acknowledges the role that the drug war has played in incarcerating black Americans.

America has more than two million citizens behind bars, the highest absolute and per capita rate of incarceration in the world. Black Americans, a mere 13 percent of the population, constitute half of this country’s prisoners. A tenth of all black men between ages 20 and 35 are in jail or prison; blacks are incarcerated at over eight times the white rate.

The effect on black communities is catastrophic: one in three male African-Americans in their 30s now has a prison record, as do nearly two-thirds of all black male high school dropouts. These numbers and rates are incomparably greater than anything achieved at the height of the Jim Crow era. What’s odd is how long it has taken the African-American community to address in a forceful and thoughtful way this racially biased and utterly counterproductive situation.

Those of us that are in the drug policy reform committee have been complaining about the impact of the uneven application of the drug laws for years. America's incarceration rate is shockingly high and this issue is not being addressed. Black, poor communities are often targeted for drug raids while what people do behind closed doors in their white, upper, middle-class suburban homes gets ignored. It's ridiculous to think that anybody in any community should be persecuted for smoking the wrong plant. But from this point on, the article descends into race-baiting.

But there is another equally important cause: the simple fact that young black men commit a disproportionate number of crimes, especially violent crimes, which cannot be attributed to judicial bias, racism or economic hardships. The rate at which blacks commit homicides is seven times that of whites.

The rest of the article can be summed up like this:

Rappers
OJ
Divorce
Domestic violence
Bitches and hoes

But it's not because of racism and poverty.

Rappers sell racist and sexist crap because white people buy it. Domestic violence against women is a global epidemic. Black men live in a patriarchy and have internalized the hate as much as anybody else.

Anyway, I haven't got the perfect rebuttal to this except %$&#*^)#%#. Also, Patterson can suck it.

Police group backs stiffer drug stance

OTTAWA -- The 50,000-member Canadian Police Association yesterday hailed the Harper government's promise of a new get-tough drug strategy, expected to be unveiled this week. "That is a cornerstone, because a lot of violence is related to drugs," said association president Tony Cannavino, after a Parliament Hill ceremony to honour fallen law-enforcement officers.

Tony Cannavino must have been misquoted. This is what he really means:

"That is a cornerstone, because a lot of violence is related to the drug war."

Harper government to unveil get-tough national drug strategy

I am not in the least surprised to discover that our "Health Minister" Tony Clement has just recently promised to unleash a get-tough war-on-drugs approach to fight the problems caused by drug abuse. The Conservative government showed it's opposition to sensible drug policies when it killed the Liberals' weak and mealy-mouthed marijuana decrim bill in 2004. The decrim bill was introduced in response to the Senate Committee report from 2001 that recommended the legalization of marijuana. Legalization would mean allowing cannabis to be regulated and sold in a similar manner to alcohol and cigarettes. Conservatives howled with outrage at the idea of legalization and the Liberals came up with a decrim bill that would increase the penalties for growers while at the same time decreasing the penalties for end users.

Since Clement is a knob he has a ridiculous and easily refuted set of talking points:

"There's been a lot of mixed messages going out about illicit drugs," Mr. Clement said in an interview Saturday after a symposium designed to bring together Canada's arts and health communities to combat mental health issues.

There's also a health-care cost element to suggesting to young people that using illicit drugs is OK, the minister said.

"The fact of the matter is they're unhealthy," Mr. Clement said.

"They create poor health outcomes."

Whether illegal drugs are dangerous or not is not the issue. Every illegal drug has different health effects on the human body, ranging from relatively benign in the case of marijuana to potentially deadly, in the case of crystal meth. What is disputed is the impact of the war on drugs. Drugs are cheaper and more potent than ever, thanks to prohibition. The law supports a thriving black market economy and wastes our resources. Despite the hard work of drug policy reform groups and the ignored Senate Report, the government has not yet figured it out. Prohibition is a complete and total failure.

At any rate, talk of sensible drug policy looks to be a thing of the past. The Globe and Mail looks at both sides of the drug policy debate and this is what opponents of the tough on crime measures have to say:

Dr. Martin says he's all for increasing penalties for people who sell illegal drugs, including gangsters, but wonders why the Tories would want to target users when he says similar strategies in other countries haven't worked.

"I can't understand why the Conservatives are embracing a war-on-drugs approach that has proven to fail," he said.

"By all means, go after the pushers. By all means, absolutely go after the organized crime gangs that are the real parasites in this situation," he added.

"But for heaven's sake, treat the user as a medical problem and adopt the solutions that have proven to work in other countries."

They couldn't find a single MP to state that the war on drugs is a failure. Where are the voices of politicians that think the whole thing stinks and legalize all drugs? What a bunch of cowardly, ineffectual, brainwashed knobs.

