This is the Staunton Lick

Cannabis helps break cocaine addiction

From NORML:

New York, NY: Cocaine dependent patients are more likely to complete drug treatment if they use cannabis intermittently, according to clinical trial data to be published in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

Investigators at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia University assessed the effects of marijuana smoking on treatment retention in a clinical trial of 90 subjects enrolled in a 14-week outpatient program for cocaine dependence and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Researchers reported that those volunteers who used moderate amounts of cannabis during treatment were more likely to complete the program than were abstainers and/or subjects who used pot chronically.

“At week 14, retention rates were 24 percent among abstainers, 57 percent among intermittent/moderate users, and 39 percent among heavy/consistent users,” investigators found. They noted that similar results also have been reported among subjects seeking treatment for opiate dependence.

Cannabis use also was associated with higher rates of abstinence among cocaine users. Among those subjects in the study who reported using pot intermittently, 39 percent achieved two or more weeks of abstinence from cocaine, compared to only 26 percent of subjects who reported not using cannabis during treatment.

The study is the first to assess the use of cannabis on treatment outcomes in patients diagnosed with cocaine dependence, investigators said.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the study, “Concurrent cannabis use during treatment for comorbid ADHD and cocaine dependence: Effects on outcome,” will appear in the American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

Brandon Mayfield was tortured

Brandon Mayfield

Glenn Greenwald writes,

So, in addition to the botched fingerprint analysis, that was the “evidence” Bush followers continued to cite even after it was clear that Mayfield was completely innocent — he converted to Islam, had an Egyptian wife, prayed at a “suspect” mosque, started a Muslim group in college, opposed the Patriot Act, criticized the Leader in harsh terms, represented an Islamic militant as a lawyer in a child custody case, believes that the U.S. is too closely aligned with Israel, and advocates for Palestinians.

Here’s what Brandon Mayfield says,

“The days, weeks and months following my arrest,” he said, “were some of the darkest we have had to endure. I personally was subject to lockdown, strip searches, sleep deprivation, unsanitary living conditions, shackles and chains, threats, physical pain and humiliation.”

He was never charged with a crime.

“The United States of America apologizes to Mr. Brandon Mayfield and his family for the suffering caused” by his mistaken arrest, the government’s apology began. It added that the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which erroneously linked him to the Madrid bombs through a fingerprinting mistake, had taken steps “to ensure that what happened to Mr. Mayfield and the Mayfield family does not happen again.”

Well, that’s all right then, I guess. They’ve “taken steps.” We should all feel reassured.

And they’ll pay him two million dollars. Which should reassure the American people that their tax dollars are being put to some good, for compensation of victims. As sarcastic as it may seem, it wouldn’t be such a bad idea for them to work out a similar deal with Iraq. How much should be paid for clean-up costs? I guess whatever can be worked out in a settlement, but who would you even settle with? The main thing is to stop doing what you’re doing and making the mess bigger.

But back to the main subject, torture. It’s still going on, and it’s happening to people who are innocent of any wrongdoing. How much longer?

Sugar? One lump or two?

We don’t trouble your banana, and bee honey is very fine. It’s something I add to sweeten my bread, and I prefer it in tea.

What I’m saying is, sugar is a drug, a very powerful drug. It stimulates the production of insulin, or in those who are deficient causes a sugar imbalance that can be dangerous. Sugar can kill you.

Related posts:

• Cannabis has never killed anyone
• Maybe start thinking about what you’re swallowing

Are you humanitarian?

It’s really the only question that has to be asked about your religious belief, not whether you believe in God (and what you think that means), not what names or ways of expressing yourself that you might have, not your adherence to rules that you may or may not even understand.

But seriously, are you humanitarian? Have you ever been humanitarian?

As long as we’re doing the downhill shuffle tonight

Watertiger finds something to offend the rest of my audience.

I’m not offended, however. So please don’t feel you should be.

Don’t call Chuck Norris gay

Amanda Marcotte wrote about Chuck Norris that he does not understand irony.

