in praise of ayahuasca

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Graham Hancock lets us off the hook for all our bad habits, except cigarettes, admirably.

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love, 99
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all my doper friends are fired

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This was a helpful bit we could have been consoling ourselves with for weeks!

Sheesh. I have to do everything around here!

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love, 99
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fred on joe

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When I griped about yet another of Joe's brilliant restatements of the obvious to Dave many hours ago, I did not know Joe had just died. I might've clucked about the loss or waxed optimistic about him having been spared so much or dug around for more of his brilliant restatements, because they have always been good, but, instead, I'll just refer you to his friend and say, kaaazzaaaaart, Joe.

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love, 99
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some watchgator

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He didn't eat anyone!

California narcotics investigators found a $1.5 million marijuana growing operation at a house and an unusual security guard — a 4-foot-long (1.2-meter-long) alligator named Wally.

The Riverside County drug task force team moved in on the Hemet area house on Monday night and seized nearly 2,300 pot plants. The commander says agents also found the reptile, described as a "watchgator."

The healthy 55-pound (25-kilogram) American alligator was turned over to the Phelan-based Forever Wild Exotic Animal Sanctuary, since gators are illegal in California.

GEESE are the ultimate in home security.

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love, 99
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sobriety test

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Just checking....

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love, 99
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when you leave it to a pothead

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Gott only knows what he'll come up with....

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love, 99
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the more i snoop around in the alternative zone

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The angrier I become. If even a tenth of the things I'm seeing and hearing about are true, it still constitutes utter condemnation of our world.

It is NOT all anger, though, now, of course it isn't. It's a splendid means to open minds... which is the cure for the thing causing all the anger.

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house calls

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We want our house calls.

Mont. group shuts down cannabis caravans
By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press Writer – 7 mins ago

HELENA — A Montana advocacy group is shutting down its traveling medical marijuana clinics amid criticism that the so-called cannabis caravans have added thousands of people to the state registry without conducting thorough patient screenings.

The Montana Caregviers Network has hosted the one-day clinics in hotels and conference centers across Montana for more than a year. For a $150 fee, the group brought together those seeking to become medical marijuana patients with doctors willing to prescribe pot.

Starting next week, the group will forgo the clinics and instead team up with medical marijuana distributors — called caregivers in Montana — to provide regular doctor's office hours in Billings, Bozeman and Helena, in addition to the group's base in Missoula.

"It is being changed partially because of the criticism of the traveling clinics. Also, from the business end, it's no longer sustainable," group spokesman Chris Arneson said. "The traveling clinics no longer allow us to serve our patients the best we can."

The clinics were a major factor in Montana's medical marijuana patient registry jumping from 842 people at the end of 2008 to just about 20,000 at the end of June.

But over the past few months, the clinics have come under criticism as being assembly lines that sees hundreds of people at a time, but at the expense of proper medical examinations.

An interim legislative committee drafting a bill to shore up the state's medical marijuana law has been hearing from people who say the pot boom goes against the aim of the law to provide care to people with the most debilitating illnesses or conditions.

Meanwhile, the state medical board tried to curtail the mass screenings with a position paper released at the end of May saying that doctors who recommend medical marijuana must follow the same standards as doctors prescribing other medicine.

The board fined a physician who had seen about 150 people in 14 1/2 hours at one of those clinics last year.

The Montana Caregivers Network has a doctor who now works full-time with the group in Missoula. Under the new model, he will go to Billings, Bozeman and Helena once a week to provide recommendations for new patients and for current ones seeking to renew their one-year eligibility, Arneson said.

The Montana Caregivers Network will still handle the records and still charge $150 per recommendation.

Board of Medical Examiners Executive Director Jean Branscum was out of the office on Thursday and Friday and did not return requests for comment.

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where we're headed

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Can't even relax with my podcasts. Sheesh.

