Odds and Ends

A particularly busy time for me – last weekend of my show (Living Canvas Rx Fri-Sat-Sun at the Den Theatre in Chicago), plus another Living Canvas show (completely different, performing as part of the Abbie Hoffman Festival this weekend in another Chicago theatre, plus a conference to attend this weekend in Lisle, Illinois, and classes starting on Monday!

bullet image End the Drug War, Save the Children at the American Conservative

bullet image Mark Kleiman: 16.2 million cannabis addicts? No, of course I didn’t say that. Bill Bennett just made it up. And, of course, Mark is completely right. It was, however, also completely predictable that the book would be used to bolster arguments against legalization (in fact, I think I did).

bullet image And you thought Chinese performances were dull before… Chinese theaters won’t hire drug-linked performers. That’s just plain bad for the arts.

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48 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. allan says:

    interesting what one finds among the press releases… ya know that old and highly useable # 6,630,507? No? Well lookie here:

    KannaLife signs new license agreement with NIH for treatment of chronic traumatic encephalopathy

    KannaLife Sciences has signed a new license agreement With National Institutes of Health – Office of Technology Transfer for the commercialization of US patent 6,630,507, “Cannabinoids as Antioxidants and Neuroprotectants” (the “‘507 Patent”).

    This new license agreement provides the rights for the Company’s development and sale of cannabinoid(s) and cannabidiol(s) based therapeutics as antioxidants and neuroprotectants for use and delivery in humans, as FDA approved drugs, for the treatment of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) in humans.

    The ‘507 Patent includes among other things, claims directed to a method of treating diseases caused by oxidative stress by administering a therapeutically effective amount of a non-psychoactive cannabinoid that has substantially no binding to the NMDA receptor. Cannabinoids are any of a group of related compounds that include the non-psychoactive Cannabidiol as well as Tetrahydrocannabinol; the active constituent of cannabis (marijuana).

    -snip-

    • NorCalNative says:

      As readers here are probably aware, that NIH patent was filed in 1998 and approved in 2003. I had always considered it a government-based “Cock-Block” to prohibit allowing research.

      And, based on the amount of time it took for someone to get access to this patent there’s likely something to that theory.

      What DISTURBS me is that “antioxidants” and the “neuroprotectant” properties of cannabis are extremely valuable for the general population, but especially the aging population.

      However, this “New Drug” will be used for PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES, mostly former NFL players and the total initial patient population is less than 2,000 people.

      This seems aimed at the recent law suit against the NFL and also seems aimed at the deep pockets of the NFL.

      A “New Drug,” or an “Investigational Drug” is given a 7-year sweetheart deal by the FDA. Big Pharma covets this 7-year period because it eliminates all other competition and is kind of like a license-to-print money.

      This is NOT progress for regular folks. WHY? Alzheimer’s and dementia in the general population for two reasons.

      Tau Proteins, and Amyloid Plaques gunk-up and block the neural synapse and prevent normal nerve-cell signaling from taking place. Cannabinoids work to prevent that.

      I’m all for helping out the NFL players committing suicide and abusing their wives/girlfriends/families, but this is NOT in the best interests of the American People.

      Folks here should be bothered that this plant which predates the written historical record is considered a NEW DRUG.

      • allan says:

        I agree and disagree… legalization will eliminate a lot of that PharmaCorp control. The genie is out of the bottle…

        When I consider how far we’ve moved, esp in the last 2 years… Stupid Patrick’s 300 MPH freight train is pretty darn spot on.

        And now Kleiman is calling Bennett out for using his name to spread the lie. I love it! A house divided etc etc

        Providing the world doesn’t encounter a big space rock any time soon and that humanity doesn’t screw itself into oblivion (BIG if on that one I know) I’m highly optimistic that cannabis wins.

        But only if we keep swinging those hammers! There ain’t no letting up on our end. We dog these lying suckers to their (metaphorical) graves. Prohibition needs a political version of Viagra® but there ain’t no such product. W/o a listening audience they, um… shrivel.

