Open Thread

I’ll be on the road this coming week, visiting my parents in Quincy, Illinois and Indianola, Iowa. Looking forward to playing pool with my dad and maybe cooking some orange roughy for my mom (her favorite fish).

I’ll check in when I can.

Very curious to see what will happen with the lawsuit against the feds in Kentucky over the hemp seed.

Refrigerator is stocked. There should be enough loose change in the sofa cushions to order some pizza.

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84 Responses to Open Thread

  1. DdC says:


    Anti-Medical Marijuana Group Releases Video to Scare People Into Voting No on Amendment 2

    Drug Free Florida is chaired by Carlton Turner

    9 Reasons Why Sanjay Gupta Changed His Mind About Marijuana

    Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty.

    Just as G. Gordon Liddy went into high-tech corporate security after his disgrace, Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.

    Corruption/Carlton Turner

    In all the research this author has done about the misapplication of public funds and trusts, nothing, it seems, compares with the either totally ignorant or willful manslaughter of fellow Americans by the bureaucrats and politicians of the following story:

    Poisoning Pot Smokers

    In August and September, 1983, Turner went on national television to justify the illegal marijuana spraying (by plane) of paraquat in Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee by the DEA. He said it would teach a lesson to any kid who died from paraquat-poisoned pot.

    Turner was forced to resign after announcing his conclusions in public that marijuana caused homosexuality, the breakdown of the immune system, and, therefore, AIDS.

    Looking into the therapeutic potential of cannabis is the most controlled and discouraged research, but any tests pursuing negative or harmful effects of cannabis are promoted. Since these tests often backfire or are inconclusive, even this research is rare.

    Turner quoted “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire” to show how jazz (rock) singers are eroding the America “he” loves with this hallucinogenic drug—marijuana! Which he meant to stamp out.

    A Wanton Disregard For Life

    Turner even said that he doesn’t even care if hundreds of kids die from smoking pot the federal government has deliberately sprayed with paraquat.

    Urine Testing Company

    After his resignation, Turner joined with Robert DuPont and former head of NIDA, Peter Bensinger, to corner the market on urine testing. They contracted as advisors to 250 of the largest corporations to develop drug diversion, detection, and urine testing programs.

    Does researching casual marijuana use cause brain abnormalities?

  2. DdC says:

    “Arbitrary and capricious” is legal language that was used by DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young in 1988 to conclude that DEA was obligated under the Controlled Substances Act to reschedule marijuana as a prescription medicine. DEA Chief Administrator Robert Bonner proceeded to arbitrarily and capriciously disregard Judge Young’s well researched and reasoned decision, which the Act allowed him to do.

    Cannabis Treatment For Alzheimer’s, Autism & Seizures. Blame the Hippies!

    Drug Worriers hiding in denial…
    “…b-b-but these are just stories.
    We don’t have any data.”

    Possibly the most-studied substance on the planet

    This is all the gossip does…
    Muddy the waters casting doubts or flat out lies, and all are tools of the prohibition trade. Sanja Gupta knowingly or not stated the reality. Medical school doesn’t teach about cannabis. Those not questioning pass through the system, get their shingles and crawl into denial protecting their own vested ignorance. Catch 22’s and all of it for prohibition profits. Nothing much to due with Ganja or any potential dangers of using it. Ban research and then claim No research so it’s all just anecdotal? Busted! Time for Justice. Time for truth and removing the liars from doing more harm.

    The Politics of Pot

    “in the war on drugs, unlike any war in American History, unlike any modern civilized war of the past two centuries in this war on drugs they are not stopping the battle and allowing the Red Cross on the field. In fact, they are shooting directly at the sick and at those who are trying to help them..and they are shooting to kill.”
    ~ Peter McWilliams, speech before the LNC, July 4, 1999

  3. DdC says:

    American Medical Association Changes Stance On Self-Immolation

    NEW YORK—In a stunning announcement that has sent shockwaves throughout the field of public health, the American Medical Association officially changed its long-held stance on…

    AMA Calls For Ending Nixon’s Lie?
    AMA Ask That Marijuana Be Removed From Schedule 1 Drug List
    Nov 11, 2009 2:00pm

  4. Jean Valjean says:

    More on sentencing reform and Bill (Loser) Bennett:
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jane-hamsher/old-drug-warriors-mukasey_b_5338627.html
    Shame that Huffpo’s comments are mostly from mouth breathers…

    • Paul McClancy says:

      That’s nothing compared to this guy “standardwilly”
      http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/us/colorado-911-call-woman-killed/index.html#comment-1382321981

      He’s one persistent prohib. I encourage everyone here to take time and read his arguments. He’s Sabet and Kleinman on steroids.

