Drug testing for marijuana has no place in sports

Ronda Rousey Takes Stand Against Drug Testing For Marijuana

“I’m against testing for weed at all. It’s not a performance enhancing drug. And it has nothing to do with competition. It’s only tested for political reasons,” she said.

Spot on, Ronda. Although marijuana is on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List, the advantages it can offer athletes during a competition are, by WADA’s own admission, limited to “better focus” and “diminished stress.”

Diaz and many more athletes who regularly smoke marijuana use the drug for non-competitive recreational purposes. Diaz himself is a card-carrying medical marijuana patient in California. But in making its decision, the NSAC effectively stripped away all context behind Diaz’s possible marijuana usage, charging him like a cheater when he’s really just another fighter in pain — a point that infuriated Rousey on Wednesday.

“If one person tests for steroids, that could actually hurt a person, and the other person smokes a plant that makes him happy, and he gets suspended for five years. Whereas a guy who could hurt someone gets a slap on the wrist. It’s not fair,” Rousey said, also adding that she believes marijuana testing is an invasion of privacy.

Nice to see this. I think the World Anti-Doping Agency is going to start getting more pressure in this area, because it really is absurd.

[Thanks, Allan]
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59 Responses to Drug testing for marijuana has no place in sports

  1. Frank W. says:

    I’ve always been er, ranting, that drug testing is the biggest and last bastion of Prohibition. And ugliest. And fuck-headed. And foulest. Ranty rant rant rah! It’s too ingrained in our culture now.

  2. Duncan20903 says:

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    Nevada has the most expansive medicinal cannabis patient protection reciprocity for patients from other States of all of the States with medicinal cannabis patient protection laws. It’s time for Mr. Diaz to get himself a real lawyer and take this to Court.

    Sheesh, haven’t these guys ever heard of synthetic urine?

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      After posting that about Mr. Diaz I remembered that the law which actually codifies MMJ reciprocity in Nevada is pretty new. So I googled it, The law was enacted on 1/1/2015 and the fight was on 1/31/2015. BTW, Mr. Diaz lost the fight by decision. Later the result was changed to “no contest” because both fighters had bad pee-pee.

      Some people might want to sniggle about court descisions which have held that employers can fire employees after examining their pee-pee. There’s a big difference here. Mr. Diaz was suspended by the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That organization is an agent of the State of Nevada. Just a reminder that governmental entities have less wiggle room to require the submission of a Urinary Loyalty Oath (ULO) than private entities. E.g. Only employees in positions considered law enforcement, “safety sensitive” or responsible for national security can be required to submit a ULO based on “random” selection.

      I can be easily convinced that testing these guys for performance enhancing substances is needed to maintain the integrity of the “sport.” But I could probably be easily convinced to go the other way because I really don’t care about big sweaty men beating each other up. How the heck do they get these guys pissed off enough to want to fight? The entire spectacle is beyond my ken.

      Alright, on to the irony part of this sad saga. Mr. Diaz’ opponent tested positive for steroids which ultimately earned him a 1 year suspension. Hey, wasn’t that the “maintain the integrity of the ‘sport'” nonsense I just saw fly out the window?
      http://espn.go.com/mma/story/_/id/13657932/nevada-bans-ufc-nick-diaz-5-years-marijuana

      Has everyone heard that Mike Tyson confessed that he was high on cocaine during his boxing matches? IIRC he used other people’s pee-pee for avoiding invalidation of his ULOs. I thought for sure that the boxing authorties were going to take away his championship belts but I guess they didn’t care.

      • Duncan20903 says:

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        This stuff is just fascinating. Perhaps Mr. Diaz does know about synthetic urine and just didn’t take enough with him. He was actually required to submit 3 separate ULOs but only the third was invalidated because the pee-pee examiner rejected it. The “positive” pee-pee was almost 5 times the WADA limit for THC-cooh. The WADA limit is 150 ng/ml in pee-pee.

        The World Anti-Doping Authority…now isn’t that name just a dictionary picture worthy example of utter arrogance?

  3. Drug testing IS an invasion of privacy and is only done with coerced consent. Based on … what?
    The sports industries have been hijacked by the governments drug war. Time to end the drug war propaganda.

