cannabisnews.com: Opinions Clash in Big Island Pot Trial










  Opinions Clash in Big Island Pot Trial

Posted by FoM on January 26, 2002 at 09:15:45 PT
By Rod Thompson 
Source: Star-Bulletin 

Is marijuana such a menace that the state has a compelling reason to prevent people from using it even when their religion requires it? Psychologist Tonya Canoso of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center testified yesterday that marijuana is "highly addictive" and leads to medical, family and legal problems. That could be a compelling reason to ban even its religious use.
Kona Dr. William Wenner testified, "It's a nontoxic drug of no known dangerousness." That could mean there is no compelling reason to ban it.The two opposing opinions were offered in the trial of Big Island marijuana advocate Jonathan Adler, who admits he possessed 89 marijuana plants seized by police in 1998.Adler's defense is that use of marijuana is required by his religion, the Religion of Jesus Church, East Hawaii Branch.Without marijuana, "The church would cease to exist," Adler testified.Adler was tried last August, but the jury deadlocked in the case. He was tried again yesterday by Judge Greg Nakamura without a jury, with the focus on whether there is a "compelling interest" to limit his freedom of religion.Opposing lawyers will present written closing arguments a month after trial transcripts are prepared, and Nakamura will then decide the case.Canoso's testimony presented a picture of increasingly powerful marijuana used by adults and children as young as 5 years old. But she had to qualify her statements under cross-examination. She said marijuana causes hallucinations, but the example she gave was of a patient who was also mentally ill.In fact, no more than 5 percent of her patients use only marijuana, and she said it is difficult to sort out the effects of one drug from another.Wenner said if people have hallucinations, it's when they first start using marijuana. Eventually they get used to it, and most eventually stop using.Canoso called marijuana and alcohol "gateway" drugs to other substances. Wenner said the worst gateway drug is cigarettes. Many give up marijuana, but most still smoke cigarettes 40 years after starting, he said.Canoso said marijuana could be lethal if the user is driving a car. Wenner denied it."It would take about 50 pounds, and I don't think anybody could eat that much," he said.Note: Jonathan Adler seeks to use pakalolo for religious purposes.Source: Honolulu Star-Bulletin (HI)Author: Rod ThompsonPublished: Friday, January 25, 2002 Copyright: 2002 Honolulu Star-BulletinContact: letters starbulletin.comWebsite: http://www.starbulletin.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institutehttp://www.medijuana.com/Hearing To Weigh Religion and Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11660.shtmlRules Call for Documenting Religious Aspect of Pothttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread11447.shtml

