Doesn’t make me feel safer

“Enjoy trying to sleep tonight, wondering if tonight’s the night our SWAT team blows your front door off the hinges.”

Sheriff Peyton Grinnell Lake County Sheriff’s Office Community Engagement Unit message. “Community Engagement Unit” – now there’s a euphemism.

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59 Responses to Doesn’t make me feel safer

  1. Will says:

    .
    .
    An important part of the message was left out: “If by chance we ‘knock the hinges’ off the wrong house — which happens way more often than you think — kill your dog, and terrorize any occupants, we will not stop and apologize nor will we be held accountable for our mistake. We have a terroristic job to do. Collateral damage to innocent citizens is inevitable. So I guess the real message is: ‘To everyone single person living in Lake County…Run. Now'”.

  2. Servetus says:

    Community Engagement Unit? If that’s their engagement, I’d hate to see their marriage.

  3. jean valjean says:

    Here speaks the voice of backlash under Trump. These people feel that they now have the right, under the current regime, to express their scapegoating, prejudicial opinions openly without risk of censure. Expect to see much more of this terrorism (in the true sense of the word) in the next 18 months until, that is, many have to stand again for reelection as sheriff. They just don’t get that public opinion has changed and that they are dinosaurs on the wrong side of history. I’ll give Grinnell’s bluster two years at most.

  4. DdC says:

    Ignorant Jeff
    Excluding the National Commission on Forensic Science
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1163

    Seems like a typical day in MSM
    Terrorists spread fear and Israel fights back.
    Although I always thought the US sided with them.
    I guess Terrorists stick together…

    The Holy Land of Medical Marijuana
    http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread29081.shtml
    a conference devoted to marijuana innovation

    Israel’s state-run medical marijuana program
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/705

    Raphael Mechoulam, an Israeli perspective
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1091

    Rabbi Ties Jewish Faith to Medical Marijuana
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/695/

    • DdC says:

      Was the government to prescribe to us our medicine and diet, our bodies would be in such keeping as our souls are now. Thus in France the emetic was once forbidden as a medicine, and the potato as an article of food. Government is just as fallible, too, when it fixes systems in physics. Galileo was sent to the Inquisition for affirming that the earth was a sphere; the government had declared it to be as flat as a trencher, and Galileo was obliged to abjure his error. … Reason and experiment have been indulged, and error has fled before them. It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself.
      — Thomas Jefferson, “Notes on the State of Virginia,” 1787

      ISIS and Sessions
      Both have goals terrorizing innocent Americans,
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bw4PxGBNlE4

      “The greatest service that can be rendered
      to any country is to add a useful plant to its culture”.
      — Thomas Jefferson

      Ronald Reagan’s shameful legacy: Violence, the homeless, mental illness

      Ignorant Jeff. Miner’s Lullaby Drug Overdoses & MMJ
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1161

      Egregious and Well-Chronicled Abuses of Civil Asset Forfeiture
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1160

      “A strict observance of the written laws
      is doubtless one of the high virtues of a good citizen,
      but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity,
      of self-preservation, of saving our country
      when in danger, are of higher obligation.”
      – Thomas Jefferson

    • jean valjean says:

      A sequel to Israeli pinkwashing, meet greenwashing.

      • DdC says:

        I know this is not PC, or intended to be Homophobic. But I have never heard of a SWAT team busting down the doors of Gay people. I do remember getting Newt Gindrich’s Contract on Americans after DADT was passed by Clinton. A “top priority” when sick people were going to jail for using cannabis, including AIDs victims. Yet hardly a word about Peter McWilliams or Tom Crosslin and his life partner Rolland “Rollie” Rohm.

        Then the same damn law kicked out more Gays from Military service than previous. So Obama’s top priority was to remove it, then gays just had to be married and bring on the Teabagger Movement and again Cannabis is shelved from the media. Gays have always had a Civil Union to legalize loved ones for ER visits or Insurance same as a moot religious “marriage”.

        There are only 4 patients getting legal Ganja and its mostly schwag from the Mississippi Farm. Give us a DADT instead of piss tests. Leave patients alone and stop terrorizing them with threats and midnight raids. I realize a lot of sicko’s commit hate crimes targeting Gays. But think about cannabis users aren’t considered citizen enough to warrant hate crimes from Sessions and other Cop municipalities? Hate is hate.

        Not until his second term did Obama decide to do almost nothing and not enforce the laws. Didn’t change the scheduling though, so here we are fighting a more draconian entity than Nixon.

        So until SWAT starts shooting Gay dogs and Gays have their homes forfeitured from being illegally Gay or in the possession of Gays.. Or losing tuition assistance for life or have gag orders preventing a Gay defense. No one to my knowledge has ever been kicked off of an organ transplant list for failing a Gay test. I think the Pinkwashed should let other issues take the front burner occasionally. I’ll continue to support Gay rights and any other civil and human rights. But I hope to see it returned and get the priorities in order. Never heard of …

        Pinkwashing is a portmanteau compound word of the words pink and whitewashing. In the context of LGBT and intersex rights, it is used to describe a variety of marketing and political strategies aimed at promoting a product or an entity through an appeal to queer-friendliness, primarily by political or social activists.

        • jean valjean says:

          Pinkwashing was an attempt by Hasbarists to portray Israel as “gay-friendly,” unless of course they were Palestinian gays. Now we have the same meme applied to medical cannabis (although recreational use remains illegal) to imply that Israel is a liberal democracy, which it most certainly is not.

      • cy klebs says:

        Thats not the source of the rising tide of suspicion less drugs assay. I have serious problems with the placement of your ire!

        • DdC says:

          cy klebs
          Following the thread back, it looks like you are replying to jean valjean’s post here if it was my post, let me know. They are sometimes hard to tell so I try to include a name and or link to who I’m responding too to lessen confusion.