    • DdC says:

      KannaLife signs new license agreement with NIH
      https://t.co/VKpIjTVu1y
      The cat might be out of the bag, but the bag is still in the fascists cage. If DEAth can supply yuppies with Pharm Co spray pot or another bogus version of merdinol. My experience is they will not stand up for the rights of people, or at least they haven’t in 4 decades. I seriously doubt if Politicians will side with the peoples homegrown taking their masters profits away. Ferguson shows us it wouldn’t be too hard to shut down state laws and dispensaries. It’s the Reich thing for them to do as it is the only thing they have done all along. It’s a dirty filthy rotten system people are bartering with and most times its for their own incremental quasi victories while the rest stay in the battle grounds without support or leadership. If it’s not removed from the CSA it will be lowered to a Pharm Co script while the buds go back to stay in the underground. USA! Qaeda and D.E.A.th.

      Cannabinoid-Terpenoids Synergy: How It Helps Us Medically
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1956

      Terpenoids makeup the scents of all aromatic plants. Some are medicnally beneficial. Cannabis emanates over 100 of them. Check iSG 4 more!

      Should Patients Be Concerned By States With CBD-Only Legislation – YES
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1929

      Marijuana Medicine’s Near-Miraculous Healing Powers Require the Whole Plant—Not Just One Oil Extract | Alternet http://www.alternet.org/drugs/marijuana-medicines-near-miraculous-healing-powers-require-whole-plant-not-just-one-oil
      CBD-only laws are a pretext to extend marijuana prohibition under the guise of ‘protecting the children.’

  2. Agent 420 says:

    Attn ALL, LEO or CROOK. No need for Mean Spiritedness, We are as Sled Dogs on the same team. Snarl away, but we all share a common objective. Food, Festivities, Home, Family, Friends. MELLOW OUT. Holster that Weapon. STAND DOWN.
    puffpuff pass

  3. claygooding says:

    The quickest way to end the no-knocks and the violence of police searches is to quit giving them bounty money and property seizures for doing it.

    • B. Snow says:

      And, after this latest Colossal Cl*sterF*ck – in Missouri – we may just see the end of Byrne Grants and auto-matic bonuses every damned time they use a swat team to execute a search warrant for drugs!!!

      There was a new-ish “Drugs Inc.” a few nights ago – about MDMA – “Molly Madness” – and in/around Atlanta, they showed a Cop giving away the farm in the way of details on how they abuse the grants. Why they’re doing what they do now and how to “maximize the revenue” they get – it was infuriating to watch & ironically scheduled…

      It actually was a “New” episode (aka first-run on NatGeo) this week, IDK when they filmed it?

      Radley Balko (in part to talk about his last book – “Rise Of The Warrior Cop”) has been interviewed (seemingly) on damn near every show that he feels like appearing on, these are some “interesting times” friends!

    • NorCalNative says:

      When POLICE PLUNDER Fascism cannot be far behind or ruled out.

      Corporate control and the police state pretty much checks all the boxes of a Fascist State.

      But hey, let’s keep voting for Democrats because Republican’s are too scary.

      A complex society that reduces political choice down to an “Either/Or” function is probably too stupid to exist for long. Declining EMPIRES are the biggest threat to world peace and especially the environmental problems we face with energy to run the Empire.

  4. primus says:

    Looks like Klieman is coming to understand the slime he has crawled into. If you lie down with dogs you get up with fleas. Notice him distance himself from the more obvious lies. Notice how he calls them out for their lies, then notice him bemoaning the half-life of internet lies and the unfairness of the situation, the intransigence of the MSM, and how this will all be affecting him far into the future, just as we have been complaining for years. It shows, at least, that he understands how the game has been played by the anti-pot crowd. He does not seem to appreciate the irony of having been the target of their methods, nor does he appreciate being misquoted and lied about, much as we have hated his lies in the past. Could it motivate him into coming around to our side? Out of the shadows, into the light? Faint hope, but hope nevertheless.

