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RainDog
RainDog's Journal
RainDog's Journal
April 8, 2014
That sentence lets you know the drug warriors are serious about the issue (cough.) Or maybe that comment was intended to scare suburban soccer moms cause their kid may be the next to use - cause, otherwise, who cares if something happens outside of suburbia, amiright? (sarcasm, if that's necessary.)
Maybe all that propaganda that equated marijuana with actual, harmful addictive drugs that those white kids heard in their DARE sessions made them too gullible - too willing to believe authority figures - and then they found out those figures lied about marijuana - so maybe they're lying about other things? And those are the people currently taking on marijuana - heaven help us all when those with good intentions have bad ideology.
Or maybe a reality is that addiction rates have stayed fairly static in the U.S. for decades (under 2% of the population), but the drug of choice changes, depending on which drug source the drug warriors targeted. It's like squeezing a water balloon - the shape changes but the volume doesn't.
Or maybe the economic crisis from economic policies has created a depressing job market for younger people and that makes stronger drugs more attractive in a "what have I got to lose" sort of way. But that statement does not hold true because the majority of addicts hold jobs and are not on public assistance - but there is a diff. in rates based upon age - just as other risk-taking behaviors are concentrated among teens and young adults.
The Drug Free America coalition is sponsored by the propaganda arm of the federal govt. aka the "Drug Czar's office" whose task and whose budget is allocated to lying to the American public about marijuana as the greatest part of its reason for existence. The bureaucracy has been audited for its value in the past - and those tasked with this job found the Drug Free America commercials, etc. resulted in increased acceptance of marijuana - and a lot of ironic wearing of tee-shirts given away by the same.
Here's some info on the conference -
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/04/media_blackout_no_help_to_oreg.html
The Drug War. In actual combat, when generals see that something is not working - they don't continue to do the same thing. Sometimes they sue for peace because the inhabitants of a place get so sick of war they don't want either side to keep fighting. If you've spent trillions of dollars on an ideology (that drug abuse can be abolished), yet the rate of abuse remains static over decades, while spending just keeps on going - and going, primarily, to military contractors - you have to wonder if the war on drugs is a racket of its own.
It's certainly good news for military contractors who will need to build aircraft to, say, poison the groundwater upstream among poor Mexican populations - but we have suburban white kids to save, so spare no expense.
Propaganda: Marijuana leads to heroin use
This is the sort of reporting we've seen so often in mainstream media. Thankfully, we now have the internet to dispute this propaganda, rather than let it fester for decades to be regurgitated whenever the prohibitionists need to feed the public misinformation.
The article linked and quoted below claims that legalization is leading Mexican marijuana growers to switch to heroin because the price has dropped drastically when domestic marijuana in the U.S. is legal to grow. Of course drug cartels will look for new avenues of revenue when a product is no longer illegal (in some states, in some ways.)
This is what happened with the mob in the U.S. after alcohol prohibition was lifted - the mafia invested in heroin as an alternate stream of revenue before prohibition ended, in fact.
What is fueling the rise of heroin use, however, is the war on drugs - which has focused on prescription opiates extensively, thus making them (and they, not marijuana, share the features of heroin) difficult to obtain. Therefore, those who are addicted to prescription opiates are turning to heroin.
In fact, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence already knows this is the reality - not the politics of marijuana.
http://www.ncadd.org/index.php/in-the-news/377-prescription-drug-abuse-fueling-rise-in-heroin-addiction
The increase in prescription drug abuse is fueling a rise in heroin addiction, NBC News reports. A growing number of young people who start abusing expensive prescription drugs are switching to heroin, which is cheaper and easier to buy.
Prescription pain pills cost $20 to $60, while heroin costs $3 to $10 a bag. Many young people who use heroin start off snorting the drug, and within weeks, most start shooting up, according to the news report.
“Kids in the city know not to touch it, but the message never got out to the suburbs,” said Chicago Police Capt. John Roberts, whose son died of a heroin overdose. He founded the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization to help other families deal with teen heroin use.
In 2009, the most recent year for which national data is available, 510 young adults, ages 15 to 24, died of a heroin overdose, up from 198 in 1999. Almost 90 percent of teens who are addicted to heroin are white.
