The Iowa caucuses are underway. Use this thread to discuss the election. Opinions are fine, disagreements are fine, but please no name-calling or insulting others (including candidates you oppose). We’ve got friends on all ends of the political spectrum on the couch.
For many years, I’ve felt that the Presidential election had little impact on drug policy — that we had to focus on building the grass roots, and bringing the population up to speed so that the politicians would be forced to follow.
So my question to you is… has that dynamic changed? With multiple states legalizing marijuana, and with a broader sense nationally that the criminal justice reform is necessary (including the Black Lives Matter movement), is this one of those moments where the right President could actually make a significant difference toward shortening the drug war?
Or, will it simply not matter? Will the political realities of compromise and bureaucracy thwart most of the efforts of a reform-minded President and, alternately, negate the backsliding attempts of a prohibition-minded President?
Well since you ask for opinion Pete, I think an election with Bernie Sanders in it could significantly shorten the amount of time it will take to end the drug war. He has not sold out to the corporatocracy. He already has some practice dealing with it. Its bound to change the complexion in Washington considerably.
I am feeling the Bern.
The DNC base will oppose Hilary if she tries to follow Biden or her old man’s piss poor record. If Bernie isn’t chosen. Where as the old school GOP enthusiastically follow the orders given for the most part. Especially about Ganja.
The money factor has been tossed in though. Investments and various entrepreneurial opportunities are available in civilized places. Pushing heavy regs. no doubt. Cutting out a chuck of the country and population who can’t pay the prices or get over it. But probably not back to a draconian war as some on both sides would prefer. The established Neocons have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo profits over competition. I don’t think it’s enough to stop the Green Rush.
Pisstasters and rehabs and profit prisons aren’t getting young investors rich quick as the potential Ganja market.
Obama had nothing to do with civilization happening in some areas. other than not totally opposing his base. Doing nothing, not enforcing, as opposed to Bush or the others with clear objectives to escalate the war. As Christie promised. As Carson stated and as Trump has said outside of medicinal. Hilary can do nothing, and we continue incrementalizing, treading water, which is better than sinking.
Lamb duck said no changes. Maybe he hasn’t been approached in the right way. If a couple million of us dropped into town and stated how nice it would be if he removed it as a Controlled Substance. Hemp too. Maybe he just doesn’t realize how wrong this prohibition is on so many fronts. Just a few million reminders, pointing it out by example. Maybe he’ll join us dancing in the streets.
How long can he keep a straight face when Nora spits out one of her gems? He has to be laughing at Grassley and Sabet. Or Calvina? Maybe some of that Constitutional education will surface and he’ll see the light. Maybe the Beatles will get back together.
Maybe its just time for another doobie…
A founding principle of anarchism is the idea that a particular representative government is often too ineffective or corrupt to actually represent the will of the people. Thus the need for direct action by the people. In most instances, drug law reform has been spearheaded by activists and financiers through state referendums and local politics. The grassroots and/or anarchistic methods work, and need to continue.
Even if Sanders were elected, he faces the problem Obama encountered wherein both houses of Congress ganged up on him to make his term as president look as bad as possible, a result achieved by stalling, obstructing, and turning Congress into a circus act. Sanders could get sandbagged in the same way when it comes to accomplishing anything, especially drug law reform.
The status quo, likely to be championed by Hillary Clinton, has never been friendly to any moral progress regarding drug use. As Clinton noted, there’s too much money in it. Sure, Ms. Clinton talks the standard talk about drugs being a health issue, an issue to be decided by the states, but what presidential candidate has ever followed up on such a statement to make it a reality at the federal or international level? If she becomes president, she could go all Thatcher to prove she’s no pushover, which would be death for progress, a seed for revolution.
Ultimately, what’s at stake in the drug war is power, the ability of an inept and corrupt government to repress its own people by drawing an arbitrary moral line in the sand, using it to cull youthful rebellion.
As with similar acts of psychopathic or authoritarian leadership, there is no understanding of the consequences of repression. Such leadership has never been able to mentally project itself into the future. It’s always a short term strategy for them, one with fingers crossed in the hope it won’t be exposed.
Obama had majorities in both the House and the Senate for nearly seven years.
I’ve got the old paranoia that Obama didn’t legalize with a pen stroke bv because The Corporation had extracted certain blood oaths from Capt Choom before permitting his election. HRC already offered her neck, along with Bill, many years ago.
