In the state of Washington, people are now apparently legally smoking pot and getting gay-married (though not necessarily both at once), and from browsing the news reports, it appears that God has neglected to smite anyone, and there are no reports of rampant cannibalism or other societal collapses.
It’s still early, though, so we’ll keep a close watch on the sky…
on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “An ancient Egyptian mug was found by a USF professor to have once contained hallucinogens: 15-Nov-2024–A University of South Florida…” Nov 17, 20:11
on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Let us not forget that Joe Biden, the Landrieu Family, the late Dianne Feinstein, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Connick, Sr.*, Leon…” Nov 17, 18:01 on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: “Endocannabinoid receptors on interneurons limit stress-induced bad memory generalization to the specific, appropriate memory: 15-Nov-2024 — Researchers at The Hospital…” Nov 16, 10:55
on Marijuana potencies and transitioning to Schedule III: ““smoke rope instead of dope,” Is this a hemp revival?” Nov 15, 05:13
on Catholic bishops fear marijuana and freethinking: ““Falsehoods are dangerous. People who believe absurdities can go on to commit atrocities. Catholicism and other sects and cults that…” Nov 15, 05:00
on Marijuana potencies and transitioning to Schedule III: “https://www.cornbreadhemp.com/pages/how-are-thc-gummies-legal sire behoove a go-to owing me, offering a within easy reach, tasty manner to charge out of CBD’s benefits.…” Nov 13, 13:44
on Marijuana potencies and transitioning to Schedule III: “Worrisome same day cannabis delivery has been somewhat the journey. As someone fervent on spontaneous remedies, delving into the in…” Nov 11, 14:58 on Marijuana potencies and transitioning to Schedule III: “NIDA Director Dr Nora Volkow charts the future of addiction research: 7-Nov-2024″ — I was struck early on by how…” Nov 10, 09:50
It is still early, but I bet it will be a fine day with a new sense of awareness of freedom for all those who take the time to notice.
*stretch-yawn* G’mornin’ all….mmmmmm….seems like a nice day to SMOKE SOME LEGAL POT! I’ll let you know if legal pot tastes as good as illicit pot in just a few minutes.
Happy Re-Legalization Day!!!!
that room at my sis’ place in Elma looks better all the time… enjoy your first annual Legalization Day! May you have many, many more.
Okay! I’m TOTALLY happy to report that legal pot works JUST AS WELL as illicit pot. Tastes the same, and it got me completely baked out of my mind. May have to follow this up with a totally legal English Muffin and some jam….
C’mon up to visit, at least!
Oh, and the Calender rocks, Allan! It was packaged to survive a nuclear blast, too! Very nice!
another day of free shipping in the US (until 8pm PST) for those wanting to buy that gorgeous calendar… use coupon code SNOWFLAKE
Congratulations!
OH! There’s MORE good news out of Seattle!
http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2012/12/05/officers-shall-not-take-any-enforcement-action-other-than-to-issue-a-verbal-warning-for-a-violation-of-i-502/
Sorry, I left the web address intact, since it tells the story all by it self…
Now comes at least 1 1/2 years of wild wild west as the green market that now supplies the market with illegal marijuana continues to “grow”. Supply and demand will set the price and give the LCB a target for it’s pricing/taxation rates needed to remove that market.
I wonder how many grow books,lighting systems and hydro systems will sell in the next 90 days in WA.
My understanding from a family member there who is a licensed medical cannabis patient is that the level of criminal “intoxication” is so low that a person who consumed on Friday night only could still be arrested Monday morning driving to work. She’s very unhappy with the law, and much more impressed with Colorado’s.
I am not sure that they would go to jail,,it is a misdemeanor. And this law has never been challenged in court,so nobody knows for sure what is going to happen.
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You’re understanding is incorrect. The per se level is 5 ng/ml of active THC in the blood. Your “understanding” is probably confusing THC-cooh in the urine with active THC in the blood but it’s two very different measures. THC-cooh is an inert metabolite that lingers in a person’s fatty tissues. Inert means that it doesn’t get you high.
