There is a special place in Hell reserved for the Vatican

http://continuingcounterreformation.blogspot.com/2009/02/there-is-special-place-in-hell-reserved.html

William Randolph Hearst,
Vatican tool
(SMOM) Knights of Malta

who dedicated his newspapers towards unjustifiably demonifying Cannabis and other herbs
for criminal mercantilism market protection for Virginia Bright Leaf cigarettes and big pharm

From Pete Guither:

There is a special place in Hell reserved for the Vatican

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/2009/02/26.html

Oh sure, there were the Crusades, the Inquisition, the destruction of science (Galileo), silence during the Holocaust, coverup of pedophiles, and the direct responsibility for millions of deaths to AIDS due to opposing safe sex practices (particularly in third world countries).
But NO, that's not nearly enough for the Vatican. Surely there's more evil that they can promote, more people they can kill in the name of God the Pope.
Oh yes, how about drug users. Let's kill some of them, too.

You see, the United States finally, finally, finally, came to its senses and the Obama administration sent a new message through its representatives to the United Nations that at least needle exchange as a harm reduction approach would be accepted. While that was not nearly all that was needed, it was at least an opening, and even the most rabid global drug warriors agreed that needle exchange was now a sure thing to be included in the new global drug policy.
But then, guess who intercedes?

The Vatican has been accused of putting the lives of thousands at risk by attempting to influence UN drugs policy on the eve of a major international declaration.
The Vatican's objection to "harm reduction" strategies, such as needle exchange schemes, has ignited a fierce debate between the US and the EU over how drugs should be tackled.
A new UN declaration of intent is due to be signed in Vienna on 11 March. However, there are major disagreements between member countries over whether a commitment to "harm reduction" should be included in the document, which is published every 10 years.
Now the Vatican has issued a statement that claims that using drugs is "anti-life" and "so-called harm reduction leads to liberalisation of the use of drugs". The Vatican's last-minute intervention appears to have led to Italy withdrawing from the EU consensus on the issue and thrown the talks over the declaration into confusion. [Guardian, UK]

Now, just to be clear, is there any doubt as to the actual truth? No.

Seven federally funded studies during the 1990s, conducted by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the CDC and the National Academy of Sciences among others, all reached similar conclusions that NEPs work in reducing HIV's spread among IV drug users, their partners and children, and that they do not encourage increased drug use. Furthermore, a more recent study by the World Health Organization compiled the results of over 200 such reports from around the world and came to the same conclusions. [emphasis added]

The Vatican knows this, and yet they oppose needle exchange. Dr. William Martin, Professor Emeritus of Religion and Public Policy at Rice University says:

When the science is clear, when we know that something will help save lives and choose not to do it that is not only pigheaded, it is immoral.

There is no doubt that the Vatican is immoral.
I am no stranger to spirituality. I was raised in church (my father is a minister). But religion does not own, beget, nor bestow morality. And some of the most moral people I've known are atheists.
In fact, when a group of people claim to be the holders of religious truth and use that ill-gotten power for destruction rather than for the good of the people, then they are terrorists, whether they reside in caves in Pakistan, or high in the Holy See.

11:00:23 PM | drug policy | Related | permalink | comment [1]

Roman Catholic Anti Christ Cocaine Prohibition

Read more ►

U.N. I.N.C.B. Religious Inquisition Terrorists

An excerpt from the UNINCB:

http://www.incb.org/incb/activities.html

INCB Secretary visits the Islamic Republic of Iran

The Secretary of the International Narcotics Control Board, Mr. Koli Kouame, on behalf of the Board, took part in an official visit to the Islamic Republic of Iran from 29 November to 1 December 2008 to witness the efforts undertaken by the Government of Iran in drug control. Mr. Kouame was part of a delegation composed of diplomats and representatives of international organizations based in Vienna.

INCB President and INCB Secretary visit the Vatican

The President of the International Narcotics Control Board, Professor Hamid Ghodse, and the Secretary of the Board, Mr. Koli Kouame, visited the Vatican on 26 November 2008. Professor Ghodse and Mr. Kouame met with the Monsignor Pietro Parolin, Under-Secretary of State for Relations with States and had exchange of views on the world drug situation and what the faith-based organizations, in particular the Vatican can do, to promote worldwide efforts against drug abuse. During their visit, they also briefly met with His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI.

