cannabisnews.com: Drug Ban Goes Up in Smoke Drug Ban Goes Up in Smoke Posted by FoM on May 21, 2001 at 20:15:18 PT By Anne McIlroy Source: Guardian Unlimited The Canadian government is busy growing a huge stash of marijuana away from prying eyes and, if demand exceeds supply, it will encourage selected members of the public to grow their own. Has the normally staid administration turned drug dealer? No. From July, terminally ill patients with a year or less to live will be able to smoke or ingest pot as part of their pain management.The federal health department is paying a biotechnology company to grow marijuana in greenhouses hundreds of feet underground in an unused part of a zinc and copper mine near the small town of Flin Flon, Manitoba. The subterranean, hi-tech pot farm was chosen to keep out thieves. By the end the year, the company, Prairie Plant Systems, will begin supplying the first of 1,865kg of marijuana in cigarette and dried leaf form. That amount will not meet medicinal demand, and the health department refuses to use dope confiscated by the Mounties because it might contain impurities. So last month, the health minister, Allan Rock, who has returned to politics after successfully fighting prostate cancer, announced new rules that will allow patients to grow their own. If they cannot or do not want to, the government will license more third-party pot suppliers to grow it for them. "Canada is acting compassionately by allowing people who are suffering from grave and debilitating illnesses to have access to marijuana for medical purposes," Mr Rock said. But complaining of headaches or other minor ailments will not guarantee a regular supply. Under the new rules, which are expected to take effect this July, patients with Aids, multiple sclerosis and severe forms of arthritis will be given permission to smoke the drug if they can prove that other medications do not help relieve muscle spasms, seizures, severe pain, nausea, weight loss, anorexia and other symptoms. Mr Rock and his Liberal government were pushed towards their new policy by the courts, which ruled last year that the country's marijuana laws are not constitutional because they do not recognise that the drug has medicinal uses. He insists that decriminalising marijuana for medical purposes is not the first step towards decriminalising all pot smoking. A conviction for possessing cannabis for non-medicinal purposes can result in up to five years in jail. Other politicians are pushing for decriminalisation. Last week, backbench MPs launched a debate in parliament that could lead to the decriminalisation of marijuana. They set up a committee to study solutions to the use of banned narcotics. Liberal, New Democratic party and Bloc Quebecois MPs say they want the committee to look at whether recreational drug use should remain a criminal act. Members of the medical community are also pushing for a review. The current issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal calls for the decriminalisation of marijuana for personal use. Then there is the Canadian Marijuana Party, which campaigned against the persecution of cannabis in last autumn's federal election. It collected a surprising 65,500 votes in the last election, and says it will continue fighting to legalise the drug. Over the border, American patients have not been so lucky. Last week, the US supreme court ruled against the medical use of marijuana.Note: Can you really get cannabis on prescription? Of course you can, if you live in Canada, says Anne McIlroy. Source: Guardian Unlimited (UK)Author: Anne McIlroy Published: Monday May 21, 2001Copyright: Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001Contact: amcilroy globeandmail.caWebsite: http://www.guardianunlimited.co.uk/ Related Articles & Web Site:Prairie Plant Systemshttp://www.prairieplant.com/ Marijuana Party of Canadahttp://www.marijuanaparty.org/Bloc Quebecoishttp://blocquebecois.org/Searching For a Pot of Gold On Prairies http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread9795.shtmlCannabisNews Articles - Canadahttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=canada Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #17 posted by Lehder on May 24, 2001 at 02:31:52 PT a chess player! hi freedomfighteri was thinking of fischer because the government seeks to put so many of its people in prisons, him included. i'm convinced that it has nothing to do with drugs, as his case and many others certainly show. the former world champion, victim of ignorance and extreme zero tolerance, plays only the "Budapest Defense" now, a national hero and fugitive from his home country. Fischer's match play in Yugoslavia surely did more for that unfortunate chess crazed country than all the bombing ever could, and brings to mind the great soccer player Pele, so respected by so many that his presence in Nigeria halted a war, albeit temporarily: both sides signed a 48 hour armistice so they could watch him play. another hero. when Pele considered taking lucrative offers to play for teams in europe, the brasilian government declared him a national treasure - which, by law, may not be exported. this is certainly a kinder, gentler and more compassionate sort of "totalitarianism" than either you or fischer and all of us are accustomed to here.i guess bobby fischer must have been only 12 or 13 years old when he decided to take on the entire soviet chess machine, totally by himself and refusing to make the smallest compromise. we all know the wonderful and inspiring story of his success. Maybe we, too, together, can stop this "drug war" and find time for a 'peaceful' chess game. all we gotta do is shoot powerfully and accurately with both feet and our heads. may Caissa be with youPAZ [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by freedom fighter on May 23, 2001 at 18:34:34 PT ahh a chess game lehder? dang, i have not had play a game in a while..It has been a while since I have played a game with someone who is rather good..Just wondering what made you think about Bobby Fischer..Hope he is doing just great playing his favorite game for free..