cannabisnews.com: Tom DeLay Could Use a Different Form of Puffery 





Tom DeLay Could Use a Different Form of Puffery 
Posted by CN Staff on May 26, 2003 at 13:15:30 PT
By Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer 
As Parliament reconvenes today, Canada's government is set to introduce legislation that would remove criminal penalties and substitute a simple ticket for those possessing small amounts of marijuana. The decriminalization bill is causing controversy -- in the United States.John Walters, the Bush administration's drug czar, has taken repeated pot shots at Canada's "out of control" drug policy.
Up in the Great White North, however, polls show 70 percent of Canadians favor the pending reform. Why? Part of it is recognition that criminal penalties don't stop people from getting high. They just give them criminal records, and give politicians embarrassing questions to answer later in life.Advocates of Canada's proposed reform cite statistics on how the United States, with 5 percent of the world's population, now has 25 percent of the globe's prison inmates. Almost 500,000 people in the States are locked up for drug violations.As well, particularly in western Canada, social choices -- such as smoking marijuana -- seem to be recognized as a matter of personal autonomy. The result is that the United States and Canada are of late moving in different legal directions.Canada's House of Commons is likely to approve marijuana decriminalization, which is championed by Prime Minister Jean Chretien and his Cabinet. Asked if he ever lighted up, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon told parliamentary reporters: "Yes, of course."A few years back, however, Chretien's government pushed through one of the world's most stringent (and costly to implement) laws covering gun registration and ownership.The U.S. House of Representatives has blocked implementation of a medical- marijuana initiative approved by voters of the District of Columbia. It is considering legislation to stop federal anti-drug money from going to states that pass medical-marijuana laws.At the same time, the House rushed passage of legislation that would exempt gun manufacturers from civil lawsuits brought by victims of firearms violence. It is likely to let expire a 1994 law that banned manufacture or sale of two dozen types of assault rifles.The laid-back attitude toward marijuana smoking in Vancouver, B.C., has frequently been shown to Seattle TV viewers.Especially during sweeps months, U.S.- based television crews regularly sniffed out the Cannabis Cafe, where drug parapher- nalia was sold and marijuana openly smoked and ingested in brownies. Embar- rassed city officials eventually shut it down.Whistler-based Ross Rebagliati won the Winter Olympics' first snowboarding gold medal at Nagano in 1998.He gained greater fame a few days later when Olympic officials found traces of marijuana, and took away the medal.It was reinstated, however, when it turned out that grass was not on the Olympics' list of banned drugs.Rebagliati returned in triumph to Whistler, where supporters passed around what was billed as the world's largest joint.The Canadian government already runs a marijuana farm in Manitoba, growing cannabis for clinical trials on pain relief among neuropathy and AIDS patients.About 200 Canadian citizens are authorized to grow and smoke pot to relieve pain from cancer, multiple sclerosis and severe arthritis.In details leaked to The (Toronto) Globe and Mail, the government's legislation would have three major thrusts:Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.freedomtoexhale.com/puffery.htm Source: Seattle Post-Intelligencer (WA)Author: Joel Connelly, Seattle Post-IntelligencerPublished: Monday, May 26, 2003Copyright: 2003 Seattle Post-IntelligencerContact: editpage seattle-pi.comWebsite: http://www.seattle-pi.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmSense And Folly In The Drug Warhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16386.shtmlCauchon To Table Controversial Pot Bill Tuesdayhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16382.shtmlThe U.S. is Addicted To War on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16340.shtmlDon't Bully Canada, U.S. Told http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16336.shtml 
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on May 26, 2003 at 16:16:00 PT
freedom fighter
I have a list that I check and sometimes because it is hard for me to put an article on my FTE site as far as time goes I'll pass on a snipped source because many of the web sites that require snipping don't keep the links active for more then a week or two and then I'd have an article that doesn't have half of it there. You can post sentences and the link to the article. What can't be done is the whole article. It's enough to drive a person crazy actually! LOL! Just kidding. I'm use to it now. The reason that Phil's link didn't work is because when you put the link in where it says Link URL if the link is too long it will break. It's best with long URLs to post it like I am doing in the article. I hope this helps!http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=9B9C2C60-0840-4AF9-B8B1-E9558A3D28A6
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Comment #6 posted by freedom fighter on May 26, 2003 at 15:48:01 PT
that's cool FoM
I hate to be in your position.. silly thing about copyright bladderdash! eh.!:)We can just snip few sentences and be allright with this? I tried Phil's link but cannot get to that article.. pazff
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on May 26, 2003 at 15:42:55 PT
Thanks phil
I really mind even needing to mention it. Maybe this copyright issue will be settle soon. When we get our own list for CNews we will be able to send even snipped sources without snipping them and I'm looking forward to that. Richard hasn't gotten back with me about the list but when he does and it's ready to go I'll let you all know.
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Comment #4 posted by freedom fighter on May 26, 2003 at 15:40:50 PT
Coming from a mouth of a 33 years Cop
Soul..I have read the Constitution. The first error in your message is your inferance that the constituion grants rights..it does not..it was established to protect rights which the Founders beleived (as self-evident truths) that we already have. Your second error is your assumption that because the Constituion does not expressely describe an action as a 'right' means that no such right exists. Please re-read the Nineth Amendment which specificly states that rights do exist which are not specifically listed in the Bill of Rights..the right to smoke Marijauna 'could' be one such unenumerated right. Your argument against legalization of marijuana seems to express a belief that free citizens only have a right to do those things which government has ordained that they may do. I find that mind-set more troubling than any threat posed (real or imaginary) by a drug abuser. Liberty is best secured (the purpose of the Constituon)when government must make a compelling case against a given action to justify prohibiting it rather than a citizen needing to prove that such action should not be prohited. There must never be a burden on the free citizen to prove he has a right..the burden must be upon the government to justify interefering with any action a citizen choses to take. As to wether the government has made a ompelling case to justify the War on Drugs, my opinion is that it has not. That opinion is based upon 33 years service as a police officer in a major metropolitan area. I have witnessed three decades of the collateral damage inflicted upon our citizens and law enforcement officers and agents. While the cost is beyond counting..the benefits have been zero. The War on Drugs is the cause of--not the solution to our drug related criminal culture. It is time to end the War and move on. http://boards.abcnews.go.com/cgi/abcnews/request.dll?MESSAGE&room=tr_canadapot&id=1130There's a debate going on at abcnews.com about the "decriminalization".pazff
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Comment #3 posted by phil_debowl on May 26, 2003 at 15:30:15 PT
sorry
Sorry about that FOM, I'll make sure to just post links from now on :).
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on May 26, 2003 at 14:24:20 PT
phil
I'm sorry I have to mention this but I really must. The Vancouver Sun is a snipped paper for Mapinc. and CNews. I must be careful how these are posted so it's best to post the link because that is always ok with copyright issues. Thanks!
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Comment #1 posted by phil_debowl on May 26, 2003 at 14:20:02 PT
This isn't the US
Size of pot crop doesn't matter, appeal court rules
 
