cannabisnews.com: Dutch Could Teach Us A Lot About Marijuana Laws





Dutch Could Teach Us A Lot About Marijuana Laws
Posted by CN Staff on December 13, 2002 at 13:39:08 PT
By Dan Gardner 
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist 
While doing some research in the Netherlands recently, I was told a curious story by an Amsterdam city councillor. This councillor is also the owner of a "coffee shop" - a pub that sells marijuana - and so he often plays host to the foreign officials who constantly tour Holland and marvel at how the country's liberal justice policies have somehow managed to fail to spawn depravity, misery and chaos of biblical proportions. One day, he told me, he showed a foreign politician around his pleasant little shop. He pointed to the second floor and told the visitor he had another room upstairs. "That's where they inject hashish," he said with a straight face. 
The politician nodded his head solemnly. Ah yes, junkies injecting hashish. Awful stuff, these drugs. I laughed. And I'm sure most of you got the gag, too. But for the innocent, let me explain that injecting hashish makes as much sense as injecting your granddad's pipe tobacco. Obviously, this politician knew absolutely nothing about drugs. Unfortunately, he's not unique in that. Public debate about drugs is rife with nonsense, even - or especially - when the politicians who draft laws are talking. Recall Liberal MP Paul Szabo's warning to Parliament in 1995 that modern marijuana is "as potent as cocaine was 10 years ago." Not only is this gibberish (it's like saying a shot of vodka is as potent as a pack of Marlboros). It was gibberish uttered by the chairman of the Commons committee that had reviewed the drug laws. Drug policies have been much in the news this year. First, there was Justice Minister Martin Cauchon's support for decriminalizing marijuana possession ( which would make it punishable by a fine, not criminal conviction ). In September, there was the mammoth report by a Senate committee calling for full marijuana legalization. This week, two reports by a Commons committee, including one to be released today, are recommending decriminalization of pot and harm-reduction measures for other drugs, while Cauchon confirmed that the government will go ahead with decriminalization. These events spurred an enormous amount of coverage and debate - almost all of it falling somewhere between superficial and half-baked. Just look at the hubbub following the release of the Senate report. Reporters giggled and made juvenile jokes, like the senior TV correspondent whose sole question at the press conference was "what have you been smoking?" Coverage was often glib and occasionally misleading. As for the extensive evidence cited in the Senate committee's comprehensive 650-page report, scarcely a word of it appeared in the media because - let's be brutally honest - many reporters read only the press release. And it wasn't just the reporters. Newspapers and airwaves were stuffed with opinionated commentators whose statements demonstrated they had never even glanced at the report. In a typically revealing editorial, the Toronto Star opined that "it's hard to imagine how legalizing marijuana would do anything but increase" use. But they didn't have to imagine. They could have turned to page 581 and read the chapter in which the senators reviewed the evidence on that very issue. Of course, not all will agree with the senators' conclusion that the law has little or no effect on usage rates ( although I do ). But surely, critics had an obligation to at least look at senators' evidence and present some of their own. They didn't. Over and over, commentators mocked, belittled, denounced and dismissed the senators while ignoring their evidence. It was a shameful performance. And it continues in the wake of Cauchon's latest announcement. Decriminalization is a serious issue that raises many concerns. But all we hear is lazy blather. Here's a simple example. As any criminology student knows, you have to be careful when you reduce, but don't eliminate, the punishment for an act. Reduced punishments often prompt the justice system to apply the law in cases where it would not have before. This is called "net-widening" and it's an obvious risk of decriminalization. Experience confirms it. In 1987, South Australia decriminalized marijuana, with the wrinkle that failure to pay the ticket would result in a criminal conviction. The new system had no effect on rates of marijuana use. But over the next six years, tickets exploded from 6,000 a year to 17,000. And since half the tickets went unpaid, more people were slapped with criminal convictions after decriminalization than before. Of course, pot jokes are fun and it's a lot easier to repeat claims of know-nothing politicians than to do original research. But wouldn't it be nice if we could talk about things like net-widening before we pass new laws and suffer the consequences? The Dutch have a word for these informed discussions. They call it democracy.  Newshawk: The GCWSource: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)Author: Dan Gardner Published: December 12, 2002Copyright: 2002 Times ColonistContact: letters times-colonist.comWebsite: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmCommittee To Recommend 30-Gram Pot Limit http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14951.shtml Dutch Celebrate 30 Years of Legal Pot http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14861.shtmlFirst Dutch Cannabis Cafe Marks 30th Anniversaryhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14853.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by The GCW on December 13, 2002 at 16:56:55 PT