You know, our policies have had a LOT to do with the state of Mexico. You know, the drug business is VERY big in very high places... there and here. You wanna start drilling down into this scene? You won't get far before some scary big boys start showing up on your radar. We are not in Kansas anymore.

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i hate to be the kind who sez i told you so

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But I did tell you so, over and over and over again... but noooooo....
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bowden on mexico again

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I remind you, this man writes like God and he is seriously insightful.
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haven't we helped enough already?

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Whut? Troops? More drug runners?

This is worth a listen, and I cannot possibly recommend reading Bowden's books highly enough.
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greetings from sleep disorder central

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I was trying to take a picture of myself in my mystically ridiculous first thing outta bed gig this morning, but was messing up something awful... well... or... this really darn substandard built-in camera was messing up... and I was making to snap off the program, scrap the program, when I hit the shutter button instead of the off button. This is me beginning to smirk at my legendary "morning" witlessness again.

Then I got sidetracked by life and emails and the sunny day.

So, anyway, Dave Bath—from clear over there in upside down world—left me this link for my doper friends to contemplate.

Except for a brief stint between ages three and six, I was an anomalously disinclined-to-sugar kid. Pretty big on ice cream when it was around, and pie when it was around, but otherwise relatively impervious to sugar's charms. Not until somewhere in the middle of my world's longest menopause gig did I start to go batshit for sugar again... and THAT was due to my neighbor and dear friend Peggy being a dessert-making fanatic. Between my menopausal screaming freakout chocolate cravings and her virtuosity in the kitchen, holy shit, I was at least as bad as a kid in a candy store. Took me a couple years to get a grip on that, but pretty much went back to the desserts, not so much, thing. THEN when I decided to lose all the dying thyroid gland weight, it was complete ix-nay on the ugar-say for real.

I gained SIX pounds in two weeks of nuke food and milkshakes with Poppa. And bloated up like a blob fish from all the chemicals. THEN couldn't breathe for close to a week from chemicals, and crying, and the antihistamines that allow me to live here starting not to be so effective anymore. Wretched.

I had not gotten more than seven hours of sleep in any night since I left to go see Poppa. This is never a good sign, since I need a rock bottom minimum of eight hours in the best of times, and mostly ten, sometimes even twelve, to get in the kind of sleep necessary to stay amongst the acceptably-patient and marginally-sentient crowd. Well, we fixed THAT. I didn't drop like a stone until two in the morning, but then slept till one thirty this afternoon. I did NOT wake up a blob fish bumping into walls. I woke up 99 bumping into walls. VAAAAAAST improvement... and that is because I have been drinking a lot of water, staying away from sugar, and salt—holding up a cross and a garland of garlic just to mention it—and eating only meat and vegetables and fruits, since I've been home... no chemicals... no lab food... way light on the simple carbohydrates.

So if you feel like total crap all the time, sugar, the gateway drug to cocaine, is PART of yer problem. Older people should stay clear the hell away from it because our digestive systems are lazier, making us vastly prefer to opt for it over the much more work to digest protein, and gut flora more malign. Malign gut flora live on SUGAR. They make you feel depressed, groggy, fuck with yer sinuses, give you MONSTER headaches until you appease them with sugar again, AND eventually you turn into a rack of supremely unhealthy and unmotivated bones due to such poor nutrition. Listen to me. Back off on the sugar, try to limit it to FRUIT, and yer gonna find yourself more alert, less depressed, something akin to functional.

No kidding.
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scientific proof

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While indica does not make me psychotic, it turns me into a piece of furniture worried about breathing, and this would seem to furnish some sort of chemical explanation for why sativa makes me happy and affable and indica is such a damn drag I have no interest in going there.

The good news for all you maniacs spiraling in the doldrums is that you can, you should switch to sativa. Indica smacks you to the floor and sativa makes you float. Commonly, people believe this means the skunk gives you more bang for your buck. This is wrong. The lightness is not lack of strength. It is enjoyable, uplifting... and healthier.

Indica: leaves tending to forest green with red hairs.

