Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: cannabis, drug, ganja, hashish, hemp, killed, marijuana, prohibitionism, rachel hoffman, undercovered operation, USA
Rachel Hoffman, like many young adults, occasionally smoked marijuana.
But Rachel Hoffman is not dead as a result of smoking marijuana; she is dead as a result of marijuana prohibition.
Under prohibition, Rachel faced up to five years in prison for possessing a small amount of marijuana.
Under prohibition, the police in Rachel’s community viewed her as nothing more than a common “criminal,” and threatened her with years in jail unless she cooperated with them as an untrained, unsupervised confidential informant.
Under prohibition, the law enforcement officers responsible for placing Rachel in the very situation that resulted in her murder have failed to publicly express any remorse — because, after all, under prohibition Rachel Hoffman was no longer a human being deserving of such sympathies.
Tonight, ABC’s 20/20 will shed a national spotlight on the tragedy surrounding Rachel Hoffman’s untimely death — and the tragedy that is marijuana prohibition.
Are pot users criminal? The tagic case of Rachel Hofmann
via ABC News
After being caught twice with a “baggie” of marijuana, 23-year old Rachel Hoffman was reportedly told by police in Tallahassee, Florida that she would go to prison for four years unless she became an undercover informant.
The young woman, a recent graduate of Florida State University, was murdered during a botched sting operation two months ago.
Her case will be profiled Friday on 20/20.
“The idea of waging a war on drugs is to protect people and here it seems like we’re putting people in harm’s way,” said Lance Block, a lawyer hired by Rachel’s parents.
The Florida Attorney General’s office says it is reviewing the procedures and protocol of the Tallahassee police.Rachel’s case also has raised new questions about state and federal laws related to marijuana possession.
“I’m calling her a criminal,” Tallahassee police chief Dennis Jones told 20/20, who maintains that both drug dealers and drug users are considered criminals to his department.
Under Florida law, possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana is a felony.
Rachel was also found in possession of two ecstasy pills, a felony under Florida law no matter the quantity because it “has a high potential for abuse and has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”
The Tallahassee police chief says Rachel was suspected of selling drugs and she was rightly treated as a criminal.
Filed under: Hemp&Law, hemp in general | Tags: anti-drug, cannabis, cocaine, drug, drug-test, ganja, hashish, hemp, italian parliament, italy, law, marijuana, prohibitionism, skunk, war
In October 2006 a popoular tv transmission (“Le iene”) had done a secret drug-test on 50 members of italian parliament.
The result was incredible: 1/3 of members use drugs.
The report was stopped and starded an incredible discussion:is it correct a secret drug-test for parliament’s member?
I think it isn’t correct,but:
-it wasn’t possibile recognize the members (the faces were obscurated and voices changed)
-the tests were mixed,so it wasn’t possible recognize whic test a members had used
-Italy has the strongest anti-drug law in Europe and one of the strongest in “occidental world”
-it was the first time for a drug-scandal among italian parliament’s members.Emilio Colombo (more than 80 years old) ammited he use cocaine as therapy (cocaine therapy…) and he didn’t suffered of restriction (as example jail,driving license and passaport suspended)
The tv-report was stopped,the trasmission fined and some party proposed drug-test for every members,but nothing has done.
On 10 june 2008 the italian supreme court condamned the transmission because the report “had demanged the public imagine and onorability of parliaments”.
Today, Carlo Giovanardi (the co-author of the anti-drug law,with Gianfranco Fini) has admitted that drug ,particularly cocaine, is diffused also in parliament.He said also drug test will be done for every category of workers that could be “on risk”.
He forget members of parliament…
Filed under: Hemp&Law, HempTherapy | Tags: cannabis, hemp, marijuana, prohibitionism
MARIJUANA GROUP EXPLOITS THE SICK
I have been lax in replying to pro-drug legalization groups such as the Drug Policy Alliance, which has an office and staff in Trenton to lobby legislators and inundate media, including the Your Views column in the Asbury Park Press, with pro-drug propaganda. ( “Medical groups back legal marijuana,” May 19. )
Contrary to the DPA statement, the 1999 Institute of Medicine report that notes marijuana and its cannabinoids have therapeutic potential says marijuana should not be smoked. A new, safe delivery system would have to be found for it to have medical value.
The group also cites reports from small, uninformed medical groups that base their reports on information supplied by the DPA and written by its members. It cites a poll that it says finds vast support for medical marijuana, but the group neglects to point out it put the questions together for the pollsters to reach those conclusions.
Law enforcement, community and school organizations have taken strong stands against the legislative bills in New Jersey because they will increase the already incredibly high usage of marijuana. The DPA should stop preying on sick people to help accomplish its goal of drug legalization.
