Sunday, November 8th, 2009 at 10:15 am | By: Radical Russ
(Guardian UK) “I first took coke when I was 18 and at university. I remember two friends who did chemistry told me I should get really drunk first because it would mix into this new chemical in my blood and make me even higher,” a 30-year-old woman who works in publishing told the Observer yesterday.
What her friends did not tell her is that the combination of cocaine and alcohol in her then teenage body will have left a highly toxic chemical in her liver called cocaethylene.
For not only is cocaethylene toxic in the liver, it is also blamed for heart attacks in the under-40s and a surge in social problems. But because so little is known about the drug, few experts can agree on the nature of the threat to users, and indeed society as a whole.
Cocaine-related deaths are also increasing in the US. The US National Household Drug Survey estimated that around five million people used alcohol and cocaine each month.
Yes, but five million people also realize that they can have a great Friday or Saturday night out on the town, dancing and drinking til the wee morning hours, with a bump of coke every now and then, sleep it off Sunday, and unless their workplace random drug testing pops them early on Monday morning, they can probably pass a urine screen.
But if 14 million people wanted to have a fun weekend with a toke of a natural, herbal social relaxant shared communally among friends, knowing it is non-toxic to their liver and far safer to themselves and society than alcohol or cocaine or mixing the two, a workplace random drug test anytime in the next week to a month means chugging nasty-tasting body flushes and water or mixing up freeze-dried urine, strapping it to their thighs along with a chemical hand warmer and maybe even wearing a prosthetic penis to be certain they can beat the pee test and continue to pay their mortgages and feed their families.
Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 11:35 am | By: Radical Russ
(New Scientist) IF THERE is one thing that politicians can and should do to limit the damage caused by illegal drugs, it is to take careful note of the evidence and develop a rational drug policy. Some politicians find it easier to ignore the evidence, and pander to public prejudice instead.
I can trace the beginning of the end of my role as chairman of the UK’s official advisory body on drugs to the moment I quoted a New Scientist editorial (14 February, p 5). Entitled, fittingly enough, “Drugs drive politicians out of their minds”, the editorial asked the reader to imagine being seated at a table with two bowls, one containing peanuts, the other the illegal drug MDMA (ecstasy). Which is safer to give to a stranger? Why, the ecstasy of course.
I quoted these words in the Eve Saville lecture at King’s College London in July. This example plus other comments I have made – such as horse riding is more harmful than ecstasy – prompted Alan Johnson, the home secretary, to say that I had crossed the line from science to policy. This, he said, is why I had to go.
But simple, accurate and understandable statements of scientific fact are precisely what the advisory council is supposed to provide. Why would any scientist take up some future offer of a government advisory post when their advice can be treated with such disdain?
The results of a government inventing its own reality and acting on it can be seen in the appalling consequences the George W. Bush presidency had for world peace, the environment and human rights. The message for the British government is a simple one: don’t exclude rational argument in order to exploit a visceral public response. Politicians have to win the hearts and minds of their electorate. If your policy is informed by an underlying moral imperative, be open about what that is, and don’t try to disguise it with a veneer of pseudo-science. We ignore scientific evidence at our peril.
David Nutt, professor of neuropsychopharmacology at Imperial College London, was chairman of the UK government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs until he was dismissed last week by the UK home secretary
It’s a message President Obama needs to hear as well. He promised to return us from the George W. Bush presidency’s disdain for rational thought and scientific evidence. Obama promised to base our policies on sound science with respect to global climate change and other issues. But stubbornly, this administration’s drug czar is still out parroting the completely unscientific falsehood that “the raw cannabis plant is certainly not medicine”. Obama himself is laughing off the notion of marijuana legalization as having any economic benefit to cash-strapped states, despite the rational analysis by many prominent economists. And despite the evidence of reduced social farms in the Netherlands, Portugal, and other countries that have experimented with drug decriminalization and tolerance, Obama continues to push a federal policy that relies heavily on interdiction and incarceration.
For over a century now, every time hard scientists, social scientists, economists, and policy experts gather to take a rational and scientific look at marijuana policy, they recommend decriminalization and tolerance or they recognize medical usage of cannabis, from the 1894 British East India survey to the 1942 Laguardia Commission to the 1972 Shaffer Commission to the 1999 Institute of Medicine study. Cannabis can no longer be the exception to the “we believe in science” rule!
Friday, August 28th, 2009 at 1:58 pm | By: Radical Russ
OK, so it’s a whole two months since we brought this study to your attention on the Stash, but whenever the British press prints something good about cannabis, it’s news to us.
(The Sentinel) A STUDY by North Staffordshire academics has rejected a link between smoking cannabis and an increase in mental illness.
The research found there were no rises in cases of schizophrenia or psychoses diagnosed in the UK over nine years, during which the use of the drug had grown substantially.
