Take a stand now!

[Brad]

I hope this isent agenst the rules here (im sure its not, else i wouldent have posted this...).

Warning: this is a long one.

If you guys are in USA (this is who the thread mostly applys to) youve probbly noticed the sworm of anti-cannabis ads on the air now a days, The DEA/goverment spent over 2 mill' to run one on suberbowl sunday. Not only are these ads wrong in most every way, they are tools to brainwash the general public into thinking cannabis is a hard drug and its effects can harm you. Dont belive me? here are some facts..

from erowid.org

Use of marijuana is relatively safe. There are no confirmed deaths caused by marijuana alone, although deaths can and do result from injuries sustained while intoxicated. When combined with alcohol, cannabis decreases driving ability and can contribute to traffic accidents.

Chronic smoking of marijuana can lead to respiratory ailments associated with smoke inhalation.

Medical Marijuana Use
Marijuana has many possible medical uses. Positive effects are claimed for ailments such as cancer, AIDS, and glaucoma. AIDS can cause a loss of appetite known as the "wasting syndrome" which can lead to drastic weight loss and weakness. Chemotherapy used in the treatment of cancer causes nausea resulting in an inability to keep down food. Marijuana's healing nature for these two illnesses is a result of it's ability to increase a person's appetite as well as relieving nausea allowing a patient to regain weight. Marijuana reportedly helps glaucoma patients by reducing occular pressure which can cause damage to the eye.

So why is the goverment fighting the use of cannabis so much?, for one the tobacco indurstys pour millons, if not billons into the war on drugs to keep cannabis from becoming legalized in america.

Recently new 'crack downs' on users have occured, the frist is operation pipe dreams/ operation headhunter. heres a news snip on the issue:

A federal grand jury in western Pennsylvania handed up indictments against 27 people as part of "Operation Pipe Dreams," an investigation stretching from Pittsburgh to Phoenix to Southern California, Attorney General John Ashcroft said.
Another nine people were charged in four grand jury indictments returned in Des Moines, Iowa, under "Operation Headhunter," which involved paraphernalia marketed nationwide by distributors in Michigan, California and Texas.

In all, 55 people were named in nearly three dozen indictments returned throughout the country.

Federal law makes it a crime to sell products mainly intended for the use of illegal drugs, including such things as bongs, marijuana pipes, "roach" clips, miniature spoons and scales. Those charged with selling and conspiring to sell such items face up to three years on prison and maximum fines of $250,000.

A search warrant in the Iowa case turned up more than $2 million in illegal paraphernalia, authorities said.

Ashcroft said the sale of drug paraphernalia has exploded on the Internet, making it easier for teenagers and young adults to buy it. The items often are disguised as such things as lipstick cases to escape detection and are marketed under code names and symbols.

"Quite simply, the illegal drug paraphernalia industry has invaded the homes of families across the country without their knowledge," Ashcroft said in a statement. "This illegal, billion-dollar industry will no longer be ignored by law enforcement."

The Internet sites go by such names as Smokelab.com, Aheadcase.com and puffpipes.com, according to the Justice Department.

The investigation was led by the Drug Enforcement Administration along with the U.S. Marshals, Secret Service, Customs Service and Postal Inspection Service.

"People selling drug paraphernalia are in essence no different than drug dealers," said John Brown, acting DEA chief. "They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide."

This has cost me my job, the local headshop that i work at was shutdown a few days ago. Yes its true, in the country thats supposed to be free and built for the people, glass, metal and plastic shaped certain ways is iilegal.

Locally ive been fighting this ban by taking my 'clean' pipe on walks and smoking baccy from it, ive been stoped by 3 LEO's thus far that have let me go cause honestly they dident have anything on me, tho one was a ******* and kept me detained for over a hour.

This may not apply to you if you are not a baccy/pot smoker, however this might:

Redirection Very Wrong...this is a serious issue..
I apologize for posting so much about this redirection issue on so many different lists, but it's very serious and ANY website, including this one could potentially be redirected at anytime on the whim of the U.S. government.

Thus I can't emphasize how important it is that everyone, and I mean everyone who truly values freedom of speech and expression to contact the ACLU and related organizations, political representatives, etc...point is spread the word!

