Sharing something I wrote for my Facebook friends…
The change of an era… This was the first week with the new rule where I work prohibiting smoking anywhere on campus. Now those who smoke have to either completely leave campus grounds whenever they want a cigarette, or be forced to sneak a drag behind a bush like some adolescent pot smoker.
I remember when I first came to campus, you could smoke in the buildings – not in classrooms per se (at least not during an actual class), but just about anywhere else – offices, break rooms, theatres… At the end of each day, they had to sweep up buckets full of cigarette butts from the floor of the coffee shop. When they finally stopped allowing smoking generally in the hallways (and restricted it to designated rooms), it took forever to get some of the students to stop doing it.
I’m glad there’s no longer smoking in public areas of public buildings. It makes sense.
But I confess that I’m a bit sad and discouraged when I see any kind of blanket prohibitions. Was it really that much of an inconvenience to non-smokers to allow some segregated outdoor locations where smoking could occur?
We have this tendency as a species to desire complete eradication of something we don’t like. Take those who are offended by nudity, for example. It’s not enough for them to have beaches where clothing is required so they can attend without fear of seeing a breast. No, they work to make clothing mandatory at EVERY beach, no matter how remote, even though they would never go there themselves.This same drive has helped keep the drug war going despite its disastrous consequences. And it is behind the effort to attempt to deny gay people the same rights as others.
Of course the desire to blanket ban is often justified by the “do-gooders” as being their “concern” for the well-being of others. They just want to save others from sinning by being gay or naked, or from harming their health by smoking or doing drugs. Well who the fuck gave them that right?
If someone wants to educate me about what they think is bad for my soul or my lungs, that’s fine. I’ll listen and decide for myself what I want to do with that information. But when they want to force me to adhere to their beliefs, I’m not interested.
I know that smoking is harmful. And I’m glad I gave it up years ago. But I also have no regrets for those years that I was a smoker. God, I enjoyed it! I have great memories of sitting around an overflowing ashtray with a bunch of friends talking about… well, anything. Philosophy, movies, art, politics — OK, there may have been another kind of smoke involved as well. And I wouldn’t give those experiences up.
No, I don’t mind some time-and-place regulation of activities. But the drive to completely eliminate an activity because some people don’t like it, is, to me, a very ugly part of who we are.
When I was about 6 years old I was diagnosed as being allergic to cigarette smoke. Any time I was in an area where someone was smoking, especially if the ventilation was poor, I would have difficulty breathing and my eyes would swell shut (what a weenie, right?). I always thought the allergy diagnosis was dubious and fortunately as I got older the symptoms lessened. That said, to this day I am one of those people who simply cannot stand the smell of cigarette smoke. Maybe my little reptilian 6 year-old brain lodged a permanent complaint that I haven’t been able to shake.
As many of you who are old enough will recall (and as Pete describes), there was a time when you could smoke anywhere. Back when smoking was much more ubiquitous than it is now, I decided I needed to adapt to the situation instead of expecting smokers to take my “condition” into account. Most of my friends smoked, my girlfriends smoked (that was tough), my co-workers smoked and I was often the only one who did not. But my smoking friends, and me the non-smoker, always tried to accommodate each other in respectful ways. It wasn’t that hard.
Now that the tide has thoroughly turned (I’m personally glad there is no smoking on planes, in bars, etc.), I agree that we’ve gone too far in attempting to ban smoking entirely. Smokers should be given their space and be left in peace. We’ve become too adept at shaming and shunning. We don’t need any more pariahs.
i have to agree with your distaste for having things shoved down your throat by the aristos who’s only purpose in life is worrying about the morals of the riff-raff. i love growing plants that provoke the folks that think they can prohibit cannabis with massive media mind games and a few narks. their lies don’t work anymore with the internet.
The campus i work at started their new smoke free policy with the new year and as a smoker and employee it has been irritating. The students just break policy with no repercussions and employees have had to find creative ways to not be harassed by superiors. All the policy has really done is create a bigger litter issue as the ash receptacles have been removed and it has also forced more students to try and get away with smoking inside the dorms. I question how they can force someone to live on campus and not allow even an outdoor smoking area. Lucky for me i have most buildings roof access key but i hate sneaking around to do a legal activity. I am interested in seeing how the policy holds up to tailgating and football season this fall. I wonder if enough people became “offended” by coffee if it too would be banned and if so how well would that sit with folks?
