Dzisiaj juz od rana CNN, tuba propagandowa rzadu USA, obszczekuje suwerenna decyzje Meksyku, ktory zdecydowal sie na dekryminalizacje malej ilosci narkotyku dla wlasnego uzytku. Decyzja "nierozsadna", "kontrowersyjna", "niebezpieczna", "niemadra". Oczywiscie dla rasistowskich fanatykow czystosci bialego czlowieka w Ameryce, decyzja ta podwaza ich imperialisyczna racje.
Dla mnie pobierzem suwerennosci panstwa i wolnosci wlasnych obywateli jest stosunek prawa tego panstwa do tzw. narkotykow, szczegolnie marihuany.
Premier Kanady pan Stephen Harper, marionetka i dupoliz USA, w tej kwestii sprowadza Kanade do kraju niesuwerennego. USA uzywa nawet kanadyjska policje do represjonowania wlasnych obywateli na rozkaz i zyczenie Amerykanow. Spolegliwosc i uleglosc premiera Harpera wobec USA, ktore w kwestiach "wojny z narkotykami" daleko nie odbiega od tyranicznych Chin i panstw arabskich, jest potwarza dla wolnych Kanadyjczykow. Dla odwaznego i madrego prezydena Meksyku, pana Vicente Foxa powiem tylko krotko - We are all Mexicans! Dumny jestem z Meksyku i zawstydzony z bycia Kanadyjczykiem.
SMALL DRUG STASHES OK, MEXICO SAYS
LOOKING TO BREAK the power of the country's ruthless drug traffickers, Mexico is set to decriminalize possession of small amounts of drugs like mairjuana, cocaine and heroin. A drug reform bill was passed Friday by Mexico's Senate and will not be opposed by President Vincente Fox, his spokesman told reporters Tuesday, despite likely tensions with its northern neighbour, the United States.
"The president is going to sign that law, there would be no objection," said Ruben Aguilar. "It appears to be a good law and an advance in combating narcotics trafficking." The approval of the legislation surprised officials in th U.S., which counts on Mexico's support in its war against gangs that move massive quantities of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamines through Mexico to consumers in the U.S. and Canada.
Under the law, police will not penalize people for possessing up to five grams of marijuana, five grams of opium or 25 milligrams of heroin. The law also allows the possession of up to 500 milligrams of cocaine.
The bill has drawn relatively little attention from the Mexican public among whom rates of drug use are much lower than in the U.S. or Canada.
Hundreds of people, including many police officers, have been killed in Mexico in the past year as drug cartels battle for control of lucrative smuggling routes. The violence has raged mostly in northern Mexico, but in recent months it spread to cities in the south such as Acapulco and other tourist destinations. - REUTERS
The U.S. government has declared Mexico to be a "major drug-producing nation." The U.S. estimates Mexico produces approximately 10,000 tons of marijuana, 30 tons of heroin and substantial amounts of methamphetamines and ecstasy each year, almost all of it shipped north. Mexico is also the final stop for 90 per cent of the cocaine imported into the U.S., and much of the proceeds of drug trafficking is laundered in Mexico (DOSE 276 Wednesday 3 May 2006).
Dzisiaj 3 maja dwa zdarzenia sa warte odnotowania:
(1) 15. rocznica utworzenia Polskiej Ligii Szlacheckiej w Kanadzie. 3 maja 1991 roku w Ottawie zalozylem organizacje rodowa wraz z czlonkami i potomkami szlacheckiej rodziny Zaremba z Kostopola na Wolyniu. Celem ligi jest wybor krola i restytuowanie monarchii w Polsce;
(2) Dwunozny zwierzak, Zacarias Moussaoui, jedyny terrorysta z al-Kaidy, ktory zostal schwytany za 9/11 dostal dzisiaj dozywocie. Ma duzo czasu do przemyslen za ten czyn i wreszczie moze zaczac chodzic w celi na czterech lapach, tak jak zwierzakowi przystoi.
Privacy rights upheld
Ontario's highest court has upheld the privacy rights of students by refusing to overturn the acquittal of a Sarnia youth charged with drug trafficking. The case concerned a random search of a high school in Sarnia by police officers in 2002. Ontario Court Justice Mark Hornblower acquitted the youth in 2004 because he said police had no reason to search the backpack where the drugs were found.
Hornblower concluded the police had no reasonable grounds for the searches. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association called a student's backpack "a portable bedroom and study rolled into one."
- The Canadian Press (24 HOURS, May 3, 2006).
Drug tourism set to rise?
Mexican law will lure youths across border, officials say
Hard-partying U.S. teens and college students have long crossed the Rio Grande to knock back cheap beers and tequila shots in Mexico away from the watchful gaze of parents, teachers and police.
Now, a move to legalize drug possession in Mexico is set to put wings on their traditional revels and create the type of weekend drug tourism more commonly seen in Europe. That worries local authorities already swamped by drug crime.
