I thought I’d share with you a post I made for my Facebook friends (who generally aren’t as well-educated on drugs and drug policy as you guys)…
Hey, kids – let’s talk about heroin!
What with celebrities and white suburban kids dying from overdoses in the news, more of you may be interested in this, so I’m going to take a moment to give you some facts and maybe even a tip or two that could save someone’s life.
One of the biggest problems we have is ignorance. I think most of my friends would agree that abstinance-only sex education is a really bad idea. After all, if/when someone fails to abstain, if they don’t know about safe sex, the consequences could be severe, and I don’t believe my friends are the type to enjoy taunting someone with “Ha, ha, you made a mistake. Now die.”
Well, the same is true with drug education — ignorance can kill you if you make a mistake — and yet most of us have come away with drug knowledge roughly equal to “Heroin is bad, mmm-kay?”
I may have sparked your interest with the offer of tips to save someone’s life, so I’m going to lead with those to keep you from getting distracted by the latest inspirational Photoshopped picture further down the feed.
— The miracle heroin-reversal drug: Naloxone.
Seriously. This stuff is amazing. If injected, it will act within one minute to block all the opioid receptors and completely turn off a heroin overdose. And it could last for up to 45 minutes, all without harmful side-effects. It makes someone overdosing instantly sober.
So why don’t you know about this? Because for years, the government rejected calls to increase distribution of Naloxone because they were afraid it would encourage people to do heroin (sound familiar? — similar to objections to condom distribution). So instead, people died. Fortunately, in recent years, they’ve started changing their tune.
If you know someone who uses heroin (or who once used heroin and has “quit”), then you should probably try to score some Naloxone. Even if you don’t know someone personally, if you live in a community where there is heroin use (ie, anywhere), then you should ask whether Naloxone is included in the kits of all early responders. It’s better not to wait until the hospital. Save lives.
— The life-saving Good Samaritan laws
One reason people die is that they don’t get help fast enough. And that may be because people are afraid to get help. You show up with a friend who overdosed and the cops are going to want to run a fine-tooth comb through your life (“Someone has to go to jail.”). In some cases, the person who supplied the drug can be charged with murder. Let’s say I’m overdosing and my girlfriend scored the heroin for me. I’m not going to want her to take me in, lose me, and then spend the rest of her life in prison because of me.
Well, more places are now passing Good Samaritan laws, which essentially state that we’re more interested in saving someone’s life than putting someone in jail (the details vary from law to law). It’s amazing how much opposition there is to these laws, so go to bat for them in your community and your state.
— Rehab – the surprise killer
Yes, rehab can lead to death from heroin overdose. Sound strange? Well, heroin users naturally build up a tolerance, which means they need to increase their dosage (sometimes dramatically) in order to reach the same high. Unfortunately, most of our rehab programs are built on the cold-turkey model, instead of the harm-reduction model. And they often don’t do a good job of educating addicts as to what will happen when they relapse (and most will). Their tolerance level will have gone down after they quit cold-turkey, so that the same dosage that was right for them before rehab now could be enough to kill them.
A lot of people die after going through rehab. If you know someone going into rehab, look into harm reduction models, and also make sure they understand the tolerance factors.
— The drug war makes heroin more dangerous
In a controlled and safe environment, heroin really isn’t that dangerous, and many heroin addicts can lead very long and productive lives. But the drug war puts the purity and safety of drugs in the hands of criminals. Dosages can be very uncertain (leading to overdoses), plus you don’t know what may have been used to cut the drugs. For example, a rogue chemist named Ricardo Valdez created 22 pounds of fentanyl which was used to cut heroin in the U.S.. It directly led to over 1,000 deaths around the country, including 300 in the Detroit area alone.
Our lock-em-up approach not only hasn’t worked, but it has made heroin more dangerous, and more profitable to criminals, increasing the incentive for them to hook young people.
In Switzerland, they took a different approach — give it away for free. Yes, they gave away free, controlled, safe doses of heroin to addicts in a clean clinic with doctors and social workers. They did a study in conjunction with this program and found a 94% reduction in criminal activity by those in the program; addicts were living longer; once stabilized they had an easier time kicking the drug; and… they made it unprofitable to be a criminal heroin dealer, so fewer young people were starting!
Changing our drug laws will save lives.
…
Oh, and finally… don’t do heroin, mmm-kay?
… the more you know.
