Groups Offers $10k to Dispprove Claim that Marijuana is Safer than Alcohol.

The Safer Texas Campaign is offering $10,000 to anyone in Texas who can prove that three statements claiming marijuana is safer than alcohol are incorrect. The three statements are:

1. Alcohol is significantly more toxic than marijuana, making death by overdose far more likely with alcohol.

2. The health effects from long-term alcohol consumption cause tens of thousands of more deaths in the U.S. annually than the health effects from the long-term consumption of marijuana.

3. Violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by alcohol is far more prevalent in the U.S. than violent crime committed by individuals intoxicated by marijuana only.

"We are confident that this $10,000 will not be claimed," said Safer Texas Campaign manager Craig Johnson, when he posed the challenge.

Green Man: It's basically impossible to overdose on marijuana. You'd have to ingest it by the ton in order for an overdose to occur--and it simply isn't realistic to believe someone would do such a thing. As for number two, there aren't the numbers of people dying from marijuana related effects like alcohol. I know many old hippies who've been using marijuana since the 60s and are in perfect health. Lastly, marijuana isn't a drug that makes one aggressive. It makes people relax, laugh and calm. I can't tell you how many times I've seen fights break out from people drinking alcohol but in all the people I've seen ingest marijuana--nothing. Committing a crime is the last thing on someone's mind after using pot.

They are too relaxed to get off the couch let alone to commit a crime. People on marijuana are peaceful and often get into deep discussions on how to make the world a better place. I've never heard of a domestic violence crime break out from marijuana consumption, whereas with alcohol it's all too common. Alcohol is a drug that often makes people aggressive, unruly and rude. People who use marijuana are super polite because it makes you feel chill and mellow.

So, if we're going to allow alcohol then marijuana should be allowed as well. It's so frustrating, yet somewhat hilarious that the same politicians who cowardly stand in the way of legalization of marijuana due to fear of not being re-elected are also the same people who guzzle gallons of liquor in their off time. No one thinks anything of it and the same should be true of marijuana.

It simply isn't the drug that it's been demonized to be during the past 70 years. All that "Just say no" crap and "Reefer Madness" videos from the 50s are pure propaganda. Pot doesn't make you go insane like those ridiculous old black and white films they showed in health classes in school. I doesn't belong in the class of hard drugs with cocaine, crack, meth and heroin. It belongs in the same class as alcohol despite it being less of a problem for society than booze.

In other news, a recent poll in my home state of Colorado shows that a majority supports legalizing marijuana.

~The Green Man has Spoken~

EPA Demands BP use a Less Toxic Oil Dispersant. Also, BP Bullying Reporters.

The Environmental Protection Agency told British Petroleum to find another chemical dispersant to break up the Gulf oil spill. The EPA has given BP until midnight tonight to find an alternative to Corexit and 72 hours to stop using it, CNN reports. The chemical has been rated less effective and more toxic than many others on the list of 18 EPA-approved dispersants, the story says. Read more about Corexit in a prior Green House post. Of course BP course the most toxic one--probably because yet again they were cutting corners and using the cheapest one.

Green Man: So, this is good news, bad news. The good news, of course is that we're going to use less toxic dispersant to help clean up the oil mess. The bad news is what many of us worried about--that the dispersants used for the last month were indeed toxic. Great. We have been fighting toxic oil with other toxic chemicals. Yet even the good news is rather bad because breaking up the oil into smaller bits still doesn't remove the oil from the ocean. It just makes it smaller and more likely to get into fish gills, etc.

In the meantime heavy crude is now soaking the Louisiana wetlands, which are like giant sponges that absorb and retain a lot of water until it seeps down into the soil. So, obviously it is going to soak up this oil, which will kill off the grasses that help buffer against hurricanes and other large storms. As well as provide habitats for countless species from insects to birds to amphibians to small mammals. In related news, BP is trying to intimidate citizens and journalists from investigating the damage of this leak to the beaches of Louisiana:

Watch CBS News Videos OnlineThis video is appalling. What is the Coast Guard doing backing up BP wanting to keep reporters away from showing how bad the oil disaster is affecting beaches and wetlands?

PHOTO CREDIT: REUTERS/Daniel Beltra

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Chemicals Changing the Sex of Fish in Potomac River.

More than 80% of the male bass fish in Washington's major river are now exhibiting female traits such as egg production because of a "toxic stew" of pollutants, scientists and campaigners reported yesterday. Intersex fish probably result from drugs, such as the contraceptive pill, and other chemicals being flushed into the water and have been found right across the US.

