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The new axis of evil - the US , the UN, & the Dutch!
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Having been so pissed off with developments this week, despite being crap at English, I've pened this piece - any comments welcomed!
The new axis of evil - the US , the UN, & the Dutch!
US War on Drugs stepped-up!
UN hits out at new UK cannabis law!
Dutch Coffeeshop system threaten!
As countries across the world are relaxing their laws on cannabis, a new axis of evil against the cannabis community has appeared, spearheaded by the US Federal Government!
Unlike Europe where cannabis laws are enforced, by and large, by police and customs - who have far more important things to be doing, America has the all-powerful federal 'Drug Enforcement Agency' (DEA) - it's very existence threaten by any relaxing of drug laws, as it doesn't have any other function!
We all know the US is prohibition mad, they didn't succeed at the time with alcohol - generally enjoyed by the whites, but found it easy with cannabis - generally enjoyed by non-whites, and used their 'reefer madness' campaign to force it's will on the world. Some things ever change!
But things are going crazy across the pond, whilst the UK is about to licence the first legal medical cannabis product, the new US Drug Czar has issued a statement to federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors that there is NO medical use for cannabis, that people claiming medical use should be prosecuted to the full exist of the law! This despite the fact that EIGHT states (California,Oregon, Maine, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado) have legalised medical use of cannabis - the land of the free is certainly the land of the strange!
To make a point the DEA busted Ed Rosenthal, 58, a well-known author of cannabis books, High Times advice columnist and advocate for the medicinal use of cannabis. Ed was deputised by the city of Oakland, California to provide cannabis for those whose doctors recommend it - a fact the judge refused his defence lawyers to use!
Early in 2003 Ed was convicted, but several jurors have since spoken out, saying that had they been aware of the facts they would never have convicted him, and wishing him luck with his appeal - total madness!
In the last week of February, the DEA went further, as the Washington Times, Tuesday 25 Feb 2003, reported: "Federal authorities yesterday arrested 55 persons in what Attorney General John Ashcroft described as the coast-to-coast trafficking of illegal drug paraphernalia from both stores and the Internet."
Several head-shops were raided, a number of US-based cannabis web-sites were re-directed to a government holding page and many other shops & sites closed as a reaction to this clamp-down. Anyone would think America doesn't have a major crack problem, but than again given the choice of raiding a crack-house or head-shop, which would you chose as the safest route to a conviction? Total madness!
The United Nations joined this new axis of evil, during the last week of February, when the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report appeared lashing out at countries sensible enough to be relaxing their cannabis laws, regarding the UK, they claimed we were sending out the "wrong signal" to the rest of the world! Twats!
Note the word 'control' in the body's title - now if they haven't got a vested interest in control, I don't know who has. Think about it - no control would equal no job, so no time to sprout bollocks in an attempt to stop the rolling back of cannabis laws across the world.
The report says the home secretary's decision "could lead to increased cultivation of cannabis destined for the UK and other European countries". A conference was told that the UK decision would "undermine the efforts of governments of African countries to counter illicit cannabis cultivation, trafficking, and abuse".
Someone at the UN is on drugs! No f*cking way will the UK relaxation of cannabis laws result in any large increase in demand for African weed!!! Where did they get these clowns come from? How much are they paying them to write this dribble? How much of taxpayers money has been wasted on this crap?
The Dutch example showed the cannabis market shifted from over 80% imported to over 80% home produced! The UK's Independent Drug Monitoring Unit's figures show year by year increase in home production, up from about 12% to 60+% in the last few years.
I could have written a more honest and accurate report at a fraction of the cost - talking to UK seed and hydro equipment wholesalers, sales are up 200-300% on 2 years ago and prices are coming down, which will expand the market further. New grow and head shops are opening, up and down the country, at least one of which was supported by the Princes' Trust!
Where is all this equipment going? Where are all these seeds being sown? No, not Africa! Maybe Iraq - duel use? No! It's for the home market! Why risk transporting from Africa, when you can set-up in any old industrial unit, barn, greenhouse or closet?
