Cannabis Rasta

[lofter1]

Yo, Dude, check this out ...

Rasta lends its name to a third type of cannabis

20 September 2005
From New Scientist Print Edition
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18725175.200

AS POLICE and dope smokers know, there are two types of cannabis. Cannabis sativa sativa is mainly used to make hemp, while the indica subspecies is prized for its tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content, which produces the "high". But now Australian researchers have discovered a third type of cannabis, called rasta.

Simon Gilmore of the Canberra Institute of Technology catagorised 196 sample plants according to the DNA in their mitochondria and chloroplasts. The samples included plants grown for drugs and hemp as well as wild varieties from Europe, Asia, Africa, Mexico and Jamaica.

The results showed three distinct "races" of cannabis. In central Asia the THC-rich indica predominated, while in western Europe sativa was more common. In India, south-east Asia, Africa, Mexico and Jamaica the rasta variant predominated. It looks similar to the sativa subspecies, but generally contains higher levels of THC.

Since the study was of DNA rather than a formal taxonomic study, Cannabis sativa rasta is not yet an official new subspecies: the name was the result of a competition in Gilmore's lab. Their work is expected to appear in the journal Forensic Science International later this year.

From issue 2517 of New Scientist magazine, 20 September 2005, page 12

[thomasjfletcher]

I bought some dope from some rastas when I was living in a squat in Brixton in the late '80s. My God it was strong! (somewhat stronger than stuff I've bought in Washington Square...!)

http://www.agencija-palladio.si/_derived/Rasta.htm_txt_Rasta.gif

[NYatKNIGHT]

Australian "researchers" discovered a third type of cannibis - gotta love it. How does one get on this research team?

[thomasjfletcher]

indeed!

http://i.cnn.net/cnn/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/stories/first.lady/just.say.no.jpg

[NYatKNIGHT]

No, you dont.

Then get a sense of humor, or at least make a point.

[lofter1]

Take a hit. I've found that can help.

[Stern]

I have no sense of humor when it comes to this subject. And there is no reason for me to get one.


Why do you have no sense of humor when it comes to this subject?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Forgot what I was going to say.

[NYatKNIGHT]

Weren't you going to order a pizza?

[Gab]

If pot is legal, I don't want that as the S.A.Q.(Société des alcools du Québec) store, the S.A.Q. is a liquor store owned by government in Quebec and I absolutly don't want a cannabis store owned by governement. If everything is owned by government, there is no competitor. For me the S.A.Q. is a scam because government suppose to take care of population about their health while they sell alcohol and when there is a lot of regulations on tabacco. That just doesn't make any sense. I think Quebec government should sell S.A.Q. to private business.

[Edward]

Share a pizza with Zippy, Gab

[Gab]

Share a pizza with Zippy, Gab May be Pizza with pot.

[ZippyTheChimp]

Too late

[Gab]

I'll come to NYC at the on september 30th by bus with Greyhound company. If I find an excellent Import Export business why not. I just have to tell the custom officer that I will get rid of welfare when I'll come back to Montreal.

[Supercool Dude]

Best Pizza I ever had is at Loretta's on Layton Ave in the Bronx!

A third species of herb?

If you get busted with this new species, they cannot prosecute you for it, because there is no law against the new breed of weed, yet. They can only prosecute you for Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica.

It seems like a good legal loophole!

Why is it illegal? Why, because it isn't good for you, then it is bad for you, therefore, it is illegal!

You are dazed, bewildered, lost in a World without color or time........

You've been tokin Herb!

Pot, Grass, Weed, Marijuana. You smoke it and you get high.

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

[Supercool Dude]

Sounds like some good shit to me! LOL!

[Jasonik]

This forum has gone to shit.
http://ia300108.us.archive.org/0/items/reefer_madness1938/reefer_madness1938.gif

[lofter1]

If you get busted with this new species, they cannot prosecute you for it, because there is no law against the new breed of weed, yet. They can only prosecute you for Cannabis Sativa and Cannabis Indica.
My thoughts exactly!

Jasonik: Thanks for that great clip...

[ZippyTheChimp]

This forum has gone to shit.The correct idiom is: This forum has gone to pot.
:cool:

[Stern]

This forum has gone to shit.

If you ever want to come to NYC you can not have these intolerences.

[lofter1]

A question:

If the use of the cannabis in question is not illegal, as it appears that the partaking of Cannabis Rasta is not, then one's argument against it cannot be a legal one.

So from whence has the animus against this innocent plant taken root?

(sorry, I couldn't resist)

[angler]

God Dammit I hate you guys so much. Am I the only one here with a no drug stance? Said seeing as how I am the youngest one here, and the most violent. You would think it would be vice versa.

I am a high school teacher.

I have read your recent postings, including those in this thread and your message about burying image CD's.

Considering your writing style and message content, I was quite certain you were under the influence of a controlled substance such as marijuana.

Perhaps you should spend more time doing your studying and homework, playing sports, and socializing with children your own age. Make better use of your time. Stay off adult internet discussion forums.

I give the same advice to my own students.

[lofter1]

God Dammit I hate you guys so much. Am I the only one here with a no drug stance? Said seeing as how I am the youngest one here, and the most violent. You would think it would be vice versa.
"No Drug Stance" ???
Are you against anti-coagulants?
Aspirin?
Penicillin?
As has been pointed out this plant is not illegal.
Expand your mind...

[Stern]

Ive been to New York, and I wont be going in the near future. And no, trust me, I wont need tolerance.

Trust me if you want to make in New York you cannot have intolerances.

[Stern]

God Dammit I hate you guys so much. Am I the only one here with a no drug stance? Said seeing as how I am the youngest one here, and the most violent. You would think it would be vice versa.

I think its because you havent lived. A no-drug stance is a very good stance to have, however most people with no-drug stances don't make a big deal out of it, it's usually a silent protest. Its just one of those things you have inside yourself, much like religion its a personal decision. Most people have some sort of belief however only the fanatics will try to change others beliefs, you're being a fanatic with your "no-drug" stance.

[ebrigham]

God Dammit I hate you guys so much. Am I the only one here with a no drug stance? Said seeing as how I am the youngest one here, and the most violent. You would think it would be vice versa.

Just curious what you mean by "most violent"... Do you get into a lot of fisticuffs?

[Ninjahedge]

Actually, Fisticufflinks.



And L+O seems a bit irrascable to me too.

L+O, you have to realize that people can do what they want so long as it is not destructive. I believe pot to be less than Alcohol and Nicotine, and the more people that use it, the less competition I will have in life in the job world and other ventures.

Not because pot is a mind killer, but it makes life easier to tolerate. When you are happy with life, there are few that would do anything to change it, so they do not switch jobs, and are not as compeditive.

I do not find that a good thing at ALL for kids when they are going to school, and not that good of a thing for later in life either. But, to tell you the truth, I would rather have a kid who is a pot-head than an Alcoholic.

[thomasjfletcher]

Law and Order- I think that your stance is valid, and it's good that you pursue it. Grass is dangerous and it's not fit for everyone. I've seen a bunch of people tipped into schizophrenia by it. It's certainly not as mild as many people think.
Now, time for my pizza.....

http://hometown.aol.com/vitusproductions/images/ny%20pizza%20in%20cali.jpg

[ZippyTheChimp]

Just curious what you mean by "most violent"... Do you get into a lot of fisticuffs?
I think L&O may actually be Jason Varitek

[ebrigham]

I think L&O may actually be Jason Varitek

That's not funny. Making light of violence like this is no joke

[ebrigham]

ps that was a joke

[BrooklynRider]

I am fully in favor of the peaceful use of drugs and alcohol. The unimpeded use of medical marijuana. And, I support more controls on alcohol - the most dangerous drug out there.

Guess it depends on the era you were born in. I was in high school before that stupid "Just Say No" campaign. I always find that people who have at least experimented with drugs in some way are more interestingthan those who have not.

I'm a fairly respectable guy, who has worked every day of my life since the age of 16. I've tried every drug to hit the market. I not inclined to addictions. And, I think I, personally, am better and more tolerant for having tried them. At least when I talk to someone about drug use, I'm not talking out my ass from a pure place of fear and ignorance.

And, marijuana does not lead to heroin.

[ryan]

Grass is dangerous and it's not fit for everyone. I've seen a bunch of people tipped into schizophrenia by it.

The relationship between pot & schizophrenia is one of correlation, not causation (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/19/reefer_madness/index1.html), meaning research has shown that people diagnosed with schizophrenia smoke pot at a higher rate than the general population, but there is no evidence to suggest that pot smoking causes or contributes to schizophrenia. Mental illness is so understudied and not understood that I think a lot of people grasp for concrete explanations that are not valid.

Ockham's razor (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=Ockham%27s%20razor) suggests that without proof, the simplest of two theories should be pursued. It's much more likely that suffering from mental illness - especially early mild symptoms - predisposes individuals to recreational drug escapism. To my knowledge, no major health risks (aside from very real smoking-related problems like lung cancer and emphysema) have been linked to pot smoking. That's with millions upon millions of taxpayer money thrown at research in an effort to demonize the drug.

I hope Law & Order and all those other "no-drug" kids never take one drink of alcohol, which has a huge and demonstrated impact on our culture - alcohol poisoning deaths, drunk driving deaths, the incalculable effects of alcoholism (never heard of detox for pot for a reason - it's not nearly as addictive). I'm a very boring adult that never smokes pot (and only rarely drinks socially) so I don't have a personal investment here - just very frustrated by all the disinfomation on this subject.

[NYatKNIGHT]

God Dammit I hate you guys so much. Am I the only one here with a no drug stance? Said seeing as how I am the youngest one here, and the most violent. You would think it would be vice versa.

Hate and violence are not side affects of marijuana, if anything it's the exact opposite. So, no, I wouldn't think it would be vice-versa. Not to worry, when you reach maturity you should outgrow the brainwashing.

[BrooklynRider]

L+O-

I think it admirable that you want to lead a healthy life, but you should maybe reflect on a national policy introduced to make people intolerant of others. Your stance on "drugs" takes nothing into consideration other than the "use" of illegal drugs - there are no legal drugs that we can grow or make ourselves - instead we are funneled in to the pharmaceutical industry where they feed us the stuff that is otherwise illegal. You don't differentiate in any way between users: responsible use, recreational use, escapist use and self-destructive use. Smoking a joint to go see an Ashton Kutcher movie is not a condemnable offense. How else would one find any of his movies funny?

