This is what a cannabis equity program looks like

Posted on June 27, 2018 by Pete

Under the leadership of Cannabis Control Commissioner Shaleen Title, Massachusetts has revealed the “nation’s first statewide “social equity” program to help minorities and people convicted of drug offenses work in the legal marijuana industry.”

Massachusetts crafts ‘social equity’ program to help minorities and drug offenders enter marijuana industry

Massachusetts state law requires the Cannabis Control Commission to promote full participation in the industry by people disproportionately harmed by marijuana prohibition and enforcement. The commission is already giving priority in review of licensing applications to “economic empowerment” applicants who come from areas and groups that have been overly affected by marijuana arrests. […]

There are four tracks in the program: one for owners/entrepreneurs; one for management and executive level careers; one for entry level jobs or people looking to re-enter society after incarceration; and one for people with existing skills that can be transferred to the cannabis business. The final track has separate categories for professional skills like law or accounting and trade skills, like drivers, plumbers or electricians. It is also designed to help inventors of cannabis accessories.

Each track will offer training on industry-specific challenges and skills.

This is impressive work. It’s so much harder to do it this way, but represents a desire to not just legalize, but partially make up for the decades of damage from marijuana prohibition.

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263 Responses to This is what a cannabis equity program looks like

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  1. Servetus says:
    August 31, 2018 at 12:16 pm

    German scientists led by Frank Ativie at the University of Bonn have new information pertaining to the ability of THC in cannabis to slow down brain aging. The effect was previously demonstrated in a study using Methusalah mice:

    31-AUG-2018 — The so-called CB1 receptor is responsible for the intoxicating effect of cannabis. However, it appears to act also as a kind of “sensor” with which neurons measure and control the activity of certain immune cells in the brain. A recent study by the University of Bonn at least points in this direction. If the sensor fails, chronic inflammation may result – probably the beginning of a dangerous vicious circle. The publication appears in the journal Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience.

    The activity of the so-called microglial cells plays an important role in brain aging. These cells are part of the brain’s immune defense: For example, they detect and digest bacteria, but also eliminate diseased or defective nerve cells. They also use messenger substances to alert other defense cells and thus initiate a concerted campaign to protect the brain: an inflammation.

    This protective mechanism has undesirable side effects; it can also cause damage to healthy brain tissue. Inflammations are therefore usually strictly controlled. “We know that so-called endocannabinoids play an important role in this”, explains Dr. Andras Bilkei-Gorzo from the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn. “These are messenger substances produced by the body that act as a kind of brake signal: They prevent the inflammatory activity of the glial cells.” […]

    …findings indicate that the brake signals do not communicate directly with the glial cells, but via middlemen – a certain group of neurons, because this group has a large number of CB1 receptors. “We have studied laboratory mice in which the receptor in these neurons was switched off,” explains Bilkei-Gorzo. “The inflammatory activity of the microglial cells was permanently increased in these animals.”

    In contrast, in control mice with functional CB1 receptors, the brain’s own defense forces were normally inactive. This only changed in the present of inflammatory stimulus. “Based on our results, we assume that CB1 receptors on neurons control the activity of microglial cells,” said Bilkei-Gorzo. “However, we cannot yet say whether this is also the case in humans.” […]

    During ageing the production of cannabinoids declines reaching a low level in old individuals. This could lead to a kind of vicious circle, Bilkei-Gorzo suspects: “Since the neuronal CB1 receptors are no longer sufficiently activated, the glial cells are almost constantly in inflammatory mode. More regulatory neurons die as a result, so the immune response is less regulated and may become free-running.”

    It may be possible to break this vicious circle with drugs in the future. It is for instance hoped that cannabis will help slow the progression of dementia. Its ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), is a powerful CB1 receptor activator – even in low doses free from intoxicating effect. Last year, the researchers from Bonn and colleagues from Israel were able to demonstrate that cannabis can reverse the aging processes in the brains of mice. This result now suggests that an anti-inflammatory effect of THC may play a role in its positive effect on the ageing brain.

    AAAS Public Release: Vicious circle leads to loss of brain cells in old age: Researchers at the University of Bonn determine how dangerous inflammations in the brain are caused

    Original Publication: Cannabinoid 1 Receptor Signaling on Hippocampal GABAergic Neurons Influences Microglial Activity

  3. Servetus says:
    September 3, 2018 at 9:58 pm

    Labor Day is meant to honor the common laborer. Yet, the holiday never seems to come across with the same fervor as other special events, such as Veterans Day.

    George Orwell’s book, The Road to Wigan Pier, addressed the labor issues of the 1930s leading up to WWII, as well as the current politics looming over society, in a segment highlighting the pettiness associated with what one drinks or otherwise imbibes–in this case, beer or tea.

    Although born and raised a Catholic, Orwell lapsed. He was a Socialist. He argued that Catholicism should be cast as a progenitor of totalitarianism — a political philosophy mandating that each and every act and thought of citizens be controlled by some authoritarian imbecile:

    …As for the philosophic side of Marxism, the pea-and-thimble trick with those three mysterious entities, thesis, antithesis, and synthesis, I have never met a working man who had the faintest interest in it. It is of course true that plenty of people of working-class origin are Socialists of the theoretical bookish type. But they are never people who have remained working men; they don’t work with their hands, that is. They belong either to the type I mentioned in the last chapter, the type who squirms into the middle class via the literary intelligentsia, or the type who becomes a Labour M.P. or a high-up trade-union official. This last type is one of the most desolating spectacles the world contains.

    He has been picked out to fight for his mates, and all it means to him is a soft job and the chance of “bettering” himself. Not merely while but by fighting the bourgeoisie he becomes a bourgeois himself. And meanwhile it is quite possible that he has remained an orthodox Marxist. But I have yet to meet a working miner, steel-worker, cotton-weaver, docker, navvy or whatnot who was “ideologically” sound.

    One of the analogies between Communism and Roman Catholicism is that only the “educated” are completely orthodox. The most immediately striking thing about the English Roman Catholics–I don’t mean the real Catholics, I mean the converts: Ronald Knox, Arnold Lunn et hoc genus–is their intense self-consciousness. Apparently they never think, certainly they never write, about anything but the fact that they are Roman Catholics; this single fact and the self-praise resulting from it form the entire stock-in-trade of the Catholic literary man. But the really interesting thing about these people is the way in which they have worked out the supposed implications of orthodoxy until the tiniest details of life are involved. Even the liquids you drink, apparently, can be orthodox or heretical; hence the campaigns of Chesterton, “Beachcomber,” etc., against tea and in favour of beer. According to Chesterton, tea-drinking is “pagan”, while beer-drinking is “Christian”, and coffee is “the puritan’s opium”. It is unfortunate for this theory that Catholics abound in the “Temperance” movement and the greatest tea-boozers in the world are the Catholic Irish; but what I am interested in here is the attitude of mind that can make even food and drink an occasion for religious intolerance. A working-class Catholic would never be so absurdly consistent as that. He does not spend his time in brooding on the fact that he is a Roman Catholic, and he is not particularly conscious of being different from his non-Catholic neighbours. Tell an Irish dock-labourer in the slums of Liverpool that his cup of tea is “pagan,” and he will call you a fool. And even in more serious matters he does not always grasp the implications of his faith. In the Roman Catholic homes of Lancashire you see the crucifix on the wall and the Daily Worker on the table. It is only the “educated” man, especially the literary man, who knows how to be a bigot. And, mutatis mutandis, it is the same with Communism. The creed is never found in its pure form in a genuine proletarian.

    It may be said, however, that even if the theoretical book-trained Socialist is not a working man himself, at least he is actuated by a love of the working class. He is endeavouring to shed his bourgeois status and fight on the side of the proletariat–that, obviously, must be his motive.

    But is it? Sometimes I look at a Socialist–the intellectual, tract-writing type of Socialist, with his pullover, his fuzzy hair, and his Marxian quotation–and wonder. […]

    George Orwell, The Road to Wigan Pier, (1937), pp. 178-9.

    21st Century politicians and main-stream-media have unconsciously mandated the end of most political affiliations, leaving anarchy and revolution as solutions. The focus of the oncoming revolution must be on suborning the fascist leadership, and certainly not on accommodating its willing victims who further fascist ideologies.

    • DdC says:
      September 3, 2018 at 11:31 pm

      Happy Labor Day…

      Donald Trump told lawmakers he wants to scrap a pay raise for civilian federal workers, saying the nation’s budget couldn’t support it.

      Trump warns of violence if GOP loses midterms

      How Can I Get a Job in the Cannabis Industry?
      https://t.co/1fSCzr22J2

      Trump’s Secret War-On-Weed Committee
      https://t.co/gq7zOs9QpM

      Trump Regime Reportedly Attempting to Undermine Legal Pot Reefer Madness-Style
      https://t.co/W80bFU38zK
      New report shows that the White House created a committee to spread a politically-driven narrative, using cherry-picked data, about #marijuana.

      Instagram Deactivated Two Popular Cannabis Influencers
      https://twitter.com/DendeCannabist/status/1036103605508431873
      Facebook “Shadow Bans” Cannabis-Related Pages

      Marijuana legalization is the hottest topic in the media these days. Unless you want to address marijuana’s illegality and the lives that are shattered by the effects of marijuana prohibition.

    • NorCalNative says:
      September 4, 2018 at 12:42 pm

      The focus on the oncoming revolution must be on suborning the fascist leadership, and certainly not on accommmodating its willing victims who further fascist ideologies.

      Thinking about tattooing this on my forehead. Adding a middle finger salute might be a future option.

      • NCN says:
        September 5, 2018 at 1:55 pm

        Speaking of middle-finger salutes, DEA will be rescheduling CBD this month. In a long ago post I speculated whether this would happen before Mike Fucking Pence became President. Looks like CBD is gonna come first.

