SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Past articles: 2015 • 2016 • 2017 👀
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has come out in support of federal cannabis decriminalization, just in time for 4/20:
The Minority Leader of the Senate is making it official the day before 4/20: He's down with legal weed. In an exclusive interview with VICE News, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) confirmed he is putting his name on legislation that he said is aimed at "decriminalizing" marijuana at the federal level. For Schumer, this is a shift. While he has backed medical marijuana and the rights of states to experiment with legal sales of pot, what he is proposing is a seismic shift in federal drug policy.
"Ultimately, it's the right thing to do. Freedom. If smoking marijuana doesn't hurt anybody else, why shouldn't we allow people to do it and not make it criminal?" Schumer said.
The legislation should be available within a week or so, and would remove cannabis (still listed as "Marihuana") from the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of Schedule I substances. States would then be free to regulate or continue to prohibit the plant. Cannabis advertising would be regulated as are alcohol and tobacco advertising. (Also at NPR, CNN, The Washington Post, and CNBC, as well as Reason taking a shot at Schumer for not doing it sooner.)
A majority of Americans support the legalization of cannabis, including, for the first time, a majority (51%) of Republicans, according to Gallup. Nine states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis for recreational use. 29 states, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico have legalized medical use of cannabis, and another 17 states have legalized the use of cannabidiol (CBD). Cannabis became available for recreational purposes in California on January 1.
It remains to be seen whether enough Republicans will favor Schumer's bill (or if it will be ignored like Booker's), but Senator Cory Gardner (R-CO) might. By preventing confirmation of many of President Trump's Justice Department nominees, Gardner was able to secure a "promise" that the federal government will not interfere in states that have chosen to legalize and regulate cannabis. Removing the authority of the federal government to swoop in and shut down "legal" cannabis businesses is a better solution that would ease uncertainty in the market. Maybe cannabusinesses could start using banks instead of mattresses.
In recent weeks, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has supported legislation to legalize hemp production. Former Speaker of the House John Boehner has come out in favor of cannabis legalization and now sits on a board of advisers for a cannabis corporation. President Trump has expressed tepid support for letting states handle the issue.
Studies have found that medical use of cannabis can be effective in reducing rates of opioid addiction. However, many doctors are reluctant to prescribe cannabis, and the Trump administration's opioid crisis handlers have thus far ignored or spoken out against cannabis. Luckily, their views can be marginalized into the dustbin of history if the U.S. Congress does its job and reverses the decades-long prohibition of cannabis. A push to legalize cannabis will not help kratom, which is facing increasing scrutiny from federal agencies despite its reputation as an opioid alternative.
A Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory panel has endorsed the use of CBD to treat childhood epilepsy. If the FDA approves of the treatment, it would be the first cannabis-derived drug to win federal approval in the U.S. The version from GW Pharmaceuticals could cost patients an estimated $25,000 per year, so some parents and patients would probably turn to other markets for CBD oil. However, the approval would allow doctors to prescribe the treatment for other uses and could encourage more medical research of cannabis components. (Also at The New York Times and USA Today.)
April 19th was "Bicycle Day", the 75th anniversary of the very first intentional lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) trip by Albert Hofmann, the chemical's discoverer. LSD, along with other hallucinogens such as psilocybin and ketamine, is being researched as a possible treatment for depression. In the April 2018 issue of Consciousness and Cognition, there is a case report (DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2018.02.008) (DX) describing the experience of a congenitally blind user of LSD who experienced auditory and tactile hallucinations rather than seeing visuals.
Acute effects of LSD on amygdala activity during processing of fearful stimuli in healthy subjects (open, DOI: 10.1038/tp.2017.54) (DX)
🔥🔥🔥 🌲 🍁 🌳 🔥🔥🔥
Get DANK in the comments.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 20 2018, @11:20PM (5 children)
More fuel for your fire:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:22AM (4 children)
Takyon... dude. Your DANK link is so unpleasant I'm going to have to spend all day tomorrow washing the ear cack away, that was like an audible goatse. You need to step your game up, like, do you even internet brah? [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:30AM (1 child)
Are traps gay?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:31AM
Mark says no :P
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:59AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc6caVIHPcg [youtube.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:39AM
OWWWWWW! My ears! Oh, it HURTS! The HUMANITY!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Friday April 20 2018, @11:52PM (2 children)
Now can work on making the pointless abuse of unicode illegal?
Here, have an old fashioned ASCII :P
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Friday April 20 2018, @11:57PM
It's like, the new Egyptian, man.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday April 23 2018, @02:24PM
We need to be encouraging the use of pointless unicode.