"When I heard the news, I said, 'Mexico is going to be the new Amsterdam,'" said Texan student Mattew Flores, 23, in reference to the Dutch city where liberal narcotics laws attract drug tourists from across Europe. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Mexico's President Vicente Fox within weeks, allows for the possession of up to 5 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of opium, 25 milligrams of heroin and 500 milligram of cocaine.
But the controversial decision has angered U.S. politicians and judges, who called it a setback in the war on drugs, while beleaguered Mexican police warn it will make crime-racked border cities rowdier and more unruly.
more details
The bill decriminalizes the possession of limited quantities of drugs that include LSD, hallucinogenic mushrooms, amphetamines and peyote, a psychotropic cactus (METRO, Wednesday, May 3, 2006).
Making Canada a leader in medical marijuana
ALLAN YOUNG
Stephen Harper has decided to turn marijuana law reform into a mere pipe-dream for 3 million pot-smoking Canadians. This is a tragic mistake: Only in the world of science fiction can a plant become public enemy number one. But the oracle has now spoken, and Canadians will probably have to endure another decade of a misguided drug strategy that converts cannabis consumers into common criminals.
Fortunately, however, Harper's regressive approach to cannabis prohibition should have no impact on the increasing number of Canadians who rely upon marijuana for medical purposes. In 2000, the Ontario Court of Appeal declared that seriously ill Canadians have a constitutional right to choose marijuana as medicine. To discharge this constitutional obligation, Health Canada has been compelled to manage and maintain a program that exempts legitimate medical use from the criminal law.
Contrary to the views of ill-informed detractors, medical marijuana use is not simply a reflection of the obvious fact that intoxicating substances can make sick people feel temporarily better. The cannabinoids present in marijuana plants not only lead to giggles and a deep appreciation of Pink Floyd; these unique chemical compounds can control and curb nausea, neuropathic pain, spasticity and inflammation. As an appetite stimulant, marijuana can combat the ravages of the wasting syndrome that plagues many patients undergoing chemotherapy and HIV/AIDS antiretroviral treatment.
To date, the medical applications of cannabis have related to symptom control and not curative properties. But last year there was much excitement when Spanish and Israeli scientists both discovered that a synthetic cannabinoid can actually shrink cancerous tumours.
The problem with marijuana as medicine is the paucity of clinical research. We know pot works and we know it has a high margin of safety, but we don't really know how it works. In the past century, governments funded endless research in the attempt to prove that marijuana is sufficently harmful to warrant criminal intervention, but these same governments turned a blind eye to any research into medical benefits. Thousands of years of medical use of marijuana was disregarded, or even hidden, in the futile effort to convince people that marijuana was a soul-destroying narcotic.
In the process of re-writing history, governments exposed millions of patients to needless suffering. Governments simply assumed that Big Pharma would eventually develop synthetic products that would have greater therapeutic efficacy than marijuana. But with the recall of highly-touted painkillers such as Vioxx and Celebrex, one can now see it is a mistake to rely upon laboratory creations and ignore the benefits of a naturally occurring plant that has been used for medicine since 3000 B.C.
We need to understand marijuana's mechanism of action in order to develop medical products that are effective and safe. Many patients will not tolerate smoking joints as a medical treatment. New delivery systems must be developed.
For this reason, I became involved in founding Canada's first publicly traded company dedicated to research and development with marijuana - Cannasat Therapeutics. Despite my general suspicion of big business, I even became a shareholder.
My interest in corporate pot has little to do with the widely-shared belief that cannabinoid medicines are destined to become the lucrative, blockbuster drugs of the 21st century. Rather, I know it will take the resources of big business to unravel the mysteries of marijuana's valuable medical applications in the same way that many of our hospitals needed to be built on a foundation of corporate donations.
Canada is the ideal jurisdiction for advancing cannabinoid research, as we are the only country in the world where patients have a constitutional right to use marijuana as medicine, and where the government has a constitutional obligation to produce this medicine or to facilitate reasonable access through other channels.
Some of the grassroots constituency of pot smokers, whose interests I have represented over the years, have accused me of being a sell-out for introducing the business community to a plant adored and worshipped by the counterculture. Of course, I still remain committed to liberating the plant from the clutches of criminal law control - but that is an entirely different issue from the alleviation of pain and suffering. As Moses Znaimer, Chairman of Cannasat Therapeutics, recently noted: "This is not about fun - it is about function."
It takes little creativity and initiative to have fun with pot, but it will take years of clinical testing and millions of dollars to develop cannabinoid products that help seriously ill medical patients. It's not hard to act like Cheech and Chong, but it takes lots of effort to become the next Banting and Best.
Finally, the world has woken up to the therapeutic potential of cannabis. Research conducted by Cannasat, other pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions will transform the nature of our pharmacopoeia. Move over Gravol, and make way for ganja.
*Alan Young teaches law at Osgoode Hall Law School and criminology at the University of Toronto. His work contributed to the establishment of Canada's first medical marijuana program (NATIONAL POST, Wednesday, May 3, 2006).
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