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afeelgoodblog · 1 year

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The Best News of Last Year

1. Belgium approves four-day week and gives employees the right to ignore their bosses after work

Workers in Belgium will soon be able to choose a four-day week under a series of labour market reforms announced on Tuesday.

The reform package agreed by the country's multi-party coalition government will also give workers the right to turn off work devices and ignore work-related messages after hours without fear of reprisal.

"We have experienced two difficult years. With this agreement, we set a beacon for an economy that is more innovative, sustainable and digital. The aim is to be able to make people and businesses stronger," Belgian prime minister Alexander de Croo told a press conference announcing the reform package.

2. Spain makes it a crime for pro-lifers to harass people outside abortion clinics

Spain has criminalized the harassment or intimidation of women going for an abortion under new legislation approved on Wednesday by the Senate. The move, which involved changes to the penal code, means anti-abortion activists who try to convince women not to terminate their pregnancies could face up to a year behind bars.

3. House passes bill to federally decriminalize marijuana

The House has voted with a slim bipartisan majority to federally decriminalize marijuana. The vote was 220 to 204.

The bill, sponsored by Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York, will prevent federal agencies from denying federal workers security clearances for cannabis use, and will allow the Veterans’ Administration to recommend medical marijuana to veterans living with posttraumatic stress disorder.

The bill also expunges the record of people convicted of non-violent cannabis offenses, which House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said, “can haunt people of color and impact the trajectory of their lives and career indefinitely.”

4. France makes birth control free for all women under 25

The scheme, which could benefit three million women, covers the pill, IUDs, contraceptive patches and other methods composed of steroid hormones.

Contraception for minors was already free in France. Several European countries, including Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway, make contraception free for teens.

5. The 1st fully hydrogen-powered passenger train service is now running in Germany. The only emissions are steam & condensed water.

Five of the trains started running in August. Another nine will be added in the coming months to replace 15 diesel trains on the regional route. Alstom says the Coradia iLint has a range of 1,000 kilometers, meaning that it can run all day on the line using a single tank of hydrogen. A hydrogen filling station has been set up on the route between Cuxhaven, Bremerhaven, Bremervörde and Buxtehude.

6. Princeton will cover all tuition costs for most families making under $100,000 a year, after getting rid of student loans

In September, the New Jersey Ivy League school announced it would be expanding its financial aid program to offer free tuition, including room and board, for most families whose annual income is under $100,000 a year. Previously, the same benefit was offered to families making under $65,000 a year. This new income limit will take effect for all undergraduates starting in the fall of 2023.

Princeton was also the first school in the US to eliminate student loans from its financial aid packages.

7. Humpback whales no longer listed as endangered after major recovery

Humpback whales will be removed from Australia's threatened-species list, after the government's independent scientific panel on threatened species deemed the mammals had made a major recovery. Humpback whales will no longer be considered an endangered or vulnerable species.

Climate change and fishing still pose threats to their long-term health.

Some other uplifting news from last year:

A Cancer Trial’s Unexpected Result: Remission in Every Patient

California 100 percent powered by renewables for first time

Israel formally bans LGBTQ conversion therapy

Tokyo Passes Law to Recognize Same-Sex Partnerships

First 100,000 KG Removed From the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

As we ring in the New Year let’s remember to focus on the good news. May this be a year of even more kindness and generosity. Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2023!

Thank you for following and supporting this g this newsletter

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#best news of last week

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newstfionline · 4 years

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Headlines: Saturday, September 26, 2020

Largest California wildfire threatens marijuana-growing area (AP) California’s largest wildfire is threatening a marijuana-growing enclave, and authorities said many of the locals have refused to evacuate and abandon their maturing crops even as weather forecasters predict more hot, dry and windy conditions that could fan flames. The wildfire called the August Complex is nearing the small communities of Post Mountain and Trinity Pines, about 200 miles (322 kilometers) northwest of Sacramento, the Los Angeles Times reported. Law enforcement officers went door to door warning of the encroaching fire danger but could not force residents to evacuate, Trinity County Sheriff’s Department Deputy Nate Trujillo said. “It’s mainly growers,” Trujillo said. “And a lot of them, they don’t want to leave because that is their livelihood.” The area is in the Emerald Triangle, a three-county corner of Northern California that by some estimates is the nation’s largest cannabis-producing region. People familiar with Trinity Pines said the community has up to 40 legal farms, with more than 10 times that number in hidden, illegal growing areas. Growers are wary of leaving the plants vulnerable to flames or thieves. Each farm has crops worth half a million dollars or more and many are within days or weeks of harvest.

