Odds and Ends

Posted on July 14, 2016 by Pete

How the War on Drugs Fails Black Communities

Here’s something that all Americans should agree on: Many policies have a disproportionately negative effect on black families—and, by extension, on all of us. The most insidious of them all, however, may be the war on drugs.

Philippines Drug War Out Of Control? Rodrigo Duterte Wants All Addicts, Dealers Dead As Police Kill 110 Suspects

While police have confirmed over 110 people killed, the number is likely higher with other bodies not related to police killings found in the streets with placards on them declaring that the person was involved in dealing drugs. Human rights groups have expressed concern that violence is quickly getting out of control and people are ignoring laws.

Hollywood’s ‘Infiltrator’ shines light on failed drug war

In one moment in “The Infiltrator,” Cranston’s character expresses surprise when his partner, played by John Leguizamo, says that he offered his informant $250,000 for information. Leguizamo responds, “No one said the war on drugs was going to be cheap, bro.”

Julian Zelizer, history professor and author of this piece, gets one thing glaringly wrong:

There is growing support, in the case of some drugs, to abandon a policy that revolved around locking up citizens and unintentionally fostering illegal drug markets, toward a set of regulatory and medical policies that can contain the problem.

These efforts won’t work for all kinds of drugs, given that some can be much more dangerous when used, not just to the user but those around them.

Really? How does making them illegal make them safer to the user and those around them? Even the most dangerous of drugs is safer to the world when regulated and controlled. The prime example is the government supplied heroin programs around the world that drastically reduce crime, death, and other negative side-effects.

Sen. Feinstein Will Not Be Giving Up the Drug War Anytime Soon

No surprise, there.

Congress Finally Passes Bipartisan Legislation To Address Opioid Epidemic

Baby steps.

In a rare instance of bipartisanship and compromise in Congress, the Senate on Wednesday passed legislation by a 92-2 vote that addresses the opioid epidemic. President Barack Obama, who in his State of the Union speech had ad-libbed a plea to lawmakers to do something about the crisis, will now have a bill to sign.

It’s not really a shift in our drug-war mindset, but more a focus on treatment without funding to go along with it, but I suppose that’s still progress.

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53 Responses to Odds and Ends

  1. Tony Aroma says:
    July 14, 2016 at 10:32 am

    FYI, some interesting data. Check out the article for details of the study.

    One striking chart shows why pharma companies are fighting legal marijuana

    There’s a body of research showing that painkiller abuse and overdose are lower in states with medical marijuana laws…Now a new study, released in the journal Health Affairs, validates these findings by providing clear evidence of a missing link in the causal chain running from medical marijuana to falling overdoses.

  2. Servetus says:
    July 14, 2016 at 12:28 pm

    Big Pharma is likely to retain its death grip on opioid prescriptions despite any adverse consequences of their use—after all, there’s too much money in it:

    TORONTO, July 14, 2016 – Older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease who start using opioids have a more than two-fold higher risk of dying from a respiratory-related complication compared to non-opioid users, St. Michael’s Hospital researchers have found.

    When researchers looked specifically at more potent opioids, they found the risk for respiratory-related death was five times higher for new opioid users compared to non-opioid users.

    The study, published today in the European Respiratory Journal, raises safety concerns about new opioid use among older adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, a progressive lung disease that causes breathing difficulty, said Dr. Nicholas Vozoris, a respirologist at St. Michael’s and lead author of the study.

    AAAS Public Release: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-07/smh-nou071116.php

    If edible medicinal marijuana were killing off elderly people who suffer respiratory problems, it would make the six-o’clock news. There is definitely a double-standard being applied by the media, possibly due to preferences being shown to Big Pharma which buys extensive advertising for its products.

  3. DdC says:
    July 15, 2016 at 5:11 am

    But I suppose that’s still progress?

    But I suppose that’s still Congress.

    In other sleaze. Who needs Laws?

    Can Your Landlord Stop You From Smoking Marijuana?

