Study on drug-impaired driving gets pushback — from other safety advocates
A week after a report suggesting that drug-impaired driving is moving to the fore of concerns in traffic safety, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) jumped in Monday to express concern that the report could lead the public to believe the country has turned the corner on drunk driving. There is still much work to do, MADD officials said.
“There is no way you can say drugs have overtaken alcohol as the biggest killer on the highway,†J.T. Griffin, chief government affairs officer at MADD, said Monday. “The data is not anywhere close to being in a way that would suggest that … We’re doing a lot of good things on drunk driving, but the public needs to understand this problem is not solved.â€
MADD officials also questioned the methodology of the research in the report, noting that there is no scientifically agreed level of impairment with drugs such as marijuana. There is also no uniform test, roadside or otherwise, to determine such a level. […]
To some, the report smacked of an attempt by the makers and purveyors of booze to shift the conversation. That’s because the GHSA report was also underwritten by the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, whose members include makers of alcoholic beverages such as Bacardi USA; Brown-Forman, which produces Jack Daniel’s whiskey; and Constellation Brands, whose labels include Corona beer.
“I don’t know what their motives are,†Griffin said. “But I do know this: I know alcohol is a drug, and that’s something a lot of people don’t like to talk about, but it is. It impairs the mind. And I know alcohol causes many more deaths than drugs do. We can talk about an increase in drug-impaired driving. But it is not accurate in any way to say drugs have overtaken alcohol in terms of deaths on our highways.â€
The days of just uncritically parroting this mindless drug war nonsense may actually be nearing an end.
MADD is mad, I’m assuming, because they are severely threatened by its potential loss of visibility, importance and income.
I think you’ve made an erroneous assumption. See my reply to Servetus, below.
Then they should call themselves MAID
Mothers Against Impaired Driving.
Like the Commercial on safe defensive biking. When the corpse complains that it wasn’t his fault, they were texting, and the Morgue attendant says. Does it really matter? You’re dead dude. Old nervous ninnies, hormonally challenged teens or sleepy truckers out of go go pills. Impaired is impaired. I don’t advocate driving while toking because its a waste of good Ganja and money reducing stress over tourists drivers. Unless road rage is a problem then it might curtail going off on someone. I feel safer with an alcoholic taking a few drinks to get steady over a hung over week end partier. Although a whiz quiz might get it backwards.
MADD’s lengthy work on drunk driving tends toward harm reduction, despite an insurgence of prohibitionist ideology several years ago. An older cousin of mine is deeply involved in the organization. Their specific group accepts the reality and invincibility of alcohol. So they seek alternatives to drunk driving.
Today’s MADD appears to read and respect science for the most part. They recognize differences in rural versus urban drunk driving, with specific needs to each. They increased penalties for multiple DUI offenders who kill people on the road. They work to enable methods of avoiding drunk driving, such as expanding public transportation. They even talked some bar owners into offering people too drunk to drive a ride home.
Prohibitionists don’t operate like MADD; instead they exhibit true madness. No harm reduction allowed, punishment and persecution for sinners, and an overriding intent to dominate the social and political agenda with disregard for science and reason in order to elevate themselves in a culture war. So perhaps it’s no surprise MADD had a rational and reasoned response to the pseudo-scientific study sponsored by the liquor industry. MADD is resigned to reality.
A story I’ve told on-line several times before, possibly including the comment pages of this forum:
When I drove a cab in Sacramento, one of my passengers was a MADD representative from southern California who had just finished testifying at the State Capitol before a legislative committee. Back around 1990. She told me that she had been testifying FOR more leniency in sentencing DUI offenders, particularly first offenders. MADD had concluded that the newly instituted penalties were so onerous on ordinary working people that they were burying them economically- to the point were they were counterproductive. The fines and penalties were so severe that the inability to pay thousands of dollars for mandatory DUI courses and the work and family disruptions from the regime of classes were leading people to reoffend by simply ignoring those obligations and driving on suspended licenses, which of course only leads to even more penalties if someone is caught for doing that. Moreover, MADD had found that in some cases the severity of the penalties was driving people to drink! So any supposed deterrent effect was being completely undone by the intolerable stresses on many DUI offenders.
I asked her who could have possibly been opposed to an appeal for more leniency and flexibility in DUI sentencing that had the official support of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. She replied “the therapeutic professional community”- the Rehab Industry. All those contractors and counselors who were profiting from the mandatory DUI courses, which were paid for by the heavy fines levied on all DUI offenders.
I could be wrong, but my impression is that the move to make DUI sentencing more flexible and lenient failed in the California Legislature.
As a result of that encounter and my reading of related stories over the years, my impression of MADD is mostly favorable. While my suspicions about the venality and self-serving dogmatic absolutism found in the “substance abuse therapeutic community” have only increased.
But remember moms,you’ve got to keep those sons in shape,soo when they leave the nest.It’s off to bigger and better drugs such as heroin,so junior enlist in the military.Hopeful he/she dreams of being stationed in Afghanistan(Remember,ahh don’t you know?Afghanistan has 92% of the World’s Opium) so they can be guarding the Opium Fields(Yes,that’s exactly what they’re doing).
See Alcohol and Weed ain’t good enough for these asshole moms,Nope.
It’s Opium that we enlist our Sons and Daughters to protect,so that America can be flooded with and overdose on Heroin!!!
“To some, the report smacked of an attempt by the makers and purveyors of booze to shift the conversation. That’s because the GHSA report was also underwritten by the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, whose members include makers of alcoholic beverages such as Bacardi USA; Brown-Forman, which produces Jack Daniel’s whiskey; and Constellation Brands, whose labels include Corona beer.”
