Cannabis: Can Christians use marijuana? Prof. details the biblical response

As marijuana continues to increase in popularity and cultural acceptance, some key questions are increasingly being asked in faith circles. Among them: Is recreational marijuana use moral?

This is just one of the topics being tackled by Todd Miles, professor of theology at Western Seminary and author of Cannabis and the Christian: What the Bible Says about Marijuana.

“We’re being told that [marijuana] is safe,” he said. “But once you dig below the surface, you find, well, maybe not so much.”

Miles said one of the misconceptions and mistruths is that marijuana is not addictive. While the drug might not be as habit-forming as other substances, he pushed back against this sentiment, and noted some of the additional impacts that must be considered when discussing the issue."

Demonstrably, getting high on cannabis ... impairs cognitive abilities, it impairs physical abilities and it impairs moral judgment,” he said, noting that these consequences are “unhelpful.”

Read more ar: Can Christians use marijuana? Prof. details the biblical response | Living News

Visit USA ? Have you ever smoked pot? Saying yes can get foreigners barred for life at US border - by Rob Hotakainen

USA Tourism: Foreign Pot smokers will be banned for life

Canada's likely move to completely legalize marijuana next year promises to produce immediate spillover effects in the United States, starting with increased confusion at the U.S.-Canadian border.

"I'm expecting my business to boom," said Len Saunders, an immigration attorney from Blaine, Wash.

With recreational marijuana already legal up and down the West Coast, from Alaska to California, he said, more Canadians may let down their guard and admit to U.S. authorities that they've used marijuana, reason enough to get foreigners barred from entering the country. Beyond that, pot retailers and legalization backers say it's difficult to predict exactly what might happen if Canada, as expected, becomes only the second nation in the world to fully legalize pot for anyone over 18 on July 1, 2018.

Even with such a big move, Jacob Lamont figures the Canadian customers will keep coming to Evergreen Cannabis, his pot shop in Blaine, just a few blocks from the U.S.-Canadian border.

"I enjoy my brothers and sisters from the north — obviously they support my business quite well," said Lamont, who estimates that Canadian customers make up 60 percent of his year-round business. "They still come down here. They buy a lot of milk, they buy cigarettes and they buy alcohol, because the taxation is so high up there. And I have a feeling they're going to follow suit with marijuana."

Oregon Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a longtime champion of legalization, said it could be a game changer for Congress.

"It completely changes the dynamic," he said. "Some regard Canada as the 51st state. This is going to make a big difference in terms of adjusting attitudes and accelerating progress. ... It's going to help us bring these things to a head."

Saunders scoffed at the idea that the United States would ever legalize marijuana with President Donald Trump, a teetotaler, in the White House.

"You have a president who not only has an attorney general (Jeff Sessions) who is going to fight drugs, but you have a president who's never even had a sip of alcohol," Saunders said.

One of Saunders' clients, Alan Ranta, 36, a freelance music journalist from Vancouver, British Columbia, got barred last year as he tried to drive his Toyota Yaris into Washington state. During questioning, he was handcuffed and told a U.S. border guard he had smoked marijuana in the past. Even though he was not carrying the drug with him at the time, Ranta said, he was told that under U.S. law he had committed "a crime involving moral turpitude."

"It lulls you into a false sense of security when you don't have anything on you and you've done nothing wrong and you're going to a place where it's legal," Ranta said. "You keep thinking, 'This is crazy, why am I getting in trouble?'"

He figures he was stopped because he and a friend were headed to a music festival, with a banana suit, tutus and a psychedelic top hat visible in the car: "If it's an electronic music festival, we like to dress up in weird things that we'd never wear day to day."

Saunders said that even Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as a private citizen, could be denied entry since he had admitted to smoking marijuana in the past. Saunders is advising people not to lie to border authorities but to refuse to answer any questions about past pot use.

Note EU-Digest: "Dear potential visitors to the US  - either you lie, or better still choose another country than Trumpland to visit".  

Read more: Have you ever smoked pot? Saying yes can get foreigners barred for life at US border

The Netherlands: Huge Dutch, Turkish task force busts int'l crime ring

On Tuesday, October 14th, the police raided 20 addresses in Gelderland. This was done in connection with an investigation into money laundering. 275 police officers took part in the raids. Thus far four people have been arrested.

The raids were the culmination of an investigation called “Fiorino” which began in 2013. A team of detectives were put together to investigate a group of nine suspects allegedly involved in money laundering. Cannabis cultivation played an important role.

