“Marijuana does not damage cognitive abilities.”
The B.C. man wanted in the United States to stand trial for selling marijuana seeds by mail thinks a jail term south of the border could be his springboard to a political career in Canada.
“I get elected to Parliament, I become the justice minister and finally get rid of these marijuana laws,” is how Marc Emery sees his future on return from a prison term in the U.S. if convicted there on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana, distribute seeds and launder money.
“My personal feeling is, I do get taken away and kept in captivity for many years,” he says. “Historically, that’s a very good springboard to the governing party.”
“Marijuana does not make users violent.”
“If I go to jail, and I’m really well-known and, hopefully, get murdered in jail, that will serve as a form of martyrdom that every year, demonstrations, protests, bombing, various forms of violent and non-violent behaviour can be used to put forward our thing,” he says.
But Emery is an abberation, right? He doesn’t represent the mainstream of marijuana advocacy, does he?
From Emery supporter John Shavluk, posted to the Cannabis Culture forums Friday, April 21;
like i spent the day telling people yesterday at the rally,,,
that we only need one mp standing up(out of 307 i think)
and making a speech about our culture and getting a private members bill brought forward ,,,we could get a referendum or new decrim(joke) or out right legalize,,how about the end of prohibition period,,,
every one concentrate on your mp
maybe one of them will get balls or get their leader to do the job he is supposed to be doing.
we chain about 10 of us to Layton for example
on media
until he promises to enter a bill,,,
i watched him say he could get one anytime fast as he wanted to do against Emerson,,,
any ideas
because that is the only way it will stop eventually ,,
sadly after this escalation by the law and then a couple of tragedy’s, that I’m sure will develop,,,
i listened to a guy say he wanted to be the first cannabis suicide bomber in Canadian history,,
and had it all figured out
who
where,why him,,
what impact etc,,,
(Emphasis mine)
I have a question for my friends who sit on the pro-legalization side of this debate – is there any currently organized marijuana advocacy group in Canada that has publicly distanced themselves from or formally severed ties with Marc Emery and his Cannabis Culture “following”?
Thank God we still have alcohol. They’ll never take away our alcohol. It’s completely safe. It won’t affect our cognitive abilities and it never makes people violent. Whew.
Maryjane ‘doesn’t make users violent’, but it sure makes them say stupid things.
I just want to know where these people will be able to smoke the stuff. See lots of NO SMOKING signs all over, or will they soon be changed to NO SMOKING CIGARETTES, POT IS ALLOWED. If cigarettes are a drug, and smokers are addicted, where are the safe smokig sites, with free cigarettes supplied.
I just want to know where these people will be able to smoke the stuff.
Very simple. Just remember that marihuana is classd in the Federal sphere of law, and tobacco is in the provincial sphere, so “Smoke Free Ontario” laws (and other provincial equivalents) are non-applicable.
Betcha didn’t know that provincial non-smoking laws coast-to-coast have no constitutional authority to ban pot smoking! I’ve witnessed licenced patients medicating indoors and under Federal law no one can kick them out.
Chiefs of Police have supposedly been advised of this situation by Health Canada, although in some cases it has yet to trickle down to the beat cop.
rockyt:
“Maryjane ‘doesn’t make users violent’, but it sure makes them say stupid things.”
So do some posts here at SDA.
Read OC above your comment, too.
What’s more serious than pot smoking as far as cognitive abilities is the dearth of logic instruction and semantics. As we can see from this very comment thread, a majorty seem to emote instead of think.
Ethan, You jotted a lengthy comment there.
You know the logic is missing in the first paragraph.
I could not swallow it. Fix it, and I may read more, but as it stands, that first one is impossible to get past. TG
See what you started kate. everyone stoners and non stoners alike forgetting what your question was. lol
YES KATE THERE IS A SANTA
Small advocacy groups are all over the place and their all growing as more and more people fear what Harper will do if they don’t speak out.
Mexico has legalized small quanities of all drugs so we have another country moving in the right direction.
LEAP, law enforcement against prohibition, has close to 10,000 ex-Police, Judges and Prosecutor’s as members.
ex Seattle chief of Police Norm Stamper is doing his Book tour “BREAKING RANK” and attracting more daily to the movement. David Kirton Had Jack Cole on earlier in the year.
We also have the Saskatchewan Marijuana party registering last week. so now most provinces have a pro cannabis party plus the National Marijuana party.
Next week in Montreal the DEA invates our land so we’ll see how the crowds are handled. counter conference planned for the weekend before the DEA’s conference then protests during the week. Should be a good showing of the anti-prohibition movement.
See what you started kate. everyone stoners and non stoners alike forgetting what your question was. lol
YES KATE THERE IS A SANTA
Small advocacy groups are all over the place and their all growing as more and more people fear what Harper will do if they don’t speak out.
