Stinks of desperation

bullet image Colo. Teen Addiction Centers Gear Up for Legal Pot

While many Coloradoans rang in the new ear by lining up outside marijuana dispensaries for a celebratory toke, some rehab centers are prepping for an increase in marijuana-addicted patients in 2014, especially teenage users.

Classic scare story technique, completely bought by ABC News.


bullet image Will Marijuana Retailers Target the Poor and Minorities?

I haven’t watched this debate between David Frum and Andrew Sullivan, but I can bet the title comes from something David Frum is claiming. It fits with the tactics of Frum, Kennedy, Sabet, et al. And it is so incredibly offensive, given how prohibition has actually targeted the poor and minorities in devastating ways for decades now.

(Tell me if I’m wrong about the debate.)

Both of these stories (along with the one about the toddler) have been tweeted by ONDCP spokesperson Raphael LeMaitre, proving to those who didn’t already know, that the ONDCP prefers unsubstantiated scare stories to facts.

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57 Responses to Stinks of desperation

    • darkcycle says:

      Feh. Bloviating irrelevance.

      • strayan says:

        Irrelevant? Kleiman? At least as far back as 2010:

        There’s one problem with legalizing, taxing and regulating cannabis at the state level: It can’t be done. The federal Controlled Substances Act makes it a felony to grow or sell cannabis. California can repeal its own marijuana laws, leaving enforcement to the feds. But it can’t legalize a federal felony. Therefore, any grower or seller paying California taxes on marijuana sales or filing pot-related California regulatory paperwork would be confessing, in writing, to multiple federal crimes. And that won’t happen

        …whenever and however we legalize the Demon Weed, it’s going to have to be at the national level (which includes modifying the anti-drug treaties) rather than state by state. Any other approach is a pipe dream. http://articles.latimes.com/2010/jul/16/opinion/la-oe-kleiman-marijuna-legalization-20100714

        Actually, scrap that, at least as far back as ’97 (bold it all):

        I think marijuana deserves a relatively low priority on the list of drug policy targets. And I think if it weren’t so tied up with other, symbolic issues, it might get the obscurity it deserves. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope/interviews/kleiman2.html

        • Freeman says:

          Hey brother Strayan, I’ve noticed that Mr. Irrelevant has banned you from commenting at the Redaction Based Community. I mentioned it in another thread here, but that one’s gone a bit stale.

          My comment pointing out his hypocrisy in citing “insults to posters or other commenters” while praising other commenters’ responses to you after what J. Edgar Kneel said has been disappeared, as expected. No word on whether or not I’m banned for life too (boo hoo).

          It’s interesting to contemplate how RBC’s method of banning commenters might be exploited. (See MK’s comment at the link.) Just sayin…

      • JustHelping says:

        That link I posted above went directly to the comment I posted in defense of Strayan. It was a reply to this by J. Michael Neal at 9:31:

        “You are a lying fool who either has no problem misrepresenting what other people say or is so blinded by self-righteousness that you can’t comprehend it. Either way, you demonstrate on a regular basis that no one should take you seriously.”

        Kleiman, of course, removed my comment—the very act I was trying to prevent by posting that link to it.

        • Freeman says:

          Kleiman, of course, removed my comment

          Yep, mine too (see above). What did your comment say?

        • Viggo Piggsko says:

          he hates the comments from the couch

        • darkcycle says:

          Kleiman feels HE’s the only one entitled to his own facts. I rarely bother there anymore, and if I make a comment and they DON’T take it down…I feel I must have somehow missed the target.

        • allan says:

          I suspect talking w/ Kleiman is like throwing eggs at a stone wall. They leave their mark but do nothing to the wall.

          What’s the word? Putz? Mark, like any other prohibitch excrementalist pays but lip service to the notion of ‘discussion.’ Discussion requires listening and they do not want to hear what we have to say.

