Yeah, you heard that right.
The United States lost a drug war battle in the UNODC.
Phillip Smith at StoptheDrugWar.org
Bolivia will rejoin the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs after its bid to rejoin with a reservation that it does not accept the treaty’s requirement that “coca leaf chewing must be banned” was successful Friday. Opponents needed one-third of the 184 signatory countries to object, but fell far, far short despite objections by the US and the International Narcotics Control Board. […]
“The objecting countries’ emphasis on procedural arguments is hypocritical. In the end this is not about the legitimacy of the procedure Bolivia has used, it is not even really about coca chewing,” according to Martin Jelsma, coordinator of the Transnational Institute’s Drugs and Democracy program. “What this really is about is the fear to acknowledge that the current treaty framework is inconsistent, out-of-date, and needs reform.”
The Institute noted that Bolivia’s success can be an example for other regional countries where traditional use of the coca leaf is permitted, including Argentina, Colombia, and Peru, to challenge the Single Convention on coca. It also called for the World Health Organization to undertake a review of coca’s classification as a Schedule I drug under the Convention.
“Those who would desperately try to safeguard the global drug control system by making it immune to any type of modernization are fighting a losing battle,” according to John Walsh, director of the Washington Office on Latin America drug policy program. “Far from undermining the system, Bolivia has given the world a promising example that it is possible to correct historic errors and to adapt old drug control dogmas to today’s new realities.”
I can’t stress enough how big this is. Once again, the United States snapped its fingers and told the rest of the world to get in line and oppose Bolivia’s move. But this time, while the UK joined them, most of the rest of the world just said “no, thanks.”
Eventually I hope the US decides that prohibition is not the way and that does not mean that we force rehab on people but help those who abuse and not those who just use. To do that we need to have distribution legal, not just decriminalized to those who use.
Thud!
Say it again!
it does sound good don’it?
THUD!! thud thud thud thudthudthud…
a good background story on Bolivia and coca at Al Jazeera (w/ video):
Has Bolivia’s coca-growing scheme worked?
Really awesome news.
And it weakens federal arguments against cannabis legalization that are based on international obligation.
Plus good photos of coca products:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2011/jan/19/bolivia-coca-campaign-in-pictures?intcmp=239#/?picture=370784642&index=8
As you can see it’s just another useful vegetable.
With increasing dissention in the ranks, the US might have to totally change gears in terms of drugs or risk losing international credibility. When the only people who agree with the feds are the feds… well, you guys get where I’m going. Eventually the question must be asked: “since the majority of your citizens disagree with you, your high profile academics disagree with you, and much of the world disagrees with you… who do you represent, again?”
I’m beginning to like winning for a change. This is really good news! While it would be nice to see the entire Single Convention collapse around this issue, that was a little much to hope. This outcome is the best one that could have been rationally hoped for.
Funny how a little leaf changed the show for the convention. You’d think wars and mounting debts (because of those wars) would be the first plucks of the feathers off this drug war chicken. I guess Russia is claiming that the collapse of the Soviet Union to be done on purpose in 1991 –because they got tired of the Iron Curtain motif at the Kremlin –not that Afghanistan had anything to do with a Soviet Collapse –it’s just that Satellite States were just making Russia’s thighs and mid-section look too fat –or big even . . . I mean, A long losing war is what’s best for any economy now isn’t it –as evident in the proof that America is going through one of it’s best economic times ever. The assassination of the Guinea-Bissau President in 2008 over the European Cocaine Trade didn’t even change the punctuation on the old archaic 61’ Convention’s writings . . . not even the DEA’s involvement in the 2008 Mumbai, India attacks. If the Pen is mightier than the Sword, then what’s mightier than the Pen? A coca leaf?
I am waiting for the “Have you no sense of decency, sir?” moment. It may be shortly forthcoming.
