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.

Lou Dobbs continues covering the Drug War

Our coverage of the war on drugs in America continues on Monday. There is a deep-pocketed lobby that wants to legalize pot in this country. Who are marijuana's backers and what do they want? A special report.

Deep pockets? John Walters went on a reefer madness tour during the last election on the tax-payers dime and we have deep pockets? Any drug policy reformer that is too successful at raising money for the cause gets smacked down by the DEA. With an intro like that, you can be sure that this will be totally biased.

Parents are urged to learn about today's marijuana

This absolutely terrible bit of reefer madness propaganda is being smacked down quite easily today and I am feeling the need to join the fray. It's like these drug warriors have the same stupid talking points that are absolutely devoid of facts. Instead of debunking these lies directly, I am merely going to link to articles that prove my point for me, thus saving me time that can be better spent ignoring my children.

But today's marijuana is not yesterday's marijuana.

Marijuana is not only harmful, but addictive and potentially deadly.

It is scientifically proven to lead to the use of harder drugs.

According to the National Institutes of Health, someone who smokes five joints per week may be taking in as many cancer-causing chemicals as someone who smokes a full pack of cigarettes per day. Smoking one marijuana cigarette deposits about four times as much tar into the lungs as a filtered tobacco cigarette.

Finally, marijuana is called a "gateway" drug. Among marijuana's most harmful consequences is its role in leading to the use of other, harder drugs.

Marijuana and Mental Health: "Quitting Pot Eased Mental Illness"

Maggie Trudeau's reefer madness tour is being promoted by the ONDCP's propaganda blog. Learn how quitting her addiction to marijuana was instrumental in her recovery, even though marijuana can be used to treat mental illness. As Pete points out, the ONDCP isn't going to let a little thing like facts get in the way of spewing forth propaganda.

Remember, boys and girls. When learning the facts about drugs, anything from the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the White House and Health Canada is probably lies, exaggerations and glaring omissions.

Lou Dobbs: We're Losing the War on Drugs

I am glad that at the very least Dobbs sees through the lies and BS spewed forth by the Bush administration.

NEW YORK (CNN) -- We're fighting a war that is inflicting even greater casualties than the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, incredibly, costing even more money. We're losing the War on Drugs, and we've been in retreat for three decades.

That statement may come as a surprise to John Walters, Director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, who spent last week trumpeting the Bush administration's anti-drug policies. He claims these policies have led to a decline in drug abuse and improvements in our physical and mental health.

While Walters focused on a marginal decline in drug use, he made no mention of the shocking rise in drug overdoses. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week reported unintentional drug overdoses nearly doubled over the course of five years, rising from 11,155 in 1999 to 19,838 in 2004. Fatal drug overdoses in teenagers and young adults soared 113 percent.

More than 22 million Americans were classified with substance abuse or dependence problems in 2005, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. Nearly 8,000 people are trying drugs for the first time every day -- that's about 3 million a year. The majority of new users are younger than 18, and more than half of them are female.

Obviously, John Walters and I are not looking at the same statistics. There is simply no excuse for permitting the destruction of so many young lives.

It's too bad that Dobbs fails to make the connection between the ongoing war on drugs and the increased use of drugs. As Peter points out, he does not get to the "how". Dobbs has a long history of missing the point. Just check out this OpEd Dobbs wrote that was published in the New York Daily News a few years back and Ethan Straffins' response.

Also via Peter is an interview between Lou Dobbs and LEAP speaker Terry Nelson. It must be so frustrating to do an interview that begins like this:

DOBBS: Now, you may think, and certainly I do, that we are in the grips of a mass idiocy when it comes to failure to secure our borders and our ports. The U.S. Border Patrol says drug seizures of cocaine and marijuana are up sharply this year. President Felipe Calderon, of Mexico, continues to target drug cartels, to his credit. But despite the idiocy that surrounds border security, there is another idiocy rising up.

A group of law enforcement agents now say that effort is actually fueling drug trafficking and violence, and they say the answer is to end the war on drugs.