    Can Your Landlord Stop You From taking Pharmaceuticals?
    Or wearing perfume? Or cooking with garlic?
    Pheromones are not second hand smoke.
    If they are, careful driving past sewage plants.

  4. Servetus says:
    July 15, 2016 at 10:37 am

    Stanford University scientists call for research on MDMA:

    14-JUL-2016 — MDMA, more commonly known as ecstasy, promotes strong feelings of empathy in users and is classified as a Schedule 1 drug–a category reserved for compounds with no accepted medical use and a high abuse potential. But in a Commentary published July 14 in Cell, two researchers call for a rigorous scientific exploration of MDMA’s effects to identify precisely how the drug works, the data from which could be used to develop therapeutic compounds.

    “We’ve learned a lot about the nervous system from understanding how drugs work in the brain–both therapeutic and illicit drugs,” says Robert Malenka, a psychiatrist and neuroscientist at Stanford University. “If we start understanding MDMA’s molecular targets better, and the biotech and pharmaceutical industries pay attention, it may lead to the development of drugs that maintain the potential therapeutic effects for disorders like autism or PTSD but have less abuse liability.”

    MDMA is described as an “empathogen,” a compound that promotes feelings of empathy and close positive social feelings in users. The drug is a strictly regulated Schedule I compound, along with drugs such as heroin and LSD. However, MDMA’s regulated status shouldn’t discourage researchers from studying its effects, argue Malenka and coauthor Boris Heifets, also at Stanford.

    Researchers still don’t know exactly how MDMA works in humans, what regions of the brain it targets, or all of the molecular pathways it affects.[…]

    AAAS Public Release: MDMA as a Probe and Treatment for Social Behaviors

    Full Text of Publication: http://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(16)30853-4

    MDMA isn’t getting the attention it deserves due to its classification as a Schedule I controlled substance. It’s on Schedule I because it can make people feel good about themselves and others—a serious moral crime if you’re an American.

    Scientific evidence of MDMA’s positive therapeutics would give people something good to say about MDMA, an absolute taboo in the primitive, dark world of the sadomoralizing prohibitionist. Thus, Schedule I effectively obstructs or prevents research on its listed compounds and natural substances. The situation highlights a need to abolish the Schedule I category completely, or to reform the drug scheduling concept, as no substance on the list deserves the lack of research it gets, nor does any citizen benefit from the federal policy’s ignorance-inducing scheduling of illicit drugs.

  5. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 15, 2016 at 4:39 pm

    “5 Things to Know About ‘K2’ – the Dangerous Form of Synthetic Marijuana on the Rise” http://tinyurl.com/joggy34

    Hell, no one has even been informed about what chemical was in this synthetic concoction. When is the press going to wake up to the fact that synthetic marijuana or K2 could be any number of hundreds of chemicals on the market labeled as K2? The press needs to grow up about this.

    Here is doctor Carl Hart in a good video addressing this K2 stuff.
    https://youtu.be/MqqM2QSVjRA

    Members of the press that like to report on K2 should watch Dr Hart’s video. Maybe then they can sound like they know what they are talking about.

    • Servetus says:
      July 15, 2016 at 9:17 pm

      A useful language tool in dealing with K2 chemical analogues is one that eliminates the “synthetic-marijuana” analogy. It’s basically what Dr. Hart is saying. Sure, various chemicals affect the cannabinoid receptors, especially if they’re mixed with other drugs. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. The synthetic analogue effects are always slightly different somehow, always inferior, by my estimation. By making a sharp nomenclature distinction between natural THC and CBD, et al., versus “K2” substances that aren’t necessarily synthetic, that imitate natural marijuana compounds (but only to a degree), it’s possible to break the emotional propaganda link created by government propagandists between marijuana and its evil third cousin K2, or whatever new demon lurks in the deep recesses of a prohibidiot’s fearful mind.