        FDA approved CBD on June 25th and DEA has 90 days to reply.

  4. Servetus says:
    September 4, 2018 at 10:43 am

    Facebook is getting its face slapped again for having inadvertently aided and abetted Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to power in the Philippines.

    In a Buzzfeed piece by Davey Alba titled “How Duterte Used Facebook To Fuel the Philippine Drug War”, we see how Facebook took over Philippine media by becoming its sole source of news for 69 million Filipinos. Duterte successfully dominated Facebook’s communications platform and employed anti-drug propaganda, fake news, and phony accusations against political rivals to win the 2016 election:

    September 4, 2018 — …Then-president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III had anchored his tenure on a catchy promise: “No corruption, no poverty” (Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap). But Aquino was considered “elite.”

    Duterte, who ran for the presidency after Aquino’s tenure, was the former president’s polar opposite. For three decades, he had been the mayor of Davao City in the south, far removed from Manila politics. He promised Filipinos action and a swift end to drugs, crime, and the status quo, and he turned to Facebook to get his message out. Duterte’s campaign directed a network of volunteers to promote the candidate’s authoritarian image; they pushed nicknames like “the Punisher” and “Duterte Harry” into the vernacular. […]

    Duterte utterly dominated Facebook during the country’s presidential election. In an April 2016 report, the company itself proclaimed Duterte the “undisputed king of Facebook conversations.” Two months later, he was elected president.

    Duterte’s position on the Philippine drug trade was dramatic indeed. During one 2016 campaign rally, Duterte said he would dump the bodies of slain drug dealers “into Manila Bay, and fatten all the fish there.” That remark immediately went “viral viral viral — no boosting, nothing,” La Viña bragged. “He would talk about the economy for one week, but then he would go back to drugs. Always, he would go back to drugs. He’s a politician. He saw it was the thing people reacted to.” […]

    In the years since his election, Duterte’s administration has shaken the foundations of Philippine democracy. It has been accused of threatening the Philippine justice system by ousting the chief justice of the Supreme Court; attacking press freedom; upending international relations by cozying up to China; cleansing a former Philippine dictator of his crimes; and sanctioning the extrajudicial executions of more than 12,000 Filipinos suspected of selling or using drugs in the country. In 2017, Human Rights Watch, an international advocacy group, lambasted Duterte’s government as “a human rights calamity.” (“They are entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts,” Andanar said of the organization, which conducts on-the-ground investigations of the drug war in conjunction with Amnesty International, Filipino journalists, and foreign correspondents, and works closely with the International Criminal Court and the United Nations.*) […]

    * Reached for comment on Duterte Communications Secretary Martin Andanar’s remark, Phelim Kine of Human Rights Watch said: “Andanar’s ham-fisted attempt to impugn the integrity of Human Rights Watch’s on-the-ground, verified research of summary executions by Philippine police personnel and their agents in the Duterte ‘drug war’ is emblematic of the Philippine government’s tactic of denial and distraction in a craven attempt to dodge accountability for what is nothing less than a policy of state slaughter of urban slum dwellers under the veneer of an anti-crime campaign.”

    https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/daveyalba/facebook-philippines-dutertes-drug-war

    • kaptinemo says:
      September 5, 2018 at 9:01 pm

      For decades the traditional media was aiding and abetting the dissemination of lies regarding all manner of drugs, but cannabis in particular. The vast majority of this assistance was voluntarily provided in the form of editorial bias, a bias emanating literally from the top, from the CEOs of the information-gatekeepers of the so-called ‘Big Three’ corporations and their various outlets.

      The unholy alliance of intel organizations, media corporations and banks (nearly every CEO of the traditional media corporations was a member of the de facto ruling elite of the US, the Council on Foreign Relations, which has been dominated by spook-riddled banks since its inception) has always been the not-so-silent partner in maintaining drug prohibition. As the reformer Richard Cowan so succinctly put it, one of the reasons that cannabis prohibition has lasted as long as it has could be summed up in 2 words: ‘Bad journalism’.

      But the low quality of journalism was rarely a matter of simple incompetence or lack of intellectual fortitude. True, it did exist, but it was overshadowed by the simple fact that any reportage that went against the ‘party line of drugs could expect to be ‘spiked’ as a matter of policy.

      And what of the new media? Consider this: Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of FaceBook, is a junior member of the Bilderberg group, whose top members are the very banksters that, here and across the world, comprise the true ‘Captains and the Kings’ of world finance and industry. But their top leadership is, like the CFR, dominated by the very old banking houses of Europe…which mainly got that way from first financing the drug trade when it was legal and then financing it when it became illegal. Just about all the traditional media outlets and now some (if not all) of the new media outlets have been suborned by their control.

      The same old game is afoot, only this time the ‘Mighty Wurlitzer’ of propaganda is spewing forth from your PC or phone, instead of from dead trees.

  5. DdC says:
    September 4, 2018 at 10:34 pm

    Policy picked out of a hat…

    Special Agent Timothy McMahon, with the New Jersey Division of the DEA, spoke with ROI-NJ about this strategy Thursday.

    DEA agents at public health forum: We need to fight demand, not the supply, of drugs

    The business structure of drug cartels is no different than that of some of the largest corporations and businesses in the country.

    That’s why shutting them down is difficult, Drug Enforcement Agency and federal law enforcement agency officials say.

    But rather than go after the business or the product, the DEA said it is focusing on a new strategy: Cut down the demand from customers.

    Bulk Manufacturer of Controlled Substances Application:
    National Center for Natural Products Research NIDA MPROJECT

    The University of Mississippi filed to renew its license to grow marijuana to be used in scientific research. Bulk Manufacturer of Controlled Substances Application: National Center for Natural Products Research NIDA MPROJECT

    Miami Cops Needlessly Arrest Thousands of Pot Smokers
    https://t.co/VbqfY03LlP

    New report shows that the White House created a committee to spread a politically-driven narrative, using cherry-picked data, about #marijuana.
    https://t.co/OGrsEh2wLk

    Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet today sent a letter expressing concerns with a recent news report that the White House has established a so-called Marijuana Policy Coordination Committee to support misinformed conclusions on marijuana.
    https://t.co/yhba0S7to8

    Fuck advertising, war, education, conformity, censorship with Bill Hicks
    https://youtu.be/T4wbUn_4cok

  6. DdC says:
    September 4, 2018 at 11:40 pm

    “Any person who [traffics an illegal drug] shall be guilty of an offence against this Act and shall be punished on conviction with death”.
    ~ Malaysia’s Dangerous Drugs Act 1952.

    Death Sentence for Malaysia Man Who Gave Patients Free Cannabis Oil

    Lukman, a 29-year-old father of one, provided cannabis oil to patients who were suffering from ailments that were difficult to treat with legal medicines. Lukman did not profit from this, and would provide cannabis oil for free to patients who could not afford it. Despite the lack of financial gain from his endeavour, his offences fall under section 39B

    Lukman’s defence team called upon patients who had successfully used his cannabis oil to treat their illnesses, and emphasised that he produced and provided the medicine on a non-profit basis for their wellbeing. The prosecution argued that, regardless of intent or revenue, Lukman produced and distributed an illegal drug that is not recognised for its medical uses by the Ministry of Health or any accredited Malaysian physician. This lack of recognition, the judge concluded, invalidated Lukman’s defence.

    Malaysia is one of at least 33 countries that retains the death penalty for drug offences.

    Lukman’s case is not unique in Malaysia. A former military captain, Amiruddin Nadarajan Abdullah, is currently on trial for providing medical cannabis products to as many as 800 patients, Free Malaysia Today reports. Former patients, including young children and grandparents, are among those who have come to court to show their support for Abdullah – known among his patients at Dr. Ganja. If convicted, Abdullah also faces the death sentence.

    Marijuana Moment @MarijuanaMoment
    https://t.co/2ABXg2SNbC
    Supreme Court Nominee Kavanaugh On Marijuana Enforcement And Presidential Pardon Power: “The question is, to what extent can the president or the executive branch say, we are not going to enforce a certain category of those…

    Where Supreme Court Nominee Brett Kavanaugh Stands On Marijuana And Drug Policy
    https://t.co/H9lGjX8qB3
    Kavanaugh sided with the majority in a 2007 case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which determined that terminally ill patients don’t have a constitutional right to access drugs that haven’t received FDA approval.

    Pro-Legalization Trump Backers Cry ‘Fake News’ Over Report On Anti-Marijuana Committee: Roger Stone & Scott Adams have theories.
    https://t.co/CbvdCeey0n

  7. Servetus says:
    September 5, 2018 at 10:40 am

    Voting Republican in the US is a gateway to drug ODs and suicides:

    5-Sep-2018 — Concerns about health and rising death rates may have helped tilt the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald J. Trump, according to an analysis of voting patterns and mortality rates in counties across the U.S.

    Findings from the study, at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), were published online today in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

    “Although life expectancy is increasing in many parts of the country, especially in urban areas, we’re not seeing nearly the same gains in rural and middle America. We shouldn’t underestimate the degree to which some portions of the country have been left behind in terms of their health. And it’s not surprising that health disparities correspond with voting behavior,” said study leader Lee Goldman, MD, MPH, the Harold and Margaret Hatch Professor, Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine, and Chief Executive, Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

    Dr. Goldman and colleagues hypothesized that changes in health outlook may have affected the outcome of the 2016 presidential election. […]

    Counties with a net gain in the percentage of individuals who voted for the Republican candidate had a 15 percent higher 2015 age-adjusted death rate than counties with a net gain in Democratic voters. The increase in death rates due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide was also 2.5 times higher in counties where Republicans made gains compared with counties where Democrats made gains. […]

    Although correlation does not imply causality, our findings also suggest that plausible improvements in life expectancy in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin might have shifted their electoral votes to Secretary Clinton.

