cannabisnews.com: UNODC Makes Case for Ending Cannabis Prohibition





UNODC Makes Case for Ending Cannabis Prohibition
Posted by CN Staff on September 17, 2006 at 10:02:54 PT
By John Hickman
Source: Baltimore Chronicle
Washington, DC -- Official documents issued by the United Nations are often dull enough to induce sleep. Despite dealing with the most important of policy issues, U.N. documents normally rival the official publications of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development or the Federal Register as soporifics. Begin reading any randomly selected document issued by one of the many U.N. departments and offices and before long your eyes will probably glaze over and sleep softly beckon. That’s probably why the world press missed the chance to report that the United Nations Office of Drug Control, or UNODC, had inadvertently made the case for ending cannabis prohibition in its 2006 World Drug Report.
What the world press did report was what they were told to report. Rather than actually bother to read the 420 pages of the recently issued 2006 report, reporters gathered their information entirely from the short September 12, 2006 press release issued by the office of UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa. They dutifully treated the 59% increase in Afghani opium cultivation and the UNODC chief’s demand for robust military action to destroy it as the important news story.Granted, this year’s 6,100-ton Afghani opium harvest does deserve public attention. Poppy farmers in the southern provinces of Afghanistan have produced a bumper crop that will result in more heroin for sale around the world, and their runaway success signals the incompetence of the President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul. This is bad news, but hardly surprising news. Afghanistan watchers remember the jaw-dropping increase in opium production reported two years ago in the UNODC’s Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004. That too indicated nation-building in Afghanistan was a bust.Had a single member of the world press read the ironically entitled “Cannabis: Why We Should Care” section in the middle of the 2006 World Drug Report, they might have scooped their colleagues with the discovery that the report’s authors had inadvertently laid out a convincing case for ending prohibition. After offering a plaintive appeal to treat cannabis cultivation and consumption as serious problems, this section of the report systematically undermines the logic of doing so.After stipulating that cannabis is a relatively harmless and inexpensive intoxicant, the report presents statistics that the drug is grown and consumed everywhere and in very impressive quantities. Based on public polling data from 134 countries, the report explains that an estimated 4% of humanity enjoys the planet’s most popular illicit drug. There are good reasons to think that figure is an undercount. The authors admit that their estimates of quantities consumed make the 4% figure too low. What is more, given the entirely understandable reluctance of respondents in many societies to answer pollsters' questions about their illicit drug use, the survey's findings are probably too conservative. For example, only 3.5% of the respondents in a 2003 poll in Cambodia and only 1.1% of the respondents in a 2002 poll in Mexico said they used cannabis. Something about those numbers smells funny.Still, 4% of humanity is 162 million people. To see that in perspective, note that if cannabis users comprised a single nation, it would have the sixth largest national population on the planet.The highest rates of cannabis use are reported in Oceania. Papua New Guinea tops the list of countries with 29.5% of the population using cannabis, followed closely by Micronesia with 29.1%. The lowest rates are reported in East Asia. Only 0.1% of the Japanese and 0.5% of Taiwanese reportedly indulge.After Oceania, the next highest rates were reported in North America, followed by West Africa and the Caribbean. Interestingly, the percentage range for the Anglo-Saxon countries is narrow. Canadians and Britons admit to using cannabis at rates of 16.8% and 10.8% respectively, with Australians, New Zealanders and Americans falling in between.Presentation of cross-national price data and discussions of quality in the text seem to suggest that the authors might have intended to undermine the appeal to take prohibition more seriously. For example, readers learn that the herb is pricey in Japan, at almost $35 per gram, but relatively inexpensive in Kazakhstan, where “as much as 400,000 hectares of cannabis grow wild.” “Swaziland is known for producing high-quality cannabis,” according to the report, while, “Malawi is...world renowned for the quality of its cannabis.”The authors go on to describe cannabis as an industry that is both enormous in scale and extraordinarily decentralized. The North America market may be worth anywhere from $10 billion to $60 billion annually. That’s a difference equivalent to the gross national incomes of either Nigeria or Ukraine. What’s more, nearly all of this cultivation takes place on small concealed plots so numerous that suppression of cultivation is futile.In a world challenged by mass poverty, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and Islamist terrorism, what sense does it make to expend scarce government resources on