Neal Hall 
Vancouver Sun Monday, May 26, 2003
ADVERTISEMENT 
 
 
The B.C. Court of Appeal has decided a one-year conditional sentence is more appropriate than a three-month jail sentence for two Vancouver men caught growing 1,535 marijuana plants worth more than $500,000.Muhuammad Rafeeq Shah and Onur Kokak were busted two years ago with a marijuana growing operation on Granville Street.Kokak, 28, came to Canada from Turkey when he was four years old. Shah, 29, was born and raised in Alberta. Both were steadily and regularly employed. Each expressed remorse for the offence and entered guilty pleas to unlawful production of marijuana.The sentencing judge decided that a conditional sentence order would be inappropriate because of the size of the crop. She also concluded that the factor relating to public safety would not be met."In my view, the sentencing judge erred in this regard," B.C. Court of Appeal Justice Richard Low concluded in a judgment released last week."The size of the crop should not stand in the way of the imposition of a conditional sentence. It is in my opinion that in all of the circumstances of this case, a conditional sentence was appropriate."Two other appeal court judges agreed with Low's ruling, which substituted a one-year conditional sentence for the three-month jail sentence imposed at trial.The judge said the terms of the conditional sentence, which the pot growers will serve at home, will include a nightly curfew and restrictions on the use of cellular phones and pagers.The court was told the seized pot plants were worth about $537,000 if sold at the pound level. A pound of B.C. pot fetches about $2,000; an ounce about $200.The court cited the previous decision in the case of Ricky Vincent Whyte, 36, who was sentenced to a year in jail for possession for the purpose of trafficking marijuana after he was busted with several hundred marijuana plants.Last year, the appeal court substituted a conditional sentence of two years less a day."For many years it has been an important consideration in sentencing in this province to avoid, if possible, incarcerating first offenders for non-violent crimes and this is such a case," Appeal Court Justice Mary Southin said in the Whyte appeal."I think one of the aspects of conditional sentences is to continue that approach which the law has taken in recent years, I would say since the Second World War," the judge added.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/news/story.asp?id=9B9C2C60-0840-4AF9-B8B1-E9558A
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