  7. jean valjean says:
    July 16, 2016 at 3:04 am

    Police cover up in Baton Rouge:
    “Watching his friend die would turn out to be only the beginning of Muflahi’s nightmare. According to a lawsuit filed earlier this week by his attorney, Joel Porter, “Immediately after the killing of Mr. Sterling officers came inside Triple S Food Mart and without a warrant confiscated the entire store security system and took Plaintiff Muflahi into custody.”
    Also this:
    “What happened to cause both officers’ body cameras to fall off during the same incident?”

    http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/meet-men-who-risked-their-freedom-expose-police-murder-alton-sterling

  8. Servetus says:
    July 17, 2016 at 2:45 pm

    U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein’s status as a human rights violator:

    Dianne Feinstein was Chairman of the Senate Narcotics Office (January 3, 2009 to January 3, 2015), and was preceded in that office by then-Senator Joe Biden and succeeded by Senator Chuck Grassley.[…]

    Feinstein voted in support of legislation to override a Department of Veterans Affairs’ prohibition on allowing doctors to recommend cannabis to veterans in states that sanction its use as a medicine; the legislation was approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on May 21, 2015. However, she was the only Democrat who joined a minority of Republicans in voting against a measure designed to prevent federal interference with states’ medical marijuana laws; that legislation passed with a 21-9 vote on June 18, 2015.[45]

    Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dianne_Feinstein

    But lately:

    Washington, D.C. – July 17, 2016 — This past week, the Cannabidiol Research Expansion Act (S. 3269) was introduced in the United States Senate, which would ease research barriers and create exemptions from federal law for certain medical cannabis patients. The bill was introduced by four members of the Senate Judiciary Committee – Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), and Tom Tillis (R-NC). Much of the bill is focused on allowing for institutions of higher education or manufacturers to register with the federal government in order to conduct research on cannabis (marijuana) or cannabidiol (CBD), but it’s the “Safe Harbor” provision that is drawing the attention of medical cannabis patients.

    The Safe Harbor provision would exempt pediatric patients with intractable epilepsy and their parents/legal guardians from the penalties of the Controlled Substances Act for the possession and pediatric use of CBD. Patients with conditions other than intractable epilepsy would be excluded, and no amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) are permitted.

    “I applaud Senators Grassley, Feinstein, Tillis, and Leahy for taking action on this issue and trying to help this population. As a parent of a child with intractable epilepsy, this bill does much to address the needs of epilepsy patients and their families,” said Beth Collins, Senior Director of Government Relations and External Affairs at Americans for Safe Access (ASA). “However, the bill could do more as many patients with intractable epilepsy, including my daughter, need THC, as do millions of patients with other conditions across the country, and we need to do something to help them too.”

    http://www.theweedblog.com/senators-grassley-and-feinstein-introduce-bill-to-exempt-certain-medical-cannabis-patients-from-federal-prosecution/

    How magnanimous of the mighty Feinstein that she pause in her Carrie Nation hatcheting of democracy to toss a bone to the poor American rabble.

    With the other hand, she takes it away:

    …Despite publicly promoting an open and secure Internet, it has privately undermined the encryption of online communications and surreptitiously created vast international surveillance systems in cooperation with close allies.”

    The reaction of other states to this has been slow, in proportion to their dependence on the U.S. economy and on the American-made (mostly) technology that has underpinned the astonishing global prosperity of the past 25 years. But the reaction has nonetheless occurred, hurried on by the revelations of Edward Snowden. Non-Americans no longer trust the U.S. to put its national interests to one side in the special case of the Internet, nor do they want to have to rely, for their prosperity and even safety, on the altruism and political independence of American technology companies. Americans, similarly, don’t want to accept that 21st-century technological life has to come at the price of total vulnerability to surveillance, nor do they want American technology companies to maintain open global networks at the price of their own personal security. Recent calls for blocking terrorists from posting on social media — from Hillary Clinton, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, and Eric Schmidt — reflect a growing American conviction that the state’s responsibility to protect its citizens should extend to restrictions on cyber speech.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/scott-malcomson/welcome-to-the-splinterne_b_8855212.html [Emphasis mine]

    Sen. Feinstein once proposed censoring all information on illicit drug manufacturing, which would have included literature on all possible drug-related precursor chemicals, believing it to be a viable drug war plan—science and freedom of the press/Internet be damned. Her proposal was later rescinded.

