Open Thread

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. It’s the end of the semester and I’ve been going non-stop with a variety of events and responsibilities. It’s great fun, but I’m completely wiped out. It’ll ease up after Commencement this coming Saturday.

I’ll definitely have some more things to say this week, so stick around, but the comments section here is, as always, lively and informative (and I’m following all of them), so if you’re looking for some drug war news and links, that’s a great source.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

59 Responses to Open Thread

  1. It's a real war says:

    There’s thousands of them, they’re militarily armed, they’re burning down banks and gas stations, and shooting down helicopters full of soldiers. But don’t worry; el gobernador de Jalisco, Aristóteles Sandoval, says “every five days, we manage to arrest one of them, so it’s all under control”

    http://tinyurl.com/kdocg9g

    • Servetus says:

      SPECIAL REPORT, Drug Violence in Mexico, April 2015, prepared by Kimberly Heinle, Cory Molzahn, and David A. Shirk, Justice in Mexico, Department of Political Science & International Relations, University of San Diego. Brief discussion here. PDF here.

  2. Because America says:

    “Time to put on your raping shoes & find this bitch.” “I hope ISIS cuts your clit off w/ a dull knife.”

    “You are the lowest form if (sic) human shit ever produced. It’s a shame men like Chris Kyle would lay down their life for a whore such as yourself….

    The above tweets and more are some of the functionally illiterate garbage coming from the mouths of SNIPER MOVIE and-Chris Kyle fans in response to comments by former RT journalist Abby Martin.

    Abby’s refusal to play nice and color within the lines of conventional American propaganda didn’t sit well with some of our “boys.”

    You gotta like a women who has “playfully” suggested that congress should be dosed with “LSD.”

  3. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    It’s no problem Pete. We’ve been amusing ourselves with a betting pool with the object of predicting when the sycophants of prohibition will finally realize that they’ve lost. We have to work on the design though because I got stuck with “never, they’re total idiots” but doesn’t that mean there’s no hope I can win the kitty? Never is a long, long time.

    Anyway, hold onto your hat, here’s one from the “so you thought we’d seen it all — hah!” category:

    Governor of Puerto Rico Signs Executive Order to Legalize Medical Marijuana
    5/4/2015

    Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla of Puerto Rico signed an executive order yesterday legalizing medical marijuana in the U.S. territory. The order enables the Puerto Rican Health Department to authorize the use of marijuana and its derivatives for medical purposes. The Health Secretary now has three months to produce a report etching out the details of the new system. In 2013, a medical marijuana bill was introduced into the Puerto Rican legislature but remains stuck in the House of Representatives.

    “Governor Garcia’s executive order is exactly what was needed,” said Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of the Drug Policy Alliance. “It was the right and legal thing to do given both the absence of a ballot initiative process in Puerto Rico and the inability of the legislature to pass needed legislation.”
    /snip/

    I knew Mr. Obama could do that but Governors? Are things different in a Territory than in a State? Do hats really pop off of a very surprised person’s head?

    • damm says:

      Puerto Rico is rather unique; It’s not really a state yet I think? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statehood_movement_in_Puerto_Rico

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        Well, I guess that’s why I asked “Are things different in a Territory than in a State?” My answer is an unequivocal “I don’t know.” 🙂 But if it’s the same, which I do think very likely, then there isn’t a sitting Governor that can claim that his hands are tied by his State’s Legislature refusing to act, or by Federal law. It won’t stop it from happening but now we can prove those Governors are either incompetent or liars or both. But it’s still much easier to convince one person to do the right thing than to convince the majority of an entire ring of politicians to do the same.

        Here’s some philosophical wax: There just aren’t many forums where I would presume that the readers know that Puerto Rico is part of the United States and that anyone born there can grow up and become the POTUS. I swear I want to euthanize people who ask if they need a passport to travel to Albuquerque because it’s in New Mexico. Have you ever heard that most Americans couldn’t find Canada on an unlabeled map? That’s so damn brain dead that I think that it must be a fiction. Where have you gone Charles Darwin? Our society needs you!