    Congressmen Introduce Bipartisan Bill To Eliminate DEA Marijuana Eradication Program
    http://tinyurl.com/olcn8uj

    New Bill Strikes At The Heart Of DEA’s Civil Asset Forfeiture Apparatus
    http://tinyurl.com/o3sxaqe

  4. Deep Dish says:

    I remember once reading an article about some sports agency (forget which one) which argued that marijuana is performance enhancing because it helps athletes recover from injuries faster. Seriously? Athletes shouldn’t take medicine? The extent to which prohibitionists will twist, contort, and distort reasoning only leaves karma to give them a taste of their own medicine, should they be so unlucky.

  5. DdC says:

    NFL’s Buzzkill
    The Hypocrisy of the NFL

    Unofficial Self-Appointed Cannabist for the SF Giants

    GOPers open the door to legal marijuana
    That’s a scary speech for supporters of marijuana reform, but for now it’s also a moot position. As long as Republican support for “states rights” is stronger than their distaste for marijuana use, reformers have nothing to fear.

    Mike Huckabee
    Ignore Supreme Court Rulings

    On Kim Davis Case or across the board with the Raich case? Otherwise there are no states rights to cannabis. Back to Obama removing it as a controlled substance because no science supports its prohibition.

    “Deciding not to comply with a Supreme Court ruling would undermine the entire judiciary and have dire consequences for the separation of powers,” said Elizabeth Slattery, a legal fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

    “If the other branches of the federal government don’t back the court, it is true that the court has very limited power to enforce its judgments,”

    While there are certainly tools the president and Congress can use to go around a Supreme Court decision it doesn’t like — such as amending the Constitution or selecting justices that support the alternate position — these are difficult to accomplish and usually require years of effort, making them rare. The much more common result is for the executive and legislative branches accept a Supreme Court decision as the final word.

  6. darkcycle says:

    With nearly 100% of X-Games athletes openly admitting to cannabis use, and more and more athletes in other sports coming out of the Cannabis closet, it’s an issue that will have to be dealt with soon. Good on Ms. Rousey for taking a stand. (BTW, I have no affection for blood sport, and had to use the Google to find out who she was when I first heard this. But having since watched the entirety of her last fight, I would not want to upset that woman!)

  7. DdC says:

    As CA Considers MJ Laws, Paul Calls Out Christie
    http://cannabisnews.com/news/28/thread28676.shtml
    Marijuana’s legal status, once dismissed as a fringe issue, has evolved after a series of quiet decisions from the Obama administration. The west’s experiment with legalization — so far, a major boost to Colorado’s tax revenue — has been treated with benign neglect. Just three months ago, the administration lifted a public health review requirement that had prevented some research into marijuana’s medicinal properties. A new president could reverse all of that with a pen stroke. Only two potential presidents have said much about it.

  8. Servetus says:

    Now that we know cannabinoids are effective for brain trauma prevention or recovery in sports injuries, marijuana should really be treated as a safety option in sporting events.

    Future sports arenas and gymnasiums could keep a big rolled doobie in a fire extinguisher case located in a locker room with a sign on it that says: Break Glass if You Break Your Head.

    • DdC says:

      Now that we know?
      There lies the problem.
      We’ve known that for years.
      Science buried in a file is as good as no science at all.
      The IOM is still buried with the HHS before the FDA can even start testing it. Until, then there is no medicinal defense in court. No state law that can over ride a wingnut president like Chrispie or Bush. No way to stop evictions or pisstasters. Because it is still illegal. The law may be immoral, unethical and harmful to citizens but it is still “the law”. Who would want to live in such a fucked up place? Most, who know as bad as it is, it is still better than being a foreign puppet of the US.

      The Tree of Life…

      Marijuana May Live Up To Be The Elixir of Life October 15, 2005
      A study by University of Saskatchewan researchers suggests beneficial aspects of smoking marijuana at least among rats, who appear to have sprouted new brain cells and besides benefiting from reduced depression and anxiety.

      The study’s results appearing in the ‘Journal of Clinical Investigation’ have actually given a fillip to the traditional and mythological view that associates the addictive weed in some ways with immortality.