INCB President and INCB Secretary participate in the forty-third session of the Sub-commission on Illicit Drug Traffic and Related Matters in the Near and Middle East, in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran

The President of the International Narcotics Control Board, Professor Hamid Ghodse and the Secretary of the Board, Mr. Koli Kouame attended the forty-third session of the Sub-commission on Illicit Drug Traffic and Related Matters in the Near and Middle East, held in Tehran from 16 to 20 November 2008. During his visit, Professor Ghodse delivered a keynote address and met with Dr. Manouchehr Mottaki, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and with Dr. Esmail Ahmady Moghadam, Adviser to President and Secretary-General of the Drug Control Headquarters, to discuss drug control matters in Iran and regional cooperation efforts. Mr. Koli Kouame attended the proceedings of the Subcommission and held discussions with the participants regarding their country's cooperation with INCB.

Read more ►

More Nonsense from the U.N. I.N.C.B.

Continuing criminal activity
of bureaucratic sociopaths for
alcohol, big pharm and cigarette market protection

http://7thspace.com/headlines/304096/press_conference_on_2008_international_narcotics_control_board_report.html

Multilateral drug control was one of the twentieth century’s greatest achievements, but according to the 2008 International Narcotics Control Board report, the lethal side-effects of the illicit drug trade in many countries, coupled with the unavailability of narcotics for medical purpose in others, revealed that major efforts were still needed to maintain the system’s integrity.

Melvyn Levitsky, a former United States ambassador and a current member of International Narcotics Control Board (ICNB), provided an overview of the report, which was launched in New York at Headquarters this afternoon. Discussing a wide range of issues, he underlined one of the Board’s key conclusions that, globally, more attention needed to be focused on prevention strategies since gaps in preventive efforts stimulated drug trafficking, abuse and the need for treatment.

He also stressed that only some “harm reduction” methods -- such as the use of substitute treatment most commonly seen in methadone programmes, well-managed needle exchange schemes and alternative sentencing procedures -- were in accord with anti-drug conventions. Others, such as drug injection rooms, general consumption rooms and “crack kits”, were not.

One area where many countries were struggling was in combating illegal, rogue Internet pharmacies, which allowed legal and illegal drugs to be purchased often after phoney e-mail consultations with doctors. The Board expected to publish some guidelines for helping stem that practice, he said. “Our plea is to make sure that Governments take a look at this to see if there is something multilaterally that can be done,” he added.

INCB monitors and promotes the implementation of the three drug control conventions -- the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances and the 1988 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, he said.

The Board’s 13 members are elected by the Economic and Social Council, and over 95 per cent of United Nations Member States -- covering over 99 per cent of the world’s population -- are parties to the three instruments. “The drug conventions are the ‘Bible’ with regard to the way countries are to carry out their obligations in drug control since they have signed and ratified these conventions”, Mr. Levitsky said.

He noted that 2009 marked the centennial anniversary of the International Opium Commission, which was held in 1909 in Shanghai and had spurred efforts to create today’s international drug control regime. In addition, a high-level meeting would be held later this year in Vienna to evaluate the progress made since the General Assembly’s last special session on drugs in 1998.

He said that among the areas where positive progress had been made was the growth in regional drug control initiatives, as the realization spread that countries acting alone could not deal with the problem of illegal drugs. Of particular note were efforts in Latin America, where the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission (CICAD) was making inroads, and the ongoing initiatives by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and among Canada, the United States and Mexico. Recent developments in West Africa had caught the attention of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

In many places, such regional initiatives were bearing fruit, said Mr. Levitsky, pointing out that today in South-East Asia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Thailand were almost opium free. While Myanmar remained a problem, production there had, nevertheless, decreased.

A system to control the “precursor” chemicals needed to refine the final intoxicating product from its raw form -- heroin from opium, cocaine from coca leaves, methamphetamine from pseudoephedrine and ephedrine -- had also been created so countries could measure the import and export of different substances. After the rapid rise of pseudoephedrine and ephedrine from Asia, Mexico had banned the import of those chemicals to stem its domestic methamphetamine production.

