Bush targets marijuana smokers

The Observer ^ | July 25, 2004 | Richard Luscombe

[MadIvan]

New super-strength marijuana readily available on US streets is prompting the White House to change direction in its war against drugs.

Research from the government-sponsored Marijuana Potency Project claims today's cannabis is more than twice as strong as in the mid-Eighties, leading to greater health risks for those smoking it at increasingly younger ages.

Now President George Bush, who had already promised a more aggressive campaign against substance abuse, has ordered that resources be allocated to fighting so-called 'soft' drugs instead of concentrating on harder forms, such as heroin and cocaine.

'We are working hard on education, but unfortunately a lot of today's parents are under the impression marijuana is harmless and that their kids trying it is some kind of rite of passage,' said Jennifer de Vallance, of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

'They might have had experience in their own teenage years with no problems, but this is not the same marijuana as in the Sixties, Seventies and Eighties. Today's forms are much stronger and potentially more harmful, especially to young people whose brains are not fully developed and are therefore more susceptible to adverse reactions.'

The Marijuana Potency Project, at the University of Mississippi, analysed more than 30,000 samples seized over the past 18 years by the authorities. It found that the average level of the active ingredient in marijuana, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), jumped from 3.5 per cent in 1985 to more than 7 per cent in 2003.

Of more concern to the analysts is that the upward trend appears to be continuing. The average potency of 20 marijuana samples seized and tested so far this year exceeds 9 per cent, with a peak of 27 per cent in one batch from a state in the North West.

'Today's marijuana is a much more serious problem than the vast majority of Americans understands,' said John Walters, the government's director of drug control policy who has promised a clampdown on producers.

Those who support the legalisation of cannabis are not convinced. 'Whenever government officials speak about drugs issues, a more detailed examination of the facts is a good idea,' said David Borden, executive director of the Washington-based Drug Reform Coordination Network.

'These projects are always government-funded and, without criticising the researchers, officials take what they want from it and send out their press releases. There has always been a wide range of potencies. It doesn't mean people are getting more intoxicated, because the higher the potency, the less they smoke.'

Figures suggest overall drug use in America's high schools has fallen by 11 per cent in two years but the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse reports the number of children and teenagers receiving treatment for marijuana abuse jumped 142 per cent over the last decade, and that emergency hospital admissions of 12 to 17-year-olds in which marijuana was implicated rose 48 per cent in four years.

Borden acknowledges children must be steered away from drugs, but says: 'Their anti-drugs efforts have had a paradoxical effect in promoting the underground cultivation of marijuana. The number of users makes it an appealing target and there is no limit to the number of arrests that can be made, and the government uses those numbers to scare the public into thinking there is some big problem.

'All the government has been able to do is encourage people to experiment with stronger drugs than they would have before.'

[cinFLA]

What's this I hear about you and thongs?

Quit trying to hijack the thread.

[PaxMacian]

Hebrew has many words describing various degrees of killing.
So too, does it have many words for different forms of death.
Moreover, you disregard all dietary laws defining what meats
may and may not be eaten. There are even several types of locusts
which are kosher, i.e. manna from heaven. Again, please refrain from
posting nonsense and attacks. Stick to the topic and stop trying
to bury the meat of the debate with your mental refuse.

[cinFLA]

Hebrew has many words describing various degrees of killing. So too, does it have many words for different forms of death.

Oh. "Thou shalt not kill" >>> "Thou shald not die"

[PaxMacian]

Proverbs:6-16-19
16   These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:
17   A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18   An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,
19   A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

[cinFLA]

hands that shed innocent blood,

Thank you for your Biblical reference as to why we should be vegetarians.

[headsonpikes]

Ephesians VI v.10-20.

The truth is enough to win through.

[avenir]

"... stealing their property and imprisoning them for the possession of a flower gifted from the Garden of God?"

You still haven't dealt with the Fall of man and its effect on creation. After Adam and Eve sinned, many things that were once good became tainted and contorted by the sin nature. I don't claim to be able to sort that problem out, but your pre-Fall reverie of flowers and herbs is misleading.

[PaxMacian]

I think post 150 covers that well.
Romans 14, as I spelled out for you,
should be enough granted that the
complex dietary laws of the Bible
do not prohibit it.