  5. Mr_Alex says:

    For the DrugWarRant commenters including DDC, a Straight Inc survivor sent me a PDF which was very surprising, it is a name change document that proves the Drug Free America Foundation (DFAF) is in fact Straight Inc:

    http://survivingstraightinc.com/DocumentLibrary-allbranches/SurvivingStraightIncDocs/StraightCorpDocs/Straight-Inc-Corp-Event-Name-Change-Summary_Combine.pdf

    • DdC says:

      I’ll add it to the thread Mr Alex
      I didn’t know it was a secret…
      Florida seems to be the epicenter of DEAth Merchants.
      Turner and Sabet, Calvina and Sembler stealing taxes
      and state sponsored terrorizing kids.

      Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc.
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1556

      THE TRUTH ABOUT STRAIGHT, INC &TEEN CHALLENGE
      Kids Helping Kids began as Straight-Midwest and over time was incorporated into Pathway Family Center (owns/owned 4 known programs). Pathway Family Center was founded by Terri Nissley, a “satisfied” Straight, Inc. cult parent who wants to continue in the torturing and brainwashing kids for profit industry. Kids Helping Kids (a Pathway Family Center program) has closed or is closing according to recent reports. Closing after years of protesting against fraud, abuse, and torture at the Milford, OH location.

      Anti-Drug Campaigns Dumb Down Vital Message
      Calvina Fay is the Executive Director of Drug Free America Foundation and Save Our Society From Drugs (S.O.S.) From 1976-1985 it was known as Straight, Inc. and had a reputation for abusing kids as a drug rehabilitation program. Mel Sembler and his wife Betty founded Straight, Inc. In 1985 it changed its name to Straight Foundation, Inc. in order to protect its money and its principals from civil suits. In 1995 it was changed again to Drug Free America Foundation. DFAF is a national and international drug policy think tank and provider of services for drug free work places.

      Who’s Funding Calvina Fay of Drug Free America Foundation?
      $1.2 million in receipts for 2003, of which about $900k was government grants.

  6. Tony Aroma says:

    Does this mean raids and arrests in Canada will continue as they have been for another year until this law takes effect?

    It could be legal to carry up to 30 grams of marijuana under bill to be tabled Thursday

    When marijuana becomes a legal recreational drug in Canada, the Liberal government wants Canadians to be able to hold up to 30 grams without fear of running afoul of the law, Radio-Canada and CBC News have learned.

    That is just one of several details about what will be included in the federal government’s marijuana legislation, which is expected to be introduced on Thursday, according to a senior government source.

  7. Servetus says:

    Scripps Research Institute experiments result in a greater elaboration of the biology of alcohol consumption and alcohol use disorder. A molecular switch has been identified:

    LA JOLLA, CA – April 12, 2017 – A new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) could help researchers develop personalized treatments for alcoholism and alcohol use disorder.[…]

    By giving naïve rats a dose of alcohol, the researchers engaged proteins called calcium channels and increased neuronal activity. Neurons fired as the specific calcium channels at play, called L-type voltage-gated calcium channels (LTCCs), boosted the release of a neurotransmitter called GABA. Blocking these LTCCs reduced voluntary alcohol consumption in naïve rats.

    But in alcohol-dependent rats, the researchers found decreased abundance of LTCCs on neuronal cell membranes, disrupting their normal ability to drive a dose of alcohol’s effects on CeA activity. Instead, increased neuronal activity was driven by a stress hormone called corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) and its type 1 receptor (CRF1). The researchers found that blocking CeA CRF1s reduced voluntary alcohol consumption in the dependent rats.

    Studying these two groups shed light on how alcohol functionally alters the brain, Roberto explained.

    “There is a switch in the molecular mechanisms underlying the CeA’s response to alcohol (from LTCC- to CRF1-driven) as the individual transitions to the alcohol-dependent state,” she said.

    AAAS Public Release: Surprising brain change appears to drive alcohol dependence

  8. Mr_Alex says:

    @DDC and other Drugwarrant commenters

    Cyndy Drew Etler has just released a book about her experience at ACLU which is related to Straight Inc, I think Pete should do a review on the book as well as it is currently a 3rd bestseller in the US

    https://www.facebook.com/AuthorCyndyEtler/?hc_location=ufi

    • DdC says:

      ACLU which is related to Straight Inc?

      Do you mean experiences about Straight Inc from the ACLU?

      Many ways to traumatize kids in the Drug War.

      Throwaway Informants – The New Yorker
      In the mid-nineteen-eighties, Congress enacted federal sentencing guidelines that imposed harsh mandatory minimums for drug offenses, even petty ones. The results of these and similar measures were striking. Over the course of that decade, the U.S. prison population doubled. In Florida, incarceration rates for drug crimes increased nearly twentyfold—with some sentences for marijuana sales surpassing those for murder. The new approach codified a long-standing escape hatch for the accused: to provide “substantial assistance” to authorities in exchange for the possibility of early release or dropped charges. The use of drug informants surged. Soon, legal experts say, the trend swept through state and local law-enforcement agencies across America. Rachel Hoffman was, in this respect, a typical conscript in this country’s numbers-driven war on drugs.

      ☛ After student death,
      North Dakota aims to protect informants

      ☛ Throwaways

      ☛ Think-of-the-message-being-sent-to-the-kids

      Collaterally Damaged Kids
      New York Nine Year Old Girl With Dravet Syndrome Dies Without Medical Marijuana

      ☛ Marijuana Stops Child’s Severe Seizures

      btw Mr Alex. My computer finder is set on proper case so I’ve probably missed some of your posts when you misspell DdC.

      • Mr_Alex says:

        @DdC

        The Dead inside by Cyndi Drew Etler is about the author being sent to ACLU which is a so-called program which copied its treatment techniques from Straight Inc, a Straight Inc spin off.

        For readers of Girl Interrupted and Tweak, Cyndy Etler’s gripping memoir gives readers a glimpse into the harrowing reality of her sixteen months in the notorious “tough love” program the ACLU called “a concentration camp for throwaway kids.”

        • DdC says:

          Still confusing.