The message that vested interest is the force behind continued prohibition is finally getting through to some mainstream elements like WAPO. Better late than never I suppose.
Science Shows Cannabis Users Are Safe Drivers
http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2017/04/25/science-shows-cannabis-users-safe-drivers
Chrispies baaack
NJ Gov. Called ‘Beyond Stupidity’ on Cannabis Legalization… I mean
NJ Gov. Called Cannabis Legalization ‘Beyond Stupidity’
https://www.ganjapreneur.com/nj-gov-calls-cannabis-legalization-beyond-stupidity/
U.S. Forbes
Supreme Court Rejects Guilty Until Proven Innocent,
Says States Cannot Keep Money From The Innocent
https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/69d05546-0412-3ea6-9889-7627aebd2a62/ss_supreme-court-rejects-guilty.html
How Cannabis Prohibition
Spurs on Abstruse Conspiracy Theories
https://www.marijuana.com/news/2017/05/how-cannabis-prohibition-spurs-on-abstruse-conspiracy-theories/
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This morning the Wall Street Journal named some of Jared Kushner’s business partners. I wasn’t surprised by Goldman Sachs and Peter Thiel but suffered a minutes long fit of laughter when I learned that the list included the devil himself in human form AKA George Soros.
Veteran consumes 9,828 pills before his pain is relieved by marijuana:
https://www.revealnews.org/blog/one-veteran-9828-pills-still-in-pain-send-pot/?utm_source=Reveal%20Newsletters&utm_campaign=9d8ff02d08-The_Weekly_Reveal_05_01_17&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_c38de7c444-9d8ff02d08-229918401
I noticed Ashley Welsh has no problems retracting stories if corporate interest are at stake. Here.
☛ New study examines the health risks of diet drinks with artificial sweeteners:
☛ LCS have been proven safe by authorities worldwide & by the body of avail science. Our statement:
☛ Ty for sending. We updated our story with statement.
Donald Rumsfeld and the Strange History of Aspartame
One, the chemical additive aspartame is very potentially a cancer and brain tumor-causing substance that has no place in our food. And two, the reasons and means by which Rumsfeld helped get it approved are nefarious at best, criminal at worst.
BooshameyRumsey Cocktail
How Aspartame Became Legal – The Timeline
Donald Rumsfeld was the reason Saddam Hussain was never charged with gassing the Kurds in the 1980s. Had he been so charged he would, have been able to call the man who sold him the gas and the carrying artillery shells as a witness. Rather embarrassingly for the Bush administration that was none other than Donald Rumsfeld.
http://www.deepjournal.com/p/7/a/en/137.html
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer?
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/883
“”There is also no uniform test, roadside or otherwise, to determine such a level.””
I beg to differ,,a roadside impairment test administered in front of the dash cam on the patrol car can be used to prove impairment.
And it doesn’t matter what substance or health condition is causing the impairment.
Buzz Kill: California Police Work to Detect Drugged Drivers
https://tinyurl.com/mnm2eln
There is no substitute for good old fashioned watchfulness and good judgement in observing for impairment. There is no machine that can produce that.
NIDA funded researchers just discovered the obvious, sort of. According to a report issuing from North Carolina State University, the University of Texas, the Schroeder Institute for Tobacco and Policy Studies, the Truth Initiative, Gateway Foundation Corrections and Texas Christian University, daily stress increases illegal drug use:
The NIDA funded research doesn’t recognize its priorities. Stress kills. Or it leads to depression or PTSD. Feed your head, if that’s what it takes to reduce stress.
The small study makes drug treatment out to be stress enhancement for drug consumption other than alcohol, which makes alcohol a different animal. Too bad, but good work NIDA. More research is needed. Kudos go to the NIDA researchers for killing off an anachronistic drug treatment industry.
NIDA should donate their funds to Willie.
http://oi33.tinypic.com/mhdile.jpg
Hedonism makes you resilient. Feed Your Head indeed.
A motormouth day. Does Trump have amphetamine psychosis?
“‘He Just Seemed to Go Crazy’: Senior GOP Aides Stunned by Trump’s Demented Behavior in Last 24 Hours
Even those in the president’s inner circle admit they are worried about his mental state…
…To top things off, Trump praised the high approval ratings of Philippines strongman Rodrigo Duterte.”
http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/he-just-seemed-go-crazy-senior-gop-aides-stunned-trumps-demented-behavior-last-24
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwDmg74rhCw
A smoking gun here:
http://thepoliticus.com/content/1992-article-reveals-trump-probably-addicted-amphetamines
The article states that the doctor avoided prescribing Schedule II drugs (like amphetamines.) He stuck to Sked IVs- Tenuate is the substance he prescribed as a stimulant.
Tenuate is not an amphetamine. But it’s close https://www.drugs.com/tenuate.html
Technically, I guess you’d call it a cathinone prodrug that’s metabolized by the human body into ethcathinone https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amfepramone
Like many of the non-caffeine stimulants with “low abuse potential”, it’s a much heavier body load than amphetamine, mostly an epinephrine releaser: “Ethcathinone (and therefore amfepramone as well) is a very weak dopaminergic and serotonergic, and is approximately 10x and 20x stronger on norepinephrine in comparison, respectively.” i.e., a sweaty, jittery, heart-thumping level of body/sympathetic nervous system stimulation.
But I think it’s entirely possible that Donald Trump has moved on to some form of prescribed amphetamine since the early 1990s.
Friendly reminder: amphetamines are only considered DOPE in the absence of a prescription. If a Credentialed Wizard has waved his pen across a scrip pad, it’s Medicine, and the user is allowed to claim Drug Freeness. For example, possession of a prescription exempts users from being flagged in employment drug screens, whether pre-hire or random.
