Open Thread

The Onion comes to the rescue:

FDA Confirms Psilocybin Reduces Risk Of Mindlessly Following Society’s Rules Like Fucking Lemming

SILVER SPRING, MD—Following months of research into the psychedelic compound’s effects, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed Thursday that psilocybin could significantly reduce the risk of mindlessly following society’s rules like a fucking lemming. “After numerous clinical trials, we can state with a high degree of certainty that ingesting small doses of psilocybin greatly decreases the chances of blindly marching in lockstep like a bunch of goddamn sheep being led to the slaughter,” said FDA Chief Scott Gottlieb


He’s got a point.

Let Marijuana Travel Between States If Guns Can, Dem Congressman Says

Republicans on Capitol Hill are pushing legislation this week that would allow people permitted to carry concealed guns in one state to bring their weapons with them when they travel, even if their destination state has more stringent requirements to qualify for concealed carry.

But if the GOP wants to do that, a Democratic congressman argues in a new video, they should also be in favor of forcing states to recognize protections granted under each another’s marijuana laws.


Philipines:

Highlights from the Supreme Court oral arguments on the drug war

Must be rough for the government:

In his comment filed before the SC began oral arguments, the government’s chief legal counsel said that the drug war is being “emasculated and undermined” by petitions of the families who lost their loved ones in the violent police operations.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

86 Responses to Open Thread

  1. NorCalNative says:

    On states recognizing out-of-state MMJ patients. Without it, our freedom to travel is trashed. And, the key reason is qualifying conditions are different from state-to-state.

    To the best of my knowledge the endocannabinoid system could give a shit about politics or geographic location. All states not named CA suck because they have limited the therapeutic potential that patients may access.

    CBD-only? Fuck-the-fuck off!

    I’m a CA MMJ patient currently staying in Eugene, Oregon. Oregon doesn’t recognize out-of-state MMJ status. Oregon has NO SALES TAX, but rec-weed is taxed at 20%.

    Psilocybin causes neurogenesis, i.e. neural plasticity. New connections in the brain allow for new ways of thinking. The Onion article is spot-on. CA and Oregon both have folks looking to legalize psilocybin.

    Neural plasticity is kind of like brain-gardening. It involves pruning and new growth of neural connections. It’s a template for potential “outside-the-box” thoughts and thinking.

    Seriously, if we wanted to save the World from American Empire, psilocybin for every administration official and cabinet member. Psilocybin could probably even fix the tRuMp family. A guy can dream.

    Psilocybin is like Kryptonite to Christian Imperialism. Shroom, shroom, shroom!

  2. Will says:

    .
    .
    When willful ignorance coupled with condescension and arrogance collides with — interns;

    Less-guarded Sessions spars with interns in internal DOJ video

    https://tinyurl.com/ycrcyrcc

    These exchanges were recorded this summer but were only released recently.

  3. Servetus says:

    American Made (2017) starring Tom Cruise gets panned for its lack of accuracy in depicting Barry Seal’s exploits for the CIA, et al. Some good conspiracy points confirmed or denied at historyvshollywood.com:

    Did Barry Seal meet Lee Harvey Oswald?

    Yes. An interesting fact we learned while researching the true story was that while training for the Civil Air Patrol in Baton Rouge, Barry Seal met President John F. Kennedy’s assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald. -Refinery29

    Conspiracy points denied:

    Did Barry Seal really crash land a plane full of cocaine in a suburban neighborhood?

    No. In the American Made movie, Barry Seal (Tom Cruise) crash lands a plane in a suburban neighborhood in an effort to escape the DEA who ordered him to land. Barry emerges from the plane covered in cocaine. He hands wads of cash to a kid on a bike, telling the boy, “You never saw me.” The memorable scene never happened in real life.

    And the Clinton connection…

    Why was the movie’s title changed from Mena to American Made?

    “Mena” refers to the small town in Arkansas where Barry Seal moved his operation, smuggling in drugs to a clandestine airfield under the nose of then-Governor Bill Clinton. The movie’s title was changed to put less emphasis on the Arkansas connection, including the possibility that Bill Clinton was aware of what was going on. -The Hollywood Reporter

    More Hollywood:

    Did the zero-gravity love scene really happen?

    No. The scene was actually inspired by something that happened while director Doug Liman and Tom Cruise were training for the movie. “Tom did all his own flying in the movie,” says Liman. “He put the airplane into a parabolic arc and pinned me against the ceiling, and right in that moment, I had this inspiration. … Wouldn’t it be fun if they were fooling around in a plane and the plane went into the same kind of parabolic arc and they got pinned against the ceiling?” –Vulture

  4. Will says:

    .
    .
    Well, the swamp has at least a few creatures not yet drained (thanks Tom);

    Jeff Sessions Just Met With These Anti-Marijuana Activists

    https://www.marijuanamoment.net/jeff-sessions-just-met-anti-marijuana-activists/

  5. DdC says:

    Domestic Terrorism, 2 weeks?

    Dec 8, 2017 Federal marijuana protections safe for now with stopgap spending bill
    http://www.thecannabist.co/2017/12/07/federal-budget-medical-marijuana-rohrabacher-blumenauer/94177/
    “While we are pleased that these critical protections will continue, two weeks is not enough certainty for the millions of Americans who rely on medical marijuana,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer.

