Militarization of Drug War a Failure, Mexico Rights Watchdog Says
More than three years of using the Mexican military against drug cartels has brought no improvement in public safety, the chairman of the independent National Human Rights Commission
Normalizing the Police State by Allison Kilkenny
Here we have the completion of the perfect police state. Citizens are monitored from cradle to grave. Any signs of anger or rebellion are swiftly squelched with medication or “peace officers.†The schools step in when the state cannot act to monitor and regulate every movement of students’ lives under the banner of “Zero Tolerance.†[…]
Sinclair Lewis said, “When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.â€
Marijuana Decriminalization Advances Jacob Sullum at Hit and Run has a rundown.
If you missed it earlier this week, be sure to read the USA Today front-page story: Slowly, states are lessening limits on marijuana
“Politicians are finally catching up with the American public,” Gardinier says.
Most of the changes have come on the West Coast and Northeast, but lawmakers in a few Southern and Central states also are proposing bills, in part because they see marijuana as a potential money-maker, says Gutwillig of the Drug Policy Alliance.
A Generational Moment for Drug Policy Reformers by Stephen C. Webster
It all centers around a man named Henry Walter Wooten, a 54-year-old Texas resident who will likely be spending the rest of his life behind bars. That’s because a jury in Tyler sentenced him to 35 years in jail after he was caught in possession of just over a quarter pound of marijuana. […]
His sentence is so stunningly, terrifyingly unjust, if drug reform advocates do not fly into an uproar over this case, I may just give up all hope of seeing this drug war problem rectified in my lifetime.
Pentagon Shooter Pot Scandal Grows Cliff Kincaid is back to push this issue some more.
Facing a backlash over reports that Bedell was a psychotic pothead, the illegal-drug lobby is accusing anyone who brings up anything negative about “medical marijuana” of engaging in “reefer madness,” a term once given to chronic marijuana use of the kind that ultimately resulted in Bedell’s downward spiral and death in an exchange of gunfire at the Pentagon.
What’s sad is that the Christian Science Monitor went down to Kincaid’s level in this stunningly bad piece: Marijuana legalization? A White House rebuttal, finally
Money Can Grow on Trees — NORML gets its digital ad in Times Square.
Costa’s legacy: Human Rights and the UNODC — excellent piece at Transform on the two faces of UNODC’s Costa.
Instead of having a constructive dialogue with the NGOs representatives present, the Director prompted an audible gasp as he immediately lashed out, angrily accusing half of us of being ‘pro-drug’ (again) and not caring if we killed millions in poor countries. […] Costa is stepping down in May and hopefully a more positive relationship will be possible with his successor. […]
As he prepares to bow out he may well also look back at today’s publication by the UNODC of new a discussion document, ‘Drug control, crime prevention and criminal justice: a human rights perspective – Note by the Executive Director’ , as one legacy for which he can be justifiably proud. It contains a level of sophistication in its analysis that has long been absent from the high level drug policy UN discourse. It is an authoritative document and one of potentially huge importance in the longer term. UN drug control, and international drug policy more generally has been uniquely divorced from much of the mainstream human rights analysis that flows through the very core of the wider UN family. This new document goes some way to correcting this historical anomaly – at least on paper.
Fascinating stuff.
Ideas for Change in America Change.org will officially announce the top 10 ideas on Monday, but “Legalize the Medicinal and Recreational Use of Marijuana” was number 1 at the closing bell. Curious to see what kind of action comes of that.
DrugSense Weekly – a weekly review of the most interesting or relevant articles in the press and on the web related to drug policy reform.
Drug War Chronicle – weekly update of drug war news and analysis from Stop the Drug War.org.
This is an open thread.
In the year 2525 song came to mind reading this post. Marijuana might be legal in 35 years everyone stay healthy and we’ll walk down the street blazing a big bomber in celebration!
