The Poppy is also a Flower

Not if you live in Alberta and have nosy neighbors it isn't.A 63 year old immigrant from India found that out the hardest way possible when he found himself in an Alberta court charged with cultivation of a narcotic product?I don't know if I'm the only one that's aware that hundreds of people have poppies growing in their yards and gardens every june and some of them are the most powerful poppies in the world.Is our government going to start arresting every person with a patch growing in the back yard?According to the judge in this case this is a terrible crime and must be crushed harshly to send a powerful message to anyone of a like mind?So all you criminals out there with a poppy patch in your yard can expect your door to fly off the hinges at any time because the drug war has entered a whole new era.It's zero tolerance to the max and no-one is safe.This 63 year old fellow has been growing poppies for a medicinal tea since he was a child in India and is shocked at the way he's being treated.Although he was aware it was against the law he thought that because it was on his own land and he was using the product himself he would not be bothered.He underestimated the psychotic nature of anti-drug warriors and their bottomless pit of a soul.The paranoia that the word drug elicits in the cruel and pitiless legions of the anti-drug thought police is never ending and without mercy.How this case could effect society in any manner is beyond even my wildest dreams.Some 63 year old man drinking a cup of tea each day is such a threat to us that we have to crush this poor man with the full weight of the law.I don't know what the drug war is trying to show here,unless it's that they are without mercy and that none are safe?That's pretty much their message all along so I don't know why this one hits so close to home.If you've been listening to the recent dialogue from Texas you'll have heard all the talk of brainwashing and how horrible it is to feed young minds with false information that ill prepares them for the realities of life.The drug war is the biggest and most insidious brainwashing of a people since Hitler did a number on the Jews.One day the lies and fear will disipate and we'll be able to live our lives without the fear of the jack boot at the door.This case just may display to more people the insanity that is the drug war.The Poppy is Also a Flower is a book I saw somewhere but it is also the truth and my mother used to grow them all down the side of our house in the east end of Vancouver.If she was still alive I'm sure she would shrug her shoulders and say"they wouldn't arrest me".Sorry mom but the world is a meaner and nastier place because in a province called Alberta,they do just that.