No surprises here

Christopher Ingraham in the Washington Post: Legal marijuana is finally doing what the drug war couldn’t

The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009. […]

The data supports the many stories about the difficulties marijuana growers in Mexico face in light of increased competition from the north. As domestic marijuana production has ramped up in places such as California, Colorado and Washington, marijuana prices have fallen, especially at the bulk level. […]

And it’s not just price — Mexican growers are facing pressure on quality, too. “The quality of marijuana produced in Mexico and the Caribbean is thought to be inferior to the marijuana produced domestically in the United States or in Canada,” the DEA wrote last year in its 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment. “Law enforcement reporting indicates that Mexican cartels are attempting to produce higher-quality marijuana to keep up with U.S. demand.”


Vice News: Iran Is About to Execute Another 100 Prisoners for Drug Offenses

Such wide-scale bloodletting has increased revulsion at the international community’s complicity. Maya Foa, head of the death penalty team at the UK-based human rights organization Reprieve, called the planned mass execution at Ghezel Hessar “the one tangible return on the UN’s investment in Iranian drug raids.”

“Iran’s spree of drug-related hangings is based on unfair trials and force ‘confessions,’ and its main victims are innocent scapegoats and vulnerable people who’ve been exploited as drug mules,” Foa said in a statement.

Iran’s penchant for putting drug offenders to death hasn’t dampened the UNODC’s enthusiasm for the country’s role in the drug fight.


Also from Christopher Ingraham: Donald Trump’s drug policy is an alarming throwback to the 1980s

Trump’s promise to prevent drugs from entering the country in the first place is a throwback to the drug war policies of previous decades. This may be no accident. He recently sought drug policy advice from William J. Bennett and discussed the heroin epidemic with him.

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75 Responses to No surprises here

  1. Washington Compost says:

    Those states where it is legal should secede if the fedgov leviathan tries to take away the cannabis.
    I thought Trump liked money? The number one cash crop is going great in Colorado, Oregon, Washington State.
    Cannabusiness has to use ca$h only since the IRS won’t mess with so called drug money. They don’t mind taxing the shit out of cannabusiness owners though.
    Those cannabis confiscations at the border is that the brown dirt with the malformed seeds?
    Better hope the ruff n’ tuff drug warrior commandos in XXXXL tactical gear raiding a tomato plant don’t see that story out of Iran, wouldn’t want them getting any ideas.

  2. I got my Che shirt at Hot Topic says:

    Hillary’s potential drug policies:

    http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Hillary_Clinton_Drugs.htm

    • jean valjean says:

      “…..allowing nonviolent offenders who stay clean to stay out of prison.”

      But if they don’t (or can’t) it’s prison as usual. This one phrase captures Hillary’s authoritarian, right-wing attitude in a nutshell. If it becomes a race with Trump, Bernie Sanders is our last hope for a sane drug policy.

  3. allan says:

    plenty of scary shit about the Drumpf but this quote from Ingraham’s piece – “[h]e recently sought drug policy advice from William J. Bennett and discussed the heroin epidemic with him” – is hella-scary. He’ll probably appoint Calvina to head the ONDCP.

    • allan says:

      of course I say that knowing he has a snowball’s chance in hell of winning the POTUS.

      • Servetus says:

        Interesting story on the Drumpf family German roots. Donald’s grandfather, Friedrich Drumpf, was a character right out of the old West:

        Grandpa Trump built his restaurants on land that he did not own. In that time of the Gold Rush in the Klondike, it was the Wild West period. It was wide open, very raw, lots of single men desperately trying to find gold – and prostitutes. And Grandpa Trump’s restaurants had liquor, food and access to women. His restaurants had little cubicles off to the sides with heavy curtains – so called private rooms for ladies – which was absolutely understood to mean prostitutes. His establishment was not the exception there, but he certainly did well by that. And after that he went back to Germany and claimed that he was quiet man who avoided bars in his petition to repatriate.

        Story here: http://www.dw.com/en/what-donald-trump-learned-from-his-german-grandpa-friedrich-drumpf/a-18701551

      • Daniel Williams says:

        Now Allan, don’t be writing checks you can’t cash…

    • DdC says:

      I’m still waiting for Drumpf and the other 3 GOPervert clowns to come up short. Then a brokered Convention where J.E.B. emerges as the Candidate. Afterall Hilary gave her chance to Obama and it is a turn for another Bush.

      Bush Clinton Bush Obama Bush. By the end of 2024 it will be Chelsea’s turn.

  4. darkcycle says:

    That’s Trump’s problem (or at least part of it). He doesn’t have an actual idea WTF he’s talking about. But he knows somebody, who knows somebody, who CLAIMS to know, and so a five minute face to face with the most un-hinged, vested interest drug warrior hanging around the Republican water cooler and BINGO….we have policy. Where’s my current wife?… and I want Netflicks.

  5. allan says:

    interesting where meandering on the wwweb can lead. I was looking at the months stats on my blog and checking out the referring sites. One of them was The Reality Based Community… so while I was there I looked at the list of the week’s posts and there was one on Jamaica.

    Well, those hoping to see cannabis sense from the gummint in the land of irie should be prepared for a real fustercluck. BOTEC is “advising” them…

    … and of course that turned another switch on. So Mark Kleiman/BOTEC is part and parcel of BIG Marijuana. Which of course made me wonder if Kev-kev has called Mark on the carpet?

    Prohibition is like the ultimate bureaucratic grift, the Prohibs pick EVERYBODY’S pockets. Great googlie mooglie!

    • Freeman says:

      Yeah buddy, I saw that a few weeks ago. Talk about WTF!

      BOTEC advising Jamaica on Marijuana makes about as much sense as the Amish advising Apple on computer technology.

  6. DdC says:

    Legal Marijuana Doing What Drug War Couldn’t
    By Christopher Ingraham March 03, 2016 Washington Post
    Legal marijuana may be doing at least one thing that a decades-long drug war couldn’t: taking a bite out of Mexican drug cartels’ profits.

