APEL DO EXPATPOLU . COM
My, czytelnicy tej strony apelujemy do Expatpolu o uniemozliwienie niejakiemu Kuciakowi z Toronto dostepu do pisania obelzywych dla wszystkich wypocin tego chorego i rozzuchwalonego osobnika. Jedynym celem w/wym. jest jatrzenie, sianie nienawisci i niezgody. Za podobne postepowanie zostal juz usuniety, bez mozliwosci powrotu, z parunastu forow Krajowych m.in. z Newsweeka, E-Politicusa, Wirtualnej Polonii, Forum Ustka itd. Propagowal tam takze zazywanie narkotykow, co podlega ustawodawstwu karnemu. Chcemy miec mozliwosc swobodnej dyskusji i wymiany pogladow a nie byc atakowanymi przez sfrustrowanego popapranca i cpuna. Prosimy o powazne potraktowanie naszego apelu.
Z powazaniem, grono internautow ("Kongresowa Leperiada", http://expatpol.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26021#25132).
Najlepszy dotychczas film dokumentalny o absurdalnej wojnie z marihuana, ktora prowadza globalnie Amerykanie od 70 lat, obejrzalem kilka lat temu w 2000 roku na slawnym Miedzynarodowym Festiwalu Filmow w Toronto. Jest to "Grass" (Trawka). "Grass" the movie (http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/grass.html).
Three years in the making, the feature documentary GRASS presents a darkly hilarious and revelatory chronicle of the US government's longstanding anti-marijuana crusade. Those who remain pure will see the degradation and fun they've been missing. Those who have succumbed to temptation will learn how they've become potential "collateral damage" in the government's bloated, irrational, fantastically expensive and ultimately ineffectual War On Marijuana.
GRASS is chock full of crazed government propaganda linking pot with heroin addiction, murder, sexual misbehavior, Communism - even sloth - which viewed in retrospect, are hysterically funny and historically telling. Entertainment figures who've been associated with pot (Cab Calloway, Gene Krupa, Robert Mitchum, Louis Armstrong, John Lennon), beatniks, poets, and garden variety tokers people this thoroughly entertaining look at a subject that's as serious as a no-knock police raid. The makers of GRASS promise, "No hippies were harmed in the making of this film" (http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/FIST2000-4/news/X0014_SUBGMAILIST-_Grass.html).
Na tegorocznym Miedzynarodowym Festiwalu Firmow, ktory wlasnie odbywa sie w Toronto, wyswietlany jest film pt. "AKA Tommy Chong". Takze dokumentalny obraz wojny z marihuana. Pomiedzy pierwszym dokumentem "Grass" i obecnym "AKA Tommy Chong" uplynelo 5 lat. Ktos rozsadny po obejrzeniu pierwszego pomyslalby, ze tzw. "wladza" zmadrzala i glupia, kosztowna, niemoralna i barbarzynska wojne z marihuana nalezaloby zakonczyc i szybko zapomniec i nawet nie wspominac, ze cos takiego istnialo. Tak jak kiedys inkwizycja, pogromy, holocausty. Moze zmadrzala, ale nie w kolebce "wolnosci" i "praw czlowieka" w USA. Kiedy Senat Kanady rekomenduje legalizacje marihuany i kontrole w podobny sposob, jak alkohol, Amerykanie bardziej ja eskaluja, tworzac ze swoich obywateli najwiekszy wiezienny gulag na swiecie, bezposrednio ingerujac w interesy suwerennych panstw, rownajac wojne z narkotykami z wojna z terroryzmem.
Chong still smokin'
When trying to set up an interview with Tommy Chong, it's best not to pencil in a date and time.
Counterculture icon Tommy Chong poses with glass bongs in a promotion of the Josh Gilbert documentary, AKA Tommy Chong, premiering at the Toronto International Festival, kicking off today. Chong served nine months in prison for conspiring to sell drug paraphernalia through his now-defunct web business, Chong Glass.