You still have to be investigated for suspicion of impaired driving before you might get busted. Does that happen a lot to you? I haven’t ever had that happen in just over 3 1/2 decades of being a dedicated cannabinoidian. If you weren’t getting pulled over and asked to do the field sobriety tests last week it isn’t going to start happening next week.
Thanks for the correction Duncan.
http://oakbaystarfish.com/2012/12/05/in-washington-state-mixed-messages-on-marijuana/
Looks like cops in some cities won’t be obeying the law.
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“If you don’t like the law you need to get it changed. If you do that we’re still going to enforce the law as we see fit.”
I wonder how long it will take them to grasp that they’re not even welcome to volunteer to enforce Federal law?
I’ve got to feel sorry for the prohibitionists for a minute. These poor saps were clueless that us getting the law changed was even possible. That’s got to be very confusing for the average jack booted thug. Their poor brains just don’t have enough capacity to deal with this reality. OK, that’s enough pity, on to the main event…I’ve got a couple of feather pillows, who brought the hot tar?
It will just be until the first possession cases hit a jury trial,,now begins the nullification and hung juries required to kill this law off.
And unlike the federal court,,the state court can’t move the trial out of state hoping for a favorable jury.
Windy, the Judges will have something to say about that. They may think they make and interpret the laws, but they will find out quick that’s not the way it works.
The quote is misleading. Went to the P.A. Police department’s PDF, and it says the P.A. police will NOT be making arrests of adults with the allowed amount.
http://www.cityofpa.us/PDFs/Police/MarijuanaQ&A-Nov2012.pdf
I read that Mason Tvert was offered a job by the MPP. This tune is for Mr. Tvert:
“I’m bad, I’m nationwide” ~~ ZZ Top
What could have happened
Mainstream media is now on the bandwagon.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/branson-end-war-on-drugs/index.html#disqus_thread
“The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Richard Branson.”
….actually, not really… lol
Mainstream media is now on the bandwagon
so it seems… check out this AP piece:
A pot history: Marijuana freed in Washington state from lengthy prohibition
Went looking on the cable news channels to see how they were handling this. They can’t even bring themselves to mention it! The one item I saw was on the CNN crawl, and even IT couldn’t mention the word “Legalized”. I quote from the feed: “Wa. enters legal limbo with marijuana bill.”
Legal Limbo?
Limbo???? I’m doing a victory dance in the end zone, Mother F**kers….watch me while I spike this bong hit.
Apparently there was a huge smoke in at the Space Needle at midnite, it’s on video (son told me but forgot to mention which Seattle station aired it), wonder if they’ll use the video to identify and arrest those who were “smoking it in public view”?
KGMI’s Patti Brooks has a post on the station’s Morning Show on facebook that could use a few more knowledgeable posters calling the idiots posting there to task: https://www.facebook.com/patti.brooks.14
Norml posted a picture of Gregoire’s official signing of the law on FB, too:
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151552960533032&set=pb.23906288031.-2207520000.1354822878&type=3&theater
Nope: http://spdblotter.seattle.gov/2012/12/05/officers-shall-not-take-any-enforcement-action-other-than-to-issue-a-verbal-warning-for-a-violation-of-i-502/
More positive than negative at CNN,,I have ben watching for their attitude also. More on CNN today with an interview with Sir Branson at 7pm EST
This is the moment the cannabis doomsday cultists (like Sabet) finally get to confront their insanity.
Electricity. Yard Atwitter, fed the Birdies double their seed this morning. Watch for some Fat’n Happy Chickadees, Juncos, and Pine Siskins crossing into WA from the NW
Go Give em Hell, Birdies from Heaven!
Puff, Puff, Pass
I was wondering, im sure that some folks out there are getting together in small/average sized groups and enjoying their puffs, i was thinking, if, in a fit of prohibition induced rage and jealousy if, consistently, groups of crack smokers, heroin lovers (like me) and so on, were to take to the public and be like, WTF this is totally unfair! You know? …. I mean, what do you think? I mean, seriously… I think, probably, well, I think probably they’d get arrested, mostly, and then, simultaneously, prohibitionist opponents would point fingers and somehow blame marijuana for it, even though marijuana it’self has nothing to do with it. The real important thing is I fear that the pot smokers would perhaps assist in helping detain the heroin users/crack smokers/etc. That’s what worries me, unfortunately…. 🙁 i mean, for a person who, say, runs a strictly pot website and like, is a subscriber to high times and is into the festivals etc. etc. i cannot imagine him/her really giving a you know what about the meth heads, the e rollers, the opiate lovers etc. you know what i mean??
