Had a great week in New York, and the students had a fantastic time. Sorry for the lack of posts here. Some outstanding things I’ve learned by reading the comments here – you guys have been busy (although I did have to clean up a bit of a mess left around the couch).
A couple of things, in case you missed them…
I don’t usually get excited about petitions, but this seems like a fairly good one, put together by LEAP: Amend UN Treaties to End Drug Prohibition
We, the People of the World, petition the United Nations and the Signatory nations of the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and two corollary UN drug prohibition treaties, to Amend the Treaties, ending the war on drugs and providing for a health-, harm-reduction and human rights- oriented convention much like that proposed by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. See http://www.tiny.cc/leap_treaty
The House of Representatives passed a bizarre and stupid bill that was clearly only a symbolic statement in opposition to the President: House Republicans Want to Sue the President For Not Arresting People For Marijuana. It’s not going anywhere, but it does show just how completely out of touch so many are in Washington.
University of Colorado stuck in the dark ages. Marijuana symposium features university health and public policy experts
The researchers quickly dismissed notions that marijuana was harmless, presenting studies showing links to cancer, lung disease, lower IQs and potential impacts on fetal health. […]
Bowles said marijuana smoke can induce precancerous changes in the respiratory mucosa of rats. He also cited a study of Swedish military conscripts, showing that those who smoked the highest quantities of marijuana had a 2.1 percent increase in lung cancer. […]
“Babies are full of fat so they are essentially storage chambers for marijuana,†said Borgelt.
Medical Cannabis in Washington survives a legislative scare.
Thanks again, couchmates.
OT, mixed feelings:
http://thestonedsociety.com/2014/03/16/mixed-feelings-remain-outcome-un-drug-summit-vienna/
I certainly hope everyone is signing LEAP’s UN petition! Share it on FB, Twoot it, Reddit, do all that shit! Let’s give LEAP some ammunition.
LEAP is now (well, will be as of April 1, after the UN’s drug pow-wow, although LEAP will have a presence there) an official NGO at the UN.
Just read the CU hoohaw… crikey mates! What crap! It really is a 21st century inquisition. I sent this letter to the contact at the bottom of article:
Mr David Kelly, the contact at the bottom of the CU article, is “out of office” until the 22nd, so please use, Dan.Meyers@ucdenver.edu instead. Ok… I will 🙂
Just had a nice email exchange w/ Mr. Meyers. I won’t share it all but this I thought nice to hear:
So, peacefully and respectfully, point taken. I will pass your notes to the conveners of the symposium so they’re aware.
They really are Stupid. Just how did people that Dumb get that Space-Thingy up there? Hurts the Brain, OGod Oweee I don’t want to be a Borg, Please God, No.
.
.
The Borg never tried to assimilate the fans of cannabis. They’re much smarter than prohibitionists.
The absolute worst ever episode of TNG was the one they made to make the ONDCP happy. Dr. Crusher was a very shrill, standard issue prohibitionist and wanted to re-write the Prime Directive. I think that was the only episode where Capt Picard actually decided to follow the PD when it annoyed him. I’ve often wondered if that was just because Beverly’s hysterical rhetoric was so fracking annoying.
The Space-Thingy we got from the Nazi’s.
“”It’s not going anywhere, but it does show just how completely out of touch so many are in Washington.””
They are not out of touch,,they are “dancing” for their lobby money,,elections are coming up,,will some of the prohibition supporters that funded those Republicans kick out all those funds this year?
At what point do some of prohib financial backers start pulling their funds because they have other sources of income,,unlike the prohibition parasites that are all on one bus?
oh… and gosh, I never thought of storing my pot in babies! Damn and I had two.
What an idea! Like the grill at the bottom of the fridge, the cannabis inquisitors will never look there… *rollseyes*
.
.
WTF??? I thought that babies were for bar-b-queuing?
This site needs more diversity in viewpoint. Just one blogger never being challenged, and a bunch of the same people always commenting that they agree with him, is a circle jerk of episemtic closure. Have the guts to let more people blog here who disagree with you Pete.
