I am fucking embarrassed to live in a country that considers weed illegal and yet considers salvia and bath salts legal. It’s fucking asinine! Let’s not even approach the topic of alcohol and how much worse that is for you, and all of the hardship that causes people. I love having to feel like a criminal when I buy an herb that causes no harm to anyone. If you don’t agree, search the zombie-like killing in Miami that just happened. Yes, people can buy that drug legally right now in Canada. —Anyone Hungry?
This article appears in May 31 – Jun 6, 2012.
Yes, yes Shitty-D, we all get it. You can’t get high legally so we’re all on a one way railroad track to Arbeit Macht Frei. It’s all a rich tapestry.
On the lighter side, wouldn’t it be hella kule if what happened in Florida actually was a zombie outbreak.
10-4 Deputy Grimes. Walker outbreak at the Naked Bike Ride.
http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files/costu…
Are you sure you’re not getting bath salts that are actual salt mixed up with bath salts the drug?
…and for the inevitable comeback referencing my own personal monomaniacal obsessions, here, let me make it easy for you:
http://markosun.files.wordpress.com/2010/0…
EXPENSIVE STEALTH FIGHTER JETS FUCK YEAH LETS GO BOMB SOME HIPPIES NAPALM STICKS TO THE 99% GET SOME!
No, don’t bother to thank me. It’s not charity. Think of it as voluntarily contributing to an “insurance policy” against future creative bankruptcy.
Bath Salts? *googles* Oh ok..
http://www.timescolonist.com/health/Canadi…
“The designer drug has appeared in Eastern Canada – with New Glasgow, N.S., as the epicentre”
smh..
“…when I buy an herb that causes no harm to anyone.”
I KNOW I’m realllllyyy going to regret asking this, because it seems that all the potheads seem to come out of the woodwork and spout the same, (and always well rehearsed), arguments about the alleged ‘benefits’ of dope whenever somebody asks this but, the legality debate and alternative uses for hemp products aside, I would really like to see some hard, objective, imperical data that says it causes ‘no harm to anyone’. That’s a big, sweeping generalization to be making and a bit of a stretch, IMHO. But, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. If inhaling a burning, foreign substance into my lungs for the purpose of altering my mood/behaviour/perception/reflexes/motor
skills/thought process, etc, is in ANY WAY doing no harm to me or those around me, than, here’s your chance. Persuade me of this with your evidence.
who ever said you have to smoke it?
So a Riot huh, alight.. I’m down.. what right now? eh.. maybe tomorrow, after I order this nacho chicken poutine..
Fair enough, zedman. Valid point. And I guess it IS used as a treatment for pain associated with glaucoma, although, in the overall number of regular users, these people are probably in the minority.
A Pot Head riot, would that not be the most mellow riot ever…I guess until then tipped over a Frito Lay Truck
if you’re ordering nacho chicken poutine today,
you’ll be busy all tomorrow on the can.
no rioting for splatter-shits tommy.
speaking of chemicals and drugs…
have you seen this wheelie?
http://gizmodo.com/5914682/this-adorable-r…
“HELL NO! WE WON’T G-………Wait!….What were we doing again…?”
Pot heads and street-meat vendors as far as the eye can see.
“If inhaling a burning, foreign substance into my lungs for the purpose of altering my mood/behaviour/perception/reflexes/motor skills/thought process, etc, is in ANY WAY doin g no harm to me or those around me, than, here’s your chance. Persuade me of this with your evidence” – Maybe not harmless, but certainly not as harmful as, lets say….cigarettes (or alcohol).
Lolz – a stoner riot. Someone would light a torch, and that’d be the end of it. “Wow, Dude look at the awesome trails”.
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS…
A tincture is great for pain, and you don’t get all zoned out because of it, like you do with other (legal) drugs.
Having grown up in the 70’s I didn’t need “Reefer Madness” or “Go Ask Alice” to put me off da ‘erb. I only had to look at my classmates. I wasn’t afraid it could automatically lead to heroin; I was terrified that it would lead to FOGHAT! >: 0.
