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.

DrugSense Year in Review

I love these Year End wrap ups. I am going to grab a coffee and get reading.

Everybody hates Drug Dealers

In my internet travels I came across an excellent drug law reform blog called Drug War Rant. After discovering it, I read the content and decided to link it. Last night I stumbled upon his FAQ entitled "Why Should I support Reform?" The gist of the FAQ is wonderful, I really think the drug reform movement has done a terrible job of getting non-drug-users to care about this issue. Unfortunately there is this idea that the Drug War only effects drug-users.

However I have a huge problem with the last question:

Q: I am an illegal drug dealer. Why should I support drug policy reform?

Actually, you shouldn't support drug policy reform.

Drug legalization would put you out of a job, and take away all your profits. In order to continue to sell drugs, you'd have to become a business person, pay taxes, follow regulations, stop selling to kids, make sure your product is not tainted, and a bunch of other things that would make life very annoying for you.

Who would buy drugs from you illegally, if they can get what they need from legal, safe sources? You'd be like some pathetic beer salesman trying to sell black market six-packs of Budweiser on the corner. People would look at you like you're an idiot.

Forget the quick big bucks. Now you'll have to get a job, probably starting at a fast-food place because you don't have a real resume, and you'll have to work your way up like everyone else. Since you didn't finish school, it'll be harder.

Sorry.

This forces me to consider some very important questions. Are all illegal drug dealers evil? Do they sell a shoddy product to children? Do all drug dealers lack real jobs and education? I learned in grade 7 that anybody that passes a joint could be arrested for drug trafficking. This was proven to be a valid definition of drug dealer when we enlightened Saskatonians threw cannabis crusader and drug dealing lowlife, Marc Emery in the slammer for two months for passing a joint. That dude has done a lot for the cannabis reform movement and yet he is considered a drug dealer. This also means that me and every single person that I have shared pot with over the years is a drug dealer. Every member of the SKMP, most of my adult friends and acquaintances, a large number of the adult members of my family, co-workers, teachers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, real estate agents and college professors are all drug dealers. By this twisted logic, that means that every single person that passes a joint, accepts a joint, splits an ounce with a friend to reduce the cost, gives a joint to a friend who has PMS cramps or sells pot to their grateful friends is a drug dealer. This is a pretty broad definition and it means that 46.1% of the American public and 45.5% of the Canadian public are drug dealers.

So why do drug warriors spend so much time portraying drug dealers as unwashed, needle-sharing, diseased, homeless, morally and financially bankrupt junkies? The gateway theory teaches this common fear as though it were a fact. All drug users start with "soft drugs" like tobacco, beer and marijuana and then end up as junkies. Why is the fear of drug users the driving force behind prohibition?

It seems that the majority of people interested in reforming our drug laws are those of us that have firsthand experience with drug dealers. It is those of us that have seen a marijuana garden firsthand, those of us that have participated in events like the Tokers' bowl or the Global Marijuana March or even just belonged to the silent minority of illegal drug users that realize that the demonization of drug dealers is just plain wrong.

The fact is growing marijuana properly is an art form, just like brewing fine wine. Just ask the likes of Ed Rosenthal or Jack Herer. Drug dealers are talented artisans as well as demonized scum. It is also a fact that without drug dealers the entire cannabis culture would cease to exist. I am extremely grateful to all the drug dealers that keep people like me with a supply of good quality pot.

You see most drug dealers have jobs, families, and would be very happy to pay taxes on our dirty, illegal habits. The current system, that a lot of us drug dealers want to change, prevents us from paying taxes. It supports the notion that there is something terribly wrong with our current way of ife. Smoking the occasional joint and sharing it with your friends is something that must be prevented at all costs. Our way of life is so dangerous and terrible that we must be prevented from harming ourselves by any violent means. Jail, fines and property seizures are all par for the course for the dirty drug dealers.

So, boys and girls, do you see how demonizing drug dealers like me and my friends plays right into the hands of the drug warriors and the prohibitionists? Do you see how harmful it is to embrace and encourage the idea that drug dealers are less than human? If drug users were seen as people it would be far more difficult to justify our continued persecution for enjoying the wrong plants. We have a lot in common with homosexuals. We need to throw open those closet doors and let people know that drug users are both people and make up 12% of the population.

NORML's Top 10 Events That Shaped Marijuana Policy

There are many times when I read the news and I see how widespread reefer madness is and I wonder if we will ever see the end of the War on Drugs. But Norml has an excellent year in review and it is about all the positive events of the past year.

Go read it. It's nice to know that everything isn't all doom and gloom.

