Open Thread

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Pete

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27 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Freeman says:
    July 18, 2017 at 4:47 am

    Love the photo.

    1st state supreme court ruling that workers can’t be fired for using medical marijuana.

  2. jean valjean says:
    July 18, 2017 at 9:54 am

    Isn’t the word “drug” wonderful? It means just whatever the letter gang du jour says it means at any given moment. Such flexibility. Cheers and bottoms up!

  3. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 18, 2017 at 3:55 pm

    Colorado Court Says Smell Of Marijuana Not Enough To Justify Vehicle Search
    https://t.co/WENh44cicR

    A bright point in today’s news.

    • DdC says:
      July 19, 2017 at 5:28 am

      Over the usual drab to ridiculous news I agree, sadly.

      I’m sure the Jews thought the end of Hitler was a bright spot. Probably trade it gladly for a time machine to erase Hitler as he was born. A bright point for Ganjawar POW’s at the end of an endless war that should have never been started. More cookie crumbs for the starving. Some kind of reverse Stockholm Syndrome or cockeyed weirdness where we are happy with less punishment. But we used to get 20 flogs with rock salt smeared in.

      Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.
      — Frederick Douglass

      I remember when 3 articles a week was good news. Now we’re everywhere and there are more Prohibiots than ever. We thought all they needed was the truth and examples of what Rx and Hemp could do. I didn’t fully realize the airhead authoritarian groupie factor. I forgot most of the schools were clean cut lemmings proud of the traditions of banning free speech and a continuing censored media. Nurses are in fear for their jobs for advocating totally federally legal Hemp Seed and Oil for inflammation and infection control and Wasting Syndrome or Tuberculosis.

      We cannot, by total reliance on law, escape the duty to judge right and wrong… There are good laws and there are occasionally bad laws, and it conforms to the highest traditions of a free society to offer resistance to bad laws, and to disobey them.
      — Alexander Bickel
      Constitutional scholar

      The Prohibs “danger” myths are factually far more dangerous than Ganja itself. Yet the people accept it for half a century. Now Trump is showing the middle class how stoners have been treated and even stoners of color treated worse and more often. As Boosh said, The Constitution is just a god damned piece of paper. Who ya gonna call? What’s reality got to do got to do with it?

      For a majority of airheads the info seemed sufficient to turn opinions. Now $$$ in politickans eyes gets more incremental fabrications legislated. We have more favorable press, but we still have a majority of bias reporting against common sense and real time data. We have untaught physicians reading excerpts of old NIDA and Nahas reefer gossip rehashed as if it was Science or something. The media diverts into their programmed gossip and we are no closer to overturning the CSA than the day after Nixon and the lapdogs in Congress manifested it into law.

      A bright spot that I won’t be profiled on the way to the market if Fido gets a signal from its master to bark me into jail. As bright a light as on the NFL’s racism by owners blackballing Colin Kaepernick. Many or most fans and players must be wearing sunglasses and pretend it isn’t there. Michael Vick doesn’t have a lot of cred giving advise period, let alone blaming it on superficial blurbs like he should get a haircut. Kaepernick stood up for a real cause the same as we do. I’m sure he’ll be ok with what he has stashed in the bank. It does serve to shine a bright light to the world that most of the country are cowards jerking off flags calling themselves patriots while Injustice and shit just happens to targeted groups of citizens.

      More Not Gloomy News…

      ☛ Prosecutor Can’t Create Drug Squad To Seize Cash From Innocent Drivers, Illinois Supreme Court Rules

      ☛ No Increase In Problematic Cannabis Use By Young People Following Changes In Marijuana’s Legal Status

      ☛ The Boston Herald editorial board is upset with the Massachusetts legalization implementation compromise’s

      ☛ Massachusetts
      The compromise also says the municipalities that voted yes on the legalization initiative can’t ban cannabis businesses without a referendum. In places that opposed Question 4, local elected officials can enact bans without voters’ approval.

      ☛ Separately, the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that people who are fired for medical cannabis use can sue employers for handicap discrimination.

      ☛ The U.S. House’s Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission will hold a hearing on human rights abuses in the Philippines “drug war” on Thursday.

  4. Servetus says:
    July 18, 2017 at 8:15 pm

    Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions delivered a national district attorneys association speech in San Bernardino seeking to bring back those good ol’ time broken-windows policing policies. Sessions says his broken-windows will be “lawful and proven to work”. By working he is presumed to mean it works like the well-oiled fascist contraption that it is.

    AG Sessions also wants to arrest people possessing illegally obtained opioids and then use plea bargaining to force them to disclose their drug sources. He still promotes charging drug defendants with the “most seriously readily provable offense,” although prosecutors can seek a waiver if they think it would be “unjust”–presuming the drug prosecutor is capable of such a feat. He supports building the southern border wall as a drug smuggling deterrent. Topping it off, Sessions will issue new directives on drug trafficking forfeitures at a later date.

