If this was the DARE car, you could understand misplacing a dime bag...

I knew those D.A.R.E. people were all stoners!

VermilionToday.com AMITE, LA  — A sometime school drug awareness official is charged with possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia after a Mardi Gras traffic stop in New Orleans.

And his boss, the long-time Tangipahoa DARE officer has reportedly taken ill and resigned from the Sheriff’s Office since the March 8 arrest.

Sheriff Daniel Edwards over the weekend said Kentrell Smith, 27, was arrested in the New Orleans area when police pulled his DARE vehicle over. He said Smith was used by DARE Officer Bud Cason on an as-needed contract basis for DARE events.

I can’t help but giggle at the sound of “DARE Officer Bud”.

Of course THAT marijuana is bad for you... in what Kansas ditch did that schwag grow?

LIVESTRONG, as most people know, is the foundation set up by cancer survivor and 7-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong. It boasts “Dare to Change Your Life”, but based on their article The Health Risks of Smoking Pot, it seems like they’re just recycling old material from D.A.R.E. (the program that brings cops into schools to introduce kids to drugs and encourage them to turn in their pot growing parents.)

The short-term health risks from smoking marijuana are well established. According to both the National Institute on DrugAbuse.com and DiscoveryHealth.com, short-term risks include memory loss, coordination problems, learning and problem solving difficulties, accelerated heart rate, anxiety, paranoia and panic attacks.

Memory “loss” is a bit much – it’s more that you have difficulty with short-term recall, learning, and problem-solving while high.  However, afterwards you suffer no ill-effects to memory and cognition, even with long-term, heavy use.  There are numerous studies backing this up.

When it comes to mood altering recreational substances, Lance endorses the one that CAUSES cancer.

You can become uncoordinated while high, which is why we don’t suggest driving or complicated physical tasks while high.  A minority of those who use cannabis experience anxiety, paranoia, and panic, which is why we suggest that marijuana may not be for everyone.  (Some people can die from exposure to peanut dust, but nobody advocates locking people up over a Snickers bar.  If marijuana makes you paranoid, don’t smoke it.)

An accelerated heart rate, which can last for up to three hours, may increase the risk of heart attack, although the evidence is inconclusive.

That accelerated heart rate is about equal to how much climbing a flight of stairs might cause your heart rate to increase.  The evidence that pot causes heart attacks is inconclusive because it isn’t there.

There is some evidence of a connection between pot and schizophrenia. The NIDA believes high doses of marijuana can produce acute psychotic reactions to trigger schizophrenia in vulnerable individuals.

The pot = schizophrenia claim is being debunked more and more every month.  A ten-year look at mental hospitals in the UK found no increase in schizophrenia and psychosis even as cannabis use skyrocketed.  Another study shows that schizophrenics who use cannabis have better cognitive functioning.  These supposed causal relationships between pot and schizophrenia are difficult to interpret, as you can’t tell whether pot caused the schizophrenia, or the schizophrenia caused someone to seek out pot to self-medicate.

Pot smoke contains carcinogens and irritates the lungs.

Stomach cancer +67%, rectal cancer +53%, lung cancer +46%... let's have another beer!

But does it cause cancer?  No, in fact, long-term pot smokers have lower incidence of head, neck, and lung cancers than non-smokers.  Previous preclinical studies assessing the anticancer properties of cannabinoids have shown that they inhibit the proliferation of a wide range of cancers, including brain cancer, prostate cancer, oral cancers, lung cancer, skin cancer,pancreatic cancer, biliary tract cancers, and lymphoma.

This is something a cancer survivor like Armstrong and his LIVESTRONG foundation should be promoting.  You know, instead of Michelob beer, use of which the Los Angeles Times reports causes cancer:

Compared with people who had less than one drink per week, those who drank daily were nearly three times as likely to get esophageal cancer. Moderate drinkers (who consumed between one and six drinks per week) were 67% more likely to get stomach cancer, according to results published in the new issue of Cancer Epidemiology.

Heavy beer drinkers had a 53% increased risk of developing rectal cancer and were 46% times more likely to get lung cancer. People who imbibed spirits daily had more than three times the risk of liver cancer, more than twice the risk of pancreatic cancer, and a 66% increased risk of rectal cancer. Despite mounting evidence of the benefits of drinking wine, moderate wine drinkers had elevated odds of rectal and bladder cancer.

Most tellingly, the researchers also found a dose-response relationship – that is, the heaviest drinkers were most at risk. Among people who consumed the most drinks for the most years, the risk of liver cancer was nearly eight times higher, and the risk of esophageal cancer was more than seven times as high. The biggest drinkers also had more than double the risk of pancreatic and rectal cancer and a more than 80% increased risk of prostate and colon cancer.

