Posting has been extremely light the past few days as I’ve been exceptionally busy with a variety of diverse and interesting projects (description after the fold)
Wayne State Law School symposium on the federal-state dichotomy on marijuana. Kevin Sabet starts at about 22 minutes, and Dan Riffle, Legislative Analyst for MPP starts at about 43 minutes, and he gets in some really nice counters to Kevin Sabet’s “extremism.” Dan talks about tax policy as it could relate to marijuana sales (interesting).
I haven’t listened to the whole video yet, but there’s some really good stuff here.
Continuing on the theme of the fed-state dichotomy, we have Can a Strong Coalition of Pot Activists Define Medical Marijuana Regulation — And Avoid the Feds?
A broad coalition of California advocates has filed a statewide medical marijuana regulation initiative aimed at ending the years-long confusion over what is and what is not allowed under state law by explicitly allowing sales and legalizing dispensaries statewide absent affirmative local popular votes to ban them.
It’s an ambitious move to further codify the medical marijuana system and make it harder for the feds to interfere, but time is short for it to get on the ballot.
Mark Kleiman proposed a design problem as an assignment to his students: “How can you tax and regulate, at the state level, something that remains a Federal felony?”
Turns out that a group of his students came up with a pretty smart notion. Here’s their idea: Designing State-Level Cannabis Legalization
It could work — purely intended as a short term solution until the feds get out of the game, obviously. The idea is to make it difficult for the feds to get in there and bust operations (too many in this instance) while also not keeping state records the feds could seize that are trackable to individual sellers.
Virginia Sheriffs Addicted to Drug Cash
Michael P. Botticelli to be nominated as Deputy Director of the ONDCP
Interesting piece about a shadowy drug store – the Silk Road on a “secret” internet… Amazon.com for Illegal Drugs?
What I’ve been doing…
On Thursday, I entered as a contestant in a Chili Cook-Off at work with my Smokin’ Black Bean Vegetarian Chili (recipe available upon request). I knew the absence of meat was a major disadvantage, particularly with only one chili advancing to the university-wide cook-off, but I didn’t care. And no, I didn’t win, but mine was the popular crowd choice and my chili was all gone way before the end of the event, with all the other contestants having to take a half-full crock pot home.
Also on Thursday, I was involved in preparations for the visit by our famous alum Sean Hayes. Went very well. Sean is a very nice guy and really provided some excellent inspiration for our students.
Finally, I am in rehearsal for the world premiere of a new musical written by a recent student and sponsored by a student organization I advise. It is the silliest show you can imagine and a whole lot of fun. “Sheep’s on the Lamb” is the story of a sheep named Wool Smith who falls in love with the farmer’s daughter (Mary) who has a little lamb… person. The sheep then take over the world (sort of like Planet of the Apes, only sillier) and enslave the humans, and 15 years later it’s up to sheep-man Wool Smith, Jr., along with his human girlfriend Bo (Bo Peep), and aided by his ganja-smoking rastafarian goat friend Baab Marley, to set things straight.
Lots of puns and bad jokes, some good music (some of which I was involved in adapting, and I just finished writing the overture). I’m playing the piano for the show.
Anyway, if you’re in the neighborhood, it’s Feb 3 and 4 at 7:30 pm in Capen Auditorium (Edwards Hall) on the Illinois State University campus. Runs about 90 minutes with intermission. Tickets are $2 at the door. You really can’t beat the price.
wow… a $2 show! That’s affordable… now if it weren’t almost 2,000 miles away (Columbus, Ohio is the 2,000 mile mark from here, drove it in 40 hrs w/ two 2 hr sleep breaks thrown in).
