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Remedial Marijuana Ethics 101: Don't Be An Idiot

If you work at McDonalds, don’t hide your pot in a Happy Meal. Something bad will happen.

Don't drive drunk if you've got 25 pounds of marijuana in your car. Seriously, you're off the team if you do that. Flex Your Rights will not answer your email.

Also, don't mail 12 pounds of marijuana to a school.

George Michael, who gets arrested frequently for marijuana, now says it should be legal.

Operation Follow Method Man has also produced results this week: the arrest of Method Man for possessing marijuana and driving around super-baked.

In fairness to our cause, I'm not suggesting that marijuana necessarily causes idiocy. But it can become a crutch for the desperate or confused. As for the celebrities, well, it's already clear that celebrities don't exactly need pot to get arrested anyway. Method Man, notwithstanding this unfortunate incident, would probably get arrested more often if not for his frequent relaxation rituals.

Today was a strange day for marijuana news, but tomorrow will tell a different tale. Bad science, violent raids, urine testing, persecuting patients, blocking research, wasting tax dollars, exaggerating harms, and funding the black market; these things -- and so many more -- are the real story and there aren't enough mailing mishaps or celebrity pot busts to distract us from the hideous truth.

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Remedial Psychedelic Ethics 101: Don't Dose People

You wouldn’t think people who are prominent members of the psychedelic community would need a reminder about elementary decency, but, sadly, that appears to be the case. Psychedelic drugs, like mushrooms, peyote, and LSD, are not candy. They can be deeply disorienting and disturbing, even for veteran psychonauts, and for people with no experience with or knowledge of them, they can be absolutely terrifying. It would seem to be a fundamental of psychedelic ethics that you do not inflict the experience on people against their will or without their knowledge. To do so is not only disrespectful of the consciousness of the victim of such a stunt, it is also disrespectful of the psychedelic substance that inner consciousness explorers claim to hold in such reverence. But some people just don't get it. Last night, I received a call from an old friend who reported being dosed by someone who was part of the entourage of an elite clique who were putting on an event in a large Eastern city. Now, my friend was fortunate enough to have some experience with psychedelics, so the experience was not absolutely terrifying. But it was most unpleasant. And that's should be no surprise. For at least 40 years, people have been talking about the importance of "set and setting" in determining how a person will respond to psychedelics. Set refers to the person's mental state—what the person knows and expects of psychedelics, whether that person has underlying psychiatric problems, whether that person is prepared for the experience. Setting refers to the physical/notional location of the experience—is it a soothing place, does it take place within some ritual or another, is it loud and noisy and chaotic?—that, along with set, has an impact on the psychedelic experience. Dosing someone with psychedelics without his or her knowledge wreaks havoc with set. People need to prepare themselves for taking drugs like these; to have them inflicted on you even if you like them is unethical. Being dosed also prevents the victim from having any say in setting—here you are, your mind is melting, and that's that. Dosing people is thus double-plus ungood. No names are being named at this point. There are efforts afoot to see if the perpetrators will make proper amends. The most positive outcome is that the people involved will be educated about things they should already know and understand intuitively. For the rest of us who are inclined to dabble with such substances, let's try extra hard to be respectful of each other and these very special substances.
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Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

In addition to the weekly reporting you see here in the Chronicle, DRCNet also features daily content in the way of blogging, news links, redistributed press releases and announcements from our allies and more.
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Cannabis T.V. Show Filming

The weekly cable show EUGENE CANNABIS T.V. will be filmed. For more information, call 541-517-0957 or see http://mercycenters.org/events/Meet_CLF.htm.
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In The Trenches

