Yearly Archives: 2013

Euro Minister Doesn’t Rule Out Taxes on Bank Deposits Beyond Cyprus

"Anxious depositors drained cash from automated teller machines in Cyprus over the weekend, hours after European officials in Brussels required that part of a new €10 billion bailout be paid for directly from the bank accounts of ordinary savers. The decision — a first in the three-year-old European financial crisis — raised questions about whether bank runs could be set off elsewhere in the euro zone. Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the group of euro area ministers, declined Saturday to rule out taxes on depositors in countries beyond Cyprus, although he said such a measure was not currently being considered." Continue reading →

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What to Keep in Mind about the Tax on Cyprus Bank Deposits

"Those who lent money to Cyprus’s banks by buying their debt rather than by depositing money at the banks, will suffer no losses at all. Those who lent money to the insolvent Cypriot government, will be paid off at 100 cents on the euro. In other words, the banksters are protected. Only depositors with banks will suffer losses in this International Monetary Fund engineered plan. It's as blatant example of who the IMF really works for. This is not the liquidation of a bad system. It is an attempt to protect the crony system and the banksters who are part of it. It is a tax on the 'little people' who keep their funds in the form of deposits, rather than bonds." Continue reading →

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Totally Disinterested Drug Warriors Demand That Holder Stop Marijuana Legalization Before It’s Too Late

"In an open letter released today, eight former heads of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), four former drug czars, and assorted anti-drug groups urge the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is scheduled to hear testimony from Attorney General Eric Holder tomorrow, to grill him about why he is not stopping Colorado and Washington from legalizing marijuana." Continue reading →

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Sell a gun to someone who smokes a joint, get 20 years in jail

"The bill would impose a 20-year prison term if you planned ('conspired') to purchase a firearm in order to give or raffle it to a person who, unbeknownst to you, is a 'prohibited person.' Who is a prohibited person? Well, there are the 150,000 law-abiding veterans who are 'prohibited persons' –- for no other reason than that a psychiatrist appointed a fiduciary to oversee their financial affairs. But probably the biggest category of 'prohibited persons' is persons who smoke marijuana. Under 18 U.S.C. 922(d)(3) and (g)(3), you cannot possess a firearm in America if you are 'an unlawful user of ... any controlled substance...'" Continue reading →

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Scientist calls for caffeine to be a regulated substance

"Jack E. James argued in an editorial published Monday that researchers and lawmakers alike need to take a look at caffeine-related deaths and near-deaths. 'Armed with improved knowledge of caffeine toxicity and faced with extensive evidence of substantial harm to public health, today’s authorities appear more perplexed and less decisive than their counterparts of more than a century earlier,' James continued. 'In light of current international befuddlement and inaction, legislators, policy makers, and regulators of today confront a stark question — how many caffeine-related fatalities and near-misses must there be before we regulate?'" Continue reading →

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Lawmakers ‘unjustifiably focus’ on illicit drugs rather than alcohol: report

"Alcohol is at least as harmful as illicit drugs, according to Jan van Amsterdam of the Laboratory for Health Protection Research in the Netherlands and psychiatrist Wim van den Brink at the University of Amsterdam. In their report, van Amsterdam and van den Brink call for a 'more balanced drug policy' that focuses on harm reduction and doesn’t neglect alcohol abuse. Significant discrepancies exist between the scientifically-established harms associated with recreational drugs and their legal status. Two of the most harmful drugs, tobacco and alcohol, are legal, but less harmful drugs like marijuana and LSD are prohibited." Continue reading →

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Study: Depenalizing Drug Possession Associated With Lower Youth Drug Consumption

"An investigator from Purdue University in Indiana assessed the association between drug laws and drug consumption patterns in a representative survey of 15,191 adolescents aged 15-24 years from various European nations. The study reports, '[R]emoving criminal penalties [for controlled substances] does not necessitate a higher number of users compared to countries with penalties, and the former actually have comparatively lower usage. In fact, higher possession offenses are associated with greater drug use.'" Continue reading →

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One More Life Ruined By The Drug War

"Let’s recap what Gerson did not do. He didn’t murder, rob, burglarize, steal, or initiate any other type of force against other people. That is, he didn’t do anything to violate anyone else’s rights. If he were an alcoholic, there wouldn’t a problem. The hive masters say that while alcoholism is harmful, they’re not going to punish people for it. The reason is because mainstream Americans, including plenty of lawyers and judges, love their booze. The punishment of Marc Gerson illustrates the complete horror story that the drug war has become. Gerson no more belongs in jail than, say, President Obama, who himself has admitted to ingesting illicit drugs." Continue reading →

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In Fight Over Marijuana’s Scheduling, Appeals Court Rules in Favor of DEA and Schedule I

"The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. ruled today in favor of the DEA's decision to keep marijuana a Schedule I drug--a classification for substances that are highly addictive and have no widely accepted medical benefits. 'On the merits, the question before the court is not whether marijuana could have some medical benefits,' reads the court's ruling in Americans for Safe Access v. Drug Enforcement Administration. Rather, the court was tasked with deciding whether the DEA was following its own rules in refusing to initiate reschedule proceedings for marijuana." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIn Fight Over Marijuana’s Scheduling, Appeals Court Rules in Favor of DEA and Schedule I

Marijuana Legalization’s Biggest Enemies

"Before marijuana legalization spreads from Washington and Colorado to other states, it will have to get past a group of hardened drug warriors, many of whom have developed a personal interest in maintaining prohibition. While most of these ideologues lack the authority to actually change laws, their larger purpose is to maintain the marijuana propaganda machine and push back against pro-legalization rhetoric. Here are the top five people threatening to halt the state-by-state legalization domino effect that many pot activists hope is coming soon." Continue reading →

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