He’s back

I almost missed him. Almost.

Our old nemesis John Walters shows up in this series in the New York Times. Room for Debate: Should Drug Enforcement be Left to the States

He starts out in classic style:

Government of the people, by the people and for the people cannot be indifferent to growing addiction and self-destruction. Where addiction and self-destruction exist, democracy and freedom do not. The Obama administration behaves as if this obvious truth were trivial.

If it is not already, marijuana and other drug use and abuse will soon be one of the fastest-growing health threats in America. The forces are known and predictable.

Federal drug laws and national leadership on this matter arose because anything less was dangerously inadequate.
For decades we have seen that drug use and the disease of addiction are not victimless fun.

The whole thing is a work of beauty by this evil mastermind. The way he invokes government of/by/for the people as a reason to oppress them is breathtaking.

The other articles in the debate are much better (as in grounded in the real world as opposed to Walters’ fantasy world) including good pieces by Glenn E Martin, Kabrina Krebel Chang, Vanita Gupta, and Alex Kreit. Beau Kilmer goes off on the now tired screed that people are just too weak to withstand the power of commercial advertising and must be protected from consumerism.


bullet image He’s back, part 2. Speaking of the return of old nemeses, Scott Burns (former assistant director of the ONDCP under Walters) popped up in an article I was reading on NPR: How Long It Too Long? Congress Revisits Mandatory Sentences

The article talks about how, as a nation, we’re finally seeing the destruction of decades of extraordinarily long sentences, particularly for drug crimes, with bipartisan support for reform. But not everyone agrees:

“The real power and efficacy of federal minimum mandatory sentences is our ability to hold them over certain peoples’ heads in solving kingpin drug cases, or major murders,” says Scott Burns, head of the National District Attorneys Association.

What a self-indictment of our justice system!


bullet image The always excellent Maia Szalavitz has another great article at The Fix: Don’t Believe the (Marijuana) Hype – What most people think they know about marijuana—especially media columnists—is just years of unscientific, paranoid, and even racist government propaganda.

But why are we so gullible in this area, when reporters are supposed to be skeptical? One reason has got to be the fact that over the last 40 years, the government has spent billions of dollars on advertising and even planted media articles and messages in TV shows aiming to get us all to “just say no.” While these campaigns are often ineffective at preventing use, they do seem to work at clouding perception.

And the truth is seen as immaterial in the drug war. Written into the job description of the “drug czar” by Congress is that whoever heads the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) must “take such actions as necessary to oppose any attempt to legalize the use of a substance (in any form)” that is currently illegal, regardless of the facts. When asked about its distribution of “misleading information”—by a Congressman, in fact—ONDCP cited this provision to justify doing so, saying that this is “within the statutory role assigned to ONDCP.” In other words, they have to lie. […]

The truth is that our perceptions of marijuana—and in fact all of our drug laws—are based on early 20th century racism and “science” circa the Jim Crow era. In the early decades of the 20th century, the drug was linked to Mexican immigrants and black jazzmen, who were seen as potentially dangerous.

Excellent job.


bullet image He’s back, part 3. Scott Takes Worker Drug Testing To Supreme Court. Rick Scott just won’t give up until he gets to drug test everyone (and profit handsomely from it). Based on past Supreme Court rulings, I find it highly unlikely that they’ll even take the case, but I always get a bit nervous with what the Supremes might do.

It’s time to put a stake in this national desire to drug test and really reverse the trend, but also getting it out of schools and the workplace in general.


bullet image Speaking of drug testing… Drug Tests Don’t Deter Use, But School Environment Might

A survey of high school students found that the possibility that they might face drug testing didn’t really discourage students from alcohol, cigarettes or marijuana. But students who thought their school had a positive environment were less apt to try cigarettes and pot.

Treating your students like criminals who must prove their innocence probably doesn’t foster a positive environment. Same thing is true in the workplace.

Here’s the study.

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50 Responses to He’s back

  1. Randy says:

    As this multi-link post illustrates, authoritarian self-righteousness is never in short supply here in “Christian” America. It is slowly changing, but the key word here is slowly. When you have convinced yourself that your moral views are the product of and approved by a perfect deity, a re-evaluation of your positions usually isn’t in the cards. After all, for the pious believer, God is always right.

