Another Government Road Block

The Department Of Health and Human Services (it has very little to do with health and is into denying services) has denied permission for an FDA approved study of cannabis for treating PTSD.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has blocked a pilot study to examine the benefits of marijuana for veterans with treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

The study was sponsored by the nonprofit research organization the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), and would have been conducted by Dr. Sue Sisley of the University of Arizona at Phoenix.

“Hundreds of veterans in medical marijuana states already report using marijuana to control their PTSD symptoms,” MAPS said in a statement. “The growing number of service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan with combat-related trauma combined with large numbers of treatment-resistant veterans highlights the pressing need for research into additional treatments for PTSD.”

It seems the Federales have an impenetrable wall to keep this reseach on cannabis from getting done.

The Drug Enforcement Administration has denied researchers requests to obtain licenses to grow marijuana, claiming that the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — overseen by the HHS — can be the only one to supply marijuana for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-regulated research.

Clever boys.

It seems like actual veterans are taking matters into their own hands. Green leafy matters.

“My life went downhill from the moment I came back from Iraq,” Begin, now a 31-year-old veteran, tells Danger Room. “Doctors at Bethesda had me on so much, and on such high doses of everything, that I didn’t even know what was a symptom and what was a side effect.”

At one point, Begin, diagnosed with PTSD shortly after coming home, was taking more than 100 pills a day. So many that he would stuff dozens of bottles into a backpack to lug everywhere he went. Now, he’s cut his dependency on prescriptions to zero. Their replacement? Five joints a day.

“Using marijuana balances me out,” he says. “It takes those peaks and valleys of PTSD and it softens them. It makes my life manageable.”

Begin’s now launched an online petition asking the feds to change their course on marijuana as a treatment for PTSD. In September, the first-ever study proposed to evaluate marijuana as a potential treatment for PTSD was blocked by officials at the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA). With an estimated 37 percent of this generation’s vets afflicted with PTSD, and a dearth of effective treatment options available, Begin thinks pot deserves, at the very least, a single study.

He is not the only veteran who thinks that cannabis ought to be an official medicine. I wrote about Jamey Raines recently.

And what do you know? Our friends the Israelis are on the case.

D., a 26-year-old woman from the north of Israel, says she began to suffer from nightmares about seven years ago, after her partner raped her. After undergoing various forms of therapy, she thought she had largely put the trauma behind her. Then, two years ago, she chanced to see the rapist not far from her home. The nightmares came swarming back.

"I fell into a depression that went on until not long ago, during which I hardly slept or ate," she says in a quiet voice. "My whole life turned upside down. I left my job. Everything came to a stop. I went back to taking antidepressants and tranquilizers - Cipralex, Lustral and Prozac; sleeping pills that made me addicted. It was a nightmare. There was no way I could get through the day without those pills. Then I discovered cannabis."

So war trauma is not the only way to get PTSD? Maybe that explains why 70% of female Heroin users report being sexually attacked. When they were children. Too bad no famous sports figures (in so far as we know) are involved. Too bad we can't figure a way to give such kids a pass. Until we figure out better ways to help them heal. Currently a long slow process that is not a sure thing.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

The Botany Of Desire

You can watch the full video here.

About 5 minutes in to the video there is a discussion about society and mind altering substances. Every society has them except for Eskimos. Only one or two though with the rest frowned upon or actively discouraged. There is no universal agreement on which two mind altering substances should prevail. Americans like alcohol (it is traditional), Saudis do not. And so it goes. All around the world.

The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World

Some people in Missouri are making an effort to get marijuana legalized. About 3 minutes into the video the pro-legalization guy explains that young people support it and old people are against it. Do the math. He thinks the math is good for 2012.

Drug Plants. No not that kind. It is police officers planting drugs to meet arrest quotas.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

This Is Your War On Drugs

Do not watch this video if you can't stand dogs getting shot and a SWAT team terrorizing a Columbia, Missouri family over a few pot pipes. I first blogged this on 10 May 2010. There has been some reaction to that video which I will get to shortly.

What was the disposition of the case?

In the end the victim pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia in exchange for dropping the charges of misdemeanor marijuana possession and second-degree child endangerment. Yes, you read that right: the police burst into this man's home, shooting weapons in his home and killing his dog with his seven-year-old sleeping in the next room and he's the one who was endangering his child by smoking pot in his own home.