From their base at the Harplands Psychiatric Hospital in Hartshill, the four experts reviewed the notes of hundreds of thousands of patients at 183 GP practices throughout the country to look for any changing rate in cases of schizophrenia.
The work had been set up to see if earlier forecasts from other experts had been borne out, that the mental disorder would soar through the growing popularity of cannabis.
[Researchers concluded,] “The casual models linking cannabis with schizophrenia and other psychoses are… not supported by our study.”Hartshill-based Dilys Wood, national co-ordinator of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, said that so far the report had been published in medical journals and would have a far-reaching reaction if it surfaced more widely.
She added: “I believe that if it had found a causal link between cannabis and schizophrenia it would have been all over the press.
“The public needs to know the truth about drugs; not more Government-led propaganda.”
And Alliance press officer Don Barnard said: “It is hard to believe the then Home Secretary Jacqui Smith did not know of this very important research when deciding to upgrade cannabis to Class B.”
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Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 5:21 pm | By: Radical Russ
(BBC News) Researchers looking at the effects of cannabis on bones have found its impact varies dramatically with age.
The study found that while the drug may reduce bone strength in the young, it could protect against osteoporosis, a weakening of the bones, in later life.
The results were uncovered by a team at the University of Edinburgh who compared the drug’s effects on mice.
Osteoporosis affects up to 30% of women and about 12% of men at some point in their lives.
The group found that cannabis can activate a molecule found naturally in the body that is key to the development of osteoporosis.
When the type 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1) comes into contact with cannabis, it has an impact on bone regeneration.
Stuart Ralston, the Arthritis Research Campaign Professor of Rheumatology at the University of Edinburgh, who led the study, said: “This is an exciting step forward, but we must recognise that these are early results and more tests are needed on the effects of cannabis in humans to determine how the effects differ with age in people.”
How many ads have you seen on TV for pharmaceuticals that are meant to help older women stave off osteoporosis? Forget the Boniva, try some Sativa! I’ve always been a big proponent of older ladies smoking weed; it’s just nice to finally have some science to back me up.Â
Tuesday, August 18th, 2009 at 5:15 pm | By: Radical Russ
(Guardian UK) Release is taking legal action against the British Transport Police (BTP) to determine if the use of sniffer dogs to detect drugs is lawful. If we are successful, the case will require the police to stop using sniffer dogs for this purpose.
The case was sparked by an incident in which Release’s executive director, Sebastian Saville was searched last year by the BTP at Camden Town underground station following a positive indication by a sniffer dog. Saville had no illegal drugs in his possession.
…The use of sniffer dogs to identify people carrying drugs as they make their way through London’s transport system is not only wrong in principle, but it is also ineffective in practice.
Australian research has found that in 74% of searches following an indication by a police dog no drugs were found. No equivalent comprehensive research has been conducted in the UK; however preliminary inquiries via freedom of information requests indicate that the deployment of police dogs here produces similar results. During Operation Shelter, conducted by the British Transport Police during Latitude festival in Ipswich in 2008, only 12% of searches conducted as a result of “tells” by police dogs located illegal drugs.
Sniffer dogs are not about catching drug dealers. The dogs lack the sophistication to distinguish between someone who has been in contact with drugs and someone who’s actually carrying them, let alone to determine what kind of quantity that person is carrying, and what they intend to do with it. Mr Hot Shot Dealer does not travel the tube with his stash. These dogs are not used to protect the public. They cannot be compared to metal detectors or dogs trained to identify bombs or knives, since drugs are not used as a weapon against the public. So the argument that the ends justify the means – used to defend searching thousands of visitors entering a venue on the grounds of protecting the public from an act of violence – cannot apply in the context of personal possession of drugs.
A dog is not an infallible and precise scientific measurement instrument, but police would like you to think they are. Drug K-9’s often alert just to appease their masters who are looking for an excuse to search a suspect without his or her permission. Dan Monnat gave an excellent presentation on this phenomenon at our 2008 Aspen Legal Conference.
Well, it doesn’t get much more stupid than this! The UK Drugs Policy Commission has finally recognized that busting drug dealers is counterproductive. However, instead of proposing that they undercut dealers’ prices with marijuana legally grown and sold to adults by licensed businesses, they’ve instead suggested that “police allow some dealers to ply their trade – and merely ask them to move away from residential neighborhoods“.
Apparently the advantages of licensing reputable businesses to produce and sell marijuana to adults is lost on the commission. Instead it thinks a better option is to allow criminals to illegally sell marijuana grown by other criminals to uncarded customers in an environment void of legal recourse.
What, dear commission, is the advantage of that?
Police should turn a blind eye to drug dealers if they want to stamp out street crime, a controversial report says.
