How to Win a War on Drugs

That’s the title of Nicholas Kristof’s investigative article in the New York Times (it’s this Sunday’s Times, but they’ve put it online early)

Decades ago, the United States and Portugal both struggled with illicit drugs and took decisive action — in diametrically opposite directions. The U.S. cracked down vigorously, spending billions of dollars incarcerating drug users. In contrast, Portugal undertook a monumental experiment: It decriminalized the use of all drugs in 2001, even heroin and cocaine, and unleashed a major public health campaign to tackle addiction. Ever since in Portugal, drug addiction has been treated more as a medical challenge than as a criminal justice issue.

After more than 15 years, it’s clear which approach worked better. The United States drug policy failed spectacularly, with about as many Americans dying last year of overdoses — around 64,000 — as were killed in the Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq Wars combined.

In contrast, Portugal may be winning the war on drugs — by ending it. Today, the Health Ministry estimates that only about 25,000 Portuguese use heroin, down from 100,000 when the policy began.

The number of Portuguese dying from overdoses plunged more than 85 percent before rising a bit in the aftermath of the European economic crisis of recent years. Even so, Portugal’s drug mortality rate is the lowest in Western Europe — one-tenth the rate of Britain or Denmark — and about one-fiftieth the latest number for the U.S.

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113 Responses to How to Win a War on Drugs

  1. primus says:

    Some of the commenters at the end of the article were clueless. They seem to think that ‘harm reduction’ is a new idea, that it is only now that we are discussing decriminalisation and legalisation, whereas those have been topics of discussion among the anti-prohibitionists for decades. I guess these morons only now opened their eyes.

    • Pete says:

      Yeah, that’s the way it goes. As these concepts gain mainstream traction, lots of people will be “discovering” bold “new” approaches that we’ve been screaming about for decades.

    • kaptinemo says:

      Think of it as an expression of the spectrum of intelligence being exhibited. The feasibility of prohibition has always been called into question by the more knowledgeable members of any given population. Unfortunately, such are always a minority in their societies. A minority that all too often has been derided and their motives impugned by those whose own motives are suspiciously mercenary in outlook and practice…who, unfortunately are seen by the majority as being ‘experts and thus receive the lion’s share of the media’s focus.

      As Tom Paine so eloquently put it: “To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an atheist by scripture.” Far too many in this society have ‘renounced the use and authority of use of reason’ when it comes to the subject of illicit drugs, preferring to have their ignorance praised and their prejudices stroked by the latter mentioned group.

      But that is slowly changing by sheer attrition: those in the electorate who swallowed the Gub’mint lies about cannabis hook, like and sinker are literally dying out and can’t vote (or as someone put it, prohibition’s voting supporters are ‘lame, loony, dying or dead’), to be replaced by those who know they were lied to and who the mendicants were. This in turn reflects a greater knowledge base on the part of this growing electorate, which spells the doom of prohibition.

      So, yeah, it’s been lonely and not a little dangerous to be on point on this issue, but now the opposition, despite the current Administration’s picks for top LE positions, are in retreat. Their current retrenchment is nothing more than a furious defense of the last ditch; behind them is a precipice.

  2. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Francis’ Law is still kicking ass and taking names. The State of Washington just released “I-502 Evaluation and Benefit Cost Analysis” and it says the sycophants of prohibition are still wrong, wrong, wrong.”

    http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1670/Wsipp_I-502-Evaluation-and-Benefit-Cost-Analysis-Second-Required-Report_Report.pdf

  3. DdC says:

    Pro-Pot Doc Fighting Big Pharma Stabbed to Death at Home
    http://hightimes.com/news/world/pro-pot-doctor-fighting-big-pharma-stabbed-death/
    By Tim Kohut September 22, 2017
    Many Mourn the Death of Pro-Pot Doctor Sonya-Kay Forbes

    Unfortunately, the world lost another voice in the cannabis revolution. While it’s unclear if Forbes was murdered due to her potentially controversial views on medical marijuana, it’s obvious her work won’t go unnoticed. As cannabis continues to become legal on a much larger scale, expect Forbes and her life’s work to serve as a template for the medical community for years to come.

  4. Servetus says:

    The only way to win a war on drugs is to not start one.

  5. Thomashof says:

    [spam comment removed]

  6. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Was ‘positivity’ a word before today? OK, I guess it was. Quest is using the definition less frequently used according to my online dictionaries.

    Overall positivity rate in 2016

    United States: 4.2%

    Washington: 4.1%
    Colorado: 4.1%
    California: 3.2%
    Alaska: 3.4%
    Maine: 4.1%
    District of Columbia: 3.2%
    Nevada: 3.2%

    Kansas: 4.8%
    Tennessee: 4.7%
    Alabama: 5.8%
    South Carolina: 4.8%
    Texas: 4.7%
    Louisiana: 5.2%
    Arkansas 5.4%

  7. DdC says:

    Will reality sink into Napoleon Jeffie or will he continue to take rights from citizens over bogus pisstasters results? It measures metabolites that have no causal connection to impairment, have been used to weed out politically incorrect workers, those of color and those with a different sexual orientation. Another un-American activity by the very people upset over disrespecting the flag.

    ☛ Court Rules Field Sobriety Tests Unreliable for Marijuana Detection

    Legal states are building schools and repairing infrastructure with tax revenue. Hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of profits recirculated in the community verses spending billions on lame ass slogans

    ☛ Growing North American Cannabis and Hemp Operations
    Fueling Billion Dollar Industry Revenue Growth

    In thousands of years of cannabis use there has not been one death from overdose. There have been pages of lists of people killed by the prohibition of cannabis. Many of them too sick to fight back. A war promoted and fought by cowards and cheats.

    ☛ Cannabis Activist and HIGH TIMES Freedom Fighter Gideon Israel Dies

    Trump’s like a grease fire pouring water on himself…

    ☛ Athletics’ Bruce Maxwell first MLB player to kneel during national anthem

    ☛ NFL owners speak out in support of players, against Trump

    The DEA and Beauregard continue to lie to the citizens and make false accusations about cannabis as if the rest of the world doesn’t exist. Israels Medicinal Cannabis research program is over 20 years old. When the DEA or AG looses control of the conversation, they are exposed as charlatan’s using fake science. Yet most of the people hide behind the claim of its none of their business. A land of sheep following wolves never make it to greener pastures. But they are more afraid of the black sheep, so they follow in silence. Pitiful.

    ☛ Kosher Weed Arrives Just in Time for Rosh Hashanah

    ☛ Israel Officially Recognizes MMJ as Agricultural Branch

    Trump’s for sure an idiot in a position of power. But I think its more than coincidence he’s poking sticks at two of the 3 axis of evil Bush Cheney started. His Alabama pep rally rant is working backwards. I’ve never seen so many players kneel down during the anthem. Or discussion, with most agreeing with the players. His cronies can’t finish a sentence without eyebrows raised. Same with trashing Steph Curry who it would be hard to find someone as easy going. What pisses me off the most is these wimp drumpf groupies live in a place that protects citizens free speech that seems to offend these fake Americans into silence.

    Trump’s an ignorant bully with a childish dysfunctional motive to be a star. Its sad that Americans who go to these pep rallies are so out of the loop of normalcy its obvious. No spines left. They laugh at his jokes and even his conceited bloated head spewing how wonderful he is and how Alabama loves him. He started to sound appreciative of the crowd who came out to hear him. He said he owns a very large apartment in New York City and he comes to Huntsville and feels… At this point I thought he would sound grateful for their support. Instead he sounded as if they should be grateful he came to Alabama.

    He actually said it was the crowd who loves him so much he had to come. He thinks they see him as a savior of their dysfunctional wingnuttiness. These are the poorest demographics in the US. They vote for right to work for less laws and condemn a Co-opting of factories so every worker gets a living wage. As I said, he is a plastic fake bully putting more value in the flag than the citizen who’s rights it symbolizes.

    The drug war is not about drugs. Or pot. Its about sucking up tax dollars to fill pockets. A trillion and a half spent trying to eradicate cannabis while pharma drugs are out of control killing people. Ganja is replacing addiction of opiods and the people we pay to deal with it, lie. Sessions is a fool and thinks its pre-internet days where the TV repeats memo’s the DEA writes and the people stay dumbed down and afraid.

    There have always been drugs and pot has always been the easiest to get. But now legal states are cutting off blackmarket supplies or rather diverting money from cartels to communities. Now in legal states kids have less avenues to get pot and synthetic garbage that doesn’t show up in piss tests are increasing. Instead of dealing with this. Sessions and the media try to lump it together as synthetic marijuana. Bath salts have NO relationship with Cannabis. He could be moving resources to fight the actual problem and find and destroy the labs. Except he is so reefer-phobic he spends time and money terrorizing sick people, around their own doctors finding something that helps them.

    That is worth burning flags over. Not plastic flags, they melt and pollute. Cotton has a couple pounds of chemicals in each flag or tee shirt. So don’t burn cotton flags. Hemp flags are the only flags worth burning except its still illegal to grow them and if you’re going to burn hemp, it might as well be in a doobie.

    So kneeling down is the least problematic. Unfortunately there are still a large segment who have no respect for life, only money and what they can get out of it. Same weirdo’s afraid of pot, skin color and now that they live here, anything foreign. They are taught unions are bad for giving people larger paychecks and benefits, causing the factory to move to India.

    They support the troops regardless why they’re drone bombing villages. They were the ones holding fire-hoses on Vietnam war protesters and never questioned why we were sending kids to die. Or did they have a problem with agent orange debilitating Vietnamese people and the very troops they go ape-shit over when someone kneels down during the anthem. Vets were called liars for seeking medical attention. Complete denial from the Vet Admin. Same as today with PTSD and pot. They will strip a Vets benefits, including medical. If they are caught with a MMJ medical card or substance itself.

    No concern over sending troops anywhere a corporation needs protection. That’s why we went to Colombia in the name of eradicating coca and coincidentally protecting Al Gore’s Occidental Oil Company oil that happens to be under Native burial grounds. Or the Dakota pipeline through sovereign and holy lands. Where the citizens have lower life expectancy than Iraq. Same who put guns rights over human rights or nepotism over fair work practices. These dumb ass mfers are watching as Trump deregulates OSHA and the EPA. Against the workers and their own families health. How do you reason with suicidal lapdogs? Kneel down during the nationalists anthem. Then fire up a joint.

