Odds and Ends

Top story: Driven By Drug War Incentives, Cops Target Pot Smokers, Brush Off Victims Of Violent Crime by Radley Balko at Huffington Post

Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do […]

“When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside,” Downing said.


bullet image NPR reports ADHD Sufferers Fear An Adderall Shortage and notes that the DEA actually controls the overall amount to be produced nationally, so that if there is diversion it ends up resulting in shortages.

Radley Balko comments: FDA: There’s a nationwide Adderall shortage that’s causing real harm to patients. DEA: Shut up.

Mark Draughn at Windypundit likens the DEA stupidity to attempting to reduce traffic accidents by restricting the number of cars that are manufactured.


bullet image Portugal and the drug war – a nice piece by Helen Redmond for Al Jazeera.

Before the Portuguese government was able to implement the National Drug Strategy in 2000, members of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) flew to Lisbon to dissuade them from decriminalising drugs. The INCB is an unaccountable cabal of drug war proponents who enforce prohibitionist drug policies around the world through the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs. They argued Portugal would become a drug destination for tourists, drug use would explode among youth, and decriminalisation would “send the wrong message”.

The doomsday drug drama portrayed by the INCB never happened. Portugal didn’t become Europe’s “Club Meth”, nor did rates of drug use significantly increase. In fact, drug use among adolescents decreased. There has been a small spike in drug use among adults. And, so what?


bullet image Mexico activists seek ICC investigation of drugs war – they’re asking the International Criminal Court to investigate both one of the top drug lords and the President of Mexico.

Good to see the two being put in the same category. In general, it is both governments and the major traffickers who profit from the war and they are both likely to abuse their power.


bullet image Headline of the day: Prime Minister refuses to legalize marijuana or ban shark fins


bullet image Another innocent victim of the drug wars. Federal agents say 88-year-old Saratoga man’s invention is being used by meth labs

An 88-year-old guy makes “Polar Pure” water purifier for hikers and campers. Now his distributor has been warned against sending him iodine (the critical ingredient) because the DEA thinks people might use it to try to make meth. So now he’s out of business.

And the DEA’s response?

“Methamphetamine is an insidious drug that causes enormous collateral damage,” wrote Barbara Carreno, a DEA spokeswoman. “If Mr. Wallace is no longer in business he has perhaps become part of that collateral damage, for it was not a result of DEA regulations, but rather the selfish actions of criminal opportunists. Individuals that readily sacrifice human lives for money.”

Yeah, there’s a special place in hell for people like that.


bullet image Voice of Russia says: Obama picked the wrong moment for a crackdown on medical marijuana

In any event, the Obama administration has picked the wrong moment for the launch of its questionable campaign. While the country is hopelessly struggling with the economic and social depression it seems that there are a lot more urgent problems to address than persecuting producers of a medical substance.


bullet image Always expanding the definition of safety sensitive positions for the purpose of drug testing… The city of Corinth (don’t know where that is) recently expanded their mandatory drug testing positions to include:

Employees who are traveling on the exterior of city vehicles and are exposed to external traffic hazards.

That confused me. Firefighters are already included. Is this for the dalmatian who rides the fire truck? Then it hit me – they probably needed to come up with a way to justify drug testing garbage men. Because Lord knows we wouldn’t want the men who pick up our trash all day to be getting stoned when they get home.

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51 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. Francis says:

    “There has been a small spike in drug use in adults [in Portugal following decriminalization]. And, so what?”

    So what indeed. What are the stats on the changes in problem use? Also, I’m curious to know if drug use really did increase when you factor in alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drug use. I’d imagine that some of the increase in newly-decriminalized drugs is displacing the use of those three.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
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      Define drug use please. Prohibitionists love to talk about how “use” of merrywanna tripled in Holland after the coffee shops opened. But they never mention that the only category for which this was true was “lifetime” use. So a lot of people went into a coffee shop because of the novelty factor. This incident actually discredits their position that we keep people from becoming “addicts” by keeping them from trying drugs.

