Random Shots

bullet image Kudos to the folks who raised a ruckus this week about the fact that the DEA had not yet removed the reference to American Medical Association’s support for marijuana being in Schedule 1. With the AMA’s turnaround last week, it was unlikely that the DEA would actually, uh, mention the AMA’s call for a schedule change, but it certainly made sense to get the old info cleared off.

It’s gone now. Which, if you read the changed page, is kind of like removing one maggot from a large sack of feces.

bullet image So CNN paid 8 million dollars to make Lou Dobbs go away. Could be money well spent. However, if they wanted me to stay away from CNN, I’d do it for half that. Maybe less.

bullet image I’m all for gender equality, but… not this way.

As drug violence seeps deeper into Mexican society, women are taking a more hands-on role.

In growing numbers, they are being recruited into the ranks of drug smugglers, dealers and foot soldiers. And in growing numbers, they are being jailed and killed for their efforts.

bullet image This is from a while ago — it got lost on my desktop. Secretary Napolitano Applauds President Obama’s Intent to Nominate Grayling Williams as Director of the Office of Counternarcotics Enforcement.

The Office of what? Huh? How is it that I’ve been writing about drug policy for over 6 years and I missed an entire federal drug war bureaucracy? And it’s been around since 2004! Apparently they somehow coordinate “stopping the entry of illegal drugs into the U.S.”

So, how’s that going?

bullet image A couple of weeks ago, I noticed this article about medical marijuana and the workplace. It included this passage:

Clouding the issue even more is a decision earlier this month by the U.S. Justice Department not to pursue criminal charges against medical marijuana producers and users in states where it’s legal.

“That’s a very significant retreat from federal policy,” said Mark de Bernardo, executive director of the Institute for a Drug Free Workplace. “Marijuana is a dangerous drug that detrimentally affects the workplace. It has impacts on health care costs, productivity, accidents and employee turnover.”

I wrote a letter to Mr. de Bernardo, asking him for any data he had to support his claims, but he hasn’t responded. Surprise, surprise.

I’d still love to hear from you, Mark.

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24 Responses to Random Shots

  1. Nick says:

    “one maggot from a large sack of feces”.

    Quote of the day!

    Thanks Pete.

  2. R.O.E. says:

    “Marijuana is a dangerous drug that detrimentally affects the workplace. It has impacts on health care costs, productivity, accidents and employee turnover.”

    Ya duh ! It sure does effect worker turn over. When someone fails a drug test,ya gotta hire another and HOPE they dont smoke cannabis on the side,thus having to fire them in the future also!

    Man,were do these people get thier education?

    “The governments job is to keep the masses at a certain social level in order to keep them selves on top and in power.” R.O.E.

  3. Wendy says:

    THE BOOK OF MORMON JACOB 2:19

    “…(after obtaining hope in Christ do good…)

    …to clothe the naked, and to feed the hungry, and to liberate the captive, and administer relief to the sick and afflicted.”

    DEA there is no “grosser crime” than YOU!

  4. allan420 says:

    Mr de Bernardo is obviously using the Firestone study for his reference material. Twit.

  5. Hicksville says:

    Steve Rolles on CNN talking about ‘Blueprint.’ Talk about a pleasent surprise when Steve’s recognizable voice rang out in my living room. 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLde2u_7blA

  6. bobreaze says:

    The random drug testing of workers is a huge constitutional violation. It has not promoted a safer workplace I personally belive it leads people to harder drugs and or benge drinking. Ontop of doing nothing to promote a safer work place random DT are a waste of money. Spending 30 dollars or more an employee to catch 5% of an employee pool that does illicit drugs seems like a large waste to me. While I am against random DT if someone comes to work under the influence i belive a DT is warrented because then it becomes a saftey issue.

  7. ezrydn says:

    If you’re outside Unkle Sugar’s borders, you can view the video here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/11/18/ctw.connector.steve.rolles.cnn

  8. ezrydn says:

    Oh, and when you find yourself in a debate where someone accuses you of trying to “legalize drugs.” Say, as I did today that brought my cohort to a stop, “No, I’m trying to return them to the legal status as before.” Afterwards, I thought, “I should have said, ‘No. I’m trying to RE-legalize them’.”