The sado-moralizers want you to die. It’s your punishment for not listening to them and doing what they say. They look at babies born out of wedlock exactly the same way. They’re punishment, too.
Reminds me of the idea that was so in vogue during the Nazi era:
http://tinyurl.com/jw8ohln
“…the eugenics movement – the idea that the genetic quality of human populations should be improved by selective breeding practices, whereby society’s elites would curtail unnecessary reproduction by the “feeble-minded†(a term that in the early decades of the 20th century was used as a catch-all for what the elites deemed socially undesirable people).”
Not merely the feeble minded…
Allowing addicts to die for lack of making use of life giving measures, or punishing those around an addict for helping another to survive seem to me to be little different than a state sponsored eugenics program. Who in their right mind would deny a life giving medicine to a dying patient?
“Who in their right mind would deny a life giving medicine to a dying patient?”
ummm… great question with a long list for an answer.
A long list for an answer, and all proud participants in the WOD.
Lots of good info & stuff I didn’t know in that piece, Pete.
Thanks!
I was in Nam and saw what uncertain dosages of good heroin could do to people and it scared me bad enough to not ever taking any drug with a needle,,I consider it a blessing.
I think a person could smoke opium safer than injecting heroin but alas,,opium in my neck of the woods is rarer than hens teeth.
I look forward to trying some coca leaves sometime just to see why all those native Peruvians and Bolivians still do it that way with coca paste so easily made,,if you get the coca paste before they add the hydrochloric acid isn’t that pretty much “freebase?
I always like to point out that the Swiss dispense pharmaceutical grade heroin IN PRISONS.
And that out of a total of 89,924 diacetylmorphine (heroin) injections there were just 10 overdoses: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/26753350_Diacetylmorphine_versus_methadone_for_the_treatment_of_opioid_addiction/file/79e4151018d2487e53.pdf
And that pharmaceutical grade heroin is safe enough to give to children: http://www.bmj.com/content/322/7281/261
In other countries diamorphine (heroin) is the painkiller of choice for acute pain, but in the US it is schedule I with “no medical value.” This is another barrier to implementing HAT (Heroin assisted treatment) in the US. Due to its schedule status and the stigma carried by the fearsome reputation of heroin itself, I think it may be easier to work with other opiates in setting up a maintenance system. Hydromorphone, oxycodone, morphine and the full spectrum of synthetic opioids could be tried. Opium should be an option too.
There is no particular reason the drug has to be heroin, if it ever came down to a public referendum something like Opium Maintenance or Dilaudid Maintenance may be more palatable to an ignorant public than Heroin Maintenance.
Problems with mixing different drugs is another topic. Warnings not to take heroin or LSD with alcohol. Warnings not to mix beer with wine. All these helpful, possibly life-saving hints might produce a really popular high school elective course, as long as it’s done right.
the more “addicts” who die the better for the drug war prpagandists and the scare tactic headline writers. they create the whole black market cluster fuck and then use the deaths to “prove” their point
IIRC Jerry Garcia died IN rehab.
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You recall correctly. I doubt that before it happened that anyone would have wagered that Mr. Garcia would be found “drug free” by the toxicology screen at autopsy. A hell freezes over moment, no doubt.
But I don’t think that his being in rehab had much to do with his death except for stopping the prohibitionists from using his death as a talking point.
I think that I’ve mentioned the dirty little secret of “treatment” contributing to overdose deaths. While he preferred Xanax to heroin, in 2007 my 21 years old nephew “relapsed” just over 60 days out of rehab and died of an overdose. His death could have been so easily avoided by explaining the risk. The parasites claim that giving that information would have been “encouraging” drug abuse.
Pingback: Hey, kids – let’s talk about heroin! | The Freedom Watch
Take a look through the comments section of a typical news story about the latest celebrity overdose, and you can find that kind of sentiment on open, gleeful display. The same callousness and hatred underlies a lot of the prohibitionist impulse. The “professional” prohibitionists are just a little better at hiding it.
Oh, and we obviously shouldn’t suggest that people struggling with heroin addiction try cannabis substitution as a harm reduction strategy. And we DEFINITELY don’t want to tell them about the amazing, demonstrated potential of psychedelic therapy as a treatment for addiction. After all, we wouldn’t want to “send the wrong message.”
(And by “wrong message,” I of course mean the message that we care more about saving other people’s lives than we do about trying to control them.)
Impact of Cannabis Use during Stabilization on Methadone Maintenance Treatment.