enforcing the unenforceable? Confronted with the evidence that a relatively inexpensive and harmless recreational drug continues to be consumed by at least 1 in 25 people on the planet, and that it is supplied by a vast army of small growers the value of whose total economic activity is enormous, ought to make even the most diehard pot prohibitionist hesitate. Cannabis prohibition is a failed policy. In a world challenged by mass poverty, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and Islamist terrorism, what sense does it make to expend scarce government resources on enforcing the unenforceable?Unless you are member of the world press, the answer is obvious. If you are a member of the world press, you’ll have to wait for the press release. John Hickman is associate professor of comparative politics at Berry College in Rome, Georgia. His published work on electoral politics, media, and international affairs has appeared in Asian Perspective, American Politics Research, Comparative State Politics, Contemporary South Asia, Contemporary Strategy, Current Politics and Economics of Asia, East European Quarterly, Journal of Southern Europe and the Balkans, Jouvert, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Science, Review of Religious Research, Women & Politics, and Yamanashigakuin Law Review. He may be reached at:  jhickman berry.eduComplete Title: UNODC Makes the Case for Ending Cannabis Prohibition—InadvertentlyNewshawk: FreewillksSource: Baltimore Chronicle (MD)Author: John HickmanPublished: September 15, 2006Copyright: 2006 The Baltimore Chronicle and the SentinelWebsite: http://baltimorechronicle.com/Contact: editor baltimorechronicle.comCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #41 posted by afterburner on September 18, 2006 at 21:14:07 PT
kaptinemo#5 & Celaya#3 second tier of realization
To me it is highly ironic that the Bush administration's 'never ending' War on Terror and especially the preemptive War on Iraq under false pretenses are helping the repeal of cannabis prohibition. It is the consequence of arrogance that always *thinks* it's in control and always goes too far until the inevitable humbling. The thinking (hu)man is learning about all manner of lies and deceptions that governments have for decades perpetrated on the American people and on our allies. (S)he is saying, "Enough! No more lies."The (hu)man of action is learning about all the money that has been wasted and misallocated in these times of scarce money. (S)he is saying, "Enough! No more wasted tax dollars."ego destruction of our brave cannabis heroes and of our brave US soldiers is insufficient to stop the tidal wave of ego transcendence that knows no borders.
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Comment #40 posted by Matt Stover on September 18, 2006 at 16:56:50 PT
Cannabis Vs. Global Warming
Dear Professor Hickman:I'd like to please commend you for your insight into the UNODC Report. However, your article not only fails to address the facts that Cannabis has ever been, or can be, used for industries that otherwise contribute to global warming - in this last question posed:"In a world challenged by mass poverty, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and Islamist terrorism, what sense does it make to expend scarce government resources on enforcing the unenforceable?"Therein is the implication that these are unrelated issues."Marihuana," by U.S. Govt. definition, entails any and all Cannabis that may ever be grown domestically. Your audience finishes your article without ever being taught that the U.S. Census of 1850, for example, counted 8,352 Cannabis plantations, each with more than 2,000 acres - in the Southern States, alone.Your audience walks away without learning that the USDA Bulletin #404, printed in 1913 on then-revolutionary Cannabis "hurd" paper - produces 4.1 times as much paper and lumber, acre for acre, as trees can.Your audience doesn't learn about any of the more than 25,000 industrial products "ranging from dynamite to Cellophane" - that Popular Mechanics, for instance, cited possible only from "marihuana", in 1938.I fear that your students may also be as completely unaware of these and other facts, that also tie in Cannabis Prohibition with Global Warming; Cannabis can replace petrol for virtually everything made therefrom, and Cannabis is the only biomass capable of supplying all of our energy needs.You might have learned that Cannabis is the most nutritious vegetable on erath, and the only one with all of the Essential Fatty Acids; These and other factoids and more readily found on labels in health food stores, everywhere - along with more historical facts about Cannabis, that have not been taught in any college, for as long as anyone can remember, anymore.Thank you, Matt Stoverwww.JackHerer.com - please read Mister Herer's text, essentially available for free, through his website!
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Comment #39 posted by Celaya on September 18, 2006 at 12:12:01 PT
whig
Yep. Fred Gardner's rant against cannabis prohibition gets stronger and sharper every day. ....and the walls come tumblin' down.
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Comment #38 posted by whig on September 18, 2006 at 11:55:32 PT
Celaya
Thanks for the update on that, I had read about the Berkeley incident the other day and hadn't heard the rest of what had happened.