    • B. Snow says:

      I know – right?

      I liked this little nugget the Best – And, I look forward to joining in with everyone, when flinging the quote back at him = as often and with as much Righteous Zeal as feasibly possible!

      2. Even most dependent users are not, by any reasonable definition, “addicts.”

      And, I’m challenging y’all to help me make this back-peddling quote into a living hell for him… If possible – to the extent that he decides to find another line of work.

      Although, I’m tempted to hold my tongue for now = after reading this statement

      “Chronic, relapsing cannabis use disorder – which is what “addiction” means, if it means anything except “Bill Bennett wants you to be very afraid” – probably claims fewer than 1 million American victims today.”

      Now, I’m kinda feeling torn?

      • Freeman says:

        And, I look forward to joining in with everyone, when flinging the quote back at him = as often and with as much Righteous Zeal as feasibly possible!

        Exactly! How many times have we seen him write about the number of smot pokers that “meet the diagnostic criteria for drug dependency” (countless), and how many times have we seen him qualify that statement with something like “Even most dependent users are not, by any reasonable definition, “addicts.” (never before now). Nope — he always used that argument to hype the risks of legal weed, but now that someone else extrapolated that number using another one of his wild predictions about increased consumption under a legal regime, he’s crying foul. Sorry, Silent K, it doesn’t work that way.

        Why, just the other day he said our political system is set up to “…poison…children…with cannabis…” on the order of “environmental toxins [the article subject was lead poisoning], unhealthy foods, alcohol, tobacco,”

        As a result, quiet men (and women) in pleasant offices, who have not only neatly-trimmed fingernails but utterly clear consciences – men and women most of whom would be psychologically incapable of injuring a child with their own hands – will continue to poison other people’s children (with environmental toxins, unhealthy foods, alcohol, tobacco, and, shortly, cannabis), call anyone who tries to interfere a socialist, and use everything short of explicit bribery to get their way.

        The dude is completely incoherent. It only goes to show what we’ve noted here often: that marijuana seems to exert it’s most profoundly detrimental cognitive effects on those who don’t consume it.

      • primus says:

        That’s how my wife felt after the birth of our first son.

  5. Atrocity says:

    “Breaking Bad” won a Grammy?

  6. NorCalNative says:

    FOR THE OLDER GENTS AND THE LADIES WHO PUT UP WITH US.

    Are you getting up several times per night to pee? Having trouble controlling your bladder and urge to use the restroom?

    By coincidence, right around the time I started using full extract cannabis oil last September I started experiencing all the symptoms of prostate enlargement and/or prostate cancer. My dad was in Stage IV of prostate cancer and sons of men with it are at a higher risk.

    I found that it takes about 6 weeks or so before you begin to notice the oil working and for about two months I thought I was going to give myself a heart attack rushing out of bed to pee.

    I was at the point where I was visualizing what it was going to be like making my first purchase of ADULT DIAPERS. Fortunately, the full extract cannabis oil started working it’s magic. It was a gradual return to the kind of bladder function I had always considered one of my “skills.”

    I’m now getting up once per night rather than five or six times, and have zero problems with urge incontinence or daytime bladder control.

    Prostate enlargement is a failure of “APOPTOSIS,” the cellular function where there’s a balance between the development of new cells and the removal and destruction of old and/or damaged cells.

    The symptoms of enlargement are the same as cancer. One of the reasons my Dad’s cancer was discovered at so late a stage is that he didn’t have the kind of bladder symptoms that can be diagnostic.

    It appears that this improvement of symptoms requires DAILY use of the full extract cannabis oil and therein lies the difficulty of “tolerance-development” to the effects of THC. It’s kind of hard to take a “drug holiday” if you like having good bladder control.

    I took my first drug holiday of 7-days earlier this month and I noticed a slight return of symptoms.

    Lucky for me, the MMJ scene in California is continually progressing and bringing new CBD-related products to market. They are now carrying a 2 1/2-to-1 CBD-to-THC full extract cannabis oil in an Olive-Oil tincture and that has allowed me to help reduce my tolerance to THC, and take my SECOND drug holiday from THC-rich cannabis this month.