      Comparable use statistics for other countries in the region please. How many times have we heard that medical merrywanna is responsible for the increase in teens being forced into “treatment” for merrywanna in California without being told that the rate of teens forced into “treatment” in California and New York are identical?

  2. Francis says:

    Quick Portugal questions, does anyone have any hard numbers on public opinion re: decriminalization and how it’s varied over time? I’ve heard the claim that it was tremendously controversial in Portugal when first adopted, and now there’s virtually no controversy surrounding it? That would seem to be one of the strongest pieces of evidence to rebut some U.S. drug warrior’s attempt to lie with statistics to paint post-reform Portugal as some kind of apocalyptic wasteland. Also, is there any evidence that Portugal’s decriminalization of possession has been accompanied by, if not a de facto decriminalization of drug production and sales, at least a significant reduction in enforcement efforts?

  3. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    Well you can hardly blame the cops. Victims of violent crimes are always such whiners. Wahhh, he raped me, wahhh, she murdered me, wahhh, they pointed guns at me and robbed me, wahhh, that man farted in my general direction, wah, wah, wah. It gives me a headache just thinking about it. Besides, potheads go easily and they always have the best munchies. Well, except for the vegans of course.

  4. LaxadirivitedCribage.com says:

    While it is true that lifetime and past-month use rates did increase back in the seventies and eighties, the critics shamefully fail to report that there were comparable and larger increases in cannabis use in most, if not all, neighboring countries which continued complete prohibition.

    According to the World Health Organization only 19.8 percent of the Dutch have used marijuana, less than half the U.S. figure.
    In Holland 9.7% of young adults (aged 15 to 24) consume soft drugs once a month, comparable to the level in Italy (10.9%) and Germany (9.9%) and less than in the UK (15.8%) and Spain (16.4%). Few transcend to becoming problem drug users (0.44%), well below the average (0.52%) of the compared countries.

    The WHO survey of 17 countries finds that the United States has the highest usage rates for nearly all illegal substances.

    In the U.S. 42.4 percent admitted having used marijuana. The only other nation that came close was New Zealand, another bastion of get-tough policies, at 41.9 percent. No one else was even close. The results for cocaine use were similar, with the U.S. again leading the world by a large margin.

    Even more striking is what the researchers found when they asked young adults when they had started using marijuana. Again, the U.S. led the world, with 20.2 percent trying marijuana by age 15. No other country was even close, and in Holland, just 7 percent used marijuana by 15 — roughly one-third of the U.S. figure.
    http://www.alternet.org/drugs/90295/

    In 1998, the US Drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey claimed that the U.S. had less than half the murder rate of the Netherlands. That’s drugs, he explained. The Dutch Central Bureau for Statistics immediately issued a special press release explaining that the actual Dutch murder rate is 1.8 per 100,000 people, or less than one-quarter the U.S. murder rate.

    The Netherlands also provides heroin on prescription under tight regulation to about 1500 long-term heroin addicts for whom methadone maintenance treatment has failed.
    http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/free-heroin-brings-everyone-a-bit-peace

    The Dutch justice ministry announced, in May 2009, the closure of eight prisons and cut 1,200 jobs in the prison system. A decline in crime has left many cells empty. There’s simply not enough criminals
    http://www.nrc.nl/international/article2246821.ece/Netherlands_to_close_prisons_for_lack_of_criminals

    Here is a very recent article by a psychiatrist from Amsterdam, exposing Drug Czar misinformation
    http://tinyurl.com/247a8mp

  5. darkcycle says:

    Fewer prisoners. Less use by youth. And their society did not end up being destroyed, either. The prohibitionists must be SO dissapointed.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
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      Nah they don’t even miss a step.

      The prohibitionist responds, “These statistics, even if they are true, are irrelevant to the United States. Unlike the homogeniuses who populate northern and western Europe, the U.S. is populated by, on average, very stupid people who have little to no self control. Why just look at how the rates of prescription drugs addiction have skyrocketed! How many people have been scammed into believing that smoked merrywanna is a medicine based on nothing more than a hill sized pile of evidence?”