  6. Mouthy says:

    NO CANNABIS for over seven-months . . . I’m politically clean. And I’m on no VA meds either. Yes, I’ve gained more pounds since I’ve (temporarily) quit, but oh well. And I hate what’s happening to California with all the wildfires . . . and yet I live in a state where it is viewed that ‘California’ has earned said fires because of their immoral misdirection. The old job I had was pretty much a 420 smoke fest, but I had to leave it. My new one threatens to possibly piss-taste (DdC) me at any given moment, but it is (for right now) worth it because I’m inside a situation where I get to help senior citizens and become an eye-witness investigator to how much we’ve fucked over old people and veterans by way of pharmaceutical sorcery and how no cannabis based meds does lead to dementia or enhances it. Everyone tells me I should ‘write’ or ‘call’ my rep for Net-Neutrality or cannabis, etc. I’ve discovered that listening to Scandinavian Black Metal from the 80’s and 90’s at home works better–or even getting $1 dollar chili dogs at a restaurant. But what sucks the most is my wife’s crohn’s disease and knowing that rich in CBD cannabis and middle-THC amounts would work better than her $3000 a month medication (Thank God for Obamacare) . . . sometimes it gets so bad, she can bleed out a quart of blood. And antibiotics are the worst for her, since it causes a flareup, while the meds lower her immune system, thus requiring her to take antibiotics if she is to get rid of a bad winter time infection (which is hitting everyone here hard for a few days, unlike my wife who will stay sick for a few weeks). Sadly, we believe her sickness stems from a cross between a much milder-immune system disorder from her mother and documented agent orange exposure from her father.

    When I’m not listening to the famous Norwegian church burners of Black Metal, I’m listening to The Doors, Santana, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, War, Fleetwood Mac, The Brother’s Johnson . . . Who are you all listening to currently?

    Take Care Couch and Fuck the Police . . . PIG (Pride, Integrity , Guts–yeah right, more like a specimen filled with worms, cannot sweat out toxins, and eats and sleeps in their own shit)

    • Pink Pattern says:

      When I’m not listening to anything by Mahler.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI2oS2hoL0k

    • NorCalNative says:

      Mouth. Old Fleetwood Mac (guitar-driven), or the newer vocal-driven stuff? My first experience getting high in 69 on smoke was listening to Fleetwood Mac’s Rattlesnake Shake. I’ve been working on Santana’s version of Black Magic Woman on my guitar. Carlos is “the kind.”

      According to my brother, who was in Vietnam where Agent Orange was used heavily, the soldiers he knew who were tokers don’t have current health issues from that toxic stew. Guys he knew with Agent Orange exposure who didn’t toke have experienced health problems.

      While it’s difficult to draw conclusions from the small sample-size of that anecdote, my bias and study suggests that cannabis was likely neuo-protective.

      I’m not surprised that Red States would believe CA’s fires are a message from Gaaaaahd. According to the woman from Ohio who is Roy Moore’s spokes-lady, his election is about protecting Christian religious liberty from Blue-state disgust and disbelief.

      With your wife’s health issues, have you ever considered moving out-of-state to allow her a chance to medicate with cannabis?

      • NorCalNative says:

        Speaking of music. Last night I was introduced to this machine-driven electronic noise called “House Music.”

        A restaurant across a narrow street from my hotel kept me awake until 5:00 a.m. with “thump, thump, thump.” Since I apparently wasn’t on the right drugs, shit pissed me off.

        Where’s the police when yah really need em?

        • Mouthy says:

          It’s mostly Fleetwood Mac from 1975 on up. I’ve just started to listen to the older stuff, though I haven’t listened to any of their 60’s stuff yet (I’ll do that tonight). The Radiohead video posted by Pink Pattern is cool and reminds me of my town.

          The idea of moving out has been brought up, but she couldn’t leave her family. But, if I get published and the book sells decently enough, then we have talked about moving to Colorado or Holland . . . since my book will make me a target for being harassed by small town police. The only harm Agent Orange appeared to do for my father-in-law was make him go bald. Luckily we have hemp based CBD oil here, which is better than nothing and we’re actually going to get my wife on it. Unfortunately, it’s expensive.

          You might like House music if it wasn’t played so late at night or maybe you had no chem. Lights to twirl around. You might like DubStep better . . . Skrillex has a song with Ray Manzerick of the doors before he died. But because I cannot smoke cannabis, I’m not listening to as much easy listening music, but constant death metal and black metal. Oh well, this too will pass. Take care, NorCal.

  7. NorCalNative says:

    “…since my book will make me a target for small town police.”

    Are you comfortable with expanding on what you’re writing about? Sounds interesting.

    Any trauma I may have from losing my home to fire is primarily from the loss of my book collection. I smell autographed, signed copy.

    Are you familiar with Project CBD? All hemp-based CBD is not created equal. Lots of questions about purity and labeling accuracy. Best of luck.

    Speaking of Metal, I’m also working on Zakk Wylde’s song called Angel of Mercy. Dude fucking rocks!

    • Mouthy says:

      A young scientist makes the decisions to join the military after 9/11, instead of going off to college. While in war, he discovers how much the war on drugs harms their efforts, even breeding the very ‘enemies’ he wanted revenge on. After he’s done with the war, he finally builds a machine that shifts the novel into science fiction and this machine has the ability to share public and private information. The question is: can using something for good, ultimately turn bad. If truth and knowledge is associated with ‘light’ and ignorance and lies are ‘darkness’, can truth be so blinding that darkness ultimately comes about from truth and knowledge? The book is filled with everything from the drug war, Mexican Cartels, private contractors, civil asset forfeiture, war injuries, VA meds & booze, Cannabis for vets, pollution, the 2008 recession, Civil Rights, Vietnam, War on Terror, the astonishment of technology and science, awe inspiring female historical figures, Castro and his Russian nukes, Mao and China, Spanish Pirates, Saddam as a better alternative than invading Iraq, Obama, The CIA’s involvement with Afghan drugs during the 80’s, the DEA fucking up the Afghan program, a cute wiener dog, nuclear reactors, does God exist or not, the Stock Market, racism, etc.

