Study: 1 in 9 Arizona students got pot from medical marijuana cardholders
This is really great news. Marijuana use by school students in Arizona remained steady, and yet over 11% of the students who used pot now say they got their pot from medical marijuana users. And although that’s illegal, it sure is better than having contact with street dealers and more criminal enterprises.
Of course, the prohibitionists don’t even realize that it’s good news. They’re so stuck in their world-view that when Rafael Lemaitre, communications director for the ONDCP tweeted:
Study: 1 in 9 Ariz. students got pot from medical marijuana cardholders http://t.co/Oawun5a7 via @AsburyParkPress
… you can tell that he’s thinking this is a strike against medical marijuana.
The truth is it’s entirely irrelevant to the discussion about medical marijuana and very relevant to the discussion about making life safer for young people.
He has yet to reply to my response:
.@RafaelONDCP Unless you know that those students wouldn’t have otherwise gotten it, this seems preferable to getting it from criminals.
People, including some teens, are going to purchase pot. That will happen regardless of the laws. However, if they can, they prefer to purchase it through the most safe and legal channels available. If we care about people, then our focus should be on providing those safe and legal channels rather than empowering crime and violence.
interesting that rafael wont defend his position by replying to pete s tweet. obviously doesnt want to encourage any out of the box thinking about this. just keeps pounding away at what about the children (watc)
It would be interesting to know how many people got their pharm drugs from prescription holders,,,about 99% is my bet.
I thought the same thing,Pete. That means 8 out of 9 students are probably supporting Mexican drug cartels with their illegal purchases.
I couldn’t understand what problem was being complained about in the article.
That headline is incredibly misleading: “Study: 1 in 9 Ariz. students got pot from medical marijuana cardholders”? That clearly suggests you’re talking about all students when in fact the “1 in 9” figure applies to “high schoolers who said they used the drug within the past 30 days.” That’s a pretty damn important distinction. And it’s actually incredibly low. In fact, the headline probably should have included an “only.” Eight out of nine students who buy pot are getting it from a completely illegal source despite the fact that there’s a legal distribution channel set up in that state?! How many teens do you think buy their booze from moonshiners rather than from adults who purchased it legally? (And if the percentage buying from moonshiners increased, would that really be a good thing?)
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My wife loves her (so called) reality shows. There’s one that she’s just started to watch which simultaneously follows some professional moonshiners and the LEOs who are trying to catch them. I’m not sure why the LEOs don’t just demand that the TV people turn over the information of where to locate the stills…or why the heck the moonshiners are sharing that information with people they know are communicating with the police. It’s a regular Forrest Gump clusterfuck of stupid is as stupid does but I guess both sides want to get paid.
After about 10 minutes of that nonsense I told my wife that it’s a darn good thing that they didn’t have the idiocy of “reality” shows when we were dating.
I really, truly wonder what the entertainment media industry will do after drugs are legalized. It’s such an easy and lazy plot device to focus on drugs and drug dealing that it was hard to find a movie to watch with my parents over christmas break that did not contain them. Watching “Lawless” and then seeing an advertisement for “Moonshiners” and then going to watch “Project X” “Limitless” and “21st Jump st” (where the cops throw a party with high schoolers and a pound of weed to catch dealers of synthetic drugs that are actually killing people. Of course, somehow no one makes the connection between drugs and prohibition even though it couldn’t possibly be more in your face.
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IMO most people actually believe that prohibition causes a not insignificant number of potential problem drug users to be sober. Not just sober today but never a problem user but they appear to believe the choice to be binary, that people either choose to enjoy cannabis or to be sober. The thought that such problem users might choose to use another substance that’s legal to debauch themselves appears to be beyond their ken.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget a Manassas Park VA street bum who made his living with a cardboard sign at busy traffic intersections in the late ’80s/early ’90s. People knew him as “Hi-test”. The reason for the nickname is easy to understand, this damfool spent his days getting high on gasoline fumes. He said that he liked gasoline because he could get high all day for on 50 cents worth and that it was legal. Poor Hi-test passed away in his late 30s from benzene poisoning.
