The Evil Prohibition to Promote Cigarettes

let's call it what it really is - an outdated agricultural mercantilism
The 'Drug War' - Banning the safest stimulant (Coca) for the sake of protecting and promoting the most dangerous (Virginia Bright Leaf Tobacco)

The last U.S. Bottle of Vin Mariani?

the 1906+ restrictions and ban of Opium and Coca and the protected market growth of Virginia Bright Leaf Cigarettes- against the 'Tobacco Habit Cure' of Coca

It's a pity that a man as Ronald Wilson Reagan ignored the utter inconsistencies of his political sloganeering about excessive and fiscaly unwise government, particularly concerning such governments' choice of agricultural commodities we are offered for our daily stimulation and relaxation, cir:1884-1906

- machines for the mass production of cigarettes are 1st deployed; previously they had to be hand rolled.  Nonetheless sales of such cigarettes grew reletively slowly until 1906.

- isolated cocaine is introduced commercially. Introduced in a variety of forms, with the more potent concentrated forms remaining a minor niche item, and most use the dilute useful Coca products, until 1906.  Until the USDA was able to step in with its goal of protecting U.S. domestic agriculture.

U.S. Cigarette production spiked with drug prohibition: 1906, 1914,1937;

coinciding with the crackdowns on Opium, Coca and Cannabis

(p230 Licit & Illicit Drugs Breecher)

1906 U.S. Food and Drugs Act - key points - selective listing of ingrediants - alcohol, morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine, chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any derivative or preparation of any such substances contained therein, but not caffeine or nicotine - granted dictatorial power to the USDA Bureau of Chemistry to ban whatever it determined as 'dangerous or detrimental to health ingrediants, while excluding Tobacco from this USD of Agriculture regulatory authority for being de-listed from the U.S. Pharmacopeia which this Act defined the sope of the regulatory authority to those substances (drugs) contained within.  The Act was used by USDA Bureau of Chemistry Chief (1883-1912) Harvey Wiley, paradox - also of the AMA-APhA Council on Pharmacology, who developed a strong thrust to inveigh against 'cocaine' regardless of dosage or form in 1904, including via a media campaign designed to confuse the public about the dangers of concentrate cocaine in some vaguely defined way to imply dangers nonexistent with dilute cocaine.   Dilute cocaine/Coca products dissapear from retail and altogther, while concentrated cocaine - infinitly the most dangerous for of the drug become's its sole available form.

Harvey Washington Wiley

Lyman Frederick Kebler

Of particular 'concern' to the USDA, 'cocaine' or more accurately dilute cocaine in products either or by the isolated alkloid or the more or less whole leaf extract, used as a substitute for Tobacco.  According to the overtly mercantilist propaganda piece April 20, 1910 USDA. Farmer's Journal article "Habit-Forming Agents: Their Indiscriminate Sale and Use A Menace to the Public Welfare" by L.F. Kebler:

There are quite a number of so-called tobacco habit cures on the market.

The USDA here wrote "so-called tobacco habit cures.." in refusing to acknowledge the utility it was here condemning, continuing:

All of them are ineffective, and some contain cocain in one form or another, which at once indicates the purpose of the promoter of the remedy. Instead of eradicating what is commonly believed to be a comparatively harmless habit, there is grave danger of fastening a pernicious drug habit upon the user. Examples of preparations of this character recently examined and found to contain cocain and caffein derivatives are Coca-Bola, Tobacco Bullets, and Wonder Workers. The Coca Bola is marketed by Dr. Charles L. Mitchell, of "Philadelphia, and the Tobacco Bullets by the Victor Remedy Company, now the Blackburn Remedy Company, of Dayton, Ohio, while the Wonder Workers were produced by George S. Beck, of Springfield, Ohio.

That followed a January 1, 1910 Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) 'Pharmacology' review (at pp 63-64 of Volume LIV, Number 1), “Coca Bola and Oxy-Tonic: Two Nostrums Exposed by the Chemists of the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station” by E.F. Ladd, a chemist at the North Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station

"We have recently had occasion to examine a sample of Coca Bola, a product labeled as having been produced by Charles L. Mitchell, M.D., Philadelphia, and the face label bears the following statement:

Each ounce contains 0.71 grams of cocain. A chewing paste of leaves of the cocoa [sic] plant, combined with other valuable tonics. The directions for use say coca-bola is made in the form of flat cakes or plugs divided into squares and should be used by chewing one of the small squares marked on the plug and swallowing the saliva.

They further say it should be used at occasional intervals as needed throughout the day. To get its full effect it will be necessary to use several squares. They further say:

"Although a powerful muscular or nervous tonic, coca-bola has no evil after-effects, and hence is far superior to any other stimulant in the material medica"

Now this information given out in the advertising which accompanies each package is, it would seem, intended to give the impression that this product is an entirely harmless one; in other words, that a preparation containing cocain as an active constituent, is to be generally recommended for use without any caution as to the harm that may come from forming a habit for cocain. They further say:

"A small portion chewed occasionally acts as a powerful tonic to the muscular and nervous system, enabling the chewer to perform additional labor, and also relieves fatigue and exhaustion without evil after effects. It contains no injurious ingredients and is perfectly harmless."

So we might quote from the circular which is sent out by a man who claims to be a physician, urging, as it were, on the people the use of a product of this kind, which, as has clearly been shown, must in the end result in the formation of the cocain habit, if not in the complete demoralization and degradation of the individual himself.

The laws of North Dakota prohibit the sale of any compound or product in the state which contains cocaine in any form. It further prohibits the refilling of a physician’s prescription that contains cocain, and yet a product of this kind, it would seem from information that has been gathered, is sold directly to the customer, although it is true that the proprietor of the product maintains that it is now sold only to physicians.

The JAMA article echos the assumptions of "Habit-Forming Agents: Their Indiscriminate Sale and Use A Menace to the Public Welfare"

During the last twenty years a large number of soft drinks containing caffein and smaller or greater quantities of coca leaf and kola nut products have been placed upon the market. Preparations of this class, on account of insufficient information, were formally looked upon as harmless, but they are now known to be an impending evil.

Centuries before cocain was introduced as a remedial agent, wonderful accounts of the energy-creating properties of coca leaves were chronicled. The phenomenal endurance attributed to the Peruvians and others was often ascribed to the stimulating effects produced by the chewing of coca leaves, and this idea has been widely exploited. It is believed to some extent at present that the use of cocain taken internally produces a sense of exhilaration, and the amount of muscular and mental power appears to be temporarily increased. Impetus was given to this belief by the enthusiastic reports of this drug, published not only in medical literature but in the secular press as well.