listen im not trying to start anything with anybody, pleaaase dont get me wrong, im just thinking aloud…. its like, i hadnt even considered this before, to be honest, in my personal life in the countless discussions ive had with so many people out here (in NYC) its been nothing but stuff like how the colorado and washington initiatives help me and my heroin colleagues etc. we’ve all seen it as a good thing and that’s really been the consistent tone, how we more or less see it as a stepping stone to bigger better things, you know??
But driving in the car today and thinking about it, i actually thought of this, a part of it i’d not considered, you know? Like for example, yeah? i know someone who is in a methadone clinic, she is getting off now, shes already been getting off for the past month, she tried to awhile ago but she tried really fast and well let me back up a second, this person i know got into the methadone program because of, mainly, having an arrest, up until the arrest she was a heavy heroin user. she got arrested, but, like some folks, has seen it all done it all in the game of prohibition and was not going to make any rookie mistakes so she immediately checked into the methadone clinic to keep the dope withdrawals at bay and so she’d not get screwed at probation drug tests etc. etc. she always knew that she wanted to be back on heroin, she knew it the moment the slapped the cuffs on that she was about to be forced by prohibition to take a break. So while the gov’t monitered her life, she did what she had to to get the gov’t out of her life ASAP, telling “counselors” what they wanna hear, bla blabla, you know the drill, right? so that being said, she tried to get off, she was so happy and eager to get back on dope you couldn’t believe, your heart would’ve gone out to her with such pity. It was heart breaking. I mean, again, no rookie mistakes, trying to shoot over meth is a waste of money and more importantly dope. I know i know i know, alot of us do it, but its really stupid and such a waste. So anyhow, her first taper off awhile ago was a crash and burn disaster… she got back on, got settled, and is now ready to go again, this time opting for a slower taper. Its gonna be some time yet before shes off and back on heroin and in that time i know shes saving cash to give her a good running start when shes gotta square up in the fight ring of prohibition to go toe to toe with prohibition again. So, the point is, I know this girl is looking to have a few grand on hand for when she’s off, the idea being that that’d be enough cash to get her through 2 months, THAT’S IT THOUGH! and, to be fully honest, 2 months i gotta say is really realy unlikely, I think she’d be lucky to get 3 weeks out of 1,500$ or 2k. I realize that, if all goes well and according to plan, and, it is kinda asking alot of her, that shell be starting off close to 0 opiate tolerance, you know? So the idea is that starting off 0 tolerance with 100 bags in the bank, the first few days if shes real lucky shell only need 1 bag or 2, you know? But the point is, the girl has no income really, a small pittance, and is hoping that all her savings will afford her enough dope and time to get the ball rolling with income prospects, you know? but its a shot in the dark really.
So it’s like, thinking about that, 1,000, 2,000$ for folks below the poverty line, at the poverty line, or barely making the lower class, thats alot of money, and, to be honest, most junkies go through that in a few days, if even.
Now that is 100% the fault of prohibition. 100%. you guys know that. I know bags and bundies vary in price guys but were talking 5-15 bucks a bag, tops, 20, right, as the spectrum here? And bundies what, shoot, maybe 50-150 range, with pops of 75, 100, 120, 125 probably.. Well honestly in a prohibition free world i do think a bundie would be the price of a bag, today, and then this chick is not S.O.L in 3 weeks off 2 thousand dollars. 15 bucks a wop, figure, maybe 5 wops a day, 95 dollars a day vs 500 dollars a day. WHAT A DIFFERENCE! You can PROBABLY have a life!
So, thinking about that, its like, it is really aggrivating, you know? As a heroin user. It is really upsetting, depressing, frustrating, you name it. So I got to thinking like, so what if where I live, NYC, what if, instead of Colorado it was Washington and NYC or Colorado and NYC and then today everybody was out having a gay ole time toking up, as a drug user in general i would be hideously jealous and extremely frustrated. I would definitely feel screwed over.
