Odds and Ends

Posted on July 2, 2017 by Pete

Interesting legal analysis: Has the DEA painted itself into a corner on hemp based CBD? A legal analysis of the DEA’s current position.

Industrial hemp, lawfully grown in accordance with a State’s pilot research program that is itself compliant with the Farm Act, is excluded from the definition of marijuana. There is no question that cannabinoids can be sourced from the flowers and leaves of the lawfully cultivated industrial hemp plant (which I’m going to call “hemp” for brevity). And there’s no question that hemp is legal. And, the DEA admitted in both its clarification and brief that cannabinoids from an excluded part of the plant are lawful. Thus, the only logical conclusion that can be drawn is that cannabinoids (other than THC) sourced from hemp are lawful. Crucially, this doesn’t fit into the DEA’s circular argument. And the DEA knows it.

Some welcome news in my otherwise completely dysfunctional home state: Illinois Legislature Passes Asset Forfeiture Reform

The bill, approved unanimously in the state senate and with only one dissenting vote in the house, would raise the standard of evidence for forfeitures from probable cause to a preponderance of evidence and bar seizures under $500 in many drug cases.

It would also abolish a requirement of residents challenging seizures that they pay a 10 percent bond on the estimated value of their property to file a petition, and expedite hearings for owners claiming innocence.

Philippines President Détente’s Drug War One Year On: At Least 7,000 Are Dead, But It’s Been ‘Successful’

Duterte has said: “My campaign on drugs will not end, until the end of my term six years from now when every drug pusher is [killed],” Duterte told a crowd in December 2016, making a throat-slitting gesture, The Guardian reported.

Nevada legalizes marijuana, and it’s a rather unique arrangement. Nevada Goes Green With Recreational Marijuana, and Alcohol Industry Wants a Piece of the Pot

When the recreational marijuana statue was approved by voters, it gave alcohol wholesalers exclusive rights to the distribution licenses for the first 18 months it was enacted. […] During the next 30 days, alcohol wholesalers and state legislators will be working to determine how much of a cut will go to the alcohol industry, Thompson said.

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52 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. DdC says:
    July 2, 2017 at 3:29 pm

    Neoconpromise

    Nevada legal marijuana sales will begin on July 1
    despite a ruling in an alcohol industry lawsuit, which the state is planning to appeal.
    https://www.reviewjournal.com/news/pot-news/nevada-retail-marijuana-sales-on-track-to-begin-in-july/

    Nevada’s Legal Pot Pits Liquor Lobby, MMJ Dealers

    How many “crimes” do Corporations Buy?
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1165

  2. DdC says:
    July 2, 2017 at 3:46 pm

    As ugly as the DEA and CSA are. The only exemption to the CSA on Hemp is importing fiber and seeds that have been sterilized or parts of the seed that can not be re-grown in the US, ie; hulled hemp seed or oil or the stalks. Hemp leaves and buds are still #1 narcotics and that is where the cbd is collected. Not in the seeds, although efa’s are nutritional and potentially have anti inflammatory, anti-biotic properties. I believe they are only supplementing the ECS to solve the problem naturally, rather than a “drug” to treat the symptoms as Big Pharma wants to sell.

    So in the false ugly world of the DEA, CBD is the same as THC or DMT. Regardless of incremental illness falsely claiming states rights since Raich v US deemed it all as Commerce. There are NO states rights concerning cannabis and until this incremental retardation is dealt with. We will continue in the dysfunction of Nixon. Cannabis is not qualified to be a schedule#1 narcotic. Especially hemp. Free the entire Weed even if it is a life preserver to those drowning in quasi legal states.

  3. claygooding says:
    July 3, 2017 at 7:58 pm

    United Nations and World Health Organization call for drugs to be decriminalized

    http://tinyurl.com/yaon7mzn

    This is the result of Trump cutting off aid to countries that cannot afford to run a drug war without those funds. The UNODCP has requirements for every country that signed the SCT and now many cannot pay the fiddler.
    The dance is over in the UN.
    Add the number of countries poised to establish a legal international market and change is in the air.
    In his effort to cut aid to poor countries to pay for tax cuts for the rich Trump inadvertently quit buying support for the war on drugs around the world.

    That is how I see it Vern..

    • kaptinemo says:
      July 4, 2017 at 6:25 pm

      More predictions made here are coming true…and here’s another example.

      Last decade it was stated here that eventually the only supporters of the US-fomented DrugWar would be those nations heavily dependent upon US (taxpayer-supplied) foreign aid, as the rest of the world would begin to turn its back on the (Harry Anslinger’s Frankenstein Monster/Rosemary’s Baby of a) Single Convention Treaty.

      The world’s economy is still in a precarious state, and those poorer nations (often led by corrupt tin-pot dictators the US supports) that could only afford the ‘rich man’s hobby’ of a DrugWar on Uncle’s dime are facing a kind of ‘cold turkey’, themselves. The bills are – finally – coming due.