Just say "no" is simplistic. Self-destructive drug use is a symptom of a greater problem - not the problem itself. The whole "Just Say No" campaign was a lesson in intolerance and was a very frightening example of the effectiveness of government brainwashing programs. It creates an army of kids ready to report drug users and suspected users, demonizes people who are largely harmless and pertuates the notion that drug users are inherently evil as opposed to our government which is overdosing the poppulation on both illegal and prescribed drugs daily.

[Ninjahedge]

BR, I think you are going a little far with the demonization issue.

You know how hard it is to teach kids, when they are the most susceptable to peer pressure and the like, the differences not only between right and wrong, but more like "inapropriate" and "appropriate".

Movies and childrens stories kind of reflect this as well, with every evil character being, well, Evil looking and unquestionably bad. Kids, in general, find it harder to diffeentiate between the subtle shades of grey.

Now this, unfortunately, does not seem to go away even when these kids grow up. We still have very categorical, seperatist, homogenious notions that tend segregate people and issues on all sorts of imagined lines from political affiliation all the way to appearance. But the bottom line almost always comes out to an "us vs Them" attitude.

That is where the line is drawn, and people want to think that We (us) are on the good side. So the people that make the rules look to what they want and believe and go from there.

Now, as for the whole drug thing, that is an interesting bit of stuff there. The fact being that pot was not considered to be a bad drug, but for some reason they wanted to ban it (I don't remember exactly why, but they were very clever about it).

Drugs were not a new thing, they had been a around for quite a while, and it was already known the bad effects of some such as Opium and the like. In this vein (pun) they cast pot in hopes to include it in the general evil. Unfortunately, in doing so, they actually probably did more harm than good.

Lumping innocuous drugs like pot in with more serious and possibly life THREATENING drugs like heroin only sets up the transition from one to the other much more easily.

Someone who has the idea that all of these things are bad tries it for the first time and gets no real rush, no real addiction to it, and nothing really bad aside from the munchies, red eye, and bad breath. The others cannot be as bad as what they have been told!

SOME people then go on to try others that are on the other side of this misdrawn line to great consequence.

Add to this that it is easier to get what you are looking for once you know someone who sells you something that is illegal in the first place. They will be more likely to know a seller than Average Joe....etc etc.


So, by drawing the line on something that is so easily grown (there is a reason it is called "weed") and with such non-violent non catestrophic effects and results, we have made it an awfully weak line.....


I do not take the "Just say No" campaign as any kind of government totalitarian fear mongering, just a misplanted sloganized campaign to try to draw a very clear line that could be seen by a kid and not mistaken. It has it's good parts and bad parts.

Unfortunately, people in general do not usually see both sides and will focus on only they want to hear, so we will hear people shouting intolerance at people shouting evil......

[ryan]

Hmm... wow... I most agree with Ninjahedge. Demonizing pot as a "killer" drug with serious consequences does damage the credibility of all anti-drug messages - including the really dangerous ones. When a just say no brainwashed kid smokes pot, has fun, then wakes up without any problems they dismiss warnings about the dangers of heroin, crystal meth, etc. too. It's too late when they are hurt by those drugs. In this way, yes, all the misinformation about pot is definitely hurting people.

Ninja- give kids more credit. They don't make overly simplistic black & white media - they are force fed it.

[ebrigham]

On a separate note, I was a DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance through Education) role model back in high school. It was a pretty interesting experience - not sure if I did any good though...

[ryan]

http://i15.ebayimg.com/01/i/04/f0/96/ae_1_b.JPG

If more people were high, we'd have a lot less violence.

[ebrigham]

brings back memories. seem to have misplaced my t-shirt

[BrooklynRider]

The have been numerous studies, reports, etc, etc (please don't make me research them all) that showed that the D.A.R.E. Program was an abysmal failure on every level.

[Ninjahedge]

Hmm... wow... I most agree with Ninjahedge. Demonizing pot as a "killer" drug with serious consequences does damage the credibility of all anti-drug messages - including the really dangerous ones. When a just say no brainwashed kid smokes pot, has fun, then wakes up without any problems they dismiss warnings about the dangers of heroin, crystal meth, etc. too. It's too late when they are hurt by those drugs. In this way, yes, all the misinformation about pot is definitely hurting people.

Ninja- give kids more credit. They don't make overly simplistic black & white media - they are force fed it.

I know.

It is a predisposition that is enhanced by training and such. Just the way that boys are more aggressive than girls, but there is no overwhelming urge for girls to have dolls with brushable hair....

It is easier to go along the road everyone else uses than to actually find the best route.

We have kids that start off with rudamentary concepts of bad and good, a polarization that is both instinctual and part of our own inability to teach things on different leves to someone so new to the whole thing. They grow up with this, live by it and in turn teach their kids something similar.

It is hard to get out of. It was the method that let us survive. It has just gotten a hell of a lot more complicated.....



And DARE was dorky. All you have to do is look at some of the programs and the kids initial reaction to them in person. If you do not know what shows, games, toys or music your kids listen to or WHY they do, you should not be deciding the best way to influence them.


When I was a kid, they showed dorky films, public service announcements on "peacefull" shows like GI Joe and has shows at schools where gymnasts told us to not take drugs and eat broccoli.

:P

http://www.homestarrunner.com/cheatcommandos4.html

(not their best, but coincidentally appropriate)

[Jasonik]

The word dare implies taking a risk by succumbing to peer pressure; confounding really.

I'll never forget Health class in 8th grade when we learned about all the different types of drugs. It was taught by the Phys-Ed director who was in a rock band, and he was always saying stuff like, "That stuff's scary, I knew this guy..."

In retrospect he was the perfect guy to teach it, thoroughly experienced, he instilled in us a healthy respect for drugs, not a doctrinaire fear-mongering paranoia.

[ebrigham]

The have been numerous studies, reports, etc, etc (please don't make me research them all) that showed that the D.A.R.E. Program was an abysmal failure on every level.

I read those studies a while back too, and I tend to agree the program probably didn't do much good. So you are not going to get an argument out of me....

Anyway, it definately was not a complete failure. I mean I got a t-shirt out of it.

[Stern]

Is D.A.R.E. still around? I believe it was phased out but I'm not sure...

[ebrigham]

Is D.A.R.E. still around? I believe it was phased out but I'm not sure...

I am pretty sure you are correct.

[lofter1]

Normal forum members here are probaly beginning to have a strong dislike for me, I thought it would happen months ago.
L&O: I don't have a dis-like for YOU at all.

It was your response to some of the stuff in this thread that I found annoying.

Anyway, the Title of this sub-Forum is "Anything Goes" -- which means it's pretty much a free-for-all.

For me it's a place to have a laugh and to find out about some things I might not have heard about otherwise (i.e.: Audrey the Swan).

PS: Welcome back

[angler]

Angler..... Maybe people like you should be doing a little better as a teacher...

I hereby give you a failing grade in composition. Your spelling and grammar have not improved.

As I said, a student your age should spend more time reading and studying instead of wasting time staring at a computer screen. You probably fit the profile of being a loner, perhaps overweight, or you consider yourself unattractive. To make up for the lack of a social life you find comfort in the online personality you have created on this particular forum. "Hey, I'm not Larry or John any more, I am the famous Mr. Law and Order from the New York forum."

Congratulations on having no vices at your young age. No drugs or alcohol, and of course you never look at pornography online.

I would have to assume you are a high school sophomore, as an older student would have too many activities to allow much leisure computer time. Perhaps as you mature and expand your social circle you will be exposed to recreational drugs. Be sure to check in with this forum and let us know if you enjoy the experience.

[BrooklynRider]

Well, I encourage you to look at more porn and find some of the kinky stuff too, that even your father would wince at.

Listen, L+O, this is a community and it is only as good as its members. We're all pretty honest and up front and disagree. We all agree to disagree in a courteous manner. People fade in and out ofthese places. I think for some of us older folks who are working daily, this place is a little offline place from our responsibilities to visit during breakfast or lunch.

I hope you'll stick around. Diagreeing and disliking are totally different things. Ninja and I argue regularly, but I always look forward to his posts. Stern and I had a row a while back and settled it amicably. Althought this is not "the real world", learning to effectively communicate and accurately assess objective feedback is important. We are all anonymous on here. Our forum "personalities" are the total creation of the person reading us. It's a very surreal and yet total real place simultaneously - and it is, without quetion, the best forum around.

With that said, I'm now going to pop an Atavin and have a glass of wine. You can have a cherry cola and a Necco wafer.

[ryan]

woa, I'm having allex ballard deja vu.

[BrooklynRider]

No, with me. I got raked for being nice to Alex.

woa, I'm having allex ballard deja vu.

And where did that get us?

[ryan]

No, Brooklyn, not a barb at you - or L&O. Not an insult at all... sincere deja vu - especially with angler.

[lofter1]

I'm now going to pop an Atavin and have a glass of wine.
Great combo -- though I find that Lorazepam and Scotch do me better.

[lofter1]

BTW BR, did you know this?

Lorazepam
What should I do if I forget a dose?

If you take several doses per day and miss a dose, skip the missed dose and continue your regular dosing schedule. Do not take a double dose to make up for a missed one.

[BrooklynRider]

I'm having trouble reading this... I missed my earlier dose, so I doubled my last one. Can you make the font bigger? Ooops... spilled my wine... I'll be right back...

[Ninjahedge]

L+O, for your info:


I never had any illegal substance.

I had alcohol twice when I was a kid. Once my father let me taste his Budwiser (which I STILL hate to this day) and once my mother let me taste a warm, cheap, scotch and water after I asked about it (shortly after a MASH episode). Hated it too.


I never touched alcohol until I got to college.

I am now an avid beer/ale drinker, and a minor scotch fan. I still have not taken a single illegal substance.

I still believe that certain substances like Pot are demonized beyond their true impact and that, in effect, makes the whole anti-drug crusade less believable to people who try it and experience no real ill effects.


So whatever.


Also, for better of for worse, I am pretty much the same person in life as I am here on the boards. No false images, no pretending to know what I don't. The one advantage being, that nice delete key.

You can always read what you write before you post it and change things once you see what you are saying. If only you were allowed to proofread life......

[Supercool Dude]

Good for you L&O, if you can avoid all drugs and alcohol, you may live forever!