Please go ahead; fire away!
Really, I can *comment* here, wow, you all are so courageous. I was talking about allowing debate among the headliners, or in this case headliner, because Pete doesn’t allow any voices but his own at the top. Even Mark Kleiman, who is pretty consistently wrong about everything, has the guts to let other people blog at his site. But Pete is a one-chicken show.
p.s. You may delete this comment and resume your regularly scheduled circle jerk.
What does this have to do with anything?
You’re pissed because Pete has the audacity to run his site the way he wants to run his site?
That’s really rich saying that “Pete doesn’t allow any voices but his own at the top” while praising the comment-deleting pariah Mark as having the “guts to let other people blog at his site”?
You have a perverse view of censorship.
Mike,
Perhaps I should explain how blogging works. There are various types of blogs. Some, like Volokh Conspiracy and Reality Based Community are “group” blogs, where a variety of people (usually with similar interests) all blog. Most blogs, however, are individual blogs providing the perspective of that individual on a topic or range of topics (such as Radley Balko, Glenn Greenwald, etc.). Group blogs are a convenience, because it’s not up to one person to keep the blog up to date.
This is an individual blog. That said, I have had guests blog here on occasion, and when I can get people to do it, it’s a nice vacation for me. Nor would I object to someone guest blogging here with an entirely different perspective than mine (we’ve often joked about how wonderful it would be to get Cliff Kincaid to guest blog here, though he’d probably never agree to it).
Ultimately, however, a blog is a column. Just like you have different columnists in a newspaper, you have different bloggers on the internet, each bringing their own perspective and providing a richer experience. That doesn’t make them somehow exclusionary.
It’s up to you, the reader, to figure out how you want to consume information, and that probably means following different blogs to get variety and perspective.
And yes, you can follow group blogs. However, in some ways, group blogs are like those packaged pre-cut mixes of vegetables in the produce section. Sure, it’s handy to get a mix of broccoli, cauliflower and zucchini in one bag, but that doesn’t necessarily make it better.
All this agreement you vilify is just us passing the time until someone comes along to blog here who disagree[s] with you Pete.
Have at it Mike! Show us where you disagree. Pete doesn’t stop anybody from commenting here. And he’s sworn us all to civil behavior when a prohibitionist appears.
Seriously, we’d love to hear it.
And for what it’s worth, how many prohibitionist sites (PDFA etc) even allow commenting, let alone open commenting?
Welcome Mike! Please do tell us why you believe the taxpayers should continue paying to incarcerate marijuana users.
OMG, does this mean that you’re actually going to engage, or is this just a drive-by trolling? Please, make a substantive point-let us know where you disagree, in particular. And please, do your best to justify that position using clear reasoning and appropriate links. We’re waiting with bait on our breath. Wait, that’s anchovies. I swear, that’s the last time Duncan gets to order the pizza.
I don’t recall having to apply to comment here.
.
.
Well now that’s a new experience. I don’t think that I’ve ever had a prohibitionist agree with me before, right down to calling it a circle jerk. But I didn’t know that we hated Jews. Frankly I think that’s an error of doxastic magnitude. It’s actually my favorite religion! I even know an orthodox rabbi that grows kosher cannabis. I don’t particularly care for it because all it does is make me want to complain. Anchovies? Eee-yuck! Hold on a second, the voice of god just told me to pour this can coke on my keyboard to fix it
I don’t usually give a thumbs-down to anyone but obvious trolls, much less someone whose comments I find worth reading (like you say — occasionally, and mostly for the links). But I’ve been hanging around here a long time, a lot longer than I’ve noticed your moniker showing up in the comments, and I’ve not once known Pete to censor a single comment in all that time. It would take more than your single unsubstantiated assertion to convince me of that.
But thanks for the gratuitous insults. Why you hatin’, DDC? What did a libertarian ever do to you, besides speak up for your liberties?