          The Dead inside by Cyndi Drew Etler is about the author being sent to ACLU which is a so-called program which copied its treatment techniques from Straight Inc, a Straight Inc spin off.

          sent to ACLU which is a so-called program which copied its treatment techniques from Straight Inc

          Mr Alex, the ACLU is the American Civil Liberties Union that makes more sense in the second paragraph…

          sixteen months in the notorious “tough love” program the ACLU called “a concentration camp for throwaway kids.”

          So I’m taking it to mean that Cyndi got information from the ACLU about this concentration camp for throwaway kids</strong? Not that the camp is called the ACLU. Right?

        • Mr_Alex says:

          @DdC the ACLU that Cyndi Drew Etler is writing about is not about the American Civil Liberties Union I might have got myself muddled up

          Its about the tough love program Cyndi was placed in which literally copied its program from Straight Inc

        • DdC says:

          Cool.

          Now the latest bizCzar wants to start up even more draconian “treatment” facilities. More generations of abused kids. Cyndi Drew Etler needs to write more and faster.

  9. Servetus says:

    The American Chemical Society honors Bicycle day, April 19. It’s not what you might think:

    …Bicycle Day on April 19 honors not the two-wheeled mode of transportation, but the colorful ride taken by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman who accidentally discovered LSD 74 years ago.

    A 4 minute 52 second video from the ACS provides a quick history of Hoffman and LSD chemistry:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L32mAiLXnLs&feature=youtu.be

    • Daniel Williams says:

      It’s Hofmann. Not trying to nit-pick, but the man deserves to have his name spelled correctly.

      [Trivia: Hofmann intentionally took his 250ug of LSD at 4:20 in the afternoon.]

  10. Deep Dish says:

    I live near Lake County, and that video made me temporarily mistake it for the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, which is notoriously bad. Speaking of which,

    “Lake Alfred, Fla. (970 WFLA)- A man is dead after trying to hold off sheriff’s deputies with a gun, as they were conducting a search on a drug warrant.

    Polk sheriff Grady Judd says they found a false room inside the house on Sunset Circle, and inside, 28 year old Kevin Johnson shot at them as they ordered him to put his hands up. Deputies called in the SWAT team, negotiators tried to talk Johnson out, deputies found him dead when they blew a hole through the wall.”

    Who needs door hinges, when you can blow the wall?

  11. Servetus says:

    Why does marijuana contain terpenes? It’s likely because the plant uses terpenes to communicate with other organisms. Microbial ecologists from the Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW) have discovered that terpenes act as chemical messengers for billions and billions of life forms:

    13-APR-2017…bacteria and fungi — use fragrances, known as terpenes, to hold conversations. And that’s not all. “We actually believe that terpenes are the most popular chemical medium on our planet to communicate through.”…this ‘chemical communication’ will probably work for a whole bunch of other life forms as well[…]

    The researchers established this by studying which genes were switched ‘on’ by the bacterium, which proteins it began to produce and which fragrance. Or, in more fancy terms: by using transcriptomic, proteomic and metabolomic techniques. “Such fragrances — or volatile organic compounds — are not just some waste product, they are instruments targeted specifically at long-distance communication between these minute fungi and bacteria.”

    But how widespread is this ‘language of smells’? Pathogenic soil fungi such as Fusarium also have an effect aboveground, where they make plants sick. Can they communicate with those plants? Garbeva: “We have known for some time that plants and insects use terpenes to communicate with each other. But we’ve only just begun to realise that it’s actually much wider. There is a much larger group of ‘Terpene-speakers’: micro-organisms.”

    Fungi, protists, bacteria, and even higher animals…Terpenes act as pheromones — chemical signals used by animals — which makes them a regular ingredient of perfumes. So it’s likely that the language of terpenes forms a vast chemical communications network indeed.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: The world’s most spoken language is…’Terpene’

    • DdC says:

      How can any sane person knowingly sit by while they have banned research, and not be considered as insane as those knowingly perpetuating it? Is greed that powerful it can turn adults into scared children? How much fear can be propagandized, for decades, and continue to keep the government clueless in Ganja policy. Strong enough to keep this plant from the people? Sick kids and ruined lives and houses stolen to maintain a vile corrupt insane Prohibition of such an important part of human development. I still maintain ECB deficiency or CECD. Is evolving authoritarian followers into timid mice living in fear.. Since the 30’s, generations abstaining.

      Taught to obey but not taught why they should obey. Just follow orders. Just say no. Doctors doing harm and thousands of police stations and a million cops treating sick Americans like animals. Insane people should not be running the asylum or writing policy. Next question is how can hundreds of millions of people let a minority continue to steal our free press, Chickenhawks raising Drumpf’s score card with each tax paid missile hurled. Killing people with MOABs, newstainment puppets cheering death. Never mention cannabis lowering overdoses from pharmaceuticals pushing oxy, disregarding regulations red flagging large quanties going to few places. Sell more, make billions and pay the fine.

      ☛ Ignorant Jeff ‘surprised’ Americans aren’t embracing him
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1164
      http://oi68.tinypic.com/sljhnp.jpg

      ☛ Cannabis, the Importance of Forgetting
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1620

      ☛ Plant Intelligence
      According to Pollan, the research data clearly shows that plants are a lot more sophisticated than we ever knew. For one thing, they have more senses than we do—they have all of our five senses (including hearing) plus up to 15 senses that we do not. They “communicate” with friends or enemies, can recognize their own kin, even wage war. They hunt, forage, trick their enemies, and even “care” for their young.

      ☛ Michael Pollan:
      What Do Marijuana and Catnip Have in Common?

      By Michael Pollan, Julie Holland, MD / Park

      Holland: So THC could potentially protect the plant from pests by discombobulating them so they forget where they found it?

      Pollan: It potentially is doing that. The big question is why plants would evolve very specific chemical compounds that have this strange effect on the mental processes of mammals, and that’s one theory that I came up with to explain it. There is also, of course, the pure-chance theory. Maybe the THC is doing something else entirely, like protecting the plant from UV rays or performing some other function for the plant, or maybe it does indeed kill insects. But it just so happens that THC also unlocks this particular receptor network in humans.