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Comment #12 posted by Shishaldin on January 26, 2002 at 23:59:54 PT
The 1st Amendment
Know it, Show it, GROW IT!Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.It doesn't get anymore black and white than that...peace and strength,
Shishaldin 
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Comment #11 posted by Shishaldin on January 26, 2002 at 23:56:20 PT
Amen Reverend!
Many Thanks and Praises to you for your courage to speak the truth and take those who would deny you your religious freedom to task. Make them answer for attempting to usurp your First Amendment rights! Then, ask them what kind of GOD they worship, that they would take away the sacrament of another. What would Jesus do? He'd burn a bowl with ya....Stay strong! We're cheering you on, Reverend!peace and strength,
Shishaldin
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Comment #10 posted by Rev Jonathan Adler on January 26, 2002 at 22:22:47 PT:
Aloha Potheads!
Aloha to all Potheads on cannabis news.com You all are very intelligent so tell me. Why did I win this case? Why am I feree to grow and use cannabis? Why am I not afraid to speak out truthfully? Well the reason is.......it's my job. Someone has to step forward and be counted. Someone has to overcome the prejudice and malice in law enforcements hearts.We are all in this boat together, it's about time to start navigating togethjer in the right direction. Any help can be sent C?O Rev. Jonathan Adler Box 742 Hilo, Hi. 96721
Keep trrucki' and don't give up the ship! Jonathan
Hawaii Medical Marijuana Institute
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Comment #9 posted by markjc on January 26, 2002 at 16:23:45 PT:
hallucinations?
Marijuana makes you hallucinate? Thats new to me. maybe I should stop taking shrooms.
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Comment #8 posted by DdC on January 26, 2002 at 14:38:00 PT
We Report YOU Decide!
FASCISM: 1 -a. Totalitarianism marked by right-wing dictatorship and bellicose nationalism. 2. Oppressive, dictatorial control.
- The American Heritage Dictionary"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, for the vast masses of the nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad. The primitive simplicity of their minds renders them a more easy prey to a big lie than a small one, for they themselves often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell a big one." 
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries and deeds of maniacal insanity it causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured...No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a joyous reveller in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer..." 
HARRY J ANSLINGER
Commissioner of the US Bureau of Narcotics 1930 1962"All propaganda must be so popular and on such an intellectual level, that even the most stupid of those towards whom it is directed will understand it. Therefore, the intellectual level of the propaganda must be lower the larger the number of people who are to be influenced by it."
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935Psychologist Tonya Canoso of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center testified yesterday that marijuana is "highly addictive" and leads to medical, family and legal problems. That could be a compelling reason to ban even its religious use. Ritalin --- Pharmaceutical Blackmail (Thread) 
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/thread.shtml?1x36222Prescription for Addiction by Robert W. Lee
http://thenewamerican.com/tna/2001/02-12-2001/vo17no04_ritalin_print.htmThe USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 1987
"Cannabis can be used on an episodic but continual basis without evidence of social or psychic dysfunction. In many users the term dependence with its obvious connotations, probably is mis-applied... The chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political, and not toxicologic, foundation". "Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise." 
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the "London Sunday Express," December 8, 1935"There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others."
 Harry Anslinger, U.S. Commissioner of Narcotics, testifying to Congress on why marijuana should be made illegal, 1937.
(Marijuana Tax Act, signed Aug. 2, 1937; effective Oct. 1, 1937.) "The masses have little time to think. And how incredible is the willingness of modern man to believe."American Academy of Pediatrics Guidelines for Treating Behavioral Disorders in Children with Ritalin Ignores Evidence of Cancer Risks
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=295.topic"Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag - a thing with a soul that could mirror my own."
Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini together in the heyday of 1930s fascism.Bush. Religious drug treatment in Texas
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=13.topicThe Shafer Commission of 1970 
Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug" "A violently active, intrepid, brutal youth that is what I am after... 
I will have no intellectual training. Knowledge is ruin for my young men."
Adolf Hitler quoted by John Gunther "The Nation"The Assassins of Youth DARE the FRCn PDFA
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=105.topic"There is a point at which the law becomes immoral and unethical. That point is reached when it becomes a cloak for the cowardice that dares not stand up against blatant violations of justice. A state that supresses all freedom of speech, and which by imposing the most terrible punishments, treats each and every attempt at criticism, however morally justified, and every suggestion for improvement as plotting to high treason, is a state that breaks an unwritten law."BR> 
- Kurt Huber [The head of White Rose], killed by the Nazis in 1943.
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Comment #7 posted by DdC on January 26, 2002 at 13:32:59 PT
Time to Hold the D.E.A.th Liars Accountable!!!
Neither the trappings of robes, nor temples of stone, nor a fixed liturgy, nor an extensive literature or history is required to meet the test of beliefs cognizable under the Constitution as religious. So far as our law is concerned, one person's religious beliefs held for one day are presumptively entitled to the same protection as the beliefs of millions which have been shared for thousands of years.
-- Judge Jack Weinstein, New York State, 1977Sacramental Cannabis
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/Sacramental.html
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Comment #6 posted by E_Johnson on January 26, 2002 at 12:53:39 PT
This is a long standing complaint among scientists
The thing that most scientists get annoyed very much over in journalism is the way that journalists try to present all points of view as being equal.When it comes to what someone values, then that's reasonable. Subjective matters like systems of values -- it's no problem to present them as all being of equal weight.But when it comes to plain physical facts, all points of view ARE NOT EQUAL. Some points of view are more right than others and it is a cheat to pretend otherwise.For example, it is a physical fact that if I jump up off the Earth, I will fall back down to the Earth. That's gravity. Now somebody could adopt a point of view that they can fly, and are not bound by gravity, and they can epxress this ppoint of view in the press. But are we to give such a ppoint of view the same treatment as the point of view that correctly describes the physcal reality of gravity? NO!Journalists are taking arguments that have no basis in physical fact, or very weak basis in established physical fact, and presenting them as if they are truly equally valid points of view when compared with established physical fact.It's because they've given up on the idea of facts, period. They refuse to check anything they print against original sources and so all they can ever do is print one prohibitionist testimony and one anti-prohibitionist testimony and leave the whole world forever in a state of suspended aninmation under the implication that the two arguments are both somehow equally valid.Prohibitionists claim to be making statements of fact and not values, therefore it ought to be the duty of journalists to check those statements of fact against some established record.But they don't. Journalists today don't bother. They just present "both sides" as if the debate is somehow unresolvable. The debate is not unresolvable. There is physical reality to account for, and that resolves the debate, and that is what they're the most determined to ignore.And part of the reason for that is they all took Science Studies instead of Science in college.So they don't know how to look anything up, or how to understand it if they did.
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Comment #5 posted by Jose Melendez on January 26, 2002 at 11:14:58 PT:
hmmm...
May I play devil's advocate? It would seem that the author did point out both sides of the argument. 
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Comment #4 posted by i420 on January 26, 2002 at 10:42:42 PT
Can anyone else testify??
No more than 5% of Cano's patients use mj. WOW this makes her such an expert. Why was she even allowed to testify????
Was it for comedy relief??? I guess the courts are just bored off their a$$
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Comment #3 posted by bruce42 on January 26, 2002 at 10:13:15 PT
well, not TOO hard...
I mean, if a bunch of "potheads" can sift through the reams of articles and data on a daily basis in order to put forth informed and compelling arguments for the reform of marijuana law, then what excuse do these so-called journalists have?Perhaps that cynical positioning blinds lands them squarely in the haze of distrust and misinformation that pervades the modern media. After all, who owns the modern media but hard-line politicians bent on reforming our nation in the image of a god they've perverted into a being of malice and contempt.But I ramble on.peace 
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 26, 2002 at 09:52:07 PT

