Moving beyond the stoner stereotype

Darrin Harris Frisby/Drug Policy Alliance

Darrin Harris Frisby/Drug Policy Alliance

Via 420Intel, the Drug Policy Alliance has developed a set of stock photos that’s available for use for free.

Media outlets continue to use stereotypical “stoner” images for otherwise serious news stories about marijuana. The Drug Policy Alliance is offering an alternative: stock photos of real, everyday people who use marijuana.

These photos are open license and free to use for non-commercial editorial purposes, and we hope they will help make the jobs of editors easier and the content more relevant.

Images must be credited, and may be used for editorial purposes only. No commercial use is permitted.

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56 Responses to Moving beyond the stoner stereotype

  1. Freeman says:

    Great idea — love it! DPA’s on the ball!

    Many of those photos illustrate that us folks they called stoners are now older and greyer. We’re now the generation that’s running things, and we’re not about to let society treat our grandkids like it did us.

  2. strayan says:

    Well, well, well, looky what we have here:

    The United States Government cannot force Apple to unlock an iPhone in a New York drug case, a federal judge in Brooklyn says.

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-01/judge's-iphone-ruling-in-new-york-drug-case-backs-apple/7210772

    Not going to use the ‘backdoor’ for anything but terrorism you say? Uh-huh, suuuuure.

  3. StDavid'sDayHoax says:

    NASA’s conducting a series of ‘Rest Studies’ where the Space Agency wants volunteers who can stay in bed for a stretch of 70 days and smoke different kinds of cannabis. At the end of the successful run, the volunteering smokers will become $18,000 richer.

    http://tinyurl.com/nasaweedhoax

  4. High Priest says:

    Fr Stephen Crossan was caught getting higher than the church roof. People wondered why his sermons were so long and always contained references to coke and nazis.

    “A catholic priest has taken leave from the priesthood after being filmed snorting a line of cocaine in a room that appears to hold Nazi memorabilia.

    Video footage obtained by the Sun on Sunday shows Father Stephen Crossan sniffing the class-A drug with a rolled-up £10 note at his home in Banbridge, Northern Ireland.

    The 37-year-old seems to say the words “I shouldn’t” as he snorts a line of white powder arranged on a plate.”

    http://tinyurl.com/j73b6vw

  5. Spirit Wave says:

    Non-commercial purposes only?

    Maybe I’m just taking this too seriously, but aren’t all media outlets problematically relying upon stereotypical stoner imagery (e.g. those forming the mainstream media) operating for commercial purpose?

    How effective will the DPA’s stock photos be with that serious limit?

    • Pete says:

      It’s not whether the company operates for commercial purposes, but the purpose of the use. This would be allowed for any article or opinion piece about marijuana (or anything else) in any media, even if that media was commercially run. It would not be allowed for a shop, for example, to use in their advertisement for their store. In the media, there’s a distinct line between editorial (content) and commercial (advertising) material. These images are available for use in editorial.

      • DdC says:

        So it’s “not allowed” by whom? Internet cops giving pic tics now? I was always under the impression that what is posted is the same as leaving a newspaper on a park bench and anyone is free to read it or give it to someone. Why do they provide image location addresses if they don’t want them used? I have no reason to not abide by their wishes or am I selling something I require their pics for. Just seems like more of a request than an enforceable crime.

        • Tony Aroma says:

          You’re free to view what’s posted on the internet, but not take it and use it yourself. Violating copyright laws is most certainly a crime, and very easily enforced. If you steal someone’s intellectual property and post it on your web site, you’re basically telling the world about your crime. The only way it’s not enforceable is if the owner of the property doesn’t know.

        • Pete says:

          Ditto to what Tony said.

          Back in the day, Drug WarRant used to have a bulletin board that was fairly active. One of the reasons I took it down (other than the fact that bulletin boards were going away) was one of the commenters kept posting tons of images and copies of complete posts from other websites, and I started getting take-down notices from the owners of those sites.

          In some cases, websites don’t mind you sharing their content, and there is, of course, fair use exception to copyright, but that’s a tricky line to maneuver. Always best to have permission.

          Even when I quote from news stories from other sites, I’m careful to give a link to that site and to excerpt it, rather than putting the entire content in my post (that’s one of the reasons why you’ll see […] to indicate that I left some out). When it comes to posting images, I look for copyright indications on the source page, and whether there is a caption label. Even if there is no copyright notice, I try to determine whether the owner of the photo would mind my use of it in context, and if I do decide to use it, am ready to take it down if contacted.

        • DdC says:

          Name one person ever busted for posting pics on the internet. A copyright isn’t any more than saying it is yours but nothing is registered. You can use a format that can’t be copied. But nothing posted is illegal. Pete you used to mention these emails but that is all they were, requests. I have had the library since 99 with pics from anywhere and everywhere and not one request. Like I said if you don’t want people to re-post your info then use a system that prevents it. Otherwise as with all of my pics. Free for the taking. I see where someone might not want their pics associated with issues they oppose. But there is nothing stopping anyone. Actually I can take their pics and copy write them just as easy by saying they’re mine. Pics can be removed by destroying the addy or tinypics has removed some. Same with sites censoring porn or issues. It is up to the website but the pic taker or artist posting are in an open domain. If you don’t want em re-posted, use the no copy format as with the Cannabist. Still show up on google. Are they infringing on copy writes, or by changing them to thumbprints? Silly. The pic addy is encoded so adding more words is ego. intellectual property? From photo chopped pics? Shirley you jest.

          http://www.drugwarrant.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/group-women-smoking-marijuana-bbq_7063-500×333.jpg

          Pete, your website advertisments are selling products.

        • Pete says:

          DdC, I’m sorry, but if you’re not interested in actually learning about the law, then don’t try to claim to be an expert in it. The website advertisements are advertisements, and I haven’t put any pictures in them. To the extent that advertisers use pictures in their advertisements that show up on my page, then it’s their responsibility to make sure that they have the rights. I just have to make sure that I have the appropriate rights for my posts.