I love making chili… one of my “secret” ingredients is cooking up my onion in a frying pan ’til almost caramelized, adding a bit of water to get all the juice out of the pan. It adds just a bit of a smokey taste w/o adding liquid smoke. (of course there is real smoke that doesn’t go into the chili, just the cook;)
And it’s nice to see a continually broader push against the feds. Surely there comes a point where federal convolutions of law, bureaucratese doublespeak and constitutional sublimation, will get them so twisted into a knot that they’ll never untie themselves (more a dorkian than a gordian knot)(no offense to dorks) while the rest of us sidestep the convolutions and ignore (or ridicule) them.
http://judicial-corruption.net/2011/04/29/one-hundred-senators-435-congressmen-one-president-and-nine-supreme-court-justices-545-human-beings-out-of-the-300-million-are-directly-legally-morally-and-individually-responsible-for-the-do/
I was at the Wayne symposium and was totally appalled at how the marijuana advocates treated some of our panelists. Dan from MPP was a notable exception, and Kevin was a complete gentleman. But the Ambulance Chasing lawyer in part 2 (Suskind?) and the spineless moderator in panel 2 did nothing to calm the loud, belligerent activists who descended onto our campus and made us all red with embarrassment.
sorry to hear that “we” were poorly represented by some. Of course a certain amount of angst and pissed-offedness is understandable. Rudeness however remains nothing but rudeness. Man I wish I had HD net service, dial-up so sucks.
The attitude of people is changing every since the first poll that put legalization in the majority and followed by the gut punch of a pharmaceutical company admitting that researchers had spent millions of dollars attempting to create a synthetic marijuana pill and failing. Then they made a medicine from the entire plant as man has done for thousands of years,,,kinda exposes how long the government has known marijuana was a medicine and denied it’s use to American citizens.
People ARE waking up and it is getting antsy.
The drug warriors are actively supporting violence against us and many, many people that we love and care about. (I consider that to be a more serious offense than even rudeness.) I’d say under the circumstances, we’re generally (and amazingly) pretty god-damn civil.
aye Francis… I was really chewing on that as I wrote the above comment. Unfortunately we must be civil, there is no alternative that works. If the world were at the level of the mid 1800’s I’d be an advocate for Crazy Horse type civil disobedience. Today? Gandhi… they will always be willing to be the most violent.
I think pretty much the world of humanity is at a think or thwim moment. What we’re doing isn’t working for far too many of us. I heard an interesting question last night (damn that PBS and it’s intellectual/educational programs)… do we really want 1 billion Chinese consuming for the next 100 years like we have for the last 100 years? Paraphrasing but that’s the essential.
If we don’t start to take care of things at this level (inefficient, secretive and increasingly violent government) we’ll never figure out how so many planetwide will live adequately in a climatically and governmentally unstable environment.
The drug war is truly an iceberg. We’ve brought attention to the tip. Now comes the explanation about the 90% unseen. In that are tales of egregious governmental wrongs like those names we all know all too well.
I’d love to bring this to civil resolution rather than the alternative.
Civil and factual,,,thas us massah,,I have amazed myself with some very civil ways to call an ignorant sob an ignorant sob without using ignorant or sob.
And it was factual.
lol… amen to that clay… and I mean, again, really… seeing how we are already on the higher road (!) it behooves us to stick to it.
Yeah, I hear you, allan. What I always struggle with expressing is the surreal aspect to engaging someone in a civil debate when that person wants to lock you in a cage. I sometimes use the analogy that I feel like I’m trying to convince 12th century peasants that no, actually, we really SHOULDN’T burn people alive for “witchcraft” (and I’m one of the “witches”). And as “civil” as things may appear in the safe little bubble of an online comment thread or a debate hosted by an academic institution, the reality is that out there in the real world where the drug war is actually being waged, there is NOTHING civil about it.
PTB, I’m disappointed, but not really surprised. The drug war is very personal to many of it’s opponents, many millions of people have been harmed to various degrees by prohibition, from a simple arrest record, to losing a relative or a friend to the prison system, or worse. Whereas, drug warriors like Sabet who deliberately lie and dissemble to perpetuate and justify this assault on his fellow americans will never suffer anything like a deserving fate. Marijuana has never and could never cause the harm to society caused in the name of it’s prohibition. Not even if through some freak of human activity t became as pervasive as cheeseburgers. Sabet has through his work, harmed hundreds of thousands of people. Those people can hardly be expected to accord him “professional courtesy”. For the appearance sake, I will say I’m sorry. For the individuals involved, they need to make no apology. That’s the townspeople coming with pitchforks and torches.
