Holiday plans

I’m on the road right now, headed to my Dad’s for Christmas. I’ll be there for a few days without any wifi, so, while I’ll be able to read comments and emails on my iPhone, it’s unlikely that I’ll be posting much.

Then home for a bit before heading out to Iowa to begin a road trip with my Mom, January 1-8. My Mom is 88 and was really hoping sometime to see her brother who is 94 and living in Sun City, Arizona. Neither can travel on their own so I’m going to drive her out to see him.

I’m hoping to also enjoy a little sight-seeing along the way with her, and maybe check out the Phoenix area a bit, while she’s visiting with her brother.

I’d love to have any of your suggestions regarding planned routes, tips of things to see or do, etc.

Mom lives in the Des Moines, Iowa area and it’s possible that we’ll need to take the southern route toward Arizona, which would likely include US-54 cutting through the corners of Kansas/Oklahoma/Texas, I-40 through New Mexico and eastern Arizona, and I-17 north of Phoenix.

If weather forecasts are favorable, we may try using the northern route on one of the trips: I-80 through Nebraska, I-70 through Colorado, US-191 through Utah.

It seems to me that the northern route may have more interesting scenery (with the exception of Nebraska) including areas of Utah and northern Arizona that I haven’t seen since I was a boy, although I’m sure there are some good things to see going through New Mexico into Arizona (Petrified Forest?, etc.) We won’t have a lot of time to stop and explore, but we’ll be looking for quick stops, passing scenery and maybe even a short detour or two.

Is there anything we shouldn’t miss?

What are your holiday plans?

This is an open thread.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

49 Responses to Holiday plans

  1. Pete and mom.... says:

    ….drive safe, happy holidays.

  2. Wes says:

    FYI, I-80 in western Nebraska often has “Drug Dog” and “Drug Checkpoint” warning signs. Conventional wisdom is you should NOT take the next exit and travel the secondary highway, or stop at the next rest area.

    The Colorado-Utah route is wonderful, plan to drive through the Colorado Monument between Grand Junction and Moab, and Arches park in Moab. It is like no place on earth.

  3. primus says:

    Nice. Very Nice.

  4. Pingback: Tweets that mention Holiday plans - Drug WarRant -- Topsy.com

  5. Dudeman says:

    BBQ in Kansas City; Taliesin West in Phoenix

  6. Cannabis says:

    I second what Dudeman says. Arthur Bryant’s BBQ in Kansas City. Safe travels, Pete!

  7. darkcycle says:

    As for drug checkpoints in Nebraska, they concentrate on eastbound traffic and they like to look for California, Oregon and Washington plates, as well as trucks out of Az. and Tx. If you’re Westbound from the midwest, they think you’re a good Baptist taking your family to Disneyland.
    One tenacious Minnesota State cop followed my wife and I all the way across the State. I set the cruise control at the speed limit and drove that way for almost three hundred miles, with him in tow. Stopped for gas before the State line and he turned around and went back…
    Drive safely, enjoy your family. Happy holidays.

  8. Pingback: The Safety of FDA Approved Diet Pills | FDA Approved Diet Pills

  9. malcolm kyle says:

    Travel safe Pete!

    We’re all totally snowbound here. Even walking is a problem:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12073501

    http://tinyurl.com/395zdng

    Merry Christmas to all you fine people!

  10. darkcycle says:

    Check out the first part of the interview on the nature of addiction and harm reduction at:
    http://www.democracynow.org/2010/12/24/dr_gabor_mat_on_the_stress

  11. malcolm kyle says:

    …And so, if you look at the preponderance of ADD in North America now and the three millions of kids in the States that are on stimulant medication and the half-a-million who are on anti-psychotics, what they’re really exhibiting is the effects of extreme stress, increasing stress in our society, on the parenting environment. Not bad parenting. Extremely stressed parenting, because of social and economic conditions. And that’s why we’re seeing such a preponderance.

    The child’s brain development depends on the presence of non-stressed, emotionally available parents. In this country, that’s less and less available. Hence, you’ve got burgeoning rates of autism in this country. It’s going up like 20- or 30-fold in the last 30 or 40 years.