  8. Mike says:

    Maybe Ken Burns can get Dr Oz and Dr Gupta to do a doc.

    on what is being taught in the Med schools in the USA on

    cannabis.

    http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/09/20/dr-oz-fox-friends-marijuana/88371/

    • Mouth says:

      imagine if Ken Burns did a doc on the drug war. Everything from 9/11 to Air America. Iraq and Afghanistan. The real possibility that drug money was used in the Iranian Coup during the 1950s, based on probability from our knowledge of the CIA and drug money being used in the South of France and Italy during the cold war. The drug war’s involvement during the big Indonesian war of the 1950s-60s with the help of the CIA. Iran-Contra. The Soviet War in Afghanistan. The fueling of terrorism in Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, etc. Plus how the drug war fueled riots and protests across America from the 1960’s to the L.A. Riots and what’s happening now, including the NFL’s ‘Take a Knee’. How the war on drugs affected the Boston Marathon or shot up people at a Christmas Party in San Bernardino, CA. How the War on Drugs killed children at an Arriana Grande concert in England not too long ago, or how an American on his honeymoon was killed by drugs in Barcelona, along with others. How the war on drugs has made people afraid of Muslims or take pity on Muslims–creating another form of division in Europe and America (at a financial cost too). How the War on Drugs has made people afraid to vacation in Paris or Barcelona and even in London. How it has made the Philippines and Mexico a violent place. How America has spent $3 plus Trillion dollars on the Drug War since 2001, not to include the domestic cost of the War on Drugs equaling another $1 trillion since Nixon. How drugs are fueling North Korean weapons and her dictatorship. How the War on Drugs is creating civil unrest in America culminating from racism to a long costly war negatively affecting our long term economic health. How the drug war in the hands of our enemies during war and in the hands of police going after minorities and in the hands of criminals is responsible for the engineering of much of rap music and heavy metal. How the War on Drugs is causing people to demand for a Wall along Mexico or demand for no wall. How the War on Drugs has made American troops stay stationed in a country for well over a decade and a half in a combat role–increasing the financial cost that can further add problems in the long run for America, simply because drugs can finance because of the War on Drugs’ black market.

  9. Dante says:

    Bottom line on prohibition:

    It empowers and enriches the police and politicians. They are the only humans, other than drug barons, who benefit from prohibition and the war on drugs.

    You can never convince a government employee to derail his own gravy train. Never. We The People must take it away from them by cutting budgets to the bone for cops and politicians. We need to vote for people who will do this, or run for office and do it ourselves. We have to get inside the political machine in order to manipulate the levers of power.

    That is why it never ends – what decent, honest person would lower themselves into the filth to seek such a job?

    • DdC says:

      Profits over People. Prohibition is also a means to curtail competition with Cannabis being a viable alternative to many Wall St companies and products. Until fascism is dealt with. The politicians will continue to fund police to protect corporate interests over the needs of the people. Corporate interest now includes private profit max cap prisons and re-education rehabilitation asylums.

      ☛ How many “crimes” do Corporations Buy?
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1165
      * WikiLeaks: Alcohol Industry Bribed Congress To Demonize Marijuana
      * A Pharma Company That Spent $500,000 Trying to Keep Pot Illegal
      * Private Prisons Could Flourish Under Trump Administration
      * Big Pharma Buys the DEA – Duration: 10 minutes
      * Who’s Really Fighting Legal Weed
      * Is The DEA Legalizing THC Just For Big Pharma?
      * “Professionals” are or can be more of a problem, than solution
      * CXW – Corecivic Inc (NYSE)
      * Pentagon Cannot Account For $6.5 Trillion Dollars In Taxpayer Money
      * Where are all of the Taxbaggers and Norquest?

      ☛ Why Do YOU Think They Call it DOPE?
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1175
      Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
      * The Elkhorn Manifesto
      * Marijuana and Hemp: The Untold Story
      * The Nation of Apathetic Puppets By John Pilger

      ☛ Al Capone and Watergate
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/422
      Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition.Booze/Ethanol or Ganja//Hemp. Most people are not aware that Henry Ford’s Model T came in a variation that allowed the driver to switch the carburetor to run the engine on farm-made ethyl alcohol. According to Ford Motor Company, the Model T engine was capable of running on gasoline, kerosene, or ethanol, although the decreasing cost of gasoline and the later introduction of Prohibition made ethanol an impractical fuel for most users.

      ☛ Policing for Profit
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1743
      * Forfeiture $quads
      * Got SqWAT?
      * Ganjawar Puppycide
      * DEAth Merchants
      * Who’s going to stop the thieves?
      * Why Police Officers Lie Under Oath
      * Drug mishandling may have tainted 40,000 cases
      * Rackets Driven by this Drug War
      * AÊ‚Ê‚hole police
      * Second Probe Raises Stink
      * How to Prosecute Abusive Prosecutors
      * Money, Not Morals, Drives Marijuana Prohibition Movement
      * NeoConflicts of Interest
      * MJ Research Cut as Support Grows
      * When Police Learn
      * New York’s Vote to Curb Stop-And-Frisk
      * DPA Report Finds ‘Policing for Profit’ Gone Wild
      * Old, White Drug Warriors Are Suing to Protect Pot Prohibition

      ☛ Money Grubbing Dung Worriers
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/380

      ☛ Shame on the Drug Worrier Profiteers
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1817
      * Nonsensical Harbingers of Idiocracy
      * Misinformation S.A.M.
      * If the Roots are Poison, So be the Fruit
      * Mooching Off Medicaid
      * More DEA and UN Overreaching Arguments Against Legalization
      * Lobbyists Are Getting * Rich Off of WoD
      * Religious drug treatment in Texas
      * Kochroach & Aleech
      * Drug Detention Centers
      * NRA Slavery: Another Fine Product Still Made in the USA

    • Christ Came says:

      It is far better to be a student of The lord than a smelly druggie. My auntie never let me go to Grateful Dead concerts. “There are too many ungodly, sex crazed lunatics high on pot, hashish, and Peruvian flake.” she’d scream.

      • Will says:

        .
        .
        “There are too many ungodly, sex crazed lunatics high on pot, hashish, and Peruvian flake.” she’d scream.

        Those are the reasons I went. Good times.

      • jean valjean says:

        “Peruvian flake?” Your auntie sounds like a bit of a connoisseur. How does she know what goes on at a Dead concert?

  10. Servetus says:

    Jon Adler is the DoJ’s new director of the Bureau of Justice Assistance. Mr. Adler is also a Scientology cult affiliate (AKA prohibitionist) who espouses Scientology’s medical quackery with its thinly veiled endorsements of Scientology using Narconon and other corporate entities as conveyances:

    …Adler will not only help set national criminal justice policy, he’ll also oversee all relevant state and local grant programs. Judging by one of Adler’s initiatives, this should make the Church of Scientology very, very happy.

    That’s because in addition to his official role at FLEOA, Adler spent a number of years on the advisory board of the Heroes Health Fund, a group that purports to offer support for “firefighters, police, EMTs, veterans, and others harmed by toxic exposures in the line of duty” using a detoxification program developed by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard.

    That program has existed under a variety of names over the years, including Purif, the Purification Rundown, Narconon, and the Hubbard Method. It posits that bodies and spirits can be “purified” through a combination of extensive sauna-induced sweat sessions, a niacin-heavy multivitamin, light exercise, and the consumption of pure vegetable oil. Hubbard, of course, had no medical training of any kind, and his detoxification method has been denounced by countless institutions and medical professionals, such as the Los Angeles and San Francisco school districts, the California Medical Association, the National Council Against Health Fraud, and a former Surgeon General of the United States.[…]

    Adler is currently listed as a member of Heroes Health’s advisory board (albeit with his first name slightly misspelled) along with prominent Scientologists John Travolta, Kelly Preston, and Danny Masterson.

    https://www.wired.com/story/doj-nominee-jon-adler-heroes-health-fund/

  11. jean valjean says:

    Totally off topic Pete, but I’m surprised there has been so little discussion on the couch about the Federal take-down of the Silk Road website and the government lynching of Ross Ulbricht (Dread Pirate Roberts). There are many couchniks who profess strong Libertarian views like the Dread Pirate so I am baffled that “Silk Road” only shows up twice on the Drugwarrant archive (actually, only once in substance). Those who support Liberty should not forget what the government has done in its vindictive persecution of Ulbricht in order to perpetuation the drug war.

  12. Will says:

    .
    .
    Oh boy…

    DEA Head Chuck Rosenberg Resigns. Now Who Takes Over?

    http://tinyurl.com/yd6swdh2

  13. Here we go. This should mean an end to cannabis prohibition:

    Cannabis Legalization Boosts Property Values, Study Says
    https://tinyurl.com/y7etowqb

  14. Nestor Gormley says:

    Some good news for those of us wishing to fly North with our medicine:

    According to TVA, CASTA sent out memos to their supervisors which read:

    Beginning October 2017, the police will only be called in the following cases: If the marijuana has been abandoned at one of the safety check points, or if the quantity of marijuana exceeds what can be fit in a 1L Bag.

