Ancient History Haunts Today

We have seen a lot of apology's lately over such deeds as the Komagatu Maru,Residential schools,The Chinese exclusion act and the incarceration of the Japanese during ww2.There was the reparations for the Chinese head tax as well.What do all these things have in common?They are all sprung from the poison soil of racism.They were all grown in the early to mid 20th century.What else was sown in the same period?Our drug laws beginning with the opium tax act of 1907.This was MacKenzie -King's answer to the so called Chinese riot which we now know was a white riot in which the Chinese were brutalised.It began a racist inspired onslaught of drug laws that were passed to protect white society from the negroes,hispanics,jazz musicians and those that would seduce white women with their demon drugs.That's a near quote from Harry Anslinger,the first drug Czar in America.Of course we in Canada followed along like the tail on the dog.There will come a time when the people that have carried out this infringement of our personal freedoms will be called to task for their ignorance and the heavy handed way in which this war has been prosecuted.The moralistic dogma that currently keeps us bound by these racist and baseless laws will one day end and there will be more apology's and maybe even reparations for people who have spent their lives in prison for a harmless herb or because they are damaged and broken and have sought solace in the opium dream world.The criminal gangs that are reaping such huge profits from the current black market will be putting their children up for office just like the Kennedy's of today.Isn't it time this last vestige of racist policy be put to rest?The damage is obvious for all to see and it's only the same moralistic and racist groups that line up in opposition to the ending of the war on drugs.Those that are uninformed and in fear of a future that they,through their ignorance,have no concept of must be educated to where they understand that there is nothing to fear but fear itself.There will always be a small(never more than 1&1/2%)number of people that are so broken by life that they will seek solace in hard drugs.The rest of the population will treat it like the disease that it is.Marijuana will be legal like it should have been all along.We will be able to once again see the police as the good guys and there will be respect for law and order once again.Tyrany In the form of unjust and unpopular law should be resisted and given no room to grow.The current drug laws are an abomination and the last refuge for racist based 20th century crimes.Once an egalitarian society realises this the drug war will end and we will be on our way to a more serene and peaceful world.

Hiding the agenda

Say you were a hard line anti drug type that wanted to form a group of like minded individuals and yet sound like you were reasonable open minded people.What to call this bunch of ultra conservative neo-cons so as not to scare away any dupes that you might be able to persuade to join your cause.In Vancouver B.C. they chose :Keeping the Door Open.Pretty clever when your group has such members as health minister George Abbott and civil city enforcer Geoff Plante as well as Mayor Sam Sullivan.Remember Sam? He of the now Infamous CAST program which Sam was telling everyone within earshot that was a done deal,the cheque was in the mail.It's looking like CAST was never anything more than another of Sam's pipe dreams.I wonder what Sam smokes in that pipe?I happened to be in the section that these people sat in at the second of three meetings by the real drug reform movement in February.All they did was complain and moan that harm reduction would take money away from their long running abstinence programs.The very last thing that these people want is for a real open and frank discussion to take place on the drug issue.The reason they were absent at the third meeting was because they wanted the floor to themselves.They've been doing and saying the same things since the drug war began and before that.Only one of the daily freebies bothered to cover the meetings and 24hrs was shameless in it's aggrandizing of the group and it's political clout.Of course politicians would support anyone that backs the drug war.It's too bad that a paper that is supposed to report the news with impartiality is so obviously in support of drug war politics and all things prohibition..This group champions the status quo.They are the people in charge of things like methadone programs,12 step programs,forced treatment regimens and all the things that have gotten us to where we are today.If you want to see new things tried and new approaches to try to find realistic solutions to our drug problems this group will slam the door in your face.They oppose all things open and researched.they're too busy protecting their turf.