    In ADD, there’s an essential brain chemical, which is necessary for incentive and motivation, that seems to be lacking. That’s called dopamine. And dopamine is simply an essential life chemical. Without it, there’s no life. Mice in a laboratory who have no dopamine will starve themselves to death, because they have no incentive to eat. Even though they’re hungry, and even though their life is in danger, they will not eat, because there’s no motivation or incentive. So, partly, one way to look at ADD is a massive problem of motivation, because the dopamine is lacking in the brain. Now, the stimulant medications elevate dopamine levels, and these kids are now more motivated. They can focus and pay attention.

    However, the assumption underneath giving these kids medications is that what we’re dealing with here is a genetic disorder, and the only way to deal with it is pharmacologically. And if you actually look at how the dopamine levels in a brain develop, if you look at infant monkeys and you measure their dopamine levels, and they’re normal when they’re with their mothers, and when you separate them from mothers, the dopamine levels go down within two or three days.

    Thanks DC!

  12. Bruce says:

    Merry Christmas all.
    The poorest one yet for me.
    My sweetie and I separated by 130 miles.
    Siggh, Thank you birdies from Heaven.
    With you we are together.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk746gclPRE

  13. Common Science says:

    Looking forward to getting onto the snowy slopes of Mt. Washington. As usual, it’s wet and green here on most of Vancouver Island, but checking their alpine report: “We just broke our record for the most snow in a four-day period we’ve seen…2.5 metres of snowfall since Monday…” (1 metre is three inches longer than a yard). Last year it received fifteen metres of snowfall and numerous international olympians training for the 2010 Winter Games.

    It’s good for us mortals too. Exhilarating experiences await our shackled souls. Play safe and best wishes to all in 2011!

  14. DdC says:

    Recommending Marijuana DdC Denver Post

    More reefer mad gossip only terrorizing more Americans. You have re legalized thalidomide as an appetite stimulant to avoid using cannabis. You never mention the tons of pesticides aborting babies, not used on Hemp. Non-psychoactive organic hemp that is scheduled a #1 narcotic do to gossip like yours. Millions of lives ruined by prison and job loss over hysterical drug worrier hypocrites. Before the lies concluding with the 1937 tax act kids and pregnant women used cannabis as a cough elixir and for nausea and as a sleep aid. You push speed onto kids for ADHD when cannabis provides a non toxic remedy. Sickening how cruel and sadistic drug thugs can be. Pitiful for anyone to condemn a physician for prescribing what is between the patient and doctor. None of your business and to even comment is proof you need to get a life of your own and stop persecuting Americans, especially expectant mothers!

    Colorado doctor defends recommending marijuana to a pregnant patient

    A Colorado doctor under fire for recommending marijuana to a pregnant woman says he provided the patient with appropriate care and disputes that pregnancy and medical marijuana don’t mix.

    # Pot doc who could lose his license already facing charges

    # Marijuana doc arrested in July facing new allegations

  15. darkcycle says:

    Thanks Malcolm, there’s alot of good stuff in that piece. P.S., My wife asks “Don’t you people take a day off?” I tried to explane, but she just rolled her eyes…

  16. I agree with Wes about Arches N.P. If you get to do the north route, take US 163 between Kayenta, AZ, and Bluff, UT, with a stop at Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. It only takes an hour or so to do the scenic drive through the park and you’ll never forget those incredible vistas.

  17. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    .
    I’m going to be sitting up all night by the fireplace with a street sweeper shot gun cocked and ready. Much to my dismay I’ve just learned that St. Nick is a whore monger. Yes, you heard it right, this man we let sneak into our homes in the dead of night and ply our children with shiny toys and tasty candy canes is a pervert, the patron saint of prostitutes. Obviously a guy like this is a pervert. It’s not like I’m a prude and against renting but the patron saint of prostitutes. I’m kicking myself for not putting 2 and 2 together. How the heck did we not figure this out the first time he bellowed ho ho ho?
    ——————————————————–

    I’m cheering the Colorado Board of Medical Examiners and sincerely hope they yank Dr. Quack’s medical license unless he can produce the intake form the woman filled out proving that she lied to him.

    The point of the medical cannabis laws is to get needed medicine to the sick, not create some kind of cover for potheads that want to get high. We’re talking about malfeasance and gross negligence if he never asked. I sure don’t recall not being asked if I were pregnant or if I intended to become pregnant on the intake forms for every doc I’ve seen and that included the 3 quacks that I used in California to gain the protection of the CUA when I was in Cali.

    Frankly I’d bet dollars to dirt that the woman did fill out her intake form and did indicate she was pregnant and the quack just didn’t bother to look.

