Time to Legalize?

No, I am not a zol monkey. This is not a throwdown from a bonghead. I am not tapping away on my keyboard in a cloud of purple haze. This will not be a THC-fueled rant about the wonders of pot, the miracle of ganja and the salvation you will find in the herb. I will not tell you that it brings you closer to Jah or takes you to a higher plane. I will not go on about how a bucket-bong is better for you than a box of durries. Because that’s horseshit. And I ain’t peddling that. I’m not a hippie, a greenie, a communist, a naturalist or a nudist. I did not grow up in an ashram. I don’t own a teepee or a didgeridoo. I won’t be calling my kids Moondrop or Skypony or whatever the hell crusties call their children. I ain’t that guy. I’m just an average schmo. A schmo who likes a schmoke. A middle-class middle-aged guy who likes it when people get high. (Thoughtleader David J Smith)

Grass ain’t no thing. Just another one of the many ways we chose to get f ’d up. Like a Klipdrift or a Mainstay. Sucked back with flat Coca-Cola from a two-litre in the parking lot. The only difference is they don’t call a zol a klap-jou-vrou-en-coke. This is not the drug we associate with violence. No, mate, if you think GBH and marijuana go together, you’ve been pulling on the wrong bottle-neck. If anything this shit is going to mung you out. It’ll blitzkrieg the fight right out of your balls. You’ll be looking the other way at the first sight of confrontation. Mumbling your apology where none was needed. You’ll button your lip and go sit in the corner, all quiet like, looning out your brain. But that don’t mean it ain’t fun. As long as there’s no cops, jocks, bullies, boozeheads, bouncers, ex-girlfriends or your mum to wail on your ass, you’re gonna have a sweet time puffin’ on the sweet Mary-Jane.

Giggling like a mad man, all gnashers and gums. Twisting and wriggling like an epileptic looking into a strobe light. Or sitting stock-still, finding everything amazing or just not thinking about anything. They both amount to the same thing — being able to stare at a wall for hours on end. That’s good old cheap fun. And in these times of economic crisis, we need all the cheap we can get. Get yourself down to the Westville drive-by or hook yourself up with a buddy in Obs. Get on that Swazi or Transkei Reds. Or Malawi Cob, if you’re some sort of sophisticated swine, the kinda guy who eats pate de campagne and cornichon on white bread with the crusts cut off. Yup, a bankie of green is worth its weight in gold, but they’ll sell it to you for brass.

But don’t tell the old brass, she’ll clip you round the earhole. The ladies don’t really like a toker. Unless they are one themselves. And if your missus is, keep her because she’s a good sort. … What the hell’s with all these dumb British words? … I must be getting high just writing this drivel. OK, need to focus, these people need answers, not spittle.

The police! The coppers. How much money are they wasting on drug busts and dagga hauls? Look at this video. It’s ten minutes of CCTV straight outta Hackney. London’s answer to Compton. Look at that first scene. WTF? That’s a drug raid and there’s like twenty cops. All rocking on the taxpayer’s dime. Shit, y’all, that’s your dime, that’s my dime. We’re paying for them to bust some pot smokers. Ok, it’s probably a crack-den or an illegal whorehouse or some other depraved filth, I don’t know, it could be anything. But we’re paying for it. Well, English people are but if this was Hillbrow, that would be our bucks. Or your bucks, because I live in Amsterdam. OK, this is not going so well. Is it getting hot in here? Why is my cat staring at me? Breathe, baby, breathe. Inhale. Exhale. I am an ocean. I am a sea. Dead calm. Washing in, washing out. Everything is fine. Like moondrops on a skypony, running free.

A’ight, I’m back. Lucid. From the root word Lucidus. Light. Enlightened. With knowledge. Like the city I live in, the city of angels. No, that’s L.A. This is Amsterdam. Enlightened to the power of the almighty greenback. The zol-dollar. Amsterdam understands money. They are the undisputed kings of turning a dime. And when you’re selling half a nickel bag for the price of two dime bags, you’re gonna make some cash. In 1995, the last time they calculated these figures, the sale of dope contributed €1,4-billion to the economy. That’s a tonne of money. Well actually it’s closer to three tonnes if you had it in €500 notes. (The €500 note weighs 1,1g. You can do the rest). Imagine what South Africa can do with three tonnes of money? Scratch that figure, Xe.com that moolah and you’ve got 30 tonnes! What could South Africa do with 30 tonnes of cash? Fifteen billion rand. That’s a regmaker right there. That’ll straighten you right up. It will also straighten a few roads, build a couple thousand houses and get some people out of the business of unemployment and into the business of making money. Damn, I’m starting believe myself here. I must be blazed.