AKA Tommy Chong screenings:
*Sept. 9 at 10 p.m. at the Cumberland theatre
*Sept. 11 at 4:15 p.m. and Sept. 15 at 3 p.m. at the ROM
Chong - whose stoner flicks with longtime pal Cheech Martin earned the notorious pipe-toting duo international fame - admits he can't remember those kinds of details. That said, he's good at returning calls. Chong, after all, has some things to say. His time behind bars combined with the feeling that he's since been living under a microscope post-prison has the Canadian-born comic fired up.
In 2003, an elaborate crackdown called Operation Pipe Dreams landed Chong in the joint for selling novelty bongs online. While life on the inside was somewhat hellish (what with the skinny metal bunk, a barely-there blanket and the roaring snores of some 200-plus prisoners) Chong still managed to do what he does best - have a good time.
"When I went to jail, everybody was my fan - the cops, the guards, even the warden," he says.
"They had a Tommy Chong rule that no guards were allowed to approach me for an autograph, but I ended up posing with all of them for photographs." Chong, who ended probation on July 5, says the experience was worth it. "I dold myself 'You're here for a reason," he recalls.
That purpose is to push for the decriminalization of marijuana. "No one, as far as I know, has ever put marijuana on trial," he says. Meanwhile, Chong is also keeping busy on the entertainment front. Cheech and Chong plan to reunite, possibly for a stage version of the stoner comedy, Up in Smoke.
"We're like grumpy old stoners," says Chong. Chong also returns to the new season of That '70s Show with his pot smoking character, Leo. "I am embarrassed when I get my paycheque," he says of the gig.
- Tanya Enberg (24hrs.ca September 8, 2005).
FILM DESCRIPTION
Film Title: a/k/a Tommy Chong
Programme: REAL TO REEL
Director: Josh Gilbert
Country: USA
Year: 2005
Language: English
Time: 75 minutes
Film Types: Colour/Digital Betacam
SCREENING TIMES:
Friday, September 09 10:00 PM CUMBERLAND 3
Sunday, September 11 4:15 PM ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
Thursday, September 15 3:00 PM ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM
Production Company: Blue Chief Entertainment
Executive Producer: A.D. Sinha, Rebecca Rowe, Cheryl Chapman
Producer: Josh Gilbert
Written By: Josh Gilbert
Cinematography: John Ennis, Josh Gilbert, Jonathan Schell
Editor: Will Becton, Howard Leder, Marc Otto, Tom Walls
Sound: Sabrina Buchanek, Grant Johnson, Bruce Maddocks
Music: Oz Noy
Principal Cast: Featuring: Tommy Chong, Jay Leno, Bill Maher, Richard "Cheech" Marin, George Thorogood
"Do you have any narcotics in the house?" - DEA Agent
"Of course, I'm Tommy Chong." - Tommy Chong
Yes, Sergeant Stedenko finally busted Tommy Chong. But it wasn't a kilo of Maui Wowie that took him down, or even a van made entirely of marijuana. In early 2003, the stoner comedy icon was charged for manufacturing bongs. That's right! Bongs, man! Josh Gilbert's funny, breezy doc follows the case for some two years, exposing the absurdity of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft's revived war on drugs, while growing into a charming profile of the Canadian half of the comedy duo Cheech and Chong.
Born in Edmonton, Chong hooked up with Cheech Martin in a hippie burlesque show Chong organized at his father's Vancouver strip club. Inspired by Lenny Bruce, the duo's brand of fried humour crystallized into a highly successful act, producing a string of albums and movies that parodied pot culture.
So maybe it was only a matter of time before the DEA called upon the Chong residence, but the pound of marijuana they found there was incidental. They had already made a dramatic raid on the glass factory operated by Tommy's son, Paris. Under Operation Pipe Dreams - a radiculous attempt to clamp down on the drug paraphernalia industry - a total of fifty-five individuals were indicted on federal charges.
