End Prohibition Waterloo

TOP STORY

2010-08-13T13:09:00.001-07:00

Top Story:

Local Paramedic Thomas Green starts an NGO dedicated to confronting global overpopulation. “On a global level, we have doubled and redoubled our numbers, and are now confronting a world of too many people and too few resources. Its not just the food and water shortages that are strained by the heavy consumption that is our lifestyle, its the shortage of time, too.”
In April, Green was part of a team that found the body of 93 year-old Maeve Thiery, who had died in her high-rise apartment building and remained undiscovered until now, 5 years after her assumed time of death. Thiery had only been found when her landlord went to enquire about why her automatic rent-withdrawals had stopped coming.
“Too many people here are using too many resources, and I feel that enough people are conscious of the fact that new paths to action are expected. So, that is why I am getting a Vasectomy.” The goal of Green's organization, PopulationCTRL (Population Cuts Targeting Reproduction Levels), is to encourage 1000 men to admit to the choice not to reproduce through obtaining vasectomies. The men are to chronicle the journey through digital video-cameras as they share their experience with families and loved ones, and to tell of why they think the responsibility to curb booming population levels begins at home.
Green says “When we discovered Maeve, my heart broke. And it's not the first time either! With the way people are being shuffled into new cities, chasing jobs and being forced out of their homes because they can't afford the rent, our elders are getting left behind, and with the way we have computers taking care of everything, we don't need to see people who live 10 feet away. People die and are forgotten all the time, and maybe its just better that people begin to choose not to have more children at all.”

PopulationCTRL, which came online last week, already has 37 registered participants, including self-styled 'street-philosophers' like Steve Vassell. “The idea appealed to me because, you know, I don't have kids, my brother has two, and everyday I see on the news 'Food Shortage', or 'Fire in overcrowded slum' and I don't think, 'whoa, those people over there, they breed like rabbits, there are just too many of them' because its not 'them', its us! Us! Its not even the numbers of people, its the way that people like 'us' live here in the industrialized worlds. The way we eat, the way we live – we take so much and leave so little for anyone else. So, I thought 'Hey, my brother's got kids, my genes are safe, you know, in a way, and so, why not just live a good life and help my brother out instead of making more waste and taking more away from somebody else who needs it.”

That sort of thinking is not confined to 'street-philosophers' (whatever that means!), but are being confirmed by professionals at the Institute for Future Economics. Project Director Ellen Ming says more. “At the rate of inflation, and with the increase in government deregulation, the market is now freer than ever before, and those goods and services of any quality will see a rise in price to reflect their stature. For those who are not working in the good jobs, like the financial services or skilled trades, or even those who are not in the higher civil servant or security contractor pay-ranges, affording the best in life good hypothetically cast more than the traditional two-income family could afford. If larger families made the decision to invest in one family line instead of multiple family lines, the quality of life would be far superior.”

PopulationCTRL does is not free of its critics, though. Evan A. D. Jantzi participated in a similar project that took place Atlanta during the 1980's. “I thought that, with all the people in the world, that doing this would be really noble, a really good idea. I was an idiot.” Jantzi regretted his decision immediately, and eventually decided to undergo an uninsured and expensive operation to restore his reproductive capacity. “Only some people can have the procedure 'undone', and I had realized that I wanted kids, I wanted to have a baby with my...with my now-ex, but then current, girlfriend. It was expensive, but, you know, I am glad it could be reversed.” Jantzi was dumped by his girlfriend shortly after the procedure; he still has no children.

Green is not discouraged. “You know, this organization isn't, you know, forcing people to get vasectomies. That would be crazy; there are some people you wish we could, you know, take the snips too, you know what I'm saying? But really, its not a decision we force on people, or ask to take lightly.”

For more information, check out PopulationCTRL's website www.itshiptosnip.ca .

Summer Vacation

2010-08-06T17:34:00.001-07:00

summer of 2010, the G20 (in reality 46 countries, but 'one' of the 'twenty' is the European Union, knocking it down some) invaded Toronto under the governance of a strong-arm economist amidst a culture of fear. A year or more of intense surveillance of social justice workers, environmentalists, migrants, refugee, labor, and activist-workers; a parliamentary climate where opposition was met with funding cuts and dismissals; where our history books (okay, our new immigrant guides, which is in a way the first history of this country that new immigrants see) have been 'moderated' to write homosexuality out of our society; all this was haunting me and my friends as we hung-out on the toronto streets, helicopters high overhead circling like vultures. THe G20 had come; the storm was brewing...

But it wasn't a single day, nor a slew of days were the skies heaved and the rains of trouble fell. This was like a storm that began to pick-up midwinter, only to find itself blowing stronger into hurricane season. The g20 - and all the events that had come before that - budget cuts to womens groups, decrying global warming; a tough-on-crime campaign that played up our fears of 'identity theft' and 'terrorism', while corporate crime was rewarded.

Did you know the G20 was invented in 1999!!!

That's right, 1999 by Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin, and Lawrence Summers - an American, of course ('kinda makes all that talk about a unified North America sound plausible, eh? You should look up the SPP sometime - these fuckers are not our friends.)

So, the G20, invented out of the blue a decade earlier, now 'saves us' from the Recession of '08 (ironic since Lawrence Summers was making a point of not regulating global markets and permitting the 'too big to fail banks' to get so big that they were 'too big to fail'), and is now committed to a course of austerity measures, slashing the global defecit by 50% by 2013. Twenty. Thirteen. In three years, the government will retract funding in every which way possible (save for prisons, christian reform schools, and military 'exploration' of the arctics vast resources - don't worry; it becomes increasingly cheaper as global warming melts the arctic ice), and that means social security, education, and health care - that means heritage and language, that means social services and immigration assistance. That means disaster.

So, the banking crisis, now our crisis, engineered by the same people who have managed to ensure that their benefits are insured (while ours aren't), are hosting the G20 - and running the table. Canada, at the insistence of Stephen Harper, pushed these austerity measures sought to make these austerity cuts the number one issue, at the expense of Western wars in the middle-east (Afghanistan, Iraq, eventually Pakistan and Iran) and Climate Change (industrial society's war on the Earth's environmental water, food, temperature-regulation, and air systems). These austerity measures are known as "Greek style" (Be careful when you google that one kids) and will be fierce, and will not be concerned with high unemployment or low consumer confidence. Canada hid the effects of these measures, what the people on the street were protesting about (in many cases), behind the 'window dressing' of a concern for child and maternal health - this, of course, is a crock on the basis of the government recently taking initiatives to close Status of Women offices, to kill prior efforts at a national childcare program, and have made clear where their ideals lay in the land of a woman's choice through their ideologically-driven funding selections for overseas aid. (In case you didn't know, those that supported abortion and being pro-choice had their funding cut).

Sorry, meandering; I bet this sounds like the ramblings of one of those crazy traumatised types you see in action/thriller/horror movies. those 'survivors'; a little shell shocked, a little shakey - but still kicking it out, telling the important narratives that make the plot twist...

