Sunday, July 08, 2012

US Gov't Study Undermines Obama's Anti-marijuana Policy & Scandal Tarnish London's Financial Reputation


Sunday Quote

"Come on! ye prosecutors! ye false swearers! All hell, boil over! Ye burning mountains, roll down your lava! for I will come out on top at last. I have more to boast of than ever any man had. I am the only man that has ever been able to keep a whole church together since the days of Adam. A large majority of the whole have stood by me. Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it. I boast that no man ever did such a work as I. The followers of Jesus ran away from Him; but the Latter-day Saints never ran away from me yet...When they can get rid of me, the devil will also go." (History of the Church, Vol. 6, p. 408, 409) [Whole sermon click here.]

- Joseph Smith: founder, prophet, seer, and revelator of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
c/o Utah lighthouse Ministry (Jerald and Sandra tanner ex-Mormons)

Update Obama's War on Drugs
While numerous prior studies have shown marijuana’s usefulness for a host of medical conditions, none have ever gone directly at the DEA’s placement of marijuana atop the schedule of controlled substances. This study, sponsored by the State of California and conducted at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, does precisely that, driving a stake into the heart of America’s continued war on marijuana users by calling the Schedule I placement simply “not accurate” and “not tenable.”
Above quote from: Government-Sponsored Study Destroys DEA's Classification of Marijuana as 'Medically Useless' at Alternet.org,July 3, 2012

Update two articles on Obama's ill-advised war on drugs :
Obama's draconian irrational War On Drugs is not justified scientifically, socially or culturally and merely proves that Obama has been engaged in appeasing the more conservative liberals and democrats and the pharmeceutical companies and those against drugs based upon misleading anti-drug propaganda.

So Obama in his ignorance about the facts or merely for political reasons insists that Marijuana is an extremely dangerous drug with no medically proven benefits.

But studies done over the last few decades tell a different story -Marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol and Marijuana is not a so called Gate way drug as for driving while under the influence of marijuana test can be done similar to those used on alcohol.

For all of the insistence on Obama's intelligence and general knowledge he appears to know no more about marijuana than does the average neo-conservative or members of the religious right-wing or the average citizen who believes every piece of anti-drug and anti-Marijuana propaganda that is spewed forth from know nothing politicians and the quisling Mainstream Media .

Brutal Police Raid On California Marijuana Dispensary Caught On Video by Angela Lee at Alternet.org, July 6,2012

Video footage of a brutal police raid on a Long Beach marijuana dispensary on June 19 recently surfaced on YouTube.

In the video, a police officer walks on the back and neck of a complying Dorian Brooks, the dispensary’s volunteer employee, who awaits arrest stomach-down on the floor. Two undercover officers can be seen smashing the surveillance cameras of THC Downtown Collective, destroying possible evidence.

“I just felt three hundred pounds on my neck,” Brooks told NBC Los Angeles, “I felt violated; I felt disrespected.” He said, “They noticed there was a camera that was on the wall right above my head, so they proceeded to smash it with a metal rod,” and that the debris shattered on him.

NBC Los Angeles reported that the Long Beach police conducted the raid because the dispensary, though operating under state compliance, did not have a city permit. The LBPD said in a press released that the excessive force used during the raid is currently under investigation:

An operation will be conducted once all of the facts have been collected. This is a personnel matter and we are unable to discuss any further details.

An indignant Brooks told MSNBC, “We got beat up and arrested for a citation that’s equivalent to somebody j-walking.” Brooks’ attorney said that “Those kinds of charges [of a lack of city permit] and a $100 bail do not warrant officers coming in with a battering ram, and weapons, and weapons drawn.”

The dispensary will be filing a $1 million claim - a precursor to a lawsuit - alleging that the police raid was illegal and the officers involved used excessive force, causing tens of thousands of dollars of damage, not to mention the police taking the ATM and marijuana.

The MSNBC report is below, followed by the Youtube video.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

THC RAID
Government-Sponsored Study Destroys DEA's Classification of Marijuana as 'Medically Useless' at Alternet.org,July 3, 2012
The DEA classifies marijuana as having no medical uses, but a government-sponsored study concludes that the miracle drug is much needed for many patients. A government-sponsored study published this month in The Open Neurology Journal concludes that marijuana provides much-needed relief to some chronic pain sufferers and that more clinical trials are desperately needed, utterly destroying the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) classification of the drug as having no medical uses. While numerous prior studies have shown marijuana’s usefulness for a host of medical conditions, none have ever gone directly at the DEA’s placement of marijuana atop the schedule of controlled substances. This study, sponsored by the State of California and conducted at the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research, does precisely that, driving a stake into the heart of America’s continued war on marijuana users by calling the Schedule I placement simply “not accurate” and “not tenable.” Reacting to the study, Paul Armentano, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), told Raw Story that the study clearly proves U.S. drug policy “is neither based upon nor guided by science.” “In fact, it is hostile to science,” he said. “And despite the Obama Administration’s well publicized 2009 memo stating, ‘Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration,’ there is little to no evidence indicating that the federal government’s ‘See no evil; hear no evil’ approach to cannabis policy is not changing any time soon.”
And the recent financial scandal may have a disastrous impact on London's Banking and it's continuing as being the centre of the world's financial system. " Scandals tarnish London's financial reputation " By Kevin Crowley and Ambereen Choudhury Bloomberg News ,July 7,2012
London now faces calls to cull its bonus culture, rein in risk-taking and beef up a regulatory system that fueled a decadelong boom but also led to bad trades by Lehman Brothers, AIG, JPMorgan Chase and now the Libor interest-rate scandal. London risks losing its status as the world's top financial center as the $360 trillion interest-rate fixing probe follows a series of market abuses by banks that eroded trust in a city already shrinking faster than rivals. JPMorgan Chase's trading loss of at least $2 billion, the alleged $2.3 billion fraud at UBS and the investigation of at least a dozen banks including Barclays for rigging global interest rates all happened in London in the last year. The effect is taking a toll on the capital of a country enduring its first double-dip recession since the 1970s, which fired more financial-services workers than any other country in 2011 and again this year. "My heart sinks every time there is a scandal and the perpetrators are in London, even if it is not always the U.K.'s responsibility, it is under our noses," said Sharon Bowles, chairwoman of the European Parliament's economic and monetary affairs committee. "There is an effect on the U.K.'s reputation, and it reinforces the view that even after all the apologies there is much to do." London, ranked as the world's No. 1 financial center by research firm Z/Yen Group, was where AIG and Lehman Brothers booked transactions that helped lead to their downfall. This week saw Bank of England and U.K. government officials tied to the interest-rate fixing scandal that cost Robert Diamond, London's best-known banker, his job at Barclays. With the European debt crisis on its doorstep, London now faces calls to cull its bonus culture, rein in risk-taking and beef up a light-touch regulatory system that fueled a decadelong boom. The danger for London is that Europe is preparing to set up its own regulator for banks, which may exclude the U.K. or disadvantage firms based in the city. Domestically, the industry is losing longstanding political support from both Conservative and Labour parties — as well as the public. Home to about 250 foreign banks, London is the world's biggest center for foreign-exchange trading and cross-border bank lending and trades $1.4 trillion of interest derivatives daily, according to the Bank for International Settlements. Financial services are the U.K.'s largest export and pays 12 percent of the country's tax receipts.

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