And I think about all the cops who enjoy alcohol, right? I think about my own life and the cops whove arrested me, consider them, the DA’s the judges, their BS lame cocktails and whiskey and whiskey parties etc. enjoying booze and i think, well, we have something in common, we both enjoy intoxicants, i happen to dig opiates they enjoy the legal alcohol… Then i think, well you know, alcohol users wouldn’t hesitate to call the cops on us heroin users if they see us doing business, if they see stuff on us, if they see something, you know? and its like, damn its ridiculous, what i like to do is no more dangerous than f’n alcohol and its like, i can’t even call Ghostbusters on them when they go to the bar but if they happen to see me shooting up in the staircase area of an apt bldg well so long for me, you know? And then i think about this idea, taking the ole shooting up in the secluded apt staircase scenario again and its like, say a bunch of people are in the apt next door passing a fat blunt around in a circle and then someone ups to go, leaves takes the stairs im nodded out with my pants belt around my bicep and a needle sticking out of my arm. This person can walk down the stairs, get out of the bldg, their cell now has service, they dial 911 then as the phone rings they put a joint in their mouth and tell the cops that there is a man in their bldg on the staircase using heroin. Theyll continue smoking that joint maybe light another one and will be smoking it as they watch the cop haul me out of the bldg and throw me in the back seat. Theyll watch the cop car drive off, watch as I am brought to further ruining of my life, courtesy of them, and when they’re done thinking about this theyll just throw the joint on the floor, step on it and then light another one a few blocks later on, never to consider my ruined life again, unless, say, its to laugh at my expense next time they’re having a blunt party with friends at apartment again.
I guess its thoughts like that that get me so nuts and stuff and gets me so belligerant at times with fellow reformists…. I hope you can kinda understand my thoughts here… eh, i sincerely didnt mean to offend/upset anybody, hope i didnt.
While I fully understand the need for ending the deaths and social harms caused by prohibition I will never recommend heroin,meth,cocaine or ecstasy to anyone as a recreational drug.
Chewing opium flowers,chewing coca leaves,shrooms and peyote buttons are natures forms of some of those drugs that I think everyone should try,once for some and as needed for others.
It is only after man messes with it that it becomes truly deadly.
I wonder if full legalization takes place will these plant forms become more popular. I have always wondered why no one smoke freebase caffeine, which surely must be more harmful than coffee.
It is a tragic consequence of prohibition that the plant forms of drugs are banned and replaced with more harmful, concentrated forms. Instead of gentle coca we have crack, instead of opium we have heroin and oxycontin. The same thing happened during alcohol prohibition, rum and whiskey replaced the more dilute forms of alcoholic drinks like wine and beer.
That being said heroin, methamphetamine and cocaine are not any more addictive or harmful to the body than alcohol. The majority of users are occasional users. According to SAMSA’s own data, only about 1 in 5 heroin users are actually dependent on the drug. Millions of doses of amphetamine were given out to soldiers in wars throughout the 20th century, and methamphetamine is occasionally prescribed for children.
It should also be noted that many people who are called “addicts” are really self-medicating. For these people, while using may be fun, it’s really not about recreation. Just has there are people who use pot to treat their PTSD or anxiety (two of many possible examples), there are people who use heroin to treat their depression or pain. While I don’t think all drug use is medical use, it is just as absurd to call using drugs in this way as “recreational” as it is to call it “drug abuse.”
Prohibition makes using stimulants and opiates far more dangerous than they could be, in part by promoting powders over plants, thereby maximizing the effect of the drug (by reaching the brain more rapidly and in higher concentrations) while bypassing safety mechanisms inherent in plants. This maximizes negative reactions and toxicity issues like overdose. Prohibition also maximizes harm by spreading misinformation and censoring good information. Contrary to popular knowledge, it is actually not easy to overdose on heroin (or pharma opioids). However it is very easy to overdose on opiates when they are combined with CNS depressants, in particular alcohol. It is very dangerous to combine alcohol or benzos with opiates, but this potentially life saving information is never disseminated. Instead all we ever hear is how dangerous heroin and narcotic pills are, and of course all the ODs are blamed on opiates when they are truly a result of poly-drug toxicity. All in all I would say heroin is no more dangerous than high proof alcohol, with one major exception. Pure heroin administered under sterile conditions is not as harmful in the long term. A lifetime of heavy heroin use (again pharma grade, such as that used in heroin clinics) will not leave you with a ruined liver.
