The Disastrous War on Drugs Turns 40: How Do We Stop the Madness? by Ethan Nadelmann.
What better way to mark the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs than by breaking the taboos that have precluded frank assessment of the costs and failures of drug prohibition as well as its varied alternatives. Barely a single hearing, audit or analysis undertaken and commissioned by the government over the past forty years has dared to engage in this sort of assessment. The same cannot be said of the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan or almost any other domain of public policy. The war on drugs persists in good part because those who hold the purse strings focus their critical attentions only on the implementation of the strategy rather than the strategy itself.
The Bill Comes Later – editorial in the Ottawa Citizen.
You live on a seemingly peaceful street. But one day a security alarm salesman comes to the door warning about the dangers that lurk in the neighbourhood and offering to install the latest high-tech security system. The problem is, he won’t tell you the price.
It is a safe bet that most Canadians wouldn’t sign on without getting some answers to questions such as how much it would cost and whether the money spent would make them safer. Yet that is what taxpayers are being asked to do when it comes to the Conservative government’s expansive and expensive law-and-order agenda.
Fortunately, at least at this time, the effort has been derailed
With the Liberals announcing they will vote against S-10, Harper’s government doesn’t have the votes to pass it.
The bill would have enacted mandatory minimum sentences for growing as few as six pot plants. The Liberals took their stand against it after Conservatives refused to say how much it would cost.
“This bill isn’t tough on crime, it’s dumb on crime,” said Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff. “We’re all in favor of cracking down on serious criminals, but this bill doesn’t distinguish between massive grow-ops and a first-time offender with a small amount. What’s more, the Conservatives won’t tell us what the fiscal implications of this bill are. How many billions will it cost? How many mega-prisons will have to be built? For these reasons, we just can’t support it,†he said.
The bill had already passed the Senate, where the Conservatives hold a majority, but opposition had been growing as it headed for the House of Commons. Earlier this week, more than 550 health professionals signed an open letter opposing the bill.
Plan To Fund Legal Aid From Seized Property Not Going Far in the Vancouver Sun.
Police and Charities Who Now Benefit From the Sale of Assets or Cash Grabbed From Crooks Are Not About to Give Up That Windfall Without a Fight
No kidding.
Police Officers and Free Speech at Cop in the Hood
Deputy Probation Officer Joe Miller signed a letter in support of California’s Proposition 19 (marijuana legalization). A disclaimer made it clear that he did not represent the viewpoint of the Mohave County Probation Department.
Officer Miller was fired. Maybe you think a police officer should never have an opinion on anything. I can understand saying a police officer should not advocate breaking the law. But that is something else. All people, police included, should be able to express their personal opinion about public referendums without fear of retribution.
One can only wonder… actually, no: one doesn’t have to wonder at all. Nothing would would have happened to Officer Miller if he had signed a letter in support of less restrictive gun laws. Or even gay marriage, pro or con. But he thinks drugs laws should be (gasp) changed.
Whether or not you agree with Miller’s (or my) position, stand up for workers’ rights and free speech. Sign a petition in his support.
NYC Named “Marijuana Arrest Capital of the World” at the Village Voice
​The hippies at the Drug Policy Alliance announced in a press release yesterday that the New York City Police Department arrested 50,383 people for “low-level marijuana offenses” in 2010, based on a report from the New York Division of Criminal Justice Services. According to the group, that accounts for 15 percent of all local arrests, and the number one infraction in New York City. It continues, dramatically: “On average, nearly 140 people are arrested every day for marijuana possession in NYC, making the Big Apple the “Marijuana Arrest Capital of the World.'” But — would you believe it — it’s not because more people are smoking weed!
Daily Caller interview with the drug czar has some very revealing exchanges (Mike Riggs does a phenomenal job, but also lets him off the hook a few times).
Here’s a really bizarre and revealing statement:
THE DAILY CALLER: I want to start with something you’ve said in past interviews, which is that you don’t like the term “drug war.†You don’t like this term because it’s hard to define who the enemy is, and sometimes the enemy is American citizens.
Do you think that what’s happening on the ground — the use of no-knock raids and SWAT teams, people’s pets being shot, their homes being trashed — do those things complicate your efforts at redefining this as something other than a war?