  4. jean valjean says:
    July 4, 2017 at 1:43 am

    Psychiatry’s antibiotic. Ben Sessa explains the link between early trauma, PTSD and addiction, and how MDMA is showing great promise as an actual cure, rather than just treating the symptoms. (See second video)

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/mdma-alcohol-addiction_us_595a0954e4b05c37bb7f4fcc

  5. jean valjean says:
    July 4, 2017 at 2:09 am

    Racism and the American flag….Happy 4th of July.

    “What I do know is that racism is a shape shifter. Where there was once slavery, for instance, we then had Jim Crow, and segregation to take its place.

    “When that struggle was over it was replaced by the “war on drugs”, which, as Michelle Alexander expertly argues in her book The New Jim Crow, ultimately served as a tool for reinforcing the very same entrenched systems of racial oppression. For that reason it’s critical that we remain vigilant and interrogate the ways in which symbols of oppression we thought were abolished can be reinscribed in new ways.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jul/04/american-flag-stars-and-stripes-sinister-july-4

  6. Fruit Loop Stupidity on a Stick says:
    July 4, 2017 at 4:49 am

    Harold Henderson says:

    “They should lose their sis if the going be missing with marijuana because it’s don’t help anything and it misses up the brain cells and it has done proven that.”

    goo.gl/D8LDFg

    • WalStMonky says:
      July 8, 2017 at 10:48 am

      .
      .

      Yeah, voice to text isn’t ready for prime time yet, but how else could the illiterate hope to participate in the conversation?

  7. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 4, 2017 at 5:24 pm

    Federal Government Admits Legal Marijuana Could Reduce Opioid Epidemic
    https://tinyurl.com/y78q6kxs

    Seems NIDA has updated their page:

    Is marijuana safe and effective as medicine?
    https://tinyurl.com/ybl3p66n

    The only way to pull the DEA out of the mud on this one is to do a full court press in Congress to remove it from the CSA.

    “data suggest that medical cannabis treatment may reduce the dose of opioids required for pain relief.”

    The plant should not be banned and has obvious medical use, the DEA will never get it through their head – congress and Nixon set it up not to have one (a brain).

    The only valid reason left to keep it (cannabis) illegal is to maintain pharmaceutical monopolies. That is not what the CSA is about. Is it?

    With zero deaths EVER by overdose from marijuana, there is no good reason to maintain the illegal status the cannabis plant has in federal law. It protects no one and prevents legitimate use of the plant.

  8. Coco Loko on a Stick says:
    July 5, 2017 at 4:14 am

    The War On Chocolate

    But doctors say they’re not quite sure what to make of the brown powder, which hit U.S. shelves last month and is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration.

    “The question is, what are the risks of doing it?” said Dr. Andrew Lane, director of the Johns Hopkins Sinus Center. “There’s no data, and as far as I can tell, no one’s studied what happens if you inhale chocolate into your nose. When I mention it to people, nobody’s ever heard of it.” (“Maybe,” he added, “I’m not in the in-crowd.”)

    “There are a few obvious concerns,” he said. “First, it’s not clear how much of each ingredient would be absorbed into the nasal mucus membranes. And, well, putting solid material into your nose — you could imagine it getting stuck in there, or the chocolate mixing with your mucus to create a paste that could block your sinuses.”

    A spokesman for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it had not decided whether, or how, the agency would regulate the product.

    goo.gl/fKUnkC

    My apology to those who do not have access to WP. For some strange reason I’ve always been able to read it online for free. I’m using Chrome and sometimes Firefox, on an iMac. Hope that helps.

  9. Servetus says:
    July 5, 2017 at 1:00 pm

    Psychiatrists at Université de Montréal’s Department of Psychiatry link weekly or daily use of marijuana to “psychotic-like experiences.” Sounds scary, right? What the researchers call psychotic is incipient depression, while no mention is made of the fact that thousands of people use marijuana alone or with other substances to medically treat major depression:

    5-JUL-2017…the study also reports effects of marijuana use on cognitive development and shows that the link between marijuana use and psychotic-like experiences is best explained by emerging symptoms of depression.

    “To clearly understand the impact of these results, it is essential to first define what psychotic-like experiences are: namely, experiences of perceptual aberration, ideas with unusual content and feelings of persecution,” said the study’s lead author, Josiane Bourque, a doctoral student at Université de Montréal’s Department of Psychiatry. “Although they may be infrequent and thus not problematic for the adolescent, when these experiences are reported continuously, year after year, then there’s an increased risk of a first psychotic episode or another psychiatric condition.”

    She added: “Our findings confirm that becoming a more regular marijuana user during adolescence is, indeed, associated with a risk of psychotic symptoms. This is a major public-health concern for Canada.” [Emphasis added]

    In a non-thinking world view, any chemical that induces thinking is likely to produce ideas and perceptions evincing a different content, something that non-thinking people and anti-intellectuals will often regard as aberrant. Aberrancy isn’t the problem. A lack of imagination on the part of researchers is a problem. Feelings of persecution by pot smokers likely hinge on the possibility of being arrested and treated as religious heretics or some other targeted minority.

    The report continues:

    Dr. Patricia Conrod at Sainte Justine University Hospital Research Centre hypothesized that impairments in cognitive development due to marijuana misuse might in turn exacerbate psychotic-like experiences.

