cannabisnews.com: Decrim. Would Exacerbate American Drug Problem





Decrim. Would Exacerbate American Drug Problem
Posted by CN Staff on August 22, 2003 at 12:49:54 PT
By Liz Austin, The Associated Press
Source: Associated Press
Detroit -- The United States is being inundated with potent marijuana from Canada, and the problem would be exacerbated if that nation decriminalized the drug, the U.S. drug czar said Friday. While marijuana possession would remain illegal under the proposed Canadian legislation, those found with about a half ounce or less would receive a citation similar to a traffic ticket.
Some Canadian drug traffickers have used selective breeding to grow marijuana that has up to 30 percent content of THC, the psychoactive chemical found in marijuana, drug czar John P. Walters said. In comparison, much of the marijuana used in the 1970s had less than 1 percent content of THC. High-potency marijuana is more likely to cause addiction and health problems, officials have said. "The kind of marijuana coming from Canada is essentially the crack of marijuana," Walters said in a news conference at a Detroit drug treatment center. "It is dangerous. It is destructive." A multibillion dollar industry has emerged in Canada to produce and distribute drugs to the United States, said Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. "The problem is the political leadership in Canada has been utterly unable to come to grips with this," he said. "They're talking about legalization while Rome burns." A spokesman for Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien did not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment. Complete Title: Decriminalization of Marijuana Would Exacerbate American Drug Problem, Drug Czar Says Source: Associated Press Author: Liz Austin, The Associated PressPublished: August 22, 2003Copyright: 2003 Associated Press Related Articles & Web Site:Cannabis News Canadian Linkshttp://freedomtoexhale.com/can.htmChrétien Blasts His MPs for Meddling with Pot Billhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17121.shtmlNot Leaning on US To Halt Marijuana Billhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17110.shtmlHow Far Will MPs Go To Torpedo a Bill?http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17109.shtml
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Comment #12 posted by FoM on August 23, 2003 at 08:31:21 PT
DigitalFeonix
I agree with what Kapt said. I don't see anything off topic at all. 
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Comment #11 posted by goneposthole on August 23, 2003 at 07:32:54 PT
HOLY COW!
"The kind of marijuana coming from Canada is essentially the crack of marijuana," Walters said in a news conference at a Detroit drug treatment center. "It is dangerous. It is destructive."-John P. WaltersI tend to think Mr. Walters has been dining on some mad cow beef!This stuff cracks me up. Now, alcohol, on the other hand, is a different story. Has anyone ever witnessed someone that has drunk too much of an intoxicating drink and then become belligerent and violent? Anyone? I will tell you for a fact that the scene quickly becomes dangerous and is all downhill from there. Drunken fools who somehow see fit to cause destruction is what you get. I have seen it happen, and in public places. It is definitely bad news. When alcohol is involved many bad things can happen, and do, all of the time. So, if fingers are going to be pointed, lets point them in all directions, not just towards a more than less benign plant. After some of those idiots out there have had too much alcohol, Katie bar the door.Ever see anybody smoke tobacco? I saw a woman (a woman, mind you) purchase 5 packs of cigarettes at a cost of $18.25. Cigarettes must be the 'crack of tobacco'. The price is low enough to keep you hooked. A hundred cigarettes every 5 days is a 109.50 every thirty days and 1314 USD per year. A handsome profit for tobacco companies.
