Open Thread

Just got back from a whirlwind trip to Los Angeles to visit with alumni of our theatre program (including some very famous ones). Saw excellent productions of “Superior Donuts” at the Geffen Playhouse and “Blackbird” at Rogue Machine Theatre as well.

bullet image Challenging the DEA’s War on Medical Marijuana – outstanding piece by Conor Friedersdorf

Can I interest you in a cross-country trip? Its theme is Anti-Empiricism in America. The tour bus leaves from The Bay Area, where a lot of people still think rent control works. It proceeds through Salt Lake City, where the Evergreen Institute claims to cure same sex attraction, passes through Petersburg, Ky., home of the Creationist Museum, and terminates in Springfield, Va., where the DEA, a liberty impinging branch of the federal government, insists against overwhelming evidence that a plant called marijuana “has no accepted medical use in the United States, and lacks an acceptable level of safety for use even under medical supervision.”


bullet image ABC News/Health (Courtney Hutchison, ABC News Medical Unit) has more on the lawsuit against the feds regarding medicinal marijuana — an otherwise OK article marred by the bizarre need to add the terms “Weed” and “Mary Jane” in the beginning of the article, as if ABC readers wouldn’t know what “marijuana” was without those clarifications.


bullet image At Time, the excellent Maia Szalavitz has U.S. Rules That Marijuana Has No Medical Use. What Does Science Say?

Although the DEA judgment sounds like a setback for medical marijuana advocates, in one important sense it is an advance. The government had long delayed making a judgment on the petition, but now that it has, it makes it possible for advocates to appeal it in federal court. Now, that process can be set in motion.


bullet image Disturbing news from Thailand: Rights groups fear wave of deaths as Thailand faces new drugs crackdown

As you may remember, an earlier crackdown on drugs in Thailand resulted in over 2,500 people dying, many of them innocents in extra-judicial killings.

…many of those killed in the 2003 crackdown had been “victims of personal revenge or sloppy categorisation”. One couple was shot dead after acquiring suspicious wealth; it later emerged that they had won the lottery.

Now a new crackdown is potentially coming.

The pathetic part of this is that much of the population apparently doesn’t understand that these crackdowns do no good long term.

But the campaign was hugely popular and as drug use rises, many want a return to tough action.

“Personally, I think the killings were a good thing. If you leave it to the courts [dealers] just cycle in and out of prison,” said Aminna Bedinlae, 84, who lost her son to drugs and now runs anti-abuse programmes in Klong Toey, where 46 residents were shot.


bullet image Fox News’ ‘The Five’ talks legalizing drugs and gambling.

I can rarely watch Fox News, but they actually had a discussion about legalization. And some of it was good. Of course, Dana Perino was horrible as usual, but others on the show actually had some glimpses of sanity.

Bob Beckel rightly understood the need to legalize cocaine and opiates, but bizarrely opposed legalization marijuana.

I found this quote funny/infuriating/sad:

“The problem with pot, is that they don’t have an inspirational leader. There is no Nelson Mandela, because you’re about to go protest and the next thing you know you’re just microwaving a burrito.”


bullet image More lazy (and false) reporting by the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post.

The most recent assessment by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, based on random roadside checks, found that 16.3 percent of all drivers nationwide at night were on various legal and illegal impairing drugs, half of them high on marijuana.

False.

Just as a reminder… the NHTSA found that 16.3 percent of drivers in the study tested positive for various legal and illegal drugs, and half of them tested positive for marijuana.

That study specifically stated:

“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.”

“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.”

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30 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Periodically I mention my friend Skippy who passed away from leukemia in April 2002 which gave me the sad opportunity to see with my own two eyes just how efficacious whole plant cannabinoid medicine can be. I first met Skippy at one of the first DC NORML actions I attended in 1991. Skippy was DC NORML’s “angel”. In 1994 Skippy contracted with Ben & Sylvia Olsen to raise a flock of chickens and give them a choice of hemp seeds or standard issue chicken feed. The chickens most certainly preferred the hemp seeds and turned their beaks up at the thought of the chicken feed. Those were some awesomely fat birds, Mr. Perdue would have been most impressed.