Well, that's distracting, I'm a little stoned, and so mildly discombobulated, but I'll hold it together. Back to the helicopters.

The helicopters circled Toronto and security forces patrolled the streets, allowing for theatrical violence to peak and swell, and real violence to be shamelessly undereported by the newspapers. Not until later when a public outcry was made and some journalists began to see and decry the pattern of political-terrorism did the public begin to hear it. The helicopters circled overhead, and the police stormed on the ground, and people I know and love were kidnapped off the ground - when I say kidnapped, I mean not shown a warrant or read their rights, nor told what they were being detained for, but actually grabbed and thrown in a van by plain clothes police officers, who for all intents and purposes really could have been kidnappers - people i know and love were stolen before, during, and after the g20 because they stood up to this corporate-conservative-liberal mess. They still get kidnapped - happened just the other day.

So, my summer vacation (see, there is a point to this) has fundamentally been watching my country, my world, a latticework of communities, stand up to financial murder and blood-resource extraction, and then knowing that they're getting punished for it, knowing that those who aren't immediately harmed are immediately engaged with trying to help, and then knowing that its only gotten worse since then.

The government has just passed a law granting police and federal prosecutors invasive new powers, allowing them to arrest and search and wire-tap more freely than ever before. This government, one saying that it is essential to reduce spending has now committed billions more dollars to prison construction on the pretext of unreported crime. After all, Canadians need to learn to report these 'unreported crimes', a.k.a. to snitch on their neighbors, to the police who are now more free than ever simply to invade your life (when conveniently we are building new jails to fill).

Ladies and gentlemen, people who reject gender binaries, this shit is fucked.

FIGHT BACK

2010-08-02T20:47:00.001-07:00

To the police; FIGHT BACK!

You're not trying hard enough.
Have you let any articulate street-hipster tell you the specific reasons why marijuana is illegal; what it does to the body, to the world; and why it being illegal is absurd? I hope so - so FIGHT BACK! DON'T TAKE THIS SHIT! CLUB THAT FUCKING VOICE INTO SUBMISSION - that uptight clothing, those choker ties, those gaudy colors and the greasy hair: BEAT THE VOICE OF THAT LAW DOWN! LISTEN TO THE HIPSTER and refuse to enforce that law - don't get yourself in shit, just don't enforce it. Just say no.

If you want community support, we're here for you. We can help you; back you up. We can do letter writing campaigns, we can do staged events - just don't enforce it.
endprohbitionwaterloo@gmail.com

CRACK!!!

2010-07-17T16:06:00.000-07:00

Who's Rick Ross? 'Freeway Rick' Ross was such a big crack dealer, he practically invented it. Actually, he just made it popular, bringing to every city he visited. Not only that, but unknowingly, 'Freeway Rick' was funding CIA war's in Nicaraugua. The CIA stymied all investigations into him, and he spread crack-cocaine all across the US.

Here, a series of articles outlining this issue, and it's development.

Enjoi cherie...

http://www.mega.nu/ampp/webb.html

Stimulated

2010-07-17T16:00:00.001-07:00

This is an article about solidarity in resistance. The idea is that one should beware actions which condemn those fighting for your cause, especially when your cause is contentious and persecutable. Denouncing someone's actions for the sake of your position/celebrity/ego thrusts people into the machinations of those who are conspiring against you - put in less flowery language, the people you are entreating to change, whose adjustment to a more equitable sharing of power you are yourself seeking from them. (Sorry; that language wasn't an improvement.)

What I mean to say is; don't hurt your allies by going onside with those who aren't.
Here; think for yourself.

Snitching on the Resistance: How celebrity activists have set off a witch hunt against anarchist militants
BLOG POST posted on July 12, 2010 by stimulator
Blog posts are the work of individual contributors, reflecting their thoughts, opinions and research.
Rebick speaking at a prisoner support rally just days after she called for the arrest of militants
Rebick speaking at a prisoner support rally just days after she called for the arrest of militants
Navigating power. My dad shakes hand with the government who would later cage him.
Navigating power. My dad shakes hand with the government who would later cage him.
Derrick O'Keefe during the infamous debate with Harsha Walia
Derrick O'Keefe during the infamous debate with Harsha Walia
BCCLA's David Eby defends his denunciation of the "Heart Attack" action
BCCLA's David Eby defends his denunciation of the "Heart Attack" action
Murray Dobbin wants you to join a social vigilante group
Murray Dobbin wants you to join a social vigilante group

→Media Analysis, →Politics, →Toronto News

The hardest road trip  

When I was twenty-three I was given the task of handing over my father to the authorities. No, I wasn't collaborating with the police. My father had been found guilty after a long legal battle with the state, and had to turn himself in at a federal penitentiary. The prison was in a remote location in South Carolina which is about a four hour drive from Atlanta, where I was living at the time. Out of all my family members, most of whom reside in the US colony of Puerto Rico, I lived the closest to where my Dad was expected to pay his debt to society, by serving a 63 months sentence.  The drive down to the jail must have been one of the worst experiences of my life. I knew that with every mile I drove, I was bringing my father closer to his cage. When we arrived at the gates, my heart started racing and I couldn't even look at my dad. We parked, entered the building and were both searched. My father was asked to enter into small room. A few moments later a prison guard handed me a shopping bag with his clothes, his watch, wallet and shoes. When my dad stepped out of that room, he was wearing his prison uniform. My dad looked at me and tears filled his eyes. This would be the first time I ever saw my father cry.

  Long story short.   

My father is one of the toughest and smartest persons I know. He has been involved in Puerto Rican politics since he was nineteen. During the 1970's he spearheaded a campaign that succeed in granting Puerto Ricans the right to vote in US Presidential primaries. In the 1980's he started an ambitious all news TV station on the island, the first of its kind in Latin America. Canal 24 (Channel 24) focused on investigative reporting, something that disrupted the action news model of most local evening news programs and made the station the most popular TV News outlet at the time. Their reports revealed connections between Colombian drug cartels and the CIA, long before Gary Webb's Dark Alliance article. Reporters at Canal 24 also investigated local politicians and revealed the deep seeded culture of corruption that was ingrained in the state government. In short, Canal 24 pissed off a lot of powerful people off, and my dad being the head of the station, became the target of several politically motivated government investigations.  

After being found not guilty on two previous cases filed by the Puerto Rican government, the trial that landed him in jail felt like it was engineered for him to lose. By that time Canal 24 had closed and my Dad was knee deep in the fight for his freedom, this time against the US Government. During the trial it was discovered that my father had a brain tumor, and a court appointed doctor forced him to take medications that made him drowsy, caused memory loss and impaired his ability to conduct a proper defense. Also, his attorney did not disclose to him that prior to being hired, he was an investigator for the US Government for my father's case. With the odds stacked against him, my father was found guilty, cuffed and taken to maximum security prison immediately after the trial ended.

