Tag: Illegal Drugs

Don’t Eat The Poppies!

The weekend and time for me to veer off course and do something funny, entertaining or just damn amusing………this story caught my attention because I have used the false positive before…I will explain after you read the following…….

A first-time mother who says she failed a drug test while in labor because she ate poppy seeds has sued a Pittsburgh hospital, saying officials defamed her and violated her doctor-patient confidentiality by sharing the results with a child welfare agency. Rachael Devore, 31, who gave birth at Magee-Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on June 24, contends in her lawsuit that the hospital staff tested her urine while she was in labor and then turned over the “positive” drug test to county caseworkers. That led to weeks of random visits to her home. Opiates like heroin are made from poppies, which is why the seeds can result in false positives on drug tests. But Devore said she didn’t realize what prompted the failed drug test until weeks later—when she bought the same kind of bread she had eaten the day before she went into labor and saw poppy seeds when she sliced into it. “I just delivered and it’s supposed to be this beautiful, wonderful, happy time and I’m being accused of something that’s completely ridiculous,” she says. “To be accused of physically and purposely harming your child is a very tough accusation to swallow.”

Now for my story with poppy seeds……

When my daughter was in high school the toads in control decided that they were going to start drug testing the students….it was suppose to be a secret but I was doing the principles twin daughters and they let the scheme slip one night…….so for 3 weeks I fed my daughter everything that had poppy seeds in it…..muffins, salad dressings, rolls, etc……well they tested my daughter and I was called in to get the news that my daughter was using opiates…..I let the principle tell me all about it….I stood and looked at him and said….”I know.  I have been feeding her poppy seeds for weeks.  The point is YOU WILL NOT test my daughter without my permission.  Do it again and I will own this f*cking building.  Are we clear?”

Needless to say…we never had another incident while she was at that school.  Damn!  It felt good to be a dick!

One Conspiracy Deserves Another

You know that there is a site that will give you any conspiracy you would like…..about 9/11 or Boston bombing or health care or …..well you see where I am going with this….conspiracies are everywhere…..I found one when reading the other night……

Newser) – It’s pretty easy to make meth at home, and Big Pharma seems intent on keeping it that way, Mother Jones reports. The so-called “one pot” method of meth production relies on pseudoephedrine, a common ingredient in medicines like Sudafed and Claritin D. So two states—Oregon and Mississippi—made pseudoephedrine a harder-to-obtain prescription drug, and saw meth-lab numbers fall by 96% and 74%, respectively. But other states that tried passing a similar law ran into Big Pharma’s lobbying juggernaut.

Legislators in two dozen states have tried passing bills since 2009, and were deluged by angry phone calls, ad campaigns, and robocalls to constituents. “They’ll outspend us 100-to-1,” says an Alabama state senator. Lobbyists argue that most US meth comes from Mexico, and Americans need easy access to medicine. True, but meth is cutting a scary path of addiction, burn victims, and ruined homes through America. Big Pharma’s “pull in Congress is so strong,” says an aide in Washington, that “every time we would schedule a meeting … anybody who got wind of it would have a meeting with someone from the pharmaceutical industry. They got scared of it.”

Drug companies would rather see their product used in the making of an illegal substances than cooperate with the enforcement people…..see…..profits are more important than anything in big business.

Talk About A Bad Trip!

I recall that during the wild 60’s I tried a lot of stuff to alter my perception…..one of the better was the original LSD…the stuff that could help one see and talk with God….and all thise trips I took I never had a bad one….unless watching it raining and thinking the window pane was melting…..and then there was my religious experience…..I was looking down a long pipe and saw the face of God….it appeared as a very intelligent ape with g;lasses and a glass of wine….no conversation too k place…

What I am trying to come around to see this poece on a dude that had what I would call a “bad trip”……….

(Newser) – Something weird is in the mushrooms in Michigan’s Ypsilanti Township: Police say a man ripped off part of his own penis, almost killing himself through blood loss, after taking hallucinogenic mushrooms. Cops found the naked, screaming man outside a school after responding to a late-night burglar alarm, the Detroit Free Press reports.