Peace y’all. Legalize it. Jah Rastafari. For shizzle. You get the score.

Dagga should be legalised: Popcru

Cosatu's congress could end on a high note, with police union Popcru pushing for dagga to be legalised.

The proposal was due to come up for debate today when delegates debate resolutions.

Popcru general secretary Nkosinathi Theledi told The Star that by legalising dagga, the police would be freed to focus on fighting more serious crime.

If adopted, said Theledi, the proposal would be forwarded to the SAPS top brass for consideration.

"Whether we like it or not, dagga is being used and it should rather be legalised.

"We are saying it should be regulated ... the age limit on who is allowed to use it.

"Research even tells us that there are cases where doctors prescribe dagga for patients with particular ailments.

"If it happens, then this will save police resources - instead of chasing after (dagga sellers and producers), they can look at bigger crime," said Theledi.

Theledi, who says he does not smoke dagga, said he was initially opposed to the idea, but had been persuaded otherwise by his union.

While the use of dagga may encourage some users to try harder drugs, Theledi said regulation - such as that on alcohol sales - should be enforced.

Legalisation would also "empower the people who produce it and will add to the economy", according Theledi, stressing it would be up to congress delegates to debate and finalise the issue.

Meanwhile, Cosatu deputy general secretary Bheki Ntshalintshali said that, for the first time, the issue of global warming would feature at the congress.

- Cape Argus

Man sues cops for R7m over broken neck

A man whose neck was broken during an arrest for possession of dagga in 2006, is suing the government for R7-million in the Cape High Court.

Christiaan Kansanga's case against the Minister of Safety and Security got under way in court this week, with medical professionals giving evidence that severe damage had been done to Kansanga's neck during an arrest on March 6, 2006.

Kasanga's lawyer, Martin Skovgaard-Petersen, said Kasanga had been unable to work since the incident because he had "wobbly legs" and he could only walk for between "300 and 500 metres". He also had a "hanging" right arm, Skovgaard-Petersen said.

Kasanga was 29 at the time of his injury.

He said the amount Kasanga was suing for totalled nearly R7-million and included loss of earnings, general damages, as well as future needs which included the costs of assistance, therapy, equipment and any medical treatment he would require as a result of the injury.

The case will continue on Monday when the defence team will cross-examine Dr Driver-Jowitt.

- Cape Argus

'We cannot make the same mistake twice' ????

The Western Cape has the highest number of dagga smokers in the country and 42 percent of dagga smokers attending treatment centres are under the age of 20. (from IOL)

The Department of Social Development says alcohol is the most frequently abused substance by young and old.

"We have 9.2 percent of our population - twice that in other parts of the world - who use cannabis. It will be a grave mistake to legalise cannabis as elsewhere in the world," Central Drug Authority (CDA) deputy chairman David Bayever said while addressing the standing committee on community development on Wednesday.

"We legalised alcohol and never mind the money made from it - alcohol is our biggest problem. The cost to society is horrific. We cannot make the same mistake twice."

The statistics Bayever used were based on a 2000 to 2008 report the Medical Research Council did for the department.

At 16 percent, the province has the country's highest rate of binge drinking, particularly among young people and in rural areas.

David Bayever is responsible for "drug policy" in the country. He heads up the Central Drug Authority. He is ULTIMATELY responsible for the drug HE legalised and he does not want to make the same mistake twice! So what has he done about his FIRST mistake providing us with 70 bodies a day? Absolutely NOTHING, that's what. So now he's ready to start pronouncements regarding cannabis, probably the safest drug in the world, considering that so many people are apparently doing it!? If it's so dangerous...? Where are the bodies? Mr Bayever and the CDA have kept the 2004 Cannabis Position Paper hidden. The paper dealing with a drug does not cover the toxicity of the drug, nor how many death have arisen from it! Ignore the rest of the world, but don't think that they haven't or are not learning from the Portugal solution! Alcohol consumption has doubled in 8 years. Violence has followed suit. 10% of children are being born with FAS (retarded). This is David's first mistake. Now he says NO TO CANNABIS!? That is David's second mistake. Cannabis is EXACTLY what the whole country needs to stick in it's collective peace pipe so that it can CHILL out. 80% of admissions at the casualty wards in the Western Cape are alcohol related. The ARA would have us believe that the evidence does not support the conclusion that alcohol consumption causes violence.

