Sober N Clean

WHO WOULD have thought that cavalier lending practices in the U.S. Sunbelt would damage the second-largest industry in British Columbia?

No, I’m not talking about forestry and lumber. I’m talking about dope. BC Business magazine reckons that marijuana production in B.C. contributes $7.5 billion and 250,000 jobs to the province’s GDP — second only to construction, and more than forestry.

Most of the product is exported to the United States. The RCMP estimate that marijuana is being grown in about 20,000 B.C. homes, not to mention sizable farms in the Interior and large-scale commercial operations in former warehouses and industrial buildings. One academic study concluded that if marijuana in B.C. were legalized, the province would see $5 billion in additional legal business activity and could collect $2 billion in taxes.

The ranks of British Columbia marijuana producers have also broadened remarkably. Cannabis cultivation is no longer the exclusive preserve of organized crime, though organized crime certainly continues to thrive in the fetid netherworld of prohibition. Today, however, marijuana production has become a sideline for thousands of otherwise law-abiding middle-class citizens.

As a recent BBC report put it, "Much of the revenue derived from B.C. Bud, as the cannabis crop is known, goes on paying college fees, perhaps buying a second car or making that holiday to the Caribbean just a little bit more affordable." As a result, "the trade is so large that the police in B.C. are faced with an impossible task."

Indeed they are, and the job is getting harder. The RCMP drug section in Greater Vancouver once employed more than 100 officers; it’s now down to 60. The number of tips they receive about grow-ops has also fallen, from 615 in September 2003 to 207 last December.

Does that mean that the number of grow-ops has fallen? Probably it has, says Tony Emery, a leading cannabis advocate and leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party.

For one thing, the rising Canadian dollar has hurt the competitiveness of B.C. Bud, just as it has hurt filmmakers, the forest industries and furniture manufacturers.

In addition, the downturn in the U.S. economy has induced many Americans to try their hand at growing their own pot. Marijuana plantations have been turning up in the national forests, while laid-off workers and homeowners facing foreclosure have been converting their basements and spare rooms into grow-ops. Even a tiny operation using only a couple of high-intensity lights can earn $20,000 a year for the owner — in cash, and tax-free.

"It certainly is enough to tide people over, no problem," Emery says, "and two lights are not going to get you into trouble, either."

So there you have it. Predatory and foolhardy lending practices in the United States lead to a wave of foreclosures. Wary consumers stop buying. Workers get laid off. Desperate for cash, the victims of the downturn try their hand at illicit agriculture. At the same time, the rising loonie makes B.C. Bud less competitive, so Canadian growers find their markets contracting.

What’s so striking about this story is that it really is not a story about crime and the law. It’s a business story, and almost all accounts of the situation treat it that way. In theory this whole industry is illegal, but in practice it’s so big that the police can’t even begin to control it. Any serious attempt to enforce the law would require an army of police officers and gobble up so much public money that governments would almost have to abandon such other concerns as health care and education.

So the business is completely unregulated and the only controls on it are the controls the market itself imposes. As with any business, unfavourable market conditions affect the industry. Adverse exchange rates and increased competition drive prices down and eliminate marginal producers.

Nevertheless, the market is huge and hungry. It reaches into every social class and every age group, though a recent study from the University of Alberta apparently revealed that marijuana is particularly popular among educated, middle-class Canadians. Do they wish to break the law? Probably not. But do they think this law deserves to be obeyed? Obviously not.

In short, the law has essentially made itself irrelevant. If anything, the law benefits the business. To a large extent, the industry is profitable precisely because it is illegal. All entrepreneurs take risks, but if the risks include jail time, only the boldest entrepreneurs will enter the business — and they’ll demand a premium for the extra risk.

The net result of our irrational drug policies is that we enrich the criminals and criminalize ordinary citizens. We control tobacco and alcohol far more effectively than we control any illegal drugs. If those are the results we want, these policies are perfect.
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source: The Chronicle-Herald Nova Scotia, http://thechronicleherald.ca/TheNovaScotian

More than a third of people who present at Sydney emergency departments after smoking cannabis are violent and half have mental health problems such as severe anxiety and suicidal thoughts, shattering the image that dope smokers are relaxed and sleepy, researchers have found.

The data, collected by the National Cannabis Prevention and Information Centre, at the University of NSW, indicates that cannabis users can be as aggressive as crystal methamphetamine users, with almost one in four men and one in three women being violent toward hospital staff or injuring themselves after acting aggressively. Almost 12 per cent were considered a suicide risk.

"It flies in the face of what people typically think of cannabis - that it is a natural herb that makes people mellow," the centre's director, Professor Jan Copeland, said yesterday.

"The reality is that it can make people highly agitated and trigger acute episodes of anxiety."

She said the study, which covered two hospitals from 2004 to 2006, revealed that more than 9 per cent of cannabis users had depression or bipolar disorder, 5 per cent had schizophrenia and 4 per cent had paranoia and a history of self-harm.

"It's the first time we have ever gathered this data and it is highly surprising. It's apparent that we need a higher level of early intervention to pick up these problems before they get to the emergency department," Professor Copeland said.

The head of emergency at St Vincent's hospital, Gordian Fulde, said yesterday most people still believed marijuana was a soft drug, but "the old image of feeling sleepy and having the munchies after you've had a smoke is entirely inappropriate for modern-day marijuana".

