Source: Al Jazeera
5 June 2011
By Paul Rosenberg*
Failed policies in the war against drugs have historical roots in the foreign policy objectives of powerful nations.
MANY AGREE, NONE ACT: TO EASE UNTOLD MISERY, LEGALISE DRUGS
Source: The Guardian
1 June 2011
By Peter Wilby
The War on Drugs Is Lost, As a Global Commission Is Set to Admit.
But No One in Power Has the Courage for a Switch to Regulation
A WAR WE SHOULD FIGHT NO LONGER
Source: The Independent (UK)
30 May 2011
Mary Ann Sieghart
Obama and Cameron Are Wrong. the Momentum Is Building for a More Rational Way of Dealing With This Problem
As The DEA Raids Dispensaries, It Hands Out Cannabis Growing Licenses To Big Pharma
As the federal government pressures the National Cancer Institute to change their too-approving language about cannabis on their website; as the DEA executes raids in state after state with legal medical marijuana; as federal prosecutors attempt to intimidate officials in Rhode Island, Maine, Arizona, Colorado, and Washington – the DEA admits that 55 pharmaceutical companies now hold licenses in the United States to grow cannabis.
That’s right, what many of you do in the privacy of your own home for your own personal use is a crime – but if you’re a pharmaceutical company (and make sure you give plenty of money to political campaigns) you can get a license from the Drug Enforcement Administration to grow cannabis for medical purposes – purposes the same DEA says cannabis doesn’t have.
The blatant and unmitigated hypocrisy of the federal government on this issue is now on full display. If a sick person goes to a dispensary to get marijuana, they are wrong. But if they get a worthless pill like Marinol – with almost all of the chemicals in cannabis with medical properties taken out – from a pharmaceutical company, they are right.
In other words, the DEA conducts raids on collectives and dispensaries to eliminate competition for their “Big Pharma” buddies who give tons of money to politicians who in turn give tons of money to the DEA in their budgets. A tried-and-true Mafia tactic – only it’s coming from our government.
So while advocates would like to see cannabis rescheduled, the DEA makes that decision, and there is no way they are going to bite the hand that feeds them. They will have to be forced by the courts – after all, with the politicians cashing those “Big Pharma” checks, the courts are our only hope of a cannabis rescheduling.
Joe Klare, 420times
LEADING WORLD POLITICIANS URGE PARADIGME SHIFT IN DRUG POLICY
Source: The Observer
29 May 2011
By Jamie Doward
Kofi Annan, George Shultz and Richard Branson among those urging public health approach
MARIJUANA COULD SLOW HIV PROGRESSION
Source: Aidsmeds.com
May 27, 2011
To test whether chronic marijuana use could negatively affect HIV disease progression, Lynn LaMotte, PhD, and her colleagues from Louisiana State University in New Orleans turned to a monkey model of HIV. They studied how quickly SIV—the monkey version of HIV—progressed in a type of monkey known as rhesus macaques when they were given daily doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana.
THERE IS NO HIDING WITH LSD
Source: The Guardian
22 March 2011
By Sue Blackmore
Beyond the flowers that turn into cats, an acid trip forces users to face whatever comes up, and self-knowledge often follows