It seems that that was not the only disposition. Here is what Norm Stamper, Seattle’s retired Chief of Police, had to say today about the raid.

As they are forced onto the floor, a young male is brought into the room. He is handcuffed and pushed against a wall.

“What did I do? What did I DO?” he shouts, as the woman and the child cower on the floor nearby.

We then learn the source of the dog’s pained cries.

“You shot my dog, you shot my DOG!” the man suddenly shouts. “Why did you do that? He was a good dog! He was probably trying to play with you!”

He, the woman and the child all break into pitiful sobs.

As of late October, just five months after it was posted, the Columbia police raid video has been viewed nearly two million times on YouTube. The clip quickly ricocheted across cyberspace, generating emotionally charged, outraged calls for the officers to be fired and prosecuted. Or subjected to the same kind of treatment that terrorized their fellow citizens.

Public indignation over the incident intensified when it was learned that the Columbia SWAT team was executing an eight-day-old search warrant, and that the only things seized were a pipe containing a small amount of marijuana residue. Since possession of small amounts of pot had long ago been essentially decriminalized in Columbia, the man was charged with simple possession of drug paraphernalia, a misdemeanor.

The reaction of Fox Business Network’s Andrew Napolitano was telling. In a segment about the raid that also found its way onto YouTube, the retired New Jersey Superior Court judge says, “This was America – not East Germany, not Nazi Germany, but middle America!”

Yet as former Cato staffer Radley Balko, who wrote about the Columbia video, has noted, what’s most remarkable about the raid is that it wasn’t remarkable at all. The only thing that made it unusual was that it was videotaped and made public, thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request by the Columbia Daily Tribune newspaper.

There are still a few "Americans" around who say the punishments are not near draconian enough. But they are getting fewer each day. And they are getting pariah status as any police state advocates should.

"Distrust anyone in whom the desire to punish is powerful" - Friedrich Nietzsche

Fortunately that distrust is growing every day. And one day it will be over and the folks behind these atrocities will do their best to avoid being connected in any way with their past. Just as after the war it was hard to find many Nazis in Germany. It really is a wonder that America has let things get this far.

But in a way it is not too surprising. It seems every country needs its scape goats. Germany had its Jews. America has its dopers. I just wonder who will be the targets of all that leftover police hardware when dopers are no longer suitable targets? They are going to need a whole new class of scapegoats.

Maybe we can learn from South Pacific.



On the other hand that was 1949. Evidently we have forgotten what was once as plain as the nose on your face. Mass hate leads to mass atrocities. And not even the Shining City on the Hill is immune. Especially when you consider that Jew hatred in America peaked in 1944. Just before the unmasking of the German atrocities. We are now in the process of unmasking a new round of hatred. It can't happen soon enough.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Turning A Whole Generation Of Young People Against The System

House member Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) says the Drug War is turning a whole generation against the system. Given that pot use peaks in the 16 to 25 year age bracket and that roughly 50% of that cohort are at least occasional users it seems like a really stupid move.

“Marijuana is not the problem,” Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), said at a House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism and homeland security oversight hearing. “It’s turning a whole generation of young people against the system and that’s something we can’t afford.”

Robinson said her office would look into how many Byrne law enforcement grants are used to reimburse local law enforcement agencies for enforcement of cannabis possession laws.

Cohen pressed Robinson to justify the federal government’s role in encouraging the enforcement of laws that the congressman said disproportionately affects people of color and tarnishes the records of young people for their entire lives.

And Rep. Cohen is a little off. He should have said "another generation".

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Drug Cartel PR?

Thanks to Howard Wooldridge of Citizens Opposing Prohibition I have a link to what purports to be a Mexican Drug Cartel PR site. We Are The Cartels. They boast on their current front page: Mexican Drug Cartel Association – Now offering To-Your-Door Service in many cities.

There is another page that I found interesting.

Breaking News

October 13, 2011 – California:

We applaud the efforts of the DEA today, as they destroy the Northstone Organics in Mendocino County. In fact we applaud all efforts of the DEA to destroy these so-called ‘legal, medical marijuana’ gardens.

Drug trafficking helping economy along border: October 17, 2011

This from a newspaper account whereby Marin “Gordo” Herrera, a former associate of the MDCA, was able to take the money he earned and develop a successful housing area in a suburb near McAllen, Texas.