Hospitals and doctors benefit, too. Nothing wrong with tobacco, is there? A boost for the economy, 'tis thee.Is John P. Walters being hypocritical? It's a rhetorical question. Cheers 
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Comment #10 posted by kaptinemo on August 23, 2003 at 04:16:02 PT
It's not off-topic, DF
There's a social ecology, just as there is a 'natural' one...but in truth, it's all bound together. Case in point: spraying illicit drug crops in South America is poisoning the land...and poisoning the relationship between the *campesinos* and their government and destroying their (subsistence farming) way of life. And incidentally destroying their means of producing food domestically, making whole nations dependent upon agricultural imports. The choice becomes simple: obey the economic masters, or starve.Something very similar is happening here in the US.The 'social ecology' of the US is rapidly being poisoned by what has happened over the last 3 years, but the process began long, long ago. What we are seeing is the end-game of a group of peope who believed themselves superior to all other humans on this planet and they set out to maintain their socio/political control at any price, no matter the cost to the rest of humanity. We are now seeing the final, inevitable results of that.Whether those results will be irrevocable, I don't know. I *do* know that those who would be the 'New Massas' of the Global Plantation have telegraphed their intentions long ago.Bretton Woods, the Club of Rome, Nelson Rockefeller's "Declaration of Interdependence" in 1976, I could go on and on, but the Global Elite (whose local representatives are the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission, and their daughter organizations) have in every instance told us what they have in mind for us. Just as Hitler told the Jews in "Mein Kampf" what he had in mind for THEM. The ones who listened survived by getting the Hell out of Nazi Germany as soon as they were able.The present economic, social and political mess this country is in is not a matter of accident, but design. They know what they are doing. These wars we engaged in were being promoted by one of the Global Elite's apologists, one Zbigniew Brzezinski, who wrote a book called "The Grand Chessboard", in which he laid out the *rationale* for the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq...and look what happened. I invite the curious to go to Mike Ruppert's site http://www.fromthewilderness.com/ to learn more. It's shocking just how much these people have revealed *years in advance* of what they intended...and *why*.The Elite know that the scenario they have set in motion will plunge this planet into a possible holocaust, and have used things like the chimerical War on Drugs to create paramilitary police forces where they knew that the average citizen wouldn't go for that otherwise. They know they'll need those paramilitary police to crush the coming riots and revolutions in the "developed countries" when their citizens start to see where this is leading. For an briefest idea of that, look to the California brownouts and the most recent NorthEast blackout. Then throw in what happeend to the demonstrators in Seattle '99 and Milan, Korporate Krook trashing of people's savings by Enron-ing whole economies, then add a dash of shortages of nearly everything that needs oil to be moved about the planet, and you have an idea of the enormity of what will happen...if these monsters are not eventually deposed and held accountable for what they've done and are doing. So, yes, it's all inter-related. You can't seperate a part from the whole. Things that seem to be very different are intimately related. As we in this country may learn...the hard way.
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Comment #9 posted by DigitalFeonix on August 22, 2003 at 23:30:21 PT
'but by blood and iron'
I'm only 28 and as I look at this country and where it has gone in the last decade or so, especially since the horrible events of 9/11, I fear that we will not be able to take back our country or get it back on course without another revolution. With the legislative power grab that took place after 9/11, and similar upcoming bills, I believe that all it will take is another PATRIOT Act (like the upcoming VICTORY Act) and a few executive orders before armed revolution against our government will be the only way out.I believe that the current administration not only knew about 9/11, but wanted it to happen and did so but not getting in the way. But if you read the time lines of what happened, I think they got scared when the plot worked too well. I fear that another incident might be allowed to happen before the next election just so they can declare some sort of emergency and cancel the elections.I think that Thomas Jefferson would probably say the country is way overdue for a revolution. But the only problem is that an armed resistance/revolution would only feed fuel to the "terrorism" fire.Remember the Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times." Well, I think that we are on the very edge of interesting times.Sorry if you think it's off-topic FOM, but I think that it's part of the overall problem that we need to solve to get cannabis legal.
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Comment #8 posted by SoberStoner on August 22, 2003 at 22:41:09 PT
Interesting..
