-
The Coevolution of Man and MaryJane
[…]Controversial but sound hypotheses have been put forward suggesting that humans and marijuana coevolved. The University of California at Berkeley describes coevolution in simple terms:
“The term coevolution is used to describe cases where two (or more) species reciprocally affect each other’s evolution. So for example, an evolutionary change in the morphology of a plant, might affect the morphology of an herbivore that eats the plant, which in turn might affect the evolution of the plant, which might affect the evolution of the herbivore…and so on.” (3)
If this hypothesis is correct, it would mean that the existence of the marijuana plant as we know it today was directly influenced by modern humans, and vice versa; a concept not easily accepted in a world where the machinations powering the War on Drugs still tout the plant as a dangerous evil to be persecuted and eradicated out of existence. However, there is significant evidence to support the idea of man and cannabis coevolving.
For instance, consider the fact that the cannabis plant is a colonizer. This means that in the wild the plant generally needs open, cleared soil in order to grow. As Mel Frank and Ed Rosenthal point out, cleared patches of fertile ground do not occur often in nature; perhaps after a storm, flood, fire or some other type of disaster. As a colonizer, cannabis would also be short-lived once larger growth vegetation moved in. This means that the plant’s ideal environment is a patch of clear ground that stays clear.
Did cannabis lead to civilization?
Enter our early human ancestors. With their newfound habit of clearing land for agricultural-based settlements, cannabis found an unlikely partner in man, who provided more clearings and fertile patches of ground than the plant would encounter naturally. (1) This meant that interactions between the two species were virtually assured at least as far back as the Neolithic period.
Interestingly, some powerful figures have even speculated that the newly developed agricultural lifestyle of Neolithic man was probably focused on cultivation of cannabis directly, and was likely mankind’s very first – and often only – crop. Carl Sagan, famed author, astronomer and astrophysicist, even goes one step further and suggests that if cannabis led to agriculture, then it therefore led us to civilization. (4)
Humans are Physiologically Linked to Cannabis
If the previous theories on the coevolution of man and marijuana aren’t convincing enough, there is also the fact that cannabis is literally, physically part of human genetic makeup. It is widely known that there are thousands of cannabinoid receptor sites spread throughout the human body, with most located in the brain and spinal cord. These receptors bind with cannabinoids to produce various effects throughout the central nervous system – cannabinoids that are generally only present when marijuana is consumed. According to a study by the University of Auckland, these cannabinoid receptors are found in the brain at nearly all stages of human growth:
“Cannabinoid receptors were distributed in a heterogeneous fashion throughout the adult human brain and spinal cord. The allocortex contained very high concentrations of cannabinoid receptor binding sites in the dentate gyrus, Ammons’s horn and subiculum of the hippocampal formation; high concentrations of receptors were also present in the entorhinal cortex and amygdaloid complex. Cannabinoid receptor binding sites were also present throughout all regions of the neocortex…” (5)
Marijuana supporters often cite the fact that because of the presence of these cannabinoid receptor sites, humans must be “designed” to use marijuana. However, the deeper question often posed is this: Did humans evolve cannabinoid receptor sites naturally, or did these sites evolve as a result of our ancient relationship with the cannabis plant?
If humans developed these cannabinoid receptor sites as a result of thousands of years of cultivation, veneration and consumption of the plant, then the idea that man and cannabis coevolved would appear to be factual. In fact, suggesting that these receptor sites evolved independently and coincidentally probably doesn’t make much sense considering the complete lack of supporting evidence or logic.
[…]
-
Western leaders study 'gamechanging' report on global drugs trade
European governments and the Obama administration are this weekend studying a “gamechanging” report on global drugs policy that is being seen in some quarters as the beginning of the end for blanket prohibition.
Publication of the Organisation of American States (OAS) review, commissioned at last year’s Cartagena Summit of the Americas attended by Barack Obama, reflects growing dissatisfaction among Latin American countries with the current global policy on illicit drugs. It spells out the effects of the policy on many countries and examines what the global drugs trade will look like if the status quo continues. It notes how rapidly countries’ unilateral drugs policies are evolving, while at the same time there is a growing consensus over the human costs of the trade. “Growing media attention regarding this phenomenon in many countries, including on social media, reflects a world in which there is far greater awareness of the violence and suffering associated with the drug problem,” José Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the OAS, says in a foreword to the review. “We also enjoy a much better grasp of the human and social costs not only of drug use but also of the production and transit of controlled substances.”
