Quick Hits (page 2)
Return pot to Ailing B.C. Man, RCMP Told
By: Jane Armstrong
VANCOUVER -- A B.C. provincial judge has ordered the Mounties to return a batch of home-grown marijuana to American refugee claimant Steve Kubby, a cancer patient who smokes up to 12 joints a day to ease his symptoms.
In the latest twist to a bizarre, cross-border legal drama that began when Mr. Kubby fled California, a federal Crown prosecutor has dropped drug charges against the Sechelt man, who says he will die if he doesn't light up each day.
Mr. Kubby has been using marijuana daily for nearly 20 years. He says it controls pain and nausea, and has stopped tumours from spreading. High-profile cancer specialists on both sides of the border have backed his claims with written testimonials.
Last spring, the RCMP arrived at Mr. Kubby's home about two hours north of Vancouver, seized dozens of plants and charged him with cultivating marijuana and possession for the purpose of trafficking.
Since then, Health Canada has granted Mr. Kubby a medical exemption that allows him to use and grow pot. His exemption -- the largest in Canada -- allows him to possess up to 59 marijuana plants.
With that waiver, a federal Crown prosecutor on Monday dropped the drug charges and Judge Dan Moon ordered police to return Mr. Kubby's pot and growing equipment.
Yesterday, at another hearing to deal with the logistics of the transfer, the RCMP suggested Mr. Kubby pick up the equipment and pot himself. Mr. Kubby declined and another meeting was scheduled for Dec. 23.
Mr. Kubby's wife, Michelle, joined him in court. The couple have two young daughters, aged 2 and 6.
Since the April raid, the Kubbys have started a new marijuana operation in their garage. The equipment taken by police last spring included enough pumps, fans and hoses to fill the cab of a pickup truck.
Mr. Kubby said he was thrilled about the judge's order and relieved the charges were dropped.
"Can you believe it? A judge telling police to give all my stuff back? Only in Canada."
He said he hopes the decision will make police think twice about seizing marijuana-growing equipment from people who tend the plants for medicinal use.
The RCMP weren't pleased that charges were dropped or with the prospect of returning Mr. Kubby's pot, Sergeant Danny Willis of the Sechelt Division said.
"That's a federal Crown decision, not a police decision," he said.
"That's the way the system works and we can make our feelings known but the ultimate decision is theirs [the Crown's] and we have to respect that. We don't have to like it, but we have to respect it."
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Mary Jane'z Novelties
Growin' Our Own (page 2)
The Void
By: Elmore Stone
This story could also be called "Sailing ... sailing ... over the bounding main." Now when I talk about sailing I am not talking about rag-baggers or little bitty go-fast boats or the Sunday sailor mixing martinis on his cabin cruiser. Nah, not even close. I'm talking about ships. Real big ships that carry tons of containerized cargo from port to port throughout the world. These same ships also carried other cargo, again from port to port. Though this type of cargo is normally confiscated if found by Customs inspectors.
I'm talking about drugs. Weed, opium and heroin in particular.
Believe me when I say this, there are lots of places onboard a real ship to hide drugs. Further, using a ship for smuggling - anything - is not exactly a new idea. Been around for a few thousand years I'll bet. The beauty of modern ships is that they are complex. Very, very few people know the entire ship by heart. And no Customs team knows a ship the way the men who sail it do.
That is the big thing. Anybody can get a few pounds across the border. People do this daily. Aircraft can bring in a few hundred pounds of weed per trip. Twelve tons of the best pot the world has ever smoked, Panama Red, was smuggled into San Francisco on a 100 foot long converted fishing boat.
Holds, container locks, bilges, ballast tanks, fuel tanks, water tanks, engineering spaces, shaft alley, pump rooms, A/C rooms are all nice places to hide drugs. They are also easy to find and more important, easy to access.
Voids are not.
Voids are the spot of choice to hold drugs. Lots of drugs. Tons of drugs. They are the best place, next to "hr" boxes on military flights to keep Customs at bay. I know. I used to sail merchant ships back in late '60s and early '70s.
What is a void you ask? An empty space on a large ship that has no hatches to allow access, that is completely water and air tight and the only access is a steel plate that is held in place by numerous, rather large, nuts and bolts. There are a lot of voids on ships. Their purpose is to aid in keeping the ship afloat in case of catastrophe where the ship may be in danger of sinking. If packed correctly a half a ton of weed can be stashed in a single void. You can imagine how much opium or heroin can be stashed in the same place.