KERLIKOWSKE: Well, it might, but I guess the difference that I see is the level of violence in the United States and the training that law enforcement goes through. Whether they’re dealing with an armed robbery or taking down a drug house, and given the number of officers who are shot and killed anymore, and the type of weaponry that is out on the streets, I don’t think there’s any way to approach it from a safety standpoint that wouldn’t involve this. […]
I do think we can change the angst that is caused by calling it a war on drugs, especially since to the minority community it feels like a war on them.
Wow. We’ll make people feel lest “angst” as their door is smashed in by not calling it a war.
Disappointing. Senator Jim Webb has led the charge for criminal justice reform, and although he has announced that he is retiring, he’s still trying to push that process through before he retires.
And yet, even a Senator Webb, criminal justice reformer, retiring with no need to placate donors, can’t resist the lure of easy drug war money.
Senator Jim Webb, D-Va. has proposed to add 13 Southwest Virginia counties to the Appalachia High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, an initiative of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
The HIDTA program provides additional federal resources to designated areas that exhibit serious drug trafficking problems to help eliminate and reduce the harmful consequences of illicit activity. It facilitates intelligence sharing and creates multi-agency and multi-jurisdictional law enforcement coordination, according to the agency’s website.
It’s all about the money.
Response from law enforcement officers in these areas has been overwhelmingly positive.
“We are pretty excited about it and hoping it helps with some funding,†said Kenneth Hill, Dickenson County Police Department investigator.
Lieutenant Greg Gillenwater of Scott County echoed those sentiments.
“If they can get it, it would be a wonderful thing. [It would] give us a chance to get all the drugs off the street that we can,†Gillenwater said.
This is an open thread.
http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/13/the-end-of-history-part-ii/
What’s stopping us from physically tearing the throat of this beast we call the drug war? Complacency? We have it too easy. Is no one willing to go Berlin Wall on the drug war? I haven’t seen you comment on Egypt yet Pete. I really haven’t been following the issue (I don’t watch TV), but did you hear why Khaled Said was killed?
I do, and have written it up here:
http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2011/02/egypts-revolution-continuing-criminal.html
As for the drug war turning 40, Ethan needs to start addressing the early 1900s USDA agrilcultural mercantilism that the DPF/DPA has starbngely acted afriad of addressing:
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/01/drug-statutes-infinitely-worse-than.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/knights-of-new-dark-age-usda-apha-ama.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/08/1904-2004-usda.html
I say a panel on this agrilcultural mercantilism is long overdue:
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/08/agrilcultural-politics-of-drug-policy_27.html
Seriously though, a drug war victim in Egypt causes a revolution with global attention. Here? Pete adds another row to his drug war victims page and people go about their lives. Why is no one outraged? Police brutality (SWAT raids anyone?) and political corruption (how’s the DEA rescheduling for marijuana going?) aren’t an abstract idea in this country either.
“If they can get it(the money), it would be a wonderful thing. [It would] give us a chance to get all the drugs off the street that we can,†Gillenwater said.
Yes and when you get all the drugs off the streets you can and then those drugs are replentished by the cartels that provide them and profit from the drug war…then what? More money? More ruined lives? Just keep repeating this vicious circle til when? til what? The cartels give up? How stupid. Stand there and watch the house burn…thats what you are good at.
Chris- I know it is strange- but note how the MSM (TV) seems to never cover any of these drug war attrocities.
I place much of the blaim on mass distractions: aka how soooo many Americans are distracted by BS, such as my Dad behind me who is watching his trillionth game — this time iy is basketball — to the roar of the crowds with the false sense of political empowerment felt by making noises. Do recall that during the initial great Reformation of the 1500s that there were far fewer distractions. Perhaps the Egyptians have fewer distractions?
Damn, that is disappointing to hear about Webb. I had high hopes for him, real high…
Everyone is caught up in one form or another of bread and circuses, and the DEA AND PRO-HIBS Pundits etc. constantly use mantra your going to destroy and make all the children hopeless druggies.
I think we do need massive protests in this country like Eqypt. Hey the Tea Party had there protests I’ll march with Willi’es Tea Pot Party.
Darnit, it looks like I just threw away the $1500 for the vasectomy. Now they tell me. Do you know how much pot I can buy for $1500??
