Thoughts from the void: Cannabis and Russia

Russia is currently one of the countries making the loudest anti-cannabis noises on the world stage along with China, Japan, Singapore, India, Brazil, Syria, UK, Saudi Arabia, Philippines, Indonesia and other regressive countries. You could say that what the leaders of these countries have in common is a desire to dominate (whatever that means, maybe have pictures of their leaders tattooed on everyone's ass) the entire world, especially their own people, through illusory military and economic might, even as the world as we know it rapidly falls apart through unsustainable damage by man. Russia has issued warnings to its citizens not to indulge in cannabis tourism in places where it is legal. It, along with its bed mate China, has also come out strongly against Canada for legalizing cannabis at the national level. Russia was one of the key nations along with the US, Germany and Japan that asked for more time to review the findings of the UN Expert Committee which at the end of 2018 recommended that cannabis be removed from the UN Schedule 4 list of the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs that effectively bans the cannabis plant worldwide. This is in spite of even the WHO stating that cannabis is a relatively safe drug with potential medical benefits. At the UN meeting in March 2020 to review the rescheduling of cannabis, Russia was one of the foremost opponents to rescheduling and legalization. Its stance along with other nations like China and Singapore forced the review to be postponed to December 2020 thus effectively stalling the healing of the planet in favor of continuing destructive practices. According to a report from MJBizDaily, "Russia was pleased with the postponement, saying it has not seen any “convincing argument” to support the recommendations, calling cannabis “the most abused drug in the world."

With an authoritarian leader like Vladmir Putin at its helm, the facade of communism promoting equality for all has now completely disappeared. Russia's elite, like China's, is tightening its grip on the people to amass wealth and consolidate their positions like never before. The situation is not new however, as Russia has a long history of elites constantly suppressing the masses. Whether the Russian government's opposition of cannabis is a move aimed at protecting its drug cartels, the world wide heroin trade, Russian alcohol, the huge petrochemical industry, Russia's thriving military industry, its pharmaceutical and medical industries or all of the above is not clear to me. It is most probably the last. For one thing though, to state that Russians do not consume cannabis is absurd as can be evidenced from the steady flow of Russian tourists to various cannabis growing countries of the world. The Shamans of Siberia surely consumed cannabis and prescribed it to society in the past and probably do so even now as a way to rid society's psyche of all its chemical delusions of economic might and military power. In places in Russia where tradition, culture and society have not become dehumanized, there are surely people who grow and consume cannabis. Interestingly, Russians are some of the largest tourist segments visiting countries like India to consume its native cannabis, especially in places like Goa and Himachal Pradesh. Russian drug cartels are said to operate in India, contributing to cannabis distribution within the country and internationally, including surely to Russia.

In the absence of natural, wholesome cannabis, urban centers however have become infamous for their abuse of much deadlier drugs including pharmaceutical drugs, synthetic cannabinoids, heroin, methamphetamine and other amphetamine type substances (ATS) and especially locally manufactured novel psychotropic drugs like cathinones. The UNODC World Drug Report 2020 states that Russians now rely heavily on the darknet to source their drugs. What is alarming is that the proportion of amphetamine type substances (ATS) including methamphetamine, various cathinones and other synthetic drugs is much higher than traditional drugs. The report says - ' The emergence of “new drugs” in the Russian Federation seems to be supply-driven as it may be, at least partly, linked to the rapid spread of the darknet in the Russian Federation. Data collected among a convenience sample of Internet users suggest that the Russian Federation may have the highest proportion worldwide of Internet users who use the darknet for purchasing drugs; those who purchased drugs on the darknet represented 46 per cent of the drug users among the survey respondents in January 2018, rising to 86 per cent in January 2020.' It also says that Russia has reduced its dependency on opiates traditionally sourced from Afghanistan and has become self-sufficient, manufacturing its own synthetic drugs locally - 'Evidence suggests methamphetamine and various cathinones, including mephedrone and alpha-PVP, are now widely available on the Russian drug market. Russian authorities reported a recent steep rise in the detection of clandestine laboratories for the manufacture of various drugs, rising by 70 per cent in three years to 68 laboratories in 2018''. Besides the locally manufactured methamphetamine, Russia also sources it from its Chinese sources and their network in East Asia.