Things to avoid during your Zoom session (Reuters) An Argentine lawmaker has resigned after being caught on a live camera caressing his wife before appearing to partially pull down her top and kiss her breast during a virtual session of the country’s lower house of Congress on Thursday. The lower house of deputies said in a statement on Twitter early on Friday that it had voted to accept the resignation of Juan Ameri, a representative from the northern province of Salta in the ruling coalition. Virtual meetings amid the coronavirus pandemic have tripped up lawmakers before. In June, Ireland’s Luke Ming Flanagan appeared to be wearing no trousers as he discussed policy matters with his European Parliament peers.

Queen Elizabeth II to trim costs as COVID-19 hits income (AP) Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and her family are facing a 35 million pound ($45 million) hit from the coronavirus pandemic, partly due to a shortage of tourists, the monarch’s money-manager said Friday. Releasing the royal household’s annual accounts, Keeper of the Privy Purse Michael Stevens said a lack of income from visitors to royal buildings was likely to bring a general funding shortfall of 15 million pounds ($19 million) over three years. He said the impact of the pandemic is also likely to cause a 20 million-pound ($25.4 million) shortfall in a 10-year, 369-million-pound program to replace antiquated heating, plumbing and wiring at Buckingham Palace, the queen’s London home. Stevens said the royal household would not ask for more government money but would “look to manage the impact through our own efforts and efficiencies.”

As Virus Cases Surge in Europe, Hospitalizations Lag. (NYT) In Munich, normally brimming with boisterous crowds for Oktoberfest this month, the authorities just banned gatherings of more than five people. In Marseille, France, all bars and restaurants will be closed next Monday. And in London, where the government spent weeks urging workers to return to the city’s empty skyscrapers, it is now asking them to work from home. Summer ended in Europe this week with a heavy thud amid ominous signs that a spike in coronavirus cases may send another wave of patients into hospitals. But just how imminent is the peril? As they weigh actions to curb a second wave of the virus, European leaders are dealing with a confusing, fast-changing situation, with conflicting evidence on how quickly new cases are translating into hospital admissions—and how severe those cases will end up being. In Spain, where new cases have surged to more than 10,000 a day, hospitals in Madrid are close to capacity and the government said it was preparing to reopen field hospitals in hotels and in the city’s largest exhibition center. Yet in France, which reported 66,000 new cases over the last seven days, hospital admissions and deaths, while also rising, are going up more slowly. There is a similar divergence between infection rates and hospitalizations in Germany and Austria. And in Britain, which reported 6,178 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday—the highest figure since May 1—just 134 patients were admitted to hospitals on Monday, barely a tenth of those admitted in early May.

Pope to UN: Use COVID crisis to come out better, not worse (Washington Post) Pope Francis urged world leaders Friday to use the coronavirus emergency as an opportunity to reform the injustices of the global economy and the “perverse logic” of the nuclear deterrence doctrine, warning that increased isolationist responses to problems “must not prevail.” Francis laid out his appeal for greater involvement and influence of the United Nations in protecting the poor, migrants and the environment in a videotaped speech Friday to the U.N. General Assembly, held mostly virtually this year because of the pandemic. Francis said the world has a choice to make as it emerges from the COVID-19 crisis and addresses the grave economic impact it has had on the planet’s most vulnerable: greater solidarity, dialogue and multilateralism, or self-retreat into greater nationalism, individualism and elitism. “The pandemic has shown us that we cannot live without one another, or worse still, pitted against one another,” he said. “This is why, at this critical juncture, it is our duty to rethink the future of our common home and our common project.”

Migrants accuse Greece of pushing them back out to sea (AP) Shortly after reaching the Greek island of Lesbos, a group of Afghan migrants say, their hopes for a new life in Europe were cut short when Greek authorities rounded them up, mistreated them, shoved them into life rafts and abandoned them at sea, where they were rescued by the Turkish coast guard. Turkey, which hosts about 4 million refugees, accuses Greece of large-scale pushbacks—summary deportations without access to asylum procedures, in violation of international law. Greece, which lies on the EU’s southeastern border and has borne the brunt of migration flows from Turkey, denies the allegations and in turn accuses Ankara of weaponizing migrants. In March, Turkey made good on threats to send migrants to Europe, declaring its borders with the EU open. In what appeared to be a government-organized campaign, thousands headed to the Greek border, leading to scenes of chaos and violence. Turkey’s border with EU member Bulgaria was largely unaffected. Greece shut its frontier and controversially suspended asylum applications for a month. Uneasy neighbors Greece and Turkey have been at loggerheads for decades over several territorial issues, and asylum-seekers have found themselves caught up in the geopolitical conflict.

Taliban entrepreneurs (Foreign Policy) For decades, Afghanistan’s untapped mineral wealth has been touted as the country’s trillion-dollar El Dorado. But while the Afghan government has never been able to monetize mountains of copper, iron ore, gold, and gemstones, the Taliban have—and are ramping up their mining operations as just-started peace talks aim to shape the future of a postwar Afghanistan. In recent years, the Taliban have deliberately moved to secure control over regions of Afghanistan rich in mineral deposits, from lapis lazuli mines in northern Badakhshan to gold, lead, and zinc in Helmand and vast talc and marble deposits in southern Nangarhar. The Taliban, who already control most of the country’s mineral wealth, are banking on further developing the sector to make it the bedrock of the country’s postwar economy—or theirs, at least.

