Odds and Ends

bullet image Marijuana: The Next Diabetes Drug?”

Toking up may help marijuana users to stay slim and lower their risk of developing diabetes, according to the latest study, which suggests that cannabis compounds may help in controlling blood sugar.

bullet image Revisiting the ‘Crack Babies’ Epidemic That Was Not

Retro Report tells the story of the epidemic that wasn’t through firsthand accounts by some of those at the center of things: the researcher who put out the alarm, a pediatric expert who originally cast doubt on his findings and one of the original cocaine-exposed research subjects, a young woman whose life helped disprove the myth of what these infants would become.

bullet image Organization of American States launches groundbreaking drug policy report exploring alternatives to the war on drugs

Drug policy reform has been a taboo issue for decades – but for the first time representatives from 34 countries across the Americas have had the courage to break that taboo and envision real alternatives to the war on drugs. It is a clear acknowledgement that the global prohibition has failed to deliver what was promised and that a range of alternatives should be meaningfully explored.

bullet image How to Legalize Pot (Bill Keller, NY Times)

The marijuana debate has entered a new stage. Today the most interesting and important question is no longer whether marijuana will be legalized — eventually, bit by bit, it will be — but how.

bullet image Honduran victims of US drug war still await justice

One year later, the exact role that the DEA agents played in the deaths of Juana Jackson, Candelaria Trapp Nelson, Emerson Martinez and Hasked Brooks Wood remains unclear. The US government has never conducted an independent investigation into the incident, and has obstructed the Honduran investigation by denying the investigators access to either the ten DEA agents involved or their weapons.

bullet image Marijuana By Itself Not a Significant Factor in Fatal and Injury Crashes in 2012

New Times’ findings, based on a records request satisfied by DPS this week, jibe with statistics we reported earlier this month in our feature article about Arizona’s zero-tolerance marijuana-DUI law (link below). Drivers suspected of impairment in crashes that hurt or killed people in Phoenix, Chandler, and Scottsdale were rarely found to be impaired by marijuana, our earlier research showed.

bullet image Time to overturn the 1971 drugs law (Richard Branson)

If the war on drugs were a business, we’d have shut it down immediately. Current drug policies are counter-productive, and we need to think seriously about new policies that will deliver good value for money.

bullet image Quotable:

If you haven’t got a problem with your drug use then getting arrested and prosecuted is the last thing you need.

If you’ve got a problem with your drug use then getting arrested and prosecuted is the last thing you need.

— @TomCLloyd

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102 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. allan says:

    I love PBS… we need one of these units in drug policy reform:

    Ghost Army

  2. Jeff Trigg says:

    Its good to see some sanity in the world related to drug policy. Is it too little and too late? Yes and probably.

    The drug war is the civil, personal, rights issue of our time. Cannabis users, especially, have been oppressed and abused. Gays? Here’s what a long-time elected Chicago Democrat had to say about gay people.

    [i]Asked if the same-sex marriage is a civil rights issue, (Rep. Monique)Davis didn’t bat an eye.

    “Have they ever hung from trees?” she asked. “Were they ever slaves for 500 years, then I don’t think so. I don’t think [the issues are] equal … Simple as that.”[/i]

    The state Democrats have allowed this cretin to continue representing them for years.

    [iDavis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy — it’s tragic — when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.

    I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?

    I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous–

    Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?

    Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

    Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—

    Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.[/i]

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=UPwq6lQ8-iY

    http://www.dailyillinois.com/2012/04/rep-monique-davis-needs-to-go.html

    http://www.dailyillinois.com/2012/04/rep-monique-davis-needs-to-go-still.html

    http://www.dailyillinois.com/2012/05/rep-monique-davis-gets-444500-bailout.html

  3. Servetus says:

    Our new marijuana weight reduction plan will have you slimmer and you can still enjoy those chocolate chip cookies….

    • allan says:

      I mean really enjoy those choc chip cookies… chocolate chip cookies (Ghiardelli dark chips!) are great, but add some ganja butter and one cookie can be great for hours. Otis Spunkmeyer can’t say that.

      • claygooding says:

        I can imagine an Otis Spunkmeyer made with cannabutter.
        Macadamia nut!
        I have only made one batch of cannabutter but wasn’t sure of the ratio you should have to make it strong enough.
        How much marijuana do you use per 4 ounce stick of butter.
        Also wondered about using the butter flavored Crisco and then making a batch of biscuits with it.

        • Windy says:

          Try it with coconut oil (preferably extra virgin), that is what our local dispensaries have begun using instead of butter.

        • B. Snow says:

          ‘Back in the Day’, my favorite “Baked Good” was blueberry muffins = granted, at times they looked more like blue-green berry muffins.

          They were excellent for people that wanted to partake for various reasons – but couldn’t/wouldn’t smoke for whatever other reasons.

          (And fwiw, vaporizers weren’t an option then – they were either: non-existent yet, really new, or more ‘urban-myth-ish’ back then… I saw something that a buddy bought for cheap and it looked like someone made it in a shop-class & it was more of the “broken elephant lamp” variety = not only did it not work worth a damn, it was a damn fire hazard.)