Do you want to live forever?

Do you think you can?

Regarding Cannabis aka pot.

My lifes experience is that Cannabis does not cause people to become Psychotic.

It was the alcohol and the Amphetamines and Cocaine and LSD and PCP and Magic Mushrooms that caused many of my friends to go psycho.

Pot is legal in Netherlands and a few other countries like Moorocco and the Societies there are not collapsing! LOL!

Regarding Alcohol, it is bad and should be criminalised.

No joking.

I seldom drink, but when I do it is either Heineken Beer or Screwdrivers.

I average an alcoholic beverage every six weeks.

I used to have a friend who fainted when he toked.

One of my old girlfriends toked some weed and became paranoid and called an ambulance and they put her in a Psych Ward for two years!

Reefer is not for everyone like all other drugs.

If that evil freak Ronald Reagan had not become President in 1980, Cannabis would have been legal in all 50 states by now.

Here in NYC, Cannabis is a $100 fine.

[lofter1]

In Vancouver, British Columbia, they have "pot bars" where you can enjoy a smoke while hanging out with friends and drinking a beer or cup of tea. Sale of pot is still illegal (which creates an odd situation) but possession and use (up to a certain amount) are not. Luckily we were directed to a small bookstrore around the corner from the pot bar where a friendly proprietor made sure our visit to Vancouver did not end in disappointment (although my memory is a bit foggy, I definitely remember one long period of sustained laughter after we left the bar and settled in at a nearby restaurant for some delicious vietnamese food).

One funny thing -- before 5PM you can only smoke in the smoking room of the pot bar. The smoking room is a glass enclosed area about 10' x 20'. The smoking room tends to be both crowded and active before 5PM, so the very act of entering the smoking room pretty much ensures that you will get high.

http://www.farangonline.com/images/mag/03DecemberNexts.jpg

If you're planning a trip to Vancouver here are some helpful links:

http://www.shtick.org/DiveBarReview/divebar78.htm

http://www.peak.sfu.ca/the-peak/2003-2/issue8/fe-gonetopot.html

http://www.bluntbros.com/


http://www.bluntbros.com/images/headshopGlass/glassHeadshop_r2_c2.jpg (http://www.bluntbros.com/index.asp)

[ryan]

Damned Canada is always doing it better than us.

[lofter1]

^ Maybe that's why they are so mellow up north?

[Ninjahedge]

^ Maybe that's why they are so mellow up north?


Well maybe that's....

Um.....

What were we talking about?

[Supercool Dude]

There are Cannabis sellers at certain cities like San Francisco and L.A., but I wouldn't go to them with the high prices they charge!

Here in NYC all transactions are done by Cellphone and even Internet and you get free delivery to any location, anywhere, any amount.

It is easy to get on certain corners or bars.

In NYC it is a $100 dollar fine for any weed under 28 grams and if they catch you driving stoned, they confiscate your vehicle and revoke your licence and they sentence you to drug rehab and give you court ordered drug injections of Haldol and antidepressants for many months. The same confiscation driving rules apply to alcohol also.

Cocaine and crack are almost gone here and good riddance!

Cocaine is made from Coca leaves and diesel fuel.

It is highly toxic.

In Florida they give you back your drivers licence and car, if you get off drugs. They just want you off your drug addiction. If you cannot quit, Prison!

[lofter1]

In NYC ... if they catch you driving stoned, they confiscate your vehicle ...

I knew there was a reason I got rid of my car.

[lofter1]

BR: Let's raise a glass to Leo ...

Leo Sternbach, 97, Valium Creator, Dies

By JEREMY PEARCE (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=JEREMY PEARCE&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=JEREMY PEARCE&inline=nyt-per)
October 1, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/01/health/01sternbach.html


Leo H. Sternbach, a research chemist who was foremost among the team of scientists who developed Valium, the tranquilizer that has been prescribed to millions of the sleepless and anxiety-ridden since the 1960's, died on Wednesday at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 97.

His longtime employer, Hoffmann-LaRoche, the international drug company based in Nutley, N.J., announced his death.

The genial image of Dr. Sternbach was well known in psychiatric and pharmacological circles for more than five decades. In his role as a highly productive researcher for Hoffmann-La Roche, he developed products that received more than 200 patents involving chemical innovations.

Dr. Sternbach helped develop antibiotics (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/antibiotics/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), hypnotic drugs and compounds used in bloodless surgery, but he was most widely known for his contribution in producing Valium as well as Librium, a predecessor drug that is also a tranquilizer.

Librium was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1960. It was soon eclipsed by Valium, also known as diazepam, when it was introduced three years later.

Dr. Jeffrey A. Lieberman, chairman of the psychiatry department at Columbia, said that Valium had been used successfully in treating depression (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/depression/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier), anxiety, schizophrenia (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/schizophrenia/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier) and alcoholic withdrawal and quickly became "a cultural symbol in books and movies for the frenzied life of the modern age."

"It represents one of the major milestones of recent psychopharmacology," Dr. Lieberman continued, "and began a transition from drugs that were heavy-handed to drugs that are now much more precise and selective in their activity."

Dr. Sternbach, who tried Valium and reported that it made him drowsy, developed the drug from a class of chemical compounds called benzodiazepines. Dr. Sternbach - working with Lowell Randall, Earl Reeder and others - also showed that it was relatively safe and effective in further testing on mice and cats.

The drug imparts a mild euphoria and can be addictive and cause respiratory arrest, if taken in high dosages.

In 2003, the pharmaceutical industry celebrated the 40th anniversary of Valium's approval and invited Dr. Sternbach to a public celebration.

"It's a very good drug," he told The New Yorker. "It has pleasant side effects. It's quite a good sleeping drug, too. That's why it's abused. My wife doesn't let me take it."

Leo Henryk Sternbach was born in what is now Croatia. He studied in Poland and earned his doctorate from the University of Krakow in 1930.

He joined Hoffmann-LaRoche in 1940 and began his career in research at the company's center in Nutley in 1941. He remained there as director of chemistry until his retirement in 1973 and continued to work for the company as a consultant until 2003.

In 1979, Dr. Sternbach was given the Chemical Pioneer Award from the American Institute of Chemists.

He is survived by his wife of 64 years, Herta Kreuzer Sternbach. The couple lived in Upper Montclair, N.J., until last year, when they moved to Chapel Hill.

He is also survived by two sons, Dr. Daniel Sternbach, a research chemist, of Chapel Hill, and Michael, of Little Silver, N.J.; and five grandchildren.



Copyright 2005 (http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/copyright.html)The New York Times Company (http://www.nytco.com/)

[BrooklynRider]

In his honor, I'll pop two tonight.

[Gab]

If you go to Montreal, don't buy weed at the Berri Square or St-Louis Square, they sell you bullshit, they rip-off people, they claim Berri Square or St-Louis Square are their territory. Anyway you can go to the Mont Royal Park, there's several dealers there. Sometimes you can do business with people who deliver weed like ordering pizza. In Montreal pot smoking is tolerated, police officers target more dealers than smokers, and some officers smoke the weed they already busted. Anywhere in Montreal there is a dealer in every neighborhood or even several of them in the same neighborhood. I used to get weed close to the police station(I mean 1 block away) before the guy moved somewhere else.

[Supercool Dude]

Do not use Valium or anything like it.

It can give you the symptoms of Suicidal Depression and Schizophrenia.

It should not be used for more than one month.

I talked to a bigshot at NORML and they say that Cannabis Rasta will be regarded as Cannabis Sativa by the courts.

I heard that Cannabis was legal in St Maarten and Aruba, but I don't know if it is true or not.

In England, if they find less than 28 grams, they confiscate the herb without arresting you. It is legal in Netherlands and Morrocco. I think it was legalised in Switzerland and Austria, but I don't know. I heard Germany decriminalised it. I heard in some of the tiny nations have no law against it.

[lofter1]

Do not use Valium or anything like it.

In my youth (when my body was stronger) I found -- after a long night of ingesting stimulants, alcohol and other mind-bending intoxicants -- that popping half a valium was the perfect thing to take the edge off.

This allowed for just enough sleep to get me up the next morning and off to a productive day of work.

But your point is well taken ...

Valium is Roche Laboratories' trademarked name of Diazapam.

Drugs that end in in the letters "PAM" are Benzodiazepines and can be nasty and very addictive:


From Hunter Diagnostics ( http://www.hunterdiagnostics.ie/benzodiazepines.php (http://www.hunterdiagnostics.ie/benzodiazepines.php) ) :Benzodiazepines are a group of structurally related drugs widely prescribed
as CNS depressant drugs with sedative-hypnotic, muscle-relaxant, anti-anxiety
and anticonvulsant effects.

The family of drugs includes:

oxazepam (aka serax )
temazepam (aka restoril )
diazepam (aka valium )
chlorazepam (aka clonopin )
prazepam (aka centrax )
halazepam (aka paxipam )
lorazepam (aka ativan)

[Supercool Dude]

If a drug like Diazepam is medically needed, it should only be prescribed by a doctor.

I sure could have used some on 9/11/2001.

But if you need it for more than a month, then you will probably need to be treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which can only be treated by Antipsychotics like Haldol.

Powder Cocaine and Crack cocaine is made from mashed Coca leaves and Diesel Kerosene. Would you snort Gasoline?

Amphetamines are known to cause criminal behavior.

Oddly enough, NASA uses Desoxyn aka Methamphetamine Hydrocloride for Space Sickness.

They say that Cannabis has some promising medical uses with Multiple Sclerosis patients.

Cannabis is used by AIDS and cancer patients to stimulate appetite, but toking it can make the patient sicker in the long run.

Cannabis causes Bronchitis and Emphysema according to the doctors.

[Gab]

What about Montreal, in Montreal pot is not legal but the police officer don't target the smokers, of course they target dealers. If a whistle blower call the police because you smoke weed the police officers just don't care. I don't need a pot bar like in Vancouver, the best place is in your house. Sometimes people order weed same way as they order pizza.

[ZippyTheChimp]

They should combine the two. Save a lot of time.

[lofter1]

And then for dessert ...


