Seniors who bought grow-op home lose in court
Keith Fraser, Postmedia News, July 30, 2010
A retired couple who discovered what they believed was evidence of a former marijuana grow-op in their new home -- then sued the former owners and their real-estate agents -- have had their case tossed out of court.
Pauline Stone and Joe Brown bought the rural property in Quesnel, about 600 kilometres north of Vancouver, in September 2006 for $239,000.
They then found what they say was evidence of a grow-op. They claimed their health was adversely affected by residual chemical pollution and excessive mould and moisture, and said they'd suffered mental and emotional distress.
7/27/10
7/26/10
Prediction of legalized pot anarchies coming true in California
Another evidence of an Empire's fall
(While kids in developing countries are busy staying sober and busy studying hard to make their economies stronger, American kids, led by their adult enablers, are busy getting stoned on pot (and other drugs), and busy working hard to legalize mind-destructive drugs. Way to go, America!
"Big Tobaccos" are already celebrating big future profits)
Oakland votes to permit large marijuana farms
By Evelyn Nieves, Associated Press Writer, Jul 21, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO - Oakland has moved closer to becoming the first city in the nation to authorize wholesale pot cultivation.
The Oakland City Council voted 5-2 with one abstention late Tuesday in favor of a plan to license four production plants where marijuana would be grown, packaged and processed.
The vote came after more than two hours of public comment, with speakers divided between those who opposed the measure largely on the grounds that it would put small medical marijuana growers out of business and those who said it would generate millions of dollars for Oakland in taxes and sales and create hundreds of jobs.
(While kids in developing countries are busy staying sober and busy studying hard to make their economies stronger, American kids, led by their adult enablers, are busy getting stoned on pot (and other drugs), and busy working hard to legalize mind-destructive drugs. Way to go, America!
"Big Tobaccos" are already celebrating big future profits)
Oakland votes to permit large marijuana farms
By Evelyn Nieves, Associated Press Writer, Jul 21, 2010
SAN FRANCISCO - Oakland has moved closer to becoming the first city in the nation to authorize wholesale pot cultivation.
The Oakland City Council voted 5-2 with one abstention late Tuesday in favor of a plan to license four production plants where marijuana would be grown, packaged and processed.
The vote came after more than two hours of public comment, with speakers divided between those who opposed the measure largely on the grounds that it would put small medical marijuana growers out of business and those who said it would generate millions of dollars for Oakland in taxes and sales and create hundreds of jobs.
7/10/10
Marijuana can send a brain to pot
Drug use can trigger psychosis in vulnerable people, experts say
Nancy J. White, Living reporter, thestar.com, Jul 09 2010
At age 17, sitting in the basement with friends smoking pot, Don Corbeil first noticed all the cameras spying on him. Then he became convinced a radioactive chip had been planted in his head. “I thought I was being monitored like a lab rat,” he explains.
It never occurred to him that marijuana could be messing with his brain. Corbeil had been smoking pot since he was 14, a habit that escalated to about 10 joints a day.
He started hearing voices and, at one point, Corbeil thought he was the Messiah. Police found him one day talking incoherently, and brought him to hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis.
At age 17, sitting in the basement with friends smoking pot, Don Corbeil first noticed all the cameras spying on him. Then he became convinced a radioactive chip had been planted in his head. “I thought I was being monitored like a lab rat,” he explains.
It never occurred to him that marijuana could be messing with his brain. Corbeil had been smoking pot since he was 14, a habit that escalated to about 10 joints a day.
He started hearing voices and, at one point, Corbeil thought he was the Messiah. Police found him one day talking incoherently, and brought him to hospital, where he was eventually diagnosed with drug-induced psychosis.
6/26/10
Victim of Vancouver's drug liberalism speaks out
Readers call for tough love on E. Hastings (Downtown Eastside)
Vancouver Courier, June 25, 2010
(Below are 3 letters sent to the newspaper expressing angry frustrations at the city government's pamperings to lawbreakers at the expense of law-abiding people---nbp)...
To the editor
Re: "E. Hastings jaywalkers get 65K study," June 16.
