Alert the Immigration Bureau! — Korea may have to prepare for a flood of Canadian potheads fleeing new, Draconian drug laws in their native land:
Reversing earlier moves to decriminalize marijuana use, Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada announced new legal and spending measures against drug use and distribution on Thursday.
In 2005, the government, then led by the Liberal Party, introduced legislation to eliminate criminal penalties for possessing small amounts of marijuana. The bill did not pass Parliament before the election that brought Mr. Harper and the Conservatives to power. It was never reintroduced.
“Far too long now in Canada, governments have been sending out mixed messages on drugs,” Mr. Harper said Thursday. “Canadians hardly know what the law is anymore.”
To make it clear that drug use is illegal in Canada, he said the government would spend about $64 million on antidrug campaigns and increased enforcement, including mandatory sentences for dealers and smugglers. There will also be increased coordination with the United States, he said.
Maybe Korea and Canada can exchange populations — Canadian potheads to Korea, Korean prostitutes to Canada.
Oh, wait — they already are.
47 Comments
Bah, Harper will probably be a one term Prime Minister.
Maybe less…
http://ca.today.reuters.com/ne.....CA-COL.XML
Nothing new here. Sentences for smugglers and dealers…no one wishes them well anyhow. Anti-drug campaigns = chances for the ruling party to send public money to PR and Advertising firms that donated to them. Apart from the waste of money, net effect = zero. Zippy-do-da.
Users will keep smoking, and police on the street, who are members of local or provincial forces not beholden to the feds, will continue whatever policies they had before, which in most cases is to ignore it.
“Anti-drug campaigns = chances for the ruling party to send public money to PR and Advertising firms that donated to them. ”
Adscam part deux?
I tell ya. Leave Canada to kick a pot habit, become a part of the national soju addiction. Only one can win you friends and influence your uncles here, though. Thanks, Zimmerman.
So what is it with Canadians and pot anyway? I’ve always wondered about this.
Well, I’ve been told BC grows the best pot on the planet. Maybe it’s a 캐나다 특산물?
“So what is it with Canadians and pot anyway? I’ve always wondered about this.”
It’s a stereotype that probably finds its source in the fact that Chong from ‘Cheech and Chong’ is Canadian. In fact, some states in the US are far more liberal about pot than Canada.
I’ve always thought Tommy Chong’s daughter, Rae Dawn, was pretty hot.
There’s also long history of Americans blaming Canadians for some of their vices, apparently. Now it’s the potent Canadian pot, in the past it was Canadian whiskey. I remember seeing an old poster that shows a man contemplating at a bottle of opium. There is a bottle of alcohol with the word ‘Canadian’ on the label (opium was ironically pushed by American religious groups as a cure for alcoholism).
“Users will keep smoking, and police on the street, who are members of local or provincial forces not beholden to the feds, will continue whatever policies they had before, which in most cases is to ignore it.”
I think that’s exactly what will happen.
If I was to take a guess at the amount of weed smoked by certain countries based just on the sampling of conversations I’ve had with said nationals, I’d put Canada right up the top. Seems like I’ve been duped. On the scoob front, Canooks are all talk, no walk I’m afraid to report.
Here are the stats:
http://www.nationmaster.com/gr.....nnabis-use
You’ll notice that Kiwis top the charts, followed by Hojus, and not far behind the good folks of the US of A. The Netherlands are also languishing in the relatively unhip sub-10% zone.
I love that site. Here’s another (completely unrelated) but interesting set of stats. Percentage of people not proud of their nationality:
http://www.nationmaster.com/gr.....ationality
1st place: Japan
2nd place: Germany
Does WWII have anything to do with this? And what does this say about Japan’s supposed militant/nationalist resurgency?
“And what does this say about Japan’s supposed militant/nationalist resurgency?”
Yes, I was surprised at how un-nationalistic my students seemed to be during my few months stint there. When asked who was a famous Japanese person, it took alot of prodding for my students to come up with anyone at all (they thought I meant famous outside of Japan, but I meant famous in Japan or outside). My students even readily admitted to the influence of Korea on Japan and even seemed to admire some things they had adopted from Korea.
@13 interesting stats there.
Japan and Germany, I can see, what with the World War thing. What makes the Netherlandians hate themselves? Who hates the Dutch other than Austin Power’s Dad?
Another interesting graph from the site
http://www.nationmaster.com/gr.....or-country
A far cry from the WWII “Fight to the last man with bamboo spears” days.
I do wonder if they conducted the surveys for Japan among some sort of a hippy commune.