  2. Nunavut Tripper says:

    Apologize for going OT so soon but just an update on Canadian cannabis politics. The campaign for the federal election is well underway with the Trudeau Liberals promising legalization and the Harper Conservatives promising more of the lock’em up in a cage approach but what I did not know is the Cons are targeting the ethnic voters by ads on the foreign language stations that English and French speaking voters never see.
    Check this ad in the Punjabi language…never mind you can get the drift very easily.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpl0ZcTt5F4

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      I recall when I watched “Midnight Express”. When the prosecutor made his closing argument I sure didn’t need subtitles to understand his diatribe of turkey turds regardless of the fact that I didn’t even know the name of the language he was speaking. Do they talk turkey talk in Turkey? Was it Istanbul Turkish or Anatolian Turkish? I don’t know and it really doesn’t matter what language or alphabet is used to deliver the prohibitionist propaganda, it’s one of the few things that’s constant all over this planet.

  3. Servetus says:

    Amazing. John Walters was finally correct about something:

    “As is all too evident today, the unchallenged spread of drug sales and use in one area is an explosive threat. It makes a mockery of all responsible drug prevention efforts and enforcement. – John Walters ”

    Marijuana legalization will likely force nations and states to examine the legal status of all other illicit drugs to determine how best to integrate their consumption into a non-penal system of regulation and control. Walters is right to be worried. Marijuana legalization makes a mockery out of John Walters and his sordid career as a modern-day Torquemada for the drug-hysterical Christian Right.

  4. Jean Valjean says:

    Former Drug Czar John Walters’ absurd misuse of the word democracy is perfectly summed up by a comment on the site:
    “Where “Czars” exist, democracy and freedom do not.”

  5. NorCalNative says:

    Racist government propaganda?

    You mean like this gem from Harry J. Anslinger.

    “Reefer makes darkie’s think they’re as good as white men.”

  6. Tony Aroma says:

    So drug testing students doesn’t work, but providing a positive school environment does? Our choice is clear. The only solution is MORE DRUG TESTS.

  7. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Now, now, let’s be honest. It’s Gov. Scott’s wife that’s in the business of judging people by the color of their urine. It would be a conflict of interest for Gov. Scott to make a profit from legislation he’s proposed!

    What I’d really like to see is Ms. Scott dump her husband and take all of that urine stained money with her. Yes, wishful thinking, no doubt.

    ——————————

    Gosh, I’d really like to observe the dissection of Mr. Walters’ brain or whatever it is that he keeps in that hollow place in his skull. Yes, even more wishful thinking.

  8. Crut says:

    .
    .
    Re: The NYTimes articles – Who’s the braniac who chose that lead picture for the feature? That kid looks like he’s pulling the panties off a girl for the very first time…

    Government of the people, by the people and for the people cannot be indifferent to growing addiction and self-destruction. Where addiction and self-destruction exist, democracy and freedom do not. The Obama administration behaves as if this obvious truth were trivial.

    Incredulous.

    I’m sorry, but anyone that is willing to have an HONEST look at the FULL HISTORY of cannabis prohibition, and it’s KNOWN RELATIVE HARM to any other drug will never conclude that prohibition is the proper response to someone tending a garden, or responsibly lighting his plant on fire.

    If it is not already, marijuana and other drug use and abuse will soon be one of the fastest-growing health threats in America.

    Translation: I’ve actually read the studies, and know that cannabis legalization alone won’t cause a rise in hospital visits, so I better put in “and other drug[s]” to CMA. Gotta build in my fake “I was with you all along” so the coming weedquizition doesn’t put a rope around my neck.

    This man is already way over the edge of the prohibition volcano, holding onto the fraying rope of the lies he’s told. Everyone else is noticing the tremors and they are figuring out that the volcano is about to erupt…

  9. DdC says:

    Why is Waldo the money laundering domestic terrorist trash not in jail? Funding Calvina groups with tax write offs and the Iran Contra cover up, Hang the bastard. What is this fetish with posting old scum liars? We have new liars to poke a stick at. This scum is dried up and oozing puss. Put it out of its shame and misery. That’s more than he ever did causing misery for America.

    Iran Contra Anniversary
    The Lost Opportunities of Iran-Contra 25 Years Later

    Dirty Secret:
    Drug Czar Walters and the Iran-Contra Connection
    John P. Walters, appointed “Drug Czar” by President George Bush Jr., is uniquely qualified for his new job. He was actually involved in the Iran-Contra Drug Trafficking Cover-up.

    When Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams went to Panama to have a meeting with [former Panamanian ruler] Noriega, he took along Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Michael Kozak, and John Walters, who at that time had been appointed special advisor to the State Department’s Office of Inter-American Affairs.”

