CFN – Jamie Gilcig probably thinks he is as hip as hip can get, now that he has finally dragged his opinion into the 21st century. But sadly, he still gets it kind of wrong.
First off, although “dope” is still an accepted slang term for marijuana, it denotes stupidity (as in, you would be stupid to use pot, or it will make you stupid of you use it). Therefore, it is an insulting word – similar to the unkind epithets used for gays and people of color. It reinforces the stigma, and licensed, medical users like myself are constant victims of that stuigma. So, on behalf of every medical marijuana user in the country, please refrain from using this derogatory term in the future.
Next, pot is not actually that much more “potent” than it used to be. Sure, selective breeding – similar to the way people breed prize-winning orchids – has made some strains more “potent” in certain ways, but the “potency” of pot is actually a subjective thing. It has more to do with how much debris there is in the bag. Today’s pot is mostly bud, whereas pot in the 70’s was full of seed, stem, leaf, and twigs, so “by weight”, today’s pot is more potent.
Further, the more potent the pot is, the less the user needs to use in order to get the desired effect. Weak pot gives you a lot of smoke and little medicine. Potent pot means less smoking. Hashish is safer still.
Not that “smoking” pot is such a big deal, because recent science shows how pot shrinks tumors:
www.webmd.com/cancer/news/
www.salem-news.com/articles/
So, even when smoked, the benefits of pot use far outweigh any “dangers”. Marijuana us safer than table salt. It has dozens of proven medical applications, and unlike junk food pot yet to kill a single person! You would have to smoke a whole barn-full in one sitting to actually reach a “toxic” level.
For example, use 10 grams of pot every day – eaten and vaporized and sometimes smoked – and the pot I use is among the cleanest and most “potent” on the planet. I experience no stoney-ness, no high-ness, nor any other kind of inebriation from this monumental daily dose. I am in less pain, have less anxiety, and have more energy, more strength, more stamina, I sleep better, and I am more libinious. In fact, my health has improved so dramatically as a result of my increased pot use, that I have asked my doctor to increase my dose to 18 per day!
But the main reasons Canada should be legalizing pot are more simple; The obvious first reason is that – not matter HOW dangerous the drug we discuss might be – prohibition is categorically the worst way to control it’s use and production. It actually facilitates the crime we are trying to prevent – with it’s very existence. All science and history shows that prohibition is outrageously counterproductive, and that legalizing pot would rob the criminals of a valuable source of revenue.
Also, the law prohibiting the possession and production of marijuana has been repeatedly struck down as unconstitutional, so the police and government are not only subsidizing organized crime with this war on personal choice, they are also violating court orders. The media knows this, but won’t report it, because they are worried that we all might start using that freedom. Because they don’t understand it, they think pot is a “fringe issue”, so they report it as a fringe issue, and then the public thinks it is a fringe issue. Informed people like me, however, know that marijuana prohibition is the cornerstone of all crime and oppression in the world.
But the main reason we should be legalizing pot is that we are supposed to be a nation of free humans. If we accept that the government can tell us what we can and cannot do with our own bodies, then we must accept their ownership. That means the government owns all of us – like pets, slaves, or livestock – and that we have only the rights that they grant. Anyone willing to accept that deserves no rights at all.
Sadly, pot will never be legalized. As long as there have been humans, there have been humans bent on controlling other humans. So as long as there are humans on earth, there will be some form of marijuana prohibition. It is a valuable medicine that competes — and beats – the pharmaceutical equivalents; so naturally, the prohibition on it will never end.
The cops, lawyers, jailers, politicians, pharmaceutical companies, churches, counsellors, and criminals are all making too much money to allow this cash cow to die. And they are all working together to keep prohibition going, using “protect the children” as their bamboozling battle cry.
And people who think that all this chatter about “compassion clubs” and court rulings somehow means that the public is changing their view are misguided as well. Remember the LeDain Commission? Forty years ago? Of course not, no one does.
I have actually heard people say, “Pot should be legal, but the people who grow it and sell it should go to jail for a really long time.” without them even realizing that they just contradicted themselves! That is, in a nutshell, the Canadian attitude towards marijuana: misinformed, confused, hypocritical, hysterical, judgmental, sanctimonious, fearful, and vitriolic. Classic Canadiana.