As a Strathcona resident and homeowner nestled snuggly into the armpit of East Hastings and Chinatown, I'm sick of seeing shattered window glass on my sidewalks, finding needle and drug use paraphernalia in my yard, and non-tax paying or self-accountable types sleeping where my dog or neighbour's kids might hope to play or enjoy a break from all the concrete.
I'm not thrilled with paying a mortgage, property taxes, hefty income taxes, and all the rest for the privilege of accommodating addicts and pariah that pander to them.
I have a baby due. As many things as I adore and appreciate about Vancouver, East Hastings and the city's inability to do anything about it except pour funds down drains like 40 oz. bottles of hooch for dead "homies" while I'm staring down the barrel of underfunded schools, insufficient daycare, and overcrowding versus a generally insufficient infrastructure leads me to consider relocation with my taxable income to a location where I see some return for my dollars invested. Like Stockholm perhaps. Tough love has reaped some excellent returns there.
My disdain over East Hastings is nothing I feel embarrassed over. My embarrassment is over paying taxes into a system that can't get its head straight, take action, and live with the fact that anyone refusing to be accountable for their own actions is not actually entitled to anything.
Ian Christy,
Vancouver (Click here to read 2 more letters)
Vancouver Courier, June 25, 2010
(Below are 3 letters sent to the newspaper expressing angry frustrations at the city government's pamperings to lawbreakers at the expense of law-abiding people---nbp)...
To the editor
Re: "E. Hastings jaywalkers get 65K study," June 16.
As a Strathcona resident and homeowner nestled snuggly into the armpit of East Hastings and Chinatown, I'm sick of seeing shattered window glass on my sidewalks, finding needle and drug use paraphernalia in my yard, and non-tax paying or self-accountable types sleeping where my dog or neighbour's kids might hope to play or enjoy a break from all the concrete.
I'm not thrilled with paying a mortgage, property taxes, hefty income taxes, and all the rest for the privilege of accommodating addicts and pariah that pander to them.
I have a baby due. As many things as I adore and appreciate about Vancouver, East Hastings and the city's inability to do anything about it except pour funds down drains like 40 oz. bottles of hooch for dead "homies" while I'm staring down the barrel of underfunded schools, insufficient daycare, and overcrowding versus a generally insufficient infrastructure leads me to consider relocation with my taxable income to a location where I see some return for my dollars invested. Like Stockholm perhaps. Tough love has reaped some excellent returns there.
My disdain over East Hastings is nothing I feel embarrassed over. My embarrassment is over paying taxes into a system that can't get its head straight, take action, and live with the fact that anyone refusing to be accountable for their own actions is not actually entitled to anything.
Ian Christy,
Vancouver (Click here to read 2 more letters)
5/8/10
Pot gives great big hope to tobacco barons
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Are potheads and their supporters stooges of Big Tobaccos or what? With more and more people quitting smoking or not starting, Big Tobaccos' smoke profits have been gradually going up in smoke. But now guess who are coming to the Big Rescue? Potheads and their supporters, in clamoring for legalization! 
"Just in time to throw a lifeline to we, Big Tobaccos! Thank you, guardian angels! Maybe in the future, when we BT dominate and monopolize the pot industries (again), we'll give you some discount coupons to hook you to our products even more! -- best wishes from BT, your big, friendly cigarette/potarette makers."
The anarchy of a legalized pot world
Forget about buying "potarettes" from government/convenience stores. Anyone and his dog could easily set up a mini or maxi pot grow-op in their house/condo/yard (impractical with tobacco) to make their own cheaper, more powerful joints, and sell the excess for profits. Grow-ops damage houses, breed molds, cause fire hazards, and which criminals would exploit big time after legalization.
Besides above, read the following articles (or any cigarette article) and substitue the word "cigarettes" or "tobacco" with the word "pot"--revealing an anarchic, legalized pot world inevitably many times worst in many areas:
China tobacco firms accused of targeting children
Big Tobacco's Next Target: Women and Children in Poorer Countries...
