Smooth government lies

Here’s a great little exercise in seeing how government agencies can dance and weave to avoid telling the truth, and to make implications that aren’t true.

It’s the ONDCP’s Answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Marijuana

It’s really worth understanding how they operate, so you can know how to shine light on their actions.

What are some of your favorite fallacies, sleights-of-hand, and misdirections here?

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52 Responses to Smooth government lies

  1. Nunavut Tripper says:

    To the uninitiated who may read this FAQ ,marijuana sounds like a pretty negative proposition while the rest of us see the pack of lies that it is.
    My pet peeve is the “marijuana causes schizophrenia ” scare story however thirty seconds on the WHO website would dispel that myth forever.
    Prohibs love schizophrenia and just can’t let that one go.

    • kaptinemo says:

      Obsessively compulsive about schizophrenia? Truly, they need professional help. Badly.

    • Servetus says:

      It’s amazing how the prohibs settle on assumptions about marijuana and schizophrenia, and then pay no mind to the ongoing research that proves them wrong. It’s as if the tenets of prohibition are a religious belief. Here’s the latest on schiz for those interested:

      Public Release: 3-Feb-2015 — There is not a single type of schizophrenia, as thought, but 8 different genetic diseases — Researchers from the universities of Granada and Washington in St Louis break new ground in what could be an important first step towards better diagnosis and treatment of this disease…

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      What, they’re still working out of the Reefer Madness manual. There hasn’t been a stitch of new propaganda produced for decades and decades. I think that would have been “marijuana turns you into a commie pacifist” from when we were hunting commie witches. Neither did it stick.

      Nope, very little new propaganda since the 1930s. Prohibitionists just aren’t very bright people. But I must admit that they’ve polished their collection of petrified turds to a brilliant finish. I can almost see myself!

  2. mike says:

    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/planetgreentrees/2015/01/30/pgt-episode-234-unity-through-the-compromise-of-diversity

    Last Thursday nite on Planet Green Trees radio show Keith Stroup was on from 35:00 min
    to 75:00 mins talking about what new cannabis laws may look like.

    Was sad not to hear any talk about including a fee or tax for education like how much does it cost State so in so to arrest and house a person for cannabis possession.
    From the traffic cop to the jailer to the court judge to the probation officer and I dont know how much more are making money of the offence.

    Now today comes this about LEO wanting Grant money –where is the Grant money
    for Education on the lies of how Cannabis use will cause violent behavior when will
    the Prosecuting Attorney have to raise his or her hand and defend these lies in court.

    http://michiganmedicalmarijuana.org/topic/48297-50k-grant-from-mmmp-fund-maybe-headed-to-st-clair-county/

    • kaptinemo says:

      This is what gets me:

      “The grant is from a one-time, pre-allocated state fund that goes toward the enforcement and education of medical marijuana laws. Sheriff Tim Donnellon said the grant will be used for equipment and wages for Drug Task Force members who already meet with groups for educational purposes. (Emphasis mine – k.)

      See that? They’re using it as ammo for the gun they already hold to our heads, and unilaterally have appropriated the funds meant for exactly the opposite.

      But this? This is really telling:

      “”Deputies have to be paid to talk to groups,” Donnellon said. “There are a lot of different times when we are requested by townships to talk at meetings about some of the laws that go into medical marijuana. (Emphasis mine – k.)

      First off, which groups? ‘Anti-drug’ groups? Preaching to the choir…and mebbe handing out a little gelt in the process?

      But this is the most important part: “With the DTF budget shrinking, this will help.”

      It is just what was predicted here: the LEO feeding frenzy for the drying-up grant money is starting. They’ll be reaching, stretching, grasping at any fiscal straws to keep from having to tighten their belts and give up that lovely ‘free’ money.