      Holland: I am very interested in the idea that we co-evolved with cannabis on the Earth for ten thousand years and that we’ve got receptors for this plant substance inside our brains, that we’ve got cannabinoids and anandamide inside us. You’ve written about cannabis helping you forget as sort of a helpful strategy or adaptation, and there’s a line in Botany of Desire about forgetting as a prerequisite to human happiness and mental health. I guess anandamide is our brain’s own drug for coping and enduring. It’s not just the benefits of forgetting — what’s that line, “Do you really want to remember every face you saw on the subway this morning?”

      Pollan: Yes, Raphael Mechoulam keyed me in to that idea. We understand the evolutionary utility of memory, but we don’t often think about the utility of forgetting. And it was that comment by him that made me realize that it’s almost as important to be able to forget as it is to remember.

  12. Mouth says:

    Hallelujah we have dropped that big bomb in Afghanistan. Weapons of such lethal range (including guns and smaller bombs) are a Godsend for us—economically. Now Nursing homes might start to close down. If you’re not capable of having at least $100 grand in the stock market upon retiring, then you should just work until you die or have your children house you and take care of you. Congressman Mark Wayne Mullin just cleared up a major misunderstanding between him and those who voted or didn’t vote for him: ‘I pay my own salary to be in Washington—you don’t.’ Now we have a law that’ll make it easier for companies like Google to leave or at least come here, but without hiring locally . . . this law will help science teachers not to teach science anymore. I remember reading the part of the Bible where Moses came down from Mount Sinai and brought down for his people: The Periodic Table of the Elements.

    I think it’s time we legalize Medical Marijuana—at the very least, lest more suffering and woe comes upon our state.

  13. Servetus says:

    Given fewer marijuana arrests, is Trump’s mass deportation program designed to boost the previously sagging private prison industry, along with Dick Cheney’s stock portfolio? Christopher Brauchli thinks so:

    Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison. — Henry David Thoreau, Civil Disobedience.[…]

    …The day after the election shares in CoreCivic rose 43 percent and shares in GEO rose 21 percent. The investors’ optimism was rewarded when on February 21, 2017, Attorney General Sessions, rescinded the order that the private prisons be phased out. Following the announcement, the prison companies enjoyed another jump in share prices…Jailers in small Texas counties are also excited…rejoicing in the prospect of more inmates, thanks to the increased attention being paid to illegal immigrants and their incarceration. Because of reforms to the criminal justice system, a number of Texas counties are having a tough time making ends meet because their jails are underperforming. An underperforming jail is one located in a community in which the residents do not engage in sufficient criminal activity to provide residents for the local jails.

    According to a report by the Associated Press, the current problem traces its beginning to the 1990s and the early 2000s. Counties that were losing employment prospects for their citizens, addressed the problem by building new jails with lots of beds. The plan was that, in addition to housing their residents, the jails could be rented out to other counties and the federal government when those entities found themselves short of space….Now many of the counties that eagerly built new jails, find themselves trying to pay off the cost of construction without adequate occupants to pay the debt that was incurred to build them.

    http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/14/the-bright-side-of-deportation-private-prison-stocks-are-soaring/

  14. Servetus says:

    BBC documents the hashish industry in Lebanon’s Beqaa Valley in a 17 minute 30 second video called “Meeting the Lebanese Drug Lord”. Lebanon would raise its standard of living exponentially if it abolished cannabis prohibition. It could even be a step toward peace in the general region.

    http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-39140825

  15. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Kelly: Marijuana ‘not a factor’ in [war on (some) drugs]
    By Kevin Robillard
    04/16/17

    Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said Sunday that marijuana is “not a factor” in the war on drugs and that solving the nation’s drug problem does not involve “arresting a lot of users.”

    Kelly, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” was discussing his work to stop the flow of drugs into the United States from Central America and Mexico when host Chuck Todd asked whether legalizing marijuana would help or hurt his work.

    “Yeah, marijuana is not a factor in the drug war,” Kelly responded, adding later: “It’s three things. Methamphetamine. Almost all produced in Mexico. Heroin. Virtually all produced in Mexico. And cocaine that comes up from further south.” Kelly said that in 2015 those three drugs, plus opiates, were responsible for the deaths of 52,000 people in the United States and cost the country $250 billion.
    /snip/

  16. DdC says:

    How many “crimes” have corporations
    paying Congress to exclude reality, for profits?

    In reality these are the people terrorizing Americans, for profit. The government in lock step with these slimy corporations. Wasting over a trillion dollars and stigmatizing 20 million Americans with arrest records. For profit. Kids stopping seizures and they advocate to put the parents in jail. Forfeitures, confiscations, overtime pay and citizens pay for it. The worse outside of selling America out. Bob Barr stopped the DC votes from being counted to thwart legalization. Paul Ryan blocked any new legislation concerning cannabis.

    Media continues to censor any positive info and quick to pass gossip or infer wrong doing or unsafe conditions. All for profits. There is no lace for these assholes to hide anymore. Its always been about greed. The flag jerkers and bible clutchers are in the front lines advocating Americans suffer for their profits. How can anyone keep a straight face rooting for the home team, How can a cop or politician stand up and face the enemies threatening harm to Americans, Knowing they are only protecting profits. disgUSting.

    ☛ WikiLeaks: Alcohol Industry Bribed Congress To Demonize Marijuana
    Newly leaked information reveals that officials in some of the top alcohol companies in America spent money on persuading members of Congress to pay attention to the alleged problem of “marijuana-impaired driving.”

    ☛ A Pharma Company That Spent $500,000 Trying to Keep Pot Illegal Just Got DEA Approval for Synthetic Marijuana

    ☛ Jeff Sessions May Hate Cannabis…
    But He Sure Loves Big Tobacco

    ☛ Private Prisons Could Flourish Under Trump Administration

    ☛ Authoritarians and the Drug War by Pete Guither
    Drug WarRant Saturday, February 17, 2007
    I’ve just discovered the work of Bob Altemeyer, an Associate Professor of Psychology who has researched authoritarianism pretty much his entire life, and whose work provided much of the support for John Dean’s book Conservatives Without Conscience.

