Heroic Uruguay deserves a Nobel Peace Price for legalizing cannabis by Simon Jenkins for the Guardian.
This is a beautiful piece worth reading.
The catastrophe of death and anarchy that failed drug suppression has brought to Mexico and to other narco-states makes the west’s obsessive war on terror seem like a footling sideshow. The road out of this darkness is now being charted not in the old world but in the new, whose heroic legislators deserve to be awarded a Nobel peace prize. It is they who have taken on the challenge of fighting the one world war that really matters – the war on the war on drugs. It is significant that the bravest countries are also the smallest. Thank heavens for small states.
If BHO can get a Nobel Peace Prize, then Uruguay should be a shoe-in. (maybe we should consider one for the other BHO, it leaves people very peaceful.)
There must be a bunch of trolls who network to hit opinion pieces like this. The first six or seven comments are of the usual prohib/moron standard…. “might as well legalize murder” etc.
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Of course there is a cohort of prohibitionist sycophants posting under stories about cannabis law reform. They saw just how successful that strategy has been for us. They figured that they could do the same and help perpetuate the idiocy of the absolute prohibition of cannabis.
But it’s not a worry. It’s not atypical for an idiot prohibitionist to forget to consider their little problem of their reckless disregard for and genuine hatred of the truth. They haven’t a clue that while the repetition is an integral part of the plan that you can only make it work for a lie for a limited time, and that their time is almost over.
BTW, I’m still looking for someone to take the other side of a sucker bet. I’m willing to bet dollars to dirt that if the truth were to politely knock on the front door of a prohibitionist that he would call the police and demand that it be arrested for trespassing. I’m even willing (in almost all jurisdictions) to play a parlay for double or nothing betting that the police would have no problem with accommodating that demand if they can figure out how to handcuff it.
…if the truth were to politely knock on the front door of prohibitionists, they would shoot it in the head.
OT but important news for WA State patients and caregivers:
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/today/2013/12/liquor-board-says-keep-home-grows-for-medical-marijuana/#.UqoIbUXGESk.facebook
Jean Valjean: “There must be a bunch of trolls who network to hit opinion pieces like this. The first six or seven comments are of the usual prohib/moron standard…. “might as well legalize murder†etc.”
Oh don’t mind those guys, Jean. Just DEA Agents on a coffee break. Seriously though, one should never underestimate the role of “job security” in the perpetuation of this war on people. And that applies to everyone from local police, feds, drug (forced) treatment centers and, apparently, UN bureaucrats.
The prohibitches and the few public supporters at those articles are all dependent on marijuana prohibition continuing for their income,,that is why there are so few in comparison with the number of supporters for reform.
And for some reason they just do not understand that all their claims of harm come from one source and funded by one group,,the drug warriors and their support agencies.
No matter how they slice it and dice it now the world has decided that drugs are not that bad just because the government told us so. It has gone past that now to people looking at the good attributes of drugs,,such as the shrooms and other natural occurring drugs available as medicine.
“The catastrophe of death and anarchy that failed drug suppression has brought to Mexico and to other narco-states ”
Narco-states are states, states and anarchy are mutually exclusive.
the misuse of the word anarchy always irks me
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I actually had a dictionary that listed the definition of the word “anarch” as the person in charge of an anarchy. I could just see him going on the TV directly after the coup d’etat and ordering everyone to do whatever they want to do under threat of summary execution if caught doing something which they didn’t want to do.
According to Radley Balko, there is another consensus forming, too, one opposing the “security state”:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/13/the-slow-turn-against-pol_n_4439312.html?utm_hp_ref=the-agitator
Oddly, I was the first to comment and the article has been up since Friday.
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It was easily predictable that posting quantity on HuffPo was going to decline to a fraction of its former numbers. I still haven’t decided if I’m going to link my Facebook account and if I do which one.
That new rule has likely killed tens, if not hundreds of thousands of sock puppets. I’m sure that was the intention too. Arianna could have just decided to quit being so darn anal retentive about posting content to save money on moderators. But I guess birds got to fly, fish got to fry.
CNN has a piece describing how 70-to-90 percent of all schizophrenics are fond of smoking tobacco. CNN ascribes the tobacco habit to something nicotine does for schizophrenics to temporarily relieve or reduce their symptoms:
Contrast the CNN health article with the typical anti-marijuana propaganda that leaves the reader dangling with an unexplained, vague sounding “link†between schizophrenia and marijuana use, no doubt intending the reader view said link as directly causing schizophrenia. The contrast is one of an educated, medical professional evaluation of schizophrenia and tobacco use, versus the typical rubbish propaganda employed by prohibitches who target marijuana.
I’ve gotta call bullshit on that story…
It’s the whole Nicotine = Bad, so everyone must stop taking it story, which is without a doubt (IMO) a part of the beginning of FDA’s (seemingly) incoming “war” on e-cigs and vaporizers.
