Category: Drugs

Colorado McDonald’s Goes Mile High Offering Weed Smoking Section

mc-weedLooking like the Cone of Silence from Get Smart, two McDonald’s in Colorado have implemented marijuana smoking sections. Thirteen other McDonald’s in the state are working to follow suit.

From Daily Mox:

Colorado continues to blaze major trails when it comes to marijuana.

The first ever marijuana smoking sections will be implemented in 15 of the state’s McDonald’s restaurants. They will use the existing Play Place area’s and convert them over to friendly marijuana smoke zones.

Called “smoking pods”, these area’s will allow joints, bongs and pipes to be smoked, but only marijuana is allowed, not tobacco products or cigarettes.

Read more here.


Watch: Bill Lives the Drug War Every Day. Do You?

Listen to a civilian LEAP staffer demolish the War on Drugs.

From our friends at LEAP:

As our successes on Election Day illustrated and last week’s Congressional vote to protect medical marijuana patients from DEA interference further confirmed, more people agree with the need for drug policy reform than ever before. 

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition can claim credit for helping to bring about that palpable shift in mindset. Our speakers and staff work incredibly hard to bring our message of legalization, regulation and control to the forefront of the movement to end drug prohibition. We know that the consequences of prohibition are severe and impact real human beings – people like all of us. Our latest installment in LEAP’s ongoing “I LIVE THE DRUG WAR EVERY DAY” series comes from one of our own, LEAP’s Director of Programs and Financial Administration, Bill Fried.

Bill joined the LEAP staff in 2006, after years of involvement in grass roots activism. A product of 1960’s radicalism, Bill never thought he would one day work shoulder to shoulder with police officers, fighting for the legalization, regulation and control of all drugs. His story is one of activism come full circle. To hear Bill’s take on the madness of drug prohibition and why LEAP’s work is so important, please watch this videoShare it with your friends and familyStand with LEAP and tell us your storyMake a contribution to support our work.

We all live the drug war every day. Please stand with LEAP in our fight to end the drug war. Add your voice to our campaign now.

Thank you,

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition


Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: Crowd-funding Campaign

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition’s crowdfunding campaign, “Cops Lead Drug War Victims on  Journey for Peace.” 

Making use of the footage shot during 2012’s Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, LEAP is producing a documentary filmabout the law enforcers who led a caravan of drug war victims across the United States in a campaign to acknowledge the devastation created by Mexico’s war on drugs. 

LEAP’s mission was to supplement the victims’ testimony with law enforcement voices bearing personal witness to the harms and wasteful futility of the War on Drugs here in the United States.

LEAP journalists Dean Becker and Sam Sabzehzar joined with filmmakers from Mexico and around the world to document the emotional testimonies of the victims and police throughout the 27-city tour, shooting more than 500 hours of unedited video.

This moving story of law enforcement coming together with drug war survivors reveals a truth about the value of ending the violence generated by drug prohibition.

We write to request your help in two ways.

1. Would you make a gift of at least $25 today to support this film’s production?  

2. Would you invite at least 10 friends to join this effort with you and make a gift by sharing the link (www.tiny.cc/leap_film)? 

We have the film. We have the story. You have the funds to help us edit, translate, score and finish a documentary that will draw attention to the grief caused by the war on drugs around the world. 

As a LEAP supporter, your contributions are truly what sustain our efforts. Please help us to complete this film and educate the public on the dire need for an end to drug prohibition. 

Thank you, 

Major Neill Franklin (Ret.)
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibtion


How the War on Drugs Became a Race War (MSNBC Video)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

How the war on drugs became a race war, from the Dylan Ratigan Show on MSNBC.


NYTimes: U.S. Rejects Plan to Widen Availability of Morning-After Pill

Disappointing news from the New York Times:

In a surprise move, the nation’s health secretary stopped the Plan B morning-after pill from moving onto drugstore shelves next to the condoms, deciding Wednesday that young girls shouldn’t be able to buy it on their own.

The Food and Drug Administration was preparing to lift a controversial age limit and make Plan B One-Step the nation’s first over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, available for purchase by people of any age without a prescription.

But Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius intervened at the eleventh hour and overruled her own experts.