The report also notes among its most positive findings that drug abuse among youth and teens had gone down 24 per cent in the last eight years in the United States, the world’s largest drug market. He cautioned, however, that the use of illegal drugs remained high in the United States with the illicit use of over-the-counter drugs having become, perhaps, the major problem. Both the over-advertisement and over-prescription of pharmaceuticals contributed to their rising use, he added.

Turning to the areas of general concern cited in the report, he highlighted the rising levels of tolerance of cannabis and marijuana, and the decriminalization of medical marijuana despite rising levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) due to sophisticated growing technologies, increased emergency-room visits after recreational use of marijuana and a greater number of studies linking the drug’s use to mental illnesses like schizophrenia and short-term memory loss. Bucking that trend, the United Kingdom had also moved cannabis from a schedule C to a schedule B drug, in recognition of the risks involved, he said.

Like the world community, the Board was quite concerned about Afghanistan, he said. Although cultivation areas had been reduced there last year by roughly 19 per cent, yields remained disproportionately high, resulting in a decrease of only 6 per cent in total production -- or more than enough to supply the illegal drug habits of people around the world. Neighbouring countries -- such as the “‑stans” to the north and Iran to the west -- were suffering from that oversupply as their user populations grew. In Iran’s case, the number of opiate users were estimated at around 3 million people.

Focusing on other specific regions, he said that, although yields had gone down, coca cultivation in the Andes was up in terms of total area, and cocaine smuggling remained a particular concern in that region, he said. A rise in production had been seen in Bolivia. While Colombia had taken “quite effective” efforts to combat cocaine smuggling, Venezuela remained a transit State for much of the cocaine going to West Africa and Europe. Drug-fuelled violence in Mexico had also risen.

Other findings showed that 27 per cent of Europe-bound cocaine transited West African States such as Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Cape Verde, prompting ECOWAS to hold a conference on drug trafficking’s spill-over effects, especially the weakening State institutions and the rise of corruption. The report also notes growing instances of methamphetamine being produced in Canada and smuggled to South-East Asia.

To a question on the report’s findings about the rise of the United Arab Emirates -- particularly its free trade zones -- as a major transit route for drugs, he said the Gulf area had not historically been considered a locus of drug abuse because of religious prohibitions and the strictness of regional States. But there was heightened tension between free trade areas and the ability to smuggle drugs in small quantities but high-value shipments. Customs officials and other authorities should pay more attention to that flow and establish better internal systems to deal with drug abuse.

Pressed about what could be done in Afghanistan, he stressed that while the promotion of sustainable alternative livelihoods anchored around alternative crops and small industry or crafts was needed, some kind of security and effective Government presence would be required to bring sufficient infrastructure to support them. It was hoped that the arrival of 17,000 additional United States troops over the next several months might provide training and equipment for the Afghan Government’s eradication efforts, as well as providing the security needed to allow alternative livelihoods to gain a toe-hold.

He stressed that regional leaders also needed to step up their contributions, as did North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) countries and United Nations agencies running programmes on the ground. While the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) had made some progress on that front, it was only on the margins and the major obstacle remained the lack of Government control. Moreover, the demand side also needed work, although it was clear that supply exceeded demand and spilled over in detrimental ways to local and neighbouring populations.

Responding to a question on medical marijuana, he said the challenge of medical marijuana was in devising a dosage system for something that could be smoked. The Board believed that if there was a scientific means of prescribing marijuana via something like the Federal Drug Administration’s approval in the United States, it would be in line with the international drug conventions. Pointing out that some chemicals in the marijuana plant could be simulated as in a drug called Marinol, he said the same principle applied to extracting compounds from the plant’s seed or leaves.