Chong was the big catch, receiving a nine-month prison sentence - the harshest punishment in the operation. In the sentencing memorandum, prosecutors cited Chong's movies as "glamorizing the illegal use and distribution of marijuana and trivializing law-enforcement efforts to combat drug use." He was charged with selling bongs, but Tommy Chong seems to have ultimately gone to jail for making 1978's Up in Smoke.
With the Bush administration recently applying a strange dose of stoner logic (smoking dope = supporting terrorism) to their war on drugs, a/k/a/ Tommy Chong offers a timely reminder of the assault on civil liberties currently being endured by American citizens. Welcome home, Tommy.
- Sean Farnel
Josh Gilbert received an M.F.A. in film at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, where he worked as a screenwriter and script doctor for several years before moving to New York City. He has written several short stories and contributed two to the anthology "Before & After: Tales from New York." a/k/a Tommy Chong (05) is his directorial debut (http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2005/films_description.asp?id=7).
Stosunek Kosciola do marihuany...
Za tygodnikiem "Gosc Niedzielny" http://wiara.pl/
- Witam. Jaki jest stosunek Kosciola do marihuany? Raport WHO dowodzi, iz jest ona mniej szkodliwa niz alkohol i papierosy. Alkohol i papierosy sa "dopuszczone" przez Kosciol.
- Stosunek Kosciola do marihuany jest taki sam jak do innych narkotykow... Uzywanie, ale takze (a moze nawet przede wszystkim) produkcja i handel narkotykami sa grzechem. Wymienmy kilka powodow, dla ktorych zazywanie narkotykow jest niebezpieczne:
1. Uzywanie narkotykow powoduje, ze czlowiek nie jest soba (chodzi o jednorazowe uzycie). Inaczej przeciez by ich nie uzywano. Ich dzialanie jest oczywiscie rozne: jedne podnosza nastroj, inne zmniejszaja doplyw bodzcow...
2. Uzywanie narkotykow szkodzi zdrowiu.
3. Uzywanie narkotykow prowadzi do uzaleznienia. Zrobmy maly bilans. Pierwszy punkt dotyczy zarowno alkoholu, jak i papierosow. Nie dotyczy jednak papierosow. To kolosalna roznica. Palacz jest soba. Nie zmienia tego nawet ewentualne podenerwowanie spowodowane glodem nikotynowym... Drugi punkt dotyczy takze wszystkich trzech uzywek. Co znaczy szkodzi bardziej lub mniej? Wszystko zalezy od ilosci. Butelka piwa na tydzien na pewno zdrowiu nie zaszkodzi, podobnie jak dwa papierosy dziennie... Zauwazmy, ze dla zdrowia znacznie bardziej szkodliwa bywa jazda samochodem... Punkt trzeci znow dotyczy wszystkich trzech uzywek. Twierdzenie, ze marihuana uzaleznia "tylko" psychicznie, wskazuje na ignorancje w tej kwestii. Roznica polega na tym, ze leczenie uzaleznionego takze fizycznie trzeba zaczac od detoksu (odtrucia). Trwa to zwykle pare tygodni. Potem postepuje sie juz tak dokladnie tak samo. A to leczenie trwa juz dwa lata... A trzeba tu dodac, ze palenie marihuany bardzo czesto powoduje siegniecie po mocniejsze narkotyki... Mocniejsze papierosy sa tylko z nazwy. Podobnie pijacy nie bardzo moze siegnac po cos mocniejszego. Alkohol jest taki sam i w piwie, i wodce... Dodajmy, ze uzaleznienie nie rodzi sie tylko z uzywania substancji szkodliwych. Szeroko znane jest uzaleznienie od hazardu. A przeciez hazardzista niczego nie lyka, nie wacha czy pije... Piszacy te slowa nie pali. Jest tez wielkim wrogiem palenia. Ale nie przesadzajmy. Nie zmieniaja one wlasciwie ludzkiej osobowosci, a ewentualnie uzaleznienie