The raids focused on the search for information, data carriers and money. The police searched corporate offices and homes in Arnhem, Velp, Oosterbeek, Duiven, Zutphen and Haaksbergen, among others. Cannabis plantations and/or remnants were found at three addresses. Three homes, 11 cars,the contents of a safe and a large amount of money were seized.

A number of addresses in Turkey were also searched during the investigation.
The investigation continues.

Read more: Huge Dutch, Turkish task force busts int'l crime ring - NL Times

Drugs: Smoking Pot ? it's just for dopes - by Allan Taylor

Cannabis Coffeeshop Amsterdam ("the Upcoming")

A study of 1000 cannabis users, by researchers in Dunedin, New Zealand, which claims the dubious distinction of being the first city to hold a Global Marijuana March, has concluded that the earlier you smoke cannabis, the more harm it causes the brain. Moreover, the more you smoke, the greater the impact on your IQ. For the researchers, it has confirmed what many already thought they knew, that cannabis users are likely to under-perform in the real world, if, that is, they ever become a part of it.

Whether this will influence addicts remains to be seen. My guess is that Hotel California still has its fans who will remain loyal until they've puffed their last joint. What the new research should do, however, is spike any proposal to legalise cannabis which, in its present form, is a much more potent drug than that which many of my contemporaries inhaled. Not only is it addictive and incapacitating, it leads its users on to other, even more dangerous drugs. Indeed, far from legalising it, the police should be exercising the powers they already have, and clamping down on it instead of turning a blind eye.

Widespread use of such "recreational" drugs is a legacy of the 1960s, popularised by rock bands, the most influential role models in history. If the Beatles or the Rolling Stones were in favour who could deny themselves? LSD, said Lewis Yablonsky, a professor who studied hippies as others once did cannibals, offered "is the key to cosmic consciousness and universal unity". On the other hand, cannabis, when smoked communally, was a more basic staple of everyday life, helping to cement the "circle of friendly love".

When you were away with the fairies, which is exactly where many of the users were for much of the time, you could chunter about "flower power" to your heart's content without fear of anyone dismissing you as a heidbanger. Like every scene, the drugs one had its cult figures, most notably Timothy Leary. A Harvard academic with about as much common sense as Prince Harry, Leary gave scientific heft to the notion that drugs were the conduit to a good society.

Note EU-Digest: walking through the Amsterdam "Green Zone" and the Zeedijk (Sea-Dike) area and being engulfed by the smell of Cannabis one quickly realizes that not too many people/tourists visiting this beautiful historic city seem to have read the above article by Allan Taylor of the Herald Scotland.

For lots of tourists, the Amsterdam Cannabis cafés provide a chance to smoke cannabis legally without coming into direct  contact with dealers of “harder” drugs such as cocaine, and the cafés are visited by tourists with 23% of Amsterdam’s five million annual tourists visiting a café during their stay.

Read more: Smoking cannabis? it's just for dopes | Herald Scotland

SPIEGELONLINE/NRC-Handelsblad: Marihuana Crimes in Holland: "A big problem which needs to be stopped by changing Dutch laws on the use of Cannabis"

For the complete report from the SPIEGELONLINE/NRC-Handelsblad click on this link

Cannabis/Marihuana Crimes in Holland: "A big problem which needs to be stopped by changing Dutch laws on the use of Cannabis"

The Netherlands' marijuana tolerance policy was meant to prevent use of harder drugs. But Max Daniel, who heads up the Netherlands police unit charged with combating the organized crime behind the cannabis trade, says a violent industry has developed with exports of €2 billion.

Daniel said, "One man asked his nephew to look after his house for six months. When he returned, his home was filled with cannabis plants. He got rid of them. Afterwards he was shot in the knees and told he needed to repay €18,500 ($24,800). We know there are shops that bring cannabis-growing equipment directly to people's homes. They then provide the names and addresses to criminal organizations, which come and steal the harvest. Today, cannabis is involved in nearly all major cases involving murder, weapons and drugs". When Daniel was asked why the police did not act sooner he said, "Because everyone, including the police, said: "It's only cannabis." It costs the police just as much to arrest someone for cannabis as for cocaine. But for dealing in coke you go to prison, whereas for cannabis you just have to pay a laughably small fine. So police don't have much incentive to invest in the latter. In our Dutch society, we have been brought up to believe that cannabis is not something criminal".