    When the chickens were ready to learn their true purpose in life we signed DC NORML up for a display booth at the National Capitol Bar-b-que Battle, which was sponsored by the Metropolitan Police Department for the benefit of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Washington. We bar-b-qued the birds and handed out bar-b-qued Reefer Roasters® to those who attended the event including a lot of cops.

    Anyway, I noticed that the Inhalers have posted up video of the event on youtube.com. I’m not the only one who held Skippy in such high regard as they wrote their song “Reefer Roasters” as a tribute to our dear friend.

    George McMahon attended and smoked his GI reefer constantly which helped attract a crowd. Interestingly he had not even a minor confrontation despite the place being infested with jack boots.

    ===============================================
    ***************Parental advisory***************
    This feature contains public Marijuana Smoking.
    ===============================================

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJWc_ro_Aug

    “Reefer Roasters” jingle by The Inhalers at 0:20. All music by The Inhalers.

    If you want to see what I don’t look like anymore that’s me at 2:24 and 4:00, long hair, beard, and 150 lbs heavier. My job was merchandising so the Chapter could have a few bucks to spend. Potheads are notoriously cheap bastards for the most part.

    Skippy is first seen at 1:53.

    George McMahon at 2:18.

    Ben & Sylvia Olsen (with Skippy) at 4:35.

    My sister Kim at 5:15 in her bicycle togs. Yes, god fucked up the weight distribution for my sisters and me. Every time even a minor windstorm happens I have to secure her to keep her from blowing away. It’s very inconvenient and annoying but what else can I do?

    LEO purchasing plastic hemp lei at 7:15. “This time they paid for the hemp products they took.”

    George McMahon smoking that nasty GI reefer at 8:00.

    Michael Steele, future Lt. Governor of Maryland and future chairman of the Republican National Committee at 8:47.

    A LEO eating some Reefer Roasters® bar-b-qued chicken while wearing a plastic hemp lei at 9:58.

    Skippy displays framed certificate of appreciation given to DC Metro NORML by the Metropolitan Police Department. Yes, I expect every person or organization who was a registered participant got one.

    The End at 11:41.

    • darkcycle says:

      Devastatingly handsome. I must say. The facial hair is awesome (what can I say? I’m a BIKER….girth and facial hair are our defining characteristics).

      • darkcycle says:

        Thankfully no such archival footage of me exists (to my knowledge). But I come from West Coast Coffee House culture, we’re notoriously camera shy. Pull out a camera in The Last Exit on Brooklyn and you’d be physically assaulted.

    • allan says:

      … damn dial-up…

      George is a hoot, never met personally but have conversed online for years. I love his long-tailed rabbit bbq recipes, he’s got a great sense of humor and the story he tells… kinda like Elvy, who lives here in Eugene, what great advocates the CIND folks have been and a what great example of gummint hypocrisy they make.

      Yeah… the elder original hempsters are leaving us now, more will follow… too soon. Many tho’ have been here far longer than they would have been in a no ganja world and the good herb does make this a better planet. Folks like your friend Skippy make this a better planet. It’s nice to see the honor you hold for him.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        Well Skippy was either 48 or 49 when he passed in 2002. No, I don’t know which because he would never tell anyone his age and both numbers were reported in the media. Seeing as I’m 50 I guess I think that it’s more accurate to say that he was struck down in the prime of his youth. It was his job that gave him leukemia, IMO anyway. In the 1980s/early 1990s he was working on radiation protocols for cancer patients. He was a licensed M.D. and the Feds had him doing all sorts of Frankenstein stuff with radiation. It was about a year ago that I found out that doctors in his specialty (research pathology, DNA splicing with radiation etc) had a average life expectancy of 58 and a noticeably increased rate of leukemia. He was the busiest person I’ve ever met.
        …………………………………………………..