It's very frustrating the way that the well-thought out arguments of drug policy reformers can be smacked down like this. Wanting to end the war on drugs makes you an idiot, maintaining the failed status quo isn't, no matter what facts we bring to the table. This really sucks.

Reefer Madness from Margaret Trudeau

See, this is a perfect example of why people need to quit listening to celebrities. Being the ex-wife of a dead former Prime Minister does not validate your worthless opinions. Maggie Trudeau's reefer madness tour is a case in point.

Quitting cannabis has been an important part of her recovery from mental illness, Margaret Trudeau said Monday at a press conference in Vancouver for the Canadian Mental Health Association's upcoming Bottom Line Conference.

Trudeau, who suffers from bipolar disorder, spoke openly with reporters about her experience with depression and the effect of her long-term marijuana use.

"I loved marijuana. I was a hippie in the '60s," Trudeau said with a laugh.

"I started smoking at a young age. I took to it like a duck to water. Strawberry Fields Forever and all that."

Trudeau, who will be the keynote speaker at the Vancouver conference on March 7, said one of the difficulties in seeking help is the stigma associated with mental illness.

What works for Maggie must work for everybody, right? If smoking marijuana was a factor in her mental illness, then quitting was certainly the right thing to do. But to imply that this advice applies to everybody is foolish. Some people even use marijuana to treat their mental illnesses. I'm sure the Vancouver Sun will get right to work publishing their stories.

Barry Cooper redeems himself?

He doesn't succeed at redeeming himself but he gives it a try.

More on Barry Cooper

There are a whole lot of bloggers that reviewed the snake-oil salesman's DVD and have given their two cents. Scott Morgan at Flex Your Rights tells us why consenting to searches during a traffic stop is an exceptionally bad idea. Mark Draughn at Windy Pundit also weighs in and advises against following the advice about searches in the video. Excellent commentary from these bloggers, they saved me and a whole lot of other people from wasting their money.

I also found Mr. Cooper's response to Ms. Nall's scathing review highly entertaining. Make sure to read that too. His underoos are all bunchy, now that he is going to lose some profits and an opportunity to bust some more potheads. Hey Barry, don't quit yer day job, dude. Us potheads aren't quite as stupid as you thought.

UPDATE: I hadn't actually read Loretta's entire rebuttal of Barry Cooper's response to Loretta's review. I have to say that Barry Cooper is an unapologetic, sexist, petty asshole who isn't even good enough for Ms. Nall to wipe her feet on. Look at some of these prize quotes:

My wife is good at discerning woman and states Loretta is a failed politician who is jealous of my work. I have to agree. Loretta's review so far is the ONLY negative review we have gotten outof 102 reviews. Maybe this is why she never gets voted to office...she has a few followers but can't get past anybody accomplishing more than her.

Since Cooper can't even figure out how to use spell check, I suppose that expecting him to understand that winning is not the only thing that can be accomplished by running for office, would be too much to ask. She has some fantastic ideas that are not being aired in the current Democratic/Republican two-party system. Running for office in the heart of the Bible belt took a lot of courage and is an inspiration to all drug policy reformers.

My wife and office manager, another wise woman, thinks Loretta is not comfortable being a woman and wrongly attacks strong men. We have dealt with people like this before.

WOW! You read Loretta's review of your shitty advice and the best you can do is call her a man-hater? "Oh boo-hoo the mean lady is jealous because she has a hoo-ha and wishes she had a wee-wee." Why waste your time refuting her points, that consenting to a search will get you busted or that your DVD is poorly packaged? That would be difficult and make your brain hurt. The best tactic for Barry is to fall back on misogyny. Maybe Barry is jealous because he has a winkie and he wishes he had a doodle. What a complete, illiterate garden tool. As Madcox would say, "Did you type your email with your penis?" You are pretty proud of it.

You were born with a Y chromosome! Congratu-fucking-lations! You are just like 50% of the population.

The Loretta's of this world are haters who will fade away. I am here to stay and am about to release a never tried plan that will come closer to ending this war then any plan tried so far.