The shift to synthetics has also taken a great toll on public health. Due to the nature of these drugs, most are consumed in the form of injections. This has led to a rapid increase in diseases related to needle usage and sharing such as HIV and Hepatitis. The UNODC reports that 'A small number of countries continue to account for a large proportion of the total global number of PWID living with HIV. In 2018, for example, PWID living with HIV in China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation accounted for almost half of the global total (49 per cent), while PWID in those three countries comprise only a third of all PWID worldwide.''

So for a country that once boasted of an ideology that would bring equity to all its citizens, the ground reality is that the benign safe natural cannabis and its users who are mostly the poor, minorities, indigenous people, youth, women, the ill and the elderly are victims of cannabis prohibition and the actions of law enforcement while the government creates a situation that forces its people to consume harmful deadly synthetic drugs, possibly a strategy to keep the population drugged and helpless and fund the political machinery. In this regard, Russia mirrors both its traditional allies and rivals like China and Middle Eastern countries who have similar anti-cannabis laws. The common thread that connects all these governments and their authoritarian leaders is an utter disregard for the welfare of their citizens, the state of the planet and an insatiable desire to be an economic and military superpower and to amass huge personal wealth through promoting unsustainable big businesses that have long outlived their benefits.

It is up to the Russian people to recognize the changes happening on the larger global scale and the total failure of the war on cannabis which has fueled the growth of much deadlier addictions. These chemical addictions have brought the earth to the brink from where pulling it back will take monumental effort by all. Recognizing cannabis's medicinal, recreational, agricultural, industrial, sustainable economic and business benefits will be largely beneficial to Russia in its progress in the modern world. This is a new way of sustainable thinking and action relevant to our times, well actually, it is an old way as shown by the Shamans of the plant that has become most relevant once again. Rather than being stuck with outdated and absurd ideologies like military dominance and controlling the world through fossil fuel which are two surefire recipes for planet wide disaster for an already weak and ailing planet, Russia and its supposed closest ally China and alleged rival the US will be much better off walking the green cannabis path as will the rest of the world.

In spite of all the protestations by countries like Russia, in December 2020, the UN voted to remove cannabis from its most restricted Schedule IV category of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. It does however still remain in Schedule I, which is the least restrictive. This one move by the UN itself should be sufficient to bring about the recreational legalization of cannabis in every nation and an overhaul of national drug laws.

It must be noted that in most places where cannabis legalization has happened it took the efforts of the people who mobilized themselves through grassroots level movements to bring about this change. Left to lawmakers legalization would have been impossible, as the main interests of lawmakers concern the protection of the big industries opposed to cannabis such as pharmaceuticals, petrochemicals, medical, alcohol and tobacco. For something that truly benefits the people, the people themselves have had to make the change.

Listed below are articles taken from various media related to the above subject. Words in italics are the thoughts of your truly at the time of reading the article.

'There is only one kind of help possible - the abolition of that terrible cone of violence which enables the person or persons who succeed in seizing the apex to have power over all the rest, and to hold that power the more firmly the more cruel and inhuman they are, as we see, by the cases of the Napoleons, Nicholas I, Bismarck, Chamberlain, Rhodes, and our Russian Dictators who rule the people in the Tsar's name.

There is only one way to destroy the binding together of this cone - it is by shaking off the hypnotism of patriotism.

Understand that you yourselves cause all the evils from which you suffer, by yielding to the suggestions by which emperors, kings, members of Parliament, governors, officers, capitalists, priests, authors, artists, and all who need this fraud of patriotism in order to live upon your labour, deceive you!

Whoever you may be - Frenchman, Russian, Pole, Englishman, Irishman, or Bohemian - understand that all your real human interests, whatever they may be - agricultural, industrial, commercial, artistic, or scientific - as well as your pleasures and joys, in no way run counter to the interests of other peoples or States, and that you are united with the folk of other lands by mutual co-operation, by interchange of services, by the joy of wide brotherly intercourse, and by the interchange not merely of goods but also of thoughts and feelings.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'In proof of the existence of patriotism, people usually point to manifestations of it on various ceremonial occasions: in Russia during the coronation, and after the attempt on the Tsar's life on October 17th; in France when war was declared on Prussia; in Germany when victory was celebrated; or during these Franco-Russian festivities.

