BLOG
Is it Even Intellectually Possible to "Oppose" Medical Marijuana?
I was taking this online poll at The Chicago Tribune about medical marijuana and the wording got me thinking:Do you support the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes?Naturally, over 90% said yes because only a small number of really difficult people still have a problem with medical marijuana. But what do these people even mean that they don't "support the use of marijuana for medical purposes?" There are FDA approved medications with the same active ingredient as marijuana. Saying "marijuana isn't medicine" isn't an opinion, it's a factual error.Really, the poll question might as well read: Do you support the use of medicine for medicinal purposes?
Police Dispatcher Fired for Giving Medical Marijuana to Sick Relative
Via MPP, another example of the daily idiocy that will continue until medical marijuana use is protected throughout the country:Laura Llanes does not regret buying her aunt marijuana, even though it has cost her a job as police dispatcher.She was stunned, nevertheless, when she was fired last week after admitting she bought the marijuana to help relieve her aunt's suffering through breast cancer and chemotherapy.Marijuana for medicinal purposes is legal with a prescription in 13 states; Illinois is not one of them.Llanes, 28, of Lake Villa remains adamant she did the right thing, saying her biggest mistake was telling a few co-workers what she had done: "They ratted me out."Her aunt, who lives in Aurora, was "sick constantly, not eating, not having an appetite. She is diabetic. She has to eat. She was whittling away to nothing," said Llanes."I thought I will get her some marijuana so it would get her to eat. It worked. She did get the munchies." [Chicago Tribune]It's a sad story to be sure, but if there's a bright side, it's that this entire story in The Chicago Tribune makes opponents of medical marijuana sound like monsters. There's a bill in the Illinois legislature to end this madness once and for all. I hope the state's legislators read the paper today, because this story tells you everything you need to know about why medical marijuana laws are needed.
Ron Paul Murders Stephen Baldwin in Marijuana Legalization Debate
Whether you love Ron Paul, hate Stephen Baldwin, or just like to watch videos on the internet, this is for you:
Police Lobby for Harsh Marijuana Laws
Pete Guither points out that police don't just enforce harsh drug laws. They actively try to convince legislators to support laws that give them more power to put people in jail. Something to keep in mind the next time police say they're "just enforcing the law."
Pennsylvania Liquor Store Employees Will Now be Nicer to You
Via Radley Balko, the irony is truly staggering:HARRISBURG, Pa. â Pennsylvania liquor store clerks need to be more bubbly when they're selling Champagne.The state's Liquor Control Board is spending more than $173,000 to try to make workers friendlier and more well-mannered at the nearly 650 stores it operates. The board says it wants to make sure clerks are saying "hello," "thank you" and "come again" to customers shopping for wine and spirits. [Comcast.net]Seriously, alcohol users donât need you to be nicer to them. Just be glad you can buy alcohol in a safe place, with products labeled for purity and no fear that you'll be charged with "intent to distribute" if police find a case of beer in your trunk.Instead of being nicer to alcohol users, can we finally stop destroying people's lives for choosing other intoxicants instead?
Police Shoot Unarmed Marijuana Suspect
As long as the war on marijuana continues, police will continue shooting harmless people:GRAND RAPIDS -- The family of a Grand Valley State University student shot by police said he did nothing to provoke gunfire in a drug raid at the student's off-campus apartment."All he had time to do was cover his face from a flashlight in his eyes, and they shot him," George Copp said today. [MLive.com]Police havenât even announced what, if anything, was found in the raid. Of course, the shooting was reprehensible either way, but it's just another reminder that police use these violent, confrontational tactics without even having good information. Believe me, if there was more than a pinch of dope in that apartment, the police would have told everyone about it by now. The one thing we do know about Derek Copp is that he's a hippie and he smokes pot. We know this because some intrepid journalist got into his Facebook page and published portions of it in the newspaper. Great job! Now that you're done frolicking on Facebook, can you please go find out why the hell the cops shot this guy?
Suppressed cure for cancer and other illnesses
Please watch the whole thing before making a judgement on it.