Here is a brief history of cannabis

Followed by Robert Mueller head of the FBI admitting that cannabis has never killed anyone

How marijuana became legal

CNNMoney seems to know something the rest of the world doesn't!

Healthy Smoking?

E-Cigarettes.... Smoking without the bad unhealthy parts. (from News9Today)

It's time for a U-Turn on drugs

The Adam Smith Institute today urges the next government to rethink policy from first principles. Its book, Zero Base Policy, will nowhere be more controversial than on narcotics. It suggests that Britain's drug policy is "one of the most spectacular failures in history. Dozens of initiatives spread over many decades have left Britain with more addiction, more drug use, more drug-related crime, and more drug-induced health problems." (from the Guardian)

Addicts might take their fix of heroin in a clinic, but not social users of recreational drugs. Few people would want to enter a high-street clinic to take an ecstasy tablet – this is something used in clubs. Similarly, few people would want to snort a line of cocaine in clinical and antiseptic conditions. Neither would people want to smoke cannabis in a clinic. They would shun the medical conditions envisaged for supervised use. The cafes in the Netherlands in which cannabis use is tolerated are rather more social and relaxed than medical clinics.

The policy that could succeed would be to medicalise hard drugs, and to legalise the production and sale of recreational drugs such as ecstasy, cocaine and cannabis. They would no more be without controls than alcohol and tobacco are without controls, but no longer criminal.

The street price would collapse without the need for illegal supply. Quality could be controlled and subject to regulation and labelling. Advice could be given on packages warning of associated dangers, and alerting users to the early signs of adverse health effects.

Large bust in Durban

Six people have been arrested and about R600-million worth of hashish and heroin was seized at two locations in Durban yesterday. (from the Mercury)

Three tons of drugs, which had been compacted into blocks and sealed in brown wrapping, had been hidden in truck battery casings at Storage City depots at Mount Edgecombe and Glen Anil.

Superintendent Deven Naicker, head of narcotics in the police organised crime unit, said their investigations had started on Wednesday.

He said the men's operation had transported the drugs between Durban and Britain.

"The drugs were being shipped as cargo for a false truck battery company and were transported to a UK company ostensibly selling truck batteries," he said.

The men used empty battery casings and prisms to store the drugs. The casings had metal covers on to make the drugs difficult to detect.

Naicker said the street value of a 5kg block of hashish was R40 000 and that one gram of the drug sold for about R80.

He said this was probably the biggest drug bust in the country.

"This is an international case and we will carry out more investigations into the matter," he said.

Naicker praised the national and Durban organised crime units for their participation in the sting.

The Britons are expected to appear in court tomorrow.

Hawks spokesperson Musa Zondi said about R500m worth of drugs had initially been found at the two depots.

However, an additional amount of heroin worth about R100m had been recovered after a further search of the Mount Edgecombe warehouse. "Another 115kg of heroin was recovered later yesterday as police were still searching the premises," he said.

3 tons of hashish and 115 kg's of HEROIN! This is crazy. One day the government will want to control drugs, but by then it will be too late.

Call to criminalize pregnant drinking.

Pregnant women should be barred by law from drinking alcohol, provincial deputy director-general Dr Joey Cupido has said. (From IOL)

His call for legislation prohibiting pregnant women from drinking alcohol came during Cupido's address an event designed to raise awareness on World Foetal Alcohol Syndrome Day.

From a human rights perspective, Cupido said, "the tap has to be turned off".

The rights of the baby had to be considered and, just as people practised safe sex because they feared HIV infection, so too should pregnant women take responsibility for their children's health.

"The mother needs to be responsible for that baby she is carrying.

"The child's rights in that instance would supersede the rights of the individual," Cupido said.

Just as it was a criminal offence to smoke in a car while transporting a child younger than 12, so too should it be a criminal offence to drink alcohol while pregnant.

"It must be legislated. Women should be prohibited from drinking (while pregnant) by law," he said.

Thursday's gathering, hosted by the Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FAS) Task Team, followed an interfaith service at St George's Cathedral on World FAS Day, marked annually on September 9.