No, Democrats held the House and Senate for 2 years. Then came the disastrous ’10 & ’12, & ’14 elections, where we lost control first of the House, then of the Senate. As it is, only the fact that it takes 60 votes to advance a bill in the Senate has kept things like Obamacare working.
You’re incorrect.
Actually, he’s pretty spot on: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_divisions_of_United_States_Congresses
The democrats controlled both houses for the 111th, lost the House in the 112th and have yet to regain it, and then lost the Senate in the 114th.
And the Republicans have not been able to gain a supermajority in the Senate as of yet, and it’s hard to say how 2016 is going to go. Though I imagine if we end up somehow with a Republican controlled Congress and a Republican president, we’re going to see a lot of these efforts rolled back (because, you know, “states’ rights” or something) and most specifically the ACA will probably be ground into dust as soon as they can convene for a vote.
Because taxes are evil (even if they provide for necessary services and make life in a country such as this possible)
NBC News’ Chuck Todd reported, on Nov. 5, 2014, that the Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time since 2008. I mean, there’s even a TV video of it. Of course, wikipedia is the best source for info…
Daniel.. There are two houses in Congress. Just because the Republicans gained control of Congress for the first time in 2014 since 2008, doesn’t mean that the Democrats controlled both houses the rest of the time.
Bush
110 Duration: January 3, 2007 – January 3, 2009
Senate Majority: Democratic Party (coalition)
House Majority: Democratic Party
Obama
111 Duration: January 3, 2009 – January 3, 2011
Senate Majority: Democratic Party
House Majority: Democratic Party
112 Duration: January 3, 2011 – January 3, 2013
Senate Majority: Democratic Party
House Majority: Republican Party
113 Duration: January 3, 2013 – January 3, 2015
Senate Majority: Democratic Party
House Majority: Republican Party
114 Duration: January 3, 2015 – January 3, 2017
Senate Majority: Republican Party
House Majority: Republican Party
Republicans Rule House and Senate for First Time in 8 Years
Chuck Todd: House GOP Majority Secure Until 2022
Republicans captured total control of Congress on Tuesday, riding a wave of voter discontent to take the Senate for the first time in eight years and expand its majority in the House, according to NBC News projections.
Precisely, the term “Majority” used/stated above in relation to the Senate is technically 50 + the V.P.’s tie-breaker vote, or 51-49 (presuming every seat is filled & they’re healthy enough to make the votes.)
In reality a Majority became effectivly 60 = Enough to override fillibusters that got constantly used and abused in practice – especially after 2010 & Mitch McConnell declaring that his gold in life for the next few years was going to be c*ck-bl*cking everything that the President and Democrats wanted to do until they hopefully could deny him re-election in 2012, but that didn’t work out so well…
And when McConnell decided that they would actually go back to regular order, he had one problem = the few TeaBaggers in the Senate wouldn’t go along with anything.
AND, even if they had the House was going by
And there were enough Tea-people left that saw the word/term? ‘compromise’ as a vulgarity and a betrayal to their deeply held, principled devotion of c*ck-bl*cking everything the first black president tried to do (and anyone who refused to oppose him on everything) OH, and seeing how many times they could pass slightly adjusted or re-worded bills to repeal the ACA (or even just a section that would make it tumble like a Jenga-puzzle) they’re up to something like 55 or 65(?) if you count partial repeals and/or funding repeals = which they can’t get thru the Senate & passed to a Conference Committee…
Ted Cruz stood in the Senate one day saying he didn’t trust John McCain (or anyone else) to lead a conference committee without “caving” or compromising their “conservative principles” – their principled goal of not letting the first half-black US President have any accomplishments, nor the Dems in office during his presidency!
The had Beohner to the point where he couldn’t use the word compromise – he had to say “common ground” = So that they weren’t giving away a speck of ideological ground – as that would amount to treason in the House ‘Tea-People Caucas’, later changed to the ‘Freedom Caucas’ (or whatever) in 2014 iirc.
At this point having him behind any issue = especially a laregly ‘wedge’ social issue like this.