And now with Mad King Steve in total control of both sides of the government, we can expect a steep increase in the number of arrests and a big increase in the length of jail sentences. Just last summer, he changed the law making anything involving marijuana a “serious” offense, meaning it is harder to get bail and harder to “plead out” to a lesser charge.
Finally, Health Canada plans to take away our Charter-guaranteed right to grow cannabis for our own medical purposes, and force us to buy it from their chemical-laden, gamma-irradiated, pre-ground, ditchweed supplier.
So really, anyone who still thinks pot is “going to be legal soon” must be high as a kite.
Russell Barth
Educators For Sensible Drug Policy
Federally Licensed Medical Marijuana User
(Comments and opinions of Editorials, Letters to the Editor, and comments from readers are purely their own and don’t necessarily reflect those of the owners of this site, their staff, or sponsors.)
I agree with a lot of what Russell says actually. Is it the pot or just life that has drained you of optimism? There will be a huge generational shift soon that will change everything.
Being a tattooed man, I have seen a change in peoples perceptions just over the last 5 years. As the more conservative, older generation become fewer and fewer, common sense and acceptance will grow stronger and stronger.
You are starting to sound like someone who has given up unfortuneatly.
I will also say that I got c.difficile once and was wasting away despite hospital visits, i.v, pills etc. After over 10 days of not being able to hold down food or water, I was getting nervous.
Pot was there to save the day. I smoked not even enough to get “high” and immediately started to feel my stomach settle. Within an 30 minutes, I felt I could eat. I had some food and water slowly and my recovery started. I told my doctor about it in hopes that maybe it could help others and I share it hear, now, for the same reason.
Just my 2 cents.
I am just being realistic. Optimists are seldom realistic, and often accuse me of pessimism.
I concede that there is a shift in public perceptions, but as we have seen, there is a faction of people – usually those in control – who refuse to change things and refuse to change themselves. We cannot round these people up and cage them, as they keep being born.
Trying to legalize pot in Canada is much like the old saying “trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear”.
I agree with Russell. The “war on drugs” madness is gonna rage on for at least four more years in Canada. We are soon to have new mega-prisons to fill.
I don’t think the weight alone makes it more potent today, it has been altered to be.
How can growing your own be a Charter right when applications have to be made to use? There are thousands more applications than actual licenses given so there has to be a control amounts.
There are controls on our bodies, have been for years, but are designed towards the common good. You can not smoke til 19, you have to control your bodily fluides around others (HIV for example), prostitution among them.
All laws need to be upgraded, possibly for medicinal use, for better coordination then. I am thinking of the Ontario bar owner a couple of years ago ordered by a human rights commision that would put him up against the liqour board rules.
The people using this product, are they working, driving etc on a daily basis?
Using the cash cow thinking, this could be used for most operations the government is involved with.
Pot smokers are just slaves to the demon weed…..can’t even control themselves, just let the weed do it. Tell the hospitals that C.Difficile can be controlled by smoking weed and expect to be laughed out the door. You can’t trust anything pot smokers say! (Lol) they think like pot smokers.
@ Cojones Kid. Absolutely brilliant!
Great piece Russell. Tilting against windmills though, it’s become a habit. No where to go, besides, we’re right.
http://www.stockhouse.com/tools/?page=%2FFinancialTools%2Fsn_overview.asp%3Fsymbol%3DCANA%26table%3DLIST
As far as “smoking pot” is concerned, I saw dozens of different types of pot at the local dollar store the other day. I assume that it’d be pretty hard to light the terracotta ones, so do you reccommend we smoke the plastic ones? I’m pretty sure they’ll burn pretty easily, since they’re petroleum-based, but how to you keep them from bursting into flames?
Now, for those of you out there who are tired of hearing about “pot, weed, grass, shit, and marijuana” and would prefer to hear about the medicinal uses of CANNABIS, the perhaps, if people would stop using the dergatory and belittling terms and phrases as appear repeatedly in the above article, instead focusing on using the proper terminology, MAYBE the media might start to do the same.
