At Crème De Cana, the half pints of ice cream have titles that may have Ben and Jerry taking notes.

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Sorcery

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

“for by thy sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft. were all nations deceived.”
—Rev 18:23c

The current flavors owner Jonathan Kolodinski offers at Creme De Canna, which opened last week, are Banannabis Foster, Straw-Mari Cheesecake and TRIPLE Chocolate Brownie. Kolodinski said more flavors are in the works.

Kolodinksi said he is offering the ice cream as a healthy alternative to patients who do not want to smoke medical marijuana, and so far, business is off to a smoking start.
“Everybody who’s tried it has said they absolutely love it. A lot of people come back for seconds, thirds and fourths,” Kolodinksi said.
At $15 a piece, the half-pints of ice cream are potent.
Klodinski said there are about two to four doses of cannabis for each half-pint, which means finishing one would be similar to smoking an eighth of high-grade marijuana, the equivalent of eight joints.
Klodinski said that critics of his pot-laced ice cream shouldn’t worry if the concoction is grabbing the wrong sort of attention, because in the end, his goal is to help his patients.
“We very explicitly label all our products with a marijuana leaf that says ‘Keep out of reach of children’. We have been very mindful,” Klodinski said. “I’ve got a daughter. I come from a very conservative family.” Also, the card-carrying marijuana patients cannot eat the ice cream at the collective.
While the city of Santa Cruz has banned more dispensaries from opening up in the city, the county of Santa Cruz does not have any laws currently in place.
County Supervisor John Leopold has been trying to put an ordinance in place that would regulate marijuana retailers.

Mind-altering drugs like LSD, ketamine or magic mushrooms could be combined with psychotherapy to treat people suffering from depression, compulsive disorders or chronic pain, Swiss scientists suggested on Wednesday.

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Sorcery

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

“for by thy sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft. were all nations deceived.”
—Rev 18:23c

Research into the effects of psychedelics, used in the past in psychiatry, has been restricted in recent decades because of the negative connotations of drugs, but the scientists said more studies into their clinical potential were now justified.

The researchers said recent brain imaging studies show that psychedelics such as lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), ketamine and psilocybin — the psychoactive component in recreational drugs known as magic mushrooms — act on the brain in ways that could help reduce symptoms of various psychiatric disorders.

The drugs could be used as a kind of catalyst, the scientists said, helping patients to alter their perception of problems or pain levels and then work with behavioral therapists or psychotherapists to tackle them in new ways.

“Psychedelics can give patients a new perspective — particularly when things like suppressed memories come up — and then they can work with that experience,” said Franz Vollenweider of the Neuropsychopharmacology and brain imaging unit at Zurich’s University Hospital of Psychiatry, who published a paper on the issue in Nature Neuroscience journal.

Depending on the type of person taking the drug, the dose and the situation, psychedelics can have a wide range of effects, experts say, from feelings of boundlessness and bliss at one end of the spectrum to anxiety-inducing feelings of loss of control and panic at the other.

LOW DOSES

Vollenweider and his colleague Michael Kometer, who also worked on the paper, said evidence from previous studies suggests such drugs might help ease mental health problems by acting on the brain circuits and neurotransmitter systems that are known to be altered in people with depression and anxiety.

But if doctors were to use them to treat psychiatric patients in future, it would be important to keep doses of the drugs low, and ensure they were given over a relatively short time period in combination with therapy sessions, they said.

“The idea is that it would be very limited, maybe several sessions over a few months, not a long-term thing like other types of medication,” Vollenweider said in a phone interview.

A small study published by U.S. scientists this month found that an infusion of ketamine — an anaesthetic used legally in both human and veterinary medicine, but also abused by people who use it recreationally — can lift the mood within minutes in patients with severe bipolar depression.

Mental illnesses such as depression are a growing health problem around the world and Vollenweider and Kometer said many patients with severe or chronic psychiatric problems fail to respond to medicines like the widely-prescribed selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, like Prozac or Paxil.

“These are serious, debilitating, life-shortening illnesses, and as the currently available treatments have high failure rates, psychedelics might offer alternative treatment strategies that could improve the well-being of patients and the associated economic burden on patients and society,” they wrote.

The city of Oakland, California on Tuesday legalized large-scale marijuana cultivation for medical use and will issue up to four permits for “industrial” cultivation starting next year.

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Sorcery

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

The move by the San Francisco Bay Area city aims to bring medical marijuana cultivation into the open and allow the city to profit by taxing those who grow it.

The resolution passed the city council easily after a nearly four-hour debate that pitted small-scale “garden” growers against advocates of a bigger, industrial system that would become a “Silicon Valley” of pot.

