I believe that Clarence Davis in his March 7 letter is mistaken when he states that the majority of Winnipeggers "don't care how the police do (things)." He is probably correct in that the majority of people want drug dealers off the street. (I would like to see his statistics, though, if he is going to generalize to that extent.) However, when we begin to give our police carte blanche to simply act without any regard for the rules of law that we as a society have chosen for particular reasons, we are treading down a dangerous path. Ask the people in Libya, Egypt, Tunisia or any other country where the police had authority to do whatever they want how this worked for them. [continues 88 words]
Marc Zienkiewicz argues in a recent editorial (Time to bring an end to the prohibition of drugs, Feb 24/11) that the federal government ought to be decriminalizing all drugs because he believes that making drugs illegal increases drug abuse, and puts money into the hands of criminals who develop and sell them on the black market. He includes drugs like crack cocaine and crystal meth as examples of the types of narcotic that he would like to see sold legally over the counter. Regulating now-illegal drugs in this manner, he suggests, would eliminate the criminal element from the industry, and fix Canada's drug problem. [continues 348 words]
You would think federal Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq (Powerful hallucinogen, Letters, Feb. 24) would have at least a grade-school understanding of the failure alcohol prohibition proved to be in the 1920s. Even a Sunday-school understanding that the forbidden fruit always tastes sweeter would serve her better than going along with others jumping on the prohibition bandwagon. The black market will soon be in control of salvia sales just like the black market is in control of all the other drugs and substances the government prohibits now. If the health minister were truly worried about the health of Canadians, she would act to end prohibition, which results in adulterated drugs of unknown purity and strength being available to Canadians of all ages through the black market. Chris Buors Winnipeg [end]
Re: Feds eye ban on obscure herb (Feb. 22). This government sure loves to subsidize gangsters and endanger the public. Banning salvia will do for it what a ban has done for marijuana: make it more potent, contaminated, expensive and unregulated. It will be far easier for your kids to get salvia, because dealers never ask for ID, and instead of taxpaying shop-owners selling it, we will have it controlled by teens and gangsters. I have no doubt that this is by design. This government is not trying to protect Canadians. They are trying to manufacture inmates, using Canadians as the raw materials. How else can they justify building 12 new jails when crime is at a 33-year low? Nepean, Ont. [end]
Your Feb. 22 article Feds eye ban on obscure herb indicates a dangerous disconnect with reality and perception. Bart Stras, owner of the head shop The Joint, clearly has been smoking too much of his own product when he says "salvia has never had any issues as a herbal incense product." Of course it hasn't, because he knows that people who buy salvia want a hallucinogenic high and aren't looking to have their boudoir smell minty fresh. If it weren't so pathetic, it would be almost comical that salvia is sold as a so-called natural health product. I believe that poisonous mushrooms are also a 100 per cent natural product. Paul Doyle Winnipeg [end]
We would like to respond to the Feb. 23 editorial No need to ban salvia on the Government of Canada's recent proposal to control salvia divinorum and salvinorin A. We want to eliminate the misconception that salvia is a safer alternative to street drugs. It is not. Salvia divinorum, and its active ingredient salvinorin A, can produce powerful hallucinations similar to those associated with the use of the well-known hallucinogen LSD, which is a controlled substance. Other effects include confusion, disorientation and anxiety. [continues 115 words]
Illicit drugs were once again in the headlines this week, after news broke that the federal government is moving to criminalize an hallucinogenic herb called Salvia divinorum, a naturally-occurring plant of the sage family which grows in southern Mexico. The plant has been around since, well, forever. It's available to buy at a few "head shops" in Winnipeg. You know, those places that sell marijuana pipes and t-shirts that depict the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Che Guevara. Smoking the herb causes brief hallucinations, uncontrollable laughter, lack of co-ordination and in some cases, loss of consciousness. [continues 1073 words]
The federal government is planning to criminalize yet another substance, in this case, salvia. MP Shelley Glover states that the government is "very worried about the long-term effects" of using the herb (Feds eye ban on obscure herb, Feb. 22). Following this logic, we should soon be expecting that cigarettes, sugar and salt will also be criminalized, in total denial of the fact that, in the 1920s, the criminalization of alcohol was a massive failure that contributed hugely to the growth of organized crime in North America. [continues 92 words]
Prohibition never worked. The stress on criminalizing salvia divinorum is a terrible idea, and the reasons stated for the criminalization are weak, at best. People have the right to affect their bodies in any way that they would like, and if one were to point out that by using drugs, people damage their bodies and incur health-care costs, one would have to open their eyes to the demon that is alcohol, before their points could be taken with even a grain of seriousness. [continues 51 words]
The federal government is moving towards banning the sale of salvia, a mostly decorative plant that has hallucinogenic properties when it is smoked in one big hit. The public debate is focused on whether the government is taking too much control over people's lives, whether the government is wasting time and money on something that isn't as important as, say, health care and deficits, and whether the government is turning what should be a social concern into a legal problem. [continues 833 words]