I was well into my 20s before I recognized that one could use recreationally and not be a douchebag. Of course, by then I’d had enough booze fueled misadventures to knock me off any high horse I might have once imagined myself to be on.
Some of my best friends here are fond of blazing up now and then and I would trust any one of them with my books AND my cat. That’s major.
I find the situation on medical marijuana in Canada particularly troubling. Irradiated shwag? (poor quality weed given light treatment to make it even less potent)
Can you imagine Health Canada telling SmithKline ‘no don’t give us quality opiates for our citizens–just pill up the floor sweepings from the poppy processing plant floor–that’s good enough, because, you know, some people abuse opiates!’
And avast.. shit I’ll take the bait. To me it’s not about the harm it might do, it’s about keeping it behind a counter and out of junior high and elementary (yes, elementary) school hallways. Also a lot of people who make money selling bricks of weed use that money to put coke, ecstasy and guns on the street. I also refuse to believe that if they legalized it tomorrow that all the sudden non smokers would start trying it. It’s so available and socially acceptable that if people want to smoke it they are going to, regardless of its legality. I don’t think one person who doesn’t smoke (or vaporize or ingest) pot, if you asked them, would give “because it’s illegal” as their top reason.
It is harmful, no doubt, but it’s not going anywhere and the pros outweigh the cons as far as I’m concerned. Let’s just make it harder for young kids with developing brains to get their hands on, and let’s stop wasting police and court resources on it, and while we’re at it cut off a huge revenue stream for criminals, and increase tax revenues. What argument could anyone have that outweighs those benefits? I think I’ve heard them all and I haven’t heard one yet. It needs to at least be decriminalized, and if you want to go after people who are making tax free money selling pounds to our youth then fine. Because that is the real reason it’s a crime, it because the government doesn’t get their cut like they do with gambling, booze and tobacco. They could give a shit about the health risks.
The fact that a 12 year old has a much easier time buying a mind altering addictive substance than a scratch ticket is pretty disgraceful in my opinion and it doesn’t have to be that way.
You don’t have to smoke the government supplied stuff, Xeno you can get it from a designated grower and they can grow it as potent as they want. $3/gram is the max they’re allowed to charge.
Tommy said it perfectly.
“Go Ask Alice”!!! I loved that book! I was a super good kid who never wanted to do drugs before reading that book ;). I think it’s supposed to deter you, but I figured I could do the whole acid thing without running away to San Fran with my weirdo hippie friend and having sex in fields with random boys.
It’s true though about weed being illegal, it’s easier for kids to get. When I was young, I smoked weed, did E, acid and shrooms because they were much easier to get than vodka.
Tommy–yes, but to be a ‘designated grower’ you need to have a ‘designated buyer’ first, right?
Last year I happened upon a Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana (MUMM) gathering. Some very fine folks indeed. I was curious about how legal medical marijuana worked and we got to talking.
I was about to buy a raffle ticket when I learned that the prize was a bag of seeds. WTF–seeds? If I could buy Ontario hydro in the states, why couldn’t you buy it in NS? It has got to be twenty years since I’ve had to pick seeds out of my stash and here it was a prize?
I had this wild idea that I could help out these fine bunch by importing some female hybrid clones from the states but the rules were so convoluted, I gave up trying to figure it out. Importing anything to Canada is difficult due to strict customs rules–add to that the wacky-ass medical marijuana rules–I couldn’t see any way through it. In doing my research, I did learn about the ‘government grown’ stuff and I was appalled.
“I would really like to see some hard, objective, imperical data that says it causes ‘no harm to anyone’.”
Empirical, not imperical.
*Most* rational people advocating the legality or decriminalization of marijuana do not suggest that marijuana causes no harm. Of course it causes some harm. Eating too much cheese causes some harm, if you count lost time with loved ones from having to sit on the can for too long.
From a policy perspective, the main issue is whether the costs of legality/decriminalization outweigh the benefits.
– There is evidence from other countries, most notably the Netherlands, that relaxing restrictions on marijuana can provide tax revenue and tourism benefits. The legalization and regulation of marijuana would reduce the revenues of organized criminals operating in Canada and is thereby a transfer of ‘wealth’ from criminals to the general public? Crazy idea, I know!
