Getting Stoned In Belize

[avb3]

Originally Posted by ReMetau

Is everybody who drinks alcohol an alcoholic?

I don't know anyone who smokes grass just for the taste.

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by sww914

You know, I haven't smoked since I was a kid, don't need it.
At one time my wife's health problems looked like some medical herb might help, so we discussed it. She had never smoked anything in her life, she asked me where in the world could we possibly get it, so I listed for her which friends of ours could bring some right over.
S- business owner, surf shop
A- musician
P- insurance broker
F- business owner, body shop
R- business owner, racecars
D- auto technician
R- winery owner
J- artist
M- my uncle
B- neighbor
D- breast pump manufacturer
M- motel owner
J- graphic artist
S- non- profit director
B- lawyer
B- engineer
R- business owner, fitness machines

I could have had some delivered to my house for free within 10 minutes if I had asked.

You forgot prisons, or schoolyards, or any teenager.

[Lagoon4us]

Originally Posted by Therapy

Great.

Thanks.

Just when everybody had others neatly boxed and labeled.

Now we have to re-evaluate again and find more pigeon holes.

Thanks a lot.

Middle Eastern savages bahaaaaaaa in Belize mucho bahhhhhhhHHHHHH!!!!!!

[capn_billl]

Originally Posted by psneeld

Nice info...but typical pieced together reference material.

The truth was back when it all started...there was zero telerance at all levels...but the reality was too few LEO's too many smugglers and users.

So what happened at the enforcement level? Planning targeted easy/large smuggling ops....or if a LEO just got lucky and stumbled across personal possesion/use. Laws passed covered every sort of drug use...but enforcement was WAY behind.

How do I know? I was the aviation law enforcement guy at USCG Air Station Miami from 1981-18983. By early 1983 I was picked to brief senior USCG officials on the tactics, equipment and future of the USCG's role in the drug war.

There was little or no talk of targeting "yachts" for drug smuggling let alone personal amounts. Why? hell we couldn't keep up with the siezure and arrests of frieghters full of MJ and fishing vessels so full that the crews sat and slept on the bales because the boats had their interiors stripped. When on patrol...we could smell the rotting MJ long before we could even see some of these boats.

Were people arrested and yachts siezed during the early years? You bet...some people bragged so much about getting away weith it...I think we targeted them just to shut them up about how stupid us LEOs were.

Even the foreign governments were hot and cold when to support the war or not...so throughout the Caribbean..you had to be careful how you came across to anyone...now? I have no idea...but I can speak for back then.

So yes the USCG had you post your zero telerance stickers on boats with licensed captains and crews...but to say zero tolerance at the yacht level was a big deal would be a bit of a stretch...just not enough resources then or probably even now.

The difference? Back then you had to tear apart a boat to find a stash...now a wipe of a pad like your laptop at an airport will get you detained.

The original poster was correct, Zero tolerance is new, but the "war on drugs" was started, and called such by Nixon.

[Kingfish2]

Jeff since you are on vacation you may want to head over to San Pedro town and check out Wahoos lounge at the Spindrift hotel either Wed or Thur nites. You will definately have a good time and meet some interesting folks )

[Capt Phil]

The points made by Pelagic and psneeld should be heeded. As a delivery skipper for many years, I would impress upon clients who engaged me to deliver their vessel that they needed to be absolutely certain that none of their former guests, family or crew had any illicit drugs aboard whatsoever or had even left residual of same aboard otherwise they risk losing their vessel to siezure, fines and I would go to jail. Several poo-poo'ed the idea until I gave them a xeroxed copy of USCG siezures off the Mexican, California and Canadian coasts where owners who were not aboard lost their boats. This usually caused them to rethink recent trips and passengers who had been aboard.
There is a service in San Diego and I believe, LA, who, for a relatively nominal amount will run a drug dog through your boat to ensure it is clean before it leaves port.
A member of the USCG gave me the number and told me that the dogs were retired govt trained animals from customs and DEA sources.
If you are in the delivery business it is important that you not only screen your crew carefully but also inspect the boat you are delivering to ensure that it is 'clean'.
Life afloat seems to be getting more and more complicated, unfortunately!! Capt Phil

[stevensuf]

At the end of the day, the way i see it, is, am i a slave? My government promotes the idea we live in a democracy and are free individuals, yet they say that as a grown man i am incompetent to make decisions for myself, so they make them on my behalf.

By dictating what i can or cannot do with my own body, they are inherently saying my body is partly their possession and i am not a free man able to chose for myself.

I should be free to do that which i wish ,so long as i harm no others or their property or put them in a high position of danger through very reckless actions.

As far as i can see, cannabis was made illegal as it threatened the rich land owners, by making their booze and trees worthless.

[atoll]

well enough of pot calling kettle black!

Twelve US Presidents Who Smoked Marijuana (Cannabis Hemp) - YouTube

[conachair]

Originally Posted by avb3

Not a prude or judgmental, but anyone sailing under the influence of anything is a danger in my mind.

Not immediately obvious but i didn't mean on passage, but that the effects of pot are more suited to cruising, as in anchored up in a lovely bay somewhere, than are the effects of alcohol.

Personally I can feel the judgement going after even just one beer. Not a very nice feeling. Almost always a dry boat on passage.

[JayCall]

In the mid-80's, a good freind was a captain on a 147' MY. Returning to WPB from the Bahamas, he was stopped and searched about 10 miles offshore. Despite his havinga placard amd making plain to the crew that drugs were not allowed, one of the crew ( he had a 3 man crew), had left residue in an ashtray in the crews' quarters. Nobody was arrested, but the vessel was immediately impounded and the local US Attorney sought a civil forfeiture of the vessel. It was worth about $5M back then. the owner, who was not aboard at the time, spent about $200K in legal bills to get his boat back. There were never any criminal charges filed against any party, the only action was the civil forfeiture action. The US Attorney admitted to the owner's attorney that the forfeiture was all about the $$. If it had been a beaten up shrimp boat rather than a yacht worth $5M, the US Attorney would never have pursued it. As it was, the owner had to pay a fine and the government's cost of holding the boat as well as his legal bills to get his boat back. It was a wonderful time back then!

[psneeld]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

The original poster was correct, Zero tolerance is new, but the "war on drugs" was started, and called such by Nixon.

What I was trying to say was that the politics of the war on drugs and the "actual" war and the population's "percieved" war were all different...

Heck...till the urinalysis crackdown in the 80's...some USCG pilots I knew regularly smoked rather than drank because it was less noticeable...even VERY close to their flights!

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by psneeld

What I was trying to say was that the politics of the war on drugs and the "actual" war and the population's "percieved" war were all different...

That makes total sense, since perception and disinformation is all part of war tactics in which the recreational boating media helped to deliver the official message.

My real point in bringing that period up was that I noticed ‘foreign’ agencies becoming more proactive in using drug searches around yachtsman as a method of generating income, while the US later moved on to other priorities and threats.

Thanks for the great insight into what was some ‘interesting’ times, you must have some fascinating stories to tell!

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by capn_billl

You forgot prisons, or schoolyards, or any teenager.

Any cab driver.