Open Thread

Quite busy right now with “Spring Awakening” opening on Friday…

bullet image $3.4M settlement in deadly 2011 SWAT raid near Tucson

“The Pima County Sheriff’s Department strongly believes the events of May 5, 2011, were unfortunate and tragic, but the officers performed that day in accordance with their training and nationally recognized standards,” Deputy Tracy Suitt wrote.

Um, yeah. That’s exactly the problem.

The shooting was a terrible, unfortunate situation costing taxpayers a huge amount of money, Supervisor Richard Elías said.

Yeah, it’s unfortunate when armed thugs break down your door and shoot you in your own home.

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94 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    With no explanation of why decriminalization without establishing a regulated supply chain would cause anything but celebration down at gangster central:

    Prominent Mexicans urge government to decriminalize marijuana
    by Dave Graham
    Wed Sep 25, 2013

    (Reuters) – A broad spectrum of prominent Mexicans, including former ministers, businessmen, artists and a Nobel Prize-winning scientist, on Wednesday urged the government to decriminalize marijuana in a bid to curb gang violence and corruption.

    Since 2007, about 80,000 people have been killed in turf wars between drug cartels and their clashes with security forces, leading to calls for a change in policy in Mexico and elsewhere in the U.S.-led war on drugs.
    /snip/

  2. Irie says:

    “The settlement is not an admission of any wrongdoing, Huckelberry said.” Excuse me!!!!…..thats why you, the police , choose to settle out of court instead of fighting it, or did the sky just fall Chicken Little???

    • Duncan20903 says:

      Being a prohibitionist parasite means never having to say you’re sorry even, if you’re the sorriest turd in the pile.

  3. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Doggone it, the sycophants of prohibition have learned of the existence of BHO. But hidden between the lines is another example of how we’ve influenced at least some partial acceptance of the truth by these nitwits. Now it’s kind of like they have part of one foot in this reality but are still mostly in an alternate universe.

    Yabbadabbadoo.

    The Best, Worst Marijuana in the World is Spreading Like Weeds
    By Mary Stachyra and Todd Richissin

    Dabbing: like “the crack of marijuana.”
    A powerful, concentrated form of marijuana is quickly gaining popularity along the East Coast—but unlike typical marijuana, it may carry the risk of overdose.

    Butane hash oil —BHO — and the “dabbing”phenomenon that surrounds it, initially gained popularity along the West Coast, where marijuana is legal in many states.

    The high can be very high, but there’s a dangerous downside: Users have been known to pass out after ingesting it. Authorities have already seized butane hash oil in Maryland, and narcotics investigators in Virginia care keeping an eye out.
    /snip/

    • Servetus says:

      The fear mongers in Prohibville are running out of things to fear. Any more of this nonsense and they’ll be invoking a panic over the evil eye.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        Fortunately if you know a couple of simple tricks it’s easy to confuse the sycophants of prohibition and keep them distracted.

    • crut says:

      I read this yesterday and had to LOL when I read the DANGEROUS DOWNSIDE! OMG they fell asleep! The horror!

      The beast is a lot less scary when his dentures fall out.

    • Jose says:

      Now if Mary Stachyra and Todd Richissin would just drink everclear until they pass out and report back to us with their findings!

  4. darkcycle says:

    Via Malcolm on Facebook….thought you guys could use a laugh (or fifty):
    http://christwire.org/2010/10/why-do-hippies-still-exist-in-america/

    • Servetus says:

      Thanks dc. Christwire.org is hilarious. The RWAs (right wing authoritarians) have created a tribalist website. Here’s a segment from their rant against a Phish concert :

      From that exalted position up on the stage, The Phish promotes an egregious anti-American agenda that not only includes pot smoking and sloth, but socialism and political terrorism. They encourage a forced communalism, a saccharine notion of shared labor and easy women.

      Hardcore ecological ideologies are the basis for their food and purchasing habits. They consume an outrageous range of narcotics beyond marijuana, from hashish and mushroom hallucinogenics, to medical nitrous oxide and “roofies.” That frothy drug haze opens their mouths wide to the queer agenda next stuffed down their throats– false idol worship.

      Frothy drug haze? Where do they get their drugs, A&W?

    • NoobchesterFungerippler says:

      It looks like it may have been removed from ‘ChristWire’.

      If you move the words around a bit it comes out like this:

      “They constantly cruise the internet looking for fluid-drenched intergeneration erotic encounters with innocent overweight housewives in disused graveyards. Simply put, they will take any opportunity to inject their hippy semen into our jiggly bellies of wholesomeness.”

    • NoobchesterFungerippler says:

      No, sorry, it’s still there at ChristWire:

      http://tinyurl.com/lfsoru7

    • Jean Valjean says:

      “Loathe to contribute to our domestic economy, they have long eschewed the acceptable consumerism so vital for our engines of growth despite the diversity of affordable products available to every citizen…”

      This was the tip-off that it was Big Government as usual speaking, and really not much to do with that other dirty hippie known as Jesus Christ. Also, it seems there are one or two exceptions to “the diversity of affordable products available to every citizen…” Ho Hum

      • Jean Valjean says:

        Scroll down the page to the pic of “editor” Cadence Appleton. She’s showing an awful lot of thigh for someone so dedicated to our moral welfare… beginning to wonder if this isn’t satire?

  5. crut says:

    Dunno why, but I feel a need to ramble a bit.