When asked about the report’s findings on the use of coca products by Bolivia’s indigenous populations, he said the Board’s position was that Bolivia was in contravention of the anti-drug accords and had urged the current Government there to meet its obligations as signatories to the 1971 Convention. If, as Bolivia claimed, chewing coca leaves was done to blunt hunger pains and combat altitude sickness, other ways to combat these problems, such as promoting a better standard of living, might be called for. In addition, if Bolivia wanted to change how coca leaf was handled in the conventions, there was a procedure to do that through the World Health Organization (WHO), or by seeking an amendment to the conventions with the support of other countries.

Asked about the recent headlines about Olympic champion Michael Phelps’ marijuana use and New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez’s ingestion of performance-enhancing drugs, he said both cases were terrible examples for the world’s youth, but the Board could not say what should be done legally in either -- particularly since it was not yet known what substance Rodriguez had taken.

U.N. International 'Narcotics' Control Board

Read more ►

Obama Administration & April UN INCB Meeting?

From Joep Oomen:

ENCOD BULLETIN ON DRUG POLICIES IN EUROPE NR. 48 FEBRUARY 2009

http://www.chanvre-info.ch/info/en/ENCOD-BULLETIN-ON-DRUG-POLICIES-IN,5674.html

GREEN LIGHT IN THE WHITE HOUSE?

In a few weeks from now, we may see a first important sign of Barack Obama’s promise of a true regime change in the United States.

When the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs meets in Vienna from 11 to 20 March in order to establish new guidelines for international drug policy in the coming years, the eyes of the world will point towards those that received the mandate from the new White House staff to address this meeting. Will Washington continue to lead the world into a dead-end one way street, or will it start to speak the language of dialogue? How will the other two key players in the global drug policy game, the UN Office of Drug Control and the European Union, respond to this opportunity to change the course of history? What are the true prospects for the dream that world leaders will finally start to discuss a rational alternative to the global drug war madness?

As host of the yearly CND meetings, the UNODC in Vienna has no interest in anything that may threaten the consensus behind the current status quo. The way in which Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa categorically refuses to discuss the results of Dutch cannabis policies shows that here, the door towards new approaches in drug policy is firmly closed. With regards to the European Union, it will depend very much on the spokespersons, since the legendary contradictions between EU governments as well as between the words and the actions of EU bureaucracy, remain the main obstacle for making any progress at all.

In the Netherlands, where cannabis has been officially available to adults through the sale in coffeeshops since 1976, the level of cannabis use is lower than in neighbouring countries where cannabis is only available underground. Therefore it is cannabis policies in these countries, not in the Netherlands, that need to be questioned first. This is the underlying knowledge that EU politicians do not want to admit, and obedient civil servants do not want to insist on. So meanwhile, any kind of debate on drugs is avoided and EU drug policies continue to be hollow façades designed to cheat the taxpayers.

In December 2008 the European Commission delivered a new EU Action Plan on Drugs without allowing any opportunity for comment to the European Parliament, the recently created Civil Society Forum nor the Public Forum on the Internet that had been specifically established for this purpose two months before. Only ministers and civil servants took part in the writing of this plan, that ironically lists “participation of EU citizens in drug policy” as its second most important priority. In truly heroic style, the plan announces the launch of a so-called European Alliance on Drugs in June 2009, a partnership of citizens and authorities to fight against drugs.

A "European Alliance on Drugs" sounds like a term that may have been introduced during an after dinner conversation between EU leaders. Even the people working in the office of the European Commission’s Anti-Drugs Unit in Brussels are not able yet to explain what this alliance wants and what it will consist of.

For the next Civil Society Forum, Encod will work out a proposal for a true and effective dialogue on drug policy between authorities and citizens in Europe. A dialogue based on the knowledge that we share common interests: using the best expertise and knowledge available in order to convert evidence-based information into rational and pragmatic proposals for a better approach.

The research that Encod conducted in the past months among drug user organisations in Europe, some of which have 35 of years of experience in dialogue with authorities, produced the basic recommendations on how to build bridges between authorities and citizens who are affected by drug policies.

Meanwhile, Encod is constructing transition models towards a future where drugs-related problems are treated as a social and health issue in stead of a criminal justice one.

Although Encod will not initiate any big events outside the UN building in Vienna this year, due to organizational problems, we will instead send a delegation of people inside who together represent experiences from some of the citizens who are most affected by drug policies around the world.

