Drugs = Abortions

Those crazy, right-wing, Christian wack jobs! Their opposition to womanly ownership of uteruses, as well as drug use, has lead them down an interesting road. Teens at Northwood High School were recently treated to proselytization educational knowledge at a school assembly.

PITTSBORO - Lynn Webster was driving her son and his friends to a hockey game Friday night when she overheard them talking about a murderer visiting their high school.

That's when she learned a speaker from a Christian organization had told students she'd murdered three children by having abortions while she was a drug addict.

The organization, Teen Challenge, was paid by several area churches to speak at Chatham's middle and high schools last week about abstinence and the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

When I was in school they just told us that our girly little hearts would get broken if we had sex without wrangling a wedding ring out of him first. Thanks to Teen-Aid I learned that all the sex that I planned to have would scar me emotionally and physically for life. Also, sex makes your genitalia rot and fall off and why bother with condoms because they don't work anyway! If only I had known that using drugs would turn me into a baby-murdering abortionist.

But rest assured, the presentation had nothing to do with religion. Just because Teen Challenge is sponsored by a church group and worships fetuses does not make it religious.

Link Dump

Not only has the US war on drugs helped drive down the price of cocaine while the potency increased, it has also helped marijuana consumers get a cheaper and more potent product. Thanks DEA!

Corrupt cops admit to planting marijuana on a 92-year-old woman to cover-up their incompetence. Kathryn Johnson's story is horrifying and the fact that I can not work up any rage about this incident due to rage fatigue is depressing. Crooks and Liars and Drug War Rant have the full scoop.

Closer to home, Fort Saskatchewan is holding a contest to come up with the best anti-drug slogan. The solution to the "drug problem" is more "Drugs are bad, you shouldn't do drugs". We certainly want to withhold the following information from our kids:

-Alcohol and tobacco are the drugs most likely to cause harm.
-Marijuana is not addictive, does not cause cancer and does not cause overdose deaths.
-There is no such thing as a gateway drug.

It's too bad they are winning the propaganda war.

But at least I have some good and uplifting material to counteract all the depressing horrifying garbage in the news lately. Here is an interview with one of my favorite potheads, Tommy Chong.

A Poll Gone Wrong

As of this posting, 76.77% of Star Bulletin's readers agree that teachers should be subjected to random drug testing. Go and help our side out and vote. Not that my itty bitty web page will make much difference on these here intertubes but at least I tried. :(

Linky Linky

Government as sole seller of medical pot disastrous

On April 16, we heard of the long-standing, incredible 1,500 per cent markup on medical marijuana. A day later, Victoria Times columnist Jack Knox reported how Health Canada plans to gain a monopoly on medical marijuana.

If Health Canada does go ahead with the monopoly on medical marijuana and makes Prairie Plant Systems the only provider of such, people will suffer needlessly. My friend, Tom Shapiro, an AIDS patient and medical marijuana user in Regina, will be forced to go back to a product that he has rejected previously as ineffective and comparable to cardboard.

He has a secure medical garden with an alarm system. Along with this convenience, he has also managed to refine his choice as to the strains his designated grower produces to alleviate the symptoms that come along with taking more than 30 medications every day.

It'll be tough to hear Tom tell me that he's gone back to puking his guts out every morning because he won't be allowed to grow the strains that help him.

Compassion clubs and designated growers already provide patients with high quality medical marijuana the government can't seem to produce. Spending more than $5 million, the government can't achieve what a 16-year-old can by using a closet and a good set of lights.

The current system has worked somewhat for the paltry number of medical marijuana patients, who are allowed to access this hallowed plant of which federal politicians seem to be scared to high heaven. Now we're going to see the government peddling schwag in a monopolized manner that biker gangs could probably only dream of.

Ethan Erkiletian

President, Sask. Marijuana Party

Saskatoon

We want your Pee!

Teachers in Hawaii are up in arms over their contract negotiations. Anybody who is familiar with the education system will realize that this is nothing new. But Hawaii has added a new twist to their contract. They are offering the teachers a juicy 4% per year raise. If the teachers agree to mandatory drug testing.

This has lead to a predictable reaction. Some teachers, desparate for a pay raise, are lining up to hand over their pee (and their fourth ammendment rights). After all, the only people that object to drug testing are drug users with something to hide! It's not as if urine can reveal a lot of personal information about a person, such as pregnancy or medical conditions. It's not as if drug testing is costly and ineffective. Besides, won't someone please think of the children?