      • darkcycle says:

        Howie Katz is a special case. Standardwilly is an asshole who won’t learn. Howie is a old school prohibitionist, with millions of bucks to throw around. And he’s from Texas. And he’s got his own blog, where he basically plays “…..lalalalalala..I’m not LISTENING!” with his fingers in his ears on every topic from drugs to global warming.

      • Howard says:

        Forgetting the comments of standardwillie and Howie Katz for a moment. The title of the article seems to suggest a direct link to ‘pot candy’ and Kristine Kirk’s death;

        Police: Man bought pot candy hours before shooting wife while she called 911

        I’ve searched for an update regarding Richard Kirk’s THC blood levels at the time he shot his wife. That information still has not been released (if I’ve missed an update, somebody please fill me in). But, hey, the title of the article…

        And there’s this;

        ‘During her 911 call made just after 9:30 p.m., according to the affidavit, Kristine Kirk said her husband “had taken some marijuana and possibly some prescription medication for back pain.”‘ [emphasis mine]

        But only pot candy is mentioned in the title. I’d suspect all prescription medications come with warnings about combining those medications with intoxicating substances. Even grapefruit juice can interact negatively with certain prescription medications.

        ‘Pot candy’ and murder, just more catchy these days :/.

        We’re going to continue to see misleading headlines like this for a while. Lazy journalists know it will grab people’s attention, regardless of dubious links.

        • Servetus says:

          On the American continent, it’s been standard operating procedure for 400 years to link marijuana to violence. It’s like a tradition. Post hoc ergo propter hoc based stories, in which marijuana use preceded some act of violence, were used by the Mexican Catholic Church to justify the Edict of Faith (edicto de fe) that prohibited marijuana’s use. The scheme didn’t work in Mexico any better than it’s worked in North America. Today, we’re left with the douchebillies of backwater-media to carry the torch forward.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          This one is a cross eyed bear Howard. Personally I think that it’s a statistical outlier. I think that everyone on this side of the table will acknowledge that this event is something that is so remarkable that it has left us fish mouthing in astonishment. Our problem is that the people on the other side of the table suffer a very severe case of confirmation bias. They’ve got all the proof an idiot prohibitionist needs to say that it was the cannabis. I can hear the prohibitionists cackling with glee:

          Once again that eeeee-vee-ill merrywanna has hypnotized a good person and turned him into a criminal. There’s no doubt that but for the existence of cannabis that the culprit in this case would have instead been singing in the church choir on Sundays, working as a full time volunteer at the soup kitchen feeding the hungry, and helping diminutive, elderly women negotiate busy traffic intersections in his spare time. There’s no doubt whatever that were it not for merrywanna, that there would be no crime in our society!

          Bullshit. I say that if this man hadn’t been high he would have gotten drunk and killed her anyway. This thing was not caused by a defect of cannabis, it was cause by the defect of a human being. “These cans are defective, they’re springing leaks!” no doubt. But how in the world can you get the foaming at the mouth prohibitionists to even give an explanation other than “caused by cannabis” a second thought? I’m not sure if they can be convince to give alternative theories even a first thought. Neither are prohibitionists fans of William of Ockham or his razor.

          Some questions I think salient:

          What was the man’s history of wife beating and domestic violence?

          What was the man’s BAC?

          If he was so cuckoo with cannapuffs, how did he get the gun safe unlocked?

          How many people who chose to get high in 2014 killed their spouse, or even anyone else?