\/ff [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by FoM on May 23, 2001 at 11:33:52 PT Hi Lehder about Banners Hi Lehder, The ones at the top of the page are banners. I have thought about more banners but I'm not sure which ones we should use. The hard part is they must be non profit. That means no ads for ANYTHING for sale. I don't know how hard it would be for Ron or Matt to put them on the front page but any suggestions would be appreciated and if they are approved then maybe we could get more up so it looks a little different. It would freshen up the look of the front page too. What's New [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by Lehder on May 23, 2001 at 02:31:59 PT interesting web page, tom http://TomAlciere.com/not entirely diplomatic, calling the old ladies whom you charmed and who elected you stupid and ugly, but you make some good points, if i may quote from your page: Lots of smart people never pictured themselves running forstate representative, and now they will. I showed them that they might get elected, and some of them will, if they run as a Democrat or a Republican. It doesn't matter if you're a waitress or a cab driver, you can get elected in New Hampshire, and any bill you file, they have to hold a committee hearing, where any member of the public may visit and speak up. If you think you might be interested, CLICK HERE [there -cl]. [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by Spiderman on May 23, 2001 at 02:09:51 PT Hungary / Lehder Hungary is a nice place, and although it can seem a bit basic at times (particularly after the US or UK) it has a lot going for it, especially the buildings and the beautiful bridges over the Danube. If you want to visit, flights will be your biggest expense depending on where you live, but once you get there it is dirt cheap (I stayed in a large double room with bath, shower, tv, radio for about $14 a night). Well worth a visit. When I say my stay there was "otherwise terrible", this is on account of the events between myself and the person I was there with. She'd smoked a bit of pot in the past, it was her who encouraged me to try it... (dubious connection, but I'm just trying to keep this at least vaguely on-topic, you understand :-) [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Lehder on May 23, 2001 at 01:59:33 PT links thanks, FoM. when i get back to my own computer i'll bookmark t.a.'s links there. my thought was to have the links on cnews main page like those to NORML, Drug Sense etc that are there now. it would be handy for any of us who want to e-mail our commentaries - our own or using parts of anyone 's that we like - to the pols as letters, e-mailed by us individually. as i said, the congresscruppers are not going to come to us, we gotta go to them. we expend a lot of energy here, but i'm not sure how much of it is visible ourtside our circle. with so many people disenfranchised and many more reduced by government education to illiteracy, letters do get read and do have their effect. if i get an answer - and i expect i will receive a nonresponsive form letter - i'll post it here for comments. i tell the people i write to that their replies will appear on the internet. maybe they can be forced to debate us publicly.thanksbut i really came here this morning for news of the recall, fingers crosssed. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by dddd on May 23, 2001 at 00:10:32 PT Blossom Blossom is Elliots stepfathers third cousins nephews daughters neice on theFleener-Goldfarb side of the family.She is a former Croquet champion,winnerof the 1966 Hamstone World Cup. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by FoM on May 22, 2001 at 22:59:27 PT Oh My dddd I haven't met Blossom yet! [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by dddd on May 22, 2001 at 22:22:04 PT forwarding comments I think the best way to shower congress with massive,annoying,spamesque comments ,would be for everyone to do it individually.No one knows what happens to emails sent to political "represenatives".As you know,most emails are answered with form letter type replies.Snail mail is almost preferable.Just ask Elliot Fleener,or Blossom Goldbergstein.dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by FoM on May 22, 2001 at 17:12:29 PT Thank You Tom Thank You for the link to your page and commenting here. I really appreciate it. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by FoM on May 22, 2001 at 17:05:05 PT Lehder Hi Lehder,I don't know how to add links. Cannabis News' program is way to sophiscated for me. Isn't there a web site that I could add to some articles that has information on it already? Then I could bookmark it. I could maybe make a page with information and add it to one of my pages that are linked on the front page. I can work on my pages but not this program. Way over my head! I'm looking for all the names of all the cannabis resource web sites for a page I'm thinking about making. Like OCBC, WAMM, Compassion Flower Inn etc. I have some of them but I want all of them that are known if possible. That would make it easier for me to answer some of the questions I get in my e mail. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Lehder on May 22, 2001 at 16:55:07 PT yeah, Spiderman Our government wants to imprison Bobby Fischer for violating economic sanctions against Yuugoslavia in the 1992 match. Chess is extremely popular in Yugoslavia and Fischer had played there many many times before this match for money and for free, but always for chess first. Yet our government behaves as if he were an arms merchant. Chess and Fischer were there first; culture should not be sacrificed for the bickerings of politicians. I wish I knew more about Hungary - I always hear positive reports, like yours, from the few people I've met fortunate enough to visit. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Lehder on May 22, 2001 at 16:43:57 PT links Thanks Tom Alciere for the excellent and handy links. I've already emailed one senator. I told him that his reply would appear on the Internet.Maybe, FoM, you will place these links on the front page of cnews.com for easy, regular access. Congress is definitely not coming to us. Many of our commentaries could be sent to them without modification. I see no reason to limit my e-letters to congresspeople of my state, whatever that is, since none of them really represents me anyway. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by Spiderman on May 22, 2001 at 09:19:30 PT Bobby Fischer, you say? That's preposterous! 10 years? Oh my God. I've been dreaming of a 'true' world championship with Fischer involved for years - I suppose that'll never happen now. And full marks for him standing up on behalf of Yugoslavia. Poor man. A snatch of chess is my favourite memory of an otherwise terrible visit to Budapest in the summer of 1999. Standing in a sunken precinct watching a game being played out on the street. People might've been smoking pot, I don't recall. When will all this end? [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on May 22, 2001 at 08:12:03 PT: Letters are Better Tom, thanks for your helpful suggestions. Increasingly, I find that E-mail missives receive automated E-mail responses. We have no guarantee that legislators see these at all.A personal letter more often merits a personal reply, even if frequently doctrinaire and irrelevant.Even better are appointments in their home offices. You do not have to go to DC as most have visits from time to time to remind voters that they still remember the folks in Podunk and have not been totally seduced by life in Washington. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Tom Alciere on May 22, 2001 at 07:57:57 PT: Easy armchair activism You can contact your Congressman right now, from your keyboard, at http://www.house.gov/writerep and then contact your US Senators through http://www.senate.gov/senators/senator_by_state.cfmState legislators get way less contact, so they actually read it. State web sites are http://www.state.xx.us where xx is the 2-letter state abbreviation. If we'd all spend a few minutes, nobody would have to spend a few years.Tom Alciereformer NH state rep. Tom Alciere [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Lehder on May 21, 2001 at 22:19:18 PT The Champion of the Soviet Union From July, terminally ill patients with a year or less to live will be able to smoke or ingest pot as part of their pain management.Drug warriors will use statistics on the longevities of these smokers to prove that marijuana kills. ------------I'm here only because I can't sleep, turning and churning with troubled thoughts about the Champion of the Soviet Union. At the age of 16, Bobby Fischer went to Russia. Intimidated officials dragged him about the city: the museum, the park, the restaurant. After much persistence and demanding, he was taken to the chess club - where he decisevely defeated every one of half the greatest players in the world in game after game after game of speed chess. Finally, in a desperate effort to avoid total humiliation, officials called in the Champion of the Soviet Union, Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian. Petrosian won the match, barely, but only by a hair and after many losses. Bobby was my hero for many years, despite his rabid anti-drug attitude. Now, and for the past nine years, the U.S. federal government has been trying to put Bobby Fischer, presently a resident of Budapest, in prison for ten years - for playing chess. Bobby Fischer, Chess Champion of the World 1972-1975, to be imprisoned for playing chess in Yugoslavia, the country whose infrastructure was bombed in the dead of winter rendering half a million innocent civilians homeless. All so Clinton could distract attention from his escapades with a bovine child in the Oval Office. There are 150 chess clubs in Belgrade and about as many jails within earshot of where i sit.It's unbelievable. I can't comprehend it - Bobby Fischer in prison. I'll try again. Buenos Noches. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: