Site maintenance

It’s been pointed out that Drug WarRant just celebrated its 14th Blogiversary yesterday. It would be nice to just sit back and enjoy that.

So… naturally, there were several updates today to the software that keeps this blog running, and also naturally, a number of things immediately stopped running. I’ve made a rough attempt at imperfectly restoring a some of the features to which we’ve grown accustomed, but it’s still a bit of a mess.

I promise to take a look at this more thoroughly in the near future, but it may take a few days. It turns out that retirement is much busier than I thought it would be.

Just finished contributing video projections to an amazing production of “Hair” at the Mercury Theater in Chicago that is now in previews. Next week, I’m going to be one of the Festival judges at the Blue Whiskey Independent Film Festival at the Music Box Theater in Chicago. The following week, I’m moving after 26 years in the same place (which means I’ve accumulated way too much stuff!). And then a couple weeks later, I’m off on a cross-country Amtrak trip with my bicycle (Chicago to San Francisco to Seattle and back).

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105 Responses to Site maintenance

  1. Will says:

    .
    .
    Speaking of something in need of ‘site maintenance’ here’s the latest blather from
    Kevin Sabet-Sharghi;

    Legal weed isn’t living up to all of its promises. We need to shut it down

    http://tinyurl.com/ycakquch

    —————

    Oddly enough, I do agree with this sentence: “Individual users need incentives to encourage them to make healthy decisions, not handcuffs.”

    Indeed, instead of making people manufacture handcuffs, it’s better to encourage them to make healthy choices instead (eat a balanced diet, exercise some, have fun, etc.). And that’s about the last thing Bonehead Kevin and I agree on.

    [Pete, your upcoming trip sounds like a blast. I love trains]

    • WalStMonky says:

      .
      .

      That man is a bald faced liar. But then again he’s not very good at lying either. All I’ve got to say is:

      Election Day 2016 —
      Pueblo City Colorado 61.15%
      Re-criminalize cannabis commerce 38.85%

      Pueblo County Colorado 57.84%
      Re-criminalize cannabis commerce: 42.16%

      …and just to make it a little lot funnier:

      Donald J. [expletive deleted]: 46.11%
      Hillary Clinton 45.61%

      Pueblovotes.com

      Sorry Kev-Kev, they’re just not falling for it. Please keep up the good work!

  2. DdC says:

    Congrats on the Anniversary Pete. Your retirement sounds like a lot of work you’re enjoying very much. Hopefully someday Drug WarRant can retire, due to irrelevancy,

    Until then its nice to be on the right side.
    Can’t imagine Sabet SAM cleaning towns, helping Vets and terminal patients or feeding people.

    ☛ Pot Shop Gave Out Free Weed
    to Help Clean Up Maine Town

    Who doesn’t love a town cleanup… especially when the local pot shop is handing out free weed in exchange for filling a few trash bags?

    ☛ The stoned soldiers of Santa Cruz
    Meet the combat veterans who grow medical marijuana for their brothers in arms.

    ☛ Federal Lawsuit Against Sessions and DEA
    Says MMJ’s Schedule I Status Is Unconstitutional and Racist

    ☛ Rehab Clinic Lets Patients Smoke Weed
    (and Even Offer it as a Treatment)

    ☛ US Patent Office Issuing Cannabis Patents to a Growing Market

    May the spirit of stoners live on…

    From the past… still going strong…

    ☛ The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana –
    https://wamm.org/
    The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) is a collective of patients and caregivers providing hope, building community and offering phytotherapies on a donation basis

    ☛ Granny Purps 2010
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1651
    Nancy Black, called Granny Purps just like the pot dispensary where she is bringing in outsized donations for the Second Harvest Food Bank holiday food drive: a complimentary joint. For every four cans of food they donated to Second Harvest, patients received one pre-rolled marijuana joint, with a maximum of three per day.

    While the cannabinoid deficient fail miserably at humanity…

    ☛ Redding Charity Turns Down Pot Dispensary’s Food 2009
    Chris Solberg, director of Loaves and Fishes. Still, he noted, food and monetary donations are very much needed because of the poor economy.

  3. Tony Aroma says:

    I thought this system sounded flawed when it was first announced, but now 5 years later when it’s finally in operation, I’m pretty sure it’s going to fail. At least the retail part. The government’s selling just two generic strains which have only 2% THC, so basically it’s hemp. At least it’s cheap. If you want to buy it legally, that’s your only option. Though I doubt they’ll get many repeat customers.

    On top of that, you have to register with the government to make a purchase, and then you have to find a pharmacy that sells it, and only a few have signed up. Many are afraid to compete with local black market dealers, though I doubt what the pharmacies are selling will be much competition. So far only a few thousand people have registered to buy.

    On the bright side, they can grow their own plants or join growing collectives. But I doubt the small numbers of people registering for buying/growing are going to put much of a dent in the black market.

    Uruguay, First To Legalize, Begins Legal Retail Sales Of Marijuana

    An “Alfa I” package contains “Alfa I variety cannabis hybrid with Indica predominant.” The other kind is “Beta I variety cannabis” with Sativa. The five-gram packets are being retailed at $6.50 each, according to the IRCCA. The levels of THC — the psychotropic constituent in cannabis — are given on the outside, for consumer information. The BBC is reporting that both varieties measure only 2 percent(!) THC, which is miserably weak — even borderline useless — by modern standards.

    • DC Reade says:

      exactly. Uruguay over-engineered the solution with excessive and unnecessary regulation, combined with regulatory capture by the designated suppliers.
      It’s a formula for keeping the illegal market entrenched. Bad, nanny-state socialism, instead of balanced social democracy with reasonable checks on a market system.

      Uruguay also puts legal pot buyers on a registry- but after thinking it over, I no longer find that as objectionable as I originally did. In point of fact, Colorado does that with everyone admitted to their pot shops, too- mostly as a way of enforcing the over-21 age restriction. What I find interesting is that I’ve also recently had my ID photocopied in Pennsylvania when buying beer. My hunch is that this process is going to become a lot more widespread for alcohol and tobacco purchases- and, eventually, for pot (if Kevin Sabet is listening: cannabis legalization is inevitable.)

      What intrigues me are the avenues that this might open up for regulated legal access to other, more potent substances, perhaps with limits on monthly purchase quantities. I’d like to hear the opinions of others on that prospect…

  4. The Big Cheese says:

    When capitalism meets the caging industry….to hell with the destruction of lives, we have shareholders (like the Bush family) who need a dividend.

    “This is a perfect snapshot of what’s upside-down with privatization: the lack of economic opportunities and politicians who genuflect at providing jobs, regardless of the larger social implications, pushing law enforcement into the dirty business of ramping up arrests and convictions so private firms and shareholders can make more money.”
    http://www.alternet.org/human-rights/private-prison-demands-new-mexico-and-feds-find-300-more-prisoners-60-days-or-it-will

  5. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Man blames sex with donkey on marijuana
    Claims habit made him do ‘sick things,’ caught after sneaking into neighbor’s yard

    /snip/
    The donkey’s owners, Emert and Joyce Whitaker, had complained to authorities that someone had been slipping onto their property and harassing their donkeys for three years, Fox News reported.

    • The Big Cheese says:

      Every man to his own taste I suppose, but whatever your turn-on, cannabis will enhance the experience. Smoking weed is not the problem for this guy.

  6. DdC says:

    ‘After Two Puffs, I Was Turned Into a Bat’
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/16/thread16685.shtml
    Their claims were frequently supported by an expert witness, the pharmacologist Dr James Munch, who claimed that “after two puffs on a marijuana cigarette, I was turned into a bat”. Sentences were commuted from death to imprisonment on Munch’s evidence, and Anslinger had to ask him to stop testifying.

    Pot Turns Man Into Bat
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/15/thread15947.shtml

    Every Joint You Smoke, A Baby Dies
    http://cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19707.shtml
    The Drug Enforcement Agency’s museum at One Times Square combines the drug war and the global war on terrorism in one fear-inducing package: If you smoke up, the museum wants you to know, the terrorists win.

    Tax Dollars Up in Smoke?
    http://cannabisnews.com/news/19/thread19308.shtml
    Of the more than 219 million cannabis sativa plants uprooted by Indiana police, Just 31,192 were cultivated marijuana, the kind sold for more than $100 an ounce and smoked.

    The Drug War Is The Inquisition -By Dan Russell Nov 1, 2001
    http://entheology.com/news-articles/the-drug-war-is-the-inquisition/

    The Center for Cognitive Liberty & Ethics (CCLE)
    http://www.cognitiveliberty.org/index.html

  7. The Big Cheese says:

    “I was speaking at a conference in Durham the other week, in a room full of police, people from the criminal justice system, and healthcare professionals, and they were unanimous that legal regulation of drugs must come.”

    A rare grieving parent who hasn’t fallen for the tabloid meme that “the dealers” are responsible. She lays the blame squarely with the drug war.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/drugs-deaths-record-numbers-war-on-drugs-killed-my-two-sons-failing-legalisation-why-drugs-should-be-a7873811.html

  8. Servetus says:

    Not knowing the extent of a heroin or opiate problem in New Hampshire, little man Trump calls the Live Free or Die State a “drug infested den”.

    Nefarious phone leakers reveal the statement came in a phone call from Trump to Mexico’s president. Irate people respond:

    http://www.salon.com/2017/08/03/the-president-is-wrong-new-hampshire-leaders-respond-harshly-to-trump-calling-the-state-a-drug-infested-den/

  9. The Big Cheese says:

    BBC analysis of dictatorships from Mussolini onwards. The parallels with Trump are only too clear:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_H8Gy4i4uvk

  10. kaptinemo says:

    Wanna laugh your ass off? Cannabis City, California
    “As cannabis grows increasingly acceptable in society and more states legalize it, everything from cannabis churches and resorts to yoga and restaurants are cropping up. And now, there will be an entire cannabis-inspired town.

    American Green is a cannabis company based in Arizona, but they just bought the small California town of Nipton, located in San Bernardino County, and plan to convert into a municipality with a cannabis theme.

    The company has a “state of the art” cultivation facility in Arizona and also sells hemp-based CBD (cannabidiol) products online and works to develop cannabis apps. They just spent five million dollars to obtain Nipton and plan to spend another $2.5 million creating their cannabis tourist attraction over the next 18 months.

    Betcha Kevvie and Company will have a fit over this latest.

    Demographics has doomed cannabis prohibition; dollars will buy the rope attached to the bell that tolls for it. The only ones who believe prohib propaganda now are the prohibs themselves and their mental night-light wattage allies, who are (thankfully!) a very small minority. One that shrinks daily.

    What is replacing them socially, politically and (perhaps most important of all) economically are those whose minds can encompass what a prohib shrinks from: the freedom that they pay lip service to but are terrified of the actual practicing of. The freedom that re-legalized cannabis represents, as it would amount to a refutation of government efforts for the past 80 years, and thus, a priori a refutation of government, itself...and those who bow down to it and suckle from its authoritarian teats.

  11. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Time to hold onto your hats boys and girl,s, another sycophant of

    Have I ever mentioned that AG Sessions doesn’t have the proverbial snowball’s chance of getting permission from Congress to “crack down” on medicinal cannabis patient protection laws? He’d have better luck getting anti-miscegenation laws repealed. Perhaps the same odds of winning $1 billion in the Powerball lottery but still better odds than trying to make sick people suffer more than is humanly possible to avoid. (Alabama finally repealed their anti-miscegenation laws in Y2K)

    ‘Leave Medical Marijuana States Alone’: Leahy Warns Trump Administration

    The POTUS, his lackeys and stooges may well turn out to be the best thing that has happened to cannabis law reform.

    Washington State: Any Trump Administration Crackdown On Marijuana Would Be “Unacceptable”

  12. The Big Cheese says:

    More Sessions idiocy:

    “From 1997 to 2014, the hospitalization rates of people suffering from painkiller abuse dropped 23 percent in states where medical marijuana was legalized, according to researchers from the University of California San Diego. Ninety-two percent of pain patients prefer cannabis over opioids and the rate of mariajuana-related hospitalizations has been unaffected by legalization. Yet Sessions insists there is “more violence around marijuana than one would think,” even as experts have found otherwise. He also says smoking pot is “an unhealthy practice” that should be punished like heroin and cocaine use.”
    He also disingenuously tries to make a comparison with the government’s successful program to reduce tobacco consumption, but fails to mention that no one was ever arrested for smoking tobacco.

    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/jeff-sessions-wants-fight-opioid-addiction-criminalizing-one-its-most-effective-treatments

  13. Servetus says:

    Rick Joyner says America’s opioid crisis “Is Connected Directly To Illegal Immigration”:

    https://www.facebook.com/RickJoyner.MorningStar/videos/1768519776514165/

    It’s not just about drugs when it comes to building a southern border wall. According to certain xenophobic religious activists the perceived evils of society can all be combatted with just one wall. In case some of you aren’t familiar with Rick and his fellow evangelical crusaders, here are some highlights from Joyner’s support of the border wall:

    July 21, 2014 — We allow terrorists to become Mirandized, illegals to receive defense counsel (at taxpayer expense) and unbeknown to many, most states do not require a photo ID to vote. How do our military men and women feel about our lax border security and cheapening the requirements for citizenship?

    The top public policy issue today needs to be securing the borders now. We have immigration laws. Let’s first restore equilibrium. Secondly, we must insist on a photo ID at the polls. If we lose the integrity of elections, conservatives will lose any chance of winning the pro-life, marriage and religious liberty issues. Losing elections through voter fraud will likely cost us our rights to free speech and assembly. With dagger in hand, political correctness awaits that day.

    So is this God’s judgment? Perhaps we will know in time. For now, we need evangelicals confident in a biblical basis for limiting the border deluge. No false guilt trip need dissuade us. Our nation needs protection from lawlessness. Let’s love our alien neighbors with the prudence of a savvy lifeguard who won’t allow herself to be pulled under in the rescue. Let’s enforce and obey the present Constitutional laws of immigration and welcome as new citizens those who respect our laws. Put the “protest” back into Protestant and insist that we secure our borders!

    More from Rick on immigration:

    Today, Rick Joyner’s Oak Initiative sent out an email to activists asking if the crisis along the southern border just might be God’s judgment on America for allowing legal abortion and same-sex marriage.

    Written by Kenneth L. Carozza, the piece declares that while evangelicals have a lot in common with Catholics, they cannot support calls from Catholic leaders to back immigration reform because Catholics have an ulterior motive: “Rome might see the alien deluge into the U.S. as a quick road to bigger parishes regardless of the form of government that survives.”

    The crisis, Carozza declared, just might be God’s judgment upon this nation and a sign for America to seal its border and implement voter ID laws before conservatives permanently “lose any chance of winning the pro-life, marriage and religious liberty issues”:

    Does our nation gain God’s favor if officials advocate for children crossing the Rio Grande but fail to guarantee safe passage through the birth canal? Such carnage in the womb occurs within our U.S. borders daily. Additionally, in 2003 Justice Scalia predicted that with the repeal of sodomy laws, sodomy would become institutionalized. Today our little children learn a new euphemism in school, “same-sex marriage.” At the university level, academics are paving the way for pedophilia to be viewed as one more sexual orientation. Closer to home, we have tolerated emergent church leaders who undercut God’s justice by eroding hell. With this modeling, is it any wonder that policy makers undercut just laws and erode U.S. borders?

    If the alien invasion is a sign of divine judgment, shouldn’t we still act to minimize the effects? If we experienced a judgment of drought we would still dig wells; if famine, we would still forage for food. While our first task is to humbly call people to repentance through Christ, we should unashamedly cry out that U.S. borders be secured. Exclusion has appropriate precedents. [Emphasis added]

    http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/is-the-border-crisis-gods-judgment-for-legal-abortion-and-gay-marriage-or-a-popish-plot/

    As with drugs, it’s all about exclusion. In the following instance, Rick Joyner joins with his fellow witch hunters to condemn and exclude free spirited women:

    Right-wing pastor and ardent Donald Trump supporter Lance Wallnau posted a video on his Facebook page last night in which he declared that the Women’s March on Washington and the protests surrounding Trump’s inauguration were a spiritual manifestation of witchcraft and “the spirit of Jezebel.”

    Echoing Rick Joyner, Wallnau said that the march and protests were “the unmasking of the nature of the progressive spirit” and “its desire to control and intimidate and manipulate.”

    Manipulation, intimidation and control are the hallmarks of “the spirit of witchcraft” and “witchcraft is the spirit of Jezebel,” Wallnau said, “so it makes sense to me that there would be half a million women who would show up” in Washington, D.C., on the day after Trump’s inauguration.

    http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/lance-wallnau-womens-march-was-a-manifestation-of-the-spirit-of-witchcraft/

    What motivates Rick Joyner to spew such nonsense? How about the money?

    In 1998 Joyner’s “MorningStar Ministries” was grossing $7 million a year and that year it was denied a religious property tax exemption by the North Carolina Department of Revenue for an airplane, 4 tracks of vacant land, and two residential houses—one that Joyner lived in and one that Don Potter (musician) lived in and had a recording studio in.[18] Department director John C. Bailey said that “[w]ith MorningStar there are a lot of tracts with costly improvements that affect tax liability significantly… If we did not limit exemptions, it would increase the burden on people, like you and me, who own homes that are not affiliated with any group.” MorningStar appealed the Department of Revenue’s denial.[19][needs update] Also, Joyner’s MorningStar Fellowship Church has filed a $20 million lawsuit against York County, South Carolina over the unfinished 21 story hotel on their property that Jim Bakker had started in the 80’s. The latest news is that MSFC has filed a appeal of Judge Hall’s ruling “that MorningStar has not provided substantial evidence to back up its claims.” The building has never been finished and the county found the church in default after they missed a deadline to show their ability to fund the project.[20] Source: Wiki.

  14. The Big Cheese says:

    Bill Maher gets an Obama impersonator to repeat Trumps actual words. Would a black man still get elected president if he’d made comments about shooting people on 5th Ave., or pussy grabbing etc? Or how about “nobody knew healthcare was so complicated?”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swcJzacZkWU

    • Daniel Williams says:

      What’s so complicated about healthcare? I mean, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor. If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.”

      That sure doesn’t sound complicated to me. Oh wait…

      • DdC says:

        Daniel, although it isn’t part of the Constitution. The Declaration of Independence does state our right of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. As it starts with Life because it is impossible to have Liberty if you are dead. Even the liberty to bear arms ends with the death of the gunist. Then to have any thought of Pursuing Happiness. Liberty is essential. Without it there is no real happiness. So Life is a prerequisite to Liberty, as it is a prerequisite to Pursuing Happiness. Most agree with the forefathers so then most must also agree that the prerequisites of Life are also a requirement of the Declaration.

        By either a means to obtain or the sustenance itself, to sustain Life, to have Liberty to Pursue Happiness. Including proper medical care and housing, clothing, food and transportation. All btw, brought to you from locally grown Cannabis Food, Fuel, Fiber and FARMaceutical products.

        Why do you think they call it dope or the heathen devil weed? Racism only has monetary value by denigrating a group to pay lesser wages or fill profit prisons then rent out the inmates. When tractors made it cheaper than housing slaves. they were evicted. 50,000 killed each other. Then the great migration to cheap construction jobs. Paying slave wages and then they had to find their own housing and food.

        So since health is a relative concept I’d rather say medical care. Health care involves proper diet and mental and physical exercise. Which should never be dictated imo. But every citizen deserves to have proper medical care. Especially preventive. As a promise by the Founding Fathers (their wives probably made them add,)

        These Insurance Care tweaks of Hilarycare are as purposely chaotic as anything sold for a profit. The Neocon Mother of Invention. Homeless deterrents to whistle blowers. 24/7 fear mongering and confusion news. Democrats grazing on the left and Republicans grazing on the right. Well I can proudly say in my 6th decade I have zero white powders or big pharma concoctions in my medicine cabinet. I completely accept the reason being 45 years of daily supplementing my ECS. 20 years of EFA supplementing with the seeds and oil. I wear non chemical Hemp clothing and expectorate the days pollution with a Phatty chosen from a dozen strains I had delivered. Paid by GWPH stocks. Ain’t that America?

        No Profit or Tax on Wars, Staple Foods, Plants, Prisons, Police or Medical Care. Everybody makes a living wage, salary based on merit and experience bottom to top. No brainer is locally growing Hemp and Ganja to sell to local distribution centers to separate into 50,000 products currently requiring the extraction of dead things long buried to give kids the remains to breath, drink and eat. That Ain’t America.

        • Daniel Williams says:

          Yes, we have a right to Life and Liberty, but that right does not guarantee Happiness; just the pursuit. And therein lies the rub.

          Having medical care, housing, clothing, food and transportation, in the broader sense, gives us happiness. But it doesn’t in any way guarantee it.

          With very few exceptions, I’ve consumed cannabis every day since May of 1970. And like you, I take no prescription drugs, giving cannabis the same credit do as you. So at least we agree on that.

        • DdC says:

          Daniel: August 7, 2017 at 6:23 pm

          I mentioned daily since 71. If you want to count the weekend years I’d amend it to 1969. Weird how the class of 70 always seemed like a last ditch attempt to save Elvis from the Beatles. As for agreeing with my assessment, hey I never said you were stupid, just wrong headed on certain issues. As for the point I made, you typically diverted from it. Like the comma in the 2nd amendment no one cares to bring into the conversation. My point is to collect taxes from the deadbeats loopholes and offshore accounts. It is also to give an incentive to the governments that citizens are their responsibility to provide a means to life which is a promise of the Revolution.

          I know the usual spiel about the right to pursue happiness and that happiness itself isn’t guaranteed. That is why I said Pursue Happiness. The point you avoid is the right to Life has to include the means to life or its just words without reality backing it. I don’t believe the forefathers meant zombies or being Diests would they believe Americans were created from mud and spit or ribs, already adults. So they meant Life and the right to life includes the prerequisites you seem to believe are for those who can afford them.

          Although the issue was probably not on their minds, since they could obtain sustenance as it was, without money. Today the rights remain, except the means to those rights have been eroded to “if you have job and money”. Or to more tax deadbeat churches and charities picking up the pieces. Millions kicked out of their jobs for bogus and even faulty piss testing or for being arrested. Money is not mentioned in the Constitution or Declaration. Or is it required for the BoR. Just the rights, freely given to the people. No if, ands of butts other than skin color, gender and age limitations.

          The basics of Life was given to slaves who had no rights. Are you saying citizens should have less than slaves? Or that corporations are considered people that don’t have to eat. So to hell with Americans who do. I guess they can incorporate themselves. Sounds like you’re a vengeance driven liberal knowing Poverty can lower your IQ, and Almost All Rural Whites are In Poverty. So, Punish the rednecks? Hey, they’re Americans too. Unlike the Cayman Islands stashing tax dodgers responsibility. Try to stay on point.

      • The Big Cheese says:

        Daniel, more buyer’s remorse over Trump? Let’s not forget your views expressed here on the couch at the time of the election, that Trump was going to free the weed and that we should look to the political right for an end to drug war insanity.

        • Daniel Williams says:

          Hard to have ‘more’ remorse when none exists, at least yet.

          And yes, I did say Trump could ‘free the weed’ as you put it, and I still believe it’s possible. Jeff Sessions is getting nowhere fast with his pitch to get tough on weed, and Trump knows it. He also knows the market already exists for tens of millions of Americans, which, I believe, could be the catalyst for letting the states continue to decide – and fits in nicely with conservative ideology.

          Now, I don’t speculate on how that would come to pass, just that there are several tools at his disposal. The same tools, I might add, that were available to Obama for eight years. Trump has been president for 200 days.

        • The Big Cheese says:

          “Trump has been president for 200 days.”

          I’m sure he’s a Lincoln in the making.

        • DdC says:

          More like an Edsel.

  15. DdC says:

    Meanwhile…

    9 Goldman Sach’s,
    5 Generals,
    and a gaggle of Billionaires,
    Making America Hate Again.

    Americans Against Insecure Billionaires with Tiny Hands & Nukes
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2065

    Scientologists Hate Weed
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1097

    Cashing in on Fear…

    Goldman Sachs is sponsoring a Scientology-based jail
    ‘re-education’ program — and it’s growing

    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/364

    After 12,000 years of humans co-existance with the cannabis plant. To supplement the ECS (EndoCannabinoid System). The early 20th Century Prohibition = total abstinence for generations.

    â™’

    Prohibitionists Have Larger ‘Fear Centers’ in Their Brains
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1690

    â™’

    What is Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency?

    â™’

    Poverty can lower your IQ,
    Almost All Rural Whites are In Poverty

    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1881

    â™’

    Trump voters.

  16. DdC says:

    Twitting Threads

    It’s Been Exactly 80 Years Since the US Declared War on Weed —
    and Weed Is Still Winning

    #SFGiants roster moves:
    Brandon Belt placed on the 7-day concussion DL
    ~ Be Well Belt. Using Pot To Save Brains!
    neuroprotective effect of cannabinoids
    ~ Tell the MLB the NFL Offers to Study Marijuana
    as Pain Management Option… Finally
    ~ Unofficial Self-Appointed Cannabist for the SF Giants.

    The Racist Roots of Cannabis Prohibition

    If You Smoke Pot to Reduce Anxiety, It Turns Out There’s a Perfect Amount To Use

    Jessica Andreavich Healer or Dealer? Delaware Cops Turn MMJ Robin Hood’ into Felon
    ~ Eddie Lepp
    ~ WAMM

  17. Ahmes says:

    High all. I have encountered a huge paradox. The American left, who are supposed to be the huge legalization advocates, really admire the Scandinavian country Sweden. Mostly for its socialized healthcare and “tolerance”. Yet they are the country in Europe with the most draconian marijuana laws. Can someone please explain this to me? I just can’t get my head around this. Most pot advocates in Sweden are right-wing libertarians.

    • Will says:

      .
      .
      Oh boy, I’m going to guess there are going to be some thoroughly entertaining responses to your query. Below is a link to an article in the NYT from a few years ago that might shed some light on what you’re asking (assuming you equate the ‘American left’ with Democrats);

      Despite Support in Party, Democratic Governors Resist Legalizing Marijuana

      http://tinyurl.com/y9hejoyb

    • Servetus says:

      I’m not sure admiration by the U.S. left goes much beyond admiring a European socialist democracy. The U.S. right likes Sweden because of its harsh and punitive drug policies, and because the residents are predominately white and part of a white cultural backwash similar to some areas of the United States.

      Sweden has a relatively small population of 9.9 million people, 85% urban. The country is mono-cultural and matriarchal. Sex crimes against women in Sweden are taken very seriously, as Julian Assange discovered. The matriarchal culture may be why the country fears recreational drugs so much, as historically women have faced the brunt of violence from alcoholic husbands.

      The Swedes also appear in the low numbers of experimenters and regular consumers of marijuana. This would make legalization more difficult compared to the U.S. where a majority supports regulating the marijuana industry. For example:

      …Sweden also puts a strong emphasis on prevention strategies, with extensive drug awareness programmes in schools and even preschools. Some substances are used in certain cases as approved medical treatment.

      According to figures released by European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) last year, only nine percent of the Swedish school population has tried cannabis, compared to 39 percent in France, 42 percent in the Czech Republic and around 25 percent in Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands.

      But concerns have previously been raised that the country’s tough ‘zero tolerance’ policy may be pushing up the number of drug-related deaths in the country.

      In 2012, 412 drug-induced deaths were reported in Sweden, double the number in 2004, when 188 drug-induced deaths were logged.

      https://www.thelocal.se/20151123/nine-out-of-ten-swedes-favour-illicit-drugs-ban

      For further reference check out the studies on alcohol related violence:

      AAAS Public Release: Gene mutation linked to reckless drunken behavior—University of Helsinki;

      AAAS Public Release: Privatizing Sweden’s retail alcohol sales will increase alcohol-related violence and other harms;

      AAAS Public Release: Childhood adversity hinders genetic protection against problem drinking in white men.

      Since marijuana doesn’t begin to approach the problems associated with alcohol, Sweden’s cannabis tyranny seems barbaric, and it is. The country is not as tolerant or progressive as some might think.

    • WalStMonky says:

      .
      .

      The problem is in your flawed perception. You’re assigning people to an arbitrary group and attempting to argue that they speak with one voice and walk in lockstep. It’s nothing but an argument from the general to the specific and the problem is that you’re putting words into peoples’ collective mouth that originated in your brain. So what’s next, crying because the “liberals” want to outlaw smoking tobacco and legalize pot?

      • Will says:

        .
        .
        “You’re assigning people to an arbitrary group and attempting to argue that they speak with one voice and walk in lockstep.”

        Yeah, In my reply I stepped over Ahmes’ overly broad suggestion. But it got me to thinking where he/she might be coming from. Then I vaguely remembered Bernie Sanders mentioning certain Scandinavian countries while he was still in the 2016 Democratic nomination mix. So, a brief search and I found this, from over a year and a half ago (okay, Denmark is in the title but Sweden is mentioned in the article);

        Bernie Sanders’ American Dream is in Denmark

        http://tinyurl.com/hb8sdv9

        And to lay to rest the idea that the ‘American left’ is a homogenous group of narrow like mindedness, from the article;

        “I think we should look to countries like Denmark, like Sweden and Norway,” Sanders said, “and learn what they have accomplished for their working people.”

        followed by;

        “We are not Denmark,” Hillary Clinton responded.

        ——————–
        Ha, yeah, so much for ‘marching in unison’.

        It all seems so quaint now. /snark

    • The Big Cheese says:

      Since WW2 Sweden has depended on Nato and the U,S. for security against the USSR/ Russia. Sweden’s Julian Assange accusations and their enthusiastic engagement with the drug war suggest that they take their orders from Washington.

      • Servetus says:

        Julian Assange noted that after the assassination of Olof Palme, prime minister of Sweden, on February 28, 1986, his death signaled the end of an era that welcomed Viet Nam draft war resistors from the U.S. into Sweden where they found asylum. After Palme, Sweden changed. It became a satellite country of the United States, all too willing to kick out draft dodgers or hand over Assange to the authorities.

        Unfortunately for Assange, Swedish law prohibits revealing the names of victims of sexual assault to protect the privacy of the victims. Consequently, his accusers, who are mostly not accusers anymore, cannot be deposed in public via the MSM or by anyone else. No one knows who they are but Assange and Swedish authorities.

        This is exactly how the Holy Office of the Inquisition conducted business. The heretic was never allowed to cross examine the snitch, or even know who the snitch was. Instead, the alleged heretic had to submit a list of their possible enemies, or anyone who might be interested in bringing false accusations against them. If a name matched, they could be exonerated. If not, they might be burned at the stake.

        The U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights sought to remedy these types of legal problems, as the Inquisition still existed at the time of the American Revolution and the Constitutional Convention. Madison, Jefferson, Franklin and the rest were all too familiar with the Holy Office. At the time, it was the go-to monumental example of injustice that colonists talked about and drew comparisons to before Hitler came along.

        • The Big Cheese says:

          The shooting of Palme does sound very much like a professional hit, complete with Lee Harvey Oswald patsy set up. I’d look at Ollie North’s whereabouts on that day in 1986.

    • DC Reade says:

      Obviously, the pro-legalization position isn’t linked to a wider ideology, or to lockstep support for any given ideological frame.

    • DdC says:

      Suck Fweden, Too Cold.
      and they talk funny, with words that hurt your throat. Pronunciations used in anger or joy can stretch neck muscles. Especially while ice skating everywhere. Bad for ankles. Guess that’s why they only eat fish. Cheap fish from the BP and Valdeze spill zones. One red light in town on a truck that drives around looking for stopped cars at intersections. Some have frozen to death waiting to go. Free inculcation and high taxes is why they lead the world in … fish consumption while ice skating? Their ECS deficiency is enlarging brain fear centers, driving them into authoritarian barns. Where MSM milk machines are sucking the creative juices out of their minds.

      American Left of What?

      The Alt Far Right?

      Who are Left of the Far Left,
      Longhaired Pinko Hippie Fags and Feminazi’s.

      Take That You GOPerverted Commie Bastard!
      I’d rather be a Head, than Red!

    • Mike says:

      what was that Wisconsin company that is chipping workers

      and who are they partnering with

  18. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    So AG Sessions’ Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety sprang a leak resulting in the Associated Press getting their hands on and publishing their recommendations vis a vis DoJ enforcement policies. Maintain the status quo…now gee whiz, who’da thunk it?

    Task Force on Marijuana Law Offers Little on New Policies

    WASHINGTON (AP) — The betting was that law-and-order Attorney General Jeff Sessions would come out against the legalized marijuana industry with guns blazing. But the task force Sessions assembled to find the best legal strategy is giving him no ammunition, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

    The Task Force on Crime Reduction and Public Safety, a group of prosecutors and federal law enforcement officials, has come up with no new policy recommendations to advance the attorney general’s aggressively anti-marijuana views. The group’s report largely reiterates the current Justice Department policy on marijuana.

    It encourages officials to keep studying whether to change or rescind the Obama administration’s more hands-off approach to enforcement — a stance that has allowed the nation’s experiment with legal pot to flourish. The report was not slated to be released publicly, but portions were obtained by the AP.
    /snip/

    Nothing to see here…move along now.

  19. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Once again the sycophants of prohibition have expanded the outer limits of stupidity. How the heck do they do it? Is it just dumb luck?

    Should pot users carry Naloxone? London’s medical health officer says yes
    The urine of people who say they’ve only used pot has tested positive for fentanyl, health officials warn

    /snip/
    Pot users should carry Naloxone kits in case their marijuana is laced with fentanyl, Middlesex-London Health Unit Medical Officer of Health Chris Mackie says.

    Mackie issued the warning after fentanyl was found in the urine of heroin and marijuana users who were being screened at the Addiction Services Thames Valley Suboxone Clinic in July, health officials said.

    • The Big Cheese says:

      Dr Chris Mackie is one of these top down guys like Kevin Sabet. He is totally clueless about the way ordinary people take drugs and dealers sell them. Cutting a drug worth £10 or £20 a gram with fentanyl at £50 to £100 per gram makes no financial sense at all. Mackie is a victim of the Svengali drug dealer myth straight out of the Harry Anslinger playbook. In the drug war you just can’t keep a good meme down.

    • DC Reade says:

      gee, if they legalized pot the risk of contamination by other substances would disappear.

      I’d like to know how anyone could mix pot with fentanyl for the retail market without it leading to a massive overdose epidemic. The dealers can’t even tab it up as counterfeit oxycodone without getting their customers into lethal trouble.

  20. DdC says:

    Its a Republican Drug War with some Democrat traitors selling out and a few Republican patriots standing up for truth. Many on both political sides are too afraid to make a statement. Especially democrats. Where most GOP go along with the fake morals and law and odor crap. It serves America’s interest to stop the Ganjawar. It serves G-20 Neocons to perpetuate it. Like Granny Storm Crow said. “If The Truth Won’t Do, Then Something Is Wrong! Same with Unions protecting cops and prisons over people’s rights. It could also be seen as closed verses open minds or authoritarian sheep verses free thinkers. At the end of the day its a state of consciousness to put energy towards synthetics or natural substances. Profit or People. Wall St or Family Farmers. Corporations or Entrepreneurs. ECS deficient or supplemented. War or Peace.

    Why Do Democrats Defend Nixon’s Drug War?
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1760

    Democrats spare changing me can hold their breath.
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1077

    • Daniel Williams says:

      The Harrison Narcotics Act was signed by President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat. So the reverse of what you say is true: It’s a Democrat drug war, with Republicans tagging along.

      Both parties are culpable for continuing it, but the Democrats started it. Stay on point.

      • DdC says:

        The Harrison Narcotics Tax Act (Ch. 1, 38 Stat. 785) was a United States federal law that regulated and taxed the production, importation, and distribution of opiates and coca products. The act was proposed by Representative Francis Burton Harrison of New York and was approved on December 17, 1914.

        Didn’t prohibit, just regulated and taxed. Same with the 1937 Tax Act. Stay on the point that isn’t on the top of your head… Besides if you want to divert, the 1906 Pure Food and Drug Act was first, and was from a GOPer.

        Theodore Roosevelt Jr was an American statesman, author, explorer, soldier, naturalist, and reformer who served as the 26th President of the United States from 1901 to 1909. As a leader of the Republican Party.

        Major United States Federal drug control laws
        1906 Pure Food and Drug Act

        Tax Acts did not prohibit drugs, only limit them to certain buyers. So as most without an agenda realize. Nixon started the “Drug War” by banning them to the general public, regardless of taxes.

        1970 Controlled Substances Act Scheduling list for drugs

        Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1

        • Daniel Williams says:

          Yes, and we know that in practice laws are far different than the theory. The Harrison act stipulated that doctors could only prescribe narcotics for a valid medical condition. And the federal government did not consider addiction a valid medical condition, but merely a maintenance scheme (which was the primary reason doctors prescribed them). And so it began.

          Many doctors objected to the government’s reasoning, and continued prescribing to their patients. And the government arrested over 10,000 doctors before those remaining got the message and backed off, which created the black market. Tax and Regulate was not the intent, nor was it the intent of the Marijuana Tax Act: To qualify for a tax stamp, the petitioner had to prove they had product to sell. When proof was produced, the providers were arrested for possessing pot without a license. And not a nickel in taxes was ever collected.

          The MTA remained in force until Timothy Leary petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn it (during the Johnson administration), citing the right not to self-incriminate. It was overturned, and marijuana was in federal limbo when Nixon took office. Nixon replaced all the existing local, state and federal prohibition laws with the Controlled Substances Act. And that’s when the theory; stopping people from doing drugs, matched the practice; prosecuting users. At least Nixon was honest.

          And all the Pure Food and Drug Act – the precursor to the FDA – did was require the manufacturers of patent medicines to list the ingredients, not prohibit them. When folks discovered that most of those medicines contained narcotics, many quit using them. It was education, not prohibition, that caused that response. And it is arguably the only thing the Act got right – and during the presidency of a Republican.

          You can make all the pointy-head remarks you want, but that doesn’t change the facts. And the facts are that Tax and Regulate was never the intent of either law; prohibiting drugs and prosecuting the user was.

      • DdC says:

        Daniel
        August 9, 2017 at 10:13 pm

        Simple reply is as stated. The Harrison Act was designed and applied to some drugs and certain people and reprimanded others not following the rules. Many people followed the rules and used the substances. As totally opposed to no rules, no research, no use by anyone or prescribed by any doctor as the CSA does. Semantics as far as political parties, Nixon was a GOP Neocon as was Clinton a DNC Neocon and GOP Bush. Hearst and Anslinger were as fascist and racist as Wall St. So there is no prohibition with the Harrison Act, only regulations and tax.

        Where I agree with you is in the abuse of the Harrison Act on racist and fascist grounds. Uneven enforcement, bribes and kickback. Again totally opposed to the abuse of the CSA itself and the legal abuse that has followed.

        In the United States, the first drug law was passed in San Francisco in 1875,
        banning the smoking of opium in opium dens.

        ☛ The Opium Exclusion Act of 1909
        This week marks the centennial of a fateful landmark in U.S. history, the nation’s first drug prohibition law. On February 9, 1909, Congress passed the Opium Exclusion Act, barring the importation of opium for smoking as of April 1. Thus began a hundred-year crusade that has unleashed unprecedented crime, violence and corruption around the world —a war with no victory in sight.

        Long accustomed to federal drug control, most Americans are unaware that there was once a time when people were free to buy any drug, including opium, cocaine, and cannabis, at the pharmacy. In that bygone era, drug-related crime and violence were largely unknown, and drug use was not a major public concern.

        The Opium Exclusion Act applied only to the opium processed for smoking that was favored by Chinese immigrants —not the medicinal opium that white Americans commonly kept in their household medicine cabinets.

        The history of nonmedical drug use, and the development of policies in response to drug use, also extends back to the early settlement of the country. Like alcohol, the classification of certain drugs as legal, or illegal, has changed over time. These changes sometimes had racial and class overtones.

        According to Mosher and Yanagisako, for example, Prohibition was in part a response to the drinking practices of European immigrants, who became the new lower class. Cocaine and opium were legal during the 19th century, and were favored drugs among the middle and upper classes. Cocaine became illegal after it became associated with African Americans following Reconstruction.
        ☛
        A Short History of the Drug Laws

        ☛ The History of the Drug Laws

        Though the plotline varied from state to state and drug to drug, one theme emerges again and again. That theme ties the earliest antidrug laws to issues of race and power, but not in ways commonly alleged. It’s often said these laws grew out of hatred of groups the public linked with each drug—the Chinese with opium, African-Americans with cocaine, Mexicans with marijuana. Yet there’s hardly a hint of this simple racist plotline in the histories of the earliest state and local antidrug laws.

        America’s first law banning any non-alcoholic drug—San Francisco’s 1875 ordinance against opium dens. That law made it a misdemeanor to keep or visit any place where opium was smoked. The San Francisco Chronicle explained that the Board of Supervisors had acted after learning of “opium-smoking establishments kept by Chinese, for the exclusive use of white men and women“—and of “young men and women of respectable parentage” going there.

        The block-face reference to white men and women spotlights the supervisors’ concern: that their children and those of their friends and constituents could lie stoned in a fetid den. Indeed enforcement of early anti-dens laws fell mainly on dens catering to whites. In San Francisco and other Western towns, police often overlooked Chinese opium dens selling only to the Chinese. “All we can do,” said San Francisco Police Chief Phillip Crowley, is “keep them from opening places where whites might resort to smoke.”

        ☛ Which party made marijuana illegal republicans or democrats? comments

        Overall public sentiment over the drug was a wholly negative one thanks to the smear campaign efforts of newspaper magnate and millionaire tycoon William Randolph Hearst. (1863-1951) This was because of his racist attitude toward the Mexican population of the US at that time, who he reasoned were the largest consumers of the drug.

        Hearst was typographically and politically the non-Jewish, Jew hating, godfather of Fox News’ current owner, Roger Ailes,(1940-present) in his own time; and he is known to be the progenitor of what was known as “yellow journalism” or as it is known today, “sensationalist news”.

        “You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?

        “You’re enough of a pro,” Nixon tells Shafer, “to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we’re planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell.”
        – Richard Milhous Nixon

        “Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency.
        The Shafer Commission of 1970

        Mr. Hearst’s anti-marijuana smear campaign was so extreme, and so successful, over the time of his life overall, that it inspired both Democrats and Republican lawmakers in both the legislative and executive branches of national and state governments to ratify and sign provisions against the drug.

        Harry J. Anslinger, (1892-1975) as another rich and powerful marijuana prohibitionist, who was directly and strongly involved in creating U.S. government anti-drug policy. Taking the head office of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 till 1962, he is largely responsible for indoctrinating the majority of modern anti-marijuana laws prior to the “War on Drugs” era. Mr. Anslinger, as you may have guessed, was also close pal of William Randolph Hearst throughout Hearst’s lifetime, and shared his inaccurate and racist views concerning the primary users of the marijuana drug.

        White men outlawed the weed to repress the hipster / jazz culture, to increase resources needed too produce textiles and paper (money), and because it was a slap in the face too britian at a time that was in vouge.

        Was John Lennon a republican?

        While Nixon Campaigned,
        the F.B.I. Watched John Lennon
        http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/21/opinion/21thu4.html

        “I want a Goddamn strong statement on marijuana,
        I mean one that just tears the ass out of them.
        ~ Richard Milhous Nixon

        “Do you realize the responsibility I carry?
        I’m the only person standing between Richard Nixon
        and the White House.” ~ John F. Kennedy

        Seems ones against government regulations would have opposed the 1619 charter. America’s first marijuana law was enacted. It was mandated in the 1600-1700s to grow hemp. The majority of people smoking pot protesting Nixon were not republicans. Most Drumpf lapdogs oppose pot and proudly spew their ignorance in church and cable news. I don’t think that is progressive. Since the drug war profits only trickle down as large as a paycheck. The trillion in taxes spent busting poor people for pot went in someones pockets who aren’t likely to fire up a doobie anytime soon. Nixon was vermin who murdered thousands of Americans stalling the end of the for profit police action in Vietnam. Half a billion more with his drug war. Anyone who sides with him is a traitor to the country. Some put party over country.. Nixon is scum and I urge anyone passing by his gravesite to piss on it.

        ☛ From Whom Did the Fascists Get Support?
        Italian fascism and German Nazism had their admirers within the U.S. business community and the corporate-owned press. Bankers, publishers, and industrialists, including the likes of Henry Ford, traveled to Rome and Berlin to pay homage, receive medals, and strike profitable deals. Many did their utmost to advance the Nazi war effort, sharing military-industrial secrets and engaging in secret transactions with the Nazi government, even after the United States entered the war. During the 1920s and early 1930s, major publications like Fortune, the Wall Street Journal, Saturday Evening Post, New York Times, Chicago Tribune, and Christian Science Monitor hailed Mussolini as the man who rescued Italy from anarchy and radicalism. They spun rhapsodic fantasies of a resurrected Italy where poverty and exploitation had suddenly disappeared, where Reds had been vanquished, harmony reigned, and Blackshirts protected a “new democracy.”

        • Servetus says:

          Roger Ailes, who promoted Trump for president in 2016, was a modern embodiment of Albert Hugenberg (1865-1951), Germany’s leading media owner during the rise of the Third Reich. Hitler, like Trump, was a media creation:

          …[Hugenberg] was instrumental in helping Adolf Hitler become Chancellor of Germany and served in his first cabinet in 1933, hoping to control Hitler and use him as his “tool.”[1] Those plans backfired, and by the end of 1933 Hugenberg had been pushed to the sidelines. Although Hugenberg continued to serve as a “guest” member of the Reichstag until 1945, he wielded no political influence. Source: Wiki

          How did Herr Hugenberg do it?

          Yet the question remains, just how did Hitler assume office. Those 5 March elections had denied him the Reichstag majority essential to his assumption of power as chancellor, the chief political officer of Germany. Under normal parliamentary practice, he either would have to undergo still another election or find a political party willing to enter his proposed government, thereby giving him that essential majority. He found a willing partner in Albert Hugenberg’s German National People’s Party. This created what officially was a coalition that preserved the façade of legitimacy. In truth parliamentary government was dead. A Nazi dictatorship was already taking control of Germany. – Louis R. Eltcher, Traitors or Patriots? A Story of the German Anti-Nazi Resistance , pp. 19-20.

        • Mike says:

          Harry J. Anslinger, (1892-1975) as another rich and powerful marijuana prohibitionist, who was directly and strongly involved in creating U.S. government anti-drug policy. Taking the head office of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930 till 1962,

          Was a book written about how Anslinger was ousted.

          Was a book written about the newspaper clippings
          that Anslinger used to say cannabis use caused one
          to be violent and insane. And were these clippings used by lawmakers to outlaw cannabis

          if so why aren’t
          prosecutors being asked to prove what Anslinger said
          is true –where are the violent and insane acts taking
          place using cannabis.

          We are told it is settled law.
          How can that be in a world that has been to flat earth
          and the center of the solar system and back.
          If its a lie who will defend it.(or should)

        • DdC says:

          Mike
          newspaper clippings that Anslinger used to say cannabis use caused one to be violent and insane.