    The latest data from the U.S. Border Patrol shows that last year, marijuana seizures along the southwest border tumbled to their lowest level in at least a decade. Agents snagged roughly 1.5 million pounds of marijuana at the border, down from a peak of nearly 4 million pounds in 2009. continued at Cannabis News

    Senator Warren Was Right About Marijuana and Pain
    By Scott Mendelson, M.D. March 03, 2016 Huffington Post
    On February 8, 2016, Senator Elizabeth Warren wrote a well publicized letter to Dr. Thomas Friedan, the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In her letter she expressed her concern about the current epidemic of deaths by overdoses of opiate pain medications. Among her recommendations was taking steps to broaden our understanding of how marijuana might both help relieve pain as well as reduce the number of deaths by opioid overdose. She was quite correct in her effort. continued at Cannabis News

    Donald Trump’s drug policy is an alarming throwback to the 1980s
    By Christopher Ingraham March 3 2016 Washington Post
    Trump’s promise to prevent drugs from entering the country in the first place is a throwback to the drug war policies of previous decades. This may be no accident. He recently sought drug policy advice from William J. Bennett and discussed the heroin epidemic with him. continued at washingtonpost

    US Legalization Forcing Mexican Drug Cartels Out of the Marijuana Business

    So who do the Candidates stand with? Iran and IS or
    American citizens Homegrown Neocon Status Quo Circumvention.

    Trump’s Drug Advisor, a repeat prohibitionist profiteer.
    Bill Bennett’s Book of Virtuous Slot Machines
    X Drug Czar/Education Secretary Loses $8 Million in Casino’s

    Body Count co-author of Super predator kids running wild in neighborhoods near you, in 1990. Like all gossip to sell books, it hasn’t panned out in 2016. If they smoke the highly potent skunk superpot several gazillion times stronger than your grand dad’s second cousin on his sisters side of the family smoked. Has a theory that killing blacks would lower crime. But the Liberals would get all upset, so it would be hard to do. Fond of Charles Murray’s Bell Curve Theory. Legal Cannabis causes rabbits to commit suicide, Lose their fear when tigers approach. Start sticking their tongues out. Bill can’t sell books unless brain fear centers are large. The larger the more obedient and believers willing to sacrafice it all for the word of a coward persecuting sick children.

    Conservatives Have Larger ‘Fear Centers’ in Their Brains

  7. Servetus says:

    While debate continues on the merits of marijuana legalization, others are acting.

    The Swiss cities of Zurich, Basel, Bern and Geneva, will conduct a four-year pilot program to establish cannabis clubs where members can consume marijuana within a specific tyranny free zone. Many Swiss police already ignore personal use.

    And the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors seek to protect Humboldt County’s valuable brand while anticipating marijuana legalization in November:

    Eureka, CA – March 1, 2016 — The same company [SICPA Security LLC] that tracks and traces every cigarette pack sold in 46 U.S. states is now set to conduct a pilot test to see if it can track Humboldt County’s medical marijuana.

    …Agricultural Commissioner Jeff Dolf [said] today that the creation of a local program would identify whether the marijuana products have been properly tested and taxed while ensuring that outside products can’t be branded with the Humboldt County name.

    “I feel very strongly that this puts us in a position to maintain the leadership that we’ve already shown in the medical marijuana land use ordinance that your board worked so diligently on and passed,” Dolf said. “… We don’t have any assurances that this is the program that the state will select, but we are showing leadership in trying to develop and work on an effective track and trace model for the industry in Humboldt County.”

    Actions speak louder than political candidates.

  8. Gooch Grundle says:

    I hope Bernie wins so those evil rich capitalist pigs can pay for my herb ration every month.
    I want the government involved in cannabis because everything they touch turns to solid gold.

  9. Servetus says:

    Going to Bill Bennett for information on anything is a disqualifier for the presidency, but apparently not if you’re a Supreme Court judge. Antonin Scalia did precisely that, and it may have contributed to the downfall of America.

    Scalia called Bennett a “good friend”, and listened to Bennett’s news radio show, his favorite, according to a Scalia interview. Bill Maher talks about the Bennett connection to Scalia’s limited and diminished means of keeping up on current events beginning at about 3:20 in the following video clip:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRhJeanUW9s#t=329.261

  10. Satanic Buttplug says:

    Hillary has the ladyparts and I’m voting for her due to that.
    Carly had tender ladyparts too but that evil TrumpFuhrer had to scare her off.
    It is like high time to have a woman for president and OMG it would like be so like historic and like the time is like now.
    Plus like Slick Willie is like so *kewl* I mean except for like all that massive like increase in cannabis arrests under his watch back in the Macarena days.
    I like just got my Guy Fawkes mask at Hot Topic and all the proceeds are going to Warner Brothers! I hate all corporations except for my ISP, Starbucks and Apple.

  11. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Piffle! Mr. Trump is a hard nosed business man and a savvy politician who never pulls his punches. Did you see how he stood up to Mario Rubio in Detroit and set him straight about the size of his naughty parts?!? Have you ever seen any other politician who had the guts to defend or even mention his naughty parts when on the campaign trail?!?!? Poor Hillary must feel so excluded with the rest of the candidates beating the table with their penises. Could she authorize Bill to act as her penis proxy?
    ———————————-
    But seriously, I don’t see any basis whatever for such an extreme conclusion about his position concerning drugs law reform. Like research studies, you have to adjust for confounds. The confound that is being overlooked is Mr. Trump’s near obsessive desire for that stupid wall. His statements saying his wall would keep heroin out of the Country are self serving puffery designed to get people to support building that stupid wall, not a notification that he intends to maintain the war on (some) drugs. His obsession with building that stupid wall is what’s going to get him elected POTUS come Election Day. Am I going to vote for him? It’s very, very unlikely. The only reason I don’t say it’s impossible is because I’ve learned it’s not a good idea to say never because the universe has a very weird sense of humor.

    There’s no doubt in my mind that if we can get him to understand that a lot of our nation’s unregistered guests from south of the border pay their “coyotes” by carrying a back pack of contraband across the border and that re-legalization will reduce or even eliminate demand for cartel brickweed. That would mean that we’ve got a good chance of him signing up to support cannabis law reform at the Federal level.