The Indian navy and China (WSJ) India’s border conflict with China is pushing New Delhi to look for an asymmetric response: flexing its naval might as it deepens cooperation with other democracies that seek to counter Beijing’s global ambitions. India, which operates one of the world’s largest navies, sits astride shipping routes in the Indian Ocean that connect China to its main sources of oil and gas in the Middle East and to its key markets in Europe. Though growing fast, China’s navy still has only limited ability to operate in a region far from its home shores—and has to contend with the U.S. in its own backyard. “On the northern border, the best we can hope for is to achieve a stalemate. But at sea, we have an advantage over the Chinese,” said retired Adm. Arun Prakash, a former head of the Indian navy. “A show of force at sea can send a message to China that you are vulnerable, that we can interfere with your shipping and with Chinese energy supplies. Their economy would be shaken up.”

‘Tis the season for travel in China. But virus fears cast a shadow over festivities. (Washington Post) Zuo Weiwei has been stuck since February in her hometown Wuhan—yes, that Wuhan—and the problem now is that the city is overflowing with tourists. Wuhan’s government, like many across China, has been offering free tickets to tourist attractions to try to salvage economic growth. For better or worse, it appears to be working, as China approaches its first major holiday season since tamping down the coronavirus. The “Golden Week” holiday is one of the largest annual human migrations, with upward of 700 million people on the move. This year, it will be a crucial test of China’s efforts to regain normalcy and prevent new coronavirus waves. The holiday season begins with China’s National Day on Oct. 1, marking 71 years of Communist Party rule. The period also coincides with this year’s mid-autumn festival, a one-day holiday that falls on the night of the fullest autumn moon. With borders closed around the world, those in China itching to travel have had to look closer to home. Around 408 million highway trips are expected to be made this Golden Week, slightly up from last year, China’s Ministry of Transport said on Thursday. But the flood of travelers will make social distancing difficult and brings the risk of new virus outbreaks that could spread rapidly across the country.

Tunisian migrants (Washington Post) The economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic is propelling thousands of Tunisians to make the perilous Mediterranean journey in search of better living conditions, with the largest wave in nearly a decade reaching Italy’s shores. The strict lockdown Tunisia imposed in March was largely successful in containing the outbreak, but the measures devastated the country’s already ailing economy. During the first eight months of this year, nearly 8,000 Tunisians crossed the Mediterranean to Italy, six times as many as last year.

Palestinian elections (Foreign Policy) Fatah and Hamas, the two largest political factions in the occupied Palestinian territories, have agreed to hold elections for the first time in almost 15 years. The last elections, held in 2006, resulted in a landslide victory for Hamas, leading to bloody clashes between the two sides and a de facto split within Palestine, with Hamas taking control of the Gaza Strip and the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority (PA) retaining control of the West Bank. Leaders said a vote will be held within six months. The move follows an unprecedented show of unity among Palestinians in opposition to recent moves by several Arab states to normalize diplomatic ties with Israel.

#headlines #news

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nothingman · 6 years

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George Frey / AFP / Getty Images

There was no conflict between David Cromar's faith and treating his then-6-year-old son Holden with medical marijuana for an intractable form of epilepsy when the family lived in Colorado.

"It had no effect on being worthy to have callings or being worthy to attend the temple or anything," Cromar said of the response from the Mormon church.

But in 2017, Cromar and his family moved back to their home state of Utah and now find themselves in the middle of a battle over medical marijuana in one of the most conservative and religious regions of the country. It's a fight pitting families like Cromar's, many of whom are Mormons themselves, against their church — officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints — which opposes current efforts to legalize medical cannabis in Utah, testing the limits of the church's political reach on its home turf.

If approved by voters in November, Utah's Proposition 2 would allow residents to obtain, use, and grow limited amounts of marijuana for medical purposes. Would-be users will need approval from a doctor, and face a number of restrictions — the marijuana could not be smoked, for example — that people in other states with legalized medical cannabis don't contend with.

For months, the proposition has looked poised to pass. Though Utah is home to a large population of Mormons who abide by a strict health code barring the consumption of drinks like alcohol and coffee, 77% of voters supported the medical cannabis bill in a March poll. Support has fallen after the LDS church — which has long had a powerful influence on politics in the state and whose membership makes up a majority of its population — expressed "grave concerns" about the proposition in May.

Then last month, the church stepped up its opposition, joining a coalition of groups explicitly opposing the initiative. It also emailed its Utah members urging them to vote against the proposition, describing it in an email as a "serious threat to health and public safety."

