Friday 30 October 2020

New Zealand cannabis referendum

See the dangers of a referendum under which voters are poorly informed by those with the money and power over media and after which the government says "the will of the people" (you know, just as Hitler did) instead of Governments taking responsibility to do what is legal, just and Right? 
 
The Cannabis referendum is an example; we all have equal Rights to practice our beliefs, to do what we choose in our Private Lives, so long as we pose no threat to public health, public order, national security or the Rights of others, without interference, and any government action is illegal, such as against possession, consumption or cultivation of cannabis plants.

New Zealand votes to legalise euthanasia – but not cannabis

Cannabis referendum: What now for the law and police?

 

Referendum results live: NZ votes yes on euthanasia, no on cannabis legalisation


 

Wednesday 28 October 2020

Human Rights, the higher law

 I never asked for Human Rights, they were given to me even before I was born.

I only ever demanded that my Rights and the Rights of others be protected by law.

Human Rights are not subject to or limited by laws.

Laws are subject to and limited by Human Rights, the higher law.

Human Rights were written down and signed by many nations in the late 1940's in order to limit and stop tyrannical and unjustifiable laws created by Governments, in the name of the Brotherhood of Mankind.  They were incorporated into UK law as late as 1999.

Governments cannot put their own interpretations, limits or conditions upon our Rights.  In fact Human Rights put restrictions on Governments and their statutes, although there is some interpretations on how Rights can be ignored, clearly specified in the Articles, that is in the interest of Public Health, Public Order, National Security or the Rights of Others, but it the onus should always be on the authorities to prove those criteria are satisfied.

Ultimately the European Court of Human Rights has the final say on whether or not a Government or Authority has contravened Human Rights although taking a case there can be along and difficult process which can be thrown out without reason and with no Right of appeal at the administrative level before a case can even get to court.  They are the obstacle.

We all have equal Rights.

Rights are not subject to or limited by race, religion or lifestyle;  they are not only for the wealthy and powerful, they are for everyone, for all time.

Those Rights include the Right to choose and practice ones own religion or belief and the Government cannot limit that unless they can show a threat to public health, national security or the Rights of others.  Governments cannot make laws limiting that choice willy-nilly, there is no list of acceptable or unacceptable beliefs.  The practice of those beliefs can be alone or in the company of others.

Similarly, we have the Right to a Private Life and what we do in that private life cannot be limited by arbitrary or politically-motivated laws - so long as there is no threat to public health etc.

So the fact that what a person does in their Private Life or in the practice of their beliefs cannot be interfered with only because a government has made it "illegal" - it must be in the interests of law AND to prevent a risk to public health, public order, national security or the Rights of others - that is very clearly specified in the Article of Human Rights.

That cannot be stressed enough - when a Government cannot satisfy the criteria and sends its forces such as police to interfere with our given and inalienable Rights, then that Government and its forces are guilty of a crime and we are the victims. 

This should be paramount in any consideration of the application of laws, for example, in the possession, production, supply and consumption of some drugs by some people in their own homes.



Tuesday 27 October 2020

Population control, economic and environmental collapse and government hoax

 I was thinking the other day, if "they" wanted something to reduce the population then surely it would target the young befote they have children, not the old that will be dead in a decade or two anyway. If "they" wanted to reduce public care costs then yes target the elderly. But IMO now the governments are taking advantage of the situation to avoid blame for mismanagement that is clearly leading to both econonic and ecological collapse as well as introducing measures to prevent protests and creating gross censorship on social media and trying to scare everybody into submission. I am not saying covid19 is a hoax - I am saying government is a hoax.

Sunday 25 October 2020

The Convenience of Covid19

It is not that hard to see that both the world economy and the climate have been on the point of collapse for some years now and that more and more people around the world are taking to the streets to protest against their bungling greedy governments that have done little to halt that happening.

