It's Called Torture (Feb. 28, 2005-Free NYTimes registration required)
"As a nation, does the United States have a conscience? Or is anything and everything O.K. in post-9/11 America? If torture and the denial of due process are O.K., why not murder? When the government can just make people vanish - which it can, and which it does - where is the line that we, as a nation, dare not cross?"

Afghans Accuse U.S. of Secret Spraying to Kill Poppies (Feb. 27, 2005-Free NYTimes registration required)
"Farmers are convinced that someone [The US] is surreptitiously spraying their lands or dusting them with chemicals, presumably in a clandestine effort to eradicate Afghanistan's bumper poppy crop."

Psychedelic medicine: Mind bending, health giving (Feb. 27, 2005)
"John Halpern clearly remembers what made him change his mind about psychedelic drugs. It was the early 1990s and the young medical student at a hospital in Brooklyn, New York, was getting frustrated that he could not do more to help the alcoholics and addicts in his care. He sounded off to an older psychiatrist, who mentioned that LSD and related drugs had once been considered promising treatments for addiction."

$9B Goes Missing In Iraq (Feb. 27, 2005)
"Profiteering from the Iraq war is not a surprise, especially in light of the Bush administration's pandering to the military-industrial complex."

Frank Talk About Drugs Could Do Us All Some Good (Feb. 27, 2005)
"Well, maybe I'd be more than a relative success had I stayed straight. Maybe if I hadn't smoked pot, I would have been president. Oops. Now we have the president acknowledging that he smoked pot. In personal conversations secretly recorded by a good friend - say that phrase aloud a couple of times - George W. Bush said he wasn't going to answer reporters' questions about marijuana use because he didn't want kids to do what he did."

Thompson's Wife Forgives His Suicide (Feb. 26, 2005)
"Anita Thompson describes the anger, confusion -- and finally, peace -- of the writer's last day."

Marijuana may block Alzheimer's (Feb. 26, 2005)
"Scientists showed a synthetic version of the compound may reduce inflammation associated with Alzheimer's and thus help to prevent mental decline. They hope the cannabinoid may be used to developed new drug therapies."

The Doors of Perception (Feb. 25, 2005)
This is Aldous Huxley's classic tale describing his psychedelic journies, both good and bad, and which gave the Doors their name. A great book well worth checking out, easy to do here as it's all online here at the Schaffer Library.

Grow op busted near police HQ (Feb. 25, 2005)
"As many as 100 officers walked past the house on their way to work every day, until the smell finally aroused the suspicion of drug investigators."

Doubts Over School Drug Testing (Feb. 24, 2005)
"Random drug testing in schools should not be encouraged across Britain until there is better evidence that it helps stamp out use, a charity report says. It could even have the 'perverse consequence' that cannabis users switch to harder drugs to avoid detection, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says."

Bush Gets Stoned by World Media (Feb. 24, 2005)
"President Bush all but admits to illicit drug use for the first time. Overseas it's the stuff of headlines. At home, the U.S. press has generally downplayed the story."

The Thompson Style: A Sense of Self, and Outrage (Feb. 23, 2005-Free NYTimes registration required)
"Hunter S. Thompson died on Sunday, alone with a gun in his kitchen in Woody Creek, Colo. In doing so, he added heft to a legend that came to obscure his gifts as one of journalism's most influential practitioners."

Liberals to be asked to approve pot (Feb. 23, 2005)
"Delegates to the Liberal party convention next month will debate a motion to legalize and tax marijuana sales, bringing in billions in new tax revenue. Parliament is already debating legislation to decriminalize marijuana, but a resolution by Alberta Liberals would go much further. It would tax the proceeds of legalized pot sales, which the resolution says would bring in $3 billion in revenue each year."

Their tokin' president? (Feb. 23, 2005)
"Maybe the dubya stands for weed. Local cannabis advocates were buzzing yesterday about newly surfaced tapes that reveal a 'hypocritical' George W. Bush admitting he tried pot."

HST and The Proverbial 'Live Boy' (Feb. 22, 2005)
"My hero died tonight. He was a flawed man, a maniac, in so many ways the antithesis of what a journalist is supposed to be. Worst of all, he told the truth. There is now one less warrior on this planet filled with Guckert clones, drones who get fed shit and regurgitate it wholesale for the masses because that is what we are trained to eat. Rest in peace, Hunter. Thank you for everything. We're going to deal with this Gannon/Guckert/Whoever person, and then move down the line and deal with the rest of the whores. You died on the eve of the birth of a new journalism, populist in nature, beholden to the truth and thanking the Google gods every step of the way."