This is partly revenge for Obama giving the brushoff to the (very serious) Latin American leaders who wanted an open dialogue to begin concerning legalization. Obama tried to do to them what he tried to do to us. He gave both them and us a backhand; we gave him WA and CO and a notice we’re not done yet. The smirking stopped and the frowning began…and those furrows in prohib brows are gonna get a whole lot deeper, now that the LA nations have found Uncle Sam’s Achille’s Heel.
Gonna need one of those honking big industrial-wattage microwave ovens to nuke the necessary popcorn; it’ll be some show when Uncle tries to lean on the LA nations and they threaten to renege on their IMF-sired debts. That would REALLY push the US economy over the fiscal cliff, and the former ‘debt peons’ have nothing to lose, seeing as the economic situation is even worse for them than it is here.
Another shot has been fired across the bow of the USS Prohibition. But, knowing Gil, he’ll say, just as the DrugWar is not a ‘war’, that that wasn’t s shot fired in anger, but a salute. And that upraised middle finger Bolivia is waving in your direction is the ‘Hawaiian good luck sign’. Yeah, sure, Gil, sure…
“to block the change, 62 United Nations members would have had to object; only 15 did” (from the NYT article)
Vlad Putin has his shorts in a bunch about this
I am sure the security council is not enjoying the growing pile of shit on their doorstep.
Wait until the LA studies are released… later this year? You don’t need a crystal ball to see what they’re going to recommend.
Transform was released a while back. I am sure they’ll have the courtesy to mimeograph the pages for the UN.
We the People petition Obama to replace liquor stores with marijuana dispensaries.
http://wh.gov/PHy5
Any liquor store that stops selling alcohol gets an automatic license to sell marijuana.
Why hate on liqour to promote pot? Prohibition does not work for anything. Drugs, alchohol, prostitution. I dont like those arguments.
The first coca inquisition trial was 356 years ago, in 1657. That’s how long Western culture has been trying to rid (or rob) the Andes region of its coca. At least in Bolivia, the long battle has ended. Any war lasting that long deserves a day commemorating its end.
Some historical trivia from that period depicts attempts to Hispanicize Incan culture:
that the Americas were so devastated by the Europeans is one of humanity’s great crimes. There were great intellects, engineers, pharmacologists, agronomists… and the Spaniards saw only gold. Such losses, for so many centuries, world wide.
sigh…
“….and the Spaniards saw only gold.” And pagan souls to be redeemed only by the priest or the sword. What a slaughter.
Vast cultural antiquities of a complex civilization, conquered, melted and poured into hastily formed moulds in the ground – and shipped to the home of the Inquisition.
You may like this: It isn’t fully understood how the Chachapoya managed to build halfway up these cliffs, but there’s evidence that they extended the entrances to many of the caves.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p013f3yp
I suspect a fitting term (still applicable today) is arrogant pricks… ignorant arrogant pricks
There is just so so much we’ve lost. And it continues today – look at the ancient cities being destroyed in the middle east in that disgusting region wide brouhaha. The tens of thousands dying daily from a world uncaring that they have no food, no clean water, is as much a crime as the holocausts on every continent. The potentialities gone forever… people that will never live to be adults, doctors, teachers, farmers, discoverers…
To add to Malcolm’s link, Machu Pichu is truly an engineering marvel. A site that took generations to build:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/wright-inca-engineering.html
In the US Southwest Chaco Canyon is far more than old native ruins, it’s a complex astronomic marvel that, once again, took generations to construct.
And the ruling European dominionists can’t see beyond the nose on their face…
I wince when I consider what the world could be if the dominant motivations were different than they are. Short a global epiphany I can’t help but believe that like the swinging cycles of climate bring the earth extreme heat and then cold, that so too does humanity go thru cycles, returning again and again to the stone age.
When I first heard of Maria Sabina one comment of hers stuck w/ me. She basically said that those of the western mind venturing into the entheogenic realm (and for Maria it was the Teonanacatl, shrooms) were “pillaging the ancient library.”
Old Grampa Semu used to talk about all those plant helpers. Datura, psilocybe, lopophora williamsii… and he would lament the fact that those who knew the proper preparations for many (and there are many) have passed.
