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CLICKHEREx

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  1. https://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/vic-builders-back-drug-tests-060933572.html AAP – Fri, Jun 20, 2014 4:09 PM AEST Construction employers have backed Victorian government moves to ensure all workers on government projects face random drug and alcohol testing from July 1. But the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) has dismissed the need for testing as a stunt ahead of the November state election. Victorian Finance Minister Robert Clark says that from July 1, all building companies that tender for taxpayer-funded projects worth $10 million or more must test workers for drugs and alcohol use. Head contractors must perform a minimum number of random tests on workers each month and identify what methods they would use, Mr Clark said on Friday. Contractors would determine the level of intoxication they deem unsafe and how workers would be sanctioned if drugs or alcohol were detected in their systems, he said. Tenderers will have to list site security measures, which may include CCTV, a swipe card access system and photographic or biometric security systems in a bid to stamp out criminal activity. Mr Clark said the measures would cut intoxication, drug dealing, fraud and theft at building sites. "We are introducing these guidelines to ensure that every contractor that tenders for Victorian government construction projects need to commit to have processes in place to guard against drug and alcohol abuse in their workplaces and also to ensure site security," he said. Master Builders Association of Victoria chief executive officer Radley da Silva said testing would ensure workers' safety. "Every construction worker has the right to feel safe from the risks posed by anyone affected by drugs and alcohol on a risky construction site. Those who are doing the right thing will have nothing to fear," he said. But CFMEU Victorian secretary John Setka said there was no evidence of widespread intoxication, drug problems, theft or fraud on Victorian building sites, nor that random testing would improve health and safety. "If the government has any evidence of these claims they should produce them in parliament for the benefit of the people of Victoria," he said. "This is a hysterical appeal to voters without any consideration for factual accuracy."
  2. http://www.naturalnews.com/045546_Iraq_militants_US_occupation_puppet_governments.html * Thursday, June 12, 2014 by Mike Adams, Tags: Iraq militants, U.S. occupation, puppet governments (NaturalNews) The puppet Iraqi government installed at gunpoint by western imperialist nations is collapsing. Iraq is now being overrun by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The oil-rich city of Tikrit has already been captured, and militants are headed for Baghdad, the capitol city of Iraq. The military surge has sent shockwaves around the world, shining yet another spotlight on the disastrously failed foreign policies of the United States and the Obama administration. While the U.S. military occupation of Iraq began in 2003 under President Bush, Obama pulled most U.S. troops from the nation in 2011, leaving behind a puppet government installed at gunpoint by the USA. That government is now on the verge of total collapse as armed, impassioned Islamic militants are rapidly overrunning the country. U.S.-backed Iraqi soldiers have no heart in the fight, and they are abandoning military equipment as they retreat en masse from the Islamic militants. As the DailyMail reported: (1) ...30,000 soldiers fled, leaving behind tanks and firearms as just 800 fighters approached. Less than 24 hours later the oil-rich city of Tikrit was captured by the militants, who then turned their attentions to the capital as it pushes ahead with its aim to overthrow the western-backed government as part of its goal to create an Islamic emirate spanning both sides of the Iraq-Syria border. Here's the map from the DailyMail: [onsite*] Why this matters to you Why does all this matter to someone living in the USA? For starters, we are witnessing a wave of popular revolts across the planet (Egypt, Thailand, Iraq, etc.) as more and more people become fed up with being controlled by corrupt criminal government regimes. (And hey, in the USA, the people even voted corporate front man Eric Cantor out of office this week!) This is part of a global populist revolt that's only gaining steam. So we can all expect more outbreaks of such events around the world, but especially in areas steeped in cultural conflict such as Iraq, Israel / Palestine, Pakistan, North Korea and even China. Secondly, Iraq controls 10% of the world's oil supply, so everything that happens in Iraq impacts us all at the gas pump. But it's not just our own gas prices that matter; it's also the fact that higher fuel prices raise food costs at a time when food is already skyrocketing in cost across the world (due to extreme weather events, droughts, floods, GMO crop failures and so on). Peace and stability makes things more affordable and efficient. But war and strife leads to higher prices, higher risk and greater economic burdens for everyone (not to mention the humanitarian costs of all the pain and suffering caused by war in the first place). So you can expect all this to have a very costly economic ripple effect that will cost you more money everywhere you go. (Get ready for new "fuel surcharges" on airline tickets, too...) Occupied nations usually don't like to remain occupied The surge of Islamic militants is panicking Washington, of course. America is a country weary of war and tired of all the deaths, injuries and costs associated with war. Iraq has always been a worthwhile strategic target for imperialist occupation, of course, because of its oil reserves. But the one rule of imperialist occupation is that you need to CONTINUE to occupy the nation if you hope to control it. Sure, the U.S. occupation of Iraq got us all another decade of cheap gas, but at what price for the war? After spending billions of dollars achieving an occupying military presence in Iraq, the U.S. foolishly thought it could leave behind a puppet government guarded by a few thousand half-hearted trained "government soldiers" who largely just wanted a paycheck. Those government soldiers obviously have no will to fight for a paycheck, and they are rapidly fleeing their positions and effectively turning over military equipment to the ISIS, which is rapidly gaining in strength and numbers. Remember, the USA invaded Iraq under a false "humanitarian" pretense, claiming it needed to "free the Iraqi people." (We were all ridiculously told the entire invasion had nothing to do with oil.) ** But "freedom" for the Iraqi people really meant subservience to a western occupying military. And that's something which can't be sustained long term because everybody across the world, no matter what country's they're from, resents occupying military forces in their own back yard. So as the U.S. reduced its military presence and posture, it was only a matter of time before local militants found the courage to organize a resistance effort which they characterize as a "freedom war" against the occupying imperialists, even describing it by invoking historical parallels such as Gandhi fighting against British rule. In truth, military occupation of a foreign nation is never a sustainable strategy. Nobody likes to be "occupied" by an army of foreigners wielding guns, tanks and attack helicopters. I'm not saying Iraq wasn't involved in some heinous human rights abuses long before the Americans showed up, but I am questioning the wisdom of the USA trying to occupy and control foreign nations to begin with. After all, we spilled a lot of blood over there, and lot of courageous Americans men and women gave their lives in that conflict. Now it all appears to be crumbling by the hour, with city after city falling to the ISIS and Baghdad close at hand. It brings up the big-picture question: Wouldn't all this have been less expensive, less tragic and less costly in human lives if we just focused on trading with foreign nations instead of invading them? Oh, I forgot: but then the weapons manufacturers wouldn't earn billions of dollars making new bombs, would they? Never forget that war is a for-profit business. And you can't profit from war unless you start one first. Sources for this article include: (1) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2655... http://www.naturalnews.com/045546_Iraq_militants_US_occupation_puppet_governments.html#ixzz34WcdCVHT _______________________________________________________________________________ ** And don't forget about the much vaunted "weapons of mass destruction" lie by the US military industrial complex, via CIA and military analysts, costing many Australian lives, and our economy millions of $, at little, or no profit to our weapons industry.
  3. http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/prehistoric-people-used-hallucinogens-part-sacred-burial-rituals-001648 (pic of ancient bas relief carving [stele?] onsite) 13 MAY, 2014 - 23:10 APRILHOLLOWAY Prehistoric people used hallucinogens as part of sacred burial rituals Unlike modern Man, the prehistoric people of Europe did not use mind-altering substances simply for their hedonistic pleasure. The use of alcohol and plant drugs – such as opium poppies and hallucinogenic mushrooms – was highly regulated and went hand-in-hand with the belief system and sacred burial rituals of many preindustrial societies. Elisa Guerra-Doce of the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain contends that their use was an integral part of prehistoric beliefs, and that these substances were believed to aid in communication with the spiritual world. Guerra-Doce’s research appears in Springer’s Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. Despite the fact that the consumption of these substances is as ancient as human society itself, it is only fairly recently that researchers have started to look into the historical and cultural contexts in which mind-altering products were used in Europe. To add to the body of literature about the anthropology of intoxication in prehistoric European societies, Guerra-Doce systematically documented the cultural significance of consuming inebriating substances in these cultures. In the research, four different types of archaeological documents were examined: the macrofossil remains of the leaves, fruits or seeds of psychoactive plants; residues suggestive of alcoholic beverages; psychoactive alkaloids found in archaeological artifacts and skeletal remains from prehistoric times; and artistic depictions of mood-altering plant species and drinking scenes. These remnants include bits of the opium poppy in the teeth of a male adult in a Neolithic site in Spain, charred Cannabis seeds in bowls found in Romania, traces of barley beer on several ceramic vessels recovered in Iberia, and abstract designs in the Italian Alps that depict the ritual use of hallucinogenic mushrooms. - Because Guerra-Doce mainly found traces of sensory-altering products in tombs and ceremonial places, she believes such substances are strongly linked to ritual usage. They were consumed in order to alter the usual state of consciousness, or even to achieve a trance state. The details of the rituals are still unclear, but the hypothesis is that the substances were either used in the course of mortuary rites, to provide sustenance for the deceased in their journey into the afterlife, or as a kind of tribute to the underworld deities. She adds that the right to use such substances may have been highly regulated given that they were a means to connect with the spirit world, and therefore played a sacred role among prehistoric European societies. “Far from being consumed for hedonistic purposes, drug plants and alcoholic drinks had a sacred role among prehistoric societies,” says Guerra-Doce. “It is not surprising that most of the evidence derives from both elite burials and restricted ceremonial sites, suggesting the possibility that the consumption of mind-altering products was socially controlled in prehistoric Europe.” Reference: Guerra-Doce, E. (2014). The Origins of Inebriation: Archaeological Evidence of the Consumption of Fermented Beverages and Drugs in Prehistoric Eurasia. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory. DOI 10.1007/s10816-014-9205-z. - See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/prehistoric-people-used-hallucinogens-part-sacred-burial-rituals-001648#sthash.sxsoKw26.dpuf
  4. http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/725149-SnapChat-drug-hits-Darwin-Streets [pic] #1 Na'vi View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date May 2011 Location At the stack Posts 305 Yesterday 16:51 SnapChat drugs hit Darwin streets NT NEWS JUNE 06, 2014 3:31PM A NEW batch of a drug nicknamed SnapChat has hospitalised several people in the Top End and police are warning partygoers to steer clear. But it’s feared too many have been sold already. It’s understood the ecstasy-based drug is potent, and at least four people who went to hospital took half a tablet before becoming seriously ill this week. They were discharged from Royal Darwin Hospital this morning. The drug is named after the smartphone photo-messaging app of the same name, popular with teenagers, and has the Snapchat ghost logo pressed on the top. Police drug squad have been investigating and are warning people to be careful of the green tablets this Queen’s Birthday weekend. Drug and Organised Crime Division Superintendent Clint Sims said there had been “a number” of incidents overnight. “Police received a number of reports last night of people behaving in an erratic and irrational manner,” he said. “These people appeared to become aggressive and disoriented after ingesting the drug and were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital. “The drug is described to be in pill-form and has been sold in two colours. “One is pink and the other blue with green speckles. “With the upcoming long weekend and a number of public events planned, our primary concern is that these contaminated pills will be distributed into the wider community. “Taking any illicit drug is dangerous and potentially deadly. “These drugs are not produced under pharmaceutical conditions and the reality is people have no idea what they are taking or worse, what affect it will have on them. “The adverse and aggressive reactions people experience also places enormous pressure on emergency services.” Security at the Summer Sessions event at Mindil Beach have been told to be vigilant in their searches on the door of the outdoor music festival on Saturday. The NT Health Department is also concerned. A friend of the men in hospital, who NT News has decided not to name, said: “If you take it you will die. Continued at: http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/northe...-1226946025424 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 poledriver View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jul 2005 Posts 8,097 Today 04:56 Yeah I came to post this as well - The 'Snapchat drug' is real, and it's sending people to the hospital These Snapchat-branded pills won’t make you self-destruct—but they will make you really sick. At least four people in Australia were hospitalized this week after each taking half a tablet of a new drug called “Snapchat,” named after the popular photo-sharing app that allows people to set a self-destruct timer on shared images and videos. “Police received a number of reports last night of people behaving in an erratic and irrational manner,” Drug and Organised Crime Division Superintendent Clint Sims told the Daily Telegraph. “These people appeared to become aggressive and disoriented after ingesting the drug and were taken to Royal Darwin Hospital.” A night-shift supervisor at the Royal Darwin Hospital, located in the Northern Territory of Australia, confirmed with the Daily Dot that the Snapchat drug was real. She would not elaborate on the medical conditions of any of the patients admitted. The Snapchat drugs reportedly come in two colors: pink and blue with green speckles. LIttle else is known about the drug. In April, a Scottish man was hospitalized after popping ecstasy tablets featuring the Bitcoin logo. The man was found in an agitated state. These Bitcoin-branded drugs appeared on the underground drug market in November and have since become a bit of a European phenomenon, with online reviews of the drug posted from the Netherlands, U.K., and Switzerland. So far, no such review exists for Snapchat on PillReports, a popular illegal drug review website. And if the pills are as dangerous as people claim, no such reviews may ever show up. “I have seen two full-grown, heavy-set men taken to hospital last night due to ingesting these,” one person told told the Telegraph. “I know for a fact that a lot of these have been sold throughout Darwin [the capital of Australia’s Northern Territory]. I really need a wide exposure warning put up about these. People will die this weekend if something isn’t said.” http://www.dailydot.com/news/snapcha...tal-australia/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3 poledriver View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jul 2005 Posts 8,097 Today 04:58 “The drug is described to be in pill-form and has been sold in two colours. “One is pink and the other blue with green speckles. And yet the pic I posted from the article I just put up doesn't show either of them.... Hrm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #4 isthisincognito View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date May 2010 Location Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes Posts 224 Today 06:27 It's a stock image that's been photoshopped, pretty much always is with drug articles (I would imagine the legality around obtaining the drug for photographing makes it pretty hard for journalists, and I rarely see police put out images). Spoiler for Stock Image: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #5 Jackeh View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Nov 2012 Location Londonderry, Northern Ireland Posts 639 Today 06:32 Here are two pics from different Australian news sites. NSFW: (Pink Snapchat) (Blue Snapchat) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #6 poledriver View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jul 2005 Posts 8,097 Today 09:03 ^ Cheers both of you. Yeah sometimes the cops here put out images, seems pretty rare tho from what i've found. These things sound nasty.