Cocain is one of the most insidious and dangerous habit-forming drugs at present known. Many lives have been wrecked and many crimes have been committed as a result of its use, and strenuous efforts are being made to curtail its employment. The amount present in certain soft drinks is small, to be sure, but such an insidious, habit-forming drug certainly has no place whatsoever in these products. The presence of tropococain, an ally of cocain, has also been established.

Not only is it pernicious to add cocain to soft drinks in any quantity (usually in the form of coca leaf extract), but even the use of coca leaf extract so manipulated as to reduce the amount of cocain, or eliminate it altogether, must be looked upon as a questionable practice, because any product or name which would suggest the presence of cocain or its allies, by taste or otherwise, must have a baneful influence. It is known that the very small amounts of morphine or cocain, or even the suggestion of their presence, will tend to destroy the equilibrium of reformed addicts and bring back the former craving.

The virtues of coca leaves and kola nuts have been exploited together, and it is only natural that they should be combined in preparations which would represent the purported virtues of both. Such combinations were made with the result that quite a number of so-called soft drinks now on the market contain both of the habit-forming agents, cocaine and caffeine. It was not uncommon to find persons addicted to the use of medicated soft-drinks. It is well-known fact that many factory employees, stenographers, typewriters, and others subjected to mental or nervous strain spend a large part of their earnings for drinks of this character.

In passing, it may be of interest to note that life insurance companies are considering the status of soft-drink habitués as future risks.

Various arguments have been advanced in justification of the use of caffeine and the extract of coca leaves, treated or otherwise, in soft drinks. It is a well known that parents, as a rule, withhold tea and coffee from their children, but having no knowledge of the presence of cocain, caffeine or other deleterious agents in soft drinks, they unwittingly permit their children to be harmed by their use. Manufacturers of drinks of this class, containing cocain, have been successfully prosecuted, for example, Koca Nola, Celery Cola, Wiseola, Pillsbury's Koke, Kola-Ade, Kos-Kola, Cafe-Coca, and Koke.

Absent was any demonstration, only baseless presumption, that use of products as Coca-Bola resulted in a 'cocaine habit' of any greater legitimate public health concern than a 'caffeine habit' or a 'nicotine habit'.  Indeed at the COMMlTTEE ON lNTERSTATE AND FORElGN COMMERCE hearing on the Food and Drug Act, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, April 3, 1912, L.F. Kebler testified about Tobacco products:

http://books.google.com/books?output=text&id=dgE9AAAAYAAJ&dq=food+drugs+act&jtp=1 

Dr. Kebler. Yes; and investigation has shown that tobacco and preparations of tobacco contain arsenic and lead, due to the fact that there has been used in the growing of tobacco lead arsenate, a chemical to deter or kill certain pests. As a matter of fact, some tobacco contains a goodly quantity of arsenic.... We have not been able to go into that as fully as we would like. We know that tobacco is adulterated, but how generally it is adulterated we do not know.

Mr. Hamilton. I suppose you would be able to cite certain brands that are dangerous to health, would you not?

Dr. Kebler. I suppose most of them would be dangerous to health.

Get that.  Kebler knew Tobacco products contaned lead and arsenic from their methods of commercial agriculture, yet his "Habit-Forming Agents: Their Indiscriminate Sale and Use A Menace to the Public Welfare" concern about this Tobacco, was it being displaced by Coca - of course as the U.S.D.A.'s very mission from its onset was promoting domestic agriculture.

Likewise, Wiley knew Tobacco as harmful.  Writing for an article published in 1922:

What does tobacco do to us? There is in it a poison called nicotine so deadly that one full drop of it would kill an adult. A smaller portion of it taken for the first time by a boy makes him deathly sick. That gives warning of its poisonous character, but doesn't usually wean him from the folly. It did not in my case, for I speak as an ex-smoker. I quit at the end of my first week, after.

I had got over the nausea and had begun to enjoy "a good cigar." But I had already discovered that tobacco would hobble my brain and lead others to follow my bad example. Tobacco of any kind puts a soft-pedal on efficiency of mind and body. It puts us in a state of narcosis. We are half chloroformed.  The Literary Digest of April 15, 1922, records a test of the effects of tobacco on efficiency at Stanford University. Telegraph operators of three kinds were selected for the test. None of them smoked on duty. Those who smoked much when off duty were regarded as "heavy smokers." Their percentage of efficiency was 38. Those who smoked two pipes a day or one cigar, or two or three cigarettes before and after work and at noon, were regarded as "light smokers." Their efficiency was 40.1. The women operators, non-smokers, though of the "weaker sex," excelled both the other groups with an efficiency record of 46.6. The nicotine not only dulls our nerve cells, but kills some of them. If you have brains to burn, a tobacco bonfire is a good way to get rid of the surplus. One criminal lawyer argued jocosely to me that it was better for the world that he should smoke as he could in that case do less harm in his profession. I seriously agreed that was one of the many cases where "truth had been spoken in jest." If your work for the world is a curse, the more you dull your powers and shorten your life through "Lady Nicotine," the better.
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/protect-growing-youth-against-habit.html

1916: We begin speaking out against the dangers of smoking and the effect advertising has in recruiting new smokers. "Unfortunately, there are many subtle ways of encouraging young men to smoke," writes Dr. Wiley. "Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent every year in telling the readers of periodicals of the merits of this, that, and the other brand of tobacco."

1921: Dr. Wiley links tobacco use to heart disease, noting that men smoke more and so suffer more heart disease than women. Seven years later, he warns women that use of tobacco is a cause of mouth, tongue, and throat cancer, more than 30 years before the U.S. Surgeon General officially acknowledges the connection. http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/product-testing/history/good-housekeeping-research-institute-timeline

Absent was any demonstration from Wiley/Kebler's AMA-APha of any dangers with dilute cocaine in products as Vin Mariani (the 1905 Council of Pharmacy condemnation focused upon its labeling as foreign, when in fact its foreign formulation was replicated in Mariani & Co.'s New York facility for North American sales with the identical formula and ingrediants).   Although Wiley was famous for his USDA 'Poison squad' volunteer tests of foods laced with varius additives, he apparantly never had such a demonstration even attempted for coca or cocaine.  This was even as he persued numerous prosecutions of Coca or otherwise dilute cocaine food products for "adulteration" - for containing a dangerous substance to wit cocaine.  Usually such prosecutions were coupled with those for "mislabeling" for not stating cocaine on the label; however, as his famous prosecution against Coca-Cola demonstrated, Wiley did not see himself needing a charge of "mislabeling" required for one of "adulteration" which he brought against Coca-Cola for containing the 'dangerous' substance of caffeine.