“Pilot data also suggested that objective ratings of opiate withdrawal decrease in MMT patients using cannabis during stabilization.”
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23795873
thank you sir!
Do you take all 16 concubines on vacation?
Excellent post! I wish our wonderful Government could read this post and understand instead of shaking their head in ignorant denial.
Hi Pete,
Thank you for promoting harm reduction!
The opposition to good Samaritan laws or widespread distribution of Naloxone reminds me not just of opposition to condom distribution, but also the proclamations from “religious” people that AIDS is god’s punishment of homosexuality (in spite of the fact that many of the first AIDS patients got this blood-borne virus from transfusions). This mentality is about cruelty and fear of “the other,” no matter how the pro-prohibition side wishes to rationalize their hand-wringing.
As an EMT in the Peoria area, I am aware that intranasal Narcan (basically another marketing name for Naloxone) is now being used by Central IL EMS personnel(Narcan has been administered via IV for years, but now EMT’s–who have yet to receive IV med training–can use the intranasal version. At a recent continuing education session, our instructor said we’ve already had a couple saves locally. This was great news!
Peoria was Beth Wehrman territory… saints bless our late ‘needle lady.’
and for those who don’t know about Beth… what a class act, she’s passed now but she was an inspiration to many drug policy reform folks (and of course her family and friends) and she was another one of those friends I’ve made that I’ve never met because of the interwwwebs and the drug war.
HIV/AIDS Community Mourns Passing of Beth Wehrman
Beth was one of MAP’s volunteer editors, a wife, mother and grandmother, a nurse and if you read her obit, apparently she was the embodiment of the EveryReady® bunny:
RIP Beth Wehrman
Beth also worked until her last days campaigning for Obama and cast her absentee ballot hours before she died, knowing she wouldn’t live to see the election:
Obama’s connections, from campaign trail to inaugural train
I “met” Beth when the Peoria Star was running a blatant smear campaign against her volunteer needle exchanges:
US IL: Editorial: Get The Point: ‘Needle Lady’ Should Be Sent Packing
It’s been over a decade ago when the Journal Star went bat shit crazy. Beth put out an appeal for help w/ the Star and I think at the time I counted close to 2 dozen LTEs sent by MAP’s LTE crew and others supporting Beth’s work. That cage liner printed 1 in support of Beth, 2 against (and that one letter? From the King of LTE, Robert Sharpe…).
Damn, just thinking about Beth, her work, and her family that I know misses her still, makes me teary eyed writing this… time to go dig some weeds.
I give Beth direct credit for Obama’s lifting of the ban on needle exchanges. It’s one of the few positives actions I give Obama credit for. If he had an angel whispering in his ear when he did so, it was Beth…
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I don’t know if you were around in the 1980s but in that day it was widely known that AIDs (nee HTLV-III) was a gay person’s disease. No doubt that the religionists promoted that nonsense very vocally. But they most certainly did not contribute more than marginally to that widespread belief. Hey, I believed it and sitting next to me Madalyn Murry O’hair looks like a cafeteria atheist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O%27Hair
Well, I was a child when AIDS was identified and began making headlines. So, my recollection may be inaccurate and no doubt reflects my concern with the tendencies of theistic traditions.
I guess it took someone like Ryan White to dispel those rumors for everyone.
I don’t think I ever heard Cowboy Bob ask Howdy if he wanted to talk about heroeen… but I was a sprout w/o context, so who knows?
Allan is that code for Boosh Rayguns?
Roy Rodgers named his “horse” Trigger.
Happiness, is a warm gun…
Popeye’s Spinach
Romper Room ask if we were good doobies or schwag.
Pre NSA checking us out through a tennis racket.
Called us by name. Big Sister!
Kapt Kangaroo and another Moose and Mr Greenjeans.
Mr Rogers It’s a neighborly day in this beauty wood,
Sky King & Songbird is self explanatory…
Chief Thunderthud, head of the Ooragnak tribe of Native Americans (kangaroo spelled backward). Edward Kean originated Thunderthud’s greeting “Kowabonga!”
The first mention of Bongs on TV.
“Say kids, what time is it?”
and the kids’ yelling in unison,
“Howdy Doody Time!” or 4:20
Mighty Mouse as experiencing drug-induced exhilaration after inhaling the petals of a flower.
Rocky and Bullwinkle
Pottsylvania, the only other place in the world Mooseberry bushes grow.