    Consequently the whole pie had become smaller than before. And that’s what John Walters was all about. Now he’s appointed ‘drug czar,’ which is not only ironic, it’s absolutely laughable.”

    Philanthropy Roundtable
    John P. Walters President 2001
    The Philanthropy Roundtable is a national association of individual donors, corporate giving representatives, foundation staff and trustees, and trust and estate officers. The Roundtable is founded on the principle that voluntary private action offers the best means of addressing many of society’s needs, and that a vibrant private sector is critical to creating the wealth that makes philanthropy possible.
    Copyright 1997-2001 by the Philanthropy Roundtable

  10. darkcycle says:

    OH DEAR. Hard Hats! Blow that siren….everybody back away from THAT WALL!!
    New Hampshire General Assembly votes in favor of legalizing and regulating marijuana. Making it the first State legislative body to do so!
    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/after-lengthy-floor-debate-new-hampshire-general-assembly-approves-marijuana-legalization

    • Duncan20903 says:

      My, my, my, that Neill Franklin fellow certainly does have a way with words:

      /snip/
      “In Colorado, in the first week of legalization, we took $5 million away from drug dealers,” he continued. “The more we take away, the more their business shrinks. The more money we take from them, the less access to drugs they give to kids.”

      Marijuana Legalization Bill To Be Introduced In Maryland

  11. Servetus says:

    Drug bust alert. Some of our American military personnel are being unfairly targeted in a drug bust emerging from an investigation involving nuclear missile launch personnel who cheated on routine test exams . Here are some details involving the test-cheating-related drug investigations:

    In all, the drug scandal encompassed 11 Air Force officers across six bases in the United States and England. Of the three missile launch officers involved in the drug scandal, two were at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana and one was at F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Wyoming. The two at Malmstrom were among those implicated in the cheating scandal.
    …
    Last week the Pentagon disclosed the original drug probe of a total of 10 officers – nine lieutenants and one captain – at six bases. It provided few other details beyond saying the officers were suspected of possessing “recreational drugs.” That has now expanded to 11 officers.

    The matter is being probed by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.

    The Associated Press has reported that the Air Force’s nuclear arm has been weighed down by a series of problems involving security lapses and morale-related issues, leading one officer to complain of “rot” in the force.

    The original disclosure of a drug investigation said the officers alleged to be involved were at Edwards Air Force Base, Calififornia; Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado.; Royal Air Force Base Lakenheath in England; Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; and two bases that operate intercontinental ballistic missiles – F.E. Warren and Malmstrom.

    .

    This is a clear-cut case of the military abusing its own, and somebody should be speaking up for those whose job it is to push our nuclear buttons. Imagine being stuck in a missile launch silo in Wyoming or Montana with no access to weed. This is cruel and inhuman treatment. No different from denying MMJ to soldiers with PTSD. Sitting next to a nuclear bomb or MIRV warhead is stressful. Clearly, the military needs to light up and lighten up.

    • Tim says:

      If you pay close attention to the beginning of WarGames, you’ll know that nuke techs have long been fans of the herb.

  12. LTR says:

    Pete, have you or anyone here read the full text for http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24234874 “Medical consequences of marijuana use: a review of current literature.” by Gordon and colleagues? Wikipedia’s long term effects of cannabis page is getting nearly all its info from this review at this point since Wikipedia’s medical effects policy relies primarily on secondary sources such as reviews and meta studies of all the available evidence (see the talk page to see a lively debate, although a group now has complete control of the page it appears). That means that the encyclopedia will essentially ignore the primary sources of studies themselves in favor of relying upon meta studies and reviews which take into account the full body of evidence. The only problem is there doesn’t seem to be very many such reviews appearing in pub med recently, so I imagine the wiki page will look this way for quite some time. In particular, I find some of the conclusions at odds with some of the best larger studies done to date. I’m curious if anyone else has looked into this. Hopefully some other evidence reviews will appear soon in the literature that don’t appear to be so willing to make causative assumptions out of associations that tend to disappear after controlling for other variables.

    • DdC says:

      We conclude that healthcare providers should be cognizant that the existing literature suggests that marijuana use can cause physical harm. However, evidence is needed, and further research should be considered, to prove causal associations of marijuana with many physical health conditions.