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Comment #37 posted by Celaya on September 18, 2006 at 11:41:53 PT
Best Defense A Good Offense?
Check out this quote from Dr. Tom O'Connell."My data show the opposite of a 'gateway' effect -pot use in adolescence is associated with diminished initiation of more problematic drugs and diminished use of alcohol and tobacco." This presents an amazing avenue for reform. We could actually go a great step beyond SAFER. They say marijuana is a safer choice than alcohol. Of course, it is, but with O'Connell's finding, marijuana could actually be presented as a VACCINE against problematic drug use!The possibilities are mind blowing!
Fred Gardner Article
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Comment #36 posted by whig on September 18, 2006 at 10:57:25 PT
Bad medicine
Essay I wrote this morning:http://cannablog.wordpress.com/2006/09/18/bad-medicine/
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Comment #35 posted by observer on September 18, 2006 at 10:18:30 PT
Economists and Prohibition
Unless you are member of the world press, the answer is obvious. If you are a member of the world press, you’ll have to wait for the press release.Because, other wags have noted, much of the press may as well be called, "Officials Say" or "The Government Proclaims," for such media does little more than relay claims of government officials. Here's another goodie I saw today...Prohibition and the Economists         Mark Thornton                                , 9/16/2006
 http://www.lewrockwell.com/thornton/prohibition-economists.html 
 
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Comment #34 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 22:38:18 PT
FoM
I think we'll see the end of this thing in about six years. A lot can change in that time, and the change is speeding up, but a lot has to happen before we can end cannabis prohibition. There are too many people who have been deceived for too long to just turn them to the truth like a light switch. They have to see that the people who they have trusted were wrong, and not all of them were liars because a lot of people just repeat propaganda. Think of all the parents that taught their kids and didn't know any better. We have to address this through the parents themselves in many cases, and in showing that cannabis is medicine I think we can do that. The dam may break and nobody will notice for a long time until the water travels many hundreds or thousands of miles down the stream.
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Comment #33 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 21:42:09 PT
Whig
Back when I started doing CNews in the fall of 98 I thought it will take a year and medical marijuana will be legal and it would become a non issue. After Prop 215 passed and it got lots of TV news coverage I just felt it wasn't going to take long to change the laws in the whole country. 10 years have passed and since this administration we know how it's been. I got a letter from a person running for a political position in Ohio. When I opened the letter I looked everywhere to see if he was a Republican or Democrat. I had to do a google search to find out he is a Republican. He mentions nice things in the letter like Habitat for Humanity but on the google search he worked for the oil and gas industry for 25 years. I hope they put on the outside of envelopes what party they represent so I can throw away what I know I won't read. I'll talk with you tomorrow. I'm calling it a day.
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Comment #32 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 21:25:27 PT
FoM #31
That's why I'm still doing this. I could just enjoy being here but it isn't right that someone can go less than a hundred miles and be under serious threat of arrest for medical marijuana. Not to mention all my friends back east and I want them to have the same ability to obtain and use cannabis for their medical use. And so many people who need it badly.
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Comment #31 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 21:12:50 PT
Whig
It will be nice when people from all over the country can experience a little of the liberty that happens in some areas of California.
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Comment #30 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 20:46:46 PT
FoM
I know that some people prefer hash or hash oil, to eat or to use when less smoke is desired. I don't have much use for that, and when I've tried hash it didn't taste as good to me as kind bud.
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Comment #29 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 20:11:16 PT
How to hack an election
If you vote, please read this:http://cannablog.wordpress.com/2006/09/17/how-to-hack-an-election/
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Comment #28 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 19:48:58 PT
Whig
I read the article but I really can't comment because I just don't understand the purpose of it. I do know that people have died by explosion doing that process however or whatever it is for. 
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Comment #27 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 19:04:52 PT
Honey oil
Isn't it safer to make bubble hash? If these people are being prosecuted for an unsafe manufacturing process in a townhouse which caused an explosion/fire I can't really defend it.
