cannabisnews.com: Return Of The Potheads










  Return Of The Potheads

Posted by CN Staff on April 11, 2006 at 15:58:47 PT
By Guy Farmer, Special To The Appeal 
Source: Nevada Appeal  

Nevada -- Last month, House Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Subcommittee Chairman Mark Souder (R-Ind.) sent a letter to fellow lawmakers urging them to oppose marijuana legalization initiatives in Nevada and several other states. Good for him! "I write to draw your attention to the most recent research demonstrating the fact that marijuana is a gateway drug," he wrote. "Far from being a 'benign' substance, marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug that is frequently the first step into the abyss of lifelong drug addiction, especially for adolescents."
The congressman was referring to a recent long-term study by researchers at the Otago University School of Medicine in New Zealand, which concluded that "there is a clear tendency for those using cannabis (marijuana) to have higher rates of usage of other illicit drugs" including methamphetamine, which is a plague in Carson City and elsewhere throughout our state and nation. In 2004 Carson City Justice of the Peace John Tatro told me that at least half of the meth abusers who appear before him also tested positive for marijuana. And just last month the Appeal published a graphic example of how marijuana can lead to the use of hard drugs. It was the story of 17-year-old Cyndle Bell of Carson City and her personal battle against meth addiction, which she chronicled in a 15-minute documentary produced as her senior project at Carson High School."I despise drugs and I hope this film gets in people's heads," she told Appeal reporter Teri Vance. "I want them to see how meth ruins people." Ms. Vance reported that Cyndle "started drinking at 11 and smoking pot at 12," so I have a question: If marijuana smoking can lead to the chronic use and abuse of meth and other more addictive drugs, and if meth is the No. 1 law enforcement priority in our city, what sense does it make to legalize possession of "small" amounts of marijuana? None, as far as I can see. Well, that's exactly what a group of East Coast potheads -- I call them drug legalizers -- want to perpetrate in our drug-afflicted community by means of an initiative petition that will be on the ballot in November. Two years ago, a similar petition was rejected by a 60-40 margin and I see no reason to vote any differently this time around. In fact, given the devastating impact of illicit drugs on young people (and others) in our community, I hope the margin of victory against the measure is even more decisive this fall. A few days after Ms. Bell's moving story was published, 32-year-old Michael Cordero-Perez admitted that he was under the influence of beer and marijuana last December when his vehicle crossed the center line on Jack's Valley Road in Douglas County and crashed head-on into a vehicle driven by 42-year-old Robin Moroney, of Gardnerville, who died on the spot. And that's just the latest driving-under-the-influence-of-drugs story in our state.In a 2004 column I cited three more deadly cases in which marijuana-smoking drivers killed a total of 12 people. In one case, a retired California firefighter drove the wrong way on I-80 east of Reno and smashed head-on into a van carrying a Utah mother and her four children. And in Las Vegas, a 22-year-old stripper who was high on marijuana lost control of her van and careened into the median, killing six teenagers who were part of a county work crew.Nevertheless, one of my Appeal colleagues (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) recently supported marijuana legalization on the theory that "telling people they can use alcohol but not marijuana is like telling children they can have Pepsi but not Sprite. It's a difference without a distinction." Well maybe, but two wrongs don't make a right, and that's what former Appeal Editor Barry Smith argued in a well-reasoned editorial before he moved across town last month to become executive director of the Nevada Press Association. "Ballot initiative supporters say they aren't supporting marijuana use," he wrote. "They're simply trying to sweep away ineffective drug enforcement laws. We just can't see it that way, and neither will Nevada voters." Amen!Once again, as they did in 2004, the potheads are presenting their initiative as a "better law enforcement" measure. Baloney! Which is why district attorneys, sheriffs -- including Carson City's Ken Furlong, whose daughter had a meth problem -- and police chiefs throughout Nevada oppose the national drug legalization campaign. Also, it should be noted that Rob Kampia, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project, is a convicted felon (on drug charges, of course) not someone who should be advising us on anti-drug policies here in Carson or anywhere else in Nevada. According to the highly respected Mayo Clinic, regular marijuana use can cause health problems ranging from memory loss to cancer. Specifically, the clinic has reported that marijuana smoking can inhibit short-term memory; reduce hand-eye coordination, reaction time and muscle strength; limit attention span; increase the risk of schizophrenia, and may even cause paranoia, anxiety and/or panic attacks. If you want to make marijuana available to your children and grandchildren at local convenience stores, that's your business. But when it becomes an expensive community health and law enforcement problem, as illicit drugs clearly are in Carson City, then it's everyone's business, and we don't want any part of it. So let's join our civic leaders in supporting the Partnership Carson City coalition designed to alert local parents and children to the costly and noxious effects of methamphetamine and other dangerous drugs, including marijuana. • Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, served on the front lines of the War on Drugs in four Latin American countries during his 28-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service.Newshawk: SukoiSource: Nevada Appeal (NV)Author: Guy Farmer, Special To The AppealPublished: April 9, 2006Copyright: 2006 Nevada AppealContact: appeal tahoe.comWebsite: http://www.nevadaappeal.com/ Related Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/Legalization Initiative: Marijuana Opposedhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21722.shtmlMarijuana Campaign Started http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread21577.shtmlAnother Try at Legalizing Marijuanahttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread17928.shtml

Home    Comment    Email    Register    Recent Comments    Help






 


Comment #56 posted by goneposthole on April 13, 2006 at 12:24:39 PT

ah yes, prohibitionist/politician
'Republicans' like Duke Cunningham have the good name of the the United States brought into question. 'Republicans' feel that they have license to do anything they please because they have earned 'political capital.'What have those 'Republicans' really done to America?Photos of Abu Ghraib (not the torture photos, but the hundreds of photos of pornographic content), a ruined image of America throughout the world because of how they think they can behave without impunity, an economic situation that is tenuous and almost to a breaking point (Ford and GM are weakening day by day), the price of gold has more than doubled since 1999, the price of silver has increased some three fold since the year 2001, the price of gas has increased twice the amount it was from a few years ago, the price of insurance is more than double on autos and homes, the price of natural gas has tripled, on and on, ad nauseum.All under 'Republican' 'rule' (ruination, really), this has all happened, nonending, never ceasing.What have they really accomplished?The one thing the 'Republicans' cannot do? Have a drug free America. They cannot do it and they never will be able to do it. It is an impossible task. However, they don't mind waging a drug war that has wreaked havoc in every state of the nation. They're doing a heckuva job, those 'Republicans.' They have the power, the money, the ways and means to make it all happen. Seems like a lot, but it ain't much. If they were to understand the will of the people, they'd have a clue. If they only had the brains to be honest, but they don't, they'd be able to see the forest for the trees.Sow the breeze, reap a hurricane or two or three or four.If they only had enough horse sense to realize what they have really wrought, but they don't, they do have the trickle down economics though. Trickle down economics was a term first coined in 1854. It was what you got from the other end of the horse back then. It still is that way. Horse sense? Not the 'Republicans,' not the Democrats, either, the horses have it all.If Mr. Ed would run for el presidente, he'd win.He'd pull the plow to plant the hemp crop too. Prohibitionist politicians (don't matter what stripe they are) haven't a clue as to what to really do. The sad story is that they never will.'Freedom's child was born today singin' freedom's song'-Billy Joe Shaver  
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #55 posted by observer on April 13, 2006 at 10:31:20 PT

