County Counsel Jeanine Nadel has declined to write the necessary ballot title and summary for the measure, asserting that the proposal would be unconstitutional.

"If I were to do the ballot title and summary, I feel it would be misleading the voters," Nadel said. "I feel it's best to take this action now rather than later," Nadel said.A judge this week granted the county a temporary reprieve from writing a title and summary for the proposed initiative pending the outcome of a July 25 hearing on the issues of the case.

The delay could keep the proposed initiative off the November ballot no matter how the judge rules, said Katrina Bartolomie, Mendocino County assistant registrar of voters.

If a judge were to rule in favor of initiative proponents at the hearing, they would have just two weeks to collect 3,083 signatures from registered voters and get those signatures verified by the elections office. The deadline is Aug. 8.

"I think they would have been extremely lucky to make the ballot even without the court delay," Bartolomie said.

Proponents of the proposed ballot measure blasted the legal challenge.

"I believe this is part of what is a well-funded federal war against medical marijuana in California using Mendocino County as a flashpoint," said J. David Nick, who represents the initiative's backers.

The proposal is a replica of Measure G, which voters repealed in June by approving Measure B.

Like Measure G, the new version demands that county supervisors use their budgetary authority to stop law enforcement officers from enforcing marijuana laws.

"The Board of Supervisors can't dictate what the sheriff and district attorney do," said Nadel, who was not the county counsel when Measure G was placed on the ballot.

She declined to discuss her predecessor's decision not to challenge Measure G.

The proposal also would direct authorities to ignore gardens in which 25 or fewer pot plants were being grown.

Because it does not specify that the pot be grown for medicinal use, the proposed measure also is in conflict with state laws, Nadel said.

Measure B requires the county to adhere to state guidelines -- six plants per person for medicinal purposes only.

The proposed measure's backers admit the Measure G clone has problems and that it may be unconstitutional. But they say people should still be allowed to vote on it.

Many voters may not have understood Measure B when they cast their ballots, said E.D. Lerman, a Mendocino attorney and proponent of the measure.

"I want to make sure voters of this county have the opportunity to decide whether they want Measure B to be the law," she said.

If the proposed initiative is banned from the ballot, its backers may simply rewrite it without language deemed unconstitutional and submit it for a later election, Lerman said.

If that happens, Measure B proponent Ross Liberty said he's prepared to renew his battle against what many believe was pot growing run amok.

Its passage by nearly 60 percent of the vote was fueled by a backlash against for-profit marijuana production in the county, which law enforcement say increased following Measure G's passage.

It's been blamed for a spike in violent crime, such as a string of pot-related home invasion robberies reported on the coast last week.

"It had the effect of lawlessness," Liberty said.

Note: Mendocino County counsel says it's unconstitutional; delay may keep it off ballot.

Source: Press Democrat, The (Santa Rosa, CA)

Website: http://www.pressdemo.com/

(Den astrologiske) Kräftan Hunter S Thompson skulle ha fyllt 70 år idag om han inte hade valt att ta livet av sig medelst ett skjutvapen den 20 februari 2005. Han hade alltid varit vapenfixerad, så på sätt och viss fanns det en viss logik i hans val av dödssätt.
Hunter var mest känd för skapandet av sen s k gonzojournalistiken samt som upphovsman till den välkända romanen Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, som även filmatiserats med Johnny Depp i en av huvudrollerna. Ett annat citat av Hunter S Thompson som ganska ofta anförs är:

I wouldn't recommend sex, drugs or insanity for everyone, but they've always worked for me.

-Hunter S. Thompson

Läs även andra bloggares åsikter om Hunter S Thompson, Rolling Stone Magazine, Drugs, Insanity, Sex, Marijuana, Astrologi, Kräftan, Cancer, Fear and loathing in Las Vegas, Gonzojournalistik, Vapen, Johnny Depp, Självmord, Jubiléer

Pssst... Hey blog reader... wanna get high?

I found a list of Natural Highs on a Q&A forum at student resource website for Columbia University students. This is way cool.

Although there are times I indulge in consuming alcholol, there are times when I'm offered a drink and decline because it would just kill my natural high.

This list is great for you if you have either chosen to stop using drugs or alcohol or is battling depression, heartache, or boredom. Or if you just want to feel good for no good reason!

If you want to check out the Columbia student website, you can click here.

Now, go & do your best to get really high today!

The Committee for Sensible Marijuana Policy began in the fall of 2007 petitioning the state Legislature to make the punishment for possession of marijuana a civil infraction.

Currently, a person caught with marijuana faces up to six months in jail and up to a $500 fine, regardless of his or her age.

If the initiative passes, offenders 18 or older possessing one ounce or less would forfeit the marijuana and face a civil penalty of $100.

For offenders 18 years and under, parents or legal guardians would be notified. Offenders would also have to complete a program developed by the Department of Youth Services including 10 hours of community service and at least four hours of group discussion about the use and abuse of marijuana. If an offender 18 years and under fails to complete these requirements within a year, the fine increases to $1,000, and the person could be subject to a delinquency hearing.

Whitney Taylor, campaign manager, started the initiative process because it seemed like a good time to move forward.

"In the past there have been 30 non-binding questions and they have passed by an average win of 65 percent," she said. "So when the public supports it and the Legislature doesn't, this is the time to move forward."

The committee needed 11,099 certified and validated signatures of registered voters in Massachusetts to have the question put on the ballot.

MassCann, the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, the Massachusetts chapter of NORML, the National Organization for Reform of Marijuana Laws, supports the initiative.

"MassCann has taken a vote and supports the initiative," said Bill Downing, president of the Massachusetts chapter. "Decriminalizing is a step toward rational means of regulation of adult use."

Area legislators have some concerns.

"I've had quite a bit of conversation with my colleagues, and I am concerned about marijuana being a gateway drug," said Rep. Pam Richardson, D-Framingham, who sits on the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee. "I'm not 100 percent convinced reducing the penalty for possession of marijuana is a good idea at this time, however, I am keeping my mind open."

"I haven't read the question thoroughly," Sen. Scott Brown, R-Wrentham, said. "Conceptually, I haven't supported it in the past, and definitely will not be supporting it in the future."

Though regulating adult use may be gaining traction in the minds of some, Ashland Police Chief Scott Rohmer thinks marijuana usage is intolerable.

"I would oppose (the initiative)," he said. "It's an illegal substance and that's how it should stay."

Rohmer went on to say that Ashland Police see how drugs affect people's lives and that when dealing with drugs, punishments should be harsh.

However, some residents had a different point of view.

"I think it's a good idea," said Sara Hougaboom of Natick. "Not to sound like a hippie, but it's an herbal thing...and alcohol is just as bad, if not worse."

"It's got pros and cons," said Jerry Gallant, of Framingham, of the decriminalization idea.

While he admitted the drug can have medicinal uses, Gallant believed there needed to be strict controls, like a doctor's prescription, on how the drug might be used.

"But if it helps people, fine," he said. "I don't see anything wrong with it."

"It shouldn't be a crime. It doesn't do anything, and it couldn't do any worse than alcohol," said Bernard Ellis, 82, of Ashland.

