Pot busts bounce back, thanks to the tories new crackdown

Started by Sportsdude, Jul 09 07 09:27

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Sportsdude

 Just getting the word out, the cops are looking for yeah now thanks to the conservatives.

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 OTTAWA–The number of people arrested for smoking pot rose dramatically in several Canadian cities last year after the Conservatives took office and killed a bill to decriminalize small amounts of marijuana.[/p] The spike in arrests for simple possession of cannabis appears in data compiled by The Canadian Press from municipal police forces through interviews and Access to Information Act requests.[/p] National statistics will be released next week, but preliminary figures suggest the number of arrests jumped by more than one-third in several Canadian cities.[/p] Toronto, Vancouver, Ottawa and Halifax reported increases of between 20 and 50 per cent in 2006, while Montreal and Calgary saw their number of arrests dip a few percentage points from the previous year.[/p] As a result, thousands of people were charged with a criminal offence that recently was within a whisker of extinction.[/p] Every party in the House of Commons except the Conservatives supported the decriminalization bill, but the Liberal government that sponsored it never brought it to a final vote.[/p] Several police officials say the trend is linked directly to that aborted legislation, which died as a result of the federal election on Jan. 23, 2006.[/p]Some forces simply stopped laying simple possession charges after the Liberals introduced the decriminalization bill under Jean Chrétien in 2003, said Terry McLaren, president of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police.[/p] "Everybody was waiting for what was going to happen. ... There'd be no use clogging up the court system with that decriminalization bill there. When that was defeated, I'd say it was business as usual."[/p]............
 "Going into the 21st century, we should know better than to bludgeon the use of this drug with criminal law," he said. "It doesn't work, hasn't worked, there's no prospect that it ever will work. Yet we continue to do it."[/p][a href="vny!://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/233760"]vny!://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/233760[/a]
   
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

stretchedout

Real cops won't bother you.  But the Frenchie RC newbies will, and the province is full of them.
C'mon, the city is sleeping!

PostMonkee @(^_^)@

It's sadly ironic. Alcohol is the cause of so much more grief and sickness than marijuana, yet in Canada it seems to be an integral part of the culture, while marijuana is still demonized, at least by many of those in power.  I just don't understand how someone can justify such an obviously counter-intuitive and hypocritical law.
Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing - intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out. The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes. Flee.

Post-it

I'm glad that they're cracking down on pot and other illegal substances. These substances are bad for the body and damaging.

PostMonkee @(^_^)@

That's a fair point, assuming you're willing to be even-handed.

So do you believe that since alcohol and tobacco are far worse for the body (they have killed FAR more people than all other drugs combined) they should both be banned?
Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing - intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out. The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes. Flee.

question

Is there any data to prove alchohol and tobacco is worse for a person? I assume it is worse, but I can't find any supportive documentation myself.

PostMonkee @(^_^)@

Well there are a number of different issues. First is addiction.

  Alcohol and tobacco are both PHYSICALLY addictive, as opposed to marijuana, which is for the most part HABBIT FORMING. Marijuana won't send you into severe physical withdrawal symptoms. Tobacco is addictive on a level seen most often for illegal drugs like heroin. Alcohol is less so, but once your body becomes dependant, quitting cold turkey can literally kill you.

  Look up the effects of alcohol use on the liver and brain.

Look up the effects of tobacco on heart disease and cancer of the lungs, throat, bladder, pancreas and kidney.

  It's a red herring anyway. When I hear someone argue that marijuana needs to be illegal, removing the "health" argument is quite easy. Bring up, for instance, the hypothetical case of a person who smokes through a vaporizer, which removes 95% plus of the cancer causing tar. I actually know a number of people who do this, so it's not purely hypothetical. In this case, the negative health effects of marijuana are far less than tobacco. When I've brought this up in the past, people still resist legalization. I just have trouble believing the larger argument is really about the government protecting the health of its citizens.

  Last I checked tobacco was the #1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. and the death toll was up somewhere around 10 million, although I think that is worldwide. How many people have died from marijuana? And why isn't my government protecting me from alcohol and tobacco, which is much more of a threat to my well being?

    In terms of intoxication and loss of judgement, in terms of pain and damage caused by loss of judgement, alcohol is king. I have never seen one of my buddies smoke a joint and then want to go out and stomp on somoene. On the other hand, I've seen all manner of horrors perpetrated by drunk idiots who are completely out of control.
Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing - intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out. The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes. Flee.

P.C.

 Last I checked tobacco was the #1 cause of preventable death in the U.S. and the death toll was up somewhere around 10 million, although I think that is worldwide. How many people have died from marijuana? And why isn't my government protecting me from alcohol and tobacco, which is much more of a threat to my well being?





In terms of intoxication and loss of judgement, in terms of pain and damage caused by loss of judgement, alcohol is king. I have never seen one of my buddies smoke a joint and then want to go out and stomp on someone. On the other hand, I've seen all manner of horrors perpetrated by drunk idiots who are completely out of control.

  I with you on many levels with some of those thoughts.  I always said, hypothetically, that if my kids went to a party and HAD to either drink alcohol or smoke pot...it would be hands down....pot.  Of course it's a given that they not drive after.....but again, hypothetically, I'd rather see them driving at 50k and thinking they were doing 100, than driving 100k thinking they're doing 50.

  Tobacco remains legal, yet is illegal to smoke it almost everywhere.....they too chicken to make it illegal.  To make it illegal would mean giving up all those millions and millions in taxes, that would be replaced by ? [/DIV]
Sir Isaac Newton invented the swinging door....for the convenience of his cat.

Sportsdude

didn't pot make 50 billion last year in BC alone? Holy tax revenue batman!  
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

Devil

...and they will pry my bong from my cold dead hands....

  Seriously, if you are not blowing smoke in a cops face, and causing other types of chaos, they probably won't give a sh*t.

PostMonkee @(^_^)@

That sounds nice.

Here in the states we are completely schizo about it.

A city will pass an ordinance allowing medical marijuana. Medical marijuana clubs (distribution centers) will spring up with the blessing of the city government. Then the feds show up and make arrests. It's nice to know that the feds are busy shutting down clubs designed to ease the pain of sick people. I wouldn't want them to focus on stopping a terrorist from bringing a stolen russian nuke into L.A. or anything. Asshats.
Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing - intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out. The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes. Flee.

Devil

At a NHL game here in Calgary, a few of my buddies stepped outside to the smoking area and lit up a spliff at intermission. A City cop comes walking over and says "guys, you could at least walk down to the treed area over there", and points to the area, then kept walking. They really should have known better.

Sportsdude

lol only places in Canada where arrests are down over pot is Alberta and Quebec. The rest its crackdown city apparently.  
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."

PostMonkee @(^_^)@

Hah   :)

Well, I agree. I think if you're going to smoke herb in public don't do it around other folks.

Some people are very susceptible to getting contact high and it should always be an informed choice.

  Reminds me of Fear and Loathing, where dr. gonzo slips that teenage girl some lsd without her knowledge and hilarity ensues.

  I've heard that "back in the day" that was a fairly common prank to pull. Yeesh.  
Jesus, bad waves of paranoia, madness, fear and loathing - intolerable vibrations in this place. Get out. The weasels were closing in. I could smell the ugly brutes. Flee.

Sportsdude

yeah it was so common the cia loved to use it on californians apparently too.
What ever happened to LSD anyway. That drug has gone missing.
 
"We can't stop here. This is bat country."