    This hypothesis was only partially confirmed, however. Among the different cognitive abilities evaluated, the development of inhibitory control was the only cognitive function negatively affected by an increase in marijuana use. Inhibitory control is the capacity to withhold or inhibit automatic behaviours in favor of a more contextually appropriate behaviour.[…]

    It is difficult to escape the feeling that “lack of inhibitory control” means a number of students laughed out loud while taking the drug use surveys. While some might consider this response to be inappropriate or rude behavior in a survey-taking setting, laughing at stupid questions posed by prohibitionists is a national pastime and shouldn’t be labeled aberrant.

    Speaking of prohibitionists, Dr. Conrod reveals her true colors in her public news release:

    Conrod is optimistic about one thing, however: the school-based prevention program that she developed, Preventure, has proven effective in reducing adolescent marijuana use by an overall 33%. “In future programs, it will be important to investigate whether this program and other similar targeted prevention programs can delay or prevent marijuana use in youth who suffer from psychotic-like experiences,” she said. “While the approach seems promising, we have yet to demonstrate that drug prevention can prevent some cases of psychosis.”

    AAAS Public Release: Marijuana and vulnerability to psychosis

    • NorCalNative says:
      July 5, 2017 at 7:34 pm

      What are your thoughts on an appropriate age-of-onset for cannabis experimentation and daily use?

      • Servetus says:
        July 6, 2017 at 12:49 pm

        The appropriate age for use of legal vice-related chemicals has been traditionally set to fall within a range of 18 to 21. Enforcement of the age of consent is provincial. It’s traditional in nearly every culture to separate the terrible and demanding world of the adult from the allegedly blissful world of the child. For instance, when I was six-years-old I asked my aunt why I wasn’t allowed to drink coffee. She said it was because it would stunt my growth. More likely it was because the caffeine would give me too much energy.

        Marijuana is non-toxic. It doesn’t accumulate in the body, but rather metabolizes and is ultimately eliminated. No one has detected epigenetic changes or biomarkers associated with regular cannabis ingestion in mice, rats, children or adults, including any biomarkers of an addiction. Cannabinoids do not act like thalidomide to cause birth defects. Rather than being mutagenic, THC molecules float like a butterfly and land on endocannabinoid receptors before metabolizing as 11-COOH and fluttering away.

        The scientific facts are disturbing to parents who really want to say something bad about marijuana to their kids to discourage experimentation. Unfortunately, 8000+ years of cannabis use by humans has produced nothing truthful as a deterrent. Instead, we get the prophylactic lie, as Arnold Trebach called it.

        Regardless of no evidence of biological harm, I think it would be a mistake for legalizers to simply override parents’ concerns and fears about how their child behaves, unless it’s a matter of medical necessity or to protect the child from incompetent parenting. The sociobiological imperatives involved in parenting are too deeply engrained to mess with casually. In addition, neurologists tell us teenagers’ brains are wired for risk, something that can affect drug taking behavior. The traditional separation of adulthood from childhood raises the age of adulthood, which can be a good thing. During Europe’s medieval period, the age of consent was 12 for girls and 13 for boys, a social construct that gave the Inquisition the authority to torture twelve and thirteen-year-olds to elicit confessions of heresy.

        Today there is collective agreement that children’s lives shouldn’t be so stressed out or incomplete that they need to supplement their mood with chemical stabilizers or euphoriants such as alcohol and marijuana. If that’s the reason someone takes the drug, legally or not, then it’s a medical application. At the very minimum, marijuana legalizers can demand that children and adolescents not suffer punishment or a lifetime of persecution for having the curiosity and courage to violate a social taboo. It’s not the way it works when underage people get caught with alcohol or cigarettes, and marijuana should be no different.

  10. Mr_Alex says:
    July 5, 2017 at 7:47 pm

    @DdC by any chance have you seen this, its from a group called Family First which is led by Bob McCoskrie in New Zealand

    https://www.facebook.com/FamilyFirstNZ/posts/1514674601914483?comment_id=1514869908561619&notif_t=share_reply&notif_id=1499301800772558

    • DdC says:
      July 5, 2017 at 10:38 pm

      mho. More FRCn Idiots Mr Alex.

      “Duration of marijuana use seems to be a significant factor associated with metabolic syndrome,” the researchers said

      Seems to be like Science when you use big scary words like metabolism. I’ve not heard of the term seems to be, associated with experiments. It is or it is not, it does or it does not. Hundreds of millions toking daily without incidents. Leave it to the drug worrier child molesters to keep bilking funds and donations to spew hogwash. Another hobgobblin wrangler. They should be sued for bullshitting without a license. Again no doctors have studied cannabis so these mud hurlers are desperate for something to stick. One for sure problem with smoking cannabis is when users douse themselves in gasoline and try lighting a doobie. Could prove harmful.

      I’ll add them to the heap.

      The Assassins of Youth: DARE † FRCn PDFA
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/50

      Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions — increased blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels — that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes.

