Heading off to Kansas City for an International Fine Arts Deans conference. Hoping to get some ribs while I’m there.
Here’s a little bit of absurdity… 5 Ridiculous Anti-Drugs Posters
Of course, there have been plenty of others, but these are a pretty bizarre bunch.
Speaking of irresponsibility… Do the media talk down to teenagers over drugs? (Hint: the answer is “yes”)
And, according to one of its authors, the reporting of studies around drugs such as this can leave young people more confused because the issues are often oversimplified and subject to spin. […] “When we do our research, we want it to have an impact in the real world, we want to give the best advice. But we find it frustrating that, so often, the media give exaggerated headlines. Sometimes, it is even untrue and you wonder if the journalist has read the piece,” said Professor Curran.
Here’s a video of a rather confused prison warden: http://www.inquisitr.com/1550875/a-look-at-life-inside-norways-halden-prison-where-there-are-no-bars-and-inmates-have-flat-screen-tvs-inside-their-cells/
How thick do people have to be to not understand that even in that Norwegian prison with all its (helpful, rehabilitative) amenities, the inmates have still been temporarily deprived of one of the most basic human rights? Does he not value Liberty?
“In a video ad by the Yes on 91 campaign, King County Sheriff John Urquhart said he supported Washington state’s successful 2012 initiative to legalize recreational marijuana.
While he does not come straight out and urge Oregonians to vote for Measure 91, he says driving-under-the-influence violations are down in Washington, and money is going to schools and police, not drug cartels.
“Strict regulations are working,” Urquhart says in the ad. “Here it’s really better already. It’s your vote, not mine, but it’s working here.”
King-County-Sheriff-backs-Oregon-pot-legalization-
“The study, published by the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, also warns that it is difficult to distinguish between the impact of cannabis and that of other factors, such as alcohol.” That’s a quote from the second article Pete mentions. Here is another quote from another new study (from the Washington Post):
No, marijuana use doesn’t lower your IQ
http://tinyurl.com/ocdpjtx
“when confounding factors – alcohol use, cigarette use, maternal education, and others – were taken into account. Even heavy marijuana use wasn’t associated with IQ.”
“In particular alcohol use was found to be strongly associated with IQ decline,” the authors write. “No other factors were found to be predictive of IQ change.”
While not exactly on topic, it’s not exactly off topic either. Check out this new get out the vote ad from Fla.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aj8s8VoKkEI
I’m not sure how voting will negate the need to wear a vest. But I do find it interesting that people now fear the police more than they do the criminals.
If anyone kept statistics on law enforcement killings they probably kill more people than criminals,,that is prolly why the FBI doesn’t track them.
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Make sure to check your local laws. Possession of body armor is a crime in Baltimore MD.
Protecting oneself and one’s life should NEVER be against the law anywhere! Especially not such a passive defense as body armor.
McGruff The Crime Dog Actor Sentenced To 16 Years For Pot, Grenade Launcher http://redalert.io/1tLGUiG via @RedAlert
Kill The Messenger came out last weekend, and yet, I still think that Gary Webb is getting the short end of the stick, as the “official” narrative of him committing suicide by two shots to the head is promulgated.
Listen to the SoundCloud clip at the site below, and tell me if you agree that he could possibly do such a thing:
http://www.ire.org/blog/ire-news/2014/10/15/ire-archive-dark-alliance/
In pistol-assisted suicides, depending on caliber and the knowledge of anatomy the person possesses as to where to properly aim, the weapon is usually found a few feet from the body, flung there by spastic reaction caused by neural missfiring. This happens after the very first shot. A second one is unlikely, for that same reason.
Which is why snipers are always trying for the medula, to destroy the main neural switching center, in case the target is pointing a weapon at his victim, as the reaction could cause the bad guy to pull the trigger in spasmodic reaction.
On the other hand, ‘double-tapping’ is a sign of an assassin’s skill and experience.
Hence the term: ‘suicided’.
Nearly every drug-scandal whistleblower in the past 20 years has had their careers trashed, been ‘suicided’ or arrested and imprisoned on BS charges. As has happened to almost every name mentioned in this article.
