Odds and Ends

bullet image The roots of the fiasco. John Sinclair takes a look at how we got to where we are today.

“An open and honest discussion” would lead first to an examination of what the War on Drugs is all about: Why do they have a War on Drugs? What are its goals? Who are the combatants? Why has there been no measurable success at all?

First off, it’s not a war on drugs per se, because all sorts of drugs are more prevalent than ever, and the pharmaceutical industry is indeed the most profitable of enterprises, but it’s a war on recreational drugs and their users.

The purpose of the War on Drugs is to persecute and punish users of recreational drugs in an effort basically to try to keep people from getting high on substances ruled illegal by a political process with little regard for medical or moral niceties — nor for due process of law, for that matter.

Recreational drugs like marijuana, cocaine and heroin were once legal. One day, through some mystical process that took place in the houses of Congress and in state legislative bodies in turn, each of them was determined to be illegal.

[Thanks, Tom]

bullet image Really, really stupid OpEd by Robert rose in the Indy Star: Don’t surrender in War on Drugs

Frankly, I do not want to live in the drug-addled world advocated by those who protest the War on Drugs. Alcohol is a drug and should be all this society needs for “recreational use.” It has been proven that marijuana use leads to heavier drug use to keep those highs coming.

[Thanks, Malcolm]

bullet image TSA keeping us safe. Montel Williams cited for drug paraphernalia

Williams was caught by TSA with a pipe commonly used for marijuana while going through a security checkpoint, a sheriff’s spokesperson said. He paid the citation of $484 and was released to resume his travel plans.

Williams suffers from multiple sclerosis and is a prominent advocate for legalizing marijuana for medicinal purposes.


bullet image Sinn Féin political party initiates reform in Ireland (via Transform)

Their call for fact-based policy:

“The administration of criminal justice as it interacts with drug-related crime should be reviewed, reformed and tailored to more effectively address and reduce systemic crime, economic compulsive crime and psychopharmacological crime. A broad societal debate considering every possible approach and all relevant evidence from other jurisdictions including those that have experimented with decriminalization and/or legalization is warranted to this end.

“New approaches must be informed by the most credible emerging evidence and international best practice.”


This is an open thread.

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52 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. Pete – Happy New Year to you! I’m glad to see your site going strong. Here is my contribution.

    So as not to confuse anyone…please check the article here first: http://www.r8ny.com/blog/vincent_nunes/theres_more_to_black_americans_than_street_corner_sales.html#comment-1452265

    The following is a response to a comment posted by a blogger named Gatemouth.
    ______________________________________________________

    Happy New Year, Gatemouth – good to see you back here.

    Here’s the thing…I have considered the perceived downsides to legalization, as far as it pertains to the white powders. As far as marijuana is concerned, I don’t believe that there is any disagreement whatsoever.

    I believe (and many news reports will bolster my argument) that the rampant pharmaceuticals are tens of times worse than the white powders. You are aware of the cocaine wine made especially for a Pope, yes? Coca-Cola’s name is derived from its former ingredient. There was also children’s medicine, in which the main ingredient has been either cocaine or heroin. Now, this is not to say that just because this once was, that it should be again simply by dint of it having been done before; rather, decades of this usage took place, and normative usage did not pose a danger to one’s health.

    I need to hearken back to the definition of insanity; doing the same thing over and over, yet expecting a different result.

    The punitive option doesn’t bloody work. The punitive option directly relates to the black market price of said drugs. Said profit margin outweighs the detriment and potential cost of dealing drugs. Take away that profit margin, and the dealing ENDS. It’s not like this stuff actually comes with a price tag attached; we give it that arbitrary value in order to punish those individuals.

    We are wasting everyone’s time with this nonsense. You read every day about this bust and that bust; yet, millions of units of these drugs make it into our communities. What good is any of this silliness?

    Let’s imagine a scenario in which real crimes are researched; our quality of life rises like our spirits, as our jails are emptied of our distaff family members, and are instead filled with REAL CRIMINALS, like rapists, thieves, murderers, etc. – doesn’t that sound lovely?

    Imagine a New York City without a homeless population; Ted Williams being my example of someone whose addiction spiraled, but not so out of control that he couldn’t regain his humanity; today, he’s an announcer for the Cleveland Cavaliers, with more offers to follow. The homeless often become so because of a myriad of factors, but I would posit that the constants are:

    * the exhorbitant prices required to procure said drugs;
    * the need to ostracize;
    * the the stigma attached because of its “illegality”;

    * the lack of quality control, one instance of which I detail in the article above

    Those factors, often paired with untenable circumstances, lead to some individuals succumbing and becoming unproductive members of society.

    So…let’s remove them from the equation. Sweden did that…and as mentioned, the population did not go buck-wild and engage in a Dopeapalooza; in Amsterdam, one can go to cafes and indulge. Now…are we to assume that schoolchildren will be in more danger if drugs are legalized? Do you know why kids would even do such a thing at a young age?

    They try them because they’re CURIOUS.

    Parents don’t talk about them in any rational fashion; their friends haven’t a clue; but they do hear bits about drugs here and there while watching television or taking in a movie. However, if drugs were legalized, parents could take the reins and explain along with that uncomfortable talk about the “birds and the bees” how they should be aware of the existence and the inherent dangers of these substances. They can explain how their bodies and minds at their age cannot possibly be ready to take on the added stress of balancing drugs on top of cheese fries and hot dogs.

