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Monday, July 23, 2012

Ancient Regime Signaling an End?


Lowry often reflects a Vatican/Roman Catholic perspective.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/if_chris_christie_is_soft_on_drugs_StziL27JPVjHezCKrZ0RQI

Exhaustion is finally setting in with the enormous human and fiscal costs of attempting to eradicate the ineradicable. People have always used intoxicants, and always will, in ways ancient and new. After all the countless resources expended trying to keep illegal drugs from entering the United States, The New York Times reported the other day, abuse of indigenous prescription drugs is the nation’s biggest drug problem. In 2008, it accounted for the lion’s share of overdose deaths.

A new drug tends to go through a natural epidemic cycle. New users pick it up and spread the word about the good times. Then, it loses its allure as its ravages become plain in the wrecked lives of the hooked.

The metrics say we are “winning” the fight against cocaine. Today, there are only 1.5 million users a month, a drop from nearly 6 million in the heyday of the 1980s. But cocaine’s price hasn’t changed much; its prestige has. “When cocaine stopped being the drug of investment bankers and started becoming the drug of $5 whores, it became less fashionable,” says UCLA professor Mark Kleiman, co-author of “Drugs and Drug Policy.”

The war on drugs overseas, a US foreign-policy priority for decades, has only shifted around trafficking routes. Mark Schneider of the International Crisis Group notes how — in the “mercury effect” — pressure against the cartels in Colombia squeezed the action into Mexico, where it is now being displaced again, to Central America and the Caribbean. No wonder that at the Summit of the Americas in April, Latin American leaders expressed disenchantment with the entire enterprise.

No one crafting American laws from scratch purely on a basis of public health would make marijuana illegal while alcohol — much more damaging to society — is legal. Slowly, the prohibition on marijuana is giving way. Medical marijuana is legal in 17 states and DC. Colorado, Oregon and Washington state will consider ballot measures to legalize the drug in November.

The current regime makes criminals of millions of casual users, but legalization — even in one state — could collapse the price nationally and lead to more widespread use.

Every alternative has its pitfalls. The mandatory treatment now being implemented in New Jersey, although better than a jail sentence, is often less effective than advertised. But we are exiting the era when a focus on the harmful effects of illegal drugs excludes all consideration of the harmful effects of their hard-fisted prohibition. The debate is becoming less susceptible to cheap rhetorical bullying.

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The un-spoken pitfall is the whole market substitution issue. 

They fear more widespread use- of what, marijuana versus alcohol?

Or greater use of cocaine and opiates.

But why must they look at matters in such a limited fashion?

Throughout history societies have delt with propogating cocaine use, starting and continuing with the sociteies useing it the longest in South America- using Coca leaves (rather than concentrated cocaine, as people use Coffee, caffeineated beverages and Tobacco, or caffeine pills or nicotine chewing gum, but not conentrated caffeine and nicotine in unfixed potencies.)

Eleven decades ago two Popes awarded Corsican French pharmacist-entrepeneur Angelo Francois Mariani gold papal medels as a 'benefactor of humanity'


Today, Mark Klieman can talk about 1980s wall street stock brokers and more recent $5 prostitutes= a sly reference to the hyperglygemic - ultra rapid over absorption as more of a sexual [over]enhancer than something to be otherwise constructive.

But why don't we see anything being said by Klieman, and others in academia about the whole iron law of prohibition of cocaine and opiates discussed way back in December 1986 in National Review 'the narcs created crack'

Why can't they see or say anything of the larger picture- of denying coca with the effect of perverting it to ultra-concentrated forms for the sake of protecting other agricultural commidities.

Why can't we buy coca products, but we can buy alcohol and especially cigarettes, everywhere?  

And alcoholic beverages and Tobacco products just happen to be the two class of products exempted from retail product labeling requirements.

With Tobacco the most dangerous of the plant stimulants, and Coca, known as a 'Tobacco habit cure' the safest, why are we continually spending billions proping up such a costly agricultural mercantilsim scheme?

Why do we put up with academiacs seemingly most concerned about prolonging the agony?


Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Al Franken - DNC AGAINST GMO Labeling

AGAINST the consumers' right to know!


Also BOTH of my NEW York Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand
---

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Marcospinelli/obama-marijuana-harborside-health-center_b_1678701_169340971.html

17 hours ago ( 6:17 PM) Let me exemplify the problem that I, as an old liberal Democrat, have with the state of our government and elections.