  4. allan says:

    Oregon: Dr. Phil Leveque, WW II Hero and Pot Doc, Has Died
    http://www.hemp.org/news/node/5266

    this is a man that earned his hero badge

    • s says:

      “Always, he would lay down his life for any of them, and any of us. He gave his all. Dr. Phillip E. Leveque, the war is over. You have won.”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCHocX28Mh4

    • kaptinemo says:

      From one veteran to another, unknown, but a ‘comrade in arms’ all the same: “Preeeeee-sennnt….ARMS!” (21 gun salute follows).

      Dr. Leveque went through a lot of scheisse for the cause, and was targeted for silencing, as so many activists were (Loretta Nall, Marce Emery, etc.) during the Bush Too years. Even at his age, he was still a fighter. We are all diminished b his loss…and inspired by his example.

  5. Nunavut Tripper says:

    My belly laugh for the day.

    The wise prohibs from DARE unwittingly posted a satirical
    anti weed story.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/05/04/d-a-r-e-gets-duped-by-anti-pot-satire/

    • allan says:

      not satire: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBK3NtaPkdc (please follow all appropriate safety protocols!)

      • Will says:

        I look forward to the updated version of this video in the not too distant future. In that revision, every talking head represented will spontaneously explode. Viewer discretion is advised.

      • Crut says:

        The cognitive dissonance is painful. They somehow truly believe they are representing the Florida people when they fear-mongered and lied for 40% of the vote?

        Oh and I had never seen Ms. Fay before, on purpose. I wish I had kept it that way…

        Sheriff Judd:

        It was never really about {Air quotes} Medical marijuana for the very sick. It was about {snidely} smoking marijuana.

        I’m not a violent person, but his smugness makes me want to punch him in the throat. All those suits and uniforms make them forget or ignore the people who don’t wear them.

        • kaptinemo says:

          Which will make their fall all that much more enjoyable.

          They still don’t get it. The gears have already shifted. The issue is beyond the degree of control they previously enjoyed. The Fourth Turning is upon us, and that also means attitudinal changes, as well. Attitudinal changes on the part of those in government.

          When the prohib rubber finally meets the road (comprised of more than half the US electorate wanting cannabis legal again), the tires will shred to pieces. As will that smug grin.

          Keep something in mind: prohibs look to people like Ms. Fay or Kevvie to be their generals. That’s the best they can do. The best they can do. While anyone here can run rings around them.

          Their original propaganda targets are dying off, and new ones are very few and far between, thanks to fact checking afforded by the Internet. Again, the best they can hope for as replacements are high school loser-caste types like Billy Joel’s Angry Young Man:

          “There’s a place in the world for the angry young man
          With his working class ties and his radical plans
          He refuses to bend, he refuses to crawl
          and he’s always at home with his back to the wall.
          He’s proud of the scars and the battles he’s lost
          He struggles and bleeds as he hangs on the cross
          And he likes to be known as the angry young man.

          Remind you of anyone? (Significant look in Kevvie’s direction.)

          They’re doomed. They make brave noises, but they’re doomed. This is their last hurrah…drowned out by Bronx cheer of the generation that repudiated the war fought in its name.

      • kaptinemo says:

        While recalling that DFAF is the Sembler’s attempt to salvage the reputation of their North Korean POW camp tactics-employing STRAIGHT, Inc.

        So…the Florida Sheriff’s Association accepted an award from child abusers. While they rail against child abusers.

        You can’t shake the Devil’s hand without getting scorched. The FSA has 3rd degree burns.

      • kaptinemo says:

        They have not shut down the Comments yet. Here’s your chance to let them know what you think of their receiving awards from child torturers.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Note to myself: remember to refresh the web page before scanning for duplication. I should also wait until after the uncontrollable fits of laughter have subsided before trying to compose.