Capitalism, where a minority get richer and richer, the middle wealth become complacent and the poor are left out, often living on a comparative pittance, is inevitably doomed.  Nowadays Western currencies are based on nothing, governments can print as much paper money as they want and "I promise to pay the bearer" is as meaningless as "in God we trust".  Government debt to world banks run by a small number of billionaire families is beyond reason, sense and imagination, yet under Covid 19 many dish out small sums to the people in real need or most deserving and many times more to their business friends.  The corner shops suffer whilst on-line businesses and giant supermarkets thrive.  "in God we Trust" for them has become "in Covid we Trust".   Check out what the UK MP's are offered as subsidised lunches whilst NHS staff have to buy their own.  Normally the numbers on the streets demonstrating would have increased. 

As for the climate, well it's decades now since we have been warned and started to see the effects of pollution.  Now our seas - and our food - is full of plastic, radioactive chemicals spreading throughout the oceans, big cities have air so bad that people are told to wear masks or stay indoors, chemicals are put into our tap water to make it "safe" to drink whilst more and more get ill and need to take the dangerous pharmaceutical drugs that make the rich richer, and on it goes.  Normally the numbers on the streets protesting about the lack of action to save our planet would have continued to increase

Those that fight tyrannical governments, those that are having their own countries devastated and bombed, those that flee for their lives, are labelled as terrorists and immigrants; in reality, those that see through it all recognise their own governments and their forces as the real terrorists.

There are more police in the world than ever, but also more crimes and more prisons.  There are more doctors and nurses than ever but more sick and disabled (a terrible word).  There are more schools and universities but what they teach is carefully controlled.  More so-called freedom of speech through social media but more control and censorship.  More food than ever before but more starving millions.  More churches, synagogues, mosques and temples than ever but more war based on differences in beliefs and lifestyles.  Normally more people would be protesting those excesses and shortages.

Then conveniently along comes to governments' saviour - Covid19.

Street protests are banned.  Tyrannical police action is justified by governments that force restrictions, social distancing, numbers that can gather together even in our own homes, face coverings and threatening us with serious illnesses and death caused by over-flowing health services that they have for so long underfunded or sold off to private investors and big businesses whose very existence is to profit.

Now I am not saying that Covid19 in not real, or even that it has been deliberately spread, but it has come at an ideal times for the rich and powerful and that the Governments, just like the people that vote them in, are taking full advantage of the situation to further their private causes which are seldom seeking common or shared wealth and well-being.

DO NOT TRUST THE

LEADING CLOWNS
by Alun Buffry, June 2020

You may well think our leaders clowns,
For sure they let the people down.
It matters not where you come from,
If your name's Boris, Jacob or Dom.

Unless you're in the Upper Class,
Workers will stay upon their ass.
It matters more where they went to school.
Eaton and Oxford were so cool.

They had a grand old party time,
That's why they pull the Party line.
They laugh and tell us what to do,
Won't listen to the likes of You.

We vote and think our votes will count,
Lead us to what we think we want,
We praise them for the little they give,
They hide away the way they live.

And when they want to fight a war,
They ask all all to give some more.
They sail their yachts and ride their horses,
They play with their balls on their golf courses.

They drink their champers and fine wines,
They eat their gourmet meals so fine,
Put chemicals in our food and water,
Send our soldiers out for slaughter.

Yet deep inside we’re all the same,
It matters not your family name,
For when we reach the end of life,
It’s them that will suffer the grief and strife.

For then they’ll see themselves were bad,
For then it’s them in loneliness that will feel sad,
It’s them that did us all that bad,
For them that last breath will be so sad.

For one thing to them I’d like to teach,
That in this life we each need peace.
It’s not in glory, wealth or fame.
It’s only in our Soul’s true name. 


 


Thursday 15 October 2020

IF ONLY SUOMI - a story of love through time.

