SunSmudge

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee could vote as soon as this Thursday, November 5 on an amendment that will legally prevent some of the government’s top advisers from even discussing the idea of legalizing or decriminalizing drugs as a solution to the failed “war on drugs.”

Yes, you read that right. The Senate just might censor its own policy advisers from giving science-based advice.

“The ski town of Breckenridge, Colorado, is the latest municipality to remove all penalties for private adult marijuana possession and possession of marijuana paraphernalia. As the Summit Daily reported:

Breckenridge residents voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia Tuesday under town law. In early returns, some 72 percent of voters approved the measure.

The vote means that, effective Jan. 1, people 21 and up in Breckenridge will be able to legally possess one ounce or less of the drug.

Gordon Brown today hit back in the drugs row, insisting he was right to overrule scientists on cannabis.

In an exclusive interview with the Standard, he said the public backed him against calls for softer sentences related to drug abuse and he warned against the danger of giving “mixed messages” to young people targeted by dealers.

“We’ll get tougher on drugs,” declared the Prime Minister, defying threats of resignations by supporters of the sacked former chief drugs
adviser Professor David Nutt.

“A tough policy on drugs is essential and it is what the public want,” Mr Brown said. “I’ve seen the damage that drugs can do and people can see it in estates in London. I think I share the public concern about the effect that drugs have.”

Tvert is executive director of Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), a group that has passed two pro-pot measures in Denver since 2006. He also is a co-author, along with Steve Fox and Paul Armentano, of “Marijuana Is Safer: So Why Do We Drive People to Drink?” (Chelsea Green Publishing, August 2009).

Dan Haley: How did the legalization of pot become your mission in life?

Mason Tvert: My senior year in high school, I went to a country music festival and drank to the point where I nearly died. I woke up and was handed a bill and told, “Hey, you crazy kid, get on out of here.” No police officer was there saying, “Who served you enough beer to kill you?” (Yet) as a freshman in college, I was scrutinized by a multi-jurisdictional drug task force for allegedly using marijuana — not even allegedly selling it. We’re making alcohol use more acceptable when it’s more harmful.

“Our forms of prohibition are more sins of omission than commission. Rather than trying to take away longstanding rights, they’re instances of conservative laws failing to keep pace with a liberalizing society. But like Prohibition in the ’20s, these restrictions have become indefensible as well as impractical, and as a result are fading fast. Within 10 years, it seems a reasonable guess that Americans will travel freely to Cuba, that all states will recognize gay unions, and that few will retain criminal penalties for marijuana use by individuals. These reforms are inevitable—not because politics has changed, but because society has.”

President Obama has made serial promises that he will not sign a health-care bill that “adds one dime to our deficits, either now or in the future, period.” This was never plausible, but now we can begin to understand what he meant: Democrats plan to make ObamaCare “deficit-neutral” by moving nearly a quarter-trillion dollars off the books, in the fiscal deception of the century.

On Friday, October 23, 2009, Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Gil Kerlikowske (aka the Drug Czar) issued a statement declaring the issue of marijuana legalization a “non-starter” not even worthy of discussion in the Obama Administration.

The Drug Czar’s statement also highlighted the extraordinary social and health care costs associated with widespread alcohol use, suggesting that similar problems would occur if marijuana were to be regulated and treated like alcohol. Yet every objective study on marijuana has concluded that it is far less harmful than alcohol both for the user and for society.

In response to the Drug Czar’s statement, SAFER has launched the following on-line petition, urging the Drug Czar to base our nation’s drug policies on evidence and reason rather than ideology and mythology.

Sign the petition today and tell the Drug Czar to start explaining!

Professor David Nutt, head of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, criticised the decision to reclassify cannabis to Class B from C.

He accused ministers of devaluing and distorting evidence and said drugs classification was being politicised.

The home secretary said he had “lost confidence” in his advice and asked him to step down.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) is the UK’s official drugs advisory body.

Following his sacking, Prof Nutt told the BBC he stood by his claim that cannabis should not be a Class B drug, based on its effects.

He described his sacking as a “serious challenge to the value of science in relation to the government”.

wow this guy embarrasses himself going on a tirade, calling out people waiting in line for the show. some of them start shouting at him etc…

In the episode, Larry’s character accidentally urinates on a painting of Jesus. Because he’s taking a pill that makes his urine exit the body more, umm, forcefully, it splashes onto the painting giving it the appearance of a tear on Jesus’ face. Other characters think its a miracle after seeing the “tear” and hilarity ensues.

We think it’s pretty funny but Deal Hudson of InsideCatholic.com isn’t laughing. He says:

“Why is it that people are allowed to publicly show that level of disrespect for Christian symbols? If the same thing was done to a symbol of any other religions — Jewish or Muslim — there’d be a huge outcry. It’s simply not a level playing field. Somebody should [apologize]. When is it going to stop? When is common sense going to dictate that people realize this willingness of artists to do to Christianity what they would never do to Judaism or Islam?”