The Failed Promise of Legal Pot
Other than the click-bait headline, this feature article has a lot of useful stuff, including the inescapable conclusion that we’ve talked about all along. In order to pull the legs out of the black market, legalization needs to make is easier to be legal. But, of course, with the advice of entities like BOTEC, the approach has instead been to make is as difficult as possible to be legal.
“If it’s ridiculously expensive and they can get it from their homie cheaper, that’s what they’re going to do.â€
Yep. If only we had people as smart as Admiral Gregory:
When repeal finally came, Washington’s then-Governor Clarence Martin asked Admiral Gregory to head the state’s new Liquor Control Board. Critically, Martin gave Gregory carte blanche to mold the new policies as he saw fit. Gregory took up the challenge—and surprised everyone.
First, instead of cracking down on bootleggers and speakeasy operators, Gregory gave them amnesty and issued licenses to anyone willing to play by the state’s rules. Second, backed by the governor and his influence in the Senate, Gregory arranged for alcohol taxes to be set as low as any in the nation, which allowed those willing to follow the law to keep a significant amount of their profits, and it made room for legal operators to compete with bootleggers’ prices. Third, Gregory punished anyone who broke the rules—even once—with an iron fist, blacklisting them from ever making or selling alcohol in the state again.
Predictably, this caused some turmoil in a legislature anxiously awaiting an infusion of cash from liquor sales, but the governor backed Gregory. Faced with a low cost of entry and legal profits, bootleggers and speakeasies around the state mostly turned legitimate. Meanwhile, the few remaining stragglers were quickly put out of business, and drinkers flocked to a competitive legal market.
That might have been the end of it, but there was one more piece to Gregory’s plan. After holding down taxes—and thus prices—for three years, Gregory abruptly raised taxes so much that they were among the highest in the nation. The price of booze went up, of course, but people kept buying legal liquor and beer. There was no alternative left. Gregory had broken the back of the black market.
Bipartisan Pack of Lawmakers Fights Legal Theft by Police with New House Bill
- Provides legal representation for those who cannot afford it in administrative and judicial proceedings;
- Raises the burden of proof necessary to forfeit property from a mere “preponderance of evidence”—informally understood as being “more likely than not” connected to a crime—to “clear and convincing”—the highest standard used in civil proceedings;
- Restores the presumption of innocence by requiring the government to prove that owners knew about or consented to the criminal use of their property;
- Establishes new timelines that better protect property owners’ due process rights;
- Provides a hearing for defendants to contest the pretrial restraint of property needed to pay for counsel;
- Allows the recovery of attorney’s fees if a case is settled;
- Increases oversight and transparency by requiring an annual audit of federal civil forfeitures and creating two publically available databases; and
- Limits forfeiture for structuring only when funds are derived from an illegal source or used to conceal illegal activity.
Despite the praise, the Institute for Justice is calling for the bill to be amended to completely eliminate the DOJ’s Equitable Sharing Program.
US House Votes to Give Medical Marijuana to Veterans
By a vote of 233-189, representatives approved an amendment preventing the Department of Veterans Affairs (V.A.) from spending money to enforce a current policy that prohibits its government doctors from filling out medical marijuana recommendation forms in states where the drug is legal.
It’s often depressing living in Illinois when it comes to the political climate, the state of the budget, and its marijuana laws, but there was a bright note this week.
Illinois House Passes Decriminalization Bill
On May 18, the Illinois House voted to move Illinois to ticket-based penalties for possession of up to 10 grams of marijuana. If the governor signs Senate Bill 2228, instead of making arrests, police will start issuing tickets ranging from $100 to $200 per offense. Previously, anyone caught with 10 grams or less of marijuana could have been charged with a misdemeanor, resulting in a fine of up to $1,500 and possible jail time of up to six months.
Police and Prison Guard Groups Fight Marijuana Legalization in California
Of course they do.
ROUGHLY HALF OF the money raised to oppose a ballot measure to legalize recreational marijuana in California is coming from police and prison guard groups, terrified that they might lose the revenue streams to which they have become so deeply addicted.
The other half opposing are people who have mastered the art of reading.
Getting rave reviews…
CA Voters Getting Chance To Legalize Marijuana
☛ The use of marijuana in public and while driving would remain illegal.
☛ “I’m excited to be a part of one of the largest coalitions of cannabis and non-cannabis organizations to come together to push this initiative forward,†said Nate Bradley, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Assn.
☛ Drug Policy Alliance, Marijuana Policy Project, California Cannabis Industry Assn., California Medical Assn. California NAACP, and the national Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
☛ From the initial opposition I’ve seen in the last week I would say AUMA is not going to pass.
☛ Some people in this movement don’t understand politics. If you want to win, you don’t start by alienating your base. If you have to start apologizing to the cannabis community for your proposal, how do you expect to win? The Ohio referendum was crushed by 30%.
☛ I don’t blame people in CA for voting no either. With a cheap doctor’s recommendation you can do anything you want under Prop. 215. I’d vote no for every bad law that comes up. Eventually a good law will get placed on the ballot.
☛ This law is far worse for the cannabis community than Prop. 19 was a few years ago. And Prop. 19 failed.
☛ The working in this bill is horrible, it will bring down the great medical system we have in place now. I hope another bill gets enough signatures to be put on the ballet.
☛ I think that the Marijuana Control, Legalization & Revenue Act Initiative is a better deal- ONE page, with clear and simple language. It got enough signatures to get on the ballot, but all I hear about in the news lately is AUMA!
And FYI- Ed Rosenthal doesn’t like the AUMA, either. He’s even done a few articles against it.
☛ You are quite right – it has a lot of problems. Worse, it will probably not be able to deliver even the few crumbs of benefits that Sean Parker and his buddies threw us.
☛ I found an interesting analysis on a legal blog by a guy with no dog in the fight whatever:
☛ I will certainly vote against this in order to encourage the money people to realize we wont allow bad laws for their profit.
☛ I don’t think I could vote for this. Too many restrictions. I did not vote for the 2010 bill due to some really bad language. If we are to have proper legalization here in California, we need to wait for a bill that makes sense, and send a message to the politicians that we wont stand for this type of blatant abuse of our existing laws. Anyone who is medical in this state should vote against this bill, and I think the industry should be speaking out about it. Surprisingly they have been silent thus far.
GUIDE TO THE ADULT USE OF MARIJUANA ACT OF 2016 (AUMA)
Due to its extraordinary length and complexity, AUMA contains a number of glitches and inconsistencies that will have to be ironed out by the courts or the legislature. It also includes a number of restrictions and oversights that many users find objectionable (for example, it makes it illegal to consume in any public place except for specifically licensed premises; continues to let local governments ban medical marijuana cultivation and sales; bans vaporization in non-smoking areas; and imposes an unduly high, 15% + tax increase on medical marijuana). Fortunately, Section 10 of the act allows for most provisions to be modified by the legislature.
