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Drug Policy
June 5, 2015 - 7:02am
*****
Portugal 14 years after decriminalizing heroin:
http://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/portugal-cuts-addiction-rates-half
I'm not at all surprised, but that won't convince the Cons.
We've been having a serious problem here in Montréal with very dangerous street drugs, as you may have read.
Marijuana has a multitude of medicinal properties. Ecstasy is an effective way to treat PTSD and psylocibin helps people to quit smoking cigarettes.
The science has spoken.
Unfortunately we are immured in Conservative power,a world void of science and facts.
Scientists push to renew psychedelic drug research for psychiatry:
http://www.cbc.ca/1.3104349
Of course, we all know the drug war was never about "protecting" people from the supposed harms of recreational drug use. It was about waging war on poor communities, the prison industry, wars in central america, afghanistan etc. and more generally about enforcing an economic model and political system steeped in blind obedience to stupid laws....
i think it was Terrence Mckenna who said something about how smoking herb makes your shitty meaningless job look at lot less attractive, and motivates you to do things you're actually interested in doing...that's why it's illegal.
Medical marijuana legal in all forms, Supreme Court rules - Federal health minister 'outraged":
http://www.cbc.ca/1.3109148
I see that the accompanying CBC poll has 95% of repondents in favour of medical marijuana.
Does Harper really want to make an issue of this?
Make our day, punk.
http://montrealsimon.blogspot.ca/2015/06/the-con-clown-rona-ambrose-and-...
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/marijuana-dispensary-regu...
Rona Ambrose is disappointed. This is so heartbreaking to see.
Chile lawmakers approve marijuana decriminalization bill:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-33438405
UK - The burning conservative case for legalising cannabis:
http://gu.com/p/4b3hh/sbl
Finally a piece from an established media outlet laying out the same plan I've been pushing for 30 years.
Too bad we live in a totalitarian state. As long as Mussolini remains PM,the WORSE marijauna policy will become. We're going backward. And your typical Canadian is blissfully ignorant to the fascistic state of Canada.
Why are drugs illegal? by David Nutt; UK point of view:
http://gu.com/p/4dky5/sbl
Iran to legalize cannabis and opium.
It's pathetic when a theocracy is more progressive than so-called 'democratic ' Canada.
Hell,for years the Iranian state paid for sex change assignment. I believe now they changed that to a system like our University loans and grants program.
Treating alcoholics with wine:
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36717557
Marijuana has a long history with humans:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2096440-founders-of-western-civiliz...
thanks for this Doug.
Opposition to harm reduction:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/11/hysteria-about-dru...
People using medical marijuana take fewer prescription drugs, study says:
http://www.cbc.ca/1.3667375
Israel plans to export medical marijuana in two years:
http://www.breakingisraelnews.com/74746/agriculture-minister-israeli-far...
I have to admit that as a hot dry country Israel probably has the climate for it.
High Hitler: how Nazi drug abuse changed the course of history:
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/sep/25/blitzed-norman-ohler-adolf...
He doen't mention Hermann Goering whose addiction problem went back to air crash injuries suffered in the 1920s, and was responsible not only for the Luftwaffe but also partly for the war economy.
I recall that Paul Richey mentioned in his memoir "Fighter Pilot" about his experiences in the Battle of France, the rumours about drug use by German pilots and that he and his colleagues seemed to have a slight superiority in reaction time over the Germans; he wondered if there was a connection.
I'm very skeptical when anyone,over 70 years after the fact,can find something new about Hitler.
Latest thing said about him (apart from allegedly having bad gas and a micro penis) is that he was doing methamphetamine. It raises questions. I've been involved with 'drug culture' for a long time and as I understand it,meth first hit the streets in the late 60's as 'crank' and even that was not what is sold today as meth.
When people come up with new 'information' pertaining to Hitler,it just comes across as a smear. He's long dead. Move on,already.
Well, on the flip side of it, we've all heard all the counter-trivia about Hitler -- that he was a tea-totaler and a vegan. So if he was hitting some meth, that's vaguely interesting, maybe.
If you're in the mood for a slightly eerie (but short) YouTube, here's The 5 Creepiest Sounds of War, and one of them is Hitler's natural speaking voice. We've all heard his "stadium speech" voice, but here he's just talking.
People like to overlook the fact that he was a Christian,anti-union,anti-communist right wing ideologue, Come to think of it,he'd fit in just fine with today's Conservatives (worldwide)
He used socialism but was not a socialist in the sense of social justice. The Nazis were socialist by party brand exclusively. They and Hitler were totalitarians and authoritarians (sorry for the redundancy)
In any case soldiers,including American and Canadian soldiers,were quite possibly using amphetamine. It's a drug made for killing machines.
But meth? I think you'd have to be on meth to believe that.
BTW,thanks for the link,Magoo.
Hitler's drug problems, his doctor's involvement, and the use of drugs by the German armed forces are things that have long been known in a vaguer, more disconnected way. I think that a systematic expansion of this knowledge has usefulness in increasing our understanding of history.
OK. I'm not totally informed about Hitler's drug use. But methamphetamine did NOT exist in the 1930's and 40's. Heroin,cocaine,quaaludes and amphetamine existed.
I believe LSD was discovered in 1943 but clearly,the Nazis were not tripping. As an aside,LSD was used experimentally by the US military in the 50's. Their findings were the soldiers could not or would not make them capable of combat.
So if 5 years from now someone 'discovers' Hitler was a crackhead. It would be obvious hyperbole and just another smear against him to 'dehumanize' him. And people have been doing it for years.
What I don't get is that Hitler doesn't need to be shamed or dehumanized. He accomplished that himself.
I don't think it's a stretch to tie the Nazis with amphetamine. Amphetamine is still used to this day by militaries.
But no one was smoking or injecting methamphetamine. Especially smoking something since the Nazis and Hitler in particular were very anti-smoking.Plus,that drug didn't exist back then.
It seems some nerd who writes for Wikipedia disagrees with you.
Do you have a source we could look at, alan?
I heard that Hitler was a vegetarian using methamphetamine at least 15 years ago.
Wikipedia will tell you that methamphetamine was discoverd in 1893. That sounds about what I might have guessed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Methamphetamine
I have also heard that Japanese Kamikaze pilots were taking meth, but there doesn't seem to be much online corroboration of that. Although methamphetamine was first synthesized in Japan so it seems feasible enough.