      Most of the symptoms stated are relieved with Ganja, not caused by it. mho cannabis supplements the ECS that regulates the other systems to stay in their designated parameters. So when the body is out of kilt, Ganja brings it back. In so doing any maggot liar drug worrier can state the opposite. So Ganja helps with wasting syndrome and obesity. Too much lubrication and not enough both cause a problem. If a dung worrier wants to bash Ganja they can claim it causes people to gain weight. Not good to hear if you’re obese. What the quacks leave out is would also curtail appetite on Chris Christie, depending on the individuals needs. Too much lubrication causing pressure or not enough causing friction. Still safer than what NIDA recommends to wean yourself from Ganja addiction. Even if it isn’t addictive the Ambian and other big pharma crap is far worse. Not as if any of them care about actual kids or people. They are paid to lie.

      Cannabis: The Next Diabetes Drug?
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/598
      Cannabinoids Protect the Brain and Heart. Get Over It!
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2083
      quote/willie stress
      http://i33.tinypic.com/mhdile.jpg

    • DdC says:
      July 8, 2017 at 6:08 pm

      What Would Happen if New Zealand Legalized Cannabis?
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/94273866/what-would-happen-if-new-zealand-legalised-cannabis

      Could legal cannabis transform provincial New Zealand?
      https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/93653431/could-legal-cannabis-transform-provincial-new-zealand

      Dispelling Marijuana Myths
      http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v17/n215/a07.html?1042
      An analysis published by researchers from three American universities, which found that the risk of a cancer patient dying in a hospital was reduced by 56 percent among cannabis users. The study included four million patients in over 1,000 hospitals, and used data from the U.S. Nationwide Inpatient Sample database. “When you think of the reasons people go into palliative care, it’s because of pain, fear, anxiety, and appetite-all these things cannabis works on,”

  11. Crime Data on a Stick says:
    July 6, 2017 at 2:29 am

    When medical cannabis dispensaries close, crime rises in the surrounding neighborhood.

    These findings are another crushing blow to the rapidly crumbling notion that storefront dispensaries are a threat to public safety. The researchers discovered that closing dispensaries wasn’t just associated with a significant increase in crime right in front of the closed shops, but with a crime spike felt blocks away.

    The researchers stressed that these findings aren’t just interesting — they fly in the face of the prohibitionist narrative on dispensaries.

    “Our results demonstrated that the dispensaries were not the crime magnets that they were often described as, but instead reduced crime in their immediate vicinity. And when breaking down the effect by types of crime, we found that the increases in crime after dispensary closures were driven by the types of crime most plausibly deterred by bystanders: property crime and theft from vehicles.”

    Another major finding was how walkable the neighborhood is coming into play. The researchers checked the walk score of all the closed shops and found it had a major impact on the results; the dispensaries in areas with low walk scores saw the biggest jump in crime, because the customer base of those dispensaries was providing a natural form of incidental surveillance usually absent from areas with low foot traffic.

    https://cannabisnow.com/data-links-la-crime-spikes-cannabis-dispensary-closures/

  12. strayan says:
    July 6, 2017 at 11:01 pm

    The gateway theory has been dusted off and is now being used to justify heavy handed regulation of electronic cigarettes:

    http://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/article-abstract/2634377

  13. Servetus says:
    July 7, 2017 at 10:13 am

    The latest Vatican scandal involves Monsignor Luigi Capozzi getting busted for drugs:

    07.07.17 – It all started with the usual complaints from disgruntled neighbors: funny smells, slamming doors, loud music, the sound of squeaky beds and laughter late into the night.[…]

    The Vatican police showed up to find an orgy in progress, with an untold number of naked men allegedly writhing around the floor with Capozzi and his cohorts, who were apparently under the influence of hard drugs according to the Italian newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano which broke the story that a host of Italian and international media have since picked up.[…]

    According to the unconfirmed, yet wildly salacious reports, the gendarmerie kicked everyone out and took Capozzi straight to a detox center in the hills outside of Rome. He is now supposed to be at a convent outside of Rome where wayward priests go to repent. He will face misdemeanor drug charges, say the local papers, but orgies aren’t illegal and there were no underage boys on the premises when the bust took place so he will not face sex-related charges.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/the-vaticans-swiss-guards-break-up-a-drug-fueled-gay-orgy-in-pope-francis-backyard

    Capozzi can be thankful his drug charges are misdemeanors in Italy and not felonies or capital offenses. The Vatican under Paul VI once made an unsuccessful attempt to get the United Nations to equate all drug crimes with terrorism. Luigi Capozzi could have found himself at Guantanamo instead of a detox facility.

  14. WalStMonky says:
    July 8, 2017 at 11:01 am

    .
    .

    …and now for something completely unexpected: Governor Sandoval of Nevada has declared a state of emergency because they’re running out of reefer:
    Gov. Sandoval endorses emergency marijuana regulation to increase distributor licenses

    Does my head look like it’s ready to explode? It sure feels like it’s ready to pop.

    • NeddieShankarMemoryCollection says:
      July 8, 2017 at 2:12 pm

      Seven liquor wholesalers have applied for distribution licenses, but failed to meet regulations. The Department of Taxation will vote on a regulation Thursday that would allow the department to grant licenses to a larger pool of distributors.