  6. I thought it worth mentioning this article:

    Reynolds: Want a lawless police force? Federalize it.
    http://tinyurl.com/lnqg6wz

    It especially went 2+2=4 when I saw this article on Biden promoting community policing:
    Biden touts community policing at NAACP dinner, says police, communities must ‘see each other’
    http://tinyurl.com/mzj57fo

    Control of local police departments through federal incentives and “gifts”, asset forfeiture, and drug war style rights in courts (guilty, no hope of proving innocence until you admit guilt because the truth is not admissible as evidence). This is already much of the problem and more of it is a disgusting idea. A junior DEA agent on every corner? No thank you. Federal control of local police departments sounds about as dystopian as you can get. Biden for president, Scary.

    Community policing through more federal assistance grants = expanding drug war on steroids if you ask me.

  7. thelbert says:

    from grits for breakfast, rick perry’s surveilance state: http://tinyurl.com/oap9cty

  8. Jared Polis to Obama: No More Pot-Hating DEA Chiefs After Michele Leonhart
    http://tinyurl.com/le8am8r

    Neil Franklin, Leigh Maddox, Norm Stamper. Lots of good candidates over at LEAP http://www.leap.cc/speaker-list/

  9. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Well here’s some bad news: DARE still exists. At least they’re good for a genuine belly laugh. This isn’t the first time this has happened to the sycophants of prohibition either. This one is going into the “we’re not laughing with them, we’re laughing AT them” category:

    D.A.R.E. gets duped by anti-pot satire

    “It is sad that in a country as developed as America, such third world drugs such as marijuana are allowed to exist,” the story’s anonymous author wrote. “Children are being addicted to marijuana. I knew this day would come, when a liberal president allowed a state to legally sell Marijuana Flintstone Vitamins to children.”

    “Marijuana. It is one of the most dangerous drugs on Earth,” the author concludes ominously. “For every one joint of marijuana, four teenagers become burdened with pregnancy.”

    Shocking, no? The people at D.A.R.E. certainly thought so, enough that they reposted the entire story, titled “Edible Marijuana Candies Kill 9 in Colorado, 12 at Coachella

    Well that cinches it. I’m going to win the betting pool but won’t ever collect my winnings. Next time I demand a sunset clause.

    • claygooding says:

      I just hope DARE doesn’t find out weed causes your babies to be born nekkid,cold,wet and hungry.

  10. stlgonzo says:

    Who Pays When The DEA Destroys Your Vehicle And Kills Your Employee During A Botched Sting? Hint: Not The DEA

    http://tinyurl.com/pbz6fpa

    • Leaving a Guy Imprisoned for Five Days Without Food, Water Not Enough to Get Fired from DEA
      Wrists are barely even slapped. http://tinyurl.com/p6j3z9u

      They paid 4.1 million to buy off Daniel Chong, then gave the offending agents a short vacation without pay. For leaving a guy locked up with no food or water for 5 days and almost killing him.

      Looking at these 2 news items I would have to say the DEA has no accountability or responsibility. That sounds like the definition of “rogue” to me. As in the sentence: “The DEA is a rogue agency”.

    • The DEA is Obsolete and Needs to be Dissolved or Overhauled http://tinyurl.com/l4vagm6

      Pretty classy article from Ladybud

  11. kaptinemo says:

    Hot potato time at the Supreme Court: US Supreme Court Seeks Obama Administration Comment on Marijuana Case;Oklahoma and Nebraska call Colorado’s legalization of pot a ‘cross-border nuisance’

    from the article:

    “As we argued in our brief, the federal government’s decision to defer to Colorado’s regulation of marijuana is at the heart of this case,” said Colorado Attorney General Cynthia Coffman. “We are pleased that the Supreme Court has asked the United States to explain its position on this litigation.”