But one has to know how these manifestations are prepared. In Russia, for instance, during every journey made by the Tsar, men from the peasant communities and the factories are prepared to meet and welcome him.

The enthusiasm of the crowd is for the most part artificially prepared by those to whom it is necessary, and the degree of art of the organizers of that enthusiasm. That art is an old one and its specialists have consequently reached great virtuosity in preparing these ecstasies.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'An analysis of the Hydra market, based on webscraping techniques, conducted in February 2019, revealed a total of 13,935 drug listings on the platform in one day, dominated by synthetic cathinones (39 per cent of all listings, notably alpha-PVP and mephedrone), cannabis, mostly marijuana (16 per cent) and hashish (14 per cent), traditional ATS, mostly amphetamine (10 per cent) and methamphetamine (1 per cent), cocaine (4 per cent), psychedelics (3 per cent), dissociatives (2 per cent) and opioids (2 per cent). The analysis also indicated that, partly due to the increasing availability of drugs through the darknet, two thirds of the Russian population were now able to buy drugs instantly. The importance of trafficking ATS through the darknet and/or through web shops is also indirectly reflected in the high proportion of ATS being shipped to end users and local retail traffickers by mail: 80 per cent in 2018 – a higher proportion than for most other drug categories in the Russian Federation' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'By contrast, quantities of stimulants seized rose twentyfold [in the Russian Federation] over the period 2008–2018, in particular seizures of ATS, which rose to almost 33 times the initial level. Moreover, according to seizure data, a variety of substances (internationally controlled or not) are now present in the synthetic drugs market: methamphetamine and various cathinones, including mephedrone and alpha-PVP.

The emergence of “new drugs” in the Russian Federation seems to be supply-driven as it may be, at least partly, linked to the rapid spread of the darknet in the Russian Federation. Data collected among a convenience sample of Internet users suggest that the Russian Federation may have the highest proportion worldwide of Internet users who use the darknet for purchasing drugs; those who purchased drugs on the darknet represented 46 per cent of the drug users among the survey respondents in January 2018, rising to 86 per cent in January 2020.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'If it does happen that patriotism takes possession of the crowd, as has now occurred in Paris, it only happens when the masses are subjected to intensive hypnotism by the governments and ruling classes, and such patriotism is only maintained among the people as long as that hypnotic influence is maintained.

So for instance in Russia, where patriotism, in the form of love and devotion to the Faith, the Tsar, and the Fatherland, is grafted onto the Russian people with extraordinary intensity by every instrument in the hands of the government: the Church, the schools, the Press, and all kinds of ceremonies - the Russian working-class, the hundred-million Russian people, despite the undeserved reputation bestowed on them as being particularly devoted to the Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland, are the in fact the freest of all people from the deception of patriotism and from devotion to Faith, Tsar, and Fatherland. For the most part, the Russian peasant knows nothing about the Faith - that Orthodox State faith to which he is supposed to be devoted - and as soon as he recognizes it he rejects it and becomes a rationalist, that is, he adopts a belief which can neither be attacked nor defended. And towards his Tsar (in spite of incessant, intensive attempts to instill a feeling of devotion) his attitude is the same as to all authorities employing violence, that is one if not of condemnation then of complete indifference. While as to his Fatherland (unless one understands it to mean his own village or his own district) he is either completely ignorant of it or, if he knows it, he makes no distinction between it and other countries. Russians now settle quite indifferently in Russia or outside it, in Turkey or in China, just as they formerly emigrated to Austria or to Turkey.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'The working people are too much taken up with the task of earning a living for themselves and their families to be able to interest themselves in the political questions that figure as the chief motives of patriotism. The question of Russia's influence in the East, the unification of Germany, the return of France's lost provinces, of the cession of this or that part of one State to another, and so on, does not interest them - not only because they hardly ever know the conditions under which these questions arise, but because the interests of their life are quite apart from national and political interests.