Tobacco companies target young women
Passive Smoking (secondhand Smoke) Linked To Psychiatric Distress And Illness
Illegal tobacco market growing
Supreme Court to hear tobacco liability appeals
U.S. gene study reveals toll of heavy smoking
Tobacco troubles: Law enforcement has not kept up with the illegal trade in cheap cigarettes
Up in smoke: Indonesian child-teen smokers rising
Besides above, read the following articles (or any cigarette article) and substitue the word "cigarettes" or "tobacco" with the word "pot"--revealing an anarchic, legalized pot world inevitably many times worst in many areas:
China tobacco firms accused of targeting children
Big Tobacco's Next Target: Women and Children in Poorer Countries...
Tobacco companies target young women
Passive Smoking (secondhand Smoke) Linked To Psychiatric Distress And Illness
Illegal tobacco market growing
Supreme Court to hear tobacco liability appeals
U.S. gene study reveals toll of heavy smoking
Tobacco troubles: Law enforcement has not kept up with the illegal trade in cheap cigarettes
Up in smoke: Indonesian child-teen smokers rising
5/3/10
"Give addicts hope, not drugs"
Copy Sweden's success, not Vancouver's failure
(The following letter was published in the Letters section of NP):
Give addicts hope, not drugs
National Post, Published: May 03, 2010
(The following letter was published in the Letters section of NP):
Give addicts hope, not drugs
National Post, Published: May 03, 2010
Re: Conservatives Should Get Weak On Drugs, Evan Wood, April 26.
Evan Wood appears to overlook the reality of the drug problem. He asserts that prohibitions against the nonmedical use of drugs are futile and only increase crime and violence. This has not been the experience of other countries such as Sweden. According to a 2006 report of the UN Office of Drugs and Crime, Sweden has among Europe's lowest rates of crime, disease, medical and social problems stemming from drug addiction. This is due to the fact that Sweden employs a program of compulsory drug treatment for addicts. This success is similar to that achieved by drug courts in Canada. These courts ensure that addicts undergo treatment and rehabilitation as an alternative to a conviction and court record.
Giving an addict hope, rather than the despair offered by liberalized drug laws, is a far more humane and civilized approach to addiction. That is, instead of allowing the addict to deepen his/her addiction which leads to his inevitable and unenviable death, the addict is given an opportunity to regain health and well-being by being rid of the terrors of addiction.
C. Gwendolyn Landolt,
Drug Prevention Network of Canada, Richmond Hill, Ont.
4/27/10
A long observations of pot smokers
A letter in 24Hrs newspaper, 4/26/10:
I used to work at a drug and alcohol transitional house and we could always tell the people who had smoked pot from ones that used other drugs. Residents on the other drugs were fine after they withdrew . The pot smokers were not. They were disconnected, not coherent and would take about a year for the brains to think normally again. -- B. Hodgson
I used to work at a drug and alcohol transitional house and we could always tell the people who had smoked pot from ones that used other drugs. Residents on the other drugs were fine after they withdrew . The pot smokers were not. They were disconnected, not coherent and would take about a year for the brains to think normally again. -- B. Hodgson
4/14/10
B.C. urged to adopt Surrey's successful anti-pot ways
More than 1,100 grow-ops shut down since 2005 by fire department checking on safety of wiring.
Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts wants to take the city's grow-op-busting program provincewide -- and support for the move is growing.
Welcome to Vancouver's "Slow Suicide Injection Site" -- free needles, no intervention
("Insite" is a Court-legalized/imposed site where drug addicts can go to shoot up drugs, free from interventions and laws--under the excuse of "health control". But, isn't suicide--even slow version--supposed to be illegal, and anyone has a right and duty to stop it? Isn't this just a modern version of the "Chinese opium dens" of the 19th century? "Insite" sites absolve pressure on governments to build treatment centers for addicts. The following is a column by Margaret Wente -- nbpost)...
A walk on the drug side
Insite's operations have been filmed many times, but never by a hidden camera
Margaret Wente, Published Mar. 15, 2010, Globe and Mail
Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside is perhaps the most drug-ridden neighbourhood in North America. Misha Kleider is a young Vancouverite with curiosity. He decided to spend a month on the streets and make a film about it.
