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veggie

Registered: 07/25/04
Posts: 17,504
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Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown
#8258384 - 04/09/08 01:23 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown April 9, 2008 - earthtimes.org
Phnom Penh - Changing times and politics in South-East Asia may finally spell extinction for one of the most famous (or infamous) fusion cuisines enjoyed by backpackers, Cambodia's "happy pizza."Legendary amongst travelers for more than a decade, this hippy's little helper version of pizza is simply the traditional Italian favourite with a Cambodian twist - the rich tomato base comes heavily laced with marijuana.
Although officially illegal for several years, locals have traditionally used marijuana in soups or medicinally. Pioneering travelers crossing the Lao-Cambodian border previously even reported a small garden of the stuff being lovingly tended by customs officials.
And then foreign inspiration transformed the drug into arguably the world's most talked-about pizza topping. Dozens of happy pizza parlours sprang up around the country as backpack tourism boomed.
But now the Cambodian government's current battle against drugs has given "pizza wars" a whole new meaning.
This week marijuana was claimed as Cambodia's first "total victory" in eliminating a drug from both domestic and export markets by Interior Ministry anti-drug chief, Police General Lou Ramin.
"Marijuana is no longer a problem in Cambodia," he declared. "We are strengthening our monitoring throughout the country and its borders."
Massive plantations which once required helicopter airlifts to clear them have been wiped out, he said, leaving the government free to concentrate on the increasingly prevalent evils of heroin, cocaine and synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines.
The government's anti-grass putsch began in 1999, when seven elderly women who had previously openly sold marijuana at traditional medicine stalls in one of the capital's largest markets were arrested in a police raid and 38 kilos of the weed were confiscated.
Back then, a compressed brick of marijuana sold for around 2 dollars, and a packet of 25 ready-rolled cigarettes was just a dollar, according to experts, but inflation and repeated crackdowns quickly pushed the price up to a dollar per cigarette.
Somehow, however, the iconic happy pizza survived, until now.
The spiked pizza's status as a backpacker's rite of passage has earned it mentions even on reputable travel websites such as Lonely Planet. YouTube features videos of it being made, eaten, sold - and its extremely potent side effects.
"This is my journey into Happy Pizzaland Phnom Penh. The obvious happened - paranoia, and missing two paid-for flights back to Bangkok. FOOL!!!" one YouTube poster writes of his video clip.
A former Foreigner Police officer says that tourists ingesting marijuana in pizza form often got dangerously out of hand in culturally conservative Cambodia.
"Many times I saw people take their clothes off after eating this - especially women. Some people laugh, but some cry, and some just jump in the lake," he said.
Expatriates familiar with the potent pizza grin when they tell the story of one of the capital's most famous happy pizza chefs admitting himself to hospital and spending the night on a drip after sampling a slice of his own cuisine for the first - and last - time.
For most adventurous tourists, however, "happy pizza" provided no more than a great travel yarn, insists one of the country's dwindling chefs of Cambodia's quasi-clandestine classic, speaking on condition of anonymity.
On his menu, it costs as little as 3 dollars for a small pizza of happiness.
But he agrees that life as a purveyor of happy pizza is becoming increasingly precarious and expensive.
"It is much more expensive to make now because of the ingredients," he says. "The special ingredient costs much more now, but our biggest problem is that tourists do not ask for it anymore because they are afraid it is illegal."
"We still make the happy pizza if the tourists ask directly, but we put less special ingredient now because we don't want any problems with the police if they get crazy."
So how long can the marijuana pizza last out the law?
"The government goal is that this drug does not exist any more in Cambodia," says Police General Lou Ramin. "We will only be satisfied when it is not available at all."
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John Smith
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: veggie]
#8258591 - 04/09/08 03:51 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Its medicine you fuckers.
-------------------- I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8258796 - 04/09/08 06:40 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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It's their country, who are you to tell them what to do?
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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THEBats
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8258832 - 04/09/08 07:09 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
"The government goal is that this drug does not exist any more in Cambodia," says Police General Lou Ramin. "We will only be satisfied when it is not available at all."
Looks like this guy will never be satisfied.
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John Smith
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8258913 - 04/09/08 08:12 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Madtowntripper said: It's their country, who are you to tell them what to do?
It was "us" that put the pressure on these countries to ban weed and the rest of the drugs.
Its not like I am meddling in someone else's affairs. The US "War on Drugs" told them what to do.
-------------------- I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
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teaparty
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8259038 - 04/09/08 09:20 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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damn. i planned on gettin' stoned before i bought an 8 year old prostitute.
-------------------- I'm so ahead of my time, my parents haven't met yet.
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myshoesarered
Mushabelly Snoozem



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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: teaparty]
#8259342 - 04/09/08 11:14 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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This is such bullshit. It's been used for many generations as a spice in traditional cooking. Most native Cambodians don't even use it to get stoned. The tourists are the ones that have brought it into the international spotlight. Imagine that you're a baker in the U.S. making some nice poppy seed muffins when all of a sudden some Cambodian officials kick down your door.
Globalization is slowly destroying local cultures everywhere, add the war on drugs and the process is only exacerbated. Only when the entire planet is one muddled mass of medicated Wal-Mart shoppers who have never heard the word "Marijuana" will the U.S. rest easy.
Good luck Happy Herb...
-------------------- "What a beautiful face I have found in this place that is circling all round the sun, and when we meet on a cloud I'll be laughing out loud, I'll be laughing at everyone I see, Can't believe, how strange it is to be anything at all..." "...nobody has yet died of amazement & you always come back to planet Earth..."
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unborn
i had a title then i lost it.