  9. DdC says:
    July 17, 2016 at 3:25 pm

    Hello ello ello. Anybody in there? Nod if you can hear me.

  10. DdC says:
    July 17, 2016 at 8:13 pm

    Cannabis News Roundup: 24/7 Wall St.
    Not All California Pot Growers Favor Proposition 64
    Small growers have been emphasizing the boutique nature of their operations: small, well-tended, essentially hand-made products that are the gold standard in the marijuana business. As one grower’s association advocate said, “[The issue with Prop. 64] is whether they are regulations that will allow us to continue long-standing sustainable cannabis farming traditions, or whether new markets will sweep away what we’ve built over the last 40 years.

    • Thinking Clearly says:
      July 17, 2016 at 8:37 pm

      Keepers of the bud split on California marijuana legalization http://tinyurl.com/z5hvkox

    • DdC says:
      July 20, 2016 at 12:48 pm

      What happens to medical marijuana
      if recreational use becomes legal in California?

      The 21-year-old resident of Grand Terrace, near Riverside, has pictures of cannabis flowers on her Twitter profile and friends whose livelihoods depend on the pot industry. She’s also an unlikely opponent of a November ballot initiative that would legalize marijuana for all adults in California.

      “If it is legalized, more people who don’t respect it and just want to get high are going to take advantage of that,” Rice said. “And people who genuinely need it as medicine will be misplaced and thrown to the side.”

      “We encourage both patients and business owners to look beyond the internal divisions that have hindered the marijuana activist community in the past and read the measure in full,” Kinney said. The initiative, he insisted, “takes great pains to protect the rights of those who have been on the front lines of this fight.”

      mercurynews

  11. allan says:
    July 17, 2016 at 8:49 pm

    surprisingly good Sports Illustrated production on Ricky Williams:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYsjAQG6LLs

  12. Thinking Clearly says:
    July 18, 2016 at 12:20 pm

    Justin Trudeau Pardons All Canadian Marijuana Offenders – Continues Being Awesome http://tinyurl.com/jkrq3g4

    Canada setting a fine example for the US to follow.

  13. Servetus says:
    July 18, 2016 at 12:55 pm

    White Christian nationalists are definitely in charge of framing the GOP political platform for the 2016 presidential election run. This time the Republican contract on American freedoms conflates non-traditional marriages with drug addiction:

    July 12, 2016 — Additional provisions included those that promoted state laws to limit which restrooms transgender people could use, nodded to “conversion therapy” for gays by saying that parents should be free to make medical decisions about their children without interference and stated that “natural marriage” between a man and a woman is most likely to result in offspring who do not become drug-addicted or otherwise damaged.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/13/us/politics/republican-convention-issues.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news

  14. NCN says:
    July 18, 2016 at 1:52 pm

    OT

    Got my fill of anger-porn this morning from reading the comments.

    Not in the ranting mood, just have one simple request. What are people smoking? What’s good? What smells great? What’s really special?

    My favorite right now is Gorilla Glue. It’s potent, hits you immediately, and importantly for this old guy, has anti-inflammatory properties due to its terpene profile which leads with Beta-Caryophyllene.

    What’s special about Beta-Caryophyllene? It’s a dietary cannabinoid that is a “full agonist” at CB2 receptors!

    I’m saving some 29.3% THC for a N.Y. friend who just relocated to my county. It’s called “Trigerian” and is a cross of Nigerian Haze x Triangle Kush.

    Tell me some stories.

    • DdC says:
      July 18, 2016 at 2:31 pm

      I like Gorilla Glue #4, not sure if they make 1,2 and 3. I like the Sativa buzz of Green Crack lately. The dispensary has a syringe with 65%thc oil that’s good too. Big Sur Holy bud and Catatonic I blend. As long as it lasts and I hope its forever. I’m a Happy Camper.

