Does it seem to anyone else like FOX is trying to keep ahead of the pro-legalization curve? Their business channel hosted a weeklong look at marijuana with a fairly positive spin. They have Jessica Corry on speaking about Republican support for legalization. Could it be that Roger Ailes actually read my suggestion that Republicans could re-invigorate their brand and appeal to a brand new young demographic if they simply embraced their “government leave me alone” roots with respect to private adult marijuana use?
Watch out, Democrats, you’re getting outflanked on the legalization issue. FOX doesn’t make any move that isn’t coldly calculated to politically benefit conservatives.
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“i was wondering if you think it is worth switching to an indoor hydro set up, i ve been doing it organicly for two years, and havnt had the best yeilds/quality. any suggestions?” – Alex
“How long do Seeds keep and what is the best way to store them?” – Rebecca
“When trying to overgrow big bro, i would like to know where to plant seeds randomly all over the place is there a set of things to look for when throwing my seeds for the best chance to grow?” – Will C
Friday, July 24th, 2009 at 5:06 pm | By: Radical Russ
SC Gov. Mark Sanford, Republican... everywhere but on FOX
I do my level best to keep my personal politics out of this blog. Republicans and Democrats have both been staunch foes of marijuana legalization, and the ideological bases of both the Republican and Democratic parties tend to favor marijuana legalization (liberals from a “social justice” angle; libertarians from a “personal privacy” angle). (Democrats have been incrementally better on the issue, though, much in the same way drowning someone and calling it “waterboarding” is incrementally more humane than the ancient Greeks burning prisoners alive using “the brazen bull“.)
Former Rep. Mark Foley, Republican... everywhere but on FOX
But when it comes to FOX “News”, their agenda is so transparent and their reporting is so biased that I attack them not from a political perspective, but a journalistic one. This is the network that has repeatedly referred to Republicans as Democrats (e.g. Rep. Mark Foley ["D"-FL] and Gov. Mark Foley ["D"-SC]) in their chyrons when Republicans are caught in a sexual scandal.
So when FOX News is questioning the California Board of Equalization’s $1.4 billion estimate of tax revenue from Assem. Tom Ammiano [D-San Francisco... really!], it’s best that you put on your waders to read through it… talk about your brazen bull!
To reach that amount, the board apparently relied on a source that relied on a source that misquoted a book that misquoted a study, all involving a hazy mix of out-of-date numbers, high margins of error and complete guesswork that could be a mere $700 million off the mark.
The board appears to have based its 16-million-ounce guess on a problematic “study” conducted by the founder of a pot-growing university in Oakland and by the director of California’s branch of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
But after only a quick look, those numbers went up in smoke. The NORML report based some of its figures on a book called “The Science of Marijuana,” which in turn appears to have misquoted an annual study of regular smokers conducted at music festivals and pot rallies in Britain.
The book says the study found that daily marijuana users smoke about 2 ounces a month (56 grams), but the study actually found that they used just over an ounce a month (34.25 grams).
I went straight to the source, California NORML Coordinator and study author Dale Gieringer, who notes:
The weights in the British report are referring to “resin” (i.e. hashish), not marijuana. The report goes on to note that in terms of herbal cannabis, consumption is higher, averaging 57 g (=two ounces) per month. These are the numbers we used in estimating total California consumption at 1 million pounds per year.
For the record, this number is actually on the low side compared to other estimates. For example, using a similar methodology as ourselves, the ONDCP estimated total US consumption at 4,270 metric tons in 2000. Apportioning this by California’s share of the population (12%), this works out to 1.13 million pounds per year in the state.
Using a different methodology, ONDCP calculated that the total amount of marijuana available in the U.S. at 4,777 – 16,731 m.t. of domestic production plus 4,581 to 7,135 m.t. of foreign imports, or 9.358 to 23,866 m.t. total per year . This would work out to 2.5- 6.3 million pounds per year in California!
