cannabisnews.com: Both Sides Ignoring Central-City Realities





Both Sides Ignoring Central-City Realities
Posted by CN Staff on April 04, 2003 at 13:58:33 PT
By James Goodwin of the Tribune’s Staff 
Source: Columbia Daily Tribune 
Welcome to my neighborhood, First Ward Councilwoman Almeta Crayton said yesterday to opponents and supporters of Proposition 1 and a White House appointee who spoke against the effects of marijuana."Now the chicken has come home to roost at your house," she told members of the luncheon audience. They had just heard three students talk about the drugs they said prompted classmates to drop out of their local private school and the marijuana one woman said crushed her daughter’s motivation to play flute.
"It’s been at my house for 30 years," the central-city councilwoman told the quiet crowd. "That’s why our neighborhoods look like they do."Speaking at a Peachtree Banquet Center event organized by opponents of Proposition 1, Crayton also chastised a few proponents who were there.Designers of the pot referendum, which is on Tuesday’s ballot, intend in part to prevent college students found guilty of possessing marijuana from losing federal aid."I’ve got young ladies who, if their young kids get caught out on the street, they could be evicted from public housing. No one’s talking about that," Crayton said. "What happens to that mother? She had nothing to do with it, but she could be put out. You didn’t put that in the" ballot proposition.So rose a representative of Columbia residents about whom supporters and opponents of Proposition 1 have had little to say. Crayton’s aim didn’t stop at city limits, though.Speaking to Scott Burns, an appointee of President George W. Bush and a director at the Office of National Drug Control Policy, Crayton asked rhetorically about federal support for treating drug users."You talk about treatment. The majority of the people in my neighborhood aren’t in treatment," she said. " ... I want the president to know that my community needs to be in treatment. … What about my neighborhood that should have been in treatment 35 years ago?"If a simple majority of Columbia voters approve Proposition 1, it would make possession of 35 grams or less a municipal offense and therefore, proponents say, save college students caught in possession of such amounts from losing their federal student aid.An impassioned opponent of the proposal, Crayton voted against it in January when it came before the Columbia City Council. Because the council rejected the measure, it was forwarded to voters.Burns, the White House appointee, was the first featured speaker at yesterday’s luncheon. He said the federal government applies a three-prong approach to fighting drugs - preventing their use in the first place, dismantling their distribution systems and treating drug users.Marijuana "is the cornerstone of the drug czar’s strategy," Burns said.It’s also the gateway drug, though one that, relatively speaking, doesn’t seem so terrible anymore, Crayton said. "If that’s the only thing you’ve got to worry about is Susie smoking a joint, get ready for the rest of the stuff that goes with it," she said.Asked if Crayton was implying that the white, middle-class people who seemed to make up most of the audience yesterday didn’t care about drugs so long as their kids weren’t using them, another speaker said she didn’t think so."I interpreted her as saying, if you pass" Proposition 1, marijuana "is going to show up in your neighborhood," said Eve Pearson, president of the Mid-Missouri Coalition on Adolescent Concerns.Complete Title: Both Sides Ignoring Central-City Realities, Crayton Tells Crowd Source: Columbia Daily Tribune (MO)Author: James Goodwin  of the Tribune’s Staff Published: Friday, April 04, 2003Copyright: 2003 Columbia Daily TribuneContact: editor tribmail.comWebsite: http://www.showmenews.com/Related Articles:Federal Official Issues Pot Warning http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15868.shtmlPot Initiative Draws Federal Attention http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15864.shtmlProp 1 Pits Proponents Against Law Enforcement http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15849.shtml
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Comment #8 posted by john wayne on April 05, 2003 at 13:50:49 PT
"stained class" by judas priest
was the record by which Sparks, Nevada resident James Vance applied lead make-up.BOC wrote that song "don't fear the reaper" for which I don't recall if any actual deaths were blamed.