As an old saying goes:
“Treason doth never prosper; what’s the reason? Why, if treason doth propser, none dare call it treason.” – John Harrington
“Treason doth prosper” in the illicit drug trade…and those profiting the most are at the heights of global finance and national governments, or this travesty couldn’t have gone on for as long as it has.
This is partly why we have had so much trouble in reform: treason doth, indeed, prosper for those in high (no pun intended) places, supposedly enjoined in ‘protecting’ us, while betraying their oaths for personal gain.
As the old saying goes, like fish, the rot starts at the head. And that attitude pervades even the rank-and-file DrugWarriors. Many of them know their own bosses are dirty, but because they are not high enough in the hierarchy, they’d face the same fate as ‘civilian’ whistleblowers’. And should they reach those heights, they become corrupted, too. For if your own generals are sleeping with the enemy, then, “Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters?”
“And other grandfolks could be heard arguing the perennial question of whether the United States still lingered in a prefascist twilight, or whether that darkness had fallen long stupefied years ago, and the light they thought they saw was comming only from millions of Tubes all showing the same bright-colored shadows. One by one, as other voices joined in, the names- some shouted, some accompanied by spit, the old reliable names good for hours of contention and insominia- Hitler, Roosevelt, Kennedy, Nixon, Hoover, Mafia, CIA, Reagan, Kissinger, that collection of names and their tragic interweaving that stood not constellated above in any nightwide remoteness of light, but below, diminished to the last untraceable American secret, to be pressed, each time deeper, again and again beneath the meanest of random soles, one blackly fermenting leaf on the forest floor that nobody wanted to turn over, because of all that lived, virulent, waiting just beneath.”
–Thomas Pynchon, “Vineland”
Do the media talk down to adults about drugs? Why yes, they do. I’m wondering if they’re talking down, or maybe they’re just too down to talk up?
There have been tacit, past agreements between the government and the corporate media to push a moral panic involving drugs way beyond its normal expiration date. Forty years and running. This is some sour and rancid gruel the government expects us to swallow. Prohibition really doesn’t age well.
The fourth estate isn’t necessarily comatose, but it is lustful, gluttonous, greedy, wrathful, envious and prideful, to name six of the seven deadly sins. I left out slothful, because sloth was originally the name given to the disease known today as major depression. Strangely enough, it was a sin until Rev. Cotton Mather’s wife contracted it, whereupon Cotton knew his wife was too virtuous to be sinful as charged. Thereafter, it became a disease. Sort of like drug addiction. The media isn’t depressed, but it should be, given how various media factions operate.
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OMG! For cannabis law reform advocates the 3 minute video linked below is must see TV. An instant classic, no doubt. Who’s your daddy?
Russ Belville is kicking ass and taking names in the campaign for Oregon’s Measure 91. Wait, strike that. Mr. Belville is tearing the prohibitionists new rectums and demanding that they inform him of their paternal parent’s name.
“Do the media talk down to teenagers over drugs?” I seem to recall seeing on the TV that they hire talking dogs to do that.
What I found interesting was that most of the audience were in support of Russ. Which goes to show that generational cohort I keep yammering about isn’t passive on this issue. Quite the opposite.
And that those (like that merc of a treatment doctor Russ made squirm so enjoyably) who were hoping for programmed passivity courtesy of DARE indoctrination in their victim’s earlier years are learning the hard way what a waste of money and time that was.
I love it when DrugWarrior BSers get exposed…and I like it even more when they get publicly outed as bargain-brand Sophists. They’re bush-league, junior high, debating society level, not up to the task as Russ so ably proves he is.
This is why they have avoided debating us for so long…and it’s a sign of desperation on their part that they are now doing so now. For they face the same rhetorical fate that that merc ‘doctor’ did, and they know it.
Props to Russ… glad he’s on our side. I actually let that vid load (45 min on dial-up) so I could watch.
Funny you should mention the talking animals,,McGruff actor just got 16 years for marijuana,,,figures….
Anyone feel like tackling this?
http://www.unharm.org/boycott_cocaine
I got it, ethical produced coke for consumers with a conscience.
