Professor David Nutt - The Inconvenient Truth About Drugs

Professor David Nutt - The Inconvenient Truth About Drugs

Terence and Dennis Mckenna on James Joyce from True Hallucinations

On a recent re-reading of 'True Hallucinations' by Terence Mckenna, this paragraph jumped out at me like a Jaguar:

"This particular afternoon, Dennis called our attension to the little hen, saying that if one thought of her as art, then the achievement she represented was immense. Who could make such a hen? only the one who could have fashioned the perculiar world that we had fallen into. And that was? He looked around expectantly, but finding no takers he delivered his own punch line:
"James Joyce.

Over the next few minutes he proceeded to make his case: that Finnegans Wake represented the most complete understanding yet achieved of the relation of the human mind to time and space and that therefore Joyce, at his death, had somehow been shouldered with the responsibilities of overseeing this corner of God's universe. In this Dennis was only following Wyndham Lewis, who made Joyce's ascent to eminence in the afterworld the subject of his novel The Human Age.

"Jim and Nora," as Dennis called the newly revealed deity and his consort, were both in and acting through everything at La Chorrera, particularly in the things that Joyce had loved. The little hen as the symbol of Anna Livia Plurabelle of the wake was one of these things. It was Joycean humor that radiated outward from everything in our jungle Eden. These ideas were absurd but delightful, and they led me eventually to reread Joyce and to accept him as one of the true pioneers in the mapping of hyperspace."--Terence Mckenna. Looking Backward. Truse Hallucinations. pg. 147. 

Alan Watts on 'these drugs' (psychoactive compounds)

" The nearest thing i know in literature to the
reflective use of one of These drugs is the so-called
Bead Game in hermann Hesse's Magister Ludi (Das
Glasperlenspiel). Hesse writes of a distant future in
which an order of Scholar-mystics have discovered an
ideographic language which can relate All branches of
science and art, philosophy and religion. The game
consists Of playing with the relationships between
configurations in these various Fields in the same way
that the musician plays with harmonic and
Contra(pun)tal relationships. - The Joyous Cosmology,
Alan W. Wattts, Page 21.

Taken from my poem:

https://sites.google.com/site/ourhistorysback/prose-toolz-2-0

Protest planned against Dutch 'weed pass'

There was one exception: the "Easy Going" shop of Marc Josemans, chairman of the coffee shop owners' association, which remained open just long enough to provoke two legal conflicts he hopes may ultimately derail the policy.


First Josemans turned away a group of foreigners who oppose the rule, and who went to the police to file a discrimination complaint. Then he started selling weed to anybody willing to buy, without checking for passes.--Miami Herald. May 1st, 2012.

 

 

Protest planned against Dutch 'weed pass'

A tourist smokes marijuana at a coffee shop called 'de Dampkring' or 'Atmosphere,' in the centre of Amsterdam, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)

AMSTERDAM — A policy barring foreign tourists from buying marijuana in the Netherlands went into effect in parts of the country Tuesday, with attention focused on the southern city of Maastricht, where a cafe was warned over violating the ban and a buyers' protest is planned for later in the day.

Weed is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but it has been sold openly for decades in small amounts in designated cafes known as "coffee shops" under the country's famed tolerance policy.
Under a government policy change, as of May 1, only holders of a "weed pass" are supposed to be allowed to purchase the drug in three southern provinces. Nonresidents aren't eligible for the pass, which means tourists are effectively banned.

The policy isn't supposed to go into effect in Amsterdam, home to around a third of the country's coffee shops, until next year -- and it may never be. The city opposes the idea and the conservative national government collapsed last week, raising questions about whether a new Cabinet will persevere with the policy change after elections are held in September.

Most attention Tuesday was on the city of Maastricht, which borders both Belgium and Germany and which has suffered the effects of a constant flow of traffic from non-Dutch Europeans driving to the city just to purchase as much cannabis as possible and drive back home.

Most shops in Maastricht plan to refuse to use the pass and kept their doors shut Tuesday.

There was one exception: the "Easy Going" shop of Marc Josemans, chairman of the coffee shop owners' association, which remained open just long enough to provoke two legal conflicts he hopes may ultimately derail the policy.

First Josemans turned away a group of foreigners who oppose the rule, and who went to the police to file a discrimination complaint. Then he started selling weed to anybody willing to buy, without checking for passes.

"The police paid me a visit about a half an hour later and warned me I was violating the new rules, and if I do it again, I'll be closed down for a month," he said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press.

Josemans said he planned to continue selling to all comers, and he fully expects to see his shop closed. His response to that would be to take his case to the European Court of Justice.
"Discrimination is never the right answer," he said.

Early reports from other affected cities -- Tilburg, Roermond and Eindhoven, among others -- were that most shops were either remaining closed, or ignoring the pass.

"They'll wait it out until this whole pass plan goes away," Josemans said.

Even most Dutch weed smokers aren't getting the passes, assuming the law won't be enforced. Some are worried the information they have obtained a weed pass will somehow leak from a government database and cause them difficulties with health care insurance or getting a mortgage.

A former chairman of the Netherlands' Police Union Hans van Duijn told reporters in front of "Easy Going" that he believes the new policy's negative side effects will outweigh any benefits and that enforcing it would waste precious resources.

"Everyone who is rejected here will walk a few meters (yards) down the street to the drug dealers who drive over from Rotterdam, among other places, and ride around in large numbers," he said.
Robert Anthony, a Belgian, said he "regularly" comes to the Netherlands "to buy weed in peace."

He predicted it will be "chaos on the streets very soon."

Ironically, the reason the Dutch tolerance policy got going in the 1970s was not on the theory that marijuana was OK -- it has always been viewed as a public health problem -- but because containing it in shops seemed like a pragmatic way to deal with the problems caused by street dealing.

But a growing body of evidence linking the drug to mental illness and a decade-long shift to the political right in the Netherlands has already led to minor changes in the policy, notably the closure of many shops located near schools or known for causing problems.
But the weed pass policy represents a significant change.

Asked whether he thought the policy will succeed, Justice Minister Ivo Opstelten said he was certain it will.

"The next Cabinet can always roll back everything, but they will continue prudent policies," he said. "I think this is smart policy, so I'm not worried about that."

http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120501/120501_netherlands_marijuana/20120501/?hub=CP24Extras

Weed Pass U Blift (News items on Dutch miss-courage of Justice))

.....what I call the real DEA - the Dutch English American alliance between the  Royal families and the bankers; they're all inter-related to one another, when you start getting into it you find that George Bush for instance, is related to the Queen of England who's related to Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands who's related to most of the major bankers - it's all one big happy family when you get up there at the top.--Robert Anton Wilson, w/ Steven Pratt.

Video of 420 Cafe, in connection with new 'Weed Pass' Proposal.

 http://video.msnbc.msn.com/msnbc.com/47209277/

"THE Dail’s most prominent dope-loving deputy has told how a Dutch ban on tourists getting high is just POTTY.