Hubby watches that show upon occasion, he wonders why they show one of the moonshiner’s job, and don’t the cops watch the show? And, if they do, why haven’t they arrested him since they must know who he is and they DO know where to find him.
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Further research indicates that the show is a complete and utter fraud.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moonshiners_%28TV_series%29
Had I known that it was set in Virginia I would have thought that from the start. The Virginia ABC cops are not nice people. I saw them bust some poor schmuck who agreed to buy beer for a minor. The minor was part of the sting. They tackled that poor man and bounced his head on the blacktop before the poor schmuck even realized that they were there.
Reality, what a concept.
Virginia as an entity is an immoral hypocrite sociopathic criminal when you consider its the host of the cigarette industry and the invention of Virginia Dioe (Bright Large Leaf to be inhaled deeply ’cause its ‘mild’).
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-evil-prohibition-to-promote.html
Asides from its evil drug ‘laws’, I say erase that anti humanist name and rename it New Atlantis.
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Doug, didn’t we meet back in the early 1990s either in DC Metro NORML or some peripheral association with the chapter? Did you know that Gary Jones has taken to calling himself Muggles Jones? That was the name of The Inhalers 3rd album too.
But concerning your post about Virginia nothing that you’ve named is mutually exclusive with my opinion of how the State would act in the situation described above. The Commonwealth might be as evil as you submit but regardless, the Commonwealth is nothing if not wholly predictable.
The last comment I read, which states that the first legal dispensary opened only a month ago, so from where did they derive the data supporting this so-called ‘study’?
So kids are getting pot from certain sources, and the prohibs want to slam down hard on those sources?
Gee, where do the kids get their alcohol?
Are the prohibs calling for a war on 7-11? How about Dad’s liquor cabinet, will SWAT show up and blow it up which results in the house being destroyed (rather than just calmly confiscating it)?
No? Why not? Why treat one intoxicating chemical any differently than another, if the goal is actually to protect the children from intoxication? Why?
Protect & Serve (Themselves!)
That’s why.
Medical grade marijuana costs more than cartel ditch weed, so an economic distinction between sources fits well with the ratios. ‘One out of nine kids has the money to buy quality cannabis products’ sounds much less accusatorial than the APP.com headline that implicates MMJ card holders. Parental concerns should hinge on product quality assurance. We certainly don’t want the little children smoking bug parts or raccoon shit, do we?
Snoop Dogg Gives Weed To The Homeless
http://tinyurl.com/bkmzmly
Rapper Snoop Dogg recently cheered up a group of homeless men by buying them lunch and giving them a bag of marijuana.
The hip-hop star, who now goes by the name Snoop Lion, admits he wanted to do a good deed, so he gave food and pot to the needy.
Right on! I imagine they felt better for a few hours than they had in months.
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I’m certain that cannabis need not come from the medicinal cannabis retail distribution chain to be called “medical” pot. This story once again reminds me of when I was in high school and how my crowd would have lied our asses off just to torque the authority figures.
Apparently the Arizona Legislature is a glutton for punishment. Arizona lawmaker hopes to repeal medical-marijuana law The proposal is not a vote of the Legislature but to put the question back on the ballot in 2014. I think they need a 75% supermajority to do that. I know that’s the requirement to change a law implemented by ballot initiative but perhaps they can put it on the ballot with a lesser vote. Why in the world do the residents of Arizona put up with such bullshit?
Here’s what happened when the Legislature sent a similar proposal to the ballot in 1998:
Arizona Medical Use of Schedule 1 Drugs, Proposition 300 (1998)
Here’s one that happened in 1998 because the Legislature overturned Arizona’s medicinal cannabis patient protection law which was approved by ballot initiative in 1996:
Arizona Voter Protection, Proposition 105 (1998)
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WRT the citizen generated Prop 105 above which makes it difficult for the Legislature to overturn a voter approved law implemented by ballot initiative apparently the Legislature knew that their days of screwing the voters by simple majority were over so they sent a Legislature initiated ballot initiative that gave themselves less power than before but substantially more than they lost due to Prop 105.