The next thing you know they’ll prove it causes man teats. I’d never get myself away from the mirror if I had big titties. Oh well, time to start shopping for a comfortable manssiere.
In the puritanical 1930’s, marihuana use was broadcast to induce maniacal sex behaviour that required institutionalization.
In the hedonistic 1970’s marijuana was demonstrated to destroy men’s libidos with breast enlargement that was only remedied by surgery.
In our most pharmaceutical twenty-first century, marijuana causes impotence? That’s the best contemporary pot scare Rany Shamloul can come up with? If he was my hired fear-mongering scientist, I’d send his useless smooth muscles packing with that lame effort.
I must confess to still have a soft spot for this old canard:
“Boston- Men may develop fully feminine breasts from marijuana smoking, say two Harvard Medical School surgeons. The surgeons said they are treating and studying 16 males whose breast enlargement apparently is related to smoking marijuana. The patients are between 18 and 30 and smoke at least 3 times a week. Some smoked it daily. The most practical treatment is to surgically remove excess mammary gland tissue.â€
(AP) 1975
Chris makes a really good point above. I didn’t realize until I saw this article at MAPINC.ORG http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v11.n089.a03.html that the guy who was killed (and became the martyr for the Google guy who did the Facebook page) was a whisteblower whose computer (through a bluetooth connection in an internet cafe) had stumbled onto a bunch of narcs divvying up money and drugs confiscated in a raid. When the cops found out about this, they showed up at his apartment and beat him and he died, supposedly at a hospital where they claimed he OD’s on the mj he swallowed.
I wonder why this aspect of the story seems to have been played down in the western press? Hmmmmm. Because it sounds like Pete’s Drug War Victim’s page in our erstwhile shining “democracy” on a hill?
In 1988, the present Canadian Justice Minister Rob Nicholson vice-chaired a Parliamentary committee that released a report against mandatory minimum sentences. It noted that sentencing guidelines, which removed some of the discretionary powers of judges, “have had the undesirable effect of contributing to rapidly increasing prison populations in the United States.”
http://www.thehilltimes.ca/page/view/justice-02-01-2010
Since 2007 the existing Conservative government under Nicholson’s direction, has learned to embrace extravagant draconian policies, and totally abandoned his previous evidence-based values to ramrod Bill S-10 – that would provide hobby gardeners and most insidiously, citizens offering baked cannabis products to ailing loved ones, mandatory prison sentences under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/editorials/tory-pot-law-is-too-harsh-115857474.html
The only explanation offered why it was important to spend nine billion dollars on prisons during a thirty year declining crime rate was offered by the Treasury Board minister who said the government was “very concerned about the increase in unreported crime that surveys clearly showed are happening, and that people aren’t reporting at the rate they used to.”
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n651/a10.html
Dr. Stan Houston, director of the northern Alberta HIV program is one of many intelligentsias who have expressed their disbelief at the government’s bald fear-mongering tactics. Ottawa is stubbornly rejecting science, laments Houston. “It appears to be the most clear-cut, imaginable case of a triumph of ideology over experience and common sense.”
But will any of these tough-on-crime policies apply to one of their coke snorting, drunk driving cronies?
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/columnists/story.html?id=9c2deb3d-4ff0-4f35-97f5-e5662ba790dd&p=2
This sordid effort to imprison a larger percentage of Canadians is not over. If the Conservatives get re-elected, Rob Nicholson has vowed to keep mandatory minimums of Bill S-10 on the table until they become law. According to Conservative Sen. John Wallace, who introduced the bill, the hypocritical two-tiered drug policy will be enacted. “It is the government’s view that production from six plants and up does constitute serious drug crime.†Wallace said, “Canadians want laws that impose penalties that adequately reflect the serious nature of these crimes, and Bill S-10 does just that.â€
Is anyone familiar with the herbal blends of synthetic weed, such as JWH-018, JWH-073, or Cannabicyclohexanol? This is a relatively new drug with unknown long-term side effects being sold at smoke shops and even some gas stations. It is a man made form of THC made for research purposes and it has been abused for a decade. Without prohibition, this most-likely-harmful new drug would have never entered the market and the minds of children and those who don’t want to risk the loss of their jobs due to drug testing. Marijuana prohibition has not only increased the use of other drugs and access to them; it has created whole new drugs. A thought I had that I’m sure many have covered.
