Well it's official.
Recreational use of marijuana is now legal in the state of Colorado.
Let's all hotbox in a van down by the river to celebrate.
Interesting Facebook debate. (Side-note: Facebook is an interesting social media outlet regardless. I have over 400 'friends' on the site, but rarely if ever hear from more than a small percentage. So the reality is, I really only have maybe under 100 'friends' on the site, but I still feel like maybe more are reading my posts). Some are just not responding. Maybe stalking or 'creeping' as my teen calls it. Regardless, it is a sociological experiment in and of itself to determine what topics will draw a person out.
Friend is case in point. I post on there religiously, and he has not in nearly 4 years, ever commented on a post. Ever 'Liked' a picture, or wished me a HB.
It's just fascinating to me what finally compels people into response. What triggers their emotion. For some it's Duck Dynasty, Obama, George Bush, abortion or wars. For others it's the War on Pot (emphasis) that causes the opinions to be voiced.
Here's a link from the Northern Territory of Australia's government Website. Lots of links out there but I just liked their graphics better. :
The major health and psychological effects of chronic cannabis use, especially daily use over many years, remain uncertain. The following graphic outlines the likely major adverse effects - according to the available evidence.
Possible effects of long term heavy use which have not been confirmed by research include:
increased risk of developing smoking-related cancers
reduced educational achievement in adolescents and reduced work performance in adults in some occupations (National Task Force on Cannabis 1994:14-15)
There have been no documented deaths from overdoses of cannabis.
Some heavy users develop a psychological dependence on cannabis. They spend more time getting the drug and taking the drug. They have trouble cutting back. They keep using it even when it causes personal problems.
....also interesting to note is the diagnosed connection between heavy pot usage and the increased incidences of schizophrenia. If you are a pot-smoker your likelihood of becoming schizophrenic is three times as likely than if you were to drink or use opiates.
An interesting aside, yet so sadly relevant to our lives in Colorado, is the proven connection between excessive cannabis usage and the onset of schizophrenia. Heavy pot-smokers are three times as likely to suffer from schizophrenia.
Yes Beloveds...all three of the gunmen indicted in the three largest mass shootings in our nation's history-James Holmes,
Eric Harris
and Dylan Klebold,
were all heavy pot smokers.
Colorado may keep our guns, but we are medicating our youth into harm.
Since the days of Reefer Madness, scientists have sought to understand the complex connection between marijuana and psychosis. Cannabis can cause short-term psychotic experiences, such as hallucinations and paranoia, even in healthy people, but researchers have also long noted a link between marijuana use and the chronic psychotic disorder, schizophrenia.
Repeatedly, studies have found that people with schizophrenia are about twice as likely to smoke pot as those who are unaffected. Conversely, data suggest that those who smoke cannabis are twice as likely to develop schizophrenia as nonsmokers. One widely publicized 2007 review of the research even concluded that trying marijuana just once was associated with a 40% increase in risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
One widely publicized 2007 review of the research even concluded that trying marijuana just once was associated with a 40% increase in risk of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders.
Dang. Can't say that for alcohol.
Marijuana has its usage. I won't deny that it helps people who suffer from glaucoma (lowering eye pressure) cancer (stimulating appetite) or other medicinal purposes.
But like Oxycontin, it is a drug. And it is easily abused, and now widely advocated as a 'safe' drug. Denying the fact that smoking five joints of marijuana in a week constitutes the same lung insult as smoking 112 cigarettes a week. It is carcinogenic if not more so than regular tobacco. Dang. Can't say that for alcohol.
Can't even say that for tobacco.
Returning to our Facebook friends argument...his experience as a police officer showed that alcohol had been at the forefront of many of the crime scenes he was called to. He also found meth. He also found pot.
Sometimes he found all three. Was the meth more likely to be associated with the alcohol...or the pot?
Another slant...from the Pacific Standard no less
Marijuana: the Gateway Drug (to Nicotine)
New research suggests that smoking pot promotes an even more dangerous addiction.
High school stoners have all kinds of pseudo-scientific theories about the harmlessness of cannabis. You can’t smoke yourself to death, the argument goes, the way an alcoholic can drink herself to death. Unlike meth, pot is a natural gift of Mother Gaia; unlike heroin, it’s not physically addictive; and unlike cigarettes, it’s not laced with formaldehyde. Some of these ideas are valid—it’s true that fewer than 10 percent of pot smokers will become clinically addicted—while others are, ahem, rather “doobieous.”