 Available on Amazon and Kindle  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08L71WYDN/

If Only Suomi is a story of love through time.
At first thought, the difference between past, present and future may seem obvious. The past has happened, the present is now and the future has yet to come. Second by second, our future becomes our past.
That is if time is linear and we travel in a straight line.
But what if we could travel in time, your past can become your future or your future can become your past? What if your future could become your past?
What sort of paradox could we create? How careful would one have to be to avoid even wiping oneself out of time altogether?
What if you went back in time and fell in love, then had to return to the present, leaving your love behind?
What if you could travel back and change your past to change the present and your future or even to live your life a second time?
This is such a story, of how the future changed the past, when Al from 2028 travels back to 1972, just for a three days.
This is a science fiction story and a romance, for Al falls in love in 1972 and then has to return to 2028 without his beloved Suomi. Will they ever meet again? Time can sometimes work wonders.


Sketches by Jacqui Malkin




Dreaming of Hemp

Last night I had a dream that I was on a bus explaining to some people all the uses of the cannabis plant, at first not naming it; the value as a fibre as a source of clothing, platic, paper, packaging, canvas, rope, as a fuel and lubricant and the seed as a source of nutrition, and as a medicine;

I explained how it was easy to grow and harvest almost anywhere without fertilisers or pesticides and that it was environemnetally friendly and biodegradable, even the burning of the fuels releasing only the CO" and H"O absobed during the growing.

I remember it went on a while. I said it wa a shame it needed an expsnsive license to grow and they were hard to get. 

Then, in the dream, I said it was a plant called cannabis. A couple of passengers commented like ha! yes that's why it's banned, because cannabis is addictive and leads to hard drugs and can cause lung problems and cancer and it's dangerous for kids.

"Ha!" I said, "you have fallen into my trap! Because it's also called hemp. Cannabis is just the botanical name. Cos cannabis usually has THC which gets people high and makes them feel good, and hemp, the same plant but a different varierty and usually grown taller, has avery very low amount of THC and you'd have to smoke a field full to get any effect. 

"So even if what you said about THC-cannabis was true, which it's not, hemp is not dangerous at all. So why do the same laws limit and stop people from growing hemp as they do for cannabis? Could it be anything to do with the profits big business makes by controlling our supply of fuels and plastics and pharmaceutical drugs?"

Then the bus stopped and we had to get off. Then I woke up.



Monday 12 October 2020

Love the God of Spinoza.

 


When Einstein gave lectures at U.S. universities, the recurring question that students asked him most was:
- Do you believe in God?
And he always answered:
- I believe in the God of Spinoza.
Baruch de Spinoza was a Dutch philosopher considered one of the great rationalists of 17th century philosophy, along with Descartes.
(Spinoza) : God would say:
Stop praying.
What I want you to do is go out into the world and enjoy your life. I want you to sing, have fun and enjoy everything I've made for you.
Stop going into those dark, cold temples that you built yourself and saying they are my house. My house is in the mountains, in the woods, rivers, lakes, beaches. That's where I live and there I express my love for you.
Stop blaming me for your miserable life; I never told you there was anything wrong with you or that you were a sinner, or that your sexuality was a bad thing. Sex is a gift I have given you and with which you can express your love, your ecstasy, your joy. So don't blame me for everything they made you believe.
Stop reading alleged sacred scriptures that have nothing to do with me. If you can't read me in a sunrise, in a landscape, in the look of your friends, in your son's eyes...  you will find me in no book!
Stop asking me "will you tell me how to do my job?" Stop being so scared of me. I do not judge you or criticize you, nor get angry, or bothered. I am pure love.
Stop asking for forgiveness, there's nothing to forgive. If I made you... I filled you with passions, limitations, pleasures, feelings, needs, inconsistencies... free will. How can I blame you if you respond to something I put in you? How can I punish you for being the way you are, if I'm the one who made you? Do you think I could create a place to burn all my children who behave badly for the rest of eternity? What kind of god would do that?
Respect your peers and don't do what you don't want for yourself. All I ask is that you pay attention in your life, that alertness is your guide.
My beloved, this life is not a test, not a step on the way, not a rehearsal, nor a prelude to paradise. This life is the only thing here and now and it is all you need.
I have set you absolutely free, no prizes or punishments, no sins or virtues, no one carries a marker, no one keeps a record.
You are absolutely free to create in your life. Heaven or hell.
 I can't tell you if there's anything after this life but I can give you a tip. Live as if there is not. As if this is your only chance to enjoy, to love, to exist.
So, if there's nothing after, then you will have enjoyed the opportunity I gave you. And if there is, rest assured that I won't ask if you behaved right or wrong, I'll ask. Did you like it? Did you have fun? What did you enjoy the most? What did you learn?...
Stop believing in me; believing is assuming, guessing, imagining. I don't want you to believe in me, I want you to believe in you. I want you to feel me in you when you kiss your beloved, when you tuck in your little girl, when you caress your dog, when you bathe in the sea.
Stop praising me, what kind of egomaniac God do you think I am?
I'm bored being praised. I'm tired of being thanked. Feeling grateful? Prove it by taking care of yourself, your health, your relationships, the world. Express your joy! That's the way to praise me.
Stop complicating things and repeating as a parakeet what you've been taught about me.
What do you need more miracles for? So many explanations?
The only thing for sure is that you are here, that you are alive, that this world is full of wonders.
- Spinoza