Girl Eats Pop's Pot Brownies

Wisconsin man faces drug charge after five-year-old sickened

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/graphics/img/editpot2.gif (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1011051pot1.html)


OCTOBER 11--Meet Luke Schoepke. The Wisconsin nitwit is facing a felony drug rap after his five-year-old daughter got ill from eating brownies that he allegedly laced with marijuana. Schoepke, 24, has been charged with pot possession and obstructing a police officer, a misdemeanor, according to the below Circuit Court criminal complaint (http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1011051pot2.html). Cops reported that the child was brought to a Waukesha hospital emergency room by the girl's grandmother, who noted that the child was lethargic and had an unusually large appetite. The girl told her grandmother that she had "eaten some brownies at the residence of her father," who had dropped the child off at the woman's home prior to attending a concert. A field test of the leftover brownies confirmed they contained pot. When confronted by cops, a "very nervous and agitated" Schoepke denied any connection to the brownies. However, an arresting officer noted that he detected "the very faint odor of fresh marijuana" on Schoepke. Not to mention that Schoepke had a baggie of pot in his jacket pocket. If convicted of the drug charge, Schoepke faces a maximum of three and a half years in prison. (4 pages)

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/1011051pot1.html

[Ninjahedge]

Oops.

MAN this guy was an idiot.

And the girl was deemed sick because she was sleepy and hungry? Come on grandma!

I think granny knew exactl what was going on and wanted to stop the kid from doing what the son/son in law was doing.


Pot in and of itself is not an overtly destructive drug. It takes the edge off of life. UNFORTUNATELY, that edge is what pushes people to do more, to improve themselves. To not be satisfied with their current situation and work for something more.

Ironically, it is the perfect drug for control of the masses. It is awfully difficult to get any kind of coordination or urge to resist things if noone cares enough about it.

I know there are exceptions as was evidenced in the 60's, but tell me. In todays society, can you name one regular pot smoker (in your life) that has done more than what they did the day before? Friends of mine (all of which I am no longer in contact with) are still right where they were 10-20 years ago. Some still living with their parents.

I think the drug is sad. I do not see it ruining anyones life, but I do see it putting it on pause indefinitely. I do not see it as a threat to society, and I do not see it as one of the "evils". Nowhere near what some other, legal, prescription medications are.

But back to the original post I was replying to. This guys was a grade-A idiot.

[lofter1]

... can you name one regular pot smoker (in your life) that has done more than what they did the day before?

Ninjahedge: i know what u mean but uh wow like do you know where i could score some pot brownies cuz ya know my stash just ran out nada here late night munchies ha ha and it's raining today so what's else to do cept veg out ...

lol ...........

uhhhhh whats the question?

[ZippyTheChimp]

Pot in and of itself is not an overtly destructive drug. It takes the edge off of life. UNFORTUNATELY, that edge is what pushes people to do more, to improve themselves. To not be satisfied with their current situation and work for something more.

The person you are describing is someone completely immersed in the culture of doing the drug. Get up in the morning, do a joint. Break for lunch, do another. Whether or not the drug is addictive, the lifestyle surrounding it is.

This rut is more observable with alcohol, mainly because it is carried out in plain sight. We've all seen them. I know several from work. Not alcoholics, who get falling down drunk. Every day at lunch, they go to the same bar, sit at the same spot, order the same drinks. Maybe return for a quick one during break. The conversation is always the same, and they never want to do anything else.

I have never had a drug or alcohol problem, but many years ago, for a short time, I fell into such a rut. Circumstances had me working night hours. I was making considerable money, and had lots of free time - a dangerous combination. I went to the same bar every day; I didn't get drunk, but all that free time was wasted, and ironically, the weeks and months seemed to pass by quickly. I was always rushing at the last moment to fulfill obligations.

The solution was simple. I stopped going to that bar. I didn't stop drinking, but it became a planned event.

In todays society, can you name one regular pot smoker (in your life) that has done more than what they did the day before?
During the same time frame, I knew a woman (coworker) who smoked pot and was an alcoholic. It affected her employment, and she was always on the edge of being fired. She finally quit, and moved to Atlanta, and we lost contact with her.

Early this year, another friend of mine on a business trip ran into her, and we have exchanged emails. She is a PH.D. at the Centers for Disease Control. She has been alcohol-free since she left New York, but fires one up from time to time.

[Ninjahedge]

Like I said zip, these things rob you of motivation.

Pot is an edge smoother while alcohol is an outright pain killer. I was not even getting into boozing! (I agree with what you are saying about that though).

As for Brownies Loft, sorry I don't have any.

Brownies are evil. Even without Child Sedatives.

[NYatKNIGHT]

I respect your opinion but disagree with making a blanket statement about it. Though that may be true for you, me, and a lot of people, taking the edge off (or however it affects you) might be just the trick for some people. Or giving themselves an hour of downtime at the end of the day might be just the stress-reliever needed. However it works, I know plenty of successful people who are frequent if not daily tokers. I mean, a lot. I think most people would be shocked at how many. I'm talking about white collar, blue collar, and everything in between.

And there's nothing wrong with an occasional brownie. Calling them evil is.....such a buzz kill. Go away, buzz kill. Shoo!

[Ninjahedge]

I respect your opinion but disagree with making a blanket statement about it. Though that may be true for you, me, and a lot of people, taking the edge off (or however it affects you) might be just the trick for some people. Or giving themselves an hour of downtime at the end of the day might be just the stress-reliever needed. However it works, I know plenty of successful people who are frequent if not daily tokers. I mean, a lot. I think most people would be shocked at how many. I'm talking about white collar, blue collar, and everything in between.

And there's nothing wrong with an occasional brownie. Calling them evil is.....such a buzz kill. Go away, buzz kill. Shoo!


Um, I never said anything about your brownies NY.

but if you have ever been near a woman when brownies are present you will see the true evil hidden in their chocolatey aroma.



As for the edge, that is the point. But how muchedge needs to be take off? And how often? I never said anything about the occasional user, no more than the weekend drinker etc etc. I am just making the obvious blanket statement that works on the Ivory Soap purity percentage of the population.

You smoke this nightly, you might not be too inclined to take night school classes. You might not send out resumes. You might not look for something that would make the need for an "edge releaser" in the evening after work even necessary.

When people are not displeased enough with where they are, they do, for the most part, not try to go anywhere else.


Now, as for edge dulling, it is one thing to relax once in a while. But if your whole life centers around it, you are dealing with a butterknife... ;)

[ryan]

That's a weak slippery slope argument. You could say that a person who watches TV too much (or wastes time on internet forums for that matter) could be accomplishing more, but waste their time on time wasters. Anything in excess can keep people from realizing their potential.

[BrooklynRider]

Report: 92 Percent Of Souls In Hell There On Drug Charges
October 12, 2005 | Onion Issue 41•41

HELL—A report released Monday by the Afterlife Civil Liberties Union indicates that nine out of 10 souls currently serving in Hell were condemned on drug-related sins.

"Hell was created to keep dangerous sinners off the gold-paved streets of Heaven," ACLU spokesman Barry Horowitz said. "But lately, it's become a clearing-house for the non-evil souls that Heaven doesn't know how to deal with."

The disproportionate number of drug offenders in Hell is a result of God's "get tough" drug policy of the 80s A.D., imposed after Roman emperor Domitian Flavius introduced opium to his people. God's detractors say His reactionary "one sin and you're out" rule places too harsh a penalty on venial drug users.

According to God's law, souls who possess four ounces of illegal drugs at any point during their mortal lives face a mandatory minimum sentence of eternity.

High-ranking seraphim in the Eternal Justice Department defended God's law.

"It's all about accountability," the angel Nathanael said. "The rule of the Lord affords the complementary blessings of freedom and responsibility, and provides the governing framework under which man is punished or rewarded according to his deeds. The rules are very simple: You do the crime, you do the time. Eternity, in this case."

The ACLU report included profiles of hundreds of offenders condemned to eternal perdition under God's law. Among them is Pvt. Robert "Bobby Joe" Hetfield, a World War I fighter and amputee who became addicted to morphine during his last 72 hours of life on a French battlefield in 1918. As punishment, Hetfield has spent more than a century cleaning Beelzebub's dope house every morning by consuming the urine, excrement, and vomit left by Satan and his revelers.

Another offender listed in the ACLU report is Huachuri, an Incan peasant who used a coca-leaf-based marital aid in 1311. As punishment, he is sodomized continually by a winged, razor-penised goat.

Defenders of God's law argue that eternal punishments like these are the only way to deter other drug users, and preserve order in God's kingdom.

"This is not about revolving-door justice," St. Peter said. "While the word of God will keep some on the straight and narrow, Heavenly studies show that eternal damnation is the only deterrent that really works."

Horowitz said that while drug offenders are literally rotting away in Hell, serial killers and other dangerous sinners are receiving "mere Purgatorial sentences, thanks to the asking-for-forgiveness loophole." Purgatory is a minimum-security state of limbo that affords its occupants the opportunity to repent their sins and eventually gain admittance to Heaven on good behavior.

"Drug offenders, many of whom have committed no prior mortal sin, rack up infinite consecutive life sentences," Horowitz said. "Meanwhile, rapists say they're sorry, recite a few Hail Marys, and wind up basking in God's divine radiance within 10 years."

Among those who oppose God's laws are the stewards of Hell, who argue that his harsh anti-drug penalties have taxed the capacities of the underworld.

"I have one ravenous and overworked hellhound assigned to terrorize 12 methamphetamine users," the demon Abracax said. "After 14 hours in the dog's digestive tract, they are excreted and revived, at which point, I give them another shot of methamphetamine. The dog's exhausted—he was originally intended to be responsible for two users at most."

According to Horowitz, even leaving aside questions of civil liberties in the afterlife, God's drug laws are problematic.

"These laws, simply put, don't work," Horowitz said. "What the Heavenly hosts need to consider is some sort of angelic early-intervention program at the pre-death level, or at the very least, some form of afterlife rehab."

[ryan]

Awesome.

[Ninjahedge]

That's a weak slippery slope argument. You could say that a person who watches TV too much (or wastes time on internet forums for that matter) could be accomplishing more, but waste their time on time wasters. Anything in excess can keep people from realizing their potential.

Who says I am not?

Pleasure items have this nasty side effect of making people spend more time enjoying themselves than improving their lifestyle.

I am being serious here. If there is no potential (voltage) there is no change (current). If things like Alcohol and Pot stem the uneasiness people feel about their lives, they are not motivated to do anything about it than drink and smoke more when things get worse (for the most part, and to a limit).