Anne DiVittorio of Milford said she was against it, citing the gateway drug argument.

"I see too many horror stories with it. For a lot of people, not everybody, it leads to (other problems)."

The 11 Massachusetts district attorneys oppose the initiative as well.

Middlesex District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement, "The issue of decriminalizing marijuana is a slippery slope and sends the wrong message to our children. Today, marijuana is more potent than ever, with nine times the level of (Tetrahydrocannabinol) than levels found in strains of the drug three decades ago.

Compounding this is the fact that users of marijuana are 10 times more likely to be injured, or injure others, in automobile crashes. With young people using and abusing alcohol and other legal drugs at troubling rates, to add another element to this already dangerous equation would be extremely detrimental, irresponsible, and hazardous to our community as a whole."

Others did not see the issue as so black and white.

"I'm so uncertain. I don't think it's necessarily a good thing to provide more ways for people to get in trouble, but I'm undecided," said Kathy Bogue, 46, of Framingham.

"I'm honestly neither for it nor against it," said Matt Donovan, 22, of Framingham.

Some organizations, such as Mothers Against Destructive Decisions, have not formed a formal opinion yet, but a spokesman for the Massachusetts chapter, David DeIuliis, said MADD acknowledges driving under the influence of drugs impairs a person's ability to drive, and that in some cases, drunken driving crashes also involve some level of drug impairment.

If the initiative passes in the November election, the new laws will be in effect on Dec. 4, 2008.

Staff reporter Peter Reuell and correspondent Ashley Studley contributed to this report.

Source: Milford Daily News, The (MA)

Website: http://www.milforddailynews.com

The search occurred Tuesday after a nearby police bicycle officer reported the smell of marijuana. Martin Martinez, who runs the Lifevine cooperative as well as Cascadia NORML, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said no one was arrested but officers seized about 12 ounces of marijuana in addition to the patient files and a computer.

There were no marijuana plants growing there, Martinez said. He is a longtime advocate of legalizing the medical use of marijuana, following a severe motorcycle crash that left him with nerve damage in 1986. Three other patients authorized to use pot under Washington's medical marijuana law were also present when officers arrived at the office, which does not dispense marijuana, he said.

Cascadia NORML has been issuing identity cards to medical marijuana patients, but before doing so, it requires the patients to provide their medical authorizations for verification. That's why the patient files were in the office, Martinez said. The cards are not issued pursuant to the state's medical marijuana law, but are designed to help identify the patient as legitimate if confronted by police.

Some of the nearly 600 patients are now dead, and some others are no longer actively using marijuana, he said.

The police "have a heck of a lot of patient records I don't think they should have," said Douglas Hiatt, a Seattle attorney who specializes in medical marijuana cases. "For one thing, those records are protected under federal privacy laws. If you're a medical marijuana patient, you don't want the police to know who you are or where you live, and this is why - because you don't get treated very well."

Hiatt and Martinez said that before the search they tried to convince the officers as well as a deputy King County prosecutor there were no violations of the medical marijuana law.

The police department did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment Wednesday.

Dan Donohoe, a spokesman for the King County prosecutor's Office, confirmed that officers consulted a deputy prosecutor before searching the office Tuesday, but he said police have not referred the case to his office.

Under Washington's medical marijuana law, doctors can authorize patients to have as much as a 60-day supply of marijuana to treat symptoms of AIDS, cancer and other debilitating or chronic conditions. The law doesn't define what a 60-day supply is, but the state Health Department proposed this month that it be defined as 24 ounces of usable pot, along with six mature plants and 18 immature plants. Marijuana remains illegal under federal law.

According to Hiatt, the seized documents included patient authorizations, full medical histories, and the names of doctors who authorized the marijuana use.

Alison Chinn Holcomb, who follows marijuana issues for the Washington state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, said there doesn't appear to be any evidence that the group was providing or growing marijuana, and no information that has been revealed thus far would seem to justify seizing the patient files.

"These are very sick people with very serious conditions, and we're sure none of them want the nature of those conditions made available to the public or to anyone who doesn't have a valid need for it," she said.

Source: Seattle Times (WA)

Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/

Seattle police seize marijuana patient files

Seattle police seized files on nearly 600 medical marijuana patients when officers searched the headquarters of a patient support group, activists said Wednesday.

By GENE JOHNSON

AP Legal Affairs Writer

The search occurred Tuesday after a nearby police bicycle officer reported the smell of marijuana. Martin Martinez, who runs the Lifevine cooperative as well as Cascadia NORML, the local chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, said no one was arrested but officers seized about 12 ounces of marijuana in addition to the patient files and a computer.

There were no marijuana plants growing there, Martinez said. He is a longtime advocate of legalizing the medical use of marijuana, following a severe motorcycle crash that left him with nerve damage in 1986. Three other patients authorized to use pot under Washington's medical marijuana law were also present when officers arrived at the office, which does not dispense marijuana, he said.

more:  http://urlet.com/dictates.jump

On drugs they say:

Among 16 to 24 year olds there was a decrease in the use of any illicit drug in the last year, from 24.1% to 21.3%.

This they say is the lowest level since the first BCS results in 1995. They also say that Class A drug use amongst that age group is at its lowest level since 1995.

However, while self-reported use is down the police have been busier than last year:

The number of cannabis possession offences rose by 21%, largely associated with the increased police use of powers to issue cannabis warnings, an example of changes in police activity affecting trends.

The parents' group Talking About Cannabis is setting up a telephone helpline for parents who are concerned about their children smoking cannabis.

The 24/7 telephone support line will be staffed by fully trained volunteers, all of whom are parents of children and teenagers who have smoked cannabis and been adversely affected.

The TAC press release gives further details and Debra Bell who founded Talking About Cannabis says:

We are delighted that the government has listened to voices like ours, and is going to reclassify cannabis, but now steps need to be taken to ensure that the message gets out to young people that using cannabis can cause severe mental illness, and ruins lives, which is where prevention education comes in. Our first priority, though, is to provide the support that is missing for parents who are faced with the daily misery of coping with a child or teen who is using drugs at school-age.

They say that they are applying for charitable status and are seeking funding from central government to undertake their activities.

"El cannabis es un factor importante en las terapias para el dolor", ha subrayado la Ministra de Sanidad del país, Andrea Kdolsky, que antes de trabajar para el gobierno austriaco ejercía como médico anestesista.

Tras conocer la decisión, el presidente de la Sociedad Austriaca del Estudio del Dolor (ÖSG en sus siglas en alemán), Michael Bach, ha recibido con alegría lo que considera una buena noticia. "Saludamos esta iniciativa que va a permitir desarrollar nuevos medicamentos para tratar el dolor. Las sustancias derivadas del cannabis son cada vez más utilizadas en el ámbito médico", ha comentado Bach.

Según la legislación austriaca actual, la posesión o venta de cannabis conlleva penas de seis meses de prisión.

En varios países como Canadá u Holanda y en algunos estados estadounidenses el cannabis ya se emplea como terapia para paliar el dolor.

Fuente: El Mundo

Según explica el profesor de Farmacología y vicedecano de la Facultad de Medicina y Odontología de la Universidad del País Vasco, Joseba Pineda, el ámbito sanitario "debe estar al margen de las consecuencias del debate sobre el uso recreativo del cannabis" ya que sus potencialidades terapéuticas son "enormes.

