cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
Maybe Canadian squirrels have some goose DNA.
The Junk Drawer
- Thread starter Jimdamick
- Start date
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
Which raises the frightening question of who did what to whom, and how.
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
A famous hurricane graphic is set to look a lot more colorful. Here's why.
The National Hurricane Center is experimenting with a new version of its forecast cone graphic that adds inland wind warnings.
www.usatoday.com
meh; needs sharpie
Sativied
Well-Known Member
And just like that, Germany legalizes cannabis:
www.bbc.com
"Original plans to allow licensed shops and pharmacies to sell cannabis have been scrapped over EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports.
Instead, non-commercial members' clubs, dubbed "cannabis social clubs", will grow and distribute a limited amount of the drug.
Each club will have an upper limit of 500 members, consuming cannabis onsite will not be allowed, and membership will only be available to German residents.
Growing your own cannabis will also be permitted, with up to three marijuana plants allowed per household."
Smoking cannabis in many public spaces will become legal from 1 April.
Possession of up to 25g, equivalent to dozens of strong joints, is to be allowed in public spaces. In private homes the legal limit will be 50g.
The numbers are wack but still a major improvement.
Germany legalises cannabis, but makes it hard to buy
Under the law backed by MPs, possession will be legal, but strict rules mean it will be complicated.
www.bbc.com
"Original plans to allow licensed shops and pharmacies to sell cannabis have been scrapped over EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports.
Instead, non-commercial members' clubs, dubbed "cannabis social clubs", will grow and distribute a limited amount of the drug.
Each club will have an upper limit of 500 members, consuming cannabis onsite will not be allowed, and membership will only be available to German residents.
Growing your own cannabis will also be permitted, with up to three marijuana plants allowed per household."
Smoking cannabis in many public spaces will become legal from 1 April.
Possession of up to 25g, equivalent to dozens of strong joints, is to be allowed in public spaces. In private homes the legal limit will be 50g.
The numbers are wack but still a major improvement.
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
and here we go! I will be very curious what sort of Übergras comes out of there in a few years.And just like that, Germany legalizes cannabis:
Germany legalises cannabis, but makes it hard to buy
Under the law backed by MPs, possession will be legal, but strict rules mean it will be complicated.
"Original plans to allow licensed shops and pharmacies to sell cannabis have been scrapped over EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports.
Instead, non-commercial members' clubs, dubbed "cannabis social clubs", will grow and distribute a limited amount of the drug.
Each club will have an upper limit of 500 members, consuming cannabis onsite will not be allowed, and membership will only be available to German residents.
Growing your own cannabis will also be permitted, with up to three marijuana plants allowed per household."
Smoking cannabis in many public spaces will become legal from 1 April.
Possession of up to 25g, equivalent to dozens of strong joints, is to be allowed in public spaces. In private homes the legal limit will be 50g.
The numbers are wack but still a major improvement.
Fogdog
Well-Known Member
I found this line to be hilarious and typical of the kind of thinking that German bureaucrats use to stand logic on its head:And just like that, Germany legalizes cannabis:
Germany legalises cannabis, but makes it hard to buy
Under the law backed by MPs, possession will be legal, but strict rules mean it will be complicated.
"Original plans to allow licensed shops and pharmacies to sell cannabis have been scrapped over EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports.
Instead, non-commercial members' clubs, dubbed "cannabis social clubs", will grow and distribute a limited amount of the drug.
Each club will have an upper limit of 500 members, consuming cannabis onsite will not be allowed, and membership will only be available to German residents.
Growing your own cannabis will also be permitted, with up to three marijuana plants allowed per household."
Smoking cannabis in many public spaces will become legal from 1 April.
Possession of up to 25g, equivalent to dozens of strong joints, is to be allowed in public spaces. In private homes the legal limit will be 50g.
The numbers are wack but still a major improvement.
"EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports"
As if creating a market that could make enough so that it could export MJ is somehow worse than the black market smuggling MJ/hashish into Germany.