As legalization efforts gain traction around the country, there’s new demand for hard evidence on the health science of pot. (Marijuana is now licit in Washington and Colorado, and medical marijuana is sanctioned in 16 states, plus Washington, D.C.) Parents nervously await the dinner-table conversation in which they have to explain why it’s alright for them to roll a joint, but, as with booze and lotto tickets, their seventh-grade daughter has to wait till she’s 18. It’s a tricky topic to finesse, and an even harder policy to enforce. In his work, David Sedaris describes how drug laws went from strict to lax in his family: “‘No smoking pot’ became ‘No smoking pot in the house,’ before it finally petered out to ‘Please don’t smoke any pot in the living room.’”
Research from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, published last month inNeuropsychopharmacology, offers parents a new argument against lighting up: exposure to THC, the primary psychoactive compound in pot, encourages nicotine dependence. In other words, marijuana may be a “gateway drug” to cigarettes, which are far more addictive, and kill far more users, than the green stuff.
Marijuana is a young man’s game: Between work, kids, and the realization that “Adult Swim” really just isn’t that funny, many of even the heaviest pot smokers give up the habit by adulthood. Conversely, smoking cigarettes, like playing tennis, is a lifelong sport: According to the CDC, cancer sticks are responsible for 443,000 American deaths annually—more than HIV, drugs and alcohol, car accidents, suicides, and murders combined. The healthcare costs associated with smoking approach $96 billion.
Researchers at the NIDA exposed rats to THC for several days, and a week later offered them the ability to self-administer nicotine. Just 65 percent of control rats became addicted to self-administering nicotine, while 94 percent of THC rats did. The nicotine had a higher “reward value” for the stoner rats, too, leading them to work harder to get it.
These findings contrasted sharply previous NIDA research into the “gateway mechanism,” where THC-exposed rats were no more likely to develop cocaine or heroin addiction than non-exposed rats. The gateway hypothesis itself is widely accepted; as any recovering addict will tell you, little highs easily lead to bigger ones. But what psychologists don’t understand is whether the gateway is primarily neurological or behavioral. That is, does a pot smoker become a heroin junkie because her brain’s pleasure centers have been rewired, or simply because her boyfriend is a drug dealer and she runs in a high-risk crowd?
The recent NIDA study is important because it demonstrates that, even if THC doesn’t promote a neurochemical gateway for heroin and cocaine addiction, it does for nicotine.
Films such as “Requiem for a Dream” and “Blow” will continue to scare the bejeezus out of teenage stoners considering experimenting with heavier stuff, but the truth is, cigarettes are the more dangerous killer.
Parents and potheads, take note.
....
Marijuana and Alcohol. Cigarettes. All three have been legalized. All three have been given the federal stamp of 'approval' for recreational or medicinal purposes (strike that-cigarettes ).
If he sees marijuana (legal) and alcohol (legal) and maybe even cigarettes (legal) at the scene of a crime...then the only logical step would be to legalize the fourth spoke of the wheel...meth. Because as he says, both meth and pot and sometimes tobacco are present at a crime scene usually involving alcohol.
It's time to legalize all of them. Really.
The tax revenue gained by legalizing the retail sales of pot, just as in the end of Prohibition, created a huge tax boon for the government. It is only a matter of time before the legalization of all drugs will create a world of greener parks, larger schools, and better roads.
Schools we can flunk out of. Roads we can crash our cars on. Parks where we can park our Chevelles and smoke our joints.
It's a greener world through rose-colored glasses...
One of the gifts Beloved is giving me this coming year is a hardbound copy of the blog posts I made about our travels to Spain. In the meantime he made this photocollage for us to remember it by.
Among many of the challenges facing us as parents today are the rising cost of foodstuffs. I watched in amazement a woman who knocked 50% off of her grocery bill by handing the clerk a small pile of coupons. And I think "I need to start looking into this couponing lifestyle a lot more". Because she wasn't one of those scary women from the crazy couponing shows with the Dura-shed built on the back of the house to store her supply of cat food. No, this was an exchange done swiftly and without much fanfare or disruption. And she took $10 off her bill.
Dang.
So I will take the Sunday paper of our left-leaning local news and pore over the advertisements. It might be worth it. I think I could, in fact, become quite skilled at it. Stay tuned.