If Obama had changed it they’d call it part of his “unconsituitional _whatever_”
Like they’re doing with the so-called “Executive-Amnesty” orders they want to “Unsign on Day One” = They’d add any change in marijuana law or legalization into that repeal/undo/”Unsign on Day One” list…
As it is the public has been *evolving on it* for long enough for a true majority of the populace to agree that it’s not a good policy – due to inequitable racial disparities in enforcement, or that it’s to damn expensive and they really don’t care *That Much* (Something like $80 billion a year spent on failing to enforce MJ Prohib-Idiocy.)
Or a better example $30,000 to $50,000 a year to imprison someone = That’s one even the really craven (idjuotz) can wrap their heads around.
The Really *CRAZY THING* Here… = Politicians can’t seem to understand why young people (under 45 in this case) are supporting Bernie Sanders?
/sarcasm
I can’t imagine what it might be?
/end sarcasm
Apparently they either can’t figure it out OR nobody wants to openly let on as to what the deal is there… Could be either I suppose!?
Sure, its probably not the only issue but I’d bet heavily that it’s a much bigger part of it than they want/are able to admit??
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The revolutionary doesn’t make the revolutionary. The revolution makes the revolutionary.
The two parties have no choice in the matter.
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A virtual tongue twister, who’da thunk it? Anyway, I did mean to say “the revolutionary doesn’t make the revolution. The revolution makes the revolutionary.”
not as bad as “I slit the sheet, the sheet I slit, upon this slitted sheet I sit.”
I ruthfully runged my rutted rubber up a ruddy ruby scrubber.
Iowa Election Results – WP
Updated every 30 seconds or so
http://tinyurl.com/gwk4jwq
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I’ve finally figured out why young George Washington chopped down that cherry tree. It was because he was sick and tired of the prohibitionists and their incessant cherry picking habit.
Yep, and there was no link to the study that I could see, and I was too lazy to find the study on the web. I’m curious as to how long they waited after the end of the study period before testing people, or if they waited at all, buuuut . . .
What I’d REALLY like to know is what dang strain is in that picture? Good gawd, give it a few more weeks to get all nice and crystallized, and I’d be in heaven. Looks like Island Sweet Skunk crossed with Big Bud or something. Gimme gimme gimme.
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It’s really a very marginal decrease. What’s got me beating my head against the proverbial brick wall is how the prohibitionists are disregarding the overall results in favor of one small part of the study which confirms their biased opinion. I linked to the Washington Post because I have a lot of respect for Chris Ingraham. He pointed out…
Did you watch the video near the bottom of the article of Adam Eidinger making presumptive tests used by law enforcement produce false positives? Hershey bars test positive for marijuana. Doesn’t chocolate have an ingredient that is very similar to ∆9-THC?
As far as an appeal to authority I’ll point out that the study was done in Switzerland. That means that I can dismiss my automatic presumption of pay for results research such as we see being periodically regurgitated by New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom. I’m not saying that scientists in Switzerland never produce “scientific” research with the results catering to the whimsy of the research study’s sponsor. But it’s not presumed. Finding the study should be easy if you’re so inclined:
He did not point out out that the fans of cannabis just might think that repeating a list of random words is b-o-r-i-n-g-! I do my best to ignore things in which don’t interest me. I’d make a list but I’m pretty good at forgetting the things I choose to ignore.
Let’s try it with me using a list of cannabiscentric words. I’ll betcha I can nail 12 or 13 out of 15 and the control group of outsiders will have more or less the same results as in the instant study.
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Here’s another one from the “read ’em and weep Mr. prohibitionist” category:
California Medical Association backs recreational pot plan
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California’s largest organization of practicing physicians, the California Medical Association, announced Monday that it is backing a proposed 2016 ballot initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana.
A coalition of entrepreneurs, activists, environmentalists and state politicians are backing the initiative, led by billionaire technology investor Sean Parker.
CMA said in a statement that its members believe controlling, tracking and studying pot will better protect public health than “ineffective prohibition.”
Spokeswoman Molly Weedn said the medical association is most interested in provisions of the proposal that would expand marijuana research.
“We feel that this initiative specifically is in line with the concerns we had for better monitoring and research of cannabis,” Weedn said.
/snip/
Has any candidate other than Chris Crispycreme said he/she will force legal medical-recreational cannabis states to stop?
Does the 10th amendment regarding states rights outside of the federal government still exist? (rhetorical)
I’m so happy for Iowa I could just backflip for joy across a cornhole board but in the past they have selected Mike Huckabee and Rick Santorum in the early caucus.
