Ranken
Well-Known Member
Marijuana vending machine
Two medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles have installed pot vending machines. They're accessible 24 hours a day and monitored by security guards. From Thrillist:
After cinching up your doctor's consultation, hit an AVM location to get your prescription approved, fingerprint taken, and a prepaid credit card loaded with your profile: dosage (3.5 or 7 grams, up to 1oz a week) and strain preference (choice of five, including OG Cush and Granddaddy Purple, the mildly hallucinogenic forebear to Prince). Then day or night, all you do is hit a machine and walk away with enough vacuum-sealed, plastic-encapsulated cheeba to adequately treat your illness.
America needs to rethink ineffective marijuana prohibition
Abraham Brown
Issue date: 1/25/08 Section: Ed-Op
In the 21st century I find it difficult to grasp why we as Americans have not learned from our mistakes and become better. Decriminalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania and the entire nation subsequently could possibly alleviate some of the drug problems we face here in Philadelphia and the nation at large.
The 1920s national prohibition of alcohol, the "noble experiment," was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. However, this did not work and was a wretched disappointment on all counts.
Mark Thornton in his work Economics of Prohibition has shown that although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased. He noted that alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became organized. I have not seen any measurable gains made in productivity or increased abstinence with the implementation of prohibition. It is evident that crime is at its all time high right here in this "City of Brotherly Love," even in our midst on college campuses across Philadelphia.
Sadly some crimes committed in this city can be linked to marijuana, but it's important to note that it is not because of the mental effects on the body but because of the great value that the government indirectly creates and places on marijuana. And by value I mean, the herb becomes a prized possession, as it is illegal and hence harder to get. People will kill just to get marijuana. Are people killing to get alcohol? No, because it is a legal commodity, and can be purchased once of age. Why not do the same for marijuana?
The fact that marijuana is in the prohibition mode, most, if not all the wrong things that happened while alcohol was banned will and is creeping back up on us. More and more crimes are now surrounded around marijuana and will escalate given the lack of will on the part of government to consider its legalization. To be fair, marijuana has been ascribed much injustice and the American public ought to hear something refreshingly positive about it from our public officials and lawmakers.
Marijuana Withdraw
BALTIMORE, Jan. 24 Withdrawal from the use of marijuana is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes, U.S. researchers said.
Lead investigator Ryan Vandrey of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore said abstinence from each of these drugs appears to cause several common symptoms, such as irritability, anger and trouble sleeping -- based on self reporting in a recent study of 12 heavy users of both marijuana and cigarettes.
"These results indicate that some marijuana users experience withdrawal effects when they try to quit, and that these effects should be considered by clinicians treating people with problems related to heavy marijuana use," Vandrey said in a statement.
Vandrey added that this is the first "controlled" comparison of the two withdrawal syndromes in that data was obtained using rigorous scientific methods -- abstinence from drugs was confirmed objectively, procedures were identical during each abstinence period, and abstinence periods occurred in a random order.
The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, also revealed that half of the participants found it easier to abstain from both substances than it was to stop marijuana or tobacco individually -- whereas the remaining half had the opposite response.
Ex-Chicago Police Officers Are Sentenced In Drug Ring
CHICAGO, Jan. 3 -- Three former Chicago police officers were sentenced Thursday to federal prison for staging mock raids to steal cocaine and marijuana from drug dealers and resell it to other dealers.
"You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire neighborhoods," U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman said in sentencing former officer Broderick Jones, the ring's admitted leader, to 25 years.
An FBI and Chicago police investigation of the ring in 2005 led to charges against five former officers and five alleged gang members. The gang members tipped off Jones to where police could steal drugs and guns, prosecutors said.
Wearing their uniforms and flashing guns and badges, members of the ring would swoop down on the place where a stash was kept. Instead of arresting the pushers and turning in the drugs, ring members made off with the narcotics and resold them to other dealers.
