Videos from the Drug Policy Reform Conference

The always excellent Hungarian Civil Liberties Union has videotaped the opening session speakers from the conference, and has them available here, including:

  • Gavin Newsome, California Lieutenant Governor “We Need Stronger Leadership to End it”
  • Gary Johnson, former New Mexico Governor and Presidential candidate “Pardon Non-Violent Marijuana Offenders”
  • Pete White, Co-Director of the L.A. Community Action Network “The War on Drugs Failed Our Communities”
  • Alice Huffman, President, California NAACP
  • Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director of DPA “Prosecutors Are Out of Control”
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38 Responses to Videos from the Drug Policy Reform Conference

  1. Francis says:

    Pete, looks like you need to fix the link.

  2. I was sitting four rows back. All of the speakers were impressive, particularly Gavin Newsom and Alice Huffman.

    What impressed me about Newsom? He came up on stage and I said to myself “ho hum, another politician.” But by the end of his speech I was on my feet clapping. He certainly understands the issue.

  3. claygooding says:

    Awesome doesn’t describe it,,just watched all the videos and all should be forwarded to our legislators,,state, federal and city officials and to every DA’s office across the land.

  4. Pingback: Gary Johnson Speaks at Drug Policy Reform Conference « Spatial Orientation

  5. Does anyone have a video of Ira Glasser’s speech?

    http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/11/ira-glasser-sells-300-year-agenda.html

    I heard it in person but don’t know if it was recorded- much of this conference appears to not be recorded.

  6. tintguy says:

    Gotta share this fable:

    Catherine Buckley Hoffman
    A DEA officer stopped at a ranch in Texas , and talked with an old rancher.
    He told the rancher, “I need to inspect your ranch for illegally grown drugs.”
    The rancher said, “Okay , but don’t go in that field over there…..”,as he pointed out the location.

    The DEA officer verbally exploded saying, ” Mister, I have the authority of the Federal Government with me !” Reaching into his pocket, he removed his badge and proudly displayed it to the rancher. “See this badge?! This badge means I am allowed to go wherever I wish…. On any land !! Do you nderstand !”

    The rancher nodded politely, apologized, and went about his chores.

    A short time later, the old rancher heard loud screams, looked up, and saw the DEA officer running for his life, being chased by the rancher’s big Santa Gertrudis bull. With every step the bull was gaining ground on the terrified officer, and it seemed likely that he’d be gored before he reached safety.

    The rancher threw down his tools, ran to the fence and yelled at the top of his lungs, “Your badge, show him your BADGE !”
    Share · 13 hours ago

  7. Francis says:

    God, this discussion is painful to watch. (Don’t say I didn’t warn you.)

    Also, here’s an article on efforts to decriminalize cannabis with a strong dose of stupid. The usual suspects make an appearance: Reefer Madness, hysteria over drugged driving (it may DOUBLE(!) your risk of an accident), “gateway” garbage, panic over “the children,” the apparently eternal claim that “more research is needed,” etc. But what I really got a kick out of was this statement:

    “Peter Bensinger, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in the 1970s and early 1980s, pointed to recent studies showing marijuana use among motorists doubles the risk of car crashes and that pot causes ‘cognitive chaos’ in the brains of rats.”

    “Cognitive chaos.” Gosh, that sounds pretty serious (and very scientific). It’s weird too, because everyone knows that when you give rats booze instead of weed, they turn into regular rats of NIMH.

    (Side note: I’m becoming increasingly convinced that “malcolmkyle” is not a single individual and that there’s some kind of department store Santa arrangement going on. I mean, seriously, how could one man visit all those drug-war related articles in a single news cycle? It’s not possible. 😉 Seriously, man, keep up the good work.)

    • MalcsSantaArrangement says:

      Hey, who needs a DSSA when your on a righteous mission fueled by shear anger and disgust!

      Thanks Francis, and I sure will!