“He really wasn’t saying much at all—a lot of yelling and screaming,” a police spokesman says. “He wasn’t making sense. They couldn’t really communicate with him in terms of constructive conversation.” The man, a Columbus, Ohio, native, was nearly dead by the time they got him to hospital. Police say he has no history of mental illness or extensive drug use and blood tests will be carried out to see if the mushrooms were laced with anything.

A whole new definition for “jerking off”……Please share your thoughts…..Besides……..OUCH!

Damn! The Munchies!

Another Saturday and yet another two days of trying to wash my brain of the filth of our political process……..there was a time that I would numb my mind with the magical herb….but those days are gone since my injury and the pain meds that I must take……any way we have heard a bunch of stuff in the news about all the legalization efforts in the US…….personally, why not!

But there is a development in the Middle East that has reported in the Newser website………

(Newser) – Mary Jane without the high? You can thank Israeli scientists, who have created a new form of marijuana that gives you health benefits without getting you stoned, AFP reports. “It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant—it’s all the same—but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared,” says Tzahi Klein, who heads development at the firm that created the new cannabis.

The concept behind Israel’s new pot is simple: neutralize the effect of THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol—which gets you high—and increase the power of CBD, or cannabidiol, which can relieve psychiatric problems and help diabetics. You won’t get the munchies, either. But will medical users like the new, no-high grass? Klein recalls that “many of our patients who tried the new plant come back to us and say: ‘You tricked me,'” thinking it was a placebo.

Now I ask…..what is the point?  No high….No munchies…..No desire to get laid….what is the point?  They are trying to take all the fun out of smoking the magical herb!

The Magical Mystery Trip

It is the weekend and as usual I find cool stuff that has absolutely NOTHING to do with the silliness we call politics…..

This post is NOT about a basketball team or David Cooperfield making Trenton disappear….it is about something that all of us old hippies know all too well……the MUSHROOM!  Not button….or the portobello….or oyster…..nope the best mushroom around…..the psilocybin mushroom!  How many hours did you spend in a cow pen searching through the pies for the magic?

We all know, if you were a member of the hippie culture just how wonderful the experience can be……but is it?  Or was it just a good high?

All that hippie stuff about opening your mind may have some truth to it. Scientists have found that psilocybin, the drug in “magic mushrooms,” can improve one aspect of a subject’s personality: her “openness.” In a trial, nearly 60% of subjects who were given one dose of psilocybin saw a positive personality effect—and one that lingered for more than a year, USA Today reports. Scientists gathered 51 healthy volunteers, most of whom considered themselves “spiritually active”; they spent a series of eight-hour sessions lying down with blindfolds and music playing through headphones. They were given psilocybin in only one of the sessions, and neither the subjects nor the attending monitors knew which one. “This study shows that psilocybin actually changes one domain of personality that is strongly related to traits such as imagination, feeling, abstract ideas, and aesthetics, and is considered a core construct underlying creativity in general,” says a researcher. And the increased openness didn’t fade during 14 months of follow-ups.

See we old hippies and aged leftists knew a good thing……peace!

The War Without End

From the VOMITORIUM

Fifty years ago today…..Pres. Richard Nixon made the War on Drugs official…….

No this is not a post on WW1 or WW2, wars that cost a lot, especially in human lives…..but rather the endless War on Drugs….anyone that has been a avid reader of Info Ink knows that I think that this country has pissed away billions upon billions of dollars fighting a war they cannot win….the War on Drugs.  I have said that the country should legalize them and then tax them…..this would do away with the massive profits of the cartels…in essence cut out the middle man and in doing so lessen the violence against civilians….back on 29 Dec 2009 I wrote a piece on the War and just how stupid it is (if you want read it go to archives)….but now I feel a bit vindicated from the criticism I took……

The Global Commission on Drug Policy, which includes several former heads of state and UN officials, has released a report calling the global war on drugs a failure.

“The global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world,” the report reads. “Fifty years after the initiation of the UN Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, and 40 years after President Nixon launched the US government’s war on drugs, fundamental reforms in national and global drug control policies are urgently needed.”