      If you can do Zakk Wyled, you could learn to play Mayhem or Bathory . . . just yell like an ostrich is grabbing your foot, while at the same time you are looking over a $5000 dollar cell-phone bill.

      Of course I’ll give you a signed copy. And I’ve always suspected hemp based CBD to lack the full qualities of good ol’ fashion bud and all those compounds. I’d say simply eating raw cannabis, non-activated would be healthier than just taking hemp CBD. I so hope my book turns out well: I need the funds to tour California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado.

  8. Servetus says:

    Buy one–get two. Homeland Security agents go for cheap on the open market:

    12.11.17–…Christopher Ciccione, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), pleaded guilty in a Miami courtroom on Nov. 30 to conspiring to commit “deceit, craft and trickery” against Uncle Sam for what would appear to be no more than a few centavos on the dollar. Ciccione, 52, now faces up to five years in prison for aiding and abetting a Colombian capo linked to four major cartels.

    What’s the going rate for selling out your country? The court records say that in 2010 Ciccione and another as yet unnamed HSI agent received from an infamous crime boss wanted in one of the nation’s biggest cocaine smuggling incidents about $17,700 in cash, along with an all-inclusive long weekend of wining, dining, and high-end call girls at a luxury hotel in Bogotá.[…]

    Closer to home, a 2016 report indicated that hundreds of Homeland Security and Customs Enforcement officers had accepted about $15 million in bribes from drug smugglers and human traffickers while “protecting” U.S. borders.

    Within just the last week, at least five more U.S. law enforcement officers have been indicted or convicted of narcotics-related criminal activities, including a NYPD counterterrorism agent arrested for running heroin across state lines.

    On the same day that Ciccione was convicted in Miami, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with the House Foreign Relations Committee to request additional funds for U.S. efforts to fight narco-traffickers south of the border. His rhetoric, as usual, closely echoed President Donald Trump’s simplified dichotomy of black-hatted “bad hombres” and the gringo “good guys” who oppose them.[…]

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/busted-the-fed-in-cahoots-with-a-colombian-drug-lord

  9. jean valjean says:

    “Ciccione, 52, now faces up to five years in prison for aiding and abetting a Colombian capo linked to four major cartels.”
    How does that stack up with sentences of life without parole, handed out to many for far lesser crimes. Being a federal law enforcement officer should increase the sentence not reduce it due to the damage done to justice and the rule of law.
    L.E. literally gets away with murder.

  10. DC Reade says:

    I’m linking that Onion story like a branching mycelium.

  11. Green Pattern says:

    This is how the Maltese government wishes to legalize medical cannabis:

    Step 1 – Apply for a Medical Cannabis Control Card

    Step 2 – Meet the requirements and be accepted for the Control Card

    Step 3 – Have the Control Card signed by a family doctor and a community pharmacist

    Step 4 – Find a doctor who will prescribe medicinal cannabis

    Step 5 – Ensure that there are no other medicines at all that can be applied to your illness

    Step 6 – Be included on a governmental list of “named-patients”

    Step 7 – Have the doctor send a generic email to the Superintendent of Health

    Step 8 – Wait up to two weeks for confirmation

    Step 9 – Have the Superintendent approve the email by sending another email to the prescriber, pharmaceutical wholesale dealer and the pharmacist

    Step 10 – Go to a pharmacy and access your medicine

    https://tinyurl.com/IKeedUnot

  12. Servetus says:

    Bad news for AG Jeff Sessions who wants to resuscitate cannabis prohibition: now that weed is legal in some states, it’s no longer as fun or exciting. As a result, the recent National Survey on Drug Use and Health says fewer teenagers in Colorado are ingesting marijuana since criminal sanctions were removed in 2014:

    https://thinkprogress.org/drop-teen-pot-use-colorado-legalization-1b3cc44232a3/

    For those feeling nostalgic for the insidious risks and the creeping paranoia associated with consuming illegal cannabis, they can still visit the national parks.

  13. jean valjean says:

    Police murderer gets not guilty verdict at his rigged “trial.” His sociopathic instructions to his victim on video are a chilling example of what a police state really looks like. This is the law enforcement culture created by Joe Arpaio in Maricopa county.

    https://thinkprogress.org/arizona-cop-who-shot-sobbing-unarmed-man-at-point-blank-range-acquitted-of-murder-53bbceda925c/

    • Mouthy says:

      “I’m not here to be tactical with you”. Momma always said ‘Tactical is as Tactical does.’

      The “Infantry” trained part of me says: Take the shot only when it is clear a weapon is displayed–be it a gun or a hairbrush. Nothing like that was displayed. Even if he pulled a gun, there would have been enough time to see it and shoot . . . especially with the guy on his knees. What the hell? Crawl–you don’t ask the guy to crawl. Everyone in a warzone knows that. You ask him to walk backwards with hands up and again, everyone who is afraid for their life, knows that. Plus the guy had a CCO mounted–why not take a clear shot at the guy’s shoulder then? When he was on his stomach, the display of his back already told me that the odds of him hiding a gun back there were reduced.