    The reason for the change is that more and more people are bringing medical marijuana with them and checking all those prescriptions and distinguishing between legal and illegal weed is simply too much of a hassle.

    https://tinyurl.com/FlyHighBringLoads

  15. Servetus says:

    Rudi Giuliani’s ‘broken windows’ style of law enforcement resulting in stop-and-frisks of young people and minorities for marijuana and other alleged improprieties has been counterproductive. Researchers in the political science department at Louisiana State University suggest that treating innocent people like criminals appears to cause some individuals to emulate society’s expectations:

    26-SEP-2017…The last few decades have seen widespread adoption of proactive policing strategies that are thought to discourage more serious criminal activity. These crime deterrence measures include the patrolling of communities, and increases in police stops, summonses and low-level arrests. However, their efficacy is an ongoing topic of debate. Proactive policing has also come under intense public scrutiny for its disproportionate impacts on low-income and communities of color resulting in potentially discriminatory practices.[…]

    …[Researchers] studied a specific 7-week period in late 2014 and early 2015 when the NYPD effectively halted proactive policing in response to anti-police brutality protests following the death of Eric Garner. From this data, the researchers have been able to draw causal conclusions about the relationship between proactive policing measures and major crime complaints. Their results show that public complaints of major crimes, including murder, rape, robbery, felony assault, burglary, grand larceny and grand theft auto, declined by 3-6 percent during the halt on proactive policing.[…]

    “The results are striking,” Sullivan said. “‘Order Maintenance style’ policing tactics have been shown to increase economic and political inequality, destabilize communities and impair the mental health of young people. Finding that proactive policing may also be counter-productive in deterring major crime suggests that it is time to reconsider where, how and why proactive policing is deployed.”

    The researchers conclude that certain policing tactics may result in serious criminal activity. They also speculate that proactive policing reform may decrease rates of major crime and increase well-being in heavily policed communities.

    AAAS Public Release: New study shows aggressive policing link to major crime: A reduction in the systematic and aggressive enforcement of minor violations by police may reduce major crime complaints

  16. Will says:

    .
    .

    What’s described in the article below will probably come across as glaringly obvious and maybe even a little simplistic. But it’s refreshing to read a simple, honest description of the problem instead of overwrought 1000 page government reports or self serving PR deflection attempts from addiction ‘experts’, drug companies, hospitals, insurance companies, etc.;

    Here’s How The Opioid Epidemic Got Started, According To The Top Painkiller Prescriber In America

    http://tinyurl.com/y9kcth4k

  17. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Snopes debunks the fentanyl laced cannabis myth:
    Is Fentanyl-Laced Marijuana Use on the Rise?
    Nearly all reports of fentanyl-laced marijuana use are based on faulty reporting, and no evidence suggests that its occurrence is in any way rooted in reality.

  18. DdC says:

    You Can Bring Marijuana With You On Airplanes In Canada
    https://tinyurl.com/FlyHighBringLoads

    Cannabis Legalization Boosts Property Values, Study Says
    https://tinyurl.com/y7etowqb

    Students Can Now Major in Weed at Michigan College
    http://hightimes.com/news/students-can-now-major-in-weed/

    Here’s a look at the how U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) has remained one of the staunchest opponents of marijuana law reform in Congress over decades.
    https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/the-dianne-feinstein-mystery-why-is-she-californias-last-prohibitionist

    U.S. House of Representatives approved a measure, as part of a voice vote on a group of amendments, to take $4 million from the Drug Enforcement Administration and put it towards testing rape kits.
    https://www.congress.gov/amendment/115th-congress/house-amendment/373

    I’m sick and tired of hearing things from
    Uptight short sided narrow minded hypocritics
    All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
    I’ve had enough of reading things
    By neurotic psychotic pigheaded politicians
    All I want is the truth, just give me some truth

    No short-haired, yellow-bellied
    Son of tricky dicky’s
    Gonna mother hubbard soft soap me
    With just a pocket full of hopes
    Money for dope, money for rope

    I’m sick to death of seeing things from
    Tight-lipped condescending mama’s little chauvinists
    All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
    I’ve had enough of watching scenes from
    Schizophrenic egocentric paranoiac primadonnas
    All I want is the truth just give me some truth

    I’m sick to death of hearing things from
    Uptight short sided narrow minded hypocritics
    All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
    I’ve had enough of reading things
    By neurotic psychotic pigheaded politicians
    All I want is the truth, just give me some truth
    ~ John Lennon

  19. DdC says:

    ☛ Jeff Sessions Banned Protestors From Attending His Speech
    on 1st Amendment Freedoms

    Donald Trump, is currently attacking NFL and NBA players who are exercising their First Amendment freedoms. Probably not the best time for Jeff Sessions to go out there and talk about the freedoms of the First Amendments when his boss is out there attacking people for using those exact freedoms.

    But, Jeff Sessions is clearly immune to that kind of irony. Because during his speech … Or, I guess before his speech even began, protesters were banned from attending a speech about the First Amendment from the Attorney General. Photographs of the speech itself showed many, many empty seats through the auditorium because a lot of people who were not necessarily Jeff Sessions’s fans, had been dis-invited from attending the speech in addition to the protesters.

    ☛ MM A study found that medical cannabis “appears to serve as both a complementary method for symptom management and treatment of medication side-effects associated with certain chronic conditions, and as an alternative method for treatment of pain, seizures, and inflammation.”

    ☛ Spinal cord patients in a study of THC spray Sativex
    showed “significant improvement.”

    GWPH – GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ)
    110.77 +2.68 (2.48%)

    ☛ A study of mice demonstrated “potential therapeutic use of phytocannabinoids in alcohol-related problems.”

    ☛ Drug arrests in the U.S. rose in 2016 to a rate of one every 20 seconds, according to new FBI data. Unlike in years past, the Department of Justice didn’t publicly make available numbers breaking down drug arrests for individual substances like marijuana. However, I was able to obtain the data anyway and extrapolate that arrests for cannabis are rising even as more states legalize it.

    ☛ Acting Drug Enforcement Administration Administrator
    Chuck Rosenberg plans to resign this week. New Jersey State Police Col. Joseph R. Fuentes is reportedly a top candidate to fill the vacancy.

    KISS My Ass
    I always thought they were fake rockers.
    In the same league as Teddy Nuget

    ☛ This is musician Gene Simmons’s strategy for convincing kids not to do drugs:
    * “You’re not allowed to get high or get drunk or smoke cigarettes – can’t do that. If you want to, I want to have a discussion. And tell me before, don’t tell me after. If you transgress, if you go against my commandments, you will find yourself in a desert camp digging holes, written out of the estate and the will.”

    I want you to know… that I try. When Jean and the kids at the school tell me that I’m supposed to control my violent temper, and be passive and nonviolent like they are, I try. I really try. Though when I see this girl… of such a beautiful spirit… so degraded… and this boy… that I love… sprawled out by this big ape here… and this little girl, who is so special to us we call her “God’s little gift of sunshine”… and I think of the number of years that she’s going to have to carry in her memory… the savagery of this idiotic moment of yours… I just go BERSERK!
    ~ Billy Jack

    :

    • DdC says:

      GWPH – GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ)
      112.27 +1.50 (1.35%)

    • DdC says:

      Sell Sell Sell

      GWPH – GW Pharmaceuticals PLC- ADR (NASDAQ)
      101.16 -11.11 (9.90%)

      Investor’s Business Daily
      Zogenix Stock Rises On Seizure Trial,
      Toppling Cannabis-Drugmaker GW
      http://www.investors.com/news/technology/zogenix-rockets-on-seizure-drug-tripping-rival-gw-pharma/
      Zogenix (ZGNX) rocketed to its highest point in nearly four years Friday, after reporting Phase 3 data on a drug that targets forms of epilepsy seen primarily in children and young adults — and widely topping earlier results from rival GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH).

      Buy Buy Buy

      ZGNX – Zogenix, Inc. (NASDAQ)
      34.47 +21.60 (167.74%)

      • Amber Trichome Soup Mix says:

        So, a 70s drug (an amphetamine derivative) pulled off the market by the FDA in 97, is the NEW wonder drug for Dravet Syndrome?

        That would be quite the Big Pharma Fairy Tale if true.

        I looked at PogoFrog.com (a medical search engine), Google, and Wikipedia. Zogenix a low-dose version of flenfuramine has a lot of baggage, i.e., side effects due to cardiovascular issues.

        If a 70s amphetamine derivative was useful for epilepsy, you’d think we would have known about it by now.

        Go to PogoFrog.com and look up flenfuramine.

        Here’s the thing. ONE STUDY with a patient population of TWELVE don’t mean shit. If they can continue to replicate these results in larger trials, we might have something.

        Based on what I’m seeing? I don’t trust the hype.

        • DdC says:

          Thanks ATSM I’ve played around buying and selling GWPH when they jump and drop for a few years now. Pays for my pot. I didn’t check this ZGNX out enough. The articles I read made me think it was a synthetic cannabidiol taking off. GW had a similar leap in August that I cashed in on, had enough in the account to buy this ZGNX. When GW shot up again the other day i thought it might be a repeat of the past from the $30s to $130s, twice. So either way this probably isn’t something I hold onto now. Speed Sucks. Thanks again.

  20. DdC says:

    Playboy founder Hugh Hefner died. He provided NORML with some of its earliest funding.
    http://blog.norml.org/2011/03/18/norml40-playboy-and-the-5000-decision/

  21. Servetus says:

    The Colorado DEA is claiming that some of the illegal marijuana grows on public land originate or are somehow tied to certain foreign governments:

    …Agents feel drug organizations come here to Colorado because they don’t think they’ll be prosecuted.

    Many of the groups have ties to Russia and Cuba.

    http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/local-news/marijuana/rural-marijuana-grows-rising-in-the-state-of-colorado

    The news item fails to explain why Cuban and Russian conspirators would involve themselves with illegal cannabis farming in the U.S. when they could just as easily invest in legitimate marijuana grows and related businesses. The allegations fit a current government trend that blames the Russians for any political disasters currently being incurred by either Republicans or Democrats.

    Robert Parry, writing for Consortium.news, takes note of “The New McCarthyism”:

    Make no mistake about it: the United States has entered an era of a New McCarthyism that blames nearly every political problem on Russia and has begun targeting American citizens who don’t go along with this New Cold War propaganda.

    A difference, however, from the McCarthyism of the 1950s is that this New McCarthyism has enlisted Democrats, liberals and even progressives in the cause because of their disgust with President Trump; the 1950s version was driven by Republicans and the Right with much of the Left on the receiving end, maligned by the likes of Sen. Joe McCarthy as “un-American” and as Communism’s “fellow travelers.”

    The real winners in this New McCarthyism appear to be the neoconservatives who have leveraged the Democratic/liberal hatred of Trump to draw much of the Left into the political hysteria that sees the controversy over alleged Russian political “meddling” as an opportunity to “get Trump.”