DdC’s self image is based on his always being both 100% right all the time, and viewing himself as the SOLE voice of reason and sense. If you disagree, you are not only automatically wrong, but you are also a bad person for disagreeing, and therefore he feels his attacks are justified. He’s both a martyr and a savant in his own mind, and those who take exception are always on the side of the oppressor. It’s a very childish point of view, and leaves him quite often isolated in his righteous indignation.
I suppose it would have just been shorter to say “He doesn’t have any friends.”, but hey, I’m nothing if not long winded.
Oh, and the DdC/Duncan feud goes back nearly a decade. All you need to do is go back to somewhere around 2006-2007 and you can watch the same Avatars hurl the exact same insults back and forth. Really, we could have saved some typing and simply lifted those old bones from the grave, and just pasted them whole. I apologize for my part in this.
Hey DC, you do realize that I never read any of your bullcrap, right? I have noticed that you occasionally leave a pile under one of my posts and I just thought you would like to know that if you have any delusions that I care what you think, even a little bit that you’re wrong. Feel free to reply, don’t reply but you might get more mileage from your dingleberries if you spread them somewhere else. If you really want to do something to promote re-legalization, go be a prohibitionist.
I do mean all of that in the nicest possible way!
Toodles!
I don’t usually give a thumbs-down to anyone but obvious trolls, much less someone whose comments I find worth reading (like you say — occasionally, and mostly for the links). But I’ve been hanging around here a long time, a lot longer than I’ve noticed your moniker showing up in the comments, and I’ve not once known Pete to censor a single comment in all that time.
It would take more than your single unsubstantiated assertion to convince me of that.
But thanks for the gratuitous insults.
Why you hatin’, DDC?
What did a libertarian ever do to you, besides speak up for your liberties?
I see no attack on this thread. You’ve demonstrated proficiency at posting links — got one to the attack?
Wow, so now capitalization or not is a mis-spelling? Sorry, ddc, wasn’t intentional (like it was this time 😉 ). One shouldn’t conflate teabaggers with libertarians if one wants to be taken seriously by actual libertarians.
Ah, projection! Perhaps one so admiring of his own self-appointed expertise in all things drug-related who so arrogantly dismisses anything that compromises his own utopian concepts as “incremental retardation”, would do well to learn to take what he dishes out with a dash of grace, instead of whining that he’s been “attacked” and responding in such a way that moderation is called for.
I have no problems with you either, DdC. Not looking to make some, just making an observation or two…
I was attacked, I responded, the attack is still there, the responses are gone…
I’m accused of bringing too many refs so unsubstantiated is a new one.
Freeman
I see no attack on this thread. You’ve demonstrated proficiency at posting links — got one to the attack?
Why you misspelling…
Wow, so now capitalization or not is a mis-spelling?
With an umbilical cord…
One shouldn’t conflate teabaggers with libertarians if one wants to be taken seriously by actual libertarians.
Seems they just need “friends: to agree with them and support their utopian concepts and admire their self appointed expertise in all things drug related.
Ah, projection!
Perhaps one so admiring of his own self-appointed expertise in all things drug-related who so arrogantly dismisses anything that compromises his own utopian concepts as “incremental retardationâ€,
would do well to learn to take what he dishes out with a dash of grace,
instead of whining that he’s been “attacked†and responding in such a way that moderation is called for.
So I have no…
I have no problems with you either, DdC. Not looking to make some, just making an observation or two…
Lighten up, Francis.
Love you too, DdC. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to rile you so, I was just curious if you could take a tiny sample of what you dish out. No longer curious about that. And don’t worry, your observations don’t bother me. They often amuse me. Wall St. lackey??? LOL!!!
Oh Well.
Have A Nice Day!
It’s true that the commentary here usually lacks a healthy dose of dissent. Tribal self-validation (I’m not so sure episemtic closure is the most accurate way to describe it) is a genuine concern in such circumstances, which is why it’s also true that we welcome dissent with open arms, as you can see from the comments above.