your words are almost too true. they have been rolling on lies for a hundred years and there will be no justice for the likes of kevin sabet. i’ll bet he dies of old age in a comfortable taxpayer supported featherbed from cirrhosis. i don’t know some juicers think that if someone smokes cannabis they will be deprived of their constiutional right to drink crude alcohol.
not being as good a proofreader as ron paul, i left out the “why” between “know” and “some” above. let me tender my sincere apologies for any misspelling, like constitutional
meant to put “why” between “know” and “some”.
when you wage war on your citizens rudeness happens: http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/2998.html ,http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/169/modesto.shtml you got to go nuclear or start an illegal war to get ruder than that. we know our “masters” have it in them, though, don’t we.
I wonder if Silk road can last. You know the DEA has to be trying like hell to shut that site down or compromise it somehow. I would not put it past them to set up some kind of sting where over time they become respected dealers on the site, mailing out drugs, then one day raid all their customers.
Yeah, that seems to be Silk Road’s biggest vulnerability, but it would be a departure from law enforcement’s past practices for them to pose as sellers rather than buyers. It’s unclear whether courts would consider it entrapment. It’s also possible they’re worried about the PR debacle that might ensue from running stings against buyers.
I’ve gotten a couple of emails asking for the chili recipe, so here it is…
Pete Guither’s
Smokin’ Black Bean Vegetarian Chili
Recipe:
3 large Vidalia (or other sweet) Onions cut in large pieces
3 cans (15 oz ea.) Black Beans, drained
3 cans (14.5 oz ea.) diced Tomatoes, drained
1 cup chopped Celery
1 cup chopped Green Pepper
3 Chipotle Peppers
3 large cloves chopped Garlic
3 T Olive Oil
3 t sugar, 1 t pepper, ½ t salt, two pinches of cumin seeds, pinch of rosemary
Sauté garlic and onions in oil until translucent
Add other ingredients
Simmer for a few hours
Remove Chipotle peppers, if desired
Looks very yummy, Pete. Thx for posting. I’ll get my vegetarian mother to cook a batch (me? cook? ROFLMAO!!! I can barely burn water!)
I occasionally remember that some here are in my age range… it’s Sat af’noon and KRVM broadcasts their “Magical Mystery” program… the best yet not necessarily most popular R&R of the late ’60s and ’70s. Comm’l free, listener supported, non-profit (staff is virtually all volunteer) AND they teach radio broadcasting to local HS students during the daytime program. They broadcast online:
http://www.krvm.org/listen/listen.html
and what prompted me to post this was that they opened up with the Moody Blues and in that song, one of my favorite lines of dissidence – “it riles them to believe that you perceive the web they weave ” and as you all are very aware of just that very thing…
Sun’s out! Antique Rock and Roll on the radio, the pipe is full and it’s Saturday… cheers mates.
I couldn’t bring myself to watch Sabet. Sorry, it’s too beautiful of a day here. Did I miss anything? But I did catch this in the Q&A (at around 1:42:30):
Um, you don’t know what the term “war on drugs” means, Kevin? Maybe you should talk to Jose Guerena’s family. I’m sure they could fill you in.
And has the term “gateway theory” really “lost its meaning”? Or has it been so thoroughly discredited that not even Kevin Sabet is willing to try and defend it? (That’s pretty damn discredited, btw.)
God, that guy’s a crapweasel.
yeah Francis… again Sabet plays the drug war as myth card. And you are spot on correct. C’mon Kev, let us (and mostly the less informed) hear about the drug war dead, Kev. The Gateway Theory is as broadly applicable as the chaos theory. Ain’t nothin’ in this world unrelated to everything else. You’re such a putz, Kev. C’mon, let’s hear you talk about Zeke and Kathryn Johnston and Veronica and Charity Bowers and Donald Scott and Jennifer Odom and and and… Kev…
Kevin is right, he is too dumb to go to law school.
Lol!
In that previous radio debate between Kevin Sabet and Mason Tvert, Kevin argued that increased availability of cannabis would not displace the use of (far-more-dangerous) alcohol because the two are not substitutes. I found that claim to be pretty stunning. It certainly doesn’t track with my own experience or that of many of my friends. But what’s the best evidence as far as studies that have been done to try and prove the substitution effect of cannabis vis-a-vis alcohol?