The proposed new UTF-512 character encoding encodes each character into 64 bytes (or 512 bits).
This is a big enough character space that 2^64 characters can be used for characters whose glyphs look like 8x8 grids, with every possible combination of black and white grid cells. Thus there will be character symbols that resemble characters from a forgotten 8 bit world.
And emojis! Let's not forget the poor emojis! There will be emojis for every possible way you can feel. For every flavor of birthday cake! For every kind of caffeineated beverage! For every one of the 87 (or is it now 89) genders! There will be an individual emoji for every living person on earth, so that nobody feels left out -- a trophy for participation, as it were.
Fonts could contain a character glyph for every single one-second possibility of the three hands of round face clocks. Thus you could update a clock every second, on a simple text display through ssh by simply updating one character in the corner to the next second-hand position of the clock.
The character space of UTF-512 has almost unlimitated possibilities. All of the Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Narn, Centiari, Minbari, Vorlon and other language alphabets could be included into fonts.
And bestest of all, a committee could double all this by simply proposing UTF-513.
When trying to solve a problem don't ask who suffers from the problem, ask who profits from the problem.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @12:29AM (2 children)
(Score: 3, Funny) by TheGratefulNet on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:18AM (1 child)
I ran over a threshold this winter.
yeah, me too. needed new tires after that.
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
(Score: 1) by khallow on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:42AM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by snufu on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:07AM (6 children)
Rebels who got blazed every day just to "stick it to the man" through their subversive illegal act of protest. Now they are the equivalent of the town drunk.
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:09AM
G_d is my co-pilot and Boehner is my budtender.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:45AM (2 children)
I can't smoke for reasons :(
But yeah, there's nothing worse to the cause of legal weed than chronic stoners. Especially people who go to work high. Which is okay if you're stocking shelves or flipping burgers. Not okay for designing and building baby-killing weapons systems.
Gary Johnson's Marihuana addiction is one of the reasons why I voted for Trump instead. Did you see that guy's last interview? He was giggling off his ass every 5 seconds and saying that open borders was a good idea. Even stoned Mexicans don't believe that. And all Mexicans are stoners.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:33AM
Maybe Gary Johnson giggles at the sound of his own name?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:52PM
Stupid as ever. You don't need weed to come across dumb.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:55PM (1 child)
Time to stop smoking and find something else to do, I guess.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @10:07PM
heroin.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @01:49AM (2 children)
Legalization is a no-brainer for countless reasons, or even if only for the reduced strain on the legal/penal system here in the land of the free which has the largest prison population in the world (not per capita, but for reals). But the closer it gets to reality, the more I consider what the other side of the sword will cut. Will the uplifting social benefits of legality outweigh the loss of the unique social structure that emerged under the pressure of black market trade (and under a specific pharmacological influence), the collapse of which is sure to follow the legion of mom n pop growers inevitably being crushed by big business? What is the value of perhaps the only market that is not primarily motivated by hoarding as much currency as possible, to nail that quarterly growth figure? (Granted, there's enough money flowing in for a typical person to be plenty satisfied). What are we losing with the only large market that more or less necessitates an actual social connection to another nearby human for trade to occur? What might it cost, to have recreational mind alteration more tightly coupled to the pursuit of profit by organizations too large to suffer the oppression of morality and ethics endemic to small groups of normal humans? Would "decriminalization" make any less of a mess?
Big picture wise, legalizing marijuana alone is the most watered down version of a better play; if it stops funneling money to whichever extranational cartel proves the most ruthless and power hungry, facilitates the identification and treatment of addiction, enables regulation of the potency and quality per adulterants, and etc., then it's probably an improvement... opioid epidemic notwithstanding.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:07AM
Corporatization of cannabis culture is a concern, but at the end of the day, people could grow their own under new state laws (and it's unlikely 6 plant limits and the like are going to be strictly enforced), and possibly organize with others to create a coffee shop level business or small grow operation.
Already, cryptocurrency markets like Silk Road, Agora, etc. have shown people a way to get their hands on illegal drugs without needing a social connection (cue the "I can't get weed because I'm antisocial" Anonymous Coward). Whether or not it becomes easier or harder to operate such a market now that the feds are sniffing around remains to be seen.
People still demand other drugs, like MDMA, cocaine, LSD, etc. Even if all drugs are decriminalized eventually, we are unlikely to see a friendly and mainstream taxed marketplace for most of them like we see with cannabis, alcohol, and caffeine.