      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/post-1906-demise-of-us-coca.html

      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/new-dark-ages-usda-crusade-against-coca.html
      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/wiley-cocaine-policy.html
      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/harvey-washington-wiley-paradox.html
      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/wileys-usurpation-of-power-over.html

      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/wileys-subversion-of-our-freedom-of.html
      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/harvey-wiley-resume-1915.html
      http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/wileys-great-american-fraud-of.html

What is a drug habit? .... The habit-forming drugs which are most extensively used are alcohol, nicotine and caffeine. If we class as drug addicts those who have acquired the habit for one or more of these drugs the number of them in the United States would be very close to half or two-thirds of the population. When we speak of drug addicts, however, we usually have in mind a more restricted sense and refer rather to those who are slaves to opium or the coca leaf and their derivatives. ... I would not favor of any restrictive legislation respecting tobacco and tea and coffee, except in so far as children are concerned. [box 201 - Harvey Wiley papers]

In the sudden light which the Pure Food law throws into certain dark corners, that widely-bruited pick-me-up for lassitudinous ladies, Vin Mariani, takes on a changed aspect. From the enthusiastic encomiums, given out for advertising purposes by sundry actresses, one might suppose that the so-called French preparation was at once the most bracing and the most harmless of concoctions. Across its label, however, the pure food law has recorded the warning fact: "Each ounce represents one-tenth of one grain of cocain." This shuts it out of New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, all cities and towns in Massachusetts, and many other places. As the average American woman can read and is not a fool. I fancy that even in those localities where cocain can be sold only in patent medicine form without a prescription (as has been the case until recently in the District of Columbia, thanks to Senator and ex-Doctor Gallinger's efforts on behalf of the nostrum people), the Vin Mariani trade will rapidly decline.

Next to cocain nostrums, the most dangerous class of patent medicines is that containing narcotics, such as opium, morphin and cannabis indica. Various are the evasions and contortions resorted to by these dopes in their efforts to make the best of the new law. [*JAMA 'The Nostrum Evil']

This 1904+ campaign against 'cocaine' (to confuse the public about the vast difference between dilute and ultraconcentrated drug-dosing- try sniffing Blast caffeine instead of drinking Coffee) centered around the Harvey Wiley AMA-APhA campaign against the substances 'habit-forming' as what people choose to consume regularly and hence the greatest market threats to their alliance of synthetic pharamceuticles and Tobacco cigarettes- an alliance marked by several decades of medical journals featuring cigarettes advertisements with doctors implying the 'healthiness' of cigarettes. 

This campaign included the AMA-APhA 'model legislation' campaign in the various State legislatives to enact prohibitions upon foods containing any amount of cocaine, and to require a non refillable prescription for any such drug products. 

On the federal level this included the efforts within the U.S. Congress to 'amend' the 1906 Act, leading to what became the Harrison Act, signed into 'law' December 17, 1914. 

Internationally it included U.S. State Department participation in this agricultural racketerring via the 'Opium Convention' scheme, with the ultimate goal of getting other nations to ban low dose dilute cocaine, as well as decieving the Emperor of China.

This all came upon the heels of the USDA's experimentation in assessing the commercial potential of Coca and other drug crops as domestic U.S. agriculture, likely confirming U.S. domestic Coca's requirement of greehouses- making it costlier then say Tobacco.

It is my opinion that the Coca plant is adapted for culture in many countries where it is now unknown. Among the countries where it would be well to experiment with it are Guatemala, Mexico, the East and West Indies, India, Southern China, potions of Africa, and possibly India. It is doubtful if it would grow in any portion of the United States. Requiring an average temperature of at least 70o, the only districts at all suited would be Florida and Southern Texas [this was written before the 1898 U.S. acquisition of the Kingdom of Hawaii]; and it is highly probable that proximity to the sea-coast at so low an altitude would prove fatal. Nor would irrigation prove adequate in those countries possessing a long dry season. The plants must not only have an abundant supply of water at the roots; they must be bathed in a humid atmosphere for the greater portion of the year. But from what I have read of some of the countries above named, I am confident that the plant would there find a congenial home. Jamaica offers especially hopeful conditions. U.S. William Martindate, p 37 1892 book Coca and Cocaine: [see: Journal of a Voyage on the Amazon and Rio Negro, Hooker's Journal Of Botany, vol. 1853, p. 212; Therapeutic Gazette, January 1886, p. 14 Pharmacy Journal 1886, p.705]

January 10, 1904 issue of The Boston Sunday Globe ‘Uncle Sam’s poison Farm.’

‘Government Conducts a Novel Industry on the Potomac Flats- plants which yield the most powerful and valuable drugs known to science- will start growing opium growing, too, in Texas’.

This experiment ended at roughly the time that the U.S.D.A. adopted its stance against Coca in food and drug products, which was mere months after the U.S.A. aquired control over the construction of the Panama Canal, which would have drastically shortened the shipping routes of Coca from the Peruvian coast to North Atlantic markets, and which was completed and opened for traffic in 1914- the year of the Harrison 'Narcotics' Act.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama_Canal

  

Standard histories often fail to get beyond the sensationalist newspaper claims regarding the use of 'cocaine' by Blacks.

Overlooking the Pharma-Tobacco Connection

For Coca was already being seen as a market alternative to other stimulants, such as Coffee/caffeine, and particularly to Tobacco, at least since sometime after the initial apparance of Vin Mariani.

Initially sold as an energizer for overworked, overstressed Parisian opera performers, and inspiring other such Coca leaf derived herbal products as other Coca beverages, lozenges, Vin Mariani was found to have numerious therapeutic virtues:

“I have also employed it in cases, happily rare in our army, of chronic alcoholism resulting from the abuse of brandy, absinthe or strong liquors. The produced all the excitement sought by drinkers, but had at the same time a sedative influence on their nervous systems. I have frequently seen hardened drinkers renounce their fatal habit and return to a healthy condition." "I have also used to save smokers of exaggerated habits, from nicotinism. A few glasses of taken in small doses, either pure or mixed with water, acted as a substitute for pipes and cigars, because the smokers found in it the cerebral excitement which they sought in tobacco, wholly preserving their intellectual faculties." -- Dr. Liberman and Villeneuve

And also with smoking Coca leaves.

According to an article by Dr. F.E. Stewart in the September 19, 1885 Philadelphia Medical Times, about a newer form of Coca leaf products introduced by the 1880s- Coca leaf smokables- cigars, cheroots and even cigarettes.