The result is a compelling documentary called Streets of Plenty, now available in seven parts on YouTube. The scenes of addled, self-destructive addicts are depressingly familiar. The scenes of social agencies eager to supply a homeless person's every need suggest that more social workers are not the answer to Vancouver's homeless problem. The most fascinating scene unfolds at Insite, the controversial supervised-injection facility that has become a flashpoint in the ideological drug wars. Read full column at website or click below...
A walk on the drug side
Insite's operations have been filmed many times, but never by a hidden camera
Margaret Wente, Published Mar. 15, 2010, Globe and Mail
Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside is perhaps the most drug-ridden neighbourhood in North America. Misha Kleider is a young Vancouverite with curiosity. He decided to spend a month on the streets and make a film about it.
The result is a compelling documentary called Streets of Plenty, now available in seven parts on YouTube. The scenes of addled, self-destructive addicts are depressingly familiar. The scenes of social agencies eager to supply a homeless person's every need suggest that more social workers are not the answer to Vancouver's homeless problem. The most fascinating scene unfolds at Insite, the controversial supervised-injection facility that has become a flashpoint in the ideological drug wars. Read full column at website or click below...
3/25/10
Dr. says MDs should not encourage pot use
(A letter from Dr. Meldon Kahan to the National Post on March 2, 2010)...
Re: How To Get Your Medicinal Pot, letter to the editor, Feb. 27.
Dr. David Saul implies that if patients request a Health Canada cannabis authorization form, physicians are obliged by the provincial medical college to sign the form or refer them to a physician who will. This is incorrect and it is reckless to promote cannabis as a harmless medicine. I have seen patients whose lives have been destroyed by cannabis addiction or cannabis-induced psychosis. Smoked cannabis has been shown to cause precancerous changes in various tissues. Also, THC serum levels rise rapidly when smoked, creating a risk for motor vehicle accidents. The oral and inhaled versions of cannabis are far safer.
I would discourage physicians from authorizing smoked cannabis. They should prescribe oral or inhaled cannabis only for patients with a medical condition for which cannabis has been shown to be effective, and who are at low risk for cannabis-related harms.
Dr. Meldon Kahan, medical director,
Addiction Medicine Service, St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto
Re: How To Get Your Medicinal Pot, letter to the editor, Feb. 27.
Dr. David Saul implies that if patients request a Health Canada cannabis authorization form, physicians are obliged by the provincial medical college to sign the form or refer them to a physician who will. This is incorrect and it is reckless to promote cannabis as a harmless medicine. I have seen patients whose lives have been destroyed by cannabis addiction or cannabis-induced psychosis. Smoked cannabis has been shown to cause precancerous changes in various tissues. Also, THC serum levels rise rapidly when smoked, creating a risk for motor vehicle accidents. The oral and inhaled versions of cannabis are far safer.
I would discourage physicians from authorizing smoked cannabis. They should prescribe oral or inhaled cannabis only for patients with a medical condition for which cannabis has been shown to be effective, and who are at low risk for cannabis-related harms.
Dr. Meldon Kahan, medical director,
Addiction Medicine Service, St. Joseph's Health Centre, Toronto
Prolonged Cannabis Use Linked To Psychosis
An Australian study found that prolonged use of cannabis or marijuana by young adults was linked to a higher risk of developing psychosis, with the highest risk affecting those who started using the substance in their teens, and continued using it for 6 years or more into adulthood: the risk of developing psychosis among these users was more than double that of never users.
Criminals exploit Dutch liberal pot laws big time; Government retreats from drug liberalism
Dutch court fines coffee (pot) shop owner 10 mln euros
The government mooted plans last year to transform coffee shops near the Belgian border into private clubs, to address what critics describe as the nuisance created by millions of drug tourists a year.
THE HAGUE, March 25, 2010 (AFP) - A Dutch court fined the owner of the Netherlands' biggest cannabis-vending coffee shop 10 million euros on Thursday after police seized more than 200 kilogrammes of the drug on its premises.
The 13-million-dollar penalty would have been larger, the district court of southwestern Middelburg said in a statement, had it not been for the authorities' apparently contradictory approach to soft drug vending and use.
While finding that coffee shop Checkpoint was a criminal organisation that had transgressed the Opium Act, the court said "the role of the authorities weighed heavily in the determination of the sentence".