    Full text of speech: https://www.justice.gov/opa/speech/attorney-general-jeff-sessions-delivers-remarks-national-district-attorneys-association

  5. strayan says:
    July 18, 2017 at 11:46 pm

    I once saw a sign like that at a pub.

  7. Servetus says:
    July 19, 2017 at 11:29 am

    Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign reveal the corresponding links and health benefits of omega-3-fatty acids and cannabinoid chemistry:

    18-JUL-2017 — A new study in animal tissue reveals the cascade of chemical reactions that convert omega-3 fatty acids into cannabinoids that have anti-inflammatory benefits — but without the psychotropic high.[…]

    Cannabinoids in marijuana and endocannabinoids produced in the body can support the body’s immune system and therefore are attractive targets for the development of anti-inflammatory therapeutics…

    In 1964, the Israeli chemist Raphael Mechoulam was the first to discover and isolate THC from marijuana. To test whether he had found the compound that produces euphoria, he dosed cake slices with 10 milligrams of pure THC and gave them to willing friends at a party. Their reactions, from nonstop laughter, to lethargy, to talkativeness, confirmed that THC was a psychotropic cannabinoid.

    It wasn’t until 1992 that researchers discovered endocannabinoids produced naturally in the body. Since then, several other endocannabinoids have been identified, but not all have known functions.

    Cannabinoids bind to two types of cannabinoid receptors in the body – one that is found predominantly in the nervous system and one in the immune system, Das said.

    “Some cannabinoids, such as THC in marijuana or endocannabinoids can bind to these receptors and elicit anti-inflammatory and anti-pain action,”…

    “Our team discovered an enzymatic pathway that converts omega-3-derived endocannabinoids into more potent anti-inflammatory molecules that predominantly bind to the receptors found in the immune system,” Das said. “This finding demonstrates how omega-3 fatty acids can produce some of the same medicinal qualities as marijuana, but without a psychotropic effect.”

    AAAS Public Release: Study: Omega-3 fatty acids fight inflammation via cannabinoids

  8. Will says:
    July 19, 2017 at 12:11 pm

    .
    .
    The knuckle dragging continues;

    Sessions to step up drug-war seizures

    http://tinyurl.com/ydbwgyca

  9. DdC says:
    July 20, 2017 at 1:22 am

    John McCain, diagnosed with brain tumor
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1186
    CANCER- GLIOMA/ BRAIN
    Delta 9-tetrahydrocannabinol inhibits cell cycle progression by downregulation of E2F1 in human glioblastoma multiforme cells.

    • DdC says:
      July 21, 2017 at 5:37 am

      Ignorant Jeff: The blind leading the deaf and dumbed down
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1187
      They lowered the bar and the cockroaches entered.

      • NorCalNative says:
        July 21, 2017 at 12:29 pm

        A recent quote by PrezNit WTF? in a NYT article about ol’ jeff.

        “There’s a lack of aggressiveness with Sessions unless it involves chasing people for smoking pot.”

        Not clear if this means PrezNit WTF? doesn’t appreciate his pursuit of pot smokers or is just a stupid rich guy whining cuz he can’t get his way on everything.

  10. NorCalNative says:
    July 21, 2017 at 1:04 pm

    Texas reader Will (sans boots and hat) recently linked to a cannabinoid neuro-science conference held by NIDA/NIH earlier this year.

    The talks on the endocannabinoid system are solid. But, it was the opening remarks by no-friend-of-the-couch, Mark Kleiman that surprised me the most. Marks not a fan of NIDA? Who knew?

    This is what Mark opened with:

    “There’s been a lot of discussion so far and in the introduction to the harmful effects of cannabis and it’s potential therapeutic uses.” “There’s a category left out there which is people who use cannabis in a non-medical context, use it because they enjoy it, or they use it to enhance some other part of their lives.

    “We heard earlier discussions on the unwanted side effects of cannabinoids used therapeutically, including the dreaded EUPHORIA. Can I see by a show of hands, how many people here have TOO MUCH EUPHORIA in their lives and wish there were less of it?

    Mark’s talk is on drug policy and it’s only about 20 minutes long. I stuck through it looking for some dirt to report, and the only thing that really bothered me was his position that cheaply-priced cannabis under legalization is BAD.

    • Will says:
      July 22, 2017 at 11:12 am

      .
      .
      Ha! Yeah NCN, that description is accurate. I’ve never assimilated and adopted the Texas uniform. My California/Florida roots just won’t allow it (its shorts and sandals all the way, especially in the heat we’re dealing with now).

      I haven’t watched all of the videos associated with the MMJ/cannibinoid research summit. BTW, the summit actually occurred last year. I wonder how much resonance the information given has with the current rambling wreck of an administration we have now. Along with your observations about Kleiman’s comments, there were a few other notable things I picked up from the few videos I watched. One, there were no DEA representatives at the summit. I’ll hazard a guess that Chuck Rosenberg didn’t want anyone in his department to have anything to do with discussions/presentations suggesting “medical” attributes to cannabis. You know, because that does not exist according to willfully ignorant UpChuck. Two, there were more than a few comments from presenters about the needless barriers to research. This drew applause from the crowd on a few occasions, suggesting general agreement that the fed is simply in the way (for all the nefarious reasons discussed here many times). That had to cause Ms. Volkow to squirm in her seat, and maybe had her scoping out the nearest exit.