FAS is associated with severe mental disability and stunted physical growth.

It is estimated that 25 000 babies are born with FAS in South Africa each year, the highest reported incidence in the world.

Rural areas in the Western Cape area hardest hit by the disorder.

Health department spokesperson Faiza Steyn said that Cupido had been speaking in his personal capacity.

"The department does caution pregnant women not to consume alcohol as it is not good for the health and well-being of the unborn baby, or for themselves," she said.

The department had various health programmes in place to assist in minimising the impact of FAS. (And none of them seem to be working)

Ban Alcohol Advertising?

South Africa should consider banning the advertising of alcohol, a British expert says. (From IOL)

Professor Gerald Hastings, director of the British Institute of Social Marketing, has recently completed a report on liquor advertising and its effects in Britain.

There was a definite link between alcohol advertising and the drinking habits of young people, he said, speaking during SAfm Radio's After Eight Debate.

There had been a lot of research into the effects of liquor advertising in Britain, which had an "enormous problem" of excessive drinking, particularly among young people.

"It is clear that it encourages young people to start drinking earlier and, when they do start drinking, to drink more.

"On the basis of that, action to regulate advertising has to look at the volume of that advertising ... and reduce that. It is not enough to tinker with the content."

The logical conclusion of the research was that alcohol advertising should be banned, Hastings said.

The Alcohol Industy have developed their own incredible position. Advertising does not bring new people to alcohol, it just changes which brands they drink. Why then spend millions and millions on advertising? All it does then is change which account the money is coming into!

BMA not anti-alcohol? They SHOULD BE!

The British Medical Association published a report on the dangers of drink this week, but assured us the organisation is not “anti-alcohol”. Well, it bloody well should be. (From the Times)

Alcohol is directly linked to more than 60 medical conditions and costs the NHS millions of pounds every year. The casualty departments are full of drunks. They also contain the sober victims of alcohol-induced violence, drink-driving and various other horrors of secondary drinking. I gave up alcohol on September 24, 1986, but it’s still quite possible I will end up in hospital or the morgue because of someone else’s drinking.

My dad, an enthusiastic patron of public houses, often said: “If you knocked down all the pubs, you’d have to build a lot of lunatic asylums.” A friend recently said to me that if there was a genuine attempt to stop people drinking, there’d be rioting in the streets. Clearly, this is a dependency culture. Alcohol is killing people in a variety of ways but a large part of the population can’t face life without it, so the carnage is allowed to continue.

All our decisions can be roughly broken down into things we do because of love and things we do because of fear. The BMA’s reluctance to condemn drink as firmly as it condemns tobacco is not based on the love of those in its care but rather the fear of the outrage if people were told they should face life head-on, without the soothing softener of alcohol.

People need booze to make themselves and their acquaintances seem more exciting. How many parties or nights in the pub have been rescued by booze slowly oiling the social machine? There are pills that do the same job. Would it be OK to use them in the same way? If you turned up at a friend’s dinner party and she casually handed out sedatives, wouldn’t you feel a bit weak and pathetic?

I’m starting to sound like an old-fashioned Temperance League member, but it irks me that alcohol is seen as a social necessity, an ice-breaker. You get drunk with a new workmate or neighbour in order to bond with them. It loosens people up and makes them more gregarious. Well, what’s going on here? Are we saying we need a mind-altering drug to enable us to reach out to another human being or give us the courage to speak in a group? Shouldn’t we deal with that?

We’re back to love and fear again. Why do you drink? Is it because you love the people you’re with or because you’re slightly afraid of them? Is it because you’re unhappy with who you are and so feel the need to change yourself — even if it’s just a little bit — with the aid of alcohol?

I often sat with friends, the lunchtime after the night before, discussing our drunken exploits. The thing Steve said to the bloke at the chip shop, the way Darren fell off the bus. None of us had the guts to say: “But it wasn’t really us, was it? It was us made more colourful by a drug. These things we did — our displays of courage and eccentricity — only happened because they were induced by chemicals. We sit here shining our puny badges of rebellion and celebrating our maverick lifestyle, but deep down we know it’s all a sham — an alcohol-induced charade.

“Who are we when unaided by intoxicants? What stories concerning the real, unaltered us are worth telling? If there is none then we must stop taking the easy option — the short-term fix — and strive to make the real, unaltered us worthy of the tale.”