Comix and Cannabis
Family Guy “420” – “X”
American High Society
Hash Head Civil War Generals
Lincoln’s porch jamming.
Disneyland Memorial Orgy bw (1684×1155)
I received my Silver Tour Pin and “Should Grandma smoke pot” CD today,,Robert was faster than NORMl and his pin is bigger,,that should piss Allen off.
Erowid Center â€@erowid
Lawsuit by Frank Olson’s family against US gov over 1953 #LSD-related death dismissed by judge today. http://ow.ly/n4lM0
BooshameyRumsey Cocktail
MKULTRA: CIA Mind Control
The documents show that two of the key officials involved in the decision to withhold that information were White House aides Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.
Doing hospice work I was told heroin reaches pain faster than morphine. Although the Nurses and patients still used a Rox cocktail. Or the DEA deciding what dosage to cut off relief. Can’t risk going into the “high” area. They believe it is best to suffer in pain. As with the religionists and immoralists paying for your sins crap. God smiting the infidels with Earthquakes, Hurricanes or Tornado’s. The mindset making profit the mother of invention, necessity as a deterrent to whistle blowing. Corporate “treatment” of crime and disease profits while a cure or prevention eliminates profits. If the two foot of shelf space determines fame and fortune. Hemp without poisons, greater tensile strength and more yield is a threat to take cotton’s shelf space, except prohibited as a schedule#1 narcotic. War and Prison take tax money the same as food-stamps or living wages. Just depends in the direction of flow as to whether it’s a good tax or a bad tax. If it goes to multinational corporations with no allegiance to Americans or home grown and traded in local mills and farmers markets.
Organic without frankenfud technology or processed fud sold on TV. Designed to provide profits treating bad health. It’s the “airplane” movie landing scene. Same with Naloxone, clean needles and consistent unadulterated doses. No, that’s what they’ll be expecting. Better dead than safely using? I remember the defense of parquet reasoning or rather rayguns unreasoning. If the people didn’t smoke it they wouldn’t be harmed by it. Death from white powder overdose provides statistics to bloated NIDA budgets courageously fighting to prove Hemp is evil? Unfortunately reality is much more bazaar, like the article said. Naloxone might lead to more people using. How can you fight such willing dysfunction? Sometimes this war is like tossing life preservers to drowning people and they curse and throw them back. Like telling Pat Robertson Jesus was a gay hippie who inhaled.
Heroin was originally marketed as a drug to help people addicted to morphine. As it turns out, heroin actually turns into morphine when it gets processed by your body, and works faster. So, heroin is basically fast acting morphine.
~ How are heroin and morphine related and why is heroin more potent?
Women and Drugs: The Final Drug War Taboo?
Heroin maintenance programs –
a discussion here in the U.S.?
Drug WarRant by Pete Guither October 9, 2006
Understanding Naloxone
Naloxone (also known as Narcan®) is a medication called an “opioid antagonist†used to counter the effects of opioid overdose, for example morphine and heroin overdose. Specifically, naloxone is used in opioid overdoses to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system, allowing an overdose victim to breathe normally.
The Heroin Challenge
The prohibitionists are living in the “Airplane” movie…
Elaine : The gear is down and we’re ready to land.
Kramer : Alright, he’s on final now,
put out all runway lights except 9er.
Towerguy Captain,
maybe we ought to turn on the search lights now.
MCrosky: No, thats just what they’ll be expecting us to do
naloxone is used in opioid overdoses to counteract life-threatening depression of the central nervous system and respiratory system
No, thats just what they’ll be expecting us to do
Hey Pete nice post. Educating users about the major risk factors could go a long way to saving lives. A few things to add:
On Overdoses
There is very little evidence that heroin overdoses are in fact due to taking too large a dose of heroin. This has been known for quite some time, since at least in 1972, in the Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit Drugs chapter 12 is dedicated to discussing the “heroin overdose” myth.
Most “overdoses” are the result of combining opiates with CNS depressants (mostly benzos and/or alcohol). I’ve known a number of people who have overdosed, and even brought back a young woman myself using naloxone. Every single one mixed opiates with either large amounts of alcohol or benzos (xanax, klonopin, valium, ect). This is probably the single largest contributing factor.
What about those who die with no drugs other than opiates in their system? Fluctuations in tolerance is a definite factor, due to incarceration and detox/rehab. Suicide is another one, many “overdoses” may in fact be deliberate. Heroin users and addicts face major stigma and discrimination, the rate of suicide is several times the rate of the general population. An opiate overdose is a painless death, and unless there is a note or other evidence it will likely be labeled accidental.