The societal benefits of legalizing cannabis are clear, and you touch on some good ones. What chemicals/pesticides were people getting along with their weed 20 years ago, compared to today?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fyngyrz on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:46AM
Well. Look at alcohol; many mom-and-pop businesses (moonshiners, basically) were crushed by fine liquors and other high quality products. And fewer people went blind as a result.
Which eventually led back to craft beers and so forth as the people (as opposed to the corporations) realized that large-scale production would inevitably miss out on countless variations, and those niche products were marketable, if they were made with care.
I think it'll be okay. I'd just as soon know that my SO isn't smoking up something dusted by... angels...
A little regulation and care isn't a bad idea, really. I'll take the win for personal liberty and call it good for now.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:06AM (3 children)
We can't stop a war! War on drugs, war on poverty, war on education, war on stupid, war, war, war! If we stop warring against MJ, we'll lose money somehow!
It's hard to believe we've come this far. As a youth, or a young man, I wouldn't have believed anyone who told me that marijuana would one day be legal.
(Score: 2, Funny) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:30AM
Can you believe that despite 93% bad stories from the Fake News Media (should be getting good stories), today we had just about our highest Poll Numbers, including those on Election Day? Rasmussen just came out at 51% Approval despite the Fake News Media. They were one of the three most accurate on Election Day. Just about the most inaccurate were CNN and ABC News/Washington Post, and they haven’t changed (get new pollsters). Much of the media is a Scam! The American public is wise to the phony & dishonest press. Make America Great Again!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @10:09PM (1 child)
MJ died. We won that war.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday April 21 2018, @10:43PM
No, we haven't won the war on kiddie diddlers. Visit the dark nets.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:21AM (9 children)
Willie Nelson bless Chuck's pointy little head. It's about time Republicans started seeing at least a few issues through the small government lens. I mean, it's only one of the core bits of their stated platform.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:03AM (6 children)
Chuck is a Democrat. Pretty high up in the Dem food chain right now, in fact. He's otherwise known for being related to Amy Schumer [wikipedia.org].
Or did I just get woosh'd hard?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:18AM (2 children)
Naw, I just got him confused with a different nimrod.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:05PM (1 child)
After that I'd be hesitant to throw out accusations bird brain!
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:42PM
You saying there's any significant difference between a career Douchebag and a career Retard? That's funny.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:07PM (2 children)
So it is possible to get so high you find Amy Schumer funny.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:16PM (1 child)
Are you saying this is an elaborate plot by a sitting U.S. Senator to invigorate his cousin's comedy career?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by cubancigar11 on Sunday April 22 2018, @02:56AM
Isn't that what you meant by "high up"?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:15AM (1 child)
It's very likely just a coincidence this has anything to do with small government. Stopped watch effect.
I wonder if the elites think they can have World War 3 without those pesky protests by placating hippies with legal weed. I also wonder if they're right.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:32AM
Or the Seeing Dollar Signs effect: The (legal) cannabis industry is apparently several times bigger than the whiskey industry [thehill.com] despite being confined to a handful of states and having to stuff cash under the mattress.
Which is why the other anon fretting about Big Weed coming in and controlling everything is right to do so. Elites want their cut.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:35AM (6 children)
If there aren't pardons for every single person convicted of possession / trafficking, it's just a scam. Whitey with the big bucks to invest gets to make a profit, but the Hispanics and African Americans (disproportionately charged, tried, convicted, and incarcerated) are, as felons, prohibited from legit getting into the business. Anyone /not/ calling for full pardons? We knows you is a racist shithead, and when you look in the mirror there's a racist shithead.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:53AM (3 children)
It probably won't happen (the closest you get is the number of commutations/pardons from Obama), and the reasoning will be something along the lines of "They knew what they were doing was illegal but chose to do it anyway". Or: "The real crime was TAX EVASION".
Even if there were a clean slate and all the criminal records were expunged (including ones where there were other offenses, including violence), blacks and hispanics would still have less money to invest and would end up controlling a smaller portion of the industry. 3 of the Fortune 500 CEOs are black [fortune.com], black home ownership is under 50% [nareb.com] compared to ~72% for whites, median income [cnn.com] is lower, median black household wealth is about 8% of whites (10% for hispanics), etc. etc. The die is cast. Having wealth now means you are more likely to have wealth later, so the inequality could exist indefinitely... until civilization as we know it collapses or ascends to a post-money utopia.
