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"On Friday the school brought in the drug dogs to search every car in the school parking lot. Fear spread through the school, my city ranks 3rd in drug use in the state and we are a city of 5000. They busted one person and that was it. I know as a fact there were a lot more people that had drugs. It says a lot about how effective the drug war really is. If the narcotics dogs can only detect marijuana in 1 car out of many many more that had marijuana in them, what good are they? It took 5 cops and 3 dogs an hour and half to bust one person. Is it really worth it? I know that kids shouldnt be smoking marijuana , but I just want to point out the ineffective methods the cops are using in the war on drugs." -- Ryan of Columbus

"Here's one for you... "These people have brainwashed themselves into believing marijuana opens the gates of Hell" Marijuana As Pain Medicine: House Will Consider Bill http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n489/a01.html =========== . . . For those doctors, the prospect of addiction and its accompanying moral and physical decay is worse than any pain -- especially when the pain is borne by the patient. It is not only an issue of law and surveillance, it is a moral one, steeped in conservative ethics and puritanical religious fervor. "It's as if it is a sin to live completely pain free," says Dr. Harvey Ginsburg, psychology professor at Southwest Texas State University, and long-time advocate of the legalization of medicinal marijuana use. "It's as if pain must be endured to enter the gates of heaven." He cites some of the allegations against marijuana as laughable, especially when considering the classic "Reefer Madness" film produced in the 1930s, showing marijuana users as corrupting influences on a "moral" society. "These people have brainwashed themselves into believing marijuana opens the gates of Hell," he said. "And no matter what is said or shown to the contrary, they refuse to listen or even concede a single inch." Although there has been some movement by the American Medical Association in recent years supporting loosening controls on the use of marijuana and certain opiate-based drugs, little has been done by the federal government. "The more people demand the use of drugs like marijuana for relief, the more entrenched government bureaucrats and politicians become," says Ginsburg, "They have a bunker mentality. The more the evidence shows they are wrong, the more they affirm they are right." . . ." -- observer

"re: "Cannabis" in The Bible? Actually, there is a reference to cannabis in Ex 30:23 http://www.bju.edu/bible/exo/30.html#23 In English it gets translated as "sweet calamus" -- calamus = http://www.bju.edu/bible/h/7050.html#7070 = kaneh sweet = http://www.bju.edu/bible/h/1300.html#1314 = bosem "kaneh-bosm" is a cognate for "cannabis" ! It has been there all along! see: http://www.google.com/search?q=kaneh-bosm So, saying "cannabis is in the Bible" may indeed sound goofy, however, once the cognate for cannabis (i.e. kaneh-bosem) is pointed out, it doens't seem quite so off-the-wall. take care " -- observer