    I’m a relative newcomer to the drug-war reform scene; 5 years ago was when the wall of propaganda came crashing down in my world at the age of 30. It’s been stated before, and bears repeating, the level of ignorance and willful ignorance still present in this world of nearly limitless information is just.. just appalling. Ignorance is the ultimate societal enemy, and it’s amazing how resilient it is, hiding under the veil of “bliss”. Take Evolution, or Global Warming for example. Who wants to accept that your ancient ancestors were neanderthals living in caves? Or that within the next couple hundred years or so, we have caused an acceleration of the next ice age? Nobody who wants to face reality, that’s for sure.

    For those of you who have been on this figurative couch a lot longer than me, I can’t imagine the amount of frustration you’ve experienced watching how easily the huddled masses are manipulated. Even in my limited view, and knowing that the pace is accelerating, I’m frustrated at how slow progress and justice is marching, and has marched. We’ve still got a long way to go overall, still have to evolve…

    I used to be ignorant about the drug-war, and clearing that fog was both wonderful and terrifying. Wonderful in that I am opening up my mind and truly listening to others in the areas of my life that I’m still ignorant of. Terrifying in how much society has accepted the lies and hypocrisy of the people that we have trusted with too much power.

    As this pendulum is now finally swinging the other way, it’s scary and exciting to postulate what the collateral damage will be on it’s way through. Also kinda funny but sad to see some of the front line imbeciles and intellectuals putting themselves directly in it’s path. I applaud them for their bravery, however misplaced their motives may be.

    Ok, that’s enough for one ramble. Happy Thursday.

    Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. We become just by doing just acts, temperate by doing temperate acts, brave by doing brave acts.
    ~Aristotle

    He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you.
    ~Friedrich Nietzsche

  6. DdC says:

    Ignorance is the ultimate societal enemy,

    But it is also the drug worrier profiteers only weapon.

    If not for keeping people in the dark, there is no prohibition.

    The drug war is run by Wall St.

    Hemp is why Ganja is considered dangerous.

    Big Pharma and Booze are set to control medicinal and recreational use, keeping the home grown in dispensaries illegal.

    Like the prohibitions before it, its all about the money…

    Al Capone and Watergate

    The vast majority of prohibitionists
    profit on the drug war,..
    … and that is their only motive.

    NeoConflicts of Interest
    MJ Research Cut as Support Grows

    Policing for Profit*

    Forfeiture $quads

    * Money Grubbing Dung Worriers

    • “Ignorance is the ultimate societal enemy,

      But it is also the drug worrier profiteers only weapon.”
      “Big Pharma and Booze are set to control medicinal and recreational use, keeping the home grown in dispensaries illegal.”

      http://tinyurl.com/orxyr72
      I noticed that Canada has chosen to grant a marijuana growers monopoly to one business. That reminds me of Kevin Sabets admonitions about big marijuana. What a joke.

      Leave it to government to choose their own “big marijuana”.

  7. N.T. Greene says:

    I am starting to wonder what my life has come to, what with my social life consisting of video games and sites like this… all the while I can’t get real work in the real world or get anything done.

    I know it’s ot but I figured you guys should have a sense of Where I’ve been lately. I work, at 26 years old with a college education, as a cashier at a gas station nearly forty minutes from home. I can hardly make ends meet, and my mental health history seems to suggest that my head is not securely attached, and years of stress weaken those fragile bonds.

    Needless to say, I’ve been a bit out of it lately. Not in a binge sort of way though…

    • primus says:

      Curious; what degree did you attain?

      • N.T. Greene says:

        I have two degrees in English. My associates degree is specifically in creative writing, my BA is just standard college English.

        How unfortunate that I cannot afford graduate school, as my plans before my child were to work straight towards becoming a lecturer.

        Responsibility and debt are bitches. The former I can deal with, the latter is doing a good job of narrowing my path down, it seems. Makes you feel pretty stupid when all that money was apparently spent for naught.

      • N.T. Greene says:

        Though my academic interests span beyond just literature. Literature involves, at root, pretty much everything else you can think of on some level or another.

        Some people, like me, would go so far to say that history is just one grand narrative that we have not gone far enough in critiquing. In the real world, as in books, we see heroes both literal and metaphoric, as well as villains, tyrants, and all sorts of evil. If we could just step back and read the present day like a book, and do so with a critical eye, I really wonder what we as a species might be able to glean.

        It would do good to remember these lines from As You Like It:

        “All the world’s a stage,
        And all the men and women merely players:
        They have their exits and their entrances;
        And one man in his time plays many parts…”

        I would be a dangerous kind of scholar, I think. I am rarely content to rest on the accepted evaluation of things; I want to always be expanding, seeing how far things can be brought while retaining meaning. I would not be a good teacher if they left me to fill heads so that they may regurgitate information… but if they let me rattle sabers with the students, turn some rocks with them… well hey, that’s what I consider to be in the better interest of humanity. I look at my daughter and sincerely think: “I hope that I can help you outdo me.” That’s my mentality in the way of teaching. “…there’s a difference between knowing the path, and walking the path”, right?

        • DdC says:

          Be who you are and say what you feel,
          because those who mind don’t matter
          and those who matter don’t mind.
          Dr. Seuss

        • primus says:

          And what career path does that prepare you for other than lecturer? It would appear that you had only one goal which did not work out and now you have no plan B. In addition to that, do you see any other weaknesses in your approach?