You would think that Democratic politicians would be for the same things that I, as a liberal Democrat, am for -- Smart, progressive policies. Even just the basics, what might be called "compromises", like leaving marijuana illegal, but just rescheduling it. Or leaving it illegal for recreational use, but leaving medical marijuana dispensaries alone. Like (on another topic), forget about stopping GMOs from getting into the food supply (oh how I wish), but at least allowing states to permit the labeling of GMOs on food so that I can make a choice whether I want to put GMOs into my body and my children's and grandchildren's bodies.

Here is the roll call vote on the 6/21/2012 US Senate vote on a bill to permit states to require any food, beverage or other edible product offered for sale have a label on it indicating that it contains a genetically engineered ingredient.

Guess who else voted against this?

Democratic senators Al Franken, Sherrod Brown, Chuck Schumer, Dick Durbin, Ben Cardin, Jeff Bingaman, Tom Harkin, Debbie Stabenow, among other Democrats. Monsanto has bought and paid for them. I'm told they're referred to as "The Monsanto Senators".

Al Franken, fercrissakes.

Unless and until there is drastic and uncompromi­sing change to our campaign financing system, until corporatio­ns are no longer 'persons' and are prohibited from participat­ing in elections and politics, all efforts to reform government are useless. But that is NOT going to happen under Obama or the DLC-contro­lled Democratic Party as we'd hoped when we put them in power in 2008; it's not even on their 'To Do' list. Both parties are corrupt to the bone.

This liberal Democrat is done with the Democratic Party.  

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http://foodfreedomgroup.com/2012/06/23/senate-votes-no-gmo-food-labels/

YEAs —26
Akaka (D-HI)
Begich (D-AK)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Boxer (D-CA)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Leahy (D-VT)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —73
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Baucus (D-MT)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Brown (D-OH)
Brown (R-MA)
Burr (R-NC)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Chambliss (R-GA)
Coats (R-IN)
Coburn (R-OK)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Conrad (D-ND)
Coons (D-DE)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Crapo (R-ID)
DeMint (R-SC)
Durbin (D-IL)
Enzi (R-WY)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hagan (D-NC)
Harkin (D-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Hutchison (R-TX)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johanns (R-NE)
Johnson (R-WI)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Kohl (D-WI)
Kyl (R-AZ)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lee (R-UT)
Levin (D-MI)
Lugar (R-IN)
McCain (R-AZ)
McCaskill (D-MO)
McConnell (R-KY)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Moran (R-KS)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Paul (R-KY)
Portman (R-OH)
Pryor (D-AR)
Reid (D-NV)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rubio (R-FL)
Schumer (D-NY)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Shelby (R-AL)
Snowe (R-ME)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Thune (R-SD)
Toomey (R-PA)
Udall (D-CO)
Vitter (R-LA)
Warner (D-VA)
Webb (D-VA)
Wicker (R-MS)

Monday, July 16, 2012

Cannabis Oil Supressed via Pharma (cigarette) drug war

Cannabis Oil shown to Cure Cancer
Please see this link to see 'Run from the Cure' about the use of Cannabis Oil to cure Cancer
http://www.cannabisculture.com/articles/5169.html

Father talking about his son's suffering alievated by Cannabis Oil



Stephen DeAngelo talks about the Obama Adminstration's Eric Holder's criminal actions against Harborside Dispensary.


PROTEST the OBAMA FUNDRAISER - JULY 23, 2012
http://www.harborsidehealthcenter.com/

Thursday, July 12, 2012

Aug 27 Dana Beal Nebraska Trial Scheduled







New trial date set for Dana's bench (no jury) trial: Monday, August 27, 2012.
From the Nebraska court calender:
Beal,Irvin,D, 08/27/2012 8:30AM 01
Trial to Court State v. Irvin D Beal CR090000091

http://www.nebraska.gov/courts/calendar/index.cgi


Dana's contact info in jail as of April 20, 2012


Dana's trial in Nebraska for transport of medical marijuana is scheduled to begin on August 27, 2012. He needs financial support and support in the form of letters to be written to Judge Mary Gilbride and to be mailed to his attorney, Glenn Shapiro. (Do not mail them to the judge.)
Please write those letters of support for Dana ASAP. "They" are not allowing a medical marijuana defense, so those letters are extremely important! They will be used as a "proffer", i.e. evidence not permitted at trial that is entered into the record, to be used at appeal.