Although now serving 20 years in a federal prison, the houses remain as testimony of the positive impact of his employment with us.

I wonder if this is for real or if it is a way of making fun of Drug Prohibition? Either way.....

BTW Howard, a retired police detective, educates Congress on the evils of Drug Prohibition. If you can - send him a few bucks.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Change Is In The Wind

Except the Senate has not changed at all and the House not much.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Hi Tech Powered By Pot

It appears that industries powered by brains, commonly referred to as high tech, are also powered by marijuana.

Almost 92% of the people that work in the technology and telecommunications industries answered "yes" to the survey's question asking if they had ever smoked cannabis.

"Obviously, cannabis users work in a variety of professions," said James Malach, creative director at technology firm TongueWag, which commissioned the survey, "but the high proportion of users in the IT sector is considerably higher than we suspected."

The study says nothing much about current use in high tech. But even so. Think about what would happen to our high tech industries (the engines of our current prosperity such as it is) if a significant fraction of those folks had wound up with a pot conviction after trying the herb in their youth.

In my own experience in high tech, I would estimate that between 1/4 and 1/2 of the engineers I worked with were regular users. Of course there is no way for me to tell for certain (thus the wide variance in numbers) because no one with a job is going to admit to pot use and thus lose their job.

Update: I found a site which discusses the anecdotal evidence of pot use in high tech. Here is a bit from the site:

Several heavy pot smokers I’ve known have also been some of the smartest and most productive I’ve worked with. People seem to use these drugs to unwind, to blow off steam, and I’ve never seen anyone have trouble keeping it out of the workplace. If people have substance problems it’s more likely alcoholism.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Clearing the Smoke: The Science of Cannabis

I must say it is interesting to hear the critics in this video. It is as if they are unfamiliar with the concept: medicinal plants. The idea seems to be that only single compounds that come from a factory can be medicine. But what about Marinol?

It's The Money, Stupid.

The moral I got from watching Part 3 of "Prohibition" a movie by Ken Burns, is that when the influence of the moralists wanes and the government needs money it will scrap prohibition in favor of commerce. Especially if the bodies are piling up in America. Mexican bodies? Not Our Problem.

Where are we with drug prohibition:

Pretty far along. And that doesn't even count the 70% to 80% that support medical marijuana.

So what about the money? The direct costs run about $25 bn a year Federal. And about $45 bn a year State and local. And then there are taxes to be collected.

A San Francisco Bay area medical marijuana dispensary that promotes itself as the world's largest has been hit with a $2.4 million tax bill following an audit by the Internal Revenue Service, the dispensary founder said Tuesday.

The back taxes, penalties and interest levied against Harborside Health Center came after the IRS examined its returns for 2007 and 2008 and determined a 1982 tax code prohibiting cost deductions for businesses that traffic in illegal drugs applies to the dispensary.

Hmmmmmm. If this puts them out of business there will be no future revenue. No sales and other taxes for the locals. No more income taxes for the Fererales from the business and its workers. Are our politicians really that stupid? No need to answer that. It was a rhetorical question.

H/T Drug Policy Forum of Texas

Cross Posted at Classical Values

A Local Comes Out Against Marijuana Prohibition

As you may or may not know Black support for the pResident is falling off a cliff. If the Head Man doesn't do something about it soon he is a goner in 2012. So imagine my surprise when a local Black who writes an editorial column for the Rockford Register Star, Ed Wells, has come out against Marijuana Prohibition. You can find details at the link.

What other Blacks are against Drug Prohibition to varying degrees?

The NAACP

Blacks in Government

Charles Blow at the New York Times

Wilton D. Alston at Lew Rockwell

It looks to me like the Black community is begging the President to change his tune on Drug Prohibition. It will shore up his waning support among Democrats and if the discussions around here are any indication it will split the Republicans. The Republicans who stick with Prohibition will be branded racists. That should motivate college kids who are itching to recreate the anti-racism of the 60s. Not to mention that enforcement is targeted at their age group.

The President will have a perfect opportunity to change his tune following the showing of the Ken Burns movie “Prohibition” about Alcohol Prohibition airing on PBS starting on this Sunday 2 Oct. Check your local listings. And follow the news on it (I probably will be posting copiously on it - sorry about that).

It should be a very exciting election season.

