Drugs

Cocaine Bear

Aside Markosun Animals, Drugs, Movies

This movie looks like rollicking good fun.

Cocaine Bear is an upcoming American dark comedy action film directed and co-produced by Elizabeth Banks and written by Jimmy Warden. It is inspired by the true story of the “Cocaine Bear”, an American black bear that ingested a duffel bag full of cocaine in 1985. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Keri Russell, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Christian Convery, Alden Ehrenreich, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Brooklynn Prince, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Kristofer Hivju, Hannah Hoekstra, Margo Martindale, and Ray Liotta in one of his final performances before his death.

Cocaine Bear is scheduled to be released in the United States on February 24, 2023, by Universal Pictures.

Premise
After ingesting a duffel bag full of cocaine, a 500 lb (230 kg) American black bear goes on a killing rampage in a small Georgia town where a group of locals and tourists must join forces to survive the attack.

The real Cocaine Bear:

The Cocaine Bear, also known as Pablo Eskobear (sometimes spelled Escobear), was a 175-pound (79-kilogram) American black bear that overdosed on cocaine in 1985. The cocaine had been dropped by drug smugglers in the wilderness in Tennessee, United States. The bear was found dead in northern Georgia and was stuffed and displayed at a mall in Kentucky. It inspired the 2023 action-comedy film, Cocaine Bear.

Cocaine Bear taxidermied in Lexington, Kentucky.

On September 11, 1985, former American narcotics officer and Kentucky-based drug smuggler Andrew C. Thornton II was trafficking cocaine from Colombia into the United States. After dropping off a shipment in Blairsville, Georgia, Thornton and an accomplice departed in an auto-piloted Cessna 404 Titan. En route, the duo dropped a load of 40 plastic containers of cocaine into the wilderness before abandoning the plane above Knoxville, Tennessee. Thornton was instantly killed in the evacuation when his parachute failed to open. According to the FBI, Thornton dumped their cargo due to the weight being too heavy in-flight.

On December 23, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported finding a dead black bear that had eaten the cocaine from the containers. The total amount of cocaine eaten was 75 pounds (34 kilograms), valued at 2 million dollars. The chief medical examiner from the Georgia State Crime Lab, Dr. Kenneth Alonso, stated that its stomach was “literally packed to the brim with cocaine”,though he estimated the bear had absorbed only 3 to 4 grams into its bloodstream at the time of its death.

Dr. Alonso did not want to waste the body of the bear, so he had it taxidermied and gave it to the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area. However, the bear was lost until it emerged again in a pawn shop. Country singer Waylon Jennings bought it, and eventually it made its way to the “Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall” in Lexington, Kentucky where it remains to this day.

Move Over Sniffer Dogs, Drug-Detecting Squirrels Are Here

Aside Markosun Animals, Drugs

Police in the Chinese city of Chongqing has begun using specially-trained squirrels in their war against drug traffickers.

The Police Dog Brigade of the Criminal Police Detachment in Hechuan District, Chongqing has successfully bred the first batch of drug-sniffing squirrels in China. The breakthrough was part of the country’s national key research and development project, which sought, among others, the creation of new training methods for anti-drug animals. Apparently, scientists have been aware of squirrels’ keen sense of smell for a long time, but rodent training methods were apparently not advanced enough until now.

Chinese news outlets recently reported that the Police Dog Brigade of Hechuan District had successfully trained six drug-detecting squirrels which will soon start working alongside police, helping them find hidden forbidden substances.

Yin Jin, the lead trainer of the Hechuan police dog brigade, told journalists that he and his team managed to train the six squirrels using internally-developed technology and training methods. The rodents were reportedly trained to scratch at the place where they detected drugs.

Tests showed that not only are the squirrels just as efficient as sniffer dogs at detecting drugs, but they also have the added advantage of being smaller, faster, and the ability to reach high places that dogs could never check.

