Despite great gains in so many ways, every now and then, we run into the fear, the… taboo of even including factual representations of drugs or drug policy. Recently, there were two prime examples.
1. Chased.
Chase conducted an online contest to award millions of dollars to the top hundred vote-getting charities. As part of the effort, non-profit groups worked hard to get individuals to vote for them, which included becoming online “fans” of Chase bank.
It appears certain that three of the top 100 vote-getting organizations were denied the chance to win. Two of these were Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and Marijuana Policy Project.
More info at the Boycott Chase site.
As Radley Balko says:
It’s Chase’s money, of course. They can do what they want with it. But they got free advertising from these groups who promoted the contest. And I’m also free to call Chase a bunch of cowards for not backing their promotion because some of the winners were too controversial.
2. Smoked
It’s Complicated. No, that’s the name of the movie — the situation involved isn’t complicated at all.
The MPAA has embarrassed itself an untold number of times over the years for its prudish attitude toward sex and its wildly permissive attitude toward violence. But what’s it’s done to Nancy Meyers’ upcoming comedy, “It’s Complicated,” is perhaps the ratings board’s biggest boneheaded move yet.
[…] the MPAA has given Meyers’ fluffy comedy about a middle-aged love triangle an R rating because Meryl Streep and Steve Martin’s (who star in the film along with Alec Baldwin) characters are seen sharing a joint while on a date.
The problem, according to people involved with the board’s hearing on the issue, isn’t that the actors are seen smoking pot — it’s that the scene “features pot-smoking with no bad consequences.” Apparently, everything would’ve been fine if only the characters had been killed in a gory car crash …
I just saw the incredible and wonderful movie “Avatar.” The final sequence has scene after scene of horrific violence, death and destruction. The movie received a PG-13 rating. So did “G.I. Joe: The Rise of the Cobra” and thousands of other violent movies. One joint, however, gets you an R.
What a strange world in which we live.
Strange, indeed.
Chase sure got themselves a boatload of free advertising.
There’s no such thing as bad press as long as they spell you’re name right.
After about a year or two of not going to the movies I’ve managed to get dragged to Avatar, It’s complicated and Sherlock Holmes all in the span of one week. After seeing the Avatar McDonald’s commercial I’m all pop cultured out and ready for my cave. This sort of ludicrous logic from the MPAA just confirms it.
All the brutish but note, -bloodless- violence found in Avatar and Sherlock rates PG-13s and a joint rates an R. Fuck me. Like the New York times piece says, If the view of silver haired old farts doesn’t put the kids of the weed I don’t know what will.
Perhaps Chase saw their drug money laundering profits at risk?
Link
A huge amount of dirty money has flowed through the U.S. financial system
through major U.S. banks that provided accounts to high-risk offshore banks, a new U.S. Senate staff report says.
Among the major banks named in the report are J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Citigroup Inc. and Bank of America Corp.
Combine this to what Costa admitted a while back about drug money propping up banks…well hey, it all makes sense.
Chase Manhattan Logo
Luckily, I’m at that age where the MPAA (nor anyone refering to themselves as a “critic) have no meaning to me. Many times, I’ve found that a bad critique equalled a good movie. And ratings? Actually, they tell you NOTHING about the movie.
Legalization will kill Chase Bank! They’ve made that very clear.
Since the banking industry is one of prohibitions biggest supporters I never bothered to vote in the “contest” for their money. I knew they would never contribute to any organization that might take the millions of dollars in laundering money away from them. As the UN crime czar said,the only reason most of the worlds major banks didn’t fail in this depression we are going through was the illegal drug money.
So when you go to your bank the next time,ask the teller how much they made this week laundering cartel drug profits. Not that you will get an answer,because the clerk won’t know,you would have to ask the banks president that question. But if enough people ask,at least they will know that we know.
As I have said,with today’s technology and banking control by the federal reserve,isn’t it funny that the DEA hasn’t busted one bank for laundering those billions of untaxed dollars? Or maybe they were taxed,,,sorta.
“Marijuana is addictive to people the same way sex is,anything that good needs repeating!”
After reading the article about the cash seizures along the border quadrupling lately,and their suggestion that it is because of the heightened border security,I also wonder if some of the smarter bankers are now refusing the money transfers for the cartels. As this issue comes more to light,even they know that it is just a matter of time before some “congressional” investigation could uncover the banks involved in the money laundering.