But the laugh is due my brain's response to a jarring contradiction and not a criticism. I'm glad to see that Germany is starting to erode its prohibition laws.
The numbers are whack, though. The joke on RIU is not "about 50 grams".
Sativied
Well-Known Member
The concerns for a surge in drug exports deserves some context. It's not worse in practice but it is on paper, exporting out of Germany that is. Aside from the UN treaty some countries are breaking without consequences, what specifically plays a role here is a EU treaty that requires member nations to actively prevent international drug trade, including cannabis, to other nations. While the borders are open, no customs, no gates. Germany, like other members, cannot open coffeeshops like NL has or dispensaries like in the US without first getting the entire EU to change the laws. Else they piss of the neighbors, of which they got 9. Else they essentially encourage international drug trade AND make money of it.
NL is an exception for the simple reason we already had normalized coffeeshops and there was of course no way we'd close coffeeshops in Amsterdam for tourists. It helps we're only bordered by Belgium and Germany. Many French people used to drive up north through Belgium, NL had a bit of a row with France over that, their president called us a narco state. Under international pressures some border cities in NL started refusing customers not living in NL. Later the DOJ here claimed 80% of what we produced was export, which they in turn used as an excuse to mess up the good thing we had, raid small growers. As a result, we now have cartels, the actual south american ones.
That 50 gram is still 10x higher than legal amount in NL, which is the max a coffeeshop is allowed to sell to a person, 5 gr. I won't get prosecuted for a max of 5 plants. But I can only have 5 gram on me, and in my house. Still yes, that 50gr is nothing. Would have to harvest those 3 plants in stages...
Fogdog
Well-Known Member
We have similar issues in the US. Oregon is literally awash in excess weed and no doubt some excess makes its way into states that still prohibit it. Jeff Sessions sent a warning letter to the Oregon AG to that effect. Like NL inside EU, Oregon has loose laws compared to the stringent federal laws. Unlike NL, Oregon's legal MJ industry could be shut down by a bible thumping prohibitionist government in Washington DC. It's all still in a grey zone, where the feds agree to not press the issue and states agree to regulate so that what's grown inside their borders stays there. Except it doesn't stay there. Contradictions,
Our limit in Oregon is not more than 4 oz or 112 grams in possession at home. A single outdoor grown plant can easily produce four times that amount. We can grow four plants. So, yeah, the numbers are whack and create a situation where every home grower is over the limit for at least the harvest-cure season. I give my excess away, which fucks up both the legal-commercial and black markets and gives me much pleasure while doing so.
Last edited:
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
ungefähr ein Kilo has a nice ring to it.I found this line to be hilarious and typical of the kind of thinking that German bureaucrats use to stand logic on its head:
"EU concerns that this could lead to a surge in drug exports"
As if creating a market that could make enough so that it could export MJ is somehow worse than the black market smuggling MJ/hashish into Germany.
But the laugh is due my brain's response to a jarring contradiction and not a criticism. I'm glad to see that Germany is starting to erode its prohibition laws.
The numbers are whack, though. The joke on RIU is not "about 50 grams".
Sativied
Well-Known Member
I sure like that reasoning.
I can't find the article, but supposedly, without covid and Putin (and Israel-Gaza), the UN would have met again already to address the issue. In 2020 they made a few changes ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Removal_of_cannabis_and_cannabis_resin_from_Schedule_IV_of_the_Single_Convention_on_narcotic_drugs,_1961 )
which was mostly to allow for medicinal use, but:
Already in the 2000s, representatives of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the International Narcotics Control Board (then-president Philip O. Emafo) warned that it would be nearly impossible to loosen international cannabis regulations, and that even if the Commission on Narcotic Drugs removed cannabis from Schedule IV, prohibition would remain embedded into the Single Convention.
Really what it comes down to is that the US needs to OK it first. If that takes another decade the entire EU might ignore it. France, Italy, Portugal, Germany, many others do want to fully legalize recreational use and grows too.