Fact is, cannabis has many medicinal benefits, and if cannabis/hemp prohibition were REPEALED (not “decriminalised” or “legalized” or “re-legalized” or even “taxed and regulated”) today, you might be able to both grow your own medicinal plants at home for next to nothing, stay that much healthier, and even have the possibility of selling your “garden waste” to a paper mill and earning a bit of extra income from nothing more than tending your own garden out in the backyard.
Or you can ignore what I’ve said (the vast majority will, I assure you) and keep wondering why courts, police and politicians all completely ignore the facts surrounding cannabis, while the propaganda and misinformation continues to be accepted as fact by those who refuse to think for themselves, or do even the tiniest bit of honest investigation into the truth.
“Sadly, pot will never be legalized.”
Really? There were surely people telling the abolitionists that slavery would never be oulawed, or the suffragettes that women would never have the vote, or the pride marchers that homosexuals would never have the right to marry on equal terms with heterosexuals. Just because we face a temporary setback, doesn’t mean we should be defeatist. All of those other injustices I mentioned were ended (or in the third case, is slowly, piecemeal, coming to an end) because enough of the public have had their consciousness raised to be able to appreciate the injustice for what it is, such that governments realised that continuing it was going to alienate more people than ending it. We will reach the same critical mass with cannabis, and soon; we only need to keep disseminating the truth and challenging the supporters of the status quo to intellectually justify their position (which they know they cannot do).
For a law to be effective, it has to be enforceable, and the population, for the most part, have to comply. Millions of Canadians obviously ignore the law, and either buy their weed from a criminal supplier, or grow their own. Apart from creating jobs for police, organized criminals, lawyers, judges and prison workers, the laws regarding cannabis are a complete failure.
To Eric:
I don’t think the weight alone makes it more potent today, it has been altered to be.
>>> Any science to back that assertion? Define “potent”. I often use a strain that is 6% THC and 6% CBD. Most strains are 10-15% THC and 1-3% CBD for the REALLY high-CBD strains. So, which one is more “potent”? Aaahhhh….. see?
How can growing your own be a Charter right when applications have to be made to use?
>>> That is just it. Health Canada is technically violating people’s charter rights by making us jump through these ridiculous hoops, and seven judges have agreed. You need to look up the history of the medical program…
There are thousands more applications than actual licenses given so there has to be a control amounts.
>>>> Nope. The reasons they only issue that many are various. First off, they could DOUBLE their staff and still not get the applications out in under 6 weeks. This is by design. The government – the people above the health canada office – want this program to fail. If it succeeds, then all their anti-pot propaganda becomes absurd. So they keep the script: “Pot bad, asbestos good”
>>>Also, people send in their applications with parts missing, lack of signature by a doctor or landlord or patient or grower, or some little box wasn’t checked off. So now you have a small office, dealing with PILES of paperwork that would take months to get done if it was all PERFECT, but more than half of which isn’t filled out right and needs patching. It is a monumental mess, and everyone is to blame.
There are controls on our bodies, have been for years, but are designed towards the common good.
>>> There is no legal, moral, or societal justification for prohibition. If people can grow hydroponic tomatoes or brew beer in their basement, then we should all be allowed to grow what we want. Selling it should be licensed, and regulated of course, meaning buddy can’t grow some in his basement and “sell” it at the neighborhood store or whatever without some protocols. Like food and herbal medicines, there needs to be some management, but not “restrictions” as such. The government is keen to KEEP people from growing their own pot because then people would use less booze, less hard drugs, les Rx meds, and generally get healthier – as I have. That is bad for business.
You can not smoke til 19
>>> People smoke at 12 and never go to jail for it or even get a fine! Kids smoke at 15 and 16 on school grounds!
you have to control your bodily fluides around others (HIV for example), prostitution among them.
>>> Apples and breadsticks, dude, stay on track.
I am thinking of the Ontario bar owner a couple of years ago ordered by a human rights commision that would put him up against the liqour board rules.
>>> yeah. That was a bad decision. That owner got stuck between a rock and hard place because of the government’s failure to regulate pot. That is why I have launched two different human rights complaints against the ontario government.