Regarding that militarization of battles with the drug cartels didn’t the Mexican president use the equivalent of Shrub Bush and his “bring it on” statement. Well the cartels brought it on and hopefully it doesn’t spill over into American border towns and regions.
well, the csm is parroting the crap from ondcp as usual, and the ondcp is parroting the same crap that we’ve heard for the past 40 years.
indeed, the arguments being made today are almost exactly the same as the ones that derailed the train in the early 1970s — however, this time we have all the real data, the smarts to use it effectively, a lack of generational schism, and the instantaneous worldwide communications methods available to us via the internet.
the only way we can lose is to continue pecking away piecemeal at this shit. if you read kerlikowskie’s spew it does the usual combination of meandering around talking about alcohol and prescription pills with the occasional injection of something about pot and a variety of “shocktoids” (ie number of people “seeking treatment,” emergency room “mentions,” etc).
and i’m delighted that they keep going back to their claims that drug use “costs $180 billion a year” in various damages. what they don’t ever reveal though is the overall context in which the claims can be examined — that’s our job, and we have them by the balls!
the most important thing about addressing the claims is not necessarily to come up with a bunch of direct counter claims point by point (we’re already not winning that game since they can just keep chucking out more red herrings) — rather it is to fully examine and expose the claims to show how insignificant and misrepresentative they really are.
for example:
real cost breakdown
marijuana mentions
and of course, the truly miniscule numbers of people who are affected negatively by marijuana use
we have these jackasses by the balls — and they know it. now is not the time to be bashful, it is not the time to seek incremental change — it is time to crush their balls with all our might. we have to put the whole thing into the big picture context and show it to the world.
their days are truly numbered, and they are well aware of the fact. that’s why they are starting to screech as loud as they can again. they know they are losing and that is amply demonstrated by their use of the same old tired crap they first put together formally in quantico back in 1994
context is what makes the picture clear. the prohibs quote the numbers bare without context — that makes what they say sound scary. it is time to unleash the entire arsenal of data at our disposal.
and read this one about their tactics too
What the HELL is wrong with this Kincaid fellow?! “Illegal drug lobby” then call others conspiracy nuts?
Was watching CNN this morning and saw what seemed to be two medical marijuana patients-rights stories. It was completely shocking that a mainstream media source would run these two stories. The first discussed legal medical marijuana patients’ fears of having their children taken away by social services in Colorado. The second story was about a legal medical marijuana patient in Michigan who was fired by Wal Mart for using medical marijuana to treat his inoperable brain tumor. The first was an in-depth special investigation report. I guess someone over at CNN saw that 81 percent support number for medical marijuana…
I will be 95,if I make it for 35 more years,can I use my motorized wheel chair?
Pete,I refuted the CSM article,paragraph by paragraph and sent it to CSM from their website,and I would like to see everyone do it. Don’t be bashful about anything but only use facts than can be backed up with research and above all,no disrespect,even though they give us none. We are better than them.
My favorites were the paragraphs about the huge financial backing we have,(maybe we can get a check if they tell us where to apply),and that the only scientific proof of harm he used was that marijuana caused dependence.
Since 90% of America can’t get out of bed without a cup of coffee,I can’t see how that it is a harmful danger.
“the only scientific proof of harm that has not been refuted”
Where will you be in 35 years?
Same general position I was in 35 (40) years ago.
Firing up a fattie laughing at the silly politikons…
Reefer Madness By Abbie Hoffman
The Nation, November 21, 1987 excerpted
Truth has been the first casualty in this so-called war on drugs. When Reagan labeled drug abuse “an evil scourge’ that has become the nation’s number-one social problem, during the 1986 campaign, the nation had been whipped up into such a frenzy that polls showed the citizenry believed him. On October 27, 1986, Reagan got what he championed: the fifty-fifth Federal antidrug bill in eighty years. Congress authorized $3.96 billion to attack what Newsweek, with typical hyperbole, compared to “the plagues of medieval times.’ (That plague wiped out two-thirds of the people in Europe. According to government statistics, in 1979 3,500 deaths were attributed to illicit drugs. No deaths, incidentally, were caused by marijuana.) Then, after the elections, Reagan cut $1 billion from his own war on drugs program and, in the harshest blow, recommended that no money be spent on drug rehabilitation and treatment in fiscal 1988.
“I now have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast.”
~ Ronald Q. Rayguns
* Dr. Heath/Tulane Study, 1974
* The Hype: Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys
In 1974, California Governor Ronald Reagan was asked about decriminalizing marijuana. After producing the Heath/Tulane University study, the so-called “Great Communicator” proclaimed, “The most reliable scientific sources say permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana.” (L.A. Times)
* The Facts: Suffocation of Research Animals
Teddy Kennedy’s Cannabis Brain Tumor Cure
Marijuana Revolution by John Sinclair 1971
The Great Marijuana Hoax By Allen Ginsberg
7:38 P.M. Nov. 13, 1965 San Francisco, California, USA, Kosmos
Abbie List: Reefer Madness
From the link provided by Brian.