    • thelbert says:

      too bad there is no objective measure of moral fabric. i’m sure the american moral fabric is the strongest on earth if not the cosmos, but i don’t have the tool to prove it.

  6. claygooding says:

    They are still receiving 30>40 comments per hour at the HP on the Randy Balco article.

    I wonder what the CA Chiefs of Police Assc will say about that article,,or any LEO organization,,since all anyone has to do is ask them how much federal bounty money their city’s received for marijuana enforcement to see how important continuing prohibition of cannabis is to their department budgets.

  7. Pingback: Odds and Ends « Drug WarRant | HEROIN ABUSE INTERVENTION

  8. Myke Pyke says:

    Abolish the controlled substance act and treat drug abuse/addiction as a health issue and not a criminal issue.

  9. Duncan20903 says:

    .
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    Why isn’t there an oxycodone shortage?

    • darkcycle says:

      There have been numerous oxycodone shortages. It’s regional and related to distribution issues and the fact that oxycodone is a generic drug with low returns. Last I heard there were only two generic manufacturers of oxycodone. Interesting to note, that the more expensive brand name formulations are not usually scarce.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
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        Oxycodone includes Oxycontin®. If there’s no shortage of Oxycontin®, by definition there’s no shortage of oxycodone.

        Say, have you heard the rhetoric about Purdue’s new Oxycontin® formulation. Lots of prohibitionists like to claim that the new formulation, the one that gave them a new 20 year patent, is “abuse proof.” How do they know? Well because Purdue told them so. Well they said they were very sorry for promoting the non-medicinal use of Oxycontin® so I guess we can trust them now.
        http://ralphdeeds.hubpages.com/hub/CROOK_ALERT__PURDUE_PHARMA_GUILTY_OF_CRIMINAL_CHARGES_FOR_MISBRANDING_OXYCONTIN

        So my question is, “if the DEA is controlling the raw materials for schedule II drugs, why isn’t there a shortage of oxycodone?” and please let’s skip the brand name distinction without difference.

        But don’t worry too much, it’s really meant as a rhetorical device more than a question of curiosity. The reason is obvious to me. The Mexicans call it “la mordida.” Purdue pays to play, Shire doesn’t.

        • darkcycle says:

          Well, brand names denote big pharma. You used oycodone, which IS a generic name….Picky, picky picky. Perhaps your rhetorical device would work better if you said Oxycontin, of which there seems to be no shortage in sight. But upon me, someone who has in fact had difficulty in the past due to a shortage of the very drug you mentioned, the device was inneffective. I have had to go to three different pharmacies to have a generic oxycodone prescription filled.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .
          Q) Why is there no shortage of dogs?

          A) There’s no shortage of Labrodoodles, but just try to find a mutt.

  10. claygooding says:

    I would wonder more,since the DEA is in control of the manufacturing of Oxycontin,how is there enough of it available to meet all prescription needs and support the large black market for them.

  11. Duncan20903 says:

    Speaking of HuffPo, how does a comment get removed for being a violation of their T&C from a pre-moderated comments column?

    The censors at HuffPo are very annoying, though I admit that they treat me a lot better since they anointed me as an official hall monitor. Don’t worry. I’m no teacher’s pet. If you want to ditch class just use the exit on my hall, I have no clue why they thought making me a “moderator” was a good idea. It isn’t like they asked if I wanted it, I just showed up one day and they said here’s the blacklight to detect counterfeit hall passes. Now they can’t figure out why that hall smells like pot.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      I may have to quit HuffPo, the censors are assholes. Here’s what the cretins saw fit to not post tonight. What is it? The word “regurgitated?” The fact that I bastardized his comment? Utter disregard for the problem of global warming/whatever with a common sense cure suggested?