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      So what, are you in favor of rats getting high? Do you have any clue to the social chaos in society if all of the rats in America became amotivational? Do you have any idea just how many sanitation engineers are employed because of rats feeding off of our garbage? How many more would we need to pay for if those rats had the munchies?? Did you ever think of that??? Don’t we spend enough money on rat healthcare???? Do you really think there are any rats who have health insurance of their own????? 453 million rats with amotivational syndrome, clogging our ERs for “free” healthcare, suckling at the public teat, and eating all of our garbage! Look at the mess that’s caused when elephants get drunk. Just ask anyone that lives in Africa, they’ll tell you just how crazy it is to put the government’s seal of approval on drunken elephants.
      ———-

      BTW Francis, welcome to the club. The more facts we get posted the quicker this stupidity ends. One thing I’ve discovered is that it’s not a good idea to let them sucker you into an argument. The true Know Nothings will never be convinced by anything except perhaps a blunt instrument forcefully delivered to the base of the skull, and the fence sitters only need to be exposed to enough factual evidence to counter the propaganda that has them sitting on the fence. I do my best to use the Know Nothings as starting points. Well that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

      IMO, the best counter to the allegation of “cognitive chaos” is the fact that the study used a synthetic cannabinoid that’s some 45 times more potent than organic dronabinol, as well as the fact that the study was published in gibberish.

      Dysfunctional Prefrontal Cortical Network Activity and Interactions following Cannabinoid Receptor Activation

      Michal T. Kucewicz1, Mark D. Tricklebank, Rafal Bogacz, Matthew W. Jones

      ———-

      – Author Affiliations

      1. MRC Centre for Synaptic Plasticity, School of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Bristol, BS8 1TD Bristol, United Kingdom,

      2. Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Eli Lilly and Co. Ltd., Windlesham, Surrey GU20 6PH United Kingdom, and

      3. Department of Computer Science, University of Bristol, BS8 1UB Bristol, United Kingdom
      ———-

      1. Author contributions: M.D.T. and M.W.J. designed research; M.T.K. performed research; M.T.K., R.B., and M.W.J. analyzed data; M.T.K., M.D.T., and M.W.J. wrote the paper.

      Abstract

      Coordinated activity spanning anatomically distributed neuronal networks underpins cognition and mediates limbic–cortical interactions during learning, memory, and decision-making. We used CP55940, a potent agonist of brain cannabinoid receptors known to disrupt coordinated activity in hippocampus, to investigate the roles of network oscillations during hippocampal and medial prefrontal cortical (mPFC) interactions in rats. During quiet wakefulness and rest, CP55940 dose-dependently reduced 0.1–30 Hz local field potential power in CA1 of the hippocampus while concurrently decreasing 30–100 Hz power in mPFC; these contrasting population-level effects were paralleled by differential effects on underlying single-unit activity in the two structures. During decision-making phases of a spatial working memory task, CP5540-induced deficits in hippocampal theta and prefrontal gamma oscillations were observed alongside disrupted theta-frequency coherence between the two structures.
      /snip/

      http://www.jneurosci.org/content/31/43/15560.abstract

      Why the heck can’t they publish these things written in English instead of some kind of foreign mumbo jumbo? It’s no wonder no one can figure this shit out.

      • darkcycle says:

        “The drug is really quite remarkably safe for Humans, but very dangerous for lab mice, and they should not use it”
        J.W.D. Henderson, Cannabis researcher.
        I think I misquoted him, but that’s the gist.

  8. claygooding says:

    He do get around,,Malcalm do,,and is so much better at presenting his rant but I still follow him around and swing at them.

  9. darkcycle says:

    Malcolm is a dynamo! Glad he’s on OUR side!

    • MalcsSantaArrangement says:

      Thanks for having me! If I can’t help to carry the Light of Truth to a world shrouded in darkness then I’d rather have Eddie Rabbitt remove my goolies with a rusty, septic penknife. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jluKFFCsDmw

      RIP Eddie!

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      So what am I? Chopped liver?

      😀

      • MalcsSantaArrangement says:

        Sorry old chap!

        As penitence I have written you a little poem:

        Duncan; we’ve left you in the shed
        Like the soiled undead
        Where it’s dark and cold,
        And spinning gales unpin

        With cobwebs on your bum,
        And flesh that smells in the rain
        Where wolves of dawn will mask your grave
        And bite your hanging lid
        Again and again

        .
        Thanks for being there and everywhere buddy!

