Open Thread

I’ll be in New York from June 1-8, hosting a group of 98 people for a week of theatre and walking tours. That’ll probably keep me a little busy.

I’ll be seeing “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time,” “Finding Neverland,” “The Audience,” “Something Rotten,” “Skylight,” “Wolf Hall, parts one and two,” ” and “Hand to God.”

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88 Responses to Open Thread

  1. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    NBA players want marijuana removed from banned list

    The article is specifically referencing players with a “prescription” in States with medicinal cannabis patient protection laws. Hopefully they’ll figure out that using the word prescription won’t change a thing since there’s no such thing in any of the United States.

  2. Duncan20903 says:

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    It’s been a while since I searched the news for stories about the black market for drinking alcohol in places which still enforce that particular stupidity. I’ve got to write myself a note or something, those articles can be very entertaining. Sure, I’m mostly looking for current events like
    Cop Chasing Bootlegger Dies After Colleague’s Car Hits Him in Bhuj

    But learning that the stupidity of our Federal government is nothing new is something I find fascinating. Here’s an account of the 1913 arrest, prosecution, acquittal and subsequent auction of a horse for bootlegging:
    The case of the four-legged bootlegger

    I wonder, will there ever come a day when I don’t feel compelled to mention that drinking alcohol prohibition in the US started almost 4 decades before the implementation of the National Prohibition Act of 1919?

  3. Mr_Alex says:

    I have decided to read Arnold Trebach’s book that he authored called the Great Drug War, it admits the the Drug War is a failure but one section really caught my eye was Straight inc and the Sembler family using the ONDCP to continue prohibition and to start up Anti Cannabis groups via the ONDCP

  4. Servetus says:

    Vice President Biden’s son Beau has passed after succumbing to a cancerous brain tumor. As some may remember, Beau crossed paths with the drug war when he was kicked out of his Navy PR job for a cocaine positive on a drug test.

    In real life, cancer becomes the priority, not the long-term harm of a drug substance. Denying Beau a few hits of cocaine, and firing him, when he knew he had less than two years to live, is uncivilized, but the government did it anyway. It’s much like denying a man a last cigarette before he’s shot.

    What’s equally tragic is that his tumor might have been ameliorated had he received a drug cocktail that included cannabinoids, something the NIDA now accepts as having therapeutic value after having been led by the nose to this conclusion by the anti-prohibition movement.

    R.I.P. Beau Biden. He was one of us.

    • Frank W. says:

      The bereaved Biden is quite the old prohibition hand, judging by his sponsorship of the RAVE Act and drug czar positions.

    • Windy says:

      I find it fitting that the actions of prohibitch VP Biden is responsible for the death of his son, I hope he suffers the rest of his life knowing his responsibility in this; I hope it torments him so much he can neither sleep at night nor think during the day.

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      Just FYI it was Hunter Biden not Beau who was cashiered by the Navy. It was definitely
      done under the UCMJ since Hunter was a commissioned officer. Presumably Hunter is still alive and well.

      Beau was the Attorney General of Delaware from 2007 until earlier this year. While he didn’t put up a huge roadblock he sure didn’t help Delaware patients when he let the Governor refuse to implement that State’s alleged medicinal cannabis patient protection law without objection. When you read that there are 23 States with comprehensive medicinal cannabis patient protection laws Delaware is included in that number. But it doesn’t mean there are any Delaware patients who have gotten even a stick of medicine because of that law. So it’s rather remarkable IMO that it can be argued that Beau signed his own death warrant. Holy cow, talk about dripping with irony.

      But guess what? We can still blame his asshole father for Beau’s death because of how the idiocy of the war on (some) drugs stifled research in exo-cannabinoid medicines. Actually, it could make him even more culpable because the smart money says that Beau died from glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Would you care to guess who owns a patent for a concoction of organic THC and Organic CBD as a treatment for GBM?

      Whether or not you like GW Pharma is irrelevant. Whether or not they’re still unnamed concoction is successful in treating GBM is irrelevant. The fact remains that the research GWP is doing today would have been done decades ago if it hadn’t been for asshole prohibitionists like Joe Biden, who evidently preferred being able to beat his chest over just how “tough on drugs” he had been and would be if he were re-elected over the medical needs of people in general.

      Of course whether or not Beau actually died of GBM is highly relevant and that diagnosis has been deduced but not confirmed. He could have been like Bob Marley who was widely reported to have died from brain cancer when he actually died of skin cancer which metastasized in his brain. So please use your better judgement if you want to inform the outsiders. It could backfire if we find out later that Mr. Biden actually died of prostrate (or whatever other kind of) cancer which metastasized in his brain. I’m not going to mention it anywhere else because of my equity interest in GW Pharm. You might be embarrassed if you’re wrong. I could get investigated by the SEC and I’ve had enough of those idiots for this lifetime and at least the next three.

      Hmmm, it appears that Ted Kennedy may have died from GBM too. Interesting times indeed.

      • Servetus says:

        My bad. Yes, it was Hunter tagged as a coke fiend, not Beau.