Neither of those two parties of oppression will ever end the drug war!
robertsrevolution.net
Hilary won Iowa by 4 delegates.
6 delegates were chosen by coin toss.
The Legal set up for ties in Iowa.
Hilary won all 6 tosses.
With ethics gone, it isn’t a giant leap to think that now we are taking Vets kids. For treating agony received by serving the country.
US veteran’s children taken away over his use of medical marijuana
A US navy veteran who served in the Gulf war, Schwab says that he uses a homemade cannabis butter to treat his post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, and chronic pain. For years, he says, his mental health issues went undiagnosed, resulting in a bout of alcoholism and substance abuse. He was prescribed a variety of sedatives, antidepressants and chronic pain medication, which he says often made him feel worse. “I got addicted to the pain medication, which led to heroin addiction.â€
Schwab says that he has been sober since a stint in rehab in 2011, and that cannabis is the only medication that helps with his anxiety, depression and physical pain.
Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1632
Ganjawar and Child Protection Racketeering
http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/661
Major Marijuana Myths Getting Busted
http://freedomleaf.com/major-marijuana-myths-getting-busted/
Congress Members to VA: Let Veterans Smoke Marijuana
http://hightimes.com/read/congress-members-va-let-veterans-smoke-marijuana
2016 SoCal Medical Cannabis Cup: Weed for Warriors
http://hightimes.com/watch/2016-socal-medical-cannabis-cup-weed-warriors
Bernie Sanders Puts High School Marijuana Essays in Congressional Record
http://hightimes.com/read/bernie-sanders-puts-high-school-marijuana-essays-congressional-record
Radical Rant: Bernie Sanders vs. Hillary Clinton on Marijuana
http://hightimes.com/read/radical-rant-bernie-sanders-vs-hillary-clinton-marijuana
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Isn’t evolution is still possible?
I’ve got to admit that in this context I favor the word evolution over the word flip-flopping.
Speaking of political evolution, it sure looks to me like President Clinton has a significant “alcohol use disorder.” It’s not the only sign that he’s drinking excessively but take a look at that nose. If he dressed up in a clown suit he wouldn’t have have any need the ubiquitous red clown nose. His nose would certainly cause W.C. Fields to blush with envy if he was still alive.
The art of the political flip-flop
Bill Cinton’s nose in 1992: honk
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Curiouser and curiouser. I could wrack my brain for hours, even days and I doubt I could come up with a reasonable way to have predicted the article linked below being written and then published in People Magazine.
Marijuana Vaginal Suppositories May Help Ease Menstrual Cramps
Damn, what a plan. First invent a medicine which mitigates or even eliminates PMS, menstrual cramps etc. Give it to a significant cross section of the female population. Next tell them that the sycophants of prohibition want to take it away from them. I think that everyone can imagine what will likely happen next.
This is so weird on so many levels and for some unknown reason has caused me to feel an extreme compulsion to channel Andrew Dice Clay.
The juggernaut continues at full velocity.
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An interview with Dana Rohrabacher, R-CA. and Earl Blumenauer, D-OR;
Congress will extend cease-fire on medical marijuana, lawmakers predict
http://tinyurl.com/jzfmzl4
Although the title singles out medical marijuana, there is a broader discussion regarding the presidential candidates and the drug war and criminal justice reform in general.
Hillary just cracks me up…..”Thank you Iowa!” as if she’s just won when she’s been cut off at the knees….Just sent another donation to Bernie Sanders’ campaign.
Working lately with a high school age population and ALL of those expressing a view are in favor of legalization….I’ve not heard one in favor of the current situation.
It would be useful to discover political contenders’ views on Google’s new program. The merger of government and business, which some consider to be a qualifier for fascism, creeps ever so forward with the announcement that Google and the UK Home Office has a program they intend to apply to “…adjust top search results to combat extremism.†ISIS searchers will be its first target. Mission creep is expected:
Online search manipulation can be used against any website the government views as a threat, including DrugWarRant. Sabet and Kleiman are not likely to feel this kind of heat, even though they are, by today’s standards, extremist in their views about drugs and how to treat drug consumers. The new search tactic by the police state bears watching.