          They’re called the Gore Files

          The Anslinger Gore Files
          As part of his effort to propagandize the so-called evils of cannabis, Narcotics Bureau chief Harry Anslinger collected crime stories that he could tie to cannabis use in his “Gore Files.” The Bureau collected case after grisly case of rape, murder, suicide and molestation that Anslinger & Co. tried to pin on cannabis.

          WHAT WAS ANSLINGER’S GORE FILE
          It has now been well documented that starting in 1932 the Federal Government took part in (as well as helped orchestrate) a mass hysteria campaign against the Medical Marihuana plant. Calling it “The Assassin of Youth,” and claiming that its use was turning normally sane young men into hideous criminal beasts, sex fiends; the worst kind of cold blooded murderers etc.

          The Assassins of Youth: DARE † FRCn PDFA
          http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/505

          The Onion takes on U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s
          proposal to revive the DARE program.

          Attorney General Jeff Sessions reportedly wants to revive the 1983 Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, although many studies have questioned its effectiveness. What do you think?

        • Mike says:

          thank you

          wish Sen. Booker could use them to show how people
          were and still are being treated unfairly.

          http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/08/07/new-jersey-marijuana-legalization-2/85482/

  21. Servetus says:

    A new study indicates New Hampshire should have voted for crime boss Donald Trump in 2016 to avoid being called a “drug-infested den”.

    Most “drug-infested” states that voted for Trump avoided being labeled as such. Trump fails to mention the opioid and heroin statistics for Utah, for instance, as well as a few other states that compare equally if not worse in their drug mortality rates with New Hampshire.

    The study confirms that opioid and heroin related mortalities in many states have not been accurately reported. This was due in part to relying upon death certificates that fail to mention the type of drug involved in a death, which happens about a quarter of the time with death certificates. To counter the problem, newly developed data has been assembled on a state-by-state basis to correct for unreliable record keeping procedures:

    On a national basis, these corrected mortality rates were 24% higher for opioids and 22% higher for heroin. For opioids, uncorrected mortality growth rates were considerably underreported in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey, and Arizona, but dramatically overestimated in South Carolina, New Mexico, Ohio, Connecticut, Florida, and Kentucky. Increases in heroin death rates were understated in most states, and by a significant margin in Pennsylvania, Indiana, New Jersey, Louisiana, and Alabama.

    According to author Christopher J. Ruhm, PhD, Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, “A crucial step to developing policy to combat the fatal drug epidemic is to have a clear understanding of geographic differences in heroin- and opioid-related mortality rates. The information obtained directly from death certificates understates these rates because the drugs involved in the deaths are often not specified.”

    This study develops correction methods to provide more accurate information. The corrected estimates often differ considerably from reported rates. To provide an example, in 2014, the opioid and heroin death rates based on death certificate reports in Pennsylvania were 8.5 and 3.9 per 100,000, respectively, but a drug category was specified in only half of fatal overdose cases in that year. Correcting for this understatement yields estimated actual opioid and heroin overdose deaths of 17.8 and 8.1 per 100,000.[…]

    Understanding the inaccuracies resulting from the lack of specificity of drug involvement on death certificates is particularly important because federal policies often target states believed to have especially severe opioid or heroin problems. “More fundamentally, geographic disparities in drug poisoning deaths are substantial and a correct assessment of them is almost certainly a prerequisite for designing policies to address the fatal drug epidemic,” concludes Dr. Ruhm.

    AAAS Public Release: New study generates more accurate estimates of state opioid and heroin fatalities: Developing a statistical model to fill in the blanks on death certificates presented in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

    Chart: Map showing corrected distribution of drug mortalities in the United States

    • DC Reade says:

      It’s only recently that legally manufactured prescription opioids have been specifically highlighted in reports on “drug overdoses.” Twenty years ago, most reports lumped them in with every other prescription substance drug death, and they were excluded from media reports on drug OD deaths. Because Legal.

      I think the SAMSHA survey reports are still amalgamating all “non-medical use of DEA scheduled prescription medications” responses together in their statistics. So there’s no way of knowing which particular prescription substances are being used, with what frequency- opioids, amphetamines, Ritalin, benzodiazepines, etc. are all put into the same category. Until quite recently, that was considered a peripheral phenomenon as compared to the use of substances sourced through the illegal marketplace.

  22. Betty says:

    All you duplicous druggies are not rite in the head – smoking dope all day is not a patriotik duty. Why are you so anti-life? Why cant you bare the thoughts of people enjoying themselves without poisen? You are putting our childrens inteligens and health at risk.

    • primus says:

      BETTY: No such word as duplicous. I suspect you meant duplicitous, meaning liar. It is right, not rite, patriotic not patriotik, can’t not cant, bear not bare, poison not poisen, intelligence not inteligens. Now, what was that you were saying about harming our children? Perhaps you should rethink your attack, seeing as how it makes you look stupid and undereducated.

    • NorCalNative says:

      Betty, how old were you when you decided dictionaries pissed you off?

    • DdC says:

      Bitty,
      All you delicious druggies.

      No one said Eat Me.

      smoking dope all day is not a patriotik duty.

      I prefer after 4:20 and before 4:20.

      It is more patriotic than jerking off an Iranian crude oil Chinese plastic flag ya got on sale at MalWart’s. Working American citizens 39 hours a week so their family health needs are paid by our taxes. You can sleep “tite” knowing the Walton’s really appreciate your generousity. Like Trump when he starts tinkling down Rayguns Voodoo Exxonomics. Flags made by kids in sweatshops taking American jobs instead of American Family Farmers growing Hemp Flags like the forefathers.

      Why are you so anti-life?

      Pro Life My Ass
      Not even anti abortionists…

      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1530
      Just shutting down clinics where most on medicaid go when local big pharma clinics and practices refuse to take it. Will cost life. The poisons sprayed on the bible belt cotton crop runs off into water babies bath in. Mothers drink when they are pregnant, what life are you pro for? Your A-motivational Syndrome symptoms are there for anyone to see. You can’t take the effort to use a spell checker? Not that any of it makes sense. Buckle up Bitty.

      Work place abortions from gutting safety and disposal standards buzzword “regulations”. Abortions in the fields from the Big Ag poisons. Not used on Hemp most shitkickers oppose because the preacher is a dumbed down ass listening to the same big gubmint y’all been whining about since Nexxon. breath

      Clothing chemicals seep through your skin and attack the fetus. Where are the fake video’s edited with graphic horror? The censorship committee surely opposes as much as full frontal nudity. Then the should be obvious.

      Dropping drone bombs on villages is probably not good for the fetes. Or the new and improved Monsanto agent orange roundup 5x over sprayed onto Colombian kids. To avoid getting shot down it is sprayed from high up. DoH! Sorry farmers. The kids poisoned is a message to kids to just say no.

      Lots of Big Pharma abortions never good enough to hurl draconian legislation at. No abortions or death from overdose using Ganja. Mothers have been using bud for pregnancy longer than the churches have opposed it.

      Frankenfud in the gut of a pregnant woman when it has never been long term tested on humans, let alone fetes’. Hemp food is EFA’s and Protein. Without a cardboard fud package list of chemicals you certainly can’t pronounce. But you don’t care if it rains or freezes long as you gots your plastic Jesus glued to the dashboard of your car.

    • DC Reade says:

      I know prank trolling when I see it.

  23. DC Reade says:

    okay, DW denizens- want to see something really ominous and menacing?

    The story headline is “Pot Users Less Likely to Take Painkillers”- in the study discussed in the article, this is reported as a finding of drug misuse.

    “…Researchers found that 36.5% of the samples that tested positive for marijuana did not have the prescribed hydrocodone present. For patients who had no illicit drug detected, 29.7% had a negative test for hydrocodone use.

    The difference appears small, but is significant to physicians. Not taking a prescribed drug is considered non-adherence or “misuse” by doctors.

    “A clinician considering whether to test for marijuana should know that the data strongly suggests that marijuana use is associated with an increased risk of potential prescription drug non-adherence,” said Harry Leider, MD, Chief Medical Officer for Ameritox. “Evidence of marijuana use on a urine drug test can be as much of a red flag as a positive cocaine test that a patient’s use of prescription narcotics requires close monitoring.”

    The research was presented at the American Academy of Pain Medicine’s annual meeting in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It was not peer-reviewed. Ameritox, which has a vested interest in promoting drug tests, conducted the study.

    “The results presented here suggest that for some, marijuana use is associated with misuse of prescription medications. Pain patients prescribed hydrocodone and using marijuana were missing their opioid and/or were found to be taking some other non-prescribed medicine significantly more often that those patients who were not using an illicit,” the study says.

    “A high risk patient warrants more frequent follow-up, including the use of clinical tools such as prescription drug monitoring programs and more frequent urine drug testing.”

    The Ameritox study is consistent with other research showing that about one in three urine samples contain no evidence of a prescribed pain medication – indicating that patients are reluctant to use painkillers, may not need the drugs, or that the drugs are being diverted and used by other people.”

    http://nationalpainreport.com/pot-users-less-likely-to-take-painkiller-8819408.html

    Or they might simply prefer to self-titrate, and lessen or break their dependence on the prescribed medication by substituting one that doesn’t produce anything close to the level of dependency or addiction. But such Individual Agency is Forbidden.

    Note: there’s an increasing trend- often recommended by state medical boards- to require everyone using a Schedule II substance to submit to random drug tests. And tests that show the absence of the substance being prescribed for daily use are seen to be as indicative of “misuse” as positive tests for forbidden substances. In other words, the presumption is that your bodily fluids are subject to complete control by your prescribing physician.