        Random drug testing of federal employees and rampant witch hunts for fiends who might not be fiends is the legacy of their father’s CSA. Joe Biden’s drug war is responsible for both his sons’ demise. The entire Biden family history is a Shakespearean tragedy starring prohibitionists.

        • Duncan20903 says:

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          The employees of governments can’t be tested randomly unless in “safety” sensitive positions. The SCOTUS also had the foresight to forbid governments from declaring all of their employees as being in that group.

          People subject to the UCMJ don’t have much in the way of civil rights and can be tested randomly. It’s a totally different system of justice.

  5. He’s a candidate for asset forfeiture of the year:

    ‘Why take my vibrator?’: Michigan cops legally rob ‘every belonging’ from medical marijuana patient
    http://tinyurl.com/pcomrmq

  6. Mr_Alex says:

    Going further on the section on Straight Inc in Arnold S Trebach’s the Great Drug War book that I brought on Amazon, Straight Inc basically succeeded the Seed which was run by Art Barker and Mel and Betty Sembler sent their child to the Seed and once it was shut down once it was found that the Seed was using tactics from Communist countries back in the day.

    Another interesting bit is that it confirms that the Semblers are using the ONDCP (Office of National Drug Control Policy) and the NIDA (National Institute of Drug Abuse) to start up Anti Cannabis groups

    I highly recommend the book as a whole as it touches big time on Straight Inc and the horrors that happened along with the Semblers using the ONDCP and NIDA to start up Anti Cannabis groups. The book can be found on Amazon as it is one of the earliest books to touch the failure on the War on Drugs

    • Servetus says:

      “Seed was using tactics from Communist countries back in the day.”

      The book Seed based their program on was “Brainwashing in Red China ” by Edward Hunter, the journalist credited with coining the term ‘brainwashing’. Published in 1951 at the height of the Korean War and beginnings of McCarthyism, it describes the circumstances of American soldiers held as POWs by North Koreans in Chinese Communist inspired reeducation camps. American POWs were subjected to sleep deprivation, indoctrination propaganda, and other common techniques, but no water-boarding that I recall.

      Hunter notes the difference in effectiveness of brainwashing methods between black and white American soldiers. Hunter said the white American POWs were more likely to break. By contrast, the black soldiers seemed always to understand the North Koreans were their enemies, and so never believed anything they said. What’s ironic is that North Korea had marijuana growing everywhere, including the fenced-in compounds where prisoners were held, and the black soldiers knew what to do with it. Testimonials from the prisoners said marijuana was very effective in offsetting the misery and propaganda the North Koreans inflicted on detainees.

      In the end, North Korean and Red Chinese brainwashers had nothing that could beat being black, hip, and urban—something Seed should have considered before they embarked on their monumental drug rehab failure.

    • Uncle Albert's Nephew says:

      If you want to find out more about Straight Inc. get your hands on a copy of Help at Any Cost by Maia Szalavitz.

  7. Mr_Alex says:

    PDFA (Partnership for a Drug Free America), Straight Inc were born from the Seed apparently

  8. House/of/cards/Italy says:

    More than one hundred Italian MPs from all parties have presented a draft bill to legalize soft drugs:

    “So we can defeat the black market which is in the hands of the mafia and guarantee the flow of tax to the state”

    http://tinyurl.com/nkfxo84

  9. House/of/cards/Ecuador says:

    It looks like yet another sovereign country has had enough of following us down the rat-hole of prohibition:

    “There are also many other factors that people many times overlook, including the fact that infectious diseases spread through needles and dirty drug practices have declined rapidly in Portugal since the end of drug prohibition. The police state is also not nearly as much of a problem for residents as it once was. Many prisons have even shut down because there is not enough crime.

    In Ecuador, this new bill would threaten the stranglehold that the drug war has on the Americas.It would set a new example for what a country without prohibition looks like, as Portugal has done in Europe.

    Carlos Velasco, the head of Ecuador’s congressional Commission of the Right to Health, made strong statements against the drug war while speaking in support of the bill:

    “Addressing the drug phenomenon in a repressive way, as it did in the 80s and 90s, where prison was the only place for a drug consumer, is absurd. The traditional way of regulating and fighting drugs, emphasizing criminalization … can’t be sustained in Ecuador,”

    http://www.entrynews.com/article/69211.html

  10. Francis says:

    Dark Web Market Admins React to Silk Road Life Sentence

    Last week, convicted Silk Road operator Ross Ulbricht received two life sentences without parole. The prosecution had asked for him to be given “a lengthy sentence” in order to dissuade other people from setting up similar sites.

    However, other dark web market administrators interviewed by Motherboard said they would continue to provide a platform for the trade of drugs, weapons, and more besides.

    “No, it doesn’t make us consider shutting down,” one of the administrators of TheRealDeal market, who also used the screen name ‘TheRealDeal’, said over encrypted chat. The market launched a few months ago and specializes in selling computer exploits, but drugs are also available for purchase on its digital shelves.

