Trump moves to ease cannabis restrictions – what does it mean for consumers?
While experts say rescheduling cannabis will likely lower taxes and improve access to investor funds for pot businesses, the drug will still be heavily restricted at the federal level — so not much is changing for consumers. Congress would have to pass new laws or federal agencies would need to issue new regulations to really change how people can access cannabis.
420 FILE – The United States government is likely to end the designation of marijuana as a dangerous narcotic sometime this year, potentially marking one of the biggest federal decisions on the classification of the drug in decades. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration determined that marijuana is less harmful than, say, opioids and other substances, prompting the Biden administration to announce it would “reschedule” cannabis from a Schedule I—which is what the most dangerous drugs are classified as—to a Schedule III drug, commensurate with anabolic steroids and ketamine.
Lessons From Legalization: The Problem Isn’t Cannabis, It’s Capitalism
FYI, I’m not against cannabis for medicinal purposes. Especially since I can’t even get a prescription for any painkillers. I could rant about it, but I won’t.
Despite the ongoing genocide in Gaza, Ecuador’s violent crime problem is such an incredible disaster that it manages to attract international attention. Criminals have recently taken over live newscasts. Supporters of the rightwing governments that created the disaster (for example, The Economist) have declared Ecuador to be the deadliest country in the Americas. It’s difficult for Ecuador to get international news coverage. In recent years, it generally has to be something very bad (or sports-related).
David Villamar interviewed about Ecuador’s violent crime disaster
Related:
How Did Ecuador Spiral into This Nightmare? It Was the Neoliberal Dismantling of the State
Upon assuming the US presidency, Joe Biden asserted in his first major foreign policy address, “America is back!” For Latin America and the Caribbean, this has meant an “aggressive expansion” of the US military in the region.
US Military Projection in Latin America and the Caribbean Intensifies
Psychedelic Drugs Are Rushing Towards Approval for Therapy. Here’s What’s Next
Yet one glaring problem remains. Despite promising clinical results, no one knows exactly how psychedelic drugs work in the brain. Examining their actions on brain cells isn’t just an academic curiosity. It could give rise to variants that maintain antidepressant properties without the high. And because hallucinogens substantially alter our perception [management?!] of the world, they could be powerful tools for investigating the neurobiology behind consciousness.
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This year, scientists found another common theme—psychedelics seem to “reset” the brain to a more youthful state, at least in mice. Like humans, mice have an adolescent critical period, during which their brains are highly malleable and can easily rewire neural circuits, but the window closes after adulthood.
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An earlier study showed that MDMA reopens the critical window in adult mice, so that they change their “personality.” Mice raised alone are often introverted and prefer to keep to themselves in adulthood. A dose of MDMA increased their willingness to snuggle with other mice—essentially, they learned to associate socializing with happiness, concluded the study.
It’s not that surprising. MDMA is well-known to promote empathy and bonding. The new study, by the same team, extended their early results to four psychedelics that don’t trigger fuzzy feelings—LSD, ketamine, psilocybin, and ibogaine. Similar to MDMA, adult mice raised alone changed their usual preference for solitude when treated with any of the drugs. Because habits are hard to change in adulthood—for mice and men—the drugs may have reopened the critical period, allowing the brain to more easily rewire neural connections based on new experiences.
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These are just early results. But psychedelic research is gaining a new ally—artificial intelligence. Algorithms that predict protein structure, combined with rational drug design, could generate psychedelics that retain their psychiatric benefits without the high.
H/T: The Most Revolutionary Act
Related:
Psychoanalytic roots of CIA psychoprofiling/pseudoscience
Meaghan thought psychedelic therapy could help her PTSD. Instead it was the start of a nightmare
Why is the American right suddenly so interested in psychedelic drugs
What if a Pill Can Change Your Politics or Religious Beliefs? (archived)
Do Psychedelic Trips Change Your Political Views? (archived)
The US president signed an order allowing active duty reserve troops as needed to fight international drug trafficking
Biden green-lights deployment to Mexican border
Related:
U.S. says it ‘infiltrated’ the Sinaloa drug cartel in the fight against fentanyl
Fentanyl Is Smuggled for U.S. Citizens By U.S. Citizens, Not Asylum Seekers
If it can conceivably be considered a “third party record,” the government is going to seek warrantless access to it. The Third Party Doctrine — ushered into existence by the Supreme Court in 1979 — says there’s no expectation of privacy in information shared with third parties. That case dealt with phone records. People may prefer the government stay out of their personal conversations, but the Smith v. Maryland ruling said that if people shared this info with phone companies (an involuntary “sharing” since this information was needed to connect calls and bill phone users), the government could obtain this information without a warrant.
More Mass Surveillance: FOIA Docs Reveal Illegal Snooping On US Residents’ Financial Transactions
Bolivia’s Socialist Government Confronts Separatist, Racist Uprising
Leaders of the Santa Cruz department in Bolivia’s eastern lowlands, the nation’s largest, immediately demanded a census in 2023, not in 2024. Department governor Luis Camacho and Rómulo Calvo, president of the Santa Cruz Civic Committee, warned that without a settlement on the census, they would initiate a strike aimed at undoing the department’s economy, and thereby the national economy.
In response, “over one million Bolivians mobilized” on Aug. 25 in support of the government and against a regional leadership group that is the vanguard of opposition to Bolivia’s socialist and indigenous-led government. Even so, the strike began on Oct. 22. Recent Bolivian history suggests another coup may be in the offing.
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The U.S. government and the Organization of American States, serving the United States, facilitated the coup that removed the Morales government in 2019 after his election to a fourth term. Luis Camacho of Santa Cruz led the coup and reportedly delivered the U.S. moneys used in various payoffs. Bolivia’s military participated.
Related:
Read More »The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is acknowledging the fact that racially discriminatory drug laws are partly responsible for the agency’s own founding.
DEA Admits ‘Racial, Ethnic and Class Prejudice’ Led To Drug Criminalization And The Agency’s Own Founding
There are growing signs that Washington may have played a greater part in the Jul. 7, 2021 assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse than previously understood.
The U.S. Justice Department successfully sealed evidence last week in its prosecution of Colombian mercenary Mario Antonio Palacios Palacios, one of the fatal machine-gunning’s triggermen who was extradited from Panama to Miami in January. It is the latest development in an emerging pattern that suggests the U.S. is working to conceal proof of its complicity in the gruesome magnicide.
Is the U.S. Covering Up its Role in Moïse’s Murder?
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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