    Does your head hurt yet? `Ask the United States`? When every poll shows increasing support for legalization? Not such a bad idea. Let`s have that long delayed national debate on the subject of drug prohibition that the prohibs have dodged to date. Settle this nonsense once and for all.

    • strayan says:

      ‘Cross border nuisance’.

      It’s prohibtion that’s the cross border nuisance now.

    • darkcycle says:

      I thought they were supposed to make their decisions based on their understanding of the constitution, independant of outside influence. It sounds as if they are deferring to the government. That is NOT supposed to be their job.

      • kaptinemo says:

        “It sounds as if they are deferring to the government. “

        Precisely. They are trying to replicate legally the bureaucratic circle-jerk that is the DEA/FDA/HHS cannabis non-approval ‘approval’ mechanism. But they’re on shaky ground, this time. This is too overt. They really are desperate.

        This illustrates that, despite Administration efforts to imply otherwise, this issue has the Real Power sweating bullets, to pull an obvious stunt like this.

        (Does President Choom’s condescension at ‘the Internet people’ who made reform the head topic of his so-called Town Meetings come to mind? After 2012, he’s not laughing anymore, is he?)

        The process of reform, and especially reform legislation, is flushing out into the open all the DrugWar parasites that have gotten fat, arrogant and happy at our expense.

        Forced from cover, they display their official plumage in hopes of causing a respectful, deferential reaction, but they’ve played that card too often, and it won’t work anymore. Not for the generation that wants cannabis legal again. They know the lies are as official as the lying official telling them. Both are immediately discounted.

        This is like the DEA’s attempt to act as if they were the Pope when it came to their (not-so-final) “Final Ruling” in 2003 regarding banning hemp products. On March 7, 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals prohibited the DEA from enforcing their interpretation of the law until all legal arguments could be heard by the Court.

        On March 21, 2003, the DEA defied the Court, and reissued their final rules on hemp foods. On April 17, 2003, the U.S. Court of Appeals once again stayed the Final Rule published by the DEA.

        This stopped the DEA from enforcing their (imperiously dictated) Final Rule, taking away from DEA powers they had no legal right to, but had tried to grab. This is something similar…and it is similarly doomed to fail.

    • Windy says:

      Can’t read the article except for the first paragraph, without subscribing. Do you have a mirror link for it? I’d really like to share it to FB with your comment.

      Woulda asked this sooner but went to spend some time with my daughter (sans’ computer), because she has to work on Mom’s Day (she’s the ONLY mom who works there, but she doesn’t get Mom’s Day off) and I just got home a couple hours ago.

  12. DdC says:

    Rotten to the Core: The DEA Under Michele Leonhart http://www.cannabisculture.com/node/47869

    Pot Growing Charges Dropped After Cop Lied to Get a Warrant http://www.cannabisculture.com/node/47879

  13. ThroughTheRoof says:

    “As detailed in an Associated Press article, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has stated the amount of land under coca cultivation in Colombia went up 39 percent in 2014 to about 276,000 acres.

    The release of this report has taken place at a time when Colombians have shown an increasing disdain towards the U.S.-led aerial program that has been blamed for spraying over 4 million acres of coca crops in the last 20 years.”

    http://tinyurl.com/qeo9zkv

    • Servetus says:

      Colombia was recently touted by the ONDCP/DEA as its big success story. Success in prohibition-speak apparently means prohibitionists are successful in reducing Colombia to a narco-state and massive graveyard like Mexico.

    • kaptinemo says:

      If coca production is up, it’s because cannabis production is down, thanks to re-legalization, as the narcos admit themselves.

      And, yes, we predicted that, too. Didn’t need to scribble on the back of an envelope and charge taxpayers 800K for it. No crystal balls, jus’ plain, ol’ common sense…and an understanding of History.

      Any wonder why so many of us get so frustrated? How many times do the prohibs have to be wrong, and how many times do we have to be right before it becomes evident that was the case, all along? We warned, and only a few listened, and we now have the horrible advantage of having been both prescient and accurate. Makes ya feel like Cassandra, sometimes.