I can feel a rant coming on so I'll keep you posted.

Why we need a War on Pop

Did you know that drinking one pop a day will lead to a weight gain of fifteen pounds per year? Did you know that increased pop consumption leads to type 2 diabetes and obesity? Did you know that diabetes leads to impotence? Clearly we need to put an image on pop cans alluding to failed boners, just like the labels Health Canada put on cigarette packaging. Diabetes also leads to blindness, amputations and kidney damage. Pop will leach the calcium right out of your bones and lead to bone fractures.

Did you know that the Big Pop companies like Coca-Cola and Pepsi are notorious for marketing to children? They even put pop machines in schools! Do we really want our children, the future of our country, to fall victim to the depravities of sugar addiction? Won't someone PLEEEZ think of the children? Stop letting Big Soda inundate our children with advertising right in the schools. Clearly we have allowed the soda cartel to lead to death and destruction for too long. It is time we acted decisively and shut down every pop company that is marketing its' filth to our children. Let soda fountains, Coca-Cola billboards, pop machines and all objects with advertising for Big Cola be piled up in the Town Square and set alight. Nothing is too good for our children! Don't let the conspiracy to keep the public uneducated about the harms of Pop go unpunished.

Ban Pop!

New law could mean bad news for allergy sufferers

An allergy sufferer gets caught in the crossfire in the War on Meth and this is the best headline that they can come up with? Getting tossed in the slammer for having too much of the wrong drugs is bad news but it isn't surprising.

via Cattalarchy

Afghan heroin's surge poses danger in U.S.

Supplies of highly potent Afghan heroin in the United States are growing so fast that the pure white powder is rapidly overtaking lower-quality Mexican heroin, prompting fears of increased addiction and overdoses.

Heroin-related deaths in Los Angeles County soared from 137 in 2002 to 239 in 2005, a jump of nearly 75% in three years, a period when other factors contributing to overdose deaths remained unchanged, experts said. The jump in deaths was especially prevalent among users older than 40, who lack the resilience to recover from an overdose of unexpectedly strong heroin, according to a study by the county's Office of Health Assessment and Epidemiology.

"The rise of heroin from Afghanistan is our biggest rising threat in the fight against narcotics," said Orange County sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. "We are seeing more seizures and more overdoses."

According to a Drug Enforcement Administration report obtained by The Times, Afghanistan's poppy fields have become the fastest-growing source of heroin in the United States. Its share of the U.S. market doubled from 7% in 2001, the year U.S. forces overthrew the Taliban, to 14% in 2004, the latest year studied. Another DEA report, released in October, said the 14% actually could be significantly higher.

Poppy production in Afghanistan jumped significantly after the 2001 U.S. invasion destabilized an already shaky economy, leading farmers to turn to the opium market to survive.

Not only is more heroin being produced from Afghan poppies coming into the United States, it is also the purest in the world, according to the DEA's National Drug Intelligence Center.

Despite the agency's own reports, a DEA spokesman denied that more heroin was reaching the United States from Afghanistan. "We are NOT seeing a nationwide spike in Afghanistan-based heroin," Garrison K. Courtney wrote in an e-mail to The Times.

I wonder if and/or when calls to legalize heroin and find legitimate medical uses for the Afghan opium crops will ever be taken seriously? This isn't exactly a new idea. Believe it or not there were was a time when heroin was a prescription drug, at least in Britain. Keeping heroin illegal has obvious negative consequences. Overdose deaths are much more likely when the dosage can not be determined.

This potent heroin, which the DEA says sells for about $90 a gram in Southern California, has prompted warnings from some officials who deal with addicts that they reduce the amount of the drug they use. Many addicts seeking the most euphoric high employ a dangerous calculation to gauge how much of the drug they can consume without overdosing. An unexpectedly powerful bundle of heroin, therefore, can be deadly.

"I tell people, 'If you're using it, only use half or three-quarters of what you used to,' because of the higher potency," said Orlando Ward, director of public affairs at the Midnight Mission on Los Angeles' skid row.

This might possibly be the most dire consequence of the thriving opium crops.

AFGHANISTAN'S share dwindled to 6% for much of the 1990s, as competition from Southeast Asia and Colombia grew. Meanwhile, the Taliban was cracking down as it gained territory, virtually eliminating poppy production after taking over the country.

Once the fundamentalist Islamic government was overthrown in 2001, Afghans turned once again to the poppy trade to survive in one of the poorest countries in the world.

A report released Nov. 28 by the World Bank said U.S. and European efforts to end Afghanistan's $2.3-billion opium business were failing.