  9. kaptinemo says:

    EZ,, I’ve found that “RE-legalize” always opens them up for the inevitable rant on how they were made illegal to begin with (cue racial bigotry history lesson tailored for surrounding audience).

    If they insist upon ‘leading with the chin’, I’m always happy to oblige.

  10. Cliff says:

    “Marijuana is a dangerous drug that detrimentally affects the workplace. It has impacts on health care costs, productivity, accidents and employee turnover.”

    After a plane crash or near miss or a military plane / helicopter crash, I always (sarcastically) say that, “if only these people were drug tested then this mishap could have been avoided.”

    I have an MS in Environmental Studies, several medals and letters of commendations before and while I was being kicked out of the service for responsibly using cannabis. I was regarded as a model soldier by my peeres and most of my chain of command.

    Now, we’re letting an unstable Muslim, who says bad things about America and its war on Islam on the record before, actually acting on his words in an Army uniform as a freakin Major?! Talk about creating an unsafe workplace. Also as a tragic aside, 140 servicemembers died so far this year due to suicide.

    I never sold secrets to the commies or ever performed my duties in anything less than a professional manner, much less killed 13 of my brothers and sisters in uniform.
    If responsibly using cannabis is wrong, then I don’t want to be right.

  11. bobreaze says:

    Cliff

    Thanks for serving our country im sorry your cannabis use caused your dismissal. I would love to serve my country however 2 arrest for marijuana prevent it. One when i was a juvenille the other got dismissed improper search without a warrant or probable cause. Currently i work a crappy file clerk job with a bank that randomly DTs so no cannabis use for me. The messed up part is while cannabis is the safest recreational drug it is the most easily detectable drug and has the longest detection period. I guess you should have been a recreational crack smoker at least if you did it on friday you should be good for monday. Drug testing pushes people away from softer drugs such as marijuana because they dont want to get caught and loose their job. So they use the hard stuff which leaves the system in a few days.

  12. R.O.E. says:

    Hey Cliff, Thanks for your service. I would much rather have you behind a gun,stoned(although may not be safe), than have a radical nut job there. I say re-instate your service. I say you are honorable. To hell with their rules about cannabis.

  13. ezrydn says:

    I remember when I got back from Nam, there was a lot of talk about smoking the local product and then going on a shooting spree.

    What I ran across, in the field, would never allow one to fire a high-powered rifle or cause an explosion. I’m sure you catch my drift. So, we didn’t have a lot of usage in our outfit.

    What we saw a couple weeks ago in TX was how “PC” has come back to bite us in the ass! PC is what shut everyone’s mouths. And, do I understand that, today in Basic Training, one carrys a “stress card?” Does the enemy honor those now days? Is it like a “Chu Hoi” pass?

    I’d put my back against yours, Cliff.

  14. claygooding says:

    Being released from service for cannabis use is like scolding a cat for killing birds. The cat will continue bird hunting,and people will continue too cannabis.
    Yet another of many wrongs created by a lie.
    Keep the pressure on,,,I hear a fat lady humming in the background.

  15. Cliff says:

    “I’d put my back against yours, Cliff.”

    ez;

    The feeling is mutual. That means a lot to me, coming from a guy who has seen the sh*t on other side of the wire, I’m honored to be regarded by you as a brother in arms. You made my day.

  16. Furball says:

    I remember we were given some tiny little pills in Iraq that kept us up for hours. Peronally, I’m happy now w/ cannabis. At least w/ it, I don’t grind my teeth, my knee pain goes away, and I keep the flashbacks to a minimum.

  17. Nick Zentor says:

    Now, we’re letting an unstable Muslim, who says bad things about America and its war on Islam on the record before, actually acting on his words in an Army uniform as a freakin Major?!

    Okay, Cliff, we get the drift. But now that you are back in the civil society, do us all a favor and work on getting some of the real facts before jumping to conclusions.

    Fact #1: The “war on Islam” is real. The U.S. Corporate Empire is killing Muslims to steal their land and resources.

    Fact #2: That Muslim Major that allegedly went on that “alleged” single-man killing-spree was just a patsy for a major black PSYOPS situation, created to help convince the dumbed-down, fauxified “Tea Party” gang to increase their support for the U.S. Imperial wars being waged in the M.E.

