I guess we'll see tomorrow. I assumed what Holder had to say would be treating crack cocaine in the same way we treat regular cocaine, since crack is more often used in black neighborhoods, and when someone is caught with crack they get a harsher sentence than the do with regular cocaine, black people tend to get harsher sentences for cocaine.

But if they decide to move marijuana to schedule II then you could be right, it wold be a huge media story and would knock anything about the NSA out of their radar. And schedule II (which means it has medical uses) would still allow them to arrest people who grow it for recreational use. Now all of those people who've been pushing for medical marijuana will realize how it's came to bite them in the ass, as it will most likely stay medicinal forever.

You want your weed, no problem. You just gotta buy it through Pfizer...

God damn that'd be bleak.

If the State finds it growing wild in your backyard? Thats 6 months on parole.

The No Agenda podcast said the programme was just to get back the big pharma advertising revenue which has shrunk on CNN recently. Soon as they're back on air, the issue will be buried or the good Dr. will do a u-turn...

I don't get it can you explain how a pro weed doc would bring in pharma advertising?

Big pharma advertising cash is price of CNN's silence on how good weed is. Weed being a direct threat to dozens of big pharma drugs.

Why has it been declining, and what makes you think it's gonna come back now? EDIT: Saw /u/D3PWN's comment. Interesting theory.

If that were the case, it would already be legal. They cannot patent plants, only sythesized compounds and delivery methods.

This guy will be running the MJ company given to him by the gov't

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/30/microsoft-marijuana_n_3361389.html

Its not Pfizer, but it might as well be. The gov't will NOT allow an industry as big and potentially profitable to be ran by citizens they don't control. I've personally seen A LOT of dispensaries in the socal area get shut down in the last 6 months. I have to rely on delivery services as they are the only ones still operating on a consistent basis.

But if they decide to move marijuana to schedule II then you could be right, it wold be a huge media story and would knock anything about the NSA out of their radar. And schedule II (which means it has medical uses) would still allow them to arrest people who grow it for recreational use. Now all of those people who've been pushing for medical marijuana will realize how it's came to bite them in the ass, as it will most likely stay medicinal forever.

Sativex and Marinol valuations say this might be correct.

I completely agree with all of this. We need to get the word out.

this

and unlike other meds, marijuana will be (and is) heavily taxed.

ow all of those people who've been pushing for medical marijuana will realize how it's came to bite them in the ass, as it will most likely stay medicinal forever.

i disagree. Once Washington and COlarado count up the taxes and all the states see how much income it brought, they will jump on the gravy train. Money talk and theres alot of money in pot

The legalization/decriminalization of marijuana IS coming, regardless of the federal governments interference. Stay vigilant people. they are throwing the hungry dog a scrap to keep his tummy from rumbling just a little longer.

I'd like to be as optimistic as you. But as much money there is in pot, there is a hell of a lot more in private prisons, in mandatory drug "rehab" programs, in the drug testing business, and in police drug bust operations. And all of those industries have far more political connections and better lobbyists. All of those industries target pot use far more than other drugs. Most drugs leave the stem in 5 days, so pot is the primary target of drug testing. Drug rehab is mandated for pot users, even though it's non addictive (and rehab actually is useful for other drug users as long as it is voluntary). Private prisons hurt everyone, but because pot use is so prevalent they profit disproportionally from it. And there are always the good old boys in blue to lock people up for 2 or 3 baby pot plants and call it a million dollar bust, gaining a lot of extra cash for their department through DEA incentives.

We can hope that good ole capitalism will prevail, but it currently looks like corruption is the only thing that wins in Washington.

I'd like to be as optimistic as you

Then take a hit and relax B)

as much money there is in prison (feeding them, clothing them, keeping the water running, security etc), there is still the issue of over crowded prisons. We cant just keep building more prisons, as much as the private prisons would enjoy that. im pretty certain there is more in weed. For instance, Marijuana is americas #1 cash crop, but yet and its still Schedule 1.

Think about that, its one of the most illegal kinds of substances one can posses, but people spend more money on it than tobacco or wheat. Now imagine that it wasnt illegal, or demonized. The ones who do smoke, will smoke more. The ones who dont may start.

