Mike Gray wrote to tell us that Common Sense for Drug Policy is producing a series of short videos promoting drug policy reform. This second video in the series is about the THC Expo event which draws crowds and exhibitors from all over the world to the LA Convention Center. This is the largest marijuana merchandising exhibit in US history, and indicates a fundamental change in public acceptance of marijuana.

Check out this YouTube clip, entitled "LEAP Stumps the Drug Czar":

Tom Angell, media relations director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, asks White House "Drug Czar" Gil Kerlikowske what he thinks of all the recent discussion on drug legalization.

The results are obnoxious. So, the "Drug Czar" can't even acknowledge "legalization" as a legitimate concept in his "vocabulary"? Awesome. Personally, after this and the whole DOMA fiasco, I have decided that "hope" and "change" aren't actually in my own vocabulary.

Kristen writes to tell us news of the first state to agree to have state-licensed pot dispensaries for people who use medical marijuana:

The Rhode Island legislature overrode a gubernatorial veto of a medical marijuana law Tuesday afternoon by an overwhelming margin, paving the way for state-licensed medical marijuana shops to begin operating. The House voted 68-0 for the pot measure and the senate moved it minutes later by a 35-3 count.

Once the law takes effect, the state will be the first in the nation to have one officially licensed nonprofit center selling marijuana. Over time, the state will license further nonprofit dispensaries.

The bill got a boost in the state after a much publicized incident in which a pot dealer beat up a medical marijuana patient. Proponents of the bill argued that patients shouldn't have to deal with unregulated, unlicensed drug dealers, but deserved a more orderly system.

It is the meeting of three of my favorite things. Cute animals, drugs, and conspiracy theories.

Things seem to steadily be getting worse for us tobacco smokers, what with never being able to indulge in public and now - brain damage?!!

The research centers on a compound known as NNK, which is common in tobacco. NNK is a procarinogen, a chemical substance which becomes carcinogenic when it is altered by the metabolic process of the body.

Unlike alcohol or drug abuse NNK does not appear to harm brain cells directly, however, the research team believe it may cause neuroinflamation, a condition which leads to disorders such as Multiple Sclerosis.

Reason's Nick Gillespie interviews Glenn Greenwald about Portugal's experience with drug decriminalization and Obama's record thus far on civil liberties.

Follow the link for a 9 minute video interview and a short print summary.

Reader Cassie tips us to this amazing act of global narcotics interdiction on behalf of the US Military.

Kabul - Fans of poppyseed bagels may want to start glancing furtively around for undercover narcs before taking a bite of their black-speckled breakfast rolls. According to the U.S. military, poppyseeds are narcotics, in the same league as opium or heroin.

This, at least, is the message conveyed by a recent raid in Marja district of Helmand Province, where U.S. forces, after a four-day military offensive, proudly announced the biggest-ever drug bust in Afghanistan: more than 101 tons of “narcotics,” whose seizure “severely disrupted one of the key militant and criminal operations and narcotics hubs in southern Afghanistan,” according to U.S. military spokesperson Col. Greg Julian.

What he failed to highlight was that more than 80 percent of it — 82.5 tons — was bagel topping, although most of this cache was probably destined for planting, rather than eating.

“We cannot really say that poppyseeds are narcotics,” acknowledged a U.S. official, speaking on background. “They are potential narcotics.”

The full article has entire details of the raid as well as Afghani reaction on the ground as a result of this operation. Your tax dollars at work. Yup.

Last week in Milton, Wisconsin, three eighth-grade children overdosed on Heroin (which they believed to be Cocaine) in a park right outside of the local Police Department. Sadly two of these three boys are dead. However one child was very lucky and his life was saved because of a nearby Heroin addict. This "junkie" had a drug called Narcan, or Naloxone. He used it to resuscitate the young man. You may have read about Narcan in the listings on sites like MAP (http://mapinc.org); it is a miracle pill (or a solution) which instantly begins to reverse a heroin overdose and saves the user's life.

If you have indeed read about Narcan before today, you would know that the American government wants to control Narcan almost to the point of scheduling it right up there with Heroin (and don't rule that out, either.) A lot of people in government would like junkies to simply drop dead, you see. Some of these people actually try to argue that it should only be in the hands of paramedics and not available to the public, because they are not trained health professionals. As if NOT DYING was ever a poor health decision. Even when delivered with a syringe, while sober, Naloxone does no harm.

The (unnamed) Heroin Hero of Milton, WI would have never been able to save this child's life had the bureaucrats in his district managed to abuse him as badly as those in other parts of the country. Now he is saving lives. Even if you still want him to die, you have to be glad he lived this long.

My problem is that I had to glean this whole angle from about three or four lines of the sourced article. The event hasn't triggered anything but the standard Heroin discourse anywhere but here yet, and it probably won't. It focuses on the children who died and mentions the survivor so briefly, it's as if the subject was changed.

Even the cops have trouble admitting it happened:

The addict "did save this kid's life, more than likely," said Lt. John Conger.

I'm not glad anyone is dead, but still I hope the addict had more than a single dose of Narcan. Imagine having to decide which child's life to save.

Here's a Terence McKenna video interview from the last few months of his life. I found it at maeneyak's psychedelic video archive at Zoopy.

TED talk by Paul Stamets on six ways that mushrooms can save the world. This covers extraordinary uses, such as controlling insects, dealing with hazardous wastes, uses in medicine such as antibiotics, and more. Suggests that saving old growth forests should be a matter of national defense. Doesn't mention psychedelic effects, but come on, you know you want to watch it anyway.