    • darkcycle says:

      Ah…the malaise of the “in between years”. You are experiencing an incredibly common condition, N.T. The unfortunate fact is that now, with our economic situation the way it is, those years can extend out quite a ways. You’re doing okay, N.T. Stick with the clerk job but don’t stop looking or imagining.
      A young person such as yourself, with degree in hand and few attachments is perfectly suited to take advantage of the “Green Rush” in one of our now legal States, should you so choose.
      I know from your perspective, what you’re in LOOKS like a rut. In reality, you’re in flux, and if an opportunity avails itself, you’re right where you should be….uncommitted. You may even find it is a great time to make your own opportunity, if something strikes your passion. I actually wish that I were back in your shoes….all that is way behind me, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun to be young and irresponsible.

      • allan says:

        oh yeah, be irresponsible whilst young! becoming responsible is a hell of a burden that, once you start, will never end.

        Personally (and Cliff would agree) I’d advise anyone with even a lick of sense to start doing building maintenance – janitorial, window cleaning… it doesn’t take much equipment and most anyone can do it. If you want to learn the trade hire on to a bldg maintenance company and practice on their dime for awhile. Window cleaners for instance make around $15/hr working for somebody else, up to $50/hr or more on your own.

        • claygooding says:

          While going to aircraft school you are taught the basics of all forms of repair and patching airplanes,,one student took one part of that training and turned it into a million dollar industry by specializing in polishing aircraft windscreens and windows. Every time a window on any pressurized airplane shows any kind of pit or scratch it must be polished out so stresses don’t center on the scratch and cause an in flight failure.
          Airlines have crews that maintain their windows but smaller companies hire one of his trucks to come out and do it for them.
          It’s all about being able too recognize an opportunity at the right time and place,,and it was a good thing the guy found his niche in window polishing because he couldn’t figure electronics out for shit.

      • N.T. Greene says:

        It is very tough at times, as I already have so many bills to pay and a child to care for a few nights a week. And at about ten bucks an hour it is hard to see a silver lining. I cost more than I make at this point, and as you can imagine, my ADD and otherwise insane nature does not mesh well with the “welcome to xxxx, how can I help you?” Mentality I am expected to have. I might not be so smart after all, as I find the nature of such work difficult, and makes me wish I could make an equivalent living writing for freelance.

        But, as in any field nowadays, a lack of connections is damning. Perhaps my mental history even moreso

      • N.T. Greene says:

        Further: My attachment as a parent is the only thing really keeping me from leaving the state at this point — although MA is looking to be prime real estate in the coming years, and areas like Northampton are likely to become MM meccas in a short time. It is not an impossible venture to get in on the supply side, I suppose — although I have no degrees in science or botany I know a thing or two and have a real eye for systems.

        I may not be able to keep my personal space clean — but I really do think that that’s more a symptom of other things than a legitimate problem. Because you have that on the one hand, and my propensity for labeling and organization on the other (perhaps most famously: in college, I ran a club for tabletop RPGs. We had about seventy or eighty books which I catalogued in Excel for no other purpose than having accurate records).

        I’m weird. I’ve been weird for a long time. Part of me thinks that if I could be properly identified, someone would consider me a great asset — if just because I don’t think like many people and, paradoxically, find difficult tasks to be easier and more enjoyable to handle than simple ones.

        (You’re now seeing part of why the drug war fascinates me — beyond just a legitimate social problem, it is a puzzle that spans borders, international law, the sociopolitical landscape… and the solutions that we must formulate involve at their highest levels the juggling of all these variables. Not to mention the ever changing political climate…)

        • allan says:

          isn’t having a non-denominational couch a hoot? All our stories, this battle we all share… and all with our own idiosyncronicities. I s’pose we’d probably keep a cultural anthropologist busy for awhile.

          And yes, the grand tale… funny that so many choose to not live it awake. Like the struggle or not, apparently for those of us here (and beyond) it carries a weight of great personal and social/civil concern.

          They’ve tried to stifle our voices for a long time, but we are of many tribes, many beliefs, they a small band of narrow view. In fact they should be feeling fairly Custeresque these days.

          Glad you’re here NT.

        • War Vet says:

          I have the same exact degree as you and too make $10 an hour. Be happy and use it as fuel for your writings. Focus on writing and not Game Boy or Sega. Read read read and write write write. This ‘end the drug war’ movement needs authors to help end it (do you want to teach students about other’s works or do you want students to study your works?) . . . use your dream and realize that little children in Africa and Syria etc etc are being affected by the War on Drugs ability to generate funding for wars . . . so be there voice.

        • N.T. Greene says:

          It can be hard to produce when there isnt much money in it at the moment, it’s really hard to work late nights and not be allowed to work on this stuff on the side… there was a time when i was somewhat prolific, but spirits are low…

        • N.T. Greene says:

          And having ADD while being economically forced to work a mind numbingly boring job is torturous.

        • War Vet says:

          I know you have it in you to win the kind of life you want. You’re smart enough to be on this site and care -how could you not win . . . not enough money: wasn’t Mrs. Harry Potter a billionaire at one time? Surely you can make $420grand from a novel. Just be yourself as a writer. I’ve been working on my beast for years trying to train it and tame it for my liking -for my would be readers and it is all about the War on Drugs/Terror (my catharsis so I can focus on something else). Read Hamsun’s ‘Hunger’ and you’ll find hope in your situation or some Celine.

  8. Jean Valjean says:

    Some of the many costs of the drug war:

    Police Made More Arrests For Drug Violations Than Anything Else In 2012

    “Emphasis on drug abuse arrests also detracts from resources for solving…… violent crimes. Over the past half century, the rate of unsolved homicides has skyrocketed. And a recent study by the Drug Policy Alliance found that the New York Police Department spent 1 million hours over the last decade just on marijuana arrests.”
    http://tinyurl.com/og28rwb

  9. claygooding says:

    The killings by police are not tracked by any federal agency but they do track how many officers are assaulted.