Alcohol is often guilty as charged, but sometimes its bad rap overwhelms the good it sometimes does. So when a new bit of research emerges that moderates moral panics over Demon Rum, it helps defeat the whole prohibition concept. Today’s lesson in biochemistry comes to us from the good folks at the University of Texas, and tells us that moderate alcohol consumption for people over 60 helps preserve episodic memory:
Hippocampal functioning, however, is best improved through marijuana consumption:
That is the very root of my diatribe on marijuana being the influencing factor that increased mans brain size and functions from the millennial man used it as food,medicine and recreation versus the ancient aliens theory of altered DNA by E-T.
In effect our government is stunting man’s brain development by banning marijuana.
It’s true. We think, therefore we’re dangerous. To certain people, at least.
Totalitarian forms of government purposely stunt human mental growth in order to politically dominate their subjects. Divide and conquer strategies are employed by tyrants and aimed at men and women, and between different ethnicities, to distract the population from the tyrants’ unjust rule.
Rote learning and training are emphasized over reason and creativity. Any agent that might encourage thoughtfulness, such as teaching critical thinking, or promoting truthful examination of national and world history in public schools, or enjoying a mind altering substance, is taboo. In some subcultures, paths to knowledge are deliberately obstructed starting at an early age. For what’s left of the dwindling middle class, a college degree in the U.S. now comes with the indebtedness of an indentured servant with no time limit on their financial servitude.
Cannabis is the weed growing in the ever widening cracks of the wall of state. Marijuana and other psychotropic agents fly in the face of petty tyrants and their tyranny. These alone are reasons to justify growing and consuming cannabis, as well as other mind transformers. Just say know.
This just in:
A coffee shop owner in Amsterdam, caught with a hundred kilos of weed, is found guilty but will not receive punishment. The Dutch press is calling it a breakthrough.
The Amsterdam District Court, it appears, has had enough of the inconsistencies in the Dutch soft drugs policy — the law permits 500 grams).
This decision is similar to what happened last week in a court in Groningen. The Judge in that instance decided not to punish two large scale growers who were supplying local coffee shops.
http://nos.nl/artikel/713219-geen-straf-voor-100-kilo-wiet.html
The crazy uncles are hard at work. Dr. Thurstone is an embarrassment to his new friends:
http://marijuana.com/news/2014/10/anti-pot-group-links-marijuana-to-michael-browns-death/
I found the actual article
http://drthurstone.com/death-ferguson-thc/
A sign of intellectual bankruptcy is blaming the victim’s cannabis use for Darren Wilson murdering him. They are still trying to push that racist “frenzied, drug-addled black male” stereotype in order to scare people into keeping prohibition.
But they can’t run away from the fact that the “cure” is far worse than the disease-and that the disease may not be a disease at all.
Steven Cole, 48, feared being sent to prison for growing cannabis plants.
Judge Nic Parry said the train journey (60 miles) was probably enough punishment and let him off with a conditional discharge.
eveningpost.co.uk/Judge-rules-long-train-journey-punishment/
http://ti.me/1uHiNjg
at TIME:
On this page is “A Journey For Oil” a 16 minute segment worth a watch.
Its obvious in the documentary who the real experts are at this point in time. And how clueless the children’s hospital is about marijuana as medicine, thanks to the war on drugs and the federal government.
Good stuff. “What about the children?” indeed.
The Pope just came out against life sentences.
I am a George Carlin fan also. Don’t shoot.
Wording needed for Bills and ballot mesures having to do
with Cannabis reform that allow a fee to be added for
Legal representation for patients and others,
like a get out of jail card.
Many more issues that can use this fund should be explored like Legal rep for hemp farmers —
Its time for Willy to host Farm Days with Cannabis being the Main Event.
http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/47612-whos-gonna-save-the-earth/#entry505662
ya know mates, some days the universe just has too much fun at our expense…
a week or so ago my daughter sends me a note: we’re eloping to the Washington Co. courthouse next Thur, can you be there?
Well I only have 1 daughter, so of course I’ll get to Portland for her wedding.
So today I borrowed a car, avoided the massive head-on crash on I-5 between at least 2 semis and avoided the traffic jam. Get to my daughter’s place in plenty of time. I take some really nice photos of the couple (and yes, I approve of her husband). Everybody else (maybe 10 of us total) show up, we zoom over to Hillsboro. Pile out of the cars and head in to the courthouse.