Bear Found High on ‘Mad Honey’ in Turkey

Aside Markosun Animals, Drugs

A bear cub in Turkey needed a helping hand after it managed to get its paws on some hallucinogenic honey that left the creature wandering around a forest in a daze. The weird incident reportedly occurred on Thursday in the country’s Duzce province when the creature somehow found a reserve of what is known as ‘deli bal’ or ‘mad honey.’ The substance, which is largely only produced in this particular region of the world as well as in the Himalayas, is derived from the honey produced by bees that have pollinated indigenous rhododendrons which possess a neurotoxin known as grayanotoxin.

While something of a traditional medicinal treatment for a variety of ailments, just a small dose of ‘mad honey’ can produce hallucinations and a feeling of euphoria in mammals. In this particular instance, it is believed that the bear cub consumed a fairly significant amount of the substance as it was found barely able to walk and seemingly in distress. Fortunately, upon being discovered stumbling around the forest, the intoxicated creature was loaded into the back of a truck and taken to a nearby vet, where is subsequently ‘slept off’ its stupor. Authorities say that the bear cub should be released back into the wild soon with what one imagines is a monstrous hangover.

Minimum Wage and Beer Purchase Power

Aside Markosun Drugs

Below are the 10 states with the highest alcohol consumption.

10. South Dakota (2.87 gallons per capita)

9. Idaho (2.92 gallons per capita)

8. Alaska (2.94 gallons per capita)

7. Wisconsin (2.98 gallons per capita)

6. Vermont (3.08 gallons per capita)

5. Montana (3.11 gallons per capita)

4. North Dakota (3.26 gallons per capita)

3. Nevada (3.46 gallons per capita)

2. Delaware (3.72 gallons per capita)

1. New Hampshire (4.76 gallons per capita)

I’ll Just Get the Cops to Test My Illegal Drugs

Aside Markosun Bizarre, Drugs

Florida Man Asked Cops To Test His Meth Because He Was Worried The Drugs Were Actually Bath Salts

A Florida man dialed 911 to implore police to test the meth he bought as he worried his dealer had sold him bath salts instead. Thomas Colluci, 41, requested a sheriff be sent to his home in Spring Hill, a suburb of Tampa, to look into the purity of the drugs he’d purchased at a local bar. He’d used a bit of the substance but felt from the effects that he may not have a pure product on his hands. He ended up drugless and in cuffs by the end of the night.

1. COLUCCI DESCRIBED HIMSELF TO POLICE AS AN EXPERIENCED DRUG USER.Because of that, he was sure he would “know what it should feel like” when he did meth. When he tried the product he bought from the random man at the bar, however, something felt different and he was obviously concerned for his health.

2. HE HANDED OVER TWO BAGGIES FULL OF A “CRYSTALLINE SUBSTANCE” TO AUTHORITIES.In Colucci’s head, he legitimately believed that police would test the drugs and give them back. That obviously wasn’t how things went down, much to his disbelief.

3. COLUCCI WAS LOOKING OUT FOR OTHER DRUG USERS.He told police that he didn’t want other customers to end up with “fake” meth from the man. Also, despite the fact that he didn’t have any contact info or even a name for the dealer, he said he wanted to “put the person in trouble” for selling narcotics.

4. THE PRODUCT COLUCCI BOUGHT DID INDEED CONTAIN METH.The Hernando County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the presence of methamphetamines in the bags, which was bad news for Colucci after all as he was arrested on a felony drug possession charge as well as two misdemeanor drug paraphernalia charges. He was released from the county jail after posting $7,000 bail.

5. THIS WASN’T COLUCCI’S FIRST BRUSH WITH THE LAW. As per The Smoking Gun, Colucci was convicted in 2019 of slamming his SUV into another vehicle while under the influence of alcohol. As he drove away from the scene without stopping, he hit another vehicle that was getting gas and knocked the driver to the ground while injuring the passenger as well. He pleaded no contest to DUI and leaving the scene of an accident and was given a year of probation as well as an order to attend outpatient substance abuse treatment. Looks like that worked well!

That Hilarious Nitrous Oxide

Aside Markosun Drugs

Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, nitrous, or nos, is a chemical compound, an oxide of nitrogen with the formula N2O.
At room temperature, it is a colourless non-flammable gas, with a slight metallic scent and taste. At elevated temperatures, nitrous oxide is a powerful oxidiser similar to molecular oxygen.