Source: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/creepy-new-google-program-will-adjust-top-search-results-combat-extremism
It will be interesting to see how Teresa May and the UK government reacts to today’s UN declaration that Julian Assange is in arbitrary detention in Britain. For the last four years Britain and Sweden have been following orders from Washington to detain him on “rape” charges (condom irregularities) with a view to his extradition to the U.S. and a life sentence in a supermax prison for revealing the true face of American fascism.
Dear Governor Deal:
When I began growing my medical marijuana plant last month as a political statement about Georgia’s need to make cannabis oil available for medical use, I had no idea the kind of nerve it would hit. Dozens of people from all across Georgia have contacted me in support of making medical grade cannabis oil available in Georgia.
Governor, it’s a huge issue, much larger than I ever imagined. This issue has, in just a few years time, jumped from the political fringes into the political mainstream. It’s an issue that crosses political party bounds in a way that a few years ago, was unthinkable.
Some of the strongest support I’ve had comes from very conservative Republicans, your core supporters, Governor. Ministers have called me in support. The current runs deep and wide.
So how did a conservative state like Georgia go from being closed to any debate about the medical use of marijuana to having a majority of citizens support it?”
http://tinyurl.com/bebabibpopboo
Georgia Marijuana Legalization Amendment 2016:
Updates on State’s Efforts to Legalize Pot
A proposed constitutional amendment in Georgia called the Georgia Marijuana Legalization Amendment aims to legalize the recreational use of cannabis for residents aged 21 and older, and policy makers may be moving quickly. According to Ballotpedia, the Georgia Legislature may include the amendment on Nov. 8’s ballot. If passed, the law would put state regulators and the General Assembly in charge of what could be a budding new industry for the Peach State. So far only Washington D.C. and four states — Alaska, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington — have legalized the recreational use of cannabis.
Richard, a slightly differing perspective. Although I do realize you’re in Georgia. I used to hitch hike from PA to FL and considered Atlanta a safe spot, like a base in baseball. I wouldn’t take a ride unless they were going straight through or left me off in Atlanta. The Underground bands and parties, and they had a free place for hitch hikers to crash, called the truckstop. With a pool table. A drawing of Jumping Jack Flash in the sidewalk. I visited a decade later and it was pretty worn down. In the early 70’s Atlanta was a fun place to be. Plus the Allman Bros Band and even Lil Richard came from Georgia, so how bad can it be. I think y’all get a bad rap from religious politicians goofyness, more than the people.
They have to censor the debate. That is the primary weapon in their arsenal. If that doesn’t stop us, they resort to gossip. intimidation, fear mongering and flat out lies. This is not a normal political fight. There is a trillion dollar prohibition business and most of Wall St status quo synthetics, fossil fools and pharmaceutical multinational corporations profits at stake. Plus the church and 4 generations of Gore Files horror stories to Just say no DARE propaganda. A one sided programmed mainstream media keeping it censored or bigoted. Schools books are written by Prohibitionists and not ONE medical school of the 273 in the US, teach the ECS, endocannabinoid system. So the future doctors are just as ignorant by administration as the people voting prohibitionists into office. Who ya gonna call?
The only logic is to stop perpetuating Nixon’s controlled substance lies and remove cannabis as a schedule#1 narcotic, including my blue jeans made of Hemp. Truth will prevail as we are all proving after a decade or so on the internet bringing an alternative opinion. Those clinging to prohibition have to be exposed as tyrants and thieves. Not coddled and begged for mercy they haven’t shown in almost a hundred years.
We have to gather millions in DC this summer and put a stop to this costly nonsense and persecution of innocent Americans.No, We have to gather millions in every capital on the planet this summer and put a stop to this costly nonsense and persecution of innocent people.Cannabis has been used for over 3,000 years,
Marijuana – The First Twelve Thousand Years
Old, White Drug Warriors Are Suing to Protect Pot Prohibition
— and Their Profits
The Politics of Pot
Anti drug programs that make up the billion-dollar
residential treatment industry.
Why is Marijuana Illegal?
Obama should have done this and still should.
The only candidate so far that has said he will declassify marijuana completely: Bernie Sanders
CATO Institute:
What the President Should Do: Declassify Marijuana
https://youtu.be/UK3ZMXkcxSk
Any candidate that isn’t talking this language isn’t saying anything at all.