Anyways, I'm really fed up, pun intended, and seriously thinking of redirecting DRUGABUSE.COM, which I own, to drcnet.org or perhaps to MAPInc.org or maybe various similar sites at random! Sad thing is that many folks rely on DRUGABUSE.COM for real drug abuse help and information, but if they want to play that game I will too - guarantee it will get the government's attention since they own drugabuse.gov...but many visitors end up at my drugabuse.com website instead

Venting here...don't think I'll really do that, but geez the idea the government would even think about redirecting websites belonging to others to websites that express a different viewpoint than that of the owners is very wrong; even more so when they have been convicted of NO crime.

Thats right, if your site is hosted within the USA the goverment can have your domain redirect to ANYWHERE for ANY REASON!.

I encourage everyone here who cares about freedom of speech and expression to contact the ACLU regarding this matter. DEA redirecting seized websites raises serious privacy issues.

http://www.aclu.org/

Its time to stop not caring about whats going on in your country and take a stand, protect the freedoms your forfathers fought and died for!. Please write your congressman and tell him/her what you think about these issues. This isent a war on drugs, this is a war on our freedoms. How can your goverment justify war agenst iraq when they are taking away your basic freedoms here at home!?. Some of you may not be able to vote right now, but in a few years you will, your option matters.

The bush administration managed to undue almost 230 years of progress in the American DEMOCRACY.

Technically you know you cant define America as a democracy anymore. Soviet America indeed...

[Brad]

If you live in a area of the UK where coffee shops support the local goverment, or you go to the shops alot, you need to read this:

Dutch Coffeeshops to close - UN pressure!

The UN is also putting pressure on the Dutch government, for allowing cannabis coffeeshops to operate, as always, but this time, with a conservative Minister of Justice in Holland, in an already fallen cabinet, the new government will comply with the UN criticism, by trying to close as many coffeeshops as they can, within the limitations of the Dutch National Coffeeshop Policy.

Minister Donner?s plans for the new governments stance on coffeeshops have already leaked out, he wants to close 400 of the 800 regulated coffeeshops in the Netherlands.

The same Minister Donner that said he would not close the coffeeshops under pressure of Sweden and France, is now about to bow for the demands of the UN, by shouting out loud he will close all coffeeshops he can. Donner also admits the coffeeshops policy is up to the individual Mayor of the City or Municipality, and not a matter of the government, they only set out some shady guidelines in 1976.

This means that he will have to rely on the Mayors, to get his will done, this will turn out a mayor problem for Donner, coffeeshops have been accepted as a part of society in the Municipalities they are located, without causing any problems. Coffeeshops are registered leisure companies, they can not be closed by Minister Donner, he could forbid the sales of cannabis from coffeeshops, but then, who will maintain his Law?

No matter how I feel about it, if the UN and Donner manage to make the Dutch cannabis policy collaps, it will have its impact on all developments on cannabis legislation in the world, we, the coffeeshops, will finally be held up as an example, of the success of prohibition.

All together, this look like a worldwide attack on cannabis and coffeeshops, initiated by the UN and the US, who seemed to have reached agreement over the world endangering cannabis issue! The War on Cannabis has started?where is CNN?

- issued by Nol van Schaik, cannabis coffeeshop owner in Holland, co-founder of the deceased Dutch Experience coffeeshop, Stockport, UK.

we need marjuanna coffe shops if the goverment would realize fi they actually sold it they would be out of debt in atleast 80 years

[Rose]

Out of debt in at least 80 years? I'd imagine if the government would legalize and somewhat regulate (much like alcohol is regulated), they'd be out of debt much sooner. Provided, that is, that they don't spend as fast as they make money. Politics is a bad game.

Thanks for the information, Anime Loo. My husband and I are planning a trip to Amsterdam within the next five years - I hope the Dutch will/can resist the ignorant pressure from the UN for a while.

[filburt1]

Either way there's a reason why it's illegal to absoutely everybody in the US regardless of age. Laws aren't made out of spite.

well i been taking a stand. "marijuana leads to harder drugs" - i been smokin for 2 years and havent even thought about trying anything harder. stupid goverment.

[Rose]

Originally Posted by filburt1

Either way there's a reason why it's illegal to absoutely everybody in the US regardless of age. Laws aren't made out of spite.