Nitrous oxide has significant medical uses, especially in surgery and dentistry, for its anaesthetic and pain reducing effects. Its colloquial name, “laughing gas”, coined by Humphry Davy, is due to the euphoric effects upon inhaling it, a property that has led to its recreational use as a dissociative anaesthetic. It is on the World Health Organisation’s List of Essential Medicines, the safest and most effective medicines needed in a health system. It is also used as an oxidiser in rocket propellants, and in motor racing to increase the power output of engines.

The Marijuana Nuns of Merced, California 

Aside Markosun Culture, Drugs

Cannabis-growing ‘nuns’ grapple with California law: ‘We are illegal’

The Sisters of the Valley’s “abbey” is a modest three-bedroom house on the outskirts of Merced, in a cul-de-sac next to the railroad tracks. (Sister Kate calls the frequent noise from passing trains “part of our penance”.) When visitors come to the door, Sister Kate asks them to wait outside until she can “sage” them with the smoke from a piece of wood from a Russian tree given to her by a shaman.

Sister Kate lives here with her “second sister”, Sister Darcy, and her youngest son.

But these aren’t your average nuns. The women grow marijuana in the garage, produce cannabidiol tinctures and salves in crockpots in the kitchen, and sell the merchandise through an Etsy store. (Cannabidiol, or CBD, is one of the active ingredients in marijuana that is prized for medicinal qualities and is not psychoactive.) The women perform their tasks wearing long denim skirts, white collared shirts and nun’s habits. And while their “order” is small – last week they ordained their third member, a marijuana grower in Mendocino County known as Sister Rose.

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But their ambitions have been thwarted by legislation that was passed last year – 19 years after medical marijuana was first legalized in the state – to regulate the billion-dollar industry through the Medical Marijuana Safety and Regulation Act.  An error in the final text of the law has resulted in scores of cities across the state passing local bans on the cultivation, distribution, and sale of the drug, including Merced, a small city in California’s Central Valley where the Sisters live.

The legislation accidentally established a 1 March 2016 deadline for cities to impose their own bans or regulations on medical marijuana or be subject to state rules, a deadline that assembly member Jim Wood, who authored that section of the bill, said was included by complete accident.

Wood has drafted fix-it legislation, which he’s optimistic will pass in the legislature by the end of next week and be signed by the governor immediately after. But next week is too late for the Sisters of the Valley.

“If it was a typo, that’s great. If it wasn’t, who knows,” said John M Bramble, the city manager of Merced, the morning after Merced’s city council passed its medical marijuana ban. Either way, “it’s too late,” he said. “We’re banning it for now because if we don’t, we’ll have no local control.”

That leaves the Sisters of the Valley in a precarious position. “We are completely illegal, banned through commerce and banned through growing,” said Sister Kate. “They made criminals out of us overnight.”

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Despite Sister Kate’s Catholic upbringing, the Sisters “are not affiliated with any traditional earthly religion”. The order’s principles are a potent blend of new age spirituality (they time their harvests and medicine making to the cycles of the moon, and pray while they cook to “infuse healing and intent to our medicine”), environmentalism (“We think the plant is divine the way Mother Earth gave it to us”), progressive politics (asked whether she’s offended if someone drops her title and calls her “Kate”, Sister Kate responds: “It’s offensive that no banksters went to jail”), feminism (“Women can change this industry and make it a healing industry instead of a stoner industry”), and savvy business practices.

Sister Kate was looking for a “second sister” when a mutual friend arranged a phone call with Darcy Johnson. After just a thirty minute conversation, the 24-year-old from Washington state was ready to move to Merced and join the order. Sister Darcy had spent time in New Zealand working on an organic farm, and now, back in the States, was looking for a better way of life.

“This is my better,” Sister Darcy said.

The day after Merced’s ban on medical marijuana was passed, the sisters were preparing for battle. Sister Kate is planning to start a call-in campaigns across the Central Valley, urging growers and customers to flood city council members with phone calls every Friday until they come up with reasonable regulations.

Whatever happens, though, the Sisters of the Valley are answering to a higher authority. “We’re not accepting their ban,” said Sister Kate. “It’s against the will of the people, and that makes it unnatural and immoral.”

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