Although hotly debated, the opposition to this costly intrusion of the civil rights of teachers is far from unanimous.

"It's hard to vote against your paycheck, and that's one of the things a lot of people are really upset about," Rohr said.

Governor Lingle's strategy of bribing the teachers appears to be very effective. I am happy to report that there are some very unhappy teachers opposing drug testing.

Robert Dircks, principal at Hilo High School, said some of his staff believe the drug testing is evidence of a "sellout" of teachers' rights by the Hawaii State Teachers Association, while other teachers are comfortable with drug testing and want the 8 percent raises and the 3 percent salary step increase being offered in the two-year package.

Dircks, who won't be covered by the proposed contract, said he will be glad when today's vote is over.

"I'm trying to act as a referee here, but when it starts impacting instruction, I have a problem with that, and emotions are so high that the kids are feeling it, and something's got to give here," he said.

Deborah Lynn Dickerson, a veteran counselor at Keonepoko Elementary School in Puna on the Big Island, said Gov. Linda Lingle's demand for the drug-testing program treats teachers as if they were parolees subjected to mandatory testing after they are released from prison.

"I don't want it in my contract. I don't want to have my constitutional rights taken away in exchange for what I consider a piddly raise in the beginning," Dickerson said. "We have a right to be treated as professionals."

Dana Larsen is an NDP candidate

Long-time social activist and former marijuana party candidate Dana Larsen is the NDP candidate in West Vancouver-Sunshine Coast-Sea to Sky Country in the next federal election. This is pretty exciting news. I better go over to CC and congratulate him.

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.

Excellent 420 news

Lorretta Nall's legal fight is over. And in April 20th! Really great news and I will have to smoke a bowl to celebrate. For background on Loretta's case, go to her blog.

It's 11:31 p.m. on April 20th and I am not high. What gives? I must be sick or something. I better go remedy this situation right away.

Happy 420!

I am stuck working today. :( But for all of you slackers out there, have a great 420. Also this is where I'll be tomorrow:

Better Late Than Never 4:20 Birthday Party
Featuring Marc Emery, Canada's Prince of Pot


With the Musical Stylings of
Ross Campbell and Phat Chantz


And
Jimmy Schmidt Jazz Explosion


DATE: April 21, 2007
TIME: 6:30PM - 12:00AM
PLACE: Cosmo Senior's Center 614 11th St E
Admission: $10 for the night, $5 for SKMP members

Featured speakers to include: Nathan Holowaty, SKMP Leader, Dr. Lester Grinspoon of the Harvard medical school and Marc Emery, Canada's Prince of Pot.

Meth, Cocaine, LSD, MDMA and the Pharmaceutical Industry

This video has a slight "Loose Change" feel to it, but a very interesting video nonetheless.

How to be a Drug Dealer in the United States

Link Dump

From the Drug War blogosphere I bring you this excellent post by Radley Balko that refutes one of the most popular arguments of the drug warriors: But if we legalize drugs, more people will use drugs. And drugs are bad, you shouldn't use drugs!

I have to admit that I am finding the drug war difficult to blog about because there is just so much bad news today. Obviously I am reffering to the Virginia Tech shooting. I found a very moving personal account of the tragedy via Pharyngula. It made me teary to read that. I am also extremely pissed off about the fact that the partial-birth abortion ban was upheld in the Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision. I guess that is what happens when a bunch of old, honky, males decide to act as the uterus police.

Health Canada makes Big Bucks on Schwag

Way back in 1999, the Ontario Supreme Court ruled that the ban on marijuana was unconstitutional because it deprived needy, sick people of valuable medicine. The Canadian government was required to provide medical marijuana. When the Ontario Supreme Court ruled that the government must supply medical marijuana to patients, it did not specify that the product must be affordable or of good quality. Because of this loophole, medical marijuana in Canada is at best a mishandled boondoggle and at worst a scandalous ripoff that would give satan a boner.

Prairie Plant Systems is the Saskatoon-based company that grows medicinal marijuana for Health Canada. They sell it to Health Canada for $328.75 per kilogram and they sell it to patients for $150 per ounce. That is a 1500% mark-up. That's bad enough, but the product that PPS sells is schwaggy, low-grade, moldy, contaminated garbage. This is what happens when reefer madness afflicted politicians do everything they can to make life difficult for medical patients.