"Coca has been used with great success in the treatment of the opium habit, it is also an excellent substitute for Tobacco [emphasis added]. It has been successfully used in dyspepsia, flatulency, colic, gastralgia, enteralgia, hysteria, hypochondria, spinal irritation, idiopathic convulsions , nervous erethism, and in the debility following severe acute affections. As it is a valuable restorative agent, checking tissue-waste, it is also a useful remedy in consumption [?] and wasting diseases generally. It is also of value in the nervous forms of sick-headache, migraine. It is also said to be an aphrodisiac." -- Dr. F.E. Stewart appearing in the September 19, 1885 Philadelphia Medical Times

Reporting on several cases of experiences with smoking Coca, Stewart found that most found them useful, with a high percentage finding Coca cigars as useful for stemming depression -- the "blues" -- and as a mild stimulant. Citing one example of a leading Wilmington, Delaware physician:

"After dinner, he smoked a couple of the cigars, with the effect that the blues were expelled and he felt the exhilarating effect of the drug in the same manner as after a dose of the wine. It is his opinion that the effect of the cigars is milder than that of the wine, but he is satisfied that he experienced the peculiar power of the coca by smoking it."

 Citing others, a man suffering dyspepsia -- a digestive disorder -- and its attendant depression:

"smoked the cigars...the result being to dispel the depressed feeling and remove the fullness experienced after each meal. Repeated experiments confirm this. As coca is said to stimulate the gastric nerves and greatly facilitate digestion, the above experiment seems to prove that the cigar has a similar effect."

These experiments included Dr. Stewart's own use. Writing upon his personal discovery of Coca leaf smoking as a treatment for hay fever:

Personally, I have found the effect of smoking coca leaves to bear out the statement that the drug produces a general excitation of the circulatory and nervous systems. Smoking and inhaling the smoke of one or two cigars will increase my own pulse rate some eight or ten beats to the minute.

It certainly relieves the scene of fatigue. Smoked at night, in my own case and in the cases of several of my patients, it produces wakefulness similar to strong coffee. The exaltation produced by it does not seem to be followed by any feeling of languor or depression. I find it a relief after a full meal, like a good tobacco cigar. It seems to impart increased vigor to the muscular system as well to the intellect, with an indescribable feeling of satisfaction. I have never experienced any intoxicating effects from smoking it.

Dr. Bartholow says that coca, as in the case with tea and coffee, acts as an indirect nutrient by checking waste, and hence a less amount of food is necessary to maintain the bodily functions; and as I have just learned, in a letter from Messrs. Parke, Davis and Company, that "a Mr. Stevens, a citizen of Abilene, Kansas, who was afflicted with hay fever, and was about to go to the mountains, has concluded to remain at home, having obtained relief from the use of cigarettes of coca. Every morning he uses a cigarette and perfect relief. He uses three per day.

And with Coca chewing gum, such as Coca-Bola.

After many trials I succeeded in having the coca put up as a masticatory in the form of plugs like tobacco. These were made at my suggestion by C.L. Mitchell, M.D. & Co., Pharmaceutical Chemists, of Ninth and Race Streets, Philadelphia. I have given this preparation the name of “Coca-Bola” from coca and bolus, a mass. Each plug is about the size of an ordinary plug of chewing tobacco, and contains about 200 grains (nearly half its weight) of coca leaves, besides a small quantity each of tea, coffee and coinchona bark. Each plug is marked off for convenience into squares, each square containing about 16 grains of coca leaves; this quantity is about sufficient for a single dose or chew and even a smaller portion my suffice. It is to be thoroughly masticated in the same manner when chewing tobacco, the saliva being swallowed, not ejected as in tobacco chewing. After the mass has been masticated for some time and the virtues of the coca leaf pretty well extracted, the residue is to be ejected. A chew of the “Coca-bola” take in this manner occasionally throughout the day will generally completely satisfy the craving for stimulants, and at the same time remove any feeling of depression or fatigue. The addition of the tea and coffee seem to assist considerably the sustaining and stimulating effect of the coca leaves without producing any injurious after effects.

The advantages of this method of administering were found to be many and removed completely all the difficulties previously referred to. It contained no alcohol, did not require the use of the objectionable bottle and spoon, was exceeding convenient, and as it so closely resembled tobacco, its continued use excited no remark. Besides it could be easily carried in the vest pocket and was always at hand when needed.

By the use of the “Coca-bola,” in the treatment of the class of cases previously referred to , we substitute for the objectionable habit of drinking liquor the harmless use of coca. So free is it from all injurious effects that I can say that in my opinion no greater boon could be conferred on humanity that in the conversion of all alcohol drinkers into coca chewers. At my request, Dr. Mitchell has now prepared the “Coca-bola” for sale and will shortly place it on the market, when I would ask its careful trial by such of my professional brethren as are interested in the treatment of this class of cases.

Coca-Bola will also be found to be a very valuable substitute for tobacco, especially in the treatment of those who are suffering from the pernicious effects of its excessive use in the habit of chewing. It is a well known fact in the treatment of the cases that the greatest obstacle, and the one which meets the physician at the very outset, is the difficulty experienced in providing a suitable substitute for the offending “quid.” The chewing of tobacco, soon leads almost unconsciously to the formation of a habit of chewing, and when the mouth becomes accustomed to the frequent regularity of the movements of mastication, and the continued presence of a foreign body, the action becomes in a certain sense an involuntary one, and any interruption or break in its regular performance adds a disturbing element which greatly enhances the depression naturally resulting from the withdrawal of the physiological stimulus of the tobacco. A habit soon becomes a second nature, and a habitual chewer of tobacco derives as much satisfaction, and from the “company” of the “chew”, to which he had accustomed himself, as he does from the drug itself.

The use of tobacco in chewing or smoking, as well as the frequent drinking of liquor, produces a catarrhal condition of the mouth which also adds to the desire for the presence of the quid. The oral mucosa are in a state of sub-acute congestion, and while the first result of the habit is to stimulate their secretions, this is soon followed by catarrhal changes, whereby the saliva and other juices become greatly diminished in quantity. An uncomfortable feeling of dryness and heat in the mouth soon results, only alleviated by the employment of the alcohol, or the tobacco. To relieve this condition of affairs in many different "tobacco substitutes" have been recommended, but with very little success. They are generally compounds containing large quantities of licorice-root, and while they partly satisfy the taste, they do not supply any stimulus or sustaining agent to take the place of the refreshing and almost nourishing tobacco, neither do they allay the congestion of the mouth.

Coca leaves should, theoretically, be an excellent substitute for tobacco.