The Scum Also Rises

British Columbia is a place where we like our politics loud and abrasive.To say things are always on the up and up would be like looking for that rabbit hole.The current Liberal government came to power as much because of absolute disgust with the previous NDP government as for anything they did or said.They did,however,promise to be honest and open and to clean up the image of government.No-one can argue that they've been and done anything but.Now the voice of law and order,the solicitor general of the province,has been forced to resign due to an old scandal that followed him from his old job as mayor of Chilliwack.This government has been scandal prone and anything but transparent in it's dealings with the doings of government and is currently emeshed in a trial that they seem to be stalling in the hope that it will go away.(go to Bill tielman's site for all the dirt on Basi-Virk)Premier Gordon Campbell started things off by getting arrested for impaired driving and refusing to resign.Now,in a move that only the arrogance of this government would try to pull off.Mr.Les tried to put forward a bill that would implement mandatory minimum prison time for that very crime.That Les is gone will cause no-one to lose any sleep in this province.For as long as I can remember the Liberals seemed invulnerable to any kind of defeat.The current leader of the NDP won't be able to make any gains because her recent policy decisions have been so unpopular the NDP couldn't win a fixed election.That said,this could be the beginning of the end.This government is it's own worst enemy and Gordo's recent epiphany on climate change is being handled like every thing else this government does.He made grand announcements first and then put his people to work trying to figure out if it was even possible.The recent resignation of the person Campbell put in charge says a lot about how high the mountain is and how little thought went into planning it.

Try a lot more self esteem and a lot less bull

Vancouver's mayor Sam Sullivan met with the dinosaurs of the drug movement today as they made their case for a bigger chunk of the drug war pie.In a move that would virtually duplicate the recent campaign by the Harper Conservatives,they want to lecture youth as young as seven years old on the perils of drug use.These people are hard line abstinence proponents and think all drugs belong in the same book.They are the left over just say no crowd that want a drug free world and actually think they can make one happen.It's like the sixties never happened.There was no Viet Nam and Happy Days was a true story.Drugs are for the negroes and jazz musicians and have no place in a white bread world.If I sound a tad bitter it's because it's people like these that are maintaining the ridiculous drug laws that are destroying society as we know it.I have no beef with their desire to give children a sense of self and some self confidence.It's just that there are a lot of kids that have really horrible lives.This province has the worst child poverty in Canada and these people want more money for a drug awareness program that is based on a myth.There are better ways to spend our money and drug education should be fact based and not a diatribe of prohibitionist non-sense.I too think it's vital to give our youth the information necessary to allow them to make informed decisions on their drug use or lack of it.To use campaigns that lump marijuana in with heroin and speed is the kind of programs that have given youth the false impression that marijuana is addictive and no worse than heroin.That might be alright in an abstinence world but it makes no sense in the real one.These are well meaning people.I have heard them speak and I know they feel passionate.It's too bad that they're so ill informed and misguided.They have been the benefactors of years of funding for a failed abstinence philosophy and are fighting for what they see as their share of the drug war pie.They do so much harm and have no clue that they're doing it.The days when you could tell some scary stories and show some frightening movies are gone.If you want to make a difference you have to tell the truth now.Everything is at their finger tips.The drug war is a lost and flawed cause.Giving money to groups like these is like flushing money down the toilet.

Internet addiction same as drugs

That's the subject matter of the page A9 it the Vancouver Province newspaper,Monday,March 17,2008.One article quotes doctor Gabor Mate,an expert on addiction and obsession.He says that addiction is due to an imbalance in the brains reward and incentive circuitry. The second article views hours spent on the net as a brain disorder.Compulsive E-mailing and text messaging could soon be classified as a brain illness.This article goes on to quote all kinds of scientific journals and medical manuals that claim that internet addiction will soon be added to the list of psychiatric illnesses.Psychiatry's guidebook of mental disorders.I guess it's just a matter of time until we see politicians demanding laws to restrict the time a person can spend on the web.For our own good,of course.Tobacco is now illegal in prisons in Canada.How the government managed to pass such a discriminatory law is no mystery.The so called Liberal opposition has abdicated it's responsibility and the country now has to live with just about anything Steven Harper can come up with.He just postures and threatens an election and Dion runs for the washroom.He takes his caucus with him.Now we have mandatory minimum sentences for the cultivation of one pot plant and anyone that has no ID has lost the right to vote.It was a politically brilliant move as the poor and the homeless would never vote for Harper any way.Ditto for the working poor who often cannot afford to replace ID lost or stolen.People with no permanent address have also been disenfranchised as the ID required has to have a current address.By passing this law,the Conservatives have disallowed thousands of votes that would have been cast against them anyway.That the opposition allowed these bills to pass shows there is no difference between the two major political parties.No-one sees the poor let alone care about the fact their vote has been stolen out from under them.The right to vote is the one thing that we,as a democracy,should fight for to the death.That it's been stolen from thousands of our fellow citizens by sleazy politics and back room dealing makes any claim by Harper and his government that they care about the working poor an outright lie.They knew exactly who they were disenfranchising and why.They were patting each other on the back the other day over extending of the Afghan mission,smiling as another young Canadian was dying in the Afghan dirt.Of course they feel terrible every time a soldier dies.That's what they want us to believe.

