That’s right, the Marijuana Policy Project has entered the year 2001 and gotten an online store. Here is the link. Get yourself some schwag and support a good cause. You won’t be able to replace your NORML thong yet, but there are a few good items.
Posted by Kathryn Muratore at September 14, 2008 01:23 PM
Since the big story broke last spring about prescription medicine showing up in municipal water, more and more tests have been run in different areas of the country, and all show the same general trend. Previously, I implicated the Drug War in being one of the culprits in this problem.
But I underestimated the depth of the guilt of the DEA. It turns out that the Drug War regulations make it prohibitively expensive to dispose of unused controlled substances in any other way, so medical facilities are dumping them down the drain.
From the AP article:
In a frustrating quirk in government policy, the most tightly controlled drugs — like painkilling narcotics prone to abuse — are the ones that most often elude environmental regulation when they become waste.
Federal narcotics regulators impose strict rules meant to keep controlled pharmaceuticals out of the wrong hands. Yet those rules also make these drugs nearly impossible to handle safely as waste, say hospital environmental administrators.
Though a leader in incinerating drug waste, this hospital still puts four gallons of controlled substances down the drain each year, says hazardous waste manager Steven Waderich.
It would be very expensive to do otherwise. “Managing controlled substances, the cost goes up just through the roof,” he says.
In nearby Robbinsdale, North Memorial Medical Center pours 50 gallons of controlled substances into its drains annually rather than pay $25,000 to handle and haul it away for safer disposal, says regulated waste coordinator Jerry Fink.
Part of the cost is due to federal rules that state anyone who handles controlled substances, other than a user, must be certified as a police officer or registered with the DEA. That goes for pharmacists, distributors, even waste handlers.
State waste regulators take their cue from federal law and regulations.
Thus, typical assisted-living centers, which are not registered with the DEA, cannot collect unused controlled drugs of residents for offsite disposal.
Even the destruction of controlled drugs must be meticulously documented, so they aren’t diverted to addicts. Medical facilities typically send a second staffer to bear witness when controlled substances are poured into sinks or toilets.
The result of ingesting these minute amounts of drug coctails is unknown and maybe harmless. However, this shouldn’t be a scare in the first place. The regulation of drugs, both of those legal and not, harm far more people than they ever help. From unintended conciquences such as this to increased crime and the rise in the police state to the creation of drugs like crack cocaine which may never had occured if not for the high costs of other drugs due to prohibition.
Just received this in my mailbox from Cheryl Aichele of or on behalf of Friends of Charles C. Lynch
FREE CHARLES LYNCH 8am Court Support 11am PROTEST
Body: Americans for Safe Access (ASA) members and friends will be providing court support and protesting for medical cannabis provider Charles Lynch on Monday, October 6, in Los Angeles. Mr. Lynch was convicted in federal court earlier this month of operating a medical cannabis dispensing collective and faces decades in federal prison. We need to show our support for Charles and his family as his attorneys ask for a new trial. We also need to let federal officials and local representatives know that Californians will not tolerate federal interference or local cooperation with DEA raids.What: Free Charles Lynch - Court Support & Rally
When: 8:00 AM Courtroom #10, 11:00 AM in front of Courthouse, Monday, October 6, 2008
Where: 312 N. Spring St. (at Temple St.
) in downtown Los AngelesFor public transit information, visit http://www. metro. net/riding_metro/default. htm
Join us on Saturday, August 16, for a the LA-ASA meeting to start planning! The meeting is at 1:00 PM at the patient ID Center, located at 470 S. san Vicente Blvd., in Los Angeles.
Get a map and details at http://www. ASAaction. orgInvite your friends and loved ones to the meeting and protest!
Don Duncan
ASA California Campaign Director
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) is the largest national member-based organization of patients, medical professionals, scientists and concerned citizens promoting safe and legal access to cannabis for therapeutic use and research.
Little early to be advertising the actual rally/protest but it’s good to see them planning. I wish them the best of luck. The Charles Lynch case is horrible and if you can make it out to show your support I urge you to do so.
Not bad. It would have been nicer to give him a bit more time but that’s always the case.
This is pretty good: Fox 5’s Tom Fitzgerald decided to do a report on the ongoing harassment of photographers inside D.C.’s busy Union Station, a topic we’ve written about and heard about from our own Flickr contributors many times before. While he was there interviewing Amtrak’s spokesperson on the subject, who in fact told the reporter that photography is absolutely allowed inside the Amtrak portion of the station, a security guard came up to the Fox 5 crew and told them turn their cameras off. You can watch the report here. Interestingly enough, the company that owns the mall area of Union Station never got back to Fox 5 to clarify their policy.
If we can get the photography protesters to be consistent and persistent we could reverse this. It’s more likely to get this than the bikers.
Next step full prohibition… because “we all pay for your unhealthiness.”
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