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takyon writes:
It's that time of the year again. Time to talk about drugs and the war on them because some stoners declared a holiday or something.
A recent article in Harper's Magazine includes the following gem that sums up the modern Drug War's origins. The journalist interviewed John Ehrlichman, one of the Watergate co-conspirators:
At the time, I was writing a book about the politics of drug prohibition. I started to ask Ehrlichman a series of earnest, wonky questions that he impatiently waved away. "You want to know what this was really all about?" he asked with the bluntness of a man who, after public disgrace and a stretch in federal prison, had little left to protect. "The Nixon campaign in 1968, and the Nixon White House after that, had two enemies: the antiwar left and black people. You understand what I'm saying? We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders, raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
[Oh yes, it continues...]
The War on Drugs has persisted nearly unabated for decades, but signs of change can be seen. The UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) on the "World Drug Problem", called by Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala, began yesterday and ends tomorrow. On the agenda this time around? The legalization of drugs, 18 years after a previous summit declared its goal of ridding the world of illicit drugs. The special session's April 19th start date coincides with "Bicycle Day", the anniversary of Albert Hoffman's first LSD trip. One group, the Psychedelic Society of Brooklyn, will be leading a bike ride ending at the United Nations building in New York to promote the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics and demonstrate that drug legalization isn't just about majority-approved cannabis.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has called for a global overhaul of drug policies, including a ban on the death penalty for drug offenses and focus on rehabilitation rather than imprisonment. Santos proposes that nations should be more free to reform their drug laws, rather than being beholden to international conventions (such as the Convention on Psychotropic Substances of 1971). He has also announced that following nearly four years of peace negotiations, his government will collaborate with Farc rebels to eradicate coca production within Colombia. President Santos will speak at the UN General Assembly Special Session today regarding his proposals.
Other Latin American leaders such as Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto are pushing for decriminalization and legalization. President Nieto says that Mexico will soon increase the amount of cannabis citizens are allowed to possess, and legalize medical cannabis. Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales says he wants nations to focus on demand reduction and not just supply reduction. A commission set up by the Lancet medical journal and Johns Hopkins University published a report (DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(16)00619-X) that found that decriminalization in Portugal and the Czech Republic has led to significant financial savings, health benefits, less incarceration, and has not significantly increased drug use. On the other hand, nations such as Indonesia and China are against eliminating the death penalty as well as any legalization of narcotics. An outcome document adopted by member states on Tuesday included no specific criticism of the death penalty. Also, UN security guards have reportedly been ordered to confiscate copies of an open letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon supporting drug reforms signed by over a dozen former heads of state, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, former UN officials, celebrities, business leaders, etc.
Throughout the past year, we have seen extensive reporting of a "heroin epidemic" in the northeastern United States. Deaths due to heroin overdose are today being blamed for a 0.1 year decline in life expectancy among white Americans in 2014. The overdose (of any drug) rate among white adults aged 25-34 is five times the 1999 rate, and the same rate among white adults aged 35-44 tripled since 1999. Advocacy by groups and individuals, particularly the parents of overdose victims, has helped move public sentiment towards supporting drug treatment rather than incarceration. There is greater bipartisan support for allowing the wide distribution of the anti-overdose drug naloxone, and for introducing previously unthinkable public safety measures such as government-run needle exchanges to reduce the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C.
One measure of success in "post-war" Afghanistan has been the fate of the opium poppy crop, used to produce heroin. In 2014, the poppy plant was Afghanistan's biggest export, valued at $2.8 billion, 13% of the country's GDP. The Taliban have since surged into Afghanistan's southern provinces in order to take control of the growth and export of poppies. 3,000 government soldiers and policemen have died in the past 11 months in Helmand province alone, which accounts for over 60% of the world's heroin supply.
The estimated purity of illicit heroin has crept up in recent years as the price has fallen. However, while heroin might be cheap and plentiful, the heroin epidemic has been spurned on by the over-prescription of opioid painkillers. Opioid prescriptions have quadrupled since 1999, and last month the Centers for Disease Control issued guidelines that recommend reducing the use of opioid painkillers. Effective bribes in the form of "speaking fees" given to doctors have exacerbated the problem. Additionally, drug companies have been fined over misleading claims made about their opioid products, such as downplaying of addiction potential.
In the United States, the Drug Enforcement Agency is once again considering whether to reschedule cannabis (a decision will be made by July). Petitions to reschedule the drug have been denied over the years, but the supposed Schedule I criteria, such as "The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States," look increasingly strained now that nearly half the nation has legalized medical or recreational cannabis. In an all-too-common example of uncritical irony, an LA Times editorial on the subject notes that Schedule I "[lumps] cannabis in with heroin and LSD," as if LSD wasn't one of the safest recreational drugs and has no medical uses.
Investigating potential medical uses is needlessly difficult and expensive when a drug is listed as a controlled substance. This remains true even for the increasingly accepted drug cannabis, which has led 27 U.S. senators and congressmen to sign a letter to President Obama this week recommending a "fair" review of the Schedule I status of cannabis, as well as the end of the DEA/NIDA monopoly on cannabis supplied for medical research. Research into other controlled substances is slowly being conducted after decades of neglect. A new study (DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1518377113) published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows the effects of LSD as recorded in the brain scans of 20 human subjects. One of the study's authors, the neuropsychopharmacologist David Nutt, was dismissed from the UK's Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) for his analysis (NCBI) showing that alcohol is far more dangerous in terms of both physical and social harms than cannabis, LSD, psilocybin mushrooms, or ecstacy. The ACMD is under the purview of the Home Office, led by the tyrannical Theresa May.
Other groups are also pushing the research boundaries. For example, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies is sponsoring research into the use of MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. The EmmaSofia organization in Norway successfully crowdfunded nearly $40,000 to promote and manufacture MDMA and psilocybin. The couple behind EmmaSofia, Pal-Orjan Johansen and Teri Krebs, have published studies showing no link between common psychedelics like LSD and an increase in psychosis or suicide (DOI: 10.1177/0269881114568039), as well as investigating the use of LSD to treat alcoholism (DOI: 10.1177/0269881112439253) .
On the campaign trail, a few presidential candidates linger. Democratic candidate Bernie Sanders appears to have the strongest pro-cannabis policy positions, supporting descheduling, decriminalization, legalization of medical cannabis, and not obstructing states from legalizing recreational cannabis. Hillary Clinton holds similar positions, but has appeared more cautious about both medical and recreational legalization. Republican candidate Donald Trump has supported medical cannabis, but criticized "trouble" in Colorado which legalized recreational cannabis. Ted Cruz's position on cannabis has evolved from criticizing Obama for allowing Colorado and Washington to legalize it, to supporting states as "laboratories of democracy" while opposing legalization personally. John Kasich appears to broadly oppose legalization, but is also nowhere near to winning the nomination unless his party's establishment chooses to anoint him after Trump fails on the first convention ballot.