meet the press

If anyone had any doubt witch side was responsible for the outrageous rhetoric it was all very clear on meet the press,Sunday,march 16'08.The Clinton representative was blowing so much smoke it must have been hard to breathe.If she'd said;" with due respect" one more time I would have puked.Hillary Clinton has changed positions so many times it's impossible to know what she really believes anymore.The woman representing Clinton did things like saying :"now I'm not speaking about Obama's preacher friend "etc.etc.They never stick with any position long enough to tell what they really stand for.Now they want to count Florida and Michigan although Obama wasn't on one ballot and didn't campaign in another because they had both agreed not to.The Clinton plan has been very obvious from mid contest.She will try to include Michigan and Florida and then hopes to be close enough to take it with super delegates.Just listen to Hillary or her surrogates and this becomes crystal clear.They know the only way they can win is to manipulate the numbers in whatever way favors her.They object to or ignore(that ruled on this day)any argument that shows Obama leading and taking more states.Their every move today sounded like hedging and obfuscating facts or just muddying the water.Hillary Clinton's people are fighting a dirty campaign and claiming to be doing nothing like that.They are disingenuous and dishonest at the very least.

More drug war non-sense

I've been reading up on recent media stories that relate to drug war politics and there's one thing that's very clear.Every article that makes a stand in favor of the drug war mentions harm and anarchy and blames drugs for it all.They never make any points as to just how the drugs are wreaking all this havoc.There's no question that drug abuse is a major problem and that there's currently no measures that are having a positive effect on the drug sub-culture.Just saying drugs are bad is not doing a hell of a lot of good.The drug laws currently in place were legislated near the turn of the last century and have absolutely no basis in science or logic.Most drug users do so for the respite that others find in alcohol.Like alcohol,some take the use too far.Yet the government sells alcohol and reaps the profit with very little concern for those that cannot handle their drink.Drug war advocates always say that this is why the legalization of drugs is so wrong.That alcohol does enough damage and we don't need any more intoxicants legalized in our society.Fine if you like to drink.That these people can claim to be taking the high road is just ridiculous.I've got mine so f'you.I can drink but if you choose to smoke pot you go to jail.Never a word about the reason.That's because there is no valid reason.Richard Nixon,The man that declared war on drugs.Did so against the report of his own hand picked panel of drug hardliners who told him that pot was fairly benign and should probably be legalized.Nixon had a hissy fit and went on his own"good judgment?",and declared the drug war.No-one can say why he chose this reasoning but we can say that it was against all best advice from the experts and from his own people.This was the sixties and there was still thought to be a link between pot and heroin.Heroin was taking a terrible toll on US troops in Viet Nam so there may actually have been some misguided logic in his stance.We now know,however that heroin and marijuana have no relationship other than that heroin addicts often smoked pot at some point in their lives.They also drank liquor and smoked cigarettes so there's absolutely no other connection.This is no longer in dispute but it is still often used as a reason for the law against pot.All the reasons given for the banning of marijuana have been dispelled one after another.Yet the law persists as politicians find it easier to be a drug hardliner than to do the actual research that dispells the myths.People like the current contenders for the democratic and republican nominations are either former drug users(democrats)or anti drug hardliners like John McCain who was in Viet Nam and was one of the hard drinking soldiers that were so opposed to their pot smoking fellow marines.This was demonstrated in the movie Apocalypse Now.It was just a movie but ask anyone that served in the Nam and they'll attest to the split.That split has carried on right through to today and it's hypocrites like the current democratic contenders who will speak loud and long about the danger of drugs.They did drugs and they are now running for president.I guess they must be made of sterner stuff than the rest of us.McCain is at least a dinosaur that has outlived his generation.It's clear what he stands for and what he believes.The democratic candidates,at least to this point in time,are hypocrites that speak out of both sides of their mouths at the same time.They probably relax with a bong hit after every anti-drug speach.That's drug war politics.

