Editor: I'm writing about Marie Zettler's story, "Fighting marijuana grow operations together" (9-27-07). There is one way and only one way to stop illegal grow-ops - re-legalize marijuana so it can be sold in licensed and regulated businesses. Marijuana grow operations exist because government marijuana prohibition policies make the easy-to-grow weed almost as valuable as pure gold. How many grow-ops grow tobacco - the tobacco that contains nicotine? Probably none. If Canada or the United States decided to criminalize tobacco, the situation would soon change. Prohibition doesn't work. It didn't work for the drug alcohol, and it's not working for marijuana and it never will. Kirk Muse, Mesa, AZ, U. S. A. [end]
Former Canadian heavyweight boxing champion George Chuvalo brought his anti-drug message to the pupils of Allan Drive middle school in Bolton Thursday. Chuvalo, who was never knocked down in 97 professional fights, spoke about the personal tragedies his family went through due to drug use. One son shot himself, two of his sons died from drug overdoses and his wife committed suicide with an overdose of pills. He first showed the audience an 18-minute video which showed interviews with two of his sons - one who died less than a year after the video was shot, and his one surviving son who was the oldest of the four boys. [continues 368 words]
Drugs were on the table when the Belleville Police Service met the public Monday at the Belleville Library. The session was to get public opinion on the police business plan that will be completed in January and guide the department for the next three years. But the plan is not so much about dollars as it is a comprehensive layout of where police will concentrate their efforts to reduce crime. Police Chief Steve Tanner said most people want traffic enforcement - or at least they say they do until they get a ticket. [continues 207 words]
Re: 'In High school, any drug is available, if you want it,' Friday, Oct. 26 edition Peterborough This Week only reported the police perspective of the drug issue, which may not be in the best interest of parents and students. Police disclose, under the present policy, that students have access to any and all drugs. That's because they are illegal, sold on the black market and are unregulated. One reason police notice more hard drugs in use is because increased drug testing, due to American pressure, cause students to use hard drugs because they remain in the system for less time and are less likely to get caught. Why does Canada follow the U.S. when hat country has failed in its war on drugs more so than any country on earth? When answers to the question, "so what can parents do?" is presented by police, consider what the other side has to say. Educated citizens should consider ending cannabis (marijuana) prohibition or completely ending drug prohibition because it can not fail as badly as what North America has today. Stan White Colorado [end]
Dear Editor, There has been a lot of clamouring lately for a rehab/detox facility for meth and crack cocaine addicts. The point I'd like to inject (no pun intended) into the debate is that these people are all in dire straits because they've broken the law. If society starts coddling lawbreakers with expensive facilities when they haven't even served time, a lot of people are going to wonder what's going on. They might think they can do illegal drugs because they can always depend on rehab. [continues 105 words]
A former pipeline worker made a good decision when he asked to have a marijuana possession charge from Kirkland Lake transferred to Kingston's Ontario Court of Justice. Usually, when people indicate their intention to plead guilty to charges and request, as a matter of convenience, to have them moved from one region to another in Canada, the Crown office in the area where the charge was laid recommends sentence. Most of the time, judges accept those recommendations. The Kirkland Lake Crown was recommending that Trevor White pay a fine of $350 - and White wasn't quibbling. [continues 404 words]
But Somebody's Gotta Do It. Celebs Choose Their Weapon In The War On Drugs ... Booze As she received word this week that her son Shia had been arrested for drunkenness and for refusing to leave a Walgreen's (has there ever been a lamer celebrity scandal?), Mrs. LaBoeuf probably said the same thing millions of relieved parents have said in similar circumstances. "Thank God it wasn't drugs!" In fact, I'm going to go out on a limb here and slap a "Mission Accomplished" sticker on the War On Drugs, a la Dubya on the aircraft carrier USS Lincoln. [continues 632 words]
A dreadlocked Toronto human rights worker has lost a "test case" against Canadian border officials after claiming he was targeted for a Pearson airport drug search because of his hairstyle. Paul Richards, who works for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claims he was searched in July 2003 while returning from Jamaica because he fit the profile of "a drug smuggler as a black man with dreadlocks coming from a source country." He filed an unsuccessful complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which led to a failed appeal to the Federal Court of Canada, which issued a ruling two weeks ago. [continues 261 words]
Fred and Ginger (not their real names, of course) are looking for a Toronto home within their budget. They thought they had found the ideal house in the Kennedy Rd.-Eglinton Ave. area of Scarborough. One of Canada's major banks listed the three-bedroom bungalow for sale at $289,900 through a reputable real estate brokerage. It is described as "Detached bungalow with private drive ... Attention Handymen, Contractors! House needs Work." Aware that the house was being sold under a bank's power of sale due to a mortgage default, Fred and Ginger put in an offer at $275,000. [continues 570 words]
Not All Troubled Teenagers Who Need Funding To Travel To U.S. Clinics Actually Receive It What do you do if your teenager regularly runs away from home, selling drugs (or themselves to pay for drugs), and has been in and out of hospital for suicide attempts and overdoses since Grade 9? What do you do when that same teenager agrees to go for treatment for the first time in three years, but the waiting list for a bed in an Ontario treatment centre is four months long? Can you risk the wait? [continues 656 words]