      Again, as interesting — and surprising — as the summit proved to be, are the discussions and research findings enough to budge the current administration in any reasonable direction? Given the daily ‘hair-on-fire’ distractions Trump and his court jesters keep dealing with, I really wonder if anything is going to move forward on this topic until there is a regime change. But erratic behavior can produce all kinds of interesting outcomes. We’ll just have to see.

  11. DdC says:
    July 21, 2017 at 1:12 pm

    Trump Wages War on MJ Veterans Side With Pot
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29136.shtml

  12. Servetus says:
    July 21, 2017 at 1:30 pm

    Raúl Carrillo at New Economic Perspectives discusses the economics of forfeiture, or “how financially-strapped local government entities, charged with public safety, perpetuate social violence, especially upon low-income communities of color”. Excerpt from Monetary Sovereigns, Monetary Subjects: Modern Money & The Criminal Legal System :

    …Part of this is because courts face their own survival constraints. No matter how they do that, whether it’s by preying on poor people or via some other method, they are faced with this balance sheet logic at the core of the system. As even Chief Justice Roberts admitted during the sequestration, courts face particular pressures “because virtually all of their core functions are constitutionally and statutorily required.” If they do not get money from the sovereign, they will get it from other monetary subjects.

    Other people will get much more into this, but since the financial crisis, we have seen how courts and other municipal bodies have turned to bleeding the poor. Poor folks are in the carceral system partially because cash-strapped entities cannot fund basic operations. Financial crisis begets austerity, which exacerbates the criminalization of poverty. The Ferguson Report made it crystal that the City relied upon cops as collectors. Even though it’s not even clear that some other municipalities are actually making any money this way, the driving logic remains. Courts, cops, and the clink try to get blood from stones, money from empty pockets.

    So, there’s financial domination intertwisted with carceral domination. So what? Why should we care about looking at things this way? Because it affects our strategy. As the saying goes, “if you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up somewhere else.”

    In an article in the Boston Review last fall, Donna Murch, a Professor of History at Rutgers, said that we need:

    “…a larger reexamination of the economic and extractive dimensions of mass incarceration… apart from establishing more equitable means testing of people brought before the courts.”

    http://neweconomicperspectives.org/2017/07/monetary-sovereigns-monetary-subjects-modern-money-criminal-legal-system.html

    • kaptinemo says:
      July 21, 2017 at 10:47 pm

      I hate sounding like a scratched CD, but all this was predicted here long ago. As was noted here last decade, as the financial crisis worsened and tax bases shrunk due to expanding unemployment, the forfeiture-addicted LE organs would ramp up efforts to steal even more from the American people, to the point a study claimed that more was stolen from Americans by those LE organs than was actually stolen by criminals…which, of course, begs the question as to which has become more criminal, the regular, non-State-approved thieves or their supposed adversaries, the police.

      Policing for Profit: The Shocking Cost of Civil Asset Forfeiture

      As the economic conditions continue to deteriorate, the corruption that forfeiture naturally, inevitably fosters amongst police will itself add to equally inevitable social frictions that are already reaching dangerous levels. When this begins to affect the (already strained and nearly defunct) Middle Class, Professor Whitebread’s Iron Law of Prohibition (“When a prohibition negatively affects the US who used it on an identifiable THEM , that prohibition will be ended.”) will be enacted. But not before one last orgiastic demonstration of fiscal larceny on the part of police forces everywhere that will be the last straw in the self-induced process of their de-legitimazation.

      • Servetus says:
        July 22, 2017 at 11:36 am

        I’ve noticed government theft isn’t limited to extremes such as forfeiture and drug cases. During recessions traffic enforcement picks up. Parking fines increase, speed traps shore up municipal coffers.

        Some government money making schemes are well crafted and subtly applied. Although it may have changed, applying for building permits and so forth at city hall in Los Angeles required parking in a nearby lot with one hour limits on its meters. Problem was city hall was so crowded it always took at minimum one-and-a-half hours to get one’s business done. For LA it was like having a license to print money.

  13. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 21, 2017 at 9:35 pm

    Well, I think Jeff just crossed the line into the twilight zone:

    Sessions discussed Trump campaign-related matters with Russian ambassador, U.S. intelligence intercepts show
    https://t.co/Zci6wibxpI

    I smell resignation or a Trump-dump – Don’t let the door hit ya on the way out there, Jeff.

  14. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 22, 2017 at 8:10 pm

    Message for Donald Trump from Former Mexican President Vicente Fox:
    https://youtu.be/2FrQRHW3XHI

    I don’t ever remember this type of a reaction from other world leaders before.

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