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.

Link Dump

Some really great reading out there. The LA Times ran a really great story about drug testing of American kids in the schools. A great read and a balanced look at the pros and cons of drug testing in the schools. The LA Times also ran a great story about the anti-doping program that athletes are subjected to in order to keep sports free of drugs.

But of course, I had to include the failed logic and deranged ranting of a drug warrior cheerleader. Our editorialist demands to know What really is wrong with trying to keep a lid on drug use in Canada? Those crazy liberals tried to decriminalize marijuana! Great for a laugh.

Also, go check out Pete. His ranting has been excellent these days.

Link Dump

Noam Chomsky sez to the UN "Buy up all the opium." Doug Cuthand of my favorite newspaper, the Star Phoenix, does a nice job of eviscerating the racist NIMBY's that successfully convinced the RM of Corman Park not to allow the establishment of a drug treatment facility. I wrote about this story previously here. Score one for the hypocritical Chistians.

Also, George Michael comes out in favour of cannabis. What a great role model to speak on behalf of my favorite plant! With a spokesperson like that, cannabis will be legal any day now.

Puke.

Link Dump

I got really, really busy over the weekend and I didn't have time to post anything. Unfortunately, I can not seem to articulate my thoughts right now. I don't know if it's writer's block or what but it really sucks. I have all these thoughts racing through my noodle and I can't seem to get them out in an intelligible manner. Luckily, there are tonnes of smart bloggers with lots to say to fill in the gap. At the Conservative voice, I found a story about jury nullification. This should be required reading for any member of a jury. At The Exponent we have a great article giving us the racist origin of the drug laws. Finally, Cannabisculture reports that vaporized cannabis is safe.

Work-Mom burn-out and a link dump

Stress is overwhelming me at the moment and I feel like taking out my rage on puppies and kittens. Luckily for the small adorable creatures, I took a couple of Torey Hayden's books out of the library and I started reading them. Hayden is a special education teacher that had some interesting adventures with her students. After reading the first few chapters of one of her books, I feel so much better about everything. Her only flaw is calling her EA an aide *wince*. At any rate, I am much too stressed out to come up with anything coherent and intelligent but the drug war news is overflowing with very linkable items.

Bong hits 4 jesus is in the US Supreme Court this week. Peter is the go-to guy for analysis on this important case.

Another story that caught my interest this week is the reefer madness in The Independant. Thehim has more on this as well as the Transform Drug Policy Foundation and Stop the Drug War. Looks like I better update my blogroll. For those of you too lazy to read all that I have a simple mathematical formula to explain the article in The Independent:

Skunk = B.C. Bud

Any questions?

Link Time

I got nothing today. Nada. Zip. Zilch.

Ryan Grim over at The Politico reports on the vandalism committed against the Wikipedia entry for the National Institutes of Drug Abuse. You would think that having lies and bullshit propaganda on web sites paid for and maintained by the US taxpayer would be enough. But no, they must spread their bias to an online user-created encyclopedia.

From Grits for Breakfast I read a headline I thought I would never see, GOP Doctor Files Needle Exchange Bill in Senate. This is from the same state that banned dildos. Incidentally, why are there so many great bloggers in Austin? It must be something in the water.

Last but not least, we have state-sponsored kidnapping happening in Alberta. The children were saved and we can all sleep better. It is much better to kidnap children than to deal with the cause of grow-ops. You know, the fact that growing weed is an easy way to make money due to the black market. I know if I was on welfare the temptation of easy bucks from running a grow-op would be hard to resist.