The production of opium used to produce heroin reached its highest level ever in Afghanistan this year. It accounted for more than one-third of Afghanistan's gross domestic product and 90% of the world's supply of illicit opium, mainly going to Asia and Europe, according to the report.

The poppy crop now drives the economy in some regions of the embattled nation, helping to fund a Taliban resurgence.

via Digby

Year-End Round Up Courtesy of Stop the Drug War

An excellent end of the year post. Go and read it. It's too bad that Canada was not included in the list. If I wasn't so lazy maybe I would do a year-end round up for Canada. Maybe two weeks of unemployment and sheer boredom will compell me to get to work. Who knows.

Don't hold your breath.

Legality is poor policy

Randy White, for those of you that do not follow Canadian politics, is a windbag prohibitionist that is a poster boy for reefer madness. He works with the like-minded organization known as the Drug Prevention Network of Canada. Don't click the link and raise their traffic ranking! They are to the drug reform movement what Concerned Women for America is to feminism. They are a bunch of hand-wringing asshat moralists that are committed to promoting prohibition. Just look at the slogan on their site:

To advocate no use of illegal drugs and no abuse of legal drugs including alcohol, tobacco and solvents.

Apparently only legal drugs can be used responsibly. This despite the fact that legal drugs kill far more people than all illegal drugs combined. So every single drag that I take of my completely non-toxic marijuana is abuse due to the fact that marijuana is illegal. They would rather that the public continue to succumb to reefer madness rather than wake up to the fact that marijuana has never killed anyone in all the years it has been used for medicine and recreation. But I am getting off-topic.

I have linked an absolutely embarassingly terrible letter to the editor written by Randy White. Go ahead and read his article and then come back and read my rebuttal, which has a snowflakes' chance in hell of being published. But hey, what the hell is boxing day for but to write unread rebuttals to bloviating coservative moralists that think that keeping teh gays from getting married should be a priority of the Canadian government? Without further ado, my smackdown.

Randy White’s December 22nd letter promoting the aims of the Drug Prevention Network of Canada left me with a number of questions. The mission statement of this organization sounds very positive. It seems difficult to disagree with “To promote a healthy lifestyle — free of drugs, to advocate no use of illegal drugs and no abuse of legal drugs”. It promotes the unspoken assumptions made by those promoting the prohibition of drugs, that the most dangerous drugs were banned in order to protect the public. I guess nobody told them that legal drugs kill far more people every year than all illegal drugs combined. They also seem to unaware of the hundreds of medical marijuana users that benefit from the use of a formerly illegal substance.

Mr. White and the organization he represents seem to be completely unaware of the total and complete failure of the war on drugs. Thanks to decades of prohibition, all illegal drugs are cheaper, stronger and more widely available than ever before, despite the fact that $400 million a year is spent annually on arresting, prosecuting and jailing drug criminals in Canada.

Unlike Mr. White, I have enough faith in politicians to disagree with his view that all politicians promote wasteful policies. In any case I would rather that this money was frittered away on such non-essentials as health care, education or even another Liberal scandal than to see reefer madness compel the continued persecution of people that make the mistake of enjoying the wrong plants.

Hemp grows with technological advances

Go and read the whole article about the growing hemp industry in Canada. Ever since we legalized industrial hemp in 1998, hemp production has been increasing.

I really liked this angle though:

Canadian nutritional hemp producers have enjoyed a competitive advantage.

Industrial hemp production is still illegal in the United States, where it's feared illicit drug dealers could hide plants high in THC, the psychoactive chemical found in hashish and marijuana, among the industrial plants, which have no psychoactive effect.

While U.S. producers work to change the law south of the border, Canada has had time to set up its own hemp industry just in time to capitalize on two worldwide changes: Exploration of alternatives to pricey and depleting petroleum, and development of crops with smaller ecological footprints.

Technological advances have allowed hemp to replace petroleum-based products for a variety of industrial uses.

So, legalizing hemp gives Canada a distinct advantage. Hopefully we will make so many bucketfuls of money that the Envious Americans will look north and realize that legalizing hemp will not make the sky fall in and they will follow our superior example. Money talks, right? But the War on Some Drugs is fought even more bitterly in America so I won't hold my breath.

16-year-old mother charged after murder after tests reveal drug overdose killed baby

A 16-year-old gives birth to a dead baby because of her drug use. She is threatened with life in prison. There are a few questions that I wish I knew the answer to:

What kind of prenatal care did this woman have access to? Was she treated for drug addiction? Where is the father of her baby and what role does he play? Did she know that an unborn child may die from her drug use? And most important of all:

If a "woman" of 16 years old can be charged for the accidental death of her unborn child, what does this have to say about a woman's right to choose?