And this isnt even considering hemp and its benefits in cloths, rope, paper or anything that requires fibers.

id get actual numbers, as tyhey are quiet large. but having dank nugs on my screen at work isnt very professional

I do agree with you in the sense that private prisons will NOT be shutting their doors. i expect a convenient law to be put into place once weed is more legal and accepted. such as anyone who speaks out against the government or protests certain issues. Theyll still have their cake and eat it too, only this time itll gettem high.

Came here to say this. They will move it to schedule 2. Then give it to medical companies and make the crackdown on cannabis even more intense.

edit: Maybe worse...they'll remove the high and put in HFCS, blue lake, FD&C Yellow No. 6, Red 17, etc.

Or...something i've been dreaming of can become a reality...The introduction of nasal spray with thc/cbd. Considering most of your receptors for cannabinoids reside in your nasal passage. This would be the drug of the millennium. A nasal spray that cures....just about everything and makes you high. But even then..you'd need a prescription. Good thing i'm becoming a MD.

Considering most of your receptors for cannabinoids reside in your nasal passage.

I had never heard that. Got a source or where I could find one?

And if you're on the way to becoming a MD you of all people should know that the enjoyable part of the high is considered a terrible side effect of any drug (at least it is by the medical community). There have been plenty of efforts to make an opiate based pain killer that reduces or removes the noticeable high while still helping with pain (all unsuccessful). And now the current trend is to produce high cannabinoid and low THC pot, ie. pot that will still give you the munchies and help with cancer patients but won't get you any kind of enjoyable high.

Hmm, I remember reading it in my neuroscience book. If I find an study i'll link it. It's similar to how dogs hold more cannabinoid receptors in their ear.

And, ohh I know. I edited my post. They'll probably not only take out the high, but add unnecessary compounds. Like petroleum dyes, HFCS, preservatives. Nothing unlike the current medicine you see on shelves or prescribed. Curing active ingredients within cancer causing inactive ingredients. Oh the irony.

Weed is Soma. They've done the propaganda to repopularize it to a massive extent, then they will give it to us as "medical" first, now with Obamacare everyone is insured and everyone will be able to get it free. It will placate the people enough to bring in hell.

I'm surprised more people aren't aware of this. Cannabis is the perfect drug to pacify the masses, especially when the government, corporations, and powers that be don't start looking so great.

Its tendency to disrupt habitual thought patterns has been used as a tool when it benefits the establishment, and repressed when it doesn't.

Good point. There are pros and cons to proper use and abuse.

idk man, cannabis is what 'woke' me up, so to speak. I'm sure it's given that boot in the ass to many others

Only because the idea of "waking up" was presented to you while you were high. If it was just regular TV programming, like a lot of people ingest whilst high, you would just be a fat lazy bum watching Roseanne reruns.

If used excessively yes, but with a proper consumption it will do the opposite. It makes people think about things in a different way and I believe will help wake people up more than it will pacify them.

It breaks down invisible barriers that you don't realize are up. Makes people more introspective where the sober mind will be more on autopilot.

Agreed, however only about 1/20 people I've personally met are self-disciplined enough to properly use cannabis without it becoming abusive or an addiction without the same benefits.

For sure, even with my own experience. I was a young kid in high school like many others, and did it excessively. Even when my body told me that one puff was all I needed, you weren't "cool" if you didn't finish a huge fatty. This led to eventual paranoia and I had to stop. However in that time I saw the huge benefits and how it expanded my mind.

I actually want to start using again, but just ingesting oil for the health benefits rather than the high. The last time I actually smoked was when I was detoxing off of anti-depressants, it was probably the most painful thing physically, as I had very bad migraines. Smoking weed in moderation was the greatest pain killer I could ask for. Oddly enough, as soon as I didn't need it anymore, I tried to continue smoking and I didn't like the effects, so I quit.

Paranoia and the other oft proffered reason to avoid weed, psychosis, are interesting in that they may be primarily socially caused, rather than chemically.

Recent evidence suggests they stem from fear of being caught, by the cops or a disapproving society. Remove that stigma and both paranoia and psychosis may be removed too.

Weed is a catalyst. It makes everything you do, better. The only people "pacified" by weed are the ones who are unable to smoke and be productive and would much rather sit watching tv and eating snacks.