St. Boniface MP Shelly Glover may well be -- along with all the other parents she insists share her fears -- "very worried about the long-term effects" of salvia divinorum, but until that or some other evil of smoking this herb is established by scientific evidence, the hallucinogen ought not be banned. There is little science that says it is dangerous to human health and safety. Salvia, regulated in Canada as a natural health product, has been compared to marijuana, except that it produces more often a wild psychedelic trip rather than a cosy high. Those who smoke, inhale or chew it can experience an out-of-body sensation or the sense that they become inanimate objects, such as a table leg. Others collapse into laughing fits. Infamously, Miley Cyrus was sure that a guy at her party looked exactly like her boyfriend. Ms. Cyrus' mini-trip wrote salvia onto the parental watch lists -- who would want their newly minted 18-year-old to indelibly imprint their own "this is your brain on salvia" on YouTube? [continues 134 words]
I bet if you smoke shoe polish in a bong, you'd hallucinate, too. But I don't see anyone suggesting shoe polish be banned. It seems we think that people are smart enough not to smoke shoe polish. Winnipeg [end]
The federal Conservatives are taking a pre-emptive strike against an herbal hallucinogen that has garnered plenty of recent media attention thanks to a teen starlet. Salvia divinorum, a naturally occurring plant of the sage family which grows in southern Mexico, is most commonly ingested by smoking the leaves. Users of Salvia commonly experience a short-lasting high that can include hallucinations, uncontrollable laughter, lack of co-ordination and even loss of consciousness. Late last year, teen pop-star Miley Cyrus was forced to apologize to fans after she was shown in a video on Youtube taking a bong hit of Salvia before giggling uncontrollably and talking nonsensically. Glover said the move to criminalize Salvia had nothing to do with Cyrus. [continues 268 words]
Federal Justice Minister Rob Nicholson accused the Liberals Thursday as being "soft on crime" for refusing to support a bill, passed by the Senate, that would throw growers of as few as six marijuana plants for trafficking purposes in jail for six months. His chest-thumping is unlikely to convince most Canadians that Michael Ignatieff is running the country to ruin. Increasingly Canadians are personally acquainted with weed. Over the last 25 years, Canadians have grown used to the idea of pot as a benign drug. Most either have smoked or personally know people who smoke. Despite this, the Tories are going after pot as part of a strategy unveiled in 2007 to cut illegal drug use in Canada through prevention, treatment and punishment. The latter thrust is the impetus for the government's attempts to introduce mandatory minimum sentences to the federal Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. [continues 275 words]
By MARK BONOKOSKI, QMI Agency For Giff, once a well-known Toronto publicist and now retired to the country life, keeping his sexual orientation on the "down low" was never a concern. He was already "out" when being "out" was deemed courageous. When the Toronto cops launched Operation Soap in February 1981, and notoriously raided four gay bathhouses and arrested 300 men - then the largest mass arrest in Canada since the 1970 October Crisis - it was not alarming that Giff was one of the found-ins hauled off to a holding cell. [continues 465 words]
A 52-year-old man has been charged with arson after his alleged marijuana grow-op went up in flames. Winnipeg police say the blaze at the home in the 1600 block of Alexander was reported at 12 p.m. Oct. 18, causing about $180,000 damage but no injuries. Police say the fire was caused by overloaded and faulty wiring used to grow marijuana. WPS Const. Jason Michalyshen said the operation used costly equipment, including heat lamps. "There can be some pretty extravagant set-ups," Michalyshen said. [continues 76 words]
Parents were given an earful about drug addiction at a recent information night at miller W.C. Miller held an information night to mark Manitoba Addictions Awareness Week. Principal Jonathan Toews said the main reason for the meeting was to provide parents with practical information on how to steer their kids away from drugs. A small group of parents and administrators gathered in the school cafeteria for the informal discussion, which included a few guest speakers. School counsellor Warren Friesen affirmed the concept of the village raising the child. "Leaving a parent alone with a kid that's on drugs isn't what a community is about," he said. Friesen said a popular misconception is that if your kids are using drugs, that means you're a bad parent. [continues 569 words]
If you are the first person to do something, whatever it is, there's one of two reasons for that. Either you are a visionary, or the thing you are doing is so stupid nobody else would even consider it. The NDP's latest strategy to fight drug trafficking falls into the latter category. Attorney General Andrew Swan announced legislation allowing the province to suspend the drivers license of those who drove a vehicle as part of a drug trafficking offence. [continues 396 words]
Bravo to the Winnipeg Free Press for its editorial Court erodes home privacy (Nov. 26). I've been reading many articles about the recent Supreme Court of Canada ruling allowing police to conduct warrantless searches and, so far, the Free Press is the only paper I've seen editorialize against this shocking and harmful ruling. North America needs to end cannabis (marijuana) prohibition immediately and finally put an end to the devilish law that has done nothing but harm citizens for the last seven decades. And roughly half the citizens want to end it. If it were not for cannabis prohibition, people would not be losing their right to privacy and other diminished constitutional rights. Dillon, Colo. [end]
Re: Sparking debate, Nov. 23. The comments from MP Shelley Glover the other day in regards to marijuana are disgusting and obscene. As a federally licensed medical marijuana User, I find your party's attitude towards marijuana users insane, mean-spirited, and counterproductive. I would like to thank you, however, for bringing this issue into broad public discussion. The more people read and discuss the facts, the quicker they will see what a bunch of twisted, ideological, punishment-fetishists you Tories really are. [continues 97 words]
Inside Manitoba
