BOOM BYE-BYE: Murder Music Star Buju Banton Sentenced To Ten Years

This morning reggae superstar Buju Banton was sentenced to ten years in federal prison for cocaine trafficking. Banton's particular style of reggae was dubbed "murder music" for lyrics that often called for the murders of gay men. In recent years his concert appearances were picketed by LGBT activists who sometimes convinced promoters to cancel the shows entirely. Banton's supporters claim that his drug arrest was a conspiracy set up between the DEA and gay activists.

RELATED: In February 2011, Banton won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album despite protests over having even been nominated.

NOM Spokesman David Tyree: I Don't Want My Kids To Think Gays Are Normal

And we don't want kids to think crack-addicts are normal.

Increased Health Risks For LGBT Youth

According to a just-released study, LGBT youth tend to take greater risks with their health than do their heterosexual counterparts.

High school students who identify as being gay, lesbian, or bisexual are more likely than heterosexual students to smoke, drink alcohol, use drugs, and take part in violent and suicidal behaviors, a CDC survey shows. CDC researchers analyzed survey results from about 156,000 high school students. "This report should be a wake-up call for families, schools, and communities that we need to do a much better job of supporting these young people," Howard Wechsler, EdD, MPH, of the CDC, says in a news release. "Any effort to promote adolescent health and safety must take into account the additional stressors these youth experience because of their sexual orientation, such as stigma, discrimination and victimization."

Anti-gay groups will, of course, leap upon this latest study without noting their own complicity in the "stigma, discrimination and victimization" noted above.

FLORIDA: Gov. Rick Scott Signs Bill Requiring Drug Test To Receive Welfare

Tea Party hero FL Gov. Rick "Medicare Fraud" Scott has signed a bill requiring welfare recipients to pass a drug test before receiving any checks. Applicants must pay for their own tests. The ACLU isn't having it.

"The wasteful program created by this law subjects Floridians who are impacted by the economic downturn, as well as their families, to a humiliating search of their urine and body fluids without cause or even suspicion of drug abuse," said Howard Simon, executive director of the ACLU of Florida. "Searching the bodily fluids of those in need of assistance is a scientifically, fiscally, and constitutionally unsound policy. Today, that unsound policy is Florida law."

I'm betting that the governor also has his fingers in the companies that would be providing these millions of drug tests.

Actor Jeff Conaway Dies At Age 60

The New York Times reports:

Jeff Conaway, the personable actor who won television fame on the sitcom “Taxi” and movie success in the musical “Grease” three decades ago and who later publicly struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, died on Friday in Los Angeles. He was 60. He died of complications of pneumonia at Encino Tarzana Medical Center after being taken off life support on Thursday, a talent representative, Phil Brock, said.

Conaway had been in a coma since May 11th.

LEAKED: Two & A Half Men Finale

IsCharlieSheenDead.com

The internet is a cold cruel place sometimes.

Ted Haggard: I'm Bisexual And I Totally Used That Crystal Meth I Bought

In a profile published by GQ Magazine, disgraced televangelist Ted Haggard announces that he's bisexual. And that he and escort Mike Jones didn't have sex, Jones just jerked him off. Which somehow isn't sex in Haggard's world. But about that crystal meth that Haggard famously claimed he bought to "throw away"? Yeah, he totally snorted it.

"I think that probably, if I were 21 in this society, I would identify myself as a bisexual." But, he told GQ's Kevin Roose: "I'm 54, with children, with a belief system, and I can have enforced boundaries in my life. Just like you're a heterosexual but you don't have sex with every woman that you're attracted to, so I can be who I am and exclusively have sex with my wife and be perfectly satisfied." About former meth dealer and escort Mike Jones, Haggard says: "We never had sex sex. I bought drugs and a massage from him, and he masturbated me at the end of it. That's it." [snip]

He admitted to buying drugs "five or six times" from Jones, but adds: "Sometimes I'd throw it away. Other times, I'd go someplace and masturbate and use it. But it was for masturbation. And that's one of the reasons why I haven't been real clear. I don't want to stand up publicly and say, 'Hey, I'm a masturbation guy!" "You know, that's really the core issue here," he added. "I bought the drugs to enhance masturbation. Because what crystal meth does--Mike taught me this--crystal meth makes it so you don't ejaculate soon. So you can watch porn and masturbate for a long time."

