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End Times Sorceries And Debautry

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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« Reply #180 on: September 29, 2015, 09:17:09 pm »

Don't get me wrong, I am completely against p0t - but nonetheless look how demonically possessed this guy is!

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« Reply #181 on: October 01, 2015, 11:51:39 am »

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« Reply #182 on: October 12, 2015, 09:09:59 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/marijuana-sales-colorado-cash-problem-143659821.html
Colorado’s monthly marijuana sales top $100 million
But stashing all that cash remains a growing problem for ganjapreneurs

10/12/15

Marijuana sales blazed past the $100 million mark for the first time in August, the Denver Post reported over the weekend.

According to sales data from Colorado’s Department of Revenue released Friday, sales of recreational pot topped $59.2 million for the month, while medical marijuana dispensaries pulled in $41.4 million, for a combined $100.6 million — the highest monthly total since legal recreational cannabis sales began there in January 2014.

“It means that $100 million is going to licensed, taxpaying businesses, creating jobs and helping to build new schools,” Dan Riffle, director of federal policies for the Marijuana Policy Project, told Yahoo News, “instead of going to cartels and drug dealers — as is the case in the 46 states that don’t regulate marijuana.”

It was also the seventh time in eight months that marijuana sales in Colorado have exceeded the previous month’s total. In May, combined recreational and medical sales ($74.31 million) fell marginally from April ($74.64 million).

In Washington state, retail pot sellers had been enjoying month-to-month jumps until July, when revenues from recreational marijuana were $31.1 million, or down about 6 percent from June, according to data from the state Liquor and Cannabis Board. Despite the dip, Washington’s recreational pot sales are on pace to surpass $300 million this year.

And in Oregon, where legal recreational sales began earlier this month, pot retailers pulled in an estimated $11 million — or more than double the $5 million worth of recreational marijuana sold in Colorado the first week it was legal to do so.

Combined, marijuana sales in Colorado, Washington and Oregon will easily surpass $1 billion in 2015 — and may hit $1 billion in Colorado alone.

So where do they stash all that cash? For budding ganjapreneurs, cannabusiness owners and lawmakers from those states, that’s the billion-dollar question currently facing the marijuana industry.

“I’ve gone through at least eight banks,” Shaun Gindi, owner of Colorado’s Compassionate Pain Management, told Bloomberg Business.

“We’re on our 15th bank right now,”
Andrew DeAngelo, director of operations at Harborside Health Center in Oakland, told CNBC in June.

According to the U.S. Treasury Department, just 220 of the more than 7,600 banks and credit unions in the country accept so-called “cannabis cash” because marijuana still violates federal law.

Legal marijuana sellers have been forced to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on security, protecting their cash-heavy businesses with armed guards, armored vehicles and high-tech vaults — sometimes transporting their cash in duffel bags as if it were marijuana in states where it’s still illegal.

“The federal government and these banking laws are making it so that people have to walk around with tens of thousands of dollars in their businesses, in their cars, in their homes,” Michael Julian, CEO of MPS International, a marijuana security company, told Bloomberg. “[It’s] putting these people in danger.”

In July, Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley introduced a bill — backed by their colleagues in Colorado — that would give legal marijuana businesses access to banking services. Similar legislation was introduced in the House, and both bills were referred to subcommittees for review.

In the meantime, several private organizations have stepped in to try and help. One of them, CannaNative, is attempting to link legal marijuana businesses with the American Indian banking system “to use the expertise gained from decades of managing casinos,” Bloomberg reports.

But Riffle doesn’t see that as a long-term solution.

“I think rather than finding a way to work around broken and outdated federal marijuana laws, Congress needs to simply fix the law,” Riffle said, pointing to a pair of bills — the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act and the CARERS Act — that have stalled because Republican chairmen of the House and Senate judiciary committees have not held hearings on them despite support from a bipartisan majority.

“Apparently a century of failure isn’t enough,” Riffle said, “so they want to give marijuana prohibition a few more decades.”
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« Reply #183 on: October 13, 2015, 11:14:13 am »

100 Facts About The Moral Collapse Of America That Are Almost Too Crazy To Believe

The collection of facts and statistics that you are about to read is highly controversial.  A lot of people are going to be greatly upset by it.  Why?  Because they don’t like to be confronted with the truth about America.  Most people tend to believe that we can “fix this country” by getting the right politicians into power or by implementing certain economic or social reforms.  But the reality of the matter is that our problems go far deeper than that.  A moral collapse is eating away at the foundations of our society like cancer.  If it continues to go unchecked, it will inevitably destroy America.  Unfortunately, fixing moral decay is far more difficult than switching out political parties, because it is in the hearts of hundreds of millions of individual Americans.  And most people don’t want to hear anything about a “moral collapse”, because most people like to think that the United States is setting a “good example” for the rest of the planet.  But as you will see below, that is not the case at all.

And if we are honest with ourselves, we see the evidence of this moral collapse all around us every day.  Just consider a few of the news stories that we have seen recently…

What would cause a high school kid to take two kitchen knives and go on a stabbing rampage through his school?

What would cause a **** woman to ransack a McDonald’s in St. Petersburg, Florida?

What would cause two 18-year-old boys to beat a 30-year-old mentally-disabled man to death with a baseball bat just so they could get his XBox?

What would cause a new father to put his 6-week-old daughter in a freezer to keep her from crying?

A lot of people regard those kinds of stories as “isolated incidents”, but as you will see below, they are actually representative of a much larger trend.  As a society, we are decaying from the inside out, and we need to start facing the truth if we are ever going to get this turned around.  The following are 100 facts about the moral collapse of America that are almost too crazy to believe…

#1 Approximately one-third of the entire population of the United States (110 million people) currently has a sexually transmitted disease according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

#2 Every single year, there are 20 million new STD cases in America.

#3 America has the highest STD infection rate in the entire industrialized world.

#4 Americans in the 15 to 24-year-old age group account for about 50 percent of all new STD cases each year.

#5 It costs our nation approximately 16 billion dollars a year to treat our sexually transmitted diseases.

#6 According to one survey, 24 percent of all U.S. teens that have STDs say that they still have unprotected sex.

#7 In Chicago, public school kindergarten teachers are now required to set aside 30 minutes a month for sex education.

#8 The United States has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the entire industrialized world.

#9 According to a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately two-thirds of all Americans in the 15 to 24-year-old age bracket have engaged in oral sex.

#10 At this point, one out of every four teen girls in the U.S. has at least one sexually transmitted disease.

#11 According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, there are 747,408 registered sex offenders in the United States.

#12 There are 106,216 registered sex offenders in the state of California alone.

#13 18 percent of all women in the United States say that they have been raped at some point in their lives.

#14 More than 50 percent of all rapes take place within one mile of the home.

#15 Teens that are in the 16 to 19-year-old age bracket are 3 1/2 times more likely than the general population “to be the victims of ****, attempted **** or sexual assault.”

#16 60 percent of male sex abuse victims and 80 percent of female sex abuse victims “are abused by someone known to the child or the child’s family.”

#17 It is estimated that one out of every four girls will be sexually abused before they become adults.

#18 An astounding 30 percent of all Internet traffic now goes to adult websites.

#19 70 percent of all men in the 18 to 24-year-old age bracket visit at least one adult website each month.

#20 The average high school boy spends two hours on adult websites every single week.

#21 Law enforcement officials estimate that about 600,000 Americans and about 65,000 Canadians are trading dirty child pictures online.

#22 It has been estimated that 89 percent of all pornography is produced in the United States.