    Sean Hannity messageboard.
    orig. link “Server not found”
    http://forums.hannity.com/ new link

    One of the clearly authoritarian) posters had brought up, in opposition to marijuana, an early study by Dr. Tashkin that showed potential for precancerous links to marijuana

    Our folks countered with Tashkin’s later comprehensive study that conclusively showed no link between even heavy marijuana use and lung cancer. How did the authoritarian respond? Carefully analyze the evidence? Look for more studies? No. Here was his reaction:

    This is exactly why all funding for research should be stopped immediately. The Universities and Colleges of America are the enemy in the war on drugs. They harbor druggies, they employ druggies and they are the epitome of the drug culture. […]
    Marijuana should not be studied. There’s been too much study. It’s just time to condemn the Demon Weed for all eternity as well as all who partook of the Demon Weed. To HELL WITH THEM ALL. I hate them, I hate their misdeeds, I hate all they stand for and I don’t want them studied, I want them prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and made to pay for their crimes.

    • Let Timmy Smoke says:

      Must Read book. Bob Altemeyer’s book on authoritarians is essential to understanding authoritarian followers.

      Don’t make me do a book report, just read the damn thing, and thank Pete/DdC later.

      This book helped relax the part of my mind that was constantly worried over why facts and logic were so impotent in important social issues.

  17. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Stupidpatrick is back, and he’s as stupid as ever. But I still can’t imagine anyone other than our pal PK that I’d rather have as the lead mouthpiece for the continued embrace of this proven failure of public policy. The pathological inability to adapt his arguments is just precious.

    Kennedy: Medicinal Marijuana is a ‘Trojan Horse’ for the recreational drug industry

    I do wish these people would decide if it’s a “Trojan” horse, a “stalking” horse or a camel trying to get into the tent to molest the womens and childrens. Why the heck do they have such a problem with keeping their metaphorical animals in the correct corrals?

    • darkcycle says:

      Nice one, Duncan.

    • Servetus says:

      All the previous prohibition addicts are still at it. Senators Grassley and Feinstein are pushing drug-propaganda legislation designed to make their voters believe they care about kids:

      Apr 14, 2017 — Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) are re-introducing the Protecting Kids from Candy-flavored Drugs Act, which calls for a mandatory 10-year sentence for those convicted of marketing candy-flavored drugs to children. Repeat offenders could serve up to 20 years.

      “We are seeing an increasing problem of candies and cookies and other edible items getting into the wrong hands and causing really bad outcomes,” said Kevin Sabet, President of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM).

      Sabet, who is supporting the legislation, says it’s alarming how innocent these drugs can appear.

      “Once it’s out of the package, these things look exactly like the gummy bears you get in a movie theater,” Sabet explained, “this is done on purpose.”

      Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) says he re-introduced the bill because the DEA has not tackled this problem.

      “They will do anything to get kids hooked on drugs. So, they mix the drugs, even methamphetamine with candy and then sell it like it’s real candy,” Grassley said.

      Opponents of the bill say it targets legal marijuana and those who sell and consume it.

      “The goal of Senators Grassley and Feinstein is to go after legal operations in states where recreational use of marijuana is legal, where adults are marketed with edible marijuana,” said Kara Gotsch with the Sentencing Project.[…]

      http://www.graydc.com/content/news/Senators-take-aim-at-drug-laced-candies–419496433.html

      If the two senior senators really cared about the children, they would work to lift the federal research ban on cannabis to allow full emergence of a life-saving branch of medical science.

      • DdC says:

        A lot of the same ole crap that labeling solved. Same ole crap about the kiddies. With alcohol in food extracts, mouth wash and non alcohol fake beer and candy cigarettes. Nixon handed out bubble-gum cigars in his campaign. M&M’s & Reese’s Pieces = Candy Pills. Kids can possess a gun at 12, a lethal weapon car at 16. Most of the adult overdoses were from legal pharmaceuticals. Cell phones are much more deadly than Ganja.

        Sports takes kids lives and leaves them disabled every year. Why don’t they outlaw poverty or house the homeless if they really want to help the kids. Build better schools with the taxes instead of dropping $170,000 MOABs. Now more harsh prison profits when its really lazy parenting, letting the kids have access. Or punish the world over naturally occurring stupidity of kids in general. DiFi and Hatch should get a room, in a Louisiana Prison Dungeon.

        1860s, the Ganja Wallah Hasheesh Candy Company made maple sugar hashish candy, which soon became one of the most popular treats in America.
        For 40 years, it was sold over the counter and advertised in newspapers, as well as being listed in the catalogs of Sears-Roebuck, as a totally harmless, delicious, and fun candy. Or Perilous Play by Louisa May Alcott 1869 Hashish Bon Bon’s.

        I called the Dispensary and ordered a 4:20 Brownie. Big ole Peanut Butter Chocolate Gooey S’mores, With 500 whopping MG’s of some fairly kynd levels of THC. Sealed, labeled, fair trade Cacao, with a can of Ganja soda called Sprig… Civilized. Big Label Letters to “start extremely small”. The back of the package lists proper use, ingredients NO GMO! They delivered it to my door, Civilized.

        Here is the back label.
        Should prevent Dowd Syndrome

        500MG THC
        fair trade cacao
        Peanut Butter S’Mores.

        Quote on back of hermetically sealed package:

        START EXTREMELY SMALL
        Start with one piece the size of a half inch sugar cube. Wait at least TWO HOURS to feel the full effects before consuming more. One single cube contains 7 – 9mg THC. There are approximately 60 half inch cubes in this brownie. Eat one and be patient.

        ☛ Childhood Obesity: The Link to Drinks
        Childhood obesity rates have doubled throughout the past 30 years in the United States for children ages 2-5 and 12-19, and tripled in the age group of 6-11. Obesity for children is defined as a body mass index (BMI) at or above the 95th percentile for similar age and gender youths.