I despair at this upcoming federal election. My choices are going to be between dumb and dumber. Should I vote NDP or Green Party? Maybe I should just start my own country.

Drug Link Round-Up

Sorry for my lack of posting. I have no brilliant excuse, I just haven't had much to say lately. Anyway, here are the stories that have been catching my eye recently:

Canada signs on to fight poppy trade. Canadian troops will be helping drug-eradication efforts in Afghanistan. It is no secret that the opium crop has been increasing over the years, thanks to the poverty and the instability in the country. Poor farmers are increasingly turning to the opium trade to feed their families. There is one thing that both drug warriors and drug policy reformers agree on:

"Breaking this linkage [between drugs production and insurgent financing] is vital to creating a stable, prosperous and democratic, Afghanistan ..." says the communique, released after the closed-door gathering.

But drug policy reformers and drug warriors will never agree on the solution to the problem. I am increasingly disgusted by the way the International community refuses to see how the drug war is helping terrorist groups and failing to see that increased enforcement will increase the harm caused by drugs. What we need to do is legalize it. If we want to help the people of Afghanistan we should be buy the opium crops and use the opium for pain-killing medicine. We should legalize all of the opium that is being grown everywhere and get away from this ridiculous domination mentality which is ruining the planet.

And more stupidity! Britain is caught in the grip of reefer madness as there are continual reports of children being trafficked into the underground cannabis trade. The New Zealand Herald refers to these kids as cannabis slaves. I haven't read such ridiculous reefer madness since Emily Murphy's The Black Candle when she stated that:

"When coming from under the influence of (marijuana), the victims present the most horrible condition imaginable. They are dispossessed of their natural and normal willpower, and their mentality is that of idiots. If this drug is indulged to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict."

These cannabis slaves are apparently being forced to tend to these cannabis poison gardens. They have to water the plants and have to deal with the electrical dangers of grow-ops. You know this article is absolutely crazy reefer madness when you get to this prize quote:

Police believe organised crime gangs, largely Vietnamese, have moved quickly to dominate Britain's cannabis market after declassification in 2004 increased the potential rewards of growing and selling the drug and decreased the risks of punishment.

There is no reason to believe that the dangerous criminal gangs benefit from decriminalization in any way, as it is still illegal to grow or sell cannabis in the UK. There are simply decreased penalties for users. In fact, the criminal gangs benefit greatly from this situation and if the government wants to seriously harm the gangs, they simply have to put cannabis in the legitimate drug market. If you can buy cannabis at the corner store, there is no reason to buy it on the black market. This would have the added benefit of saving the children from the horrors of being cannabis slaves. Look at that, I have saved the children and a whole lot of money in one fell swoop.

829,625

That is the number of marijuana arrests in America every year.

The New Prince of Pot

THE Prince of Wales will today open the only public garden in Britain to be allowed to grow cannabis.

The Prince will officially open the second phase of The Alnwick Garden, in Alnwick, Northumberland, which includes the UK's only public poison garden, growing plants such as cannabis and coca under lock and key.

I resent these jerks that are calling this a "poison" garden. In a sane world this would be the garden of wonderful, healing medicine. And it wouldn't be restricted to people better than us low-class scum royalty.

Prince Charles spent $82.4 million US (or Canadian, take that economy!) on this garden. How much do a few fluorescent lights in a closet and some 'ponics cost anyway? I could have dug that out of the back of my closet and had Charles hooked up in no time.

Here is a link to some pics of the garden. I didn't see any pot plants anywhere, so I am very disappointed.

Look at all the drugs we seized

I never get tired of reading news stories about the number of drugs/marijuana plants that have been seized and kept out of the hands of young innocents and therefore the War on Drugs is a great victory. This idea is a theme running through many if not all drug war news stories. Every drug bust gets closer to the alleged goal of the War on Drugs: complete eradication.

Here is yet another one of these stories and the lies and misinformation should be readily apparent to the reader. Alas, in a reefer madness saturated universe, the reader will be forgiven if he or she requires Tanya-the-know-it-all blogger to point out truths which will become obvious. Take this news article from the Guelph Mercury Newspaper. The headline proclaims:

Regional Pot Bust Scores 5,552 Plants

As if the eradication of 5,552 plants means anything when it comes to the War on Drugs. I wonder how much marijuana is grown, harvested and sold in a year. Does anybody know? Because it is pretty difficult to determine the availability of an illegal, black market substance. Maybe I should pull 5,552 dandelions out of my garden and write a newspaper story declaring victory in the war on garden weeds. We don't need to know the size of the market or the number of weeds in existence to know whether our efforts are having an impact!

No drug war news story would be complete without an estimation of the street value of the crop.