    “We have to carry on with business,” said Alpha02, the administrator of AlphaBay market, also over encrypted chat. AlphaBay has a large array of drugs on offer, thousands of fraud-related items such as credit card details, and a number of automatic weapons including AK-47s. As for why he was pushing ahead, “We all need money to eat,” Alpha02 said.

    This new landscape of dark web markets won’t be changing anytime soon, according to Alpha02. “Courts can stop a man, but they can’t stop an ideology. Darknet markets will always be around, until the War on Drugs stops.”

    • DdC says:

      Silk Road and Ross Ulbricht served the public
      In contrast to the government’s portrayal of the Silk Road website as a more dangerous version of a traditional drug marketplace, in fact the Silk Road website was in many respects the most responsible such marketplace in history, and consciously and deliberately included recognized harm reduction measures, including access to physician counseling,” Dratel said in a recent court filing.

  11. Servetus says:

    An ancient manuscript has been revealed containing “a translation of an ancient, influential medical text by Galen of Pergamon, a Greco-Roman physician and philosopher who died in 200 A.D. ”, and who referenced marijuana as a good medicine for people suffering from earaches:

    JUNE 1, 2015 — The hymn book itself is of interest, but for now it is the original text, all but invisible to the naked eye and known as the undertext, that has captured the imagination of scholars.

    The manuscript held by Dr. Kessel that day was a palimpsest: older text covered up by newer writing. It was a common practice centuries ago, a medieval form of recycling. In this case, 11th-century Syrian scribes had scraped away Galen’s medical text and had overwritten hymns on the parchment.

    Scholars are just beginning to pore over the text, the oldest known copy of Galen’s “On the Mixtures and Powers of Simple Drugs.” It may well provide new insights into medicine’s roots and into the spread of this new science across the ancient world. […]

    For centuries, Galen’s “Simple Drugs” was required reading for aspiring physicians, the summation of ancient knowledge about medicine, patient care and pharmaceutical plants. Galen described a root that cures “roughness of the throat” and recommended hemp as an earache remedy that “does not produce flatulence” (though it “dries out the semen”).

    Eighteen centuries later, and only now is modern medical science catching up to Galen with regard to cannabis as medicine and aphrodisiac.

  12. NorCalNative says:

    Ventured into the belly of the beast recently. My dad was in the hospital for pneumonia and so I was spending some time at Kaiser Permanente.

    I decided the time was ripe to take cannabis oil to the hospital and put it, and my dad’s PSA score reduction “INTO” people’s faces, i.e., medical professionals. Time to become CANNA-VIRUS MAN and start spreading the canna-virus within hospital confines.

    I dressed the part with my “Cannabis To the People” t-shirt with the power-salute fist (green of course) holding a pot leaf.

    A few years ago my sister-in-law’s horrible death from breast and lung cancer and the way they treated it “scarred” me emotionally. It’s why I spent something close to 1,000 hours over 2013 and 2014 learning how to read studies based on brain chemistry so I could understand how cannabis works.

    Hardest thing I’ve ever done and also the most rewarding. My previous life as a medical transcriptionist came in handy.

    My fist sale at the hospital was to an ER physician between the parking lot and hospital entrance. She was unaware of the endocannbinoid system (ECS) but was very interested when I showed her the full extract cannabis oils and how they were working to treat my dad. I spent about 15 minutes with her covering the basics.

    My next sale also turned into a “pot doc” referral (I should get a cut!) when I showed the cannabis oil to a nurse showing me to my dad’s room.

    Sale #3 was at the nurses’ station. It seemed like a hostile audience and I keep wondering when security was going to come get me but I wasn’t leaving until the nurses heard my dad’s history and use of cannabis for his prostate cancer.

    Here’s the backstory for this trip. I got my dad to use cannabis oil specifically to AVOID radiation and chemotherapy if possible. I was at the hospital with my dad’s story BECAUSE I was concerned and alarmed over this new radiation prescription he was given called Xtandi.

    Sale #4 I apparently made in my sleep. When I picked up my dad the following day I was greeted by smiling faces with perky and energetic body language. There was a crowd of smiling faces behind the nurse when she walked me through my dad’s discharge meds.

    Sometime during the night my dad’s oncologist STOPPED the radiation chemotherapy pill Xtandi, WITHOUT being asked to do so.

    That’s a WIN for cannabis and hopefully this oncologist realizes what kind of tool he has here for use with future patients. Discontinuing my dad’s radiation based on new facts suggests he does.

    Much of medicine today with “best practices” is “paint-by-number.” Radiation was introduced into the picture based on best practices and specific requirements related to FDA approval. My dad’s oncologist prescribed this med based on best practices WITHOUT knowledge that the real problem was “cannabis non-compliance.”

    The coconut oil used for the hippie-version of the under-the-tongue full extract oil is so mild my dad quit using it because he didn’t think he was getting anything.

    In contrast the alcohol base used in Sativex and
    Epidiolex by GW Pharmaceuticals is damaging to the mucous membranes inside the mouth with regular use.