    One thing of which I’m certain is that Mr. Trump is able to identify failure and walk away from it. E.g. his Atlantic City casinos and Trump Airlines. It’s something I’ve never seen in an American politician at the Federal level. Does it mean that it’s certain that he’ll kick the war on (some) drugs to the curb? Probably not but IMO he’s the only candidate where that thought is possible. Perhaps I’m underestimating Mr. Sanders but for some reason which I’m unable to articulate I don’t trust him to carry through with his promises. It’s also looking less and less likely that he’ll get the Democrats’ nomination.

    So when was the last time you saw a foaming at the mouth prohibitionist who had previously supported dismantling the war on (some) drugs? I’m sure that there are a few but that they’re very rare.
    Legalize drugs and use tax revenue to fund drug education. (Apr 2011)

    • jean valjean says:

      The amount Bill drinks these days, I don’t think he’d make a very effective penis proxy. Maybe his phallic red nose might work though?

  12. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    OK children, it’s time to put on your tin foil hats. Remember that only genuine tin foil works to block the CIA’s mind control radio waves. Why else would the government have forced the tin foil factories to switch to aluminum?

    Medical marijuana won’t make [South Dakota] ballot

    Citizen petition for Maine marijuana legalization fails

    Anti-Pot Group Wants Maine to Investigate Petition Drive

  13. ProhibitionAtWork says:

    Surge in drug smuggling and shootings prompt authorities in Sri Lanka to take [the wrong] action:

    At least three people were shot dead and many more wounded in Colombo in the past week in what police said was gang-related violence.

    Unidentified gunmen had opened fire on a prison bus and wounded a suspect who was being taken back to jail after a court hearing in the capital last week.

    Another suspect on bail was shot dead at home while a woman was shot and wounded outside the main prison in Colombo Saturday after she visited her jailed husband.

    http://tinyurl.com/Vijayascreams

  14. Servetus says:

    The FBI is planning a crackdown on high schoolers. Any indication of “violent extremism”, according to the vague definitions set forth by the plan, will require teachers to spy and inform on students to law enforcement officials. The Spanish Inquisition’s Oath Ex Officio, requiring citizens to spy upon one another, is being resurrected from the dead:

    Under the category of domestic terrorists, the educational materials warn of the threat posed by “anarchist extremists.” The FBI states, “Anarchist extremists believe that society should have no government, laws, or police, and they are loosely organized, with no central leadership… Violent anarchist extremists usually target symbols of capitalism they believe to be the cause of all problems in society—such as large corporations, government organizations, and police agencies.”

    Similarly, “Animal Rights Extremists and Environmental Extremists” are placed alongside “white supremacy extremists”, ISIS and Al Qaeda as terrorists out to recruit high school students. The materials also instruct students to watch out for extremist propaganda messages that communicate criticisms of “corrupt western nations” and express “government mistrust.”

    Heat is expected to fall mostly onto Muslim students, but with mission creep we can expect suspicions to extend to any students who might use drugs.

    Behavioral or intellectual criticisms of corrupt Western nations and mistrust of government is something we express daily here on Drug WarRant, so any high school student caught reading the blog, or discussing it, will automatically become a terrorism suspect in the eyes of some extremist, whacked-out, proto-fascist educator, or school administrator, who is likely to be too ignorant to distinguish disassembled clockworks from a bomb.

    http://www.salon.com/2016/03/06/the_fbi_has_a_new_plan_to_spy_on_high_school_kids_across_the_country_partner/

  15. claygooding says:

    Not to change the subject but there is an effort to have a DC smoke out at the WH on 4/20,,once more karma/fate/bad luck strikes me right in the pocketbook BUT I will cancel my 4/18 flight to Seattle and buy one too DC for 4/20 if enough of the OR crowd wants to meet me there…the last time I was there we scared Nixon so bad he declared war on us. I don’t think Obama is scared of us,,I think he would welcome it.

    If we gridlock DC on 4/20..even though all the legislators and bureaucrats we would like to get our hands on will be out of town,,a few will make it in early to try and tease them into staying in town.

    PS:Nancy died and I cannot wish her RIP,,fuck her and her husband unto death,,,we are very close to turning this into a war on drug warriors where we get America to shun every drug warrior the rest of their lives just as they have attempted to have America shun us and treat us as second class citizens.

    NO mercy!!!!

    • ProhibitionAtWork says:

      No mercy, indeed!

    • Swooper says:

      About the date…I saw an organizing email a few days ago and the email said the date of the smoke out is 4/2/16, @ 4:20 pm, not 4/20/16. That is enough of a discrepancy to warrant some checking before you cancel your Seattle plans. Things might have changed since, and I haven’t received a 2nd email about the event, so I don’t have the info.

    • DdC says:

      4/20 @ 4:20 are usually local events, Same with the MMMarch on the first Saturday in May with the Global Ganja Gatherings. in over 200 cities.

      To underscore the call for rescheduling marijuana, the protest’s April 2 date was selected as a tongue-in-cheek rescheduling of the traditional April 20 pot holiday. Toke-up time, however, remains 4:20 p.m.

    • darkcycle says:

      No go here. Not able to make it. Family and plant care responsibilities will be keeping me close to home. 4/2 is the date though, swooper is right.

      • Windy says:

        True of my situation as well, hubby will still be recovering from his broken femur; he tripped on a curb at our granddaughter’s wedding 16 days ago, had surgery the next day, came home on the following Tuesday, but won’t be able to put ANY weight on it for the next 6 weeks (they call it the broken egg challenge, he’s supposed to imagine a raw egg under his foot every time he places it on the ground). He’s still needing a wheelchair to get around and will for at least 3 more weeks, then he might be able to use crutches; he needs a LOT of help, currently and will continue to need me until he can walk on his own. Also, the granddaughter who was getting married (we missed the ceremony, 🙁 ) is pregnant and is due the last week of April but babies are notorious for coming well before and well after their due dates; and her older sister is also pregnant and will be having her baby the 3rd week in April (scheduled, due to it being a caesarian, her third). I have to be here to welcome my two newest great granddaughters.

        • primus says:

          Maybe you will luck out and get a couple of great grandsons.

        • darkcycle says:

          Let us know if there’s anything we can do for you, Windy. Hope Hubby feels better fast.

        • DdC says:

          Every time I hear of another condition cannabis can treat,
          I think about how stupid people are who reject it, over Nanny Raygun gossip.
          3rd week in April Windy. Maybe a 4/20 baby.

