“Pot is Back!” proclaims the July cover article in Philadelphia Magazine that delves into residents’ of the Main Line (aka rich suburbia) secret use of marijuana to relax after the trials and tribulations of daily life. The show Weeds also highlights the life of a suburban widow, who lacking any real job skills took over her late husband’s place as a drug dealer in order to make ends meet. What is interesting about this article and show is that they show an acceptance of the drug not seen since before it was made illegal (that’s right it hasn’t always been).
To date, 14 states have legalized the growth and use of marijuana for medicinal purposes and another 11 states plus Washington, D.C. have pending legislation or ballot measures to legalize it.
What is the cause of this turn in attitude towards a drug believed to lead to laziness, inactivity and a gateway to harsher drugs such as cocaine and heroin? Is it just a matter of the “right” people supporting it?
As mentioned before this plant was not always illegal and served a number of purposes such as clothing, food, incense, rope and many more. There was actually a law in the 1600s and 1700s that ordered farmers to grow the plant. It wasn’t until the 1900s that the fight against marijuana began as it was associated with Mexicans, and Latin American and African American jazz musicians. As this fight coincided with the enactment of prohibition laws, many people were not aware of the passing of laws against marijuana.
Since then, marijuana has been a target in the government’s “war on drugs,” but interestingly only Mexico is in the news for production, while Canada is the second largest provider for the US market. Despite laws enforced with medical marijuana, there will always be a way around them for people who want to find them.
But what will this mean exactly for all communities? Will it take away the need for drug dealers? We are led to believe that dealers flourish most in impoverished or poor neighborhoods and that these neighborhoods mostly house minorities. The above-mentioned article shows that it is not only people in poor neighborhoods who seek to make a living from or just enjoy marijuana. Why then are only those who cannot afford bail made to pay for trying to make a living?
Making medical marijuana legal will not combat problems that come with drug dealing in these neighborhoods. Even if a person were able to get their doctor to prescribe an ID card, depending on the state fees range up to $150.
It is hard to foresee what effects the legalization of marijuana will have on society, but I do believe that one less aspect of the “war on drugs” will lessen the distraction from more important issues that are going on in the world.
About Nicolle Morales Kern
Learn more about the campaign to legalize, control, and tax cannabis in California at http://www.taxcannabis.org. And become a fan of the campaign on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/taxcannabis. Thanks!
The City of Vancouver “Vancouver has finally “CRACKED UP”
By Stephen Thomson
Carnegie Community Action Project introduces vision for Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
A Downtown Eastside group is calling for a stop to gentrification and support for a government-sanctioned drug market in the Vancouver neighbourhood.
The proposed actions are part of a “vision” for the area introduced by the Carnegie Community Action Project today (July 20).
In a 14-page report, the project organizers call for pressure on the federal government to reform the rules around the drug trade in the Downtown Eastside.
“Replacing the illegal drug market with a regulated legal market based on health and human rights principles would improve safety and health in the DTES and in other places,” the report reads.
“If the city supports DTES residents to replace the illegal drug market with a regulated legal one, that could be a first for the country and the world.”
The group also calls on Vancouver mayor and council to buy 50 lots in the neighbourhood for social housing over the next decade. They want city zoning and planning processes to limit gentrification while affordable housing is created.
“If this vision is not implemented, more and more market development will push into the DTES, displacing residents and destroying the community assets that provide so much essential support to remaining low-income residents,” the report reads.
According to the Carnegie Community Action Project, the Downtown Eastside is home to 16,000 people. Around 70 per cent of the neighbourhood’s residents have low incomes, the group says.
The project organizers also call for more safe-inhalation and safe-injection sites in the Downtown Eastside and elsewhere in Vancouver
Transformed Downtown Eastside could be a global model: report
By Tracy Sherlock, Vancouver Sun July 21, 2010
Vancouver could lead the world by transforming the Downtown Eastside into a community where everyone has a home, drug treatment is available on demand and drugs are decriminalized, according to a report created by the Carnegie Community Action Project.
The vision report, Assets to Action, was developed over two years with consultation from 1,200 Downtown Eastside residents and several community groups, who endorsed the plan in front of a crowd of about 100 people gathered Tuesday at the Carnegie Community Centre on the corner of Hastings and Main.
The No. 1 concern of most residents was housing.
Report co-author Jean Swanson said 5,000 people in the Downtown Eastside live in horrific conditions in 10-by-10 single-room-occupancy hotels with shared bathrooms and cockroach infestations.
“The city says SROs should be replaced, but at the present rate, that will take 40 years,” Swanson said.
The vision calls for Vancouver city council to buy five lots a year in the Downtown Eastside for social housing over the next 10 years.
While organizers said treatment on demand for drug addiction would be the best option, they also called for a regulated legal drug market.
“You need to be able to access [the drugs] you need right away, safely from nurses or doctors, not from the Hells Angels,” report co-author Wendy Pedersen said.
“The black market is punishing us and it needs to end. We need to stop sending those billions of dollars out of this community.”
Organizers called for a slowed pace of gentrification until existing residents and homeless people have social housing.
“Our character and our flavour — all of our beautiful little stores — are starting to get wiped out,” Pedersen said, adding that residents are being pushed out of the area.
The report says residents are proud of their community and want to drive the neighbourhood transformation.
“Low-income residents are saying they want to have more control over their own community,” said Phoenix Winter, a board member at the Carnegie Community Centre. “We don’t want others coming here and telling us what’s wrong with us and what we need. We have good ideas about solving problems ourselves.”
tsherlock@vancouversun.com
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