We tend to think of heroin overdoses as purely pharmacological, the user has a certain level of tolerance X, and if the dose exceeds X, overdose results. Tolerance however, is dependant not only on one’s usual dose, but also the individual’s mindset and environment. When using in a strange place, one’s tolerance level is lower than usual. This conditioned or situation-specific tolerance is not a well known phenomenon, when using in new environments users would do well to take smaller doses.
I’ve put together a blog post about heroin overdoses here. If anyone is interested in reading more there are a number of references at the bottom.
Naloxone
The government’s opposition to naloxone is based off a survey of San Francisco heroin addicts that asked if they would use more heroin is naloxone was available. A majority said they might. The notion that we should let people die in order to discourage bad behavior would be widely held as morally contemptible, if it were any other group of people besides heroin addicts.
Naloxone works with any opioid, not only heroin (methadone is particularly dangerous). While most overdoses are the result of the mixing downers with opiates, naloxone will work even though it only effects the opiate component. By themselves both opiates and benzos are generally safe, it is the synergistic effects of combining them that is dangerous.
Also naloxone is available as a nasal spray. It’s easy to assemble and takes no more than 5 minutes of instruction to teach someone how to properly apply it. I’ve personally brought back one young woman who overdosed after mixing heroin with alcohol. I’ve also given out the kits to a number of people who use opiates, and know that at least one was used to bring someone out of an OD. If people are given the tools to save lives, they will use them.
Naloxone should also be included in first aid kits. Prescriptions above a certain dosage should also come with naloxone. There is no reason why it should not also be made available over the counter. It cannot be “abused” (it doesn’t get you high) and allergic reactions seem to be very rare.
“many ‘overdoses’ may in fact be deliberate”
My daughter-in law used to have 4 brothers now she has one, two drowned along with their girlfriends on a midnite adventure in a stolen row boat on a local bay (probably high on something, or drunk), the third from heroin OD, a few years later, though we don’t know if it was deliberate; a few weeks after that his live-in girlfriend also died of an heroin OD, leaving their young daughter an orphan, we know she did it deliberately. Sad, very, very sad.
Reconsidering the one brother’s OD death after reading about post treatment ODs, he had recently been through treatment when he died, so perhaps it was not deliberate, we do know his child’s mother did suicide by heroin OD, she left a note.
Kerli is talking again,,only two meaninless sentences about medical marijuana and no mention of legalization efforts.
Comments are open.
Drug czar: Treat addiction as public health issue
http://tinyurl.com/lsm4evo
“”Kerlikowske said that the popularity of medical marijuana sends the wrong message to young people.
“This isn’t medicine,” Kerlikowske said.””
Of course he was in AR helping Asa Hutchins fight mmj.
I made a comment there this morning, it is a copy (with one addition — Kerli’s name) which I also sent to all three of the members of congress who claim to represent me and my State/district in government. Had to use my gaming nickname because the name I use nearly everywhere else was “already taken”. My comment is #5
I found the easiest way to evaluate if Kerlique is telling the truth is by checking to see if his lips are moving. If they are then its BS.
Fresh Meat… Spawn of Calvino
Marijuana MAKES You Violent
More Genetically Modified Drug Worriers
Cannabis doesn’t cause violence.
Drug Worriers are just cowards.
Well DdC,,that certainly explains why wardens in Germany and Mexico are petitioning their government to us marijuana in the prison system to quell violence,,after all prisons are so boring and peaceful they need to do something to keep the guards awake.
I don’t know Clay, if they make prisons less draconian here everybody will want to commit crimes. Just like when they ban food stamps for pot busts the people don’t get hungry anymore. Amazing how the Subliminal Justice Stism works.
Heroin reaches pain faster…Outlaw It!
Re: Kerli
I seem to recall that when he was Chief of the Seattle Police Department, he had a different attitude toward marijuana, “lowest priority” a holdover from the previous Chief (Norm Stamper), IIRC.
That’s when he was earning a simple paycheck before the big bucks of prohibition started rolling towards him.
A very important limitation to Good Samaritan Laws people need to know about:
Most, if not all, of these laws extend the immunity provision only to possession. If it’s found you were selling the heroin or other drugs, you can still be arrested for that.