          I must admit that for a very long time I have very much hated the cannabis law reform advocates asserting that “nobody ever got stoned and beat/injured/killed his wife.” In any cohort of people in excess of 20 million you’re going to find every stripe of human being that you can possibly imagine. Heck, I’ll stipulate that 99 of 100, no make that 999 of 1000 wife beaters who choose to enjoy cannabis will chill out and not engage in domestic violence. Further that 999 of 1000 of those who do perpetrate domestic violence will perpetrate less serious violence that would have occurred in the absence of cannabis. But how do we prove that the guy that broke the wife’s arm and fractured her skull would have hurt her worse than he did had he not chosen to enjoy cannabis? Especially when the people we’re trying to convince are brain dead idiots? That argument has always been a petard and it was bound to hoist us one day. I fear that we’re going to be hearing about this shithead for decades.

          (Another question: what the heck is a petard and why in the world would someone hoist it?)

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          So I looked it up. A petard is a very primitive hand grenade or what a sensationalist would call an IED. The petard isn’t hoisted, the concussion hoists the person. Well I learn something new every day whether I like it or not.

  5. NorCalNative says:

    Something to think about.

    “I think the bottom line with our nation’s drug policy is that drugs really are SUBVERSIVE. They let people sort of think outside the box and pull back and see the big picture, and maybe challenge the status quo. And I THINK IT’S NATURAL FOR GOVERNMENTS TO TRY AND SUPPESS THAT KIND OF FREEDOM.

    Julie Holland, M.D. “The Pot Book” A Complete Guide to Cannabis.

    ———————————————————

    From an organizational standpoint, those with a healthy and fortified endocannabinoid system are problematic because WE SEE THE BIG PICTURE.

    You would think Big D or Little D democracy would love itself some outside-the-box thinkers and you’d be right. Problem is we’re either a Constitutional Monarchy (Thom Hartmann) or we’re storming towards idiotic Oligarchy.

    Suppression of free thought, and especially censorship of medical research is how the not-that-great American elites stay in their zone-of-privilege.

    Drug Czars and the drug-testing industry are a way of ensuring “outsiders” and “free-thinkers” are kept as far away from the halls of government power and influence as possible.

    Stay classy couch-mates and stay-out-of-the-BOX.

    • primus says:

      I have been taking cannabis daily for 40+ years. I see the world differently from most of my peers. I have different ideas than most, and have a much more tolerant attitude than they. These facts are a source of immense satisfaction to me, for when I view the sad, stupid uneducated knuckle-dragging mouth breathers that form the majority of the species, I am ever so glad to be ‘different’ from them.

      • claygooding says:

        Every time I see sabet,calvina or any other prohib I hope they are truly marijuana free,,,it is the unhealthiest thing I can think of for them.

  6. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Minnesota’s Legislature has approved a medicinal cannabis patient protection law, the Governor has said he’ll sign it. Just FYI I was wrong that they wouldn’t be able to enforce the no smoking part. There’s going to be no distribution of vegetation. Pills, edibles, and (very ironically) cartridges for vaporizers which might hold BHO.

    That’s 23 (22+DC). The New York Legislature says they’re going to adopt a law this year that’s 24, Florida on Election Day will be 25. The Feds have no choice on this issue other than capitulation in the very near future.

    • Tony Aroma says:

      I believe with IL, NY, and FL on board, that will mean a majority of the US population will have access to legal mmj. It’s going to be even harder to claim “no accepted medical use in the US.”

  7. thelbert says:

    yesterday i went to the VA hospital in la jolla to get my eyes checked. i talked to a couple of guys in the waiting room who did not know that cannabis cures cancer. i told them about the 1974 UV study, so maybe they will check it out. these guys had both had the standard cancer treatments and were still alive. i also recomended that my eye doctor try the cannabis. she is a twentysomething that has never tried pot. a rarity. the struggle goes on!

    • wiggles says:

      The Wiggles always goes to torry pines for Black’s Beach. Wiggles lives in Ocean Beach. Surprised folks in La Jolla didn’t. Know pot helps with cancer

      • darkcycle says:

        Wiggles, I was wondering where you gone off to. One afternoon the attic was empty except for the porn and ding-dong wrappers you’d left behind….BTW, what was that smell? Ugh. 😉

      • thelbert says:

        i’m sure at least some the good citizens of la jolla are aware of the cancer fighting properties of weed, the VA hospital on the other hand is not allowed to know anything about cannabis that isn’t approved by some amorphous entity. so, a cheap and effective remedy for ptsd is denied, and killer drugs given in their place. imho

  8. allan says:

    the Calvina raises its beastly head:

    PTA meeting ends with anti-medical marijuana pamphlets

    Parents attending a mandatory PTA meeting this month at Thurgood Marshall Fundamental Middle School were handed a pamphlet opposing Florida’s proposed constitutional amendment on medical marijuana.

