cannabisnews.com: The War on Plants... Err, Drugs 





The War on Plants... Err, Drugs 
Posted by CN Staff on October 17, 2002 at 08:54:47 PT
By Cyryl Jakubowski
Source: UIC Today 
Welcome to the War on Drugs. Since Halloween is coming up, it's time to talk about something really eerie. When you first heard about the War on Drugs, did you ever get this mental image stuck in your head? In the middle of some city that lays in ruins and rubble, against a backdrop of gunfire and smoke, two stoners are sitting on the front porch of some burned down wooden house passing a joint.
"I hear they are close now. They are going to find us man, and then we're going to be screwed. I'm so paranoid man it's not even funny. DUDE! You're sidetracking it you bastard. Just don't drop the cherry!!!" And his peace-sign shirt-wearing friend says:"It's all good man, chill out. The thought of Big Brother riding up over here makes me laugh." And in that moment, three squad cars that look like something out of Mad Max pull up, tires screeching, and they open fire. Suddenly things pick up pace, and for a second it seems you are watching the opening scene from The Terminator. A pickup truck with a roof mounted heavy assault rifle pulls up, and the driver who has a needle in his arm yells:"Hop on in boys!" The two stoners jump into the truck, Bob Marley music is playing, and the chase is on. The druggie truck is now involved in a high speed pursuit, with cross fire and the usual shenanigans going off here and there. A crack head is operating the heavy assault rifle, firing upon Big Brother, until Jay and Silent Bob along with Cheech & Chong show up in a green helicopter and blasts those pigs to hell. What?! You never had that image? Maybe you weren't getting good shit. Welcome to the War on Drugs. Can you smell the gun smoke in the air? Well, the only thing that I can smell is the reefer smoke rising from the car beside me. Or when I'm walking downtown, you can always take a whiff of the crisp clean air, and realize that somebody is having a party nearby. We don't have a problem with saying no these days. We have a problem with just how often we shouldn't be saying yes. The War on Drugs is at a stalemate, isn't it? The purpose of the War on Drugs was to stop drug trafficking. Well, it's kind of easy to get drugs these days, don't you think? "Rocks and blows!" "I've got trees!" One can get drugs anywhere these days. OK, I'm not talking about supermarkets, but the rule of thumb is, that if you're looking for drugs, you will probably find them. I mean there are obvious pros and cons to this so called "war." I mean heroin, amphetamines, or crack are some pretty heavy drugs, and they probably should be regulated. Add opium, acid, shrooms, or cocaine, and you're in for a party. But why marijuana is in this dirty mix puzzles me. Having pot in this war is like having clean-cut, blond-haired, plaid shirt wearing kids hanging around dirty and seedy Harley biker bars and mingling with twisted thugs and characters from William Burroughs novels. I guess we can say that I mildly support legalization of pot. Not because weed is a weak drug, but because every argument that I have heard that was against legalization seems like it's formed without logic or reason. There is always this assumption--and I think this is the argument that keeps marijuana illegal--that pot is a gateway drug. A gateway drug is a fake drug that makes people move onto the real drugs. We can add the whole "protect our children" issue to this argument, and we'll realize why pot is still illegal today. Plus add the fact that you can't really tax weed because it can grow anywhere, and anyone can grow it and sell it, and you will arrive with the conclusion that our government will never legalize pot. Hey just out of curiosity, go out and ask your parents if they ever smoked pot. Just for a goof, to see if they really practice what they preach. Now obviously I'm not saying everyone should smoke pot. We are free human beings, right? We have the power of choice. Some people like pot, others like booze and cigarettes. On a side note, statistics dictate that alcohol and cigarettes, the legal stuff, kill more people each year than pot ever did. But let's move on. These days, weed is not only tied to the degenerates. These days, doctors smoke, and so do lawyers and psychologists. I'm sure somewhere out there, people who are taking all these engineering classes--and they can build you a circuit in less than a minute--smoke the ganja from time to time. Hey, what about all those geniuses down in Silicon Valley who are hopped up on cocaine and pot most of the time? We can go on and on about who smokes pot. The media gives subliminal messages that pot smoking is going on everyday. In Eyes Wide Shut, Tom Cruise's character is a doctor and he smokes a joint with Nicole Kidman. Hell, if you watch The Simpsons, you know the creators of that show are hopped up on something heavy. First of all, let's look at the so called statistics. We have lots of nonviolent drug offenders in prisons. The War on Drugs puts young suburban Bill into prison for a joint and a few years down the line, Bill emerges back into the society as Billy the Bad Ass who shanked twelve people in prison and now looks forward to a life of crime. Why are we creating criminals out of innocent people? Why are we locking up innocents in the first place? Aren't we supposed to be going after the real criminals, like say snipers who shoot children or people who blow up buses? But before I go any further, I haven't done my homework on the War on Drugs, so take whatever you read with a grain of salt. It just seems illogical to me to be spending billions of dollars locking up people for minor offenses. We are ruining these people's lives. Did you know that once you get busted for pot, you can't get financial aid anymore? Hey, since we are so hell-bent on keeping up this stupid war, why don't we make it count? Instead of locking up innocent kids, go after "the bankers who launder the drug money" like George Carlin says. Look, drugs have been a valuable addition into our society. If you really think drugs are bad, then take all your music records and burn them, because the artists that wrote those things were high. "We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine. We all live in a yellow submarine? You know how fried they must have been when they wrote that? They were so high they let Ringo sing a few songs." Yes, the Beatles did drugs, and they wrote many fine songs. In the end, since the UIC Today is covering drugs this week, the only relevant issue that should be taken from this mindless, tireless, and shallowly ignorant banter is that the War on Drugs should be rethought, and pot should be legalized. Now that we have taken this out of the way, I leave the floor space for all those hemp activists who want to make rope and hair products that would help the economy. Who smokes pot for recreation anyway? We're making rope! But in the end, no one listens to us anyway. Did you know people were trying to legalize drugs since the 60's? But obviously no one cares about what we have to say, since they haven't been listening for a while now, and pot is still illegal. So put your Ray Ban's on, because legalization of pot is a utopia that will never be reached in this country. "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."Source: UIC Today (IL)Author: Cyryl JakubowskiPublished: October 17, 2002Copyright: 2002 UIC Today Contact: uictoday hotmail.com Website: http://www.uictoday.net/CannabisNews - Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by The GCW on October 17, 2002 at 16:13:17 PT
War?