  Prison Hell  .

When my father arrived at the maximum security prison, he was stripped searched and left naked in a cell with the air conditioner at full blast. He would regularly be denied medical attention, access to his lawyer and placed in solitary confinement. When it was announced that he was to be transferred to a minimum security prison in South Carolina, I was relieved. But minimum security prison is still prison. My dad lived in an army style barrack with other "criminals", mainly small time drug dealers who cut deals on the advice of their court appointed lawyers. While they slept, prison guards would routinely bust in yelling, shine flashlights on their faces, and throw all their belongings on the floor. If anybody complained they would be sent to the "hole", a jail cell in complete isolation from other prisoners. At one point my dad was forced out of bed told to gather his belongings and transported to another prison in Alabama in the middle of the night without the knowledge of his attorney or our family.  

My father's imprisonment not only affected him, but was a huge emotional burden on my immediate and extended family. While in prison my father missed my sister's wedding and did not get to see my younger brother perform on stage. My brother was 9 at the time and I don't think I have to explain why having your dad in jail does to a school aged boy. My mother had to switch gears and become the bread winner and I had to drive for 8 hours on weekends so that Dad could have family contact.   The story of my father's odyssey with the penal system is not one that I share often. But in light of the events that took place in Vancouver during the Olympics and more recently in Toronto during the g20, I feel it's important to put it out there so that those who've never had a loved one in jail get a taste of the hell families go through. More specifically, this story is directed at those who would carelessly endanger our comrades, and who value their egos and personalities more than the freedom of those who choose to fight differently.  

The enemies within.

  Back in February, a small black bloc joined an action called "The Heart Attack" and smashed the windows of several stores and banks in Vancouver during the Olympics. Following the success of the day which included non-violent actions, the police were desperately searching for the perpetrators and would arrest activists on the most ridiculous pretexts, like riding a bicycle down the sidewalk.

  During the anti-olympic convergence, BC Civil Liberties Executive Director, David Eby was part of the legal team for the Olympic Resistance Network or ORN. The day following the "Heart Attack" David Eby denounced the action on the corporate media. Following Eby's denunciation, Larry Hildes, an attorney and a member of the ORN's legal team broke ranks and gave a statement to the VMC.

  "There are people in jail now that BCCLA is supposed to be providing legal support for and instead of doing that, they're denouncing them." He added "As a lawyer I think it's unethical and they should be disciplined by the law society for doing that."  

During this time of intense police repression, Rabble.ca blogger, and now co-chair of StopWar.ca Derrick O'Keefe, felt it was fitting to accuse a well known activist and comrade of assault on a social networking website. After I tracked down and asked people who reposted O'Keefe's accusation to take their down posts, I emailed O'Keefe and asked him to explain himself. To this day, I have yet to receive a reply and O'keefe has since repeated the accusation on his blog. On June 30th of this year, a few days after a black bloc smashed corporate stores and set cop cars on fire In Toronto during the G20, O'Keefe promoted a website on his twitter account that exhorted people to call Toronto Crime Stoppers and provide information about a man who was trashing a cop car.

Similarly, on June 27th, well known Toronto activist and writer Judy Rebick told a local news outlet that the black bloc should have been arrested… "at the beginning before they had a chance to be part of a bigger crowd." Later on the interview Rebick furthered the idea of "good protester vs. bad protester" with a twist: Now there are good militants and bad militants. The good militants just wanted to go down to the fence that was erected to protect the G20 leaders and the bad militants were the ones who smashed corporate stores and bank windows. It is important to note that Rebick paid homage to the voting rights group the suffragettes, in her book Ten Thousand Roses. The suffragettes were a first wave militant feminist group who engaged in direct actions such as smashing store windows and setting off bombs.  

Following Rebick's lead, "progressive" political commentator Murray Dobbin suggested that the next time a black bloc came around that social activists take the law into their own hands and "swarm these people and stop them if the police refuse."

Dangerous precedent  .

Now that denouncing and unmasking militants has been approved by high profile "lefties", the witch hunt to identify and hand over the "vandals" over to the police is alive and well on "progressive" websites and on Facebook. People are combing the internet for video and photo evidence and the Toronto Police has set up a webpage where people can "anonymously" upload their own digital tips. In Vancouver, a civil rights rally being held in "in accordance with police" will not welcome the black bloc and one organizer says she does not "necessarily blame the police" for the civil rights abuses that happened in Toronto during the G20. The rally will feature speakers from Stopwar.ca and BC Civil Liberties association.

  Just like my Dad, the charges against some of the comrades involved in organizing in Vancouver and Toronto are of a political nature, weather the state admits it or not. The public denunciation by celebrity leftist activists and "civil libertarians" validates the state's position and weakens the defense arguments of those comrades who face serious jail time. While in state custody, our comrades face beatings, torture, intimidation and extreme fear. As someone who's had a family member and several friends in government cages, I have zero tolerance for those who would endanger the freedom of people working for a better world. If we are going to build a successful culture of resistance, our position regarding this matter should be uncompromising and our outrage towards those who betray our comrades should be loud and fierce.

  In the spirit of total resistance  

the stimulator   

http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/blog/stimulator/4155

sinfest

2010-07-06T07:35:00.000-07:00

http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=3547

apparently i can't copy and paste this - so, click the link and enjoy

Sleeper Awake

2010-07-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

Socrates argued, once upon a time, that what we see are but shadows of reality, where the essence of all things dwell. Everything in matter is but a reflection, a shadow of this perfect, absolute form, and when in this reality it is but a weak imitation that may be graced with forever striving to fulfill its 'true nature'. Socrates suggested that this higher reality was the true one, and all else but a crude imitation.
Those striving for this truth all their lives, diligently exercising their nature predilection for such endeavors, would make the best, most good leaders in the best most good states. The concerned, caring, quintessential alpha-person; the philosopher.

The philosopher is a never ending inquiry into the nature of good, seeking the most right reasoned knowledge, beyond hypotheses. Known. Absolutely known. This questing requires an excellent body cultured by the best education in music and gymnastic, where these excellencies are nurtured in those who bear most promise; there is natural superiority in men, but relative equality of treatment. There shall be no ownership of items, no superiority in pay between differently dutied-folk. There is no possession over lovers as all are held in kind; there is no lineage with all children assigned parentage based on birth-month and a correspondence system with another adult. A common pool, they are all each others fathers, and all each others sons.

This society is divided into crude bronze for the laboring artisans; a silver for the auxiliary security forces, the guard dogs of the state known for their fierce courage and duty towards the laws given by the state; and gold quality people, the philosophically oriented ruling class - the most precious metal. This caste system is maintained, but not so rigidly as to prevent upward mobility for those bronze or silver who occasionally prove to be gold. It doesn't prevent the downgrading of a gold to another class either. But still, these are the rulers, over all chattel and slave...