This is too easy. Barry has a secret that he isn't going to tell us because we were mean to him and said potty no-no words about him and now he won't share his cookies anymore. We will be sowwy, fo shizzle.

Barry, just answer the questions that we are asking. That's all that we ask. Sending emails like this just makes you look stupid. You can try to knock Loretta down a peg or two but you will never succeed. Cut it out. You're an embarassment and I hope that whatever shred of credibility that you ever had is gone.

Barry Cooper is a Snake-Oil Salesman

My fave drug war blogger, (sorry Pete!) Loretta Nall has a review of Barry Cooper's Never Get Busted DVD on her site. Unfortunately, it sounds like the DVD is full of information that every pothead already knows. For example, here is Mr. Cooper's advice about stashing:

Concealing your stash:

Wear latex gloves when hiding your stash in your automobile.

Never hide your stash on the exterior of the vehicle.

Never keep it in plain sight. DUH!

Never hide stash in easy to find locations like the ashtray or glove compartment.

Never conceal your stash in an overnight bag.

Hide your stash in hard to find places such as way underneath the dash where there are lots of crevices.

WOW! I sure don't need to pay good money to receive this advice in the mail with the words NEVER GET BUSTED boldly displayed on the package. In short, don't buy Barry Cooper's video. He sounds like a narc.

Watch a Drug-Prohibitionist Get Owned on MSNBC

This video was very entertaining, especially the part where Carlson asks Tucker about the number of deaths from marijuana overdoses.

Carlson: ... and how many people died from marijuana overdoses last year?

Souder: Uh, if you count the, uh, uh, amount of crime associated with marijuana...

Carlson: No, no, just marijuana overdoses. Just the drug itself, which you said is like cocaine now. How many people died from it?

Souder: Uh, I don't, I don't, uh. 65 percent of emergency room admissions for drug abuse are marijuana.

Carlson: Huh. OK. But did anyone die that you know of?

Souder: Uh, presumably so, thousands have died, the only question is, you said "overdose" --that isn't even most of the deaths related to prescription drug or to cocaine or heroin -- there's a whole range of drug crimes and so on. I don't know the number of overdose. Marijuana is often managed ah, with meth -- no drug user is a single drug user so marijuana is often in the mix of most deaths so it would be very hard to separate what's what. A marijuana user is very seldom just a casual marijuana user, ah, except in the early stages, they're often gonna polydrug.

Carlson: Yeah. OK. I'm not endorsing drugs, but I know a lot of casual marijuana users, so, that's wrong.

But I appreciate you coming on. Thanks a lot, Congressman.

Souder: Thank you, Tucker.

Souder knows all the lying prohibitionist talking points:

-Marijauna is a gateway drug and most marijuana users go on to use stronger drugs.

-Marijuana is highly addictive.

-Marijuana is dangerous because it is related to emergency room visits. I wonder how many emergency room visits are related to caffeine, skateboards or food.

Via Drug War Rant.

The Pee Po-lice are Touring America

In response to growing interest among schools in random student drug testing, ONDCP took to the road in 2004 with regional drug-testing summits to inform community leaders and school officials about student drug testing and to promote discussion of this issue at the local level. To date, the agency has hosted 12 summits across the country and more are being planned.

Better not tell the Pee Po-lice about the school boards that have rejected federal funding for drug testing programs. We wouldn't want the public or the schools to know that some people have very good reasons to object to the Pee Po-lice in the schools.

Hat tip to the EFSDP mailing list.

A Perfect Example of the Bullshit Biased Media

I have decided to bring you the following tale of a recent medical marijuana bust in Comox Valley, British Columbia. I am not going to bring my round up and analysis of events to the table because I feel this particular case is an extraordinary example of injustice against potheads. I have decided to do this round up because this case is a perfect example of the type of biased coverage that plagues pot bust stories in the media.

On Dec.22, the RCMP raided a compassion club known as the Cannabis Buyers Club of Canada. This club distributes high-quality and relatively low-cost medical marijuana to help sick people manage their pain. The founder of the club, Mark Russell is facing 6 charges of trafficking in a controlled substance.