    “Regardless of your political persuasion, our paper suggests that if health disparities were important enough to influence presidential voting, they may have an even broader impact on our country’s future than we had imagined,” said Dr. Goldman. “It also highlights how much work remains to reduce health disparities.” […]

    AAAS Public Release: Shorter life expectancy linked to 2016 presidential election outcome: Biggest Republican gains were in counties with shorter life expectancies and greater increases in deaths from drugs, alcohol, and suicide

    Notably not mentioned is lack of access to medical cannabis, or its derivatives, is also correlated with shorter life expectancies in the counties having greater increases in OD deaths and suicides.

    • WalStMonky says:
      September 7, 2018 at 8:14 am

      .
      Shorter life expectancy? I doubt it. Ockham’s Razor tells us that it’s much more likely due to voters with shit for brains.

  8. Servetus says:
    September 6, 2018 at 11:00 am

    Have scientists discovered the “buzz” in marijuana? And is buzzing such a terrible thing? Dr Prashad and Dr Filbey at the Center for BrainHealth® at The University of Texas at Dallas are hot on the trail of marijuana’s “cognitive impairments”:

    5-SEP-2018 — …The researchers collected electroencephalogram (EEG) data from 38 participants in two groups: 17 cannabis users and 21 nonusers. The EEG test measures electrical activity in the brain — also known as brain waves. Scientists measured the synchronization of brain waves to evaluate the strength of the brain signals in different cortical regions. Such coherence of the EEG signal is a measure of the communication between different regions of the brain.

    The results demonstrated that cannabis users exhibited increased synchronization — or activation — of most of the different types of brain waves, compared to nonusers. Similar results have been found in other studies of heroin-, alcohol- and cocaine-dependent users.

    In addition, greater cortical communication among the frontal regions of the brain was observed in cannabis users. Prashad said this could signify that participants had difficulty inhibiting neural activity that has been observed in Dr. Filbey’s previous studies, which would cause them to exert more effort as they attempted to stop doing certain tasks. Changes in communication between the brain’s cortical areas could also be related to cognitive impairments correlated with cannabis use.

    The findings of this research suggest that further studies are needed during task-related activity for comparison, Prashad said. These results could contribute to understanding cognitive impairments and the development of electrophysiological patterns to help map and evaluate the success of interventions.

    AAAS Public Release: Research suggests increased cortical activation in cannabis users’ brains in resting state

    The definition of “cortical function” is that it “produces a meaningful perceptual experience of the world [to] enable us to interact effectively, and [to] support abstract thinking and language. The parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes – all located in the posterior part of the cortex – integrate sensory information and information stored in memory.” Cognitive dysfunction would mean that marijuana prevents its consumers from having meaningful perceptual experiences, interferes with effective interactions, and deters abstract thinking and language use. The problem is marijuana doesn’t do any of these things.

    What occurs in most people who consume marijuana is that it motivates skeptical and objective thinking, and in particular, introspection, the very sort of brain activity fascists and insular religious extremists fear the most. We think, therefore we’re dangerous.

    • darkcycle says:
      September 6, 2018 at 6:03 pm

      Alas, the poor, poor prohibitionists. Seventy years they have desperately sought after evidence to use to retroactively justify their absolute ban on cannabis. Any evidence at all. Even the slightest actual, measurable change which stands up to scrutiny would be immediately seized upon and used to self righteously proclaim “We told you so” and “We knew it all along.” But they haven’t found anything that fits their need, and dang if the medical benefits they worked so hard to hide haven’t begun to slip out.
      Seriously, they haven’t found any detriment…after seventy years of looking. They can’t even MEASURE any impairment.
      I’d almost feel sorry for them, if they hadn’t ruined so very many lives.

  9. Thinking Clearly says:
    September 6, 2018 at 1:52 pm

    I am hoping that your recovery is going well,Pete.

    • Hope says:
      September 7, 2018 at 12:01 am

      Me, too, Pete. I’m concerned that we haven’t heard from you for some time now.

    • DdC says:
      September 8, 2018 at 9:14 pm

      I am hoping that your recovery is going well,Pete.

      Pete Guither
      August 31 at 7:44 PM ·
      https://www.facebook.com/guither

      Me (in my head to my physical therapist during our session): “You’ve been torturing me for over 45 minutes already! I’m screaming at the top of my mind. Now you want me to… what?! 30 times? Wait – what are you doing? My leg doesn’t go that way. Or that way. What do you mean ‘Where does it hurt?’ Where doesn’t it?! And no, I can’t breathe normally while you’re ripping my limbs from my body, you sadistic freak! You should roast in the fires of hell for what you’re doing to me!”
      Therapist: “OK, that’s it for today.”
      Me: “Thanks! Great session. See you next week.”

      • Thinking Clearly says:
        September 8, 2018 at 10:25 pm

        I am curious about how his recovery is going in light of the new restrictive attitudes that are being foisted upon doctors re: using opiates during recovery.

        Thanks for the info DdC.

        • WalStMonky says:
          September 15, 2018 at 3:22 pm

          .
          .

          Assuming that Pete is still in Illinois and has a prescription for an opioid pain killer written by an Illinois doctor with a DEA number he now qualifies for medicinal cannabis under Illinois law. No, he doesn’t have to be a junkie. He doesn’t even have to have the prescription filled. Law makers who believe that a gram of prevention is worth a kilo of cure….who’da thunk it? Even more amazing is that they thought it up on their own.
          Illinois Makes it Legal to Replace Opioids with Marijuana

      • Hope says:
        September 14, 2018 at 11:43 pm

        Thanks, DdC.

  10. Trump Watch says:
    September 7, 2018 at 3:26 am

    Text book sociopathic word salad with distraction hand signals and snake sounds…the reptilian brain speaking…

    https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-anonymous-mispronounce_us_5b91ddd2e4b0cf7b003e25d7

    • Crazy Town says:
      September 7, 2018 at 8:08 am

      Colbert has picked up on Snake man too.. begins about 3:30 ..

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKTxAEBQ6yc

    • Servetus says:
      September 7, 2018 at 11:15 am

      Bob Wefald is a Trump supporter who was appointed by Trump to be on the American Battle Monuments Commission. Bob Wefald is also a former district court judge, and the former attorney general of North Dakota (1981-1984), who is spearheading opposition to North Dakota’s upcoming voter referendum to legalize recreational marijuana.

      SAM is involved in Bob Wefald’s opposition campaign. Sabet’s and Kennedy’s Frankenstein monster is wielding its usual cascade of fear-mongering lies and antiquated propaganda:

      Sep 6, 2018 — …Also speaking were Cass County Sheriff Paul Laney and Luke Niforatos of the anti-legalization group called Smart Approaches to Marijuana.

      Laney said that he believes if the law passes it would “severely hamper” his agency’s ability to protect the public.

      He urged residents to research and educate themselves on the issue and if they did “it would be enough to scare anyone.”

      Niforatos painted what he called a grim picture of what has happened in Colorado since voters approved legalization in 2012 and retail marijuana stores began opening in 2014. He said the only thing that the marijuana industry is out for is to make a profit.

      He said the industry is blatantly targeting children in Colorado just like Big Tobacco does to keep customers and that tax revenues from marijuana sales were just 1 percent of the Colorado budget revenues.

      Niforatos also said the potency of the marijuana being sold in Colorado is much, much higher than it was in the days of Woodstock or the hippie days of the 1970s and thus causing more troubles with crime and impaired driving in the state. […]

      https://www.inforum.com/news/government-and-politics/4495566-statewide-group-forms-oppose-recreational-marijuana-nd

      Bob Wefald is merely the latest Trump appointee to come out as an anti-marijuana crusader. US Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions is the most familiar example.

      Trump’s federal appointments are making a mockery of his promise not to interfere with decisions by states that place limits on marijuana prohibition. Any such appointments being made by Trump, no matter how seemingly benign, represent Trump’s true intentions toward the marijuana industry. Trump and his followers are prohibitches. In the future they must be excluded or removed from public office.

  11. WalStMonky says:
    September 7, 2018 at 9:03 am

    .
    Traders are puking Tesla stock this morning because it appears that Elon Musk chooses to enjoy cannabis from time to time. Let’s put this on into the “opportunity knocks” category.

    • Servetus says:
      September 7, 2018 at 9:24 pm

      Opportunity knocks, indeed. Elon appears to be suffering from the effects of entrepreneurship; that of partnering with or selling stock to people with little or no vision of the future. What a pain. No one who has experienced it has anything good to say about having their chain yanked by idiots who have never accomplished anything.

      I suspect this is why he wanted to dump his stockholders by going private. The latest maneuver, that of smoking a J in public, indicates Musk may have wanted to disinvest himself from stockholders lacking any imagination or any contributions to future humanity. In that case, blowing off the prohibs in public is a good primary strategy.

      When Musk’s rockets blast off to Mars, the botanics of colonization should include cannabis as well as potatoes, soy, etc.—all the essentials for food, medicine, and materials manufacturing.

  12. Servetus says:
    September 8, 2018 at 10:24 am

    Promising potable (and marijuana grow-op usable) water reclaimed from air at less than 2 cents/liter, a UK startup called Requench is offering cargo-container units that are about 20 feet in length that can produce up to 200 liters per hour:

    http://www.requench.co.uk/

    Water reclamation from the atmosphere is attracting much research and development elsewhere:

    http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180821-climate-change-may-force-us-to-conjure-water-from-thin-air

  13. Servetus says:
    September 10, 2018 at 10:33 am

    Mindfulness meditation is suggested as the means by which some people tolerate pain while others don’t:

    7-SEP-2018 — Ever wonder why some people seem to feel less pain than others? A study conducted at Wake Forest School of Medicine may have found one of the answers – mindfulness. “Mindfulness is related to being aware of the present moment without too much emotional reaction or judgment,” said the study’s lead author, Fadel Zeidan, Ph.D., assistant professor of neurobiology and anatomy at the medical school, part of Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. “We now know that some people are more mindful than others, and those people seemingly feel less pain.” […]

    Whole brain analyses revealed that higher dispositional mindfulness during painful heat was associated with greater deactivation of a brain region called the posterior cingulate cortex, a central neural node of the default mode network. Further, in those that reported higher pain, there was greater activation of this critically important brain region. […]

    The default mode network extends from the posterior cingulate cortex to the medial prefrontal cortex of the brain. These two brain regions continuously feed information back and forth. This network is associated with processing feelings of self and mind wandering, Zeidan said.

