Editorial: Legal pot: worth a try – Copenhagen Post
In a country that regulates the sale of over-the-counter painkillers, you’d have thought that a reasonable way to decriminalise the sale of cannabis would have long since been rolled out, perfected and exported to other cities grappling with the same topic. […]
…mindlessly repeating the same mistakes of drug control is guaranteed to fail.
It’s time we take a different approach to cannabis. Like so many other things, you never know what will happen until you try.
Drug War Failing in Germany – Spiegel
Germany’s law-enforcement and legal apparatus devotes enormous resources to fighting illegal narcotics. But users are always a step ahead, and lawmakers seem uninterested in exploring alternatives to a broken system. […]
When Leipzig, the prosecutor in Berlin, is asked for his opinion, he says that he could imagine a system in Germany involving the controlled administration of soft drugs, such as cannabis, to adults. The problem is that there is no political pressure in Germany, nor does the federal government have a drug czar who wants things to change.
New Zealand
The ever excellent Hungarian Civil Liberties Union interviews an official from New Zealand about the new approach they’re instituting to dealing with the ever-shifting introduction of new chemical psychoactive products. This is going to be something to watch in the future to see just how it’s done. It’s a bit scary in that it takes the position that the default is that any new product is banned unless it is proven “safe” (with no stated definition yet as to what that means).
Why is the U.S. Funding International Drug Rehabs Known for Torture and Abuse? – Alternet
The United States is not just funding an abusive drug war at home; taxpayer funds are propping up violently oppressive “drug treatment” centers that act more like detainment camps abroad. At the U.S.-backed Somsanga Rehabilitation Center in Laos, detainees are subjected to shocking physical abuse, including beating to the point of unconsciousness for showing withdrawal symptoms or attempting to escape. Allegations of sexual assault are also rampant. […]
This June, the U.S. agreed to donate an additional $400,000 to the Somsanga center. US officials heeded no warnings issued by at least three separate reports (2003 UNICEF report, 2004 WHO report, and 2011 Human Rights Watch report), each of which warned against the center’s deplorable conditions and inhumane treatment of detainees. The UN report says past US funds have been used to build dormitories “to expand the capacity of the government to detain drug users, street children, and ethnic minorities,” as well as fences surrounding the center.
I must admit I find the thought of “diversion” being controlled under I-502 to be most amusing. Letter from Jay Inslee to Eric Holder
They refuse to acknowledge the laws of supply and demand as foundation in ANY market,,they see MMJ and black market prices for a plant that costs pennies on the dollar in today’s market and want exorbitant pricing sustained,,just as impossible as achieving a drug free world.
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It appears to be even goofier than that, they seem unable to accept that there’s no one who wants to get high that’s unable to do so because of lack of supply anywhere in the United States. I’d really like to know where in Fantasyland USA you can actually find even one person who is “sober” as the proverbial judge for the sole reason that he can’t find anything to get high with. Of course with gasoline stations and Walmarts just about everywhere there simply are plenty of options available 24/7/365. Are the prohibitionists seriously proud of steering people to alternative highs?
What’s available at Walmart? Including, but not necessarily limited to: 43.2 proof mouthwash (Listerine®), dextromethorphan (Robitussin®), diphenhydramine (Benadryl®, Sominex®), pseudoephedrine, ether (starting fluid), Freon®, and Nitrous Oxide (in the dairy case). Not a single item on the list is age restricted by law. I think some retailers have quit selling dextromethorphan to minors but that’s just company policy.
Have I ever shared that the most delusional experiences that I’ve ever had came from diphenhydramine? I was literally having conversations with people that didn’t exist anywhere but in my 100% legally addled brain. I think it may require some bupropion (Wellbutrin®) in combination to make the imaginary people come out to play. I never cared to repeat the experience. LSD is mere child’s play compared to diphenhydramine. Helpful consumer hint: the diphenhydramine sold as an allergy remedy is about 25% cheaper than when sold as a sleep aid. The only other difference is the color of the pills.
