ssdpofuwf:

anarcho-queer:

Chicago Police Raids Wrong House, Demands 11 Month Old Raise Hands At Gunpoint And Kills Dog

Chicago police terrorized six children in the wrong apartment, demanding at gunpoint that an 11-month-old show his hands, and telling one child, “This is what happens when your grandma sells crack,” the family claims in court.

Lead plaintiffs Charlene and Samuel Holly sued Chicago, police Officer Patrick Kinney and eight John Does in Federal Court, on their own behalves and for their children and children.

The six children were 11 months to 13 years old at the time. Plaintiffs Connie and Michelle Robinson are Charlene Holly’s daughters.

The complaint states: “On November 29, 2012 in the early evening hours Charlene Holly was in the first floor apartment at 10640 S. Prairie in the front room helping minor Child #1, Child #2, Child #4, and Child #5 rehearse songs for their church choir. Charlene was also caring for Child #3, who was 11 months old. Child #6 was in the upstairs apartment alone.

“Charlene and the children heard a loud boom outside and a voice cry out ‘Across the street!’

“Defendant Officers John Doe 1-8 burst through the door to the first floor apartment dressed in army fatigues and pointing guns at Charlene and the children. The officers yelled at Charlene and the children to ‘Get on the ground!’ The officers referred to Charlene and the children as ‘m—-f—-ers’ numerous times …

“Charlene continually asked what the purpose of the detention was,” the complaint states. “Finally, an officer produced a warrant and handed it to Charlene. The warrant was for an individual named ‘Sedgwick M. Reavers’ and the premises listed was ‘The second floor apartment located at 10640 S. Prairie Ave. A yellow brick two flat building with the numbers 10640 on the front of the building.’ In other words, the warrant clearly identified the proper location as the second floor apartment. Charlene, Samuel, and the children were in the first floor apartment …

The family claims that “the following day Charlene discovered the family dog, Samson, not in the basement where the family kept him, but in an upstairs laundry room. Samson could not have reached the laundry room without human assistance. On information and belief, defendant

Officers dragged and choked Samson from the basement with the dog pole and left him in the upstairs laundry room unattended, where he died.”

Samuel Holly also went to the police station the day after the warrantless search to complain, but “despite his numerous calls the night before, was told that he could not make a complaint and he ‘should have made a complaint last night,” the family says.

This is why we need to stop the war on drugs.

(via urissdp)

mesatawe:

thedailywhat:

The United Nations’ Drinking Problem

At the U.N.’s General Assembly budget committee meeting yesterday, United States ambassador Joseph Torsella scolded his colleagues for showing up drunk to important discussions. According to The Atlantic, this is apparently not a new problem and others have defended the consumption of alcohol in meetings, arguing that it provides a much-needed social lubricant during heated negotiations.

nice one UN

This explains a great deal why the UN believes that America legalizing a non-lethal plant would have negative consequences.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/mar/5/un-warns-america-legalizing-marijuana-violates-int/

#GTFOHWTS

diegueno:

Portugal Drug Policy: Decriminalization Works - Business Insider

Portugal’s move to decriminalize does not mean people can carry around, use, and sell drugs free from police interference. That would be legalization. Rather, all drugs are “decriminalized,” meaning drug possession, distribution, and use is still illegal. While distribution and trafficking is still a criminal offense, possession and use is moved out of criminal courts and into a special court where each offender’s unique  situation is judged by legal experts, psychologists, and social workers. Treatment and further action is decided in these courts, where addicts and drug use is treated as a public health service rather than referring it to the justice system (like the U.S.), reports Fox News.

The resulting effect: a drastic reduction in addicts, with Portuguese officials and reports highlighting that this number, at 100,000 before the new policy was enacted, has been halved in the following ten years. Portugal’s drug usage rates are now among the lowest of EU member states, according to the same report.

One more outcome: a lot less sick people. Drug related diseases including STDs and overdoses have been reduced even more than usage rates, which experts believe is the result of the government offering treatment with no threat of legal ramifications to addicts.

(via goodgolly-missmolly11)

ifc:

Are you up to date on The Whitest Kids U’Know - The Civil War on Drugs? If not, get caught up here.

(via bbook)

vicemag:

Krokodil Tears - Russia’s favorite new (skin-eating) drug

Before we set off on our trip, we heard whispers of a new drug called krokodil—a homemade synthetic opiate stronger than heroin made from petrol and codeine—that gets its reptilian name because it turns addicts’ skin scaly, while eating them from the inside, rotting the brain and limbs before invariably killing
its users.

When we got there we found that the krokodil whispers were becoming louder and more insistent, verging on mild yelling, like the sound you make when bolting upright in your bed from a wide-awake nightmare.

(via bbook)

legalizeheroin:

The US Congress’ Government Accountability Office last week released a report that opens like this:

The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) 9.5 percent population growth from fiscal years 2006 through 2011 exceeded the 7 percent increase in its rated capacity, and BOP projects continued population growth. Growth was most concentrated among male inmates, and in 2011, 48 percent of the inmates BOP housed were sentenced for drugs.

The above chart shows the extent to which the federal prison population has exceeded capacity during recent years.The implications are summed up pretty well in the report’s title: “Growing Inmate Crowding Negatively Affects Inmates, Staff, and Infrastructure.”

