Too quick, many of the provinces say. There just isn't time to put in place a way to distribute legalized marijuana, and all the rules and schemes needed. Oh no, the police say, the timelines are tight, and they're worried that they won't be ready for policing in the brave new world of legal pot. Okay folks, let's stop talking like slackers. This doesn't have to drag on for years. The legalization of marijuana has been debated in Canadian politics since the 1970s and studied by task forces and committees for decades. It has been official government policy for two years. There are still 10 months before it is slated to be legal in July. Sure, there are significant details to work out - but this is not Mission: Impossible. [continues 620 words]
In Jennifer O'Brien's article Half of voters say tear up pot rap sheets, poll finds, Paul Whitehead seems to get lit up about pardoning marijuana possession convictions carte blanche. He needs to come off his high horse thinking that all possessions convictions will be systematically pardoned. I will agree that the situation he poses is quite hazy and not all possession charges are the same. The article is very blunt in addressing his concern, stating that those charged with possession might be able to apply for pardon. [continues 68 words]
Maybe our friends in the state Legislature are tired of being ridiculed. Maybe they're tired of being mocked for their work habits, the fact that nothing ever seems to get done in Harrisburg, or the partisan bickering that seems to gum up everything in the state Capitol. This week they took serious actions to provide relief to groups that have been calling out for help for years. On Thursday the House joined the Senate in passing a measure that would make Pennsylvania the 24th state in the nation to allow use of medical marijuana. [continues 670 words]
There is a wise old adage which reads, "Be careful what you wish for, you may just get it." That message certainly applies to the proposed initiatives on the ballot later this year to legalize the use of recreational marijuana in California. Voters in California passed Proposition 215 almost 20 years ago, and only recently has this state established a viable method for making this product available for those who have a legitimate medical need. Recreational use, however, is an entirely different matter. [continues 586 words]
Is the Zonker community inclined to overindulge in the product it champions - namely, marijuana? Seems so. That could explain the yawning gaps in Zonker logic - the apparent burnt spots in the medial temporal lobes from the pothead community's misfiring synapses. The Zonker community takes its name from Zonker Harris, the cannabis-addled character in the Doonesbury comic strip. Talking up marijuana, Zonker's namesakes illogically say that since alcohol is legal, marijuana should be too. Alcohol fuels crime, domestic abuse, deteriorating health, bankruptcy and highway carnage, to name just a few. So, heck, why not legalize marijuana along with it? [continues 1278 words]
A day after Winnipeg police told him to shut down, the owner of the city's first medical marijuana dispensary says he wants to meet with the mayor. But Glenn Price vows he will keep doing what he says is the right thing, dishing out prescription marijuana to Winnipeggers in need, no matter what legal repercussions may be in store for him. Price said police came to his Your Medical Cannabis Headquarters shop on Main Street on Tuesday and forced him to shut down his operation, which he said provides services to more than 225 patients. [continues 352 words]
THE Harper government is quickly becoming its own satire of the mouldy propaganda that portrayed marijuana as the road to mental illness, crime and unemployment. Health Minister Rona Ambrose, for example, said last week she was shocked and "outraged" after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled medical-marijuana users can consume the product in a variety of ways, not just through smoking. Of course it was ridiculous for the government to take this matter all the way to the top court when common sense made the answer obvious. Why, for God's sake, would the state insist on smoking only, when less harmful methods, such as baked goods and other products, are available? [continues 512 words]
Glass Bong Maker Doesn't Have to Disguise the Purpose of His Functional Art Anymore For Jared Betty, the glass pipe has gone from being half empty to half full. Recreational pot in Washington has been a boon for the glass artist specializing in pipes. "The terminology before the legalization was you couldn't say 'bong,'" said Betty, 38, owner of J-Red Glass. "All my pipes had to be labeled 'For Tobacco Use Only.' And I could only sell under the tobacco use only category or I faced criminal charges for selling marijuana paraphernalia. Now I can say it because that is what it's for anyway." [continues 725 words]
Businesses Say Government Guidance Has Made Things Worse DENVER--Two months after the U.S. government tried to smooth the way for sellers of legalized marijuana to get banking services, many pot entrepreneurs still can't open a basic checking account. The Treasury Department and Justice Department in February issued guidance that was meant to reassure banks that they wouldn't run afoul of federal law--under which marijuana remains illegal--by working with pot businesses in states that have legalized the drug. [continues 782 words]