Luke ‘Ming’ Flanagan yesterday dismissed the law as “unenforceable” after it won judicial backing in the Netherlands.
The controversial measure, if approved by Dutch MPs next week, will effectively bar Amsterdam’s famous coffee houses from serving cannabis to foreigners — by making them members-only clubs.
Lawyers for 600 cannabis cafes last night vowed to continue fighting their government’s “discriminatory” drive to rid Holland of its druggie paradise image.
And the GRASS-roots revolt won early support from weed campaigner Flanagan.
The Roscommon TD, who has given up the habit to avoid breaking the law, insisted the Dutch economy would feel a massive comedown if Irish tourists were denied a toke.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/irishsun/irishsunnews/4284906/Dutch-capital-set-for-tourist-toke-ban.html

The government’s decision to restrict the use of cannabis cafes to local residents by excluding tourists is not discriminatory, a court in The Hague said on Friday.
A group of 19 café owners and other interest groups had gone to court in a last-ditch attempt to have the membership system overruled. All cannabis cafes in the south of the country are due to become members’ only clubs on May 1.
The café owners say not only is the measure discriminatory but infringes peoples’ privacy.
http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2012/04/rt_rules_against_cannabis_cafe.php

So, not that we condone going to the Netherlands just for the pot (The Hague is really cool guys, we promise), but if that's your plan, get your hands on a "weed pass." We're not sure what this pass will look like, but apparently it's one way, according to the AP and the BBC, to tell foreigners and Dutch residents apart. The AP writes that once the Dutch government's rules banning tourist from its legal cannabis go into effect, "It will turn coffee shops into private clubs with membership open only to Dutch residents and limited to 2,000 per shop." The BBC notes the idea of a pass is still up for debate.
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/global/2012/04/dutch-lawmakers-make-it-harder-tourists-smoke-pot/51648/

"Thirty-six years and many millions of joints after the Netherlands' laws on marijuana were relaxed, drug tourists from Britain and other countries are set to be weeded out when a nationwide ban on foreign dope-smokers takes effect.

Yesterday, a court in The Hague upheld a Dutch government plan to restrict sales of soft drugs to local residents in possession of an identity card, nicknamed a "wietpas", or "weedpass".

Since 1976, Dutch authorities have tolerated the sale and consumption of small quantities of soft drugs. The policy was introduced to keep users away from the hard drugs trade, controlled by organised criminals. One consequence was to attract visitors from less-tolerant countries to a land where joints could be rolled, bongs inhaled and "space-cakes" nibbled, without fear of prosecution.
http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/want-to-visit-a-dutch-coffee-shop-well-youll-only-get-coffee-from-now-on-7685311.html

A controversial law that will make it harder for foreign tourists to buy cannabis at the Netherlands' famous coffee shops has been upheld by a Dutch court.
The law, which reverses 40 years of liberal drugs policy in the Netherlands, is targeted at the many foreigners who have come to see the country as a soft drugs paradise and to tackle a rise in crime related to the drug trade.
The law, which goes into force in three southern provinces on May 1st before going nationwide next year, means coffee shops can only sell cannabis to registered members.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2012/0427/breaking41.html

#OpCannabis: Anonymous Hackers Take Up Marijuana Activism

From the crew that never sleeps over at alternet.

w/ extra video added by Fly.

#OpCannabis: Anonymous Hackers Take Up Marijuana Activism

Hacktivist Anonymous began the "OpCannabis" to throw the collective's weight behind drug reform.

April 21, 2012  |  

Guy Fawkes mask, from V for Vendetta.

Photo Credit: Ben Fredericson at Flickr

 

Heroes to some and villians to others, the “Anonymous” movement has come to symbolize much more than just a group of rogue hackers. But far from breaking into computer networks run by rogue governments or multinational corporations, as they’ve come to be known for, the online hacktivists now have their sights set on a different human rights issue entirely: marijuana prohibition.

Members of the hacking collective, who were at the epicenter of planning and promoting “Occupy Wall Street” last year, announced earlier this month that April 20, 2012 would mark the beginning of an official “Anonymous” push-back against America’s drug laws.

Speaking to Raw Story this week, a person claiming to be a member of “Anonymous,” who watched an attack on Sony’s website from behind the scenes but did not participate, claimed responsibility for the group’s new “OpCannabis” campaign, explaining that the operation is determined to throw the collective’s weight behind drug reform.

After launching a pitch for “OpCannabis” over one year ago, the hacker said that their “PR text evolved into a video,” which was “translated into German by parties unknown,” but then it fizzled.

“[S]omething was missing,” the source explained. “For some reason my inbox wasn’t blowing up and only a few hundred people seemed to show interest. This may or may not have had something to do with AnonNews deciding not to carry our press release. Thankfully this has since been resolved.”

Now that the leading “Anonymous” news account has tuned into the marijuana campaign and began circulating the latest “OpCannabis” updates, it has gone global.

Members of “Anonymous” plan to get outside and be vocal on Friday during nationwide protests against America’s drug policies. Some may even be following up with more computer hacking and website defacement. And just earlier this month, “OpCannabis” got its own website and Twitter account, connecting hundreds of “Anonymous” activists who are now sharing ideas to foster the push-back against prohibition.

But “OpCannabis” isn’t designed to be a hacking spree, Raw Story’s nameless source explained. “Anyone I’ve found that is involved with marijuana activism, I’ve told that they can e-mail any and all materials to the opcannabis@gmail.com and I’ll sort through it and get it on the site.”

“We ask you to please educate yourself on its many benefits and share these benefits with your sick or injured friends,” an “OpCannabis” press release implores. “We all know somebody that has cancer or diabetes and cannabis has helped or cured both and many other disorders!

Anonymous will begin its support for the legalization of cannabis on 4/20/12. So please show your support by educating yourselves and making your profile pic or timeline banner on your social services accts green or 420 friendly.”

They’ve also asked that each chapter of the remaining “Occupy” groups around the country participate in marijuana-related events, pointing out the billions already spent just this year to incarcerate tens of thousands of marijuana prisoners around the country.

Raw Story’s source specifically pointed at the government’s hypocrisy in declaring that the plant has no medical value when pharmaceutical companies are practically begging for permits to research new marijuana-based drugs that address a whole host of ailments, including possible cures for several types of cancer.

The War on some drugs meets Virgin Google U.N and wikileaks

  The War on some drugs meets Virgin Google U.N and wikileaks

I get my pot absolutely free from the Women's Alliance for medical marijuana which doesn't charge, its a cooperative and we do what we can to keep it going, now they have been raided we're gonna have to do more, we're gonna have to decentralize even further, decentralize the production, the making of the tinctures, the cookies, the brownies and whatever forms we wanna take it in that's best for our condition, some people still smoke it, and were gonna have to decentralize the growth and production and distribution.--Robert Anton Wilson, 2002, Santa Cruz CA.