#23 One survey discovered that 25 percent of all employees that have Internet access in America visit sex websites while they are at work.

#24 The marriage rate in the United States has fallen to an all-time low.  Right now it is sitting at a yearly rate of 6.8 marriages per 1000 people.

#25 In the United States today, more than half of all couples “move in together” before they get married.

#26 Not surprisingly, an all-time low 44.2 percent of all Americans in the 25 to 34-year-old age bracket are married at this point.

#27 America has the highest divorce rate in the world by a good margin.

#28 America has the highest percentage of one person households on the entire planet.

#29 100 years ago, 4.52 people were living in the average U.S. household, but now the average U.S. household only consists of 2.59 people.

#30 According to the Pew Research Center, only 51 percent of all American adults are currently married.  Back in 1960, 72 percent of all adults in the United States were married.

#31 For women under the age of 30 in the United States, more than half of all babies are being born out of wedlock.

#32 At this point, approximately one out of every three children in the United States lives in a home without a father.

#33 In 1970, the average woman had her first child when she was 21.4 years old.  Now the average woman has her first child when she is 25.6 years old.

#34 In a massacre that is almost unspeakable, more than 56 million American babies have been slaughtered in this country since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973.

#35 Approximately 47 percent of the women that get an abortion each year in the United States have also had a previous abortion.

#36 The number of American babies killed by abortion each year is roughly equal to the number of U.S. military deaths that have occurred in all of the wars that the United States has ever been involved in combined.

#37 About one-third of all American women will have had an abortion by the age of 45.

#38 Approximately 3,000 Americans lost their lives as a result of the destruction of the World Trade Center towers on 9/11.  Every single day, more than 3,000 American babies are killed by abortion when you include all forms of abortion.

#39 The United States has the highest abortion rate in the western world.

#40 It has been reported that a staggering 41 percent of all New York City pregnancies end in abortion.

#41 Most women that get abortions in the United States claim to be Christian.  Protestant women get 42 percent of all abortions and Catholic women get 27 percent of all abortions.

#42 According to Pastor Clenard Childress, approximately 52 percent of all African-American pregnancies now end in abortion.

#43 About 18 percent of all abortions in the United States each year are performed on teenagers.

#44 One very shocking study found that 86 percent of all abortions are done for the sake of convenience.

#45 A Department of Homeland Security report that was released in January 2012 says that if you are “anti-abortion”, you are a potential terrorist.

#46 Some abortion clinics have been caught selling aborted baby parts to medical researchers.

#47 Planned Parenthood Founder Margaret Sanger once said the following…

“The most merciful thing that a family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”

But now she is praised in the halls of the U.S. Congress.

#48 Planned Parenthood performs more than 300,000 abortions every single year.

#49 Planned Parenthood specifically targets the poor.  A staggering 72 percent of Planned Parenthood’s “customers” have incomes that are either equal to or beneath 150 percent of the federal poverty level.  And most of those “customers” live in minority neighborhoods.

#50 There are 30 Planned Parenthood executives that make more than $200,000 a year.  A few of them actually make more than $300,000 a year.

#51 Planned Parenthood receives hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government every single year.

#52 The FDA is actually considering making it legal for doctors and scientists to create “three parent babies” in the United States.

#53 An all-time high 59 percent of all Americans believe that the traditional definition of marriage needs to be changed.

#54 The number of sexual assaults in the U.S. military is at an all-time high, and the majority of them are male on male.

#55 During 2012, more than 85,000 military veterans were formally treated for sexual abuse that they suffered while serving in the U.S. military.

#56 The number of active members of the U.S. military that kill themselves each year now exceeds the number that are dying on the battlefield.

#57 According to one absolutely shocking study, 22 military veterans kill themselves in the United States every single day.

#58 America has the highest incarceration rate and the largest total prison population in the entire world by a wide margin.

#59 In America today, there are 60 million people that abuse alcohol and there are 22 million people that use illegal drugs.

#60 Incredibly, more than 11 percent of all Americans that are 12 years of age or older admit that they have driven home under the influence of alcohol at least once during the past year.

#61 According to a study conducted by the Mayo Clinic, nearly 70 percent of all Americans are on at least one prescription drug.  An astounding 20 percent of all Americans are on at least five prescription drugs.

#62 According to the CDC, approximately 9 out of every 10 Americans that are at least 60 years old say that they have taken at least one prescription drug within the last month.

#63 Americans spend more than 280 billion dollars on prescription drugs each year.

#64 According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, doctors in the United States write more than 250 million prescriptions for antidepressants each year.

#65 Right now, there are 70 million Americans that are on mind-altering drugs of one form or another.

#66 Children in the United States are three times more likely to be prescribed antidepressants than children in Europe are.

#67 In the United States today, prescription painkillers kill more Americans than heroin and **** combined.

#68 America has the highest rate of illegal drug use on the entire planet.

#69 According to the federal government, the number of heroin addicts in the United States has more than doubled since 2002.

#70 The number of heroin-related overdose deaths has risen 84 percent just since 2010.

#71 It is hard to believe, but 56 percent of all Americans now have “subprime credit”.

#72 Of all the major industrialized nations, America is the most obese.  Mexico is #2.

#73 Only one state in the entire country has an obesity rate of under 20 percent.  11 states have an obesity rate of over 30 percent.

#74 Back in 1962, only 13 percent of all Americans were obese, but it is being projected that 42 percent of all Americans could be obese by the year 2030.

#75 Corruption is rampant throughout our society.  In fact, America leads the world in money given to fake charities.

#76 Without strong families, our young people are constantly in search of an identity.  According to the FBI, there are now more than 1.4 million gang members involved in the 33,000 active criminal gangs in the United States.

#77 In 2012, the latest full year that we have numbers for, the rate of violent crime in the United States increased by 15 percent.

#78 The average young American will spend 10,000 hours playing video games before the age of 21.

#79 One study discovered that 88 percent of all Americans from age 8 to age 18 play video games, and that approximately four times as many boys are addicted to video games as girls are.

#80 Average SAT scores have been falling for years, and the level of education that our kids are receiving in most of our public schools is a total joke.

#81 At this point, 15-year-olds that attend U.S. public schools do not even rank in the top half of all industrialized nations when it comes to math or science literacy.

#82 We live a time when most employers no longer care about their employees.  As I wrote about the other day, a company that Warren Buffett has a controlling interest in has decided to shut down a factory in Kentucky and move it to Honduras just so that he can make a little bit more money.   As a result, 600 workers are going to lose their jobs.

#83 There are more than 3 million reports of child abuse in the United States every single year.

#84 According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, 60 percent of all Americans believe that “humans and other living things have evolved over time”, while only 33 percent of respondents rejected this statement.

#85 Nearly one-fifth of all U.S. adults have no religious affiliation whatsoever.  Back in 1972, only 7 percent of all U.S. adults had no religious affiliation.

#86 The number of Americans with no religious affiliation has grown by 25 percent over the past five years.

#87 The younger you are, the more likely you are not to be affiliated with a religion.  9 percent of all U.S. adults that are 65 or older have no religious affiliation, but a whopping 32 percent of all U.S. adults under the age of 30 have no religious affiliation.

#88 88 percent of those that are religiously unaffiliated “are not looking for religion”.

#89 73 percent of the religiously unaffiliated support gay marriage and 72 percent of the religiously unaffiliated support legalized abortion.

#90 The religiously unaffiliated now make up 24 percent of all registered voters “who are Democrats or lean Democratic”.