        Social and Environmental Pressures

        Many social and environmental pressures lead to greater obesity in children. Chief among these influences is the wide variety and availability of sugar-sweetened drinks that contain little to no nutritional value. These beverages include:

        * Soft drinks
        * Sports drinks
        * Fruit drinks
        * Flavored teas and coffees
        * Energy drinks

        Throughout the past 10-15 years, these drinks have exploded on to the consumer scene, flooding grocery stores, gas stations, convenience stores and vending machines.

        The Problem:
        Sugary Drinks Are a Major Contributor to the Obesity Epidemic

        Two out of three adults and one out of three children in the United States are overweight or obese, and the nation spends an estimated $190 billion a year treating obesity-related health conditions. Rising consumption of sugary drinks has been a major contributor to the obesity epidemic. A typical 20-ounce soda contains 15 to 18 teaspoons of sugar and upwards of 240 calories. A 64-ounce fountain cola drink could have up to 700 calories. People who drink this “liquid candy” do not feel as full as if they had eaten the same calories fro

        In cosmetic labeling, the term “alcohol,” used by itself, refers to ethyl alcohol. Cosmetic products, including those labeled “alcohol free,” may contain other alcohols, such as cetyl, stearyl, cetearyl, or lanolin alcohol.

        ☛ Alcohol in Household Products
        Alcohol ingestion by young children can lead to a dangerous drop in blood sugar levels that can produce seizures, coma, permanent neurological damage and even death. Alcohol is more pervasive in the homes of North Americans than one would expect, and younger children are at risk of alcohol ingestion, too. Alcohol is present in a number of household items in addition to popular alcoholic beverages and many of these items, such as mouthwash and cosmetics, are readily accessible to children.

        ☛ 10-Year-Old Florida Boy Fatally Shoots Himself
        After Being Sent to Room for Timeout

        Fifth-grader Ian Sevostjanov was acting up before school about 8:30 a.m. when he was told to go into another room. That’s where he found a handgun and fatally shot himself with a single bullet.

        ☛ The Assassins of Youth: DARE † FRCn PDFA
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/505
        Partnership for a Drug-Free America Sources of Funding from 1988-91 as extracted from Federal Tax Returns (figures are approximate) by the Washington
        ☛ LIQUOR FIRMS
        ☛ TOBACCO COMPANIES
        ☛ PHARMACEUTICAL FIRMS
        ☛ DRUG MANUFACTURERS
        ☛Johnson and Johnson manufactures Haldol, an anti-psychotic drug that has much worse side effects than marijuana. This comes from a FAQ on Haldol
        ☛ HOFFMAN-LaROCHE: PRODUCERS OF ROOFIES

        ☛ SMITH, KLINE AND FRENCH
        “In 1952, after seven years of research and development, the first time-released capsule, Dexedrine, was marketed and used in a Spansule. Spansule was a major therapeutic breakthrough and provided a novel and much needed form of drug delivery.” -Smith, Kline and Beecham corporate history. In the early 1950’s numerous housewives got strung out on Dexedrine, which was widely prescribed as a weight loss pill. Today, medical practitioners are not allowed to prescribe it for weight loss as they once did.

      • WalStMonky says:

        .
        .

        That reminds me that I forgot to tell my wife that she needs to quit eating (regulation) gummy bears because she’s too darn old to enjoy them. Heck, she’s going to retire at the end of the month so you’d think that she would know better by now.

        But I’m not sure why politicians in their dotage still promoting prohibition is any surprise. I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again…circa 2012 the citizenry decided suddenly and practically without warning that it was time for the mania to end. It takes decades for a politician to work its way into the position of power held by Sens. Grassley and Feinstein. Sheeee-it, I’ll bet both of them voted in favor of the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Absolute prohibition is all these people have ever known, and they’ve been significantly rewarded with substantial amounts of political capital for their dedicated foaming at the mouth participation in promoting the mania. Ummm, seriously, who can name a politician which was elected before 2012 on a promise to re-legalize other than Jimmy Carter?

    • DC Reade says:

      Patrick Kennedy’s “credentials” for being a drug expert are 1)name recognition and 2)a history as an opioid addict, now recovered.

      He’s also responsible for one of the strangest non sequiturs I’ve ever heard a politician concoct- he says that he’s never smoked marijuana, because he has asthma or a condition similar to it, and he contends that this is a fortunate twist of fate that saved him from what he apparently thinks is an even worse fate than the opioid addiction he used to suffer from.

      Got that? Marijuana played no part in Kennedy’s own personal history of illegal drug addiction, and yet he’s convinced that it’s a dangerous drug and a gateway to the hard stuff. Because Rehab Indoctrination, I suppose. He certainly doesn’t have any medical expertise. He hasn’t even demonstrated the broad-based knowledge base I expect of someone conferred with the status of an educated layperson. The simple fact of having once had a dysfunctional relationship with mind-altering substances has no business being touted as qualifying expertise in relation to this issue, much less as endowing someone’s particular views on substance use with some special gravitas or authoritative final wisdom. That’s just, well, crazy.

      Patrick Kennedy is also one of the most vocal proponents of making a “checkup from the neck up” an integral part of the Affordable Care Act; he wants something along the lines of universal mental health screening for all Americans, so the minions of the Therapeutic State can provide each of us with our own Expert Diagnosis of our mental condition.

      That’s exactly the sort of intrusive Big Government Liberalism that a part-liberal ideological skeptic like myself finds intolerable.

      • DdC says:

        He needs to be sued for endangering the public safety. I think I’ll check into that. Feeding the profits over people. Screaming fire in a crowded theater. He is causing injury when politicians make policy on his hysteria. He causes mental anguish and trauma to the most vulnerable, the disabled, sick and elderly. Calling American citizens and their doctors liars and frauds. Defamation of their character at least. Practicing medicine without a license by interfering with recorded results and actual Physicians diagnosis.

        Oprah had to go to court for saying something negative about hamburgers in Texas. Stupid Patrick and SAM are a clear causal connection to harm being done to real Americans. He is a coward and his family should be ashamed of him dragging the family name deeper into the mud with his insane ramblings, based on insane ramblings, based on nothing. JFK smoked pot.