      MikeDu regurgitated, “People are being butchered by the hundred in Mexico over who get the profits from YOUR weekend party drug purchases. Get clean, stop purchasing­. Save a life. Blah, blah, blah.”

      Great idea! While we’re at it, let’s solve global warming/cooling/whatever the current PC rhetoric worries about today by installing planetary thrusters. If the temps to warm, we simply move the planet a little further from the sun. Too cool? Move it a bit closer. Just right? Oh well, at least we stimulated the economy. No more incessant arguments about the planet’s temp.

      Win-win-win, and it makes at least a bit more sense than your hare brained suggestion to cure the unintended consequences by expecting human nature to change.

      The organized criminal syndicates didn’t exist before the epic failure of public policy which we call the war on (some) drugs was instituted by irrational racist lunatics. Pretend that you have the moral high ground but that’s fantasy land thinking. The blood of those people is on your hands and those that think you have any business coming into my private life and micromanaging my choices.

      Don’t for a second think we’re going to quit enjoying cannabis, or take the blame for the crime which is directly caused by the idiocy of absolute prohibition.

      Toodles!

      Rat bastard commies.

  12. darkcycle says:

    Rat bastards indeed, but commies? They’re barely watered down liberals. The commies are here:
    http://www.cpusa.org/

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      You’ll have to forgive me, and I’m a child of the ’70s. Better dead than red indeed.

      I tried editing it. I removed “regurgitated” for which I substituted “said” and removed “hare brained”. The only other denigrations are for concepts or objects, specifically “the idiocy of absolute prohibition”, “fantasy land thinking” and “irrational racist lunatics.”

      One of the more annoying things about these censors is that they never tell a guy why his post was shit canned. I simply can’t come up with any reason why my post was censored except that the censor didn’t like the content. Help! help! I’m being repressed!
      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q58nTiZrJ0&feature=fvwrel

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        Now this is some classic dialogue:

        Dennis: What I object to is you automatically treatin’ me like an inferior.

        Arthur: Well, I am king.

        Dennis: Oh, king, eh? Very nice. And how’d you get that, then? By exploiting the workers! By hanging on to outdated imperialist dogma which perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society! If there’s ever going to be any progress–

        Dennis: We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as sort-of-executive officer for the week–

        Arthur: Yes.

        Dennis: But all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special biweekly meeting–

        Arthur: Yes, I see.

        Dennis: By a simple majority, in the case of purely internal affairs–

        Arthur: [getting annoyed] Be quiet.

        Dennis: But by a two thirds majority, in the case of more major–

        Arthur: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!

        Dennis’ Mother: Order, eh? Who does he think he is?

        Arthur: I am your king!

        Dennis’ Mother: Well I didn’t vote for you.

        Arthur: You don’t vote for kings!

        Dennis’ Mother: Well how’d you become king, then?

        Arthur: The Lady of the Lake,… [Angel chorus begins singing in background] her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I, Arthur, was to carry Excalibur. [Angel chorus ends] That is why I am your king!

        Dennis: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.

        Arthur: Be quiet!

        Dennis: You can’t expect to wield supreme power just ’cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!

        Arthur: Shut up!

        Dennis: I mean, if I went ’round saying I was an emperor just because some moistened bint had lobbed a scimitar at me, they’d put me away!

        Arthur: Shut up; will you SHUT UP?! [Grabs Dennis and shakes him]

        Dennis: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system!

        Arthur: SHUT UP!

        Dennis: Oh! Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I’m being repressed!!

        Arthur: BLOODY PEASANT! [releases Dennis and walks away as other peasants come to see what’s going on]

        Dennis: Oh, what a giveaway. Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m all about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn’t you?

        http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOOTKA0aGI0

  13. Servetus says:

    Iodine crystals and its solutions are used for grooming and topical medical treatments for horses. I presume the iodine-equine business is dead now too, or is it?

    http://tinyurl.com/7zjwayp

    I’d say the Saratoga inventor is getting stiffed by the DEA. The government is violating his 14th Amendment rights of equal protection (or oppression) under the drug laws. What’s bad for water treatment companies is supposed to be bad for horse owners, right? Yet, horse breeders don’t seem to be having any problems with the DEA and iodine, at least not yet. Maybe they will now. (Sorry, equestrians, you’re collateral).