They have an agreeable, bitter aromatic taste when chewed in the mouth; they greatly diminish the blood supply in the superficial capillaries of the mucous membrane, and should thus relieve the congestion of the oral mucosa; and the general tonic, stimulating and sustaining powers of the drug should render it a suitable and innocent substitute to take the place of tobacco. Moreover, it leaves behind it no injurious after effects, and its use can be at any time suspended after the patient has lost his desire for the former drug. When, therefore, the coca leaves can be presented in the form of a masticatory, and satisfy both the physiological requirements of the case and the "habit" of the chewer, it would seem as if every condition for a perfect substitute for chewing tobacco had been fulfilled. – C.L. Mitchell, M.D. in "Clinical Notes".http://books.google.com/books?id=vzj0SGBjK_4C&pg=PA36-IA4&lpg=PA36-IA4&dq=coca+substitution+for+tobacco&source=bl&ots=TV6P-OVKGV&sig=phe_-y4Ai7oex5X14nmFWgFOWPE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=D1APUJ2KJIa36wGR2oDwBw&ved=0CFMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=coca%20substitution%20for%20tobacco&f=false

     http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/coca-to-combat-opiate-alcohol-and.html
     http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/coca-as-tobacco-habit-cure.html
     http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/criminal-mercantilism-public-health.html

Meanwhile attempts were made to hide Tobacco addiction with claims that Tobacco cigarettes were being laced with Opium in order to make them more habituating, as if the more physically addictive substance, Tobacco needed such.  Or if this was even ethical, given what was already known on the very floor of the U.S. Congress as it debated the 1914 Harrison 'Narcotics' Act.

      ... there are tens of thousands of people in the United States who die every year from the excessive use of cigarettes;    and yet I find Senators still pulling away at the cigarette as though t were a perfectly harmless thing. I believe the Senator will agree with me that there are many thousands of people who die from what is called tobacco cancer, a cancerous growth affecting the throat from overuse of cigars; and we find perhaps 60 percent of the Senators pulling away at the cigar as unconcerned as though no one were dying as a result of these cigars...
U.S. Congress, Senator Porter James McCumber (R) North Dakota, August 15, 1914

With Tobacco so protected by the 1906 Food and Drug, and the 1914 Harrison Acts, cigarette manufacturers were not only free of the market competition of herbal Opium and Coca leaf products, they were additionally free to be exempt from the basic requiring of labeling of the ingrediants of their cigarettes, required for anything else except alcoholic beverages.

Powder cocaine and heroin could become the new scapegoat used to 'justify' this repression, forgetting the numerous benifits and safety of Opium and Coca as plant drugs compared to the refined ultraconcentrates favored by prohibition, along with with the officially protected cigarettes.

In each major category of intoxicant used by our species, there appear to be one or two drug plants that researchers have noted, are more controllable, hence safer, than all the other plants or synthetics in that category. Coca leaf stands out among all the stimulants, licit and illicit, as the easiest to control and the one least likely to produce toxicity or dependency.  http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/coca-leaf-stands-out-among-all.html

And this is what the USDA was able to ban, for the sake of protecting the most dangerous option of Virginia Bright Leaf Tobacco, particularly as cigarettes, more physically addictive then heroin, and way more intrinsically harmful -- imagine taking nicotine as heroin is customerily under prohibition -- taking nearly half a million lives annually within just the U.S.A.

Protecting Cigarette Ingrediant Secrecy

http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-preceeding-post-was-previously.html

Adulterated, Mis-Branded Cigarettes
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/04/adulterated-tobacco-cigarettes.html

Criminal Virginia Bright Leaf Addiction Racketteering

http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/04/criminal-virginia-bright-leaf.html

And that, along with alcoholic beverages are the only two class of consumables exempt from retail product labeling requirements- you can't even find labling informing if your beverage is sweetened with regular sugar or HFCS.

Yet we have this empire of a 'drug war' to deny us Opium and Coca, perverting them into concentrated heroin and cocaine, for the sake of protecting all of that space behind cash register counters everywhere for cigarettes.

That's some drug war.

Production of Cigarettes 1880 - 1968
From Licit & Illicit Drugs, by Edward M. Brecher and Consumers Reports at page 230 showing upturns in cigarette production, following the times of the 1906, 1914 and 1937 U.S. 'drug control laws'

Missing the Opportunity
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/08/missing-opportunity.html

Drug Policy Reform Subverted by Cigarette Industry Influence?
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2010/07/peter-lewis-ira-glasser-is-waste-of.html

AMA self styled 'quackbuster' shilled for big Tobacco
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2015/03/self-styled-quackbuster-jama-editor-dr.html

Leahy to Kerlikowske - Dec 6, 2012

 

 

Dec 6, 2012 letter - Leahy to Kerlikowske

excerpt-

Legislative options exist to resolve the differences between Federal and state law in this area and end the uncertainty that residents of Colorado and Washington now face. One option would be to amend the Federal Controlled Substances Act to allow possession of up to one ounce of marijuana, at least in jurisdictions where it is legal under state law. In order to give these options full consideration, the Committee needs to understand how the administration intends to respond to the decision of the voters in Colorado and Washington. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.

http://www.leahy.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/12-6-12%20copy%20PJL%20to%20Kerlikowske%20re%20-%20fed%20drug%20control%20policy.pdf

Obama- "because Congress has not yet changed the law"

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/president-obama-marijuana-users-high-priority-drug-war/story?id=17946783#.UMsz0Hy9KSO 

Obama told Walters he does not – "at this point" – support widespread legalization of marijuana. But he cited shifting public opinion and limited government resources as reasons to find a middle ground on punishing use of the drug.

“This is a tough problem, because Congress has not yet changed the law,” Obama said. “I head up the executive branch; we’re supposed to be carrying out laws. And so what we’re going to need to have is a conversation about, How do you reconcile a federal law that still says marijuana is a federal offense and state laws that say that it’s legal?”

As Drug War Rant correctly points out:

The word is “yet.” That’s an interesting signal.

 Also the words "at this point" and "widespread legalization".

It's like word is out as to the ultimate and impending end of the late great 20th century drug war.

Dana Beal Sentenced 4-6 Years

1st SitCom on Legalization Movement on FOX

http://www.hailmaryjane.com/new-television-series-the-happy-tree-from-fox-network-centering-around-cannabis-legalization/
That’s right, Greenie’s it’s breaking entertainment news at it’s finest here @ HMJ! Fox network executives have agreed to start working on the new series, The Happy Tree, from Entourage trio Mark Wahlberg, Steve Levinson and Rob Weiss.

It will center on a young, hot-shot corporate attorney who quits his day job followng a nervous breakdown and seeks a life of peace and serenity in Venice Beach only to find himself the unlikely voice for the movement to legalize marijuana.

There isn’t an official release date for the Fox network show, but we can only anticipate it will be a part of the Spring television season. We are on the move, tokers and it’s trivial things such as television shows being made about the legalization movement that make it more real every day. Stay tuned to HMJ for updates and preview clips from the show when they become available. Right on, Fox! Toke on and stayed tuned in, Greenie’s!

Jesuits And Tobacco

Monday, November 26, 2012

Jesuits And Tobacco

A Jesuit was asked whether it was licit to smoke a cigar while praying, and his answer was an unequivocal “no.” However, the subtle Jesuit quickly added that, while it was not licit to smoke a cigar while praying, it was perfectly licit to pray while smoking a cigar. —St.Holger’s Cigar Club

In the 16^th and 17^th centuries the Jesuits developed large tobacco plantations in Central and South America and held financial interests in retaining revenues from them. Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augustinians had similar arrangements in Central America.