        • Malc says:

          My comment was a simple explanation to J Michael that Kleiman was not just against regulated sales, but was actually a dyed-in-the-wool Prohibitionist. I accompanied it with the following:

          “Third, even on those rare occasions where Kleiman does not endorse prohibitionist policy, his analysis is infused with a prohibitionist morality. In his often superb chapter on marijuana, his evidence forces him to consider alternatives. Yet he is reluctant at every turn. He brings himself to admit that the costs of the current prohibition (e.g. each year 350 000 arrests and up to 10 billion dollars in enforcement costs and lost revenue) are probably too great for the ‘benefits’ received. But he still conceives of the alleged deterrent value of prohibition as a benefit, and again implies that he believes marijuana use is in itself somehow ‘bad’.”
          —Prohibitionism in Drug Policy Discourse by Craig Reinarman, University of California, Santa Cruz,
          INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF DRUG POLICY, 1994. VOL 5 NO 2.

  1. mooky says:

    I think there would be less of an influx to treatment centers because court ordered forced treatment will no longer exist for adults.

    ^^ correct?

    • The push to test for THC use on drivers without good cause or observation of impairment is on the fast track to keep up with legalization. Will there be coerced treatment? I think its gearing up.

      “LAPD Targeting Stoned Drivers With Roadside Weed Tests”
      http://tinyurl.com/mt6uzkn

      “The department will expand its use of an instant drug test to include those pulled over in traffic stops.”

      “A new $520,790 grant by the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will help fund the tests.”

      “The cash will also help employ two deputy city attorneys who will specifically be prosecuting alleged drug drivers, the City Attorney’s office says.”

      • Windy says:

        I used to want to go to LA, for so many reasons (weather, beaches, etc.) but I wouldn’t set foot in LA county now if someone gave me a billion dollars specifically to do so.

        • Freeman says:

          Last time I was in LA was ’04, and I promised myself then that I’d never put myself through that again.

      • DdC says:

        Where are the courts giving these Peelice swat terrorists free reign? The leadership to reel them in. To stop the clear and obvious corruption anywhere profit is made as an incentive to a guilty plea. To fill private prisons. When laws are bought for profit the people are the commodities sold. Another attempt to punish cannabis users and make some money doing it. This fascism self serving racketeering has to be confronted by Obama if Brownee won’t stop appeasing the prisons. Nice to release some while he ask for cash to build more prisons instead of releasing those from over crowded conditions by court order. Liars writing policy and legislation should be incarcerated, not given tax grants or votes making it a law. Bad laws should be reviewed, not avoided 43 years. Profits make it a perpetuating diversion to profit on misery. The only time they’ll get my piss is when they pry it out of my cold dead pecker.

        A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.
        John F. Kennedy

        Ass.Woman Torre’ Drudged Driving Bill

        Are You Drunk Correa?
        CA SB 289 Clueless Legislation

        Cannabis Users Are Safer Drivers Than Non-Users, New Study Shows

        Zero-Tolerance DUI Would Ensnare ‘Sober’ Med Patients

        Drug mishandling may have tainted 40,000 cases

        • Windy says:

          “A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” – John F. Kennedy

          “When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. When the government fears the people, there is liberty.” – Thomas Jefferson

          Which of these statements is more true?

  2. Servetus says:

    Thurstone and Frum appear to be undergoing withdrawal from an addiction to playing god with people’s lives. Perhaps some time in a penitential prison will help them live through their symptoms.

    Inquisitors went through this same kind of withdrawal at the end of the inquisitions in Europe and Central and South America. Many of them believed Catholicism to be doomed without the intervention of the stake. Efforts to recreate the Inquisition went on for several decades, particularly in the Americas. As it turned out, the religion and the rest of the world flourished once Catholicism was no longer so easily allowed to whack its own congregants and others for thought crimes.

    When we look for benefits to drug legalization, we need to look everywhere at the quality of life of an entire group of people and nations. Frum and Thurstone want us to focus on some very narrow views of questionable effects. A few stats from rehab clinics and racists aren’t going to mean much when stacked up against the harm reduction and the new opportunities created for millions of citizens liberated from stigma and persecution.