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.

Drug Users Urged to turn themselves in.

This is some seriously scary shit. Reefer madness is completely out of control in Taiwan. On Sunday bloviating moralists also known as government officials were up in arms because a few celebrities use drugs. They are upset because they promised during the last election to make war on crime. Unfortunately, nobody told them that calling for war on a cause is the best way to doom it. The war on terror has resulted in everybody being scared of brown people. The war on drugs has insured that drugs are cheaper and more plentiful than ever. Declare war on crime and crime becomes rampant. All you have to do is look at the crime and prison rates for America to know that a war on crime increases prison rates.

Prison Rates

"The United States has the highest prison population rate in the world, some 714 per 100,000 of the national population, followed by Belarus, Bermuda and Russia (all 532), Palau (523), U.S. Virgin Islands (490), Turkmenistan (489), Cuba (487),
Suriname (437), Cayman Islands (429), Belize (420), Ukraine (417), Maldive Islands (416), St Kitts and Nevis (415), South Africa (413) and Bahamas (410).

"However, almost three fifths of countries (58%) have rates below 150 per 100,000. (The rate in England and Wales - 142 per 100,000 of the national population - is above the mid-point in the World List.)" Link

Crime Rates

It is important to note that each of the most violent episodes in this century coincide with the prohibition on alcohol and the escalation of the modern-day war on drugs. In 1933 the homicide rate peaked at 9.7 per 100,000 people, which was the year that alcohol prohibition was finally repealed. In 1980, the homicide rate peaked again at 10 per 100,000. Link

Anyway, it seems to me that actress and TV hostess Hsiao Shu-sheng has become another celebrity to become famous due to failing to be drug-free. Celebrities still use drugs despite the fact that the trafficking of cocaine is a class 1 offense which is penalized by death or life imprisonment. Taiwan is home to some of the most repressive drug laws in the world. It simply won’t do to have celebrities testing positive for cocaine. What of the children?

But just like in America, where intoxicated starlets like Britney Spears have pics of their nether regions splashed across the internet, Taiwan goes easy on its’ celebrities. The Taiwanese actress and the other entertainers will be required to undergo mandatory drug treatment whether they need it or not. I guess treatment is better than jail. Any celebrity that wishes to turn themselves in and undergo voluntary drug treatment will escape incarceration.

Too bad they can’t extend similar amnesty to the rest of Taiwanese society.

Never Get Busted

Barry Cooper is a former narcotics offer that is hawking a DVD that will help people avoid arrest for drug crimes. I should put this on my Christmas wish list, although it's a bit late for that now.



After getting a flood of fan mail about the non-functioning video (OK one dude notified me that the video didn't work). So I fixed the link. You can also see the trailer on his web-site located at http://www.nevergetbusted.com/

Merry Cephalopodmas!

My kid is still mad at me for this.

"But Mooooooom! Squids are grooooossss! EW!"



(For you igoramuses out there that don't know about the War on Cephalopodmas, I suggest you read this and this.

Pothead to spend a minimum of 16 years in prison

Brown, who pleaded guilty to his first and only offense at age 17, was given probation after a $2 armed robbery in which the victim wasn't harmed and had his wallet returned. But months later, Brown violated his probation by testing positive for marijuana. In most cases of marijuana violations, Texas judges — and Dean — often recommend counseling and allow the defendant to remain on probation with a stiff warning.

In this case, however, without explanation, Brown was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

But this story has a "happier" ending.

The response from the story led to a Web site and protests — pressure that seems to have worked. Brown may soon be on the road to freedom, 16 years after his probation violation.

Nobody can give him sixteen years back. But it's nice to know that activism pays off.

I wonder what race Mr. Brown is? I have a feeling that he isn't white. The war on drugs has been absolutely devestating to minorities. Remember kids, "Reefer makes darkies think they're as good as white men."*

Hat tip to PZ and TalkLeft.

*Quoth Harry Anslinger, America's first Drug Czar

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.

Marijuana : Mexico's Dandelion

LAZARO CARDENAS, Mexico - Soldiers trying to seize control of one Mexico's top drug-producing regions found the countryside teeming with a new hybrid marijuana plant that can be cultivated year-round and cannot be killed with pesticides.

This is a perfect example of evolution in progress. The indiscriminate spraying of toxic chemicals in Mexico results in marijuana plants that survive year-round.

Now you know why they call it weed.

Hat tip to Drug War Rant

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.