It’s been just a little over a year now since we made the move from SalonBlogs to our own server. Other than the challenges in getting good ads served by Google since the move, it’s been very smooth.
Discussions have been active and excellent, with 10,091 comments since the move (the spammers have also been active, with 97,704 spam comments stopped).
This summer has been a busy one for me, and I completely missed mentioning the anniversary of this blog on July 26, when it turned seven years old. Wow. Seven years. 4,128 posts.
Thanks, as always, for your support.
US cops: armed and dangerous? by Jennifer Abel in the Guardian
Hero-cop TV dramas show brave officers risking their lives to rescue hostages or stop carjackers. There’s some like that in real life, too. But in most cases of egregious police overreaction, especially Swat raids in which innocent people are killed, cops aren’t going after dangerous hostage-takers, but looking for drugs or serving warrants for other, non-violent crimes.
Bizarre quote regarding Oregon medical marijuana laws.
“You can’t have a Vicodin tree in your backyard,” he said, referring to a prescription pain medication. “This (1998) law was one of the biggest mistakes the state has ever made.”
Leading doctor urges decriminalisation of drugs
One of the UK’s leading doctors said today the government should consider decriminalising drugs because the blanket ban has failed to cut crime or improve health.
“I’m not saying we should make heroin available to everyone, but we should be treating it as a health issue rather than criminalising people,” said Sir Ian Gilmore, former president of the Royal College of Physicians.
Gilmore put his position on the record publicly today after telling fellows and members of the college last month in a statement that he felt like “finishing my presidency on a controversial note”.
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This is an open thread.
Congrats, Pete. I read daily and appreciate this blog tremendously. I think the move to your own place was the best thing you could have done.
Congratulations, Pete.
For a little over seven years, you have done an excellent job creating and maintaining the right environment here to engage in the critical discussion about ending the outrageous war on some drugs.
May the updating of this blog be soon ended due to victory against the Controlled Substances Act and its ilk, but its content maintained for historical exploration.
Aw hell yeah, I want a Vicodin tree for Christmas. I’ll put a little Dr. Gregory House angel on top. It will be hung with tiny little replica walking canes and garlands of Vicodin pills for the kiddies to chew on. Right. Yes.
*claps* Happy belated blog birthday!
May you not have to keep it running for another seven years.
I second Maria’s hope that this blog will become obsolete. But happy B-day to it, nonetheless.
Oregon’s own Board of Pharmacy moved cannabis to schedule 2 last month. But there are still Oregonians screaming scam.
I find it amusing in a train wreck sort of way that the know nothings seem to actually believe that the potheads have scammed 14 States and the District and according to this years polling 75-80% of American voters have also been scammed. Scammed by the potheads that the prohibitionist claim suffer from cannabis induced amotivational syndrome and are too lazy and stupid to do anything more than fetching the Cheetos or go out driving while high and causing mayhem on the road. Christ, how many other things do approaching 80% of the public agree upon? Maybe tribal god worship but only in the general, and only religious sects that are approved. Sorry Rastafarians, we can see that you just want to get high. 75%, wouldn’t that be over 100 million people? OK, that’s an appeal to popularity but I think in this case the people have it figured out, and these same people have lived their entire adult life with cannabis illegal and denigrated by the powers that be, and with the DEA and ONDCP insisting that cannabis isn’t medically useful So I guess I have decided it reasonable to believe the fact that over 100 million people have come to acknowledging cannabis as medicine in the face of governmental misinformation. Back to the tribal god worship, 80% may agree that there is a god and he needs to be worshiped but that’s what they’ve been told by authorities both public and private. If 100 million finally came to their senses and reject the existence of a god that requires our worship that would be equivalent of the process that led 100 million+ people that acknowledge that cannabis is medically efficacious. It does make me angry though that they pick on the potheads. Instead of trying to run us out of town on a rail they could insist that the Feds change it to schedule 2 and let doctors prescribe it and pharmacies fill their prescriptions. That and insist the government start fast tracking medical cannabis studies to figure out which extracted compounds of the cannabis plant are good medicine. That is what’s going to happen with medical cannabis in the fullness of time so why not get to work?
Has anyone ever heard of drug seeking behaviors by people who want to use Marinol recreationally? It’s even schedule 3 so it shouldn’t be that difficult to obtain from a doctor’s script. Don’t say price because there are a lot of insurance plans that would pay most of the cost. I really think this is a point that we should start beating. Oh, BTW I managed to finagle a doctor into giving me a script for Marinol back in 1992 or 1993. I actually still have 4 gelcaps left and keep them as a souvenir. If you were aware of how much of an extreme aficionado of cannabis that I am you would be shocked that I’ve left perfectly good THC that I have had in my possession alone for almost 20 years, and wasn’t interested enough to bother going to get a refill. The doctor that wrote me the script would have given me refills because he was/is a true believer. He has actually has written a couple of books on the subject. My memory is that Marinol is boring. I would describe Marinol’s psychoactive effect on me by using a lyric from the song named “White Rabbit” from the Jefferson Airplane in describing part of the song’s protagonist’s experience with taking drugs specifically “The ones that Mother gives you”.
The article in the BBC with the outgoing Top Doc says it all.
Congrats Pete on the sites birthday,and I hope it ends,,,,soon.
“A strong body makes the mind strong. As to the species of exercises, I advise the gun. While this gives moderate exercise to the body, it gives boldness, enterprise and independence to the mind. Games played with the ball, and others of that nature, are too violent for the body and stamp no character on the mind. Let your gun therefore be your constant companion of your walks.”