    • DdC says:

      Mama Coca wants Colombia’s fumigation to end.
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/373

      Where the young mens brave new visions threaten old mens selfish Dreams. And they try to crush the spirit with their money and machines. And they call it communism because they dont know what it means. In the third world war

      And the rich keep getting richer and as wrong as they are right. And the poor become the victims of the armies of the night. And the odds are never even and their skins are never white. In the third world war.

      Broken rules and dirty warriors spreading lies and secret funds. Cant defeat the campesino with their money and their guns, cause hes fighting for his future and his freedom and his sons In the third world war
      Third World War by Kris Kristofferson

  14. kaptinemo says:

    Police Struggle With Loss of Privileged Position

    from the article:

    “In Baltimore, the local police union president accused protesters angry at the death of Freddie Gray of participating in a “lynch mob.” In South Carolina, the head of the police union where an officer had shot and killed an unarmed black man who was fleeing fulminated against “professional race agitators.” In New York, Patrick Lynch, a local police union chief, accused Mayor Bill de Blasio of having blood on his hands after the shooting death of two police officers last December.”

    If this goes on, it can end in only one way. And, as any veteran can tell you, Murphy’s Laws for Combat states, “Friendly fire, isn’t…and civil wars…aren’t”

    This has to be stopped, on all sides, before it blows this country apart. And there’s only one way to do that, and that’s re-legalization and regulation.

    • Windy says:

      Also needed is to disband all police unions (actually ALL gov employees’ unions at ALL levels of gov) and then to implement this changes:
      The first thing that needs doing is to remove “qualified Immunity” from ALL law enforcement, prosecutors and judges. Then we need to mandate that in order for any LEO (including all agencies that now have policing powers) to be hired, or to remain on the job, they must ALL be required to carry personal liability insurance which has the following clause, which reads:

      “All killings (human or animal) by insured will be investigated by the insurance company as well as a police agency other than the department where s/he is employed. If the insurance company investigation concludes the killing was unjustified the insured will be immediately dropped from coverage and prohibited from obtaining this kind of liability insurance in the future, regardless the conclusion of the LEA investigation.
      “Premium will double after one allegation of abuse, upon reasonable suspicion of its validity (which will be investigated by the insurance company, rather than the department which hired him/her), or loss or
      corruption of body/dash cam video of an arrest/altercation due to ANY kind of malfunction, and if the officer shut off the cam that will be probable cause of validity of the allegation.
      “Premium will double again after a second such allegation or loss/corruption of video. After a third such allegation or incident of video loss, coverage will be dropped, permanently on this LEO.”

      No insurance=no job anywhere in any kind of policing at any level of government or security for any private security firm, not even as a night watchman; this will be a permanent ban! Implement this and all law enforcement will almost immediately become more civilized and polite in their encounters with the rest of society. We make this happen and we are ALL better off, including the LEOs, themselves.

  15. Servetus says:

    The drug war has brought about a new variety of poppy, one with faster maturation and higher yields of resin. Afghani farmers are eagerly adopting it:

    The new poppy seeds allow farmers to almost double the output from each plant, said Helmand’s provincial police chief Nabi Jan Malakhail. At harvest, collectors cut the bulb of the plant, allowing the raw opium to ooze out. This resin dries and is collected the following day.

    Malakhail said the new seeds grow bulbs that are bigger than usual and can be scored twice within a few days, thus doubling the quantity of raw opium. The plants mature in three to four months, rather than the five months of the previous seed variety, allowing farmers to crop three times a year instead of just twice.

    With the blessings of the UNODC, beginning in 2010 the US has observed a non-interference policy regarding Afghani opium production:

    From Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal on down, the military’s position is clear: “U.S. forces no longer eradicate,” as one NATO official put it. Opium is the main livelihood of 60 to 70 percent of the farmers in Marja, which was seized from Taliban rebels in a major offensive last month. American Marines occupying the area are under orders to leave the farmers’ fields alone.