      I conclude your unconclusion, and raise you a thousand happy long term users. I do agree health care providers should be cognizant. Though none have been located behind prohibitator’s hobgoblin based verbalisms. Master prohibators indoctrinating new herds of DARE kids. I conclude your unsubstantiated “existing literature” is far more than just a suggestion. It is the same flat out hogwash deviation of Emily and Harry. as any other swill regurgitated by swine. How many could be’s. potentially, suggests and maybes. Verses millions of people using it for many thousands of years as well as the past 5 or 6 decades. The only victims are those of prohibition.

      Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74
      The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research, according to Jack Herer, who reports on the events in his book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes. In 1976, President Gerald Ford put an end to all public cannabis research and granted exclusive research rights to major pharmaceutical companies, who set out — unsuccessfully — to develop synthetic forms of THC that would deliver all the medical benefits without the “high.”

      The Hype: Brain Damage in Dead Monkeys

      ☛Professor Lester Grinspoon, Harvard Medical School, USA
      “Marijuana is one of the least toxic substances in the whole pharmacopoeia”

      ☛The Coptic Study (1981)
      “No Harm to Human Brain or Intelligence”

      What comes from intangible suggestions… is doing harm to tangible matter such as people. That is all this gossip does. It takes surrealistic brain storming’s from non-using prohibitioner profiteers and hurts people. Terrorizes families, the drug worriers cause PTSD and it is aided with Ganja. “That marijuana use can cause physical harm” has been spouted so many ways since 1937 and never panned out, or was it retracted by the press. Just more Katie freak shows sending the weirdo’s as fear mongers, intimidation and dramatic fakery. D.E.A.th Merchant’s going out of business with the last vermin clinging to the castles in the clouds. They’ve become addicted to living in a world of make believe. Crossing the line into Schizophrenia, as over zealous religionists willing to die and kill over what is not real.

      The Politics of Pot

      ☛The USA Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy 1987
      “Cannabis can be used on an episodic but continual basis without evidence of social or psychic dysfunction. In many users the term dependence with its obvious connotations, probably is mis-applied… The chief opposition to the drug rests on a moral and political, and not toxicologic, foundation”.

      ☛The Economist March 28th 1992
      “Medicines often produce side effects. Sometimes they are physically unpleasant. Cannabis too has discomforting side effects, but these are not physical they are political”

      ☛U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
      (DOT HS 808 078), Final Report, November 1993
      “THC’s adverse effects on driving performance appear relatively small”

      ☛”Marijuana: Facts for Teens.”
      U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
      Washington, D.C. 1995, p.10.
      “Most marijuana users do not go on to use other drugs.”

      Possibly the most-studied substance on the planet

      The jig is up probie. You’re busted each time you put your greed in front, as a reason people should suffer. The only logical conclusion for a drug worrier’s existence is getting paid. Willingly let the toddlers have 300 seizures a week instead of 3 or 4 a month. Caging parents for advocating and stealing children as farm commodities. Forcing grannie to take a piss test. Such evil lurking behind the drug worriers and their chemical corporate war bucks. Pushing filth and white powders, booze and dioxins. More regulations and fuss over Ganja than Fuckushima. More innuendo’s tossed at the fearful and weary. More assumptions to make a sick person finding relief have something to worry about. The very basics in health care is not throwing someone in a cage, with or without gang rape, beatings and a criminal placement in society. Your lies of omission and false accusation are a disgrace to the American people. You should be in jail repenting your evil ways.

    • DdC says:

      This is the Brain of Incremental Retardation…

      ☛Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894
      “The commission has come to the conclusion that the moderate use of hemp drugs is practically attended by no evil results at all. … …moderate use of hemp… appears to cause no appreciable physical injury of any kind,… no injurious effects on the mind… [and] no moral injury whatever.”

      ☛Professor Olaf Drummer,
      a forensic scientist the Royal College of Surgeons in Melbourne in 1996

      “:Compared to alcohol, which makers people take more risks on the road, marijuana made drivers slow down and drive more carefully…. Cannabis is good for driving skills, as people tend to overcompensate for a perceived impairment.”

      ☛LaGuardia Commission Report, 1944
      “Cannabis smoking] does not lead directly to mental or physical deterioration… Those who have consumed marijuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug.”