This included the "facilitating role of the municipality, of which the prosecution service had been aware, and years of non-enforcement of the law", according to the judgment.
The government mooted plans last year to transform coffee shops near the Belgian border into private clubs, to address what critics describe as the nuisance created by millions of drug tourists a year.
THE HAGUE, March 25, 2010 (AFP) - A Dutch court fined the owner of the Netherlands' biggest cannabis-vending coffee shop 10 million euros on Thursday after police seized more than 200 kilogrammes of the drug on its premises.
The 13-million-dollar penalty would have been larger, the district court of southwestern Middelburg said in a statement, had it not been for the authorities' apparently contradictory approach to soft drug vending and use.
While finding that coffee shop Checkpoint was a criminal organisation that had transgressed the Opium Act, the court said "the role of the authorities weighed heavily in the determination of the sentence".
This included the "facilitating role of the municipality, of which the prosecution service had been aware, and years of non-enforcement of the law", according to the judgment.
2/18/10
Cops: Imitation pot as bad as the real thing
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – There may be nothing like the real thing, but some industrious marijuana users have seized on an obscure but easily accessible substance that mimics the drug's effects on the brain — creating a popular trade in legal dope that has stymied law enforcement authorities.
2/12/10
Marijuana does nothing to help memory in Alzheimer's: study
Synthetic form of the drug shows a negative effect in high doses
By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun, February 9, 2010
Marijuana does not appear to improve memory or reverse effects of Alzheimer's disease, according to a University of B.C. study done on mice bred to have genetic mutations for the disease.
"We are a little surprised actually. Originally, we were hoping there would be a positive effect, based on previous research," said Dr. Weihong Song, the Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer's disease and a UBC psychiatry professor.
By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun, February 9, 2010
Marijuana does not appear to improve memory or reverse effects of Alzheimer's disease, according to a University of B.C. study done on mice bred to have genetic mutations for the disease.
"We are a little surprised actually. Originally, we were hoping there would be a positive effect, based on previous research," said Dr. Weihong Song, the Canada Research Chair in Alzheimer's disease and a UBC psychiatry professor.
1/18/10
De facto drug-legalizations, liberalism fuel drug culture/entitlement in Vancouver (no "war on drugs" here)
'It's a frenzy out there'
Welfare Wednesday becomes Mardi Gras every month as drug dealers cash in [in Vancouver]
By Cheryl Chan, January 18, 2010
On "Welfare Wednesday" last month, Jodi Janzen had her budget all figured out.
After she received her $1,100 income-assistance cheque, she purchased the necessities first -- food, toiletries, cat food -- before buying her cocaine and heroin.
Welfare Wednesday becomes Mardi Gras every month as drug dealers cash in [in Vancouver]
By Cheryl Chan, January 18, 2010
On "Welfare Wednesday" last month, Jodi Janzen had her budget all figured out.
After she received her $1,100 income-assistance cheque, she purchased the necessities first -- food, toiletries, cat food -- before buying her cocaine and heroin.
1/14/10
Cocaine Causes Sudden Deaths, Heart Disease in Europe
January 13, 2010, 09:00 AM EST
By Michelle Fay Cortez
Jan. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Cocaine was responsible for more than 3 percent of all sudden deaths in a Spanish study signaling that no amount of the recreational drug, however small, is safe.
12/27/09
Cannabis brain damage worse in teens than thought: study
New study suggests cannabis use by teens damages brain worse than suspected
Thu Dec 17, 5:58 PM, By Bernard Barbeau, The Canadian Press
MONTREAL - The effects of daily cannabis use on teenage brains is worse than originally thought and the long-term effects appear to be irreversible, new research from McGill University suggests.
The study, by Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, a psychiatric researcher from the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, suggests that daily cannabis consumption can lead to depression and anxiety.
Marijuana dispensaries breed crime in California
No place for marijuana dispensary in Saratoga, at least not for the next 45 days
Pot & drugs fueled destructive behaviors
(This was at a time in the 60's-70's when pot was still the mild stuff)
CHICAGO - Former child star Mackenzie Phillips said Wednesday that she had a decade-long sexual relationship with her father, pop superstar John Phillips, who also taught her how to roll joints and injected her with cocaine.12/26/09
Active ingredients in marijuana found to spread and prolong pain
Click Read More below for full story...