nie jest specjalnie grozne. Najwieksze zlo palenia papierosow wydaje sie tkwic w szkodzeniu na zdrowiu, ktore przy niewielkiej ilosci wypalanych papierosow nie jest zbyt duze... Piszacy te slowa jest praktycznie abstynentem. Wie jednak, ze picie alkoholu jest usankcjonowane przez tradycje paru tysiecy lat. Trudno sie mu przeciwstawic. Poza tym napoje alkoholowe moga po prostu smakowac. Dla wielu po prostu sa dobre. Kosciol zawsze apelowal o umiarkowane korzystanie z alkoholu. W malych ilosciach nie spowoduje ono negatywnych skutkow... Piszacy te slowa oczywiscie nie uzywa narkotykow. Sa one wlasciwie wymyslem naszych czasow. Nie maja dobrego smaku. A szkodza. Marihuana moze najmniej szkodzi zdrowiu fizycznemu. Choc lektura owego raportu wcale tego nie potwierdza, stawiajac szkodliwosc marihuany praktycznie na rowni z papierosami. Ale jej wplyw na osobowosc i uzaleznienie jest kolosalny... Nic nie usprawiedliwia narazanie siebie i swoich bliskich na konsekwencje zwiazane z jej uzywaniem. Ani dobry smak, ani utrata tradycja... Piszacy te slowa ma wrazenie, ze w tej chwili zwolennikom zalegalizowania narkotykow chodzi o to, by wykazac roznice miedzy marihuana a innymi srodkami. Doswiadczenie uczy, ze po ewentualnej legalizacji beda podkreslali, ze miedzy marihuana a innymi srodkami nie ma wiekszej roznicy... To bedzie argument, by zalegalizowac inne... Co do raportu WHO... Uderza, ze przeprowadzone dotad badania szkodliwosci marihuany, na ktore powoluja sie autorzy raportu, sa nieco fragmentaryczne... ("Wiara w pytaniach i odpowiedziach", GONIEC 9-15 wrzesnia 2005).
Piszacy te slowa nie pije nie pali i nie popierduje takich glupot w imieniu Kosciola. A jesli to jest powiedzianie w imieniu jakiegos kosciola, to na pewno nie Kosciola Katolickiego. Chrystusowego.
POT BUST A carbon monoxide alarm led to a marijuana grow-operation bust at a residence near Brimley Road and Finch Avenue. Police were called to 69 Newdawn Cres. by fire services at about 3 a.m. yesterday, where they arrested six people.
-24 hours news services (24hrs.ca SEPTEMBER 8 2005).
Alarm led to pot
A MOTHER'S refusal to let firefighters check a carbon monoxide alarm in her Scarborough home because it would wake her child led a dope bust yesterday. The fire crews called cops who discovered a marijuana plantation - but no babies. Six people were arrested on Newdawn Cr. (TORONTO SUN, Thursday, September 8, 2005).
Katowice Kilka porcji amfetaminy i tzw. lufke z sladami marihuany znalezli policjanci przy poczatkujacej nauczycielce wychowania fizycznego w jednej ze szkol podstawowych z Jaworzna (Slaskie) - poinformowal w srode PAP komisarz Piotr Bieniak z zespolu prasowego slaskiej policji. "W nocy z wtorku na srode policjanci zauwazyli grupe osob, ktore w piaskownicy na placu zabaw osiedla Gigant pily piwo. Podczas legitymowania dwoch mezczyzn w wieku 22 i 25 lat i 22-letniej kobiety funkcjonariusze zauwazyli lezaca obok nich na ziemi tzw. lufke z sladowa iloscia marihuany" - powiedzial kom. Bieniak. Kobieta przyznala sie, ze przedmiot ten nalezy do niej. Podczas kontroli osobistej w komendzie przy zatrzymanej znaleziono tez amfetamine, wystarczajaca do przygotowania siemiu "dzialek". "Badanie stanu trzezwosci wykazalo u niej dodatkowo 1,6 promila alkoholu w wydychanym powietrzu. Okazalo sie, ze zatrzymana kobieta jest nauczycielka wychowania fizycznego w miejscowej szkole podstawowej" ("Przeglad Tygodnia", GONIEC 9-15 wrzesnia 2005).