    Families can act out scenes where Dad comes home and sets up the works, then tumbles around the house like a maniac for a couple of minutes as Mommy and kids laugh at the silly buffoon. Or Mommy is loopy from too much champagne after an office party. Things like this brings families closer together; tear gas, smoke bombs and battering rams only tear families apart.

    Need I mention family members murdered in the name of drugs, whether it comes at the hand of law enforcement or by the machetes of some crazy Colombians to whom you owe too much money, and to whom your degenerating actions begin to give pause; it’s all a senseless waste of life.

    All of that I’ve just mentioned comes back to MONEY.

    Remove the profit margin, and the drug trade dies with a whimper.

  2. Ben says:

    Is it me, or do only those politicians with the most extreme political views feel safe enough to challenge the established order of the Drug War? Ron Paul, Nigel Farage, Sinn Fein? Three different species of far-right politicians.

  3. Duncan20903 says:

    Probably not very sympathetic actor but here’s a guy charged with felony child neglect after police discovered pictures of his 2 year old son actually being allowed to pick up merryjewanna and place it in a jar.(the horror!) Tennessee child neglect law requires there to be a possibility of physical injury to the child except if the parents are engaged in corporal punishment. Look to me like you can use a belt and clothespins on a kid as long as it issued as punishment by a parent or guardian. Don’t you dare let them touch your headstash.

    Like I said, the guys a total buffoon, but it was his wife who told the police about the pictures when they answered a domestic disturbance call. There’s not a chance in heck that the wife was actually the one who had the child touching the cannabis and photographing it, now is there? Presuming it was the man who directed the scene, what evidence is there that she wasn’t complicit in the horrific act of allowing the child to (OMG!) touch cannabis? The wife’s brother was also charged for aggravated assault for brandishing a firearm during the course of the brouhaha. God this makes me wax nostalgic for life in the trailer park. Those people really know how to prove that they’re alive. It’s also got the classic neighbor who would never have guessed. Beating the wife, well shit he’s a good ole boy. But Mary J Wanna? No way! I mean, he even fed those children!

    “I still don’t really believe it, but the pictures — they don’t lie,” said neighbor Terry Brindley.

    Brindley was awakened Tuesday night, when Portland officers swarmed Bradley’s second-story apartment.

    Brindley said he thought Bradley was a good dad to his 2-year-old son, and even younger daughter.

    “My right hand to the Lord, he was always feeding them, always bathing them — and everything like that,” added Brindley.

    http://www.tennessean.com/article/20101229/GALLATIN01/101229036/Phone-pictures-show-2-year-old-packing-pot

    http://www.newschannel5.com/story/13755079/father-takes-photo-of-toddler-playing-with-marijuana

    the law: http://law.justia.com/tennessee/codes/2010/title-39/chapter-15/part-4/39-15-401/

  4. Paul says:

    Ben,

    I’m not very up on Irish politics, but Sinn Fein looks like they will be in power in Ireland soon, so they are about to be the definition of mainstream in Ireland. Fiona Fail has, well, failed in Irish finance, and they are due for a fall.

    The Sinn Fein article looked very promising. It would be good to see another EU country take a decrim or regulatory approach to drugs. One or two more countries giving up on the War on Drugs would make the position much more mainstream, and much more likely to take hold elsewhere in the world.

    Now if only we could get France to do their national bit and surrender on the War on Drugs we would be getting somewhere. 🙂

  5. WHAT........! says:

    Frankly, I do not want to live in the drug-addled world advocated by those who protest the War on Drugs. Alcohol is a drug and should be all this society needs for “recreational use.” It has been proven that marijuana use leads to heavier drug use to keep those highs coming.

    Thats strange, Ive consumed cannabis and I dont consume hard drugs…and I dont constantly “chase” a high. With that said, how come alcohol dosent lead to harder drugs to as is said about cannabis. Alcohol gives you a high also.

    I find it funny how those who use alcohol say all other drugs give you a high and alcohol give you a ‘drunk’. Why are these folks afraid of saying alcohol also gives a high? Are they afraid of being included in this ‘Drug addled’ world?

  6. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Back in the 40s and 50s getting stoned meant too much drinking alcohol. I learned that when Paul Drake called Perry Mason to tell him the witness he needed wasn’t going to do so because he was sitting at a bar and man is he stoned.

    I guess I think you might be slightly out of touch, it’s been a couple of decades since the drunks accepted that their drug of choice isn’t particularly unique. The primary reason that AA remained AA is because degenerate addicts who prefer drinking alcohol do face a set of challenges that are different than those into cocaine, heroin, meth etc because you’re almost never more than 5 minutes away from someplace you can buy a drink. A lot of people might read that and say “don’t you see that widespread availability increases the possibility of ‘relapse’?” I ask them “Do you realize that any degenerate addict can relapse at a bar? Heroin addicts can’t afford to go into the liquor store either. Coke heads in particular seem very fond of alcohol, many actively assert that taking a couple of drinks will crank their motor for some rocks. If there is truly any such thing as a ‘gateway’ drug, drinking alcohol as the gateway to cocaine is it. There’s even some real science behind the relationship and I’ve recently read that the sympathetic use of coke and alcohol creates a unique high. The ‘pure’ drunks have only a small advantage in that they know all the places to buy a drink. Believe me, a degenerate addict that gets a bad case of the fukkits can figure out where to cop in short order, and there are a lot of non-alcohol drug dealers in bars anyway.