AUMA will not be the last word on marijuana reform; further changes in state and federal law will be needed to guarantee affordable medical access, protect employment and housing rights, facilitate banking and allow interstate commerce. Regardless of these problems, AUMA compares favorably to similar legalization measures in other states. If California voters approve AUMA, the pressure for federal marijuana law reform could finally become irresistible to politicians in Washington; if not, it will no doubt be interpreted as a major setback for marijuana reform at the national level.
Typical Russ, I think I’ll call him Radical Rush from now on
DON’T TAX OR REGULATE MARIJUANA
~ Steve Kubby
The days of freely prescribed painkillers are ending
☛ R.I. Senate approves bill limiting opioid prescriptions
☛ Overdoses from legal drugs are exploding —
and a new plan to curb the crisis reveals one big flaw in our approach
Ending pain by not treating it due to hysteria from the DEA and the buzzword “addiction” causing more fear than concern for suffering Americans.
To guarantee those suffering the Neocongress stops medical marijuana research again
It’s happening everywhere. I called a duty nurse at my doctor’s office last week to get a codeine-based cough syrup for a cold through my insurance plan. It’s my first cold in nearly three years. The duty nurse tried to talk me out of an “opiate medication” for something else, and I was forced to explain that nothing I’ve ever used for coughs has ever worked as well as codeine—that’s why I was going through this process. I obtained the codeine syrup, but the minor diversion attempt is telling of how the present opiate panic is about to affect everyone having nothing to do with it.
On the flip side patients having seizures are still prescribed Phenobarbital since the politics on Ganja or CBD makes the safer choice more difficult. I saw Samantha Bee last night discussing the right wing evangelical movement getting into politics in the 60’s. Favoring republicans and the surprise was that it didn’t start with RvW and abortions or drugs. They opposed integration. Using many of the same drug worrier fears. The white christian public paid tax free home schooling might be jeopardized if they admitted blacks. Think of the children.
What is worse to me is when the reformers kiss so much ass to pass their profiteering bill alum inum to get approval from the nanny state and the same lame prohibitionists still oppose it. Like some can’t fathom smoking pot unless Uncle Scam says its ok. Or that we continue to pray to the police and prison unions and tax paid gossip groups to stop persecuting Americans for using a safer substance and they scoff and turn their heads.
Prop 215 passed with 55% of the vote and didn’t include stupid restrictions designed to make it harder for people to have safe access. Drug worriers openly advocate for their own selfishness and greed over the sick and healthy citizens choosing cannabis. With the pockets of naive going along with it for their own selfishness and laziness expecting the guvmint to do it for them. Towns getting harassed are due to lack of enforcement by Harris who is running for Senator. We have a good system because we fought for it. Counsel meetings, arrests protested and the disgusting act of jailing sick people won over the people. Not ass kissing greedy cowards.
Every prohibitionist has a concern for themselves and not a minute for the people. Well, Nixon lied and committed treason extending Vietnam. Not to mention the deaths of thousands by sabotaging the Peace Talks. Nothing has been done about it either. The DNC and RNC have joined the Neocons and the people are destined for second class citizenship so the police don’t get confused when they harass people. Branded a stoner, the new politically correct scapegoat.
Interesting chemistry trivia for Phenobarbital or barbiturates: barbiturates are a chemical combination of barbituric acid and urea. The chemist who discovered barbituric acid had a girl friend named Barbara, so he named it after her. The Barbie Doll isn’t sleek for nothing. The barbiturate diet: take five barbiturates before you eat and the food drops out of your mouth.
I had an American Cocker who began having seizures when she turned 6 months old. Vet put her on phenobarbital, even with the drug she still had 6-10 seizures a day. It was heartbreaking, but what was worse, the phenobarbital made her bones brittle and made her groggy all the time. When she was 5, hubby ran over her hips, he’d stopped his Vette at the corner of the house to talk to me, she apparently went and laid on the other side of his car which he left running while we chatted, when he pulled forward to park the car, he ran over her. It still makes me cry and that was over 20 years ago. Anyway, had she not been on phenobarbital it probably would have broken her pelvis anyway, but it also probably would have healed, but due to the drug, it pulverized her pelvis and both hips and there was nothing could be done to fix it. She was at the vets for a week and half before they decided she couldn’t be saved and during that time at the vet they would not allow me to spend any time with her, I know she felt abandoned, the next time I got to see her was when they put her down, I held her in my arms and begged her forgiveness as she died. I was devastated, I am still angry with the vet who refused my visiting her. His son who is also a vet, my vet, has never denied my visiting a dog in his care since that day. My beautiful Shebat, so loving, so dependent upon me, died so young because of phenobarbital and left me bereft, and I’ve never gotten over it. I hate that drug!
I remember Seconal or reds as we called them. I only tried them a couple times when I heard you could die if mixed with alcohol. More of a myth, but I was into iron City beer at the time so I never tried them again. Then Quaaludes were obtainable and I thought to hell with the downers. Robitussin-AC Cough Syrup with codeine got me nauseous. We tried soaking cigs in Paregoric and ended up with soggy cigs. I still remember the drugs of choice coincided with the music playing at the time. Psychedelics with acid rock and the Beatles, then downers with the Blues and Stones. Ganja with everything.
I listened to the hippies for the most part concerning speed. Occasional weed Boones Farm and white crosses for a nice buzz but nothing heavy. The 80’s smoking boats was popular among the rednecks doing piecemeal work. But thanks to the 60’s I knew better and abstained. Same with crack. I see no redeeming value in it or cocaine for that matter. I continue to stay Pharmaceutical Free these days. Ganja and an occasional beer for the World Series when the Giants won. Now I may have to pop a top for the Warriors.
Interesting…
Urea definition, Biochemistry. a compound, CO(NH 2) 2 , occurring in urine
The Iron City Beer would’ve been enough to kill you! WITHOUT the “reds”
Probably right Jetdoc. Pure Allegheny River water, who knows whats in it.
Ugh. More reefer madness from the establishment Medical interests. This is MD (who bills itself as an “all specialties” medical magazine)reporting uncritically on a presentation at the APA conference this year. All assertions go unchallenged, and oh boy is this full of them. From the “This is the official line of bullshit” category, Professional division, I present: http://www.hcplive.com/conference-coverage/apa-2016/marijuana-regulation-a-scary-chaotic-mess
No comments that I could see.
