SAM burned by Angell

Tom Angell and the Marijuana Moment continue to keep on top of everything marijuana-related, including the ridiculous antics of Kevin Sabet and S.A.M.

In this latest post, Anti-Marijuana Site Features Pro-Legalization Politician (For Some Reason), Tom details a number of the past big efforts by Kevin and SAM that never amounted to anything. Worth checking out (and also worth supporting Tom’s efforts).

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

51 Responses to SAM burned by Angell

  1. jean valjean says:

    I’m not sure how much faith one can put in Jeremy Corbyn as a legalizer. He seems to have avoided committing himself one way or another in best politician manner.

    “Last year, the Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said he was in favour of decriminalising cannabis for medicinal use.
    But Labour remains opposed to legalisation.
    A spokesperson told us, “We do not support the legalisation of cannabis. Our goal is to see fewer people start using drugs, more people helped by treatment towards a drug-free life, and a reduction in the damage which problem drug users can cause to communities.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/59932bc9-7c7a-4e6a-95d4-31751419aaf8

  2. DdC says:

    Prohibitionist organization SAM Action launched a billboard
    thanking Congressman Pete Sessions (R-TX)
    https://t.co/TxiK7MAsZN

    Dallas-Area Families and Leading National Marijuana Policy Group Team Up to Support Congressman Pete Sessions’ Stance Against Predatory Marijuana Industry

    http://files.constantcontact.com/d75ceb5f201/9dceaed5-60c4-4b09-a52b-5ece8a4cced7.jpg?a=1129299632500
    “The marijuana industry, egged on by a politician from Portland, Oregon who is bankrolled by the pot lobby, has decided to target Congressman Sessions for championing his constituents health and safety,” said Kevin A. Sabet, President of SAM Action. “The pot lobby can’t stand having someone standing up to their addiction-for-profit tactics. But his constituents know better, and our billboard reflects their gratitude.”

    September 7, 2017
    House Rules Committee Blocks Marijuana Amendments
    Late Wednesday night, the House Rules Committee led by prohibitionist Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX) blocked multiple amendments related to marijuana from receiving consideration by the full House, thus ending their consideration and silencing the ability for the lower chamber to offer protections from Attorney General Jeff Sessions when it comes to cannabis.

    The new KKK,
    SAM’s Kevin Kills Kids is the next billboard

    Teen Boy Explains How Cannabis Saved His Life

    “From time to time, I say that the suppression of medical marijuana is murder. This is not quite correct. It is actually mass murder. It has caused the deaths of countless thousands of people.”
    ~ the Financial Times Limited, 1998
    (Ed. note: The FT is the London equivalent of the Wall Street Journal. This drug could be patented, so it is of interest to the financial community.

  3. Servetus says:

    Kevin Abraham Sabet-Sharghi has a contemporary in 19th century European history, Napoleon III. As the French said of the failed French colonizer of Mexico after he lost the Battle of Puebla on May 5 (Cinco de Mayo), 1862, to the Mexican Army: “all hat and no head”. Et tu Kevin.

    Unfortunately, all Sabet needs to do is find another lonely rich stupid widow and con her into donating a million-or-two to SAM and he’s set for five more years of professional pot trolling.

    • DdC says:

      It isn’t even my Birthday…

      Kevin Sabet (@KevinSabet) on Twitter
      You are blocked from following
      @KevinSabet and viewing @KevinSabet’s Tweets.

      Aw Gheepers, was it something I said? ♪♫♬☍
      I sure hope it was something I said.
      I feel like whistling ♪♫♬☍.

      Kevin Abraham Sabet-Sharghi Burning Pot Plants.
      Just like ISILISISIS? USA! Qaeda Terrorists

  4. Naftali Aaronson says:

    Oregon-based Briteside has launched with an astute pharma ad parody.

    https://youtu.be/HrTcwOJpRk4

  5. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    I’ve updated my report on the number of the numbers of DUI arrests in Colorado according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. Its obvious that Francis is still vigorously enforcing his law.It’s time for prohibition to go the way of the Norwegian Blue and I don’t mean just pining for the fjords.
    In 2016: A barrel of oil sold for $54.90
    Colorado’s population was approximately 5,540,545
    The Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) says that there were 21,745 arrests for DUI in Colorado.

    In 2012: the Colorado voters approved Amendment 64 which decriminalized petty possession, petty cultivation and allows limited retail sales. Also in 2012:
    A barrel of oil sold for $111.47.
    Colorado’s population was approximately 5,189,458.
    The CBI says that there were 23,323 arrests for DUI in Colorado in 2012.