Oregon's 25% sales tax on cannabis purchases has resulted in $3.48 million in revenue for the month of January, outpacing the revenue projected for the entire year. However, Oregon's Department of Revenue spent around that amount to refurbish a building and hire employees and security to collect revenue from recreational cannabis businesses, much of it in the form of paper money. The uncertainty involved with banking anywhere in the nation means that cannabis dealers often pay their taxes with large bags of cash. This also means that unless these businesses lie about the nature of their revenue or find a bank willing to risk a federal crackdown, the cannabis businesses are prime targets for thieves.
Colorado's recreational cannabis law has remained intact, despite efforts by Nebraska and Oklahoma to have a case against Colorado heard by the Supreme Court. Colorado's Department of Public Safety has measured an increase in emergency room visits "possibly" related to cannabis from 739 to 956 per 100,000. The authors of the mandated report say that a decrease in stigma may lead to better reporting of cannabis-related ER visits.
Pennsylvania became the 24th state to legalize medical cannabis on Sunday. On the state ballot initiative front, the only cannabis-related measure confirmed to be on a November 8th ballot is the Nevada Marijuana Legalization Initiative, which would legalize and tax recreational cannabis and allocate the revenue to education. The Massachusetts Regulation and Taxation of Marijuana Initiative may require additional signatures if the legislature does not approve the initiative by May 3rd. Florida will see the re-introduction of a medical ballot initiative, which failed in 2014 with 57% support. Other ballot initiatives in states like California and Arkansas may still have months to submit the signatures required to appear on the ballot this year. In a small reversal, Washington state voters may get to decide whether to restrict production and sales of cannabis in certain residential neighborhoods. Last year, Ohio voters rejected a legalization amendment that would have created a cultivation oligopoly.
Finally, I leave you with what's truly important: Loafy, chillin' after curing his munchies (image courtesy of Gravis).
🍄 🌵 Here's last year's article. 💉 💊
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:36PM
After Fires In West, Mushroom Hunters 'Chase The Burn' [npr.org]
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(Score: 0, Disagree) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:36PM
Having mocked those who have made the mistake, perhaps with impure intentions, it looks like the summary proceeds to do the same thing. Are we talking about legalizing cannibas, or most/all recreational drugs including opiates and LSD?
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:39PM
Come on buddy, all of those drugs are relevant to the conversation, especially given the coinciding UN General Assembly Special Session. Forget being lumped into the summary, cannabis is lumped into Schedule 1.
As for LSD/psychedelics, Bicycle Day [wikipedia.org] was yesterday, the 19th, as mentioned in the... "summary".
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(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:37PM
Wrong. It's the Mexicans nowadays.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:19AM
Wrong. For once it wasn't those troublesome Mexicans, in fact, it's the same it's been throughout American history. White people smoking the shit and imagining what Blacks would do to their White women if those Blacks were on the shit. And, um, something about industrial hemp, or something.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @08:44PM
They were actually worried about white women smoking weed and then having sex with black men.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:39PM
Holy number of links, takyon.
Let us not forget most of law enforcement supports prohibition, even though a few admit it doesn't work. [www.leap.cc] The California prison guard union campaigned against legalizing cannabis there because more prisoners means more profits for them, not to mention any private prisons.
Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker (R) is one of many to wrongly conflate legalizing cannabis with opiods. [wbur.org]
Since when is a Republican against profits?
Sadly, it seems American has learned nothing from prohibition's failure with alcohol. The very problems then, adulteration, criminal enterprises, and violence are what we see today.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:40PM
Who cares as long as we have our freedom! Wait...
(Score: 4, Funny) by DECbot on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:42PM
I think you were searching for the phrase about opportunity in the USA... In the US, there is a great opportunity to break many laws not available in other, less free parts of the world.
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @04:23PM
They're not, the insane profits involved in the drug trade only exist because the drugs are illegal, thus they work to ensure that drugs remain illegal to keep profits as high as possible for everyone involved, from law enforcement to the cartels.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:49PM
...if our local "small government, personal accountability" folks (KHallow, JMorris, Runaway1956, TheFlightyBuzzard) have anything to say about this and what :) After all, it's government overreach, buuuuuut it only affects those goddamn satan-worshipping liberal atheist Commie pinko hippies and the nig...er...colo...Negr--dammit all to politically-correct hell, BLACK FOLKS, so I'm sure there's a conflict here!
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:26PM
I think most of the users you mention support da dergs. There are many libertarians around here but few that really want to regulate morality.
One thing to note is that the states are legalizing cannabis despite a paralyzed Congress that would rather put off the issue for decades, even with high public support. The federal government can swoop in and confiscate cannabis and cash, and that fact has made banking difficult for these businesses. Those potrepreneurs are understandably invested in the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
Putting myself in some hypothetical user's shoes, if you were worried about minorities rioting or something, I'm not sure you would oppose legalization of cannabis, which has the effect of putting most people deep into their couch cushions. The secret is out, cannabis doesn't turn people into reefer madness berserkers, unlike alcohol which is clearly linked to increases in violence. Of course, there is still a lot of disinformation published about LSD and other drugs.
The best solution to these problems is to reform the Scheduling system so that it doesn't look like a complete joke, and then replace incarceration with containment/treatment (oh, you've been poisoned!). Schedule 1 is a travesty that both lies about a lack of medical uses for certain compounds, and then makes it extremely difficult for researchers to investigate the compounds. There is a monopoly involved, and there is probably more to be said about the pharmaceutical industry preventing changes to the system (think: Marinol, or any expensive drug that could potentially compete with cannabis for a painkiller/antiseizure effect, etc.). Furthermore, recreational use needs to be recognized as legitimate. Alcohol has long been grandfathered in (Prohibition aside) as a drug that is fairly dangerous but demanded by the public. It avoids the scheduling system despite it probably meeting the requirements for say, Schedule III for example. It's the ambiguous nature of "high potential for abuse" that punishes drugs like LSD and mushrooms that are far safer than heroin, alcohol, or even cannabis [unimaas.nl]. And even after reform of the Controlled Substances Act, we don't want to punish consumers or even small-time producers. We should focus on the tax collection angle.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:19PM
Funny you mention that, in the middle paragraph, since "Ohez noes t3h darkies gun' go wil' an rape dem sum white wimminz on de marry-huwanna!" was PRECISELY the sentiment that got the stuff shitlisted. That, and possibly paper companies' objection to hemp paper and textile companies' objection to hemp clothing.