#15. “Who hates the Dutch other than Austin Power’s Dad?”
LOL. I got a good laugh on that one. Thanks Ledtim.
“Japan and Germany, I can see, what with the World War thing. What makes the Netherlandians hate themselves? ”
Here is the answer. Netherlanders have no guilt to any party whatever.
However, they possess genetically white skin. Therefore, they must be destroyed and their very unique culture replaced with the primitive animalisitic culture of Arabs.
By the way, Arabs are disgusting human-like animals with a host of disgusting customs which simply must be wiped from the face of a modern planet. Pigs.
you sure they weren’t playin’ with the gaijin snow ;)? what were some of the things they adopted anyway, yakiniku?
It was easy enough to find Canadian potheads in Korea (well, I wouldn’t blame them… in reality you can get away from smoking pot as a cop passes by and usually they won’t do anything), so where can one find these Korean prostitutes? I’ve yet to see one and uh, a…friend…wants to know.
You know, for a sociology study…
#19
Easy: Find a police station and follow the pink lights.
I’m going by what I read as a child, but the Dutch and the Belgians are kind of unique.
Dutch and Belgian are technically one people, but due to big bullys like France and Austria-Spain interfering in their affairs and occupying their lands, the Belgians gave up the struggle against the French, and the Dutch resent them for that.
I’m not sure if this is true.
The Dutch beat the Hapsburgs of Austria-Spain with might and with money.
The Dutch have been very open minded, due to having been very successful, despite being of a tiny land mass, with trade.
It is one of the unique nations in history that has been able to conquer portions of the world with its trade power.
Then, there is the Protestant Reformation. The Dutch chose to be Protestants. Not very unrelated to the fact that the Hapsburgs were Catholic.
They’ve already walked away from a religious authority once. It doesn’t take much to walk away from a religious authority again. Which is what explains their stronger sense of irreligious trend. This, in contrast with Dutch descendants that have planted their roots in the US, who are still religious. Or so I read.
In general, Europe has lost its religion after World War 1 and 2, after having waged war in the name of God, they have lost faith and blamed God for the post war misery.
Americans did not suffer as much in World War 1 and 2. They are still pretty religious.
Anyway, international trade, Protestant Reformation, lack of unified national might, history of making land out of what was sea, makes the Dutch not so super Han Min Jok like.
Makes no sense whatsoever probably, and so I read, or seem to recall, and so I conclude.
I think it’s less absurd than the white skin, guilt, Arab, argument.
#18: “By the way, Arabs are disgusting human-like animals with a host of disgusting customs which simply must be wiped from the face of a modern planet. Pigs.”
*sigh*
How is it that a comment like this has been allowed to stand without critique or contempt for nearly twelve hours here? If “Arabs” had been substituted with “Jews”, “blacks”, “Koreans”, “Chinese”, among others, there would have been more whingeing here than goes on at an all-girls’ high school on “Lesbian Search & Seizure Day.”
Why is it okay to make racist comments toward Arabs but not okay to make it toward Koreans? Why is it okay to make a generalisation like this about Arabs, but not okay for a generalisation to be made about Americans not being able to eat spicy food?
The above comment is one of the most offensive things I’ve ever seen written here at the Marmot in my two years of consistent reading, yet no one has a beef with it?
I don’t get it.
Has the brainwashing that the BushCo neocon hawks have successfully promulgated–and the liberal Congress has supported–onto lazy, fatuous UniStatians about the Arab/Moslem world seeped its way into ALL corners of the Marmot-sphere?
The reason I didn’t comment on it is because it was soo far out there that I knew it wasn’t serious. Not only that it was basically neutralized by the paragraph before it. He said the same thing about whites.
Hugh either wants everyone wiped out or he was trying to be funny in some off-beat way.
Yes, he was being an agent provocateur. Eventually the comment will be censored by the oversight committee here (probably have better things to do on Friday or Sat night, whatever it is on other side of IDL in ROK).
In the meantime look on the bright side, you get to be a brave liberal hero and “speak truth to power”. Oh the humanity!
“you sure they weren’t playin’ with the gaijin snow”
artthejourneyman, as I said, I was only there for a few months, but they did have a hard time giving me names of famous Japanese, which was quite a change from Korea. And many of my students did acknowledge approvingly a number of products and ideas that came from Korea. They also acknowledged the influence of Korea on Japan. I don’t believe they were faking their response, but seemed genuinely respectful. I know it isn’t always easy to tell what the Japanese are really thinking, but I didn’t note any hostility or animosity to Korea in the Japanese I met. In fact, most seemed genuinely interested that I lived there and was married to a Korean. And its obvious that Korea has had an influence on Japan in its history and even currently, to some degree. Who could deny it (I saw several Korean-made programs on tv), besides perhaps the guys in the black vans and a few other right wing nuts?