        One of my most vivid memories that gives me a warm fuzzy was being Elvy’s “eyes” for an afternoon at the 1993 NORML conference. I can’t even grasp what kind of a despicable, morally bankrupt person would even take a chance of making that sweet woman suffer any more than the absolute least.

        George stayed at the home of very good friend of mine. I dropped by to do planning for the Reefer Roasters® action. George really does smoke pretty constantly…snap crackle and pop indeed. Now at first I thought that George never shared because he was worried that Slick Willie would cancel his prescription. But he just might have not wanted anyone to suffer smoking that garbage.

        George went somewhere that afternoon and left an ashtray filled with roaches. My friend and I grinned like cat eating canaries and without a word started processing the roaches into bong hits just to be able to say that we had smoked GI cannabis. Man that UMiss bunk makes cartel weed look like top shelf. You know that they grind it up, seeds, lumber everything, well maybe not roots. By the time we had field stripped about 10 we looked at that nonsense and decided we didn’t want to be able to say that we’d smoked GI reefer that badly. What in the heck is up with people that grind the seeds too? I’ve often wondered if that has something to do with researchers finding all those horrid carcinogens. Seeds may be great food but they make really nasty smoke.

  2. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Say, when did the DEA move from Arlington to Springfield? I guess they must use helicopters to avoid traffic now. Geez, they used to be right across the street from the Metro too.

    • darkcycle says:

      Wiki says it’s still in Arlington…

      • fuked says:

        if u are in fact a “therapist”, are u the new religion?
        sad that so many that have simply a masters in social work and play god with people’s lives. do u play god in people’s lives, darkfukcycle? perhaps i should change my persona so i can fuk with people? the more education u have, the more power u obtain, the more corrupt. no, u probably have a doctorate. even better to manipulate and control….don’t you think?

      • darkcycle says:

        Damn..I’ve been outed!

      • Ben says:

        Every once in a while, we seem to get people who are twisted on some serious drugs commenting here…

      • darkcycle says:

        …and Jeez, Louise, I’m a psychologist, not a “therapist”, it’s been at least a dozen years since I’VE done any therapy…spent the last third of my career doing testing and assessment and SUPERVISING therapists. That would make me a High Priest, at least, don’t ya think?

      • MoreSeriouslyTwistedThanThatLastGuy says:

        And DC shall have no dominion.
        Therapist or High Priest shall taste as one.
        With his bones pickled on the moon;
        His Uncle Ed from up south long gone,
        Where stars shine down at the last fart saloon.

  3. vickyvampire says:

    Reefer Roasters all that great hemp chicken barbecue made me hungry,damn Duncan your hair is thicker than mine,can I borrow some I have such thin hair.

    The only hemp products I have or tried is a bag I have somewhere lost it,and have used hemp lotion and eaten hemp chips.

    The five talking about pot cool has long has they have Greg Gutfield has regular conversation will be more in favor of legalizing and freedom all over love has host of Red EYE yeah he pisses on the dems alot and on occasion the republicans, but he is totally cool in my book cause some months back Gutfield and Redeye guests made fun of religious right on gay issue they were angry and got pissed and wanted to be on Red eye to refute points and Greg just ignored them so damn funny,did not invite them on show.

    Another great article,from the Atlantic.Challenging the DEA’S wAR ON MEDICAL Marijuana, the opening line says it all,THE FEDERAL AGENCEY INSISTS IT HAS NO MEDICAL USE,SO ARE ALL THE CANCER,GLAUCOMA,MULTIPLE SCEROSIS PATIENTS LYING, fUCK they are not lying look I could write a book about this marijuana has done for me, like for instance, why the frak is it that anti-inflamatories, or taking three percocets a day will nottamper down some for my pain but won’t touch my headaches even, hardly including strong anti-convulsants meds or barbiturates but pot in ten minutes will and I also have some benign uterine fibroids that cause plenty of pain and the cannabis works best and sometimes in conjunction with other meds to truly calm pain and yes I would be willing to take a lie dectector test to attest to this, come on all these hundreds like and others could be shown to not be lieing, but won’t be listened to,anyway for now,maybe that lawsuit after all will get somewhere.
    I will say though the Cannabis is coming down even if it’s brick by brick. The voices from everywhere are getting louder and more people are turning to it for medical use I’m convinced. Yeah even in Fascist police state Utah I live I was pleasantly surprised to meet folks and acquaintances from every walk of life that toke from somewhat wealthy art buyers,to upper middle class, to young college students,folks on welfare its like everyone from every walk of life is using these days Geez this drug war thing is getting Fraking,Dangerous,boring,idiotic to MAX.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      IMO one very ironic thing about medicinal cannabis is that the huge number of physical conditions that it treats well is a handicap, not a benefit to cannabis law reform. Too many people look at the list of benefits and say, no way that’s possible.
      ……………………………………….