#91 For the first time ever, Protestants do not make up a majority of the U.S. population.  In 2007, Protestants made up 53 percent of the U.S. population, but now they only make up 48 percent of the U.S. population. Way back in 1972, Protestants made up 62 percent of the U.S. population.

#92 29 percent of all U.S. adults “seldom or never attend religious services”.

#93 51 percent of all U.S. adults believe that churches and other religious organizations “are too concerned with money and power”.

#94 66 percent of all U.S. adults believe that religion is “losing its influence on American life”.

#95 According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of Americans with “no religion” more than doubled between 1990 and 2008.

#96 According to the American Religious Identification Survey, only 76 percent of all Americans identified themselves as “Christian” of one type or another in 2008.  Back in 1990, 86 percent of all Americans identified themselves as “Christian” of one type or another.

#97 A study conducted by the Barna Group discovered that nearly 60 percent of all Christians from 15 years of age to 29 years of age are no longer actively involved in any church.

#98 It is being projected that the percentage of Americans attending church in 2050 will be about half of what it is today.

#99 One survey conducted a while back found that 52 percent of all American Christians believe that “at least some non-Christian faiths can lead to eternal life”.

#100 According to LifeWay Research, 46 percent of all Americans never even think about whether they will go to heaven or not.

http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/100-facts-moral-collapse-america-almost-crazy-believe/
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« Reply #184 on: October 21, 2015, 11:01:38 am »

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« Reply #185 on: October 22, 2015, 01:56:06 pm »

The end time sorceries and enchantments is a biblical reference to what we call "high tech", in my opinion.
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« Reply #186 on: October 23, 2015, 11:29:30 am »

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« Reply #187 on: October 23, 2015, 07:57:29 pm »

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« Reply #188 on: October 27, 2015, 09:48:35 am »

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« Reply #189 on: October 31, 2015, 11:55:00 pm »

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2015/10/31/bad-news-we-may-have-a-marijuana-problem-on-our-ha.aspx?source=eogyholnk0000001&utm_source=yahoo&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=article

Bad News: We May Have a Marijuana Problem on Our Hands

Data from a new long-term study demonstrates a potentially worrisome trend when it comes to marijuana use and marijuana use disorders.

10/31/15

Marijuana has been something of an unstoppable force over the past two decades. After being completely outlawed in all states in 1995, marijuana in 2015 can now be legally sold in 23 states for medicinal purposes (as well as Washington, D.C.), and it can be sold legally for recreational use to adults ages 21 and up in four states (and Washington, D.C.).

A big component of this sweeping change is the rapid shift in public opinion as well as the need for states to generate revenue. Over the past two decades, respondents in Gallup's marijuana polls have pushed their favorability of the drug from a mere 25% to more than 50% on a consistent basis in recent years. As the negativity surrounding marijuana has lessened, the push for experimentation into its possible medical benefits, and the desire to use marijuana without potential federal consequences, has intensified.

States have also played a big role in marijuana's recent proliferation. Along with the desire to follow the sentiment of their constituents, many states' elected officials are desperate for new sources of revenue. Raising taxes on an entire constituency is often not a path to reelection. Taxing marijuana, though, pulls in extra revenue from a defined consumer base and industry, while leaving a majority of residents unaffected by the new tax. This extra revenue can be used to create or maintain jobs, or as is the case in Colorado, to possibly support the education system. Colorado residents will vote very soon on what should be done with the tax revenue generated from marijuana sales.

Do we have a marijuana problem on our hands?
As marijuana sales have grown, concern about marijuana's proliferation has grown as well. A study released a little more than a week ago in JAMA Psychiatry subtly implies that we may very well have the beginnings of a marijuana problem on our hands if we don't educate consumers.

The study, which was authored by a dozen researchers, sought to examine what changes we've witnessed in marijuana use prevalence rates over the past decade. Additionally, it sought to examine trends in marijuana use disorders, which are defined as abuse or dependence on the drug. Marijuana use disorders can lead to comorbidities and disabilities, which have the potential to strain an already thin U.S. healthcare network.

Researchers used data of U.S. adults compiled in two separate surveys. The first included face-to-face interviews of 43,093 adults between April 2001 and April 2002, and the second involved face-to-face interviews of 36,309 adults between April 2012 and June 2013.

What researchers discovered was that marijuana use prevalence and marijuana use disorder prevalence had both risen over the prior decade. Past-year use prevalence in the 2001-2002 period was just 4.1%. By the 2012-2013 period, this had more than doubled to 9.5%.

The rise in marijuana use disorder prevalence was a bit less straightforward. In terms of the percentage of marijuana users exhibiting abuse of or dependence on the drug, it actually dropped from 35.6% in 2001-2002 to 30.6% in 2012-2013. However, the total number of users exhibiting a marijuana use disorder as a whole is up over the prior decade simply because of the sheer increase in marijuana use among respondents. Additionally, the prevalence of a diagnosis of a past-year marijuana use disorder rose from 1.5% in 2001-2002 to 2.9% in 2012-2013.

Based on marijuana's growing prevalence, researchers suggest that consumers, physicians, and lawmakers be educated about the potential harms of marijuana use, as well as the propensity for addiction to the drug. Researchers note that clearly not all of marijuana users will become addicted, but the data suggests that around three in 10 will.

Marijuana's federal roadblock
The truth is, studies just like this one help to reinforce many of the roadblocks currently in place within the federal government that'll keep Congress from changing its stance on marijuana anytime soon.

Perhaps the biggest roadblock of all is the long-term safety profile of marijuana. Don't get me wrong, we've witnessed numerous instances of marijuana providing medical benefits in somewhat recent clinical studies. Marijuana has been shown to create positive benefits in treating epilepsy, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and aggressive forms of brain cancer.

However, marijuana also has a mound of clinical studies stacked a mile high detailing harmful side effects. A lot of this imbalance has to do with marijuana studies centering on its risks rather than its benefits for multiple decades. Only within the past decade or so have researchers really begun to turn their attention to the drug's possible benefits. The problem is that it takes time for these long-term benefit studies to mature, and one study is not enough on its own to establish safety. Each study is like a puzzle piece that helps set the stage for lawmakers regarding marijuana's safety profile -- and it's going to be years before that puzzle is even fully framed!

Another issue is that the federal government appears somewhat apathetic toward the marijuana movement. It's a bit of a head-scratcher considering the slim majority of respondents that support marijuana in a number of national polls, but as President Obama suggested earlier this year, the youth of America should be focused on far more important issues than marijuana. Both President Obama and Congress have made it a point to emphasize economic and job growth, as well as national security, while de-emphasizing the debate over marijuana.

What this means for you is that marijuana is unlikely to become the "next big thing" anytime soon, even though the market potential for marijuana is much, much bigger than we're seeing today. With Congress having little incentive to alter its perception of marijuana, it very well could mean that marijuana-based businesses could lose money or struggle to survive in the meantime.

My suggestion, as it's remained all along, is to keep your money squarely on the sidelines and away from the marijuana industry until we witness a definitive change in policy from the federal government.
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« Reply #190 on: November 03, 2015, 02:09:26 am »

http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-voters-weigh-legalizing-recreational-marijuana-191327746.html
Ohio voters weigh legalizing recreational marijuana use
11/2/15

CLEVELAND (Reuters) - Ohio voters will decide Tuesday on whether to become the first Midwestern state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, though a rival ballot measure could kill the law before it takes effect.

Issue 3 would add an amendment to the state constitution that legalizes both personal and medical use of marijuana for those over 21 years old.