Yes, it’s all the fault of those evil Bush/neo-cons that hatred against Arabs exists in the world today. Nothing to do with the actions of Arab terrorists against Yankees. After all, Bush and his criminal minions have practically invented racism, fascism, evil, torture, murder, etc. Before Bush came along, everyone loved Arabs, but look what his brainwashing has done.
#26:
Snow, that’s not exactly the point I was trying to make, though I can see where you’re coming from.
What I meant, exactly, when I referenced brainwashing above was this:
People seem brainwashed to the point of allowing public declarations of pathological hatred toward Arabs to go unchallenged. It’s okay to be racist toward those on the wrong side of the PC fence, but it’s not okay to be racist toward those on “our” side. A comment like Hugh made in post #18 has gotten no critical attention here at the Marmot because the culture/people he’s slated are deemed by the Racist Police as being okay to slander.
Had Hugh slurred Koreans, Strawberry-covered Strumpets, Jews, Atheists for Shamans, Chinese, the New York Mets, Liberals, Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream Girls, Conservatives, Manchester United, Tories, Rednecks, Essex Girls, or Stoned Rodents for Shiva, there would have been a surge in protests and comments vilifying for being a racist prick. There are plenty of people here at the Marmot with interests in or feelings for all of the above groups, either directly or indirectly. As Hugh denigrated Arabs, the designated Culture toward Whom It Is Okay to Be Racist (not only here, apparently, but also throughout the rest of the non-Middle-Eastern part of the world), then it’s obviously been okay, judged by the absence of reprisals at his post.
People, have been brainwashed into believing that racially-motivated comments about Arabs is fine and dandy. I know there are people out there who don’t think it’s fine and dandy, I’m just surprised they’ve not spoken up.
*Of course, it has been pointed out to that perhaps Hugh was writing tongue-in-cheekly or that it was just the Arabs’ turn to be assailed by Hugh, either of which would give me cause to pause in furthering my comments on the subject.
“*Of course, it has been pointed out to that perhaps Hugh was writing tongue-in-cheekly or that it was just the Arabs’ turn to be assailed by Hugh, either of which would give me cause to pause in furthering my comments on the subject.”
dissidentdave, this is why many posters did not comment. To me, it seemed an obvious racist comment not worthy of commenting on, meant as a ‘joke’ by Hugh.
dissidentdave, when I see a putrid comment like that, I just register the poster’s name in my mind as “asshole troll” and move on. I do so whatever the target, unless feeling motivated to spend time responding against it. Gosh, if I denounced every morally-reprehensible opinion or outright falsehood or blatant stupidity that gets posted on this one blog, I’d get nothing else done every day…
#27 & #28
points well-made and -taken.
uh, that would be points made and taken in posts #28 & #29
still too giddy over last night’s england win over oz in rugby, i guess!
You know, I know plenty of American potheads in Korea. Toke, toke, toke. That’s all they do all day long. I think it’s unfair of you to say that it’s just Canadians. I think there is a nasty, reactionary attitude toward Canadians on this board and that some right-wing Americans in Korea feed off Korean ignorance and attitudes toward marijuana to foster their sense of superiority. In the latest drug bust that made the news, several Canadians were arrested but so were, I think, 13 Americans. BC grows a lot of weed, true, but most of it goes south to feed America’s addiction to marijuana. To single out Canadians turns a blind eye to the illegal involvement in the drug trade in Korea by Americans. One of the biggest drug dealers I knew in Korea was an American. He sold hash and ecstasy in Hongdae nightclubs. A lot of the weed that comes into Korea comes via, wait for it, Yongsan Garrison. American troops are not above smuggling drugs into Korea to supplement their incomes. Much of this in anecdotal, but so is your assertion. Since I arrived in Korea, many Canadians have been in the papers getting caught with weed but so have Americans. Frankly, some of the biggest dealers here are Korean-American gyopos. Most of the ecstasy used in Korean nightclubs comes from Koreans with US passports.