    Already, the neocons and their allies have exploited the anti-Russian frenzy to extract tens of millions of dollars more from the taxpayers for programs to “combat Russian propaganda,” i.e., funding of non-governmental organizations and “scholars” who target dissident Americans for challenging the justifications for this New Cold War.[…]

    Already, under the guise of combating “Russian propaganda” and “fake news,” Google, Facebook and other tech giants have begun introducing algorithms to hunt down and marginalize news that challenges official U.S. government narratives on hot-button issues such as Ukraine and Syria. Again, no evidence is required, just the fact that Putin may have said something similar.[…]

    https://consortiumnews.com/2017/09/26/the-rise-of-the-new-mccarthyism/

  22. Christ Came says:

    I believe my auntie may have been suffering from the exact same condition:

    Woman develops persistent spontaneous orgasms after use of marijuana

    “Apart from the use of cannabis, we speculate that the continuous five hour duration of hard pounding sexual activity may have led to an overactivation of the pudendal nerve resulting in a rebound effect, which made the spontaneous orgasms completely uncontrollable giving rise to a very understandable anxiety and panic,” wrote the authors of the case report.

    https://tinyurl.com/PoundedToOblivion

  23. Servetus says:

    The next time the DEA wants money for counternarcotics equipment in Afghanistan, just say no:

    September 28, 2017 — The military “wasted” nearly $65 million on a single inoperable plane that spent years resting on jacks in a warehouse and didn’t manage even one flight in Afghanistan, the Department of Defense inspector general recently reported. The plane, tricked out with sophisticated surveillance capabilities, was supposed to fly counternarcotics missions to disrupt Afghanistan’s vast heroin operations, but languished on its perch in Delaware.

    “Consequently, the DoD received no benefit for its more than seven years’ work and $64.8 million in funds wasted,” the inspector general wrote.

    The debacle unfortunately has a depressingly familiar ring. In 2014, after spending $486 million on 20 planes for the Afghan Air Force — which, yes, were never able to fly — the Pentagon sold most of them as scrap metal for a whopping 6 cents a pound. The total sale was $32,000.

    http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42093-someone-needs-to-be-fired-over-wasted-65-million-plane

    • Mouth says:

      hopefully, something like the Pentagon Papers will come out of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, showing how the Feds knew about drug money and even helped to promote the smuggling. And proving that HSBC and their like, controlled the way the American military could operate.

      • Servetus says:

        What is past is prologue. Perhaps Jeffrey St. Clair and Alexander Cockburn can shed light on parallels between Afghanistan and Viet Nam by exposing yet more of the CIA’s operations in Southeast Asia.

        In Armies, Addicts and Spooks: the CIA in Vietnam and Laos the authors rattle the prohibitches’ cage yet again by linking heroin use among American soldiers to the events surrounding the My Lai Massacre, a far greater and far reaching stench than the public could have imagined at the time. The subsequent cover-up linking My Lai to the top echelons of the U.S. government was:

        …to disguise the fact that My Lai was part of the CIA killing program called Operation Phoenix. As Douglas Valentine writes in his brilliant book, The Phoenix Program, the My Lai massacre was a result of Phoenix, the ‘jerry-built’ counter-terror program that provided an outlet for the repressed fears and anger of the psyched-up men of Task Force Barker. Under the aegis of neutralizing the infrastructure, old men, women and children became the enemy. Phoenix made it as easy to shoot a Vietnamese child as it was to shoot a sparrow in a tree. The ammunition was faulty intelligence provided by secret agents harboring grudges – in violation of the agreement that Census Grievance intelligence would not be provided to the police. The trigger was the blacklist.[…]

        https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/09/29/armies-addicts-and-spooks-the-cia-in-vietnam-and-laos/

        The article is adapted from Whiteout: the CIA, Drugs and the Press (1999)

        To gage the effect of CIA interventions and abuses of the current drug trade in Afghanistan, simply multiply by 10 the number of drug running screw-ups occurring in the Viet Nam War to get a fair estimate.

        • Mouth says:

          In 30 or 40 years, we’ll have an Iraq/Afghan War film about the 21st Century version of Barry Seals and his involvement with the CIA (though hopefully more accurate than the Tom Cruise film that just showed up). I wonder how many defense companies are made up and just CIA fronts, like Air America.

  24. Mike says:

    OT What are we to make of the film American Made.

    Is it fact or fiction.

    • DdC says:

      Time will tell if this flick is true according to government records, true with artistic license applied by the producers or true according to reality of Iran Contra and Bush, Clinton and Hutchinson involvement as President, Governor and U.S. Attorney during Seals run. I still think Clinton is Bush’s illegitimate favorite son and was how he got elected when Perot almost over took Bush’s votes and then all of a sudden dropped out for Slickster to win. Maybe just another in a long line of coincidences. Clinton Asks Supreme Court To Overturn MMJ Ruling – 07/30/00. In the WP article Clinton Quiet About Own Radical Ties – 02/01/11.

      When Hillary Rodham Clinton questioned rival Barack Obama’s ties to 1960s radicals, her comments baffled two retired Bay Area lawyers who knew Clinton in the summer of 1971 when she worked as an intern at a left-wing law firm in Oakland, Calif., that defended communists and Black Panthers.

      Now to me it seems no one would have better access to radical groups than Hilzy. It also seems plausible she told Bill stories or pillow talk while they lived in Berkley in 71. The same year I hitchhiked out from PA, but I don’t remember them. So how does a po boy from a single parent family in Arkansas get to Oxford? Maybe trading secrets to Bush CIA? idk? I do know that I and friends didn’t waste the summer sober and it would be odd for any young non conservative to miss out on the gatherings and free concerts passing doobies. The BS answer of not inhaling doesn’t matter since sublingually, under the tongue he would have got off. so again idk?

      The other thing you can bet the stash on about the Clintons in that summer of 1971 in Berkeley is that they were stoned, loaded, blasted, wasted, high as a kite, and just plain baked. At the very least.
      The Clinton’s Berkeley Summer of Love by Josh Gerstein

      Clinton acted more goper than krat from arresting more for pot than Nixon, Reagan and Bush combined. To enacting the bastardization of the Higher Education Act banning all arrested for drugs to be banned for LIFE from college tuition assistance, Pell Grants and some states have tried banning food-stamps and housing assistance. He also enacted NAFTA. With McCaffrey as drug czar already in the radar as the engineer of Op Pipe Dream if memory serves, smuggling heroin out of Vietnam in body bags. idk, all I ever wanted to do was smoke a joint in peace.

      Or his DA in Arkansas was to become his nemesis in Monikagate. While Drumpf is a low grade crook the Bush Empire spans decades since Ike’s speech directed toward GHW and Nixon over not letting the Military Industrial Complex get out of control. Which they did. Oil and drugs and spy gadgets and for profit police actions called wars seem to be a reoccurring theme in the Bush Crime Family including Cheney and Rumsfeld. So I believe Iran Contra is true but have no faith in Tom Scientologist Cruise and I’ve not heard of the writer or producer so I’d say probably not accurate in real time but maybe a little more than the Congressional hearings exposed.

      ☛ Critics Consensus: American Made’s fast-and-loose attitude with its real-life story mirrors the cavalier — and delightfully watchable — energy Tom Cruise gives off in the leading role.

      ☛ ‘American Made’ Trailer
      Universal has released the first trailer to the Doug Liman-directed film American Made, starring Tom Cruise in the real-life story of pilot Barry Seal, a hustler who is tapped by the CIA to to run one of the biggest covert operations in U.S. history. The pic, which was written by Gary Spinelli, is slated to bow in theater September 29.

      ☛ Asa Isa Assa
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1292
      Now President George W. Bush has nominated Hutchinson to head the DEA, the biggest drug-fighting squad in the world. But before Hutchinson assumes that post, there are some questions about high-level cocaine trafficking in Arkansas while he was a U.S. attorney here that he should be required to answer. The questions have hung about for years, but so far he has managed to dodge them.

      “I have seen the drug war from all sides as a member of Congress, as a federal prosecutor, and as a parent and I know the importance of fighting this battle on all fronts.”

      But some strange things happened in Hutchinson’s district while he was federal prosecutor that he doesn’t mention in his speeches. Specifically, a man identified by federal agents as “a documented, major narcotics trafficker” was using facilities at an airport in Hutchinson’s district for “storage, maintenance, and modification” of his drug-running aircraft, throughout most of Hutchinson’s tenure.

      The man was Adler Berriman “Barry” Seal. For the last four years of his life and throughout Hutchinson’s term as U.S. attorney his base of operations was Mena, Arkansas.

      Fifteen years have now passed since Barry Seal’s murder, and the still unanswered questions remain as haunting as ever. Bill Clinton, who was governor of Arkansas during Seal’s tenure here, dismissed the questions during his campaign for the presidency as entirely a federal matter.

      ☛ Bush Crime Family
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1293
      You have to look at the entire Bush Family in this contextas if the family ran a corporation called ‘Frauds-R-Us,'” writes Al Martin in his column “Behind the Scenes in the Beltway.”
      “Each member of the familyGeorge Sr., George Jr., Neil, Jeb, Prescott, Wallyhas his own specialty of fraud.

      ☛ Iran Contra Anniversary
      The Lost Opportunities of Iran-Contra 25 Years Later
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1785
      ~ Iran Contra Drug Smuggling, 2 CIA Contract Pilots Confes
      ~ Iran Contra CIA Drug Running Mena Arkansas Barry Seal
      ~ Iran Contra Drug Smuggling, Detailed Report
      ~ The Mena Connection
      ~ Exposing the CIA, Bush, Clinton, Iran Contra, And Drug
      ~ 9/11 Iran-Contra Commissioner Lee Hamilton
      ~ George HW Bush Criminal Conspiracy Coverup (1992)
      ~ Iran-Contra

      An August, 1996, series in the San Jose Mercury News by reporter Gary Webb linked the origins of crack cocaine in California to the contras, a guerrilla force backed by the Reagan administration that attacked Nicaragua’s Sandinista government during the 1980s. Webb’s series, “The Dark Alliance,” has been the subject of intense media debate, and has focused attention on a foreign policy drug scandal that leaves many questions unanswered.