Sergeant Cam Croal of the RCMP drug section said the plants had a street value of between $3.5 million and $5 million.

But no mention of where that number comes from or an acknowledgment that the drug war is what makes these substances so valuable in the first place.

I do think it would be a great idea if we took the advice at the end of the article and helped the police out with some handy Crime-Stopper tips. If you know of anybody in possession of a roach clip or a roach, be sure to give Crime-Stoppers a call. They need your help!

Croal encouraged anyone with information about illegal drugs to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

Because remember kids, teens smoking pot is the greatest security risk in the universe and it must be stopped. So be sure to give them a call and tell them all about the marijuana-using terrorists.

This has been the latest edition of Recognizing Reefer Madness and Pro-Drug War Propaganda.

Uncle Tom Chris Rock

While it is true that I hate Uncle Toms like Bill Cosby and Chris Rock with an undying passion, I did enjoy this anti-drug war screed.



Just don't watch anything else that he does. It is absolutely terrible and the fact that Rock is famous makes me fear for the future of the universe. He really really hates bitches women.

Why am I watching this garbage? I was over at Drug War Rant and read about the lack of opposition to the war on drugs in the black community and I did a Chris Rock search on youtube. I will go wash myself in bleach now, thanks.

For some prize quotes about the racial basis of the drug laws, go here. This is my "favorite" quote:

"If a peaceable red man is subjected to the regular use of alcoholic beverage, he will speedily be put back to the plane of the savage. The Government long since recognized this and absolutely prohibits the introduction of alcoholic beverage into an Indian reservation. If a negro takes up a regular use of alcoholic beverage, in a short time he will degenerate to the level of the cannibal. No matter how high the stage of evolution, the result is the same."

Busting Grow-ops a Success!

If it's in the newspaper it has to be true. Surrey's recent success at eradicating grow-ops has been all the rage in the BC newspapers these days.

Surrey Expects to Be Grow-Op Free by the end of the year!

Busting Grow-Ops a Success so far!

Is the drug war actually succeeding or is this just more reefer madness propaganda? I am sorry to disappoint all the drug warriors out there, but there is no reason to believe that the city of Surrey will succeed in eradicating the grow-ops. All of us cannabis consumers can breathe a sigh of relief.

You see, they come to their erroneous conclusion that there are fewer grow-ops due to the fact that they have gone after home-owners with suspiciously high electricity consumption. The problem is that it is quite easy to bypass the electrical meter and get your electricity for free. I can thank my university prof for telling me all about it in that electrical engineering class that I failed out of. I wonder if he had a few plants in his closet. Fortunately, cannabis consumers and growers don't always live up to the dopey, stoner stereotype. They can read the newspaper and learn that grow-ops will be targeted and will take measures to protect their crops. Shocking, I know.

These stories rely on the underlying assumption that eliminating grow-ops would be a wonderful thing for all of humanity. Of course, for those of us who know about all the beneficial medical and recreational uses for marijuana, nothing can be further from the truth. I doubt that all those patients that find relief for their medical problems would be happy to know that their medicine has been eliminated from the planet.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with marijuana and there is no reason or all the hysteria surrounding the use of this plant.

If you want to get rid of dangerous grow-ops it's simple. Legalize it and let people grow it where ever they want.

Wanda Sykes on Same-Sex Marriage

I read about the Gubernator vetoing same-sex marriage over at Feministing. Of course they posted a funny video of Wanda Sykes making fun of the anti-gay people.

But this post has nothing to do with that. As I was watching this video I laughed along with her bit about banning alcohol. She makes the typical jokes about her alcoholism. This makes me think a bit. If I ever become funny enough to become a comedian, will it be acceptable for me to make wake and bake jokes? Because I don't abuse a socially acceptable substance, I can't yet go there. *sigh*

ACLU will sue to halt teacher drug testing

Good news from Hawaii. Last year, the teachers were pressured into signing a contract that made drug-testing mandatory. Now the ACLU is suing to show their opposition to the teacher drug-testing proposal. I just wish they would or could do the same for students. Why should anybody be subjected to the pee police?

Drug-testing is one of those ideas that looks great on paper but is fraught with difficulty in practice. Most people don't realize that drug-testing is expensive, inaccurate, does not test for impairment or job performance and is an invasion of privacy. Luckily, we Canadians don't yet have to worry about this issue but who knows when we will be next. I always thought we were free of nut-job pro-lifers until I read this. If Americans do it, you can guarantee we will do it eventually.

And like I always say, if the only way you can identify drug users is by subjecting their pee to analysis in a lab, how bad can their drug problem really be?

A Cure for Cancer?

AMHERST — A Maccan-area man who says marijuana cures cancer admitted Thursday he grew marijuana on his property, turned it into an oil and distributed the oil free of charge to people fighting a variety of diseases.