    In 2008: A barrel of oil sold for $151.72.
    Colorado’s population was approximately 4,935,213.
    The CBI says that there were 29,022 arrests for DUI in Colorado in 2008.

    In Y2K Colorado voters approved The Colorado Medical Use of Marijuana Act. Also in Y2K:
    A barrel of oil sold for $45.78.
    Colorado’s population was exactly 4,301,261
    The CBI says that there were 36,135 arrests for DUI in Colorado in Y2K.

    The Colorado Bureau of Investigation provided the number of arrests, the US Census provided the body counts and the Chicago Board Options Exchange provided the historical prices for a barrel of oil.

    I picked 2008 because the prohibitionist LEO’s seem to get cranky when we don’t include an acknowledgement that the Colorado Legislature authorized medicinal cannabis dispensaries in 2010. Colorado’s medicinal cannabis patient protection was approved by Colorado voters on Election Day 2000.

    The price of a barrel of oil is inversely proportional to the number of miles people are willing to drive and is especially true for discretionary driving.

    • Francis says:

      Its obvious that Francis is still vigorously enforcing his law.

      Honestly, it’s pretty much self-enforcing. I mostly just cash the royalty checks.

  6. Will says:

    .
    .
    This will surely tweak dear Kevin;

    https://youtu.be/HrTcwOJpRk4

    • kaptinemo says:

      LMFAO!!! Oh, jeez, that was brilliant, down to the stereotypical professionally-intoned narrative, exactly like some Big Pharma commercial.

      This will really have Kevvie’s panties in a wad. I can just imagine: his currently corpulent self hysterically gesticulating at the screen, shrieking “See, see!? This is exactly what I was warning about! It’s (screaming dopplering down to heaving sobs) BIG MARIJUANA-AH-AH-AH!”

      (Ruefully shaking head) All the prohibs ever had was histrionics. This will push these inveterate drama queens over the edge.

  7. Servetus says:

    Researchers led by Dr Will Lawn, University College of London, has completed an extensive survey on the use of ayahuasca in the treatment of alcoholism:

    9-NOV-2017…Using Global Drug Survey data from more than 96,000 people worldwide, researchers from the University of Exeter and University College London found that ayahuasca users reported lower problematic alcohol use than people who took LSD or magic mushrooms.

    Ayahuasca users also reported higher general wellbeing over the previous 12 months than other respondents in the survey.

    “These findings lend some support to the notion that ayahuasca could be an important and powerful tool in treating depression and alcohol use disorders,” said lead author Dr Will Lawn, of University College London.

    “Recent research has demonstrated ayahuasca’s potential as a psychiatric medicine, and our current study provides further evidence that it may be a safe and promising treatment.

    “It is important to note that these data are purely observational and do not demonstrate causality.

    “Moreover, ayahuasca users in this survey still had an average drinking level which would be considered hazardous. Therefore, randomised controlled trials must be carried out to fully examine ayahuasca’s ability to help treat mood and addiction disorders.

    “However, this study is notable because it is, to the best of our knowledge, the largest survey of ayahuasca users completed to date.”

    Ayahuasca – a blend of the Psychotria Viridis bush and the stems of the Banisteriopsis Caapi vine – is used by indigenous tribes and religious groups in the Amazon region, as well as many visitors.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: Traditional Amazonian drug linked to improved sense of wellbeing

    In a free and open society, science researchers would not be forced to endure research restrictions involving federally funded studies of illicit drugs. In the US, they do. As a result, US pharmaceutical industries lose to England, Spain, Israel and any other countries that initiate drug research that ultimately benefits foreign pharmaceutical businesses and startups.

    The problem requires overcoming people’s superstitious fears involving the psychedelic experience. A better outcome might be achieved if the US declared war on superstitions instead of drugs. As Voltaire wrote of people such as Kevin Sabet: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”

    • DdC says:

      I added this to the thread.
      Uncle SAM says…
      If it isn’t punishment,
      its an alternative pill or both.
      Reality is a terrible thing to waste.

      ☛ Ayahuasca
      ✦ Overcoming Addiction with Ayahuasca
      ✦ Tourism in South America
      ✦ Shock the Junkie: ibogaine
      ✦ Ayahuasca Links
      ✦ Ayahuasca in the Treatment of Alcoholism

      ☛ 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

  8. Servetus says:

    Predatory policing–an enduring problem within drug enforcement–is taking a more direct route in Oklahoma. The Oklahoma’s Sheriffs’ Association is accused of racketeering in a legal system promoting debtors’ imprisonment:

    11.09.17 — Ira Wilkins should be a free man. Wilkins has served his time in an Oklahoma prison and is clear for release. But a private court fee collections agency is keeping him behind bars.