And now he's said what everybody in the world has always known. Oh, bravo.

A Cocaine Vaccine?

Scientists are testing a vaccine that causes the body to treat cocaine like an attacking virus and thereby keep it away from the brain.

So far, the vaccine has only been tested on mice, but the results are extraordinary. Mice given the vaccine no longer exhibited any of the hyperactive signs of a cocaine high when they were next given the drug. The vaccine was created by taking just the part of the cold virus that alerts the body's immune system to its presence, and then researchers connected the signaling mechanism to a more stable version of the cocaine molecule.

Once the mice received an injection of the vaccine, they started producing anti-cocaine antibodies which targeted and destroyed any cocaine that then entered their system. Normally, cocaine does not produce an immune response, leaving it free to wreak havoc on the brain and body of whoever takes it. But the cold virus segments taught the immune system to treat cocaine like a hostile invader, offering a nearly impregnable wall of protection from the cocaine's effects.

All kinds of ethical implications are raised by this research, of course. For example, should it be legal for parents to immunize their children against the pleasurable effects of some drugs without ever knowing if that person was capable of responsible use?

Pat Robertson: It's Time To Legalize Pot

Wait, WHAT?

Poppers May Damage Your Eyes

From a little-noticed October story in the New York Times:

In a letter to The New England Journal of Medicine, the ophthalmologists describe four cases over three months in which patients’ vision was affected after they used poppers at parties. Several complained of seeing bright dots of light, and retinal imaging revealed damage to the photoreceptors in the fovea, part of the retina that is responsible for the sharp central vision needed for driving or reading. Two of the patients’ vision returned to normal over time, though their retinas may still have sustained damage, the doctors said. In one, a 27-year-old woman, the impairment persisted for at least a month. The damage may occur because nitric oxide affects photoreceptor function and metabolism, the doctors said.

Doctors say the problem is probably very underreported.

NEW YORK CITY: Cops Bust Heroin Dealers Via Google Street View

Brooklyn detectives were able to identify some local heroin dealers thanks to images captured on Google Street View, where multiple photos showed the group working the corner. Also, do dealers really still use that hanging shoes bit?

CALIFORNIA: Legalized Pot Bill Fails

California's Prop 19, which would have decriminalized the possession of less than one ounce of marijuana, has failed by a wide margin.

The initiative would have eliminated all criminal penalties for adults 21 and older who planted marijuana in a plot of up to 25 square feet or possessed up to an ounce for personal use. It also would have allowed city councils and county supervisors to authorize commercial cultivation and retail sales. But the opposition was broad, according to the poll conducted by Edison Research for the National Voter Pool, a consortium of the major television news networks and the Associated Press. Men and women opposed it. Voters of every race opposed it. The campaign had hoped black and Latino voters would see the measure as a way to end disproportionate arrests of minorities caught with marijuana. The measure drew intense interest. Foreign leaders weighed in. All the top statewide candidates opposed it. The federal drug czar denounced it. And the U.S. attorney general pledged to "vigorously enforce" federal narcotics laws whatever California did.

Prop 19 had been strongly opposed by a consortium of beer distributors.

UK Study: Alcohol Is The Worst Drug

It seems self-apparent to me, but a new study out of the UK declares that alcohol is the worst drug for society, based on the number of people whose lives it affects adversely. According to the study's authors, governments should be focusing more on alcohol abuse than the war on drugs.