Think about ayahuasca. It’s a pretty specific recipe that takes multiple plant varieties to create a brew that unlocks specific doors of perception.
We hear the drug policy carperbaggers (profiteering addictionologists) bemoaning drugs and yet how few know about or advocate for research into iboga as a treatment.
And, returning to the topic, coca is the perfect example of the indigenous american approach (chew or brew the leaves) as compared to the European dominionists’ approach (create a poisonous stew and distill the crap out of the leaves and then stuff the resulting white powder in your nostrils). There is a trend there (depending of course on what your definition of “is” is)
.
If the coca leaf becomes ‘fashionable’ (as seen in the liquor we can buy in Holland) and is used to drink or chew, wouldn’t this put a dent in the illicit cocaine production by forcing the precursor into other exported goods that just as many if not more people will do than coke? Would this not subtly bring out a new generation that looks at coca as a good drink (though it still needs the lime for alkaloid activation according to the drink’s advertisement) or chewing pastime and not some sort of intense and addictive mind altering drug? Maybe 50yrs from now, the coca leaf will be looked at as that tasty alcohol drink at your uncle’s wedding anniversary parties and not the main plot that created gangster rap music and Miami Vice episodes.
…sigh
Not enough time left in Life, to get a Life. Legalize all tomorrow and I’ll still want my threadbare Workboot on Big Brothers throat parts.
The destruction Psychopathy has wraught on decent Men and Women planet-wide over the past centuries is truly astonishing. Kicking over Gardens, Sandcastles, Behaving badly, Ooogaboooga, Bully Boyz, on Steroids, how Elegant.
Its all the flip side of the early 1900s USDA efforts to protect domestric agriculture of Tobacco, and the AMA-APhA to protect patent medicine:
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-evil-prohibition-to-promote.html
When you become a Welfare state, no one listens to you. Unkle hasn’t figured that out yet.
Bolivia has won the right to rejoin the 1961 UN Convention—with the reservation that chewing of coca leaves should be considered legal—by a large margin. Out of 183, only 15 voted against: Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, the Netherlands, the UK and the US.
With one or two exceptions, these countries have comprehensive harm reduction programmes, have decriminalised the possession and consumption of illicit drugs, and some have even legalised the domestic supply of marijuana. Shame on us, we couldn’t be more cynical, hypocritical, self-serving or dishonest!
Gart Valenc
Twitter: @gartvalenc
It’s funny how “do as I say, not as I do” works so well on entire nations but not on the youth.
All I want is some consistency.
I highly recommend this paper by the Beckley Foundation: “Roadmaps to Reforming the UN Conventions” http://www.beckleyfoundation.org/2012/12/31/beckley-foundation-releases-roadmaps-to-reforming-the-un-drug-conventions/
As the title suggests, it provides a comprehensive analysis of the options open to countries wanting to reform the UN Conventions on illicit drugs. It deserves careful study and wide circulation.
Gart Valenc
Twitter: @gartvalenc
John Walsh?
THE John Walsh?
Off topic, but of interest: Pregnant Pauls Valley mother dies in jail
For TWO pills!
Yep, from the same state that says making hash is just like cooking meth, but with a much stiffer penalty than dope cooking.
On various articles about that incident, people are calling for the arresting deputies, the Sheriff, and the jailers on duty to all be charged with negligent homicide. I agree with those calls and hope the offenders actually are arrested and charged thusly.
What about the incompetents at the hospital who signed her out as fit to go to jail? I think there is blame enough to go around, but doubt that anything substantive will be done about it. What does this whole episode say about your vaunted health care and (in)justice systems? I will make a few guesses: She was poor and black. She had no doctor, no prenatal care because it costs money she does not have. She couldn’t even afford to go to the doctor for a scrip for pain meds, got a couple of pills from a friend to help her and was arrested and effectively killed for being poor and black. If she had had the luck to be born a few hundred miles north in Canada, she would have had free prenatal care, because of her poverty meds would be supplied, there are publicly funded services which help expectant mothers, her ectopic pregnancy would have been known and dealt with, and she would be at home with her family now. Makes the US look pretty sick, doesn’t it? Makes me wonder (again) how your country got such a good reputation, and why my country would want to emulate yours.