      And Law Enforcement is an all volunteer job, no different from washing dishes or being the HR guy at the office. There is nothing special about the person or their job . . . it’s not like they graduated in ’01 and was forced to join the Army because of what the class of ’41 did after airplanes attacked their country. No one is stuck being a cop, but every soldier is stuck in the military for x many years. He got the opportunity to quit his job minutes before he was called . . . I never did–not three years before Iraq and not three days after being sent to Iraq. I wish the men in blue would realized it is just a job and nothing special that grants them the powers of God . . . no citizen I defended wants their tax payed pigs to be like that.

      • darkcycle says:

        Mouthy….that “clear shot at the shoulder” certainly and without doubt would have killed him. Just below the top of the shoulder, just behind the protective shoulder blade is the subclavian artery, which is bilateral and supplies the arms with blood. A shoulder shot from that angle would have hit that puppy within the first three inches of bullet travel. You will bleed out in about four seconds or so. Not to mention, that he was prone….the bullet would continue along a path that would intersect many vital organs on it’s way out his Bazzootie.
        Really, no such thing as “shoot to wound” A well placed shot to any extremity will send you straight to the undertaker.

        • darkcycle says:

          Correction, he had sat up…but by the third round, he was down again. And any shoulder shot runs a high risk of bursting the subclavian.

        • Mouthy says:

          Sadly, you guys are right about that. I hope his widow wins her lawsuit. That video haunts me.

      • jean valjean says:

        The shock of being hit anywhere with an ar_15 round will likely kill you. I knew of a soldier in Iraq who tried to shoot himself in the foot to get out the service. The round rebounded and ran up his leg and into his body killing him.

  14. jean valjean says:

    Alabama Goddamn. Video as Moore’s wife tells us some of their best friends are Jews:

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/roy-moore-alabama-vote-sexual-misconduct-allegations

    • jean valjean says:

      Roy Moore’s lost Senate race (yippee!) and the election of a Democrat in Alabama for the first time in 25 years will send shock waves through the Republican party. Watch them turn on Trump now as their own re-elections beckon and Mueller’s net tightens on the pedophile president.

      “The first major scandal to hit the Trump campaign besides the typical “what a racist, such a sexist, yada yada yada,” came from a lawsuit stemming from the infamous sex parties held by billionaire and known pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The woman named in the suit is Katie Johnson, who says Trump took her virginity in 1994 when she was only 13 and being held by Epstein as a slave.

      Johnson says in the complaint that Trump and Epstein threatened her and her family with bodily harm if she didn’t comply with all of their disgusting demands. The Trump campaign has been on this immediately, calling it absolute nonsense and not even remotely true or possible.”

      https://www.snopes.com/2016/06/23/donald-trump-rape-lawsuit/

  15. Will says:

    .
    .
    Nice try Keith (not really), but…

    What voters really mean when they say they support marijuana legalization

    https://tinyurl.com/y9q7pdtq

    …you left out other nuanced questions that should have been included in S(H)AM’s poll;

    ‘Do you support decriminalization where the black market and violent cartels control supply and sales or legalization where above board, law abiding businesses are the suppliers?’

    ‘Are you in favor of cannabis users being subjected to forced rehab if some anonymous ‘social policy’ bureaucrat is allowed to arbitrarily make that decision?’

    Among many others.

    • NorCalNative says:

      Noticed some couch comments at your link. Malcom and an edited Duncan.

      Humpty is part of BOTEC which kind of says it all.

      • NorCalNative says:

        More couch. Psychologist darkcycle aka Curtis Creek has some excellent comments at the site as well.

        Noticed that Duncan sometimes uses Charlie Brown as his avatar. I’ve got a Charlie Brown story that suggests the possibility that Charles Schutz may have had personal comics of Charlie going down on Lucy, or versa-visa.

        Whoa, where you going with this NorCal dude, you may be thinking.

        Back in the early 90s I opened some mail that was addressed to my neighbors up-the-hill (Foothills section of Santa Rosa) that was delivered to my mailbox by mistake., It was addressed to the Shultz’s by a woman who had been at their home. She had a dream that she recalled their address (it was close , but wrong).

        The letter was unremarkable, but the card? It was of a naked couple fucking among the rocks just SouthWest of the Golden Gate bridge. Someone who knew the Shultz’s socially felt comfortable with sending them a picture postcard of a nude couple fucking.

        I have no problem with that cuz I’m not a prude, but it has always made me wonder. Did Charles Shultz ever draw his characters having sex?

        Peanuts erotica?

  16. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    I think that my Charlie Brown avatar is only at the Washington Post. But that avatar really does give me a warm fuzzy because it makes me wax nostalgic for my first attempts at cultivation.

    Did you know that animated kiddie porn is just as illegal as conventional kiddie porn?

  17. WalStMonky says:

    Marijuana compound is harmless and should be available, WHO says
    CBD gets approval from expert body
    12/14/2017

    A compound derived from marijuana has health benefits and should not be subject to government restrictions, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.

    “Recent evidence from animal and human studies shows that its use could have some therapeutic value for seizures due to epilepsy and related conditions and that it “is not likely to be abused or create dependence as for other cannabinoids,” it added.

    The decision was not an endorsement of medical marijuana.