IT'S LOOKING less and less like a bill regulating small amounts of marijuana will be going up in smoke. City Council's Committee on Law and Government passed a bill yesterday that could end mandatory custodial arrests for possession of a small amount of pot. The subject has garnered interest from people who say Philadelphia wastes countless hours arresting and processing smalltime offenders when the city's law enforcers have bigger fish to fry. Aaron Fleming, a Temple University student, testified before the committee that he was held for more than 14 hours for a first-time offense of marijuana possession after being stopped on campus by police. [continues 248 words]
Justice minister considering the option of tickets for marijuana possession OTTAWA- The Conservative government is seriously considering looser marijuana laws that would allow police to ticket anyone caught with small amounts of pot instead of laying charges, Justice Minister Peter MacKay said Wednesday. "We're not talking about decriminalization or legalization," MacKay said prior to the weekly Conservative caucus meeting on Parliament Hill. "The Criminal Code would still be available to police, but we would look at options that would . . . allow police to ticket those types of offences." [continues 168 words]
Law enforcement around the country report that illegal marijuana growers are turning to solar panels to power indoor lights. New Mexico state police recently busted a marijuana operation around the Four Corners region that used solar panels to pump water, according to the Associated Press, and authorities in California have stepped up enforcement against solar panel thefts from vineyards that they believe were headed to illegal growers. On the North Coast, however, authorities say that solar-powered pot grows wouldn't make sense. [continues 1029 words]
It Would Be Wrong to Characterize a Legalization Movement As Being Led by 'Stoners.' After his state became one of two where marijuana legalization was approved by voters last week, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper warned that "federal law still says marijuana is an illegal drug, so don't break out the Cheetos or Goldfish too quickly." Hickenlooper's allusion to marijuana-induced munchies was amusing, but it had a sly, sinister subtext - namely, that the measure was brought about by nothing more than a ragtag army of stoners who just want the government to let them get high. Would Hickenlooper, a Democrat and Main Line native who opposed the initiative, have us believe that more than half of Colorado's electorate consists of inveterate potheads in the mold of Cheech and Chong? [continues 302 words]
It was news Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson was not expecting. One year earlier, in September, 2012, he had supported a resolution at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Victoria calling on the federal government to study the decriminalization, regulation, and taxation of marijuana. He did not expect it to go anywhere. He had, in the past, also supported resolutions calling on the federal government to provide financing for transit and social housing, and to reverse its decision on the Kitsilano Coast Guard station. All of those had met with stony silence. He had learned not to hold his breath. [continues 721 words]
A few thousand federal Liberals gathered in Ottawa over the weekend to gossip about leadership and try to come up with some innovative new policy ideas that might seize the public's imagination. None of their ideas was very innovative or even particularly new, but nonetheless, most of them were voted down. No republicanism here, thank you very much. One of the few ideas that did get the green light was the legalization of marijuana. This newspaper has repeatedly argued that prohibition is a hugely expensive, utterly failed policy. We're joined in this by such diverse voices as the Fraser Institute, The Economist, Time Magazine, former secretaries general of NATO and the UN, and our own Sen. Larry Campbell, among many, many others. [continues 147 words]
How many of your friends or colleagues at work like to "sneak out for a toke" during the day? At lunch or during a coffee break? Or friends who come over to watch a movie and always slip outside for a "tug on the pipe." Like many other people, I used to believe that grass isn't addictive. After observing the behaviour of some of my friends, I've changed my mind. Of course, my pot-smoking friends deny they are hooked on the weed. After all, they never miss work because they are too hungover. They don't go into withdrawal or even the mild shakes if they are deprived of their drug of choice. [continues 533 words]
Coincidental with word that a British Columbia seed company has won second place at the annual High Times Cannabis Cup in the Netherlands, comes news of a speech delivered by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Vancouver defending Canada's get-tough laws against the use of that drug. The two countries could hardly have different approaches to how to deal with the problem of drugs. Both agree that drug use is a definite problem, just as the abuse of alcohol and tobacco is a problem. In Holland, however, the sale and use of marijuana and hashish are controlled and regulated -- one does not need to go to the Mob to buy, for example, Hydra, the hashish that was crossbred between the strains Warlock and Haoma and brought the silver medal to Canada this week. [continues 299 words]
