Cannabis ‘is no worse than alcohol’
I don’t like alcohol and when my kids have gone to bed, after I’ve been at work all day, I don’t crack open a bottle of wine, I prefer to relax with cannabis.
I’m middle-aged, have worked all my life, I’ve two well-behaved and well-adjusted children, yet in the eyes of the law I’m a criminal.
It’s high time the politicians who make the laws, the judiciary who give out the sentences and the police who uphold the laws were regularly drug tested. I bet we would be surprised at the results, particularly in the House of Lords.
Thanks to the News & Star for giving two sides to the story.
If cannabis was legal you wouldn’t have to come in contact with other drug dealers and I truly believe if it were legal it would be less appealing to the young.
Lets face it, it is no more harmful than alcohol; if that was being reclassified there would be hell on.
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Ten questions with Claremont marijuana advocate
Since he opened a medical- marijuana dispensary in Claremont in September 2006 without City Hall’s permission, Chino resident Darrell Kruse has been in an ongoing legal fight with the city.The city successfully sued Kruse to force him to shut down, but Kruse says he intends to appeal the decision.
In a lengthy interview, Kruse discusses the court case, Claremont City Council’s recent decision to ban medical-marijuana dispensaries, and his activism for medical marijuana.
Question: How did you feel when you heard that the city had won its civil claim against you?
Answer: I was reminded of the foreward of Senate Bill 420 Section 1(a)(2): “Reports from across the state have revealed problems and uncertainties in the act that have impeded the ability of law-enforcement officers to enforce its provisions as the voters intended.” I worried about how much longer it will be before we have safe access to this medicine locally.
When and how can the promise of Prop. 215, the Compassionate Use Act, “to develop a plan for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need thereof” finally be fulfilled? Almost 12 years later, we are still waiting for compassion from local governments.
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Pro-cannabis protest held in peace, man
Police made no arrests at a pro-cannabis protest in Invercargill yesterday — despite a cannabis plant being in plain view and supporters openly smoking the drug.
A police officer at the scene, next to the Cenotaph in Dee St, read the Misuse of Drugs Act but after talking with the protesters did not act on it.
Protest co-ordinator Dakta Green said it was the group’s most heated exchange with police on its nationwide protest tour but was pleased it had not gone further. “It was a perfectly reasonable and responsible thing for the Invercargill police to do — this is a peaceful political protest and they did right to step back and withdraw.” There had been two arrests on the tour, in Palmerston North on Good Friday, for cannabis use.
Senior Sergeant Olaf Jensen, of Invercargill, said police didn’t undertake the search for operational reasons.
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Activists rally to legalize cannabis
As the weather warms, Prague finds itself swamped by masses of people and police. Fans going to a Sparta game Saturday, May 10, stopped traffic near Letná Park, and the next day trams and buses had to be diverted due to the annual Prague Marathon. But one of the largest recent crowds attended Prague’s 11th annual Global Marijuana March, which took place in 239 cities worldwide. Local activists met on Wenceslas Square May 10 with a clear message. “We want cannabis to be decriminalized, especially if it is only for personal use and medical purposes,” said speaker Bušhka Bryndová. Parliament is currently debating the issue, and lawmakers are reviewing a draft amendment to the Criminal Code that would allow citizens to grow a set number of plants at home and possess a certain limited amount of the drug, but would still impose a punishment if those limits are broken.
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People Protest in Response to Rachel Hoffman’s Death
The Rachel Hoffman case is moving people into action… that was demonstrated today at a march on the old Capitol in Tallahassee.
About hundred people showed up… some were friends of Hoffman’s protesting the way her death happened… while others were protesting drug laws.
A mixed bag of folks showed up to protest in front of the old Capitol in Tallahassee and then take a short march to the courthouse.
Some were there protesting how their friend Rachel Hoffman died… while trying to make a controlled purchase of drugs as a confidential informant for the police.
Protestor Allison Gendreau says, “The Tallahassee Police kind of put her in a bad position and we don’t really want to sit down and take it. We kind of want to show everybody that we’re mad that they messed up.”