Doesn’t Canada want to emulate the U.S. because the U.S. ordered them to do so?
How would you like to be the drug czar in charge when the prohibition machine blows up n your face? And the US machine is clanking and jumping like like a washing machine with an unbalanced load,making noises not even mentioned in the manual.
I wonder how much the ONDCP has overspent during the last year,money not on the budget but those injections of cash that bought some of those 14 countries against the Bolivian re-entry with legalized coca possession.
More states entering legalization bills in their legislatures which is going to cost more tax dollars to buy legislators to oppose them,cheaper and easier than trying to hire prohibs to scare the people into opposing for sure but still costly and now this is bringing the STC into reform debate with no way the US can delay it,,without spending even more US dollars,,,the adding machines at the GAO are smokin!!!!!!
I said waaaaay back when Gil took on the job that he’d be a ‘caretaker’. And look what’s happening.
That game of Russian Roulette each Administration has played since Nixon’s days regarding the final costs of the DrugWar making it the bullet in the chamber has come down to Obama…and Gil. The hammer has already struck the pin, the pin’s already struck the primer, and the powder is igniting in slow motion. And the entire process could speed up in a flash next election cycle.
Gil should never have taken the job. He’ll be like the guy who has the sad duty to board up the store windows, chain the gate and hang the “FORECLOSED” sign after a bankruptcy…
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ceciliarodriguez/2013/01/11/can-marijuana-beat-the-mafia-some-french-say-make-it-legal/
Man, 2013 is a damn good year so far.
I have no gift to bring.
No Deodorant doth I have to share.
…Sold the Drums to Pay Da King.
Shivers
See Ya
:Little Bummer Boy, Hands in Pockets:
*Off topic attack in progress* MUST….SHARE…. Please listen…my brother Leon needs our Couch-support. You listen….I’ll listen. We all listen. Irie. (Leon really is my Brother…)
http://www.houseofdreadradio.com/
its beginning to emerge that the persecution of aaron schwartz of reddit who committed suicide yesterday may have a drug war link. watch that story
Hey this is totally unrelated.
actually wait, i’ll make it relevant first.
this is so awesome I love it. The only thing personally that I could see being better than this is if some country like, IDK, Thailand, Thaiwan, Afghanistan, basically any middle eastern country or country in the Golden Triangle, some place of high opium production, did the same exact thing. Lead by a former opium farming peasant President one of the countries I mentioned pulls off the same crusade. Thats probably the only way something like this could be more awesome to me.
OK the irrelevant thing –
it’s basically like this. I mean, I know for my part, well a little while ago there was a blog on this site and someone came here and made comments that sounded unbelievably like my own and he was briefly thought to be me. That person, Opiophile, actually was also a participant at another website I go to alot and highly recommend by the author and reformist Francis Moraes aka heroinhelper. So naturally with our similar ideas he and I began communicating. We quickly found one another saying stuff to eachother along the lines of, you know, “what can we do?” like, “what more can we do?” not in a giving up kind of way or in a way where its like we feel we’ve exhausted all efforts – not like that. It’s more along the lines of, we feel like we haven’t done enough. I dont want to speak for him I’ll speak for myself. Its been suggested to me by alot of people to do my own blog and I’ve appreciated that but like for example Pete is a well known man. I believe he is a professor even, right? Not only that but also a theatre enthusiast/director or producer, right? And some other people, they’re authors, men or women (or shemen/hemen) with degrees, accomplishments, mortgages, land, whatever. I am a high school drop out junkie who is not homeless at the moment but usually is. I’d feel really out of place. It would make me think of my neighbor for example who is an olderish lady of no importance whatsoever. A substitute teacher, single, with a cat. I’d feel like her, if she had a blog (which, more to the point, she may.) I guess in some ways its nice that anybody who wants to have a voice can, but I also think it dillutes the proverbial pool. In fact, I recently saw a documentary on Hulu basically discussing this very thing. It featured a bunch of accomplished people but the only person I personally recognized was the musician Moby and they were basically saying that while the internet was great and everything, it has unfortunately dramatically diluted the pool and true talent is horrifically lost and buried in the diluted pool.
