tagged w/ Reefer Madness
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Amazingly, MAPS is the only organization that is attempting to resolve the controversy over medical marijuana via the FDA research route.
MAPS' goal is to initiate and fund a serious drug development research program aimed at proving to the satisfaction of the FDA that marijuana is safe and efficacious for specific medical uses and should become a legal, FDA-approved prescription medicine.Amazingly, MAPS is the only organization that is attempting to resolve the controversy... more
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Having spent years reporting on the War on Drugs, Lisa Ling offers her perspective on marijuana.
"I really think that it's time that our law makers and drug enforcement officials, perhaps scientists and intellectuals, actually sit down and scrutinize this issue and figure out a way to possibly better regulate it, possibly decriminalize it, and there is a way, I think, because, relative to methamphetamine and cocaine, it's not as extreme a drug. I don't know if marijuana will ever become legalized, it quite possibly could become decriminalized, but I do know that the arguments for legalization are very strong!"Having spent years reporting on the War on Drugs, Lisa Ling offers her perspective on... more
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Cannabis users face new penalties when the drug is upgraded to class B from January next year, the home secretary said today.
Jacqui Smith said that those caught with cannabis for a second time would be fined £80 and after three strikes would be arrested.
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"Fewer people are taking cannabis, but it is crucial that this trend continues. I am extremely concerned about the use of stronger strains of cannabis, such as skunk, and the harm they can cause to mental health.
Smith announced last May that she would go against the recommendations of the government's scientific experts, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which was asked by the home secretary to take its third look at cannabis classification in recent years.
The council's advice was that cannabis should remain class C.Cannabis users face new penalties when the drug is upgraded to class B from January... more
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Reporting from secret farms and not-so-secret grow houses of marijuana cultivators, Lisa Ling goes into their world -- where marijuana is not just a drug but a way of life.
"If a stranger walked up to you and poured pebble like seeds into your hand and then said, 'plant them and your harvest can be made into rope, cloth or paper. It could help the sick or intoxicate.' What would you say? Would you keep the seeds or chuck them away?"
I highly recommend this Explorer. Although it isn't perfect, it has its insightful moments and Lisa Ling shines, as always! :)Reporting from secret farms and not-so-secret grow houses of marijuana cultivators,... more
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It has been painful from the outside looking in to watch President-elect Barack Obama begin to cobble together his cabinet officers and senior staff in regards to what prospects there are for substantive cannabis law reforms in this first term.
There are only a couple of key appointments left that may signal the political tea leafs for cannabis law reforms in Obama 1.0 — head of Drug Enforcement Administration (which serves under the Attorney General at the Department of Justice) and the Drug Czar (see below regarding rumored nominee).
Who among current Obama nominees are giving me some acid burn?
In order of importance:@linkIt has been painful from the outside looking in to watch President-elect Barack Obama... more
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John McCain:
“I do not approve of the medical use of marijuana—I never have, and I never will. I believe there are other ways of relieving that pain and suffering.”
John McCain:
“I do not approve of the medical use of marijuana—I... more
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On the ballot this November in Massachusetts, voters will have the opportunity to become the 13th state to decriminalize personal possession of marijuana. The initiative, known as Question 2, would make possession of an ounce or less of marijuana a civil fine of $100, and those under 18 have to complete a drug education program and community service, or else the fine goes as high as $1,000.
Most of all, the offense would not be listed in the Criminal Record Information System (CORI) database. Drug warriors like to say “nobody goes to prison for marijuana“, but the harm from a criminal arrest is bad enough. Once you’re in this CORI database, it’s a red flag that hurts you in getting jobs, housing, loans, security clearances, and more. Plus there is the time and money - about $30 million a year - that Massachusetts wastes busting people for small amounts of pot.
Since the measure is enjoying huge support in the polls, the drug warriors have banded together to mount a media offensive. And by “offensive”, I mean the offensively repugnant stench of reefer madness…[more]On the ballot this November in Massachusetts, voters will have the opportunity to... more
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As a registered nurse and the person pictured in the July 20 article "High emotions: Group backs medical marijuana," I am growing increasingly weary of the insulting attacks found in Kevin Sabet's July 24 guest commentary, "Public faces medical marijuana scam," which brand me as a miscreant and criminal simply because I am part of a team of health-care professionals who make the ancient medicinal herb marijuana available to patients in need.
More...As a registered nurse and the person pictured in the July 20 article "High... more
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Above the Influence's faux documentary, Stoners In The Mist, is a film so prejudiced that even the White House -- which commissioned the interactive video -- is hesitant to promote it.