My vice is games. If I spent half the time studying for anything as I did with games....well...I would not be president, but that is another mater alltogether. ;)

[lofter1]

As for the edge, that is the point. But how muchedge needs to be take off? And how often?

Just curious:

Is it Ninja - hedge?

or Ninjah - EDGE?

[Ninjahedge]

Ningah....

Is that a rastafarian Ninja? Ninjah-mahn!

[lofter1]

The good news is in the last two paragraphs ...

Drug agents can't keep up with pot growers

By John Ritter, USA TODAY

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2005-10-12-pot-growers-cover_x.htm


NORTHERN MENDOCINO COUNTY, Calif. — In the waning days of a record season, a helicopter buzzes treetops here in a remote corner of the "Emerald Triangle," redwood country notorious as the USA's premier producer of marijuana.

http://images.usatoday.com/news/_photos/2005/10/13/pot-search-inside.jpghttp://images.usatoday.com/_common/_images/clear.gif
Martin Klimek for USA TODAY

A California narcotics officer
confiscates marijuana plants
in Mendocino County.


State narcotics officers from CAMP — Campaign Against Marijuana Planting — are searching for "gardens" to eradicate and find six on a warm, cloudless day.

They strap onto a 150-foot cable dangling from the chopper, drop into the pot patches, hack down the plants and bundle them for the chopper to haul back to a landing zone.

Perhaps $500,000 worth of America's favorite illegal drug is trucked off for burial. It's not a big day by CAMP standards: 813 plants that fill a pickup bed. In this ever-growing illicit market, agents routinely find plots of 5,000 and 10,000 plants that require dump trucks to dispose of.

In the 2005 growing season, CAMP says it so far has destroyed more plants than ever — 1.1 million worth $4.5 billion on the street, up from 621,000 plants last year. But agents still lost ground to growers. No longer is marijuana cultivation the cottage industry that flourished in the 1960s and '70s after waves of counterculture migrants bought cheap land in the northern California mountains and grew pot for their own use and extra income.

Mexican criminals using sophisticated methods have spread the marijuana industry across California, traditionally the nation's main domestic source because of a mild climate and vast stretches of isolated landscape ideal for clandestine growing, say the authorities.

As recently as 10 years ago, the Emerald Triangle counties of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity grew virtually all of the state's pot. Now every California county that's not desert has a problem. Because of tighter security on the southern U.S. border, Mexicans simply made a business decision to move north.

"In the last two or three years almost 100% of the gardens we've eradicated are Mexican drug cartel gardens," says James Parker, the senior narcotics agent who oversees CAMP. "It's alarming if you think about it."

Today's high potency weed is so valuable — $5,000 or more for a pound of buds on the East Coast — that big operators employ armed guards who camp in pot gardens for months, nurturing plants that grow to 15 feet and taller. A state Fish and Game officer was wounded and a suspect shot and killed in a Santa Clara County bust in June, the fourth incident in two years.

Scarring the landscape

There would be more violence if growers weren't able to flee at the sound of a helicopter looking for gardens, says Jack Nelsen, CAMP's regional operations commander here. "This time of year, they won't go far —— the plants are worth too much," he says. "If we don't come back soon enough they'll be in there harvesting until we do."

Fishermen and hikers stumble onto armed men in the woods who threaten them and demand that they leave. Pot-growing has become epidemic both on privately owned timber tracts and public lands in California, including national forests and parks.

"A lot of terrain is so rugged and dense with foliage you wouldn't think about taking your family to those areas," Parker says. "It's amazing how much work these Mexicans put in to get a crop out."

Growers scar the landscape by crudely terracing hillsides that erode under winter rain. They spill pesticides, fertilizer and diesel fuel used to power generators that run extensive drip-irrigation systems. They dam creeks for water sources, plant salsa gardens, disfigure trees and leave behind tons of garbage, human waste and litter.

"They'll pour fertilizer right into a stream, then irrigate out of it," says Alexandra Picavet, a Sequoia National Park ranger. "That creates algae blooms, hurts fish and animals and contaminates downstream." Since 2001, officers have destroyed 105 pot gardens covering 181 acres in the park but have had enough money to clean up fewer than half the sites. "We think that for every one we've been able to eradicate, there's another one out there," Picavet says.

CAMP's critics equate the program with Prohibition in the 1930s.

"Look at the amount of economic value we're destroying," says Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "This could be legally taxed and regulated and we could all be making money off it. We never saw this lawlessness until there were drug laws and CAMP." NORML estimates that Californians' pot consumption could yield at least $250 million a year in sales taxes.
Gieringer also says that, despite the government's assertion, there is no evidence that Mexican cartels are involved in the cultivation.

Roger Rodoni is a cattle rancher and registered Republican who has represented a conservative district in Humboldt County — conservative by local standards, anyway — on the board of supervisors since 1997. He calls CAMP "an exercise in futility."

"It's a vast expenditure of public funds that for all practical purposes does no good," Rodoni, 65, says. Demand for marijuana keeps growing, and CAMP has done little to stem the supply, he says. As evidence he points to a drop in the price of "the quality stuff'" from $6,000 a pound a few years ago to $3,000 today.

A June report for Taxpayers for Common Sense by Harvard economist Jeffrey Miron found that despite billions of dollars spent on marijuana suppression — nearly $4 billion by the federal government in 2004 alone — usage is about the same as 30 years ago.

CAMP, an arm of the state attorney general's office, was formed in 1983 to help understaffed local authorities ferret out large-scale marijuana crops grown for profit, particularly in isolated areas far from roads where helicopters were needed. Five eradication teams deployed in different regions of the state operated this year on a $1.1 million budget, about three-quarters of it supplied by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

CAMP agents, with help from local sheriff's deputies and loaners from the National Guard, the state forestry department, the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, have arrested 42 suspects, seized 76 weapons and raided 742 gardens.

But CAMP has made little headway penetrating and prosecuting the Mexican hierarchies allegedly behind most of the busted gardens. "They're similar to al-Qaeda, they're cells," says Sgt. James "Rusty" Noe of the Mendocino County sheriff's office. "We go out and find some guy in the garden and we arrest him, he's not going to know anything."

Since last year, two CAMP investigative teams have concentrated on tracking the Mexican drug bosses, and arrests have been made in Fresno and Redding. Parker says he'll ask for three more investigative units for 2006.

CAMP teams start reconnaissance flights in early spring as growers are preparing gardens — clearing land, setting up water systems, hauling in supplies and setting up campsites. When agents see a garden from the helicopter they fix its location with GPS.

Growers adapt to surveillance

Seizures have risen dramatically because of more aggressive air surveillance and larger gardens. But growers have adapted, CAMP's Nelsen says. They used to plant uniform plots in open ground — marijuana thrives in full sunlight — but those were easily spotted, even from an airplane at 5,000 feet.

Now gardens are tucked under the forest canopy, often on steep slopes, and strung out along hillside contours so they're much harder to see. Growers expect many of their gardens to be busted, so they put as many plants in the ground in as many locations as they can.

"It's a lot like what they do on the border," Parker says. "They'll try to send 70 cars through thinking a few are going to get picked off and that it's a cost of doing business."

These days, other counties have eclipsed the Emerald Triangle in confiscated marijuana. Shasta County led the state as of last week, according to CAMP figures: 209,864 plants eradicated compared with 52,133 all of last year.

The Central Valley counties of Tulare and Fresno, two of the nation's biggest agricultural producers, now rank No. 2 and 4. Mendocino had the fifth most plants seized, and Humboldt has slipped to No. 12. CAMP doesn't operate in California's two most populous counties, Los Angeles and San Diego, because authorities there have ample resources to go after marijuana themselves, Parker says.

"The Mexicans have basically found out how easy it is to find locations and find people to work these gardens," Nelsen says. "These organizations are even moving into some of the eastern counties in snow country."

Cultivation of medical marijuana, legalized by California voters in 1996, has expanded the supply, particularly from indoor production, and complicated efforts to crack down on the illegal market.

CAMP doesn't bother with medical marijuana growers, even large ones who say they're providing pot to many sick people. "We're not here to take anyone's medicine away," Nelsen says.

But medical marijuana has made it harder to figure out who the bad guys are, Noe says. The law left it up to counties and cities to set guidelines. Some have zero tolerance for medical marijuana; others have set limits on the number of plants. Mendocino County is wide open.

"The amount of marijuana cultivated in this county almost doubled because anybody can grow it in their backyard," Noe says. "The criminal element has taken advantage of the law."

Mendocino County started going after pot growers in the early 1980s after a spate of violence. Six deputy sheriffs, a sergeant, a legal secretary and an evidence technician operated on a $500,000 budget, Noe says. Today, it's Noe, a deputy and a $300,000 budget.

But with CAMP's help, the cops are more effective, he says, more than doubling the number of plants destroyed in the county compared with early years.

And each of those plants carries a lot more kick today. No more of the baggies with stems and seeds that baby boomers remember from their college days. Growers learned to "sex" the plants — cull the males early in the season to deny the females pollination and prevent buds from going to seed.

In a futile effort to attract pollen, the female plants produce more and more THC, the active ingredient and the source of marijuana's "high." The plant's buds get fatter and fatter. By September, they're sticky with THC and ready to harvest.

"Back in the '60s and '70s the stuff imported from Mexico, there wasn't much bud to it," Noe says. "If it was good quality maybe the THC was 5%."

Tests nowadays find THC content as high as 21%, he says.

[Ninjahedge]

Well, maybe they should LEGALIZE THE CRAP and make it less profitable.

The destruction of the landscape is something that I can't support either. But coming in with SWAT teams is just more $$ we are spending that will on ly serve to hike up the prices even more.

[BrooklynRider]

I never met a violent pot head.

[lofter1]

Well, maybe they should LEGALIZE THE CRAP and make it less profitable.

The destruction of the landscape is something that I can't support either. But coming in with SWAT teams is just more $$ we are spending that will on ly serve to hike up the prices even more.

Nijahedge: As poster #100 on this thread you win a big HIT from the BONG ! :cool:

[Ninjahedge]

Nijahedge: As poster #100 on this thread you win a big HIT from the BONG ! :cool:

So what does poster #69 get?

[kz1000ps]

Likewise, what shall be planned for when this thread hits 420 posts (God forbid this goes on that long)? They will be the real winner!

[NYatKNIGHT]

Group celebration. Is Laser Floyd still around?