Terrence P. Farley
SEASIDE PARK
NEW JERSEY NARCOTICS
Despite what opponents say, marijuana does not have to be smoked to benefit from its therapeutic qualities. It can be cooked and eaten. Many people with cancer, multiple sclerosis, narcotic addictions and other medical conditions can benefit from marijuana consumption. ( “Marijuana group exploits the sick,” May 27. )
Proponents aren’t using propaganda. They are merely stating the facts. It’s law enforcement that thrives on negative and mostly untrue propaganda.
Hemp has played an important role in this country. The sails, ropes, rigging and sailor’s clothing on the Mayflower and many other early settlers’ ships were made of hemp. The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp paper. Clean-burning fuel can be made from hemp. Many nutritious foods come from the hemp plant. The book “The Emperor Wears No Clothes” by Jack Heror is full of facts.
George Washington, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, to name a few, grew hemp. Before 1927, farmers were fined if they didn’t grow hemp.
The only reason it became illegal is because business moguls such as William Randolph Hearst, the DuPonts and big pharmaceutical companies successfully lobbied for laws to make it that way. Why? They wanted to develop things from petrochemicals. Plastics, fuel, fabrics, food, medicine and many other things can be made from the hemp plant. None of those products made from hemp harm or poison the environment, as do petrochemicals.
No one has been recorded as dying from smoking marijuana. You can’t say that about taking morphine, cocaine, alcohol or even caffeine and aspirin.
I challenge anyone to find a negative fact about marijuana use. I don’t believe there is one.
Michael C. Limper
BRICK
Source: Asbury Park Press (NJ)
Website: http://www.app.com/
Filed under: Hemp&Law | Tags: cannabis, drug, hashish, illegal, italy, marijuana, prohibitionism, repression, skunk
In the new italian parliament there are no more “hemp friends”.
The government’s coalition is right oriented and prohibitionist. The biggest party (“Popolo delle libertà) is born by the fusion of “Forza Italia” and “Alleanza nazionale”. Alleanza nazionale ‘s leader ,Gianfranco Fini, is the co-author of the strongest antidrug law in Europe and in the “occidental world” and the other coalition party ,Lega Nord, approved this law.
The “left” party (“democratici di sinistra”,Margherita”,now “Partito democratico”) didn’t really try to change this law during the last 2 years of Prodi’s government (only a small and useless review,deleted not much time later) as was written in the electoral program.
Radical Left parties are outside the parliament and they were the only ones parties where someone declare himself against prohibitionism.
In the next five years,the Italian law could become only more strong against hemp and the recent controversy against smart and grow shop and the Italian fair “Cannabis tipo forte” are a clear signal of new way.
http://www.fuoriluogo.it/home/percorsi/international_version/drug_policy_in_italy
This link is explains the current law and his story.
Filed under: hemp in general | Tags: british government, cannabis, ganja, great britain, hashish, hemp, marijuana, prohibitionism, psycho, repression, skunk, thc, united kingdom
Here you can read some articles about Skunk.
What is skunk?
Skunk “should” be a type of “super-marijuana”.
Recently,in Great Britain and now also in Italy;,many newspapers write a lot about skunk: the opinion is that skunk get you crazy,violent,oppressive,psycho,homeless junkye.
Skunk should be 20 times more powerfull,and in case of “unhealty and sensitive mind”,could cause mental illness.
It should be also genetically-modified.That is absolutely false.
Skunk is only a good strain of cannabis,is only “good weed”,not a crazy drug created in laboratory.