    Every person that is involved in giving the final OK on a wrong address forced entry should be removed from police work. There is NO excuse.

    The five rules of life:

    1.Money won’t buy you happiness but it will buy marijuana,,close enough.

    2.Forgive your enemies but remember the basturds name.

    3.Help someone in trouble and they will remember you when they are in trouble again.

    4.The only reason the earth is getting crowded is because it is illegal to shoot people.

    5.Alcohol won’t solve your problems but neither will milk.

  10. darkcycle says:

    Washington State re files environmental impact statement on I-502 implementation due to shoddy research. What sort of fools did they get to research the environmental impact, anyway? Wait…looks like some company calling itself “BOTEC Analysis” They obviously have zero experience with cannabis cultivation, and even less experience with quality research:
    http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/09/26/pot-regulator-refiles-environmental-review
    And here, as well…: http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/state-scores-bunk-research/Content?oid=17330413
    Kleiman….Feh.

  11. DdC says:

    @CannabisCulture
    Marijuana Commercial May Air During Super Bowl

    Washington Spectator ‏@WashSpec
    Radley Balko shows how the concepts of war and policing have blurred.

    @TokeOfTheTown
    Overzealous marijuana enforcement in infamous Texas town a burden to local taxpayers

    The positive peer pressure of pot revealed in new study on teen drug use
    By William Breathes in News, Say what?
    Wednesday, September 25, 2013

    Canadian Scientists Crack Cannabis Sativa Genome

    Thanks for contacting me about efforts to reform and update national policies on the use of marijuana. I appreciate hearing your opinion on this issue.

    I support the use of marijuana for medical purposes. The state of California enacted laws allowing for the use of medical marijuana by voter referendum back in 1996. Since then the state and local governments have worked to accommodate dispensaries to make marijuana available to patients with a doctor’s recommendation. Currently, 18 states and the District of Columbia provide for some version of legal marijuana use. In particular, the states of Washington and Colorado passed initiatives in 2012 that provide for non-medicinal uses of marijuana free of penalty, up to a certain threshold.

    The disconnect between state and federal laws is becoming ever wider; something has to be done to either allow the states to manage marijuana within their own borders or for the federal government to accommodate state statutes governing the drug. This has spawned a number of bills in Congress, including one I have authored, H.R. 710, the Truth in Trials Act, to liberalize the manner in which federal law treats state marijuana laws. I introduced this bill on February 14 and it has been referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary. Additionally, I am a cosponsor of H.R. 689, the States’ Medical Marijuana Patients Protection Act and H.R. 784, the States’ Medical Marijuana Property Rights Protection Act, which would both mandate that individual states be allowed to regulate marijuana. I support these reform efforts though I am skeptical that the Republican Leadership in the House will allow any of the bills to advance. Even so, I will work to change federal policy so marijuana users – especially those who depend on marijuana for medicinal reasons – can do so without fear of legal repercussion.

    Thanks, again, for sharing your thoughts with me on this issue. I’m glad we share a common purpose in marijuana policy reform.

    Sincerely,

    SAM FARR
    Member of Congress

  12. claygooding says:

    Examining the Federal Response to Marijuana Legislation

    October 02, 2013 | 10:00am in 2247 Rayburn House Office Building

    http://oversight.house.gov/hearing/examining-the-federal-response-to-marijuana-legislation/

    The witnesses aren’t listed yet so no idea how deeply they will get into reform discussion.
    Issa is the chair and his questioning of Kerli the last hearing didn’t sound like he was supportive of marijuana policy,it’s success or it costs,,IIRC.

  13. Rick Steeb says:

    Thank you for contacting me to express your views on medical marijuana. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

    I understand that marijuana may have medicinal properties that could help individuals dealing with serious medical conditions such as cancer-related nausea and AIDS-related wasting. For this reason, I support compassionate use in certain medical situations when prescribed by a physician for a serious illness. In addition, I have not opposed further research on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.

    At the same time, I do not support the general legalization of illicit drugs, including marijuana. As a Senator – but more importantly as a parent and a grandparent – I take illegal drug use and its consequences very seriously. I have seen firsthand the pain that substance abuse causes for individuals and their families.

    As Chairman of the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, my colleagues and I published a report in April 2012 entitled Reducing the U.S. Demand for Illegal Drugs . In this report, we noted that marijuana is much more potent today than in the past with tested samples showing that average potency more than doubled from 1998 to 2008.

    Again, thank you for taking the time to write. Please know that I will keep your thoughts in mind moving forward. If you have any additional comments or questions, please feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. staff at (202) 224-3841.

    Sincerely yours,

    Dianne Feinstein
    United States Senator

    • Pete says:

      In addition, I have not opposed further research on the potential medical benefits of marijuana.

      Wow. How magnanimuous of her.

      • N.T. Greene says:

        I love that wording: “have not opposed”. It says a whole lot. It’s like saying, “there have been proposals, but I haven’t supported them; nor have I actively opposed them. My opposition is ‘neutral’.”

        Typical prohib doublespeak as far as I can measure it. Man, I wish I could get on TV sometimes just to call out these semantic and/or logical issues.