Still, the LDS church's decision to step into the fray has left supporters of medical cannabis, like Cromar, feeling "a combination of anger and sadness."

Dave Cromar // Facebook

Dave Cromar (rear center) and Holden (rear right) with other family members in 2016.

"It’s going to have a huge impact and make a huge difference," Cromar said of the church's position. "I think it’s kind of ridiculous that folks who have never had the need or even the experience with medical cannabis think they can make decisions now about who gets to use it."

The Cromars' experience with medical cannabis began after years of seeking treatment for Holden's seizures while living in southern Utah. Dave Cromar, 38, told BuzzFeed News that doctors prescribed several medications for the disorder, but the seizures continued and side effects from the drugs ranged from "weight gain to emotional instability to a zombie-type state."

"He would get these clusters of seizures," Cromar added. "He’d have anywhere from two to four clusters a day and each cluster would have anywhere from 20 to 100 seizures."

In 2013, doctors recommended "removing parts of his brain," Cromar said, and the family instead decamped from Utah to Colorado Springs, Colorado, in order to give cannabis products a try. It worked.

"We’ve never had seizure control, but 2014 and 2015 were the best years of seizure control that we’ve had," the father said. "He instantly started having huge cognitive gains. He was able to learn and retain information again."

While living in Colorado, the Cromar family continued participating in LDS church services, and they were not alone in their use of marijuana to treat various medical problems. Local leaders and members of the faith in Colorado did not consider medicinal use of the drug to be against the church's dietary and health code, known as the Word of Wisdom.

"Even when we did go to have interviews," Cromar said of conversations with local church leaders, "our stake president was a cancer survivor and he said, 'Oh my gosh. I love what you're doing and I wish I had this option.'"

Despite the reduction in Holden's seizures in Colorado, in early 2017 the family decided to move back to Utah to be closer to relatives. That meant either losing access to the cannabis they had been giving Holden, or obtaining it on the black market and risking "becoming a drug trafficking felon."

"People don’t understand how many layers of risk there are for a family that is just trying to do what’s best," Cromar said.

Both Cromar and others who spoke with BuzzFeed News feared that using marijuana for medicinal purposes could prevent them from participating in religious ceremonies, particularly those that take place in LDS temples. The use of illicit drugs would typically prevent a member from entering a temple, where weddings and other ceremonies are conducted, but medical marijuana poses a unique challenge for the faith because members live across states with differing laws.

Because the Cromar family gave up medical marijuana when they moved back to Utah, they have avoided the possibility of religious sanction — such as exclusion from temples — but Dave Cromar said that in some cases they have still been treated as pariahs by members of their congregation as they have pressed for the legalization of medical cannabis.

A spokesperson for the LDS church did not respond to questions about how local clergy members are supposed to deal with issues of religious worthiness and medical marijuana.

Desiree Hennessy, 37, has similarly had to balance a need for medicine with concerns about both religious and secular laws. Her 24-year-old son Hestevan has mental and physical disabilities, including cerebral palsy and long bouts of excruciating pain.

“Is our pain less? I don’t understand. Why here? I don’t understand why if I lived in Colorado I could medicate my son and my husband could keep his job and I could go to the temple.”

"You can see it on his face," Hennessy told BuzzFeed News. "His eyes look terrified. He knows it’s coming and he can’t tell me. And he can’t stop it. And then he’ll start screaming and he’ll scream for days. Day and night."

In Hennessy's case, doctors and therapists treating Hestevan suggested giving medical cannabis a try.

"One of the doctors brought it up to me," Hennessy recalled. "He said, 'It’s not something I would want everybody to use, but people who have been dealing with pain their whole life have been able to find relief.'"

But because she lives in Utah, where marijuana use remains illegal, Hennessy is yet to give it to her son. Obtaining marijuana, she said, could jeopardize her husband's job and put her at risk of losing custody of Hestevan.

"I want to do it without the risk of losing my kids," she said. "I want to do it without the risk of my husband losing his job."

Hennessy, a practicing Mormon, said that others in her congregation have been supportive, with one woman telling her, "I know that if the prophet himself saw Hestevan he would make sure this passed."

The church has not weighed in on medical marijuana use in other states, and Hennessy questioned why Utah should be any different.

"It gets really frustrating to me," she said. "Is our pain less? I don’t understand. Why here? I don’t understand why if I lived in Colorado I could medicate my son and my husband could keep his job and I could go to the temple."

Rick Bowmer / AP

Desiree Hennessy attends to her son Hestevan in Salt Lake City on May 8, 2018.

While Hennessy has opted not to give her son medical marijuana until it is legal, Cromar said his family can't wait any longer: Last month they listed their Utah home for sale and plan to move back to Colorado as soon as possible.

"It’s not working for us," he said. "We know what works and what’s safe. We’ve had almost a decade experience trialing medications."

But opponents, including the LDS church, object to legalization in Utah arguing it is too permissive and would lead to higher drug use.