So I’d not be comfortable with that however it doesnt mean I myself or perhaps some of you even, dont feel a desire to DO SOMETHING. Contribute in some way. I understand the DPA solicits donations. IDK if CATO does but I wouldnt be surprised. And for some donating money is something they could do. It probably goes without saying that I can’t do that. But if I could, I dont know, I mean I could see the good in doing that but personally I would like to do more.
I saw The House I Live In by Eugene Jarecki the day it came out here in NYC. I highly recommend it. I’ve also seen Breaking The Taboo and as Pete has said, its tremendous. Here’s the thing – I’ve seen interviews, a bunch, with The House I Live In director Eugene Jarecki and he talks about change and optimism in the idea of an end to prohibition. Thats great. I also saw this interview, a very brief one however, with DPA director Ethan Nadelmann on the Bill Maher show. And at the beginning Bill Maher basically makes a joke about how in a past life Ethan’s job was his job and a quick little light hearted exchange goes on where Bill says good things about Ethan and the DPA and sort of says how he would love Ethans job. Ethan says quickly how the DPA would love to have Bill Maher and somewhat in jest he says how if Bill went to the DPA headquarters in NYC there’d be plenty for him to do and Ethan says how they “would love to have him” and “could really use him.”
You know all this gets me thinking. Like, IDK about you guys but I just want to do more. I mean, at the core of it what this is all about right is something terrible that is in place and has been in place for quite some time and something that we want to change. Things need to be done to make that change. In a sense, in this capacity, change is an action.
I think blogs like this and others are tremendous tools to help educate people because I think one of the main hurdles of ending the war on drugs is as simple as education. I think one of the main functions of prohibition is disinformation. So yes there is a tremendous importance in this blog and sites like it.
Well I think though that what more could be done is physical. For example, we’ve seen here, Pete has to go away for sometime and he travels to big cities sometimes. I believe he was in my home city not too long ago NYC.
I think that it would be great if Pete would be up to host a get together perhaps annually. Im sure lots of you would go. Meet one another perhaps have speakers, perhaps do it at a hotel somewhere. Cultivate interest, bring in people. Educate more people. IDK it’s just an idea at the moment but I dont think I’ve seen anything here where there have been any proposals to have a get together. I understand it may be unreasonable for Pete. Thats okay I respect that. Maybe enough of us though could make something happen. I dont know man, as irrational as it may sound I think one of my own personal issues is a fear of not being alive to be apart of substantial change. Im not trying to be melodramatic but rather plainly it is a legitimate concern for me given my personal circumstances. Thats okay and I accept that but I dont want to accept inaction on my part. So if theres anything more that I can do I want to do it. If theres a desire to get together and educate the undecided or misinformed, while I’m no educator, I would be happy to and proud to support those of you who could speak and educate and help the mission/message.
have a nice day everyone.