    Seriously, the only place the barrier and belief that alcohol is different really has any subscribers is among those who don’t get high and possibly some redneck drunks with a trailer park state of mind. But gosh, have you seen all the Country and Western entertainers who enjoy cannabis all of a sudden? It seems that they’ve started smoking merrywanna in Muskogee, and they like it.

    Here’s a country singer named Don Bowman singing a song called “The Wildwood Weed”
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ar-Ws6PAeLI
    Oh wait, this was released in 1964. Ah well it’s a great song anyway. He never did say if they got Bill down from the wind mill.

  7. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    Law & Order has passed on to that great rerun in the sky but Law & Order: LA has been given the torch to carry. In episode 3 we find the detectives investigating a series of dispensary robberies after a homicide occurs in one of the robberies. Absolutely respectful, the only indications that something might be unusual about the business is the reticence of the players to cooperate with the police investigation. That part wasn’t very realistic at all. California is the place where people who by happenstance cross paths with a DEA agent on his lunch break and get a couple of pounds confiscated will call the police and demand the DEA guys be arrested. It’s a classic:

    http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1570/a01.html?1350

    Anyway, they determined the murder wasn’t actually part of a botched robbery and caught the murderers which turned out to be a couple of rich kids. In one seen one of the detectives was interviewing a lady who was bald from chemo and trying without success to roll a joint. After a few seconds the detective insists on rolling the joint for her and does so with the ease of an experienced pothead. He mentioned his ‘misspent’ youth with a shit eating grin on his face when the cancer lady observed his talent.

  8. malcolm kyle says:

    Vincent, Amsterdam is in The Netherlands (known to some as Holland) and not Sweden. Otherwise, very good writing!

    Here is a very recent article by a psychiatrist from Amsterdam, exposing Drug Czar misinformation
    http://tinyurl.com/247a8mp

    The Netherlands also provides heroin on prescription under tight regulation to about 1500 long-term heroin addicts for whom methadone maintenance treatment has failed.
    http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/free-heroin-brings-everyone-a-bit-peace

    The Dutch justice ministry announced, in May 2009, the closure of eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty. There’s simply not enough criminals
    http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Netherlands_to_close_prisons_for_lack_of_criminals

    For further information, kindly check out this very informative FAQ provided by Radio Netherlands: http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/faq-soft-drugs-netherlands
    or go to this page: http://www.rnw.nl/english/dossier/Soft-drugs

  9. War on Fail says:

    Das Homeland had to do something to justify its existence. Sorry Montell and Kurtis Blow. They could always start a webpage of images of scanned hotties as a side hustle.

  10. Manfred Gooseberry says:

    Wildwood Flower is a great herb song. Brewer & Shipley with one toke over the line. The George Baker Selection little green bag. I loves me some marywanna songs.

  11. malcolm kyle says:

    Mexico burns as commissioner Bersin indulges himself with pipe dreams and wishful thinking:

  12. allan420 says:

    fortunately Mr Rose’ opinion is only an IndyStar blog and not an Oped in the paper (that I could see). Howevere he clearly demonstrates the last tactic in the Prohib arsenal – when you run out of arguments paint your opposition as other than they are, demean and misrepresent their position and then argue against that fabrication. Chumps…

    Keep the pressure on, the pot is reaching a boil…

  13. Duncan20903 says:

    Hey Manfred, have you ever heard Lawrence Welk’s cover of “One Toke Over the Line”? No, I’m not even capable of making something like that up. Just search youtube for lawrence welk toking or click:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye3ecDYxOkg

    Wunneful, wunneful, a modern spiritual, thank you Gail & Dale.

  14. Malcolm…they were meant to be two different references, but thank you for the accolades.

    Montel Williams is treating his MS with marijuana. All those pharmaceuticals may as well be sugar tablets, for all they’re worth.

  15. malcolm kyle says:

    Vincent, it’s me being pedantic again; Sweden has one of the most strictest prohibition policies on the planet. Maybe you’re confusing it with Denmark’s Freetown of Christiania whose cannabis trade was tolerated by authorities until 2004
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown_Christiania

  16. malcolm kyle says:

    A prohibitionist strategy drives trade in a high-demand product underground, but it does not stop that trade. And by driving it underground, prohibitionism also creates vast new problems of violence and corruption. That is certainly evident in Mexico. It is equally apparent in Afghanistan, where the Taliban and al-Qaeda get an estimated $100 million to $400 million a year from the black-market commerce. Regional warlords and officials of the Karzai government also profit heavily.

    One would think that after pursuing a prohibition strategy involving various illegal drugs (and for a time in the United States with alcohol as well) for nearly a century, policy makers would grasp the point that it doesn’t work. Sisyphus didn’t have a choice, but our political leaders do. –Ted Galen Carpenter

    http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/sisyphus-afghanistans-drug-war-4679

  17. Thanks again, Malcolm.

    I was listening to CBS News 880 AM this morning, and they mentioned how the Taliban was reaping enormous profits from the poppies.