Now mind you, I haven’t been in a courthouse in the last decade. Nobody told ME they checked all bags and pass everyone thru a metal detector. My backpack is my mobile office. I keep my reading glasses, a notebook, my Yes on 91 stickers, my beanie, some TP… all the essentials. And when I’m shooting it’s also my camera bag.
And it’s also where I keep my pot. Duh.
So everybody else goes thru, I’m polite and wait ’til last.
“Ummm, sir, you know there’s marihuana in your pack? Do you have a medical card?”
“Oh, yeah, I’m sorry, I was in a hurry. I can take it back to the car.”
“Well no sir, you can’t, you’ve already brought it into the building. I’m going to have to call the sheriff.”
So me, a 45+ year pot smoker, never – NEVER – ever a bit of trouble tho’ I generally always have pot, get busted at my daughter’s wedding.
15 minutes to wedding time. 🙁
My ex, my kids’ mom, is there and she’s both concerned and about to bust a gut. 2 sheriff’s deputies show up. “Do you have a medical card?”
No.
“Then why do you have this?”
I look at the deputy… “I forgot to take my herb out of my pack. I don’t have a car so I walk and carry all my stuff in my pack pretty much everywhere I go. I just drove up from Eugene to be here for my daughter’s wedding.”
Cranky deputy is writing up my “inventory receipt” and my citation. Friendly deputy says to cranky “you know when Washington legalized they just threw all these types of tickets away and we will too next month after legalization.” [I swear!]
Cranky deputy keeps writing. My daughter (beautiful blond and her mom, not bad herself) standing there and I start talking to friendly deputy, “so how old are you?”
He says, “old enough” and smiles. I look… “mmm, I see that gray, I’d say 43.”
“Pretty close” he says.
We talk more, I introduce myself and I engage the other security staff into the conversation, telling them about Conde’s truck and how I drove all over Oregon for 5 years in a truck w/ pot leaves painted all over it – and I was never stopped for a violation, no accidents and in fact I always waved at the cops (the advantage of being legal and driving legal).
Cranky cop gets up and comes over and says “in the interest of efficient jurisprudence I’m not going to cite you. Here’s your property receipt for your pipe and weed.”
I make a last comment about how beautiful my daughter looks, tell the deputies “thank you,” shake their hands and head up to get my daughter hitched. And of course, the judge was a gray hair with a ponytail… I wonder if he carries his vape pen into the building…
I had thought my Oregon experience had left the Tom Robbins’ Another Roadside Attraction mode I experienced in the ’90s but perhaps not…
And my daughter loved that her dad got busted at her wedding… ’cause she knows that’s how life with dad goes. Why make it easy when you can make it interesting!
Nor was it a problem with the outlaws, they’re pot heads too. They just don’t take their weed into the courthouse.
Ultra cool story, and thanks for taking the trouble to tell it!
Allan, glad you’re safe.
Great story, thanks for sharing it with the couch.
good for you, Allan, looks like you got some good kharma working for you. that’s another reason the authorities are not going win the druggie war. IMO the cannabinoids can make you a better person. maybe good cop partook of the herb in his youth or a couple of days ago, and a little residual brotherhood was still in his system.
*smacks forehead with palm*
I though we old coots were supposed to be cagey and sly.
Good work, Allan. Glad you avoided that little issue. Sheesh….I can just see some judge trying to coerce you into treatment. I do not think that would go well for him. *rolls eye at Allan*
Bride here… Ya’know, I wouldn’t have had the day any other way. And now I’ve got a wedding day mishap story to top all others! And btw, here’s a photo of the two of us with our courthouse papers!
couch, meet my daughter Robin. 🙂
For some odd reason I raised her to believe that women are strong, intelligent and can be heroes… and of course can be villainesses!
In all honesty, I knew there was pot in my bag, I didn’t care – not one damn iota. One junior nug and the same glass pipe I’ve been puffing on for the last 15 years… my heart ruled my day and I felt like I lived in Mayberry and it would be a clean and simple affair.
But oh no… we gots ter’ists out to blow up every little Podunkburg, USA. Sheriff Andy has retahred, Opie ran away to Hollywood and we the citizens of Mayberry are now the suspects. They’re not saying suspected of what but they can make shit up easy enough.
I doubt I’ll enter any more courtrooms in the near future.
Hey… after the election and pot is legal can I ask Washington Co for my pipe back?