Plan B instead will remain behind the pharmacy counter, as it is sold today — available without a prescription only for those 17 and older who show an ID proving their age.

That this comes from this sometimes-perplexing Democratic administration is one thing. That the move comes in direct opposition to the administration’s own experts baffles me.


Dr. Joycelyn Elders: Marijuana, Masturbation and Medicine

From The Nation:

A group called MarijuanaHarmsFamilies.com is flooding California airwaves with a scary-scary ad against Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana. We don’t know who they are but we do know that there is a former Surgeon General who has come out in favor of Prop 19. She’s Joycelyn Elders, also now a professor emeritus at the University of Arkansas School of Medicine and an associate at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Here’s a rough transcript of her comments today on GRITtv.

Laura Flanders (host): Your response to those who say those things: it harms children, it’s a gateway drug and it’ll just do terrible things to law enforcement?

Joycelyn Elders: I would say that if it does anything it will help law enforcement because they could spend more time taking care of… very harmful things. Proposition 19, as I understand it, is really for adults over 21, they can have only one ounce, it’s to be smoked in their own home or in a place that’s authorized. Now, the drug cartels regulate who buys the drug. If we regulated it or decriminalized it, it could be sold and taxed and we could use the money to do more valuable things for our bright young people.

More…


Study: Marijuana Smoking Associated With Minimal Changes In Driving Performance

Marijuana may not impact driving, according to a new study.

From ENEWSPF:

Subjects exhibit virtually identical psychomotor skills on a battery of driving simulator tests prior to and shortly after smoking marijuana, according to clinical trial data published in the March issue of the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs.

Investigators from Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine assessed the simulated driving performance of 85 subjects in a double-blind, placebo controlled trial. Volunteers responded to various simulated events associated with automobile crash risk — such as avoiding a driver who was entering an intersection illegally, deciding to stop or go through a changing traffic light, responding to the presence of emergency vehicles, avoiding colliding with a dog who entered into traffic, and maintaining safe driving during a secondary (in-the-car) auditory distraction. Subjects performed the tests sober and then again 30 minutes after smoking a single marijuana cigarette containing either 2.9 percent THC or zero THC (placebo).

Investigators reported that volunteers performed virtually the same after smoking cannabis as they did sober and/or after consuming a placebo. "No differences were found during the baseline driving segment (and the) collision avoidance scenarios," authors reported.

Let the discussion begin.

More here.


WATCH: CPAC Speaker’s Credibility Goes Up Glenn Beck’s Nose (Video)

From our friends at Media Matters for America.


Michael Jackson’s Doctor Conrad Murray Charged With Manslaughter

From WTAE Pittsburgh:

Michael Jackson’s doctor has been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the pop singer’s death.

Prosecutors announced the charge Monday against Dr. Conrad Murray, a Houston cardiologist who was with Jackson when he died June 25. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted.Murray’s attorney Ed Chernoff says.

Murray will plead not guilty.

More here at WTAE.


FDA: No, It’s Not Okay to Market Candy-Flavored Cigarettes

From ENEWSPF:

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is enforcing the flavored cigarette ban provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) by issuing several warning letters to companies continuing to sell illegal flavored cigarettes to consumers in the United States through their Web sites.

The warning letters directed the companies to cease the marketing and sale of these products immediately or to take other appropriate action to bring the products into compliance with the law. Failure to do so may result in additional regulatory actions such as seizure or injunction. In addition, FDA requested a written response from each of the companies within 15 days outlining the corrective actions taken.

Enforcement of the flavored cigarette ban is FDA’s effort to remove cigarettes that contain certain candy or fruit flavors from the marketplace. Removal of these products from the market will assist in the prevention of children and adolescents from starting to smoke and in the reduction in death and disease caused by smoking.

“FDA takes the enforcement of this flavored cigarette ban seriously,” said Lawrence R. Deyton, M.S.P.H, M.D., director of FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products. These actions should send a clear message to those who continue to break the law that FDA will take necessary actions to protect our children from initiating tobacco use.”

Sneaky SOBs, are they not?

Cigarette manufacturers. Not the FDA.

Not this time.