Mote / Beam
We're talking about Nevada, where whore-houses (and I don't mean The Capitol Buildings) are thriving and legal. http://www.answers.com/topic/prostitution-in-nevada. Nevada, where your parents go to play the slots, and are in turn plied with all the booze they can drink. Need a quick wedding? No problem, you can do a drive-thru wedding, like a drive-thru burger-n-fries, there in Nevada. No, when people think of Nevada, they don't think about gambling, prostitutes, aliens and black projects, no sir. They're focusing on the family. Sure they are. Did you hear the joke about the guy (a Farmer) who complained about the speck of grass in his brother's eye, while at the same time he has a big log poking out of his own eye? 
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #54 posted by observer on April 13, 2006 at 10:02:01 PT

A Prohibitionist Speaks, I
[1]
Nevada -- Last month, House Criminal Justice and Drug Policy Subcommittee Chairman Mark Souder (R-Ind.) sent a letter to fellow lawmakers urging them to oppose marijuana legalization initiatives in Nevada and several other states . 

(Sentence 1) re: "Criminal" - Drugs, claim the prohibitionist, cause insanity, violence, and terrible sickness. (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) 
 
 
[3]
"I write to draw your attention to the most recent research demonstrating the fact that marijuana is a gateway drug," he wrote . 

(Sentence 3) re: "gateway drug", "gateway" - Prohibition propagandists try to smear targeted drugs by announcing they are "gateways" to other truly wicked behavior. (Use is Abuse, Gateway (propaganda theme 4) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme4.htm#4 ) 
 
 
[4]
"Far from being a 'benign' substance, marijuana is a dangerous, addictive drug that is frequently the first step into the abyss of lifelong drug addiction, especially for adolescents."

(Sentence 4) re: "drug addiction" - Prohibition propaganda often uses crude forms of name-calling to link a targeted drug with groups the majority dislikes. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme1.htm#1 ) re: "addiction", "dangerous", "addictive" - The rhetoric of prohibition asserts that insanity, crime, and violence are caused by drugs, or are controlled by prohibition. (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) 
 
 
[5]
The congressman was referring to a recent long-term study by researchers at the Otago University School of Medicine in New Zealand, which concluded that "there is a clear tendency for those using cannabis (marijuana) to have higher rates of usage of other illicit drugs" including methamphetamine, which is a plague in Carson City and elsewhere throughout our state and nation . 

(Sentence 5) re: "plague" - Prohibitionists demonize the use of drugs and claim the use of drugs is "epidemic." Images of "war" are used by the prohibition propagandist to help whip up emotions. (Demonize, War (propaganda theme 6) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme6.htm#6 ) 
 
 
[7]
And just last month the Appeal published a graphic example of how marijuana can lead to the use of hard drugs . 

(Sentence 7) re: "can lead to" - The rhetoric of prohibition exploits ignorance of the effects of drugs. We are told that the substance in question must be bad, for is it not evident that it 'leads to' the the harder (more ceremonially evil) stuff? (Use is Abuse, Gateway (propaganda theme 4) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme4.htm#4 ) 
 
 
[8]
It was the story of 17-year-old Cyndle Bell of Carson City and her personal battle against meth addiction, which she chronicled in a 15-minute documentary produced as her senior project at Carson High School . 

(Sentence 8) re: "addiction" - Drugs, scream prohibitionists, cause all bad things in life: crime, violence, insanity, etc. If not for prohibition (i.e., jailing drug users), then criminality, violence and psychotic behavior would explode upon the land, the prohibitionist assures us. (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) 
 
 
[12]
Vance reported that Cyndle "started drinking at 11 and smoking pot at 12," so I have a question: If marijuana smoking can lead to the chronic use and abuse of meth and other more addictive drugs, and if meth is the No. 1 law enforcement priority in our city, what sense does it make to legalize possession of "small" amounts of marijuana?

(Sentence 12) re: "addictive" - Prohibitionists claim any use of currently illegal drugs cause death, illness, lunacy, mania, melancholy, and all means of sin and degradation. (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) re: "can lead to" - Prohibitionists often claim that a targeted drug is a "gateway" to abuse of more dangerous drugs. (Use is Abuse, Gateway (propaganda theme 4) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme4.htm#4 ) 
 
 
[14]
Well, that's exactly what a group of East Coast potheads -- I call them drug legalizers -- want to perpetrate in our drug-afflicted community by means of an initiative petition that will be on the ballot in November . 

(Sentence 14) re: "potheads" - The rhetoric of prohibition will try to use labeling and guilt by association to link drugs and drug users with hated groups. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme1.htm#1 ) re: "community" - Prohibitionists assert that the survival of the community, society, the nation, the world, etc. are at stake. Only continued and increased punishments for drug users can be contemplated, because, say prohibitionists, society will otherwise fall apart. (Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme3.htm#3 ) re: "legalizers" - Any mention of lessening the harshness of drug laws is portrayed as a sinful "legalization". Only total prohibition (or more jailings) will be righteous. (Total Prohibition or Access (propaganda theme 7) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme7.htm#7 ) re: "drug legalizers", "legalizers" - Because they hold differing opinions on drug policy, say prohibitionists, "legalizers" should be silenced or jailed. (Dissent Attacked (propaganda theme 8) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme8.htm#8 ) 
 
 
[16]
In fact, given the devastating impact of illicit drugs on young people (and others) in our community, I hope the margin of victory against the measure is even more decisive this fall . 

(Sentence 16) re: "community" - Because of prohibition (prohibitionists assure us), society is protected: the community is safe, and the nation is saved. (Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme3.htm#3 ) re: "young people" - "Since the Harrison Act of 1914, the user and the seller of illicit drugs have both been characterized as evil, criminal, insane, and always in search of new victims, the victims are characterized as young children." [W.White,1979] (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme5.htm#5 ) 
 

[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #53 posted by observer on April 13, 2006 at 10:01:27 PT

A Prohibitionist Speaks, II
 
[21]
In one case, a retired California firefighter drove the wrong way on I-80 east of Reno and smashed head-on into a van carrying a Utah mother and her four children . 

(Sentence 21) re: "children" - Prohibitionists play on parental fears by exaggerating the dangers to children of drugs. Adults must be jailed (reason prohibitionists), because kids might be corrupted with drugs. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme5.htm#5 ) 
 
 
[22]
And in Las Vegas, a 22-year-old stripper who was high on marijuana lost control of her van and careened into the median, killing six teenagers who were part of a county work crew . 