    “Marja is a special case right now,” said Cmdr. Jeffrey Eggers, a member of the general’s Strategic Advisory Group, his top advisory body. “We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”

    From a 2014 European Parliamentary Service report regarding Taliban involvement:

    The Taliban, for its part, has been known to derive revenue from taxes and protection money tied to the opium trade; to make deals with local poppy cultivators and traders to build political alliances; and even to allow local mullahs to collect a ten percent tax on sales. However, it is estimated that government officials, police, and local and regional intermediaries are even bigger beneficiaries of the drugs trade.

  16. kaptinemo says:

    “We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”

    While the proceeds from the de facto protected fields wind up paying for an RPG that leaves American servicemen dead or worse. All because some bankster couldn’t make his billions off of laundering it if it were legal. (You have to wonder how much of HSBC’s billions came from the Afghan trade.)

    “We don’t trample the livelihood of those we’re trying to win over.”

    Now…say that in context, juxtaposed against the domestic DrugWar. Say that over the bones of those killed ‘extrajudicially’ by drug police, say it to the faces of those who’ve lost loved ones through such killings. Say it to those left alive but maimed in body and mind. Say it to all those who’ve lost their livelihoods, reduced to penury by the Draconian DrugWar.

    One more perfect illustration of the ‘Great Disconnect’ between policy rhetoric and the blood-and-mud they cause in real life.

  17. thelbert says:

    if it looks like the police,and it walks like the police, and it lies like the police, is it the pohttp: //www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-aide-harris-accused-rogue-police-force-20150505-story.htmllice?:

  18. claygooding says:

    “”AUSTIN — In a surprise move that supporters hailed as a historic victory, the Texas House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee approved legislation Wednesdaythat would make it legal to buy and sell marijuana in the state.
    Two Republicans joined with the panel’s three Democrats in support, giving House Bill 2165 a decisive 5-2 victory.
    The final vote came after the committee tweaked the bill to make clear that marijuana would still be illegal to consume for minors, except with parental supervision.””

    http://www.chron.com/news/politics/texas/article/Texas-House-committee-approves-full-legalization-6247225.php

    After the Health Committee decided they don’t have enough research the Jurisprudence Comm dropped this bomb.

    Jaw on floor is a poor description!

  19. kaptinemo says:

    I don’t know how I missed this. Did anyone see this?

    Former anti-drug activists reflect on marijuana legalization

    Read and understand that this is the kind of mindset that, thankfully, is literally dying out. This is the kind of mindset that will never accept responsibility for the horrors they urged the Gub’mint to commit in the name of their Quixotic anti-drug quest.

    These were the ‘useful idiots’ of the ‘parent movement’ of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s that were used by much sharper ‘players’ to build the anti-drug bureaucracies as we know them today.

    And then, later, were left to wither on the vine while people like DuPont got rich off of drug testing the kids of these control-freak mothers…and those who didn’t believe as they do. You wonder why you have to piss in a bottle to get a job? Thank these (female dogs).

    Like the bureaucrats and the banksters, the ‘concerned parents movement’, full of real-life Church Ladies, with their ‘ant-drug’ hysteria leading to bad legislation, ended up feeding the cartels. And they still cannot fathom why they lost. Stooooo-pid.

    • DdC says:

      No Joy Joice was a freak. Used to pop into Can News if memory serves. Karma is a bigger bitch than Nalepka and she will feel the pain and torment of each student denied aid and each kid with seizures unable to reach a remedy due to her gossip and hysteria. I recall her jumping on stage when the Maryland governor signed a bill about Hemp. Evil freaky “beyond reason”. Hate Pus just oozing out of her pours, Her claim to fame was standing with Nancy No No. Another who will suffer eternity experiencing each and every victims suffering they’ve caused. I hope I never fully comprehend what drives these people to see such devastation as acceptable behavior. Or how any tax money could be allotted to these soulless flash peddlers and degenerate whores of Babylon.