“This is going to grow as an industry. And someone is going to have a high-tech producer,” Council Member Jean Quan said during the debate.

Oakland already taxes sales of medical marijuana, but cultivation has existed in a legal gray area. Council members plan later action to levy new taxes on growers.

The city’s decision is separate from a statewide ballot initiative to legalize marijuana for adult recreational use which Californians will vote on in November.

Polls put support for the November state legalization measure at about 50 percent of voters, and if it passed, the state would be the first to broadly legalize its use. Many jurisdictions tolerate some personal use and small sales, but none allow major-scale growing, sales and recreational use.

U.S. Federal law bans marijuana use of any sort but law enforcement authorities have turned a virtual blind eye to medical marijuana.

Large-scale cultivation in California so far has been dominated by criminals who grow marijuana in national forests or complexes of grow houses, law enforcement officers say.

The toughest opposition at the Tuesday city council meeting in Oakland came from the small-scale marijuana growers who feel they will be squeezed out of the market by the new ‘agribusiness’. Outright opponents to marijuana use were silent.

(Editing by Alan Elsner)

Mexican drug gangs have expanded their activities in the US with heroin production doubling in 2008, the US justice department says in a report.

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Iniquity Abounding

“For the mystery of iniquity•Strongs 458: anomia, an-om-ee´-ah; from 459; illegality, i.e. violation of law or (genitive case) wickedness:—iniquity, x transgress(-ion of) the law, unrighteousness.
•Strongs 459: anomos, an´-om-os; from 1 (as a negative particle) and 3551; lawless, i.e. (negatively) not subject to (the Jewish) law; (by implication, a Gentile), or (positively) wicked:—without law, lawless, transgressor, unlawful, wicked. doth already work: only he who now letteth•Strongs 2722: katecho, kat-ekh´-o; from 2596 and 2192; to hold down (fast), in various applications (literally or figuratively):—have, hold (fast), keep (in memory), let, x make toward, possess, retain, seize on, stay, take, withhold. will let, until he be taken out of the way.”
—2Thessalonians 2:7

Sorcery

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

Despite US funding for the war on drugs, trade in marijuana, ecstasy and methamphetamine also grew, the National Drug Threat Assessment said.
The report found that Mexican groups were active in every region of the US.
Gangs were moving an estimated $40bn (£27bn) in cash back into Mexico across the border each year, it added.
Mexico has long been the main conduit for illicit drugs smuggled into the US but this report suggests that the efforts to halt the flow on both sides of the border have had only a limited impact, the BBC’s Richard Lister reports from Washington.
In 2007 the US pledged $1.4bn (£0.9bn) over three years to fight the drugs cartels but the following year heroin production in Mexico rose from 17 to 38 metric tonnes.
This, the report says, led to lower heroin prices and more overdose deaths in the US.
Network growth
The report found that Mexican heroin was poised to take a “more significant share” of the market in US cities where South American heroin has traditionally dominated.
For Asian heroin, the US continued to be a secondary market, it said.
The assessment says that Mexican drug suppliers have increased their co-operation with American street and prison gangs to expand their distribution networks.
Speaking in Mexico City earlier this week, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for more efforts to tackle the social issues such as poverty that fuel the drugs trade.
Mexico, which has some 50,000 troops engaged against the cartels, has suggested that American money and equipment has not arrived quickly enough.

A California voter initiative that would legalize possession and sale of marijuana has qualified for the November ballot, state election officials said on Wednesday, in what supporters called a “watershed moment” for their cause.

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Sorcery

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

“Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
—Isaiah 5:20

Passage of the measure, by no means certain, would make California the first U.S. state to legalize marijuana. Backers believe the state could be at the vanguard of a national movement toward decriminalizing the drug.

“This is a watershed moment in the decades-long struggle to end marijuana prohibition in this country,” said Stephen Gutwillig, California director of the Drug Policy Alliance, which has spearheaded the ballot initiative.

“Banning marijuana outright has been a disaster, fueling a massive, increasingly brutal underground economy, wasting billions in scarce law enforcement resources and making criminals out of countless law-abiding citizens,” he said.

California Secretary of State Debra Bowen said in a written statement that her office had certified the measure for the November 2 general election ballot after backers submitted the required number of signatures on petitions.

Bowen said that proponents, who needed 433,971 valid signatures to qualify for the ballot, had submitted 694,248 that were verified through a random sampling.

POLLS SHOW MANY SUPPORT MEASURE

Legalizing marijuana appears to have broad support in the state, with some 56 percent of Californians surveyed in an April, 2009 Field Poll saying they favored making it legal for social use and taxing the sales proceeds.

In October, Gallup found 44 percent of Americans favored legalization.