I personally am within swearing distance of a straightedge lifestyle, the only exception being fewer drinks a year than fingers on on hand, but from a purely harm-based perspective, weed is a hell of a lot safer than any other illegal substance and a lot of legal ones too. It's time we dropped this idiot charade, as you've said.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:54PM
Azuma - it appears that you know little about how and why Mary J was made illegal. You appear to know what the public knows, which is mostly false. Please note the use of the word "appear" in both of the preceding sentences - you may well know better, but I can't see that from your post.
There were multiple industries involved in the prohibition of cannabis, or, rather, hemp.
DuPont had just come out with the mass production of nylon. DuPont wanted to sell nylon cordage to the Navy, but the Navy was accustomed to using hemp. Sails, hawsers, rope, small stuff, even uniforms - hemp was the best stuff in the world, so DuPont had little chance of selling the Navy on nylon - UNLESS they went to congress, and had hemp outlawed.
At the same time - King Cotton enjoyed a lot of influence in Washington. Hemp fiber clothes were generally on par with cotton, or a little less, for price, but hemp's durability is approximately 7 times greater than cotton. King Cotton wanted farmers to stop growing hemp, and making their own clothes from that hemp, so that the King could sell those farmers trashy, disposable cotton crap.
The pharmaceutical industry was already very much aware of most of the medicinal uses for hemp/cannabis. In those days, there were still a lot of snake oil salesmen, who were more than happy to mix a little alcohol, cocaine, and hemp, and market the stuff as a cure for anything the customer complained about. Snake oil was snake oil, there's no getting around that - but each of those ingredients had known, legitimate uses. Bayer couldn't sell a lot of aspirins, if everyone in the country knew that a couple grains of cocaine, or a hemp tea could cure that headache. We need go no deeper into the legitimate uses of "illicit drugs" than the common headache to see that powerful industry chiefs had their reasons for outlawing hemp.
The prison industry, even then, was more than prepared to incarcerate a sizeable portion of our population, for no other reason than PROFIT. There is no "Dept of Justice" or "Beareau of Corrections" in most places. This was the day of chain gangs, and state farms. Powerful people on the local, state, and national level were PROFITING by incarcerating less powerful people. Then, as now, people were imprisoned for petty bullshit at least as often as other people were imprisoned for serious crime. In another discussion, someone mockingly asked how profit was made off of state prisoners. Just think about chain gangs and state farms - SOMEONE reaps the profit for cleaing the highways, clearing land, and growing marketable merchandise.
There, you can see, were four industries, each of them powerful in their own right, all opposed to the production of cannabis, because they could PROFIT in the absence of cannabis/hemp.
No one in Washington thought for a moment that "Reefer Madness" was for real. That stupid shit was for public consumption, to be aired in theaters and on television for the mindless masses. Pure propaganda, nothing more, and nothing less.
Today, 74 years later, some people in Washington actually believe the propaganda, I'm sure. Others have just grown accustomed to the status quo, and/or any profits they may reap from the "War on Drugs". Whether they believe the propaganda, or not, they don't want to rock the boat. It's easier to do nothing, than to do something that might endanger their re-election campaigns.
I just want you to look at the list of industries I've given you, and try to imagine how many TRILLIONS of dollars worth of business they have reaped over the past 70+ years, by outlawing cannabis.
None of us libertarians or conservatives are the enemy here. The enemy are the powerful, shadowy figures who run Washington behind the scenes.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 21 2016, @04:25PM
You didn't see where I mentioned paper and textile companies? I didn't know about DuPont, though; fuckin' figures they're involved in this. Evil sonsabitches.
I have to, unfortunately, disagree with your last line: what passes for "conservative" and "libertarian" these days *is* the problem. The words have been utterly hijacked by the very kind of people you're talking about, and at least, by my estimate, 90-95% of people who use them to describe themselves have no idea of their original meanings or their histories.
You should stop calling yourself a conservative; the word does not describe you any longer. I'm not sure what the right word is, when even "libertarian" has lost its meaning. Everything the greedheads touch turns to shit, often self-parodying, toxic caricatures of itself.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:06AM
Well, true to accepted tradition, I'm here to comment w/out RFA or most of the comments. I agree with your assessment, Takyon, but I'd add a word of caution re: LSD. Although the potential for "physically addicting" abuse is small, I can tell you anecdotally (I come from Kesey country) that I've run into many people that have crossed a threshold due to LSD and they don't come back. Scattershot thought becomes their norm. The term "acid casualty" became parlance for a reason and it's Very Sad to see. While I have a soft spot for the general values vocalized by Leary, etc. IMO he eventually became much less effective and his influence as a thinker/political force suffered tremendously. Not b/c of reputation, but because of neurological diminishment.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:45AM
I encourage you to skim the article at least. It's information dense and there are pretty clear delineations between sections.
As for the "acid casualties", you have to wonder what else they're on. Some deaths attributed to niche drugs are really the result of throwing alcohol in the mix. LSD itself is a synthetic drug with dozens of other known synthetic analogues. Who can really say which one is the safest when so little research has been done? Leary himself probably ingested at least 7 recreational drugs (I don't have a list).
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:58AM
Incidentally, I had this link open (I probably have 50 news articles open right now, including the daily news and some waste left over from writing this).
Seeing Opportunity in Psychedelic Drugs [theatlantic.com]
I glanced at it, and noticed the pull quote: "This study assures us that there were not widespread 'acid casualties' in the 1960s.”
So I wonder, who is wrong here? Is there something about "scattershot" thinking that can't be easily quantified by studies of safety? IQ tests aren't perfect. Psychosis tests do look at speech patterns. Should a person be expected to behave in the same way after years of forcibly opening their mind? Do people self-report having trouble thinking in the way they intend to after sustained periods of LSD use?
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by patella.whack on Thursday April 21 2016, @04:51AM
Hi tak,
I think you're right on re: quatification on studies with LSD. There aren't any, really.
Maybe we're having a disjunction here regarding the definition of "acid casualty?"
What I mean by acid casualty is not death...
Deaths are probably near zero. Of course you know the government reports can't be believed, in the same way they say opium poppies come from the east for their big busts, or MDMA deaths are a common, etc.
i think what you are suggesting here is that LSD use can have some great spiritual/beneficial/attitude altering effects. This is undeniably true IMO, and I would suggest that most people, under the right circumstances and at the right time, should take LSD. To be blunt and generalizing, the old saying "put everyone on LSD and make them listen to the Grateful Dead" and we wouldn't have war anymore has more that a grain of truth. Simplistic, yes, but ask those who've gone through it.
It's sort of a similar thing with Marijuana. See George Carlin for a great routine.
