Tag: the war on (some) drugs

At SXSW, Beto O’Rourke says legalizing weed is possible: ‘Republicans like to get high just as much as Democrats’

Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke said Saturday that if elected governor of Texas, he would pursue legalizing marijuana — and said he anticipates that the Republican majority in the Legislature would get on board.

“I’ll let you in on a secret: Republicans like to get high just as much as Democrats,” O’Rourke said, speaking during a South by Southwest panel in Austin.

While some Republican-led states have legalized recreational marijuana, Texas has not joined the growing national legalization movement.

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NIH spends $14 million to study reproductive effects of marijuana on macaques

This week’s Golden Horseshoe is awarded to the National Institutes of Health for a $14 million experiment last year on monkeys that included feeding them marijuana edibles and then monitoring the effects, according to the watchdog group Open The Books.

The primate marijuana experiment had two parts, according to an investigation by the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP).

In the first part, female macaques were served THC edibles daily for up to four months. They were then observed to see if any changes occurred in their menstrual cycles. 

In part two, male macaques were fed the edibles for up to seven months and then observed to see if any fertility changes occurred.

NIH awarded the two grants for the experiments. A $13.1 million grant was awarded to the Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU), and $1.1 million was awarded to the University of Missouri-Columbia.

“The White Coat Waste Project was only able to find the enormous price tag of this project by filing a complaint with the NIH,” wrote Open The Books CEO and founder Andrew Andrzejewski. “Federal law known as the Stevens Amendment requires labs to say what percent of the costs of the experiment come from taxpayer money, the dollar amount of taxpayer funds used, and the percent and amount of funding by non-governmental sources. The Oregon Health and Science University disclosed none of these figures in its reports announcing the research results.”

Andrzejewski also pointed out that since recreational marijuana is legal in Oregon, experiments could have been conducted on humans.

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Love & Other Drugs: The Couples Using Psychedelics as a Way To Get Closer

Some couples like to take time off and wander the world to recharge, rejuvenate and reconnect with each other. Others prefer a different kind of trip. 

Psychedelics are increasingly gaining prominence as well as regulatory approval as a form of treatment for mental health disorders ranging from PTSD to anxiety. This has also sparked a larger conversation on whether using hallucinogens like psilocybin mushrooms or LSD could then also emerge as a form of relationship therapy, given that these substances have the ability to curb inhibitions and change the way we perceive reality. 

The rise and rise of psychedelic wellness has also led to couples experimenting with the substances together, either to forge stronger bonds, deal with deep-seated issues in a controlled setting or simply share the euphoric experience together. In fact, though psychedelics are not legal in most countries, relationship counsellors are increasingly advocating their use in counselling sessions, where a couple is administered a mild dosage in a controlled environment, asked leading questions about their hopes and fantasies while they’re tripping, and given calculated counselling based on their experiences. 

“Psilocybin has incredible [potential] as a catalyst for such therapy because it tears down all your walls and filters, and changes the way you think about the relationship,” Kripi Malviya, a psychologist and founder of de-addiction and rehabilitation centre TATVA, told VICE. 

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Cop Arrested for Selling Large Amounts of Cocaine From His Police Cruiser, While On Duty, In Uniform

Thanks to the state’s immoral and often deadly war on drugs, countless American citizens have had their lives ruined or ended over their personal choice to put a substance in their bodies. Highlighting the colossal failure of the war on drugs is the fact that drug overdoses are at an all-time high while the DEA and other law enforcement programs for drug enforcement are receiving record amounts of taxpayer dollars.

Despite years of suffering, oppression, and the expansion of the police state, most lawmakers cannot see the atrocities that their policies are creating. Their answer to the war on drugs, is more war on drugs.

Nothing epitomizes this madness better than when cops — who are tasked with arresting people for arbitrary substances deemed illegal by the state — are caught selling or using those very substances. When the enforcers of the drug war actually become participants in the drug trade, it is high time we admit defeat and try something different.

A cop in Raleigh, North Carolina made this point perfectly after he was arrested for trafficking drugs — from his patrol car, while on duty, and in uniform. According to court documents, Keven Rodriguez, 33, a Field Operations Division Officer with the Raleigh Police Department, distributed cocaine while on duty in his patrol car.

Rodriguez had become so brazen with his drug sales that his own officers apparently found out that he was selling the drugs from his patrol car. After suspicions were raised, a DEA investigation was launched and subsequently ensnared the cop.

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