Your daughter is very beautiful, allan, and you ain’t bad yourself. Glad it all came out okay.
congratulations, Robin, and i hope your marriage is as full of laughs as your wedding day. you made a wise choice of fathers.
I’ve been telling her that for the last 23 years!
Awesome!! Like the expression, Allan!
CONGRATULATIONS Allen (on so many levels)!!!
1st (and formost), congrats on gaining a new son-in-law, someone who you trust to care and protect your daughter, someone who has your back for keeping her happy!
2nd, being a good representative for all of us who responsibly consume cannabis, you did us proud sir! Showing the up-most respect for those in the law enforcement positions of protecting the citizens of Washington County, being courteous and honorable to those who are employed at the Courthouse.
And lastly, for putting the dazzle on the story of your daughter and son-in-law’s wedding! Nice job! I think this story needs to go into Reader Digest story book! Love it, and thank you again for sharing and making us all here on the couch proud that you are one of us!!
fyi, Mark Kleiman on the OR legalization initiative
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/ten-miles-square/2014/10/cannabis_legalization_in_orego052615.php
And Oregon is soooo close to WA. How convenient. All the good folks in OR need to do is ask if the good folks in WA are happy being lab rats in Kleiman’s laboratory.
Mind you, not ‘a laboratory’ in the Brandeisian sense. No. His laboratory.
He said he wanted to throttle accessibility via keeping stock low to see if his ideal of Prohibition Lite would work as a ‘deterrent’. And he is still beating that (filthy, chipped, dented and rusting) drum in the article.
But…you have to give him credit; he did exactly what he set out to do. The planned scarcity in WA is having his desired effect; stores are running out too soon.
Whether the taxpaying, voting citizens of WA wanted it that way is another matter…
So, now? In this article, he is once more offering his ‘expertise’, this time to OR’s State Gub’mint. As if anyone could not see for themselves what his ‘expertise’ has wrought in WA.
You don’t hire known, advertised and self-promoting foxes to be the architects of chicken coops. WA forgot this. Hopefully, the taxpaying electorate in OR will see the blood, guts and feathers strewn in the wake of his WA cannabis consulting gig, recall how much money it ran over bid, and tell their legislators to beg off…or face recall.
Yeah. Washington State Liquor control board is asking to more than double the amount of area under cultivation already, from 3 million sq. feet to 8 mil. With only a relative handful of stores open, they are realizing that they just don’t have enough stock to remain in business. Yup, Marky wants pot to be more expensive and harder to get under legalization than prohibition. But he’s stupid to think the market will respond to his little lame attempts at manipulating it. So far, in Washington State, the black/grey market still leads the legal recreational market in all categories: They set the floor on price, the high mark for quality and they also get the nod for convenience. I can have my choice of strain delivered to my door in under an hour, or I can visit my old dealer just down the street.
Bad as I hate Klownman I haven’t figured out how to make a million dollars knowing nothing yet.
Something else on WA,,what happened to the part of 502 that required the prices to be competitive with the black market in an effort to reduce it,,or are they just ignoring it and hoping nobody notices?
C’mon clay, the taxes don’t count as part of the price!
I used your comment, kap, to headline a link to the Kleiman screed on fb (I have a lot of friends and some family in OR), giving you credit, of course. And I used dark’s and clay’s comments as follow ups.
Thanks for posting a link to a place where a dissenting comment might actually get through. Here’s what I posted to the Reverberant Base Community (awaiting moderation, and likely to stay that way):
Of course the claim that barring minors from buying in cannabis stores will keep them from having access to diverted supplies doesn’t pass the giggle test:
Of course the assertion that anyone is claiming that “barring minors from buying in cannabis stores will keep them from having access to diverted supplies” doesn’t pass the giggle test either. I found no such thing by following the link you provided. The relevant passages from the first two hits on the google search link you posted:
What’s in between are all the Oregonians not particularly interested in their own personal access to marijuana who might be swayed that the state can better manage this market — and, say, a child’s access to it — than drug dealers can.
Marijuana prohibition makes it harder to protect children. Right now, it is easier for junior high and high school students to get marijuana than a six pack. There is no real regulation and effective prevention programs are chronically underfunded.
Perhaps I missed something — do you have a more precise link to share?