          IMHO you need(ed) some extra butter – a good bit more than the recipe & the sauteing was a guessing process. I’ve learned a lot more about it in recent years, but I haven’t had the opportunity to utilize that particular chunk of information yet.

        • Plant Down Babylon says:

          been using EV coconut oil for years. so good, you can just eat it straight. Just remember to boil out the green first. all my cancer/med friends love it.

        • Fallibilist says:

          “Spunkmeyer” is a disgusting name for a cookie-maker.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        mmmm, white chocolate chip cookies! But when I make them I leave out everything except the white chocolate chips.

  4. Crack Padre says:

    Be Thou not Unkind to Thy Brothers and Sisters, Lest they Grow Fed Up and Conspire to Smite Thee, Messily.

    • kaptinemo says:

      Yea, verily, and forsooth! Truer words have ne’er been spoken!

      So, thus I say unto the prohibs: what cometh around, goeth around, subject to the law of karma. And be ye assured, ye prohibs, that karma delayed becomes karma magnified. For the prohibs have much to atone for.

  5. This is big (for Michigan): http://tinyurl.com/oe34c7w

    The Michigan Supreme Court has ruled in favor of a medical marijuana patient who was accused of driving while impaired.

    The court said that while Rodney Lee Koon tested positive for THC after he was stopped for speeding … it doesn’t prove he was unable to drive safely.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      In 2010 the Michigan Supreme Court struck down Michigan’s zero tolerance for inert metabolites law. The just decided case was for zero tolerance for active THC in the blood. I find it interesting because the Justices on the Michigan Supreme Court are elected. As a matter of fact in 2006 the Court upheld Michigan’s zero tolerance for inert metabolites law. But the voters tossed out a bunch of them in 2008.

      • Jean Valjean says:

        Yes, and remember to insist on a recorded sobriety test before giving a blood sample. Michigan might be one of the states where public anger against prohibitionist politicians begins to have electoral consequences. They could do well to start with a recall of Governor Schneider…

  6. Coal Miner says:

    Numbers MisMatch. Hmmmm
    Missing Some Crew.
    The Following are AWOL, Possibly above Ground.
    BO Bama
    Snarl Rove
    Hungry Kissinger
    H Rotton-Clinton
    Jaw N Mkayyn
    Gee W Shrub
    Steve N ‘HardRock’ Harper

    If Found, Activate their Shock Collar and Return to;
    Deep 6 Node 420 Depth 11,800
    Thanks, Lew Siffer

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Wouldn’t I have to touch them to activate their shock callers? Eeeee-yick-eee! Can I somehow use my universal remote control? It turns on just about everything. Hmmm, maybe I can steal some latex gloves from my doctor at my next appointment. Is there a reward? I mean Almighty Dollars or precious metals, not the “satisfaction” of making the world a better place to live.

  7. jean valjean says:

    ot
    gary johnson is on google hangout tonight. crank up your web cams and ask him questions. let him hear from the couch

  8. jean valjean says:

    my bad. that was yesterday. anyone join it?

  9. Jean Valjean says:

    So the immigration bill has cleared the senate committee after a decade of political gutlessness by both parties. Gay marriage has been sacrificed to the needs of the republicans to placate their fundamentalist base, but at least it was discussed and an issue. What was completely ignored by the place-men in the senate was so called “criminal aliens” and what to do if they are married to US citizens who are members of the opposite sex.
    But of course, it’s not as simple as that…. if all “criminal aliens” were barred from joining their US spouses they might have an arguable case, but that isn’t how it works. Waivers of the grounds of inadmissability are available for the spouses of US citizens for most crimes including many violent offences, but are not available at all for any drug convictions, no matter how trivial, or how long ago. That this injustice was completely off the table in committee discussions just goes to show that drug reform is still being treated by congress as though it is a lethal, untouchable third rail. This is not going to change until some of these bums get thrown out by voters.

    • claygooding says:

      Remember this:”NO incumbents return to DC until they listen to the people” except to pack their shit. Post it or something similar at least 4 times a day on any social network or blogs and you can even list your favorite political goals or social reform such as:

      NO incumbents return to DC until legislators have term limits,corporate funding to political parties only,approval by legislator’s constituents at end of term before receiving any pensions or health care or any combination of those or your own goals.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Of course we’ll observe the people demanding the ouster of the incumbent bums except for their own bums. OMG! How could anyone vote for that other person? He’s likely the devil himself in human form!

      Anyway, I’ll make sure to let you know if I come up with a workable plan to get people to vote against their own incumbents. I think the easiest way to fix it is to shit can elections and go with involuntary servitude of people picked by random choice for public service. Silly? Think about it, the people we would really benefit from serving the public want nothing to do with it. But just wait and see what I’d do with the White House lawn if my number comes up for POTUS.