      Applaud Souder’s Efforts To Fight Illegal Drug Use By Joyce Nalepka
      The recent verbal attack on Rep. Mark Souder by the so-called Students for Sensible Drug Policy who traveled from Indiana, Illinois and Washington, D.C., to Fort Wayne was as senseless as is illegal drug use.

      And what shall we chisel into Souder’s tombstone? That he denied an education and a chance to leave the violence for millions of Americans. A chance to stay out of the prison racket. Funding and Training Thailand to enslave and kill druggies? Bastardizing the H.E.A. under Clinton. Originally passed to assist the very people they’ve denied since. Karma is waiting to collect on them and the other liars for profit enslaving people with no regard for their Rights or Humanity. Scum of the Earth. Maybe Karma is just an awakening of ignorance through information and discussions excluded from the mainstream media. We the people deserve Justice from these imitation good intenders. For they know what they do. The lucrative flim flam of urine testing and rehabilitation by court order, forfeitures and confiscations. Keeping renewable resources off of the store shelves. Neocons and their lapdog Nalepkas are a vile stain on this country and its people. End Prohibition!

      A Lie College Students Might Want To Tell
      In 1998, Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., an advocate of stringent drug laws, slipped into a House bill an amendment denying federal financial aid for college to anyone who had been convicted of either selling or possessing drugs. No congressional committee voted on the amendment. But it passed as part of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, first enacted in 1965 to create federal financial aid for college students.

      Anslinger-Bush-Hearst-Nixon-Hitler-Nalepka Déjà vu

      • kaptinemo says:

        Ah, yes, Moral Markie Souder.

        Who resigned from Congress because he wasn’t all that moral: Indiana Rep. Mark Souder resigns after admitting affair.

        Such as Markie sought to lecture us on the immorality of drug use. It’s always like this. The control freaks, the hypocrites, the ones with a kink in their brains want power over you. CS Lewis had them pegged:

        “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be “cured” against one’s will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.”

        With the aforementioned kink-brained to be the self-appointed ‘shepherds’, of course. People like Markie. And Joyce. The kind of mindset indicative of the kind of mind that can encompass State-sanctioned murder and justify it to ‘save children’…even when it’s children who are the victims of that murder. For, that’s what they’ve done, all these years. Another example of that Great Disconnect between lofty, sanitized DrugWar rhetoric and blood-soaked reality.

    • ThroughTheRoof says:

      Yep; and many of us left comments.
      I’d so much like to see those two war criminals paraded through the streets, with shaven heads and a large ‘P’ branded onto their foreheads.

      • primus says:

        Not one of the comments I read was complimentary of the subject, nor of the subjects of the article.

    • Hope says:

      And now, though it says there are a hundred and twenty comments on the old prohib piece, I can’t bring them up. Is it just me, or have they made the comments unavailable?

      • primus says:

        Doesn’t work for me now, either. I guess they were embarrassed to be called out on that malodorous pile of dung they published.

  20. US Coalition for Global Drug Policy Reform http://stopthedrugwar.org/files/coalition.pdf

    “We believe that in case of irreconcilable conflict, human rights principles, which lie at the core of the United Nations charter, should take priority over provisions of the drug conventions. UN Member States should initiate a process of reforming and modernization of the drug conventions.”

    I think the US could take a cue from a basic UN charter that prioritizes human rights. Drug policies in our own country based on human rights. Good idea for the UN and the USA. Drugs should not be a criminal justice issue. Regulate – don’t incarcerate.

