Sorry for the delay in posts. It turns out that being retired is a quite busy occupation! Having fun traveling and working on a number of projects.
The US Attorney General May Address Concerns With The RAVE Act
This would be really good news if we could make some progress in this area.
The current situation is that promoters are afraid of putting common sense harm reduction services at festivals and shows because it legally could be perceived that they are promoting drug use, providing a “safe†place to use drugs. This has left only the most basic harm reduction initiatives in place: Things like free water and a cool down area. The hope is that the DOJ will make it clear that you are not violating the law by providing essential services in harm reduction, like drug education provided by professionals without judgment, better-equipped medical staff, the sale and distribution of pill & powder testing kits, etc. Basically, the things that have statistically been proven to keep people safe at shows.
Substance in Marijuana Could Benefit Alzheimer’s Patients
We’ve been hearing reports for some time about the possibility of marijuana helping with Alzheimer’s. Here’s some more:
A substance found in marijuana might remove a kind of plaque associated with Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new study.
Writing in the journal Aging and Mechanisms of Disease, researchers from the Salk Institute say that the chemical THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) and other active components of marijuana can “promote the cellular removal of amyloid beta, a toxic protein associated with Alzheimer’s disease†in neurons grown in a lab.
“Although other studies have offered evidence that cannabinoids might be neuroprotective against the symptoms of Alzheimer’s, we believe our study is the first to demonstrate that cannabinoids affect both inflammation and amyloid beta accumulation in nerve cells,” said Salk Professor David Schubert, the senior author of the paper.
Of course, whenever we discuss this, you can handle miss the delightful irony that marijuana, which has long been unfoundedly attacked for destroying people’s minds could end up actually being the thing that could save them.
A Doctor’s Argument for Letting People Do Heroin in a Safe Place
Right now in Ithaca, officials are pursuing a Supervised Injection Facility (or SIF) to address the overdose problem. Over 60 cities in 10 countries have opened SIFs in order to give people who inject drugs a place to use that is safer and more hygienic than the restrooms, parks, or other public places that may be their only alternative.
SIFs offer sterile syringes, skin-cleansing products, and a brightly lit space; they have medical staff that can respond to an overdose and administer naloxone, which is the antidote to an opioid overdose; they also connect people—if and when they’re ready—with addiction treatment services. SIFs save lives, can prevent the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C, and may be the only connection to the health care system for some people who inject drugs. New York City needs SIFs.
Last month, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released a troubling report that drug overdose deaths increased by 10 percent across the city in 2015—a 39 percent increase in the Bronx. The potentially preventable death of 886 New Yorkers is a crisis. Efforts to reduce overprescribing of pain killers had previously reduced deaths in some areas of the city, but fentanyl, an opioid analgesic that is being mixed into bags of heroin, poses a new problem. Because fentanyl is more potent than heroin, even experienced heroin users may unknowingly inject too much and die in an unintended overdose. At SIFs, overdose deaths simply do not happen.
Inaugurated just 24 hours ago, Duterte has decided to go the full shumonka
Newly inaugurated Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has urged communist rebels to start killing drug traffickers and people to kill addicts, adding another layer to a controversial war on crime in which he has warned thousands will die.
Key points:
Rodrigo Duterte invites communists to “use kangaroo courts to kill criminals”
The 4,000-strong communist army is known for assassinating civilians
Mr Duterte also calls for drug addicts to be killed
A bullet-riddled body is found, marking the first extrajudicial killing of Mr Duterte’s presidency
The communists’ armed wing, the 4,000-strong New People’s Army, is known for assassinating civilians deemed to have committed so-called crimes against the people — however its courts and summary executions are illegal.
http://tinyurl.com/DutarteLeavesTheBuilding
Obama, Duterte’s Philippine death squads
affirm alliance… 1,400 killings
May 26, 2016
☛ Philippine death squads very much in business
as Duterte set for presidency
The murder made no headlines in Davao, where Duterte’s loud approval for hundreds of execution-style killings of drug users and criminals over nearly two decades helped propel him to the highest office of a crime-weary land.
Human rights groups have documented at least 1,400 killings in Davao that they allege had been carried out by death squads since 1998. Most of those murdered were drug users, petty criminals and street children.