    “As soon as you start performing a task, the connection between these two brain regions in the default mode network disengages and the brain allocates information and processes to other neural areas,” he said.

    “Default mode deactivates whenever you are performing any kind of task, such as reading or writing. Default mode network is reactivated whenever the individual stops performing a task and reverts to self-related thoughts, feelings and emotions. The results from our study showed that mindful individuals are seemingly less caught up in the experience of pain, which was associated with lower pain reports.”

    “Now we have some new ammunition to target this brain region in the development of effective pain therapies,” Zeidan said. […]

    ‘Mindful people’ feel less pain; MRI imaging pinpoints supporting brain activity

    Cannabis produces a kind of mindfulness that masks pain, often referred to by its detractors as being “spaced”. Perhaps if left to foreign-based research labs, investigators will examine the possibility THC deactivates the posterior cingulate cortex in a similar fashion.

    Back in the competitive world of opioid pain medications, a new class of fentanyl has been developed in Berlin:

    7-SEP-2018 — Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Zuse Institute Berlin have developed a new generation of pain medications. The researchers used computer simulations to develop new opioids that will only work at sites affected by injury or inflammation. These drugs can prevent the occurrence of brain- and gut-related side effects typically associated with conventional opioids and have been shown to be successful in preclinical studies. Results from this research have been published in Pain and Scientific Reports. […]

    Collaborating with PD Dr. Marcus Weber of the Zuse Institute Berlin, the researchers used computer simulations to develop two new opioids. In both cases, the researchers used fentanyl as the starting molecule. […]

    Opioid molecules need to undergo protonation before they can bind to and activate opioid receptors. The researchers used this knowledge to design two drugs that would only exist in their protonated state in the presence of inflammation. This restricts opioid receptor activation to sites of tissue damage or inflammation, rather than receptors in the brain or gut.

    “Our innovative design method provides a robust basis for a new generation of pain medications,” reports Prof. Stein. He adds: “These drugs could help us both to avoid the dangerous side effects of conventional opioids and to reduce complications. They would also help us stem the opioid crisis, a problem that is particularly evident in the United States.”

    A new generation of pain medications: Charité researchers lay the groundwork for drugs with fewer side effects

    • NorCalNative says:
      September 10, 2018 at 12:26 pm

      The HOLY GRAIL?

      75 years of opioid research: the exciting but vain quest for the Holy Grail (Corbett et al, 2006). From the study’s abstract:

      Over the 75-year lifetime of the British Pharmacological Society there has been an enormous expansion in our understanding of how opioid drugs act on the nervous system, with much of this effort aimed at developing powerful analgesic drugs devoid of the side effects associated with Morephine — The Holy Grail of opioid research…

      “Attempts over at least half a century to dissociate the powerful analgesic effects of opioids from their undesirable effects have failed.

      This new area of research looks promising. However, if the chemical trick involves changing the pH of the opioid receptors to activate only injured or inflamed tissues would substance abusers be able to modify the drug in a way that would restore opioid-based euphoria?

      The (medical) problem with fast-acting drugs that can cause pleasure and euphoria is future potential substance abuse, i.e, possible gateway effect. What the current system fails to understand (for the most part) is that a substance like cannabis that can produce joy is the ANTI-gateway to destructive abuse.

      In regard to the second link, “It’s NOT pain, UNTIL it reaches the brain. Cannabis “mindfulness” can minimize the emotional effects related to pain and that makes it an important part of the analgesic effect.

  14. Thinking Clearly says:
    September 11, 2018 at 2:07 am

    Nearly 30% of all opioid prescriptions lack medical explanation https://t.co/dDpLISC1ze

    Doctors often gave no good reason for prescribing opioids, new study finds https://t.co/FG7btOWl68

    You know, its thrilling at first to see the drug war blame getting closer to the source of the problem. I am seeing something different now. I am seeing scape-goating. Most of the deaths from opiate overdoses have nothing to do with doctors prescribing habits. Nor did the years long diversion of pills that was conveniently ignored by the DEA.

    Fentanyl and heroin combined with adulterants and in combination with alcohol and other drugs. That’s causing the deaths.

    Death rates steeply inclined when the DEA began to actually do something. Is it too much to conclude that things did not reach epidemic levels without the drug war help of the DEA?

    Blaming doctors prescribing habits in the press is far, far away from solving anything.

    Only an end to the war on drugs and liberal use of harm reduction technologies will end the government created death toll statistics.

    Following our current path is an uncomfortable escalation of the drug war.

  15. Servetus says:
    September 11, 2018 at 10:47 am

    University of New Mexico researchers led by Professor Jacob Miguel Vigil and Department of Economics Assistant Professor Sarah See Stith summarize the currently known medical effectiveness of cannabis:

    10-SEP-2018 — Utilizing new mobile application technology, researchers at The University of New Mexico found that medical cannabis provides immediate symptom relief across dozens of health symptoms with relatively minimal negative side effects. […]

    These studies analyzed data collected with the Releaf App, developed by co-authors Franco Brockelman, Keenan Keeling and Branden Hall and currently, the largest repository of user-entered information on the consumption and effects of cannabis use in the United States with nearly 100,000 recorded user sessions.

    Since its release in 2016, the commercially developed Releaf App has been the only publicly available, incentive-free patient educational software program designed for recording how individual cannabis usage sessions correspond to immediate changes in symptom intensity levels and experienced side effects.

    “If the results found in our studies can be extrapolated to the general population, cannabis could systematically replace multi-billion dollar medication industries around the world. It is likely already beginning to do so.” — Jacob Vigil […]

    In the first study, across 27 different health conditions with symptoms that ranged from seizure disorders to depression, users reported an average symptom reduction of nearly 4 points on a 1-10 scale following the consumption of cannabis in its various product forms, from concentrates to topicals.

    The second study focused specifically on the use of raw natural cannabis flower, or ‘buds’ for treating insomnia, with similar degrees of effectiveness that varied according to characteristics of the flower and combustion methods. Both investigations were supported in part by the University of New Mexico Medical Cannabis Research Fund, which was designed to facilitate the types of biomedical cannabis-based research that historically have been difficult to fund through conventional governmental entities, such as the National Institutes of Health.

    Most prescription medications carry a long list of unavoidable negative side effects and risks of serious health concerns and even death, allowing alternative forms of medication to compete for patient preferences and healthcare industry demands. Medical cannabis is rapidly gaining popularity with the largest expansions in use among older people and patients with significant health conditions. […]

    More than 94 percent of cannabis users reported symptom intensity reductions following self-administered cannabis use across the various health conditions measured with the Releaf App. This may reflect the ability of the plant’s phytocannabinoids to influence the human endocannabinoid system, which regulates both mental and physical health and behavioral systems.

    According to the endocannabinoid deficiency theory, many mental and physical health disturbances result from the dysregulation of the body’s innate endocannabinoid system (ECS), often described as a master network of chemical signals that promote physical and psychological homeostasis, or biological state-efficiency. The ECS consists of natural ligands (e.g., anandamide and 2-AG) and receptors (CB1 and CB2) that appear to play a major role in efficient regulation of a basic bodily systems including sleep, feeding (e.g., gut permeability and adipogenesis), libido and fertility, pain perception, motivation, happiness, anxiety, learning and memory, social functioning, autoimmune responses, cellular redox, and cancer pathophysiology.

    “In other words and unlike conventional pharmaceutical approaches, which largely target specific neurotransmitter sites, cannabis may act to improve a broad spectrum of symptoms by regulating homeostatic functioning, perhaps best described as a system-modulating rather than symptom-modulating form of therapy,” said Vigil. “The medicinal potential of this concept and practical application for treating so many and seemingly diverse health conditions is unlike that of any other single medication currently known to exist.” [Emphasis added]

    In addition to therapeutic benefits, these studies also showed that cannabis use is associated with frequent and numerous, yet generally non-serious side effects. […]

    AAAS Public Release: UNM study shows medical cannabis effective in treating a wide range of health conditions: Researchers use mobile app to identify and track symptom relief

    • NCN says:
      September 11, 2018 at 11:41 am

      Weed is a giant “Fuck You” to Western medicine and the single-molecule, single-indication approach.

      • Thinking Clearly says:
        September 11, 2018 at 2:00 pm

        … and a big “Fuck You” to the small crowd that complains about promoting marijuana as a “panacea”.

      • NCN says:
        September 12, 2018 at 1:06 pm

        When I was reading this study I’m nodding my head and checking off boxes and saying to myself, “this is the real deal on weed.” I got all excited and shit because it matches my beliefs, experience and knowledge.

        But, here’s the real deal and I’ll let our old buddy Kevin Sabet explain it. “Anecdotes aren’t evidence,” and he’s right. It doesn’t really matter how scientifically accurate or true this study might be, it doesn’t rise to the level of “evidence-based.”

        This study is the lowest rung of research hierarchy because it relies exclusively on self-medicating and self-reporting. It may be what you need to do when Schedule I prohibits real research, but it’s not evidence-based.

        Any one who believes in the role and function of FDA-approval is likely to see this study as junk rather than science. That’s if they even look at it at all.

        The next level up would be same info provided by physicians as Case Histories. Case Histories are TOTALLY ignored in EVERY meta-analysis you will see on cannabis therapeutics. Clinical Trials remain the Gold Standard.