  10. allan says:

    nicely done piece on Mendocino County’s zip-tie program by Doug Fine over at the WeedBlog:

    No Crystal Ball Needed: Ending The Drug War Is Field Tested

  11. allan says:

    gadzooks, couchmates! How’d we miss this? Even Malcolm hasn’t commented there and it’s 5 days old…

    Rafael Lamaitre on President Obama’s 2013 National Drug Control Strategy

    Lamaitre says one of the things that’s been successful that they’re working on expanding is for drug offenders, who are non-violent, being put into treatment rather than being locked up.

    and as every intoxicant but alcohol is illegal that makes 100% of illegal drug users “drug offenders” and every single one of them needs treatment.

    • jean valjean says:

      what an asshole. hes the smiling acceptable face of the drug war. communications director of ondcp

    • claygooding says:

      Yeah,,Holder is getting his ass eat out in congress and the ONDCP is so frustrated that no investors are building the rehab centers required to enact any kind of rehab changeover except in the major cities and it is highly unlikely they have enough rehab centers to handle the flow of marijuana offenders.
      I expect them to open those FEMA secured,lighted and razor wired compounds we keep seeing around the web and start filling them up with us any day,,,that is how powerful the corporations against hemp are.

    • I read it as an expansion of the drug war.

      It will require insurance to cover substance abuse. According to the ONDCP, of the 21.6 million Americans aged 12 or older who needed treatment for an illicit drug or alcohol use problem in 2011, only 2.3 million received it. Easy pickings coming at the expense of the insurance companies too. Only 19.3 million left to go. Gear up those justice system meat grinders!

      Has there been some collusion and kickbacks going on here?

  12. allan says:

    ya know… it’s gotta be getting lonely over there in the incredibly shrinking House of Prohibition.

    Time mag is really running topnotch drug policy stuff, here’s Tim Padgett on that group of southern Latin neighbors steadily coming over to our side, OAS to White House: It’s High Time the U.S. Debated Legalizing Pot

    […] something else was brewing in Bogotá that could further undermine resistance to pot legalization. The Colombian capital is about to start a program that uses marijuana to wean junkies off bazuco, a cheap but fiercely addictive cocaine paste. It will mark one of the largest experiments to determine if marijuana — which legalization opponents still insist is a “gateway” to harder drugs like cocaine and heroin — is in reality an “exit” drug. If so, it will only serve to reinforce the argument, mentioned by the OAS study, that marijuana is a relatively benign drug, far more comparable to alcohol than it is, say, to crystal meth.

    and getting back to Rafael… what the heck is he doing at that crappy little website? It’s almost like the ONDCP is avoiding actual discussion. Everybody seems to think it’s time to have one… I mean all the cool kids are talking about it…

    … so when is Gil gonna step down from the tomato-proof Kzar-mobile and face real people? It’s like he and the rest of the ONDCP are allergic to pitchforks or something. Can’t talk to ’em in person, can’t talk to ’em on their wwwebsites… what’s up with that?

    Good dog… the prohibitionists make a mockery of mockery! Shame would be ashamed of them…. (in Rodney Dangerfield’s voice)

    … I’d like to consider their point of view but I can’t get my head that far up my ass

    … ordinarily people live and learn, they just live

    … they occasionally stumble over the truth, but they quickly pick themselves up and carry on as if nothing happened

    … they have to speak from a script because if they spoke their minds, they’d be speechless

    and I don’t exactly hate them, but if they were on fire and I had water, I’d drink it.

  13. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    OK, now for something completely different. Another round of dueling experts weigh in at the New York Times. What is really precious is that they’ve put Prof. Kleiman on the legalizer side of the table. I bullshit you naught.

    How Can Marijuana Be Sold Safely?

    Comments open and the article is only an few minutes old as I post this.

  14. Colbert gets it right http://tinyurl.com/qanccuf

    Stephen Colbert talks up the health benefits of marijuana

  15. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Well here’s an early front runner for the award for the most original hysterical rhetoric from a sycophant of prohibition in 2013. Veterinarian: More marijuana means more poisoned dogs

    Can we just let the dogs vote up or down for whether they’d rather get shot by jack booted thugs hopped up on steroids or face the possibility of being the very first mammal to die from a cannabis OD?

    How the heck do these people come up with this stuff?

    • Reefer madness hasn’t had any new material lately. I guess it went to the dogs.

    • allan says:

      all those joints just laying around on the ground… yeah, now pull the other one.

      What’s confusing to me is that there have been no known human fatalities. The LD-50 of cannabis is so unknown they kinda had to guesstimate it… wouldn’t 2 large mammal deaths raise some flags among the factually concerned?

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        I’m more impressed by the fact that they’ve tried to kill dogs in the attempt to establish the LD-50 and weren’t able to do so.

        It’s not as if it’s unusual for the sycophants of prohibition to make stuff up based on their unsupported belief. If I feed a dog an ABT brownie it’s more likely that the chocolate would make it sick and die. Although even the chocolate thing has me way skeptical. I had a dog for about 17 years. I really do wish that I could recall feeding him chocolate specifically. I can’t, but I also can’t imagine that I didn’t do so. But dogs having fatal overdoses of chocolate isn’t the subject.

        One more time…if someone or something dies of an overdose of cannabis the delivery method was almost certainly a large bale dropped on the victim.