But there is no clean slate for most. Ex-felon drug dealers will have trouble securing capital and entering the cannabis industry, even though they have business skills that they put to use in the real world.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Troll) by chromas on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:47AM (2 children)
This calls for reparations! Give up your unearned shekels of white colonialist privilege unto my black African American ass of color.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:08PM
*whistles*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @10:12PM
Earn it.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Whoever on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:40AM
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Legalize now (or, rather, allow the States to legalize), then perhaps later issue pardons.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @05:31PM
regular people don't think about race in regards to drug laws, but i guess that's racist too. fuck you. how bout that?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Whoever on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:41AM (7 children)
This is so obviously a winning policy for whichever party embraces it. Making cannabis regulation a state issue allows those red states who hate their population to continue to ban it. No enforced legalization, so no lost votes. There is no downside.
It speaks volumes about how incompetent the Democrats are that they haven't embraced it earlier.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:18AM (6 children)
Cannabis prohibition has been a national disgrace. There have been plenty of national disgraces, but it's always annoying to be living during an ongoing one (or several at once). The Democrats' slow evolution on this issue continues to be shameful, and reminds of the gay marriage issue (which ultimately got resolved by the Supremes instead of Congress). Congress as a whole has been content to kick the can-nabis down the road, despite so many states legalizing medical use, flouting federal law.
I predict most Republican Congressmen will steer clear of the issue for now, despite the 51% support among Republicans (probably higher if measured again today). If prominent Republicans flipped early, perhaps they could convince Republican voters to follow and change their minds on the issue. Is a Republican going to stay home on Election Day because their party supports cannabis? It's not abortion we're talking about. Trump's core supporters are more likely to be hurt by the opioid epidemic [npr.org], and plenty of them support cannabis legalization [cbsnews.com].
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Whoever on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:38AM (5 children)
The trick is to portray it as a States' rights issue. Don't explicitly make Cannabis legal, but defer the issue to individual States. Then it becomes possible for Republicans to support it.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:44AM (4 children)
That's what this legislation does. Decriminalizes rather than legalizes, and allows states to make their own rules. Except that it's a states' rights bill for Democrats rather than Republicans. This could have been achieved years ago, but it is unclear that it will happen even now. And it's unlikely that there will be a veto-proof majority, so President Trump has to dip his pen in the ink for it to take effect.
>the current year
>still debating this issue
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Whoever on Saturday April 21 2018, @04:56AM (2 children)
Maybe that's what the Dems are hoping for: Congress passes the bill and Trump vetoes it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:30PM (1 child)
The same president who is basically doing the same as the previous two and 'let the states handle it'. Seriously doubt that would get a veto.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:35PM
It depends on how much ear time Jeff "Mean Keebler" Sessions gets with the President.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday April 21 2018, @07:16AM
I like to do some things the old fashioned way. And some modern. President Clinton (Bill), Bush Jr. & Obama -- when he started out -- got one thing right. Cross Townsend Rollerball. No more fountain pens!!!
(Score: 1) by ripvanwinkle on Saturday April 21 2018, @09:36AM (4 children)
Why did they pick exactly this day? For someone from Europe this seems very strange because the 20th of April is Adolf Hitler´s birthday and only celebrated by nazis..
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @10:00AM (3 children)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/420_(cannabis_culture) [wikipedia.org]
Why did Hitler's mom pick that day to give birth?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by ripvanwinkle on Saturday April 21 2018, @11:12AM (2 children)
Thanks, aware of that. Nice anecdote, 4:20.
Fun fact: German saying: Kein Bier vor Vier
Rhymes in German and means No Beer before 4pm
Still, in most_of_world there is a connotation to Hitler, and that's no day to celebrate..
Seems pretty inconsiderate (imprudent, ignorant if not illiterate)
scnr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:35PM (1 child)
I love the hitler fact about 4/20. It winds up the potheads every single time. Good troll by the way. They swoop in to defend the 'history of it'. When the truth is they just want to get high.
From the ex-potheads I ask 'why 4/20'. They would usually say 'didnt matter I was going to get stoned either way'. It is like an alcoholics reasoning to get drunk. "just because". People rationalize shit away for stupid reasons. Most do not want to admit they have base urges so they use cover like 4/20 to hide that. People who want to use shit like this will find a reason. When you are on shaky ground any reason is good as another.
I do not *care* you want to get high. I just do not want you to kid me or yourself on the stupid reasons you are doing it. It is not the act, it is the lies you tell to commit the act that tick me off. Just do not lie to me.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Saturday April 21 2018, @03:37PM
Complaining that Adolf Hitler was born on 4/20 is like crying about being born on 9/11. Get over it.
I'd rate your trolling a 2/10.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]