Drug WarRant

“bullet” It’s 911. Remember that the drug war and the DEA create lucrative profits for criminals. Including terrorists.

Well, I made it to Prague, and am having a great time.
Saw one thing that might interest you folks in a store window: Triple filtered Cannabis Vodka (I have no idea).
So what’s going on? I hear that the DEA says 98% of eradicated pot is ditchweed

A powerful story.

“The DEA does not belong in the practice of medicine.”

– Karen Tandy

(See Scott Morgan’s post.)

Daksya has a great idea — prepare your own guest rant and send it to me. I’ll select rants to post every few days.

The Drug Czar’s “blog” is particularly entertaining today. A simple post listing several items, including…

1. If you care about our environment, specifically our public lands, don’t smoke pot.

   The man who has had a huge responsibility for the destruction of the environment worldwide through the promotion of drug war policies that make environmental destruction profitable comes up with that? What a putz!

2. Here’s how ONDCP is helping one community prevent drug use in Longview, Washington.

   Here, I think the Czar got a wandering link or is seeing things. The first time today that I clicked on the link, it was an article about alcohol. At this point in time, it’s an article about school bus drivers.

3. Random drug testing continues to spread across the country, with the Illinois High School Association being the latest to consider implementing random drug tests.

   Given the emphasis that the ONDCP has placed on testing for marijuana, the Czar’s a bit remiss in not mention that IHSA is specifically “considering random testing for steroids and growth hormones in students who play in state finals for football, basketball, track and other selected sports.”

4. From the BBC, the latest research on the effects of meth use on development of babies.

   The referenced article comes close to promoting a “crack baby” theme, despite no more evidence than reduced weight. Fortunately, one professor didn’t drink all of the Cool-Aid: “While these children may have some serious health and developmental challenges, there is no automatic need to label them as damaged and remove them from their biological mothers.”

I’ll be leaving later today to start my vacation trip to Prague, Czech Republic; the mountains of Slovakia; Budapest, Hungary; and Vienna Austria. I’ll be back on September 25.

During the next few weeks, blogging will be much lighter. I’ll be taking my laptop with me, and will occasionally stop in some coffee shop and get my internet fix and keep up with the news. So continue to send me tips and suggestions — I’ll get my email.

Take this time to take some action — join in the letter-writing or expert research work being done at The Drug WarRant.net Community.

“bullet” Karen Tandy retaliating against whistle blower. Scott Morgan follows up on the Narcosphere reporting.

“bullet” Come back and talk to us when you’re a senior, Megan, and you have something more coherent to say.

“bullet” Drugs and War at Underdog Blog

The wonderful people at Nutiva sent me some of their hemp foods to try. Naturally, you’re welcome to take with a grain of salt anything I say about free stuff I get, but I’ll only say good things if I mean them.

I’m a huge fan of shelled hempseeds. The actual hemp seed is hard and crunchy and quite edible, but they have this process for shelling them that just gives you the soft nutmeat of the hempseed. Delicious. Think of it sort of like ground pine nuts. You can use them in all sorts of ways — on salads and more — but they rarely make it that far with me. I just eat them out of the bag. I did, in a moment of silliness, make a wonderful baked salmon with a hempseed topping — sort of the ultimate in Omega-3 nutrition. Hempseed is 33% protein, with Omega-3 and GLA. Great nutrition.

Another great item is the Organic Hempseed Original Bar — hempseed, sunflower seeds, honey, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds. Gooey, nutty and delicious. Offer some to friends — a great conversation starter. It’s amazing how many people think it’s illegal. (Not that the DEA didn’t try! Which is another reason to buy hemp. Every time you do, you’re sticking it to the DEA. You see, they understand that if people start to realize that hemp is good and good for you, the DEA will have a harder time demonizing it.)

The hemp oil can be used in lots of recipes and has all that wonderful nutrition, but don’t use it as a frying oil (it loses its nutritious value). They also have a hemp protein shake — I’m not a big protein shake fan, but if that’s what you like, this is a great way to go. I’ll take the hemp seed, straight up.

There are a number of companies that sell hemp food products (buy from any of them, just buy hemp), but Nutiva is one of the good ones — and they donate 1% of sales to groups supporting sustainable agriculture.