The 2016 ISIL Games: Opening Ceremony Pt.5

This should be read as a direct continuation of Part 4; http://watchitdie.blogspot.in/2016/08/the-2016-isil-games-opening-ceremony-pt4.html

The Olympic Rings: It is a matter of IOC protocol that each Opening Ceremony must feature the ceremonial unveilling of the five Olympic rings.

In dealing with this sometimes tedious bit of protocol the Brazilian Opening Ceremony was particularly creative.

As is tradition the Brazilian team as hosts were the last to arrive in the arena in the Parade of Nations. They were immediately followed by a parade of 12 Samba schools from the annual Rio Carnival that Brazil is particularly famous for. The Samba schools were followed by the silver seed banks that had been used during the Parade of Nations.

Amid the organised chaos this created in the arena the seed banks suddenly took centre stage and from their tops suddenly appeared the Olympic Rings in the form a plant leaves.

This could obviously be interpreted as a reference to the environmental theme of the ceremony. Particularly the Amazon Rainforest and the reforestation efforts that led to the athletes being invited to plant seeds in the seed banks.

However it could also be interpreted as a reference to another type of plant. The Marijuana plant.

Attitudes towards Marijuana use is currently a big talking point across North, Central and South America. A number of US states such as Colorado have completely legalised the recreational use of Marijuana while around 25 others have legalised the medical use of Marijuana.

The picture is similar across much of Central and South America. Argentina, Columbia, Ecuador and Mexico along with the hosts Brazil have all decriminalised the personal use of Marijuana. Guatemala has called for the legalisation of all drugs at the United Nations (UN).

Uruguay which never made Marijuana use illegal has even go so far as to legalise the production of Marijuana. Columbia seems to be following suit issuing export licenses for commercial Marijuana export even if it has yet to legalise commercial Marijuana production.

This new trend towards Marijuana legalisation across Latin America is driving largely by a desire to free the region from the grip of the drug cartels.

Prior to the US' CIA teaming up with Pablo Escobar to fund the Honduran Contras Marijuana was the main illegal drug being produces across Latin America. It was only the CIA's decision to open the US market to Cocaine in the 1980's that saw production shift dramatically towards Coca.

The hope being that legalisation of Marijuana will shift production back from Coca. Even if this doesn't completely remove the influence of the cartels it should help reduce the levels of violence.

After all it is widely accepted that Marijuana users and dealers are significantly less violent than Cocaine users and dealers. Crack Cocaine dealers are of course the absolute worst.

The main barrier that Latin American nations face in trying to remove the destabilising influence of the drug cartels is US President Barack Obama.

Through the migration policy that Donald Trump has helped put a stop to Obama and the Democrats of course aimed to partner with the drug cartels in their people trafficking efforts. Thus boosting their profits and influence.

As part of his commitment to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) Obama has made a point of commuting the sentences of predominately Crack Cocaine dealers. Anyone who has any experience with both drugs, their users and the people that sell them knows that Crack Cocaine is a far more serious drug than Powder Cocaine.

Therefore any discussion of drug policy in Latin America only serves to further underline that Obama cannot be considered a serious President and the Democrats cannot be considered a serious party.

Marijuana use is also something of a hot topic within the Olympic movement itself. Particularly as it tries to welcome in some of the newer sports such as Surfing, Skateboarding and Snowboarding.

Although I don't want to stereotype participants in those sports have a reputation for using Marijuana recreationally. Particularly as global legislation has moved towards decriminalisation this has led to people arguing that Marijuana should no longer be on the list of drugs that are banned by the IOC.

The problem with this is that Marijuana has strong performance enhancing, medical properties. For example it acts as a powerful muscle relaxant and anti-inflammatory. This means that it cuts athletes recovery times and allows them to build more muscle faster.

Therefore even if they are only using recreationally Marijuana users will gain an unfair advantage over athletes that do not use Marijuana.

One of the most controversial athletes when it comes to discussions of Marijuana is Team USA's Michael Phelps. He is the US' most decorated Olympian with some 23 Gold medals and was selected as the US' flag bearer at these games.

The problem is that Phelps is a serious and habitual drugs cheat. In 2004, 2009 and again in 2014 Phelps was found to have been using Marijuana. However rather than being stripped of his medals and banned from all future competitions Phelps simply got off with repeated warnings because the US falsely claimed that Marijuana was a recreational rather than a performance enhancing drug.

At the swimming events that almost immediately followed the Opening Ceremony Michael Phelps and many of his teammates appeared sporting this strange geometric red circles on their bodies.

These were the result of an ancient Chinese therapy known as "Cupping." Its purpose is to relax muscles and cut inflammation in order to reduce recovery times enhancing athletic performance. The jokes about Phelps once again falling asleep on his Marijuana bong pretty much wrote themselves

On Monday (15/8/16) the US Federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced that it is going to continue classing Marijuana as a dangerous illegal drug alongside Heroin and Crack Cocaine. Their reasoning being the false claim that Marijuana has no medical or therapeutic benefits.

This was rather like the US saying it would rather see Latin American burn than admit that Michael Phelps is a drugs cheat who along with all of Team USA should be expelled from the Olympics.

Just like the US has been trying to have the entire Russian team banned. 

17:15 on 17/8/16 (UK date).