ZYCIE WARSZAWY
Ekstaza w cenie paczka
Stolice zalewa fala tanich narkotykow, ubolewa "Zycie Warszawy". Dealerzy sprzedaja dzialke amfetaminy juz za dwa zlote. Piec zlotych kosztuja tabletki ecstasy. Ten problem nasila sie wraz ze zblizajacym sie poczatkiem szkoly.
- Jeszcze nigdy w Warszawie nie bylo tak powaznego problemu z narkotykami. Na rynku jest tak duzo amfetaminy i ecstasy, ze nie ma problemu z ich zdobyciem, i to za grosze. Do tego dochodza "promocje" np. dla licealistow - informuje oficer warszawskiego Centralnego Biura Sledczego.
Zagrozenie jest ogromne, tym bardziej ze zaczyna sie rok szkolny. - Wsrod dzieciakow panuje moda na amfetamine, a zwlaszcza na tabletki ecstasy. Te ostatnie mozna kupic w hurcie juz za 2-2,5 zl - twierdzi Adam Nyk, kierownik poradni rodzinnej Monaru. Dealerzy, do ktorych dotarlo "Zycie Warszawy", twierdza, ze rynek jest tak nasycony narkotykami, ze maja problem z pozbyciem sie nagromadzonego towaru. Policjanci przyznaja, ze nie potrafia sobie poradzic z tym zjawiskiem.
Z badan przeprowadzonych przez studentow Wyzszej Szkoly Humanistycznej w Pultusku wynika, ze ponad 39 proc. mlodych warszawiakow wie, gdzie mozna kupic narkotyki. - Przerazajace jest to, ze blisko 24 proc. badanych, ktorzy nigdy nie zazywali substancji odurzajacych, chcialoby w tym roku choc raz ich sprobowac. tymczasem najmlodszy pacjent warszawskiej poradni uzaleznien mial 12 lat - mowi dr Mariusz Jedrzejko z WSH, socjolog i pedagog specjalizujacy sie w problematyce narkomanii.
Od srody polowanie na dealerow zaczynaja straznicy miejscy. - W szkolach mamy 109 posterunkow, ktore sprawdzaja, czy w ich okolicach nie handluje sie narkotykami, powiedzial gazecie Adam Godlewski, rzecznik strazy miejskiej ("Przeglad Prasy Krajowej", GONIEC 2-8 wrzesnia 2005).
Weed seed buyers beware
That notice you got in the mail may be part of a DEA sting By MATT MERNACH
THE PRO-POT MOVEMENT MAY HAVE been freaked by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) nabbing of Canuck marijuana seed entrepreneur Marc Emery, but inhale deeply - the worst may be yet to come.
What exactly is the DEA busy with here? The DEA denies it, but suspicious pot activists suggest it's planning a mass roundup of Emery's buyers.
Some of Emery's customers were stunned recently to receive a letter purportedly seeking support money for Emery's defence fund. "Smoke for freedom of choice! Smoke for our leader! Overgrow the government! reads the notice, which asks for an additional $50 to fill seed orders and stipulates that donations be sent via money order through Wal-Mart or Western Union - both of which require I.D. It's from info given at the money-order stage that pot activists contend the DEA is amassing its hit list.
According to Emery, notices have turned up in 16 U.S. states, seven provinces and territories, as well as New Zealand and Australia. The notice's request for cash to fill orders is curious given the fact that Emery's seed business has been shut down and the DEA has confiscated all his inventory.
Emery, who swears he has never kept a client list, in order to protect the privacy of his clients, insists this suspicious missive was not sent by him or anyone he knows. He has posted the oddly worded flyer on his Cannabis Culture website, warning recipients not to respond to it.