The ballot initiative was the result of a campaign that gathered more than 300,000 valid voter signatures from around the state.

If it passes, Ohio would become the fifth, and largest, state to legalize the recreational usage of marijuana, following Alaska, Colorado, Washington and Oregon, as well as the District of Columbia.

Ohio is considered a political bellwether - the candidate who wins Ohio usually wins the presidency. So a win for recreational marijuana in Ohio is expected to change the national conversation on legalization, according to Gary Daniels of the Ohio American Civil Liberties Union.

Seven other states are expected to vote on recreational marijuana legalization next year, according to Danielle Keane, political director for NORML, which advocates for legalization.

But Issue 3 also grants exclusive rights for commercial marijuana growth and distribution to 10 facilities around the state. Those facilities are owned by investors in the legalization movement.

Critics of the measure say this creates a monopoly, and responded with a rival ballot measure called Issue 2. This ballot measure would nullify legalization if it creates "an economic monopoly or special privilege" for a private entity.

"We support marijuana legalization, but we cannot support Issue 3," said Maurice Thompson, executive director of 1851 Center for Constitutional Law, a conservative legal rights organization. The Ohio Green Party also opposes Issue 3 over the monopoly issue.

Ohio State University constitutional law professor Daniel Tokaji believes that marijuana legalization measure will fail to pass due to the word "monopoly" in the ballot language.

But Thompson's group and the ACLU also are concerned that the anti-monopoly measure could tie up other citizen-initiated amendments.

If both measures pass, the conflict will likely end up in court, said Daniels.


Recent polls in the state are split down the middle for legalizing recreational use - support is greater for medical use.

Ian James, executive director of ResponsibleOhio, a political action group which brought the issue to the ballot, said that the measure is not about monopolies but "providing access to adults and smothering a black market."

ResponsibleOhio volunteers have knocked on a million doors in the weeks leading up to the election in part to educate voters to vote "no" on Issue 2, James said.

"Ultimately it is going to be all about the turnout," said James.
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« Reply #191 on: November 03, 2015, 09:23:34 pm »

Ohio votes p0t measure DOWN
http://news.yahoo.com/ohio-votes-legalizing-pot-medical-recreational-174223541--politics.html
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« Reply #192 on: November 03, 2015, 09:43:52 pm »

https://www.rt.com/news/320680-ireland-heroin-injection-rooms/
Ireland to open 'medically supervised' heroin injection rooms
11/3/15

Drug users in Ireland will soon be able to safely inject heroin at supervised rooms in Dublin, the minister in charge of National Drugs Strategy has announced, adding that there is a “strong consensus” that drugs should be decriminalized throughout the country.

Speaking at the London School of Economics on Monday, Aodhán Ó Ríordáin said that users will be able to use the rooms from next year. He said he hopes the cities of Cork, Galway, and Limerick will open similar rooms shortly after Dublin does.

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« Reply #193 on: November 05, 2015, 03:54:30 pm »

https://www.rt.com/news/320831-mexico-marijuana-court-activists/
Green light: Group of Mexican activists wins right to grow & smoke own marijuana
Published time: 5 Nov, 2015 10:39

A historic ruling by the Mexican Supreme Court has allowed the recreational use of marijuana for a group of four people. Many see the move as the first step to legalizing the substance in a country torn by drug violence.

The court voted 4 to 1 that banning people from growing marijuana for their own consumption was unconstitutional.

The ruling doesn’t mean the general ban to sell and grow weed is revoked, but many tout the decision, saying it could see marijuana legalized eventually.

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« Reply #194 on: November 08, 2015, 02:13:49 pm »

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« Reply #195 on: November 09, 2015, 12:32:20 am »

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« Reply #196 on: November 09, 2015, 10:31:43 am »

I was talking about this with brethren recently - it's as if this country is under a mass hypnosis - not only is Amerika entertainment infatuated, but look at the POWERFUL SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS it's being used as a vehicle to further cast a spell on everyone.

http://steelerswire.usatoday.com/2015/11/09/insane-twitter-reactions-from-steelers-38-35-win-over-the-raiders/
11/9/15
Insane Twitter reactions from Steelers 38-35 win over the Raiders

Social media is an amazing tool that can help connect long-lost friends, star-crossed lovers or communities of like-minded individuals separated by geographical boundaries.

But sometimes, it’s nothing more than a pit of smut and vulgairty that forces even the most evergreen optimists to hang their heads in shame and questions humanity.

Covering the Steelers is awesome, and the Yinzers are the greatest sporting community on the planet.  We’ve already highlighted some of the more hilarious tweets from the game itself, but lets check out some postgame reaction from Pittsburgh’s finest.

This goes without saying, but viewer discretion is advised.

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« Reply #197 on: November 28, 2015, 03:34:26 pm »

People having sex with horses is on the rise in Switzerland

More Swiss people are having sex with horses, according to a sickening new report.

There were 105 cases of the maltreatment of horses in Switzerland in 2014 — 10 percent of which involved people having sex with them, according to Tier im Recht, an animal welfare group.

“This rate is relatively elevated compared with other types of animals,” Andreas Rüttimann, a legal expert with the group, told reporters, The Local reported.

There are an estimated 110,000 horses living on 18,000 Swiss farms. Experts estimate that 10,000 people in Switzerland are “predisposed” to zoophilia, according to the 20 Minuten newspaper.

The group said the number of unreported horse abuse cases is likely much higher than reported, given that so many people in the country are involved with equestrian activities.

Overall, there were 1,709 incidents of abuse against animals in Switzerland in 2014, up from 1,542 from the previous year, according to Tier im Recht.

http://nypost.com/2015/11/27/people-having-sex-with-horses-is-on-the-rise-in-switzerland/
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« Reply #198 on: December 06, 2015, 09:14:06 pm »

http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/colorado-pot-culture-stoner-jesus-bible-study/
COLORADO POT CULTURE CREATES THE ‘STONER JESUS BIBLE STUDY’ HERESY
Newest member JeTaun Brown says reading the Bible stoned enables people to relax and focus. She says, “I think you have a deeper thought process which makes you better understand.”

12/4/15

PEOPLE IN A BIBLE STUDY GROUP IN CENTENNIAL, COLORADO SAY THEY GET HIGH TO BETTER REACH THE ALMIGHTY. THEY ARE CALLED THE STONER JESUS BIBLE STUDY AND THEY PASS ON BIBLE VERSES AND JOINTS

“But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.” 1 Thessalonians 5:8 (KJV)

EDITOR’S NOTE: FIRST OFF, THE IDEA THAT JESUS WAS A “STONER” OR GOT HIGH OR DRUNK IN ANY WAY IS A SATANIC THOUGHT. THE BIBLE SAYS HE WAS “IN ALL POINTS TEMPTED” LIKE WE ARE – BUT – WITHOUT SIN. SINCE YOU CANNOT SMOKE POT AND BE SOBER AT THE SAME TIME, THE 420 LIFE IT IS A VIOLATION OF MULTIPLE BIBLICAL COMMANDMENTS. IF YOU’RE SAVED, JESUS LOVES YOU IN SPITE OF YOUR SINS, BUT AT NO POINT DOES HE EVER CONFIRM YOU IN YOUR SINS. THE “STONER JESUS BIBLE STUDY” IS ABSOLUTE LIVING PROOF THAT THE LAST CHURCH IN THE END TIMES WOULD BE HOPELESSLY CONFUSED, SELF-FOCUSED AND LUKE WARM. COLORADO STONERS, PREPARED TO BE SPEWED OUT.