FACT: Chuck Norris doesn’t need to understand irony, because he will kick your ass.

This video is dedicated to Chuck Norris.

Update: replacement video:

Ask Stephen Colbert: What is mulch?

Does he know that mulching is a process of inbred fertilization which employs certain decomposed organic materials — including, but not limited to animal sediment — to blanket an area in which vegetation is desired? The procedure enriches the soil for stimulated plant development while, at the same time, preventing erosion and decreasing the evaporation of moisture from the ground.

Pagosa Springs declares Peace

Remember the Peace Wreath that Lisa Jensen and Bill Trimarco made?

Shakes Sis tells us this morning that the town of Pagosa Springs, Colorado will now build its own and will have it finished by Tuesday and installed on a bell tower in the center of town.

Related posts:

• Declaring peace on Christmas
• Sign of the season

Seconding the nomination

Dennis Prager was nominated by The Heretik for the not-so-coveted All-American Dumbass du Jour award.

Dennis is or pretends to be unaware that the Constitution, Article VI, provides,

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

Sean Bell, age 23

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/3424993/view]

Transcript.

Hat-tip.

Related post:

• Kathryn Johnston, age 92

Update: Bigdaddychris writes about an online letter writing campaign to ask (demand) appointment of a special prosecutor. My suggestion (in his comments) is for an investigating grand jury to be convened.

Say hello

to Where’s the Outrage?

Seven sounds like a good number

For seven weeks, in the seventh year of the new millennium, the Congress will sit in session, without break, to put both houses in order.

This will be an historical Congress, whether they succeed or fail, and I wish them every success, and a well deserved rest every seven days.

Read Oreo’s diary for the story.

Hat-tip to Athenae.

Speculation on 2008

Since everyone seems to be doing it in blogtopia (y!sctp!), here’s my projection for the 2008 match-up:

John Edwards / Barack Obama
Democratic Party
versus
John McCain / Joe Lieberman
Vanity “Independent” Party

Consider this an open thread.

A Christmas carol

Live in peace again.

Hat-tip to FoM.

Agree

Impeachment is about getting to a formal charge of high crimes and misdemeanors, it does not need to be named to be the process which a Congressional inquiry is likely to lead to.

Watch out for that tree

For those who tell the truth

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/3234023/view]

“I will give to eat from the tree of life.”

Is John Bush suicidal?

At this point, his “stay the course” plan is to play a game of Russian Roulette until discharge is accomplished.

Does this seem like an unserious question? A man who has lost all credibility and respect in the world, and refuses to admit defeat, has little else to consider.

Will the secret service protect him from himself?

Karma does not end.

Update: Oh go see Echidne and watch the video.

Lying to start a war is a war crime

Colin Powell despises his employers, but serves them without compunction,

Walking into the United Nations, Powell understood he was being used by the administration to persuade not foreign governments but the American people. And persuade them he did. Before his speech, DeYoung points out, two-thirds of Americans were against going to war; after it, half of them favored war. Three-quarters of those polled by The Los Angeles Times said they felt Powell had proved the case against Iraq. Before the speech Colin Powell was the most unambiguously admired figure in public life. “You’ve got high poll ratings,” Cheney said to him beforehand, as he poked Powell in the chest. “You can afford to lose a few points.” “They needed him to do it,” Powell’s wife, Alma, says here, “because they knew people would believe him.”

How you feel about all this will probably say as much about you as it does about Powell. On the one hand, it would have been useful, in retrospect, if he had sacrificed his career for the sake of his country; on the other hand, at the time it wasn’t clear, even to Powell, that his country was making a colossal mistake, or that he had the power to prevent it. But because his decision not to take Bush on directly had the pleasant side effect of preserving his job and his status, it feels, again in retrospect, as if it was another case of Powell being unwilling to do anything that might damage his career.

Read the whole article by Michael Lewis in the New York Times.

Hat-tip to Jerome Doolittle.