    Who know what happens if an opioid or ADD med patient registers an absence of the prescribed Schedule II substance, while testing positive for cannabinoids. Presumably, they get tossed into the gears of the Rehab Industry, with a permanent notation on their medical record…

    • WalStMonky says:

      .
      .

      I really do wish that people would get their noses out of my urine…it’s nauseating.

      • DC Reade says:

        If Ameritox and the rest of the industry manages to succeed with persuading the medical insurance industry to require random testing for anyone prescribed a Schedule II substance, it will provide a much bigger captive population for random testing than the transportation industry. Maybe 20 million people.

        Amazing that someone prescribed an addictive or habit-forming substance could lose their prescription for trying to avoid developing an addiction or dependency by not using it daily, and showing up negative on a test.

        I think the libertarian critique has validity on this issue- faced with the evidence of their own negligence and incompetence at stopping diversion of large quantities of controlled substances by industry producers, physicians, and pharmacies, the narcs are responding with a reaction that targets the powerless individual user population with continuous suspicion and surveillance. Along with providing strict guidelines on prescription for chronic pain sufferers- the population that needs it the most.

        • I hear that. Forcing prescription schedules to be followed strictly by p-tests raises the risks of the patient becoming physically addicted. I have found that I am able to go much longer between doses for pain if I am using cannabis (for bone cancer , prostate cancer). I have not had to raise the level of the pain medicine due to physical tolerance to opioid medication with concomitant use of cannabinoids.

          New DEA thinking being imposed upon doctors has the patient scrutinized for stockpiling under the DEA assumption it is for selling the pills. The DEA ensures you will be addicted.

  24. Servetus says:

    Chris Letherby and Philip Garranz at the Department of Philosophy, University of Adelaide, Australia, published an article in the Neuroscience of Consciousness on June 30, 2017, summarizing what is known about the use of psychedelics in treating mental illness. An expanded bibliography is included. Their press release provides a simple description of how psychedelics work in mental health treatments:

    8-AUG-2017…users of psychedelic drugs often report that their sense of being a self or ‘I’ — distinct from the rest of the world – has diminished or completely “dissolved”.

    “This ‘ego dissolution’ results in a moment of expanded awareness, a feeling in which the mind is put more directly and intensely in touch with the world,” Professor Gerrans says.

    “Through this experience it may be possible to re-engineer the mechanisms of self, which in turn could change people’s outlook or world view. The profound sense of connection produced by this experience has the potential to be beneficial for people suffering from anxiety, depression, and some forms of addiction,” he says.

    Dr Letheby says one of the reasons why psychiatric disorders are so hard to shake is that it’s almost impossible for sufferers to view things differently.

    “People who go through psychedelic experiences no longer take it for granted that the way they’ve been viewing things is the only way,” Dr Letheby says.

    “Psychedelics can assist in enlightening people about the processes behind their subjectivity. Ego dissolution offers vivid experiential proof not only that can things be different, but that there is an opportunity to seek change.” […]

    AAAS Public Release: ‘Ego-dissolving’ psychedelic drugs could assist with mental health

    • DC Reade says:

      Bob Dylan, early 1966: “LSD is medicine – a different kind of medicine. It makes you aware of the universe, so to speak, you realize how foolish objects are. But LSD is not for groovy people; it’s for mad hateful people who want revenge. It’s for people who usually have heart attacks. They ought to use it at the Geneva Convention.”

      hmm, this week’s headlines…

  25. Public support for medical and recreational marijuana legalization hits all-time high https://tinyurl.com/y9ltqhwp

    “A new Quinnipiac poll released August 3 reported that medical marijuana in particular has broad support: 94 percent of Americans support “allowing adults to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if their doctor prescribes it,” up from 93 percent 5 months ago, and up 5 points in the last year.”

    “Non-medicinal marijuana is growing in support as well, with 61 percent agreeing that “the use of marijuana should be made legal in the United States,” up from 59 percent in February 2017, and up 10 points since December 2012.”

    State Legislatures Want to End Federal Marijuana Prohibition https://t.co/xXY2FmPxSe

    I say its time for Congress to end the war on cannabis. Before Trumpty and Dumpty start screwballing it into a new reefer madness war.

  26. 2017. The year we ended Federal Cannabis prohibition.

    Sounds good, doesn’t it?

  27. “We Have To Win For Our Youth” – Donald Trump

    Trump vows U.S. will “win” fight against opioid crisis
    https://t.co/8QL7kx3Nze
    . . .

    “The state must declare the child to be the most precious treasure of the people. As long as the government is perceived as working for the benefit of the children, the people will happily endure almost any curtailment of liberty and almost any deprivation. ”

    -Mein Kampf, Adolf Hitler, Publ. Houghton Miflin, 1943, Page 403

    Here we go again. More prison, death, and destruction to save the children. More asset forfeiture. More Private prisons. More curtailment of liberties. More. More. More.
    Congress can stop this destructive drug war right now. It needs to act.

    Now. Harm reduction is the answer, not more drug war.

  28. Donald praised Duterte’s murderous drug war. He cannot end up being the arbiter of drug abuse solutions for this country. He truely does not know what to do but take the path he has chosen. War. Win!

    War is judged by its casualties. In this case it happens to be its own citizens. He’s gonna rack up that list. Just like Nam. Just like Nixon.

    • Just like Donald Trump.

    • Trump vowed to work with law enforcement against “drug dealers that poison our communities”

      Trump says he’ll beat opioid epidemic with law-and-order approach https://t.co/lCSe3JpF81

      That immediately makes targets out of every junkie in America and puts a target on their head.

      • WalStMonky says:

        Q) Tell me Mr. Prohibitionist, how many of you and your pals does it take to screw in a light bulb?

        A) None. If the light bulb refuses to comply with the law and light up when required, we’ll send in a jack booted thug with a nightstick to adjust its attitude. That’ll fix it.

  29. Fentanyl, heroin, and other opiates are not what is responsible for killing these people – its the damn drug war. The DEA and the CSA is responsible for this crisis of death 100%.

    The drug war itself is the crisis. Not using a health approach to dealing with this and instead using the justice dept. is what is causing every one of these overdose deaths.

  30. Using the Justice department to deal with drug problems is nothing more than domestic warfare and government sponsored terrorism.

  31. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    I’ve been acquainted with a not insignificant number of people who would add other substances to their cannabis. Of course every single one of them knew exactly what was in their smoke.

    From the “when life hands you lemons make lemonade” category:

    Police: Man overdoses after smoking marijuana likely laced with fentanyl

    /snip/
    In a statement Tuesday, the group behind the successful effort to legalize marijuana in Massachusetts pointed to the Yarmouth incident as a reason towns should not ban legal and regulated marijuana retail shops.

    “This is a frightening example of what can happen when consumers are forced to buy street marijuana from illicit sources. It’s impossible to know who grew it or what’s in it,” Jim Borghesani, spokesman for the Yes on 4 campaign, said.

    “Voters and town officials should be aware that bans will do nothing to keep marijuana out of their towns. All the bans will do is keep criminals in charge of sales and drive consumers into markets where they might be exposed to dangerous, even deadly, product.”

    • We are like trained monkeys between the press and the prohibitionist/news setup that goes with it. The newspaper gets the web hits and the prohibitionists get some mileage.

      You are right I am sure about the rest. It fits my past experiences and observations.

    • The government smiles, the newspaper makes brownie points and the cops love it.

  32. You know I don’t have all the answers, nor do I claim to. I do have some things to say. Drug War Ranting. After reading about Trumps response to his commissions findings I feel like a kettle with steam rushing out the lid.

    When you purposely put people into a position of taking a drug of unknown purity and strength to get it at all, you enter death into the picture by design. You cannot ever expect a drug free world. Its unrealistic and self defeating as an idea.

    Prohibition is brutish. It is a killer and punisher of men. It attempts to cure the urge to use drugs by imprisonment – and unsafe drugs to purposely end the life of those who use them. Purposeful. It is foolish and hasty thinking if there is any thinking at all beyond the level of brute force and control. Prohibition only kills and drains the public coffers.

    There is help available and there are plenty of people who chose to help others, so what is the disconnect?

    The answer I come up with is money and power. The power to rule over a disgusting THEM by a pure and righteous US. It is a political con game. Its easy money, power and control with little afterthought of help. It feeds itself like a hungry monster with endless appetite for more.

    Help and betterment, and the well being of the public is usurped by injustice and loss of freedom and rights. It rebounds against us all.

    Keep the prisons, just stop trying to put everyone in them. For everyone’s sake, help drug users instead of killing them.

    Not trying to preach to the choir. I am just desperate to rant after reading all this news and realizing that we just went back in time to at least the ’80’s or ’70’s.

    Trump.

    One likes to think they are making progress. I feel like we are addressing an administration that is manned by lunatics. I hope there is enough sense left in congress to stop our travel down this already worn path of prohibition destruction.

    We are on an endless merry-go-round of death.

  33. I think the doctors would do a pretty good job IF you got rid of the current CSA and replaced it with something that actually makes sense. End the DEA permanently. They didn’t stop diversion. They blamed it all instead upon the doctors, the very people trying to provide some semblance of help. The DEA is negligent at the very least and criminal at best if you hold them actually accountable for what they are supposed to have been doing, which is protecting the public from drugs. They are a miserable failure, and so is the CSA.

    Blame the CSA and the DEA for the current opioid crisis and every death resulting from their actions and inactions. It’s time to place the blame for all the opioid deaths where they belong. The CSA and the DEA. Prohibition and death by design. The DEA caused the current fentanyl and heroin problem. They need to go.