Diphenhydramine is prohibited in Zambia:
Have you ever tried that fake weed they sell now days? Not the old fake stuff of a few years back, but the constantly changing ones you can today. Good acid has nothing on the fake pot if you do enough. The fake stuff can make you almost feel and visualize the pain of a ‘fatal car crash’ based on one’s own previous experiences with pain i.e. skinned knees, broken bones, etc. It’s the equivalent of knowing what a painful death feels like without experiencing it . . . I mean who on this couch hasn’t experienced the fear and discomfort of an 80ton weight landing on them or slowly coming down on them at some factory? That fake stuff is so strong, it would keep me from ever leaving on one of my long walks, which is a must for getting high on the real weed: “Car may hit you, stay on couch . . . a group of adolescent muggers curious about death and dismemberment may victimize you –stay on couch . . . debris from an exploding airplane may land on you out in the field, stay on couch . . . roof in house may fall and crush you, move couch to outside.†Once you escape that fear, it makes ecstasy look like minithins to a speed freak: it’s concentrated bliss. The resin of that stuff is more intense than the fake weed itself. It’s almost like the world has amnesia and not you and the world doesn’t know what kind of ennui or reality to create or go back too. Of course the world does look like it’s in deep trouble when you, a 21st Century male, discovered that elements and monuments from and only existing in ancient Greece are currently residing in your modern machine at the factory . . . reliving every century is a pain in the ass just to get back to the most current cause and effect that is your 21st Century life (or as Nietzsche would say, “Shit, not again –there goes my evening with Wagner just to reanalyze Zarathustra once moreâ€). At least on acid, one can get away with walking in the park while carrying two different objects in one’s hands and playacting the role of Hegel (in the left hand I hold, thesis and in the right hand I hold antithesis –combined, they have the power to form a synthesis) –but not on the fake stuff: antithesis may eat thesis, thus poor little synthesis will never be born . . . WTF.
Notice he’s talking about legal producers. They need to worry about the black market growers who will be looking for new markets. They better damn well ahve a plan for those folks….they ain’t going to magically disappear. And the medical growers….they had better realize they aren’t moving into a wide open market. Or ANY efforts to control diversion are effin’ doomed.
WV you cracked me up completely…I just lost it. thanks, buddy….needed a good laugh. “That fake stuff is so strong, it would keep me from ever leaving on one of my long walks, which is a must for getting high on the real weed: “Car may hit you, stay on couch . . .” hahahahahaha….
….really, WV…that was epic….
Thanks DC. I figure this website would be good practice for writing. The basis of my current work, a fiction novel, is about the war on drugs and some young U.S. soldier who found a way to bring it all down from not only the inside out, but the outside in as well. His biggest struggle is the ‘Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely’ and not giving into hate or fear, which according to Master Yoda, leads to the Dark Side. Everything I write seems to be focused on the drug war. And it’s because of this drug war that a lot of my time and energy for writing gets zapped away, which leaves me struggling to go past page 80 –which is why I refuse to work on anything else that has nothing to do with the War on Drugs until I write my catharsis or freshman novel. It’s hard for me to want to work extra just to better myself, my status and my finances with a project like a novel when so many people in this world will die simply because drug are illegal and not because of the drugs themselves, which leads me to Pete’s Couch and the countless activists and politicians from America and Canada I write to and to the VFW booth I’ll be heading off in the next few minutes (since Vets need to understand the War on Drugs and medical pot for PTSD. What better way for a vet to see the truth than for the truth to come from another vet . . . kind of like Clown College isn’t as effective if a stiff in a suit and tie is teaching it.) I have big dreams that one day we’ll appease our Ancestor’s hypocrisy and create a true free America where policy isn’t created and enforced by either the highest or lowest bidder, but by the people. I have dreams that American writers, poets and artists will boycott any form of artistic expression if said expression doesn’t attempt to bring about or reflect on social ills. We have too many nudes descending the staircase, why not a prisoner or sickly Afghan little girl descending the staircase instead. Of course this is why I think a urinal became the best piece of art ever created for the 20th Century: WWI flushed Europe away. On one of my graduation projects, I utilized the severe rage my roommate had when he trashing and destroying everything in our kitchen (over his anxiety of an old drug possession charge coming to light half a decade later, threatening him with a ten year stretch in another state) and called the photo or work of art of the destructive aftermath: President Calderon Plays Pee-knuckle War with an Invisible Enemy.
They want to protect the black market in other states as long as possible.
Oh wait, that’s the same letter I posted over a month ago:
http://www.drugwarrant.com/2013/02/just-how-much-stupid-can-you-squeeze-into-two-sentences/comment-page-1/#comment-173549
Newspaper is calling this an ‘exclusive’, how odd.
New Zealand is dreaming of becoming a tobacco-less country by the year 2025, as are the Swedes and Finland. However, in the case of Sweden, a quintessentially Swedish product will be left untouched by prohibition:
Yes, something that causes throat cancer and eats away at your gums is being kept on the market because it’s a popular Swedish export. This is how the hypocritical Swedes manage to claim they respect people’s privacy. Something tells me people aren’t going to want the respect of the Swedish or New Zealand governments. Respect of that sort sounds way too dangerous.