Anne McLellan, Canada's Minister of Health, told the media that she was only allowing the marijuana to be sold because recent court rulings in Ontario gave her no choice. She said that she would immediately end the program if her ministry wins its appeal, but a decision was not expected until late October.Link

'Hardened Criminals' Going to the BigHouse

At one time they supplied Canada with strippers and good-time girls.

Now, there's a whole lot more money in smuggling registered physiotherapists over the Quebec border to look after a generation of aging Boomers.

I fear the sale of bootleg Viagra is just the beginning for aging bikers and their clients.

But more amazing is the fact that the story has been told without anyone so far referring to them as "hardened criminals."

I will ignore my disgust at women being reffered to as a commodity as I laugh callously at the plight of the busted bonerless bikers.

McCops screw up in the Yukon

Today I bring you the sordid tale of bad guys getting away with it because of the charter. The author of this editorial starts out thinking that but then comes to the conclusion that the bad guys are getting away with it because of the gross incompetence of the police.

Imagine a couple of cops posing as regular, marijuana smoking dudes. They dress in clothing covered with marijuana leaves and go from town to town pretending to be travelling salesmen peddling cheap crap covered with marijuana leaves. I know I spend my days and nights in cheap hemp-leaf gear. These cops are pretty proud of themselves for fitting right into the cannabis culture. It is their sworn duty to uphold the law. Smoking and selling marijuana is against the law and arresting marijuana users is their job and nothing is going to stop them. If they have to spend $70 000 and enlist the talents of six police officers over the course of a summer, what of it? That's their job!

What do these police officers have to show for all their hard work? You would imagine with all that effort put forth and money spent that these undercover dudes would have managed to take down the Hells' Angels. You would be wrong.

They laid 17 charges, 16 of them related to marijuana. They managed to seize 31 grams of marijuana. It takes me months to smoke that much dope. Your average medical marijuana user smokes that in a day.*

If you read the entire editorial you can see gross incompetence, wasted money and a complete and utter disrespect for the charter of rights and freedoms. Being the cynical person that I am, I pretty much expect this of the police. What a sad and depressing state of affairs.

But I often ponder how this state of affairs came to be. I like to think that the police force is made up of an elite force of women and men trained to serve and protect. These idealists want to serve their fellow human beings and they feel that putting their lives on the line day after day is the best way that they can do that. Police officers aren't mindless drones, their human beings fer Chrissakes!

So how is it that a highly trained, intelligent human being reduces themselves to donning marijuana gear, while peddling cheap crap to trusting potheads? Do they ever step back and think, "Why am I doing this? I signed up to kick ass and bust pedophiles and rapists. Why am I driving around dressed in these dopey clothes, trying to convince these potheads that I am one of them? Don't I have better things to do?" I guess groupthink, conformity and submission take priority over common sense.

Oftentimes I see optimistic pot activists pointing to statistics like the following:

-53% of Canadians support regulating and taxing marijuana
-59% of Canadians do not believe that possession should always result in a criminal record

Then come to the conclusion that the end of prohibition has wide support.

We have editorialists in the newspaper who recognize the wrongness of violating the charter rights of a Canadian citizen, regardless of their lawbreaking ways. But said editorialists, and a good chunk of their readers, do not seem to recognize or care about the gross absurdity of attempting to keep pot smokers from using a plant less toxic than aspirin. Until that happens, we are stuck with prohibition and all the costly, stupid bullshit and the violations of human rights that goes along with it.

* I really have no idea how much weed your average medical marijuana user consumes and it's really silly of me to speculate.

Drug War RoundUp

Thehim has given us another excellent Drug War Round-up.

Bush (Still) Loves DARE

Go Marsha!

First the Nappy-headed Hos

Now this: African-American Mothers More Likely To Be Tested For Drugs. I would think this has much more impact on the lives of black women than a thoughtless remark from a wrinkled up old man like Don Imus. Let's not forget that America's current drug policies jail African-American men at a much higher rate than did apartheid in South Africa. I will wait patiently for outrage over this from Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson.

Not in my Backyard

Some local "Christian" hypocrites are opposed to a detox centre being located next to their precious little school. These people have spent years drinking the reefer madness kool-aid and have absolutely no idea how the illegal drug market works. Case in point:

The region has its sights on an 11.7-acre parcel of land southeast of the city for a 24-bed youth stabilization centre for teens with addiction problems. Six of those beds will be for kids who have been ordered into treatment by a judge.