To a man of the people it is always a matter of complete indifference where a frontier is drawn, to whom Constantinople may belong, whether Saxony or Brunswick shall, or shall not, be a member of the German Union, whether Australia or Matabeleland shall belong to England - or even to what government he has to pay his taxes and into which army he must send his sons. The important thing for him is to know how much tax he will have to pay, whether the army service will be a long one, whether he will have to pay for the land over many years, and whether he will get much for his work - all questions quite apart from national and political interests. That is why - despite the intensive efforts made by governments to instill a patriotism into people that is not innate in them, and to suppress the ideas of socialism that are developing in them - socialism is penetrating more and more into the masses of the people, while patriotism, with which they are so carefully inoculated by the government, not only fails to spread, but is disappearing more and more and is only maintained by the upper classes to whom it is profitable.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Most of the clandestine methamphetamine manufacture in the Near and Middle East/South-West Asia has traditionally been in the Islamic Republic of Iran, being manufactured both for the local market and for export to countries in East and South-East Asia (including Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand) as well as for export to Central Asia and the Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Georgia and Tajikistan) and to Europe (including Bulgaria, France, the Russian Federation, Turkey and the United Kingdom). However, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not the main source of the methamphetamine found in other countries in the Near and Middle East/SouthWest Asia (with the exception of Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic). The main source countries for other countries in this subregion seem to continue to be countries in East and South-East Asia. The extent of clandestine methamphetamine manufacture in the Islamic Republic of Iran actually appears to be declining, while manufacturing is rapidly increasing in neighbouring Afghanistan.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'Increases in drug use have at times also been supply driven, as users react to growing supply and the attendant falling prices by increasing their consumption of those drugs. This was the case with cocaine in recent years, among other drugs. Some of the recent changes in drug markets, such as the opioid crisis in North America and the rapid emergence of a synthetic drug market in the Russian Federation and Central Asia, can also be defined as supply driven phenomena. The expansion of the synthetic drugs market in the Russian Federation seems to be mainly linked to the Hydra darknet platform. While there may now be an established user-based demand for synthetic drugs, the initial trigger was new suppliers. The rise of fentanyl in North America was not defined by a new demand either but was the result of opportunities seized by drug suppliers to reduce costs and thus increase profit margins.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_4.pdf

'The market for opiates in Central Asia and the Russian Federation appears to have been transformed between 2008 and 2018. The amount of opiates intercepted by the authorities in the Russian Federation fell by roughly 80 per cent, while the number of people in treatment for opioid use has decreased sharply. However, the market in stimulants appears to be booming. Evidence suggests methamphetamine and various cathinones, including mephedrone and alpha-PVP, are now widely available on the Russian drug market. Russian authorities reported a recent steep rise in the detection of clandestine laboratories for the manufacture of various drugs, rising by 70 per cent in three years to 68 laboratories in 2018' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_BOOKLET_1.pdf

'The largest number of PWID [persons who inject drugs] living with HIV reside in Eastern Europe, East and South-East Asia and South-West Asia, which together account for 67 per cent of the global total. Although the prevalence of HIV among PWID (9.3 per cent) is below the global average, a fifth of the global number of PWID living with HIV reside in East and South-East Asia. A small number of countries continue to account for a large proportion of the total global number of PWID living with HIV. In 2018, for example, PWID living with HIV in China, Pakistan and the Russian Federation accounted for almost half of the global total (49 per cent), while PWID in those three countries comprise only a third of all PWID worldwide.' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_2.pdf

'While methamphetamine trafficking flows from East and South-East Asia to countries outside the subregion remain modest, some smuggling to destinations around the world was reported, mainly smuggling from Malaysia, Thailand and Myanmar in 2018 or, when the period is extended to the past five years, mainly from China and Thailand. Destinations outside the subregion included countries in South Asia, the Near and Middle East (Saudi Arabia as well as Israel), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), North America (the United States as well as Canada), Western Europe (notably Switzerland as well as Italy, Germany, France, Spain and Iceland), Eastern Europe (notably the Russian Federation) and Africa (notably South Africa) over the period 2014–2018' - United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, World Drug Report 2020, https://wdr.unodc.org/wdr2020/field/WDR20_Booklet_3.pdf

