Food for Thought

The following blog written by KSUSSDP member Steve Larson:

Food for thought…hmmm maybe just fees please

Fresh foods are a great way to bring your mind and body to a healthier state, but sometimes their cost keeps those who need them the most from enjoying their benefits. So let’s say you take matters into your own hands and grow your own vegetables in your house to supply your family with a healthy substitute to the heavily processed chemical-laden foods that are sold in super markets. Seems like a good idea, but what if you were fined thousands of dollars because the municipal inspectors thought you were growing marijuana instead? Sounds like something that can only happen in a bad dream, right? Wrong. Len Gratto of Missions, British Colombia is one of the many citizens who have been fined $5,200 or even up to $10,000 in fees and repair orders for not growing marijuana. All Gratto did was grow cucumbers in his basement.

These marijuana grow-op searches, which are sometimes done illegally, are made possible through Grow-op bylaw programs that allow municipal inspectors to enter homes with abnormally high hydro usage — about 93 kilowatts per day or more — and look for evidence of illegal marijuana grow-ops for public safety reasons. The sad part of about this is that the evidence they find does not necessarily mean the household is or has grown marijuana. For instance, Gratto stated “the ‘laughable’ evidence against him consists of pictures of some ‘dirt’ on the basement wall and ‘a furnace pipe going up into the chimney, where it should be.’” This is just outrageous. I am pretty sure that dirt does not equal marijuana. There are many people that bring inside potted plants that cannot survive the winter or grow vegetables and cooking herbs indoors, all of which I will reiterate are not marijuana. Thankfully, Gratto, among many others, is not going to let his rights be abused like this and is willing to start an "imminent class action" law suit against Mission.

From 2008 to 2010, there were 362 Public Saftey Inspection Team searches of which 275 of them were given the fees of $5,200! Councilor Jenny Stevens of Missions, who initially supported this program, believes that around half of these homeowners were innocent. She says, “My biggest worry is about 50 per cent of these people were subjected to embarrassment and innuendo. I’m very concerned about the threat of litigation.”

These laws do not just embarrass and damage the reputation of the town citizens, but can even lead them to the usage of prescription drugs. For instance, in another innocent victim’s case in which Drew Smith said that he had to get sedatives because he couldn’t sleep at night with the stress and embarrassment in the neighborhood. Thank you drug laws for ruining even more innocent lives, as if the drug cartel violence in Mexico and overcrowded prisons in the US were not enough.

http://www.theprovince.com/news/Mission+homeowner+fined+growing+cucumbers/4083756/story.html

Santa Fe Police Raid School Greenhouse: Find Tomatoes

http://www.santafenewmexican.com/localnews/Pot-raid-at-school-turns-up-tomatoes

The war on drugs strikes again, this time at the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.

On September 21 a low flying unmarked helicopter surveyed the school's property for 15 minutes, so low that the students could see gun barrels on its outside. These students were just innocently eating outside while this was happening, not to mention that the students’ ages ranged from 11 to 14. As the helicopter disappeared a state police van arrived accompanied by a few other vehicles in the driveway of the school.

From the vehicles appeared four unmarked men wearing bulletproof vests wanting to inspect the schools greenhouses and did they find the marijuana that they were looking for? Of course not, all that was growing in the greenhouse were tomato plants.

This was a part of a number raids ran by the Region III Narcotics Task Force in Santa Fe County, of which only one was proven to be fruitful. They found a whopping 35 plants after 10 hours of surveillance, such an efficient use of time and tax payer dollars. These raids are not making local residents very happy either. They are saying that the helicopters are scaring livestock, disturbing the peace in the rural areas and resulting in invasions of private property without search warrants.

It is hard for me to believe that these raids are making the community safer if they are just angering its residents, invading their privacy and as Patricia Pantano, education director of the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm states "we're sitting here as a teaching staff, always short on money, and we're thinking, 'Gosh, all the money it takes to fly that helicopter and hire all those people, it would be great to have this for education. "

Steve Larson is a member of KSU SSDP

The Student Movement to End the War on Drugs, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Fight the Drug War.

I was surfing youtube the other day when I stumbled across the above video and it really got me to thinking. I've been a member of Kent State Students for Sensible Drug Policy for a little over a year now, and I think it's time to take a step back and look at all of the things we as a chapter and I personally have experienced in this past year.