    Wilkins is the lead plaintiff in a new racketeering lawsuit against the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association, every sheriff’s department in the state, and the court fee collections firm Aberdeen Enterprizes II. When Oklahomans owe court fees, their case is assigned to Aberdeen, which charges them an additional 30 percent on top of what courts want. If they don’t pay, Aberdeen requests a warrant for the debtor’s arrest. It’s big business for Aberdeen and the Oklahoma Sheriffs’ Association, which received more than $800,000 from Aberdeen in 2015.

    But while Aberdeen and the OSA strike it rich, poor Oklahomans are languishing in modern day debtors prison, the lawsuit alleges.

    “These plaintiffs are victims of an extortion scheme in which the Defendants have conspired to extract as much money as possible from indigent people through a pattern of illegal and unconscionable behavior,” the suit filed last week in federal court alleges.

    Court fees add up quickly in Oklahoma, and quicker when Aberdeen is on the case.[…]

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/debt-company-makes-sheriffs-rich-by-jailing-the-poor-lawsuit-claims

  9. If you thought that the election which brought you Donald Trump as President was a dog and pony show, wait til you see whats being dreamed up next:

    Ellen Says She or Oprah Will Be Biden’s Running Mate in 2020
    https://tinyurl.com/y9j8sjum

    Its gotta be something good to distract from the likes of Bernie Sanders in 2020.

    Biden has been the antithesis of everything we stand for here at drug war rant.

    This is like adding some honey to your spoonful of asenic – to sweeten up the bitter medicine that you are about to swallow.

  10. DdC says:

    “The German people have no idea of the extent to which
    they have to be gulled in order to be led.~ Adolf Hitler

    ✦ FDA is Open to Medical Marijuana for Vets,
    but Other Agencies Stand in the Way

    ✦ Legal Marijuana May Carry Tax of at Least $1 Per Gram

    ✦ Parts Of Colorado Approve New Marijuana Taxes

    ✦ Just Say No 2.0?
    (How Americans Suffer Under Trump’s Throwback Drug Policies)

    ✦ Lawsuit: Kane sergeant called asset forfeiture ‘tax-liberating gold mine

  11. jean valjean says:

    More on the OxyContin Clan:

    ‘Even as the scope and scale of the opioid epidemic unfolds, the fortune OxyContin built continues to grow. In the case of OxyContin heir Jonathan Sackler, part of that fortune is being devoted to expanding charter schools and weakening protections for teachers in traditional public schools. Patrick Keefe’s New Yorker feature ends with a stunning statistic: “An addicted baby is now born every half hour.” He asks whether such devastation should give pause to organizations that benefit from the Sacklers’ extensive philanthropy. In the case of the charter schools and education reform advocacy groups that Jonathan Sackler funds, the answer to that question should be obvious.’

    https://www.alternet.org/education/notorious-family-contributing-opioid-crisis-and-funding-charter-schools

    • Servetus says:

      Jonathan Sackler embodies in one person a fifth column attack on democracy. The school voucher movement he promotes with OxyContin sales is as insidious as the drug war itself. It was public choice economics that Chile’s dictator Pinochet used to rip apart the social fabric of the country and impose policies designed to expand social and economic inequality. Nancy MacLean, in her book Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right’s Stealth Plan for America (2017) describes the horrific impact private charter schools had in Chile:

      …A nation that once stood out as a middle-class beacon in Latin America now has the worst economic inequality it has seen since the 1930s-and the worst of the thirty-four member states in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and development (OECD). Yet even among those who have profited most from the concentration of wealth, a feeling has spread that the chasm between those favored under the new rules and those hurt is “immoral.”

      The damage done during the Pinochet years by public choice economics goes beyond the legacy of economic inequality it left behind. The imposition of nationwide school “choice” had dire effects as well. Pupil performance diverged sharply, owing to “increased sorting” by income, which naturally took place with the voucher system. Meanwhile, college tuition costs now equal 40 percent of the average household’s income, making a higher education in Chile the most expensive on the planet, relative to per capita income. A huge student movement began in 2011-12 that featured marches of up to 200,000 and had the support of 85 percent of Chileans. The young people demanded the end of “profiteering” in schooling and a free education system with quality and opportunity for all. What they were asking for “is that the state take a different role,” said one leader, Camila Vallejo. “People are not tolerating the way a small number of economic groups benefit from the system.”