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Comment #26 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 19:03:23 PT
Honey Oil Cases Tests Limits of Medical Pot Law
SAN RAMON, Calif. (KCBS) The manufacture of a marijuana extract popular with medical cannabis users who require large doses of pot to control their symptoms is putting Prop. 215 to the test.The Alameda County District Attorney is trying to prosecute three people for manufacturing a controlled substance, charges with more severe penalties that are usually reserved for makers of crack cocaine and methamphetamine.The two men and a woman were arrested after a San Ramon townhouse exploded in February. Firefighters who entered the burning building discovered a marijuana product called honey oil was being manufactured using what are called honey bee extractors, said Deputy District Attorney Dana Filkowski.Making honey oil requires butane, said Filkowski as she explained the volatile process to KCBS reporter Dave McQueen. The pot is crushed and then flooded with butane to extract the active chemicals from the plant.The honey oil was intended for patients at a medical marijuana dispensary in Richmond, and the case has prompted outcry from medical marijuana advocates.Complete story: http://www.dabronxnews.com/2006/09/17/honey-oil-cases-tests-limits-of-medical-pot-law/
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Comment #25 posted by global_warming on September 17, 2006 at 15:54:09 PT
Before you start to spit,
I bow to your Strength and UnderstandingFor this point I beholdHere, that I might HoldAcross the Wind and the RiverEven Time Bows her headTo your Grace and CommunionThank You Fom
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Comment #24 posted by ekim on September 17, 2006 at 15:50:57 PT
jobs anyone
http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfmJobs and Internships at DPADeputy Director of National Affairs - Washington, DC 
Legislative Assistant - Washington, DC 
Director, Public Affairs - New York, NY
Director, California Capital Office - Sacramento, CA
Part-time Office Manager/Receptionist (DC)
Public Policy Intern (CA)
Public Policy Intern (NM)
http://www.drugpolicy.org/homepage.cfm
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Comment #23 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 15:42:08 PT
Whig
Thank you.
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Comment #22 posted by freewillks on September 17, 2006 at 15:29:19 PT
2006 World Drug Report
If you read the whole chapter on Cannabis: why should we care? you learn the argument has changed to the "New Cannabis" "The New Cannabis" was a direct result to prohabition as outlined by their own study. They also admit that cannabis was outlawed on bad info. If you have not read it you should
2006 World Drug Report
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Comment #21 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 15:21:22 PT
OT: 14,000 secret prisoners
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060917/ap_on_re_mi_ea/in_american_hands
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Comment #20 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 15:18:23 PT
FoM #15
http://cannablog.wordpress.com/2006/09/17/sunday-thoughts/
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Comment #19 posted by MikeEEEEE on September 17, 2006 at 15:06:22 PT
Kap
I always read your posts. I think you're very accurate.Just like after prohibition part one, the prohibitionists will be kicking, screaming and lying, all the way to the last govt. $. But after a while people will get bored with them and think they're obnoxious kooks.
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 14:30:26 PT
BGreen
I'm glad you are having a great time. It has been a week tonight since we saw CSNY and I have done a lot of thinking about the tour and last show. Neil held the microphone out into the audience. It's now our turn is what he meant by that. I have been thinking about what I should do to help bring change since last Sunday. I am quiet but full of righteous indignation and I doubt this feeling will go away very easily.
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Comment #17 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 14:16:15 PT
Happyplant 
I agree.
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Comment #16 posted by BGreen on September 17, 2006 at 14:16:08 PT
A 420 page report ... hmmmm
How fitting.I've been so stinking busy that I haven't checked in much but we've been having an awesome time.Keep up the good work while I'm gone. I've discovered that the whole world will suffer even greater wrath if we don't get the laws changed in the US.God bless you all, and a shout out to a couple of former LA residents I met today, Aaron and Kim. They had to flee the persecution of the States at great personal cost. They're just two more victims of this horrible scourge of cannabis prohibition.The Reverend Bud Green
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 14:06:25 PT
Whig
That would be fine. Thanks for asking.
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Comment #14 posted by global_warming on September 17, 2006 at 14:05:11 PT
re: excellenT Points
Prepare to receive your Understanding Your Place in this UniverseHave you seen, witnessed?Cruel and Indecent behavior?Have You been Arrested?For using Cannabis?Are You Living in Fear?Has your Life been Taken?It Is Time, To Change To Vote for every amendment that can "change the "Law"It is Time, Cannabis is much better than alcohol, Cannabis can change your spiritual place, one toke, and you can participate in the greatest Universe, have you witnessed, a man nailed to a cross, have you witnessed starvation?My testament, as a witness, who beholds tyranny and injustice, proclaims honer, truth and Justice, in this place, In This Time.