☛ Obama, Duterte affirm alliance
By Edith Regalado (The Philippine Star) | Updated May 19, 2016
“I assured him that we will continue with our mutual interests and that we are allied with the Western (world) in this issue on the South China Sea,†Duterte told reporters, saying he was honored to receive the congratulatory call.
☛ The War on Colombians! links
☛ US PRAISES THAI DRUG WAR!
Drug War Creates Mass Death of the Akha (T
☛ Exporting DEAmocracy
We export our drug war, our tactics, and, most of all, our DEA. dwr
(Now with offices in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Turks & Caicos Islands, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caldeonia, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna, Western Samoa, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Kiribati, Nauru, Philippines, Burma, South Korea, Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Laos, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Bahrain, Chad, Dijibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Russia, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Western Sahara, Channel Islands, Ireland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Azores, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Gibraltar, Portugal, Principality of Andorra, Spain, Spanish Enclaves (Ceuta & Melilla), Algeria, France, Monaco, Morocco, Tunisia, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Slovak Republic, Ukraine.)
Rodrigo Duterte, ‘Trump’ of Philippines, Wins Presidential Election
Known for his off-color sexual remarks and pledges to kill criminal suspects, the results thrust Duterte into national politics after 22 years as mayor of Davao and a government prosecutor before that. In those two jobs, Duterte gained notoriety by going after criminals, although he was accused of carrying out hundreds of extra-judicial killings.
May 2 2016
‘Trump’ of the Philippines Runs on Rape Jokes, Violent Vows
The 71-year-old longtime mayor of Davao City in the south of the Philippines has declared that if he were elected president he would pardon himself for mass murder and kill any of his children if they were involved with drugs.
Antipot backlash article in the most recent Fortune magazine- “Is Pot Losing Its Buzz in Colorado?” http://fortune.com/pot-marijuana-colorado/
They aren’t helping much, what with their incomplete poll graph graphic- which only provides specific percentages for those Colorado voters answering “Yes” to the statement “Marijuana Legalization Has Been Good For the State”, along with featuring an incomplete selection of demographic details.
In addition to the “All Voters” category, four subcategories are featured: Democrats and Republicans; Men and Women. No political category for “independent/other”; no age demographics.
The percentage of All Voters agreeing that legalization has been good policy is 53%. That’s a number that some might interpret as awfully close split with the percentage that presently regrets CO legalization- until one takes a closer look at the graph, and finds that a third category is included: “Don’t Know.”
Considering that the policy has only been in effect for around two years as of the time of the polling, “Don’t Know” is an entirely prudent opinion. It isn’t a response that should be confused with an expression of voter remorse. But by only providing the specific percentages of those who are presently in assured agreement with legalization, Fortune appears to me to be buttressing a narrative that the support of Colorado voters is reversing on the legalization issue. I’m at a loss to explain that omission any other way. Something to bear in mind when looking at the categorical demographics, as well.
The reporter, Jennifer Alsever, also indulges in another all too familiar pattern of slipshod statistical refrencing: quoting a “percentage increase” in undesired outcomes that’s correlated in time with the legalization era, without providing a specific numerical count. “The city’s three hospitals officially threw their support behind the antipot ballot measure after reporting a 50% spike in marijuana-related ER visits among youth under age 18…” might relate to a number that could be as low as the difference between 2 and 3. I’m not positing that as the probable number; there’s no way for me to know, simply on the basis of what I’ve read in the article.
The point is that- as with the poll bar graph- the data exists, and it isn’t being reported in the story.
Then there’s this: “…and more newborns with marijuana in their system.” That assertion doesn’t even bother to provide a percentage, much less a specific number.
Furthermore, both of those associated claims suffer from a similar deficiency in reporting: they implicitly endorse the view that marijuana must be a terribly dangerous substance, because “emergency room visits” and “newborns found with traces of ‘marijuana’ in their bodies.” Most regular readers of Drug WarRant are sufficiently up on the science to know that no “emergency room visit” due to cannabis ingestion alone ever rises to the level of life-threatening toxicity that’s occasioned by alcohol- or, more ominously, by alcohol and CNS depressant pills like Xanax, Ambien, or opiods. But much of the American public still lacks that level of acquaintance with the facts.
My own knowledge is deepened by some personal experience.
For one thing, I used to hold down the midnight shift as a lab messenger in Phoenix in the early 1980s; the paperwork stapled to the bag was easy to read. Most of the night business, and nearly all of the STAT runs, were for alcohol+benzo ODs, mostly teens and 20s. No toxic overdoses from cannabis- then, now, or ever.