It is possible to meet the members of this delegation at the conference that Encod will organise on 4 March, the week before Vienna, in the European Parliament, under the title “Coca 2009 – from persecution to proposal”. At this conference, organised in collaboration with the Bolivian government and coca growers’ organizations under the auspices of European Parliament Member Giusto Catania, Encod will propose a model to start commercialising traditional coca leaf products in Europe in a fair trade scheme.

According to this model coca products will not be available on the free market. The commercial transaction will take place between associations (of both coca leaf growers and consumers of coca products), without the intervention of private companies. The model is based on an agreement signed by Encod and various federations of coca growers in Bolivia, who will be share the ownership of this initiative.

The idea is to introduce the world to a healthier use of coca leaves than in the way it has been used outside the Andean Region until now: in either cocaine or Coca Cola. The bibliography on the positive effects of coca on the functioning of body and mind is impressive. According to a Harvard study in 1978 the consumption of the coca leaf in tea or other products has no negative side effects, acts as a mild stimulant, anti-depressive and local anesthesic, improves the function of the stomach, the muscles and the throat, and can be used in the treatment of obesity and diabetes.

At the UN Summit in Vienna, the Bolivian government will present a proposal to end the persecution of the coca leaf. When considering this proposal, Barrack Obama should realise that yes, he can end a war that has turned the Andean region into a drug policy Guantanamo. By decriminalising the cultivation of coca leaves in the Andean Region and allowing the market for coca leaf products to extend across the world, a more just and effective control system on coca cultivation can be introduced, and perspectives for sustainable development in coca producing areas can be created.

Since 1995, Encod has been campaigning together with organisations of coca growers from the Andean Region for the legal use of traditional coca leaf products in Europe as a way to teach the Western world the right way to use this product and reduce the availability of coca to the illegal production of cocaine. This call has been repeated by the European Parliament in several occasions. And since coca grower leader Evo Morales became Bolivia’s president, the government of that country is also proposing that the UN take coca off the list of prohibited drugs.

The same theory can be applied to the legal use of cannabis that is traditionally grown in Morocco, of opium in Afghanistan, and to the cultivation for personal consumption of any kind of plant anywhere.

With the green light from the White House, the UNODC and the EU should take their responsability and start the dismantlement of conventions that have made the world into a playground for organised crime. Each society should have the right to establish its own culturally accepted way of controlling the production and distribution of substances that people desire to consume, within the context of human rights.

By: Joep Oomen (with the help of Peter Webster)

* Those of who cannot be in Brussels on 4 March: you can participate in the discussion by sending your comments to coca2009@encod.org.

Those of you who can be there, click here to register.

Read more ►

What About The Other 8?

Sheriff Lott: Now drop the other pot charges

http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/business/hancock/blog/2009/02/sheriff_lott_now_drop_the_othe.html

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott said he won't file criminal charges against Michael Phelps for being photographed with a bong pressed up to his face. Now the sheriff should stop hassling the eight people he arrested to try to build evidence against Phelps. Presumably some/all are college kids. Aside from the legal consequences, a drug conviction can jeopardize student financial aid, enrollment etc.

Check out this account of some of these arrests:

From the Associated Press:

http://www.examiner.com/x-625-Olympics-Examiner~y2009m2d18-Phelps-leaves-charges-in-his-wake-can-others

One of the attorneys representing the three students arrested said the accused were all in their early 20s. Attorney Dick Harpootlian said police kicked in the doors with guns drawn during the raids and found less than a cigarette's worth of marijuana in the house where the party was held. The other raid netted about four or five cigarettes' worth, Harpootlian said.

The lawyer expects his clients to either have the charges dismissed or for them to get a conditional discharge, which allows an offender to avoid punishment as long as they comply with certain conditions for six months and stay out of trouble.

"We hope these kids are treated the same as any other kids," he said.

Read more ►

Joe Rogan to Kellogs

Joe Rogan's open letter to Kelloggs regarding Michael Phelps

http://blog.joerogan.net/

Dear Kelloggs,

I’m writing this letter to express my disappointment in your company in firing Michael Phelps as a spokesperson for your products because he was photographed while enjoying some marijuana.

