Cannabis Freedom

I read this news story: Morocco destroyed a 2,736 hectare cannabis farm. That's an area almost 20 times the size of Overton Park*. That's an unreal bust, and yet supply for the United States in the coming year won't be diminished. We're the country with the greatest marijuana consumption in the world.

I saw this story later: Police make large marijuana bust, police in Louisville take in 5 suspects for possessing between 200 and 500 pounds of marijuana. Why does the news media not take note of the outrageous claims of law enforcement? Repeatedly we are told about large busts of multiple hundreds of pound of cannabis, but that's not even a comet in the universe of buds smoked in this country. According to the White House's Marijuana SourceBook [PDF] I've conservatively approximated that 60,000 Memphians use cannabis. That crowd would fill the Liberty Bowl Memorial Stadium.

No one could fathom the acreage of bud you would have to produce to feed the demand of the residents of our city. We are constantly bombarded with claims that the drug warriors are winning, Blue Crush?, that they're "keeping drugs of the streets", when clearly they aren't. Instead we're crowding 201 Poplar full of the fathers of our dying babies. Watch the 20/20 preview if you haven't already. If marijuana were taxed and regulated, or simply free to grow and consume the money wouldn't be going to the thugs fueling the violence.

We're giving outrageous profits to the gangsters that rule our streets and cause one of the highest homicide rates in the country. Marijuana prohibition is causing and perpetuating our problems. You just can't keep drugs out the hands of a free people. Unless you want a totalitarian state, end the marijuana prohibition.

*2,736 hectares / 342 acres = 19.77

I was aghast when Drug Warrior Joe Biden was selected to be Obama's Vice Presidental running mate. Here are three quick reasons not to vote for Obama/Biden in November.

1. Both Obama and Biden are lawyers* who've never had to work for a living
   
2. Joe Biden created the Office of National Drug Control Policy
3. Biden also coined the term Drug Czar

*My disdain for lawyers is deeply seeded in the fact that they've created a system that enslaves the American public to the law.

Unless and independent choice, someone like Ron Paul, emerges as a candidate, I'm going to be boycotting this election.

Psychwatch, the psychology watchdog blog, writes about "add on" drugs which are slightly different, to retain patent protection, but no more effective than the original drugs. By slightly changing the chemical makeup of the drug pharmaceutical companies can manipulate doctors in to prescribing the "new and improved" version instead of an old formulation which would be filled with a generic. By using technicalities written into the patent law Big Pharma is bilking the patients and insurance companies out of millions in generic drug savings.

Patent law's intent is to protect the little guy from the competition stealing his/her idea. Now the US Patent and Trade Office serves to protect the revenue streams of the largest corporate patent holders. If we're going to have patent law at all it should be written to encourage innovation, not prevent it.

I blame modern medicine, specifically pharmaceuticals, for creating superbugs like MSRA, which incidentally kills more people than AIDS. MSRA is is a form of staph bacteria that is resistant to most common antibiotics. Not only are most antibiotics ineffective at treating MSRA they are unnecessary to treat most skin infections. An MSRA skin infection and is killed within days with a Tea Tree Oil based salve available at Wild Oats/Whole Foods for about $15. That's less than my office visit copay.

Slate.com has a piece on the overuse of antibiotics, specifically pressure felt by the doctor from patients who believe antibiotics are necessary to cure common ailments. Now, a placebo is being marketed to parents to fool their children into thinking that they need a pill to feel better. Do we really want to foster drug dependency in our children? The ONDCP believes that now America's pill popping is becoming a problem, but the government's management of the pharmaceutical industry, and western medicine's disdain for anything alternative, natural, homeopathic, or herbal that exacerbates the problem. The answer is to deregulate the medical industry, both conventional and alternative medicine, and let patients and doctors, rather than legal standards, decide the best and most effective course of treatment.

Pill popping is extremely dangerous and the risks are well documented but rarely taken into consideration by doctors looking to satisfy patient demand. In comparison alternative herbal remedies like medical marijuana are extremely safe and non-toxic to the human body. Of course what makes cannabis unsafe is the threat of government breaking down your door at night.

Hat tip to the Drug Roar blog.

Pillar of morality and piety, Bill O'Reilly, not only has a problem chasing skirts at the office, he also has problems treating his production staff with respect. This comes as no surprise from someone who broadcasts images of children in simulated sex acts.

O'Reilly has no moral authority to lambaste the City of Memphis or its children on national television, over the Mitchell High School "rape dance" videos. He needs to get his own house in order first.

Bill, your feigned and hypocritical indignation is revolting.

HT: The Agitator

The saga continues... O'Reilly again featured the Mitchell High School "Rape Dance" incident I blogged about yesterday. I'm outraged that people care more about the "rape dance" than a child being shot at this same school earlier this year. Where are our priorities?

If Bill O'Reilly was seriously disgusted with the kids' dancing then he wouldn't be looping the video over and over. He wants to play video of children simulating sex on his show to titillate his audience. A grown man that wants to play video of children simulating sex acts is what disgusts me.

No video here, but Mediaverse® has the full video. The O'Reilly Factor (Mitchell High continued)

WREG-TV Memphis - Updated: "Rape Dance" Investigation appears on national cable news:

"The clip labeled, 'Mitchell High School Memphis ... Rape Dat Ho,' was posted last month. It was flagged as offensive then taken down, but not before News Channel 3 recorded the clip on tape.

The images are disturbing. They are graphic and hard to watch. It shows young men and women engaging in what one parent described as 'sex with clothes on.

Are you freaking kidding me? In Memphis, TN we're seriously worried about kids simulating having sex. It's Elvis on TV all over again. Lets just make a rule that these kids have to be filmed from the waist up. Have we come that far as a city that the only thing we have to worry about is kids simulating a sex act?

To put things in perspective, there was a shooting at Mitchell High School earlier this semester. This whole ordeal is a freaking embarrassment to the city. Our city school system has completely failed our children and we're worried about kids dirty dancing, while Bill O'Reilly blows his load watching. O'Reilly is the same pervert that settled a sexual harassment lawsuit a few years ago. These are the deck chairs we're arranging on the Titanic of the city government.

The people that are blaming the kids the most are the ones that are helping them the least. Not one dime of the school system's money should be wasted on any further investigation.

Slain Student Apparently Dialed 911; Help Not Sent

Madison, WI A college student apparently called 911 from her cell phone shortly before she was killed but a dispatcher hung up, failed to call back and never sent police to investigate, authorities said Thursday.

Spokesbureaucrat Joseph Norwick states, "I don't think there's anything to apologize for at this time." Appalling.

McCain drops 2 G's at Barney's New York in Beverly Hills. This has nothing to do with anything other than it reminded me when I met Don Sunquist while he was a member of the Imperial Senate. That was before he tried to shove an income tax down the throats of the People of Tennessee.

The senator had on black alligator shoes with gold buckles and a matching belt. His ensemble was more than my dad made in a month. I remember thinking, "This is not how a conservative dresses." It was my first taste of what the Republican Party leadership was really all about. Now there is no doubt for me that Sunquist and McCain are cut from the same cloth.



thanks Crooks and Liars