Jesu glue huffin’ christo, there’s some assumptive people on this planet. America’s addiction?? There’s a, what?, pop. of 250M+ in the states.Of course demand is increasing.Population growth will see to that. The con(servative)trol freaks keep hyping it by railing against it.Let’s not take into account the true nature of a lot recreational drug users.I use myself and all but one of my dirty druggie friends as the terrible straw man.We all grew out of it.I myself quit 15+ years ago simply because I thought it was too goddamn expensive and it didn’t give me fits of laughter like it used to.Everyone but the one guy I can think of,who had more serious problems than smoking pot,moved on,got responsible about family & life.I am an example of middle of the road america, just like most other pot smokers.The vast majority use it for a while and move on.The lifers are not the norm.Get off the soap box.
I agree, MrMao, it does seem like the Canadians are unfairly singled out. A sad stereotype, but what can you do. Go to the Amazon rain forest, ask an Indian what he associates with Canada, and odds are he’ll say “Potheads.” That flag of theirs doesn’t help. What country puts a marijuana leaf on its flag? They were so high when they drew it, it doesn’t even look right.
“Go to the Amazon rain forest, ask an Indian what he associates with Canada, and odds are he’ll say “Potheads.””
Odds are, he’ll actually say, “That sounds like a pretty good place for me and my family to start over, seeing as life here in the rain forest is brutally tough.”
Good points, wookinpub. Despte being a dreaded neo-con/libertarian, I am also a former indulger who grew out of it. My libertarian roots are for legalizing, but I can also see the conservative viewpoint. I’m not sure legalizing is a panacea, but obviously the ‘war on drugs’ has been a complete failure.
The War on Drugs is/was a total failure yet, the basic tone of this board is “All drug use is stupid, crack down on it, the Koreans have the right idea, Nancy Reagan was awesome, Canada sucks, USA Number 1.” It’s like walking back in time. Even the America of today has more liberal views on pot than those which are advocated daily here. However, I get the feeling that most of the people on this board probably left America during the Reagan administration.
You mean you find it strange that people who would like to use drugs more freely in Korea are hesitant to state their opinions? That IS odd…
Ah, the silent majority argument. For every uptight Republican Abroad revelling with delight at the thought of another Canuck in shackles there are a dozen free spirits yearning to be free. Well, I thought Americans were all about free speech. For all the snide remarks about authoritarian Korean governments, I suspect that some Americans here like the thought of blood tests at Incheon and wouldn’t mind if it were extended to, say, Blaine, WA?
Idealist!
“I suspect that some Americans here like the thought of blood tests at Incheon and wouldn’t mind if it were extended to, say, Blaine, WA?”
And then everybody with a positive result sent to Gitmo and detained indefinitely without trial! (Just kidding!)
WJK is substantially right with his analysis of European history.
“I love that site. Here’s another (completely unrelated) but interesting set of stats. Percentage of people not proud of their nationality:
http://www.nationmaster.com/gr…..ationality
1st place: Japan
2nd place: Germany
Does WWII have anything to do with this? And what does this say about Japan’s supposed militant/nationalist resurgency”
Well, I do not know about Japan - but in Germany this is a manifestation of the national inferiority complex…
“manifestation of the national inferiority complex…”
Wow, it seems that a lot of countries suffer from this: Canada, Korea, Japan, Germany…
“Wow, it seems that a lot of countries suffer from this: Canada, Korea, Japan, Germany…”
Yes, I fully agree, but in Korea some are trying to overcompensate their self-perceived inferiority by a heavy overdose of nationalism. IMHO this is not so much the case in the other countries mentioned above…
Yes, I agree Fantasy. Korea seems to go over the top the opposite way (nationalism) as a cover of its inferiority complex. I didn’t see this in Japan in the short time I lived there. In Canada, it used to show up all the time in such identity crisis crap as “I am Canadian” commercials and continued questioning in the media of how to define being a Canadian. Tedious crap. The answer that so many came up with was, “Well, we’re not…(anything American)”. Psycho-babble on a national level.
Hello all,
Here’s the deal.
What I wrote a few days ago was absolutely, outrageously anti-Arab and thus anti-Islam.
My post reflects my true feelings to Islam. THis is really not the blog for these. Right, sorry.
On reflection, I will finish up here with this: (next post):
DissentDave, You’ve spoken some I’ve agreed with, but…
I disagree with you.
I dislike Arabs, but not for the reasons you simplistically think. I consider them primitive monkey-grunting fucks of the century we are currently leaving, ignorant animals of wife and daughter-beating. I am eager to find the recent contributions to mankind, humankind, or anykind that The family of Islam has contributed.
Here is the point I wished to make without sarcasm or guile: Unique European cultures should be safe from demographic extermination. I understand that Canada, and the USA are different.
OK, real truth - that post was a drunken Friday night rant. It’s not what I would have usually said, but Uhh to you anyway.