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Comment #13 posted by Happyplant on September 17, 2006 at 13:59:16 PT
vision.
In regards to comment #11.I think this was our forefathers vision. Amazing how a few bucks can gum things up.
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Comment #12 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 13:58:10 PT
FoM
May I quote you on my blog?
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 13:41:14 PT
Whig
Thank you. I will type just a few job ideas. Bedding for horses. Grain probably for cattle. Durable clothing. Even a seasoning for food. Fuel for vehicles. Hemp is helpful in cleaning up a toxic area. Hemp oil for health. Hemp ice cream for fun. Hemp bread for food. Farm land that is idle could be developed and maybe we could cut our need for foreign oil in time with hemp and other plants. People would be needed to work on the farms and that makes jobs. In the marketing area I just thought how getting a few Percherons because Bush uses Clydesdales and the motto would be Bud - is - Wiser. LOL! Just kidding on the last one.
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Comment #10 posted by global_warming on September 17, 2006 at 13:07:23 PT
Reaching America
My Christian Hand is filled with Love, Kindness and Understanding, I Salute You and Bow to the People, Time in this Universe is a Gift for All to Witness.'We The People Rule..Forever and Ever.
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Comment #9 posted by whig on September 17, 2006 at 13:07:08 PT
FoM
You make excellent points.
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 12:49:59 PT
Celaya
Thank you.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on September 17, 2006 at 12:40:48 PT
Money
Let me try to make a point about cannabis prohibition and why it would be financially so much better for everyone if cannabis was legalized. Besides the medicinal value of cannabis there are economics like Kaptinemo said. First off the one area where money would be lost is by the police and prisons. That isn't enough of a reason to keep on going the way we are and we can recover from that as a country. We would need so much cannabis grown to meet the different possibilities of use that it would make many jobs. Farming, processing, marketing and on and on. Look how they have marketed beer which has serious health risks. For people who are investors cannabis being brought out of the dark ages will make so many jobs I can't even begin to imagine the good that could come out of it. As far as having people who value being an American it would be good public relations and we wouldn't mind the police like everyone does now. Police would be able to do good again and protect us from a real enemy not one that was born out of reefer madness. That's my 2 cents.
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Comment #6 posted by unkat27 on September 17, 2006 at 12:35:16 PT
Texas has Cannabis Candidate
Friedman Says He'd Legalize Pot in Texas""Kinky Friedman says he favors legalizing marijuana to keep nonviolent users out of prison. If Texas elects him governor, he says, he'll try to get locked-up pot users released to make room for more violent criminals."I think that's long overdue," Friedman told The Associated Press in an interview Wednesday. "I think everybody knows what (U.S. Sen.) John McCain said is right: We've pretty well lost the war on drugs doing it the way we're doing it. Drugs are more available and cheaper than ever before. What we're doing is not working." ""http://www.infowars.com/articles/us/friedman_says_he_would_legalize_pot_in_texas.htm"
Friedman Says He'd Legalize Pot in Texas
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Comment #5 posted by kaptinemo on September 17, 2006 at 12:13:27 PT:
Step by painful step
The unspeakable...is finally being spoken. The finger, which has been pointed everywhere but the direction it has not been allowed to point...is now pointing where it should. Right at those who, at the expense of every taxpayer, make their daily bread by doing all in their power to maintain the astronomically expensive farce of a DrugWar. In these tight times, such attention leads to questions of efficacy - and more importantly, lack of it. (The OMB is already suggesting pay cuts for the ONDCP, and this rarely ever happens to a Fed agency. It's that serious.) Which sooner or later translates into money wasted. Money that we as a nation simply can't afford to waste on what amounts to workfare for the marginally employable. I've been saying this for some time, and sadly, it appears to be even more true today: Trying to end the War on (Some) Drugs through moral suasion hasn't worked. The propaganda runs too deep in most people to easily peel off the layers of blindfolds and finally see how the prohibs have been stealing their rights all these years.But talk about money, and (click, whirr, ding-ding-ding!) watch the lights go on in Joe Sixpack's braincase. Talk about how much money, and what it was used for, and step back. I predict you'll see more of these articles in the months leading up to elections, and even after. Because in these times, the bottom line always asserts itself...forcefully...in the end.