The third axis of evil was far, far more surprising - the new Dutch government, the one country we could hold up as a good model of how legalisation of cannabis could work. After 30 years of the cannabis coffeeshops, Holland is rated by the UN as 12th in a European league table of drug use, whilst the UK is no.1 ! Two countries, one fought a war, the other didn't, which won?
In percentage terms, having broken the 'supply-gateway' between cannabis and hard drugs they have a far lower number of hard-drug addicts, with fewer ‘new recruits’ and therefore a far older average age. They have far fewer under 18s using cannabis and amazingly far fewer of the overall population - prohibition does tend expand, not reduce, a market.
The system works, the main complaint seems to concern coffeeshops near the German border - people popping over the border cause parking problems for the locals!
Plans have been leaked for the new Dutch government's policy on cannabis: they want to close 400 of the 800 regulated coffeeshops in the Netherlands. The same minister that said he would not close the coffeeshops under pressure of Sweden and France, is now about to bow to the demands of the UN & US!
However, coffeeshops are not a matter for government, they are regulated locally and the minister will have to turn to local mayors to do his dirty work. They maybe fearful of the policy being unpopular locally as the coffeeshops have been accepted as a part of society in the areas they are located, without causing any major problems.
The minister could move to ban the sale of cannabis if closures are not forthcoming, but just who would police this, when despite unwanted UN & US demands much of the world is changing as a result of needing to re-focus police resources.
It has been a sad start to the cannabis year, just when things were looking so good, the US once again tries to force its will on the world. I'll leave you with this thought - if they can be so wrong about a virtually harmless herb, what else have they got wrong?
Well one example, John Cleese enters stage right, "Don't mention the war!" - no not that example! 1st March 2003 and delegates to the World Health Organisation agreed on the wording of the world's first-ever anti-smoking treaty, after delays and a comprise because some countries with big tobacco industries - most notably the US and Germany - opposed a global ban on tobacco advertising, saying it violated their constitutional right to free speech.
Good old America - kill them with tobacco, but don't let them expand their minds with cannabis, what a great nation.:mad:
The new axis of evil - the US , the UN, & the Dutch!
US War on Drugs stepped-up!
UN hits out at new UK cannabis law!
Dutch Coffeeshop system threaten!
As countries across the world are relaxing their laws on cannabis, a new axis of evil against the cannabis community has appeared, spearheaded by the US Federal Government!
Unlike Europe where cannabis laws are enforced, by and large, by police and customs - who have far more important things to be doing, America has the all-powerful federal 'Drug Enforcement Agency' (DEA) - it's very existence threaten by any relaxing of drug laws, as it doesn't have any other function!
We all know the US is prohibition mad, they didn't succeed at the time with alcohol - generally enjoyed by the whites, but found it easy with cannabis - generally enjoyed by non-whites, and used their 'reefer madness' campaign to force it's will on the world. Some things ever change!
But things are going crazy across the pond, whilst the UK is about to licence the first legal medical cannabis product, the new US Drug Czar has issued a statement to federal law enforcement officers and prosecutors that there is NO medical use for cannabis, that people claiming medical use should be prosecuted to the full exist of the law! This despite the fact that EIGHT states (California,Oregon, Maine, Washington, Hawaii, Alaska, Nevada and Colorado) have legalised medical use of cannabis - the land of the free is certainly the land of the strange!
To make a point the DEA busted Ed Rosenthal, 58, a well-known author of cannabis books, High Times advice columnist and advocate for the medicinal use of cannabis. Ed was deputised by the city of Oakland, California to provide cannabis for those whose doctors recommend it - a fact the judge refused his defence lawyers to use!
Early in 2003 Ed was convicted, but several jurors have since spoken out, saying that had they been aware of the facts they would never have convicted him, and wishing him luck with his appeal - total madness!
In the last week of February, the DEA went further, as the Washington Times, Tuesday 25 Feb 2003, reported: "Federal authorities yesterday arrested 55 persons in what Attorney General John Ashcroft described as the coast-to-coast trafficking of illegal drug paraphernalia from both stores and the Internet."
