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
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Russel: you so much want God to be on your side! You want His approval and justification, but He will not be a partaker of another man’s sin. What an absurd and foolish statement – “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” .
Have you never read – Mat 5:45 “That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust”. It is because of God’s mercy that He sends the rain, the fruitful seasons, etc., as He faithfully cares for His creation. His creation is not worthy to receive the least of His goodness for all of creation – meaning mankind is in open rebellion against Him. As haters of God, as ones that are unthankful to God, that will not give God the credit due – in order to glorify Him, but He still is found to be faithful, merciful, and kind. The Bible declares that all creation is under the curse and one day will be renewed and delivered totally from it’s sinful inhabitants. What sinful man is trying to do is undo the curse, while totally rejecting God’s solution of grace and salvation.
If you so crave God’s stamp and approval, then come in repentance of your sins and bow the knee to King Jesus in faith. There is grace to forgive, and grace to deal with all consequences of our sins. A new life in Christ is what you need. Living in a dazed and confused life while under the influence is not living at all. Do not blame God, but seek His solution for your eternal soul.
preacher……. seriously…… what makes you think I want the approval of something that doesn’t exist? what makes you think I care – even a little – what your imaginary friend thinks?
Oh…. right…. YOU think it is real, so, naturally, you assume everyone else must believe it too.
You are a child. A petulant child.
I only quoted the scripture to point out your hypocrisy. to point out to others that YOU and your ilk are the scourge that threatens us all, not marijuana.
The bible is bunk. A fairy tale, with a lot of interesting ideas in it, much like Lord Of The Rings or the Harry Potter series, but ultimately, a nonsensical story about angels and demons. It was designed to keep weak minds like yours under control. Nonsense. Historically and scientifically inaccurate balderdash. Anyone who takes a single word of it literally is a fool.
I would never bow to anyone living, so why would I bow to a fictional character? I would pray to Gandalf before I would pray to Jesus, but, since neither actually ever existed, it would not make much sense.
Praying is merely pretending to do something when you are really not doing anything. A lazy scoundrels’ way of dealing with things. A lazy scoundrel like YOU.
Meanwhile, you are calling me a sinner for taking care of my wife. For telling the community the truth, in order to free them from the slavery imposed by the likes of you. You call me sinner and wish harm on me because I use one of YOUR god’s plants to soothe my pain. YOUR book tells me that YOUR god says it is okay, but YOU seem to know better than YOUR own god?
Nothing about this article makes me prouder than knowing that I have annoyed you, preacher. What kind of twisted, sanctimonious sicko hypocrite picks on disabled people, goading them, discrediting them?
Russell, you’ve been sucked in by the devious preacher. A nut-bar, but a devious one.
it helps, though. he is a great illustration. the hero doesn’t look so heroic if he has no opposition. a story needs a good villain.
I’d take the preacher, over you, any day of the week Mr.Russell Barth
Stan is a member of the preacher’s cult? We should have known.
birds of a feather, stan.
How is dope a derogatory word? Furthermore, claiming it to be so immediately after misspelling words doesn’t really help your cause. Calling marijuana dope is simply a slang word for it, focusing on its origins and claiming it to be demeaning is ridiculous. If anything the word is unsuitable due to its use for heroin and crack. Don’t get me wrong I think marijuana is great, but slang is slang, and when used for drug nomenclature, how can you possibly be offended, it’s absurd.
well, the term dope came from something that has nothing to do with being in a stupor. But the modern associations with the word denote stupidity. As in, “one would be a dope to try pot”, or “he is all dopey because he smokes pot”.
I blame Disney.
So, although thew word “dope” is still considered suitable, it really is a derogatory term because of what it means today, not because of what it meant originally.
Accusing someone of being “gay” in 1920 meant they were happy and fun-loving and having a good old time. Today, the word means something else entirely, and almost no one uses the old version of the term “gay”, because it now has different connotations.
“We had a marvelously gay time out at the cottage this summer.”….. uttered in 1920 by a politician from a pulpit….. not a problem. Say those words in public in 2011, and what images spring to mind? Certainly not people in full-body bathing attire.
So yeah, the history of the word “dope” and how it was associated with pot has faded, but the stigma remains. Some medical users still use the word “dope”, much how some people of color still use the N-word for each other. But other people – especially non-users – using it is basically derogatory. It is usually meant in that way too.
Look at preacher, for example. He calls himself a christian, but goes out of his way to hurt me.
OMG, but there is no G! The preacher tries to defend himself at any cost. He is a radical who loves to rant about anything that he does not believe in, so ignore him and he will go away,(I hope) and continue with all this wonderful information.
Preacher,
I myself am a believer in Jesus, but you are way off on this issue, and speaking directly out of ignorance.
Pot and alcohol are 2 different things. Alcohol causes drunkeness, and actually kills people. According to Harvard MD Professor, cannabis has never caused a single death. Despite what you think, it isn’t addictive, and doesn’t kill brain cells, or any kindof hallucination. It activates the CB1 and CB2 receptors in our brains. Why or why did God create our brains with those receptors, with that function. Certainly you wouldn’t suggest that God made a mistake?
You are a victim of propaganda.
Genesis, every seed yeilding herb for our use.
p.s.
you’re also making Christians look extremely ignorant. please stop.
Lawrence – another case of PHD (pot head delirium)!
Is the preacher actually suggesting that others are suffering from mental illness?
Now, that is rich!
Russell why can’t you just be open to others rights to do what they want to there own body? It’s not like any one is making you try it (like you would any ways) or force you to do it. You just want to be our “master”. I think if your should be able to sit down after a long day at work and have a beer then we should be able to smoke marijuana after our long day at work.
Jesus Goes To Ottawa’s Pride Parade
Read the story: http://russellbarthhasablog.wordpress.com/2011/08/29/jesus-goes-to-ottawas-pride-parade/
see the video and the pics gallery on facebook (both links are in the story).