    Could they be referring to the very crop the Taliban had almost completely eradicated? The same crops under protection from U.S. /U.K. troops?

    Something’s terribly wrong.

    http://publicintelligence.net/usnato-troops-patrolling-opium-poppy-fields-in-afghanistan/

  18. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    .
    This was just so precious I had to share it with people who should find it amusing, at least in a train wreck sort of way.

    I went to CNN’s ‘breaking news’ page:
    http://news.blogs.cnn.com/breakingnews/

    This was the lead story:

    House lawmakers read U.S. Constitution.

    Live: http://on.cnn.com/cnndcl2
    4:00 pm UTC, January 6 2011

    Well it’s hard to argue that our current crop of politards actually reading the darn thing is front page news. I surely wouldn’t have predicted this in a hundred years of trying. Does anyone think they will actually be able to understand it, or will it just register in their minds as gibberish? Also, how the heck did they get the idea in their heads to finally read it after so many hundreds of years? We need to get the Senate and the executive bramnch to actually read the darn thing as well. Oh well, fingers crossed that it actually helps.

  19. darkcycle says:

    Duncan, I hold no illusions that they’ll be able to understand it. It has lots of hard words.

  20. Duncan20903 says:

    Yeah DC, most likely wishful thinking on my part.
    ………………………………………………..

    Vincent the only thing wrong with the picture is people taking the self serving statements of a cohort of people who have sworn to disrupt our lives by any means at their disposal, and that have been proven to be liars when they think it will promote their political agendas.

    It’s a goddamn fucking joke to believe you can inspect the area and determine that production has stopped. If they knew where to go look to determine that it isn’t happening then they knew where to go in order to “eradicate” it when it was in production. So are they actually confessing to being complicit when the past crops were harvested and processed into usable form? How the heck do those pot growers in our National forests get away with it? 2010, record eradication, still a bumper crop produced in North America and California in particular. The one thing that we’re missing in being able to get this entire fiasco wrapped up and put on the shelf is getting the reality that it can’t be stopped though people’s heads. You would think 97* years of failure would have given them the idea that maybe they’re backing a public policy that is guaranteed to fail.

    *(97 years using California’s criminalization of cannabis in 1913 as the starting point. I could actually make a solid argument to start counting in 1875 when the first law against opium smoking was passed)

    It’s amazing how so many people think when the Chinese, the North Koreans, the Cubans, the Russians, all known to be short on honesty and ethics, will simply take the word of various mass murdering, proven liars and believe what they say when they claim to have eradicated the problem. We’re sure Kim Jong-il is lying about his nuclear bomb making projects but swallow the nonsense that there’s he’s wiped out (some) drug use in North Korea hook, line, and sinker.

    Anyone who’s spent a year on the inside of the black market should be shaking their heads and thinking “why would people be stupid enough to swallow that line of twaddle?”

    I think that people on the outside prefer to believe it because authoritarian, random strip searching, capital punishment practicing government ruled with an iron fist is the last thing that they have in their fantasy world on which they can hang their hat thinking that anything can succeed in limiting people to getting high on drinking alcohol or from sniffing model airplane glue. Once they realize that even the authoritarians are lying stacks of shit there just isn’t anywhere else for them to go.

  21. denmark says:

    On NW public radio yesterday I heard “The biggest class of Freshmen Republicans in 70 years” to be sworn in.
    ………….(did that 70 years hit you between the eyes?)

    And the Constitution was read on the “floor” today at the swearing-in. This hasn’t been done in how long? Symbolic yes, but effective in getting the point across? Yes, it says we’re watching, or “I see you”. We see inside their corrupt heads clearly now and my best advice is Beware elected officials.

    The above two changes are significant and show the wave that is washing across America. It won’t stop until g’ment starts to really listen and HEAR us again. Then the upcoming generation will get complacent and politicians can find another way to suppress humans for 70 years. As written, history does repeat itself.

  22. Duncan20903 says:

    Wow, they outdid the number of “Contract on America” freshmen from the class of 1994? Wow, it’s really starting to look like BHO is going to give W a run for the money in the competition as worst President ever. BHO better have something up his sleeve or we’re fucked. I am formally predicting that Osama bin Laden will be captured early next year, just in time to assure BHO’s re-election. Heck it doesn’t even have to really be ObL, just a Mediterranean Caucasian that looks like him.

    I have to admit that I’m impressed by the decision to read the Constitution at the start of business.

    I still say that political office should only be available to people who don’t want the job, and that anyone who wants the job is automatically disqualified from consideration. Of course that would require conscription and a way to figure out which were the lying weasels when they claim that political service is the most degrading and worthless job available. But it’s been a over 71 years since Mr. Smith went to Washington to straighten everything out. Wasn’t he drafted by his State’s Governor? I think I’m going to see if I can find that movie and watch it.

  23. darkcycle says:

    Yeah, amazing isn’t it? Korea, China, et al claim to have ended drug abuse in their nations, yet somehow, they still seem to find people to execute….

  24. malcolm kyle says:

    You’re most welcome Vincent!

    I’ve left you a comment

    If I’ve got any of the stats. wrong then kindly return the favor and correct me.