Green Man: Oh, great. We already know about mercury being common in fish but now they're packed full of hormones!! Our girls are going to be maturing at five years old pretty soon and our boys will have no testicles. At least that seems like a possible conclusion from ingesting a soup of mixed random chemicals. Other chemicals found in our water? Antibiotics: Ever wonder why antibiotics don't work as well lately? Because they're found in many of the substances we ingest like inorganic milk, which can cause us to build up an immunity to them.

Nearly 40% of all U.S. antibiotics are injected into livestock as artificial growth enhancers. Next, heavy duty psychiatric medications: I'm not sure what effects they'd have in the water table but I do know from having to take them that they can cause diabetes and hypertension. Ahhh, nothing like a fresh glass of diabetes for our growing kids, eh?!! Other shit in the water? Nicotine, pain pills and even veterinarian medications!!! And we wonder why cancer rates are on the rise? The other area of concern is with our farms because high amounts of fertilizers and pesticides are showing up in run-off water.

I did a recent post on my Buddhist Blog about saving Lumbini (the birthplace of Buddha) from environmental degradation. One of the problems is that a pillar that dates back to 200 BCE is being warn down by pollution from a row of new concrete and steel plants. Now, if it that pollution can erode a stone pill--what do you think it's doing to the much more vulnerable human body? Global warming/climate change is just the tip of the iceberg if you'll excuse the pun of the overall environmental problem.

The next big problem is going to be a global water crisis. Rising temperatures are evaporating clean drinking water and the rest is often too polluted to safely use. Water will be the new conflict commodity in this new century replacing oil if we don't promote better water policies world wide, which includes tackling the overall warming trend. But we have to crack down on these factories dumping shit into our water systems and educate people to dispose of their medications in an environmentally sound manner. Visit, "Dispose My Meds" website to find locations that will take your unused pills and learn other information.

PHOTO CREDIT: Mutant fishes from the t.v. animated comedy, "The Simpsons".

~The Green Man has Spoken~

Obama's Nuclear Nightmare.

Yesterday President Obama announced the building of the first nuclear reactor in decades. I'm shocked that this is happening under a democratic president but further more I'm aghast that Obama is buying into this propaganda that nuclear energy is "green" and "safe." Sure it reduces green house gases but it more than makes up for that in waste. No one has solved how to properly and safely dispose of nuclear waste, so call me a "environmental nut" all you want but I personally I don't want uranium leaking into the ground and water table. The president and others say that they want to be like France who gets like 90% of their energy from nuclear energy but for one France is a smaller country but more importantly they haven't figured out how to deal with nuclear waste:

Nuclear waste is an enormously difficult political problem which to date no country has solved. It is, in a sense, the Achilles heel of the nuclear industry. Could this issue strike down France's uniquely successful nuclear program? France's politicians and technocrats are in no doubt. If France is unable to solve this issue, says Mandil, then "I do not see how we can continue our nuclear program."

Green Man: So before they dot the countryside with nuclear reactors and turn out mountains like Yucca Mountain into hallowed out trash bins for nuclear waste perhaps we should first learn how to solve the storage problem. Otherwise it's like prescribing medications to people whose side-effect is possible cancer and/or death. This is somewhat similar to what happened with the silver and gold mining in the 19th and 20th centuries where they didn't know what to do with the toxic byproducts of mining so they just flushed it down mountain streams. Now a century or so later we are having to invest millions if not billions of dollars to "clean" them up but nuclear waste is a lot harder to "clean up" than arsenic in water. You can't just bury nuclear waste, "away"--there is no away. Geology is a very intricate science and the make up for the ground below mountains and even valleys is full of aquifers where nuclear waste could easily leach into. Sure, sounds safe to me!!

And finally, did you know that Utah is looking to import nuclear waste from other countries? I'm sure glad I don't live in Utah anymore!! Yeah, Utah is considering importation of waste from Italy. I don't want to be reliant on Middle-Eastern oil either but nuclear energy isn't the way to do it. That's like getting off heroin (oil) and switching to crack (nuclear energy). So, now America exports jobs to other countries and imports other countries radioactive waste. What a great new slogan for American tourism. "America: The World's Nuclear Waste Dump." I have an idea of where to put the waste--in the backyard of the houses of all the politicians who support nuclear energy. Oh, and interestingly President Obama took hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign donations from the nuclear energy industry. Oops.