      The days of being showered with fiscal champagne and caviar just by waving the bloody shirt and screeching “The Children! The Childrennnnnnn!” are over. The aperture on the slop-chute is contracting, and the flow will become a trickle…not of champagne and caviar, but kibble…

      No more of these, with no leash. As predictable as an Eastern sunrise, they abused the power they were loaned. Now, it’s time for this and the effing short leash that comes with tight local fiscal control.

  3. N.T. Greene says:

    Uh oh.

    That’s not a good thing for the prohibs, is it

    • divadab says:

      I don;t know – Obama’s new budget sharply increases funding for the “War on (some) drugs” – in effect, he’s doubling down on the drug war.

      • N.T. Greene says:

        given how much the republicans hate him at the moment, they might take a contrary stance out of spite.

        • divadab says:

          lol – he should also then publicly state something like “it’s bad to drink bleach” and maybe they’ll do that, too!

        • n.t. greene says:

          They’re too busy trying to roll back healthcare to drink bleach. The irony is that without insurance, all that bleach drinking would be all the more lethal.

          I never cease to be surprised by how often people can be convinced that the infringement upon human rights is, in reality, an expansion thereof.

        • B. Snow says:

          That’s why I have always been (more or less) willing to give Barry the benefit of the doubt on this…

          He tried to do health care reform = using the Right-wingvs Heritage Foundation inspired “No Free-Riders”, you must be responsible and sign-up for health insurance aka “The (evil?) Mandate”…
          I pressume the it’s due to their realization that under this program therexis a subsidy for people that fall below a certain income level.

          *You should hear this one commercial that’s been airing here lately, with a line about “Call now to see if you qualify for a government subsidy!” – [That’s not an exact quote, but close] = And, IMO it’s meant to piss off the old racists/class-ists that resent minorities and/or poor folks in general, to send in a new wave of heart patients ~maybe~ IDK?

          Either way I think Barry is easily smart enough to know there’s no way in the world they’d pass any “liberalization” of cannabis or any other drug laws = Not through the House of Representatives, or the Senate.
          looks like he’s gonna get “Net Neutrality” passed – And have internet access declared as a “Utility” no less (which is a good thing).

          We can let the cheapskate elephants change the law (via Rand Paul and Cory Booker perhaps) = under the auspice of ending the Teddy Kenedy Era “For your own good” *Progressive* style programs -that eventually – turned into *Liberal Nanny-Stater* “For your own good” programs…

          If they think they’re screwing over the less fortunate among us they’ll do it willing and with enthusiasm! Just you wait, and to the desperate pigs calling their crap “educational” grants = they’re gonna regret trying to go that route PDQ!

          Right-wingers have no (true) love of/ or for “Education”, not beyond Sunday-School, bible studies, & possibly *religion based*, science-denying, Home-Schooling.
          Seriously…

    • claygooding says:

      The telling statistics in the ONDCP budget are the foreign agency assistance funding,,it is tucked into an arm of the ONDCP and funds the allies in the drug wars agencies,,comparing growth rates only explains part of the money spent though because it doesn’t cover all those emergency visit by a bureaucrat with a check (see Paraguay)for countries rattling legalization,,however so far they only growled at Jamaica,,,that is the different signals that keeps us guessing now.

      The chart shows a reduction in funding for international???

      With 7 or eight countries threatening legalization right now that budget line should have risen substantially,,unless they are hiding it. crafty bastards.

  4. Servetus says:

    The ONDCP continues to double down on its façade of drug lies and pseudoscience:

    Question: Does the Federal government block medical marijuana research?

    Answer: No. The Federal government supports studies that meet accepted scientific standards and successfully compete for research funding based on peer review and potential public health significance.

    The Federal Government will continue to call for research that may result in the development of products to effectively treat debilitating diseases and chronic pain. Already, there are DEA-registered researchers eligible to study marijuana, and currently there are Phase III clinical trials underway examining the medical utility of a spray containing a mixture of two active ingredients in marijuana (i.e., Sativex).