Hear, hear!
Heinlein said it best:
“Political tags–such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and. so forth–are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
That is why I call the prohibs ‘control freaks’. What they fear they must either control or destroy.
I can’t think of anyone who exemplifies the desire to eliminate any better than Melinda Haag.
The World’s Largest Medical Marijuana Dispensary vs. One Rogue Prosecutor http://tinyurl.com/qaplzp4
I’d live next door to Harborside any day. Heinlein is wise.
So, now that the war on weed is on the way out, the prohibs need a new gig. Viola! I give you the war on tobacco. Same tactics, same abuse, same misery, same dead dogs, same waste of lives and money. To protect the children, you understand.
I’m kidding of course. No one would be stupid enough to do that. Right?
Well, there is one group.
Protect & Serve (themselves!).
Sorry, but Professor Whitebread scooped you 20 years ago (at the conclusion):
“And so, yeah, we will continue the War on Drugs for a while until everybody sees its patent bankruptcy. But, let me say that I am not confident that good sense will prevail. Why? Because we love this idea of prohibition. We really do. We love it in this country. And so I will tell you what I predict. You will always know which ones are going out and which ones are coming in. And, can’t you see the one coming right over the hill? Well, folks, we are going to have a new prohibition because we love this idea that we can solve difficult medical, economic, and social problems by the simple enactment of a criminal law. We adore this, and of course, you judges work it out, we have solved our problem. Do you have it? Our problem is over with the enactment of the law. You and the cops work it out, but we have solved our problem.
Here comes the new one? What’s it going to be? No, it won’t be guns, this one starts easy. This one is the Surgeon General has what? –Determined — not “we want a little more checking it out”, not “we need a few more studies”, not “reasonable people disagree” — “The Surgeon General has determined that the smoking of cigarettes will kill you.”
Now, all you need, and here is my formula, for a new prohibition every time is what? We need an intractable, difficult, social, economic, or medical problem. But that is not enough. There has to be another thing. It has to divide by class — by social or economic class, between US and THEM.
And so, here it comes. ‘
You know the Federal Government has been spending a lot of money since 1968 trying to persuade us not to smoke. And, indeed, the absolute numbers on smoking have declined very little. But, you know who has quit smoking, don’t you? In gigantic numbers? The college-educated, that’s who. The college-educated, that’s who doesn’t smoke. Who are they? Tomorrow’s what? Movers and kickers, that’s who. Tomorrow’s movers and kickers don’t smoke. Who does smoke? Oh, you know who smokes out of all proportion to their numbers in the society — it is the people standing in your criminal courtrooms, that’s who. Who are they? Tomorrow’s moved and kicked, that’s who.
And, there it is friends, once it divides between the movers and kickers and the moved and kicked it is all over and it will be all over very shortly.
It starts with “You know, they shouldn’t smoke, they are killing themselves.” Then it turns, as it has — you see the ads out here — “They shouldn’t smoke, they are killing us.” And pretty soon, that class division will happen, we will have the legislatures full of tomorrow’s movers and kickers and they are going to say just what they are going to say any time now. “You know, this has just gotta stop, and we got an answer for it.” We are going to have a criminal statute that forbids the manufacture, sale, or possession of tobacco cigarettes, or tobacco products period. (Emphasis mine – k.)
They never learn…and resent it mightily when, after decades of carnage, figurative and literal, with both rights and lives taken, we’re justified in saying, “Told ya so.”
From what I’ve seen over the past decade or so is they are going to prohibit carbon/CO2. Problem with that is most lifeforms on the planet are made of carbon, plants require it in the form of CO2 to grow, and guess what, if all the plants were to die so would all the other life on Earth. Listened to Coast to Coast the other night (posted a link on FB) and what this guy said made so much sense, but it just might be bias on my part. I really wish someone coming from a different POV than I on the climate change issue would listen to this one hour segment, and let me know if they think it makes sense, too. It was the first hour of the show and you can listen to the archive or download the podcast. Someone? Anyone? No one on FB commented. Here’s the C2C description of the segment:
and here’s the link to the page:
http://www.coasttocoastam.com/
Happy 7/10!