I’m okay with that protected status, up to a point. But if someone seeking high political office or in office is taking any powerful prescription drug with mind or mood altering potential, I do think that fact needs to be disclosed, both during the campaign and/or during the term of office. As a matter of public trust, this is a situation where inquiring minds need to know.
For instance, one has to wonder how many decisions Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist provided a vote on while hammered on Placidyl, Darvon, and/or Codeine (“Tylenol 3”.) Placidyl alone is a heavier CNS depressant than Quaalude. It’s practically knockout drops. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/05/AR2007010500521.html
Mental Health Professionals Meet At Yale To Analyze Trump
http://wshu.org/post/mental-health-professionals-meet-yale-analyze-president-trump
“This is definitely not a partisan effort. You know, I despised George Bush. It never occurred from me for a minute that he was mentally ill and I never heard from my colleagues that he was mentally ill. Yet, 41,000 of my colleagues have signed a petition saying that Donald Trump is mentally ill.â€
Noam Chomsky:
‘The Republican Party Has Become the Most Dangerous Organization in World History’
http://www.ecowatch.com/noam-chomsky-trump-2093271018.html
On Nov. 8, Donald Trump managed to pull the biggest upset in U.S. politics by tapping successfully into the anger of white voters and appealing to the lowest inclinations of people in a manner that would have probably impressed Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels himself.
Analysis Of Global Warming ‘Hiatus’ Confirms, Once Again, That Humans Are Driving Climate Change
http://www.ibtimes.com/analysis-global-warming-hiatus-confirms-once-again-humans-are-driving-climate-change-2534445
Is the GOP Using Dementia to Force Trump Out?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL0kZ4oBGTw
Scientist’s death haunts family (Merc News Complete Article)
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1168/
excerpted: The death in 1953 of a government scientist, Frank Olson, in a fall from a New York hotel window, is one of the most notorious cases in CIA history.
excerpted: The death in 1953 of a government scientist, Frank Olson, in a fall from a New York hotel window, is one of the most notorious cases in CIA history.
The documents show that two of the key officials involved in the decision to withhold that information were White House aides Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, today the nation’s vice president and secretary of Defense.
“These documents show the lengths to which the government was trying to cover up the truth,” said the scientist’s son, Eric Olson, who gave them to the Mercury News. “For 22 years there was a coverup. And then, under the guise of revealing everything, there was a new coverup.”
SMALL CHILDREN MAY BE TRAUMATIZED BY ANN COULTER,
PSYCHOLOGIST SAYS
http://www.borowitzreport.com/archive_rpt.asp?rec=630
From the Yale psych-meeting article:
“Gartner is a psychologist who used to teach at Johns Hopkins University. He says Trump’s behavior looks a lot like malignant narcissism, a diagnosis developed to explain Adolf Hitler.”
Another speed freak too.
They tested us with the Ganjawar and no one seemed to care. Now its the middle class and there are so many shouting no one can hear.
Hitler just murdered millions of innocents. He didn’t realize the potential of legal slave labor in profit prisons. His human experiments were brutal and ugly. Not clean and commercialized like Big Pharma pills and liquids. I wonder if the NSA is getting the FDA info on Guinea pig testing products they bought at the drug store? 51 misciles sent bombing people for after dinner entertainment at Mar-a-Laco and the joy of talking heads, was probably over Hitlers head, maybe not.
But then Speed is only condemned by Hippies. They said “Speed Kills”. The all American wonder pill. Lets you proudly work 3 jobs to make ends meet. No need to sleep. In PA they were CA turnarounds for truckers to Keep on Truckin and holy white cross Mid Term cram pills for future judges and NIDA college grads. Diet pills on every good models make-up shelf. Mothers little pick me uppers. Cops on stake out and the large dosage purchases are from the Military Industrial Complex. Speed kills organs, teeth and personalities, but hey its made in a lab, citizen tested government approved. MK-Déjà vu.
Big Ag agent orange drugs killed and deformed millions in Asia and Veterans. Monsanto denied responsibility for. Now on cotton crops and Colombian kids in a RoundUpâ„¢ diet version.
Drumpfy might get off on the theater or get freaked out by it. His kids are running around selling expensive crap fashion on tax paid websites and shooting prairie dogs for the sake of shooting prairie dogs. Britebark? Bitemarks? The conspiracy advisers to the dude with the nukes.
Rayguns had a Psychic Adviser and Astrologist and suffocated monkey’s and practiced Voodoo Exxonomics. Tinkledown upon the redneck states, 37 years ago, any day now. Maybe Pat&Jer’s Geeeezues is bringing it upon his return. Until then the GOP has taken it upon itself to smite out and terrorize the remaining impoverished heathens, Christian or not. Wages below the bottom line = more “value” in a cage.
Hitler may have invented nerve gas, but the DEA bans the Ganja treatment for it. Hitler was supported by Wall St. Prescott Bush laundered his money. So his boy could become a blight on the country and spawn deadbeat no accounts given governorships and WH residencies. Drumpf may be a wingnut, but his cabinet are zealots, banksters, generals and billionaires..
Bush was a post turtle while HW’s henchman the Dick Cheney sold out the country for a few trillion. Frack the water and buy up Paraguay’s aquifer. Drumpf has never labored a day in his life and believes he owns a company called America.
I can’t believe Pence would make it better doing the same for religious apocalypses and Armageddon the hell outta here.. The reality of it is the GOP are doing harm in red states. Shutting down clinics that aren’t scarce in urban areas. Blowing up mountaintops and crapping up rivers they spray their crops with or bath babies in. Take that tin of morphine into the coal mines while gutting the MSHA. Now Limbaugh’s Oxy making them junkies and profit prisons are the treatment since rehabs are full of plea bargained stoners..