    It’s no wonder the Know Nothings believe that medical cannabis is just a stalking horse for re-legalization if we’re going to defend quacks that will write recs for anyone with a pulse and a couple of hundred bucks. If the guy can’t even be bothered to perform even a cursory examination of the patient or some of the most basic health information just so he can write an extra couple of recs each day he shouldn’t be allowed to wear a stethoscope.

    Christ on a crutch a lot of the hippie dippie potheads squeal like stuck pigs when they conclude that almost anyone else is making a buck. People denigrate Richard Lee and Steve Diangelo are going to make money if Prop 19 passes, vote against it! Why is it that the hippie dippies give pot quacks like the “doctor” at the center of the instant subject free pass?

  18. darkcycle says:

    Duncan, you plug that sumbitch for me too, will ya? In all the years he has never ONCE left a prostitute beneath my tree. I knew he was holdin’ out.

  19. allan420 says:

    morning revelation…

    “Teenagers have an auto-mute button when listening to their elders, however to a stoned teenager almost anything is interesting and they will listen to just about anything, including their elders.”

  20. DdC says:

    “The Lord hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” (Isaiah 61:1)

    When does it become justifiable to kill a prohibitionist? That includes the gossip queens spouting unsubstantiated rumors and innuendo. Is killing too harsh for someone intentionally saying things that do harm to others? Do harm to the elderly, sick and even those dying. Crying fire in a crowded theater can cause people harm if they panic and stampede. If killing someone to prevent greater harm is justified, why not those yelling fire in the Ganjawar? Falsely denigrating someone with malice and forethought is a crime. Why not the pigs lying about Ganja? Or the politically correct cowards appeasing the liars?

    Giving false statements leading to death or injury is a punishable offense, same thing when prohibs do it. Don’t we have laws especially protecting doctors and cops from Perjurious slander potentially leading to the harm of others? Or plan old self defense. If someone is attacking you with lies about Ganja, that lead to injury, trauma or even death. You have the right to protect yourself the same as those breaking into your home. What part of the Constitution does it say I have to pay the salaries of my tormentors?

    Profiteers selling lies that do harm are prosecuted when found guilty. Profiteers that pollute or recklessly trash public land are also brought to justice. Except maybe not in Texas. Keeping Hemp a controlled narcotic is doing just that. The truth is known and those hiding it are traitors to America, thats lower than sworn enemies attacking. Intentionally doing harm to a citizen of the US is an act Americans should have no problem standing against. Those who choose to stand by or participate with the lies are as guilty… and lets not barter, hang them too. At least at first as an example.

    In an International Ganjawar Tribunal the propagandist, enforcement, Ganjawar brokers and profiteers should be put on trial and that be broadcast to the citizenry of the world. Until then there are two choices. Us or them. On this Christmas “I come not to bring peace, but to bring a sword” “I’ve come to split up families, divide homes, turn father against son, mother against daughter.” “Whatever you do to the least of my brothers, that you do unto me. Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils…

    “Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit.”
    — White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske,
    7/09 Fresno, Calif. press conference

    “shall not bear false witness” Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron. Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving. “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you will be no priest to Me for I desired mercy and not sacrifice.”

    40 years has kept cannabis in schedule 1 as a deliberate way to deny patients access to medical marijuana. This includes people suffering from asthma, cancer, migraine headache, chronic pain, spasticity, glaucoma, arthritis, or any reason. As a result, people at various locations across the USA have had to risk and suffer years in prison for providing medical marijuana to patients as an act of compassion and personal conscience. What would Jesus do? He chose to break the law in order to heal the sick.
    ~ Chris Conrad

    Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up. Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind, And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch. Not like its a secret. Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy … and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with ‘scientific support’ … fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others. … The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents.
    — William F. Buckley,
    Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495

  21. claygooding says:

    Merry Christmas all,and Happy New Year
    May all of you get our most wished for present,the beginning of the end of the prohibition of cannabis in the US and the World.
    Think I’ll make some trash hash.

  22. darkcycle says:

    Jeez, DdC, it’s christmas eve. Do you think maybe we could talk a little less about…uh…killing people?

  23. darkcycle says:

    Except if you’re talking about activist1 over at the Sacramento Bee. If that’s who you’re referring to, be my guest. Drop a Piano on that cartoon character’s head. Merry Christmas.

