Here’s an interesting data point that may have some real significance. It’s possible that we’re reaching a point where even politicians are hesitating when it comes to new prohibitions.
Theresa May humiliated as MPs reject call to ban khat
Theresa May’s ban on khat was not based on any evidence of medical or social harm and must be stopped before it becomes law, an influential committee of MPs found today.
In a humiliating move for the home secretary, the home affairs committee recommended that the government halt plans to ban the drug, which is popular among some African communities.
“It is extremely worrying that such an important decision has not been taken on the basis of evidence or consultation,” chairman Keith Vaz said.
“The expert Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs conducted a thorough review of the evidence and concluded that no social or medical harm resulted from the use of Khat.”
Apparently this was a big surprise, since usually any kind of drugs ban by the government would be supported without question.
This is how government is supposed to work.
Apparently the drug does not threaten any established corporations profits.
The sound of falling bricks is becoming thunderous!
Do you ever get the feeling we are being played?
We fund the ONDCP(Drug Czar)with 25 billion dollars to fight organizations making 400 billion dollars a year from the drugs and even the ONDCP admits they cannot stop drugs,,all they can do is increase arresting people and building more prisons,drug courts and rehab centers.
I am not a tactician but the discrepancy in available funding for each side of this issue sounds more like window dressing than an actual battle,,more like a market control.
“Khat consumption induces mild euphoria and excitement, similar to that conferred by strong coffee.”
So Ms. May, are you going to target coffee, tea, alcohol or tobacco? Of course you won’t, you ignorant twit.
By the way, the DEA also has issues with khat (no surprise there). Ms. May would feel right at home with that cadre of imbeciles.
Funny, all the factors they list as reasons NOT to ban khat apply equally well as reasons not to ban mj. Yet they immediately reject any discussion along those lines.
Uh, you mean like how the decision was made to criminalize mj?
Amazing. Politicians beware. British home secretary and prohibitch Theresa May trashed her entire career over a simple little plant like khat. She’s being accused of trying to criminalize the U.K.’s Ethiopian, Yemeni, and Somali populations.
Meanwhile, the U.K.’s new drugs minister, Norman Baker, refuses to rule out legalizing marijuana, says it’s “not his prime objectiveâ€. He wants to “follow the evidence†(astounding). Perhaps legalization is his secondary objective?
The tide of the British drug war has turned. The U.K.’s prohibitches are on the defensive. Allied forces are breaking down public barriers to marijuana consumption in England. Victory is at hand.
at least it is in his vocabulary,,that alone is a huge THUD.
We shall defend God’s gift whatever the cost may be: We shall smoke in Bong County. We shall smoke on the beaches. We shall smoke on collage grounds. We shall smoke in the fields and in the streets. We shall smoke in the hills —we shall never surrender our stash! … And even if, which I do not for a moment believe, we were to remain subjugated and persecuted by these evil parasites, our enlightened friends from beyond the seas would carry on the struggle, until in God’s good time, the Old World, with re-discovered hemp based power and might, throws off her chains and steps forth to the rescue —and the liberation— of the New!
—Winstoned Hempchill
Theresa May is typical of many in her party who court the tabloid press and their readers by appearing “strong on immigration.” I’m sure she looked at London’s Somalis and thought this would be a push-over. Prohibition has a history of racism and so does May. She has been found guilty of contempt of court for her handling of one deportation, and a number of other deportations have proved controversial in the same press she thought would be supportive. As more prominent politicians get blindsided by the swing in public opinion, watch the rats leaving the sinking tub of HMS Prohibitch.
Here’s what Theresa’s work day looks like today:
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/11/29/man-arrested-as-supporters-try-to-prevent-isa-muazu-deportat
I’m sure she’ll be hitting the bottle tonight like any good prohibitionist.
TransformDrugPolicy â€@TransformDrugs
Theresa May humiliated as MPs reject call to ban khat http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2013/11/29/theresa-may-humiliated-as-mps-reject-call-to-ban-khat … via @politics_co_uk
TransformDrugPolicy â€@TransformDrugs
Transform blog from July 03, 2013 – just to recap: UK Government bans khat, ignores advice of its own experts http://dlvr.it/4Q2Hbx
OT. The Denver Post has hired a new pot editor and current marijuana afficionado, Ricardo Baca. According to Mr. Baca, additional personnel are needed:
.