    Cannabis to the People!

    • thelbert says:

      so i’m thinking: dang, norcal is a hero for the cause, like everyone on this couch. thanks to Pete Guither and the rest we may yet live to see our stolen liberty validated. in the meantime i’m
      going keep pilfering the freedom.

    • allan says:

      awesomeness… props NCN!

    • Matthew Meyer says:

      You can make the oil/tincture with alcohol. double-boil it off, then use coconut oil as a carrier. That way you’ve got the potency of an alcohol extract with the smoothness of coconut.

    • Windy says:

      I take full extract cannabis oil daily, as a preventive. Instead of sublingual ingestion, I expel a thread about 1/4 inch long onto a piece of 3 Musketeers Bar about 1/2 inch thick, fold it in half over the oil and chew it up. I do this about half an hour before I go to bed so that I am asleep when it hits me, otherwise I get uncomfortably high, a Maureen Dowd moment.

  13. DdC says:

    History of Cannabis Intoxicant Use

    Galen wrote in the second century that it was customary to promote hilarity and happiness at banquets by giving the guests hemp (Reininger, 1967: 14-15).

    Mr. Jefferson had decidedly one of the evenest and most cheerful tempers I ever knew. He enjoyed a jest, provided it were to give pain to no one, and we were always glad to have any pleasant little anecdote for him-when he would laugh as cheerily as we could do ourselves, and enter into the spirit of the thing with as much gaiety.
    Jefferson Quotes & Family Letters

    CLAUDIUS GALEN – (130-200 A.D.)
    Although (like Dioscorides) ethnically a Greek, Claudius Galen, is probably the most famous of all the Roman Physicians, whose textbooks (and he wrote very many of them) were still in use throughout Europe during the Middle Ages and well into the 17th Century. In fact Galen’s influence was so great that many historians use him as a sort of historical separator; Before Galen (meaning before Rome), and After Galen (meaning the Middle Ages and after). And at least in this one authors opinion, his writing (translated into Arabic) would form the bases of Arabic medicine during their golden age.

    Of special interest to us today are two of his works:

    DE ALIMENTORUM FACULTATIBUS [On the Properties of Foodstuffs]
    “Hemp seeds are used to create a sort of warmth and/or given to party guests to promote hilarity and enjoyment. Others translations also add; “Hemp cakes, if eaten in moderation, produced a felling of well-being but, taken to excess, they led to intoxication, dehydration and impotence.

    DE SIMPLICIUM MEDICA: Temperamentis ac Facultatibus
    “The cannabis’ fruit does not create gas and is so dry that it can dry male sperm, if it is eaten in a quite big quantity. Some people, pulling out the juice from it when it is not ripe, use it against ears’ pains due to an occlusion, as I believe.”

    American High Society

  14. allan says:

    OT, shameless self promotion alert!

    some here know I’m a photographer. I love my craft, been at it a long time. A few years ago I started working with models and while I enjoy it (duh) there is just SO MUCH in the genre out there and while skill levels cover the spread from ick to Anselesque I just never have really been one to stick with what every one else is doing. I mean how many ways can a beautiful naked woman be shot?

    I like art. I love psychedelic/stoner art… so I’m combining my work with models and my bent for trippiness to do this:

    http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/ae-photo.html

    It is adult content but all here are adults and have (and seem to openly practice) freedom of choice… the work-place-safe button will be on when you open the link so no shocks that way.

    btw… a bus just drove by on FB and I swear I saw Pete in there!

  15. Lawmakers brace for marijuana vote-a-rama
    http://tinyurl.com/oyg3nm5

    Wednesday sounds like a big day.

  16. Servetus says:

    May 31, 2015 – [Texas] “Gov. Greg Abbott said Sunday he will sign a bill to legalize cannabidiol oil for epilepsy treatment, signifying Texas for the first time will relax a law concerning a marijuana-related substance.”

  17. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    I think this one may explain why the prohibitionist parasites have such a hard time getting anywhere near their goal of eradimacating us:
    Medical Marijuana: Cannabis Use May Prevent Internal Parasites

    It’s no wonder that Kev-Kev is so entrenched in his little dog and pony show!

  18. Kristine says:

    My husband Rafael was diagnosed with grade 4 glioblastoma last July. Has undergone surgery, radiation and chemotherapy, and currently in 6th month of chemo 5 days of each month. Since radiation therapy was completed about 6 months ago the glioblastoma cancer have not gone. I was making research online on any possible solution that could help my husband and i came across CHARLOTTE’S WEB CANNABIS on how cannabis oil have helped alot of people in Colorado and outside USA to cure any kind of cancer. I was so happy and relief when i saw this website and i knew there was hope for my husband to live. I contacted the CHARLOTTE’S WEB CANNABIS via email charlottewebcannabisoil@gmail.com to get the high quality THC cannabis oil for treatment and prescription guidelines on how to use the cannabis oil for treatment of glioblastoma. As i am posting this comment today, my husband grade 4 glioblastoma is completely gone and he is healthy and living fine.