    • darkcycle says:
      July 19, 2016 at 3:15 pm

      My favorite strain since the 1980’s: D.J. Short’s Blueberry. Recently been fooling around with Girl Scout Cookies and a few of my own crosses, including Faceplant. Clay can endorse that one.

    • NorCalNative says:
      July 22, 2016 at 11:16 am

      Gorilla Glue continued…”German investigators reported that activation of the CB2 receptor reverses Beta-Amyloid-induced memory impairments and neuroinflammation.”

      Source: Martin A. Lee at Project CBD in his article on the ICRS (International Cannabinoid Research Society) 2016 meeting.

      Gorilla Glue has Beta-Caryophyllene as it’s Primary terpene and Beta-Caryophyllene is a FULL AGONIST at CB2 receptors.

      In receptor terminology, whole-plant cannabinoids are “weak, partial, agonists.” The dietary cannabinoid Beta-Caryophyllene found as the Primary Terpene in Gorilla Glue is a FULL AGONIST at CB2!

      According to Ethan Russo in his published work titled “Taming THC” terpenes are physiologically active at concentrations of 0.05%.

      Consumers need to be bugging their contacts for terpene testing of their products. Hopland, CA, is holding the second annual Terpestival, a Terpene Tournament tommorow. Ethan Russo and Martin A. Lee will be there.

      Learn the terpenes. Know your entourage!

  15. Duncan20903 says:
    July 18, 2016 at 5:13 pm

    .
    .

    This one is going to be filed in the “junk science runs amok” and cross filed in the “baffled by bullshit” categories:

    Smart (sic) Approaches to Marijuana wants minimum age of 25 for access to cannabis
    7/17/2016

    /snip/
    One group wants to make sure weed isn’t offered to anyone below the age of 25.

    That would be the minimum age, if ScAM Canada was in charge.

    “Smart” Approaches to Marijuana member Pamela McColl says she’s encouraged by a recent report to Canada’s task force on legalization and regulation.

    “They’re also saying this should be a slow processs. The Canadian population is not educated on marijuana, the perception of risk is declining and so they may be well advised to take 10 years to do this,” says McColl, who believes this should be a health issue.
    /snip/

    • Servetus says:
      July 18, 2016 at 8:45 pm

      SAM must moonlight as a car rental agency. Now we know where they get their money. Age 25 restrictions for pot—but it’s still okay to give an M-16 or M-4 to an 18-year-old and induct them into a war, or allow an 18-year-old soldier to conduct a torture session? What damages the brain more than war or marijuana? Perhaps indoctrination into Bahá’í before the tender age of five?

    • NCN says:
      July 19, 2016 at 10:17 am

      The young man killed had local ties to my county where he graduated high-school. The 21-year-old had turned down Princeton and Stanford and was attending MIT on a full scholarship.

      • Frank W. says:
        July 19, 2016 at 2:25 pm

        Get that hippie noise outta here! Both presidential candidates are proudly Law And Order and both the prison and drug testing industries will get special attention (block-grants for all, no questions asked)

        • B. Snow says:
          July 19, 2016 at 4:30 pm

          No way, the Criminal Justice Reform issue is alive and well in this campaign – Except after recent events the Police.

          They Really Need a greater level of public trust & support from the populace particularly among the demographics groups they’ve isolated and all those who lost faith in the police to actually protect them and whose only expectation of the police is to be suspected of breaking Some Law or anothe,

          The need to repair the relationship with communities = beyond prayers for the dead and empathetic demonstrations of sympathy for the families of slain cops…

          Which isn’t even guaranteed among groups whose interactions with cops involved get stopped for Driving While Black/Brown – in “too nice a car”, with cash they may not have “proof of earning” with them, etc.