During this time, the Jesuits, fond of their snuff, were accused by their Protestant and secular opponents, without any evidence that I have found, of carrying poisoned snuff about their persons and offering it to those they attempted to assassinate. “Jesuit snuff,” this imaginary stuff came to be called. The fear surrounding it appears to have been most intense after tens of thousands of barrels holding fifty tons of Spanish snuff were captured from Spanish ships in Vigo Bay in 1702 by English admiral Thomas Hopsonn and found their way into the British market.

At the same time, Jesuit missionaries introduced the snuff they loved to China’s capitol during the Manchu dynasty, about 1715. For some time, Chinese converts to Catholicism were called “snuff-takers” by their countrymen and handled the manufacture and selling of snuff in Beijing. Many Tibetan Buddhist monks are still quite fond of snuff.

The Jesuits were not alone among the mendicant orders in their love of snuff. Laurence Sterne, author of Tristram Shandy, also wrote A Sentimental Journey throughFrance and Italy in 1768, in which he described an incident—edifying and humbling to him—of exchanging snuff boxes with a poor friar. But during the 19^th century, the fashion of using nasal snuff faded away, and cigar, pipe, and then cigarette smoking replaced it. Literary sources show that taking snuff was more and more left to the old and the poor, and to certain conservative clergy who persisted with their snuff rather than switch to smoking

Dana Beal Letter - November 18, 2012

Faces sentencing (nevermind that he's committed no real crime) December 10, 2012

November 18, 2012

Dear Nancy,

As you probably heard, I'm getting 130-150 days credit toward the time I spent in Wisconsin solely on my Nebraska detainer, which gives me 13 months to 13 months, 20 days credit for time served. All they have to do is give me 2-3 years like the driver of the van and I'm automatically paroled the day I'm sentenced, although they'll have to go through the formalities during that 80 days I'll have left until I'm released February 27th in Wisconsin.

The only wrinkle is that my probation officer in Wahoo, Suzanne Kusy, had at least given some thought to 3-5 before I told her I was doing 2 years, 8-1/2 months, on Wisconsin parole anyway - so why not recommend concurrent probation? I'd actually be under supervision much longer than the additional 4 or 5 months I'd get until automatic release on the 3-5. (You do half of 3.) I laid out the whole plan to get work release in Wisconsin if I'm eligible under the 2-3 (the last 6 months) for work release here, but the questionnaire I was supposed to fill out and give her was delayed in the mail, so she set an appointment for Wednesday morning the 14th, and never showed. The prosecutor may have grabbed her instead; I don't think Scott Tinglehoff will sit still for probation.

So it becomes really important to have Marsha Rummel and 2 or 3 other Madison elected officials to send letters to Suzanne Kusy and Judge Mary Gilbride (c/o Glenn Shapiro) asking for the same kind of sentence, so I get moved to Oakhill Correctional in Oregon, Wisconsin, spend my days at the heroin task force office setting up an Ibogaine Outcomes Study, and get my hernia operation at St. Mary's in Madison. (I could also wait around here to get approved for work release after sentencing, but then I lose part of the 80 days left on my Wisconsin sentence, so I might not be able to get much done.) That'd be a drag, because the election of Tammy Baldwin as U.S. Senator makes our little Outcome Study potentially crucial. A little background:

In June of 2010, Missouri State Rep. John Callahan of South St. Louis, Missouri introduced a methamphetamine treatment research bill in the U.S. House of Representatives. While ibogaine is best known for treating heroin, it happens to be the ONLY thing for crystal meth -- GDNF (glial-derived neurotropic factor) regenerates dopamine neurons, etc. And I just so happened to have key activists close to two congresswomen sitting on the sub-committee with jurisdiction: Ben Masel in Tammy Baldwin's district in Madison and the Heartland Cafe folks in Jan Schakowsky's Northside Chicago district. All we had to do was get ibogaine into the sub-committee's report.

So I got the article in the Omaha World-Herald. But by the time Keegan Hamilton's article came out in thirty Village Voice syndicate weeklies, the tea party had taken the House, and through Tammy and Jan were still on the sub-committee, any appropriation to fund research evaporated.

So we came up with Plan B: Have Tammy circulate a letter in Congress for members to sign asking the head of the DEA how ibogaine, a drug with no abuse potential, can be Schedule I when the Statute explicitly requires "a high potential for abuse". I was on my way to Ben's to finalize the letter when I was busted 45 miles west of Madison. Then, while I was in jail, Ben died of cancer, and it gradually dawned on me the key to ibogaine in Wisconsin is their heroin problem. Once I was back on the street after my heart attack, we didn't make it to Tammy's office until mid-December.

She was in full campaign mode, so we only got to see an aide, who said that if we sent it ourselves, they'd monitor the response - not the same thing as members of Congress signing and sending it. (Right around that time, nine members signed onto a letter denouncing the crackdown on marijuana dispensaries). A couple of weeks later I was re-sentenced, and though I was able to get an ibogaine segment on Madison Channel 15 (with me in it) on February 23rd, by that time I was locked down and no one knew how to follow up. (Which is why I need to be out on work release).

So the election of Tammy Baldwin to the seat Ben Masel once ran for (and got 14% of the vote against Herb Kohl) suddenly makes our little Outcome Study make-or-break. You see, Marsha is friends with Tammy. Alfred McCoy (Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia - I gave him a copy of The Ibogaine Story) does readings at Rainbow Books in Madison. If we get some success stories and create a buzz among Tammy's peers, a U.S. Senator could put a hold on the DEA (like Kohl did over harassment of pain management specialists) until she gets some answers on re-scheduling. And re-scheduling will generate enthusiasm among researchers, philanthropic funding (think Bill and Melinda Gates), and FDA approval for clinical research. Ben's ex-roommate has a U. of Wisconsin Madison lab ready to treat the first twenty junkies if someone comes up with $150,000.

So it all comes back to getting me out on work release. The prosecutors already telegraphed what they're going to say three times when I tried to get my passport back: I'm a marijuana kingpin and right before I was arrested I went around the world dealing drugs. Plus I got busted again not because PWA's (People With AIDS) lives were t risk from moldy weed, but because I think ibogaine and medical marijuana are above the law. We have to bring Marie Cotter over from New Zealand on December 6th and have her and a friend from Madison do an interview comparing the ibogaine situation over in New Zealand vs. here, with Paul Hammel of the Omaha World-Herald, for publication December 8th or 9th. I've already written to him about how Marie is coming halfway around the world to testify that I was in New Zealand getting ibogaine legalized and saving her son from crystal meth/certain death.