If the judge gets a thousand letters, "they'll" HAVE to take it seriously, one would think!
The letters should attest to the validity of medical marijuana (write about your own personal experiences or those of friends and family). Also write about Dana's history of helping suffering people.

In September, 2011, while awaiting transfer from jail to prison in Wisconsin after pleading guilty and being sentenced on a similar charge, Dana had a heart attack, which resulted in double-bypass open heart surgery. One week after returning to prison this past February, he had another heart attack and a stent had to be placed. He has other serious medical issues which are not being addressed in prison.

Irvin Dana Beal ID # 6669
Saunders County Jail
387 North Chestnut Street, Suite 4
Wahoo, NE 68066

402-443-8167 - main jail number
402-443-5660 - front desk/visitation

COURT DATES:

Monday, August 27, 2012 at 9:30 am CDT, Room 1: TRIAL in Nebraska is scheduled to begin.


From the Nebraska court calender:
Beal,Irvin,D, 08/27/2012 8:30AM 01

Trial to Court State v. Irvin D Beal CR090000091

http://www.nebraska.gov/courts/calendar/index.cgi

Dana needs people to go and support him.
Details will be posted as we get them. Stay tuned...

LETTERS OF SUPPORT:

Write the letter to:

Judge Mary Gilbride
Saunders District Court
387 North Chestnut Street
Wahoo, Nebraska 68066

Then put the date.

The salutation is "Your Honor:".

Sign it "Respectfully" or "Respectfully Yours".
Then write your signature.
Underneath your signature, print your name and address.

Mail the letter to:

Glenn Shapiro, Attorney at Law
Schaefer and Shapiro, LLP
1001 Farnam Street, Suite 300
Omaha, NE 68102

Mail it Certified, no return receipt, and track it on the USPS (United States Post Office) website. That way you know whether or not it got delivered to Mr. Shapiro. If it did not, re-send your letter, please.

If anyone has a good model letter to post, that may facilitate the writing of more letters.

MAIL:

LETTERS and MONEY may be put in the same envelope.
Be sure to write your full name and return address on the envelope.
Money must be in the form of a POSTAL MONEY ORDER.
DO NOT SEND bank money orders or cashier's checks!
Mail money "Certified", so you can track it on the computer on the USPS (United States Postal Service) website and know it got delivered. (You don't need to get a return receipt.)

BOOKS must come directly from the publisher or a bookseller. They must be new. The receipt, including all charges, must be in the package, so do not send them as a gift or the receipt will not include the price, tax, shipping and handling. Books from the Amazon.com store will include the receipt. Check with other vendors selling through Amazon before ordering. Many do not ship to prisons.

No violence, nudity, or any other subject matter you think a prison would not allow.
Keep in mind that you want him to actually receive what you're sending!

First class mail will automatically be forwarded to another jail or prison for one year. (If he's released, then he has to provide the forwarding address to them.) Magazines and books will be forwarded for 60 days.

PHONE CALLS:

Calls are limited to 15 minutes each. They are recorded.

The phones are on from 8:00 am until 10:30 pm Central Time, except during inmate counts and meals.

Securus is the phone provider.

To contribute to Dana's Securus phone account, which allows him to call any number on his call list:

Go to:
http://www.securustech.net/
--> "Inmate Debit Account"

Click on:
"Fund Your Inmate's Account Now"

Find an inmate:
Search by Inmate Name
Irvin Beal
NE (Nebraska)
Saunders County Jail; Wahoo

Select the inmate you want to fund:
Beal, Irvin Dana; #6669; Saunders County Jail; Wahoo

You may put in between $25 and $100 at any given time.
There is a $6.95 set-up fee.
Therefore, you will be charged between $31.95 and $106.95, depending on how much you put into the account.

Calls from the jail to NY cost 60 cents per minute with a $2.50 connection fee.
Therefore, one 15-minute call costs $11.50, or $46 for four 15-minute calls.

$31.95 will buy Dana two 15-minute calls to NY, leaving $2.00 in the account.
$106.95 will buy Dana eight 15-minute calls to NY plus one 9-minute call to NY.

If you wish to put money into Dana's account by phone, call customer service 24/7 at:

800-844-6591
Press 3 to fund an inmate's account. You will be placed on hold for customer service.
The customer service rep will ask the name of the jail (Saunders County Jail) and the name (Irvin Dana Beal).
Then you tell the rep how much you want to put into the account ($25 to $100) and give your credit card information.