    • Mouth says:

      John Travolta’s ‘From Paris with Love’ flick highlighted how the War on Drugs enables terrorist networks to be funded. In December 2008, the Afghans rigged Printemps with TNT, but with no dets as a warning for France to get her troops out of Afghanistan. In my prison over in Baghdad, we not only held the usual Sunni, Al Qaeda and Shi’a suspects, but Latin American drug traffickers, Russian Mafia, Asian Triad, Nigerian gangsters, Italian Mafia etc. A lot of money can be made when Hollywood uses Art to imitate life.

      I’m still waiting for a movie about North Korea, showing Kim selling an 8-ball of speed or coke to pay for some uranium and computers. How many years ago was it when a North Korean diplomat was ousted from Australia for selling a whole lot of crystal meth?

    • Mouth says:

      They say “American Made” isn’t real and just made up or better yet, two or three pages from his life. They didn’t have time to show how he got fired from TWA because he was bringing in bombs to Mexico for an anti-Castro group or how he possibly worked for the CIA during the Bay of Pigs (and his possible meeting with Lee Harvey Oswald). They also didn’t show the time he was Special Forces in Vietnam which explains his Air America relations.

      http://www.cannabisculture.com/content/2017/10/02/american-made-photos-prove-barry-seal-cia-1950s-1960s

      CC has some good articles on him

      Narcos is good at showing how America knew the Colombian President was in the pockets of the Cali Cartel, but allowed it any way. And they also state how Pablo was an American asset until he started to sell coke to the communists as well.

    • DdC says:

      ☛ American Made-Up:
      photos that prove that Barry Seal
      was with the CIA in the 1950s and 1960s

      ☛ State Using Pot Revenue
      to Fund ‘Sims’-Style Drug Conversations

      ☛ Fentanyl-Laced Weed Is Fake News,
      But Who’s to Blame for This Hoax?

      One place you will absolutely not find fentanyl, and where it has not been detected, is in marijuana—despite claims made by top health officials in Ohio, in the presence of a U.S. senator.

      After the smallest bit of scrutiny—some may call it “the most basic and absolutely standard due diligence”—it turned out that the individuals in question did in fact OD on opiates. In a grudging half-apology, the fire department defended its alarmism on warning about “possible tainted marijuana based on the best interest of our community.”

      Even then, it might have been contained were it not for Rob Portman. No single person is more responsible for fueling this unnecessary wildfire of specious nonsense than Portman, the Republican who represents Ohio in the U.S. Senate.

      The “logic” applied here is simply appalling.

      Assume, solely because a drug is sold on the street, that it’s laced with fentanyl—and go bleating to the media about it, who so dutifully repeat whatever authorities tell them as infallible gospel. And while you’re at it, suck what limited air there is in the room away from the real news, backed by research, that cannabis availability has shown to reduce reliance on opiates and cut down on fatal overdoses.

      ☛ Study: Vegetarians Are More Likely to Give Birth to Drug Addicts
      It is not uncommon for vegetarians to experience a B12 deficiency during pregnancy. This is mostly because the only true source for this all-important vitamin is through the consumption of meats and shellfish.

      Hemp seed food products, depending on how they are processed, offer some or all of the following: the ideal ratio of Omega-3/Omega-6 fatty acids, all 10 essential amino acids, digestible protein, calcium, potassium, phosphorous, riboflavin, vitamin A, vitamin E, vitamin B12, folic acid, vitamin D, magnesium, iron, and zinc.

      ☛ HEMP SEED: THE MOST NUTRITIONALLY
      COMPLETE FOOD SOURCE IN THE WORLD

      Part One by Lynn Osburn
      Seeds of the plant cannabis sativa, hemp seed, contain all the essential amino acids and essential fatty acids necessary to maintain healthy human life. No other single plant source has the essential amino acids in such an easily digestible form, nor has the essential fatty acids in as perfect a ratio to meet human nutritional needs. continued

      ☛ Part II, Hempseed Oils and the Flow of Life Force
      Hemp seed oil comprises 35% of the total seed weight. This oil has the lowest amount of saturated fatty acids at 8%, and the highest amount of the polyunsaturated essential fatty acids at 80%, total oil volume. Flax seed oil comes in second at 72% combined total essential fatty acids. continued

  25. Mike says:

    Thank you double d will go and see.
    Hope so do the academy.

  26. Did anyone ever do any investigating over this in the USA?

    Mitch McConnell’s Freighted Ties to a Shadowy Shipping Company
    https://tinyurl.com/zsnsxll

    • DdC says:

      His wife, the drumpf trans sec,’s parents own/ed a shipping company or maybe now turtle owns it. That was busted for hiding a large stash of cocaine. The owners were never prosecuted and the blame went to the workers last I heard. Long before she was selected by drumpf. To have a hold on turtle mcconnel I guess. Or to supply GOPers with coke. Maybe that’s what turned him into a Turtle?

      Sometimes people have to speak out, especially for themselves. Turtle mcconnel has run down and pilfered funds from Kentuckians to the point their life expectancy is lower than Iraq. He paved the way for blowing up mountain tops leaving the people with mudslides and trashed forests and no jobs while the coal companies make record profits and salaries for the upper management.

      He fought legalizing hemp until it went behind his back and I think he is behind it now, or still considered as an experiment they usually sabotage if history repeats itself. Another starting with little and marrying into millions. His net worth went up more than any others in Congress since he entered. Now they have perverted themselves so far right the wingnuts are taking over. Now the real republicans are coming out of the woodwork. With their pointy white hoods and and guns assuring they have free speech while they trample the rights of everyone else. Truly a Bullies Pulpit.

      ☛ 90 Pounds of Cocaine discovered on a boat owned by the family of Mitch McConnell, the Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate
      ☛ Trump transportation secretary’s family caught in drugs traffickin
      ☛ Drug Warrior Mitch McConnell Tied To Millions In Cocaine – YouTube
      ☛ Trump Fills the Swamp with Elaine Chao (Mitch McConnell’s Wife
      http://www.google.com/search?q=mcconnel+ties+to+shipping+cicaine

  27. Servetus says:

    A University of Hong Kong research team led by Lam Woo, Prof. of Biomedical Engineering, has revealed new functions of the brain’s hippocampus:

    29-SEP-2017 …low-frequency activities of the hippocampus can drive the functional integration between different regions of the cerebral cortex and enhance the responsiveness of vision, hearing and touch. These results indicated that the hippocampus can be considered as the heart of the brain, a breakthrough in our knowledge of how the brain works.

    Furthermore, these results also suggest that low-frequency activities in the hippocampus can enhance learning and memory since low-frequency activities usually occur during slow-wave sleep which has been associated with learning and memory. Slow-wave sleep, often referred as deep sleep, is a state that we usually enter several times each night and is necessary for survival. Alzheimer’s disease is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and worsens over time, and the most common early symptom is memory loss. These results may also have potential therapeutic implications of hippocampal neuromodulation in Alzheimer’s disease.

    These current findings are a major step in furthering our fundamental understanding of the origins and roles of brain-wide functional connectivity. These findings also signify the potentials of rsfMRI and neuromodulation for early diagnosis and enhanced treatment of brain diseases including Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, epilepsy, schizophrenia, transient global amnesia, and posttraumatic stress disorder.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: New functions of hippocampus unveiled

    An excellent Colorado student honors thesis sums up the lack of conclusive research in the brain’s response to marijuana (pdf):

    http://scholar.colorado.edu/honr_theses/902/

    And Psychology Today notes the role of marijuana vs. anxiety in the amygdala:

    https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201403/cannabis-targets-receptors-in-the-amygdala-linked-anxiety

    If marijuana creates the changes in brain structure indicated by the inconclusive research noted in the thesis, then knowing the chemistry of the brain with regard to how cannabinoids affect its development or function is critical to understanding brain function itself.

    Cannabis needs to be viewed as an essential tool for future brain research. Billions need to be spent on its R&D. Typical ROI in this type of situation is 10 to 1.

    • NorCalNative says:

      Cannabis needs to be viewed as an essential tool for future brain research. Billions need to be spent on its R&D.

      Couldn’t agree more. Interesting links.

  28. strayan says:

    Court case about whether it’s ok to lock people up if they relapse: https://twitter.com/segalmr/status/914828028303347712

  29. New study shows aggressive policing link to major crime
    By Louisiana State University
    https://yubanet.com/scitech/new-study-shows-aggressive-policing-link-to-major-crime/

    … “The researchers conclude that certain policing tactics may result in serious criminal activity. They also speculate that proactive policing reform may decrease rates of major crime and increase well-being in heavily policed communities.” …

  30. DdC says:

    Ganja for Anyone with PTSD
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1632
    Military Veterans Say Pot Eases PTSD. Ganja could help many trauma victims from future debilitating side effects.

  31. Servetus says:

    A drug rehab program in Oklahoma is little more than a Christian-hyped slave labor camp for naïve, non-violent offenders:

    OCT 04, 2017 — The worst day of Brad McGahey’s life was the day a judge decided to spare him from prison.[…]

    “You need to learn a work ethic,” the judge told him. “I’m sending you to CAAIR.”[…]

    McGahey had heard of Christian Alcoholics & Addicts in Recovery. People called it “the Chicken Farm,” a rural retreat where defendants stayed for a year, got addiction treatment and learned to live more productive lives. Most were sent there by courts from across Oklahoma and neighboring states, part of the nationwide push to keep nonviolent offenders out of prison.

    Aside from daily cans of Dr Pepper, McGahey wasn’t addicted to anything. The judge knew that. But the Chicken Farm sounded better than prison.

    A few weeks later, McGahey stood in front of a speeding conveyor belt inside a frigid poultry plant, pulling guts and stray feathers from slaughtered chickens destined for major fast food restaurants and grocery stores.[…]

    There wasn’t much substance abuse treatment at CAAIR. It was mostly factory work for one of America’s top poultry companies. If McGahey got hurt or worked too slowly, his bosses threatened him with prison.

    And he worked for free. CAAIR pocketed the pay.

    “It was a slave camp,” McGahey said. “I can’t believe the court sent me there.”