Afghanistan and Mexico source the heroin and morphine. Mexico, Thailand, Myanmar and China source the methamphetamine. The Middle East and Eastern Europe sources the amphetamine. The US consumes heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Europe consumes heroin, morphine, methamphetamine and amphetamine. Asia consumes heroin, morphine and methamphetamine. Australia consumes methamphetamine. The Middle East consumes heroin and amphetamine. West Asia consumes heroin and methamphetamine. All countries grow and consume cannabis. Opioids, methamphetamine and amphetamines kill the most in terms of drug deaths, cannabis kills none. Who are the leading opponents to cannabis legalization and leading enforcers of global anti-cannabis policy? The countries involved the most in heroin, morphine, amphetamines and methamphetamines. They put on a mask of concern about harms from drugs, produce, sell and consume the most dangerous synthetic drugs and vehemently oppose cannabis legalization worldwide while clandestinely feeding their habits and protecting their sources. They use arms and armies to protect and promote their synthetic drug habits, and drug money to fund and wage a war on cannabis everywhere, pushing man and planet ever closer to death on massive scales and away from the safe, healing cannabis herb...
Jul 10, 2020, 1:14 PM

"Russia was pleased with the postponement, saying it has not seen any “convincing argument” to support the recommendations, calling cannabis “the most abused drug in the world."
https://mjbizdaily.com/postponed-vote-on-who-cannabis-recommendations-reveals-international-disagreements-uphill-battle-ahead/

'People of the ruling classes say that with such complete conviction that patriotism is a lofty sentiment, that common folk who have not experienced it acknowledge themselves to blame for not feeling it, and try to persuade themselves that they do feel it, or at least pretend to do so.

That sentiment, in its most precise definition, is nothing but putting one's own kingdom or people before every other kingdom or people - a feeling fully expressed by the patriotic German song: Deutschland, Deutschland, uber alles, in which it is only necessary to substitute Russland, Frankreich, Italian, or any other kingdom in place of Deutschland, to obtain the clearest formula for the lofty feeling of patriotism. No doubt that feeling is very useful and desirable for governments and to the unity of the State, but one cannot help but see that it is not at all a lofty sentiment, but on the contrary a very stupid and immoral one: stupid because if each kingdom is to consider better than any other, it is evident that they will all be wrong; and immoral because it inevitably impels every man who feels it to seek advantages for his own State and people to the detriment of other States and peoples - an impulse directly contradictory to the fundamental moral law recognized by all, not to do to others what we do not wish done to us.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'As it is, people are constantly hypnotized from childhood in one and the same direction by all possible means: school books, Church services, sermons, speeches, books, newspapers, poems, and monuments. Some thousands of people are brought together, forcibly or by bribery, and when they have been joined by the loafers who are always glad to see any spectacle, they begin to shout what is shouted before them to the accompaniment of cannon and bands and glitter and brilliance of all kinds, and we are told that this is the expression of the feelings of the whole nation. But in the first place these thousands or tens of thousands, who shout at such celebrations, form but a tiny ten-thousandth part of the whole population. And in the second place, of these tens of thousands of shouting and hand waving people, the greater part, if not assembled by force as is done among us in Russia, have been artfully lured there by some bait or other. Thirdly, among all those thousands there are scarcely a few dozen who know what it is all about: they would shout and wave their hats in just the same way if the very opposite of what is happening were taking place. And fourthly, the police are present who promptly silence and remove all who shout anything the government does not wish or demand - as was strenuously done during the Franco-Russian celebrations.

In France they acclaimed with similar enthusiasm Napoleon the First's war with Russia, Alexander I, against whom that war was fought, then Napoleon again, then again the allies, the Bourbons, the Orleans, the Republic, Napoleon III, and Boulanger; while in Russia they acclaim with equal enthusiasm today Peter, tomorrow Catherine, afterwards Paul, Alexander, Constantine, Nicholas, The Duke of Leuchtenberg, our brother-Slavs, the King of Prussia, the French sailors, and anyone whom the authorities wish welcomed. And the same thing takes place in England, America, Germany and Italy.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Such manifestations as those that have lately taken place in Toulon and Paris, which take place in Germany at receptions of the Emperor or of Bismarck, at the manouevres in Lorraine, and that are constantly repeated in Russia on every ceremonial occasion, only prove that the means existing for exciting the crowd are so powerful that the government and the ruling classes which control them can always evoke at will whatever manifestation they please. On the other hand nothing so clearly proves the absence of patriotism in the people as these intense efforts now employed by the governments and the ruling classes to arouse it artificially, and the smallness of the results obtained despite all these efforts.