Harm Reduction Project News Digest May 21, 2007

News & Opinion This Week 1. About 13M Injection Drug Users Worldwide Need Access To HIV Prevention, Treatment Services, UNAIDS Says 2. Wretched of the Earth 3. HPV Vaccine Also Guards Against Vulval and Vaginal Cancer (Attention, this study, like many others done on the vaccine, was industry funded) 4. [U.S. Largest HMO] Kaiser Agrees To Reforms In Settlement Of Homeless Dumping Case 5. [Hillary] Clinton Is Quiet On Her Past Role With Wal-Mart [As Board Member] B Upcoming Conferences and Events C Quote D How To Help E About HRP F Subscription Information ----- I. About 13M Injection Drug Users Worldwide Need Access To HIV Prevention, Treatment Services, UNAIDS Says 18 May 2007 - AP/International Herald Tribune About 13 million injection drug users worldwide are in need of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment services in order to control the spread of the disease, UNAIDS said on Monday in a statement released at the 18th Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm in Warsaw, Poland, the AP/International Herald Tribune reports. Prasada Rao, UNAIDS Asia Pacific regional director, on Sunday said that injection drug use is estimated to account for about one-third of new HIV cases outside sub-Saharan Africa, but only 8% of IDUs worldwide have access to HIV prevention services (AP/International Herald Tribune, 5/14). According to UNAIDS, injection drug use is a major mode of HIV transmission in Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe. In addition, drug use is emerging as a new source of HIV transmission in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania, UNAIDS said. According to Rao, about "10% of all new HIV infections worldwide are attributable to injection drug use. If you exclude Africa, that figure rises to 30%." In addition, access to antiretroviral therapy is "unacceptably low" among IDUs because of a "lack of information, exclusion and widespread stigma and discrimination," according to UNAIDS. To be effective, HIV prevention program need to reach about 80% of IDUs, UNAIDS said. In addition, programs targeted at IDUs should provide users with access to clean needles and drug-substitution programs, according to AFP/Yahoo! News. "The allocation of financial resources must be used in more strategic and innovative ways to deliver more effective prevention programs to people most at risk of HIV infection," Rao said (AFP/Yahoo! News, 5/14). He added that in countries where injection drug use is fueling the spread of HIV, "focused harm reduction programs which reach people who inject drugs must be built into the national AIDS plans" (AP/International Herald Tribune, 5/14). You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy.
In The Trenches

Drug Truth Update -- May 21, 2007

Drug Truth Network Update: Cultural Baggage + Century of Lies + 4:20 Drug War NEWS Half Hour Programs, Live Fridays... at 90.1 FM in Houston & on the web at www.kpft.org. Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and at www.radio4all.net. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates in the US and Canada., Cultural Baggage for 05/18/07 DRUG DEBATE: Terry Nelson of LEAP debates DEA agent James Capra Pt 3 of 3 + Jerry Cameron of LEAP, Poppygate, Drug War Facts, Black Perspective & "Legalize" MP3 MP3 Link: http://www.drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_051807.mp3 Century of Lies for05/18/07 DRUG DEBATE: Terry Nelson of LEAP debates DEA agent James Capra Pt 2 of 3 MP3 MP3 LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/COL_051807.mp3 4:20 Drug War NEWS 05/21/07 to 05/27/07 now online (3:00 ea.): Monday 05/21/07 Dr. Tod Mikuriya Passes, Memorial Planned Tuesday 05/22/07 Drug War Facts & "Let 'em get it?" Wednesday 05/23/07 Jerry Cameron of LEAP Thursday 05/24/07 Poppygate & Cheese Friday 05/25/07 Dr. Tod Mikuriya Saturday 05/26/07 Jerry Cameron of LEAP II Sunday 05/27/07 Plomo or Plata, choose Silver or Lead in Mexico! NEXT Friday: - Cultural Baggage 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT. Tod Mikuriya Remembered - Century of Lies 2 PM ET, 1 PM CT, Noon MT & 11 AM PT. TBD Check out our latest videos on YouTube: (Search for "Dean Becker") 1. Screenwriter Mike Gray & Howard Wooldridge of LEAP 2 &3. Dr. Rick Doblin of Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies 4. Deborah Peterson Small of BreakChains.org. Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Those who support drug prohibition, through complicity, ignorance or silence are the best friends the drug lords could ever hope for." - Reverend Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network Producer Dean Becker 713-848-6869 www.drugtruth.