      In 2015, prosecutors charged leaders of the Penta Group, among the top beneficiaries of pension privatization, with massive tax evasion, bribery, and illegal financing of right-wing politicians. The prosecution found that the company, with some $30 billion in assets, had become “a machine to defraud the state.” That case lifted a huge rock, leading to inquiries that are ongoing and involve numerous companies tied to the dictatorship and the political parties to which they give. “The depth of corruption is enormous,” observed a law professor at the University of Chile in 2016. “Public interest has been subordinated to private interest, and when there is no clear distinction between them, it opens the door to endless opportunities for corruption.”[…] p. 167.

    • Daniel Williams says:

      If these (not to mention all) drugs were legal and available without prescription, would the Sackler’s still be vilified? I don’t recall much outrage when Sears, Roebuck sold heroin, for years, from their mail-order catalog.

      • Will says:

        .
        .
        There’s a substantial difference between a retailer selling opium based medications in the early 1900’s, before problems with those substances were clearly established and documented, and a family associated with a modern day company that manufactures a product to which they have intentionally misled regarding problematic issues related to that product’s use. Among other ridiculous claims, the Sacklers, through Purdue Pharma, have actually blamed recreational drug users for the problems associated with OxyContin. Surely you can see the difference.

        • Daniel Williams says:

          Will: I dunno. Opium’s addictive properties were well known before the 1900s, and our Civil War established that morphine (considered by battlefield doctors a godsend to wounded soldiers) was highly addictive. So the evidence is there. Evidence also suggests that the overwhelming majority of folks using opioids, as prescribed, usually for short durations, do not become addicted.

          As an old guy, I know plenty of people that have had surgery, followed by a few days of bliss via a morphine drip, and all with few if any difficulties after the fact. I’m no shill for the Sackler’s, but their contention that, when used properly, opioids have a low risk of addiction, seems valid. And the crackdown on prescribing pharmaceutical opiates has led directly to an increase in dirtier and more dangerous substances, which, in the main, bears responsibility for the current increase in accidental overdoses. Surely you can see that.

          Servetus: About the only thing the FDA ever did right was forcing patent medicine makers to disclose ingredients. When early Americans learned that many contained opium (and even more contained cannabis, but that’s another story), sales dropped significantly, causing many manufacturers to go out of business. That was candid information, used intelligently. (The Harrison Narcotics Act of 1914 wasn’t.) And as far as Sackler and his minions making a killing on the middle class and poor, they’re mere pikers when compared to the drug cartels.

          jean valjean: I’m not so sure the Sackler’s would object, at least loudly, if they could sell their products without prescription. They’d make less per unit, but would make it up, or most of it, with volume. Not to mention saving many hundreds of millions fighting court battles and paying outrageous fines, all at the behest of virtue-signaling politicians that couldn’t care less about users. When people wise up to that, the objects of vilification will change.

        • jean valjean says:

          Daniel: It’s prohibition that maintains the Sackler’s partial monopoly on opiate drugs and ensures the profits keep rolling in. Hence the need to hire DEA goons to help circumvent prohibition while preserving it at the same time for everyone else. They’re streets ahead of the “Cartels.” Maybe the Guerrero boys should donate an opera house to someone…

        • Will says:

          .
          .
          “I dunno. Opium’s addictive properties were well known before the 1900s, and our Civil War established that morphine (considered by battlefield doctors a godsend to wounded soldiers) was highly addictive. So the evidence is there. Evidence also suggests that the overwhelming majority of folks using opioids, as prescribed, usually for short durations, do not become addicted.”

          Daniel, you’re just whistling past the point of my comment. Of course there was ‘evidence’ that opium based medications were addictive many years ago. But that’s miles away from the level of understanding we have today. Understanding that the Sacklers have purposefully tried to distance themselves from regarding the products they manufacture. But hey, lets throw shade at a retailer from well over a hundred years ago. We all know that’s where the problems really lie…

      • Servetus says:

        The German company Bayer invented and marketed both aspirin and heroin. Somewhere in my drug literature is an illustration of a Bayer company advertisement promoting aspirin and heroin on the same poster as if there were no differences between the two. There were no warnings accompanying either drug. Candid information might have changed everything.

        In places such as Mexico, Thailand and a number of European locations access to pharmaceuticals is much easier than in the US. Yet those countries don’t have drug meltdowns anything like the current opioid situation in the states. It takes someone such as Sackler and his proto-fascist associates to make a killing on the middle class and poor.

      • jean valjean says:

        “If these (not to mention all) drugs were legal and available without prescription, would the Sackler’s still be vilified?”

        The point is that they are NOT available without prescription. Sackler and his revolving-door “ex-” DEA agents see to that. It’s the corruption, not the principle, that stinks around Sackler and, as people wise up, will lead to ever greater vilification.