The people using this product, are they working, driving etc on a daily basis?
>>>> I look like a “stoner” because of my hair, but I speak fast and I am exceptionally articulate. My eyes are never red. I do not drive because my muscle spasms and nausea attacks totally pre-empt my ability to drive…. BUT…. I am confident that I could easily pass any roadside sobriety test. I do not appear the least bit stoned. I could smoke five joints in a half hour right in front of you and you would never notice the slightest change in my demeanor. I would, however, be feeling less anxious, less angry, less pained, and less nauseous.
Using the cash cow thinking, this could be used for most operations the government is involved with.
>>> Yes and no. When (if) it becomes legal, it will become cheap. It is cheap when you grow big fields of it, but not as good, and you risk weather and bugs and so on. Green houses with commercial licenses selling to compassion clubs and “Cafés”. They should be regulated like any other business that provides food or booze or other “consumables”. The indoor stuff costs a certain amount and that will never change.
>>> People growing at home should grow as much as they please and use as much as they please. If they have a medical reason, then that explains the whole huge garage grow. It is a complex issue with many different levels of use for different people. One regulation will not fit all.
>>>> But the main thing is, we need to lose the idea that we need to “control” pot because it is “dangerous”. It isn’t. …….. It. Just. Isn’t…….. A single Red Bull is doing more damage to a kid than a canoe full of pot would.
@Cojones
Some of what you wrote was actionable. I suggest you speak to a lawyer before typing. Also, sober UP before typing you nincompoop.
@furtz
Really? Wow….. the blind leading the stupid….
furtz…. i agree with MOST of what you posted, but why encourage cojones?
david hart, i think you give the canadian public more credit than they deserve…..
Okay kids: mental exercise! For a minute, let’s pretend trolls are real – like in the European mock-u-mentary film Troll Hunter.
Trolls. Hm. We would have to deal with that, wouldn’t we. If we, the public, all knew trolls were real and that they posed a risk, and that they needed to be kept inside their territory and so on…. there would be a public policy based on some sort of science that takes the well-being of the trolls and the humans into account and so on and so forth. Right? You follow…..? No? Go watch the movie.
Anyway…. dial your mind back one step to the real world….. imagine if pot were NOT the magical destroyer of souls that the cops keep saying it is…. but was, in fact, a valuable medicine that is safer than ASPIRIN!
What would we do…..? We would definitely base our public policy on that, right? Do lots of studies and adjust our policy often to adhere to the new scientific realities, right? We would not KEEP imagining that trolls are REAL…… would we? No.
Okay, so WHY do we KEEP basing our public policies on the scientifically-inaccurate, superstitious balderdash the cops keep laying on us? Because it is in the best interest of cops, lawyers, politicians, churches, “addictions” counsellors, jailers, et al. THEY make the rules, kids. They might only be 7-10% of the population, but they are the 7-10% who matter most. The rest of us are all just along for the ride.
That isn’t defeatist talk, it is just me trying to give a realistic assessment of the situation, using a mental exercise.
And no….. I don’t think trolls are real….. except the ones lurking on line……
@ Russell. Re my comment to Cojones…. I thought you were intelligent enough to recognize sarcasm.
Increased potency article –
http://articles.cnn.com/2009-05-14/health/marijuana.potency_1_average-thc-potent-marijuana-marijuana-users?_s=PM:HEALTH
These human rights complaints are not against the Ontario government, they are against the Taxpayers of Ontario and we have no more money to share.
Are we still seperating the conversation between medicinal use and allowing everyone to do what they want?
Eric:
Why is medical separate from recreational? When does “I like to smoke a joint or two in the evenings to relax” become “preventative medicine”?
ALL pot use is medical. I have never met a single “recreational” user who didn’t confess to medical reasons for using. It reduces stress and blood pressure and has a myriad health benefits. WHY oh why do people keep trying to argue as IF pot is dangerous? It just isn’t. Grow up. Trolls aren’t real.
As for the ontario taxpayers, if they had pressured their government to settle this mess, they would not have to pay for the clean up. Better luck next election.
