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Current Affairs 2007 - Top Rated (36 items)
| Jun 15, 2007 | The Great and Costly Drug-War Fraud It is my privilege today to break major news: In less than a year, the trade in illicit drugs will be all but wiped out.Cocaine. Methamphetamine. Marijuana. All will vanish. And heroin, too. ...In 1998, the UN hosted a General Assembly special session under the official slogan: "A Drug-Free World: We Can Do It." ....
The U.S. was the main author of the first draft, and it was ambitious, saying the "eradication" of the illicit-drug trade would be complete by 2008.
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| Jun 13, 2007 | SN: Student Suspended For Opinion On Pot REGINA ( SNN ) -- Kieran King says he has never smoked pot, but his views on marijuana have led to his suspension from Wawota Parkland School.
King said he was threatened with police action by principal Susan Wilson after telling friends at the school that marijuana was less harmful than alcohol.
"In my opinion, cannabis is safer than they say, it is not worse than alcohol or tobacco," said King, a 15-year-old Grade 10 student. Wilson accused King of using and selling marijuana at school, according to a media release issued by the Saskatchewan Marijuana Party. King has offered to submit to a voluntary drug test to prove otherwise.
"I've never smoked marijuana. I've never even seen it," said King, an honours student.
[Incredible courage by a young person who chose not to conform. ] |
| Jun 13, 2007 | Put the Gangs Out of Business: Legalize D Childhood and adolescence should rightfully be a time of love, learning and life. But for thousands of young Canadians, their journey to adulthood is marred forever by street-gang involvement, which almost always means an active role in the massive business of illicit street drugs, too. ...Many allocate blame to street gangsters for this sorry state of affairs -- the idea being that if it weren't for these aggressive and money-hungry "pushers," we wouldn't have such a problem. However, this reasoning is incomplete: It fails to consider the demand generated by millions of Canadians of all ages who, at least once this year, will act on their desire and make a back-alley purchase of an illicit drug...Finally, we need to embark upon drug legalization, which will starve gangs of their principal oxygen supply and serve to upset the attractive risk-reward proposition that every new gangster now faces.
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| Apr 28, 2007 | Is This The Answer? Legalizing Street Drugs: Bold Move Could Starve Gangs, Respected Author Argues ...Commissioned by the federal government to write the 2002 Canadian Police Survey on Youth Gangs, Chettleburgh gave a sweeping look at street gangsterism which he'll be updating later this year.
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| Apr 14, 2007 | Canadian, American Cops Say It's Time To End Drug Prohibition, Save Live But some former law enforcement officials in Canada and the United States who have spent years fighting the ongoing war on drugs say it's a losing battle....They include Senator Larry Campbell, a former RCMP drug squad officer and Vancouver mayor who ran on a platform of reducing harm from drug use. ...Const. John Gayder of the Niagara Parks Police in Niagara Falls, Ont., is a founding member of LEAP.
He says in the film that he gives drug calls a low priority because arresting such people isn't helping them. ... Jerry Paradis, who retired as a B.C. provincial court judge four years ago, is also a LEAP member and after 35 years on the bench, he echoes Gayder's sentiments .
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| Apr 5, 2007 | What Have They Been Smoking At Health Canada? ...Health Canada has stated in court that compassion clubs have historically provided a safe source to those with medical need. But on the licence application there is no option to choose compassion clubs as a supply source. Applicants after a high quality legal product are out of luck. Hoops for those in need, loopholes for those in power. ...
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| Apr 5, 2007 | Wait You Mean Weed's Not Legal Yet? t was the subject of international hype a few years ago: the great liberal northern bastion of Canada was planning to decriminalize marijuana, snubbing its nose at its neo-conservative southern neighbour's War on Drugs.
But the Liberal government that introduced the proposed decriminalization law let it die, and its Conservative successor has promised not to revive it.
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| Mar 17, 2007 | No Business Like Marijuana BRITISH Columbia is fast becoming the only province in Canada in which the biggest industry is illegal. In 2005, forestry ( $10 million ) was B.C.'s top economic driver, and construction ( $7.9 billion ) ranked second. But what was this, coming up fast on the inside to move into third place? The marijuana industry. Puff, puff.
With annual sales of $7.5 billion, it was worth more than the combined total of hotels and restaurants ( $3.8 billion ) and mining, oil and gas ( $3.5 billion ). Construction now booms as never before in B.C., but that won't stop the pot trade from steaming into second spot. After that, forestry industry, watch your behind.