      Study Turns Pot Wisdom on Head October 14, 2005
      Forget the stereotype about dopey potheads. It seems marijuana could be good for your brain. While other studies have shown that periodic use of marijuana can cause memory loss and impair learning and a host of other health problems down the road, new research suggests the drug could have some benefits when administered regularly in a highly potent form. Most “drugs of abuse” such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats’ hippocampuses

      Using Cannabis To Save Brains! May 31, 2013
      The chemical is thought to jump-start biochemical processes that protect brain cells and preserve cognitive function.

      • Windy says:

        http://soundofcannons.blogspot.com/2010/12/do-we-have-to-follow-unconstitutional.html

        Consider this opinion of the Supreme Court:
        The general misconception is that any statute passed by legislators bearing the appearance of law constitutes the law of the land. The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land, and any statute, to be valid, must be in agreement. It is impossible for both the Constitution and a law violating it to be valid; one must prevail. This is succinctly stated as follows:
        The general rule is that an unconstitutional statute, though having the form and name of law, is in reality no law, but is wholly void, and ineffective for any purpose; since unconstitutionality dates from the time of its enactment, and not merely from the date of the decision so branding it.
        An unconstitutional law, in legal contemplation, is as inoperative as if it had never been passed. Such a statute leaves the question that it purports to settle just as it would be had the statute not been enacted.
        Since an unconstitutional law is void, the general principles follow that it imposes no duties, confers no rights, creates no office, bestows no power or authority on anyone, affords no protection, and justifies no acts performed under it . . .
        A void act cannot be legally consistent with a valid one.
        An unconstitutional law cannot operate to supersede any existing valid law.
        Indeed, insofar as a statute runs counter to the fundamental law of the land, it is superseded thereby.
        No one is bound to obey an unconstitutional law and no courts are bound to enforce it.
        – Sixteenth American Jurisprudence, Second Edition, Section 177. (late 2nd Ed. Section 256)
        Keep this in mind when your friends and family, or your elected officials tell you that “it’s the law, you have to.” If that law is arbitrary to the constitution, if it renders you subject to illegal or unconstitutional laws and acts it is in fact, null and void. Keep this in mind when the courts rule in favor of corporate interests knowingly violating the rights and protections afforded the people as described in the Constitution. Almost without exception, every law that has been passed by one administration and congress after another in the last twenty years has substantially violated and reduced the rights of Americans.
        One of the gravest mistakes made by Americans today is the mistake of assuming that because congress passed a piece of legislation and the president signed it, the violations of rights and liberties, the assaults on the American people under the guise of [national security] or other created crisis are justified or legal.
        You have guaranteed rights only so long as you defend them from encroachment by the government.

  9. Pingback: Sporting Cannabis | Spirit Wave Journal

  10. claygooding says:

    If an athlete has a recommendation from his doctor and a receipt from a dispensary with the DOJ stating no prosecutions for patients along comes some commission and in effect prosecutes a patient.

    I think a general strike by every professional player about election day would get the 1%’s attention.

  11. jean valjean says:

    Perhaps the World Anti-Doping Agency (interesting title) could explain the difference between an athlete using cannabis and one using alcohol. How does the former gives an unfair advantage while the other apparently does not. Also, in what way does cannabis give five times the advantage of a real performance enhancing drug like steroids to justify the 5:1 penalty they have seen fit to impose on Diaz?

    • Duncan20903 says:

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      Mr. Silva expressed deep remorse and promised never to do it again. Mr. Diaz refused to answer questions because doing so might have tended to incriminate him. After the hearing Mr. Diaz made the following statement:

      I’m pretty pissed,” said Diaz after the hearing. “I got into this sport for this exact reason, being stuck in a room with people like that.

      “I wanted to tell them what I think. I wanted to tell each and every one of them they’re a bunch of dorks. Everybody who sees them or knows who they are should tell them that. I would if it weren’t for my experts advising me to keep my mouth shut. I wanted to get up and say, ‘Look. You guys are way the f— out of line.’ “

      Also Mr. Silva was “fined” $380,000. Mr. Diaz’ fine was $165,000. I’m not certain but I seem to recall that those sums represented the prize money the fighters received for their participation in which case the discrepancy was irrelevant.

  12. Mouth says:

    Remember when they started to vaccinate many of us after 9/11 for Anthrax? Should I not be allowed cannabis for genetic homeostasis just in case my American diet, the chemicals I’m exposed to at work plus my flu vaccines have a negative synergetic effect with my Anthrax vaccine 8 or 15 years after the fact? If cannabis is good for sports, then should it not be good for treating the potential harms of daily life, especially when man ups those harms?