By analogy to tobacco allergy sufferers, people with allergies to perfumes, where the slightest whiff of an industrially contrived fragrance can lead to migraine headaches, are people who would certainly like to eliminate synthetic perfumes. Marin County CA once made an unsuccessful bid to ban perfumes, but because too few people were affected, it didn’t resonate with voters. No doubt the perfume companies weren’t thrilled by the measure, either.
A cure for perfume allergies and migraines would be the ideal solution. Until then, perfume allergy sufferers are going to be unable to attend theater events, ride on public transit, or be anywhere near people who douse themselves with overpriced chemicals while confining themselves within small spaces with other people, such as in elevators and office spaces. Many employment opportunities are eliminated once public aromatic contact becomes a threat to one’s health.
Such unfortunate citizens deserve a fix. But the old rule of the American marketplace often prevails; that is, if not everyone wants it, no one can have it.
It’s worth noting – tobacco smoke is not an allergen. I don’t know if perfume is an allergen, but I have always claimed to be allergic to it. It was really to everyone’s benefit, in the end.
tobacco is medicinal. one of the best poultice plants I know for drawing foreign thingies out (sorry for the technical medical jargon). Also useful in the garden and a spiritual/ceremonial mainstay for indigenous folks.
Very nice piece but not enough rage. If I’d written it I’d be in Gauntanamo by now.
“The elaborate, ventilated escape hatch built allegedly without the detection of authorities allowed Guzman to do what Mexican officials promised would never happen after his re-capture last year – slip out of one of the country’s most secure penitentiaries for the second time.
Eighteen employees from various part of the Altiplano prison 55 miles (90 kilometers) west of Mexico City have been taken in for questioning, Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said in a news conference without answering questions.”
http://tinyurl.com/oyz3luw
The new prison underpass should be named the Nieto Tunnel after Mexico’s president. Sr. Nieto would likely have dug the tunnel himself had it been necessary. Since he’s the prez, he probably hired some people instead.
Without Joaquin Guzman, who would run Mexico’s chief export trade? Now that legalization of marijuana is happening in the US, Mexico’s economy has turned into a melting ice cube.
Mexico and the US both need Guzman to straighten things out. We’ve not seen the last of El Chapo.
The “New Prison Underpass”…
You do now, I could have been drinking a beverage while reading the things you post here right?
I could’ve easily snarfed Dr.Pepper everywhere, you should be more careful with your humorous quips – someone else could have been drinking Barq’s Rootbeer, 7Up, Coke or (God forbid) a Diet Soda!
*shudder*
Do you now how long that nasty Ass-partame smell/”after-taste” stays in your nose & sinuses?
(Actually IDK, I can’t stand the stuff it makes me nauseous =Literally).
I mean it’s bad enough orally = but its a damn scary thought – trying to rid my nose of that smell…
Seriously though – that’s an epic phrase, I say we try to make it a thing. I just watched Jose Diaz-Balart talking to Barry McCaffrey about it on the news, and I’ve heard a few reporters already today talking about how/why the cartels have gotten so good at tunneling = years & years of practice doing it in Between California and Mexico!
Barry wasn’t happy having to address José’s questions – he doesn’t like to talk “drug-war”, just national security and whatnot = Oh it was priceless…
This is gonna be fun to watch as they scramble to keep him from disappearing for another 13 year stretch = POPCORN TIME!
A quick check with the CIA..Guzman’s partners in crime,may reveal the answer.
ot ‘Alice in Wonderland Syndrome’ Caused by Acid Flashback http://news.yahoo.com/alice-wonderland-syndrome-caused-acid-flashback-114804065.html …
Just heard on Russ Belville 420 radio, did you know there is no federal charge for possession of Marijuana any more on the state of Oregon law books?!!
You can have 1000 pounds in your house and it is only considered a misdemeanor!! Love it, no more felonies for Ganja in Oregon!!
Now this it truly ‘Irie” Mon!!
http://norml.org/laws/item/oregon-penalties-2
Just was going on what they said on the 420 radio station, my bad! Thanks for the link, Scootercat! Guess I got schooled!