However, Ricky Logan Simpson, 57, told the jury hearing his Nova Scotia Supreme Court trial on three drug charges that he should not be considered a criminal because the laws forbidding the possession, growing and distribution of marijuana are unconstitutional.

Simpson goes on to makes some extraordinary but truthful claims about the pharmaceutical industry. There is no reason to believe that they are doing everything that they can to fight cancer. We still have next-to-no access to legal medical marijuana but plenty of people that are self-medicating. It is funny to me that it's quite acceptable to self-medicate with drugs like ibuprofen and Sudafed. It is very possible to damage your liver by overdosing on ibuprofen but it's legal and we even give it to our kids to treat their fevers when they are sick. If we can do that then why can't we self-medicate with a harmless weed? Because the pharmaceutical industry would lose money and they own our politicians. There is plenty of anecdotal evidence available to prove that medical marijuana can be very helpful. I have read about many cancer and AIDS patients that were helped by the use of marijuana. I have a friend that uses it to treat her epilepsy but is unable to find a doctor to sign her papers to get her license to possess approved. Only 32 people in Saskatchewan have access to legal med pot, despite the fact that I easily know over 32 people that use pot for medical purposes.

All I can say is that I wish Ricky Simpson good luck in his fight against the over-zealous prohibition warriors that charged him possessing less than 30 grams of marijuana, possessing less than three kilograms of cannabis resin for the purpose of trafficking and unlawfully producing marijuana. He is challenging the constitutionality of our drug laws.

Time for some Viral Marketing

I found this over at DrugWarRant.

The Price of Pot

Here you can see the wonderful result of pot prohibition - elevated prices for an easy to grow weed. Luckily for me, Canada has pretty cheap pot prices, at just under 10 bucks a gram. This probably won't last long, what with the government's brand new up and coming anti-drug campaign. I wish they would hurry up and get on with it so that I can get started making fun of it. Hey, why should I wait to make fun of the government? I might as well try and do it right now.

Did you know that Canada has not run a serious or significant anti-drug campaign in twenty years? It's time that we followed in the footsteps of the small, brown south and cracked down on drugs. The Americans' anti-drug campaign worked so well that they now have more drug users than ever. I will now make up statistics to prove myself right.

Actually, drug use is completely unrelated to any anti-drug campaigns and is currently fashionable right now, just like marketing strip-pole Barbie to 8 year old girls. If they really want to reduce drug use they have to make it uncool. Show pictures of little old ladies in wheelchairs using pot for their aches and pains. There is nothing cool about that. If it worked in the Netherlands, it can work here.

I would love nothing more than for teenagers to give up smoking pot because it is something that only uncool, sick old people do. That would be sweet. Ruining drugs for teenagers is my life-long ambition.

Pot Saves Troops from Death in Afghanistan

I thought the headline to this story could use a re-write. They wrote:

MARIJUANA-SMOKING TROOPS BANNED FROM AFGHANISTAN

Don't bother reading this story. It's another whine about all the bad drug users in Canada. What on earth is wrong with getting high? I just ate a bag of chips. I experienced pleasure because of complex chemical reactions in my brain, meaning I am riding away on my chip high. I just hope that my employer isn't going to start drug-testing for chip metabolites because that would really suck.

Happy 9/11

I was as pissed as anybody else when the towers were destroyed. I will never forget the day that I turned on CNN at 7:30 in the morning and saw that the first tower had been wrecked. As I watched, the second tower was struck.

What was I thinking on 9/11?

Here comes World War III.

That hasn't happened yet, but thousands of Iraqis and Americans have since been killed. So I wasn't far off.

Support the Troops

Do you support the troops?

I found this at Shakesville.

I am feeling outraged

There are just so many stupid and evil things that make me mad about 156 times a day. Firstly, I witnessed Oprah featuring strip-pole do-it-yourself sexaylishious empowerfulment crap. I just can't stop myself from feeling frequently outraged.

But this racist crap in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is too much.

Everybody recognizes that most homicides in town are black-on-black crime. But some also believe the frustrating inability to get things under control is linked to the refusal of African-American residents living in violent neighborhoods to help cops put the bad guys behind bars.

Apparently Those people are responsible for all the crime. I suppose our blatantly racist culture with its' glorification of violence and drug culture has nothing to do with it. Most of that racist rap music is bought by white people and sold by Uncle Toms.

Where is the analysis about the uneven application of the drug laws? Despite the fact that the rate of drug use does not differ based on race, people of color are over-represented in the jails. The drug laws support a corrupt system that benefits the pharmaceutical industry and the prison-industrial complex at the expense of black and poor communities.