FDR’s famous “Fala†speech in September of 1944
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrxH0pSyfho
Step one is to use the classic Goebbels “Big Lie†technique. That was on full display in the White House PR stunt after the House vote – lie about lowering premiums, lie about expanding availability, lie about preexisting conditions, lie about how Obamacare is “failing.â€
(Think Bush with Iraq, or the “Clear Skies Initiativeâ€
or their best yet, the Ganjawar to Saved the Kids
☛ “The Big Lie”
How Trump Uses Classic Authoritarian Propaganda Techniques
☛ Republicans’ Vicious and Immoral Health Care Bill
Is Just Part of a Sinister Long Game
The GOP is employing a strategy developed by Machiavelli and perfected by Goebbels. While Democrats are jubilant that the GOP passed a terrible healthcare/tax-cut bill through the House, which they think will cause voters to reject the GOP in 2018, it’s a very, very premature celebration. The Republicans are playing a longer game here, one based on a time-tested strategy first explicated by Machiavelli and fully put into place by Goebbels in the early 1930s, then fine-tuned by Reagan through the 1980s.
☛ Trumpcare:
The Most Cynical Tax Cut Scheme In American History
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c05oee-_H6o
Eleanor Goldfield, Act Out!-Occupy.com & Dave McCulloch, Capitol Media Partners. Or are Republicans using this bill as a cover for one of the most cynical tax cut schemes in American history? More on that scheme – and what it says about the real Republicans agenda…
☛ The People’s Budget, Not Trump’s Budget, Will Help Working Americans
After President Trump’s first 100 days in office, it’s clear that his promises to help the working class were little more than a campaign ploy. His dismantling of Obama-era regulations like the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces rule and deregulation of the financial industry reveal what he really cares about—lining the pockets of America’s ultra-rich.
Marijuana is *still* more legal in the “Fascist” USA than in the “Socialist” Sweden, but keep on acting like the sheep in George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Baahh baaahhh bahhhh
Trump sucks. But ya wanna know who sucks worse? The anti Trump sheep. Bwaah bwaah bwaah. They are Drumpf’s competition. Horseshoe theory. Bwaah bwaahh bwaahh. They need eachother. Fuck peace. Let’s fight. Bwaah bahh bahhh.
Weren’t you here a while ago telling us Trump would free the weed?
I think the Horseshoe theory is bullshit.
Anti-Trump sheep? What’s that, anyone with at least two actual working brain cells?
Don’t Care Anymore you need to smoke better weed. BTW, Four legs good, Two legs BAAAAAD!
He couldn’t even quote the sheep accurately. No wonder he’s a Trump supporter with buyer’s remorse.
‘been riding that train with all his dogs on cocaine
http://preview.tinyurl.com/WoofSnortWoof
Grandmother with terminal cancer jailed for prescribed medical marijuana https://t.co/SRfJg3kNEo
She was prescribed Marinol by her doctor.
ALSO:
Supreme Court Rejects Guilty Until Proven Innocent, Says States Cannot Keep Money From The Innocent https://t.co/T3xucVUYNe
Might this be the beginning of the end of civil forfeiture? Its taking money from the innocent until they prove they aren’t guilty. Sounds the same to me.
It’s time for the United States to take a stand.
Tell your Senators to cosponsor the
Philippines Human Rights Accountability and Counternarcotics Act of 2017.
No more killing in the name of the drug war
https://engage.drugpolicy.org/secure/no-more-killing-name-drug-war
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte is leading a deadly drug war. Filipino police and vigilantes have killed more than 7,000 people suspected of using or selling drugs since last May. Now, President Trump has invited Duterte to the White House after a conversation where the two “discussed the fact that the Philippines is fighting very hard to rid its country of drugs.â€
Killing in the name of the drug war is unconscionable. Trump has disgraced the country by inviting President Duterte to the White House and not condemning his actions. We’ve been speaking out against this horrific massacre for the last year, and now Congress is finally starting to listen.
Four bipartisan Senators just introduced critical legislation to restrict U.S. defense aid to the Philippines, provide additional funding for the Filipino human rights community, and support a public health approach to drug use. Urge your U.S. Senators to support and cosponsor this new bill and stand against the slaughter of Filipino civilians in the name of the war on drugs.
US Government:
“Duterte (Trump of the Philippines) death squads
affirm alliance … 7000 killings
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2068
Duterte is clearly behind the Davao Death Squadâ€
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1158
There’s new evidence that a ‘party drug’ is a rapid-fire treatment for depression
https://t.co/QpGfE4wOFF
Yet for decades, physicians and psychiatrists have been doling out the same treatments to people with depression, even though research suggests they don’t work that well for everyone. Scientists who think it’s time for a new tactic have found hope in recent months in psychedelics like ayahuasca and magic mushrooms — drugs which appear to reduce depressive symptoms by increasing the connectivity among previously segregated parts of the brain. A new study is the first of its kind to show that ketamine, which is illegal recreationally but known for its out-of-body effects and available legally as a pain reliever, appears to provide swift and powerful relief to people suffering from some of the hardest-to-treat forms of depression. Dozens of previous studies undertaken over the last decade have hinted at this possibility, with some researchers going so far as to describe ketamine as “arguably the most important discovery in half a century.” Several pharmaceutical companies, including Allergan, are exploring the idea of a ketamine-like drug as an antidepressant as well.