    And please stick around!

  25. DdC says:

    National Guard in Federal Raid Raises Questions
    Lansing, MI — On Nov. 30, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided a facility in Meridian Township. Along with ground forces, the Michigan National Guard provided two Blackhawk helicopters to assist in the operation.

    “We were surprised there was even a warrant. Everything inside was legal under state law,” Clark said. “I’m sure it was 100 percent legal.”

    Rainbow Farm Massacre

    Marijuana Revolution by John Sinclair

    Thank God for Hippies

  26. malcolm kyle says:

    Kids, unless you wish to spiral into the dark endless abyss of ‘rational thought’, don’t click on that link!

  27. allan420 says:

    spamactivists! 3 in a row should always be a clue kids! Follow Uncle Malcom’s advice…

  28. claygooding says:

    Some more “good” news,although I think the guv has stated he will not sign it;

    “”Illinois House Reportedly Ready To Legalize Medical Marijuana””

    http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/illinois/article_a32fdf48-19be-11e0-94fc-00127992bc8b.html

  29. DdC says:

    DailySmoker – How to roll a jointTwinsisters U2b

    How to roll a Joint High Times U2b

    Learn How to Roll A Joint! (with pics)
    A full joint rolling guide for beginners.

    Paper for Joints

    Papers come in all shapes, sizes, colors and designs. Novelties aside, the best skins are the ones which stick where and when you want them to.

    The Mix, filling

    Getting the mix right is half the art of joint-rolling. There plenty of scope for choice but quantity is never a substitute for quality – Don’t waste your lungs on inferior ingredients.

    The art of rolling

    Most people reading this will be well practiced the art of rolling a decent, smokeable joint. However, for those with more thumbs than fingers and a zero rating on the Kudos scale, here are few basic tips.

    Roaches

    Roaches don’t filter the smoke but they do allow it to flow, and smoke condenses in cylinders. A good roach also stops the joint from dissolving in your mouth or burning your lips when you chase that last elusive toke. Here’s how to make a good one.

    Knee Trembler

    Perfect for skinning up in awkward situations, the Trembler is speedy, simple, uses only two papers and comes highly recommended.
    A classic quickie.

    Saturday Night Special

    An undisputed classic well known to most smokers, the special is easy to roll and tolerates clumsy fingers. Everyone has a favorite way of rolling the special – This is just one of them.

    Magic Carpet

    Fly into fantasy on the ax Minster of your dreams! Popular in North Africa, where a cigarette segment is substituted for the roach, the Carpet is ideal for those that like ’em short and fat.

    Secret Agent

    Joint-smoking often demands a little discretion. If you’re in need for a clandestine toke, roll yourself a Secret Agent and remember to stay downwind.

    Joker

    A Member that seems to last forever: the joker is a big, fat, juicy cone guaranteed to spread a grin from ear-to-ear without straining the finger muscles.

    Crossroads

    Three way heaven! Okay, okay, it’s fiddly to make but you can use it again and again. Best of all, it’ll hold three of your favorites.

    Flaming Backflip

    Guaranteed to impress with it’s pyrotechnics, the Backflip makes use of the minimum of paper and is easy-going on the lungs. Prepare for instant kudos or instant embarrassment, This is a tricky one.

    Diamond

    Once mastered, the joint rolling technique opens a realm of possibilities for weird and wonderful creations. The Diamond is a good place to start and when made with care smokes surprisingly well.

    Tulip

    An Amsterdam specialty, the tulip is often found (usually half-smoked) in the hands of unconscious tourist. A good tulip is deceptively smooth to smoke and easier to roll than it looks.

    Nose Cone

    The bigger, balder, bastard brother of the Tulip (try saying that after you’ve smoked one). It takes some effort to roll, but a good nose cone is a king size chunk of truly cosmic proportions. Lightweights need not apply.

    Windmill

    A smoke-cooling chamber and multiple joint holder, the Windmill is designed to get you spinning in the breeze. Although it’s tricky to make, the holder can be used time and time again.

    Cannabis Cigar

    A pure cannabis cigar is perhaps the ultimate joint and a must for the rich, famous and well connected. Using exotic, hard-to-get ingredients this can be a hard one to get together.

  30. Duncan20903 says:

    I definitely believe that children should be encouraged to favor vaporization, edibles, sublingual tinctures, topical salves, inhalers like they use for asthma, transdermal patches, and suppositories over smoking, and if they insist on smoking to learn how to cool the smoke before inhaling it. I also fully support a vigorously enforced age limit of 21 before they can purchase cannabis. They can practice rolling joints with oregano until they’re old enough to enjoy cannabis.

    There are things that are reserved for adults only. That was the message my parents sent to me starting when I was a toddler and it’s still ingrained in my brain. If people want children to be sent messages it’s the parents job to do that. It’s really annoying though because I couldn’t enjoy those pleasures because they were for adults only when I was a child, and now that I’m an adult I’m not supposed to enjoy them because there are children in the world who might get the wrong ‘message’. Hogwash.

    We didn’t have any world wide webs or googles or even any America onlines when I was a lad and we figured out how to roll joints just fine. Well of course there were a few that were all thumbs and were forced to use a pipe. We also figured out how to fuck without any instruction books. Hey, the 70s were a great era for sexual intercourse. After the advent of reliable birth control and previous to the discovery of the AIDS virus it was just “what are we waiting for, let’s fuck!”