Court - Dreadlocks Enough For Airport Examination A dreadlocked Toronto human rights worker has lost a "test case" against Canadian border officials after claiming he was targeted for a Pearson airport drug search because of his hairstyle. Paul Richards, who works for the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claims he was searched in July 2003 while returning from Jamaica because he fit the profile of "a drug smuggler as a black man with dreadlocks coming from a source country." He filed an unsuccessful complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission, which led to a failed appeal to the Federal Court of Canada, which issued a ruling two weeks ago. [continues 145 words]
Cocaine Smuggler Gets 10 Years Likening him to an usher of death, a judge sentenced a truck driver to 10 years in prison Tuesday for trying to smuggle 50 kilograms of cocaine into Canada. Justice Micheline Rawlins said she handed such a hefty sentence to Harpreet Singh, who had no criminal record, because he turned a blind eye to the devastating effects of cocaine use. "Cocaine is death," said Rawlins. "It is death to those who consume it. It is death to their families." [continues 431 words]
It can be the ultimate condemnation for a home. Long after drug officers have carted away dozens of planters, disassembled specialized hydroponic lighting systems and hauled sophisticated irrigation systems out of a house once used as a cultivation site for marijuana, a stigma is most likely to linger. "People always say, 'Oh, that was the grow house, it's too bad that house will have to come down' or 'Those poor people who bought that place'," Belleville real estate agent Gail Miller said. [continues 905 words]
Re: Downtown in peril, not enough light to walk safe. Church Street is pretty bad with hooligans begging people for crack money. These people aren't only a Church Street problem. They walk all over downtown, aggressively looking for the their next couple of bucks to add to the crack fund. I was against cameras in the city but now I say, bring them on. Let's watch people and warn neighbourhoods of aggressive people. David Dalpe Windsor [end]
NIAGARA FALLS - Some of its street names suggest something delicate, even pretty: crystal, glass, ice, tina. But make no mistake about it, crystal meth is an ugly blight on society that ruins lives and kills people, says Cpl. Brent Hill, an RCMP officer specializing in combating the highly addictive drug. Just as illegal marijuana grow-ops have become commonplace in Niagara, Hill said it's only a matter of when -- not if -- clandestine crystal meth labs that have proliferated in rural areas of the U.S. start appearing in motel rooms, industrial buildings and right next door to residential homes in the region. [continues 666 words]
Nick Wilson's long anticipated documentary on Marc Emery, The Prince of Pot, aired on CBC Newsworld's The Lens last week, painting a very bleak picture of Emery's chances of being extradited to America to face charges brought two years ago by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds and conspiracy to engage in money laundering were laid following an 18-month investigation by U.S. and Canadian police into Emery's multi-million-dollar operation as an international marijuana seed vendor. [continues 567 words]
Re: Pro-pot protest nets just 60 people Maybe the reason so few people came out for this event is because marijuana smuggling is such a huge business in Cornwall. If marijuana were suddenly legal, it would be worth about $200 a pound instead of $2,000, and half the town would be out of work. Keep prohibition alive! Keep Cornwall employed! Russell Barth, Federal Medical Marijuana License Holder Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis (PAIDOC) [end]
The D.A.R.E. program educating Grade 6 school children about the dangers of drugs should be expanded immediately to classes between Grade 8 and 10 all across Northumberland. That was the recommendation of Janice Allen, community policing committee chairperson in Trent Hills, when she gave her regular report to the Trent Hills Police Services Board last week. "The time between Grade 8 and 10 is such a critical time in a child's life because of the peer pressure they face," said Ms. Allen, a retired schoolteacher. [continues 547 words]
A glossy brochure recently dropped out of my newspaper: "Discover your taste for whisky," it advised. As it happens, I discovered my taste for whisky long ago and so was not in need of this advice. But it struck me as surpassingly odd that the Liquor Control Board of Ontario is spending a considerable amount of money to convince the uninitiated to try potent forms of a psychoactive drug whose known risks include addiction, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, liver cirrhosis, several types of cancer, fetal alcohol syndrome and fatal overdose. [continues 765 words]
CANADA'S NATIONAL DRUG policy is in a state of flux. The former Liberal federal government made moves towards decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana and instituted a medical-marijuana program during its last session in power. The current Conservative government has taken a tougher stance towards illegal drugs by taking steps to increase both the prosecution of drug offenders and penalties for drug offences. These issues were discussed at the Public Forum on Drug Policy held at the Courtyard Marriott hotel in Ottawa on Oct. 25. Sponsored and run by the AIDS Committee of Ottawa and the HIV Prevention Research Team, the forum revolved around a discussion of harm-reduction policies and their effectiveness in Canada. There were a number of panellists representing academia and political parties in Canada. U of O criminology professor Eugene Oscapella and NDP deputy leader Libby Davies (Vancouver East, B.C.) both participated in the event. [continues 309 words]
Inside Ontario
