Interesting, now why would anyone want to clone two male pot growers?

Haha...too funny Yama.....

I think it's time we had a serious debate about legalizing marijuana use in this country.

Canada's police forces and the nation's courts have more pressing issues to deal with than prosecuting people for marijuana offences.

With so many grow operations being busted in Prince George (and the rest of the country), it is fairly obvious that a very large portion of our population uses marijuana either occasionally or regularly.

I see that in the United States (which is trying very hard to keep Canada from liberalizing its marijuana laws) the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is making changes to its hiring policy with regards to past drug use.

The following paragraphs are taken from a recent article in the Washington Post.

"The buttoned-down FBI is loosening up: Under a little-noticed new hiring policy introduced this year, job applicants with a history of drug use will no longer be disqualified from employment throughout the bureau.

Old guidelines barred FBI employment to anyone who had used marijuana more than 15 times in their lives or who had tried other illegal narcotics more than five times.

But those strict numbers no longer apply. Applicants for jobs such as analysts, programmers or special agents must still swear that they have not used any illegal substances recently -- three years for marijuana and 10 years for other drugs -- but they are no longer ruled out of consideration because of more frequent drug use in the past.

Such tolerance of admitted lawbreaking might seem odd for the FBI, whose longtime director J. Edgar Hoover once railed against young thugs filled with "false courage from a Marijuana cigarette."

But FBI officials say the move is simply an acknowledgment of reality in a country where, according to some estimates, up to a third of the population has tried marijuana at some point.

The loosened standards also come as the FBI struggles to fill the jobs it has -- particularly in the areas of counterterrorism and intelligence, which draw from a more varied pool of applicants than traditional agent positions."

If anyone wishes to read the entire article, the following is the link to it.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/06/AR2007080601260.html?hpid=topnews


I think marijuana is no worse than alcohol, and instead of letting the criminal element make a staggering profit off it every year, we should legalize it, and tax it.

Sure, we have one drug(alcohol) that has ruined an untold number of lives in society. We may as well add another. The grow-ops serve to put money in the pocket of organized crime, like the loser MC clubs etc.They are not some mom and pop organizations. Even if the ganja was legalized the crooks would still grow to sell down to the U.S. and do everything they could to avoid the government.Dumb idea.

According to two Ph.D. rels working in Public Health, their assessment of the marijuana problem is very similar to what Charles has said (above).

Only they went farther. "Legalize everything!" they said, when I asked their opinion about legalizing marijuana. I couldn't believe my ears.

"You mean everything, the hard drugs too?" I said.

"Everything!" they repeated, with emphasis. "Then monitor the production, regulate the sale, begin taxing the industry, then apply all appropriate taxes to treatment where needed, fund better policing of criminal organizations, and let the rest of the tax go into general revenue."

I've thought a lot about that, ever since. And one thing I wonder is: why do people always compare marijuana to alcohol (which has benefits as well as risks), but never to tobacco which has NO benefits and guaranteed risks not only to the smokers but to everybody near them, including children?

According to two Ph.D. rels working in Public Health, their assessment of the marijuana problem is very similar to what Charles has said (above).

Only they went farther. "Legalize everything!" they said, when I asked their opinion about legalizing marijuana. I couldn't believe my ears.

"You mean everything, the hard drugs too?" I said.

"Everything!" they repeated, with emphasis. "Then monitor the production, regulate the sale, begin taxing the industry, then apply all appropriate taxes to treatment where needed, fund better policing of criminal organizations, and let the rest of the tax go into general revenue."

I've thought a lot about that, ever since. And one thing I wonder is: why do people always compare marijuana to alcohol (which has benefits as well as risks), but never to tobacco which has NO benefits and guaranteed risks not only to the smokers but to everybody near them, including children?

So why aren't cigarettes (harmful) illegal, when marijuana (benign) is illegal? Where's the logic?

* yawn.....

Marijuana benign? Wow are you out of touch.What sort of quality control does organized crime put into their grow-ops? Chemical free? Organically grown? Too funny. Marijuana is just as harmful as tobacco and provides that bonus of frying your brain over the years.

Stop focusing on grow-ops. Crack down on bicycle riders with no helmets. They're the real criminals.

anyone who wants to legalize mariguana is crazy. Its a drug that destroys your brain and destroys familys. End of story.

anyone who wants to legalize mariguana is crazy. Its a drug that destroys your brain and destroys familys. End of story.

Rightwing, I'd like to review your data source for that alleged fact you stated. When was the study done and how did they pick their population? I've never heard of that argument before. Are you sure its not zealotry that you were refering too?

--------------------------------

Alcohol And Cocaine – But Not Cannabis – Linked To Violent Behavior, Study Says

August 23, 2007 - Victoria, BC, Canada



Victoria, British Columbia: Cannabis use is not independently associated with causing violence, according to the results of a multivariate analysis to be published in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Investigators at the University of Victoria, Centre for Addictions Research assessed how frequently subjects in a substance abuse treatment facility reported using cocaine, alcohol, and/or cannabis in the hours immediately prior to committing a violent act. Researchers also evaluated subjects’ personality for characteristics associated with violent behavior, such as risk-taking, impulsivity, and/or disrespect for the law.

Investigators concluded: "When analyses were conducted controlling for covariates, the frequency of alcohol and cocaine use was significantly related to violence, suggesting that pharmacological effects [of the drugs] may play a role in violence. Frequency of cannabis use, however, was not significantly related to violence when controlling for other factors."

The study’s conclusions are similar to the findings of a pair of recent government reports refuting allegations that cannabis use triggers violent behavior. The first, published by the Canadian Senate in 2002, determined: "Cannabis use does not induce users to commit other forms of crime. Cannabis use does not increase aggressiveness or anti-social behavior."

The second review, published by the British Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, reported: "Cannabis differs from alcohol in one major respect. It does not seem to increase risk-taking behavior. This means that cannabis rarely contributes to violence either to others or to oneself, whereas alcohol use is a major factor in deliberate self-harm, domestic accidents and violence."

Most recently, a logistical regression analysis of approximately 900 trauma patients published in the Journal of TRAUMA Injury, Infection, and Critical Care, determined that the use of cannabis is not independently associated with either violent or non-violent injuries requiring hospitalization. By contrast, alcohol and cocaine use are associated with violence-related injuries, the study found.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at: paul@norml.org. Full text of the study, "Predicting violence among cocaine, cannabis, and alcohol treatment clients," will appear in the journal Addictive Behaviors. Additional audio commentary regarding this study is available on the August 15, 2007 broadcast of the NORML Audio Stash at: http://audio.norml.org/audio_stash/NORML_D
aily_AudioStash_08_15_2007.mp3.

updated: Aug 23, 2007

So, let's not get hung up on whether cannabis use contributes to violence or not.

Are there not a number of other factors that are of a major concern? Damaged brain cells, memory problems, lack of productivity, paranoia etc. etc.

I don't think it is appropriate asking cannabis users what the side effects are. They can't see them. Those who live with them and work with them can provide more valuable insight as to the slow deterioration of the person and their abilities. Chester

fine to say Chester but on the bases that a substance might caust some damage we would be outlawing many many things, including alcohol, cigarettes, perhaps salt and suger......how silly should we get? People using cannabis are much less likely to be involved in violence while using cannabis. Does having uses cannabis about 10 times in 52 years count as preventing me from having a valuable insight? :-)

I don't think that 10 times in 52 years is considered a regular cannibis user, do you? Chester