Dr. Kush: How medical marijuana is transforming the pot industry.

by David Samuels
The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/07/28/080728fa_fact_samuels?currentPage=all Read more!

Fox News Gets Reefer Madness Over So-Called Killer Marijuana

From LiberViewer:
In the tradition of the 1936 anti-drug film "Reefer Madness," the Fox News story I caught airing on July 13 contained misinformation, a lot of scare words, and no independent fact checking of the claims of government agents.

Read more!

Manna From Heaven-Addition

This is in address to an earlier post that was not commentable. While I personally support the use of psychedelics for spiritual experience up to a point, I do personally believe that the drugs do cause one to focus on a certain dimension of existence, and while you can experience God there, a full experience of God should happen in sobriety, in order to have no conflict with the sober state of mind, and to be complete enough for complete faith in God. While the Bible may not say anything directly against it, the Bhagavad Gita does, and, this book has been around much longer than the Bible: in fact, the Hindus claim it has been around longer than humans could have by Darwin's evolution model, since they believe humans did not evolve from the ocean, but that all creatures have simultaneously been in existence since the beginning. I find the Vedic scriptures to be much more fulfilling and accurate, based on a science and philosophy that is clearly logically argued. In the Bhagavad Gita Chapter 9 verse 18, it states:

"Those who study the Vedas and drink the soma juice, seeking the heavenly planets, worship me indirectly. Purified of sinful reactions, they take birth on the pious, heavenly planet of Indra, where they enjoy godly delights."


Verse 19:

"When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted, they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense enjoyment by adhering to the principles of the three Vedas achieve only repeated birth and death."

Verse 20:

"But those who always worship Me with exclusive devotion, meditating on My transcendental form - to them I carry what they lack, and I preserve what they have."


Soma, for those who don't know, is the most ancient of psychedelics, a mushroom used since the beginning of what we are aware of. Now, this does not contradict with achieving God from the Christian standpoint. If what you seek is heaven you shall get it, but it is temporary due to the impure method of achievement. The hindu's viewed the purpose of spiritual life at the end to be freedom from all attachment except that directly pertaining to Krishna, or God. This can only be done when one realizes God in every facet of their existence. You were not born, nor did you live your life, on psychedelics, therefore, your realization on them will not apply to all of your memory, leaving some subconscious doubt, whether or not you firmly know it applies to all these dimensions. Read more!

Afghanistan and the World's Opium Supply

Let Afghanistan Grow the World's Opium Supply
By Ethan A. Nadelmann, AlterNet. Posted August 31, 2007.

Given that farmers are going to produce opium -- somehow, somewhere -- so long as the global demand for heroin persists, maybe the world is better off, all things considered, with 90 percent of it coming from Afghanistan.

It's easy to think that eliminating opium production in Afghanistan -- which today accounts for 90 percent of global supply, up from 50 percent a decade ago -- would solve a lot of problems, from heroin abuse in Europe and Asia to the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan. I'm not so sure.

The current dilemma for the U.S., NATO and the Karzai government is clear. The best way to reduce opium production in Afghanistan is with an aggressive campaign of aerial fumigation -- but that would cause massive economic dislocation and even starvation in a country where the opium trade accounts for roughly one-third of GDP. The second best, now under way, is manual eradication, but the result this past year was a net increase in opium production nationwide. Either way, these options play very much into the hands of the Taliban, who gain politically wherever farmers fear or witness the destruction of their livelihoods.

But imagine if the entire crop could be eliminated by a natural disaster such as a drought or blight. The United States, NATO and the Karzai government would be blameless -- although no doubt many Afghans would blame the CIA -- a reasonable suspicion given support in some U.S. circles for researching and employing biological warfare in the form of mycoherbicides. The Taliban would suffer doubly, losing both revenue and political advantage. And the United States and NATO could follow up emergency assistance with investment in alternative agriculture and economic development without having to compete with black market opium. Outside Afghanistan, heroin would become scarcer and more expensive; fewer people would start to use; and more addicts would seek treatment. Seems like an ideal scenario, right?

Think again. Within Afghanistan, the principal beneficiaries would be the warlords and other black market entrepreneurs whose stockpiles of opium would shoot up in value. Millions of Afghan peasants would flock to cities ill prepared for them, with all sorts of attendant social problems. And many would eagerly return to their farms next year to start growing opium again, utilizing guerrilla farming methods to escape intensified eradication efforts. But now they'd be competing with poor farmers elsewhere in the world -- in Central Asia, Latin America or even Africa -- attracted by the temporarily high return on opium. This is, after all, a global commodities market like any other.

And outside Afghanistan? Higher heroin prices typically translate into higher rates of crime by addicts working to support their habits. They also invite more cost-effective but dangerous means of consumption, such as switching from smoking to injecting heroin, which translates into higher rates of HIV. And many drug users will simply switch to pharmaceutical opioids or stimulants like cocaine and methamphetamine. All things considered, wiping out opium in Afghanistan would yield far fewer benefits than is commonly assumed.

So what's the solution?

Some have revived an idea first proposed during the 1970s when southeast Asia supplied most of the world's heroin: Just buy up all the opium in Afghanistan -- which would cost a lot less than is now being spent trying to eradicate it. That might provide a one-year jolt, but over time it would simply become a price support system, inviting farmers inside Afghanistan to save a portion for the black market and others outside Afghanistan to start growing opium. Then there's the Senlis Council's "Poppy for Medicine" proposal, which would license Afghan villages to grow opium and convert it into morphine tablets for domestic and international markets. It's been widely criticized as unworkable -- but the same can be said of current policies.

Or, given that farmers are going to produce opium -- somehow, somewhere -- so long as the global demand for heroin persists, maybe the world is better off, all things considered, with 90 percent of it coming from Afghanistan. Think of international drug control as a global vice control challenge, and the opium growing regions of the country as the equivalent of a "red light" zone. The United States, NATO and the Karzai government could then focus on "regulating" the illicit market and manipulating the participants with the objective of advancing broader political and economic objectives. They might even find ways to tax the illicit trade.

This is one of those proposals that sounds unworkable -- until it's compared with all the others. It surely wouldn't be the first time U.S. or other government officials have gotten their hands dirty dealing with criminal entrepreneurs to advance broader political objectives. And if this particular heresy becomes the new gospel, it opens up all sorts of possibilities for pursuing a new policy in Afghanistan that reconciles the interests of the United States, NATO, the Karzai government and millions of Afghan citizens.

I first heard the story on NPR. There will always be a black market for drugs, especially in places where a full 90% of the supply comes from. Rock and a hard place. Druglords and opium farmers need to eat too, you know. Read more!