Prescription pain pills cost $20 to $60, while heroin costs $3 to $10 a bag. Many young people who use heroin start off snorting the drug, and within weeks, most start shooting up, according to the news report.
“Kids in the city know not to touch it, but the message never got out to the suburbs,” said Chicago Police Capt. John Roberts, whose son died of a heroin overdose. He founded the Heroin Epidemic Relief Organization to help other families deal with teen heroin use.
In 2009, the most recent year for which national data is available, 510 young adults, ages 15 to 24, died of a heroin overdose, up from 198 in 1999. Almost 90 percent of teens who are addicted to heroin are white.
That sentence lets you know the drug warriors are serious about the issue (cough.) Or maybe that comment was intended to scare suburban soccer moms cause their kid may be the next to use - cause, otherwise, who cares if something happens outside of suburbia, amiright? (sarcasm, if that's necessary.)
Maybe all that propaganda that equated marijuana with actual, harmful addictive drugs that those white kids heard in their DARE sessions made them too gullible - too willing to believe authority figures - and then they found out those figures lied about marijuana - so maybe they're lying about other things? And those are the people currently taking on marijuana - heaven help us all when those with good intentions have bad ideology.
Or maybe a reality is that addiction rates have stayed fairly static in the U.S. for decades (under 2% of the population), but the drug of choice changes, depending on which drug source the drug warriors targeted. It's like squeezing a water balloon - the shape changes but the volume doesn't.
Or maybe the economic crisis from economic policies has created a depressing job market for younger people and that makes stronger drugs more attractive in a "what have I got to lose" sort of way. But that statement does not hold true because the majority of addicts hold jobs and are not on public assistance - but there is a diff. in rates based upon age - just as other risk-taking behaviors are concentrated among teens and young adults.
http://www.oregonlive.com/politics/index.ssf/2014/04/marijuana_news_legalized_pot_i.html
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports on the disconnect between Democratic governors and voters when it comes to cannabis policy. Governors like California's Jerry Brown are finding themselves at odds with the public, which increasingly supports legalization.
Even with Democrats and younger voters leading the wave of the pro-legalization shift, these governors are standing back, supporting much more limited medical-marijuana proposals or invoking the kind of law-and-order and public-health arguments more commonly heard from Republicans. While 17 more states — most of them leaning Democratic — have seen bills introduced this year to follow Colorado and Washington in approving recreational marijuana, no sitting governor or member of the Senate has offered a full-out endorsement of legalization. Only Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat in Vermont, which is struggling with a heroin problem, said he was open to the idea.
And finally, The Oregonian editorial board over the weekend weighed in on an upcoming marijuana conference that's closed to the public and the press.
It's a perfect opportunity for Oregonians to learn from those who fear marijuana's legalization the most. And that's why it is flummoxing that the media is barred from the $250-a-ticket event and the nonpaying public unwelcome. Calls by The Oregonian's editorial board to the Mount Hood Coalition and Drug Free America went unreturned.
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney reports on the disconnect between Democratic governors and voters when it comes to cannabis policy. Governors like California's Jerry Brown are finding themselves at odds with the public, which increasingly supports legalization.
Even with Democrats and younger voters leading the wave of the pro-legalization shift, these governors are standing back, supporting much more limited medical-marijuana proposals or invoking the kind of law-and-order and public-health arguments more commonly heard from Republicans. While 17 more states — most of them leaning Democratic — have seen bills introduced this year to follow Colorado and Washington in approving recreational marijuana, no sitting governor or member of the Senate has offered a full-out endorsement of legalization. Only Gov. Peter Shumlin, a Democrat in Vermont, which is struggling with a heroin problem, said he was open to the idea.
And finally, The Oregonian editorial board over the weekend weighed in on an upcoming marijuana conference that's closed to the public and the press.
It's a perfect opportunity for Oregonians to learn from those who fear marijuana's legalization the most. And that's why it is flummoxing that the media is barred from the $250-a-ticket event and the nonpaying public unwelcome. Calls by The Oregonian's editorial board to the Mount Hood Coalition and Drug Free America went unreturned.
