Delicious
Digg
Facebook
Flickr
Friendfeed
Last.fm
LinkedIn
MySpace
Reddit
Stumble Upon
Technorati
Twitter
Vimeo
YouTube
What I’ve Been Up To Lately
- dumbest article on jewish identity i've read so far this year http://su.pr/2Vcr4X 10 hrs ago
- rushkoff on colbert moved to july 15 1 day ago
- is drinking the #moonfruit juice 1 day ago
- More updates...
Hashish Boycott & Hemp For Victory
Contrary to the rhetorical stance that pot makes you stupid, by suppressing neural inhibitors, marijuana actually stimulates brain activity and helps people to ‘think outside the box.’ Much like magic mushrooms, marijuana encourages the forming of connections between parts of the brain that don’t normally communicate. This unusual brain activity has the effect of generating new brain cells in the place of dead or degraded cells.
Cannabis also has the effect of lowering blood pressure (as discovered by an award-winning Israeli researcher) and fostering emotional calm, which can be therapeutic in the treatment of anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder (as has been demonstrated by experiments with Israeli soldiers). Marijuana’s medical and psychological benefits are, in fact, practically limitless.
Because marijuana causes the brain to absorb more content, it does have the potential to impair reaction time — an issue of particular concern in a place where missiles are presently falling. However, marijuana has less of a negative effect than alcohol, which is available in ready supply.
Further contrary to popular depiction, marijuana does not necessarily make you lazy. Doctors say it’s a matter of whether you’re smoking the good shit, or the bad shit. I will add that Pancho Villa’s army smoked marijuana before battle, as did the Scythians. Clearly they had more ‘energizing’ stuff on hand.
Finally, marijuana prohibition is a miserable failure. Over 70 million Americans have smoked cannabis. In Israel, which also has a “zero tolerance” drug policy, who knows the number? Hashish, a cannabis derivative, has enough regular users in Israel to merit the illegal import of 10-14 tons per year. The police have barely made a dent in curtailing its use, continuing to waste precious resources on arresting and prosecuting small-time drug offenders.
Jamaica has given up on prohibition, ruling that cannabis use is culturally entrenched and impossible to eradicate. It may be safe to say that hashish use, particularly in the Middle East, is culturally entrenched as well. Legend has it that hashish was introduced to the world by the Persian Sufi.
Perhaps it should be no surprise then that a Persian-backed terrorist organization is the primary supplier of hashish to the Israeli market today.
And this is why, with a heavy heart, I am officially boycotting hashish effective immediately.
JPost reported last week,
Security officials manning Israel’s northern and southern borders told the Knesset Tuesday that they felt “helpless” in the bid to stop the flow of drugs into Israel, which allowed Hizbullah and other terror organizations to use the illicit trade as a cornerstone of their terror funding.Border police, army and police officers told the Knesset’s Committee for the War against Drugs that in the best case, they were catching between five and 10 percent of drugs trafficked. Between 25-40 kilograms of hashish were smuggled in each day through the northern border, amounting to 10-14 tons a year, officials told the committee.
“Hizbullah is directly overseeing the whole operation. They say where, when and how much drugs are brought in,” said Avi ElGrisi, a police captain who works in the village of Ghajar.
First and foremost, I would urge all my Israel-based readers to cease their consumption of hashish immediately, for the sake of Israel and for the sake of the Lebanese living under the yoke of Iran and Syria’s oppression by proxy. You (and I) have directly funded the present attacks against Israel and necessitated Israel’s retaliation. We can afford to shrug it off no more, as the very real consequences have availed themselves.
I am aware that my plea is hardly a deterrent, as it will reach and resonate with only so many. The use of cannabis-related substances cannot be put to an end in any effective manner. Not by the state, not by parents, not by peers. Cannabis is of too great a benefit to anxious Israelis. It is senseless to attempt prohibition. It’s probably one of the only things keeping folks here from freaking out.
With that I would like to propose a solution to Israel’s hash-for-Hezbollah problem:
Transfer to local sources and eliminate the market.
Decriminalize possession of small quantities of marijuana and permit the growth of up to three plants for personal use in one’s home. Homegrown cannabis is often of a higher quality than anything available from shady sources, and smokers will thus be inclined to avoid hashish. They will no longer turn to Hezbollah for their hook-ups, the hash market will recede, and Hezbollah’s wells will begin to dry.
It may be an imperfect solution, but it makes a hell-of-a-lot more sense than the continued waste of human and financial resources on prohibition which has cost Israeli taxpayers who knows how many shekels, only to result in the police feeling “helpless.”
You cannot stop people from smoking cannabis, but you can have a profound impact on where they get it from.
Dan, you are so right. AND think – this is only ONE example of how prohibition encourages terror. I’ll give another example. Our cannabis comes from Egypt and Lebanon, but a recent Haaretz article said that most of this grass is laced with chemicals. I don’t know if I buy that, personally (seems like we’d know, eh?) BUT IF some Hezbullah freak wanted to kill 10,000 Israelis in one strike, all he’d have to do is add anthrax to the hash/grass/xtacy/whatev er. Another example, Beduins guilty of nothing but smuggling grass for Israeli consumption were recently shot dead as they crossed the Egypt/Israeli border, according to Haaretz. They were carrying big bags and maybe didn’t stop when ordered by the IDF, who figured they could have been carrying weapons or bombs. Why should Beduins DIE to bring us what we are going to consume one way or the other? This only builds understandable animosity in the Beduin people – who are our friends for the most part!
