The impetus for increasing the war on drugs in Canada is obviously coming from the U.S. In 2004, there were 1,745,712 total arrests for drugs, and 771,605 were for cannabis alone. There were 684,319 arrests for cannabis possession. This is a wholesale waste of police and government resources just to police freedom of choice. They have escalated a war upon otherwise law-abiding and peaceful citizens. If prohibition actually was effective, would not the numbers of arrests be decreasing? Rather than making drugs less available, it seems the reverse is true. Drugs are so popular now that nearly one million Americans per year have to be arrested, perhaps incarcerated, and wholly fleeced by the cost of so-called justice. All the while there are states legalizing cannabis for medical use or making cannabis laws the lowest priority. [continues 125 words]
It Started Causing Trouble As A Teen And Has Never Really Stopped. We Can't Name Names, But Its Initials Are LSD. April 16, 2001 | A hundred and one years ago today, the first book of postage stamps was issued in the United States. Exactly 43 years after that, on a Friday afternoon -- April 16, 1943 -- Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann took the world's first LSD trip. We now know a lot. We know about the epiphanies, and the paranoia and the visions. We know that the CIA conducted secret LSD experiments on U.S. citizens, the military and its own agents for years. We know that there was briefly talk at the CIA of testing LSD on unsuspecting subway riders. We know that the public got its hands on the drug in the '60s and reconfigured it as a countercultural apparatus. We know that some users really did believe, at inopportune times, that they could fly. We also know LSD's dangers were often exaggerated by the government, and then the media. [continues 1807 words]
A trip into the medical marijuana demimonde smokes out America's confusion about drugs, pleasure and morality. Jan. 31, 2001 | SAN FRANCISCO -- To get pot, you can stand on 16th and Mission and wait for someone to approach you, and wonder if he's a cop, and wonder if he's going to rob you, and wonder if his pot is laced with strychnine. Or you can have a dull pain in your right ear. In a green box on the back page of the San Francisco Bay Guardian, Dr. R. Stephen Ellis advertises medical marijuana physician evaluations for just about anyone. The ad contains no explicit offers or promises, just a list of symptoms that presumably qualify one for legal pot: "Anorexia ... chronic pain ... arthritis ... migraine, or ANY other condition for which marijuana provides relief." This is from California Health & Safety Code 11362.5, implemented after California passed Proposition 215, also known as the Medical Marijuana/Compassionate Use Act, in 1996. [continues 3853 words]
To the editor: I disagree with Parker Barss Donham's article, Just Who Are the Victims? (April 2). Mr. Donham's opinion about the youths who were charged with trafficking in narcotics is that they are the victims of `Tanya,' the officer who spent two months at Dartmouth High School. He believes that "puffing the odd joint is a common and benign pastime ..." among many Canadians. This attitude is exactly what is causing problems with today's youth. Smoking marijuana may be a benign pastime in the large scheme of things, but it is illegal nonetheless. It is a rule that our society must obey. [continues 205 words]