          Just because you haven’t gotten caught for infringement is less an issue of whether you’re right than it is of whether anyone cares. Believe me, an online newspaper can’t take that risk because they have a lot more money and are much more likely to be a target of a lawsuit. So they won’t use images unless they have the rights to them.

          And yes, people have been sued for using images on a blog, and have had to pay damages. So it’s not some made-up thing.

        • DdC says:

          DdC, I’m sorry, but if you’re not interested in actually learning about the law, then don’t try to claim to be an expert in it.

          You might be right that I’m not interested in censorship laws, fuck the arbitrary law. Fuck Copyrights.

          Copyleft is a copyright licensing scheme in which an author surrenders some, but not all rights under copyright law. Instead of allowing a work to fall completely into the public domain (where no ownership of copyright is claimed), copyleft allows an author to impose some restrictions on those who want to engage in activities that would more usually be reserved by the copyright holder. Under copyleft, derived works may be produced provided they are released under the compatible copyleft scheme.

          The website advertisements are advertisements, and I haven’t put any pictures in them.

          I didn’t realize the Dodge Truck or Rehab ads were yours.

          To the extent that advertisers use pictures in their advertisements that show up on my page, then it’s their responsibility to make sure that they have the rights. I just have to make sure that I have the appropriate rights for my posts.

          Appropriate rights for my posts? who granted you rights. I paid for the isp and post what I feel like posting. If I google a pic to use for whatever reason, No one has ever stopped me. Twitter news pics or chopping them up for a statement. Sometimes a half a dozen pics into one political statement or drug worrier lies or whatever.

          Just because you haven’t gotten caught for infringement is less an issue of whether you’re right than it is of whether anyone cares.

          There ya go again. As I originally stated, Who Cares? Personally if someone doesn’t like what I’ve posted almost 20 years. They can state their reasons and if I see their point I’ll remove their article or pics. If it is a classist reason that they don’t like pot or advocating prohibition and politically oppose the post then forgetaboutit. It is a drug war. That doesn’t have to mean violent on our part but it doesn’t mean knuckle under to the whims of whiners.

          Believe me, an online newspaper can’t take that risk because they have a lot more money and are much more likely to be a target of a lawsuit.

          I said that, I’m not a newspaper or do I have the rights or a newspaper. As I said, if I don’t feel someone has a legitimate reason then it is my choice to remove it or keep it once it is posted. The website other than my own, can remove pics. Tinypics can ban them, sites can block them or me out or remove them. You’re asking for both sides of the argument to be true and it can’t be any more than a request if you grant permission to use them, by posting them with the addy to pass on, then you grant permission to use them, period, You can petition the site or the poster but I’ve never heard of anyone getting busted for using pics already posted. Or will I stop using anything i damn well please that is online.

          So they won’t use images unless they have the rights to them.

          Yes Pete, repeating it won’t change the facts that I am not a newspaper corporation or do I recognize any rights of censorship. If I’m on TV and they don’t like my cussing they can bleep it out. If I don’t want my pics used by prohibitionists I can create pics that won’t copy. I can’t discriminate on the future of my net pic falling into the wrong hands. Arbitrary is not law. Or is the photog a law enforcer. Now you’re only making me curious to chop one of these for the hell of it. Too bad I’m not selling anything.

          And yes, people have been sued for using images on a blog, and have had to pay damages. So it’s not some made-up thing.

          I ask for their names. Of coarse people have been sued, Donald Drumpf sues the weatherman on a regular bases. But how many are behind bars or have actually won the case? Not established media who are licensed, individuals chopping pics online? The logistics make that the same as the DEA going door to door busting people for toking a joint. Again, the authoritarian approach using censorship is creepy. Using pictures of “normal” people toking is bigoted. Using pics of “normal” people toking to sell a vape or bong doesn’t seem like it should be a crime as long as the pic taker has already posted it. I guess I have to take down my Tricky Dick face dart board. Or when I put Walters face on a giant dick.

        • Tony Aroma says:

          DdC, as someone who frequents this site, you should understand how just because someone violates the law and gets away with it, doesn’t change the law. Others still can and do get caught. And in the case of stolen intellectual property, it’s not a victimless crime.

        • DdC says:

          Tony Tony Tony,

          DdC, as someone who frequents this site, you should understand how just because someone violates the law and gets away with it, doesn’t change the law.

          La la la, really? You have a firm grasp of the obvious fersure. I’ve been an outlaw my entire adult life if you actually believe smoking pot is illegal. I believe the law is illegal. That won’t stop them from putting me in a cage. But truth is truth and lies are not recognized as laws in any civilized place. Obviously not the US.

          Others still can and do get caught.

          Again
          Name one person ever busted for posting pics on the internet.

          And in the case of stolen intellectual property, it’s not a victimless crime.

          It’s not intellectual property unless it is registered as such. I can claim a copyright but as long as the image addy is there it is free for the using. Same with google pics. This is net ethics and no one should claim anothers work as their own. So they should use a non-copy format. This “law” you refer to seems more of wish than legality. Same as the pot industry requires a medical card to shop at a dispensary. Not the law, an agreement by the dispensaries. There is no law requiring a medical card in CA except by the shops. There is no law I’ve heard of busting people for passing pics. Just censorship. I’ve already posted why I believe it is a stupid endeavor to silence some if someone opposes the content. Top o the world ma, come and get me coppers! Next!

        • DdC says:

          DdC, you make it sound like copyright law is made up or not taken seriously.
          Tony Aroma March 3, 2016 at 6:30 pm

          Tony stop beating a dead horse. Your straw man has nothing to do with copyrights on internet pics. I never said any such thing about copyrights overall, just on net pics. Show me any indication or warning. Name someone or show me a copyright law on posting pics. Especially ones posted as free to use. Its a request. Not stolen anymore than using a newspaper pic to line a bird cage. Silly. Art, music or lit could be registered and copies prevented. Thats the only way logically and since the internet started.

          In fact, it’s one of the few powers granted to the federal government in the Constitution. That’s about as real as a law can get.