This whole article misses the entire point and it misses out on why the "Stop Snitching" movement is so popular. The police and our criminal justice system are corrupt from top-to-bottom. Rape is under-reported and under-prosecuted and now the media is clearly on the side of rapists, thanks to the NiFong fallout of the good-ole-boys-will-be-boys case. Of course a group full of boys that pay a black prostitute to strip are completely innocent darlings. The justice system goes after drug users and potheads, not dangerous criminals. The police would way rather bust a pot grow-op than deal with the global scourge of domestic violence. They are part of the problem.

Do you think I would report a fellow pot-smoker for the crime of smoking the wrong plants? Of course not. Would I report a violent criminal? (For all the good that might do?) Yes I would.

Even those people are capable of understanding the difference between a violent crime and a harmless act that the government considers a crime. Read the rest of the article and be prepared to experience your head exploding thanks to the reckless promotion of dangerous, hackneyed stereotypes.

The Winnipeg Free Press is at it again.

More reefer madness from the Free Press.

But she said part of the problem with marijuana is a perception among young people that the drug is less harmful and addictive than cigarettes.

That perception exists because it is true. Pot is less addictive and less harmful than cigarettes. Get a copy of the Senate Report and do some learning.

We don't give our kids enough credit

The Winnipeg Free Press is at it again. They are clutching their pearls and hitting the fainting couch because kids are smart enough to prefer marijuana to tobacco and alcohol. Just have a look at these prize quotes:

Smoking Pot Is More Popular Than Puffing On Tobacco: Study

A new study that concludes Canadian teens smoke more marijuana than cigarettes doesn't surprise Manitoba addiction officials.

An increasing rate of marijuana smoking among young people is just one finding in a report about substance report released Wednesday. Researchers say the report should serve as a "call to action" to parents.

Those parents should be celebrating! Their kids are making a smart choice to stay away from cigarettes and go for "dope" instead. The only dopes are the ones that wrote this completely one-sided and biased article. I guess the authors don't realize that pot doesn't cause cancer, is less addictive than coffee and is far safer than alcohol or tobacco.

"We're not trying to say to these kids: 'don't use', because that doesn't necessarily work. What we're saying is, understand the risks associated with ( pot ) use, and hopefully that will lead to less use," he says.

This is wrong on so many levels that I hardly know where to begin. The reason pot is so popular has nothing to do with drug education at all. Pot is cool right now because drugs are like fashion - they go in and out of style all the time. Teaching kids the truth about pot is not going to discourage them from smoking it because the truth is that pot isn't very dangerous. It doesn't cause cancer, and everything causes cancer. If you want to discourage kids from smoking pot, we have to make it a lot less cool.

Legalize pot for the medical users and show mainstream pot-smokers as little old ladies in wheelchairs treating their cancer. There is nothing cool about that.

There are far more examples of stupid in the article but pointing them out would take far too long and be far too painful for me. I am going to finish the laundry instead. It's more entertaining.

Changing the Debate About Drug Policy

Pete Guither has a thought-provoking post up about the way that we traditionally think about drug policy on this continent. I have been knee-deep in my attempts to make campaign literature and I am very glad that Pete posted this today. All I seem to be able to do is make some colorless references like "Drug policy costs $1 - $1.5 billion per year according to the Senate Special Committee". I want to appeal to emotion but with facts to back it up. I think that this is the way we drug-policy wonks want to go. We need to stop debating on their terms. When they say "But what about the children?" We say, "Yes, what about the children of farmers living in Columbia that have seen their non-drug crops destroyed by aerial spraying programs?" "What about all the children in the United States that don't have health insurance while you are spending billions of dollars on the Drug War?" I like it. I will get to work honing this argument. This upcoming provincial election could be fun.

O Canada: Long, disjointed rant ahead

In case you have been too busy looking for weed to pay attention to the latest bit of nonsense from our fine, Canadian, best-medicare-in-the-world government, well go ahead and light up your fatties and sit down and enjoy reading about this craziness. Our "health minister" Tony Clement must have smoked some bad wampum if he thinks that a brand-new re-packaging of very old and ineffective reefer madness propaganda is a good idea. He is quoted in the Vancouver Sun as saying that:

The government plans a campaign emphasizing the dangers of all illicit drugs in any quantity, he said. "We will discourage young people from thinking there are safe amounts or safe drugs," he said, later telling doctors that the marijuana available today isn't the same as what they might have smoked experimentally during their youth.

They must have gotten their drug information from the drug czar, John Walters. Marijuana is not stronger or more dangerous than it used to be. Saying it over and over again doesn't make it true.