Locking them up does no good and could even lead to violence as new villains fight it out to fill the gaps, experts warned in a report yesterday.
Instead, they said, police should allow some dealers to ply their trade – and merely ask them to move away from residential neighbourhoods.
The UK Drugs Policy Commission’s paper suggested crime-busting crackdowns can be counter-productive.
The group’s chief executive Roger Howard said police work should not be “limited to the traditional role of arresting as many dealers as possible in anticipation of reducing supply”. He added: “Drug markets will inevitably remain.”
The report said: “Drug enforcement efforts have focused on arrests and seizures with the aim of reducing supply. But markets are quick to adapt.”
The study said a better strategy would be “seeking to displace a market to another area where it will have less impact“.
Dismissing the report, the Home Office said “tough enforcement is fundamental”.
But Lib Dem spokesman Chris Huhne said: “The Government’s current enforcement policy barely scratches the surface when measured by the availability or street price of drugs.
“The enormous rise in cocaine use last year shows its negligible impact on the drugs market. We need to focus on what works.”
Last week figures revealed cocaine use rocketed by 25% in England and Wales in 2008.
And one question to the UK government, “tough enforcement is fundamental” to what? ..the security of your jobs? God knows it doesn’t keep drugs off the street and it doesn’t prevent children from buying them!
Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 1:40 pm | By: Radical Russ
London, United Kingdom–(ENEWSPF)–July 30, 2009. The consumption of cannabis, even long-term, has a “minimal” impact on brain function, according to a systematic literature review published online this week by the journal Psychological Medicine.
An international team of investigators from the United Kingdom, Spain, Brazil, Australia, and Switzerland conducted a systematic review of the effects of cannabis on brain structure and function.
Authors wrote, “We reviewed literature reporting neuroimaging studies of chronic or acute cannabis use published up until January 2009. … Sixty-six studies were identified, of which 41 met the inclusion criteria. Thirty-three were functional (SPECT/PET/fMRI) and eight structural (volumetric/DTI) imaging studies. … Only three of the structural imaging studies found differences between users and controls.”
Investigators concluded, “Minimal evidence of major effects of cannabis on brain structure has been reported,” noting that cannabis users and controls perform similarly on cognitive tasks.
According to a 2001 study published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry, long-term cannabis smokers who abstained from pot for one week “showed virtually no significant differences from control subjects (those who had smoked marijuana less than 50 times in their lives) on a battery of 10 neuropsychological tests.” Investigators added, “Former heavy users, who had consumed little or no cannabis in the three months before testing, [also] showed no significant differences from control subjects on any of these tests on any of the testing days.”
While this is great news, what if the tests had shown chronic marijuana use does cause severe brain damage to long term users? Do we determine whether adults should be locked up for what they ingest based on the harms of long-term heavy use? If so, why are alcohol and tobacco allowed — we know they cause severe damage to lungs, heart, kidneys, liver, skin, and brain!
I’m all for religious use of ganja, medical use of cannabis, and the fact that social use of marijuana is safer than alcohol. Whatever reason is fine by me, because I believe from the borders of my skin inward that territory is mine and only I can make laws to govern it. If I want to put drain opener in my body, that is my right (well, not for long, as I would die quickly…); if I want to slam my head against a brick wall, that is my right; if I wish to inhale the smoke of a smoldering flower, that is my right. If I am allowed to hurl my body out of an airplane while wearing a parachute, or jump off a tall bridge with a rubber band around my feet, or walk across fiery hot coals barefoot to get my kicks, why can I not smoke marijuana in the privacy of my home?
Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 9:20 am | By: Radical Russ
LONDON (AP) — A judge has sentenced a cast member of the “Harry Potter” films to 120 hours of community service for growing marijuana.
Twenty-year-old Jamie Waylett, who plays school bully Vincent Crabbe in the magical movie franchise, pleaded guilty to producing the drug at a court hearing last week.
Prosecutors said police found 10 marijuana plants growing in a bedroom at Waylett’s mother’s house in London.
Producing cannabis carries a maximum 14-year sentence. Judge Timothy Workman said Tuesday that he accepted that the cultivation was on a small scale and for Waylett’s own use.
He said the actor had been, “until now, a man of good character.”
Well, no jail time, no suspended sentence, no probation, just five days of community service. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the United Kingdom…
(Mayo Advertiser, Ireland) A married father of four, whose children range in age from nine to one, was given a suspended sentence at Ballina District Court on Tuesday after he was detected cultivating two cannabis plants as well as having cannabis resin in his possession.
Judge Mary Devins said to the defendant “you just don’t care about your children”, as the children could easily have reached the shelf where the cannabis was stashed or have opened the back door. Timlin said that his children did not have access to the back of the house and would therefore not have come into contact with the plants.