  16. Servetus says:
    September 12, 2018 at 10:01 am

    Craft beer is 5000 years older than previously suspected. It precedes agriculture. The latest archeological discovery boosts the beer hypothesis suggesting beer brewing launched human civilization by inspiring agriculture:

    12-SEP-2018 — Reports suggests beer brewing practices existed in the Eastern Mediterranean over five millennia before the earliest known evidence, discovered in northern China. In an archaeological collaboration project between Stanford University in the United States, and University of Haifa, Israel, archeologists analyzed three stone mortars from a 13,000-year old Natufian burial cave site in Israel. Their analysis confirmed that these mortars were used for brewing of wheat/barley, as well as for food storage.

    “Alcohol making and food storage were among the major technological innovations that eventually led to the development of civilizations in the world, and archaeological science is a powerful means to help reveal their origins and decode their contents,” said Li Liu, PhD, Department of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Stanford University, […]

    The earliest archaeological evidence for cereal-based beer brewing even before the advent of agriculture comes from the Natufians, semi-sedentary, foraging people, living in the Eastern Mediterranean between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic periods, following the last Ice Age. The Natufians at Raqefet Cave collected locally available plants, stored malted seeds, and made beer as a part of their rituals. […]

    The results indicate that the Natufians exploited at least seven plant types associated with the mortars, including wheat or barley, oat, legumes and bast fibers (including flax). They packed plant-foods in fiber-made containers and stored them in boulder mortars. They used bedrock mortars for pounding and cooking plant-foods, and for brewing wheat/barley-based beer, likely served in ritual feasts 13,000 years ago. […]

    …Beer brewing may have been, at least in part, an underlying motivation to cultivate cereals in the southern Levant, supporting the beer hypothesis proposed by archaeologists more than 60 years ago.

    Original Publication: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X18303468?via%3Dihub

    AAAS Public Release: A prehistoric thirst for craft beer — Evidence suggests that stone mortars from Raqefet Cave, Israel, were used in brewing cereal-based beer millennia before the establishment of sedentary villages and cereal agriculture

  17. Servetus says:
    September 12, 2018 at 10:43 am

    Research at the Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology discovered differences in male and female offspring of female rats dosed with THC during pregnancy. The study highlights the potential socializing effects of cannabinoids in un-social human males:

    11-SEP-2018 — …Senior author Olivier Manzoni, Inserm Research Director at the Mediterranean Institute of Neurobiology, and Director of the CannaLab at the institute, says: “As cannabinoids can cross the placenta, they may interfere with fetal endocannabinoid signaling during neurodevelopment, which is involved in regulating a variety of processes such as pregnancy, appetite, pain sensation, and mediating the pharmacological effects of cannabis. This could in turn lead to some serious long-term deficits. But despite increasing reports of cannabis consumption during pregnancy, the long-term consequences of prenatal cannabinoid exposure remain incompletely understood.”

    To fill this knowledge gap, the international collaborators examined how prenatal cannabinoid exposure influences the synaptic and behavioral functions of the medial prefrontal cortex – a brain region often implicated in neuropsychiatric disorders – in adult male and female rats.

    Their results revealed that males exposed to cannabinoids while in the uterus were less sociable than normal animals, and spent less time interacting with others. Their sniffing and playing behaviors were impaired, while the number of attacks among males remained unchanged. Additionally, the researchers saw that the exposed males had a heightened excitability of pyramidal neurons in the prefrontal cortex. None of these effects were seen in females.

    “The deleterious effects of prenatal exposure to cannabinoids on social behavior were specific to male offspring only,” explains co-first author Anissa Bara, who was a PhD candidate in Manzoni’s lab at the time the study was carried out. “But while social interaction was specifically impaired in males, locomotion, anxiety and cognition remained unaffected in both sexes, suggesting discrete and sex-specific behavioral consequences of cannabinoid exposure during adulthood.”

    The results also revealed that the mGlu5 gene – an effector of endocannabinoid signaling in the prefrontal cortex – was reduced in the exposed males’ prefrontal cortex. The team discovered that amplifying mGlu5 signaling could normalise the synaptic and behavioral deficits induced by prenatal exposure to cannabinoids partly by activating the cannabinoid type 1 receptor (CB1R). Similarly, later tests also revealed that enhancing levels of anandamide (a type of endocannabinoid) in exposed males helped to restore their social deficits via CB1R. […]

    “The fact that increasing mGlu5 signaling and enhancing anandamide levels helped to reverse the negative effects of early exposure in rats also hints at a new pharmacological strategy that could one day be trialed in humans.”

    AAAS Public Release: Prenatal exposure to cannabis impacts sociability of male offspring only: Study reveals sex-specific effects of prenatal cannabinoid exposure on adult offspring and identifies potential new therapeutic strategies

    • NCN says:
      September 12, 2018 at 12:45 pm

      I can’t find a link to this study that shows methodology. They claim to use cannabinoids as opposed to THC or synthetic versions of THC. The only descriptors for cannabinoids I can find is “low dose.”

      Cannabis is extremely variable in cannabinoid, terpene, and flavonoid content, and simply saying “cannabinoids” is bullshit.

      I’d also like to know how exactly they “amplified” anandamide signaling at mGlu5 receptors.

      How do you get little mousies to take cannabis? Inhalation? Ingestion? Injection? I NEED more info to understand the true implications of this study. Does this study imply that cannabinoids during pregnancy with girls is OKAY because this particular problem is associated with males only?

    • DdC says:
      September 12, 2018 at 3:41 pm

      Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes
      https://t.co/AxpBSF6V2j

      Twenty-four Jamaican neonates exposed to marijuana prenatally and 20 nonexposed neonates.

      Measurements and main results.

      Exposed and nonexposed neonates were compared at 3 days and 1 month old, using the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, including supplementary items to capture possible subtle effects. There were no significant differences between exposed and nonexposed neonates on day 3.

      At 1 month, the exposed neonates showed better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach organized states. The neonates of heavy-marijuana-using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability, quality of alertness, irritability, and self-regulation and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers.

  18. Servetus says:
    September 12, 2018 at 11:38 am

    A new biomarker for cocaine addiction in rats has been discovered. Morgan H. James’s work at Rutgers Univ. (et al.) decimates NIDA Director Nora Volkow’s conviction that dopamine is the sole component in motivating drug addiction or its cravings:

    12-SEP-2018 — A study in cocaine-addicted rats reports long-lasting increases in the number of neurons that produce orexin–a chemical messenger important for sleep and appetite–that may be at the root of the addiction. The study, performed by researchers at Rutgers University, New Jersey, was published in Biological Psychiatry. Restoring the number of orexin neurons to normal, or blocking orexin signaling in the brain, made the rats no longer addicted, suggesting the increased orexin neurons to be essential brain changes that cause the addicted state.

    The findings identify a promising avenue for treating addiction with orexin-based therapies. Drugs targeting orexin signaling are already being developed for sleep disorders and eating disorders. “The development of a growing array of drugs targeting orexin signaling creates new opportunities to test new medications for the treatment of addiction,” said John Krystal, MD, Editor of Biological Psychiatry.

    In the process of studying the role of orexin signaling, first author Morgan James, PhD, and colleagues also found that mimicking the typical binge-like pattern of drug use–with access to cocaine on-and-off throughout the day–produced a model that reflected addiction in humans better than the “gold standard” of continuous access. Rats given intermittent cocaine demonstrated behaviors observed in human users, including increased motivation for cocaine, even when they received a painful shock to acquire the drug, depression- and anxiety-like behaviors, and ‘relapse’ after several months of abstinence. […]

    When people think of addiction, they tend to focus on a single chemical messenger, dopamine, and the reward center of the brain. But this greatly oversimplifies the addiction process–a complex pattern of brain circuits and multiple brain chemicals contribute to the anticipation, experience, and seeking of reward. “Viewing addiction as mediated by a single neurotransmitter in a single brain region is not only inaccurate, but it prevents us from harnessing the complexity of brain signaling mechanisms in the process of developing treatments for addiction,” said Dr. Krystal.

    Original Publication: https://www.biologicalpsychiatryjournal.com/article/S0006-3223(18)31744-X/fulltext

    AAAS Public Release: Cocaine addiction traced to increase in number of orexin neurons: A study in Biological Psychiatry identifies a critical role of the orexin system in the expression of an addicted state in rats

  19. DdC says:
    September 14, 2018 at 10:18 pm

    A report about how the U.S. might block cannabis investors from entering the country stokes a sell-off of this high-flying marijuana stock.

    Here’s Why Tilray Inc. Tanked Today
    @themotleyfool #stocks $TLRY, $CGC, $CRON

    Tilray Inc NASDAQ: TLRY
    Today 109.05 USD −10.71 (8.94%)
    Aug 15 $29.10

    U.S. official: Canadian marijuana users, workers and investors
    risk lifetime border ban. politico

    How Much Money is the U.S. Government Making
    by Keeping Weed Illegal?

    “Although fascist nations do often control their ‘means of production,’ Mackey seems to have forgotten that they usually utilize warfare, forced mass mobilization of the public, and politically-motivated violence against their own peoples to achieve their ends.”
    ~ No, Actually,
    This Is What a Fascist Looks Like

    • Tony Aroma says:
      September 15, 2018 at 6:33 pm

      Why is Justin Trudeau not banned from the US? He’s admitted using marijuana and is, in part, responsible for legalizing it in Canada. That satisfies the official criteria for a lifetime ban. I think he should refuse to enter the US until the ban is lifted, as a show of solidarity.