We have to get in our four key witnesses: Marie, Alan, Sheila, and Mike - by boxing in the Drug Warriors so that if they block our Outcome Study in Madison to draw the line against medical marijuana, our supporters will feel cheated and at lest one U.S. Senator will be outraged that our witnesses were not allowed to testify.

If an article comes out Saturday morning, December 8th, laying out the situation and asking in effect why I can't just get the same 2-3 as Chris Ryan, I won't have to come back here and get out August 4th.

I'd better get out - the medical staff here has their marching orders, and the nurse, whose name I didn't get, tells me I'm perfectly stable. The growth on my back is getting bigger, but she won't order a biopsy, and there will be no hernia operations. It might disturb the judge. Copy this letter to our media list, and put it up on Facebook.

Thanks,
Dana #5567

Irvin Dana Beal #5567
PO Box 22800
Lincoln, NE 68542
---------------------------------------------------------------

November 21, 2012

Dear Nancy,

It's happening again. After walking 'round the yard for 45 minutes, I came in, lay down on my bed, coughed just once -- and got the worst, most excruciating stab of pain that you can imagine in my right hernial sac. I immediately wrote nurse Flynn (whose name I got this morning when I signed their form corresponding to the HIPAA form), telling her the problem is back. When she lanced my finger after I slammed it in the door, she told me she thought I was stable, and seemed inclined to economize on elective surgeries for inmates. The clear implication was that they're going to report that I'm perfectly fit to do whatever sentence Scott Tinglehoff wants to give me.

When I got here I wrote a "kite" (as in "go fly a kite!") letter telling the medical staff that the Sheriff's error in not moving me here September 4th meant that I was liable to miss surgery in Madison with Dr. Dave DeAngeles at St. Mary's. So that they would have to do it instead. They wrote back: "Your county is responsible for your care and any referral would need to be approved." Then when I saw Flynn, she said barring a strangulated hernia, they don't fix hernias. What bothers me is that when this happened in April, it was when I moved one leg to get off the bed. So I laid on my back all summer, pushing in my hernias, and nurse Michelle said my constipation was my own fault for not exercising more. It only started feeling tender again recently. This time I way lying on my back and coughed - once. I cough a lot, so if this is going to happen every time, I'm in trouble.

I'm going to tell Suzanne Kusy that she needs to work it out to get me to Oakhill [Correctional Institution in Oregon, WI] and the surgeon who's competent. Not the butcher at Fox Lake who went into an inmate's scrotum three times looking for the hernia that was plainly hanging out of his abdominal wall above the pubic bone. Plus we have elected officials in Madison who can pester the DOC to move me and pay for the surgery.

Tell Marsha Rummel this makes it doubly important to write to Suzanne Kusy and Judge Gilbride (c/o Glenn Shapiro), mentioning the need for this operation besides the work release. Add this to the letter I just sent you when you cc it to Corey, Colin, etc. and email it to Glenn. We should have gone to federal court already, or this wouldn't be happening.

Make certain Suzanne Kusy gets my book even if you have to send her your copy. And the video disc from R.J.

Yours,

 

Dana #5567

'3rd' Party Debate Review

posted Nov 16- written and backposted to October- DW

 

Jill Stein was perhaps the best with her position to ”let science decide”.  It allows her to explicitly endorse cannabis, while offering an objective hope for legal liberalization for other substances from Coca and opium to iboga-ibogaine.  As a basic principle, this should also mean that Tobacco and alcoholic beverage products loose their exemption from retail product labeling laws

Gary Johnson was good for declaring his support for legal Cannabis. 

Less than good though is his fear to go further, combined with his questionable over-generalizing/ fear-mongering more akin to something from prohibitionists concerning the ‘untouchable’ illegal drugs, most notably “cocaine”- it “puts holes in peoples’ hearts” stated Johnson, who notes his “addiction” to running and healthy living. 

Why not instead spotlight prohibition promoting cocaine in its worst forms while eliminating the safe forms- think about prohibition’s iron law as described by Richard Cowan in the December 1996 National Review “How the narcs created crack”.  Should not Johnson say something about Coca leaf?  Should not its benign use at increasing endurance interest him- especially if he’s out to spotlight prohibition, rather than some drug without regard to form and dosage?!  Indeed, Johnson knows this from yours truly at numerous Drug Policy Alliance conferences.  Yet Johnson neglects informing people that prohibition promotes drug abuse- hence limiting liberalization to MJ rather than plant drugs, hence subject gating actual matters of scientific objectivity to the hysteria of the prohibitionists which must disregard matters of relative safety between the dilute preparations generally found with substances that are legal versus the concentrates that prohibition favors- all for the sake of using a mask of hysterics that people can not understand the differences between say drinking coca or opium tea versus sorting smoking or injecting concentrated cocaine, employed clearly for maintaining the double standards required for these agricultural mercantilism schemes.  So we’ll liberalize the laws regarding concentrated cocaine while doing nothing regarding domesticated cocaine aka low potency coca leaf and otherwise dilute cocaine products.  It bespeaks the dynamics of a deference to entrenched mercantilist – commodity interests, whether Coffee, Tobacco or Petroleum- of the mega-costly anti Tobacco habit cure of coca USDA/AMA-APhA/Harvey Wiley/ James Harry Covington pharmaceutical-cigarette mercantilism.

 

Virgl Goode of the “constitution party” utterly is anything but pro-constitution, at least regarding that of the U.S.A., with his overall loyalty to prohibition, limiting his criticism to the Federal government’s  annual cost of enforcement, giving a seriously low such figure of .  Though he would provide comic relief with this support with his southern Virginia accent almost as a spoof on prohibition as what I really is- cigarette market protection!  Just continue the pretense- making your commonwealth’s courts into criminal entities dedicated to subverting health for the sake of protecting virginia’s coffin nails.

Cigarette-Vodka Czar Ivanov

published November 18- bacposted to Oct 28

This photo from the October 24, 2012 ‘Russia Today’ advertising supplement - of Russia’s ‘Drug Czar’ Viktor Ivanov - next to photo of man smoking a tobacco cigarette next to a child- frames it succinctly

It's captioned “Ivanov speaks at a forum on fighting drug production in Afghanistan”. 

Ought to captioned – “Ivanov speaks at forum on Protecting Cigarettes and Vodka From the Market Threat of Safer Substances”-  “Protecting cigarette markets by kidnapping-extorting people with Opiates, MJ and “cocaine”.

Pushes the cigarette-pharmacratic mercantilism-inquisition.  Is he part of some conspiracy to make Russia look exceptionally stupid, particularly with its true leading drug problems of alcohol (primarilPeople like to conflate the existence of a monolithic entity of “drugs”.