        Say, didn’t we just have a conversation about injecting THC? Well here you go, apparently that’s required to make an animal die from too much THC. Of course that means that the Frankensteins are either using synthetic dronabinol or have somehow altered the nature of the substance to make it injectable.

        /snip/
        Thompson et al. (1971) under contract to the National Institute of Mental Health have recently carried out extensive studies in rats, dogs and monkeys in order to define the range of toxicity of the drug. The group used synthetic Delta 9 and A’ THC and a crude marihuana extract (CME) of carefully define composition. Delta 9 THC was more potent than Al THC. CME was less potent than a similar quantity of A’ THC.

        Acute toxicity was studied using intravenous, intraperitoneal and oral routes of administration in rats. An LD50 similar to that reported by Phillips et al. (1971) was found by the intravenous route (20 mg/kg of THC) and intraperitoneal route (400 mg/kg) but higher values were noted with oral administration (1140 mg/kg). Interestingly, the LD50 for males was 1400 mg/kg while for females it was 700 mg/kg by the oral route. The minimal lethal dose orally was between 225 and 450 mg/kg.

        An LD50 was not attainable in monkeys and dogs by the oral route. Enormous dose levels (over 3000 mg/kg of Delta 9 THC) were administered without lethality to most animals. A dose of about 1000 mg/kg THC was the lowest dose which caused death in any animals The completeness of intestinal absorption of THC at these high doses is unknown. Behavioral changes in the survivors included sedation, huddled posture, muscle tremors, hypersensitivity to sound and hypermobility.
        /snip/

        http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/nc/nc1e_2.htm

        3000 mg/kg? That means 300 grams of pure THC for a 220 pound person. Now that’s a lot of friggin’ THC.
        Now I don’t claim to be an expert or even a reasonably informed person on this particular arcana. I do know there are people who claim that synthetic dronabinol has been proven to have caused at least 4 deaths.
        http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=000145#drugdeathchart

        The website linked recognizes the difference between primary and secondary cause of death so they’re not trying to palm off a fatal vehicle collision caused by being dronabinol addled. But still I take this claim with a boulder of salt considering just how dishonest the enemies of essential liberty can be and how desperately they want to prove that people can die of an internal overdose of cannabis. But as farfetched as I think such a death is I can’t discount it entirely because the Frankensteins have been mucking with the natural order of things.

        Wow, how many Marinol® gelcaps would it take to get to 300 grams? That’s 300,000 milligrams at 20 mg a pop is 15,000 gelcaps. But wait a second, Marinol® taken orally won’t be absorbed in its entirety. 50% absorption and we’re looking at 30,000 gelcaps. Somebody run down to CVS and ask how much 30,000 20 mg gelcaps of Marinol® would cost please.

        • B. Snow says:

          “One more time…if someone or something dies of an overdose of cannabis the delivery method was almost certainly a large bale dropped on the victim.”

          Dude, talk about dangerous, your gonna kill me = via making me fall outta my chair someday – saying something that funny…
          For FSM’s sake PLEASE – practice “responsible humor” in the future… You could’ve hurt someone with that!

          Is that a Guitherism? If it isn’t it should be a candidate/considered for inclusion among them… That’s definitely forum-sig-worthy = IMHO.

        • Matthew Meyer says:

          The bale thing is a Herer-ism, no?

        • Jose says:

          Matthew, it is even better… Former US Surgeon General Jocelyn elders coined the bale analogy!

    • Nunavut Tripper says:

      “How the heck do these people come up with this stuff?”

      It would suggest that the ground in the local park is literally covered in mounds of incompletely smoked joints. It’s rare to even find a roach even in 420 teenager hangouts . Prohib websites are really entertaining eh?
      Many years ago I had a small dog eat a half ounce of strong Columbian ( remember those days ?) and the dog did stagger and act strangely for a couple hours but it survived OK.
      I pouted and complained a lot over the loss of a great stash but I survived also.

      • allan says:

        I kinda thought maybe the joints were discarded after intravenous injection… oooh! it’s like Switzerland’s Needle Park days! Careful kids don’t step on or handle that joint, call an adult and keep the area safe until someone arrives.

        • Nunavut Tripper says:

          The evil THC could be quickly absorbed through the skin
          going directly to the bloodstream resulting in “green tongue” however help is available through SAM approved
          drug rehab centres. Six months and six grand and you’re completely detoxed.So no barefoot running in the parks anymore
          They can also offer a 20% discount for your dog.

    • Servetus says:

      “The legal marijuana industry, like the alcohol, tobacco and gambling industries, will have a financial interest directly opposite to the public interest.” — Kleiman

      And it’s no comments again.

      Kleiman seems to have an obsession with the vice paradigm of prohibition. If society implemented a vice-paradigm targeting sugar, would that mean sugar consumption is like gambling? I don’t see a connection.

      There is no requirement, in any market, that the financial interest be necessarily dead opposite the public interest. Kleiman needs to get his mind out of the Comstock era and into the 21st century.