You can control your high, believe it or not

eh, i disagree

this.

Erm.. yes Marijuana may have potential qualities that tranquilize and inhibit energetic actions, but it also opens the mind, makes one far more peaceable, helps one to acknowledge the "we're all one" (aka, doing harm to another is harming one self etc), grants an altered/new perspective to those 'asleep' and more. If they can breed a particular type of weed, more along the indica-strain which is known, more-so, to cause lethargic and heavier feelings, you may be right BUT to label Weed as Soma is stretching it. If anything, the pharmaceutical companies pumping out antidepressants and other opiates/tranqs etc are the Soma written in days past. Pharmaceuticals do not awaken one to the world but blur and deny them a higher perception of what really matters and at the same time transforming the individual into an empty, receptive puppet.

but it also opens the mind, makes one far more peaceable, helps one to acknowledge the "we're all one" (aka, doing harm to another is harming one self etc), grants an altered/new perspective to those 'asleep' and more

The problem with this is, is that it "opens your mind" to programming from outside sources. Most "weed friendly" programming on television and in movies is aimed at getting you into shit like the "new age" movements and militant atheism(which is a moronic stance to take, if you don't understand why then the programming has worked well on you). There are people all around me that are not more "awake" after decades of smoking, they are less awake and trapped in their celebrity obsessed culture, hanging up movie posters and celebrity portraits on their walls without even stopping to think "why?" It can wake you up yes, if the influences you ingest into your mind can get you there, but they've created the whole "conspiracy theory = lie" meme now, people are programmed to shut their brains down and ridicule you for thinking or saying such things, even if they're smoking pot.

Did it help me wake up, yes. Does it work for everyone, HELL NO.

It's the same reason that the CIA abandoned LSD, they couldn't control the environment in which people were tripping, so they couldn't influence their thoughts as well as they had anticipated, then they made it illegal.

EVERYTHING, is propaganda, once you realize that, you are closer to being fully awake.

I'm living in a county in Northern California that is surrounded by counties that survived purely because people could grow weed and sell it to keep their homes. I know very strongly Sonoma County would have been absolutely devastated without weed money. That said having people light up is not the economic panacea that it is made out to be. The economy is overall depressed and there is still that huge disasterous bursting bond bubble on the horizon that will seal our fate yet gay marriage and marijuana use rises to the top of the list of important social achievements. So even say they legalize weed they will still need to throw people in prison which means that they will simply find other trivial crimes to compensate for the below quota numbers.

In my region people are so full of shit with political correctness that marijuana busts are simply a major way that law enforcement can use to regulate the Mexicans and Guatemalans. In Santa Rosa there was a large bust and my friend was growing on another persons property. They had a medical marijuana license but they had far exceeded the legal number of plants in a way that would have been immediately visible. The law enforcement busted every foreigner run grow operation around her house and left her alone. The foreigners will never be medical legal and this is a great way for the police to disincentivize the illegal aliens. The less profitable that it is the less of them will come here. The general population is so full of shit on the diversity trip that this is perhaps the only significant way to economically limit the brown skined illegals.

In the state of California marijuana is ranking #1 on the agriculture books and is equal to the next three cash crops. I'm wondering though how many underground grape and almond grows are going on. Hey guys lets like get some generators and go into the countryside to grow some almonds maaan. My area is a hot bed of small time grow operations. I know numerous people who would have lost their home during the worst of the crisis but suddenly found peace with the magic medicine. Ten years ago they would have lost friends but now they are the good friend to have, not hurting anyone and fuck the system anyways. Its all a bunch of crap though because this area lost most of its serious engineering years ago along the time when Agilant on the hill pulled out. The people here plod along with next to no comprehension that the only thing keeping this region together as a whole is the marijuana money.

Then just like everything else that these ultra liberals do they are patting themselves on the back and making on about how enlightened they are for being able to grow weed out the their garages. Without that weed money the residential, commercial and industrial real estate would Completely Collapse and then everything would be negative $100k on their home instead of just the current break even after paying for 5-20 years and sucking and spending cash out of their home through refinancing. The people here have next to no cash, bond, stock or metal savings and it is all tied up in the value of their house. They will do anything to keep the value of their homes high so that they can pretend on paper that they have something to show for all of their years commuting up and down the 101.