Looks like Opiophiliac and CJ could put their knowledge and considerable writing talents to use there.
A paid gig writing about the heroin culture? Sign me up.
It’s true you don’t need to be an addict to write about heroin or a pothead to write about cannabis culture, but it sure doesn’t hurt to be passionately involved in the culture.
Unfortunately, the DEA is still persecuting the Africans in my area that chew Khat. Seattle has a large population of African immigrants, and I got to know that community well when I was working as a contract therapist with a large Seattle Community Mental Health provider. There is a small cross section of folks who continue to chew Khat. Some of them are my friends. They have to be very careful, and never allow outsiders to know the particulars of where and when they meet. But Khat chewing is a ritual, and the sessions are their way of hashing out the difficulties in their world. So they involve long involved discussions and may extend for a day or more. These people are using a traditional substance in a traditional way. Their existence impacts NOBODY. My buddy “Peter” brought me a bunch of Khat so I could try it. It’s an espresso, not EVEN a Red Bull. As far as stimulants go, it’s really not a powerful or an addicting one. As far as I can tell, the only thing addicting is the community and the conversations. Certainly not something that ought to be prosecuted or punished.
OT
It’s bad enough when the DEA and politicians usurp the medical profession by controlling which drugs are “suitable” for which conditions. Now evangelical priests are getting in on the act with their own claims that “good christians can’t get PTSD…Any of you suffering from PTSD right now, you listen to me. You get rid of that right now. You don’t take drugs to get rid of it, it doesn’t take psychology; that promise right there [in the Bible] will get rid of it.â€
http://www.alternet.org/belief/why-right-wing-evangelicals-claim-good-christians-cant-get-ptsd
Factually incorrect AND intellectually dishonest; the only way the prohibitches can make their case.
Some symptoms of mental illness common among those with religious belief:
Virgin birth
Resurrection
Imaginary friend (Jesus)
6000 year old Earth
Noah’s ark
and so on
here’s something completely ot:
http://tinyurl.com/pzpfo45, it contains this fine sentence:“I wonder what punishment would be severe enough to make them recognize the wrong they’ve done to us?†i think this could apply to our prohibitchionist blood supervisors.
From the comment thread:
“I just read on another post a quote from William DeBurgh that seems to take what Russell brand is saying here a step further.
Here is the quote:
There is no black vs. white
There is no Republican vs. Democrat
There is no gay vs. straight
There is no atheist vs. fanatic
There is no rich vs. poor
There is no left vs. right
There is only us against them
The Labels by which we identify
ourselves and others only keep us
Divided and Fighting.
I’ve said before that I have traveled through and/or lived in a lot of states in this country and I praised the people I met along the way. We have been purposely divided as though the wealthy and the politicians use us as a sadistic, maniacal chess game and they are laughing their asses off at the trouble they’ve stirred up among us. I say we checkmate and turn on the bastards!”
here’s a longer version: http://tinyurl.com/k3wa9es
“No class or group or party in Germany could escape its share of responsibility for the abandonment of the democratic Republic and the advent of Adolf Hitler. The cardinal error of the Germans who opposed Nazism was their failure to unite against it. ….the 63% of the German people who expressed their opposition to Hitler were much too divided and shortsighted to combine against a common danger which they must have known would overwhelm them unless they united, HOWEVER TEMPORARY, to stamp it out.”
-William L. Shirer, author;
“The rise and fall of the Third Reich” **p.259**
one of the constant themes of western writer Louis Lamour was the dividing of a community by scurrilous interests in order to pick their pockets.
OT
Hempcrete. One more use for the wonder plant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoYIBdzZYWI
you wouldn’t believe what it’s like to sleep in a gaff made of that stuff:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoYIBdzZYWI
malc did u mean to use the same link as me? i would like to hear about sleepi ng in a hempcrete house
I spend several weeks every year with friends who are hemp farmers in Ireland.
I sleep in a converted timber-frame barn with hemp walls and wooden floors. The experience is extremely positive. I guess it has something to do with hemp’s ability to keep humidity levels optimum.
Here’s the correct link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyjshpRMyAo
The barn is on the left as you leave the polly-tunnel. The round house is also made of hemp.
totally on topic:http://tinyurl.com/po54yz7