cannabisnews.com: As Fires Rage, The Law Protects Us From Marijuana As Fires Rage, The Law Protects Us From Marijuana Posted by CN Staff on July 01, 2008 at 05:40:42 PT By Peter Schrag Source: Sacramento Bee Calif. -- Almost anybody who's lived in California for even a few years knows from where that acrid smell in the air and the yellow haze in the sky have been coming. And we know the scary feeling that comes with them. The only exceptions are the narcs, state and federal, who think it's marijuana smoke.As California's wildfires overwhelm the resources to fight them, federal and state agents – hundreds of them – have been sweeping through Humboldt County and a sliver of Mendocino County in pursuit of commercial pot growers. An FBI spokesman was quoted in the Eureka Times-Standard last week as saying that 450 agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal agencies would be executing 27 search warrants in what they called "Operation Southern Sweep." But, he said, they wouldn't be going after medical marijuana dispensaries or their patients. "We're not here to set policy or interfere with California's compassionate use."There's good reason for that forbearance. The investigation of the pot growers, as in the past, was initiated by the California Justice Department's Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement and involved state drug agents as well as the California Highway Patrol, county sheriff's deputies, and local cops. Years ago, Attorney General – later governor – George Deukmejian, wearing a flak jacket, himself choppered in to lead one of the raids.But ever since 1996, when voters passed Proposition 215, which authorizes the dispensation and use of marijuana for medical purposes, the raiders have to make distinctions between commercial pot and medical pot.When the feds act alone, they don't have to bother with fine lines, or worry about whether the cancer, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma patients they bust or whose property they seize will now live with even more pain and difficulty negotiating their already tough lives. Federal law pre-empts state law, and federal law, still stuck in the absolutism of the G-man era, says pot is a terrible drug now and forever.The link between the wildfires and the pot raids is more than symbolic. That's a no-brainer. If more resources were diverted from the drug wars to things that really endangered the community, firefighters would have gotten some of the help last week they were begging for. Snipped Complete Article: http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1051332.htmlSource: Sacramento Bee (CA)Author: Peter Schrag Published: Tuesday, July 1, 2008 - Page B7Copyright: 2008 The Sacramento BeeContact: opinion sacbee.comWebsite: http://www.sacbee.com/CannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by Dirtmover on July 06, 2008 at 10:03:47 PT Humboldt The FBI/DEA raids are more amazing for what they DIDN'T do.They completely ignored the local Cannabis dispensaries and other medical grows. They only raided a blatant commercial grow-op.I strongly recommend the readers here try to follow what is going on in Humboldt.New law is going to originate, there. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by FoM on July 01, 2008 at 12:01:11 PT Runruff That chair was interesting. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by runruff on July 01, 2008 at 11:51:13 PT: George Washington's chair. About 15 years ago I discovered a letter in the Library of Congress [personal correspondences by the founding fathers] which contained references to native American shaman practices including the consumption of magic mushrooms. Washington and Jefferson were so intrigued by this they not only tried it but went through a ritual with American Indian shamans. Afterward Washington had his famous chair made with the curious design on the back of a rising sun topped with a psilocybin mushroom. Of course these were the days before the ONDCP lies and distortion which have since demonized this practice. The Native Americans still use the mushrooms in their rituals as well as peyote.Here is Washington's chair:http://www.ushistory.org/more/sun.htmHere is some info on the mushroom:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psilocybin_mushrooms [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by FoM on July 01, 2008 at 08:39:19 PT Graehstone I believe that natural substances can really be a benefit to people. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Graehstone on July 01, 2008 at 06:54:01 PT Magic mushrooms' have long-lasting benefits I found this to be interesting, just the fact that something positive is being said about an "illegal" drug other than Cannabis is cause for a smile I think.NEW YORK - In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project.She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open.But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day. "I feel more centered in who I am and what I'm doing," said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. "I don't seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have. I feel much more grounded (and feel that) we are all connected."Scientists reported Tuesday that when they surveyed volunteers 14 months after they took the drug, most said they were still feeling and behaving better because of the experience.Two-thirds of them also said the drug had produced one of the five most spiritually significant experiences they'd ever had.The drug, psilocybin, is found in so-called "magic mushrooms." It's illegal, but it has been used in religious ceremonies for centuries.The study involved 36 men and women during an eight-hour lab visit. It's one of the few such studies of a hallucinogen in the past 40 years, since research was largely shut down after widespread recreational abuse of such drugs in the 1960s.The project made headlines in 2006 when researchers published their report on how the volunteers felt just two months after taking the drug. The new study followed them up a year after that.Experts emphasize that people should not try psilocybin on their own because it could be harmful. Even in the controlled setting of the laboratory, nearly a third of participants felt significant fear under the effects of the drug. Without proper supervision, someone could be harmed, researchers said.'Like the joy of being alive' Osborn, in a telephone interview, recalled a powerful feeling of being out of control during her lab experience. "It was ... like taking off, I'm being lifted up," she said. Then came "brilliant colors and beautiful patterns, just stunningly gorgeous, more intense than normal reality."And then, the sensation that her heart was tearing open."It would come in waves," she recalled. "I found myself doing Lamaze-type breathing as the pain came on."Yet "it was a joyful, ecstatic thing at the same time, like the joy of being alive," she said. She compared it to birthing pains. "There was this sense of relief and joy and ecstasy when my heart was opened."With further research, psilocybin (pronounced SILL-oh-SY-bin) may prove useful in helping to treat alcoholism and drug dependence, and in aiding seriously ill patients as they deal with psychological distress, said study lead author Roland Griffiths of Johns Hopkins.Griffiths also said that despite the spiritual characteristics reported for the drug experiences, the study says nothing about whether God exists."Is this God in a pill? Absolutely not," he said.The experiment was funded in part by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The results were published online Tuesday by the Journal of Psychopharmacology.Fourteen months after taking the drug, 64 percent of the volunteers said they still felt at least a moderate increase in well-being or life satisfaction, in terms of things like feeling more creative, self-confident, flexible and optimistic. And 61 percent reported at least a moderate behavior change in what they considered positive ways.That second question didn't ask for details, but elsewhere the questionnaire answers indicated lasting gains in traits like being more sensitive, tolerant, loving and compassionate. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25464338/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on July 01, 2008 at 05:50:47 PT Cable Show About Medical Marijuana To Air June 30, 2008URL: http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_9748789 [ Post Comment ] Post Comment