          Or those getting stopped for a busted tail light, or ‘weaving’ within a single lane, or some other pretense and getting
          Searched to just shy of “turn your head and cough” (or maybe indeed getting a roadside TSA groping), and maybe someone left a roach in an ashtray, maybe they found a sack of trees while grabing your man-sack…

          And they go into full “uh oh what else might he have” lets disassemble his car and apologize if we don’t find anything else & possibly arrest him for the 1/4 oz. And suggest he have someone else come drive what’s left of the car home.

          All of the talk I heard in the midst of the memorials for slain Dallas cops = with Chief Brown & others saying only 1% or maybe 2% of cops were bad apples (or some other metaphor) and they should be separated from the police department (aka fired) & they’ve done some of that in Dallas.

          Still, how much Police abuse of civil asset forfeiture laws is that “1% of bad cops” carrying out on a regular basis for years?

          Add that to “bodycams malfunctioning” on multiple officers in the same instance (that doesn’t involve an EMP weapon) and all the rest of the crap – I know y’all know – they’ve been pulling, and they have a lot of bad impressions/experiences to make up for and community relations to repair?

          If they’re still busting people for cannabis or any sorta drugs as their seemingly primary activity… Not much is going to be “Repaired” between the Police and the Public.

          And I believe that everyone BUT – Trump trying his “Law & Order” (Nixon in 68′ the sequel) campaign – ALL pretty much know what the figurative scoreboard is plainly showing.

          If they expect minorities to call the cops they have tonstop showing up & treating them like the fucking perpetrators = as opposed to the person who called them for help.

          Or young white college kids who aren’t calling anybody when their dorm is full of *paraphernalia*, or they havr to worry that the cops might walk into wherever and smell a lingering scent of weed from the previous weekend.

          People aren’t going to be part of the “if you see something say something” deal if they have to worry about their own ass getting in trouble (or even just having their stash get “confiscated” & maybe a ticket/citation for decriminalized but not legalized marijuana.

          They’re missing out on a large chunk of society thst might otherwise trust & assist them – IF circumstances were just a little bit different…

      • jean valjean says:
        July 20, 2016 at 9:50 am

        “Hippie noise?” Irony Frank?
        Clearly both candidates represent their paymasters on Wall St and both are war-mongers. I suppose we’ve now got to decide which one is less likely to lead us to Armageddon. Some choice.

  17. Servetus says:
    July 19, 2016 at 10:20 am

    Finally some good news. Drug taking behaviors are sometimes influenced by one’s genes acting like switches, turning an effect on or off, effects such as addictions to specific chemical compounds. Knowing how to artificially control genes by modifying them is the basis for the new science of gene therapy.

    From the Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg comes a new discovery:

    19-JUL-2016 — …the team has successfully programmed a virus to transport the necessary genetic material to affected tissue and nerve cells inside the body. A report on their new virus-based method, which delivers instructions to the host genome without becoming part of it, has been published in the journal Molecular Therapy Nucleic Acids*.

    From cancer to Alzheimer’s disease, many life-threatening diseases can only be treated using drug-based treatment options, if at all. Many of these treatments are non-specific in nature, or even ineffective. In some cases, the undesirable side-effects may even outweigh the desirable ones. This is because indiscriminate treatments damage healthy cells, impairing their ability to communicate with other cells; as a result, it is hoped that genetically produced and modified mediators will be able to selectively target diseased cells, and improve the way treatment is delivered. “In the laboratory, we use attenuated, i.e. non-replicating, viruses that are known as recombinant adeno-associated viruses (rAAV). We use them to transport genetically encoded material into live organisms affected by disease,” explains Dr. Hasan. “This approach opens up a whole range of options which, in the future, may allow us to treat and heal various diseases.”

    By successfully completing the initial step of testing this new method using an animal model, the researchers have laid the groundwork for future genetic treatments for use in humans.

    AAAS Public Release On the path to controlled gene therapy

  18. warren says:
    July 19, 2016 at 4:56 pm

    Its not an epidemic. In thirty eight percent of opioid death Alcohol was a contributing factor. Now talking about preventable death lets talk about tobacco 4-6 million deaths per year world wide now that’s an epidemic. Elephant in room?