  5. http://www.smh.com.au/national/high-price-of-alcohol-drives-demand-for-illegal-drugs-20140810-102eo6.html#ixzz3A9ajOBDr [view bar graph onsite] August 11, 2014 Inga Ting Data journalist The expense of alcohol is driving Australia's high rates of illicit drug use, health experts say, as new figures show Australia's combination of high levels of use and expensive illicit substances buck international trends. Australia is one of the most expensive countries in which to buy illicit substances. It ranks second for amphetamine, fourth for cocaine, fifth for methamphetamine and eighth for both ecstasy and cannabis, according to price data in the 2014 UN World Drug Report and a 2014 National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre report on drug use trends. However, high prices have not dampened demand for these drugs. Australia has some of the world's highest rates of illicit drug use per capita, ranking first for ecstasy, second for opioids, third for amphetamines, fourth for cocaine and seventh for cannabis, according to the UN report. "Oceania [Australian and New Zealand] is something of an exception among the major consumer markets," the UN report states. Generally, cheaper drugs partner higher levels of use and vice versa. But Australia is also one of the most expensive countries in which to buy alcohol, making substances such as ecstasy and cannabis a "sensible" economic choice for someone looking for a night on the town, leading Australian researchers say. "Substitution between substances, whether they're legal or illegal, is very common," NDARC drug policy modelling program director Alison Ritter said. "That's just sensible consumer behaviour at one level … It's no different to the choices one makes when shopping in a supermarket." Cameron Duff of Monash University's School of Psychology and Psychiatry says young people frequently talk about the price of alcohol when explaining illicit drug use. "The thing that comes through again and again is that party drugs, particularly ecstasy, are cheaper relative to alcohol," said Dr Duff, who has been researching cultural aspects of drug use for more than a decade. "Young people are … thinking the average night out at a bar can be $100 without even trying, whereas a couple of tablets of ecstasy is $40 or $50." Greater awareness of the harms associated with alcohol and tobacco was also pushing some people towards ecstasy and cannabis, Dr Duff said. And with a wealth of online resources such as global discussion forum Bluelight available, those who wanted to try illicit drugs could more easily find information about the risks. "This is one of the other myths that is offensive to young people: that young people get drunk, take risks, don’t think about it," Dr Duff said. "Nothing could be further from the truth. "They compare [alcohol's] risks and harms with those perceived to be associated with ecstasy, and they say: 'Ecstasy seems to me to be a safer drug'." Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation president Alex Wodak says there is "no doubt alcohol is far more damaging". "[Ecstasy] is not harmless by any means ... But if people migrated from alcohol to cannabis or ecstasy, they would be migrating from high risk to low risk," Dr Wodak said. Alcohol consumption cost society an estimated $14.4 billion in 2010, according to the Australian Institute of Criminology. However, Jo Baxter, executive director of advocacy group Drug Free Australia, rejected the link with alcohol prices. She said organised crime was aware Australians had high disposable incomes and were prepared to pay high prices for illicit drugs. "People are choosing to do it because of risk-taking behaviour," she said. "We need more education about what ecstasy and other amphetamine-type stimulants can do to the brain." Professor Ritter said Australians were "surprisingly conservative" when it came to illicit substances. Most Australians were against the legalisation of cannabis or ecstasy, and the latest alcohol figures showed "a much greater rate of abstinence among young people than there’s ever been". Illicit drug use cost the Australian society an estimated $8.2 billion in 2004-05, according to the latest available statistics.
  6. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-01/medicinal-cannabis-trial-gets-green-light-on-norfolk-island/5642110 Medicinal cannabis trial gets green light on Norfolk Island: Tasman Health Cannabinoids gets production licenceBy Airlie Ward Updated Sat at 3:25pmSat 2 Aug 2014, 3:25pm Photo: A trial of medicinal cannabis will go ahead on Norfolk Island after it was rejected by Tasmania. (File photo) Map: Norfolk Island 2899 The Tasmanian company that applied to trial medicinal cannabis in the state has been given the go-ahead elsewhere. Like Tasmania, Norfolk Island has an historic past that struggles financially and depends on assistance from the Commonwealth. But as the island's Health Minister Robin Adams explained, it was keen to pull itself out of that mire. "We are open for investment, we are open for business on Norfolk Island," she said. We are open for investment we are open for business on Norfolk Island Robin Adams Norfold Island Health Minister Norfolk Island is an external territory of Australia - it is not part of Australia's taxation or welfare system. Dependent on tourism, it was hit hard by the global financial crisis. Ms Adams said the island saw visitor numbers halve from around 40,000 a year to 20,000. "We see this as a great opportunity both for the economy of Norfolk Island whilst providing a much needed medical product for export," she said. The island's government has given Tasman Health Cannabinoids (THC) approval to grow medical cannabis. THC had wanted to conduct its trial in Tasmania, with the view to it becoming a multi-billion-dollar export industry. "The Health Minister on Norfolk Island Robin Adams has now given us a production licence to go ahead and progress to grow on Norfolk medical cannabinoids," said the chairman of THC, Dr Mal Washer. Company 'forced' to look outside of TasmaniaTHC had been lobbying the Tasmanian Government to grow the product in the state in a trial with the University of Tasmania. The Tasmanian Government knocked them back. Ms Adams said Norfolk Island leapt at the chance. "We have our own dangerous drugs legislation and that legislation was amended with the consent of the Commonwealth of Australia back in 1997," she said. "As a result of that legislative change I may grant a licence to import cannabis into Norfolk Island, export from Norfolk Island, plant, cultivate tend or harvest cannabis and sell cannabis," she said. Dr Washer said the company would press on with the trial on Norfolk Island rather than THC's home state of Tasmania for two reasons. "One, obviously shareholders want a profit from this, I personally and a lot of shareholders feel the same as me," he said. Photo: Former federal MP Dr Mal Washer, chairman of Tasman Health Cannabinoids (AAP: Alan Porritt, file photo) "The main reason though is to really try and get the best quality product we can, [a] medical cannabinboid product for export to the country where it's legal." Medical cannabis is legal in a number of European countries, Canada and more than 20 states in the United States. The drug is sold by weight. In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal it was estimated the drug costs about $US1,000 to produce a pound (about 450g), the same weight sells for $US7,500. THC's chief executive Troy Langman said it would be a profitable industry once it was established. "In November we're hoping to kick things off and three to four months later we should have our first harvest, and indoors we're looking at around three harvests per year," he said. Mr Langman has been on Norfolk Island this week working on the licensing arrangements and regulatory regime. "We're still hoping to fulfil our initial order that we were lucky to obtain from Canada, that was 1,000kg," he said. Dr Washer said there would be strict growing and security requirements. "I guess we'd be looking at a 10-acre site and a glasshouse would cover the bulk of that," he said. THC in the market for cannabis seedsMr Langman said he was now in the process of obtaining enough cannabis seeds to get the project started. "We'll be obtaining our strains through legal channels from both universities in Australia where there's seed banks and also of course the option to obtain seeds from places like Canada and also from Europe," he said. But Mr Langman said THC was not giving up on Tasmania. "We'll continue to push ahead, there's different strains that we want to grow in Tassie's climate we feel really committed to Tassie," he said. Dr Washer believed there was growing momentum for change in Australia. "There's five jurisdictions currently looking at this," he said "Federally of course too, my good friend Warren Entsch, when I spoke to him only a couple of weeks ago intends to introduce a bill into the Federal Parliament to legalise medical cannabinoids." As well as employment there is likely to be hefty returns to Norfolk Island coffers. Ms Adams said exactly how much was still being decided, with taxes under discussion. "I'm of the view that this new industry will align perfectly with the vision that I share with many in this community, that Norfolk Island has the potential to be a centre for health and wellbeing in the Pacific," she said. Tasmania's shadow attorney-general, Lara Giddings, said Tasmania has missed a big opportunity, losing potential investment and jobs. "This medicinal cannabis industry could provide that while also providing medical and pain relief for those who need it," she said. The company hopes to start planting on Norfolk Island in November.