En este sentido, la valoración sobre el empleo para determinadas situaciones clínicas de derivados del cannabis, se debe realizar de forma individual ya que, en cada caso, es el médico quien debe "valorar y sopesar las potencialidades terapéuticas del fármaco con sus posibles efectos adversos y reacciones indeseadas".

Este grupo de expertos también aboga por reducir el umbral de riesgo en la prescripción de estas sustancias para lograr un mejor resultado en el paciente. "La investigación nos debe llevar a conseguir sustancias lo más puras posibles, sin mezclas, de modo que se constate claramente la acción de cada principio activo".

El estudio llevado a cabo ha conseguido demostrar, a su vez, los efectos que el cannabis tiene en el funcionamiento del 'locus coeruleus' del cerebro y sus posibles consecuencias sobre los déficits de alerta y de atención cuando se emplea el cannabis como una droga de abuso. El trabajo ha sido realizado en neuronas vivas de animales de laboratorio.

La investigación tuvo uno de sus orígenes en la común constatación de los efectos que tiene sobre la memoria el consumo de drogas derivadas del cannabis, aclara Pineda, por lo que el grupo se planteó como uno de sus objetivos el conocimiento de este proceso así como sus causas.

Así, durante la investigación se aplicaron fármacos cannabinoides a animales vivos y se constató que estos fármacos, tras entrar en contacto con el 'locus coeruleus', lo dejaban "activado" de forma permanente, alterando su estado natural no-activo en las situaciones en las que se da una ausencia de estímulos externos.

Fuente: Europa Press

So I go to the South San Francisco station and park the car so I can take the train into the city, who wants to pay for the gas right?!?!? Exit train at the 16th and Mission station for a quick walk to....

1: Delerium: Well the open mike nights have apparently been canceled.  Got there, talked to the bartender about signing up and was told, and I quote: "Yeah, the guys who used to do that have kind of flaked out.  They didn't show up 2 weeks ago and we got no word from them tonight either so....  But I heard they may be doing a CLOSED mike night in a couple weeks."  Ok, GREAT, now all I have to do is get some experience in 1 week and still be able to get 'in' with whomever the FLAKES are and I'm GOLDEN!!! 2 Corona's $7.00 plus $2.00 for tips.

2: Our Little Theater: Well I wasn't really sure if I'd be able to get in on this one but I wanted to at least go by and TRY since I got shut down hard at Delerium.....  Hopped on the BART at Mission and 16th, hopped off at the Powell St. Station....  I pop up out of the station an promptly walk PAST the street I need to turn east on, BUT I DO IT WITH VIGOR!!!!....  Two blocks later I realize my error, cut one block east and 2 blocks back to the south to the Our Little Theater!!!!.....  Which is FUCKING CLOSED and DARK.....   AHHHHH, who said comedians never suffer for their ART????  There is also NO GOOD PLACE to take a quick puff so I'm stuck with a sore back for the rest of the trip.  I'm just not used to being able to smoke openly on the street like I see so many people do here.... too many years of being 'oppressed by the man' back East, I need to get my West Coast head on!!!  So it's BACK to the Powell St. BART station and hopping on to head south to the 24th and Mission station.

3: Make Out Room: Now in all fairness I KNEW this place was not putting on an Open Mike night tonight.  They do one on the last Wednesday of each month.  I just wanted to check out the space....  Talked to the bartender, she was a lovely woman and really polite and cool!!!  The space is really nice, it's lit pretty nicely and I liked the stage and the back area where the audience can gather in front of the stage....  I'll definitely be looking to get in touch with the organizer of this one for the possibility of being able to work on my stuff there on the 30th of July....  1 Dark Lager $3.00 plus $1.00 tip for that nice bartender!!!

OK, so there is no one who can say I have not TRIED at this point....  There is another place that I spoke to about Open Mike's here in town on Tuesdays called Annie's Social Club, I was unable to go yesterday due to my spouse's work schedule, but the next Tuesday she's off for the evening I'm there to sign up for a performance time at 5:30pm, the show runs from 6pm to 9pm.

So that's the fun I had for the evening,.....  And not even one funny damned thing happened to me, or within my sight, that I can write about either....  Oh well at least the beers were cheap for a change and I got out with only spending a little MORE on booze than I did on BART.

Well at least I can thank the geographical elevations of this lovely city in which I live for helping me to work off those 3 beers!  I'll keep you all appraised of my luck in the future!

HUF has come out with their “Plantlife” duffel bag, which is sure to catch some glares from airport security this summer. The bag is covered with a weed leaf pattern, and has black strappings and zippers. The Plantlife duffel is available now at HUF and comes in black, blue, or green.

http://store.hufsf.com/

And I swear
That I dont have a gun
No I dont have a gun
No I dont have a gun

Ronnie was the host last night, taking over Lady Mariposa's spot, who took over another girl's spot. Hmm, I wonder if we're rotating. Doesn't matter, it doesn't bother me if I will one day be asked to host a night. I have an idea for a poetry reading already, a sort of "Other People's Poems" night where three or four people will read "Howl" with different interpretations (split up, not a repeated reading). El Senor vanished, sticking with Ol' Biker instead. Because there was only three poets and one guest reader, meant that we were going to have a small cycle. Instead of a night poetry, we read a few pieces and talked the rest of the night about writing, politics, movies, actors, sex...sex.

Jyg and Bel attended the reading with me. In fact, they were the only two who weren't writers or hosts of the place. Lady Mariposa's quite the interesting person, of course I don't believe it is necessary that everyone take a feminist class, but that's just my opinion. Not that I'm anti-woman, but the term feminist has been bastardized by a group of women who don't want equality, but to be the new man, per se.

I read my piece "Overheard Conversation at a Bar" and another poem that dealt with border wall situation.

I wanted to stay all night, alas that is not the case. We were hungry and we needed food in our bellies. We were invited by one of Jyg's new friends to go to another place, but I didn't want to go. Not that I hate the guy and how they met, but I just don't like him. He's a numbers guy. First day I met him, he just said his IQ number as if it meant anything to me. Not to mention the compliment/insult of saying that I didn't read my own material. Let's face it, when someone insists that I'm reading someone else's shit, I take it to heart, unless, of course, I am reading someone else's piece, which I normally introduce it at the beginning.

And on the subject of Jyg, another of her friends has fallen into the world of drugs. Shitty drugs and by the way Jyg described it, they don't know what they're doing taking these drugs. Ghetto drugs always make me laugh. There's better, but more costly, drugs out there. And I'm not categorizing Cannabis as a ghetto drug because of stereotype, but this drug they're doing, well there's no coming back from it. I don't care for the guy. He's the bane of my existence. Even though things have changed, a part of me is still vengeful towards those who have tainted her. In away, the fact that he's fucking up his life pleases me. I know, it's bad to find joy in another's misfortune and that it makes me just as bad as him, but fuck it. I never said I was a good person.

I have my own philosophy about drugs. Just as I have my own philosphy about sex, border patrol, and whatever. It may not be accepting, but it's me.