      “We continue to work with the liquor wholesalers who have applied for distribution licenses, but most don’t yet meet the requirements that would allow us to license them,” Klapstein said.

  15. Servetus says:
    July 9, 2017 at 12:06 pm

    Fetal alcohol syndrome’s physical effects leading to a predilection to be addicted to other substances are revealed by researchers at the University at Buffalo—State University of New York. It turns out that prenatal exposure to alcohol changes the endocannabinoid receptors:

    7-JUL-2017 — “After the prenatal brain is exposed to alcohol, the endocannibinoids have a different effect on certain dopamine neurons which are involved in addicted behaviors than when brain is not exposed to alcohol,” Shen says. “The end result is that the dopamine neurons in the brain become more sensitive to a drug of abuse’s effect. So, later in life, a person needs much less drug use to become addicted.”

    Specifically, in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of the brain, endocannibinoids play a significant role in weakening the excitatory synapses onto dopamine neurons. The VTA is the part of the brain implicated in addiction, attention and reward processes. However, in a brain prenatally exposed to alcohol, the effect of the endocannabinoids is reduced due to a decreased function of endocannabinoid receptors. As a result, the excitatory synapses lose the ability to be weakened and continue to strengthen, which Shen believes is a critical brain mechanism for increased addiction risk.

    AAAS Public Release: Why does prenatal alcohol exposure increase the likelihood of addiction?

    • NorCalNative says:
      July 10, 2017 at 5:22 pm

      This study suggests a use for prenatal cannabinoid therapy in mothers using alcohol throughout pregnancy.

  16. DdC says:
    July 9, 2017 at 8:34 pm

    Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You
    Into Heaven Anymore
    They’re already overcrowded
    From your dirty little war.
    Now Jesus don’t like killin’
    No matter what the reason’s for,
    And your flag decal won’t get you
    Into Heaven any more.
    by John Prine U2b

    Sheriff In Heart Of Ohio’s Opioid Epidemic
    Refuses To Carry Overdose Reversal Drug
    https://t.co/PjjWZgdoJG

    ☛ Local Police Saved Four Lives With Naloxone

    ☛ Sheriff of opioid death-riddled Ohio county
    won’t let his deputies carry anti-overdose drug Narcan

    ☛ Narcan – Three Strikes and You’re Out –
    Middletown City Manager Douglas Adkins

    ☛ Ignorant Jeff:
    Miner’s Lullaby, Drug Overdoses & MMJ
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1161

    ☛ Many Veterans are the Enemy in the D.E.A.th War
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1169

    Sam Stone came home,
    To his wife and family
    After serving in the conflict overseas.
    And the time that he served,
    Had shattered all his nerves,
    And left a little shrapnel in his knee.
    But the morphine eased the pain,
    And the grass grew round his brain,
    And gave him all the confidence he lacked,
    With a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.

    Sam Stone’s welcome home
    Didn’t last too long.
    He went to work when he’d spent his last dime
    And Sammy took to stealing
    When he got that empty feeling
    For a hundred dollar habit without overtime.
    And the gold rolled through his veins
    Like a thousand railroad trains,
    And eased his mind in the hours that he chose,
    While the kids ran around wearin’ other peoples’ clothes…

    Sam Stone was alone
    When he popped his last balloon
    Climbing walls while sitting in a chair
    Well, he played his last request
    While the room smelled just like death
    With an overdose hovering in the air
    But life had lost its fun
    And there was nothing to be done
    But trade his house that he bought on the G. I. Bill
    For a flag draped casket on a local heroes’ hill.

    There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes,
    Jesus Christ died for nothin’ I suppose.
    Little pitchers have big ears,
    Don’t stop to count the years,
    Sweet songs never last too long
    on broken radios. Mmm….
    ~ John Prine

  18. Hope says:
    July 10, 2017 at 7:39 am

    Prohibitionists used to have a propaganda spiel that touted how they were all about saving that “One life”. If they could save “One child”, “One life”…then all the drug war was worth it.

    I always said they were talking about an imaginary child or some imaginary life, because they sure were destroying a lot of real life people for the sake of their “One” imaginary guy.

    Of course none of the prohibitionists really want to actually help or save a “Druggie”. They really want them to die. Viola! A killer sheriff in Ohio.

    Couldn’t they be charged with some sort of death in the sense that they had help for the perishing… but chose not to give it? Failure to render assistance? Murder? I would think that if you were there with a life saving assistance and purposely refused to use it, because you judged the dying as worthless, and refused them assistance, that there is surely some complicity in that death. I guess that sheriff doesn’t subscribe to that Protect and Serve business.