I was about to start a piece about the proposed Dutch changes in laws concerning their famous cannabis coffee shops, due to the fact that today, April 18th 2012, my employers and some representatives from other Dutch Coffee Shops lodged a court injunction against the Dutch Government and their plans to implement the ‘weed pass’ nationwide, not only in the problematic southern (boarder) states.

However, I was interrupted by discovering a short excerpt from a video interview with Wikileaks mastermind Julian Assange in which he speaks about Marijuana, the so called ‘war on drugs’ and cognitive liberty in an intelligent, witty and precise manner. The entire debate, the first of a new series developed by Google called ‘Versus War On Drugs’

It has been a part of my fantasy writings over the last three years since Wikileaks burst onto the global scene, that they might eventually highlight the crooked ‘war on drugs’ along with their long list of unfairly secretive business transactions and government/corporate corruption. After all, the ‘war on some drugs’ spans the globe, wastes Trillions of Dollars and brings terror and torture into the lives of Billions.

Although provoked by the questioner, Assange throws down his libertarian wisdom and sense of individualist anarchism, in my view, all over the ‘war on some drugs’, which leads to a much clearer view of the current Dutch coffee shop debacle, and the sense of discrimination applied further to the neurological realm.

The similarities between the fights for digital freedoms and the fights for cognitive freedoms seem to be converging at an ever increasing, exponential rate. As Douglas Rushkoff has put it ‘program or be programmed’ implying we have the means to program ourselves and our environment if we choose to engage. But engage with what?

Some brave and noble folk are perpetually fighting the digital baddies, or those government think tanks, those lawyers and those entertainment industry cry-babies, by challenging their draconian proposed measures and new laws and terror scenarios with superior information, scientific and balanced feedback, and most importantly a decentralized network philosophy. The EFF, Wikileaks, and boing boing contributors exhibit these positive attributes and almost singlehandedly threaten any proposed ‘new world order’ once again by obsoleting the opposition with superior methodology, intelligence and strategy.

We the cannabis culture, or we the collective of self-owning ones who enjoy cannabis and its many benefits (health, speech, thought, economy) welcome the intelligent decentralized strategies performed by example by these defenders of ‘equalibrium’ and ‘fairness’ with a particular fondness of going after the biggest, baddest sons of bitches out there, the so called ‘intelligence services’ and private ‘spy agencies’, the military industrial complex and surveillance industries, and of course, lets not forget the limp and mostly empty ‘mainstream media’ that apparently could not and today cannot compare with even 5 % of Wikileaks, or Boingboing for that matter, based on information content (based on predictability of story and coverage of events). Try it, go on. Go to BBC website, and then to Wikileaks, then the daily mail, and then boingboing. Now, anything surprise you? I recall the saying "an empty vessel sounds loudest'

May I attempt to further suppose that the key to keeping the ‘coffee-shop’ scene and industry (that I personally work in) alive and kicking is.... surprise or unpredictability in the face of the easily guessed at(that which is low in information) the same old game and the same old tactics which often involve bullying, meaningless statements plus the arts and crafts of ‘disinformation’. Superior experimental intelligence cuts through these centrist authoritarian/totalitarian games like a warm knife through soft hash.

After watching the full Google versus debate I feel like I have ingested a few grams of some psychedelic compound, when listening to the crazy prohibitionists and corporate military propagandists repeat their 'rhetoric' I started having hallucinations that Julian Assange was in the debate, and Russel Brand too, who for me, were the only characters who added any spice and anything approaching a representation of the 'drug culture' but no MUSIC, no ART, no LITERATURE or COMEDY was presented as evidence, no mention of Terence Mckenna, Timothy Leary, Robert Anton Wilson, Sasha Shulgin, Aldous Huxley, Ken Kessey, no, not a trace.

Whereas, for me, these are the individual thinkers and writers who dedicated their lives to coming to understand the question of 'alchemically mediated consciousness' and so then, by default the major blockage and 'befuddlement' factor: the age old inquisition, the prohibition and the wars against altered states of consciousness, and it's current incarnation: the global war on SOME drugs.

And please, lets not forget the terminology used to disrupt the thinking process, once more, 'the war on drugs' actually functions as a 'war on SOME drugs' and the lack of definitions in this particular area, being that it involves complex chemical neurological and environmental factors, remains a consistant strategy employed by the prohibitionists and inquisitors world wide. Beware of the FNORDS!

"There's more of everything, the more they fight it the more drugs appear, it's like Lao Tzu said "The more laws they pass the more criminals they create and the more weapons they create the more terror stalks the land" - the more clearer the explanations the more frogs fall out of the sky.--Robert Anton Wilson, 2002, Santa Cruz CA.

Watch for yourself here:



Steven 'fly agaric 23' Pratt. 18th April 2012.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=gSrN2zIRwN8


 

Death cap mushroom may help treat cancer

Washington: Researchers have come up with a method for destroying cancer cells using death cap mushroom (Amanita phalloides) toxin, without harming the body.

The death cap mushroom, which resembles the common white button mushroom, contains one of the most deadly poisons found in nature, a-amanitin.

This substance kills any cell without exception, whether it be healthy or cancerous.

At the German Cancer Research Center (Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum, DKFZ) and the National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg, immunologist Dr. Gerhard Moldenhauer, jointly with biochemist Professor Dr. Heinz Faulstich, Max Planck Institute for Medical Research, has now developed a way to annihilate cancer cells using the dreaded fungal toxin without harming the body. The trick to accomplish this is to deliver the poison directly to the right address in the body using something that virtually serves as a cab.

In this case, the cab is an antibody whose highly specific arms attach to a cancer-typical cellular surface protein called EpCAM. The fungal toxin is linked to the antibody in a stable chemical conjugation.

In the culture dish, the poison-loaded antibody arrested the growth of pancreatic, colorectal, breast and bile duct cancer cell lines.

In mice bearing transplanted human pancreatic cancer, a single antibody injection was sufficient to inhibit tumour growth.

Two injections of higher doses of the antibody even caused complete tumour regression in 90 percent of the animals. Even the higher doses did not cause any poison-related damage to the liver or other organs of the animals.

EpCAM, the protein chosen by the Heidelberg immunologists as the tumour cell recognition structure, is a characteristic membrane protein of epithelial cells.

This type of cells lines all inner and outer surfaces of the body. Most malignant tumours originate from such epithelial tissues.

Many of these, such as pancreatic cancer, breast and ovarian cancers, bile duct carcinomas and tumours of the head and neck, produce too much EpCAM – and this is frequently associated with an extremely poor prognosis of the disease.

EpCAM is therefore considered a suitable target structure for attacking tumour cells.

“Treatments with unconjugated antibodies against EpCAM have already been tested in clinical trials such as for breast cancer. They were intended to attack the cancer solely with the weapons of the immune system, but they turned out to be clinically ineffective,” said Gerhard Moldenhauer.

“However, our amanitin-conjugated antibody has a much greater potential for killing cancer cells,” Moldenhauer added.