  16. Servetus says:

    It appears official. Tamerlan Tsarnaev and co-conspirator Ibragim Todashev were marijuana prohibitionists.

    http://tinyurl.com/q3osmwp

    • primus says:

      Of course, the FBI is to be trusted, uh huh. What they said about the confrontation which led to the guy’s death must of course be the pure unvarnished truth. I for one, always believe everything any government official says (NOT).

  17. http://tinyurl.com/njtlnpk

    Anybody remember an addiction therapist named Dr Gogek? The homeopathy guy?

    • Servetus says:

      I posted the following at the Missouri Dispatch website; fair enough for the Show-Me State. They don’t allow paragraphs, though:

      ***

      Dr. Ed Gogek needs to take a few refresher courses in addiction science, while remembering its history. Let me illustrate.

      Psychopharmacologist Richard DeGrandpre refers to addiction as a “placebo text”, which he defines as “any unwritten cultural script that, like a religious text, informs a group’s beliefs and expectations about a given drug, animating the drug effects once the drug is taken.”

      In the late 1930s, pioneer addiction researcher Alfred Lindesmith, basing his views on the results of placebo studies of addiction, was convinced the effects of drugs were often a direct product of a user’s expectations. In his placebo studies, morphine users who were told their morphine dose was being reduced, when in fact no reduction took place, complained loudly of withdrawal symptoms while no actual physical withdrawal was occurring.

      http://druglibrary.org/schaffer/history/anslingerlindesmith.htm

      Marijuana users in general don’t believe any sort of addiction exists for marijuana. The best research being done today on addiction continues to tell us that if only individuals such as Dr. Ed Gogek, as well as a profit-driven drug treatment industry, would shut their mouths about marijuana addiction, the alleged marijuana addiction symptoms sometimes cited amongst users under the duress of drug treatment would most likely disappear.

      http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-07/uomh-ges071707.php

      • Common Science says:

        Great reference on Lindesmith, Sevetus. His life work was of constant surveillance by Harry Anslinger. By the time Anslinger had displayed his last episode of intimidation with anything penned by sociologist Alfred Lindesmith, the superior moral veneer coating Anslinger was starting to become an anachronistic embarrassment:

        When the La Guardia Report panned the notion of marijuana as an “assassin of youth” in 1944, Anslinger vigorously discredited the Report. He labeled critics of the Bureau “dangerous” or “strange” people. He dispatched an agent to Indiana University in 1961 to conduct a “routine inquiry into the publication of a book by Judge Morris Ploscow, with an introduction by Alfred R. Lindesmith. The book contained strong indictments by the Joint Committee on Narcotic Drugs of the American Bar Association and the American Medical Association of the severity of the federal drug laws. When the interim reports of the committee were published three years before, Anslinger branded them full of “glaring inaccuracies, manifest inconsistencies, apparent ambiguities, important omissions and even false statements.” Recalling the incident during the interview, Anslinger said that Justice William O. Douglas asked President Kennedy to fire him. Kennedy refused, however. It was just about a year prior to Anslinger’s retirement.

        -James Sterba; ‘The Politics of Pot’, August 1968 Esquire Magazine

  18. allan says:

    LEAP’s Syephen Downing and DPA’s Tony Newman weigh in on some serious Prohibition Madness:

    Cops Go Undercover at High School to Bust Special-Needs Kid for Pot: Why Are Police So Desperate to Throw Kids in Jail?

  19. allan says:

    here’s a forum just held in Florida that would have been interesting… Calvina Fay meets Irv Rosenfield:

    Legalize it? Views differ at forum on marijuana

    • B. Snow says:

      That forum went south fast, anytime you hear crap like the following:

      “We’re here to start a conversation, …(or debate)”

      **This should be required to come with a Note**
      By the way, we’ve already come to our own conclusion on this. And neither you or any of the following “conversation” will budge us an inch from our strongly held beliefs, and vested financial interests, but we’ll pretend to be reasonable and open to such a discussion. But have no doubt folks, nothing to fear from the dirty hippies here = we’re gonna be Prohibitionists till we all die off – from old age.”

      “At the end of which we will (*they*) go to one of our (*their*) classic “most trite arguments ever”, or one of the most ludicrously illogical assertions = On The Planet. And, if all else fails, we can fall back on some plain-old *tired excuse* = [the only down-side being that we’re showing all that care to notice] that we didn’t actually take part in the ‘Conversation’ – in ANY sort of manner remotely resembling a *good faith* effort – either to resolve the issue via compromise or anything else along those lines, or resembling it. ”

      “And, I’m sorry – it looks like we’re out of time – we’ll have to leave it there [“conversation” is over], see you next time when we pull this same shit, yet again!”

  20. Oil Man says:

    I Love You Guys. For every Drug Deal, There is a Tank of Gas. In Rural Areas, The Driving involved in a single Joint Purchase can Allow as much as $20, Double that, on Occaision, in Fuel Profits. Ka’Chinnnng!

    • allan says:

      whatever… but thanks for pulling my other leg.

      Yeah and there’s a park in WA that has joints just laying around on the ground. We’re all driving there right now, stoned and texting while we drive.