Aside from the arguments that I gather are in this article (which again, I haven't read), my personal opinion is that the reason MJ, shrooms, and LSD are so frowned upon is that they expose the user to concepts that are at odds with selfishness, materialism, and a desire to work to buy the next thing. In other words, these psychoactive drugs foster an experience whereby the user achieves a level of understanding that is otherwise unavailable in our society, and in fact it threatens our economic and social structures.
But let me get back to my warning re:LSD. Repeated use, IMO, irreversibly leads to serious cognitive handicaps. And if you have a family history of mental illness, a trip or two is enough to put you over the edge, unfortunately.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday April 21 2016, @04:54AM
Can a person discern between the thinking troubles cause by LSD and the ones caused by the sleep apnoea [wikipedia.org] he developed just because he's getting old?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Thursday April 21 2016, @06:29AM
Ok. Colo, I modded you troll because at first glance it seems absurd. But since you're a frequent beneficial contributor here, I want to ask you to say some more..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:04PM
Waking up every morning feeling more tired that you when you went to sleep, takes about one hour to get connected to the reality.
Highish blood pressure, tinnitus - having coffee in the morning just makes the matter worse.
Short term memory becomes fuzzy... where the hell did I left my keys?
You'll get there, you only need a bit of patience.
btw, it's c0lo
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:23PM
I believe the question boils down to is it the acid or is it something else and the acid provides a convenient (but wrong) explanation. If those people had never done acid but had the same scattershot thinking, you might say it was excess drinking, too much coffee, or whatever comes to hand.
It could even be that the same traits that lead to the cognitive decline lead to using so much acid. I have seen people you would swear must use every recreational drug known to man daily based on their thinking, and it turns out they never did drugs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @10:10PM
ISTM, people who engage in life-threatening activities or who purposely take their own lives AND are using drugs have a mental condition and are self-medicating.
In this context, I point to that lying piece of shit, Art Linkletter.
That high-profile asshole kept repeating that LSD killed his daughter.
Even after he had the autopsy results, he continued to bloviate with his bullshit until his death.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Tuesday April 26 2016, @05:17AM
Re: your ISTM (yep, hadda look it up) I think your first 1/2 statement assumes that one *knows* that one is engaged in a life-threatening activity. LSD is not life-threatening per-se. Keep in mind the social "pressure" (for lack of a better word) and the minimizing "knowledge" that maybe some people have had a bad trip, but no big deal.
Re: people who take their own lives-- I don't think that subject has a real link to our discussion.
Re: Linkletter, and daughter-- I don't know of the circumstances, but ISTM that you're pointing out a situation where dad had to find an external reason for daughters death.
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Tuesday April 26 2016, @05:26AM
You're certainly right.
The problem is there's been little research at all.
Besides the anecdotal evidence that I mentioned above, I'll also point out that a drug will go out of favor once there's a general consensus that it's no longer worth it (or out of fashion, sometimes), in some sense. (but do a google search for a Harper's article which points to a fairly recent lab bust in america that cut off the source of 99% of the acid for a contrary reason.)
What I observed over the course of 20 yrs in Kesey country was a social disfavor for acid because people had seen what it had done to overexposed users in the community. Now, whether those were the people who were predisposed to excess wasn't really the concern. The concern was their handicap, and because of the sheer number of them (anecdotally..) the result was social dissapproval.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday April 21 2016, @08:53PM
FWIW, I have sleep apnea. I didn't realize that my thought processes had gotten all foggy and uncertain until after I was treated for it. Now I sleep with a CPAP machine, and go into a panic if it doesn't work for some reason.
I do not know what features of thought you attribute to LSD, but fogginess and lack of ability to concentrate is reasonable for sleep apnea. OTOH, it's more closely connected to weight than to age. When I'm able to drive my weight low enough, I stop needing the CPAP machine. Unfortunately, I've been unable to coerce myself into STAYING at a low enough weight. And perhaps the weight that's "low enough" decreases as I get older (and the muscles get weaker).
That said, anecdote is not the singular of data, and this is purely based on personal experience. Butsleep apnea as the cause may not be an unreasonable suggestion.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Tuesday April 26 2016, @05:40AM
hi there, HiThere,
It's interesting that you brought sleep apnea into this conversation. I can tell you what I've seen re: features of thought w/ too much LSD. Lack of ability to concentrate is the BIG one. And if you read personal accounts or "aside" comments of people other than proponents, you'd find they say that besides concentration, the most difficult thing to do is "to put themselves back together again." Jerry Garcia himself mentioned it took him six months at a certain point... So besides lack of concentration, the big thing is what psychiatrists call "de-personalization."
The only other thing I can say in response is that lack of sleep can cause all sorts of cognitive problems. We're only beginning to understand why. Sleep is a mystery unexplained by modern science. But we do know a little about lack of sleep: Confusion, hallucinations, appetite irregularities, moodiness.
Some docs feel very strongly that sleep apnea is one of the major undiagnosed problems with us, currently.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Tuesday April 26 2016, @06:43PM
Well, I didn't bring sleep apnea into the thread, I was responding to someone else. But it sure can wreck your thought processes, without you being aware of it.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by dmc on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:33AM
pssst, I'll let you in on a little secret- you've overlooked how the *thinking* that people are doing while on their couches under the influence of cannabis leads, perhaps not to violent riots, but to no end of creative artistic outside the box thinking. The idea of not withholding rights and justice from people based on skin color and gender used to be 'outside of the box thinking'. But go ahead, and forget the secret, and consider us just a bunch of lazy stoners instead of the artists at the helm of the cultural ship of state. Good Luck with that. Peace...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:47AM
I think you've overlooked the word "most". Most people out there aren't doing anything worthwhile, no matter what they're on.
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(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:07PM
Uhhhh - hang on a second. I've read your post, and re-read it a couple times now. You're suggesting that human rights activists are all stoned on something? That non-stoners are racists and bigots? That's really far out there, you know. In effect, you're claiming that racists and bigots are people who are in their right minds, and everyone who has ever opposed racism and bigotry are just dope heads.
If you care to elaborate, I'll be happy to read more.
(Score: 3, Informative) by khallow on Thursday April 21 2016, @12:03AM
(Score: 5, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:49PM
the original efforts against Hemp started in 1936 by associating it with making Blacks and Mexicans violent and causing White women to want to have sex with Blacks. The back story on what started this is fascinating. It was all about making the Du Pont's and Hearst's richer.
In the 1940's the Government had to back off a bit because they needed the Hemp to make rope for the Navy. The Department of Agriculture made a great video called "Hemp for Victory". Though it disappeared from the LIbrary of congress, both the film AND the index data of its existence. That has since been corrected by people who had original copies of the film.
Then in the 1950s the prohibitionists changed tack on their rhetoric and said that Cannabis made a person weak, pacifistic and easy push overs for the commies. This was the era that brought us "Reefer Madness".
Then the "War on Drugs" started.