        Patrick Kennedy had to take any job
        he could get after killing his father.

        Teddy Kennedy RIP
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1568
        Ganjawar Prevents Brain Tumor Treatment
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1527
        Teddy Kennedy and The Ultimate Tragedy of Liberalism.
        His Brain Tumor Is of the Type That Cannabis Might Cure.
        Suppressed Research May Claim Another Drug War Victim.

        Posted by Richard Cowan on 2008-05-20 16:20:00

        As it happens, there have been several studies showing that glioma cells can be killed by cannabinoids.Incredibly, at least one of these studies was suppressed by the US government.

        Had the medical potential of cannabis not been suppressed to satisfy the needs of the Drug War’s prohibitionist propaganda, scientists might have developed ways of using cannabinoids to treat this type of cancer that would be far more effective than the treatment that he is going to have to endure.

        U.S. GOVT. COVERS UP MARIJUANA CANCER CURE!
        Last year, Spanish scientists found evidence that marijuana can (destroy) tumors in rats. But that came as (no surprise) to US. health (officials), (who quickly (deep sixed) the report). (Drug-war-obsessed federal officials) (have known) about the (cancer-beating) properties of (pot) for (more than 25 years) and have kept it a (secret) from (the public)!

        ☛ U.S. government doublespeak:
        Marijuana cures cancer, but has ‘no accepted medical use’

        Cannabis Shrinks Tumors: Government Knew in 74
        http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/588

        “A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.” ~ John F. Kennedy

        • Servetus says:

          There hasn’t been an intelligent Kennedy since Bobby died.

        • DdC says:

          Looks like Jack and Bobby’s kids are/were heading in the right direction. Teddy was the little brother missing out. Then never really recovered from Chappaquiddick. Then moved inside a bottle to live with it. The total insanity of it is, of all the offspring Teddy’s kid is the most fucked up. John Jr r.i.p., and Robert Jr. and Caroline are the best of the lot. Different times. Bobby was murdered by the same forces Stupid Patrick works for as a Prohibitionist. Fighting to keep color from inculcating their black and white world of fear, cigarettes and booze.

          The insane irony of Stupid Patrick publicly doing his best to prevent others from brain tumor research with cannabis. Is his life as the son of a celebrity Alcoholic. To think how many die “for the message to the kids” that is full tilt handed down bullshit spewed by ignorant Psycho’s. Any sane, but irrational over zealous brat would take their crusade to ridding the world of the actual demon making their life hell or what killed their childhood. Did them real harm. The insanity of SP…

          ☛ Cannabis Substitution:
          Marijuana Maintenance as a Treatment for Alcohol Dependence

          The Research of Tod Mikuriya, MD

          ☛ Alcoholism
          ~ Cannabinoid Therapies for the Treatment of Alcohol Dependence
          ~ Study: Cannabidiol (CBD) May Help Prevent Alcohol-Induced Liver Damage
          ~ Study: CBD-Based Topicals May Aid In Alcoholism Treatment

          ☛ Legalizing Marijuana Decreases Fatal Opiate Overdoses, Study Shows

  18. Advocates say anti-drug group is helping craft Florida’s medical marijuana laws https://t.co/7702BQECt8

    “The Miami Herald reports the Drug Free America Foundation, which was founded by Republican financiers Mel and Betty Sembler, raised millions of dollars in 2014 to defeat medical marijuana on the ballot and continued to raise money in 2016 to defeat Amendment 2. That effort failed after 71 percent of voters supported medical marijuana in November.”

    “Although the majority of Floridians disagreed with the group’s position, lobbyists for Drug Free America have still managed to influence legislation regarding medical cannabis, specifically HB 1397. The Herald reports that over half of the anti-drug group’s 43 suggestions to prevent the state’s medical marijuana from being “abused” have made it into the bill proposed by state Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero.”

    “The House proposal would have the practical effect of negating the popularly approved law, creating a system in many ways even more limited than the existing, low-THC cannabis statute passed in 2014” …

  19. Servetus says:

    Have an itch you can’t scratch? Try cannabis face cream. More medical uses for cannabinoids detailed in Colorado studies:

    AURORA, Colo. (April 18, 2017) – Cannabinoids contain anti-inflammatory properties that could make them useful in the treatment of a wide-range of skin diseases, according to researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.[…]

    …the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, summarizes the current literature on the subject and concludes that pharmaceuticals containing cannabinoids may be effective against eczema, psoriasis, atopic and contact dermatitis.[…]

    “Perhaps the most promising role for cannabinoids is in the treatment of itch,” said the study’s senior author Dr. Robert Dellavalle, MD, associate professor of dermatology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

    He noted that in one study, eight of 21 patients who applied a cannabinoid cream twice a day for three weeks completely eliminated severe itching or pruritus. The drug may have reduced the dry skin that gave rise to the itch.

    Dellavalle believes the primary driver in these cannabinoid treatments could be their anti-inflammatory properties. In the studies he and his fellow researchers reviewed, they found that THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the active ingredient in marijuana, reduced swelling and inflammation in mice.

    At the same time, mice with melanoma saw significant inhibition of tumor growth when injected with THC.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: Cannabinoids may soothe certain skin diseases, say CU Anschutz researchers: Anti-inflammatory properties may be the key

  20. DdC says:

    ☛ Big Pharma LOVES The Opioid Epidemic!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUrDGQHHXWI
    Published on Apr 14, 2017

    With marijuana illegal and DEA’s attempts to make alternative pain meds like cbd hemp oil Schedule I, Big Pharma has only reaped the benefits. But when the DEA threatened that cushy relationship by expanding its war on drugs to fight opioid drugmakers, Big Pharma’s kid gloves came off. Despite the tens of thousands of U.S. opioid overdose deaths a year, pharma companies used their money and influence to disarm the DEA’s best tools against keeping opioids like oxycodone off the black market. Natalie McGill covers this fight of evil versus a better funded evil with stock options.