Take your time
Hurry up
The choice is yours
Don't be late
Take a rest
As a friend

The context of the study cited that "Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug in the developed world... there is a paucity of research examining its long-term effect on the human brain." With this in mind, researchers set out to discover if there was any effect on the two most "cannabinoid receptor-rich regions of the brain", namely the hippocampus (the part of the brain asociated with emotion and memory) and the amygdala (the section which plays a role in regulating fear and aggression.)

The study was carried out on a small section of the general community, including fifteen males who smoked 'large quantities' of the substance and sixteen males who had not touched the drug. 'Large quantities' was defined by researchers as having smoked everyday for more than ten years and having smoked more than five 'joints' a day in this period. The researchers used magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of all subjects and made comparisons between the two subjects.

The results showed that all of the smoking participants in the study had a significantly smaller brain in these sections. The hippocampus was on average 12% smaller than the non-smoking sample, whilst the amygdala showed a seven percent decrease in size overall.

Murat Yücel, the leading scientist in the study stated: "Although modest use may not lead to significant neurotoxic effects, these results suggest that heavy daily use might indeed be toxic to human brain tissue." The test now needs to be carried out on larger numbers of people to find out if there is any credible link or if it was mere coincidence.

Similar studies were carried out in the U.S last month as a team at New York University scanned the brains of a group of 17 to 30 year olds who had smoked cannabis two or three times a week for a year or more. In that study, however, no significant changes in brain size were recorded.

The studies open fresh debates on the long term effects of the plant. In 2004, Cyril D'Souza, professor of psychiatry at the Yale University claimed that THC (the active ingredient in cannabis) causes a whole range of side effects including mild schizophrenia, increased anxiety, delusional behaviour and poor memory and attention spans.

This news came shortly after the UK downgraded the drug from a class B to a class C, also in 2004. The aim of the reclassification was to free up Police and give them more time to chase 'real criminals' but the move caused much confusion amongst the British public as nobody knew where they stood regarding consumption and possession of the drug.

Recent studies suggest that the high amounts of THC in skunk (the stronger and more potent form of the plant) make the drug more dangerous and is more likely to cause the side effects that Cyril D'Souza outlined in his studies. Because of this, the government are planning on reclassifying the drug back to its original class B status. This will undoubtedly cause more confusion amongst the British public. If the proposals prove a success, the law will change in early 2009.

Cannabis is usually rolled up in a cigarette called a joint or a nail. It can also be brewed as a tea or mixed with food, or smoked through a water pipe called a bong.

Sixty percent of teenagers in drug treatment programs are there because of marijuana. According to a National Household Survey on Drug Abuse, kids who frequently use marijuana are almost four times more likely to act violently or damage property. They are five times more likely to steal than those who do not use the drug.

Marijuana is often more potent today than it used to be. Growing techniques and selective use of seeds have produced a more powerful drug. Correspondingly, there has been a sharp increase in the number of marijuana-related emergency room visits by young pot smokers.

Because a tolerance builds up, marijuana can lead users to consume stronger drugs to achieve the same “high.” When the effects start to wear off, the person may turn to more potent drugs to rid himself of the unwanted conditions that prompted him to take marijuana in the first place.

Marijuana itself does not lead the person to the other drugs: people take drugs to get rid of unwanted situations or feelings. The drug (marijuana) masks the problem for a time (while the user is “high.”). When the "high" fades, the problem, unwanted condition or situation returns more intensely than before. The user may then turn to stronger drugs since marijuana no longer “works.”

Short-term Effects:

Users suffer loss of coordination and distortions in their sense of time, vision and hearing. Other effects are sleepiness, reddening of the eyes, increased appetite and relaxed muscles. Heart rate can speed up. In fact, in the first hour of smoking marijuana, a user’s risk of a heart attack increases at least five-fold. School performance is reduced through impaired memory and lessened ability to solve problems.

Long-term Effects:

Long-term use can cause psychotic symptoms. It can also damage the lungs and the heart, worsen the symptoms of bronchitis and cause coughing and wheezing. It may reduce the body’s ability to fight lung infections and illness.

Download full version of "Joints"

Foundation for a drug free world

Ali G: What is the different types of hash out there? We all know that it's called the bionic, the bomb, the puff, the blow, the black, the herb, the sensie, the cronic, the sweet Mary Jane, the shit, Ganja, split, reefa, the bad, the buddha, the home grown, the ill, the maui-maui, the method, pot, lethal turbo, tie, shake, skunk, stress, whacky, weed, glaze, the boot, dimebag, Scooby Doo, bob, bogey, back yard boogie. But what is the other terms for it?

2. Blow ( 2001 )

George: Danbury wasn't a prison, it was a crime school. I went in with a Bachelor of marijuana, came out with a Doctorate of cocaine.

3. Half Baked ( 1998 )

Cocaine Addict: Marijuana is not a drug. I used to suck dick for coke. Now that's an addiction. You ever suck some dick for marijuana?

4. "Strangers with Candy" ( 1999 ) {The Trip Back (#1.10)}

Geoffrey Jellineck: If you're going to smoke Marijuana, be prepared to spend a lot of time laughing with your friends.... think about it.

5. Lords of Dogtown ( 2005 )

Sid: [smoking medicinal marijuana] I, uh, get it prescribed legally now. [hands him the joint] Heard you were sick, too.

6. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ( 1998 )

L. Ron Bumquist: A dope fiend refers to the reefer butt as a roach, because, it resembles a cockroach.

7. Tell Your Children ( 1936 )

Opening crawl: The motion picture you are about to witness may startle you. It would not have been possible, otherwise, to sufficently emphasize the frightful toll of the new drug menace which is destroying the youth of America in alarmingly increasing numbers. Marihuana [stet] is that drug - a violent narcotic - an unspeakable scourge - The Real Public Enemy Number One!

8. Desperate Hippies ( 2005 )

Mary Jane: I remembered reading on the internet that if I smoked 1,256 bong riffs, the amount of THC would be enough to kill me.

9. Wages of Sin, The ( 1938 )

Florence Jones: That was Marihuana you were smoking! It's worse than cocaine! See those two punks over there, Marge? They were high a minute ago. Now they're getting low. Soon they'll be mean, ready to commit murder. You Marihuana's called the murder weed. Don't you ever touch it again.

10. "Omnibus" ( 1967 ) {Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision}

Hunter S. Thompson: Right now I think its in my interest and ours perhaps and maybe in the interest of the greater good for me to smoke a joint and calm down.

Orsaken till det är att vi har för olika åsikter om hur man lever ett bra liv. För honom är ett bra liv ett liv med hasch. För mig är ett bra liv utan hasch. Helt utan. Och hans alltmer knarkiga livsföring, som att strunta i att gå till jobbet, främst umgås med andra som pundar, sitta inne hela helger och dra i sig en massa skit och bara gå utenför dörren för att inhandla käk. Ni vet, haschisar får sk. munchies, alltså toksug efter mat, gärna söt mat.

Munchies äcklar mig så mycket. Jag hatar att komma hem och se att en storm gått igenom kylskåpet. Inte för att man inte får ära hemma hos oss utanför att det skriker cannabismissbruk.

