Has he taken drugs? No idea. But do you know where I could get some as a matter of urgency? So tedious are the attempts to needle David Cameron into coughing up to former substance use that I yearn to be heavily medicated each time the question arises, and, in order to speed the demise of this latest contribution to the alleged debate on narcotics, feel duty bound to remind inquisitors that God's own messenger, George Bush, was exposed earlier this year as a former marijuana user, and was still in a job last time anyone dared look. [continues 737 words]
This Is Your Society. This Is Your Society On An Endless, Losing Campaign Against Drugs. NOW DO YOU GET IT? Howard Woolridge is outside of Utica, N.Y., heading east on horseback on a beautiful late summer day. He's wearing a t-shirt with the slogan "Cops Say Legalize Drugs. Ask Me Why." For the last 3,000 miles, he's been switching off between his two horses, Misty and Sam. But the t-shirt slogan has stayed the same. [continues 6100 words]
Medicinal marijuana has very little to do with getting stoned, yet it is difficult to separate the issue from the broader push for legalization. But perhaps the strongest argument for marijuana reform is its potential benefit to medicine. Because few comprehensive studies have been done on marijuana's medical efficacy, what is known is largely anecdotal. This isn't to say one should be skeptical, however. On the contrary, testimonials to the virtue of cannabis as a pain reliever, anti-inflammatory and nausea queller are abundant enough that you'd think further studies would be a no-brainer. Unfortunately, they aren't. [continues 2274 words]
Can't Find My Way Home: America In The Great Stoned Age, 1945-2000, By Martin Torgoff Simon & Schuster; 545 pages The party was definitely over. It was 1989 when George Bush Sr. held up a bag of crack cocaine, seized "in a park just across the street" from the White House, and formally declared war on drugs. Thanks to a media obsessed with crack babies, most Americans soon agreed with their president: Drugs, and the underclass that dealt them, were the greatest threats facing the nation. [continues 791 words]
The announcement has been kind of lost among the few other calamities that are plaguing the United States right now, but on Aug. 29 President George W. Bush issued a proclamation stating that September is officially National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. This year's theme is "Join the Voices for Recovery: Healing Lives, Families and Communities." Being a former alcoholic, George Bush has personal knowledge of the difficulties surrounding dependence on alcohol. Although charges have been made, his drug history is as mysterious as his absence from his National Guard responsibilities, but that is neither here nor there. [continues 955 words]
Dear Editor: Re: Marc Emery and cross-border seed sales If he did it, Emery was right to mail marijuana seeds to the United States. It is drug laws all over the world that are wrong, and they must be challenged at every opportunity. If no one ever broke laws to get them changed, then women and people of colour would still have no rights whatsoever. Even if we don't use cannabis, we are morally obligated as citizens to break unjust laws, and all of the laws prohibiting cannabis are unjust. [continues 345 words]
Provision Rescinding Financial Packages Criticized for Affecting Only Non-Affluent One graduated from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, the other from Princeton University. Both used drugs including marijuana and hallucinogenic mushrooms. Both were caught. But where these students' paths diverge -- the first lost his financial aid package and was suspended, the second got a slap on the wrist and continued his studies uninterrupted -- demonstrates how a little-known 1998 federal law exacts serious consequences for some students but leaves others unscathed. [continues 1039 words]
To the editor: Re: "Marijuana's martyr," Aug. 14. Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the DEA out of Venezuela saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty-why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni B.C. [end]
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency out of Venezuela, saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty, why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bath water? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency out of Venezuela, saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty - why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
Re: Blame Canada for our prisoner of pot (in the Aug. 10 issue of The Times Review). Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency out of Venezuela, saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty, why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bath water? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
The Editor Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the DEA out of Venezuela saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can a "have a government that looks after their sovereignty, why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, recently kicked the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) out of Venezuela saying "The DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business." Rather, he says, it is part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs. It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bath water? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
Police Chief, However, Says Idea May Have Merit Lawrence's police chief thinks it could have "great merit." The mayor supports it, and so does the county's top prosecutor. But George Bush's White House says a proposal to take a streamlined approach to marijuana-possession crimes in Lawrence is a dangerous idea. Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesman for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in Washington, D.C., told the Journal-World on Thursday that marijuana was a "harmful drug" that should be strictly regulated. [continues 588 words]
RE Not An Outlaw Here (NOW, August 4-10). Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, recently kicked the Drug Enforcement Administration out of Venezuela, saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty, why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni, British Columbia [end]
Editor: Re: Blame Canada for our prisoner of pot (B.C. Views, Aug. 10). Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency out of Venezuela, saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty, why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela, recently kicked the Drug Enforcement Agency out of Venezuela saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty - why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? [end]
Re: "Canada needs to clarify wishy-washy pot law" (B.C. Views, Aug. 10). Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency out of Venezuela, saying "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty, why don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bath water? Chuck Beyer Port Alberni [end]
Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, recently kicked the DEA out of Venezuela saying, "the DEA's war on drugs has nothing to do with actually shutting down the business, but is rather part of a strategy of political intervention in Latin American affairs." It is clear that the DEA vendetta regarding Marc Emery is also a political intervention. If Venezuelans can have a government that looks after their sovereignty, don't we in Canada deserve the same? Why are we in Canada stuck with politicians who so much enjoy the flavour of George Bush's bathwater? Chuck Beyer, Port Alberni [end]
The office dictionary takes a pretty simple approach to define sovereignty: self-governing. While there may be no clear agreement on what exactly is entailed to be a sovereign, or self-governing state, it seems obvious to me that it should involve as much security and self-sufficiency as possible. Canadians are probably in agreement that defense is a great conundrum. We simply could never amass the resources to put up a serious defense against our American neighbors, not only the most heavily armed nation on the planet, but one of the great suppliers of arms to other countries including those that might be defined as enemies. [continues 637 words]
