Still immersed in the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival (I’m a judge) through this weekend.
It’s pretty sad that Kevin Sabet can’t handle comments and has to have them disabled when he writes at Huffington Post
Should the FDA regulate recreational drugs? – a new article at Time by Maia Szalavitz.
Regulation is the answer. Not sure that the FDA is.
Pot Legalization is Coming in Rolling Stone
Melinda Haag’s US Department of Pre-Crime by Russ Belville
Is the CIA a drug cartel? Mexican official blames CIA for drug war
A Mexican government official has told reporters that the CIA and other international security forces are not fighting drug traffickers, but rather they are managing the trade. This is the latest astounding claim about violence that has lasted more than six years and claimed more than 55,000 lives.
JUAREZ, MEXICO (Catholic Online) – Guillermo Terrazas Villanueva, spokesman for the Chihuahua state government in northern Mexico, made the claim which has people in Washington upset. While Villanueva is not the first person to make such claims, he is the highest-ranking official to do so thus far.
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Villanueva told a reporter for Al Jazeera, “It’s like pest control companies, they only control, if you finish off the pests, you are out of a job. If they finish the drug business, they finish their jobs.”
Former Miss Nevada, Caleche Renae Manos, is suing for a wrong address, no-knock raid in Los Angeles by drug cops:
http://radicalruss.com/former-miss-nevada-sues-cops-for-wrong-address-raid-making-her-stand-nude/
Hope she wins BIG!
Melinda Haag is more likely to be psychotic than psychic.
When you add the capability of sending spooks into countries disguised as DEA,it would allow them easier access to information and intelligence the CIA would find a lot more difficult to obtain,not to mention the availability of untraceable funding for black ops,,it just makes it scarier that our government is willing to throw it’s own citizens in prison so they can continue using the drug war just to try and hide their intelligence gathering.
I am sure a lot of those SA countries have figured their game out and it is why they are pushing for legalization,,it removes spies from they’re countries.
Anyone else notice that Melinda Hag has that Calista Gingrich, stepford wives look?
This photo of Melinda Haag looks more up-to-date, also seems to better define her character:
http://tinyurl.com/clfo8gh
Ms. Haag is 51-years-old and was born in San Diego. She was appointed to the U.S. Attorneys office by Obama in August, 2010. Obama is not likely to admit he screwed up by getting rid of her later. Melinda Haag may see herself as politically invulnerable as a result.
What could get rid of Ms. Haag is a promotion. An ambassadorship to Romania would work.
portugal or uraguay might be more fitting for this drug warrior
Melinda Haag is a terrible thing to wish upon Portugal and Uruguay.
Maybe she can be forced to switch U.S. Attorney jobs with another U.S. attorney in North Dakota. She could chill in that environment, especially during winter. People from N.D. have told me their blizzards are so bad you need a rope to find your way between your house and the garage.
He face fits her surname — Hag.
Minority Report didn’t invent the concept of “pre-crime.” We’ve always had it. It’s just that it’s been called “conspiracy.”
Up at Alternet, there’s a video of a stop and frisk. Where are this man’s rights? Where’s the suspicion? And what exactly was the reason for the VIOLENCE directed at a citizen not suspected of any crime?
http://tinyurl.com/cjwdv8u
C’mon, DC. The story, if you follow the links, says the cops accuse him of jumping the turnstile. The way the LEO ran up to him makes me think maybe this was more than just a stop-and-frisk.
Not that even a turnstile jumper deserves a bodyslam for jerking away when you’re groping around his johnson.
Russ has a nice rebuttal on huffpo to sabet. He even calls him out on the no comments.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mobileweb/russ-belville/why-kevin-sabets-got-it-a_b_1704534.html?utm_hp_ref=tw
Good on Russ. I think that rebuttal might have been done better, myself. But I’m glad there was at least SOME rebuttal.
russ nails sabet in his final para about big pharma s role in kevin s activism. i wonder how exactly he is paid by paid by them for his lobbying work?
When you consider that Rand,ONDCP’s go to policy research source is chaired by a pharmaceutical companies board member,,I am sure that the links of big pharm are also evident in the NIDA research teams and furnishes the kind of researchers needed to target harm only in marijuana studies,,keep hoping wikileaks will start turning up that kind of evidence.
every couch needs a crossword puzzle:
http://drugpolicycentral.com/bot/crossword
Thanks to MAP’s Doug Snead for this… unique wordplay.
Experts Say Ron Paul is Right: Drug War “Very Biased Against Minoritiesâ€
I had a conversation with someone in Texas today who told me Ron Paul was secretly racist (and that was AFTER I sent him that article).
It’s so secret that he hasn’t even told himself!
I had a conversation with someone in Massachusetts who told me Mitt Romney is secretly a jelly doughnut. What’s your point?
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Is that English? I must admit, that is the worst, most heinous butchery I’ve so far seen from a spammer. Jeez Louise. Either that or it’s a newbie smoker on the couch who just got a taste of Duncan’s Zombie Bud.
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French as the first language, English second but not mastered. Either that of Google translate. I can’t criticize because when I meet a foriegn language speaker all I can do is slowly shout, “can you please speak English?!?”
Within the last few weeks I read about a Chinese lady who got busted in Montana (maybe Idaho) for carrying a substantial amount of cannabis pursuant to a traffic stop. The pot was discovered on a consent search. The cop, who didn’t speak Chinese, got consent from the woman, who didn’t speak English, by using an iPhone translation app. That should make for an interesting case in the appellate courts, especially considering the significant differences in various Chinese dialects and the fact that the two languages don’t even share an alphabet. I wonder, did the app store a verbatim transcript?