H/T a friend.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Houston, We Have A Problem

It looks like some police in Houston love pot as much as the people they arrest for it.

Police say Hill told them he was a weed dealer and that he'd just taken delivery of his supply earlier that day.

Three other people in the apartment were allegedly holding drugs, and a thorough search of the apartment turned up a couple of shotguns, an unknown quantity of 'shrooms, around $940 cash, a little more weed, and an assortment of bongs and pipes.

What this official report does not mention specifically is the tray of pot brownies Hill says the cops seized and ate right in front of him and his fellow suspects.

All of this would emerge in Hill's conversations with his lawyers Daniel Cahill and J. Julio Vela. Cahill was disbelieving at first -- although only 19, Hill has a little bit of a precocious record in drug arrests -- but investigated his client's claims nevertheless. And now he says he has what might be a smoking gun.

Hill told Cahill that after eating the brownies and arresting him and two of his buddies, the cops got on their in-car computers and started squawking about how stoned they were.

KTRK's Ted Oberg got a hold of the transcripts:

"So HIGH...Good munchies," typed one at 2:44 a.m.

And why shouldn't they get baked on pot brownies? After all the supply is free to police. As long as they are willing to steal. If they had avoided arresting the kid for dealing pot they could have gotten away with it. Just a cost of doing business. In fact the police could probably have arranged for a regular supply free of charge had they thought the whole deal through.

Veterans Need Our Help

First a little background on the source, Stars and Stripes newspaper.

Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests, regularly reports.

So what you are about to read comes from a semi-official source.

Former platoon sergeant says marijuana was 'the only thing' that controlled his PTSD

Jamey Raines tried marijuana once or twice in high school, but he said he had no interest in it after he joined the Army in 2000. He served in heavy combat in Iraq from 2003 to 2004 and rose through the ranks from private to platoon sergeant. Along the way he drank and smoked cigarettes like many infantrymen do, but he said he was “100 percent against” using any drug in any form.

Five years out of the military as of next month, however, Raines has changed his mind.

Using marijuana, he said, was the only way he could control his intense anger and anxiety as a result of post-traumatic stress disorder. The drug was a crutch, but a necessary one, he said, and it enabled him to go to college, earn his degree and land a decent job.

It succeeded, he said, where the fistfuls of prescription medications that Army doctors doled out failed him.

“The only way that I got through all that was that I smoked pot every day,” said Raines, 29, now living in Ohio. He thought of it as “the lesser of two evils [that] made it easier to go out in public, to talk to people, and easier to let things go when people say stupid [stuff].”

I assume the the brackets "[]" are to make the paper family friendly. So fill in the blanks.

This is not the first time military people have come out in favor of keeping pot legal. I'm not talking about individuals. I'm talking about an official US Military Commission. The following is taken from: The Military Surgeon Volume 73 - July-December 1933. The commission studied pot smoking by US Military personnel in the Panama Canal Zone.

B. Common effects of mariajuana described by users:

1. Mild intoxication. (Smokers use different terms to describe their sensations, the most common being "brushed up," "high," "happy," "peppy," "rosy," "dopy," "satisfied.")

2. Increased appetite.

3. Induction of sleep an hour or two after smoking.

4. Only five, or 15 per cent, stated they missed mariajuana when deprived of it.

5. Twenty-four, or 71 per cent, stated they preferred tobacco to mariajuana.

6. These soldiers stated that mariajuana was cheap and easy to procure in Panama and that they used it for "a pleasant pastime," usually during hours off duty when they had nothing else to do to amuse themselves. They stated that practically all recruits tried mariajuana and those who like it usually continued its use. Their average estimate of the number of habitual mariajuana smokers in their respective organizations was approximately 10 per cent.

We now know that the incidence of PTSD in the general population is about 10%. It can go as high as 20% to 25% among combat veterans. So the habitual use or "missing it" numbers fits well with what we know today.

So what was the final conclusion of the report?

RECOMMENDATIONS

1.The present military regulations prohibiting the introduction, sale, possession, or use of mariajuana on military reservations should continue in force, as they are believed to restrict the use of mariajuana among soldiers.

2. With the evidence obtained and considered by the committee no recommendations for further legislative action to prevent the sale or use of mariajuana in the Canal Zone, Panama, are deemed advisable under existing conditions.