Want to get some back ground and facts? check out the link below.
http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/ [jackherer.com]
Yeah, its biased on presenting Cannabis in a good light , but the Anti side is just as biased in the other direction. Read it, judge the information for yourself and form your own opinion.
Not to mention you'll also learn some really cool historical facts. Did you know that the "Canvas covered wagons" that Americans are so proud of where covered in Hemp? Where do you think the word "canvas" comes from? And Levi's genes where originally made from Hemp canvas, and lasted a lifetime. unlike the cotton version they have sold for the last 60+ years.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 2) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:51PM
*jeans
Yeah, I added in "modern" in front of "Drug War" when writing the draft to cover my bases, and ya know, avoid adding another 250 words.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @08:58PM
English has too many letters and letter combinations that sound the same when spoken, gets confusing sometimes :/
Thanks for the correction.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:12PM
Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse and worse.
I will keep you, Susy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy;
Tear in eye, your dress you'll tear;
Queer, fair seer, hear my prayer.
...
These are the first 2 verses of The Chaos (about English spelling): http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html [idallen.com]
(Score: 2) by Webweasel on Thursday April 21 2016, @09:29AM
Thank you so much for posting that!!
Priyom.org Number stations, Russian Military radio. "You are a bad, bad man. Do you have any other virtues?"-Runaway1956
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:11PM
All of those prohibition agents wanted to keep their jobs, so when alcohol was legalized again cannabis became the new daemon.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:37PM
Alcohol was legalised on 5 December 1933 by the 25th Amendment, whilst cannabis was first regulated on 1 October 1937 by the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. Wouldn't that make for rather a long gap in employment for those agents?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution [wikipedia.org]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marihuana_Tax_Act_of_1937 [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 3, Informative) by JeanCroix on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:58PM
(Score: 5, Insightful) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:16PM
Yeah, I don't buy the Nixon connection either, and Ehrlichman has never been one to avoid lashing back.
The drug war was in full swing before Nixon. (And yes, I was there).
.
On another note, I think all these states jumping in line to approve Medical Marijuana have it all wrong. They are on the wrong track. Don't even mess with medical use laws. More trouble than its worth.
They should just make it legal for recreational use or any use, and regulate quality and purity, etc. like any thing else made for human consumption.
Make it a state banking license revocation offence to deny banking services to people in the Pot industry, and put the feds on notice that they will defend State Banks (with swat teams if necessary).
Once 35 states legalize pot it will be easy to pass a law removing it TOTALLY from DEA jurisdiction (as well as ATF), and putting it under the Department of Agriculture.
And start doing actual studies of driving while smoking pot, instead of trying to tie every highway crash to pot use.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by ilPapa on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:02PM
I was there. Erlichman was there, too. In fact, he was right there with Nixon.
You are still welcome on my lawn.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:04PM
Its easier to get a vote to help "cancer patients endure chemo" than to get people to vote for "let people get high!". Vote against medical use and you get accused of being a heartless ass, vote for recreational use and you get accused of encouraging irresponsible behavior like drink driving (yes "drink", its a Brit thing :D )
The pro legalize groups picked a good long range strategy.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:54PM
vote for recreational use and you get accused of encouraging irresponsible behavior like drink driving
Well it was sold the the other way around here in Washington State, with the claim that Pot use impairs far far less than Alcohol.
Traffic fatalities have not risen since legalization.
Police made a great noise about THC being found in the blood of drivers involved in accident fatalities. Till it was pointed out to them that they were testing the wrong thing:
Last year, they saw an increase in the percentage of blood samples showing THC — but they weren't distinguishing between active THC and what's known as "carboxy THC." That's the metabolized THC that hangs around your system long after you've sobered up.
But even testing the right thing is simply unreliable.
Paul Armentano of the pro-marijuana group NORML cautions, "We must not conflate the detection of these compounds as evidence of impairment."
Armentano says you actually can't really tell how impaired someone is just by looking at THC levels in the blood, and other experts agree with him on this. He also points to new research showing that even active THC can linger in the body long after the high — especially in people who use a lot of pot.
http://www.npr.org/2015/08/19/432896393/more-washington-drivers-use-and-drive [npr.org]
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:12PM
California legalized medical use around 1996. The initial efforts by the pro legalize groups paid off as more states legalized medical use and now we're seeing the "just legalize it" push since the Apocalypse that the anti groups claimed would occur if medical use was allowed didn't happen. Washington legalized recreational use in 2012, after the public had gotten used to Cannabis being legal for medical use for the last 16 or so years.
Now that the ball is rolling more states will just legalize Cannabis outright, as was the original intent of the pro groups.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:23PM
I found a couple of pages that say Reefer Madness was released in 1936.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0028346/ [imdb.com]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reefer_Madness [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:08PM
I really thought it was mid '50's. Oh well.
Thanks for the correction :)
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Funny) by edIII on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:46PM
The only thing funnier than that to me, is the irony that the Internet today provides black cock being put into blonde pussy at rates that would put entire cities "over gasped" back in the 20's. We'll never know if they're correct because their apocalypse already happened.
Those that would complain are complete hypocrites, since white men having sex with black women is also a very popular past time. Who would have turned down Grace Jones from Conan? That's rhetorical, because she will reach out, grab you, and take you.....
Whatever it is, I have just found that the strangest hang up to be associated with the drug war. We passed these drug laws to keep black cock strictly "regulated" apparently, only to ensure that white men addicted to the drugs are doing what again to get the drugs?
People can be so funny some times.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @09:00PM
Curvaceous is one of my attractions to black women. The other is the white-on-black contrast in the skin color. I like my black women dark too. Last girl I dated with this very dark and very curvy girl from Haiti. And don't confuse curves with overweight. I'm talking a big perfectly round plump booty, thighs, hourglass waistline, D titties and a very sexy short hairstyle (african hair is a pita to manage so she went short). Plus she was athletic and in good shape. We weren't meant to be in the long term but wow, rocked my world. Once you go black, you don't go back LOL. Well, not really. I like switching it up. Last GF was from El Salvador. I also dated a girl with a near perfect body from Ghana and before that a girl from Barbados who was thin but tall and sexy as hell.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:16PM
I made my post above, before scrolling down this far. We say much the same thing, although the details differ.
jackherer.com used to be so very much more educational - or at least my memory of the site says it was. The site his family has built is far less intuitive, and seems to have a lot less educational material. Ehhh - I shouldn't complain, I guess.
Jack's original site gets credit for motivating me to learn more about the drug war. I was very ignorant of most of the issues before I discovered jackherer.com.
(Score: 2) by rondon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:29PM
Long read, but I still found it informational and interesting. Thanks Takyon.