The study involved 16 criteria, including a drug's affects on users' physical and mental health, social harms including crime, "family adversities" and environmental damage, economic costs and "international damage". The modeling exercise concluded that heroin, crack and methylamphetamine, also known as crystal meth, were the most harmful drugs to individuals, but alcohol, heroin and crack cocaine were the most harmful to society. When the scores for both types of harm were added together, alcohol emerged as the most harmful drug, followed by heroin and crack. The findings run contrary to the government's long-established drug classification system, but the paper's authors argue that their system - based on the consensus of experts - provides an accurate assessment of harm for policy makers. "Our findings lend support to previous work in the UK and the Netherlands, confirming that the present drug classification systems have little relation to the evidence of harm," the paper says. "They also accord with the conclusions of previous expert reports that aggressively targeting alcohol harms is a valid and necessary public health strategy."

The startled television reports I saw last night completely missed the point of the study and openly wondered "how in the world" booze could be worse than crack. Oy.

Charlie Sheen: The Taiwan News Version

"One And A Half Men"?

Marijuana Laws By State

As California prepares to vote on Proposition 19, which would decriminalize the possession of one ounce or less of marijuana to the level of a parking ticket, NORML (the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) provides this snapshot of pot laws around the country.

(Via - Andrew Sullivan)

CALIFORNIA: Polling Favors Legal Pot

Dominic Holden assesses the bill's supporters:

That's 48 percent yes, 41 percent no, and 11 percent undecided—which is pretty good. The crosstabs are over here. Groups with over 50 percent support for Prop 19 are men, people under 50, white, moderate to liberal, dislike the Tea Party, make over $80,000, and live in the Bay Area. In other words, rich smart hippies.

The big question should the bill pass, of course, is what the feds would do about it.

California Decriminalizes Marijuana

The Governator just signed a bill decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana down to the level of a parking ticket.

Those caught with less than an ounce of marijuana will still receive a maximum penalty of $100. However, Senate Bill 1449 reduces the legal categorization of marijuana possession from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. This means that those caught will not have to appear in court, pay court fees or receive a criminal record. Schwarzenegger opposes Proposition 19, a pending referendum that will provide a legal framework for the sale, cultivation and taxation of marijuana. However, despite this opposition, Schwarzenegger signed the bill into law.

Schwarzenegger says the state simply cannot afford the expense of prosecuting those found with less than an ounce of weed.

FLORIDA: Mistrial For Murder Music Reggae Star Buju Banton

The cocaine trafficking trial of reggae/dancehall superstar Buju Banton has resulted in a hung jury. Banton is part of a reggae niche called "murder music" for its lyrical calls for the brutal murders of homosexuals. Banton was charged with conspiring to sell eleven pounds of cocaine.

Banton, a Jamaican national, maintained he had been entrapped by a paid police informant whom he believed had music industry connections. During the four-day trial which ended last week, prosecutors played audio recordings in which Banton, whose real name is Mark Myrie, and the informant discussed drugs, ideas for shipping drugs, and dollar amounts. Prosecutors said the tapes showed Banton wanted to finance drug deals. The 37-year-old performer testified he only talked about drugs with the informant in order to impress him. Questioned by Banton's lawyer, the informant, Alexander Johnson, acknowledged Banton had never given him money.

Banton's concerts had been protested worldwide by LGBT activists who often succeeded in convincing promoters and venues to cancel his shows. Some reggae music bloggers and even legitimate Jamaican news outlets have reported claims that Banton's arrest was a "set up" by an international conspiracy of gays bent on retribution for his music. Similar claims resulted when Banton failed to win the Grammy for Best Reggae Album earlier this year. For now Banton remains in custody pending a bail application. He is expected to be retried.

RELATED: Murder music fans flooded to this JMG post to rain down death threats after this year's Grammy Awards.

Two Months Jail For George Michael

George Michael has been sentenced to eight weeks in jail for driving under the influence of GHB on his way home from London Pride in July. Michael had passed out at the wheel and crashed into a photography shop. No one was injured. Last month he pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of drugs and possession of marijuana.