Kathryn Johnston, age 92

Murdered.

(Possibly 88, according to associates of the people who killed her).

Negligent homicide is the minimum that occurred.

I so charge.

Update: Dale Franks writes (in the comments) at Q and O,

The illegal obtaining of a warrant is a felony. Breaking into someone’s home with an illegally obtained warrant is a felony. In the course of committing that felony, an innocent citizen was killed. That makes the charge felony murder. It’s no different that blowing away a convenience store clerk during an armed robbery. If you kill a person during the course of a felony, it becomes a felony murder case.

Couldn’t have said it better. Hat-tip to Libby Spencer.

Get out.

Laura Rozen quotes the Washington Post,

In a sign of the discord in Washington, the senior U.S. intelligence official said the situation requires that the administration abandon its long-held goal of national reconciliation and instead ‘pick a winner’ in Iraq. He said he understands that means the Sunnis are likely to bolt from the fragile government. ‘That’s the price you’re going to have to pay,’ he said.”

This isn’t a booger, it’s a civil war.

Open thread

We’ve had 14,998 separate visitors to Cannablog as of a minute ago, we’ll go over 15,000 before I finish posting this update, most likely.

Thanks for visiting, hope you’ll stick around and tell me what you think.

Update: Apparently there is a delay, because I could see there were 599 separate visitors today when I started and it was up to 607 when I checked again, but the total history count had not changed yet.

Sign of the season

Bill Trimarco and Lisa Jensen and their now famous Peace Wreath. This is a better picture than the one I posted last night, and was taken by Randi Pierce for the Durango Herald, in which Thomas Munro writes more.

Related post:

• Declaring peace on Christmas

Istanbul was Constantinople

How will the fall of Babylon compare to the fall of Saigon?

That’s current events, folks. What did you think was the original name for Baghdad?

Don’t let the turkeys get you down

Hat-tip to Creature.

The more you know

Hat-tip to qmass.

History you never knew

Wine is the Jewish sacrament, and cannabis is the Christian sacrament, this is the difference that existed between them when the change happened 2,006 years ago.

Once for all, we are here now and there is no time like the present.

Listen to the wind

This video is too long.

Hat-tip to Echidne.

4:20 intermission

Here’s looking at you, kids

Happy Christmas, everyone.

“So long and thanks for all the IEDs.”

NTodd says it right. His blog Dohiyi Mir is also now on the permanent blogroll.

My country, ’tis not of thee

America has never been called “the Homeland” by anyone but fascists.

Chris Dashiell is now on our permanent blogroll.

Declaring peace on Christmas

A Colorado subdivision banned this wreath sign for being “divisive” or possibly even “Satanic” (??!). Or rather, one Bob Kearns, who claims to be president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs banned it. First he ordered the committee to require Lisa Jensen to remove the wreath from the outside of her home. They declined. Then he purported to fire all five committee members. Lisa Jensen was herself a past association president.

Mrs. Whig says, “Give wreath a chance.”

Update: Speaking of signs of the times…

Update 2: I’ve posted a better picture of the peace wreath.

Update 3: Pagosa Springs declares Peace.

Progressive Jazz, a nifty little number

Honor your parents

Brett Stone, who runs DaBronx News (now on our blogroll), is a medical marijuana patient in southern California. As a fundraiser to help the collective, he will roll a 112 gram joint on New Year’s Day: that’s about three feet in length. You have to understand that medical marijuana is legal in California — even if the federal government disagrees — even if it were possible to imagine that the American people would allow their mothers and fathers to be locked in prison for using the only thing that treats their pain and dementia. We won’t tolerate that any more and the rest of the country agrees with us when they understand how they have been deceived. Cannabis is food and medicine, it is benign.

Always judge the tree by its fruit. We have been lied to. You see with your own eyes whether cannabis helps, and you see whether it harms, but no harms can be found. You might not like it, but that’s hardly different from me not liking broccoli. Quite literally, they are both healthy vegetables. Eat your spinach.