If you don’t have time to browse the whole report, a summary can be found over at StoptheDrugWar.

(via urissdp)

In regards to cannabis & hemp…

Timber & Paper industry: NO.

Cotton industry: NO.

Privatized prison industry: NO.

Pharmaceutical industry: NO.

Petrochemical industry: HELL NO.

(via warpedpassage)

drugpolicyxaids:

Portugal’s innovative drug policy offers hope

The decriminalisation of drug use is just part of a broader set of policies, aimed at reducing both supply and demand, and including measures of prevention, treatment, harm reduction and social reinsertion, Dr. João Castel-Branco Goulão, the architect of the reform of Portugal’s drug policy and the president of the country’s Institute on Drugs and Drug Addiction, told IPS.

Perhaps the biggest stride forward was in the area of drug addiction-related damage, like the spread of HIV/AIDS.

In 2000, contagion among intravenous drug users accounted for 52 percent of all new cases of HIV. By 2009, that proportion had plunged to 16 percent.

(via urissdp)

drugpolicyreform:

Marijuana Linked To Better Brain Function In Bipolar Patients

Results from a new study show indicate that bipolar patients with a history of marijuana use have better neurocognitive function than those who have never used cannabis.

The team, from The Zucker Hillside Hospital in Glen Oaks, New York, found that patients with bipolar I (BD I) disorder who used marijuana performed better on tests of attention, processing speed, and working memory than other BD 1 patients, reports Mark Cowen at News Medical.

“This data could be interpreted to suggest that cannabis use may have a beneficial effect on cognitive functioning in patients with severe psychiatric disorders,” said lead researcher Raphael Braga.

(via good-gollymissmolly11-deactivat)

hipsterlibertarian:

reasonmagazine:

This is the official police story:

Left-Handed Chavis Carter Shot Self With Right Hand While Cuffed in Back of Cop Cruiser after being searched. Are you buying it?

I’m not.

His arrest warrant, by the way, was based on “a single count of selling pot.” In other words, he wasn’t guilty of any crime. It shouldn’t surprise us that the police were so eager to arrest Carter, because they are part of one of the largest interest groups in favor of keeping the drug war around:

Another evil thing about the war on drugs is that it makes criminals out of too many otherwise law-abiding Americans. According to the FBI’s latest report, “Crime in the United States,” more than 1.6 million Americans were arrested on drug charges in 2010, with almost half of those arrests just for marijuana possession. How fewer and smaller law-enforcement agencies would be without the war on drugs. 

Make that “how fewer, smaller, and less murderous.”

People abusing their 2nd Amendment rights are responsible for more deaths than people abusing marijuana.

(via good-gollymissmolly11-deactivat)

smiliu:

[Article of Interest] Raising the Ritalin Generation

By Bronwen Hruska

Excerpt:  I remember the moment my son’s teacher told us, “Just a little medication could really turn things around for Will.” We stared at her as if she were speaking Greek.

“Are you talking about Ritalin?” my husband asked.

Will was in third grade, and his school wanted him to settle down in order to focus on math worksheets and geography lessons and social studies. The children were expected to line up quietly and “transition” between classes without goofing around. This posed a challenge — hence the medication.

“We’ve seen it work wonders,” his teacher said. “Will’s teachers are reprimanding him. If his behavior improves, his teachers will start to praise him. He’ll feel better about himself and about school as a whole.”

Will did not bounce off walls. He wasn’t particularly antsy. He didn’t exhibit any behaviors I’d associated with attention deficit or hyperactivity. He was an 8-year-old boy with normal 8-year-old boy energy — at least that’s what I’d deduced from scrutinizing his friends.

“He doesn’t have attention deficit,” I said. “We’re not going to medicate him.”
The teacher looked horrified. “We would never suggest you do that,” she said, despite doing just that in her previous breath. “We aren’t even allowed by law to suggest that. Just get him evaluated.”

And so it began.

If “accelerated” has become the new normal, there’s no choice but to diagnose the kids developing at a normal rate with a disorder. Instead of leveling the playing field for kids who really do suffer from a deficit, we’re ratcheting up the level of competition with performance-enhancing drugs. We’re juicing our kids for school.

We’re also ensuring that down the road, when faced with other challenges that high school, college and adult life are sure to bring, our children will use the coping skills we’ve taught them. They’ll reach for a pill.

(via needapenny)

nparts:

With Heroes, Willie Nelson is still a rebel rebel
“We had a couple of pots over there at the Bulldog and then at The Grey Area and then hit two or three good spots after that,” Nelson says, adding, “you probably wouldn’t remember it,” when asked what a night on the town is like in Amsterdam with him and Snoop Dogg. However, Nelson takes his advocacy seriously and is not only the president of the 26-year-old Farm Aid, which has raised US$39-million to help the American family farmer, but is outspoken on everything from the war in Afghanistan to ending the marijuana laws that have imprisoned about 20 million Americans since 1965.

“Most people who know anything at all know that marijuana is a good medicine for stress and a nice recreational drug for responsible adults and it should not be criminalized,” he says. “If we legalize it and bring our folks home from around the world fighting wars over oil, we’d all be a lot better off.” (Illustration by Kagan McLeod/National Post)

(via nationalpost)