Plus who the hell else in this world likes to use LATIN?!?!?....  Except for Priests!!!.....  'Pro bono' they hardly EVER use that one....  The LAWYERS I mean NOT the Priests,... THEY seem to use that one quite a bit more than is APPROPRIATE apparently....  I'm just repeating what I read in the papers up here folks...

And EVERY lawyer I've ever know personally smokes dope....  Yet these are the same ilk,  that when they decide they've suckled off the teat of private industry long enough and want to belly up to the publicly funded trough, these same ASSHOLES vote for every drug law that rolls across their desk....  They get all self righteous on the rest of us while they pay for hookers out of their staffers checking accounts....  Where's the IRS when it comes to auditing little 'Billy Bob' from Senator Graham's office and why all of a sudden he's been spending $50,000 per month on internet porn and dating services?!?!?!....

No 22 year old kid can spend that much on hookers folks!!!....  It took Charlie Sheen years and years to work up to that level....  And now you think it's reasonable for some kid fresh from Dog Patch to be performing at this same standard?!?!?!   I THINK NOT!

I'm sorry I guess I just ask too many questions sometimes....  My head just works that way....  Maybe that's why I'm up here babbling this stuff in front of you and not a lawyer.

It was billed as a panel discussion on "the global shift in human consciousness." A half-dozen speakers had assembled inside the Heebie Jeebie Healers tent at Burning Man, the annual post-hippie celebration in Black Rock, Nev., where 50,000 stalwarts braved intense dust storms and flash floods last August.

Among the notables who spoke at the early evening forum was Dr. Alexander ("Sasha") Shulgin, the Bay Area–based psychochemical genius much beloved among the Burners, who synthesized Ecstasy and 200 other psychoactive drugs, and tested each one on himself during his unique, off-beat career.

Sitting on the panel next to Shulgin was an unlikely expositor. Dr. James S. Ketchum, a retired U.S. Army colonel, told the audience, "When Sasha was trying to open minds with chemicals to achieve greater awareness, I was busy trying to subdue people."

Ketchum was referring to his work at Edgewood Arsenal, headquarters of the U.S. Army Chemical Corps, in the 1960s, when America's national security strategists were high on the prospect of developing a nonlethal incapacitating agent, a so-called humane weapon, which could knock people out without necessarily killing anyone. Top military officers hyped the notion of "war without death," conjuring visions of aircraft swooping over enemy territory releasing clouds of "madness gas" that would disorient the bad guys and dissolve their will to resist, while U.S. soldiers moved in and took over.

Ketchum was into weapons of mass elation, not weapons of mass destruction. He oversaw a secret research program that tested an array of mind-bending drugs on American GIs, including an exceptionally potent form of synthetic marijuana. (Most of these drugs had no medical names, just numbers supplied by the Army.) "Paradoxical as it may seem," Ketchum asserted, "one can use chemical weapons to spare lives, rather than extinguish them."

Some of the Burners were perplexed. Was this guy cool or creepy?

Shulgin, a critic of chemical mind-meddling by the military, was wary when he first met Ketchum at a 1993 event honoring the 50th anniversary of the discovery of LSD. But Ketchum is not your typical military bulldozer type. An intelligent, gracious man with a disarming sense of humor, in his own way Ketchum has always been a free spirit. He and his wife, Judy, who currently reside in Santa Rosa, became close friends with Sasha and his formidable partner, Ann. They stayed in frequent contact and occasionally socialized together. When the Shulgins invited them to Burning Man, the Ketchums joined the caravan of RVs driving to the desert.

"I'm kind of a Sasha worshipper," Ketchum, who reads neuropharmacology textbooks during his leisure hours, confessed. Tall and lanky, the colonel, now 76, is one of the few people who can actually understand what Shulgin, six years his senior, is talking about when he lectures on the molecular subtleties of psychedelic drugs, waving his arms furiously like a mad scientist. Sasha took Ketchum under his wing and welcomed him into the fold.

Shulgin wrote the foreword to Ketchum's self-published memoir, Chemical Warfare: Secrets Almost Forgotten (www.forgottensecrets.net), which lifts the veil on the Army's little-known drug experiments and illuminates a hidden chapter of marijuana history. A graduate of Cornell Medical College, Ketchum describes how he was assigned as a staff psychiatrist to Edgewood Arsenal, located 25 miles northeast of Baltimore, in 1961.

"There was no doubt in my mind that working in this strange atmosphere was just the sort of thing that would satisfy my appetite for novelty," Ketchum wrote. Soon he became chief of clinical research at the Army's hub for chemical warfare studies. Although the Geneva Convention had banned the use of chemical weapons, Washington never agreed to this provision, and the U.S. government poured money into the search for a nonlethal incapacitant.

Red Oil

The U.S. Army Chemical Corp's marijuana research began several years before Ketchum joined the team at Edgewood. In 1952, the Shell Development Corporation was contracted by the Army to examine "synthetic cannabis derivatives" for their incapacitating properties. Additional studies into possible military uses of marijuana began two years later at the University of Michigan medical school, where a group of scientists led by Dr. Edward F. Domino, professor of pharmacology, tested a drug called "EA 1476" —otherwise known as "Red Oil"—on dogs and monkeys at the behest of the U.S. Army. Made through a process of chemical extraction and distillation, Red Oil (akin to hash oil) packed a mightier punch than the natural plant.

Army scientists found that this concentrated cannabis derivative produced effects unlike anything they had previously seen. "The dog gets a peculiar reaction. He crawls under the table, stays away from the dark, leaps out at imaginary objects and, as far as one can interpret, may be having hallucinations," one report stated. "It would appear even to the untrained observer that this dog is not normal. He suddenly jumps out, even without any stimulus, and barks, and then crawls back under the table."

With a larger dose of Red Oil, the reaction was even more pronounced. "These animals lie on their side; you could step on their feet without any response; it is an amazing effect and a reversible phenomenon. It has greatly increased our interest in this compound from the standpoint of future chemical possibilities."

In the late 1950s, the Army started testing Red Oil on U.S. soldiers at Edgewood. Some GIs smirked for hours while they were under the influence of EA 1476. When asked to perform routine numbers and spatial reasoning tests, the stoned volunteers couldn't stop laughing.

But Red Oil was not an ideal chemical-warfare candidate. For starters, it was a "crude" preparation that contained many components of cannabis besides psychoactive THC. Army scientists surmised that pure THC would weigh much less than Red Oil and would therefore be better suited as a chemical weapon. They were intrigued by the possibility of amplifying the active ingredient of marijuana, tweaking the mother molecule, as it were, to enhance its psychogenic effects. So the Chemical Corps set its sights on developing a synthetic variant of THC that could clobber people without killing them.

Enter Harry Pars, a scientist working with Arthur D. Little Inc., based in Cambridge, Mass., one of several pharmaceutical companies that conducted chemical-warfare research for the Army. (Two Army contracts for marijuana-related research were awarded to this firm, covering a 10-year period beginning in 1963.) A frequent visitor to Edgewood, Pars synthesized a new cannabinoid compound, dubbed "EA 2233," which was significantly stronger than Red Oil.