"They came to the house at noon with a warrant and asked me to open the safe," says Russell. "They removed our medicine, documents, paperwork, client lists, everything."

Russell, who has run the Mid Island Compassion Club for the past five years and who has 85 clients, was taken to the Oceanside RCMP station in Parksville, fingerprinted and released.

"They were here for a total of about three hours," the Dashwood resident says. "I was ordered not to continue running the club or they would arrest me. I feel sick about this. Stunned."

What do you think motivated the RCMP to go after these peaceful potheads? Is arresting people for treating their medical conditions really going to make the world any safer or better? How many real crimes went uninvestigated while the cops were on a bullshit fishing expedition? Let's see what the RCMP has to say.

Comox Valley RCMP Const. Derek Kryzanowzki says the search warrant came as the result of an ongoing investigation that had been in progress for over a year.

"Essentially it was an ongoing investigation that culminated in getting a search warrant because of illegal activity going on there, which was trafficking in marijuana."

Kryzanowzki says the bust was not part of a coordinated campaign against medical marijuana compassion clubs, nor was it instigated by a complaint from the general public.

"It was self-generated through one of the members in the drug section who initiated the investigation," he says

No member of the public complained about the compassion club. The RCMP heard about the illegal activities and decided to investigate for a year before busting this club. You would think that costly year-long criminal investigations would be reserved for violent and dangerous criminals, not a bunch of sick people.

Unsurprisingly, people were outraged by the bust. The RCMP had copies of Russells' client list and are reasonably concerned that they may be targeted for arrest. The idea of the RCMP wasting a year to investigate a compassion club pisses a lot of people off and rightfully so. The Parksville Qualicum Beach News received a flood of angry LTE's decrying the actions of the RCMP. So the editorial staff decide to respond with this bit of rubbish:

DOUBLE TAKE

Our coverage of the raid of the Mid-Island Compassion Club resulted in a upsurge of letters and comments -- most of which decry the actions of police.

Blaming police for enforcing the laws ( whether you agree or not ) is an oversimplification of the issue. The use of marijuana as medicine in an age where it is seen as an illegal substance, demands better debate than berating those who disagree with a single point-of-view. If you can't debate without insulting your opponent, it's better to keep your mouth shut than prove you have no real point to make.

Dude, these potheads need to smoke a joint and mellow out. Being angry doesn't help anybody! The police were just doing their job when they spent a year investigating illegal activites that benefit people suffering from illness that the public had no complaints about. We live in such a safe and perfect society that the police need to find busy work. If the cops are that unnecessary let's put them to work as crossing guards at the local schools.

The newspaper redeemed itself by publishing some excellent LTE's that can be found here, here and here.

*I have to say I agree with what the editor said about Marc Emery's letter. I think he is better off when his letters die in the CC forums. Ugh.

CN BC: Surrey Doubles Size Of Team Fighting Grow-Ops

Maybe now is a good time to quit running a grow op and start a meth lab instead. Meth labs don't require huge amounts of electricity and are much more difficult to detect. But nobody really considers the consequences of cracking down on grow-ops, do they?

Ending the Drug War is Good for the Environment

The public thinks that the government is doing a very poor job on the environment. The latest Tory cabinet shuffle seems to be an attempt to change this public perception. Harper knows there is no way he is going to get a majority government if he continues to put this issue on the back burner. This could be a good time for potheads to push their environmentally-friendly agenda.

We are always reading about the high power consumption of indoor marijuana grow ops. The lights used to grow weed are 1000 watts a piece and are often powered by stolen electricity. This is a total waste of energy when you consider that marijuana grown outside would use no electricity at all. Not that it's relevant, but outdoor weed is of much finer quality and it would put an end to all those scary grow-ops we keep hearing about. Since reducing energy consumption is one of the key goals of the Kyoto accord, letting us grow marijuana outdoors could have a significant impact on energy consumption and the environment.