      ☛The LaGardia sub-committee of New York 1944
      “The use of marijuana does not lead to morphine or heroin or cocaine addiction and no effort is made to create a market for these narcotics by stimulating the practice of marijuana smoking”

      “Marijuana is not the determining factor in the commission of major crime….The publicity concerning the catastrophic effect of marijuana smoking in New York City, is unfounded”

      However, always a However, but, except on earth clause. Drugs are bad if symptoms last longer than 4 hours, are fatal, can cause everything imaginable and just might not do anything. Every 20 minutes on the thousand cable channels. A plant grown in the herb garden doesn’t require expensive treatments so lets not play these silly games. Hemp is the cornerstone, Ganja is the keystone. The “hard” drugs are not deadly except by prohibitionists legeslating morality as they see it. You or whomeveer authored this trash does no one a service except the road pavers. That’s wearing pretty thin. However evidence is needed? Evidence is needed should have been the leading line and saved peoples eye sight reading it. So is it a hunch, like they have a gut feeling its bad and millions of people using it don’t seem to be bad or feel bad or do bad things. But nonetheless a hunch is a hunch and with a lck of evidence, that’s all ya got, gotta go with whatchya got, the gut. God find America it was lost in a Sea of Tranquility Phobes.

      Tell Congress: We Need Jobs, Not Cuts, Got Hemp?

      ☛Dr J. H. Jaffe,
      The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics.
      L.Goodman and A Gillman, 3rd edn. 1965

      “There are no long lasting ill-effects from the acute use of marijuana and no fatalities have ever been recorded … there seems to be growing agreement within the medical community, at least, that marijuana does not directly cause criminal behaviour, juvenile delinquency, sexual excitement, or addiction.”

      ☛Proven : Cannabis is a safe medicine by Ian Williams Goddard
      BOSTON, Jan. 30, 1997 (UPI) –
      CANNABIS DOES NOT CAUSE CANCER
      The Clinton administration has said that doctors prescribing marijuana could be prosecuted for a federal crime. Marijuana has been reported to ease the pain, nausea and vomiting in advanced stages of cancer, AIDS and other serious illnesses, but the federal government claims other treatments have been deemed safer than what it calls “a psychoactive, burning carcinogen.” However, The Boston Globe says the government’s claim appears to be undercut by its own $2 million study.

      ☛The Kaiser Permanente study
      “Marijuana Use and Mortality” April 1997 American Journal of Public Health”.
      “Relatively few adverse clinical effects from the chronic use of marijuana have been documented in humans. However, the criminalization of marijuana use may itself be a health hazard, since it may expose the users to violence and criminal activity.”

      ☛1968 UK ROYAL COMMISSION, THE WOOTTON REPORT
      “Having reviewed all the material available to us we find ourselves in agreement with the conclusion reached by the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission appointed by the Government of India (1893-94) and the New York Mayor’s Committee (1944 – LaGuardia) that the long-term consumption of cannabis in moderate doses has no harmful effects” “the long-asserted dangers of cannabis are exaggerated and that the related law is socially damaging, if not unworkable”

      Nixon’s Drug War –
      Re-Inventing Jim Crow, Targeting The Counter Culture

      Further reasearch further further research and even further than that research has been done since the late 1800’s Every decade or so someone needs more research. Until SAM found by accident it shrank brain tumers in mice. In 1974, looking at my proverbial watch it seems a whole heep of victims who suffered and died from brain tumers have a beef with SAM for Banning further research. Or how many false, retracted studies after another law is passed on passed lies? Reagans monkey tests, Bidons RAVE Act. The Controlled Substance scheduling of cannabis. Known unscience policcal sabotage with one benefactor… Wall St. No credit, Bad credit, All of the Above. Pseudo Science threatening sick people should lose their ability to practice and certainly lose their ability to steal tax money for gossip. Since the Scythians they haven’t proven a causal association of cannabis with any physical health condition. Except Good Health.

      Report Findings Are Still Valid
      40 Years After Nixon’s Marijuana Commission Advocated Decriminalization
      Nixon Never Read His Own Report, President Obama Should

      ☛Jamaican Study 1970
      “This study indicates that there is little correlation between the use of ganga and crime, except insofar as the possession and cultivation of ganga are technically crimes”

      ☛Nixon’s own Shafer Commission of 1970
      Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug”

      ☛US Jamaican Study 1974
      “… as a multipurpose plant, ganga is used medicinally, even by non-smokers. ….

      There were no indications of organic brain damage or chromosome damage among smokers and no significant clinical psychiatric, psychological or medical) differences between smokers and controls.”

      “No impairment of physiological, sensory and perceptual performance, tests of concept formation, abstracting ability, and cognitive style, and tests of memory”

      “[Cannabis smoking] does not lead directly to mental or physical deterioration…

      Those who have consumed marijuana for a period of years showed no mental or physical deterioration which may be attributed to the drug.”