Its an interesting parable, and it gradually unfolds as the writings/readings that are informing this continue, yet I can't help but wonder; I'm gold, right? Like, untarnished, pure gleaming gold?

Ha, jokes - I wanted a blog post and ended up writing about Philosophy. Whatever does that mean? Plato on the brain!

I like that there is such a huge emphasis on social construction, where what one does is because it is at the apex of society. The cultivation found in such a specific regimen of 'absolute-seeking' activity, the curriculum of musics and literatures and religious-praise and physical activity, the designation of the economic system and child-rearing - all of this needs to come before we start to achieve peak philosophy, before the 'alpha-persons' are fully capable of coming into fruition.

Socrates/Plato recognize (or do they?) the importance of the proper social architecture in the facilitation of epistemological development. It is essential that society perform in a certain way in order to seek to be more than just shadows on the wall. Or does it?

Hello Everybody!

2010-07-01T18:48:00.000-07:00

If you have postings, ramblings, ideas, or sourced-documents about pot, love, resistance, philosophy, the world, knowledge, the self, the soul, the state, community, people, sharing, helping, caring, community organising, changing the world - share it. Share it here, share it there. Share it everywhere. If you share it here, it may get published as a 'zine.

I'm warning you now - this site is a rough-space, a space for projection and then selection, a perpetual whiteboard if it can be. Take this space and make it what it can be, and the things that are coolest, most inspiring, timely, or important will get selected for either 'K-Doob', or for the 'Collabo-'Zine'. K-doob is a pot-zine; write about ending prohibition, pot organising, how much you fucking hate the green dragon, whatever. I don't care. But if you write something awesome, its going in. I'll make efforts to contact you first, but don't get mad if it doesnt happen.

The second 'zine, Collabo (name not set in stone) was just an idea that wanted to bring all the crazy 'zine projects together into one awesome slapshot of intended artify. Yeah, the verb tense was off - but it was a moment meant for sharing, where all 'zines and poems could come together. There will be a 'zine making workshop on the 14th of June. That will be a place where this comes together. Looking forward to it.

Anyway, time to sleep.
More about life later.
Cheers.

What is happening?

2010-07-01T17:30:00.001-07:00

This is mental expelling, this is nothing more than a vent - if you want a 'professional publication', this one isn't it, but you're welcome to read and tell me what you think. I'm not going to lie, I don't think it all makes sense - its just me getting some thoughts in order.
Take it as it is.
But if you don't want to waste your time, don't say I didn't warn you. The next ones might be more publishable - I've kinda decided that anything posted on the blog will be 'rough', and the best stuff that emerges will come up again in print.

My last blog post was in 2009. I think that's sad - so check this; it's not as if there hasn't been any production, it's just this blog became so neglected it's coughing up dust-balls. That has to change.
That changes tonight.
Brizban's article "Thoughts on S-10" is a great place to start a new phase in dedication. I'm glad that it was received, and that there is a wider community in our midst which supports initiatives in reaching a common voice.
Like today, in Waterloo Town Square, "Poets against G-20" met again - it was July 1st, Canada Day of all days. We met for solidarity and reflection, part of a...grieving process? A purging - or a changing - an embracing and rising - a resilience? What? What?!
They met again because they had met before. A few times. At a People's Summit Slam where more than 15 people spoke and shared their art and their rage. Today, more than 4 hours and 50 people stood and did the same, but this time more enflamed - the quiet spoke. They spoke loud. Their world had changed and they couldn't take it anymore.
The rage of some. Some people getting riled up, and rallied - and that's shocking. I've never seen it out of team sports and lame pep-talks to convince us we were the best thing since showers. The empathy - the "fed-up"ness of people who know that their world isn't perfect, and that to push it to the limit is a duty, but it's sad to know where it will end. Because you know where it will end. Because it went there. There. It went to a cell, a little place in the...the back of your mind - never really 'known' but often considered. And its not that you're there, or may even ever go there, or have been there, but its that your friends and family and allies and social support and community are there. They are there. Right now. In body and soul. Not free to make snide jokes about Canada Day, lighting up a fatty. Not free to enjoy fireworks by a lake or a forest, or out on a canoe. Not free. Not free for a long time now, and further time still.
...
Its hard to wrap your head around.
I can think of at least 10 people who's world just changed.
Like, no going back? Nothing will ever be the same?
What? What does this mean?
I am so at a loss as for what it does mean its beyond ridiculous.
Conceptually, I believe - preface this 'belief' with the understanding that the casual accumulation of thoughts on the matter, through years of not-applied study and investment of time, which have generated the summation of these thoughts so that they are recognized as the epistemically weak position of 'beliefs', and not necessarily 'knowing' but serving the same function in this case - that once you're in the criminal justice system, you're in until it is done with you. Does this mean no traveling outside of Canada? Does this mean no jobs, or losing jobs when people find out - does this mean no more working with kids? Can you teach? Can you mentor? How will people treat you?

What --- the --- fuck.

I'm somewhat...wiped by this. I'm actually, physically impacted by this - and I am so far from the centre of this gyre that it make's the hurricane's eye unimaginable.

To all comrades in this time - there are no words that accomplish what is at once a want and a need and a thing which has already passed by but needs to pass more, the sentiment of the whole-body expression, so felt, so somatic but being expressed right now in a way which has been trained, taught, conditioned to consider itself something, to consider itself alien when it so desires, and that alien has led to today, to this moment, this feeling, this neck-craning infusion of a reality check. Analysis is not enough - all thoughts and feelings are tied to actions, and when some thoughts and feelings are denied through social-architecture, like the institutions of the culture and the state, then some thoughts are prohibited. That prohibition is a cessation, culling, and killing of a life-way, a way of self-care, or a narrative-construction venture in which the radical free-agent is perpetually 'discovering' itself, becoming itself through its choices of reality - the words, ideas, beliefs as all expressed through the highly-influenced media of language and culture, but also in how it is entertained and how it is fed, how it interacts with the world and why and where those images came from and what leaving all that unconsidered means...

I am so all over the place. I think I'm just purging. Good. That's what I want. I want to be scraped clean of this. Not for not wanting to be with the moment, but for wanting to take from this what is most necessary. To be sharp, focused and action-oriented. To be ready. To be willing. To be able and articulate and there and acting in lock-step with the 'right thing at the right time' - the esoteric proper path.

Plato had it right when he chose the forms of entertainment and education in his state. Purposely, a nation with selected musical harmonies will inculcate a feeling of affection for those things it identifies as more 'good' and more 'true'. If they have an inclination to want to seek what they recognize and empathize with as 'good' and 'true', then they will act that way - ideally cultivated citizens.