The US government spent millions of dollars eradicating ditch weed also known as hemp. 200 years ago a farmer could be jailed for not growing hemp during periods of hemp shortages. Hemp used to be vital for food, fuel and fibre, especially during war. So why are the drug warriors so intent on trying to eradicate an extremely useful, hardy plant? Beats the hell out of me. Letting the ditchweed grow would allow it to use up carbon dioxide. Instead, the drug warriors use poisonous chemicals resulting in marijuana that is resistant to herbicide. Great job! I should send the DEA a thank you letter for breeding a new super weed. Maybe I should make a trip to Mexico and bring some of those herbicide resistant strains of marijuana to Saskatchewan. That would be the way to overgrow the government!

Let's hope that Elizabeth May can bring this message home, instead of trying to win points with anti-choice douchebags. Red Tory has an excellent analysis on the new green Tory government.

Ottawa Sun: Home of the Drug War Deniers

My favorite LTE writer, Russell Barth, continues to amaze me with his hard work for the drug reform movement. He gets a huge number of LTE's published in newspapers across the country. They are always exceptionally concise and well-written. Unfortunately, Mr. Barth's insightful and witty missives are not appreciated by the biased jackwads at the Ottawa Sun. First, read the article that Mr. Barth wrote:

CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT NO BETTER THAN HOLOCAUST DENIERS

Re "Prohibitionists no better than Holocaust deniers?" ( Dec. 29 ): A Holocaust denier is someone who refuses to admit that the Nazis killed six million people, despite overwhelming evidence to prove that it did, in fact, happen. The notion is regarded to be about as sensible as asserting that the Earth is flat.

When it comes to the topic of drug prohibition vs. regulation, this Conservative government is literally no better than Holocaust deniers. The Tories, police, churches, and anyone else who supports drug prohibition, are refusing to admit to the solid, indisputable truth: Like alcohol prohibition in the last century, drug prohibition is a colossal failure. It subsidizes gangsters, costs a fortune, and increases danger.

Stephen Harper, Vic Toews, Stockwell Day, and most of the top brass of Canadian law enforcement are either so blinded by religious or quasi-moralistic ideologies that they refuse to see the facts, or they are deliberately misleading and endangering the Canadian public. Either way, they are a clear and present danger to our safety, and they have got to go. And so do these gangster-subsidizing prohibition laws.

Russell Barth

( Drugs pose one of the greatest threats to society )

They decide to print the letter but add the bullshit biased disclaimer at the end. I have never seen this in any other newspaper. Hey asswipes, if you have a problem with the assertions made by Mr. Barth, write your own editorial and prove him wrong. Don't add your kindergarten insults to the end of his letter. But it gets even better.

A prohibition-loving, jack-boot licker writes in to inform us of the dangers caused by marijuana. As if the dangers of marijuana had anything to do with the War on Drugs and why we continue to fight it. Here is the letter.

If nothing else, Russell Barth's over-the-top missives on marijuana are good for comedy relief.

Case in point? Insisting cops are out to violate the civil rights and liberties and anyone else who supports drug prohibition ... are a clear and present danger to society at large.

There are documented dangers of habitual marijuana use. Marijuana is at the root of many mental disorders. It has long been known to trigger attacks of mental illness, such as bipolar psychosis and schizophrenia.

As for cops pulling over impaired drivers (which include THC impaired): Cops look for bloodshot eyes, lack of co-ordination, slurred speech, dilated pupils, jerky eye tracking and the unmistakable stench of marijuana smoke among other things. If you don't want to get popped for impaired driving, don't drive impaired.

Karen Smith

Brechin

(Sounds like good advice)

Again the Ottawa Sun editors see fit to include their commentary in parenthesis, letting the world know that they agree that Russell Barth is a whack-job with crazy over the top ideas. He wants people to drive impaired! He wants people to come down with mental illnesses! He thinks cops are the bad guys! But nowhere in this letter does the writer bother to answer any of the assertions Mr. Barth made in his letter. Does she refute the fact that the War on Drugs increases the dangers of drugs and the profits of criminals? Does she deny that our jails are overflowing with non-violent offenders? Does she deny that drug prohibition does not make a significant dent in the supply of drugs? No, none of the points that Mr. Barth makes are addressed in the letter. She simply falls back on reefer madness and vague claims about mental illness.