  19. Servetus says:
    July 10, 2017 at 10:20 am

    Johns Hopkins researchers demonstrate the need to test for the purity of MDMA at music festivals and raves:

    10-JUL-2017 — Of the 529 total samples collected, 318 (about 60 percent) actually contained MDMA or the closely related drug MDA. The chemical adulterants weren’t identifiable using the color test in 90 of the 211 adulterated samples, but the most common ones found were compounds better known as bath salts, specifically methylone in 35 and other cathinones in 21 of the adulterated samples. After these, methamphetamine was the next most common additive in 13 of the adulterated samples. Three samples contained a dangerous form of amphetamine known as PMA, which is associated with overdoses and death.[…]

    They also underscore the ongoing debate about the legality and value of pill-testing services, given the weaknesses in such studies and the resources pill testing requires. Hosts of music festivals can be reluctant to allow pill- testing on site because it may make them liable to prosecution for knowingly allowing people to use drugs on their property, the researchers say.

    Johnson says his team’s research highlights the potential public health value of reducing the risks of illegal drug use, and says the development of additional ways to assess more dangerous street drugs, such as fentanyl and carfentanil, might offer a means of reducing the growing epidemic of fatalities associated with them.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: On-site ecstasy pill-testing services may reduce user risks at concerts and raves: Study also shows that so-called purer form of MDMA called Molly rarely is

    People need to be made aware that MDMA test kits are available online. They can purchase a kit for about $25 and test the drugs’ purities for themselves.

    The government will not protect ravers with pill testing services. That would be harm reduction, something prohibitionists loathe. Prohibition is the source of the adulterated drugs problem. The abstinence-only prohibitionists view contamination and any resulting deaths as a deterrent to drug use. They want drugs to be more toxic, not less.

    • DdC says:
      July 10, 2017 at 12:14 pm

      When the DEA had to cheat to get Biden’s RAVE Ax tacked onto the Amber Alert bill, after failing on its own 3 times. Busted twice for switching MDMA with Speed to get worse results to back up the bogus commercials. Dead kids are to be expected. Banning test kits was a no brain idea and typical business as usual for the DEAth. Threats to promoters has also done its job of censorship from NORML rallies.

      United Nations MDMA Drug Report Disappointing
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2059

      Why drug safety advocates blame Joe Biden’s RAVE Act for music festival deaths
      http://www.sgvtribune.com/arts-and-entertainment/20151008/why-drug-safety-advocates-blame-joe-bidens-rave-act-for-music-festival-deaths
      Anderson said it’s unlikely the DEA would want to use its resources to go after organizers for providing drug education or even drug testing at events, but if enough people perceive the threat as real, it still has consequences, she said.

      Dance Safe, a non-profit offering drug education and testing kits to the rave community, often gets steered away because of the RAVE Act.
      https://dancesafe.org/

      The Bunk Police Are Risking Prison to Bring Drug Testing Kits to Music Festivals
      https://thump.vice.com/en_us/article/wny535/the-bunk-police-are-risking-prison-to-bring-drug-testing-kits-to-music-festivals
      While everyone knows that drugs are flying around music festivals as much as BO and fireworks, the frightening truth is that most people have no idea what they are taking. Thanks to the proliferation of research chemicals and websites for easy access, the drug market is changing at a breakneck speed. The days when you could buy a sheet of psychedelics or a few pills from a dealer and assume you’ll be safe are long gone—in fact, you’d be lucky if those brown crystals contain any MDMA at all.

      With drug-related deaths at music festivals dominating headlines every summer, Adam Auctor, the founder of The Bunk Police, wants to keep people informed with an effective tool: drug testing kits. But here’s the kicker: festivals want nothing to do with him and his organization, and in recent months, Auctor has lost thousands of dollars from police confiscations, faced the threat of prison time, and been forced to conduct secret, illegal research—all in the name of helping drug users stay safe.

  20. jean valjean says:
    July 10, 2017 at 10:43 am

    Maia Szalavitz: Making the Case that Drug Addiction Is a Learning Disorder.

    “The other and even more obvious implication is that if addiction is marked by a failure to respond to punishment, then we should realize that punishment is a really stupid way of dealing with addiction. Yet this is what we as a country have decided we’ll do. It’s just insane that we think we can use the criminal justice system for this. It does not solve anything to put someone in a cage for a couple days for possession of a substance.”

    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/qa-drug-addiction-learning-disorder

  21. darkcycle says:
    July 10, 2017 at 2:32 pm

    Happy 7/10, all. I haven’t been chiming in much of late, so please accept my apologies and know I still lurk here in the shadows behind the couch.
    Many worrisome indicators, but so far Sessions and Trump (as bad as they are) have left well enough alone on the legal/medical weed front.
    The new push for further restrictions on opioid pain medications has many quite worried, however.
    Pushing harm reduction in the forums now like I did with legalization. We have a wall to tear down still, after all.

    • NorCalNative says:
      July 10, 2017 at 6:17 pm

      My daughter is a 7/10 baby.

      Thought about you the other day when I picked up some 26% THC Headband at my dispensary.

      I’ve got two ladies outside, guess you could call em’ dawgs. OG Kush (Chemdawg x Sour Diesel), and Sour Diesel (Chemdawg x Mexican Sativa). Outdoor cultivation is new for me and I’m dipping my toes in the new legal waters. If they don’t get ripped off I’ll go bigger next year.