(Sentence 22) re: "teenagers" - Prohibitionists are champions of "the child", "kids", "children", etc. Only continued or increased punishments of all adults caught using "drugs" will send the correct "message" to children. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme5.htm#5 ) 
 
 
[23]
Nevertheless, one of my Appeal colleagues (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) recently supported marijuana legalization on the theory that "telling people they can use alcohol but not marijuana is like telling children they can have Pepsi but not Sprite . 

(Sentence 23) re: "children" - Prohibitionists forever claim that children are corrupted by drugs, and this is why adult users must be punished harshly. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme5.htm#5 ) 
 
 
[26]
"Ballot initiative supporters say they aren't supporting marijuana use," he wrote . 

(Sentence 26) re: "marijuana use" - Prohibition propaganda claims that all use of any "drug" is abuse. (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme4.htm#alluseisabuse ) 
 
 
[30]
Once again, as they did in 2004, the potheads are presenting their initiative as a "better law enforcement" measure . 

(Sentence 30) re: "potheads" - The rhetoric of prohibition tries to link drugs with marginalized people. (Hated Groups (propaganda theme 1) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme1.htm#1 ) 
 
 
[32]
Which is why district attorneys, sheriffs -- including Carson City's Ken Furlong, whose daughter had a meth problem -- and police chiefs throughout Nevada oppose the national drug legalization campaign . 

(Sentence 32) re: "legalization" - Drug policy options are presented as either total prohibition, or as total "legalization." No middle ground is contemplated in the "zero-tolerance" world of prohibition. Absolute prohibition executed with religious fervor and purpose! (Total Prohibition or Access (propaganda theme 7) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme7.htm#7 ) 
 
 
[34]
According to the highly respected Mayo Clinic, regular marijuana use can cause health problems ranging from memory loss to cancer . 

(Sentence 34) re: "cancer", "problems" - Drugs, the prohibitionist explains, are a wicked bane on modern man. Why if not for the noble drug war (i.e. jailing drug users), exclaims the propagandist, then people will run amok, and violence, death, psychosis, and plague shall cover the land. (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) re: "marijuana use" - Prohibitionists try to hammer in the idea that 'all use is abuse.' The rhetoric of prohibition needs to deny that many people can use currently illegal drugs without abusing them. (Use is Abuse (propaganda theme 4) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme4.htm#alluseisabuse ) 
 
 
[35]
Specifically, the clinic has reported that marijuana smoking can inhibit short-term memory; reduce hand-eye coordination, reaction time and muscle strength; limit attention span; increase the risk of schizophrenia, and may even cause paranoia, anxiety and/or panic attacks . 

(Sentence 35) re: "schizophrenia", "paranoia" - It is prohibition, claim prohibitionists, that saves people from drug crazed, whacked out, high flying drug users. (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) 
 
 
[36]
If you want to make marijuana available to your children and grandchildren at local convenience stores, that's your business . 

(Sentence 36) re: "children" - Being a prohibitionist means you can never shed too many crocodile tears for the "children". (As you lustily jail or kill their parents for using drugs.) (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme5.htm#5 ) 
 
 
[37]
But when it becomes an expensive community health and law enforcement problem, as illicit drugs clearly are in Carson City, then it's everyone's business, and we don't want any part of it . 

(Sentence 37) re: "community" - The health of the "community" (read: government) is assured, prohibitionists explain, because drug users are punished. Jailing drug users is thus painted as upholding society. (Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme3.htm#3 ) 
 
 
[38]
So let's join our civic leaders in supporting the Partnership Carson City coalition designed to alert local parents and children to the costly and noxious effects of methamphetamine and other dangerous drugs, including marijuana . 

(Sentence 38) re: "dangerous drugs", "dangerous" - Prohibitionist propaganda claims that horrible dangers are caused by "drugs." (Madness,Crime,Violence,Illness (propaganda theme 2) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme2.htm#2 ) re: "children" - Prohibitionist propaganda continually whips up parental fear, invoking lurid images of children corrupted by drugs. (Children Corrupted (propaganda theme 5) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme5.htm#5 ) 
 
 
[40]
Farmer, of Carson City, served on the front lines of the War on Drugs in four Latin American countries during his 28-year career in the U.S . 

(Sentence 40) re: "American" - The survival of society is assured, -- says the propaganda of prohibition -- as long as drug users are punished (jailed). (Survival of Society (propaganda theme 3) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme3.htm#3 ) re: "War on Drugs" - Drug users are evil fiends which, save for the noble drug "war", would multiply as the "epidemic" of drug use engulfs an innocent people. (Demonize, War (propaganda theme 6) http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/pg/propaganda/theme6.htm#6 ) 
 
 

[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #52 posted by Hope on April 13, 2006 at 09:08:04 PT

Comment 47  Daughter's name....
Maria Consuelo Farmer Green.Interesting, with a vague scent of irony about it. It would have been interesting, as well, had she married a man named Weed. Trying to read the comments over at the Appeal...I suspect Mr. Farmer of being an overbearing, domineering smart-ass.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #51 posted by afterburner on April 12, 2006 at 21:12:19 PT

RE Comment #39 posted by Sam Adams 
"There's also a book by Noam Chomsky"You may be thinking of Manufacturing Consent although anything by Noam Chomsky is worth reading. Or maybe American Power and the New Mandarinshttp://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=Manufacturing+Consent&z=y&cds2Pid=9481
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #50 posted by goneposthole on April 12, 2006 at 21:11:27 PT

memory loss? cancer?
Politicians of the prohibitionist stripe have no memory whatsoever. They forgot about Prohibition One.A 92 year old woman paid a visit to a doctor. The doctor examined her and commented that her lungs were clean. He also remarked that she must have never smoked cigarettes.She said, "I've smoked cigarettes for eighty years. I started when I was 12."The origins of cancer are neoplastic. Nobody has an answer of how they begin.Come November, the 'Republicans' are in for a rude awakening. I'll have no memory of them. What's a 'Republican?'A cancer on America.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #49 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 16:55:42 PT

question
Sorry, I actually read the article all the way through. If the police chief can't keep his own daughter from using methamphetamine, how is he going to stop YOUR daughter from using it? Why can't modern people just mind their own business? Don't we all have our own problems to work on?I can understand how the author might be a little bitter. He spent his whole life trying to stop cocaine and heroin from flowing into the US, and now more is flowing in than ever before, and it's cheaper than ever before, too.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #48 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 16:48:33 PT

iraq
it's funny, I was talking to a new friend recently and we stumbled on the topic of GW. My friend was telling me about how he did a little history project on the Bush family, he said they were getting rich making munitions something like 200 years ago! I have to look into this more. Of course, he knew about the whole Nazi-money laundering work during the WWII era.But he was saying "how can be people's memory be so short? Viet Nam was only 30 years ago! This is the exact same thing, they're doing it again. The 'war pigs', military industrial complex, big oil, etc. etc."My response was yeah, but in the first Gulf War they figured out how to get away with it: No draft, under any circumstances, no draft. No pictures of dead bodies on TV. And, buy-out the media. Presto, internal opposition squished.And the advertising and marketing industry is so advanced now, they don't need the draft. (Or is it because college is so expensive?) They don't need the draft, today's advertising on young consumer-brainwashed minds is perfect. They've got the heavy-metal music playing, great pictures of outdoor action, using computers, etc. Thought for the day: European countries use their taxes to put their young people through college. America uses our taxes to send the same aged people to war instead of college. What a coincidence, the people that can't afford college are the ones who go to war. 
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #47 posted by BGreen on April 12, 2006 at 16:15:40 PT

