Are we searching for the 60s again the era of “flower power” and hippies when “tune-in, turn on, and drop out” was almost considered a terrorist action?
California lawmakers sent a bill to Gov. Gavin Newsom that would make it legal to possess or grow some plant-based psychedelics.
Systemic and Institutional- The private policing of America.
The company announced this week that it has instructed U.S. financial institutions to stop allowing customers to use its debit cards to purchase marijuana products at cannabis stores, which now operate legally in 38 states for medicinal use and 23 states for recreational use, as well as in the District of Columbia.
Source: Mastercard Move at Cannabis Shops Intensifies Call for US Decriminalization
Should we be surprised? We once had the Nugan Hand Bank
The Nugan Hand Bank was an Australian-based merchant bank that operated during the 1970s. It was founded by Australian lawyer Frank Nugan and American ex-Green Beret Michael Hand. The bank gained notoriety due to its alleged involvement in illegal activities, including money laundering, drug trafficking, and arms smuggling.
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and other intelligence agencies were involved in covert operations in Southeast Asia. These operations included supporting anti-communist forces, gathering intelligence, and disrupting enemy activities. There have been allegations and conspiracy theories suggesting that the Nugan Hand Bank had connections to the CIA and was used as a front for intelligence activities.
Some of the claims made include the bank’s involvement in laundering money for the CIA’s covert operations, using drug profits to fund anti-communist activities, and facilitating arms smuggling in the region. However, it is important to note that these claims remain largely unproven, and the extent of the bank’s alleged involvement with the CIA remains a subject of speculation and controversy.
In the 1980s, investigations into the Nugan Hand Bank’s activities began, and the bank collapsed in 1980. Frank Nugan died under mysterious circumstances in 1980, and Michael Hand disappeared but was later found living in the United States. The investigations uncovered evidence of financial irregularities and illegal activities within the bank, but the direct links to the CIA’s involvement were never conclusively proven.
It’s worth noting that the Nugan Hand Bank case is regarded as one of the most infamous financial scandals in Australian history. However, the exact nature of its connections to the CIA and the extent of its involvement in illegal activities remains a subject of debate and speculation.
The Taliban has not once, but twice eradicated Afghanistan’s poppy cultivation, the world’s largest source of heroin. Despite western accusations, it has never been The Taliban behind the Afghan drug industry, but only ever the US and its allies, with billions in profits breezily laundered through the global financial system.
Source: How the Taliban crushed the CIA’s heroin bonanza in Afghanistan – Pearls and Irritations
Before I fired my first salvo at the war on drugs, I was captivated by a line from an 1839 essay by British historian Thomas Macaulay: “It is mere foolish cruelty to provide penalties which torment the criminal without preventing the crime.” That line remains the best summary of the folly and inhumanity of criminalizing victimless crimes. As the Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia wrote, “What a long, strange trip it’s been.”
Since 1998, when I was arrested by the Drug Enforcement Agency and Houston Police, and later convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for conspiracy to sell and distribute cannabis, I’ve tried to comprehend the gravity of my punishment for a nonviolent cannabis crime (essentially when no guns, money, or drugs were found on me), without finding a legitimate answer.
Source: While You Were Lighting Up on 4/20, I’m Serving Decades in Prison for Selling Weed – scheerpost.com
Is this another case of hippies yet again, having found another way, another substance, who are now getting run over by Big Pharma and Capitalism because if rebranded leads down a yellow brick road made of money? Is this the start of a another new wave once exclusive to Dr Feel Good’s ticket to a magical mystery tour?
Weed is being legalised or at least decriminalised. So much of what was once declared evil is now being rinsed and cleansed again. Will we see coke put back into Coca Cola? Coca Cola wishes it would I’m sure.
Just a flip and systemic relabelling and what was pure evil becomes a medicinal godsend to be paid for at far far far higher prices. Insulin is almost beyond the reach of diabetics in the USA. Smuggled in from Canada because there it’s on the National Health program. Get to Cuba and its almost free. It amplifies the difference in degree between the values of three different economic systems and their goals because in the USA the price is only affordable to the rich and connected.