    • kaptinemo says:

      Professor Whitebread is laughing his @$$ off in the Afterlife; he did warn us what the “Iron Law of Prohibition” was:

      “That’s it. Every criminal prohibition has that same touch to it, doesn’t it? It is enacted by US and it always regulates the conduct of THEM. And so, if you understand that is the name of the game, you don’t have to ask me, or any of the other people which prohibitions will be abolished and which ones won’t because you will always know. The iron law of prohibitions — all of them — is that they are passed by an identifiable US to control the conduct of an identifiable THEM.”

      “And a prohibition is absolutely done for when it does what? Comes back and bothers US. If, at any time, in any way, that prohibition comes back and bothers us, we will get rid of it for sure, every doggone time. Look at the alcohol prohibition if you want a quick example. As long as it is only THEM — you know, them criminals, them crazy people, them young people, them minority group members — we are fine. But any prohibition that comes back and bothers US is done for.” (Emphasis mine – k.)

      Plain and simple elitism…which is always unwarranted. The kind of elitism exhibited by Kleiman, Marcus, Frum, et al in their seemingly shared faux-Olympian viewpoint that others should not be trusted with governing themselves because they are ‘a lesser breed’, and need to have their lives restricted by such means as the drug laws because they cannot control their appetites. Or so their ‘thinking’ goes.

      Wholly unconscious, of course; they’d probably bristle in indignation at such an observation. And yet it is rather telling that the biggest, most vocal defenders of drug prohibition are mainly White…while most of its victims are not. That such an attitude is prevalent among the Chattering Class is more proof that the (toxic, racist) fruit does not fall far from the (poison) tree when it comes to drug prohibition; to quote a line from an old Talking Heads song, “Same as it ever was; same as it ever was.”

  3. DdC says:

    @RafaelONDCP “… the primary reason to outlaw marijuana is its effect on the degenerate races.”

    @RafaelONDCP “Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.”

    @RafaelONDCP “You smoke a joint and you’re likely to kill your brother.”

    @RafaelONDCP “marijuana is the most violence-causing drug in the history of mankind.”
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1672

    @RafaelONDCP Drug Czar Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1900

    @RafaelONDCP Houston, we have a problem.
    God’s on their side!

    Marijuana: A Theology huffingtonpost
    Rev. Dr. Susan Brooks Thistlethwaite
    Professor of Theology, Chicago Theological Seminary

    Our laws on marijuana need to reflect this common good. We should legalize recreational marijuana use at the federal level, keep it out of the hands of children and teenagers as we do with alcohol, and release those who have been incarcerated for using marijuana from all our overcrowded prisons.

    That is only common sense, and common sense is one of the best guides to morality.

    Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?
    Theoriology is Theoriology
    Blasphemy and The Tree of Life
    World’s Oldest Marijuana Stash
    Atheists Nudge out Nativity

  4. curmudgeon says:

    Thurstone’s “Teen Marijuana Addiction Treatment” is a shared fantasy. The kids pretend to be addicts and he pretends to cure them.

  5. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Have I ever mentioned that the character trait I find most sorely vexing is how so many people involved in this issue will make some of the most baseless predictions for the future that I can possibly imagine. It also appears to me that they just can’t differentiate between a prediction and an established fact.

    Sorry boys and girls but this one isn’t restricted to the brain dead prohibitionists. There’s a whole lotta people on our side of the table that do the same thing.

  6. DdC says:

    Incremental Retardationists: Profiteers Appeasing the prisons and politicians over the people and their well-being. Cowards by any other name.

    Eric Sterling ‏@EricESterling
    The Media Should Stop Pretending #Marijuana’s Risks Are a Mystery — The Science Is Clear.

