Madras summit canceled

Sponsors cancel drug summit in Madras after facing criticism from marijuana legalization advocates

Good for them. Apparently somebody realized that a taxpayer-funded “educational” summit about the evils of marijuana just before a vote on legalization might not appear… ethical.

The sponsors of the legalization initiative, Measure 91, charged this week that it was wrong for summit organizers to use federal funds to help pay for an appearance by Kevin Sabet, a former White House drug adviser who has formed an organization opposing marijuana legalization.

Sabet was also scheduled to appear in 12 other Oregon cities as part of an “Oregon Marijuana Education Tour” following the summit. Sabet had said that, at the request of organizers, he would not talk about the ballot measure at either the Madras event or on the tour.

Rick Treleaven, the executive director of BestCare Treatment Practices and the organizer of the Madras summit, said he decided to cancel the summit because he “could see from an outside perspective that it could look like a conflict.”

Time for the other cities to cancel as well.

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50 Responses to Madras summit canceled

  1. Frank W. says:

    I see by the calender it’s still coming to my own Grants Pass October 3. I always wondered what went on in that religious compound opposite the Fred Meyer store. Seems that’s a little too early to influence a November ballot measure, but showbiz is showbiz.

  2. claygooding says:

    Pete,,and anyone that might know,,is there any way we can see what organizations are receiving grants from the DEA/ONDCP or DOJ??
    Also,,is there any way we can get a list of the “private contributors” to those grants?

    http://us-government-grants.net/law-enforcement-grants/

    • claygooding says:

      I have a state legislator that is going to ask the GAO how much NIDA has spent researching marijuana harm since they were Executive Ordered into existence.
      Will report the amount if he has any better luck at finding out than I have.

  3. divadab says:

    The sooner that taxpayer-funded lying dominionist rug merchant Sabet is cut off from his government welfare and has to get a real job, the better.

    Corrupt law corrupts everything it touches. And advances moral degenerates like Sabet.

  4. Jean Valjean says:

    Boy, Kevin is really putting on weight…for a second I thought the pic was of Chris Christie. A little bit of a twinkie addiction going on there Kev?

    • claygooding says:

      He is eating in the finest restaurants and steak houses probably on an expense acct,,since he is traveling so much keeping any kind of exercise schedule is out,,,he is playing “fat cat” and it is showing,,Patrick is also showing a little more face than when he started.

  5. Duncan20903 says:

    Prohibitionists have been accused of a very long list of things, almost all of them true. But one thing these idiots will never be accused of is being very smart.

    Minnesota mom charged for treating son’s pain with medical marijuana

    /snip/
    “It was a week later when my mom called and said, ‘The cops are looking for you,'” Angela Brown said.

    Investigators seized the oil and charged Angela Brown with child endangerment and causing a child to need protection.

    “The prosecutor’s version of this is that a good mom allows her child to be in pain, to self-harm, and attempt to take his life,” Angela Brown said. “I guess that’s a good mom in his eyes.”
    /snip/

  6. allan says:

    the prohibs are on a roll… roll on Mr Businessman, you can’t dress like me

    I say they should bring out ALL the crazy uncles and let ’em blather away. They don’t/can’t/won’t hear the mocking laughter happening right in front of their faces so may as well encourage them.

    • kaptinemo says:

      The problem with having an attic full of crazy uncles is that you have to feed, clothe and house them. That takes a lot of money; rubber rooms, leather restraints and muzzles aren’t cheap.

      What happened in Oregon was that their stipend was whittled down just a bit. But if that keeps up, as I hoped it would last decade, then the prohibs are facing very hard times, indeed.

      The economic push is finally coming to shove – and this time, the prohibs get to feel it, not us.

  7. Captain Jim says:

    Kevin Sabet is a modern day Harry Anslinger. Piece of s$&@! The world would be a far better place if he crawled into a hole never to be seen again.

  8. kaptinemo says:

    Behold the power of the Hatch Act, and it could be our greatest weapon in our arsenal. Because the prohibs have been it’s greatest violator…as was Kevvie, when employed at ONDCP on our dime and our time to BS us.

    Finally someone in Oregon understands this, and has acted on it…and you can see what effect it has on the prohibs, like a silver crucifix tempered in holy water and smeared with garlic juice would on a vampire.

    More of this, please. A lot more.

  9. N.T. Greene says:

    Why, I hear the CLANGs all the time now, like a chorus to a hit pop song.

    • allan says:

      Doh!

      Clang! is perfect. That’s the sound of rebar coming down. 🙂 That wall be getting very thin, structurally speaking. Nice choice NT.