Introduction to the Endocannabinoid System

 Introduction to the Endocannabinoid System

Dustin Sulak, DO, Healer.com
As you read this review of the scientific literature regarding the therapeutic effects of cannabis and cannabinoids, one thing will become quickly evident: cannabis has a profound influence on the human body. This one herb and its variety of therapeutic compounds seem to affect every aspect of our bodies and minds. How is this possible?
At our integrative medical clinics in Maine and Massachusetts, my colleagues and I treat over 18,000 patients with a huge diversity of diseases and symptoms. In one day I might see cancer, Crohn’s disease, epilepsy, chronic pain, multiple sclerosis, insomnia, Tourette syndrome and eczema, just to name a few. All of these conditions have different causes, different physiologic states, and vastly different symptoms. The patients are old and young. Some are undergoing conventional therapy. Others are on a decidedly alternative path. Yet despite their differences, almost all of my patients would agree on one point: cannabis helps their condition.
As a physician, I am naturally wary of any medicine that purports to cure-all. Panaceas, snake-oil remedies, and expensive fads often come and go, with big claims but little scientific or clinical evidence to support their efficacy. As I explore the therapeutic potential of cannabis, however, I find no lack of evidence. In fact, I find an explosion of scientific research on the therapeutic potential of cannabis, more evidence than one can find on some of the most widely used therapies of conventional medicine.
At the time of this writing (February 2015), a PubMed search for scientific journal articles published in the last 20 years containing the word “cannabis” revealed 8,637 results. Add the word “cannabinoid,” and the results increase to 20,991 articles. That’s an average of more than two scientific publications per day over the last 20 years! These numbers not only illustrate the present scientific interest and financial investment in understanding more about cannabis and its components, but they also emphasize the need for high quality reviews and summaries such as the document you are about to read.
How can one herb help so many different conditions? How can it provide both palliative and curative actions? How can it be so safe while offering such powerful effects? The search to answer these questions has led scientists to the discovery of a previously unknown physiologic system, a central component of the health and healing of every human and almost every animal: the endocannabinoid system.

What Is The Endocannabinoid System?