          Cannabis may be used to treat fractures

        • Windy says:

          primus, nope both girls know they are having girls.

          dark, thanks, if anything comes up I’ll give ya a call

          DdC, could be, we’d all enjoy that, since the whole family (all but two — one due to job, other due to preference) are partakers.

    • B. Snow says:

      My first thoughts exactly Jean…

      Well, that and Now we can finally shut down her damn “Just Say No” Cult – they said yesterday she was following politics up until fairly recently…

      Now Biden & all the various people that have been fighting that war longer than I’ve been alive (give or take a decade depending on the ‘warrior’) and…

      OMG-WTF? = They just showed a clip of an early elementary-aged Punky Brewster giving Nancy a scrapbook from an Oakland, CA “Just Say No Club” – Now that’s some Irony for your ass! = [I’m fresh outta “Smiles & Cries”]

      FFS, We’re gonna have to listen to twisted bipartisan hero worship about how *wonderful* she was for at lesst a week or two – and how ‘she faught drug abuse’ for a portion of that time.

      I hope by tomorrow we get maybe Sullum or Welch dismantling the “Just Say No” crapola – for what it really was = a horrible failure, Along with *R.A.D.*

      “Rock Against Drugs” – which was almost certainly a creative PR Exec/Lawyer’s Idea for how their clients could actually do community service for a deal that let them still make most of their scheduled tour dates… Arguably -THE MOST- Disingenuous Public Service Announcements ever filmed!

    • Servetus says:

      Nancy’s relationship to the Constitution was appropriately phrased by Voltaire: she “wiped her arse with the document and created a hemorrhoid a foot long.”

      For some reason, I just can’t get that image out of my mind.

      • Nancy Reagan’s Role in the Disastrous War on Drugs
        http://tinyurl.com/jfelhh6 by Tony Newman

        … “While Nancy and Ronald Reagan are no longer with us physically, the public hysteria that they whipped up and the draconian, zero-tolerance drug policies that were implemented in the 1980s, are still alive and kicking today.”

        • Servetus says:

          And the beat goes on. WaPo has an article (3-5-16) on Ronnie’s and Nancy’s continuing war on imaginary “welfare queens”, AKA the poor, etc., employing the crushing machinery of police state tactics. Rousting and temporary detention for mostly petty drug crimes, black victims of mistaken identity, wrong black homes raided, small scale drug busts with extreme force employed, breaking down walls and doors, non-compensated property damage, the poor are getting the jackboot thug treatment in the D.C. area:

          http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/investigative/2016/03/05/probable-cause/

        • jean valjean says:

          Nancy got involved in the drug war almost by accident. In her first year in the White House she went on a massive spending spree redecorating and replacing the china at tax-payer expense. She also broke protocol by accepting thousands of dollars worth of designer clothes. As a result she experienced a lot of criticism from the media for her spendthrift ways. Her handlers needed a distraction and one day she met a young student who asked her what to do when offered drugs. With her usual simplistic nincompoopery she said “just say no,” and suddenly her future as first lady was defined. In the same way that washing powder is marketed, Nancy was marketed as the “caring” face of prohibition, while continuing to promote the expansion of incarceration for those who couldn’t or wouldn’t just say no.

      • Justin Auldphart says:

        A second rate actress, a second rate First Lady who spent her time with astrologers while guiding The Amiable Dunce through 8 years. She fucked up a number of lives with her “No” nonsense. She lived a long life and is now where we all are going..End of story…

    • DdC says:

      While the press attention being given to Nancy’s passing obviously mentions Nancy’s passion around young people and drugs, the coverage often doesn’t do enough to contextualize the Reagans’ radical escalation of the drug war. We don’t hear enough about the exploding prison populations that continue today to bankrupt our state budgets. We don’t hear enough about the war on science and public health that led to so many people contracting HIV – even though the evidence was and still is clear that providing access to syringes does not increase drug use and helps save lives. And we don’t hear enough about the militarization of our country, from cops in the schools to SWAT teams routinely breaking down doors.

      Nancy Reagan’s Role in the Disastrous War on Drugs
      By Tony Newman Source: Huffington Post March 7, 2016

      Reagans 100th birthday

      “I now have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast.”
      — Ronald Reagan – Former President

      Dr. Heath/Tulane Study, 1974

      The Hype: Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys

      In 1974, California Governor Ronald Reagan was asked about decriminalizing marijuana. After producing the Heath/Tulane University study, the so-called “Great Communicator” proclaimed, “The most reliable scientific sources say permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana.” (L.A. Times)

      The Facts: Suffocation of Research Animals ref

      President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of then Vice President George Bush, appointed Carlton Turner as the White House Drug (czar) Advisor in 1981. Soon after Drugczar Carlton Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty. Just as G. Gordon Liddy went into high-tech corporate security after his disgrace, Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.

      Reagan’s Passing Provides Opportunity to Reflect
      By Jeremy Kuzmarov Source: Huffington Post

      Whatever personal qualities and grace she may have brought to the White House, Nancy’s legacy is connected to her signature crusade. Her passing provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the failed governmental priorities of the past, and to in turn advance more steadily towards a future in which kids are given grounded scientific information about drugs, addicts are not stigmatized, and in which drugs are treated as a public health problem and not one requiring military solutions.

  16. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Wow, 68% in favor of regulated re-legalization among Canadians:

    Majority of Canadians agree pot should be legal: poll

  17. DdC says:

    Democrats spare changing me can hold their breath.

    Oh for criminey sakes. Not one place for the top priority of ending the multi-trillion dollar drugwar, especially on cannabis. Hemp local jobs and alternatives to the status quo fossil fools, trees and abortion causing cotton crops in the bible belt the hypocrite GOPers pride themselves in defending. What is this a Lil Debbie Wasserface republican light. Forget my support as long as you hide in the shadows and continue to let the GOP keep big pharma profits over truly homegrown affordable health care. Email me when you decide to be democrats again.

    Ensuring Equal pay for working women. Bud trimmers are paying $20/hr to men women and any others. Taking them from maids and waiters in tourist traps paying less than minimum wage. How about any pay for all genders fired for bogus urine testing that has no connection to impairment. A scarlet letter making good dependable workers unemployed.