  24. allan420 says:

    aaah… darkcycle… we’ve uh, been boycotting Ms Taylor at the Modesto Bee’s site… and uh, every time she posts we’ll start our own on the topic (if it’s worth repeating). She’s fallen off the radar there. It’s true – ignore it and it goes away!

    And me… I’m dropping out for a week. Gonna see a gal down in Cal, drug policy will get by w/o me for 9 days I suspect.

    And a hearty “Ho Ho HO! (in the finest Finnish traditions…) to you all. See you next year.

  25. Sardonnas says:

    Next ice-age has started in Estonia 🙂 Sitting in snowprison at uncles place with lot of good food and some gooood Haze 🙂
    Might as well say I love snow 🙂

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtongIG2mdA things are like this 🙂

    Best holidays and coming new year people 🙂

    Hohohoooo!

  26. ezrydn says:

    Recent years have had my Mexico Christmas in the dry “hard crack” stage. However, this year, while fairly brisk in the mornings, it’s suprisingly mild. Which means summer might be a real bitch. My cockatoo will get to come to the tree today and see what toys Santa brought him. He “knows.” LOL That’s Christmas for me, through his eyes.

    Hope your Christmas Eve was good and you have a safe remainder of the Holidays.

  27. tintguy says:

    Be safe and enjoy your trip Pete!
    Merry Christmas to all and keep in mind that it’s the Season of Love,Peace and Goodwill to all mankind. Instead of death let’s wish for a change of heart! 😉

  28. darkcycle says:

    Ezzy, birds are smart. Really, really smart. Grey Parrots come in just a little lower than Chimpanzees on the intellegence scale. Damn right he knows. And if he watched you wrap, he knows what he’s getting… Feliz Navidad, brother.

  29. undrgrndgirl says:

    @duncan…some of the first recoded uses of cannabis are the treatment of emesis gravidarum – known to you lay persons as morning sickness; then there is hyperemesis in pregnancy which is “all day sickness” – some women actually lose significant amounts of weight, which can cause fetal underdevelopment and even spontaneous abortion (miscarriage). even IF this woman admitted she was pregnant, cannabis IS a safe and reliable treatment for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy… other recorded uses of cannabis include its use in labor and delivery… sorry, but in this instance the doctor did nothing wrong…

  30. ezrydn says:

    @darkcycle,

    This little guy (a Goffin) flew into my life 30 years ago and he’s been the best buddy a guy could have. Totally wild at first, now a lover. He likes riding in the car (horrible back seat driver-LOL), enjoys Starbucks coffee, “whipped cream on a stick” and his most favorite, “pretty girl kisses.” Yeah, Dad taught him right. LOL

    I’ve learned a new appreciation of life by re-experiencing it through his eyes. Plus, he knows how to short circuit any PTSD episode I encounter. The kid’s sharp! He understands that my rubbing my fingers lightly through his feathers calms me down immediately, the back of his head is always offered.

  31. claygooding says:

    undrgrndgirl,the first stories about the effectiveness of cannabis on relieving kemo patients made me think that if it worked for them,it should work for expectant mothers nearly as well. My first wife used it for menstrual cramps and the rest of the month she rarely smoked it. That was back in the 70’s and we were not pushing the medical benefits then as now,we just knew it was not as dangerous as the government kept reporting and distorting.

  32. Duncan20903 says:

    @duncan…some of the first recoded uses of cannabis are the treatment of emesis gravidarum – known to you lay persons as morning sickness; then there is hyperemesis in pregnancy which is “all day sickness” – some women actually lose significant amounts of weight, which can cause fetal underdevelopment and even spontaneous abortion (miscarriage). even IF this woman admitted she was pregnant, cannabis IS a safe and reliable treatment for nausea and vomiting in pregnancy… other recorded uses of cannabis include its use in labor and delivery… sorry, but in this instance the doctor did nothing wrong…

    In your example, did the doctor not need to know whether the woman was pregnant or not? I’m familiar with the history of cannabinoids in pregnancy and in delivery of the baby. I’m also familiar with the fact that the first thing that mom does after the kid is born is to start producing mother’s milk that’s just lousy with endocannabinoids. Have you gotten far enough along this path to have come up with a working theory that what potheads use as a joke when talking about the ‘gateway’ theory may have a significant factual basis, i.e. that people who are deprived of that initial boost of endo-cannabinoids have a significantly increased chance of suffering addiction based pathologies? My mom never produced viable milk for some reason. Only my oldest sister got breast milk the first couple of days of her life. My sister grew up on the June Cleaver fast track while the rest of us grew up deviants. It wasn’t until the last year that I put 2 + 2 together and realized just because mom’s milk had no food value didn’t mean it didn’t have the endo-cannabinoids.