          And not a damn thing to do with the post. Or did the forefathers have an internet. Did you hear me ask for a factoid on government powers? The post is about net pics and wishes, not copyrights for arbitrary use. No different than deciding to give spare change to the homeless. You can ask what they want it for and make a choice to give or not. If you think they will buy drugs or booze you can buy them a sandwich. But you have no right to say a word once you give them the money. They are free to buy anything they wish. Same with net pics and stop the diversionary horshit and stick to the issue.

          Article I, Section 8, Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

          Not when they give it to the public.
          No © on the pic, no ™ Not even a Ↄ

          http://www.drugwarrant.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/group-women-smoking-marijuana-bbq_7063-500×333.jpg

          Show me Red, Herring things too? Looks to me like its made by a place called drugwarrant in the address. No © ™ T R or Ↄ. So what good is a © if no one knows it even is? Pile it on Tony. Tell me about K, it has as much to do with the post as anything else your tossing out and trying to make stick.

          Again this is not about property its about pixels. I told you about copyrights are noted by posting it, but as you said registering it makes it easier to stand up in court. Works in real time, not internet pics. Its censorship you advocate. Anything at google is free for the taking. Free to write whatever pleases or change the face to a horses ass. Too much freedom move to Russia but I don’t want your opinion of â„¢ that has nothing or can it be found on any internet pic. It has nothing to do with law or copyrights, just ethics and courtesy. Songs are different and unchangeable. Pics come with addy’s so you can pass them on or use them, the same with c&p parts of a book as references. Just willing to give up the freedom to corporate privatization is why yuppies are eat up with fear. Registered patents or Trademarks are on tangible objects, not pixels. So enough condescending whining about stolen pixels. I will use the pics as I see fit and it has nothing to do with not getting caught. My post are everywhere and pics can be removed by me if I think they are warranted. Or by the fabricator using a copy firewall or written requests to websites.

          FWIW,

          Again diversions from content out of context and nothing on net pics even stating they are copyrighted. You keep going on and on about tangible objects adulterated or taken or sold under false pretenses all with nothing to do with releasing something on the web. You can’t enforce it so it is not real or covered by any more than hearsay. Thats my pic. Is it? prove it? Or even find it. Here is the same pic posted. Who ya gonna call, ghost busters?

          Copyright This!
          http://i66.tinypic.com/vh7p81.jpg

      • DdC says:

        PS. I’m talking political pics not underage porn or snuff.

        • Tony Aroma says:

          DdC, you make it sound like copyright law is made up or not taken seriously. In fact, it’s one of the few powers granted to the federal government in the Constitution. That’s about as real as a law can get.

          Article I, Section 8, Clause 8: To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

          I’ve been in this business for many years, and have worked with IP experts, and have learned a little along the way. For example, you are completely wrong that a copyright (or trademark) has to be registered. Actually, as soon a you create something, it’s automatically protected by copyright law. The only thing registration of a copyright does is make it much easier to defend in court. Another thing you might not have noticed, there are actually two different trademark symbols. â„¢ refers to a non-registered trademark (that’s TM), while ® indicates a registered trademark (R with a circle around it). Both are equally valid.

          Just because you don’t know about or understand the law, or recognize its legitimacy, or have broken it without getting caught, doesn’t make it not so. If you want to steal people’s property, that’s your business, but please don’t try to convince anybody that it’s OK or legal, as someone might actually believe you.

        • Tony Aroma says:

          FWIW, some things can be copyrighted and some can’t. You cannot copyright ideas, only the expression of those ideas. In other words, copyrights are very specific, and they only apply to tangible things, like a novel as opposed to the idea for a novel. You also can’t copyright data, only the analysis or presentation of it. So for example, you can’t copy a graph, but you can use the same data and create your own graph. Also, it makes no difference if the item is a photo of a sunset, or of a politician, or of naked people having sex. Not sure why you’d thing the content of a photo would have any relevance to copyright law (there are other laws that deal with things like underage porn).

      • DdC says:

        In the media, there’s a distinct line between editorial (content) and commercial (advertising) material

        There ya go. That is right. The Press has obligations to not infringe on unauthorized property, and they also have access we don’t have. They claim freedom of the press but seldom inform and usually sell products or the past, newspapers, that were not free or news. We are no different than someone sitting at a bar talking to someone. Except without the bar room brawls and drunks. That pic was on the bar and I drew a mustache on the dude and added a lunch menu. Or meme generators, good luck stopping that. That’s if you believe anything is original enough to warrant intellectual property rights. Certainly not social interactions of people.

        A ball-game could get people banned for slandering the other players or ump. Just the thought of this form of censorship is creepy. Isn’t the FCC enough? The bigotry behind this censorship is even lower. Suggesting the word intellectual is oxymoronic. Let’s wear blackface when we promote Ganja to the NAACP drug war illiterates. Or the Act Up campaign of blaming stoners because DC pigs in Congress blocked the vote. Before running as Libertarian for president. if you think you can justify stigmatizing lifestyles you disagree with into submission the same as forcing rehab for profits. Why not bank statements, brown eyed people, left handed red haired step children, or Newty’s Orphanage to work kids taking adult jobs. Or shapes, actually they are already stigmatized out of most ads. Just the pretty people that falls in the same category as bashing stoners.

        Stereotyping certain groups and for the same reasons as racism. Segregate and the pecking order will bring the profits the same as the Yankee Plantation owners hired guns, working the rednecks presiding over the blacks until the tractor replaced them. Racism, Classism or plain old politically correct, nice but not exactly precise. Buyer beware but you can’t look under the hood. So good luck with pics of “normal” people who look just like the ones who have been murdering Americans since before Amerigo Vespucci. Seems out of place here.

        Maybe Son of SAM Sabet might not enjoy my making him a Pinocchio sitting on Clinton’s lap as Giuseppe or as Chicken Little. Fuckem. Why even say anything when, like the drug war. It’s unenforceable. If someone offends the “cyberphotog” then they can address it as it occurs. Fear mongering people to hesitate saying what is on their minds in words or pixels is censoring free expression. Bullying people into silence for fear of committing a cryme and the net cops will take your puter away and ban you from the internet. Or there’s always the religion of Donald Trump, a.k.a. Donald ‘Drumpf,’ “litigious serial liar, “bull-artist” and a “baby with evil, smaller fingers” “Last Week Tonight” 2.28.16

      • Spirit Wave says:

        Got it. Thank you for the clarification.