    Protecting Social Security and Medicare the same as protecting schools in CO with the extra billions in tax revenue on a safer substance than what is federally legal. Investing in our infrastructure as we are and with Hemp alternatives to concrete and trees we can grow a huge hunk of our infrastructure from buildings to bridges. Work clothes that eat odors and plant roots to anchor soil and prevent mudslides, Plastic without crude oil from the Middle east, funding terrorists. Win win win situation and where are the “progressives” Backing Nixon’s lies?

    Ending Citizens United is a worthy goal but why support Wall St and MalWart Chinese sweatshop products when Cannabis Hemp and Ganja can put the Money Beast on a Diet. Instead of republican lites like Hilary and Lil Debbie compromising on insanity. Creating good-paying jobs as stated already doing that. With a potential 50,000 new products from Hemp battery’s to auto bodies grown in the fields that family farmers can prevent foreclosures with. Jobs replacing foreign fossil fools and imported scab labor with TPP. It would also eliminate a lot of prison slave labor taking jobs on the outside. No out-sourcing locally grown product jobs.

    Caring for our veterans. I’ve been aiding Veterans with PTSD for over 40 years. An inexpensive natural remedy. in the past 10 years, through the various state markets. Matching dozens of strains of Indiica and Sativa to the patients symptoms. Then cloned for that specific patients needs and to consistency. Veterans being kicked out of their homes and apartments for treating their PTSD that many of the addictive mind warping drugs don’t. Just look at the side effects of some of the white powders they give these soldiers and when they get caught serve the NRA lobby’s pride and joy, mandatory minimum sentencing. What are the democrats doing? Making them wait and refusing organ transplants if they sign a medicinal cannabis card? May as well put a trunk on that donkey if you want it to look like the GOPer elephant.

    Defending Roe v. Wade. Again the cannabis consumers and Hempsters are a majority of the support for women’s free access to health care. Side by side since RvW and the Earth Day and Civil Rights and Anti War marches. Supporting women’s rights and ERA and when we offer an alternative. Where is our support? 35 years of prohibitionist gossip no different than the abortion rhetoric and yet you are too scared to stand for justice and common decency? Then ask me for support when you were told years ago that there are as many abortions from the Monsanto cotton crops in the bible belt that isn’t used on Hemp clothing or the various fibers in the plant. From fine linen to burlap. While the GOP follow blindly and the liberal bashers follow anything not. liberal. The democrats continue the long whine about fairness and health of women and shutting down clinics that only provide 3% for abortions. But the Neocon GOP and Neocon DNC blue dawgs would rather spare change and spend it on lawyers than have an offense to the stupid so called pro life who as I just said are actually pro abortions if they are sprayed from a crop duster. So again I ask why do democrats act like unruly kids getting scolded all the time when you are equals to any other voter or politician?

    Alleviating student debt. Well it seems to me that is something that keeps professionals from advocating against the status quo GOP. You want welfare for schools and I want free higher education for all. CO is already building schools and CA will try to bring tax revenue to use on student debt. But speaking out on the injustice and ugly cost of the Ganjawar is more of a priority, Since Bill Cinton and GOP pushed the drug free Higher Education Act that has been bastardized to exclude impoverished kids from entering if they had a criminal record for drugs. They are banned from tuition assistance for life. Not for murder or rape or even welfare fraud. Urine testing has replaced the yellow arm bands with the Star of David and Scarlet Letters. Urine testing that does not show impairment, only metabolites that can remain for weeks after using. So you want kids to get an education, stop the war on some people doing some drugs.

    End the Ganjawar. Get real with your priorities!

    Legal Marijuana Doing What Drug War Couldn’t

    Why Do Democrats Defend Nixon’s Drug War?

    If You Think Marijuana Isn’t an Important Issue

    Democrats can’t afford to put it on the back burner any longer

  18. Trump is an oppressor, like the rest of them. All those in power must be removed from power!
    robertsrevolution.net

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Hey Bobby, you should try a daily dose of Haldol.

    • Servetus says:

      Robert, if you’re going to shout revolution, you need to be a revolutionary. That means reading everything you can get your hands on about the great revolutions of the past, as well as the biographies of all the great revolutionaries, great men like Kropotkin, Malatesta, and Victor Serge. Once you’ve done that, come back to the couch with some specifics helpful to the cause. Peace.

  19. Windy says:

    FYI, Californians.
    Steve Kubby wrote:

    WHY MCLR v7 IS THE BEST INITIATIVE
    People still contact me to lecture me on why their initiative is better. Apparently, they are unaware that there would not be a Prop. 215 if it were not for me. Dennis Peron said so in the letter below. So I have some major credentials in this area and people need to respect that.
    Initiatives are supposed to be about Rights, not Rules. When we wrote Prop. 215 we focused on Rights and ended up with a one page initiative. As it became clear that Sean Parker was going to finance the AUMA, I asked MCLR to write a special one page version of their initiative, which is now known as v7. I expect us to pick up an extra 3-5% of the vote by presenting a one page initiative that voters can read and understand. Voters tend to oppose anything they don’t fully understand,
    The biggest lesson we learned from Prop. 215 is that you must repeal all those pot laws or police will find a way to use them. MCLR repeals those law once and for all.
    To counter the epidemic of bans, MCLR requires such decisions be put to a vote of all the voters, not just some conservative asshats on a city council or board of supervisors.
    And finally, I insisted that medical marijuana can NEVER be taxed, which MCLR clearly states.
    Read the initiative here: https://www.facebook.com/steve.kubby.3/posts/10153881854986955

    • claygooding says:

      An alternative to having voters approve bans on production or sales is make any city/county that wants to continue prohibition pay all enforcement costs for their policy.

      No state taxes/funding should be used to arrest/incarcerate/prosecute people for marijuana in a state where it is legal.

      • Frank W. says:

        That may be the Oregon method whether they like it or not. The proud prohibitions continue, and now JoCo is looking to have a state of emergency declared to bring in state troopers to give Fodor Guides to all the transients. Dope didn’t bring that many jobs to the “real” economy, maybe that will change if we get banking. And I’ll stop typing “to” so much.