        If “correlation does not imply causation” was a mantra in the real world, for all the flaws in its phrasing, we might have more real discussions about things. Instead, it’s like, “marijuana is more potent than ever” THEREFORE “more dangerous” — which discounts decades of medical research that says otherwise, or the fact that improved production techniques would cause this, or the fact that medical marijuana dictates that different strains of different power have different effects therefore you cannot really make an across the board statement about potency without a half-dozen asterisks deliniating the actual facts of the matter…

        Man, once you start bringing the FACTS into play you end up with a whole lot of stuff to talk about. No wonder some people hate facts so much. It’s as if the matter is not as simple on the one hand… but its lack of simplicity may just make the discussion all the more worthwhile on the other. Huh.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Isn’t it about time for someone to declare her dead? Criminy, she looks like she’s already been embalmed.

      Did somebody say that the Democrats are our friends? Naw, I’ve got to be imagining that.

      Now I’m imagining Dan Ackroyd saying, Diane, you ignorant slut…

  14. jean valjean says:

    feinstein its time to retire and enjoy your corruptly obtained fortune. the only reason she can come up with is that cannabis “doubled” in strength between 98 and 08. has she never heard of hash and hash oil, available for centuries and containing far higher thc levels?
    google feinstein corruption

  15. Jean Valjean says:

    a sensible approach to driving and cannabis from david nutt:
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/27/drug-driving-alcohol-policy-pubs-motorway

    and a completely ignorant rant against “legalization” from melissa kite:
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/16/legalising-cannabis-isnt-logical

  16. Frank W says:

    Happening now on C-Span: Senate International Narcotics Control Caucus, stacked with ONDCP people and DEA prosecuters… now what conclusions will they come to regarding synthetic drugs?

  17. primus says:

    Hey, Pete!! Why am I getting a popup asking me whether I want to open or save analytics.js from a.sitemeter.com? It appears every time I change to a different page within your site, not on any other website. What gives?

  18. Servetus says:

    Marijuana consumers are less popular than rapists, at least that’s how ICE sees it:

    [T]he Center for Juvenile and Criminal Justice, a San Francisco nonprofit that seeks to reduce incarceration, reviewed data on requests by ICE to law enforcement agencies to detain adult suspected undocumented immigrants. “According to these data,” wrote authors Mike Males and Selena Teji, “an undocumented foreign national with a traffic offense is more likely to be booked into ICE detention than one with a homicide, forcible rape, robbery, or aggravated assault offense.” The authors also found that “a suspected undocumented immigrant with a prior or contemporaneous conviction for possessing less than an ounce of marijuana – which is no longer even a crime in California – is more likely to face ICE detention (73.1 percent) than one with a rape conviction (69.7 percent).” http://tinyurl.com/le3hgvz

    Any hope the government is run by sane people is a delusion.

    • jean valjean says:

      for immigration purposes any drug conviction is a class of super crime for which a life time ban is automatic. this does not apply for most other crimes including many crimes of violence. this has nothing to do with keeping the country safe and is all about maintaing the drug war cash cow.

  19. primus says:

    What the police chief said is exactly correct; the police chief hired these officers, the police chief either trained directly these new hires or supervised their training, the police chief has a major part in creating the local ‘rules of engagement’ as well as establishing ‘national standards’ for police action. The chief retained them as cops, not firing them, not correcting them, therefore accepting their behaviors. The officers on the ground were merely tools for the chief to wield and are therefore relatively blameless. The real blame should be placed where it belongs–the chief is to blame for ALL of this, not just his tools. By his standard, everything they do is acceptable, so therefore the standard, training and hiring practices are to blame as well. It is time for the hiring and training of police officers as well as the creation of new rules to be taken away from the police and given to civilian oversight. It is also far past time for the immunity the cops enjoy to be removed so they can be judged on their actions and consequences administered.

    • claygooding says:

      I think every police officer that kills a person should be questioned by a grand jury,not a panel of policeman,,if any indictments are to be handed out they are in the right place to do it.
      Grand juries can ask anything they want and you must answer them or take the 5th,,taking the 5th and refusing too answer can get you locked in jail until you do answer. Grand juries can hold you indefinitely with no bail until you do answer their questions.

    • DdC says:

      EVERY cop and soldier take an oath to uphold the Constitution first and foremost. Over their commanders and chiefs orders. There is no legitimate excuse for abusing Constitutional rights. The Chief should be fired for not dealing with the abuses when they first happened. Then hold the city council accountable for not keeping checks and balances on the Chief. There are no renegade cops like Joe Arpaio authorized by the Constitution and those who pay him should be in jail with him, as well as these cops stuffing their pockets and terrorizing citizens. Cops are no different than garbage collectors and meter maids paid by taxes. It’s a job and they are supposed to be Americans going to work like everyone else. This silly stupid macho crap placing them above the laws and ordinary citizens is bullshit. No end justifying any means. Change the end. A start would be to stop arresting and koch for profit caging non violent drug offenders. Getting state time with no training or advancing education recidivism is 60% or so. Crime college is what it is. Who lobbies the hardest and again it fits that prohibitionists fear centers are larger than those exercising their endocannabinoid system. Fear to trade individual liberty, especially others for perceived safety. Which means security, koch rent a cops, guns, kevlar and more mini-tanks. Its a drug war racketeers dream riding the gravy train. No one should be placed in harms way to justify a need to defend themselves. Preemptive defense. SWAT is nazi storm troopers militarizing peace officers. More Wall St gun sellers making billions on the thousands of US cop shops and over a million badges. Getting overtime to kick down doors or pull weeds keeping sick people from easing their pain. In what possible world does that even come close to Constitutional? Kevlar and cop tanks to round up what is a direct result of what they lobby for. The drug war. If the people lead, the leaders will follow.