I always ask the doctors how can they be experts if they never had a class in the ECS? The doctors who I have met with concerning Ganja and Hemp Oil will not recommend either, even food grade non-psychoactive Hemp Oil. Regardless of results or not needing antibiotics for infection with daily doses of Hemp oil. I ask them and they stare at their shoes. Its easy to embarrass them in front of their peers and Nurses. I take it easy on them most of the time unless they argue. Still have no respect for such political correctness over the patients well being.
Survey of the Endocannabinoid System in Medical Schools
“The results of the study are predictable, so no one should be surprised! Not one of the medical schools surveyed had a department of endocannabinoid science or an ECS director. None of them taught the endocannabinoid science as an organized course.
Survey Shows Low Acceptance of the Science of the ECS
The discovery of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) is the single most important scientific medical discovery since the recognition of sterile surgical technique. As our knowledge expands, we are coming to realize that the ECS is a master control system of virtually all physiology.
However, research and education of medical students involving the ECS is being intentionally restricted by politics. No justification can be made for the restriction of the scientific study of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system.
5 Surprising Things To Know About The Endocannabinoid System
“The Endocannabinoid Systemâ€
An Open Letter to Kaiser Permanente Medical School
It’s very exciting that Kaiser Permanente has embarked on the challenge of opening a new medical school in Southern California and will be training future doctors in its model of coordinated care. I hope that Kaiser’s commitment to “rapidly adopting new technology and adhering to the latest medical evidence in patient care†includes teaching medical students on the endocannabinoid system, recommendation of medical marijuana, and care of patients using cannabinoid medicine.
The guy actually SAID “There are no regulatory models for a drug that will have significant adverse public health consequences,” with a straight face. At an APA conference! (I’ve attended those…the level of slobbering drunkenness rivals the Shriners)And you just KNOW he said that just before adjourning to the BAR. Then out to the parking lot for that smoke.
I’m in absolute awe… hypocrisy like that takes TALENT.
If talent is blind obedience or brains taking too many trips through the spin cycle getting washed. It’s the result of the strenuous time spent obtaining credentials and the money to afford the cost, even at discounts. Of having their soul, spine and genitalia removed to keep them.
I have great doubt about this quote, personally….”Those negative consequences he said can be “psychosis, cognitive impairment and poor school performance, and risk of depression and suicidal ideation.†Oh really? Well I am a walking test subject that can prove that theory wrong. I am in my early 50’s, just finished medical coding classes, 2 years of study, married and was raising my 2 teenagers at the same time. Have been an avid ganga user since 15, heavy from age 18 to 35, still do when I can(am currently looking for employment, so you all know what that entails!) I was on the Deans list 3 out of 4 times, and the one time I missed it, I only missed it by tenths of a point. I am not paranoid, schizophrenic, depressed, or have any suicidal tendencies. I am currently studying to take my CCA state test and foresee no problems in getting the task done, even in lieu of my past (and present) cannabis use. I am happy, going on 20 years with my one and only husband (only 1 marriage), waiting to see my soon to be graduated son off to college this fall (I smoked, not heavy, when pregnant with him, his SAT score was 25, he was also 2 times in a row on 1st team state for defensive back in football, going to play football this fall for his college, currently is a soccer ref, and works in summer building houses!). I can go on and on about my family and my achievements, (husband at same job for 17 years, he is a Jamaican, no depression or suicidal tendencies, no psychosis or cognitive impairment ever noted in him as well!) So, Mr. Bonnie, now that I have put holes in your so-called theory of cannabis potential dangers of recreational use, what do you have to say???
The dude sure has Lie-man’s propaganda talking points down, don’t he? I don’t think he missed a single one.
Funny how he asserts (twice) that there is “sparse evidence, if any” that cannabis has any medical value while insisting (without citing a shred of evidence) that it is “a drug that will have significant adverse public health consequences” which include “psychosis, cognitive impairment and poor school performance, and risk of depression and suicidal ideation”.
No, on second thought, it’s not funny at all how these lies affect the health outcomes of innocent children with Dravet Syndrome, for instance.
And vets. Look what they want to do to vets with PTSD! I went to the home page to have a look around the website, and trending on their “Most Popular” sidebar was this gem of a headline: “Electroconvulsive Therapy Could Reduce Vets’ Suicides, Depresssion”.
Nice. Cannabis has no medical value that we’ll recognize, so let’s try something medieval instead in our desperation to find another effective treatment. Whatever it is, we need to make sure it isn’t too pleasant, otherwise they’ll just get addicted.
They start by asserting “Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a far safer and more finely tuned treatment than it was in its heyday in the 1950s” (this ain’t your father’s ECT). No mention of any scientific evidence of it’s medical value, instead they reported several positive-outcome anecdotes (no negatives, of course). So where are the peer-reviewed studies? It’s not like they have to go through some draconian DEA permit process and rely on U-Miss for their sole approved source of inferior electrons to study this.
Oops! Forgot the linky.
Looks like the MSM are finally catching on to the fact that the DEA scheduling system has no scientific basis at all:
http://www.businessinsider.com.au/us-drug-scheduling-system-heroin-marijuana-2016-5
Amazing how long these things can go on completely unnoticed.
Leaving aside the obvious scientific falsehood of cannabis being “more dangerous” than crack cocaine, take a look at Schedule IV, “drug or other substance with a low potential for abuse and low risk of dependence,” which includes all the diazepam type drugs like valium. This range of drugs are considered by many to be among the hardest dependencies to break. But off course, they are manufactured by Big Pharma, so they must be ok, no?
And it’s unsettling to hear reps hold “press conferences” announcing a new Scourge, opiates. You already killed Billie Holiday, now get back to work if your’re on the clock, cocksuckers.
Who’s Really Fighting Legal Weed
Debbie W-S again (fully owned and paid for Washington Democrats):
“So why has Wasserman Schultz been so opposed to the CFPB’s proposed rules? She has said, “Payday lending is unfortunately a necessary component of how people get access to capital, [people] that are the working poor.†But maybe it has something more to do with the $2.5 million or so the payday loan industry has donated to Florida politicians from both parties since 2009. That’s according to a new report by the liberal group Allied Progress. More than $50,000 of that cash has gone to Rep. Wasserman Schultz.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-moyers/democrats-cant-unite-unle_b_10075790.html
The Young Turks Will Give $1 MILLION To Charity
To Host Sanders/Trump debate
https://www.facebook.com/TheYoungTurks/?pnref=story
Trump backs out of debate with Sanders
Bernie Sanders’ biggest mistake was running as a Democrat
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQt1o3C69fM
Why Do Democrats Defend Nixon’s Drug War?
These “New Democrats” are positively Nixonesque!
Daniel Williams.. you deactivated your FB account? Bummer. Who will keep my liberal enthusiasm in check NOW? Oh well. I enjoy our sparring no matter the venue. All the best, buddy.