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In yet another case of extreme synchronicity I saw the Chief Executive Parasite from Phoenix House on the TV last night. He actually explained the phenomenon in plain, easy to understand words. Neither did he pull any punches…”the dose of heroin that the person in “treatment” would take before entering the “treatment” program is enough to cause a fatal overdose after 30 days of abstinence.
I hadn’t heard of the guy that is generating this interest but apparently he died after a period of abstinence. They also mentioned that the drinking alcohol was an integral part of his fatal overdose.
Did these assholes suddenly grow a conscience? I’m flabbergasted.
Someone purchased a real happy meal at a burger king with a loaded pot pipe for a 4 yr old,,my comment:
Is anyone else sick of the effort used by the press to push possible harm to a 4 year old or any person that happened to purchase that box?
The 4 yr old probably didn’t have his lighter with him and if he did he might not be able to figure out the carburetor hole usually found on a majority of pot pipes.
If he had his lighter and succeeded in lighting and smoking the marijuana he would be partaking of a plant mankind used for thousands of years with no age restrictions,,and not one mention of it harming mankind’s development, filling insane asylums with reefer mad patients,causing large colonies of eunuchs due to testicular cancers,societies of people too lazy to be productive citizens or men’s breasts competing with women’s,,all these have been promised us will result with marijuana use by one federal agency,the National Institute on Drug Abuse that funded the studies that claimed they had proof that marijuana caused the above maladies,,,is this a signal of another federal bureaucracy that has failed the American citizens like so many others?
Does anyone else get the feeling we might be getting played?
Welcome to another press version of the fear factor.
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Nah clay, the prohibitionist parasites aren’t trying to play us. It’s their sycophants that they’re playing for fools.
I could even be willing to listen to the argument that the majority of the parasites have themselves been played. E.g. Keith Humphreys. It’s not unusual for the abused to become the abuser. It’s so commonplace that it can even be expected to happen.
Very good article Pete. Just a question though. Where are you getting the information that Naloxone will last for 45 minutes? We are trained to observe and be prepared to repeat dose in 2-3 minutes up to a maximum of 10mg.
Thanks in advance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naloxone
I highly advise you change your wording to say “may last up to 45 minutes. I can find no peer reviewed information regarding a duration time of 45 minutes from manufacturers, medical drug books or scientific literature. What is know is that the duration is directly affected by the purity and quantity of the drug ingested, so it is possible that one administration will do the job. Not trying to be anal.
Peace.
Thanks.!
Here’s another link about naloxone. It says 20-90 minutes.
As for how much to use it depends on what opiate/opioid the person has ODed on and what dosage they took. Typically two doses of naloxone are distributed in overdose kits. If its an opiate like heroin, the individual should be watched. The naloxone may wear off faster than the heroin, if they took a significant dose it is possible that they could slip back into an OD after some time has passed, then you gotta hit them again with the naloxone. If its something like methadone, which has a very long half-life (up to 30 hours), its best to take the person to a hospital.
OT but had to share… Doug Fine w/ an outstanding interview, touching on some good points over at TruthOut.org:
Will Marijuana Farming in Mendocino County, California, Lead America to Pot?
Doug is continuing to put out quality material and this cranky old Oregonian has to give him a tip o’ the old man’s hat.
The beast is dying folks, the wall is crumbling. That this is so makes the last thrashings of the dragon named WOD no less dangerous. We need to smother it, decapitate it, disembowel it and put it thru the food processor and then burn it before I’ll breathe that final sigh of relief. Even then… I’ll sleep on my back, with one eye open.
As a famous man once said, “It ain’t over til it’s over.”
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) is sponsoring Senate Res. 178 “honoring the men and women of the Drug Enforcement Administration on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the agency.†Its co-sponsor is Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
The Drug Enforcement Administration has done nothing honorable in the last 40-years. Praising the DEA is unconscionable. Feinstein and Grassley need to go the way of other dinosaurs, and Senate Res. 178 needs to be opposed, loudly.
Comments are open.
Comment posted.
She just had to stink up the joint one more time before she left…
She’s been in bed with Oral Hatch for a decade trying to censor the internet. Now it looks like she has a new bo, Grassy? I remember when she got her start nationally after Harvey Milk was assassinated. The council member who shot him walked past difi and smiled. He got off on the twinkie defense and then ofted himself later. DiFi went on to be an undercover republican ever since. Good riddance…
Diane Feinstein – the best argument for term limits ecp
President Obama:
“There are very few African American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me,” he said.