    “I was astounded. There was all this scary stuff saying how bad it was,” said St. Petersburg resident Brock Murch, an amendment supporter whose son attends the school. “People should not be in the schools doing politics.”

    The pamphlet — whose distribution violated school system policy — did not specifically identify its creator, but it displayed the logos of Save Our Society from Drugs, a St. Petersburg lobbying group, and Don’t Let Florida Go to Pot, an anti-amendment website created by Save Our Society and the Florida Sheriffs Association.

    -snip-

    • Crut says:

      On top of that, this particular PTA meeting was in a disadvantaged area where parents were REQUIRED to attend, i.e. a captive audience…

      • allan says:

        Florida will be an interesting place for awhile. I’m sure the Calvina is on (anti-)high alert and is totally insulted those damn pro-drug hippies are attacking her state.

      • Crut says:

        Update to me. I misunderstood the term “Fundamental School” in the article. Apparently, it’s a public, application-only school that accepts about 10% or so of the total applications per year. i.e. does your kid fit our mold? does the parent fit our mold? Good, now wait in that line and we’ll think about segregating you into our little group.

    • tensity1 says:

      How can a PTA meeting, of all things, be mandatory? What are they going to do, throw parents in jail for the “good of the kid” if they don’t attend? Oh, wait. . . .

  9. claygooding says:

    Thanks to Robert Platshorn and the Silver Tour the retirees that own the voting booths in FLA could make the apparent waste of money on pamphlets a great pun for us and will be missed by those LE orgs.
    It could make them more hesitant to spend next time on legalization,,,and the movement towards that in FLA is gaining ground every day,,,if even a few prohibs lose their seats during the NOV elections it could be legislated next year.

    • claygooding says:

      PS: The next time you call in sick to work claim you are suffering from anal blindness,,when they ask you what that is tell them “I don’t see my ass coming to work”.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      The idiot prohibitionists seem incapable of tweaking their tactics. They’re using the same tired, old, worn out strategy that left them losers in very quickly approaching the majority of the States. Hey, I’ve been known to lie for personal gain. I gave it up due to my amotivational syndrome because it’s just too much work to remember them. Hard work has never killed anyone, but why take a chance? But back in that day, at least I had the sense to abandon the lies that didn’t work.

      I guess that I think that if (as I anticipate) we do finally get prohibition kicked to the curb for the garbage collectors to haul to the landfill that the cohort of people who will have helped that end the most will be the idiot prohibitionists themselves. If they can’t win in the land of the Semblers and the home of Calvina and Kev-Kev they really should scuttle away in utter shame. It really is nice that the man playing the role of George Soros in this brouhaha is a Floridian. This may be the first one where all of the major principals are in their home State.

      I’d like to thank all of the prohibitionists including, but not limited to Calvina, Kev-Kev, Prof. Klansman, the Semblers and extra special thanks to Stupid Patrick, we just couldn’t have done it without all of your help! Here’s a plate of yummy brownies for your efforts. Enjoy!

  10. DdC says:

    Minnesota has passed a concentrate-only medical marijuana bill: http://ow.ly/wWUoH

    Florida governor still wants to wast money drug testing the poor

    Cost for a year at Harvard $56k
    Nursing home $84k
    NYC jail $168k

    Vote Hemp ‏@votehemp
    “The universities don’t need a permit but would need to be included on a list of projects that would be given to… http://fb.me/6UJEfeWlG

    US House of Representatives To Vote On Budget Amendment To Defund Medical Marijuana Raids @NORML @HouseFloor“

    @TheWeedBlog: NY Senator Becomes 5th Republican To Support Medical Marijuana Bill

  11. primus says:

    Which is why it is so very important that we renew the role of the supreme court as a check on power of the other two branches. If the courts in Tunisia were strong and would not rubber stamp these tyrannical actions, the people would be protected from the tyrants and the police. Our supreme courts are no more reliable than the Tunisian courts in advocating for us and against the other branches, as envisioned by the founders. Therefore, we are no safer from the tyrannies of the government than are the Tunisians. Kind of makes you feel cold naked and alone, doesn’t it? How this bolstering can take place I do not know, but take place it must. Without the court’s protection, we are all vulnerable to the whims of the powerful.