Cannabis could have helped relieve her suffering
Guy W. Farmer wants ALL cancer patients to suffer just like his wife. All of the "potheads" and "legalizers" pushing the "medical marijuana campaign" are just trying to help relieve the suffering of people JUST LIKE YOUR WIFE! Unlike you, Guy W. Farmer, we're not going to watch our loved ones suffer just to push your "cage the sick and dying" agenda.The Reverend Bud GreenFebruary 13, 2003Obituary: Consuelo Mata-Olalde FarmerStaff reportsConsuelo Mata-Olalde Farmer, a longtime resident of Carson City and wife of Nevada Appeal political columnist Guy W. Farmer, died Feb. 12, 2003, of pancreatic cancer at Evergreen Hospice in Kirkland, Wash. She was 66.A native of Mexico City, Mrs. Farmer graduated from high school and secretarial school there. She emigrated to the United States in 1960 to work for the Mexican Government Tourist Office in Los Angeles.She and her husband were married that year in his hometown, Seattle in 1960. After living in Klamath Falls, Ore., for two years, they moved to Carson City in January 1962, when he became the capital correspondent for the Associated Press. During the mid-1960s she was a sales clerk at Murdock's Department Store in downtown Carson City.Mrs. Farmer became a U.S. citizen in 1967 when her husband joined the Foreign Service. Over the next 28 years, they lived and worked in Bogota, Colombia; Canberra, Australia; Caracas, Venezuela; Lima, Peru; Madrid, Spain; and Mexico City. During stateside assignments they lived in Alexandria, Va., and Newport, R.I., while maintaining their permanent legal residence in Carson City.Mrs. Farmer was the bilingual secretary to the first State Department anti- narcotics coordinator in Colombia. She managed the American Embassy Commissary in Madrid and did extensive charity work with embassy women's organizations.The Farmers moved back to Carson City in December 1995, following his retirement from the Foreign Service. During the past four years, Mrs. Farmer volunteered at Friends in Service Helping's Ross Medical Clinic, where her kindness and compassion earned her many new friends.In addition to her husband of 42 years, Mrs. Farmer is survived by her children Guy J. Farmer of Reno and Maria Consuelo Farmer of Seattle; son- in-law Richard C. Green of Seattle; daughter-in-law Carol Gilman, of Reno; sister Lucia Mata de Flores of Mexico City; and numerous nieces and nephews. Her brother, Rodolfo Mata, preceded her in death.Before she died, Mrs. Farmer wanted to thank her many friends in Northern Nevada for their love and their prayers. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Ross Medical Clinic, c/o "FISH," 131 E. Long St., Carson City NV 89706 and/or the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, 1111 Stewart Ave., Bethpage, NY 11714.Memorial services are pending in Seattle and Carson City. Walton's Chapel of the Valley is making arrangements for a private burial at Lone Mountain Cemetery in Carson City
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #46 posted by BGreen on April 12, 2006 at 16:12:55 PT

Farmer's Dead Wife Cared About The Sick
What a shame he's a cruel, cold, heartless bastard.The Reverend Bud GreenEarly on, Consuelo Farmer, born in Mexico City, a child of poverty who struggled for a better life and education, married to Guy Farmer, was the translator for our doctors and nurses. This beautiful and talented woman moved among the poor and ill patients at Ross Medical as easily as she had hosted international receptions on behalf of her diplomat husband. There was something very sacred about the work going on in those exam rooms. Not only healing of body, but a connection of spirits, a gentleness, a respect for all. She was doing something very important in our community!Consuelo, with her own funds, would pay an annual visit to Kirk Wentworth at the Medicine Shoppe. She would place a generous gift in his hand, to be used as a credit for Ross Medical prescriptions. Those who could not pay his generic prices were healed through Consuelo's generosity.Consuelo died early this year. Before she died, she paid her usual visit to Kirk. And after her death, dozens of those who loved her sent gifts to FISH in her memory. Those gifts have been transferred to Kirk's Consuelo Farmer Prescription Trust. Her love continues.Ross Medical Clinic Must Continue!
http://www.fishcarson.org/angels_needed.htm
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #45 posted by BGreen on April 12, 2006 at 16:07:31 PT

Remember Guy Farmer?
His wife died from cancer, but he somehow delights in lying about cannabis in order for others to die an equally miserable death.Guy, your wife continues to suffer because of your hatred.Stop the lies and let your wife and millions of others stop suffering.The Reverend Bud Green
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #44 posted by museman on April 12, 2006 at 15:50:30 PT

Free
Freedom is a word I heardfrom some old rag about a flag,a few who lied, and many who died.Wealth rules over a world of foolswho believed they were not decieved.The fat gets it's fill, it's going on still.We go, to and fro burning time and life like gas,captured in the flame of the damnable same instance as the time before the last.Freedom oh freedom, like an indefinable soul,is not insurable by the Federal Reserve Bank.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #43 posted by Toker00 on April 12, 2006 at 15:23:36 PT

museman
I missed about a third of my senior year, and no one said a word to my father. Back then it was almost like a right of passage to take it easy your senior year. They let you experience, what we thought it was at the time, a little FREEDOM. Looser rules. It made my senior year very nice. Now, or we'll say in 2002, a high school in the area I'm from locked the seniors inside of the school on Prom night, let NO ONE come or go, and certainly no FREEDOM was allowed. It's horrible what we have become as a nation. We are just consumers, soldiers, or prisoners, take your pick.Toke.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #42 posted by museman on April 12, 2006 at 14:26:17 PT

Sam#27
I think that over all, the general populations in many countries are more appalled by Iraq than VietNam. This one is so much more obvious. Of course you have to take into consideration that VietNam was only the beginning of the understanding that our government wasn't what it said it was, and the very important fact that we weren't being 'asked' to die for our country, we were being told we 'must' die in a war that still makes no sense to this day.Having run the course from a 'Young Republican' (before I enlisted) to a follower of Tim Leary's advice, I personally experienced the 'rude awakening' on a ship of war in the middle of 2 wars, one cold one very 'hot.'Iraq is so blatantly an act of unprovoked (and I know that Saddam was/is another criminal) aggression against a sovereign nation, (once considered 'unconstitutional') that the comparison is moot.VietNam was 'personally' dangerous to every male between the ages of 18 and 25. That kind of motivation is hard to deny. That power ended VietNam, but it didn't make a dent in the system that created it.The polits learned from VietNam. The last thing they are going to do is initiate a draft, unless they get desperate.
Their current propaganda machines are raking in young men and women, promising them 'education, skills, etc.' Offering the poor youth a 'chance' at success. What an insidious crime against our youth!And the schools are now steeped in required propaganda of the status quo, I have already had a run in with the local High School principal about 'No Child Left Behind' rules and stipulations. Folks it is WAY OUT OF HAND!
I nearly went to jail and pay a fine of $5,000 because of one too many 'unexcused tardies' of my 16 year old.This regime is the most actively destructive political group of thugs I have ever seen. Including other so called tyrants and dictators. George Bush and his yes men are responsible for more death and destruction than any political power since Stalin and Hitler.