The other reason behind the obvious renewed need for fastidiousness is the advent of Tweendom in our fold. While having one teenager already in the roost has increased the obvious need for body wash, razors, Gala apples and hummus, when Tank turned 12 he suddenly became ravenously hungry. A bowl of breakfast cereal was suddenly replenished by a large bowl of 3 scrambled eggs with cheese and sausage. And last night he came in and said with all seriousness:
"Mom. I think you need to start packing a double-decker sandwich in my lunch". Basketball season starts soon and he weighed himself at the gym last night. Down three pounds. For our reed thin guy, this is not a happy achievement. So today as he devoured his eggs and cereal, I made him such a huge sandwich of meat and cheese I needed to double-bag it for safety purposes.
And last night he requested that I no longer make GF pasta for dinner anymore. He "knows" I'm trying to go GF, but...what can I say. He's right. The chicken pecan fettucine cooked with rice pasta ended up being a horrific failure. I have to admit.
So the new next adventure in parenting begins...
I should have seen this coming. He suddenly began demanding Baconators or bacon-topped cheeseburgers at whatever eating establishment we go to. I think this is the part they didn't talk about in Sex Ed and Human Development.
Doe and I were driving home from a Dr's appointment on Monday. Here's what I posted on my Facebook page about what we saw. First on the scene of a car accident. We were eastbound on intersection of Horsetooth and Lemay. Stopped behind a stalled pickup at the stoplight. Compact car going westbound on the other side of the median slammed on brakes. Woman behind stopped westbound car slams into back of car going about 40 mph and pushes stopped car about 500 ft. We saw the whole thing...I thought the car was on fire with so much smoke from airbag. Smoke from hood and interior pouring out the car...Woman who rear-ended car 37 weeks pregnant airbag deployed into her chest thankfully not her stomach kept asking for help...I opened up the car door and asked her name, got her phone and called her husband...wanted to cry because her belly was having a massive Braxton-Hicks contraction. Got her to calm down her breathing. Doe held her little dog. I called her husband and the B**CH who stopped in traffic called HER INSURANCE COMPANY. I'm yelling at her CALL 911 and she's like "Hold on Hold on"....asked the injured woman WHAT MAKE OF CAR HER CAR WAS. Still don't know who called 911... Stalled car? White pickup truck. Woman who had stopped in traffic? Pickup truck's mother. Woman who was too busy to call 911 because she was calling her own insurance agent? Pickup truck's mother. If that is not a testament to the EVIL in mankind. I hope Carla is going to be okay. I am glad she was conscious throughout the whole thing. And I hope that rear-ended woman gets the book thrown at her for obstructing traffic. Gave Carla's husband my contact info... Giving you all the deets in case someone sees something I should have done differently. Never seen that before. Here is a copy of the report Doe filled out to give to the police investigating the accident. She is not a fan of the woman driving the first vehicle.
Update: Joan, the woman who stopped in the middle of 40mph traffic, was cited for impeding traffic. Carla, the woman who had no choice but to slam into the back of her, is being told her insurance will pay for nothing. I told Carla's husband I would help in whatever manner possible.
Ed. Note: Letter refers to game played on Sunday October 20th.
What transpired is a mockery of the game of soccer. Words cannot express the complete 'implosion' we witnessed on the field.
The end result being we walked off the field in protest.
Soccer is a sport full of vagaries, and we understand the gray areas of judgment. But this was a complete nightmare.
Good on Coach M for making this protest.
Proud to have him lead our girls.
Re: Game # 1431
Dear Sir/Madam:
I am writing in complaint of the referee crew assigned to our game # 1431 on 10/20/13, u17g Division 1, CO
Storm Royal vs. Arsenal CO Royal at Dove Valley Field #8.
Our center official arrived late from another field, which is totally understandable, it happens often with fewer
officials these days… He showed up and officiated in a plain black and grey striped hoodie sweatshirt, not his
official uniform, nor was his badge visible. The weather was cold and windy, so I understand that official
uniform spec is not always going to be followed, but it has to at least be under a uniform, and displaying a
current badge.