THE BOTTOM OF THE MIND - Part 4 by Kay Lee
THE BOTTOM OF THE MIND: Depression - Part 4 by Kay Lee Â
the 36th in one month
And the Premier wants a prison just for gang members.Where do these people do their research.In the 70's it was addicts that were segregated as it was felt it was spreading the plague to do otherwise.
Thanks for all you do!
This is a thanks for ya you do. I am a loyal supporter of this site with medical issues that some of your news helps me with.
New Drug Czar Appointed, Makes Ridiculous Remark
At his nomination announcement yesterday, drug czar appointee Gil Kerlikowske got his first chance to practice saying stuff that makes no sense:For too long, we have operated, as the Vice President said, in silence when it comes to making our country drug free and reducing the demand for drugs. [NYT]Oh, crap. He said "drug free." He's one of those people. I mean, honestly, since when is there a shortage of proud prohibitionists proclaiming important progress at every opportunity? If there was ever a moment when no one was yelling about making the country drug free, somebody should have told me so I could bask in it.Other things worth noting about the drug czar appointment:*The position has been downgraded from cabinet status. Interesting, but thatâs the way it was before Bush, so not a huge deal. *The nomination announcement was made by Joe Biden, who carried on about his work on drug policy. Not encouraging. *Joe Biden says the drug czarâs office "hasn't gotten the attention that it should have,â which I think means he wants the new drug czar to be more visible than in the past. Sounds potentially annoying.All of this serves to remind us that the drug war doctrine still rules in D.C., but I donât think our cautious optimism about the new drug czar is misplaced. New opponents have taken the stage and we will challenge them as we did their predecessors. The reform argument is gaining a lot of momentum this year and the new administration will face unprecedented pressure to acknowledge fundamental flaws in our drug policy. Stay tuned.
Ten Years Later, the United Nations Anti-Drug Efforts Have Accomplished Nothing
â¦nothing, that is, except filling prisons around the world, spreading disease, empowering a worldwide network of organized crime, and killing lots and lots of people:VIENNA (Reuters) - A United Nations campaign to cut supply and demand for illegal drugs has shown no progress globally in the decade since it was launched, a European Commission report said on Tuesday.The U.N. General Assembly session (UNGASS) met 10 years ago to declare that it was time to really get serious about winning the drug war and this is what they have to show for their efforts.Asked whether the UNGASS campaign had failed, Carel Edwards, head of the Commission's anti-drug unit, told a news conference: "This very clearly comes up with our conclusion that there is no indication that it has made any difference."We basically seem to be marking time on the spot," he said.While a "world without drugs" was never part of the 1998 UNGASS declaration of intent, Edwards said, "nevertheless, at the time, there was an overwhelming publicity campaign that in 10 years we were going to lick this problem. (That) was naive."Yeah, it was more than naïve. It is truly appalling to see world leaders completely divorced from reality. Regardless of ideology, drug policy is a serious issue and must be approached rationally.Anyone who thought the worldâs drug problem could be contained in 10 yearsâ time is not qualified to work on drug policy issues. Seriously, if this is the type of expert analysis we can expect from the UN, they might as well hand the job over to a group of randomly-selected idiots off the street.
Time to try another way.
The drug war does more harm than good, now it is time to try the path of least harm.
Police Officer in Cowboy Hat Talks Drug Legalization on Al Jazeera
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition's Howard Wooldridge is commonly known on Capitol Hill as "the guy with the hat." Howard debated drug legalization on the Al Jazeera network this week -- check it out below:
NBC Insults Marijuana Users
Once again, we find the press struggling to cover drug policy reform without resorting to derogatory epithets: State Moves Toward Lighter Sentences for PotheadsBy Scott RossThe state Assembly has struck a blow for the state's stoners by voting to repeal the Rockefeller drug laws that have threatened so many tokers with the wrong kind of joint. [NBCNewYork.com]This is really an achievement in childish drug reporting in that it not only sounds ridiculous, it actually renders the story utterly frivolous and misleading. Marijuana arrests are a problem in New York to be sure, but simple possession is technically decriminalized already. Rockefeller reform is primarily not about marijuana at all. It's about reforming wildly draconian sentencing guidelines for a variety of drug offenses. Framing it as a marijuana policy reform is just wrong. Many of the worst excesses of the Rockefeller laws have nothing at all to do with marijuana.Sadly, it looks as though the author loved his dumb headline so much, he destroyed the entire story just so he could use it. It's pure journalistic malpractice.Please take a moment to click over there and leave a polite comment.