Yes, it’s undoubtedly the case that some people- especially teenagers- can get disoriented enough from a massive dose of psychoactive cannabinoids that it’s prudent to seek medical attention, if only to obtain the calming reassurance of a medical professional. The situation is practically guaranteed to be less scary than the uh overdose of Southern Comfort I personally suffered at age 14, back in the fabled 1960s, which found me waking up on a hospital gurney at 3am with a saline tube in my arm.
(So that’s some more firsthand experience, right there.)
Then there’s the “babies on pot” thing…come on. Find a real problem. There are authentically serious drug abuse problems out there that deserve amelioration. There are also authentically serious problems related to unwanted ingestion of toxic chemicals of all sorts that deserve a lot more attention than they’ve been getting. But the more we learn about cannabinoids, the more clear it becomes that the prospect of newborns harboring minute traces of THC in their systems is not one of them.
Yet- as is typical- the Fortune article doesn’t delve into any real investigative research on these matters. Even though it isn’t as if a whole lot of legwork is required- ample data exists to confirm the cogent points that I’ve mentioned in this post, quickly and easily.
Speaking of the ingestion of toxic chemicals by children:
So the next time the prohibs pick on little old cannabinoids to scapegoat babies on pot, remind them of the industrial chemical complex that’s filled their children’s lives with polyvinylchloride plastic toys shaped like gummie-bears that outgas organo-toxins (PCBs).
Somehow, I don’t think the indicated chemical threat is going to get the same attention marijuana prohibition has received. However, if any of the indicated chemicals got children high, the media would be all over it.
Should we turn on the landing lights? No that’s what they’ll be expecting. IF you’re in the business of selling remedies. There is not much incentive in cures or prevention.
I say ECS deficiency from prohibition. Causing abstainers for 5 generations to have larger brain fear centers, leading to blind obedience, lower IQ parameters and Neurological illness is going viral with nothing supplementing their ECS’s. So afraid the hobgoblins prohibitioners spread like mustard. Will kick their doors down and outlaw their guns. Read the bible backwards in front of the DARE brainwashed kids. Then burn the flag, smoking a big ole marijuana cigarette while having an abortion during a gay wedding. Just a hunch.
☛ Pro Life? Not even anti abortionists…
Monsanto over spraying from the Bible Belt Cotton to Colombian coca cola fields.
☛ Hemplastic or Fossil Fools Crud
Homegrown Family Farm Organic renewable biodegradible Carbohydrates or Foreign War, Polluting nonrenewable Hydrocarbons lasting centuries in landfills or bobbing in sludge islands in the ocean. Auto body from homegrown Hemp or Coal to coke fired sheet metal. Polyester or Hemp diapers to evening gowns to blue jeans. Hempseed and Omega 3. 6 and 9 EFA’s. The most nutritionally complete food on the planet. Supplement fast frankenfud and cut down obesity.
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☛ Monsanto’s Dirty Dozen mega-deal With Bayer Heroin for Children
We should have learned after Sacharrin, or DDT, Dioxins and PCB’s. The terminator tech Cliarence Thomas x Monsanto lawyer said could be patented. Or Rumsfeld’s Aspartame fast tracked while Ganja can’t even get tested. GMO banned in countries still thinking people matter more than profits. Killing Colombia as they did Vietnam with Agent Orange and like a chickenhawk chicken little politician, they keep coming back.and the people keep buying their crap
☛ Lead-Safe Hemp Housing
Hemp oil paint without lead or Hemp PVC without crude. No dead trees required.
☛ Chernobyl disaster: Cleaning it up with Hemp
Long roots not only aerating the soil, bringing back bugs and their natural fertilizer dressing the fields without chemical adulteration. The long roots clean the radioactive contamination and chemical dumps, military bases and industrial sites. Cities contaminating for decades. Plant it along river banks as it used to grow naturally..
Is there a comments column?
Another feature of that Fortune magazine story that’s true to form for Concern Troll Journalism on the Ominous Consequences of State Legalization: oblivious neglect of the undeniable fact that most of the problems related to opportunities for the illegal industry are not the fault of the states that legalize- they’re entirely due to the failure of neighboring states to do the same, thereby upholding the illegal criminal marketplace over the borders!