    P.S. every politician should be required to be vaccinated against Anthrax, just to see how they like being forced to have their health decisions in the hands of others. And if not: a fine and no pay for one year of being in office. Since they do technically have a choice.

  13. SevieCBohners says:

    … don’t shoot me down in flames here, just hear me out. Firstly, I’m not judging anyone for their habits – I have in fact smoked weed a few times myself, but not as an habitual thing. When I was in my 20’s, I did the whole trip – wild parties, massive amounts of booze and wild sex with all my aunt’s cousins. Nothing gets done in time, or properly –weed absolutely killed my husbands band. Which went from the brink of success to making fools of themselves in front of boy scouts. They’ve lost sight of their hygiene. And most pot smokers I’ve known have gone straight to DMT from smoking bananas.

    • NorCalNative says:

      That’s the weirdest thing. The exact same thing happened to my friend’s POLKA band.

      My friend’s wife said “enough is enough” when the band starting injecting cannabis with those plastic syringes of Ricky Simpson Boil.

      • Joey the Cornell Lunatic says:

        So how come you got +5 for doing the same thing I did?

        • Duncan20903 says:

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          Because you didn’t account for Poe’s Law.

          Poe’s law is an Internet adage which states that, without a clear indicator of the author’s intent, parodies of extreme views will, to some readers, be indistinguishable from sincere expressions of the parodied views.

        • Joey the Cornell Lunatic says:

          “Because you didn’t account for Poe’s Law.”

          I was kinda hoping that the bit about“wild sex with all my aunt’s cousins.” would give the game away {:-)

    • DdC says:

      Why waste a perfectly good bullet on lousy gossip sevie? You shoot yourself down faster than we can do it for ya. Bad musicians have always tried to blame pot for their inadequacies. What brink of success does concerts for Boy Scouts? JP Sousa marching bands? You have DMT in your brain dear, literally.

      In times of extreme physical stress, some near death experiences, and even during deep REM sleep, the body releases DMT.
      Dr Rick Strassman

    • Servetus says:

      There have been many great jazz musicians who would disagree with your assessment of marijuana’s negative impact on musicians and the music industry.

      • Windy says:

        Jazz ain’t music, it’s just noise. I find it SO damn annoying it raises my blood pressure from the normal level of 112/72 to 134/93. Know how I know that? I had an appointment at the Dr., last appt of the day, no one else in the waiting room but jazz playing on the muzak, after 10 minutes I was pacing and literally ANGRY, when the nurse took me into the exam room (no muzak) and took my pressure it was the higher of those readings, 15 minutes later the Dr. took it again (because he said that was unusually high for me), he got the lower pressure reading that is my normal BP. I told him it was “the jazz playing in the waiting area, that noise that some very odd and very few people think is music but is anything but”.

        • Pete says:

          Sorry to hear you’re unable to appreciate the exquisite pleasures of jazz. There are so many forms of jazz that fit many moods, and the really good jazz has a unique ability to exist outside normal time, which is why cannabis comes into play.

          Oh, and if it’s on the “muzak,” it’s not jazz, it’s muzak, or worse… Kenny G.

        • Chris says:

          You probably don’t enjoy hip-hop/rap either. Probably haven’t heard any real enough to ever know the difference. But here’s some of both: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QzTf6PoHQY

        • Windy says:

          Chris, I can appreciate some rap and more hip-hop (love to watch hip-hop dancers), I love music I can dance to (except polkas, don’t like that music much, either). I love Pink Floyd, I like most kinds of rock music, classical, pop to a certain extent, flamenco, I enjoy singing along with show tunes, grew up singing music from the 40s and 50s cuz I was born in the 40s, hate that old twangy western music but like a lot of today’s modern country music.

          And, Pete, I heard no Kenny G on that muzak playlist, at least I can listen to him for one song without wanting to pull my hair out.

    • sudon't says:

      It’s nice to have something to blame, I guess. But, have you considered that you may be confusing cause and effect?
      Also, going from smoking bananas to smoking DMT would indicate a certain amount of intelligence, considering that bananas contain no psychoactive ingredients. I can’t believe that old chestnut still makes the rounds.