Arizona Initiative and Referendum, Proposition 104 (1998)
The Arizona Legislature sure had their asses handed to them in 1998. Let’s see it happen again in 2014!
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Oh my, Mr. Kavanagh, one of the co-sponsors and writers of Arizona’s SB-1070 is worried about “conflict” with Federal law. Isn’t that just precious?
Just FYI SB-1070 was the unconstitutional on it’s face Arizona law which was subsequently struck down on grounds of Federal preemption without ever seeing the light of day.
So why are we not arresting law makers for violating the laws on illegal immigration . . . Laws created that directly creates more illegal immigrants are supposed to be illegal –not only Federally, but Logically. I though AZ was near Mexico? To repeal the Medical pot laws, would be to allow the Mexican War to spill over much more than it has, and since the politicians know this, such laws are intended to create more illegal immigrants in the form of drug smugglers and refuges escaping the Mexican War. This sounds more like the politician is purposely trying to drag Arizona or at least Mexico further into a Vietnam War like Quagmire by cartels who rely significantly on Mexican pot sales (even it is a lot smaller than Vietnam) to be able to afford driving across the border in the first place. America relies on Mexican stability and their economy . . . Why is this politician purposely trying to hinder the sale of American goods in Mexico, which is what happens when your consumer’s die and families have less money to spend and fear discourages one from going out to market as often as they would like.
One in nine kids didn’t even consider buying beer.
“”Since 1999, US sales of opiate drugs have tripled in number and in 2010, a record-setting 254 million prescriptions for opioids were filled in the United States — enough to medicate every American adult around the clock for a month. (In particular, the manufacturing of the drug Oxycodone has increased from 8.3 tons in 1997 to 105 tons in 2011, an increase of 1,200 percent.) Overdose deaths from the use of prescription painkillers are also now at record levels, totaling some 15,000 annually — more than triple the total a decade ago.””
Picked this up at Norml from Paul’s article on vaporized low thc,high cbd cannabis,,very good read.
Wow, doesn’t that indicate an extremely large increase in the amount of liver killing acetaminophen too?
Thoughtful Doctors prescribe the drug without the added poisons.
They can only get by with that for so long before the DEA shows them the error of their ways.
It is a remarkably common suicide tool, in case you didn’t know.
No, I’m well aware of the suicide statistics (twenty years as a psychologist…BTW, in terms of individual lethality, overdose ranks pretty low. Overdose is too slow, and easily reversed. You see most of the successful overdose suicides after two or three attempts. These cases are dangerous….but mostly because of the fact the the loved ones, having endured other attempts, begin to respond with less urgency. In other cases, drugs are deliberately chosen because the victim believes someone will find them and intervene…and a change in schedule catches them unawares.). But you make a good point. There are many deliberate overdose suicides.
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I can think of better ways to check out early than liver failure. Good golly, there’s Sominex® on the shelf right next to the Tylenol®. Lean back, close your eyes, and the next thing you know you’re dead.
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DC don’t you mean thoughtful doctors who are also not afraid of losing that DEA number that keeps them in business? That’s what, perhaps as many as 100 for the entire U.S. and every one of them batshit crazy?
So far the only doctor I’ve ever met who wasn’t scared of the DEA was Lester Grinspoon. A fiesty old man no doubt but I don’t think someone needs a DEA number to be a medical school professor so I’m not sure he even counts. But if you can ever buttonhole Dr. Grinspoon for a conversation I recommend not passing up the opportunity. Well presuming he hasn’t gone senile. After all he is 84 1/2 now. My conversation with him is one of my most treasured memories.
It’s the difference in record keeping requirements that keeps most of them prescribing CIII as opposed to CII the way I understand it. But they do get more scrutiny if they write too many. Luckily, my Doctor, having survived one DEA raid, is not cowed out of operating in his patient’s best interests.
Based on what I know from friends of friends, it is a relatively common attempt tool at least. Most of them end up getting the stuff pumped out.