Pot shrunk Snoop Dogg's brain (literally)
(Apparently, pot does destroy brain-memory cells, as proven by rapper Snoop Dogg -- nb)
Read more here...
Read more here...
or click Read More below...
Not the groovy '60s: Today's cannabis is harder and meaner
By MARGARET WENTE, June 26, 2007, Page A17, The Globe and Mail
For Don Smyth, it was the kind of encounter he has had too often. A Filipino family had invited him to their little townhouse in Toronto to see whether he could help rescue their 18-year-old son, who was about to be expelled from school for drug trafficking. Mr. Smyth, a therapist, specializes in drug prevention and addiction among young adults.
When the kid was roused from bed, Mr. Smyth saw he was severely addicted. "He showed all the physical signs - agitation, restlessness, aggression - that I used to see in people withdrawing from cocaine." But the drug wasn't cocaine. It was marijuana.
Last week, people reacted with outrage over the story of Kieran King, the15-year-old Saskatchewan student whose school came down on him like a sledgehammer because he dared to argue that marijuana is relatively benign. The school was wrong in its reaction but right on its facts. The vast majority of the marijuana inhaled today is not the mellow weed you and I remember from our youth. It is many times more powerful. In fact, the United Nations now classifies Canadian-grown marijuana as a hard drug whose destructive power puts it in the same league as cocaine.
For Don Smyth, it was the kind of encounter he has had too often. A Filipino family had invited him to their little townhouse in Toronto to see whether he could help rescue their 18-year-old son, who was about to be expelled from school for drug trafficking. Mr. Smyth, a therapist, specializes in drug prevention and addiction among young adults.
When the kid was roused from bed, Mr. Smyth saw he was severely addicted. "He showed all the physical signs - agitation, restlessness, aggression - that I used to see in people withdrawing from cocaine." But the drug wasn't cocaine. It was marijuana.
Last week, people reacted with outrage over the story of Kieran King, the15-year-old Saskatchewan student whose school came down on him like a sledgehammer because he dared to argue that marijuana is relatively benign. The school was wrong in its reaction but right on its facts. The vast majority of the marijuana inhaled today is not the mellow weed you and I remember from our youth. It is many times more powerful. In fact, the United Nations now classifies Canadian-grown marijuana as a hard drug whose destructive power puts it in the same league as cocaine.
12/25/09
Why pothead Brad Pitt quit pot
His early days in Hollywood...
"I liked to smoke a bit of grass at the time (actually a lot), and I became very sheltered. Then I got bored. I was turning into a damn doughnut, really. So I moved as far away from that as I could. I was done. In Missouri, where I come from, we don't talk about what we do--we just do it. If we talk about it, it's seen as bragging." --excerpt from... http://tinyurl.com/oxs6b8
"I liked to smoke a bit of grass at the time (actually a lot), and I became very sheltered. Then I got bored. I was turning into a damn doughnut, really. So I moved as far away from that as I could. I was done. In Missouri, where I come from, we don't talk about what we do--we just do it. If we talk about it, it's seen as bragging." --excerpt from... http://tinyurl.com/oxs6b8
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"...a longtime friend of Pitt's tells the Globe the movie hunk is much 'clearer' now he's given up pot. He says, "His whole life has changed since he stopped smoking pot. He found he was thinking clearer and feeling better." -- excerpt from... http://tinyurl.com/yhtq4wt
Cannabis "can cause psychosis in healthy people"
A potent form of cannabis can cause healthy people to develop psychotic illnesses, a new British study has proved.
Article website at...
http://tinyurl.com/l9s59t
Or click Read More below...
Article website at...
http://tinyurl.com/l9s59t
Or click Read More below...
Marijuana Damages DNA And May Cause Cancer, New Test Reveals
ScienceDaily (June 15, 2009)
Using a highly sensitive new test, scientists in Europe are reporting "convincing evidence" that marijuana smoke damages the genetic material DNA in ways that could increase the risk of cancer.