The same goes for the influx of homeless people and runaways: they’re at the top of the list to get rousted, arrested, and jailed for pot in states where it’s illegal. Of course the first states to legalize would attract an influx of them.
The Oasis Effect. It’s definitely a thing. And it will probably remain, until a sufficient number of states legalize to dampen that attraction. Although in the interest of accuracy, it should be noted that those attractions of freedom and opportunity extend across the spectrum of Americans, to induce more of them to immigrate to the states that are currently legalizing. It isn’t just “the homeless” (implicit Concern Troll subtext “shiftless pothead vagrants.”) Knowledge workers, upscale entrepreneurs, academics, artists, young blue-collar workers and tourism industry workers- anyone with the mobility option, a taste for pot and a desire to shake the legal monkey off of their back is hustling to swing a gig in a place where they can breathe free air.
Meanwhile, back in the Hardline Zero Tolerance Crackdown States- do any of those places live up to ideal of Drug Free Paradise that they’re claiming to uphold? Take a look at their opiate addiction numbers, their poverty rates, their alcoholism rates, their drug overdose numbers…and their cultural exhaustion. Check out the number of young people- especially the educated and talented- who move away from those states at the first opportunity.
An always useful indicator, check out the suicide rates; some young people don’t have the luxury of being able to pick up and leave:
Utah health officials are grappling with a rising youth suicide rate that’s nearly tripled since 2007 and is now the leading cause of death among 10- to 17-year-olds in Utah.
As always, there’s more to determining causal factors than correlation (i.e., correlation between a given state’s law enforcement policies toward marijuana, and the suicide rate.)
If I were out to grind a regional axe, for instance, I’d note that c. 2014, all 7 of the Rocky Mountain states are listed in the top 10 out of 51 (states plus DC) highest suicide rates, and that the 7 states(&DC) on the Eastern seaboard between Massachusetts and Washington DC are listed as having the lowest rates. But it would be presumptuous to infer that there’s something about the Rockies that induces people to kill themselves, and that Washington DC has the lowest suicide rate in the country because it’s a utopia.
An awful lot of factors influence suicide rates, and state-by-state comparisons can be especially tricky in that regard. States with smaller populations are much more prone to show fluctuations than states with large populations, for example. And rural states definitely seem to be more prone to high suicide rates than states with more urban and suburban populations.
I’ve been doing some statistical review- judging from the data in recent years, Colorado and Utah don’t differ that much in age-adjusted overall suicide rates- both states seem to hover in the top 10, out of 51. And suicide rates have been on the rise across the board in the USA for some years now, following a decline in the 1990s.
The most recent data I could find for adolescent suicide in Colorado is 2012- it reports a rate of 7.9/100,000. That’s lower than the 2014 8.5/100,000 Utah rate reported in the article you’ve linked, but not by much. Same with the overall age-adjusted rate- the rates for both states are very close statistically, and they’re within a cluster of states where the rankings shift back and forth closely.
2014 state-by-state ranking data for suicide rates found in link on this website http://pages.iu.edu/~jmcintos/ , .pdf document entitled 2014datapgsv1b.pdf
2008-2012 data for adolescent Colorado suicide rate found in .pdf entitled AdolescentSuicide94version3.pdf , “Adolescent Suicide in Colorado, 2008-2012”, Ethan Jamison, et.al.
Detailed 2008-2012 data for overall Colorado suicide rate can by found in the .pdf doc Suicide-In-Colorado-2008-2012.pdf , published by the Colorado Department of Public Health and the Environment.
I happen to think that the criminalization of drug users, and the inevitable marginalization and social persecution that results, can have significant negative impacts on the mental health of individuals. It’s also a terrible thing for a society to decree its house divided over matters of personal behavior. It’s corrosive and corrupting. I think it’s reasonable to surmise that it does influence suicide rates.
That isn’t to dismiss the power of mind-altering drugs to destabilize vulnerable people, particularly if they’re ingested unwisely or overused to the point of dysfunction. But criminalization typically doesn’t help those problems, it exacerbates them.
These are all topics that deserve discussion, research, and attention. But I do have to caution against attempting to rely on one or two correlative data points as the sole basis for making any sort of case, on any topic.