      *punt*

      word has it raids going on at patient’s groups right now in OR, 3 in So OR and one here in Eugene

  21. QuaxMercy says:

    I have been impressed with the medical practice of Dr. Wm. Courtney since I first came across his story back before he ran for Congress. Dietary cannabis as essential:

    “The supporters of Cannabis International & the Cannabis Patients Network see raw cannabis education as the most important debate tool ending Cannabiphobia.  In it’s raw form Cannabis is a non-psychoactive vegetable, with each dietary essential in the most balanced and digestible form available in nature, with anti-aging Acidic Phytocannabiniods.” rawhemp.tk

    This is one more atrocity the Prohibs & the Willi-Igs have never had to answer to. I believe we need to consolidate & convene a People’s Forum, entirely outside SOP but transparent top to bottom – invite the liars in to make their lying case, and proceed to bust their phoniness out of the discussion once and for all.

    • Nunavut Tripper says:

      I’ve heard Dr Courtney and his wife Kristen speak on a couple of occasions at the Treating Yourself Expo in Toronto. In fact the fourth annual expo starts tomorrow and they are slated to speak tomorrow.
      Myself and my wife will be attending Saturday and hope we can hear him again.
      A bloody miracle the recovery of Kristen from some very serious maladies with raw juiced leaf and bud.
      It encouraged us to start the practice also

  22. darkcycle says:

    Well, well, well…haven’t had time to go check the veracity of this but this was shared on Facebook and came across my feed: “The Drug Enforcement Administration told Legalization Nation in an e-mail last week that 55 unnamed companies now hold licenses to grow cannabis in the United States, a fact that contradicts the widespread belief that there is only one legal pot farm in America, operated under the DEA for research purposes. It appears as if the upswing in federally approved pot farming is about feeding the need of pharmaceutical companies who want to produce a generic version of THC pill Marinol and at least one other cannabis-based pill for a wide variety of new uses.”

    • allan says:

      I’m trying all sorts of word combinations but so far see nothing – and it sure seems like that would be a tough one for the feds to hide.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      Check the date DC, that rumor made the rounds years ago.

      • darkcycle says:

        I wasn’t able to check the date…I was unable to locate the original. Like I said…hadn’t had time to check, but that sounded like maybe somebody should…

  23. allan says:

    OT… @ DdC… (mostly, others of course are obviously encouraged to support and be knowledgeable about Leonard and besides this is just a really good interview for folks interested in Wounded Knee II)

    Peter Coyote Joins New Push to Sway Obama on Leonard Peltier Clemency

  24. War Vet says:

    Friedrich Nietzsche: ‘Against many a defense’ –The most perfidious way of harming a cause consists of defending it deliberately with faulty arguments:

    We should praise the efforts of Project SAM. Their Mark Kleiman in the year 2000, paid a visit to Afghanistan and held meetings with the local Taliban on the best way to combat the scourge of drugs. In the meeting, Kleiman praised the local Taliban on their efforts and concluded that having a total militarized nation which restricts completely the movements and economics of a people is the best way to keep a nation off drugs . . . every time a citizen was out and about in the city, he would be randomly stopped, searched, followed and even detained . . . so much to the point that said citizen only found time to pray, work and stay at home and hardly ever having the chance to socialize with anyone outside his home, thus totally reducing the odds of citizen using drugs. This will work and is one of the main talking points in Project SAM –thus to be first implemented with having authorities at schools and work places to restrict the daily lives of citizens to the point that one just could never get a chance to use illegal drugs –for all of our (as postulated by Kevin) ‘Civil Liberties’.

    For Kevin, Gil, Mrs. Leonhart and Eric: –usually he has no thought in his head, but in exceptional cases, he has nasty thoughts (Nietzsche) . . . Oops, I meant to praise their humane efforts.

    • War Vet says:

      Did I actually put an argument in it like dear Nietzsche asked of me?

    • darkcycle says:

      Kleiman isn’t affiliated with Project Sam. Lets be fair.

      • claygooding says:

        He may not be affiliated but he gets a paycheck from the same people

      • War Vet says:

        I get Kevin and Kleiman mixed up when it comes to who is who in Project SAME. Maybe its because both names have a K or because both men are evil. They’d both keep drugs illegal at the cost of illegal drug money killing innocent folk in Mali or Mexico. Prohibs have no personal identity, since evil is evil . . . all drug warriors look, talk, smell, believe and walk the same. At least Forest Gump knew what love was, but those two don’t.

  25. Windy says:

    USA: WA: “But the rules — in borrowing from medical-marijuana regulations — would permit growing as many as 45 pot plants in homes throughout the city. The idea, explained Darby DuComb of the City Attorney’s Office, is to make Seattle’s rules compatible with both the medical and recreational systems. The medical system allows patients to form collectives and grow as many as 45 plants. The state’s new recreational system does not allow home cultivation. The city’s home-growing rules could undercut the state’s recreational system. Instead of going to state-taxed stores to buy pot, Seattle residents could grow their own.”
    http://seattletimes.com/html/localnews/2021037751_potzoningxml.html

    OT, and FYI anyone from Western WA, if you haven’t seen/heard the news, the I-5 bridge over the Skagit River at Mt. Vernon/Burlington collapsed, apparently due to a wideload vehicle which hit it. There’s one apparent death and possibly an injury to another, at least 2 people were rescued by boat from their vehicles in the water on the bridge deck. Traveling between Seattle and Bellingham you will have to take the Riverside Bridge (old 99/Burlington Ave.) between Burlington and Mt. Vernon.