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Comment #4 posted by global_warming on September 17, 2006 at 12:04:44 PT
nice, good letter
Thanks celaya for sharing, maybe there is some hope in Baltimore, never knew you could write so purposively, ten years, it is wonderful that 'we here at cnews will be around to bury the corpse of Cannabis prohibition, along with the old ways, and usher a new world order, may God Bless You and Hold You close in the valley of darkness.
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Comment #3 posted by Celaya on September 17, 2006 at 11:42:57 PT
Thought I'd Share A Letter I Wrote To John Hickman
Hi Mr. Hickman, 
I just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for your excellent article in the Baltimore Chronicle, "UNODC Makes the Case for Ending Cannabis Prohibition—Inadvertently." 
I have been studying and participating in the reform of cannabis law for more than ten years, and your article provides a refreshing dose of common sense. It seems even the public has reached, what I call, the first tier of realization about the cannabis issue. Polls have shown that a majority of Americans now want an end to cannabis arrests. Most now understand that cannabis is relatively harmless (especially when compared to alcohol) and efforts to "eradicate" it's consumption are counter-productive. That is, they cause much more harm than the consumption does.
 
 
 
As you likely know, near 800,000 American citizens are arrested for cannabis possession each year - giving them a permanent "criminal" record that largely marginalizes them for life. This effect is, naturally, multiplied when you consider the families of these victims of what is essentially a political persecution. Add to that the tremendous corruption caused by the gigantic black market and the growing disrespect for law enforcement that has resulted, and one begins to see the terrible price paid for this horribly wrong-headed prohibition. 
Mostly, I write to discuss the "second tier" of realization. That is - given the public now wants an end to cannabis arrests, why do they still occur? My short answer is as follows: 
Because police and politicians build their careers and empires on it. Because industries like alcohol and pharmaceuticals don’t want the competition. Because other interests like the drug treatment/testing industry and the prison industries depend on it for their life’s blood. And because government uses cannabis prohibition as a means of controlling minorities and the poor. 
In sum, there is a seemingly unassailable level of powerful, vested interest in maintaining cannabis prohibition, no matter what destruction it causes to our society. It is my hope that the public will begin to achieve this second tier of awareness - of the real WHY of cannabis prohibition. I feel certain that once this awareness is achieved, it will spell the end of this disatrous policy. 
I hope you will continue to focus and educate on this great problem. With all the other crises we are dealing with, this monstrous political boondoggle is a great, deadly - and totally unneccessary - anchor dragging down our societal boat...In case you haven't seen it yet, for an informative and entertaining read on the origins of U.S. cannabis prohibition, please read this speech by Professor Charles Whitebread:http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm 
Thanks again for your great contribution!*********************************(Mr. Hickman responded favorably and promised to read Whitebread's article.)
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Comment #2 posted by lombar on September 17, 2006 at 10:52:05 PT
If normal human behaviors...
..are outlawed then everyone is a 'criminal' and the state can screw anyone for anything at any time. Keep the so-called free people firmly under the thumb of the same 'authorities' that are the root of the problem. There are exceptions for the elite, prisons for the peasants, or endless toil, and hell on earth for all those of good heart. The wicked thrive, the good fight back the darkness, the darkness of hate and fear, of greed and deception, the authoritarian 'might makes right' attitude and the wars upon the peaceful in the name of profits. Our sick society dares to judge us as worthy of a cage because we seek sucrease for our suffering by way of the cannabis plant, by way of opposing wars... The UN is just another chance for corruption to flourish, for parasites to feast on the rotting corpse of our system. An organisation that supposedly stands for peace yet pursues and endless global war has no integrity. Our system is morally bankrupt, the false flag operation 9/11, the staged event completly reversed all the progress of the last 40 years, fascism is growing, the centralized media is a tool to manipulate the masses, the peoples are divided over non-issues while kids come home in body bags, protecting profits.Since they bury us is cow droppings, is it any wonder so many of us just hold our noses? I think there is rain in the forecast...22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? 23And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. 24Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. 
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Comment #1 posted by global_warming on September 17, 2006 at 10:50:32 PT
my tax dollars
"In a world challenged by mass poverty, global warming, nuclear proliferation, and Islamist terrorism, what sense does it make to expend scarce government resources on enforcing the unenforceable?"It makes NO SENSE----------->Change the laws-----------+
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