  7. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-27/federal-police-call-for-more-access-to-metadata/5286596 By Josh Bavas Updated 28 Feb 2014, 7:44am The Australian Federal Police is calling for more powers to monitor phone and internet data from ordinary Australians, saying a lack of access is letting criminals slip through the cracks. The AFP's Tim Morris says authorities have been easily retrieving metadata since the agency was first established but the amount of electronic information is now exploding. Metadata is the information showing who contacted who, from where and for how long but not the content of the correspondence. "Companies aren't keeping this data necessarily or if they are keeping it, they're keeping it for inconsistent periods of time," Mr Morris said. "If law enforcement is going to have a chance of keeping up with evolving criminality, then we believe we have to have access to this kind of data; it's absolutely essential." Interception warrants by organisation In the 2012/13 financial year, the AFP was granted the highest number of telecommunication interception warrants for named persons. Australian Crime Commission: 442 Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity: 8 Australian Federal Police: 814 Corruption and Crime Commission - Western Australia: 28 Crime and Misconduct Commission: 26 New South Wales Crime Commission: 234 NSW Police: 288 NT Police: 11 QLD Police: 151 SA Police: 31 TAS Police: 10 VIC Police: 193 WA Police: 268 Intercepting telephone calls or electronic communication requires a court-ordered warrant. But Mr Morris says metadata is a separate category of surveillance. "This is not data that contains content of conversations or content of SMSs or contents of emails," he said. "What we're talking about here is the indicative communications data; the time of the call, the length of the call and who the call was made to." A Senate Committee is currently evaluating mass surveillance laws as part of a revision of the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. Last year, the then-federal government shelved plans to retain internet and phone data for at least two years following a public backlash. At the time, a Parliamentary inquiry into potential reforms of National Security Legislation suggested a wider shake-up of surveillance laws. Alleged sexual abusers not caught due to lost data: AFP The AFP says several large investigations have not been solved because it could not access metadata. In one, the AFP received a number of referrals in relation to Australian internet users allegedly involved in the sexual abuse of children and the production, dissemination and possession of child abuse material. But more than a third of all possible offenders in a child-exploitation image-sharing network cannot be traced because their internet data was not recorded or retained by the service provider. In another investigation, the IP address of a mastermind behind a money-laundering syndicate targeting an Australian bank could not be identified because the data was not retained by the carrier. The AFP says about $80,000 of share investments were sold off from a number of accounts after scammers illegally obtained details of bank accounts that were linked to an online share trader. The money from the illegal share trades was then transferred into a number of false accounts operated by criminals. Six people were charged but the AFP says the mastermind escaped and was never tracked down. Pooled metadata could be 'hacked or leaked' Jon Lawrence from Electronic Frontiers Australia says the widespread use of smartphones and tablets means the information obtained through metadata could lead to elaborate profiling of individuals. "The sort of information that's generated here, particularly when looked at in aggregate ... can generate a very, very specific profile on certain people very quickly," he said. "For example, if you're looking at Twitter communications, the metadata, the information about when and who and where associated with a tweet, is much bigger than the tweet itself." He says it could also pose a security threat if the information falls into the wrong hands. "Just simply capturing all this data in one place is risky in the sense that it's open to misuse, it's open to being hacked or leaked," he said. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam says Australians should be concerned about the amount of information already available to authorities and private companies. "The policing agencies and the intelligence agencies need to take some responsibility," he said. "If it's okay to obtain a search warrant to listen in on your phone call, it should be okay to obtain a search warrant to spy on your location and your whole social network. "Metadata allows for incredibly invasive, real-time snooping of innocent Australians and I don't think it should be available to anybody who wants it unless there's a warrant." A spokesman for Attorney-General George Brandis says it is too early to comment on possible changes to surveillance laws and his Department is waiting on recommendations from the Senate Committee, which are due in June 2014. More than 25 countries in Europe have signed up to the Data Retention Directive, requiring companies to store metadata between six months and two years. In the last financial year, the AFP says it has made about 58,000 requests for metadata from telecommunication companies, about two-thirds of which were to identify the IP addresses of possible criminals.
  8. CLICKHEREx

    Addiction Is a Learning Disorder

    http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/729478-Addiction-Is-a-Learning-Disorder toothpastedog View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Send Email Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Dec 2010 Location Fascist Valley, USA Posts 2,124 Blog Entries21 Today 03:23 Most of Us Still Don’t Get It: Addiction Is a Learning Disorder Addiction is not about our brains being "hijacked" by drugs or experiences—it's about learned patterns of behavior. Our inability to understand this leads to no end of absurdities. Originally Posted by Maia Szalavitz | 7/17/14 Sex, food, shopping, the Internet, video games—all of these activities are being studied by neuroscientists, which frequently leads to headlines like "Oreos May Be As Addictive As Cocaine" and "Brain Activity of Sex Addicts Similar to That of Drug Addicts." These stories carry the very strange implication that our brains have areas “for” drug addiction that can be “hijacked” by experiences like sex, junk food and MILF porn. Shockingly, kids today with their Tinder and Grindr and nomophobia are misusing the regions nature gave us to allow us to get hooked on wholesome pleasures like heroin, cocaine and methamphetamine. Of course, put that way, these claims sound completely absurd. Evolution didn’t provide us with brain circuitry dedicated to alcoholism and other drug addictions—it gave us brain networks that motivate us to seek pleasure and avoid pain in ways that promote survival and reproduction. To understand addiction, we’ve got to stop falling for arguments that obscure this truth and make unsound claims about brain changes that cannot tell us anything about its real nature. This means that any study that says it shows that something is addictive because the stuff “lights up” the same brain areas seen in addiction is tautological. Anything that provides pleasure or certain types of stress relief will activate these regions. If it doesn’t activate these areas, it can’t be perceived as pleasant, desirable or comforting. If you image the brain of a musician hitting the perfect note, a coder getting sudden insight on a complex problem, a father watching his child take her first step, you will see some of these areas go wild. That means these folks are experiencing joy: It doesn’t tell us that F sharp, a particular line of code or baby steps are “addictive.” Simply seeing activation in the brain’s pleasure and desire circuitry doesn’t reveal addiction. In fact, despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on neuroimaging research, we still don’t have a scan that can reliably separate addicted people from casual drug users or accurately predict relapse. Some studies have suggested that this may be possible but none have found a replicable diagnostic scan, even though some clinicians market the use of scanners in treatment. Moreover, recent sex and food addiction research showing similar alterations to those seen in drug addictions strikes at the heart of arguments made about the uniquely addictive nature of psychoactive chemicals. For example, on the website of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a section on the “science of addiction” explains that “addiction is considered a brain disease because drugs change the brain.” But this idea—first promoted heavily by the former head of NIDA, Alan Leshner—isn’t the whole story. All experience changes the brain—it has to, in order to leave a mark on memory. If experience didn’t alter us, we couldn’t perceive, recall or react to it. So, simply changing the brain doesn’t make addiction a disease because not all changes are pathological. In order to use brain scans to prove addiction is a disease, you’d have to show changes that are only seen in addicted people, that occur in all cases of addiction and that predict relapse and recovery. No one has yet done this. Secondly, if you can be addicted to activities like sex, gambling and the Internet—which do not directly chemically alter the brain—how can they be addictive, if addiction is caused by drug-related brain changes? Researchers long argued that the pharmacology of particular drugs is what makes them addictive—that, say, cocaine’s alterations in the dopamine system cause a worse addiction than sex or food do because the drug directly affects the way the brain handles that chemical. But since sex and food only affect these chemicals naturally—and can create compulsive behavior that’s just as hard for some people to quit—why should we see cocaine differently? Of course, none of this is to say that addiction isn’t a medical disorder or that addicted people shouldn’t be treated with compassion. What it does show, I believe, is that addiction is a learning disorder, a condition where a system designed to motivate us to engage in activities helpful to survival and reproduction develops abnormally and goes awry. While this theory is implicitly accepted or stated outright in much of today’s neuroscience research on addiction—and it runs through specific theories of addiction, including theories as varied as those of Stanton Peele, George Koob, current NIDA head Nora Volkow and Kent Berridge—its implications are not well understood by many treatment providers and the public. Instead, addiction is a seen as a “chronic, progressive disease,” which can only remit or worsen and which pretty much affects all addicted people in the same way. But the system that goes wrong in addiction is designed to make us persist despite negative consequences: If we didn’t have such a mechanism, we’d never push through the difficulties that characterize both love and parenting. Unfortunately when this motivational network gets channeled toward an activity that is destructive to our life’s prospects, it becomes dangerous. Neuroscience can help us better understand this circuitry. However, the fact that non-drug addictions exist shows that drugs are neither necessary nor sufficient to “hijack” it. What this means is that addiction isn’t simply a response to a drug or an experience—it is a learned pattern of behavior that involves the use of soothing or pleasant activities for a purpose like coping with stress. This is why simple exposure to a drug cannot cause addiction: The exposure must occur in a context where the person finds the experience pleasant and/or useful and must be deliberately repeated until the brain shifts its processing of the experience from deliberate and intentional to automatic and habitual. This is also why pain patients cannot be “made addicted” by their doctors. In order to develop an addiction, you have to repeatedly take the drug for emotional relief to the point where it feels as though you can’t live without it. That doesn’t happen when you take a drug as prescribed in a regular pattern—it can only happen when you start taking doses early or take extra when you feel a need to deal with issues other than pain. Until your brain learns that the drug is critical to your emotional stability, addiction cannot be established and this learning starts with voluntary choices. To put it bluntly, if I kidnap you, tie you down and shoot you up with heroin for two months, I can create physical dependence and withdrawal symptoms—but only if you go out and cop after I free you will you actually become an addict. Again, this doesn’t mean that people who voluntarily make those choices don’t have biological, genetic or environmental reasons that make them more vulnerable and perhaps less culpable—but it does mean that addiction can’t happen without your own will becoming involved. It also means that babies can’t be “born addicted.” Even if they suffer withdrawal after being exposed in utero, they haven’t engaged in the crucial learning pattern that shows them that the drug equals relief and they can hardly go out and seek more despite negative consequences. Addiction—whether to sex, drugs or rock & roll—is a disorder of learning. It’s not a disorder of hedonism or selfishness and it’s not a sign of “character defects.” This learning, of course, involves the brain—but because learning is involved, cultural, social and environmental factors are critical in shaping it. If we want to get beyond “Is Sex Addictive?” and “Crack vs. Junk Food: Which Is Worse?” we’ve got to recognize that we’ve been asking the wrong questions. The real issue is what purpose does addictive behavior serve and how can it be replaced with more productive and healthy pursuits—not how can we stop the demon drug or activity of the month. We’ve been doing the equivalent of trying to treat obsessive-compulsive disorder by banning hand sanitizer when what we really need to understand is why and how obsessions and compulsions develop in particular people. http://www.substance.com/most-of-us-...disorder/9176/ Thank god there are journalists out there who're interested in more than whether or not there is such a thing as sex or porn addiction... And if you don't like how she calls it a "learning disorder," think of it more as a "learned disorder." Last edited by toothpastedog; Today at 03:30. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 isthisincognito View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date May 2010 Location Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes Posts 303 Today 05:47 It's interesting, I wouldn't call it a learning disorder per se though. Someone posted a YouTube video a while back about a woman who was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson disease, and she was given some new miracle drug that upped the dopamine in here brain to counteract her brains inability to produce dopamine. She came from a heavily religious family, she was one of those types. They had to keep upping her dosages as her condition progressed just to keep her at normality. She fell into quite a deep gambling addiction, it was interesting to hear her account of it all though. I can't find the video now though, it was in two parts and I think was a radio interview. In order to develop an addiction, you have to repeatedly take the drug for emotional relief to the point where it feels as though you can’t live without it. That doesn't happen when you take a drug as prescribed in a regular pattern—it can only happen when you start taking doses early or take extra when you feel a need to deal with issues other than pain. Until your brain learns that the drug is critical to your emotional stability, addiction cannot be established and this learning starts with voluntary choices. I quite like the way this is conveyed, it seems to strike some truth in my perspective on things, anyone else care to weigh in with some thoughts? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #3 88dood88 View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Nov 2012 Posts 77 Today 06:20 Dont psychological addictions like gambling, sex, stealing, etc help release certain neurochemicals though? It would make sense that such an activity that hooks you that deep must be (at least partly) affecting the reward pathway. This is just me taking a guess at it though through my own perspective of having an addictive personality. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #4 neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support Science & Technology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 10,321 Today 07:58 Originally Posted by isthisincognito It's interesting, I wouldn't call it a learning disorder per se though. Someone posted a YouTube video a while back about a woman who was diagnosed with early onset Parkinson disease, and she was given some new miracle drug that upped the dopamine in here brain to counteract her brains inability to produce dopamine. She came from a heavily religious family, she was one of those types. They had to keep upping her dosages as her condition progressed just to keep her at normality. She fell into quite a deep gambling addiction, it was interesting to hear her account of it all though. I can't find the video now though, it was in two parts and I think was a radio interview. That radio lab program part on is on post 20 and the second part is in post 4 of this thread.. it also has a great audio book called the compas of pleasure linked as well. The Brain and Addiction RECOVERY FORUMS ~~~ADDICTION GUIDE~~~ CONTACT ME -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #5 isthisincognito View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date May 2010 Location Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes Posts 303 Today 10:06 ^ Many thanks, that's the one I was thinking of.