Furtz:
yeah, sarcasm on the text is a hard one. Looking now at the context, I see it…
Unfortunately, we will probably elect yet another hard-right law-and-order type government in Ontario this fall. A Hudak-Hutton regime will be just a repeat of the Harris-Hutton regime. Expect no progressive legislation provincially or federally for some years to come.
Russell, I agree with you completely , and very much appreciate the fine work you have done with regard to removing the stupid stigma attached to cannabis. The time will come, brother, thanks to you, and others like you.
between Harper trying to take medicine from me and Hudak’s promise to reduce the benefits of people getting disability pensions, I really don’t expect to live much longer, to be honest. The past ten years with my wife have felt like “bonus round” sort of thing… like the game is in overtime or something. I mean that in a good way, of course. WE are very happy…. our life, however, is difficult……
Thanks for writing in Russell. I’ll tell you this, there’s millions of us working a 40 hour week. If I think a retailer isn’t 4/20 friendly. If a retailer (restaurant, store, business) thinks marijuana users should go to jail – that’s a business I will boycott. If they don’t mind that we go to jail then I don’t mind if they earn less money. These guys want to pass the word and put us in jail. I say pass the word and drive them into closure. F-em. 4/20 or f-off.
To the “I know no recreational user that does not use without some medical reason behind it” (Paraphrasing, forgive me.)
This is all too true, I started using cannabis and found it helped with my depression, I never felt like going to see anybody about it because I didn’t give a damn. But Ive noticed that I’m more willing to be active and am all around a more happy person. The negative stigma attached to using marijuana is ridiculous. Before using marijuana, I was so god damn lazy it’s not even funny, but when I’m not high, I’ll go for a run, take my dogs for walks, the idea that “If you smoke pot, you become a lazy person who just gets high and eats” is just absurd. Like you said, the sooner people stop believing in trolls, the sooner our society will be better.
@ 1934 Germany
People used to be wide-open haters of gays and other religions. You still see old white guys – especially rural types – who sound like they stepped right out of 1961, calling people the N-word and blaming “queers” for things that have nothing to do with sexual issues.
Same things is happening with pot. I mean, LOOK at me. That avatar photo IS what I look like. So people see my look and they think “stoner, reprobate, slack-jawed nincompoop.”
Then they hear me talk, and it is the stark contrast that makes their brains skid off every time.
So we have that going on. People who flatly ignore science and simply employ confirmation bias – they are in control of things…..
1934 Germany, perhaps, just perhaps, those retailers are jumping through hoops to stay legal while paying every step of the way, and perhaps they would like to see the money sent to government coffers being used better. I believe they earn an opinion on the matter at least the same as others and many also have a difficult life.
Russell Barth, high school kids are smoking up to lower their blood pressure, is not a headline in any doctor journal or article I have read. BTW, I missed the marketing class you took, the one that says to insult, bully or harrass people to get your own way. I have grown up and we have a difference of opinion.
How much do the licensees pay for the license and associated “supplies” . Is it tax deductable?
Only a DOPE head would want to de-criminalize and even legalize marijuana. It is as simple as that!
Eph 5:18 “Don’t destroy yourself by getting drunk ( by smoking dope), but let the Spirit fill your life”.
To be influenced by pot and other addictive drugs would fall under the category of sorcery and witchcraft – mind control via drugs. A very small percentage of people us marijuana for medical reasons. Such marijuana use should be replace by other prescription drugs. Medicine is a God sent, but abuses, which there will be, need to be more strictly controlled. We are certainly a pill popping society, so legalizing another government controlled substance is not the way to promote all around good health. To legalize dope for just a few is certainly an over kill! Legalizing pot for medical use is just a way to open Pandora’s box!
@tnpreacher555:
Everything you said runs contrary to all the science and history on the subject. You are a moron. Please sober up before typing, you shameless drunken buffoon.
Russell Barth, high school kids are smoking up to lower their blood pressure
>>> And they have high blood pressure because they drink pop and red bull and get no exercise and their video games amp them up. They wouldn’t need pot if they had a healthy lifestyle. I blame adults. We let this happen. We let kids get fat and restless, and we let the laws facilitate their pot use. Adults are 100% to blame for kids’ drug use. 100%.
is not a headline in any doctor journal or article I have read.