Cowboys’ Stephen Jones:
It’s time for NFL’s marijuana policy ‘to be heavily scrutinized’
http://www.philly.com/philly/health/cannabis/Cowboys-Stephen-Jones-Its-time-for-NFLs-marijuana-policy-to-be-heavily-scrutinized.html
NFL’s Buzzkill
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1672
Unofficial Self-Appointed Cannabist for the SF Giants
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1958
Why Hemp Could Be The Future Of Plastics
https://www.benzinga.com/markets/emerging-markets/17/05/9405826/why-hemp-could-be-the-future-of-plastics
High on Hemp
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1659
Hemplastic or Fossil Fools Crud
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/819
@DdC
Are you aware Amendment 2 is dead in Florida after Melvin Sembler killed it?
Mal and his girlfriend Cal are like ticks sucking blood out of any compassion, especially for children., Addlebrain paranoid stoners won’t throw their paychecks into his slot machines. Using his dead junkie kid as an excuse, when the idiot could have possibly saved his ass with Ganja., Piss profiteer Turner riding Nanny Rayguns scam for government contracts bringing home the bacon while Ronnie nodded out with early ALZ. Kevin Abraham Sabet-Sharghi all guilty of murder, and Stupid Patrick guilty of Parenticide, Narko Squads, Copshops, Corporate competition, Prisons, Rehabs all weaseling and worming their way into blocking or re-writing for the profiteers wims and wishes. Just not the voters.
Mar 30, 2017
☛ Florida House to Vote on Ultra-Restrictive Bill
Activists Dubbed “The Mel Sembler Medical Marijuana Actâ€
The passage of Amendment 2 was a widely celebrated victory in Florida last November – but now we are months into lawmakers debating over how the new law should be implemented and probably the worst version is the one that has started making it’s way through House committee meetings. House Bill 1397 builds on the current medical marijuana regulations in the state and bans things like edibles, smoking and vaping – all of which were expected to be options under Amendment 2.
“[DFAF executive director] Calvina Fay showed up today to express her support for the bill and thank the sponsor for including so many of her suggestions,†Pollara said. “It is more than a little mind boggling that one of the most prominent opponents of the Amendment’s passage would have such an outsized role in its implementation.
Everything about this bill – and others which even potentially give the Drug Free America Foundation $500,000 to “educate†Floridians on medical marijuana – is an attempt to control what voters passed.
☛ Collaterally Damaged Kids
9-Year-Old Girl’s Death Shines Light On Debate
http://cannabisnews.com/news/28/thread28191.shtml
“Several more children are likely to die waiting for New York to implement its medical marijuana program,” Judy Netherland, a spokesperson for the Drug Policy Alliance, said in a statement Tuesday. “While not all of these deaths can be prevented by medical marijuana, we have a moral obligation to make this medicine available as soon as possible.”
☛ Marijuana Stops Child’s Severe Seizures
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/667
Charlotte Figi had her first seizure when she was 3 months old. Over the next few months, the girl, affectionately called Charlie, had frequent seizures lasting two to four hours, and she was hospitalized repeatedly.
By the time she was 3, Charlotte was having up to 300 grand mal seizures every week. Eventually she lost the ability to walk, talk and eat.
The first time Paige Figi gave her daughter, Charlotte, cannabis oil, the child’s seizures stopped for seven days.
Today, Charlotte is thriving. Her seizures are down to 2 to 3 per month, almost solely in her sleep. She is walking, can feed herself and is talking more and more each day, her parents say.
☛ How many “crimes” do Corporations Buy?
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1165
October 21, 2016
☛ Marijuana amendment faces biggest foe
in GOP heavyweight, anti-drug crusader
✽ Sembler has so far donated $1 million to defeat the constitutional amendment. A former national Republican finance chairman, he’s tapped his cadre of wealthy donors, too. He says he’ll raise $10 million for Drug Free Florida, the political committee opposing the ballot measure.
✽ But as Sembler leads the fight, the controversy surrounding Straight continues to haunt his anti-drug legacy.
The ONDCP is getting ripped, but not in a pleasant way:
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-administration-proposes-massive-cuts-to-drug-czar-office/
“Check back soon for more information.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp
From the NYT about the proposed cuts to the ONDCP:
“Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, who advised three former presidents on drug policy and organized the letter, said he was stumped by Mr. Trump’s decision to make cuts to his drug office. ‘It felt like a sucker punch in the face,’ Mr. Sabet said after word trickled out about the cuts. ‘This is a time when we have one of the largest opioid epidemics in history and the rise of a new industry of people selling pot candy to kids.'”
Too bad it’s not a literal sucker punch to his smug fucking face for still using the scare-trope of kids being sold pot candy.
Drug policy sanity has reached one of the world’s smallest and most densely populated countries.
http://tinyurl.com/RepubblikaTaGanja
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In Vermont the State Senate and House have approved unregulated re-legalization using the DC model. The bills don’t quite match so have to go to a bicameral conference committee to hash out a compromise. The legislative session was scheduled to end today but lawmakers say they’re going to extend the session to iron out the differences.
This situation really is quite remarkable. About a month ago re-legalization efforts were declared dead in Vermont. Subsequently the VT Senate passed a regulated re-legalization bill using the Colorado model. It was dubbed pro forma because the VT House is staunchly in favor of the black market distribution model. On Thursday the VT House surprised observers by passing their unregulated re-legalization bill. Still no one thought there was enough time considering that the House and Senate were so far apart. On Friday the Senate passed an almost identical bill using the DC model.
But don’t get too excited because even if the Legislature does manage to send a bill to Governor Phil Scott he’s promised to veto the bill because he’s an idiot that believes that a civil fine of $200 is somehow keeping a not insignificant number of VT drivers sober as the proverbial judge. Of course the entire process has been one surprise after another so why not one more from the Gov?