Someday, we will be telling our kids how to tell the good stuff from the bad stuff… not to avoid it entirely. Being a parent myself, I object to the state playing nanny on many things. I would not encourage underage use, but at the same time I would rather be responsible for telling the truth about life… instead of having the state lie.
a pretty good discussion going on at David Sloan’s Science 2.0 blog, When Science Goes To Pot Part II: Evaluations And Perceptions
Mr Sloan is a polite, intelligent, apparently genuinely curious, and science oriented host but needs help stretching beyond NIDA and ONDCP “data.”
Congrats on a well researched and a firm but polite rebuttal to Mr Sloans article Allan.
Discussions such as that are valuable but wouldn’t you like to spend a evening in your own home with David and show him what toking is really about ?
Drives me nuts listening to all these ” experts ” that have never indulged.
thanks, it’s easier for me, personally, to comment in forums where civility is more common than not and commenters less than more. I’ve just replied again pointing out that it’s not about molecules, it’s about people, freedom, oppression, etc… it’s practice for my lte and oped writing too because I just sit here, 3 or 4 browser windows open and read and write, just as it comes out (I was shocked when my friend Olaf – hey guben! – showed me that I wasn’t limited to having only one window open. It was as big a revelation to me as copy and paste…).
I was shocked actually to find Malcolm hadn’t been there yet… but he’s been kinda quiet recently so I’ll wager he’s off cavorting with his 16 concubines, again.
I don’t speculate on the mysterious ways of the Malcolm.
Yep, good guess! —except for Xmas, I normally get only one Sunday in the month to myself, which partly explains why I’ve been on an acute “post-coital” go-slow for the last 48 hours.
I just left him some science and got this “Your comment has been queued for moderation by site administrators and will be published after approval.”
Have tried to do subsequent posts only to be told “service unavailable”
lessee… 16 concubines, 1 day off every 2 weeks… you have my sympathy Malcolm!
but it is nice occasionally playing in other people’s front yards w/ my friends.
(miss that edit function…) and yes, I would like to host such an event. Play some of his favorite music and let him hear it anew…
I just jumped in, but I’m way down the list. I like that forum.
Morning to all those on the couch, if you get a chance, do me a favor and give me your feed back on a facebook page, (was forwarded to me by a friend) that is put together in the county from where I live. It is Prevention Network of Washington County. Here it states that: “Marijuana Myth: Weed is not addictive.
FALSE! Depite what you might hear, weed is addictive. Weed affects the naturally occurring chemicals in the brain and in effect disrupts these various processes, thus producing a high. Over time, overstimulation of the brain can alter CBR receptors, which leads to physical dependence on weed and addiction.”
Would like to know where in the science world this has been proven, and since this is a page for parents to become informed, I like to see them put their references, true?
Go ahead and dispute it, fight fear with facts I say!
Irie,,quit trying to convince people that marijuana is not addictive but use the one place you would not think that will support you,,NIDA.
According to NIDA marijuana has the same addiction level as caffeine with less severe withdrawel effects,,it is all printed out there for you. Once most parents see that information the fear mongering addiction ploy will lose most of it’s steam,,it is why the ONDCP and all prohibisites add heroin,meth and alcohol to their “addiction” rant,,,because it infers that marijuana is as addictive as the ones they list with marijuana.
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Unfortunately merrywanna is indeed an addictive drug and has been for about a decade. The prohibitionists got tired of hearing that it wasn’t so they went straight to the source of their angst. Once they had changed the definition of the word “addictive” in the dictionary cannabis does qualify. Of course being an addict under the new definition is more of a minor inconvenience but you’ve got to take the good with the bad when you change the definition of a word to suit your political policies.
So is driving a car addictive: cars kills, destroy property, harms users and pedestrians, helps create and stimulate obesity and millions of Americans drive when they don’t need or have to (like Sunday Drives, or a drive to a store, that’s 15min away by foot) . . . cars are also unhealthy for humans since they create bad exhaust problems associated with Green house gasses . . . cars are associated with deforestation in the form of cutting down trees to build more and bigger roads for all the cars. Why are not the prohibs shunning cars? How many children die or get hurt from cars . . . how many homes children live in that get damaged by a car crash?