[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #41 posted by dongenero on April 12, 2006 at 13:50:49 PT

People's History of the US by Zinn
Thanks for the tip Sam.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #40 posted by FoM on April 12, 2006 at 13:41:30 PT

Sam
There was plenty of anger towards Vietnam. The difference is technology. It's the ability to know what is happening faster then we learned during Vietnam.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #39 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 13:40:25 PT

Zinn
Zinn's book should be standard reading for everyone in the US.http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060528370/qid=1144874505/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/102-8784308-4030520?s=books&v=glance&n=283155There's also a book by Noam Chomsky that is supposed to be mandatory reading, unfortunately I can't think of the title right now.  Does anyone else know what I'm referring to? Most people I know that have a liberal arts degree had to read "People's History" in college.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #38 posted by FoM on April 12, 2006 at 13:39:09 PT

museman 
I have a powerful dislike for the draft. If you lived thru Vietnam it left a very sour taste in most people's mouths. War what is it good for?Absolutely nothing.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #37 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 13:36:37 PT

question
I've got a question for those of you that were around for Viet Nam (thank you for your service, museman). How do people's attitudes compare today? Do you think people are more outraged today about the Iraq war, or were people more outraged about Viet Nam? It would seem that many more people are opposed the Iraq war right now, but that's only what the polls say.There is a huge crop of veterans running for Congress this fall, nearly all of the Democrats. Let's hope that all of them get elected. That would have to at least put a dent in the hypocrisy.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #36 posted by museman on April 12, 2006 at 13:35:36 PT

Sam
Absolutely! And yes I think you are right, sounds like some very similar conclusions. I will be looking for that book.These are to me some core issues in understanding what is really going on.some further elaborations of my own (if you haven't seen it already);
The 911 solution
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #35 posted by museman on April 12, 2006 at 13:30:08 PT

DonG
I am honored.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #34 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 13:26:11 PT

Museman
I agree with what you're saying exactly. It's sort of the point my friend is trying to make - put down the remote from your home theater system, quit complaing, get off your butt & do something to reform.Of course, it's those of us who ARE activists that are telling him how bad the government has become. Have you read "People's History of the US" by Howard Zinn? It's a fantastic book. It makes the same point you do - that most of the history we've been taught in public school is the history of the rich, controlling elite class. There's some fascinating stuff in there. There's never been anything close to free speech or political thought here. Women suffragists, union workers, political activists, they've all been routinely jailed throughout our history. In fact, Zinn posits that the Revolutionary War was started through a carefully orchestrated propaganda campaign by the rich elite for 2 reasons. One, because rebellions against colonial governments were starting to get out of control, and they wanted to direct that resistance to someone else. And two, because they wanted to be alone at the top of the socio-economic ladder, not sharing the spoils with English aristocrats.At first these theories sounded crazy to me, but as life has gone on, they make more and more sense. I attended a re-enactment of the Boston Massacre. It wasn't really a political event, it was more of a crowd-control sitation gone awry. The British troops thought they were going to be killed, and they probably would have been attacked by the mob. At first, not many cared about the event. But it became the 9/11 of the Revolutionary War. Each year, it was commemorated with more and more fanfare and outrage.Also, I went to the Lexington & Concord re-enactment - an awkward skirmish quickly propagandized as the "shot heard round the world". Most of the British troops that day were not out to kill Americans. They thought they were going to disarm a dangerous militia. Everyone thought of themselves as English. The yankee militia on the battlefield looked over and saw smoke coming from Lexington, and assumed the British were burning the town. In reality, a fire had started inside a church, and British troops had stopped to help fight the fire with the bucket brigades of colonists.I think the Revolutionary War may just be the most senseless and needless war we've ever fought! Certainly it looks that way now. If we'd lost, the slaves would have been freed 50 years before 1865. If we'd lost, maybe we'd have English drug laws now, instead of a rascist gulag state.The establishment of the first police forces was mainly a response to union organizing. The police have always been a Praetorian guard for the rich elite first, guardians of public safety last. In the city of Boston, a report recently came out showing that only 20% of murders were solved last year, and - this is the big shocker for me - only 4% of non-fatal shootings were solved!  My reaction to this is, disband the police force. What are they doing? There's no law and order in the city whatsoever. If someone shoots you, there is less than a 1 in 20 chance that you'll get any justice whatsoever.But of course, it's only the poor black and Latino kids that are getting shot and killed. I remember last year, in the space of one month, 2 14-year old girls were stabbed in the chest while waiting for the subway to take them to work. Separate incidents. Why is our army over in Iraq? What it would take to post one, one lousy cop at every subway stop? The answer is, of course, that the mission of the police is NOT public safety. It's to keep the robberies and violence out of the white, affluent neighborhoods.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #33 posted by dongenero on April 12, 2006 at 13:08:00 PT

museman
hear! hear! museman.museman is "the hammer" of Cnews.
(no insult or comparison to DeLay intended)I only mean to comment on the strength of your statement.Speaking of Delay, you said........The fact that nearly all of our governing persons are contemporary war-criminals, and regular criminals like Tom Delay, that they are being exposed in a daily basis without any change at all in the criminal activity should be ringing bells in the ears of freedom-minded people.Isn't that the truth!
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #32 posted by museman on April 12, 2006 at 12:58:53 PT

draft and the military
Having had the draft lottery number of '3' in 1970, even in my eighteen-year-old naivety I knew that I wanted to avoid VietNam, perhaps it was all the body bags. Nevertheless as a lower-class American I had little choice. The idea of a 'college deferment' was a laugh, 'cause the only ones who could do that had somewhat wealthy parents. The rest of us just had to take our chances.I chose another branch of military. Hell begins the first day of boot camp, and never really stops until you have (if you can) thrown off the finite-small-mindedness of military perspective (roughly equivalent to modern cop attitudes).You know, if the rich bastards that run this country, and make the damn wars, paid their soldiers what they are worth, ( in 1970 the average monthly pay for a basic soldier in any service, was about $59 a month. About the same wages as a prisoner in a state penetentiary.) surely more than the wages of the lazy fat ass-sitters in politics, all that 'honorific' jive about 'the brave heroes sacrificing their lives for freedom' would be just a little easier to swallow, though I personally think that a nation that needs an army to force it's way on the rest of the world should perhaps rethink it's priorities.But of course this nation is on a runaway course to devastation, and it's basicly only a matter of time before the top-heavy infrastructure collapses. Hopefully the wise know enough to get out of the way, so there will be someone there to pick up the pieces.Believe in the Higher aspects of God and the Truth and Wisdom that has been given to us, and screw the government and their corporate honeypot, and if they come to draft my sons,...well someone is probably going to die right there on my doorstep. If I have to fight a war I'll know why I'm fighting, and it won't be on foreign soil.The military is nothing more than a police force in training, and if there is mandatory draft, draft the rich ones first for a change.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #31 posted by Truth on April 12, 2006 at 12:55:04 PT