They totally discount/disregard the idea of Moderation – whether it’s cigarettes or “nicotine replacements”. I can tell you from personal experience = It doesn’t have to be all or nothing.
There is one medication Zyban aka Wellbutrin, among many generic names, that was/is prescribed for smoking “cessation” – and as an anti-depressant that works wonders in curbing smoking as opposed to quitting smoking.
As an anti-depressant its one of the few without the nasty “sexual side-effects” – but they’ve nearly ‘evergreened’ it as far as possible – going to a 12-hour slow release, then a 24-hour extended release version…
When the last version goes fully generic (assuming its possible to produce a non-formulary generic = I haven’t looked it up recently the 12 hr version works fine for me *just like it has for a dozen or so years at the same dosage btw*) they MIGHT to push Docs to prescribe ‘newer’ medicines.
Particularly for smoking cessation – psychiatrists may still continue prescribing it for depression, for patients that respond well to it.
But, I suspect many have tried to push ‘Chantrix’ (or what-have-you) for “smoking cessation” — the “may cause suicidal thoughts or actions” side-effect doesn’t seem to bother the companies or *some* Docs.
Stop me if I’m wrong but ‘suicidal actions’ = ‘suicide’ or ‘suicide attempts’ if the person is lucky…
They do the same thing with non-narcotic pain meds too – “it may cause suicidal thoughts or actions”, but that is apparently preferable to the possibility of “physical dependence” to some form of opiate-based medications.
You know all those arthritis/fibromyalgia/etc medicine commercials where 40 of the 60 seconds is a voice-over listing the side-effects that occurred often enough in test-trials, that the lawyers insist they put them into the ads!
And, contrary to some opinions/beliefs/experience – some people that take these meds (and a number of other meds others say are ‘EVIL’) = Can indeed take them for extended periods (ie: many years) at a consistent dosage… In my experience they can work just fine = WHEN & IF they’re taken on a regular round-the-clock schedule 24/7/365.
While other folks can’t seem to help abusing possibly even OD’ing on them (they seem to be folks who were prescribed them on an “as needed basis” aka PRN – while I believe (and have read in a few places) is more due to the lack of a scheduled dosage… “Take these only when you need them” = Is what leads a fair number of people to increase their dosage over time & however slowly.
From what I’ve gathered/read/& IMO – that’s what leads to MANY overdoses, in the case of pain meds. It’s not so much to due with the opiate but the acetaminophen included “to discourage/prevent abuse”. The problem is = you don’t know you’ve OD’ed on Tylenol/Acetaminophen until the next day – or whenever the liver damage sends you to the ER.
There was an AP story about ten years ago – talking about them increasing incidences of ER admissions due to overdose via hydrocone-based meds, what the FDA/DEA didn’t point out in the article was how many of those overdoses was from the opiate vs. the acetaminophen.
This was said by many to be a result of the tightening of regulations and limits on Docs as to how much Class 2 opiate prescriptions they could write = how much is “too much” – the DEA seemed to draw an fairly arbitrary line there at the time. And while some places (Let’s say Florida-to-Kentucky) it was arguably needed, but for many folks with chronic pain – they got screwed in the process of “cracking-down on the pill-mills”.
It’s kinda like when the press/government nannies mix the “gun death” numbers = including both homicides & suicides, without noting any distinction between the two.
And, much dismay of many worriers – the FDA actually just approved a tylenol free version of hydrocodone without some “abuse resistant formula” (for some period of time = giving them a couple years to work on the formulation), possibly because of just this specific problem.
The reality is that “junkies” will find a way around the “abuse-deterrent” formulation (maybe CJ will chime-in here and attest to this), and meanwhile other folks are left with untreated or under-treated pain, to the point where they take them “as needed” = all the way to liver damage/poisoning from the Acetaminophen.
I’m hoping the FDA is gave this approval, specifically to see if the occurrences of actual (real-world) damage from the acetaminophen & other ‘abuse deterrents’ is actually greater than the risk of people overdosing on the unadulterated hydrocodone – contrary to what some people currently swear to as “the truth”.
And, FWIW – Yes, I do obviously wish that people had a safe natural alternative to the opiates for pain relief, or as an adjunct – to reduce their need for opiate pain medicines to a level that’s safer for people that can’t seem to self-titrate their meds very well as it stands, in the current opiate-phobic “PRN” prescribing world of ‘modern medicine’…
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I used Wellbutrin to quit using smoking tobacco. I give it my highest available personal recommendation if you’re still using smoking tobacco. Chantix had yet to be invented.
The really stupid part is the health insurance wouldn’t pay for Zyban because it’s a “lifestyle” drug, but they didn’t even blink about paying as long as the label said it was an anti-depressant.