I did not read your entire rant, however I get the gist. I oppose prohibition as the approach to ALL drugs. As an example, if opiates were legal to obtain in one’s own home town, the Downtown East Side in Vancouver would be much smaller. Opiate users congregate there because the climate is nicer and the heroin is cheaper and more plentiful, and their families have disowned them. The Swiss have determined that heroin maintenance works to bring stability to user’s lives and diminish the criminality. The users’ families no longer fear the loss of the silverware and they reconnect with them. Unfortunately for the fans of opiates, their numbers are much smaller and more scattered and arguably less able to mount a campaign to relegalize, unlike the cannabists. I hope that the relegalization of cannabis leads to a more open, honest discussion of prohibition which will lead to more enlightened approaches for all entheogens.
If weed has 100% legalized everywhere in the world the drug wars could continue. How many people are busted for weed each year? Something like 800,000? That number could easily be replaced with the ranks of other drug users.
The worst case scenario, as I see it, following cannabis legalization would be a shift in focus to other drugs with no change in enforcement dollars or priorities. In the absence of marijuana, there’s always coca and poppy crops to be eradicated, dealers and users to be hunted down and locked up.
I think this is unlikely, though possible. In part because the debate over weed has included the notion that there are costs to prohibition, costs which are due to prohibition and not drugs (a distinction that prohibitionists do their best to obfuscate). Prohibition has failed at eliminating people’s access to these drugs, a failure which is all the more remarkable given its long history of failure and official denial (that a drug free America is possible, or even desirable). Places like South America, which have born the brunt of the drug war, have had enough.
Legalizing heroin may be too radical a notion for the masses who have known nothing but propaganda for over a generation (and I understand this since I was a DARE grad and firmly anti-drug until being exposed to alternative views), but I think a possible chip in the established dogma would be to start with the plants. Poppies and coca have been used for a very long time, the right to cultivate and use these plants is an easier sell than heroin and cocaine.
CJ in a free market the price of opiates would be much lower than what you mentioned (10 bags for the price of 1). Currently heroin costs between $250-350 per gram with somewhat higher prices for oxy. With poppy production increased and industrial poppy straw extraction methods used, the cost per gram would be very low, low enough to sell at the retail level for under, say $30 per gram while still providing a healthy profit for all involved and generating tax revenue. In the heroin maintenance programs, the average dose was around half a gram per day, very affordable under such a scheme.
If you consider opioids like fentanyl, a single lab could produce the world’s supply at a tiny fraction of a penny per dose.
Doesn’t matter one bit if the sky actually falls or not. Opponents will still say it did, just as they do now. They’re constantly talking about how dispensaries attract crime and increase mj use among kids, in spite of plenty of statistics that show the opposite to be true. They don’t need no stinkin’ facts. After all, facts are easy to dispute. “Facts” that you make up can support any argument you want.
USA Today has a story:
Marijuana’s health effects: Memory problems, addiction
but their wwwebsite hates me so I’ll leave it to you all.
On the premise that you are known by the company you keep, I will refrain from posting there. Not only are there too many comments there already, the comments I read were….uh…really stupid. …and the trolls are ugly.
I don’t do Facebook or I would be there.
interesting… I wasn’t able to get that far. If Santa is nice I’ll be getting a post xmas, slightly used laptop. This old beast I’m on needs to retire.
I really am elatedly surprised at how media coverage has so rapidly morphed into acceptance of discussing cannabis in real terms. NBC covered the 12:01 Legalization Day burn at the Spaced Needle, talked about legalization like adults…
I do believe we have breeched the wall…
THUD!!!
Eat my shorts you excremental Prohibitionists!
from the Oops! file::
Arizona border agent arrested for alleged on-duty drug smuggling
I’m shocked… shocked I tell ya!
and here’s a well-assembled one:
U.S. Drug Policies: Lessons from Prohibition