From 1968 to 1971 I sailed on general cargo merchant ships. In 1972 I sailed on the largest and fastest merchant ships in the world. The SL-7 class. 946 feet, 2 inches over all in length. We could turn in excess of 30 knots through the water with a full load of containers. Honolulu, Hawaii to Yokohama, Japan was a mere 7 day trip. We could fly!
The ships I sailed on were contracted to the federal government. We would carry bombs, fuses and the like from Naval Weapons Station Concord, California to Guam. Transfer ordinance, load other ordinance and set sail for Cam Ranh Bay, Republic of Vietnam. Being onboard a floating bomb in direct proximity of a gen-u-wine shooting war paid well let me tell you. Additionally, there were always other floating bombs waiting, at anchor, in the bay for their turn at the ammo pier. So, the longer we stayed at anchor, the more money we earned.
When we would be swinging by the hook (at anchor) a detachment of Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) guards would always be onboard to make sure, hah, that Charlie didn't get close and attach a mine to our ship's hull and blow us to dust. It has happened though, primarily to ammo barges. It is a big boom when a barge loaded with 200 or more tons of explosives ... explodes.
Another purpose of these guards was to discuss business. Weed business. Opium business. Heroin business. Hey, where there are willing consumers, there will always be willing suppliers. It is a fact of life. Something our government has never figured out.
Anyway, these guards would find an American partner and business would be conducted. A lot of haggling takes place because there was more than one guard who had drugs for sale. Hell, I knew one guard who sold weed and opium both and whose brother, or brother-in-law, was a Charlie (North Vietnamese Army). Nam was a fucked up place. You couldn't tell the players without a score card and even then one couldn't be too sure.
Once a deal had been cut, the weed or whatever would be delivered by, you got it, the guard(s). A Vietnamese Navy boat would pull along side and, looking all official, the cargo would be onloaded in ordinance shipping crates. These crates were water tight as well.
The guard(s) and the American merchant sailors who were in on the deal would break down the crates, take the weed, opium or heroin and stow it in voids which had previously been opened just for this purpose. Once a void was filled, it was resealed and then off to the next void. This procedure was repeated until the entire load of drugs was safely stowed away. It could, and did on many occasions, take hours to complete.
The ARVN guard(s) were paid and everybody was happy. There were never any problems with the ARVNs. If one got killed in combat a dozen more were there to take his place. There was never a shortage of dealers. And I never heard of any of our guys screwing over a dealer. We were fighting a war together. Brothers under the skin you know.
Our guys never paid the ARVNs in U.S. cash money. It wasn't allowed. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam, (MACV) issued "scrip" to all servicemen and American civilians who were assigned to or transiting through Vietnam. How this would happen is the military paymaster would come aboard the ship and sell the scrip to the ship's purser. The sailors would exchange, one for one, greenbacks for this scrip from the ship's purser. Therefore, it eliminated questions from the military paymaster as to why one guy would buy 50,000 dollars worth of scrip. We would then use the scrip as if it were real money in the local village or town for whatever we wanted to buy. You could, quite literally, buy anything you wanted (use your imagination) with scrip. It was up to the Vietnamese merchant(?) to then convert the scrip to their currency.
A real handy-dandy by-product of using scrip was the United States and Vietnamese governments laundered the money for us! Rules are wonderful and we played the game by the rules. Make no mistake about that. Ain't it great?
All of this would happen before the ship got to the ammo pier to unload its cargo of ordinance. Security was really tight at the ammo pier and was mostly guarded by Americans. However, the candy striped brigade would come on board to "welcome" us and wish us a good and safe stay. The Candy Stripers were women who volunteered to work at a military hospital. Most were fairly young American women who were eager to please. Most would also lay you for 40 dollars U.S. currency (no scrip).
Once the ordinance was offloaded, the ship would then transfer to another pier and onload broken U.S. military equipment. We would then sail to Yokohama, Japan, where this cargo was offloaded and subsequently transfered to U.S. military rebuild facility at Sagami Depot. We would then onload commercial containers and set sail for Honolulu, Hawaii and finally Oakland, California.