I have gay friends and I'll take a puff but at the end of the day its not about that. These new innovations are not nearly or even halfway nearly enough to sustain the society when so much is going to shit. The people here are so full shit and its a focal point of the liberal moral superiority. Being able to take a big bong rip and then suck each others cock is not going to be a powerful all encomposing solution that the people believe that it will. At the end of the day they are still delusional cowards.

I have gay friend and I'll take a puff but at the end of the day its not about that. These new innovations are not nearly or even halfway nearly enough to sustain the society when so much is going to shit. The people here are so full shit and its a focal point of the liberal moral superiority. Being able to take a big bong rip and then suck each others cock is not going to be a powerful all encomposing solution that the people believe that it will. At the end of the day they are still delusional cowards.

Preach it brother.

I have gay friends

Huh? This is confusing.

It's simple. Obama trying to appeal to all "groups". He managed to make the gay community in America love Big Brother, and now he is attempting to turn the weed community over as well.

I think what destraht was getting at was that no matter what new policies become enacted this system we are apart of is getting fucked to bits and there is nothing that can save us. We just accept these new realities because that's all you can do.

In the state of California marijuana is ranking #1 on the agriculture books and is equal to the next three cash crops.

this is a bit of an illuseion. the valuation of weed has been impacted by kops who inflate the numbers because "the bigger the bust, the bigger the boost' (in funding) for the drug war.

it should also be considered that part of the reason the price of weed is so high is precisely because of the illicit nature and the risks involved in smoking/growing/possession. take away those risks and there really is no reason to be paying more than a few dollars for a Oz sack.

the oligarchy would like to keep the price artificially inflated through "sin" taxes so that even post decrim, users will continue to pay 60 dollars an 1/8 (maybe they'll lower the price to 40 but that is still ridiculous if the majority of that price goes not to the growers who have the expenses (yes virginia it costs money to grow, even with free sunlight) but to the politicians so they can avoid taxing the 1 percent.

legalization without taxation needs to be our battlecry!

Well I think that both our statements can be true enough because I wasn't getting into the free market value of weed but instead the revenue.

fair enough

Never forget, Californians are the people who launched the career of Ronald Reagan.

Lying to us didn't work. Next step is to try misdirection. If that fails too (it probably won't) they will switch to intimidation.

Switch to intimidation? They've been doing this since 1774.

Monsanto is growing frankenweed.

Low THC high CBD and then there will be legal limits to THC content....

Good thing weed is pretty easy to grow yourself.

Heres my theory: They are about to unleash the surveillance state on drug users and dealers. BUT they dont want to have to lock up 80% of the country so.....

Yeah it's classic misdirection. When the magician starts gesturing with his left hand, watch the right hand deftly slip into a pocket unnoticed.

I'm really unsure what it's leading to but the buildup was quite obvious, and the connection between media and the state is sickening. It's like they're a duo on stage taking us for a ride.

There is a bit of a battle going on whether or not the state (California) will be allowed to be completely flooded with Mexican and Guatemalan illegals. There is no direct way to remove them from the country but trucks full of seized marijuana always looks good on paper and on the television. The foreign illegals cannot be allowed to make that much quick easy money because it would be a threat to regional sovereignty.

but.... thats almost logical.... wouldnt that be something......

Take a mile. Give back an inch.

You can't authoritatively prove a link (which is generally what most people expect before they'll believe anything), but I can greatly appreciate and respect your speculating about its existence.

Links can't be proven because the current scheduling of marijuana doesn't allow for clinical trials to proceed.

Link is also a character in video games. I'm not sure how it pertains to what I was talking about, but why not throw it in for good measure?

Edit: Sometimes it's easy to be a jerk to people who are just a little confused.

Oh. I'm sorry, I misunderstood what you were saying?

He can't prove that they're "giving in" (1) to some of the demands for marijuana's legalization and (2) the recent flak they've been getting about the NSA's mass surveillance of Americans (that is, the link between these two different topics), but I still appreciate that he's speculating about it possibly being there, anyway.

Sorry for being snarky.

