The Planet is Fine. Us? Not so much.

"The planet is FINE ... the PEOPLE are fucked!" -- George Carlin

Hemp for Victory

This film is authentic even though no less than the Library of Congress LIED ABOUT IT'S EXISTENCE until it could no longer be denied. The hypocrisy of marijuana prohibition is so far beyond absurd as to render any thinking American utterly mortified that We The People have tolerated the abuses of Government that would one day SUBSIDIZE our growing of hemp and the next IMPRISON OUR CHILDREN for it's possession or recreational use.

And this is a government to whom we are to feel proud to pledge allegiance? I think not. However, WE CAN BE THE CHANGE WE SEEK IN THE WORLD and can *change* these backward policies through education and solidarity in action.

Bush Impeachment in Progress

But have you heard a SINGLE word about it in the mainstream? Of course not. And as usual, guess who our humble, courageous, and persistent American hero is ... yet again ...

Metallica Has Smoked Themselves Retarded

So sad, but Mark is right:

I try not to throw this terminology around lightly, either, as I’ve witnessed [and partaken in] a fair amount of mental incapacity and inebriation in my life. This is the only explanation I can proffer that seems to make any sense, though.

Under the Influence: The Chemical Muse

Public Radio International (PRI), National Public Radio (NPR), and Wisconsin Public Radio (WPR)'s To The Best of Our Knowledge (TTBOOK) present Under the Influence:

David Hillman almost lost his chance for a PhD when his doctoral committee questioned the part of his dissertation on recreational drug use in antiquity. He took it out, but revived it for his book "The Chemical Muse : Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization." He tells Jim Fleming that drug use was common in Greco-Roman times, and that the ancients thought it helped them get closer to the gods.

Program 08-05-18-B (click to listen now).

You can find additional Editorial Reviews at Barnes and Noble:

[EXCERPT from Publishers Weekly] -- Ancient Greeks and Romans used substances from plants and animals to heal the body, but also, Hillman says, to heal the mind and as a source of creative inspiration. Taking up an old thesis of such scholars as Morton Smith and John Allegro, Hillman contends that ancient poets and playwrights from Homer to Aristophanes, and philosophers from Pythagoras to Empedocles, featured the use of mind-altering drugs in their writings. Hillman ends with a peroration on the roots of the Western notion of freedom in ancient Greece and on the right to use recreational drugs as a core freedom.

Kirkus Reviews (Source) -- In ancient Greece and Rome the right to use recreational drugs was not just accepted, but an important aspect of personal freedom. Conservative academics don't want this to get around, claims debut author Hillman, asserting that he was told to delete material on recreational drug use from his dissertation for a doctorate in classics from the University of Wisconsin. That incident provided the incentive for this book, which argues that psychotropic drugs played a crucial role in the history of Western intellectual development. The earliest Greek philosophers, Hillman avers, "flourished in a society that embraced the intellectual, social, and political freedoms associated with recreational drug use." They understood the value of mind-altering substances in assisting creativity and advocated their use. In the ancient world, he continues, such botanical medicines as opium and belladonna were a comfort and a source of hope; they were often mixed with wine, or inhaled, or applied as suppositories to provide relief from pain and illness. Knowledge of their powerful effects-euphoria, sedation, states of altered perception, temporary psychosis-was widespread, and ancient myths are replete with instances of their power. The author combs the writings of Homer, Virgil and Ovid for references to narcotics and the effects of various stimulants, seeking to demonstrate their familiarity to those authors and their audiences. Among the personal freedoms valued highly by the founders of Western civilization, he contends, was the right of the individual to use drugs of any kind; Hillman views the loss of this right as deplorable. Apparently still stinging from his academic experience, he claims that classical scholars have a moral bent that has led them to ignore this subject, making "the Greco-Roman fascination with narcotics, stimulants, and depressants . . . the last unexplored frontier of ancient history."If the movement to legalize marijuana is looking for an irate classicist as spokesman, Hillman is it.

2008 Presidential Candidates Come Clean on Marijuana Use

FINALLY! Once we can at least get some truth tellers in the highest office of the land, it may not be long before we finally END THE MORONIC WAR ON MARIJUANA!

As it turns out, while Kerry and others also went on record professing the truth, it is the introspective Barack Obama, leading what we might call the New American Century for Sanity and Truth In Public Policy Movement.

Hemp for Eliot

It's a little off-topic, but the videos at this link are completely stereotypical of the hubris and hypocrisy that keeps STUPID laws on the books and stupid people defending them.

Jon Stewart’s Recipe for Spitzer Stew

Canadians are all potheads ... but they are still better than us

So posits prolific writer, ATP licensed pilot, photographer, and self-described recovering computer programmer-engineer Philip Greenspun in response to this gratuitously hyperbolic, fear-mongering Wall Street Journal article which absurdly attempts to imply that legalizing marijuana has somehow led directly and immediately to "the execution-style murders of six people" while dismissively glossing over the fact that the "greater Vancouver remains one of the safest metropolitan areas in North America" in the very same article.

Brilliant. I'm shocked that a publication as venerable as the WSJ would tolerate such irrational and irresponsible histrionics; not to mention the inexcusably sloppy lumping together of all illicit drug-related crime -- cocaine, crack, heroine -- as somehow typical of "those marijuana users." That's utterly absurd, Dougy, and you know better. Shame on you.