Filmmaker Judd Apatow is a prohibidiot whose credits include The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), Knocked Up (2007) and Trainwreck (2015). From Sara Beller at the Influence, Apatow’s antidrug plot is revealed:
The Intercept has a picture of Apatow posing with Jeb Bush, Tulane’s BMOC. Jeb’s student days are exactly the kind of life line Apatow portrays in his movies. The problem is that Jeb grew up to be a piece of sh*t. Like his brothers, nothing Jeb did as a drug-fueled college student excuses what he is today—one of the pod people pushing prohibition. Apatow’s religio-cinematic concept of being saved from drugs is a weak fabrication. He should have gone with the idea of being saved by drugs.
Corrections: 2016, intro, and the Influence, last paragraph.
Imagine the profits, designs and enhancements in the green revolution once hemp replaces CLT . . . possibly even taller. Thank you DEA for sucking out Ingenuity from the blood of Americans. CLH?
“The changes were made to accommodate a plan to open a 22,000-square-foot marijuana greenhouse.”
http://tinyurl.com/NunnChangesRules
Nice bit of propaganda, even has a happy ending. Bullshit!
Not one person was ever busted for drinking during the entire prohibition. Only the traffickers (distributors) and manufacturers (bootleggers). There was nothing about drinking booze. There was not a problem and the Temperance League was against it as much as Lincoln or anyone with sense. The 18th Amendment was not about drinking. With the same cast of characters prohibiting cannabis a few years later why is this always left out? For the same fear mongering and the same profiteers to this day. Everyone knows about Al Capone as they do the two bit break-in at the Watergate Brothel that took up the headlines while Nixon’s lies brought us the CSA behind everyones backs. Same with the Untouchables grabbing headlines while Ford’s ethanol car and auto body build with soy and hemp were scrapped. Every fascist fear mongering in our history is a cover for profiteers. Vietnam to Iraq. Booze to Ganja. Plus lowering overhead with cheap labor from those deemed degenerate races. Or Nixon’s vengeance on the anti war hippies and blacks. Same old shit, different day. This story is after the fact and a good point against Botox. it also has the same gutter science backing it.
Al Capone and Watergate
There is no amount of justification to continue prohibition, or to start it in the first place. Gregory’s band aid is typical over stopping the mad slashers of wall st’s lacerations. Rockefeller’s Oil or the Pharmaceuticals today perpetuate the drug war. Government lackeys carry out the orders but until the prohibition profits and eliminating competition is dealt with. It will have the same lame excuses as Admiral Gregory’s concern for the people.
Good point! Alcohol prohibition in the 1920s was more like what we’d call decriminalization today. Personal possession was never a crime. If simply being in possession of alcohol were criminalized, I think they’d have thought that a pretty crazy idea back then, and prohibition never would have happened. Still just as crazy today.
The Volstead Act didn’t criminalize possession but the Jones Law of 1929 made it a crime not to turn in your bootlegger which might as well be the same thing.
The Jones law caused a lot of violence on both sides but it didn’t stop moonshiners anymore than the ATF. The cost of sugar stopped Moonshiners. Same as Dispensaries stop Cartels.
The Volstead Act and the Jones Law of 1929 treated the symptoms, not the disease. Same as the MTA and CSA. Symptoms created by prohibitionists. Diverting from the disease. No red blooded blue or white collar American ever had a problem with drinking, or do they now. I don’t drink but I care less about anyone who does as long as they don’t invade my space its all good. It has always been popular. Especially during prohibition with filled speak easy’s. Protesters filled the streets against the Nobel Experiment, same as 4/20 with a majority seeing prohibition as wrong.
Temperance is not Prohibition and Hearst said the same after Rockefeller had his gasoline infrastructure in place. At the end of the day after the Repeal, farmers could not distill their own heating and tractor fuel as they did the day before the 18th amendment. Dupont had no competition for his crude fibers after the MTA in 37. Coincidences that profit a few at the expense of many are not coincidence. Only naive unquestioning masses not wanting to be noticed or make waves.
The last cure was Polio and it cost the steel and leather industry big bucks, losses making leg braces. They won’t make that mistake again. Meanwhile at the end of the day family farmers can’t grow Hemp and the dispensaries with scores of strains, paying tax and their own quality assurance, labeled product and convenient delivery or locations in civilized areas of the country has not changed Federally under Obama. In spite of the Science state and federal meddling by LEO and Drug Worrier welfare queens like Sabet. Proving the safety and benefits. What we have been saying for 4 decades and it is still a threat to their status weird life of making people sick just to sell them synthetic treatments.
Other symptoms are SWAT shooting dogs, grannies and mothers holding babies on a snitch’s word someone was selling crack. That’s as whack as the crack. That the media aligns with cannabis. For no good reasons, like Nixon did rejecting his own Science for no good reason. All legal and praised by the same SWAT conducting DARE class to the kids. Step out of line and Semblers torture chambers or brat camps can fix them. Rehabilitation Asylums as the alternative to prisons.
As long as we focus on the symptoms, the disease continues. As long as we manufacture Band Aids, we don’t stop the mad slasher creating the lacerations. Nixon has no Science backing his Cannabis scheduling. He has said in his own tapes and cooborated by witnesses who worked with him. That the drug war was political vengeance against anti war protesters and blacks. Cannabis was the common thread to remove them from the public. Yet reform continues to barter over Band Aids. Incrementally fighting symptoms, leaving the disease unscathed.
Marijuana violence in New York City???
Bratton doesn’t provide us with any examples of violent marijuana consumers, nor does the Commissioner explain what constitutes marijuana violence. For instance, did someone complain about a stop-and-frisk? Did a marijuana smoker help an elderly lady cross the street against her will? Is that violence?
Any violence associated with the existing marijuana trade in NYC would likely be due to its illegality, which Bratton ignores. What the statement really says is Bratton needs to retire to an Old-Narc’s home where he can sit and mumble to himself about druggies all day.
He’s missing the forest for the trees – so to speak…
The violence is related to the profits that come from the sale of marijuana & competition over the market.
Both the places where its sold AND the business of gaining/retaining the customers who come to those markets = in effect = “brand loyalty”.
If you had McDonald’s competing in an equally illegal & violent manner – as to who can sell their (magical golden) French Fries…
I believe it could get seriously nasty like “Boyz n the Hood” only over Delicious Potatoes not Crack-Cocaine, or as Bratton is exaggerating over Pot = Cannabis (a *seed-bearing plant, in all of its many kinds* that was given to us = to be ours for food – along with every other plant/flora on the whole of the Earth – basically any that has nutritional value or a pleasurable taste.)
But, leaving the Book of Genesis aside for a minute, there would IMO be competition from the ‘seassoned curly fries’ at Arby’s & Jack-in-the-Box, etc.