        • darkcycle says:

          And Malcolm, sice you’ve written tributes to me, and now to Duncan, I have written one for you in return. Ahem:

          Malcolm Kyle
          On top of the pile
          No matter what it is made of
          It’s prohibition, you see,
          Not Texas P.D.
          That he is afraid of

          He needs repeal,
          See, here’s the deal
          He gives Kerlikowski the ague,
          I’ll tell you why,
          He’s the guy
          Who smoked all the weed in The Hague

        • darkcycle says:

          Limericks are all I’m good for.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .
          You people can’t fool me into believing we exist! That woman had government statistics!
          ———-

          There once was a Know Nothing from Kent
          who’s brain in the middle was bent
          to save himself trouble
          he boiled ’til it bubbled
          now the thinking he hated has went
          ———-

          Yeah, I’ll never be a bathroom wall immortal. Did you know that there’s not poetry or words of wit in women’s rooms? At least so my wife tells me. Evidently art is a guy thing. If she’s right then very few females if any will know the poem I just bastardized above. They’ll never know the joy of birthing a (fill in your) state trooper. It’s even more sadness for my very sad day.

        • MalcsSantaArrangement says:

          .
          .
          “Both Darkcycle’s and Duncan’s highly acclaimed oeuvres – distilled to one degree or another from prohibition induced trauma – more than adequately portray their sensibilities to its attendant terrors.” — Irma Trout Loony, National Poetry Foundation

      • darkcycle says:

        Pate’, Duncan, you’re Pate’.

  10. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .
    I’m so bummed out this morning. I can’t recall feeling this badly since the last time I had a drinking alcohol hangover. This is even worse because I can actually recall why I feel so poorly. Last evening I engaged a Borg on a Seattle Times article about I-502. This particular Borg was from the “potheads are irrelevant” cell. Rather peculiarly, she was a very knowledgeable person and had access to the statistics database. Well, long story short I learned that contrary to my perceptions that lots and lots of the really great people i’ve met in the last couple of years, and possibly even myself, don’t really exist. So Pete, darkcycle, clay, allan and myself are almost certainly just figments of my imagination, or that of someone else. But writing this out has kind of helped for I’ve just noticed that a bunch of the names I’ve written out don’t capitalize the first letter of their names. That means that Pete is probably real, which does make sense since this is his blog. The jury is still out on myself, but I do have a capital D so it seems I still have a fighting chance of being real. Of course if I’m real that makes me irrelevant (Pete too) so that’s really small comfort. But there’s no way to argue this, there are surveys compiled by the Federal government that prove it.

    But, even though I’m just a figment of my own imagination I really do like seeing two Know Nothings arguing with each other, and the same one referenced above got into a virtual knock down drag out with another over the price of pot in their fantasy land of horrors caused by legalization. One thing I’ve got to hand the prohibitionists, they may well be the people with the most detailed and certain knowledge of the future I’ve ever met. But I’m still really sad that none of us exist except in Pete’s imagination/delusional reality.

    Guy in Bar: See, there’s three kinds of people: dicks, pussies, and assholes. Pussies think everyone can get along, and dicks just want to fuck all the time without thinking it through. But then you got your assholes, Chuck. And all the assholes want us to shit all over everything! So, pussies may get mad at dicks once in a while, because pussies get fucked by dicks. But dicks also fuck assholes, Chuck. And if they didn’t fuck the assholes, you know what you’d get? You’d get your dick and your pussy all covered in shit!

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .
      Oh, what does any of that have to do with the DPR Conference? Well nothing really, because the DPR, Governor Johnson, Lt. Gov. Newsome and all the rest of it are also just figments of the imagination. That’s why Gov. Johnson has such low poll numbers, who would vote for a figment of the imagination? Lt. Gov Newsome went on record last year opposing Prop 19 so perhaps he really exists and it’s just his appearance at the imaginary DPR conference that’s imaginary. Yeah, that’s it.

      Oh, I watched Saturday Night Live last night and it was funny as hell. What more proof is needed that none of this is real? SNL funny? Shirley, you jest! C’mon, who the heck would actually play an eviscerated human rectum like it was a horn on network TV?

      • darkcycle says:

        DUNCAN! SNAP OUT OF IT!
        Guys, get Duncan a pipe…quick!…..it’s happening AGAIN.
        *shouting and shaking Duncan by his shoulders* DUNCAN! DUNCAN!