Also, my two cents, wtf are people thinking when they say, out loud, that other adults should not be able to legally do this thing because it is bad even though it doesn't harm anyone any more than many other legal things? I just honestly don't understand why people think that way.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:39PM
I'm glad you enjoyed it.
The market has spoken. Even in places with no recreational or medical cannabis, broken windows style enforcement of small cannabis offenses is scarce. Instead, it is a good way for cops to harass someone who pisses them off (by way of selective enforcement), or get probable cause for searching a vehicle ("hurr durrr I smell dur weed").
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Joe Desertrat on Thursday April 21 2016, @12:48AM
Also, my two cents, wtf are people thinking when they say, out loud, that other adults should not be able to legally do this thing because it is bad even though it doesn't harm anyone any more than many other legal things? I just honestly don't understand why people think that way.
In John Brunner's book Stand On Zanzibar he had frequent quotes from one of his characters, supposedly a brilliant sociologist, which summed up this sort of thinking:
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:33PM
Look up the phrase "fear of an armed negro" and you will find more than enough articles and documentaries where the ones that wrote the anti-gun laws spell it out quite clearly, they wrote and passed them so blacks couldn't defend themselves from armed aggression by both the Klan and the police. Why do you think one of their first campaigns was to demonize the so called "Saturday Night Special"? Because it was a well built firearm that blacks could afford. The laws were basically a "poll tax" on firearms, allowing the expensive ones that middle class whites could afford while demonizing and removing as many guns that would be in the price range of blacks as was possible without outright saying "them darkies can't be trusted to defend themselves".
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @09:51PM
From one of the thousand links:
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:33PM
""Saturday Night Special"? Because it was a well built firearm that blacks could afford."
*cough*
As I remember it, the "Saturday Night Specials" were mostly peices of crap. Compare a reputable manufacturer's quality version of a Model 1911 today, to the cheapest ripoffs you care to name. Those "Specials" were even cheaper in comparison. We're talking about guns that would sell for about $75 to $125, at today's prices. Are there any firearm manufacturers today cheaper than Taurus? I don't think so, and for that, we should be thankful.
Hmmm - I had an idea that I might want to see Taurus' cheapest prices for a new handgun. Google results didn't find that on my initial search - instead, I was presented with many pages of manufacturer's recalls and assort litigation, warnings, etc. Maybe they AREN'T any better than the old SNSpecials!
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Friday April 22 2016, @05:05AM
Then you never got to have one before they started demonizing them, as they were quite good. In fact most of the cops in my area kept a SNS as a secondary gun because it was easy to pocket and at short range was very effective. It was only after they began demonizing them that the USA manufacturers stopped selling them that you got the cheap Philippines knock offs and those were indeed shit.
But again don't take my word for it, there are plenty of documentaries on the subject where the ones who wrote the actual laws speak about it quite frankly. Its amazing how little fucks were given in the 60s and 70s by politicians at saying obviously racist shit and they truly believed that keeping blacks from defending themselves made the country a better place.
But if you can find an early to late 60s SNS? They are reliable, easy to fire, with little recoil. I personally preferred .22s and 9mm but I had relatives that had to carry large sums of money and they all carried SNS so I got to shoot quite a few and they really were good pocket revolvers for short range self defense.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by garrulus on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:05PM
Rest in peace lord Schicklgruber, Europa needs you more now than ever.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @12:17AM
''From the beginning of 1877, 12 years before Adolf was born, his father called himself Hitler, and his son was never known by any other name until his opponents dug up this long-forgotten village scandal and tried, without justification, to label him with his grandmother's name of Schicklgruber. [nytimes.com]'' -- Alan Bullock, Hitler, A Study in Tyranny
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @12:25AM
"There is a great deal of confusion in studying Hitler's family tree. Much of this is due to the fact that the name has been spelled in various ways: Hitler, Hidler, Hiedler, and Huettler. It seems reasonable to suppose, however, that it is fundamentally the same name spelled in various ways by different members of what was basically an illiterate peasant family. Adolf Hitler himself signed his name Hittler on the first Party membership blanks, and his sister usually spells her name as Hiedler. Another element of confusion is introduced by the fact that Adolf's mother's mother was also named Hitler, which later became the family name of his father. Some of this confusion is dissipated, however, when we realize that Adolf's parents had a common ancestor (father's grandfather and mother's great-grandfather), an inhabitant of the culturally backward Waldviertel district of Austria. [maebrussell.com]
Adolf's father, Alois Hitler, was the illegitimate son of Maria Anna Schicklgruber. It is generally supposed that the father of Alois Hitler was a Johann Georg Hiedler, a miller's assistant. Alois, however, was not legitimized, and he bore his mother's name until he was forty years of age when he changed it to Hitler. Just why this was done is not clear, but it is generally said among the villagers that it was necessary in order to obtain a legacy. Where the legacy came from is unknown. One could suppose that Johann Georg Hiedler relented on his deathbed and left an inheritance to his illegitimate son together with his name. It seems strange, however, that he did not legitimize the son when he married Anna Schicklgruber thirty-five years earlier. Why the son chose to take the name Hitler instead of Hiedler, if this is the case, is also a mystery that has remained unsolved. Unfortunately, the date of the death of Hiedler has not been established, and consequently we are unable to relate these two events in time. A peculiar series of events, prior to Hitler's birth, furnishes plenty of food for speculation. [maebrussell.com]
There are some people who seriously doubt that Johann Georg Hiedler was the father of Alois. Thyssen and Koehler, for example, claim that Chancellor Dollfuss had ordered the Austrian police to conduct a thorough investigation into the Hitler family. As a result of this investigation a secret document was prepared that proved that Maria Anna Schicklgruber was living in Vienna at the time she conceived. At that time she was employed as a servant in the home of Baron Rothschild. As soon as the family discovered her pregnancy she was sent back to her home in Spital where Alois was born. If it is true that one of the Rothschilds is the real father of Alois Hitler, it would make Adolf a quarter Jew. According to these sources, Adolf Hitler knew of the existence of this document and the incriminating evidence it contained. In order to obtain it he precipitated events in Austria and initiated the assassination of Dollfuss. According to this story, he failed to obtain the document at that time since Dollfuss had secreted it and had told Schuschnigg of its whereabouts so that in the event of his death the independence of Austria would remain assured. Several stories of this general character are in circulation. [maebrussell.com]
Those who lend credence to this story point out several factors that seem to favor its plausibility.
1. That it is unlikely that the miller's assistant in a small village in this district would have very much to leave in the form of a legacy.
2. That it is strange that Johann Hiedler should not claim the boy until thirty-five years after he had married the mother and the mother had died.
3. That if the legacy were left by Hiedler on the condition that Alois take his name, it would not have been possible for him to change it to Hitler.