  14. Uncle Albert's Nephew says:

    This made me think of something I read on Mark Kleiman’s blog a couple of years ago. (I know he’s like a broken clock). He said that he hated the word “doping” for medical cheating because the people doing it weren’t doing it to get high. They’re working, not partying. “Doping” conflates one with the other.

    • SevieCBohners says:

      Hi, Marky!

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      It the Humpty Dumpty school of sophistry…The Professor is not just a strict adherent, he’s on the Board of Directors. I’ll have to double check but he might even be the Chairman of the Board.

      “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.”

      “The question is,” said Alice, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

      “The question is,” said Humpty Dumpty, “which is to be master—that’s all.”

  15. NorCalNative says:

    Brazilian researchers Mateus Bergamashi and Jose Alexander S. Crippa explain why cannabis was added to the WADA “Prohibited List” in 2004.

    In an opinion piece published May 15, 2013 by Frontiers of Psychiatry Magazine they said that “Cannabis smoking can be helpful for some activities such as extreme sports, as it improves muscle relaxation, reduces anxiety, and extincts fear memories (e.g. negative experiences) leading to enhanced performance when an athlete is in multiple competitions in a short period of time.”

    • Might as well add music and massage too then. And thinking good thoughts.

    • DdC says:

      I found cannabis was not good for baseball until after the game. Especially at night, under the lights. I’m sure reaction time is slower. Relieving stress is not how to win games or maintain a sharp edge. On the other hand, it may seem that acid does wonders.

      Pitcher Dock Ellis’ Legendary LSD No-Hitter
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/sreply/244

      Let Timmy Smoke

      ☛100th Career Win
      ☛2 Cy Young Awards
      ☛3 World Series wins
      ☛2 No Hitters
      ☛2 High Times covers

      SF Giants Rookies, Has Beens, Misfits, Stoners and Waiver Wire Pick Ups. 3 titles in 5 years.

      • NorCalNative says:

        DdC, when I was playing semi-pro baseball I got to play in an exhibition game against a team made up of S.F. Giants (Tito Fuentes and Elias Sosa) along with AAA and AA players way back in 1972.

        I struck out on three pitches against Sosa who gave up one of Reggie Jackson’s three W.S. homeruns back in the late 70s.

        I was the only white kid on an otherwise all black team, the San Francisco Mets. Great times.

        Cannabis works for baseball, IF you’ve got a variety that won’t put you to sleep, AND if you have the chance to refresh the “high” as needed.

        I tried this experiment with 70’s Mexican commercial pot. Crushed the shit out of a ball my first at-bat, over threw my first baseman by twenty feet, and struggled to stay awake by the middle of the game.

        However, during the peak of the high, I saw the ball well. I suggest big bong hits before each at-bat, but my doctor says I’m a religious cultist on cannabis, and so you might want to seek other advice.

    • jean valjean says:

      “In an opinion piece published May 15, 2013 by Frontiers of Psychiatry Magazine they said that “Cannabis smoking can be helpful for some activities such as extreme sports, as it improves muscle relaxation, reduces anxiety, and extincts fear memories (e.g. negative experiences) leading to enhanced performance when an athlete is in multiple competitions in a short period of time.”
      But off course, cannabis has no medical value according to DEA. Prohibitionists can’t have it both ways.

  16. Duncan20903 says:

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    Ohio is starting to get interesting (same link for both items):

    Ohio Supreme Court has ordered that wording for Issue 3 – a proposal to legalize marijuana – is misleading and must be rewritten prior to being placed on the November ballot.
    ————————-
    Toledo decriminalizes marijuana – now what?

    Nearly 70-percent of voters who turned out for Tuesday’s primary election in Toledo were in favor of decriminalizing marijuana.

    The passing of Issue 1 eliminates jail time and fines for some marijuana offenses – but not all.

    With the issue’s passage, anyone caught with up to 200 grams of marijuana will not face jail time.
    /snip/

  17. Thudworthy says:

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    Holy Toledo! Those good ol’ boys over to the Rocky Mountain HIDTA are going to be madder than wet Mudhens when they hear about this one. It appears that the legalizers from big merrywanna have surreptitiously replaced Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper with a clone programmed to do their bidding. I’m putting this one in the “Mr. Prohibitionist, read ’em and weep” category:

    /snip/
    [Governor John] Hickenlooper, founder of a beer brewery and a former mayor of Denver, opposed the historic 2012 measure that legalized pot for adults 21 and older. But in the interview published on Wednesday in Westword, he says legalization hasn’t been so bad, after all.