    In this case Dr. Quack didn’t have a clue, nor did he care to get one. If you want to defend this quack I can’t stop you, but I’m not blindly pledging allegiance to a doctor that is obviously just writing recs for anyone with the fee. Hell, why even bother requiring the patient to come into the office? Why bother with an office? The doctor could set up a web site programmed to print out a recommendation upon receipt of the fee.

    Quick pop quiz, a woman is at the doctor’s, her BP is 100/60 and she’s pregnant. A second woman also pregnant presents and her BP is 140/110. Do they both benefit from cannabis? Does either patient need to be warned about an increased chance of fainting, i.e. ‘you need to be careful lady, if you stand up too quickly you might end up with a broken ankle? But first, does the doctor need to know whether the BP reading is due to her already having consumed cannabis that day? C’mon, c’mon, enquiring minds want to know!

    I’m not denouncing this doctor for OKing a pregnant woman, I’m spitting on him for not knowing that she was pregnant. I said above if he produces here intake form where she knowingly lied about being pregnant that would take him off the hook as far as I was concerned.

    We’re talking about the base line, barest minimum standard of medical care here. Are these doctors really acting as doctors or are they just a free pass into medical merry wanna candy land? Does not the perception of the people who are standing outside looking in matter at all? The fact is that it’s a rare person who actually has the needed baseline knowledge to know that cannabis is not automatically contra-indicated during pregnancy.

    When I was growing up in the late ’60s/ early ’70s it wasn’t uncommon to encounter a thalidomide baby. Anyone at least my age is going to have the memory of those people seared into their memory. Perhaps I have a more vivid memory as my sister was friends with this girl who had no arms. Now, she did have hands, they were directly attached to her shoulders. Yeah, the irony is that if her mom had used cannabis rather than thalidomide for her morning sickness the poor girl would almost certainly have had arms. Even more ironic is that it looks like thalidomide is a quality therapy for reducing tumors (the exact reason why its so bad for fetuses) and that the unexpected consequence of using it when pregnant set back the study of the efficacious uses of thalidomide by decades.

    The thalidomide babies must have had a significantly shortened life expectancy because I can’t recall seeing one of those poor people after the early-middle 1970s.

    It’s hard enough convincing people that it’s ok for doctors to prescribe cannabis as medicine to people who are going to be dead in less than a year. I think it’s positively retarded to expect the general public to accept that the doctor doesn’t need to bother to find out if the woman is pregnant. Are you 100% certain that cannabis is never contra-indicated in a pregnant woman? Do pregnant women react to cannabis differently than people who aren’t?

    It’s a guaranteed loser of an argument to use as basis that it’s so much not a problem in pregnancy that the doctor doesn’t even need to bother to find out, oh well shit, I guess the doctor doesn’t even need to determine whether his patient is male or female? I think everyone that frequents this forum is correctly informed that driving while high on cannabis is perfectly safe after a small effort of recalibrating your brain to compensate. While that is true it’s also true that it’s an act of genuine stupidity to try to convince the Know Nothing prohibitionists of that. To me it’s such a non-issue that I say fine, make it ‘zero tolerance’ for driving. I’ve driven almost 1.5 million miles in my day and still get the lowest possible auto insurance rates available. It’s been more than a decade since I’ve gotten a ticket, and that would be more than two decades if I had been able to stop that day on a rain and oil slicked road. So what? If I try to argue that we really don’t need laws against driving while ‘impaired’ on cannabis that argument is going nowhere fast. We’ve got to choose our battles wisely, because the enemies of freedom have significantly more systemic resources backing them. I submit that both using cannabis while pregnant, and while driving are battles which we have almost no chance of winning, at least not without a couple of decades of significant evidence under our belts.