    Instead the global body’s Expert Committee on Drug Dependence specifically examined the potential risks and benefits cannabidiol (CBD), a compound that is found in cannabis plant.
    /snip/

  18. Servetus says:

    Nora Volkow, director of the NIDA (aka National Institute of Dumb Adults), comments on the results of NIH’s 2017 Monitoring the Future survey with regard to teenage vaping.

    Volkow’s latest agenda seeks to make the vape the new bogeyman in town. A more thorough assessment of the survey indicates today’s teens are more likely than many adults to have their act together when it comes to drugs—thanks to the Internet, not the NIDA:

    14-DEC-2017 — …The survey shows that 27.8 percent of high school seniors reported “vaping” in the year prior to the survey, which was taken in the beginning of 2017. When asked what they thought was in the mist they inhaled the last time they used the vaping device, 51.8 percent of 12th graders said, “just flavoring,” 32.8 percent said “nicotine,” and 11.1 percent said “marijuana” or “hash oil.” The survey also asks about vaping with specific substances during the past month, with more than one in ten 12th graders saying they use nicotine, and about one in twenty reporting using marijuana in the device.[…]

    “We are especially concerned because the survey shows that some of the teens using these devices are first-time nicotine users,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIDA. “Recent research suggests that some of them could move on to regular cigarette smoking, so it is critical that we intervene with evidence-based efforts to prevent youth from using these products.”

    The survey also indicates that while opioid overdose rates remain high among adults, teens are misusing opioid pain medications less frequently than a decade ago, and are at historic lows with some of the commonly used pain medications. For example, past year misuse of the opioid pain reliever Vicodin among high school seniors dropped to its lowest point since the survey began measuring it in 2002, and it is now at just 2 percent. This compares to last year’s 2.9 percent, and reflects a long-term decline from a peak of 10.5 percent in 2003.[…] [emphasis mine]

    AAAS Public Release: Vaping popular among teens; opioid misuse at historic lows: NIH’s 2017 Monitoring the Future survey shows both vaping and marijuana are more popular than traditional cigarettes or pain reliever misuse

    Volkow’s index prohibitorum requires continuous refreshing and expansion if the NIDA is to maintain its goal of perpetuating the black market it relies upon to justify its existence.

  19. NorCalNative says:

    From today’s WSJ.

    …In an agressive, new proposal, Massachusetts authorities want to allow hospital staff to send overdose patients to treatment centers against their will for up to three days. The goal is to buy more time for addicts facing imminent risks to accept longer-term treatment.

    • darkcycle says:

      Yeah. That’s to make sure they OD again as soon as possible. SMH

    • This is by definition NOT help. Forcing anyone to do something against their will is not help, but opposition. That makes it a drug war tactic and not help.

      I suggest those medical people re-examine their motives and the hippocratic oath. There are better ways to do things.

    • A 3 day detox? Cold turkey? Forced?

      Better not to start at all than try to trap someone in something that makes him/her worse than when he/she started.

      Help. It takes more than a half-hearted shove.

      • It takes longer than 3 days to kick just about any addictive drug that is worthy of a request for help. That’s with a willing desire to quit.

        Any physician should be allowed to titrate down a dosage for any drug made – legal or not – to benefit a patient who comes to him for help to get off of the drug.

        IMHO.

        • Servetus says:

          Yeah, the douchebillies who conflate addiction with sin really shoud seek out some college credits in biochemistry. Let the doctors do their job, or die. It’s your personal choice, not theirs, not that of the douchebillies, please.

  20. Will says:

    .
    .
    Generally a summation of what has been discussed about Sessions’ burning fixation to take down the fastest growing industry in the US. With some commentary from Kevin Sabet, who seems to also have a burning fixation to become even more hated than he already is;

    Jeff Sessions Isn’t Giving up on Weed. He’s Doubling Down.

    https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/16/jeff-sessions-marijuana-216109

    But as Rep. Jared Polis points out, “So as long as we don’t cooperate [at the state level] it would be hard, almost impossible, for there to be a major federal-only enforcement action.”

    I guess that’s where a big part of the crux lies, how many state governments where cannabis is legal are going to willingly allow — and participate in — federal intervention?

  21. jean valjean says:

    Worth seeing again…..Nina Simone, true genius, speaking to the fucked up era of Trump:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJ25-U3jNWM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1ri-sWSrK0

    • Will says:

      .
      .
      Speaking of “the fucked up era of Trump”, check this out;

      Trump administration forbids CDC officials from using 7 words and phrases

      http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/politics/ct-cdc-forbidden-words-20171215-story.html

      Policy analysts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta were told of the list of forbidden words at a meeting Thursday with senior CDC officials who oversee the budget, according to an analyst who took part in the 90-minute briefing. The forbidden words are: “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” and “science-based.”

      W…T…F?

      • Servetus says:

        I love it when the prohibs and fascists slip up by revealing the words they fear the most. Word bombs are the inevitable result.

        With the anticipated collapse of the Trump regime, I see a new US government department emerging in the future. It will be called the Evidence and Science-based Entitlement Program for Diverse and Transgender Fetuses (ESEPDTF).

      • jean valjean says:

        What? No harm reduction on their list… they must be slipping.
        And then there’s this extraordinary claim:

        “CDC bases its recommendations on science in consideration with community standards and wishes…” i.e. science is fine as long as it doesn’t contradict our financial interests, our sacred cows or our doctrine of faith…
        Galileo would have understood exactly how that works.

        • NorCalNative says:

          …science in consideration with community standards and wishes.