THC 
THC - TRUTH HONOR COURAGEGood one Toker
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #30 posted by museman on April 12, 2006 at 12:03:09 PT

#24
"like it or not, we're being governed by ourselves, so therefore any anger/frustration you have toward the government should be anger with yourselves".Well, as an underpriviledged lower-class American, I find great contention with that statement. Having grown up right next to impoverished African Americans, Chicano, and Native Americans, having lived basicly the same life with the same (lol) "opportunities" as any other impoverished person or family in this nation, I can only classify such a belief as the ignorance of the comfortable, and an example of the true roots of the problem. The government of this country has NEVER been 'by the people.' It has always been by the rich, and the agenda's of the rich is what the entire world is now dealing with in terms of wars of conquest and aquisition, and global eco-destruction. The fact that the boomer generation actually started to use their 'powers of government' through the initiative process- and I live in the first state to ever do it- is relatively new. The orchestrations of the government 'of the rich, by the rich' have taken steps to further curtail our piddly 'rights' making it literally impossible to exercise freedom without retaining a lawyer. The Patriot Act insures that the legislative powers in place (the rich and their proxies) can shut down any 'initiative' that theoreticly endangers 'National Security.'The fact that nearly all of our governing persons are contemporary war-criminals, and regular criminals like Tom Delay, that they are being exposed in a daily basis without any change at all in the criminal activity should be ringing bells in the ears of freedom-minded people.There is something else that kind of gauls me personally;
That is the assumption that while a significant number of my generation bought into the system, and became comfortable and complacent, that because some of us weren't featured in the media, that somehow means we weren't laboring all this time towards sanity, balance, justice, and freedom. And still I see that there are many who would choose to believe the lies of a well-dressed do-nothing modern Dandy, over the simple truth of a working man with dirt under his nails.I have seen, felt, and lived with the judgement, bigotry, and reinforced ignorance of the well-off. I have tasted their selfishness and greed. I have found more charity in those who have little than in any I've known who had more than they need.Americans have some hard truths to confront, and until a significant number of true freedom establishers are willing to sacrifice their mercedes, wide-screen, and inflated real estate, the criminals will keep their place, and your children and mine will live in an economic feudal society as serfs to the top corporations, and fodder for the continuing wars.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #29 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 11:06:55 PT

designing the draft
FOM, that's a great idea. I believe there are some European countries that have morphed their drafts into compulsory service, not specifically military. That would be a fantastic idea, again boosting civic and political involvement - not to mention boosting responsiblity, accountability, public awareness.Let everyone who is 18 get a taste of working within the government, and then go to private sector. They'll be shocked and horrified at the political working culture of waste and corruption. Maybe the'll actually try to read a newspaper & keep track of these scoundrels. Maybe they'll actually vote.Hey, I'm a lover, not a fighter. I don't wan't to send anyone into war. My point is, let's see what all these flag-wavers and politicians decide if their families are actually going to battle. I don't think we'd have pre-emptive wars. That was my point.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #28 posted by whig on April 12, 2006 at 11:05:14 PT

FoM
Of course the politically well-connected will never let their children be drafted. Never happen. They'll get their deferments, get assigned to safe duty, or pay whatever they have to in order to get out of it. The poor, the less privileged, they'll be turned into hamburger. And this will even be thought of in some circles as a benefit.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #27 posted by FoM on April 12, 2006 at 10:51:07 PT

Community Service
I grew up knowing that young men might be drafted. It was very hard to handle knowing that some of the boys in my class might have to go to war and be killed for a war with no purpose. I don't believe in war but if a person had the choice of going to war or helping out in say the Peace Corp that seems fair to me.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #26 posted by whig on April 12, 2006 at 10:34:35 PT

Sam
The draft was really wrong. If every single able-bodied 18-year old had been forced go to Vietnam it would not have made it a good war. As wrong as it is to kill people who aren't threatening you, it is perhaps worse to force someone else to kill, because you take away some of their humanity.Austria does not serve as a good example regarding a draft, because as you say they had nothing to do with Vietnam, and they are a very young country relatively in their modern form, since liberation from the Nazis. But like Germany, they remember that time, and they won't participate when the United States behaves in a similar fashion.Would you deprive those who have religious scruples against violence of their citizenship?If we had a draft today, we would be sending a million men and women to Iraq, instead of the hundred and forty odd thousand. The death and destruction would only be of a larger scale.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #25 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 10:19:53 PT

the draft
Whig - was the draft really wrong, or just implemented in an unfair way?What about the way many European countries handle it? I remember my sister's boyfriend from Austria almost had to go back and be drafted. Every single able-bodied 18-year old man MUST serve in the army for one year. No exceptions for any families or regions. I think my sister's friend may have had to give up citizenship to get out of it (his family had emigrated to the US).Now, when was the last time Austria started a war? I don't recall them joining the little Viet Nam party, nor playing in the Middle East sandbox with Dick & the Bush boys.We should draft every able-bodied 18 year old. I think it would radically change the nature of society in the US. Civic and political activism would explode. We could use the troops for border defense, and emergency response, instead of attacking other countries.

[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #24 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 10:14:08 PT

Don G
you make a good point, I've got a friend that always says "like it or not, we're being governed by ourselves, so therefore any anger/frustration you have toward the government should be anger with yourselves".That IS true, I think apathy is number one reason for cannabis being illegal today.However, I also think it's inexcusable that the men and women that ARE in power act despicably. There is never an excuse for that. It's a question of character. We shouldn't have to work all day at our jobs to pay our taxes, and then lay awake at night wondering how our "elected" criminals, I mean leaders, are going to conspire with their friends to rob and abuse us.Is apathy to blame for an evil man like Murkowski, trying to institute police-state rules on the population, and literally stealing hundreds of millions from Americans with his corrupt bridge projects. Yes, apapthy is partly to blame, but so is the evil of this man. There is no excuse for that.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #23 posted by whig on April 12, 2006 at 10:11:39 PT

dongenero
Unfortunately this country never lived up to the ideals it proclaimed. Slavery was part of its establishment, for instance. It is not that we are moving away from the Constitution that is wrong, because the Constitution itself was defective to begin with.We are evolving socially in one direction, and politically things seem to be moving in the opposite, but in the end the political will lose to the social, because the social power is the foundation from which the political leaches.Consider the military draft, without which the war in Iraq cannot be sustained for much longer but which, however, is socially unacceptable to the point that it is politically impossible. The reaction to Vietnam in the '60s abolished this. The draft was never unconstitutional, but it was and is wrong.Or consider alcohol prohibition, which was constitutionally enacted before it was constitutionally repealed.Socially we will end prohibition again.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #22 posted by dongenero on April 12, 2006 at 09:35:05 PT