DoubleAtotheRON
Well-Known Member
Oklahoma is crazy.... which is why we got out of the biz. You can have 3 oz of bud, 1 oz of concentrate, and 72 oz's of edibles on you during a traffic stop.... no home inspections for home growers. But home growers with a house hold of 4 can have 24 flowering, and 24 vegging at any point. People quickly found out that they can BM thier excess, and drove our prices commercially into the dirt.
printer
Well-Known Member
Boiling tap water may be solution to microplastics
Worried about plastic pollution in your tap water? Try boiling in it, a new study suggests.
Boiling tap water can destroy at least 80 percent of three of the most common plastic compounds that can be found in your water, according to findings published Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters.
This means drinking tap water that has been boiled, something commonly done in East Asian kitchens already, may be a safer bet than drinking bottled water. Columbia researchers found last month that bottled water can contain up to a quarter-million fragments of nanoplastics per liter.
The researchers looked at the impacts of boiling on three compounds that have been found in water — polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene.
Because these compounds don’t fully break down, they ultimately fragment into nanoplastics the approximate size of a virus — making them the ideal size to wreak havoc with the machinery of human cells, and to cross through key protective filters like the intestinal lining and blood brain barrier.
Of the tested compounds, the most concerning is polystyrene, which can inflame the intestine and may kill red blood cells. The others are largely believed to be safe, though endocrinologists argue that the methodology for determining whether plastics are safe has serious flaws.
In the study, scientists put the three plastic compounds into ‘hard water’ — a common type of U.S. freshwater that contains high levels of calcium carbonate and magnesium.
Those compounds are characteristic of groundwater pulled from cavities in underground limestone deposits, a rock that is mostly made up of calcium carbonate.
When the plastic-containing water was boiled, these calcium carbonates formed tiny clumps around most of the microscopic plastics, trapping them within and rendering them harmless.
“This simple boiling-water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ [nano- and microplastics, or NMPs] from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of NMPs through water consumption,” the report authors wrote.
The report comes with significant caveats, however.
Scientists only looked at three of the most common — and in the case of polyethylene and polypropylenes, the safest — plastic polymers. They didn’t look at vinyl chloride, for example, a compound of serious concern last month’s study found in bottled water.
Boiling also didn’t manage to remove all of the polymers.
That’s worrisome because Monday’s report from the Endocrine Society suggested that because plastic particles are so similar to the chemical messengers that run many key biological systems — and because those systems are so sensitive — there may be no safe level of exposure.
Finally, scientists like those at the Endocrine Society are increasingly focused on a risk that goes beyond the plastic compounds themselves: the fact that those polymers are often mixed with “plasticizers” like BPA, PFAS and phthalates which can wreak havoc on the endocrine, circulatory and reproductive systems.
It is unclear whether boiling water breaks down these materials. The study only looked at the plastic polymers, not these potential additives.
Finally, this method requires either hard water — or the addition of calcium carbonate to work — something that is common but far from universal across the world.
Nonetheless, when stacked up next to last month’s findings about microplastics in bottled water, the report suggests a potential answer to how to protect against at least some forms of plastic pollution.
thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/4494416-boiling-tap-water-may-be-solution-to-microplastics/
Worried about plastic pollution in your tap water? Try boiling in it, a new study suggests.
Boiling tap water can destroy at least 80 percent of three of the most common plastic compounds that can be found in your water, according to findings published Wednesday in Environmental Research Letters.
This means drinking tap water that has been boiled, something commonly done in East Asian kitchens already, may be a safer bet than drinking bottled water. Columbia researchers found last month that bottled water can contain up to a quarter-million fragments of nanoplastics per liter.
The researchers looked at the impacts of boiling on three compounds that have been found in water — polystyrene, polyethylene and polypropylene.
Because these compounds don’t fully break down, they ultimately fragment into nanoplastics the approximate size of a virus — making them the ideal size to wreak havoc with the machinery of human cells, and to cross through key protective filters like the intestinal lining and blood brain barrier.