  12. Servetus says:

    Perhaps human rights activist Azyz Amami was arrested because marijuana was planted on him after the beating and arrest.

    Human rights activist Abbie Hoffmann was harassed by police for allegedly possessing a cache of guns. The weapons charge was so ridiculous the judge threw it out of court. Another time a drug agent tried to frame Abbie and his wife Anita on a marijuana possession charge. Anita noticed the undercover guy, posing as a fan of Abbie and handing out the weed, was dressed in 60s fashion except for his polished, wingtip shoes, which tipped her off that the guy was no hippie. The government’s scheme failed again.

    By contrast, the Tunisian police appear to have demonstrated that it’s better to just beat up the political activist first and plant the evidence on the person later.

  13. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Well here’s something we don’t see every day. A headline with a stupid joke about cannabis that’s not more than 3 decades old: This one is from the one is from the “there’s plenty of room in this country for both corporate blah weed and premium ‘craft’ cannabis to coexist” category:

    The Bud Light-ification of Bud
    May 13, 2014

    • claygooding says:

      It is going to be real interesting watching companies try to keep their strains tasting the same all the time,,,one nutrient change can change the flavors produced from same seeds crop to crop.
      Now imagine different growers trying to match flavors and effects crop after crop.

  14. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Now how the heck did I miss this controversy before it became law? I was totally clueless that it was even up for discussion. But it’s still good news. We’re still chip, chip chipping the stone. This one is from the “I am not a crook” category:
    Missouri Marijuana Decriminalization Becomes Law Without [Nixon’s] Signature

    • Howard says:

      The second to last sentence in the article;

      “Unfortunately the proposal doesn’t go into full effect until January, 2017.”

      I wonder who lobbied to delay implementation until 2017? Yes, that’s a rhetorical question.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        It’s just not reasonable to expect unreasonable people to be reasonable. I wonder if the stonewallers are hoping for President Christie to ride in and save the day in the nick of time. Then again it’s very possible that the lawmakers understand that the State’s sworn LEOs just aren’t very bright and they felt they needed the time to educate them. Perhaps it’s a good idea to ask the opinion of State Police Administrator Capt. Jethro Bodine?

  15. NorCalNative says:

    Agree or Disagree: The actions and behavior of tribe cannabis are often perceived as threatening to the so-called straight population and MUCH of the difficulty in changing the law rests on this dynamic.

    Older Texans may remember hard-drinking Republican Senator John Tower. In 1993 my local newspaper ran this article about him.

    When you read about how Tower has placed alcohol in a wonderland of cultural mythology despite his acknowledgement of the significant problems I’d like people to be curious about why we can’t get a similar refrain into the public about all the cultural benefits of cannabis.

    Our tribe’s drug of choice has ALL of the benefits and very few of the downsides of culturally accepted alcohol.

    Here’s deceased Senator Tower in a letter to one of his constituents:

    ———————————————————

    Dear Senator Tower, the constituent had written. “I’m really confused, perplexed, bewildered about the upcoming referendum of the issue of whiskey by the drink, and I would like to know your position on this issue.”

    Tower replied: Dear Fred, “You asked my position on the upcoming referendum on whiskey by the drink. Here is my position. If you mean whiskey, the devil’s brew, the poison scourge, the bloody monster that defiles innocence, dethrones reason, destroys the home, creates misery and poverty, yea, literally takes the bread from the mouths of little children; if you mean that evil drink, Fred that topples Christian men and women from the pinnacles of righteous and gracious living into the bottomless pits of degradation, shame, despair, helplessness and hopelessness, then my friend, I am opposed to it with every fibre of my being.