    The truly and deliberately evil men are a very small minority;
    it is the appeaser who unleashes them on mankind.
    — Ayn Rand (1905-1982)

    Weed – a fine line between blessing and curse
    The individual, not the law, should draw it, says rabbi Jonah Geffen

    An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
    Winston Churchill

    Marijuana: A Theology
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/738

    “Appeasers believe that if you keep on throwing steaks to a tiger, the tiger will become a vegetarian”
    Heywood C. Broun

    Ganja Mothers, Ganja Babies
    Pot can be safely used during pregnancy, and can help with several of the discomforts/problems associated therewith, a fact little known by the medical community, and even much of the herbalist community. Pot while breast-feeding suggests that a baby fed by a lactating marijuana user might be more likely to have a healthy, well-regulated appetite. There are several other studies of the effects of marijuana use on the fetus. None have shown any significant differences in functioning. The 30-day test showed that children of ganja-using mothers were superior to children of non-ganja mothers in two ways: the children had better organization and modulation of sleeping and waking, and they were less prone to stress-related anxiety. Hondreds of testimonials and herbal experts agree that marijuana can alliviate PMS! Punishing [url=http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/1377.html]”druggie moms”[/url] and seizing their children is big business in North America.

    Pro Life? Not even anti abortionists…
    The study examined pesticide exposures based on recall by farm families and reported histories of spontaneous abortions among women living on the farms. Switching cotton fields to hemp fields would improve: the quality of our soil, the durability of our clothes, the safety of our ground source water, the quality of our air, and the preservation of forests cut for paper (not to mention saving hundreds of thousands of lives prematurely ended by disease caused by pollution) Cigarettes and alcohol use by pregnant women has adverse effects on the fetus. It is estimated that 3700 children die by the age of one month because of complications during pregnancy. Fetal alcohol syndrome is a leading cause of mental retardation.

    “From time to time, I say that the suppression of medical marijuana is murder. This is not quite correct. It is actually mass murder. It has caused the deaths of countless thousands of people.”
    ~ the Financial Times Limited, 1998
    (Ed. note: The FT is the London equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. This drug could be patented, so it is of interest to the financial community.)

  7. Windy says:

    So, NOW we know why democrats are so reluctant to end the WoD:
    http://www.policymic.com/articles/78013/most-convicts-vote-democrat-study-shows

  8. DdC says:

    California Governor Jerry Brown delivers 127 pardons for the holidays, set sights on weed-related crimes
    California Governor Jerry Brown, apparently feeling the holiday spirit, spent a good part of Christmas Eve this year flexing an Executive power reserved only for state Governors, and the President of the United States himself – the power to pardon individuals of past crimes. While a pardon does not completely erase a crime from a person’s record, it does re-grant them certain rights, such as voting, serving on a jury, or in some cases even owning a firearm.

    Governor Brown handed out a respectable 127 pardons this year, 93 of which pertained to drug-related crimes, many of those weed-related. The most notable from that array of individuals was 65 year old Robert Akers, convicted in 1968 of selling pot.

    • primus says:

      45 years for selling POT? Obscene. Let’s throw that one in the face of the prohibitiots next time they make some comment about ‘almost nobody goes to jail for marijuana’. We know it cost that poor devil his ENTIRE LIFE, but also, how much money did the people of Cali pay to lock him up for 45 years?

      • pfroehlich2004 says:

        The article doesn’t say how much time Akers spent in prison (if any), but it’s clear that he was no longer incarcerated at the time of his pardon.

        There are people doing life for marijuana, so there might be somebody who’s done 45 years for pot, but not Robert Akers

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          There is a single case that has stuck in my mind for decades. For me it paints the stark difference between pre-1973 cannabis law and today. It was of a man who smoked a joint on the steps of San Francisco’s City Hall in 1969 in an act of civil disobedience. He was sentenced to a 20 year prison term. In San Francisco. The San Francisco in California. The City often referred to as the cannabis capital of the world. For a partially smoked joint.