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Comment #7 posted by malleus2 on April 05, 2003 at 06:10:02 PT
Failure to take personal responsibility
is no excuse.This is the kind of thing like the teenager who listened to those old depressing Blue Oyster Cult records, takes a shotgun, and attempts suicide, only to blow half his face off...and then his family sues the record company.Private school, huh? Very pricey. Who paid? Mummy and Poppy, of course. And why did they do that? Because they thought their kids would get a better education away from the (patrician sniff) riff-raff attending public school. You know, all those minority druggie students. Who might tempt little Muffy and Johnny with wicked whacky weed. This is so laughable. It's everywhere. No dodging it. On nearly every street corner it can be found. And they thought they could remove their children from having to take personal responsibility for their actions by penning them in a private school? And the kids think they can dodge that by publicly blaming cannabis for their own laziness?How dumb can you get?
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Comment #6 posted by afterburner on April 04, 2003 at 20:50:12 PT:
The Secret of the Drug Czar's Strategy.
Marijuana "is the cornerstone of the drug czar’s strategy," Burns said.In other words, lying about cannabis and obfuscating the information about cannabis, so that many people are confused and manipulated, is the mainstay of the drug czar's five year plan for Soviet Americastan. By lying about cannabis with the same dicredited propaganda arguments over and over, some people will be fooled. "The big lie was a key element in the Nazi’s rise to power. Joseph Goebbels developed the Nazi campaign against the Jews by blaming them for Germany’s failure to recover after World War 1. His famous political insight was that if you tell a lie often enough from a position of power it becomes accepted truth.  Goebbels lie laid the foundations for the Holocaust." - Toby's Political Diary - 'Let it Begin Here' http://blogs.salon.com/0001282/2002/09/14.html"You can fool some of the people all the time. You can fool all the people some of the time. But you can't fool all the people all the time." --Abraham Lincoln.We're onto you, buddy. The jig is up. Your days in power are numbered. Get a real job. There are real drugs, like heroin, and stimulants, like methamphetamine, crack, and cocaine, that are causing street violence, robbery, and domestic discord. Your interdiction policies are driving up prices, as you intended, forcing hard drug addicts to steal greater quantities of hard-earned goods from law-abiding citizens to pay the inflated prices. Hard drug addicts are sick: they don't care who they hurt: they don't care how much it costs: they crave their fix. By constantly focusing on cannabis and pretending it's more dangerous than hard drugs, you are destroying what little of your credibility exists.ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #5 posted by john wayne on April 04, 2003 at 17:11:20 PT
flute demotivation?
Lock 'em up.
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Comment #4 posted by AlvinCool on April 04, 2003 at 17:01:34 PT
Music Lessons
I'm not for kids smoking marijuana but I have to say that once you start smoking you are not going to do things you have no real interest in. Like music lessons someone else thinks you are perfect for. Can you say "grind your teeth for an hour every day for years"?If the old woman wants to play the flute she should do it herself instead of forcing her kids.
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Comment #3 posted by afterburner on April 04, 2003 at 16:58:08 PT:
Whose Motivation?
Was it her daughter's motivation to play the flute that got crushed, or her motivation imposed upon her daughter that got crushed? In a society that believes in dominating others this question must be asked.The slogan is "Do you own thing," not "Do nothing," not "Do somebody else's thing."ego destruction or ego transcendence, that is the question.
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Comment #2 posted by JustGetnBy on April 04, 2003 at 15:23:40 PT
Which Causes What ?
  Did the young person smoke MJ and become problematic, or did the problem over-run the young person and they used MJ to deal with the problem???
 Damn...At least think about it you Prohib. Morons........   
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Comment #1 posted by i420 on April 04, 2003 at 14:37:37 PT
Get a life....
They had just heard three students talk about the drugs they said prompted classmates to drop out of their local private school and the marijuana one woman said crushed her daughter’s motivation to play flute.Maybe they're problem was them not pot ???
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