Of the tested compounds, the most concerning is polystyrene, which can inflame the intestine and may kill red blood cells. The others are largely believed to be safe, though endocrinologists argue that the methodology for determining whether plastics are safe has serious flaws.
In the study, scientists put the three plastic compounds into ‘hard water’ — a common type of U.S. freshwater that contains high levels of calcium carbonate and magnesium.
Those compounds are characteristic of groundwater pulled from cavities in underground limestone deposits, a rock that is mostly made up of calcium carbonate.
When the plastic-containing water was boiled, these calcium carbonates formed tiny clumps around most of the microscopic plastics, trapping them within and rendering them harmless.
“This simple boiling-water strategy can ‘decontaminate’ [nano- and microplastics, or NMPs] from household tap water and has the potential for harmlessly alleviating human intake of NMPs through water consumption,” the report authors wrote.
The report comes with significant caveats, however.
Scientists only looked at three of the most common — and in the case of polyethylene and polypropylenes, the safest — plastic polymers. They didn’t look at vinyl chloride, for example, a compound of serious concern last month’s study found in bottled water.
Boiling also didn’t manage to remove all of the polymers.
That’s worrisome because Monday’s report from the Endocrine Society suggested that because plastic particles are so similar to the chemical messengers that run many key biological systems — and because those systems are so sensitive — there may be no safe level of exposure.
Finally, scientists like those at the Endocrine Society are increasingly focused on a risk that goes beyond the plastic compounds themselves: the fact that those polymers are often mixed with “plasticizers” like BPA, PFAS and phthalates which can wreak havoc on the endocrine, circulatory and reproductive systems.
It is unclear whether boiling water breaks down these materials. The study only looked at the plastic polymers, not these potential additives.
Finally, this method requires either hard water — or the addition of calcium carbonate to work — something that is common but far from universal across the world.
Nonetheless, when stacked up next to last month’s findings about microplastics in bottled water, the report suggests a potential answer to how to protect against at least some forms of plastic pollution.
thehill.com/policy/equilibrium-sustainability/4494416-boiling-tap-water-may-be-solution-to-microplastics/
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
NO KILL I
Sativied
Well-Known Member
Big Tech goes from 'teenager' to 'grown-up' under landmark EU law. Here's what you need to know
The EU Digital Markets Act officially became enforceable on Thursday, giving the European Commission sweeping new powers to rein in Big Tech.
The EU Digital Markets Act officially became enforceable on Thursday, giving the European Commission sweeping new powers to rein in Big Tech.
The law aims to clamp down on anti-competitive practices from tech players, as well as force them to open some of their services to competitors.
[..] because the rules impose strict curbs for so-called “gatekeepers” — firms with an entrenched position in their respective market, with a market capitalization of at least 75 billion euros ($81.7 billion) and with a platform with 45 million monthly active end users in the EU.
That makes U.S. tech giants a key target. So far, six firms have been designated gatekeepers: Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Microsoft and China’s ByteDance — the sole non-U.S. firm on the list.
[...]
Apple has been ordered under the DMA to allow alternative app stores on iPhones for the first time.
The tech giant was this week slapped by the EU with a fine of more than 1.8 billion euro ($1.96 billion) for breaching competition rules, following an investigation into its App Store practices.
Sativied
Well-Known Member
EU drug market is worth €31 bn, and is a serious security threat - DutchNews.nl
The European drugs market has an estimated minimum retail value of at least €31 billion, based on figures from 2021, according to a new report by The Hague-based Europol and the European addiction and drugs monitoring body EMCDDA. Cannabis accounts for the biggest share of the market with a...
www.dutchnews.nl
So at 'best', it's 19bn, cause the 12bn for cannabis doesn't have to be a security threat and is entirely self-inflicted by EU nations with strict prohibition.
Aside from only being 2%, that too is self-inflicted. Statistically and scientifically, MDMA should have never been made part of the war on drugs, something we did partly because of international pressure and created problems rather than solving one that wasn't even really there.