Music is subversive. Plato said it first (To my knowledge?), and this is an example of meta-individualistic choices that affect how one thinks about the world. By choosing to frame ones social interactions purposefully, one is constructing what I (and I'm hoping I heard this somewhere else too) want to call 'social-epistemic architecture'. 'Social-epistemic architecture' appears to me to be a framework, or system of thought, which acts as a vehicle for behavior in relation to those factors. Plato's music inculcates a presumed desire for 'the good', 'the true', 'the beautiful', and 'the harmonious', and this world is one where everyone has a particular 'nature' that guarantees them an embodied place. 'Social-epistemic architecture' is what seems 'natural' when considering how to think, feel, and behave about an issue. It is a meta-individualistic choice because it is something that functions individually, but gets its origins from the environment, the phenomenological experience beyond 'the self'. It is still a 'choice' because accident and agency are responsible for its prominence, and are responsible for its maintenance.

Why am I saying this? Why am I blabbing about this?

To the best of my knowledge, you can go to jail for acting a certain way - breaking the law. I have been argued and taught and educated for a long time about what is 'the right way' to live. (Or as one of Peter Braid's '10%'ers has said what 'good Canadians' who "live by the rules" do.) We assume that the basic rule of people is to live together and be kind, honor your word in deed or kind, to not steal or kill, and to help those within 'your community', however you choose to narrow that. This seems so common! Its a presumption, a...an expectation - if you do not have this basic level of commonality, we can not live together, and you are exiled one way or another. In today's case, contra Socrates', a jail is more likely to house dissidence than exile would. An isolation like jail is an alienation from the rest of the public, because they, never likely to really experience it, will only go on the assumptions that they have, learned from their environment. But I digress - fuck, I digress, apologies.

The 'rules'. The 'golden mean'. How do you step off this path?
What is it to not superimpose this ideal upon your life and into your worldview - when does that happen? It happened in Toronto for those who had contrary political views - it happened to Marc Emery for contrary political views in a country hell-bent on squashing illegal trafficking in narcotics. It wasn't even the country he was in, but he was arrested and extradited for it. They wouldn't even charge him in this country, they never felt it was a problem. Why would they? He operated a functional business that supported many with the promise of a timely deliver of quality product - he paid his taxes, supported a world in which he felt things would be better. That was wrong. He is not allowed to make the world better - it is contrary to the superimposed cultural architecture of the state. It is a deviance from the accepted norm, the 'rules', and in that it must be culled. Deviant thought is dangerous, and those people with them are punished with the threat of social-cultural-economic isolation-marginalization. They are imprisoned, shunned, stigmatized, beat-down, auto-suspected, economically-burdened in order to make the vital transfer of knowledge that comes from being able to reproduce, to live as 'fully' as possible. That way that embodied-knowledge, or 'lifestyle' is more likely to die off.

So political ideas are endangered because they represent a divergence from the mainstream, and they are dangerous when they challenge the prominence of other lifestyle norms. The power struggle between newcomer and habit is articulated in the ways permitted by the social architecture. If something is 'dangerous', i.e. if it challenges the 'security' of ones 'lifestyle', then it needs to 'treated' with 'dominance, precision, or force' - a zero-sum, win-lose understanding, if that is what the social-epistemological architecture permits.

Dangerous ideas collude with like. It is a community of thinkers, a 'community of thought', that is affected by this. What that means, to me, is that the time, resources, mental-labor necessary to deal with these super-impositions is costly, and therefore debilitating not only to those whom are the direct targets, but to the wider community 'network' as well. Because it is a 'network'. Solidarity. Voltaire - I may not agree with you, but will still stand for your right to say it. When your right to think, believe, act, and feel how you wish to feel is threatened, even if only indirectly, it is an imposition on ones self-care, on ones life! So, when you have ideas in common, other ideas that you possess are also affected by their criminalization. Finding a correlation, i.e. a mechanical 'proof' of this would require sociological analysis, but it can be done. I'm just presuming the truth of this. So, ideas on the margin, found undesirable, confederate to other ideas on the margins but not necessarily identifying with them, are endangered by association. And this is how the embodiment of the thinker affects what you are to think about.

Shit.

I am...all over the place. Purging. Purging. I met with JC tonight and he taught me a meditation technique. Pop the thought. Sit for half an hour, and every thought that comes up, acknowledge its 'thought-ness' and send it on its way - if you're on a train of thought, don't punish yourself, but keeping 'popping' them by sending it out of your mind. Pop. Thought. Pop. Thought. Pop.

Pop.

Meditate - clear head - be fresh. Focus. Work harder.

This purging process has been good - I needed, wanted, to just write and feel and express and not worry about making sense - I just needed to uncloud, recloud, wade through the mist. There is still so much to talk about, but right now. I don't know if I want to talk. No, that's a closing.

I want to talk more. There is so much that needs to be purged, to cleanse, to feel, to express, to share, to expel.

Where to next?

Thoughts on S-10

2010-07-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

Thoughts on S-10

***Please note; this is a new writer! On the blogspot page, it says "By Nikki Spliff"; NOT TRUE! Will fix shortly(?) Recognize the author!

Written by Brizban

With the introduction of bill S-10 (actually, first with the introduction of bill C-26, and then again with C-15), the Conservative government of Canada has clearly outlined their vision of Canadian Justice reform: less focus on rehabilitation, more focus on punishment. With the proposed implementation of mandatory minimum prison sentences, discretionary powers are removed from judges and given to politicians and police. Judges will be forced to send people to prison, regardless of their own opinions on the case. The aim is to create an automated justice system. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO, do not collect two-hundred dollars.

We continue to hear ‘tough on crime’ rhetoric from politicians who claim bill S-10 was drafted to combat organized criminals. However after careful examination of the bill (which is actually named the Penalties for Organized Drug Crime Act), it becomes evident that organized criminals will be the ones who truly benefit.

Bill S-10 seeks to increase the risk for low level drug offenders, particularly small scale cannabis gardeners, by introducing mandatory minimum prison sentences. Under the proposed legislation, growing six plants or more would result in a mandatory prison sentence of nine months. This will effectively deter low level gardeners from growing personal amounts of cannabis, and allow large scale grow-operations to control the market. After all, professional, organized criminals aren’t deterred by the possibility of jail time; average, otherwise law abiding citizens are.

The politicians who created this bill are treating cannabis production as if it is a chemical process, similar to that of methamphetamine production, forgetting that it's a plant which grows naturally all over the world. The simple fact that penalties for growing cannabis are based on plant count, rather than the number of lights used in an indoor garden, exposes the ignorance of the individuals who drafted this bill.

The bill also states that creating cannabis concentrate, such as hash, would hold an even harsher penalty than cannabis production alone (eighteen months!). This is yet another example of the ignorance perpetuated by the war-on-drugs mentality. Cannabis concentrates contain very little plant matter and are therefore much healthier to smoke, requiring far less to be inhaled to obtain the same effect. They are also widely used for making edible products, which are the least harmful form of ingesting cannabis. Most people who produce concentrates are doing so for medicinal purposes, and this bill seeks to penalize them heavily.