At the outset of this project, Pars had sought the advice of Dr. Alexander Shulgin, then a brilliant young chemist employed by Dow Chemical. Shulgin was a veritable fount of information regarding how to reshape psychoactive molecules to create novel mind-altering drugs. Eager to share his arcane expertise, Shulgin gave Pars the idea to tinker with nitrogen analogs of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Pars never told Sasha that he was an Army contract employee. A declassified version of Pars' research was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society (August 1966), in which he thanked Shulgin for "drawing our attention to the synthesis of these nitrogen analogs."

The U.S. Army Chemical Corps began clinical testing of EA 2233 on GI volunteers in 1961, the year Ketchum arrived at Edgewood Arsenal. When ingested at dosage levels ranging from 10 to 60 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, EA 2233 lasted up to 30 hours, far longer than the typical marijuana buzz.

'I Just Feel Like Laughing'

In an interview videotaped seven hours after he had been given EA 2233, one soldier described feeling numb in his arms and unable to raise them, precluding any possibility that he could defend himself if attacked. "Everything seems comical," he told his interlocutor.

Q: How are you?

A: Pretty good, I guess. . . .

Q: You've got a big grin on your face.

A: Yeah. I don't know what I'm grinning about either.

Q: Do things seem funny or is that just something you can't help?

A: I don't—I don't know. I just—I just feel like laughing. . . .

Q: Does the time seem to pass slower or faster or any different than usual?

A: No different than usual. Just—just that I mostly lose track of it. I don't know if it's early or late.

Q: Do you find yourself doing any daydreaming?

A: Yeah. I'm daydreaming all kinds of things. . . .

Q: Suppose you have to get up and go to work now. How would you do?

A: I don't think I'd even care.

Q: Well, suppose the place were on fire?

A: It would seem funny.

Q: It would seem funny? Do you think you'd have the sense to get up and run out or do you think you'd just enjoy it?

A: I don't know. Fire doesn't seem to present any danger to me right now. . . . Everything just seems funny in the Army. Seems like everything somebody says, it sounds a little bit funny. . . .

Q: Is it like when you're in a good mood and you can laugh at anything?

A: Right. . . . It's like being out with a bunch of people and everybody's laughing. They're just—

Q: Having a ball?

A: Yeah. And everything just seems funny.

Q: Would you do this again? Take this test again?

A: Yeah. Yeah. It wouldn't bother me at all.

EA 2233 was actually a mixture of eight stereoisomers of THC. (An isomer is a rearrangement of atoms within a given molecule; a stereoisomer entails different spatial configurations of these atoms.) Eventually, Edgewood scientists would separate the eight stereoisomers and investigate the relative potency of each of them individually in an effort to separate the wheat from the psychoactive chaff and reduce the amount of material needed to get the desired effect for chemical warfare.

Only two of the stereoisomers proved to be of interest (the others didn't have much of a knockdown effect). When administered intravenously, low doses of these two synthetic cousins of tetrahydrocannabinol triggered a dramatic drop in blood pressure to the point where test subjects could barely move. Standing up without assistance was impossible. This was construed by cautious Army doctors as a warning sign—a sudden plunge in blood pressure could be dangerous—and human experiments with single THC stereoisomers were suspended.

Looking back on these studies, Ketchum wonders whether his colleagues made the right decision. "This hypotensive [blood-pressure-reducing] property, in an otherwise nonlethal compound, might be an ideal way to produce a temporary inability to fight, or do much else, without toxicological danger to life," Ketchum says now. Given the high safety margin of THC—no one has ever died from an overdose—and the likelihood that the stereoisomers would display a similar safety profile, Ketchum believes the Army may have spurned a couple of worthy prospects that were capable of filling the knock-'em-out-but-don't-kill-'em niche in America's chemical-warfare arsenal.

As for the two exemplary stereoisomers weaned from EA 2233, Ketchum speculates, "They probably would have been safe in terms of life-sparing activity. . . . But a person who received them would have to lie down. If he tried to stand up and get his weapon, he would feel faint and lightheaded and he'd keel over. Essentially he would be immobilized for any military purpose until the effects wore off."

The colonel's assessment: "A safe drug that knocks people down—what more could you ask for?"

Volunteers for America

With THC isomers on the back burner, the U.S. Army Chemical Corps focused on several other compounds—including LSD, PCP, methylphenidate (Ritalin) and a delirium-inducing ass-kicker known as "BZ" (a belladonna-like substance similar to atropine)—all of which were thought to have significant potential as nonlethal incapacitants.

By the time the clinical testing program had run its course, 6,700 volunteers experienced some bizarre states of consciousness at Edgewood. Under the influence of powerful mind-altering drugs, some soldiers rode imaginary horses, ate invisible chickens and took showers in full uniform while smoking phantom cigars. One garrulous GI complained that an order of toast smelled "like a French whore." Some of their antics were so over-the-top that Ketchum had to admonish the nurses and other medical personnel not to laugh at the volunteers, even though it was unlikely that the soldiers would remember such incidents once the drugs wore off.

Ketchum insists that the staff at Edgewood went to great lengths to ensure the safety of the volunteers. (There was one untoward incident involving a civilian volunteer who flipped out on PCP and required hospitalization, but this happened before Ketchum came on board.) During the 1960s, every soldier exposed to incapacitating agents was carefully screened and prepped beforehand, according to Ketchum, and well treated throughout the experiment. They stayed in special rooms with padded walls, while medical professionals monitored their situation 24/7. Antidotes were available if things got out of hand.

"The volunteers performed a patriotic service," Ketchum says. "None, to my knowledge, returned home with a significant injury or illness attributable to chemical exposure," though he admits that "a few former volunteers later claimed that the testing had caused them to suffer from some malady." Such claims, however, are difficult to assess given that so many intervening variables may have contributed to a particular problem.

A follow-up study conducted by the Army Inspector General's office and a review panel convened by the National Academy of Sciences found little evidence of serious harm resulting from the Edgewood experiments. But a 1975 Army IG report noted that improper inducements may have been used to recruit volunteers and getting their "informed consent" was somewhat dubious given that scientists had a limited understanding of the short- and long-term impact of some of the compounds tested on the soldiers.

Ketchum draws a sharp distinction between clinical research with human subjects under controlled conditions at Edgewood Arsenal and the CIA's reckless experiments on random, unwitting Americans who were given LSD surreptitiously by spooks and prostitutes. "Jim is very certain of his own integrity," says Ken Goffman (aka R.U. Sirius). "There is little doubt in his mind that he was doing the right thing. He felt he was working for a noble cause that would reduce civilian and military casualties." Former editor of the psychedelic tech magazine Mondo 2000, Goffman helped Ketchum edit and polish his book manuscript, which vigorously defends the Edgewood research program.

Strange bedfellows, the colonel and the counterculture scribe. Or so it would appear. But these days, Ketchum and Goffman see eye to eye on many issues. Both feel that the alleged dangers of marijuana and LSD have been way overblown. No doubt, LSD could wreak havoc on the toughest, best-trained troops, derailing their thought processes and disorganizing their behavior.