ANI

Trying to take high out of holidays (Cannabis Refugee's)

From The International Herald Tribune:

Trying to take high out of holidays

BY DAVID JOLLY

AMSTERDAM — The scene at the 420 Cafe on a recent Friday was typical of what many travelers have come to associate with Amsterdam. Behind the bar, Janne Svensson, 34, a self-described ‘‘cannabis refugee’’ from Norway, weighed out small quantities of marijuana and hashish for her customers, many from foreign countries. They sat quietly, smoking and sipping coffee, as familiar strains of Jimi Hendrix drifted softly from the stereo and giant manta rays cavorted in a nature video on a big-screen television.

While there are many attractions that draw visitors to the Netherlands — including the friendly and straightforward people, world-class museums, charming architecture and elegant canal scenes — nearly a quarter of this city’s more than four million foreign tourists a year will visit its world-famous ‘‘coffeeshops,’’ where the sale of small quantities of cannabis, though not alcohol, is tolerated.

But Amsterdam’s days as a destination for hazy holidays may be numbered. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s rightist coalition is pushing to restrict the operations of the coffeeshops sharply and to bar them from selling to foreigners. If the measures survive a court challenge and the opposition of local officials, the first phase would begin May 1.

‘‘I think that by the end of next year, there will be no drug tourism in the Netherlands,’’ Ard van der Steur, a member of Parliament who is a spokesman for Mr. Rutte’s People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, said in an interview in The Hague. ‘‘We have created an incredible criminal industry that we need to get rid of.’’

Strictly speaking, the sale of marijuana and hashish (a resin extracted from the cannabis plant) is illegal. But a longstanding policy of tolerance — essentially a set of instructions from the Justice Ministry to the police — means that licensed coffeeshop operators are not prosecuted so long as they deal in limited quantities and keep hard drugs and minors out. The Dutch are also allowed to cultivate up to five marijuana plants each for personal use.

In some respects, tolerance appears to have been successful: despite the easy availability, the Dutch are less likely than Americans or many other Europeans to smoke marijuana, U.N. data show. Alex Stevens, a drug policy expert at the University of Kent, argues that the tolerance policy has reduced the harm caused by prohibition, in part by separating the markets for hard drugs like heroin from the market for marijuana, and by getting cannabis dealers off the street and into a regulated environment.

The impetus for changing the policy originated with, of all things, a parking shortage. In Maastricht, a southern city sandwiched between the German and Belgian borders, hundreds of drug tourists drive in daily from elsewhere in Europe to purchase marijuana, creating an infuriating traffic nuisance.

Spotting an opportunity, clandestine dealers have begun offering foreign drivers the option of buying their cannabis without ever leaving their cars. Even local residents who support the coffeeshops are unhappy that drugs are back on the streets.

Mr. Rutte’s justice minister, Ivo Opstelten, has said that, as of May 1, coffeeshops in the southern provinces are to be turned into members-only clubs, limited to 2,000 Dutch clients each. They are to maintain a registry and check IDs. Coffeeshop owners who break the law will face criminal prosecution. The remainder of the coffeeshops are to follow suit on Jan. 1.

Mr. van der Steur said the main problem with the current policy was that marijuana production had led to the creation of an expansive black market. No one knows the exact value of Dutch cannabis exports, he said, but they are thought to be greater than the annual flower exports, worth $6.6 billion.

‘‘We now function as a supplier of drugs for the rest of Europe,’’ he said. ‘‘We never intended to become one of the major exporters of cannabis to the world.’’
Additionally, almost all the hashish in the coffeeshops is imported, illegally, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Lebanon or Morocco, rankling the government.

Mr. van der Steur said the government would begin treating high-potency marijuana as a hard drug, in the same category as heroin and cocaine, prohibiting its sale in coffeeshops. Growers now cultivate marijuana that is almost three times stronger than it was a few decades ago, he said. ‘‘The product changed totally, but the policy didn’t,’’ he said.

In theory, Mr. Rutte’s coalition with the Christian Democrats and their parliamentary ally, the far-right Freedom Party of Geert Wilders, have the votes to push through the changes: 83 of the 150 seats in the lower house. But the change is not assured.

Coffeeshop owners have so far failed in court to overturn the ban on sales to foreigners, but another lawsuit is being brought by the Cannabis Retailers Association, which represents the country’s 680 coffeeshops. It should be heard within the next few weeks.

Parliament is also wary of treading on the prerogative of local officials, who worry that it will bring a return to street dealing and crime. Others argue that the Netherlands, which is struggling to reduce its budget deficit in a time of austerity, cannot afford to alienate tourists.

Eberhard van der Laan, the mayor of Amsterdam, opposes the change on safety and health grounds, even though he supports the goal of reducing soft-drug use, said Tahira Limon, a spokeswoman for the city. Ms. Limon said the mayor was talking with the national government about other approaches.

Coffeeshops are not really an issue for Amsterdam, she said. ‘‘The problems we have with substance abuse are almost always related to alcohol,’’ she said. ‘‘That concerns Dutch people as much as foreigners.’’

Michael Veling, 56, owner of the 420 Café and the spokesman for the Cannabis Retailers Association, said he was skeptical that the government would get its way. More likely, he said, the policy change will be struck down in court or the issue will be left up to municipal councils. But if the law changes, he said, he would not go along.

‘‘I’m not going to build a register,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m not going to discriminate on the basis of nationality. I’ve only ever discriminated on the basis of behavior. I’ll go back to selling alcohol and go back to selling bags of weed under the counter.’’

His customers were dubious as well. Kenny and Sean, American students on a tour of Europe while studying abroad, acknowledged that the availability of marijuana was part of the reason they decided to visit Amsterdam. (The two asked not to be further identified so as to protect their future job prospects.)

‘‘We wanted to try Amsterdam because our friends all said it was awesome,’’ Sean said.
Kenny agreed. ‘‘If you smoke weed, you have to go to Amsterdam before you die,’’ he said, adding: ‘‘This place would die if they changed the weed laws. We know that. We’re business students.’’ ◼

On the Dutch Hash ban and criminal gang banging

Arab Spring Hash

A new proposition has been forwarded, as a result of the recent Dutch 'Drugs Debate', into the mainstream media, about a proposed 'Hash Ban' based, according to news reports, upon the principle that Hash is imported from other countries such as Morocco, Afghanistan and Lebanon, that constitutes an international crime.

As you may know these countries mentioned above are already engaged in internal conflict and international conflicts that blur the lines of criminality. Afghanistan in particular, or some groups of people there, seemingly know no universal laws and legal system. How do you control lunatics who live in the mountains? Lebanon also sees political and cultural revolutions at the moment, so what effect will the hash ban have, if any, on these countries?

Does this act as a sort of trade embargo, or have a similar effect by putting a large cut in the profits of whoever's making doe in this risky process? Will it just drive up the prices and make Hash a more valuable, rare, and attractively risky product, putting even more profits in the profit makers pockets. And are there any noticeable cultural signifier to you, between Netherlands, Morocco, Afghanistan and Lebanon?