Welcomed by many in the medical community, the Federal Government recently announced the rescheduling of MDMA and psilocybin for treating PTSD and treatment-resistant depression, writes David McIlveen.
DEA says more than 379m deadly doses of opioid with strength from one and a half to 50 times stronger than heroin were seized
The lack of emphasis on prevention is revealing. Rather than tackle the drug crisis as a demand-side problem, the U.S. and other Western governments pretend that it is a supply-side problem that can be dealt with by using military force against petty drug dealers and peasants who grow the coca plant. Petro’s cry from the heart at the United Nations attempted to call attention to the root causes of the drug crisis:
“According to the irrational power of the world, the market that razes existence is not to blame; it is the jungle and those who live in it that are to blame. Bank accounts have become unlimited; the money saved by the most powerful people on Earth could not even be spent over the course of centuries. The empty existence produced by the artificiality of competition is filled with noise and drugs. The addiction to money and to possessions has another face: the drug addiction of people who lose the competition in the artificial race that humanity has become. The sickness of loneliness is not cured by [dousing] the forests with glyphosate; the forest is not to blame. To blame is your society educated by endless consumption, by the stupid confusion between consumption and happiness that allows the pockets of the powerful to fill with money.”
Non-addictive, Life Changing, Politically Dangerous, the 70s, Turn on, Tune in, Drop Out Drug, is getting a second chance at life, along with Ecstasy, Mushrooms and other nonaddictive substances. Why were they thought to be so dangerous in the first place?
Multinational corporations had no control over their sales and they were proving to be safer and more beneficial than the drugs marketed legally. Worse formed a less competitive and divisive relationship between young people and the government. Make love not war had revolutionary potential according to Nixon. A myth expressing personal harm was needed and created by Richard Nixon with his “War on Drugs” and the political dominoes followed him worldwide.
It seems today that multinational corporations see new marketing opportunities in controlling the distribution of these once illicit substances found in nature and which are still very much in demand. Marijuana was the first to be legalized, once again allowing the promotion of its benefits promoted. After all the marketing of oxycodone and other addictives like tobacco and alcohol is waning no longer seen as positive. How do you market Ice, and crystal meth into the future with their genuine tendency to drive anti-social behaviours.
Five years ago Christina*, a 43-year-old professional who worked in the book industry, started taking tiny amounts of LSD most mornings for four months.
Although the doses of the illicit substance were too small to induce hallucinogenic trips, Christina claims it had a significant impact on her anxiety, concentration and experience of life.
Source: How microdosing LSD is leading scientists to tackle ‘creative enhancers of choice’
While Portugal fixes it’s drug problems. The LNP have allowed ourselves to become a carbon copy of America in every way and it’s cost lives (ODT)
Now is a good time to do some rethinking. Soon there will be new directors of key federal agencies with major public outreach responsibilities — the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration the Office of National Drug Control Policy (aka the office of the Drug Czar). We urge them and the Biden Administration to heed this insight on shaping public opinion about addiction and its treatment.
As Overdoses Reach New Highs, Messaging on Addiction Needs More Nuance | Washington Monthly
The movement to reform drug policy celebrated a number of victories in the recent election, with voters across America opting to legalize marijuana and decriminalize narcotics in an unprecedented overhaul.
‘The war on drugs failed’: California lawmaker will push to decriminalize psychedelics | US news | The Guardian
But that is not the question being asked on October 17. What voters have to answer is this: does regulation offer a better pathway than prohibition when it comes to reducing harm in our society? Five decades of failure would suggest one of those options offers more hope than the other.
If reducing harm to society is the goal, a cost-benefit analysis shows cannabis prohibition has failed
After spending hundreds of millions of dollars convincing the American public that opioid painkillers are safe to use for chronic pain—and fueling a deadly, decades-long addiction epidemic as a result—the drug maker Purdue Pharma could file for bankruptcy to avoid being held accountable for its actions.
