Jakartass goes to pot
I'm not an advocate for drug use or abuse. I can't recall the last time I took a course of antibiotics or any proprietary medicine, other than the occasional paracetemol or aspirin for flu.
I do, however, drink a lot of coffee and my current beverage contains red and yellow colours and natrium benzoat (
eh?) which tastes really good as it's
Fanta Oranggo. I'm also seriously, but legally, addicted to
Ardath cigarettes.
As a libertarian, my gut feeling about drug users is that we should be free to imbibe or ingest whatever we like. Of course, this rather naïve statement does not take into account the complex issues of peasant survival, criminal market forces, and the need of so many to escape from 'reality'.
Drug smuggling is in the news this week here in Indonesia. Firstly,
Schapelle Corby is
detained in a Balinese prison and now awaits sentencing from a panel of judges on whether she will be committed to the death penalty, by a firing squad, for allegedly attempting to import four kilograms of cannabis into Indonesia. (From an email petition currently doing the rounds.) This petition was forwarded to Jakartass with the following comments:
To dispel any doubt, the only reason I signed is because I oppose the death penalty on principle. Can't say I have much sympathy with the stupid woman but I don't think she should be shot. All the best, JC
JC.
I'll sign it but how? What does not make sense to me is why anyone in their right mind would smuggle cannabis of all things IN to Indonesia rather than OUT. I am reliably informed that since the tsunami Jakarta has been awash with premium leaf from Aceh, courtesy, I'd guess, of the military and police. D.I too will sign it because:
1. I believe Schapell Corby may have been '
set up' by Australian or Indonesian baggage handlers.
2. I do not believe that cannabis should be classified as a Class A drug, i.e. the penalties for possession and small scale carrying should not be as harsh as those for addictive drugs such as cocaine and heroin.
3. I am opposed to the death penalty for ANY crime. (And
Indonesia's use of a firing squad, generally in public spaces in the early hours, somehow seems even more barbaric than hanging or electrocution.)
(Update: prosecutors are seeking a
life sentence, although presiding judge Linton Sirait said that he
still has the power to sentence Corby to death by firing squad, despite the prosecution's call for a life sentence.)
Whilst Australians have been working up a lather on behalf of Schapell Corby, further news this week has been of
nine of their compatriots who have been arrested
in Bali for allegedly attempting to smuggle heroin (strapped around their bodies)
out of the resort island, an offense that carries the death penalty, The eight men and one woman, aged between 18 and 29, were arrested on Sunday after a 10-week operation between Australian and Indonesian police.Drug smuggling mules are usually portrayed in the media as being from a poor background trying to support their families back in Nigeria or other 'developing' country. The poor are disposable. So how come this case involves young people from a 'developed' country? Simple greed or plain stupidity?
Grandma's cooking pot A couple of weeks ago Patricia Tabram became a convicted drug dealer for serving casseroles and cakes laced with cannabis to her friends. But she's unrepentant - the drug has solved her health problems.
"Originally, I suffered terrible depression after the death of my son when he was 14," she says. "And my husband had died and I had nursed my mother till she died, and I was placed on medication for the depression. Then I started to develop arthritis in my knees, and was placed on another kind of medication for that. And I developed - from the combination of medication - a lumpy red rash around my face, tinnitus, lost the hair from the top of my head and had very bad bruising on my arms and legs, blood in my stools and bleeding from my waterworks area. When you get up close to my face I look like an ugly old fossil.
"Since I started medicating with cannabis I don't use my walking stick any more, I don't wear my neck collar, I don't wear my hearing aid."
Besides, she says, "Cannabis lifts depression! Queen Victoria used it for her period pains!"
This is one of Patricia's recipes. Jakartass does not approve. After all, I'm a vegetarian!
Chicken Maryland with cannabis
2lb of roasting chicken in portions
Salt & pepper
Plain flour
1 egg
2-3oz fresh breadcrumbs
2-3oz butter to which add half a level tsp of powdered cannabis
Oil for frying
Garnish:
2-3 bananas
1oz butter
1 tin of creamed sweet corn
1. Place the cannabis butter between the flesh and skin of each portion of chicken, then carefully replace skin.
2. Season the outside of the chicken with salt and pepper, then dust with flour.
3. Beat the egg, and dip in the chicken portions, followed by dusting with the flour.
4. Fry in the just-hot oil, until golden brown.
5. Peel and quarter the bananas and fry in butter.
6. Heat creamed sweet corn and serve as sauce.
Serves 4
P.S. If you have something to say about this post, please do NOT
email me.
The distractions of constant emails, text and phone messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled volunteers. Try this quiz if you don't believe me.
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