      • Servetus says:

        Charges against Purdue Pharma involve bribery. Special perks to doctors and a misleading ad campaign touting OxiContin as safe led to overprescribing the medication starting in the 90s:

        Jul 19, 2017 — I’m reluctant to speak ill of the dead, but Sackler was no hero. He was a businessman whose greed has poisoned our nation and directly contributed to the deadly drug epidemic that’s killed millions of Americans. Sackler and his brothers bought Purdue Pharma in 1952 and for decades sold common-sense medications like earwax remover and laxatives. Then, in the 1990s, they hit on a time-released narcotic they called OxyContin. By convincing doctors that OxyContin was “safer,” offering financial support and special perks to family physicians who were willing to push the drug, and investing millions in a marketing campaign that claimed OxyContin was not only harmless but beneficial, Purdue Pharma cornered the pain pill market. By 2003, Purdue was selling $1.6 billion of the pill annually.[…]

        Raymond Sackler died with American blood on his hands. Since the 1990s, he’s made billions of dollars selling a product that is known to be dangerous, highly addictive, and even deadly. He got to live over 97 years on this earth, yet his product, OxyContin, created a drug epidemic that is now the leading cause of death for people under 50. As he is laid to rest, he will be remembered as one of the primary actors in creating a health crisis that will have unknown, frightening consequences for generations in our country.

        Because of Sackler and pharmaceutical companies like Purdue, people who should be enjoying their retirement are going back to work and struggling to raise their children’s kids. Treatment centers are overloaded with people desperate to find recovery. One person dies every four minutes due to drug and alcohol related causes. This is the world Purdue Pharma built through decades of pushing lethal narcotics into the American health care system: narcotics that it insisted were perfectly safe for anyone to take.

        $13 billion. That’s what the deaths of millions of men, women, and children were worth to Sackler. It was never about helping people. It was never about medicine. It was all for revenue.

        https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/raymond-sackler-oxycontin-dead_us_596f881ee4b0bb3867496f43

        Note that Insys is facing similar charges of bribery, a company that spent half a million dollars in Arizona to prevent the passage of laws allowing for medical marijuana, a drug that competes with fentanyl as a safer pain remedy.

  12. NorCalNative says:

    OT

    I’m in Eugene, Oregon and I’m meeting longtime couchmate Alan Erickson for lunch. Alan’s cannabis photography (and nudes) really classed up my old place before burning down and I’m gonna see if I can replace most of it.

    Bought my first legal recreational weed in Oregon, but finding a place where I can smoke is a bitch. Surprised by bud size. Every strain’s buds were marble-sized or smaller. Prices much cheaper than California though.

    darkcycle used his WA contacts and scored me a two-bedroom apt., in Everett WA, that’s waiting on me and most important, the landlord is pot-friendly.

  13. darkcycle says:

    OMG. Too funny. I brought this here to the people who will most appreciate the irony. Cops posing as drug dealers try to arrest some OTHER cops posing as drug buyers, chaos ensues: https://reason.com/blog/2017/11/13/detroit-cops-posing-as-drug-dealers-braw

    • StanStennett says:

      Thanks for the giggle!

      What went wrong, aside from the obvious lack of coordination and professionalism, is that the government decided to violently insert itself into peaceful transactions between consenting adults, which led police officers to pose as such so they could lock people in cages for actions that violate no one’s rights. In this case, each side to the transaction wanted to lock up the other side, and each side understandably resented the other’s intention. But at least the collateral damage was kept to a minimum. Maybe this is how the war on drugs should be waged from now on.

    • jean valjean says:

      Surprised they didn’t follow the drug war routine: shoot first/ ask questions later.

  14. StanStennett says:

    Attorney General Jeff Sessions testifies to the House Judiciary Committee:

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/

  15. Kev-kev says:

    That mean old Tom Angel is picking on me. Can you folks get him to back off? I’m on your side, really.

  16. Servetus says:

    A research study at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, partly funded by the NIDA, investigated increases of marijuana consumption in states having medical marijuana laws:

    November 13, 2017 — Daily use of marijuana as well as past month rates rose for both men and women aged 26 and older in states with medical marijuana laws in effect, according to researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. Marijuana use among those younger than 26 years old was generally unaffected by changes in the law. The results of the study are published online in Prevention Science.

