Out of the inbox

Trying to clear out my email and ran across a few items to share. For those of you who are interested in psychedelics, Media Awareness Project has just archived an excellent article from the NYT on the father of psychedelic drugs, Alexander Shulgin, now nearing 80 years old, who talks about his research and his life.

For flash movie fans, here's an amusing parody on Mr. Hypocrisy himself, Rush Limbaugh.

For researchers and other interested parties, there the interesting Drug Use in Toronto Report done by the The Research Group on Drug Use.

Under the heading, someone needs to remind these guys who they work for, Alaska governor Frank Murkowski wants to subvert the will of the people and the jurisdiction of the courts by introducing a bill that would overturn the state court's decision to make four oz or less of marijuana legal to possess in one's home and make other minor offenses into felony crimes.

In case you were sleeping in a cave for the last three weeks, the Justice Department in a fit of sanity decided not to appeal the ruling striking down the "law recently passed in Congress stating that transit agencies would lose federal funding if they accepted ads advocating the legalization or medical use of such illicit drugs." meaning reform organizations are free to post our side of the argument right up next to the Drug Free America posters at the bus station.

The prison industrial complex at work -burning up your tax dollars. An inmate was shot by an officer during a fight at Wasco State Prison in California. He's in a coma and has been declared brain dead but the prison still won't release him to the custody of his family. Authorities say they are investigating early parole but say otherwise he's got to finish his sentence. Meanwhile, he's shackled and under 24 hour armed guard. I wonder what it costs to guard a dead guy?

Finally, sixty pharmacies in Catalan Spain will begin dispensing medical marijuana under strict medical guidelines. According to the excerpts thoughtfully translated by Jules Siegel, it will be prescribed to treat vomiting caused by chemotherapy, and anorexia in patients with AIDS.