    • strayan says:
      July 20, 2016 at 5:16 am

      Rates of overdose death among those co-dispensed benzodiazepines and opioid analgesics were ten times higher (7.0 per 10,000 person-years, 95 percent CI: 6.3, 7.8) than opioid analgesics alone (0.7 per 10,000 person years, 95 percent CI: 0.6, 0.9). http://painmedicine.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/1/85.abstract

      …suddenly opioids aren’t that scary.

      • Thinking Clearly says:
        July 20, 2016 at 1:01 pm

        The DEA must have had other motives than the truth when they changed classification of opiates.

        This is really not new info. This is from 2012 :
        http://tinyurl.com/zqwokn4

        “Though the possibility remains that opioid (ab)users are using BZDs therapeutically to self-medicate anxiety, mania or insomnia, the data reviewed in this paper suggest that BZD use is primarily recreational. For example, co-users report seeking BZD prescriptions for the purpose of enhancing opioid intoxication or “high,” and use doses that exceed the therapeutic range. Since there are few clinical studies investigating the pharmacological interaction and abuse liability of their combined use, this hypothesis has not been extensively evaluated in clinical settings. As such, our analysis encourages further systematic investigation of BZD abuse among opioid users. The co-abuse of BZDs and opioids is substantial and has negative consequences for general health, overdose lethality, and treatment outcome.”

        Having the DEA deal with this issue is wrong – its out of their league as law enforcement entities. They haven’t even touched the real issue with the classification change.

        • DdC says:
          July 20, 2016 at 2:43 pm

          The DEA must have had other motives than the truth.

          lol, Ya think? sorry TC…

          I didn’t realize the DEA had any other motives.
          Maybe I just haven’t seen any in 40 years.

        • Thinking Clearly says:
          July 20, 2016 at 8:52 pm

          Sorry DdC, preaching to the choir is a bad habit of mine.

        • DdC says:
          July 21, 2016 at 3:28 am

          No worries, I thought it was funny because there are still many that would find it shocking. They’re the ones holding office. A delegate speaking out about the start of the drug war being based on Nixon’s plan to lock up blacks and hippies. They are called too much Bernie influence and its reduced to a pathway to legalizing. Physical reality is too much Bernie? It might cause people to vote for less reality with the GOP?

          Its tragic and true how far we have come even getting it on a major platform. That seems sad or disappointing with more incrementals looming. No one willing to face reality in fear of losing profits. Babysteps stopping the pillage, don’t want to piss off the gods.

          There is no reason for the DEA except vested interest in ulterior motives. They aren’t trained medically. They don’t uphold the Constitution or Justice. Human rights to Civil rights charges. Including leaving a citizen in a cell without food or water costing tax payers millions when he sued. They have no logical reason to take tax money and probably enough grounds to charge them with embezzlement. Their word is solemn as they lie to Congress or in Court. No one questions them, or the cops who follow word for word. So as much as it is preaching to this crowd. It is still a way off from the MSM gawkers. Keep on Preachin!

          Democrats call for ‘pathway’ to marijuana legalization
          Because of conflicting laws concerning marijuana, both on the federal and state levels, we encourage the federal government to remove marijuana from its list as a Class 1 Federal Controlled Substance, providing a reasoned pathway for future legalization

          Saturday afternoon, the committee brought up an amendment that would have removed marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. David King, a lawyer and Sanders delegate from Tennessee, argued that marijuana was added to the act — giving the drug the same legal classification as heroin — during a “craze” to hurt “hippies and blacks.” The amendment, however, was headed for defeat, with some committee members worrying that it went too far and undermined state-by-state efforts to study decriminalization.

    • NCN says:
      July 20, 2016 at 12:57 pm

      Back in the 80’s I mixed two or three Darvon capsules with a few beers.