RE: SamAdams
Great points and very well said Sam!A Constitutional Republic should protect the minority from the tyranny of the majority. This country has strayed from it's ideals and many people do not seem to appreciate the loss. What happens to a Government by and for the People when the People become apathetic or so disinterested that they give up their rights?
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #21 posted by Sam Adams on April 12, 2006 at 09:09:10 PT

walking argument for Libertarianism
Of course reading this tripe makes my blood boil, but my first reaction was - this is why we never should have let the government explode in growth and take over our lives, for good OR bad reasons.There will ALWAYS be moralizers like this, and plenty of low-intelligence haters easily goaded into following them into battle, in this case, against their own nation.Moral lifestyle decisions should never be decided by a huge, singular, over-arching entity. Freedom quickly becomes impossible in this configuration. Drug use, sexual practices, gambling, eating, tobacco, they should all be self-regulated. And churches used to perform this self-funded self-regulation. And if people didn't like the tenets of their Church, they could walk out the front door & join another.Now the government, specifically the federal government, has usurped the functionality of the church.  The only choice is obey their moral code, or leave the United States. That's not freedom.For hundreds of years in America, churches handled prevention and treatment of substance abuse, sexual moral codes, education, medical care of the poor, feeding the poor, raising unwanted children, and more. All self-funded by people that had the freedom to join any church they wanted. In fact, that was the number one reason for the settling of this continent - freedom of worship. Escape from theocracy.Now we live in one of the most powerful theocracies in history. Only they've pulled a semantic switch and they don't call it that anymore. Now it's the Church of Congress, the order of the Republicrat. Dick Cheney is the Pope, Scalia and Clarence Thomas his cardinals. Obey, go to jail, or move. This must be the freedom I keep hearing about.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #20 posted by dongenero on April 12, 2006 at 07:39:35 PT

gateway, shmateway
"I despise drugs and I hope this film gets in people's heads," she told Appeal reporter Teri Vance. "I want them to see how meth ruins people." Ms. Vance reported that Cyndle "started drinking at 11 and smoking pot at 12," so I have a question: If marijuana smoking can lead to the chronic use and abuse of meth and other more addictive drugs, and if meth is the No. 1 law enforcement priority in our city, what sense does it make to legalize possession of "small" amounts of marijuana? None, as far as I can see.Whaaaa? Marijuana is a gateway? But she says herself that she started drinking at 11. It sounds like alcohol is the gateway. Maybe these people should be working on alcohol prohibition?I wonder when she started smoking cigarettes? They were probably the gateway to her drinking. You see, gateway theories are bunk to begin with. There is nothing in any of those compounds that makes you try another. These are behavioral and psychological issues.
People have been drawn to these substances for as long as people have existed.Marijuana a gateway to meth? Hogwash!, only by way of prohibition and the market it creates. Figure it out!
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #19 posted by kaptinemo on April 12, 2006 at 05:12:26 PT:

You know you're winning when they call you names
Cannabis prohibition has always been founded upon bigotry. (Newsflash: bigotry isn't dependent upon race ; it just means you think your group, ethnicity, society, nation, etc., is better than anybody else's, and are unwilling to entertain the concept that it just might not be.) That bigotry has been based on a number of false and easily disproved suppositions. Suppositions that have been torn apart in study after study after study after study...Because that bigotry has always sought to use pseudoscience to justify its' claims, when it is confronted with real science, it's a race between it crumbling and exploding.The purveyors of that bigotry know that their only hope is to build straw-men by the bushel, and make scary images by the bucketload, and of course, use scorn and ridicule to deflect the harsh light of inquiry from showing just how threadbare their positions are. Hence drivel like this. But the sleight-of-hand isn't playing as well; the public is catching on that the DrugWarriors can never win this political and economic shell-game. Especially not when those who make the loudest noise about winning can't really afford to, as it means the derailling iof their prescious gravy train. I am reminded of an old movie called "Flashpoint" where a Fed agent says that he "...thanks God for drugs!" because the facade of fighting them keeps him employed. So, for all the bombast, when I see this kind of screed cross the 'net, I smile. The brave noise of the doomed is usually loudest before they fall.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #18 posted by Toker00 on April 12, 2006 at 03:50:01 PT

Return of the Potheads.
Starring Marc Emery and an All Star cast of cannabists from around the world! Peace and Love loom just around the corner. Swearing to destroy the very fiber of the DEA and ONDCP, Marc has martyred himself for Truth. Watch out for those non-violent Hippies! They'll have you believing in God or worse before their Good deeds are done! Don't be saved from Government Lies! Don't mess up an angry ignorant society with Truth! The Potheads Must Be Stopped! Lie everyone, Lie!Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW! 
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #17 posted by Max Flowers on April 11, 2006 at 20:06:34 PT

whig
NO, they obviously can't! :)For good reason, it doesn't impair that way. Tons of anecdotal evidence over the decades points to people actually driving MORE carefully overall when they have THC in their system. Many get too freaked to drive when stoned, even though they would probably drive fine after getting oriented for a few seconds. But hey, if they want to err on the side of caution, that's great.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #16 posted by whig on April 11, 2006 at 19:53:43 PT

Cannabis and driving
Can't the prohibians find even ONE case of someone who wasn't impaired by alcohol, meth, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, or SOMETHING besides cannabis when they want to blame it for a car accident?
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #15 posted by whig on April 11, 2006 at 19:48:52 PT

And another one
In 2002, he wrote:And Las Vegas stripper Jessica Williams, 22, had smoked marijuana before her van ran into a median and killed six teenagers in March, 2000. She was convicted of having drugs in her system during the horrific accident and was sentenced to 18 to 48 years in prison.He neglects to point out she'd also taken Ecstasy.http://tinyurl.com/htc2x(I accidentally just posted a copy of this on the 2002 thread.)Of course, now he drops details to make it hard to figure out the real story:And in Las Vegas, a 22-year-old stripper who was high on marijuana lost control of her van and careened into the median, killing six teenagers who were part of a county work crew.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #14 posted by whig on April 11, 2006 at 19:40:58 PT