Of course at the time the report was written marijuana was legal for any desired use in the US. It wasn't outlawed until 1937.

Our veterans need our help and yet so many of my "I'm on your side" friends say "not now" it might ruin our election chances. What about the chances of those suffering veterans my friends? What about them?

If you are into petitioning the White House here is the place to go: Allow United States Disabled Military Veterans access to medical marijuana to treat their PTSD

A little Panama music for the enjoyment of fans.



Cross Posted at Classical Values

Marijuana Is Not A Federal Job

Marijuana is not a Federal job says Barney Frank and Ron Paul. Pot prohibition, like alcohol prohibition, is a job for the States.

Marijuana laws should be set at the state, not federal, level, Reps. Ron Paul and Barney Frank argued in a bill they introduced Thursday.

The goal of the bill, HR 2306, is not to legalize marijuana but to remove it from the list of federally controlled substances while allowing states to decide how they will regulate it.

"I do not advocate urging people to smoke marijuana. Neither do I urge them to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke tobacco," said Frank (D-Mass.). "But in none of these cases do I think prohibition enforced by criminal sanctions is good public policy.

"Criminally prosecuting adults for making the choice to smoke marijuana is a waste of law enforcement resources and an intrusion on personal freedom," he added.

My sources tell me that the aids to Republican Congress Critters are generally in favor of the bill and similar efforts. The Critters? Not so much. That will change in time.

Hey - Don't They Know I'm Jewish Too?

Police in Israel mistakenly break into a swingers party while chasing some pot growers.

The volunteer police officers raided Moshav Beit Hanan in central Israel, finding a hydroponic marijuana growing operation and two suspects, reports Yaniv Kubovich at Haaretz.

The suspects took off on foot and the police gave chase, all the way to a closed area where they stumbled upon dozens of scantily clad party-goers.

A brief investigation revealed that the turned-on revelers were in the throes of a swingers' party.

The red-faced police made their excuses and quickly left, with the two pot suspects in custody.

I know it is long distance but I didn't even get a courtesy invite.

And I'll bet the clothed pot growers were easy to find among all that flesh. If the police didn't get distracted.

Canada - Pot Laws Uncostitutional

A Judge has just struck down Canada's marijuana prohibition laws.

Mr. Justice Donald Taliano of the Ontario Superior Court struck down the Marihuana Medical Access Regulations, arguing they aren’t doing enough to ensure patients can obtain the necessary approvals to use the drug. Simultaneously, he ruled two sections of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act – those that prohibit simple possession and cultivating marijuana – are unconstitutional, since they can be used to criminally charge medicinal users who haven’t been able to obtain such approval.

The ruling means the government must either improve its system for licensing medicinal marijuana patients within 90 days, or it will become legal to use or grow the drug for any purpose. The government can, however, buy itself more time by appealing the ruling.

I wonder if Canada is interested in becoming the Amsterdam of North America? Not just one city but a whole country.

I thought this part of the ruling was particularly significant.

“Rather than promote health – the regulations have the opposite effect. Rather than promote effective drug control – the regulations drive the critically ill to the black market,” he wrote. “Surely, the right to choose belongs to the patient, not to government that has failed to create the environment for better research into the drug’s effectiveness and harmful qualities.”

Now if only we could get rid of the DEA and the FDA in America. Putting people in charge of their own medical care seems like a very good idea to me. If you want a doctor - fine. If you don't want a doctor - fine. Having the government enforce the rules of the medical cartel seems like a very bad idea.

If You Don't Quit Harming Yourself We Will Punish You

Yeah. "If you don't quit harming yourself we will punish you" sounds pretty stupid (to some of us) now a days. But at one time it was all that we had. There was no evidence to support any other way of treating substance addictions. We now know something else. Thanks to people like Alan Marlatt who died on Monday (14 March).

For years, the prevailing approach to confronting addiction in the U.S. could be summed up as "just say no." Abstinence was the only goal; addicts had to agree to quit drugs or booze entirely as a precondition for treatment.

The pioneering work of Alan Marlatt, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, profoundly changed that attitude in recent decades.

Dr. Marlatt advocated "harm reduction," an approach that meets addicts "where they are" instead of demanding immediate detox and abstinence. Counselors strive to reduce drug or alcohol consumption, for example, while minimizing public-health costs through programs such as needle exchanges.