    Soon, it would get worse.[…]

    https://www.truthdig.com/articles/thought-going-rehab-ended-chicken-plants/

    Now that Brad McGahey has been taught that the work ethic sucks, he can go back to being a criminal again.

    • DdC says:

      Sicko’s or Psycho’s?

      Trump Faith Based.jpg
      http://oi64.tinypic.com/2hxncx1.jpg

      Religious drug treatment in Texas
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1306

    • Mouth says:

      40152 S. 700 Road Jay OK 74346 US

      https://www.caair.org/home.html

      It’s out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by chicken farms. Just another reason to boycott Tyson.

      Has anyone ever been to Oklahoma? It’s probably better for small children to watch Rob Zombie horror flicks than for anyone to come to that state. They like to change the ‘ballot’ rules when it comes to proposing MMJ. Once the requirements have been met, they change the rules and they’ve done this more than once . . . but MMJ is the only one they change for. Brad Pit and Garth Brooks were the only good things to come from this state.

      • Mouthy says:

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ralph_Shortey

        Here is another Monster from Oklahoma: Ralph Shortey. He tried to override a bill for drug law reform, therefore increasing penalties for possession and not lessening it like the original bill. He worked for oil and Nat Gas. He submitted a bill that prohibits “the manufacture or sale of food or products which use aborted human fetuses.” And he got caught in a motel with a 17 year old boy (while this man was no fan of the LGBT community) he solicited for sex, providing him with reefer and booze.

        Late 2016-early 2017 showed a lot of Oklahoma Politicians getting booted from office for sex violations–Republicans all of them.

      • DdC says:

        Okie Just Us

        James Geddes-47
        90 YEARS-5 PLANTS! from 150 years. Had it brought down to 20 on cruel and unusual punishment grounds. Then released after serving 11 or so.
        http://hr95.org/Geddes,J.html

        Will Foster 93 Years For Cannabis – 11/17/00
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/387
        Veteran, growing for his arthritis, no sales.

    • An okie from Muskogee says:

      Some of these judges have been convicted for taking bribes from youth treatment centers and privatized jails for providing client/slaves. It’s a racket.
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4AgZST_TG8

  32. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    The sycophants of prohibition are confused. I almost feel sorry for them.

    The Latest: Alaska voters reject local bans on legalized pot

    Wait, did I say I feel sorry for them? I meant to say that I pity the fools.

  33. strayan says:

    Turns out that smoking cannabis in adolescence makes you a whopping 1 IQ point stupider (maybe) in later life: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28609722

    In other news, smoking a joint a day makes you less miserable and tired if you work night shifts:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28728115

    • Mouth says:

      They say depression and stress can literally create enzymes that will eat away the brain, which in theory would make people stupider. And if an adolescent smoked a decent amount of cannabis, while doing hard drugs like speed, alcohol, inhalants, etc for depression, then it is logical to assume that the cannabis helped to protect and repair the brain from the damage–not excluding repairing the brain for those moments one wanted to head bang to Death Metal. On top of that, if cannabis is good for stress, then it would reduce or delete the enzyme, while repairing. Again, if cannabis can push people to be more open minded and increase people’s awareness of travel, philosophy, physics, art, and literature, then we are expanding the brain. So maybe in reality, we are 1 IQ point dumber than those who don’t partake cannabis. I can live with being one IQ point dumber than Wittgenstein, but it’s by far more probable that I’m smarter than a professor with a Ph.D who doesn’t partake. I’ve discovered that non-cannabis enthusiast don’t like to take real vacations when they travel to other countries . . . they won’t or will do the minimum when viewing art museums or visiting the graves of their favorite authors, philosophers, ballerinas etc.

      Look at all the work this couch does in trying to sort out and collect facts on the War on Drugs and health benefits for cannabis . . . one of us can do the work of a faculty.

      And isn’t the definition of an IQ (which is tested) arbitrary? Thomas Kuhn said that scientists from the orient explore and take in science differently than those from America or Europe, though both the Japanese and the Brits are just as smart. Derrida said that different cultures process symbols differently i.e. the physical form of a table, Symbol 1–the spoken word of the table, symbol 2–the written word of a symbol and then you have the symbol of a symbol’s symbol: that damn dirty small table or that brand new table in the corner of your kitchen.

      What if it’s not really possible to measure an IQ and those that claim so are trapped inside a cycle of arbitrary allusions which would make them in all reality, stupid and closed minded.

    • Servetus says:

      Reputedly the most intelligent man alive in recent times was Nobel Laurate Richard Feynman at Cal Tech who pioneered quantum electrodynamics (QED) and other physics discoveries. He once scored a meager 115 on an IQ test. Feynman said the test didn’t say much about him, but it did say a lot about IQ tests.

      The concept of intelligence is difficult enough that intelligent people have difficulty assessing it. Intellectual achievement is something needing to be factored into the tests, but the tests are typically run on people too young to have achieved anything yet.

      Feynman’s brain was different from most. He experienced synesthesia–he saw letters of the alphabet in different colors. I know a very smart woman (IQ=142) who visualizes music in different colors. Brain differences are likely to skew anything such that standard tests don’t necessarily work to provide relevant information.

      For instance, some smart people think slowly and methodically, while others may be much quicker at certain tasks, again, something that doesn’t get factored in using timed tests. And there are too many variables to consider when probing for IQ pathologies related to marijuana. Here are some examples from EurekAlert!:

      Higher manganese levels in children correlate with lower IQ scores, UC study finds

      UM study finds air pollution affects short-term memory, IQ and brain metabolic ratios

      Children’s healthy diets lead to healthier IQ

      Prenatal pesticide exposure tied to lower IQ in children

      Processed food diet in early childhood may lower subsequent IQ

      Toxic combination of air pollution and poverty lowers child IQ

  34. Paddy Arvin says:

    For those who haven’t had the chance to see it yet:

    https://fmovies.is/film/the-vietnam-war.4j27j/0y1n19

  35. DailyHeil says:

    Georgia sheriff, deputies indicted after body searches of 900 high school students

    The class-action lawsuit — filed on behalf of nine unnamed students — laid out detailed allegations of groping during the school search. One student recounted that a deputy “looked down the back and front” of the student’s dress, then “slid her hands” over her pelvic area and “cupped” the student’s “vaginal area and buttocks,” according to the legal complaint.

    Another male student recounted a deputy “moving his fingers back and forth” from his pockets to his groin, the lawsuit stated. The deputy’s fingertips touched the student’s “penis and testicles, over clothes, four to five times.”

    A third student recounted how a deputy “reached up under” her shirt, “lifted her bra, and touched her bare breasts, including her nipples.”

    In June, when the lawsuit was filed, one of the teenagers recounted his ordeal to The Post. The deputy “came up under my privates and then he grabbed my testicles twice,” the student said. “I wanted to turn around and tell him to stop touching me. I wanted it to be over and I just wanted to call my dad because I knew something wasn’t right.”

    https://tinyurl.com/FeelMeUpFeelMeDown

    • Servetus says:

      Top Ten alternative preferences countdown for the title of the Washington Post news item on the Georgia high school drug search:

      (10) Hackneyed holy honchos have a holiday heaving hemp heretics into hell

      (9) Tits-tweaking team a testimony to totalitarianism and tyranny

      (8) Nubile nipples narcotics inquiry

      (7) Sex, drugs and pedophilia

      (6) Fascist freaks forage for fur-pies

      (5) Douche-deputies display despicable drug dogmas

      (4) Predatory pussy prohibidiots

      (3) War on warlocks and women with witchmarks wreaks a wellspring of wretched witlessness

      (2) Bare baby-breasts betray bra bandits

      (1) Righteous right-wing rabble repudiates rights of the reviled and wronged

  36. GroenVanLobster says:

    The new coalition have just legalized the back door.

    https://www.ad.nl/binnenland/nieuwe-kabinet-wil-een-overheidswietje~aaa0288c/

    The upcoming Dutch Cabinet, VD, CDA, D66 and ChrstianUnie, wants to run an experiment in which a number of municipalities will sell ‘government weed’ through the coffeeshops, cultivated locally and distributed among six to ten municipalities.

    • Happy Camper says:

      The Netherlands has actually legalized cannabis without anybody noticing.

      The new cabinet is to sanction experiments with legal marijuana production which would then be sold in cannabis cafes, RTL news said at the weekend. Details are still sketchy but sources told the broadcaster between six and 10 local authority areas will be singled out for the experiment, which will lead to council-licenced growers producing marijuana for sale in their own locality. Breda and Eindhoven are among the cities which have already come forward. While officials turn a blind eye to the sale of small amounts of marijuana for personal use, how the drug ends up in licenced coffee shops remains a grey area. Dozens of local authorities have for years argued for licenced production to remove drugs gangs from the entire chain. The local authorities association VNG also recommended regulated production in 2015. The VVD and CDA had always been against experimenting with licenced growing, but last year the VVD’s annual conference voted in favour of experimentation and in February, parliament voted in favour of a D66 plan for official regulation.

      https://tinyurl.com/SneakyDutch

  37. jean valjean says:

    Organic and sun-grown. The future of cannabis cultivation:

    https://www.alternet.org/drugs/omg-huge-honking-marijuana-plants-check-size

    • CommentSection says:

      .
      .
      Shutter:

      “Jersey would be prime country for growing a small outdoor crop. Rip out those vegetable farms and toss some nice spotted seeds in there”

      Fumes:

      “I grow outside. The deer help. They eat the males. I don’t know why. Yay Garden State!!!”

  38. Servetus says:

    Brazilian researchers Stevens Rehen, Vanja Dakic, Juliana Minardi Nascimento, Sidarta Ribeiro, and Draulio Araujo have just revealed the significant role played by certain psychedelic compounds in the brain by showing that at the molecular level psychedelics are a “powerful inducer of brain plasticity”:

    9-OCT-2017 — … In order to unveil the effects of 5-MeO-DMT, Vanja Dakic (IDOR) and Juliana Minardi Nascimento (IDOR and University of Campinas) have exposed cerebral organoids, which are 3D cultures of neural cells that mimic a developing human brain, to a single dose of the psychedelic.