    “Now I look at how far we’ve come, and I think there’s a real possibility that we’ll have a system that works… if you eliminate the black market, make it harder for kids to get marijuana. We can put more money into education for kids,” he says. “The sky isn’t falling. People thought it was the end of civilization as they know it. It wasn’t: The sky is mostly still up there with the stars and the clouds.
    /snip/

    Twenty-one months after the roll out of recreational-marijuana stores in Colorado, the one thing Hickenlooper wants everyone in or out of Colorado to know about ending marijuana prohibition is: “Most people who were not smoking marijuana before it was legalized still don’t.”
    /snip/
    linky

    Wow, it looks like I’m going to have to quit calling him Gov. Stickin Pooper.

  18. Mike says:

    Planet Green Trees radio show last night
    talked about the Toledo win at 1:09:00
    to 1:30:00

    and the cannaballrun after that.

    http://www.blogtalkradio.com/planetgreentrees/2015/09/18/pgt-episode-267-what-does-legalization-look-like-part-iii

  19. Windy says:

    Steve Kubby wrote:
    HELP DEFEND YOUR RIGHTS
    If you are not angry about California’s new medical marijuana law, then you aren’t paying attention. The new law directly modifies numerous rights secured by Prop. 215 and illegally restricts patients to 100 square feet. Please join us in our fight to protect our rights. Join AMMA today. Even if all you do is join, you add one more voice to our cause.
    To sign up, go to http://americanmarijuana.org and look for our sign up box on the bottom of the page.

    • kaptinemo says:

      From the first link:

      “A series of documents obtained by the Institute for Justice reveals that the DOJ has teamed up with the Treasury Department to bribe state law enforcement groups to oppose any effort to change the way the civil asset forfeiture laws operate in their state. If they fail to comply, and the state does pass reforms to this system, the federal government indicates that it will strip away the federal funding the state has been receiving through the Equitable Sharing Program.”

      There it is. Bald. Naked. And butt-ugly. No doubt anymore, whatsoever. All pretense vanishes. Drug law enforcement’s mask has finally dropped. It’s all a Thieves Guild, now.

      Congress has been handed yet another issue of Executive Branch corruption regarding drugs. Lotsa fresh red meat, on a silver platter. Done nothing for 5 years. But things have changed.

      This time, gluttony should be encouraged.

      • DdC says:

        I just love the smell of burnt prohibitionists in the morning.

        Supposedly Neutral Federal Report
        Stacks The Deck Against Marijuana Legalization
        forbes.com
        Here is an interesting fact about “marijuana-related traffic deaths”: They do not necessarily have anything to do with marijuana. The report uses this phrase to describe fatalities from accidents involving vehicle operators who “tested positive for marijuana,” which could indicate the presence of inactive metabolites or THC levels so low that they had no impact on driving performance.

        • jean valjean says:

          The total number of fatal traffic accidents has fallen in CO in the last three years. That doesn’t seem to square with the claim that legalization has caused an increase in drug impaired collisions. Coloradans are statistically safer on the roads since legalization, whatever the cause. Bullshit bodies like the laughably named High Intensity Drug Trafficing Area are going to have to live with this fact as more and more of their elderly target audience shuffles off to die.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          Where would you get that notion? Number of Colorado traffic fatalities increased from 447 in 2011 to 474 in 2012, to 481 in 2013, and 488 in 2014. The 2014 number isn’t “final” yet but I guess I think that even gov’t bean counters shouldn’t have a problem counting less than 500 dead bodies on the first try.

          Colorado’s highest number of traffic fatalities was 743 in 2002. Just as a point in fact Amendment 20 was approved by Colorado voters on Election Day 2000.

          But it’s not a valid analysis to just go by the raw numbers. The NHTSA likes the rate of fatalities per hundred million vehicle miles traveled. (VMT) In 2002 the Colorado rate was 1.71 fatalities per 100 million VMT. In 2013 that number had been reduced to 1.02.

          We’re still not looking at a valid analysis. We need a bench mark, particularly because the entire Country has enjoyed a significant reduction in both the raw numbers of dead people and the rate of those deaths.