Referenced in the article is an interview with the mayor of Rotterdam... "middle class drug use"
Rotterdam mayor calls for end to lax stance on middle-class drug use
Europe has been ‘negligent,’ as an acceptance of cocaine and cannabis leads to corruption, violence, and misery, says Aboutaleb
www.theguardian.com
who entirely disagrees with the end-the-war-on-drugs mayor of Amsterdam I posted about earlier this year:
As the mayor of Amsterdam, I can see the Netherlands risks becoming a narco-state | Femke Halsema
Our health-led drugs policy has had great results, but the rise of the global illegal drugs trade means we need international solutions, says the mayor of Amsterdam, Femke Halsema
www.theguardian.com
Given the current political climate in EU I expect they will only intensify the failing war on drugs but perhaps with a silver lining: legalizing cannabis, which more and more EU nations and citizens want anyway. "Regulate cannabis and use the tax revenue for the war on the rest" would probably sell well in politics here right now.
printer
Well-Known Member
Powell: ‘There will be bank failures’ caused by commercial real estate losses
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday he expects to see some banks fail due to their exposure to the commercial real estate sector, which has declined significantly in value following the shift to remote work.
Powell said the banks that are in trouble with falling office space and retail assets are not the big banks, which were designated as “systemically important” in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. That episode, which resulted in a taxpayer bailout of the financial sector, was also triggered by unsound real estate assets.
Rather, the banks at risk of failure now Powell identified as smaller and medium-sized.
“This is a problem we’ll be working on for years more, I’m sure. There will be bank failures,” he said during a Thursday hearing on the Fed’s monetary policy in the Senate Banking Committee.
“It’s not a first-order issue for any of the very large banks. It’s more smaller and medium-sized banks that have these issues. We’re working with them. We’re getting through it. I think it’s manageable, is the word I would use,” he said.
Powell didn’t go into detail about the specific regulatory actions regarding commercial real estate exposure that are now being undertaken by the Fed, which is both the federal currency issuer and one of the primary bank supervising agencies, though he did say he had identified the banks most at risk.
“We are in dialogue with them: Do you have your arms around this problem? Do you have enough capital? Do you have enough liquidity? Do you have a plan? You’re going to take losses here — are you being truthful with yourself and with your owners?” he said.
Commercial real estate investment trusts, known as REITs, have taken a hit over the past few months. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Boston Properties, Kilroy Realty Corp., and Vornado Realty trust are all in negative territory since the beginning of the year.
Powell described the decline in value of commercial real estate as a result of remote work following the economic shutdowns of the pandemic as a “secular change” in the economy.
“In many cities, the downtown office district is very underpopulated. There are empty buildings in many major and minor cities. It also means that all the retail that was there to serve those thousands and thousands of people who work in those buildings, they’re under pressure, too,” he said.
While the decline of commercial real estate values could put some banks out of business, Powell expressed confidence that the Fed and financial regulators would be able to contain the fallout and prevent a broader crisis. Thirty-four U.S. banks have failed since 2015, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which insures deposits at regulated banks.
The Fed and Treasury Department also jumped into action last year to bail out Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and extend lifelines to other troubled banks as they threatened broader confidence in the banking system.
thehill.com
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday he expects to see some banks fail due to their exposure to the commercial real estate sector, which has declined significantly in value following the shift to remote work.
Powell said the banks that are in trouble with falling office space and retail assets are not the big banks, which were designated as “systemically important” in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. That episode, which resulted in a taxpayer bailout of the financial sector, was also triggered by unsound real estate assets.
Rather, the banks at risk of failure now Powell identified as smaller and medium-sized.
“This is a problem we’ll be working on for years more, I’m sure. There will be bank failures,” he said during a Thursday hearing on the Fed’s monetary policy in the Senate Banking Committee.
“It’s not a first-order issue for any of the very large banks. It’s more smaller and medium-sized banks that have these issues. We’re working with them. We’re getting through it. I think it’s manageable, is the word I would use,” he said.
Powell didn’t go into detail about the specific regulatory actions regarding commercial real estate exposure that are now being undertaken by the Fed, which is both the federal currency issuer and one of the primary bank supervising agencies, though he did say he had identified the banks most at risk.