Group member Mia Williams says, “We are just a bunch of stoners that come together and learn about Jesus and the Word of God.” Longtime member Mark Button says the group has “really good spiritual conversations in this setting. We get really deep; deeper than I have ever gotten before. It’s the perfect setting.”

The “Tree of Sin” may be a lesson in the Bible, but this Bible study group views the marijuana plant as a blessing. For Button, weed helped pull him closer to God and away from an addiction.

“God is what got me through that. Thanks to him, I’ve been sober eight years. I don’t drink or do hard drugs anymore. I do smoke marijuana sometimes,” Button said.

Pastor Greg leads the group in prayer and says they all believe in worshipping outside of church. They are all Christians as well as professionals or students. They admit there is a stigma attached to marijuana, but they also say some Bible studies offer wine and cheese, so they don’t understand the difference. One member says, “Marijuana has less calories and no one leaves drunk!”

Newest member JeTaun Brown says reading the Bible stoned enables people to relax and focus. She says, “I think you have a deeper thought process which makes you better understand.”

Button, who has always been a devout Christian, says he has heard the word of God “over and over and it never clicked (and now) it clicks.”

They study various sections of the Bible which they say have a direct link to smoking out. They say pot smokers are open-minded people and God’s word is also for open-minded people. For example, Pastor Greg says the Beatitudes teach the group “to be kind and loving and have mercy on other people; not to be judgmental and that’s why we like the 4/20 crowd because we are open minded.” source
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« Reply #199 on: December 28, 2015, 06:30:16 pm »

Gonorrhoea 'could become untreatable'

Gonorrhoea could become an untreatable disease, England's chief medical officer has warned.

Dame Sally Davies has written to all GPs and pharmacies to ensure they are prescribing the correct drugs after the rise of "super-gonorrhoea" in Leeds.

Her warning comes after concerns were raised that some patients were not getting both of the antibiotics needed to clear the infection.

Sexual health doctors said gonorrhoea was "rapidly" developing resistance.

A highly drug-resistant strain of gonorrhoea was detected in the north of England in March.

That strain is able to shrug off the antibiotic azithromycin, which is normally used alongside another drug, ceftriaxone.

In her letter, the chief medical officer said: "Gonorrhoea is at risk of becoming an untreatable disease due to the continuing emergence of antimicrobial resistance."

Soaring cases

But while an injection of ceftriaxone and an azithromycin pill are supposed to be used in combination, this may not always be the case for all patients.

Earlier this year, the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) warned that some online pharmacies were offering only oral medication.

Using just one of the two drugs makes it easier for the bacterium to develop resistance.

The letter, which is also signed by chief pharmaceutical officer Dr Keith Ridge, stated: "Gonorrhoea has rapidly acquired resistance to new antibiotics, leaving few alternatives to the current recommendations.

"It is therefore extremely important that suboptimal treatment does not occur."

The disease is caused by the bacterium called Neisseria gonorrhoeae.

The infection is spread by unprotected vag1nall, oral and anal sex.

Want to stop this? do not have sex until you are married, and then only ever have sex with your spouce

Symptoms can include a thick green or yellow discharge from sexual organs, pain when urinating and bleeding between periods. Often the person has no symptoms, however, but can still easily spread the disease to others.

Untreated infection can lead to infertility, pelvic inflammatory disease and can be passed on to a child during pregnancy.

Gonorrhoea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection in England and cases are soaring.

The number of infections increased by 19% from 29,419 in 2013 to 34,958 the following year.

Dr Jan Clarke, the president of BASHH, told the BBC News website: "We're really pleased that the chief medical officer has stressed that gonorrhoea needs this approach to treatment due to the rapid development of resistance.

"We need to protect what we've got and we need to encourage pharmacists and general practitioners to follow first-line treatment."

Dr Andrew Lee, from Public Health England, added: "Investigations are ongoing into a number of cases of anti-microbial resistant gonorrhoea.

"Public Health England will continue to monitor, and act on, the spread of antimicrobial resistance and potential gonorrhoea treatment failures, to make sure they are identified and managed promptly."

http://www.bbc.com/news/health-35153794
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« Reply #200 on: December 29, 2015, 09:19:32 am »

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ap-exclusive-schools-ease-athlete-penalties-marijuana-071340320--ncaaf.html
AP Exclusive: Schools ease athlete penalties for marijuana
12/28/15

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) -- At least one-third of the Power Five conference schools are not punishing athletes as harshly as they were 10 years ago for testing positive for marijuana and other so-called recreational drugs, according to an investigation by The Associated Press.

The NCAA last year cut in half the penalty for athletes who fail screenings for substances like marijuana at its championship events, and its chief medical officer is pushing for college sports' governing body to get out of the business of testing for rec drugs altogether. The AP found that some of the nation's biggest universities, from Oregon to Auburn, have already eased their punishments as society's views on marijuana use have changed. Marijuana use among U.S. adults has doubled over a decade, according to government surveys, and recreational use is now legal in four states.

The AP analyzed policies for 57 of the 65 schools in the Southeastern, Atlantic Coast, Big 12, Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences, plus Notre Dame.

Of the 57 schools, 23 since 2005 have either reduced penalties or allowed an athlete to test positive more times before being suspended or dismissed. Ten schools have separate, less stringent policies addressing only marijuana infractions.

In the Pac-12, five schools do not suspend athletes for as long as they once did. At Utah, for example, a third failed test used to mean dismissal; now it's a half-season suspension.

''It's a moving target, and we have to find that balance between being too punitive and not punitive enough, and making sure that we help people that have a problem,'' Utah athletic director Chris Hill said.

Recreational use of pot is allowed for adults in Oregon and Washington but is against the rules at Pac-12 schools in those states. At Oregon, an athlete doesn't lose playing time until a third failed test; at Oregon State, a third failed test used to mean dismissal, but athletes are now given one more chance.

At Washington, a third failed test used to be a one-year suspension but is now just 30 days.

''The change was intended to make the policy more rehabilitative,'' Washington spokesman Carter Henderson said.

Northwestern, Penn State, Pittsburgh, Southern California, Syracuse, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest did not provide copies of their drug policies despite repeated requests, citing privacy laws. Stanford does not test its athletes. Illinois has a separate pot policy that has become more strict but isn't as punitive as its policy for drugs like **** or heroin.

The Big Ten and Big 12 are the only Power Five conferences that do their own testing in addition to the testing done by the schools and NCAA. Those two conferences punish athletes who test positive for performance-enhancing drugs. The Big 12 is the only conference that screens for recreational drugs, but it does not sanction athletes who test positive. Instead, the Big 12 notifies the school of a positive test and leaves any discipline to the school.

Alcohol remains by far the most abused substance on college campuses, with marijuana ranking second. In the most recent NCAA survey of athletes (2013), 70.9 percent of Division I football players acknowledged using alcohol in the previous 12 months and 19.3 percent acknowledged using marijuana or synthetic marijuana. In men's basketball, reported use was 58.1 percent for alcohol and 11.3 percent for marijuana/synthetic marijuana.

While schools come down hard on athletes caught using performance-enhancing drugs - a first positive test typically results in a one-year suspension - they are much less punitive for marijuana and other so-called street drugs.

Athletes who test positive a first time typically receive counseling but lose no playing time. Also, athletes who come forward and acknowledge drug use before they are tested are offered help under ''safe harbor'' programs. Second positive tests typically result in some lost playing time. Suspensions generally start kicking in after a second positive, though Kansas, Mississippi, Purdue and Oregon don't mandate a suspension until a third offense.