  10. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Swedish “research!” Oh well what are you going to do? I suppose that if we were to insist on maintaining a standing army but never argued with other countries that we’d feel compelled to think up something (anything) for them to do. This study reminds me of one particular foaming at the mouth prohibitionist who told me that merrywanna killed his nephew. The nephew used cannabis between ages 12 and 18, and then died of a “heroin” overdose at age 39. Why not just blame anything, anything at all that people don’t like on cannabis? For example:

    Can we honestly say that Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly would have become such famous bloviating blowhards if nobody chose to enjoy cannabis?

    What about 9/11? Is that likely to have happened if California hadn’t adopted the Compassionate Use Act on Election Day 1996?

    Would Dick Nixon have been forced to resign if it wasn’t for the hippies smoking dope?

    Who the heck can swear that if merrywanna had never existed that we wouldn’t all be sitting around a campfire, holding hands and singing Kumbayah?

    Heavy marijuana use in teens linked to disability later: study
    August 20, 2013

    A long-term study of Swedish men finds that those who smoked marijuana at age 18, especially the heaviest users, were more likely to end up on the nation’s disability rolls by age 59.

    It’s unclear whether the pot use in adolescence may have led to more severe substance abuse or was an early sign of psychiatric or social factors that contributed to later disability, the researchers caution.
    /snip/

    About 9 percent of the teens reported having used marijuana when they entered the military, and 1.5 percent said they had used it more than 50 times.

    The researchers found that men who used marijuana more than 50 times before the age of 18 were 30 percent more likely to go on disability sometime between the ages of 40 and 59.

    A similar pattern was seen for young men who used pot less frequently, with the chance of being on disability in middle age rising with increasing pot use at age 18.

    However, when the study team adjusted for other factors, including socioeconomic background, other substance use by age 18, psychiatric diagnoses and other health problems, the link remained statistically significant – meaning it could not have been due to chance – only for the heaviest users who had smoked pot more than 50 times as young men.

    That group already had a number of problems in their teens, the researchers note in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Of the 654 heaviest pot users at age 18, 80 percent also reported using other drugs, 47 percent reported risky alcohol use and 55 percent had a psychiatric diagnosis.
    /snip/

    The study cannot prove that pot use in the teen years caused the men to end up on disability later in life, the researchers acknowledge. They don’t know how much marijuana the men used after they entered the military or many other details of their lives after age 18.
    /snip/

    I notice no one bothered to mention how many of those 654 “heavy” users ended up on disability or for what. I’ll accept that trying cannabis, particularly in a prohibitionist country identifies persons with higher than average risk tolerance. Admitting it to government agents in such a country also is a pretty good indication of not being the brightest parrot on the fjord. I’m supposed to be surprised because some risk taking dim bulbs ended up on disability while Harry Milquetoast sits in his cubicle doing what he’s supposed to do.

    The “research” community certainly does have solid brass testicles, no doubt. $35.95 for virtual bird cage liner?? That’s highway patrol robbery! Adding insult to injury is the fact that the couch parrot doesn’t poop or pee so their “study” is just plain useless to us.

    Hey Pete, is there any way we could get you to see if you can get studies like this gratis?

    Login via your institution
    You may be able to login to ScienceDirect using your institution’s login credentials. We will remember your login preference the next time you access ScienceDirect from this computer.

    I just can’t stand the idea of validating that kind of behavior by making a purchase! Oh OK I confess…it’s more because the rubber band on my wallet is near the end of its useful life and I want to delay that expense for just as long as I’m able.

    • Fred Gardner at counterpunch asks “Why Maintain Under-21 Prohibition?” in his article:

      Marijuana and the Developing Brain
      http://tinyurl.com/pumct7d

      “Because so many Prohibitionist mouthpieces are liars and clowns, it’s hard to take seriously their assertions about marijuana use harming “the developing brain.” Much of the alleged evidence involves studies in which young rodents were given stupendously high doses of THC. Then there’s the flimsy, flawed study attributing an eight-point decline in IQ to heavy, early marijuana use. The politicians and the corporate media treat this IQ loss as a well-established and significant fact.” …

      “Who has the biggest stake in maintaining Under-21 Prohibition? The helping professionals —addiction specialists, psychiatrists, psychologists, and a diverse array of therapists and counselors.” …

      “Under-21 Prohibition means that the power of the drug police gets focused on those with developing brains.”

      Has anyone else thought about that? If we legalize, the biggest suffering at the hands of the criminal justice system will be the kids – the very ones most affected by the stigma which is likely to follow them for a lifetime.
      We shouldn’t let this happen to the kids. Our criminal justice “treatment system” is a scam and a joke. Fred Gardner makes some real valid arguments here.