    If the latest DEA lameness is about to migrate through the entire chemical industry, the DEA may have finally met its match on nonsense like this. It’s not like restricting iodine sales is going to make a big dent in meth bootlegging. There are dozens of meth formulas.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      But what about the ponies?

      • darkcycle says:

        “…mutter, mutter, goddamn pony…mumble…I’m gonna go google local dogfood makers. Sombitch equine, couch sitting, telvision hogging, aways takes the last of the icecubes and never makes more…”

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .
        I was in the grocery store last night and they had “gourmet” dog food with the picture of a guy dressed as a chef for a shill. Is he really a chef? If so, I can just see him graduating last in his class at chef school, going from restaurant to restaurant getting fired after a short stay, time after time being told, “Get out! You’re fired! You haven’t even got the talent to make dog food!” Finally he decides that he’s going to show all those jerks who said he hasn’t the talent to make dog food.

  14. Mart K. says:

    I’m sure most of you here have at least heard of either the Canadian Rick Simpson or the movie “Run From the Cure”, which basically claims Simpson’s cannabis Naphta-based concoctions can cure any cancer and pretty much everything else that ails one.

    I’ve long considered such ridiculous claims hurtful to the wider cause of drug regulation/taxation (i.e, government-controlled legalization, until someone comes up with a better plan), but anytime I start debating it in stoner forums or such, I get dissed as a pawn of the Big Pharma, or whatever. Also, I feel don’t have enough scientific background to argue, and so have mostly kept my mouth shut.

    Anyway, PZ Myers has done the job for me. I strongly recommend reading this, and am also extremely interested in hearing what you, regulars of Pete’s Couch, think of this piece.

    http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2011/11/25/a-little-dose-of-hemp-will-cure-everything/

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      Mart, why would a guy acting like a snake oil salesman from the 1850s hurt the cause of bringing medicinal cannabis to the sick so that they suffer no more than is unavoidable?

      Frankly my objection to Mr. Simpsons approach is one of public relations and because of the perceptions of the fence sitters. I’m actually one of the people who’s certain that cannabis does have a beneficial application for any part of the body with CB-1 or CB-2 receptors. In practical terms that means that “it’s good for what ails you” is true no matter how ridiculous that might sound to the uninformed mind. Right now I’m trying to line up some cue balls because I’m certain that a cannabinoid infused topical salve will cure pattern baldness but goddamn if it isn’t a bitch trying to find bald potheads. BTW I’m in my 50s and do know quite a few in their 50s and 60s. Don’t worry, I realize my sample is small enough that it doesn’t even rise to the level of supporting evidence to even infer that cannabis might help people with pattern baldness.

      The fact of the matter is that the scalp is just lousy with CB-2 receptors. CB-2s don’t get people high so the canard that “these so called patients just want to get high, not better” is struck down before it gets out of the mouth of the first prohibitionist to have that knee jerk reaction.

      Curing cancer is all well and good but it’s really getting us nowhere because it’s such an academic exercise. There just aren’t that many people (yet) that are familiar with people suffering from cancer and then it’s a smaller subset of those who know someone using cannabis. Even less are using cannabis for other than palliation of associated symptoms and FDA approved side effects from various FDA approved potions and powders.

      Now if we could cure cue ball syndrome it would be game, set, match, CYA later prohibitionists. Are you aware of just how many bald men would give their left nut for a full head of hair?

      I’m a guy that does his best to not be a hypocrite like the Know Nothing prohibitionists. I don’t treat people playing doctor on the Internet who sit on our side of the table differently than I treat the Know Nothings doing the very same thing. Mr. Simpson has no medical degree, he has no degree in pharmacology, he’s not an accredited scientist and he should leave science and medicine to those who are qualified.
      ———-
      Yes Matthew, I read your response before posting this. It’s never going to happen if we can’t get them to accept the truth, and Mr. Simpson simply is holding us back with his ill advised claim. I simply don’t care that he’s correct. If he makes people plug their ears he isn’t helping.