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I actually think that smoking tobacco can be successfully prohibited, particularly if alternatives like snus, nicotine patches/inhalers/chewing gum, and/or e-cigarettes remain available. Nicotine just isn’t really much fun at all. Most people smoke the next cigarette because they smoked the one just before it. Please notice that leaving available delivery methods of nicotine which don’t include combustion is not absolute prohibition.
BTW Servetus the EU did and does prohibit the sale of snus. No doubt oramucosal delivery of nicotine is associated with oral cancers but it just isn’t anywhere near as significant as with the smoking of tobacco. Using smokeless delivery of nicotine most certainly qualifies as a method of harm reduction. Regardless, I can’t envision a large cohort of people chasing black market smoking tobacco.
Swedish Hopes Rise on Snus Ban
October 21, 2012
Snus and similar nicotine products helped me quit burning tobacco to get my nicotine fix and now I use pouches of wintergreen snuff,,my lung capacity has increased by 10% since I changed delivery systems.
Can one grow tobacco as easily as marijuana? I might like to try my hand at it.
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TC, first you have to tell me how easy you think it is to grow quality reefer before I could tell you if it’s easier to grow tobacco. Please don’t say “oooh, just scatter a handful of seeds in April and harvest pounds and pounds when you go back in October. Given that plan you aren’t bloody likely to harvest anything.
It’s very easy to grow pot leaves. A harvest of quality buds is a different story. There are just so many things that can reduce your harvest to nothing, starting with Bambi and Thumper thinking that you’ve hung out the all you can eat sign. Even if you harvest a bunch of buds people still wake up one morning and look at the crop that they’re in the process of drying and ooops, they’re ruined by mold.
One of my pet peeves is when people say, “it’s a weed and ever so easy to grow!” People don’t seem to be aware that the only reason that people call it a weed is because of the Hearst/Anslinger propaganda factory of the 1920s and 1930s. There are people who wouldn’t dream of calling it “marijuana” because that name came from the same place will be happy to tell you that it’s a weed.
Ask them what makes it a “weed” and they’ll say that it’s because it grows quickly and gets really big. So by that definition corn and tomatoes are also weeds. :O If we go by the dictionary definition of the word then tobacco must be easier to grow. Definition #4 is “Slang. a marijuana cigarette.” #3 is “Informal. a cigarette or cigar.” weed in the dictionary
Regardless of anything above it doesn’t appear to be hard to grow tobacco. IMO the compelling fact that keeps most people from doing so is that the commercial producers can deliver the product for substantially less cost than DIY because of the economies of scale which those companies enjoy.
http://boltonsmokersclub.wordpress.com/growing-curing-flavouring-and-finishing-tobacco-for-cigarettes/
It’s very easy to grow cannabis leaves and stalks. Medicinal grade cannabis not so much. Pop quiz!! You have an 3 sq ft ebb and flow hydroponic system. One morning you wake up and when you check you’re 30 gallon reservoir you notice that it appears that a male elephant stopped by and ejaculated into it. So what do you do to correct that and how do you mitigate the damage already done? Quick like a bunny, because your crop will be dead and worthless tomorrow unless you correct the problem. Of course the first step is to identify the problem. (shush your mouth darkcycle, I’m sure that you know the answer)
12 clones in some 5 gal buckets, a 1000w sodium, and some TLC do the trick for me along with some help from Jorge Cervantes.
I figure the tobacco will fit between the Apollo 13 and the tomatoes.
The wife insisted upon the tomatoes.
Duncan, immediately, drain and wash your reservior. Flush all lines with a Hydrogen peroxide 3% solution (alternately, you may refill your reservoir after cleaning it, with nutrient solution in the weaker range…around 7-8 hundred ppm and Zone water treatment at the highest rate). Flush root zone with 3% H2O2 or use zone in your reservoir.
Duncan, if you used zone all the time, that elephant would have stayed away. Along with nearly every root pathogen known. It’s powerful stuff. I use it now whenever I suspect a root problem.
Servetus, the risk of oral cancer from snus is roughly 1-2% of that of smoking tobacco:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19638246
http://www.clivebates.com has the best coverage of the snus debacle.
But yes, the Swedish hypocrisy is well known: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/damon-barett/swedens-self-defeating-hypocrisy-on-drugs_b_2468564.html
Thanks for bringing me up to snuff on snus.
Servetus, that pun has already been used on the Couch in the last month.
And let’s be clear, snuff goes in yer nose, while snus apparently resides betwixt lip ‘n’ gum.