The endogenous cannabinoid system, named after the plant that led to its discovery, is perhaps the most important physiologic system involved in establishing and maintaining human health. Endocannabinoids and their receptors are found throughout the body: in the brain, organs, connective tissues, glands, and immune cells. In each tissue, the cannabinoid system performs different tasks, but the goal is always the same: homeostasis, the maintenance of a stable internal environment despite fluctuations in the external environment.
Cannabinoids promote homeostasis at every level of biological life, from the sub-cellular, to the organism, and perhaps to the community and beyond. Here’s one example: autophagy, a process in which a cell sequesters part of its contents to be self-digested and recycled, is mediated by the cannabinoid system. While this process keeps normal cells alive, allowing them to maintain a balance between the synthesis, degradation, and subsequent recycling of cellular products, it has a deadly effect on malignant tumor cells, causing them to consume themselves in a programmed cellular suicide. The death of cancer cells, of course, promotes homeostasis and survival at the level of the entire organism.
Endocannabinoids and cannabinoids are also found at the intersection of the body’s various systems, allowing communication and coordination between different cell types. At the site of an injury, for example, cannabinoids can be found decreasing the release of activators and sensitizers from the injured tissue, stabilizing the nerve cell to prevent excessive firing, and calming nearby immune cells to prevent release of pro-inflammatory substances. Three different mechanisms of action on three different cell types for a single purpose: minimize the pain and damage caused by the injury.
The endocannabinoid system, with its complex actions in our immune system, nervous system, and all of the body’s organs, is literally a bridge between body and mind. By understanding this system we begin to see a mechanism that explains how states of consciousness can promote health or disease.
In addition to regulating our internal and cellular homeostasis, cannabinoids influence a person’s relationship with the external environment. Socially, the administration of cannabinoids clearly alters human behavior, often promoting sharing, humor, and creativity. By mediating neurogenesis, neuronal plasticity, and learning, cannabinoids may directly influence a person’s open-mindedness and ability to move beyond limiting patterns of thought and behavior from past situations. Reformatting these old patterns is an essential part of health in our quickly changing environment.

What Are Cannabinoid Receptors?

Sea squirts, tiny nematodes, and all vertebrate species share the endocannabinoid system as an essential part of life and adaptation to environmental changes. By comparing the genetics of cannabinoid receptors in different species, scientists estimate that the endocannabinoid system evolved in primitive animals over 600 million years ago.
While it may seem we know a lot about cannabinoids, the estimated twenty thousand scientific articles have just begun to shed light on the subject. Large gaps likely exist in our current understanding, and the complexity of interactions between various cannabinoids, cell types, systems and individual organisms challenges scientists to think about physiology and health in new ways. The following brief overview summarizes what we do know.
Cannabinoid receptors are present throughout the body, embedded in cell membranes, and are believed to be more numerous than any other receptor system. When cannabinoid receptors are stimulated, a variety of physiologic processes ensue. Researchers have identified two cannabinoid receptors: CB1, predominantly present in the nervous system, connective tissues, gonads, glands, and organs; and CB2, predominantly found in the immune system and its associated structures. Many tissues contain both CB1 and CB2 receptors, each linked to a different action. Researchers speculate there may be a third cannabinoid receptor waiting to be discovered.
Endocannabinoids are the substances our bodies naturally make to stimulate these receptors. The two most well understood of these molecules are called anandamide and 2-arachidonolglyceraol (2-AG). They are synthesized on-demand from cell membrane arachidonic acid derivatives, have a local effect and short half-life before being degraded by the enzymes fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and monoacylglycerol lipase (MAGL).
Phytocannabinoids are plant substances that stimulate cannabinoid receptors. Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, is the most psychoactive and certainly the most famous of these substances, but other cannabinoids such as cannabidiol (CBD) and cannabinol (CBN) are gaining the interest of researchers due to a variety of healing properties. Most phytocannabinoids have been isolated from cannabis sativa, but other medical herbs, such as echinacea purpura, have been found to contain non-psychoactive cannabinoids as well.
Interestingly, the cannabis plant also uses THC and other cannabinoids to promote its own health and prevent disease. Cannabinoids have antioxidant properties that protect the leaves and flowering structures from ultraviolet radiation – cannabinoids neutralize the harmful free radicals generated by UV rays, protecting the cells. In humans, free radicals cause aging, cancer, and impaired healing. Antioxidants found in plants have long been promoted as natural supplements to prevent free radical harm.
Laboratories can also produce cannabinoids. Synthetic THC, marketed as dronabinol(Marinol), and nabilone (Cesamet), a THC analog, are both FDA approved drugs for the treatment of severe nausea and wasting syndrome. Some clinicians have found them helpful in the off-label treatment of chronic pain, migraine, and other serious conditions. Many other synthetic cannabinoids are used in animal research, and some have potency up to 600 times that of THC.