Occasionally you can find small burger franchises that have other different great fried potatoes, and some folks dig onion rings & other fried stuff…
Still, you can damn well count on there being at one or more McDonald’s in just about every city of a certain size/population or at intersections of major traffic/highway routes.
Yeah they’re having some trouble with people taking Nosey-Nanny-Stater stances about *other people’s food choices*, and blaming it on the total/national “cost of healthcare”…
Which makes roughly the same sense as complaints about big movie franchises like Star Wars for a “$_XX_-Billion dollar Loss of Productivity in the Workplace”.
You may be able to point at a number, and have it be arguably plausible – But, there’s No Way to address that – without infringing on the Liberty of anyone who wants to take a day off and go stimulate another part of the economy = At the Theater…
And, If you run into your boss or a teacher, or whoever you maybe lied to when you called-in “Sick” = It would take a serious Azz-Hat of a person to give you crap about it that day or later.
Could they have the nerve to do that, maybe if you work in Homeland Sec. or at the CDC during this Zika virus scare = But, they’d be colossal hypocrites to do much more than jokingly ask how you’re feeling?
Better?? Great, see you tomorrow morning!
If Bratton (or any other LEO or Gov. Personnel) is blaming violence around marijuana/cannabis on ANYTHING – other than it’s illegal blackmarket status – then they’re grossly ignorant or lying – Maybe both.
“A man’s admiration for absolute government is proportionate to the contempt he feels for those around him.â€
Alexis de Tocqueville
All lives matter, but some lives matter more than others. That’s because we in the U.S. have drug laws.
Baseless drug enforcement is made the responsibility of police officers such that citizens are driven to hold police officers in contempt. The situation is so bad, the State of Louisiana has formulated hate-crime statutes to protect its law enforcement personnel:
It’s not necessarily the recent shootings, but rather drug enforcement that gives rise to an anti-law-enforcement climate. Drugs were first, before Ferguson. Legalize drugs, and we get Officer Friendly. Keep drugs illegal, and we’ll always have Officer Deadly.
Being forced to witness the tortured process to legalize in CA is excruciating. One of the biggest drivers of the stupidity is simple ignorance and prejudice. What almost no one in a position of power to affect the process appears to understand is, THAT IT NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN MADE ILLEGAL IN THE FIRST PLACE. They seem to be coming from a place that the prohibition was valid and reasonable it just isn’t working well so we’ll modify it. When you think like that, you will always come up with “reforms” that hardly improve the situation.
As usual in America, the biggest obstacle to real progress is the “politics”, which actually means a bunch of ignorant assholes who have no interest other than their compulsion to meddle in the lives of others are causing the main problem. This is true with abortion, transgender use of restrooms, same sex marriage, and drug law reform.
Ideally pot requires about as much regulation as caffeine but tobacco is probably a more realistic model. A few common sense environmentally based production regulations, a modest, fair excise tax, and some retailing rules.
As the ground beneath cannabis prohibition gets shakier and shakier, it’s expected to lure more and more loons out into the open. But this? Really?;
Cancer risk to kids from cannabis use
http://tinyurl.com/zwhnz5z
It’s hard to imagine an article so short to be more chock full of nonsense.
The closer: “The worst cancers are in children exposed in utero to cannabis effects.â€
Wow.
Please tell me it’s a spoof….
Ganja Mothers, Ganja Babies
☛ Recommending Marijuana
☛ Children taken from mom in pot raid inflame Butte
☛ Cops Raid Home of Idaho Marijuana Activists; Seize Child
☛ The Heartlessness of Dying for Prohibition
☛ Throw Her Kids in Foster Care
☛ Alabama declares holy war on pregnant women
☛ Tennessee Governor Signs Bill Criminalizing Pregnant Women Who Use Drugs
☛ What Research On Pot Use During Pregnancy Does And Does Not Prove
Preaching to the choir here DdC, my first pregnancy was in Jamaica, never had a problem, son is 18, no problems, 25 on his ACT, on to college at a reputable University this fall, playing football there as well. Like I said, somethings just have to be proven, one case at a time!
You didn’t include the latest Yahoo clickbait about pot altering DNA…just like LSD!
What’s needed is an Israeli perspective on cannabinoids, hosted by the discoverer of THC, Dr. Raphael Machoulam. The West Australians in Will’s posting above appear to have been down under too long—they forgot to include any journal references:
Cutting-edge findings in cannabis research
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-05-cutting-edge-cannabis.html
From Mechoulam: “Cannabis – the Israeli perspectiveâ€, the Historical background:
Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli perspective
Just What The Doctor Ordered
Archeology:
Ancient Temple Hashish Incense!
Did Jesus Inhale?
On Indications of the Hachish-Vice in the OT
I would seriously think twice about the idea of embracing the Israeli view (voiced primarily by Dr. Machoulam), The problem being that most of his work is all about singling out specific cannabinoids – and synthesizing them as a slew of different pharmaceutical medicines.
He may have changed his view (very recently?) Otherwise, his research feeds into the (*In my best ‘Mr.Mackey’ voice* = “whole-plant marijuana as a medicine is bad, M’Kay…”)
But fear not IIRC, That fallacy was largely addressed and debunked by the good Dr. Grinspoon in thf mid to late 90’s when he called for the development of commercially-manufactured vaporizers.
And noted/argued that the ability of patients to titrate their dosage of marijuana by smoking it, allowed people to avoid the problems associated with then recently developed Marinol, and he said that the scare mongering around modern – “Not your parents Woodstock weed” or in the UK/England “skunk marijuana” = AKA High THC% plants was nonsense.
That this only reduced the possible harm that might come from inhalation of marijuana smoke, By reducing the amount of plant material that patients would need to smoke to achieve the desired effect.
I think he touched on the possible benefits of Terpenes as well – but I may be mistaken, or that might have been another later written article – which he could have been quoted in rather than authored…
Long story, short – I’d be very cautious about Israeli medical marijuana, while there are people allowed to use it there – the guys in lab coats seem all to eager to do away with vaporizers – and sell people a dozen different pills containing as few cannabinoids as possible, and no THC pleasentness if they can/could finagle it.
Raphael Machoulam discussed what he and Ben-Shabat dubbed the entourage effect in 1998:
Even with the entourage effect, there is still a finite number of cannabinoids, terpenoids, etc., giving rise to a specific medical effect. There is indeed a desire by scientists to find these specific sets of cannabinoids, but when testing combinations of chemicals together the number of different combinations can become enormous, so enormous it becomes impossible to test them all. 60-different cannabinoids can form 1.15 billion-billion combinations, all requiring intensive testing for a specific medical effect. Sometimes one gets lucky, as with CBD, which falls into the single-chemical-for-a-single-disease category, the prevalent medical drug stereotype. “Drug cocktails†for AIDS patients, containing multiple drugs, also don’t fall within this stereotype. The inventor of the drug cocktail for treating victims of AIDS received a Nobel Prize because his drug treatment concept using multiple drugs simultaneously for a single disease was considered revolutionary. It’s this impracticality, due to testing, that I think will preserve the whole marijuana plant as an herbal medicine for many years to come, Israelis and Big Pharma notwithstanding.