And eventually,too show or try to prove that the government isn’t involved with the drug trade,there should be an investigation. Of some kind.
They will probably hang the blame on some little clerk in a bank in Podunk,AR,thus allowing the rich people that actually made the money to get away with it.
“There are 100,000 total marijuana smokers in the US, and most are Negroes, Hispanics, Philipino’s and Entertainers. Their Satanic music, jazz and swing, result from marijuana usage. This marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes, entertainers and any others.”
Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of Narcotics testifying to Congress on why marijuana should be made illegal, 1937.
(Marijuana Tax Act, signed August 2 1937; effective Oct.1, 1937)
HA
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ouch
Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is the agency tasked with hunting down ‘dirty money’ laundering operations, but you don’t hear all that much from them lately.
You’d think with all the shenanigans the major banks have been up to their eyeballs in, FinCEN would have been blowing its’ PR trumpet every day.
But, nooooo, that doesn’t seem to interest them. It doesn’t seem to interest them at all that the major banks were indeed kept afloat with dirty money. So, what are they actually doing?
you’re not reading it right, Kaptin,
They’re Enforcing the Crimes within the Financial Network. See? Now it makes sense. LOL
“shenanigans” there’s a word you don’t hear enough of!
Don’t y’all think Chase is doing this “charity drive” in order to hide the fact they STOLE BILLIONS from taxpayers in “bail out” funds? It’s not their cash, it’s OUR cash!
What a joke on the people.
With all the bailouts(our money) these banks took , they are just doing distarction runs via charity drives. Only thing is they didnt count on drug reform groups getting into the mix. That would bring too much notice on the fact that they have accepted billions in drug money. (oh now we wouldnt think bank were involved in money laundering now would we) What it comes down to folks is , banks are crooked, corrupt as our government and cant be trusted with ‘OUR’ money, or anything else for that matter.
Down with all these crooks in sheep clothing. They are not there for our good, only theirs.
As for Avatar…I went see it the day it came out. The cg work was awssome. The story was good but, as I expected, It was all propaganda and indoctrination of the young kids. I pointed this out to a few people after the show. They where saying they didnt understand it(older folks). After I was done they understood. How many military commercials were played at your cinaema before the show? Funny how this gaia culture in the show was here just in time for copenhagen? In the show..science good..military/corporations bad theme.
We are constantly being bombarded by this type of crap.
All that aside, the movie was cool…in 3-D.
“Persons using this narcotic [marijuana] smoke the dried leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving them completely insane. The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug, while under its influence, are immune to pain, and could be injured without having any realization of their condition.”
“While in this condition [high on marijuana] they become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility. . . . If this drug is indulged in to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict.”
~ Emily Murphy/Linta Taylor – Prohibitionists (1923/2009)
Reefer Madness
“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”
* Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing”
* Marijuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”
* Marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”
* Reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men.”
* You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”
* Marijuana is taken by musicians.
And I’m not speaking about good musicians, but the jazz type…”
~ Harry J. Anslinger and the Ganja Worriers Chorus…
“I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana, I mean one that just tears the ass out of them. You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish.”
“Soft-headed psychiatrists who work in places like NIMH (National Institute for Mental Health) favor marijuana because they’re probably all on the stuff themselves.”
“You have to face the fact that the whole problem is really the blacks. The key is to devise a system that recognizes this all while not appearing to.”
~ Richard M. Nixon – Former resident
(about the War on Drugs
to Chief of Staff, H. R. Haldeman,
according to Halderman’s diaries)
“Not only are we here to protect the public
from vicious criminals in the street
but also to protect the public from harmful ideas.”
~ Robert Ingersoll – Former DEAth Director (1972)
Welcome to Oregon NORML
DdC, you often stir some new curiosity for me. What arguments do they use in China to outlaw cannabis?
The Chinese can’t blame the blacks or hispanics or hippies for the ills of marijuana. The Chinese don’t say Jesus Christ wouldn’t smoke pot so therefore its bad. Why do the Chinese outlaw marijuana if they are not religiously or racially motivated? China isn’t being pressured/paid by the USA like countries south of us are, so that can’t be blamed.