    Here’s a link to a Google images search of thalidomide birth defects. You need to understand that anyone over the age of 45 or so has almost certainly crossed paths with more than a few thalidomide babies.

    http://tinyurl.com/they-called-him-flipper

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-489141/Thalidomide–scarred-time-fear-terrible-mistake.html

    We may as well quit if we’re going to try to convince the medical establishment to disregard their memories of the consequences of prescribing thalidomide to pregnant women. It was mountain moving time just to get them to look at it as a possible therapy for people with no chance of becoming pregnant, like men and women over 70, and such. These memories still vivid in the minds of any person who’s 45 and over, that is to say practically 100% of the entire medical establishment.

    We live in a world that is what it is, not what it should be. Dr. de Jesus Aquino is no friend of medical cannabis. He’s a greedy fucking mercenary and needs to be run out of town on a rail. Just tell me when and where. I’ll start boiling the tar and plucking the chickens. If you’re not interested in helping then look the other way.

  33. malcolm kyle says:

    *In Panama, an urgent BlackBerry message from the president to the American ambassador demanded that the D.E.A. go after his political enemies: “I need help with tapping phones.”

    *In Sierra Leone, a major cocaine-trafficking prosecution was almost upended by the attorney general’s attempt to solicit $2.5 million in bribes.

    *In Guinea, the country’s biggest narcotics kingpin turned out to be the president’s son, and diplomats discovered that before the police destroyed a huge narcotics seizure, the drugs had been replaced by flour.

    *Leaders of Mexico’s beleaguered military issued private pleas for closer collaboration with the drug agency, confessing that they had little faith in their own country’s police forces.

    *Cables from Myanmar, the target of strict United States sanctions, describe the drug agency informants’ reporting both on how the military junta enriches itself with drug money and on the political activities of the junta’s opponents.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/26/world/26wikidrugs.html?_r=1&hp

  34. darkcycle says:

    I gotta agree Duncan, but I don’t think undrgrndgrl got that the doctor didn’t bother to find out about the reproductive status of that particular patient. While there may be nothing wrong with cannabis in pregnancy, there is definitely something wrong with not examining your patient before rendering a diagnosis and medicating.
    But, since when do the know-nothings opinions about what is and isn’t medicine count? IMHO it is between the doctor and the patient,and not subject to plebiscite. Right or wrong, why do we even get to say?
    Yeah, I remember Mike W. Grew up with him, went to high school with him, he had one flipper and one normal arm, and a foreshortened right leg. He could walk, but with a heavy prosthetic extension on his shoe. Great guy, died when he was in his twenties. Thalidomide babies were an awful surprise and they scared the shit out of people, hence the overreaction.

  35. Duncan20903 says:

    I just want to reiterate that things are what they are, not what they should be. I just can’t for the life of me see that enforcing the absolute minimum baseline of care is any imposition on medical practitioners or patients.

    If people want to pursue using Rick Simpson’s concoction they should at a minimum be informed that there’s no science backing his claims. Yes, it can be acknowledged that the reason there’s no science for his claims is because the government stands intransigent against any research into it, but that doesn’t mean that it does work. I’m sure if I ever get cancer that I’ll be cooking up Rick’s concoction and using it. Using it in combination with the standard treatment protocol. Cannabis is one of the few substances which just is not countraindicated. I had significant surgery in 2007 and had absolutely no controversy within myself showing up stoned to the bejeezus from a purposefully self administered ton of cannabinoids, and making sure I had enough cannabrex to last through the 3 days spent recovering in the hospital. The problem with that is that there wasn’t any swallowing that was going to happen. Suppositories sure would have come in handy at that time but in 2007 I still hadn’t learned that suppositories are a legitimate delivery method, and probably the most efficient delivery method for a delta 11 THC high. It’s definitely one thing to know intellectually that severe nausea/cachexia patients can’t swallow pills, it’s still a much different point of view to actually experience it in person. There’s no need to choose between conventional cancer therapies and Mr. Simpson’s therapies.

    Why should doctors have regulatory oversight? Do you recall when it was announced that laetrile was the cure for cancer, when was that the early 1980s? Maybe that was the 70s I seem to recall Mr. Carter was president at the time. The last time I looked that up I was shocked to discover that it still has a small number of disciples using and promoting it as a cancer cure.

    http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/laetrile/Patient <— last modified 9/24/2010 (no fooling).

  36. jhelion says:

    interesting article about animals seeking intoxicants:

    “The animal world has its junkies too”
    http://www.pjonline.com/christmas/pj2010_723

  37. Duncan20903 says:

    Someday I would very much like to see a herd of drunken elephants.