    A number of government-funded research projects involving marijuana or its component compounds have been completed or are currently in progress. Studies include evaluation of abuse potential, physical/psychological effects, adverse effects, therapeutic potential, and detection. It is worth noting that a number of these studies include research with smoked marijuana on human subjects. [wow, they’re testing the real thing, on real humans! ]

    The ONDCP is fully aware the NIDA is largely a propaganda mill devoted to making illicit drugs look bad. The NIDA would never have funded the kinds of research done on cannabis by Dr. Mechoulam in Tel Aviv, nor any other researchers who ultimately did studies in foreign universities and labs that gave evidence of the medical effectiveness of cannabinoids and their therapeutic potential. If the NIDA says it is funding similar American-based research now on anything besides Sativex, it’s too little, too late.

    • So what else is new? says:

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      “Never let the facts get in the way of disseminating an effective piece of hysterical rhetoric”
      ~~ The Prohibitionist Motto

  5. Will says:

    ‘What are some of your favorite fallacies, sleights-of-hand, and misdirections here?'[Pete]

    There are just too many fallacies to tackle. So I made it easy on myself;

    – For every question on ONDCP’s site where they answer “Yes”, the correct answer is “No”.
    – For every question on ONDCP’s site where they answer “No”, the correct answer is “Yes”.

    Done.

    • QuaxMercy says:

      Everso close to the truth, Will. They are Reality deniers, Science deniers, & as Servetus suggests, Liar deniers.

  6. Tony Aroma says:

    Isn’t there a process for correcting errors in government publications? I remember a while back someone successfully got the feds to change some misinformation they’d published on a similar drug “facts” web site.

  7. claygooding says:

    It is their PSA’s,,especially the ones during the 80’s and 90’s,,it was so ridiculous to us and yet so scary to the ignorant,,,which seems to proliferate the earth at times.

  8. NorCalNative says:

    Problematic to me is the White House’s and ONDCP’s misplaced “faith” in the legitimacy of the FDA, AND, the idea that the social costs of legalization of cannabis would be in any way similar to alcohol.

    There is an inherent BIAS to the FDA based on Western Medicine’s “hatred” of herbal synergy. And, the FDA doesn’t DO SCIENCE, it’s simply the “messenger-boy” for BIG Pharma press releases and research.

    Every minute of the day, FDA-approved drugs kill MORE people than cannabis has throughout the known history of mankind.

    • Tony Aroma says:

      FDA approval, meaningful or not, is a hoop that could be jumped through. It happens all the time for LOTS of drugs. Surely in the past 50 years, if marijuana really is medicine, SOMEONE would have completed the necessary research and human trials for FDA approval. Or so they’d have you believe.

      What they fail to mention (lying through omission) is that little Catch 22 they try to pretend doesn’t exist. You can’t get FDA approval of a Schedule 1 drug, and you can’t reschedule a Schedule 1 drug without FDA approval. That bit about them not blocking research (also not entirely true), is meant to gloss over this little glitch in the system.

    • Poca says:

      The key word-phrase here is “new drug”

      “It is the Federal government’s position that marijuana be subjected to the same rigorous clinical trials and scientific scrutiny that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) applies to all other new medications, a comprehensive process designed to ensure the highest standards of safety and efficacy.”

      Implying that cannabis is some newfangled thing that was just discovered with unknown effects.

      The fact that everyone who has every used ganja knows, it is so boring how safe it is…and I haven’t asked myself “is it working yet, am I high” in over 15 years… so yeah the efficacy is plain too.

      They try to speak in absolutes but they used the word “new” to carefully qualify the sentence, and that hints at the fact that not all drugs have been FDA qualified…further reducing their credence (not to mention all the other unsafe & deadly drugs they have approved)

      • B. Snow says:

        They need to use the word “NEW” to hide their decades of Bullshit = behind a ridiculous guise of plausible deniability!

        I’m pretty sure that this last hurrah with Bill Bennett trying to pitch one last book to retire on…

        In my view this is a very clear *signal* & the message it sends is that at this point it’ gonna be with 95%+ of their work focused on *all about* covering their collective asses.