    Dishonesty is never a valid choice when it comes to children. Censorship is dishonesty. People think children are stupid. I still recall the day when I was 3 and President Kennedy was assassinated, and no one would tell me what the fuck was going on. Right, like I couldn’t figure out that some major tragedy had occurred, what with all the adults walking around red eyed and sobbing, and the big kids just sort of frozen in place. Heck they tried the same shit in 1968 when I was 7 and Bobby got whacked but I had developed some investigative skills by then. MLK wasn’t a real big deal on the lily white side of town but there was still a major disturbance in the continuum and I fully believe I would have been better served with the truth.

  31. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    This is a much better “how to roll a joint” video with Pierre Berton giving the instruction.

    Pierre Berton How to Roll a Joint

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3Tz08l46AI&playnext=1&list=PLB55DA39F16F7E16E&index=2

    If you haven’t seen this clip take the two minutes and watch it. That Pierre Berton was one funny octogenarian, sadly passed away not long after making this video.

    If you don’t know who Pierre Berton was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_berton

  32. DdC says:

    Starting age for toking Ganja smoke should be 12, the same age you can get a shotgun for small game hunting. Guns kill, Ganja doesn’t. Vapor in the lungs is pneumonia, smoke has been much safer for thousands of years in hooka’s, pipes and chiloms. Only fear mongers push drug worrier hobgoblins. while they do the actual harm. But then its the statistics narkosluts are after, not safety for tokers. Berton smurton. If you need a video to roll a joint maybe you should crawl back in the booze bottle and abstain.

  33. darkcycle says:

    DdC: Vapor in the lungs is NORMAL. Air is vaporous . LIQUID in the lungs is pneumonia. Just a little heds up pally-wal.

  34. DdC says:

    Liquid in the lungs is drowning.
    Vaporizers are adding moisture, with acidic properties. Man made shit again doing more harm just to please the appeasers. Political correctness still sucks and excess vapor in the lungs is still pneumonia. Have at it. I’ll stay with my spliffs.

  35. darkcycle says:

    No. ASPIRATING Liquid is drowning. Perhaps you are thinking of Aspiration Pneumonia, where a FOREIGN substance is drawn into the lungs prompting a runaway rejection response, resulting in Pneumonia, or FLUID in the lungs. Jeezus. Look at me. I’m giving Human Pathology lessons to Grey wolves in green jumpsuits. Duncan, Please help me, I’ve fallen to the depths of hell.

  36. DdC says:

    Pneumonia: a very serious health condition where a person’s lungs are filled with fluid. This makes it very hard for oxygen in the lungs to reach the blood stream.

    an inflammatory condition of the lungs in which they become obstructed with fluid, causing difficult breathing and possibly suffocation.

    An infection that occurs when fluid and cells collect in the lung.

    A method for the analysis of organic acids and phenols isolated from marijuana smoke condensate has been developed. Comparative analyses of standard tobacoo, Mexican, and Turkish marijuana smoke condensates carried out by means of capillary gas chromatography indicated both qualitative and quantitative changes in the constituents of chromatographic profiles. Samples were converted to volatile derivatives by methylation and trimethylsilylation; whereupon, 49 aliphatic acids, aromatic acids, and phenolic compounds were identified by means of capillary gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

    sulfuric acid is a constituent of acid rain, which is formed by atmospheric oxidation of sulfur dioxide in the presence of water – i.e., oxidation of sulfurous acid.

    Damn Humans! Always trying to fix what ain’t broken.
    Usually for profit or political gain. Remember Romper Room? Don’t be a Don’t bee, be a Doobee!

  37. darkcycle says:

    Heh..Giving Pathology lessons to grey wolves in green jumpsuits. I gotta stop taking four Cannabrex, then smoking Diesel…think I’ll go lay down ’till this wears off.

  38. darkcycle says:

    You do realize, DdC, that you just made my point for me , don’t you? Maybe YOU better go lay down till this wears off. Ha.

  39. vicky vampire says:

    The Irish are starting to come around cool, and Montel had to pay a fine would that have happened to average person not famous I quess cause he had Medical Marijuana Card? ,he paid fine.and of course,I assume his pipe was confiscated did he just forget he had it? OH AND THAT CHAP Robert does not want to live in drug addled society sorry to disapoint society ebbs and flows in its Substance use since forever Greeks hell Egyptians used Cocaine who knows volume of that was up and down society has always anesthetized it self in a variety of ways and many keep very quiet about it for fear Law,shaming etc. or lack of funds to get regularly wasted and anyway with so many substances out there you would more folk would be wasted but most choose not to, some just not interested in it it obsessed with other things in life. John Sinclair article Ok I wonder what old Pat Robertson is thinking these days maybe he’s a little freaked he even went there don’t know. Yeah Americans work hard and play hard it so bizarre that after a hard days work its a crime to come home and light up and just relax chill feel good ,creative,pep up sex life,enjoy a mundane TV show better,Help a little pain and feel over all pleasant I think far to many folk just like seeing people suffer cause they are miserable deep down themselves I know I’m playing arm chair psychologist.