The proposal has raised the ire of some of the parents of the 256 students who attend the Saskatoon Christian School, located next to the site of the proposed detox centre.

Parents are worried youth may wander from the treatment facility to the schoolyard. They're also concerned visitors to the centre will include drug dealers, enabling the youth to use drugs while in treatment.

No self-respecting drug dealer needs to recruit users at a detox center. They recruit themselves.

Luckily for me, an excellent response appeared in the Star Phoenix today.

Christian parents' opposition to youth detox centre absurd
The StarPhoenix
Published: Thursday, April 12, 2007

Re: School parents group opposes location of youth detox centre (SP, March 29). I cannot believe that a group of Christians would be part of a "not in my backyard" group.

For these parents to oppose a treatment center for youth who've lost their way and are attempting to better their lives just because the proposed location is next to their precious private school is ridiculous and hypocritical.

I was raised in a religious family and was taught always to "love thy neighbour as thyself."

The parents are afraid the detox center will bring an "unwanted element" to their location and their children will be exposed to drugs. It's laughable. I am sure that a detox centre would be rigorously policed for this sort of thing.

If these parents want to raise their children in a sterile and completely safe environment, they are sadly deluded. Their children are in for a rude awakening when they graduate to the real world.

All around us we see church youth groups going to South America and other Third World countries to help the less fortunate and to spread their faith. Yet, somehow we cannot help the less fortunate in our own backyard. How Christian is that?

These people need to rethink their position and the bad publicity it is causing for the entire Christian community.

I have lived for 15 years and raised a family within a mile of Yarrow Youth Farm and Red Willow Treatment Centre and no-one is any worse for it.

If there were a proposal to expand Red Willow to include a teen detox centre, I'd welcome it. At least the clients there are trying to make their lives better.

Randy W. Klingenberg

Saskatoon

Thanks for writing this, Randy. Christian hypocrisy should be called out as often as possible.

Web Of Deceit?

The Chronicler -- And Admirer -- Of Hells Angels Treads A Fine Line

Operating a biker Web site can be hell when police fear the guy running it is no angel.

Well, an Angel he is actually -- a Hells Angel.

"But I am not involved in crime," insists the man behind the mystery of realdealnews.com. "I have a family and a ( day ) job."

But it's his hobby that has the cops burning. He sometimes goes by the mock name Bill Paide but in biker and police circles alike he's known simply as Webmaster.

They all know his real name. He doesn't reveal it because his employer would not appreciate his ties to a motorcycle club. He talked with The Sun only by telephone and through e-mail. And the picture here today, he provided.

During last week's bust there was no one in the information game more on top of things with updates and stories. He takes a lot of pride in that fact.

"This Web site is for the many Hells Angels and all bikers that are not involved in crime, enjoy family, brotherhood, motorcycles, and the right to the freedom of association guaranteed by our Charter of Rights and Freedoms," he said.

From the realdealnews guestbook:

Ill save you all the don't look in the mirror stuff. You've got over that one a long time a go i'm sure. The many calls you made to me trying to make it look like we were up to no good.. eg. Me "Are you comin here to the clubhouse?" You "I'm still cookin it." Me "What the f are you talkin about?" You "Not on the phone" The thing s you did, like wen i borrowed 100 bucks off you in the cab in Alberta when the club paid our way to send us to pay resopect at a funeral.. Me "Can i bum a hundred off ya" You "Well, you know, the Italians are payin for everything.." Me "I dont know any Italians...I just wanna borrow a huundred bucks." When i went to the airport and you went somewhere else i saw the cabbie pretending to be a passenger there. I told my wife when i got home you were Shaky and if you ever tried to leave a message for me of any type she was to say that she could not accept it as i suspected you were on a 'crusade' to entrap and justify your pay as you go paycheque. I was only sure enough to protect my family and i sure wish i warned others. We are a big family that s very careful not to hurt each other with unsure accusations, and we love and trust each other and you traded and you profited and you schemed on that. I'm wondering how many of the charges are founded on conversations where your odd telephone statements went unchallenged, or your constant parading around the clubhouse asking everyone for drugs precepitated. Ill save you all the guilt and shame stuff im sure you do not feel, but when you do see one of them "snitchin rats" in the mirror, spit on him for me will ya. You know who.

***Entrapment is legal in Canada
Creating crime is the easiest way to solve it