Very few people snuff snuff,,only know one person around here that does and he uses Garrett snuff powder mixed with some of the flavored snuffs from the local headshop,,noteworthy; Garrett snuff is a finely powdered snuff meant to be snorted,pouches,long cut and fine cut snuffs go between the lip and the gum.
PS: snort some Garretts sometime and you will realize that tobacco is damn sure a mind altering drug.
Hey all you “couch sitters”, I am always looking for good videos and stories to help our cause, have any of you had a chance to check out this one, very long (4 hours and 20 minutes long to be exact), but STOCKED FULL of excellent info, testimonies, facts and stories, check it out, must be shared…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2ZnATA3XU0&feature=share
this is a Franti moment:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUpGgGq5cXQ
Yes, mon, hallelujah!!
rastafari…
I’ve worked most of Franti’s shows here in Eugene for the last several years. There is not a better vibed show than Spearhead. From the security guys and gals at backstage to the front of the stage to the remotest corners of the venue, everyone is groovin’. We get more donations (I work medical) at their shows than any other we do and generally have zero (except for earplugs) clients.
here’s one of my fave Franti pics (my photo):
http://www.redbubble.com/people/oregonyun/works/3745423-franti-4
For you folks in CO, Franti and Spearhead at Red Rocks Amphitheatre, July 3. W/ legalization in effect that otter be a smokin’ show.
For folks that have never seen ’em in concert… you should do that for yourselves sometime.
nice photo
Awesome!
Lake Erie Prison Plagued By Violence And Drugs After Corporate Takeover http://huff.to/15zsVe9
The government is using private industry to do the job that history has shown belongs only to government. Making an industry out of other peoples misfortunes is immoral and criminal.
Private prisons, private drug testing industries, and the drug abuse industry itself only profit when misfortune thrives. One persons misery should not be another’s fortune. Government should not be allowed to abrogate its traditional responsibilities to the private sector. We are in an industrial trap that gets deeper and deeper by the day. The United States of America has exported this aberration by way of the CSA to the rest of the world. We (the US) are the ones that should fix this mess. After all, we started it.
The War on Drugs also created, or at least financially made profitable the companies of Haliburton, KBR and Xe (Blackwater) as well. Had we not encountered a heavily dope money fortified enemy in 2001, we may not have invented our version of the West Indies Trading Company(s), who will one day seek to have American forces romp around the globe for their own business ventures. One day, we may export our prisoners to other nations, just like we export all our soft military jobs (cleaning, cooking, electricians, bathroom maintenance, laundry etc) to India, UAE, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. What exploded first: The private prison industries or the private war industries? Either or, both industries are teaching people that ‘lack of human rights’ isn’t wrong if the salary is right.
You are right on, War Vet. These industries can’t be shut off like a water faucet. Especially when their operating budget is hidden inside some top secret military budget no one ever gets to see because their security classification is not up to snuff. You can bury a lot in a budget these days. Who can read through that much anyways?
Did I miss something here? I thought the “drug czar” was supposed to keep things the same:
“The problem is that there is no political pressure in Germany, nor does the federal government have a drug czar who wants things to change.”
I’m thinkin’ that now that WA has hired Kleiman we’ll hear from the feds soon. They will express displeasure and apprehension. But… grudgingly will agree to let WA alone, because of Mark’s association. I also suspect this was discussed when Holder visited Guvnor Inslee in Feb for the talk…
Not sure what they’ll do about CO. If they’re smart they’ll leave ’em alone and call it part of the “experiment.” Now is not the time for anyone in DC to be messin’ with voters’ expressed will in mandating change with their ballots.
I think they will make every effort to make sure WA/CO legalization does not reduce the black market or make the states any large tax revenues that would tempt other states to legalize,,the worst thing that could happen as far as the feds are concerned would be for either state to have a successful revenue source.
Kleiman being there will have little or nothing to do with the feds decision, I think, Allen. I think the first consideration of the Feds is, now that they’ve awarded all the needed patents to G.W. Pharma, how to they keep all those potential dollars. See, once Wa. State starts collecting money from the taxation scheme, nothing on god’s green (pun intended) Earth will keep the other budget-strained States from getting into this gold rush. Once marijuana is freely available, marijuana treatments will be too.
I fully believe their number one priority is: “Don’t let Washington State collect that money. Period.”
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Does anyone think that it’s possible that the appointment of Prof. Kleiman might be a Mr. Nixon goes to China event? I guess I think it more likely to be a “Mr. Anslinger gets his very own Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs” moment.