      • When we legalize we should not abandon the youth of America to a help system that begins and ends with Criminal Justice. Real help begins at home. Forced “help” is coercion (at best), not personal help.

        Again, from Fred Gardner: “The 23 people who lost eight IQ points at age 37 were not using “regularly,” which could mean every weekend; they were using so much that they’d been remanded to treatment three times before age 17. And eight points is not considered statistically significant by psychologists who administer IQ tests.”

        Are we going to let these money changers and lying gougers keep the youth of America in fear so that a lot of corrupt people can continue to pay their morgages on the backs of our youth ?? Alcohol destroys more brains and IQ’s than pot ever could. This harm scenario pegged to the kids is the biggest scam of all.

    • Servetus says:

      Strange. 18-year-old Swedish marijuana consumers on disability by age 59? Either the marijuana consortium discovered a loophole in getting onto Swedish disability, or something really tragic is happening to free spirits in Sweden.

      The Report of the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission, 1894-1895, noted that Jamaican farmworkers who smoked cannabis added five years to their lives compared to others who didn’t ingest. Something really great must be happening in Jamaica.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        Either that or the sum total of that 30% increase is just a teeny, tiny number. There were only 654 soldiers who qualified.which is right around 1.3% of the total cohort. Now I’m stumped. What percentage of the total number of Swedish men end up on disability for any reason? I know that actuarials have compiled that information, so why is that number ignored?. Is 1% reasonable? At 1% increasing risk by 30% means that 8.502 instead of the expected 6.54 Swedish men went on disability. Even a 5% rate would add only 10 Swedish men to the expected number. The “study” did state that the cohort represented 98+% of the total number of 18 year old Swedish men. Heck, they’re socialists so let’s pump the expected rate to end up on disabilty to 10% and we’re still looking at an increase of less than 2 dozen men for the entire Country. There’s just no way to call an increase of less than 2 dozen significant in a bucket of regurgitated hysterical rhetoric without making people roll around on the floor laughing their asses off at the stupidity of such an assertion.

    • ” In Cox proportional-hazards regression analyses, adjustment for covariates (social background, mental health, physical fitness, risky alcohol use, tobacco smoking and illicit drug use) attenuated the associations.”

      “However, when all covariates where entered simultaneously, about a 30% increased hazard ratio of DP from 40 to 59 years of age still remained in the group reporting cannabis use more than 50 times.”

      http://tinyurl.com/pltkdge

      I take this to mean that pot taken by itself merits no substantial notability, but if you throw everything else in too,(like social background, mental health, physical fitness, risky alcohol use, tobacco smoking and illicit drug use) THEN pot is the culprit.

      Does that sound right to you?

  11. BDR-AZ says:

    Sabet and education in the same sentence is just so…WRONG…on so many levels.

  12. Russ Belville has a piece on it.

    Fed Tax Money Supports Campaign Against Oregon’s Marijuana Legalization http://tinyurl.com/mqbnsq2

    “The 420RADIO Kevin Sabet Oregon Marijuana Education Tour That in No Way Should Be Construed as Using Federal Taxpayer Money to Campaign Against State Ballot Measure 91 to Legalize Marijuana runs from October 1-7 (see http://rad-r.us/sabetor). You can listen in live at http://rad-r.us/420tunein on your smartphone or online at http://420RADIO.org as our fans infiltrate the events and ask them the tough questions about marijuana legalization.”

  13. strayan says:

    OT

    Boy suffers traumatic brain injury playing contact sport. Mother charged with child endangerment because she gave him some medicinal cannabis http://www.kare11.com/story/news/local/2014/08/20/mn-mom-charged-after-giving-son-medical-marijuana/14372025/

    HOLD ON A SECOND. Remind me what nearly killed him?

  14. DdC says:

    Mithra, Marijuana and the Myths of the Messiah
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdwUCIEr7zo
    Cannabis Historian Chris Bennett takes a look at the potential references to cannabis use among the ancient worshipers of the Persian God Mithra, who became popular in ancient Rome and throughout a large portion of ancient Europe. Mithra was involved with the ancient Haoma cult of ancient Persia, and as Dr.Michael Aldrich discusses, recent archeological evidence this ancient world sacrament was a beverage made from cannabis and ephedra. Prof Carl Ruck and Dr. David Hillman suggest by the time the God reached Rome, cannabis was being used as a entheogenic incense to fumigate the cave like temples in which the worship of Mithra took place. Mithra worship is believed to have deeply influenced emerging Christianity in a variety of ways, particularly in regards to the adoption of the God’s birthday December 25th in the 4th century by the Roman Catholic Church.
    Produced by https://www.forbiddenfruitpublishing.com and https://www.kush.ca