Read more at website
or click Read More below... Visitors to Vancouver shocked by results of its de facto drug legalizations
Hastings Street's misery stuns and frightens Irish visitors
(A letter published in The Province, 4/5/2009)...
" I recently visited Vancouver with my wife and two-year-old son from Ireland and, while we found the hospitality welcoming, we were shocked at what we saw.
Having wandered (as tourists do) into Chinatown, we ended up by accident on Hastings Street. The site of scores of shuffling homeless, vacant and rambling mentally ill and drug addicts reminded me of a scene from a George A. Romero zombie film.
My wife was immediately fearful and we fled the area.
For a city boasting the Winter Olympics, might I suggest that you take a few million out of the kitty and use it to assist these poor unfortunates? I have lived and worked in India and South Africa, so the sight of human misery is not new to me.
Unfortunately, this is the lasting image I end up discussing with friends and colleagues here in Ireland when they ask me about Vancouver.
Owen Lydon, Spiddal, Ireland "
--------------------------------------------
(A letter published in The Province, 4/5/2009)...
" I recently visited Vancouver with my wife and two-year-old son from Ireland and, while we found the hospitality welcoming, we were shocked at what we saw.
Having wandered (as tourists do) into Chinatown, we ended up by accident on Hastings Street. The site of scores of shuffling homeless, vacant and rambling mentally ill and drug addicts reminded me of a scene from a George A. Romero zombie film.
My wife was immediately fearful and we fled the area.
For a city boasting the Winter Olympics, might I suggest that you take a few million out of the kitty and use it to assist these poor unfortunates? I have lived and worked in India and South Africa, so the sight of human misery is not new to me.
Unfortunately, this is the lasting image I end up discussing with friends and colleagues here in Ireland when they ask me about Vancouver.
Owen Lydon, Spiddal, Ireland "
--------------------------------------------
BC'er disgusted with Vancouver's drug liberalism
(A letter published in Vancouver Sun, 3/30/2009)...
"On a recent Saturday night, I once again took the thought-altering drive through the Main and Hastings area of Vancouver. If anything, the situation looked worse than ever.
Last September, I took my second trip to New York City, the first being 40 years ago. In 1968, I couldn't believe what I saw -- street begging, bars on windows, people sleeping in doorways. Although that city has been cleaned up, Vancouver has now become what New York City was.
On my recent visit to Manhattan, tables were set up at various corners, with a vested attendant and a 40-litre plastic water jug for donations to the needy and homeless; those were the only places where passersby were encouraged to give money. Seattle's Pioneer Square had a booth for the same purpose the last time I was in that area.
The police presence (on foot) in New York was remarkable, frequent, friendly and effective. You could often see the squad captains talking to the officers, then dispersing patrols from the Times Square subway station. I felt safe on the subways I feared to ride in 1968. I went out alone (a 59-year- old woman) a few times in the evenings and felt perfectly safe. I would never do that in most downtown areas of Vancouver.
Little more than 10 months remain until our guests arrive for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It serves us not at all to pay later for what we don't do now, in human costs above all. Every one of us has a responsibility to help.
Don't let Main and Hastings as it is today be the memory that Olympics visitors take away.
Eileen Robinson, Pitt Meadows "
"On a recent Saturday night, I once again took the thought-altering drive through the Main and Hastings area of Vancouver. If anything, the situation looked worse than ever.
Last September, I took my second trip to New York City, the first being 40 years ago. In 1968, I couldn't believe what I saw -- street begging, bars on windows, people sleeping in doorways. Although that city has been cleaned up, Vancouver has now become what New York City was.
On my recent visit to Manhattan, tables were set up at various corners, with a vested attendant and a 40-litre plastic water jug for donations to the needy and homeless; those were the only places where passersby were encouraged to give money. Seattle's Pioneer Square had a booth for the same purpose the last time I was in that area.
The police presence (on foot) in New York was remarkable, frequent, friendly and effective. You could often see the squad captains talking to the officers, then dispersing patrols from the Times Square subway station. I felt safe on the subways I feared to ride in 1968. I went out alone (a 59-year- old woman) a few times in the evenings and felt perfectly safe. I would never do that in most downtown areas of Vancouver.