    Fact #3: The U.S. Government is in complete denial when it comes to its secretive Black Ops and False-Flag Operations. By maintaining complete denial of Black Ops, they can successfully kill people in other countries and blame it on their enemies.

    Fact #4: Now they are doing it in the U.S. mainland also. (But don’t expect them to admit it).

  18. ezrydn says:

    Furball,

    Our company medic handed the same out to us when we were out on operations and had to be on 100% alert at night. It’s called “benzadrine.” (sp??) He’d hand out 2-3 to each man, each night.

    I’ve noticed a lot of combat vets involved in this Reform Movement. To those who share Pete’s Couch, I bid a hearty “Garry Owen.”

  19. DdC says:

    Terrorism is terrorism, is terrorism.

    Domestic by DEAth or Oklahoma rednecks or anti choice clinic bombers or religious thugs shooting doctors in church. Or wingnut jihadists or fly boys popping go go pills killing Canadian collateral damage. Bobing infrastructures or SWAT busting old ladies doors down and pumping 38 rounds into her. This wingnut didn’t kill because of political correctness. Thats prohibitionist fox newt gossip.

    Signs were missed but not because we should be civil to all people and not exploit their resources. Because of Military Correctness, covering your bro’s and sis’s actions the same as the blue bellies busting potheads with nightsticks. CYA. This wingnut cut loose because of fear of going to Lieraq. Taking National Guard units out of the states. Private police actions, for profit civilian support. 1 Haliburton minimum wage worker for each soldier. The kill ratios are upside down compared to WW1. More collateral damage dropping bombs from 30,000 feet.

    All propaganda to keep the 6 o’clock gossip sessions humming buzzwords about honor and duty and crap to send kids to the battlefield to protect OIL. Same fucking oil we could replace with vegetables like Hemp. No this was a wingnut who went off because of his training, not his religion or politics. It was personal or he would have done what all jihadists do, suicide bombing. He took aim and didn’t want to die anymore than a junkie shooting dope. He was pissed and probably because of ignorant racism. Doing the same honorable job and like blacks in the south, no matter. Still just a sand nigger.

    Political correctness can be false in the sense of cannabis, only because it is a false assessment. Racism is not politically incorrect, its an act of violence. Its the same as DEAth stigmatizing Ganja to socially permit bashing stoners. Those who put on a uniform aren’t the brave ones. Those refusing to blindly obey, simply because of another uniform ordering them, are the brave. The muslim was a wingnut. Not anything else. I fear USAl Qaeda terrorists more than the Taliban. Time to burn a flag for Jesus. I mean melt a flag. Oh, that would be environmentally unsound. Time to piss on a flag for Jesus! Or piss on the burning Constitution for Americans! No piece of cloth or polyester is of more value than any human life.

  20. Wendy says:

    DdC – we need to calm ourselves in this silent war.

    I, for one greatly appreciate Your outrage and frustration…I am 54 year’s young!

    The war is over.

    It has been the Great Holy War of Conscience since the beginning.

    The guilty suffer with their own demons; quite evidently to many of us, and I am assuming more than we dare to grasp.

    The worldwide collective conscience is alive and well.

    Power of Prayer, aura, self-awareness or whatever label we may apply is overcoming the negatives. (rapidly)

    We have won the so-called ‘hypocritical war on drugs’, and may I please also add the fact of worldwide win.

    The poppy war in Afghani is all about a mafia family also.

    We are a family of our own now after all.

    Time, truth, justice are what we are all about.

    From the cellular level on up.

    If devil (backwards lived) evil lies and destruction have temporarily been necessary, then so be it.

    We are the light of the world.

    YOU ARE GREAT!

  21. Wendy says:

    ..oh, and I fully agree with Your every words.

  22. Wendy says:

    ezrydn and Furball- benzadrine..little yellow bennies they were called in the past…that sucks.

    I had no idea that they could get away with drugging and
    making You guys take speed while on active duty.

    It sounds similar to history repeating itself, i.e. Hitler gaining mind control with much of the same tactics…speed in many forms.

    This government is anarchy on us all.

    But I respect your active duty regardless and in no way am I judging anyone…life is just a learning thing after all too.

    Thanks for sharing.

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