      Using Pot To Save Brains!

      They weren’t taking my comments so I’ll just network them on my rounds. Medical consequences of marijuana use gossip: a review of current literature of.Gordon AJ, Conley JW, Gordon JM.

  13. claygooding says:

    Capra said that senior DEA officials have faced uncomfortable questions from law enforcement partners abroad. During a recent global summit on counter-narcotics in Moscow, he said, he and the head of the DEA were at a loss to explain the loosening drug laws.

    “Almost everyone looked at us and said: Why are you doing this [while] pointing a finger to us as a source state?” he said. “I don’t have an answer for them.”

    Democracy never entered the DEA’s mind.

    Source: DEA official decries states’ legalization of marijuana

    http://tinyurl.com/l448ojs

  14. allan says:

    OT…

    I have 2 pieces in the new (Issue #9)(# 9?)(number nine?) CannabisNow Magazine – American Apartheid (drug war and race, if you couldn’t tell) and Objects of Desire, Decoupling Women and Weed. Little Miss Appleseed has 2 of her pics and a long quote in that one with another pic of and a quote from another of my stoner model friends. That one is a sidebar (2 page sidebar) to Wendy Chapkis The Trouble with Mary Jane’s Gender.

    A good night in the household!

    I’ll smoke to that!

    • jean valjean says:

      is a link available?

        • allan says:

          Thanks John…

          … the new issue cover (#9) can be seen at their FB page:

          https://www.facebook.com/CNMagazine

          But it is subscription only, $8 for hard copy over the counter.

          I’m impressed with the magazine. They’ve done another nice job with their layout on my new piece. The work they did on my Mexican Drug War article was awesome. Content is well above average, nice images, 110 pages on heavy stock.

          I think I are gonna be an riter wehn I grow up. And a ne’er-do-well photographer of ill repute. Another stoner w/o butt hooks (if you ever got the parental why-is-your-ass-still-in-the-chair look, you’d know what butt hooks are).

  15. Jean Valjean says:

    Interesting report about the Florida governor’s election and how MMJ on the ballot could affect it. Anyone but Rick Scott…

    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/will-marijuana-decide-florida-governors-race

    • Duncan20903 says:

      I’m not sure that you’ve thought that one all the way through. John Walters isn’t Rick Scott. Neither is Calvina Fay, Kev-Kev, Mel Sembler, etc.

  16. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    To me one of the more annoying habits of the prohibitionist parasites and their sycophants is their tendency to conflate the potential health hazards of smoking and cannabis consumption. When someone points out the fact that smoking simply is not required in order to gain the benefits of cannabis, whether for medicinal need or just plain enjoyment and that any potential health hazards due to smoking are not the hazards of cannabis, but of smoking, they simply declare that most fans of cannabis smoke it and the fact that you don’t have to do that is irrelevant.

    It never even crosses their collective mind that the very nature of edibles insures that smoking will be preferred when obtained from the black market. Edibles are more expensive in any market because of lost THC due to digestion. Then there is also the not insignificant consideration that if the black market vendor ripped you off you won’t know that for at least an hour giving the vendor plenty of time to disappear.

    Yes, someone could produce edibles and cultivate a reputation of quality product and providing honest value but now we’re back to the higher cost.

    Of course the prohibitionists have sworn a blood oath to never let the facts get in the way of disseminating an effective piece of hysterical rhetoric.

    This one is from the “didn’t you know that before the advent of toilet paper most people used corn cobs?” category:

    Edible marijuana sales shattering sales projections in Colorado
    Dixie Elixirs and Edibles working to meet demand

    DENVER – A one-month supply of marijuana edibles, gone in the first three days of January.

    That’s what the area’s largest supplier of marijuana edibles is saying about the incredible demand for the product since recreational sales were legalized in Colorado on Jan. 1.

    “We are working hard,” said Joe Hodas, chief marketing officer for Dixie Elixirs and Edibles. “We like to call ourselves the future of cannabis.”
    /snip/

    • claygooding says:

      Prohibitiches point out how many more people will be smoking pot and driving,,I see more people eating and drinking pot to avoid the odor that would get you impairment testing by standing on one foot,,not feasible while we have to depend on a “dealer” for our cannabis,,,but when you can pick up edibles from licensed outlets where the company that produced them is available for any problems it will become a lot more popular.