    In states with medical marijuana laws, daily marijuana use for male users age 26 and older increased from 16.3 percent to 19.1 percent, and for women, from 9.2 percent to 12.7 percent. Past month use among men in the same age bracket increased from 7.0 percent before the laws passed to 8.7 percent following their passage, and for women rose from 3.0 percent before to 4.3 percent after. There were no significant increases in past-year marijuana use disorder (continuing to use despite significant behavioral or psychological changes) for any age or gender group following passage of the laws.[…]

    The study also documents a rise in males ages 18-25 using marijuana daily compared to females. “Among past month users, more than one in five young men ages 18-25 living in states with medical marijuana laws said they used marijuana every day,” said Christine Mauro, PhD, assistant professor of Biostatistics at Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health, and first author.

    Daily use was generally higher among individuals aged 18-25 compared with those ages 12-17 and those 26 or older, regardless of their state’s laws around marijuana. “Daily marijuana use raises health concerns as the brain doesn’t fully mature until age 25,” noted Mauro.[…]

    Rising rates of marijuana use raises concerns regarding associated increases in heavy use of marijuana and marijuana use disorder. Earlier research by Columbia researchers estimated that 16.2 percent and 57.2 percent of daily marijuana users meet criteria for DSM-IV abuse and dependence diagnosis, respectively.

    “The advent of medical marijuana laws has been proposed as one potential cause of the increased prevalence of marijuana use, but there is now a general consensus that passage of the laws has not affected rates of use in adolescents,” said Silvia Martins, MD, PHD, associate professor of Epidemiology at the Mailman School, and senior author. Until this most recent data, studies by Martins and colleagues found past-year individual use rose among all adults 26+ in states with medical marijuana laws but had not investigated changes in daily marijuana use and marijuana use disorder.

    In fact, despite public health concerns regarding increased use of pot and enactment of marijuana laws, some positive outcomes have been associated with the laws, including decreased opioid use and decreased alcohol consumption–the latter tied to declining rates of traffic injury fatalities at the state level. “Research shows the impacts of medical marijuana law, both positive and negative,” noted Martins.[…][emphasis mine]

    AAAS Public Release: More adults use marijuana in states where it is legal

    The researchers’ definition of marijuana use disorder–continuing use despite significant behavioral or psychological changes–is overly broad. There is nothing in the definition that recognizes desirable behavioral or psychological changes brought about by cannabinoids, such as those acquired with a reduction in stress and thereby a reduction in blood cortisol levels. Stress research is solidifying marijuana’s role as a valuable therapeutic. Despite the health benefits, however, the stigmatic image of the laid-back cannabis consumer remains an anti-working-class hippie villain for the NIDA and Wall Street types who still cling to marijuana consumer stereotypes.

  17. DdC says:

    A study concluded that “drivers under the influence of alcohol are 17.8 times…more likely to be responsible for a fatal accident, and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever exceeded the legal limit for alcohol is estimated at 27.7%,” whereas “drivers under the influence of cannabis multiply their risk of being responsible for causing a fatal accident by 1.65…and the proportion of fatal accidents which would be prevented if no drivers ever drove under the influence of cannabis is estimated at 4.2%.”
    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0187320

    A study of opioid patients who use medical marijuana found there were “no significant differences were detected on pain-related variables, depression, or anxiety between those who endorsed medical cannabis use and those who did not” but that “medical cannabis users had higher scores of risk for prescription opioid misuse, rates of hazardous alcohol use, and rates of nicotine use.”
    http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0163834317303249

  18. Servetus says:

    Prohibitionists claim that harm reduction is a scam promoted by drug legalizers. Syringe exchanges and testing of MDMA sample purities at raves are seen as a support of drug use instead of a safety valve for inevitable drug use.

    Fortunately, sadomoralizers such as Kevin Sabet haven’t stopped science researchers from pursuing harm reduction solutions to certain types of problematic drug use. Two recent research examples show great promise for alcohol and methamphetamine, but only if the public is made widely aware of the results, something unlikely to happen in an anti-harm-reduction society:

    14-NOV-2017 — Ibuprofen reduced neuroinflammation and behavioral signs of alcohol exposure in a rat model of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD).

    The study was the first to directly link alcohol-induced inflammation in the hippocampus to cognitive impairment later in the life, said Derick Lindquist, senior author and a professor of psychology at The Ohio State University.

    The findings, which appear in the journal Behavioural Brain Research, could have eventual implications reaching beyond fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, because neuroinflammation is a hallmark of many neurological diseases, he said.

    In humans, fetal exposure to alcohol can lead to a cluster of life-altering problems including trouble learning, remembering and paying attention. Though estimates are imprecise, experts estimate that as many as two to five of every 100 U.S. schoolchildren have lasting problems resulting from early alcohol exposure, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    Recent related research showed that neuroinflammation soon after birth can impair learning and memory later in life and that anti-inflammatory treatment has the power to prevent those impairments.