– There is some opposition to legalization on the grounds that it will lead to more impaired driving, criminality, laziness, and use of harder drugs (the gateway hypothesis).
— On criminality: see above. Making marijuana legal makes the drug trade less lucrative, so criminals may choose other jobs – pray they avoid seasonal work.
— Alcohol leads to impaired driving, and we treat that behaviour accordingly. Why does alcohol get a free pass in terms of legality, but not marijuana? Where is the ‘imperical’ evidence of that?
— On laziness, again I point to the Netherlands, whose standard of living (GDP/capita) is higher than ours (see Wikipedia, OECD, or World Bank for references). The dutch economy has not come grinding to a halt. Only one indicator, I know, but I don’t have time to gather all the evidence.
— Finally, the gateway hypothesis has been rejected in several scientific journals, for example:
* Morral, Andrew R. “Reassessing the marijuana gateway effect.” Addiction 97.12 (2002): 1493-504.
** Hall, M. “Is cannabis a gateway drug? Testing hypotheses about the relationship between cannabis use and the use of other illicit drugs.” Drug and alcohol review 24.1 (2005): 39-48
In general, the correlation between cannabis use and other illicit drug use (cocaine, heroine) stems from predisposition (e.g. genetics, social environment, risk-taking attitudes) rather than initial marijuana consumption.
Regarding the use of pot harming those around the user, I have simple solution: regulate where pot can be consumed. We do this with alcohol and it works fairly well. The Netherlands has done it with pot and it has worked fairly well. To avoid the purple haze you must first avoid the pot cafe. Pot users might harm their family members, but to that, I say: when have you ever heard of a pot smoker assault someone or chew someone’s face off while high? *crickets *… How many times have you heard of drunkards fighting in public or assaulting their family? Lots.
I haven’t fully demonstrated that the benefits to legalization will outweigh the costs. That’s mostly because marijuana is illegal so it is really difficult to measure their market value. But, there is substantial evidence from other countries that the benefits are likely to be significant. And there is substantial evidence the cost of legalization will be much smaller than that of legalizing alcohol.
Hopefully that’s good enough for you PK.
Shit,I thought PK because I saw the cat. Sorry, my response goes to avast0.
When I was a kid, all you had to do to get booze was visit Pearl, call a cab (they delivered), or hang out at the LC and ask adults to but you something.
Pot wasn’t readily available (for me) until High School, and with a liquor store next to school…well, just use your imagination.
To be truthful, if it came down to that I could only have liquor or weed (not both) for the rest of my life. Marijuana would be a hands down winner. No hangovers, no puking, and no “instant asshole” like hooch.
thank your local and federal gubments for that shit. if they let shit be legal, then they might as well let me and everyone else, kill people anytime we want. see how that won’t work.
At this point the best solution is have weed legal and give it the same rules as smokes and alcohol.
Everyone wins with the legal route. The government can make money off it. The law can focus on more serious problems. There might be more jobs in the government for growing it.
There`s not much question in my mind that the legalization and government control of marijuana is the best route to go. It`s a lynchpin topic for conservatives both large and small `c` so don`t expect any movement towards legalization from that political base and their religious supporters.
Marijuana has around for a few generations to observe and evaluate it`s affects on people and families. While it is certainly not a health food IMO, I do think it`s fairly benign in it`s impact on families and society in general, unlike alcohol.
Wasn’t my bitch Ivan. I wouldn’t classify my contempt for this government as “embarrassment”, that would be an egregious misuse of the English language. The over governance and simplistic “black and white” predisposition to law this government continually portrays in it’s policy is “embarrassing”, not for me, but for the government and it’s supporters. This government has reversed the polarity of progressive policy this country was envied for in the global community, and reduced that respect to nothing. What’s embarrassing is that one person is able to commandeer a political party, forcing members to assimilate to a one dimensional moral designation by threatening their careers, which by legal definition is coercion. That’s embarrassing!