    “However, if by whiskey, you mean the oil of conversation, the philosophic wine, the elixir of life, the ale that is consumed when good fellows get together, that puts a song in the hearts and the warm glow of contentment in their eyes; if you mean Christmas cheer, the stimulating sip that puts a little spring in the step of an elderly gentleman on a frosty morning; if you mean that drink, Fred that enables man to magnify his job, and to forget life’s great tragedies and heartbreaks and sorrow; if you mean that drink the soul of which pours into Texas treasuries untold millions of dollars each year, that provides tender care for our little crippled children, our blind, our deaf, our dumb, our pitifully aged and infirm, to build the finest highways, hospitals, universities and community colleges in this nation, then my friend, I am absolutely, unequivocally in favor of the measure.

    “This is my position Fred, and as always, I refuse to be compromised on matters of principle.”

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Respectfully I unequivocally disagree that we can’t make that happen with cannabis. It’s a tortuously slow process, but who the heck do you think is responsible for public opinion about re-legalization going from 12% support to today’s nascent majority and two States with limited re-legalization? It sure wasn’t Calvina and the Semblers.

      C’mon, we’re the people that stole a day off the calender and made it ours. For crying out loud the boozers had to settle for piggybacking the feast day of a rather arcane catholic saint.

      Did Senator Tower actually plagiarize that quote frequently attributed to Noah Sweat in 1952 when the Mississippi lawmakers were debating the repeal of drinking alcohol prohibition?
      http://www.rdrop.com/users/jimka/whisky.html

      • NorCalNative says:

        Nice catch on the Noah Sweat piece. A Senator plagiarizing? I think I need to lay down.

  16. Howard says:

    How about this folks;

    Feds May Cut Off Water For Legal Marijuana Crops

    http://tinyurl.com/n6shzw6

    What next, are the Feds going to claim the air and the sun too?

  17. Servetus says:

    Al Jazeera America has a new eight-part series on the deeply flawed American criminal justice system. The first episode airing on Sunday, May 18, covered coerced and false confessions. The other seven programs will feature:

    Episode 2: Mandatory Sentencing
    Episode 3: Flawed Forensics (FBI Lab)
    Episode 4: Eyewitness Identification
    Episode 5: Parole
    Episode 6: Juvenile Justice
    Episode 7: Broken Windows: Policing Strategies
    Episode 8: Prosecutorial Integrity

    • “The DEA and the NSA “enjoy a vibrant two-way information-sharing relationship,” the memo observes, and cooperate so closely on counternarcotics and counterterrorism that there is a risk of “blurring the lines between the two missions.”

  18. BungybermudaMcNub says:

    “It’s surprising, the short-sightedness of the government,” says Michael German, a fellow at New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice who spent 16 years as an FBI agent conducting undercover investigations. “That they couldn’t see how exploiting a lawful mechanism to such a degree that you might lose that justifiable access – that’s where the intelligence community is acting in a way that harms its long-term interests, and clearly the long-term national security interests of the United States.”

  19. DdC says:

    Kevin Sabet on “crude marijuana” and the similarities between cigarettes and cannabis

    Organic Cannabis/Tobacco vs Chemical Cigarettes

    The War on Drugs: How President Nixon Tied Addiction to Crime

    THE CIGARETTE –As a DRUG INJECTION MECHANISM:

    while there were steam or vapor medical delivery devices available; (realistically speaking) how practical are they to a farmer that is plowing his field.

    great disadvantages of all oral medicines, is the possibly life-threatening delay (some orally ingested medicines take hours) before they begin to take effect.

    Thus, cigarettes became, by default, the only practical method of delivering fast-acting medicines into the human body.

    Effects of Marijuana Smoking on the Lung
    Donald P. Tashkin
    In summary, the accumulated weight of evidence implies far lower risks for pulmonary complications of even regular heavy use of marijuana compared with the grave pulmonary consequences of tobacco.

  20. Servetus says:

    A Texas man faces life in prison for making pot brownies. Meanwhile, Texans face life in Texas, which can’t be good if a Texan needs cannabinoids for health reasons.

  21. Servetus says:

    A cat in New Zealand who obviously knows a good thing when she sniffs it leaves a care package on the doorstep of her caretakers.

    • B. Snow says:

      “The worried owner, who has not been identified, apparently rang the authorities in Dunedin on the county’s South Island after she found the bag with 5g (0.2oz) of cannabis inside.”