http://stash.norml.org/2008/05/27/not-your-fathers-pot-the-myth-of-cannabis-potency/
Filed under: Hemp&Law | Tags: canada, cannabis, cannabis law, drug war, prohibitionism
WHEREAS cannabis has a long history of social, religious and medicinal use in a wide variety of cultures around the world,
WHEREAS government figures estimate 3 million Canadians, or 14% of Canada’s population, are current cannabis users, and that about 45% of Canadians have used cannabis during their lifetime, and that virtually all of these people are otherwise law-abiding citizens,
WHEREAS numerous public opinion polls conducted since 2000 show that most Canadians support eliminating criminal penalties for cannabis,
WHEREAS the value of the Canadian cannabis industry is estimated at between 5 and 20 billion dollars, and that if taxed and regulated this industry would generate substantial revenues for provincial and federal governments,
WHEREAS over 20,000 Canadians are arrested each year just for cannabis possession, taking up a great deal of police and court time and resources,
WHEREAS the laws prohibiting cannabis are federal laws, yet the brunt of the costs of enforcing criminal sanctions against cannabis are borne by the provinces, in paying for the extra policing, court time and imprisonment,
WHEREAS studies into worldwide cannabis law have consistently shown that criminal prohibition of cannabis has little or no effect on the rate of use,
WHEREAS in 1971 the LeDain Commission on Non-Medical Use of Drugs, after exhaustive hearings and research, recommended allowing the cultivation and possession of cannabis for personal use,
WHEREAS the 1995 Report of the Task Force into Illicit Narcotic Overdose Deaths in British Columbia, written by BC’s Chief Coroner and commissioned by BC’s NDP government, after extensive hearings and research, recommended that the BC Attorney General pursue discussions with the federal government on legalization of cannabis possession,
WHEREAS in 2002 the Canadian Senate issued a comprehensive report on cannabis issues, after extensive research and hearings, which recommended that cannabis should be made legally available to adults and regulated by provincial governments in the same way that they operate the wine industry, plus that Canada’s 600,000 criminal records for cannabis possession should be erased, and that access to medical cannabis should be expanded,
WHEREAS in 2005 the City of Vancouver approved a plan called Preventing Harm from Psychoactive Drug Use, which recommends that the federal government end cannabis prohibition and instead create a “legal regulatory framework for cannabis,”
WHEREAS the criminal prohibition of cannabis use and personal cultivation is inconsistent with the principles of “full economic, political and religious liberty for all” and the creation of a legal system which “must not be based, as is the present one, upon vengeance and fear, but upon an understanding of human behaviour,” as enshrined in the 1933 Regina Manifesto.
WHEREAS the criminal prohibition of cannabis use is inconsistent with the creation of “a society in which the worth and dignity of every human being is recognized and respected, and in which differences of origin, of religion and of opinion will be not only tolerated but valued as desirable and necessary to the beauty and richness of the human mosaic,” as enshrined in the 1983 Statement of Principles adopted at the 12th Federal NDP Convention in Regina,
WHEREAS the policy of Canada’s federal NDP has long included a non-punitive, regulatory approach to cannabis, including a legally regulated and taxed cannabis supply, elimination of penalties for personal possession and cultivation, and amnesty for past possession convictions,
WHEREAS the policy of the Ontario NDP explicitly supports that of the federal party, and includes a non-punitive approach to cannabis, with a regulated and taxed legal cannabis supply,
WHEREAS previous leaders of some of the other Provincial NDP parties have made public statements concerning Canada’s cannabis laws which are inconsistent with the non-punitive cannabis policy of the federal party,
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT every provincial NDP party formally establish an explicit cannabis policy based upon a non-punitive, regulatory approach, including support for a legal supply of cannabis, elimination of all penalties for personal cultivation and possession, and amnesty for past cannabis possession convictions.
References: http://www.endprohibition.ca/
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 2007, cannabis, danger, drug, great britain, hashish, hemp, lancet, marijuana, prohibitionism, skunk, thc, uk, united kingdo
http://www.antiproibizionisti.it/public/docs/thelancet_20070323.pdf
Here,from the website of “Antiproibizionisti”,you can download the famous dossier of “The Lancet” published in 2007.
This dossier is quite long,and now i’m reading it,but this is the famous last year’s study that should be against the use of cannabis.
Filed under: Hemp&Law | Tags: cannabis, danger, drug, ganja, gb, great britain, hashish, hemp, independent, marijuana, new wave, prohibitionism, reclassification, skunk, smoke, smoking, thc, uk, united kingdom
Some opinions against the “new wave” of prohibitionism taken from the web site of “The Guardian”
The rejection of the findings of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (Scientists warn Smith over cannabis reclassification, May 8 ) is wrong for a number of reasons. First, if the advice is not taken, why do we have an expert investigation, with all its associated costs? Second, young people often desire what is perceived to be “forbidden”, so the justification for the reclassification – “sending a message” – could well backfire.
However, the thing that concerns me most has nothing to do with pot smoking but something far more fundamental. This decision sets a scenario where fear, hysteria and misinformation take precedence over scientific reason. The council are experts who take into account the evidence for the concerns we have about an issue; if they have done their job thoroughly then, whatever our personal feelings about an issue, scientific reason must prevail. If not then we might as well go back to the witch-hunting days of Salem, where fear and hysteria ruled and scientific reason was unheard of. If we value a fair and just society, this is a very dangerous step to take.
Stuart Matousek
London
I note with some disappointment the proliferating reports on the classification of cannabis, endlessly debating its proper classification. It has become something of an obsession in parliamentary politics and the press. Sadly, while this storm of discourse proceeds, much more serious and enduring problems continue to afflict our social landscape.