Jones, 36, brought in his grandmother and 16-year-old daughter as character witnesses and pleaded with Guzman for a minimum 15-year sentence. But Guzman, who could have sentenced him to life, said that 25 years was more fitting, in view of the operation's damage.
Former officer Darek Haynes was sentenced to 19 years. Eural Black, 44, the only former officer who did not plead guilty and who was convicted at a jury trial, was sentenced to 40 years because he was found guilty of two additional gun charges.
Does government suppress marijuana truths?
BY THOMAS VANCE
Recent studies have reached the interesting conclusion that marijuana is a cancer preventer. One was done in California, funded by the government, designed to link marijuana and lung cancer. The government's hope was that if it were proved that marijuana causes lung cancer, then it could argue that we certainly should not legalize it. But the study showed that even after heavy use there was absolutely no connection between marijuana and lung cancer. The doctor conducting the study also concluded that marijuana seemed to act as a cancer preventer.
Other studies done at European universities have reached the conclusion that among many cancer cell lines, if the cannabinoids in marijuana are present when a cell goes defective, the cell dies every time. Simple cancer is a defective cell, not dying as it should, but replicating. A German study published in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute said cannabinoids were found to slow the spread of lung and cervical cancer tumors and may also have an anti-cancer effect.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, not too long ago, was reprimanded by its own law judge for continually rejecting the application of a New England professor for the marijuana to do real research. Last I checked he had been waiting six years for an approval, and I think he is still waiting.
So, is it possible that the DEA is culpable in the deaths of cancer patients ever since they first rejected an honest request for marijuana to do research? Are our legislators using the war on drugs to scare the people to get re-elected? Would the government ignore the welfare of its own citizens to continue this wasteful and misguided policy?
Americans need to start demanding the answers to these questions now! The cure for cancer could be in our hands. When do you think the DEA will allow us to find out?
Two medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles have installed pot vending machines. They're accessible 24 hours a day and monitored by security guards. From Thrillist:
After cinching up your doctor's consultation, hit an AVM location to get your prescription approved, fingerprint taken, and a prepaid credit card loaded with your profile: dosage (3.5 or 7 grams, up to 1oz a week) and strain preference (choice of five, including OG Cush and Granddaddy Purple, the mildly hallucinogenic forebear to Prince). Then day or night, all you do is hit a machine and walk away with enough vacuum-sealed, plastic-encapsulated cheeba to adequately treat your illness.
America needs to rethink ineffective marijuana prohibition
Abraham Brown
Issue date: 1/25/08 Section: Ed-Op
In the 21st century I find it difficult to grasp why we as Americans have not learned from our mistakes and become better. Decriminalizing marijuana in Pennsylvania and the entire nation subsequently could possibly alleviate some of the drug problems we face here in Philadelphia and the nation at large.
The 1920s national prohibition of alcohol, the "noble experiment," was undertaken to reduce crime and corruption, solve social problems, reduce the tax burden created by prisons and poorhouses, and improve health and hygiene in America. However, this did not work and was a wretched disappointment on all counts.
Mark Thornton in his work Economics of Prohibition has shown that although consumption of alcohol fell at the beginning of Prohibition, it subsequently increased. He noted that alcohol became more dangerous to consume; crime increased and became organized. I have not seen any measurable gains made in productivity or increased abstinence with the implementation of prohibition. It is evident that crime is at its all time high right here in this "City of Brotherly Love," even in our midst on college campuses across Philadelphia.
Sadly some crimes committed in this city can be linked to marijuana, but it's important to note that it is not because of the mental effects on the body but because of the great value that the government indirectly creates and places on marijuana. And by value I mean, the herb becomes a prized possession, as it is illegal and hence harder to get. People will kill just to get marijuana. Are people killing to get alcohol? No, because it is a legal commodity, and can be purchased once of age. Why not do the same for marijuana?
