Big Fat Liars

10 Things the Weight-Loss Industry Won't Say

Altered States

From Why Legalizing Marijuana Makes Sense by Joe Klein:

For the past several years, I've been harboring a fantasy, a last political crusade for the baby-boom generation. We, who started on the path of righteousness, marching for civil rights and against the war in Vietnam, need to find an appropriately high-minded approach to life's exit ramp. In this case, I mean the high-minded part literally. And so, a deal: give us drugs, after a certain age — say, 80 — all drugs, any drugs we want. In return, we will give you our driver's licenses. (I mean, can you imagine how terrifying a nation of decrepit, solipsistic 90-year-old boomers behind the wheel would be?) We'll let you proceed with your lives — much of which will be spent paying for our retirement, in any case — without having to hear us complain about our every ache and reflux. We'll be too busy exploring altered states of consciousness. I even have a slogan for the campaign: "Tune in, turn on, drop dead."

Read the rest here.

Can You Afford Illegal Drugs?

With the way the economy is in the United States, who can afford anything, let alone illegal drugs? I think that the only people who can afford them are the people on Wall Street who “deserve” to make at least $500,000.00 a year because they are so “talented.”

From State Dept. Cites 'Large Firefights' in Travel Alert on Mexico by William Booth:

According to the alert, the threat of bodily harm is part of the ongoing drug war: "Mexican drug cartels are engaged in an increasingly violent conflict -- both among themselves and with Mexican security services -- for control of narcotics trafficking routes along the U.S.-Mexico border. In order to combat violence, the government of Mexico has deployed troops in various parts of the country. U.S. citizens should cooperate fully with official checkpoints when traveling on Mexican highways."

The alerts are a poke in Mexico's eye as well as a source of friction. As Mexican commentators point out, the country is fighting to stop drugs heading to the world's largest consumer nation -- the United States.

Some Sanity In Politics

From Argentine president calls for decriminalization of drug use:

President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner repeated her call this week to decriminalize personal drug use and crack down on traffickers and dealers.

"I don't like it when people easily condemn someone who has an addiction as if he were a criminal, as if he were a person who should be persecuted," she told a meeting of the National Investigation into the Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, Psychopharmaceuticals and Illegal Drugs.

The concept has gained followers in the United States, too, he said, citing statistics that show two-thirds of Americans support drug treatment instead of jail time for first-time drug offenders.

On Wednesday, Rep. Barney Frank announced a proposal to end federal penalties for Americans carrying fewer than 100 grams, or almost a quarter-pound, of marijuana.

"The vast amount of human activity ought to be none of the government's business," Frank said on Capitol Hill. "I don't think it is the government's business to tell you how to spend your leisure time."

Bush's ICE

I wish the government would make up its mind. I thought that there was a war on drugs. I thought drugs were evil. When people use or even possess drugs for recreational purposes it’s against the law. What is it when the government forces people to take drugs? Talk about a double standard!

From Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation by Amy Goldstein and Dana Priest:

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government's forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the "pre-flight cocktail," as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

Read the rest here.