  6. Justin Auldphart says:

    The concept of the “Stoner” is a bunch of cultural cliches made up and perpetrated by the media, just like Flappers, Bobby Soxers, Hep Cats, Hippies and Gangstas. Some people have so little sense of themselves that they emulate these stereotypes, right down to the manner of speech, supposed befuddled thinking and Cheetos binges…Been using since 1967 and never once have I sat on a couch, eating crap and going, “Oh wow!” and I doubt anyone on here has either…

    • Daniel Williams says:

      Never once?! Dude, smoke better weed…

    • DdC says:

      Philosophy, see the whole thing is a world full of rucksack wanderers, Dharma Bums refusing to subscribe to the general demand that they consume production and therefore have to work for the privilege of consuming, all that crap they didn’t really want anyway such as refrigerators, TV sets, cars,and general junk you finally always see a week later in the garbage anyway, all of them imprisoned in a system of work, produce, consume, work, produce, consume, I see a vision of a great rucksack revolution thousands or even millions of young Americans wandering around with rucksacks, going up to mountains to pray, making children laugh and old men glad, making young girls happy and old girls happier, all of ’em Zen Lunatics who go about writing poems that happen to appear in their heads for no reason and also by being kind and also by strange unexpected acts keep giving visions of eternal freedom to everybody and to all living creatures. Jack Kerouac, The Dharma Bums, 1958

      End Criminal Prohibition of Marijuana!

      We the people of Woodstock, citizens of the United States, in order to create a more perfect Union, demand an end to the criminal prohibition of marijuana. The millions of Americans who smoke marijuana are no different than their non-smoking peers. They are responsible citizens who work hard, raise families, and contribute to their communities. Arresting marijuana smokers distracts law enforcement from addressing more violent and serious crimes, invites the government into areas of our private lives that are inappropriate, and needlessly destroys the lives, careers, and families of generally good citizens. Marijuana smokers are not part of the crime problem and should not be treated as criminals.

      NORML supports the removal of all penalties for the private possession and cultivation of marijuana by adults for responsible personal use; the medical use of marijuana by prescription to seriously ill patients; and legal hemp cultivation by farmers. The undersigned hereby petition our state and federal governments to stop arresting otherwise law abiding citizens who smoke marijuana.

      Furry Freaks Solution to PC Plastic People
      http://www.freaknet.org.uk/graphics01/g04/freaks/freaks04.gif

      Thank God for Hippies
      http://endingcannabisprohibition.yuku.com/topic/1148

      More pretty people’s pot parties 10.31.69
      In New York a group of middle-aged professional people begin an evening with a marijuana “cocktail party.” in Detroit some lawyers and executives get together in the small hours for wine-and-pot. In Beverly Hills, at a stately black-tie dinner, the matronly hostess beckons the butler who brings a silver tray with a single after-dinner joint to be passed around.

  7. claygooding says:

    I don’t care to help move beyond the stoner image,,we were right and they were wrong and I may never get the chance to brand a drug warrior’s forehead so they can kiss my ass and hate me because I am me.

    • claygooding says:

      Super Tuesday and I am sitting here waiting for the polls to open so I can vote for Bernie.

      The Bern is on!!!

      • thelbert says:

        more power to you, clay. i quit cutting my hair when the “conservatives” invaded iraq. a trillion dollars later i’m sporting long hair and a stoner image, and we’re still meddling in other peoples’ business.

      • Daniel Williams says:

        Good for you, mon. And good you have the ganja to console you when The Bern is extinguished by the Hildabeast. But be sure to save a nug or two for when Trump beats the Hildabeast come November.

        And before anyone – and I’m talking to you DdC – accuses me of being a heartless moneybags, I think Bernie is (somewhat) correct about our problems, it’s just that his solutions are mostly if not all wrong. You don’t fix a rigged system by replacing it with another one, which is what Bernie is suggesting.

        Allowing us to keep more of our hard-earned money in our wallets, instead of sending it to Washington to be abused and wasted, is the answer. Limited government and personal responsibility is what will save the day.

        • claygooding says:

          I am sorry Daniel that ending the war on drugs,single payer insurance or a minimum wage increase doesn’t fit your idea of saving tax dollars funding bigger government,,,ending marijuana prohibition is savings enough to vote for Bernie win,lose or draw,,,and Hildebeast is damaged goods.
          She will lose even more support when she recognizes that one of the Bern’s biggest bi-partisan voting blocs is the marijuana reform group,,for the first time MMJ,rec and hemp farmers can agree on removal of marijuana from the CSA without throwing each other under the bus trying to get just their own group’s interests through a legislature.
          I predict Hillary,,in order to draw away some of Bernie’s support,,will change her mind on marijuana reform needing more research,,a flip flop like that would be too blatant for even braindead media watchers to swallow.

          Trump is already making noises about looking closer at MMJ instead of just dismissing it as a myth.

        • Duncan20903 says:

          .
          .

          Mr. Trump has been unequivocal about his support for medicinal cannabis and his belief that it has valid medicinal utility. It’s obvious to me that he’s seen it work for one of his loved ones. From personal observation I think that outsiders just don’t adopt that attitude without that happening.

          If he wants the nomination and he is going to support regulated re-legalization he couldn’t make it known until after the Republican Convention even though he’s probably going to have the nomination in his pocket tomorrow morning. I’m not saying that I expect it to happen but if it does I won’t be shocked. It isn’t like he’s a moralist. He was instrumental in breaking the logjam and getting casino gambling established outside of Nevada. Yeah, he did it for money. That’s what makes the world go around.

          He’s survived every attack that the Party elite has thrown at him. Those bastards even sent Chris Christie out to endorse him as the candidate! If he can survive that he can survive anything.

        • DdC says:

          Daniel Williams March 1, 2016

          Good for you, mon. And good you have the ganja to console you when The Bern is extinguished by the Hildabeast. But be sure to save a nug or two for when Trump beats the Hildabeast come November.