Insulza describes the report, which examines a number of ways to reform the current pro-prohibition position, as the start of “a long-awaited discussion”, one that experts say puts Europe and North America on notice that the current situation will change, with or without them. Latin American leaders have complained bitterly that western countries, whose citizens consume the drugs, fail to appreciate the damage of the trade. In one scenario envisaged in the report, a number of South American countries would break with the prohibition line and decide that they will no longer deploy law enforcement and the army against drug cartels, having concluded that the human costs of the “war on drugs” is too high.
The west’s responsibility to reshape global drugs policy will be emphasised in three weeks when Juan Manuel Santos Calderón, the president of Colombia, who initiated the review, arrives in Britain. His visit is part of a programme to push for changes in global policy that will lead up to a special UN general assembly in 2016 when the scenarios of the OAS are expected to have a significant influence.
Experts described the publication of the review as a historic moment. “This report represents the most high-level discussion about drug policy reform ever undertaken, and shows tremendous leadership from Latin America on the global debate,” said Kasia Malinowska-Sempruch, director of the Open Society Foundation’s Global Drug Policy Program, which has described its publication as a “game-changer”.
“It was particularly important to hear president Santos invite the states of Europe to contribute toward envisioning a better international drug policy. These reports inspire a conversation on drug policy that has been long overdue.”
The report represents the first time any significant multilateral agency has outlined serious alternatives to prohibition, including legal market regulation or reform of the UN drug conventions.
“While leaders have talked about moving from criminalisation to public health in drug policy, punitive, abstinence-only approaches have still predominated, even in the health sphere,” said Daniel Wolfe, director of the Open Society Foundation’s International Harm Reduction Program. “These scenarios offer a chance for leaders to replace indiscriminate detention and rights’ abuses with approaches that distinguish between users and traffickers, and offer the community-based health services that work best for those in need.”
In a statement, the Global Commission on Drug Policy, which campaigns for changes in drug laws and is supported by the former presidents of several South American states, said that publication of the review would break “the taboo that blocked for so long the debate on more humane and efficient drug policy”. The Commission said that it was “time that governments around the world are allowed to responsibly experiment with regulation models that are tailored to their realities and local need”.
(Source: mohandasgandhi)
-
-
-
High Resolution(Source: impressionablelibertariankid, via political-cartoons)
-
Rep. Jared Polis (D-Co) will introduce a bill tomorrow in the US House of Representatives that will regulate marijuana in the same manner as alcohol federally.
SEATTLE (AP) — An effort is building in Congress to change U.S. marijuana laws, including moves to legalize the industrial production of hemp and establish a federal pot tax.
While passage this year could be a longshot, lawmakers from both parties have been quietly working on several bills, the first of which Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon and Jared Polis of Colorado plan to introduce Tuesday, Blumenauer told The Associated Press.
Polis’ measure would regulate marijuana the way the federal government handles alcohol: In states that legalize pot, growers would have to obtain a federal permit. Oversight of marijuana would be removed from the Drug Enforcement Administration and given to the newly renamed Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Marijuana and Firearms, and it would remain illegal to bring marijuana from a state where it’s legal to one where it isn’t.
The bill is based on a legalization measure previously pushed by former Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Ron Paul of Texas.
Blumenauer’s bill would create a federal marijuana excise tax.
Last fall’s votes in Colorado and Washington state to legalize recreational marijuana should push Congress to end the 75-year federal pot prohibition, Blumenauer said.
“You folks in Washington and my friends in Colorado really upset the apple cart,” Blumenauer said. “We’re still arresting two-thirds of a million people for use of a substance that a majority feel should be legal. … It’s past time for us to step in and try to sort this stuff out.”
I highly doubt this particular bill will go anywhere (how I would love to be wrong about that) but this is a step in the right direction, and the fact that we are even talking about it at this level is a good sign, in my eyes.
-
Prohibition is obviously a pointless disaster, but what about alcohol regulation? Instead of an arbitrary ban, we have sensible regulations on liquor: Who can buy, who can sell, where it can be sold and consumed etc etc…
It’s a false dichotomy to assume the only choices are full deregulation or drug war style prohibition.
-
Featuring interviews with several current or former presidents from around the world, such as Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, the film follows The Global Commission on Drug Policy on a mission to break the political taboo over the United States led War on Drugs and expose what it calls the biggest failure of global policy in the last 40 years.