Mexico has legalized small quanities of all drugs so we have another country moving in the right direction.
LEAP, law enforcement against prohibition, has close to 10,000 ex-Police, Judges and Prosecutor’s as members.
ex Seattle chief of Police Norm Stamper is doing his Book tour “BREAKING RANK” and attracting more daily to the movement. David Kirton Had Jack Cole on earlier in the year.
We also have the Saskatchewan Marijuana party registering last week. so now most provinces have a pro cannabis party plus the National Marijuana party.
Next week in Montreal the DEA invates our land so we’ll see how the crowds are handled. counter conference planned for the weekend before the DEA’s conference then protests during the week. Should be a good showing of the anti-prohibition movement.
Hey Dr H be good little socialist and pay my rent for the next few months , would yah?
“Ethan, You jotted a lengthy comment there.
You know the logic is missing in the first paragraph.
I could not swallow it. Fix it, and I may read more, but as it stands, that first one is impossible to get past. TG ”
Are you referring to the first paragraph in quotes or mine Tony Guitar? The first in quotes is from a previous poster.
If you are indeed referring to my own writing, I apologize for my lack of clarity. The previous poster had asserted that we make other crimes legal because it is often mentioned by pro cannabis activists that if we do make cannabis legal, criminals will have their life blood cut off almost immediately. Some people (Like the fellow I was quoting) believe that this is somehow another way of saying that “if we are to legalize cannabis in order to make the crime go away, why don’t we legalize murder?”
The comparison is simply an odd one in my mind. On one hand, you have a marijuana smoker who is not threatening or harming anyone. Whether or not they are harming themselves is debatable to some people but what can not be denied is that a fellow enjoying his night cap does not cause any level of intolerable damage to anyone else. Were we to legalize the use of cannabis, we would not be giving anyone a free ticket to go and harm people. Were we to legalize murder, we would obviously be giving people the opportunity to freely disrupt the rights of another human being. It is simply an odd comparison to say that by legalizing the use of cannabis, we then are justifying a legal atmosphere for violent crimes or theft.
Cheers
Ethan
And how many 35 year olds are still in moms basement doing nothing? When you figure that out you will realize why we must keep dope as far away from dopes as we can. Or do you really want your children still in your basement when they turn 35?
I wonder if any of the right wing here ever asked themselves why pot is illegal. Pot was made illegal 69 years ago after being used on this planet for between 9000 and 10000 years. Pot was used for paper, clothing, sails etc. There was a time that it was law to grow pot on your farm. George Washington did.
In the 1930’s Dupont Chemical invented nylon and knew that it could not compete with hemp. It just so happens that Andrew Mellon was one, the major shareholder in Dupont Chemical and two, a member of the Hoover cabinet. Mellon appointed his Cousin, Harry Anslinger as the first drug czar and he was in office for 34 tears.
Second was William Randolph Hearst, the newspaper baron, who hated Mexicans because their President had taken 800,000 acres away from him. He also in the thirties had bought huge amounts of timber land to make paper from. He didn’t want to loose his investment because of the cheaper to make hemp paper, so he started a campaign to stop hemp from being grown, by having hundreds of stories written about the crazies, that is the Blacks and Hispanics attacking white women and going crazy smoking pot a la Reefer madness.
Third the pharmacuetical companies were very afraid that people would eventually figure out the medical properties of pot, and grow it in their back yards, and that it would hurt their business.
So to all of you freedom loving Conservative capitalists out there who love competetion, who believe that all people should be treated equally,
who believe in freedom to carry guns, listen to what you are saying and get on the real Conservative side and allow people to be free to smokee pot if they want.
And one last thing, of the $40,000,000,000 spent on addictions in Canada last year, 85% was spent on legal drugs, that is alcohol and tobacco. I would have no problem with pot being illegal if alcohol was too. Then when the House of Commons meets for the first time and the Speaker invites the MP’s over for a drink, it would have to be catered by Tim’s.
Sounds like a good idea to me, but oh thats’s addictive too, maybe they should only be allowed to drink water, we wouldn’t want a bunch of addicts running our country would we?
Ann Ominous…”Fiscally, you have a clear vision. Socially, you’re worse than the left wing you profess to hate and what’s more, hypocritical.”
You are so,so wrong. The right is as muddle-headed and hyocritical fiscally as they are socially.
There was a study a few years back that suggested that people of low intelligence don’t have the mental capacity to understand their own limitations.
When I read some of the comments here from pot supporters, I can’t help but be reminded of it – and I wonder if long term pot use interferes with one’s ability to recognize their own altered thought processes.
Marc Emery is a one-man anti-drug message, a narcissist with a persecution complex, who has compared pot use to the civil rights movement, and who believes that going to jail on behalf of a chemical intoxicant constitutes “martyrdom”. And people actually endorse this moron’s statements and actions.