  9. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/smugglers-cove-check-out-bizarre-4023606 Aug 08, 2014 12:15 By John Kelly Anti-smuggling bosses say officers have seen "every trick in the book" but the scams are getting more and more sophisticated VIEW GALLERY These pictures show the desperate depths smugglers will sink to in an attempt to get illegal goods into the country. From iguanas in socks to Class A drugs in sweets and chocolate bars, the smugglers stop at nothing in their determination to make money out of misery. Most of the scams involve drugs where huge profits are to be made. Smuggler Thottapuram Thomas was jailed for four and a half years after he had the cheek to use a portrait of former South African President Nelson Mandela to hide 4lbs (1.85kg) of cocaine -worth £380,000 - behind the picture. Severely disabled Daniel Roque Hall was jailed for three and a half years in 2012 after being found with £370,000 worth of cocaine hidden inside the padded seat of his wheelchair. Border Force officials have also released photographs showing how smugglers tried to conceal illegal drugs inside Snickers chocolate bars, lollipops, carpets and even a chapatti oven! Flickr/UK Home Office Cheeky monkeys: These two statues were filled with opium! Sir Charles Montgomery, director general of the agency tasked with protecting Britain’s border, said officers had seen “virtually every trick in the book" but were facing increasingly sophisticated smuggling techniques. He said: “As these pictures show, smugglers are trying increasingly sophisticated methods and we need to stay one step ahead. “Fortunately our officers have seen virtually every trick in the book. “Border Force is the first line of defence in protecting the UK from serious and organised crime. “The skill and experience of our officers helps keep drugs and other illegal goods out of the country and off our streets.” Flickr/UK Home Office Illegal: Endangered iguana from Bahamas found in a sock Other recent cases include 4.5lbs (2kg) of opium worth £20,000 discovered inside two monkey statues in a parcel at the Coventry International Postal Hub while Iranian Amir Rahnama got six years after 22lbs (10kg) of opium was found in pots of hair product. Meanwhile a consignment of children’s lollipops was intercepted by Border Force officers working in Ghana in September 2012. The sweets concealed 9lbs (4kg) of cocaine with a street value of £200,000. Earlier that year, Ivan Sacido, from Madrid, was jailed for five years after sniffer dogs at Gatwick Airport discover 4.5lbs (2kg) of high-purity cocaine worth £550,000 inside Snickers chocolate bars. But it is not just drugs that attract smugglers. In February this year two women flying from the Bahamas were stopped at Heathrow airport with 13 endangered San Salvador rock iguanas stuffed into socks in their luggage. One of the reptiles died in transit. The two Romanian women were jailed for a year. Another case of wildlife smuggling saw nine grey Francolin birds hidden inside a suitcase - their skeletons showing up on X-ray images. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/smugglers-cove-check-out-bizarre-4023606#ixzz39y9O7xVx
  10. CLICKHEREx

    Flotation

    http://www.tripme.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?12218-Floatation&p=82958#post82958 07-08-2014, 12:01 PM #1 Drael Highly Valued TripMe Senior Contributor Join Date Sep 2007 Posts 1,658 Thanks 465 Thanked 1,037 Times in 457 Posts Floatation Theres a place in auckland, mt eden, that is opening up this month. Has anyone experienced floatation, and did it evoke images, sounds or anything of the like? "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Franklin Drugs and alcohol are a sometimes food. Reply Reply With Quote Thanks 09-08-2014, 09:54 PM #2 Drael Highly Valued TripMe Senior Contributor Join Date Sep 2007 Posts 1,658 Thanks 465 Thanked 1,037 Times in 457 Posts Float culture opened up this weekend in auckland. Expensive, costs $120. But listening to joe rogan, I am super curious. Please sound out, if your tried floatation. Or if you are going to float culture and giving it a go. "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Franklin Drugs and alcohol are a sometimes food. Reply Reply With Quote Thanks Today, 12:37 PM #3 Drael Highly Valued TripMe Senior Contributor Join Date Sep 2007 Posts 1,658 Thanks 465 Thanked 1,037 Times in 457 Posts Maybe I should start a float Drael and his friend fund, and take collections. I want drug free ego loss! "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety" - Franklin Drugs and alcohol are a sometimes food. Reply Reply With Quote Thanks Today, 07:02 PM #4 CLICKHEREx Senior Member Join Date Aug 2012 Posts 103 Thanks 89 Thanked 62 Times in 34 Posts Some time ago I read John C Lilly, a psychonaut like Shulgin, (but not so heavily into drugs) on sensory deprivation, via the flotation tank. Check out http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&s...71.HldpYoPvN5Q It uses a concentrated solution of magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts) which needs to be maintained by an accurate thermostat between an extremely narrow temperature range, around 96 degrees Fahrenheit, or the user feels as though they are freezing, or boiling. Pitch blackness, and as quiet and vibration free as possible. Hallucinations occur after a while of floating without any physical sensations, quite possibly because the mind is creating input to replace that which is lacking from the environment, like dreaming while still awake and aware. Apparently a proportion of users lose voluntary control of bladder and bowel functions temporarily, after some hours inside, so some commercial operators require special suits to be worn. A friend tried to talk me into going halves in one, but the cost was prohibitive then, although if you could access bulk MgSO4 cheapish ... Others have tried salt, (like floating in the Dead Sea) with varying degrees of success; any tiny cuts or sores sting, though.
  11. As stated previously, increasing ill health is taking its toll, and will soon prevent me from posting in the forums, so today will be my last day of regular posts, although I may still make an appearance occasionally, when I'm able to. So it'll be up to you to go on, and if anyone wants to use them, here is a list of my main sources: bluelight.org drugs-forum.com stopthedrugwar.org mapinc.org/drugnews/index.htm tripme.co.nz/forums naturalnews.com Google Alerts: (enter "Google Alerts" as a search term): synthetic cannabis; legal highs; illicit drugs, Australia
  12. http://www.naturalnews.com/046414_Ebola_vaccine_safety_testing_drug_company_profits.html Ebola vaccine to be manufactured by criminal drug company with felony record; rushed to market with near-zero safety testing Monday, August 11, 2014 by Mike Adams (NaturalNews) While the world of conventional medicine lines up to profit from the Ebola panic, there is no mention anywhere in the mainstream media of the criminal corporation behind the Ebola vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline, now being celebrated by the pro-pharma press, is the same company that also has a proven criminal record of bribing physicians and knowingly distributing misleading information about the safety of their drug products. Just two years ago, GSK plead guilty to felony crimes in the United States and was forced to pay an historical $3 billion fine for committing those crimes. After paying the fine, GSK was then exempted from normal rules regarding criminal enterprise, allowing it to continue conducting business with the federal government. "Global health care giant GlaxoSmithKline LLC (GSK) agreed to plead guilty and to pay $3 billion to resolve its criminal and civil liability arising from the company's unlawful promotion of certain prescription drugs, its failure to report certain safety data, and its civil liability for alleged false price reporting practices, the Justice Department announced today," says a U.S. Department of Justice press release. It goes on to explain, "GSK agreed to plead guilty to a three-count criminal information, including two counts of introducing misbranded drugs, Paxil and Wellbutrin, into interstate commerce and one count of failing to report safety data about the drug Avandia to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)." As Natural News reported in 2012: A roughly nine-year federal investigation has exposed GSK's rampant abuse of the law by illegally marketing drugs, forging drug safety data, bribing doctors to promote dangerous and expensive drugs, ripping off Medicare and Medicaid, and lying about the effectiveness and safety of drugs. And all this deception has generated tens of billions of dollars in profits for GSK over the years, while thousands of patients who used the drug products involved have suffered horrific side effects and even death. Criminal drug company to spearhead Ebola vaccine with U.S. scientists Now this same company that admitted committing multiple felony crimes is going to lead the development of the Ebola vaccine. As CNBC reports: (1) "A clinical trial of an experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus is set to start shortly, according to British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline, which is co-developing the product with U.S. scientists." Vaccine to be "rushed through" with very little safety testing We also know that the vaccine will not be tested for anything other than short-term side effects. This is all part of the "rush to market" for Big Pharma to profit from Ebola as quickly as possible. As CNBC says: A company spokeswoman said on Sunday that the trial should get underway "later this year", while GSK's partner the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) said in a statement on its website it would start "as early as fall 2014", implying a potential September launch of testing. A headline in the Daily Mail declares "World Health Organisation says vaccine could be 'rushed through' for 2015." (2) That same story goes on to report, "the WHO said a potential vaccine for the Ebola virus is being tested on humans and could be ready for widespread use by early 2015." Doing the math here, if the Ebola vaccine clinical trials start in September of 2014 and the vaccine is manufactured and distributed to the public by "early 2015," this leaves virtually zero time for observing vaccine side effects. Manufacturing the vaccine in large quantities, after all, takes many months. If this vaccine is to be available to the public in early 2015, they will have to start manufacturing it as early as October 2014, roughly just one month after the vaccine trials begin. Zero liability; total immunity for faulty products Keep in mind that in the United States, vaccine manufacturers have zero liability for the damage and death caused by their products. Due to a literal Act of Congress, all vaccine manufacturers are able to abandon all safety testing and knowingly sell faulty, deadly products with zero risk of liability. This was all set up by design to make sure vaccine manufacturers could enjoy record profits while having zero liability for producing faulty products that harm children and adults. This is the reason why mercury is still used in flu vaccines which are injected into children -- a fact which I have scientifically proven in the Natural News Forensic Food Labs using ICP-MS instrumentation. This total immunity means there is no incentive for adequate safety testing of an Ebola vaccine. The company has the same liability (zero) whether they test the vaccine or not. Their goal is to SELL the vaccine, not to make sure it's safe and effective. Time spent on conducting rigorous clinical trials with long-term observations simply isn't part of the "Sell! Sell! Sell!" business plan of today's vaccine manufacturers. Their current business slogan? "Every pandemic is an opportunity for profit." And with blanket immunity from all product liability, who needs safety testing? Vaccine manufacturers routinely rely on scientific fraud Here's additional information you need to know about vaccine fraud, originally published in this article on Natural News: According to two Merck scientists who filed a False Claims Act complaint in 2010 -- a complaint which has just now been unsealed -- vaccine manufacturer Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test data, spiked blood samples with animal antibodies, sold a vaccine that actually promoted mumps and measles outbreaks, and ripped off governments and consumers who bought the vaccine thinking it was "95% effective." See that False Claims Act document at: http://www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents... According to Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, both former Merck virologists, the Merck company engaged in all the following behavior: • Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test results to fabricate a "95% efficacy rate." • In order to do this, Merck spiked the blood test with animal antibodies in order to artificially inflate the appearance of immune system antibodies. As reported in CourthouseNews.com: Merck also added animal antibodies to blood samples to achieve more favorable test results, though it knew that the human immune system would never produce such antibodies, and that the antibodies created a laboratory testing scenario that "did not in any way correspond to, correlate with, or represent real life ... virus neutralization in vaccinated people," according to the complaint. • Merck then used the falsified trial results to swindle the U.S. government out of "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization." • Merck's vaccine fraud has actually contributed to the continuation of mumps across America, causing more children to become infected with mumps. • Merck used its false claims of "95 percent effectiveness" to monopolize the vaccine market and eliminate possible competitors. • The Merck vaccine fraud has been going on since the late 1990's, say the Merck virologists. • Testing of Merck's vaccine was never done against "real-world" mumps viruses in the wild. Instead, test results were simply falsified to achieve the desired outcome. • This entire fraud took place "with the knowledge, authority and approval of Merck's senior management." • Merck scientists "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings," according to court documents. Sources for this article include: (1) http://www.cnbc.com/id/101909486 (2) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2721... (3) http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2012/July/12-c...