If patriotic feeling were really so innate in the people, they would be left to appear freely of themselves and would not have to be worked up continually by artificial means as well as on special occasions.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Several member states requested additional time for considering the recommendations, including Japan, the United States, Germany and Russia, while representatives of Norway and Uruguay emphasized the importance of not delaying the vote without agreeing on a specific future date.'
https://mjbizdaily.com/un-commission-on-narcotic-drugs-delays-vote-who-cannabis-recommendations/

'there is a real risk that a large number of signatories could provide the appearance of widespread agreement on the contents of the so-called “Global Call to Action.” The Trump administration—working with countries like Russia and others that would prefer to pursue draconian, zero-tolerance approaches unencumbered by references to human rights—could then seek to use this “Call to Action” to distort the discussion now underway on a new UN drug declaration in 2019. With that risk in mind, it is crucial to underscore that proper UN documents and regional statements are the products of negotiation and consensus. This so-called “Global Call to Action,” by contrast, flies in the face of regular UN processes, and it cannot and should not be afforded the legitimacy of a consensus-based UN document.'
https://idpc.net/blog/2018/09/trump-to-host-un-meeting-on-drug-policy-veneer-of-consensus-masks-deep-disagreement-on-global-drug-policy

'As The Intercept reported last week, the Trump administration assembled a number of hard-line countries, including Russia, China, and Saudi Arabia, as partners before sending out the action plan to all member states. The Philippines — where President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war has drawn international criticism for its extrajudicial killings and brutality — and Myanmar, whose government stands accused of genocide, were both included on the final list. Israel signed on, but its U.N. delegation did not attend, presumably to make it easier for other countries, such as those Arab nations who eschew formal relations with Israel, to appear.'
https://theintercept.com/2018/09/25/donald-trump-united-nations-drugs/

'the UK “has become increasingly isolated in its approach to drugs policy” says Peter Reynolds, president of CLEAR Cannabis Law Reform. “We are unique among modern democracies in maintaining an approach based on nothing but prohibition. In fact, we now stand closer to countries such as Russia, China, Indonesia, and Singapore. The only thing that separates us from countries with such medieval policies is our lack of the death penalty for drug offences,” he says.'
http://www.theweek.co.uk/59417/should-cannabis-be-legalised-the-pros-and-cons-of-decriminalising-drugs

And you thought that the Americans, Russians, British, Chinese and Indians are in Afghanistan to help the people there re-establish normalcy in their lives...

'Joe Rogan and Abby Martin talks about opium coming from Afghanistan and drug trafficking in America. Also goes into carfentanyl and heroin.'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj5BEa-IJUY

'The Russian embassy isn't mincing words about legalization, accusing Canada on Twitter of "weakening the international legal drug control framework."'
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/cannabis-tourists-could-be-charged-despite-legalization-1.4150335

Legalize the ganja Russia...the shamans in Siberia were probably using it for thousands of years before rap or hip-hop was invented...there may be a number of Russian strains of ganja that can be promoted as a part of the national culture and made available to the people...ganja will also reduce the usage of more harmful drugs like 'western' opioids and synthetics...

'Of course, excess censorship isn’t a novel concept in Russia, where journalists often die under suspect circumstances and musicians critical of the regime are frequently prosecuted. But it’s unlikely Putin will have much success tamping down on drug use in the country by letting state media control the cultural airwaves.

While drug references in hit music may play a role in normalizing their use, they largely reflect already existing trends in consumption.'
https://www.marijuanamoment.net/russias-putin-thinks-censoring-rap-will-curb-drug-use-in-the-country/

Don't tell me the Russians don't even have this much of their own ganja...looks more like someone's personal quota requirement in the guise of a bill...Putin's?

'The Russian Health Ministry has drafted a bill authorizing the importation of cannabis for the purpose of studying the drug’s “addiction-causing capacities.”

New amendments to the legislation propose importing 1.1kg of marijuana, 300g of hashish, and 50g of hash oil. The legislation would also increase the importation quota of tetrahydrocannabinol – the chemical responsible for most of marijuana’s psychological effects – from 10g to 50g per annum.'
https://www.rt.com/russia/450067-russia-cannabis-import-bill/

Russia and the UN should be working actively towards marijuana legalization as should all other countries where recreational marijuana is still illegal including my dear India...