Hat-tip to FoM.

Penny for your thoughts

To those who serve the executive

Those who answer to the executive branch of government should take heed that they are not immune for following orders, even if those orders are cloaked in pretended legality, if you know that they go against your conscience. You must not torture if you do not want to be tortured by your conscience when you understand what you have done to yourself.

Those who are held in illegal detention (having been deprived of due process and subjected to cruel and unusual punishments in the absence of trial or conviction) should be well-treated, for you will be begging their forgiveness.

As the wheels of justice turn exceedingly slowly, still they turn, and they will make right what has been made wrong.

Do you call them terrorists, and think they are not entitled to be treated as human beings? They are removed from the field of battle, if they were ever upon it, and there is nothing to be gained by such a policy. That they could be prisoners of war is not in question, but the administration refuses to so designate them.

Those who commit war crimes should be charged and tried as such, and treated with every humane courtesy as befits one who is innocent before proven guilty. This is your constitution, these are your laws, and your conventions. By the same standards you proclaim will you be held.

I love music

[odeo=http://odeo.com/audio/3168943/view]

So this is my first experiment to embed straight audio: my friend Terry Hubbard and FAM performing their song, A Matter of Design.

Get out of Iraq, killers

Chuck Dupree has an excellent essay on the current situation in Iraq. It is a common thing for those who advocate a military solution to say that there must be a pony in there somewhere. There’s no pony, it’s an ass and it will kick you in the teeth if you keep trying to bugger it.

Sorry it comes out so crudely but I won’t edit that. It’s just too accurate a metaphor.

Mimikatz has more,

The proponents of the stay-and-die “policy” in Iraq always say that things will be much worse, if not catastrophic, if we leave. They seem to assume that if we stay, things will stay the same, if not improve. But there is no basis for this belief. In reality, if we stay things can get much, much worse, and they are heading rapidly in that direction.

Say hello

to Allison’s Wonderland. Allison Margolin is a criminal attorney in Los Angeles, and bills herself as “LA’s dopest attorney.”

Republicans are discredited

Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton defined the first two American political parties. Democratic-Republicans and Federalists were their respective allies. Since that time there have remained two “major parties” which, roughly speaking, take up these old positions to a greater or lesser extent and with more or less criminality.

Although the Democratic-Republicans have divided in two, the party has never been discredited to the degree that it has had to be replaced. The Federalists, representing always the more conservative of the split, were replaced many times. Most recently, Abraham Lincoln replaced the Whig party with the currently named Republican party.

I’m not that kind of Whig, anyhow.

Open thread

We just got back from Thanksgiving dinner; there is a lot to learn about one another in family gatherings. I make no secret of what I do, and that was something I needed to say. I am a cannabis user, and it has made my life better. I have seen so many others who have been helped by cannabis, and have known not a soul who has been harmed by cannabis. So many other drugs do so much damage, so many of them legal, yet cannabis is benign.

I hope most of you had good experiences this weekend as well.

Life during wartime

American soldiers make thirsty children run miles for water, then drive away.

Hat-tip to Max Flowers.

Update: Paul the Spud has more.

Morning (Waiting)

Grass: The History of Marijuana

Hat-tip to Monkeyfister.

Here’s your “PATRIOT” act

Thanks to Keith Olbermann for putting this incident in context, and Hat-tip to krems.

It’s important to note that these are not “rent-a-cops” they are actual duly sworn police officers whose precinct is the University of California at Los Angeles. Even more chilling, the officers did not violate written policy, which provides that a passive individual can be subjected to “pain compliance techniques” under a “totality of the circumstances” discretionary authority which may include but is not limited to any specific facts. Such pain compliance can be continued until “the officer determines that full compliance has been achieved.”

Actual UCLA campus policy, via John in DC.

Related post:

• We are watching now

How stupid Novell must be…

…to go up against Pamela Jones.

How can anyone be afraid of a beautiful plant?