There are a heckuva lot more examples, but suffice it to say, prohibition is one of the biggest aids to terror! Oh, wake up, crazy MEMSHALAH.
alternately, it been argued that prohibition gives the military connections into the heizbollah dealer world… because when someone is arrested, the main thing they try to do is not nessesarily prosecute, but enlist information about where the hash came from, and use that to get information.
It’s the same reason heroin is allowed to be sold in the inner city. junkies make nifty informers!
Genius. I’m sending your impassioned plea to everyone “relevant”.
Agreed. The greatest threat comes from being cannabis illegal itself. If it were legal, and taxable, the black market supply would dry up, and the Govt. would make more tax, sales of synthetic prescription drugs would fall, and black market funds to ‘terrorist enterprises’ would be broken.
I agree with decriminalisatioin – I want to see it openly taxed, as cigarettes and drink are. I want to see the black-market ended.
The thing is, if you buy your drugs from the Lebanon, you could well be funding terrorism through Hizb Allah against Israel via Lebanon.
Who among us would want that on their conscience?
Not me! (I’m not a ‘tooter’ though, but even if I were, I wouldn’t want to run the risk of funding terrorism against Israel, would you?)
I have nothng more to add to this, than what has already been said.
Here is one you might like:
http://powerandcontrol.blogspo...
and another:
http://powerandcontrol.blogspo...
Israel is the Place for those interested in PTSD. Dr. Raphael Mechoulam is one of the great researchers on the subject.
God, this is amazing…by your reasoning I can contribute to the resistance of the zionist terror machine by increasing my hash consumption….I think that I am going to try to organize a great Lebanese Smoke Out against Israel.
-A
Consider this a track back:
http://powerandcontrol.blogspo...
An article on pot and PTSD – several links to Israeli research
http://powerandcontrol.blogspo...
achille,
I never knew you were a Hizbollah fan.
I don’t get the Lebanese. Why they want to be some one’s bitch?
OK you want to be some one’s bitch. I’ll bet the Israelis would give you a better deal than Hizbollah/Syria/Iran.
You want to free the Lebenese from Iran and Syria, so you can make them Israeli slaves? And this is supposed to be a good idea? If smoking pot will help free the people of the middle east from Israeli oppression, you can count on me. I mean, honestly, how many wars has Israel been involved in that they didn’t start? Two, right? Out of how many? And how much ethnic cleansing have you Israelis been doing? Looks like you folks have a plan. Harass your neighbors, and when they retailiate in any way, use it as an excuse to clear out the population for miles around. And if they don’t leave willingly, well, just murder them by the truckload. You guys are off to a great start. I thought I remembered reading somewhere that you Israelis didn’t like expansionist militeristic governments with racist policies? Oh, that’s right, you just don’t like any one else having them. I thought maybe you were really an anarchist like me and dislike all governments alltogether.
The War on Drugs is a $69 billion a year failure according to the Wall Street Journal. http://stopthedrugwar.org/chro...
The War on Drugs is the vehicle that primarily funds the world’s terrorist organizations. The War on Drugs principally focuses on the criminalization of all things hemp, “marijuana” being the catchword of choice. “Prohibition is aiding Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan,” the Wall Street Journal article reported.
Were hemp legalized, the market for heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine drugs would suffer serious market erosion. That would undercut the source of funds for terrorists groups.
The failed War on Drugs has become the cornerstone for American foreign policy. If nations don’t have a similar failed “War on Drugs” they risk losing US financial aid.
A case in point is Israel. They too have a similarly failed “War on Drugs” targeted primarily at hemp. The hemp product hashish comes from Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. Guess who controls the growing of hemp in Lebanon from which hashish is derived? You got itHezbollah.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chro...
“Security officials manning Israel’s northern and southern borders told the Knesset Tuesday that they felt “helpless” in the bid to stop the flow of drugs into Israel, which allowed Hizbullah and other terror organizations to use the illicit trade as a cornerstone of their terror funding.” http://old.orthodoxanarchist.c...
Hezbollah is funded by Israelis who buy Lebanon-grown hashish. The Israeli government’s failed War on Drugs prohibits Israelis from growing their own hemp at home much like the failed American War on Drugs does.
Consequently, the world’s terrorists’ organizations are able to sell their hemp and drugs on the black market and fund their terrorist activities. The US government’s failed War on Drugs is the vehicle funding worldwide terrorism.
The Israeli government has no one but itself to blame for Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel. The Israeli government has pursued a failed American style War on Drugs policy. It is reaping what it has sown for its equally failed War on Drugs policy.
If Israelis want to defund Hezbollah, they need to legalize all things hemp and let Israelis grow their own hemp. Whether there’s enough land to grow hemp for fuel for Israel to become energy independent of prehistoric fossil fuels will be for the Israelis to determine.
Hemp is drought resistant. http://www.globalhemp.com/Arch... Hemp could play an important role in reclaiming desert land for agriculture use.
The Palestinians perhaps could grow hemp for fuel and other products as well and start a vibrant economy that would produce jobs to put many unemployed Palestinians to work on hemp farms. They could even sell their hemp products to Israel.