Well if they are looking to pacify the public...

It didn't work too good in the 60's though.

I agree CNN and megashill Gupta coming out strong pro-weed there must be some agenda at work...

Decriminalize possession below quarter ounce? With promises of more changes to come, would be my guess.

There's information linking the '60s "cultural revolution" to CIA promotion of drugs and popular entertainment, causing a schism that replaced the US' depression-era, needs-based & more communal society with the boomers' desire-oriented, corporation worshipping "me generation." In that light pot and acid worked fairly well.

To be honest the pacification worked great, true, it was just the draft and black power driving the unrest.

very interesting, before that time you have a certain character of people, more values and respect and whatnot. And nowadays, society is emasculated and teenagers and children are mostly brats. I wonder if there's a connection

it's been coming a while now

ever since the collapse of the wall street swindle machine.

the 99 percent have been sharpening pitchforks and lighting torches demanding that the 1 percent be taxed appropriately. Oblahblah came into office promising to do away with the "Bush" tax cuts and instead, he actually extended them for a year or two before then renewing them. only this time around the Corporate press (having learned a thing or two during "anybody but Bush" time) proclaims them "tax cuts for the middle class."

anyway, fast forward a few years and the government needs a new tax revenue stream and so they turn to weed - all of the talk about decrim centers around what a huge tax base weed smokers represent. and weed smokers, only too happy to pay any amount of money in bribes, to avoid police harassment, are clamoring for "taxation and regulation" which basically means that weed smokers will now be farmed for the benefit of politicians in the pockets of the 1 percent (and many of them are 1 percenters themselves, e.g. nancy "pearls" pelosi).

of course, the oligarchy likes to scratch multiple itches at a time, so to speak, so they might well chose to do this now that people are even more pissed about NSA revelations.

i would not be at all surprised.

i ain't paying taxes on something that i acn grow in my backyard. what's next? taxing grandma's summer gardens?

I goddamn love it when other people can see the big picture.

According to No Agenda, the CNN thing is to blackmail big pharma into sponsoring them again.

Completely agree with thread; I posted a similar comment earlier, and I'll rewrite it: Government is throwing us a bone for the NSA thing not quieting down a single bit -

but this is the the US Gov, controlled by Corporations and whatnot: Read the tiny print. There's no fuckin' way they'd full out legalize weed for the public, without strings attached.

In hindsight, legalizing weed, and turning your aware/angry country into a bunch of peaceful stoners who don't really care...That'd be pretty genius. But how would you make your Police Force violent if they just wanna be peaceful? So many factors, so many possibilities. o.o

Cannabis is the perfect drug to pacify the masses, especially when the government, corporations, and powers that be don't start looking so great.

I think prescription drugs are better for that. More addictive and fuck you up more.

I think this is just a propaganda move that uses a political football issue to make them look progressive and "pro-freedom" while behaving like tyrants. Anyone who wants to smoke weed is already smoking it.

Television is the drug of the nation

I feel healthier (not just physically) after periods of time of minimal TV. I try/seem to avoid TV now and feel much better off.

Soma...

The CNN running the piece about Weed is a last-ditch effort to get big-pharma advertising on CNN again.

So quit smoking? Or grow your own?

This will be coming out in a big way in the next Presidential Election. The GOP is reeling from the absolute catastrophic disaster of the Bush Administration.

The Neocons and Bush essentially sent this nation into a 50 year downward spiral, and history will show that his administration was the beginning the United States eventual decline. The GOP has spent the better half of the last decade disavowing, deflecting blame, stonewalling, gas lighting, in a desperate, but alarmingly successful, effort to salvage the party from implosion.