I’ve got to mention that the thing that makes me most skeptical of the alleged horror stories of inevitable illness and death caused by smoking tobacco is the health insurance companies refusal to pay for smoking cessation. That tells me that they think that people smoking costs them less than if they quit. While puzzled it really doesn’t matter to me, smoking tobacco use past adolescence is pretty darn boring, not to mention a waste of money.
BTW, Wellbutrin wasn’t seen as a stop smoking aid when it was invented. It was just an unexpected, albeit pleasant side effect of taking the drug for depression.
This is significant less from a stoner’s perspective than as a world health issue. Maybe the drug war IS the ONLY war that matters.
Merry Christmas to Pete and all the excellent commenters who visit this site. There’s a wealth of knowledge here.
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Speaking of absurdly ridiculous nonsense that just won’t die:
From time to time I ponder if the prohibitchionest parasites purposefully keep a number of “scientific” studies constantly in production so they can be assured of having new “research” that contradicts whatever anti-prohibition meme that start to get traction. It’s nothing new, I recall the first time I ever had the thought was circa 1992 when a cohort of people living with AIDS started to promote medicinal cannabis as a palliative and George Bush the 41st pulled a study out of his a$$ that said that cannabis reduced the effectiveness of the human immune system. IIRC at the time I was watching the TV with the Church Lady and she said, “How con-veeeeen-neee-ent!”
Bah, it harms my memory? My memory is so good that I can even remember stuff that never happened! Darn it all, where is my brick wall?
http://tinyurl.com/mnkov5n
Pot Smokers and Schizophrenic Patients May Share Similar Brain Changes
Pot smokers and Presidents of the United States may share similar brain changes too. They just haven’t done the study yet.
I looked at that study, it’s shaky. I expect, like Duncan said, it is going to have the shelf life of a ripe Banana.
They relied on self reporting, and really had to stretch to make the correlation look significant. The study wasn’t longitudinal, and they didn’t control for other events correlated with structural changes in those areas, like head injury, trauma, nutrition Socio/economic status…and on… Even if it had been longitudinal, all they have is a barely significant correlation. Like Servetus said, the correlation between smoking is astronomical, and the correlation between schizophrenia and COFFEE is even higher.
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Hey man, did you know that the Rastafari have an incidence of schizophrenia that’s in line with the rate of the civilized world? shaker without a religion.
Now if you want insanity go to church and check out the funny mentalists. Those people are by definition off their rockers crazy. Seriously did you ever see one of them “speaking in ‘tongues’?” One of my most vivid memories (ever) was being at Court ordered mandatory church services.
At that service I noticed an obese black woman who become full of the Holy Spirit start babbling incoherently. Next she started shaking like a bowl of Jello in an earthquake of substantial magnitude. Still shaking she falls to the floor and started what I thought was a grand mal epileptic seizure. I knew the procedure to help mitigate both the risk of adverse physical and mental damage. I knew the drill because my best friend in high school was epilectic. Chuck would have a grand mal seizure in something like 3 out of 10 times when we had dropped some acid. So I do know what a grand mal seizure looks like.
Anyway I jumped up and hurried to the stage to make sure that she wouldn’t “swallow her tongue” or bite it off. As I approached the stage I realized that nobody else who was present had even the least concern about her hitting her head and getting brain damaged or worse. I mean talk about embarrassing! This particular embarrassment is up there approaching the level of embarrassment I feel in one of those dreams where I arrive at work/school before realizing that I had forgotten to put on my clothes before leaving home.
Oh well, if you get ordered into drug “treatment” by a judge this stone cold atheist highly recommends the Salivation Army. That organization is a scam. Your drug “treatment” will consist of sorting donations or whatever else is needed to keep their thrift shops up and running. Also you’ll have to go to church services and 12 step meetings 2 or 3 nights a week. But it’s the fact that they don’t mindfuck you that I found to be most valuable and overwhelmed my concerns of being exposed to religionists.
Oh right I didn’t want to forget to mention that after 90 days they let you pick your own discharge date. They try to talk you into saying but it isn’t much of a sales pitch. But hey, willing slaves aren’t easy to find. Can we reasonably fault them for trying?
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Corrections: In my post above “shaker without a religion” should have been deleted. The woman reminded me of that defunct cohort of religionists but I couldn’t make the thought work. A word to the wise: if you start a religion which requires total celibacy from adherents it won’t be long before your religion disappears. Especially if there’s almost no chance of allowing outsiders to convert.
“They try to talk you into saying” should have been “They try to talk you into staying” but you probably guessed that one.
by the by… LEAP has had its hand in the mix in Latin America for awhile and their presence there is making a big difference.
I want to share this, from a longer email sent out by Jack Cole today (check out the list of signers):