It’s tempting to ask what you’re smoking. Have you lost all sense of proportion? Emery certainly has. Perhaps he was born this way – perhaps it’s drug enduced. Either way,a serious advocacy movement led by sensible adults would be distancing themselves from Emery and publicly disclaiming his comments and his tactics – just out of pure damage control.
Kate there was also a study a few years ago that said that the higher your intelligence the more likely you are to smoke pot. I guess it just a question of which ones you read.
“chemical intoxicant”
Nice phrase, Kate. Every time this debate starts, I just keep thinking the same thing – it’s all about getting high and there’s nothing particularly noble about it. I’m speaking from some embarassingly extensive experience in the matter, and have learned that almost any human activity is more constructive or helpful than altering reality with some kind of substance, whether it’s alcohol or pot. That said, I realize for many people it will be a very minor part of their life, and of little harm. Fair enough, but i think there’s an awful lot of other people who would be far happier, more creative and successful if they left substances alone.
Obviously everyone has to decide for themselves where they are on the continuum of abuse, but please, don’t try to pretend there’s something wonderful going on with this stuff.
Even given that (a) Emery is a twit, and (b) Emery ingests THC, it is *not* logical to conclude that (c) All people who ingest THC are twits. Universal affirmatives can only be partially converted. Obvious, one would think; simply a necessary limitation of the conversion of a proposition. Unfortunately, even the simplest syllogisms cause some to flounder.
Meanwhile…
“Prohibition was introduced as a fraud; it has been nursed as a fraud. It is wrapped in the livery of Heaven, but it comes to serve the devil. It comes to regulate by law our appetites and our daily lives. It comes to tear down liberty and build up fanaticism, hypocrisy, and intolerance. It comes to confiscate by legislative decree the property of many of our fellow citizens. It comes to send spies, detectives, and informers into our homes; to have us arrested and carried before courts and condemned to fines and imprisonments. It comes to dissipate the sunlight of happiness, peace, and prosperity in which we are now living and to fill our land with alienations, estrangements, and bitterness. It comes to bring us evil– only evil– and that continually. Let us rise in our might as one and overwhelm it with such indignation that we shall never hear of it again as long as grass grows and water runs.” –Roger Q. Mills, 1887
Kate:
“It’s tempting to ask what you’re smoking. Have you lost all sense of proportion?”
Are you serious??
Read your own post:
“”Marijuana does not make users violent.”
“If I go to jail, and I’m really well-known and, hopefully, get murdered in jail, that will serve as a form of martyrdom that every year, demonstrations, protests, bombing, various forms of violent and non-violent behaviour can be used to put forward our thing,” he says.”
What’s your point, Kate? Are you insinuating that pot use “made” this person say what he did, and that non pot-users don’t discuss violence; that somehow there is a higher ratio of pot users that discuss violence than non-users?
Ummm.. where’s your perspective, Kate? This is another utterly absurd connection that you are trying to make.
Vitruvius,
I agree with you fully, if you are willing to accept that “political correctness” is a much more dangerous form of prohibition.
Hey Free anyone can buy pot right now. Its easier for kids to buy pot then it is for them to buy smokes. So if we only have licensed retailers?
Every year more people are arrested in the states for drugs and the only thing thats changed is the violence that now comes with all levels of drugs use. Jusy like there was during alcohol prohibition, the violence around alcohol decreased with the end of prohibition.
Remember the police have body armour your kids don’t. Many children have been killed in the US because they were mistaken for someone else or just a stray bullet.
http://csdp.org/
�There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Filipinos and entertainers, Their Satanic music, Jazz and swing result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others�
Harry Anslinger US Commissioner of Narcotics, Testify to congress on why marijuana should be made illegal, 1937.
Marijuana Tax Act, signed Aug. 2, 1937; effective Oct. 1, 1937
Addiction in the community
The problem of addiction is not expanding it stays the same, the same people. Living standards have been linked to addiction in rats. Two groups both addicted to morphine but living in different environments, one group lived in the standard cage the other in a colony similar to their natural habitat. The group living in the cage carried on taking the morphine while the colony wean its self off the drug and refused it after awhile.
Take this with the way the government treats the
people on assistance and we have a large community
living like caged rats wanting the morphine to drown out the pain and sorrow in their lives. Then we have another arm of the government putting the poor into smaller cages hoping to stop their addictions. So what does our government want to do to stop addictions, keep the rats in the cages for a longer time embedding the addictive behavior deeper into their subconscious?
Who are the poor? The M�tis and First Nations youth are the ones you see in the smaller cages, self respect and pride in their community is what�s needed. But we see hurtles along the way and it�s the policies of the government that keeps our youth from their rightful seats at the table we call this province. Is this just an over sight by our government or are they still trying to cheat the people of the land?