Customs in Honolulu was a joke. They would search our state rooms, make us fill out forms for what we had to declare and so on. The Customs folks could not even search all the containers. There were far too many of them onboard for that. They would search certain containers, but there was never any thought of searching the entire ship for weed or any other drug. It would take weeks to accomplish that, assuming they had a team of people who knew the ship. Drug dogs would not help either. The voids are air tight, remember. Search the ship? It never happened. Not once.
Once we arrived at the Port of Oakland, we would not, again, be searched by Customs. All that happened in Honolulu. The guys who bought the weed or opium or heroin were home free. Containers would be offloaded and so would the drugs. In broad daylight. It was laughable.
Was anyone ever caught? Any loads seized? In the four years I sailed I am not aware of a single instance of anyone being busted or a load being seized. Not one.
This stuff happened all the time. There was a constant influx of weed, opium and heroin from both Vietnam and Thailand. We had huge bases in both countries. Ships were constantly steaming in both directions. Can't fight a war without bombs you know. There were plenty of dealers in both places, plenty of buyers and a never ending source of consumers. Business was good.
As there was not an active shooting war going on in Thailand, getting drugs smuggled out of there was even easier. Security was really lax. As long as you lived up to your end of the bargain, there was no problem. Screw over the dealer and you would either end up dead, or worse - languishing in a Thai prison.
Each one of the SL-7 class ships were eventually taken out of service, the cost of fuel being the prime reason. We would burn 2,500 barrels of fuel per day. That is a bunch of fuel believe-you-me. The U.S. Military Sealift Command bought them all and converted them to heavy lift ships. These ships are still in use today.
By the way, the picture of the ship at the top of this story is the SL-7 class ship I sailed on. The picture was taken after the Military Sealift Command purchased and converted the ship.
Sailing ... sailing ... a great way of life.
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Pipeline (page 2)
Bud Life's 1st Year on the Web - Thank You
By: Panama Red
We at Bud Life want to wish you a happy New Year. Without YOU our website would be nothing. You have shown your loyalty by reading and sending your photos and stories. Keep them coming. Thank you from all of us at Bud Life. We got off to a great start on December 31,2001, with the Panama Red story being featured on POT-TV by Steve Kubby. We had over 400,000 hits in our 1st ninety days. This true story about Panama Red weed was sent around the world. We had hits from Christmas Island, Colombia, Sweden, Saudi Arabia, educational sites like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, UCLA, UOW, and many others. We had many hits from the US government, US Military, and from every continent on earth. For you in all branches of our military, we especially thank you for your support, and we pray that God protects you now and in the upcoming conflicts. We are Americans who believe in the American Dream, and without you in our military protecting us, we would have no freedoms, especially our freedoms of speech and the press. We know that you in Afghanistan are seeing first hand the continued growing of the cannabis and poppy crops. You're seeing how hashish has been made for centuries.
There were many debates about our premier story on Panama Red from different chat sites, and Red was verified by many other people. In our book review a smuggler confirmed that Panama Red was smuggled into the CA Bay Area in 1968. That load went to the east coast and came in the year before, the 12 tons of Panama Red that you read about in Bud Life. Panama Red was real, and is legendary.
We published educational stories and photos from old time smugglers and curious people like yourselves. History of the old hippie days and modern days are being recorded in Bud Life, by you - our readers, for future generations. Without your stories and pictures there may be no history to pass on. Bud Life contacted Owsley, the LSD chemist of old renown, about Jimmy Hendrix's Monterey Purple [Haze] LSD and got his story which will be published. He's living down under in Oz. We gave you the photos that you wanted to see including one of 30 year old smuggled Colombian Gold. Bud Life is only here for your enjoyment and sharing with others of like interest. Also we will be adding a chat forum so you can discuss, share and debate on Bud Life. From the northwestern magic mushrooms, to Blunt Brothers in Vancouver, British Colombia, Amsterdam, and NOL's Haarlem, and our meager budget, [after all Bud Life is FREE] we tried to cover what we could. Bud Life is YOUR underground, counter culture e-zine, and exists only for your viewing pleasure.