  22. Servetus says:
    July 11, 2017 at 10:11 am

    Leila de Lima is still being held in a Philippine jail because in 2009 she fingered Rodrigo Duterte over extrajudicial killings while Duterte was a mayor. Not surprisingly, she is being held on drug charges:

    July 11, 2017 — …But the violence of Duterte’s regime could have been foreseen: it is a nationwide extension of his alleged ‘death squad’ approach in Davao City, where he was mayor for almost 20 years. We know this in part because of Leila de Lima, who in 2009 investigated killings in this city as chair of the Commission for Human Rights.

    De Lima’s investigation explored the future president’s potential administrative and even criminal liability for a surge of unsolved murders, including of minors — and summoned Duterte to a public hearing in Davao city. “I publically chastised him,” she told me recently. “No one had ever dared do that to him in his own kingdom.”

    Today de Lima is a senator — and she is behind bars, detained on unbailable charges related to drug trafficking. Her arrest, on 24 February, made international headlines and drew condemnation from human rights groups. She has been a relentless critic of Duterte’s methods, and insists she is in jail for that reason only.[…]

    De Lima had been one of the only public figures to raise concerns, early on, that Duterte’s self-assigned emergency powers governing the war on drugs — which enable police to make warrantless arrests, and hold suspects without possibility of bail — could become a tool for sneaking authoritarianism. In June last year she protested: ‘I’m afraid this is going to be prone to abuse.’ […]

    http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/41224-the-silencing-of-leila-de-lima-duterte-s-first-political-prisoner

    Drug wars a tool for sneaking authoritarianism? Perhaps Duterte acquired the idea from the United States.

  23. DdC says:
    July 12, 2017 at 3:44 am

    Oregon Legislature Passes Bill
    To Decriminalize Cocaine, Meth, And Heroin

    “defelonization” felony to a misdemeanor.

    Fake news alert:
    No, Oregon Isn’t Decriminalizing Drugs (Not Yet Anyway)
    MassRoots Tom Angell
    https://t.co/Q8icAjaUFa

    Trump will cripple states if he reverses marijuana legalization
    http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/11/trump-will-cripple-states-if-he-reverses-marijuana-laws-jesse-ventura.html

    D.C. Arrests for Public Use of Marijuana
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29127.shtml

    MMJ Patients Need an Antidote for Jeff Sessions
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29128.shtml

    Why Are States Running Out of Weed?
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29129.shtml

    Retired DEA agent basically says that marijuana legalization has momentum because Americans are stupid. Wow. Tom Angell

  24. Will says:
    July 12, 2017 at 9:47 am

    .
    .
    This recent article addresses something — and someone — I’ve called out more than a few times in the last several years. But when you call out an ‘icon’ beloved by so many, much of what you say falls on deaf ears. I guess my revulsion regarding elevating celebrities to exalted status is to blame…;

    A plea from Texas to Willie Nelson: Your influence is needed in fight to legalize weed

    http://tinyurl.com/yb8btw22

  25. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 12, 2017 at 9:11 pm

    Wow. Sessions wants to re-start DARE
    https://t.co/2ilRhvd7JE
    and,
    Speaking of Fake News: Kevin Sabet’s New Reefer Madness
    https://t.co/jUXVSliIWB

    In contrast to this real nice piece by a Michigan doctor. This doctor says Tylenol and aspirin are far more dangerous than medical marijuana. And he says that physicians are at least partly culpable for what he sees as misconceptions about medical marijuana and the opioid abuse epidemic crippling the nation (his words, not mine). :
    https://t.co/664EAXTkiX

    • Servetus says:
      July 13, 2017 at 9:57 am

      Poor old Beauregard. Neither DARE nor the South shall rise again. To paraphrase Kevin Sabet:

      In fact, Sessions’ recommendations are not only a back-door gimmick to legalize DARE at the federal level, they would benefit major criminal organizations seeking legal cover for DARE.

      …feigning states’ rights concerns is hardly an excuse. The reason laws against fraud were passed is because the DARE market does not honor state lines.

      ***
      States’ rights—it’s not just for racists anymore.—Paul Krassner

    • Thinking Clearly says:
      July 13, 2017 at 2:10 pm

      Meet the Doctor Who Refuses to Stop Prescribing Opioids to Pain Patients
      https://t.co/Q1CWbxrd18

      Sessions announces “largest health care fraud takedown” in U.S. history https://t.co/FBd25ycZLG

      Here is what I see. Sessions is blaming doctors and patients to stop the opiate problems.

      “We as physicians have found that people that are getting addicted [to painkillers] have been [doing so] because of our own treatment plans,” he said. “It isn’t because we [as physicians] don’t know what we’re doing, it’s because of how we’ve been pushed to treat pain. When you start comparing [current pain treatment] to marijuana, a lot of these other things are far more addictive.”
      – Dr. Christopher Prince licensed medical practitioner in Michigan

      – “Pain patients from across the country who say they can’t get the treatment and medication they need in their home states are flocking to a boundary-pushing pain specialist based in West Covina, California.”