California company sells CBD edibles for canines:
https://reason.com/archives/2016/05/20/cannabis-for-canines
Veterinary Cannabis
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1920
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Here’s another one from the “read ’em and weep Mr. Prohibitionist”
Bernie disinvites Tommy Chong from intro at L.A. rally:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/bernie-sanders-campaign-drops-tommy-896752
Yea ol’ Bernie the anti-establishment “outsider” who has worked in government the past 40 years.
Bernie’s PC cops pulled cannabis from the main issues almost as soon as he became popular enough to hire them. He left ending the drug war, which is more than any of the others. Bernie was never meant to win, just move the conversation toward reality. The base is the only issue. D.C. is a subsidiary of Wall St. and Neoconstipated stashing their cash in offshore accounts legislate what is ordered. Locally matters and has better odds of getting third parties in. So the choice is what base.
One that unifies around insanity regardless how chronic, or the one that compromises with it? Bernie is bartering Hilzy for platform space. Matching percentages to delegates. The MSM for Clinton with Lil Debbie Wasserface has been laying hurdles for Bernie since the start. I wonder if Bernie is an Antidisestablishmentarianist?
Stoners Matter! and we vote. Now ain’t the time to ailienate voters who he may have to ask to vote Hilzy over Drumpf. Bernie brings voters who can influence Congress seats and Indie votes Hilzy can’t reach and would probably stay home. Bernie’s move to apologize and not take votes for granted.
Democrats spare changing me can hold their breath.
But the clown car crashed and left a big Drumpf for the GOPerverts to clean up. I realize its very difficult to actually know how long donald will stick with answers he says to the media and changes down the road. He has said he is pro medicinal but jail the healthy people. I guess until they get sick enough to use it with his blessing. If Hilzy stays with Obama’s do nothing policy. Better than any GOP and since 3rd parties have no say on election day. Like Bernie, ideals and ideas to create the platform to run on. Then to hold their feet to the fire to uphold their promises. I’ll vote Bernie in the primary and most likely Hilzy over Drumpf. Although I still think J.E.B. will somehow take it during the Convention. Daddy’s getting old and it is his turn since “W” got to play, its only fair.
Donald Trump’s drug policy is an alarming throwback to the 1980s
By Christopher Ingraham March 3 2016 Washington Post
Trump’s promise to prevent drugs from entering the country in the first place is a throwback to the drug war policies of previous decades. This may be no accident. He recently sought drug policy advice from William J. Bennett and discussed the heroin epidemic with him.
@ Duncan the Front Range area is beautiful and the only drawback is the three roads for four million people in the Boulder/Denver/Aurora/Co Springs region.
To be fair you can’t build an interstate across a mountain range and I-470 has been completed around Denver to help with traffic.
Six out of ten people of Colorado live in this Front Range area.
Also there are no recreational dispensaries in Co Springs. Medical only in Co Springs but Manitou Springs is right next door and is geared toward recreational users with good deals and dispensaries located right next to lodging that open at 8AM.
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Well, I didn’t rate them but Denver is still #1. #1 on both lists, best place to live and most hated by the sycophants of prohibition. Louisville is also consistently at or very near the top of the list for best small town in America to live. The only part that I care about is the part where the prohibitionists claim that the local standard of living would go into the toilet with either medicinal or recreational vendors anywhere in the vicinity.
PS did you notice that Seattle was #7?
We’re also a regular on that list, though traffic woes and hugely expensive housing are starting to hurt our livability.
For the life of me, I can’t figure out why prison guards in the horribly overcrowded correctional facilities of California are opposing marijuana legalization. It isn’t as if any of their jobs be cut by reducing the inmate population, unless it drops below 100% of the originally intended capacity. At present, the state isn’t even in compliance with a court order mandating a reduction to 137.5% capacity!
The best explanation I can come up with is that the prison guards and the correctional officers union are so hung up on embracing Punitive Moralism that they’ll even rally to oppose criminal law reform measures that would make their jobs safer and easier to perform. Because by any rational projection, there wouldn’t be a single CO job lost in the foreseeable future as a result of marijuana legalization.
That said, since I’ve been doing a lot of eye-opening reading on public employees unions and public choice theory lately, and it’s given me a glimpse into the mentality at work among all too many people staffing our government institutions. It’s a complicated issue- I used to live in Sacramento, I know a lot of state workers- but it’s hard to get around the conclusion that some of these unions are bureaucratic grafters, plain and simple.
The leadership of the CCPOA is a classic example. They’re parasites. They’re so knee-jerk protective of their jobs, benefits, and pensions that they have no interest in stopping inmate warehousing, or lowering the crime rate. It’s amazing. They really are that venal, wheedly, short-sighted, petty, and coercive.
In 1991-1992, the recession era of George Bush I, I spent a little time looking into getting a different job, like maybe one with the State of California. So I’d check in at the State employment office every few days. It was one of the first years of the prison hiring boom. In fact, whenever I checked the board for job openings, every last one was for a position in the “corrections” system. Not just COs- teachers, psychologists, administrators. Bureaucrats. The system is immense. It was designed to be huge, even before the prisons were stuffed to the 200%-300% over-capacity that led to the Federal court order in 2011.
Circa 1992, a newly hired CO at a Level 4 pen like Pelican Bay received an opening salary of $90,000 a year. No educational requirement beyond a high school diploma/GED, and completion of a brief “certificate” program by provisional hires.
My experience of the prison system in Britain is that much of the inmate population is composed of “drug addicts,” while the prison staff/guards are nearly all alcoholics. As a result you get a lot of self-righteous judgement and hostility from the staff towards the “addict” population which allows them to stigmatize and focus attention away from their own dependency. A totally dysfunctional system and the opposite of what is needed to ensure safety in prisons.
MaxCap contracts on profit prisons Browne has vested ignorance in. Meaning if the beds are empty, the prison still gets paid. Prison guards and cops get hired only if there is enough crime. When there isn’t, they make it up, like prohibitions. Plus the Corporate profit not having Cannabis to compete with. Mostly Hemp. Their answer to “horribly overcrowded correctional facilities of California”.
California Governor Proposes Massive Prison Expansion
To Avoid Freeing Inmates
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/675
It’s that Punitive Moralism. Those pot prisoners are just…THERE…soft…sinful…compliant…THEY WILL BE COMPLIANT OR I’LL BEAT MY KID SOME MORE…oh they better comply today because I got a itchin in my punitive moralism!