"The grass we smoked in the '60s could have been lawn clippings compared to this completely different breed of nasty cat," he said.

"With hydroponic cannabis, the levels of THC [the active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol] can be tenfold what they are in normal cannabis so we are seeing some very, very serious fallout."

Cannabis use was soaring among young professionals in the city and inner west, Dr Fulde said, but users rarely needed sedation.
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source: http://www.theage.com.au/

World donors promised Afghanistan more than $20 billion (£10 billion) of new aid, plus fresh moral support, yesterday, but told President Karzai that they were losing patience with his Government’s failure to stem rampant graft and drug trafficking.

Under international pressure over the lack of progress in rebuilding his country, Mr Karzai promised to fight corruption and sought understanding. Poppy-growing farmers, for example, needed help, he said. “Opium is about survival for them.”

The United States, represented by Laura Bush, its First Lady, opened the pledges at the Paris donors’ conference with a $10.2 billion commitment over five years. “Afghanistan has reached a decisive moment for its future. We must not turn our back on this opportunity,” she said.

David Miliband, the British Foreign Secretary, promised £600 million. He praised progress made in security and healthcare but said that there was a long way to go in building good governance in Afghanistan. The growing links between the insurgency and the drugs industry - which, Mr Miliband said, was reflected in the haul of 235 tonnes of cannabis resin worth about £200 million - had to be tackled.

The total was well short of the $50 billion that Mr Karzai was seeking from the 80 nations and organisations that have already promised $25 billion since 2002. Only $15 billion of that has been spent so far, much of it ineffectively and wastefully, according to aid experts. Afghanistan depends on aid for 90 per cent of its needs.

Nevertheless, Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, called the conference “an unexpected success”. “We had hoped in our most optimistic moments to raise perhaps 17 billion at the most,” he said.

President Sarkozy of France led a chorus of support for Mr Karzai’s fragile Government as the best hope for Afghanistan. “It is the duty of all democrats to help you,” he said. Mr Sarkozy, who has deepened French engagement with the forthcoming deployment of 900 combat troops, said that Afghanistan “was taken hostage by a regime allied to terrorism”.

About 8,000 people were killed last year in the fight with a rejuvenated Taleban, which is trying to break Western will to keep the Nato-led force of 47,000 in Afghanistan.

Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, called for “active measures” against corruption, more transparency and better management of aid.

Stephen Smith, the Australian Foreign Minister, said that reconstruction had been slow. Mr Smith told The Times that “the Afghan Government has to start taking some responsibility” for the administration of the aid funds.

Mr Karzai cited progress in building roads and hospitals, and in fighting opium production since the 2001 fall of the Taleban regime, but he acknowledged: “There is a long way still ahead of us . . . Afghanistan needs adequate, long-term and predictable support.”
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source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk

Ontario regulations banning medicinal-marijuana users from smoking on bar and restaurant patios violate the human rights of people with disabilities, alleges an Ottawa man who has filed a complaint over the issue.

Russell Barth submitted the complaint to the Ontario Human Rights Commission on Monday on behalf of himself and his wife, Christine Lowe.

"We're not asking for special rights; we're just asking for the right to use cannabis where people use tobacco," Barth, an amateur comedian, said Tuesday.

The letter accompanying the complaint alleges that the Ontario ban "infringes on our rights to gain access to services and infringes on our ability to perform on stage and to seek possible future employment as performers.

"It has also caused us much stress, ill health, embarrassment and humiliation."

Barth said he obtained a Health Canada licence to use medical marijuana in 2003 after being diagnosed with a variety of disorders, including post-traumatic stress syndrome, asthma and fibromyalgia, a syndrome characterized by fatigue and multiple pain points in muscles throughout the body.

He lives on a disability pension and is a full-time care giver for Lowe, who has epilepsy and also uses medical marijuana.

Barth said he needs the drug every two to three hours to treat his own medical symptoms.

"If I am having a muscle spasm, if I'm having nausea or anxiety or an asthma attack, I need to have my medicine immediately," he said.

On May 7, after performing at the amateur night of a comedy club in Ottawa, Barth said he began to feel intense pain in his legs and went outside to the outdoor patio area, where people were smoking tobacco.

He walked to the edge of the patio and was about to light up a joint when he was approached by a friend who worked at the comedy club. The staffer asked him not to smoke on the premises because of provisions of the Ontario Liquor Licence Act that ban liquor-licence holders from allowing people to consume a controlled substance on their property.

Afterward, a friend suggested that the incident was the fault of the government's regulations, not the bar owner.

Barth read the regulations and agreed that was the case.

Ontario law has no exemption for medical marijuana

Lisa Murray, a spokeswoman for the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, said there is no provision or exemption for the use of medical marijuana in the regulations on controlled substances as they are currently written.

Under Health Canada's medical marijuana rules, people who possess marijuana for medical use must follow all other federal, provincial and municipal laws regarding controlled substances.

"Smoking marijuana for medical purposes in a public setting, thereby potentially exposing others to the drug's effects, is unacceptable," states a federal government document on the issue. "The authorization simply allows possession but does not give patients permission to use marijuana wherever or whenever he/she chooses; the rights of others must also be considered."
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source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation