Page 14 December 2008

NATIONAL

~-PANTHER POST

Camosun College student sells pot to made ends meet

By Liz McArthur - Nexus (Camosun College)

VICTORIA (CUP) — One Camosun College student in Victoria, B.C. who sells marijuana says she had no problem finding customers when she first started.

“T had to go out and buy a scale, but it was easy,” said the student, who wishes to remain anonymous. “You just spread the word around and I sold over $100 in the first couple of days.”

A quick and easy way to make money while being a full-time student was what initially drew the student to selling pot.

“T thought it would be easy, because I go to school with people who were smoking. I wanted to do it last semes- ter, but I was kind of para- noid of being caught. Then I thought: ‘Well, I’ll give it a try,’” she said.

The job seemed like a quick

fix for money, but the profit margin was not as high as she anticipated.

“You have to make a little bit of investment,” she said. “It’s about $360 for two ounces, so I had to have that money available. Every two ounces I sold I made about $50. You always have to be available, so it’s also kind of time-consuming.”

The student says she now plans to end her career as a dealer. She says her supplier told her to charge more for an eighth than other deal- ers do, but she found there weren’t any customers will- ing to spend the extra cash for the same product. —

She also feels her personal drug-use increased once she started selling.

“Before [I started dealing] I figured I would just be able to cut back on smok- ing, but since I had it, I was just smoking all the time,” she said. “I find I’m falling back into the same pattern I

Parliament hangs in the balance political expert Chaldeans Mensah

EDMONTON (CUP) — With the federal Conservative government teetering on the verge of collapse and a Liber- al coalition officially cement- ing a power-sharing deal this week, Intercamp once again turns to our resident politi- cal expert, Chaldeans Men- sah, to give us some insight into the current situation and what the next few months might hold.

Intercamp: Although this seems to haven taken every- body off guard, do you ‘think this proposed coalition gov- ernment between the Liber-

als and NDP has been in the works since the federal elec- tion six weeks ago?

Chaldeans Mensah: One cannot rule out ongoing dis- cussion among the opposi- tion parties to cement areas of common interests in Par- liament, but it’s difficult to ascertain whether such rou- tine discussions have includ- ed elaborate plans to forge a coalition government since the last federal election.

The Tories are certain that discussions on the forma- tion of the proposed coali- tion government _ started

was before, and I’m not hap- py with it. To not smoke as much, I need to get it out of my life.”

Despite her negative experi- ences, she feels her time sell- ing pot hasn’t been wasted.

“I can use the money I made to put toward bills and things like that,” she said.

But when it comes to hard drugs, she says she draws the line when it comes to the type of product she would sell.

“The risk is too great,” she said. “I’m not into any harder drugs, and I would feel mor- ally bad selling something to someone that was bad for them.”

Ryan Thirlwall, a former drug addict and current uni- versity transfer student, says he’s not opposed to drug use, but wants to see people make good choices with their lives.

Thirlwall now co-chairs the Community Youth Develop- ment Coalition of B.C.

:Q and A with

well before the current crisis

over the economic update.

Indeed, the government has even produced a telephone

~recording of NDP leader

Jack Layton to reinforce this claim.

But, it’s also clear that the Harper government’s blun- der in seeking to ban federal subsidies to political parties was a key factor in galvaniz- ing the opposition parties, although the lack of a stimu- lus package to deal with the economic downturn has also been mentioned.

See ‘Coalition’ page 15

“Anything can be a gateway drug,” said Thirlwall. “Some people skip marijuana and go straight to hard stuff.”

He says he gave up drugs because people near him thought he would wind up dead or in jail, so he decided to prove them wrong. He now focuses on his studies and on his work, which in- volves sustainability in com- munities with youth-led ini- tiatives.

As for drug use at school, Thirlwall says “people will always follow through with what they want to do.”

“Tf they use pot, then they’re going to do it here, too,” he said.

Drug dealers on campus

isn’t something Pervez Ditta,

Camosun’s acting manager of campus safety, is happy to hear about.

Ditta points out that sub- stance. abuse can be very dangerous, especially on the Interurban. Campus where many of the programs in-

volve potentially dangerous equipment.

Ditta wants to see people with drug abuse problems get help.

“Depression, stress, and everything becoming over- whelming for an individual are often precursors to use of alcohol and light drug use,” said Ditta. “The college as . a whole will try to help the individual and talk them into getting help.”

Ditta adds the college has been successful in the past helping connect people with the resources they need to manage drug or alcohol abuse problems.

According to Ditta, a larger issue the college faces relat- ed to drug use is petty theft linked to non-student drug addicts coming to campus.

He says the college has had problems in the past with people coming to Camosun to steal from students and staff in order to fuel their habits. Q