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How Pot Became Demonized
For many modern critics, the concept of “medical marijuana” is a contradiction in terms. Medicine is standardized, synthetic, and pure; marijuana involves the unrefined and promiscuous coupling of more than four hundred components rooted in the dirt. Medicine — in its most powerful and privileged forms — rests in the hands of men, while the most potent form of marijuana is found in the female flowering plant. Medicine engages in heroic battles against death. Marijuana claims only to enhance the quality of life.
Medicine presents itself as an objective science safeguarded by the ritual of the double-blind, randomized clinical trial. The therapeutic value of marijuana relies largely on the “soft science” of subjective experience and anecdotal evidence. From the perspective of its critics, then, cannabis is an effeminate interloper in the masculine world of real medicine, a dangerous drug pushed on a credulous public by illegitimate quacks.
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Marijuana legalization: a personal statement from Canada’s ‘Prince of Pot’
They’ve saved the best (or at least the most controversial) for last.
The Libertarian Party of Canada announced today that Marc Emery will be speaking from 4:15 PM – 5:00 PM at the non-partisan Freedom Fair in Edmonton on Saturday, May 17th.
Marc Emery is a successful entrepreneur based in Vancouver, British Columbia. He’s also an outspoken libertarian, an activist for the legalization of cannabis and the bane of law enforcement in Canada and US. Emery, also known as the Prince of Pot, has earned millions over the years in his many pot-related ventures, including his website,
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Marijuana advocates mount campaign
Laws - Advocates of medicinal and recreational use of marijuana are promoting a Toronto university professor’s legal self-defence kit to help people avoid criminal convictions for a law they believe is unconstitutional.
Keith and Debbie Fagin took that message to the steps of the Calgary Courts Centre on Monday, handing out information on how to obtain and use the kits provided by Doug Hutchinson, a philosophy professor at the University of Toronto’s Trinity College.
“As long as it’s 30 grams or less, as long as it’s not broken up for sale,” said Keith Fagin, a member of Calgary 420, a group advocating personal and medicinal use of the illicit drug.
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Global Marijuana Day Demonstrations Meet Repression in Handful of Cities
Saturday was the first Saturday in May, which for more than 30 years has been marked by marches and demonstrations in support of marijuana legalization. Known alternately as the Million Marijuana March, International Marijuana Day, or the Global Marijuana March, this year’s commemoration saw marches or protests in more than 200 cities across the globe.
Most went over without problems or controversy, whether large or small, Some 10,000 people marched and toked in Toronto without significant problems, and thousands more celebrated in Mexico City’s Alameda Central. In New York City, hundreds of people braved soggy weather in the annual march. Even smaller protests, like those in Rapid City, South Dakota, and Raleigh, North Carolina, came off without a hitch.
But in a relative handful of locations, local authorities responded with repression against the exercise of free speech on marijuana law reform. In Brazil, marches in a number of cities were blocked by court orders; in Belgium, police arrested activists on questionable grounds; in Russia, authorities quashed demonstrations; and in Australia, heavy-handed law enforcement led to numerous arrests and the closing of landmark venues at Nimbin, but failed to dampen spirits.
Here are some reports from the Global Marijuana March trouble spots:
Brazil: According to reports compiled by StoptheDrugWar.org translator and Sao Paulo resident Martin Aranguri, judges in nine Brazilian cities — São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Cuiabá, Curitiba, João Pessoa, and Fortaleza — blocked planned marches as “apology” for the crime of drug use. In four other Brazilian cities — Vitória, Porto Alegre, Florianópolis, and Recife — marches went on as planned.
The Brazilian judges fell in line behind the arguments of officials like Sao Paulo prosecutor Marcelo Luiz Barone, who told CBN Radio, “If I encourage someone to use drugs, I am practicing a behavior as criminal as drug trafficking.”
Similarly, the Rio de Janeiro attorney general’s office argued that “the situation offered as a pacific political demonstration camouflages an action for the diffusion of drug use, which is a crime”.
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Pass the dutchie to Edward VII
A crowd of about 25 people stumbled onto the busy roundabout in front of Queen’s Park last weekend after emerging from the subway, cheering “Smoke weed” and ignoring the sounds of car horns blazing.
But the small traffic jam caused by this group was nothing compared to the estimated 15,000 to 20,000 cannabis supporters who gathered at Queen’s Park and marched through downtown at the 10th annual Global Marijuana March.
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