I urge everyone who uses cannabis and supports both freedom and justice to educate themselves on the details of this bill and to fight together to stop it. The Conservative government has declared a culture war on all cannabis users and they want to imprison us. This bill does not only effect cannabis growers, it effects all cannabis users. It is time to end the complacency that exists in the cannabis community and stand up for our right as adults and free citizens to enjoy this wonderful plant. Stop bill S-10!

Hash In the Attic

2009-11-08T16:44:00.000-08:00

Howdy Folks!
New mission; if anyone wants to, take the time to jot down notes when you're watching videos online, on any and all drug/pot topics. Such as the Following - these are rough notes for the BBC Scotland Investigates film "Hash in the Attic". How delicious! Did you know that their is a bread of super-skunk that can yield up to three hundred pounds per plant - mind you, I might be confused; yield weight or their money, which is also in pounds - sounds fun, though.
I watched this film on Ninja Video, and so can you! Enjoy!

BBC Scotland – Hash In the Attic

Multi-Million Pound Criminal Business Sprung up over night in Suburbia; prostitution, murder, slavery – ‘sea of green’ fuels these criminal transgressions. (First Minute). Marijuana is a hardcore drug grown by syndical people with predatory natures who will do anything to ensure their fortune.

The 6o’s influenced us, cannabis ‘getting one over on the system’, soft drug, 2 ½ million brits still smoke it – harmless, right? Darker side of the business.

Dark side of cannabis farming – police preparing for a raid. ‘Warning; this guy has history of violence and weapons, so pack spray and batons”.

Growers need one thing – unobtrusive property to set up in (like suburban Scotland).

Suspect does the ‘smart thing’, opens door. (2:41).

Officers are inside stripping the place in a flash – ‘despite his violent past’ suspect cooperating; Pulp Fiction poster. Suspect arrested ‘cause there is pot there. In attic, suburban cannabis farm.

“Roughly fifty adult plants.” Watering cans, though sometimes timed irrigation system. Ventilation system through rough for ‘heat and smell’. All specialized lighting comes from ‘bypassed’ metre, ‘just two thin strands’. (4:44). “Insult to injury” – ‘wee bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing’.

50 plants – more than enough for personal use, constitute dealing amounts, more than personal use – officers have faces covered with masks.

Police reckon 10, 000 (money pounds) worth of Cannabis – and its everywhere, all the nice places in Scotland. Police seizures total roughly Ten million pounds a year (money) –worth around 1oo million pounds per year (money). All in the last three years.

This is worth more than 2x eggs, 10x Scottish raspberries, equivalent to all Scottish vegetable crop – equivalent in moneys.

Almost all farms discovered in rented properties “could be right next door to your eye” – value of plants “thousands and thousands of pounds” – setup cost 3000 pounds – small outlay for profit potential.

Grow op only found after electrical fire burned into ‘family home’ below – Insurance companies pay out 10’s of millions in damages, electrical companies lose millions in utilities (8:00), 17,000 pounds damage on average that the owner (small leaser) will have to pay because they have mismanaged their home (as the fire was caused by their lease).

Not difficult if you’ve got the know-how to do it; Space, accommodation, anyone can grow it…

Who are the people being chased by Alan Buchannan and anti-pot team?

Kaya Russell-Whittaker. Something of an ‘expert’ in Cannabis Farming. Well educated with University Degree. Interest in marijuana more than academic. ‘More than 117, 000 pounds made in one year – easy as baking a cake, by end of second crop one is a mature grower able to go on and grow their own, aware of the potential problems…”

Makes growing seem almost ‘romantic’…(11:07) – ‘all feels like being in a James bond Movie!’; rucksack of marijuana and one gets 12-16 thousand pounds in cash.

Kay ‘fearful’ of old drug contacts, with ‘scores to settle’. Her ‘neighbour’ recognized her, time to flee…

Addicted to her own product, life began to fall apart. ‘Dealing with paranoia, depression, fringes of society. May have bag full of cash, but really nothing else…’

Kay “Legacy, marijuana from 60’s, sexual revolution, wonderful drug, fantastic hippie drug, those days are gone, history, marijuana is a hardcore drug grown by syndical people who will use anyone, their own children, accomplished predators, will do anything to make their profit. Will use anybody to launder money (14:00).

Why is this drug so different, and a moneymaker? Forensic testing lab.

Three main forms of cannabis;

Traditional Imported.

Resin.

New Product; Skunk Cannabis. The above two are ‘traditional’, dating back to 10-20 years ago, skunk is now the new product. Much more valuable. Dominates market 3/4 – shift in market domination is chemically very different to resin – can be up to five times as strong, typically three times as strong, huge difference – pint of beer: pint of port….

Officers see more and more people trying to get into the pot industry – concern over who the operator is supplying with new super-strength drug – school children? Suspect, a woman, in bed (naked!) – find cash and list of drug clients; more significant, chunks of cannabis resin, indi’ wrapped for sale. ‘For schoolchildren?’

Officers find ‘veritable library’ of books for ‘growing’ – tried twice in past, failed miserably; ‘no green fingered gardener’; possibly only her ‘incompetence’ preventing her from setting up a ‘skunk-factory’ to serve the local school children, “suggestion was” (18:55) she was actually dealing to the kids there. “Alleged potential customers…”!!!!

Asking Kaya whether she can accept her role in transforming the accessibility of a ‘super strength drug for the next generation’ – ‘Guilt?’ ‘Who will I have to blame (if my children get into marijuana)? Myself!’

Farms on different scale; factories fueling the skunk market – (20:30); scale of cultivation, hundreds of hundreds of plants. Everywhere police turn, more and more plants, “plants heavy with bud”…

“Each plant will yield approximately three hundred pounds per plant!!!” (23:33)

How much cash can a factory like that generate?

Only consistent research produced by a team in Wiggin – Matthew Acka and his team?

3-4 hundred pounds every three-4 months, used by grower themselves.

Grow room, 10-15 pounds worth; grower and friends.

15, 000 pounds (money) per crop, thousands of pounds a year (5 crops)

Industrial ones can produce 100 thousand (pounds of money) per year.

Massive capital investment required to do this – only one business, ‘organised crime’ – that’s what worries police.

‘…could end up with violence down the street.”

A ‘global business’ - those ‘chinese, chineese green tea, Chinese food, chopsticks’ (26:33) – most of these criminal growers are Chinese individuals, illegals, making millions of pounds out of us, people trafficking, prostitution. Individuals ‘locked in’ forced to grow cannabis, while ‘money men’ take the cash and none of the risk – abduction, trafficking, forcing people into brothels and sex trade – next time you think about rolling a joint, think about the consequences your money is funding.

An industry which is growing, and growing – do you know who is living next door to you?

California made legal?