It is clearly difficult to come up with accurate projections of marijuana consumption. Hard data are difficult to come by due to marijuana’s current illegal status. Nonetheless, the figures cited by NORML and the state Board of Equalization are if anything on the conservative side compared to other government estimates.
So remember, whenever you hear a “fact” on FOX “News”, make sure you apply some common sense and a little Googling. This is the same “news” organization that is trying to convince you that only one out of six guns used in the Mexican drug war come from America, when it is probably closer to six out of ten. Who here really thinks that legalization and taxation of marijuana in California is actually going to cost California money? Now, who here thinks they will be raking in money hand over fist?
Wednesday, June 17th, 2009 at 2:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
We reported on it yesterday, but now the latest pot propaganda has hit FOX News, so let’s have at it, shall we?
Researchers at the University of Leicester in England have found “convincing evidence” that pot smoke damages DNA in ways that could potentially increase the risk of cancer.
“There have been many studies on the toxicity of tobacco smoke,” researcher Rajinder Singh said in a news release. “Cannabis in contrast has not been so well studied.”
Singh said cannabis smoke contains 400 compounds including 60 cannabinoids. It also contains 50 percent more carcinogenic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons including naphthalene, benzanthracene, and benzopyrene, than tobacco smoke, Singh added.
“However, marijuana smoke also contains cannabinoids such as THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol) and CBD (cannabidiol), which are non-carcinogenic and demonstrate anti-cancer properties in vivo and in vitro. By contrast, nicotine promotes the development of cancer cells and their blood supply. In addition, cannabinoids stimulate other biological activities and responses that may mitigate the carcinogenic effects of smoke, such as down-regulating the inflammatory arm of the immune system that is responsible for producing potentially carcinogenic free radicals (unstable atoms that are believed to accelerate the progression of cancer),” NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano notes.
In the journal Chemical Research in Toxicology, the scientists describe the development of a new method that provides a clear indication that cannabis smoke damages DNA, under laboratory conditions.
“The smoking of 3-4 cannabis cigarettes a day is associated with the same degree of damage to bronchial mucus membranes as 20 or more tobacco cigarettes a day,” the team wrote in the journal.
“These results provide evidence for the DNA damaging potential of cannabis smoke,” the researchers concluded, “implying that the consumption of cannabis cigarettes may be detrimental to human health with the possibility to initiate cancer development.”
UCLA pulmonologist Dr. Donald Tashkin, who has studied marijuana’s effects on the lungs for three decades, 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.
“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.”
How tragic – we fund the Mexican cartels because we prohibit a plant that Americans demand, then we supply 90% of the firearms and ammunition the cartels use to terrorize police, but when the police run to us in fear for their lives, we won’t grant them asylum.
Which got me a prompt email from Stasher Tom:
You stated that the US supplies 90% of the firearms to the Mexican cartels, this is not true. The US at the most supplies 33% and as little as 14% of the firearms used by the cartels. Russ please retract this misstatement, please do not muddy this movement for liberty with unevaluated quotes from anti-gun groups.
And I thought, hold on, I’m usually really careful with the numbers. Â Did I unknowingly slip up? Â I don’t recall gathering quotes from the Brady Campaign to End Gun Violence or any other “anti-gun” group. Â I’m actually quite a fan of guns and the 2nd Amendment (it’s that Idaho DNA – where I’m from, “gun control” means “use both hands”), even though I think we do a poor job keeping them out of the hands of the violent and mentally ill and our culture has a huge defect revealed in our love for shooting each other (according to the CDC, the ratio of US gun homicides to International gun homicides is 15.7:1)
So what’s the truth and what led your intrepid reporter to the “90%” quote? Â Read on…
Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 5:20 pm | By: Radical Russ
Three and a half million people participated in the event, but the “trolls” had their way: Following a coordinated campaign by marijuana advocates to vote their topic to the top of the list, questions on the future of the U.S. dollar and the rising unemployment rate were superseded by questions about legalizing pot as an economic remedy.