    • Servetus says:
      September 15, 2018 at 8:34 pm

      Re fascism, the great muckraker George Seldes (1890–1995) and publisher of In Fact wrote of the fascist movement in the United States as it grew and destroyed unions and the middle class in the 1930s. This era’s fascist movement, typified by its prohibs, resembles the previous one in terms of the actors and business interests that brought Hitler to power and made marijuana illegal in 1937. In Facts and Fascism, Seldes names names:

      In Germany, in Italy, until the seizure of government by the Fascists, the majority of newspapers were brave enough to be anti-Fascist, whereas in America strangely enough a large part of the press (Hearst, Scripps Howard, McCormick Patterson) has for years been pro-Fascist and almost all big papers live on the money of the biggest Tory and reactionary corporations and ref1ect their viewpoint now.

      On the anti-Fascist side, unfortunately, there is not one publication which can boast of more than one or two hundred thousand circulation, whereas the reactionary press has its New York News with 2,000,00 daily, its Saturday Evening Post with 3,000,000 weekly, and its Reader’s Digest with 9,000,000 monthly, which means up to 50,000,000 readers.

      It is a shameful and tragic situation that in America, with 132,000,000 persons of whom 50,000,000 read anti-labor or anti-liberal propaganda in Reader’ Digest, only a few hundred thousand buy and read intelligent, honest, unbribed, uncorrupted publications, issued in the public interest, […]

      If it is true that five, six or seven persons read every copy of the popular magazines, then it is also true that the reactionary, anti-labor, and frequently fascist propaganda which the Reader’s Digest passes off on an unsuspecting public influences no less than 50,000,000 persons. The Digest has 9,675,000 subscribers, 8,300,000 in America. It pretends to be an impartial reprint magazine, selecting the best items from all the others, but it is in fact a skillfully manipulated publication spreading the reactionary views of a powerful nobody named DeWitt Wallace.

      A man who has so much power in his hands-the making of public opinion by reaching the majority of the people of this country who can read-should realize his social responsibilities. DeWitt Wallace is either a knave or a fool. Either he is so stupid that he does not know that he is spreading Fascism, or he is a Machiavellian knave who has devised a wonderful and sinister method, far superior to any known to Herr Goebbels.

      Before presenting the evidence-most of which is visible to any person who will go to the public library and study the issues of Reader’s Digest beginning with 1933, the year Hitler took over will permit Mr. Wallace himself to speak first. In reply to my indictment of himself and his publication as native Fascist, he replied by saying my charges were “unadulterated”. My three-part indictment was summarized as follows:

      (1) That DeWitt Wallace, owner and publisher of the Reader’s Digest, told his staff he does not want Hitler defeated.

      (2) That beginning with the November, 1942, Reader’s Digest 158, a new editor has been appointed who as editor of the American Mercury was first to publish native fascist propaganda in the United States. (Foreign fascist propaganda, written by Mussolini, Ribbentrop, Goebbels, Goering, etc., was first introduced to America by William Randolph Hearst in his magazine Cosmopolitan, and his 20-odd newspapers.)

      (3) That Reader’s Digest has consistently published reactionary, anti-labor and native fascist propaganda, sandwiched in with pleasant human interest stories which have built up the largest circulation m the world. […]

      Facts and Fascism, George Seldes, (1943), pp. 11-12, 158-9

      Support of Hitler or fascism by Americans Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford is well known publicly. Less publicly known, Harry Anslinger’s in-laws, the Mellon family, were involved in fascist business intrigues. Other names and corporate interests cited by Seldes as fascist inspired or influenced, and there are many, include Ambassador to Britain Joseph Kennedy, whose secret report to FDR favored Britain going fascist. Of all the moneyed purveyors of fascism, the individual Seldes selected as the number-one American fascist of the era was William Randolph Hearst. Hearst’s business interests with IG Farbenindustrie in Germany prevented the US war effort from accessing needed aluminum.

    • DdC says:
      September 18, 2018 at 9:19 am

      More Free Pot…

      Tilray Inc

      NASDAQ: TLRY
      136.99 USD +16.80 (13.98%)

      Tilray Leads Pot Stock Gains as Coca-Cola Said to Eye CBD Drinks https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-09-17/tilray-leads-pot-stock-gains-as-coca-cola-said-to-eye-cbd-drinks via @business

      The Coca-Cola Co
      NYSE: KO
      46.32 USD +0.33 (0.72%)

      • DdC says:
        September 18, 2018 at 9:13 pm

        Holy Shit Batman! Tanked!

        Tilray Inc

        NASDAQ: TLRY
        $154.98 USD +34.79 (28.95%)

        Aug 15 $29.10

        A report about how the U.S. might block cannabis investors from entering the country stokes a sell-off of this high-flying marijuana stock.

        Here’s Why Tilray Inc. Tanked Today
        @themotleyfool

        Those DEA have enough egg on their face
        to feed the country omlets.

        Don’t Look Like Cheech and Chong at the Border,
        Government Advises Canadians

        What does that even mean?

        “Our officers are not going to be asking everyone whether they have used marijuana, but if other questions lead there—or if there is a smell coming from the car, they might ask,” Todd Owen, executive assistant commissioner for the Office of Field Operations, told Politico. Lying about it carries a lifetime ban, he added.

        “Frankly, if you show up at the border looking like Cheech and Chong, you’re going into secondary [inspection],” @BillBlair on the challenge a legal cannabis regime may pose to Canadians seeking to enter the U.S.

      • Servetus says:
        September 18, 2018 at 10:14 pm

        Free is good. Health food and vitamin supplement stores throughout the Bay Area allow me the convenience of picking up over-the-counter CBD products less than three blocks walking distance from my front door. Convenience is good, but free is better than spending $40 for a half-gram of diluted CBD tincture. Coke should be congratulated for giving us the real thing once again.

        • DdC says:
          September 19, 2018 at 9:08 am

          Free is good Servetus, but I’d rather buy from a grower or dispensary with free stock market casino money than fund KO. This is like playing a slot machine rigged for the playah.

          Tilray Inc
          NASDAQ: TLRY
          $222.10 USD +67.12 (43.31%)

          Aug 15 $29.10

  20. WalStMonky says:
    September 17, 2018 at 2:22 pm

    .
    Stupidest cannabis related headline ever:

    Coca Cola High on Cannabidiol
    Company in talks with Aurora Cannabis to make CBD infused beverages.

  21. Servetus says:
    September 18, 2018 at 10:40 am

    An evaluation of an online cannabis-responsible vendor training program has been made by researchers at the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation:

    16-SEP-2018…The curriculum was developed for a randomized controlled trial to test its efficacy for staff recruited from a random sample of 225 stores in Colorado, Oregon and Washington state. A total of 420 diverse store employees completed the online training. Then each trainee was given a survey about their experiences to gauge usability and trainee attitudes about the training.

    The results showed that:

    (1) more than 75 percent of trainees found the training user-friendly;

    (2) almost 70 percent were satisfied with the training; and

    (3) slightly more than 90 percent would recommend the training to another employee.

    Critically, the training significantly improved trainees’ ability to check IDs, and to spot intoxicated customers as well as their confidence to use their state’s inventory tracking system.

    Says one of the co-authors, Dr. Robert Saltz of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, Prevention Research Center: “The online curriculum was seen very favorably by the employees, which is a good sign. We’re looking forward to seeing the results of the next phase of the research–a randomized trial to see if the training results in more responsible selling and serving behavior.” […]

    AAAS Public Release: The effectiveness of online cannabis responsible vendor training program

    Source: Buller DB, Woodall WG, Saltz R, Grayson A, Buller MK. Implementation and Effectiveness of an Online Responsible Vendor Training Program for Recreational Marijuana Stores in Colorado, Oregon, and Washington State. Journal of public health management and practice. August 31, 2018. doi: 10.1097/PHH.0000000000000843. [Epub ahead of print].

    And in previous news the corporate media and press focused its usual hysteria on a 2017 Canadian study that showed low birth weights among mothers who used marijuana while pregnant. In a more recent 2018 study, Mount Sinai Hospital researchers discovered that women who experienced higher levels of trauma gave birth to significantly smaller male babies.

    Will the main stream media treat the Mount Sinai trauma study with the same gravitas given to an association of pregnancy and the evil weed? Did the Canadian study factor out distress in its evaluation of pregnancy and marijuana consumption? Will police stop arresting pregnant women on petty drug charges when the trauma of an arrest may affect the birth weight of male babies?

    The corporate media has the power to inform millions of readers and viewers by focusing or not focusing on relevant health studies. In the Mt Sinai case, minus the presence of a shibboleth such as cannabis, it seems unlikely the MSM will care enough to trouble themselves.

  22. NCN says:
    September 18, 2018 at 2:23 pm

    …to see if the training results in more responsible selling and serving behavior.”

    Budtender to customer: ” Sorry dude, we can’t serve you today. I smell weed on your breath and you’ve failed to complete our mandatory Mark Kleiman and Clown Humphries survey.”

  23. Thinking Clearly says:
    September 18, 2018 at 6:10 pm

    Trump administration plans U.N. meeting to ramp up the international drug war – at the Intercept
    https://interc.pt/2OxvOdC

    “It seems to be a way to get countries to fall in line behind Trump and his administration. I think countries that sign this and then show up to this photo op should be very careful — they don’t really know what they are signing up to.”

    “The document circulated by the U.S. calls on the states to pledge to develop national “action plans” based on a “four-pronged strategy” — demand reduction; treatment; international cooperation; and cutting the supply of illicit drugs. It also highlights “newly emergent synthetic drugs,” and urges the U.N.’s Commission on Narcotic Drugs to “act urgently to accelerate the scheduling of these dangerous drugs.”

    The potus is clueless.

    • A Very Stable Genius says:
      September 19, 2018 at 2:26 pm

      I will go to my grave with the belief that Empire needs and requires illegal drugs as well as a war on the people who use them. It’s a boon for all authoritarian regimes but is especially important for the corporate-based fascism of the U.S..