          This case has a habit of crossing my mind when I hear someone ranting about how we need to treat cannabis law violations with significant consequences so that people will kowtow to the law. There wasn’t a single State in the 1960s that didn’t regularly send people to prison for terms in excess of a decade. When Oregon decriminalized in 1973 the new law replaced a minimum term of 5 years. But still the rate of people choosing to enjoy cannabis increased by over 1000%

          Of course the point of this post is that Mr. Akers was sentenced for distribution and the fact that 1968 was 45 years ago. It is very possible that he did serve his entire sentence. Probably not a full 45 years with time off for good behavior, parole, and like that. But then neither did the man on the steps of City Hall likely do a full 20 years, nor did any other convict in California likely do his or her entire nominal prison term.

          In Edward L. Downey v. E P Perini, 518 F. 2d 1288 (1975) the SCOTUS was getting ready to rule that a man convicted in Ohio for distribution of cannabis hadn’t had his 8th Amendment protected right against cruel and unusual punishment violated with a sentence of 30 to 60 years. The only reason that the SCOTUS didn’t issue that ruling in this case was because Ohio changed their State law while the case was in front of them. Sentences like that just weren’t unusual back in the 1950s and the 1960s.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          I really need to remember to wait until the caffeine kicks in before posting.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          I’ve just realized that the executive order from Governor Cuomo is to revive New York State’s already codified medicinal cannabis law which was made law in 1980. Unless I’ve overlooked some trivial arcana I believe that this is the very first appearance of Bob Randall inspired medicinal cannabis laws. There’s no real significance except for why the heck it took them so long.

          If you haven’t seen any of the Bob Randall inspired laws here’s a link to the statute in the Virginia law books. Yes sunshine, Virginia has a medical marijuana and it still is in force. It’s a perfectly worthless 34 year old law which has never gotten even a stick to a patient in need. Read the law and you might notice that it requires a doctor to write a prescription and have it filled at a licensed pharmacy.
          § 18.2-251.1. Possession or distribution of marijuana for medical purposes permitted.

          I hope that New York’s 1980 law is a little more substantial than Virginia’s fig leaf.

        • DdC says:

          Governor grants five pardons out of Kern County
          Robert Wesley Akers, of South Dakota, sentenced Sept. 3, 1968 to three years probation for the sale or transportation of marijuana.

          The gubernatorial pardon allows felons to serve on a jury trial, carry firearms unless the conviction was for a felony involving the use of a dangerous weapon and be considered for appointment as a county probation officer or state parole agent.

          The pardon does not erase the record of the conviction or allow the pardoned person to answer on employment applications that he or she has no record of conviction.

          PARDON..pdf
          Robert Wesley Akers, a resident of South Dakota, has submitted to this office an … He served three years probation.

          Meanwhile back in drug worrier reality…

          California Governor Proposes Massive Prison Expansion
          To Avoid Freeing Inmates
          08/27/2013

          DAREyl SWAT Gates, LAPDog Perversions.

  9. Francis says:

    “Will Marijuana Retailers Target the Poor and Minorities?”

    We can certainly hope that the needs of these traditionally-underserved communities will be met in the post-legalization environment. Recently there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding the concept of “food deserts” — geographic areas where affordable and healthy food is difficult to obtain, particularly for those without access to an automobile. It would be tragic if we were to now see the emergence of “cannabis deserts” that offered nothing but overpriced schwag to their residents. Access to affordable, high-quality cannabis is a basic human right. I haven’t watched the video but what exactly is Frum proposing to make sure cannabis deserts don’t become a reality? Tax breaks for cannabis stores that open in economically impoverished areas? I could probably get behind something like that.

    • primus says:

      I will not give you a thumbs down, however I do not favour subsidies of any kind, so no to tax breaks. Let the economics sort this out.

      • Francis says:

        Yeah, well that part of my comment may have been a little tongue-in-cheek — although I meant what I said about not wanting to see cannabis deserts. Cannabis desserts, on the other hand, are a completely different story. I’d love to see more of those.