    This is unfortunate for my family as my daughter is in Snohomish county, currently moving out of her house and staying with us for a month until she can move back south into her new place. During the month of June, she will be traveling back and forth between here and there, two days a week, to keep training her clients down there.

    • Windy says:

      Seattle’s CBS affiliate is reporting that no one died, three were rescued and taken to the hospital.

    • Windy says:

      Sorry, Burlington Blvd. not Ave.

      Interesting factoid many may not know:
      Since the collapse was caused by a truck with an oversize load the full cost of repair/replacement must be borne by the company which owns the truck. This truck was from Canada, it had a pilot car which had a pole attached to test if the bridges and overpasses were high enough for the truck to pass under; according to witnesses, the pole hit the steel brace but pilot car and truck kept going anyway, the truck hit the brace, and just barely made it off the bridge when the bridge collapsed behind him. Watch WA and fed lawmakers try to raise taxes to pay for this; spread the word there is no need for increased taxes or a toll on the replacement bridge, the Canadian trucking company’s insurance (which I believe is the Canadian government) will be paying for it.

      • primus says:

        The insurance industry for vehicles here is private in some provinces, public in others. It is not the Canadian government, but possibly the provincial government insurance which must pay, however insurance has limits. Probably the cost will be over that limit. In any event, it will be the pilot car’s insurance which must pay in the final analysis. His job to check, he messed up. Trucker didn’t.

        • Windy says:

          If it’s provincial, then it is most likely BC, most of the Canadian trucks coming through WA are from BC.

  26. stlgonzo says:

    “The Schwag singer performs one more show before prison”

    The continued saga of Camp Zoe and going to jail on federal drug charges when you weren’t the one selling drugs. Tebeua’s biggest mistake wasn’t the festivals it was that the property was basically paid for.

    “Tebeau’s problems arose over land he bought in 2004 in Shannon County to house his annual Schwagstock festivals, which he started in 1998. The festival, which drew an average of 5,000 fans, supports a hippie-friendly, Woodstock-like environment.”

    http://tinyurl.com/nknmaka

  27. Duncan20903 says:

    I think that it may have been proved that people in jail are inclined to break the law:

    Marijuana is drug most often linked to crime, study finds

  28. Jackie Jormpjomp says:

    We just had elections in Oregon that voted down tax levies and local porkies say law enforcement will be gutted by this. On Thursday law enforcement did a sweeping mass bust of marijuana wellness centers.
    What conclusion can I draw from this?

    • allan says:

      Today in Eugene, 5:30, protest in front of the county jail on 5th st, tell your friends. Also, for southern Oreganoians… today 5:30 PM , in front of Medford City Hall at 411 W 8th Street, across from Alba Park

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Jackie, was the operation done by Feds, Oregon LE, or mutual? IRS or any other indirect agent of the Feds involved? Yes, it makes a big difference.

      • Jackie Jormpjomp says:

        “…local, county, state and federal law enforcement agencies participated in the raids.”
        This stuff usually happen after the local news outlets do one of their “Boy, there sure is a lot of pot around here!” LO puff pieces.

      • allan says:

        inter-agency narcotics task forces down south in Medford, with implied fed involvement. Same here in Eugene. I haven’t yet seen the DEA to be named. I contacted one of the reporters covering the raid and asked for clarification on which agencies.

        Stories out of Medford indicate that plenty of local patients showed up at SONORML (one of the raid sites) while LE was there and later at the LE press conf (which was limited to those w/ press credentials).

        In Medford, Lori Duckworth, one of the most public activists in So OR, and her husband Lee were among those arrested.

        • allan says:

          wow… the feds ain’t messing around. Besides the locals the following federal agencies were involved (according to my source) – US Homeland Security Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigations, Drug Enforcement Administration, and the US Marshal’s Service.

          Them mareehuana smokers must be r’ally dangerous!

        • claygooding says:

          I wonder what that did for the drug war clock?
          I wonder ho many billions of dollars were laundered by the banks during the “investigation” period?
          I wonder how many violent crimes were ignored because of the manpower and resources used to investigate this one dispensary?
          As I said earlier,,Holder is getting reamed and the drug war machine is kicking into high gear,,the end results will be a train wreck and billions more wasted tax dollars,,so congress can argue about whether to cut education funding or meals on wheels.

        • allan says:

          clay… there’s a story out of southern OR from last August, covered only by Seattle CBS and OR’s NPR but is now up at CNN. A woman calls 911 because a man that had previously assaulted her is breaking into her home. The 911 operator tells her “there is no one to send.” Because of budgetary cutbacks 23 deputies from the Sheriff’s office had been let go and the county had no deputies on duty on the weekends. The man broke in and sexually assaulted her. State police caught him but only after the fact.