The Drug Free America coalition is sponsored by the propaganda arm of the federal govt. aka the "Drug Czar's office" whose task and whose budget is allocated to lying to the American public about marijuana as the greatest part of its reason for existence. The bureaucracy has been audited for its value in the past - and those tasked with this job found the Drug Free America commercials, etc. resulted in increased acceptance of marijuana - and a lot of ironic wearing of tee-shirts given away by the same.
Here's some info on the conference -
http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/04/media_blackout_no_help_to_oreg.html
Oregon State Police Superintendent Richard Evans Jr. caught a whiff of the public's shut-out only after being informed that two of his officers were scheduled to speak at the conference while on the taxpayer's dime. He correctly withdrew the appearances of the officers, whose subject was the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program and the impact of marijuana on property
The stakes are high. That's especially so if you hear from those who argue pot paves the way to cultural and educational ruin. More public education would help. And the conference subjects are enticing: Peter Hitchins, who writes for Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper, will excoriate public officials for failing to correlate marijuana use and mental illness. Mitch Morrissey, the district attorney of Denver, Colo., will align 12 Denver homicides that, his youtube.com video contends, would not have occurred were it not for marijuana. Mary Segawa of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, whose background is in drug prevention, will speak about the impact of legalization in Washington. And Calvina Fay, executive director of Save our Society from Drugs and the person sometimes demonized on the Internet as the queen of reefer madness, will present her findings on pot's escalating potency and the latest thinking from "scientific scholars dedicated to advancing research of drug use and drug abuse," the conference brochure states.
But Evans had it right: If Oregonians were to have sent two of its Oregon State Police experts to explain the impacts of marijuana, as it has done in previous years, they should be able to get something in return. Preaching to the well-heeled choir doesn't count. What's needed now, before the next ballot initiative goes to voters and Oregonians make a fateful choice, is information.
Stringing up the barbed wire to keep the media at bay won't help. Press releases surely to emerge from the conference will be crafted to ensure everyone is on-message – in precisely the same ways those who advocate marijuana's legalization follow a script designed to debunk myths surrounding marijuana use. What citizens are left with are extremes, at worst hysterical and at best open to question. Smart decisions ahead won't be made from the extremes.
The stakes are high. That's especially so if you hear from those who argue pot paves the way to cultural and educational ruin. More public education would help. And the conference subjects are enticing: Peter Hitchins, who writes for Britain's The Mail on Sunday newspaper, will excoriate public officials for failing to correlate marijuana use and mental illness. Mitch Morrissey, the district attorney of Denver, Colo., will align 12 Denver homicides that, his youtube.com video contends, would not have occurred were it not for marijuana. Mary Segawa of the Washington State Liquor Control Board, whose background is in drug prevention, will speak about the impact of legalization in Washington. And Calvina Fay, executive director of Save our Society from Drugs and the person sometimes demonized on the Internet as the queen of reefer madness, will present her findings on pot's escalating potency and the latest thinking from "scientific scholars dedicated to advancing research of drug use and drug abuse," the conference brochure states.
But Evans had it right: If Oregonians were to have sent two of its Oregon State Police experts to explain the impacts of marijuana, as it has done in previous years, they should be able to get something in return. Preaching to the well-heeled choir doesn't count. What's needed now, before the next ballot initiative goes to voters and Oregonians make a fateful choice, is information.
Stringing up the barbed wire to keep the media at bay won't help. Press releases surely to emerge from the conference will be crafted to ensure everyone is on-message – in precisely the same ways those who advocate marijuana's legalization follow a script designed to debunk myths surrounding marijuana use. What citizens are left with are extremes, at worst hysterical and at best open to question. Smart decisions ahead won't be made from the extremes.
The Drug War. In actual combat, when generals see that something is not working - they don't continue to do the same thing. Sometimes they sue for peace because the inhabitants of a place get so sick of war they don't want either side to keep fighting. If you've spent trillions of dollars on an ideology (that drug abuse can be abolished), yet the rate of abuse remains static over decades, while spending just keeps on going - and going, primarily, to military contractors - you have to wonder if the war on drugs is a racket of its own.
It's certainly good news for military contractors who will need to build aircraft to, say, poison the groundwater upstream among poor Mexican populations - but we have suburban white kids to save, so spare no expense.
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