    By employing mass spectrometry-based proteomics to analyze cerebral organoids, they identified that 5-MeO-DMT altered the expression of nearly a thousand proteins. Then, they mapped which proteins were impacted by the psychedelic substance and their role in the human brain.

    Researchers found that proteins important for synaptic formation and maintenance were upregulated. Among them, proteins related to cellular mechanisms of learning and memory, key components of brain functioning.

    On the other hand, proteins involved in inflammation, degeneration and brain lesion were downregulated, suggesting a potential neuroprotective role for the psychedelic substance.

    “Results suggest that classic psychedelics are powerful inducers of neuroplasticity, a tool of psychobiological transformation that we know very little about”, states Sidarta Ribeiro, Director of the Brain Institute of Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN) and coauthor of the study.

    According to Professor Draulio Araujo (UFRN) and coauthor of the study, “The study suggests possible mechanisms by which these substances exert their antidepressant effects that we have been observing in our studies.”

    “Our study reinforces the hidden clinical potential of substances that are under legal restrictions, but which deserve attention of medical and scientific communities”, Dr. Rehen said.

    AAAS Public Release: Human minibrains reveal effects of psychedelic substance: Study brings first evidence that psychedelics interfere with molecular signaling related to learning and memory in the human brain tissue. Minibrains, also known as cerebral organoids, have been considered a breakthrough in neuroscience studies

    It’s a good thing science recognizes no international boundaries. Otherwise countries such as Brazil would lose the strategic advantage that currently allows them to scoop all discoveries about illicit drugs and related compounds while US scientists remain blocked by federal research regulations stemming from the Middle Ages.

    • NorCalNative says:

      This stuff is like nectar to me.

      I’m a homeless Wine Country fire refuge. Family home of 50 years burned down on my 63rd birthday. My hometown of Santa Rosa is in rough shape.

      Last act was harvesting a Sour Diesel plant which is curing in my car trunk. Fuck it’s weird seeing a pile of ash where your home used to be.

      • DdC says:

        Dude I just flashed on you being in that area and came here to post a lookout. Glad you’re okay. That sucks. I heard we were getting some smoke and ash in the SC Mts.Its hazy. We had a local one last year. Still haven’t heard of a cause for this one. Always suspicious of “things” happening around harvest time. Take care. I love the trees and beach here, but now I’m thinking houseboat in Tahiti.

        wtf is the inept one doing?
        https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump

        Northern California wildfires destroyed at least seven marijuana growing operations.

        Hummm
        Richart Sowa’s Island Made of Plastic Bottles
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El6AU3riRI8

        • NorCalNative says:

          People were calling PG&E about exploding transformers at same time the fires started. I heard several myself.

          I read about all the hits to Cannabis industry, really bad news. I got about 1/2 lb. off my two girls. I’m set for awhile.

          The dispensary I had been using, SPARC, was wiped out. Lot of locals getting ready for the legal market lost everything.

          I think these fires may be END of PG&E cuz it’s looking like they’re liable. Weird to have everything I own fit into my car.

          House had good insurance and I’m fortunate to have a modest trust fund, I’ll be fine as soon as I can find a furnished rental.

    • Servetus says:

      Sorry to hear of your loss NorCal. When you didn’t post immediately after the fires commenced I thought something evil might have occurred. At least you’re alive.

      Here is some more nectar that may help your current situation. Researchers at Imperial College London show that psilocybin acts as a powerful anti-depressant with long-lasting effects after one or two doses:

      13-OCT-2017 — …Comparison of images of patients’ brains before and one day after they received the drug treatment revealed changes in brain activity that were associated with marked and lasting reductions in depressive symptoms.

      The authors note that while the initial results of the experimental therapy are exciting, they are limited by the small sample size as well as the absence of a control group – such as a placebo group – to directly contrast with the patients.

      Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, Head of Psychedelic Research at Imperial, who led the study, said: “We have shown for the first time clear changes in brain activity in depressed people treated with psilocybin after failing to respond to conventional treatments.

      “Several of our patients described feeling ‘reset’ after the treatment and often used computer analogies. For example, one said he felt like his brain had been ‘defragged’ like a computer hard drive, and another said he felt ‘rebooted’. Psilocybin may be giving these individuals the temporary ‘kick start’ they need to break out of their depressive states and these imaging results do tentatively support a ‘reset’ analogy. Similar brain effects to these have been seen with electroconvulsive therapy.”[…]

      AAAS Public Release: Magic mushrooms may ‘reset’ the brains of depressed patients

      It’s time to free the magic mushroom.

      • tensity1 says:

        Yeah, I saw both of the articles you mentioned, both this one and the one about brain plasticity. It’s making me think its about time for a personal reset. I’ve been spinning my wheels for too long and could use a head re-alignment, get it all nice and straight again.

  39. Servetus says:

    Poppy seed tea is killing people. Does this mean the end of the poppy seed bun?

    10-OCT-2017 — A home-brewing technique used to extract morphine from unwashed poppy seeds can produce lethal doses of the drug, according to research at Sam Houston State University.[…]

    The study traced three main components of the drug – including morphine, codeine, and thebaine — and found these techniques could produce lethal levels of morphine based on moderate use. While thebaine is not an addictive component, it was included in testing because it is valuable in identifying the poppy seeds as the source of morphine in order to rule out heroin use. The results were published in The Journal of Forensic Science.

    “Although some bulk poppy seeds can be more lethal than others due to the variation in morphine concentrations both between vendors and between harvest dates, it should be noted that regardless of sample, it is possible to obtain lethal doses of morphine from poppy seed tea if moderate volumes of tea are consumed,” Swortwood said.[…]

    Although opioid poppy and poppy straws are listed as controlled substances in the United States, poppy seeds are not prohibited. Processed poppy seeds are generally used in baking, such as in a poppy seed bun, which poses no threat to consumers. However, the high concentration of morphine contained in unwashed poppy seeds and extracted through home-brew methods may pose a danger of overdose or death.

    “This study will bring knowledge to law enforcement and the federal community,” said Swortwood. “Unwashed poppy seeds are easily accessible. This is a new illicit way of obtaining high levels of morphine.”

    AAAS Public Release: Home-brewed poppy seed tea can be lethal, study finds

    “Morphine, Codeine, and Thebaine in Home-Brewed Poppy Seed Tea by LC-MS/MS” is available from the Journal of Forensic Science at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1556-4029.13664/full.

  40. Servetus says:

    From the University of Washington Health Sciences department, CBD research in epilepsy from Dravet syndrome benefits from mice genetically engineered to exhibit the disease:

    9-OCT-2017 — “We have developed a mouse genetic model of Dravet syndrome, which is allowing us to probe more deeply into the possible beneficial effects of cannabidiol,” Catterall said. The researchers also wanted to see how the beneficial effects of cannabidiol may depend on changes in the molecular signaling processes that certain brain neurons use to communicate with each other.

    The researchers found that, in mice, cannabidiol treatment effectively reduced the severity and duration of seizures, as well as their frequency. The Dravet mice on low-dose cannabidiol treatment spent more time interacting with mice that were strangers to them, and were less likely to try to escape these social interactions.

    These results predict that Dravet syndrome patients may have better social interactions and fewer autism-like symptoms when treated with low doses of cannabidiol.

    This improvement in social interactions, however, was lost at the higher doses necessary to protect against seizures.[…]

    In looking at how cannabidiol affects brain neurons in the Dravet syndrome mouse model, the researchers observed that it rebalances the ratio of excitation to inhibition in the hippocampus. This is a part of the brain involved in learning and memory.

    These experimental findings suggest that cannabidiol reverses Dravet syndrome’s core deficit, which is failure of the brain’s inhibitory neurons to fire electrical signals and control the activity of nearby excitatory neurons. The researchers also found that cannabidiol may act by antagonizing GPR55, a brain receptor that remains poorly understood.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: Cannabidiol benefits and mechanisms shown in mouse study of Dravet syndrome: Cannabidiol treatment reduces seizures and autism-like behaviors in mice with this genetic condition

    • NorCalNative says:

      @DdC, or anyone else interested, this study used GW Pharma’s pure isolated CBD, product, Epidiolex.

      • DdC says:

        Hey Now NCN,
        GW’s hovering $110-115. I sold the ZGNX speed crap at 39. ITs hovering 38.25 -1.60 I think GW opened 11 markets in Europe. Canada too. Its still in FDA trials for US as far as I know. I read they brought their own samples and are stashing them in Indiana. INSY the Prohibidiot has tanked.7.55 -0.28 (3.58%) Scruz is tweeking rules about deliveries. Mostly behind closed doors. Rec is being nabbed by greedy prohibitches wanting to tax it back to the Cartels. Job security.

        I was in Ft Bragg x-mas 89, freezing on the beach with a 58 GMC broke down palace school bus near Ukiah on 101. About 100 escaped hippies run out of a Rainbow Gathering by the FBI, re-gathered there. Before the Dead New Years shows. Then the central coast ever since. Went to a Jerry Band and what was left of the Airplane near Mendocino at the Russian River. Stayed at a State Park behind it. Pretty country, a gazillion stars.

        I missed saying Happy B-Day b4 so Happy Birth Day To You.. I stopped recognizing them when I realized they only make me older.

        Since Ganja and then Hemp Oil happened, I don’t get sick. I imagine I’m supplementing the ECS I prefer preventing stressful situations if possible and Ganja works for normal shit happens stuff. So I don’t have to treat it with booze or big pharma. Stress being the foundation of any illness or hassling healing.

        Sessions stressing out sick or wounded Americans using Ganja makes him nothing less than a cowardly weak kneed yellow bellied lilly livered traitor.

        Well take care NCN. ikyk but I’ve been passing info on, and I suggest anyone going through any traumatic experience, to use Ganja to dull the memories that will fester into PTSD. PR, FL TX, Vegas or N Cal or just Allergic to Drumpf. Still not a peep from the asshole in chief. Be Well

        Found this… “45”
        http://oi64.tinypic.com/m7qtfk.jpg

        Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1632

  41. Rudy McDukum says:

    How a 12-Year-Old Girl Could Help End Weed Prohibition in America

    “This lawsuit represents the truth,” says Bondy, a criminal defense attorney who is an expert in federal cannabis law. “Marijuana has a recognized medical purpose. For the government to persist in the position that it doesn’t is foolish.”