Even if every single case of mental illness could be blamed on marijuana, it still wouldn't justify prohibition. Prohibition does not stop people from using drugs. Reefer madness and the hate heaped on drug users and addicts prevents them from seeking help if they do have an issue with drug dependency. Since marijuana use is here to stay whether we enforce prohibition or not we might as well legalize.

The Ottawa Sun is no better than the Tory government, with their ardent love for prohibition, the War on Drugs and reefer madness. Let's hope that we have another election and throw the bums out of office. Maybe, just maybe the Liberals will finally grow a pair and legalize once and for all, although I am not optimistic. They have proven to be just as cowardly and just as infected by reefer madness as the Tories.

Medical Marijuana makes it hard to discriminate against potheads

A man suspended from work after testing positive for pot has filed a human rights complaint, claiming his boss refused to let him see the company drug-testing policy.

Stephen Shorten, 46, says he suffers from chronic pain and smokes a nightly joint - paired with ibuprofen - to ease the discomfort.

His arms were broken after they got caught in a machine at the Layfield textile plant in April, and he only returned to full-time status in October.

Shorten said he and eight other staffers were told to provide urine samples for marijuana testing on Dec. 6. He tested positive and was immediately suspended.

Over the nearly five years Shorten has worked at Layfield he said the company has turned a blind eye to recreational pot use, so long as staffers showed up for work sober. Link

The company has to drug test its' employess otherwise they might mistake potheads for productive workers. The thing is these potheads act just like regular people and you can't tell by the way they look, act or perform their jobs whether they are, in fact, drug-using losers. It is necessary to take samples of pee and blood and subject it to analysis in a lab to know whether discrimination based on the ingestion of the wrong plants is warranted. We certainly know that it is necessary.

Due to the labor shortage, some very wise companies have decided that they should judge their employees by their on-the-job performance and do away with this costly drug-testing nonsense altogether.

Judge employees by their performance? Why that's just crazy talk!

Anyway, I just have a couple of things to say to this unfortunate young man, who is facing being canned from the same company that broke his arms. First of all, get the physician that recommended marijuana to write you a legal prescription. Even if you end up getting your weed on the black market, because legal weed sucks noodles, there is no way they can fire you for treating a medical condition. Second of all, realize that there is nothing wrong with being a pothead. It's like being gay. Pretty soon, we will get to the point where people will say, "Hi I would love you to meet my friend Tanya, the pothead, not that there is anything wrong with that." People will know that they can categorize me based on just one of my many wicked habits. That will be awesome.

Grow-op Children Concern Police

I love it when somebody shows concern for the children. The police are concerned because Abbotsford children are exposed to the dangers of plants! In their home!

Abbotsford Police discovered two young children living in a home housing a grow-op Monday afternoon.

While executing a search warrant at a house in the 2900 block on Whistle Dr., the drug squad unit discovered 111 marijuana plants and two children under the age of seven.

The children are under medical care for some sort of respiratory illness that my be related to the grow op, and all relevant information has been passed onto the Ministry of Children and Family Development, according to police.

"Police are particularly concerned when children are involved, and will take steps to ensure the welfare of the children are a priority," said Const. Casey Vinet.

"In all these cases the ministry is notified to investigate possible neglect by parents for exposing children to dangerous conditions."

Some dangers associated with grow ops -- especially for children -- are the accumulation of mold and fungus due to humidity, the presence of toxic chemicals, and an increased risk of violence as marijuana operations are susceptible to home invasions and ripoffs.

Two adults, a man, 34, and a woman, 31, are facing charges of production of a controlled substance.

The couple are expected to appear in court in February.

My goodness, those poor children were exposed to humidity and may even have a case of asthma!