Sativa: leaves tending to chartreuse with purple hairs.

If you only ever see them dried and ready to smoke, google around for images to help you tell the difference.
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wtf?

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Does this make you feel tired? Doesn't this endless acid trip make your muscles ache a little?

this means war

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Mexico and Argentina move towards decriminalising drugs
In a backlash against the US 'war on drugs', Latin America turns to a more liberal policy

Rory Carroll in Caracas, Jo Tuckman in Mexico and Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro
guardian.co.uk | Monday, 31 August 2009 | 14.07 BST


Argentina and Mexico have taken significant steps towards decriminalising drugs amid a growing Latin American backlash against the US-sponsored "war on drugs".

Argentina's supreme court has ruled it unconstitutional to punish people for using marijuana for personal consumption, an eagerly awaited judgment that gave the government the green light to push for further liberalisation.

It followed Mexico's decision to stop prosecuting people for possession of relatively small quantities of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs. Instead, they will be referred to clinics and treated as patients, not criminals.

Brazil and Ecuador are also considering partial decriminalisation as part of a regional swing away from a decades-old policy of crackdowns still favoured by Washington.

"The tide is clearly turning. The 'war on drugs' strategy has failed," Fernando Henrique Cardoso, a former Brazilian president, told the Guardian. Earlier this year, he and two former presidents of Colombia and Mexico published a landmark report calling for a new departure.

"The report of the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy has certainly helped to open up the debate about more humane and efficient policies. But, most of all, the facts are speaking by themselves," said Cardoso.

Reform campaigners have long argued that criminalisation enriched drug cartels, fuelled savage turf wars, corrupted state institutions and filled prisons with addicts who presented no real threat to society.

The US used its considerable influence to keep Latin America and the UN wedded to hardline policies which kept the focus on interdictions and jail sentences for consumers as well as dealers. The "war" was first declared by the Nixon administration.

The economic and social cost, plus European moves towards liberalisation, have emboldened some Latin American states to try new approaches.

Argentina's supreme court, presented with a case about youths arrested with a few joints, ruled last week that such behaviour did not violate the constitution. "Each adult is free to make lifestyle decisions without the intervention of the state," it said.

The government, which favours decriminalisation, is expected to amend laws in light of the ruling. The court stressed, however, that it was not approving complete decriminalisation, a move that would be fiercely resisted by the Catholic church and other groups.

The previous week the government of Mexico, which has endured horrific drug-related violence, made it no longer an offence to possess 0.5g of cocaine (the equivalent of about four lines), 5g of marijuana (about four joints), 50mg of heroin and 40mg of methamphetamine.

Three years ago, Mexico backtracked on similar legislation after the initiative triggered howls of outrage in the US and predictions that Cancún and other resorts would become world centres of narcotics tourism.

Now, however, the authorities quietly say they need to free up resources and jail space for a military-led war on the drug cartels, even while publicly justifying that offensive to the Mexican public with the slogan "to stop the drugs reaching your children". They also argue corrupt police officers will be deterred from extorting money from drug users.

Washington did not protest against the announcement, which was kept deliberately low key. "They made no fanfare so as not to arouse the ire of the US," said Walter McKay, of the Mexico City-based Institute for Security and Democracy. "I predict that when the US sees its nightmare has not come true and that there is no narco-tourist boom it will come under more pressure to legalise or decriminalise."

Some US states have decriminalised the possession of small amounts of marijuana and the Obama administration has emphasised public health solutions to drug abuse, giving Latin America more breathing room, said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the Global Drug Policy Programme. "My hope is that Latin America will be the next region, after most of Europe, where evidence and science will be the basis for policy-making."

Argentina and Mexico's moves may encourage other governments to follow suit. A new law has been mooted in Ecuador, where President Rafael Correa last year pardoned 1,500 "mules" who had been sentenced to jail. His late father was a convicted mule.