So I read the comments, and I wonder..does anyone really remember how the cold war ended?We didnt 'beat' the Russians (soviets are here now) they beat theirselves...They ran out of money and couldnt pay for the expensive war machines, propaganda, and prisons anymore.The economy there is still shattered, just like the old Soviet Union. Poor old United States...It had a good run at least.How much are we spending on our war machines, our drug wars, our illegal wars..all while our states cant pay their bills.I hope we dont get to a holocaust stage, but that's for sure a very possible fact when you consider how many killing devices we have stockpiled since the 50s.The possibility for peace is there, however, in a society raised on war (WW2, korea, vietnam, cold, gulf, now, and lets not even begin to name the little 'conflicts') does anyone here even know what peace is?Do they realize we dont need to spend more than the next 4 coutries combined on our military? Do they realize the millions of people who have suffered, and continue to suffer in a cage, all because of a plant?Tell themSay it loud, and say it often.Just say it.SS
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on August 22, 2003 at 20:40:26 PT
Interesting Interview By Neil Young
Here's a small part of the interview from Rolling Stone. It's the way I feel too.What do you believe? Where is the hope in the Greendale songs and story? The energy in the last couple of songs ["Sun Green" and "Be the Rain"] - that's youth rising out of this. It hasn't gotten to the point where things have started moving yet, but this period is the biggest breeding ground for revolution in this country since the mid-Sixties. I don't think there's been a more ripe time for a generation to come along and rebel against all this. Complete Article: http://www.rollingstone.com/features/featuregen.asp?pid=1906
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Comment #6 posted by Lehder on August 22, 2003 at 19:53:21 PT
war war war
Blackouts, explosions and sniper fire in Iraq, rising unemployment, rising interest rates, rising gas price, precarious positions of leaders in UK, Australia, Spain - I'm not gonna bother with 911 - all these developments undermine the war on drugs. Because they undermine the established political system which was born of the war and is fed by the war.None of it was necessary. All that was ever needed was a government of the people that responded to the people thirty years ago. Instead, what we got was, "I am not a crook." And a generation's worth of lapelled and wingtipped scoundrels.Not a person in the world, except their authors, is anything but disgusted and angered by these events that cannot be spun into happy tidings for anyone. We all had better uses for our lives. Yet these destructions are the only kinds of events that can end the war on drugs. Because time after time, our leaders have made it clear: The war on drugs will not be ended by 'speeches or parliamentary votes, but by blood and iron.'Our job is to survive the coming holocaust. We'll save the earth and restore the minds and hearts of men and women. Make your plans, think ahead, be careful whom you trust. We'll make a better world.
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Comment #5 posted by The GCW on August 22, 2003 at 15:02:43 PT
Same thing with starting war in Iraq...
They imply... this and that... Now Austrailia is confronting their leadership for following such wicked evil, bull, to kill... and they are also noticing how their leader used suggestive words to create the illusion of reality.They are putting peoples minds in a location, that people would not ordiniarily place their minds. Once Your mind has been separated from Truth, You'r off guard and can be manipulated, and they know it... The population is off guard, as a whole, and they know it. We've been brain washed, and separated from truth. Now they are coming in for the kill.John P(ee). Walters... is more likely to cause great harm to non violent citizens that most any other person.John P. Walters is essentially the crack ...of civilization.The United States is being inundated with potent, dishonest, hateful leadership.FACT: John Pee Walters is harming Our children.
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Comment #4 posted by TroutMask on August 22, 2003 at 14:11:38 PT
Speaking of crack...
Walters: The crack of stupidity. The crack of liars. The crack of evil.-TM
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Comment #3 posted by Petard on August 22, 2003 at 13:15:53 PT
Pee Walters is a confused nutcase
First off he confuses decrim (which is actually re-criminalizing since the Canadian Courts have thrown out the laws on possession) with legalization. Then he goes on to be confused with the fact (darn facts, always seem to confuse Pee Walters) that possession and distribution are two seperate and distinct items, much less export across a national boundary being a yet third item. And the only "destructive and dangerous" parts about Canada's policies are the impact on the prohibition in the USSA and Pee's own job security along with the profitability of the USSA prison-industrial complex. "Destruction" of the scapegoat of mj prohibition would also force politicians to actually address real issues that are ignored due to their complexity.
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Comment #2 posted by Motavation on August 22, 2003 at 13:12:02 PT:
BURN BABY BURN
"They're talking about legalization while Rome burns." Drug War moving from the jungles of Columbia to the streets of Washington and/or Rome.
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Comment #1 posted by kaptinemo on August 22, 2003 at 13:08:50 PT:
A major, MAJOR Freudian slip, here
*"The problem is the political leadership in Canada has been utterly unable to come to grips with this," he said. "They're talking about legalization while Rome burns."*'...while Rome burns'. Rome. As in Roman Empire. But the Empire is *south* of the 49th parallel, not north of it. And the fire is being FED by the Empire, not starved by it, by the simple-minded mathematics of prohibition.I sincerely hope Walters keeps making those innately silly remarks about the 'crack of marijuana'. He reminds me of those old newsreels of wildly gesticulating Billy Sunday and his barely intelligible fulminations against the repeal of Prohibition 1. It makes our job of puncturing assinine nonsense so bloody easy.
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