  24. Servetus says:
    September 19, 2018 at 2:25 pm

    September is pain awareness month, and researchers in Syracuse want you to be aware of how cannabis mediates pain. The mechanism by which marijuana relieves agony is not completely understood, as is the case with pain itself, although progress is being made. In the following study, marijuana appears to work by reducing pain’s perceived unpleasantness:

    19-Sep-2018–…Martin De Vita, a doctoral candidate in the clinical psychology program, is the lead author of a highly anticipated paper on the subject in JAMA Psychiatry (American Medical Association, 2018).

    The paper, whose publication coincides with “Pain Awareness Month,” represents the first systematic review of experimental research into the effects of cannabis on pain.

    “Cannabinoid drugs are widely used as analgesics [painkillers], but experimental pain studies have produced mixed findings,” says De Vita, who studies interactions between substance use and co-occurring health conditions. “Pain is a complex phenomenon with multiple dimensions that can be affected separately.” […]

    “Patients reliably endorse the belief that cannabis is helpful in alleviating pain; however, its analgesic properties are poorly understood,” says De Vita, also a student therapist in the Syracuse VA Medical Center’s PTSD clinic and a graduate researcher in the University’s REPEAT Lab and Alcohol Research Lab. “Experimental pain studies of cannabinoid analgesia in healthy adults have produced mixed results.”

    De Vita and his co-authors in the Department of Psychology–doctoral candidate Dezarie Moskal, Professor Stephen Maisto and Ansell–initially identified more than 1,830 experimental studies on cannabis that had been conducted in North America and Europe over a 40-year period. They whittled the group down to 18 studies, and extracted data from more than 440 adult participants.

    The team found that cannabinoid drugs were associated with modest increases in experimental pain threshold and tolerance, no reduction in the intensity of ongoing experimental pain, reduced perceived unpleasantness of painful stimuli and no reduction of mechanical hyperalgesia.

    “What this means is that cannabinoid analgesia may be driven by an affective, rather than a sensory component. These findings have implications for understanding the analgesic properties of cannabinoids,” De Vita says.

    Adds Ansell: “The studies predominantly focused on THC varieties, so it is unclear whether or not other cannabinoids may have resulted in different experimental effects on pain.” […]

    Whereas the study was limited to experimental (i.e., laboratory induced) pain, the group hopes to expand their line of research into clinical and neuropathic pain.

    Clinical pain usually is associated with a progressive, non-malignant disease; neuropathic pain is synonymous with disease or damage to the nervous system, resulting in tissue injury.

    The researchers also are interested in studying dynamic pain processes, different types and doses of cannabinoids, and the role of recreational cannabis use.

    “The cumulative research synthesized in our review has helped characterize how cannabis and cannabinoids affect different dimensions of pain reactivity,” De Vita adds. “It may underlie the widely held belief that cannabis relieves pain. For now, we still have much to learn.” […]

    AAAS Public Release: Syracuse study reveals cannabinoid drugs make pain feel ‘less unpleasant, more tolerable’

    • NCN says:
      September 20, 2018 at 12:44 pm

      I think the paper’s conclusion is close to the mark, but looking primarily at THC as a basis of cannabis pain management is problematic.

      I’ve been experimenting with transdermal patches combining THC and CBD as well as terpenes. Unlike topical cannabis the transdermal patches enter the bloodstream. They provide a steady dose for up to 12-hours of relief.

      Because the patches aren’t metabolized like oral cannabinoids, smaller doses are effective. The psychoactive effect is muted with the transdermal form.

  25. kaptinemo says:
    September 20, 2018 at 2:11 pm

    Well, the piss-testers are still at it: School District to Begin Randomly Drug Testing High School Students

    The title is somewhat deceptive; the random testing will be for those students engaged in extracurricular activities, not randomly testing all students. A long-time bone of contention among veteran Couchmates; nothing new here. Still the same old nonsense, all over again. But related to the following musing.

    As I woke this morning, I had a thought: from whence comes the source of a lot of the virulent activism of various stripes seen all over our news media?

    One obvious answer was the de facto treatment of students as if they were convicts during their public school years. Shake a pressurized bottle of soda and then open it, and the effect is unsurprisingly similar to that of the vehement actions of many who’ve taken up various social causes, particularly those recently freed (aka ‘graduated’) from the bondage of public education.

    The War on (Some) Drugs can be largely blamed for that, for its sowing distrust among those it claimed to protect, instilling a degree of mistrust in those who mistrusted them so much as to want to invade their bodily sovereignty and collect their urine to determine their degree of approved conformity to official doctrine. Any wonder why there has been such a resurgence of activism on college campuses?

    The recently manumitted slaves of the public school plantation are tasting freedom for the first time…and are expressing anger at their former slavemasters and the institutions that condoned their actions. Institutions that taught them the actual meaning of tyranny. A tyranny largely implemented by the DrugWar.

  26. Tony Aroma says:
    September 20, 2018 at 7:28 pm

    This is kind of a big deal. Not only because it’s the first time the DEA has allowed anyone to import mj, but also because it looks like the DEA (and FDA) is working around the Justice Dept. It’s been 2 years since Congress approved more sites for growing mj in the US, and the Justice Dept. has been sitting on over 20 applications ever since. Seems kind of weird, the DEA being the good guy in this scenario.

    CANADIAN MARIJUANA COMPANY ALLOWED TO LEGALLY EXPORT MEDICINAL CANNABIS TO THE U.S.

    It is the first time that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has given the green light to a Canadian producer to export a cannabis study drug south of the border, The Toronto Star reported. Getting approval was a months-long process that also required the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to agree.

    • DdC says:
      September 20, 2018 at 8:16 pm

      GWPH Stock Surges on Reclassification of Epidiolex
      https://t.co/aqzfbV6cOt
      The new classification will make the substance more widely accepted and less criminal than the aforementioned substances. The move is slated to take place over the next few days as Epidiolex from GW Pharmaceuticals will soon be placed as Schedule IV, along with the likes of Xanax, Ambien and Tramadol.

      Is The DEA Legalizing THC? 03/02/11
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1680

      GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR

      NASDAQ: GWPH
      170.10 USD +16.46 (10.71%)

      • NorCalNative says:
        September 24, 2018 at 12:41 pm

        @DdC Some thoughts on the stock market potential of Sativex.

        It’s long been my belief that Epidiolex has minimal potential for investors, whereas the potential of Sativex is significant.

        Until today I hadn’t looked at prescribing practices in countries where Sativex is legal. This study: An observational post-marketing safety registry of patients in the UK, Germany and Switzerland who have been prescribed Sativex, (T. Etges, et al 2016) shows approximately 25% of patients were prescribed Sativex for off-label uses with 13% getting it for PAIN, and 9% getting it for other reasons.

        Pain is a big reason for off-label use of Sativex but there are many others. Sativex has roles in cancer therapy, Alzheimer’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases. With proper scientific training on the ECS and a more enlightened political environment, the sky is really the limit on Sativex off-label prescribing when it finally hits U.S. pharmacy shelves.

        Interesting that the Motley Fool won’t tell you that. A recent article by them which I read on your Twitter feed talked about off-label importance to stock prices but didn’t mention GWP’s flagship product, Sativex at all.

        I’ve discussed this off-label potential with every medical professional I’ve seen in the last 5 years. Doctors, nurses, PT’s, office staff, patients in the waiting rooms. I’ve discussed it with dispensary owners, bud tenders, and anyone else who’ll listen.

        • DdC says:
          September 24, 2018 at 9:13 pm

          Hey NCN,
          I agree. I got out of GW when it hit the mid 150s, now its up to 167 but the cost is too high. Although the dispensary taxes are driving people back to the growers as it is. I did well with Tilray. GW Sativex had a clone applicator on the streets about a day after they got a FDA trial. They opened up sales in 11 countries in Europe a while back. Now rescheduling , it will be the legal “alternative”. CGC is holding about $52. CRON barely hit double digits. The penny stocks are shaky. I’ll stick to my doobies and let the stock market casino pay for it.

          Jerry Moonbeam’s Clueless…

          California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) vetoed a bill to expand marijuana research.

          Assembly Bill No. 3261 CHAPTER 599

          He also vetoed a bill that would have allowed marijuana businesses to deduct business expenses under the state’s personal income tax law.

          California will soon have one of the world’s most tightly-regulated marijuana markets, as the state in the next few weeks launches a long-awaited digital tracking system intended to follow every plant grown and sold through the licensed cannabis industry.

          California Gov. Jerry Brown Keeps Saying Mean Things About Marijuana Consumers

    • NCN says:
      September 21, 2018 at 4:27 pm

      It is a big deal. From O’Shaughnessy’s.

      The double-blind, placebo-control, cross-over clinical trial will consist of 16 adult participants who have been diagnosed with Essentiall Tremor (ET) by a movement disorder neurologist.

      All study participants will be gradually administered an oral cannabis formulation with a 20:1 ratio of CBD to THC. After completing a two-week period at the maximum target dose, participants will taper off, followed by a washout period before crossing over to the alternate study arm.

      Curious about why such a small sample size and the two-week duration of maximum dosage.

  27. Servetus says:
    September 21, 2018 at 9:39 am

    Ecstasy (MDMA) works for octopi. A study in Massachusetts highlights the human-octopus ancestry by demonstrating that MDMA increases tolerance of fellow creatures:

    20-SEP-2018–The mood-altering drug MDMA – which promotes positive, friendly social interactions in humans by inhibiting serotonin uptake in nerve cells – has a similar behavioral effect in an octopus species, scientists report today. This indicates that serotonin has been functioning as a regulator of social behavior for at least 500 million years, when the human and octopus lineages evolutionarily diverged. […]

    Serotonin is an evolutionarily ancient chemical, with forms of it found across the animal kingdom and even in plants, where it regulates growth. In humans, where it transmits messages between nerve cells, serotonin is a well-known regulator of mood and is closely linked to some types of depression.