    No matter who wins the case, it’s a sure bet that the losing party will appeal, according to Bondy. “These issues are so important to the public interest, so important to constitutional safeguards that a full evidentiary record has to be made. We welcome this as an opportunity to demonstrate fully and fairly that we are right.”

    Meanwhile, Alexis Bortell still must choose between breaking the law and preserving her own life. “Every time I look around my classroom, I think about what my classmates will be when we grow up. But there’s nothing I can be because the government thinks I’m bad,” she says. “I know they’re wrong. I do hope we can win this case. If that happens, maybe I can be a doctor, or if I need to, run for legislature.”

    https://tinyurl.com/kidpowerQbakes

  42. Servetus says:

    For 2017 Chapman University released its 4th annual Survey of American Fears. “1,207 randomly selected adult participants from across the nation and all walks of life” gave their views on “personal fears, natural disasters, paranormal fears, and fears of extremism.”

    What is notably lacking in the Chapman Survey is any mention of drugs, marijuana, opioids or THC-laced gummy bears. The hysteria once generated by the drug war is totally absent from a list that includes 16-perent of respondents who fear Bigfoot.

    Here are the top ten fears for Americans in 2017:

    1) Corruption of government officials (same top fear as 2015 and 2016)

    2) American Healthcare Act/Trumpcare (new fear)

    3) Pollution of oceans, rivers and lakes (new in top 10)

    4) Pollution of drinking water (new in top 10)

    5) Not having enough money in the future

    6) High medical bills

    7) The U.S. will be involved in another world war (new fear)

    8) Global warming and climate change

    9) North Korea using weapons (new fear)

    10) Air pollution

    Fear number (1) would encompass corruption in the DEA, CIA or the three branches of government with respect to how the drug war is implemented—a demonstrably greater fear for many citizens than mere drugs alone.

    Paranormal fears, such as those involving ghosts or Sasquatch, were found to fit a particular type of individual whom we often see taking an active role in drug enforcement agendas:

    … Simply put, the person with the highest number of paranormal beliefs in the United States as of 2017 will tend to be a lower income female living in a rural area in the Western states. She tends to be politically conservative and claims to be highly religious, although she actually attends religious services infrequently. She is either currently single or cohabitating with someone and reports her race as “other.”

    Fears of extremist groups include those domestic and foreign:

    Americans believe that both Islamic Extremists and White Supremacists represent a threat to national security. Three out of five Americans report they are very afraid or afraid that Islamic Extremists/Jihadists are a threat to national security. After Islamic Extremists/Jihadists, White Supremacists are the only group that a majority of Americans view as a threat to national security (51 percent).

    While other types of extremist groups are a concern to large groups of Americans, only those two were identified by a majority of survey respondents. Roughly one-third of Americans identify the following four as threats: Extreme Anti-Immigration groups, the Militia/Patriot Movement, Left-Wing Revolutionaries, and Extreme Anti-Abortion groups. One in five Americans is afraid Extreme Environmentalists are a threat.

    Chart of the Top Ten List of American fears:
    https://www.eurekalert.org/multimedia/pub/152944.php

    AAAS Public Release: What do Americans fear most?

  43. Mike says:

    Happy Birth Day NCN glad you made it —

    blessed with a plant

    much peace and good thoughts.

    • thelbert says:

      i second that: happy birthday NCN. You may want to look into rammed earth construction if you are going to rebuild. i haven’t been around here lately, because i was growing this summer. enough to last a year. i hope everyone that warms the couch is doing well.

      • NorCalNative says:

        Thanks, I got a laugh out of your 6 ft. 4 in. comment. Ruled out getting ready for NBA tryouts.

        I’ve been relocated to Fort Bragg on the coast. Part of the Emerald Triangle. Most def my sister and I will be rebuilding, but I’m not sure I’m going back. Looking for a cannabis-friendly community. I like the vibe of college towns. A safe place to cultivate would be nice.

        I was surprised that the two 3-gallon potted plants I grew in the sun would be about a half-years supply.

    • NorCalNative says:

      @Mike, Blessed with a plant indeed.

      It’s quite the nice air freshener in my car. Girls aren’t as pretty as they could have been. It was a couple days before I could trim, and stacking buds on layers of newspaper is all I can manage right now in my car.

      Before the fire I was getting ready to get rid of my old Windows 7 laptop. Sis introduced me to Apple with a new Mac Book. Sure beats trying to comment on a phone.

      • tensity1 says:

        Good luck and vibes to you, NCN. It’s sad to hear about your situation and the devastation in your area. May you and sis get back on your feet and rebuild your lives quickly.

  44. jean valjean says:

    It’s the Shawshank Redemption all over again. Louisiana sheriff complains that his free oil changes may end because he has to release non-violent drug prisoners, inadvertently revealing that slavery is alive and well in the the Louisiana private jail system, often run as a for profit business by local sheriffs like Prator.

    “Steve Prator, a Louisiana sheriff, unintentionally admitted that prison is the new slavery during a press conference earlier this week. The Caddo Parish official lamented that nonviolent offenders are being released from jails because the prison “can work” those inmates for free or next to nothing, saving money and profiting off their labor. In a video clip tweeted by writer Shaun King, Prator lays out his despicable defense”

    https://www.alternet.org/human-rights/louisiana-sheriff-horrifyingly-explains-why-good-prisoners-should-stay-jail

    • jean valjean says:

      Needless to say Prator is a big supporter of DARE and a member of Cops for Christ. The hypocrisy and corruption on display here beggars belief.

    • tensity1 says:

      God I fucking hate Louisiana. I had to grow up there and eventually come to terms that one of my best friends growing up is racist. The place oozes ignorance and provincialism and ugliness like swamp gas–it’s in the water and air, damn near about everywhere there.

      Might as well throw in Alabama, too, since I spent a couple of years as a kid there. To be fair, I mostly have good memories of Alabama, but it’s fucking Alabama. In the South. With Sessions. And Moore. Fuck ’em.

  45. JimmyTheRazor says:

    Duterte has admitted defeat.

    “What’s different this time is that Duterte’s decision appears to be a response to growing domestic outrage over the deliberate targeting of children by police on anti-drug operations,” said Phelim Kine, Asian division deputy director or Human Rights Watch.

    https://tinyurl.com/DutardSurrenders

    • Servetus says:

      Action actor Steven Seagal has joined with Rodrigo Duterte as a lethal drug war advocate and human rights criminal:

      October 13, 2017 — Seagal, 65, was in the Philippines to look for a location for his upcoming movie, which will be “about illegal drugs and other crimes,” a presidential palace statement said.

      The statement said Duterte told Seagal that “movies are a reflection of life” and “reiterated his strong stance against illegal drugs because it enslaves people to a form of synthetic chemical.”

      Duterte has been involved in a deadly drug war since taking office last June, and on Wednesday ordered that all drug operations be left to the drug enforcement agency, amid unprecedented scrutiny of police conduct in the brutal crackdown that has left thousands of Filipinos dead.

      Earlier this week, Seagal said at a news conference in Manila that he didn’t think the Philippines was “a dangerous place.”

      “It’s a place that’s up and coming with the new leadership,” the Philippine Star reported him as saying.[…]

      http://nypost.com/2017/10/13/steven-seagal-talks-drug-war-with-philippine-president-duterte/

      Ex-sheriff Joe Arpaio fan Steven Seagal has also been denied entry into Ukraine for five years due to his friendship with Vlad “The Impaler” Putin. Ukraine is calling Seagal a threat to its national security:

      http://nypost.com/2017/05/07/steven-seagal-is-a-threat-to-national-security-ukraine/

  46. Servetus says:

    A noted civil rights lawyer and advocate of marijuana decriminalization was arrested on a bogus assault charge two months before events escalated in Charlottesville, Virginia. Jeff Fogel was running for the DA’s office while advocating for decriminalization of marijuana. Previously, his work included opposition to stop-and-frisks in New York:

    October 12 2017 — Hen Jeff Fogel came to Charlottesville ten years ago, he was already a celebrated civil rights lawyer. After graduating from Rutgers Law School in 1969, he became a highly sought-after defense attorney, and eventually became the executive and legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey. He went on to become the legal director for the Manhattan-based Center for Constitutional Rights, where he worked on a landmark case against the city’s stop-and-frisk policy.[…]

    Relocating to Charlottesville, Fogel experienced opposition to his work that often targeted the local police force. Later, running as a candidate for commonwealth attorney:

    Fogel saw it as his opportunity to defy the Trump administration, much like civil rights activist Larry Krasner did in Philadelphia. As federal law enforcement would become more draconian, Fogel could make Charlottesville an example of a progressive alternative.[…]

    But one of Fogel’s proposals in particular attracted more attention than the others: his promise not to prosecute anyone for possessing marijuana. The proposal particularly ruffled the feathers of Joe Thomas, a local conservative radio host, who interviewed Fogel about it. He later released a 26-minute segment titled “Roll Me A Fogel” – in which he mixed the interview with soundbites from Afroman’s song “Because I Got High.”[…]

    Meanwhile, the criminal case against Fogel stalled. After the local prosecutor recused himself, and the state initially had trouble finding a special prosecutor who hadn’t dealt with Fogel as a defense attorney in their line of work. But the case is scheduled to go forward later this month.

    https://theintercept.com/2017/10/12/before-charlottesville-was-in-the-spotlight-police-arrested-their-most-prominent-critic-in-the-middle-of-the-night/

  47. FredBuckweed says:

    Nuedexta is being increasingly prescribed in nursing homes even though drugmaker Avanir Pharmaceuticals acknowledges in prescribing information that the drug has not been extensively studied in elderly patients — prompting critics to liken its use to an uncontrolled experiment. The one study the company conducted solely on patients with Alzheimer’s (a type of dementia) had 194 subjects and found that those on Nuedexta experienced falls at more than twice the rate as those on a placebo.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/12/health/nuedexta-nursing-homes-invs/index.html

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