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Current Affairs 2006 - Youth (33 items)
| Dec 15, 2006 | Social Workers Unsure How To Deal With Grow-Op Kids B.C.'s social workers say they want the government to draft clear guidelines on dealing with children found in marijuana grow- operations "without having to wait for children to die."
But Children and Family Development Minister Tom Christensen says current legislation provides clear enough guidelines so further action is not needed. ...But Christensen said legislation allows the removal of children found in a grow-op "and typically that is what happens."
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| Dec 12, 2006 | 6 Kids Seized In Drug Houses Six children have been taken into custody following two marijuana grow op busts in Calgary, their parents set to become the first in the city charged under provincial legislation aimed at protecting kids living in drug homes...."It comes down to organized crime and making profits. They will sacrifice their families to make a profit," said the Ward 13 alderman. "I hope that if these parents are found guilty, that they never get their kids back."
[ Pure evil - the spin that it is heartless criminals making profits, rather than possibly families trying to supplement meager incomes with a bit of extra income so they won't have to live on the street. Either way, tearing families apart for growing plants (that many people are eager to buy) ensures there are emotionally scared victims for life - and we allow these people to rule our lives? Are we insane?] |
| Dec 8, 2006 | Steady Increase in Marijuana Use Some young people start off by smoking marijuana even before they try cigarettes, says Dr. Scott Leatherdale, researcher at Cancer Care Ontario, University of Waterloo and University of Toronto.
That's quite the opposite of how things used to be years ago.
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| Dec 6, 2006 | Roots Of Drug Use Not Tackled, Says Expert The legal system is failing to shield the public from the effects of drugs, so the RCMP is tackling the responsibility of prevention more than ever. ...Those studies show that each child needs at least four positive adult role models in their lives in order to diminish the chances of problem drug use later in life. She suggested it was part of a Mountie's mandate to try to be one of those positive role models....
"Right now the barn door is wide open and no one is there to shut it," Rintoul said.
[It is quite terrifying to see the path we have been going down in the decades since the war on (some) substance users began. The dogs, the lockdowns, the lack of respect - How many baby boomers would have gone on to graduate under those conditions? Unfortunately, they try and make sure that was the last rebellious generation to exist - since then they have ramped up attempting to shape obedient puppets. You certainly can not blame today's kids for looking at alternative education options. ] |
| Nov 29, 2006 | Students Need To Be Re-Educated On Dangers Of Pot "The government is realizing how much money is spent on weed, and they're upset that they aren't getting a part of that money through taxes. But they know they can't legalize it now, with everyone thinking it's a 'hardcore' drug so they are letting on it is a 'soft' drug, so that in a couple years they will be able to legalize it because everyone will think it's no big deal," Powell said.
I think that we need to re-educate the youth in how dangerous weed really is and eliminate this theory before it spreads out of control.
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| Nov 28, 2006 | Right-Wing Reefer Conservative Leader John Tory used marijuana as a high school and university student, once favoured lighter sentences for pot traffickers and even drove while "stoned."...
"That was then and this is now," he said. "I'm 30 years older, hopefully a lot wiser. I think these are experiences that kids often have that help them to learn lessons and shape their attitudes when they get older."
[Classic example of why pot didn't become legal when all those lawbreaking teenagers who tried it became the lawmakers decades later ] |
| Nov 24, 2006 | Drug Free Zones A Failed Experiment? Judges may hand out longer sentences to people who traffic drugs around schools, but the Drug Free Zone program is hardly worth the signs it is written on.
The zones were established about seven years ago in a joint effort between the police and school board. The announced goal was harsher sentences for people trafficking within the zones around schools, although that appears to have been more wishful thinking than legal thinking.
"The intent of the zones is certainly a good one, and they have been effective to some degree," said School District 23 Supt. Mike Roberts, "but they haven't had the impact that was hoped for at the beginning.
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| Nov 24, 2006 | Pot More Addictive For Youth, Drug Expert Warns OTTAWA -- Young People Can Easily Become Dependent on Marijuana Because Their Brains Are Still Developing, Says an Expert on Youth Substance Abuse.
"Kids can get addicted really quickly, like six months," said Kathy Szirtes, who spoke Thursday at a public forum in Ottawa on problematic marijuana use among youth. "An adult may take two years, but kids can take six months because their bodies are still soft and growing. The teen brain really isn't done growing."
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| Nov 24, 2006 | Straight Talk Teen Drug and Alcohol Use Is a Fact of Life in Every Community. Most of It Is Experimental; Rarely Does It Lead to Addiction. ...In 2003, youth aged 13 to 18 filled out a survey and one in five said they had tried marijuana. More than half said they had used alcohol. These are not surprising statistics, but they should make parents take notice.
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| Nov 16, 2006 | Stoned By Jury ury nullification ( when a jury goes against the law or a judge's instructions ) is alive and well in Canada. With jury deliberations shrouded in secrecy, a jury always has the implied power and ability to ignore the law and decide a case in accordance with its moral intuition....