      Universal Soldier

      # In 2008, 12,501 local police departments with the equivalent of at least one full-time officer were operating in the U.S. bjs.gov

      # The 2012 Bureau of Justice Statistics’ Census of State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (CSLLEA), found there were 17,985 state and local law enforcement agencies employing at least one full-time officer or the equivalent in part-time officers

      # In 2008, local police departments had about 593,000 full-time employees, including 461,000 sworn officers. About 60% of all state and local sworn personnel were local police officers.

      # In 2008, state and local law enforcement agencies employed more than 1.1 million persons on a full-time basis, including about 765,000 sworn personnel (defined as those with general arrest powers). Agencies also employed approximately 100,000 part-time employees, including 44,000 sworn officers. wiki

      # “International” perspective
      1. England with one-fourth size of the U.S.
      has 43 police departments
      a. all agencies administered by the Home Secretary
      b. central authority
      2. Japan: National Police Agency-coordinates operations of 47 prefectural police
      mcgraw-hill

      The police power – the power to regulate everyday affairs inside a state, including law enforcement — rests with the state, not the Federal government. In fact, the Federal government is said to Constitutionally lack any inherent police power within states. Federal law enforcement is of an interstate nature.

      That’s why every state has their own law enforcement, their own education system, and their own court system, that are sovereign from the control of the Federal government on a day to day basis (the courts, for example, cannot contradict the Supreme Court, but the federal government has no hand in their operation). And that will definitely never change soon. If they had to choose between dissolving the Federal law enforcement agencies, or federalizing all law enforcement, I am certain Americans would choose the former.

  20. Servetus says:

    The Single Treaty is a big hoax.

    Noam Chomsky says the U.S. has exempted itself from all treaties because of its role in establishing the World Court at The Hague in 1946.

    Actually, it’s not too well known, but as far back as the ’40s the US exempted itself. So the United States helped establish the modern World Court in 1946, but it added a reservation: That the United States cannot be charged with violation of international treaties. What they had in mind, of course, was the UN Charter, the foundation of modern international law. And the OAS Charter, charter of the Organization of American States. – Noam Chomsky

    So the next time some prohib leans on the Single Treaty, let them know Uncle Sam has a get-out-of-jail-for-free card for all occasions.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      In my experience a link to Bolivia’s 7/1/2011 withdrawal from the SCT over the decriminalization of coca leaf usually shuts them down without even a subsequent peep. There’s no thinking required on the part of the prohibitionist for him to understand that he’s wrong, which is a good thing because there’s just no predicting what might come out of the mouth of a prohibitionist that is engaged in the act of thinking.

      My favorite link in this instance:
      http://www.wola.org/news/bolivia_withdraws_from_the_un_single_convention_on_narcotic_drugs

  21. DdC says:

    MDMA Study in Canada Ready to Begin;
    US and Australian Veterans Call for More Research Daily Kos ‏@dailykos

    Andrew Weil’s Latest Prescription: Take Ecstasy by Dan Skeen
    “If it were legal I would certainly recommend it to a variety of patients,” “I’ve seen chronic pain disappear as a result of one session with Ecstasy. I’ve seen allergies disappear. It gives you a chance to experience your body without the chronic tension that we normally impose on it. And although it doesn’t teach you to maintain that, it shows you that it’s possible and it can motivate you to find out how to make it happen … without the drug.”

    Let’s not go Nutts:
    Imperial Professor speaks about possible benefits of illegal psychoactive drugs.

    United Nations Drug Report Disappointing Say Critics
    The report was released just weeks after scientists at Johns Hopkins University retracted their research findings that suggested that a single evening’s use of ecstasy could cause permanent brain damage and Parkinson’s disease. The scientists admitted that they utilized the wrong drug in their studies.

    ☛Drug labelling error forces retraction…
    After RAVE Ax Passes

    A prestigious scientific journal is retracting a study about the effects of the drug Ecstasy on the brain because the animals used in the research were given a different drug. The researchers blamed the error on a labelling mix-up…

    ☛Report of Ecstasy Drug’s Great Risks Is Retracted
    ☛It’ll kill you — wait, no it won’t
    ☛Results Retracted On Ecstasy Study
    ☛Report of Ecstasy Drug’s Great Risks

  22. thelbert says:

    here’s something i ran across from 2008 new zealand:http://tinyurl.com/n3yvrzh. it’s about cannabis and lung cancer. comments are interesting. according to this i should be dead of lung cancer.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Quoted from article linked above: “Those who smoked the equivalent of one joint a day for 10 years had a 5.7 times higher lung cancer risk than nonsmokers…

      At least they’re consistent, there’s no quantification of what they claim is the baseline risk. I know that I’ve mentioned my sister-in-law’s habit of giving out Powerball tickets as stocking stuffers on Christmas morning. The odds of winning the advertised grand prize is 1 in 175,223,510. With the odds increased in favor of winning to 5.7 in 175,223,510 you still don’t have the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell of winning. Even 570 in 175,223,510 is still going to turn your snowball into a cup of water.

      While there’s no way in hell to significantly increase the chances of winning the Powerball prize it’s very simple to completely eliminate any chance of deleterious health consequences from inhaling gases produced by combustion. Just skip using delivery methods which include combustion.

      The study linked in the post above was based on 79 cases of lung cancer. The “scientists” in New Zealand sure know how to get really good mileage from a very limited sample. We should insist they stop worrying about cannabis and send them to work on inventing hyper efficient internal combustion engines. We would see EPA ratings into 10s of thousands of miles per gallon in no time, and that annoying discussion over “global warming” could be relegated to the dust bin of history.