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Can you say megalomaniac? The brain addled POTUS declares himself superior to Congress. The “LAW is the LAW (blah blah blah)” crowd cheers:
Perhaps this will get Congress off its collective fat ass and quit tiptoeing around the subject? Farfetched? At this very moment there’s State authorized medicinal cannabis growing in Texas for crying out loud.
Don’t be shy, Wal-D, tell us how we all really feel about [expletive deleted].
☛ Trump indicated where he stands on medical marijuana
for the first time since he took office
Tom Angell, the founder of Marijuana Majority, an advocacy group, told Business Insider he thinks that Trump’s statement is the federal government’s way of “asserting their right” to go after certain medical marijuana businesses if they choose to at a later date.
“[M]y read is it’s basically saying they reserve the right to do whatever they want and enforce prohibition regardless of the statutory prohibition on doing so,” Angell said, though he doesn’t think it necessarily indicates a federal crackdown on medical marijuana is coming.
☛ Judge blasts ‘ridiculous’ 18-year sentence for marijuana
☛ Lawmakers fail to pass medical pot bill,
‘thwarting’ the voters who approved it
☛ Scientology facilities have been closed
after a man alleged he was held against his will
Scientologists Hate Weed
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1097
It is no surprise that the 18 years for 18 grams judicial failure occurred in Louisiana. When county sheriffs are allowed to build their own for profit jails they are incentivized to find bodies to fill them. In this case that’s $400,000 paid to one of these blood-suckers by La. taxpayers. It’s also the reason why the state has the highest incarceration rate in the world.
Louisiana Dungeons are anti-American, anti-Humanity.
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/697
Legal pot could slow border crossings, former U.S. diplomat warns https://t.co/5zjLzIztLJ
Interesting point here. All the sniffer dogs used by law enforcement at the border with Canada are obsolete. They have to train new dogs -the current animals cannot be re-trained.
With Canadian legalization about to occur, the current dogs can’t tell the difference between a bomb and a joint.
Dude spent 33 Years at Goldman Sachs. Will these eggheads ever find enough imagination to make false claims that aren’t a repeat of the same lame projections Czarbarry McCaffrey tried and then Waldo said the same. We don’t buy pot from Canada, idiots!
Imagination is more important than intelligence.
— Albert Einstein
That’s exactly what we have been stating, that is the problem, idiots! Dogs react to their trainer more often than actually finding contraband. No probable cause is necessary when the dog gets a signal to react, it does. So the problem is solved. Now the border guards won’t have to signal the dog to react to the bumper sticker in order to have authority to rip the vehicle apart. Same lame threats. From another Sach X.
☛ Canada’s Supremes Cower Under DEAth Threats Dec 24 03
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/384
☛ 6 to 3 Canada Shows its Puppets
http://www.cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=border+&H=40&T=t
Loosen Pot Laws and Face Tighter Border U.S. Warns!
Drug Czar Talks About Tightening at Border
Relaxed Pot Laws May Affect Border
Canadian Pot Legislation Could Snarl Border
Danger On Our Northern Border
Pot Bill Could Bog Down Border
U.S. Warns Pot Plan To Clog Border
A Border War Over Pot
140 More Agents Will Be Sent To Border
Canada, U.S. Bolster Border Security
Potent Marijuana, Lax Laws Frustrate U.S. Border
Police Smoke Out Cross-Border Marijuana Trade
U.S. Faults Canada for Letting Drugs Across Border
Marine Anti-Drug Border Patrol Suspended
Looking Over the Northern Border
Opposite Side of Border, Opposite Pot Issue
Border Crossers Fall Victim to Profit-Takers
Fired Border Patrol Agent Blames Hemp Bar
Italy Police Battle Reefer Madness at Swiss Border
Unmanned Planes Tested in Border Watch
I’ll say this: two of the best smokes I’ve had in my life were from Canada. Once the Americas finally get their heads out of their collective asses, I’d love to get my hands on some Canadian smoke and some old-school Mexican sativa and South American herb from the tropics.
Best I’ve ever had was from Asia. Vietnam, then maybe Thai sticks, Then Hawaiian and Florida Meshmican. The point i made was that CA provides as good average street pot as anywhere. So the thought of large imports from Canada is more drug war bullshit. Maybe in backward states. Still the risk of going across borders is greater from countries than state to state.
Specialty Mexican and Colombian were special and scarce and expensive. Never heard of Canadian pot in the 70s. The bulk is about the same all over. Prettier now a days. Trimmed and no seeds. But the potency is not much different. The price is probably aligned with the area more than anything.
I’m sure Canada has some good pot. I just have never heard of anyone going out of there way to get it. The other point was pretty obvious. Canada does what their master tells them to do. Even give up their citizens to DEA threats for selling seeds. We’ve been here before and Canada bowed down to Clinton and then Bush. Trudy is busting people while claiming it will be legal next year. I’ll believe it when it happens.
My post was just a tangential aside. When you mentioned Canadian pot it just made me think of those two times (in Canada, once at a Pink Floyd concert and once just on vacation in BC), and they were really interesting and strong stones. I just remember back in the 90s some people were bagging on mediocre pot coming from Canada to the northern US, calling them “beasters.” Thankfully I was lucky enough to stumble across good stuff.
I tried going to a Strawberry Fields festival in Canada in the early 70s. They said I had to have $100 to enter because they were tired of paying for Americans return trips. I just had never thought of Canada and pot until Marc Emery started Cannabis Culture, or Canada Culture and they made him change the name. He offered me a job once but its too cold for my bones. Before that Canada was mostly (in my neck of the woods), known for hunting and fishing. Strong beer, Cops without guns who sang opera and Hockey. Maybe I should have put Hockey first. Americans finally getting their heads out of their collective asses might not be too soon. We’ve been trying since 1776. Now that the countries are devolving into possessions of the rich. Maybe you’ll be able to get your hands on some Canadian smoke and some old-school Mexican. (Not the hard brick dirt weed.) when the Neoconstipated redraw the map to form Mexamericanada.