-
-
![fuckyeahdrugpolicy:
Uruguay government announces plan to sell marijuana | The Telegraph
Under the plan backed by President Jose Mujica’s leftist administration, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana and only to adults who register on a government database, letting officials keep track of their purchases over time. [In a radio interview on Thursday, Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro seemed to backtrack, saying the registry “sounds a little authoritarian and perhaps we should avoid it,” according to the WSJ.]
Profits would reportedly go toward rehabilitating drug addicts.
“It’s a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking. We think the prohibition of some drugs is creating more problems to society than the drug itself,” Fernández Huidobro told reporters late on Wednesday.
Fernández said the bill would soon be sent to Congress, which is dominated by Mujica’s party, but that an exact date had not been set. If approved, Uruguay’s national government would be the first in the world to directly sell marijuana to its citizens.
full article](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m1ecuq7QPo1qc1ca1o1_500.jpg)
Uruguay government announces plan to sell marijuana | The Telegraph
Under the plan backed by President Jose Mujica’s leftist administration, only the government would be allowed to sell marijuana and only to adults who register on a government database, letting officials keep track of their purchases over time. [In a radio interview on Thursday, Defense Minister Eleuterio Fernández Huidobro seemed to backtrack, saying the registry “sounds a little authoritarian and perhaps we should avoid it,” according to the WSJ.]
Profits would reportedly go toward rehabilitating drug addicts.
“It’s a fight on both fronts: against consumption and drug trafficking. We think the prohibition of some drugs is creating more problems to society than the drug itself,” Fernández Huidobro told reporters late on Wednesday.
Fernández said the bill would soon be sent to Congress, which is dominated by Mujica’s party, but that an exact date had not been set. If approved, Uruguay’s national government would be the first in the world to directly sell marijuana to its citizens.
-
High ResolutionPoll: 74 percent want end to medical marijuana raids
Nearly three out of four Americans believe that the federal government should respect state laws regarding medical marijuana and halt raids on dispensaries, according to a poll released Wednesday.
“These results are consistent with the clear and growing body of evidence that documents substantial voter support for the legalization of medical marijuana,” said Larry Harris, a principal with Mason-Dixon Polling & Research.
The polling agency found that 74 percent of Americans believed the federal government should respect states’ medical marijuana laws. Support for medical marijuana laws was highest among Independents, at 79 percent, and lowest among Republicans, at 67 percent. Younger age groups were more likely to think the federal government should respect medical marijuana laws than older age groups.
(Source: diadoumenos)
-
High ResolutionDo ‘bath salts’ drive people crazy?
The unregulated ‘bath salts’ from overseas can cause the brain’s danger instinct to kick into overdrive, making the user see everything as a threat.To think of all of the wonderful mind altering substances that nature provides us and yet people feel the need to invent and ingest shit called methylenedioxypyrovalerone. The described effects of which sound like a bad trip on any other drug.
-
One of the many things wrong with the world.
(Source: shits-and-giggles1, via kenobi-wan-obi)
-
We give prison sentences for smoking marijuana, but not for billion-dollar fraud
Five facts that put America to shame - #4
About half of our world-leading prison population is in jail for non-violent drug offenses. Americans have also been arrested for handing out free food in a park. Mothers in Ohio and Connecticut were jailed for enrolling their kids in out-of-district schools. As of 2003 in California there were 344 individuals serving sentences of 25 years or more for shoplifting as a third offense, in many cases after two non-violent offenses.
How does the market deal with this steady tide of petty crime? It strives for more. The new trend of private prisons is dependent on maintaining a sizable prison population to guarantee profits, with no incentive for rehabilitation.
As the number of inmates has surged, the people who devastated countless American lives “get out of jail free.” The savings and loan fraud cost the nation between $300 billion and $500 billion, about 100 times more than the total cost of burglaries in 2010. The financial system bailout has already cost the country $3 trillion. Goldman Sachs packaged bad debt, sold it under a different name, persuaded ratings services to label it AAA, and then bet against their own financial creation by selling it short. Other firms accused of fraud and insider trading were Morgan Stanley, Bear Stearns, Bank of America, Countrywide Financial, and Wells Fargo. The New York Times reported in 2008 that the Justice Department had postponed the bribery or fraud prosecutions of over 50 corporations, choosing instead to enter into agreements involving fines and ‘monitoring’ periods.
Divine Irony
is a rich archive of religious delusions, scientific truths and political implications.
"Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure."
-George Carlin
“If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed”.
-Albert Einstein