According to Reuters, Purdue is considering bankruptcy to halt thousands of lawsuits and allow the company to settle with the plaintiffs out of court.
The social benefits of drug use are more complex to quantify. But there are now numerous studies showing people use alcohol or other drugs in social settings such as bars, clubs and parties to enhance their interactions with others through increased confidence, greater sociability and less anxiety. For some people this leads to longer-term benefits such as stronger bonds with friends.
via Drug use can have social benefits, and acknowledging this could improve rehabilitation
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different outcome. John Ryan from the Penington Institute weighs in on Australia’s never-ending, never-winning war on drugs.
A shipment of more than 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine was seized at Geraldton harbour shortly before Christmas.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, DEA, which rarely allows research on Marijuana since it considers the substance as a Schedule I drug, in July released a statement saying the component is still considered illegal.
via Marijuana’s Key Ingredient Not Dangerous or Addictive: WHO
We know now that these drugs carry an extremely high risk of dependence and fatal overdose. Despite this, more than 20 million opioid prescriptions are filled each year in Canada. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of death among Americans under the age of 50. And prescription opioids are involved in nearly half of these deaths. It is also becoming apparent that opioids might be less effective than initially thought in treating certain types of chronic non-cancer pain (e.g. neuropathic pain).
Source: Legal weed: An accidental solution to the opioid crisis? | Informed Comment
(ANTIMEDIA) Colorado —Three years after legalizing cannabis, Colorado has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. “While the national unemployment rate dropped to 4.3 percent in May, the lowest since 2001, Colorado’s jobless rate is the nation’s lowest at 2.3 percent,” CNBC reported Monday. According to Governor John Hickenlooper, multiple factors have contributed to Colorado’s …
Source: After Legalizing Weed, Unemployment in Colorado Lower Than Rest of Country
In a stinging dissent, Bernette Johnson calls her colleagues’ decision to uphold the verdict “outrageous” and “ridiculous.”
Source: Louisiana Supreme Court Chief Justice Blasts 18-Year Marijuana Prison Sentence – Truthdig
By James Moylan The 3.6 million dollar study testing the sewage in our capital cities for illegal drugs is simply more disinformation and bullshit. Let’s revisit the results from this study and consider them rationally. The study indicates that in Australia the use of alcohol is equivalent to 1.2 drinks PER PERSON per day. Yet…
A new report into drug-related deaths proposes the decriminalisation of drug use in Australia and a regulated white market to put drug dealers out of business.
Dr Nicole Lee challenges the media’s coverage of the usage of the drug ice in Australia.
Philippine president says he wants to slaughter millions of drug addicts, comparing it with Hitler’s massacre of Jews.
Source: Duterte cites Hitler, wants to kill millions of addicts – News from Al Jazeera
A massive problem created by the drug war is now being solved by legalizing weed.
Source: Legalizing Weed Has Done What 1 Trillion Dollars and a 40 Year War Couldn’t
These 5 industries are the reason why marijuana is still illegal
This is the first in a four part New Matilda series by Michael Brull, reviewing Chasing the Scream, a book by journalist Johann Hari that examines the ‘War on Drugs’. In this article, Brull looks at Hari’s argument that one way to kill more people through drugs is to make them illegal. What should drugMore
Source: Chasing The Scream, Review Part I: The War On Drugs Makes Drugs More Dangerous – New Matilda
At the beginning of the 20th century, there were only a handful of hallucinogenic psychoactive substances known to humankind. By the end of the millennium there were hundreds. Most were discovered or rediscovered by the eccentric chemist Alexander Shulgin. Before he died at age 88, he had personally experienced the effects of these drugs thousands of times.
Source: Echolalia (part 1) | The Monthly
This is the second part of two-part article about the causes of our war on drugs. Read the first part here.
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