    • DdC says:

      Hemp Beats Bedbugs!
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1802
      Cannabis sativa. The green plant collected in the spring, and 2 or 3 twigs placed in or between beds, will, it is asserted, certainly and effectually cause bedbugs to remove from the room in which they are used. (zipcodezoo.com)

      Cannabinoids are produced in surface glands and possess insecticidal properties (Rothschild et al. 1977)

      Archeology: Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1090
      Not surprisingly, records of the use of cannabis as both a drink and an incense can be traced back to some of the earliest civilizations and cultures, as we shall see with a look at cannabis incense in the Ancient World. (When Smoke Gets In My I By Chris Bennet )

      On Indications of the Hachish-Vice in the OT
      C. Creighton, M.D.
      http://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_spirit4.shtml
      Hachish, which is the disreputable intoxicant drug of the East, as opium is the respectable narcotic, is of unknown antiquity…

      All vices are veiled from view; they are *sub rosa*; and that is true especially of the vices of the East. Where they are alluded to at all, it is in cryptic, subtle, witty and allegorical terms. Therefore, if we are to discover them, we must be [sic] prepared to look below the surface of the text…
      From: JANUS, Archives internationales pour l’Histoire de la Medecine et la Geographie Medicale, Huitieme Annee, 1903, p. 241-246

      The Scythians – High Plains Drifters
      By Chris Bennet – July 15 1995
      http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/986.html
      The Scythians were a barbaric group of pre-Common Era nomadic tribes who are a fascinating example of an ancient cannabis using group. The Scythians played a very important part in the Ancient World from the seventh to first century BC.

      The Popes hate dope
      By Dana Larsen – April 18 2005
      http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/4308.html
      Since its foundation, the Catholic Church and its Pope have been the sworn enemy of global marijuana culture.

  15. Jean Valjean says:

    Crazy Uncle Alert:
    Another St Louis cop is suspended. Here’s Sgt. Maj. Dan Page “I’m into diversity. I kill everybody…”
    http://tinyurl.com/na8h448

  16. darkcycle says:

    Interesting read at Bloomberg: http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-22/marijuana-law-mayhem-splits-u-s-in-two-as-travelers-get-busted.html
    This may wind up working in our favor, couchies. Remember way back in the Seventies when marijuana laws were just beginning to relax? Remember that one of the main drivers was the fact that since suburban housewives and middle class white teenagers were now imbibing pot, THE WRONG PEOPLE WERE SUDDENLY GOING TO JAIL? Now, what do we see? A system that had found another way to focus on minorities and ignore the “wrong people”, via heavy policing in minority areas, aggressive tactics like “stop and frisk” etc. is now targeting TRAVELERS…..the wrong people are once again the focus of LE. This will be over before long, I have a feeling.

  17. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    The article linked below I found in The Oregonian. I’m filing it in the “can you please slow down these gosh darn Thuds!? they’re giving me a migraine” category:
    It’s time to legalize recreational marijuana: Editorial endorsement

    Have we ever before gotten an endorsement from an MSM?

    • allan says:

      Measure 91, which deserves Oregonians’ support, would eliminate the charade and give adults freer access to an intoxicant that should not have been prohibited in the first place.

      Clang!

      just got here to post this, thanks Duncan.

      • allan says:

        just sent them my LTE, remarkably polite… I don’t get printed in the O very often ’cause I usually poke ’em with sharp sticks.

    • strayan says:

      The fact that some people may drive under the influence of cannabis should not be a point of debate because it is not a factor in the evaluation of whether we legalise any other product or activity (or method of self pleasure -> Duncan I’m looking at you).

      Where were the “what if people drive whilst on their phone!” crowd when Apple began selling the iPhone? Did the state of Oregon demand Apple provide guarantees that no one would drive whilst on their phone before they considered whether it should be legal to sell them?

      • darkcycle says:

        One significant difference there, strayan. It was never ILLEGAL to sell mobile phones in Oregon…

      • Boilerplate20903 says:

        .
        .

        I find it rather amusing, but I honestly think that the sycophants of prohibition really don’t understand that scofflaws don’t need the approval of the lawmakers to engage in an illegal activity. Is that because the sycophants just can’t help being blinded by hysterical rhetoric? Are they completely incapable of understanding that the problem is the total number of impaired drivers on the public roads, not the total number of drivers who are cannabis addled?

        It’s mind boggling how many people think that there is a large cohort of people who are totally sober because of their deep seated respect for the law. Why would they believe that those law abiding citizens will promptly become scofflaws and go out driving while impaired if allowed to choose to enjoy cannabis legally? Wait, why is it that these people with such a deep seated respect for the law only care about State law but don’t care about Federal law?

