Home | Community | Message Board


This site includes paid links. Please support our sponsors.


Welcome to the Shroomery Message Board! You are experiencing a small sample of what the site has to offer. Please login or register to post messages and view our exclusive members-only content. You'll gain access to additional forums, file attachments, board customizations, encrypted private messages, and much more!

Shop: Bridgetown Botanicals Bridgetown Botanicals   Kraken Kratom Kratom Capsules for Sale   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   North Spore Injection Grain Bag

Jump to first unread post Pages: 1
Invisiblesilversoul7
Chill the FuckOut!
 User Gallery

Registered: 10/10/02
Posts: 27,301
Loc: mndfreeze's puppet army
Stop the Assault on Medical Marijuana!
    #1566787 - 05/21/03 05:34 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

From: Matt Howes, National Internet Organizer, ACLU
To: ACLU Action Network Members
Date: May 21, 2003

In yet another heavy-handed attempt by the government to squash
opposing points of view, legislation before the House of Representatives would
allow the nation's drug czar to use taxpayer dollars to oppose
political candidates or ballot initiatives that support the legalization of
medical marijuana.

Medical marijuana has significant medical benefits and is supported by
the majority of the public. We need to stop the federal assault on
medical marijuana initiatives!

Click here for more information and to send a free fax to your Member
of Congress!

http://www.aclu.org/DrugPolicy/DrugPolicy.cfm?ID=12695&c=81


--------------------


"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong."--Voltaire

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineRonoS
DSYSB since '01
Male User Gallery

Registered: 01/25/01
Posts: 16,259
Loc: Calgary, Alberta
Last seen: 1 year, 29 days
Re: Stop the Assault on Medical Marijuana! [Re: silversoul7]
    #1566788 - 05/21/03 05:35 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

The U.S. is addicted to war on drugs


By ETHAN NADELMANN
Tuesday, May 20, 2003 - Page A13


When it comes to drugs, the White House is singing loud and clear: Blame Canada. But many Americans are singing a different tune: Praise Canada.

As the Bush administration tries to bully you into submission on drug-policy matters, please keep the following in mind.

First, everything under way and under consideration in Canada is well-grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, as well as taxpayers' interests. Every independent commission to examine marijuana policy, from Australia to the United States, has concluded that punitive prohibitions do more harm than good.

The medicinal value of marijuana is beyond dispute. As well, safer injection sites (such as Vancouver's) have proven effective in reducing drug overdoses, infections, risky injection practices and public nuisance. The White House may not like what you're doing, but you've got the evidence on your side.

Second, Canada's drug policy initiatives may be progressive by North American standards, but not by those of the advanced industrialized world. Switzerland is poised to leapfrog the Dutch cannabis policy and establish a legal regulatory system. Belgium just decriminalized marijuana. (Jamaica plans to as well, but like you, faces U.S. intimidation.) Dozens of safer injection sites now operate successfully in Western Europe and Australia. It's the United States, not Canada, that's out of step.

Third, there's no evidence that the drug policy reforms under way in Canada increase drug abuse. The best U.S. study of marijuana decriminalization (by a Canadian scholar, Eric Single) found no difference in use rates between the 11 states that decriminalized marijuana during the 1970s and others that did not. Ditto for needle exchange, heroin maintenance and safer injection sites.

Fourth, the principal impact of drug policies is not on levels of drug use but on death, disease, crime and the criminal justice system. By and large, the more punitive the approach, the greater the harms that result. Thus, the United States represents 5 per cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of the world's prison population. Almost half a million people are locked up for violating a drug law (more than all of Western Europe locks up for everything). This brutal incarceration rate is part and parcel of U.S. drug policy. Canadians, beware.

Fifth, don't underestimate the extremism of the Bush administration on drug policy. The medical marijuana issue is most revealing. Almost 80 per cent of Americans believe marijuana should be legally available as a medicine, when recommended by a doctor. Every state ballot initiative on the issue has won. Now even state legislatures are approving medical marijuana. The U.S. Institute of Medicine says marijuana has medicinal value. Yet the Bush administration disagrees -- and also says needle exchange doesn't reduce HIV/AIDS, notwithstanding the scientific studies and consensus that it does.

This isn't the first time the U.S. government has tried to bludgeon Canada into adopting backward U.S. policies. In the 1920s, it tried to compel Canada to help enforce U.S. alcohol prohibition. Canada resisted -- as you had the century before, when you rejected U.S. demands for the return of fugitive slaves. Think of the war on drugs as America's addiction. Canada's obligation, as friend and neighbour, is to speak to power.