JWH went mainstream a year ago.
I read the information, “…that JWH-018 was found as one of the active components in at least three versions of the herbal blend Spice, which has been sold as an incense in a number of countries around the world since 2002” on Wikipedia; unfortunately the sources are in German so if it is inaccurate then you may be right.
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Drug Czar: Medical Marijuana “Gateway for Legalizationâ€
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http://www.opposingviews.com/i/drug-czar-medical-marijuana-gateway-for-legalization%E2%80%9D#commentList
“[T]he type of weaponry that is out on the streetsâ€â€”re Kerlikowske—would be rare were it not for the drug war.
Who needs a Thompson submachine gun or an Uzi when there’s no prohibition?
I just want to cut and paste this paragraph from Nadelmann’s article because it’s a very good paragraph:
“5. Legalization has to be on the table. Not because it is necessarily the best solution. Not because it is the obvious alternative to the evident failures of drug prohibition. But for three important reasons: first, because it is the best way to reduce dramatically the crime, violence, corruption and other extraordinary costs and harmful consequences of prohibition; second, because there are as many options — indeed more — for legally regulating drugs as there are options for prohibiting them; and third, because putting legalization on the table involves asking fundamental questions about why drug prohibitions first emerged, and whether they were or are truly essential to protect human societies from their own vulnerabilities. Insisting that legalization be on the table — in legislative hearings, public forums and internal government discussions — is not the same as advocating that all drugs be treated the same as alcohol and tobacco. It is, rather, a demand that prohibitionist precepts and policies be treated not as gospel but as political choices that merit critical assessment, including objective comparison with non-prohibitionist approaches.”
You’re right, that’s outstanding.
Alas, he cripples it by here by not addressing the popular fears of “hard” drugs as cocaine, heroin, etc., by failing to mention prohibition’s market perversion of what are in fact valuably useful medicinal plants of Opium and Coca into highly concentrated derrivitives that are otherwise an oddity otherwise.
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-narcs-created-crack-richard-cowan.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/drug-warriors-ignore-pharmacokinetics.html
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/drug-warriors-ignore-history-of-coca.html
How many people after all snort or shoot NoDoz, vivarin, or isolated nicotine?
Doug I take it you’ve never tried snorting anti-Homer pills (No D’ohs). Believe me, if you try it you’ll understand why nobody does it.
For some reason I seem to recall caffeine can’t be mainlined.It seems IV caffeine is a cure for headaches. (also: http://ivcaffeine.com/ not about getting high)There are people who love putting those nicotine patches on 6 or more at a time. That will get your pupils dilated and you’re heart a-twittering, no doubt. I’ve got to admit I’ve never heard of IV nicotine or anyone trying it. There are some studies out on the Google about using IV caffeine/nicotine combos to mitigate cocaine withdrawals. They didn’t strike my fancy so I just read the synopses.
What are they “Conserving” Sanity? Compassion? Humanity? Truth?
Liberal Party Opposes Bill S-10 and Mandatory Minimums for Marijuana
The Liberal Party of Canada has broken its silence and officially announced its opposition to Bill S-10, the Conservative legislation that includes mandatory minimum sentences for marijuana offences. full story
Beyond Prohibition Foundation Commends Liberal Party of Canada for Opposing Bill S-10
The Liberal Party of Canada announced on Wednesday that it would vote down Bill S-10, a cornerstone of the Harper Conservative’s incarceration agenda, which would have imposed mandatory jail sentences on non-violent minor drug offenders. full story
Parties Trade Pot Shots Over Conservative Marijuana Bill
Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats took turns accusing each other of being soft on crime as the Harper government urged opposition parties to support its latest attempt to toughen sentences for drug-related activity. full story
The solution is simple. Eat the rich
from another board…
The definition of “time†is the measurement of change. Without any change you have eternity. Progressives simply imply that change is inevitable. The dinosaurs and dodo birds learned that the hard way …and humans may learn it one day too. To be progressive is only admit that change will come whether you are ready for it or not. King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were not willing to admit it would come to their France of the end of the 18th Century, they lost their heads over it. Now we live in an America that lost its science edge to France and Switzerland because Congress cancelled a Texas Super Collider with a 87.1 Kilometer ring, and power capable of 40 TEV which was budgeted at 2 billion dollars. The cost went to 4.4 billion and climbing. Congress officially canceled the project October 21, 1993. Now the LHC in Geneva is 27 Kilometers and can achieve a 14 TEV power level. It cost 10 billion dollars to build.