For the most part, Canadians do not respect laws that stand in the way of relieving pain and suffering. This is why the Krieger jury had difficulty convicting in the face of clear technical guilt. So when I am asked about the legal status of the centres, I usually mumble something like "probably illegal but non-prosecutable."
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| Nov 16, 2006 | Gettin' The Dope On Pot More than one in four Ontario high school students used marijuana last year.
So Parent Action on Drugs is launching a new provincial campaign to teach teens and their parents that marijuana is not a benign drug, that it can produce serious side effects like failing grades, sleep deprivation and anger-management problems.
The "What's With Weed" program doesn't push for zero use -- the old "just say no" approach to drugs -- but instead asks students to consider whether their pot use has become a problem in their lives.
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| Nov 1, 2006 | Crystal Meth Documentary Tells Scary Truth Aaron Webb lost a third of his life to crystal meth-amphetamine. ... He didn't use the most conventional methods to quit, either.
"I smoked a hell of a lot of dope, smoked a lot of weed to keep my mind off it," Webb says.
After a couple weeks, he smoked less and less, finally quitting drugs altogether.
[ A truth that often is ignored is pot can help loosen the grip of damaging addiction to hard drugs.Do the powers that be care?] |
| Nov 1, 2006 | Kids Protected From Grow Ops One week after three Calgary children were found living in a home used as a marijuana grow op, a law enabling police to charge unfit parents for exposing their kids to drugs comes into effect.
Under the Drug Endangered Children Act, officers can seize kids found in narcotics situations, as well as charge the family members who put them in harm's way.
[Although the intention of these laws sound good, there is too much room for abuse of the system by authority in deciding "what is best for the children"] |
| Sep 29, 2006 | Elementary School Suspends Boy For Pot The principal at Mildred Hall school hopes a Grade 7 student caught with marijuana last week can chalk it up as a learning experience.
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| Sep 23, 2006 | Four Arrested As Police Search Schools For Drugs Four youths were arrested this week after police scoured three city high schools looking for drugs.
No names were released, and police -- who seized small amounts of marijuana and drug paraphernalia -- didn't say whether those arrested were students....The searches were part of regular rotating school blitzes done by police, she said.
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| Aug 28, 2006 | Resurrect 'Reefer Madness' As Reason To Crack Down on Marijuana A pair of articles in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry has resurrected the "reefer madness" argument about marijuana and its links to mental illness.
Cannabis use can trigger schizophrenia in people already vulnerable to the mental illness -- and this fact should shape marijuana policy, argue two psychiatric epidemiologists in this month's journal.
"This is that old hobgoblin that resurfaces now and again. There's nothing new in the literature. They just keep rehashing the old literature."
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| Aug 23, 2006 | Teens Giving Up Butts For Weed? Indeed, 68 per cent of teenagers in a recent Quebec poll said they had never smoked. Only 19 per cent of high school students now smoke on a daily basis. This number stood at 30 per cent eight years ago....A recent Universite de Montreal survey claims that marijuana has taken Montreal-area high school students by storm.
A whopping 15 per cent of the 1,000 high school students surveyed said they smoked pot daily. An incredible 10 per cent -- meaning three students in a class of 30 -- claimed they were hooked. ...But that 10 per cent of your child's classmates are dependent on pot -- I don't buy it. The number is just too high.
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| Aug 16, 2006 | PUB LTE: Teen Puzzled By Police Action Open letter for Nelson City Police Detective Sgt. Steve Bank. ...I am a 16-year-old girl and have lived in Nelson for a total of 11 years... In the article in the Nelson Daily News, you said that "it is not tolerated. The Holy Smoke - their ( alleged ) activity is not tolerated by the police or frankly by the people in the community." How can you speak for the people of the community? I suggest that you check the public opinion before you make such a statement that is obviously not supported by the entire population of Nelson
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| Aug 11, 2006 | PUB LTE: Reducing Accidents - Pot Is Not The Real Claiming that the driver might have been impaired on marijuana is a nebulous assertion [Grieving mom seeks change, July 28, Langley Advance], and the fact that charges related to the claim were dropped suggests that it's very likely that marijuana impairment may have had nothing to do with the accident.
Hundreds of thousands of people drive every day while impaired by legal prescription drugs, but when they are involved in fatal accidents, their legal drug use is not highlighted in the media.
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| Aug 2, 2006 | Mother Doping Around Children, Court Hears A 34-YEAR-OLD mother pled guilty last week to possessing cannabis marijuana after she offered a joint to her teenage son and daughter...
The Wasaga Beach resident received 18 months probation on a suspended sentence, Tuesday....
"Life can be a little complex," began the judge, adding: "Often choices are made that are inappropriate but so frequently made, so people start to think, 'Hey, there's not a whole lot wrong with this.' "Minors will likely find marijuana without the assistance of their parents," Wilson wrote.
To remove the context of "spousal revenge" rather than geniune concern, if the susbstance in question was legal - alcohol or cigarettes, would the parenting skills still be questioned?
Prohibition creates an avenue to persecute and discriminate against 'illicit' drug users so they are always at a disadvantage from those around them. Why are law makers so afraid of a level playing field? |
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