          Oh Daniel, tsk tsk tsk. Bernie was always an outsider with minimal chances of actually winning. Even if he did it would be moot with the lame ass mentally deficient in Congress obstructing anything non-abortion or guns. Bernie was to level the table for issues to bring into the mainstream which he went beyond what anyone thought. Still not reality but the base has always been the candidate. It doesn’t matter if Hilzy wins as long as the base can hold her feet to the fire somewhat., A GOP will end America as we know it. Unless there is a check and balance with a Congressional upset. Now Bernie has gained support to the point he is the only one predicted to win over Trump and that Hilzy has so much baggage she will actually send votes to Trump over her. So with or without Bernie, if the base wins America wins. If the shit kickers get in and people stay as dormant as they have been.

          And before anyone – and I’m talking to you DdC – accuses me of being a heartless moneybags,

          Daniel, you try to preempt my posts but never seem to hit the mark. You accused me of calling you a Big Pharma groupie or something before. I never did, your empty accusations fell short of accuracy so I provided Clearance. By showing that your cheerleading about big communications had nothing to do with the harm of legal substances compared to Ganja or the hypocrisy of the legal poisons you obviously are invested in. Vested ignorance is a big part of why the drug war has lasted so long. Same reason for wanting it partially quasi legalized. Without regard to the people harassed by law enforcement not abiding by prop 215. So again I have no problem with capitalism. It’s fascism I have a problem with. You have the right to be a moneyslut. Its the home of the free baby.

          I think Bernie is (somewhat) correct about our problems, it’s just that his solutions are mostly if not all wrong.

          I agree on both counts. I advocate local Hemp and Ganja for jobs over more tax. But I don’t agree with offshore dodging while they tear up the infrastructure. I also believe everyone should pay according to their income. Not just whine about how much taxes and leave out how much profits they made. I am all for Americans getting a free education and health care and affordable housing and food if necessary, and see how profiteering has driven prices up while Americans are hungry and homeless. All of it is covered by the $32 trillion stolen from the people in offshore accounts. So as I said, Bernie has brought ideas but he is not part of the machine as much as Hilzy or close to any practicing GOPer. So there was never a real thought of what if he wins. He has already won by changing the conversation. Now its up to us. As it has always been and we think watching TV or posting opinions will do something we will be a two tiered system. The middle class will enter the third world status of cheap wages and no benefits.

          You don’t fix a rigged system by replacing it with another one, which is what Bernie is suggesting.

          True but how does Bernie have a system? There has never been true socialism or communalism under a dictator. Just raising taxes without stopping the escape routes by removing NAFTA/GATT and TPP that will keep business here and workers able to feed their families. Importing from China is treasonous to me. You seem to believe the rich provide jobs and forget it is the workers doing the jobs and it is easier to replace the rich than the workers. eminent domain the factories sitting idle from outsourcing. Pay living wages as the minimum wages and as noted everyone deserves what was promised in the Declaration. All prerequisites of each other and the prerequisite of Life is also included. That includes food, housing, clothing, healthcare, education and transportation. That is the goal of government. To provide the citizens a chance to pursue happiness. Not a guarantee. But a safe place without obstacles creating monopolies as Big Pharma and Ag do. Why horde 32 trillion dollars in old bank vaults with so many suffering in our own Country? That cannabis could bypass Wall St multinational corporations status weird fossil fools, nukes and wars. Once again the hippies will save the country from the greed.

          Allowing us to keep more of our hard-earned money in our wallets, instead of sending it to Washington to be abused and wasted, is the answer. Limited government and personal responsibility is what will save the day.

          Words without meaning. I never hear tax phobes whine about taxing patients for MS or Cerebral Palsy by taxing care providers. We exempt drugs and food from tax because it would be a hardship to the poor for basic essentials. Including care providers. Nor do I hear anything about corporate pproperty management disregarding prop 215 and evicting people for Ganja. Such a minimal thought process you have. You see what is in front of you or what you want to see and disregard reality over slogans. “Big Guvmint” is no different from “Big Multinational Corporations without allegiance to any country” “Big Guv” is also tax paid police actions either cold or hot. Big Guv is only a problem when the band aids are kept as a way of life instead of stopping the abuse causing Americans to be homeless or hungry. The term fascism excludes separation of Wall St and DC which one sided Libertites always seem to do.

          They are one in the same so all you are advocating is less interference to big bucks to thwart more citizens and bilk more workers from their paychecks. You want to gut regulations trying to keep peoples water clean and air unpolluted. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Big Guv is only able to be obese because it is justified or excused for creating the bureaucratic mess we have. But band aids aren’t the problem. They keep out germs that cause infections and more expense down the road. The culprit is the mad slashers creating the need for band aids. You never seem to remember them when you whine about your hard earned money. Made on tax paid roads and bridges. With a public tax paid education to get the job. Or one daddy gave you but people still need an education to keep the job. Unless your a Bush. ER are 10 times more than preventive care but they are 1000 times less than leaving people to die in the streets and living with that. Or how other countries judge us by how we treat our own Vets and kids in shelters. That’s just insulting for any American to witness. So cut the one sided big bad guvmint crap. Both sides of the coin are tainted with blood. The people making up the buzzword are the problem, Teaching rednecks not to cut off their noses to spite their face is stupid as whining about paying your fair share of taxes.

          You don’t get to keep more of you money when it cost more for health care in the ER than preventing in clinics. When the infrastructure falls apart you pay more for band aids and detours. Education is more and more subsidized by Monsanto and GMO foods that are more expensive that organic that could be subsidized without the selfish whiners. Who never seem upset that Exxon spills oil in Alaska and taxpayers foot the bill 99 cents on the dollar. Or BP or Iraq or the two trillion to the banksters. An ounce of prevention is a pound of cure except when tax dodgers steal the money and all we have is repair jobs. Cures are as feared as prevention when treatment provides the profits. Treatment also subsidized and never a peep. You want to pay less taxes Daniel? Get a job that pays less.

          claygooding March 1, 2016
          I don’t care to help move beyond the stoner image,,we were right and they were wrong and I may never get the chance to brand a drug warrior’s forehead so they can kiss my ass and hate me because I am me.