  34. The Big Cheese says:

    More prohibitionist Fake News in the age of Trump:

    “Marijuana Use Holds Three-Fold Blood Pressure Death Risk”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marijuana-use-holds-three-fold-blood-pressure-death-risk_us_598b4b2be4b0d793738c2917

    “Authored by Reuters’ reporter Kate Kelland, who has a history of cozy relations with a group partly funded by agrichemical company interests” (so no surprises there).
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monsanto-spin-doctors-target-cancer-scientist-in-flawed_us_594449eae4b0940f84fe2e57

    The original survey was made in the U.K. where cannabis is nearly always smoked with tobacco, but despite this the U.S. researchers claim to have ” adjusted for confounding factors such as tobacco smoking and variables including sex, age and ethnicity.”
    Kellend’s article sets the prejudicial tone with ‘“It is important to establish whether any health benefits outweigh the potential health, social and ECONOMIC risks (emphasis mine). If marijuana use is implicated in cardiovascular diseases and deaths, then it rests on the health community and policy makers to protect the public.”’
    Well done Kate… you’re serving your paymasters well.

    • “The results showed marijuana users had a 3.42-times higher risk of death from hypertension than non-users, and a 1.04 greater risk for each year of use.”

      “There was no link between marijuana use and dying from heart or cerebrovascular diseases such as strokes.”
      https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-marijuana-hypertension-idUSKBN1AP0JS

      There has been no problems of pot deaths from hypertension. This is a case of an attempted solution looking for a problem. Sounds like another candidate for the reefer madness hall of fame 2017.

    • DC Reade says:

      “The original survey was made in the U.K. where cannabis is nearly always smoked with tobacco”

      can you say “confounding factor” upsetting the study results?

      I thought that you could.

      DC “115/70” Reade

    • DdC says:

      A new study claims marijuana is tied to a threefold risk of dying from high blood pressure – but there’s a catch

      The study has some limitations,
      including that it defines users as anyone who’s ever tried the drug.

      Cannabinoids Protect the Brain and Heart. Get Over It!
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/2083
      23 February 2017
      Study: Cannabis Use History Not Associated With Increased Risk Of Cardiovascular Disease. Those who consume cannabis long-term suffer no greater likelihood of cardiovascular disease by middle age than do those with no history of use, according to longitudinal data published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Public Health

      In past years Lester Grinspoon has commented on Cannabis and BP spikes. Depending on potency it may raise BP a few points initially. Then back to normal. So if you are about to have a heart attack, probably shouldn’t toke a doobie. Or walk up a flight of stairs which would raise it about the same amount.

      What hasn’t been mentioned is the theory that the ECS regulates the other body systems. Same as cannabis treating obesity and wasting syndrome regulating the appetite back to where it once belonged jo jo. It is also logical that low BP brought back to normal could be claimed as a rising BP.

      • Servetus says:

        People with weak hearts can suffer harm due to just about anything. Of the three most common health hazards or accidents that occur in a bathroom, sitting on a toilet and straining too much to take a crap can induce a heart attack.

        The other two bathroom problems involve broken bones that occur when slipping and falling in a shower or bathtub, and people who break their toes because they enter the bathroom in bare feet and don’t turn on a light.

  35. Servetus says:

    Neuromyths. A study indicates it’s not just about reefer madness — the belief marijuana is a neurotoxin that damages the brains of underage smokers. Neuromyths are common even among professionals who should know better:

    10-AUG-2017 — Researchers have surveyed educators, the public and people who have completed neuroscience courses, to assess their belief in neuromyths. Neuromyths are common misconceptions about brain research, many of which relate to learning and education. They found that belief in neuromyths is extremely common and that training in education and neuroscience helped to reduce these beliefs, but did not eliminate them.[…]

    What myths did respondents most commonly believe? The most commonly endorsed myth was “individuals learn better when they receive information in their preferred learning style”. Other common myths were related to the Mozart effect, dyslexia, using 10% of the brain, how sugar affects attention, and the role of the left and right hemispheres in learning. “We were surprised to see that these ‘classic’ neuromyths tend to cluster together, meaning that if you believe one myth, you are more likely to believe others,” explained McGrath.

    So, how can we dispel these neuromyths and encourage evidence-based educational practices? “The next steps are to develop training and dissemination approaches,” explains McGrath. “We are considering an online training module for educators to dispel the most prevalent neuromyths. The fact that people tend to believe several myths means that training modules can’t just teach about a single myth, they need to address several simultaneously.”

    AAAS Public Release: Belief in neuromyths is extremely common: A survey has shown that many educators, and even those with neuroscience training, believe in neuromyths — common misconceptions about the brain and learning

  36. The Big Cheese says:

    “When I was growing up they had the LSD, and they had certain generations of drugs,” Trump said. “There’s never been anything like what’s happened to this country over the last four or five years.”

    Here’s what Trump is going to do about it:
    “…the administration has instead favored policies that limit access to health care, harshly penalize drug users and cut funds for agencies tasked with addressing the crisis.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/10/opioid-use-in-us-state-of-emergency-donald-trump

  37. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    The real life inspiration for Sgt. Stedenko has passed away. Now who the heck knew that the character was based on a real person?
    Tommy Chong remembers Vancouver drug squad officer Abe Snidanko, the ‘narc of the narcs’

  38. Servetus says:

    Certain animal species utilize alcohol as a survival tool. Humans not so much. Certainly not when compared to the common goldfish that can manufacture alcohol within its own body:

    11-AUG-2017 — Scientists at the Universities of Oslo and Liverpool have uncovered the secret behind a goldfish’s remarkable ability to produce alcohol as a way of surviving harsh winters beneath frozen lakes.

    Humans and most other vertebrate animals die within a few minutes without oxygen. Yet goldfish and their wild relatives, crucian carp, can survive for days, even months, in oxygen-free water at the bottom of ice-covered ponds.

    During this time, the fish are able to convert anaerobically produced lactic acid into ethanol, which then diffuses across their gills into the surrounding water and avoids a dangerous build-up of lactic acid in the body.[…]

    Dr Michael Berenbrink, an evolutionary physiologist at the University of Liverpool, said: “During their time in oxygen-free water in ice-covered ponds, which can last for several months in their northern European habitat, blood alcohol concentrations in crucian carp can reach more than 50 mg per 100 millilitres, which is above the drink drive limit in these countries.

    “However, this is still a much better situation than filling up with lactic acid, which is the metabolic end product for other vertebrates, including humans, when devoid of oxygen.”[…]

    “The ethanol production allows the crucian carp to be the only fish species surviving and exploiting these harsh environments, thereby avoiding competition and escaping predation by other fish species with which they normally interact in better oxygenated waters.

    “It’s no wonder then that the crucian carp’s cousin the goldfish is arguably one of the most resilient pets under human care.”

    AAAS Public Release: Scientists reveal how goldfish make alcohol to survive without oxygen

  39. The Big Cheese says:

    “Fear spreads far too easily when it comes to cannabis.”

    Here’s Alternet’s take on the previously mentioned (and utterly flawed) “cannabis causes high blood pressure” report and the media’s response to it (Daily Mail et al.)
    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/it-took-just-one-distorted-study-media-freak-out-over-health-risks-and-marijuana

  40. DdC says:

    ☛ Ezekiel Elliott Suspended 6 Games
    After Domestic Violence

    ☛ Williams suspended one year for pot test

    ☛ This 6-inch diameter canister held 254.89 grams of federal medical marijuana for an IND patient, a typical monthly supply mailed from the federal cannabis research garden in Mississippi.

    ☛ Note. California Compassionate Use Act not the MMJ Act
    Anyone For Any Reason

    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1578

    Government Pot
    254.89 grams/month = 8.99 ounces/month =
    3 month – 17day supply having 2 pounds.

    Large amount? Why was…

    ☛ Zach Randolph Arrested for Weed In L.A. That’s in California btw.
    2 Pounds Of Pot (UPDATE)
    We’re told the “intent to sell” part was due to the large amount of weed found.

    We’re told 6 cop cars were vandalized —
    tires slashed and windows busted —
    and cops formed a battle line to restore order.

    In the end, cops recovered 2 guns, drugs, a significant amount of cash and 2 vehicles were impounded — though it’s unclear if any of those things belonged to Randolph.

  41. DdC says:

    ☛ The Happy Hour Sports Talk
    Thur 8.10.17 legal analyst Steve Moskowitz joins the set to discuss a fascinating story about a soccer star allegedly aiding a drug cartel.

    (paraphrasing) Moskowitz: Local cops seizing cash is frequent and what the public generally doesn’t know. Is they have 30 days to file with the court to get it back. He said, many businesses are at risk, no trial, no warrant, no innocent until proven guilty. Just a guy with a gun deciding it was ill gotten gains.

    ☛ Egregious and Well-Chronicled Abuses of Civil Asset Forfeiture
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1160
    ☛ Forfeiture $quads
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/381

    ☛ A Primer on Dirty Money
    For an explanation of how drug asset seizures work, read our FAQ.
    Camden County has an aggressive highway interdiction program that has earned the sheriff’s department more than $20 million over the past decade and a half. Sheriff Bill Smith — once considered one of the most successful sheriffs in the nation at confiscating drug money off the highways — is now the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into whether he misused the forfeiture funds.

  42. The Big Cheese says:

    “America’s opioid crisis was caused by rapacious pharma companies, politicians who colluded with them and regulators who approved one opioid pill after another”

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/aug/13/dont-blame-addicts-for-americas-opioid-crisis-real-culprits

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