  13. http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/731821-Rasmussen-Poll-America-Losing-War-on-Drugs neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support Science & Technology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 10,769 Today 02:35 Rasmussen Poll: America Losing War on Drugs 10 Aug 2014 By Greg Richter A vast majority of Americans believe the nation is losing the war on drugs, according to a new Rasmussen Poll. According to the survey released Sunday, 84 percent believe the war on drugs is being lost. Only 3 percent believe it is being won, while 13 percent are undecided. In 2012, 7 percent believed America was winning the war on drugs. Just under a third believe America is spending too much to fight illegal drugs, while a similar number, 29 percent think not enough is being spent. About 17 percent believe the number is just about right, and 22 percent are undecided. The survey also found that Americans are split evenly on whether recreational marijuana should be legalized in their state. Forty-three percent favor, and 43 percent oppose it. Still, Rasmussen reports, opposition has dropped from the first of the year when it was at 50 percent. Demographically, 40 percent of men think too much is being spent on the drug war, compared to 24 percent of women. Senior citizens most feel that not enough is being spent on the war on drugs. Republican voters are more likely than Democrats and independents to believe that not enough money is being spent on the drug war, but even they are unlikely to advocate for more spending. Just under half blame Mexican drug producers for violence in that country associated with the drug trade, while 32 percent think drug users in the United States deserve most blame. Just more than half agree with Attorney General Eric Holder's plan to cut back on stiff minimum sentencing guidelines for low-level non-violent drug offenders. Forty-four percent think too many Americans are in prison, and 46 percent don't think there should be mandatory sentences for certain crimes. Forty-six percent believe the justice system is unfair to black and Hispanic defendants, and 33 percent think it is unfair to the poor. The nationwide survey talked to 1,000 adults on August 3-4. The margin of error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence, Rasmussen said. Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/US/rasmussen-...#ixzz3A6VfNcqr RECOVERY FORUMS ~~~ADDICTION GUIDE~~~ CONTACT ME -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 ro4eva View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Send Email Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Nov 2004 Location Woolloomooloo, NSW Posts 2,852 Blog Entries8 Today 03:26 Thank God that, as each day passes by, more and more men and women appear to be realizing what a colossal flop this war on drugs has been.
  14. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/exclusive-heroin-addicts-to-be-given-free-foil-to-help-them-kick-their-habit-9655225.html New law a ‘positive step’ in reducing number of lives ruined by drugs Nigel Morris Deputy Political Editor Thursday 07 August 2014 Heroin addicts are to be given free foil - to heat up the drug - in an effort to help them kick the habit and cut the risk of contracting disease, the Government will announce tomorrow. They will be offered the foil to encourage them to inhale, rather than inject, class A substances, as part of programmes to tackle their addiction. Addicts use aluminium foil to warm heroin and breathe in its fumes in a practice nicknamed “chasing the dragon”. Substances such as crystal meth and cocaine can be inhaled in the same way. Critics will raise questions over any move that enables drug users to maintain their habit, but the independent Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) concluded last year that offering foil can help an addict’s eventual recovery. Providing aluminium foil is safer than addicts buying tin foil used in cooking as that contains vegetable oil which can be toxic when breathed in. Health experts also argue that smoking heroin stops users contracting blood-borne viruses like HIV and hepatitis B through shared needles, cuts damage to veins and soft tissue and reduces the risk of overdose. Video: Clegg argues an attitude to drug prevention is neededAn order will be laid in Parliament on Friday to sweep away the ban on health professionals issuing free foil on the condition that it is provided within programmes to tackle addiction. The change in the law, which currently prohibits the supply of “articles to be used for the preparation or consumption of illicit drugs”, will come into force next month. It will apply both to the National Health Service and privately run treatment centres. Norman Baker, the Crime Prevention Minister, said the available evidence shows that providing foil did not encourage drug use, but spurred addicts to get help. “By allowing foil to be legally provided by healthcare professionals we are taking another positive step in reducing the number of individuals, families and communities whose lives are destroyed by drugs,” the Lib Dem minister told The Independent. “The decision was made on the condition that it is part of structured efforts to get individuals off drugs and will minimise the risk of spreading viruses like HIV, while encouraging more addicts to engage with support services. “It is also part of a range of work the coalition government is doing to reduce and prevent illegal drug use – helping dependent individuals through treatment, educating young people about the risks and supporting law enforcement in tackling the illicit trade.” The move comes amid signs that use of the most addictive substances is falling, particularly in younger age groups, among whom heroin use has fallen out of fashion as they switch to party drugs. However, recent figures suggest almost 300,000 people in England still use heroin and crack cocaine, with 529 deaths in England and 46 in Wales in 2012 linked to heroin. Steve Rolles, senior policy analyst at Transform, the drugs policy charity, said: “It is much safer to be smoking heroin than injecting it. This is a sensible harm reduction intervention when you are trying to get people to transition from a more dangerous way of using heroin to a less dangerous way.” The ACMD had been examining the case for providing foil for since 2009. Twelve months ago it called for the move to take place, a recommendation that was accepted by the Home Secretary Theresa May. She approved its conclusions as long as foil is “only offered by drug treatment providers as part as part of structured efforts to get individuals into treatment, on the road to recovery and off of drugs”. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I don't understand the apparent double standard that exists, with harm reduction advice to users of synthetics (to keep well hydrated) withdrawn by police in Scotland, (Just say NO to synthetics) yet England and Wales are giving out free foil to heroin addicts, or is this part of Scottish home rule?