    • darkcycle says:

      Interesting…I logged in and commented there through facebook, but my facebook avatar didn’t come up at that site, my little doohickey from here at the rant came up! Now how do I get RID of my doohickey and get my Avatar to come up??? Damn Gravitar.

    • 7-MK16atypicalAntagonist says:

      The following text is taken directly from the US government’s National Cancer Institute website: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/pdq/cam/cannabis/healthprofessional/page4

      * ANTI-TUMOR EFFECTS

      One study in mice and rats suggested that cannabinoids may have a protective effect against the development of certain types of tumors. During this 2-year study, groups of mice and rats were given various doses of THC by gavage. A dose-related decrease in the incidence of hepatic adenoma tumors and hepatocellular carcinoma was observed in the mice. Decreased incidences of benign tumors (polyps and adenomas) in other organs (mammary gland, uterus, pituitary, testis, and pancreas) were also noted in the rats. In another study, delta-9-THC, delta-8-THC, and cannabinol were found to inhibit the growth of Lewis lung adenocarcinoma cells in vitro and in vivo. In addition, other tumors have been shown to be sensitive to cannabinoid-induced growth inhibition.

      Cannabinoids may cause antitumor effects by various mechanisms, including induction of cell death, inhibition of cell growth, and inhibition of tumor angiogenesis and metastasis. Cannabinoids appear to kill tumor cells but do not affect their nontransformed counterparts and may even protect them from cell death. These compounds have been shown to induce apoptosis in glioma cells in culture and induce regression of glioma tumors in mice and rats. Cannabinoids protect normal glial cells of astroglial and oligodendroglial lineages from apoptosis mediated by the CB1 receptor.

      In an in vivo model using severe combined immunodeficient mice, subcutaneous tumors were generated by inoculating the animals with cells from human non-small cell lung carcinoma cell lines. Tumor growth was inhibited by 60% in THC-treated mice compared with vehicle-treated control mice. Tumor specimens revealed that THC had antiangiogenic and antiproliferative effects.

      And some additional stuff from elsewhere

      OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 1):

      Federal researchers implanted several types of cancer, including leukemia and lung cancers, in mice, then treated them with cannabinoids (unique, active components found in marijuana). THC and other cannabinoids shrank tumors and increased the mice’s lifespans. Munson, AE et al. Antineoplastic Activity of Cannabinoids. Journal of the National Cancer Institute. Sept. 1975. p. 597-602.

      OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER, (PART 2):

      In a 1994 study the government tried to suppress, federal researchers gave mice and rats massive doses of THC, looking for cancers or other signs of toxicity. The rodents given THC lived longer and had fewer cancers, “in a dose-dependent manner” (i.e. the more THC they got, the fewer tumors). NTP Technical Report On The Toxicology And Carcinogenesis Studies Of 1-Trans- Delta-9-Tetrahydrocannabinol, CAS No. 1972-08-3, In F344/N Rats And B6C3F Mice, Gavage Studies. See also, “Medical Marijuana: Unpublished Federal Study Found THC-Treated Rats Lived Longer, Had Less Cancer,” AIDS Treatment News no. 263, Jan. 17, 1997.

      OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 3):

      Researchers at the Kaiser-Permanente HMO, funded by NIDA, followed 65,000 patients for nearly a decade, comparing cancer rates among non-smokers, tobacco smokers, and marijuana smokers. Tobacco smokers had massively higher rates of lung cancer and other cancers. Marijuana smokers who didn’t also use tobacco had no increase in risk of tobacco-related cancers or of cancer risk overall. In fact their rates of lung and most other cancers were slightly lower than non-smokers, though the difference did not reach statistical significance. Sidney, S. et al. Marijuana Use and Cancer Incidence (California, United States). Cancer Causes and Control. Vol. 8. Sept. 1997, p. 722-728.

      OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 4):

      Donald Tashkin, a UCLA researcher whose work is funded by NIDA, did a case-control study comparing 1,200 patients with lung, head and neck cancers to a matched group with no cancer. Even the heaviest marijuana smokers had no increased risk of cancer, and had somewhat lower cancer risk than non-smokers (tobacco smokers had a 20-fold increased Lung Cancer risk). Tashkin D. Marijuana Use and Lung Cancer: Results of a Case-Control Study. American Thoracic Society International Conference. May 23, 2006.

      Cannabinoids Curb Brain Tumor Growth, First-Ever Patient Trial Shows
      http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6947

      Pot Compound May Offer Non-Toxic Alternative To Chemotherapy
      http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7433

      Tetrahydrocannabinol inhibits lung cancer as well as metastasis
      http://www.nature.com/onc/journal/v27/n3/abs/1210641a.html

      Inhibition of skin tumor growth by activation of cannabinoid receptors
      http://www.jci.org/articles/view/16116/version/1

      • darkcycle says:

        Thanks Malcolm, I posted the first portion to that site because it was relevant to the idiot’s drivel.until the testign that wold prove/disprove That site is pretty worthless though, the writer claims a fealty to science, but doesn’t seem to understand the value of consulting the literature before scoffing. IMHO, the jury must be considered out until the testing is done to either prove or disprove Simpson’s claims.

  15. Matthew Meyer says:

    I don’t find much of use in PZ Myers’s attack on Rick Simpson.

    For me this whole approach of figuring out who’s hurting the legalization movement is a lot of BS. It’s like writing a paper about what an asshole Kunta Kinte was because he was running a gambling scam on the slave ship over from Africa.

    For me PZ Myers’s piece has little value because it is so focused on its claim that Rick Simpson is a quack that it fails to: 1) actually look into the experiences of people who have tried this therapy; 2) try to come to grips with *any* of the science about cannabinoids and cancer (or other diseases); 3) examine the ways prohibition has impeded gold-standard science on cannabis.

    What the article boils down to is the claim that these therapeutic promises are not based on rigorous science. Sure, it suggests strongly, through its tone, that the claims are false. But what it actually attempts to substantiate is that they are unproved.

    That’s big: the author either does not know, or does not care to discuss, the ways that federal policy has actively and passively stifled research on cannabis therapy. You do have to admit, don’t you, that the feds have been a little, ahem, *biased* against the notion that cannabis may have medical utility, right?

    To the extent that the article takes aim at Rick Simpson, but misses the wider context around cannabis research, it appears merely mean-spirited and unlikely to contribute much to the policy goal (legalization) it ostensibly supports.

    • darkcycle says:

      She’s striking at the video and his claims, but she isn’t stopping to refute anything, she’s just kickin’ up dust. I don’t know if Simpson’s right, but if he is, this is evidence of one of the biggest medical frauds of all time. I’ll withhold judgement on both Simpson’s cure and it’s effect on the movement as a whole until more evidence comes to light.

    • Anon says:

      Well here’s the problem that I have always found with Simpson: overselling and misdirection. It’s not “hemp oil” he gets people to use, it’s hash oil. Big difference. Because of the nature of cancer, it’s really hard to say if it was the “cure.” What if the patient also cleaned up their diet, was less stressed (that may be the only documented role cannabis plays) and that led to remission?

      Also disagree with “figuring out who’s hurting the legalization movement is a lot of BS” because I’ve seen a lot of nasty people in the movement hide behind this one. The police like to use this line to cover up things.

      I’ve gotten to know some of the “heroes” of the movement. Some good, great, excellent compassionate people out there, but an awful lot of small time grifters, traditional organized crime types (one compassion club I know of is HA owned and operated), sexual predators (yes, I think prostitution should be legal but that doesn’t mean I like it when people become pimps), garden variety mentally ill, even a few serial rapists. It’s not always the gentle hippies that the media portays.