It's a model Dr. Marlatt called "compassionate pragmatism instead of moralistic idealism." And research shows it works.

And you thought that just because the Communists Utopians were discredited that all Utopians were discredited? Perish the thought. Don't you know that if every one believed in the right God the right way and acted properly on those beliefs we could end misery and suffering forever? It says so in some book or other. Some very old book. It must be true. Trouble is that it is in several old books and the books seem to disagree on several important details. I'm all in once it gets sorted out.

But back to addiction.

While now widely accepted, some of Dr. Marlatt's ideas were considered heretical when he first started writing and talking about them decades ago, colleagues said.

For example, counselors once shunned discussion of relapses when talking with alcoholics, believing it would only encourage further drinking. Dr. Marlatt challenged that as unrealistic. His research showed it was more effective to acknowledge the likelihood of relapses and help patients cope with them.

"When I first heard him talk about that in the late 1970s, people got up and accused him of killing alcoholics," said Frederick Rotgers, president of the Society of Addiction Psychology.

I guess telling the truth is more effective than lying to people. Who knew?

Dr. Marlatt supported Seattle's controversial apartment building for the city's most troublesome street alcoholics. The 1811 Eastlake building, which opened in late 2005, provides a home to dozens of hard-core alcoholics, who are allowed to drink in their rooms.

Though that concept drew plenty of criticism, a 2009 study found it saved taxpayers $4 million a year. That's because the residents were drinking less and not winding up as often in the emergency room or detox.

Now think of all the money that could be saved if we asked police to quit Herding Junkies.

Which is one reason Dr. Robert Marks [pdf] calls the whole exercize:

THE DRUG LAWS: A CASE OF COLLECTIVE PSYCHOSIS

It does seem a bit harsh. But when you consider that we have been at it for nearly 100 years with no substantial effect other than to destroy supplier and transit countries and enrich criminals in America as well, what else explains it but psychosis? A disconnect from reality. Oh. Maybe not the small reality. But the bigger picture. And both Alan Marlatt and Dr. Marks have proved that even the small reality doesn't work the way most people think it does. More from Dr. Marks:

I am a consultant psychiatrist in Widnes, northern England and prescribe hard drugs such as heroin and cocaine. Ironically I may not prescribe hasheesh, nor opium nor coca. This is like being able to prescribe cognac but not wine. Nevertheless this policy has eliminated drug deaths, there is no H.I.V. infection, and a police study of our program shows a 15-fold fall in drug-related acquisitive crime. Most interestingly, the incidence of addiction has fallen 12-fold.

HARM MAXIMISATION AND INHUMANITY

Daniel Roche is a citizen of Widnes. In adolescence he experimented with drugs. He gained a liking for cannabis. Avoiding the black market, he grew his own cannabis on local unused wastesites. He supplied himself, in this way, peacefully, for eighteen years. He was a cable layer, working for a large electrical company. He paid taxes. He had his own house. He was married, with children successful at school. In 1988 the police seized his cannabis, and he was fired from his job. He couldn’t pay his mortgage, so he lost his house. More cannabis was found growing in his garden. He was sent to prison and his family split up. He is now still in prison in Liverpool. I call this policy “harm maximisation”.

So we are harming the drug users. And harming the taxpayers. Who is making out in all this? Uh. Let me think. It is on the tip of my tongue. Give me a couple of days. I'm sure it will come to me.

I have never understood the concept "if we make life more painful for those taking unauthorized pain medications they will stop chasing unauthorized pain relief". You would have to be some kind of Utopian with a very old book to believe such a thing. Because it is very hard to understand how you can come to such a syllogism through logic and reason.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Opiates For PTSD

As those of you who read me regularly know I have frequently been inflicting on you a link to my article Heroin in discussions of both the Drug War and PTSD. And some of you with an irrational hatred of Heroin have derided me and told me I'm full of it. The evidence in the article was circumstantial and not extremely strong. Well I have some extremely strong evidence now and it first surfaced in my article Underground In Las Vegas. And where did the evidence come from? Probably the most conservative sector of our society. The US Military.

And what is the military prescribing for PTSD? The article refers to them as narcotics. Really they are opiate analogs. Here is part of the story:

By some estimates, well over 300,000 troops have returned from Iraq or Afghanistan with P.T.S.D., depression, traumatic brain injury or some combination of those. The Pentagon has looked to pharmacology to treat those complex problems, following the lead of civilian medicine. As a result, psychiatric drugs have been used more widely across the military than in any previous war.