Dealing and dealing?
And then, there's the argument, or my argument, that a little Hash or even a lot of hash, imported from another country is harmless and timid compared with arms, legal-drugs and intelligence shared by Dutch firms with America, the middle East and the UK, for the purposes of continuing the so called 'war on terror' which acts like a "war on some terror' as it ignores it's own brand of bombing, bankrupting and poisoning people and the environment in the name of business. See Iraq and Afghanistan and the kinds of software, electronics, intelligence and financial support provided by the Dutch private sector to help the war machine, sorry, I mean to say, defence industry.

Nothing left but Right wing?

Now, besides the chemical, biological and nuclear trade between Dutch companies and the international community, including Israel ( Prince Friso was the CEO of a Uranium Enrichment company URENCO) the Netherlands also happens to have a very scary emergent Right Wing political movement, as does Europe as a whole it seems according to some reports, headed by Gert Wilders, a truly awful character who comes off like a CIA dupe with his antagonistic, so called 'anti-immigrant' hateful and UK conservative, US Republican like speeches, films, political platforms. He's a bad apple in a pretty dull pie of Dutch Christian Democrats, and of course the media love him, and so do a bunch of dumb, non-pot smoking morons mostly from the South of Holland who voted him into the current Dutch coalition Government.

I say instead of Hash, ban Gert Wilders and his disgusting hateful moronic trade in slime outside of Dutch boarders, and make a special task force to stop the other hateful moronic parties doing way more damage than any drug: Marie Le Pen's NF, The BNP, the EDL, it's not difficult to spot them is it, OH, oh, freedom of expression. They must be allowed to have their say, the Freedom to say.... whatever hate laced double speak and straight up lies they wish, with however much financial backing and media support channel you can get. Freedom? what about the freedom to inhale some kind plant material, or eat a light Hash cake, the preferred medicine of many Medical Marijuana patients?

Aha, and now you see why Gert Wilders is head of the 'Freedom Party'. or 'Party for Freedom' Please, once again, I know you just did it, but, check George Orwell's concept of double speak: I keep thinking...that's it....doublespeak, and that too...doublespeak....rings so true of daily international news and entertainment, and most of my poetry....deliberate distortion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doublespeak


Move to Ban, propose to ban and simply BAN

On top of the idiocy of the proposed new laws to ban hash, you have the amplified idiocy of the media channels that broadcast their daily poop-a-scoop. Within hours of the Dutch meeting coming to a close, the major news wires broadcast their best shot, a combination of dumb soundbites from a handful of members of parliament and 'the point of view of your average stoner'. But here's the center piece, the quote that defines the entire days meetings, according to the news dogs:

"Almost all of the hash that is sold in Dutch coffee shops is smuggled into the Netherlands by international criminal gangs from countries like Afghanistan, Morocco and Lebanon," said Ard van der Steur, a member of the ruling Liberal Party.--http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/01/netherlands-drugs-idUSL5E8E12HN20120301


 What is criminal, illegal, unjust and unfair? who decides, and by what methods, do you see stark double standards and hypocrisy? why kick a hornets nest? why a total ban? how will it be enforced, what will be the punishment? why do I not hear any of these questions in the news items?


 

My response to "UN: drug gangs controlling parts of British cities"

HI, greetings readers. Once in a while I read one or two articles from a newspaper and get overwhelmed by the sense of inbalance. A lack of fairness, comprehensive thinking and alternative views on whatever issue they choose to make NEWS.

Here we have an example of 'soundbites' and 'quotes' from the INCB (International Narcotics Control Board) 2011 report, that from the off, seems flawed to me, in its inability to entertain the possibility of legalization as a strategy for Global harm reduction, let alone the medical and industrial uses of Cannabis and hemp in particular, the masses of new jobs, new cultural awareness etc.

So I'll add my comments to the article in BOLD CAPITALS. Please excuse my ranting tone, it's just stooping the level of sillyness I see in these arguments and statements made, so funny eh.

--Steven Pratt.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/9110374/UN-drug-gangs-controlling-parts-of-British-cities.html

UN: drug gangs controlling parts of British cities

Parts of British cities are becoming no-go areas where drugs gangs are effectively in control, a United Nations drugs chief said today.

(DRUGS GANGS? DOES SUPERDRUG AND BOOTS QUALIFY AS 'DRUGS GANGS?' PLEASE, DEFINE YOUR TERMS!)

Image 1 of 2

Police officer arrests a suspected drug dealer Photo: Getty Images

10:00AM GMT 28 Feb 2012

720 Comments

(SUSPECTED DRUG DEALER? WELL, IF HE TURNS OUT TO BE INNOCENT YOU MIGHT CONSIDER GIVING HIM SOMETHING IN RETURN FOR THE USE OF HIS PHOTO. ALL IN GOOD SPIRITS)

Professor Hamid Ghodse, president of the UN's International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), said there was ''a vicious cycle of social exclusion and drugs problems and fractured communities'' in cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Manchester.

(DRUGS PROBLEMS AND FRACTURED COMMUNITIES, VICIOUS CYCLES... YES, DUE TO PROHIBITION, AND THE WAR ON DRUGS, AND MONEY SPENT ON FOREIGN WARS AND SWINDLED BY LOCAL AND NATIONAL POLITICIANS, BANKERS AND CORPORATIONS, IMHO)

The development of ''no-go areas'' was being fuelled by threats such as social inequality, migration and celebrities normalising drug abuse, he warned.

(WHAT? CELEBRITIES NORMALIZING DRUG ABUSE! WELL, YOUR A CELEBRITY NOW MR GHODSE, BUSY DE-NORMALIZING DRUG-ABUSE NO DOUBT. WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WHAT DRUGS, WHAT DO YOU VIEW AS ABUSE? EH?
MIGRATION? MIGRATION OF SOULS?
OH, I GET IT, YOU MEAN NON-WHITE, LOWER MIDDLE CLASS JOBLESS 'CELEBRITIES'.

How should Britain's drug problem be tackled?

(SLIDING IN FROM THE LEFT!)

 

Increased drug prevention and treatment programmes in worst affected areasTougher sentences for people caught using or selling drugsLegalise drugs such as cannabis to reduce crimeTackle inequality in areas which have become no-go zones

VoteView ResultsShare This

 

Helping marginalised communities with drugs problems ''must be a priority'', he said.

''We are looking at social cohesion, the social disintegration and illegal drugs.

28 Feb 2012

''In many societies around the world, whether developed or developing, there are communities within the societies which develop which become no-go areas.

''Drug traffickers, organised crime, drug users, they take over. They will get the sort of governance of those areas.

''Examples are in Brazil, Mexico, in the United States, in the UK, Birmingham, Liverpool, Manchester, and therefore it is no good to have only law enforcement, which always shows it does not succeed.''