Dallas settles with 16 in fake drug frame-ups (Feb. 21, 2005)
"The city will pay about $5.7 million to settle lawsuits brought by 16 people who were jailed after paid police informants planted bogus drugs on them, two attorneys said Friday."

In Secretly Taped Conversations, Glimpses of the Future President (Feb. 21, 2005-Free NYTimes registration required)
"And in exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana."

F.D.A. Panel Says Pain Relievers Should Remain on Market (Feb. 19, 2005)
"A federal drug advisory panel unanimously agreed today that the huge-selling painkillers Celebrex, Bextra and Vioxx cause worrisome heart problems, but its members voted to recommend that all three nonetheless be available to patients, accompanied by strong warnings of the risks."And yet, pot remainds illegal. What hypocrisy. What absolute malarkey.

SCU researcher harvests hemp for houses (Feb. 18, 2005)
"Project leader Dr Keith Bolton, from Southern Cross University, said hemp was being used successfully to construct houses in France and other parts of Europe, but this was understood to be the first time hemp houses will be built in Australia."

Committee rejects medical marijuana (Feb. 18, 2005)
"An Illinois House committee rejected a proposal to legalize medical marijuana Thursday, but not without some drama as police detained an activist who brought 150 marijuana cigarettes to the hearing."

Drug rehab: is it just another addiction? (Feb. 15, 2005)
"A growing number of doctors and addicts believe that drug rehab is a waste of time."

CIA officers will not face charges in downing of missionary plane (Feb. 15, 2005)
"The Justice Department has decided not to pursue criminal charges against C-I-A officers who were involved in an anti-drug operation that led to the deaths of two Americans."

Government against petition (Feb. 13, 2005)
"Whether or not you agree with marijuana prohibition, it is hard to see how citizens in this free nation should be discouraged by their leaders from engaging in the democratic process by petitioning for change, yet this is an all-too-common story."

Battles won, a war still lost (Feb. 13, 2005)
"As always, the drug business appears to be one step ahead of its pursuers."

Worry Spreads Over GI Drug Side Effects (Feb. 13, 2005)
"Some current or former troops sent to Iraq (news - web sites) claim that Lariam, the commercial name for the anti-malarial drug mefloquine, has provoked disturbing and dangerous behavior. The families of some troops blame the drug for the suicides of their loved ones."

Plea for boycott of 'unethical' cocaine (Feb. 13, 2005)
"A 'boycott cocaine' campaign to shame the middle-classes into shunning the fashionable drug has moved a step closer after the Foreign Office gave its blessing."

'Cannabis gran' remains defiant (Feb. 13, 2005)
"The woman known as Britain's 'cannabis gran' explains why she eats marijuana five times a day - and why she'll keep on doing it despite the threat of a jail term."

U.S. to Trim Anti-Drug Aid to Peru, Lima Dismayed (Feb. 11, 2005)
"The Bush administration plans to cut U.S. counternarcotics funding for Peru because it does not expect a program to shoot down suspected drug flights to resume anytime soon, a U.S. official said on Thursday." In other words, because Peru won't agree to continue shooting plans full of people out of the air, basically murdering them without trial on mere suspicion, the Bush administration is cutting their anti-drug assistance. It's this kind of thing that should give anyone with a working brain pause for thought- what exactly are the reasons for this War on Some Drugs and Users again? What exactly is this shoot-down policy accomplishing?.

Lawmakers Criticize White House Drug War Budget (Feb. 11, 2005)
"The Bush administration on Thursday claimed major successes in reducing illegal drug use among teens, but lawmakers from both parties criticized its proposed budget that would cut several anti-drug programs."

True Lies of a CIA Drug Runner (Feb. 11, 2005)
"Ken Bucchi says he was a drug-running spook. The CIA says he's an impostor. Someone's lying."

Drug experts weed out myths of marijuana (Feb. 11, 2005)
I hate to say this, but if Barthwell is any indication, I'm beginning to worry about my own use of marijuana, and the possible psychological harms that may arise from my use, in that if she used daily for 15 years (her own admission- and did she herself do any prison time to get clean? If not, why force others to do the prisontime thing?), THEN went on to her current career promoting the policies that lock up others for the very same behavior, yes indeed I would be willing to be a bit nervous- but that said, I suspect that in this case as with most of the cases of schizophrenia and other insanities allegedly resulting from pot use were rather already present in these people and the pot use was only one small part of the coming out of said insanit(ies).