      Ah well, it’s too bad you weren’t around when I decided to cut it off. It’s really too bad I didn’t know about the people that collect hair and make wigs for cancer patients. I’m one of the few people who didn’t think that Ronald Raygun dyed his hair. That was mostly because my dad passed away at 80 with his hair intact and black. I know he wasn’t secretly dyeing his hair because he passed away from Alzheimers and the last 3-5 years he wasn’t sentient. That and because he was such a dedicated cheapskate. That man would squeeze a dollar so hard that George thought he was Martha. In the years before his body passed away my sisters and I found it to be hilarious when I mentioned to them that I thought that he had actually passed away but had figured out how to do so and keep his pension payments coming in for Mom’s benefit.

      The hair thing is still is one of my most vivid memories of Skippy’s illness. You can see in the video that he was a hairy guy and it all fell out overnight (from my perspective).

      I was kind of clued in that it was going to happen but had no clue that it included his eyelashes and eyebrows. My poor friend was bald from stem to stern. Cancer patients in TV dramas never lose their eyebrows.

      Speaking of cancer patients in TV dramas, the new season of “Breaking Bad” starts on Sunday. Astonishing that they managed to turn a meth manufacturer into a sympathetic character. We’ll see if they can keep it that way since Mr. White is in remission.

  4. DdC says:

    Talk to your doctor about “Drug” today,
    the revolutionary new pharmaceutical breakthrough.

    Ayahuasca and Degenerative Illness

    an otherwise OK article marred by the bizarre need to add the terms “Weed” and “Mary Jane” in the beginning of the article, as if ABC readers wouldn’t know what “marijuana” was without those clarifications.

    Lipstick on a Pig pg2

    Some were smoking Colitas while other were loading their guns

    Maria and Juana were Pancho Villa’s wives and have no connection to cannabis other than they may have smoked it. Hearst and Villa had a standing feud before the Revolution, in the 19-teen’s. There is nothing in older dictionaries. There is nothing about “marihuana” in pre Pancho ditty called La Cucaracha, that started in Europe in the 1600’s with no mention of either. Even if Sandburg has it in a book of poems that I’m still looking for, its in the 19-teen’s and totally to stigmatize Pancho, not cannabis. Since Pancho toked it all fits. Nothing suggests the word was used by Mexicans and the evidence of Pancho’s wives is more than coincidence. Hearst took the two names and formed an insulting lack of respect buzzword. No refs because Maria and Juana were pertaining to Pancho Villia as well as removing Hemp and RxGanja 20 years later. The connection with him was as important as removing cannabis to Hearst. Pancho stole his forests he used for timber for his papermills.

    Especially before the 20’s, and therefore before the knowledge of its potential. It was Popular Mechanics in 1938 ads claiming 25,000 products and a billion dollar crop. Before DuPont invented the synthetic fiber from Rockefeller’s crude oil there was no reason to remove it. As they did alcohol to eliminate ethanol from the farmers and new car market. Before the invention of the decoricator. Hemp was a highly intensive laborious job to extract the fibers. I’ve seen nothing claiming the use of the word before Pancho. anything with a definition of a woman’s name relating to Ganja. Mary Jane has no relationship outside of Hearst. Using the word while disregarding its meaning is a choice. That’s all anyone can do. Use it or don’t.