That is, in fact, one of the shoddy tactics that our unscrupulous opposition relies upon, to support their position. When it comes to supporting continued marijuana prohibition, it’s all they have.
It takes a lot more work to assemble a case with a mountain of evidence. But that’s the sort of case that wins. Eventually.
I’m not certain if the same numbers apply today, but at one time 33% of teenage suicides were correlated with teenagers realizing they were gay (see Peter McWilliams, Ain’t No One’s Business If You Do, The Absurdity of Consensual Crimes in a Free Society, 1993). With anti-gay (and anti-marijuana) bias still deeply engrained in the white Christian nationalist strongholds one finds in the Rocky Mountain States and throughout the Deep South, the differences in culture might result in a blip in the statistics. Mormon families still eject their gay teenage family members onto the streets or rural backroads. Some end up in prison, some die by suicide. With multiple social variables, things like teen suicide become complicated very quickly.
Please Pete.
Spare the me the sorry for the delays in posting.
You’re a busy man. Many accept that.
Luv
Fentanyl supplier faces life sentence.
“In an atmosphere of social panic, justice gives way to vengeance.”
And why no one is ever to blame for alcohol deaths.
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/man-faces-life-prison-woman-overdosed-od-fentanyl-she-willingly-bought
Friday, July 1
“Surrender in 48 hours or die,†Director General Ronald “Bato†de la Rosa said in a speech during ceremonies for his assumption of office as the new National Police Chief.
During the same ceremony, President Duterte said he knew the identities of high-ranking police officials involved in corruption and illegal drugs, and urged them to leave the service immediately.
“You know that I know, we all know, so you better resign. You have no more future in the police,â€
De la Rosa, a former police chief of Davao City whom Duterte promoted over the heads of several higher-ranking officials in the PNP, warned the alleged coddlers of drug lords in the service, “This has to stop right now or I’ll stop you from enjoying your life.â€
http://tinyurl.com/CopsToldSurrenderOrDie
Senior officers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) were literally surprised as the new chief Director General Ronald “Bato†Dela Rosa suddenly ordered them to undergo drug testing while in a conference on Friday evening.
In an interview with the media during the conference, Dela Rosa said the drug test came as a surprise for the officers.
While the meeting was ongoing, Dela Rosa called Crime Laboratory personnel and asked them to set up a drug testing equipment inside the conference room.
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/793799/senior-officials-at-pnp-undergo-surprise-drug-test
“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly” —Abraham Lincoln
“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly†—Abraham Lincoln
Only works on white people, though.
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Martin Luther King Jr.?
“The best way to get a bad law repealed is to enforce it strictly†has been credited to Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) since at least 1884, but there is no evidence that he ever said it.
U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) said at his first inaugural address on March 4, 1869:
“I shall on all subjects have a policy to recommend, but none to enforce against the will of the people. Laws are to govern all alike—those opposed as well as those who favor them. I know no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution.â€
http://tinyurl.com/WhoTheFuckSaidThat
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Apparently the Jamaican government has no problem with cannabis tourism.
Cannabis ‘ATMs’ to open in Jamaica’s airports and harbours in hope of cashing in on tourist trade
This is definitely helping to stir the pot while engendering some great headlines:
JAMAICA TO INSTALL WEED VENDING MACHINES AT AIRPORTS
Jamaica Makes Getting High Easier With Marijuana Kiosks at Airports
Jamaica To Install Cannabis Kiosks At Airport Terminal So Tourists Can Get High As Soon As They Land
Good to see they’re not taking BOTEC’s advice too seriously.
Radical Russ Belville has started an excellent series of posts at Marijuana Politics in response to a preposterous chicken-little post by one of our favorite propagandists declaring that California’s AUMA will have the effect of “promoting cannabis use disorder”. Part 1 is here and Part 2 is here, with three more parts to come. I’m eagerly anticipating today’s installment which is promised to address the professor’s recommended “solution”.
Ed Morrissey at Hot Air sees the same practicality problems with these sort of Rube Goldberg “third way” proposals as pretty much everyone else does.
Comments at WaPo to Christopher Ingraham’s charitable review of the analysis aren’t going too well for the professor despite Ingraham’s gushing admiration for “the respect he commands in drug policy circles and his reputation as a radical centrist on marijuana issues”.
Alcohol use disorder = more road accidents, more domestic abuse/assault, more late night street disorder and fights, more absenteeism from work, more diseases like cirrhosis, more child neglect etc etc.