This has been a big year for Bud Life's smokers and smugglers. The smugglers have had to deal with the 9/11 security and weed has suffered big losses while cocaine thrives. Smokers have kept smoking, and the medical users have become DEA targets. It is our goal to educate and propagate information to YOU our readers about cannabis and it's uses. Regardless of government decisions made 30 years ago there are legitimate medical and recreational uses for this weed. While the feds claim there is no medical use, they provide marijuana to patients. Eradicating this weed from the face of the earth is not any noble cause and should not be part of the War on Drugs. We are surprised that no ecological group [like the Sierra Club] has taken up the fight against the war on drugs to allow the propagation of this weed. If the DEA had its way, this weed would go the way of the extinct Do-do Bird and Passenger Pigeon.
It is our eternal opinion that criminal sanctions for prohibition of weed is worse than the drug itself. Jail for a joint? This makes no sense. The issue is really about freedom of choice. Last year many people died due to police action and mistakes in trying to fight the War on Drugs. The DEA paid over $400,000 to a Modesto, CA family for killing a 9 year old boy. The city paid about $2 million. In Texas a warrant was served at the wrong address, causing police injuries to innocent people. How can the War on Drugs be justified? The criminal harm is greater than the alleged risk from using drugs. Keith Stroup, Executive Director of NORML, stated that over 700,000 people were arrested last year for mere possession of cannabis and as a direct result of this insane War on Drugs many lives were destroyed. While we do not advocate illegal use of cannabis, we see that it is an alternative to alcohol and that the criminal penalties are way too different. Possessing or smoking weed and going to prison (while losing all of your assets) is over kill. Why can't our government swallow its pride and have an amnesty and let these people out of prison? Kentucky has let thousands of non violent people out of prison as they can't afford the budget costs in this economic depression. California with a prison population of 160,000, is considering a similar proposal, while excluding the release of drug offenders. Even in the states that have enacted laws granting immunity to seriously ill medical marijuana users, the DEA strikes against these helpless people. Mike and Valerie Corral, WAMM co-op organizers in Santa Cruz County, CA, are prime examples of oppressed medical care users and providers (for no profit) who have been arrested by the feds for the medical cause. The political issue is states' rights vs. federal dictate, and the feds are losing the propaganda war on politically correct medical use issues. Legal medical marijuana users have become targets of our federal government. States' rights and state voter dictates are being ignored by dictates from our omnipresent federal government.
President Bush, our experienced oilman President, is taking on the middle east oil producing countries. He is lining up billion dollar oil pipelines so we can have a steady supply of oil for our gasoline. Who presently can fault this approach? Finally the Afghani oil pipeline is secure. Will Iraq be next, and if so, what will be our casualties? We pray that our fellow Americans in the military are not placed in harm's way over the oil. We at Bud Life know that our soldiers in Afghanistan are meeting the cannabis fields and HASHISH production face to face. Condolizza Rice and others have already understood that cannabis and opium crops are a way of life in Afghanistan and growing these crops has been allowed. Turning eyes away from drug crops has been done to gain local support. This is reality.
To our north, the Canadian legislature and judiciary are supporting medical use and soon perhaps legal cannabis use. All the US offers the Canadians is lip service from the DEA's Mr. Walters. He claims that US Customs lines will be longer. Isn't it clear that the US marijuana policy is an excuse to harass us? Maybe this is job security for the DEA, federal judges, and newly built federal prisons? Maintain the prohibition for hard drugs, use rehab instead of prison and have congress re-classify the soft drug, marijuana.
Cannabis is a spiritual plant, adapting to all climates of the Earth. It needs no refining. It can open spiritual and philosophical insights that one may never experience, read about, or otherwise see. Does marijuana open your third eye, or is it some addictive drug that will make you criminally insane? Should you be arrested and criminally incarcerated for this plant, or should you be left with the freedom of choice to see if you are elevated into the spiritual realm? Where are these criminally insane Reefer Madness addicts? Show us the criminal hiding inside a BUD, and show us that this plant has no medical value. However there is no such proof in a prosecutor's brief. Marijuana has been legal for thousands of years. In 1937 it was legal if you paid a tax, and in 1971, congress merely proclaimed it to be illegal. This proclamation remains.
It is wrong to indict hundreds of thousands of law abiding people to criminal prosecution and incarceration each year. OUR GOVERNMENT, like Canada, needs to use an open mind to rethink this prohibition and show cause to the public and seriously ill medical users why this prohibition remains. Let's watch through Bud Life and see what the new year brings.
God bless you and keep referring us to your friends!
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Dakota Joseph Arts