A new report reveals obscene wastes of money and humanitarian disasters. The global war on drugs is the cause of some of the biggest public health and social justice disasters of our time, from violent, billion-dollar cartels to mass incarceration targetingcommunities of color and locking people up for profit. On top of everything, the drug war is shockingly expensive according to a groundbreaking report released May 7 by the London School of Economics. The report exposes the injustices of the drug war by examining its true costs. Five Nobel Prize economists, as well as national leaders and professors, weighed in, reaching the overall conclusion that policies need to move away from heavy law enforcement to public health and humanitarian-based efforts. The foreword of the report […] Read More
Category: Health
(NaturalNews) Images are surfacing across the internet that illustrate the true dangers associated with genetically modified (GM) seeds, as admitted by the seeds’ manufacturers. The Food Warrior Network recently posted a photo of a seed package distributed by Monsanto India Limited, for instance, that warns users not to consume the seeds or use them as food, oil or animal feed, because they are poisonous.This shocking photo is sparking controversy among many health advocates, particularly as the biotechnology industry ramps up the propaganda machine to reassure the public that GMOs are safe and no different from natural organisms. On the contrary, GM seeds are admittedly dangerous and not safe for human consumption, which means the widespread industry claim that they are substantially identical to natural seeds […] Read More
At times, we hear many facts about food and some of them sound suspicious indeed. The following facts about the food will definitely make you think they are fake. Yet, they are completely true! Let’s see them! 1. Cheese is at the top of the list with the types of food that get stolen the most worldwide. Who would have guessed that cheese is that popular nowadays! 2. Honey is the type of food that has the longest expiration date. As a matter of fact, it stays fresh for more than 3000 years. 3. Pineapple is not a single fruit, as it consists of a lot of berries! It is also one of the fruits that naturally whiten and brighten your smile. 4. Have […] Read More
20 states and the District of Columbia have approved, and regulate in some capacity, marijuana for medical purposes. The following first appeared on Democracy Now!: Currently 20 states and the District of Columbia have approved, and regulate in some capacity, marijuana for medical purposes. However, insurance companies do not cover the costs of such prescriptions. Federally, marijuana remains a Schedule I drug, making it against the law to possess. But the debate over marijuana is growing. We speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Dave Philipps of the Colorado Springs Gazette. His most recent article is “As success stories of kids fighting seizures with cannabis oil mount, legal landscape is changing.” We also speak to the pioneering medical marijuana doctor Dr. Margaret Gedde and a mother who […] Read More
It’s all in the way human brains are hardwired. The following article first appeared in Cannabis Now: One compelling argument for the legalization of medical marijuana is its ability to ameliorate intense pain. Currently available technologies have helped us gain understanding of cannabis, as well as its more-commonly-accepted opioid counterparts, and the affects they have on pain. In 2010, as an attempt to gain insight on pain’s function in the brain, Oxford University conducted a study using fMRI machines and the standard tricks of psychology. Volunteers were monitored during zaps of pain to their feet. Some areas, they were told, had the potential to be unsafe. In those spots, the volunteers reported their pain levels as being higher. In reality, all of it was safe. Interestingly, in the fMRI […] Read More
The arguments against legalization simply don’t hold up. For decades, cannabis opponents controlled the messaging around the popular plant and cultivated any number of lies about its effects. This built up a powerful stigma against marijuana, the effects of which have not worn off. The racist, expensive and failed U.S. war on drugs continues to rage on. The criminalization of cannabis users and distributors remains a top priority in that war. The government stubbornly classifies it as a dangerous Schedule I substance with no medical value, despite stacks of evidence to the contrary. While many acknowledge the truth about cannabis—that it is healthier than alcohol and more effective than pharmaceutical drugs in treating a number of illnesses—and more than half of all Americans want it legalized, […] Read More
Bans on dispensaries and home cultivation are sweeping the Golden State. The following article first appeared in the East Bay Express: The pain started for Randy Barrett when he was thirteen years old. He was whipping a three-wheeled motorcycle around the hills of Martinez, California. Back then, riding ATVs was “just part of life,” he said. “This was the Seventies and Eighties. We had dirt bikes; we had three-wheelers — the ones with a big old front rubber tire. I was driving around in the dirt and hit a patch of concrete in the road that caught the front tire and shot me forward.” Barrett’s chest bent around the handlebar and he “flew off and flipped and landed in someone’s front yard,” he said. He […] Read More
London School of Economics released a report calling for experimentation in drug policy. The war on drugs is a global disaster, ranging from mass incarceration to violent, billion-dollar cartels. It is a public health nightmare, and a social justice embarrassment that targets communities of color and locks them up for profit. When the UN General Assembly convenes its special session on drugs in 2016, it should take heed of a groundbreaking report released May 7, which exposes the injustices of the drug war. Five Nobel Prize economists have weighed in on the repercussions of the global war on drugs, outlining “the effects of prohibition on security, drug prices, rule of law and public health,” according to a press release. It concludes that governments would make better use […] Read More
It is refreshing to see a small, trailblazing country pave the way for more intelligent, coherent and humane drug policies. On Friday, Uruguay released its long-anticipated regulations accompanying the law that was signed into effect last December, which made Uruguay the first country in the world to legally regulate the production, sale and consumption of marijuana for adults. Drug prohibition has devastating effects on people’s lives around the globe, from the 650,000 marijuana possession arrests per year in the United States to the 100,000 drug war deaths in Mexico in the past 7 years. Amidst growing consensus among political leaders in Latin America that the war on drugs isn’t working, Uruguaymade this bold move in an effort to regulate an existing marijuana market currently controlled by illicit drug traffickers and to generate public […] Read More
The government is increasing its marijuana production quota from 21 kilograms to 650 kilograms to meet demand. Federal agencies are moving forward with plans to increase the US government’s production of research-grade cannabis. Last week, the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) publicly announced in the Federal Register that it is increasing its marijuana production quota from 21 kilograms to 650 kilograms (about 1,443 pounds) in order to meet increasing demand for the plant from clinical investigators. Federal regulations permit a farm at the University of Mississippi to cultivate set quantities of cannabis for use in federally approved clinical trials. Regulators at the DEA, the US Food and Drug Administration, PHS (Public Health Service), and the US National Institute on Drug Abuse must approve any clinical […] Read More