  15. http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/731679-War-on-drugs-not-working-New-Voices neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support Science & Technology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 10,739 Yesterday 10:36 War on drugs not working: New Voices By Casey Given August 9, 2014| On May 12, 1996, Miami police raided the home of Richard Brown on a false tip that the 73-year-old retiree with no criminal record was selling drugs. After busting the door open, police claim that Richards began firing a gun, prompting officers to pump 123 rounds into his body. However, a later investigation revealed that the gun police allege Brown had used had no traces of his fingerprints on them. Brown's 14-year-old great-granddaughter, Janeka, reported he was not holding a gun when he instructed her to take shelter in a bathroom moments before he was killed. Sadly, Brown is just one of countless victims of the war on drugs, a federal policy push that has squandered billions of dollars overcrowding America's prisons, militarizing state and local police, and making no measurable impact reducing drug abuse. It's time for Americans to stand up against this failed policy as taxpayers and, more important, human beings. Since 2001, the Department of Homeland Security alone has spent $34 billion in federal grants for state and local police departments to purchase paramilitarylike equipment, including tanks and assault rifles. While the circumstances surrounding Brown's raid may seem unique, mistakes are commonly made in SWAT operations. By the Cato Institute's count, there have been 14 raids on innocent suspects in Florida over the past three decades, three of which have ended in death. This problem is particularly pronounced in Florida because of the state's harsh mandatory-minimum sentencing requirements. Under state law, individuals can be convicted for prescription-drug trafficking by simply possessing more than four grams (seven pills) of opiate-based painkillers. As a result of these draconian punishment laws, Florida prisons are notoriously overcrowded, with more than 100,000 inmates in state custody at a cost of more than $2 billion per year. Many residents convicted of these harsh state laws are not violent offenders; they just got caught up in unfortunate circumstances. One such example is Scott Earle, a Florida man who occasionally used Vicodin to treat the residual pain from numerous car accidents throughout his life. A few months after being prescribed the drug in September 1995 for a diverticulitis attack, Scott was introduced to a woman at a local bar who began romantically pursuing him. As their relationship began to blossom, the woman began asking him for Vicodin to treat her back pain. Three months after meeting her, Scott was arrested for felony drug trafficking and conspiracy. She was an undercover cop. Sadly, such ridiculous sentencing is not a problem exclusive to Florida, but one that persists on the federal level as well. About half of the close to 200,000 inmates in U.S. custody are serving time for drug offenses; many of them were locked up for crimes as simple as marijuana possession. In fact, cannabis is responsible for the largest chunk of drug convictions at 27.6 percent more than harder narcotics like methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. In total, there are more than 2.2 million Americans in state, local or federal custody. The U.S. has spent roughly $1 trillion on drug prohibition since 1971. But despite these massive costs in dollars and human lives, marijuana and prescription-drug abuse has risen, defeating the very purpose for which the war on drugs was launched. As taxpayers and human beings, it's high time to stand up against the war on drugs' incredible waste and demand more humane approaches like treatment and decriminalization. Especially in Florida, lawmakers can follow the lead of other states like Texas and Louisiana that have successfully enacted drug-sentencing reform. http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/...-drug-offenses
  16. http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/731554-Tennessee-Drug-Tests-Welfare-Applicants-Discovers-Less-Than-One-Percent-Use-Drugs neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support Science & Technology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 10,736 09-08-2014 06:03 Tennessee Drug Tests Welfare Applicants, Discovers Less Than One Percent Use Drugs BRYCE COVERT AUGUST 7, 2014 In July, Tennessee began a drug testing program for applicants to the state’s welfare program. Since then, just one person has tested positive out of more than 800. Applicants have to answer three questions about drug use to get benefits, and if they answer yes to any of them, they get referred to urine testing. If the result is positive, they have to complete a treatment plan and then take another test. If the second comes back positive, they get cut off from benefits for six months. Those who refuse to take a drug test in the first place can’t get benefits. In the month since it began, six people submitted to a drug test and just one tested positive out of the 812 people who applied. Four were turned down for benefits because they refused to participate in drug screening. That means a positive rate of 0.12 percent for those who took part in the screening. That compares to the 8 percent of state residents generally who use illegal drugs. Despite stereotypes that the poor people who need welfare assistance use drugs at a high rate, other states have had similar results. In Utah, just 12 people tested positive in a year of drug testing applicants. In Florida, 2 percent of applicants failed the tests in 2011 but the state has an 8 percent rate of illegal drug use. And when Maine’s governor set out to prove that welfare recipients in his state were using their benefits to buy drinks and cigarettes at bars and strip clubs, he turned up next to nothing. Many other stereotypes about how welfare recipients use their money turn out to be untrue when data is examined. Those who get public assistance spend less than half of what families who aren’t enrolled spend and still put a larger share of those small budgets toward basics like food, housing, and transportation. At the same time, they spend less on luxuries like eating out and entertainment. Welfare recipients may be spending so much less in part because the benefits have become so meager. Virtually all of them are worth less now than in 1996. And many families who should be eligible aren’t even getting them. In the mid-90s, a little over a quarter of poor families with children didn’t get benefits. In 2012 that number had soared to three-quarters. Yet a chunk of the program money is being used now to administer these costly drug testing regimes. Utah spent more than $30,000 in the year that turned up just 12 drug users. The purported savings in Florida’s program will be negligible after administrative costs and reimbursements for the drug tests are taken into account. The $1.5 million price tag with just $229,000 in savings for a proposed program in Virginia prompted lawmakers to reject it. Still, the move has been popular in other states. Eleven of them have enacted drug screening or testing for welfare applicants. http://thinkprogress.org/economy/201...test-positive/
  17. http://www.naturalnews.com/046378_CDC_Ebola_pandemic_survival_tips.html Friday, August 08, 2014 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger (NaturalNews) The spread of Ebola to the USA is "inevitable," said the head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday. Tom Frieden made the statement in a House Subcommittee hearing, adding that he does not think there will be a "large Ebola outbreak" in the U.S. Does he think there will be small ones? Ken Isaacs, vice president of program and government relations at the Christian aid group Samaritan's Purse warned "the world is woefully ill-equipped to handle the spread of Ebola," reports Yahoo News. (1) "It is clear that the disease is uncontained and it is out of control in West Africa," he told the hearing. "The international response to the disease has been a failure." "If you read the Ministry of Health status reports coming out every day from Liberia, I don't mean to be dramatic, but it has an atmosphere of 'Apocalypse Now' in it," said Isaacs, as reported by Breitbart.com. (5) The spread of Ebola to the U.S. will likely happen due to international air travel, CDC head Frieden warned. Today's Ebola outbreak is the largest ever recorded in history. Is the CDC perhaps preparing America for an announcement that Ebola is now being found in U.S. patients? "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued its highest alert activation over the Ebola outbreak," reports CBS News. (4) "CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden announced on Twitter Wednesday that their operations center has moved to a Level 1 response." America is nowhere near prepared for an Ebola outbreak Mac Slavo from SHTFplan.com just posted a really important story that I recommend you read. It's entitled What You Need to Do to Survive Ebola BEFORE the Panic Starts. As Slavo rightly points out, if there is even a single case of Ebola appearing on the streets of America, the masses will outright panic. Michael Snyder from The Economic Collapse Blog (7) also makes a powerful point in this recommended article, where he says: Yes, we may be able to provide "state of the art care" for a handful of people, but if thousands (or millions) of Americans get the virus you can forget about it. Our health industry is already stretched incredibly thin, and we simply do not have the resources to handle a tsunami of high risk Ebola patients. And of course conventional medicine does not have a cure for Ebola anyway. Outbreak will immediately turn to panic In truth, almost nobody is America is prepared for an Ebola outbreak -- not the people, not the hospitals, not the grocery stores and certainly not the government. Even a small, local Ebola outbreak would result in a mandatory lock down of people in their own homes. The government's phrase for this is "shelter in place," and it was invoked at gunpoint during the Boston Marathon bombings. The problem with all this is that the very minute the public gets word of Ebola spreading in America, people will launch into panic buying of everything you can imagine: gasoline and fuel, water, storable foods, chemical sanitizers, ammunition, firearms and so on. Think "zombie apocalypse" and you'll get the idea. Case in point: The announcement that the water supply in Toledo, Ohio was poisoned due to chemical agricultural runoff caused an immediate and total wipeout of water supplies from store shelves. Hawaii just experienced the same thing, reports Intellihub: (2) Due to the recent weather warnings, local stores have been mostly cleared out of bottled water and other essential supplies, such as batteries, in anticipation of the coming storms. "Residents of Hawaii are cleaning out stores of supplies in anticipation of power outages and major flooding," says USA Today. (3) Even worse, some residents are finding they are completely on their own, with other residents utterly unwilling to help them. As Mike Tsukamoto says in this USA Today video (3): "There was a woman there [at the Costco store] who had a crutch, and she was asking people if they could help her, and no one would help and she was pretty upset. She told me that nobody cares to help anyone in times like this, and all they care about is getting stuff for themselves and clearing out." Storms pass quickly; but pandemics keep spreading Hurricanes quickly pass, but an Ebola outbreak might keep spreading and lingering for a very long time. What will the average unprepared American do after 3 days of lockdown? Five days? A month? Most people could not survive more than a week or two without needing emergency supplies from the grocery store. It's not difficult to imagine 911 call centers being flooded with desperate cries for food after just 3-5 days of lockdown. An Ebola outbreak lockdown would also grind the local economy to a halt. No one showing up for work means no economic activity. It also makes you wonder who's supposed to run the power plants, water treatment facilities, emergency services and law enforcement. Anyone who thinks under-paid cops are going to run around the streets trying to keep the peace when there's an Ebola outbreak on the loose is living in a fantasy dreamland. Ebola has the potential to cause widespread economic destruction beyond its medical casualties. That's why it has been selected and preserved by numerous governments as a bioweapon. Some people are convinced, in fact, that the current pandemic in West Africa is a "trial run" for a larger release somewhere else, but I have to caution that's mere conjecture and no evidence has yet surfaced to support the accusation. Solutions for Americans and Canadians So what you do to prepare for the Ebola spread into America that the CDC now calls "inevitable?" First, you should substantially increase your personal preparedness in terms of supplies of food, water, emergency medicine, sanitizing liquids (like plain bleach), batteries for flashlights and so on. An Ebola outbreak may come to your neighborhood without warning, and the government may announce a mandatory quarantine without notice. You could suddenly find yourself stuck in your own home with no access to a grocery store for weeks. Secondly, it's probably a wise idea to stock up on natural anti-virals that might be beneficial against Ebola. Although I must caution you that there are no clinical trials of anything treating Ebola -- not medications, not herbs, not anything -- there are many natural substances with well-documented antiviral effects that have near-zero risk of any downside. Those include vitamin C powders, anti-viral herbs like elderberry, Traditional Chinese Medicine formulas and immune-boosting minerals like zinc and selenium. Many people are right now saying colloidal silver might combat Ebola, although I personally haven't investigated this issue and therefore can't say whether silver might be effective as an internal defense against Ebola. Don't count on the government to test this, of course: they're only interested in high-profit drugs, not affordable natural solutions. Avoiding immune-suppressing substances is a key strategy for strengthening your immune response to most viral infections. This means now is probably a good idea to stop smoking, stop using chemical fragrance laundry detergents, stop using cheap personal care products, stop taking medications that suppress immunity, and stop eating foods that contain immune-suppressing chemicals, additives and preservatives. The stronger your immune system, the better your chance of survival if an Ebola outbreak happens near you. This is wisdom the CDC will never publicly encourage. The entire medical system is wholly opposed to the idea of people strengthening their own immune systems and therefore not needing "miracle" drugs or vaccines. So if you want to be safe from Ebola, it's entirely up to you. No government official or public health department is going to tell you the truth you need to hear: If you want to survive a serious outbreak, you'd better have weeks worth of water in your home, and months worth of food. You'd also better have some cash, sanitizers, flashlights, radios and the whole gamut of survival preparedness items that you can read about on other sites like The Organic Prepper. Don't wait until the government announces the coming pandemic. By then, it's too late. If you ever find yourself in a crowd of people, lining up to get food, water or medicine, you're already way behind the curve. Sources for this article include: (1) http://news.yahoo.com/ebolas-spread-us-inevi... (2) http://www.intellihub.com/hawaii-bottled-wat... (3) http://www.usatoday.com/story/weather/2014/0... (4) http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2014/08/07/cdc-i... (5) http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014... (6) http://www.naturalnews.com/046314_toledo_wat... (7) http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.naturalnews.com/046331_Ebola_government_propaganda_medical_questions.html Tuesday, August 05, 2014 (NaturalNews) Something's fishy about the official stories we're being told on Ebola. Things don't add up, which is why I'm posing these twenty-one important questions we should all be considering: #1) How can U.S. health authorities claim there is zero risk from Ebola patients being treated in U.S. hospitals when those same hospitals can't control superbug infections? "Many hospitals are poorly prepared to contain any pathogen. That’s why at least 75,000 people a year die from hospital infections. If hospitals can’t stop common infections like MRSA, C. diff and VRE, they can’t handle Ebola." - Fox News (1) #2) Why should we trust the CDC's handling of Ebola when the agency can't even keep track of its anthrax, avian flu and smallpox samples? #3) Why were Ebola victims transported to cities in the USA when they could be given state-of-the-art medical care overseas? "Now, they are bringing in highly infectious patients into this nation that is Ebola-free. In doing so, they are violating the primary rule of contagion: isolation." - Radio host Michael Savage (2) #4) Why is the company working on Ebola vaccines -- Tekmira -- receiving money from Monsanto and considers Monsanto to be one of its important business partners? (3) #5) If Ebola is "not a threat" to U.S. citizens as government authorities keep claiming, then why did the U.S. Department of Defense spend $140 million on an Ebola-related contract with the Tekmira company? #6) If Ebola is not a threat to the U.S., then why did the Department of Defense deploy Ebola detection equipment to all 50 states? (4) #7) Why did President Obama just sign a new executive order authorizing the government arrest and quarantine of Americans who show symptoms of respiratory infections? (5) The language of his new executive order states that government officials may forcibly detain and quarantine people with: ...diseases that are associated with fever and signs and symptoms of pneumonia or other respiratory illness, are capable of being transmitted from person to person, and that either are causing, or have the potential to cause, a pandemic, or, upon infection, are highly likely to cause mortality or serious morbidity if not properly controlled. #8) How can we trust a government to tell us the truth about Ebola when that same government repeatedly lies about Swine Flu, influenza, Fukushima radiation, weather control technology, the security of the border and seemingly everything else? #9) If U.S. doctors claim to be so incredibly careful around Ebola that the virus could not possibly escape from the containment rooms at Emory University, then how did the American doctors being treated there contract Ebola in the first place? Weren't they also being careful? #10) How are U.S. doctors and health workers supposed to even identify people with Ebola when they appear "fit and healthy" right until the very end? "What's shocking is how healthy the patients look before they die and how quickly they decline. A number of the Ebola patients I've seen look quite fit and healthy and can be walking around until shortly before their deaths." - Dr. Oliver Johnson (6) #11) If Ebola is not spread through the air as some claim, then why do doctors who treat Ebola patients always wear masks? #12) If hospitals are good at infection control, then why did so many SARS victims contract the infection while sitting in waiting rooms at hospitals? "A government report later concluded that for the hospital overcome by SARS, 'infection control was not a high priority.' Eventually, 77% of the people who contracted SARS there got it while working, visiting or being treated in a hospital." - Fox News (7) #13) If Ebola escapes from patients at Emory University and begins to infect the public, do you think we would ever be told the truth about it? Or instead, would the official story claim that "Ebola terrorists" let it loose? #14) WHO BENEFITS FROM AN EBOLA OUTBREAK in the USA? This is a key question to ask, and the answers are obvious: the CDC, vaccine manufacturers and pharma companies, and anyone in government who wants to declare a police state and start rounding people up for quarantine in a medical emergency. #15) We already know there are powerful people who openly promote population reduction (Bill Gates, Ted Turner, etc.) Is a staged Ebola outbreak possibly a deliberate population reduction plan by some group that doesn't value human life and wants to rapidly reduce the population? #16) Why are U.S. health authorities intentionally concealing from the public the true number of possible Ebola victims in U.S. hospitals who are being tested for Ebola right now? "In an apparent attempt to avoid hysteria, U.S. health authorities are withholding details about a number of suspected Ebola victims from the public." - Paul Joseph Watson, Infowars (8) #17) If Ebola infections are so easy to control (as is claimed by U.S. health authorities), then why are Ebola victim bodies being openly dumped in the streets in West Africa? "Relatives of Ebola victims in Liberia defied government quarantine orders and dumped infected bodies in the streets as West African governments struggled to enforce tough measures to curb an outbreak..." - Reuters (9) #18) Why do many locals in Sierra Leone truly believe the recent Ebola outbreak was deliberately caused by government officials? "Ebola is a new disease in Sierra Leone and when the first cases emerged, many people thought it might be a government conspiracy to undermine certain tribal groups, steal organs or get money from international donors..." - The Daily Mail (6) #19) Given that the U.S. government has already funded outrageous medical experiments on Americans and foreigners (see the NIH-funded Guatemalan medical experiments), why should we not believe the government is capable of deploying Ebola in bioweapons experiments in West Africa? #20) Given that many vaccines accidentally cause the disease they claim to prevent (due to weakened viruses still remaining active in a small number of vaccine vials), isn't it likely that Ebola vaccines might actually cause Ebola infections in some percentage of those receiving them? How can we trust any vaccines when vaccine manufacturers have been granted absolute legal immunity from faulty products or failures in quality control? #21) How can we trust a medical system that continues to put mercury in flu shots, refuses to recommend vitamin D to cancer patients and has been criminally corrupted to the point where drug companies are routinely charged with felony crimes for bribery and price fixing? Sources for this article include: (1) http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/08/04/ma... (2) http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/ebola-madness-is-... (3) http://www.naturalnews.com/046290_ebola_pate... (4) http://www.naturalnews.com/046259_ebola_outb... (5) http://www.policestateusa.com/2014/executive... (6) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-27... (7) http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/08/04/ma... (8) http://www.infowars.com/u-s-health-authoriti... (9) http://news.yahoo.com/bodies-dumped-streets-...
  18. http://www.scienceworldreport.com/articles/16457/20140805/short-intervention-treatments-for-drug-abuse-prove-ineffective-study-says.htm Kathleen Lees [email protected] First Posted: Aug 05, 2014 09:37 PM EDT Seventeen percent of the study participates said they also regularly used opioids. (Photo : Stephen Cummings) The use of illicit drugs is inked to many preventable deaths each year. Statistics show that illegal drug use or abuse of prescription drugs were to blame for a 118 percent increase of deaths since 1992 in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Recent findings published in JAMA examine treatment methods used to prevent abuse of various drugs. Results revealed that short interventions were unlikely to help dissuade regular users from taking their use to the limit. Lead study author Richard Saitz, M.D., of the Boston University School of Public Health, recruited 528 adult patients with a history of unhealthy drug use, for the study. He was randomly assigned those in the experiment to one of three groups. The first group consisted of a brief negotiated interview (BNI) that lasted 10 to 15 minutes, while the second group involved motivational interviewing (MOTIC) for 30 to 45 minutes. The last group did not receive any kind of intervention and everyone was given a list of substance use disorder treatment options and resources to use. Sixty-three percent of the participants reported marijuana use as their main drug at the study's start. However, 19 percent also said they used cocaine and 17 percent said they used opioids. Unfortunately, researchers found that throughout the first 30 days of an intervention treatment, there were no significant differences in drug use among the three groups. "Prescription drug misuse is particularly complex, with diagnostic confusion between misuse for symptoms (e.g., pain, anxiety), euphoria-seeking, and drug diversion. Brief counseling may simply be inadequate to address these complexities, even as an initial strategy," the authors concluded, in a news release. "These results do not support widespread implementation of illicit drug use and prescription drug misuse screening and brief intervention." However, researchers added that finding the right treatment options early for those in need was critical to prevention and recovery.
  19. 3 Aug 2014 Source: Sunday Mail (Australia) Website: http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/sundaymail Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/435 Author: Matthew Killoran LEGALISE POT FOR SICK KIDS, SAY MUMS TWO Queensland mums have made desperate pleas to legalise marijuana to save their children's lives, including one who is just 16 months old. Sunshine Coast mum Sally White fears for the life of her 16-month-old daughter Zali, who suffers from a rare genetic disease and cannabis could be the only option to ease her suffering. Zali was diagnosed with Aicardi syndrome, where a part of the brain is missing, resulting in frequent seizures. Ms White says a cannabis strain in the US, known as Charlotte's Web, is being used to treat children suffering from epilepsy and seizures. She tells Channel 9's 60 Minutes tonight how the drug could stop her daughter from enduring up to 40 seizures a day. However, she cannot legally access the drug in Australia and is not willing to break the law. Brisbane mother Lanai Carter is investigating Chartlotte's Web for her son Lindsay, whose brain tumour has left him suffering headaches, nausea and seizures. She is heading to the US to try to secure the controversial treatment for her child. Ms Carter said chemotherapy would not work on the tumour and she had been warned surgery could aggravate the situation. The strain of marijuana both mothers are seeking is low in THC, the part of the drug which creates a "high". While no movement to legalise marijuana in Australia has gained much ground, it is a different case in the US. There are 23 states in the US which have legalised medicinal marijuana. In January, Premier Campbell Newman said he had an open mind on the subject of medicinal marijuana, but that it was not a call for the State Government to make. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Normally I'd say Campbell Newman is just passing the political buck, but it's the federal laws which need to be changed, and I have my doubts that as long as the conservative coalition is in power under "Captain Catholic" such reforms will ever take place. https://www.google.com.au/search?client=opera&q=tony+abbott+captain+catholic&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&channel=suggest&gws_rd=ssl
  20. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nick-clegg-says-lib-dems-4022692#.U-cI5aMf6Hs Aug 07, 2014 23:52By Piers Eady The Deputy Prime Minister's proposal would see prison sentences abolished in England and Wales even for possession of Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine Getty Promise: Clegg says it's "senseless" putting people who need treatment behind bars Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has said his party will abolish jail sentences for drug possession if he wins the next election. Mr Clegg’s proposal would see prison sentences abolished in England and Wales even for possession of Class A drugs such as heroin and cocaine. The Lib Dems believe that people who use drugs should be treated for addiction rather than caged behind bars. The party says 1,000 people a year are jailed for the possession of drugs for their own personal use at a cost to the taxpayer of £5m. Half of those serving time are in jail for using the Class B drug cannabis. Mr Clegg told the Sun: “At the moment, we are doing an utterly senseless thing - chucking the people who need treatment behind bars so they simply become even more vulnerable to the criminal gangs who exploited them in the first place.” The Lib Dems’ plan is a manifesto commitment for the party rather than being a change in the Tory-led Coalition’s policy. Clegg said in December 2012 that Britain was losing the war on drugs ‘on an industrial scale’ and called on PM David Cameron to consider decriminalisation. But his call set him at odds with Cameron, who denied the government’s drugs policy was failing. Mr Cameron said: “The government, I think, has got a good record on these things and there is some evidence that drug use and abuse is falling.” The Home Office is currently undertaking a review into Britain’s drug policy, considering how the law on drugs works in different countries. Should jail sentences for drugs possession be abolished? YES NO Home Secretary Theresa May has previously said there was no need for a rethink on Britain’s approach to drugs. But the review has examined drugs policies such as Denmark’s ‘fixing rooms’ where addicts can inject without fear of prosecution. It has also looked at countries such as Portugal, which has decriminalised personal possession. Mr Clegg added: “We should be treating these people, we should be dealing with them. “We shouldn’t be putting them back into the hands of the dealers. The people who should be behind bars are the criminal gangs, the Mr Bigs.” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nick-clegg-says-lib-dems-4022692#ixzz39xyxZ2YH
  21. http://fox17.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/teen-dies-after-one-hit-fatal-synthetic-marijuana-22783.shtml Friday, August 8 2014, 10:10 PM CDT Connor Eckhardt, 19, had smoked a readily available product known as ‘spice’ before falling into a coma. He passed away on July 16, just ten days later after taking ‘one hit’, his family said. The product is considered by users as an alternative to cannabis and is made from plants treated with chemicals that bind to the brain’s cannabinoid receptors, much like the drug. While illegal in California, it is often marketed as incense and is reportedly sold under code names by retailers. Mr Eckhardt’s parents issued an emotional plea on a Facebook page dedicated to her son’s memory. “Our son is gone forever from one hit of SPICE!!! Which is legal. How can that be?” the post read. “So many people have messaged me that their loved ones died too. My son is gone forever. “Something has to be done!!! Please share our story.” Another Facebook tribute, by family friend Sarah Sailer, has been shared over 445,000 times on the site. “This 19 yr old (sic) is dead because of taking ONE HIT of a substance that is readily available in many smoke shops, even convenience stores around the country,” Mrs Sailer said. “If you know anyone who has tried or uses SYNTHETIC MARIJUANA (aka SPICE, K2, POTPOURRI) - please tell them it may kill them.” Doctors warn that synthetic marijuana substitutes can be many times more powerful than the drug itself, potentially leading to kidney failure, psychosis, heart attack and overwhelming brain circuitry. (SOURCE MSN)
  22. http://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.co...ater-1-3500466 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- #2 edgarshade View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Bluelighter -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Aug 2010 Location UK Posts 2,411 07-08-2014 03:25 Didn't comply with the new "harm escalation" programme...