But I do find it very fascinating that implementation of Colorado’s A-64 and Washington’s I-502 are following such different paths. Probably not so much for the Washingtonians but we’re going to get a lot better information of what works and what doesn’t, what’s needed and what’s not than if they were walking substantially the same path.
In other news on the fed / states front, I haven’t seen it mentioned on here that it appears the feds and Mendocino County may be negotiating out of court about the subpoena of records from Mendo’s zip-tie program:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/03/marijuana_seizure_mendocino_sheriff_tom_allman.php
Perhaps those Sheriffs finally asserted their Constitutional power? The feds won’t (don’t) like the Constitutional powers the Sheriffs hold, even over them, but tough titty said the kitty, they can’t change that without changing the Constitution and changing the Constitution to suit the feds ain’t ever gonna happen, especially now the people are waking up to the abuses perpetrated by the fed gov and the knowledge of the power of the Sheriff is spreading. The faster and more widespread that knowledge becomes common knowledge, the better for the people.
I think it’s more like they hired a fancy San Fran lawyer, who’s arguing that the subpoena is overbroad–a fishing expedition.
Thanks Matthew! I’ve enjoyed watching this one unfold. That Mendocino story is not about a brick or two… if Mendo Co wins, that’s gonna be a hole blown in the wall.
The zip tie program is simple and one of my faves. $50 for a plant? I can handle that. Here where I live in OR, Lane Co, with 350,000 people has a lot of pot comsumers. Using a conservative 5% of the population who would grow for themselves or others, a conservative 5 plants each… is a cool $4,350,000 to the county.
The zip-tie program always struck me as a textbook example of a “protection racket”.
Glad to see the county protecting itself/the privacy of the participants now, in any case!
indeed, but it is simple. And the Sheriff and county are – so far – protecting. The Sheriff’s office was glad for the money and the simplicity of regulation. That they’re sticking to their guns sets a great example for other communities and LE officials.
You betcha, allan!
If you listen to all the talking heads, “We, the People” had no hand in the legalization of the two states. They keep blaming the state governments, mainly for moving ahead with implementation of the will of the people. They just can’t, or won’t, accept that it’s due to the free will of said people and their freedom-loving votes. GET OVER IT, MSM! You had your chance and you opted for JOKES. Well, who’s laughing now?
You had no “sizzle” to sell, only greasy bacon.
In addition, the usual boogy man for the prohibs is george soros and the “very well funded” legalization movement. Those who voted for legalization were just dupes of “big bucks” influence. The fact that the federal government funds prohibition to the tune of billions of dollars per year is never mentioned of course.
oh… LEAP’s Pete Christ has a vid that apparently is climbing the charts. Couchmates might spread it around, like it on FB, Tweeter it… give the LEAPsters a hand.
Thinking Clearly: Retired Police Captain demolishes the War on Drugs…
http://tinyurl.com/cwrgnpx
Bill O’Reilly, the Paul Revere of the war on Christmas, is saying there’s a war on the Easter Bunny aimed at making Mr. Bunny illegal. And according to Bill, the war on the Easter Bunny is being orchestrated by the same folks who want to legalize drugs!
The secular left isn’t the only group demanding drug law reform. Far from it. O’Reilly is ranting that drug law reformers are anti-Easter-Bunny, which I find slanderous. Personally, I like the Easter Bunny. What drug person doesn’t want to wander through the woods and fall down a rabbit hole hunting for psychedelic eggs?
Dave’s not here…and Bill never has been.
didn’t billo once say that he didn’t care what you did in your basement so long as you didn’t do it front of his kids?
It is about supper time,,May I suggest:
http://tinyurl.com/c675d2q
lost-in-pÉ™rˈtÉ”ËlbÉ™t
I like Bill but some of his ideas just wanna make me bitch-slap him back into “reality.”
O/T;
When your spouse/partner is standing in front of a mirror complaining about weight gain,wrinkled skin,graying hair and being ugly,then they ask you for a compliment to bolster their ego DO NOT tell them their eyesight is nearly perfect considering their age.
Well, more news from “around the world”. In this case just down the street.
Yesterday afternoon I got to watch a disturbing thing. A county sheriff here pulled a car over on my street (common enough) I had a perfect view of the stop, right out my front windows. he searched the passenger compartment and found a bag of weed. The occupants were Native American. I watched as he called in the BORDER PATROL to make the arrest that he couldn’t. Sonofabitch. What ever happened to “If you don’t like the laws, get ’em changed”? Turns immediately into “Don’t like the laws, circumvent the will of the voters and find someone else to arrest them”. Protect and Serve….themselves.
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