    Edsinger, who was on the team that sequenced the first octopus genome in 2015 (Octopus bimaculoides) and Dölen took a close look at the genes involved with serotonin uptake in the octopus genome. They found that one important link in this process — a transporter protein that vacuums serotonin up from the synapse (the communication junction between nerve cells), allowing the next round of serotonin release to be received as a discrete signal — has regions that are nearly identical in human and in octopus. Some of these regions are also known to be involved in how the drug MDMA binds to brain cells and alters mood.

    “The binding site for MDMA and serotonin in the ion transporter is 100 percent conserved between octopus and human. That is an extraordinary level of conservation. That means, pharmacologically, we could predict MDMA should work in octopus in the way it does in humans. It looks like it did,” Edsinger says.

    At Johns Hopkins, Dolen designed social behavior experiments with octopuses, testing their interactions with and without the drug. Octopus bimaculoides are known to be predominantly asocial creatures, preferring solitude and under the wrong conditions, killing and eating each other. Administration of MDMA, however, seemed to enhance prosocial behaviors.

    “Octopuses aren’t 100 percent asocial; they have some tolerance for each other,” Edsinger says. “The drug probably amplified a low level of tolerance a bit.” […]

    “If a gene sequence is conserved for 500 million years, it must be very important,” he says. “A human is a massively complex system and if you just look within that system, it is hard to know what is relatively important. But if you compare it to the genomes of other animals, you can find the critical elements that evolution just hasn’t been able to change over millions of years. From a pharmacological or medical standpoint, these are the elements–such as this serotonin transporter–that may be really important to make sure are functioning correctly.”

    AAAS Public Release: Study finds a conserved role for serotonin in regulating behavior in octopus, humans

  28. Marie Celeste says:
    September 22, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    Pete…. where are you?

  29. Servetus says:
    September 23, 2018 at 12:49 pm

    The New Zealand Herald discusses cannabis consumption in the United States and its correlation or non-correlation with common crimes:

    23 Sep, 2018 — There does not appear to be much evidence supporting the notion that legalized medical marijuana increases the rate of violent or property crime, according to a new analysis of city-level data from states where medical pot use is legal.

    Opponents to the legalization of medical marijuana use often state that there is a correlation between pot use and criminal activity, as a reason to keep marijuana on the illicit drug list.

    But, the analysis carried out by economist Yu-Wei Luke Chu, writing for The Conversation, revealed that medical marijuana laws haven’t led to increases in the actual rate of violent or property crimes in nearly all of the states in which medical marijuana is legal.

    And, in California, where it is possible to obtain weed legally, crime rates actually appeared to decrease by about 20 per cent, Chu wrote. […]

    Although he concedes that there is a relationship between marijuana users and criminal activity, based on positive test results carried out on those who had been arrested, Chu wrote that is likely due to the fact that people who use pot illegally are more likely to be the same people who are willing to break laws in the first place. […]

    The US experience suggests that most stigmas associated with marijuana use are not supported by empirical evidence. Although medical marijuana laws increase heavy marijuana use among non-patients, they do not lead to negative social outcomes.

    Our study provides robust evidence that medical marijuana legislation does not contribute to crime, and possibly helps to reduce it. This conclusion may relieve a major concern for countries considering to legalise medical marijuana, including New Zealand and Canada. The US experience is unique, especially because of its war on drugs. But the main conclusion that increased marijuana use does not cause more crime likely applies in other countries.

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=12130350

    Dr. Chu’s original publication at The Conversation is filled with spurious references to reefer madness, in which he appears to cite prohib propaganda as fact. Perhaps Dr. Chu would have benefited from visiting the US before referencing bogus claims such as the greater number of marijuana dispensaries verses Starbucks franchises.

  30. DdC says:
    September 24, 2018 at 1:31 am

    New Zealand City
    Has 10 Synthetic Cannabis Overdoses in 48 Hours
    https://t.co/GAbGFTcCLD

    Stop Calling it Synthetic Marijuana,
    Spice Is Nothing Like Weed
    https://twitter.com/DendeCannabist/status/1036772700738347008
    ~ Can We Finally Stop Calling Spice “Synthetic Cannabis”?
    ~ K2 and Spice: Stop Calling That Junk Synthetic Marijuana

    ~ https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DmOJXCZU0AAUjXw.jpg

    Synthetic Marijuana Overdose
    https://twitter.com/DendeCannabist/status/1044094296616361985
    ~ 95 People Overdosed on K2
    in New Haven, Connecticut This Week
    ~ Trump’s Drug Czar Nominee
    Visits New Haven After Mass K2 Overdoses
    ~ Washington, DC
    Sees Mass Synthetic Marijuana Overdose
    ~ Brooklyn Community Leaders
    Demand Action After Multiple K2 Overdoses
    ~ Pennsylvania State Prisons on Lockdown
    Due to Suspected Synthetic Weed Outbreak

  31. Servetus says:
    September 24, 2018 at 12:08 pm

    Marijuana prohibitionists Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III and House Majority Whip Stephen Joseph Scalise, (R-La.) oppose separation of church and state, and they both hate veterans:

    “Scalise has a “D” rating from NORML for his voting history regarding cannabis-related causes. He opposes the legalization of marijuana, believing it is a “gateway drug” for other drugs. Scalise opposes veterans having access to medical marijuana if recommended by their Veterans Health Administration doctor and if it is legal for medicinal purposes in their state of residence.” [Wiki] […]

    It is true that Scalise is an evangelical freak of nature, but he is far from being an outlier in Republican ranks. For dog’s sake, the nation’s top law enforcement official, Attorney General Jeffrey Beauregard Sessions, has argued that the Establishment Claus and separation of church and state are “extra-constitutional doctrine” and a “recent thing that is unhistorical and unconstitutional.” … According to “sermon” Sessions, and likely Steve Scalise, the Constitution’s prohibition on Congress legislating any religion was a devious machination of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to evict god, the Christian bible, the Ten Commandments and Jesus Christ out of government. […]

    There have always been religious fanatics like Scalise, Sessions and preacher Pence and they were generally regarded as harmless freakoids. They are still fanatical religious freaks, but they are no longer harmless now that evangelical extremists control the government lock, stock and barrel. Of course the religious right and their fundamentalist malcontents are in the minority and everything they advocate for is highly unpopular with the majority, but they wield enormous influence over the majority party running all three branches of government. […]

    http://churchandstate.org.uk/2018/02/another-republican-theocrat-rejects-church-state-separation/

    For the record, Thomas Jefferson, who grew cannabis on his farm–although apparently there is no historical evidence that he smoked it–had this to say:

    “I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.”

    Were he alive today, Thomas Jefferson would regard Jeff-Beau and Scalise as not only wrong, but loathsome for legislating their religious beliefs about cannabis and other illicit drugs as a means of theocratic social control, and ultimately to justify preventing military veterans from accessing medications they might need.

    Their actions mean Jeff Sessions and Steve Scalise are both traitors, which is why Jefferson B. Sessions needs to change his first name to Jeffrey or Sermon so that he stops disgracing the name ‘Jefferson’.

  32. Servetus says:
    September 25, 2018 at 9:34 am

    A legislative bill (SB 1228) has been introduced in the California legislature to clean up a drug rehab industry that’s become a vehicle of propaganda and a source of lucrative revenue for prohibitionists in terms of patient brokering:

    It seemed like a bill everyone could get behind, one that would protect drug users seeking addiction treatment from unscrupulous rehabs in California, home to roughly 2,000 certified treatment providers. Many are concentrated in sunny Southern California, which has been dubbed the “Rehab Riviera.”

    The only group against the bill: A small but vocal coalition of rehabs.

    Last week, the Addiction Treatment Advocacy Coalition (ATAC), a trade group representing 66 addiction treatment programs in California, sent an email to its members and supporters with the subject line, “PLEASE READ URGENT Take Action AGAINST SB 1228.” ATAC had taken issue with the Substance Use Disorder Patient Protection Act, legislation that recently passed the state Legislature unanimously and now awaits the signature of Gov. Jerry Brown.

    Prospective patients are often wooed with perks, from cross-country flights to attend rehab to free rent, food, clothes, cigarettes—and even drugs.

    The bill attempts to crack down on “patient brokering,” a common practice through which rehab facilities pay referral fees, often to middlemen or “brokers,” in exchange for clients who will attend drug treatment. Referrals can be a big money maker, as a single patient at a residential facility can bring in tens of thousands of dollars from insurance. But opponents of brokering argue the practice amounts to buying and selling people by putting profits before patients: Rehab operators and brokers are motivated to recruit more drug users.[…]

    The recruitment practice “is so well accepted that business models have been built on it,” said Ryan Hampton, a recovery advocate who helped draft the bill…The lucrative practice is taking business from treatment centers that aren’t engaging in brokering, Hampton added. “We’re seeing good providers closing their doors. It’s heartbreaking to watch.” […]

    https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2018/09/a-bill-to-regulate-rehabs-faces-opposition-from-rehabs/

    • kaptinemo says:
      September 25, 2018 at 9:58 am

      “… cigarettes—and even drugs.”

      Cigarettes. Tobacco. Nicotine. Ohhhhh, the blunt-force irony of it all. Encouraging the use of one of the most addictive drugs available, to enable addicts to wean themselves off of other addictive drugs.

      While cannabis, once used safely by physicians in the 19th Century for exactly that purpose, is, as far as ‘modern’ medical dogma is concerned, the red-headed stepchild told to stay in its room during the family reunion.

  33. Steven Adams says:
    December 14, 2018 at 10:54 am

    Seems like a great idea.

    So, how long before the “authorities” hijack the program and kill it? For our protection, you understand.

    You can never convince a government employee to derail their own gravy train, and the war on cannabis is the biggest freakin’ government money grab in human history.

    I have here a related site:
    https://weedrepublic.com/blogs/strains/mr-nice-guy-strain-review-everything-you-need-to-know-more

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