Activists have suggested that taxing marijuana sales could help bail out the cash-strapped state, but plenty of Californians still oppose marijuana.

“With legalization of recreational marijuana use, impaired driving, fatalities, injuries and crashes will go up, and we don’t want to see that,” California Mothers Against Drunk Driving spokesman Silas Miers said.

The measure’s qualification for the ballot was “the first step toward its defeat,” said John Lovell, a lobbyist who represents a number of law enforcement groups.

Critics also say the social costs of a free-smoking state far outweigh the money it would bring in.

They say that the already enormous societal damage from alcohol and tobacco use would only increase if people were allowed to legally sell and smoke pot.

Under the initiative, simple possession of an ounce (28.5 grams) or less of marijuana, currently a misdemeanor offense punishable by a $100 fine, would be legal for anyone at least 21. It also would be lawful to grow limited amounts in one’s own home for personal use.

While sales would not be legalized outright, cities and counties could pass laws permitting commercial distribution subject to local regulations and taxes. Retail sales would still be limited to an ounce for adults 21 and older.

(Additional reporting by Peter Henderson in San Francisco and Steve Gorman in San Diego, Editing by Stacey Joyce)

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton promised on Tuesday to help Mexico broaden a drug war that has failed to curb traffickers’ increasingly deadly power along the U.S.-Mexican border

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Perilous Times

“This know also, that in the last days perilous•Strongs 5467: chalepos, khal-ep-os´; perhaps from 5465 through the idea of reducing the strength; difficult, i.e. dangerous, or (by implication) furious:—fierce, perilous. times shall come.”
—2 Timothy 3:1-2a

Editors note about the word perilous•FYI: The Greek word (chalepos) (perilous) is only used one other time in the New Testament, Matthew 8:28. There it is translated as (fierce) when describing the nature of the devils that possess Legion and his cohort.

Spiritual Wickedness

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities•Strongs 746: arche, ar-khay´; from 756; (properly abstract) a commencement, or (concretely) chief (in various applications of order, time, place, or rank): — beginning, corner, (at the, the) first (estate), magistrate, power, principality, principle, rule., against powers•Strongs 1849: exousia, ex-oo-see´-ah; from 1832 (in the sense of ability); privilege, i.e. (subjectively) force, capacity, competency, freedom, or (objectively) mastery (concretely, magistrate, superhuman, potentate, token of control), delegated influence: — authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength., against the rulers•Strongs 2888: kosmokrator, kos-mok-fat´-ore; from 2889 and 2902; a world-ruler, an epithet of Satan: — ruler. of the darkness•Strongs 4655: skotos, skot´-os; from the base of 4639; shadiness, i.e. obscurity (literally or figuratively): — darkness. of this world, against spiritual•Strongs 4152: pneumatikos, pnyoo-mat-ik-os´; from 4151; non-carnal, i.e. (humanly) ethereal (as opposed to gross), or (daemoniacally) a spirit (concretely), or (divinely) supernatural, regenerate, religious: — spiritual. Compare 5591. wickedness•Strongs 4189: poneria, pon-ay-ree´-ah; from 4190; depravity, i.e. (specially), malice; plural (concretely) plots, sins: — iniquity, wickedness. in high•Strongs 2032: epouranios, ep-oo-ran´-ee-os; from 1909 and 3772; above the sky: — celestial, (in) heaven(-ly), high. places.”
—Ephesians 6:12

Sorcery

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

Clinton, leading a top-level U.S. delegation in Mexico City for a day of talks, said it was time to tackle the deeper social issues that fuel the narcotics trade as both nations battle to outmaneuver powerful smuggling organizations.

“These narcotics cartels are waging war on civil society,” Clinton told a news conference, pledging that the joint U.S.-Mexican response would not be bound by “borders or bureaucratic divisions.”

Clinton said anti-drug efforts must move beyond efforts to disrupt trafficking organizations and seek to strengthen law enforcement agencies, increase economic opportunity and set up a “21st Century border” that can promote security, trade and movement between the two neighbors.

The weight of the delegation — including Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and military Joint Chiefs of Staff chair Admiral Mike Mullen — underscored Washington’s concern over the raging drug violence to the south.

That concern sharpened after the shooting deaths this month of two U.S. citizens in the violent Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez, an attack that raised the question of what Washington could do to bolster security without being seen as interfering in Mexico’s internal affairs.

The United States is already deeply involved in Mexico’s struggle with drug gangs and has pledged some $1.4 billion over three years in a thus-far unsuccessful effort to crush cartels who ship $40 billion worth of illegal drugs north each year.

Mexican critics say the United States has not done enough to help and that aid already pledged has been slow to arrive.

Mexican Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa said the U.S. team had promised to speed assistance and resolve “bottlenecks that have delayed the delivery of equipment we need.”