          Faith-based now on equal footing as the scientific method? MAGA pussy grabber’s WIN!

      • jean valjean says:

        Another take on this Orwellian story which includes the following phrase:

        “I’m not sure what the ultimate rationale is for doing this aside from trying to erase certain types of people off the map…”

        Precisely.

        https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/unbelievable-censorship-trumps-7-banned-words

      • DdC says:

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

        Jeff Sessions held a closed-door meeting with anti-legalization activists like Smart Approaches to Marijuana’s Kevin Sabet, former National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Robert DuPont and the Drug Free Schools Coalition’s David Evans.
        https://t.co/8Wae6gQmVo

        Thanks to some high-tech sleuthing and the fact that U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions inadvertently showed a meeting agenda to a TV camera, we now know what he and a group of anti-marijuana activists discussed behind closed doors last week.
        https://t.co/dpsMjDXOED

        Kellyanne Conway, counselor to President Trump, has been leading regular meetings of government officials known informally as an “opioid cabinet.”
        https://t.co/LynbaHodIc

        * “According to attendees, she worked at one point to refocus the group after a disagreement over whether to cite a recent study showing that marijuana legalization in Colorado coincided with a lower number of opioid deaths. Issuing policy recommendations acknowledging that study — which NIH Director Francis Collins has warned does not demonstrate a causal link — would be both politically self-defeating and likely medically unsound, Conway warned.”

        Sessions and Christie Must Stop Telling Lies
        https://t.co/lMiot2Tu02

        I think the Zits are about to Pop.

  22. Mouthy says:

    Does anyone still cough when they smoke? I hadn’t coughed since 2009. Maybe because I’ve programmed myself to hold the smoke in as long as I can. Pipes, blunts, joints, or bongs: I cannot cough. All my friends cough, but I don’t and I still get off. I can go over a year without and not cough . . . mexi or legal, it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2009 wasn’t the last time I coughed when I would spit out sand from Iraq and Kuwait. Maybe it’s because my throat is used to eating spicy food, peppers, garlic, and onions (sometimes like they are apples). Even my tobacco using friends still cough . . . the ones who don’t smoke as much or smoke 5Xs more than me cough. As soon as I got back from Iraq, I used to smoke a rolled up dime of decent mex during my stretching sessions before going out for a 2-3 mile run. Sitting down or standing up, I don’t cough. And I’ve been known to take bigger hits than my peers and I’m an ace on those hospital breath builder volumetric exercisers. I just look at it as a blessing because I can puff more while my friends are choking on their coughs. I don’t have to focus or be delayed by the cough and can just pass it or take the piece. I don’t have to worry about being that guy who blows out the bowl or fills the bowl with water during a cough. Maybe its from yeas of smoking resin during times of less weed and money. But then again, I’ve smoked weed with people who’ve smoked pounds of resin and gobs of other things and they still cough.

    Sadly I’m still weed free. I’d take just one hit but would be too paranoid about getting popped and those 7-12 days of waiting for my system to be clean would suck. Take care couch and keep on smoking. May Santa fill your stockings with dabs so heavy, the nail bends on the mantle of the fireplace . . . plus may you all wake up with your Christmas Trees replaced with a large Indica Tree. hmm, I wonder if Santa likes baked goods?

    • I started smoking when I was about 13-14 years old. Cigarettes and pot. I stopped smoking pot mostly during my working years. Now that I smoke regularly and often (I’ve got prostate and bone cancer), I cough on almost everything and I blame it on the irritation from the smoke itself. I am considering going to 100% edibles for awhile. I don’t even notice the coughing as an issue most of the time. I figure it just goes with the territory.

      • Mouthy says:

        I hope you can get over your cancers. Are you undergoing chemo? Are you using any CBD oils or CBD rich cannabis?

      • Hope says:

        You’re fighting that stuff, Thinking Clearly, I hope. We need you. Don’t let it take you from us, too soon. If you remember I had a bad specimen of breast cancer, triple negative, stage 3, 7 and a half years ago. The other day my oncologist, one of some renown, told me she considers me cured. Cured. Not in remission. Cured. It was a very aggressive kind and it usually comes back with in 18 months to five years after treatment. I’m cured. Rejoice with me! I want you to be cured, too.

      • Hope says:

        Thinking Clearly, I’d have to check papers for sure but one thing I do recall that they used was adriamycin. There were at least two other chemo drugs combined with that and then that bone stuff to make your body produce more white blood cells or something. It was basically botulism for bone marrow. That and radiation. They threw everything they had at that time at it, and they threw it hard. They poisoned it with chemo, cut out some of me, and burned the rest as much as they could with radiation. It was hard, but it worked. Of course, with the cancers you had, they probably used something entirely different. I think they might have some easier things than just chemo anymore. Seven and a half years down the line now, my hair is half way down my back. But, I was bald, too. Totally. No eyelashes or eyebrows.

        I don’t know about the prostate, but I know that bone stuff probably hurt awful. I’m so sorry about that… but don’t give up. You’ll actually feel normal again someday. “The new normal” isn’t exactly a walk in the park, but I’ve prayed you stay in remission and can heal up and get some of “The old normal” back. Probably, in about three years, I felt a lot like my normal ornery self. Not horrible sick all that time, but not “Normal”. It takes time to recover, but take your vitamins and take care of yourself… and be as happy as you can be. Love and be loved.

        Those juices your body makes when you are happy are very good medicine. Be happy as much as you can. As my doc said to me, “Enjoy your life!” Every day of it.