    More than coincidence that Pancho’s wives names would fit into Hearst yellow journalism. There are no records before 19-teen’s that the word was even used.
    “mariguano into into Maria Juana” The Portuguese word “mariguano” is what the Mexicans had been using, Sailors bringing it from Portugal to Brazil. Filtering through the western trade routes. Everything stands as History unfolded it, Mariguana is what Mexicans called Ganja for centuries. Hearst fabricated the word Maria and Juana into the derogatory term against Pancho Villa in the 19.teens. Solely to demonize and get government aid to seek vengeance on Pancho, He got it. Pershing went to Mexico got lost and came back a year later. Same Faux news as Hearst has done for scores of other cultures and people. So it’s still an ignorant buzzword to demonize and referencing cannabis Hemp or Ganja with vulgarity just to reach other ignorant souls puts a new twist on educating… Simple choice to use racist terms or not.

    Marijuana is the English version of Marihuana which is the American Randolph Hearst buzzword version of mariguano. Nothing Spanish connecting cannabis with Mary Jane or Maria Juana except “Yellow Journalism”. DdC

    In Mexico cannabis is “Mota”

    Mota: Weed; Mexican term for marijuana.
    Hey paisas, wanna go buy some mota and get high?
    Marijuana. Weed. MJ. Hemp.
    “man, we’ve got some good mota tonight!”

    Spanish slang for mariguano.
    Tengo mota en mi pantalones.

    Other words for cannabis

    hierba
    yerba
    cesped (rarely used)
    1. mota de polvo (a speck of dust)
    2. te gusta mota?

    Canamo
    All 100% pure hemp products including hemp clothing and clothing products hemp bags oils shoes socks hats candy and hemp news

    Canappa
    A street name for marijuana or cannabis.

    Charas is the name given to a hashish form of cannabis which is hand-made in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India.

    Cheeba
    Hey man, put the cheeba in the blunt.

    Cheeo
    A preparation made from the dried flower clusters and leaves of the cannabis plant,

    Muggles
    (verb) A colloquial term for the action of smoking marijuana.

    Sinsemilia
    The unfertilised, thus seedless, female plants.

    Ernest L. Meyer wrote: “Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends.”
    –Chapter 17: Farewell:
    Lord of San Simeon, Lords of the Press, George Seldes

    US PRAISES THAI DRUG WAR!

    • DdC says:

      States With Medical Marijuana See a Decrease in Pot Smoking by Teens
      When states debate medical marijuana laws, one of the issues sure to come up is whether legalizing marijuana for medical uses sends the wrong message to young people. full story

      MIXED MESSAGES
      US CA: Ryan Burns 14 Jul 2011
      Lies, Flip-Flops and Vagueness From the Feds on Medical Marijuana

      Happy 40th, Drug War
      US CA: OPED: Jay Bergstrom 14 Jul 2011

      Why Dispensaries?
      US MI: OPED: Michelle Peoples 14 Jul 2011

      But where are the patents and caregivers to get seeds or starter plants? How and where do the patients obtain their medication while their plants grow? What happens if the crop fails to produce? Where do the patients go if their caregiver is on vacation? What if the crop grown doesn’t treat the symptoms the patient has? How does the patient know what strain works best for them?

      The answer to all of these questions is Dispensaries. Dispensaries can provide patients with medication while their crops are being grown, they can provide starter plants or seeds and they have knowledge on the products they carry and can help patients to choose a medication more suited to their condition. Dispensaries also have the ability to provide out of state patients with their medication while they visit Michigan.