Thinking about your question some more Pete. We should never stop our grass roots activity of keeping people up to speed. Some are hard to reach and will move that statistic in the polls upward even higher.
The majority of the country agrees with legalizing despite the reefer madness that continues to this day ( http://tinyurl.com/q22lseo ).
That dynamic changed changed some time ago and Washington is slow but starting to wake up. A prohibitionist president is bucking the wrong crowd.
I don’t want to wait for another 8 years to see progress in Washington.
Time has come today.
A president that is progressive on the issue of marijuana will matter to that majority 52%. So will it to the congress. The speed at which the drug war ends is the dynamic we face right now.
As a recently diagnosed cancer patient that is fighting to use cannabis with his chemo right now, time seems to be more important than ever. I don’t want my kids or anyone else’s to have to worry about this again.
Sorry to hear about the cancer. Cancer infuriates me (but not as much as outlawing that one politically incorrect substance that may reduce the pain caused by it). Best of luck to you, and thank you for your cannabis activism.
Justice delayed is justice denied. N.B. Hillary Clinton.
Any Libertarian candidate would be better than Bernie as POTUS, for cannabis and EVERYTHING else.
My older brother is getting his lung removed due to cancer after decades of cigarette smoking.
I hate cigarettes but won’t be pointing the finger because I smoked in the early to mid 90s and quit in 1996.
This state doesn’t allow CBD oil for whatever lame reason but some surrounding states do allow it.
Looks like it will be time for a roadtrip. I am wondering if I could put the CBD oil in a nebulizer since smoking is not an option.
You could put it in empty capsules (available at any supplement store) and he could just swallow them. It takes about an hour to feel it rather than the almost instantaneous effect of smoking or vaping. But why would smoking cannabis not be an option? Smoking or vaping it doesn’t cause cancer and in fact acts as a preventive measure.
OK relax everybody, the bunnies are fine…
DEA Agent: Rabbits Are Getting Stoned
“After reviewing your request,†the FOIA letter reads, “no responsive records were located.†The absence of any documents doesn’t mean no studies on rabbits and weed exist (they do) just that none prove legalizing medical marijuana would cause bunnies to get high.
Plan Colombia. More cocaine, more victims, continued human rights violations, a spike in illegal mining, more threats of criminal gangs, soldiers turned mercenary, military involvement in a “non-exportable modelâ€, interference in peace processes, all of this is what the president of Colombia, Juan Manuel Santos, is calling a major success. Santos will meet with Obama on February 5.
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35491504
Worked for Monsanto and Al Gore…
Toxic Drift: Monsanto and the Drug War in Colombia
A prominent U.S. Senator and other government officials from both Washington and Bogot stood on a Colombian mountainside above fields of lime-green coca — the plant sacred to Andean Indians, but also the source of the troublesome drug cocaine. They were awaiting a demonstration of aerial herbicide spraying, part of the U.S. drug war in Colombia. The spectacle, put on by the U.S. embassy in Bogot last December, was supposed to address Senator Paul Wellstone’s doubts about the accuracy and safety of the U.S.-sponsored drug fumigation program. Wellstone, a Democrat from Minnesota, is a fierce critic of military aid to Colombia and the demonstration needed to come off without a hitch, to win him over to the use of aerially sprayed herbicides. The night before, U.S. officials had responded to the Senator’s skeptical questions by assuring him that the spraying would target coca fields without harming food crops
“They had said that by using satellite images they could hit very precisely targets without any chance of danger to surrounding crops” said Jim Farrell, Wellstone’s spokesperson, who was also there. However that turned out not to be the case. “On the very first flyover by the cropduster, the U.S. Senator, the U.S. Ambassador to Colombia, the Lieutenant Colonel of the Colombian National Police, and other Embassy and congressional staffers were fully doused — drenched, in fact — with the sticky, possibly dangerous (herbicide) Roundup.”
“Imagine what is happening when a high-level congressional delegation is not present,” Farrell noted, pointing out that careful preparation had gone into the botched flyover. Wellstone left Colombia completely unconvinced by the Embassy.