Imagine there’s no countries. It isn’t hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. Imagine all the people living life in peace, Too bad we already know what happens to those with such strange ideas.☮
Plan to gut drug czar’s office not a done deal, White House chief of staff says https://tinyurl.com/lzr4vdd .
Here is my reply to that at the WP:
“Having a drug czar has everything to do with waging a war on drugs, and virtually nothing to do with curing an opiate crisis. Gutting the drug czars office – an office whose leader has the obligation to lie in any matter having to do with legalization http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/drug-czar-requ… – is the only act contemplated by Trump that has any solid sense behind it in regards to ending the senseless war on drugs this country has been waging without success for far too long.”
OT
A dude I played high-school basketball with became a prominent, local, orthopedic surgeon. He’s a bad man.
He just got charged with 24 counts of worker’s comp fraud where he made himself over $300,000. Crooked docs are nothing special, but what caught my eye in his story was this.
He was getting 90% kickback on urine tests that were being billed to insurance for over $700-a-pop. I had no idea that urine testing was so expensive.
First Do No Harm (to your bank account). Way to go Eric.
☛ No Free Pre-Rolls, No Drone Deliveries—
Takeaways from California’s New MMJ Rules
With over 54 pages of new guidelines, the bureau sets standards for how commercial-grade medical marijuana must be stored, transported, tested, tracked and sold—where, when, by whom and how.
These rules aren’t final and could be changed by both the state legislature after receiving input from concerned parties—the weed industry, police, politicians and the general public—during a 45-day comment period.
☛ Report:
Trump Dumps Pharma-Backed Drug Czar
This bellicose aimlessness will continue for the foreseeable future, after Trump reportedly had second thoughts on his initial choice for drug czar.
The White House did not say why Marino was out of the running for the job, and a staffer for the congressman declined to comment to U.S. News.
New Drug Policy
http://oi36.tinypic.com/2euucmc.jpg
☛ Chris Christie:
Cannabis Reform Is a Democratic Plot to Poison Children
Health Salon.com
☛ Seven surprising signs of marijuana’s normalization in America
1. More American adults have tried marijuana than have not
2. Some 55 million adults smoked pot in the last year.
3. Marijuana use is now socially acceptable.
4. Pot smokers don’t bother to hide it very much anymore.
5. If people don’t use marijuana, it’s usually not because it’s illegal.
6. Very few marijuana users say they use it just because it’s fun
7. Americans view marijuana as less dangerous than alcohol, tobacco, or opiates.
Research in Israel and Germany has demonstrated a reverse-aging-effect on brains in mice with normal cognitive decline due to aging by giving them THC:
People have wondered for years why prohibitionists seemed unable to learn new things about drugs, or focus on difficult topics such as science. Now we know.
You are so right. Trump is the first President in a long time that claims to never have used or tried marijuana.
It shows.
Now we know?
Now they know.
Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency
https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=95659
After 12,000 years of humans co-existance using the cannabis plant to supplement the ECS (EndoCannabinoid System). The early 20th Century Prohibition = total abstinence for generations. leading to… CEDC.
☛ The Tree of Life
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/377
☛ Marijuana May Live Up To Be The Elixir of Life
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21194.shtml
New research suggests cannabis could have some benefits when administered regularly in a highly potent form. Most “drugs of abuse” such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats’ hippocampuses.
~ Ravi Chopra
Cannabis and Longevity
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/241
A new acronym is needed because the government loves three-letter acronyms.
Something like Cannabis Deficiency Disorder, or CDD would work.
Ethan Russo uses the term Endocannabinoid Deficiency Disorder.
From a political and social perspective I prefer your term.
Cannabis reverses aging processes in the brain
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1169
@DdC
Have you seen this video clip, its Wes Fager:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UJTSLfnXBfc
I don’t think I’ve seen it. I’m having plug in problems with youtube. There are a few articles with him here.
http://www.google.com/search?q=Wes+Fager
I’ll add it to the list. thx
OT
Trump and Duterte bromance over drug war:
“After their first [meeting] back in December, Duterte boasted that Trump “was quite sensitive… to our worry about drugs,†and “was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem.â€
http://hightimes.com/news/president-trumps-troubling-bromance-with-philippines-drug-war-strongman/
To: Trump @POTUS
Rodrigo Duterte Says
He May Be Too Busy for White House Visit
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/01/world/asia/trump-philippines-duterte.html?_r=0
Trump Snubbed by his Mini Me.
ha ha ha ha ha
Duterte (Trump of the Philippines) death squads
affirm alliance… 7000 killings
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2068
Duterte is clearly behind the Davao Death Squadâ€
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1158
There are many countries (though probably not the USA, Russia and Israel, the only visits scheduled apparently) where Duterte could be arrested for human rights violations. He won’t risk it. Nevertheless this bromance is so dysfunctional, who knows what might happen with a speed freak and his fentanyl addicted hypocrite buddy running amok.
“Duterte, infamous for his hardline stance on drug abuse, admitted last Monday to using fentanyl…”
https://asiancorrespondent.com/2016/12/philippines-duterte-drug-addict/#wRD40uS5lfzjChJt.99
New Motto for Nevada: We get things done!
http://tinyurl.com/MovinAlong
Yeah man, there’s always been a strong libertarian streak out here, and with the pols seeing the money going into Colorado and our neighbors in Cali legalizing, they are all over it like ticks on rice . . . or is that white on dogs?