This is from a prohib’s orientation, so the following should not be a surprise:
“Arguments in favor of legalization, as mentioned earlier, often draw
overly broad conclusions from limited data or research, rely on hypothetical arguments and lean heavily on research that is outdated, discredited or “uncredited,” meaning that it hasn’t been subjected to rigorous review by the researcher’s colleagues prior to publication.”
A-hem. That is exactly the prohib’s modus operandi, not ours.
For example, they’ll yammer about cannabis and ‘cancer’ and point to the Zhang study which posited (but never proved) a connection, in the hopes that their audience will not know about the Tashkin Study which did disprove Zhang’s theory. About as pure an example of the psychological concept of ‘projection’ as could ever be found.
I realized at the end of the article that it was in fact from the DEA’s hopelessly outdated anti-drug law reform debate ‘manual’ for their field agents, the one disseminated in the mid-1990’s and never updated…as you can see, for a good reason.
claygooding: Care to share your refutation with us? I’d love to read it.
It’s almost certain that California voters will be asked in a
November ballot initiative whether to allow local governments to
regulate and tax marijuana (similar to taxes on sales of alcohol).
Other states are considering similar proposals, which are really a
backdoor way to legalize pot.Thirteen states have decriminalized
the use or possession of small amounts of marijuana, which is not
the same as legalizing it. Selling it is still illegal except in
states where it is used for medical purposes. And under federal
law, any sort of marijuana use or sale is a criminal offense.
How is a vote by the people a “backdoor” way to legalize pot?
Where is the front door?
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The drug czar’s remarks are worth notice for two reasons. First,
they provide needed talking points for those who oppose
legalization but who can’t seem to make their message resonate in
the face of a well-financed, well-organized pro-marijuana effort.
Second, they help clear up confusion about the White House policy
on legalization. When Attorney General Eric Holder announced last
year that US law enforcement officials would neither raid nor
prosecute medical marijuana dispensaries or those using them,
states got mixed signals. Mr. Holder explained it as a matter of
the best use of scarce federal law enforcement resources, which he
didn’t want to expend in the now 14 states that have approved some
use of medical marijuana.
Please explain who is financing this effort. Everyone I know and
speak with that supports legalization is fighting prohibition for
many reasons and they all want to know where to get their pay check. And if marijuana is not a medicine,how does the Justice
department have a “medical marijuana” policy?
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The drug czar couldn’t have been more plain. On medical marijuana,
which has strong public backing in opinion polls, the former
Seattle police chief said that “science should determine what a
medicine is, not popular vote.†As Kerlikowske pointed out,
marijuana is harmful – and he has the studies to back it up. Read
the footnotes in his speech; they’re sobering, especially No. 8.
“No 8″5 2007 National Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by
Drivers: Drug Results, U.S. Department of Transportation, National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2009. Accessible at
http://www.ondcp.gov/publications/pd…sidesurvey.pdf
The study clearly states:“The reader is cautioned that drug
presence does not necessarily imply impairment. For many drug
types, drug presence can be detected long after any impairment that
might affect driving has passed. For example, traces of marijuana
can be detected in blood samples several weeks after chronic users
stop ingestion. Also, whereas the impairment effects for various
concentration levels of alcohol is well understood, little evidence
is available to link concentrations of other drug types to driver
performance.â€
“Caution should be exercised in assuming that drug presence implies
driver impairment. Drug tests do not necessarily indicate current
impairment. Drug presence can be measured for a period of days or
weeks after ingestion in many cases. This latency of drug presence
may partially explain the consistency between daytime and nighttime
drug findings.†(Page 3)
From this it is clear that the ONDCP is
trying to create a problem that does not exist.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Legalization supporters argue that no one has ever died from an
overdose of this “soft†drug. But here’s what “science†has found
so far: Smoking marijuana can result in dependence on the drug.
He has stated that people can form a dependence on the drug,which
science has stated repeatedly that caffeine causes more dependence
than pot and never responded too the lack of death claim,because
there has never been a death caused by marijuana on any death
certificate. The only people that have died from marijuana were
killed by the police or died in prison for it.
And it is amazing that after 40 years of studies by NIDA,the only scientific proof of damage by
marijuana is “dependence”?