The fact that marijuana is in the prohibition mode, most, if not all the wrong things that happened while alcohol was banned will and is creeping back up on us. More and more crimes are now surrounded around marijuana and will escalate given the lack of will on the part of government to consider its legalization. To be fair, marijuana has been ascribed much injustice and the American public ought to hear something refreshingly positive about it from our public officials and lawmakers.
Marijuana Withdraw
BALTIMORE, Jan. 24 Withdrawal from the use of marijuana is similar to what is experienced by people when they quit smoking cigarettes, U.S. researchers said.
Lead investigator Ryan Vandrey of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore said abstinence from each of these drugs appears to cause several common symptoms, such as irritability, anger and trouble sleeping -- based on self reporting in a recent study of 12 heavy users of both marijuana and cigarettes.
"These results indicate that some marijuana users experience withdrawal effects when they try to quit, and that these effects should be considered by clinicians treating people with problems related to heavy marijuana use," Vandrey said in a statement.
Vandrey added that this is the first "controlled" comparison of the two withdrawal syndromes in that data was obtained using rigorous scientific methods -- abstinence from drugs was confirmed objectively, procedures were identical during each abstinence period, and abstinence periods occurred in a random order.
The study, published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, also revealed that half of the participants found it easier to abstain from both substances than it was to stop marijuana or tobacco individually -- whereas the remaining half had the opposite response.
Ex-Chicago Police Officers Are Sentenced In Drug Ring
CHICAGO, Jan. 3 -- Three former Chicago police officers were sentenced Thursday to federal prison for staging mock raids to steal cocaine and marijuana from drug dealers and resell it to other dealers.
"You and your merry band essentially raped and plundered entire neighborhoods," U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman said in sentencing former officer Broderick Jones, the ring's admitted leader, to 25 years.
An FBI and Chicago police investigation of the ring in 2005 led to charges against five former officers and five alleged gang members. The gang members tipped off Jones to where police could steal drugs and guns, prosecutors said.
Wearing their uniforms and flashing guns and badges, members of the ring would swoop down on the place where a stash was kept. Instead of arresting the pushers and turning in the drugs, ring members made off with the narcotics and resold them to other dealers.
Jones, 36, brought in his grandmother and 16-year-old daughter as character witnesses and pleaded with Guzman for a minimum 15-year sentence. But Guzman, who could have sentenced him to life, said that 25 years was more fitting, in view of the operation's damage.
Former officer Darek Haynes was sentenced to 19 years. Eural Black, 44, the only former officer who did not plead guilty and who was convicted at a jury trial, was sentenced to 40 years because he was found guilty of two additional gun charges.
Does government suppress marijuana truths?
BY THOMAS VANCE
Recent studies have reached the interesting conclusion that marijuana is a cancer preventer. One was done in California, funded by the government, designed to link marijuana and lung cancer. The government's hope was that if it were proved that marijuana causes lung cancer, then it could argue that we certainly should not legalize it. But the study showed that even after heavy use there was absolutely no connection between marijuana and lung cancer. The doctor conducting the study also concluded that marijuana seemed to act as a cancer preventer.
Other studies done at European universities have reached the conclusion that among many cancer cell lines, if the cannabinoids in marijuana are present when a cell goes defective, the cell dies every time. Simple cancer is a defective cell, not dying as it should, but replicating. A German study published in the Jan. 2 issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute said cannabinoids were found to slow the spread of lung and cervical cancer tumors and may also have an anti-cancer effect.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, not too long ago, was reprimanded by its own law judge for continually rejecting the application of a New England professor for the marijuana to do real research. Last I checked he had been waiting six years for an approval, and I think he is still waiting.
So, is it possible that the DEA is culpable in the deaths of cancer patients ever since they first rejected an honest request for marijuana to do research? Are our legislators using the war on drugs to scare the people to get re-elected? Would the government ignore the welfare of its own citizens to continue this wasteful and misguided policy?
Americans need to start demanding the answers to these questions now! The cure for cancer could be in our hands. When do you think the DEA will allow us to find out?
so the only time I can get it is when I drive 4 hours to the state where I was born 
haha