Luckily sensible harm-reduction polices are being supported by the Canadian Medical Association and the provincial NDP health critic. Anyway, my reason for bringing this up is the recent brouhaha calling for a brand-new drug education campaign. The problem is, it isn't brand new at all. It's just a re-packaging of some very old ideas. You know what I mean, the ideas that all use is abuse, marijuana is a gateway drug, there is no safe amount to ingest and marijuana is stronger and more powerful than it used to be. None of these ideas are accurate and they define the pitfalls of our past attempts at drug education. What is wrong with telling kids the truth about drugs? There is nothing wrong with telling kids that marijuana does not cause cancer or schizophrenia. Why is the truth so scary to these people?

Just read some of the prize quotes in this "editorial" that happens to be completely short of any sort of critical analysis.

If the Conservatives have made up their minds against decriminalizing marijuana - an option we continue to favour - the next best solution is to make sure the law is understood, and to inform Canadians of the legal and health consequences of using it.

They then go on to criticize the government if they go ahead and increase the number of citizens they are currently arresting. (OOOPS! They are already increasing the number of possession arrests in Canada.) They also continue onward with the reefer madness propaganda.

Studies have found even a so-called soft drug like marijuana is not entirely harmless. Among some users predisposed to mental illness, specifically schizophrenia, marijuana might heighten the risk of mental-health problems.

If this was true we would be swimming in schizophrenics. But the number of schizophrenics has stayed the same over the years even though the number of marijuana users has gone way up. Could it be that pot isn't as dangerous as its' made out to be? They even go on about an anti-smoking campaign. The problem is they don't explain that there is a huge difference between the health risks of smoking tobacco and the health risks of smoking cannabis. Cannabis does not cause schizophrenia, lung cancer or heart disease. The overdose rate is still zero. If we decide to lie by omission in future anti-drug campaigns, they will fail just like the anti-drug campaigns of yesterday. I remember clearly how I felt when I discovered that most of what I was taught about drugs in school was inaccurate or misleading. We owe our kids better than that.

Speaking of child abuse, I ran across this absolutely terrible letter to the editor written by Peter John Mitchell of the basket-of-puppies institute. Oh so sorry, I meant the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada. He sings the same old song about marijuana causing schizophrenia (it doesn't) and depression.

At least Mitchell has the good sense to mince his words when they are published in the newspaper and read by the general public. But you should go on and take a look at the whacky anti-family ideas espoused by the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada on their website. I found these papers on their homepage: A foul screed blaming single mothers for the downfall of humanity and A disgusting homage to child abuse. I wonder if they have an article about beating your wife when she gets out of line. I really don't want to know.

Anyway, if that gets you down, I also found this interesting document on the Swedish governments' web-site. I will have to read it if I get a minute. In the meantime, I will be re-organizing my office and making anti-drug war propaganda in anticipation of the upcoming provincial election. This could be a lot of fun.

Court Protects Casual Drug Use

Will workplace safety be trumped by human-rights law?

What is wrong with this question as published in the National Post?

Oh you don't know? Well allow me to explain. By asking this question we have to agree on a set of underlying assumptions. You have to believe, in spite of all the evidence, that drug testing improves the safety of the workplace. You also have to believe that handing over your pee to the pee police is not an invasion of privacy.

This headline is all wrong and so is the question. It should read Court Protects the Privacy of Workers. Or how about Will the misguided concerns of overzealous employers trump common sense? Or Court Protects Workers from the Pee Police.

Listen up, you pee-policing morons. Drug testing is ineffective. It doesn't test for impairment and a failed drug test means absolutely nothing. There is an unacceptably high rate of false positives. You can lose your job based on a flawed drug test. If you think that false positives are not a problem, think again. Workers should be judged by their job performance. If you can't identify drug users without subjecting their pee to analysis, how much of a problem can drug use be?

From personal experience I can tell you that fatigue and your mental state are the biggest on-the-job impairments. Staying up all night with a cranky baby or missing my morning coffee affect my job performance. But there is no drug test for that. At least, not yet. Pretty soon if my caffeine levels go too low I will be considered impaired.

I wish that the National Post would quit re-printing this ill-thought out reefer madness and call it news.

Smoking weed makes me a feminist!

It's true because Feministing says so.

Seriously, I think that everything that we do to fight patriarchy, whether it's volunteering for clinic defense or trying to end the drug war is a feminist act. But picking up the bong? I don't know about that. The real question is this: Is the drug policy reform movement feminist?

Why of course it's feminist! Just take a look at the latest issue of High Times. That's almost as feminist as pole dancing.

I saw the article in The Stranger and I was going to ignore it simply because the pointless stereotypes about pot-users seemed to stupid to argue against. Male users are cuddly and adorable, just like that miserable tool from Knocked Up. Female users don't want to be stigmatized as lazy. I've seen it all before. All I know is that women in pot culture are just like women everywhere. We are there to be seen and not heard.

