MAPTalk-Digest Tuesday, October 26 2010 Volume 10 : Number 051
001 Mexico burns 134 tons of pot
From: Jay Bergstrom <>
002 PayPal boycott?
From: Rick Steeb <>
003 Web: Letter Of The Week - We Should Reconsider What's Driving Our Drug
From: Richard Lake <>
004 Re: MAP: US CA: meet and greet the Drug Kzar in Pasadena
From: "Ethan M." <>
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Subj: 001 Mexico burns 134 tons of pot
From: Jay Bergstrom <>
Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 23:35:23 -0700
video lol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUScdrsMzpM
At 08:29 PM 10/21/2010, you wrote:
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Adios to Mexico's marijuana haul
>OCT 21, 2010 18:16 EDT
>http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2010/10/21/marijuanahaul/
>
>The black smoke could be seen across Tijuana as Mexico's biggest-ever
>marijuana haul went up in flames.
>
>The equivalent of more than 250 million joints were soaked in
>gasoline and set on fire, with the smell of the drug soon
>overpowering the acrid smell of the fuel.
>
>It took soldiers 10 hours to assemble all the bales for incineration,
>134 tonnes in all, wrapped in packets all marked for their respective
>U.S. dealers, including some with Homer Simpson logos. They were
>seized across the city in homes and trucks, a public relations
>victory of sorts for President Felipe Calderon and his drug war.
>
>The marijuana took two days to burn.
>
>Still, private estimates put Mexico's annual marijuana production at
>7,000 tonnes, so there are either going to be a lot more bonfires,
>or, more likely, a lot smoke ups north of the border still to come.
>--
>****************************************************************************
>JOIN CA NORML AND HELP US REFORM MARIJUANA LAWS IN CALIFORNIA.
>See http://www.canorml.org/canormlmission.html
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Attachment: http://drugsense.org/temp/sOxttADSCu11349.html
------------------------------
Subj: 002 PayPal boycott?
From: Rick Steeb <>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:08:12 -0700
- ----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana <>
Sent: Wed, October 20, 2010 10:05:16 AM
Subject: Status of WAMM's Online Donation
Dear Friend & Beloved Supporter of WAMM,
You may have noticed that your PayPal didn't process your financial gift to
WAMM. Over the last couple of years we have had a few tussles with the PayPal
and what they consider marginally legal business, the provision of medical
marijuana for seriously ill patients in our community.
In fact, at one time we were able to provide PayPal with a letter from our
attorneys, which sufficed to appease them. After two years they have decided
that they will not accept any donations made to WAMM through their corporation.
This creates a myriad of problems, but none that we can't move past. Especially
in light of last year's agreement with the federal government. we are as in the
words of the federal court, ".the gold standard of the medical marijuana
movement."
We are hoping to move to a new space that will enable us to create more space to
prepare our many products, for meditation and respite, a gathering place and a
drop-by, pick-up service for those who cannot wait through our weekly meetings.
This will allow us to serve more sick people, making a safe haven for our
membership.
We really appreciate all you have done to help bring us to this point in our
historic efforts to change the face of medial marijuana. We know that it is
because of the kindness you provide that we are able to move forward. We are
researching donation options via the Internet. But until the federal government
changes its oppressive stance on this medicine and the service that our
completely alternative program provides to seriously people few choices remain.
If you feel so inclined you can post us a check at the address below. If you
decide that this won't work for you, know that you will be forever in our hearts
and remembered as our eternal hero...
You make the world a better place.
With deep respect and endless gratitude,
Valerie and everyone at WAMM.
309 Cedar St. #39
Santa Cruz, CA. 95060
http://www.wamm.org | http://www.wammfest.org
------------------------------
Subj: 003 Web: Letter Of The Week - We Should Reconsider What's Driving Our Drug Policy
From: Richard Lake <>
Date: Fri, 22 Oct 2010 08:35:23 -0700
Newshawk: Published Letters Awards www.mapinc.org/lteaward.htm
Pubdate: Fri, 22 Oct 2010
Source: DrugSense Blog
Website: http://drugsense.org/blog/
LETTER OF THE WEEK
WE SHOULD RECONSIDER WHAT'S DRIVING OUR DRUG POLICY
Bravo to Mary O'Grady for focusing on the economics of U.S. drug
policy ("The Economics of Drug Violence," Americas, Oct. 11).