    • DdC says:

      Rep. Polis on Debt: Tax Pot, Gambling
      The federal government should legalize and tax marijuana and Internet gambling to help get the country out of the current debt crisis, writes Rep. Jared Polis, a second-term Colorado Democrat, on Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal op-ed page. full story

      Sensible Tucson Wants to Decriminalize Pot in Arizona
      Jul 12 2011: Michigan native Stuart Green is spearheading Sensible Tucson. It’s an effort to get the City of Tucson to decriminalize the possession of up to two-and-a-half ounces of marijuana for personal use. full story

      Stoned Cold Fox? Megan Hopes to Legalize Weed
      Megan Fox desperately wants to buy some weed — but only if she can get it legally. In a seriously blunt conversation with GQ, the 23-year-old swore that if the U.S. Gub’ment legalized the sticky stuff, she’d be the “first person in line to buy a pack of joints.” full story

      Miami Beach Will Not Decriminalize Marijuana – For Now
      The Miami Beach City Commission has declined to place the issue of decriminalizing marijuana on the November ballot. Even so the issue could, in the future, force a special election. full story

    • DdC says:

      What side were you on in the Great Ganjawar?

      All charges dropped in massive international drug-smuggling case
      By Kim Bolan, Vancouver Sun J
      Police had charged two Vancouver men and a Mexican with importing drugs worth $9 million
      There is no explanation provided as to why the charges were stayed.
      RCMP Staff Sgt. Dave Goddard stands behind $9 million worth of drugs in October, after 275 kilograms of cocaine and methamphetamines were seized at Port Metro Vancouver.

      Marc Emery Begins His Three-Year Countdown to Release From Prison
      CANNABIS CULTURE – On July 9, 2011, imprisoned marijuana activist Marc Emery will begin a three-year countdown to his early release date from a US federal prison, scheduled for July 9, 2014. full story

      Tennessee Law That Served Al Gore’s Sister February 9, 2006

      On December 14, Vice President Al Gore told reporters in New Hampshire that his sister received medical marijuana through the Tennessee program while she was undergoing cancer chemotherapy in 1984. “It came in a prescription container with a label on it,” he said, adding that “it has not been unknown for some patients undergoing chemotherapy to be prescribed, in the past, marijuana as a means of dealing with the side effects of chemotherapy.”

      The Tennessee law was repealed in 1992, and similar laws have expired or been repealed in 10 other states. However, such laws remain on the books in 13 states: Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, Washington state, and West Virginia.

      Unfortunately, since the mid-1980s, none of these state programs has been operating. The reason is that the marijuana must be supplied by the federal government:

      The New Politics of Pot
      TIME Magazine: 2002

      It wasn’t until the ’70s that modern methods were applied to test the medicinal effects of cannabis. As Earleywine recounts, a UCLA study designed to confirm police reports that pot dilates pupils found instead a slight constriction. That’s how doctors discovered the drug could help glaucoma sufferers by reducing intraocular pressure. In the years after that discovery, 26 states opened therapeutic research programs.

      Only seven states got pot. One was Tennessee, which is why Al Gore’s sister was able to try the drug before losing her battle with lung cancer in 1984.

    • DdC says:

      Jul 12 2011 Dutch Clinical Study Shows
      Marijuana And Video Games Can Delay Alzheimer’s
      Can pot improve your memory? Researchers at the Groningen Mental Enhancement Department in the Netherlands have completed a one-year study on the effects of video game playing combined with marijuana use to strengthen the minds of Alzheimer’s patients. Scientists determined that the control group that was administered medical marijuana retained a 43% greater memory retention as compared to the other test group.

      World’s Biggest Liar.jpg

      Man arrested after reporting he’d been robbed of marijuana
      A man who called police to report being robbed of two pounds of marijuana and a laptop was arrested himself early Thursday after police found narcotics in his Lincoln Park apartment.

      PALSOC.jpg
      Politicians Against Legalization
      Support Organized Crime

    • DdC says:

      Let The Voters Decide
      US CA: Editorial: San Diego Union Tribune 16 Jul 2011

      The voters in this country
      should not be expected to decide
      which medicines are safe and effective.
      — Drug CzarBarry McCaffrey

      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

      New state law allows police to stop synthetic drug sales
      US TN: OPED: Atty General: Cooper, Bob Daily News Journal 17 Jul 2011
      A new Tennessee law is strengthening state and local law enforcement’s efforts to combat dangerous new synthetic drugs marketed under harmless-sounding names such as “bath salts” and “plant food.”