  9. Crut says:

    Ugh, and my day was going so nicely.

    The research is clear.

    Probably the worst lie.

    it is clear that the social costs of legalizing marijuana would outweigh any possible tax that could be levied.

    Hardly. One year into the retail part of the Colorado experiment, and they don’t know what to do with all the extra money.

    Research has demonstrated that among chronic heavy users these effects on memory can last at least seven days after discontinuing use of the drug.

    “chronic heavy users”? Cherry picking stats is popular on this page. I have a question; What percentage of Cannabis consumers are considered “chronic heavy users”? I’m guessing not many…

    Additionally, while the study did not include a sufficient number of heavy users of marijuana to confirm a detrimental effect of such use on pulmonary function, the findings suggest this possibility.

    Fear mongering, i.e. “suggesting a possibility” is the only thing that they know how to do.

    There are very real consequences associated with marijuana use. In 2010, marijuana was involved in more than 461,000 emergency department visits nationwide. This is nearly 39 percent of all emergency department visits involving illicit drugs, and highlights the very real dangers

    “involving illicit drugs”? Where’s alcohol in this comparison?

    Arrests for alcohol-related crimes, such as violations of liquor laws and driving under the influence, totaled nearly 2.5 million in 2010 — far more than arrests for all illegal drug use, and certainly far more than arrests for marijuana-related crimes. It is therefore fair to suggest that decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana might not reduce the drug’s burden to our justice and public health systems with respect to arrests, but might increase these costs by making the drug more readily available, leading to increase use, and ultimately to more arrests for violations of laws controlling its manufacture, sale, and use.

    Ahh! there’s an alcohol comparison, sort of. Fair to suggest that it might? LOL, wow, that is a disgusting word-pretzel there.

    Interesting word counts…
    16 “can”s
    15 “research”s
    14 “illicit”s
    11 “study”s
    7 “important”s
    6 “lead to”s
    5 “could”s
    4 “might”s
    4 “indicate”s
    4 “consequence”s
    3 “suggest”s
    3 “fair”s
    2 “possible”s

    There’s no question that this authority needs to be questioned.

  10. “If a politician can hold his job by lying, he will hold it by lying; if lying peters out, he will try to hold it by embracing new truths.”

    “A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man.”
    -HL Mencken

    The very first question and answer:

    “Isn’t marijuana generally harmless?”

    “Answer: No. Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

    The very first question to be tackled is not even answered at all. That is the question of harm. Harm is not addressed. Because there is harm all right. The toxic level of marijuana was assessed as a risk by using lethal dose in animals as the benchmark. Alcohol, nicotine, cocaine and heroin were assessed as High with a 10. Opiates, cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants, ecstasy, and benzodiazepines were a 100. The only drug given a “low risk” was cannabis with a 10,000.
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25634572

    Replacing this pub med study as an answer is the statement that it is classified as a schedule 1 drug meaning a high potential for abuse (this is defined as any use since marijuana has no uses), and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States – another lie as evidenced by the many doctors who have put their reputation on the line in legal states to recommend marijuana to their patients. So no accepted medical use or treatment takes no account of these medical professionals to make this judgement, which is being decided despite them at a federal level.

    Until this first question is truly addressed properly the rest of the page isn’t worth the read.

    Its the smoothest thing there. They don’t even answer their own very first question by gracing it with a real truthful fact based answer: -Where is the harm?

    I don’t think they are so smooth anymore.

    • Servetus says:

      The authoritarian followers of authoritarians would necessarily buy into the government’s inane answer to its own question about the alleged harms of cannabis. The problem for authoritarians (and the blessing bestowed upon humanity) is there aren’t that many authoritarian followers, or authoritarians.