  19. DdC says:

    Patriot Act provisions have expired: What happens now?

    Zombie Patriot Act Will Keep U.S. Spying—Even If the Original Dies

    Power is sweet; it is a drug, the desire for which increases with a habit.
    — Bertrand Russell, in The Saturday Review, 1951

  20. DdC says:

    IRS Approves First Church of Cannabis. What’s Next for Marijuana?
    Welcome to the First Church of Cannabis Inc., approved by Indiana’s Secretary of State under its controversial Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Even bigger that state law approval, the church has even been granted tax-exempt status by the IRS.

    • claygooding says:

      And since the IRS recognized it’s tax free status the effort to tax churches just picked up support from most organized religions..

      Will they realize in time that gun they are pointing is at their own foot??

  21. DdC says:

    Former House Speaker Dennis Hastert, 73, Republican speaker of the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2007, was indicted on May 28, 2015

    What Alcohol Does to Your Body, Brain, Heart, and Muscles

  22. Ramsey Hardy says:

    My wife was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The doctor estimated how long my wife had to live, but little did we know my wife was a very strong woman. She was given 1 year to live without chemotherapy, with chemotherapy, she was given 5 years. My wife made the choice of losing her hair and feeling sick one day out of every week while taking chemotherapy. After a while my wife started to feel sick every day, i called the doctor to see if he could figure out what was happening and the doctor told her to have a CAT scan done. When she had the CAT scan done, the doctor told us that the cancer had spread to her colon and spleen. After a great deal of thinking, my wife decided to have her spleen and half of her colon removed. Finally the cancer had metastasized throughout her whole body and we were losing hope at this time nothing could be done to save her anymore. We have spent a lot of money trying to save her, one day i came across the use of cannabis oil for treatment of cancer and i saw a post on how a cancer patient was cured with cannabis oil. I urgently needed help and i contacted the email
    nationalcancerinstitute@aol.com to get the cannabis oil and i was given instructional guide on how to use the cannabis oil for ovarian cancer. As i am writing this post, my wife is free from ovarian cancer and the doctor confirmed that the cancer was cured permanently. Words can not express how happy we are now in the family.

  23. darkcycle says:

    UH OH. Looks like The CBD oil scammers have found the couch. Be warned: Ramsey here and Kristine above linked to websites that will take your money for highly questionable “hemp CBD oil” that you probably will not recieve, and may actually make you sick.
    Don’t give them your money.

    • Scammers FUCK OFF! says:

      Good catch. See PROJECT CBD.

      Hemp oil has high levels of CBD but it can also have lots of industrial contaminants. Some people got really sick using shitty hemp oil thinking they were getting full extract cannabis oil.

    • Jose says:

      Thanks dc. I will admit that they almost had me. My mother and family matriarch is barely hanging on with a stage 4 sarcoma. Needless to say our family is getting desperate and stories like that easily bait.

    • claygooding says:

      dark,,there is a little bit of scamming,not quite as evil as selling false hopes but perhaps discouraging patients that get the impression they need to buy extracts to treat they’re health issues when the objective is to get large amounts of THC in the body so it can work it’s wonders,,,using a half gram of oil may be more convenient and easier but six cookies made of good cannabutter does the same thing,,,or for that matter,,2>3 grams of top shelf (translates to best you can find) ground into dust and capsuled should do the trick.

      Everybody that wants to carve a niche in the marijuana market seems to use a little hype.

      • darkcycle says:

        Clay…(at the risk of possibly inflaming some “true believers”) they are claiming that cannabis cures cancer in order to sell their contaminated product.
        That in my book is selling false hope.
        Cannabis might be effective for some cancers, no cancers, or all cancers. Trouble is we have tons of anecdotes and zero actual research of the effects of cannabis oil on Human cancers, in-vivo. In laboratory cultures and mice we have some evidence a cure might be in the offing, but nothing in living humans with cancer.

        • Windy says:

          One cannot discount the placebo effect, either, from a lot of those anecdotal accounts. The human mind is a powerful thing and if someone believes wholeheartedly that something they are taking or doing is going to save their life by killing off whatever disease is killing them, that belief may be enough to cure them. I cured myself of warts when I was a kid (age 7), had them up and down my arms and hands and my mother decided to take me to the doctor to have them removed, she made an appointment. I had had enough of doctors (had all the BAD childhood diseases including whooping cough, had had my tonsils, adenoids and appendix out before I was 7, nearly died from the appendix), I did NOT want to go to the doctor and have those warts burned off. The night before the appointment I went to bed with the warts, next morning I woke without them. So I KNOW how powerful the mind can be under certain circumstances.
          However, knowing what we DO know about cannabis and the endocannabinoid system, I do believe that ingesting cannabis regularly helps to prevent a lot of diseases and maybe prevents cancer and maybe cures some cancers, combined with strong belief in the curative ability, well …

  24. NorCalNative says:

    I’m a fucking Asshole. Yep, I admit it. Why do I say that? Simple, I adopted the same BULLSHIT that religion and prohibition uses, i.e, lying in the name of the cause.