* Rein in the medical-marijuana business. Once Oregonians with medical need can buy tested and labeled product at commercial outlets, there’s no need to have an entire parallel distribution system.
The needs of medical marijuana consumers are different from the desires of recreational consumers. Marijuana patients tend to benefit most from either very high-potency THC or high-CBD / low-THC strains. The market in Colorado is reportedly reacting to demand for “milder marijuana” for recreational consumers, while there is practically zero demand from recreational users for CBD-dominant strains like Charlotte’s Web that help sick children avoid seizures without getting them high. I don’t think a recreational market would serve medical customers well.
So the question facing Oregonians who want adults to be able to buy cannabis legally – without the nonsense of finding a “kush doctor†and faking an ailment…
I’m curious what you think of this peer-reviewed study:
A new landmark study published last week by the peer-reviewed journal Drug and Alcohol Review refutes the long-held belief that abuse of California’s medical marijuana law is ubiquitous. The study, “Prevalence of medical marijuana use in California, 2012,” is the first time anyone has formally measured such data in the state according to its authors Suzanne Ryan-Ibarra, Marta Induni, and Danielle Ewing of the Survey Research Group at Public Health Institute in Sacramento.
Don’t those bricks hurt your head? 😉
Oh man….now I simply MUST hear “Thick as a Brick”by Jethro Tull. I’m gonnasmoke a fatty and dedicate this tune to Mark (K)lieman
Right there with ya, dc.
And waddyaknow? I was having a toke and checked to find that someone at RBC fucked up and let my comment through. Mark’s gonna be pissed when he finds out, I’ll bet!
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If you haven’t listened to/watched Thick As A Brick 2 you might want to skip it. Ian finally has faced the reality that his voice is gone because of the larynx surgery and has hired a lead vocalist to take over when the vocals are out of his now very limited range. I don’t know, maybe you’ll enjoy the new Jethro Tull minus Martin Barre and for the most part Ian Anderson but it made me very sad. Even more sad than the years he spent trying to fool himself into believing that he could still sing. Hymn 43 unplugged? OMG puh-leaze. Well, he does own the rights.
He replied. Quote this back at him (which is a direct quote from the full paper):
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It really does piss me off when they bald faced lie about the “average age” and sex of a California medicinal cannabis patient. Christ, they’ve even completely disregarded plausible deniability in this lie, but they still regurgitate it. No one seems to notice that there is no mandatory registry in California. Only the patient and the doctor need know if a patient claims the protection under Prop 215 absent any legal problem for the patient.
Yeah, Strayan, he replied all right. The only surprise in his response was that he responded at all. I liked how this study is “a mere survey” and the press release about it that I linked to was from a source that is “about as reliable as an Exxon Mobil press release about a global-warming study”, yet he is constantly harping on undefined “harms” he wishes he could prevent with ridiculously high taxes and justifying it by citing government-sponsored (no bias there, right?) SURVEYS as the source of numbers he extrapolates in order to make the claim that millions and millions of cannabis users “meet the diagnostic criteria” for some sort of substance-related disorder.
http://youtu.be/7QxiNz2Fvrg
The Culture High – Debunking Lies About Marijuana
interview with the movie creators
Seeing The Culture High got me shook up because I realized that IT IS US. We ARE the ones that are making the difference. Its nice to see a movie like this that makes it so abundantly clear. No one here needs a pat on the back, but in my heart I know how it got to this stage. Everyone on the couch take a bow, you guys are awesome.
I thought someone might be interested it this:
International Impacts of the U.S. Trend toward Legal Marijuana (Brookings Institute):
http://youtu.be/aQXvWq1upUc
Many thanks for the interview link! It was almost like sitting on The Couch. Most of our points, nailed down nice and neat. Almost seamless.
One more sign we’re winning. And this is bound to make the prohibs become even more irrelevant. And the fun part is, I suspect they’ll do themselves in, very accommodatingly. All they have to do is open their mouths and spout their tired old propaganda…and have it dissected as such, which those two gentlemen pointed out happens, anyway, courtesy of the Internet.
But the film will also be seen by those who erroneously think the DrugWar doesn’t effect them. And that’s where the real fun begins.