Several head-shops were raided, a number of US-based cannabis web-sites were re-directed to a government holding page and many other shops & sites closed as a reaction to this clamp-down. Anyone would think America doesn't have a major crack problem, but than again given the choice of raiding a crack-house or head-shop, which would you chose as the safest route to a conviction? Total madness!
The United Nations joined this new axis of evil, during the last week of February, when the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) report appeared lashing out at countries sensible enough to be relaxing their cannabis laws, regarding the UK, they claimed we were sending out the "wrong signal" to the rest of the world! Twats!
Note the word 'control' in the body's title - now if they haven't got a vested interest in control, I don't know who has. Think about it - no control would equal no job, so no time to sprout bollocks in an attempt to stop the rolling back of cannabis laws across the world.
The report says the home secretary's decision "could lead to increased cultivation of cannabis destined for the UK and other European countries". A conference was told that the UK decision would "undermine the efforts of governments of African countries to counter illicit cannabis cultivation, trafficking, and abuse".
Someone at the UN is on drugs! No f*cking way will the UK relaxation of cannabis laws result in any large increase in demand for African weed!!! Where did they get these clowns come from? How much are they paying them to write this dribble? How much of taxpayers money has been wasted on this crap?
The Dutch example showed the cannabis market shifted from over 80% imported to over 80% home produced! The UK's Independent Drug Monitoring Unit's figures show year by year increase in home production, up from about 12% to 60+% in the last few years.
I could have written a more honest and accurate report at a fraction of the cost - talking to UK seed and hydro equipment wholesalers, sales are up 200-300% on 2 years ago and prices are coming down, which will expand the market further. New grow and head shops are opening, up and down the country, at least one of which was supported by the Princes' Trust!
Where is all this equipment going? Where are all these seeds being sown? No, not Africa! Maybe Iraq - duel use? No! It's for the home market! Why risk transporting from Africa, when you can set-up in any old industrial unit, barn, greenhouse or closet?
The third axis of evil was far, far more surprising - the new Dutch government, the one country we could hold up as a good model of how legalisation of cannabis could work. After 30 years of the cannabis coffeeshops, Holland is rated by the UN as 12th in a European league table of drug use, whilst the UK is no.1 ! Two countries, one fought a war, the other didn't, which won?
In percentage terms, having broken the 'supply-gateway' between cannabis and hard drugs they have a far lower number of hard-drug addicts, with fewer ‘new recruits’ and therefore a far older average age. They have far fewer under 18s using cannabis and amazingly far fewer of the overall population - prohibition does tend expand, not reduce, a market.
The system works, the main complaint seems to concern coffeeshops near the German border - people popping over the border cause parking problems for the locals!
Plans have been leaked for the new Dutch government's policy on cannabis: they want to close 400 of the 800 regulated coffeeshops in the Netherlands. The same minister that said he would not close the coffeeshops under pressure of Sweden and France, is now about to bow to the demands of the UN & US!
However, coffeeshops are not a matter for government, they are regulated locally and the minister will have to turn to local mayors to do his dirty work. They maybe fearful of the policy being unpopular locally as the coffeeshops have been accepted as a part of society in the areas they are located, without causing any major problems.
The minister could move to ban the sale of cannabis if closures are not forthcoming, but just who would police this, when despite unwanted UN & US demands much of the world is changing as a result of needing to re-focus police resources.
It has been a sad start to the cannabis year, just when things were looking so good, the US once again tries to force its will on the world. I'll leave you with this thought - if they can be so wrong about a virtually harmless herb, what else have they got wrong?
Well one example, John Cleese enters stage right, "Don't mention the war!" - no not that example! 1st March 2003 and delegates to the World Health Organisation agreed on the wording of the world's first-ever anti-smoking treaty, after delays and a comprise because some countries with big tobacco industries - most notably the US and Germany - opposed a global ban on tobacco advertising, saying it violated their constitutional right to free speech.
Good old America - kill them with tobacco, but don't let them expand their minds with cannabis, what a great nation.:mad:
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Comments
In that cannabis is schedule 1 which means it has no possible medical use, but the synthetic version you can get on prescription. Strange.