>>> Why do you think kids use pot, then? For “spiritual enlightenment”? They use it cause they are restless and bored and scared and all the other stuff adults are when they don’t fake it for the cameras. WE haven’t given them the tools to cope because we adults collectively don’t have a clue what we are doing half the time.
BTW, I missed the marketing class you took, the one that says to insult, bully or harrass people to get your own way. I have grown up and we have a difference of opinion.
>>> Rent the movie Wall Street…… Only opinions based on fact are valid. Sure, opinions based on facts can differ, but your opinions seem based in conjecture, archaic junk science, “commonly-held beliefs”, and superstition. Other people here have asked cogent questions and got more respect for it.
How much do the licensees pay for the license and associated “supplies” . Is it tax deductable?
>>> Depends on the garden. There is no fee from HC, they do all of it free. The rules are arbitrary and unworkable. For example, we are only allowed to store enough medicine for one month. But if we have a crop loss, we could be left with no meds for months, sometimes. So we either have to store up more than the (unconstitutional) regulations allow, and risk arrest…. or we have to throw away the surplus medicine – that we went to cost and trouble to grow – and risk sickness and even death. WHY do these regs exist? Because health Canada is basing their policy on conjecture, archaic junk science, “commonly-held beliefs”, and superstition.
>>>> So forgive me if I come off a bit flip, but I have been dealing with an Alice-In-Wonderland-level of absurdity with this agency and the public for nearly a decade, so I have zero patience for foolishness. Do I sound like a bully? That might be because what you are writing here is profoundly dumb and my LIFE depends on this.
Pot doesn’t make people lazy. Lazy people use pot as an excuse to be lazy, because they are too lazy to come up with a decent lie.
@ Russell. Pay no attention to the preacher. He has a hate on for Gays, environmentalists, Catholics, Muslims, and everyone who isn’t born-again. He’ll tell you that he doesn’t hate them, but his god does. Google tnpreacher555, or “Pastor Tom Newton” for a good laugh or cry.
“Sticks and stones may brake my bones, but names will never hurt me” – I see Russel, those that don’t agree with your enlightenment, you rail upon them and call them names. Sounds very liberal to me! Or even worse sounds like someone under the influence. It is a know fact that prolong use of marijuana causes intolerance, ill temperateness, and a know in all attitude. Such ill effects are the result of much of one’s brains cells being destroyed by prolong pot use.
How Does Marijuana Affect the Brain? Taken from the NIDA link:http://www.drugabuse.gov/infofacts/marijuana.html
Scientists have learned a great deal about how THC acts in the brain to produce its many effects. When someone smokes marijuana, THC rapidly passes from the lungs into the bloodstream, which carries the chemical to the brain and other organs throughout the body.
THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, kicking off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentrating, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.1
Not surprisingly, marijuana intoxication can cause distorted perceptions, impaired coordination, difficulty with thinking and problem solving, and problems with learning and memory. Research has shown that, in chronic users, marijuana’s adverse impact on learning and memory can last for days or weeks after the acute effects of the drug wear off.2 As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time.
Research into the effects of long-term cannabis use on the structure of the brain has yielded inconsistent results. It may be that the effects are too subtle for reliable detection by current techniques. A similar challenge arises in studies of the effects of chronic marijuana use on brain function. Brain imaging studies in chronic users tend to show some consistent alterations, but their connection to impaired cognitive functioning is far from clear. This uncertainty may stem from confounding factors such as other drug use, residual drug effects, or withdrawal symptoms in long-term chronic users.
References
1. Herkenham M, Lynn A, Little MD, et al. Cannabinoid receptor localization in the brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci, USA 87(5):1932–1936, 1990.
2. Pope HG, Gruber AJ, Hudson JI, Huestis MA, Yurgelun-Todd D. Neuropsychological performance in long-term cannabis users. Arch Gen Psychiatry 58(10):909–915, 2001.