Among the members of the commission are former presidents of Columbia, Mexico and Brazil, former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, former U.S. Secretary of State George P. Shultz and former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, among others.

The report calls for an end to the “criminalization, marginalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but who do no harm to others,” and for governments to experiment with ways to regulate drugs so as to undercut organized crime and improve public health.

“Begin the transformation of the global drug prohibition regime,” the report says. “Replace drug policies and strategies driven by ideology and political convenience with fiscally responsible policies and strategies grounded in science, health, security and human rights – and adopt appropriate criteria for their evaluation.”

Read the full report here.

It would seem that more thoughtful people will see just how useless this War on Drugs is……makes criminals rich and pisses away billions on something that cannot be stopped…no matter how much cash or how many useless laws that are passed….then why waste the time and effort…..face reality!

Get Real, People!

From the VOMITORIUM

One of today’s biggest problems facing the US is that of immigration….well NOT ALL immigration…just that part of it that involves the drug lords and their war for territory and routes…..the American Southwest has become a hot bed of this illegal activity….people’s property being violated, people killed crime of all sorts being perpetrated….and now the common election rhetoric is that we must slam the door shut on the border…at least to keep the undesirables out (their term not mine).

Why are Americans worried about immigration?

All this concern (and I use the term loosely) is just so much lip service….and political lip service at that….after all it IS election time and this IS a good issue to emphasize during a campaign……

What is the main problem?  The demand for illegal drugs….and in as such creates the middle man which in this case creates the crime, the killings and the problem….but to blame ALL immigrants for the actions of a few is MORONIC.  A man in search of cash to feed his family is not causing the crimes!  The people supplying the demand for illegal drugs are causing the problem.

Let us look at the War on Drugs….a DISMAL failure!  Billions spent on control has done NOTHING to curb the drugs entering into the US.  It has not slowed demand or use or anything else.  But yet we keep throwing money at the problem, if you want to call it a problem.

You want to curb the violence in this country and in Mexico?  One sure fire way!  Eliminate the middle man!  Users of illegal drugs will keep using and farmers will keep growing…..that is all you need to know about the industry.

A radical idea!  LEGALIZE drugs!  Once legal they can be taxed …once that is done then the need for the middle man is gone.  With the middle man gone the crime will to lessened if not removed.  Farmers can make their money and users can get whacked out and the government has a new source of income.  The need for the War on Drugs is gone and that money can be used where it is needed….in the US of A.

All this in turn will help the deficit…something to consider if we are serious about controlling the deficit and responsibility.  But then I am NOT sure that we are serious, more like just more BS and lip service to make us think something is done…..I have NO confidence in the government…no matter which pack of lairs and cheats are in power.

Afghanistan: What Have We Accomplished?

An Inkwell Institute paper

Subject:  Foreign Policy

Just recently Sen. McCain has called for more troops for deployment to Afghanistan–of all the people in the Congress, I do not understand McCain position.  Did he not learn anything from his deployment to Vietnam?  Does he not recall that an increase in troop strength came with an increase of American lives?  Has he not seen the polls that show a gradual but steady decline in the people who support the war in Afghanistan?

Eight years and counting and what has the US really accomplished in Afghanistan?  A question that needs to be asked and answered if the US is to succeed.  But first, What is the US mission in Afghanistan?

Before we go there we must understand the history of Afghanistan.  Thanks to afghancitizen.blogspot.com for the history lesson.

The land that is now Afghanistan has a long history of domination by foreign conquerors and strife among internally warring factions. At the gateway between Asia and Europe, this land was conquered by Darius I of Babylonia circa 500 B.C., and Alexander the Great of Macedonia in 329 B.C., among others. Mahmud of Ghazni, an 11th century conqueror who created an empire from Iran to India, is considered the greatest of Afghanistan’s conquerors.
Genghis Khan took over the territory in the 13th century, but it wasn’t until the 1700s that the area was united as a single country. By 1870, after the area had been invaded by various Arab conquerors, Islam had taken root. During the 19th century, Britain, looking to protect its Indian empire from Russia, attempted to annex Afghanistan, resulting in a series of British-Afghan Wars (1838-42, 1878-80, 1919-21).