  17. QuaxMercy says:

    With respect to Dixie Elixirs specifically, a caveat is in order: I pass this on from a trusted source, Martin Lee’s ProjectCBD.org who put up a Facebook note published by Tamara Wise, former chief scientist @ Medical Marijuana Inc & Dixie Elixirs, on Nov. 20, 2013. I’ll not characterize the language she uses, other than to say she promises a tell-all soon, and calls their products “unfit for human consumption.”
    I know, I was so looking forward to access to their sodas.

    • claygooding says:

      I hate/love the way when business partners and groups break up someone always spills the beans,,usually the one that was phased out for whatever reason,,if they had not been phased out would we even hear about it,,,nope.

  18. Servetus says:

    The ACLU is suing Arizona border patrol agents for using immigration enforcement as an excuse to search for drugs at checkpoints:

    Border Patrol agents routinely violate the constitutional rights of local residents in southern Arizona when they stop drivers at interior checkpoints on major highways and state routes near the border, according to an official complaint filed Wednesday.

    The complaint sent to Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties alleges that checkpoint agents conduct searches and detain people without justification, and use immigration enforcement as a pretext for “fishing expeditions” for potential criminal activity.

    The American Civil Liberties Union complaint details alleged violations against 15 U.S. citizens. It is the latest in a series of complaints about the checkpoints, where drivers passing through are ostensibly stopped and asked if they are U.S. citizens.

    These are some of the cases that illustrate the problem :

    Pulling a citizen over as she was driving her young children home from school, threatening her with a Taser and leaving her with a flat tire on the side of a dirt road;

    Stopping a citizen who was driving on Tohono O’odham land and then dragging her out of her vehicle and detaining her for over an hour without reason;

    Causing hundreds of dollars in damage to a citizen’s car while he was visiting the Fort Bowie National Historic Site in southeastern Arizona;

    Pulling over and questioning a man, while holding automatic weapons, on his family’s property 60 miles north of the border for over an hour in front of his relatives; and

    Stopping and wrenching a citizen from her car, then groping and holding her in handcuffs without explanation until local police intervened.

    Drug enforcement is too easily abused by incompetent and corrupt officials. Since there is no simple solution to eliminate this incompetence or corruption, especially in states such as Arizona, it must be admitted that current drug enforcement methods cannot be enforced safely or effectively. Eliminating drug criminalization is an absolute necessity for preserving freedom and democracy in America and the world.

  19. Speaking of prohibitches:

    Even Lady Gaga knows pot is not harmless
    By William J. Bennett
    http://tinyurl.com/ll5jswe

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Have there been any reports of space probes that have exploded in the Earth’s atmosphere in the last day or so? I’m certain that the horror we’re now facing is the result of radiation emanating from such a probe. At least that was what reanimated all those dead people in “The Night of the Living Dead.” First John Walters, and now Bill Bennett. I’m scared of undead ghouls since they want to eat my brain because they have none!

      Who’s next? Harry J Anslinger?

    • Jean Valjean says:

      Problematic gambler Bill (I never spent the milk money) Bennett has this to say about the “victims of drugs”

      “But where are the voices of the wounded? Where is the outrage from the families who have been hurt?”

      Of course, this is a much more fitting question to ask of the victims of the drug war he helped to create, and the reason we don’t hear from them is because he put them in jail and guaranteed them a lifetime of marginalization. Lets see how many more drug czars come out of the woodwork as the edifice of prohibition collapses around their ears.

    • DdC says:

      Lady Gaga Addicted to Pot?
      Addicted? Give us a break, Gaga just described what thousands of medical marijuana patients go through EVERY SINGLE DAY. Would it have been better if she was dosed up on doctor-prescribed opioids? Are all those medcan patients addicted as well? Or do they just need their medicine like any other patient?

      Drugwar Lies Linked to Schizophrenia

      Is The DEA Legalizing THC?

      Aborting “every black baby in this country” would reduce the crime rate,
      Education Secretary William Bennett

      Americas New Drug Pushers

      LA TIMES: Vices and Virtues:William Bennett lost millions on slots …
      ☛Bill Bennett’s Gambling in Perspective by Steve Sailer
      ☛William Bennett: the secret high-stakes gambling life of a former drug czar
      ☛”The Bookie of Virtue” by Joshua Green
      ☛The Machine That Ate Bill Bennett – Los Angeles Times

    • primus says:

      The commenters are savaging him, as one would expect. Seeing as Bennett has limited experience with the internet and having responses back instantly, and seeing as they are all negative and very vile and vituperative, I wonder how often he will want to repeat this? Is this a desperation move? Bring all the old hacks out of the rest home to spout their drivel? Who’s next? Barry McCaffrey? Bill ‘didn’t inhale’ Clinton?