      Authoritarians like to think they’re the boss, even though they may be (and usually are) complete brain drains as well as a total menace to society. Absent authoritarian followers, there could be no apologists for authoritarians, and no further justification for authoritarians to exist. It’s really a social identity crisis at its most critical point in human evolutionary history. Authoritarians must produce more authoritarian followers, or vanish into the ether.

      Authoritarians and their followers are a pathological group. Everyone has probably encountered them. No one likes them, other than themselves. So I say, let the psychologists declare, in DSM-VI or whatever, that authoritarianism is a personality disorder, along with whatever inspires authoritarian followers to be attracted to authoritarians, as we witness in the zombies working for the DEA, ONDCP, NIDA, and other nefarious agencies. The goal is to end up with no centralized leadership in the drug trade—an anarchic solution.

      • No centralized drug war leadership in the gov either. Not too anarchic a solution if the real goal is to share the drug war wealth amongst the different branches of the government. We all share info now throughout the government (thank you Patriot Act). Of course, sharing the wealth is nothing new.
        http://tinyurl.com/nlvj37e

        – The 2015 drug war budget recipients:

        Department of Health and Human Services (and Medicaid and Medicare)
        Departments of Defense
        Homeland Security
        Justice Department
        ONDCP
        Bureau of Prisons
        DEA
        Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force
        Office of Justice Programs (Edward Byrne Justice Assistance Grants)

        This is just the part we get to see that isn’t above our security level. Big government budget business. Big marijuana lies. Think there is a correlation?
        About as much as all the governments marijuana studies on the harm from marijuana.

        • We need to find a way to pry their cold clammy fingers off of the drug war treasure chest.

          I have always figured the truth will set us free.

        • Servetus says:

          One possibility for decentralizing the drug war would be to decentralize the FDA. Since the FDA can apparently neither chew bubblegum nor walk at the same time, nor handle research on medications having more than one or two active ingredients, perhaps it would work to split the agency in half. One bureaucracy would handle the typical mono-chemical FDA drugs, while another agency handles all botanical remedies such as marijuana, plant derived psychotropics, tropical medicine, and so forth. Botanical medicine is more complicated, so the best scientific talent would be required for the task.

        • Windy says:

          Servetus, I would much prefer that one or more private sector organizations take on the tasks of the FDA, I trust what I am told by Consumer Reports, the Underwriters Laboratories, and Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval more than what is said by any government agency. let’s end the unconstitutional FDA (and all the other unconstitutional federal alphabet agencies) and turn their work over to the private sector, we’d get better research, and could actually trust the reports. Aside from my wishes, which are not likely to be granted anytime soon, your idea is the second best.

      • Crut says:

        If you haven’t read it, The Authoritarians by Bob Altemeyer is a really good FREE book. I have a copy on my phone that I brush up on once in a while, it gives some great insight into the minds of the people who blindly follow without question.

  11. Duncan20903 says:

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    I just can’t stop myself from recommending that I think almost everyone would benefit from reading “How to Lie with Statistics” by Darrell Huff, first published in 1954. I Think it’s public domain but even if it isn’t you can find it to read for free with a quick web search.

    It’s even better if you contemporaneously read the work of people who are actually doing it and I can’t think of a better example than the ONDCP. Sometimes I think that those people lie just because they like hearing themselves lie. They really aren’t very good at it either. So if you aren’t already well versed in this particular confidence art the ONDCP is like a 1st grade reading primer. Fun with Dick and Jane, no doubt. “Hear Dick lie. Lie Dick lie!”

    I feel compelled to mention that at this moment in my life the word that annoys me the most is the word “harmless” coming from a prohibitionist pie hole. Frequently asked questions about merrywanna? “Isn’t marijuana generally harmless?” I want them to prove that anyone has ever asked them that question. Not even frequently, just once from any source other than an ONDCP sock puppet. Oh well, just like my kidney stones this too shall pass.

    When we get down to brass tacks the truly disturbing part is that these people owe the citizenry a duty of honesty. The people should be able to trust their assertions with nothing more than the blind faith most people do grant them. I know it isn’t going to happen at least for a few more decades.