State Laws enforced by State Cops or Not enforced by State Cops. Interesting how the penalties vary to a max 7 years in CA for selling to a minor while Alaska gets what looks like 5 yrs and a half million dollar fine. CA Prop 215 trumps the $100 fine, still making it the least harmful laws in the land. An oz or less may be no penalty in CO and WA, but the driving laws are humanly impossible to pass and over 50 lbs – Felony – 8 – 32 years – $1,000,000 fine. Washington Possession More than 40g is a Felony, 5 years and $10,000 to the prohibitionists.
Oregon Manufacture, Delivery, or Distribution Within 1000 feet of school grounds Felony – 20 years profits for Koch and $375,000 for DC, You’re too close so to protect the kids they extort big bucks for politicians. Kids have no nutritional school lunches. With 3 K’s and Mandatory minimum sentences State Cop Laws, stalling diverting Incrementalism. Dangles the carrots in front of desparate people and forget the Bogus very expensive Fraud keeping Cannabis in all natural forms as a schedule#1 narcotic.
Yes celebrate the battle wins, but it’s the war that steals tax dollars from the schools and Health care for the people. Homes for the homeless and natural Hempseed nutritional supplements to the sugar crap and fat diets. The fiber steel and carbohydrate plastic and pesticide cotton alternative clothing home growing jobs. Except for farmers in the US. ConPromises appeasing the slithering liars, while any Federal attempt to reform the CSA is not even heard. If that ain’t Fascism….
State Laws –
Damn Good to not so Damn Good Band Aids.
While the Reefer Mad Slashers Lacerate We the Public.
Offense – Penalty – Incarceration – Max. Fine
Personal Use 1 oz or less None None $0
☛ Oregon
☛ Colorado
☛ Washington
District of Columbia
Personal Use – 2 oz or less – None – None – $0
6 plants or less – None – None – $0
Alaska in your residence*
1 – 4 oz – Not classified – N/A – $0
Alaska NOT in your residence*
1 – less than 4 oz – Misdemeanor – 1 year – $10,000
California Personal Use
28.5 grams or less Infraction N/A $100
Sale or Delivery
Over 18 years to an individual under 14 years
Felony – 3 – 7 years – $ 0
Oregon Manufacture, Delivery, or Distribution
Within 1000 feet of school grounds – Felony – 20 years – $375,000
Colorado Sale or Distribution, Cultivation
More than 50 lbs – Felony – 8 – 32 years – $1,000,000
Alaska Sale or Delivery
To a person under 19 who is 3 years or more younger than the seller.
Felony – 10 years – $100,000
Offense within owned structure
Felony – 5 years – $500,000
Washington Possession
More than 40 g – Felony – 5 years – $10,000
* Mandatory minimum sentence
Sale or Distribution Any amount
Felony 5 years $10,000
To a minor at least 3 years younger
Felony 10 years $10,000
Controlled substances homicide
Felony 10 years $20,000
drug-free zone double fines and imprisonment
District of Columbia
Sale, Distribution, Intent to Distribute, and Cultivation, Hash & Concentrates Manufacture
Any amount Not Classified 5 years $ 50,000
One nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all? These are the “legal” states? Many are doling out Life. Obama doesn’t need a crooked Congress to remove it.
Then let Science determine how to regulate it in all states and countries by the Laws of Physics. Like gravity, heat and electricity is not subject to state politicians paranoia, enither should cannabis.
No movement from Schedule 1 to open research up for cannabis either,,a new bill just introduced to move it to a new classification for research purposes,,by the pharmaceutical mfrs and their research teams,,,Schedule 1-R.
The hypocrisy of our bureaucrats and bought legislators knows no limits. When just a few studies reported that cocaine and meth amphetamine had an accepted medical use there was no “special” classification to keep any medical research on them under the absolute control of the DEA and the drug war machine,,but pot requires it.
With over 1/2 the US population living in states where they can use cannabis under a doctor’s care that is an accepted medical use,,and further testing is not required to remove it from Schedule 1 and the drug cops control.