Football coach Mike Riley, in his first year at Nebraska after 14 years coaching at Oregon State, said he becomes suspicious marijuana is being used when he notices a player who misses or is late for meetings or is not fully engaged on and off the field.

''Through my years in coaching, I can almost pick out the guys who have a marijuana problem,'' Riley said. ''You give me three weeks with a team and, if you've got five guys, I could get three or four of them.''

Former Nebraska defensive end Randy Gregory failed a marijuana test at the NFL scouting combine last February and later publicly acknowledged his use in college. Once considered a high first-round draft pick, he wasn't selected until late in the second round by Dallas.

Gregory said he and his Nebraska teammates didn't worry a lot about being tested. Nebraska, under a policy effective since September 2014, suspends an athlete for 10 percent of his or her sport's season after a second failed drug test and 20 percent after a third failed test. A fourth failed test results in dismissal. The previous policy, in place when Gregory initially enrolled, didn't take away playing time until a third failed test.

''I'm not saying that we were kind of like invincible,'' said Gregory, who played under former Huskers coach Bo Pelini. ''But they don't make it a big deal. ... They didn't really test you unless you had failed one and then after that, they test you weekly almost.''

Dr. Lonnie Albers, Nebraska's associate athletic director for athletic medicine, declined an interview request through the sports information department.

In addition to school testing for a wide range of drugs, Gregory and his teammates were subject to random screening for PEDs by the Big Ten and NCAA.

''Did I know folks that were abusing it? Yeah, on different ends of the spectrum. I think you know what I mean, smoking and other performance-enhancing drugs,'' Gregory said. ''Sometimes guys get lucky. The Big Ten comes in, we're testing steroids, might be a guy on steroids but he may say, 'You know what, I don't think I'll be one of the 12 guys that they're testing out of the 100-and-how-many guys we have on the team.' And they'll get lucky and not get tested. It's kind of hit or miss, I think.''

The NCAA has been testing for marijuana and other street drugs at championship events since the 1980s. The NCAA suspends athletes for a full season for a failed PED test. Starting in August 2014, however, the penalty for failing an NCAA street-drug test was reduced from a suspension of one full season to a half season.

NCAA medical chief Dr. Brian Hainline said his organization should concentrate on busting athletes who use PEDs and leave it to the schools to deal with the rest, preferably through treatment rather than punishment.

''The most important thing that I can't emphasize enough is that as a society, we have to make a clear distinction between recreational drug use and cheating,'' Hainline said. ''I really believe that they require two different approaches. One is more nuanced, and one is hard core.''

What about marijuana being against the law in most states?

''If we're going to test at championship events for things that are illegal, then we shouldn't just test for pot,'' Hainline said. ''If there are any kids under the age of 18 smoking cigarettes, we should test for that. We certainly should be testing for alcohol for everyone under the age of 21. Then we ask ourselves, 'Where does the moral authority stop?' I'm all for moral authority as long as there is a philosophical consistency to it.''
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« Reply #201 on: December 29, 2015, 02:15:54 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/does-marijuana-affect-brain-behavior-190502531.html
How Does Marijuana Affect the Brain and Behavior? Here's What Recent Studies Say
12/29/15

Stoners have a reputation for being exceptionally mellow, but a recent study of the effects of marijuana use on daily behavior may suggest otherwise. According to researchers from Yale University of Medicine and the Pennsylvania State University, the study found a positive short-term correlation between marijuana use and hostile and impulsive behavior.

"Marijuana use is associated with changes in impulse control and hostility in daily life," according to the study, published in March. Researchers found that participants were more aggressive on days they used marijuana, and the following day, than on days they didn't get high.

The study analyzed 43 participants' marijuana, alcohol, tobacco use and hostile and impulsive behavior daily for 14 days using random effects models. Scientists found that marijuana use alone, without the alcohol and tobacco combination, increased impulsive and hostile behavior on the day participants used the drug and the day after.

The study was brief, but due to the results and increased recreational marijuana use, researchers believe the topic warrants further research.

A 2012 study in Biological Psychiatry found that weed can cause anxiety for regular users during periods of withdrawal and puts those with genetic tendencies at risk for developing schizophrenia, Cosmopolitan reported. Some of the alleged negative side effects of marijuana can be reduced if it's legal, regulated and tested by health officials, according to marijuana advocates. "People are used to buying weed on the black market with no idea about quality,"  deputy director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Paul Armentano told Cosmopolitan. "As consumers get more sophisticated, they'll demand higher quality and better testing."

Another study on the effects of marijuana use published in the Psychology of Addictive Behaviors in September showed that the drug had an indirect negative relationship with grades among a cohort of college students. The study showed students who smoked more went to class less and therefore received relatively lower grade point averages than those who didn't engage in marijuana use.

In November, a survey of police officers across the United States conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration showed that 6% of the 1,000 officers surveyed reported marijuana use as the biggest drug threat. However, as of 2014, no one had died from marijuana use alone.
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« Reply #202 on: December 29, 2015, 09:01:01 pm »

Man distracted by cellphone dies walking off a cliff in San Diego while
by Next Media Videos 0:35 mins

A man who was so distracted by his cellphone didn’t see a 60-foot drop in front of him and tumbled to his death off a California cliff on Christmas Day.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/man-distracted-cellphone-dies-walking-063818939.html
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« Reply #203 on: December 30, 2015, 09:10:42 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/emerging-shadows-pot-industry-tries-074811949.html
Emerging from shadows, pot industry tries to build brands
12/30/15

DENVER (AP) — Snoop Dogg has his own line of marijuana. So does Willie Nelson. Melissa Etheridge has a marijuana-infused wine.

As the fast-growing marijuana industry emerges from the black market and starts looking like a mainstream industry, there's a scramble to brand and trademark pot products.

The celebrity endorsements are just the latest attempt to add cachet to a line of weed. Snoop Dogg calls his eight strains of weed "Dank From the Doggfather Himself." Nelson's yet-to-be-released line says the pot is "born of the awed memories of musicians who visited Willie's bus after a show."

The pot industry's makeshift branding efforts, from celebrity names on boxes of weed to the many weed-themed T-shirts and stickers common in towns with a legal marijuana market, show the industry taking halting steps toward the mainstream.

Problem is, those weed brands aren't much more substantial than the labels they're printed on. Patents and trademarks are largely regulated by the federal government, which considers marijuana an illegal drug and therefore ineligible for any sort of legal protection.

The result is a Wild West environment of marijuana entrepreneurs trying to stake claims and establish cross-state markets using a patchwork of state laws.

View galleryIn this Friday, Dec. 18, 2015, photograph, LivWell …
In this Friday, Dec. 18, 2015, photograph, LivWell store manager Carlyssa Scanlon shows off some of  …
Consumers have no way of knowing that celebrity-branded pot is any different than what they could get in a plastic baggie from a corner drug dealer.

"You can't go into federal court to get federal benefits if you're a drug dealer," said Sam Kamin, a University of Denver law professor who tracks marijuana law.

That doesn't mean that the pot business isn't trying.

Hundreds of marijuana-related patents have likely been requested from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, according to those who work in the industry. Exact numbers aren't available because pending patent information isn't public.

So far, federal authorities have either ignored or rejected marijuana patent and trademark requests, as in the 2010 case of a California weed-delivery service that applied to trademark its name, "The Canny Bus."