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
More than 30 percent of people who are 18 and over and who used
marijuana in the past year are either dependent on the drug or
abuse it – that is, they use it repeatedly under hazardous
conditions or are impaired when they’re supposed to be interacting
with others, such as at work. This is according to a 2004 study in
the Journal of the American Medical Association.
And how many people are dependent on coffee to even start their
day?
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Pot is also associated with poor motor skills, cognitive impairment
(i.e., affecting the ability to think, reason, and process
information), and respiratory and mental illness.The recent
“Pentagon shooter,†John Patrick Bedell, was a heavy marijuana
user. The disturbed young man’s psychiatrist told the Associated
Press that marijuana made the symptoms of his mental illness more pronounced. Mr. Bedell’s brother, Jeffrey, told The Washington Post
that marijuana made his brother’s thinking “more disordered†and
that he had implored him to stop smoking pot, to no avail.
Poor motor skills? Do you mean like gold medal winners Ivory
Williams and Micheal Phelps? The cognitive impairment is not a permanently damaged.
John Patrick Bedell is an exception,not the rule. If marijuana
caused his mental illness,there would be dead people all over this
country from drug crazed marijuana users.
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What’s too bad about the drug czar’s speech is that it was made
behind closed doors at a venue not accessible to the press, then
quietly put on the administration’s website. Given the confusion
over the message, the White House needs to be far more outspoken
about this. President Obama himself needs to get more involved than
simply letting his drug czar reveal this critical stance below the
radar. As a high-profile parent, he can help other parents who are
struggling to prevent their children from going down the rabbit
hole of drug use. If one message can resonate in this debate, it’s
that America’s young people are most vulnerable to the threat of
legalization.
It was made at a meeting of law endorcement,where everyone in the
room gets money from ONDCP for fighting drugs.
If you want too protect your children,why would you continue a
system that cannot stop drugs after 40 years of trying and has
spent over a trillion dollars in tax money with no positive
results? The continued prohibition of drugs underwrites the
existence of the drug cartels in Mexico and street dealers that do
not check ID’s. Regulating marijuana and allowing people to grow
their own removes the profit from marijuana and the criminal
involvement.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
They are particularly sensitive to the price of pot (and prices
will come down if pot is legalized). They’re the most influenced by
societal norms (and public approval is growing). And they’re the
ones most heavily engaged in studying and learning – a process that
pot smoking can impair. Individuals who reach age 21 without using
drugs are almost certain to never use them. But according to a
study by a leading source on young people and drugs, Monitoring the
Future, marijuana use among teens has increased in recent years,
after a decade of decline. Teens perceive less risk in use – not
surprising when states approve of it as medicine. Risk perception
greatly influences drug use among young people.
Yes,prices will come down,but instead of “dealers” that don’t check
ID’s,it would be sold in licensed retail outlets that do. Marijuana
is more available too teens than ever and is proof that spending billions of dollars and putting people in prison does not work.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
It will take clear-thinking parents, teachers, local officials,
faith leaders, and law enforcement officers to convincingly
articulate why the march to legalization must be stopped. They can,
if they use the kinds of reasonable and fact-based arguments that
the nation’s drug czar has just laid out.
Maybe the people that oppose drugs,such as D.A.R.E. and Drug free
America are heavily financed,but I don’t know anyone that makes
their living as an activist for legalization, and the ONDCP is
the financier for the anti-drug cartel,and the prohibition
people,such as this magazine,are inadvertently working for the drug
cartels when they spread the propaganda of a bureaucratic empire
that costs America 15 billion dollars a year and whose budget is
justified by and depends on marijuana remaining illegal.I am still
searching for any facts that are put out by the drug czar. So far,
all I am seeing are half truths and skewed statistics.
I received an email back,the standard TY and will be forwarded to appropriate people from Mark @ CSM. That will probably be the only communication that I’ll receive.
Please boycott the entire state of Idaho and send the Governor an email. See the story at http://bit.ly/bcMKkm – Stop the Drug War.
(hope I got that link alright, it’s my first attempt).
Medical marijuana patient Aurora Hathor-Rainmenti has been targeted unfairly by Rexburg cops. Links to various contacts are in the comment section.
———–
As far as the Legalize movement in California it bears reminding all activist that the mormon church, aka Utah, ruined gay marriage rights by interfering, don’t think for one minute that they won’t try to interfere with the legalize issue.
And … I’ll be dead in 35 years.