Critics Smoking Mad at Notion of Giving Addicts Crack Pipe Kits Critics are deriding an Alberta Health Services outreach program that sees crack pipes distributed to the city's addicts. Run by the AHS Safeworks Van since November 2008, the program sees four-part kits -- made up of a pipe, mouthpiece, screens and cleaning rod -- given to users along with education and health care services. "I'm against it," said Art Sheeler, a longtime community activist in Forest Lawn. "You're not going to help (addicts) by giving them stuff to have their drugs with. [continues 466 words]
The drumbeat for legalizing or decriminalizing drugs grows louder by the day. Recent headlines in the Gazette proclaim: "Panel: Drug war failed; explore legalization" (June 2), "Cash spent in drug war called wasted" (June 9), "More reasons to end the drug war" (June 10). The latter, an editorial by the Orange County Register, cites the conclusions of several world leaders (whose wisdom or political agendas are not universally accepted) and the widely trumpeted results of Portugal's 2001 drug decriminalization. Readers should be wary of swallowing whole the opinions of the nabobs mentioned in the Register piece or assuming that the results of the Portuguese experiment would be duplicated in the huge and diverse United States: Tiny Portugal has a homogeneous population of about 10.7 million. [continues 270 words]
CHICAGO -- In about a dozen states, you can smoke a joint if you have cancer or HIV and meet certain conditions, like having a doctor's note. In California, you can light up if you have just about anything -- headaches, anxiety, epilepsy -- and a physician's okay. Illinois could join these states as legislators consider a bill that would allow patients to use marijuana as medicine so long as they have one of 14 conditions and illnesses, from cancer to Crohn's Disease. [continues 1323 words]
Despite Push to Legalize, Little Known About Pot's Potential Few Studies Have Been Done That Show the Effects -- Positive or Negative -- of Using Marijuana to Treat Diseases and Symptoms In about a dozen states, you can smoke a joint if you have cancer or HIV and meet certain conditions, like having a doctor's note. In California, you can light up if you have just about anything -- headaches, anxiety, epilepsy -- and a physician's OK. Illinois could join these states as legislators consider a bill that would allow patients to use marijuana as medicine as long as they have one of 14 conditions and illnesses, including cancer and Crohn's disease. [continues 1323 words]
Word that a California voter initiative to legalize marijuana for recreational use has qualified for the November ballot had people taking a deep breath Wednesday, even people who had never inhaled before. "Terrible!" Bill Spiegel, a 77-year-old grandfather who lives in Woodland Hills, said after hearing the news at a local shopping center. "I think it's foolish," Spiegel said. "I think it's sickening. We have too many problems ... as it is." But the initiative to legalize pot - and potentially tax it - sounded OK to Andrea Cobby, a 41-year-old stay-at-home mother of two from Tarzana. [continues 676 words]
Claims Pot Activist And Former Mayoral Candidate Owes $52,000 Tim Felger, Abbotsford's self-proclaimed pot activist and a perpetual local candidate in elections at all levels, has been ordered to leave the Essendene Avenue commercial site he's occupied for about four years. Dan Banov, the owner of the property at 33772 Essendene Ave. in Abbotsford, says Felger owes him $52,750 in back rent as of October 1, 2009. On Jan. 25, under the Commercial Tenancy Act and the Business Corporations Act, Justice Erik Verhoeven ordered Felger to vacate the premises and hand it over yesterday to APIP Holdings Ltd., which is Banov's company. [continues 532 words]
Steve Fox is high on a mission. The Marblehead native is Director of State Campaigns for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. the nation's largest marijuana reform organization. He has just co-authored a book entitled "Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?" The provocative work was written with Paul Armentano of NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, a nonprofit lobbying organization working to legalize marijuana), and Mason Tvert of SAFER (Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, a Colorado-based organization that maintains marijuana is less harmful than alcohol). [continues 1118 words]
A lot of commentary in recent months has focused on how California has gone to pot. I think that may be a somewhat extreme view. But it's trying -- lord, is it trying. And by the time all the smoke clears, the state may be in the marijuana-growing and -selling business, with official tax assessments on every stem and brownie sold in these parts. Yet, one of the main reasons the marijuana express is chugging from city halls to the statehouse is because it seems like an easy solution to grab money from the green stuff, and right now the state is woefully short on easy solutions. [continues 720 words]
