Marijuana Legalization

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by Kizmet, Oct 31, 2016.

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  1. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Not by design - but it'll probably do the job. It's a synthetic opioid, used in hospitals for pain relief. Said to be stronger than heroin - and addictive as any opioid.
    Popular and widely sold to addicts. Unpredictable and overdose stats are going through the roof. Many deaths. Also carfentanil - 10,000 times stronger than morphine. A lot of that is manufactured (cheaply) in China and smuggled into US by criminals...

    I've heard that some unscrupulous suppliers in China are willing to break carfentanil shipments to US into small packages to be below the radar for postal inspection etc. It's apparently legal to manufacture & sell in China and some have been very open in their offers to do this.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Apr 20, 2017
  2. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    Fentanyl is a very powerful synthetic opiod, originally developed for people with Stage 4 cancer. It comes in a transdermal patch, much like the nicotine patch for people quitting cigarettes. It didn't take long for the addicts to realize that they could get sky-high by chewing the patches, and then for the drug peddlers to figure out how to manufacture it.

    The great majority of fatal opiod OD's that we're seeing are from fentanyl-laced heroin, or straight fentanyl sold as heroin. The really bad thing is that Narcan (the opiod antidote) works much more slowly and less effectively with the synthetics (fentanyl, dilaudid, etc.) than with real opiates. Even if emergency personnel get to an overdose in time, the victim needs intraveneous Narcan, and in very high doses, to effectively counteract the synthetics.
     
  3. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    A while back Anthony Bourdain did one of his shows in Greenfield, MA. It's a old mill town with huge economic problems and a massive heroin problem. It was a real eye-opener. The heroin problem - addiction, overdosing, lack of treatment/suboxone programs, etc. is epidemic here. Everybody knows people who've died from that shit and as Bruce said, Fentanyl is a big part of it. I don't know what it's all about at it's core but this article (and I guess there's some research behind it) suggests that it's about despair.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/opinion/despair-american-style.html?_r=0
     
  4. Stanislav

    Stanislav Well-Known Member

    Despair. Okey-dokey.

    Maybe what is needed is some international perspective. Let's see: when I was growing up back home in the 90ies, we went through collapse of the Soviet system; rampant crime; major nuclear power plant catastrophe; food shortages; confiscatory currency reform; hyperinflation up to 10000% a year; and slow transition to a corrupt semi-democracy. And, oh yeah, deindustrialization as well, with miners and plant workers going months without salaries. And this is a country that still retained running water and electricity and high rates of school enrollments; we thought we dodged the bullet avoiding widespread violence... until 2014-present Russo-Ukrainian War. So it is slightly hard to sympathize with folks in Greenfield, MA, with their slightly lower than average median income and slightly higher than average poverty rate.
    At least the afflicted whites started responding like similar folks do in Ukraine: voting grotesque crooks into high offices. Other outlet was voting for the Communist Party, but that is dying down (in part, literally).
     
  5. Ted Heiks

    Ted Heiks Moderator and Distinguished Senior Member

  6. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Try again, Ted. It took me right to the article - twice: Despair American Style.

    Both links worked - the one in your post (quote) and Kizmet's post.

    J.
     
  7. Bruce

    Bruce Moderator

    And when the Soviet Union collapsed, crime in general (including drug use) skyrocketed, because the means and opportunity increased exponentially.

    Your example is seriously flawed.
     
  8. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  9. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  10. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    That article is about carfentanil - a related drug about 100 (I believe) times more powerful than fentanyl itself. Street use is producing many, many overdose deaths. This stuff is legally manufactured in China and unscrupulous sellers there have been known to send it to US (and Canadian) buyers, broken down into small packages to minimize the chance of inspection / detection.

    Russia used carfentanil on terrorists in 2002, in the Moscow Hostage Crisis - with lethal results. Deadly drug used by Russian forces in 2002 hostage crisis available for worldwide sale online | South China Morning Post

    Fentanyl itself is used in hospitals for post-op pain relief. Carfentanil is more of a weapon than a medicine. Unfortunately, addicts can't be choosy.

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 4, 2017
  11. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    I learned something new today. Thanks for the clarification
     
  12. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  13. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  14. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  15. Johann

    Johann Well-Known Member

    Holy Muñecas! I went to the website. $150 for a starter kit (3 x 1 mil.) How much real weed can you get for $150? (I haven't bought any since 1965.) Has it gone up THAT much? :laugh:

    J.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: May 15, 2017
  16. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    First Congress rebukes Jeff Sessions by pointedly appropriating $0 for federal harassment of state-approved marijuana businesses, and now this is more good news.

    This is also a big problem for Bitcoin exchange providers, and related businesses.
     
  18. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  19. heirophant

    heirophant Well-Known Member

    California voted to legalize recreational marijuana seven months ago. So far there haven't been any visible changes. There aren't any commercial pot-stores or dope-den bars. I'm guessing that the only substantial effect is fewer arrests for possession. Police rarely arrested people for that even before the vote, except in cases of possession for sale. So nothing much has happened.
     
  20. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

    Yeah, there's no pot stores here yet either although I'm told that they'll pop up at some point. I think part of the issue here is that the states are physically small and so you can be in any of 6-8 different states within a couple of hours and the laws vary considerably.
     

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