Exactly. So will Henry Wooten, but he’ll have spent the entire time behind bars for 4 1/2 ounces of pot.
im so sick of all this bs—and not just the drug war. all the lies make me want to kill myself. i should have stayed in amsterdam the last time i was there. justice? fuk—sure, if u got money. i-da-ho is fuking lame and i live in the pathetic Nw. both of my parents died from alcohol–and knowing how harsh that death is and having a predisposition to alcohol abuse/dependence, i want a fuking legal choice. yes, im pissed. i drank today cause i dont have weed–and i hate myself for doing so. im soooo fukin FED-up! only reason i live in this pathetic country is because i have a daughter, and because of the fuked up family laws, lies, and money–i get to stay in this crapola country and pay child support to a mom that doesnt work. yay! she gets to sit home while DR. Husband takes her on vacation leaving my daughter with a babysitter. otherwise id be on some tropical island not ranting. i hope u guys stick to it and at this point—get MEAN! i thank pete and all the others for sharing their knowledge. i will calm down once i find some stuff and will keep reading. thanks a HOLE fuking lot–and i mean it.
Got that Pete. This is why I said a post or two ago that the negative news was difficult to take at times.
The palpable ache in my heart won’t stop for those who are abused repeatedly by cops, judges, the government, and all the other idiots.
—
I actually believe that the prohibitionists want us to get violent just so they can say, “told you so”. We must resist. It’s been said many different ways but let me put it this way. When prohibition is over I WILL NOT have any compassion or sympathy for those who have caused such horrific harm to society.
And in passing, I laugh at the cop on t.v. who does the television commercial for a certain protect your identity company. He says “I never did anything to have my identity stolen, I didn’t desire this”. And I say, “oh yes you did and I hope you grieve and suffer for lifetimes to come”.
Not nice, not pretty but appropriate in my eye.
1937 Marihuana Tax Ax – 1970 Nixon Controlled Substance Ax
is 43 years. 1970 – 2010 another 40 years.
Time for another overhaul…
Time for the Scrap Heap!
“The greatest service that can be rendered to any country
is to add a useful plant to its culture.”
— Thomas Jefferson
A-hem. That is exactly the prohib’s modus operandi, not ours.
kaptinemo
I’ve noticed that on several discussions. To the point of being what I thought was nearly impossible. Even more ludicrous than the old reefer madness. I had to explain why reformers weren’t Fascist. I can’t remember the last time I tasered a cop after smelling something peculiar coming from the doughnut box. Or broke into someone’s home to see if they were worthy of probable cause, just seems to be a slap in the forefathers face. If we did that it would be called breaking and entry, burglary or home invasion. They must have a talking point memo stating to just reverse what we say, but still maintain the non debate, trolling and diversions.
“If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you
hating the people who are being oppressed,
and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”
~ Malcolm X
The Corporate Muzzle had full reign. Redneck swift-boat saboteurs aren’t new to politics or TV news entertainment. Now they’re finding their way to the forums. Prrofessional Trolls of Fascism. 10 years they have also been trying to legislate the internet from reform discussions the same way they edited the school books from Hemp and RxGanja History. dwugs rrr bad cuz derr illegal dwugs rr illegal cuz derr bad. how musht more cyenz dya need? They sound like a horde of Goliath Giant groupies seeking revenge on the teeny Davids taking unfair advantage. Sounding like little boys with their tongues stuck to a frozen metal pole.
“The voters in this country should not be expected to decide
which medicines are safe and effective.”
“We’ve got a national campaign by drug legalizers, in my view,
to try and use medicinal uses of drugs and legalization of hemp
as a stalking horse to get in under the radar screen.”
~ CzarBarry McCaffrey – Former Drug Czar (Clinton)
Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc. advertising for The DEAth Merchants, their Security and Gutter Science ends justifying means, catch 22 and intimidation, threats and down right terrorizing Americans is retarded. Idiotic, insane and brutal. When you cage a caregiver for sanctioned grow ops by/with the city, as with Morrow Bay and Charlie. It’s nothing to do with America. It has no place in our lives. It should be Perjury as it is if we lie. If a TV clown spews falsehoods to the public it is dangerous. Getting the rednecks and lynch mobs fired up or Kooky Kurly lying for the Copshops. We are paying for our own persecutions and we are paying for people to erode our own Constitutional Amendments. We should stop being accomplices in these treasonous acts by aiding and abetting DEAth Ganjawar Criminals.
“Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as fallible, too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere; the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. … Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.”