That disregards the existence of many drugs, including the many that are not illegal- if it were a war on drugs then why only on some, and without regard to actual matters of pharmacology and pharmacokinetics.  You know- comparing by comparable forms.  Such as a plant infusion versus a plant infusion.  A concentrated white powder or sulfate versus another such white powder or sulfate, and particular mode of administration.   Rather than a double standard of a plant infusion of one drug versus an ultra concentrated dosing of another drug.  Say drinking coffee or caffeine containing tea.  Or smoking Tobacco one way or another.  Versus snorting, smoking or injecting concentrated cocaine or morphine or heroin.  But what about drinking coca or smoking opium?  Or drinking or eating opium or coca?   We only have about 25 years of coca cigarettes, denying a longer term study of their health effects – though a sufficient to know they were not crack cocaine- aka not an abuse problem.  Nor were the coca beverages, even those made with isolated cocaine appropriately diluted down.  Nor really were opium products- asides from being physically addictive like coffee or especially Tobacco.  Yet we have this universal deference to a serious double standard established circ. 1906.  Coca-cocaine and Opiates are targeted as extra dangerous requiring all sorts of intrusions and bureaucracy making.  Nevermind that the “laws” from then on equating coca and otherwise dilute cocaine with concentrated cocaine simply shifted markets for the worse.  And they call the war on some drugs a war on drug abuse?  Or a strike for public health?  Really?  When it bans the substances that take no lives in their natural forms and potencies- and for the sake of the market protection of alcohol and cigarettes the latter taking nearly half a million lives annually each in the USA and Russia?!

Yet Tobacco cigarettes in particular are green lighted; in the USA with a 1906 FDA excluding tobacco from its purview while giving the dictatorial power to the US Department of Agriculture!

If one cares about the abuse of concentrated drugs- they are actually promoting such by supporting the status quo.

Take some Blast caffeine concentrate. Or some nicotine.  Adulterate it with some other white powder to ensure one does not know the exact purity.  Jack up the price to encourage its most efficient re direct use.  Watch the differences between taking such drugs that way.  See the health problems cause by say switching to injecting a drug- as that’s the most effective way especially when the drug’s price is jacked up by the prohibition. Watch the drug treatment quacks salivating over the business generated by such modes of drug taking.  We could make tobacco illegal as opiates and coca-cocaine are now, and adopt a methodone model.  Imagine that making people who can now purchase nicotine chewing gum at drug stores instead go to special nicotine maintenance clinics, which restrict take home doses, so one is addicted to the clinic.  Imagine adopting the same model making Tobacco and concentrated nicotine equally illegal by gross weight.  Think about the LSD carrier weight issue.  These “laws” equate an inactive ingredient with the accompanying relatively if not entirely inert co-ingredients, e.g. potentially making an 8 ounce cup of coca tea as ‘illegal’ as ½ pound of cocaine hci or sulfate.  What a waste of money and time.  But what a jobs creator!  Just lie to yourself.  Forget it’s a scam, and instead delude yourselves by calling it a moral crusade- while in reality it's anything but.

For the sake of Russia, it's an invaluable means to subvert human health and human rights for the sake of making it safe for cigarettes and vodka.

 

Pharma Market Protection- confirmed by No on 3 in Massachusetts

No on 3- an anti MJ legalization lobbyist group reveals prohibition is all about Pharmaceutical market protection- telling us that Sativex is ok while supporting maintaining the ban on natural MJ

http://mavotenoonquestion3.com/the-joke-is-on-us-or-is-it/

The first video is a throw back to major quacks as Harvey Wiley who banned the non carcinogenic Opium and Coca leaf, for the sake of protecting markets in pharmaceuticles and cigarettes. Plants as medicine are bad- nevermind the Bible's Book of Genesis. But pharmaceuticals are good- so much so that they must be protected by mis-defining people possessing or growing their own as "crime". Such is the big money reason behind such sorry excuses of politicans as Obama-Romney's contempt for public opinion and basic decency, debasing the judicary as accomplices to a costly and ongoing criminal mercantilism.

Cannabis Oil for Curing Cancer- the Medical Marijuana Next Front

Man treating his leukemia with Cannabis Oil ACQUITTED by JURY of MJ Possession Charges




http://www.koaa.com/news/marijuana-patient-uses-pounds-of-marijuana-for-ounces-of-cancer-cure-/#!prettyPhoto/0/

Stating the Obvious- Pills Safer Than Powders

easier to take measured does- contrast pills with say the salt shaker let alone powder sugar!

yet another example of the drug war undermining safety -- under some false jesuitical 'puritanism' disregarding actual safety for the sake of protecting say the crops that adorn the columns of teh U.S. Capitol building -- while promoting more problematic modes of consumption, not only from plants to concentrates, but concentrates in doses measured rather than un-measured

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2012/sep/04/danes_want_heroin_pills_addicts

http://cphpost.dk/news/national/heroin-pills-way


afternoon addition- from the above link:

Health Minister Astrid Krag (Socialistisk Folkeparti) has proposed that heroin in pill form be made available to addicts. Heroin abusers can currently receive the drug free from the state, but only as an injection.

Citing a new report from Sundhedsstyrelsen, Krag said it was time to offer a choice.
"With tablets, we get a tool that lessens the risk of incorrect dosages, injuries and incidences of cancer," Krag told Politiken newspaper. The health minister expects that the pills could be available in 2013.

 

Health Minister Astrid Krag 

Hmm.  heroin and cancer.   This has received some comments, from the first link above:

natural is best

by Paul Pot (not verified), September 05, 2012, 03:37am

 

How does injection heroin lead to cancer?
The opiates are actually amazingly safe, especially when compared to alcohol.
Legalize drugs entirely and let people who like opiates have the choice of smoking opium which is far safer than either injection or pills.

Funny how one of the safest

by sbkw1983 (not verified), September 05, 2012, 10:27am

Funny how one of the safest (if not the safest) classes of drugs (opiates/opioids) is also one of the most physical dependency forming.

It's also my favorite drug type, because over the years that I've been using, I've never had to deal with any sort of disease or disorder directly or indirectly caused by the use of said drug (with the exception of addiction).

What I'm trying to say is, I'm confused as to how opiates/opioids are carcinogenic. First time I ever heard of anything of the sort.

I hope Danish Health Minister Astrid Krag has not been bullied or threatened by U.S. drug policy lawmakers or law enforcement such as the DEA. They have been known to pull this type of shit. Yet when another country asks them to amend one of their laws - usually for a good reason - they're basically told to fuck off.

---

Perhaps this claim is a Freudian slip about the drug "laws" as what they really are- an extremely costly and continuing criminal scheme of anti opium, coca and cannabis agricultural mercantilism to protect cigarettes- THE product that used as directed takes nearly 500,000 lives annually.