I learned something in Nam that I use here. It’s more possible to “communicate” than it is to speak the language. I know how to say “I speak little of your language,” then launch into whatever I have to do to communicate my needs or desires. Pantomime is NOT out of the question.
But…but..STOP THAT! EZ, he can’t SEE you. You look silly, sit down and have another toke…and stop gesticulating like that, you’ll spill the bong.
aye… that’s a good un’! One might ask if language is what they normally cremate… and do they really get paid to do so? I mean it’s fine work, they took english and butchered and burnt it to a fine ash.
Fine night here… bright yellow waxing moon setting over the hills visible out my front window… ‘ash in me bowl, working on photos from my just returned Oregon high desert trip. A fine night indeed. Made only that much better by Montreal Cremation Services… thanks folks.
translator app let him down.
http://www.citizen.org/documents/2048.pdf
I wish Siobhan Reynolds was still around.
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Driving sobriety tests likely to miss medical pot
Please notice that the study subjects were given dronabinol using gastrointestinal delivery. No actual cannabis was involved in the study. 20 mg of synthetic THC. For an encore will they do a test on drunken driving with subjects that have consumed a fifth of 190 proof grain alcohol? OK, OK, I admit that’s a silly thought, dead people don’t go out driving.
At the highest level of dosage allowed,,,and not a dosage most people would have prescribed by a doctor,,only parasitic prohibitionist would prescribe that amount and then test it for impairment,,and the test still didn’t show a hazardous amount of impairment
In Corfu, a Homeland Security helicopter with Border Patrol on board just *happened* to be passing by, and initiated a pot growing bust in coordination with local authorities.
The article denies the feds were actively looking for pot, but a commenter from the area says he has seen the choppers around, slow and low: http://tinyurl.com/bvyj5th
On the heels of recent Homeland Security action in Humboldt, I am wondering whether we will be seeing more and more of this.
While cutting back on funding to state agencies developed for eradication they pick up the policy using HS funding and equipment,,it diverts part of the funding from ONDCP’s coffers and allows HS to request more funding,,it’s all tax dollars but they are trying to decrease the rapidly growing ONDCP budget,,so rapidly that they feel they must hide more of it.
One pharma concern had a record first quarter profit this year. Thery’re should not be this push-back! I hope Huff-Po can point to Russ’s erudite rebuttal. Where is MMJ injuring pharma’s bottom line?!
If the DEA can put the cork back in the bottle and stop any legalization efforts then the harm is negligible,,legalization will result in billions lost when people figure out they can grow anything from nerve tonic to sleeping pills in their back yard.
PS: and it’s non-toxic with the longest running safety record(TMK) of any known therapeutic plant.
They stand to lose Billions. With a capitol “B”. Marijuana has a perfect 4000 year safety record, it has zero overdose potential, it’s side effects are easily managed with out additional medication and it has no drug interactions. It is effective in scores of conditions from cancer and M.S. to eating disorders, and even type two diabetes. It helps depression and anxiety (the two most medicated psychiatric illnesses), sleeplessness, PTSD….
And because of it’s safety and lack of interactions and side effects, it can and SHOULD be used as the front line medication of choice in all of these conditions.
That is Billions. Perhaps Trillions. It will relegate their patent medications to second choice. That’s why the pushback. I expect they will get more vicious as they continue to lose ground.
More than any other consideration, I believe the continued prohibition on marijuana is owing to the damage it can do to the most profitable industry on Earth…Pharmaceuticals.
More like injuring the CIAs bottom line.
Happy Saturday night. “When you smoke as much as me” Bobby Hustle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEMPhXK-8P4
Hey, is anybody interested in co-authoring California’s next legalization initiative?
http://regulatemarijuana2014.com/
Connecticut authorities attempt to minimize the benefits of that State’s decriminalization of petty possession: linky
Regardless of it being another part of a crime,,not prosecuting,lab testing and paperwork on felony possession charges alone would reduce their workload some.
cheap cha de bugre
here, in san diego county the authorities are speaking in tongues and pulling constitutional law out of their asses in order to deny citizens have a right to grow whatever they want in their own yards. at the same time the corrupt power elite of san diego wants to shove a giant concrete cross down the throats of every atheist, jew and muslim in the vicinity. almost no one questions whether jesus would approve of giant crosses. seems as if changing the law by way of voting is not really valid if the aristos disapprove.
I haven’t seen it yet but i’m expecting it: michael phelps’ olympic failures “a result of smoking weed”
Sabet’s next blog item?
He’d be winning Olympic gold medals through and including the 2048 Olympics had he never inhaled, no doubt.
I thought The point,was that society should stop the gross abuse of authority in the name of an unjust probibition policy against what was previously legal.
More good stuff at Alternet. Say what you like about their politics, they are consistently good on legalization issues:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/five-scientific-conclusions-about-cannabis-mainstream-media-doesnt-want-you-know
An article about I-502. WA residents on the couch, what are your thoughts about this?
http://seattle-criminaldefense.blogspot.com/2012/07/i-502-tax-revenue-at-expense-of.html
He’s a criminal defense attorney. He specializes in CANNABIS cases. Does it not seem he has an interest in seeing 502 fail? Like…maybe if it passes he HAS TO GO TO WORK DEFENDING ACTUAL HONEST TO GOD CRIMINALS???
Windy, it’s it’s not even a good argument. The invisible tax that the black market imposes is levied at every turn. The prices are so high because you will go to jail if you are caught selling it. The compensation for that risk comes in the form of black market prices. And realistically the structure he outlines as undesirable looks remarkably like the price structure we have right now! And IIRC not-for-profit groups are EXEMPT from tax.
Remember, I-502 will not in any way alter the patient protections or change the MMJ laws as they are written.