    Some here may recall Brandon Coats a quadriplegic who worked for DISH television in Colorado. Brandon was fired in 2010 by DISH after failing a drug test for cannabis. He only used it off-work and he was legal under Colorado law.

    So, when economic forces compelled me to KILL my 3-figure television bill I got in the gutter with my goddamn enemies and LIED my ass of to suit my own purposes. I’m a BAD man!

    Okay, maybe in this case pissing of a corporation isn’t so bad, but it still bothers me.

    I told DISH if they wanted my business they needed to hire their fired cannabis-using employee back.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      So next time use less dogmatic words. If I understand correctly you were closing your account because you couldn’t afford it but you told the CSR answering phones in New Delhi that it was because the company fired Mr. Coats, is that about right? Try this variation: “I need to cancel my service because I can’t afford it, but one day my finances will get better and allow me to pay for an entertainment service. But I certainly wouldn’t consider the likes of a company that would put a quadriplegic out on the street for the wrong kind of nasty in his urine.”

      Quite frankly I don’t see anything wrong with what you did. The word I’d use to describe it would be puffery. Or perhaps in your case puffpuffpuffery.

      Just one other word that you might consider: Netflix.
      ———
      You know, sometimes being so ensconced in this controversy brings some very disturbing imagery to mind. Fortunately, try as I might I can’t for the life of me figure out how one would collect a urine sample from a quadriplegic. But if you know, please keep it to yourself. I’m already as disturbed as I can stand!

      • NorCalNative says:

        Duncan, when are you gonna quit busting my balls and write the next GREAT AMERICAN NOVEL?

        Maybe with the money I save using Netflix I can throw some your way to keep the wife happy while you’re slaying the demons with that beautiful satire-filled mind of yours.

        Puffery? I’m embarrassed I didn’t know that word, but it’s freaking PERFECT.

        I bet you were one bored fuck in school. Take care of your clever noggin my friend.

  25. Mr_Alex says:

    I think we need to whack the Anti Cannabis groups on their own endorsement on torture, that will seriously collapse them big time as the public will know that these Anti Cannabis groups will do the utmost evil to have their children or loved one who use Cannabis tortured

  26. The DEA has been bypassing Federal wiretap laws by getting local prosecutors and judges to get the warrants oked.

    DEA eavesdropping tripled, bypassed federal courts
    http://tinyurl.com/pttv5ep

    • primus says:

      That ought to play well alongside the NSA. Two rogue agencies for the price of one. Who knows, with further revelations possible, it could be three or more.

      • NSA
        http://tinyurl.com/pqk3qce

        “While the government will no longer be able to collect phone records in bulk the way it had under Section 215, it can still easily gain access to that and other kinds of data without a warrant through a myriad of other ways — from National Security Letters to the “incidental” collection that occurs under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act.”

        “The latter involves “Upstream” collection, the indiscriminate data sweeps of undersea telecommunications cables that inevitably catch American data in their nets. The NSA is instructed to remove or “minimize” this data, but it can nevertheless be kept and handed to law enforcement agencies to prosecute crimes under a wide variety of circumstances — all without a warrant. The agency can also still perform “backdoor searches” to get data about American citizens by exploiting a loophole in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, something civil liberties advocates have been warning about for years.”

  27. Mr_Alex says:

    Does anyone knoe what happened to the Brian Dodd VS Mel Sembler and the people who ran Straight Inc that happened in 2010, its quite hard to find any info on it

  28. Servetus says:

    Prohibidiot Alert: Attack of the homeopaths. Marijuana is under assault in Massachusetts because like every other plant on earth it can contain insignificant trace amounts of toxic metals such as lead and mercury. The mercury restrictions for marijuana in MA are currently stronger than those for a can of tuna; even though tuna is consumed, not usually smoked in a bong or vaped. In an article entitled If Food Was Pot, Boston Would Starve.

    • DdC says:

      Pot isn’t politically correct enough yet…

      I remember in grade school science class everyone took a sample to play with at their desks. Thermometers before electronics, had Mercury. Same with lead based crude oil paints verses hemp oil without. Scam and a shame. More reefer mad idiots fighting to keep kids having seizures. I’ve never had an entheogen that trippy. How does one sink to that level and how do they avoid hearing of the results of their lunacy? Anything to keep it illegal so the sick people can buy quality assured pot, various strains for dozens of uses. On the streets? I wonder if they are in the market for a drug free bridge I’m selling. On the other hand I prefer organic Ganja. If it falls below the levels required for unadulterated or whatever measure they use to outlaw it. In March 2000 Santa Cruz approved an ordinance that specifies that the pot must be organic. If its below established levels, they are the same zealot mindset as zero tolerance pisstasters. Profits in treatment, not prevention or cures. They should be listed on a Wall of Scum. My first choice of tattooing their foreheads with the word Asshole is probably outlawed.

