Open Thread

Posted on October 14, 2017 by Pete

Apologies to all my fellow couch friends. Catching up after moving and a long trip took me away from this site for too long and the comments section expired, temporarily preventing people from commenting.

I’ve extended the settings so this won’t happen again. Thanks for your patience.

I’ll try to have some more new content here soon.

– Pete

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21 Responses to Open Thread

  1. DdC says:
    October 14, 2017 at 11:41 am

    U.S.Orlando Sentinel
    ’60 Minutes’: DEA thwarted on opioid epidemic
    http://touch.orlandosentinel.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-94866477/

  2. Thinking Clearly says:
    October 14, 2017 at 2:38 pm

    Glad to see the reply boxes and buttons back. I felt like part of me had been amputated when yesterday I saw there was no box to write in.

  3. Thinking Clearly says:
    October 14, 2017 at 2:43 pm

    Magic Mushrooms Reset the Brains of People With Depression
    https://tinyurl.com/yaxpgzvb

    Psilocybin for treatment-resistant depression: fMRI-measured brain mechanisms
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-017-13282-7

    • NorCalNative says:
      October 17, 2017 at 10:36 pm

      This is an area of interest to me.

      I mentioned a possible psilocybin-related brain”reset” in comments a few weeks ago, just thinking out loud, and can’t wait to dig into this study.

  4. DdC says:
    October 14, 2017 at 8:07 pm

    Were The California Wildfires Deliberately Set?
    https://t.co/r2VsZJX6eN

    Pot Dispensary Donates 50k to Wildfire Victims
    https://hightimes.com/news/pot-dispensary-donates-50k-to-wildfire-victims/

    U.S. Army to Grant More Marijuana Waivers
    https://hightimes.com/news/u-s-army-to-grant-more-marijuana-waivers/

    Weed Arrests and Seizures Are on the Rise
    https://hightimes.com/news/weed-arrests-and-seizures-are-on-the-rise/

    Cannabis, the Holy Grail, and the Secrets of the Templars?
    http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2017/10/12/cannabis-secrets-templars

  5. Servetus says:
    October 14, 2017 at 8:53 pm

    Former Education Secretary and Drug Czar Bill Bennett is perfectly happy with Donald Trump’s views on racial justice. Bennett, who implemented and extended Nixon’s drug war against racial minorities and political dissidents, even sounds like Trump:

    October 13, 2017 — “If you watch the TV shows other than Fox…you would have no idea how many things the president has already accomplished,” Bennett said, including his “symbolic” victory over the NFL players who have been kneeling during the national anthem to protest racial injustice.

    “The president has won on this issue,” Bennett said. “He’s just won.”

    He added that the players who are protesting just “don’t know any better” because the schools haven’t taught them about the greatness of America.

    “But whatever you might want to say about these players who are kneeling, who are protesting, I think I have a little inside information I’ll share with the president,” he said. “A lot of them don’t know any better. They just don’t know any better. They are alien to themselves and a culture and a country they do not understand.”

    “Who has ever told them that America is the last, best hope of earth?” he asked. “Who has ever told them about the sacrifices at Gettysburg or Yorktown?”

    Saying that many of America’s problems stem from the education system, he told the conservative audience, “I’ll take this audience teaching my children, thank you, rather than many others.”

    http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/bill-bennett-to-vvs-nfl-players-taking-a-knee-dont-understand-american-culture/

    William J. Bennett has good reason to worry about who teaches what version of history in which American schools. Reality-based history will eventually give Bill and his drug war role a footnote akin to Torquemada’s execution of 2,000 Jews. Notably, the drug war has killed far more innocent victims than Torquemada ever did.

    • WalStMonky says:
      October 15, 2017 at 7:12 pm

      .
      .

      I guess I’m just a lucky guy. My parents and teachers did an excellent job of telling me that the USA is a great country. They also told me that one of the major reasons why the US is a great country is because we’re allowed to criticize our government and have the right to petition our government for redress of grievances.

    • tensity1 says:
      October 16, 2017 at 2:21 am

      Damn, Bennett is letting his fuckwit flag fly high, isn’t he? I almost want to rail at you, Servetus, for even typing the jackhole’s name–it’s as though you decided to spray glass cleaner into the eyes of all the people on the couch, just for giggles. 😉

  6. tensity1 says:
    October 16, 2017 at 2:24 am

    Well damn, Pete, how dare you retire and go have fun?!?! Priorities, man, priorities!

  7. Mouth says:
    October 16, 2017 at 1:15 pm

    An older white male in Orlando finds it hard to get a job after being arrested for a doughnut–even though he was later cleared of all wrong doing. Shouldn’t we create laws, outlawing companies from putting any kind of sugar, glaze or frosting on foods? What kind of cop doesn’t know what leftover doughnut glaze looks like? In order to protect our freedoms, shouldn’t we outlaw any and all possession and eating while in a vehicle–to save the taxpayers money on roadside drug testing, so that money can go back to schools, shelters, parks, roads, cancer research. Think of the children: laws forcing people to no longer be able to take their food outside a restaurant . . . laws to protect Americans from having to drive with groceries from the store.

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/doughnut-meth-florida-daniel-rushing_us_59e4ba58e4b04d1d51834027?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

  8. Thinking Clearly says:
    October 16, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    Senator calls on Trump to withdraw Marino as drug czar pick in wake of revelations
    https://t.co/RLETBHA8D7

    https://twitter.com/Sen_JoeManchin/status/919950046279471105

    His support for the pharmaceutical industry is brought to light and its effect on opiate abuse in America. Thanks to 60 Minutes.