Little more than 10 months remain until our guests arrive for the 2010 Winter Olympics. It serves us not at all to pay later for what we don't do now, in human costs above all. Every one of us has a responsibility to help.
Don't let Main and Hastings as it is today be the memory that Olympics visitors take away.
Eileen Robinson, Pitt Meadows "
Europe's approach to drugs is more enlightened ... it's tougher
MARGARET WENTE, The Globe and Mail, July 17, 2008
In 2006, Governor-General Michaëlle Jean was hosting Queen Silvia of Sweden during the Swedish royal family's visit to Canada when the topic of illegal drug use came up. The GG told the Queen that Canada is taking an enlightened approach. Instead of punishing users, she said, society needs to be understanding of drug use and assist in reducing harm until the addict is ready to quit.Alas, the Queen was not impressed. She briskly informed the GG that Sweden takes a hard-line approach, that users are given a choice between treatment and jail, and that Sweden's addiction rates are much lower than Canada's. After that, they changed the subject.
Advocates of harm-reduction measures, such as needle exchanges, methadone programs and Vancouver's supervised-injection site, often point to Europe's more enlightened approach to drugs as proof of how far behind we are in Canada. But parts of Europe are having second thoughts. Socially progressive Sweden had a brief but disastrous fling with prescription heroin back in the 1960s. After that, it embraced the hard-line approach. Today its policy is to make drugs very difficult to get, but treatment very easy - and sometimes compulsory. "The vision is that of a society free from narcotic drugs," says Maria Larsson, the Minister for Public Health.
As a consequence of grassroots support for this policy, drug use in Sweden is a third of the European average. "The lessons of Sweden's drug control history should be learned by others," said Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime.
Marijuana Worsens COPD Symptoms In Current Cigarette Smokers
ScienceDaily (May 23, 2007) Marijuana worsens breathing problems in current smokers with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to a new study.
The study found that among people 40 and older, smokers were two-and-a-half times as likely as nonsmokers to develop COPD, while smoking cigarettes and marijuana together boosted the odds of developing COPD to three-and-a-half times the risk of someone who did not smoke either cigarettes or marijuana--in other words, adding marijuana smoking to cigarette smoking increased the risk by one-third, says Wan Tan, M.D., of St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The odds of cigarette smokers having any respiratory symptoms was 2.36 times that of nonsmokers, while the odds of someone who smoked both cigarettes and marijuana having respiratory symptoms was 18 times that of someone who smoked neither--an eightfold jump in risk, Dr. Tan says.
The study found that among people 40 and older, smokers were two-and-a-half times as likely as nonsmokers to develop COPD, while smoking cigarettes and marijuana together boosted the odds of developing COPD to three-and-a-half times the risk of someone who did not smoke either cigarettes or marijuana--in other words, adding marijuana smoking to cigarette smoking increased the risk by one-third, says Wan Tan, M.D., of St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, British Columbia.
The odds of cigarette smokers having any respiratory symptoms was 2.36 times that of nonsmokers, while the odds of someone who smoked both cigarettes and marijuana having respiratory symptoms was 18 times that of someone who smoked neither--an eightfold jump in risk, Dr. Tan says.
Pot cake disaster
(Cold-hearted as she was, not even Marie Antoinnete would have put pot into a cake -- nb)
Woman facing charges after cake laced with marijuana at party
National Post, Published: 5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
Woman facing charges after cake laced with marijuana at party
National Post, Published: 5/15/2009 12:00:00 AM
Bagging the evidence was a piece of cake. Police were called to investigate why a number of guests at a Surrey, B. C., house party were complaining of nausea and shortness of breath after eating a dessert. "Revellers thought that an illegal drug may have been added to it without their knowledge and that they were now suffering from its effects," said Surrey RCMP spokesman Sergeant Roger Morrow yesterday. Police questioned guests and learned that one of the partygoers had added marijuana to the cake to "spice things up," Sgt. Morrow said. Investigators seized the leftovers of the "suspicious dessert" as evidence, and are now completing a forensic analysis. A woman was arrested and faces drug possession charges.
(P.S: What if a toddler had eaten it? -- nb)
(P.S: What if a toddler had eaten it? -- nb)
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