I think the best way to move forward in this old war is to take one’s self out of the equation. For example, if you were to write to a politician or speak to a cop or coworker, you’ve got to ignore the issue regarding those who get arrested for drugs since they knew the consequences . . . focus more on the fact that the war on drugs negatively affects more non-drug users than drug users i.e. the 4,000 U.S. troops being deployed to Africa as of 2013 and the thousands of French troops being deployed as well: all to fight the drug war in Africa, which comes in the form of drug money terrorism. This is a whole lot more important and costlier than a few million prisoners (considering the War on Narco-Terror after 9/11 has cost us $3 trillion in one decade –while jailing drug offenders has cost us $2 Trillion in over 5 decades). Again, more people care about 9/11 than a drug user going to jail or prison or an MMJ dispensary raid. Every piece of information you’ll ever read about Narco-Terrorism will point and prove 9/11 was all from drug money. The more Americans blame the cops and politicians for 9/11, the quicker they’ll legalize crack and smack. When those favoring drug legalization take the drugs out of the equation, the stronger the movement will be . . . a lot of people will simply call us addicts, which is why we want drugs to be legal –but in all reality, drug legalization comes out of the concerns of not wanting innocent humans to die from terrorism and gang violence. We also need to encourage more anti-prohibs to infiltrate the system by joining the police force, military, jailors, firefighters, EMSA, park rangers, border patrol etc to dilute the current status-quo. Only those who will serve their nation for a few years deserve to inherit the country and government and thus will earn it. Only a Government By the People for the People will rid America and the world the illicit laws regarding drugs (they directly threaten our nation on multiple levels i.e. 9/11 –hence they are illegal and anyone obeying the CSA law is required by Federal Law to go to prison or be executed for treason –according to the Federal Government that is –word for word even). You and many others might not be legally or physically eligible to be police officers and soldiers etc, but that doesn’t stop you from telling the youth how important civic duty and service is. If we truly don’t believe responsible drug use is bad, then we need to encourage all the youth to be active in their community since being considered a good citizen is one of the goals for our movement, thus demanding an end to our foul treatment i.e encouraging The Boy Scouts of America or Camp Fire –whom as a whole do more for America than the non-scout etc youth do. The change will come with our children who will inherit this nation for better or for worse and the best thing for America is an ever more aware youth who participate in civics as well . . . i.e. an Eagle Scout who is also a member of the SSDP will more likely do more for the SSDP than the one who didn’t earn the equivalent award –they will be better prepared and more respected because they walked the hard mile. Because our kids will inherit the drug war as seen in Afghanistan and Africa and our recession, it’s up to us to encourage these kids to join youth groups that stimulate a positive civic duty to one’s community, state and country . . . only through teaching our kids how to grab a hold of the wheel and drive, will they stand up against the idiots of our society who have control . . . by giving them the civic leg to stand on. If you don’t serve your country in one of many forms, then you don’t get a voice and you don’t get the know how to change the world for the better. When we infiltrate the system, we not only get the respect we deserve, but we become aware of how to change the system and where each and every problem lay and how it was created. Again, if you are a parent whose child isn’t involved in such youth groups, while not being a leader in said youth group (or trying to be one at least), then you are to blame for any problems happening in said youth group you are not in –guilty because you did nothing to make it better i.e. if you have a son who is physically fit to be a boy scout (not blind or with Polio etc) and you are not a scout leader, teaching your son and his friends civic duty –then everything wrong with the Boy Scouts falls on you by you not being their to make it better. Our Kids have to learn how to change the world, not to think its something that has to be voted on by the people or someone else’s job. You’ll never have the power to question authority until you know what authority is meant for and how to use authority for its greatest good in society –not for its abuse. Not everyone has to be a Scout Leader –there are other jobs one can volunteer as well . . . one doesn’t even have to make a long career out of it –just in it long enough to learn the game and make a difference and take the respect that rightfully belongs to you. And it’s the respect part that get people to trust that you are a human being who uses drugs and not just some drug user.
That gathering has crossed the minds of a few heads here CJ. But I believe we deserve an environment better than what NYC has provided for our like. Someplace somewhat central, but also near water to practice our voodoo. A place that provides almost monthly opportunities to get costumed up, and flash Louis Armstrong-like shit-eating grins all day long…
Quite a few years ago we were idly chatting about the party we were going to have when this was over. The rough consensus was that we should have it somewhere private, with plenty of room, and somewhere where we could do no damage and be undisturbed. I think Allan floated the idea of an old missile silo somewhere. Then, as it happens, my good friend Peter from the “National UFO Reporting Center” http://www.nwlink.com/~ufocntr/ (Yes, He’s serious. Please don’t hassle him, he’s a very very nice man)moved his Home and Offices into one. Right here in Legal Washington. Peter has nicely (I think he thinks I was joking) agreed to let me use the National UFO reporting Center for a little party should prohibition be defeated. So, we actually do have a Missile silo to use should we decide to proceed. This silo has a Garage/Shop the size of a city block, With overhead cranes. And the biggest, heaviest garage doors you’ve ever imagined (the counterweights are the size of a Motorhome). And from there we can shout it out to all sentient creatures in the Galaxy.