      • Windy says:

        I agree, primus, no subsidies of any kind.

        “A government which lays taxes on the people not required by urgent public necessity and sound public policy is not a protector of liberty, but an instrument of tyranny. It condemns the citizen to servitude.” – Calvin Coolidge

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          Calvin Coolidge, father of the Great Depression. But at least he was smart enough to get history to blame Herbert Hoover. While he didn’t appoint our beloved Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, neither did he fire him. While I despise having to admit it, Baron Keynes was right, and the Austrians were wrong, wrong, wrong.

          “Liquidate labor, liquidate stocks, liquidate farmers, liquidate real estate… it will purge the rottenness out of the system. High costs of living and high living will come down. People will work harder, live a more moral life. Values will be adjusted, and enterprising people will pick up from less competent people. ~~ Andrew Mellon to Herbert Hoover, 1930)

          All that, and Harry J Anslinger too. Now, how did all of that work out for the United States?

  10. NorCalNative says:

    Since when are we to believe that Republicans and conservatives give a shit about poverty or non-whites?

    If you want to see the real David Frum go to approximately the 29-minute mark and watch him squirm around in his chair while Sullivan talks about cannabis for pediatric Dravet Syndrome patients.

    He’s got plenty of concern for them “poors and blacks” but kids who might die from epileptic seizures? NOT SO MUCH.

    • Windy says:

      You do know that conservatives give more time and money to charity than liberals? Liberals tend to rely on government to contribute to charity for them via taxation.

      “When an empirical study of the actual behavior of American conservatives and liberals was published in 2006, it turned out that conservatives donated a larger amount of money, and a higher percentage of their incomes (which were slightly lower than liberal incomes) to philanthropic activities.

      “Conservatives also donated more of their time to philanthropic activities and donated far more blood than liberals. What is most remarkable about this study are not just its results. What is even more remarkable is how long it took before anyone even bothered to ask the questions. It was just assumed, for centuries, that the left was more compassionate.” – Thomas Sowell

      That lack of concern for those who need cannabis medically is prevalent in politicians and talking heads from both sides of the coin, it is not limited only to republicans or conservatives (which, btw, are not the same, philosophically).

      • DdC says:

        When Neocons donate, its to profit, not to help Americans.

        Philanthropy Roundtable
        John P. Walters President
        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

        Then Walters takes the tax dodging write offs pilfering from us all. And gives it to Calvina and other covert opportunities like Iran Contra. Or Iraq or propaganda mills. Neocon nazi’s are not conservatives or liberals. Just fascists.

        The Lost Opportunities of Iran-Contra 25 Years Later

        Anything that might slip through to suffering Americans is scooped back up to pay for sickness from Koch-Owned Georgia-Pacific Environmental Crimes Always an angle, prohibitionists for profit duping rednecks for their vote and donations. ALEC, the Koch Brothers Led CABAL

      • DdC says:

        You do know? lol Oh silly girl. What is your backup when that cushy bubble you seem to find comfort in, bursts?

        The government is us;
        we are the government, you and I.
        Theodore Roosevelt
        Speech at Asheville, North Carolina (9 September 1902)

        Blaming “the guvmint” for Wall St legislation a few Neocon’s pay for or dupe the others into voting for. Junior Bush was a bigger liberal than Clinton. Both Neocon’s. Bush Nazi heritage and Clinton the Dixiekrat. All pseudo patriots with no allegiance to the Constitution or Americans. Just profits they get from gullible’s afraid of minorities taking their white America away, the one that never was. Or misnomered commies with no communalism among them. As a white American I find them silly and as Un-American as Joe McCarthy, Dick Armey or J Pee Walters. Here is your typical shit-kicker afraid of “the left” with gossip and intimidation as their references.

        Kentucky Man Denounces US Safety Net While Relying on Government to Stay Alive
        In a recent National Journal article, journalist Beth Reinhold exposes yet again the politically destructive reality that many poor whites — particularly in the South — will vote for candidates opposing government safety net programs, all the while accepting or living off those programs.