    ☛ American Epidemic:
    The Nation’s Struggle With Opioid Addiction

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNj89ohoYQ0
    Published on Jan 3, 2017

    In 2016, Wall Street Journal video journalists Robert Libetti and Adya Beasley chronicled the devastating impact of opioid abuse. This is the story of four families touched by the epidemic. Photo: Robert Libetti

    ☛ Opioid Wars – Fault Lines
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkkF9M9h3XA
    Published on Jan 16, 2016

    Behind the recent flurry of headlines about a massive surge in heroin use is a much more widespread wave of addiction to legal opioids—OxyContin, Vicodin and other painkillers.

    One recent study found that 4 in 5 heroin users previously abused prescription opioids. In the last 15 years, at least 100,000 people have died from prescription opioid abuse.

    Last fall, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a powerful, new painkiller called Zohydro, a pure form of hydrocodone that contains five to 10 times the opiate level of Vicodin. The FDA approved Zohydro even though its own advisory committee voted 11 to 2 against approval, citing the drug’s potential to exacerbate the opioid abuse epidemic.

    Fault Lines examines the opioid epidemic in the U.S., and asks whether federal drug policy privileges Big Pharma’s bottom line over larger concerns of public health.

    http://twitter.com/RedactedTonight

    ☛ Cannabis: Prevent Brain Damage From Other Toxic Drugs

    ☛ Overcoming Opioids: The quest for less addictive drugs

    ☛ How many “crimes” do Corporations Buy?
    http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/1165

    • DC Reade says:

      Purdue Pharmaceuticals invented Oxycontin- oxycodone compounded for slow time release- due to their market concerns about the results of the expiration on their patent monopoly on MSContin- morphine sulfate compounded for slow time release. MSContin was of course due to become eligible for status as a generic medication, so to stay in the game of patent monopoly, Purdue simply applied their compounding technology to a different opioid molecule of similar potency and effect. Not exactly a pharmacological breakthrough, although Purdue hyped it as one. Purdue probably also benefited from the lower profile of oxycodone as an addictive drug when compared to the reputation of morphine, even though it’s nearly as powerful an opioid, especially when the tablet dose amount is 40mg or stronger.

      And with all of the extant knowledge about the appeal of strong doses of opioids to addicts and those who prefer to ingest them as pleasure drugs, Purdue somehow didn’t bother with coming up with a compounding technology for their pills that impeded its solubility, to prevent people from simply dissolving them or chewing them to obtain an instant-release effect.

  21. InitialO'garth says:

    Closing ranks:

    Two days after downplaying the role of marijuana in the nation’s drug war, Department of Homeland Security John Kelly changed course on Tuesday, calling it a “potentially dangerous gateway drug” and saying his agency would continue to arrest and investigate those who traded in it in violation of federal law.

    “Let me be clear about marijuana: It is a potentially dangerous gateway drug that frequently leads to the use of harder drugs,”

    http://www.bnd.com/news/politics-government/article145263039.html

  22. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Well this is a damn shame. I know no one likes Bill O’Reilly but do you really think that he should have gotten fired over those bogus allegations of sexual harassment? Seriously, how stupid does a person have to be in order to be persuaded that Mr. O’Reilly has the ability to get and maintain an erection?

    • Mouth says:

      And as she was sucking his co#k, he told her to say the words he loved to hear, ‘Tell it to me baby.’
      ‘Sthe shpin shtops shere.’
      ‘Oh, that’s the kool-aid you want to drink baby.’

      And he would ask the ladies: ‘Who wants to go on (top of) the O’Reilly Factor next?

    • jean valjean says:

      He borrowed some blue pills from Rush. I love the description of Fox News under Ailes being like the Playboy Mansion.

    • DC Reade says:

      you should offer to be O’Reilly’s defense counsel, Monky.

  23. Servetus says:

    The term ‘higher’ in psychedelic parlance has been confirmed by a British scientific study as depicting a true state of mind, thereby once and for all legitimizing use of the word ‘higher’ on the Ed Sullivan Show, et al:

    19-APR-2017 — Scientific evidence of a ‘higher’ state of consciousness has been found in a study led by the University of Sussex.

    Neuroscientists observed a sustained increase in neural signal diversity – a measure of the complexity of brain activity – of people under the influence of psychedelic drugs, compared with when they were in a normal waking state.

    The diversity of brain signals provides a mathematical index of the level of consciousness. For example, people who are awake have been shown to have more diverse neural activity using this scale than those who are asleep.

    This, however, is the first study to show brain-signal diversity that is higher than baseline, that is higher than in someone who is simply ‘awake and aware’. Previous studies have tended to focus on lowered states of consciousness, such as sleep, anaesthesia, or the so-called ‘vegetative’ state.

    The team say that more research is needed using more sophisticated and varied models to confirm the results but they are cautiously excited.[…]

    As well as helping to inform possible medical applications, the study adds to a growing scientific understanding of how conscious level (how conscious one is) and conscious content (what one is conscious of) are related to each other.

    Professor Seth said: “We found correlations between the intensity of the psychedelic experience, as reported by volunteers, and changes in signal diversity. This suggests that our measure has close links not only to global brain changes induced by the drugs, but to those aspects of brain dynamics that underlie specific aspects of conscious experience.”

    The research team are now working hard to identify how specific changes in information flow in the brain underlie specific aspects of psychedelic experience, like hallucinations.

    AAAS Public Release: First evidence for higher state of consciousness found

  24. DdC says:

    Happy Bicycle Day!

  25. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Holy Frijoles! The “latest” poll says 55 million American adults have chosen to enjoy cannabis in the last year.
    https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/04/19/11-charts-that-show-marijuana-has-truly-gone-mainstream/?utm_term=.17114d6ff767

    I’m having a hard time with the thought that we’ve really seen the number more than triple from 17 million to 55 million in just a couple of years. Point in fact: It ain’t the 55 million number that gives me the skepticals.

  26. darkcycle says:

    Indeed, Happy Bicycle Day, couchmates! Whoopee! Coming down off the bike can be a long process if you’re an old coot who rarely rides anymore.
    And I found the coolest fence. You HAVE to see this. 😉

Comments are closed.