Mr. Farmer's redux
Notice how he's even changed little details in his story. In 2002, Guy Farmer wrote:Police say retired California firefighter Stephen Scharosch was drunk and had twice the legal limit of marijuana residue in his system when he drove the wrong way on I-80 east of Reno on May 13, crashing head-on into a van and killing five members of a Utah family, including four young children. He has pleaded innocent and will go to trial on vehicular homicide charges.Now, he says:In one case, a retired California firefighter drove the wrong way on I-80 east of Reno and smashed head-on into a van carrying a Utah mother and her four children.What happened to the alcohol?
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #13 posted by whig on April 11, 2006 at 19:34:56 PT

Deja Vu?
http://cannabisnews.com/news/13/thread13321.shtml
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #12 posted by John Tyler on April 11, 2006 at 19:33:27 PT

time for a better plan
This article is just poorly written bunk. The pohibitionist have become so intellectually lazy. Cannabis is illegal because it is bad. It is bad because it is illegal. They don’t even know why it is illegal, nor do they care. For most of them, their job depends on it. It seems to me that alcohol is a much bigger problem with driving and other social matters, but no one is calling for the abolition of alcoholic beverages. Prohibitionists are making no sense  There was an article in the paper the other day by William Buckley the big conservative guru writer. He was saying that when you have a project to accomplish like a war for instance you have to judge it by some time line to see if it was a success or a failure. So if we apply this concept to the drug war we can see that the billions of dollars wasted on it and the 68 years spent fighting it, its absolute lack of success, it can only be judged as a total and colossal failure. It’s past time to come up with something better.   

[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #11 posted by whig on April 11, 2006 at 19:28:53 PT

Toke
The Holy Christ.Cannabis is Eucharist.This makes for a good sign, I think.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #10 posted by Toker00 on April 11, 2006 at 19:08:02 PT

THC
THE HOLY CHRISTToke.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #9 posted by Toker00 on April 11, 2006 at 19:06:55 PT

THC
TRUTH HONOR COURAGEToke.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #8 posted by Toker00 on April 11, 2006 at 18:47:16 PT

Here we go again.
In 2004 Carson City Justice of the Peace John Tatro told me that at least half of the meth abusers who appear before him also tested positive for marijuana.That is because when a young person takes that step to experiment with drugs, it is seldom to experiment with just ONE drug. By the time they have decided to try that dangerous cannabis, they have been graduates of tobacco and alcohol for years sometimes. And if they do try meth? Then, yeah, by then they have progressed pass the gentle cannabis high, and are convinced they can tackle ANY drug.• Guy W. Farmer, of Carson City, served on the front lines of the War on Drugs in four Latin American countries during his 28-year career in the U.S. Foreign Service.And probably has a lifelong pharma investment, to boot.Do I hear Anti's crying in their beer? Cannabis Cafe, on a moonlit Spring Night, anyone?Wage peace on war. END CANNABIS PROHIBITION NOW!
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #7 posted by runderwo on April 11, 2006 at 18:46:51 PT

the children
"If you want to make marijuana available to your children and grandchildren at local convenience stores, that's your business."Drug dealers don't card. They also don't control purity. Chances are your child knows one of them, since 90% of polled high school kids claimed marijuana was easy to get.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #6 posted by runderwo on April 11, 2006 at 18:45:09 PT

anti-drug
"not someone who should be advising us on anti-drug policies"So it's a foregone conclusion that the only solution is prohibition, and the only debate is how to better enforce it.
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #5 posted by mayan on April 11, 2006 at 18:25:48 PT

They're Scared!
If these initiatives have no chance of passing then why are the prohibitionists screaming their lies so loudly???I sense desperation. They are very scared!THE WAY OUT IS THE WAY IN...Bush Defector to Demolish 9/11 Big Lie in Madison:
http://milwaukee.indymedia.org/en/2006/03/205195.shtmlOprah 9/11:
http://www.oprah911.com/Mr. Bush, We Know What You Did That Summer! September 11th, 2001:
http://tvnewslies.org/blog/?p=351Now is the Time: 
http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/04/now-is-time.htmlCome gather in NYC April 29th, 2006 for the East Coast 9/11 Truth Summit:
http://www.ny911truth.org/events/northeast_9-11_truth_summit.htm911podcasts.com presents Visibility 911 Podcasts: 
http://www.911podcasts.com/display.php?vid=15
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #4 posted by OverwhelmSam on April 11, 2006 at 18:01:49 PT

Gee, The US is Coming Out In Force Early 
 Do I smell ONDCP? The propaganda machine is ramping up early for the election of legal marijuana in Nevada. Fortunately, only a relative handful of people read this rag. But if they're ramping up the propaganda machine this early, I'll bet Nevadians are in for one heck of an anti-marijuana campaign.I hope every pot friendly voter in Nevada is prompted to register to vote now, and be at the voting boths in November. Notice how the Special Agent mentions that the 17 year old started on alcohol?
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #3 posted by lombar on April 11, 2006 at 17:40:43 PT

There is so much wrong with that ..
I don't know where to start. 1) His basis for facts about cannabis come from a senator, a 17 year old, and a study that implies causation where there is only correlation.2) On the basis of the disproven gateway theory concludes cannabis should remain illegal despite the damage that prohibition causes.3) He uses the term 'pothead' and 'legalizer' to dehumanise his opponents.4) Uses example of person DRINKING with cannabis as proof of cannabis' danger.5) He starts with cannabis and switches to meth several times.6) Calls reformers potheads then cites police as experts.7) Makes a personal attack on Ron Kampia.8) Weak ill effects to justify lying and imprisioning people to 'protect society'. Aspirin kills people every year.. One wrong and one right makes hypocrisy.Googling this guy produces a few interesting facts. Retired US diplomat... has been campaigning against drug law reform.  He just knows that the US would be broke without all the drug money laundering through the banks. They all have to have some good reason to keep lying despite the facts being repeated over and over again.The US may have put itself in the position where it must keep taking its citizens freedom to feed Wall St. in ever increasing numbers to continue to grow. Thus to continue it must deprive the citizens of the one thing that America really stood (or what I used to believe..)... freedom. the war debt financed by drug cash ... prohibition maintained worldwide by intimidation, economic threats, and bogus treaties."The fruit thy soul lusted after is gone from thee"
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #2 posted by ekim on April 11, 2006 at 17:33:40 PT

two wrongs don't make a right--Who made you go
Nevertheless, one of my Appeal colleagues (who shall remain nameless to protect the guilty) recently supported marijuana legalization on the theory that "telling people they can use alcohol but not marijuana is like telling children they can have Pepsi but not Sprite. It's a difference without a distinction." Well maybe, but two wrongs don't make a right
[ Post Comment ]


 


Comment #1 posted by freshy on April 11, 2006 at 17:31:27 PT

ignorance is not bliss
i can't stand stupid people. u can't test how many meth users have smoked pot. that's like testing how many people that drink alcohol have driven in their life, u could say alcohol leads you to drive. you have to test how many stoners have done meth. well my rant is over. i'm anti-ignorance and anti-propoganda.Conservative regime = my anti-drug
but that still doesn't stop me... it deters me a little.
[ Post Comment ]





  Post Comment