"We are deeply concerned by the history of other states that have allowed for the medical or recreational use of this drug without the proper controls and have experienced serious consequences to the health and safety of their citizens," said LDS church official Jack Gerard in a statement.

Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative advocacy group Utah Eagle Forum, expressed concern about the initiative, saying the federal government still strictly prohibits marijuana. Opening the door to the drug in the state, Ruzicka fears, would lead to more crime and act as a stepping stone to full legalization.

"This particular initiative is mostly recreational when you look into it," she told BuzzFeed News.

Though the proposition would ultimately require users to obtain permission from a doctor, Ruzicka argued that people would still have significantly more freedom in choosing how to use the drug than they do with other prescriptions. As a result, she said, the initiative means users can get a "permission slip" rather than a prescription because the law "doesn’t say what kind of marijuana they should use, how much they should use."

"I just don’t think that people should go into a marijuana store with their card and buy anything off the shelf," she said.

Mark Fotheringham, a spokesperson for the Utah Medical Association, told BuzzFeed News that his organization also opposes the bill because "a citizen initiative is a terrible way to decide what is medicine and what is not."

"This initiative is so wide open there's just no way that we could support it," he said. "It allows just about anything for everybody."

Opponents of the initiative have repeatedly tried to keep it off the November ballot, including in August when a lawsuit was filed claiming it would violate the religious freedom of LDS church members. The religious language was later dropped from the suit, which thereafter focused on the rights of property owners.

Though the LDS church said it opposes the proposition, it did — for the first time — say in a statement that it "does not object to the medicinal use of marijuana, if doctor-prescribed, in dosage form, through a licensed pharmacy."

Rick Bowmer / AP

Medical marijuana advocate Heather Nelson and her son Matthew, 10, in Salt Lake City on Aug. 23, 2018.

But, DJ Schanz, director of the Utah Patient's Coalition, the group spearheading the push to legalize medical marijuana, criticized the church's position, saying federal law prevents marijuana from being regulated or sold like other drugs.

"They support cannabis in an impossible scenario," he said.

On Monday, Schanz's coalition filed a complaint with the Utah lieutenant governor's office alleging that opponents of the initiative have "consistently and deliberately attempted to mislead the public" about the proposition.

Utah voters have not been polled since the church made its position against the initiative known, but LaVarr Webb — a prominent Utah political commentator and publisher of Utah Policy — told BuzzFeed News that its opposition does represent a risk.

"In some ways if the church gets too much out in front of a political issue it can really backfire if it is viewed as a political issue and not a moral or religious issue," Webb said. "Even among some active Mormons, when the church gets involved in ways that they think goes too far it can backfire."

In 1933, Utah cast the deciding vote to repeal Prohibition and resume alcohol sales nationally, despite pressure from church officials to support the ban. More recently, the church has weighed in on a number of political issues, including opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s, which ultimately failed to become law, and support for California's Proposition 8, which banned same-sex marriages in the Golden State until it became legal nationwide in 2015.

“My guess is that support will somewhat erode, but I won't be surprised if there's still a majority of Utah voters who support the initiative.”

Utah's medical cannabis initiative, however, has set up a political battle on the LDS church's home turf, turning the initiative into something of a barometer of its influence within the state. And many of the most prominent supporters of the initiative — people like Cromar and Hennessy — are themselves practicing Mormons.

The question, then, is if the LDS church can not only tip the scales in November but change hearts and minds that may already have been made up. And according to Webb, who has watched Utah politics for decades, that's no easy task.

"I think this might have changed the dynamic somewhat," he said of the church's opposition. "My guess is that support will somewhat erode, but I won't be surprised if there's still a majority of Utah voters who support the initiative."

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livehealthynewsusa · 3 years

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Mental health problems due to housing cut wide berth through community | Health

As Teton County’s housing crisis deepens, psychologists have become increasingly concerned that instability could negatively impact residents’ mental health.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a stressful year (and more), but just as the community seems to be recovering, the housing crisis has pushed existing stressors into high gear.

“It takes this toll, and it keeps building and building until you’re at that desperation and crisis level,” said Beverly Shore, who leads Teton County’s Community Prevention Coalition.

Housing is one of the basic needs that people have to meet in order to lead a stable, healthy life. Psychologist Abraham Maslow published his theory of the hierarchy of needs in 1943, which hypothesized that people must meet their physiological needs before they can meet social and intellectual needs.

While some have criticized Maslow’s theory as not scientifically provable, it is difficult to argue with the idea that a person needs sleep, food, and shelter before they become the best version of themselves.

“When you have this food or housing insecurity, you can’t focus on some of the other levels,” said Deidre Ashley, executive director of the Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center. “You can’t really get out of crisis mode.”

