"Cannabis Cash 'Funds Islamist Terrorism'"--Here we go again.
The old "drug users fund terrorism" canard is getting new play in Europe this week, where French and Spanish intelligence agencies reported that, as the Guardian (UK) put it, "Cannabis cash 'funds Islamist terrorism'". The report was the result of an investigation launched after the 2004 Madrid train bombings that found the bomb plotters bought their explosives from former miners and paid them in hashish.
The intelligence agencies also claimed that the Al Qaeda-linked Algerian Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat is using hash sales as part of "a complex network" of financing its terrorist operations. I don't doubt that. People who need money for nefarious schemes typically resort to the black market economy, whether it is drugs, diamonds, oil, or whatever commodity.
It is so screamingly obvious that I hesitate to point it out, but pot smokers don't fund terrorism—prohibition does. You don't hear of barley or grapevines or tobacco leaves funding terrorism because they are used to make non-prohibited psychoactive drugs that are integrated into the legal, aboveground economy. If you want to stop Islamic terrorists from using the black market profits from the hash trade to buy bombs, the solution is clear: End the prohibition regime that creates the black market.
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Comment posted by Anonymous on Fri, 09/14/2007 - 11:12pmDuring the prohibition era of our country's history illegal alcohol
fuel many criminal organizations with a steady stream of cash
it did not stop otherwise law abbiding americans from partaking of
alcoholic beverages. The illegality of marijuana causes crime,
it funds terrorist, increasing the boarder security to protect against
summling causes armed gangs of criminals to invade our national
parks to grow marijuana, the illegality of marijuana cause our youths
to be lable criminals, There are many people that want
to keep marijuana illegal, the criminals that make huge profits
the law enforcement officals that get huge bugets to combat it
and the courts that rake in huge amounts of money thru fines
when they catch teenagers and they force the parents to pay
( the cops arrested my step son 3 times for parifinalia, once i called
them for help, his problem isn't pot it's a mental health issue
lesson learned by son=zero, price paid by already overwhealmed parents
8,465.00$ marijuana dose not cause crime, the illegality of marijuana
causes crime
I had never noticed how much
Comment posted by Anonymous on Mon, 05/21/2007 - 11:26amI had never noticed how much spin is applied to journalism until this recent wave of attacks on cannabis. Whether it be links to mental health or links to terrorism, the articles that are telling the public to fear cannabis are no different to the reefer madness of the early 20th century.
I'd just like to confirm that the weed I buy comes from local growers who have no connection to crime other than the cannabis they grow. The answer to all the cannabis related issues is obvious; legalise it and sell it in off-licences.