So thank you, Mike in NYC, for the accurate observation that we could benefit from more diversity in viewpoint. I think I can safely speak for most of us here on the couch when I say we wholeheartedly invite you to freely speak your mind here, especially when you disagree with something Pete or one of us couch potatoes has said. We recognize the value in having our positions challenged, which provides strong incentive to really think things through in order to successfully defend a position, or better yet, abandon the weaker positions that we might have intuitively adopted that we find don’t stand up to scrutiny.
.
.
” ‘Episemtic’ closure ” is a horrid way to describe it. But that’s only because “episemtic” isn’t a word, at least not yet. I gave it a Google and Mike’s post was the second item returned. So which word did he mean?
Episematic? Not likely: zoology (esp of coloration) aiding recognition between animals of the same species.
Aposematic? Not likely: Zoology. colored or constructed in a way that indicates special capabilities for defense.
Epizootic? Not likely: Zoology: adjective
1. (of diseases) spreading quickly among animals.
noun
2. an epizootic disease.
Hey wait a second, is Mike calling us animals? I’ve been called a lot of things in my day but epizootic isn’t one of them. Oh well, everybody knows that he who made kittens put snakes in the grass.
Antisemitic? OK, that’s just plain silly.
Epistemic? Well, at least we’re no longer engaging in wanton animal husbandry. “epistemic (ˌɛpɪˈstiËmɪk)
— adj
1. of or relating to knowledge or epistemology
2. See also doxastic denoting the branch of modal logic that deals with the formalization of certain epistemological concepts, such as knowledge, certainty, and ignorance. ”
So also:
e·pis·te·mol·o·gy [ih-pis-tuh-mol-uh-jee]
noun
a branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.”
———-
I think that “epistemic” is probably the most likely word that Mike meant. Sure, it’s silly on its face to call a series of clusterfucks an epistemic but I think that we’re safe in presuming that Mike is a expert in the limits of human knowledge.
Even if what you say is true, you have to balance it with the fact that people come here to find [links to] actual information, which they are free to interpret on their own.
how many more perspectives are you offering? differing takes on the truth? what about people ruling their bodies and lives do you disagree with. when was your voice stifled? i seriously doubt that Pete would censor the ravings of a prohibitch. they’re just too amusing.
besides which if pete allows the wiggle dude to post his truck stop fantasies and threats to bulkners imaginary grandkids i dont think he can be censoring this blog
I absolutely never censor based on the content or perspective of anyone posting here. I welcome opposing viewpoints, and pointedly thank them for posting.
Of course, spam is unwelcome, and is promptly deleted if it gets past the spam filter. And rarely (as it happened this week for the first time in a couple years, I think), a couple of regulars will get in a pissing match calling each other names and I’ll delete a group of those posts just to get us back to talking about drug policy.
But I, and most of the regulars here, have enough confidence in our positions not to be threatened by opposing viewpoints. We welcome the opportunity to learn, to analyze, and when appropriate, to professionally and methodically dismantle them using science and logic.
Guess i must have missed the pissing match…
didn’t miss anything.
I don’t even see a password or account registration when I got here,,,and still don’t,,what restrictions?
Be careful now. Mike has been passing out “thumbs down”
with total abandon.
Seems to be the best rebuttal he can come up with so far.
i like it when i get the dreaded thumbs down. i take it to mean a prohibitch doesn’t like what has been implanted into his itchy little brain.
Yeah, those drive-by down-thumbers probably are not reading anything at all as they go down the page hitting that thumb down button.
Tool of the tools to try and intimidate opinion. Beauty contests, with the winners becoming experts. A view counter is more helpful for gauging interest. Not on roll over threads like this. I’m going for a record.