Should we not shun the prohibs for not shunning everything possibly dangerous, thus showing their hypocrisy –further showing they don’t have the mental capabilities to make rational decisions –showing that such prohibs should be locked up for their own good and for the safety of others? Since prohibs are destroying the country as seen in drug money financed 9/11, drug money financed terrorism killing our soldiers and our recession greatly stimulated by an expensive long War on Narco Terror in the middle east (because of the law they protect and urge as hypocrites and hypocrisy on that kind of level is a mental illness associated with Sociopaths); it would be logical to assume such people don’t know how to take care or feed or cloth themselves (and their family) –let alone go to the bathroom by themselves as evident in the fact that the prohibs have helped destroy America by not doing what was logically needed to protect and help America, therefore that’s proof enough to see that prohibs cannot take care of themselves or their families on an individual basis (as proven in the fact they cannot take care of the PEOPLE on a national basis) . . . that the STATE should take them away from their positions and lock them up before they eat their own feces or spray urine on care providers? The odds are extremely high that prohibs like Kevin or Gil will one day make their pet cat or dog into an adviser in a special position regarding drugs and America –I don’t want my taxes to pay for Fiddo or Mr. Sock’s new job.
All Charges Dropped Against Medical Marijuana Provider
http://tinyurl.com/aowm2qv
All charges against medical marijuana patient and provider Adam Assenberg have been dropped in Washington state’s Whitman County Superior Court. Assenberg was facing multiple charges for operating a medical marijuana dispensary in Colfax, Washington.
“I totally kicked ass,” Assenberg told Toke of the Town on Friday. “I told everyone from the beginning that I was going to.”
According to Assenberg, the case was dismissed due to the Scott Shupe ruling. In that huge victory for medical cannabis, the “drug trafficking” convictions of Scott Q. Shupe, a man who operated Spokane, Washington’s first medical marijuana dispensary, were reversed on December 11 in a state Appeals Court ruling. ‘snip’
Another story at TotT is about medical patients being sentenced to federal prison,,haven’t investigated it yet.
Regarding the mmj patients,,Steve,in his untiring effort to blame everything on Obama,has the headline about mmj patients going to prison but when you read the article they may have been patients but they were also dispensary owners and mmj growers for some of those dispensaries. I don’t have the bust info on them and have no idea whether they were in compliance with state laws or not.
I don’t think Steve and a lot of other advocates realize how the ONDCP has woven prohibition into our society and the federal government,I keep remembering Obama’s speech when he took office about American policies being more like a large ship and not a speed boat that you can just yank the wheel over and change directions instantly,,although I do believe he could turn just a little quicker.
Or even start the turn. It’s like we’re all standing on the deck of the Titanic, pointing and shouting “Iceberg!” and they totally ignore us, unable to see the iceberg for themselves, so it doesn’t exist.
John,,the turn was started when the infamous “memo” from the AG hit the press and is continuing to inch around. Even with the feds on steroids about mmj the worm has turned and they will never stop it,,all they will accomplish is to spend billions of dollars fighting it and they will still lose.
Saw a good bumper sticker,,”Get hoarders addicted to crack,,they will sell all their shit,,,problem solved.
Former Rep Patrick Kennedy leads campaign against legal pot
http://tinyurl.com/bexeovl
Retired Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy is taking aim at what he sees as knee-jerk support for marijuana legalization among his fellow liberals, in a project that carries special meaning for the self-confessed former Oxycontin addict.
Kennedy, 45, a Democrat and younger son of the late “Lion of the Senate” Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, is leading a group called Project SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) that opposes legalization and seeks to rise above America’s culture war over pot with its images of long-haired hippies battling law-and-order conservatives. “snip”
If his great-grandpappy hadn’t been a bootlegger we wouldn’t know any of the Kemmedy’s.
Where do these dimwits get the idea that prohibition prevents drug abuse? Reminds me of a prohibitionist tell a story about their 13 year old daughter who had ended up smoking a lot of cannabis and making a mess of her life. They believed that prohibition would prevent other children from smoking cannabis. Contrary to their own experience. They were arguing against legalisation because prohibition didn’t work for them.