Cops Bust Kid's Birthday Party For Dope (Feb. 10, 2005)
"Police on a drug raid burst into a suburban home during a child's birthday party, startling children who had not yet eaten their cake."

Students Could Face Up To 15 Years In Jail (Feb. 9, 2005)
"Some of the teens caught in a high school drug sting could face up to 15 years in prison for selling small amounts of narcotics, officials said Friday."

Drug Raid May Cost Memphis Taxpayers (Feb. 8, 2005)
"Testimony in the October case convinced jurors that officers not only wrongly killed Robinson, 41, a gravedigger and caretaker at Baron Hirsch Cemetery, but tried to cover it up."

Meth bill expected to draw support (Feb. 8, 2005)
"Girl's slaying may galvanize backing for measure to put many cold medicines behind the counter." Instead of seeing how legalizing even meth labs would have saved 10 year old Katlyn Collman's life, as she wouldn't have been murdered to hide the lab she supposedly stumbled upon, legislators and anti-drug zealots are urging yet another law designed almost implicitly to increase such violence and mayhem and black market finagling, and further enriching and empowering the criminals to the detriment of the taxpaying public at large.

Reduced Drug Laws To Affect Many Queens Residents (Feb. 8, 2005)
"When Queens County Supreme Court Judge Steven Fisher sentenced Miguel Arenas to a 15-years-to-life sentence in 1994, he did so only because he was mandated."

My Journey With the Rockefeller Drug Laws (Feb. 8, 2005)
Anthony Papa's story, by Anthony Papa. For more on Papa, see my interview with him in my book, Under the Influence- the Disinformation Guide to Drugs.

Court offers chance of sentence reform (Feb. 8, 2005)
"In a recent pair of drug-related cases, the Supreme Court ruled that federal sentencing guidelines are advisory and judges do not have to follow them in every case (U.S. v. Booker and U.S. v. Fanfan). This ruling, which surprised many, holds both promise and danger, depending on what Congress does."

Stories from the Inside (Feb. 8, 2005)
While serving time for drugs is hellish and wrong, at least the whereabouts of drug war prisoners is usually known by their family members and other friends and relations. These poor people locked in Guantanamo Bay don't even have that, and are being actively tortured from the get-go in myriad ways. The US is being run by maniacs and evil people these days, having taken over this country with nary a shot fired. For more on their evil ways, if more proof is needed, please read CIA Renditions of Terror Suspects Are 'Out of Control:' Report.

Paranoia Grips the U.S. Capital (Feb. 7, 2005)
"The film Seven Days In May is one of my all-time favourites. The gripping 1964 drama, starring Burt Lancaster, depicts an attempted coup by far rightists in Washington using a top-secret Pentagon anti-terrorist unit called something like 'Contelinpro.' Life imitates art."

US Works Against International Needle Exchange (Feb. 7, 2005)
See the section "The UN and Harm Reduction at the top of this webpage. "The US government is pressuring the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to abstain from any support for harm reduction."

Yes, heroin can kill, but the doomsayers' lies are just as dangerous (Feb. 6, 2005)
"So some people can combine a heroin habit with an otherwise normal life? So what else is new?"

Cannabis: Prescribing the miracle weed (Feb. 6, 2005)
"The drug can be a lifeline, and a fortunate few may soon get it on prescription. But why has it taken so long?"

Researchers scramble for THC patent (Feb. 6, 2005)
"A small team of Clemson University researchers is in the process of patenting several chemical compounds derived from THC, the active ingredient in marijuana."

So You Want to Grow Your Own Pot (Feb. 5, 2005)
"I, as a proud pot-smoking Canadian, have been a trifle disturbed by some of the anti-drug rhetoric floating around lately. We've seen such gems as Anne McLellan labelling all pot smokers as 'stupid' and the shameless use of an American national tragedy to push an inane anti-drug agenda: namely, advertisements linking drug use to terrorism. This is spin that makes dervishes look amateur."

Drug-sniffing dog will make house calls (Feb. 5, 2005)
You too can play cop and search your kids like common criminals do...errr, as though they are common criminals I mean.

Cocaine, anyone? (Feb. 3, 2005)
"Is there anything wrong with recreational drugs? The new head of Scotland Yard says there is. But, says Leo Benedictus, the rise of the middle class user will be difficult to stop."

Seizures of Canadian pot by U.S. authorities rises 259 percent since 2001 (Feb. 1, 2005)
"Seizures of Canadian-made marijuana by U.S. authorities have increased 259 percent since 2001 but still constitute only about 2 percent of all such seizures at U.S. borders, according to a joint report."