[Ninjahedge]

Group celebration. Is Laser Floyd still around?

I don't think so, but his distant cousin, Laser Zeke may be available.

[Gab]

Is there any cops in United States who smoke the weed they busted? I know some SQ(Sûreté du Québec) officers do that. Any way when cops seize any weed they don't tell people the truth concerning the seizure amount.

If pot is legal how do you want it legal? Personally, government should not own that business as the S.A.Q. does for the alcohol. Canadian government made a proposition about pot, that government proposed that people would pay $12(in canadian dollar) for a joint, no way it's too expensive because I can get a cheaper price at the black market.

[lofter1]

I say legalize it and regulate it, similar to alcohol & cigarettes (though they will kill us with the taxes).

And here is some news from Canada (gotta love 'em up north):

Study turns pot wisdom on head

By DAWN WALTON
Friday, October 14, 2005 Posted at 3:57 AM EDT
From Friday's Globe and Mail

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051014.wxcanna1014/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/


Calgary — Forget the stereotype about dopey potheads. It seems marijuana could be good for your brain.

While other studies have shown that periodic use of marijuana can cause memory loss and impair learning and a host of other health problems down the road, new research suggests the drug could have some benefits when administered regularly in a highly potent form.

Most "drugs of abuse" such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats' hippocampuses.

Hippocampuses are the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, and the study held true for either plant-derived or the synthetic version of cannabinoids.

"This is quite a surprise," said Xia Zhang, an associate professor with the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

"Chronic use of marijuana may actually improve learning memory when the new neurons in the hippocampus can mature in two or three months," he added.

The research by Dr. Zhang and a team of international researchers is to be published in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, but their findings are on-line now.

The scientists also noticed that cannabinoids curbed depression and anxiety, which Dr. Zhang says, suggests a correlation between neurogenesis and mood swings. (Or, it at least partly explains the feelings of relaxation and euphoria of a pot-induced high.)

Other scientists have suggested that depression is triggered when too few new brain cells are created in the hippocampus. One researcher of neuropharmacology said he was "puzzled" by the findings.

As enthusiastic as Dr. Zhang is about the potential health benefits, he warns against running out for a toke in a bid to beef up brain power or calm nerves.

The team injected laboratory rats with a synthetic substance called HU-210, which is similar, but 100 times as potent as THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the compound responsible for giving marijuana users a high.

They found that the rats treated regularly with a high dose of HU-210 -- twice a day for 10 days -- showed growth of neurons in the hippocampus. The researchers don't know if pot, which isn't as pure as the lab-produced version, would have the same effect.

"There's a big gap between rats and humans," Dr. Zhang points out.
But there is a lot of interest -- and controversy -- around the use of cannabinoids to improve human health.

Cannabinoids, such as marijuana and hashish, have been used to address pain, nausea, vomiting, seizures caused by epilepsy, ischemic stroke, cerebral trauma, tumours, multiple sclerosis and a host of other maladies.

There are herbal cannabinoids, which come from the cannabis plant, and the bodies of humans and animals produce endogenous cannabinoids. The substance can also be designed in the lab.

Cannabinoids can trigger the body's two cannabinoid receptors, which control the activity of various cells in the body.

One receptor, known as CB1, is found primarily in the brain. The other receptor, CB2, was thought to be found only in the immune system.

However, in a separate study to be published today in the journal Science, a group of international researchers have located the CB2 receptor in the brain stems of rats, mice and ferrets.

The brain stem is responsible for basic body function such as breathing and the gastrointestinal tract. If stimulated in a certain way, CB2 could be harnessed to eliminate the nausea and vomiting associated with post-operative analgesics or cancer and AIDS treatments, according to the researchers.

"Ultimately, new therapies could be developed as a result of these findings," said Keith Sharkey, a gastrointestinal neuroscientist at the University of Calgary, lead author of the study.

(Scientists are trying to find ways to block CB1 as a way to decrease food cravings and limit dependence on tobacco.)

When asked whether his findings explain why some swear by pot as a way to avoid the queasy feeling of a hangover, Dr. Sharkey paused and replied: "It does not explain the effects of smoked or inhaled or ingested substances."

[ZippyTheChimp]

I believe that poor grammar will be the downfall of this country.

[lofter1]

This country done already begun the down fall ...

[ryan]

Then I will cause the downfall of this country, but that was the point of my last post anyway. If that was directed at me, why do people point out my errors when I am one of the few people my age that actually types out ''you'', I also capitalize the first word of a sentence, and end it with a period, or a session of periods. From now on I will stop using commas and simply say 'stop'. If you are not on the platform stop I will understand stop I need someone to carry my luggage stop.

I'm still not convinced you're not high already.

[ZippyTheChimp]

I'm still not convinced you're not high already.

This may help convince you.

http://www.websmileys.com/sm/smoking/rauch25.gif

[ryan]

mmm... something stronger then.

[Ninjahedge]

I believe that poor grammar will be the downfall of this country.


How, do you figure, that, Zippy, ?

[Ninjahedge]

And Law, you are getting DISorderLY.

Reign it in. You should know that an absolute stance on anything is a sure way to get opposition.

If you are unwilling to see any points the other side says, and start bringing out phrases like "Well if this starts, it is the beginning of the fall of the US!!!!" all you will get is rolled eyes.

Put some work into it and stop trying to convince us that YOU are right because YOU use the word YOU and capitolize the first letter of your sentances.

[ZippyTheChimp]

How, do you figure, that, Zippy, ?
Just sarcasm. Both my statement and the target are equally overblown.

However, regarding the argument that pot-smoking results in deferred self-improvement projects: Ryan observed that excessive TV watching could produce the same result.

TV was an occasional recreation during my youth; much of my time was spent with a chillum in my face. In spite of my drug-induced stupor, I've managed to become proficient at the King's English, maybe to a greater level than some others who watch too much TV.

I can't think of a more worthy self-improvement project. At least I can bullshit my way through a job interview.

L&O should realize that this thread is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, and that although technology is mostly digital, the real world is very much analog.

[Ninjahedge]

Zip, thing is, I know friends that have done very well, or not from doing all the vices that we have mentioned here.

Watching too much TV, playing video games, smoking pot, drinking, et all.

When any is done in any significant ammount, it does distract you from other things you could be doing.

Like I said, my vice is the gaming. But being that the only other things that I sort of liked like woodworking were not readily available in an apartment in Hoboken, there is not much else you can do.

Besides the fact that they were a distraction from life and the workday.

Anyway, I was a vidiot myself. I think I have done fairly well in life.

I think I could have done better if I had not spent as much time watching TV, but I do not think that I have "ruined" myself from watching as much as I did.

But there are always exceptions to the rules....

IN GENERAL, doing these things makes it so that the primary motivating force in life, displeasure, is reduced and it makes improvement which is primarily saught to lessen the displeasure, less apparent or desired.

The only things I have heard from any of these substances/devices is that they help people deal with life. Help them deal with stress or forget about things they don't want to worry about 24/7.




Anywhoo, I think you guys get the point I am trying to make, so no need beating a Stoned Pony.

[Supercool Dude]

L&O, Bulloney! your statements are quite disturbing.

You speak childish nonsense.

Cannabis has been legal in Netherlands and Moorocco for over 30 years and their societies have not fallen into total collapse!

If you toke Cannabis, you may write a song like the Beatles or Willy Nelson build a Home Computer like Jobs & Wozniak did or invent the DNA-PCR Test that has been used to free innocent men from jail and convict the real criminals or run for President like Bill Clinton or...........

You remind me of a former Japanese Prime Minister who said Americans have become underachievers and are lazy and unproductive........

.................And then a US Senator made fun of him by suggesting they look at images of Nuclear Mushroom Clouds and Budwieser Beer made a commercial showing Americans golfing.........on the Moon's Surface!

I quit makin Pot Brownies back in 1973 because it did not get me high and it gave me stomach upset.

[ZippyTheChimp]

A story from my high school days:

The parents of a friend of mine went away for the weekend, and we had a house party. Nothing wild - we were in Manhattan Beach and the cops would have been on us instantly, but there was grass, and someone made brownies.

The girl I was dating at the time was, how should I put it - to die for. I was in a state somewhere between hormones splashing off the walls and walking on eggs so as not to mess things up.

She had this cute little dachshund, ironically named Sunshine. Dogs love chocolate, and to stop his begging, I gave him a pinch of the brownies. It was just a little bit, but the dog was only about 10 pounds.

Nothing bad happened. If you know how slinky a dachshund is when you hold him, well, he got really S-L-I-N-K-Y. He was on his back on a sofa when...

funny, I had to recall her name as I typed this...

Jessica came in the room.She asked what was wrong with Sunshine, who was fighting a mock battle with an imaginary dog mate. I innocently told her that I gave the dog a bit of brownie, and she exploded, ranting at me, all the while holding a totally oblivious squirming piece of sausage under her arm. I tried not to laugh, but of course, I did.

A chicken farm of broken eggs.

[lofter1]

Another excuse ...

Study: Functional role for cannabinoids in respiratory stability during sleep

http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/cannabis_and_sleep_apnea.htm


STUDY OBJECTIVES: Serotonin, acting in the peripheral nervous system, can exacerbate sleep-related apnea, and systemically administered serotonin antagonists reduce sleep-disordered respiration in rats and bulldogs. Because cannabinoid receptor agonists are known to inhibit the excitatory effects of serotonin on nodose ganglion cells, we examined the effects of endogenous (oleamide) and exogenous (delta9-tetrahydrocannabinol; delta9THC) cannabimimetic agents on sleep-related apnea.

PARTICIPANTS: Eleven adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were instrumented for chronic polysomnography.

INTERVENTIONS: Animals were recorded following intraperitoneal injection of various doses of delta9THC, oleamide, and serotonin, alone and in combination.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS: Our data show that delta9THC and oleamide each stabilized respiration during all sleep stages. With delta9THC, apnea index decreased by 42% (F=2.63; p=0.04) and 58% (F=2.68; p=0.04) in NREM and REM sleep, respectively. Oleamide produced equivalent apnea suppression.

This observation suggests an important role for endocannabinoids in maintaining autonomic stability during sleep. Oleamide and delta9THC blocked serotonin-induced exacerbation of sleep apnea (p<0.05 for each), suggesting that inhibitory coupling between cannabinoids and serotonin receptors in the peripheral nervous system may act on apnea expression.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrates potent suppression of sleep-related apnea by both exogenous and endogenous cannabinoids. These findings are of relevance to the pathogenesis and pharmacological treatment of sleep-related breathing disorders.