  23. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-08-07/green-remember-there-is-no-privacy-in-team-australia/5654014 By ABC's Jonathan Green Updated Thu at 9:06amThu 7 Aug 2014, 9:06am REMEMBER, BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, AND YOU, AND ESPECIALLY YOU!!! Photo: The Government wants your metadata, and you'll just have to trust that it's for a good reason. (Reuters) We might feel happier about the privacy shakedown if the Government could make even a bit of sense. Instead we get obfuscation and urges to toe the line as dutiful members of Team Australia, writes Jonathan Green. As they say: "There's no jihad in team". Team Australia that is. Or is that Operation Team Australia? Whichever, we're all in this together now, armed only with sprigs of wattle and the nation's internet browsing history against "unhealthy immigrant values" and the chilling possibility of mass-casualty homeland terror. On the first point we have columnist Andrew Bolt's word for it, that "Australia is being asked to assimilate to immigrant values, and not necessarily the healthiest ones". "But wait ..." Yes Andrew? "Don't we need a frank debate - more frank than it's been so far - into how the Islamic culture, the Muslim culture, people from certain Muslim countries in the Middle East, how they integrate here? That is a very difficult and dangerous discussion." Well, you know, on the evidence, probably not; let's not treat the deplorable exception as the common condition, or, worse, the product of the fevered and fearful imagination as the reality. And yet there are exceptions. And here our Prime Minister is clear, and we must take his word on this, that the threat posed by returning jihadis is real, hotheads who have taken up the cause of jihad and the caliphate in foreign parts. As the Australian newspaper reported: The Prime Minister also warned of a big rise in the number of suspects who could attempt a "mass casualty" attack on home soil given there are now five times as many Australians fighting with terror groups in Syria and Iraq as there were in Afghanistan in the past. Of about 30 Australians who fought with terrorists in Afghanistan, 25 returned home and two thirds of that group were later involved in domestic terrorism, the government said. "If we see anything like the same ratios in respect of people coming back from Syria and Iraq, the potential for terrorism in this country has substantially increased," Mr Abbott warned. Some key numbers there, like "30" and "25". Smallish numbers you might say. By some accounts as many as 150 Australians may now be serving other interests than our national interest in war zones overseas. Which is not a big proportion of the broader Australian population, nor even a big share of our Muslim head count of 480,000 or so. But perhaps 150 misguided jihadis pose a sufficient risk to merit turning a nation's notion of privacy on its head, enough of a threat to expose every Australian's life on the phone and online, to reverse the onus of legal proof and all the rest of it. Perhaps. Acts of random and bloody terror are not, after all, labor intensive. It takes no more than one malevolent sociopath to bear all this out, to make good the Government's worst fear, to deliver on its promise. It's all a bit woolly, but then this is national security, an area of public life in which we extend our Government a considerable benefit of the doubt. We take it on trust that their anxieties, more often alluded to than made plain (because you know, national security), are the real deal. We presume that when they say they are in receipt of credible evidence that they are in fact in receipt of credible evidence, despite the occasional episodes that provide credible evidence to the contrary. And there have been times, not so far past, when claims have flown ahead of substance but still been believed, with appalling and deadly consequence. As prime minister John Howard once put it: Iraq has a usable chemical and biological weapons capability which has included recent production of chemical and biological agents; Iraq continues to work on developing nuclear weapons. All key aspects - research and development, production and weaponisation - of Iraq's offensive biological weapons program are active and most elements are larger and more advanced than they were before the Gulf War in 1991. Several tens of thousands died proving that hypothesis wrong, a toll with which makes the current threat of data retention and a beefed up surveillance state look meek by comparison. The Government's call is the same one though: to be concerned if not slightly alarmed at the menace within, and to take them at their word; this time with the catchy embellishment that we ought toe the line and surrender our metadata as dutiful members of Team Australia. We might feel happier about the privacy shakedown if the ministers in charge - who presumably have thought this through, or at least compared notes between radio interviews - could make something even approaching sense. Instead we are left with the likes of this from the Attorney-General as he attempted just yesterday to calm our nerves on Government access to our internet use: "We're not tracking the websites you visit, only the web addresses," he told Sky News. Students of addled obfuscation as a refined form of political discourse would be well advised to watch the entire interview linked above. It is a masterwork. The full policy detail, Senator Brandis explained, is a work in progress. Social media: Well that's under discussion. Phone calls? No more information than is collected now for the purposes of billing. By some suppliers. I think. We shall see. We should also forgive the PM a certain haziness on these issues bordering as they do on the technical; this was never his strong suit. As Mr Abbott told Kerry O'Brien back in 2010 when discussing his misgivings over the mooted NBN, "I'm no Bill Gates here and I don't claim to be any kind of tech head in all of this." And so it was that through yesterday he assured us that: Liberty vs security The crux of the privacy concerns over mandatory data retention is this: knowing that someone might be watching makes us act as if someone is watching, writes Matthew Beard. "It is not what you're doing on the internet, it's the sites you're visiting." Alternatively: "It's not the content, it's just where you have been, so to speak." Which is to say: "We are not seeking content, we are seeking metadata." Or to put that another way: "Metadata is the material on the front of the envelope, and the contents of the letter will remain private." And with that metaphor the PM may have delivered inspiration to thousands who, confronted by the rather grim promise of unprecedented state intrusion into their phone calls, their physical location, their email and browsing history, may soon opt to buy typewriters. Or pens. And stamps for the ensuing envelopes, thus denying any civil servant without access to a kettle everything but the obvious metadata. But remember, Team Australia: there is no privacy in team. Jonathan Green hosts Sunday Extra on Radio National and is the former editor of The Drum. View his full profile here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If I was a major crime figure, paedophile, or terrorist, or even aspiring to be, (which, fortunately for me, I'm not, or I wouldn't be writing this) I'd be extremely wary of using the internet, or mobile phones, even landlines, except for perfectly innocuous, everyday type communications.. I suppose I could use it more safely and anonymously at the airport, (not an internet cafe) on a notebook, tablet, or laptop, but I'd probably put it on an encrypted data stick as a file, to send the bulk of it, and receive most replies that way. I'm not too sure about Virtual Private Networks, and how safe (or not) they are, nor of the benefits of using proxies, but I'm informed that the computers we buy here have inbuilt security deficiencies in their software that an expert could drive a truck through. Would skyping at an airport be more secure than mobile phones? And they say ignorance is bliss; I don't think so. Am I being too paranoid? Maybe not, in light of recent events.
  24. http://www.bluelight.org/vb/threads/731425-U-S-Hospitals-See-Big-Rise-in-Drug-Related-Suicide-Attempts neversickanymore View Profile View Forum Posts Private Message View Blog Entries View Articles Add as Contact Senior Moderator Recovery Support Science & Technology -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Join Date Jan 2013 Location babysitting the argument in my head Posts 10,690 Yesterday 00:37 U.S. Hospitals See Big Rise in Drug-Related Suicide Attempts By Steven Reinberg Spikes noted among young and middle-age adults; experts cite easy access to prescription meds THURSDAY, Aug. 7, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Drug-related suicide attempts in the United States increased over a recent six-year period, with dramatic increases seen among young and middle-aged adults, health officials reported Thursday. Overall, suicide attempts involving prescription medications and other drugs jumped by 51 percent among people 12 and older between 2005 and 2011, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). In two reports, the agency examines trends in ER visits for drug-related suicide attempts. The most significant increases occurred among adults younger than 30 -- up 58 percent over the six years studied -- and people between 45 and 64, who experienced a 104 percent spike in drug-related suicide attempts. "We probably are seeing an increase in overall suicide attempts, and along with that we are also seeing an increase in drug-related suicide attempts," said Peter Delany, director of the agency's Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality. "People have access to medications, and they are using both prescription and over-the-counter meds," he said. "It is clear that there are more drugs out there." Dr. Sampson Davis, an emergency room physician at Meadowlands Hospital Medical Center in Secaucus, N.J., agreed. "What we are seeing are the ramifications of the overuse of prescription drugs," he said. Davis added that the combination of these drugs and alcohol can be lethal. "Patients who are taking [the painkiller] oxycodone and chasing it with a glass of wine only increase the chances of overdose," he said. By 2011, young and middle-aged people accounted for about 60 percent of all drug-related suicide attempts seen in emergency rooms, the researchers said. The significant jump in suicide attempts by middle-age men and women may reflect the aging population as baby boomers enter middle-age, Delany said. He's concerned that middle-aged people get less attention than teenagers or the elderly who attempt to kill themselves. Many middle-age patients who attempt suicide are released from the emergency room without a follow-up plan, Delany said. "We know the number one indicator of future suicide attempts and even suicide completion is a previous attempt," he said. "For professionals in the emergency room, it's really important that there be a really good discharge plan and some clear follow-up." In addition, you have to bring the family in, Davis said. "There really has to be a community effort to help people," he added. In one report, SAMHSA zeroed in on suicide attempts by people ages 45 to 64. In 2011, 96 percent of emergency room visits for attempted suicide involved the nonmedical use of prescription drugs and over-the-counter medications, the agency found. These included anti-anxiety and insomnia medications (48 percent), pain relievers (29 percent), and antidepressants (22 percent). Alcohol accounted for 39 percent of those mid-life suicide attempts and illegal drugs for 11 percent, the report said. Dr. Eric Collins, an addiction psychiatrist at Silver Hill Hospital in New Canaan, Conn., said that as people age, they typically use less lethal means to attempt suicide -- "pills versus guns." Collins said doctors need to be aware if their patients suffer from depression or anxiety. "These are treatable conditions," he said. But Davis added that mental health services are in short supply. "We need more treatment facilities," he said. "We also need to decrease the amount of prescription narcotics, sleep and anti-anxiety medications being prescribed," he said. "Doctors aren't to blame, but we must take ownership and responsibility for this." Analyzing ER visits by age, the SAMHSA researchers found the following: Treatment of 18- to 29-year-olds for drug-related suicide attempts rose from about 47,500 in 2005 to roughly 75,000 in 2011. Among people aged 45 to 64, these ER visits increased from about 28,800 to almost 58,800 in those years. Suicide attempts involving drugs doubled for both men and women in this age group, the researchers note. Overall, there were 228,277 drug-related suicide attempts in 2011, according to the agency. http://consumer.healthday.com/caregi...ts-690541.html
  25. Posted as stated above: http://www.legalhighsforum.com.au/showthread.php?6972-Recruitment-National-Cannabis-Diversion-Survey&p=28176#post28176 and http://www.aussielegalhighs.com.au/showthread.php?5815-Recruitment-National-Cannabis-Diversion-Survey&p=17190#post17190 refer.
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