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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: veggie]
#8259385 - 04/09/08 11:24 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
veggie said: and synthetic drugs such as methamphetamines.
I really hate when people say methamphetamines. It really shows the authors ignorance. There are many forms of amphetamine, but only one methamphetamine.
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LoWgRoW
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: myshoesarered]
#8259658 - 04/09/08 12:34 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
myshoesarered said: . Only when the entire planet is one muddled mass of medicated Wal-Mart shoppers who have never heard the word "Marijuana" will the U.S. rest easy.
so true and well said.
-------------------- Avoid negative people.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8259892 - 04/09/08 01:22 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
John Smith said:
Quote:
Madtowntripper said: It's their country, who are you to tell them what to do?
It was "us" that put the pressure on these countries to ban weed and the rest of the drugs.
Its not like I am meddling in someone else's affairs. The US "War on Drugs" told them what to do.
You make a bunch of assumptions.
Does it say that anywhere in the article?
Isn't there a substantial Muslim population in Nepal? There was last time I checked.
Sounds more like a internal cultural thing than the result of some gun-toting American boogeyman.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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John Smith
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8262941 - 04/10/08 01:58 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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wtf are you talking about madtowntripper? You make no sense at all. My shoesarered's reply is a good example of what I was I trying to say.
nepal? muslims? cultural thing? wtf man. Since when making weed illegal a cultural thing. It was used for millenia until the West decided that petrol and pharms are more lucrative and banned it.
and nepal?


you are off a couple of miles
-------------------- I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8262959 - 04/10/08 02:05 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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I'm just saying that you have no right to tell another country what they want to do!
Where in that article does it say that the evil US government made them do this?
I missed that part!
And of course I didn't mean Nepal.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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John Smith
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8263062 - 04/10/08 03:04 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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the point is that the crackdown on cannabis is a result of "telling them what to do". it doesnt say so in THIS article. but just look around and you will find one that talks about it. or just use some common sense.
why were you talking about nepal then?
-------------------- I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
Edited by John Smith (04/10/08 03:05 AM)
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8263073 - 04/10/08 03:12 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Listen, just cut out the one time I mentioned Nepal and put in Cambodia.
I just don't see the morality in telling another country how they should live.
It's the same with all of the people screaming about the harsh drug sentences in Indonesia or Dubai. Yes, I may not agree. You may not either.
But it's their fucking country and they can do as they want. When you move to Cambodia, feel free to advocate whatever laws you want.
But you don't, its their country, and to unilaterally decide w/out any evidence at all that they are absolute pawns to some vicious and conspiratorial United States plot is silly, arrogant, and condescending.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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John Smith
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8263096 - 04/10/08 03:28 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Ignorance is bliss then
-------------------- I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers



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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8263101 - 04/10/08 03:31 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Is thinking you know everything any better than pure ignorance?
Somehow, I don't think so.
You don't have all the answers, kid.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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John Smith
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8264183 - 04/10/08 12:28 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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If you think the drug policy of asia and the middle east (or any other country) was conceived by the countries themselves, without external manipulation and coercion then you are mistaken.
Anyway I dont know in what kind of crusade you are on or why, and am gonna end this right now, since you dont even consider that there is more to it that meets the eye.
And, no, I dont have all the answers. In fact I know nothing.
-------------------- I have no idea what I am talking about but I do know I say things you don't understand and if you do understand what I am saying then you are wrong.
Edited by John Smith (04/10/08 12:30 PM)
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kindadank
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: John Smith]
#8264571 - 04/10/08 02:17 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
John Smith said: If you think the drug policy of asia and the middle east (or any other country) was conceived by the countries themselves, without external manipulation and coercion then you are mistaken.
Anyway I dont know in what kind of crusade you are on or why, and am gonna end this right now, since you dont even consider that there is more to it that meets the eye.
And, no, I dont have all the answers. In fact I know nothing.
John Smith is right about the drug policy in asia and the majority of the world. On the other hand the extremely harsh laws in certain muslim nations were created due to their fundamentalist leadership/population. The countries I am talking about are Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, and so on.
If you don't think that the US drug laws have any effect on the laws of other nations throughout the world, then you are just not seeing the whole picture. There are many ways the US has strong armed willing or unwilling governments to bend to our will and change their drug laws.
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myshoesarered
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: Madtowntripper]
#8266985 - 04/10/08 10:50 PM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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Quote:
Madtowntripper said:[/b
Where in that article does it say that the evil US government made them do this?
Actually, Cambodia couldn't have given two fucks about marijuana use. The U.S. (among others) have been pressuring them for years to tighten the reigns a bit. Sorry I don't have sources, I've done a bit of research about Cambodia over the past year. A friend and I are planning a trip.
-------------------- "What a beautiful face I have found in this place that is circling all round the sun, and when we meet on a cloud I'll be laughing out loud, I'll be laughing at everyone I see, Can't believe, how strange it is to be anything at all..." "...nobody has yet died of amazement & you always come back to planet Earth..."
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mile69
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Re: Cambodia's 'happy pizza' faces chop in drug crackdown [Re: myshoesarered]
#8276733 - 04/13/08 06:28 AM (15 years, 10 months ago) |
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happy pizza?
holy crap. i had a personal pan "happy pizza" with some mushrooms on it. i seriously wasn't right for 2 days.
it was enjoyable....for a little while.
i realized much later that i should have had a slice...not the whole thing.
my experience was Siam Reap though.
it will not go away.
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