      Dumbing Down Society Part 2:
      Mercury in Foods and Vaccines –

      Flu vaccine contains 25,000 times more mercury than is legally allowed in drinking water

      Mercury Level in Flu Vaccine 25,000 times higher than EPA limits

      Mercury in influenza vaccines found to be 100 times higher than Australian limit for complementary medicine
      We find it interesting, therefore, that the Australian government’s limit on mercury in complementary medicines is set at 0.5 ppm, as described in this TGA document:

      Omega 3: Fish v Hempseed Oil

    • darkcycle says:

      Actually, it’s the metals content in fertilizers that is the culprit there. Most of the fertilizers used on cannabis have trace amounts of heavy metals. Some much more than others.
      Organic techniques that use dry amendments have less residual metals at harvest.

      • Windy says:

        What is your opinion on using compost tea as fertilizer, dark?

        • darkcycle says:

          That’s the only fertilizer I ever use! Ever!
          I will use fishy ferts in my garden outside, and a dash into my tea mix, but otherwise I use nada but worm/compost teas.

        • Windy says:

          Thanks, dark. I just began to use it on my houseplants and flowers, but hubby will be using it for his plants and I’m thinking that is what we should be using for our tomatoes as well.

  29. FREE BOOK--Chasing the Scream says:

    When I wasn’t trying to sell the ECS to physicians at the hospital recently I finished Johann Hari’s book “Chasing the Scream.”

    I discovered that Johann mentioned an individual who has POSTED here at Pete’s DrugWarRant.com on a couple of occasions. This individual also attended Cal Berkeley with KEVIN SABET, AND has posted here about Kevin Sabet.

    The first person who can guess the name of the person who has posted here and is mentioned in “Chasing the Scream,” I’ll mail you a NEW copy of the book.

    NorCalNative

    • Will says:

      I’ll take a wild guess — Sunil Aggarwal?

      • We Have a WINNER! says:

        Will, won’t penalize you for missing his middle name which rings out in cannabis movie lore (KUMAR) but yeah, Texas dude you win.

        Contact me at j.d.civ@hotmail.com and we’ll set up delivery.

        This is a book to pass around and share there’s lots of good stuff.

        Thanks for playing along, are you familiar with Sunil’s website “The Cannabinologist? He has “library” full of stuff about Kevin Sabet.

        NorCalNative

  30. darkcycle says:

    Since 2012, Homeland Insecurity has had debit card readers at International Gates and at border crossings, the purported purpose of which has been to make sure undeclared currency is not leaving the country on pre-paid cards.
    But NOW it looks like local police are using them to scan the cards of people who are traveling within the US to find funds for forfeiture.
    As Kap’n has always said, “Prohibition has always been about enforcement by an identifiable ‘us’ against an identifiable ‘them’.” The minute the laws target the “US”, they are doomed. Be careful how much you put on one of those cards, otherwise, sit back as the inevitable backfire and hilarity ensue.
    http://hightimes.com/read/police-are-using-prepaid-card-readers-seize-drug-money

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Drug dealers take Visa and Mastercard nowadays? American Express too? Huh, well why not? I guess I should find being surprised by that the most surprising part.

      • darkcycle says:

        You’re kidding, right?
        If not….the drug dealers aren’t accepting Visa and Mastercard, they are loading Pre-paid debit cards (the kind people who don’t have bank accounts use, as do gift givers, or people who are traveling and don’t want to carry cash )with money instead of transporting the actual money. Means there’s no cash for dogs to sniff, and, unless you have a reader, it effectively conceals the amount of money they are carrying.
        But as I said, those cards are popular with LOTS of people.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          Sorta kinda kidding. One of my most special memories was my first purchase at a dispensary in Oakland and putting it on my Amex. The dispensaries certainly did take credit cards back in that day. Heck, it was a rebate card, and Amex gave me a kickback of $13.20 for using their card.

  31. House/of/cards says:

    “Rep. Steve Cohen’s (D-TN) amendment shifted $4 million from the DEA to a program to reduce the nation’s backlog in processing of rape test kits. Rep. Joaquin Castro’s (D-TX) amendment shifted $9 million from the DEA to body cameras for police officers to reduce police abuse.”

    “The DEA built the modern surveillance state,” said Piper. “From spying on Americans to busting into people’s homes the DEA doesn’t fit in well in a free societyand the time is now to reverse these harms.”

    The amendments are part of a growing bipartisan effort to hold the DEA more accountable and reform U.S. drug policy. The DEA has existed for more than 40 years, but little attention has been given to the role the agency has played in fueling mass incarceration, racial disparities and other problems exacerbated by the drug war. Congress has rarely scrutinized the agency, its actions or its budget, instead deferring to DEA administrators on how best to deal with drug-related issues. That all has changed recently after a series of scandals that sparked several hearings in the House and Senate and forced the resignation of the DEA’s beleaguered head, Administrator Michele Leonhart.