        Poverty can lower your IQ,
        Almost All Rural Whites are In Poverty

        That about sums it up as to why they support their own destruction. Cheer for outsourcing their own jobs and demonize environmental regulations keeping their own kids healthy. The reason is…

        Conservatives Have Larger ‘Fear Centers’ in Their Brains

        My theory is it is caused by generations of cannabis abstinence and being raised as obedient followers never questioning or deviating from their agenda. Neocon’s cashing in on sheep. Not that Neocon’s posing as liberals don’t do the same with prohibitions and punishment over an actual clean environment. Hypocrites the same as so called conservatives. While the Neocon’s just say whatever their followers want to hear. tsk tsk tsk. Not a wonder why a few support incremental retardation. Selfishness and stupidity make terrible partners.

        Clinical Endocannabinoid Deficiency

        Alas their only cure is one they fear the most. Oh it might turn them all into hippies or gay or may be even a “legalizer” themselves. Conservatudes are not conservative.

        Using Pot To Save Brains!

  11. Tony Aroma says:

    THEY WERE RIGHT!!!! It was inevitable, and only the prohibitionists knew it!

    Marijuana Overdoses Kill 37 in Colorado On First Day of Legalization

    Colorado is reconsidering its decision to legalize recreational pot following the deaths of dozens due to marijuana overdoses.

    According to a report in the Rocky Mountain News, 37 people were killed across the state on Jan. 1, the first day the drug became legal for all adults to purchase. Several more are clinging onto life in local emergency rooms and are not expected to survive.

    “When was the last time you heard of someone overdosing on beer? All these pro-marijuana groups should be ashamed of themselves. The victims’ blood is on their hands.”

    More in the full story here:

    Marijuana Overdoses Kill 37 in Colorado

  12. NorCalNative says:

    Pete, caught your comment to Mark Kleiman about consumer weaknesses.

    I found what Frum said in the Sullivan discussion interesting.

    “One of the ways you get to the top 1% of American Society is to get better and better at engineering ways to EXPLOIT predictable HUMAN WEAKNESS.”

  13. B. Snow says:

    Two parts of the ABC story are really, disturbingly obtuse – IMHO.

    Thurston said after medical marijuana was legalized in the state in 2009, adolescents started to report that “they’re using much higher potency products,” such as solid forms of synthetic marijuana called “waxes,” which can be up to 50 or 60 percent THC.
    … “Our kids are presenting more severe addictions; it takes them longer to get a clean urine drug screen,” said Thurstone.

    “More severe addictions” to marijuana? I’m calling BS.

    Also is it not obvious, that the “urine drug screening” is increasingly useless? (For far too long it’s been used as a means of discrimination – against certain minority groups of people – both racial & cultural minorities.) But -of course- Now that it’s happening to their kids its a problem they feel they need to address.

    And what’s becoming exponentially more irksome with each day that passes, Is that neither Thurstone (nor Mohney) {nor any of the other huge mass of people involved in this} – none of them can seem to see the very clear solution to this “new problem” staring them plainly in the face?

    [Here’s an Idea: Don’t attempt to continue using ‘urine screening’ as a measure of sobriety! This seems to be literally unthinkable for them.]

    The (possibly) even more upsetting issue here is the refusal of these folks to accept that, given the increased potency of the cannabis products, this typically means people can use less of them & still get the desired effect!
    [In that regard, There’s an old Gallagher joke = “Don’t smoke pot when you’re already stoned. It doesn’t get you any higher, just lower on pot.” — Which may not be 100% accurate but – IMO, he really did have a decent point there… that’s ‘more or less’ true.]

    But, In what’s completely unthinkable to some folks, Is that Just maybe the people pushing for the ‘status quo’ here, might have a vested [conflicting and/or undisclosed] financial interest in continuing to provide the urine screening services… Hhhmmm?