          I couldn’t agree more Clay. Stoners have kept this plant from extinction. All the loud mouth cowards shifting blame to the hippies for what? Stopping a bogus police action profits of Howard Hughes and Nixon? Organic food, oh shit how terrible. Hemp clothing, oh my they’ll get addicted. Protesting environmental waste in the drinking water. commie bastards. So now the cookie cutter profiteers say we are not the proper image to display to the brain dead idiots who would even think Trump was adequate as a presidential contender. Same sheep with larger fear centers begging the rich to tinkle down upon them. Golden showers is the only thing they get. The most impoverished and lowest IQ’s watching their mountains get blown up in hope Mr Peabody will give them a job. Then whine about the poor getting food-stamps to the point of pisstasting them the same as a yellow arm band or a big scarlet letter branding them a stoner..

          Super Tuesday and I am sitting here waiting for the polls to open so I can vote for Bernie.
          The Bern is on!!!

          You gave me a startle that I had to call someone to find out why I didn’t get a ballot. CA doesn’t participate in Super Tuesday.

          thelbert March 1, 2016
          more power to you, clay. i quit cutting my hair when the “conservatives” invaded iraq. a trillion dollars later I’m sporting long hair and a stoner image, and we’re still meddling in other peoples’ business.

          Same here thelbert, 1971 to this day my ponytail is an inch or so below my belt. Never gets longer or shorter. I think it splits and breaks off. Same time I started daily toking and still not a gray hair or bald spot on my head. Ganja power.

        • Daniel Williams says:

          DdC: Wow, hope you feel better. Cigarette?

        • DdC says:

          Daniel your inner troll needs a stroll. I’m old enough to buy my own unadulterated tobacco, not chemical cigarettes. Whatever the hell that troll scratch of yours means. Sorry I flunked troll class. Not that you ever have much to say once you’re called on the BS. I expected as much. Feeeel the Bern Dannyboy.

        • Windy says:

          I think Bernie is (somewhat) correct about our problems, it’s just that his solutions are mostly if not all wrong. You don’t fix a rigged system by replacing it with another one, which is what Bernie is suggesting.

          Allowing us to keep more of our hard-earned money in our wallets, instead of sending it to Washington to be abused and wasted, is the answer. Limited government and personal responsibility is what will save the day.

          Absolutely correct, Daniel.

      • Daniel Williams says:

        Saying that ending the war on drugs doesn’t fit into my worldview is simply silly, and you know better. Your are correct, however, in saying I don’t believe single-payer and a federal minimum wage are the most efficient uses of our tax dollars.

        And I find it sadly ironic you believe bigger government is the answer for us, when government doesn’t get much bigger than its current war on drugs. I don’t know how you can reconcile both positions.

        But if ending the insanity of drug prohibition is worth your vote, cast it for Gary Johnson. His position is far better than Bernie’s. And since neither will be our next president, you might as well vote pure of heart.

    • Matthew Meyer says:

      You warm my heart, Clay!

  8. Herbie Herbsen says:

    Stopped by Grammaw’s to check on her and as I walked past her antique corner cabinet thing that unmistakable wonderful smell of cannabis wafted up to my nostrils.
    I thought Grammaw had scored some cannabis infused tea or something but it was a quad of Super Skunk stashed in a teapot for my brother with lung cancer to enjoy in his vaporizer!
    This same Grammaw used to give us hell when catching us smoking a joint out the upstairs window. As Bob Dylan once sang the times they are a changing.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      My dad and my sister (8 years older than me) had some knock down dragged out discussions about her choosing to enjoy cannabis. Then a couple of years ago I learned that in the 1960s a conviction for petty possession in Virginia carried a mandatory, no probation or parole allowed penalty of 20 years in the penitentiary. It sure gave me a new perspective about his attitude.

      • Daniel Williams says:

        My second arrest for personal use drugs carried a minimum of 2 years and a maximum of 10. Not nearly as severe as Virginia, but that was of little comfort to me. I was a senior in college, and the whole ordeal warped my existence. I beat the rap (and the first one), thanks to inept cops and a fair judge.

        My father held similar views, suggesting, for my safety and his sanity, I quit smoking pot until it became legal. I held the opposite view, as I do today: When good people obey bad law, bad law never changes.

        • DdC says:

          I gave that a thumbs up Daniel, but the forum is acting up and it doesn’t register.

          Warning: mysql_query(): No such file or directory in /home/drugwarrant/drugwarrant.com/wordpress/wp-content/plugins/comment-rating/comment-rating.php on line 219

        • Daniel Williams says:

          DdC: That second bust was in 1972. I went to college expressly to become an Air Force jet pilot. My first bust (summer ’71) ended that dream, and my second bust ended my college career.

          I could have gone to the Dark Side but didn’t. I pulled myself together and entered the business world, determined to take revenge by making a lot of money as my ‘fuck-you back’ strategy. It wasn’t easy but it worked, and I’m not ashamed to say so.

          I found that the harder and smarter I worked, the luckier I got. And since retiring in 1995, I’ve spent over a hundred thousand dollars supporting efforts to repeal drug prohibition. Not looking for an attaboy, just providing context.

        • DdC says:

          Daniel Williams March 3, 2016 at 1:13 pm

          DdC: That second bust was in 1972. I went to college expressly to become an Air Force jet pilot. My first bust (summer ’71) ended that dream, and my second bust ended my college career.

          By 72 I was technically busted 4 times. Never arrested. Taken to the station and released. That was the first in 71 when they raided a graduation party and found some roaches. Big deal at the time but not really a big deal to waste cop funding on. After that I was peddling 1/4 lbs of working dope for $55. Good cheap buzz. I went camping in Tenn. near Gatlinburg with a friend who was renting from a big deal trucker bringing in bails. I stashed a pound in his car before leaving.