  23. Well you guys, just talking about some of this at the WP:

    FDA takes more aggressive stance toward homeopathic drugs
    https://tinyurl.com/ybntot3g

    Some nurse just said she wanted me to know that pot’s not a panacea.

    I haven’t heard anyone but Sabet using that reference lately.

    • NorCalNative says:

      Panacea? No, but likely the most poly-therapeutic substance on the planet.

      • LOL. The woman is a professor at a Kentucky University. The one I threw a couple of replies at. She wanted to make sure that I didn’t make everyone think it was a panacea. It was hard to type. She knows how to be an authoritarian like a champ.

  24. Senior Senate Dem Signs Bill To Punish States With Bad Marijuana Laws – By Tom Angell https://tinyurl.com/ybxl32dl

    The Senate’s fourth-most-senior Democrat is signing onto the most far-reaching piece of marijuana legislation ever introduced on Capitol Hill.

    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced on Monday that he will cosponsor the Marijuana Justice Act, a bill introduced in August by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

    The Senate’s fourth-most-senior Democrat is signing onto the most far-reaching piece of marijuana legislation ever introduced on Capitol Hill.

    Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) announced on Monday that he will cosponsor the Marijuana Justice Act, a bill introduced in August by Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ).

    The bill would not only remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act so that states could legalize without federal interference, but would also withhold funding from states that maintain prohibition and continue racially disproportionate arrest and incarceration rates for cannabis.

    Additionally, it would require federal courts to expunge people’s prior marijuana convictions and would let people punished under disproportionately enforced cannabis laws to file civil lawsuits against those states.

    Money withheld from states with discriminatory marijuana policies would be used to fund job training and libraries.

    “We’ve got to get out of the war on drugs, which is really a war on people,” Booker said during a Facebook video on Monday night.

    Sitting next to Booker, Wyden described current marijuana policy as “socially unjust, economically backward and against the will of the American people.”

  25. Free Chaya says:

    Zwitsers bakken grootste spacecake ter wereld!

    Swiss bake world’s largest Space (CBD) Cake.

    https://www.cnnbs.nl/zwitsers-bakken-grootste-spacecake-wereld/

  26. Mouthy says:

    Go Norway!

    One of my goals in life has been to walk the dark, deep, and beautiful woods, while passing the pipe to a friend and listening to lovely, depraved and aggressive Black Metal on my Apple device. You cannot beat a pipe and a long walk in the woods, especially with the dog (pipe, pot, and puppy)

    • Mouthy says:

      Sometimes the only way I can write to my rep is by being the Devil’s Advocate:

      As an Iraq War veteran myself, I have seen veterans prescribed a cocktail of mind altering drugs from opiates, barbiturates, Xanax, Ambien, adderall, paxil, etc. More of these prescription drug users are from the War on Terror, but many are also Gulf War and Vietnam War vets. These veterans are going to cost the healthcare (VA, employer, state, private) system a lot of money because of the long term affects on the body and mind. Plus these drugs reduce the odds that said veteran will be a good employee, driver, parent, and registered firearm owner. We need to make a law that prohibits veterans on any form of mind altering prescription medication from having access to employment (work related accident avoidance), a driver’s license (road safety), and ownership of firearms (preempted safety measure). I was lucky to never be in combat, deploy more than one time, and get wounded from work/war related duties, etc requiring me to take these meds, therefore I am prescription drug free and I do not take anything mind altering. However, our society has the right to be free from any undue burdens of these veterans taking prescription pills. Can a veteran really be good at his job in a factory, teaching, driving a truck, investments, banking, legal counsel, science, medicine, etc. if they are addicted and mentally/physically altered all the time by these drugs with known and documented long term and negative side effects? Giving Veterans the right to mind altering prescriptions is a slippery slope to over prescribing drugs for everyone, including our children, e.g. injured high school football players, ADHD children, etc. I implore you to seek a ‘Preventive Maintenance’ law on these Veterans before they hurt themselves, others, and our healthcare system. With well over one million Veterans mentally altered by prescription meds, they are bound to destruct in one way or another, just like the family pit bulls. Thank You and may God bless you and have a wonderful Christmas and don’t forget the season is about HIM or Lord and Savior who died for us—chosen by the Father.

  27. Servetus says:

    While thousands of people are being murdered in Central and South America in the name of the drug war, scientists are diligently studying the molecular basis for addiction to provide clues that may eliminate the addictive side-effects prohibition claims to avert through detection, arrests and persecution of drug consumers, but which doesn’t:

    20-DEC-2017…recently, scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) have identified significant mitochondrial changes that take place in cocaine addiction, and they have been able to block them.[…]

    In mice exposed repeatedly to cocaine, UMSOM researchers identified an increase in a molecule that plays a role in mitochondria division (or fission) in a reward region of the brain. Researchers were able to block this change by using a special chemical, Mdivi-1. The researchers also blocked responses to cocaine by genetically manipulating the fission molecule within the mitochondria of brain cells, according to research published in Neuron.

    “We are actually showing a new role for mitochondria in cocaine-induced behavior, and it’s important for us to further investigate that role,” said Mary Kay Lobo, PhD, Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology.[…]

    The researchers initially studied the mitochondria in cocaine-exposed mice and determined that mitochondria fission increased in the major reward region of the brain. To confirm this same change in humans, researchers were able to identify similar changes in the mitochondrial fission molecule in tissue collected from post mortem individuals who were cocaine dependents.

