DEA warns of stoned rabbits if Utah passes medical marijuana http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/03/02/dea-warns-of-stoned-rabbits-if-utah-passes-medical-marijuana/?wprss=rss_business Utah is considering a bill that would allow patients with certain debilitating conditions to be treated with edible forms of marijuana. If the bill passes, the state's wildlife may "cultivate a taste" for the plant, lose their fear of humans, and basically be high all the time. That's according to testimony presented to a Utah Senate panel (time stamp 58:00) last week by an agent of the Drug Enforcement Administration. "I deal in facts. I deal in science," said special agent Matt Fairbanks, who's been working in the state for a decade. He is member of the "marijuana eradication" team in Utah. Some of his colleagues in Georgia recently achieved notoriety by raiding a retiree's garden and seizing a number of okra plants. Fairbanks spoke of his time eliminating back-country marijuana grows in the Utah mountains, specifically the environmental costs associated with large-scale weed cultivation on public land: "Personally, I have seen entire mountainsides subjected to pesticides, harmful chemicals, deforestation and erosion," he said. "The ramifications to the flora, the animal life, the contaminated water, are still unknown." Fairbanks said that at some illegal marijuana grow sites he saw "rabbits that had cultivated a taste for the marijuana. ..." He continued: "One of them refused to leave us, and we took all the marijuana around him, but his natural instincts to run were somehow gone. It's true that illegal pot farming can have harmful environmental consequences. Of course, nothing about these consequences is unique to marijuana. If corn were outlawed and cartels started growing it in national forests, the per-plant environmental toll would be about the same. But backcountry marijuana grows are a direct result of marijuana's illegal status. If you're concerned about the environmental impact of these grows, an alternative is to legalize and regulate the plant so that people can grow it on farms and in their gardens, rather than on remote mountainsides. Now, regarding rabbits. Some wild animals apparently do develop a taste for bud (and, yes, best to keep it away from your pets). But I don't know that the occasional high rabbit constitutes grounds for keeping marijuana prohibition in place, any more than drunk squirrels are an argument for outlawing alcohol. And let's not even get started on the nationwide epidemic of catnip abuse. There was a time, not too long ago, when drug warriors terrified a nation with images of "the devil's weed" and "reefer madness." Now, it seems that enforcers of marijuana law conjuring up a stoned bunny? Not scary enough for the Utah Senate, it seems: the panel approved the bill and sent it to the full Senate, where it will be debated this week.
No doubt the Mormons would find every way out of allowing "this evil drug" into their state. That aside, its wonderful to hear more and more states aren't falling susceptible to outdated propaganda against cannabis! And the whole rabbit deal could be fixed by simply growing inside. The government is grasping at straws now
I wouldn't believe a single word this DEA guy says. If weed remains illegal, then the government has reason to keep them employed... so they spout nonsense like this in the hope that things will stay that way.
bunnies need weed too! they are natural philosophers and want to sit back and contemplate greenery. the advocating bunny not leaving the scene when they showed up to pot bust the plants in the woods was funny as shit. that bunny was evolving on the spot to accept fucked up humans and be OK with them. can't bunnies and humans just get along
This is the face of tyranny. Between your laughs take note, so that you do not forget it later. ~ poke
Speaking of tyranny- "Tyranny is defined as that which is legal for the government, but illegal for the citizenry." - attributed to Thomas Jefferson 4 Americans get medical pot from the feds (news – 2014) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/4-americans-get-medical-pot-from-the-feds/ Chronic Cannabis Use in the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program (full - 2002) http://www.maps.org/mmj/russo2002.pdf The US Government grows, "manufactures" and sends via the US Mail, 300 pre-rolled "marijuana cigarettes" to certain American citizens to treat their ailments. The US Government is in the medical marijuana business and has been for DECADES! So, if you and I were to mail 300 joints to a sick friend in another state, we all would be facing time in a federal prison! Yet our government has been sending marijuana through the mail since 1976! Think about that quote and the Compassionate Investigational New Drug Program. And are you registered to vote? Granny
Holy shit, they will say anything to get their way will they? Sad truth is some people will believe this crap! SeNt FrOm My•🌟☆GaL@x¥ $5☆🌟•
This really is scraping the bottom of the barrel for excuses. And it's a straight up lie because (correct me if I am wrong) but at least for mammals, marijuana is not active unless activated through heat. Which can't be done from eating raw plant material. But if you can trick people into thinking there will be stoned deer just standing in the road waiting to get hit, it will convince a few scared fucktards to vote no.
Reading things like this makes me shake my head and wonder what kind of senseless airheads are running this country. Can't legalize weed because bunnies like the weed. How about tobacco? Kills humans and the litering of cig butts probably kills bunnies also... No wonder they prefer weed
Red, long ago I took a college course on "Animal Care Technology". One of the profs like to bring up "odd little facts" for our amusement (or horror, sometimes). One of these facts was that if you put a single drop of pure nicotine on a rabbits ear, you would have a very dead rabbit within hours! I don't think wild rabbits would be dumb enough to eat a cigarette but! One sniff and they'd be off looking for something non-poisonous! Granny