Of course, I never said that or anything like it because I was keen to continue the charade; to tell the stories and enjoy my part in them.

I was a heavy drinker. I have been known to wake up in a pool of my own urine in a place I didn’t know. So-called social drinkers will read this and say, “His case is different; he had a problem”, but anyone who is reluctant to face social gatherings without the aid of alcohol should be asking themselves why.

I got drunk, ultimately, I suppose, because I was afraid of being sober. The social drinker is afraid of being sober and of being drunk. He seeks a cosy middle ground where social situations are made that little bit more manageable, that little bit easier to navigate. It is double self-deception; it is neither a real world nor one that is free from dependency.

The Government may consider public health less important than alienating voters and rich brewery owners or losing the revenue on alcoholic drinks, but the BMA should forget about cosmetic changes, such as banning advertising and happy hours, drop the niceties, come down at least as hard as it did on tobacco and say what needs to be said: alcohol is a dangerous drug dressed up as a warm and reassuring companion. It temporarily kills who you really are and replaces it, in varying degrees, with a chemically created persona — that’s when it’s not literally killing you, making you ill or terrifying those around you who are not similarly benumbed.

We can’t trust the people to decide for themselves because their dependency — often not readily apparent and so easily denied — obviously clouds their judgment. We need the BMA to provide impetus for a great national sobering-up.

Heroin bust in Somerset West

Five people were arrested and drugs with a street price of R300 000 were confiscated in Strandfontein, Western Cape police said on Friday. (from IOL)

Captain Frederick van Wyk said the police's organised crime unit pulled over a white golf in Anker Street on Thursday evening.

A man, aged 27, in possession of about 400 heroin straws was arrested.

"Follow-up investigation led [police] to a house in Anker Street where they arrested four more people."

Three men, all aged 23, and one woman, aged 30, were found with about two kilograms of heroin, bag sealers and plastic bags.

The arrested people are believed to be from Mitchells Plain and will appear soon in the magistrate's court in the area on drug-related charges.

Khat drinks all Yemen's water

Khat is popular in many countries of the Arabian peninsula and the Horn of Africa, but in Yemen it's a full-blown national addiction. As much as 90% of men and 1 in 4 women in Yemen are estimated to chew the leaves, storing a wad in one cheek as the khat slowly breaks down into the saliva and enters the bloodstream. (From Time)

Khat fields are typically flooded twice a month, consuming about 30% of the country's water — most of which is pumped from underground aquifers filled thousands of years ago, and replenished only very slowly by the occasional rainfall that seeps through the layers of soil and rock. A recent explosion of khat cultivation has drawn water levels down to the point where they are no longer being replenished. The option of pumping desalinated water over long pipelines from coastal plants is too expensive for such a poor country. Yemen is in real danger of becoming the world's first country to run out of water.

"You sit up discussing all your problems and think you've solved everything, but in fact you haven't done anything in the last four hours, because you've just been chewing khat and all your problems actually got worse," says Adel al-Shujaa

Despite the danger, Yemen isn't about to go cold turkey anytime soon. Not only are most of the country's leaders landowners deeply involved in khat production, the leaf may be one of the few things still holding Yemen together. Says Ashraf Al-Eryani, one of GTZ's local program officers,
"Khat plays a big role in keeping people calm, and keeping them off the streets. But it's also delaying change. It's hard to convince people to act now."

OR Tambo... drugs drugs and more drugs

A cocaine consignment destined for the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique was seized at the OR Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, police said on Monday. (From News24)

Senior Superintendent Vishnu Naidoo said the drugs, with an estimated street value of R20m, were smuggled from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

"They were concealed in cutlery and ladies' handbags.

"They were hidden inside the boxes and in between two layers of material in the handbags."

Naidoo said the drugs were found on Sunday afternoon, and no arrests had yet been made.

On Friday customs officials seized 25kg of pure heroin, with a street price estimated at R25m, at the airport.

The narcotics had been declared as a "green coffee extract" and arrived on a cargo flight from India for local consumption.

On Saturday, Mandrax of R200m was seized after police raided a Midrand home.
Equipment, worth R2m, used to manufacture the drugs was also found.
The owner of the house was arrested.

Two people were arrested in the Free State on Saturday when a police dog helped to nab two drug dealers after it sniffed out a bag of dagga buried in the ground.

The confiscated dagga, which weighed 5.586kg, was estimated to carry a street value of R7 429