[Ninjahedge]

You mean a seditive helps you sleep?

Go fig.

Next thing you know they will find that Alcohol helps you pass out... ;)

[lofter1]

http://www.mycathatesyou.com/images/site/book/ravi.jpg

[lofter1]

Some really good news ...

Pot not a major cancer risk: report

By Amy Norton
Wed Oct 26,12:29 PM ET

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051026/hl_nm/pot_cancer_dc&printer=1

SOURCE: Harm Reduction Journal
October 18, 2005.


Although both marijuana and tobacco smoke are packed with cancer-causing chemicals, other qualities of marijuana seem to keep it from promoting lung cancer, according to a new report.

The difference rests in the often opposing actions of the nicotine in tobacco and the active ingredient, THC, in marijuana, says Dr. Robert Melamede of the University of Colorado in Colorado Springs.

He reviewed the scientific evidence supporting this contention in a recent issue of Harm Reduction Journal.

Whereas nicotine has several effects that promote lung and other types of cancer, THC acts in ways that counter the cancer-causing chemicals in marijuana smoke, Melamede explained in an interview with Reuters Health.
"THC turns down the carcinogenic potential," he said.

For example, lab research indicates that nicotine activates a body enzyme that converts certain chemicals in both tobacco and marijuana smoke into cancer-promoting form. In contrast, studies in mice suggest that THC blocks this enzyme activity.

Another key difference, Melamede said, is in the immune system effects of tobacco and marijuana. Smoke sends irritants into the respiratory system that trigger an immune-regulated inflammatory response, which involves the generation of potentially cell-damaging substances called free radicals. These particles are believed to contribute to a range of diseases, including cancer.

But cannabinoids -- both those found in marijuana and the versions found naturally in the body -- have been shown to dial down this inflammatory response, Melamede explained.

Another difference between tobacco and marijuana smoking, he said, has to do with cells that line the respiratory tract. While these cells have receptors that act as docks for nicotine, similar receptors for THC and other cannabinoids have not been found.

Nicotine, Melamede said, appears to keep these cells from committing "suicide" when they are genetically damaged, by smoking, for instance. When such cells do not kill themselves off, they are free to progress into tumors.

THC, however, does not appear to act this way in the respiratory tract -- though, in the brain, where there are cannabinoid receptors, it may have the beneficial effect of protecting cells from death when they are damaged from an injury or stroke, according to Melamede.

All of this, he said, fits in with population studies that have failed to link marijuana smoking with a higher risk of lung cancer -- though there is evidence that pot users have more respiratory problems, such as chronic cough and frequent respiratory infections.

If marijuana does not promote lung cancer, that could factor into the ongoing debate over so-called medical marijuana. Melamede said he believes "marijuana has loads of medicinal value," for everything from multiple sclerosis, to the chronic pain of arthritis, to nausea caused by cancer treatment.

U.S. government officials, however, maintain that the evidence for medical marijuana is not there. Ten states allow people to use marijuana with a doctor's prescription, but the Supreme Court has ruled that federal law trumps state law.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters Limited.

[Ninjahedge]

Sad to say, everyone is probably right on this.

I think the study probably does show a reduced risk, but that study in and of itself is not something to base all law and medical procedure on.

I think that the Federal Law in cases involving trafficing of a substance like this, or for whatever reason making it a federal concern, overrules state doctrine.

This is just such an incredibly stupid battle.

[Supercool Dude]

Some of you guys are gonna hate me for this one! LOL

Actually, Cannabis causes more Braincells to grow......

Read it and weep.............

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8155

http://jpet.aspetjournals.org/cgi/content/full/293/3/807

Nancy Reagan can EAT ME! LOL

[lofter1]

^ Lucky Nancy !! ROTFLMAO :D

[lofter1]

Denver Voters OK Marijuana Possession

By JON SARCHE
Associated Press Writer
Wed. Nov 2, 2005

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051102/ap_on_el_st_lo/denver_marijuana


Residents of the Mile High City have voted to legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana for adults. Authorities, though, said state possession laws will be applied instead.

With 100 percent of precincts reporting early Wednesday, 54 percent, or 56,001 voters, cast ballots for the ordinance, while 46 percent, or 48,632 voters, voted against it.

Under the measure, residents over 21 years old could possess up to an ounce of marijuana.

"We educated voters about the facts that marijuana is less harmful to the user and society than alcohol," said Mason Tvert, campaign organizer for SAFER, or Safer Alternatives For Enjoyable Recreation. "To prohibit adults from making the rational, safer choice to use marijuana is bad public policy."

Bruce Mirken of the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project said he hoped the approval will launch a national trend toward legalizing a drug whose enforcement he said causes more problems than it cures.

Seattle, Oakland, Calif., and a few college towns already have laws making possession the lowest law enforcement priority.

The Denver proposal seemed to draw at least as much attention for supporters' campaign tactics as it did for the question of legalizing the drug.
Tvert argued that legalizing marijuana would reduce consumption of alcohol, which he said leads to higher rates of car accidents, domestic and street violence and crime.

The group criticized Mayor John Hickenlooper for opposing the proposal, noting his ownership of a popular brewpub. It also said recent violent crimes — including the shootings of four people last weekend — as a reason to legalize marijuana to steer people away from alcohol use.

Those tactics angered local officials and some voters. Opponents also said it made no sense to prevent prosecution by Denver authorities while marijuana charges are most often filed under state and federal law.

The measure would not affect the medical marijuana law voters approved in 2000. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that medical marijuana laws in Colorado and nine other states would not protect licensed users from federal prosecution.

Also Tuesday, voters in the ski resort town of Telluride rejected a proposal to make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana by people 18 or older the town's lowest law enforcement priority. The measure was rejected on a vote of 308-332.


Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press.

[NYatKNIGHT]

WTF. This couldn't have happened when I lived there?

But I'm glad to see it. I was worried that the extremist Christian conservatives had usurped the legal agenda in Colorado, but this shows that there are still plenty who are willing to defend being Rocky Mountain High. Even in the past, anyone caught with small amounts just got a ticket, and you had to be really blatant to even get that.

And in the ski towns? It might as well be legal since seemingly everyone has it, everyone knows it, and no one cares. One ride up the gondola even with total strangers and you're good to go. (Ahem, so I hear)

[Ninjahedge]

/me rides lift.

What's that smell?

[TLOZ Link5]

So how long before New York gets in on this? I swear, sometimes we're really behind the times. Pot possession here is an extremely low priority for law enforcement, anyway. Now the Denver police can focus on far more serious "crimes".

[Dolphin]

Cannabis has been legal in Netherlands and Moorocco for over 30 years and their societies have not fallen into total collapse!

Since I am from the Netherlands, I would like to state that this is not entirely true, in the sence that it's legal, because I argee that my country has not fallen into total collapse ;-) . I know that the whole world think it's legal, but in the Netherlands cannabis is not legal. But we DO tolerate it, that means that although it's illegal the police would not do anything in certain cases. A person can have not more than 30 grams of cannabis for his own use and the shops can sell 5 grams per person per day. The police would not do anything about that. The shops are not somewhere in a back alley, no they are in the middle of the city. The strange thing is that the production is also illegal and is not tolerated. So you ask yourself: how do they get there stuff? Yes well: illegally. For the first time there's a majority in our government that wants to make the production legal or at least tolerate.

I know this sounds trange for a lot of people, that we tolerate somethings that in our law books say it's illegal, but that's something we do a lot (sometimes annoying I might say). I know that a lot of countries see my country as the bad country with no morals. They think that cannabis will lead to the hard-drugs, bu there is research that this is not true! And the 'funny' thing is that the percentage of people in the US (where there's much more hard policy) that has every used cannabis, is bigger than in my country. If you are interested, you can take a look at this: http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp?CMS_TCP=tcpAsset&id=175A6D3F70164607A386D43B61DC135FX2X42819X14

Look at Annex II: US 36,9%, NL 17%
Annex IV: US 34%, NL 21%

And my country has the least problem with problematic hard-drugs users in the European Union, see Annex VI


Oh and if you like to know more about the other (to some bad) things in my country, like gay marriage, prostitution: http://www.minbuza.nl/default.asp?CMS_ITEM=MBZ257588

[lofter1]

Hmmm, makes for some darn tasty waffles ...

Trucker caught at Peace Bridge with load of pot

By DAN HERBECK
News Staff Reporter
11/8/2005

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20051108/1069591.asp


A trucker who told Peace Bridge inspectors he was hauling frozen waffles was arrested after the inspectors also found 320 pounds of hydroponic marijuana in his trailer.

Authorities said Daniel Herbert, 32, of Chatham, Ont., faces felony charges of conspiracy and smuggling. He was arrested Saturday at the bridge by inspectors from the Customs and Border Protection division.

Herbert is a participant in the Free And Secure Trade (FAST) program, a prescreening program that allows truckers to more quickly move their loads between the United States and Canada, homeland security spokesman Kevin Corsaro said.

The marijuana has an estimated street sale value of nearly $1 million (U.S.), authorities said.

According to Corsaro, Herbert was traveling from Canada into Buffalo when he presented documents identifying his cargo as frozen waffles. But when inspectors used a gamma ray scanning device to examine the load from outside, an unusual shape was noticed among the waffles.

Upon closer examination, inspectors found the pot, wrapped in 1,152 vacuum-sealed bags and commingled with the legitimate freight.

"There is a higher level of trust and confidence in the security of participants in the CBP Registered Travel Programs such as FAST," Corsaro said. "Therefore, when a violation occurs in one of these programs, [the government] will prosecute the participant to the fullest extent of the law."

[Edward]

http://www.as-e.com/products_solutions/cargo_vehicle_inspection.asp

Z® Backscatter X-ray image reveals cocaine in a truckload of bananas.

http://www.as-e.com/img/gallery/full/ase_02B.jpg


4.5 ton marijuana seizure in Mexico. The Z® Backscatter image clearly shows the marijuana hidden under trash and behind a false wall.

http://www.as-e.com/img/gallery/full/ase_01b.jpg

[Ninjahedge]

Idiots have to learn how to hide it better!