The Stacks: A DEA Agent at War with the War on Drugs
http://tinyurl.com/nb8ptyx
“There is no drug war. It’s a fraud. No other nation in the world has a drug war. The rest have addiction problems. We have war. Why? Because it’s a toy, a grab bag with a lot of big hands in it.†…
“The DEA,†he says, “they want more power, more people, more funding, more headlines and glory. The politicians, they want a platform easily sold to voters, something that the public can identify and think something’s being done, an illusion that they can throw millions of dollars at and show that they’re challenging the drug barons; the war is great theater for politicians.†The Pentagon and CIA: with the fade of communism, they are building a pretext for maintaining their budgets. Everybody wants a toy. All held together by a phrase: war on drugs. The black humor, the madness, is heartbreaking. ” …
…
This desire to eliminate has given carte blanche to the government – like having a blank check they can write their own numbers on any time they want.
Drug war. It won’t end without voters demanding it. Its like a sugar addiction to the government. Except in this case its taxpayers who supply their sugar.
The desire to eliminate gone wild: drug war.
The Great Marijuana Hoax
By Alan Ginsberg 7:38 P.M. Nov. 13, 1965
THE DRUG WAR IS A FRAUD – 04/01/00
House Republicans say no to allowing federal studies of medical marijuana
The Ganjawar is a Product Sold by D.E.A.th to Profit Fascist – 01/07/03
Ganjawar: Such an Obvious Fraud – 07/17/09
The war on drugs is a fraud because the two apparent adversaries in the “war” are actually on the same side. The DEA provides an essential price support system as a gift to major traffickers, otherwise known as the “cartels,” preventing drugs from being sold at realistic market prices, i.e. pennies. In return, the DEA and the rest of the drug war structure obtain a perceived enemy or threat to hold over any adversaries to their inflated budgets (think of the role once filled by the Soviet Union on behalf of the U.S. Military/industrial complex).
Politicians and people like El Chapo love it because it means job security and a continued revenue stream. The word ‘war’ suggests two roughly equal forces fighting it out. This scenario has never happened with illegal drugs. What we have instead is the U.S. government waging attrition on those it designates as “dissidents,” people of color or those whose politics are not approved of by the oligarchy of bankers and pols. Being able to harass these people as drug users is just too convenient for the racists and fascists who still prevail in the Land of the Free. Much of the blame for this state of affairs can be laid at the feet of Bill Clinton, not to mention his third term surrogate, Hillary. Undoubtedly the most important event in the 2016 election cycle will be the Democratic primary where Bernie Sanders is the only viable alternative to more of the same old Republicrat drug war scam.
Bernie is no more viable than Gary Johnson. If cannabists get behind Gary, he would be even MORE viable than the socialist who has absolutely NO working knowledge of economics.
http://tinyurl.com/ptbzuyf
!5 years controlling the valley where 90% of the world opium is produced and not one plant pulled,,not one trafficker busted and not one bank fined for laundering nearly a trillion dollars drug money in that time.
While we send SWAT teams to kill people because someone thought they smelled a joint.
It is not a war on drugs,,it is market control.
INSTANT GUITHERISM AWARD
Oh, and for the politically minded? Take a look at the line-up on the Republican side and who do you see? Jeb Bush.
Who is apparently a ‘colleague’ of Sabet and the Semblers. How do we know? Kevvie told us:
But then Maia sent me something very interesting: the 2007 DFAF Annual Report, which listed a certain Kevin Sabet as a member of their advisory board in the role of “drug prevention expert.†Sabet was also listed as a member of the editorial board for the journal of the Institute of Global Drug Policy, a division of DFAF.
I reached back out to Kevin to ask, “What gives?â€
This time, his answer was rather different.
“Tony, I was on the advisory board along with Jeb Bush, Bob DuPont and others for a few years—that’s all unpaid.†(Emphasis mine – k.)
He told us all we need to know about Mr. Bush for the coming election. Kevvie’s name-dropping might just cost Bush the election when this gets the exposure it will eventually receive.
You are known by the company you keep. Kevin’s child-torturing friends and their enablers belong in The Hague for crimes against Humanity.
And one of those enablers wants to be President. He is supposed to be smarter than this was. (terribly prescient in 2000, no?) Can we afford to take the chance?
.
.
I most sincerely doubt that the people have forgotten just how much money that electing George Bush the lesser President cost them. Not just dollars and sense either. He and his faithful ward Dick pillaging the US Treasury cost people their homes in foreclosure and their 401(k)’s when they panicked in the 2008 stock market crash.