I turned 19 overseas and had been drunk perhaps 6 times in my life when I met Mary Jane,,,alcohol lost a good customer the next day when I woke up from being blitzed with no porcelain god worship required or headache.
I didn’t smoke herb regularly until joined the military. I prolly drank more beer than pot was smoked. Until… my LSD epiphany in Thailand. And as the scales tipped towards cannabis, beer drinking became an event that I could nurse my way thru a beer an hour rather than a six or 12 pack in a night. Nowadays I doubt I drink a 6 pack a year. When I do have a beer these days it’s from one of Oregon’s best brewers, like Ninkasi.
Cannabis is a moderator, no doubt in my mind. Which is why some kids with ADD/ADHD and vets w/ PTSD (and oh so many others) seek it out. Besides…
… humanity has an open-ended right to access nature’s pharmacopeia as we see fit. To rule otherwise is contrary to our most basic individual liberties as sovereign, self responsible, thinking beings.
A single bottle of Trappist ale spiked with two fingers of Malt sandwiched with numerous greenery and the occasional glass of frog juice ;>)
Francis, thatstudy from California on traffic fatalities (IIRC, I’m on a mobil device, so my internet access and my time is limited right nw) specifically mentioned a substitution effect.
.
here it is:
On 29-Nov-2011, a study was published by University of Colorado Denver Professor Daniel Rees and Montana State University Assistant Professor D. Mark Anderson showing states that have legalized medical marijuana experience fewer fatal car crashes compared to states that have not. The researchers suggest that there may be fewer fatal drunk driving accidents in those jurisdictions because more people may be choosing to smoke marijuana instead of making the more dangerous choice of consuming alcohol – both traffic fatalities and alcohol consumption declined.
The rate of fatal crashes in which a driver had consumed any alcohol dropped 12% after medical marijuana was legalized, and crashes involving high levels of alcohol consumption fell 14%. The study thoroughly accounted for other contributing factors regarding this decrease, such as changes in the number of miles traveled each year and new traffic laws.
So, the prohibitionist scare-tactic of claiming there would be an increase in traffic fatalities if marijuana were to be legally regulated for all adults should now be banished to the fantasy realm from whence it came.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/uocd-ssm112911.php
Thank you, Malcolm, from the bottom of my nunu.
.
.
Cannabis as a substitute for alcohol and other drugs
Amanda Reiman
Harm Reduction Journal 2009, 6:35 doi:10.1186/1477-7517-6-35
Abstract:
Background:
Substitution can be operationalized as the conscious choice to use one drug (legal or illicit) instead of, or in conjunction with, another due to issues such as: perceived safety; level of addiction potential; effectiveness in relieving symptoms; access and level of acceptance. This practice of substitution has been observed among individuals using cannabis for medical purposes. This study examined drug and alcohol use, and the occurrence of substitution among medical cannabis patients.
Methods:
Anonymous survey data were collected at the Berkeley Patient’s Group (BPG), a medical cannabis dispensary in Berkeley, CA. (N = 350) The sample was 68% male, 54% single, 66% White, mean age was 39; 74% have health insurance (including MediCal), 41% work full time, 81% have completed at least some college, 55% make less than $40,000 a year. Seventy one percent report having a chronic medical condition, 52% use cannabis for a pain related condition, 75% use cannabis for a mental health issue.
Results:
Fifty three percent of the sample currently drinks alcohol, 2.6 was the average number of drinking days per week, 2.9 was the average number of drinks on a drinking occasion. One quarter currently uses tobacco, 9.5 is the average number of cigarettes smoked daily. Eleven percent have used a non-prescribed, non OTC drug in the past 30 days with cocaine, MDMA and Vicodin reported most frequently. Twenty five percent reported growing up in an abusive or addictive household. Sixteen percent reported previous alcohol and/or drug treatment, and 2% are currently in a 12-step or other recovery program. Forty percent have used cannabis as a substitute for alcohol, 26% as a substitute for illicit drugs and 66% as a substitute for prescription drugs. The most common reasons given for substituting were: less adverse side effects (65%), better symptom management (57%), and less withdrawal potential (34%) with cannabis.