You guys say the word and I’ll put in the call to Peter. P.S. It IS a missile Silo, so it is way out in the middle of bum-f*ck nowhere. (or close to Davenport, Wa., same difference.)
Really, a Hotel somewhere sounds more rational.
rational??? When you have a missile silo?!?! Yee-f’in-haw buckaroo, I’m down.
Seems there’s big road trip brewing for me in the future somewhere. I just found an old Chumash friend has 160 acres in a grand, grand spot down in central CA, north of Santa Barbara, up on Figueroa Mtn. Lordy, from Davenport I could drive down 395 and stop at Mammoth hot springs… visit Death Valley, Bodie and then cross over the southern edge of the Sierras at Lake Isabella. 1,000 miles and I wouldn’t pass thru any town bigger than a few thousand.
The old control room is there. We can git all stoned up and pretend to launch missles. (the key cabinets are long gone, along with everything else.)
It has been so long since I went to a party,,,is a party the one I get to wear my rabbit suit and stick one foot in the toaster?
My idea is for a schedule change party,,because it is all over the day the DEA loses control of the studies allowed on marijuana regardless of whether it is a scorched ground retreat or simple surrender. One just costs a lot more than the other.
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Where’s my boy Sherman? I’m hopping into the Wayback Machine, destination 1981 and one very dark and lonely night when we went out to build a campfire with a magnesium engine block while tripping balls and found a missle silo in Newington VA. The missile was still in the silo.
What, you’ve never burned an engine block? It’s a pain in the ass to get them to ignite but it’s an awesome sight once you do. Don’t take my word for it, here’s a clip on youtube: linky
I have been a participant on another forum that (at the time) had the name The Peanut Gang, we’d been conversing with one another for quite a few years (started with the old Art Bell forum back in the mid nineties). Anyway, those of us on the forum who live in the PNW decided we wanted to have a physical get-together, we called it a cluster (what else?) and held it one late summer afternoon at the southern end of Whidbey Island. We did it potluck, and quite a few of us attended, we even had one participant who lived in NYC but was visiting here on the west coast. It was fun, and nice to be able to put faces to some of the names we read and replyed to each day. Fewer of us got together again, a couple of times, in Fairhaven at the cafe in Fairhaven Books. So I’m definitely up for this party, in a missile silo, no less, HELL YEAH!
(Aside to dc, I don’t know Pete of the UFO reporting group, personally, but I am familiar with his work, I would be interested in meeting him someday.)
Tables. Lots of tables. For dancing on. Yeah, and balloons. Thousands of them, helium filled, floating around the silo. Confetti streamers, we could throw them down the tube of the silo, with backlighting it would be awesome. And food, and and and…..(Overwhelmed) Anyway, when that wonderful event happens (legalization) I will once again set foot in your country, and can think of no better reason than that party in the silo. Oh, Oh, Oh, we must have a photographer, the youtube posting will be fabulous.
we have at least one photographer – me!
hey… and Pete’s silo is a fitting match. Does that Pete have a couch too?
“The family of celebrated internet activist Aaron Swartz has accused prosecutors and MIT officials of being complicit in his death, blaming the apparent suicide on the pursuit of a young man over “an alleged crime that had no victims”. (Sound familiar?)
In a statement released late Saturday, Swartz’s parents, Robert and Susan, siblings Noah and Ben and partner Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman said the Redditt builder’s demise was not just a “personal tragedy” but “the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2013/jan/13/aaron-swartz-family-mit-government
That’s what the criminal justice systems does, especially when prosecutors and judges are running for election: they are “crime creators,” always conjuring up new ones when the population begins to catch on to the old scams.