          In Tennessee, a small town bar, long neck bottles of beer shooting pool. When leaving 3 cop cars blocked my car and started their dance. I said I didn’t have the key to the glove box or trunk knowing I had a half dozen joints stashed. Young military hair cut cop said if I didn’t find the key he would break it open and tow it away with me in a cage. So I took his suggestion and pretended to find it under the seat. I palmed it before he had me put my hands on the car hood and searched my pockets. When the glove box opened the joints were visible and I thought that was it. My friend had some vitamin pills so they put him in a cop car monkey cage.

          Just when I thought it was my turn to join him the gung ho cop walked up to me. Handed me the joints, let my friend out and said don’t come back to his town again or bring a toothbrush if I do. He said he didn’t want to spoil our vacation and wished us a good time in the Smokies. I suspect that is one of the reasons my Guardian Angel is in rehab with dementia.

          When I got back to Pittsburgh my friends landlord told us the cops busted him while we were gone. Found the pound stashed in the car, took it. Said they were waiting to catch him with a truck load and a pound wasn’t worth their time.

          In 72 my girlfriend and I were toking in the County Park. In a convertible were i stashed a big lid in the folds of the ragtop. A jogger went by and about 10 minutes later a County Mountie went straight to the stash. I think I was narked on by the runner. He went on about the ambiguity of the laws. Again said the budget couldn’t handle busting something that might be legal soon. Shafer wasn’t out yet or published yet, and nothing much on the news at the time. So he said he would give me a break, but had to give me a ticket for a tail light just to compensate for his time. I said then there isn’t anything keeping you from giving me my stash or part of it. He said don’t push my luck. I had no argument to use but that was when i decided to stop selling it. Still have a clean record.

          I could have gone to the Dark Side but didn’t. I pulled myself together and entered the business world, determined to take revenge by making a lot of money as my ‘fuck-you back’ strategy. It wasn’t easy but it worked, and I’m not ashamed to say so.

          I don’t know if it was kismet, karma or the times. But I too stayed out of the darkside when a returning Vet, addicted to smack. High School football hero. Missed the vein when turning me on to my first heroin experience. Big bubble in my arm kept me from repeating it. Too much hassle going downtown in seedy areas to score. So I stayed clean and kept pot and beer for my recreational purposes. Ditched the booze in the early Reagan years.

          I figured it out after hitch hiking around the country that hippie life was too hard. Too much work and humility. Then I knew that a job was the easiest way to get through life. Except for two retirements. First after graduating, traveling around the country and after Florida a year and a half traveling around the back roads of FL. Then coming back to CA where I have been gainfully employed most of the time. Hospice work in the 90’s was instant homeless and unemployed after the patient passed. But so far something has always come up. Private or with agencies and state cases.

          I have worked steady since 1969 flipping burgers at the local hangout. When I started driving it was 35 cents a gallon of gas. So I am not anti-capiitalism as a barter tool of convenience. I am not against companies incorporating. I am against fascism, nepotism and cronyism. Or the tools they use of racism, classism and demonizing opposition. I don’t care how much you make as long as you pay your fair share back. The more you make the more you pay.

          As I said not by raising the workers taxes but by providing alternative jobs to fossil fools and nonrenewable resources like coal or the waste of killing trees. Hemp carbohydrate can replace foreign hydrocarbons and clear cutting forests. Ganja can be affordable healthcare, hemp for housing and even producing cars with Hemp bodies and battery’s.

          I call them cheaters. So go for it and I agree now that I am comfortable with my assets and totally love my job most of the time. I have no reason to retire. I am showing results to doctors and nurses who have no argument against the results of using Hemp seed and oil and Ganja for various symptoms. They can’t deny the lab test results of eliminating ABs for 10 years. Or two weeks of treating Psoriasis with no results. Skin peeling off a patients hand and in 24 hours using hemp oil and Ganja dust from a bud in a coffee grinder. On a poultice, completely cured.

          Another went through the gamut of sleep aids ending up a zombie, scaring the family. Finally giving me the ok to try a milk tincture that worked beyond belief. Average yuppies telling me their loved one never looked better or had he ever slept through the night in 50 years. But when I confront the doctors about how many patients have they informed about cannabis. They all start checking the tops of their shoes for scuff marks or something. Can’t look me in the eye when I scold them. Real shame but they are in a system that they can’t fight and pay the mortgage or food on the table. I get it, but I don’t like it. I really don’t like teaching doctors either. But there are no med schools teaching it.

          So again when I gripe about offshore tax cheats its not to cheat them back. Proportional tax to match their income is all I ask. Same as I pay that I do oppose because they take it from patients time to cover it. By the time the funds reach the patient 12 hands have taken a bite. Including the IRS. But I’ve always paid my share and exempting home health providers would not add one cent to their take home.

          I found that the harder and smarter I worked, the luckier I got. And since retiring in 1995, I’ve spent over a hundred thousand dollars supporting efforts to repeal drug prohibition. Not looking for an attaboy, just providing context.

          That is good and I commend you for it but again its not your money I object too, its multinational coorporations providng slave labor to replace American workers. Its dodging tax on profits made tearing up the infrastructure but not given back because of loopholes. Remember random acts of kindness brings good luck but now a days it is seen as taking profits from business who could do the same act. I used to cut lawns in the summer for a few bucks for spending on things. Now corporate gardeners do the job. Corporate paperboys replaced kids too. So kids fall into prohibition jobs in places having less access to legal pot.

          The Neocons are both republican and democrat. Profit is the motive for their prohibitions and tax dodging. Not that government shouldn’t have checks and balances either, they should. But creating extra bureaucracies for frivolous reasons to sabotage safety nets as wasteful to give it to privatization is cheating. Demanding the poor take piss test that are totally fruitless in determining impairment, still has some kicked out or fired. Same with paying a living wage as the minimum wage. If profit on top is all that matters, and workers are just disposable bits of overhead. I think it will be lonely on top or there will be no top when the angry mobs get tired of their kids being hungry and homeless. Pay now or pay more later. Peace dude.

  9. Unperson says:

    Well, the “marijuana culture” is mainly to blame for the stereotype. Why is it that whenever I try to do some research about genuine drug policy reform I always end up at places with names like “420blazeit”, “bongz4sale” and “thestonerscookbook.com”. It is this childish aspect that has always pissed me off. Websites like this one is of course an exception (I love this place). You people seem to care more about actual changes to the law instead of “recipes”, “growing tips”, “how to pass your drug test” and “marijuana celebrities”. And the fucking ads on those sites. Holy shit they are cringe inducing.