Plants?http://www.hempbc.com/articles/2641.htmlCensorship in New Zealand 
by Dana Larsen (17 Oct, 2002) Cannabis Culture seized along with drug books.On February 1, 2002, at 6:30am, five New Zealand Customs officers executed a search warrant at the home of John and Daniela Setter. The officers searched the couple's home, located in the small town of Mount Maunganui on the island nation's Northern Coast, and seized several copies of Cannabis Culture magazine, as well as the following books: The Big Book of Buds, The Big Book of Secret Hiding Places, The Construction and Operation of Clandestine Drug Laboratories, Magic Mushrooms Around the World, Opium for the Masses, Peyote and Other Psychoactive Cacti, and Psilocybin: Magic Mushroom Grower's Guide.Officers also seized a vaporizer, the couple's laptop computer, and three pot plants. The reason for the raid was because Customs had noticed and objected to their recent ordering of Psychedelic Chemistry from Loompanics, a US publisher of controversial books.For possession of the cannabis plants, the Settler's paid a mere $350 NZ fine. But the case of the banned books could result in more serious penalties than those for the plants.New Zealand's Office of Film and Literature Classification reviews all books, prohibiting anything which "promotes or encourages criminal acts." Their decisions are then enforced by Customs. If charges are laid against the Setters, they are looking at a $2,000 NZ fine for each of the eight books, $16,000 NZ total!Oddly, although the books are banned, Cannabis Culture magazine is legal in New Zealand, although it must be sold in a plastic wrapper and to adults only.For more details, go here:
 www.loompanics.com/Articles/CensorshipInParadise.html 
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Comment #7 posted by floyd on October 17, 2002 at 15:04:05 PT:
Yeah really...
 I agree some of his comments were a little stereotypical, but come on guys, he is obviously being sarcastic and trying to be sympathetic for the cause....lets not shoot down our own supporters in an attempt to appear clever and cynical.
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Comment #6 posted by Nasarius on October 17, 2002 at 12:38:02 PT
You people..
...seem to have trouble recognizing a little thing called *SARCASM*.Thank you.
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Comment #5 posted by p4me on October 17, 2002 at 10:49:50 PT
This is like warm chicken soup, not so hot
I will say that it seemed to be a from the heart writing instead of one that takes the kernel that marijuana is the devil's drug and wraps something around it. UIC stands for University of Illinois- Chicago. It is a daily paper so articles have to be generated rather rapidly.This reminds me of something bland like canned chicken soup that is made different by putting red pepper sause in it. This article is honest at least and that the hot sause makes it different. A few spices or maybe just black pepper might be to my general preference but I still like this brand of chicken soup."...pot is a utopia that will never be reached in this country." There is a never say never saying that everyone knows that would make a person take this figuratively instead of literally. We have 3 out of 4 people saying that the federal government is lying when they say marijuana isn't medicine, yet the people on the stonewall sit around and laugh at us and say what are you going to do about it. They say: "You have science and reason with many medical experts lined up to testify the falsity of the federal position and Canada and the UK saying that cannabis is medicine and you have 3 out of every 4 Americans overcoming a continual brainwashing to come to the conclusion that the federal government is lying and you have not driven us from our nice wall yet. And when this wall falls we still have another wall and you don't here words like freedom on the other side of that wall. F*** You. Learn to live with it because we control the political power and that is all that counts." So figuratively, I say the author is right-on with, ""Abandon all hope ye who enter here."1
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Comment #4 posted by malleus on October 17, 2002 at 10:40:29 PT
I'm confused: is there a point to this rant?
I'd like the think I am a reasonably intelligent human being but this looks like a drunken rant put through a word processor to clean it up. But I *still* can't figure it out.
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Comment #3 posted by gloovins on October 17, 2002 at 10:06:27 PT
hello?
This writer IS all over the place. "Abandon all hope ye who enter here."that just kills me, cause the reason cannabis is still illegal is because of peoples apathetic attitude, like this writer...lazy journalism? naa, BAD editorial.
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Comment #2 posted by Morgan on October 17, 2002 at 09:37:13 PT
It'll happen
A man's reach should exceed his grasp; else what's a heaven for? 
- Robert Browning, In Philosophy
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Comment #1 posted by pokesmotter on October 17, 2002 at 09:29:35 PT:
this guy doesnt know what he is talking about
he has a good message overall, but as i was reading it i kept wondering why he would use such goofy examples. "A crack head is operating the heavy assault rifle, firing upon Big Brother, until Jay and Silent Bob along with Cheech & Chong show up in a green helicopter and blasts those pigs to hell." what the heck is he talking about? "Hell, if you watch The Simpsons, you know the creators of that show are hopped up on something heavy." that seems like a large generalization. and finally, "So put your Ray Ban's on, because legalization of pot is a utopia that will never be reached in this country." he must not be an optimistic guy (is cyryl a guy name?). i think it will come but is years in the future, after bush is gone. in my opinion, nothing is going to happen anytime soon. 
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