In 1975 I was the lead Office of Management and Budget person on an
interagency drug interdiction task force involving the White House
Office of Drug Policy, the OMB, Justice Department (Immigration
Service-Border Patrol and Drug Enforcement Administration) and
Treasury ( Customs Service ). We presented conclusions to White
House staff and to Treasury and Justice leadership based on estimates
that we were interdicting about 5% of marijuana and about the same
single-digit percent of "hard" drugs coming across U.S. borders.
Resources devoted to the drug interdiction strategy were already
enormous at that time. Officers of the U.S. government (Border
Patrol, Customs and DEA) were actually involved in incidents of
shooting at each other, in connection with claiming the enforcement
"turf" between the ports of entry. Moreover, we estimated that a
doubling of resources devoted to this interdiction task would yield a
negligible increase in seizures and interdiction effectiveness, with
a then unknown increase in profit margins to traffickers.
U.S. drug enforcement policy has been tragically wrong-headed for
more than a generation for several reasons. Foremost is the failure
to look at drug policy with an economic, rather than an ideological,
lens. Our policies of increasing investment in interdiction have
raised profit margins for narco-terrorists, state-terror groups and
criminal syndicates. Our policies of increasing "investment" have
been driven by federal agency union leadership interested in
increasing membership and the scope of their mission. Our inability
as a nation to look at the deteriorating world of drug-financed
terrorism and lawlessness may be the result of our policy of
incremental increases. We are like the frog in the pot slowly being
boiled to death. It is certainly a result of our failure to think
seriously about supply and demand effects of U.S. drug policy.
Like another conservative economist and observer of our failed
policy, George Shultz, I favor legalization of marijuana. I will
vote in favor of Proposition 19 on Nov. 2, as one step in the right
direction.
John A. Fisher
Menlo Park, Calif.
Pubdate: Thu, 14 Oct 2010
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n826/a02.html
------------------------------
Subj: 004 Re: MAP: US CA: meet and greet the Drug Kzar in Pasadena
From: "Ethan M." <>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2010 05:11:02 -0700
In news:internal.mailing-list.drugs.map.talk, Allan Erickson
<> posted on Wed, 20 Oct 2010 06:09:28 -0700 the following:
> http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_16384421?nclick_check=1
>
> > PASADENA, Calif.+IBQ-President Obama+IBk-s drug czar is scheduled to visit
> > a Southern California drug treatment center Wednesday to speak out
> > against the November ballot initiative that would legalize
> > recreational marijuana use in the state.
> >
> > Director of National Drug Control Policy Gil Kerlikowske is
> > planning to release new government data showing that California
> > already has a much higher percentage of children in treatment for
> > marijuana use than the rest of the country.
> >
> > He also plans to highlight statistics indicating the state has a
> > higher than average percentage of residents voluntarily seeking
> > treatment because of problems with pot.
That's only because society is set up to make life harder for those who
use pot, what with the drug testing at the workplace, and well-meaning,
but ignorant people trying to do the user a "favor" by intervening.
It can be difficult for some to mix pot smoking and a highly structured
social life. But that doesn't mean pot use is wrong, or that the people
in treatment actually need to be there. I imagine the people in treatment
are those who are finding that the requirements of living a highly
structured life don't go so well with the more laid-back viewpoint some
seem to get from pot use. But in a world so filled with stress, anxiety
and depression, even in those who don't use pot, it makes me think that
societal structure is a bigger problem than pot use. There is a way to
run a society without so much structure, scheduling and commitments to
strict scheduling. There's no need to run a society with a
be-here-at-this-time-or-be-fired foundation.
------------------------------
End of MAPTalk-Digest V10 #51
*****************************
|