But those medications, along with narcotic painkillers, are being increasingly linked to a rising tide of other problems, among them drug dependency, suicide and fatal accidents — sometimes from the interaction of the drugs themselves. An Army report on suicide released last year documented the problem, saying one-third of the force was on at least one prescription medication.

“Prescription drug use is on the rise,” the report said, noting that medications were involved in one-third of the record 162 suicides by active-duty soldiers in 2009. An additional 101 soldiers died accidentally from the toxic mixing of prescription drugs from 2006 to 2009.

Obviously the military doctors are having no more luck with PTSD than their civilian counterparts. Which is to say - there is no cure.

But the civilian doctors in some states have an option the military doesn't have. Medical Marijuana.

Chronic pain conditions change peoples lives. The discomfort and pain is consuming. Many patients fail to truly weigh the pros and cons of the medications they are given for pain, especially those who have chronic conditions. Constipating opiates are almost always an option, but medical marijuana is rarely discussed. But, it should be an option for those facing hard treatment decisions regarding long term medication use. There are blood tests that doctors run to check for long term kidney and liver damage by medications, although they fail to mention all of the reasons for testing. The very idea that it is routine for some doctors to check to the amount of damage a medication can do to the kidneys and liver is indicative of its inherent damage. Medical marijuana presents none of those problems.

Chronic pain patients often end up at pain management facilities. Treating chronic pain is about providing the patient with the best quality of life while they are in pain, whether this is cancer pain or herniated disc pain awaiting new surgical fusion technology. Pain treatment often involves a combination of physical therapy, medication, relaxation, ice and heat rotations, and surgery. Doctors prescribe cocktails drawing from Opioids, Anti-convulsives, muscle relaxants, beta blockers, Benzodiazepines, antidepressants, and others. Rather than discuss medical marijuana and the proven efficacy of cannabis as a pain remedy, patients are given expensive cocktails. Medical marijuana has long been a taboo subject for patients, especially when it comes to asking their primary care doctor. The stigma associated with medical marijuana blinds physicians from seeing that cannabis often far outweighs the use of other medication combinations. Medical marijuana is a valid treatment for many conditions. Using medical marijuana can reduce the amount of other medications. Marijuana is safer.

Yep. Marijuana is safer. DEA Judge Young in a legal opinion about marijuana as medicine said:

Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known to man.

What else can marijuana do when combined with opiates?

Medical marijuana can help pain patients in many ways. Using cannabis as an adjunct medicine can help opiate pain meds work better. Medical marijuana can successfully treat pain and help lower the overall dose of narcotics, something that is healthy for the patient.

Marijuana is safer than a very common psychoactive over the counter drug. Alcohol. In fact some one has written a book about it.

Marijuana is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink?

In fact alcohol was considered a kind of folk remedy for PTSD before the condition had an official name. Back in the day it was called "shell shock" or similar. And as you might have guessed I have written something on the subject. See: The Soldiers Disease.

Our understanding of the use of marijuana for PTSD is rather advanced. See: PTSD and the Endocannabinoid System.

Now my questions are a simple ones. Why don't those who have so much compassion for our military men work for the repeal of Federal Marijuana Prohibition so those in desperate need can get better help than they are now receiving? And why aren't we looking at the vast untreated population in America with PTSD who are now self medicating with illegal drugs? Why are we punishing the traumatized in this country? Or at least those the government can catch and of course their suppliers. I do not consider the drug dealers evil. I think of them as heroes. They are helping people (for profit - just like the pharma companies) that our government in its infinite wisdom does not count as worthy of treatment. Unless their condition was acquired on the battlefield. Why are victims of sexual assault or child abuse any less worthy than the folks in the military?

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Getting Drugs Off The Street And Cash Out Of Wallets

There appears to be a thriving medical marijuana industry in Michigan and the police are real unhappy about it.

Earlier this month, police in Oakland County, Michigan raided a medical marijuana dispensary in the town of Oak Park. The deputies came in with guns drawn and bulletproof vests, with at least one wearing a mask.

They made no arrests, but they did clean the place out. The confiscated all of the dispensary’s cash on hand and—in a particularly thuggish touch—also took all of the cash from the wallets and purses of employees and patients.