Is it a cultural bias in China? Its not something the majority does, so it must be bad? I’m seriously curious now what the justification is in China for marijuana prohibition. I understand their history with opium, so my best guess is it cultural fall-out from that perhaps. I don’t know a thing about their alcohol laws either. Time for the Google.
Just me, I think I’d favor a separation of science of state, like religion. The sacking of David Nutt in Britain has brought that concept forward recently. Nutt was fired from his non-paid government science commission because he was honest about the science on marijuana, and then a ton of his fellow scientists quit in protest of his firing. It was wonderful and I wish scientists here would stand up to government about the bad science in the drug war.
I wonder if the issue in China is that it’s simply not “right” for someone to take a mind altering substance. That it was and is still seen as a wasteful bourgeois habit. Anything interfering with the devotion to the state would be seen as bad in their historical context. I mean opium had / has a long history but a lot of things where upended during the cultural revolution and I can imagine most substances where seen as part of the “rot.”
In a sense, you don’t need religion at all, you just need zealots and violence or the threat of violence.
It’s Complicated is excellent, I’d recommend seeing it. The irony is, that the movie portrays marijuana use in a very realistic context.
The Chinese can’t blame the blacks or hispanics or hippies for the ills of marijuana. The Chinese don’t say Jesus Christ wouldn’t smoke pot so therefore its bad. Why do the Chinese outlaw marijuana if they are not religiously or racially motivated?
~ DavesNotHere
Same fascism, they have more brutal control methods, maybe. They grow Hemp and have used RxGanja thousands of years. They have the infrastructure we destroyed here. Hemp seed is popcorn in theater’s. Tiananmen Square is how they dealt with it in the past. Ganja isn’t the corporate danger to China as it is to the totally addicted fossil fools in the west. Questioning authority and leaving the herd mentality is the danger. Can’t run the machine on nothing. Or on Anarchy. Obedient discipline and cheap labor keeping Wallmart product prices low enough for teabog ditzo’s. Who never care where their clothing is made, or what it is made of. Or food or building materials. China hasn’t the gullibility or the amount of spoiled boomers. Plus a billion in cheap labor and a minority of unquestioning educated new yuppies with a large Military and Police maintenance force. Still have less prisoners and holding IOU’s on loans to bail out US banks and Insurance Co’s. Fascism is a form of capitalism. Nothing new and nothing to do with Nazi’s. Except in Boosh Rove’ case, and most major prohibitionist corporations were trading freely throughout the 30’s.
Corporatism 101.jpg
China isn’t being pressured/paid by the USA like countries south of us are, so that can’t be blamed.
Is it a cultural bias in China?
It’s fascism. Ganja has always had a cannabinoid that seems to energizes the human uppity gene. Or short term memory keeping traumatic moments dulled, also makes lying difficult. Probably behind most of the rebellions and protestants. Truth, like doing the job right the first time is for us lazy people who don’t enjoy wasting energy unnecessarily. Unfortunately the lynching’s could also be factored in too. Deterrents as much as prison rape today. Racism is taught, for a reason of which has nothing to do with skin color. Cheap labor. Thats it. Like the entire Ganjawar is for foreign resources and synthetics profits over individuals growing their own staples.
The segregation rules were real. With harsh consequences the same as the aftermath of Chai Ling. And time may never tell how many of them fell. And Wang Wei Lin, you remember him. All alone he stood before the tanks. Ain’t no Yanks gonna do that. A country with millions of millionaires with tax shelters off shore or in anti drug sects, that permits hunger or homelessness is a vulgar ignorant society of cowards and an insult to the ideals of the country. At the very least assures Life and Liberty. Nothing about cost or tax. For Liberty the pre-requsite of Life is required and so therefore the pre-requisites of Life are also gauranted. If not by enployment, the easiest. Then by community or ample game to hunt and land to build on.
China has a heavy cultural bias, as with India for the labor force and the loyally educated. Asia has taken the drug war capital punishment seriously. Vietnam and Thailand intimidate by murder. DEAth drools over the seed money Souder planted. The GOPerverts did the same in Nicaragua, Guatemala, Panama and Colombia. It was the British drug traffickers forcing the Chinese to trade in Opium. China was enforcing its own opium prohibition and lost. Ganja originated in Afghanistan and China has had some of the oldest recorded cannabis history. Including a story of Jefferson having some kynd bud smuggled at the risk of beheading. Some articles of rural areas in the south where Ganja is freely marketed but tourists started fucking it up and getting notice, usually leading to government interventions. Anyone ever toking Vietnamese bud knows its BS to claim todays is more potent. Asia has always had some of the kyndest bud on the planet for hundreds or thousands of years. The US runs the drug war and spends taxes maintaining it. China doesn’t need American anything but consumers of inferior crude plastic, less quality assured products and cash loans tax payers are forking out $300+ bil a year in interest. Any despotic means of control bans Ganja. The early church banned it when the young novices were finding Jesus without the aid of the Priests, and the Monk’s made and sold the Vino.