Russel does this describe you, and many other regular pot users – “As a result, someone who smokes marijuana every day may be functioning at a suboptimal intellectual level all of the time”.
preacher, the thing that makes me so angry is having to share the planet with monsters like you. I wish you serious ill. Know that.
besides, anyone hiding behind a fake name and picture on line is nothing but a coward and a troll, so you don’t actually qualify as a human, so it will be a good thing when you are gone.
Hi everyone. We love debate here, but when personal attacks start it can scare away viewers and some that may post their opinion. Can I ask a personal favour and try and keep the personal attacks to a minimum no matter how much of a toe rag someone may be?
Thanks,
Jamie
Russell, as you know, many of these religious cults are focal points for human garbage. Doing a quick google search of Born Again religious cults reveals how problematic this hate filled religion is and how much tragedy it has caused. Of course reading the Preacher Troll’s words of hate scares many people away from cult activity.
You are special Mr. Barth. You have your med-card yet you still campaign for others. You are genuine. I know you are busy and it’s unrelated but I would be delighted to read a current article on the state of epilepsy and your thoughts on the subject.
Russel – all you have to do is selection the red tnpreacher555 and you are there! All you ever wanted to know about me, Calvary Baptist church, etc, etc…
A word to confront your murderous heart – Mat 5:21 -22 You know that our ancestors were told, “Do not murder” and “A murderer must be brought to trial.” But I promise you that if you are angry with someone, you will have to stand trial. If you call someone a fool, you will be taken to court. And if you say that someone is worthless, you will be in danger of the fires of hell.
So may the good Lord bless you with true heart repentance before He commits you to hell!
well, the campaigning for others is less altruistic that people think. If any of you want to know what my motivation for legalizing is, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRZY2a2jnuw
I realize that for my wife to be safe, we need to live in a society that is more coherent than this. I am merely striving to get the world to run smoother so that WE can have a better time. It isn’t entirely selfish, or entirely altruistic – just necessary.
Unlike some young activists who are pot enthusiasts, I actually don’t like using it. So, a lot of activists who want to save trees and whales and the air and so on…. they get fed up after a while and quit.
I can’t “quit” activism any more than I can “quit” having my conditions or “quit” being poor. I am stuck with this. I am just doing what I can to make it better, and I realize that one thing that is necessary is to inform the public.
I seem to have a knack for putting things into terms people can easily understand. My weakness lies in my inability to let bullies have the last word. I am a born bully-taunter, so when I get bullied by people who are spouting lies and citing debunked science, well…. my back gets way up.
for preacher:
http://www.equalrights4all.org/religious/bible.htm
And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. — Ezekiel 34:29
God said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth.…To you it will be for meat.” … And God saw everything that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. (Genesis 1:29-31)
The Bible predicts some herb’s prohibition. “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times, some shall … speak lies in hypocrisy … commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. (Paul: 1 Timothy 4:1-3)
Jesus said: “Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; that which cometh out of the mouth defileth a man.” (Mat. 15:11)
He also said “Beware of the scribes which …devour widows’ houses…. The same shall receive greater damnation.” (Luke 20:46-47)
(Cannabis is mentioned in Ex. 30:23 but King James mistranslated it as ‘sweet calamus’) :
Moreover, the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, 23 Take thou also unto thee principal spices, of pure myrrh five hundred shekels, and of sweet cinnamon half so much, even 250 shekels, and of qaneh-bosm [cannabis] 250 shekels, 24 And of cassia 500 shekels, after the shekel of the sanctuary, and of oil olive an hin: 25 And thou shalt make it an oil of holy anointment, an ointment compound after the art of the apothecary: it shall be an holy anointing oil. 26 And thous shalt anoint the tabernacle of the congregation therewith, and the ark of the testimony, 27 And the table and all his vessels, and the candlestick ahd his vessels, and the altar of incense, 28 And the altar of burnt offerings with all his vessels, and the laver and his foot. 29 And thou shalt sanctify them, that they may be most holy: whatsoever toucheth them shall be holy. (Exodus 30:22-29)…. now, as one shekel equals approximately 16.37 grams, this means that the THC from over 9 pounds of flowering cannabis tops were extracted into a hind, about 6.5 litres of oil. The entheogenic effects of such a solution — even when applied topically -would undoubtedly have been intense.