      Still have the dislocated shoulder to show for it when I fell down and passed out into a coma-like state for about 12 hours.

      Schedule IV with two pints of beer almost put me in my grave. John Matuzak, the former NFL player from the Raiders died from Schedule IV Darvon.

      • DdC says:
        July 20, 2016 at 2:33 pm

        Bring up bad memories NCN. I was doing a construction job in eastern PA. early 70’s. Lancaster. PA Dutch territory, run down town. There was a movie playing about the mafia after the Godfather flicks. I forget the name. I did a couple Darvon capsules and drank a couple beers. In the movie a snitch was caught by the mafia and they cut off his penis. I started throwing up from my seat to the bathroom non stop. Never finished the movie. Never did Darvon again. Now bring back Quaaludes.They went fine with beer although I quit drinking in the early 80’s I might have my arm twisted for some ludes.

        • jean valjean says:
          July 20, 2016 at 3:16 pm

          Whatever happened to ‘ludes and mandies (mandrax)? They were great with a beer and no hangover. Also “mandies make me randy”…. a lot of “nice” girls found just the right amount of inhibition release to enjoy a great fuck…. I think I’ve just answered my question about why they disappeared. You could buy the same thing called dormadinas in Spain over the counter until the mid seventies. Those were the days.

        • Duncan20903 says:
          July 21, 2016 at 10:56 am

          .
          .

          Well if you think that it’s ludicrous that cannabis is in schedule I based on the canard of no accepted medicinal utility then how about accepted medicinal utility which suddenly vanishes? Methaqualone was moved to scheduled I in 1998.

          Someday I would really like to figure out why PCP is still in schedule II.
          http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/schedules/index.html

  19. Servetus says:
    July 20, 2016 at 9:47 am

    The aye-ayes have it, a taste for alcohol:

    20 July 2016 — Alcohol is widespread in nature, existing in fermented nectars, saps and fruits. It is therefore a natural part of many primate diets, and it follows that primates have evolved to digest alcohol quickly to minimize toxic effects. But given that alcohol is also a source of calories, it is plausible that alcohol is attractive to some primates, including, hypothetically, our human ancestors. In fact, previous research found that humans and African great apes have a genetic mutation that radically accelerates alcohol digestion. However, this mutation is also shared with the aye-aye, one of the oddest animals on Earth [pictured on AAAS public release]. The question, then, is whether aye-ayes are attracted to alcohol. In the first controlled study of its kind, Dartmouth researchers found that two aye-ayes and another prosimian primate (a slow loris) could discriminate different concentrations of alcohol, and further, that each species preferred the highest concentrations of alcohol available to them. The findings of this Dartmouth study will be published in the open-access journal Royal Society Open Science.

  20. DdC says:
    July 21, 2016 at 1:30 pm

    Well you don’t say…

    These findings held through both the self-assessments — alcohol users rated themselves as more aggressive when drunk — and through the responses to the tests: The drinkers tried harder to undermine their computer opponents when they were drunk. But the smokers actually acted less aggressive toward their computer opponents when they were high.
    Researchers got people drunk or high, then made a fascinating discovery about how we respond

    J-u-s-t-i-c-e

    Marijuana-munching cops fired after being caught on tape
    Three Santa Ana police officers who’ve pled not guilty to charges of petty theft and vandalism in connection with the May 2015 raid of Sky High Holistic dispensary in Santa Ana have subsequently been fired.

  21. DdC says:
    July 25, 2016 at 3:18 am

    Prehistoric Pot Smugglers Gave Us The Wheel

    New archeological evidence suggests that one of the three ancient tribes of people that settled Europe in the Bronze Age spread cannabis all across Asia. These stoned age travelers influenced European languages and may have even invented the wheel.

    Coincidentally, the Scythians lived in the same regions as the Yamnaya people directly after them, perhaps they picked up the habit from the Stoned Age descendants.
    Study

    The Scythians – High Plains Drifters by Chris Bennet
    http://zzco.org/chris_bennett/scythians.html

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