    I found that 7-days off didn’t confer the “trance-like” state where I like to go with my guitar in hours-long sessions of playing. I wasn’t sure if using the CBD extract would do the trick because it does have some THC.

    However, the ratio of 2 1/2-to-1 apparently doesn’t allow that little bit of THC to capture spots on the CB1 cannabinoid receptors. I figured this out when I couldn’t sleep at all on my first night without using any THC-rich bud or oil.

    Legally speaking, this 2 1/2-to-1 ratio of CBD-to-THC is NON-psychoactive and SHOULD BE AVAILABLE WITHOUT A PRESCRIPTION and over-the-counter.

    The cool part is that I don’t have to lose the “bladder-control” properties of cannabis oil while attempting to reduce my very high level of tolerance anymore.

    I got into MMJ because I wanted to “legalize” my use of THC and getting HIGH. That’s a common bitch of prohibitionist’s and there’s a LOT OF TRUTH to it.

    However, Cannabidiol (CBD) is an awesome tool to have in one’s medical tool kit and I can’t recommend it highly enough. CBD-rich cannabis is also the reason why I’ve been able to avoid surgery from nerve impingement. Big Pharma has nothing that works like cannabis for symptoms of neuropathy.

    Bottom line is that cannabis oil gave me back my “dignity.” Kind of hard to put a price on that and that’s just one reason why I consider this plant my “FRIEND.”

  7. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Every time I’m sure that the prohibitionists have gotten absolutely as stupid as humanly possible they prove me wrong. What amazes me is how easy to accomplish they make it appear.. I’m filing this one in the “from the sublime to the ridiculous to the parallel universe” category. Caution: high risk of cognitive dissonance zone:

    New Hampshire Gov. Declares State of Emergency over Synthetic Marijuana

  8. Jean Valjean says:

    You can bet your life that Michael Brown’s corpse has been given a blood test in a police attempt to criminalize him, but I doubt weather his killer, officer Darren Wilson has had to pee in a cup.

  9. Servetus says:

    Colorado is wasting precious dollars on a futile anti-marijuana crusade destined to fail just like all previous anti-drug propaganda:

    Colorado is spending $2 million on a campaign called “Don’t Be a Lab Rat” to warn teens about possible brain damage from marijuana. As part of the campaign, life size rat cages have been set up at the Denver Public Library and Denver Skate Park (Photo via CBS Denver.) More are planned. The cage at the skateboard park has already been defaced. […]

    The Colorado campaign is using preliminary data to justify its rat cage theme. A better use for the $2-million would have been to try to replicate the New Zealand teen IQ/marijuana study, since no one has done it yet, and because some scientists are saying the New Zealand IQ results were distorted by unrecognized socioeconomic factors.

    Since prohibs rarely understand scientific methodology, the preliminary nature of the data is not enough to stop anti-scientific Colorado prohibitionists from parading preliminary data as an absolute truth. Also, the symbology of the rat cage is intentionally dehumanizing, just like many aspects of the drug war. The marijuana consumer reduced to the level of a lab rat is not an image most people will accept. Not everyone is as inhumane as the typical prohibitionist.

    • B. Snow says:

      I was watching a show a week or so ago (checking my notes it looks like it was Aug 6th) Takepart Live on ‘PIVOT’ – which is a nifty channel if you’re okay with WestCoast Millennials = “Takepart is hosted by Jacob Soboroff and Meghan McCain”, (and normally a third guest-host it kinda varies)

      But they were talking about PSA’s = the “Rat Cages” story, and they got feedback about PSAs – one of the best ones was a reply that ended with: #MyBrainIsNotAnEgg

      I nearly fell outta my chair = So I made a note of it, to share later if it came up, so here it is = That Is All…

      • claygooding says:

        The funny part about the egg frying episode was that shortly after that they took out a couple of patents on cannabinoids as a neuro-protectants..