          In 2002 the nationwide rate of fatalities per 100 million VMT was 1.51. The nationwide rate was 11.696% less than the rate in Colorado. In 2013 the nationwide rate was 1.09 per 100 million VMT. That’s 6.86% higher than the rate in Colorado in 2013.
          http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/States/StatesFatalitiesFatalityRates.aspx

          Keep in mind that statistical numbers fluctuate. It’s very, very rare when the chart of a trend goes continuously in one direction. In fact I’m only aware of one which even came close…that the per capita number of cigarettes consumed by Americans since 1964. But even that number had two or three years which had a marginal increase.

      • Duncan20903 says:

        .
        .

        Ummm, the “Equitable Sharing Program” is the one where State or local authorities handed off a seizure to the Feds in return for 80% of the funds seized under Federal law. It was (is?) very popular among State and local LEAs where State law directed the seized money to places other than the LEAs budget, or even didn’t allow for the seizure. The Equitable Sharing Program was specifically designed to subvert State law.

        Guide to Equitable Sharing for State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies
        April 2009

        /snip/
        VII. How Is an Agency’s Equitable Share Determined?

        A. Adoptive seizures
        The federal share in adoptive cases where 100 percent of pre-seizure activity was performed by a state or local agency will generally be 20 percent of the net proceeds.
        /snip/

        Of course New Mexico lost those funds…the Legislature made it illegal for State or local police hand off seizures to the Feds. Am I missing something or are we being just a wee bit on the kneejerk side concerning this issue?

        How in the heck could State and local authorities participate in revenue sharing if it’s against State law to do so? Can you ‘splain it to me kaptin? From where I sit this looks like what we want to happen. Am I supposed to believe that the administrators of State and local LEAs are too stupid to understand that if State law changes to forbid the Federal subversion of State law they’re going to lose those funds?

        AG Holder’s order eviscerating the Equitable Sharing Program is certainly not filled with loopholes comparable to the Cole memos.

        Attorney General’s Order: Prohibition on Certain Federal Adoptions of Seizures by State and Local Law Enforcement Agencies (PDF)
        January 16, 2015

        You’ve got to try to chill out kaptin…we’re winning. Only an idiot would spit on substantial progress and demand all or nothing.

  20. jean valjean says:

    “Say Hello to Rave SWAT Teams, Cops Cracking Down on ‘Evil’ People Who Dance Late at Night……. While deaths at events are a concern, they are largely due to the prohibition of these drugs, which makes them more dangerous. To make matters worse, the zero tolerance policy at events prevents drug users from getting the help they need when something does go wrong.”

    Anti-hippie prejudice moves on to a whole new generation.

    http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/say-hello-rave-swat-teams-cops-cracking-down-evil-people-who-dance-late-night

    • B. Snow says:

      And this is probably being brought to light – in order to remind all those “Ready for Biden”/”Draft Biden” idiots that he’d have an extra hurdle to clear…

      Sorta the reverse of Santorum whining about Bernie Sanders getting the youth vote because of CJ Reform policy he wants to pass.

      That’s apparently what we’re calling it now, “code” for the (semi)-obvious & Santorum is using his *political oxygen* to spead this = ‘Not necessarily a fact, but more likely than not’ pseuedo-factoid,

      You can’t beat that deal with a stick!

  21. DdC says:

    Biden’s gift that keeps on giving…

    The RAVE Ax

    Bogus DEA test chemicals, twice, behind law that continues to kill kids banning test kits. ruining lives for dancing safe.

    • Frank W. says:

      For some strange reason Biden’s putrid record is never mentioned in the “liberal” media. Apparently Comcast is fine with it.

  22. sudon't says:

    Frankly, I don’t see why testing for so-called performance-enhancing drugs is so important in sports. First off, they don’t generally enhance performance. More often, they allow you to workout longer. That’s where the benefits come in. It’s not like doping an animal before a race.
    Regardless, athletes use all sorts of ways to enhance performance, (or workouts), including special diets, monitoring equipment, playing equipment, etc., etc. Don’t the athletes that have access to this level of training, (not to mention genetics), also have an unfair advantage?
    But only “drugs” seem to upset people. It’s really a moral compunction, and as with recreational drugs, has little to do with the stated objections.

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