Race and the Drug War

America has 5% of the world's population and 25% of the worlds' prisoners. The drug war and the racist, uneven application of the drug laws is to blame for this unfortunate situation. Glenn C. Loury has a great article about this very problem in the Boston Review.

In light of the injustice of this modern day Jim Crow law, I would expect that the sole African American presidential candidate might be interested in reforming the drug laws. I am in for a huge disappointment. While it is true that all the Democratic candidates are on record stating that they will end the raids on the medical marijuana gardens, there is no sign that serious drug policy reform is on the Democratic agenda. The only candidate that has the voting record to back up his opposition to the drug war is Ron Paul, the pro-life baby doctor*. Luckily he has no chance of getting elected. At any rate, Obama is on record wavering on the infamous crack-cocaine sentencing disparity. Here's the prize money quote from the Boston Globe:

"Even if we fix this, if it was a 1-to-1 ratio, it's still a problem that folks are selling crack. It's still a problem that our young men are in a situation where they believe the only recourse for them is the drug trade. So there is a balancing act that has to be done in terms of, do we want to spend all our political capital on a very difficult issue that doesn't get at some of the underlying issues; whether we want to spend more of that political capital getting early childhood education in place, getting after-school programs in place, getting summer school programs in place."

I guess he doesn't realize that increased enforcement has had little to no impact on rates of drug use. Very disappointing. First a pro-life baby doctor, now a black man who doesn't oppose the racist drug laws? WTF? The only reason he made it in politics was his ability to stay out of jail. 60% of black male high-school students aren't so lucky.

* A pro-life baby doctor! What's next? A Christian feminist?

I'm a better mother when I'm stoned

We can always find time to vilify mothers. If you are screwed up with a drinking habit, blame mom. You probably weren't breastfed as a baby. If you are a mom you can do no right. And as a reward for all those sleepless nights, saggy boobs and episiotomy scars, what thanks do we mothers get? Endless judgment and articles about all the ways that we mothers are WRONG.

I had the misfortune of reading yet another pile of crud heaped at mothers, with a huge dose of reefer madness thrown in for good measure. I am speaking of this monstrosity, posted on a trendy forum for trendy parents known as Babble.*

Now before I continue whining about all the ways that society dumps on the unpaid and unappreciated labor of mothers, let me back up. I actually enjoyed the article by the pot-smoking mother. I can definitely relate to having a few puffs before playing with the Legos. What is wrong with admitting that sometimes the inane games that kids want to play are somewhat tiresome and boring? There are times when I refuse to read the Berenstein bears again. Guess what? That hokey, cutesy-poo crap gets old. Of course I am going to admit proudly and loudly that moderate use of marijuana is wonderful. Since I have smoked it for years I know what I am talking about. I smiled and nodded in agreement as I read this article. I remember taking out the old one-hitter in the garage when I was at the end of my rope and coming back in the house a much calmer, happier and better parent.

I was annoyed to death by these thoughtless, ignorant people that dumped all over this poor mom for admitting to doing what 16.8% of the Canadian population does. Since I don't have the time or the inclination to quote the endless stupidity from that thread, let me summarize. The fears of the posters can be summarized like this:

1. What if your child finds out?

2. What if your child grows up and smokes marijuana and then ends up on something much stronger?

3. What kind of a parent needs a drug to cope with their life?

Ugh. The head-slapping stupidity is mind-boggling. I am guessing that none of these people has ever smoked marijuana, especially after reading the charming, judgmental comments from the poster who admits to not knowing what a one-hitter is.

So let me just answer these questions as a fellow pot-smoking parent, who is not currently in possession of any weed. $#&*^)#(^$&)*^

1. My kids know and they seem to be fine with it. They seem fine but I am sure that in this mother-hating culture they will grow up and blame me for all of their problems. I'll make sure to send them over to Babble so they can come up with more things to blame me for.

2. There is no gateway effect. It doesn't exist. It's reefer madness cooked up by the DEA and the ONDCP and Partnership for a Drug-free America. You are being lied to so the government can justify throwing people in jail for smoking the wrong plants.

3. I am not sure why parents are held up to this ridiculously high standard. When you become a parent you do not lose your humanity or your need to have a little fun once in a while. Expecting people to never smoke weed or drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes or eat sugar is unreasonable and pointless. Kids do not need a supermom. A human being will do just fine.

* Babble seems like the place to go to get your self esteem knocked down a peg or two. Bad Parent: Birthdays gone wild and Straight to the Bottle were just two of the parent-bashing articles I was treated to.

Cocaine Use Common

A third of the crew on a Canadian warship based at CFB Esquimalt used cocaine with regularity, according to testimony at a military court martial. The ship's clandestine drug operation, which apparently divided the crew into camps of users and non-users, is surprising and disappointing, the navy says.