Cannabis, The Endocannabinoid System, And Good Health

As we continue to sort through the emerging science of cannabis and cannabinoids, one thing remains clear: a functional cannabinoid system is essential for health. From embryonic implantation on the wall of our mother’s uterus, to nursing and growth, to responding to injuries, endocannabinoids help us survive in a quickly changing and increasingly hostile environment. As I realized this, I began to wonder: can an individual enhance his/her cannabinoid system by taking supplemental cannabis? Beyond treating symptoms, beyond even curing disease, can cannabis help us prevent disease and promote health by stimulating an ancient system that is hard-wired into all of us?
I now believe the answer is yes. Research has shown that small doses of cannabinoids from cannabis can signal the body to make more endocannabinoids and build more cannabinoid receptors. This is why many first-time cannabis users don’t feel an effect, but by their second or third time using the herb they have built more cannabinoid receptors and are ready to respond. More receptors increase a person’s sensitivity to cannabinoids; smaller doses have larger effects, and the individual has an enhanced baseline of endocannabinoid activity. I believe that small, regular doses of cannabis might act as a tonic to our most central physiologic healing system.
Many physicians cringe at the thought of recommending a botanical substance, and are outright mortified by the idea of smoking a medicine. Our medical system is more comfortable with single, isolated substances that can be swallowed or injected. Unfortunately, this model significantly limits the therapeutic potential of cannabinoids.
Unlike synthetic derivatives, herbal cannabis may contain over one hundred different cannabinoids, including THC, which all work synergistically to produce better medical effects and less side effects than THC alone. While cannabis is safe and works well when smoked, many patients prefer to avoid respiratory irritation and instead use a vaporizer, cannabis tincture, or topical salve. Scientific inquiry and patient testimonials both indicate that herbal cannabis has superior medical qualities to synthetic cannabinoids.
In 1902 Thomas Edison said, “There were never so many able, active minds at work on the problems of disease as now, and all their discoveries are tending toward the simple truth that you can’t improve on nature.” Cannabinoid research has proven this statement is still valid.
So, is it possible that medical cannabis could be the most useful remedy to treat the widest variety of human diseases and conditions, a component of preventative healthcare, and an adaptive support in our increasingly toxic, carcinogenic environment? Yes. This was well known to the indigenous medical systems of ancient India, China, and Tibet, and as you will find in this report, is becoming increasingly well known by Western science. Of course, we need more human-based research studying the effectiveness of cannabis, but the evidence base is already large and growing constantly, despite the DEA’s best efforts to discourage cannabis-related research.
Does your doctor understand the benefit of medical cannabis? Can he or she advise you in the proper indications, dosage, and route of administration? Likely not. Despite the two largest U.S. physician associations (American Medical Association and American College of Physicians) calling for more research, the U.S. Congress prohibiting federal interference in states’ medical cannabis programs, a 5,000 year history of safe therapeutic use, and a huge amount of published research, most doctors know little or nothing about medical cannabis.
This is changing, in part because the public is demanding it. People want safe, natural and inexpensive treatments that stimulate our bodies’ ability to self-heal and help our population improve its quality of life. Medical cannabis is one such solution. This summary is an excellent tool for spreading the knowledge and helping to educate patients and healthcare providers on the scientific evidence behind the medical use of cannabis and cannabinoids.