On my tax dollar.
“As more states legalize marijuana, adolescents’ problems with pot decline” http://tinyurl.com/zk68wfx
“A survey of more than 216,000 adolescents from all 50 states indicates the number of teens with marijuana-related problems is declining. Similarly, the rates of marijuana use by young people are falling despite the fact more U.S. states are legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana use and the number of adults using the drug has increased.”
Here’s one by Radical Russ at High Times that goes well with the above study “Why ‘We Need More Research’ On Cannabis Is Bullshit” http://tinyurl.com/zpf7qy7
Its really becoming apparent who the real criminals are: the prohibitionists in Washington who want the drug war to continue, to expand and just generally want the violence and killing and suppression of minorities to continue.
Its time to label these prohibitionists for what they really are: criminals. Some of their names are in this article right here: “New US law expands drug war enforcement, extradition powers”
http://tinyurl.com/jy3yqls
Bad news X2 Just letting everybody know Melvin Sembler is backing Donald Trump and the bad news, Melvin Sembler wants to bring back Straight Inc into operation:
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/mel-sembler-to-help-raise-money-for-trump/2278732
If NORML is on the ball they should spend their whole budget publicizing this. (if NORML isn’t on the same teat…?)
Sheldon Adelson is showering money on the no legalization movement in Florida again. Wouldn’t surprise me to see the Semblers hand in that pocket too.
Sheldon Addlebrain
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1895
Getting pretty hard to find surprises these days…
Sheldon Adelson Says He Will Support Donald Trump
Sheldon Adelson Associate Announces Anti-Pot Campaign in Florida April 28, 2016
Critics who support the initiative fired back on Wednesday calling Sembler “Mel the Moocher†— a reference to the fact that Sembler took millions of Sheldon’s money during another anti-marijuana campaign two years ago.
As an aside here, DdC, It amazes me that Adelson, who was born of a Jewish mother and supposedly supports Israel, is financially backing all the underpinnings of a fascist approach to dealing with drug issues (here marijuana specifically).
It knocks the legs out from under the criminal justice reform movement. It is in reality the fodder that brings about a suppression of minorities by methods that any good nazi would be proud of.
I can’t see where the destruction of America through the fascist corruption of its political system by means of prohibition benefits Israel in the slightest. This man must be senile or just plain evil.
TV the only logic is his Casino’s and profits mean more than anything. I’d guess most stoners don’t toss coins into slot machines for fun, or drink the free booze. Which has nothing to do with medicinal use. But then again, maybe he has ties to Fat Pharma. Or is secretly having an affair with Betty Sembler, or maybe Mel. Being rich enough to deny kids seizure treatment is too rich for my blood. His legacy will run with Sembler and the other mass murdering profiteers on misery. Boycott the Sands, I think that’s his Casino.
Sorry Thinking Clearly, typo and no fuckup fixer. That should be TC the only logic is…
Appalachian growers and veterans decide to cultivate hemp, process it, dye it, and weave it into an American flag. DEA goes to court and fails to stop them. 11-minute video:
http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2016/05/22/growing-warriors-take-on-feds-over-hemp-flags.html?autoplay=true
.. and very moving ..
I have an image in my mind of Michele Leonhart in a hazmat suit climbing a flagpole…
Calvina tried that a couple years ago…
Hemp Flag To Be Flown At Capitol On July 4
Calvino’s Dung Worriers are an utterly disgraceful
way to commemorate the birth of our country,
They decided to protect the Hemp flags from Calvina and Michelle by putting the flag poles on a hill. Then giving them gum to chew while they walk. Neither have the wherewithall to actually get to the pole to climb it. Calvina said she felt sorry for the addicts being insulted by such a display. Not those dying from prohibition. Or the profits she makes spreading gossip about syringe exchanges. Or the children the trillion dollar message is for.
Poisoned while playing near the Bible Belt cotton crops. Aborting pre-babies while spreading gossip about Hemp. I’ve been wearing Hemp for 20 years and I’m still waiting for the buzz, although the comfort and durability.., it might be addictive. It should be flown upside down over the Capitol as an official signal of distress. Naturally the Prohibitionists prefer Iranian or Saudi crude oil for the plastic. Made into flags in China for MalWart. More kids not getting the message working in sweat shops 12-16 hours, taking US jobs.
The little ones they jerk at the out of work kids signing up to protect the country. Coming home with horror stories, then get caged for natural relief from homegrown affordable health care. This courageous act the DEA fears for its life over, is not so much about a few Vets growing a flag. Its about growing car bodies and Omega 3, 6 and 9 efa’s. Fiber steel and Hemcrete. Hemp frickin Batteries. Thousands of products, millions of jobs.
That is what the Wall St Neoconformists fear and its as dysfunctional as watching a kids seizures stop and continue prohibiting as if nothing happened. Politicians persecuting Americans in their hardest times. Sabet-aging safe access Using fictional dangers of Ganja to demonize a plant from the market shelves. Once again treating symptoms, avoiding the disease prevention and cure. Which is total repeal of all laws on the Cannabis plant, Ganja and Hemp.
I’m waiting for impeachment hearings to start on Dana Rohrabacher for coming out of the smoke closet. The Pope might have to preform an exorcism and then call the Ghost Busters to vacuum the Capitol Building. All while the Fox news guards the cackling hens House of Ill Reputeans.
Oklahoma Congressman, Mark Wayne Mullin said he did not believe in Legalizing Hemp because the FDA does not approve of it. That’s what he wrote to me.
Amazing. Someone should respond to Mr. Mullin and tell him the U.S. Department of Agriculture has purview over growing hemp, not the FDA. If he doesn’t accept that, make Mullin’s letter public. That’s what the Internet is for, to embarrass Congressman Mullin.
The Foreign Undersecretary of the Italian government, Benedetto della Vedova, has just announced the start of hearings on a long awaited bill to legalize cannabis. Starting from tomorrow, the bill will be discussed by a committee gathered from the Ministry of Justice and Social Affairs.
“We are aiming at passing this law by the summer”
http://tinyurl.com/MamamiaFillTheBonga
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), a leading voice for the reform of marijuana laws in the United States, became the first sitting member of Congress in recent history to admit to medical marijuana use.
GOP Congressman says He Uses Medical Marijuana to Ease Arthritis Pain
Oregon on Track to Collect $43 Million in Pot Taxes this Year
No Bang for Taxpayers’ Buck with Pot Charges
9 Fast Facts About Marijuana, Including 1 Telling Statistic
Despite marijuana’s growing approval on a national scale, a recent poll conducted by Fortune and Morning Consult showed that if marijuana were legalized in their state, nearly three in five people (59%) wouldn’t try it.
