Prohibition
Marijuana gateway risk overblown: study
CBC NewsLong-held fears that the use of marijuana will lead to harder drugs are overblown, according to new research from the University of New Hampshire.
The research, in the September issue of the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, found that other factors, such as whether or not a person has a job, or is facing severe stress, are far more predictive of future hard drug use than whether they smoked pot as a teenager.
"Employment in young adulthood can protect people by closing the marijuana gateway, so over-criminalizing youth marijuana use might create more serious problems if it interferes with later employment opportunities," said co-author Karen Van Gundy.
Failed drug war tactics won't curb human smugglers
The StarPhoenixWhile Canadians justifiably have been preoccupied with a system that allowed 490 Sri Lankan Tamils to end up on West Coast after each paying human smugglers tens of thousands of dollars, the truly dark side of this odious industry came to light in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas.
The bullet-riddled bodies of 72 migrants from Central and South America were found there last week, victims of human traffickers who disposed of their suddenly inconvenient human contraband as they might flush a bag of dope rather than get caught.
Council votes to endorse decriminalization of drug use
By: Zoe McKnight, National PostToronto City Council voted to endorse the Vienna Declaration on Thursday, raising a loud voice against the war on drugs.
“The war against drugs has failed,” said city councillor Kyle Rae, who brought the declaration to council after attending the AIDS 2010 international conference this July, where it was announced. “In every jurisdiction and in every community, we know that policing this issue is not enough.”
The principles of the declaration favour a public health approach to dealing with drug addicts, rather than enforcing ever-stricter drug laws, which advocates say doesn’t work, and in fact can cause greater harm.
“Just as clearly as we know HIV is the cause of AIDS, we know the war on drugs doesn’t achieve its stated objectives and contributes to a range of harms, including the spread of HIV,” said Dr. Evan Wood, a research physician who studies infectious disease at the University of British Columbia, and who chaired the writing committee.
Big pot busts make great show and tell
By BILL KAUFMANN, Calgary SunIt doesn’t happen by design, it’s just how things shake out in the war on drugs, says the senior cop.
Drug bust statistics compiled by a new Alberta police force created largely to battle organized crime — the drug trade, in other words — reveal a strikingly lopsided picture.
In 2009-10, the entity comprising city and RCMP officers known as ALERT states it seized illicit drugs of various kinds worth $104 million.
Of that total, nearly $101 million was marijuana — the drug that, unlike legal pharmaceuticals and alcohol, has never led to a fatal overdose and which most Canadians believe should be decriminalized. Read more »
Abbotsford family fury after botched grow-op bust
An Abbotsford mom says gun-toting police terrified “innocent” children on the weekend during a raid that failed to produce the underground grow-op bunker police were after.
“Maybe somebody’s going to get shot the next time,” mom Jennifer Hewison, 35, told The Province after an emergency response team surrounded the family’s home on Saturday, looking for what they called a “large-scale grow operation” in an underground bunker.
Abbotsford police admit they failed to find a bunker, but said no apology will be made.
End Prohibition in National Post Full Comment
By: Nicole Seguin, National Post Full CommentMr. Toews states that the Conservative government is ‘unwavering in its commitment to providing law-enforcement agencies with the tools they need to make our streets safer.’
Except, it would seem, for the gun registry. The program’s strongest supporters include three national police organizations: the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Canadian Association of Police Boards, and the Canadian Police Association. These organizations count the registry as a “valuable tool”, and have spoken out against bill C-391, which continues to be pushed by Conservative MP Candice Hoeppner.
An ineffective way to fight crime
Re: Why we’re tough on crime, Aug. 13.Public Safety Minister Vic Toews insists that the prison farms had to close because they cost $4-million to operate and, by his account, were worthless because inmates didn’t get jobs on farms after release.
Yet he somehow tries to justify the expansion of old and new prisons, without admitting the cost will be well into $9 Billion and much higher over time, even though that clearly proves there will be more people imprisoned at an alarming rate, not more people rehabilitated and reintegrated into society.
Legalizing drugs the only answer
By: Jonathan Power, Toronto StarDuring the difficult years that preceded the British handover of Hong Kong to China, the Chinese government's intense antipathy to opium and the still fresh memories of the evil that 18th century buccaneering Britain had inflicted on China and Hong Kong added an extra emotional charge to what, anyway, was a most complicated transition. Without opium there would have been no Hong Kong. The British only acquired it because of the Opium Wars, and the city's early economic success was built on the opium trade.
It was the British who fed the Chinese propensity for opium. Historians point out that the Chinese would have found it elsewhere, even grown some of it themselves. But the truth is the Indian-grown opium was the brand the Chinese smokers savoured and the British East India Company marketed it with commercial élan.
Mexico drug cartels thrive despite Calderon's offensive
Nearly four years after President Felipe Calderon launched a military-led crackdown against drug traffickers, the cartels are smuggling more narcotics into the United States, amassing bigger fortunes and extending their dominion at home with such savagery that swaths of Mexico are now in effect without authority.
The groups also are expanding their ambitions far beyond the drug trade, transforming themselves into broad criminal empires deeply involved in migrant smuggling, extortion, kidnapping and trafficking in contraband such as pirated DVDs.
Undeterred by the 80,000 troops and federal police officers arrayed against them, gunmen frequently take on Mexican forces in the open. Operatives of one group, the Zetas, did so in northern Mexico this spring when they blockaded army garrisons. In June a group believed to be linked to another organization, La Familia, ambushed federal police in the western state of Michoacan, killing 12 officers in early morning light.
Dealers targeted by detachment
By Lachlan Labere - Salmon Arm ObserverDrug issues continue to be the biggest threat to the health and safety of the community.
Salmon Arm RCMP Staff Sgt. Kevin Keane emphasized this point when delivering an update to city council Monday.
“When you look at it from other priorities, such as youth, traffic, the increase in property crime, it seems to be at the core of everything,” said Keane.
Keane said the detachment has made several high-profile arrests and that is going to be the norm.
“Down at the shop, we’re starting to get a little mean-on these days, we’re starting to get angry about it. We just don’t tolerate anybody anymore who kind of flaunts it.” Read more »