Aren't they, though? I still haven't heard a good, legitimate reason why marijuana is prohibited. Especially when compared with the real "gateway" drugs of tobacco or alcohol - it's kind of senseless. As the articles point out, marijuana has been proven to medically help people and cause very little "harm" in return (inhalation of smoke is quite obvious) - not to mention the fact that marijuana alone hasn't been recorded to ever cause a fatality.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by Rose

Aren't they, though? I still haven't heard a good, legitimate reason why marijuana is prohibited. Especially when compared with the real "gateway" drugs of tobacco or alcohol - it's kind of senseless. As the articles point out, marijuana has been proven to medically help people and cause very little "harm" in return (inhalation of smoke is quite obvious) - not to mention the fact that marijuana alone hasn't been recorded to ever cause a fatality.

And no one said you had to smoke it, brownies take away most any harm it can cause.

Either way there's a reason why it's illegal to absoutely everybody in the US regardless of age. Laws aren't made out of spite.

Acully i remember reading somewhere that it was outlawed because imergrants where smoking it on the job and would work longer hours, ill have to find the artical again but when i do ill post it.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by itch

well i been taking a stand. "marijuana leads to harder drugs" - i been smokin for 2 years and havent even thought about trying anything harder. stupid goverment.

Isn't marijuana a gateway drug? Doesn't it lead to use of harder drugs?
This is totally untrue. In fact, researchers are looking into using marijuana to help crack addicts to quit. There are 40 million people in this country (U.S.) who have smoked marijuana for a period of their lives -- why aren't there tens of millions of heroin users, then? In Amsterdam, both marijuana use and heroin use went *down* after marijuana was decriminalized -- even though there was a short rise in cannabis use right after decriminalization. Unlike addictive drugs, marijuana causes almost no tolerance. Some people even report a reverse tolerance. That is, the longer they have used the less marijuana they need to get `high.' So users of marijuana do not usually get bored and `look for something more powerful'. If anything, marijuana keeps people from doing harder drugs.
The idea that using marijuana will lead you to use heroin or speed is called the `gateway theory' or the `stepping stone hypothesis.' It has been a favorite trick of the anti-drug propaganda artists, because it casts marijuana as something insidious with hidden dangers and pitfalls. There have never been any real statistics to back this idea up, but somehow it was the single biggest thing which the newspapers yelled about during Reefer Madness II. (Perhaps this was because the CIA was looking for someone to blame for the increase in heroin use after Viet Nam.)

The gateway theory of drug use is no longer generally accepted by the medical community. Prohibitionists used to point at numbers which showed that a large percentage of the hard drug users `started with marijuana.' They had it backwards -- many hard drug users also use marijuana. There are two reasons for this. One is that marijuana can be used to `take the edge off' the effects of some hard drugs. The other is a recently discovered fact of adolescent psychology -- there is a personality type which uses drugs, basically because drugs are exciting and dangerous, a thrill.

On sociological grounds, another sort of gateway theory has been argued which claims that marijuana is the source of the drug subculture and leads to other drugs through that culture. By the same token this is untrue -- marijuana does not create the drug subculture, the drug subculture uses marijuana. There are many marijuana users who are not a part of the subculture.

This brings up another example of how marijuana legalization could actually reduce the use of illicit drugs. Even though there is no magical `stepping stone' effect, people who choose to buy marijuana often buy from dealers who deal in many different illegal drugs. This means that they have access to illegal drugs, and might decide to try them out. In this case it is the laws which lead to hard drug use. If marijuana were legal, the drug markets would be separated, and less people would start using the illegal drugs. Maybe this is why emergency room admissions for hard drugs have gone down in the states that decriminalized marijuana during the 70's

[Bad Bunny]

This is pretty interesting to find in this community. I feel I can address this however. I personally have never done marijuana. I have no real issue with the drug. I do drink from time to time, and have noticed that drinking is far more potentially dangerous.

Alcohol seems to be a far deadlier and dangerous drug than marijuana, but we know what happened when they tried to take america's second favorite drug away.

My personal stance is that for a long time we have seen the federal government trying harder and harder to regulate more and more apsects of our lives and take choices away from the individual. And we pay them to do it. Remember the Boston Tea Party? We still have no tax on tea to this day in the U.S. We are taxed for everything else though.
Seems we as americans have grown so content to just take whatever bones the government deems fit to throw us.

Anime-loo, I'm sorry to hear about your shop being closed down. I wish you luck, and I hope you don't grow weary of doing what you feel is right.