  11. DdC says:

    US Sentencing Commission
    U.S. Study Urges Sentencing Reform
    Mandatory minimum sentences are “excessively severe and are applied inconsistently,” the U.S. Sentencing Commission has concluded.

    Heston died, NRA’s Mandatory Minimum Didn’t

    Life in Jail for Ganja

    Koch Heads A.L.E.C. Drug Detention Centers

    • DdC says:

      Marijuana Genetics Revealed
      Difference between hemp and pot is found in one gene, scientists say

      High on Hemp

    • DdC says:

      STATE APPEALS COURT THROWS REGULATING MEDICAL MARIJUANA A CURVE
      The October 4 ruling determined the City of Long Beach ordinance regulating medical marijuana dispensaries exceeded the intent of the state’s compassionate use act to protect medical users from state and local prosecution. The basis for the ruling concluded since Long Beach imposed fees and issued permits for dispensaries to operate it had gone “beyond decriminalization into authorization.” This puts the ordinance into violation of federal law by obstructing federal enforcement efforts. The court stated “the CUA simply decriminalizes ( under state law ) the possession and cultivation of medical marijuana; it does not attempt to authorize the possession and cultivation of the drug.”

      RULING REMOVES RARE TOOL KEEPING MARIJUANA IN CHECK
      Ruling in Pack vs. City of Long Beach, the court threw out a city ordinance much like Redding’s that licensed and strictly regulated medical-marijuana shops. The decision, in essence, says that California authorities can decline to prosecute marijuana users or growers – can look the other way – but that actually licensing marijuana sales is a step too far, violating the federal Controlled Substances Act.

      Now let’s put this nonsense by the moneysluts to rest and concentrate on overturning the CSA. Many if not most of those pushing profits have no stake in treating patients. Many don’t even toke. In it for the money and taking advantage of the Compassionate Use Laws. Or those who can’t fathom a liberal, let alone a black one in office. Now the question left is who would be best to provide us a platform to overturn the CSA? I’d say the incumbent if he had support. So far it’s been a bashing contest and obstructionists dream. It’s our choice but I don’t believe a republican could ever muster the support to even attempt this. They had plenty of chances and wouldn’t even put Franks bill to a vote. Neocons profit on prohibition why would they want it to stop? So individuals can grow their own in states with initiatives according to the 10th amendment, not Obama’s compassion. Get over it dunkem Badge#20903.

      Those blaming Obombo are either racists or afraid of liberals… Part Two

      • darkcycle says:

        DdC, there’s a black liberal we can vote for? I’d LOVE to lose the black conservative jerk we were fooled into voting for in ’08…where is he?

  12. claygooding says:

    It’s his bullshit overload button stuck again,,put a joint in his mouth and pound on his back,,only thing that will reset the button.

  13. darkcycle says:

    WordPress seems to weirding out on me today..anybody else?

  14. allan says:

    I’m just glad quality television is returning… go Joe Rogan! Yes, Fear Factor has rerisen…

    Joe’s a stoner ya know. The way he tells it there’s a lot of herb consumption with the UFC type fighters… they swear by it’s benefits to them, especially in coming off a fight.

    We are everywhere, we are legion… I say we kick the Prohibs butts. Oh yeah… we already are! hee…

    • Duncan20903 says:

      I went to the barber shop to get my hairs cut. They had their TV running The Price is Right. For the love of god and all humanity, Drew Carey is the host now that Bob Barker is doing whatever it is he’s doing. Presuming he didn’t die and isn’t doing anything.

      Jack Herer, come on down! You’re the next contestant on The Price is Right! All right contestants, the person that can guess closest to the total annual cost of The War on (Some) Drugs without going over will win a luxury trip to California, a complimentary recommendation from Dr. Louis Duckman to get you into The New Jersey Weedman’s exclusive dispensary, “Fuck The Police AND The Governor of New Jersey.” Remember contestants, the total cost of The War on (Some) Drugs includes the interest on over a trillion with a T dollars that was borrowed and squandered without a nickle being repaid over the last 4 decades plus!

      Oh wait, I forgot, Jack’s with Bob now. Never mind. Talk about cognitive dissonance, file this one in the “OMG WTF” category. I just have to be in a persistent vegetative state, there’s just no way any of this stuff can actually be real.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttbkdtbGO5Q

      No way.

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