4. That the intelligence and behavior of Alois, as well as that of his two sons, is completely out of keeping with that usually found in Austrian peasant families. They point out that their ambitiousness and extraordinary political intuition are much more in harmony with the Rothschild tradition.
5. That Alois Schicklgruber left his home village at an early age to seek his fortune in Vienna where his mother had worked.
6. That it would be peculiar for Alois Hitler, while working as a customs official in Braunau, to choose a Jew named Print, of Vienna, to act as Adolf's godfather unless he felt some kinship with the Jews himself.
This is certainly a very intriguing hypothesis, and much of Adolf's later behavior could be explained in rather easy terms on this basis. However, it is not absolutely necessary to assume that he has Jewish blood in his veins in order to make a comprehensive picture of his character with its manifold traits and sentiments. From a purely scientifc point of view, therefore, it is sounder not to base our reconstruction on such slim evidence but to seek firmer foundations. Nevertheless, we can leave it as a possibility that requires further verification.
In any event Maria Anna Schicklgruber died when Alois was five years of age. When he was thirteen he left the Waldviertel and went to Vienna where he learned to be a cobbler. The next twenty-three years of his life are largely unaccounted for. It seems probable that during this time he joined the army and had perhaps been advanced to the rank of noncommissioned officer. His service in the army may have helped him to enter the Civil Service as Zollamtsoffizial later on." --Walter C. Langer, The Mind of Adolf Hitler: The Secret Wartime Report
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:09PM
Da story is too long. I got lost on da firbst sentence. Wait... What twas I talking about?
(Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Wednesday April 20 2016, @11:36PM
That didn't deserve a spam mod. Spam is one hell of a drug.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @07:43PM
Thanks for that. I was celebrating 420 day. The article really is too long for potheads though.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 20 2016, @10:43PM
-- http://www.narconon.org/drug-information/methadone-history.html [narconon.org]
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:13AM
Merry fucking Christmas.
Wait, wtf? Did you get sold some bad weed, AC? Just chill out, man. It happens to everybody. Come on over to my place, AC, meet the fellas. I've got some purple haze I bought--legally, at this place with a huge selection just north of Denver--I've been holding on to just for today, my friend! How'd I get it three states away without being caught? That's my little secret, but I bet those full blown bears that had 20 cars must've been all in all pulled over--and I counted a grand total of 3 people--3 separate cars, one to a car each, man!--who weren't fucking black, I'll bet they'd fucking--I don't care what they fucking do! I had to buy ¼ oz each day for four days, they even had me sign this thing each fucking time! But I just sail through all these profiling bastards with a whole fucking ounce of pure, American grown, organic purple haze.
Eh, I should stop talking to myself. It's not anything like that, dear reader. I can assure you I have no way to obtain even bad weed, much less purple haze or whatever is "good weed." I don't fucking know. Nobody I talk to on the internet, thousands of miles away, who are all high as kites right now, even knows what fucking cultivar they're smoking. They know the guy who knows the guy who knows the guy, and they assure me that the guy sometimes has very high quality shit but not always. Some of these guys who know other guys who know other guys aren't even thugs; instead they're discreet, honest, never try to "push" anything professionals. Sometimes one of the guys who knows the guy doesn't even smoke weed or do any drugs, not even Tylenol.
As fate would have it, I happened to check the results of the New York primary. Granted, I'd been drinking, but I was so distraught by what I saw I either didn't take one of my meds, took a double dose of one of my meds, or something. Maybe took one of the roommate's meds while sleepwalking. For whatever reason, I've been a little "off" today, bouncing between depressive and manic states, mostly manic completely at random. This has never happened to me before. My balance has also been subtly affected.
So, I assure you, I am not high, or at least if I am experiencing a neurochemical state that might constitute as an "altered state of mind" (which may be adequate, I've only experienced mania before in utterly random and totally isolated incidents, and even then I'm not sure I can even accurately call it mania--more like being uninhibited like being drunk while being completely sober and possessing the judgement yet that I wouldn't worry about telling somebody "hold my tea for me and watch this!") that it is not a consequence of using cannabis.
I might accept a transcendental explanation that, because of my desire to obtain the right cultivar of cannabis flower that might do for me what HU-210 did for me back before the DEA caught on to that chemical... I lost weight effortlessly... I felt motivated to do things to improve myself, and I did them, because I got high... ran at least 1 mile per day, often more... strength training 3 days per week, nothing macho, just to stay healthy and to be able to lift the occasional 50 lbs object and carry it 100 ft... I worked with my credit union, and they got me a debt consolidation loan at an interest rate I was flabbergasted to learn even existed for a nobody consumer and I hadn't even done a slight bit of haggling or negotiation to get it... sometimes it's like some people report of anti-depressants: you haven't started doing anything differently that you're aware of, but suddenly it's other people who seem to change their opinions of you, as though the anti-depressant was secretly emitting mind control waves making everyone around you, even strangers, favor you.
Some of you read my comments and I'm sure go "did that person forget to log in today?" I didn't forget to log in. My sanity has slipped further and further away from me as I realize how truly financially fucked I am, how truly fucking futile and fucking hopeless it is to even contemplate moving to Colorado in under 5 years, fully realizing that in 5 years, some other personal disaster will fucking happen and I'll be fucking stuck in this fucking meaningless piece of fucking shit dead fucking end job for 3 fucking more years, for 4 fucking more years, for 5 fucking more years, for fucking ever fucking years. Not unless I'm OK with letting somebody else go completely homeless with me. The logical thing to do is to keep fucking showing up for my fucking meaningless fucking job that doesn't fucking pay me enough to begin to save in a fucking meaningful way until I lose my fucking mind, in a very real and very fucking clinical sense.
Sometimes, the cisgendered hunnies fuck you in ways you'll never know, behind your back, when mysterious, inexplicable unlikely coincidences happen. You know that they know that you know that they fucked you over because you're not a good little sex object for them. What I know is that I would rather attempt self-surgery and give myself fucking orchi and staple those fucking treacherous, useless fucking things that used to be ovaries before the fucking jews did whatever they fucking did to me in the womb to give me the body of a boy just to fucking see what would fucking happen, well jews, i hope you have your answer. this fucking happens. i would rather staple those fucking abominations to one of your fucking cisgendered hunnies' unmutilatable fucking pussies than fucking let it produce dihydrotestosterone ever. fucking. again. you fucking jews should have left my (male) genitals intact, fuckfaces! You fucking mutate me in utero, then you fucking mutilate my genitals, and guess what? you fucking contaminated your fucking experiment in what would happen if you fucking took somebody who fucking /deserved/ to be cisfemale just as i'm sure i'll one day take a genetic test that will show i don't have a fucking y chromosome in my fucking body at fucking all you fucking jews and it'll fucking prove what you jews did to me.