This is also the number to call if you have any problems with putting money into Dana's account, online.

CONTRIBUTIONS FOR DANA'S LEGAL EXPENSES:

1. WISCONSIN
Bryon Walker, Attorney at Law
PO Box 10
La Farge, WI 54639

2. NEBRASKA
Glenn Shapiro, Attorney at Law
Schaefer and Shapiro, LLP
1001 Farnam Street, Suite 300
Omaha, NE 68102

Thank you very much!

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Rutgers - War on Drugs Call For Papers

CFP: Challenging Punishment: The War on Drugs, Race, and Public Health

http://pointsadhsblog.wordpress.com/2012/07/10/cfp-challenging-punishment-the-war-on-drugs-race-and-public-health/

by ttravis

From Donna Murch, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Rutgers University, and Samuel K. Roberts, PhD, Associate Professor of History (Columbia University) and Sociomedical Sciences (Mailman School of Public Health)

Historicizing the Total War

This Call for Papers invites historical essays dealing with aspects of the U.S. War on Drugs, WWII to the present. The pre-circulated papers will be presented and workshopped at a two-part symposium to be held at Rutgers (April 5-6, 2013) and Columbia (Oct. 4, 2013). Most or all of the selected essays will be published in an edited volume or journal special edition.

Please submit a detailed one to two page abstract which outlines research methods, sources, analytic framework as well as a one page bibliography to challengingpunishment [at] gmail [dot] com by SEPTEMBER 1, 2012.

Essay topics may include any of the following:

· Licit and Illicit drugs in political, social, cultural, and economic context (formal and informal economy): the production, distribution, use, and regulation of controlled substances and pharmaceuticals

· Power and inequality: race, place, class, gender, sexuality, citizenship status and indigeneity

· Public health, medicine, and the therapeutic state (mental health, harm reduction/minimization)

· Surveillance, screening, testing (in public health, police, employment, social policy, etc)

· Criminal justice (policing and criminalization, carceral state, drug courts, alternatives to incarceration and sentencing practices)

· Institutions; social policy and practices; (dis)incentives

· Social and professional movements, “community-based,” and grassroots response

· Youth culture, street organizations, “gangs,” racketeering, organized crime, and underground economies

· History and critical analysis of addiction and recovery (psychiatry, neuroscience, psychology, social epidemiology)

· Contemporary and historical pathways to recovery (maintenance programs, support groups, counseling, therapeutic communities)

· Cold War, foreign policy, drug interdiction and transnational networks

· Culture, aesthetics, media, and the politics of representation



While essays should be historical, they need not be authored by professionally trained historians. Indeed, essays from all disciplines (including history of science, Science and Technology Studies [STS], anthropology, sociology, policy analysis, political science, philosophy, medicine, public health, criminology, epidemiology, etc.) are welcome. For example, a researcher in health policy may want to submit an essay on the history of the implementation of positive incentives for drug use cessation (such as monetary payment, free treatment, etc.).

Please submit a detailed one to two page abstract which outlines research methods, sources, analytic framework as well as a one page bibliography to challengingpunishment [at] gmail [dot] com by SEPTEMBER 1, 2012.

ttravis
July 10, 2012 at 7:02 am
Tags: Addiction, drug war, Drugs, History, medicine, Policy, research
Categories: Calls for Papers
URL: http://wp.me/p1dJeQ-1JE

Saturday, July 7, 2012

Zero Hope With Obama

an excellent piece from Scott Morgan about the recent attempt to con people into again trust Obama after his numerous betrayals


http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/2012/jul/02/will_obama_be_better_drug_policy

by Scott Morgan, July 02, 2012, 05:52pm

Marc Ambinder has a totally weird and distracting piece in GQ today saying that unnamed sources have told him to expect important drug policy reforms if Obama is re-elected. I think it's a bunch of crap.
According to ongoing discussions with Obama aides and associates, if the president wins a second term, he plans to tackle another American war that has so far been successful only in perpetuating more misery: the four decades of The Drug War. [GQ]
That's just the first sentence of many, but we can stop right here because I think there's been a huge misunderstanding. Marc Ambinder seems to think that Obama's people talking about reforming drug policies is a meaningful event, but alas it is anything but that.