  20. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Here’s another meaningless albeit interesting statistic. The U.S. Border Patrol says that in FY2015 they were responsible for stealing 1,538,307 pounds of cannabis. All but 1,808 lbs was Mexican brick weed. If my calculator is working right that’s 698,398,378 grams or 2.1 grams for every man, woman, and child residing in the U.S.

    linky

    • claygooding says:

      According to SAMSHA only 12% of our population are regular marijuana users which means there must be a hell of a lot bigger market than the government is admitting because for all that confiscated brick we never run out.

  21. Servetus says:

    That America’s so-called drug war is an attack on the poor is a common topic here. Public welfare recipients are sometimes made the recipients of coerced drug testing by neo-fascist politicians, the idea being if the welfare recipient can afford to buy drugs, they shouldn’t be on the public dole. But how far does this punishing capitalist ethic really go?

    It turns out it extends to the purchase of organic foods. According to research done at the University of British Colombia:

    Shoppers making ethical purchases, such as buying organic food or environmentally friendly cars, are generally seen as more virtuous – unless they’re receiving government assistance. If ethical shopping is funded by welfare cheques, those shoppers are judged as immoral for taking advantage of public generosity, according to a new UBC Sauder School of Business study.[…]

    In a series of five studies, more than 1,300 participants in the United States were asked to judge people on measures of morality based on their grocery lists (either including organic foods or not) or their chosen rental car (either environmentally friendly or not). When choosing a more expensive ethical product, those on welfare were seen as less moral while more wealthy shoppers were seen as more moral.

    The fifth study found that people were also less likely to donate to a charity if the meals it provides are organic.

    The idea that the poor are poor because they’re immoral (drug consumers) is a relic of the Reagan era of the “welfare queen”. Perhaps once marijuana becomes legal in most places, the poor will be able to avoid civil harassment if they vape Mexican ditch weed instead of wax or medicinal grade marijuana.

  22. darkcycle says:

    Wow!!! Where the heck did we put those hard hats!!! State department says it’s more than okay with individual countries setting their own drug policies, and goes farther, hints that it may push for drug decriminalization at UNGASS. If this turns out to be more than a rumor, it’s coming down, and hard!!
    http://www.marijuana.com/blog/news/2016/03/state-department-obama-could-call-for-global-drug-decriminalization/

    • darkcycle says:

      Here’s another source….straight from the State Department. I have the kids tonight, so giving it a careful readwon’t happen until tomorrow. But sho’ ’nuff looks real.
      http://fpc.state.gov/254116.htm

      • Servetus says:

        Nothing new here. The protection of individual national sovereignty is the first maxim of the UN, followed by accommodation among nations that seeks a common ground. The only enforcement arm available to the UN is the International Criminal Court (ICC). But since the US is so rife with human rights crimes that include torture, and there are crimes the government expects to commit in the future, the US can’t afford to recognize the authority of the ICC.

        What UNGASS is likely to achieve is greater flexibility for countries wishing to back out of their mistakes on drug policies. So far there’s been no such flexibility option vis-à-vis the Single Treaty and other legal injunctions.

        As small a step as it is, it’s still the first international step out of the drug war quagmire.

        The reality we face is that international solutions tend to make it possible for war criminals to avoid prosecution as part of entering into agreements to cease and desist in horrendous activities. It becomes a bargaining chip in getting the crimes to stop. We can’t expect UN prosecutions of people such as Bill Bennett, whose Vaticanist-fascist agenda has helped fuel the drug war, nor will we be able to punish Iran for executing drug criminals. Other means to do so will be found.

        • darkcycle says:

          What is new is the change in tone. Canada’s Treudeau (sp?) Has already said Canada’s committments under the single treaty makes legalization tricky. It makes clear that the US is going to be more flexible with our demands to adhere. We always were the treaty’s biggest booster.
          It removes one more obstacle and one more prohib talking point. Whether there will be a stampede to the door to get out remains to be seen, but I have to admit, it’s a fantasy of mine.

        • Servetus says:

          Everyone from Jamaica to Canada to Ecuador to Switzerland is ready to jump onto the Marijuana Express. The sticking point has always been an absolutist policy within the UN gleefully introduced by Anslinger.

          Solving this kind of problem in diplo-speak often involves going from strict and precise language in policy statements to language that’s vague enough to give more latitude. The human rights issue is the elephant in the room. Failing to address human rights will wreak havoc on the whole process. So I look forward to a positive outcome at UNGASS that leads to many more positive outcomes in drug law reform.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          Even as much of a harm to society which I know it would be, from time to time I really wish that I could re-animate Harry J so I could rub his nose in the fact that never again took less than 7 decades.

      • NCN says:

        From Ambassador Brownfield.

        “…So, we said our objective remains that of limiting and eventually eliminating the use of marijuana in the United States of America because of its harms and its dangers…”

        Weed rules, government drools. Might as well cultivate!

        • B. Snow says:

          So… I read thru that article and – it seems that he’s saying “our objective remains that of limiting and eventually eliminating the use of marijuana in the United States of America because of its harms and its dangers… Until it’s no longer dangerous.

          Which is the only way this can go forward or “evovle” – because we must protect the conventions, our good old pals the conventions

          MUST maintain the sanctity of the drug conventions all the way up to and including remarks that are intentionally vague = for show.

          Like noting he was there first for another reason, but

          “Of probably greater importance for this discussion was the second reason for my visit, and that is we are, ladies and gentlemen, about five weeks away from the first Special Session of the UN General Assembly since the year, I believe, 1998 – so it is 17, going on 18 years – a Special Session to address the issue of international drug control policy. And it is happening, as I presume we are all aware, in the midst of a global debate that is as strong and intense on this issue as I have ever seen it in my more than 60 years of life on this planet and my more than 37 years as a diplomat in the service of the United States of America.”

          Lets note that this is coming from = “Ambassador William Brownfield, the Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.”