I respectfully would like to communicate my opinion on this matter because I think it’s of great public interest.

First of all, although it is true that Mr. Phelps broke the law, I think any reasonably intelligent person would admit that it’s one of the most fucked up and corrupt laws that we have today in this country. Marijuana is relatively harmless and certainly far less dangerous than a host of other things that are not only legal but also readily available, like alcohol and prescription drugs. The only reason it remains illegal to this day is because it’s a plant and you can’t patent it and control it’s sale, and because if it were legal it would greatly affect the demand for a host of prescription drugs that rake in billions of dollars each year for pharmaceutical companies.

That’s it.

Marijuana has never killed anyone EVER in over 10,000 years of use. We’re not protecting people from themselves, we’re not saving the children - it’s just a horribly illogical law that is in place because of corruption and propaganda.

The fact that it’s against the law is just a disgusting reminder of how retarded our system is, not a reasonable reaction to a proven threat to society.

I have to say, this whole thing saddens me, because I personally would like to think that as Americans we’re better than this. These television news anchors will shake their heads at the thoughtless mistake Mr. Phelps had made by “smoking dope,” and then without even the tiniest sense of irony they will cut to a beer commercial.

This is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave, right? We’re not supposed to be a nation of little bitches giving in to the whims of corrupt politicians and the pharmaceutical companies who’s interests they’re representing.

It’s 2009, and in this day and age with the incredible access to information that we have available there’s no fucking way that we should be allowing human beings to tell other human beings that they can’t do something that they enjoy that hurts no one including themselves.

THAT is madness. THAT is ignorant, and THAT is completely fucking un-American.

I don’t want to hear any of that, “he’s setting a bad example with the children” nonsense either, because we all know if he had a gin and tonic in his hand instead of a bong this would never have been an issue, even though every single study ever done has shown that marijuana is FAR less dangerous than alcohol.

Marijuana laws are a horrible waste of resources and law enforcement, and especially in this day and age with our economy in such horrible shape I believe the last thing we need to be doing is wasting tax payers’ money on any of this victimless bullshit.

I find your reactions to Mr. Phelps situation both ignorant and short sighted.

I think what would have been a far better response from Kelloggs would be to support Mr. Phelps, and perhaps point out that maybe we as a society should take a closer look at the evidence and possibly reconsider our position on this misunderstood plant that so many of our productive citizens find useful.

Now, I’m sure if you really were running Kelloggs and you were still reading my bullshit all the way down to this, you must be thinking, “Why the hell would we stick our necks out like that for pot smokers?”

And of course the answer to that question would be, because we buy your shit, motherfucker.

Do you guys even know your consumer statistics? Well, let me fill you in on some of my own personal scientific research on the subject, because I have been closely studying my own purchases for over 20 years, and I can tell you that I’ve been high 100% of the time I’ve bought your shit.

I mean, do you guys ever think about what you sell?

Pop tarts? Are you kidding me? I would be willing to bet that 50% of the people buying pop tarts are stoned out of their fucking minds.

Just to be perfectly clear on my position, I would like you to know that I enjoy your products. I think many of them are quite tasty, but lets be honest; you guys sell sugar-drenched shit that’s horrible for your body - in fact, it’s actually way worse for your body than pot - and you market this shit specifically to children.

You assholes go as far as putting lovable cartoon characters on the boxes just so that kids will beg their parents for it.

Now, I don’t want you to misunderstand my point, because I in no way want anything bad to happen to your company. Like I said, I genuinely enjoy your products.

There’s nothing quite like being stoned out of your mind at 2am watching a Chuck Norris movie and eating a bowl of fruit loops. Your company and its products have been a part of some very pleasurable moments in guilty eating, and I’m glad you’re around.

All I’m saying is that it’s high time (no pun intended) that you motherfuckers respect the stoner dollar. There’s WAY more of us than you might think, and we tend to get upset about dumb shit like this. There are millions of us, and if we decide that we don’t like a company, they’re going to feel it.