To mention but two: the insidious spread of hepatitis C, which is endemic among our injecting drug users; and the continuing disaster of mass imprisonment, including such practices as the release of drug-dependent prisoners on Fridays, when services are closed. Then people wonder why we have recidivism.
If better resources had been directed toward confronting these far more serious problems, so much more might have been achieved. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that our politicians don’t really want to achieve lasting responses to these problems, but desire merely to be seen to be “doing something” – preferably something “tough”.
Sebastian Saville
Executive director, Release
Decisions such as the one regarding cannabis, with an eye to the Daily Mail and a deaf ear turned to the government’s own advisers, are just the sort of thing that helps turn whole generations against politics. A very large proportion of the population knows that prohibition and criminalisation of recreational drugs make no sense. These policies fostered crime when they were applied to alcohol in the US, and they foster crime here and now. Gordon Brown and David Cameron know this. But they are hypnotised by the irrational ravings of the tabloid press.
David Richardson
Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex
So the home secretary wants to send a message about cannabis. Now just what would this be? “We can see that prohibition hasn’t stopped the use of illegal drugs, but we’re going to continue with it anyway” or “We can see that prohibition is wrecking developing countries, poorer communities in the UK and the lives of drug users who are dependent on illegal suppliers, but we don’t care” perhaps?
Kate Francis
London
Why is cannabis use illegal? It can’t be because it’s dangerous. We don’t criminalise motor racers, boxers or people who drink themselves into an early grave. So why? I don’t know the answer, but for all my adult life I have felt that the police love to stop and search young people. The possible possession of cannabis provides a reason. I can’t be the only one who is horrified at the thought of some silly young person going to jail for years for such a harmless activity.
Jim Lynch
Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire
The government has indeed sent out a clear message to young people: it is not interested in the facts about the relative harm of drugs, only “public perceptions”. Is this likely to make it more or less likely that young people will listen to public health messages? Shame on you, Gordon.
John Tatam
Richmond, Surrey
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/may/10/drugsandalcohol.drugspolicy
Filed under: HempTherapy | Tags: cannabis, clinical, ganja, hashish, hemp, hospital, illegal, illness, israel, legal, marijuana, medical, prohibitionism, thc, therapy
A Tel Aviv medical clinic has quietly begun giving marijuana to cancer and AIDS sufferers, legally and with Health Ministry approval, reports Yediot Tel Aviv. The move, the first of its kind in Israel, is aimed at alleviating the pain suffered by the chronically and seriously ill.
According to the report, the clinic began giving the drug to suffering patients about six months ago. By Israeli law, marijuana can legally be used as a medicine if a patient obtains a special license from the Health Ministry. The drug is approved only for patients with cancer, AIDS or Crohn’s Disease (a chronic gastro-intestinal illness), and aims to help ease the chronic pain they suffer from the illnesses or as side-effects of treatments for the diseases. The clinic – which the Health Ministry has refused to identify publicly, reportedly either to prevent protests or to keep criminal elements away – gives out the drug in small, controlled quantities when a patient presents their license.
One cancer patient said the ministry’s decision to offer the drug through the clinic was “a blessing,” saying it prevents suffering patients from being driven to buy the drug illegally. The patient said more doctors and the Israel Cancer Association should be made aware of the therapeutic, pain-relieving benefits of marijuana, and not regard it solely as an undesirable and harmful illegal drug. A spokesman for the cancer association said it was true that the drug could reduce painful side-effects for some patients undergoing chemotherapy or other treatments, and the organization would consider adding information about this to its website.
From http://www.jpost.com/
Filed under: Hemp&Law | Tags: aldo bianzino, cannabis, christian brazzo, drug, giuseppe ales, hashish, hemp, italy, jail, killed, marijuana, media, prohibitionism, suicide, thc
-Giuseppe Ales
Giuseppe Ales was 23 years old. On 20 March 2005 police did a raid in the home where he lived with his family and found some small plants of cannabis.
“Il giornale di Sicilia”, one of the local newspapers, treat him like a pusher “Discovered drug traffic, arrested drug dealers”. He committed suicide
-Christian Brazzo
Christian Brazzo was 21 years old. He was found with his friends when they were smoking. Police controlled his car, checked the documents ,found 3gr of hashish and accompanied everybody at barracks.
Later, when he was alone, committed suicide.
-Aldo Bianzino
Aldo Bianzino was arrested on 12 October 2007 because cultivated Marijuana.
He died 2 days later in prison, killed by some “not accidental stokes”
Which one of these news have you seen on television?