Conclusion:
The substitution of one psychoactive substance for another with the goal of reducing negative outcomes can be included within the framework of harm reduction. Medical cannabis patients have been engaging in substitution by using cannabis as an alternative to alcohol, prescription and illicit drugs.
/snip/
.
.
Cannabis as a Substitute for Alcohol
By Tod Mikuriya, MD
SUMMARY:
Ninety-two Northern Californians using cannabis as an alternative to alcohol obtained letters of approval from the author. Their records were reviewed to determine characteristics of the cohort and efficacy of the treatment —defined as reduced harm to the patient. All patients reported benefit, indicating that for at least a subset of alcoholics, cannabis use is associated with reduced drinking. The cost of alcoholism to individual patients and society- at-large warrants testing of the cannabis-substitution approach and study of the drug-of-choice phenomenon.
/snip/
.
.
There is a remarkably large cohort of people who use cannabis as a way to manage degenerate addiction. Harborside Health sponsors 12 step meeting for medicinal cannabis patients because they either get shit on in traditional 12 step meetings or have to keep it secret. Secrets like that are deleterious to a person suffering degenerate addiction.
The pharmacists gives an very informative lecture and explains why cannabis is not a drug.
BTW, I told the story of “Silk Road”to my wife. Being a true subversive at heart, she loved it!
….and I so badly would like to see”Sheeps on the Lamb”….
Catholic Herald,co.uk
Taking drugs should be legal but discouraged in the same way as smoking
http://www.catholicherald.co.u…
same-way-as-smoking/
This is in a Catholic blog,,something you would not have seen last year,because people are starting to wake up and realize their government was so busy chasing nature’s drugs that they have allowed the pharmaceutical companies to load up their medicine cabinets with poisons that are much more dangerous.
I think the squirrels got Duncan.
or he ran into a good bud
The Seventh National Clinical
Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics
will be held April 26-28, 2012
at Loews Ventana Canyon Resort in Tucson, Arizona!
http://www.medicalcannabis.com/Clinical-Conferences/2012-tucson-az
An accredited medical college training Doctors on the methods and uses for cannabis. Dr Tashkin is on the home page.
We needed this,,we wouldn’t except all the medical practitioners experienced in all the uses of cannabis are dead and gone,,and our government cannot read history.
I have tried and tried, but I cannot restrain myself any longer. I had seen that Kieth Humpries piece and I hadn’t stated the obvious, but no one else has gone there, so I will.
Is it any surprise that his students are smarter than him?
I dont know how the long-timers do it..5 years of being active with following the drug war, politics, etc., have worn me thin. Granted, i read profusuely during this time–8 hours probably on average a day. I give up. Had a plan to move to canada…hee hee. Jokes on me! Dictator in power. Europe move? Hahahahaha. Jokes on me again. Mind ya…im legal to work in all countries. So now what? Suggestions? How come noone talks about the bilderbirg group? That is part of the plan….the drug war, that is.
Thanks to all that try.
I will step out with educating and such…i will be on the streets if u wanna talk.
We do it chip, chip, chip, with our little hammers. We look at the big victory, but we fight the little fights, (because they’re the strong ones), and we win when we do fight (most of the time, anyway). We stay one step ahead in the argument, but we are always at the disadvantage, because they have the megaphone. And mostly because if we don’t do it, then who the fuck will? Keep it up, Chuck, it’s so very worth it.
And yeah,,,with all the starving people i see around the city, chili and this site do not mix…pathetic
Dark…
Thats as bad as saying u need to douche rather than just let it be. Come on now. U can do better…arent ya a psychop?
There is no argument…u know that. We all do. Thats why u cant defeat continous lies of 55 years unless a….what….yes, revolution. Thats it. U got something better than chisels?
Pray tell….how is it worth it? U read politics worldwide? The down and dirty? Pray tell. Educate me!
I have…and came to this bitter conclusion.
I wish there was a soultion other than revolution. I got kids…crap guys…we are getting fuked big time on many levels!
Sorry to carry on, but ya know, it is important to many others that actually give a fuck.