The LIVESTRONG website links to many other sets of mythology about marijuana.  Reasons to Stop Smoking Pot tells us that “Those who smoke pot daily operate at subpar levels at all times”.  (Wow, imagine how many more stories, podcasts, live shows, presentations, websites, and gigs I could produce if only I weren’t operating at a subpar level!  Imagine how much better the Cosmos series would have been if Carl Sagan hadn’t been operating at a subpar level at all times!)

What Are the Side Effects of Pot? warns us that “disruption in career, social and family functioning occurs because of a loss of interest in daily activities” and “reproductive problems may occur, including lower sperm count for men.”  (I’d tell that to Willie Nelson, but his career in country music, touring at age 77, and doting on his seven children and many grandchildren, makes contacting him difficult.)

What Are the Effects of Smoking Pot? tells us “it is possible to become physically dependent on marijuana.”  It’s so darn physically addicting that if you quit cold turkey, you “may experience cravings, insomnia and anxiety.”

Effects from Smoking Pot warns that “high doses of marijuana can lead to paranoia, image distortion or psychosis. Such effects may last several days or weeks….”  Where do I find me some of that pot?

Now it seems these articles are submitted to LIVESTRONG and perhaps not well-edited by their staff.  But Lance Armstrong endorsing alcohol is not an accident.  If he is going to endorse a recreational substance, shouldn’t he endorse one that doesn’t cause – and might even cure – cancer?

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Hemp Headlines

1. DARE is debunked by the LA Times in response to DARE chairman’s plea to keep MJ illegal.
2. YouTube Citizen’s Forum for President Obama ignores marijuana legalization, once again the top ranking question.
3. Hemp legislation clears assembly in Wisconsin

Daily Toker Tunes

Brought to you by Sahra Kant Photography and Girls4Ganja.com

• Electric Tuesday: Slotty Bandit – “Mary Jane”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Don Lattin, author of “The Harvard Psychedelic Club”

California Marijuana Report with Eric Brenner

• Mieko Hester-Perez, mother treating her son with medical marijuana for autism.

(Chatham Courier) A $14 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has provided the D.A.R.E. program with new science-based curricula.

The new research and program sprung from the results of numerous studies that indicated the D.A.R.E. program had failed to stop the scourge of alcoholism and drug addiction among youth.

The federal General Accounting Office found, “no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received D.A.R.E. (training) and students who did not.”

The Surgeon General of the United States placed the D.A.R.E. program in the category of “Does Not Work” in 2001, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Despite the failure of D.A.R.E., I would like to see “science-based” drug education for kids in our schools.  Some of that science would include the fact that cannabis is “the safest therapeutically active substance known to man”, it is completely non-toxic to cells and organs, it has the lowest rates of dependence among legal and illegal drugs, and the most harmful side effects from it are due to its prohibition.

So, which medical doctor or lab researcher in a white coat will be delivering this “science-based curricula”?

This year’s D.A.R.E. graduation theme was the military.

“We did that to honor the men and women who protect our country,” said Detective Jairo Otalora, Chatham Township Police D.A.R.E. coordinator.

A $500 grant from the Morris County Municipal Alliance enabled the police to mount the fifth grade D.A.R.E. program and its graduation ceremony.

I see. Uniformed police officers leading young people through a military-themed ceremony. Ah, science!

To the Chairman of D.A.R.E:

For 30 years, Donald Tashkin has studied the effects of marijuana on lung function. His work has been funded by the vehemently anti-marijuana National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has long sought to demonstrate that marijuana causes lung cancer. After 3 decades of anti-drug research, here’s what Tashkin has to say about marijuana laws:

“Early on, when our research appeared as if there would be a negative impact on lung health, I was opposed to legalization because I thought it would lead to increased use and that would lead to increased health effects,” Tashkin says. “But at this point, I’d be in favor of legalization. I wouldn’t encourage anybody to smoke any substances. But I don’t think it should be stigmatized as an illegal substance. Tobacco smoking causes far more harm. And in terms of an intoxicant, alcohol causes far more harm.”

We’ve been told a thousand times that marijuana destroys your lungs, that it’s 5 times worse than cigarettes, and on and on. Yet here is Donald Tashkin, literally the top expert in the world when it comes to marijuana and lung health, telling us it’s time to legalize marijuana. His views are shaped not by ideology, but rather by the 30 years he spent studying the issue. He didn’t expect the science to come out in favor of marijuana, but that’s what happened and he’s willing to admit it.

Here’s the study that really turned things around:

UCLA’s Tashkin studied heavy marijuana smokers to determine whether the use led to increased risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD. He hypothesized that there would be a definitive link between cancer and marijuana smoking, but the results proved otherwise.