    In this study, Lindquist and his co-authors set out to examine the role of neuroinflammation in the development of fetal alcohol spectrum disorders and cognitive dysfunction.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: Ibuprofen may block damage from fetal-alcohol exposure: Animal study suggests fighting inflammation in brain might help

    And for methamphetamine disorders:

    Nov. 13, 2017 — While there are no FDA-approved medicines to treat methamphetamine (meth) use disorders, researchers are reporting early findings of a second-generation gene therapy in animal models for meth abuse.[…]

    Results…demonstrate that the therapy lasts for over eight months, reducing the amount of meth in the brain and meth-induced stimulant effects.

    The study, “Novel Anti-METH AAV-scFvs are Capable of Binding and Sequestering Methamphetamine and the Active Metabolite Amphetamine in the Blood” focused on the development of a long-lasting gene therapy treatment, which makes the body generate antibodies against meth. These antibodies tightly bind to both meth and amphetamine, an active metabolite of meth, in the blood stream and prevent it from traveling to the brain.

    Eric Peterson, Ph.D., and his team from the University of Arkansas for Medical Science redesigned the therapy to deliver DNA to cells via a viral capsid, which then triggers the development of a protein to counter meth. Results achieved significantly higher concentrations of protective antibodies in the bloodstream of mice (n=8). Meth and amphetamine concentrations were 33 percent lower in brain tissue at 30 and 60 minutes, increasing to 50 and 68 percent respectively after 120 minutes. In a separate behavioral-based study, the medication was effective at reducing or abolishing meth-induced hyperactive movement in the mice at moderate doses of meth.[…]

    “Even though our research is in the early stages, this treatment could ideally be effective for months to years after a single injection,” said the study’s lead author Charles Hay, M.S. “One day we envision that this treatment, or similar treatments could be combined with behavioral therapies to help users to quit using meth.”

    AAAS Public Release: Novel gene therapy approach to treating methamphetamine abuse

    • Allan says:

      the post is photos of Pete’s present to me on my birthday and NCN and I on my front porch, from yesterday

      • darkcycle says:

        Nice!! NCN will be up this way (well…Everett, almost Bellingham) tomorrow. I’ll get a chance to head down there over the weekend. Looking forward visiting with him.

  19. Interesting developement:

    Rep. Steve Cohen introduces articles of impeachment against Trump https://tinyurl.com/y7dbhogf

  20. StanStennett says:

    In the Mexican state of Guerrero all the morgue workers have quit because “the stench of hundreds of decomposing bodies has become unbearable.”

    Bodies have arrived in such numbers that morgues in the state have neither the space to store them nor the personnel to carry out autopsies, workers told local media.

    In the state capital Chilpancingo, 200 kilometres south of Mexico City, at least 600 bodies are being stored in a space designed to take 200, according to the Reforma newspaper.

    Between eight and 10 bodies have been arriving daily at morgues in the state, according to Reforma, while the state has registered 1,919 homicides so far this year – already at least 100 more than last year.

    More than a decade after Mexico launched a militarized crackdown on organized crime, violence has continued to surge across the country, and 2017 looks set to be the country’s most murderous year since such statistics were first compiled in 1997.

    https://tinyurl.com/StinkyDrugWar

  21. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    If cannabis law reform was a football game then would this be a “hail mary”? This one gets filed in the “by hook or by crook using every dirty trick in the book” category:

    Can You Overdose on Marijuana? Baby Becomes First Ever Death from Ingesting Too Much Cannabis, Doctors Claim

    • jean valjean says:

      ‘And, Hoyte told Colorado’s 9News, “We extensively ruled out almost every other cause that we can think of,” apart from exposure to cannabis.’
      So there you are then. Case proven: death by cannabis!

    • Myocarditis, also known as inflammatory cardiomyopathy, is inflammation of the heart muscle. Now can someone tell me how a drug noted as an excellent anti-inflammatory can cause inflammation? Not even a good guess.

      • DdC says:

        Another drug worrier fake news story, bastardizing research. There are hundreds of Prohibitionists heart attacks each year whenever a cannabis initiative passes. Maybe we should regulate drug worriers, or ban them. They don’t all die due to large consumptions of nitrate preservatives. The Walking Braindead.

        ✦ The truth behind the ‘first marijuana overdose death’
        “We are absolutely not saying that marijuana killed that child,” said Thomas Nappe, an author of the report who is now the director of medical toxicology at St. Luke’s University Health Network in Bethlehem, Pa. Nappe, who co-authored the report with Christopher Hoyte, explained that the doctors simply observed this unusual sequence of events, documented it and alerted the medical community that it is worth studying a possible relationship between cannabis and the child’s cause of death, myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart muscle.