If I could write I'd pay attention
I weigh just about every word I say. I wasn't always that way but I've learned over the years that your words will come back to haunt you if you don't pay close attention to what you are saying. I say engage your brain before your mouth speaks. These writer that write about drug policy seem to have forgotten to engage their brain and they need to get with the program. The Internet brings articles to people that are interested in a particular issue with the speed of light and excuses won't stand up very well much longer. Thank goodness!
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Comment #1 posted by E_Johnson on January 26, 2002 at 09:35:39 PT

Postmodern journalism: only opinions, no facts
Psychologist Tonya Canoso of the Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center testified yesterday that marijuana is "highly addictive" and leads to medical, family and legal problems. That could be a compelling reason to ban even its religious use. Kona Dr. William Wenner testified, "It's a nontoxic drug of no known dangerousness." That could mean there is no compelling reason to ban it.The two opposing opinions were offered in the trial of Big Island marijuana advocate Jonathan Adler, who admits he possessed 89 marijuana plants seized by police in 1998These are not two opposing opinions. One of these is a fact and the other is not a fact but a fallacy. Guess which one?Why are journalists so unable to check facts? Because in college they substitute Science Studies for Science, they substitute Pop Culture Studies for History. Nobody learns anything any more except how to take an appropriately cynical and distant position from facts, and pretend that everything is just an opinion.That's a big part of the problem here. Colleges are teaching journalism students that there are no facts. That's why journalists today have basically stopped checking them!!!That's why the ONDCP was able to turn their pseudoscientific screed on marijuana potency into a dramatic cover story in Time Magazine that contained not one single actual fact verified by any independent source or by any recognized scientist or scientific organization period.Checking facts is hard, it takes work. It's much easier to sit by the side and pretend that both of these opposing opinions are somehow equal before Nature and God. And that is the state of journalism in America today. 
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