Armed robbery by the police? Not exactly. The police only get 4/5ths of the cash. They have to share the rest with the big boss who keeps the crime organized.

Under Michigan’s asset forfeiture law, 80 percent of the cash the deputies seized will go directly to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Department. The other 20 percent goes to the local prosecutor. Medical marijuana is legal under Michigan law but is of course still illegal under federal law. And apparently there’s some debate about the legality of dispensaries. All of which means this particular dispensary will have a hard time proving it earned the seized cash legitimately. I doubt the patients and employees will get their cash back, either.

But a former prosecutor explains what asset forfeiture is all about. Now that he is out of office he can tell the truth (better than those who get out of office and don't).

“It’s a money grab, pure and simple; a sneaky way of getting a penalty on something prosecutors can’t prove. It’s like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Armed robbery by our government? It is the thing revolutions are made of.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

You can always get away with doing this to disfavored minorities for a while but eventually the bill will become due. I do hope this gets fixed before there are people in the streets and politicians hanging from the lamp posts. It would be unfortunate for all concerned. And bad for business besides.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Palin, Pat, And Pot

A while back I did a post on how Pat Robertson had changed his stance on pot (at least for a while). And I quote:

...something else we've got to recognize. We're locking up people that take a couple of puffs of marijuana and the next thing they know they've got 10 years. They've got mandatory sentences and these judges just ... throw up their hands and say there's nothing we can do."

"We've got to take a look at what we're considering crimes and that's one of them," Robertson added. "I'm not exactly for the use of drugs. Don't get me wrong. But I just believe that criminalizing marijuana, criminalizing the possession of a few ounces of pot and that kind of thing, it's costing us a fortune and it's ruining young people."

They go into prison "as youths and they come out as hardened criminals, and that's not a good thing."

That was late December of 2010.

So what did Sarah Palin have to say around mid June of 2010?

Former Alaska GOP Gov. Sarah Palin said Wednesday night that law enforcement should not focus its energy on the “minimal problem” of marijuana.

Palin made the comment during an appearance on the Fox Business Network with Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

The libertarian Paul said enforcing marijuana restrictions specifically and the war on drugs more generally is a “useless battle,” a point Palin somewhat agreed with, though she was clear that she does not support legalization.

"If we're talking about pot, I'm not for the legalization of pot,” Palin said. “I think that would just encourage our young people to think that it was OK to go ahead and use it.”

“However, I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts,” Palin added. “If somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems we have in society.”

Palin then urged law enforcement to “not concentrate on such a, relatively speaking, minimal problem we have in the country.”

So is Robertson a Sarah Palin follower or is there a shift of opinion happening on the right? Or both? Or just coincidence?

My guess is that we are coming to our senses as a nation. Good.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

Marijuana Makes Some People Smarter

Does pot make some people smarter? I have no studies proving that. I do have an anecdote.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The late astronomer and author, Carl Sagan (1934 - 1996) was a secret but avid marijuana smoker, crediting it with inspiring essays and scientific insight, according to Sagan's biographer.

Using the pseudonym "Mr. X'', Sagan wrote about his pot smoking in an essay published in the 1971 book "Marijuana Reconsidered.'' The book's editor, Lester Grinspoon, recently disclosed the secret to Sagan's biographer, Keay Davidson.

Davidson, a writer for the San Francisco Examiner, revealed the marijuana use in an article published in the newspaper's magazine Sunday. "Carl Sagan: A Life'' is due out in October.

"I find that today a single joint is enough to get me high ... in one movie theater recently I found I could get high just by inhaling the cannabis smoke which permeated the theater,'' wrote Sagan, who authored popular science books such as "Cosmos,'' "Contact,'' and "The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.''

In the essay, Sagan said marijuana inspired some of his intellectual work.

"I can remember one occasion, taking a shower with my wife while high, in which I had an idea on the origins and invalidities of racism in terms of gaussian distribution curves,'' wrote the former Cornell University professor. "I wrote the curves in soap on the shower wall, and went to write the idea down.

Of course it could have been showering with his wife that did it.

Lester Grinspoon has another book of interest.

Marihuana: The Forbidden Medicine

And this one not by Grinspoon got five stars from all twenty reviewers.

Understanding Marijuana: A New Look at the Scientific Evidence

Cross Posted at Classical Values