Bad wordplay aside, with our tourism-centric economy, once the legalization ball got rolling it was obvious that many people would seek out marijuana while on vacation. The money to be made kept up the momentum by trying to accommodate tourists–getting it out there ASAP and, logically, making laws to provide for on- or near-Strip consumption without forcing tourists to consume publicly or in casino hotels (which gaming regulators have conniption fits about due to federal regs). I’m not complaining.
Thanks tourists!
Seven and a half weeks to go. . . .
http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/51605-2018-michigan-marijuana-legalization-ballot-effort-reaches-lansing/page-2#entry576620
Congressional committee investigates DEA role in opioid crisis https://tinyurl.com/k3kqnr8
Sessions weighs return to harsher punishments for low-level drug crimes https://tinyurl.com/lqng4qb
Washington is occupied by fools – or criminals..
Some important info for marijuana activists:
“How Not to Laugh at Jeff Sessions”
https://youtu.be/IYeOCyNfdCg
I’m facing jail time after laughing at Jeff Sessions.
I regret nothing.
https://www.vox.com/first-person/2017/5/8/15578850/sessions-confirmation-laugh-desiree-fairooz
Want to Avoid Jail Time?
Amber Ruffin Teaches Us How Not to Laugh at Jeff Sessions
https://www.themarysue.com/laugh-at-jeff-sessions-all-you-want/
Experts at Pennsylvania conference say
cannabis can help fight opioid epidemic
http://www.phoenixvillenews.com/general-news/20170509/experts-at-pennsylvania-conference-say-cannabis-can-help-fight-opioid-epidemic
Dr. Adie Poe Believes Cannabis is America’s Best Weapon
in the Fight Against Opioid Abuse
http://www.wweek.com/cannabis/2017/05/09/dr-adie-poe-believes-cannabis-is-americas-best-weapon-in-the-fight-against-opioid-abuse/
‘This Trail Was Blazed by Patients’:
An Interview With Cannabis Advocate Montel Williams
https://www.leafly.com/news/industry/cannabis-advocate-montel-williams-interview
lol, which doesn’t imply that I’m doubting the accuracy of the research
http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/10/health/adhd-distracted-driving-study/
“In the United States right now
there are three million children
receiving stimulant drugs for ADHD.”
(Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder)
~ Dr. Gabor Maté
AD(H)D
Rather than an inherited disease, Attention Deficit Disorder is a reversible impairment and a developmental delay, with origins in infancy. It is rooted in multigenerational family stress and in disturbed social conditions in a stressed society. In Scattered Minds, Dr. Maté offers a completely new perspective on this disorder, providing hope for adults with ADD, and parents seeking to support their children.
Bullying and the Destruction of American Childhood
A spike in diagnoses of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other mental disorders has fueled an unprecedented reliance on pharmaceutical medications to treat children, with long-term effects that remain unknown
Cannabis and ADD/ADHD
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1626
~ Inhaled Cannabis Improves Symptoms Of ADHD
~ Cannabis as a medical treatment for attention deficit disorder
~ Science: Cannabinoids effective in animal model of hyperactivity disorder
~ Cannabis ‘Scrips to Calm Kids? foxnews
As a California pediatrician and 49-year-old mother of two teenage daughters, Claudia Jensen says pot might prove to be the preferred medical treatment for attention deficit disorder (search) — even in adolescents.
~ Cannabis and ADD/ADHD leafy
~ Marijuana and ADD
Therapeutic uses of Medical Marijuana
in the treatment of Attention Deficit Disorder
Common painkillers may raise risk of heart attack by 100% – study
“I often have the suspicion that everything that we do in the name of stopping the drug problem is the drug problem. It’s not just the laws but the whole mentality that sees drugs as the problem and tries to fight them. By doing that I think we’ve made it all worse.”
~ Dr. Andrew Weil
The Natural Mind
.
.
The Vermont Legislature has approved their scheme of unregulated re-legalization a la DC and sent the bill to the Governor. Now what kind of message does that send to AG Sessions? linky
@DdC and DrugWarRant commenters:
Any of you are aware that Dr Bearman MD is in New Zealand lecturing on Cannabis, he even mentioned New Zealand is 4,000 years behind:
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/health/2017/05/nz-4000-years-behind-on-medicinal-marijuana-expert.html
The lecture I attended:
https://www.facebook.com/SciComFilms/videos/1525664050818367/
“So, what do Gov. Chris Christie, Gov. Roy Cooper, Gov. Charlie Baker, Project SAM co-founder and former U.S. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy, and Bertha K. Madras all have in common – besides their apparent disdain for sensible marijuana reform?”
“They’ve all been tapped by Trump to help shape his Administration’s new war on drugs and addiction.”
https://t.co/u2wTYOQXRX
Is this America’s version of Duterte’s drug war?
Kevin Sabet believes he has a future fighting an invincible re-legalalized weed, and he is in it for the long term. Sabet expects to succeed in about a hundred years or so:
.
.
DUI marijuana bill sent to Nevada governor
/snip/
Assembly Bill 135 was drafted after two Southern Nevada medical students testified the existing laws don’t actually test for impairment or intoxication. Graham Lambert and Charles Collison of Tuoro University testified that marijuana metabolytes in the blood or urine don’t actually indicate intoxication, just that the person is a regular marijuana user. They urged lawmakers to mandate drivers be tested for the two psychoactive compounds in marijuana — Delta-9-THC and 11-OH-THC.
They also testified urine testing in drug DUI cases should be banned because those urine tests are wildly inaccurate.