      What that sounds familiar… Lemme see, Dunedin, Dunedin where have I heard that name before?

      Oh right, that’s where they did the “longitudinal study” that totally didn’t prove “smoking weed lowers your IQ”… or that’s where they sourced the “data” from – whatever that’s funny.

      So is this bit – where the “Sargent” interviewed says =

      “We certainly have police dogs trained to detect drugs – this might be something police could explore in the future,” …

      I really gotta wonder if someone is Punk’ing the BBC here?

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        I think he was talking about sniffer cats. It wasn’t that long ago I heard about a country’s authorities using sniffer rats. So it could be very efficient to send in the sniffer cat if the sniffer rat got lost trying to find the (some) drugs. If the sniffer cat gets lost then they can send in the sniffer dog to find the sniffer cat. If all that fails, oh well, then the sniffer pig will have to go rescue them all.

        Oh my gawd…is that another original stupid joke about cannabis in that headline??

        But I thought it was catnip, officer

        /snip/
        Sergeant Reece Munro, of Dunedin, said police received a call from a woman in Ashmore St about 6pm yesterday, concerned her cat had left ”a bag of drugs” on her front doorstep.

        ”It was approximately 5g of cannabis, which has a street value of between [NZ$]100 and [NZ$]150.”

        The cat’s owner was very pleased to have the evidence removed and Sgt Munro declined to identify the cat or its owner.

        ”You hear of cats bringing dead birds and rats home but certainly in my career I’ve never seen anything like this before.

        ”I guess you never really know who’s keeping you honest these days, do you?” Sgt Munro said the origins of the the cannabis remained a mystery.

        ”We will continue our investigation and look at having the plastic bag fingerprinted.”

        He said there was perhaps potential to add feline cunning to the police armoury.

        ”We certainly have police dogs trained to detect drugs – this might be something police could explore in the future.”

        Personally I think that the sniffer cat was sending granny a message…”you need to learn how to relax granny!”

        • B. Snow says:

          Yeah, he was…
          I left that part out – The version I read = via Servetus’s link – was shorter and included:

          The worried owner, who has not been identified, apparently rang the authorities in Dunedin on the county’s South Island after she found the bag with 5g (0.2oz) of cannabis inside. ”You hear of cats bringing dead birds and rats home, but certainly in my career I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Sergeant Reece Munro tells the Otago Daily Times, adding the marijuana has a street value of about NZ$100 ($85, £51).

          While the origin of the cannabis remains a mystery, Munro says that – until now – he’d never stopped to think about the sniffing potential of cats. “We certainly have police dogs trained to detect drugs – this might be something police could explore in the future,” he says.

          That was it, phrased a bit differently but essentially the same.

          I’m still thinking this was (maybe) an intentional hoax – meant to be followed up with something like “New Dunedin study – Cops’ IQ lowered by speculating about new methods to ‘combat’ cannabis use…”
          Researchers find police will believe anything vaguely related to “drugs are bad, m’kay”.
          Scientists to explore possible, future = “better shit for them to do” – with their limited, valuable/expensive time…

          “Local officers’ union, claims this is baseless speculation by the researchers, demand to see study data… “

          (OK, I know – maybe that’s a stretch, But something even resembling that would be epic, IMNSHO.)

    • kaptinemo says:

      Now, why couldn’t mine have done that for me? (Muttering) Ungrateful little ….

  22. Servetus says:

    The FBI is hiring new cybercrime fighters, and they’re being pragmatic about it. Realizing the best cybercrime sleuths are also likely to enjoy smoking marijuana, imbibing the herb is no longer an impediment to FBI employment:

    Congress has authorized 2,000 new hires for the FBI, and the FBI will be filling many of the positions with computer programmers and hackers in its fight against cybercrime. The problem, according to FBI Director James Comey, speaking yesterday at a white collar crime conference:

    “I have to hire a great work force to compete with those cyber criminals and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview,” Mr. Comey said.

    Up until now, the FBI has asked applicants whether they have used marijuana within the past three years. Comey says the agency is changing “its mindset and the way we do business” and working more outside the box.