My friend from the "old neighborhood" sent me an e-mail with an attachment. I detest attachments. My aging computer chokes and gags on them, so I'm a little gun shy. I was hesitant, but I opened the darn thing. It was a pitch from my friend Bill to legalize marijuana. Why, Bill, you old "head," and of course I'll bong-bond with you (dream on) and watch your Mets games, reminding you that the '62 team was the worst ever, eat M&Ms by the bushel and drive home at 5 miles an hour with a buzz looking for the nearest White Castle and a bag of grease-bomb burgers. Got the munchies, man. [continues 731 words]
Imagine walking into a coffee shop, corner market or any grocery store with a state-approved cannabis licenseand buying a joint or an ounce of pot, plus tax. Or imagine growing marijuana in a fenced backyard without fear of arrest. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's surprise call last week to debate legalizing adult use of marijuana in California has drawn international attention, shifting the prospect of such a change from the fringe to the forefront. Advocates of legalization, including state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano of San Francisco, whose legislation caught the governor's attention, have created a concept for a system of regulation and taxation that would make the state's marijuana laws among the most liberal in the world. [continues 701 words]
When Charles Lynch asked for permission to sell an herbal medicine in Morro Bay, Calif., local officials gave it to him, although the medicine was marijuana. That's because marijuana recommended by a doctor has been legal in California since 1996. A dozen other states have passed similar laws. So Lynch applied for a business license, joined the Chamber of Commerce, talked to lawyers and even called the Drug Enforcement Administration before opening his medical marijuana dispensary. Unfortunately for Lynch, none of this prevented him from being arrested in March 2007, when federal authorities raided his home and small business. [continues 274 words]
Crack cocaine addicts typically lie, cheat, steal and commit other crimes of violence in pursuit of the money required to sustain their addiction. They also typically turn into psychotics, suffering from severe depression and the phenomenon, well known to police, dubbed "excited delirium." To say that crack addicts are a financial burden and a menace to the community is to state the obvious. A great thrust of public policy, we think, should be a vigorous prevention campaign exposing crack cocaine for the evil it is. [continues 324 words]
The "Most Famous Narc" And The "Most Famous Pothead" Faced Off Marijuana offers users a chance to have great food, great sleep and the best sex of your life, according to the editor in chief of High Times magazine, Steven Hager. But former drug enforcement agent Bob Stutman thinks differently. "The primary reason that most people in favor of marijuana use give has nothing to do with counterculture, hemp or medicine," he said. "You know what it is? 'It's my recreational drug of choice and I want to be able to use it when I want to be able to use it.'" [continues 681 words]
A recent Government Accountability Office report on drug interdiction in Mexico is so bleak you have to wonder, what's the point? From 2000 to 2005, the GAO says, the amount of marijuana flowing into the United States from Mexico increased 44 percent. Cocaine shipments to the United States increased 64 percent. Heroin production for U.S. consumption nearly doubled. The National Drug Intelligence Center estimates that the total value of the illegal drug trade between Mexico and the United States at between $8 billion and $23 billion. [continues 543 words]
I've served as South Dakota Elks' Drug Awareness chairman for 25 years. It's been my responsibility to make Elks lodges and communities more aware of the dangers involved in using illegal drugs. I'm against any kind of legalization of marijuana. I've seen how devastating the use of this drug can be. Should marijuana be made legal for medicinal use? I could write a considerable amount on why this is a bad idea. In the states that have such laws, five plants have been allowed to be grown in the homes of those who've received a prescription. One marijuana plant produces approximately one pound of useable marijuana, which equals approximately 1,176 marijuana cigarettes. [continues 65 words]
DURHAM - A coalition of Durham residents is fighting drug use in their neighborhoods by pressuring convenience store owners to stop selling crack pipes thinly veiled as novelty gifts. Marketed as a "Rose in a Glass" or "Love Roses," the product is a 4-inch-long glass tube with a tiny fake flower stuffed inside. Blow out the flower and the tempered glass tube, called a "stem" on the street, is perfect for smoking rocks of crack cocaine. Over the past week, members of Operation Pipe Dreams have visited 31 stores in Durham -- covertly buying the tubes and then giving those behind the counter a letter asking them to stop selling the item. If they refuse, the letter promises the group will pressure public officials to suspend the shop's license to sell beer and wine. It is illegal in North Carolina to sell drug paraphernalia. [continues 573 words]