Ron Paul in Maine:
Ron Paul campaigns in Maine
No matter..bought and paid for every way
Huh? Chuck, you’ve got anger issues, brother. How’s that for a shrink?
Go for it, hero, don’t forget to come back and let us know when you’ve saved the world.
…that’s what you get try to encourage a jackass. A jackass who has just been encouraged.
If in fact u are a shrink, or even a wannabe as it seems, Your diagnosis of anger issues is both amusing and, well, to be quite frank, retarded. Your little game here is merely a fraud: pretending to be a psychotherapist…..please. U surely would have lost any credentials u may have had by posting on chilis.comdruggwarrant thingy. No wonder ure stuck…let me help u
Alas, poor Chuckles, I have never claimed to be a psychotherapist, I’m not really sure what that term really means, as that isn’t really a professional term. There are psychologists (that’s me, or used to be), psychiatrists, and psychoANALYSTS. A psychologist is a practitioner with a PhD and a license. A psychiatrist is a pill pushing MD who specializes in mental illness, a psycho analyst is a vanishing breed of cat, Freudian. He’s the guy who has the fancy office, the couch, and asks you why you want to have sex with your mother. Hope that cleared it up for you, Chuck. BTW, why DO you want to have sex with your mother?
why bother Chuck? You just like going into another’s house and peeing on the furniture?
Don’t like our couch, go sit elsewhere, the wwweb is full of places to go, pick a few and go, see ya. Its not for me to tell you where to go… but obviously this isn’t the place.
Wait a second, we’re not supposed to pee on the couch? Since when?? Why didn’t I get a notice???
No allen…on the contrary, i am on your side. But forgive me for pointing out that chili and the drug wAr dont mix..at least for me. Interestingly, u state “our couch”….well…if thats not some sort of elitist club,,,,what is? This place has gone to shit and u are part of it. Enjoy the chili.
would you rather have a recipe for beef stew,,or perhaps a shit sandwich.
Old Chinese proverb: Life is like a shit sandwich. The more bread you have the less shit you have to eat.
Does anyone know anything about the anti-drug war documentary “The House I Live In”? Has anyone here actually seen it? It just won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for best documentary. Hopefully, that will earn it a larger audience.
.
.
Damn, I thought they got Pete. Whew.
Why is it that defeatists bother to post? Nobody is going to listen to them anyway.
Squirrels? Was it the squirrels?
.
.
Squirrels are the epitome of efficiency, and clearly are natural born capitalists. There is no reasonable way to categorize them as being defeatists. Did you know that the reason they don’t use rat baits like they sell at Home Depot for squirrels is not because they don’t work? It’s because they’re liable to deposit it in their savings account and not get around to dying behind your drywall for months. Industry and thrift will always pay substantial dividends.
Evidently they do very much enjoy having sex as it seems there’s no end to them. I feel like I’m trying to empty the Potomac with a soup ladle. I find it extraordinary that they can keep still long enough to accomplish insemination but there you go. I am talking about the tree rats. The flying rats in my attic are nocturnal and prefer to lurk in the dark shadows. I suspect that they’re up to no good rather than industrious. It was almost 5 decades until I learned that they even live around here. Any creature that takes so much effort to be unseen by definition has to be a bad seed. In the summer I think I’m going to have to use an infrared cam to watch them flying around. I do think that I’ve succeeded in evicting them all. [knock wood] At least until a number of their flying rat colleagues figure out how to infiltrate my attic.
Wow. Good information. I’ll share that with Songtzen Gampo, my dog. He’ll be happy to hear it’s an “Eat All You Want” buffet. I’d loan him to you, but turning him loose in an enclosed space with squirrels present would be a baaad idea. He’s a very large and strong male Chow. The squirrels would be the least of your problems as he tore your rafters down trying to get at them.
Glad dreamhost figured out what went wrong. I bet someone plugged the server into the wrong outlet, then turned out the lights. Like the guy who calls the technician because his computer will only work at night. That’s a professional outfit, there…
Awesome issues here. I am very happy to look your article. Thank you a lot and I’m taking a look ahead to contact you. Will you kindly drop me a e-mail?