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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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Canada: Pot-Pourri
Toronto Star (CN ON)
Sunday 15 Oct 2000 Website: http://www.thestar.com/ Author: Mitch Potter POT-POURRI 69 - Percentage of Canadians who want an easing in Canadian laws against marijuana (27 per cent recommend outright legalization, 42 per cent prefer decriminalization). 4 - Estimated millions of Canadians who have tried marijuana at least once. Most surveys indicate approximately 2.5 million Canadians currently indulge. 30 - Percentage of Canadian pot smokers more than 30 years old. 10 - Estimated percentage of regular marijuana users who indicate their habit affects their work or school life in some way. Similar figures have arisen from studies of alcohol users. 40,000 - Estimated number of joints an individual would have to smoke in a single sitting to provoke a lethal reaction. 75 - Percentage of drug users in the United States who are white. 75 - Percentage of drug prisoners in the united States who are black. 60 - Total number of "strokes of the paddle" ordered against six men convicted at a marijuana trial in Vancouver in November, 1952. Canadian press reported it to be the first time drug offenders were sentenced to prison whippings. 10 - Days that cutest Beatle Paul McCartney spent in a Tokyo jail after his arrest for marijuana possession. 37 - Number of marijuana cultivation charges laid by Toronto police in 1999. In the first eight months of 2000, 48 such charges have been laid, double last year's rate. 2,600 - Number of marijuana possession charges in Toronto for 1999. In 1998 there were 2,100. This year, police have charged 2,000 people with possession to the end of August, on pace for a total of 3,000. 3 - Estimated trillions of U.S. dollars invested in former U.S. president Ronald Reagan's war on drugs during the first 12 years of the campaign. 35 - Average load, in pounds, of "B.C. Bud" smuggled into the U.S. by hikers with backpacks. Law enforcement agencies on both sides of the border peg the value of high-strength B.C. weed travelling south at more than $1 billion. But nobody really knows. 16 - Tonnes of hashish smuggled by ship from Beirut through the U.S. 6th Fleet by Belleville import king Robert "Rosie" Rowbotham in early 1981. 200 - Different strains of marijuana seeds available by international mail order from controversial Vancouver activist/entrepreneur Marc Emery, who subscribes to the mantra "Overgrow the government." 200 - Estimated millions of U.S. dollars in annual sales for the fledgling industrial hemp industry for products ranging from fabric to paper, animal bedding to lip balm. 50 - Minimum number of candidates Canada's newly formed Marijuana Party vows to field in the upcoming federal election. The single-issue organization is running to promote decriminalization. $35 - cost per half ounce of "legal alternative marijuana," as advertised on the Internet. An independent study by Vancouver-based Cannabis Culture magazine determined such products contain various blends of tightly pressed nutmeg, catnip, peppermint, mullein and other inexpensive herbs. Each sampling gave rise to a headache when smoked. $2,500 - Going rate in Canadian dollars for a pound of high-quality hydroponic "bud." An ounce averages $300. $300,000 - Minimum bid price, in U.S. dollars, for the domain name wesellmarijuana.com, recently offered on eBay. There were no offers. [Side box] 2800 B.C. - Approximate year of the first recorded reference to cannabis. Chinese emperor and physician Shen-Nung recommended a hemp elixir for treatment of beriberi, constipation, malaria, rheumatism, menstrual cramps, postpartum depression and gout. 1798 - Year in which Napoleon Bonaparte's army, stranded in Egypt, acquired a taste for hashish, eventually transporting the habit to France. The scenario would be played out again 170 years later by Vietnam vets returning to the United States. 1845 - Year Parisian notables Dr. Jacques-Joseph Moreau and writer Theophile Gautier established the Club de Hashishins, dedicated to exploring the non-medical value of cannabis. Arthur Rimbaud, Paul Verlaine and Charles Baudelaire were among those drawn to the circle's bohemian battle cry of "art for art's sake." 1936 - Year of the film Reefer Madness, the pre-eminent icon of anti-pot propaganda, in which marijuana stars as the villainous agent in a downward spiral of insanity and death. 1948 - Year in which the U.S. Federal Bureau of Narcotic drug czar Harry Anslinger told a Senate committee that musicians were the primary target of a no-holds-barred war on marijuana. "And I'm not speaking about good musicians, but the jazz type," Anslinger railed. 1976 - Year of The Great Paraquat Scare, in which U.S. President Gerald Ford ordered the powerful Vietnam-era defoliant sprayed by air assault on Mexican marijuana fields. The raids gave a major boost to the grow- your-own movement. SOURCES: Centre for Addiction and Mental Health; Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse; Lindesmith Center; Highlights: An Illustrated History of Cannabis; Toronto Star archives; NORML; New York Times; Canadian Press; Marijuana: The First Twelve Thousand Years; I Want To Take You Higher: The Psychedelic Years.
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