“What we found instead was no association and even a suggestion of some protective effect,” says Tashkin, whose research was the largest case-control study ever conducted.

Prejudice against marijuana and smoking in general runs so deep for many people that it just seems inconceivable that marijuana could actually reduce the risk of lung cancer. But that’s what the data shows and it not only demolishes a major tenet of popular anti-pot propaganda, but also points towards a potentially groundbreaking opportunity to develop cancer cures through marijuana research.

Over and over again, all the bad things we’ve been told about marijuana are revealed to be not only false, but often the precise opposite of the truth. So the next time someone tells you that marijuana is worse for your lungs than cigarettes, you might want to mention that the world’s leading expert on that subject happens to be a supporter of legalization.

To the Chairman of D.A.R.E., You know that if you tell the truth, then you’d have to admit there is nothing wrong with using the safer alternative, Marijuana. But, if you admitted it, then you’d likely be admitting your organization doesn’t need all of that money you receive from grants and donations to combat the use of Marijuana.

In other words, we are aware the prohibition of Marijuana helps to keep you employed. Ergo, if you want to keep your job, you have to keep up the lie. But the sad fact is, EVERYONE knows you are lying and have thus lost credibility with the American public, just like that clown, er, I mean ex-drug czar, John Walters.

In an article published today in the Earth Times,

Recent calls by California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others to study the legalization of marijuana as a way of boosting tax revenues are “irresponsible” and send a dangerous message, the chairman of the board of the drug abuse education program D.A.R.E., prominent Los Angeles attorney Louis “Skip” Miller, said today. “Marijuana is a dangerous drug with numerous demonstrable ill effects on health,” Mr. Miller added.

It seems as though DARE is contesting having a debate!! This means they have NO intention of actually providing any reasonable or substantive argument, they simply start blasting away using the same old Reefer Madness arguments that have been raised for years.

I don’t know about you, but I value Science over Politics and I DARE the organization DARE to debate the issues honestly.

But, let’s examine their argument piece by piece.

But it is completely irresponsible to suggest that the legalization of a dangerous drug could be a way to help us out of the budget mess we’re in. Such comments send entirely the wrong message, especially to young people who face a difficult enough time resisting the pressure of peers and others to try drugs.”

Oh My God, it’s all about the kids!! Well, if this were true, then DARE would be supporting legalization in a model that provides a vendor, lock, key, and ID method of limiting access to children. Next:

“Let’s be clear, Marijuana is not benign. Scientific studies have decisively documented marijuana’s harmful effects on the body’s cardiovascular system, brain and respiratory functions. Despite what you might hear from the pro-legalization side, marijuana use can cause cancer and does impair judgment.”

Isn’t it sad when the opposition has to invent an argument to support their claim? The studies they are referring to don’t prove a HARMFUL connection to the cardiovascular system, brain, or respiratory functions. In fact, the studies show positive connections between Cannabis and your body, not negative ones. Although, doctors seem to agree that continued SMOKING Cannabis may lead to emphysema, no link between Cannabis and Cancer has yet to be proven (other than chemicals in Cannabis have been proven to smother or stifle cancer cells). [Sorry, Dudemaster, but even the emphysema is something that cannabis hasn't been shown to cause.  Regular chronic smokers may develop coughing, wheezing, and bronchitis, but links to emphysema, lung cancer, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, have been disproven. -- "R"R]

“It has been shown to cause an immediate rise in the heart beat by 20-30 beats per minute along with an increase in blood pressure, thus increasing the workload of the heart. Marijuana is an irritant to the lungs and contains proportionally more carcinogens than tobacco smoke. It is associated with increased incidence of cancer of the head and neck area and lungs. It works on the brain, causing short- and long-term memory loss and impairing judgment, and it affects the sensations of taste and smell. One of its more pernicious effects is that it reduces inhibitions and can lead a person under the influence of marijuana to try even more harmful substances.”

Can you believe they even throw in the “Gateway Theory” in the last sentence?  [Or the exact opposite of current research, which shows no link between cannabis use and head, neck, mouth, and lung cancer, or that there is no long-term memory loss and short-term memory is affected only while intoxicated. -- "R"R]

DARE is just another prohibition pushing organization, what I call a “self licking ice cream cone”. Their agenda, and the agenda of all Marijuana Prohibitionists have pitted the people in this country against their government and have empowered evil cartels that have killed more people in the last two years than we’ve lost soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Let’s remind DARE that Marijuana is NON-TOXIC, and their entire argument is based on lies and slick marketing campaigns, NOT SCIENCE!

Let’s educate DARE, contact them today and let them know what you think about the reefer madness lies they are propagating. http://list.dare.org/contact/

The road to hell is paved with what?

President Obama has just proclaimed April 8th as National D.A.R.E. day.

“NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim April 8, 2009, as National D.A.R.E. Day.”

How noble.

An excerpt from the speech had him saying that “The D.A.R.E. program has worked to educate students about drugs, gangs, and violence for more than 25 years. Placing law-enforcement personnel in the classroom, D.A.R.E. provides students with important lessons from experts and seeks to prepare them for the difficult encounters and choices they may face.”

The reality is that this program has had no positive effect on our society or our kids in any way. It is a complete waste of tax dollars. In 25 years of this program we have seen a steady increase of drug use in our kids at younger ages. I submit that this program is just exposing most kids to drugs much earlier than otherwise. These local cops that show up are not experts in any way, either. They are trained to enter the classrooms and lie about things above their pay grades. This programs sole purpose is to make money for the law enforcement economy by perpetuating nonsense.

My personal account of D.A.R.E was an officer coming into the class, doing a show and tell of various drugs and then asking us to NARC on our friends and parents if we ever see any of these things. It was the first time I had ever seen or heard of illegal drugs. Few, if any of us, were interested. We were more concerned with the expected dodge ball game during the next recess. Years later, when I finally did encounter marijuana, I used my memory of the joint the officer showed us to help figure out how to roll it up. Thanks D.A.R.E!

This administration isn’t going to make drug policy decisions from a position of integrity or intelligence. They are demonstrating, with actions, that they are going to take the lobby money and run the same plays we have seen in previous years. Obama is looking to be a one termer. Maybe we will get a real candidate for change next time.

Now, Therefore, I, Taxpayer 420, Citizen of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by laws and constitution of the united states, do hereby proclaim April 8th as national dog and pony show day.

I hope pop culture turns April 8th into a annual Marijuana rally of some kind. It would only be fitting.

Milwaukee, WI—Michael Phelps has done a lot of things in his life that he is proud of. Eight Olympic Gold Medals from last year’s summer games is just the start of a long list of accomplishments that anyone would want to emulate.

Unfortunately, the limelight that currently shines on him is not for any of his athletic achievements, but for an act that is a bit more dubious. Thus, the Milwaukee Admirals present “Don’t Be Like Mike” Night at their game on Thursday, February 19th at 7:00 pm versus the Rockford IceHogs.

All fans who are graduates of a DARE program (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) can get into the game for just $2 by bringing their DARE graduation certificate to the Admirals’ office or the Bradley Center box office. In addition, anyone with the name Michael, Phelps, Mary Jane, Cheech, Chong, Weed (Wied) or anyone who has won an Olympic Gold Medal can also get their ticket for only $2.

The Ads will also be giving away a weed wacker, courtesy of National Ace Hardware, that will be signed by the team and if the Admirals score with 4:20 left on the clock in any period one lucky fan will win a season ticket for the 2009-10 season. The number 420 is often known as the police code for illegal drug use.

Don’t be like Mike?  You mean, don’t strive to win 14 gold medals for the US?  Or do you mean, don’t smoke pot?  Or, don’t smoke pot and get caught?  Or, if you’re caught smoking pot, don’t cave in with a wussy apology?

You’re giving a benefit (reduced admission price) to people with famous potsmoker names (what, no $2 ticket for “Stroups”?), so that tells me you’re supporting pot smoking.  Since DARE fails to stop kids from using marijuana, giving those graduates a reduced-price ticket also, in a way, supports pot smoking.  And a season ticket giveaway for a 4:20 goal?  I couldn’t ask for better support and endorsement of our culture!

One thing: 420 has nothing to do with police codes.  It was instituted in 1971 among some San Rafael High School tokers (“the Waldoes”) who met at a clock tower at that time to smoke weed.

West Van police ditch DARE – Report Card

West Vancouver police surprised parents and teachers last spring by quitting a popular drug-awareness program that uniformed officers had been delivering in elementary schools for more than a dozen years. 

“There is no evidence that it’s been successful in reaching its goals,” Cpl. Fred Harding told the North Shore News in explaining the decision to withdraw from the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.

Nevertheless, West Vancouver school district is working to replace the program. Early next year, it will be training teachers to implement a replacement program, which is expected to be offered in Grades 6 and 7 after spring break, says superintendent Geoff Jopson.

DARE has been both controversial and popular for many years. It was created by DARE America but is delivered in B.C. by the RCMP and local police forces. Of B.C.’s 60 school districts, all but four offer it in at least some schools.

We’ve known for five years now that the DARE program (drug abuse resistance education, a.k.a. cops coming into classrooms saying “drugs ‘r’ bad, mmmkay?”) – our own government even said, “All of the evaluations suggested that DARE had no statistically significant long-term effect on preventing youth illicit drug use.”

Having cops teach kids about drugs is like having pharmacists teaching a defensive driving course.