Once again, somehow the marijuana advocates are better able to coordinate a campaign than gun rights advocates, anti-abortion advocates, animal rights advocates, free speech advocates, victims’ rights advocates, cancer research advocates, autism advocates, etc. And we were able to do this by mental telepathy, since we didn’t mention a thing about the Open for Questions campaign until eighteen hours after it had opened and the marijuana questions were already at the tops of most categories.
The president himself had a good laugh about the volume of marijuana-related questions, saying, “I don’t know what this says about the online audience — we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is, no, I don’t think that is a good strategy to grow our economy.”
But the die was cast. Through a perfectly legal “underground” campaign, a relatively insignificant question had risen to the top.
22 million American adults will smoke pot this year. 872,000 of them will be arrested for it. I know it’s not the tanking world economy or militant extremism in the Middle East, but when 1 in 10 American adults face a 1 in 25 chance of arrest, incarceration, job loss, asset forfeiture, revocation of student aid, loss of housing, loss of benefits, loss of child custody, and a lifetime “criminal” record for their personal use of a plant, it’s not “relatively insignificant” to them.
For the White House, the question was not so much how to answer it — but what to do about it, and how to prevent it in the future.
Unlike privately run Web sites, whose managers are free to remove nettlesome material, the White House finds itself searching for a way to combat these disruptive users without infringing on their right to free speech and inciting cries of censorship.
RevRayGreen: I'll post a pic of me and my son....gimme a minute
Missippi Hippy: Guess what... I'm gonna be a new... ummmmm well, my pet piggie Ganja is in labor and they ain't mine in the same sense. See what your wife [...]
RevRayGreen: days they didn't talk back..or act disrespectful..
RevRayGreen: feel so lucky my son is 18 going 19 and my daughter 16 going on 17..relish the days that can't talk back
Urb Age: Congrats Spof thats awesome. My little Clara is about to hit 20 months. Im not the activist I used to be, but its made me a better man.
Urb Age: Heck I was gonna go up there, but just not feeling well this weekend..Dang it, I hate it when that happens..
RevRayGreen: wishing I was hanging at NORML cafe...
JohnH: Just a quick comment about tokin' and sperm motility....been tokin since age 14 and have 8 kids ranging in age from 30 to 9...(what can I say, I found 2 [...]
slash5city: really ..oprah 35 yr or more in the closet toker ...outed ....o my god !!
SneakerPimp: that would be huge news just imagen the headline
RevRayGreen: maybe Oprah smokes and keeps it on the DL...
SneakerPimp: and good afternoon
mr reuben: I could do without seeing Rob K. on tv. But Bruce and Eithan get a big thumbs up from me.
SneakerPimp: waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
mr reuben: I don't respect her opinion bluzguy.
Missippi Hippy: Something about the last year in a contract... folks become more ballsey... and Oprah has big ones.
American Medical Association Calls For Scientific Review Of Marijuana's Prohibitive Status; Dutch Marijuana Use Lower Than European Average, Study Says […]
"Truth In Trials Act" Reintroduced In Congress; Maine: Voters Approve Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Measure; Colorado: Breckenridge Voters Overwhelmingly Decide To End Pot Penalties. […]
Some of the nation’s top athletes discuss why today's pros are turning to cannabis — and away from alcohol and painkillers — off the field, and question why pro sports leagues are continuing to sanction those who do. Moderator: Steve Bloom, Author, Pot Culture; editor, celebstoner.com * Toby Grear, MMA fighter * Sean Neumann, Documentary Filmm […]
Cannabis Law Reform's Missing Link: Law Enforcement Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper; LEAP and NORML Advisory Board; Author of Breaking Rank Putting the Mexican Cartels Out of Business Mexican drug cartels now employ over 100,000 soldiers and are responsible for nearly ten thousand deaths per year. Their largest source of income is marijuana. […]
FOX News Slideshow: Hollywood’s Top Potheads
waitn for NSL and congrast for spofett.
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