Fascism 101.jpg
Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition. Booze/Ethanol or Ganja//Hemp. While GOP and DNC bicker over nonsense.
Just me, I think I’d favor a separation of science of state, like religion.
The sacking of David Nutt in Britain has brought that concept forward recently. Nutt was fired from his non-paid government science commission because he was honest about the science on marijuana, and then a ton of his fellow scientists quit in protest of his firing. It was wonderful and I wish scientists here would stand up to government about the bad science in the drug war.
Oh ya, that’ll be the day. OK the only reason for government is to assure safety and honesty for we the public. No more no less. Corporations selling products for profit disregarding environmental protection or workers safety are the problem, yet most of the public enjoy the lower prices and say nothink! Government grants provide or are supposed to provide entrepreneurs funding that corporations also get. The problem is legally shelving discoveries that can help everybody or solve problems. Science is paid for by the same people in competition with Ganja and Hemp and many Herbal remedies and Nutritional Medicine. In cold hard numbers geeky fascism only inventions that “treat” symptoms are worth marketing. Cures and Prevention are one shot deals. After Rayguns Rumsfeld Searle Boosh Lilly Thomas Monsanto, Cheney Halliburton. The FDA is mostly corporate CEO’s legislating for their own interests and the public be damned.
The FDA has never tested any part of the cannabis plant or the Hemp plant. Just employee opinion leaked to a corporate propaganda press. US and China and the G-20 perpetuate prohibition for their own synthetic plastic greedy traitorous reasons. So what’s the dif, strawberry and vanilla, both ice cream. Socially 1/8th of us still vote. Not sure if its counted. We have better music and recreation. Both practicing fascists. Nothing communal about China, Russia or Cuba. India fascism is another weird acceptance of life stations and very happy to suck up US real estate and jobs.
In a psychological sense it has the feel of a crusade, and plenty of over zealous good intenders. But I agree, religion is a tool of fascism, and reaps rewards and sanctuary for their own, but mainly keeps the sheep calm, chastises rebellious youths and shuns and stigmatizes girls smoking colitas acting like the harlot Mari Juana.
Kathmandu and the Black Prince
So much corporatism within religion, investing tithings in stock markets. Massive real estate, tax free. Government elected lobbyists, obvious, Trench Lott wasn’t discrete, the Dick Armey and Pesticide Delay. Pat&Jer Oral and the lesser shysters cashing lil old ladies social security checks or teaching oxymoronic dribble about humans being or granted infallibility. We have a dirty rotten filthy system because of being shucked and awed, skipping the checks and balances. Same companies spraying the poison are selling the drugs to treat it. Mexamericanada… coming soon to a neighborhood near you.
Kill the Messenger
RELATIVES VISIT BRITON ON DEATH ROW IN CHINA
Such eleventh-hour appeals are almost never granted in China, which executes more people each year than all other countries combined.
Ddc, I gotta say I love reading your posts. I feel like such small potatos when expressing what I want to say next to yours. Kudos!
We all do our part,
just hope it doesn’t take another 40 years.
But it will. Maybe not Ganja.
Always something to bitch about.
Almost done with another trip around the sun.
Like NASCAR, turn left and go 292167870 miles.
End up in the same damn place.
Be well…
MPAA=Marijuana Prohibition via Alcoholics Anonymous. Isn’t it time for this dinosaur to roll over and die yet? Blood spilling, wholesale slaughter, beheadings, gore like you wouldn’t believe…that’s ok, PG-13. But, NO, allow one cannabis joint to show it’s face and everyone around snicker and laugh instead of “imploding,” and it gets an “R.” “R” must stand for raucus! It’s good enough of a rating for me to go see it. MPAA/Critics, they’ll always point you to the better movies, even if they don’t intend to.