(OK, I AGREE, AND PRESENT FULL LEGALIZATION OF ALL DRUGS AS THE SOLUTION, WAKE UP YOU MORON!)

Prof Ghodse called for such communities to be offered drug abuse prevention programmes, treatment and rehabilitation services, and the same levels of educational, employment and recreational opportunities as in the wider society.

(THATS A VERY WIDE RANGE OF OLD IDEAS, PEPPERED WITH IDEALISTIC SWEET TALK ABOUT EQUALITY AND WORK. MY THOUGHTS DRIFT TO BANKING ABUSE PREVENTION PROGRAMMES, PONZI SCHEME TREATMENT AND FINANCIAL BAIL-OUT REHABILITATION SERVICES. IT MIGHT LOOK GRIM UP NORTH BUDDY, BUT MOST THE REAL PSYCHOPATHS AND SOCIAL PARIAHS ARE AROUND LONDON, WHERE ALL THE GLOBAL CORPORATE ACTION TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HUGE PHARMA BORGS, THE BANKS AND THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX, SPREADING CARNIEGE AND DESTRUCTION AND MAYHEM ACROSS THE UK AND THE WORLD. AND YET, SOME WEED SMOKING GANGSTERS WHO REALLY JUST LOVE TO PLAY X-BOX AND SURF THE NET IN VARIOUS ALTERED STATES POSE SUCH A MASSIVE THREAT TO SOCIETY?)


''Youth of these communities must have similar chances to those in the wide society and have a right to be protected from drug abuse and drug dependence,'' he said.

(OH YEAH, I FORGOT, THE TAX PAYERS PAY FOR THIS KIND OF PROTECTION AND TREATMENT ALREADY, THE POLICE ENFORCE YOUR PROHIBITION IN THE UK WITHOUT MERCY. LIKE ANY OTHER CRIME. AND NOW WITH THE ADDED EXCUSE OF PROVIDING EQUAL CHANCES IN THE WIDER COMMUNITY, BY PROTECTING FROM DRUG DEPENDENCE. BULLSHIT! WAKE UP. I SAY.)

''It is crucial that the needs of communities experiencing social disintegration are urgently tackled before the tipping point is reached, beyond which effective action becomes impossible.
''The consequences of failure are too high for society and should be avoided at all cost.''
The INCB's annual report for 2011 found persistent social inequality, migration, emerging cultures of excess and a shift in traditional values were some of the key threats to social cohesion.

(THE TIPPING POINT EH? WHAT TIPPING POINT, WHAT POINT, WHAT PIVOT? AND FROM WHICH AFTER EFFECTIVE ACTION BECOMES IMPOSSIBLE? WHAT? WHEN IS THAT? LEGALIZATION AND DECRIMINALIZATION COULD DO THAT, ACTUALLY, SEE PORTUGAL AND THE NETHERLANDS ON THIS ISSUE. PLEASE. LOOK AND READ FREDERICK POLLACK. THANKS.)

As the gap between rich and poor widens, and ''faced with a future with limited opportunities, individuals within these communities may increasingly become disengaged from the wider society and become involved in a range of personally and socially harmful behaviours, including drug abuse and drug dealing,'' it said.

(LIKE A BAD TRIP HE JUST GOES AROUND AND AROUND SAYING NOTHING MUCH BUT PARANOID STERETYPICAL SOUNDBITES. BULLSHIT. MOST CREATIVE PEOPLE I KNOW SMOKE POT AND HAVE TRIPPED BALLS AT LEAST A FEW TIMES IN A RESPECTFUL AND DILIGENT WAY. YOU, MR GHODSE HAVE OBVIOUSLY NEVER TRIED ANY OF THE DRUGS YOU SO HEARTILY EXPONGE. WAKE UP YOU DICK-HEAD AND PULL THAT INCB FINGER OUT YOUR ASS-HOLE. WHAT ABUSE? HOW MUCH, HOW OFTEN? AND WHAT DEALING? HOW MUCH, HOW OFTEN, WHAT ABOUT THE UK AND US GOV. DRUG DEALING? HAVE YOU EVER ADDRESSED THAT, AND THE DOUBLE STANDARDS, AND THE PSYCHOLOGICAL EFFECT THIS CAN HAVE ON SOME WHO MAY FIGURE YOUR A FRONT FOR THE COPS AND ROBBERS, DUE TO YOUR DARK PARANOID VISIONS AND DIATRIBE.)

The report added: ''While migration offers many positive benefits to the migrant and to society at large, it can create a sense of dislocation from the surrounding community and a sense of vulnerability on the part of those who are displaced.

''Where migrating social groups have travelled from areas associated with illicit drug production and drug abuse, there is a greater likelihood of individuals engaging in forms of drug misuse as a way of coping with such a sense of dislocation.''

(SIMPLY, BOLLOCKS MR GHODSE. BOLLOCKS. YOUR WORDS ARE EMPTY AND MEANINGLESS, AND THE REPORTING HERE ALSO STINKS FOR IT'S CHOICE OF QUOTES AND LACK OF BALANCED ARGUMENT.)

Celebrities' use of illicit drugs may also ''contribute to a growing normalisation of certain forms of drug misuse within the wider society and in turn can lead to the undermining of social cohesion''.

But the INCB warned none of the factors ''should be seen as leading individuals inevitably into a lifestyle of drug abuse and criminality''.

''Whatever the social processes and social pressures at hand, human beings still have the capacity to exercise some element of choice in what they do and what they refrain from doing,'' it said.

(EH, SOME ELEMENT OF CHOICE? WELL NOT IF THAT INVOLVES A LITTLE MEDICAL MARIJUANA, OR A TRIPPY WHIPPY, OR SOME REICHEAN THEARAPY OR NLP COURSES IN MOST PLACES. WHAT SANCTAMONIOUS BULLSHIT THE INCB SPOUTS. AS I SAID, BUNCH OF MORONS. 

A Home Office spokesman said: ''The Ending Gang and Youth Violence report published by the Government in 2011 sets out a comprehensive strategy for supporting local areas to reduce the effects of gang violence.
 
''We want to stop young people from joining gangs in the first place through intervention and support to children and families at risk of gang violence.

''This will be matched with tough and intensive enforcement action to bring perpetrators to justice.''

(NICE ENDING! BOOM, BE WARNED, SO TO SPEAK. WELL I DISAGREE TOTALLY WITH THE INBALANCED VIEWS OF THIS ARTICLE, THE BAD PICTURE OF THE SUSPECTED DRUG DEALER, THE BAD QUOTES FROM MR GHODSE JUST REPEATING THE SAME SHIT. NO STATISTICS, NO HYPERLINKS, JUST ONE RAY OF HOPE, ONE.....