Thomas Jefferson
Pete, hooray for seven years and 4,128 posts of insightful, entertaining, sometimes infuriating, but always informative crucial news on the moronic War on Drugs… I wish it were required reading for all freshman politicians, “peace officers” and prosecutors.
“You can’t have a Vicodin tree in your backyard…” ???? WHAT in Sam Hell does that have to do with Oregon’s medicinal marijuana reform? That is truly bizarre. If that ain’t indicative of the obtuse mindset of a drug warrior… it just FLIPS me!
Keep beating that drum Pete. The message is being read Lima Charlie throughout the freakin’ world. Happy birthday Drug WarRant!!!1111 one eleventy.
“I find it amusing in a train wreck sort of way that the know nothings seem to actually believe that the potheads have scammed 14 States and the District and according to this years polling 75-80% of American voters have also been scammed.”
When Ronnie Reagan increased the intensity on the War on Some Drugs (WoSD), I was but a novice cannabis consumer, but I saw ‘trouble in River City’, as it were. I could see how the WoSD was not going to end well for our country, because it is a war on the people who use drugs, not on the drugs themselves and my intuition proved correct.
Fast forward 20 years, I had heard enough from people telling me, “If you don’t like the laws against drugs, do something to change them.” This was said in the tone of, “What are you going to do about it, stoner guy?” I put my hat into the ring in 2000 and actually ran a Libertarian campaign against a very popular incumbent Democrat and a pompus, arrogant, Darth Cheney style Republican. That was the beginning of my efforts to stop the drug war madness and I haven’t quit yet.
Pete, your blog played an important role in my transformation from stoner to activist cannabist. You know, now the prohibitionists aren’t daring us to change the drug laws, now they are bitching that we amotivated stoners are somehow bambozzeling and tricking the voters so we can get high, high, I tells ya’.
It’s funny how when the propaganda was being swallowed by the voters, hook line and sinker, the prohibitionists said that the voters were being smart. Now when 14 states legalized medicinal cannabis, the voters were somehow fooled by the evil stoners, so they can get high. Basically calling voters, enablers for our marijuana madness.
I want to celebrate, but I know we are still a long ways off from true re-legalization of all drugs and a sane drug education effort. There are still so many battles to fight. Keep your powder dry. Thank you Pete!!
I’m obligated to mention that this is the number # site of its kind on the internet (as far as I’m aware). I check it daily and the post are always great. Been busy lately so I haven’t posted on the comments much, but I still read all of them.
make that #1 site of its kind..
Love being part of the crowd, thanks Pete.
Limited internet for now on my end. Been a drag but the move was worth it. Got my Medical MJ card for two months while the office gets more information from my old Md. Feeling better too.
Now if you could just figure out the cell phone glitch. Once you check in on the web, you can’t check out, as it says you should be able to at the bottom of the screen. It also cuts off your ability to read comments. That coming out of a Nokia E71.
Anyone else run into this or is it just me again?
Nothing goes away on the Web. It’s here FOREVER!
Pete, you are without doubt the best blogger on drug policy. you are an incredible asset to our cause, and a force multiplier extraordinaire.
i salute you, my brother!
Hrm. I’m on an ipod atm. No problem reading comments on it.
ezrydn. WPTouch is the plug-in I’ve been using for mobile. It supports iphone, ipod, aspen, webmate, android, blackberry, webos and a bunch of others, but apparently doesn’t support Nokia. I’m not sure why the Nokia you’ve got is stuck on it.
I’ve just tried upgrading to the pro version. I’m hoping that’ll at least shake yours loose from it so you can view it as regular web version.
Happy B’day DWR! You don’t look a day over 8…
And I’ll join the chorus of those amongus laying props on brother Pete… dude, I hope you grasp the value of your humble little corner of the wwweb. You so rock and the service you provide is unparalleled.
And a tip of this oldman’s hat to all you quality visitors (and that roving band of piratical wwwebpirates fearlessly broadsiding Prohibition vessels everyweb) who add so much to what we all hope will soon be an unnecessary discussion.
(everyweb© 2010)
After doing my web rounds today, I also wanted to add a few words about the look and feel of your blog Pete. It’s a blog that I’m not afraid of cracking open and taking a look at a new article, at work, or at the library, or in public. Yes, the content can be quite scandalous (tongue in cheek that) but the blog itself is not emblazoned with pot leaves and crack pipes or garish graphics that a coworker or the boss might see and misunderstand. My intent is not to offend anyone with those sorts of graphics. Just, thanks.
It’s a resource that I can send to my family and co workers and they will not be put off by first impressions.
I know no one should be embarrassed by pot leaf jpgs or bold banners crying ‘legalize it!’. That’s not my point. I’m probably being quite awkward at conveying what I’m trying to say. Let me put it this way. I have a friend who’s well dressed, successful, animal lover, volunteers, family man. He’s ‘a proper Young Man’ as my mum puts it. She found out he smokes cannabis. He told her. She was floored. In her mind, still in her mind after all these years of alternative imagery there was a template of what a stoner should look like. And it was replaced by her exposure to a new reality. This blog is a bit like that, it is one of a few that replace templates.
So anyways, I haven’t been reading for 7 years I don’t know if it was a deliberate choice or one that’s been constant, but I’m grateful I can open up your site at work and not have to explain away dancing pot leaf animations. 😉 Not that there is anything wrong with dancing pot leaf animations. Cute little buggers, sometimes.