"The hemp plant is advanced.
QUOTE: "The hemp plant is botanically quite advanced; some plants are male, some are female, and some are androgynous. Most species in the plant kingdom are merely androngynous."
- United States Dispensatory, 1851 - http://www.hempbc.com/ 
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Comment #2 posted by The GCW on December 13, 2002 at 16:07:48 PT
The quote changes... & CANNADA?
"In a free society, the military and the police are God's special envoys."
- Pat Robertson, "700 Club" - http://www.hempbc.com/ (perhaps the God of Pat Robertson is different than the God of mine. My God is defined by Christ, and not by disobedient Christians, that daily deny the Love, We are commanded to extend. Not tough love, but just plain Love. You can not Love Your brother and cage Him for using a plant God gave Us right from the start or even before the start as We know it.Pat fails the litmus test.)It makes Me almost cry, when I realize that Pat is a stumbling block to My Fathers wishes. I am angry.12:13:2
Urantia p. 1060 says, Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of the devil... Does Jesus through the Holy Spirit of Truth also help redeem cannabis from the superstition that cannabis is a plant of the devil?=0=0=0=If there are not accidents of name, what does Canada, mean? Is it a coincidence that Canada’s name resembles Cannada, or something akin to cannabis? Was this known all along, from before Adam and Eve? What if Cannada Re-legalized Cannabis and the U.S. proclaims war against Cannada, indirectly for it? Would Americans be willing to kill Canadians? How about Cannadians? Canada uses a maple leaf for its mark... which is akin to the leaf of cannabis. How interesting. Was it supposed to be a green cannabis leaf instead of a red maple leaf? Red & Green = The plant and the blood. Is it the same for Christmas... why red and green? http://www.craigmarlatt.com/craig/canada/history&people/history_canada.html How did Canada get its name? "It came borne on the wind." / Stadacona's chief, Donnacona,
“Cartier heard the name on the wind.” (WOW?)=C= Does the U.S. have laws to prevent the Truth from effecting the needs of the (Bush) Empire?Can We stop refering to cannabis with its bigoted, biased derogatory slang term? Stop using the “M” word. We may look back and wonder how We used it for so long.And can We influence Canada to switch to CANNADA? And did Cartier see smoke in that wind? =0=0=I believe, Christ God Our Father is in complete control. http://www.urantia.org/papers/paper194.html 
Jesus lived on earth and taught a gospel which redeemed man from the superstition that he was a child of the devil and elevated him to the dignity of a faith son of God. Jesus' message, as he preached it and lived it in his day, was an effective solvent for man's spiritual difficulties in that day of its statement. And now that he has personally left the world, he sends in his place his Spirit of Truth, who is designed to live in man and, for each new generation, to restate the Jesus message so that every new group of mortals to appear upon the face of the earth shall have a new and up-to-date version of the gospel, just such personal enlightenment and group guidance as will prove to be an effective solvent for man's ever-new and varied spiritual difficulties.
     The first mission of this spirit is, of course, to foster and personalize truth, for it is the comprehension of truth that constitutes the highest form of human 
 
Page 2061 
 
liberty.(Please realize Christ told Us the promised Holy Spirit of Truth, will make all things known.)THE CANNABIS PROHIBITION IS A "SPIRITUAL DIFFICULTY".
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on December 13, 2002 at 15:32:09 PT
Caging humans for using a plant, is profitable.
"LSD is illegal because it opens up your mind to all kinds of facets of existence, and that's frightening for every government. I don't blame them. "
- Larry Hagman, star of "Dallas" and "I Dream of Jeannie" - 
http://www.hempbc.com/ (front page at top)And from the Cannabis Culture archives, http://www.hempbc.com/articles/1887.html
US prison empire 
 -Marijuana smokers are filling jails with cheap labour for corporate profit.
(this made Me sick when I first read it, and thought I'd share it with other activists, ...so I don't get sick alone) & (talk about corporations supporting the prohibition...)
"The entire operation is being coordinated by multinational corporate interests that reach deep into the heart and pockets of the White House." Peace be upon YouAnd peace be upon those who withhold good to those whom it is due.The table of the Lord is not to be despised.
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