They make so much money off of this, you would think they would come up with a better way of hiding it than a fake panel!!!!

[lofter1]

The down side of the government's failure to legalize / regulate pot use ...

Pot Gardens Expanding In the Emerald Triangle

Sonya Geis
Sunday, November 27, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/26/AR2005112600776.html?nav=rss_print/asection


California's national parks and forests have long been known as havens of wildlife and natural beauty. They are also, increasingly, the refuge of gun-toting drug cartels growing large tracts of marijuana.

Authorities seized 1.1 million marijuana plants during this year's fall harvest, nearly twice as many as last year, itself a record. Almost three-quarters of the marijuana seized was grown on public land.

http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2005/11/26/PH2005112600779.jpg
Photo Credit: Sequoia National Park Via Associated Press Photo
In 2002, rangers in Sequoia National Park destroyed more than 35,000 marijuana plants.
This fall, they seized a million plants.

Pot farms are especially common in the so-called Emerald Triangle, where dense redwoods grow in the northern part of the state.

State officials conducted approximately the same number of raids as last year, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer said, but the gardens they found were bigger than in the past.

"Armed criminal growers are more willing than ever to use public lands that put outdoor enthusiasts at risk and damage California's environment," Lockyer said.


© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[mgp]

There is one less door to door delivery service out there...

http://wcbstv.com/topstories/local_story_341213544.html

[Ninjahedge]

Funny schtuff.....


I guess the lesson learned is, that when running a drug ring if any of your posts get ransacked, you have to cut any connections that that house serviced, including any employees, no matter what the loss.


Either that, or don't leave your neighbors body dead with a bag of pot and a shotgun lying next door.... :p

[lofter1]

Federal Marijuana Monopoly Challenged

Researchers Want to Grow More Plants and Find More Medicinal Uses

By Marc Kaufman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 12, 2005

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/11/AR2005121100825_pf.html



For decades, the federal government has been the nation's only legal producer of marijuana for medical research. Working with growers at the University of Mississippi, the National Institute on Drug Abuse has controlled both the quality and distribution of the drug for the past 36 years.

But for the first time the government's monopoly on research marijuana is under serious legal challenge. The effort is being spearheaded by a group that wants to produce medicines from currently illegal psychedelic drugs and by a professor at the University of Massachusetts who has agreed to grow marijuana for it if the government lets him.

In a hearing due to start today before an administrative law judge at the Drug Enforcement Administration, professor Lyle Craker and his supporters will argue for a DEA license to grow the research drugs. It is the climax of a decades-long effort to expand research into marijuana and controlled drugs and of Craker's almost five-year effort to become a competing marijuana grower.

"Our work is focused on finding medicinal uses of plants, and marijuana is one with clear potential," said Craker, director of the medicinal plant program of the university's Department of Plant, Soil and Insect Sciences in Amherst, Mass., and editor of the Journal of Herbs, Spices and Medicinal Plants. "There's only one government-approved source of marijuana for scientific research in this country, and that just isn't adequate."

The DEA, which has to license anyone who wants to grow marijuana, disagrees.

The agency, as well as the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which formally runs the marijuana research program, argues that it is not in the public interest to have more than one source of marijuana, in part because it could lead to greater illicit use. What's more, they said in legal briefs, the Mississippi program supplies all the marijuana that researchers need. Agency officials declined to comment further.

In his suit against the DEA for a license to grow marijuana, Craker has backing from 38 members of Congress, the two senators from Massachusetts, numerous medical societies and even Grover Norquist, the president of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform.

The effort has been organized by Richard Doblin, president of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and a longtime advocate of medical research into controlled drugs. It was Doblin who recruited Craker after the association concluded it would never get a dependable supply of government marijuana.

"Dr. Craker has no goal here except to advance scientific research into marijuana, and our goals are the same," said Doblin, whose group is also sponsoring research into other controlled drugs including MDMA (better known as "ecstasy") and the psychedelic mushroom psilocybin.

"By controlling who can research marijuana and how they can do it, the DEA has greatly limited promising research that could lead to [government] approved medications," Doblin said.

The problems, he said, are not limited to winning approval to buy the Mississippi marijuana. Doblin and other researchers contend that the government marijuana is low in quality and potency and could never be a stable source of basic ingredients if the Food and Drug Administration ever did approve a marijuana-based medication.

Marijuana, or cannabis, is now listed as a Schedule I drug -- with no medicinal use -- under the Controlled Substances Act. Its use was initially restricted in 1937 and eliminated from medicinal practice in 1942. On its Web site, the DEA lists marijuana as the most frequently abused illicit drug in America.

Since the 1970s, however, researchers have found potential uses for marijuana, or its active ingredient THC, in relieving nausea and vomiting associated with chemotherapy and to help with appetite loss in AIDS patients. A synthetic form of marijuana's active ingredient has been made into a prescription drug, Marinol.

Doblin said there are potentially many other medicinal uses of marijuana, including the treatment of multiple sclerosis and AIDS-related neuropathy. He also said researchers believe that if they can perfect a method of "vaporizing" marijuana -- allowing it to be inhaled rather than smoked -- it would be easier to administer as medicine.

But because of fears of illicit use, he said, the agency has essentially blocked the research. "I believe the DEA policy is one of delay, and they've succeeded in essentially blocking marijuana development for 30 years," Doblin said.

In its filings with Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner, the DEA disputes the charge that it is standing in the way of marijuana research.

It says that medical marijuana research is underway in California using its Mississippi supply, and that the drug maker Mallinckrodt Inc. has a contract with the Mississippi supplier to produce extracts of cannabis for its drug development program. In addition, DEA lawyer Brian Bayly told the law judge in August, when the first five days of testimony were heard, that the quality and potency of the government's marijuana was acceptable to the researchers his agency surveyed.

The hearing is expected to continue through the week, with a decision several months later. If Craker and his team prevail, however, the DEA is not obliged to give him a license or change its policies. And as a result, they plan to continue lining up political support, such as the Nov. 22 letter sent by Norquist to the DEA.

"The use of controlled substances for legitimate research purposes is well-established, and has yielded a number of miracle medicines widely available to patients and doctors," Norquist wrote. "This case should be no different. It's in the public interest to end the government monopoly on marijuana legal for research."


© 2005 The Washington Post Company

[lofter1]

U.S. drug agents raid medical marijuana sites

By Jeff McDonald
UNION-TRIBUNE

December 12, 2005

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051212-1611-bn12pot.html


SAN DIEGO – Federal drug agents fanned out across San Diego on Monday, clamping down on medical marijuana dispensaries that had been doling out marijuana to sick and dying patients.

At least two teams of agents removed pot and equipment from about a half-dozen businesses, which are permitted by state and local law but illegal under federal drug laws.

The move came as San Diego County supervisors have refused to abide by state medical-marijuana laws by issuing ID cards to qualified patients. It also means thousands of patients across the county now have nowhere to go to buy marijuana, which they say alleviates a variety of acute symptoms stemming from chronic health conditions.

The federal raids also were the latest high-profile move by U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, who in the past two weeks has won a plea agreement to bribery charges from disgraced Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham and challenged a federal judge's order tossing out corruption convictions of San Diego Councilman Michael Zucchet.

[lofter1]

Rhode Island legislators override governor's medical marijuana veto

RAW STORY (http://rawstory.com/)

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Rhode_Island_legislators_override_governors_medica l_0103.html


The Rhode Island House of Representatives voted today to override Gov. Donald Carcieri's veto of a bill legalising medical marijuana.

The vote makes Rhode Island the 11th state to pass such a law, and the first to do so since Gonzales v. Raich, the June 6 Supreme Court decision that federal drug laws apply to medical marijuana users regardless of state or local exemptions.

Rhode Island legislators passed the bill on June 7, the following day. Carcieri vetoed the law, and the state Senate responded by voting the very next day to override. Tuesday's 59-13 pre-session House vote allows the law to take effect immediately.

Rhode Island's medical marijuana law is the third to be enacted by a state legislature, and the first that required override of a gubernatorial veto. A similar law is seen likely to pass in New Mexico, and two other states have introduced bills legalising marijuana for medical use.

[lofter1]

Prison Term of 55 Years for Drugs Is Upheld

By KIRK JOHNSON (http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=KIRK JOHNSON&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=KIRK JOHNSON&inline=nyt-per)
New York Times
January 11, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/11/national/11sentence.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1136992757-bUGfLIeltT4v3GUZkOHs7A


DENVER, Jan. 10 - A federal appeals court has upheld a 55-year prison term imposed on a Utah man with no criminal record who was convicted in 2003 of selling several hundred dollars worth of marijuana on three occasions.

The case of the man, Weldon H. Angelos, a record producer from Salt Lake City who was 22 at the time of his crime, has become a benchmark in the debate about sentencing rules and justice. The trial judge in the case complained in issuing the sentence, which was required by federal statutes, that he thought it excessive, and 29 former judges and prosecutors agreed, in a brief filed on Mr. Angelos's behalf.

But a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in a decision issued here late Monday, rejected those arguments. The sentence properly reflected the will of Congress, the court said, and was not cruel or unusual punishment. Mr. Angelos was reported by a witness to have been armed with a pistol during two of the drug sales - and requiring stiffer sentences in cases where drugs and violence are linked, the court said, is legitimate social policy.

"Although the district court concluded that Angelos's sentence was disproportionate to his crimes, we disagree," the court said. "In our view, the district court failed to accord proper deference to Congress's decision to severely punish criminals who repeatedly possess firearms in connection with drug-trafficking crimes, and erroneously downplayed the seriousness of Angelos's crimes."

Mr. Angelos's lawyer, Jerome H. Mooney, said the decision would be appealed, either for reconsideration by the full Court of Appeals here in Denver or directly to the United States Supreme Court.

Mr. Angelos's sister, Lisa Angelos, said in a telephone interview from Salt Lake City that she had not yet been able to speak with her brother, who is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Lompoc, Calif.

"This was all of our hopes," Ms. Angelos said of the appeal.

The appeals panel did conclude that the police, in searching Mr. Angelos's home, had exceeded the limits of a search warrant as they looked for the source of a strong marijuana smell. But the evidence the officers found in following their noses, the court said, had not materially influenced the outcome.

The court also said that Mr. Angelos's lack of a criminal record appeared to be more about luck in not getting caught than any indication of innocence.

"The evidence presented by the government at trial clearly established that Angelos was a