It came right from the propaganda machine’s #2 outlet,,Rueters and it looks like they will kick it off in Denver,,I feel lobby money flowing like that last tsunami is headed towards us,,,and they sent an opiate addict to guide the ship.
This is a mental health issue: Prohibs are mentally ill as evident in the fact prohibs allowed laws that created 9/11, war on terror, terrorism, Mexico War, recession etc . . . It’s very sad and inhumane that we don’t respect the right of the mentally ill (prohibs) to be housed in hospitals to receive help. The odds are higher that one plus one will somehow equal three than for any prohib to know how to feed, cloth or go to the bathroom by themselves –let alone teach or take care of their own children.
and if ted had smoked dope instead of drinking alcohol, maryjo and he might be alive today. his ues of hooch killed the both of them.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324374004578217682305605070.html?mod=ITP_review_0
Have We Lost the War on Drugs?
After more than four decades of a failed experiment, the human cost has become too high. It is time to consider the decriminalization of drug use and the drug market.
A bunch of prohibs there to argue with but it is about legalization of all drugs and it really brought them out!
I just came by to post that Windy…
The young woman (a Texas lass if memory serves) who sent me the article questions the authors’ use of decriminalization instead of legalization. And it’s a spot on question. These two are profs of economics at the Univ of Chicago and should know better.
Their points are all lined up, but their insistence on avoiding the L word is creepy. I drive forklifts and clean windows and I got it the first time it was explained to me… (and I admit it had to be explained to me). Decrim still sucks and is nowhere close to legalization/regulation.
I still think we should stick to “regulation” in the more formal environments. The problem with using “legalization” is that the prohibitionists twist it to mean a chaotic mess without any sort of rules. When you use “regulation”, rules are implied.
I hear ya… I now use both by pointing out that if they replace the word “legalization” in their heads with “regulation” the concept is easier to grab. It’s my language, the ONDCP dis-owned the word legalization, going so far as to remove that page from their dictionaries, so I won’t give it up w/o rubbing their faces in it.
legalization = regulation needs a bridge of explanation, understanding and recognition. Herd animals spook easily.
I will reiterate what I have said before: being a writer, I believe in not just the power of words in a group, but in the choice of a single word. Read some literature about the works of Shakespeare and you will find much discussion over the opulence of single words. What the layman considers to be minutae is often a complex matter in terms of meaning and intent. You can alter an entire scene or play through skillfully choosing even a single word.
aye… Grampa Semu used to say that a medicine man’s real power lies in knowing his language. Makes sense. One of these years when I’m drug-war free I’d really like to write just for writing again. Until then, we battle on, eh…
Um, if students get their pot from medical marijuana users, aren’t they, technically, getting it from drug dealing criminals?
Not if they’re stealing it from their parents or their friend’s parents. How do prescription meds get into junior’s hands? Most often from an unsuspecting Mommy or Daddy. I’m guessing the percentage would jibe with that explanation, too. But that’s a guess.
Another thought,,if a 10th grader is buying mmj,,why are his parents giving him that much money?
I don’t think all the young people that use marijuana steal to buy it,,a parent hands them the money is my bet.
So what possesses a parent to hand a 15>16 year old $50 or more to go out with? I know a movie w/popcorn is $20 but damn,,,
Might also be the opposite problem, Clay, $10 buys a gram and $5 buys a fat joint… can’t do a sixer for that (in Washington, anyway).
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One of the more endearing habits of the Know Nothing prohibitionist is when they realize that their arguments have failed. So they “agree” to end prohibition but then make a list of restrictions that they think should be required. I wonder if these clowns really think that we’re going to end de jure prohibition but then agree to the stupidity of de facto prohibition?
These brain dead idiots are making themselves heard in the State of Washington:
…and in Colorado:
The U.S. Constitution, isn’t that in a museum somewhere?
all things considered currently airing views on why liberals feel let down by obama. so far no mention of drug war
Duncan, I prefer ‘blithering idiot’ myself.
blith·er
[blith -er] Show IPA
verb (used without object)
to talk foolishly; blather: He’s blithering about some problem of his.
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Origin:
1865–70; variant of blather
But I still gave you a thumb up for bringing those items in. Attaboy.