ST. LOUIS (AP) - Members of a family say they were growing hemp, not marijuana, on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and asked federal appeals judges Monday to return the matter to a lower court to consider the legality of their crop. The White Plume family tried three times to grow an industrial hemp crop on Oglala Sioux reservation land from 2000 to 2002, only to have the plants seized and destroyed by the federal government. The family was later ordered by a judge to halt the plantings permanently. [continues 304 words]
I think it is appalling the people who are supposed to be helping a user become free from the constraints of the drug, are saying, "Here's a fresh clean pipe! Get high!" Do you actually think that a user is not going to share a pipe? Come on, get a grip! If they have no pipe but have the crack, users are going to give their pipe to the user with the crack for a hit! So to say it is helping stop the spread of disease is bunk. You're just sparing them having to make their own pipe to use. Donia Krowchynski Halifax [end]
When the Supreme Court ruled in June that states could not legalize marijuana for medical uses, Justice Stephen Breyer voted with the majority. But during oral arguments, he suggested an alternative way for patients to get it: let the federal Food and Drug Administration decide if marijuana should be a prescription drug. "Medicine by regulation is better than medicine by referendum," he said. In theory, that sounds reasonable. But what if the officials doing the regulation are afflicted with a bad case of Reefer Madness? [continues 699 words]
It's like trying to put out a fire with gasoline. With all apologies to David Bowie, there is no other way to describe Canada's backwards approach to treating drug addiction. Instead of helping addicts kick the habit, we seem content to condone hard drug use by offering free crack pipes, establishing safe-injection sites and, in one case, even handing out taxpayer-funded heroin to junkies. The latest example of the retreat on the war on drugs comes courtesy the city of Ottawa. [continues 519 words]
Clearing Laos' hills of poppies has created major social and health problems for traditional farmers The Lao government's headlong rush towards its 2005 deadline for total opium eradication is hailed by drug control agencies as a remarkable success. But many Lao people have little cause to celebrate. International NGOs and development specialists have issued warnings about the looming humanitarian disaster inflicted on hilltribes people, cajoled and coerced to abandon their traditional opium livelihoods without any alternatives in place. The cold statistics of the Laos Opium Survey 2004 and the triumphalist comments of Antonio Maria Costa, director of the United Nations Office of Drug and Crime, or Undoc, about the end of opium in the Golden Triangle, ignores the human costs and suffering for the Hmong, Akha and other hilltribes ravaged by disease in resettlement zones. [continues 864 words]
To the editor: I'm not quite sure if Mayor Campbell is aware, but we already have a crack room-it's called the corner of Jackson and Cordova, aka "Crackton" ("Mayor says legal crack smoking room is no pipe dream," Aug. 29). Public crack smoking is commonplace and out of control in the surrounding blocks of that intersection. It is a problem that many local residents endure in this neighbourhood. People smoke crack everywhere. In my neighbourhood, people walk down the street and put a rock in their pipe and smoke it, just as a person might stop on the boulevard and light a cigarette in most other neighbourhoods. You only have to drive down Cordova from Main Street to see this. [continues 103 words]
Despite opposition from the Vancouver Police Department, Mayor Larry Campbell supports opening a room inside the city's legal injection site for addicts to smoke rock cocaine. Campbell told the Courier Wednesday he will speak to Health Canada next month about getting the appropriate exemption to open a safe inhalation room. "I'm completely for it," said Campbell, who is chair of the police board. "We've already got the room there, it's set up, how much more does it take?" [continues 746 words]
Decision time looms: At what point do we, as a community, get involved to try, once and for all, to wipe out drugs in our children's schools? Two more kids found themselves in trouble last week for possession of marijuana, this time at LaRue County High School. Their arrests came less than a month after five Elizabethtown High pupils were brought up on similar charges. Again, when does the community step in? Sam Sanders, LaRue County's superintendent, this week called on parents, school officials and community leaders to collaborate on solving any drug problem. The message that needs to be sent: Illegal drugs have no place in society, especially in schools. [continues 255 words]
Kid's Book Part Of Effort To Help Start Medicinal Pot Club A Group of Ottawa medicinal pot users is working to establish a Compassion Club by the summer to help people with medical conditions access good, clean cannabis. "We want the community to know that what we want to set up is not some little hash club. It's something to help the community where Health Canada has failed," said Russell Barth, a federal medical marijuana licence holder, who is spearheading a group trying to establish the club. [continues 342 words]