View galleryLegalization of marijuana
An employee weighs portions of retail marijuana to be packaged and sold at 3D Cannabis Center in Den …
"They haven't issued a single patent yet. But generally speaking, there is broad agreement within the patent law community that they will," said Eric Greenbaum, director of intellectual property for Ligand Pharmaceuticals Inc., which is seeking a patent for a strain of marijuana to treat seizures.

Companies like Ligand are betting that if marijuana becomes legal nationally, they will be first in line to claim legal ownership of whichever type of marijuana they have already developed.

Pot companies also are filing state-level trademarks, thereby avoiding the snag in a federal trademark application: the requirement that the mark is used in interstate commerce, which remains off-limits for pot companies.

In Colorado, for example, there are nearly 700 trade names and 200 trademarks registered that include the word "marijuana" or a synonym, Kamin said.

Pot producers also are claiming everything they can that doesn't involve actual weed. So a marijuana company could trademark its logo or patent a process for packaging something, without mentioning that the "something" is marijuana.

View gallerySnoop Dogg poses for a photo at the 2015 BET Hip Hop …
Snoop Dogg poses for a photo at the 2015 BET Hip Hop Awards at the Atlanta Civic Center on Friday, O …
The marijuana industry certainly has been on the receiving end of legal threats from other companies that do have trademark and patent protection. Cease-and-desist letters aren't uncommon in the mailboxes of marijuana companies, whether it's for making a candy that looks like a non-intoxicating brand or for selling a type of pot that includes a trademarked word or phrase in its name.

The Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., for example, says it has sent dozens of cease-and-desist letters to those selling a popular strain of pot known as Girl Scout Cookies or another called Thin Mints.

"The use of our trademarks in connection with drugs tarnishes the Girl Scouts name," the organization says in the letter it has sent to pot sellers primarily in California, Colorado and Washington.

Last year, Hershey Co. sued two marijuana companies in Colorado and Washington for selling "Reefer's" peanut butter cups and "Dabby Patty" candies, which resembled Hershey's Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and York peppermint patties. Both pot companies agreed to stop selling the products and destroy any remaining inventory.

But the industry can't use those same laws to protect its own brands.

View galleryLegal marijuana goes on sale in Washington state
Kevin Nelson, of Bellingham, Wash., holds a sign that reads "Drug War Ends Here," outside Top Shelf  …
"We're in a new industry, where the benefits of federal protection aren't open to us," said John Lord, CEO of LivWell, a 10-store chain of Colorado marijuana shops that recently entered an agreement to sell Leafs By Snoop, the entertainer's new line of marijuana.

LivWell grows the Snoop pot alongside many other strains but charges up to $175 more an ounce for the rapper's brand, which is sold from behind a glittery in-store display.

"Brand differentiation is the normal progression of events," said Lord, who wouldn't share sales figures on the Snoop pot but says its performance has been "outstanding."

"Consumers will see more and more of this in the future."
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« Reply #204 on: January 01, 2016, 10:02:14 pm »

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« Reply #205 on: January 06, 2016, 03:47:30 pm »

Once upon a time ago, it was regular 'ole cigs AND R-rated Hellywood movies that were marketed teens that sparked an outrage from the public and Capitol Hill. Now? It seems like noone cares anymore.

https://www.yahoo.com/health/e-cigarette-advertisements-are-responsible-for-223230730.html
E-Cigarette Ads Target Millions of Teens, Govt. Says

Amy Rushlow
January 5, 2016

E-cigarette advertisements are responsible for millions of U.S. children and teens using the nicotine-delivering devices, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“The same advertising tactics the tobacco industry used years ago to get kids addicted to nicotine are now being used to entice a new generation of young people to use e-cigarettes,” CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden said during a phone call with press today (Jan. 5).

Youth e-cigarette use has increased drastically in the past several years. Between 2011 and 2013, the number of middle and high school students using e-cigs tripled, according to government surveys. More recently, the popularity of e-cigarettes among teenagers has skyrocketed. According to the National Youth Tobacco Survey, the proportion of high school students using e-cigarettes increased threefold between 2013 and 2014 alone.

During the same time period, advertising for e-cigarettes has boomed. In 2011, advertisers spent $6.4 million on e-cig advertisements in newspapers, magazines, television, and online, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine concluded. By 2013, that figure topped $60 million, according to AdAge. And in 2014, according to a CDC statement, advertisers spent $115 million promoting e-cigs.

Related: E-Cigarette Flavorings Linked to Lung Diseases

“Kids should not be using e-cigarettes and yet two-thirds of kids in this country are seeing e-cigarette ads,” Frieden says, referring to a data analysis that found 68.9 percent of middle and high school students have been exposed to e-cigarette advertising.

Two million high school students and 450,000 middle school students used e-cigarettes in the past month, according to government data from a 2014 survey. In fact, teens are now more likely to use e-cigarettes than they are to smoke conventional cigarettes, the data shows.
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« Reply #206 on: January 08, 2016, 12:22:38 pm »

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« Reply #207 on: January 14, 2016, 08:45:37 am »

Audio Inside Link: http://www.sermonaudio.com/sermoninfo.asp?SID=11316231533
The Sin of Gambling: The Revenues of the Wicked and Lottery Mania (pastor Jason Cooley)
1/13/2016 (WED)
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« Reply #208 on: January 20, 2016, 07:37:29 pm »

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/this-mother-drank-while-pregnant-heres-what-her-daughters-like-at-43/2016/01/15/32ff5238-9a08-11e5-b499-76cbec161973_story.html?tid=sm_fb
This mother drank while pregnant. Here’s what her daughter’s like at 43.
1/18/16

Kathy Mitchell wants to share something with you. She’s not proud of it, and it’s not a behavior she hopes you’ll emulate. It’s just the truth: As a teen, Kathy drank alcohol while pregnant with her daughter, Karli. It was a perilous if unwitting mistake that has defined both of their lives.

Karli is now 43 but is the developmental age of a first-grader. In the home she shares with her mother and stepfather, she collects dolls and purses, and pores over Hello Kitty coloring and sticker books. Karli has fetal alcohol syndrome, the result of alcohol exposure in utero.

In middle age, Karli has none of the awareness, self-determination and independence that most of us take for granted. She can’t recognize social cues, is easily led and manipulated, and can’t predict dangerous behaviors. She can only follow one rule at a time and doesn’t understand sequence. She can cross a street at a lighted crosswalk, but if the light is out, she’ll step in front of a car. She likes to wear pretty clothes, but she can’t remember to brush her teeth.

To Kathy, Karli’s is simply a life snuffed of promise. “I adore my very sweet daughter,” Kathy says. “She’s a forever innocent child. But not a day goes by that I don’t ask myself, ‘What if? What if alcohol hadn’t been a part of my life?’ ”

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, or FASD, covers a range of impairments from severe, such as Karli’s fetal alcohol syndrome, to mild. Its effects can include impaired growth, intellectual disabilities and such neurological, emotional and behavioral issues as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, vision problems and speech and language delays. FASD is also sometimes characterized by a cluster of facial features: small eyes, a thin upper lip and a flat philtrum (the ridge between the nose and upper lip).

And, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put it, the disabilities “last a lifetime. There is no cure, though early intervention treatment can improve a child’s development.”

“In our family, though, [Karli] is a blessing,” Kathy says. “She brings joy to everyone she knows.” But, she adds, “it breaks my heart to think about why Karli is disabled.”

But Kathy says that rather than “sit in self-hatred and self-blame,” she has made it her mission in life to tell the story of her and Karli so that others won’t make the same mistakes. “I believe I would be a terrible person if I didn’t do everything in my power to prevent this from happening to another child.”