Some other physical aspects of the housing crisis can also take its toll. Communal living situations, especially when a house has several people per room, can be cluttered and noisy. Studies have shown that clutter can lead to higher levels of cortisol, and that added stress can lead to financial and housing problems.

Working with constantly increased levels of stress can cause a variety of health problems, including difficulty sleeping and an increased chance of depression. It can make substance abuse problems worse, a problem that is of special concern to Jackson. The community is often above the state average for alcohol abuse, Shore said, in part due to the seasonality of the workforce. As head of the Prevention Coalition, which works to reduce drug and suicide rates, Shore sees the increasing stressors as problematic.

When a culture prone to over-indulgence is exposed to a stressor such as housing pressure, some people become over-drinking to self-medicate.

“What do all these substances do? Well, alcohol and cannabis are sedatives, ”Shore said. “This will of course have an impact on your mental health.”

Maslow wrote that when people have their needs met, they move toward “self-actualization,” the best version of themselves. But when an entire community struggles, the inability to achieve full productivity and satisfaction can take a heavy toll.

One thing Ashley noticed about this particular crisis is how widespread it is. Growing up in Jackson, she said housing has always been difficult for people, but instability is now reaching the upper strata of the professional and clerical jobs, as people testify in their meetings with their advisors.

Workers who have enjoyed relative success and stability in life begin to feel the crisis as their rents rise and opportunities become limited. It can be a difficult reality to adjust to.

“A lot of people are pretty resilient when it comes to situational stress or long-term stress with a job or whatever because we’ve learned to adjust to it,” said Ashley. “This is a new area for which there are no solutions.”

This can be difficult, especially for more capable people. Although people facing poverty and ongoing struggle also have mental health problems, experiencing coping mechanisms failing for the first time can cause problems in people who have not previously had problems.

“You are starting to deepen those true values as a person,” said Ashley. “If you feel overwhelmed and ineffective, you get into a completely different area.”

source https://livehealthynews.com/mental-health-problems-due-to-housing-cut-wide-berth-through-community-health/

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blockheadbrands · 4 years

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Advocates Consider COVID-19 Pandemic Opportunity To Push To Legalize Cannabis In Spain

Anu Shukla of High Times Reports:

How has lockdown impacted the state of cannabis in Spain?

Cannabis clubs in Spain are prising open their doors as the country enters the second phase of lockdown de-escalation. But campaigners say socio-economic impacts of the shutdown prove cannabis is an accepted norm of mainstream Spanish society, and private weed clubs should be allowed to dispense like pharmacies if illicit market forces are to be defeated once and for all.

Spain’s first cannabis club opened in 2001, providing a legal loophole for consumption in private spaces, which, according to campaigners, has helped reduce illicit market sales.

But the impact of lockdown in Spain has seen medicinal and recreational tokers across the land tear out their hair as they scrambled to source supplies after cannabis clubs were ordered to shut down in response to the coronavirus epidemic.

Patricia Amiguet, president of the Catalan Federation of Cannabis Associations (Cat-FAC), told High Times that lockdown meant an estimated 300,000 cannabis club members were resorting to illicit market sources for supplies.

This sudden overnight dependency by such an influx of cannabis consumers has unraveled “almost two decades of work that cannabis clubs have done to help eliminate [illicit] market sales,” says Max di Roma, founder of Cannabis Barcelona, a “Wikipedia-like site” offering consulting services to some 70 clubs across the city.

Di Roma added that during this time, the cost of cannabis in an illicit market more risk-laden than ever has also soared to more than triple the price, rising from €6 to €25 a gram.

According to Amiguet, there are estimated 1,200 cannabis clubs in Spain—a movement worth over half a billion euros.

But she said it is difficult to ascertain the exact number of clubs because of the fluctuating rates at which some illicit market forces open and close venues, which they use as fronts for their activities.

She said this was why urgent laws to protect clubs from cartels were a long time pending, adding that in the meantime, “organized mafias have for sure benefitted from the lockdown situation, and it shows how little governments care about users.”

But now, as Spain begins to re-open shops, bars and restaurants, cannabis clubs too are opening their doors. Albeit, more tentatively than their commercial counterparts, namely because there’s no official green light to confirm whether or not they should open—or any guidance on how to go about it if they do in a climate of COVID-19.

Cármate Asociación, a ‘cannabis dispensary’ in Murcia’s port city of Cartagena has opted to follow detailed guidance published by ConFac—Spain’s largest federation of cannabis clubs—which advised on factors such as respecting the law, waste management, hygiene, cross contamination, and consumption.

Owners Bartolomé de Haro Cabanas and David Moreno Aguera swung open the doors to the venue in 2013. Cabanas told High Times: “There used to be dealers on every corner, it was a very different place before cannabis clubs began to arrive in the area.”

The 56-year old psychosocial therapist met Aguera, 44, an agricultural engineer, while they both worked to help people living with AIDS and drug addiction.

