Let’s play a new game; spot the drug war propaganda talking points!
Asian gangs develop highly potent cannabis strain
by Keith Moor
May 14, 2007 07:50am
Article from: The Daily TelegraphPOLICE fear a new form of incredibly potent cannabis is destined to hit Australia.Vietnamese criminal gangs in Canada have developed a sophisticated method of growing the plant indoors year round.
It greatly increases both the yield and potency of the cannabis and cuts growing time.
Latest criminal intelligence suggests that Australia-based Vietnamese drug dealers have travelled to Canada to learn how to cultivate the highly addictive cannabis.
They are expected to use this knowledge to grow and sell it in Australia.
The new threat was revealed in the Australian Crime Commission’s annual Illicit Drug Data Report.
Justice Minister David Johnston said the amount of illegal drugs seized had decreased from 13 tonnes in 2004-05 to six tonnes in 2005-06, but the number of drug arrests had increased.
“We have more people arrested for less weight,” Mr Johnston said.
The report reveals that cannabis is the most commonly used illicit drug in this country.
Cannabis arrests account for almost 70 per cent of drug arrests in Australia.
The number of detections of heroin in 2005-06, which reached 300, was the highest annual number on record.
But the weight of heroin detected at the Australian border (45.6kg) was the lowest since 1995-96.
Heroin arrests now account for fewer than 3 per cent of all drug arrests.
Did you find them all? There’s at least 5.
* addictiveness myth – THC is not physiologically addictive, unlike alcohol, tobacco, heroin, caffeine, cocaine
* potency of hydroponically grown cannabis myth – potency is determined by plant DNA, not growing method
* new super cannabis strain/not your father’s marijuana myth – when samples are corrected for different harvesting methods, 1970s cannabis is nearly identical to present day cannabis
* more THC is more harmful myth – in fact, users smoke less if there’s more THC by weight
* hydro yield myth – indoor growing yields much less than outdoor but indoor is much less likely to be stolen/discovered
More than 60 hydroponics stores are operating in the Sydney vicinity alone (per Yellow Pages)- quite a few of those have been trading for 10-15 years. Despite this, the zero-tolerance ideologues over at Noise Ltd have credited Vietnamese crime gangs with apparently only recently developing ‘a sophisticated method of growing the plant indoors year round in Canada.’
Vietnamese crime gangs are also credited with developing ‘super cannabis,’ something that large cannabis seedbank and hybridising concerns in Europe and Canada would surely like to know a bit more about. However, Noise Ltd isn’t interested in white people making millions on cannabis; stories demonising Asians are much more bankable. Throwing in the bit about heroin at the end of the story only further supports the anti-Asian racism and drug disinformation angles in this wild tale.
Unlike alcohol, nicotine, caffeine, heroin and cocaine, no physiological withdrawal symptoms are produced in humans, even when heavy cannabis use is abruptly ceased. The human body does not develop a tolerance or addiction to THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis. There’s no such thing as physiologically addictive cannabis, highly so or otherwise. You’re as likely to develop an ‘addiction’ to getting a newspaper delivered each morning. A sick paperboy can throw a whole neighbourhood out of whack for a day.
Neither Vietnamese crime gangs nor anyone else need travel to Canada to learn how to grow cannabis with hydroponics- everything one could ever want to know is on the net. Hydroponics, however, doesn’t do a thing for the potency of cannabis. The plant’s DNA controls the potency. Hydroponics does not make lettuce any crisper nor tomatoes more tomato-y, either.
This story is so full of wrongability that it’s a pure zero-tolerance ideological rant, not news- and he pins it all on a single ethnic group, to boot- without so much as a pretense at evidence or proof of anything he says about cannabis or Vietnamese crime gangs. We’ve come a bit full circle here; racism played a large role in the original criminalisation of recreational drugs.
Keith Moor is missing only the pointy hat and a crucifix to BBQ.
-weez
8 Comments so far
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Heh, in ’68 the Vietnamese developed indoor hydro to counter Agent Orange and the dioxins mutated the weed into übersnark. How did they win that bloody war? Smack met the whiteyes in Vietnam. Pot-smoking hippies won in Vietnam, the CIA became self-funding there – Kinda makes Nth Korea’s nukes a tad redundant, wot?
IMHO it’s the French connection. When the US Mortined the bud in ‘Nam, the Québécois took off with the last of the rare and endangered sacred White Rhino. Afghan terrorists claimed (rightly) that their gene patents had been violated and promptly kamikazed the Eiffel Towers in New York. (Known to the west as Assassins, the entire Afghani air force ritually use Hashish and, unfortunately, missed by half a planet.)
I loves a good conspiracy theory and old Maryjane attracts some rippers – especially when the Preznit of Freedom and all-things-white is a coke-addicted alcoholic.
Thanks weez, succinctly comprehensive as usual.
While I’m raving – condolences to all atheists out there who will be more than a little disappointed that Jezza Falwell is NOT burning in Beelzebub’s bud toaster.
Comment by theHippy 05.16.07 @ 7:44 pmThanks, Hippy.
I have to disagree about Jerry Falwell’s postal address for eternity. He’ll be bunking with all the other haters. Falwell just raised a cross for his cause instead of a swastika.
Comment by weez 05.19.07 @ 8:04 amCurse that double negative . . .
I’m an atheist, weez, the drawback being no hell to imagine ’em all in! 🙂
Hydro has been harder and harder to get where I live, with more and more droughts, mainly because of the recent huge increases in the criminal penalties for selling hydro. What I’ve heard lately is that when there’s no hydro, kids turn to ice instead. Cue ice epidemic…
Comment by Angie 05.21.07 @ 10:11 pmAngie, I’m not so convinced of the path from cannabis to ice. I would think that those who could not get cannabis would use alcohol as a next preference.
All the same, I’m not naive enough to think that drug dealers don’t sell more than one kind of drug- thanks to the uncontrollable black market created by prohibition, creating ‘ice’ contact opportunities, which someone seeking only cannabis might not otherwise have. Prohibition not only doesn’t work but usually increases harm.
About 1-3% of a population will find a way to become addicted to some drug, no matter what government does about it. Drug use is an innately human behaviour, as much as is sexuality. Governments have in recent times wisely opted out of legislating sexual behaviour; it’s no longer a crime to be gay in most of Australia. It’s time for the same with recreational drugs. Government does have a role in seeing that fewer of the inevitable drug addicts are harmed by their drug use and have avenues of directing them to treatment.
Comment by weez 05.22.07 @ 9:39 amhow do u grow it
Comment by KEITH 02.16.11 @ 3:12 pmKeith, that’s a question you should put to the experts at Google.
Comment by weez 02.16.11 @ 3:18 pmLeave a comment
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