“There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happened to me – at least before I was a senator.
“There are very few African Americans who haven’t had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often.”
Something you didn’t mention here, Mr President:
There are very few African American men who haven’t had the experience of being stopped and searched for drugs for no reason other than that they are black. Unlike you, however, many of those stopped who are black have disproportionately been arrested and convicted for possession of cannabis, a drug you often smoked back in your Choom Club days. Why do you not mention the racial bias of the war on drugs and the legislation which enables it?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/19/trayvon-martin-obama-white-house
OT:
Ooohh, Obama just gave a surprise/unscripted un-teleprompted speech about racial disparities, (It was a number of remarks about Trayvon Martin & stand your ground laws
And, he also mentioned the Drug War (disparities in young black men arrested, and a stuff like having people lock their car doors as he walked by = back before he was a Senator) = they’re covering it on the “The Cycle” (and for whatever reason SE & Krystal aren’t there = So, it’s a boys-club afternoon (with Luke Russert, Steve Kornacki, Toure, and Ari Melber.
Ari, went & specifically brought up a clip with the bit about the disparity in young black men being locked-up disproportionately – drug laws, And better still Chuck Todd came in and commented on that as well, sure he’s the “NBC News Chief White House Correspondent” (Chuck’s not a super-liberal – He usually does a decent job of keeping some separation of his personal opinion(s) & his professional views/Observations – in the course of his reporting.)
And it seems that all the various MSNBC reporters/analysts/contributors/etc – are jumping at the chance to comment on Obama finally speaking about the Zimmerman trial verdict, and Criminal Justice Reform overall = and it wasn’t all about guns and *gun-control* garbage!
Where the Fuck did this guy disappear to for the last few years?
Dammit, Martin Bashir and his *holier than thou*, Brit-git, “guns are bad m’kay” crap is gonna poison the majority of the discussion for the next 45 mins on MSNBC. But, I can’t imagine the level of excrement flinging – that’s going on over on FauxNews, I don’t want/(need) to know precisely what sorta crap = beyond the obvious/go-to, “Look he’s race-baiting”… is being flung.
But, I guess I could stand to see Eric Bolling’s head exploding (repeatedly) on “The Five” here in a half-hour or so. – that could be good for a laugh!
FRAK, Bashir is railing on *fairy-tale* “Gun-Control” again, pardon me while I go puke, have a cig and then proofread this before posting it here = and maybe there will be a thread that’s “on topic” to post this in by then?
where did you see/read that about him mentioning the drug war?
Hey Jean, I think he actually DID bring that up, sort of – not personally (directly) but in the larger context of:
“…the African-American community is also knowledgeable that – there is a a history – of racial disparities in the application of our criminal justice laws, everything from the Death Penalty to the enforcement of our Drug Laws…”
And he goes on about this for quite awhile, he was talking about the general presumption of guilt of young African-American men/boys.
He suggests examining state and local laws that are biased based on race – though IMO he was really talking more about = “would Trayvon Martin have been able to *stand his ground* if he was armed and felt threatened by George Zimmerman?”
But he did acknowledge the Drug War – in a negative light – I think this is *about* the time everyone said/guessed he would wait until before he tried to change any marijuana laws…
Because once he does that – and crosses that line – there are a bunch of people who (in all likelihood) won’t take him seriously – but rather berate him with “choom-gang” remarks.
I get what your saying, but I know that if he wants to truly affect drug laws – he’s going to have to wait for just the right moment or situation to arise… and this isn’t quite it *not yet*.
AND, Not two mins later here’s Sean Hannity throwing a “Choom Gang” slam at the President.
I do not like Hannity (as with Limbaugh and Beck, he’s an ass, and a social conservative who likes the US making wars on brown people and theocracy) but Obama deserves that “Choom Gang” slam, and I wish it would happen a whole LOT more, and get it from every nook and corner of the political spectrum.
ttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGH4ghn0-9c Engaging video. See how the Mandatory minimums 40 years ago worked. Comments are good. Sharpen perception at the link.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGH4ghn0-9c
so that’s what they mean when they say “where the h…?”
What the vid fails to mention is how viagra blinded 50 people. Where’s the beef?!
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Wow, I’d never heard that Viagra made some people suffer FDA approved blindness. Of course I basically stopped investigating after learning of the thousands and thousands of people who suffered an FDA approved death from taking Viagra, men literally dying to get an FDA approved erection.