2009-10-04T11:56:00.000-07:00

California was the first to make medicinal marijuana legal ('96), and now those who pushed for and maintained this exceptional social project are pushing even further in order to obtain an economic boon, and to cut down on crime.
An estimated 60-70% (their numbers, not mine) of the Drug Gang's funding comes from pot, and the logic goes 'remove their income, mitigate the violence'. Legalising has the added perk of potentially netting the 'billions' of dollars (1.5 billion $ at the articles estimate) to help fund state activities.
People are coming around to this line of thought because of a growing perception that 'the war on drugs' has failed miserably. California state Assemblyman Tom Ammiano says that "Prohibition is Chaos, Regulation is Control."
Read for yourself at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8275794.stm

Experiment!

2009-09-26T18:17:00.000-07:00

I ran into a friend today, on her way home from a conference on the subject of Leadership.
She was inspired!
It was held at a local university, starting early on a Saturday morning.
"It was ridiculous," she yawned. "At least they had coffee for us when we got there."
They had to don white jumpsuits, of the kind one would wear if they were painting a house. Their morning keynote was psyched out at first, cracking jokes about Heaven's Gate.
She said that her mind kept wandering, and she was having trouble focusing. The guy was amusing, and had some knowledge to share, but she was somewhat thrown off by the scene.
"Costumes," she said. "...are meant for parties."
So, after the speaker let out for breakfast break, she stepped outside for a walk.
A man letting his dog out by the park was startled at the briskly walking bodysuit, joint puffing away, her ridiculous orange hair bobbing on top.
"I think he thought I was a huge joint, I was afraid I'd be followed..."
So she returned to the conference and sat down to a talk on Group Dynamics.
"Did you notice any patterns of behaviour? Any...stages?"
She explained the five stages of group development (Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning), and the nine types of roles one finds blended into groups.
"My favorite is the Gatekeeper, " she said, by now sipping steamy chai with me, out of the rain.
The Gatekeeper set up boundaries, inviting people and getting things started.
"I like that. It inspires me."
She wants to conduct an experiment.
"The instructors told us about some personality tests, like True Colours, or the Myers-Briggs test, that would provide, you know, insight," into our personalities. She wanted to get people to check out what they're look stone sober, and then get them baked and do it all over again.
"We could all meet and do it one day, break to the park and have a Critical Sesh!, and then go back and check-ourselves out! Like, doesn't it just make you want to know if there's a difference?"

The Emperor Wears No Clothes

2009-09-25T10:35:00.000-07:00

Attention!
If you are interested in learning the REAL TRUTH about POT, the Wilfrid Laurier chapter of the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP) would like to offer a STUDY CIRCLE reading Jack Herer’s “The Emperor Wears No Clothes!”
This book is FREE ONLINE, and we will meet every Friday at 7 o’clock PM for an hour of discussion.
OCTOBER 1st will be chapter one, and ALL OF OUR COMMUNITY IS WELCOME!
Contact synesthesia507@hotmail.com for location information, and visit
http://www.jackherer.com/chapters.html

K-DOOB - another session

2009-09-18T14:31:00.000-07:00

So, I read and then rethought what I had written, in hopes of producing a better draft for the first edition of the 'zine. Here it is, new content shall emerge over the future. Hahaha! Cheers!

This is hard to say.
Actually, this is hard to say well. The bare-bones point has been expressed by many people for years, and I think the fundamental truth of the matter manifests everyday in popular television, radio, and film.
We are a culture tolerant, exploitive, and encouraging of marijuana users, yet we accept the political maneuvers of our elected officials to demonize and criminalize marijuana (amongst other drug use) use(rs) as a method of demonstrating how ‘tough on crime’ they are. This official stance does not match social practice. It seems to me that every other corner store sells psychedelically colored glass pipes and accessories with the notorious potleaf upon it. Kitchener-Waterloo supports at least three dedicated ‘head shops’, and there are rumblings of other sites for pot-culture to emerge. In practice, as long as people don’t walk down our ‘main streets’ tokin’ a joint then, as some have said, the police won’t even care.
Yet, on the books, all this is criminal activity and needs to be persecuted by the apparatus of the law. People have fought for our ability to be free to discuss whatever we want, including marijuana literature. Marc Emery, a Canadian hero being sent to American prison at US request, fought for the right to read and distribute this information in the early 90’s and went on to actively fight for legalization and decriminalization world-wide. Thanks to people like him, we can organize and speak and write on the subject, but when it comes to being free to enjoy the growth and use of the marijuana plant, we are still impeded by the law.
We are still used by our authorities.
We are still threatened by them.
Families are broken up and people’s lives destroyed because we live in a society which employs a double-standard: We can toke and revel in it if you’re young, or a minority, or poor, or an ‘artist’, but as soon as you want to join the ‘professional’ world, you cannot toke or grow, ever, period. Despite the fact that everyone does it, or that making marijuana use as a ‘poor-thing’ or ‘black-thing’ or ‘criminal-thing’ is incredibly discriminatory, we are indoctrinated with this information all our lives! This message is reflected to us through music and media, and is accepted by everyone INCLUDING POTHEADS.
Now, I recognize one of the results of being super relaxed (or stoned, as some people call it) means becoming sedentary and lazy, but this is a dangerous state of affairs. By doing so we are leaving the possibility of our arrest and ruination, not to mention the exploitation of our persons by those with political agendas, as a perpetual reality. As a pothead, it’s only a matter of time before you have an interaction with the police.
So, we need to ask ourselves: Is apathy worth it, or should we get down to business and ensure that no one needs to suffer marijuana-related injustices again? Are we okay with allowing our marijuana use to be a segregating tool used by racists in all positions of society? Are we okay allowing ourselves to be used to push a jail-filling agenda, where those who are potsmokers are ‘not normal’, likely crazy or criminal? No!!!!
No, no, no, NO!!!
I will not stand to be exploited and stigmatized, and no one else should either.
Therefore, I have begun putting some resources together, and hope to become involved with others in our community interested in developing a decriminalization movement, and finding out where they have been before. I have a few projects in mind, but recognize that in my naiveté I may be wasting our time. Regardless, here they are:
· POTSECRETS!!! Like the PostSecret’s Project, where individuals sent an anonymous confession illustrated in image and script on the back of postcard, Pot Secrets also wants your anonymous confessions. That is your admission that you, whoever you are, smoke pot and LOVE IT!!! This isn’t to ‘out’ anyone, but to help our community realize how many of our citizens are avid users and still exemplary members of society.
Please, send your postcards to
Potsecrets! C/O Graham
115 Moore Ave.
Waterloo, Ontario
N2J 1X3
· ‘ENDPROHIBITIONWATERLOO!’ is a blog that I recently started to act as an electronic forum to accompany the print materials. It can be found at http://endprohibitionwaterloo.blogspot.com/
· ‘K_DOOB’ itself is a publication open to anyone who has an open, for and against, marijuana and its decriminalization. I’m hoping that this becomes a community conversation that everyone can participate in because, as it stands, the law affects everyone.
Thus, with that being said, I hope that we can connect and engage the problem dynamically. Let us work towards a common future, where we no longer need hide in the dark.