I watched “The Culture High” full documentary movie last night. I usually have a hard time watching anything that lasts 2 hours. Instead I felt like we were sitting on the couch here. You watch it and tell me if it doesn’t give you a few goosebumps.
I’m at the 90 min mark right now. They’ve done a great job and covered all the main aspects. It’s extremely watchable and leaves me feeling very optimistic about the future, and not just concerning drug policy, but for all difficult issues facing mankind.
Btw, I supported this crowd sourcing project, and as a backer you get a special thanks in the credits at the end of the film.
Watched it. The documentary packs a huge amount of argument and commentary into two hours of interview spots lasting 8 to 37 seconds each (I timed a series of them). It really does imitate a drug war blog or couch, only the bloggers are filmed speaking in familiar sounding short messages as they switch back and forth among each other. It’s a very effective delivery.
Culture High pointedly declares that anti-prohibition Internet bloggers deserve credit for mortally wounding the drug war. Recognition for said effort is now official.
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Res ipsa loquitur:
Carl Sagan’s long lost deep thoughts on marijuana and the War on Drugs
October 23, 2014
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Good god, who in the heck would have predicted that Michigan would have taken the lead on this one?
Appeals court: Medical pot users can get unemployment
That’s even if they get fired for being registered patients.
Weed prohibitionists caught telling lies
Joseph Perrone wrote a commentary for the Washington Post on Monday claiming “a handful of deaths in Denver were tied to edible marijuana use this year.”
DEA Raids 2 Los Angeles MMJ Dispensaries
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread28324.shtml
Drug Enforcement Administration raided two legal medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles
Carl Sagan’s long lost deep thoughts on marijuana and the War on Drugs
Appeals Court: Medical Marijuana No Bar to DUI
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread28320.shtml
The judges said prosecutors need not prove actual impairment.
WTF? Why not just send all the stoners emails where to report for jail time? Stressing out persecutors when it doesn’t apparently matter if one is driving impaired. Not like safe roads are the concern. Just busting users. Not like they didn’t agree to give up their rights in order to smoke pot. A safer choice has consequences. It must be getting easier to live in the airplane movie…
10 Countries That Have or Will See Marijuana Legalization
http://tinyurl.com/kyykeek
1. Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, located in central Europe, is still getting a grasp on its newly minted medical marijuana law, which was passed in early 2013. Many people are still having a hard time actually finding medicine to help cope with their medical needs, but it seems that the situation is improving. There is also widespread decriminalization, in which Czech citizens are allowed to grow up to five plants, or be in possession of certain amounts of cannabis without fear of being criminally prosecuted. Czech drug policy has been undergoing rapid change over the past few years, and it shouldn’t be a surprise if full legalization is pushed through, or at least considered, in the near future.
2. Ecuador
The South American nation of Ecuador, which shares a continent with the only country on Earth to have fully legalized cannabis in Uruguay, may be on its way to legalizing marijuana itself. The country has a long and rich history, filled with issues resulting from the international drug trade, and subsequent War on Drugs. Currently, possession of small amounts of cannabis is permitted, if it is for personal use and there is no intent to distribute. However, the Ecuadorian government could be poised to earn big bucks by legalizing in terms of tax dollars and potential trade revenue. The president has already issued a large number of pardons to drug offenders, possibly giving a glimpse into a more relaxed attitude toward controlled substances.
3. Jamaica
Though many people may have thought marijuana was already legal in the Caribbean island nation of Jamaica, that’s simply not the case. However, it does look like the country’s leadership is leaning toward going that route. Just recently, the country took a big step in relaxing its laws on possession, and also decriminalized it for a variety of reasons, including religious ceremonies and medicinal use. Jamaica may be swayed in coming years by increasing pressure from its in-house Rastafarian movement, as well as tourists from places like the U.S. where legalization is quickly sweeping the country.
4. Mexico
One way to help cut down on the illegal drug trade, and the power of the drug cartels as a result, would be for the nation of Mexico to give its prohibition laws a second look. There has been plenty of talk over the past several years about the Mexican government looking at legalization marijuana and other substances, but political pressure from the U.S. government has helped keep those laws on the books — for now. The power of criminal organizations, including the infamous cartels that operate along the border, has been shown to be weakening as a result of American decriminalization, and Mexican leaders may be swayed to vote for legalization if it means a lessening of violence and corruption.