When used wisely, however, LSD can be uplifting. Ketchum notes that some soldiers had insightful and rewarding experiences on acid, lending credence to reports from civilian psychiatrists that LSD was a useful therapeutic tool. "I had an interest in psychedelic drugs long before my interest in chemical warfare," Ketchum says. "I was intrigued by the positive aspects of LSD, as well as the incapacitating aspects."

Mystery Stash

One morning, Ketchum arrived at his office in Edgewood and found "a large, black steel barrel, resembling an oil drum, parked in the corner of the room," he recounts in his book. Overcome by curiosity, he opened the barrel and examined its contents. There were a dozen tightly sealed glass canisters that looked like cookie jars; the labels on the canisters indicated that each contained about three pounds of "EA 1729," the Army's code number for LSD. By the end of the week, the 40 pounds of government acid—enough to intoxicate several hundred million people—vanished as mysteriously as it had appeared. Ketchum still doesn't know who put the LSD in his office or what became of it.

But this much is certain: some officers at Edgewood were dipping into the Army's stash for their own personal use. "They took LSD more often than was necessary to appreciate its clinical effects," Ketchum admits. "They must have liked it."

The colonel was personally a bit skittish about trying LSD. Eventually, he worked up the courage to experiment on himself. Under the watchful eye of a knowledgeable Edgewood physician, he swallowed a small dose and proceeded to take the same numerical aptitude tests that the regular volunteers were put through to measure their impairment. Constrained by the white-smock laboratory setting, his lone LSD experience was somewhat anticlimactic. "Colors were more vivid and music was more compelling," Ketchum recalls, "but there were no breakthroughs in consciousness, no Timothy Leary stuff."

Ketchum also sampled cannabis shortly after he began working for the Chemical Corps. His younger brother turned him on to marijuana, but the first time Ketchum smoked a joint nothing happened. "Later, I read about reverse tolerance. Some people don't get high on marijuana until they use it a few times," Ketchum explains.

It wasn't until he went on a paid, two-year leave of absence from Edgewood that he started smoking pot socially. Ketchum had convinced the Surgeon General of the Army that it would be in everyone's best interest if he studied neuroscience at Stanford University. How better to keep abreast of the latest advances in the field? In 1966, he joined a team of postdoctoral researchers mentored by Karl Pribram, a world-renowned expert on the brain and behavior.

Ketchum related well with his academic colleagues. "I got together with a few of my friends at Stanford and we had some cheap marijuana, which I smoked, and I got a real effect for the first time," he says. "I liked it. It was very sensuous. But I didn't use it very often. I didn't have any of my own."

Ketchum's West Coast hiatus coincided with the emergence of the hippie movement in San Francisco. "I was fascinated with this spectacular development," he gleams. "Luckily, I caught it at its peak."

Occasionally, Ketchum took his home movie camera to Haight-Ashbury, the epicenter of hippiedom, and filmed the procession of exotically dressed flower children strutting through the neighborhood high on marijuana and LSD. "I was always interested in drugs, primarily because I've always been interested in how the mind works," he says. "So when this wave of psychedelic users descended upon San Francisco, I thought maybe I'd learn more by going there."

Ketchum attended the legendary Be-In in Golden Gate Park in January 1967, sitting cross-legged on the lawn with 20,000 pot-smoking enthusiasts, soaking up the rays and listening to rock music, poetry and antiwar speeches. A few months later, the colonel began working as a volunteer doctor at the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic, where he treated troubled youth with substance-abuse problems.

Life After Edgewood

Ketchum returned to Edgewood in 1968, but the mood back at headquarters was not the same as before. Growing opposition to the Vietnam War and public disapproval of the use of napalm and toxic defoliants cast a lengthening shadow over classified research into chemical weapons. When journalists briefly got wind of the Army's ambitious psychochemical warfare program, they scoffed at the notion of making the enemy lay down their arms by turning them on.

The colonel saw the writing on the wall. Army brass consented when he asked to be transferred to another base in the early 1970s. By this time, the Chemical Corps had concluded that marijuana-related compounds would not be effective in a battlefield situation, but the testing of other incapacitating agents under field conditions would proceed. And drug companies continued to supply a steady stream of pharmaceutical samples for evaluation by the military.

In 1976, Ketchum retired from the Army and embarked upon a new career as a civilian psychiatrist in California. Commissioned by the California Department of Justice, he collaborated on a 1981 study comparing the effects of alcohol and smoked marijuana on driving performance. The results were somewhat surprising. "When combined with alcohol, cannabis produced little additional impairment," he concluded.

"While alcohol had an adverse impact on steering, THC affected a driver's ability to estimate time. But the combination of both drugs did not substantially increase the impairment produced by either one alone. . . . In fact, there was an antagonistic effect. Marijuana seemed to offset some of the problems caused by alcohol, and vice versa."

Ketchum feels that drug prohibition is bad public policy. "It's the refusal to look at the evidence that keeps pot illegal. They misrepresented marijuana as an evil weed. . . . I've always had a libertarian attitude toward drugs. I believe people should be able to do anything as long as it's not harmful to somebody else."

In the years ahead, Ketchum would reach out to medical marijuana trailblazers, prominent psychedelic advocates and drug-policy rebels working inside and outside the system to end prohibition. He joined the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and became a member of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS).

Founded by Rick Doblin, MAPS has spearheaded the revival of scientific investigations into the therapeutic potential of LSD, ecstasy, psilocybin and ibogaine, while also challenging bureaucratic roadblocks that prevent independent cannabis research in the United States. Col. Ketchum attended fundraising events and wrote letters to potential donors, praising the work of MAPS.

During the 1960s, Ketchum supervised thousands of drug experiments, yet he barely scratched the surface of the awesome potential of cannabis and LSD. "Jim is not apologetic for what he did before," Doblin says, "and I don't think he sees it as incongruous with supporting research into the therapeutic aspect of psychedelics. These tools have tremendous power, but he only looked at a narrow slice of it while he was at Edgewood."

Today, Ketchum steadfastly maintains that cannabis and LSD are safe drugs compared to many legal substances. This is what the Edgewood experiments and other studies have shown, he contends. Given his status as a retired army officer who had extensive, hands-on experience testing psychoactive compounds, he speaks with a certain authority that most medical and recreational drug users cannot claim.

Medical Marijuana

After Californians broke ranks from America's drug-war orthodoxy in 1996 and legalized medical marijuana in the Golden State, Ketchum got a recommendation from his family doctor to use cannabis for insomnia. "I have personally found it helpful, especially for sleep," he says. "I've had problems with sleep for a long time."

It was at a picnic hosted by the Shulgins that Jim and Judy Ketchum first met Tod Mikuriya, the controversial Berkeley-based physician who has been described as "the father of the medical marijuana movement." One of the prime movers of Proposition 215, the successful med-pot ballot measure, Dr. Mikuriya quickly took a liking to the Ketchums and taught them how to use a vaporizer for inhaling cannabis fumes without tar and smoke.

Like Ketchum, Mikuriya was a maverick psychiatrist who once worked for the U.S. government. In 1967, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) recruited Mikuriya to direct its marijuana-research program. One day, after leaving his position at NIMH, he got a phone call from Dr. Van Sim, a cohort of Ketchum's at Edgewood Arsenal. A major figure in the Chemical Corps' secret drug-testing efforts, Sim told Mikuriya of Army studies which indicated that cannabis has valuable therapeutic properties. Sim asserted that marijuana "is probably the most potent anti-epileptic known to medicine." Unfortunately, much of this data remains classified.