The United States has sprayed tons of Roundup and Roundup Ultra, produced by the St. Louis-based chemical and biotechnology giant, Monsanto, during the 24 year-long drug war in Colombia. The use of these herbicides (both of which we refer to as Roundup in this story) has consistently produced health complaints from campesinos in the Colombian countryside. Those complaints have gone largely ignored by government officials in Washington and corporate honchos within Monsanto. Meanwhile, Monsanto’s sordid history as the manufacturer of Agent Orange, a defoliant used during the Vietnam war, raises serious questions about its role in Colombia’s drug war and the need for transparency in its dealings with Washington.
Global Reach: U.S. Corporate Interests in Colombia
Colombia’s bloody civil war and violent drug trade have long served to limit foreign investment in a country with some of world’s richest untapped natural resources.
Mama Coca wants Colombia’s fumigation to end. – 01/27/04
The Colombian drug reform organization Mama Coca is asking people everywhere to sign their online petition to end US-sponsored Arial fumigation of drug crops in their country that has murdered children, deformed fetuses, poisoned and killed livestock, destroyed food crops, and ravaged the environment.Although fumigation is marketed as a counter drug measure, it is also used to punish farmers thought to be in collusion with rebel groups, or to clear people from land rich with desirable resources. Even when the target is truly a coca farm, the toxic sprays sometimes drift for miles over schools and villages. US drug haters employ private mercenaries for their fumigation campaign, who send in helicopters equipped with machine guns to kill anyone attempting to protect their farms from the sprays. Next comes the plane, delivering an annihilating payload of Monsanto’s glyphosate, mixed with chemicals designed to make it more effective, but which also increase its toxicity several times. Once pristine rain forests melt into a deadly waste incapable of supporting life. Survivors are forced to leave their ruined homes. Understandably, there have been massive public protests for the many years the fumigation campaign aerial chemical fumigation has devastated Colombia. Now you can do something to help. Sign the petition to end the use of fumigation in Colombia’s drug war
Stop the War on Colombians!
The U’wa battle Occidental over “the blood of Mother Earth”
In Colombia’s northeast Norte de Santander province, the country’s richest oil region, an indigenous people known as the U’wa are in a life and death struggle with Occidental Petroleum (OXY), one of the world’s largest multinational oil companies.
Gore Family’s Ties to Oil Company Magnate
Reap Big Rewards, and a Few Problems
Cannabis magazine take on the corny caucus:
http://cannabisnowmagazine.com/current-events/joint-opinions/politics-and-pot-after-the-iowa-caucuses
Ok, I know this is another nothing to most, but for those in it for the long haul way back when media was absent. Conversations by Presidents were anything but stoner friendly. I don’t even know if many will “get it”. Maybe I’m reading something into it. The GS Warriors basketball not drug. Won the Championship last year and that means they get to meet the president. Obama in his speech mentioned how the past decades the Warriors struggled. One player in college even forgot Oakland had a basketball team. Then he turned and said “that was Klay Thompson” who was busted for pot at Washington State. Got a laugh out of it. Then mentioned he got 37 points in one quarter. That shouldn’t seem like a historic event. For a plant used 12,000 years. He went on to rightfully praise the team for their unselfishness in the game. Sharing the ball and their work in the community. The NBA has a lot of stoners and the same injuries as the other major sports. All treatable with cannabis instead of the debilitating pharmaceuticals. To have a drug war do little president doesn’t relieve him of his lack of leadership. But, to casually joke about it on camera is somewhat refreshing.
5:52
Obama Honors The Golden State Warriors’ 2015 NBA Championship
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecw9LPr5XCk
The NBA’s All Star Stoner Team
or The Most Athletic Weed Smokers in the World
After getting a search result saying CBD oil is legal in all 50 states I checked around on tubes of webbernett and found out low potency oil derived from hemp is available but the high potency CBD oil is only legal in 15 states.
The difference is 25ppm verses 150,000ppm.(Parts Per Million)The low potency oil is derived from the seeds and stalks of hemp.
New low for chicago police
http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/new-low-cop-suing-family-teen-he-killed-saying-it-caused-him-emotional-trauma
The Cop Onions and Lawsters did the same with the cop pepper spraying students. Cop won a settlement for having depression. Just felt terrible about it, or rather that someone had it on video. How’d Hitler miss that one?
UC Davis pepper spray police officer awarded $38,000 compensation
Filmed spraying a row of seated protesters, John Pike filed a lawsuit claiming anxiety and depression after video outrage.
USAUSAUSAUSA!
Made in China