          We’re all pretty busy today for a Friday in OR. One of the 2 women arrested here in Eugene was released today and all but one charge has been dropped.

          Oregon has long been disparaged because we’ve historically tended to bicker a bit. But when the flag is raised we get ‘er done. The 1998 election showed that as did the NotDwight campaign last fall against prohib and former US atty Dwight Holton. I haven’t seen so many pulling the same wagon in over 15 years and that spirit of cooperation really helps to keep me going some days.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          If it was a mutual operation then it had nothing to do with an event that occurred a few days before. There’s just to much bureaucracy to deal with to make it happen that quickly.

          Quite frankly I can’t figure out why we’re winning. Yes, we lost the battle but we’re still on our feet and with the resources available to the Feds the whole thing should already be in the history books a decade ago. I don’t have to understand it in order to acknowledge it. Some days I actually think it’s going to change from being rhetorical to being an actual battle.

  29. Francis says:

    “If the war on drugs were a business, we’d have shut it down immediately.”

    Oh, the war on drugs is a business all right. And that’s a big part of the problem.

  30. Servetus says:

    Germany is finally addressing the disparity between tolerable limits for marijuana possession.

    While marijuana is still technically illegal in Germany, German law differs among various states as to how much pot a person can have in their possession. Bavarian police will ignore up to six grams of weed, while the Berlin cops will ignore up to sixteen grams. Obviously, confusion and problems exist under such an arbitrary system.

    America’s problems with marijuana under its system of prohibition should be so simple. The dire predictions of doom promoted by Mark Kleiman for legalization in the U.S. should be happening in Germany, if correct. Yet, marijuana tolerance leading to most Germans smoking pot to produce a nation jam-packed with Kleiman’s alleged slackers and pot addicts has not occurred, and appears very unlikely.

  31. allan says:

    Poor Kev-kev, Civil liberties erode when drug use widens, people are picking on him… awww…

    • primus says:

      Wow. How much more of this can he take? It looks like the game of ‘whack-a-mole’ has only one mole, and every time the little bugger sticks his head up, he gets whacked. Hard. He is truly a sucker for punishment, or perhaps he is just one stubborn mf.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        Fixed your typo: He is truly a sucker for punishment, or perhaps he is just one s-t-u-p-i-d mf.

    • claygooding says:

      Not one supporting post,,if I got nothing but criticism for everything I said on a subject and no back up I would either quit or find another subject,,,but then I am not a paid snake oil salesman that has never done anything but lie for a living.

    • B. Snow says:

      Poor Kev, *sigh*

      “Since legalization would increase use, it is important to briefly dwell on the possibility that legalization might decrease civil liberties, especially for vulnerable populations like children.”

      Really???
      I have two huge problems with this statement. *which if you’ll take note is [semi-hidden, tucked down – toward then end of the article] -insert joke here-*

      (1.) “Since legalization would increase use…”
      This is NOT a factual statement = but unlike former Senator Jon Kyl’s semi-famous #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement -B.S. claim about planned parenthood statistics.

      Kevin Sabet will no doubt continue to shamelessly make these sorts of unprovable assertions – about theoretical future statistics – in this instance, = about the level of future marijuana usage. (IF = it became legal and then everything he thinks would follow this – would indeed happen), things which he simply can’t “know”!

      Its not the first time he’s claimed this, but he seems to do much of his “work” using this strategy of continually repeating statements – to the extent that some people will believe him/them – no matter how full of cow-excrement the statements actually are…
      And this is one statement which (to folks who don’t know better) sounds right – But it’s really an example of a paid-liar, attempting to manipulate ‘public opinion’ in one of the most basic & common methods.

      (2.) He “went their” yet again, to the whole – “think about the children!” nonsense. Surely, this will break from overuse at some point… IDK maybe not?

      I keep thinking he’ll wise-up about that tired garbage argument, BUT in his case I’m thinking it’ll eventually backfire, to our benefit. People who are = intelligent, open-minded, well-informed, having a modest amount of common-sense & a variety of real life experience, they simply know better…

      They KNOW, Prohibition doesn’t work, and on really large scales it’s a fraking nightmare!
      And, all but the most idiotic of people (according to the polling = mostly OLD people), KNOW – Prohibition doesn’t work, and they KNOW it’s not just applicable to alcohol either… No matter how much they *wish* it wasn’t so = it remains true.

  32. ezrydn says:

    Servetus,

    I was in Cologne for 3 days last week. Stayed around the Train Station, Cathedral and Rhein Park. Didn’t smell a thing! Nothing! Nada! It WAS a history lesson.

    • Servetus says:

      The Germans are a very efficient people. Perhaps they’ve figured out how to inhale without exhaling?

  33. Fred C says:

    After this thread reaches a hundred comments will it get its own area code?

    • allan says:

      Thud!

      very misleading intro, shame on HuffPo… click thru and read the rest of the story and it ain’t what it seems, at all.

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