Family history of alcoholism
Kathy’s lengthy affair with alcohol was nearly a birthright. She grew up in Rockville, Md., the fifth child of seven in a family in which, she says, problems were barely acknowledged and rarely discussed. Especially the alcoholism that Kathy says was a part of her family history.

In 1964, when Kathy was 10, her parents opened a restaurant in Olney, which they would own for the next 33 years.

Kathy and her siblings all helped in the business, which took on a nightclub atmosphere after 8 p.m. “Customers would come for dinner, then dance and drink all night. At 1 a.m. they’d be stumbling out to their cars to drive home,” she says.

By the time she turned 12, Kathy had been drunk more than once — and figured out that she liked the euphoria of intoxication. “Drinking made me feel grown-up, cuter, smarter, and helped me flow with the rest of the world,” she says. In her chaotic, sibling-filled household, she was essentially an “invisible child,” she says, with no one noti­cing her drinking.

Maid of honor at age 14 at her sister’s wedding, Kathy remembers drinking beer after beer until, thoroughly intoxicated, she fled the scene — before the wedding photographs were even taken. “It was just, like, ‘Oh, that’s Kathleen!’ Looking back now, I can say that I was in the early stages of alcoholism by then, having blackouts. Everyone else was busy surviving and doing their own thing, and no one seemed to notice that I needed help.”


In 10th grade, Kathy got pregnant. She married the baby’s father — a teenage boyfriend — and dropped out of school. Their son was born a month after Kathy turned 17. The child was healthy and Kathy went back to waiting tables and tending bar. Nine months later she was pregnant again.

In those days, she recalls, people would say, “If you want to have a big fat baby, drink a beer a day” and “red wine is good for the baby’s blood.” Kathy again drank throughout her pregnancy, but usually just with friends. She’d put away a bottle of wine, or four to five beers, during a weekend.

Drinking wasn’t her only risky behavior: “The fact is, I had poor nutrition, smoked cigarettes, worked in bars and drank alcohol. None of this was conducive to a healthy pregnancy.”

In 1973, just a few months after turning 18, she gave birth to Karli.

Discovery came too late
That same year, researchers at the University of Washington Medical School published a landmark paper that described children with physical and intellectual disabilities whose mothers had drunk heavily throughout pregnancy. Alcohol was a teratogen, a substance that kills or damages developing cells, the researchers said, and then for the first time used term fetal alcohol syndrome to describe the result.

That information came too late to make a difference to Kathy or Karli.

From birth, Karli had been plagued by relatively minor health problems that didn’t raise red flags at the pediatrician’s office. When she failed to sit up on time and was slow to reach other milestones, doctors told Kathy that her baby had experienced delays because of her chronic ear infections.

Yet Karli’s problems grew more pronounced as she aged. She exhibited fine and gross motor difficulties, poor joint mobility and speech delays. At one point, a doctor diagnosed cerebral palsy, one of the many disorders and conditions whose symptoms overlap with those of FASD. Later it became clear that Karli didn’t have cerebral palsy, but “at that point it is more accurate to understand that the physician didn’t even have FASD in his lineup,” Kathy says. “Very few are trained to diagnose the disorder, and the number was even fewer back then. No one ever asked me about my alcohol use.”


And Kathy continued to drink.

Meanwhile, her life grew more chaotic: evictions, job loss, divorce, illicit drug use and even suicidal thoughts. She gave birth to three more children, drinking throughout each pregnancy.

With her parents providing the bulk of care for Karli and her siblings, Kathy drifted in and out of jobs, apartments, motivation and despair. Her third child, a girl, was born healthy, but by the time she became pregnant with her fourth child, Kathy had added an addiction to heroin to the alcohol and cigarettes. Six months later the baby, a boy, died at birth. In 1982 she gave birth to her fifth child, a girl she named Keysha. The child stopped breathing in her crib at 10 weeks. When Kathy went in to wake the baby and found her lifeless, she had a psychological break.

“All I remember is screaming and screaming and screaming,” Kathy says. “I ended up being carted off by the police to a mental institution in Sykesville, where doctors decided that I was an addict, not insane, and I was sent off to an inpatient treatment center to detox.”

As she recovered, she resolved to change her life. Therapy segued from a 30-day regimen at the inpatient facility into a 10-month stay in therapeutic community, during which time Kathy earned her GED. She moved back in with her parents, took evening courses and learned the basic skills of mothering. She was 30 years old.

Soon she was hired as a counselor’s aide at Montgomery General Hospital’s detox center and became a certified addiction counselor.

Kathy first heard about the effects of **** on fetal development in 1988 at a professional conference about the crack-baby epidemic and realized that manyof the symptoms of these babies seemed to fit with those of Karli’s. “I hadn’t used crack **** while pregnant with Karli — I’d only used alcohol — so I wondered whether alcohol could have caused her problems. I’d never heard of that possibility before,” she says.


Now a teenager, Karli lagged far behind her classmates in all ways. She couldn’t tell time or ride a bicycle, and she couldn’t understand money or abstract math concepts.

So in 1989, Kathy took Karli, then 16, to Georgetown University Hospital. After a battery of tests administered over a couple of days, Kathy sat down with a team of doctors and specialists to hear the verdict. The geneticist spoke first: “Your daughter does have fetal alcohol syndrome.”

Kathy’s pattern of alcohol use, with the occasional spiked levels of alcohol, he told her, “were associated with lifelong brain damage,” Kathy recalls him saying.

“I thought I would die from the grief and guilt,” she says. “It was one of the worst days of my life, and at that moment I knew that I had to do what I could to prevent this from happening to another child.”

Spreading the word
Today Kathy, 61, is vice president of the National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, a nonprofit that aims to increase awareness of the risks of alcohol use during pregnancy and its effect on families. She hopes that being public about her own history will help destigmatize the issue and maybe prevent another young mother from doing what she did.

FASD statistics are not definitive, but some recent research suggests that as many as 2 to 5 percent of children in the United States and some European countries might have some form of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder.

In October, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported that there is no known safe level of alcoholic consumption during any trimester of pregnancy. But, according to the CDC, 1 in 10 pregnant women acknowledge alcohol use — “a risk that doesn’t make sense to me at all,” says Kenneth L. Jones, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California at San Diego who was co-author of the landmark 1973 study. Each fetus has individual risk factors, he continues, driven by the genetics of both parents as well as the mother’s diet, so it’s nearly impossible to determine how much alcoholis too much. “But why bother putting an amount on it?” he says. “Why risk your baby’s future?”

For Kathy, “the guilt and remorse are painful, but it’s even worse to think of what Karli might have been — a nurse, like she wanted do be when she was 10, or a wife or mother? She won’t have any of it now, because I drank during my pregnancies. I would never knowingly harm my child, but what I didn’t know ended up robbing her of so much.”

Karli’s days are pleasant and full, framed by her devoted family. An aide helps her every day while Kathy and her husband are at work. Karli takes Zumba and water aerobics classes and goes grocery shopping, and every Friday she sees a matinee. She has a paid job one afternoon a week as a stock clerk,supported by a job coach, at a discount clothing store near her home in Olney. On weekends she participates in social activities through the Montgomery County Department of Therapeutic Recreation, which provides programs for people with disabilities.

Every night, Karli puts on some Hello Kitty pajamas. Kathy tucks her into bed with her two favorite dolls, Laura Liz and April. In the glow of a Tinker Bell night light near her bed, Karli smiles up at Kathy. “I love you, Mommy,” she says.
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