It’s cruel
@JodieEmery @scoopercooper
BC medical marijuana patients fuming over Health Canada’s ‘brutal and punitive’ pot rules
Russ Belville â€@RadicalRuss #MJBAVendorFair
Stephanie Boehl from Boehl Law Firm explains Washington legislature’s failure to pass…
Kill Cancer
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiypiU_CcAAn76R.jpg
“There are probably 400 people getting murdered at this second, and these two cops are taking an hour to write up my court summons for smoking a joint… That just seemed so…ridiculous to me.â€
~ Seth Rogan, Marijuana Majority.com
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BiyauMsCYAAQK30.jpg
Incremental Retardation…
Inaction Leaves Medical Pot System in Legal Haze
CN Source: Seattle Times By Bob Young March 15, 2014
The future of the state’s medical-marijuana system remains in limbo after state lawmakers failed to adopt regulations for a market that Western Washington’s top federal prosecutor has called “not tenable.†When the Legislature adjourned Thursday, attention quickly turned to U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan and whether she would target existing growers and businesses in Washington’s largely unregulated medical system.
Medical Marijuana Bill Dies in Washington State
Legislation aimed at bringing Washington State’s largely unregulated medical marijuana system under state control, which state officials have said is crucial to maintaining order as the legalized sale of recreational marijuana begins this year, died late Thursday night without a vote as the House and Senate adjourned. “I’m taken aback,†said Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, after the Legislature concluded its regular session for the year with the legislation still on the calendar. “Many people at the last moment apparently did not want a bill.â€
What happens when cops write initiatives.
Ending D.E.A.th & Pillage Incrementally
This is the Brain of Incremental Retardation…
Incremental Retardation,
stall, divert and intimidate. State by State.
Watch the informal reformers cry as they compromise.
Whine… oh how unfair, for 43 years? Yea I think we get it.
Barter with the devil for some action of their own,
no mind what it does to the people,
just win the election, pass the bill,
Even when the cops are the authors,
do these chumps even deserve Ganja?
The Academian idiots playing the system,
the crooked system they’re blubbering over.
Not removing cannabis from the CSA,
allows a Law authorizing the DEA,
to lie and be arbitrary and capricious.
Paid by tax dollars. Selling your heritage.
White man Elephant Sale,
The Feds are the new Jim Crow concerning Ganja.
If the people settle for lies as laws.
If the CSA isn’t deemed false. Big Pharma/Ag wins.
They have the patents and sublingual spray.
They already grow it, roll and ship it to IND patients.
Soros and Monsanto ready to take over hemp.
Supremes decided we couldn’t sell it.
Nothing in writing after Obama’s gone.
Incremental Retardation spinning wheels for survival.
Better than nothing in spite of the country.
Can’t use the “F” word in public. Fascism.
Incremental Retardation,
stalling, diverting from Fed CSA lies.
+ 20 quasi legals still can’t sell it legally.
30 states are left to draconian laws. All based on lies.
Lies Needledicks overlook for the latest poll and demographics.
Incremental Retardation keeping Hemp the same as heroin.
Wall St foreign corpses like this,
Sabetage SAM way of doin things. Snitches and Slave Labor.
Koch just has to switch from profit prisons to rehab asylums.
Oh but the well paid “legalizers”,
the exerpts keeping the gravy train rolling.
Oh wait, thats the drug worriers, both get paid to perpetuate.
Both sway followers to donate, and give time to pass the laws.
The laws avoiding the sick kids and healthy adults.
The ones to lesson the burden and bloat the budgets
for the the cops, and bring more taxes.
That is your funking Incremental Retardation!
Truth & the Laws of Physics = our best Hope.
Now that truth is emerging, the drug worry rats
are fleeing the ship or clinging on to old rotted lies.
Why would anyone, outside of greed, barter with insanity?
Stop it. 43 years is long enough for Congress to have studied Ganja.
Science can drive them out, but it took a century
for the people to believe the earth wasn’t flat.
46% still believe humans came from mud people.
The Endocannabinoid Deficient.
They must be professional Reformers,
changing the shape, but not the content.
Most cannabis arrests are by states. Selling is Federal,
All Based on Nixon’s political science fiction. Compromise?
Ganja was kidnapped, stolen for profits.
The plant of the people needs no laws upon it.
Remove Cannabis in all forms as a Controlled Substance.