    You know, I just realized that I don’t know the drug czar’s name or even if we still have one. Nobody needs to tell me, I can look it up with a couple of mouse clicks. The point is that it’s been a while since Droop Dogg flew the coop. Considering how much I pay attention to this issue it’s a flippin’ miracle that whoever has the job today hasn’t made himself know by annoying the heck out of me with regurgitated hogwash. I’m thinking that this is a darn good sign for our future.
    ——————————
    Wow, Michael Botticelli, and it wasn’t anywhere near as easy to find that name as I had thought that it would be. Neither was it a “doh, you knew that” moment. But that’s an even better sign for our future.

    • jean valjean says:

      Michael Botticelli….the soft, fluffy face of drug warriorhood…”recovering alcoholic” so he really knows what he’s talking about. A cuddly version of Michele Leonhart and about as trustworthy as a snake.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
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        Well it’s not possible that he got his job without being a drug war extremist…such is the nature of specialized government bureaus. Think about when Mr. Walters was the ONDCP “director” while Mr. Botticelli was still in the ranks. Do you think that anyone in the ONDCP had a chance of promotion if he didn’t toe the party line? Still I’ve still heard a pile of drug warrior crap from John-boy Walters while Mr. Botticelli has been the “acting” director. I sure never had to go look up Mr. Walters name when he was the head stooge at the ONDCP. If I had needed to look it up his name and face were on the front page of the website. It’s almost as if Mr. Botticelli doesn’t want people to know his job title..

        • jean valjean says:

          Botticelli did face questioning in congress last year. When Rep Blumenauer asked about legalization and medical cannabis he said that “DEA has not changed its position on this.” He’s been put up by the drug war cohort because he has a winsome smile while dispensing the usual bad news. It’s the typical Obama administration use of minorities (he’s openly gay like Melinda Haag) to convince the information poor that he’s actually a liberal. I wonder how quickly AA meetings empty when he walks in. I for one would not feel at all safe talking about illegal drug use in front of him.

  12. U.S. Surgeon General: ‘Marijuana Can Be Helpful’
    http://t.co/1KUXEU3sEK

    The opposite of harm. Help.

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      Oh right, what does he know? You know nowadays most of the doctors are specialists…that’s where the mad stacks are found. This guy can’t be very smart because he decided to be a surgeon general. Go ask the ASSMAN, he’ll tell you. Also the Florida Sheriffs voted and “there’s no such thing as a smoked medicine” won in a landslide by 38-2. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to survive the utter irony of seeing both headlines on the same day. This shit is just getting too weird.
      Florida sheriffs come out against medical marijuana bill, 38-2

      Want to see some truly fun statistics? San Francisco is arguably the cannabis capital of the United States. The city has had storefront medicinal cannabis vendors for longer than California has had the Compassionate Use Act and was the first California to codify regulation of the City’s authorized medicinal cannabis vendors. Florida authorities have been heard to say that they don’t want Florida to be like California. According to the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention the 2013 youth use rates nationwide, in San Francisco and the Florida numbers as a surprise bonus:

      Ever used marijuana (one or more times during their life)
      USA: 40.7%
      Florida: 38.7%
      San Francisco: 28.2%

      Tried marijuana before age 13 years (for the first time)
      USA: 8.6%
      Florida: 8.3%
      San Francisco: 5.9%

      Currently used marijuana (one or more times during the 30 days before the survey)
      USA: 23.4%
      Florida: 22.0%
      San Francisco: 16.3%

      Prohibitionists don’t even bother checking to see if their insanity works the way they think it does.

  13. thelbert says:

    here is a family that has to leave texas because they want to obey the crazy: http://tinyurl.com/ndu6t6b

  14. Servetus says:

    Remember our old friend Dan Burton, Congressman from Indiana, once a big time prohibitionist calling for strict drug penalties, until his son got busted trafficking marijuana? Well, heee’s baaaccck—as an anti-vaxxer. Former Congressman Dan Burton gets flayed into many pieces by Anderson Cooper on a CNN interview.