Just 12 and a drug traficker

That's the way they do things in Alberta Canada.A recent article in the Vancouver Province newspaper says a 12 year old Alberta school girl gave some pot to an eleven year old friend.This happened in a small town 780 klics from Edmonton.A town called High Level,could find no better way to deal with this situation than to involve this child in the criminal justice system.I know that there are people that will say that this is necessary.That this will send a message to her classmates.This is ridiculous and an over reaction to something that could have been handled so much better.This girl and her school friends will now fear the police and the legal system for the rest of their lives.Good move.Bringing the police into any drug situation should be an absolute last resort.They have very little discretion in their reaction to a situation.This will follow this child for the rest of her life.I know records are to be sealed at the age of majority but how many times have we heard of records being opened and old mistakes coming back to haunt someone?Anything would have been preferable to the action taken here.I won't go into the whole marijuana thing because I don't think there's anyone out there that's dumb enough to think a 12 year old should be in possession of pot.Let alone be giving it to others.That's a given.There has to be a better way of handling such a situation than to bring in the police and arrest the child.She's 12 years old for crissakes.Couldn't the parents have handled this themselves?The school probably should have kept this in house but probably had legal issues to think about.The article doesn't say who caught the play and exposed this dastardly crime but I suppose that in High Level any drug deal is a high level drug deal.Pathetic.This is another example of parental neglect.The parents neglected to use their heads and now two kids are criminals for life.This is the drug war at it's very best.Victims all round and no winners in sight .

Life In Juvenile Detention

That's what the B.C. government health minister was telling reporters on Friday.George Abbott was speaking of his governments reopening of the antiquated Willingdon Youth Detention Center in Burnaby. The building and grounds are to be used to house the victims of the "new" drug court that's being set up in Burnaby and scheduled to open this summer. The court will "offer a 'choice'" to anyone appearing before it,between jail and treatment.If there was treatment that had a statistical chance in hell of helping even a significant number of these chronic offenders(read drug addicts)there'd be nothing to talk about.Abbott is contending that the facility will be used solely for the housing of people with dual diagnosis,meaning drug and mental problems.I don't trust Mr.Abbott or his government.Retrofitting an old prison with 100 beds and suggesting that there's a very real possibility that some will be there for life is unconscionable but not a stretch for this government.The drug courts were tried in the 70's and so was the idea of locking up addicts for being addicts and keeping them in prison till they were cured or dead. Drug treatment should be available on demand and should be for as long as is necessary to attain it's objectives.Forced treatment is not has not been and never will be successful in treating addictions.This idea has been tried all over the world and has never been successful in a statistically prove-able form anywhere.Every time significant results have been claimed,they've been shown to be either in confined circumstances or just not true.I'm sure it's possible to keep an addict in custody forever and have them remain clean but there's no quality of life in prison.People that want treatment should have a place where they can go and stay for as long as it takes.Opening places like Willingdon and pretending we're doing these people a service is worse than doing nothing.It takes money away from projects and policies that might just have a chance of really working.We will never jail our way out of the drug problem.Things like this only fool the public into thinking something constructive is being done which couldn't be further from the truth.

No More Swat Style Pot Raids

If there's no changes,a recent B.C. Supreme court ruling should spell the end to SWAT style drug raids in B.C. Justice Catherine Bruce ruled that the police practice of using a battering ram to smash down doors and entering the premises with guns drawn and ready and pointed at peoples heads was a recipe for tragedy and could not be tolerated.The majority of Canadians seem to agree if the papers are any measure.The judge was probably aware of several recent cases in the US in which deaths occurred and not always to the correct targets.Of course there were the usual cries from the kill em all crowd,led by Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts.Watts finds evil in every corner and has traveled all over Europe in an effort to support her drug courts and other lock 'em up measures.She managed to avoid all the countries with harm reduction policies and hit all the pro prohibition countries which proves that you can find evidence for just about any plan you want to back.Watts is first to claim success if it suits her but also first to complain of runaway crime if that fits her agenda.The simple fact is that the police have been using this kind of brute tactic for years and it is one of the last remaining practices from an era where they could do what they wanted to addicts as they were considered less than human.It's sad that there are still people like Watts and Steven Harper that still think they can arrest their way out of the drug problem.They've had nearly 100 years and it's just getting worse.They've scared off all the old hippie types and what's left is a bunch of criminal gangs with world wide connections and no respect for life.If that's progress,something is very wrong.