      Remember the 2000 study by Dr. Murray Mittleman that found that older users face a 4.8x elevated risk of heart attack within an hour of pot smoking? That sounds horrible until you learn that increased risk means that the odds are 1 in 100,000. Now how many years would it take to smoke 100,000 joints? Almost 274 at 1 per day. Call me a dare devil, I’ll take my chances. That also presumes that vaporizing and smoking carry the same risks which I think is a laughably absurd presumption.

      It also doesn’t take into account that his study subjects were obviously not habitual users because he notes increased pulse rate and blood pressure in his study subjects. After I read that study I amused myself by hooking up a blood pressure/pulse monitor to myself for several days. My pulse never increased and my blood pressure was lowered coming in at 100/60 to 100/70. Take away my cannabis and my BP consistently comes in at 130/80.

  23. Opiophiliac says:

    The first case of krokodil use in the US has just
    surfaced in Arizona.

    Flesh-rotting ‘krokodil’ drug emerges in USA

    A powerful heroin-like drug that rots flesh and bone has made its first reported appearance in the United States, an Arizona health official says.

    Known on the street as “krokodil,” the caustic homemade opiate is made from over-the-counter codeine-based headache pills mixed with iodine, gasoline, paint thinner or alcohol. When it’s injected, the concoction destroys a user’s tissue, turning the skin scaly and green like a crocodile. Festering sores, abscesses and blood poisoning are common.

    Frank LoVecchio, the co-medical director at the Banner Good Samaritan Poison & Drug Information Center, told KPHO-TV that Arizona health officials have seen two cases during the past week.

    “As far as I know, these are the first cases in the United States that are reported,” he said. “So we’re extremely frightened.”

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Where can I buy codeine over the counter in the US? Please make a list for me like a good fellow, I’ve got to shut down my bullshit detector, it sounds like it’s going to explode.

      • darkcycle says:

        OTC Codiene?? Not in the U.S.of A.
        And with heroin as available as it is now?? I suspect you’re right Duncan…prohibitionist B.S.
        I’m gonna see where a little digging leads…

      • Opiophiliac says:

        Indeed, krokodil only makes sense economically if you have cheap and easy access to codeine.

        From accounts I’ve read, it has a very short duration of action (1.5-2 hours), users tend to go on binges where they cook and shoot for a few days in a row.

        Pure desomorphine, like most opiates based on the morphine structure, is probably relatively harmless (outside of the effects on respiratory depression). While even the most unsophisticated meth cook will recrystallize the final product krokodil users shoot the solution straight, complete with toxic solvents and catalysts.

        Russia is a tough place to be an opiate user. Methadone maintenance is illegal, harm reduction resisted and the Russians are competing with the US for the most hardline drug warriors the world over. Krokodil is another byproduct of overly idealistic drug laws.

  24. darkcycle says:

    The origin of the story was a report by a Dr. Frank LoVechhio, Banner Health Services Poison Control Center to KVVU TV.. The good doctor has “…has declined to comment on his patients’ conditions and details…” From the earliest reportage I could locate: http://www.inquisitr.com/966662/krokodil-flesh-eating-drug-reported-in-arizona/
    I e-mailed Banner Health services and asked for the admitting hospitals and other basic non HIPA information, but I suspect I won’t hear back.

    • darkcycle says:

      This Krokodil report is suspicious…I smell prohibitionist propaganda.

      • DdC says:

        Injecting anything with iodine, gasoline, paint thinner or alcohol might tend to do bodily harm. Sorta like adding flame retardants and burn enhancers to tobacco. Just don’t bring it up while demonizing it. Can’t fix stupid so trying to outlaw it seems like a waste of taxes. I like my Ganja straight, with a camel chaser. krokodil’s in the desert? When an uncivilized government, especially less transparent states. Demonize Ganja and place hurdles so idiots like Joe Arpaio can bully, humiliate, intimidate and terrorize Americans choosing it as a safer nicer alternative or addition. The prohibition leaves cheaper harsher deadlier choices. The idealists and self appointed Moralists are full of hot air fronting for a profit scam. Security or after life insurance. I’ve dressed junkies wounds, infected tracks with patches of skin removed. Raw meat. Again from improper use. Due to prohibition.

        Its the peoples choice and personally I’d rather dwell on those wanting to live and live healthier. So Cannabis in all forms seems to fit the bill. Those against it are against Americans and the Constitution just about across the board. Killing essential needs with cost saving hazardous waste disposals and emissions. Or the poisons sprayed on the cotton crop, not on Hemp. Think tank wars costing a trillion dollars each. Domestic and foreign for profit police actions. Mostly against civilians. That is by definition an enemy of the state. Buying million dollar smart bombs with single mothers food stamps or wrestling polio patients to the floor because their disease wouldn’t let them raise their hands to surrender fast enough. Busted for growing Ganja relief. With a corporate owned and ordered media, watchdog against opposing views, stigmatizing whistle blowers and Ganja truths. Censored school books kept Ganjay Supta rattling sabers with Calvina. Lies maintain the shadows to hide the facts. When the people decide to wake up and follow nancy no no’s advice concerning these dung worriers. Maybe we can stop the hype and fear mongers selling their protection. Iodine, gasoline, paint thinner and alcohol are not Opiates.