    A coalition of over 300 have signed the list headed to the UN. http://tinyurl.com/pefdmmv

  21. Mr_Alex says:

    I am starting to conclude that many Anti Cannabis groups like Marijuana Makes You Violent run by Pete Miller, Kyle Stevens and Josh Freeman, Parents Opposed to Pot, Project SAM and etc which have got iffy and started blocking people when they started asking about Melvin and Betty Sembler, i suspect MMYV and etc are front groups for Sembler’s money and Drug Free America too

  22. kaptinemo says:

    IMNSHO…ONDCP is the clearing house organizing all this, with Botticelli as the ‘bagman’.

    The fusion between the government and private operations of the DrugWar have been largely homogenized, personnel-wise. All the top prohibs in and out of government know each other; got themselves a nice little club.

    That was, in effect, ONDCP’s purpose. To act as a nerve center for the dissemination of propaganda (coming up with that was and still is Kevvie’s job) and coordination of anti-reform efforts. Institutionally, it has always acted as an upraised middle finger aimed at the Hatch Act.

    ONDCP is Joe Biden’s lasting gift to America…and given what it has done, with scandal after scandal not being punished, Billions of taxpayer dollars wasted, encroachment after encroachment on our rights not prevented but encouraged, interference in the electoral process for partisan gain, etc. ONDCP is Joe Biden’s upraised middle finger saluting America.

  23. DdC says:

    Bernie Sanders for President

    Endorse our Campaign’s Progressive Platform

    Issue Areas of Interest
    ☛ Income and Wealth Inequality
    ☛ Jobs and Income
    ☛ Campaign Finance Reform
    ☛ Climate Change
    ☛ College Affordability
    ☛ Healthcare
    ☛ Poverty
    ☛ Tax Reform
    ☛ Other ✔

    Other ☛ Legalize cannabis in all forms and stop the wasteful drug war. This will bypass Wall St and curtail local Income and Wealth Inequality, create Jobs and Income, makes possible Campaign Finance Reform, as a renewable resource in competition with fossil fools, trees and crude oil plastic it can alleviate climate change, more local income for more who can afford college. Ganja is homegrown affordable health care. It has already stemmed poverty hiring bud trimmers, tenders and gardeners. It has already given CO $44M in taxes from just recreational use. So all of the bases are covered and yet you don’t even have it on your list. Is this a joke or another Hilary in sheep’s clothing?

    Jobs, tax and a renewable resource.
    http://oi40.tinypic.com/zkmnut.jpg

    Affordable Healthcare. Ganja has brought in $700M the first year, Hemp $600M. More jobs and affordable healthcare and less destructive than booze or pills. Yet not on the progressive agenda?
    http://oi44.tinypic.com/69hwsm.jpg

    Come on Bernie,
    with a name like that how can you shun Ganja edibles?
    http://oi37.tinypic.com/242syoo.jpg

    Bernie Sanders on Drugs

    ☛ Voted NO on military border patrols to battle drugs & terrorism. (Sep 2001)
    ☛ Voted NO on subjecting federal employees to random drug tests. (Sep 1998)
    ☛ Legalize medical marijuana. (Jul 2001)
    ☛ Exclude industrial hemp from definition of marijuana. (Aug 2012)
    ☛ Exempt industrial hemp from marijuana laws. (Mar 2013)

  24. DdC says:

    Young Hindu Nepalis celebrate Shiva smoking hashish and marijuana
    For thousands of years the people of Nepal and India have celebrated the holy day of Shiva, Shivaratri, by partaking of the God’s sacred cannabis infused drink ‘Bhang’ or smoking chillums of hashish.

    14th night of the new moon during the dark half of the month of Phalguna. or 17/Feb/2015

    Shivaratri in Nepal – Rugged Trails Nepal
    They will be dancing, taking Hashis and making crowd around them. People may have question; is Hashish legal in Nepal? Only on the day of Shivaratri Hashish is legal to take carry and smoke around Pashupatinath. Especially on this day Government give Hashis to Sadhus who come to Pashupatinath temple.

    Kathmandu and the Black Prince

    http://www.dking-gallery.com/pix/Eden/EdenOm.jpg

Comments are closed.