Brazil's supreme court, as well as elements in Congress and the justice ministry, favour decriminalising possession of small quantities of drugs, said Maria Lúcia Karam, a former judge who has joined the advocacy group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

She welcomed the moves towards decriminalisation but said repression remained a cornerstone of drug policy. "Unfortunately the 'war on drugs' mentality is still the dominant policy approach in Latin America. The only way to reduce violence in Mexico, Brazil or anywhere else is to legalise the production, supply and consumption of all drugs."

This rocks very hard. Bravissimo, boyz and girlz. That UNASUR summit must have been smoking. I'm allowing myself to fantasize about a sane world....

axis of logic says this is a must see

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So. I'm downloading it now.

You get some Joe Arpaio for your trouble, but not a tenth of how bad that guy is. Those tents rise to 135 degrees, and he's been successfully sued for prisoners beaten to death by his employees. Oh, and a bunch of old news about drugs.... But maybe it's good to pay attention, add this to your stack of outrages against America piling up over there in the corner....

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So, okay, I don't know where to come down on this video. I guess it's a must see because it really does lace in some vital information between the stultifyingly boring pluck at yer heartstrings crap about addiction itself being punishment enough, and etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm staunchly in favor of legalization of all drugs and staunchly against the filthy fascism grown up around drugs, but, pfeh, I've been here too long to want to listen to the whining anymore. If it were not for all the seriously good points nested in with that blather, this would not have been a must see... but... I guess, it is a must see... all taken together.

beware indians bearing gifts, nafta flu, drug deaths, drones and assassins

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Decided to duck around in the unfamiliar today, and to use it to catch up on what I missed earlier in the month with my long succession of debacles. This particular taping of Democracy Now! stands out for a number of reasons... not least that it includes some poor Mexican guy pleading to have the public health hazard in Perote dealt with properly... and a couple of instances where Obama blows our collective minds with the audacity of chutzpah in calling those who wish him to turn back his coup against Zelaya in Honduras "hypocrites"... but also because you have a chance to listen to journalist, Charles Bowden speaking about asylum for a Mexican journalist and about the Mexican government and drugs and guns. You might want to read his piece in Mother Jones on it that they mention in the interview, help remind you of Obama's mendacity and the recent history of Mexico, but, more than that, more than anything, maybe you want to read Bowden's Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America, which will drill about three tons of delusion right the hell on out of you all by itself. I promise. It is a masterpiece. Don't die without reading it.

[It should also be noted that the piece by Bowden linked here, We Bring Fear, is so good that I had to stop reading it online and print it out to take to bed with me. Just look at the first page and tell me you don't feel the same way.

I never can bring myself to believe these "Kindle" things will overtake books and magazines because there are some things that cannot be absorbed on a monitor, a viewing screen. Some writers have to be held, and Bowden is one of them.

I also have found myself irked for posting an image of Obama painted as a brave. I wanted an image of an indian holding a wrapped gift... and I can do that because I'm indian... but lost patience in the search. Maybe I will forget the blast of "INDIAN GIVER!" that shot through me at some point during this broadcast, and replace the image with something that is not an insult to my ancestors, or maybe I will leave it and just concentrate on the miserable irony of someone honoring him this way....

No, really! That should be reserved for a man of courage, not squandered on someone who sells out everyone in his country, everyone on earth to play this murderating role on the world stage.]

taking over the profits

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50 drug barons on US target list in Afghanistan
By JASON STRAZIUSO, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 26 mins ago

KABUL – A U.S. military "kill or capture" list of 367 wanted insurgents in Afghanistan includes 50 major drug traffickers who give money to Taliban militants, U.S. military commanders told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

U.S. and NATO troops are attacking drug warehouses and militant-linked narco dealers in Afghanistan for the first time this year, a new strategy to counter the country's booming opium poppy and heroin trade. NATO defense ministers approved the targeted drug raids late last year, saying the link between Taliban insurgents and the drug trade was clear.