      But no one says anything, either fearing negative publicity, or some bogus excuse of ‘solidarity.’

      There is a huge Penn State situation going on in the Canadian pot movement that will one day explode… and I just hope cannabis is legalized in time before that shit hits the fan.

  16. hate you more says:

    Pot arrests skyrocketed under Billy Jeff Arkansas the last democrap savior and messiah. Too bad so sad kool-aid drinkers about comrade sobama, legalization won’t be happening on his watch.

    • thelbert says:

      i fear some kochroach’s feelers have gotten bent. they seem to have such limp feelers. probably caused by lack of cannabinoids.

  17. darkcycle says:

    You seem confused….(and stupid).

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      It’s amazing how many of the clowns on the right think that we speak with one voice and walk in lockstep. Talk about being totally w-r-o-n-g, w-r-o-n-g, w-r-o-n-g.

      The really amazing thing is that Mr. Obama thought he could cater to the clowns and win their support. See ya Mr. O. Enjoy that fat lifetime pension.

  18. Servetus says:

    Bill Maher: “Take LSD, and Mushrooms; Steve Jobs did…”

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=NvBvWkHcJeg

  19. darkcycle says:

    If you’ve got the stomach for it (I don’t, haven’t watched, don’t plan to), here’s the video of the raid that killed Jose Guerena:
    http://gawker.com/5862858/all-this-botched-swat-team-raid-achieved-was-a-mans-death

  20. Servetus says:

    Miley Cyrus enjoys weed and a Bob Marley birthday cake from her friends:

    http://www.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp_t3#/video/showbiz/2011/11/28/am-miley-cyrus-birthday-cake.cnn

  21. allan says:

    and here’s Newt’s plan to end the WO(s)D:

    Newt Gingrich’s Latest Assault On The Constitution: Drug Test Americans Before They Get ‘Any Kind Of Federal Aid’

    I think that we need to consider taking more explicit steps to make it expensive to be a drug user. It could be through testing before you get any kind of federal aid. Unemployment compensation, food stamps, you name it.

    It has always struck me that if you’re serious about trying to stop drug use, then you need to find a way to have a fairly easy approach to it and you need to find a way to be pretty aggressive about insisting–I don’t think actually locking up users is a very good thing. I think finding ways to sanction them and to give them medical help and to get them to detox is a more logical long-term policy.

  22. allan says:

    ok then… _Happy Holidays my ass_…
    Federal judge throws out Jonathan Whitworth’s lawsuit against SWAT team that killed his pit bull

    U.S. District Judge Nanette Laughrey didn’t see any problem with the way officers conducted the raid. That’s interesting since Columbia Police Chief Ken Burton admitted at a news conference that “we did some things wrong,” and his department changed policies on how SWAT raids are conducted.

    No charges against SWAT team that killed American hero [VIDEO]

    To the county prosecutor, however, the killing was justified and no charges have been brought against the guilty parties.

    The Tucson police were carrying out a warrant against Guerena on suspicion of drug charges earlier this year. He has been linked to drug trafficking before, but never directly. Never, in fact, had any charges been filed against him. In a handful of incidents, Guerena had been in the same place at the same time as others holding narcotics and paraphernalia, but never had law enforcement linked him personally to drugs.

    “When you back up and look at why they’re there in the first place and whether the search warrant was proper, my mind starts struggling,” former SWAT officer Chuck Drago tells the Associated Press. “There are a lot of things that don’t make a lot of sense.” Drago adds that it is doubtful that the SWAT team had any probable cause to go after Guerena, especially in the way they did.

    Perhaps most illogical is that half a year after the Vanessa and Joel Guerea lost their husband and father, no one involved in the killing highly viewed as unjust and unnecessary have been charged.

    “We were so worried when he was over there fighting terrorism, but he gets shot in his own home,” Reyna Ortiz, a family relative, told ABC News after the execution. “The government killed one of their own.”

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