          He tries to sell a phony nonchalance to his comments repeatedly – with numerous tells – My Favorite being this statement of his/their immediate agenda:

          at the next meeting of the Commission on Narcotic Drugs, which is the UN body charged with oversight and control of drug policy for the United Nations, at their next meeting next week in Vienna, we will propose a what I will call a pragmatic reform agenda, an agenda that calls for a recommitment to the three international drug control conventions, the ‘61, ‘72, and ‘88 conventions, …

          Which much later into the questions from the media= He seems to forget he announced, Because he gives the following reply:

          I’ll make at least two comments. One, drug policy, like any other policy since Ugg and Thugg first moved in together and lived in a cave and tried to build rules for their community, drug policy adjusts and changed – and changes. The first drug control – international drug control convention was ratified, I believe, in 1961 and probably was drafted through much of the 1950s. The world is a different place in 2016 than it was in 1959 or 1960. So, of course, policy changes. Opinions change. Focus and priority changes.

          He had that response in his pocket – so to speak – But forgot he’d clearly stated the first (aka “Single Convention Treaty”) was passed in 1961 = He knows that & there’s no way in hell that he would momentarily forget it…

          That was a carefully crafted answer – But he blew it, TWICE – in between those things I quoted, He talks about “his pitch” which I’ll quote in full and then emphasis what I believe are the major points and explain why:

          When I was last here in New York and had the opportunity of meeting with the media, I laid out what we call the four pillars by which we are attempting to build consensus in the international community for drug policy and drug reform. And the pillars are very simple. First, to defend the integrity of the three existing international drug control conventions.

          Second, to accept that there is a degree of discretion authorized and permitted by those conventions themselves; in other words, they are not absolutely rigid in terms of what they permit and what they allow.

          Third, tolerance for other governments dealing with their own realities to develop their own individual national drug control policies and strategies. One size does not fit all. Every country is not exactly the same. And we must be tolerant of the sovereign authority of a government to develop and apply the drug strategy that is most effective for their condition and their reality.

          And fourth and finally, the commitment to combat transnational criminal organizations – maintain the conventions, accept the discretion within those conventions, tolerance for differing policies, commitment to combat transnational criminal organizations. That’s what we hope will bring the international community and the United Nations to a successful and productive UNGASS in five weeks’ time that actually will give us a good roadmap to carry us the next 10 years into this century.

          That’s my pitch, ladies and gentlemen.

          The important part qas the first “Pillar” to keep & DEFEND the three major treaties in place… Reformers have been attacking the first treaty = (the Single Convention Treaty of 1961) Because it creates an impasse in terms of marijuana laws and possible regulation at every level it’s used as the Go-To Defense as to why we can’t do anything ‘until we change federal law & international treaties’.

          They made it the keystone of their Prohib-Idiocy and its under siege & this guy can’t allow that because much like Anslinger – his job depends on maintaining the status quo.

          His “Second Pillar” is a weasel-worded assurance that there is some “flexibility”, And a claim that there aren’t any draconian rules around here – No Really…

          Then Third Pillar is a “No of course wll countries are Sovereign – although they may/might fall into non-compliance with the treaties = But, he can’t define or quantify what that is = He actually gives the classic non-definition of porn – “I know it when I see it” – As an example of how wishy-washy the whole mess is!

          The Fourth Pillar is more bullshit to complicate any changes people or governments might try to make = With another reinforcement of what His real concern is “maintain the conventions”That’s his job now and it makes the notion that he forgot that the first treaty “was ratified, I believe, in 1961 and probably was drafted through much of the 1950s” obviously – absurd in the extreme.

  23. strayan says:

    FYI couchmates, Head of Toxicology and Therapeutic Drug Monitoring for the Abraham Lincoln School of Medicine at the University of Illinois Medical Center calls bullshit on cannabis addled driving:

    The proposed blood THC level of five ng/ml as the legal/illegal marker for the probable marijuana-related criminalization of the individual has no scientific legs

    http://www.jurispro.com/files/documents/doc-344810357-article-2332.pdf

    It’s all good. He even exposes the nonsense that smoking high THC content cannabis leads to being more addled than smoking low THC content cannabis:

    there is no relationship between the dose (amount of THC) and one’s response (which is the plasma level of THC).

  24. DdC says:

    Nancy Reagan’s Role in the Disastrous War on Drugs
    By Tony Newman Source: Huffington Post March 7, 2016

    While the press attention being given to Nancy’s passing obviously mentions Nancy’s passion around young people and drugs, the coverage often doesn’t do enough to contextualize the Reagans’ radical escalation of the drug war. We don’t hear enough about the exploding prison populations that continue today to bankrupt our state budgets. We don’t hear enough about the war on science and public health that led to so many people contracting HIV – even though the evidence was and still is clear that providing access to syringes does not increase drug use and helps save lives. And we don’t hear enough about the militarization of our country, from cops in the schools to SWAT teams routinely breaking down doors.

    Reagans 100th birthday

    “I now have absolute proof that smoking even one marijuana cigarette is equal in brain damage to being on Bikini Island during an H-bomb blast.”
    — Ronald Reagan – Former President

    Dr. Heath/Tulane Study, 1974

    The Hype: Brain Damage and Dead Monkeys

    In 1974, California Governor Ronald Reagan was asked about decriminalizing marijuana. After producing the Heath/Tulane University study, the so-called “Great Communicator” proclaimed, “The most reliable scientific sources say permanent brain damage is one of the inevitable results of the use of marijuana.” (L.A. Times)

    The Facts: Suffocation of Research Animals ref

    President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of then Vice President George Bush, appointed Carlton Turner as the White House Drug (czar) Advisor in 1981. Soon after Drugczar Carlton Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty. Just as G. Gordon Liddy went into high-tech corporate security after his disgrace, Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.

    Reagan’s Passing Provides Opportunity to Reflect
    By Jeremy Kuzmarov Source: Huffington Post

    Whatever personal qualities and grace she may have brought to the White House, Nancy’s legacy is connected to her signature crusade. Her passing provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the failed governmental priorities of the past, and to in turn advance more steadily towards a future in which kids are given grounded scientific information about drugs, addicts are not stigmatized, and in which drugs are treated as a public health problem and not one requiring military solutions.

  25. DawnDownUnder says:

    “A senate committee has held a hearing in Sydney on the legalisation of marijuana for recreational purposes, as part of a series of hearings on personal choice and community impacts.

    The Senate Economics References Committee met at the Erskineville town hall on Friday, hearing submissions on the “sale and use of marijuana and associated products”. More than a dozen written submissions were received by the committee, with five individuals, the Department of Health and the National Rural Health Alliance giving evidence in person.