      “The problems these patients face stem from the opioid addiction and overdose crisis, which results in as many as 91 deaths a day in America, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The media and government have dubbed this problem the “opioid epidemic,” and law enforcement agencies have reacted accordingly. Physicians are routinely arrested for overprescribing and running so-called “pill mills,” and some states have filed lawsuits against pharmaceutical manufacturers. In 2016, the DEA clamped down on painkillers, reducing the allowed production of opioid medications by 25 percent or more. This year, the CDC issued guidelines advising avoid prescribing high doses over 90 morphine milligram equivalents.”

      “Many physicians have even begun to adjust the way that they think about pain.”

      “In a New England Journal of Medicine article, one of the pain specialists advising the CDC recommended that pain patients “use coping and acceptance strategies that primarily reduce the suffering associated with pain and only secondarily reduce pain intensity.” That opioids are never an effective chronic pain treatment is quickly becoming conventional wisdom, and the American Medical Association has even begun to advise physicians to abandon the pain rating scale when assessing patients.”

      “I take the Hippocratic oath seriously, that my job is to relieve pain and suffering,” says Dr. Forest Tennant. “So when I see the AMA decide that they’re not going to assess pain, I’m not with them.”

      In Jeff Sessions new Drug war the doctors and the patients are the problem. Relieving suffering takes a back seat to the justice department solution to it all.

      The drug war is how things got in such a deplorable condition. More drug war will solve nothing. Now, we will be treating patients and doctors like criminals, when the real criminals and the drug war perpetrators get a pass.

      To members of congress: Remove the DEA and the Justice Department from the picture. Let the doctors and real professionals that are interested in improving the human condition and relieving the suffering of man take charge of things in a harm reduction effort that will end the abuse of America and its citizens.

      Above all, remove cannabis from the CSA once and for all.

      • WalStMonky says:
        July 14, 2017 at 10:29 pm

        .
        .

        Who doesn’t take the Hippocratic Oath seriously? The prohibition of elective abortions, no sex with the patient’s slave regardless of whether a girl or a boy, providing education to future doctors for free, insuring that retired doctors are financially secure and the recognition of pagan gods just can’t be argued against.

        Doesn’t “First do no harm” mean that surgeons shouldn’t use scalpels?

    • Servetus says:
      July 13, 2017 at 8:58 pm

      Yes, leave it to the medical professionals.

      While General Jeffery Sessions is resurrecting prohibition and various drug war scams to deal with opioid ODs, scientists have been hard at work.

      The following list of press releases from researchers indicate that tweaking this or that prescription practice and taking a few other precautions can collectively reduce opioid OD problems. The list illustrates research and scientific press releases issued between 6-JUL-2016 to 16-JUN-2017. Many more studies predate mid-2016.

      AAAS Public Releases:

      In Medicaid patients, fatal overdose risk rises with opioid dose and sedative-hypnotic use

      Investigators examine the relationship between pain and opioid abuse

      Feared by drug users but hard to avoid, fentanyl takes a mounting toll

      Combining heroin and commonly prescribed non-opioid pain killers leads to a significant rise in overdose deaths

      Overdose prevention and naloxone rescue among family members of people who use opioids

      Study of US opioid users shows Venebio’s overdose risk index to have 90% accuracy

      Combining opioids with anti-anxiety medicines linked to greater risk of overdose

      TSRI scientists develop vaccine against fatal prescription opioid overdose

      High rate of drug overdose deaths among adults recently released from incarceration: Study…

    • Servetus says:
      July 14, 2017 at 11:58 am

      Update as of 13-JUL-2017, the FDA and the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine have issued new recommendations for stemming opioid use disorder:

      ● the FDA should complete a review of the safety and effectiveness of all approved opioids;

      ● states should convene a public-private partnership to implement drug take-back programs that allow drugs to be returned to any pharmacy on any day, rather than relying on occasional take-back events;

      ● public and private payers, including insurance companies, should develop reimbursement models that support evidence-based and cost-effective comprehensive pain management, including both drug and non-drug treatments for pain;

      ● HHS, in concert with state organizations, should conduct or sponsor research on how data from prescription drug monitoring programs can be better leveraged to track opioid prescribing and dispensing information; and

      ● the National Institutes of Health, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and industry should invest in research that examines the nature of pain and opioid use disorder, as well as develop new non-addictive treatments for pain.

      AAAS Public Release: New report presents national strategy to reduce opioid epidemic: National strategy to reduce opioid epidemic, an urgent public health priority, presented in new report

  27. Tony Aroma says:
    July 13, 2017 at 6:53 pm

    WEST VIRGINIA MEDICAL CANNABIS PROGRAM
    Here’s the details on this really bad program, basically just something so lawmakers can say they passed mmj legislation so please stop bothering them about it. I also find it just a bit ironic that one of the qualifying conditions is a terminal illness with less than a year to live, yet mmj won’t be available for at least 2 years.

  28. DC Reade says:
    July 20, 2017 at 3:00 pm

    Among other reading, I’ve recently been perusing the stats,table, chart & graph packed UN Drug Control Program report from 2000. Jaw-dropping. Astounding. The numbers practically speak for themselves.

    If anyone had taken the report seriously, the global Drug War would have been over long ago.

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