Ethan Nadelmann is executive director of the U.S.-based Drug Policy Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org) and author of Cops Across Borders: The Internationalization of U.S. Criminal Law Enforcement.


--------------------
"Life has never been weird enough for my liking"

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Anonymous

Re: Stop the Assault on Medical Marijuana! [Re: Rono]
    #1567221 - 05/21/03 08:14 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Good post. Me likey.

Edited by babytripster (05/21/03 08:14 PM)

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Offlinegrib
 User Gallery

Folding@home Statistics
Registered: 03/01/03
Posts: 550
Loc: Here and there
Last seen: 9 years, 9 months
Re: Stop the Assault on Medical Marijuana! [Re: silversoul7]
    #1568731 - 05/22/03 09:01 AM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Silver - while I do agree with the basis of that message I find it difficult to respect the source. The ACLU are not about civil liberties. One of many references are their law-suits backing racist preferences, i.e., 'affirmative action'.

>>><<<

Rono - good article. I especially like this part, "...the principal impact of drug policies is not on levels of drug use but on death, disease, crime and the criminal justice system. By and large, the more punitive the approach, the greater the harms that result. Thus, the United States represents 5 per cent of the world's population and 25 per cent of the world's prison population. Almost half a million people are locked up for violating a drug law (more than all of Western Europe locks up for everything). This brutal incarceration rate is part and parcel of U.S. drug policy. Canadians, beware. "

>>><<<

I see no way to win against government oppression on a national level. The United States is too large and points of view range from extreme communists to extreme fascists (not to mention the inherent fear of the unknown, e.g., a non-Republican or Democrat president or congressmen). People need to start locally by voting for individuals who hold their point of view. In some localities hopefully that point of view will be based in fairness. If that is done then starting with city-councils, mayors, etc., the issue of drug laws can begin to be addressed locally. If enough localities forbid the arrest of an individual for possession of an 'illegal' drug then the feds will have a tougher time of it.

The main point here is: VOTE!


--------------------
<~>Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake <~>

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
OfflineAzmodeus
Seeker

Registered: 11/27/02
Posts: 3,392
Loc: Lotus Land!! B.C.
Last seen: 19 years, 2 months
Re: Stop the Assault on Medical Marijuana! [Re: grib]
    #1569058 - 05/22/03 12:00 PM (20 years, 10 months ago)

Or everyone grow some ethnobotanicals in thier house. :wink:


--------------------
"Know your Body - Know your Mind - Know your Substance - Know your Source.

Lest we forget. "

Extras: Filter Print Post Top
Jump to top Pages: 1

Shop: Bridgetown Botanicals Bridgetown Botanicals   Kraken Kratom Kratom Capsules for Sale   Original Sensible Seeds Autoflowering Cannabis Seeds   North Spore Injection Grain Bag


Similar ThreadsPosterViewsRepliesLast post
* Where the candidates stand on Medical Marijuana infidelGOD 1,591 11 02/01/04 02:36 PM
by Le_Canard
* Victory for Medical Marijuana Patients in Court! silversoul7 1,190 9 12/19/03 12:55 AM
by silversoul7
* Victory for Medical Marijuana silversoul7 613 1 10/14/03 04:00 PM
by luvdemshrooms
* Regarding The Supreme Court's Anti Medical Marijuana Ruling mjshroomer 2,937 7 05/15/01 09:12 AM
by bivalve
* Action Alert: Congress to Vote on Medical Marijuana Le_Canard 639 2 06/04/04 12:06 PM
by Le_Canard
* Medical Marijuana silversoul7 704 11 07/22/03 04:04 PM
by SlapnutRob
* medical Marijuana one step closer. Innvertigo 614 1 10/14/03 09:19 AM
by afoaf
* Senators Join in Unshackling Medical Marijuana silversoul7 426 0 10/24/03 03:19 PM
by silversoul7

Extra information
You cannot start new topics / You cannot reply to topics
HTML is disabled / BBCode is enabled
Moderator: Enlil, ballsalsa
653 topic views. 6 members, 10 guests and 40 web crawlers are browsing this forum.
[ Show Images Only | Sort by Score | Print Topic ]
Search this thread:

Copyright 1997-2024 Mind Media. Some rights reserved.

Generated in 0.019 seconds spending 0.006 seconds on 14 queries.