He added that “One of our risk prevention methods is to sell at the same price as the [illicit] market so people are not tempted by cheaper, more dangerous options.”

“Cannabis clubs are also safer quality controlled environments where we can ensure therapeutic users receive the right dose.”

He said de-escalation of lockdown has come as a welcome “relief” for therapeutic users “but still, we did what we could to help them during that difficult time.”

Quarantine and Cannabis In Spain

Discreet deliveries do not always work out though. One 27-year old disguised as an Amazon driver was slapped with a four year prison sentence and €5k fine after getting caught delivering cannabis to an address in the coastal town of Vigo.

Ultimately though, says Amiguet, lockdown has been a litmus test to “prove prohibition does not work and COVID is evidence to show it’s time to legalise cannabis.”

A spokesperson for Spain’s Interior Ministry told High Times it was “too early” to establish whether lockdown has triggered a spike in drug trafficking crimes.

But figures published by the government department reveal drug trafficking crimes during the first quarter of 2020 increased by 1.6 percent compared to the same period in 2019.

Constanza Sánchez Avilés, director of law, policy and human rights at the Center for Ethnobotanical Education, Research and Service (ICEERS) said: “It is very likely that illegal agents expanded their capacity of supply and have greater control over prices.”

Daniel Montolio, professor of economics at the University of Barcelona, and a researcher at the Barcelona Institute of Economics, also said it was likely that club closures equated to “a flourishing [illicit] market” because of increased dependency and the spike in prices triggered by risks of distributing in lockdown.

ConFac claims 10,000 jobs in the cannabis club movement were affected by lockdown with salaries slashed or people fired. But according to di Roma, recovery was going to be “challenging” because of piling rents and costs due to absence of government support.

He said: “We’re consulting lawyers everyday on behalf of clubs concerned about employee welfare. There have simply been no legal guidelines on how they should operate during this time of crisis. Not during lockdown—and not now as we de-escalate from it.”

Some 3,000 cannabis consumers are members of Barcelona’s downtown venue, Doctor of Cannabis. Owner Gabriele Tano, 48, has just reopened. He allows a maximum of seven people into the venue for limited periods of time.

“Most of our members use cannabis for therapeutic reasons so lockdown was a very worrying time. Of course we are relieved to re-open and we have adopted all the rules from ConFac, so we are fully equipped with masks, gels, sanitation, awareness, everything.”

But even as clubs reopen and tokers breathe a collective sigh of relief, campaigners are concerned a second wave of coronavirus and another possible lockdown could be on the cards.

Di Roma said the situation is intensifying the fight to “regulate cannabis,” which would allow weed clubs to remain open as “essential services” and dispense cannabis in pretty much the same way as pharmacies so people can take it home to consume.

Covid-19, he said, has increased the urgency for taking steps towards cannabis legalisation.

Support for self-cultivation of cannabis has already been expressed by Podemos, the far left arm of Spain’s socialist coalition government. The party’s leader Pablo Iglesias has been vocal about the benefits of legalization on reducing drug trafficking, boosting the economy, and treating illness.

The party has also been vocal about its support for cannabis self-cultivation to promote “social wealth.”

But such a move would require the Spanish state to rubber stamp licenses to plant, produce, and sell cannabis.

Spain’s Cannabis Observatory for the Consumption and Cultivation of Cannabis (OECCC) has proposed a transparent licensing system for cultivating medicinal cannabis.

It claims to be the only Spanish entity to study the alleged impact made by lack of transparency in cannabis licensing.

Spokesperson Hugo Madera told High Times that a license to cultivate should be based on “people not companies” thus preventing the implementation of a model that “decreases accessibility and increases prices.”

In April, drug policy group Podemos Cannábico submitted a parliamentary proposal for cannabis clubs to be deemed “essential services.” Campaigners from the group say a rapid solution to serve the needs of the current COVID climate is imminent.

The group’s spokesperson Lourdes Ciria told High Times: “If coronavirus does not discriminate, neither does cancer, fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, Multiple sclerosis, or chronic pain.

“We’ve already witnessed the pressure felt by vulnerable people over the last couple of months, so we urgently need regulation that allows transparent licensing to cultivate and that allows cannabis clubs to dispense.”

Amiguet said it’s just a matter of time before cannabis for medicinal use is made available. “Getting the government to listen is not the difficult part. The challenge is finding the courage to take the step towards legalisation.”

She added: “Alba Verges, Catalonia’s Minister of Health showed this when she gave the green light to cannabis clubs. This is the first left-wing government in the history of Spanish democracy. So if the cannabis movement has the chance to promote legalization, then there is no better time than now.”