    • Nunavut Tripper says:

      Lady Gaga says she was huffing back 15 to 20 joints a day
      which I must admit is past the point of diminishing returns.
      She got fed up with it and laid off the herb or is having a T-break.
      Doesn’t sound like she had any trouble quitting so what is the problem here ?

  20. jean valjean says:

    discussion on npr right now on effect of drug convictions.

    • Jean Valjean says:

      ‘Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) then addressed Capra’s statements, saying she agreed with him because marijuana is a “gateway drug.”’
      It blows me away when anyone describes NSA Feinstein as a liberal.
      Fascist is closer.

    • thelbert says:

      speaking of freakouts, wait ’til mr. capra gets this through his thick skull: http: http://tinyurl.com/k6zha8t

    • Crut says:

      Feinstein: “I believe…, I believe…, I believe…”

      Believe what you want to believe, I know and can prove that you are ignorant and out of touch. Just because you have a microphone doesn’t make you correct.

  21. Servetus says:

    A bit late, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) now supports medical marijuana use:

    “If you’d asked me this question a dozen years ago, it would have been easy to answer – I would have said no, because (marijuana) leads to other stuff,” he said. “But I can’t say that anymore.”

    Reid says it’s time to address legalization, as he thinks there are good medical uses for the drug.

    “I think we need to take a real close look at this,” he said. “I think that there’s some medical reasons for marijuana.”

    “I guarantee you one thing,” he said. “We waste a lot of time and law enforcement going after these guys that are smoking marijuana.”

    • allan says:

      and that’s Democrat style progress. Thanks senator (no capital S for you!) but you’re still 20 years behind reality. Meanwhile literally 100s of thousands of US citizens will be arrested because of your Prohibition addiction affliction.

      I mean really Harry, when your opinion is so damn inconsequential and ill/under-informed, who really gives a crap? Why even speak up? Get some backbone. Get an education – just one day of quality reading and viewing should be eye opening to one so deeply ignorant on the subject of cannabis. Read Jack Herer(rhymes with terror)’s book.

      If there is a staffer from any elected official in DC that hasn’t had his/her boss watch (at minimum) Doc Gupta’s CNN piece, you could cost your boss his/her job.

      When legalization does actually arrive, the shit will really roll to those responsible for Prohibition II’s felonies.

      I mean think of the crimes committed under the WOD…

      murder

      child abuse

      massive civil rights violations

      home invasion

      murder

      false imprisonment

      torture

      terrorism

      conspiracy

      fraud

      murder

      corruption

      conspiracy

      murder

      infanticide

      familicide

      animal abuse

      corruption

      conspiracy

      murder…

  22. DdC says:

    OT? Just Old Fashioned Censorship, Net Neutrality R.I.P.

    Censorship is suppression of speech or other communication which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or inconvenient to the general body of people as determined by a government, media outlet, or other controlling body.

    ►“Federal Court backs Internet Censorship”

    â–ºJudges approve censorship. Net neutrality is dead.
    Today, 3 judges sided with Verizon and struck down net neutrality. Starting right now, your Internet service provider can censor, throttle, and block content however they want, while corporate websites that can pay more will be blazing fast. The FCC can stop this, but they need to hear from you.

    â–ºNow They’re Coming For The 1st?

    â–ºWired, Federal Court Guts Net Neutrality Rules
    ►CNET, Appeals Court Strikes Down FCC’s Net Neutrality Rules

    ►Diane Feinstein – the best argument for term limits
    07/14/01 If U.S. Senators Orrin Hatch and Dianne Feinstein have their way…

    Here’s the censorship language of the Hatch/Feinstein bill (S.486): “It shall be unlawful for any person– (A) to teach or demonstrate the manufacture of a controlled substance, or to distribute by any means information pertaining to, in whole or in part, the manufacture or use of a controlled substance, with the intent that the teaching, demonstration, or information be used for, or in furtherance of, an activity that constitutes a Federal crime.”

    My opening statements “teach” people how to “use” criminalized drugs in a way that reduces potential harmfulness. They are nonetheless information that, if heeded at all, would be used “for … an activity that constitutes a Federal crime,” namely the use of marijuana or heroin. (Don’t believe for a minute that the “intent” aspect clarifies anything: the “intent” of suspects in federal crimes is exactly what the prosecutor says it is. Period.)

    The penalty for my heinous utterances: 10 years in federal prison.

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