But sometimes, the cisgendered hunnies fuck you in a big way. Alimony, child support: those are the classic methods. As cisfemales make greater strides towards an Animal Farm-like kind of equality, where some genders are just fucking created more fucking equal than other genders... *clears throat* greater strides towards an Animal Farm-like kind of equality, where some genders are more equal than other genders, they can new ways to fuck their perceived enemies over. I don't know what I ever did to become an enemy of the cisgendered hunnies. At best, I pissed off an Illuminati Nazi Jew (laugh a bit, it's a joke, son) by showing that I just am a woman, no matter what body horror you subject me to. In this case, in classic capitalist fashion, I did not have perfect information about the market. I experienced something that constituted a medical emergency in my mind, at least something concerning enough to me that I asked my good friend to drive me to the emergency room, and she obliged. When I tried and failed, due to aphasia-like symptoms that were quickly setting in, not to mention my inability to even write my own name longhand, they rushed me into... into... "care." Not intensive care, nothing like that. But they probably did exactly the right thing. They stuck a saline IV in me quicker than I could say "Geronimo!" (Why do we invoke that warrior when we're about to go over a cliff anyway? I never understood that, but then again, damn it Jim, I'm an armchair sociologist and gender studies postdoc of the school of hard knocks, not an armchair historian!)
At any rate, after 5 days of intensive laying in bed while my body adsorbed a solution of salt and water that is mixed to match normal blood sodium levels, my blood sodium level began to approach normal. That was the only thing wrong with me. My blood sodium level was a tad low. I told you, I'm going to fucking live until I'm 100 no matter how many bad habits I have! But the cisgendered hunnies--I should have never trusted them--they assured me my insurance would pay for the whole stay UNLESS i fucking checked myself out before the doc said it was ok.
Wow, what a fucking idiot you are, AC. Really? Really? Seriously? Really? Did you fucking fall for that. You fucking knew better, AC! You fucking knew that you deductible had gone up and up and up and up and fucking up THANKS OBAMA! Your insurance wasn't going to cover jack shit, and now you know, AC!
But no, I haven't had any fucking weed today. <sarcasm>mermermer "anybody who wants it can already get it" mermermer</sarcasm> NO THEY FUCKING CAN'T YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE DIE IN A FUCKING FIRE! If you want some fucking proof I'm not high, I fucking remember to not only use my nice fucking blinkers in traffic today (always top up your blinker fluid, folks!) but to fucking place my sarcasm tags fucking properly there.
THANKS OBAMA! THANKS NIGGER I DIDN'T VOTE FOR TWICE! AND FUCK YOUR PASTY WHITIE CRACKER ASS, ROBOROMNEY, FOR COMING UP WITH THAT FUCKING IDEA. No, nevermind, nobody fuck Roboromney's ass. The idea is too disgusting. There'd probably be santorum coming out of it when you're done! Yuck! Not me! I do not volunteer!
I forget where the hell I was going with this.
I should probably delete 90% of what I just vomited into this buffer. 99%. Delete the 99%! HEIL CLINTON! er, oops ^.^ HEIL CLINTON! HEIL FÜHRERIN!
Yep, my sanity has slipped. That little green sanity gauge next to the red health gauge and blue magick gauge on my avatar's upper left is currently at 0. That's right, folks. If I take any more sanity damage, at this point, I take health damage. That's the rules of the game. And it's a game the likes of which I've never played before or since. Eternal Darkness by unlikely studio Silicon Knights. Er... crap... I knew I shouldn't have touched that necronomicon. Eh, c'est la vie. I'll just cut a deal with Xena while she's having a flashback to her necromancer phase when she was training under Alte, head down to Jacksonville, FL, and everything will be groovy.
(Oh, right, I was going to explain why I'm wishing you a merry fucking Christmas on 4/20. The Merry Christmas jihadists are prowling the town tonight. They're looking for the usual suspects: homosexuals, women they've determined are actually men, anybody with hair too long or too short for their assigned gender and maratial status really. They've got us communists who consistently vote Libertarian figured out. During December, they've figured out they get up in our faces, stop us from doing evil activities such as earning our own money and purchasing dinner one evening, and by shouting "MERRY CHRISTMAS" in our faces, they'll cause us 5D8 damage, which is better than shouting "Ni!" Ni! only does 4D6 damage and also has the unfortunate side-effect that if the target person is an old woman and the person shouting Ni! is a passer-by, it does an additional 2D4 damage. Well, today, being 4/20, means that any god-fearing soul can automatically determine, using the same criteria as during Christmas to find out who is personally trying to make Christmas illegal, who is trying to summon the devil by smoking the devil grass, say true ye ken, and messing with them. This is a warning to all asshole Christian SUV drivers: if you try to race me off the line because my car looks slow and I look like one of them homersexerler commies who smokes the devil grass, you WILL be fucking humiliated.)
HEIL FÜHRERIN!
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:31AM
Jesus unicycling Christ, Kurenai.
Now listen, after your dismissal of me (and a good 99.99%+ of the female population) as "cisgendered hunnies" I'd be perfectly justified in telling you to go warm your toes in the Malebolge. But I won't, because it's obvious you are Having A Bad Time (TM) right now, and I'd like to help if possible.
PM me if you want my email address or the irc server/room of some places I hang out and you want to talk. They're all trans-friendly. Let's see if we can't get you 1) in a better place mentally, short term and 2) onto some aid program that can help finish whatever the doctors, who may or may not be Jewish, started on your wedding tackle.
To the rest of you reading this: Kurenai is not trans because she is insane; rather, constant rejection and fear have a way of causing someone insanity, and being trans does NOT help with that. The entire planet's pretty much against you from the start.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:35AM
I want to try peyote [erowid.org]. Better start a religion.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 21 2016, @02:43AM
I must have misread the law [wikipedia.org]. Only one religion is approved.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by patella.whack on Thursday April 21 2016, @06:41AM
Ha!
my only comment here is to encourage you to keep on posting your shit and comments. Great combo of politics and tech.
I defy any poster here to challenge takyon. He seems to me to be one of the most hardworking guys on this site. I just want to give props here because our mods appreciate it, I'm sure. Good job tak. thanks.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 21 2016, @03:32AM
Why aren't more women in the pot business? [marketplace.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday April 21 2016, @05:13AM
Who is going to replace junkies in prisons? Unemployed?
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @05:15AM
debtors' prisons ftw. free health care and food.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 21 2016, @09:14AM
Linux users.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday April 21 2016, @05:23PM
Yes, and we celebrate December 25 because some Christians decided to start a holiday, March 18 because some Irish-Americans decided to start a holiday, April 8 because some Buddhists decided to start a holiday...
David Bowman sees the internet: "My God! It's full of stupid!"
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org