Fair enough. Back to watching Criminal Minds reruns to brush up my profiling skills.
you’re on double secret probation, better clean your act up^^
Damn Morgan. Thinks he’s so cool, kicking in doors and cracking wise with Garcia. They can have their stupid B.A.U. for jerks. >: (
Biscuit to Ivan: “I know you don’t smoke weed. I know this. But I’ma get you high today – because it’s a summit, it’s 2-for-1 burger day, and you ain’t got shit to do!”
Just surprised PET didn’t legalize it for Maggie. Also putting it in government stores is going to work just as well as it does for alcohol and tobacco, so if you are missing some of your stash, just ask your 12 year old. The same goes for your beer and smokes.
Harper’s a jerk! Not you Harper, the other Harper.
Ivan to Biscuit: Throw in a tape of Stacey’s Country Jamboree or that CBC doc about the Golers and we’ll party like it’s 1986.
How was France?
LEGALIZE EVERYTHING
The debate (if there is one) to legalize weed misses the point. Not only should it be legalized but so should everything else, including heroin, crack, meyth and so on. The philosophical principle on which this recommendation is based is that of complete personal autonomy, the absolute freedom of choice of the indivdual. Assuming no harm is done to anyone else, nothing should hinder the unfettered expression of personal autonomy. In addition to heralding the victory of such personal autonomy over the restrictions imposed by the nanny state, there are other spin-offs which will accrue to legalizing all drugs.
Most obviously there is the elimination of the criminal culture which derives its wealth from the drug traffic. No more illegal drugs, no more illegal drug gangs! In addition, the money spent by the government on the failed “war on drugs” can be put toward the increasing costs of things like health care. Tax revenues from the sale of drugs, of course, will enrich the government coffers such that research into as yet deadly diseases can be funded. Tourism will flourish. The “gateway hypothesis” will become irrelevant since there will no longer be any “gateway”. Drug-based prostitution will become a thing of the past. All drugs must be placed within the financial reach of all citizens. While it is difficult at the present time to measure the true market value of, say a hit of heroin, all efforts must be made to ensure that it is readily available to those who choose to use it. The cost of legalization, of course, will be negligible when compared to the costs of enforcement of the current drug laws.
Not least, complete legalization of all drugs will “de-glamorize” their consumption in the eyes of those who think drugs are “cool” and speak of their private “stashes.” Drugs will simply become just another item of consumption by autonomous adults.
There are, of course, some wrinkles to iron out. Some might favour local pot centers where like-minded potheads can gather while others might prefer to get high in the privacy of their own homes. A drug home-delivery service might provide business opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs. There is, of course, the problem of debilitating addiction, particularly among the “hard” drug users. While unfortunate, nothing should trump the exercise of personal autonomy and individual freedom from government control. They have chosen their path in life and are solely resposible for any negative fallout. For those who have been rendered into a state of total dependency, warehouses under the supervision of compassionate csrers might be established to provide the addicted with a steady stream of narcotics and sanitary conditions in which to consume them.
In sum, I think we can say that the total legalizaton of all drugs is both philosophically justifiable and provides an economic windfall for the good of the society as a whole.
A pleasure as always.
Cheerio!
Before 1914 in the USA all drugs were legal. Then, the government of the day discovered 1.3 % of the population were drug addicts. So they created the Harrison Drug act, making virtually all drugs illegal or strictly controlled substances.
Flash forward to 1970. Things were going great until they realized 1.3% of the people were drug addicts! So they started the drug war, obviously they weren’t trying hard enough.
Flash froward to today. Over a trillion dollars spent no the drug war, thousands of lives lost… and 1.3% of the population are addicted to drugs.
How many people are drug addicts in Nova Scotia? The government estimates 12,500 – 1.3% of the population.
No one wants their kids to become drug addicts. No one wants to wade through a tide of needles and baggies. But treating the drug problem like a crime problem doesn’t solve the drug problem and only makes the associated criminal issues worse!
France was much better than Germany. Fucking GSG9.
Supposedly the first C.O. of GSG-9 was on one of the I.A.F. Hercs at Entebbe, as an “official observer”. A year later when they took down the hijacked Lufthansa 737 at Mogadishu, a pair of S.A.S. lads accompanied them, along with some of their newly developed flashbang grenades.