The unemployed man was convicted and fined €500 for the cultivation of the plants and sentenced to prison for three months, with the sentence suspended for 12 months on the condition that no convictions were recorded under the misuse of drugs act. For the possession of the cannabis Timlin was convicted and fined €200. Judge Devins told the defendant to “put your children first and yourself second in the future”.
(South Devon Herald-Express) A SCAFFOLDER who turned his loft into a ‘cannabis fortress’ is being sought by police after a court issued an arrest warrant for him.
Ashley Tierney, 21, failed to turn up at Exeter Crown Court to say why he had breached a suspended prison sentence with an unpaid work requirement imposed last November after he admitted cultivating cannabis.
Officers found 17 plants which would have yielded some ÂŁ12,000 of cannabis.
Tierney was given a four-month prison sentence suspended for two years and told to do 120 hours’ unpaid work in the community after the court heard the crop was for his own use.
Funny how people who aren’t Harry Potter actors seem to get suspended prison sentences for their personal cultivation of cannabis, isn’t it? I’m not saying that Jamie Waylett should go to jail for growing cannabis; nobody should.  I just find it interesting how courts find cannabis far less dangerous to society if you’ve appeared in a movie.
Friday, July 17th, 2009 at 11:20 am | By: Radical Russ
(MTV News) While his fellow castmates were celebrating the $100 million opening-day box office success of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” Jamie Waylett was in a London court on Thursday pleading guilty to growing marijuana, according to The Associated Press.
Waylett, who has played Hogwarts bully Vincent Crabbe in all of the six “Potter” films, was originally busted in April after police searched a car he was riding in and discovered eight bags of marijuana and a knife. Police then raided his mother’s home and found 10 marijuana plants. The cannabis was reportedly worth approximately $2,900 and was growing under hydroponic lights, next to a PlayStation console.
Along with a friend, the 19-year-old Waylett pleaded guilty to growing the drug at a hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court. The charge carries a maximum sentence of 14 years. Judge Timothy Workman announced that the two men would be sentenced Tuesday.
I have no reports of Waylett growing this marijuana to help supply needy patients with desperately needed medicine. I have to believe that Waylett was growing 10 plants for his own personal purposes. Certainly he’s made enough coin from the “Harry Potter” franchise* that he doesn’t need to grow cannabis for sale. I’d imagine an actor of such fame would resort to growing his own to avoid the possibility of being busted buying weed from dealers.
But if you’re going to grow your own to maintain some privacy, what are you doing riding around in a car with a guy transporting eight different bags of pot?
* For the record, I have never read a “Harry Potter” book and I have never seen a “Harry Potter” movie. I have to assume this guy is famous.
Topics: Harry Potter, Jamie Waylett, United Kingdom
RevRayGreen: MASS TWEET THIS -@ChuckGrassley Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer sadness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
RevRayGreen: @ChuckGrassley http://bit.ly/55Ejsi Truth is Chuck you follow Nixon's CSA full of reefer madness. btw Chuck, Marijuana is not a drug.
SneakerPimp: one last thing Puff puff pass to any one who wants it
SneakerPimp: i wanna here about the imminent MiniSpof sounds like time for some
SneakerPimp: im estatic and excited for NSL today.
SneakerPimp: mountain time wake n bake
SneakerPimp: oh yea also wake n bake
SneakerPimp: its central im high as a kite everybody
SneakerPimp: ill grab that WUD
WakeUpDead: @Russ, I dont think that wireless is going to work out for the show, it was choppy and studdered just like last week. Hardline may be the only way. Puff [...]
WakeUpDead: A MINI Spof, Lock up your Weed, in 18 years that is. Really Man congrats! Greatest days of my life when my kids were born, hell yeh, great news [...]
BenJaMin: Late night Stash!!!
SneakerPimp: heres a bong rip for spof
RevRayGreen: errr test over....
RevRayGreen: on hold..
RevRayGreen: @RR I'll try and lob a call to you.....
SneakerPimp: where is the first field of cannabis gonna be?
SneakerPimp: !
Radical Russ: Breaking News: MrSpof's wife's water just broke! A MiniSpof is imminent!
SneakerPimp: oh russ its not my fault that i dont understand choppy word:stoned:
SneakerPimp: @Mrspof congratulations tell us all about it tommrow
Radical Russ: OK, test over. Sorry. Only needed a half hour. Be back tomorrow afternoon.
slash5city: don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west
thaistik: Local Crime Stoppers notice.
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Pot shop burglars sought
Crime Stoppers is looking for information on the suspects who police say burglarized a medical marijuana dispensary and stole cash, drugs [...]
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. […]
Combining cocaine, alcohol, creates toxic cocaethylene stored in liver, blamed for heart attacks
sounds like time for some 
mountain time wake n bake 
don't forget to watch CCS live on u-stream 8 pm west 
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