IMO he’s getting coverage for precisely the same reason that the buffoon known as Donald Trump is getting attention, because he has name recognition. If either one of those two assholes gets elected I’ll be most seriously considering emigration. That’s not simply because one of them was elected. It would be because the citizenry has flunked the IQ test. Yes, there are a lot of very stupid Americans but I just don’t believe that they’re that bloody stupid.
Besides unlimited hope, on what do you base that belief? The US was the way the rest of the world offloaded their stupid. It selected for stupid. It distilled stupid. Many smart ones left along the way. What is left is the distillation of those rejected by Europe and Africa, mostly. No wonder the US must hire brainpower from the rest of the world.
Primus,
https://www.facebook.com/AfghanDefender/videos/vb.469873159706969/485015298234731/?type=2&theater
We have had early warnings about the Bush Clan as far back as 1942. But because they are the handmaidens of Power, they were protected by that Power, so long as they did its bidding.
Case in point: The Bush family and the S&L Scandal
Jeb Bush defaulted on a $4.56 million loan from Broward Federal Savings in Sunrise, Florida. After federal regulators closed the S&L, the office building that Jeb used the $4.56 million to finance was reappraised by the regulators at $500,000, which Bush and his partners paid. The taxpayers had to pay back the remaining 4 million plus dollars.
See? A chip off the ol’ block; Jebbie was already thieving at a young age, just like ‘Poppy’ and his Nazi-loving Da. Yessiree, a real Bush if ever there was one.
And this is in bed with Kevvie and the Semblers. And wants to be Prez.
Deity forbid. We won’t survive another Bush.
http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/07/13/422592386/white-house-announces-commutations-for-46-nonviolent-offenders
Tomorrow on Fresh Air on NPR at Noon
will be talking about Medical Marijuana
Pingback: Stupidity runs rampant again...... - YaHooka Forums
High couch, Allan said I should stop by and offer some thanks to all the good people here that helped somewhere, some time, in some way to get cannabis legal here in OR.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! It’s like a fresher breath of fresh Oregon air. Woot woot! My modeling life continues after several months off and with legal cannabis I get to combine the 2 in comfort, plus I have my OMMP card! And look for some new awesome work from me and Allan’s camera soon! my link goes to my modeling instagram, brand new today. It’s for grownups. Mature ones!
Courtney, thanks for stopping by. Any chance your future work might feature some “other” ladies in the picture with you? Hint, hint cannabis-ladies?
I’m a big fan of that brand of maturity. Not sure I’m a grownup but I am house trained and everything. Tell allan I said hello.
I tried to hold down the fort here in NorCal, but other than drooling over pictures of Stoney Girl Gardens cannabis flowers can’t say I had much to do with helping Oregon out.
Good luck with your career.
any of us that have somehow had a voice along the way in whatever state are due a bit of thanks! AND the shit just keeps getting better. Watching the Repugs implode is great fun too, especially when I can watch it smoking my legal ganja… Irie!
and yes, Miss Appleseed is due here in a few days for my first ever photographic workshop. Courtney is *shock* our model for the day. Then she and I are venturing to the woods to shoot at the waterfalls and in da woods. Plus we’ll be doing some cannabis related work.
and not to brag on my own shit, but damn!
I haven’t ever been able to totally embrace my artist self. Maybe a bit here and there but never like I am doing now.
Of course considering my potheadedness it doesn’t surprise me that I’d start incorporating/combining my cannabis photography into other realms of my art.
I’m only 8 months into my self-tutoring PhotoShop education but I am finally working with photo editing tools that match my previous darkroom knowledge (except PS wins!).
Anyway, I f’ing love this image… somebody please tell me if I’m just high (barely nsfw):
http://fineartamerica.com/featured/painted-lady-2-cannaflage-ae-photo.html
I was wondering when the prohibs would pull this stunt: Marijuana opponents using racketeering law to fight industry
Using RICO on a legitimate business given imprimatur by the taxpaying voters of CO and other enlightened States. Typical corrupt systemic thinking, that the machinery to oppress will always be in the hands of the current oppressors, while the votes since 2012 have been for the dismantling of that machinery.
They can’t win in the arenas of scientific fact or public opinion, so they try the courts. Essentially with the aim to nullify your voting rights. To protect you from yourself, of course. Alice of Wonderland fame would feel right at home.