  9. tensity1 says:
    October 16, 2017 at 7:02 pm

    Looks like Ghana is thinking about emulating Portugal’s drug policies. I’ll not post a link and let y’all search for it since it seems like every time I try to read articles from the Philippines, India, or Africa, damn near half the time I hit malicious code. Okay, probably less than half, and it’s mostly because I don’t know what their legit news sites are.

  10. strayan says:
    October 16, 2017 at 11:28 pm

    So the DEA are trying to distance themselves from the opioid crisis by blaming Congress and the Pharmaceutical Industry:

    Whistleblower Joe Rannazzisi says drug distributors pumped opioids into U.S. communities — knowing that people were dying — and says industry lobbyists and Congress derailed the DEA’s efforts to stop it https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-dea-agent-opioid-crisis-fueled-by-drug-industry-and-congress/

    …but hang on second, aren’t the DEA in charge of setting the production caps on opioids?

    Why yes, indeed they are!

    A curious omission from the DEA’s new narrative on the causes of the opioid crisis:

    DEA quotas also played a role in empowering pharmaceutical companies to flood the market with pills. In 1993, three years before Purdue released OxyContin, the DEA agency capped oxycodone manufacturing at just 3,520 kilograms, journalist John Temple writes in his book American Pain. But by 2007, this number had shot up to 70,000 kilograms, an almost twentyfold increase. http://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/dea-cutting-prescription-opioids_us_57f50078e4b03254526297bd

    That’s right folks, the DEA are in charge of setting the opioid production.

    • WalStMonky says:
      October 19, 2017 at 12:48 pm

      .
      .

      What in the world would make anyone to conclude that the DEA has the competence to put a lid on use? After 44 years of failure Can’t even the people here understand that they’re a significant catalyst for enabling and enriching the organized criminal syndicates?

      A Federal law passed in 2016? The DEA doesn’t like the law and claims it “ties their hands? Who the fuck would believe them? Sure, the Ignorati and the people who make their living selling the snake oil of “addictionology.”

      So tell me, how long does it take to get a new Federal law implemented? Has that 2016 law even been fully implemented? There sure as heck aren’t any statistics to back up the DEA allegations. The FBI just this month reported State and nationwide crime rates for 2016. The NHTSA won’t finalize nationwide fatality and accident rates or publish their SWAG estimates of miles driven in America in 2016 until January of 2018. Both sets of statistics have the infrastructure for collecting the data established and in place for years if not decades.

      44 years of utter failure but we’re supposed to believe that they might have had even minimal success except for a brand new law? Utter hogwash. The DEA is not the solution for the black market, it is the sine qua non causation.

  11. DdC says:
    October 17, 2017 at 12:23 am

    Treating Autism with Cannabis Now Has Scientific Support
    https://life.us11.list-manage.com/track/click?u=ada0c3a5b8b7960734cc26878&id=c9fd803053&e=60f1a9c299
    Autism is challenging to treat pharmacologically because there’s no single cause. But a recent study suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) could offer relief for people on the spectrum. Here’s why.

  12. DailyHeil says:
    October 17, 2017 at 3:56 am

    The British Police are encouraging the growth of an old industry:

    ‘Free pass’ for cannabis growers: Criminals caught producing the drug in vast quantities are now routinely let off with a police caution.

    Criminals growing cannabis worth tens of thousands are just getting cautioned.

    One force discovered 194 cannabis farms but brought charges against 79 people.

    One grower of 150 cannabis plants in Sunderland managed to escape sanction.

    https://tinyurl.com/cuntstableGreenBud

  13. Servetus says:
    October 17, 2017 at 12:42 pm

    US science and its university system have been scooped once again by another country, this time Canada. The University of Guelph has published the “first scientific paper in North America on improving medicinal cannabis plant production, helping move the industry into the realm of high-tech laboratories and evidence-based practices.”

    17-OCT-2017 — …”Growing marijuana has been illegal for so many years that there has been hardly any scientific research up until this point on how to produce this crop,” said Prof. Youbin Zheng.

    “There has been no science guiding this industry.”

    Zheng, along with Prof. Mike Dixon and PhD student Deron Caplan, investigated optimal fertilizer rates and soilless growing substrates required to grow cannabis plants that have higher amounts of medicinal components and greater yield.

    The study, which was funded in part by Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, was recently published in the journal HortScience.

    It is the first of a series of U of G studies investigating ideal horticultural practices for indoor cannabis production.

    “The University of Guelph is one of the top universities in the world for horticulture research, particularly for controlled environment plant production,” said Zheng, who holds the environmental horticulture chair in the School of Environmental Sciences.[…]

    A second paper, soon to appear in HortScience, examines ideal fertilizer rates and growth substrate conditions for the plants at the flowering stage.

    The team of researchers are now studying lighting and irrigation to grow high-yielding, quality cannabis.

    “Controlling the light spectrum, for example, provides the opportunity to standardize the concentration of cannabidiol, a chemical component in medical marijuana that appears to cause no intoxicating effects,” said Dixon, director of the Controlled Environment Systems Research Facility.

    AAAS Public Release: North American first: University of Guelph researchers publish scientific study on cannabis production

    The relevant HortScience paper doesn’t appear to be online yet as of this posting:

    http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/

    http://hortsci.ashspublications.org/content/by/year

  14. tensity1 says:
    October 17, 2017 at 1:45 pm

    I think I’ll go and check this place out sometime this week. I’d been hoping they’d be opening up soon:

    https://lasvegassun.com/news/2017/oct/15/years-in-the-making-massive-tribal-pot-store-near/

    As with other recent recreational markets, product is so-so and over-priced here in Vegas, but things will get better as time goes on.

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