So now the pigeons are flying the coop in droves. American and immigrant scientists are leaving for Geneva. That is not very Progressive. Our schools are only putting out 60,000 engineers a year. American students are not selecting to go into science or medicine and the Medical student population is already more then 51% female. It is to much work and not enough money. They are shifting to business degrees with dollar sign in their eyes. Don’t be surprised if your doctor has a heavy accent. We need 100,000 engineers a year just to stay on the cusp of technology. Where do we get the rest of the engineers we need? Try India, Japan and China. Yet how many engineers are being graduated in Japan and China yearly? Try 500,000. Who will be the technological Giant of the 21st Century? What about Design Engineers?
What are Design Engineers? Well if you develop a great “Whizbop†who makes it fit into a case that can be carried so it “whizbops†properly, looks sexy, is marketable and doesn’t overheat. That is the area of expertise of Design engineers. We need at least 6,000 a year just to stay competitive. We produce about 2,000 a year. The Chinese are producing 12,000 yearly. Where do you think production of functional Whizbops for the consuming world will come from? This is progress, and are the Chinese communists progressing? You better believe they are, by becoming the best capitalists in the world today. They have gone from an agrarian society to an industrial behemoth in just 20 years. They are now the second largest economy in the world. They just recently overtook Japan. Why? Because they realized that communism wasn’t taking them anywhere. so they got progressive and changed. They still do not have the freedoms we have, but do they need them. No! Why Capitalism requires a small group of rich leaders and a vast group of poor workers. Where did America get her workers? The Statue of Liberty told the rest of the world, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of you teamming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!†Yes, but the Golden door was that of the rich industrialist that would work these people into the ground until their children could get an education and become middle class. That is who I am.
Progressives = Communists? Yea your right, but these “communists†turned Progressive into Capitalist and they have 1.2 Billion poor workers who are making everything you eat, crap, and wear, and the next country to watch is India, because when they learn how, they have one billion more poor workers who will gladly make your stuff for $3 a day. Until you can no longer afford any more stuff, because you were right wing Conservative enough to stop any change in this country to counteract the incredible drain we are causing. Because we are 5% of the world’s population, using 30% of the world’s resources. That cannot be maintained. There is a pile of metal shipping containers from China about 30 miles from Los Angeles that is so many and so high it can almost be seen from downtown, like the mountains. Why? because it is not worth shipping them back.
For every five containers they ship here, we only ship one of them back. If we do not begin to to think of ourselves in relation to the world around us we will be like the ostrich who sticks its head in the sand, because if it does not see the danger, it thinks it is safe. BTW throw out those 12 million poor illegals that are here, and see who will harvest your crops. Change is inevitable! you can delay it, but it will always come and destroy you like a tsunami if you are not ready for it. Every great empire on earth has learned this lesson the hard way. Is it our turn? I call it the dinosaur theory. Adapt or die.
Lipstick on a Pig
Victims of Teabog rhetoric?
Constitutional GOPerversions & Their Pathetic Apologists
The Authoritarians
“A tiny portion of the population controls the lion’s share of the wealth and most of the command positions of state, manufacturing, banking, investment, publishing, higher education, philanthropy, and media… these individuals exercise a preponderant influence over what is passed off as public information and democratic discourse.
The ruling class is the politically active component of the owning class, the top captains of finance and policy who set the standards for investment and concentration of capital at home and abroad…
Their overall economic domination and their campaign contributions, media monopoly, high-paid lobbyists, and public relations experts regularly predetermine who will be treated as major political candidates and which policy parameters will prevail… Though relatively few in number they get the most of what there is to get. Their wealth serves their power, and their power serves their wealth.”
~ Michael Parenti
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Well I was reading the recent WebMD hack job of potheads in the recent schizophrenic/psychoses hysteria promoted by the Know Nothing prohibitionists from Oz, and lately by Dr. Matthew Large of the Prince of Wales Hospital in New South Wales, Australia. When I read his stuff with a more open mind I found out it’s actually very supportive of preferring to enjoy cannabis rather than remaining bone sober. Bear with me please.
