17 thoughts on “Wednesday Open Thread”

1. boyles is reporting that Evie Hudak is resigning.

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2. Inquiring minds want to know: Who in the legislature is going to oppose using the state's medical marijuana fund to research marijuana's medical uses? You know, generate those peer-reviewed studies that some folks claim there aren't enough of?

   Colorado media have lately been flush with stories of how the oil derived from certain strains of marijuana is having a positive effect on epileptic children. Now, likely for the first time in American history, a state will actually fund the research to back up that kind of anecdotal evidence.

   That assumes, of course, that the $7 million allocated in Gov. John Hickenlooper's 2014 budget — plus $84,656 to pay for a full-time fund administrator — actually passes legislative muster during the upcoming session. But should it, grants sized between $500,000 and $1 million would be available to universities, research hospitals, foundations and the like to study cannabis' effect on maladies like epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder, or the effect of marijuana in infant brain development.

   "The impetus is that we have about $13 million in the Medical Marijuana [Program] Cash Fund, and it needs to be used for purposes that relate to the people who paid for their medical-marijuana cards," says Henry Sobanet, director of the Governor's Office of State Planning and Budgeting, in an interview with the Indy. "And the impetus really was that now there appears to be ways where legitimate research can be conducted on the use of cannabis or marijuana for medical purposes."

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   1. Hell, yeah!

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   2. The next hurdle would be to get the federal government to allow such research. They have prohibited this kind of research in the past.

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      1. Well, good luck with that. Here's what one cannabis researcher, Dr. Donald Abrams, has to say:

         And as a cancer doctor, I see patients every day, people who are benefiting from the use of cannabis. The problem is the government does not allow cannabis to be studied as a therapeutic agent because the only legal source is the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and they have a congressional mandate only to study substances' abuse, as substances of abuse. So that's a bit of a catch-22.

         Of course, not everyone agrees with him on the NPR program cited.

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      2. California has done studies with their own state money, so it's possible.

         Whether or not the FDA accepts the study as valid is another matter.

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3. I almost made a terrible error. With all this talk about the first day of Chanukah coming on Thanksgiving I clean spaced that wouldn't be the first night, Jewish days starting at sundown of what is the previous day western style. So it's tonight!  What happened to my extra day and the convenient combining of first night of  Chanukah and Thanksgiving? Just had to run out and buy something nice for tonight in addition to my contribution to Thanksgivukah tomorrow. Gotta go! Happy Chanukah! Happy Thanksgiving! 

    

   By the way, according to Mom's rabbi it's the earliest start since 1918.  Also spell check doesn't recognize this old spelling of Chanukah but I like it better because it makes the pronunciation a little more clear. Pronounce as if hawking up a hairball. Don't eat too many chocolate coins but have fun.

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   1. Better get those latkes going!

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   2. Happy Chanukah!

      

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      1. Thanks mama, But just FYI if you have any really observant older Jewish friends don't send them dogs in tahleet (the fringy things). Even to an old secularist like me it's just a taste unsettling.  I still cringe when somebody says the Hebrew name of God out loud. Can't help it. It's forbidden. Don't ask. Of course I really appreciate the thought and on second glance, they are pretty cute. Happy Thanksgiving!

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         1. Oops, good to know. My mother's family abandoned all of their Jewish traditions when they fled Austria, and they were pretty secular, too.

             

             

             

             

             

             

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   3. So when Chanukah intersects Thanksgiving,do you put cranberry sauce on the latkes?  

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      1. Why not? 

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      2. Of course it hasn't happened before in my life time or my 88 year old mother's so so here really isn't any established  tradition. Sounds good though. Applesauce is common already.

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         1. That would be "so there". Was in a big hurry to get off line.

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   4. My spouse was considerate enough to point that out for me in advance.

      After tonight's latkes for 15, fried turkey for 7 tomorrow looks like a reprieve.

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4. Eliot-under what legal theory would you achieve castration of a person with testicles to prevent the from using a restroom?

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