  40. DdC says:

    Lessons? roflmao….

  41. DdC says:

    No dude I made my point and you gossip as usual. Bringing vapor into the lungs, mixed with acidic smoke is more harmful or potentially harmful since its a relatively new practice for society in general. Toking is thousands of years in practice with no harm recorded. You keep gossiping though, I’m sure some GOPervert prohib will believe it.

  42. darkcycle says:

    Maybe tomorrow, when you read it over, or when you get the difference between aspirating water and pneumonia, or maybe never…..

  43. WHAT........! says:

    Vincent said:Could they be referring to the very crop the Taliban had almost completely eradicated? The same crops under protection from U.S. /U.K. troops?

    Something’s terribly wrong.

    If the taliban has in the past eradicated poppies then now, they grow it and reap million for it, what has changed? We are there thats what. Has our government brought prohibition to them in order to create the very situation that would bring us there ..to fight a thing we have created. I dont know much about it, but it seems maybe this is a case of pointing the finger at the taliban while our government is the ones reaping the profit.

    Yes something is very wrong.

    You cant tell me the big pharm doesnt want those poppies…isnt that where we get our pain killiers from…poppies?

    ..or they do want to limit the growth of poppies in order to drive up their price on drug and make stock holder millions more?

    Yes the wind is afoul of something.

  44. DdC says:

    Unocal pipeline???

    Bush’s Faustian Deal With the Taliban
    by Robert Scheer Los Angeles Times May 22, 2001
    Enslave your girls and women, harbor anti-U.S. terrorists, destroy every vestige of civilization in your homeland, and the Bush administration will embrace you. All that matters is that you line up as an ally in the drug war, the only international cause that this nation still takes seriously.

    That’s the message sent with the recent gift of $43 million to the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan, the most virulent anti-American violators of human rights in the world today. The gift, announced last Thursday by Secretary of State Colin Powell, in addition to other recent aid, makes the U.S. the main sponsor of the Taliban and rewards that “rogue regime” for declaring that opium growing is against the will of God. So, too, by the Taliban’s estimation, are most human activities, but it’s the ban on drugs that catches this administration’s attention.

    Did the White House Give the Taliban $43 Million?

    U.S. Drug War Pays Afghans Who Aid Terrorists
    The United States doesn’t officially recognize the Taliban as a government. Only three Islamic nations do that. But who needs official status when this country in May was happy to cut a check for $43 million as a reward for the Taliban crushing opium poppy production by desperate Afghan farmers?

    The solution is simple. Eat the rich.

  45. DdC says:

    Oh dcYawn…

    aspiration is the entry of secretions or foreign material into the trachea and lungs. The patient may either inhale the material, or it may be blown into the lungs

    Aspiration (as-pi-RAY-shun) pneumonia (noo-MOH-nyah) happens when a liquid or an object is inhaled into the lungs. A common cause of aspiration pneumonia is inhaling (aspirating) acid or vomit from the stomach. Having food, drink, or saliva (spit) from your mouth go into your lungs can also cause aspiration pneumonia.

    Dude aspirating anything can lead to lung problems, I deal with it everyday with quads simple food and liquid intake. If the vapor is aspirated. Not by burning bud. it’s a simple concept over your head as it may or may not be. Vaporizers are the politically correct device to ward off paranoids fearful of “smoke”. We lived thousands of years around camp fires in caves honey, smoke ain’t the problem. Ganja smoke can not be compared to cigarette smoke with hundreds of chemical adulterations. Now this may be tricky for ya but igniting flame retardants could possibly have an affect on your health. I’m just guessing here. But not adding them to Ganja along with the burn enhancers and pestherbfertilizers, flavors paper you get the drift. Plain old organic tobacco was also “smoked” for thousands of years with no lung problems.

    Vapes are a recent appeasement and the jury ain’t in yet. Theory’s abound and most of the scholars haven’t a clue because Ganja wasn’t taught. But the record in reality stands. No victims. Plus the Ganja expectorant properties that protect the throat and lungs isn’t as prevalent with the unfiltered tokes. Smoking a vape is like air, no coughing up carcinogens to expel. Still good for opening bronchial airways. But your fucking with mother nature the same as merdinol. Trying to fix what ain’t broke is what salesmen do and I understand. But drawing conclusions on the future is silly.

    Vapes and vapor mixed with acidic smoke is potential even plausible unsafe practice. Vaporizers for lungs went out with the 60’s and oxygen tents. Pneumatic transducers are much better at vibrating the liquid into a fine mist with a nebulizer. Not a portable whiffer for asthma. I haven’t heard of anyone trying this but I’m happy with joints and occasional bowls. Snow bongs? Don’t go out in the cold rainy night you’ll catch your death. Moisture into the lungs outside of “treating” dry coughs seems illogical. Fungus in the low temp bud releasing cbd’s and what else burning would cleanse? Same with bongs I guess. Introducing bacteria or viruses causing pneumonia and who knows what. Politics pass initiatives and ConPromises are what they do. Appeasing lies and liars are also an evil necessity in getting pro reformers elected. But don’t weasel Science or Fact into it. You simply can’t draw conclusions and shouldn’t gossip.