    There is a pattern to Burton’s apparent craziness. What’s clear is Burton’s total ignorance of science and his anti-scientific contempt for the profession itself, in which he cherry picks old, discredited research speculations to back his claims about vaccinations causing autism—which is just like every other prohibitionist’s approach to science when it comes to viewing and explaining illegal drugs.

    One of the consequences of Burton’s actions is it reveals there is a lot of fact abuse going on in the ever terrifying world prohibitionists live in, something posing far worse consequences than drug abuse. Perhaps the fact abusers need to be rounded up and sent to fact rehabs, where they will be forced to learn science in order to regain their freedom. Whatever the method of elimination, we need to get these fact abusers off the streets before they harm our children.

    • Windy says:

      http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/vaccinated-spreading-measles-who-merck-cdc-documents-confirms?page=1

      Meanwhile, the vaccine industry is funding their own studies which claim that their products are ‘safe’.
      Also, the media appear to be subtly working to characterize measles as a fatal disease, when in reality, the vast majority of measles infections will run their course in just 7-10 days. Again, according to the CDC’s own records, the ‘record-breaking’ 2014 year which cited 644 cases, had ZERO deaths from measles. Contrast this to the Flu (influenza), where annual US deaths can range from anywhere between 3,000 and 49,000 per year, and it becomes clear that characterizing a ‘measles epidemic’ in the US is a complete fabrication.

      With Disneyland media scare, it’s now been established at least half of the Disneyland children who allegedly caught measles WERE vaccinated. So what is really going on here?
      _snip_
      The National Vaccine Information Center has published an important document relevant to this topic titled “The Emerging Risks of Live Virus & Virus Vectored Vaccines: Vaccine Strain Virus Infection, Shedding & Transmission.” Pages 34-36 in the section on “Measles, Mumps, Rubella Viruses and Live Attenuated Measles, Mumps, Rubella Viruses” discuss evidence that the MMR vaccine can lead to measles infection and transmission.

  15. DonDig says:

    .
    It’s still all about the laws. These no science, no compassion laws.
    How the morass of law regarding controlled substances got passed is still the mystery to me. No critical thought involved.
    It’s like they all knew that this ‘little’ arm of government would be free of actual justice and liberty, and the ‘elites’ decided to create a slush and depravity division for their amusement using race and class division as entertainment. Revolting.

  16. claygooding says:

    “How can states pass a law in clear violation of federal drug laws?”

    Good question! Maybe you could ask the Attorneys General of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, DC, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin to figure out how they’ve already done so over the past nineteen years.

    Stole that off Russ Belville’s wall,,a really good comeback when a pol talks about not wanting to go against a Federal law.

  17. Servetus says:

    California’s Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims is Prohibitch of the Month after she demands something other than “mixed messages” about marijuana from the federal government. Madame Sheriff wants the message to read “totally illegal”, because she wants to keep receiving the HIDTA money that goes to the sheriff’s department for hunting down marijuana patches.

    5 February 2015—In Fresno County alone, law enforcement officers reported finding some 350 marijuana gardens last year, many secreted across the San Joaquin Valley floor. Although the state’s Proposition 215 legalized cultivation for medical purposes, Fresno County last year banned pot growing in unincorporated parts of the county.

    “It’s not about the medicine. It’s about the money,” Mims said. “It’s very lucrative.”

    It’s not just about the money, either. It’s also about the religion. Fresno city and county governments have been occupied by forces of the religious right for several years. When California’s Prop 19 was decided by voters in 2010, reports surfaced that the DEA had conducted anti-legalization talks in various churches throughout the area prior to the election. We can expect the same behavior from the DEA in the coming 2016 election to legalize cannabis, unless steps are taken to halt the illegal practice of using federal resources to influence state elections regarding marijuana.