That's pretty surprising, even to me. So much for JUST SAY NO!

Bad News

My boyfriends' boss was killed by a drunk driver. This is such a pointless tragedy. I am at a loss for words.

Kicking you when you are down

Marc Emery has done an amazing amount of work and is the face of the cannabis reform movement. He was busted by the DEA back in 2005 and is facing extradition to the United States for selling seeds. If he is extradited, he will probably die in an American jail. Those aren't his only problems! Revenue Canada wants their money from his now-defunct seed business. It's a damn shame what Marc is going through and I wish I had a big wad of cash to give him to help him fight his battles. If you can afford to help him out, go ahead and give him a few dollars.

Here is the link to his story on Orato.

Activism is hard, hard work. We have a huge uphill battle to climb. We are fighting 80 years of reefer madness, against a heavily funded government. When I think of what we are up against, it makes me sad. But then I get all fired up and angry and I realize that if good people like us don't fight against this insanity, who will?

Lego Tanya

This is what bloggers do when we can't think of anything intelligent to write about. Make a mini-me!

Raining on the Ron Paul Parade

It would be impossible to miss out on all the recent buzz about Ron Paul in the cannabis community. Marc Emery is pushing Ron Paul at every turn and every time I visit CC I hear more and more about how great Ron Paul is. Sure there are some great things about Ron Paul. He never supported the war in Iraq, for example. He is opposed to the war on drugs.

But it is impossible for me to overlook his pro-life views.

You see, the fact is, the entire world hates women. We are the sex-class and the entire battle for reproductive freedom illustrates this quite beautifully. Marriage was nothing more than the way that men traditionally controlled womens' reproduction. When birth control came along, it threatened that control of womens' bodies and sexuality that men have enjoyed for thousands of years. Now that we have safe abortion and birth control, women can control their bodily functions. But there is no way in the world that men wanted to give it up. Hence, god-bags like Ron Paul (and his supporters) find ways to infringe on womens' rights. This leave-it-to-the-states mentality is the way that they are justifying these views. This is the same way that Jim Crow laws were justified.

The simple fact is that there is absolutely no way to justify a pro-life stance. None. If you can not control your body and your reproduction, you are not free. It's just that simple. Why is this a point of contention?

What we all need to fight against is patriarchy - the paradigm of submission and domination that defines and poisons all human relationships. Master and Slave. Dominator and dominated. United States vs. the world. Husbands and wives. Parents and children. White and black. Johns and the prostituted. Men and women.

Fighting the drug war is one way of fighting the patriarchy. After all, the idea that the government has the right to throw people in jail for smoking the wrong plants is just one more example of patriarchy at its' finest. But let's not lose sight of the big picture. We have to stand for the rights of all human beings.

I realize that the perfect presidential candidate does not exist. (Kucinich anyone?) We still have to choose between a douche and a turd. But the way that the cannabis community is making excuses for Ron Paul is pathetic. Sometimes I question the wisdom of working to reform the drug laws alongside privileged white, straight liberal dudes. Will they ever see women as human beings?

Drug Prevention Starts Early and It Starts At Home

This article doesn't really seem that bad at first glance. It gives parents some helpful advice about their truly legitimate fear that their children will use marijuana which will then lead to heroin. And nobody wants that for the children, right?

After all, it is true that Canada has the highest rate of marijuana use in the industrialized world. 16.8% of the population used marijuana in the last year!* That's a lot of pot-smoking hippies. As I was reading this article I was thinking that we are all so reefer madness indoctrinated that this seems fairly innocuous. I spend a lot of time thinking about drug policy and I often do not see the reefer madness that is right in front of me. Take this statement from that article:

Those with parents who need alcohol and other drugs to take the edge off or to have fun are likely to grow up with a similar appreciation for substances.

All the parents are nodding their heads in agreement. Kids do what their parents do! So if we stay drug-free, our kids will be drug-free too.

But let's take that very same sentence and replace it with other commonly enjoyed substances:

Those with parents who need coffee and other drugs to take the edge off or to have fun are likely to grow up with a similar appreciation for substances.

Those with parents who need sugar and other drugs to take the edge off or to have fun are likely to grow up with a similar appreciation for substances.

Sounds kind of stupid now, doesn't it? What is so bad about having fun anyway? I love coffee and nobody would bother to condemn me for my 4 cup a day habit. But if I dare to admit to my nightly pot-smoking ritual hoo-doggies the condemnation would be swift. This kind of thinking drives me nuts. It makes me wish I had some weed.

*It should be 100%.

Question for the Republican Candidates

I am definitely not the only one that would like to hear an answer to this question. But I have a feeling this question will be overlooked.