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.