Green Hopes as Australia Legalizes Medical Cannabis
Old timers are partaking of cannabis after years of missing out:
http://www.wakingtimes.com/2016/05/24/seniors-now-fastest-growing-demographic-cannabis-users/
I’ll add it to the list Buck…
Senior Americans Overwhelmingly Support Legalizing Pot
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1853
~ Teaching Seniors the Benefits of Ganja
~ Seniors Using Ganja For A Good Night’s Sleep
~ Kansas Silver-Haired Legislature endorses medical marijuana
I’ll bet it depends on which cohort of seniors you’re talking about. People 50-70 years old were young when young people started smoking weed in large numbers.
“An individual’s first duty is to live his life as his principles demand.”
Henry David Thoreau
Malc, you a rocker? Nice vintage amp, wish I could afford one.
Principles demand we jam until heaven opens up and lets us all in.
I get nervous when I don’t have a guitar or three within arm’s reach.
Read and own a nice leather copy of Thoreau’s book about the pond at Walden.
I fear he may be on a different custard.
http://www.mandolincafe.com/classifieds/upload/97070.jpg
Trump’s nomination as the Republican candidate is even more reason for the Dems to nominate Bernie Sanders, the only candidate polls say can beat beat the billionaire Trump.
Sorry, the Corporation has informed us that HRC is The One, badge-sucking at all. The only question is if the Corp. will permit Trump to be president.
In a sour mood from a bad haircut morning and the myriad ways the human race has let me down. I’m glad they kicked me out! (of the race, not the barber shop.)
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Courtesy of the United States Sentencing Commission:
“Trafficking” sounds so much more dangerous than “some guy in the bus station who pointed out the direction of the street corner.” Still gets you five and a half years for a first offence. Anyone seen the victim?
Trafficking, Robberie, Moperie & difsturbing ye Pece…
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They would use the same language regardless of whether the number was increasing or decreasing. Since the report was published by the USSC I’m sure that the language was dictated by Congress. Don’t you know that Capitol Hill is the epicenter of hot air production in the US?
My sister-in-law tells me that the Federal buildings on Capitol Hill are built over a long forgotten shamanic cemetery. Of course that’s got the ghosts of all those shamen highly annoyed so they put a voodoo curse on Congress and promote other ad hoc political mischief at their whimsy. Believe me, she should know. She’s been to enough cocktail parties at the Hart SOB.
“The legalization of medical marijuana in Colombia marks the latest move away from the hard-line “war on drugs†championed by the United States.
The Colombian Senate approved a bill Wednesday that legalizes the use and cultivation of marijuana for medical purpose, making it the fourth Latin American country to relax its marijuana laws.”
http://preview.tinyurl.com/SuckThatBuster
First cannabis friendly gym to open in San Francisco:
http://www.businessinsider.com/power-plant-fitness-marijuana-gym-2016-5
Now we know what Pete’s doing in his retirement….. Pete’s Treats Cannabis Cookies.
There is bad news for the forces of evil spending money and wasting their lives opposing marijuana legalization in California in 2016. The percentage of Californians favoring legalization has increased in just one year:
I’m waiting for Bill Bennett to chime in on California’s legalization efforts so the media can smear him for having invented the ‘super-predator’ meme. Bennett’s meme has recently acquired the status of the third-rail in politics.
It’s ironic, Bennett being a hard liquor-drinking, hardcore Catholic like Antonin Scalia, that prohibition is appropriate for marijuana, et al., but not for alcohol. During 1920s Prohibition, many U.S. Catholics complained that alcohol prohibition appeared to be a policy aimed specifically at Catholics, even though the use of alter wine in cathedrals was not proscribed. Perhaps that’s it: Bennett’s ulterior motive is payback directed at Protestants for something that happened at the beginning of the 20th century. He’s the type to do such a thing, especially if a career can be had from it.
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Why the heck is it so hard to imagine that Mr. Bennett is a true believer?
Jeffrey Eric Zinsmeister, an attorney based in San Francisco, with no other apparent accolades besides “executive vice president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana [SAM], a nonpartisan group [?], and a senior fellow at the University of Florida’s Drug Policy Institute â€, argues in a NY Times editorial against legalizing marijuana in Mexico. Counselor Zinsmeister claims the Mexican government is so corrupt it can’t possibly keep the cartels from continuing in the marijuana business, or any other business.
The problem with Mr. Zinsmeister’s editorial is that any Mexican cartel is a part of a plaza, which by definition includes members of the Mexican government, police, and military, as well as the cartel members themselves who ultimately cut the government in on the profits to stay in business. The cartels function primarily as distributors for corrupt Mexican officials. The idea that the same Mexican government cannot fire the cartels and distribute marijuana instead through legitimate vendors is absurd. With 70-78 percent of all currency in circulation in Mexico originating from drug sales, drugs remain essential to the survival of Mexico’s economy (see Drug War Capitalism by Dawn Paley). Minus drug sales, and with petroleum prices down, the Mexican economy would require far more economic assistance from the U.S. than it currently receives. Given something bulky and aromatic like marijuana, it’s no more difficult to go legit in Mexico than it was for ordinary Americans to sell booze again at the end of Prohibition in 1933.
Legal pot? Probibs and dealers don’t want legal pot. They wan’t war and profit. Selfish dealers are selling nonsense that legality would destroy the childish edgy rebel status (real meaning: Destroy their tax-free business). Because dope is a kidz drug. Rebellion is profit. The police agree. That guy treating his painful cancer with Satan’s herb is an unemployable druggie. Arrest him. His labour will pay for your hipster healthcare.
R. Crumb: The Book of Genesis u2b
https://youtu.be/8fVvT9Df0QA?t=177
A Faithful, Idiosyncratic Illustration of all 50 Chapters
The Book of Genesis Illustrated by R. Crumb amazon
http://amzn.to/1XVDAOW
“Ladbrokes are offering odds of 3/1 that cannabis will become ‘legalised and regulated in the UK by 2026’.”
http://volteface.me/legalisation-odds-announced/
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Did somebody just say “let the games begin!”?
Let’s get ready to rumba!!
“Judge Compares Drug War To Slavery, Bravely Refuses To Put Convicted Drug Felon In Prison” http://tinyurl.com/j4aktzv
There is hope.
The jail time is limited to x number of years but the collateral damage is a life sentence without parole. Good to see someone finally acknowledge this dirty little secret and start the debate. What do you say to that Kevin “nobody goes to jail for pot” Sabet? …….Michael “we don’t stigmatize drug users anymore” Botticelli?
here’s some drug news: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/heres-what-big-pharma-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about-the-opioid-epidemic/