    What does an elephants do when he’s drunk? Just about anything his little heart desires.

  38. darkcycle says:

    Laetril is made from peach pits. I remember the “Cancer cure” stories too, and I shake my head. Laetril NEVER actually showed the same promise that cannabis shows. Yet where’s the media hype? No, not there, because it’s CANNABIS. There are few things that piss me off more.
    As for elephants? Well, I do hope that they’re ‘happy’ drunks.

  39. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    .
    Well it looks like they’ve busted a load of that new superpotent, genetically engineered by potheads while sitting on a couch mom’s basement getting high and eating cheetos, not your granny’s merryjewanna in Chicago land. They say this stuff sells for $2250 an ounce. Man that must be good shit to get a price that high. No one shares the good stuff with me anymore.

    The 5-gallon buckets came in three separate shipments this month. Scott was arrested Dec. 18.
    Based on the $2.7 million total price the sheriff’s office calculated for the marijuana, the street value of the drugs was estimated at $2,250 an ounce.

    That is considered expensive for regular-grade marijuana, but within the usual range of price for high-grade marijuana in the 2008 National Drug Threat Assessment by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the latest year for which federal cost estimates were available.

    http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-12-24/news/ct-met-pot-haul-20101224_1_high-grade-marijuana-high-grade-pot-chicago-man

  40. darkcycle says:

    Holy shit, talk about inflating the street value!

  41. darkcycle says:

    Or maybe it was that “1000 joints to an ounce” pot they were talking about a few months ago.

  42. malcolm kyle says:

    Anybody care to watch me and Duncan edumacating a bunch of inbred hicks: http://tinyurl.com/2wkxx7q

  43. malcolm kyle says:

    I can hardly wait, in few years the marijuana producers will be dragged before the courts and sued for all the cancer they caused. The tobacco companies will finally have something to cheer about. –Joseph Papciak and Martinez Lake

    http://www.yumasun.com/opinion/marijuana-66413-fda-tested.html

  44. Duncan20903 says:

    Those crackers really are behind the curve as to the officially sanctioned Know Nothing prohibitionists hysterical rhetoric. On actually threatened me with jail! I was no, no, no you’re supposed to say no one ever goes to jail for cannabis!

    Continuing the thesis that sarcasm and parody just won’t work with this subject one of the comments said, and I believe was honestly expressing his feelings:

    marijuana users are not part of decent society and should be punished in any way possible for being leftists, hippies and scum. the laws are just another way to tell them that they don’t belong. it is not rocket science to understand that. society doesn’t like you and will pay most any price to keep you from spreading.
    12/26/2010 9:30:53 PM

  45. Peter says:

    Festive greetings…. although my christmas reading this year has been Michelle Alexander’s THE NEW JIM CROW: MASS INCARCERATION IN THE AGE OF COLORBLINDNESS (not very merry) … man i knew the w.o.d was fucked up but i didn’t realize how crazy things had got….I recently re-watched the movie of The Crucible and the w.o.d and the plea bargaining that goes with it remind me of nothing so much as the mccarthyite pressure to “name names,” and to lie about yourself and your neighbors, which Miller portrays so well in the witchhunts of Salem…. the admission of hearsay evidence from people who have a clear financial motive to lie like police and informants… very scary…. my heart goes out to people serving life terms for possession, like the salem “witches” being in “possession” of the devil…. things have hardly changed in 300 years…people will back on the w.o.d with the same incredulity and horror that we now experience when we look back on slavery

  46. darkcycle says:

    Wow. I didn’t know they had a newspaper in Stupidville, N.C..
    Well, I was sitting around bored all day, I see you guys found something to do. Too much trouble to bring old darkcycle along while you go off to play…? Well done though, I gotta say.

  47. malcolm kyle says:

    Sorry DC, but I thought you always stayed in on Mondays for Gunsmoke.

  48. darkcycle says:

    Naw, but I am unavailable from 3:00 PM ’till 3:30. That’s when “Gilligan’s Island” is on. What ever happened to the re-runs of the “Gong Show?”. Ya know, waayy back in the day, I mean waayyy back, I dated Chuck Barris’s daughter. He threw my long-haired ass out of his house once. That’s my single claim to know a celebrity. (I spent the, ahem, formative part of my teenage years in L.A., Century City, to be more specific.)

Comments are closed.