So it seems like good news to me. Didn’t the man just say that the total whack job loonies prefer to be cannabis free?
Isn’t another way to say the same thing is to say that the full blown mentally ill prefer total sobriety, no? And it’s not limited to any specific psychosis. Every stripe of deranged, psychotically ill unfortunate rejects using cannabis once they’ve gone totally around the bend.
It sounds like a resounding endorsement of enjoying cannabis if you axe me. I for one concur with the assertion that one would have to be crazy to not enjoy cannabis.
Put that in your pipe and smoke it Mr. Kerliefries.
Anyone else hear this? TV said the protests in Egypt started after a stoner got DEAd for suspicion of you-tubing cops confiscating pot and then smoking it…
Death in Police Encounter Stirs Calls for Change in Egypt (excerpted)
The two undercover police officers seemed unfazed by the bystanders, who watched as the officers beat a 28-year-old man in the lobby of a building here last month, one witness said…
They had little to worry about, human rights advocates here say. Units within Egypt’s sprawling security force are granted broad powers by the government, and officers are rarely punished for abuse. A police officer told Mr. Said’s relatives that he choked on a clump of marijuana. The episode might have ended there…
The young man had lived on her street for years, in his own apartment, where his brother said he fixed computers and ran an import-export business. He was friendly, liked to get high and enjoyed fishing, friends said…
His brother, Ahmed Kassem, who lives in Pennsylvania, has been searching through Mr. Said’s belongings to find reasons for the beating. One persistent rumor is that the police went after Mr. Said because of a video he posted on the Internet, showing police officers with the spoils of a drug bust. “I have no idea,†Mr. Kassem said. “He got abused. He got killed. And people saw it.â€
Egyptian Protests Fueled by Anonymous Facebook Activist
Egyptians, it seems, have not forgotten about the June death of Khaled Said, a 28-year-old man who, according to witnesses and his family, was publicly beaten to death by police in Alexandria, reportedly as punishment for possession of a video of the officers dividing the spoils of a drug bust.
Forfeiture Endangers American Rights (fear.org)
“Findings suggest asset forfeiture is a dysfunctional policy. Forfeiture programs, while serving to generate income, prompt drug enforcement to serve functions that are inherently contradictory and often at odds with the demands of justice.”
—Mitchell Miller & Lance H. Selva,
Drug Enforcement’s Double Edged Sword:
An Assessment of Asset Forfeiture Programs
“The oppressed should rebel, and they will continue to rebel and raise disturbance until their civil rights are fully restored to them and all partial distinctions, exclusions and incapacitations are removed.”
~ Thomas Jefferson, 1776
American Facing Death Penalty in Egypt for Hemp Oil 2.7.11
Mostafa Soliman, who operates a company called Health Harvest, has so far been refused a new passport by the US Embassy in Cairo, which means he cannot leave the country. He faces a possible death penalty if convicted of drug trafficking.
Starving Babies and Illegal Food
Hemp seed protein more closely resembles that of the human body than soy; it is also easier to digest. Hemp contains a richer source of essential fatty acid oils than soy. These oils prevent heart disease and build the immune system. Hemp grain is the most nutritionally complete seed on the planet for human consumption.
~ Hempseed Nutrition by Lynn Osburn
Guide to Smoking Pot Around the World
North Africa
The other region where weed is ok is North Africa. In Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco, locals smoke hash, a fine alternative to alcohol and accepted in society. However, this societal norm does not necessarily apply to tourists.
In other words, locals may be puffing, but if the laws still consider what you are doing as illegal, a cop can still make money off you. I recommend smoking with friends only in this region.
* EGYPT: Illegal, but not strictly enforced, just don’t smoke in public. Also, don’t carry large quantities unless you’d like to see the inside of an Egyptian jail.