"The amount of marijuana produced each year in British Columbia," said a 2005 study by the University College of Fraser Valley, "is estimated to have increased from 19,729 kilos in 1997 to 79,817 in 2003."
Is this a growth industry, or what?
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| Mar 9, 2007 | A Futile War On Marijuana Grow-ops are dangerous because they're clandestine, not because there's something intrinsically hazardous about the plants in them. The only reason for chasing them down, at root, is a prohibitionary approach toward marijuana that we don't apply to alcohol or nicotine.
The war on pot is futile. It's long since time to declare a ceasefire.
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| Mar 3, 2007 | Recreational Drugs Should Be Legalized Author: Laurie Cook, MD
Society does not criminalize alcohol consumption. Previous attempts to do so resulted in widespread disregard for the law and generated criminal empires. And these attempts did not work. Smokers are not criminals and the government aggressively promotes gambling. Both activities are widely accepted to be harmful and addicting. What about gasoline, hairspray and glue? All are used to "get high."
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| Feb 22, 2007 | Canada Must Not Follow The U.S. On Drug Policy The U.S. drug czar, John Walters, is in Ottawa today, trying his best to put a positive spin on one of the greatest disasters in U.S. foreign and domestic policy. Part of his agenda is to persuade Canada to follow in U.S. footsteps, which can only happen if Canadians ignore science, compassion, health and human rights.
The United States ranks first in the world in per-capita incarceration, with roughly five per cent of the earth's population but 25 per cent of the total incarcerated population. Russia and China simply can't keep up. Among the 2.2 million people behind bars today in the United States, roughly half a million are locked up for drug-law violations, and hundreds of thousands more for other "drug-related" offences. The U.S. "war on drugs" costs at least $40 billion U.S. a year in direct costs, and tens of billions more in indirect costs.
It's all useful information for Canadians to keep in mind when being encouraged to further toughen their drug laws to bring them in line with those of the United States.
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| Jan 18, 2007 | Reefer Madness' No Reason to Seize More Children BC: Why is the B.C. Association of Social Workers beating the bushes to have more children taken into care?
Association spokesman Paul Jenkinson has been stumping the provincial media urging that the government start seizing children found in homes with marijuana-growing operations. There's "a crisis" out there, in his opinion, and fast action by Victoria is required. ... Jenkinson is peddling reefer madness. His suggestion that we begin seizing more children and putting them in provincial care would only exacerbate what is already a bad situation.
[Hooray! Sentiments from a perspective outside the status quo] |
| Jan 17, 2007 | War On Drugs Needs New Strategy Canada is losing the "war on drugs" and unless the government changes its strategy, the casualties of illegal drug use will continue to climb....This "get tough" approach has not worked in the United States and will not work here. It's a philosophy that panders to public sentiment that seeks to punish those struggling with addiction, rather than reduce the harm done by it. ...Good politics doesn't always translate into good policy. And when the policy can be proven to do more harm than good, it's time for voters to take a long hard look at why governments persist in a course of action detrimental to the public's health.
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| Jan 12, 2007 | Government Created A System Benefitting The Worst One Percent The disturbing trend by RCMP to arrest and detain people for marijuana possession, trafficking and usage is irresponsible in this day and age.
After numerous commissions, hundreds of thousands of hours of governmental time consumed studying marijuana, the consensus in Canada remains that marijuana should not be illegal and the denial of this most natural and basic medicine is extreme to the point of undue hardship.
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| Jan 11, 2007 | When Cops Inhale Did the Toronto Police narcs who swooped down on the Church of the Universe congregation in the Beaches, arresting 22 and laying 205 pot charges, actually inhale?
That's a loaded question for those worried about lack of accountability when it comes to officers breaking the law during investigations.
And if some of the arrestees are right, coppers did toke on-scene in the course of their reconnoitering.
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| Jan 3, 2007 | Paper Here to Stay So Let's Make It With Hemp PAPER HERE TO STAY SO LET'S MAKE IT WITH HEMP
The Forest Can't Withstand Our Assault
Paper will always be with us. Electronic media will enhance and broaden our scope for communication, but computer files, documents, sound bytes and photo ops cannot and should not replace paper. Paper provides the way to record thoughts and ideas that cannot be erased or altered with a few keystrokes. Books and newspapers give you something to hold and touch and feel. Reading a newspaper with the morning cuppa is part of the fabric of the day. It is a basic right of life in a civilized society.
Paper lasts longer than electronic bytes. Paper will last on shelves for decades and always be available. However electronic material can be lost in a nanosecond when a tree drops over a hydro line or a hacker makes his way through to your archives.
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