Emery's sure it's the work of the DEA. He says info the DEA has so far disclosed to his lawyer, John Conroy, indicates that its agents scanned both the incoming and outgoing mail for his seed operation in the weeks prior to his arrest on July 29. Emery says more than 60 people have notified him that they got the letter in the mail starting August 5.
"They want to get us all," Emery says. Josh Williams, a quadriplegic from London, Ontario, received seeds from Emery based on his Health Canada exemption. Then came the mysterious notice.
"It would have been the Wednesday after the arrest," Williams says. "I just thought it was odd. I didn't pay for the seeds, and it was asking for money to get them. This seemed weird and suspicious." Williams goes on: "The writing - 'Smoke for our leader' - that's nothing Marc or someone who writes for him would say. It doesn't sound like Emery at all. 'Use code names. Go to Wal-Mart. Use Western Union.' That's not Marc either.
"I'm worried that someone has my address now and they know what I do. It's an invasion of privacy." Spokespeople with neither the DEA nor the U.S Department of Justice in Seattle, Washington, could - or would - shed any light on this caper.
Ditto for RCMP spokesperson Paul Marsh, who refers all questions on the matter to Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, which did not return calls. Seattle-based prosecutor Todd Greenberg is a little more forthcoming. "They're trying to make people angry against their government and the U.S. government," he says of the alleged DEA sting, before saying there could be further arrests.
Ian Hillman at the U.S. Consulate in Vancouver, suggests just how large the Emery probe has become, saying, "This nearly involves every state. There are aspects of the investigation where it's not in our interest to reveal how many people are working on it [But] I understand it involves dozens of people on both sides of the border."
By most accounts, it looks like Emery and two others indicted with him by a Seattle grand jury on May 26 for marijuana seed distribution, marijuana distribution and money laundering are in for an extended judicial adventure.
"This case raises a plethora of unique defences," say prominent Philadelphia lawyer Theodore Simon. A favourite as a talking head on intricate international cases on CourtTV, Simon declares that "it is the law of the requested country [Canada] that prevails in all extradition cases, not the requesting country's [U.S.].
"Does Canada extradite if the action is wholly lawful there? It's the governing laws of Canada that will decide." In a case similar to the Prince of Pot's the noted lawyer used a lack-of-knowledge defence to win after Canada sought to extradite an American who sold furniture using a "going out of business sale" gimmick.
Simon says, "Canada has strict laws governing that type of activity [false going-out-of-biz marketing], while it's much looser in the U.S. The law of the U.S. governed his action, and the fellow was unaware that the law is strict in Canada. We prevailed."
He asks, "How will the courts of Canada determine whether Emery knew where [his product] was going? With that type of defence, a person may be protected from extradition.'
A court would have to determine, he says, what the conversation was like between the Drug Enforcement Administration agents posing as customers and Emery. "If they said they wanted to buy seeds and bring them back to Arkansas and he engaged them by saying, 'Do it, Little Rock,' then that's evidence that he or his staff knew the seeds were going to the U.S."
The American lawyer is amazed that Emery continues with his defiant admission that he sold south. Says Emery, with deliberation but quieter than usual: "I've made plenty of American seeds sales and given them away to California med growers and in all the med users' states.
"The last ad Marc Emery Seeds Direct took out was in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. The ad ran June 22 advertising our med pack. Very affordable. Our ad is next to an ad for free med grass consultations. There are 150 seed sellers in California alone."
But U.S. National Association of Criminal Lawyers spokesperson Jack King thinks the DEA may have jurisdictional issues to contend with once the matter gets to court. "Were does the DEA get jurisdiction to operate in Canada? Under the piracy clause in the U.S. Constitution? That's for the high seas. Last I looked, BC was known for its soil. "In one respect," he addes, "this is just another trade dispute with Canada" (NOW, September 8-14 2005).
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