'“It is important that the UN General Assembly Special Session on the World Problem of Drugs, which took place on April 21, 2016, made it clear in its final document, for which the Canadian delegation also voted, that the three anti-drug Conventions are ‘the cornerstone of the international drug control system,’” Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Russia strictly abides by these principles and intends to consistently introduce them in practice within the boundaries of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs and other relevant international venues.”
https://globalnews.ca/news/4302624/russia-canada-recreational-marijuana/

'Hence, when such patriotic demonstration as the Toulon festivities take place, people's will are bound in advance, though apparently only for the distant future, and they are pledged to the accustomed iniquities that are always the result of patriotism. And everyone who realized the significance of those festivities cannot but protest against their tacit implication. Thus when those gentlemen, the journalists, assert that every Russian sympathizes with what took place at Kronstadt and Toulon and Paris and that this alliance for life and death is confrmed by the will of the whole people, and when the Russian Minister of Education assures the French ministers that all under his command (the children, scholars, and writers of Russia) share his feelings and when the commander of the Russian squadron assures the French that all Russia will be grateful for the reception given them, and when the chief priests answer for their flocks with the assurance that the prayers of the French for the welfare of the Imperial Family are joyfully echoed in the hearts of the Tsar-loving Russian people, and when the Russian ambassador in Paris, who is regarded as the representative of the Russian people, declares, after a dish of ortolans a la soubise et logopedes glacees and with a glass of Grand Moet champagne in his hand, that all Russian hearts beat in unison with his own, which is brimming over with sudden and exceptional love for la bella France - then we who are free from that insanity consider it our sacred duty, not only for ourselves but also for tens of millions of Russians, to protest most emphatically against such a statement, and to affirm that our hearts do not beat in unison with those of these gentlemen - the journalists, ministers of education, commanders of squadrons, chief priests, and ambassadors - but on the contrary are filled with indignation and disgust at the pernicious falsehood and wrong which they, consciously or unconsciously, are spreading around by their words and deeds. Let them drink Moet as much as they please, let them write articles and make speeches, but let them do so for themselves alone. We who regard ourselves as Christians cannot allow ourselves to be bound by what these gentlemen are saying and writing.

We cannot allow it because we know what lies hidden under all these drunken ecstasies, speeches, and embraces, which do not look like a confirmation of peace as they assure us, but rather like the orgies and drunkenness criminals indulge in when preparing to co-operate in crime.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

'Men of our time, availing themselves of the order of things maintained by violence, and at the same time protesting that they love their neigbours very much, and who do not notice that they are doing evil to their neighbours all the time, are like a man who, after a life of robbery, when at last caught with lifted knife in the act of striking a victim who is frantically crying for help, should declare that he did not know that what he was doing was unpleasant to the man he had robbed and was just about to kill. As that robber and murderer could not deny what was evident to everyone, so it would seem impossible for men of our time, living on the sufferings of the oppressed classes, to persuade themselves and others that they desire the welfare of those whom they unceasingly plunder, and that they do not know how the advantages they enjoy are obtained.

We cannot now assert that we do not know of those hundred thousand men in Russia alone who are always confined in prisons and convict settlements fr the security of our tranquility and property, and that we do not know of those trials in which we ourselves take part, and which at our instigation condemn men who have made attempts to our property or security prisons, exile, or convict settlements where men no worse than those who sentence them, perish pr become corrupt. Nor can we pretend that all that we have obtained and is maintained for us by murders and violence. We cannot pretend that we do not see the constable who with a loaded revolver walks in front of our windows defending us while we eat our appetizing dinner or see a new play at the theatre, or that we do not know of those soldiers who set off so promptly with rifles and live cartridges to where our property is in danger of being infringed.'

- Leo Tolstoy - The Kingdom of God and Peace Essays

Cannabis and the Medical Industry

https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/11/cannabis-and-medical-industry.html

With no scientific basis global drug laws are invalid
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/06/with-no-scientific-basis-global-drug.html

A Look At The NDPS Act 1985 From A Cannabis Perspective
https://ravingkoshy.blogspot.com/2020/08/a-look-at-ndps-act-1985-from-cannabis.html

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Friday 3 May 2019

Cannabis and Russia

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