Propaganda Alert: Marijuana Makes You Bad at Video Games
If we thought the departure of drug czar John Walters would mean the end of wildly preposterous anti-pot propaganda, we were wrong as hell. Abovetheinfluence.com is now claiming that marijuana makes you suck at video games and they're not even kidding at all. At the risk of giving them traffic, you have to see this to believe it. They've made an entire webpage, complete with videos and profiles of imaginary characters that got slaughtered because someone was high.Of course, this is all sure to land far off target, mainly because everyone knows pot makes you incredible at video games. It's like steroids for high-school Halo champions. Claiming otherwise just makes you sound stupid, while simultaneously reminding your target demographic how much fun it is to get super-baked and massacre space aliens with a laser cannon.
Are Republicans Turning Against the Drug War?
Everyone knows Republicans love the drug war and Democrats are hippies who want to legalize pot. Right? Not necessarily.Milton Friedman and William F. Buckley are probably the best-known republicans to oppose the war on drugs, and they did so with eloquence that's seldom been matched across the political spectrum. Both men have passed however, and it's often assumed that the party of limited government and state's rights would remain strangely, yet steadfastly invested in the infinitely costly and oppressive war on drugs.It's not that there arenât notable exceptions; Ron Paul's rapid rise to national fame in 2008 demonstrated the vigor of libertarian-leaning conservatives who craved an opportunity to cast a vote for drug reform in the republican primaries. In addition to Paul, prominent conservatives Grover Norquist and Tucker Carlson have been strong supporters of reform (watch Carlson TKO drug warrior Mark Souder on MSNBC, for example). But the GOP's reputation as the party of braindead drug war demagoguery nonetheless remains cemented in the public consciousness thanks to the anti-drug posturing of party leaders like Rudy Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney.Recent weeks have brought some encouraging signs that the drug policy reform argument is gaining ground with conservatives. FOX News' Glenn Beck recently interviewed Marijuana Policy Project's Rob Kampia and then came out in support of marijuana legalization a week later. Beck articulated the role of marijuana prohibition in subsidizing Mexican drug war violence in a segment that came off as remarkably pro-reform for FOX News. Proving it's not a fluke, we also saw LEAP's Norm Stamper on FOX News' Red Eye program delivering a superb indictment of the war on drugs that had host Greg Gutfeld nodding in agreement. Meanwhile, conservative commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan penned a column last week quoting Milton Friedman and questioning the very foundations of the war on drugs. Though not thrilled about the idea of legalizing drugs, Buchanan suggests that Mexico's survival may depend on ending the drug war. Like Glenn Beck, Buchanan had not been previously known to support reform and seems to be getting the message now that the failure of prohibition in Mexico is becoming a threat to our own national security.Obviously, much work remains to be done towards generating mainstream political support for drug policy reform among conservatives (and liberals, for that matter). Still, there can be no question that the tone of the conversation is shifting and new voices are entering the discussion. An economic crisis and an unstable border may provide focal points for an evolving dialogue, but there's more to it than just that. Consider, for instance, that the new administration recently pledged to end medical marijuana raids and it's just about the only thing Obama's done that hasnât provoked attacks from republicans. The political landscape with regards to drug policy reform is shifting in a subtle, yet powerful way. In many cases, our greatest obstacle hasn't always been pure political opposition, but rather a partisan political climate in which our issue is viewed as unstable terrain. The moment public opinion tips far enough â as with medical marijuana â the fear of political attacks evaporates because your opponents canât use popular positions against you. Once it becomes clear that certain reforms carry no political risk, our infinitely feisty political culture focuses its hostility elsewhere and it becomes possible to do things like end medical marijuana raids without anyone saying a damn thing. More importantly, as our political culture finally begins to embrace the need for an open and mature discussion about reforming drug policy, we'll begin to hear what influential people actual believe, instead of what they've been taught to say.