        I suspect the PSA was following the study theory that marijuana fried your brain and like Tashkin’s lung research it backfired on them and they found the opposite was happening.

  10. War Vet says:

    Oklahoma might have CBD medicine. This is a start. And in decades from now, no more illegal meth, heroin, and coke. Local Gangs will lose funding and international drug rings will lose money and have a reduction of influence–in part by: CBD meds being seriously thought about in Oklahoma. Lives will be saved from both disease and gunshot with such steps towards further victory. And It is my belief that the couch represents the kind of people and has those kinds of people who takes the biggest steps in our victory march towards a more just America . . . a world a bit better than we found it. Hemp jobs will be made and cleaner earth.

  11. DdC says:

    Happy Birthday Woodstock

    Woodstock at 45: Still stardust, still golden
    August 15-18, 1969.

    Thank God for Hippies

    Marijuana: the law vs. 12 million people
    Life magazine Oct 31, 1969. 25-35 * Cover

    Should it be legalized? Soon we will know.

  12. cy klebs says:

    Dr. Roberson, Don’t you think that re-legalizing cannabis gives fathers enhanced leverage in countering the ravages of coal-burning?

  13. Nunavut Tripper says:

    A classic prohib rant from Peter Hitchens.

    Peter feels that the authorities haven’t been throwing enough pot smokers in jail…a few thousand more arrests and pot use will disappear…poof !!!

    Comments disabled of course.

    http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/2013/11/01/3881848.htm#.U-55DcTn2u4.facebook

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      No comments? That’s too bad. I wanted to ask him to explain the 1960s. Up until 1973 every State in the Union called petty possession of cannabis a serious felony and they did hand out stiff prison terms if you got busted.

      I was very much fascinated with the fact that Virginia had a mandatory minimum of 20 years with no eligibility for parole. California sent at least one guy to do a 20 year prison term for smoking a joint in a political protest in front of City Hall.

      But you don’t need to take my word. You can read Edward L. Downey v E. P. Perini Superintendent, 518 F.2d 1288, United States Court of Appeals, Sixth Circuit (1975), The appeal was prosecuted with the argument that Mr. Downey’s sentence of 30-60 (thirty to sixty) years was a violation of the 8th Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment.

      Also Davis v. F Davis 585 f2d 1226 (1978) which used the same argument in Downey and Downey v Perini as precedent. Mr. Davis was a lot less sympathetic than Mr. Downey but he was appealing a 40 year sentence for possession and possession with intent to distribute in Virginia.

      Examples above were presented for the limited purpose of evidence supporting just how hardcore sentences could be in the late 1960s/early 1970s. Yet the rate of people choosing to enjoy cannabis nevertheless skyrocketed increasing over 1000% while those sentences were used in the everyday business of adjudicating criminal cases.

      “Never let the facts get in the way of disseminating an effective piece of hysterical rhetoric”
      ~~~ The motto of the Know Nothing prohibitionist

  14. Agent 420 says:

    YouTube + Vids watched are not showing up in Das XP History Kollumn. anyone else experiencing this? Veddy IntereStinnK.

  15. free radical says:

    As for Denver’s giant rat cages, it seems to me to be another easily-misconstrued, highly visible image like the hilarious evil hippy in the “grass is not greener” ad. This time, the message recieved by the intended target is “smoke pot, and we’ll put you in what is essentially a giant rat cage, and treat you like a rat, except that rats are at least given some rights. This will be the teens’ takeaway, rather than the intended message of “smoking pot makes you into a lab rat, based on a bunch of flawed and biased studies we found.” It’s like the ad’s creators or designers have never heard if the Internet, which children can use to research anything. Hilariously out-of-touch, and I’m glad for the boost to our movement, but sad for the massive price tag for the taxpayers.

    • Jean Valjean says:

      I’m still not sure whether the designers of this “ad” deliberately used a cage as a threat, or whether it was a Freudian slip, like some sort of return of the repressed?