      There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made the creed
      of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.
      — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish”

      Government Tells A Big Fat Lie
      US CO: Editorial: Laugesen, Wayne The Gazette 16 Jul 2011

      The DEA is a law enforcement bureaucracy. The medical opinions of law enforcement bureaucrats should be of little interest. We do not ask cops to make laws; we pay cops to enforce the laws established by constitutions or enacted by the people or the decisions of their representatives.

      Though we oppose forest fires, we stand behind Sheriff Terry Maketa and other law enforcement officials who take great care in issuing burn bans. As Maketa explained this year, it is important to never warn against extreme fire danger when there is not genuine danger. That’s because people will condition themselves to discard fire warnings if they appear exaggerated by authorities.

      The ongoing schedule 1 classification of marijuana – as a drug akin to heroin – is an obvious indulgence of bureaucratic exaggeration. It seems clear that DEA officials want to demonize marijuana because it guarantees the DEA’s ongoing funding and growth.

      Marijuana Movement’s Voice Bucks Stereotype
      US CA: Column: Venezia, Barbara Orange County Register 16 Jul 2011
      The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 is gaining momentum, and its key advocate isn’t your stereotypical, hippy-dippy, pot-smoking liberal. It’s a Republican – former federal prosecutor and retired Superior Court judge James Gray. Those in the Newport/Costa Mesa area are probably most familiar with Jim through his weekly Daily Pilot columns, “It’s a Gray Area.” He’s a guy with strong opinions and never one to shy away from controversy.

      There is nothing wrong with the drug policy. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image, make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next century, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with the drug policy. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the shock and awe mystery which reaches from the inner mind to… The Outer Limits.
      A Message From Our Tzar Kerli Kashcowske

    • DdC says:

      Drug Prohibitionists Need Fiscal Fix
      US IN: Edu: Column: Perrino, Nico Indiana Daily Student 14 Jul 2011

      The push for reform came after a report commissioned last year by the Pew Center on the States and the Council of State Governments Justice Center found Indiana’s prison population increased by 47 percent between 2000 and 2010, and its spending increased by 37 percent from $495 million to $679 million.

      At a time when it is costing Indiana taxpayers $21,841 to incarcerate one inmate ( last calculated in 2001 ), more than five times what it costs an in-state student to attend IU, and with contracting state budgets, it’s hard to justify these growing expenditures.

      High on Hemp
      Indiana farmers could join thirty countries around the world who permit the cultivation of industrial hemp and the subsequent use of hemp by-products in human food. Regulations governing acceptable thresholds for human ingestion vary quite considerably between these jurisdictions or are simply non-existent. The biggest stumbling block is the DEA which refuses to reclassify hemp, currently and ridiculously listed as a drug, in order to allow the culitvation of this extraordinarily beneficial crop.

      Michigan Pot-For-Cancer Caregiver Faces 8 Years
      A card-carrying medical marijuana caregiver who was growing marijuana in his backyard to treat his wife’s stage-3 breast cancer will be sentenced Thursday for manufacturing marijuana. full story

      “The fact you’re doing a good thing on the side doesn’t justifyillegal behavior”, Prosecutor David Morse said when asked why Gary Katz was charged.

      Psychologist: Drug-Dealing Cop Needs Therapy, Not Jail
      A former Vancouver police officer caught dealing drugs on the job is sorry for what he’s done and should receive treatment, not punishment, a psychologist testified Wednesday. full story

    • DdC says:

      Second Group Seeks a Vote on Medical Marijuana
      Two different groups are moving ahead with plans to put medical-marijuana issues to a statewide vote in Ohio next year.

