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North Dakota ‘Water Protectors’ Reclaim Land, Build New Camps To Block Dakota Access Pipeline

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

In response to the fast pace of pipeline construction and mounting pressure from an increasingly violent police presence, activists opposed to the Dakota Access pipeline are expanding their efforts to block construction in North Dakota.

More than 125 “water protectors” were arrested over the weekend during multiple nonviolent direct actions aimed at halting construction of the 1,100-mile pipeline which is slated to run through four states.

Armored riot police attacked a march on Saturday with tear gas and arrested 83 people on charges ranging from assault on a peace officer to rioting and criminal trespass. Police also shot down two camera drones operated by Native American journalists.

The Green Party Is Failing Sex Workers

Posted in Journalism, Sex & Relationships, and The Establishment

At a time when our country’s two major political parties are increasingly alienating, many politically engaged voters are turning in exasperated hope to third party candidates, like the Green Party’s Jill Stein.

It’s no wonder the party attracts the attention of progressives, independents, seasoned voters, and newly mobilized Bernie Sanders supporters alike: the Green Party bases its platform on 10 key values, ranging from social justice and equal opportunity to nonviolence and ecological wisdom. Stein has called for a 50% cut to military spending, proposes a “Green New Deal” that would invest in renewable energy infrastructure, has called for an immediate forgiveness to all student loans, and has been a very vocal critic of the corruption in the DNC.

While Stein’s positions are often controversial, the desire for an alternative to the Democrats and Republicans isn’t hard to understand in this election cycle. Especially for left-wing voters looking for a candidate who will stand up for the rights of workers and our society’s most marginalized, the Green Party is, at least ideologically, an ideal choice.

But the party has a major, hypocritical flaw.

DEA Delays ‘Unprecedented’ Ban On Kratom Amid Popular Protest & Government Pushback

Posted in Archive, Journalism, and MintPress News

The Drug Enforcement Agency has delayed the implementation of its ban on kratom, a plant-based treatment for depression, anxiety, chronic pain and addiction that originated in Southeast Asia but has gained widespread popularity in the United States.

Although the DEA has abandoned the emergency scheduling decision announced on Aug. 30, the agency says it still plans to classify kratom as a Schedule I drug, alongside substances like heroin, cocaine, and even marijuana, which the federal government claims have no medical benefits.

“We have determined that it represents an imminent hazard, so we’re not going to drag our feet very long,” DEA spokesman Russ Baer said on Sept. 30, the day the ban was supposed to go into effect. “It’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when.”

From Facebook To The DEA, Industrial Hemp Industry Growth Stumped By War on Drugs

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

America’s burgeoning hemp industry faces significant barriers that can only be torn down by the full legalization of this potentially lucrative crop.

Hemp was once one of America’s essential crops, grown by presidents and cash croppers alike, and wars were fought over access to this valuable commodity. It became illegal to grow hemp in the United States with the passage of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. The federal law bans all forms of the cannabis plant, even though industrial hemp has very low levels of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis that’s grown for recreational or medicinal use.

The 2014 Farm Bill reopened the door to legal hemp cultivation by allowing states which had legalized industrial hemp to license farmers to grow the plant for research purposes, including market research. But many aspects of federal regulation and law surrounding hemp remain “opaque” and confusing, according to John Ryan, founder and director of Ananda Hemp. A subsidiary of the Australian hemp company EcoFibre Industries, Ananda Hemp is growing hundreds of acres of hemp in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Why Veterans With PTSD Are Turning To Cannabis

Posted in Journalism, and The Establishment

When Dr. Sue Sisley, a lifelong Republican, was just beginning her residency at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Phoenix, she refused to believe her patients when they told her about the healing potential of cannabis.

“I’ve always been interested in cannabis as a social justice issue and a matter of public policy, but I was never able to embrace it as medicine until these veterans really taught me how,” Sisley told me.

Sisley was “highly dismissive and judgmental” of marijuana at first but, over time, as more and more veterans shared their experiences, she started to accept its therapeutic potential.

Now, not only does she regularly treat multiple conditions by prescribing legal medical cannabis as an Arizona-based family physician, she’s part of a team involved in the first government-funded study to examine the effectiveness of cannabis in treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in vets.

Dakota Access Pipeline ‘Water Protectors’ Block Construction Despite National Guard Blockade, Police Harassment & Arrests

Posted in Journalism, and MintPress News

Amid near continuous harassment and frequent arrests by police, members of over 300 Native American tribes gathered on native land in North Dakota continue to block construction on the Dakota Access pipeline.

“It’s a matter of minutes from when they’re called that they show up and you see constant harassment of people going back and forth to camp,” said Remy, a Diné artist and organizer at the encampment on Standing Rock Sioux territory, known as Oceti Sakowin Camp.

“It shows how close the ties are between the Dakota Access pipeline and law enforcement.”