When I first joined SSDP, it was my first full week of classes as a new transfer at Kent State. I had heard about SSDP before my time at KSU, however, I had never participated in, or thought much about the organization. I walked into the meeting room in the student center, and to my surprise, it was packed with students that were like-minded to me.

Chris Wallis (former president of the KSU chapter), I think, was also surprised at the size of the group, considering they had only started the chapter a semester before with a total membership of 3 people. The professionalism in which Chris handled the meeting and articulated the chapter and organizational victories was remarkable.

Kent State SSDP in the year prior to my joining passed a Good Samaritan Policy, which has already saved multiple lives on campus, giving students the peace of mind and security to not be afraid to call for medical attention. The chapter also brought a large showing to the Midwest conference.

I was hooked on SSDP from the start.

However, when I joined SSDP I thought I was in for an hour long meeting every week to talk about drug policy activism and leave it at that. I couldn't have been more wrong. SSDP introduced me to my best (and sure to be lifelong) friends. Being responsible for the going-ons in SSDP (as every member somewhat is) has also helped me become a more responsible and mature adult.

And then there was San Francisco. SSDP's International Conference was held in San Francisco, California on March 12-14, 2010. It was there that my life was totally and completely changed. Meeting like-minded individuals from across the nation and world was a truly incredible experience. San Fran also allowed for my chapter to bond and solidify the lifelong friendships we had been tending the semester before. Nothing helped us more to bond than earning the Chapter of the Year award from SSDP national. It was a moment that none of us will ever forget, I'm sure of that.

Waiting in the airport for my plane out of San Francisco and back to Kent was one of the major turning points in my life. I knew that I had made great friends and. learned about nearly every facet of drug policy. And it was through that experience, I am the person I am today.

This year, the dynamics of drug policy and SSDP have begun to change. SSDP national has a new Executive Director and has experienced some changes in staffing. KSUSSDP has a new set of officers, led by Tom Zocolo and a multitude of new faces are showing up every meeting. Drug policy reformers around the nation are working hard on initiatives to bring a greater sense of fairness, sensibility and justice to our nation's drug policy. What a year to look forward to!

Now as I sit in bed, sick at 2 in the morning, I realize how much I've changed. I look at all the friends I've made and the impact we've made on our university and on the world. The future is in our hands SSDPers, now let's change the world even more!

Americans Fall Victim to Mexican Drug War

Yet another heart wrenching story has come out of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, a border city known for the violence and corruption caused there by drug cartels.

Last Saturday, Lesley Enriquez, 35, a U.S. Consulate worker attended a child's birthday party in Ciudad Juarez with her husband Arthur Redelfs, 34 and their 7 month old daughter. As they headed home for El Paso, Texas authorities say that a car began to follow them, and soon laid fire on the innocent family. Authoritied say the car was riddled with bullets. Witnesses say that Redlfs, who was driving, seemed to try to escape the barbaric onslaught via one of the bridges that cross the Rio Grande to find safety in America, his homeland, but could not outrun the gang. Enriquez and Redelfs were found dead, their terrified young daughter unharmed in the back seat. Family explains that the couple, expecting a second child were innocent victims of the escalating violence in Juárez," and "had unblemished records where they worked and were not involved in anything wrong whatsoever. They will be deeply missed."

No arrests have been made, but authorities say that the murders were committed by a local gang called Los Aztecas. The gang is allied with the notorious Juarez Cartel according to Mayor Jose Ferriz.

In response to these slayings the White House released a statement claiming

"We will continue to work with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and his government to break the power of the drug trafficking organizations that operate in Mexico and far too often target and kill the innocent"

While "working" with the Mexican government sounds like a good plan, it should be noted that the problems with drug cartels in border cities like Ciudad Juarez have been escalating for years. As the estimate of wholesale illegal drug earnings ranges from $13.6 billion to $48.4 billion annually it should come as no surprise that people will fight both each other and the government to gain control of the market. The only solution to the drug war in Mexico is for America to legalize and regulate current illicit drugs such as cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana as these drugs are largely supplied to Americans through Mexican trafficking.

The tragic deaths of Americans Lesley Enriquez and Arthur Redelfs should serve as a call to action to all Americans who are fed up with the senseless violence in Mexico, and should serve as a call to action to demand change. Regulation of illicit drugs would save countless lives by taking power away from the drug cartels, who are benefiting from our failed policies.

cnn coverage