Posted on 03/14/2006 1:12:07 PM PST by Fair Go
North America correspondent Mark Simkin, goes north of the border to report on Canada’s biggest growth industry – dope.
He travels to the picturesque province of British Columbia, which is at the centre of the multi-billion dollar trade. Growers specialise in indoor operations, using private homes with powerful lights and carbon dioxide to make the plants grow faster and stronger. The result is some of the most powerful cannabis in the world, known as “BC Bud”.
Huge quantities of this powerful “BC Bud” are being smuggled into the US, and the Americans are putting pressure on the Canadian government to crack down on the easy going cannabis culture.
The US is trying to extradite Canada’s self-styled “Prince of Pot”, Marc Emery, who runs a huge marijuana media empire, built with funds from his former mail order seed business – with thousands of clients in Canada, the US and Australia. If the extradition succeeds, Emery faces 35 years in prison – for a crime the Canadian authorities refuse to prosecute.
Canada has a very relaxed attitude to marijuana. It’s not strictly legal, but the laws are very loosely enforced, and it’s easy to gain legal access to the drug with a doctor’s certificate. There are even special clubs where Canadians can go to buy, and smoke.
A senate report has just recommended that cannabis be legalised, and treated like alcohol, and pretty soon the government will be distributing its own crop of medical marijuana in pharmacies.
All of this is anathema to the US, which arrests far more people for marijuana offences than for any other drug. And US authorities are determined to use the “Prince of Pot” as an example, with a senior Drug Enforcement Agency official telling Simkin:
“Marc Emery managed a massive criminal enterprise making millions of millions of dollars at the expense of our communities and children here in the US … someone might think they’re safe in another part of the world and that no one’s ever going to get them, well they better think twice about that.”
The US prosecution of Emery has Canadians up in arms – they see the case as an example of a powerful neighbour trying to impose its moral code on a country that traditionally takes a more liberal attitude to a whole host of issues. “The United States to me operates not just like a bully but it’s also an abusive relationship,” one Canadian tells Simkin. But as Simkin reports – there’s a lot more than cannabis at stake for Canada, which is heavily reliant on American trade.
I'm just glad the war on drugs has been so succesful...
The "government" should keep our of people's private lives. But I guess that only applies to homosexuals. They are entitled to privacy, as are women killing their babies. But let someone want to smoke a little weed, and all of a sudden, the government knows best. Crazy world.
"In this country it is widely known that cannabis (alcohol) is not a harmless drug but the source of depression and various psychotic behaviour."
Pot can't come close to booze. No way, no how, not in this universe.
This whole anti pot thing is stupid.
So if alcohol were illegal, dealers would sell 190-proof.
If marijuana were legalized and regulated, we could go back to the soft stuff sold in the sixties. It might not be good for your lungs, but the effect on the brain would not be terribly strong. Kind of like 3.2 beer, if anyone remembers that.
But we do have some beer, liquor, wine, cigarettes, chewing tobacco, and prescription drugs for sale if they'd like.
Yuk,
I do remember.
How do you think us BC residents afford our housing prices... we need to sell something other than tourism... BC BUD is just another natural resource...
They are lax to enforce the laws because they aren't interested in arresting someone for having a joint, the police force is too small, and they have too much paperwork to do already...
I keep away from the lot.
That's how they started in America...Reefer Madness!
We experienced something similar here in the States several decades ago -- it made negro jazz musicians want to have sex with white women.
In my wife's lovely home town, Nelson,BC, you can't walk down many of the streets without smelling the herb and frequently observing the use.
People smoking pot affects everyone (medicinal marijuana is just a backdoor method for legalization). Homosexuality affects everyone. Abortion on demand affects everyone.
All should be illegal activities--as they once were. Abortion should be adjudicated as murder. Homosexuality perverts the mind toward violence against families.
Outlaw them all.
I agree that the government generally has no business regulating private property. I should be able to sell or rent my house or apartments to anyone I want, and exclude anyone I want.
The wrong kind of people are acquiring rights, and taking away the rights of folks like me.
You're right. Pot isn't in the same universe as liquor.
Ever pothead I ever met was a an addled moron--and didn't know it. I've known alcoholics that were quick witted and successful.
Alcohol can be used moderately, to accent life. Marijuana should not be used under any circumstances.
Different universe entirely.
"The wrong kind of people are acquiring rights, and taking away the rights of folks like me."
You are correct and there is nothing we can do about it.
Do they still ship seeds into the U.S. from Canada, as the WSJ reported some number of years ago? Just curious.
"it is widely known that cannabis is not a harmless drug but the source of depression and various psychotic behaviour. "
Widely BELIEVED by people with their heads in the sand.
Depression and psychosis are terms used to define states of mind
by the satanic psych community which disavows God.
And, these are the people, the oligarchy, which get to determine
what gifts from God which we are permitted to partake.
GOD MADE HERB
GOD SAW THAT IT WAS GOOD
GOD GAVE IT TO MAN
Genesis 1:11
Then God said, "Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and it was so.
Genesis 1:12
And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:29
And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.
You place your faith in the same folks that would have locked away any and all of the saints.
"Can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God?" --Thomas Jefferson: Notes on Virginia, 1782.
Psychotic behavior is generally associated with delusions and this country has created an institutionalized delusion of grandeur beyond comprehension. The government has crowned itself god as it puts itself over and above God.
How is an herb given by God to man and beast alike at the beginning of time and which has grown freely almost everywhere, including here long before our nation was formed, is permissibly eradicable or controllable by the federal government through powers granted by the interstate commerce clause of the Constitution? It is an impossible task to devise a logical explanation of how the commerce clause can prohibit the personal growth and consumption of an herb gifted by God. In light of the rest of the Constitution any such perceived mandate dissolves and exposes the government as deluded by its grandeur.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their
Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness."
Preamble: ...secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity...
Amendment V: nor shall (anyone) be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment IX: The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the PEOPLE.
Amendment X: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the PEOPLE.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof
Nowhere in the Constitution is it enumerated what one may put into ones body. Therefore, that right is reserved for the states or the people. However,
since God has already specified in the Bible what one may consume, it is, in fact, the People’s God given right.
There's no proof that even today's marijuana is harsh on the lungs. Smokers smoke weed infrequently as they would smoke tobacco cigarettes.
Now for some health basics:
Vegetables build
Fruits cleanse,
Herbs heal,
Grains sustain
Some herbs were, indeed, created to assist the body in healing. Garlic is a great natural antibiotic. Tobacco can be used for bee stings.
There are many poisonous plants that will kill the user. God did not create every plant for consumption--and he made none for mind alteration.
I don't know of any real medical use for marijuana.
Marijuana doens't kill immediately; it just blows the mind of the the user.
The Bible specifically sanctions the moderate use of alcohol--but condemns drunkenness. No true Christian can be a smoker of any kind. There is no scripture in the entire Bible that sanctions the use of smoke inhalents.
I can't believe I'm reading such support for Marijuana on the web site. Druggies are part of the problem in America--not the solution.
Most studies hold that the opposite is true. But, i am sure you are not interested in facts, since it doesn't fit your agenda!
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