More cannabis use “disorder?” Nothing to see here folks… just more Kleiman b.s.
Treating Behavioral Disorders in Children with Ritalin
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/477
CANNABIS USE DISORDER 10%
CANNABIS USE IN ORDER 90%
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2044
☛ There is no FDA-approved pharmacological treatment for cannabis dependence.
☛ There are only two pharmacological, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials which had a positive outcome (N-acetylcysteine, gabapentin) – but neither of these clinical trials has been replicated.
☛ There are no randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials of any psychosocial treatment. Thus the effectiveness of psychosocial treatment for Cannabis Use Disorder is unknown.
Available Treatments for Marijuana Use Disorders NIDA
standard treatments involving medications and behavioral therapies may help reduce marijuana use
Cognitive-behavioral therapy
Contingency management
Motivational enhancement therapy
Medications that have shown promise in early studies or small clinical trials include the sleep aid zolpidem (Ambien®), an anti-anxiety/anti-stress medication called buspirone (BuSpar®), and an anti-epileptic drug called gabapentin (Horizant®, Neurontin®) that may improve sleep and, possibly, executive function. Other agents being studied include the nutritional supplement N-acetylcysteine and chemicals called FAAH inhibitors, which may reduce withdrawal by inhibiting the breakdown of the body’s own cannabinoids.
Remember this is to stop smoking pot.
Radical Mark Kleiman is addicted to policy-making. He applies policies to the body politic as if they were a medical ointment. His stance and postulates sound like every hypochondriac I’ve encountered, although none of those individuals feared marijuana, it was always something else. I wonder if Mark is into homeopathy. Does he know what an LD-50 is? At what point is he willing to take OTCs or prescription medications for common ailments? Does he drink? Actress Katherine Hepburn said she never trusted a man who doesn’t drink.
There can be no hope for Radical Mark if he lacks the imagination to get himself out of his prohibition rut.
Given all his concerns, I asked Kleiman whether he’d still vote for the California measure over the status quo. “Yes,” he said, “unless there were some prospect of something better as an alternative.”
☛ Why this ‘horrible’ idea for how to legalize pot could be worth voting for
Mark Kleiman is a cop in the sense he absolutely needs to nail somebody for something. If that’s not enough, he’ll make up new stuff to nail people. It’s his job.
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I have to admit that I suffer from cannabis use disorder, at least I did in the past. I still haven’t figured out the reasons why but back in the old days from time to time I would light my pipe before I put the cannabis in the bowl. Sure, I say that I quit smoking cannabis because of the potential detriment to my health. But if I were honest I’d admit that my inability to do the steps in the correct order is highly annoying and can be rather embarrassing in certain social situations. Fortune surely smiled on me with the advent of the vaporizer. Of course that’s because a vaporizer requires no combustion and that’s the part of enjoying cannabis I could never get in the correct order. I know, I know, it’s pretty whacked out, ain’t it?
As Dr. Thomas Szasz noted, a “disorder†may be a manufactured malady, intended to cull certain people—such as those running on recent memory instead of awareness of despotic circumstances that may have deprived them of weed—governed by people who can’t govern except by lowering themselves to authoritarianism, the last refuge and lowest rung of the ladder for the failed bureaucrat or manager. Violence and ignorance with authoritarianism at the helm is a loser’s game.
So I’m less worried about a non-filled pipe or vape today or tomorrow, as I know that in the near future there will be few households without a filled pipe or vape.
Sunday: The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said the ambush on Estaño was carried out by two motorcycle-riding gunmen Thursday afternoon, who opened fire while the journalist was moving things from the trunk of his car to his house.
Estaño drove to a hospital to seek treatment for himself and his son.
Reports said Estaño had been running commentaries against illicit drugs and gambling on his radio show.
http://tinyurl.com/mexicanizationOfThePhilippines
Marijuana Exhibit at Oakland Museum
http://cannabisnews.com/news/28/thread28859.shtml
Obama, Duterte (Trump of the Philippines) death squads
affirm alliance… 1,400 killings
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2068
Mountaintop Removal for a Pollution while Banning Hemp
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1108
what is the RAVE
http://www.expertchoice.in/Default.aspx
“It turns out that being retired is a quite busy occupation!”
I feel your pain Pete.