December 28, 2004
MDMA to be tested on terminal cancer patients
So after years of wrangling, the government begins to realize there is therapeutic value in previously 'medically unuseful' substances. Better late than never:
MSNBC - Ecstasy to be tested on terminal cancer patients
December 15, 2004
October 04, 2004
F*ck Big Media: Rolling Your Own Network
from: Webearth.com
Mark Pesce
Lecturer, Interactive Media, AFTRS
markp@aftrs.edu.au
www.playfulworld.com
Preamble
The worldwide consolidation of media industries has led to a consequent closure of the public airwaves with respect to matters of public interest. As control of this public resource becomes more centralized, the messages transmitted by global media purveyors become progressively less relevant, less diverse, and less reflective of ground truth.
At present, individuals and organizations work to break the stranglehold of these anti-market-media-mega-corporations through the application of the courts and the law. However, because of the inherent monopoly that anti-market media maintain on the public mindset, legislators have been understandably reluctant to make moves toward media diversification. We are thus confronted with a situation where many people have interesting things to say, but there are progressively fewer outlets where these views can be shared.
The public airwaves, because they are a limited resource, are managed by public bodies for the public interest. While honorable, the net effect of this philosophy of resource management has been negative: a public resource has become the equivalent of a beachfront property, its sale generating enormous license revenues, but its transfer to the private domain denying the community access to the sea of ideas.
If a well-informed public is the necessary prerequisite to the democratic process, then we must frankly admit that any private ownership of public airwaves represents a potential threat to the free exchange of ideas. Now that private property has mostly collectivized the electromagnetic spectrum, and with little hope that this will soon change, we must look elsewhere to find a common ground for the public discourse.
We are fortunate that such ground already exists.
Daley Hints at Change for Illinois Drug Laws
Are cities in the USA finally coming around the realization that they would be better off decriminalizing 'the plant' and focus on real crime and terrorism. It's a no-brainer: spend your money on fighting real crime. Also, by bringing these hitherto 'fringe commodities' into the mainstream, it brings us closer to the day where it can actually be taxed. Giving people a safe and legal way of obtaining marijuana would actually take the money away from organized crime as well as terrorists.
from: New York Newsday
By DON BABWIN
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO -- Mayor Richard Daley, a former prosecutor, runs the nation's third-largest city with a pragmatic, law-and-order style.
He wears his hair short, and you'll never catch him in a Grateful Dead T-shirt. So when he starts complaining about the colossal waste of time and money involved in prosecuting small-time marijuana cases, people take notice.
"This is absolutely a big deal," said Andy Ko, director of the Drug Policy Reform Project for the American Civil Liberties Union in Washington state. "You've got a mayor in a major American city ... coming out in favor of a smart and fair and just drug policy."
What Daley did was to say late last month that a police sergeant was on to something when he suggested that it might be better to impose fines between $250 and $1,000 for possession of small amounts of marijuana rather than prosecute the cases.
Sgt. Thomas Donegan determined that nearly 7,000 cases involving 2.5 grams of pot or less were filed last year in Chicago. About 94 percent were dismissed.
Daley wondered if ticketing offenders might be smarter. "If 99 percent of the cases are thrown out and we have police officers going (to court to testify in the cases), why?" the mayor said. "It costs a lot of money for police officers to go to court."
The way Daley's thoughts became public was also unusual: There was no public pressure for the mayor to speak out. He was asked by reporters who had gotten wind of Donegan's findings and simply answered their questions.
Police officers are used to spending hours making arrests, writing reports and waiting around in court, only to see the charges dropped or a guilty plea that leads to nothing more than probation or drug-education classes.
"While officers are doing everything to keep the streets safe, the offender gets arrested and is walking the street in just a few hours," Donegan wrote in his report. "To me, this is a slap in the face to the officers."
Both police and defendants know it's rare for anyone arrested for a small amount of marijuana to get the maximum penalty in Illinois: 30 days in jail and a $1,500 fine. Pat Camden, a Chicago police spokesman and a former officer, said he couldn't remember a single case.
Leonardo Nevarez, 23, wasn't worried when an officer found what he said was half a joint in his pocket in August. He pretty much knew he would be ordered to attend a drug-education class.
About the only question he had last week when he went to court was whether the arresting officer would show up. If he didn't, the case would be dismissed.
"Yeah, I was hoping he wouldn't be there," Nevarez said. "He was there."
Nevarez said he could have sought a delay in the case, as some defendants do, in the hopes that the next time the arresting officer would be absent. But after talking briefly to a public defender, he entered a plea, the judge ordered the class, and Nevarez went home.
The case had taken up the time of police officers, court clerks, a judge and an attorney.
Chicago wouldn't be the first city to reduce the penalty for possessing a small amount of marijuana.
In Seattle, voters passed an initiative requiring law-enforcement officials to make personal-use marijuana cases their lowest priority. In California and Oregon, possession of a small amount of marijuana is a misdemeanor punishable by a $100 to $500 fine. In Colorado, it doesn't even rise to the level of misdemeanor; it's a petty offense with a fine of no more than $100.
Some observers say Daley's statements have added weight because of the mayor's background.
"As a former prosecutor, nobody is going to say he's soft on crime," said Dick Simpson, a political science professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago and a former city alderman.
Chicago officials are a long way from making permanent changes. Police spokesman David Bayless said the department has yet to determine the accuracy of Donegan's report, which concludes the city could have collected more than $5 million in fines last year.
Still, Daley's comments alone could have a wide impact.
"This will make it easier for other officials to say the same thing," Simpson said. "I can imagine mayors in other cities coming out agreeing that this shouldn't be treated as a high crime."
Israel to soothe trauma with marijuana
By Corinne Heller
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli soldiers traumatised by battle with the Palestinians have a new, unconventional weapon to exorcise their nightmares -- marijuana.
Under an experimental programme, Delta-9 tetrohydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient found in the cannabis plant, will be administered to 15 soldiers over the next several months in an effort to fight post-traumatic stress disorder.
Raphael Mechoulam of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, the chief researcher behind a project he described as a world-first, said the chemical could trick the brain into suppressing unwanted memories.
For soldiers haunted by flashbacks of traumatic battle experiences, he said, the drug, administered in liquid form, could be the answer to hundreds of sleepless nights.
Liberation News Service
LNS Post Coup II Supplement (12/23/04)
At least twenty-three more US soldiers have died in Iraq since the last LNS supplement was posted. For what? The neo-con wet dream of a Three Stooges Reich. This war is worse than immoral, worse than illegal under international law, this war is insanely stupid...Read the following tales of heroism and patriotism...share them with others...keep the resistance alive...there is a purpose to this struggle...there is a truth being revealed...painfully...it is up to you to birth it, because the US mainstream... [ full article ]View from the Third Edge
A Droplet of Meditation Precipitate
Most of the time you know you want to actively participate in something other than getting to work everyday, working through the day (sometimes interesting - other times not), and going home. You know you are meant for something more... [ full article ]