    • Daniel Williams says:

      I don’t seem to have the same search results you claim when researching drug policy reform – though I will confess to not visiting many, save DrugWarRant, of course. The DPA, MPP, and even LEAP are preoccupied with a single issue: marijuana (and mostly medical).

      The DPA has for 7 years told us to hold on and, essentially, give Obama a pass, saying our eminent Choom Gang leader would do the right thing in his second term. I believe those pardons Obama granted will be the extent of his ‘reform.’ And should that belief come to pass, I trust Ethan Nadelmann will humbly apologize and step down. But as he would lose his $250K salary and generous expense account – which I don’t begrudge, just that it hasn’t bought us, or using your pejorative ‘you people’ much – I just don’t see that happening.

      But should my belief prove wrong, and Obama removes cannabis from the CSA scheduling and ends the federal ban, which Ethan et. al have said he’d do, I’ll humbly and publicly apologize to them all.

      And truth be told, I really, really want to be wrong. But I just don’t see that happening either.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      You’re acting as if we have a central planning committee which has authorized the attitudes which you excoriate. We have no ability to prevent people from joining our cohort. We have no authority to exclude them or to sanction them for their behavior.

      That being said, so fucking what? If you don’t like freedom, go find jesus.

  10. “Bill Maher Inspires Plan for Massive Pot-Smoking Protest at White House”

    “D.C. legalization leader reschedules 4/20 to protest Obama” http://tinyurl.com/z9f7jlk

    April 2 smoke-out in front of the White House.

    “We’re calling on the whole country to come,” he says. “This is a national mobilization. Some of us may end up in jail, and that’s fine. It’s actually necessary at this point.”

    Gives me the 60’s shivers just reading it. Sounds like fun.

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Jail? For choosing to enjoy cannabis in Lafayette Square? Are they going to send in the U.S. Capitol Police lard asses to enforce Federal law? If you can’t outrun a Capitol Police officer then you must be a quadriplegic. Well, Mr. Maher is a comedian by preference and by profession. It’s more likely that Mr. Obama will come out and join us.

      But seriously, SOP for Federal cops who find a person with less than an ounce is to cede prosecution to the locals. It’s why you can fly out of San Francisco, Oakland, Seattle, and Portland without worrying about the TSA. The TSA jack boots at those airports (among others) got tired of calling the locals and hearing, “so what do you think we’re going to do about it?” The Metropolitan Police certainly aren’t going to do anything about it. They’re only slightly less lazy than the US Capitol Police.

      See what happened to a woman caught carrying 1/4 ounce by the US Border Patrol. There was no controversy over the fact that she carried it across the California/Arizona State line:
      State of Arizona v. Valerie Okun, No. 1 CA–CV 12–0094 (2013)

  11. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    I’ve got to applaud the bean counters working for the State of Oregon. Every time I start looking at one of those surveys to determine youth use of cannabis I get a mental image of Beavis and Butthead getting surveyed. Kids lie in these surveys but Oregon has found a very clever way of figuring out which how many kids are fibbing and how many are telling the truth. They ask them. The last question on the Oregon Healthy Kids Survey is “How honest were you in filling out this survey?” As everyone knows if you ask a liar if he’s lying he has to tell you the truth. This one goes into the “wow! there really is one born every second!” category:

    ………………………………………………….. Grade 8….. Grade 11

    I was very honest ……………………………… 82.8 ………. 85.8
    I was honest most of the time ……………. 13.8 ………. 11.0
    I was honest some of the time …………….. 1.8 ………… 1.6
    I was honest once in a while ………………… 0.7 ………… 0.7
    I was not honest at all …………………………. 0.9 ………… 0.9

    • darkcycle says:

      Actually, the odds are very good they’ll answer that question honestly regardless of how dishonest they were with their other answers. People feel much differently about answering general questions about their experience than highly specific ones. It’s a fact of life. There are questions of this sort on many scales and measures involving highly personal questions, Particularly on scales that measure what is perceived as deviant behavior by the society at large, but also on topics from depression/self harm to work skills inventories. Odd as it may seem people are sometimes very honest about being dishonest.

  12. You know this got me thinking about stereotypes.

    Hollywood is going to have a drug bad guy against good guys holiday if Trump gets elected:
    http://tinyurl.com/jpn26oa

    “Nightmare scenario: President Donald Trump dictating US drug policy”

  13. Bass Flanger says:

    Two subdivision sectors over I met a neighbor who is a cannabis connoisseur and he works as an engineer for a Fortune 500 company. His wife also partakes of cannabis and she is the CEO of a local company.
    This is just a small example of people who don’t fit the mold of the prototypical stoner and there are millions all across the country.

  14. Duncan20903 says:

    .
    .

    Oh my gawd, this really is shaping up to be a very interesting election. Jesse Ventura is lobbying to be picked as Mr. Trump’s running mate. But not if Mr. Sanders doesn’t get the Democrat nomination. Then he’s going to run for POTUS because he doesn’t like Ms. Clinton. Confused? I certainly am, very much so. Do wrestler’s get CTE too? I’m pretty certain that the WWE is probably choreographed but they do take some blows to the head. It’s cumulative I’ve read that soccer players are prone to CTE from repeatedly using their heads to bounce the ball around.
    Jesse Ventura Says He May Run for President If Clinton Is Nominated Over Sanders

    • Duncan20903 says:

      .
      .

      Marco Rubio accused Mr. Trump of having a teenie weenie. I bullshit you not. I heard him say it with my own two ears. I wouldn’t blame you for wanting to verify that with your own two ears so here’s a link to Youtube:
      Marco Rubio says Donald Trump Has Small Hands

      I’d bet that Jesse Ventura probably has a teenie weenie too. I’ve heard steroids will do that to a guy.

  15. muggles says:

    New realistic images of responsible cannabis users for media stories are Soooo needed…

  16. Good for them.
    robertsrevolution.net

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