“We are in dialogue with them: Do you have your arms around this problem? Do you have enough capital? Do you have enough liquidity? Do you have a plan? You’re going to take losses here — are you being truthful with yourself and with your owners?” he said.
Commercial real estate investment trusts, known as REITs, have taken a hit over the past few months. Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Boston Properties, Kilroy Realty Corp., and Vornado Realty trust are all in negative territory since the beginning of the year.
Powell described the decline in value of commercial real estate as a result of remote work following the economic shutdowns of the pandemic as a “secular change” in the economy.
“In many cities, the downtown office district is very underpopulated. There are empty buildings in many major and minor cities. It also means that all the retail that was there to serve those thousands and thousands of people who work in those buildings, they’re under pressure, too,” he said.
While the decline of commercial real estate values could put some banks out of business, Powell expressed confidence that the Fed and financial regulators would be able to contain the fallout and prevent a broader crisis. Thirty-four U.S. banks have failed since 2015, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), which insures deposits at regulated banks.
The Fed and Treasury Department also jumped into action last year to bail out Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, and extend lifelines to other troubled banks as they threatened broader confidence in the banking system.
Powell: ‘There will be bank failures’ caused by commercial real estate losses
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Thursday he expects to see some banks fail due to their exposure to the commercial real estate sector, which has declined significantly in value following t…
thehill.com
cannabineer
Ursus marijanus
In the war on drugs, the drugs are mounting a counteroffensive.
amp.cnn.com
Single dose of LSD provides immediate, lasting anxiety relief, study says | CNN
One dose of LSD in a clinical trial significantly improved anxiety and lasted for 12 weeks, convincing the FDA to give the drug a breakthrough therapy designation.
printer
Well-Known Member
"I keeps me young."
Rupert Murdoch engaged for sixth time
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is engaged to be married later this year.
Murdoch is set to be married to Elena Zhukova, 67, the retired molecular biologist he started dating last year, the New York Times first reported.
The Hill confirmed the Times’ reporting on Thursday evening.
Murdoch, 92, last year ceded control of his multi-billion-dollar media empire, including News Corp. and Fox Corp., to his eldest son, Lachlan.
In March of last year, Murdoch, who has been married and divorced four times, announced he was engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a former model. The couple called off their engagement a month later.
Murdoch and Zhukova are planning on getting married at the billionaire’s vineyard and estate in California, The Times reported.
thehill.com
Rupert Murdoch engaged for sixth time
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is engaged to be married later this year.
Murdoch is set to be married to Elena Zhukova, 67, the retired molecular biologist he started dating last year, the New York Times first reported.
The Hill confirmed the Times’ reporting on Thursday evening.
Murdoch, 92, last year ceded control of his multi-billion-dollar media empire, including News Corp. and Fox Corp., to his eldest son, Lachlan.
In March of last year, Murdoch, who has been married and divorced four times, announced he was engaged to Ann Lesley Smith, a former model. The couple called off their engagement a month later.
Murdoch and Zhukova are planning on getting married at the billionaire’s vineyard and estate in California, The Times reported.
Rupert Murdoch engaged for sixth time
Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch is engaged to be married later this year. Murdoch is set to marry Elena Zhukova, 67, the retired molecular biologist he started dating last year, The New…
thehill.com
Sativied
Well-Known Member
That sure sounds good. Especially since covid pandemic left so many more with anxiety and depression.In the war on drugs, the drugs are mounting a counteroffensive.
Single dose of LSD provides immediate, lasting anxiety relief, study says | CNN
One dose of LSD in a clinical trial significantly improved anxiety and lasted for 12 weeks, convincing the FDA to give the drug a breakthrough therapy designation.
I’d volunteer for a trial more often than this German guy did for covid vax:
‘Hypervaccinated’ man reportedly received 217 Covid jabs without side effects
German man said he had vaccines for ‘private reasons’, but reports say he was selling certificates to people who didn’t want jab
www.theguardian.com