        Nappe emphasized that the word “associated” should not be interpreted as indicating a cause and effect.

        Drug policy and health experts also warned against making too much of the report.

        “You just can’t make those statements because then what happens is lay people say, ‘Oh my God, did you hear a kid died from marijuana poisoning?’ and it can be sensationalized,” said Noah Kaufman, a Northern Colorado emergency room physician.

        “It’s not based on reality. It’s based on somebody kind of jumping the gun and making a conclusion, and scientifically you can’t do that.”

        Millions of Americans use marijuana regularly, according to the most recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and addiction treatment researcher Keith Humphreys said cannabis consumption has “virtually no risk.”

        Even Keith Humphreys says Ganja has “virtually no risk. while politicians still fumble around with reality.

        ✦ Tom Angell ‘s op-ed in the Los Angeles Times calling on California’s congressional delegation — especially Democratic U.S. Sens. Kamala Harris and Dianne Feinstein — to do a better job defending the state’s marijuana laws from federal interference. Legal cannabis did, after all, get nearly half a million more votes than Harris did last year.

        278 pages?
        Plant seeds, water, harvest, trim, roll, smoke.

        ✦ California Rolled Out 278 Pages of Marijuana Rules. Here Are Highlights.

        Seriously, are cops responsible enough to carry guns? Why should tax payers cover their ass in lawsuits?

        ✦ Couple sues after police mistake hibiscus for marijuana

  22. Servetus says:

    Who said drugs are bad for you? Kevin Sabet?

    Researchers at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois have gored the Kevin-types by discovering what explorers Vasco de Gama and Juan Ponce de Leon failed to discover in Florida—a fountain of youth.

    Not only does a drug exist that allows mice to live four times longer, it works if you’re Amish. That’s because certain lucky Amish individuals in the US inherited a gene from their antecedents in Berne, Switzerland (via Berne, Indiana) that confers a 13% increase in average life span—from 75 to 85. The chemical produced by the gene, “PAI-1 (plasminogen activator inhibitor) [is] a protein that comprises part of a “molecular fingerprint” related to aging or senescence of cells.” The discovery is a milestone in senescence research:

    ●First genetic mutation discovered to protect against multiple aspects of aging in humans

    ●Amish carrying the mutation live more than 13 percent longer to 85 years old instead of 75 for those who don’t carry the mutation

    ●Longevity drug developed from this research is being tested in humans

    ●Closely related form of drug being developed as topical treatment for baldness[…]

    “The findings astonished us because of the consistency of the anti-aging benefits across multiple body systems,” said Dr. Douglas Vaughan, the lead author of the paper who has been studying PAI-1 for almost 30 years.[…]

    “For the first time we are seeing a molecular marker of aging (telomere length), a metabolic marker of aging (fasting insulin levels) and a cardiovascular marker of aging (blood pressure and blood vessel stiffness) all tracking in the same direction in that these individuals were generally protected from age-related changes,” Vaughan said. “That played out in them having a longer lifespan. Not only do they live longer, they live healthier. It’s a desirable form of longevity. It’s their ‘health span.'”[…]

    In the new study, Northwestern scientists looked at individuals who had one mutant copy of the gene, rendering their level of PAI-1 about half the level of kindred with two normal copies.

    Those carriers of the gene mutation had nearly 30 percent lower fasting insulin levels and were completely protected from diabetes.

    “We were definitely surprised,” Vaughan said. “Even when we analyze it factoring for their relatedness, the mutation is still an important predictor of whether they’ll get diabetes.”[…]

    Because of the drug’s effect on hair growth in mice, Renascience has licensed a formulation to an American company, Eirion Therapeutics, Inc., that is advancing the development of a topical formula that will be tested for treating male pattern baldness.[…]

    The paper [was] published November 15 in the journal Science Advances.

    AAAS Public Release: An internal fountain of youth: Why these Amish live longer and healthier–Genetic mutation in extended Amish family in Indiana protects against aging and increases longevity

    The best way for the government to get people to take the new fountain-of-youth drug will be to prohibit it. The same popularizing effect of prohibition worked well enough for marijuana whose cannabinoids are cited for potentially protecting the brain from the effects of aging, as well as for killing cancer cells.

    • Servetus says:

      “Laws which can be broken without any wrong to one’s neighbor are a laughing-stock; and such laws, instead of restraining the appetites and lusts of mankind, serve rather to heighten them. Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negate ” [we always resist prohibitions, and yearn for what is denied us]. — Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677)

Comments are closed.