Available online at the AbovetheInfluence.com website (a project of the White House's multi-billion dollar National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, Stoners In The Mist is a series of vignettes -- each designed to grossly exaggerate and exploit common pothead stereotypes. But promoting falsehoods about the physical and mental effects of weed is nothing new for federal politicians and bureaucrats. What sets Stoners In The Mist apart from prior examples of government-financed anti-pot excrement is the film's shocking and exceedingly malevolent tone.
In this case, cannabis consumers are portrayed, quite literally, as less than human. Rather, they are mockingly characterized as wild game -- to be hunted, tagged, and bagged by the film's 'Crocodile Hunter' inspired narrator.
The host refers to pot smokers as lab "specimens" whose safety requires them to be locked up in an "artificially controlled environment" (a not-so-subtle endorsement of jail, perhaps?)
Above the Influence's faux documentary, Stoners In The Mist, is a film so... more
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More than 70 years in the making, the long-awaited sequel to the notorious 1936 film, Reefer Madness has arrived. It's called The Purple Brain, and just like its unintentionally campy predecessor, its purpose is to frighten Americans about marijuana.
Hmmmmmm. I couldn't seem to find out much info about this.More than 70 years in the making, the long-awaited sequel to the notorious 1936 film,... more
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Grass (1999)/#####/*** A documentary history of marijuana criminalization in the U.S. [Dir: Ron Mann/ Woody Harrelson (narrator)/ 80min/ Documentary/ Legalize Drugs, Propaganda/ Canadian]
Each year, hundreds of thousands of Americans are arrested for marijuana use. The cumulative cost of these arrests (and subsequent incarcerations) is estimated to be in the hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars. That's a lot of pain and effort to ban a drug that even government experts have concluded to be relatively benign, as indeed marijuana must be since roughly a quarter of the U.S. population has used it without noticeable ill effect. So how did U.S. government policy with respect to marijuana get to be so absurd? That's the question this documentary sets out to answer.
As told here, it all started with a man named Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics from 1930-1962 and an enthusiastic Prohibitionist. He's the chief villain of this story. In league with some of the more yellow press and naive Hollywood, Anslinger created public hysteria over marijuana by blaming it for widespread murder and insanity. The feds and the states then banned marijuana without debate or scientific investigation. After an embarrassing study (commissioned by Mayor LaGuardia of New York) disproved Anslinger's preposterous allegations with regard to pot, Anslinger effectively stopped all research on it by cutting off the supply to researchers. Later, he encouraged the idea that marijuana was a commie plot, and then finally topped off his career by getting the UN to ban marijuana around the world. In short, with regard to pot, Anslinger was the metaphorical Hitler of the War on Drugs.
But the campaign against pot didn't end with Anslinger. As is so often the case with government programs, once started, it became an unstoppable juggernaut, impervious to reason, that gathered more resources and caused more suffering as it rolled ever forward. We see this in the second half of the film, in reviews of the marijuana policies of the various post-Anslinger presidents. Under Nixon, the war on pot was expanded, even though Nixon's own government panel recommended decriminalization. Carter favored decriminalization but lacked the clout to carry it through. After Carter's defeat, Reagan and Bush picked up where Nixon left off and further fueled the war. Ironically the liberal Clinton (who smoked pot but "never inhaled") turned out to be the biggest anti-pot warrior of all -- with more pot arrests under his administration that any previous.
You learn all that and much more in this well-researched and entertaining documentary. Although this film is serious in its implications, the telling is light, even comic at times, as the main focus is on mocking U.S government marijuana policy and those who would defend it. In this regard, good use is made of early (now laughable) propaganda films on pot, like "High on the Range" and "Reefer Madness" as well as videotaped speeches and interviews by drug warriors.
This is an enjoyable film, and the comic aspect of it also makes it a good pick to drag non-libertarian friends to, as it communicates its very libertarian message in a relatively palatable form. And just in case you were wondering, a note near the end of the film states that "no hippies were harmed in the making of this movie."
Incomplete movie.
I think I'll go buy a copy.Grass (1999)/#####/*** A documentary history of marijuana criminalization in the U.S.... more
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It's no accident that people are afraid of marijuana and hemp.
The film toured around the country for many years - often being re-edited and re-titled ("Tell Your Children", "Dope Addict", "Doped Youth", "Love Madness", "The Burning Question"). It was re-discovered in the early 1970s by NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) and screened again as an example of the government's demonization of marijuana.
It's no accident that people are afraid of marijuana and hemp.
The film... more
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This is way better than the Drew Carey Show!
If you would like to see a cut down of a movie similar to Reefer Madness check out Keep off the Grass, by Sid Davis.
http://current.com/items/76348342_keep_off_the_grassThis is way better than the Drew Carey Show!
If you would like to see a cut down of a... more
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