Army scientists also inadvertently rediscovered the powerful antispasmodic effect of cannabis, a medicinal boon subsequently confirmed by many multiple sclerosis and AIDS patients who smoked marijuana and ate ganja-laced cuisine to ease nerve spasms and painful bouts of peripheral neuropathy. "We weren't looking for benefits," Ketchum concedes. "When I was at Edgewood, I wasn't aware of the medicinal history of cannabis."

With Mikuriya tendering introductions, Ketchum befriended some of the leading lights of the '60s counterculture, including Tim Scully, the prodigious underground chemist who manufactured millions of hits of black market LSD (remember Orange Sunshine?) while the colonel was administering hallucinogenic drugs to soldiers at Edgewood. "Jim and his wife visited me at my home in Mendocino County," Scully says. "I enjoyed their company. We found that we shared idealistic beliefs about the potential for good in psychoactive drugs, as well as sharing some wry understanding of the pitfalls, too."

As for their divergent paths in the past, Scully remarks, "I don't really see his work as having been in conflict with mine. I believe Jim sincerely hoped to save lives by helping in the development of nonlethal weapons as an alternative to conventional weapons."

An incurable iconoclast, the colonel has made common cause with counterculture veterans and anti-prohibition activists. His endorsement of the therapeutic use of marijuana and LSD confers additional credibility on views long championed by his newfound allies. Validation, in this case, goes both ways. Embraced as one of the elders, a peculiar elder to be sure, Ketchum somehow fits right in.

"I don't have a problem with being difficult to categorize," he says.

Sonoma County writer Martin A. Lee is the author of 'Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of the LSD—The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond.' He is writing a social history of marijuana.

Send a letter to the editor about this story. - http://www.bohemian.com/contact/bohemian.html

Source: North Bay Bohemian, The (CA)

Website: http://www.bohemian.com/

Despite tougher drug policies in this country, Americans were twice as likely to have tried marijuana than the Dutch, according to the survey.

In fact, Americans were more likely to have tried marijuana or cocaine than people in any of the 16 other countries, including France, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and Colombia, that the survey covered.

Researchers found that 42% of people surveyed in the United States had tried marijuana at least once, and 16% had tried cocaine. About 20% of residents surveyed in the Netherlands, by contrast, reported having tried pot; in Asian countries, such as Japan and China, marijuana use was virtually "non-existent," the study found. New Zealand was the only other country to claim roughly the same percentage of pot smokers as the U.S., but no other nation came close to the proportion of Americans who reported trying cocaine.

Why the high numbers? Jim Anthony, the chair of the department of epidemiology at Michigan State University and an author of the study, says U.S. drug habits have to do, in part, with the country's affluence — many Americans can afford to spend income on recreational drugs. Another factor may be an increasing awareness that marijuana may be less toxic than other drugs, such as tobacco or alcohol. (However, the study also found that the United States is among the leading countries in the percentage of respondents who tried tobacco and alcohol).

As for the popularity of cocaine, the reason may simply be the close proximity of South America, the world's only coca plant producer. And, finally, Anthony notes, it's a matter of culture: the U.S. is home to a huge baby boomer population that came of age when experimenting with drugs was a part of the social fabric. "It became a more mass population phenomenon during a period when there were a large number of young people who were in the process of creating a culture of their own," Anthony says.

The survey also found that more Americans not only experimented with drugs, but also tended to try pot and cocaine for the first time at a younger age compared with people in other countries. Just over 20% of Americans reported trying pot by age 15 and nearly 3% had tried cocaine by the same age. Those percentages jumped to 54% and 16%, respectively, by age 21. That finding isn't surprising, says Dr. Richard Schottenfeld, a professor of psychiatry and a drug expert at the Yale University School of Medicine, since peer influence has a significant impact on the prevalence of drug use. In the Netherlands, for example, there is a large, vocal and homogeneous conservative population that is staunchly opposed to marijuana, says Schottenfeld. And anti-drug activists have made recent attempts to tighten the country's cannabis policies.

Yet experts say the findings of the new survey don't fairly reflect the success or failure of any particular drug policy. The survey asked only whether people had ever tried drugs in their lifetime — it did not ask about habitual use. "For drug policy, what you look at is regular use," says Tom Riley, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy. "Somebody having tried pot in 1968 in college doesn't really have much to do with what the current drug use picture in the United States is."

Though current findings may not provide enough context to judge existing drug policy, Anthony says they do highlight some valid issues, especially since stringent laws don't appear to impact whether kids experiment with drugs. "One of the questions raised by research of this type is whether Americans will want to continue supporting the incarceration of young people who use small amounts of marijuana," Anthony says.

The ongoing study, which surveyed more than 85,000 people in 17 countries, is part of a larger project through the World Health Organization's World Mental Health Survey Initiative. Anthony says further research about the frequency of worldwide drug use, and new data from additional countries will be released in the future.

Source: Time Magazine (US)

Website: http://www.time.com/time/

 15 luglio 2008

Sebbene Weeds sia una serie che tratta in maniera piuttosto autentica la vendita e la coltivazione della marijuana e il business che vi gira attorno, nella dark comedy della Showtime gli attori non maneggiano veramente ‘erba’, ed in un’intervista a FANCAST, Elizabeth Perkins, Celia Hodes nella serie, ha rivelato il tipo di erba usata e le sue idee in materia di legalizzazione della marijuana.
 
Secondo la Perkins, i produttori della serie hanno una scorsa di falsa marijuana, con cui non ti sballi ma che somiglia e profuma come quella vera: “Se fumassimo vera erba, ha spiegato l’attrice, non combineremmo niente. Quest’erba falsa è come una sigaretta alla rosa, al garofano e alla cannella, tutte mescolate assieme. E’ una combinazione di erbe che non fa sballare, anche se profuma come la marijuana e se si girano molte scene in una giornata, ti senti la testa leggera: insomma, è divertente“.
 
Ma se la Perkins sul set non fuma roba vera, questo non significa che sia contro la vendita legale di erba: “Penso che sia una cosa pazzesca che non sia legale, ha detto ancora l’attrice, e penso che sia pazzesco che la gente finisca in galera per un po’ d’erba. Io sono pro-legalizzazione della marijuana, perché non penso che sia una droga pesante o pericolosa. Questo non significa che gli studenti possano farsi tutti i bong che vogliono, ma gli adulti possono fare quello che vogliono nella privacy della loro casa, con un erba che potrebbe crescere anche nel giardino dietro casa”.
 
Siccome quest’intervista è uscita pochi giorni fa, chissà che i giudici della nostra Corte di Cassazione non abbiano letto le parole dell’attrice quando hanno deliberato che “i seguaci della religione rasta possono detenere dell’erba, visto che la utilizzano non solo come medicinale, ma anche come erba medicativa e possibile apportatrice dello stato psicofisico teso alla contemplazione nella preghiera“…

Fonte: televisionando.it