    Senators Sam Dastyari and David Leyonhjelm chaired the panel, which heard ideas from medical professionals and private citizens such as how recreational marijuana could potentially be packaged and sold, including health warnings at the point of sale, plain packaging, regulations around advertising and marketing of marijuana products, and taxation. Australia legislated the use of medical cannabis products last month.”

    http://tinyurl.com/digidoodoo

  26. Servetus says:

    The new Viceland Channel is hosting a marijuana series called Weediquette. Journalist Krishna Andavolu defends gummy bears:

    March 9, 2016 — “Stoned Kids” is the first episode of Weediquette, a new docuseries hosted by Andavolu […]

    The episode presents anecdotal evidence that high-powered THC oil is shrinking these kids’ tumors alongside gripes over the bureaucratic red tape that is delaying any real scientific proof on the theory.

    All the while these kids are getting stoned on what amounts to 10 bong hits of weed per day.

    The second episode of Weediquette, “Stoned Vets,” is a brutal look at a community of veterans who are psychologically crippled by PTSD symptoms that access to marijuana could help alleviate. But a study that could potentially lead to legal Veterans Affairs access to pot has been held up for three years in the kind of bureaucratic purgatory that plagues weed studies. In that time, 24,000 veterans have killed themselves.

    Weediquette airs as part of the fledgling Viceland channel, the cable network launched last week as an extension of the Vice journalism and entertainment brand, with filmmaker Spike Jonze serving as its co-runner and creative shepherd.

    • B. Snow says:

      These are pretty good so far, he’s a little bit more critical than I’d prefer – (presumably to appear unbiased) = which is fair enough I suppose…

      I would have liked it if he’d explained the “what amounts to 10 bong hits a day” – I would have including a nod to personal tolerance being a factor… aka “10 bongs hits” to who?

      Although the guest making that oil/extract did note that difference – calling that little bit of thc-oil-extract as a beginner’s dose, and you can’t expect them to cover everything immediately.

      I think it will get even more people accustomed to see marijuana use as safe – if you act responsibly = as any adult should do, this can be mitigated by setting, doses, etc.

      There’s another one about ‘Stoned Moms’ that was shown as a “Vice Essentials” program = possibly a half hour? And their website has/had? Others that I saw referred to as ‘Season 0’ (Vice Essentials) the other notable one being about ‘The War On Kids’.

      That one detailed the flat out entrapment of autistic and other socially isolated kids, and those otherwise vulnerable to “peer pressure” from undercover cops – claiming to be their friends and then nagging them to score drugs for them It was truly horrific IMO.

      Apparently some of the narcotics cops, in some parts of the country, have no shame whatsoever!
      I wasn’t surprised, or shocked, but I was appalled…

  27. The biggest story today having to do with the drug war is here:

    New NSA rules allow agency to share data without privacy protections or terrorism links http://tinyurl.com/z6uklb3

    Obama’s new unconstitutional domestic surveillance rules have nothing to do with stopping terrorism http://tinyurl.com/jeetqng

    Surprise! NSA data will soon routinely be used for domestic policing that has nothing to do with terrorism http://tinyurl.com/zetesas

    The new purpose for the NSA is not to police terrorism but to police the American public for drugs. Time for the lies to stop. We need to end the drug war, not expand it.

  28. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Here’s the latest event in the controversy over Donald Trump’s naughty parts:

    Wiener’s Circle rolls out 3-inch ‘Trump Footlong’

    Must see jpg ≤≤≤ more jocularity at the expense of Mr. Trump’s family jewels

    A more amusing reply from Mr. Trump would have been “well it might be small but it sure gets me off.”

    I’ve been thinking long and hard trying to come up with a plausible scenario where I could have realistically predicted the fact that I’d ever have occasion to think about Donald Trump’s penis, even in the abstract. I could use some suggestions because I haven’t even been able to come up with a farfetched scenario where that might have happened. Quite frankly, I’m stumped. I could use some suggestions if you figure it out.

    My gawd, as if the campaign wasn’t surreal enough just with him as a candidate and appearing to have a very real chance of getting elected. Oh, let’s not forget Hillary’s penis envy but we should concentrate on the fact that Ms. Clinton could get indicted. Lots of people are poo-pooing that thought as sour grapes and assure us there won’t be any further adjudicatin’ of Ms. Clinton. IIRC the last time that our Country worried about an indictment of one of the candidates in a Presidential race was in 1972. Mr. Agnew poo-pooed that thought as sour grapes but he was still indicted and run out of town on a rail. He probably would have been tarred and feathered too but he got lucky and people preferred to reserve the tar and feathering for Dick Nixon. Feathers were in very short supply in 1973 because of the DDT fiasco.

    Sigh, the only President and VP running mates where both were cashiered from office for corruption.

    “Never vote for a man who voluntarily chooses to be called Dick” that’s my motto. I mean for crying out loud what in the world was US Representative Dick Swett thinking when he made that choice?
    https://www.congress.gov/member/dick-swett/S001113

  29. claygooding says:

    On the Bern front the media is still ignoring Bernies campaign crowds with as many as 20,000 attending while Hillary is getting from 2000>5000 per event but it bit them in the ass in MI because the poor and young showed up at the polling sites in droves,,and now the DNC and the GOP are really getting scared.

    The media is also ignoring the marijuana movement as having anything to do with Bernie’s success but new candidates are starting to show up in states claiming to be Bernie Sander’s support candidates,,when there are many climbing on this train the revolution may get very interesting,,,as the 84% of the voters,,realizing that the US govt is never going to change the status of cannabis with bought legislators holding down seats in Congress,,start helping campaign for those reform candidates as we are for Bernie now.

    As one political science professor has already noted,,win or lose Bernie Sanders has started to end the corruption of crony capitalism and corporate bought legislation.
    It will become very hard to pass more tax cuts to the rich in Congress and keep your office,,people are waking up/

  30. FixingUpInFrance says:

    The last legal hurdle has been cleared. In just a few months time the first legal drug consumption room in France will open in Strasbourg.

    http://tinyurl.com/fixmeupstras

Comments are closed.