Mark my words, and mark them well, the GOP/Koch Brothers/Tea Party fanatics will put forth a pseudo "libertarian" candidate (who will just be another imperialist/global corporatist/bankster lackey - much like President Obama has proven himself to be, but with absolutely no concern for the middle class which will, and is, joining the serfdom of the lower class). And this pseudo "libertarian" (who will be anything but) will run under a legalization banner (with Monsanto's blessing and patented cannabis, which will be the only "FDA approved" species available to be grown legally by licensed, Monsanto franchise producers). And the republicans will put another war/oil mongering war chief/big energy lackey in white house. The wealth gap will come to resemble neo-feudalism even more, and we'll have an entire generation (or two) of apolitical, complacent, apathetic, but content worker bee/serfs who won't mind living in poverty and working in third world sweatshop factories (come back home to the "first world" where labor rights, safety standards, and corporate taxes will have become entirely non-existent) until they die at the ripe old age of 40, if they haven't been conscripted, like good little serfs, to join the king's men on a crusade for the few remaining, low hanging fruit, oil reserves - that no one wants to talk about (you know, the cheap stuff, just before the inevitiable precipice of oil production that follows global peak oil production - the impending energy crisis that no one wants to talk about, that no one has any real solution for, and that has the potential to usher in a second dark age and massive population die-off).

Welcome to the plan for a New America.

Well, that's grim.

Its absolutely state propaganda. NDAA authorizes US to use propaganda on its own people.

http://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/143ngc/ndaa_legalizes_propaganda_the_us_is_now_able_to/

I was wondering about a de-population agenda. Fukushima spewing radiation over to california, where the majority of the weed in the usa is grown.

kinda puts a whole new take on the notion of "lighting up"

i think the Op hit the nail on the head

My dearest sir, you are correct, at least in your assumption that this is perfect pageantry. The Media is nothing more than a very useful tool for the government. It's only a matter of time before more news outlets will be in the pocket of the white house.

"Anyone under 40". Love it.

I feel the government eventually wants to legalize it. Legal Weed= more complacent society AS A WHOLE. Why wouldn't they want that? With exception to folk who don't want it legals

agreed, good catch on the charlottes web propoganda, i skimmed right over that. This is a conspiracy I can get behind though

I'm very skeptical about this low THC/ high CBD thing they're promoting. THC is the cure. If you don't want to get high off it, extract the oil using Rick Simpson's method (which they also showed as the method they use to give to the little girl... hmmm)

Also what is up with the gay / metro growers they show? If they don't scream ACTORS, I don't know what does.

All in all, there's something at work here for sure and we should be viewing this very critically as to why this is being shown to the masses now.

we should be viewing this very critically as to why this is being shown to the masses now.

Exactly this. The other shoe will drop. Probably they're trying to change the conversation away from Snowden and will escalate as Greenwald escalates.

Buy the weed, get put on a list. Probably the same list they'll use to exclude people from gun ownership. Of course, this list will include those prescribed the dozens of "psycho" drugs that so many people take regularly. Instantly, millions of people no longer "qualified" to be gun owners.

The changes to weed policy will likely be cosmetic. Many will still go to jail over it because people in jail means money and weed is a great excuse. I'm not sure what form it will take but I bet whatever it is, we'll find out in a few months that it's not as good as it will initially seem. That's because it doesn't actually have to do with weed, and we're valuable when we're in prison

Yep, and any major change is going to be solely of the benefit of a corporation or industry, likely a dem campaign backer.

there have been tons of documentaries about weed and its benefits, this is not new

I think it may be that they will deem it not dangerous and make people get a license for it, then they switch course, Deem it illegal again, round up every one who smokes it, then FEMA camps

It's simple. Obama trying to appeal to all "groups". He managed to make the gay community in America love Big Brother, and now he is attempting to turn the weed community over as well.

I think what destraht was getting at was that no matter what new policies become enacted this system we are apart of is getting fucked to bits and there is nothing that can save us. We just accept these new realities because that's all you can do.

For sure, even with my own experience. I was a young kid in high school like many others, and did it excessively. Even when my body told me that one puff was all I needed, you weren't "cool" if you didn't finish a huge fatty. This led to eventual paranoia and I had to stop. However in that time I saw the huge benefits and how it expanded my mind.

I actually want to start using again, but just ingesting oil for the health benefits rather than the high. The last time I actually smoked was when I was detoxing off of anti-depressants, it was probably the most painful thing physically, as I had very bad migraines. Smoking weed in moderation was the greatest pain killer I could ask for. Oddly enough, as soon as I didn't need it anymore, I tried to continue smoking and I didn't like the effects, so I quit.

Well I think that both our statements can be true enough because I wasn't getting into the free market value of weed but instead the revenue.