The AR’s were both extremely out of shape and never kept up with play. The center continually looked to his
AR’s for help on calls. Within the first 2-3 minutes of the game, an AR called a foul against our defender on a
fairly innocuous tackle, in fact, our defender fell to the ground and the attacker kept her feet and shot wide of
the goal. The contact happened about 2 yards outside the penalty box, yet after conferring with each other, the
center awarded a penalty kick. Jim Pereira with CO Storm was the opposing coach and came to me
immediately after and agreed that it was a bad call. The center then called several similar fouls against us,
creating many scoring opportunities just outside the penalty box, in which the opposing team capitalized on 2
more, making the game 3-0 within 10 minutes. His influence on the game with such misapplication of the law
created a very unfair match from the beginning, and we were down 6-0 by half.
I gave my best half-time talk to the girls, explaining that the only thing we have control of is ourselves and that
we needed to battle through the poor officiating, and move on. They told me that he made comments to them
like “I ref 9-year-olds, I shouldn’t be out here.” He was very unsure about many throw-ins and was often heard
saying “I don’t know, I didn’t see it.” Having a lot of refereeing experience myself, I understand that you don’t
see everything, but the players said he said that on every close throw-in call. What is he watching, if not the
play? The referee then came out in the second half with the same attire, (I was giving him the benefit of the
doubt that he rushed over and didn’t have time to put his uniform on, until then…) except this time he tucked in
his hoodie, I can only assume to look more professional?
In the second half of play, I will admit to making very snide comments to his attire and the unprofessionalism of
it, but I never once raised my voice to yell it across the field at him, nor did I ever swear or threaten him. My
exact words were “Well, now that he has his shirt tucked in, maybe he’ll be good,” and “you can’t start making
good calls now that you’ve been consistently bad.” He trotted over to me on the sideline (first time he had
broken into a run all game, by the way), saying “you know I can hear you” my response was “Good. Will you
quit making bad calls?” also, “You don’t belong out here, you are making very bad calls” He then told me that
he warned me, and that I now needed to leave because I cannot make those comments. Wait, what??? He never
once warned me, and now I’m being ejected?????? I never once raised my voice, cursed, swore, or threatened
him in any way. If he has any action to take, it would be to caution me for simple dissent. Yet he felt
compelled to kick me out for no viable reason at all. I got a parent from my sideline to fill in for me, and we
had a staff coach coincidentally on the adjacent field, Luis Dominguez Jr. to help if/when he wasn’t
preoccupied with his own game.
October 22, 2013
Page 2
As I viewed the game from atop the hill (100 yards away from field as required), I witnessed him make the
same ridiculous calls and then start issuing yellow cards to 4 of our players for very innocuous challenges. I
was not near enough to hear dialogue myself, but some of the players told me the reasons he was issuing them a
card were:
; “you were chasing players with your feet” ???? (that was verified by another player…)
; “ you charged into a crowd of people and kicked the ball” She was clearing a ball while her
teammate was on the ground nearby and an opposing player stuck her foot in front to block and was
consequently knocked over from the force of the kick on the ball…
(straight red card); “you keep fouling players” clear misapplication of the law here… should
only be a caution for persistent infringement (though that in and of itself was questionable, because she had not
been called for a foul since the penalty kick at the beginning of the game), not a straight red card and sendoff.
There was one player from the opposing team (Storm) that received a yellow card for the same ridiculous type
call, and also did not deserve a caution.
Immediately after the game, I walked to the referees’ circle off the field and requested my passes and roster. I
said absolutely nothing else and made no contact with the center official, who had then finally put a black
referee uniform over his hoodie… The younger AR was very smug and over-enthusiastic to me, saying “hope
you have a nice day” I gave him no response and walked away with my roster and passes, all of them. He did
not pull the player and coach passes, and did not refer to the roster for the names of the players he cautioned
either. The roster and passes were under an AR’s bag when I requested them. So I’m not even sure if this game
is even being reported correctly.
The purpose of this letter is threefold. 1) I wish that the appropriate assignors are aware of this situation and do
not assign these officials to games they are not experienced for. I understand that the officials put their own
comfort and ability levels on their availability forms, however some familiarity with the referees is crucial info
for successful assignors and parameters can then be set by the assignors 2) I feel the referee’s clear
misapplication of the laws should nullify any cards given and consequences for such cards. And 3) I understand
that due to the lateness of the season, replaying the game may not be an option, but it is a request. We feel
cheated out of a good experience against a good team in which our players can develop and grow as soccer
players. Even though they received a great life lesson in how to deal with incompetent people and how to
handle themselves in difficult situations beyond their control, I don’t believe this experience best represents the
league, the referees, or soccer in Colorado in general.
I appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