And then Hell came to the country.

1978
Khan is killed in a communist coup. Nur Mohammad Taraki, one of the founding members of the Afghan Communist Party, takes control of the country as president, and Babrak Karmal is named deputy prime minister. They proclaim independence from Soviet influence, and declare their policies to be based on Islamic principles, Afghan nationalism and socioeconomic justice. Taraki signs a friendship treaty with the Soviet Union. But a rivalry between Taraki and Hafizullah Amin, another influential communist leader, leads to fighting between the two sides.
At the same time, conservative Islamic and ethnic leaders who objected to social changes introduced by Khan begin an armed revolt in the countryside. In June, the guerrilla movement Mujahadeen is created to battle the Soviet-backed government.
1979
American Ambassador Adolph Dubs is killed. The United States cuts off assistance to Afghanistan. A power struggle between Taraki and Deputy Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin begins. Taraki is killed on Sept. 14 in a confrontation with Amin supporters.
The USSR invades Afghanistan on Dec. 24 to bolster the faltering communist regime. On Dec. 27, Amin and many of his followers are executed. Deputy Prime Minister Babrak Karmal becomes prime minister. Widespread opposition to Karmal and the Soviets spawns violent public demonstrations.By early 1980, the Mujahadeen rebels have united against Soviet invaders and the USSR-backed Afghan Army.

1989
The U.S., Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the Soviet Union sign peace accords in Geneva guaranteeing Afghan independence and the withdrawal of 100,000 Soviet troops. Following Soviet withdrawal, the Mujahadeen continue their resistance against the Soviet-backed regime of communist president Dr. Mohammad Najibullah, who had been elected president of the puppet Soviet state in 1986. Afghan guerrillas name Sibhatullah Mojadidi as head of their exiled government.

Then after the withdrawal of the Soviets, the Taleban took control and began enforcing rigid fundamentalism on the population.  9/11 happened and after a short while the US and its allies invaded and removed the Taleban from power and began a search for the now infamous Osama.  He escaped capture and is still at large.

The US original task was to eliminate al Qaeda and in particular Osama, that has bee a bust…..the US slowed them down but they are just across the border gaining strength and allies as I write.  That task was a bust and now it has been retasked to providing security to the population from the terrorism of the Taleban and its allies.  That task is not going so well for there is daily suicide attacks killing Afghans and others.

The US task whatever it is deemed to be is NOT working well at all.  Why do we say such?  Easy answer…..recently elections have been deemed fraudulent…..the killing drones are killing as many civilians as bad guys……the drug trade still flows openly….Taleban is still a viable force….al Qaeda is still a viable force…..and finally as best we can tell Osama and his cronies are still breathing.

Once you take history and the tasks into consideration…then NOTHING is working well….and it seems to be all a waste of money and manpower and lives.

Still Chasing The Ultimate High

We baby boomers have been blamed for a lot of stuff in the past…like the bankrupting of Social Security……And Medicare….They say (whoever the hell THEY are) that we boomers will destroy the American system if something is not done and done quickly…..unfortunately, Washington does not know how to react quickly…that aside there is some troubling news depending on your point of view)  coming from Reuters:

Middle aged baby boomers are still turning on to illegal drugs forty years after Woodstock, doubling the rates of illicit drug use by the previous generation, according to a government study released on Wednesday.The rates of people aged 50 to 59 who admit to using illicit drugs in the past year nearly doubled from 5.1 percent in 2002 to 9.4 percent in 2007 while rates among all other age groups are the same or decreasing, the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported.

Baby boomers are the post World War II generation born between 1946 and 1964. The data used in the study came from various surveys including 16,656 men and women participating in the 2002 through 2007 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health. Click here to read the full report.

The study surveyed use of marijuana, cocaine, heroin, hallucinogens, inhalants and prescription drugs used non-medically.

May I see a show of hands of those who find these findings surprising…..long pause for voting…..why do you find this report surprising?  The Boomers damn near invented the definition of “stoner”…..so you think that because they got older that they would trade in their “highs” for something more morally accepted?  Damn..then you guys are not a Boomer!  You people need to pay more attention to the society around you.