Just like at the end of alcohol prohibition, there are bound to be some pissed off thugs here and there when we take away their tax-free black market cash and put it to work in our American Economy, including a sizable boost to tax revenues. That is the best reason to LEGALIZE, rather than a reason to revoke Canada's progressive policy.

Gladwell on The (Entirely Arbitrary) War On Drugs

The story begins at gladwell.com: The War on Drugs, as follows:

From the January 14, 2008 Sports Illustrated:

Page 36: "Then, on a late touchdown run against Arkansas on Nov. 23 [LSU quarterback Matt Flynn] separated his throwing shoulder. Two painkilling injections allowed him to stay in the game."

WebMD: Cannibis Could Cure Cancer

This just in from digitalretina ...

By Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Medical News, Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD

Dec. 26, 2007 -- THC and another marijuana-derived compound slow the spread of cervical and lung cancers, test-tube studies suggest.

The new findings add to the fast-growing number of animal and cell-culture studies showing different anticancer effects for cannabinoids, chemical compounds derived from marijuana.

Cannabinoids, and sometimes marijuana itself, are currently used to lessen the nausea and pain experienced by many cancer patients. The new findings -- yet to be proven in human studies -- suggest that cannabinoids may have a direct anticancer effect.

"Cannabinoids' ... potential therapeutic benefit in the treatment of highly invasive cancers should be addressed in clinical trials," conclude Robert Ramer, PhD, and Burkhard Hinz, PhD, of the University of Rostock, Germany.

Might cannabinoids keep dangerous tumors from spreading throughout the body? Ramer and Hinz set up an experiment in which invasive cervical and lung cancer cells had make their way through a tissue-like gel. Even at very low concentrations, the marijuana compounds THC and methanandamide (MA) significantly slowed the invading cancer cells.

Doses of THC that reduce pain in cancer patients yield blood concentrations much higher than the concentrations needed to inhibit cancer invasion.

"Thus the effects of THC on cell invasion occurred at therapeutically relevant concentrations," Ramer and Hinz note.

The researchers are quick to point out that much more study is needed to find out whether these test-tube results apply to tumor growth in animals and in humans.

Ramer and Hinz report the findings in the Jan. 2, 2008 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Clinical Rationalizing Bullshit Syndrome

Hey, I know ... let's all KICK THE SHIT OUT OF PEOPLE when they're down, shall we? And always be sure to point at retards like you live in a cartoon world created by Trey and Matt.

Sure, some day we might notice that, "Ohhh ... that was a CARTOON about how cruel 'innocent children' can be and how hypocritical society can be, while we actually have to live in REALITY ..." but in the meantime, let's all be sure to just keep the DISCRIMINATION, STIGMATIZATION, and MARGINALIZATION running full steam ahead. Yeah, now *that's* enlightened common sense intellectual superiority!

(De-facto) Life Sentences: Collateral Sanctions Associated with Marijuana Offenses

A landmark report by the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics.

In addition to the punishment imposed by the judge, a misdemeanor conviction for possession of marijuana can trigger automatic bars on educational aid, a bar on serving as a foster parent, denial of federal housing assistance, revocation or suspension of occupational licenses, and suspension of one's driver's license. A felony conviction (for example, growing a marijuana plant) can result in all of these sanctions, and more.

If marijuana offenses are considered less of an affront to civil society than violent crimes such as murder, rape, or kidnapping, or even less of an affront than other drug offenses, our study shows that this consideration is rarely found in any of the collateral sanctions. A person convicted of growing marijuana (a felony in most states) is often subjected to the same, and sometimes greater, collateral sanctions than a person convicted of murder, rape, or robbery.

This report examines these sanctions in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and ranks the jurisdictions in order or severity.

On the one hand, this report is utterly infuriating to any thinking human with a functioning MORAL CONSCIENCE; on the other hand, it's also very good data as to why we must each MAKE A HUGE SACRIFICE FOR THE CAUSE by SAFEGUARDING OUR PRECARIOUS LIBERTY by following the current unjustifiably ignorant laws, thus avoiding these Immoral Totalitarian Consequence.

We must then follow through by making a conscious choice to simultaneously DEVOTE OUR SACRIFICED PERSONAL FREEDOM to CHANGING THIS IGNORANCE for the FUTURE FREEDOM OF ALL. This is the only path forward to victory, my brothers and sisters; FULLY LAW-ABIDING CITIZENS must actively protest, fund raise, write and file new legislation, and oppose all laws which are IMMORAL and UNETHICAL in their obscenely disproportionate treatment of non-violent offenders.

'Lost war' sabotaging American economy

MarketWatch:

Today America's 30-year "War on Drugs" is a miserable failure. But worse yet, it's now undermining our "War on Terror."

America has had a "War on Drugs" since the Nixon administration, based on prohibition and criminalizing drugs. That policy has drained hundreds of billions from our economy, driven drug traffic underground, and raised the price on a commodity that otherwise would cost pennies. Domestically and internationally our "War on Drugs" policies are not only a dismal failure, they produce the exact opposite result.

Worse yet, our failed drug policies are sabotaging our "War on Terror" in Afghanistan. As the Washington Post reported, "The drug war has become the Taliban's most effective recruiter in Afghanistan," reinvigorating Muslin extremists. Thanks to our obstinate adherence to failed drug policies plus minimal alternatives for Afghan farmers, we are playing into the Taliban's hand and they're "becoming richer and stronger by the day."

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