THE VOTING DEVICE WHICH INCLUDES THE PROPOSAL TO LEGALIZE AS A STRATEGY TO DEFEAT ORGANIZED CRIME AND CRIMINAL GANG DEALINGS. AS OF TODAY IT HAS THE MOST VOTES. I REST MY CASE. HEY, MAYBE FOLLOW UP THIS ARTICLE WITH A PRO-LEGALIZATION AND/OR DECRIMINALIZATION PIECE, FEATURING A SMART AND INTELLIGENT SCIENTIST REFUTING EVERY POINT MR GHODSE, THE HOME OFFICE AND THE INCB MAKE.

YOURS SINCERELY,
--STEVE FLY AGARIC 23.

The Tree Of Knowledge (Terence McKenna) [FULL]

http://alchemicalarchives.blogspot.com/

Terence K. McKenna (1992) Search For The Original Tree Of Knowledge.
Recorded live in Boulder, Colorado May 29-31, 1992.

Art: Michelangelo. The Fall of Man and the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden. 1508-1512. Fresco. Sistine Chapel, Vatican
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HOPKINS SCIENTISTS SHOW HALLUCINOGEN IN MUSHROOMS CREATES UNIVERSAL “MYSTICAL” EXPERIENCE

Johns Hopkins Medicine
Media Relations and Public Affairs
Media Contact:  Eric Vohr
410-955-8665; evohr1@jhmi.edu
July 11, 2006

Rigorous study hailed as landmark
Using unusually rigorous scientific conditions and measures, Johns Hopkins researchers have shown that the active agent in “sacred mushrooms” can induce mystical/spiritual experiences descriptively identical to spontaneous ones people have reported for centuries.
The resulting experiences apparently prompt positive changes in behavior and attitude that last several months, at least.
The agent, a plant alkaloid called psilocybin, mimics the effect of serotonin on brain receptors-as do some other hallucinogens-but precisely where in the brain and in what manner are unknown.
An account of the study, accompanied by an editorial and four experts’ commentaries, appears online today in the journal Psychopharmacology. 

Cited as “landmark” in the commentary by former National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) director, Charles Schuster, the research marks a new systematic approach to studying certain hallucinogenic compounds that, in the 1950s, showed signs of therapeutic potential or value in research into the nature of consciousness and sensory perception.  “Human consciousness…is a function of the ebb and flow of neural impulses in various regions of the brain-the very substrate that drugs such as psilocybin act upon,” Schuster says. “Understanding what mediates these effects is clearly within the realm of neuroscience and deserves investigation.”
“A vast gap exists between what we know of these drugs-mostly from descriptive anthropology-and what we believe we can understand using modern clinical pharmacology techniques,” says study leader Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., a professor with Hopkins’ departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry and Behavioral Biology. “That gap is large because, as a reaction to the excesses of the 1960s, human research with hallucinogens has been basically frozen in time these last forty years.”
All of the study’s authors caution about substantial risks of taking psilocybin under conditions not appropriately supervised. “Even in this study, where we greatly controlled conditions to minimize adverse effects, about a third of subjects reported significant fear, with some also reporting transient feelings of paranoia,” says Griffiths. “Under unmonitored conditions, it’s not hard to imagine those emotions escalating to panic and dangerous behavior.”
The researchers’ message isn’t just that psilocybin can produce mystical experiences. “I had a healthy skepticism going into this,” says Griffiths, “and that finding alone was a surprise.” But, as important, he says, “is that, under very defined conditions, with careful preparation, you can safely and fairly reliably occasion what’s called a primary mystical experience that may lead to positive changes in a person. It’s an early step in what we hope will be a large body of scientific work that will ultimately help people.”
The authors acknowledge the unusual nature of the work, treading, as it does, a fine line between neuroscience and areas most would consider outside science’s realm. “But establishing the basic science here is necessary,” says Griffiths, “to take advantage of the possible benefits psilocybin can bring to our understanding of how thought, emotion, and ultimately behavior are grounded in biology.”
Griffiths is quick to emphasize the scientific intent of the study. “We’re just measuring what can be observed,” he says; “We’re not entering into ‘Does God exist or not exist.’ This work can’t and won’t go there.”  
In the study, more than 60 percent of subjects described the effects of psilocybin in ways that met criteria for a “full mystical experience” as measured by established psychological scales. One third said the experience was the single most spiritually significant of their lifetimes; and more than two-thirds rated it among their five most meaningful and spiritually significant. Griffiths says subjects liken it to the importance of the birth of their first child or the death of a parent.
Two months later, 79 percent of subjects reported moderately or greatly increased well-being or life satisfaction compared with those given a placebo at the same test session. A majority said their mood, attitudes and behaviors had changed for the better.  Structured interviews with family members, friends and co-workers generally confirmed the subjects’ remarks. Results of a year-long followup are being readied for publication.
Psychological tests and subjects’ own reports showed no harm to study participants, though some admitted extreme anxiety or other unpleasant effects in the hours following the psilocybin capsule. The drug has not been observed to be addictive or physically toxic in animal studies or human populations. “In this regard,” says Griffiths, a psychopharmacologist, “it contrasts with MDMA (ecstasy), amphetamines or alcohol.”
The study isn’t the first with psilocybin, the researchers say, though some of the earlier ones, done elsewhere, had notably less rigorous design, were less thorough in measuring outcomes or lacked longer-term follow-up.
In the present work, 36 healthy, well-educated volunteers-most of them middle-aged-with no family history of psychosis or bipolar disorder were selected. All had active spiritual practices. “We thought a familiarity with spiritual practice would give them a framework for interpreting their experiences and that they’d be less likely to be confused or troubled by them,” Griffiths says. All gave informed consent to the study approved by Hopkins’ institutional review board.
Each of thirty of the subjects attended two separate 8-hour drug sessions, at two month intervals. On one they received psilocybin, on another, methylphenidate (Ritalin), the active placebo.
 In designing the study, researchers had to overcome or at least, greatly minimize two hurdles: the risk of adverse side-effects and the likelihood that the expectations of getting the test drug or the placebo would influence subjects’ perceptions.
To lessen the former, each subject met several times, before drug sessions began, with a reassuring “monitor,” a medical professional experienced in observing drug study participants. Monitors stayed with them during the capsule-taking sessions. Actual trials took place in a room outfitted like a comfortable, slightly upscale living room, with soft music and indirect, non-laboratory lighting. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured throughout.
The researchers countered “expectancy” by having both monitors and subjects “blinded” to what substance would be given. For ethical reasons, subjects were told about hallucinogens’ possible effects, butalso learned they could, instead, get other substances-weak or strong-that might change perception or consciousness. Most important, a third “red herring” group of six subjects had two blinded placebo sessions, then were told they’d receive psilocybin at a third.  This tactic-questionnaires later verified-kept participants and monitors in the dark at the first two sessions about each capsule’s contents.
Nine established questionnaires and a new, specially createdfollowup survey were used to rate experiences at appropriate times in the study. They included those that differentiate effects of psychoactive drugs, that detect altered states of consciousness,  that rate mystical experiences and assess changes in outlook. 
The study, Griffiths adds, has advanced understanding of hallucinogen abuse.