So there you go. From a vehement anti-theist to a “preacher”, bible passages that support my argument and dissolve yours.
Russell Barth: Your Ex. 30:23 reference will not hold up water. It is a very liberal, liberal, liberal source interpretation, that no one with any spiritual insight and knowledge of the Bible would hold to. Only the pot heads run to God (and to this weak, corrupt interpretation )for such wicked justification.
btw preacher…. the bible is bunk. there is no god, no santa, and no goblins or demons. I have zero respect for anyone’s belief in archaic superstitions written 2000 years ago by sheep herders who thought angles caused lightning. your opinion has as much value as a child’s insistence that his imaginary friend is displeased.
inflicting your prohibitions on others is the true sickness. belittling a disabled man who busts his ass to help the community and take care of his wife while in a lot of pain and fear, is very christian of you, too, you hypocrite….. Jesus would be standing by my side denouncing YOU…. if he existed….
but you illustrate an interesting point: Prohibitionists are much like religious zealots in that they refuse – staunchly refuse – to listen to or even acknowledge anything that might sway their opinion.
Also, because THEY operate on a belief system rather than using critical thinking, they assume everyone is doing the same thing. Sort of like how someone who can only see in B & W and gray would think we were all crazy for saying there is such a thing as “color”.
So this is what we are up against: not people who are too dumb to understand the issue (though a large part of the Canadian populace meets this criteria), but a staunch refusal to even look at facts. THOSE are the people in control of things.
My comment rejected. OK, how about this?
@ Russell. You are wasting your time and energy trying to debate with the preacher.
i am using him as an illustration of the kind of thinking we are dealing with. so other people can see the kind of discrimination we are forced to endure.
“discrimination” – my heart bleeds! So, pot heads are now a race? What is next? A pot gene? I am not responsible for my addiction – that will work! Say that to the OPP when you get busted and see how far that will get you. You don’t have to spend millions of dollars in research to identity this gene – it’s name is SIN.
Rom 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”.
@ Russell. Not sure how to put this politely, but I’ll try. People here and on other sites have tried to have intelligent debate and discussion with the preacher for years with no success. The preacher is a special person, not typical of the vast majority of the opponents of your cause. I applaud your efforts and wish you well.
I think it all comes down to freedom of speech. It’s great to debate beliefs, but at the end of the day everyone should be able to have their say unless they’re smee…
Holy Jumpin’ Jamie! What have you done with smee?
And I believe that anyone who doesn’t accept and worship my Pet Rock as their Lord and Savior, will burn in hell for eternity! There is only ONE truth! 🙂
picking on sick people. love it. thanks, preacher, for illustrating my point so well…
well, i have noticed that the most vociferous haters of things are usually holding a bible. I like to ask them what they think is a good price for a daughter, adjusting to 21st century economies. You see, selling your daughter into slavery is perfectly acceptable in the bible… it you take it literally…. so what would be a good price? I mean, what does a goat go for these days….?
Ask Christians that, and watch them squirm.
Thank you – Admin.!
god sure must have messed up big when he made pot, eh, gang? or wait, maybe he screwed up when he gave us an endocannabinoid system:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannabinoid_receptor
http://www.google.ca/search?q=endocannabinoid+receptors&hl=en&safe=off&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=rzcWTq7JMsbTgQf_qK0F&ved=0CC0QsAQ&biw=1155&bih=586
yep. god should also go to jail for providing water, soil, and sunlight to all those pot growers. Clearly, he is an accomplice deserving of a harsh punishment.
where else did god blow it?
@ Russell. There’s no way to enlighten an extreme bible-thumper. It’s a total waste of energy and time.
Best to engage opponents who have the ability to reason. I doubt like hell that the LGBT community has wasted much time trying to debate or discuss with Stockwell Day, Jason Kenney, or Charles McVety, and the like. I think it was Winston Churchill who said that he would never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent.
true enough, furtz, but as I said, i use him as an example… bounce my teaching OFF him and into the crowd.