Do your part to help those inflicted with Incremental Retardation.
.
.
Well heck, I never really liked that laptop anyway. I swear that’s the last time that I listen to the voice of god!
I just realized, I’ve yet to see, despite speculation running the gamut of just about anything you could imagination, anyone suggest that the pilot of the missing Malaysian 777 was high on cannabis and just got lost. While there’s no doubt that the prohibitionists are stupid enough to fall for it and that it would be funny as heck, does anyone think that there’s any downside to putting the thought out there and letting them make themselves laughing stock? Yes, we’ll still be hearing it in the hysterical rhetoric 20 years from now as if it were true. I can live with that. Any other down side that I haven’t thought of? Oh heck, what if it turns out to be true? Was there anyone named Dave on the plane, god forbid the pilot?
there are no illegal drugs in Malaysia, ‘member? Except in the prisons of course…
.
.
I’m not sure why that matters. I’m trying to make fools of prohibitionists, remember? All I need is a fatherly, scientist looking guy dressed in a lab coat and the next thing you know they’ll believe being a pothead is mandatory in Malaysia and that they pee test their pilots to make sure that they’re high in the plane.
Hey wait a second, do you have a lab coat? Your avatar always makes me think of Gil Grissom and I know that you’re very old so I’m sure you probably can at least fake the fatherly looking part. Nevermind, I’m sure that we can rent or borrow the lab coat.
I swear that I will never figure out the followers of this blog. You people are obviously out to vex me!
hey i stumbled over this article this morning and it almost made me ill, it’s terrible and the author should be ashamed. it’s particularly volatile towards marijuana so i figured id share with the hopes that one of the weed enthusiasts here would really tear this article and writer apart.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/jamie-chandler/2014/03/14/legalizing-marijuana-wont-end-the-war-on-drugs
When I read that article I thought it must have been written by semi-literate interns from high school, so i was surprised to find that at least one of them is an established journalist with a Harvard degree. If this is the best that prohibition can thrown at the issue of cannabis reform it’s no wonder they are losing.
Pretty pathetic..sounds like a prohib form letter.
Thingmaker
Clakkers
Chemistry sets
Lawn Darts
Gobbledygoop
Bring Them Back.
Dammit, Roll Back Bad Law.
Wierdos.
Other Bad Bans include Buckyballs although I did like them better than those annoying Monkees.
.
.
Some days the synchronicity I suffer because of this blog is downright spooky. Just yesterday I was enjoying videos of some of my favorite Monkees songs. Oh well, I guess that I’m gonna buy me a dog. Well it is my very favorite Monkees classic.
Love the Monkees! Used to run home from sckool to see them!
ahem
Just, Not, right, now. Ahem, Stomp stomp stomp,, Slam
did you know that mickey doelnz was circus boy when he was a little shaver?
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Operation Grow4Vets â€@OpVetGrow
We need cash donations to purchase marijuana and grow equipment for veterans…thanks for your support! Donate at: http://www.grow4vets.org
Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access
Drug Policy Alliance â€@DrugPolicyNews
Nevada health dept. allows treating PTSD with marijuana#PTSD #mmj
VICE â€@VICE
The 50-Year-Old Agreement Preventing Marijuana from Treating PTSD
Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access
Military Veterans Say Pot Eases PTSD
Veterans Form Pro-Legal Marijuana Group
On Afghan War 11th Anniversary
VA prescribes/opposes addictive drugs for PTSD
Why U.S. Vets Are Fighting for Medical Marijuana
PTSD Sufferers Qualify for Medical Marijuana
300000 Iraq & Afghan Vets Suffer PTSD & Depression
congeniality, collegiality, manners, inclusion, cooperation… these are a few of my favorite things…
Well, we’re edumacated, but not really civilized.
I had always thought it was the prohibitionists who eat their own. But apparently there are potheads who don’t care who they be fightin’ with, they just wanna fight.
Most probably a simple case of ‘ass burgers’. Law of averages says there’s at least one on every couch.
And thanks for speaking up!