As for where the work could lead, the team is planning a trial of patients suffering from advanced cancer-related depression or anxiety, following up suggestive research several decades ago. They’re also designing studies to test a role for psilocybin in treating drug dependence.
The study was funded by grants from NIDA and the Council on Spiritual Practices.
Una McCann, M.D., William Richards, Ph.D., of the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions and Robert Jesse of the Council on Spiritual Practices, San Francisco, were co-researchers. 
The commentaries on this study that appear in this issue of Psychopharmacology are available at: http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/GriffithsCommentaries.pdf
and include remarks by:
*Hopkins neuroscientist and Professor of Neuroscience, Solomon Snyder, M.D.
*Former NIDA head Charles Schuster, Ph.D., now Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience at the Wayne State University School of Medicine
*Herbert Kleber, M.D., a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University and a former deputy director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
*David Nichols, Ph.D., with the Purdue University School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
*Harriet de Wit, Ph.D., at the University of Chicago  Department of Psychiatry.  DeWit is the editor of Psychopharmacology.

Related links:  Q&A is with Roland Griffiths, the study’s lead researcher:http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/GriffithspsilocybinQ

Psychopharmacology:
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_releases/2006/GriffithsPsilocybin.pdf

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/press_releases/2006/07_11_06.html

Radiation-Loving Fungi Can Remove Toxic Waste

By Reid Schram
Epoch Times Staff Created: October 2, 2011 Last Updated: October 5, 2011

Related articles: Science » Inspiring Discoveries

Gomphidius glutinosus is a common woodland mushroom that concentrates radioactive cesium-137 to over 10,000 times background levels. (Bernd Haynold/Wikimedia Commons)

When Russian scientists sent a robot into the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in 2007, the last thing they expected to find was life. Inside the most radioactive areas of the breached core was a group of common fungi collectively referred to as "black mold" growing on the reactor walls.
These molds were growing in one of the most hostile environments on the planet, with radiation levels high enough to give a lethal dose in minutes. But these fungi weren’t just growing, they were thriving.
A researcher at New York’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Arturo Casadevall, investigated these resistant molds and helped to identify several distinct species.
They all shared one very interesting characteristic—they all contained the skin pigment melanin.
Perhaps the most interesting was a common species of black mold, Cryptococcus neoformans. This fungus does not normally contain melanin, but when exposed to radiation levels 500 times higher than background radiation, it would start producing melanin within 20 to 40 minutes.

Cryptococcus and other species grow faster in high radiation environments then their counterparts do at normal amounts of radiation. Casadevall’s work led to the discovery that the fungi use melanin to capture energy given off by ionizing radiation, rather like plants use chlorophyll to capture sunlight.

The radiation levels here on Earth have historically been much higher than they are today. Large amounts of highly melanized fungal spores have been found in early Cretaceous period deposits, a time when a massive global plant and animal die-out occurred.

One suggested cause of this mass extinction is that the Earth’s protective magnetic field became weakened or overwhelmed. This would have allowed excessive cosmic and solar radiation into our atmosphere for most life forms to survive.

But what would have been a bane for the majority of life on Earth would have been a boon for melanin-containing fungi.

Radiation-loving mushrooms, scientifically referred to as "radiotrophic fungi," have many potential applications. In 1987, at the Chernobyl disaster site, highly contaminated graphite used to cool the reactor was observed being decomposed by a yet unknown species of fungi.
Various species of fungi are also capable of concentrating different heavy metals. After the Chernobyl meltdown, mushroom hunters all over Europe were advised not to pick and eat certain species of fungi because they could be concentrating radioactive fallout.


Gomphidius glutinosus is a common woodland mushroom that concentrates radioactive cesium-137 to over 10,000 times background levels. An area that has been contaminated with deadly cesium, like the area surrounding the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan, could have spores from this species of fungi spread on it, and then later when the radioactive mushroom caps appeared, they could be collected and properly disposed of.

Using fungi to clean up radioactive or other types of waste is an emerging technique known as mycoremediation, and promises to be far less expensive than other competing methods.

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/science/radiation-loving-fungi-can-remove-toxic-waste-62299.html

Muscarinic Antagonistic

Muscarinic receptors, or mAChRs, are acetylcholine receptors that form G protein-coupled in the plasma membranes of certain neurons^[1] and other cells. They play several roles, including acting as the main end-receptor stimulated by acetylcholine released from postganglionic fibers in the parasympathetic nervous system.
Muscarinic receptors were named as such because they are more sensitive to muscarine than to nicotine.^[2] Their counterparts are nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), receptor ion channels that are also important in the autonomic nervous system. Many drugs and other substances (for example pilocarpine and scopolamine) manipulate these two distinct receptors by acting as selective agonists or antagonists.<sup>[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscarinic_acetylcholine_receptor</sup>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscarine

Muscarine was first isolated from Amanita muscaria in 1869. It was the first parasympathomimetic substance ever studied and causes profound activation of the peripheral parasympathetic nervous system that may end in convulsions and death. Being a quaternary amine, muscarine is less completely absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract than tertiary amines, but it does cross the blood brain barrier.^[2] Muscarinic agonists activate muscarinic receptors while nicotinic agonists activate nicotin receptors. Both are direct-acting cholinomimetics; they produce their effects by binding to and activating cholinergic receptors. Final proof of the structure was given by Jellinek (61) in 1957 with the help of X-ray diffraction analysis. These new findings set into motion research not only on the pharmacology of muscarine, but also on that of muscarine-like substances that are structurally related to acetylcholine.

Pharmacratic Inquisition FULL DOCU'

This documentary features comprehensive coverage and study of AMANITA MUSCARIA (The fly agaric) among other entheogens, symbolic alchemy and psychedelic mysticism. Featuring a synthesis of work done by John Allegro, R. Gordon Wasson, Carl Ruck, James Arthur, Mike Crowley, and others. My interest in Amanita Muscaria, Shamanism and altered states of consciousness begun when I read Cosmic Trigger by Robert Anton Wilson, who, I might add, remained skeptical about the many 'magic mushroom theories' about religion proposed by the above researchers, but, in a more broad sense he showed that evidence suggests that humans have been dosing their own nervous systems with psychedelic compounds for over 30'000 years. He also wrote a book dedicated to drugs, sex and Magick:

Olympic Games Anti-doping Lab Unveiled | Cyclingnews.com

This shit makes me laugh and crawl around on the floor looking for my football. I mean, GlaxosmithKlein gets hired to do the drug-testing at the London 2012 Olympics. What next, the CIA hired for security?

Olympic Games Anti-doping Lab Unveiled | Cyclingnews.com

Trialogue #17: Cannabis Trialogue (Terence McKenna, R. Sheldrake, R. Abr...

Chinese researchers identify insect host species of a famous Tibetan medicinal fungus

Chinese researchers identify insect host species of a famous Tibetan medicinal fungus

FATTENING FROGS FOR SNAKES 2011