TO READ MORE OF THIS ARTICLE ON HIGH TIMES, CLICK HERE.

https://hightimes.com/news/world/advocates-consider-covid-19-pandemic-opportunity-to-push-to-legalize-cannabis-in-spain/

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newstechreviews · 4 years

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two months after two men were arrested at an illicit marijuana farm on public land deep in the Northern California wilderness, authorities are assessing the environmental impact and cleanup costs at the site where trees were clear-cut, waterways were diverted, and the ground was littered with open containers of fertilizer and rodenticide.

A group including U.S. Forest Service rangers, local law enforcement, scientists and conservationists hiked into the so-called trespass grow where nearly 9,000 cannabis plants were illegally cultivated on national forest land in the region known as the Emerald Triangle, for the marijuana that has been produced there for decades.

Authorities allege members of an international drug trafficking ring set up camp at the site as far back as 2015.

When deputies raided the remote clearing in the woods Sept. 9, they found hundreds of pounds of harvested marijuana, thousands of pounds of trash and more than 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) of plastic irrigation piping, according to the Trinity County Sheriff’s Office. They also discovered bottles of carbofuran, a banned neurotoxicant used to kill rodents that also has been linked to the deaths of spotted owls, fish and mountain lions. A quarter-teaspoon can kill a 300-pound (136-kilogram) bear.

The case highlights some of the growing pains California has faced since kicking off broad legal sales in 2018. Its legal marijuana market has grown to more than $3 billion but remains dwarfed by a thriving illegal market, which rakes in nearly $9 billion annually. Limited resources mean officials can’t keep up with all the illegal sites that are remnants of the outlaw era, when much of the pot for the U.S. black market came from the Emerald Triangle.

Experts say illegal sites like the one found in the Shasta Trinity National Forest, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) from the Oregon line, siphon valuable water, pollute legal downstream grows and funnel potentially tainted cannabis onto the streets.

“These places are toxic garbage dumps. Food containers attract wildlife, and the chemicals kill the animals long after the sites are abandoned,” said Rich McIntyre, director of the Cannabis Removal on Public Lands (CROP) Project, which is dedicated to restoring criminal grow sites on state and federal property in California. “We think there’s a public health time bomb ticking.”

CROP is a coalition of conservation organizations, tribes, elected officials, law enforcement agencies and federal land managers. Also lending its support is the legal cannabis industry, which says it’s being undercut by the criminal market. Officials estimate that up to 70% of California’s illicit pot comes from trespass grows mostly on public land.

“We see illegal grows as undermining the legal cultivators and manufacturers” by reducing tax revenue, said Lindsay Robinson, executive director of the California Cannabis Industry Association, a trade group. “We’re seeing untested and unregulated cannabis flooding the market.”

Black market marijuana is potentially dangerous because traces of the toxic chemicals used at grow sites are often found in the plants, she said.

“If you have an illicit grow upstream from you, and you’re legal, that could end up tainting your product and prevent it from entering the market,” Robinson said.

CROP estimates that 9 billion gallons (34 billion liters) of water are diverted to trespass grows in California each year — a yearly supply for a city of 35,000 homes.

“In a state like California where water battles and drought are a way of life, that number is shocking,” McIntyre said. More than 60% of California’s water comes from national forest land.

Authorities in 2018 made dozens of arrests at trespass grows while seizing hundreds of thousands of pot plants along with cash and guns. Criminal growers often use powerful firearms to protect their operation, McIntyre said.

“There are stories of people — hunters, fishermen, hikers — who find themselves down the barrel of an AK-47” after stumbling on illegal grow sites, he said.

The toxic chemicals were cleared from the Shasta site Oct. 16, and a “decommissioning” cleanup — removing everything brought in by growers — should happen within a year. The goal is to restore illegal grows to pristine condition complete with reseeding and replanting, but that plan lacks funding.

CROP is lobbying for federal and state money to clean and reclaim an estimated 2,000 sites, a process it says could take seven to 10 years.

It’s also pushing to increase the number of U.S. Forest Service rangers in California’s national forests. Reclaiming each site costs an average of $40,000, requiring trained crews, law enforcement resources and often National Guard air support to remove tons of materials from remote areas, the group said.

The group has a supporter in Democratic U.S. Congressman Jared Huffman, whose Northern California district includes huge swaths of state and federal property.

“We’ve seen firsthand how illegal grow operations threaten visitors to our public lands, steal water and contaminate streams, and kill wildlife on a landscape scale,” Huffman said in a statement. He’s introduced legislation that would identify the problem of trespass grows, expand land protections and free up funds to address it.

CROP is also pushing lawmakers to increase penalties for anyone who brings toxic chemicals to public lands. U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said last year that federal authorities are concentrating their efforts on hazardous illegal grows.

Nine of every 10 illegal marijuana farms raided in California in 2018 contained traces of carbofuran, researchers at the Integral Ecology Research Center in northwestern California said last year.

That was a jump from chemicals found at about 75% of illegal growing operations discovered on public land in 2017, and it was six times as high as in 2012.

#Blogger

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itsfinancethings · 4 years