According to a report to be issued by the committee this week, U.S. commanders have no restrictions on the use of force against the targets, "which means they can be killed or captured on the battlefield," the report states.

When the nexus between a drug trafficker and the insurgency is clear enough, the drug trafficker is put on a list of insurgent leaders wanted by U.S. forces, said Rear Adm. Gregory Smith, the top U.S. spokesman in Afghanistan.

"The list of targets are those that are contributing to the insurgency, so the key leadership, and part of that obviously is the link between the narco industry and the militants," Smith said Monday.

To be placed on this target list, formally called the "joint integrated prioritized target list," requires two verifiable human sources and "substantial additional evidence," the report says.

The U.S. military does not conduct operations against narcotics dealers who are not involved in the insurgency, because those individuals are dealt with by law enforcement agencies, according to Capt. Elizabeth Mathias, a U.S. military spokeswoman.

"It's terrorists with links to the drug trade rather than drug traffickers with links to terrorism," said Lt. Col. Todd Vician, another U.S. military spokesman.

The existence of militant-linked drug traffickers on a wanted list of insurgents is a fairly recent development, following that NATO change in policy, though the individuals likely were known to the military before then, Smith said.

The majority of the wanted drug traffickers are in southern Afghanistan, where the drug trade is strongest, though "there are links elsewhere dealing with trafficking," Smith said.

U.S. Marines and Afghan forces have found and destroyed hundreds of tons of poppy seeds, opium and heroin in southern Afghanistan this summer in raids that troops were not allowed to carry out a year ago.

In another major U.S. policy shift, the U.S. announced in June it would no longer support the destruction of individual farmers' poppy plants, and instead would increase attacks on drug warehouses.

For years, the U.S. strategy has centered on training Afghan forces to eradicate farmers' poppy fields by hand. But such efforts never destroyed a significant portion of the crops. Farmers complained that the program targeted small, helpless poppy growers and passed over more powerful land owners, and the forces came under constant attack by militants.

Linking the fight against Taliban or al-Qaida insurgents to people seen driving the country's illegal drugs trade is an issue that has long stirred debate inside NATO.

The top U.S. envoy to Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, said last month that the Taliban gets more money from donors in oil-rich Persian Gulf nations than from drugs.

European governments have never shared U.S. enthusiasm to use military power in a counternarcotics strategy, and last fall's decision by NATO to declare war against drug labs and traffickers in Afghanistan has not silenced critics.

"NATO policy is that if there is a direct nexus between drugs and funding the insurgency, then NATO has a role," said NATO spokeswoman Carmen Romero.

Placing drug traffickers on a wanted list of Afghan militants will significantly hurt insurgents, according to Daniel Twining of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

The Taliban insurgency "is only sustainable thanks to the roughly $300-400 million in drug revenues it earns annually from controlling or taxing the narcotics trade, and from the failures of the Afghan state to connect with the Afghan people, leaving vast and ungoverned swathes of the country subject to parallel administration by the Taliban," Twining said.

However, Fabrice Pothier, head of Brussels-based Carnegie Europe, said the effectiveness of NATO's policy is "highly disputable."

"How can restricted NATO interdiction operations put a dent in a $3.5 billion industry? There is no clear evidence to date that proves that targeting the drugs business will weaken the Taliban insurgency," Pothier said.

Afghanistan's Counter Narcotics Ministry says 98 percent of Afghanistan's poppy crop is grown in five southern insurgency-plagued provinces, where the government has little or no control. That is where U.S., Afghan and British forces have been destroying drug warehouses this summer.

About 4,000 U.S. Marines in July launched their biggest anti-Taliban offensive since 2001 on the southern province of Helmand, the center of the country's opium poppy cultivation.

U.N. officials say Taliban fighters reap hundreds of millions of dollars from the drug trade each year, profits used to fund the insurgency. A New York Times report published Monday cited CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency estimates saying that the Taliban earn $70 million a year from narcotics.

i know some crumbling yippies high on this news

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