— Thomas Jefferson,
“Notes on the State of Virginia,” 1787
Thugs with the sole purpose of befriending a neighbor to stab them in the back, just for helping them out or selling them what they seek to buy. Without snitches there is no Ganjawar. Two Faced Tax Paid Wasted Potential. Pitiful how low they can go running on good intentions and greed. Look for the ones without references and those who complain about references. Its hype if you can’t prove it or show your source. Drug Worriers have no Physics based reality and even the references are hear say or half truth NIDA / Asslinger, Nahas, Turner, Bensinger, Bennett, Walters and his 3 pips, TandyInc, BarthwellBayer & Liarhert, Dupont, Sambler, Furd, Ray & Rayguns, Boosh&Junior, Klintoon,
“Any fool can make a rule,
and Every fool will follow it.”
~ Henry David Thoreau
“…the primary reason to outlaw marijuana
is its effect on the degenerate races.”
– Harry J. Anslinger – America’s 1st Drug Czar (FDR – JFK)
Ganja and Hemp are versatile and provide thousands of products/jobs and uses. Those who call it hype do so for an agenda. Hype doesn’t sell on the internet. Canabis has Physical measurements and functions. Paint or Omega 3 or Greater tensile strength boards or softer stronger blue jeans or a safer alternatives to the booze and white powder conglomerates. Grown in dirt. All real and all a threat to the poisons, plastic from war torn crude oil countries, rain forest clear cutters or Mr Peabody’s mountaintop removal. Private prisons and Rehab “specialists” selling plea bartered mandatory piss tastes. All unnecessary by utilizing Ganja and Hemp as they do its cousin Hops. Would they lie? They have absolutely no choice.
“When governments fear the people there is liberty.
When the people fear the government there is tyranny.”
~ Thomas Jefferson
I read that story last week about the guy in Texas. Remember he was near a daycare center (gasp!). We must keep the kids safe from everything. You must have condoms on your thought clouds outside a school or daycare center. We must shelter the kids and tell em every doodle and regurgitation is precious that way they will be prepared for life in the real world.
We’ve talked about this, over and over. Kaptin has harped it seemingly forever. NOW, we get to hear it “real time.†Check this out: http://bit.ly/aGCgmB
Listen to what’s SAID in the story. Things like “perfect economic storm.†Here we see the “fruits†of our beloved Drug War. Notice the picture of the entire force. Man says now there’s 3 and there won’t even be an office in July.
Small towns are the “canary in the mine†when it comes to larger cities.
It just struck me odd that the CSM could be taken seriously on anything it has to say on the legitimacy of any medicine. Isn’t the Christian Science movement the religion all about *not* using medications of any sort and relying on prayer for healing?
You bet that perfect storm is coming. We hear it on the news everyday, schools , police , firedepartments on and on being cut . This may just be the beginning.
When are these dumbass prohibs gonna see…It cant continue. Whether its the economy, or the truth about the drug wars…it will end.
What really gets me is they just dont get it…laws cant stop people from using anything…drugs or junk food…it just wont work.
DEA…give up while you can still can, save face , while you can still transform your office to some nice tax office and have a job.
They might get a clue one day and realize how much it costs to warehouse people away for years on end. Mandatory minimum sentences must be abolished.
Yes you are someone,
They might get a clue one day and realize how much it profits the Industrial Private Prison Complex and Construction to warehouse people away for years on end. Mandatory minimum sentences is like guaranteed long term dividends.
Open thread: The Obama Admin’s Anti-Marijuana Manifesto
CANNABIS CULTURE – In an attempt to clear up the Obama White House’s seemingly vague position on marijuana prohibition, US Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske has given a lengthy speech outlining why cannabis is Bad For America.
Feds Raided Homes As Well As THC Ministry
At least six and perhaps as many as a dozen homes were raided Wednesday during a federal drug sweep on the Big Island. “I know of about six others who were raided,” said Roger Christie, founder and director of The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry, whose downtown Hilo sanctuary and Wainaku residence were searched by federal agents, assisted by local police.
KopBusting Ex-Narc Plans To Sue Police for Millions
CANNABIS CULTURE – Ex-narcotics officer Barry Cooper is fuming over a police raid on his home and plans to sue the officers and officials involved for $30 million, calling their conduct “obvious retaliation” for a sting operation he pulled on Texas police for his show KopBusters.
Lil Wayne trounces PM on YouTube
Harper’s online speech draws 8,100 viewers, but still ranks below rapper’s video channel.