    Last year, the long-established Central Valley HIDTA spanning the area from Sacramento to Bakersfield grew with the addition of rural Siskiyou and Trinity counties. The California investigators’ work has earned national attention, with an award presented this week for one particular interdiction.

    But while politically popular, the HIDTAs must also compete for funds. The Obama administration’s Fiscal 2016 budget proposed this week would cut overall HIDTA funding to $193 million from this year’s level of $245 million. Last year, the administration proposed a nearly identical cut, and Congress rejected it.

    It’s time to do away with HIDTA funding if it’s to be misused by officials such as Madame Mim.

    • Windy says:

      Yep, another Sheriff who needs to be replaced with a Sheriff who knows and understands the Constitution and the Constitutional duties of the position of Sheriff, she obviously does not.

    • B. Snow says:

      “Prohibitch of the Month”

      I like that, we should totally talk someone into making this “a thing” – I know there’s plenty of potential qualifying candidates…

      But, I’ll admit this would be begging for trouble harassment from bitter (and/or generally pissy) “honorees”.

      The key would be finding someone with little to no risk of being placed on anyone’s personal sh*t l*st = more seriously if you’re in a position to do any sort of anti-drugwar commentary/blogging/digital publishing – the only real issue would be avoiding counter-productive efforts aimed at people – of whom we might actually be able persuade to change their stripes in the future.
      IF we make sure that the “honorees” are actually deserving of said *awards* then this could workout to be truly effective ‘messaging’.

      And, the fact that in recent years social media has made our sort of *messaging* to become WAY more effective at getting the truth out there into the real world.

      Compared to all the years of disingenuous, scare-story lies, & “messages to the chitlins” (aka the DARE program, ‘just say no’, and a slew of inane/factually inaccurate and/or blatantly preposterous ONDCP commercials.)

      And when it comes down to it, persuading the public that we aren’t the professional liars – is the real point of all this…

      It’s also the one thing that *Billy-the-Better & Company* are most scared of…

      That we’ll successfully show the general public that cannabis is nowhere near as scary as their fictional (evil) “marijuana” has been portrayed to be.

      That’s what keeps them up at night.

      We don’t need to show it’s 100% harmless, we just have to persuade people its not a nightmare worthy of Prohibition II, and all of the billions of $$ they want to continue to waste, fighting a spectre = That they created to keep their jobs and their authoritarian egos “fully inflated” – so to speak.

  18. free radical says:

    Is it me or is the person who wrote this response to “Isn’t marijuana harmless?” just barely literate? Did anyone ever take an English class in school? Did you learn how to compose an essay? Like that the first paragraph should be a brief summary of your points, then go point by point with each following paragraph, finishing with another summary paragraph that states your conclusion?
    Can the government not afford to hire someone with even third-grade writing skills?
    What is this?

    “No. Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug, meaning it has a high potential for abuse and no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States. The main active chemical in marijuana is delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, more commonly called THC. THC acts upon specific sites in the brain, called cannabinoid receptors, starting off a series of cellular reactions that ultimately lead to the “high” that users experience when they smoke marijuana. Some brain areas have many cannabinoid receptors; others have few or none. The highest density of cannabinoid receptors are found in parts of the brain that influence pleasure, memory, thinking, concentrating, sensory and time perception, and coordinated movement.”

    Rather than addressing the question and/or summarizing the various premises (however shaky) upon which the answer is based, it simply went into a stream of non sequitirs, and unrelated ideas. What did any of those sentences have to do with the question, the answer to which is obvious to anyone with the most basic observational skills, whose paycheck is not tied to prohibition?
    Forgive me for wanting the government to produce *better written propaganda*, but this offering is a rude insult to intelligence.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      I’ve just now learned of the tragedy that occurred on Monday. So sad, so avoidable. What the heck were those people thinking when they decided that Nancy Grace would be the first thing that the poor little groundhog would see after emerging from his hole? Of course the poor animal dropped dead from shock and horror!

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