      Drug Czar Comes To Southern Ohio
      US OH: OPED: Johnson, Terry A. Ironton Tribune 14 Jul 2011

      We must do all we can to keep our youngsters from falling prey to this evil thing… And I attributed all of our successes to God, and asked those who were praying to pray more often—and harder! I see this as nothing less than an all-important battle to heal our community.
      ~ Dr. Terry A. Johnson,
      State Representative for Ohio’s 89th District

      AMERICA- Not A Christian Nation
      “The Christian right is trying to rewrite the history of the United States as part of its campaign to force its religion on others. They try to depict the founding fathers as pious Christians who wanted the United States to be a Christian nation, with laws that favored Christians and Christianity.

      “We’re going to bring back God and the Bible and drive the gods of secular humanism right out of the public schools of America.”
      –Presidential candidate Pat Buchanan
      addressing the anti-gay rally in Des Moines, 2-11-96

      Pro Life? Not even anti abortionists

      “I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good…Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a Biblical duty, we are called by God, to conquer this country. We don’t want equal time. We don’t want pluralism.”
      –Randall Terry, Founder of Operation Rescue,
      The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Indiana, 8-16-93

      This is patently untrue. The early presidents and patriots were generally Deists or Unitarians, believing in some form of impersonal Providence but rejecting the divinity of Jesus and the absurdities of the Old and New testaments.

  5. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    …………………………………………

    Speaking of cartel bunk weed:

    http://tinyurl.com/100-million-pounds

    Now that’s a lot of flippin’ pot. I think someone forgot to pay la mordida.

    Talk about sticking out like a sore thumb, here’s a picture of the farm:
    http://tinyurl.com/Baja-Mary-Wanna
    …………………………………………

    • thelbert says:

      i know from personal experience that cartel bunk weed has some very good seeds in it.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        That just proves that the cartels are even more incompetent than I had previously thought. Until they came along and started growing in the national forests I had never even thought of the possibility that anyone could screw up growing pot in Northern California. They taught me otherwise, and if they did it with desirable genetics it says to me that they’re dictionary picture idiots.

  6. Smapdi says:

    “The problem with pot, is that they don’t have an inspirational leader. There is no Nelson Mandela, because you’re about to go protest and the next thing you know you’re extradited from Canada and doing five years in US federal prison.”

    Fixed that for them.

  7. Windy says:

    Pete, forget Fox news, instead watch FOX Business Channel’s Freedom Watch with Judge Napolitano (yes he’s Janet’s cousin but his political philosophy is totally different and he calls her to task frequently on his show, which as a viewer is quite satisfying knowing she’ll hear it sooner or later) and John Stossel, both are libertarians and both tell it like it is on their shows, and both berate the drug war and its proponents.

    • B. Snow says:

      You do know that, Judge Napolitano is really only kidding when he calls her “Cousin Janet”… Right???

      Seriously, I’ve been watching the Judge for quite awhile (before they put him on Fox Business he had a ‘basic web-show thing’. And I’ll even watch John Stossel = when I can put up with the Grover Norquist types (or he actually HAS Grover on the damn show), they’re both VERY Libertarian!
      Which is great they believe in Personal Liberty = aka Personal (or Bodily) Sovereignty = I.E. People should have the right to put whatever they want into their own bodies…
      And in fact they would (and often do) argue that we actually do have that natural (or God-given) Right…

      And that the government constantly violates that right with “Nanny-State” Laws = those that purport to make/enforce laws ‘for our own good’, basically that the government says we can’t be allowed to make such decisions for ourselves, Because we might not make what they view to be “The Right Choice” (or Proper, Or Moral, or etc. “Choice”), that people using “illegal drugs” is an example of a ‘poor choice’ – and that this somehow justifies them making choices for us when we fail to make the “proper ones”…

      • B. Snow says:

        (ARG the editor cut me off right before I’d fixed my typos & train of thought!)
        [continued]:
        Both the Judge & Stossel don’t believe in any such nonsense, they also tend to say that Taxes are “theft” (that no one would pay them if the gov. didn’t threaten to come with guns and take you to jail if you fail/refuse to pay them) – Libertarian views can be as extreme as any other political views – they tend to say this sort of thing for the sake of argument/debate… rather than literally.

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