I think if you looked into it carefully, you would be surprised at how many undercover potheads there are out there. Pot smokers don’t all fit into the obvious, negative stereotypes; we come in all shapes and forms - including by the way, the form of the greatest fucking swimmer who ever lived, EVER.

Think about THAT shit for a second..

So in closing, I would like to ask you nice folks to please smarten the fuck up.

I would request that you check the calendar and note that it’s 2000 and fucking 9, and next time you think about getting all uppity about pot you might want to do a quick google search on the facts.

It’s 4:40am here in LA, and I’m going to wrap up this blog and to celebrate its completion I’m going to enjoy one of my personal favorite Kellogg products: Eggo waffles.

I’m gonna pop 4 of them bitches into the toaster, and then I’m gonna stuff the bong with some fine, American grown “Train Wreck” and sacrifice the sacred plant to the fire gods in tribute to the unjustly persecuted 8 time Olympian hero. Then I’m gonna get some butter, and I’m gonna smear it on those Eggos, I’m gonna cover them with maple syrup, and I’m going to eat the ever loving fuck out of them.

Good day, sirs.

Yours truly,

Joe Rogan.

Read more ►

After the War- Next Monday in N.Y.

http://www.ony.unu.edu/events-forums/forums/2009/after-the-war-on-drugs-1.html

23 February, 2009

Midday Forum: After the War on Drugs

There is a great need to reform current global drug policy. Some propose legalization, while others emphasize greater priority for health and human rights.

Date: Monday, February 23rd
Time: 1:15pm to 2:45pm
Venue: Conference Room 8, United Nations Headquarters, New York

Presenter: Ethan Nadelmann, Executive Director, Drug Policy Alliance

The last century has witnessed the construction of a global drug prohibition regime that relies overwhelmingly on criminal justice and other coercive institutions and mechanisms to try to reduce the use of forbidden substances. In the last few years however, the opposition to this rigidly prohibitionist approach promoted by the United States has grown. Europeans have led the way in reforming drug policy in ways that are more consistent with health, human rights and science, and Latin America and Asia are close behind. In the last few years, the U.S. has been forced to accept a more health-focused approach by allowing for the language of 'harm reduction' in a number of key U.N. documents, including the Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS of 2006 (A/RES/60/262), and the Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS of 2001 (A/RES/S-26/2).

The next decade of UN and international drug control policy will surely focus much more attention on reducing the harmful effects of both drug misuse and failed prohibitionist policies.

This event will address the realistic options for reform in both the short and long term. In addition, the discussion will address whether the Obama administration is likely to change the US's focus and allow global drug policy to evolve in a new direction that gives much greater weight to health, human rights, science and vigorous and open global debate.

Latin-American Commission on Drugs and Democracy Calls Drug War a Failure (February 2009) (see report)

Speaker's Profile:

Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs.

Mr. Nadelmann was born in New York City and received his BA, JD, and PhD from Harvard, and a master's degree in international relations from the London School of Economics. He then taught politics and public affairs at Princeton University from 1987 to 1994, where his speaking and writings on drug policy--in publications ranging from Science and Foreign Affairs to American Heritage and National Review--attracted international attention. He authored Cops Across Borders, the first scholarly study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law enforcement, and co-authored another book entitled Policing the Globe: Criminalization and Crime Control in International Relations, published by Oxford University Press in 2006.

In 1994, Mr. Nadelmann founded the Lindesmith Center, a drug policy institute created with the philanthropic support of George Soros. In 2000, the growing Center merged with another organization to form the Drug Policy Alliance and Drug Policy Alliance Network, which advocate for drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights. Described by Rolling Stone as "the point man" for drug policy reform efforts, Ethan Nadelmann is widely regarded as the most prominent proponent of drug policy reform.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Jean-Marc Coicaud will moderate this discussion.
Dr. Coicaud's Bio

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The UNU-UN Midday Forum series is organized with the aim of offering an intimate and informal setting for the exchange of ideas and experiences, giving people concerned with similar problems the opportunity to meet and discuss important topics relating to the UN. It is a chance for academics and policy-makers, from the UN and beyond, to reflect on and participate in the work of the United Nations.

Coca Come Back

Read more ►