K_DOOB

2009-09-15T19:17:00.000-07:00

Hello. here you will find an electronic copy of some roughly made work to be printed and distributed. Thanks for reading.
What was I thinking when writing this? Well, I don't know. I was fairly high.
Think you can do better? Have any pointers? Help me escape my prison of convulsion.
Otherwise, enjoy!

My being is fucked(!), because I got high.
Let me explain.
My friend Paul and I just enjoyed a notorious fatty, basking in the sunshine of a late summer. We talked with our neighbour Mike while doing push-ups, about dogs and his days as a delivery guy. We asked how our days were, and chilled out.
So, the problem with this equation is that it’s the first day of school (the last days of summer???) and I have another class at seven, and as I’m smiling to myself while making pBNJ –zenwhiches, I realize.
I can’t do this. This is Fourth Year. I need to behave myself.
The breakup is emotional.
“Paul, I can’t keep doing this.”
“I know…”
The silence was unbearable.
“…”
“…we just…can’t.”
“…I know…”
“Well…,” I mounted the stair. “We’ll always have August.”
Massively baked as such, I realize that something is fucked up about this situation.
I have to give up something pivotal to my life, maybe not as a foreverthing, maybe more a ‘shufflin’-the-deck-o’-life, m’boy’-thing and I am encountering one of our societies great hypocrisy.
This cleavage is because the life I want to live is not supported by the world around me, is one which seems to require the surrendering of my Chronic.

Smoking with the frequency I have this summer, I am not surprised that I have not done a pot ‘zine.
Long have I told people that I would write something and begin an infamous publication, known as….
K_DOOB!!!
Yes, K_DOOB.
The name would echo through time.
It would probe deeply into the dark conifers of our collective mythology, challenging every backhanded villain and clamorous hero to enter the realm of drug lore.
Then I found out about the 10-day-free-trial World of Warcraft (WOW) was having, and then was introduced to Magic: The Gathering (M:TG), and (gasp!) Dungeons and Dragons (the flippin’ D&D yo!), and before you knew it, it was August.

So, rejuvenated and relaxed, I resumed my mission. I got some old pot magazines, saw Marc Emery speak and watched his movie.
I started a blog and told people about it.
The first day it was up, I got really ripped and wrote of all the fabulous ideas I’ve had so far, but now know that it is up to me to go and find out what has already been done.
I was really earnest and still am – this is meant to tell you about it, in a way.

Thus, this publication.

I need to do something about the current state of marijuana in my community because we are experiencing a culture fraught with coercion and stupidity; stupidity on behalf of our social institutions maintaining this fraud, and stupidity on behalf of myself, for I am woefully ignorant of the realities behind my magical herb. Pot is potent, and can affect your state quite strongly, but can be a valued plant-teacher, or be used for its medicinal qualities. It is demonized more than it deserves, and its users are demonized along with it. On top of seeking legal reform and institutional honesty, I am also grappling with the idea that it has negative effects on my life, thus the need to take some distance.

This publication is a project that I don’t want to maintain alone, and I know I’m not alone. There are a diversity of people on-board with this movement, and many resources in our community to help us live a better life with and without the ganja.
We need to be frank. Pot isn’t for everybody; lots of substances aren’t for everybody, but are accepted and celebrated everyday as part of a normal social system. The poison alcohol is touted as social lubricant; fast food is the way to stay fueled on the go; we can rend and tear our bodies into whichever shape we want but what we are able to put into our bodies is being increasingly controlled by forces outside ourselves.
Marijuana comes from the earth, a plant, and while we may sing about it, joke of it and, most definitely, financially profit off of it, we are not allowed to be someone who is a smoker of marijuana.
This issue needs examination, and I would like to do this in conjunction with whatever resources I have available. Thus, here are the resources I have available. Please, I would love for this to be a collective effort, and as allies come forth, I would like to do what is possible to further this cause.

Let us work towards a common future, where we no longer need hide in the dark.

1st PotSecret!

2009-08-14T16:17:00.000-07:00

Pot Secrets

2009-08-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Has everyone heard of 'Post Secrets'? Well, check it out at http://postsecret.blogspot.com/
Straight from their website, 'PostSecret is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.'
The postcards are some of the most emotionally touching and revealing pieces ever seen.
The project envisioned here, with Pot Secrets, borrows the idea of anonymous postcards as the tool by which a message is spread, but with a common theme; you guessed it! Marijuana and its associated culture!
If the common assumption is correct, then there are more potsmokers than meets the eye, yet many of us feel that it's dangerous to reveal our toker-identities for fear of being barred from/losing jobs, from being professionally stigmatized, let alone from the fear of being physically assaulted and punished by state law authorities.
Pot Secrets offers an opportunity for individuals to 'confess' to their 'second citizenship' in creative ways that don't betray more of their identities than they would wish to.
If one has a postcard-secret which they'd like to share, please email it to endprohibitionwaterloo@gmail.com. A snail-mail address will emerge soon.

END PROHIBITION MAGAZINE CALLOUT!

2009-08-14T15:54:00.000-07:00

This is a Call Out!
The voice of the End of Prohibition and Marijuana Legalisation needs to be heard!
This is calling out for any writers, illustrators, organisational people, and fundraisers whom wish to help contribute towards the creation of a printed publication promoting drug policy reform.
September 1st is the deadline, so please contact endprohibitionwaterloo@gmail.com.

Marc Emery is coming to KW!

2009-08-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen, your attention please!
Marijuana activist, pariah to the Canadian government, and toker Marc Emery will be in town Monday August 24th, Downtown City Hall (200 King S. West). The event will start at 2:30, and go until 6:30 (don't forget 4:20! Be prepared!).
Marc will talk about his upcoming extradition to the United States of America, where he will be prosecuted for his efforts to end the prohibition against pot.

The Begining

2009-08-14T13:20:00.001-07:00

Marijuana prohibition has gone on too long.It seems to me that everywhere I look, people love the pot. I would say 1 out of 4 people I've ever worked with smoke it regularly; at least 3 out of 4 have tried it. A third of my neighbours smoke it, and 3/5 of my friends do. Its on TV, it's on the web, and its on our minds.Why is it illegal?Many ordinary citizens ask themselves this question everytime they toke, and the answers that they have found leave a bitter taste in their mouths.The aim of this blog is to chronicle an inquiry into pot-culture in Canada, as seen from the experiences of those living in and passing through Waterloo, Ontario. There is no need to like toking, nor to be a toker, to express your opinions here. The only requirement is to seek a dialogue which takes into consideration all points of view. This blog also has zero tolerance for oppressive attitudes, and will not hesitate to inform upon and enforce a mutual respect in its postings.With these aims in mind, and respect in our hearts, we begin the journey into why prohibition exists, and how this affects the lives of everyday Canadians.