Others have written about the following word.
I am still researching the possibility that
it is the herb we are speaking about. Most
dictionaries have the root word for cannabis as
having come from the Greek unchanged. The three
occurences of "Qaneh" translated as "calamus" are of
particular import because they all point to the
nature of the plant, Qaneh, relating to aromatic herbs.
In addition, amongst the definitions for Qaneh
there are many subcultural slang words for herb or the rolled
smokable version of it. Perhaps that is merely recent.
But, then who knows maybe they are as ancient as the
shiploads of it found at the bottom of the mediterranean or
the bags of it found in the burial mounds of the first
horse riders. Anyway, food for thought...

Qaneh (kaw-neh'); Reed, Strong #: 7070

1. reed, stalk, bone, balances
a. stalk
b. water-plant, reed
c. calamus (aromatic reed)
d. derived meanings
1. measuring-rod
2. reed (as unit of measure - 6 cubits)
3. beam (of scales - for scales themselves)
4. shaft (of lampstand)
5. branches (of lampstand)
6. shoulder-joint

KJV Word Usage and Count
reed 28
branch 24
calamus 3
cane 2
stalk 2
balance 1
bone 1
spearmen 1

[The Libertarian Dude]

Well, that was the only time I saw that quote, and Insight did NOT say the word "medical".

Is Insight magazine on Soros' buy-off list?

[xrp]

Do you eat the hemp seed?

[robertpaulsen]

"Is Insight magazine on Soros' buy-off list?"

If it wasn't before, it should be now.

I'd say the absence of the adjective "medical" was a serious ommission, wouldn't you?

[robertpaulsen]

omission. It's getting late.

[The Libertarian Dude]

Wow, robert... you live in a world where, eventually, EVERYONE will be on the Soros take.

Is Rush Limbaugh next? Michael Savage? Did Ann Coulter write inflamatory columns for USA Today just to get fired, so as to please her real boss, Mr. Soros?

Good God, be serious. Insight magazine is in no way even close to being a liberal rag. If you've ever read it, you'd know that. I used to read it every week, and still pick one up on occasion, and have yet to find anything in it that praises communism or a statist-run America.

[The Libertarian Dude]

If he/she did eat hemp seeds, it would be freaking out over it... "Oh my God ohmygodohmygod I ATE DRUGS!!!"

heh.

[PaxMacian]

Leviticus 11
Le 11:1 And the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying:
Le 11:2 Say to the children of Israel: These are the animals which you are to eat of all the living things of the earth.
Le 11:3 Whatsoever hath the hoof divided, and cheweth the cud among the beasts, you shall eat.
Le 11:4 But whatsoever cheweth indeed the cud, and hath a hoof, but divideth it not, as the camel, and others, that you shall not eat, but shall reckon it among the unclean...

[Critter]

I haven't smoked weed in 25 years, but when I was a kid, I smoked more than my fair share.

NYS had the toughest drug laws in the country... mandatory life behind bars for possession of an ounce or more of weed.

This law did nothing to deter me or any of the dozens of friends of mine from doing what we wanted to do. Would this country (or I) be better off if I was serving life in jail right now?

The simple truth is that no law is going to prevent kids from smoking pot. You have to decide if you want to fill jails with pot smoking teenagers and finish the job of ruining their lives that they themselves began, or let the problem run it's course and maybe they'll pull their heads out of their asses before it's too late, like I did.

[Dinsdale]

People who know can tell you there were varieties in the seventies that haven't been surpassed today - period.

My 'reliable' source tells me the best he can currently find is slightly better then the stuff he smoked in Vietnam. Given the years between I take the comparison with a grain of salt.

[cinFLA]

Isaiah 11
1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:
2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:
4 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth: with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.
5 And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

[cinFLA]

Of course, after God wiped out all the plants in the flood, they were forced to eat the animals in Genesis. However, in Isaiah he put restrictions on the type of meats allowe.

I hope you don't like pork chops or ribs ...

Or shrimp and lobster.

[cinFLA]

The simple truth is that no law is going to prevent kids from smoking pot crack . You have to decide if you want to fill jails with pot smoking crack teenagers and finish the job of ruining their lives that they themselves began, or let the problem run it's course and maybe they'll pull their heads out of their asses before it's too late, like I did.