    “The DEA is a large, expensive, scandal-prone bureaucracy that has failed to reduce drug-related problems,” said Piper. “There’s a bipartisan consensus that drug use should be treated as a health issue instead of a criminal justice issue; with states legalizing marijuana and adopting other drug policy reforms it is time to ask if the agency is even needed anymore.”

    http://tinyurl.com/opoo2gb

    • kaptinemo says:

      As predicted here, when our real supporters in Congress (Blumenauer, Polis, Cohen, Rohrabaccher, etc.) were seen as unharmed by their reformist advocacy, the (gutless, bloodless, calculating) opportunistic pols will have realized the wind has shifted regarding cannabis illegality,and now they want to scramble onto our bandwagon.

      Expect to see a rush of Johnny-Come-Lately’s trying to get on board…and grab the steering wheel. They always try.

  32. DdC says:

    Clergy Join Push To Legalize Marijuana
    Its supporters also include clergy. Protestant pastors and Jewish rabbis are lobbying lawmakers in Illinois and in states across the Northeast as part of a push toward legalization, which they see as a moral cause encompassing issues such as race, fair housing and employment.

    Why armed drug cops took ‘every belonging’ from a Michigan soccer mom
    The St. Clair County Drug Task Force, the group that raided the homes of Annette Shattuck and Ginnifer Hency, reports that in 2014 it seized well over $400,000 in cash and personal belongings from county residents.

    Medical marijuana crackdown continues in California
    Federal prosecutors in the Bay Area are also continuing to work to seize and shutter Berkeley Patients Group in Berkeley, and Harborside Health Center in Oakland — part of a pattern of targeting the highest profile most compliant dispensaries in the state.

    “It’s U.S. attorneys, like Melinda Haag in the Bay Area, who are breaking federal law, not the dispensaries they’re prosecuting. These federal prosecutors have gone rogue, and the attorney general needs to rein them in. Their campaign against medical marijuana is no longer just misguided, it’s also illegal,” Rohrabacher stated.

    TWC is in the process of cleaning up and has reopened.

    How ‘pygmy’ people’s rampant pot use may protect them
    Marijuana was a painkiller in ancient Egypt and an anesthetic in ancient China and Taiwan, Medical Daily reports. Now, an anthropologist says the Aka foragers of the Central African Republic may be unconsciously using the plant to ward off parasitic intestinal worms.

    Problem drinking affects 33 million _ 14 pct. of US adults

  33. DdC says:

    You’re traveling through another dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind; a journey into a wondrous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost up ahead– your next stop . . . the Twilight Zone!

    Marijuana Legalization 2015: As Legal Pot Spreads, NORML,
    The Nation’s Oldest Marijuana Advocacy Group, Faces Uncertainty
    http://linkis.com/www.ibtimes.com/VfRHM
    “NORML risks becoming marginalized,” said Stanford drug policy expert Keith Humphreys. “The people driving policy are people who can write big checks. The gentle hippies are not running the show anymore. How long can you remain defiant when nobody disagrees with you?”

    http://www.imaginepeace.com/downloads/WarIsOver.jpg

  34. NorCalNative says:

    I was contacted by a cannabis researching PhD from the University of Southern California yesterday. I submitted my dad’s prostate cancer case and history online to the Society of Cannabis Clinicians and they referred my dad’s prostate cancer info to Andy Hospodor at USC.

    Here’s a copy of the e-mail Andy sent me.

    Hi Jim,

    I’m a researcher working with the Society of Cannabis Clinicians, with a focus on adeno-carcinoma-type cancer and Parkinson’s disease. Thanks for your informative input on prostate cancer.

    Questions:

    – do you have test results for the oils used?
    – how did you determine the mg of each cannabinoid that your father received?
    – for plastic syringe-type delivery, what did your dad do exactly? Specifically?

    My experience with “Rick Simpson” type oils is that they vary widely, depending on the source materials. Tommy Chong famously gave up all other treatments for RSHO and failed miserably. (note: I believe he’s speaking to HIGH-THC versions of the oil with T.Chong)

    My colleagues are currently producing 1:1 and 1:10 calibrated cannabis capsules. The most common varieties used by prostate cancer patients are 5/5, 10/10, 20/20/ and 1/10. (CBD mg/THC mg) The capsules are vegetarian, carrier is grape seed oil (NOT coconut oil or palm oil)

    I wish you and your dad continued success

    Andy Hospodor, PhD, University of Southern California.

    FYI: the 5/5 equals 5 mg CBD/5 mg THC, OR a 1:1 ratio of CBD and THC.

    I’ll be sending him my dad’s pertinent lab reports and test results but my dad’s value to medical science in regard to the use of cannabis oil? He’s showing that even very small amounts of cannabis oil are useful.

    Here’s why my dad is FUCKING up. Cancer can be a killer so when it gives you an opening, you TAKE IT.

    Up-regulation of ECS receptors in some cancers is a THERAPEUTIC opportunity that NO well-informed RATIONAL individual would pass up or ignore. Some of the cancers that up-regulate and beg for outside-the-body (exogenous) cannabinoids?

    Prostate, Lung, and Breast cancer. That’s not all but it’s three big ones.

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