5. Canada
From America’s southern border to its northern one, Canadians have been able to enjoy relatively more lax marijuana laws compared to the U.S. Places like British Columbia are famous worldwide for supposedly growing some of the finest marijuana in the world, and it is one of the major sources of the plant into the United States. There are a majority of Canadian citizens who want to see the plant legalized, and much of what policymakers decide to do will likely come as a result of how the U.S. handles legalization going forward.
6. Spain
Certain places in Spain have also been called ‘The New Amsterdam‘ due to their high concentration of private cannabis clubs. Operating in a somewhat gray area within Spanish law, these clubs take advantage of new laws that have decriminalized possession, although the manufacture and sale of cannabis is still illegal. It appears that Spain is one of the countries that will ride the momentum of the legalization movement, and make more policy moves based on what happens as a result of its decriminalization efforts.
7. Uruguay
Uruguay, of course, has made a name for itself by becoming the first and only country on Earth to fully legalize marijuana. The laws themselves are still being ironed out, but Uruguay has taken an enormous leap by being the first country to put a legal marijuana market into place on a country-wide scale. The market itself will be tightly regulated on all fronts by the government, but prices are estimated to be incredibly cheap compared to what people are paying in Colorado and Washington. For a comparison, a gram of legal marijuana in either one of those states can cost anywhere from $10-$30 (cheaper through the medical market), where some estimates put Uruguayan marijuana at just 87 center per gram.
8. The Netherlands
The Netherlands — and more specifically, Amsterdam — has been a prime destination for marijuana tourists for a long time now. The city’s infamous ‘coffee shops‘ have attracted visitors from all over the world, seeking to partake in the world famous Dutch marijuana trade. Of course, there have been some bumps in the road, especially recently, in which the law has actually been changed to make it harder to track down cannabis. It’s unclear how things will actually turn out going forward, but for a country with a reputation and history of friendly attitudes toward marijuana, it’s not hard to imagine that the Dutch government would pass less restrictive legislation if their neighbors and other world powers do.
9. Argentina
South America looks primed for sweeping changes in drug policy, and Argentina is no exception. There have been large rallies and protests urging lawmakers to reclassify marijuana as a legal substance, and as Uruguay and other South American nations have moved forward, it’s likely Argentinian leaders will take on the prospect as well. Argentina’s president has gone so far as to endorse a plan to legalize medical cannabis use, citing reasons that many in South America are familiar with. Particularly, Argentina would like to weaken outlaw drug syndicates and snuff out the black market.
10. India
The nation of India may come as a complete surprise to be seen among the many western European and South American nations on this list, but Indians are surprisingly open to the possibility of legalization. The Times of India has even gone on record supporting the idea. It’s already widely used in many religious ceremonies among the Hindu population, and its use is not enforced as stringently as many might suspect. Not only that, but wild cannabis grow in abundance in many parts of India, making it even harder to regulate.
This train is worldwide baby and it is up to the government lackeys how much more tax money they want to throw in this hole.
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It’s kind of silly to compare the price of cannabis in Uruguay to the nascent legal market in Colorado and Washington mostly because a $1 goes a lot further in a Country with a median income of US$409.50 per month.
Colorado: $4045.33/month
Washington: $4304.00/month.
http://www.justice.gov/ust/eo/bapcpa/20121101/bci_data/median_income_table.htm
Then there’s also the part where it’s GI weed in South America. Seeds? Sinse? ElSohly bunkweed? Well another part is that Uruguay might have gotten it’s market up and running faster if they had hired The Professor to write one of his Ivory Tower plans. Hey, maybe that’s the problem, do we know where he’s been working lately? Nah, Uruguay couldn’t afford his fees. We don’t know the quality of the pot they might sell sometime in the future because they haven’t sold gram #1 yet.
BTW, the press apparently doesn’t understand the word repeal because despite the reports to that effect neither Presidential candidate is proposing a return to absolute prohibition. What a shocker, eh? Somebody needs to do me a favor and give me a good swift kick in the ass. You’d think that after almost 1/4 of a century of false reports of the return to the absolute prohibition of cannabis in Holland I’d have gotten wise to that stupidity by now.
here is something that might interest the couch: http://tokinwoman.blogspot.com/