  46. Duncan20903 says:

    Sorry DC, from time to time in my 33 1/2 years in I’ve run into members of our fringe lunatic cohort who live life on the ledge and perhaps in a slightly different phase variance of universal reality and have never figured out how to argue any sense into their heads. My advice, and what I did is to make peace with them within yourself, just accept that it’s their nature as cross eyed bears. Of course if someone else figures a solution I’m always open to suggestion but after so much time spent observing I hold little hope of that happening.

    Perhaps you might consider using the opportunity to gain some empathy for how the sane Republicans (Milton Friedman and William F Buckley Jr for examples) must see their goofball brigade of Pentacostalist fundamentalunatics.
    ……………………………………………….
    ————————————————
    I was sitting in a diner having the blue plate special for breakfast when a panda bear came in and ordered breakfast. While it was unusual no one in the diner thought much of it after about 5 minutes since he was just eating breakfast. When he finished his meal he stood up, pulled out a pistol and pops two caps off into his dirty dish smashing it to smithereens and calmly exits the establishment. I was shocked and asked the waitress why no one else seemed surprised. She asked me, “don’t you know that’s the nature of panda bears?” Later I googled it and sure enough I found “Panda: a bear-like marsupial originating in Asian regions. Known largely for it’s stark black and white coloring. Eats shoots and leaves.”

  47. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    @WHAT……..!
    you are still making the fundamental error of presuming that the Taliban actually did “wipe out” the growth of poppies. Just for a moment try presuming that they’re bald faced liars promoting a self serving line of propaganda. Either they were lying about the poppies eradication and the crop came in, business as usual, or in the unlikely event that poppy production was actually curtailed they were just doing the same thing that Enron did in the California electricity market around the turn of the century and withholding production to keep the price of the commodity from collapsing. I can’t recall the exact number but you can grow enough poppies to cover annual world wide black market demand on a ridiculously small amount of farmland, somewhere in the several hundreds of acres IIRC. We’re infidels and not worthy of any respect to them. Why in the world should anyone presume that they are telling us the truth?

    In the alternative you can ‘splain how the heck someone can verify that a commodity produced in secret can be proven to have stopped? If the international community can know where to send people to inspect to verify that the poppy growing has ceased, why didn’t they just go there and eradicate them in the past. Was the international community complicit in allowing heroin to come to market?

    Which country was it, not pulling up the name perhaps the Phillipines announced that they had intercepted x tons of cannabis and that only y tons had gotten to market. If they knew precisely how many tons they hadn’t intercepted, why the heck didn’t they do so?

    Here’s a question that I ponder from time to time, why isn’t anyone growing poppies in the US? They send people up in helicopters looking for cannabis, but I’ve never heard of LEOs looking for poppies in the US. Hmmm, maybe that’s opportunity knocking on my front door.

    All good things got to come to an end
    It’s the same with the wildwood weeds
    One day this feller from Washington come by
    And spied one and turned white as a sheet
    And they dug and they burned
    And they burned and they dug and they killed
    All our cute little weeds and then they drove away
    We just smiled and waved
    sittin’ there on that sack o’ seeds

    “Y’all come back now, y’hear!”

    –Don Bowman “The Wildwood Weed”

  48. Duncan20903 says:

    Back in the late 1700s they would give drowning victims a tobacco smoke enema to cure them. There wasn’t a swimming recreational area in the US that didn’t keep a smoke enema device handy for the purpose of saving people from drowning. Don’t ask me to explain WTF these people were thinking.

    “Hey, maybe he’ll revive if we blow smoke up his ass?”

    “Well that sounds kind of crazy, but what the heck, it’s worth a try!”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tobacco_smoke_enema_device.jpg

    OK skip why the guy who had the idea had the idea, I can accept that without the knowledge of how to save someone you know is going to die you might just resort to some crazy, random action rather than stand there helplessly watching someone die, but what the heck made them think it actually worked?
    …………………………………………………………………………………………………

    It’s not uncommon for there to be confusion over the definition of drowning. As a matter of fact there was an international convention that met in 2002 to discuss the issue.

    “According to Moore, drowning is defined as:

    “death secondary to asphyxia while immersed in a liquid, usually water, or within 24 hours of submersion”.

    The phrase “within 24 hours of submersion” includes what has been more commonly termed “dry drowning”, where the victim gets water in the lungs but does not drown straight away, like Johnny, they could walk home and die later.

    It is not easy to get hold of statistics on drowning, because there has been confusion about what constitutes drowning, and bringing research together under one term.

    At the 2002 World Congress on Drowning, held in Amsterdam, a group of experts suggested a new consensus definition for drowning in order to reduce the confusion over the large number of terms and definitions, currently exceeding 20, that have appeared in the literature. This would remove the terms “wet drowning, dry drowning, active or passive drowning, near-drowning, secondary drowning, and silent drowning” from the literature, said Moore.

    Having a universal single definition would help to make the study and analysis of drowning in its various forms more effective, which would lead to better surveillance and prevention.”

    http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/110157.php

  49. darkcycle says:

    DdC: can you read me back the part where I say Vaporisers are safer than smoke? I can’t seem to find it….
    Can you find me that part of the literature that states: Vapor in the lungs is pneumonia?, Cause that’s what I took issue with, lo, these many posts ago…
    I would like to apologize to those not involved here. Sorry.

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