        People in such dire straights they must escape their lives for a respite from sucks. Go to extreme lengths for it, but only if they’re forced. The shortest distance between two points is preferable, except for prohibition. Junkies don’t use because they want to die. All because of prohibition. From lack of Quality Assurance sampling to Joe Arpaio despot wannabes and iodine, gasoline, paint thinner or alcohol fillers and binders he signs off on. He creates by circumventing the Constitution to sooth his own egomaniacal racist addiction to dominate his way of life. The zealots exist on myth and deny reality because they believe what they are told. That is no excuse, drug worriers and war brokers should be tried in a human and civil rights abuse tribunal and the entire AMA HHS FDA ONDCP Corporate fuck fest be the first tried. Then the profiteer piss tasters and rehabilitationist’s knowingly duping representatives with lucrative prizes for good behavior. Perpetuating the Ganjawar. Off with their heads!

        Opiates / Opioids erowid

        Krokodil: The drug that eats junkies
        A home-made heroin substitute is having a horrific effect on thousands of Russia’s drug addicts

        I Want To Melt (The Krokodil MEGATHREAD)

        Will my skin fall off?
        There’s a lot of sensationalist media surrounding Krokodil right now. Images of hardcore addicts who have scaly patches of skin living in mouldering yellowed apartments. The truth is Krokodil is a drug and thus CAN have negative effects on your health if taken foolishly. But you are an adult and should be able to decide when to walk away from something you think might be dangerous. As a side note I’ve never had anything but mild rashes and I know plenty of people who have been able to use Krokodil in moderation without any side-effects worth mentioning. So no, you probably wont melt or become a spooky skeleton if you use Krokodil wisely.

        Resources:
        So what’s that bigoted sensationalist media have to say about this 100%-safe heroin synth? GIS it and find out (gross pictures alert). Yeah, you might get a slight case of necrosis if you’re a little off on finding a vein, but getting farked-up at half the price owns!!

      • allan says:

        according to GoogleNews search the first story (outside of Russia) appeared on the 22nd:

        Doctor warns killer Russian drug Krokodil could be in Gloucester

        krokodil does have a wiki entry Desomorphine

        Desomorphine attracted attention in 2010 in Russia due to an increase in clandestine production, presumably due to its relatively simple synthesis from codeine. The drug is easily made from codeine, iodine and red phosphorus,[9] in a process similar to the manufacture of methamphetamine from pseudoephedrine; like methamphetamine, desomorphine made this way is often highly impure and is contaminated with various toxic and corrosive byproducts. The street name in Russia for homemade desomorphine is “krokodil” (Russian: крокодил, crocodile), reportedly due to the scale-like appearance of skin of its users and the derivation from chlorocodide.

        the oldest article cited in the wiki citations is this piece in Time:

        The Curse of the Crocodile: Russia’s Deadly Designer Drug

        It’s this Time article that the phrase codeine, a widely sold over-the-counter painkiller appears (apparently Russkies have greater freedom in their drug stores).

        The “rotting” explains the drug’s nickname. At the injection site, which can be anywhere from the feet to the forehead, the addict’s skin becomes greenish and scaly, like a crocodile’s, as blood vessels burst and the surrounding tissue dies. Gangrene and amputations are a common result, while porous bone tissue, especially in the lower jaw, often starts to dissipate, eaten up by the drug’s acidity.

      • allan says:

        the US patent for desomorphine was issued in 1934

  25. DdC says:

    Women Move To The Front Of Pro-Pot Movements

    Moms For Marijuana ‏@Moms4Marijuana
    Hey There Delilah – Parody Chief Greenbud “Its Only A Weed”

    @TransformDrugs
    BBC News – End war on drugs, says Durham police chief Mike Barton: Transform quoted

    Weed Regulation Is Up To Cities – For Now

  26. DdC says:

    @UberFacts * twitter

    ☮ In North Korea, cannabis is legal – It is actually recommended as a healthy alternative to tobacco.

    ☮ Snoop Dogg released a smoke-able book called “Rolling Words” – You can tear the pages out and use them as rolling paper.

    ☮ Heroin, Cocaine, and LSD are 3 of the 10 most expensive materials in the entire world.

    ☮ 30 people were arrested at an Aerosmith concert in 1978 for smoking and drug possession – The band bailed all of them out after the show.

    ☮ After Tupac was cremated, his ashes were mixed with marijuana and smoked by members of his hip-hip group, Outlawz.

    ☮ Marijuana was initially made illegal in 1937 by a man who testified the drug made white women want to be with black men.

    ☮ About 90% of baby changing tables in public restrooms have tested positive for cocaine.

    ☮ Mangos can enhance a marijuana high and allow you to get “higher” more effectively.

    ☮ Consistently checking emails and chatting on the internet have a greater impact on your “functioning IQ” than marijuana.

    ☮ The Salema Porgy is a fish that causes hallucinations when consumed and was used as a recreational drug by the Roman Empire.

    ☮ Chocolate contains the compound anandamide, which actually stimulates the human brain the same way as marijuana.

    ☮ At any time, about 0.7% of the world is drunk — So, roughly 50 million people are drunk right now.

    ☮ Gaslighting is a form of psychological abuse where a person is given so much false information, the begin to doubt their own memory.

    ☮ “Metathesiophobia” is the fear of change

    @420Magazine
    Oklahoma Evangelical Christians Among Supporters Of Medical Marijuana

    • Windy says:

      And I’m going to have to test that mango thing, I love mango but have never noticed that it enhanced a cannabis high. I actually have some mango in the fridge right now.

  27. Windy says:

    “In North Korea, cannabis is legal – It is actually recommended as a healthy alternative to tobacco.”

    But they skewer and cook dogs while the dogs are still alive and then eat them.

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