How government hype helps terrorists. If the goal of terrorism is the effective use of weaponized fear, sec. of Homeland Security John Kelly could be seen as an extension of ISIS by exaggerating the danger.

VA chief: medical marijuana could help vets. Yes, marijuana has been proven to be effective in treating PTSD, and is a far safer alternative to the toxic Pharma pills that vets are currently ingesting at an alarming rate, with tragic side effects.  Magic mushrooms should be considered as well.

We have waged war on drugs for a century.  Who won?  That’s easy: government bureaucracy and black market criminals.

Hackers are crowdfunding cryptocurrency to buy alleged NSA exploits. Surveillance State gets robbed of its secrets.

How this doctor’s letter kicked off America’s heroin crisis.  Pinning the blame on one doctor’s claim that opioids aren’t addictive, 30 years prior, is a bit of a stretch.  It’s been known for millenia that the fruit of the poppy is highly addictive, nothing new in the 80’s.  Those patients that became hooked on Big Pharma’s opioid pills, then had their supply cut off, were funneled via Prohibition to black market heroin dealers.  If opium use were legal they wouldn’t have as their only option a product of unknown potency and purity.  Legalize opium, as strange as that may sound at first.

Ohio sues drug makers, saying they aided opioid epidemic . Ohio should instead look to the policy makers that enforce the tragic environment of drug prohibition.  Pain sufferers have nowhere else to turn other than Big Pharma’s poison pills, or the heroin dealer down the street.  Legalize safer alternatives.  End the drug war.

Time to dethrone the FBI. Jim Bovard makes a compelling case.

The atrocious US-backed war on Yemen continues. The population is starving to death, cholera is running rampant, families are selling their daughters into marriage in exchange for food.  It’s a man-made disaster, and could be put to a stop by Washington if the will were present.

The imprisonment of Ross Ulbricht, two years later. Silk Road founder was handed two life sentences for non-violent crimes, essentially guaranteeing he dies in prison.

The looming danger of unregulated AI

What if we replace all social programs with basic income? Upside is that just doling out a set amount of money would be far cheaper than the current state of the welfare state.

Enforce the prohibition of certain drug, black market emerges, violence increases, police militarize, drugs become harder, black market entrepreneurs become more violent/more creative, law enforcement becomes more violent/more creative, taxpayer billions are spent, thousands are imprisoned, massive surveillance state is justified by ensuing black market mayhem, federal bureaucracies now depend on the chaos of the drug war for their continued existence, therefore they have no interest in seeing a conclusion to drug war …etc.  The original purpose is long lost.  Prohibition becomes a jobs program for thousands state and federal minions.

Based on crime generated by the drug war itself. Washington Post

School cop tries to arrest girl for violating dress code

Says former cop who went undercover as drug user.  The Fix

Brazilian journalist detained at UK border for reading a book about ISIS. Endless bureaucracies can be built upon a sufficiently nurtured national paranoia.

Here comes the story of the full scope of Julian Assange’s persecution by DC. Holed up in Ecuador’s embassy for years, missing out on seeing his children grow up, Assange now rightfully declares “war” against the murderous western states that eagerly sought his demise for the “crime” of exposing theirs.

The Disastrous War in Yemen Continues. Artificially-induced famine sweeps a country that no one cares about, as lives are snuffed out with US bombs, dropped from US planes, by inveterate US satellite Saudi Arabia.

White woman’s burrito shop shut down after being accused of “cultural appropriation”. I only care about the burrito, not the heritage of the person selling it to me.

Loophole lets law enforcement bypass state laws on civil asset forfeiture. Legislate a firewall between local and federal law enforcement.

Families suffer most from the war on drugs.

The opioid epidemic is spiraling out of control.  Coroners are now running out of room for dead bodies. As long as policy makers persist in the greatest public policy disaster in the history of the United States, drugs will get harder, criminals will become more violent, and the bodies will pile up.

Magic mushrooms.

Attempting to force a $15 minimum wage onto an economy that can’t sustain it will result in a true minimum wage of $0 for those who otherwise would have found employment, had the market been allowed operate unimpeded. Also, robots don’t need to be paid.

7,000 murdered by police and vigilantes, it’s the perfect example drug prohibition taken to its logical conclusion.  It’s also a pretty good example of the true nature of this institution we call government.  Trump’s frank affinity for strongmen who aren’t afraid to use deadly force against their respective civilian populations is disturbing. The Intercept

Dravet’s syndrome, sufferers of which have been tossed in jail for treating their condition with the plant. Ars Technica