Online gambling pioneer Warren Eugene is rolling the dice again. This time the founder of Internet Casinos plans to establish the world's first publicly traded marijuana company. Eugene said he plans to list Medical Cannabis Inc. on the Toronto TSX Venture Exchange and on Nasdaq. "The stock can go sky-high," said Eugene. The company views the current prohibition of marijuana as similar to that of alcohol and tobacco. If (liquor baron) Sam Bronfman were alive today, he might very well be lobbying the government for bonded cannabis warehouses. [continues 1120 words]
There is so much confusion regarding the state of marijuana laws that the police are taking advantage of stoner stupidity to bust the legally naive who happen to smoke up in public. A fine example is my friend Indiana Indica, who proclaimed to an investigating officer, "No stem. No seed. What I got here is just pure weed." Sadly, old Indiana had more than the police-tolerable level of marijuana on him. He was dragged away screaming, "It's legal! It's legal!" [continues 478 words]
If Ottawa thinks the fight for medicinal marijuana is over, then there's a lot more grass being grown on the Hill than any of us ever knew. It's been another century since federal officials promised the sick and the pained of this country a safe, secure and professional source of prescription pot. This is not an issue of recreational drug use -- no more than your grandfather's heart medication. It's about a fair shake for the sick, who've found relief in marijuana. Last week, Ottawa delivered the first, very limited shipment of legally approved medicinal marijuana to an HIV-infected Toronto man. [continues 635 words]
Concerns Raised Over the Feds' Crackdown on Drug Paraphernalia Jay O'Mally just wanted to take home a few souvenirs from his Puerto Vallarta getaway last February. Lazy strolls along the sandy beaches led to a few finds, including a hammock chair, a good bottle of tequila and four custom-made pipes. But O'Mally was never able to add the unique pipes to his collection at home. Instead, U.S. Customs raised its eyebrows at the "suspicious" souvenirs he brought through Mitchell International Airport later that week. He says officials were quick to label the knickknacks as contraband and demanded that he "voluntarily abandon" them. Failure to comply would result in a lengthy, and costly, series of proceedings. [continues 742 words]
Decriminalize pot, the PM pronounces. Sweet. Well, not exactly sweet. In fact, not near sweet. More like a half-step on the road to sweet. "At least people won't be getting criminal records, they won't be locking up our sons and daughters for a plant no different than the Alberta Wild Rose," decides a determined Dave, watching our fearless federal fool on the tube. "This shows our party is the one showing leadership. I wouldn't be surprised if the government is going to the websites of the marijuana parties for ideas." [continues 606 words]
The nationwide "Say No To Drugs" campaign is apparently nothing more than a public relations exercise regarding the issue of internationally organized drug trafficking, as the crime rate continues to increase. Figures compiled by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) show a total of 958 drug cases in 1998, which increased to 1,833 in 1999. The numbers soared to 3,478 in 2000 and 3,617 in 2001. Last year, there were 3,985 cases. Despite severe punishment for drug abuse and drug-related crimes, stipulated in Law No. 22/1997 on narcotics, which carries as a maximum penalty the death sentence, many involved in drug-related crimes still roam free in neighborhoods, even in schools. [continues 378 words]
Oh my, how this story illustrates the law stood upon its head, thanks to the insanity of drug-warring federal officers. Assistant U.S. Attorney Monte Stiles smirks, "If you can find me a Tommy Chong bong with tobacco residue on it, then you will be in the 'Guinness Book of World Records.'" Unfortunately, the law should require Mr. Stiles to first find the bong with residue of something illegal, then make the arrest. In the case of the head shop busts, clean, unused smoking devices were essentially declared to contain such residue, which means the purveyors are being charged with participation in an imaginary action. [continues 133 words]
Two weeks ago, as part of "Operation Pipe Dreams," Drug Enforcement Administration agents arrested three glassblowers operating a business on South G Street, freezing their assets, putting them out of business and throwing many others out of work. Questions: Is Operation Pipe Dreams a worthy use of federal law enforcement assets? Will it be effective in reducing drug use? Answers: Ever since the American Revolution, there has been a struggle going on between the state and federal governments over where power should reside. The "Federalists" won at the founding of our country and destroyed a fledgling local democracy mass movement (the "Anti-Federalists"), which had been at the core of the revolutionary energy that existed. Democracy has suffered immensely ever since, with the Feds throwing their weight around. [continues 855 words]