Cannabis/Hemp
Pediatrics report details risks from energy drinks
Energy drinks are under-studied, overused and can be dangerous for children and teens, warns a report by doctors who say kids shouldn’t use the popular products. The potential harms, caused mostly by too much caffeine or similar ingredients, include heart palpitations, seizures, strokes and even sudden death, the authors write in the medical journal Pediatrics. They reviewed data from the government and interest groups, scientific literature, case reports and articles in popular and trade media… continued
Well I’ll be an uncle’s monkey, did anyone realize that the medical cannabis bill being discussed in the MD legislature would move cannabis to schedule II? Other than that it seems it will be absolutely worthless, requiring doctor’s prescriptions and pharmacy distribution, but moves to schedule II are powerful support for the validity of medical cannabis as an efficacious medicine.
I nearly dropped dead from shock this morning when I read that an amendment has been introduced keeping the act of smoking medical cannabis illegal.
There’s a lawmaker in MD that actually knows what a vaporizer is? He knows there are other delivery methods than smoking? Be still my beating heart! A Know Something politician, who’da thunk it? Vaporizers, medibles, or injections. Yeah buddy I want to shoot up no doubt! Hey, 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, for a politician it’s stunningly unbelievable..
http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20110215/NEWS01/102150376
Latest Hypocritical GOPerversion, another Prohibition!
many refs and links
More of the same old GOPer crap, bait and switch, lie and legislate. More abortions from republican lies than RvW. More from pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. More from the police actions they wage, the collateral damage never mentioned. More from pollution, dioxins and PoP’s. Same idiotic mindset that tried to legalize Thalidomide as an appetite stimulant over Ganja. Another prohibition to outlaw women from their own bodies. Now what, Prego Prisons?
“A War on Women”]
DN! Exclusive with Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards on GOP Bills Targeting Abortion and Reproductive Rights
Since taking control of the House last month, Republicans have introduced several major anti-abortion bills that women’s rights activists say could place severe limitations on access not only to abortion, but complete reproductive health and family planning services. We speak to Cecile Richards, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, which provides family planning, contraception and abortion services at more than 800 clinics and health centers across the U.S. serving more than three million patients a year. No federal dollars are used to fund its abortion services. “The most ridiculous part about it is that, for Congressman Pence and the others who are proposing these bills, Planned Parenthood does more to prevent unintended pregnancy and the need for abortion than any organization in America,” Richards says. “This is not what the American people voted for.”
Women are silent casualties of war on drugs
When the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University analyzed the costs of alcohol and drug abuse in a 2001 report, it concluded that the 50 states spent an incredible $81.3 billion in 1998 alone. Of every dollar spent on substance abuse, it found that 96 cents went to “shovel up the wreckage” brought on by addiction and substance abuse, while only four cents went to prevention and treatment.
In 2001, the federal Center for Substance Abuse Treatment evaluated 50 residential treatment programs designed specifically for substance-abusing women who were pregnant or the mothers of infants or young children, the results were better than anyone had anticipated. The study showed an 84 percent reduction in the risk of low birth-weight babies and a 67 percent reduction for infant mortality. Even more telling, 60 percent of participants reported being alcohol- and drug-free during the six months following discharge, and only 7 percent of participants arrested for alcohol- or drug-related offenses.
Thalidomide v Cannabis
In January, a thalidomide developer, Celgene, of Warren, New Jersey, announced that the data from its trial in 99 people with AIDS wasting showed a statistically significant weight gain. The company seems to have “jumped the gun,” as one person close to the trial put it. No data were yet available from the trial to justify Celgene’s press release.
Drug company rebuked for marketing thalidomide as cancer fighter
Montana Lawmaker Asks That PTSD Sufferers Qualify for Medical Marijuana Use ‎DRCnet
Did the Veterans Administration Unseat Marijuana From Schedule I?
Many Veterans are the Enemy of the D.E.A.th War
Sam Stone came home, To his wife and family After serving in the conflict overseas. And the time that he served, Had shattered all his nerves, And left a little shrapnel in his knee. But the morphine eased the pain, And the grass grew round his brain, And gave him all the confidence he lacked, With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back. continued…
Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
The government represents the will of the people…
Unless the government doesn’t feel like it?
Is there a living republican that has any clue as to what America is,
or what citizens rights are? Lies and the Legislation that follow to insult the people with coercion and fear. Follow the money, find the corruption and deal with it. Citizens must stop accepting lies and lesser evils.
Come on Montana, what would the Duke think of your railroading people?
“Republic…
It means people can live free,
talk free, go or come,
buy or sell, be drunk or sober,
however they choose.”