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        What makes you think that it couldn’t be both?

        Doesn’t anyone else think that that they chose lab rats because of how the MSM feels compelled to describe the limited re-legalization in Colorado as an “experiment”?

        • free radical says:

          Yup. That’s a concept I would like to see die. I tell anyone who uses it, that it’s obvious that the rdrug war was the experiment, which has blown up in our faces.

  16. darkcycle says:

    Just got home from Hempfest. I bring greetings from the stoniest place on earth. Fun times, got to hang with Keith Stroup and see some old friends. Had a smoke on the rocks with Divadab, and generally had a good time. Yay, Freedom!

  17. darkcycle says:

    Well. Cannabis may treat Sickle Cell Anemia. http://articles.latimes.com/2013/aug/30/science/la-sci-poverty-iq-20130831
    BUT the FDA made them make 100% sure the rats wouldn’t be bothered or distressed in ANY WAY by vaporising cannabis.
    Please try not to spit coffee all over the place, because I had quite the mess to clean up after I read this.
    Completely unbelievable! When did the the FDA suddenly get concerned about the WELFARE OF LAB RATS? Oh yeah… when you talk about giving them cannabis, THEN they can’t be caused to suffer in any way. But when it comes to COSMETICS, the point of entire exercise is to DELIBERATELY give the animals as much irritating chemical as possible. Toxicity studies? They give enought to KILL 50% of the experimental animals OUTRIGHT. The roadblocks to research on cannabis go beyond insane, straight to laughable and absurd.
    I’m completely incredulous. Fish mouthing.

      • darkcycle says:

        I have only this bloody tablet and my new laptop, equipped with the utterly VILE and UNUSABLE Windows 8 to blame. If there’s a fuckup in anything I post for the next two to three years, you can automatically blame it on Windows Hate and that tablet. I just may stop posting until I can find a used laptop with 7 on it. Fuck Microsoft in the most painful way possible.

        • claygooding says:

          I have a new laptop with 8 on it and touchscreen,,it sits there like a paperweight while I continue using my desktop,,only use laptop when I need portability.

    • DdC says:

      Sister Somaya Kambui
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/714
      She claimed to be the founder of this alliance of patients suffering from an extremely painful condition, Sickle Cell Disease. Only about half the diagnosed patients she was said to have helped had doctor’s recommendations for cannabis.

      Scott Imler testified as an expert, as he runs the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource Center. He had written a declaration that he was called on to explain. He knew Somaya, he knew that it helped Sickle Cell patients, and he knew that she had grown marijuana. Meanwhile, Elvy Musikka waited in the hall, ready to testify on the Federal IND program and the amount of marijuana that the government gives to her and only six other patients in this country. She was never called.

      • DdC says:

        The Hype: Brain Damage in Dead Monkeys
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/625
        The facts: Suffocation of Research Animals

        The Heath “Voodoo” Research methodology, as reported in Playboy: Rhesus monkeys were strapped into a chair and then strapped into gas masks and given the equivalent of 63 Colombian strength joints in “five minutes, thru the gas masks” losing no smoke. The monkeys were suffocating!

  18. Servetus says:

    Compare the treatment cannabis gets by the prohibitionists to the velvet glove treatment of a CBS piece involving a new “groundbreaking” sleeping-aid for insomnia just approved by the wily FDA.

    Yes, the new drug, Belsorma®, has side effects that can include “drowsiness, headaches, impairment of daytime wakefulness [and] driving skills, [and the] depressant effects can last several days after discontinuation,” possibly leading to suicide….

    But hey, the FDA just approved it, so it must be okay, right?

  19. DdC says:

    Drug Worriers preferred methods of treatment…
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1945

  20. strayan says:

    Inhibition of colon carcinogenesis from a cannabis extract:

    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0944711313004728

  21. jean valjean says:

    if we needed any more evidence of the role of the drug war in events in ferguson here are two items from the resume of chief thomas jackson:
    swat team supervisor and commander of the drug taskforce

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