        What in the world makes those people think that for the handful of people nationwide who refused to choose to enjoy cannabis when it was a civil citation akin to double parking at rush hour weren’t belly up to the bar with their car keys in their pockets ready to go out driving drunk right after last call?

        Can’t the sycophants of prohibition try to keep the debate at least somewhere in the general vicinity of reality?

    • strayan says:

      FYI

      I looked up the driver involved fatalities in Oregon, California and Colorado pre and post medical marijuana laws.

      This is what I found: http://imgur.com/a/o6xqB

  18. OT – The Stanley Brothers got their crop re-classified as hemp and want to ship Charlottes Web extract across the country.

    http://tinyurl.com/kh6h8zk

    This will be one to watch. Can’t wait to see what the DEA does – then what (hopefully) Congress does.

  19. jean valjean says:

    the dea loves to make people jump through hoops and it doesnt matter if they re sick kids or their caregivers. they all gotta jump. deludes the dea that they still have relevance and employment prospects. wheelchair user? get jumping!

  20. Bongripper says:

    Why is a young guy like Kevin Sabet against legalized pot? I am around his age, but today I feel old.

  21. ezrydn says:

    There’s a lot of negative comments directed at people on disability. I hold three 100% VA disabilities, i.e., PTSD, Loss of Hearing and Agent Orange Poisoning. That was all due to my time in Nam as an 11 Bravo. Bonefide disabilities. So, why do others catagorize me as some loafer, sucking hind teat off the Gov’t? Because I inhale? All three claims are treated by cannabis. My cardiologist tells me to keep doing whatever I’m doing because it helps.

    Any PTSD sufferer understands how cannabis turns night into day for us. We can get through the day WITHOUT episodes. And Agent Orange Poisoning? The Cardio doesn’t understand how I’m keeping it in slow-growth mode but tells me to keep it up. And my Cardio here was the Director for the UCLA Cardio Dept. so he’s no slouch.

    We who have true disabilities are NOT gaming the system. We have a contract with the US Gov’t. We go into combat and they fix whatever gets broke. That was the agreement I signed in 1965. And it will remain valid until my final breath, which should be my final toke!

    The funny part is I was never exposed or around weed until I left the Army. I remember my very first “taste” was at Woodstock!

  22. claygooding says:

    I discharged 08/11/69 and a fellow platoon member that discharged a couple of weeks before me sent me tickets to Woodstock,,he was from White Plains IIRC and I was busy trying to land a job and didn’t go,,but I tasted first in Nam after about 3 months in country. I had the tickets until 5 years ago when I had a trailer burn and lost all my pics and memorabilia.
    Any person that lost their possessions to a fire knows the empty feeling you have as you watch stuff that can never be replaced go up in smoke.

    • Windy says:

      I’ve never suffered a fire in this life, but I have a deep seated fear of dying in a fire and have since I can remember, expect that I was likely burned at the stake back during the witch hunts (they say once a witch, always a witch). I have, however, experienced something burning in a fire that could never be replaced, I started writing a book I was about 150 pages in and my manuscript (of which I had only one copy typed on a standard typewriter, before I got my first computer) went up in flames. It was very traumatic to see more than year of work crumple into a pile of ash. Since that happened (over 30 years ago), I have never been able to get back any of the drive or joy I had in writing fiction back then. I did try to start that book again but my second effort was nowhere near as good as my first attempt and I became disillusioned with trying, so turned my attention to being an activist, writing non-fiction about the movement toward totalitarianism in our supposedly free nation of which the drug war is one of the main components.

      • Crut says:

        Why do witches burn?

        Because… cause they’re made of wood?!

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          I’d rather figure out why witches melt on contact with DHMO. (DMHO is the active ingredient in water–nasty stuff)
          http://www.dhmo.org/

          Water may be wet but don’t kid yourselves. Today’s water and water extracts are up to 10 times more potent than just a few short decades ago.

  23. Jean Valjean says:

    Cornell West on Obama:”It’s like you’re looking for John Coltrane and you get Kenny G in brown skin.”
    About the best summing up of Obama’s legacy I’ve read in a long time, and with West saying it, you know it’s going to hurt. By the way, for those Libertarians on this site, don’t be put off by West’s positive use of the term “progressive,” just substitute “reformer,” something I think we can all agree is desperately needed at this time and place, and to date, undelivered.

    http://tinyurl.com/nxcqhgc

  24. primus says:

    To sum up Dr. West: We wanted a black Uncle Sam and what we have instead is an Uncle Tom.

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