They keep reminding us that ‘it isn’t your parent’s (ahem) ‘marijuana’.
Of course not; it’s our cannabis and we improved it. But, just as it is not ‘our parent’s (ahem) marijuana’, it is not our parents using it. We are. And we are the people who voted for it to be legal again. Tens, maybe scores of thousands of prohibs arrayed against the single largest voting bloc in American history, one that crosses nearly every demographic. Custer had better odds.
The prohibs have been driving an increasingly swerving, fish-tailing truck on a high speed collision course with a social and political brick wall for years. OUR wall. It’s us. With this latest bit of nonsense, they dropped a cinderblock on the accelerator.
And the truck, and the petrol to run it and even that cinderblock was paid for by us. And this farce will only go on for as long as our Congress thinks we want it to.
The targeted dispensary has a Webpage. Read the guy’s story. It’s all too damn typical.
These prohibs have been ‘sowing the wind’ for a century. And even in the face of reversing wind direction and increasing speed, they still keep casting their seeds of the poison tree. When they ‘reap the whirlwind’, they’ll be swept away, still throwing seeds of discord.
James M. Wootton is the attorney who heads Safe Streets Alliance (SSA), the organization currently suing several Colorado marijuana dispensaries and other businesses in CO under the RICO statutes. Jim Wootton was Nancy Reagan’s friend who in the 1980s Reagan era helped found the National Partnership to Prevent Drug and Alcohol Abuse Among Youth. The organization was subsequently defunded by the government when the botched program burned through $700,000 without accomplishing any of its objectives:
Neither Wootton nor anyone else involved went to jail for fraudulently misdirecting federal grant funds, even though such prosecutions do occur. That’s how things work in D.C. when one is Nancy Reagan’s friend, as well as a corrupt soldier in the federal drug war under Ronnie Reagan.
You’re gonna love this one, then:
East Baltimore anti-violence group work suspended after guns, drugs found in raid
from the article:
“City officials have suspended operations of the Safe Streets anti-violence program in East Baltimore after police officers found seven guns and drugs stashed inside the Monument Street office.
Police said a robbery investigation led them to the office, and two employees were among those arrested. The suspension sidelines the program’s work in East Baltimore at a time when gun violence has been spiking.
Safe Streets, a grant-funded program under the city’s Health Department, uses ex-felons in an effort to stem crime. The program has been lauded for keeping violence at a minimum in the four neighborhoods where it operates, and some officials have urged its replication across the city.
The program has had trouble in the past, with offices previously suspended in 2010 and 2013 amid criminal allegations against employees. It has also faced criticism over its recruiting practices.
‘Safe Streets’, huh? Safe streets? Drugs? And guns? In the offices of ‘Safe Streets’? I’d ROFLMAO except that this isn’t funny, it’s downright psychotic.
What does anyone want to bet that this is another ONDCP front that is receiving Gub’mint money…meaning, of course, our money. And this is what happens to it.
More about this from the Investor Class’s viewpoint: BALTIMORE : Stimulus-funded “ANTI-VIOLENCE†group BUSTED for GUNS and DRUGS
‘Safe Streets’. And we, each and every American, paid for this boondoggle.
Right on time, Rogue Valley Action News Team has the scoop!
“Local drug testing companies say they expect the number of employees coming in to be tested will go up as employers revise their workplace drug policies.”
If I was a working Oregonian I’d feel a chill right now.
Then a lot of companies must be in better financial shape than what they let on, if they can afford the enormous cost – in both employee testing and fighting the resulting, inevitable lawsuits over false positives – to be able to proceed with this.
For all the brave noises, the prohibs are whistling past the graveyard. They know that, day-by-day, reform-minded people are replacing the ignorati in the electorate. The effect is being felt in Congress.
15 years ago, Congress and the Senate would have been lining up to fellate prohibs.
Now Congress and the Senate is kicking their arses, publicly.
Drug-testing companies are losing their political allies…and thus, their political cover from social and political sanctions against them from a populace whose majority wants cannabis legal again.
Despite the fervent wet dreams of ALEC and the Chambers of Commerce, cannabis law reform is past stopping, socially. And, sooner or later, that translates into political power. A power that will be aimed at those who have used it against us for so long.
