25,000 Plants Growing in Molson brewery

On January 11th, 2004, over 100 police officers raided the largest grow operation in Canadian History. A vacant Molson brewery in Barrio, Ontario was housing more than 25,000 cannabis plants. There were even plants growing inside the old beer brewing vats! The operation was so sophisticated that it was run like a factory with shift workers. Ontario Provincial Police Supt. Bill Crate declared ‘It’s the largest indoor operation any of us have ever seen.’ Nine people were charged in the bust.

Priest Pleads Guilty to Growing Marijuana

The former pastor of Prince of Peace Catholic Church accused of growing marijuana in the church rectory in Norton, Ohio pleaded guilty Tuesday. The Rev. Richard Arko was given a suspended prison sentence and was placed on probation for two years. Arko pleaded guilty to cultivating marijuana and possession of criminal tools.

Under questioning by the judge, he implied he was growing the marijuana for medicinal purposes. He said he looked forward to the day that marijuana is legalized under certain circumstances.

It’s hard to believe it’s been nearly two years since state Rep. Kenneth Carano promised a group of medical cannabis patients that he would introduce a compassionate-use bill in Ohio.

Though it’s not uncommon for politicians to promise one thing and then do absolutely nothing, generally people don’t suffer too much when that happens. But when the people are sick, and dying, and the only relief they get is from an outlawed herbal medicine, waiting too long can mean death, or worse than death, a living agonizing hell of constant never-ending pain and suffering.

I guess that’s the kind of stuff those college students and alumni feel when they can’t consume alcohol at or during sporting events. Maybe that’s why Mr. Carano snubbed Ohio patients - again ( that’s twice in two years, Mr. Carano ) and introduced a bill to legalize alcoholic tailgating parties, rather than keeping his word to a few chronic and terminal patients.

Nearly everyone at this year’s Hempfest, regardless of their political persuasion, will agree that our country’s draconian drug laws should be dramatically liberalized.

The Libertarian Party believes that you own your body, and the fruits of your labor. The activists of the Libertarian Party have always been at the forefront of true legalization and/or decriminalization (Libertarians usually say re-legalization) efforts all over the country.

We don’t advocate these re-legalization activities because we are pot smokers (although many of us may be).And it is not necessarily because of the many practical reasons that you are surely aware of: the relative harmlessness of marijuana, the high cost of court trials and incarceration, or the possible medicinal and industrial uses of hemp, etc.

The Higher Education Act was passed into law over three decades ago by Lyndon Johnson and it authorized federal dollars to be spent on Pell grants, Perkins Loans and Work-Study Programs. Every four years Congress is asked to review the Act and make adjustments as needed. A recent amendment has many students, as well as professors and other academics, questioning the intentions of Congress and their attempts to look tough on drugs.

Passed into law during a late night, closed-door session of the House Education & Work Force Committee, the 1998 Higher Education Act drug provision denies federal aid to any student that has been convicted of a drug-related offense.

Drafted by Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), the provision has resulted in over 150,000 students losing or being denied their federal financial aid. The controversial law was the catalyst for founding members of the growing student movement, Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP).

Today I listen to more news of homicides in the USA... And I look again at the enormous budget of ‘The War on Drugs.’ I look at the re-burgeoning federal deficits under military spending now to ‘fight the war on terrorism.’ And I see again and again that medically ill people (many of them in wheelchairs) continue to be arrested - and their lives, or very health, seriously disrupted forsmoking cannabis (‘marijuana’). And I see children buying drugs - very dangerous drugs- on the street after having been exposed, directly or indirectly, to marijuana smoking and learning that, contrary to the government’s warnings, those people have not typically been caught in the grips of a values-compromising and a life-compromising trap. ‘If it’s not true that marijuana is so bad, it’s probably also not true about heroin or cocaine or oxycontin!’ [-Infamous last words of too many, I am afraid!]

There are at least four flies in the ‘public health ointment’ offered by the federal government, despite increasingly Herculean budgets and even willingness to resort to terrorist activities against American citizens, to unsuccessfully address ‘the drug problem’ in this country.