What I want to know is, if having a house full of plants is so dangerous, why is the government issuing medical marijuana licences? People are allowed to have their own legal, indoor grow-ops. Would parents with legal grow-ops be threatened with the kidnapping of their kids for merely exposing their children to plants? Even in a legal grow-op, the children could still be exposed to violence due to home invasions and rip-offs. After all, the reason that cash-strapped parents can make so much easy cash from grow-ops is due to the irrational policy of marijuana prohibition. Legal weed is worth the same amount on the street as illegal weed. Legalize pot and there will be no easy money to be made and children will no longer be exposed to the terrible dangers of plants. It's win-win for everybody.

I will make sure to keep my children away from the Mendel Art Gallery. There must be more than 111 plants in the Civic Conservatory. My poor children must be protected from the harms imposed by plants at all costs.

Teen drug use drops, with exceptions

Abuse of the painkiller OxyContin by younger teens hit record levels in 2006, a national survey says.

While most other teen drug and alcohol use continued a decade-long decline, teen abuse of pharmaceuticals, including prescription narcotics, barely budged, the survey says.

The annual survey of 50,000 high school and middle school students, released Thursday, was conducted by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

More kids raiding mom and dads' medicine cabinets, less kids raiding liquor cabinets and smoking weed. The whole report from the University of Michigan can be found here.

Time for some reverse reefer madness

Remember when I posted about the recent spat of articles that claim that the number of drivers that drugged driving is a huge problem? I have decided that the MSM isn’t the only one that can creatively interpret statistics.

We know that the number of people admitting to using cannabis has doubled in the last twelve years. Some stats via FrankD:

Cannabis use by all Canadians

2004: 12% of Canadians used cannabis more than once over the past year
2004: 45.5% of Canadians said they had smoked pot some time in their lives
2004: 14% of Canadians said they smoked pot some time over the past year
2002: 25% of adult Canadians have tried cannabis some time in life
2002: Approx. 7% of Canadians smoke marijuana recreationally (2.2 million)
1994: 7.4% of Canadians said they smoked pot some time over the past year

We also know that the rate of motor vehicle accidents has gone down over the years. The following graph can be found at the Saskatchewan Government Insurance's web site.



As you can see, the number of motor vehicle accidents and the number of casualties has gone down over the years. Do you have any idea what this means?

It is obvious that more cannabis smokers mean fewer motor vehicle accidents. The reduction in motor vehicle accidents has nothing to do with cracking down on drinking and driving or improved safety features in vehicles. It's because there are more people that admit to smoking cannabis. The reported increase in cannabis smokers certainly has nothing to do with the hard work of cannabis activists like Marc Emery or David Malmo-Levine to reduce the stigma attached to being an admitted pothead. Statistics never, ever lie.

More Drugged Driving Reefer Madness

OTTAWA -- Canadians who say they have driven after smoking drugs has more than doubled since the late 1980s, according to a study that reports young men drive while high just as often, or even more, than they drink and drive.

Almost five per cent of the 4,639 drivers surveyed said they had driven within two hours of using marijuana or hashish in the previous year an average of 24 times, said the Canadian Centre of Substance Abuse.

"The evidence we have is that the behaviour is increasing," said Doug Beirness, senior research associate for the federally sponsored agency. "Another factor that makes us believe it's an issue of concern is that it seems to be most concentrated among young people." Research remains inconclusive, however, on whether the hike in drugimpaired driving has contributed to car crashes causing injuries or death, said the study.

Do you think it's a coincidence that this research reinforces the Tories bid to push through drugged-driving legislation? No, me neither. But even in this article they admit that there is no proof that drugged-driving is a cause of traffic accidents. This just goes to show that if there is a political agenda to be promoted, any study will be interpreted as evidence.

I would like to point out that the rates of cannabis use has been increasing over the years, despite the War on Some Drugs so it really shouldn't be surprising that the incidence of drugged-driving is increasing. What this doesn't prove is that the drugged-driving legislation will reduce accident rates. Statistics should always be carefully scrutinized. The studies are influenced by factors such as the stigma to admitting use of illegal drugs, reefer madness and the honesty of the respondents.

Speaking of studies, here is a study that proves that women need to be married to be happy via Twisty.