Study
Patricia F. Hadaway1 Bruce K. Alexander1, Robert B.
Coambs1 and Barry Beyerstein1
Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, V5A
1S6 Burnaby, BC, Canada
The effect of housing and gender on preference for
morphine-sucrose solutions in rats
To determine whether opiate consumption is affected by laboratory housing, individually caged and colony rats were given a choice between water and progressively more palatable morphine-sucrose
solutions. The isolated rats drank significantly more of the opiate solution, and females drank
significantly more than males. In the experimental
phase during which morphine-sucrose solution
consumption was greatest, the isolated females drank five times as much and the isolated males sixteen times as much morphine (mg/kg) as the colony females and males respectively.
This law is based on race and you can see from the study what housing has to do with addictions so let generations grow up in substandard housing and have parts of your governement bring the drugs in. Great for the economy.
http://fpiarticle.blogspot.com/2006/03/truth-lies-of-911.html
Ex cop takes you through the backyard dealings of the CIA
“If we take habitual drunkards as a class, their heads and their hearts will bear an advantageous comparison with those of any other class. There seems ever to have been a proneness in the brilliant and warm-blooded to fall in to this vice. The demon of intemperance ever seems to have delighted in sucking the blood of genius and generosity.”
—
Abraham Lincoln, address to the Washington Temperance Society, Springfield, Illinois, 22 February 1842
Ethan, Now you have made yourself clear. We both could not ever accept that because the crime of smoking pot becomes government regulated, that so too could the crime of murder.
You were very civil about it. Didn*t suggest I attempt to put my head in any impossible location and so debate becomes worthwhile and a pleasure.
Well put, in other words. TG
Marc Emery will be going to jail on behalf of personal liberty, not a chemical intoxicant. Liberty is indeed a civil rights issue. Harper and Bush and their small dead apologists claim personal liberty as a “conservative” value. Do you never tire of engaging in your hypocricies?
Free,
“Hey Dr H be good little socialist and pay my rent for the next few months , would yah?”
I am pretty sure your derogatory remark has nothing to do with the subject… It also lacks any constructive comment or criticism on any statement I made.
All the same… very witty (sarcasm)!
Not marc Emery
Finally… a comment I can sympathise with. Politician are just pawns to these multi millionairs. and corporate conglomerates. the Hursts, Halliburton,The Rothchilds etc. They truly rule the planet and we are just told what they want us to hear. Its all about money and world control.
Check out your history folks. These guys backed all major wars.
And how many 35 year olds are still in moms basement doing nothing? When you figure that out you will realize why we must keep dope as far away from dopes as we can. Or do you really want your children still in your basement when they turn 35?
Free, this is an absurd statement. How many who do NOT smoke pot are still in their parent’s basements? Can you please tell me how your odd link between marijuana and amotivational syndrome can account for doctors, lawyers, investors, other well educated people or just the average Joe maintaining a full time job while using this substance? I know a fellow who actually maintains TWO full time jobs and he does not live in the basement of his mother or father’s home, he has his own home fully paid for.
It’s nice to see though that you believe the state should do your parenting for you. Have you not developed the trust that is needed by your children to justify their simply believing you when you say they should stay away from something? Or could it be that they see you spouting the same nonsense that has been spouted for the last 70+ years? Perhaps they don’t believe you at all and are now considering that perhaps you’re spouting nonsense about heroin as well. I don’t know if you actually have kids but do you understand how the logic is applied?
Marc Emery is a one-man anti-drug message, a narcissist with a persecution complex, who has compared pot use to the civil rights movement, and who believes that going to jail on behalf of a chemical intoxicant constitutes “martyrdom”.
Whether or not pot is to be considered a chemical intoxicant…well that’s odd but certainly if you believe that Emery is going to jail for cannabis itself, your view is fairly warped and mal informed Kate.
Emery believes (Quite rightly in some ways so far as I am concerned) that he is facing incarceration in defence of a person’s right to choose. It is unconscionable to me that our government would make something arbitrarily illegal and then prosecute individuals based on a choice they have made for themselves. It is because people are currently not allowed by the state to choose whether or not they will consume this substance that Emery and his supporters are angry.
To say he is going to jail simply for a substance is misguided, woefully uninformed and fairly misleading. I certainly do not want to see my tax dollars wasted on hours of police paperwork because they picked up a pot smoker who happened to light up in public. It is troubling to me to see the state detain some one simply because they wanted to smoke some pot. In 2004, 71% of all cannabis related arrests were for simple possession…what good does that do?
Tony guitar, it is my pleasure to be civil and accommodating where debate is concerned…though at times it becomes exceptionally difficult.
Cheers
Ethan
Ethan,
I agree on all levels. We must at all times protect our civil rights… Without that we would live in a fascist state.
fas�cism (f�sh��z��m) n. 1. Often Fascism.a. A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.