MORE WORK AHEAD

Mexico’s drug violence is a major political test for President Felipe Calderon and a worry for Washington, foreign investors and tourists. A poll in Mexican newspaper Milenio on Tuesday showed 59 percent of respondents think cartels are winning the drug war, while 21 percent say the government is.

U.S. officials say there is no evidence the Americans were deliberately targeted in Ciudad Juarez, but the attack highlighted the growing security threat in the border region, and U.S. officials vow that justice will be served.

“There’s a real focus on identifying the perpetrators of this crime. It is outrageous,” Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told reporters aboard Clinton’s plane.

Tuesday’s discussions focused on the next steps for Plan Merida, the $1.4 billion U.S. initiative launched in 2007 to help Mexico fight the cartels.

Clinton promised to step up U.S. efforts to prevent guns from flowing southwards — a major source of arms for traffickers — and to work to address illegal drug demand in both countries, a key underlying cause of the crisis.

Napolitano said Mexico could expect more U.S. drug enforcement, border security teams, sniffer dogs, license plate readers and better intelligence sharing, but said Washington also wants to broaden the primarily military focus of the effort.

Clinton said emphasis on social programs was important in the wake of the financial crisis that left many on both sides of the border with few economic options. “The recent downturn in economic growth and remittances has aided the drug traffickers in their recruitment of young people,” she said.

Calderon recently visited Ciudad Juarez, where drug gang violence has killed some 4,600 people in two years, and launched programs, including new schools, nurseries and soccer pitches, aimed at enticing youths away from drug cartels.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn; Editing by Bill Trott)

DALLAS, Texas — Something called “cheese” is killing kids. In August of 2005, no one had even heard of it — so much so, that when a school district police officer first saw a bag of this drug, he thought it was fake. Now officials realize cheese is all too real; at least 21 kids have died from overdosing on it.

Sorcery

To view dictionary popup window put your cursor on the blue scripture words.

“Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries•Strongs 5331: pharmakeia, far-mak-i´-ah; from 5332; medication (“pharmacy”), i.e. (by extension) magic (literally or figuratively): — sorcery, witchcraft., nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.”
—Revelation 9:21

Cheese is a combination of black tar heroin and crushed up Tylenol PM tablets and hits of it sell for a buck or two. Like any type of heroin, cheese is highly addictive and deadly. If that’s not enough to scare you, there’s this: drug pushers cooked it up special for kids.

“Traditionally heroin is going to be an adult user drug,” says Dallas Independent School District Officer Jeremy Liebbe. “Black tar heroin is cooked on a spoon, mixed with liquid and injected. Meaning needles. Not many kids are wild about needles, so if you want to market heroin to kids you’ve got to come up with an alternative to it.”

And that’s exactly what drug dealers in the Dallas area have done — they’ve come up with a form that can be snorted and gave it a seemingly benign name: “cheese.” But cheese is just the start. Have you heard of “Strawberry Quick?” It’s not a kid’s drink — it’s a kid’s methamphetamine. Drug dealers mix meth with Kool-Aid in an attempt to make it look and taste better. And again, there’s the snappy name. While Strawberry Quick hasn’t made a big splash in Dallas, it is gaining ground in other parts of the country.

The DEA says the whole act of marketing drugs to kids is a dangerous and relatively new trend.
“They’re looking for a new consumer, ” says James Capra, the Special Agent In Charge of the DEA office in Dallas. “They’ve taken the tactic that advertising people have taken for years; you want to sell a product, you’ve got do a good marketing approach to it.”

The anecdote for any slick marketing campaign is the truth. Cheese users, if they live, eventually escalate to needle use. And if they try to get off cheese, users have horrible physical and mental withdrawal symptoms. So of course it’s best never to start. As for meth, anyone who’s seen a meth addict, with their scabbed skin and rotting teeth, knows what a con “Strawberry Quick” is.

What can you do? Fernando Cortez is getting involved. He lost his 15-year-old son to cheese earlier this year. Cortez swears his son wasn’t a user and is haunted by what-ifs. What if he had done this versus that? Would his son still be alive? In the end, Cortez has had to put away those thoughts and channel his grief into something that could save lives. He goes to Dallas schools, speaking out about his painful experience and giving out his cell phone number to anyone who needs to talk. He urges parents to do the same — talk to their kids.

Drug experts add this advice: don’t bury your head in the sand. If your child’s grades drop, he loses interest in the activities he once loved, if he changes friends, if he starts to have trouble at school … all of these are warning signs that need to be acted upon immediately. With drug dealers stepping up their efforts to target your kids, police and drug counselors say we should all make as much of an effort to keep them safe.