~ John Wayne
House Again Approves Repeal of MMJ Law By Charles S. Johnson
CN Source: Missoulian February 19, 2011 Helena, MT
On a mostly party-line vote with Republicans in favor, the Montana House voted again Saturday to repeal Montana’s medical marijuana law, after a House panel examined the measure’s fiscal impacts. House Bill 161, by Speaker Mike Milburn, R-Cascade, now faces a final House vote, probably on Monday, before heading to the Senate. The House voted 63-37 to pass HB161, with all those in favor Republicans. All 32 House Democrats and five Republicans voted against it. continued…
Montana NORML
A legislative battle over whether to repeal or rewrite Montana’s medical marijuana law is upon us. You can help by registering to receive legislative alerts here.
Cannabis News: Montana
“The biggest recent national news on the drug war is Drug
Czar Barry McCaffrey’s attempt to rationalize the ongoing
expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars in a June 29th
editorial in the Washington Post.”
Montana NORML News, July 02, 1999
Fight Over a Fix for Florida ‘Pill Mills’
US FL: MapINC Recent Media Headlines
Auto insurance agency must pay for marijuana
Quebec’s auto insurance protection agency has been ordered to pay $5,000 to a Quebec man so that he can grow and smoke marijuana in his home.
Change We Can Believe In? Not for Medical Marijuana Research
Congressman: Eliminate the War on Drugs
DRCnet
Former Congressional Staffer Admits Mistakes in the War on Drugs
(by Scott Morgan, Feb 14)
Kevin Ring has an appalling piece in The Daily Caller spelling out the careless and politically-motivated process through which new drug laws are created. This is some really jaw-dropping stuff.
The Toxic Alternative to Natural Fiber
Do NOT Feed the Red Herrings!
Chemurgy
Ganjawar is do to Legislated Education Depravation
High on Hemp
KOYAANISQATSI
ko.yaa.nis.qatsi (from the Hopi Language) n.
1. crazy life.
2. life in turmoil.
3. life out of balance.
4. life disintegrating.
5. a state of life that calls for another way of living.
Three years after his murder, memories of Ken Gorman
— Colorado’s most vocal pot activist — have gone up in smoke
By J. David McSwane Thursday, May 20 2010
When Ken Gorman heard the intruders burst through the front door, he sprang from his room and ran through the hallway toward the sounds of shuffling feet. He’d been robbed dozens of times before, always around the harvest, but that night he was equipped to fight back. Just a few days earlier, he’d told friends and family he would be ready for the next thief who tried to get away with his cache of high-grade marijuana, which he grew in his back-room nursery and sold to more than a hundred “patients.”
But the sixty-year-old Gorman never reached his brand-new shotgun. The burglars beat him to the draw. continued…
Related Content
* Thomas Lawrence, one-time suspect in Ken Gorman murder, says he has nothing to hide June 1, 2010
* Ken Gorman, murdered marijuana advocate — and pro-pot album producer? May 21, 2010
* Ken Gorman’s last hit May 20, 2010
* Ken Gorman’s diaries of a mad pot man: A look at the marijuana activist’s writings May 20, 2010
* Ken Gorman’s “Asshole of the Week” tirades mobilized the stoned masses May 19, 2010
Governor’s/Ken Gorman Tribute Forum
For sale from England – iphone, ipad. We sell up to 10 units at once, minimum order 3 units.
Delivery usually takes up to 7 days.
apple iphone 4 32 gb (simfree UK) – 390 eu
apple iphone 4 16 gb (simfree UK) – 360 eu
Apple iPad2 Wi-Fi+3G 64GB – 540 eu
Apple iPad2 Wi-Fi+3G 32GB – 490 eu
Payment can be done through paypal or westernunion
In case of WU you provide us with a copy of the transfer papers without the MTCN revealed.
We can not receive money without the MTCN, but this copy works as a proof that the payment was processed.
We can ship from that moment.
Also we need a copy of your documents as of our policy that the person who made a payment and person who’s going to
receive the shipment must be the same. We can provide you with the copy of our documents too just for your peace of mind.
We can provide pictures, IMEI and other documents in case you need to check out.
And right now we don’t sell more than 10 units at once.
applewriteme@hotmail.com
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