Not so many weeks ago I watched with my own eyes as Obama's drug czar draped himself in the flag of reform at an event that was designed to placate pre-election frustration among progressives with regards to Obama's absolute failure to fix a single aspect of the massive war on drugs. The Obama Administration will tell anyone willing to listen that they are thinking creatively about solutions to our swollen criminal justice catastrophe, and it's hardly the sort of "exclusive" breaking news Ambinder breathlessly brings us.

In fact, the real story is the exact opposite of what was reported here. Obama isn't trying to win political points by pretending to support the war on drugs until after the election, at which point he will begin implementing important reforms. He's actually trying to win political points by pretending not to support the war drugs until after the election, at which point he can continue waging the drug war worse than ever.

You see, the drug war is really rather unpopular these days. You score more political points by attacking it than by propping it up, which is exactly why these "aides and associates" of Obama's have no problem telling their friends in the mainstream press about the President's bold post-election plans for fixing flaws in our drug policy. They're just saying this stuff because they know people want to hear it.

The most inaccurate statement you can make about Obama's approach to drugs is that he's trying to look tougher than he actually is. In reality, this administration speaks routinely of backing away from harsh policies, while simultaneously deploying the same drug war demolition tactics we've endured for decades.

If anyone in the press is looking for a good story about Obama's approach to drugs, I'd recommend looking into the massive facade of false promises that's already unraveling in front of us, rather than regurgitating further rumors of future reform.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Legalize Coca & Opium, Not Just Marijuana


A serious flaw of the drug policy reform movement- limiting attention to Marijuana while acting afraid of Coca-cocaine and Opiates; from a comment at Drug War Rant that quotes this article:
"When we talk about legalizing marijuana, we inevitably have to decide what other drugs should be legalized. Do we legalize cocaine, crack, ecstasy, meth, heroin? If not, why not? Shouldn’t we legalize all drugs, regulate them and tax them like alcohol?

I’m all in on legalizing marijuana. Tax it and we can retire the deficit overnight. Smoke it in bars and coffee houses and have laws governing where it can be used.
I don’t know about the other drugs, though. We can debate it, but it seems futile to try to outlaw stuff that people want no matter the cost. At least maybe we could have a sane drug policy that recognizes reality.”
Why do we continue to hear/see such nonsense. There’s NO reason not to legalize Opium and Coca, indeed no reason they go un-mentioned- the plants and products representing them in their natural potencies at a minimum.  The prohibition ensures that we do not have Opium nor Coca, only instead the highly concentrated derrivitives of heroin and cocaine hci or sulfate- denying the safe while promoting the dangerous.  No way is that rational- except as a criminal scam of market protection - mercantilism.

Imagine an alternative reality where we made caffeine and nicoine into white powder poisons. Drug policy reform must break away from the death grip around Ira Glasser etc, like some sort of twisted advice from some cigarette-pharma conflict of interest law firm to protect pharma and cigarettes:

July 4, 2012 Seize the Day
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/06/july-4-seize-it.html

Douglas Andrew Willinger Angelo Francois Mariani Coca Activism
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/06/douglas-andrew-willinger-angelo.html

Drug War Tobacco Pharma Agricultural Mercantilism
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/03/drug-war-tobacco-pharma-agricultural.html

Drug War Criminal Mercantilism to Protect Pharma and Cigarettes
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/it-was-criminal-mercantilism-to-protect.html

Drug 'Warriors' Neglect History of Coca - Vin Coca Mariani
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/drug-warriors-ignore-history-of-coca.html

Drug 'Warriors' Neglect Pharmacokinetics - Promote Drug Abuse
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2008/03/drug-warriors-ignore-pharmacokinetics.html

April 1 "interview" concerning drug policy movement - pharma cigarette law firm advise program
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2012/04/about-drug-policy-covington-and-burling.html

NO discussion of the drug war should overlook the reality of it as an illegal market protection scam for cigarettes- which is obvious from that p 230 chart of cigarette production with the upturns happening with the various ‘drug control’ statutes in 1906, 1914 and 1937.

Yet we continue to see all of this ‘scholarly’ work that completely neglects this.

USDA Banned Coca to Protect Tobacco - Public Health DISASTER
http://freedomofmedicineanddiet.blogspot.com/2011/04/coca-as-tobacco-habit-cure.html

By focusing upon MJ to the exclusion of Coca and Opium we have unwittingly extended prohibition. Why continue to do so?