    Beyond that, I also seriously question the idea/notion that sobriety is necessarily a more admirable, laudable, or preferable state. Or that it somehow signifies a more positive ‘moral’ value or character.

    *And, In rare form – I’m going to resist the urge to “chase that (OT) rabbit” any further, so to speak.

  14. DdC says:

    Summary of the Testimony of Lester Grinspoon, M.D. before the Crime Subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee U.S. House of Representatives

    October 1, 1997

    Summary of the Statement by Lester Grinspoon, M.D.

    Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, I appreciate the opportunity to appear before you this morning to share my views on the use of marihuana as a medicine.

    It has been well known for thousand of years that cannabis has medical uses. It is far safer than most medicines prescribed by doctors daily and often works for patients who cannot tolerate the side effects of other drugs. In many cases no other drug will do the job as safely or as well. Cannabis has never been demonstrated to have caused an overdose death. It does not disturb any physiological functions or damage any body organ when used in therapeutic doses. It produces little or no physical dependence or tolerance, and there is no evidence that medical use of cannabis has ever led to habitual use as an intoxicant. There are many ways in which marihuana can be used to reduce human suffering at small cost. Clinical experience suggests that it is helpful for patients with severe nausea and vomiting, arthritis, glaucoma, muscle spasms, premenstrual syndrome, seizure disorders, the AIDS weight loss syndrome, asthma, fibromyalgia, Tourette’s syndrome, and depression, to name a few.

    Many thousands of patients are using cannabis to treat these and other disorders. Given the legal risks, they would not be doing this if they did not believe it was helpful to them. These patients are in urgent need of a legal accommodation that allow them to use a medicine which they know is important to their well-being. Full Testimony

    … and even with that we get more incremenal retardation and its inevitable appeasers.. With the age old American tradition… I got mine fuck you!

    New York Set To Join Other States Allowing MMJ
    By Brad Knickerbocker
    January 05, 2014 Source: Christian Science Monitor
    Albany — New York appears poised to join the 20 other states and the District of Columbia in allowing the use of marijuana for medical purposes. Gov. Andrew Cuomo – who in the past had opposed medical marijuana – reportedly will announce his support in his State of the State address this week. As first reported by the New York Times, Gov. Cuomo’s plan will be more restrictive than other states permitting medical marijuana use for minor ailments, allowing 20 hospitals across the state to prescribe marijuana to patients with cancer, glaucoma or other diseases that meet standards to be set by the New York State Department of Health. Read More…

    Legislator Wants NM To Legalize Marijuana

  15. primus says:

    If the Dems are trying to be seen as more progressive to attract the voters, logically the Reps should be trying to be seen as less regressive to attract the voters. In that environment change can happen.

  16. Opiophiliac says:

    The ABC News article was particularly bad.

    This line jumped out at me:

    “I was in an ER with a kid who had a psychotic episode. In that particular [episode] he stood up on a desk and was screaming incoherently and almost got shot by the cops,” said Court.

    So you have a teenager in the midst of a psychotic episode, in the hospital, and he almost gets shot by the cops!? And your concern is high-potency cannabis use by the mentally ill? Why the hell would a cop use lethal force on someone for standing on a desk and talking incoherently, especially in the ER of a hospital?

    Maybe Court is being overly dramatic to hype the harms of marijuana. See people do die from weed, smoke weed and you may end up getting shot by the cops in the ER.

  17. Servetus says:

    It’s not just for minorities any more.

    A new study from the University of South Carolina has found that “Half of black males, 40 percent of white males [are] arrested by age 23; First contemporary findings on how the risk of arrest varies across race and gender.”

    Welcome to the police (prison?) state, where the government seeks to reduce its citizens to second-class status using drug crimes and other petty juvenile offenses. As corporatists are likely to boast, it’s just one more great way to kill off the middle class.

  18. Andrew completely owned David.

    Frum’s arguments are utterly without merit.

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