Like some post-Civil War plantation, the prohibs arrogantly assume they can run things like always. They refuse to see that the slaves are emancipating themselves. For decades the prohibs have been attacking us with a stick having a club on one end and a point on the other. Now that stick has changed ownership, and is now resting in the hands of the former slaves. Who see everything having to do with their slavery as odious reminders of it. Like drug testing.
Long past time to start using that stick…
that’s it, Kaptin, the slaves have to free themselves since the massa never will.
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) press releases are a lot like supermarket tabloids: all headline, no substance. In this latest example, NIDA plays the scare-headline game once again by announcing that:
Shocking! So this means women who smoke marijuana have shrunken heads??!!
Well, no. If one bothers to read the press release, the study involves 28 women and 31 men who ingested specific drugs over a very long period of time:
While interesting, many socioeconomic and cultural factors are eliminated, such as those found in rural/urban distinctions. Most serious druggies believed Tim Leary when he said speed kills. Rural types who hated hippies paid no attention to the sage of drug wisdom. Thus, meth is more popular in the hinterland. In similar fashion, drug educated people who dislike bogus drug headlines pay little attention to the NIDA. Those accepting and passing on NIDA’s cheap propaganda tricks include demagogues, poorly informed journalists, and, of course, professional prohibitionists.
A century ago, Congressman Richard Hobson said: “Liquor will actually make a brute out of a Negro, causing him to commit unnatural crimes. The effect is the same on the white man, though the white man being further evolved it takes longer time to reduce him to the same level.’ (He was talking about actual physical size of cortex, here. The more brain, the more ‘evolved’ a Human was morally…or so he said.)
And what reformer can forget the ‘cocaine crazed Negro’ ca. 1914?
This kind of pseudoscientific BS has been the cornerstone of the foundation of drug policy for a century, and yet it has been forgotten as such, save by scholars. And it is still going on today.
How Medical Marijuana Could Literally Save Lives
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread28627.shtml
Now, the study did not say pot isn’t helpful for people suffering from those ailments; it said there was no evidence to that effect, as German Lopez noted at Vox. Importantly, however, the JAMA study found solid evidence that marijuana is effective at treating one big condition: chronic pain. The JAMA review found “30% or greater improvement in pain with cannabinoid compared with placebo,” across the 79 studies it surveyed.
The JAMA study was based on a meta-analysis of the findings of 79 previously-published studies.
But we need more research. Oh wait, Congress blocked it again. Maybe now that this study agrees with the 79 previously-published studies. Wait a minute. How can their be 79 previously-published studies and still claim NO Medicinal Value, permitting Gag rules and Mandatory Sentencing for Growers? Weasels. Just American hating evil oozing lying sneaky creepy cowards.
info on Fresh Air interview about Med Marijuana
http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2015/07/14/422876973/when-weed-is-the-cure-a-doctors-case-for-medical-marijuana
oh my…
Florida Cops Laundered Millions For Drug Cartels, Failed To Make A Single Arrest
So effing shameless about the greed:
“In fact, Duane Pottorff, the chief of law enforcement at the Glades County Sheriff’s Office, was remarkably candid about his agency’s motivations in joining the task force: “We thought this was a chance to bring in more revenue.â€
which paid for:
“…a lavish lifestyle. Officers enjoyed $1,000 dinners at restaurants in the Miami area, and spent $116,000 on airfare and first-class flights and nearly $60,000 for hotel accommodations, including stays at the Bellagio and the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas and El San Juan Resort & Casino in Puerto Rico. Police also spent over $100,000 on iPads, computers, laptops and other electronics, bought a new Jeep Grand Cherokee for $42,012 and even purchased $25,000 worth of weaponry, including FN P90 submachine guns. (Bal Harbour, a seaside village of 2,500 residents known for having the nation’s top sales-generating mall, reported just one violent crime in 2012.)”
In the old days, the highwaymen stopped coaches and demanded their riders ‘stand and deliver’ at gunpoint. They usually wore masks to hide their identities.
Now they brazenly wear badges and carry weapons as a symbol of the power that we loaned them…and they use that power to rob their paymasters.
Only for as long as that new electorate lets it.
Here’s the thing, Pete: All these smoking bans are based on the notion that smoking is harmful to others. It’s not about the smoker’s health at all. It was a brilliant strategy, based on a bogus study.