Life’s Acceptable Risks
So why not ban hockey? Playing would be a crime punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of not less than $1,000. Organizing a game would be a much more serious offence. That would get you up to seven years in prison. And since there’s a lot of money involved in hockey, the fine would have to be up to, say, $1 million.
Boycott criminal sociopathic Texas!
Call Obama to ask for this man’s immediate pardom.
Last night I saw The Wanda Sykes show on FOX , pretty interesting stuff. Bill Maher was on the show and there was a discussion about the upcoming marijuana intiative in calf. But at the end of the discussin Wanda made A comment that is very telling.In essecents She said She didnot want Obamma to be know as the president ho legilized pot because it would not look good that the first black president would be the one known for that.
Well you know that makes sense and well maybe why we dont see more from the obamma administration on this subject. Hopefully if he gets a second term he may feel freer to broach te subject more openly or do so in the dieing days of his first and only term
Actually, I can pretty much guarantee that NO President will legalize marijuana. Not only do they not have the political will by definition, but they don’t even have the legal power. (Even if “legal” at the federal level, it’s still mostly illegal in every state.)
What will happen is that enough states will assert themselves for financial and other reasons, that Congress will eventually pass a bill that specifically avoids words like “legalize,” but that changes federal authority to be that of assisting the states in enforcing their laws related to marijuana. That will give the states the go-ahead to legalize and regulate. After a significant number of states have done so, Congress will step back in and start legislating national regulations, like age of use, etc. The President will never be directly involved because all Congressional bills on the subject will be buried inside massive appropriation bills.
Thank you, Pete. There’s many on our side that don’t understand how that works. Like the question, “How many states does it take?” Well, maybe all of them. The President has done all he can do at this point. I remember him saying “It works from the bottom up.” That’s how we’re succeeding.
In two months, I’ll be 65 (Senior Discounts, here I come!) Still ride my Harley. I’m not sure I, nor you, would want me around in 35 years. LOL However, I’ve maintained a simple goal for my life for a very long time. To be able to relax and take a legal toke. That’s all.
“This vice brings in one hundred million francs in taxes every year. I will certainly forbid it at once – as soon as you can name a virtue that brings in as much revenue.”– Napoleon III, (1808-73) French emperor.
What Pete has described is in essence what happened with the end of alcohol Prohibition. As to the Federal influence, that in an of itself is determinant upon just how much political capital prohibs have; compared to the enormous gravitas of the economy, all their pseudo-moral posturing will be checkmated by balance sheets.
As to where I’ll be in 35 years? Dead, most likely…but not before this blight on our civil liberties called drug prohibition is ended.
Wanda Sykes is wrong. In the future Obama will be considered a hero for having allowed marijuana to be legalized. Only in the short term will this be considered a political liability. If it really is that. 44% are now in favor of legalization?
The Obama Admin’s Anti-Marijuana Manifesto (thread)
“Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit.â€
— White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske,
7/09 Fresno, Calif. press conference
Multiple DEA Raids Target Marijuana in Hawaii
“Neither the trappings of robes, nor temples of stone, nor a fixed liturgy, nor an extensive literature or history is required to meet the test of beliefs cognizable under the Constitution as religious. So far as our law is concerned, one person’s religious beliefs held for one day are presumptively entitled to the same protection as the beliefs of millions which have been shared for thousands of years.”
— Judge Jack Weinstein, New York State, 1977
Sex, Drugs, Violence and the Bible
Cannabis and Longevity
by Chris Bennett – Wednesday, October 21 2009
In 1939 Joges Candra Ray, an Indian researcher who wrote a paper identifying the ancient Vedic Soma as cannabis, pointed too ancient references regarding longevity from Soma’s ingestion. and other researchers have commented on this and a connection to cannabis as well.
From CANNABIS AND THE SOMA SOLUTION
(Trineday, 2010)
In the article Beliefs about Aging and Longevity in Ancient China, Alain Corcos notes: “The sacred intoxicating drink, named haoma by the Iranians and Soma by the Aryans in India was believed to cure disease and to confer immortality. Hemp was an active ingredient of both drinks” (Corcos, 1981). Interestingly, the Anandakanda (Root of Bliss) a considerable text of 6900 verses on tantric alchemy and yoga, which is thought to have originated around the 12th or 13th century AD, has similar references to cannabis and these are believed to have been based on the descriptions of Soma.
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