    Dr. Lobo said that this latest research could help researchers better understand changes in brain cells and mitochondria from other addictive disorders. “We are interested to see if there are mitochondrial changes when animals are taking opiates. That is definitely a future direction for the lab,” she said.

    AAAS Public Release: Researchers discover key link between mitochondria and cocaine addiction: Scientists block response in mitochondria to cocaine

    • Servetus says:

      Plan Colombia. The US government declared it a victory, but the Colombian government continues the drug war on coca producers despite an initial agreement to de-escalate and phase-out growing through a program of crop substitution. Trump ordered the Colombians to use more force or face retaliation by the US. As a result, on October 5, 2017, authorities opened fire on coca farmers in Tomaco. Eight were killed with many wounded:

      http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/42995-empire-files-a-massacre-of-farmers-in-us-colombia-war-on-drugs

      In Xalapa, Mexico, Javier Valdez, a journalist specializing in crime reporting, was shot to death at an elementary school Christmas party. His son attended the party but did not witness his father’s death:

      http://www.chron.com/news/crime/article/Mexican-journalist-killed-attending-event-at-12441997.php

    • Servetus says:

      “The agency knew why the victims were kidnapped in 2010 by the Zetas drug cartel from a Holiday Inn in Mexico, but it did nothing to investigate or help. The victims’ friends and relatives now wonder why…”– Ginger Thompson:

      Dec. 21, 2017 –At about 2 a.m. on April 21, 2010, a convoy of gunmen working for the Zetas drug cartel, one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations in the world, rolled into Monterrey, Mexico, a wealthy, bustling city considered that country’s commercial capital. With brazen efficiency, they set up roadblocks at all major thoroughfares, then sent a convoy of sport utility vehicles downtown, encircling a Holiday Inn.

      The heavily armed men, some wearing ski masks, swarmed into the hotel’s lobby and rushed directly to the fifth floor, bursting into every room and rousting the guests from their beds. The gunmen questioned the guests, then separated four of them from the rest: a marketing executive at an eyewear company, a chemical engineer for a cosmetics manufacturer, a shoe salesman expecting his first child, and a college professor who was the mother of two.[…]

      https://www.propublica.org/article/dea-operation-played-hidden-role-in-the-disappearance-of-five-innocent-mexicans?utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter

  28. Mouthy says:

    https://yated.com/obama-saved-hezbollah-dea/

    Every militant organization out there is doing the same thing. The DEA’s medicine would have only been temporal. Some other organization would have taken up slack or just larger chunks to smaller groups.

    • NorCalNative says:

      Today’s WSJ waded in on this topic on their opinion page. Interesting story.

      • NorCalNative says:

        Obama’s putting the DEA on pause, in order to help secure a nuclear deal with Iran, a deal that included U.S. key allies and trading partners, seems worthwhile to me.

        The reason to bring this up now seems designed to create a surge of anti-iranian sentiment. Qui Bono?

        • Mouthy says:

          Let me see: we invade them in the early 1950s after they kicked the Russians out . . . our pro-Democracy nation gives them a king. We let the King evade criminal charges by giving him sanctuary, which led up to the hostage crisis. We created the Iranian mess and the DEA are really good at taking out dopers who sold for money, which opened up room to guys selling for terrorist funding. The DEA remind me of feces in a dementia ward for senior citizens, but feces are by far cleaner and more sanitary than the DEA.

  29. Servetus says:

    Trump’s border wall, the one he claims will stop drug smuggling, is the subject of a graphics illustration depicting the ongoing legal battles over acquiring land to build it.

    When met with stubborn opposition from property owners, the government bypasses eminent domain and uses a method known as “A Declaration of Taking”, a law from the Great Depression that enables the federal government to seize land immediately as long as it deposits a pittance of money to pay unfortunate property owners. Compensation is determined by a court at a later date. In the case of United States of America v. 15.919 Acres of Land, it’s been ten years since the government seized Tony Zavalata’s land to create a partial border wall. The case is still in court because the feds keeps botching the case. This is happening despite the fact Mr. Zavalata did not challenge the seizure; he just wanted compensation for his land:

    https://features.propublica.org/eminent-domain-and-the-wall/eminent-domain-comic-rio-grande-valley/

  30. Eddy Dilburton says:

    Elderly couple claims marijuana was for Christmas presents

    Sixty pounds of marijuana found in traffic stop …

    https://tinyurl.com/FreeChaya

    • jean valjean says:

      Look at the two self-important cops standing guard over this menace to society. Good work guys, you must be proud of yourselves.

  31. WalStMonky says:

    .
    .

    Merry christmas from the dirtball religionists.

    2 Central Massachusetts men, featured in High Times magazine, face federal charges in connection with pot grow operation
    ————————–
    Police across Colorado questioning whether youths are using marijuana less

    Somebody needs to get these assholes under oath and on the record. The RMHIDTA used to swear by SAMHSA when it reported their preferred results. Now they’re actually trying to sell the bald faced lie that when it was illegal the kiddies lied and said they were getting high when they weren’t. But now that it’s legal they expect us to believe that the kiddies are lying and saying they’re not. Well I guess it isn’t easy to lie as a condition of employment.

    Since when doesn’t the Denver Post have comments?

    • jean valjean says:

      All these DARE cops and so-called in-school drug “trainers” are desperately trying to hang on to their weed boondoggle jobs. Time to revisit the old Upton Sinclair quote:
      “It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Comments are closed.