    • primus says:

      Great to see them ‘outside the box’ but note that it is only when it is to THEIR OWN BENEFIT that they do so. When it might benefit someone else, such as with MMJ, they are pedantic rule followers who oppose change with every fibre of their being.

    • Tony Aroma says:

      Looks like when it comes to the government requiring suspicionless drug tests, it’s more of a “do as we say, not as we do” sort of thing. At least if they want to attract the best programmers and hackers.

  23. Howard says:

    Kevin Sabet’s latest venture?;

    marijuana-policy.org/

    • primus says:

      Google’s magic eight ball says: Not so much. No such entry.

      • Howard says:

        You’re saying Google says it doesn’t exist?

        http://tinyurl.com/pyu6jsl

        • primus says:

          For whatever reason, it didn’t like my search. Thanks for the link, though my BP is a bit higher now. Any site which does not allow comments is automatically bad. If they don’t trust their arguments to stand up to honest criticism, if they can’t defend them, then they should pack up their tents and creep off into the night, never to be heard from again. This site is sickeningly biased and dishonest. I think a site should be set up with links to this one, that refutes them point by point, showing the world at large their dishonesty. There must be a way to get the word out.

        • B. Snow says:

          “This site is sickeningly biased and dishonest.”

          That’s really an understatement IMO…

          And the post about = “Journalists should write articles the way wish they would – NO, Really!
          Pretty Please?? “
          = That’s not ‘SAM’ its SAD!

          Looks like he was busy creating a website full of regurgitated BS.
          and the classic “Think of the Chitlins” bit:

          “Our children are the canary in the coal mine of marijuana legalization.”

          Fuck this guy… And anyone who buys his crap deserves “the stupid” it comes with, and if (like Pat) they believe it = it will show!

    • Servetus says:

      I can find no names associated with posting or producing the marijuana-policy.org website. Its promoters must be totally ashamed of what they’re doing.

  24. Nunavut Tripper says:

    I’m in a playful mood tonight so I posted this remark on the SAM Canada website under their new article posted today about how marijuana causes heart attacks.

    “SAM is nothing but a marketing vehicle for the rehab industry.
    You people know perfectly well that cannabis not only harmless but beneficial to health in general.
    So take your forced rehab program and shove it and while you’re at it take that liar Kevin Sabet and throw him out with the rest of your trash. He’s not a doctor,he’s nothing more than a salesman for your mindless scam.”

    • Howard says:

      My favorite part of the article;

      ————-

      “Mittleman admits he can’t explain exactly how pot could trigger a heart attack. It might be due to cannabis, the active ingredient of marijuana, or merely the smoke from a burning plant, he says.”

      —————-

      It’s the damn cannabis in the marijuana that’s the problem! Jeez, anybody knows you’ve got to procure cannabis-free marijuana to prevent your heart from attacking you.

      You’d think some SAM scammer would’ve caught that. But, no.

      • Nunavut Tripper says:

        LOL Thanks Howard I missed that blooper.

        They said it causes heart attacks by increasing the heart beat rate.
        Certainly doesn’t for me but when I go jogging my heart beat sure goes up.

        • claygooding says:

          That is the funny part,,doctors say it is good for you to exercise because it raises your heartbeat but now raising your heartbeat is bad????
          I can sit here in my chair and increase my heartbeat 5 or a dozen times a day.

    • N.T. Greene says:

      Looks to me like your comment was scrubbed.

      …granted it really would have stood out against all those…no other comments

  25. cy klebs says:

    4/20 always= 13, not like industrialists with vested interests in private prisons. Yes there’s always that 1patriot who cares more about blood than that schedule 1 CSA bull!

    • Crut says:

      .
      .
      I’m not even sure what level I have to be on to understand or even appreciate your post.

      I am guessing it’s over 9000? 4/20 == 13?

  26. allan says:

    good news out of southern Oregon…

    in the primary election for sheriff of Jackson Co. anti-pot nut and current Jackson Co. sheriff Mike Winters (booo, hiss) rec’d only 30% of the vote and will be in a run-off against the Ashland Deputy Chief of Police, Cory Falls (yay!) who rec’d 46% of the vote and Bob Sergi, the anti-Winters candidate who rec’d 23% of the vote.

    Politicians take note…

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