Saturday, May 12, 2012
Colombia passes 1st draft of drug crop legalization bill
The Colombian House of Representatives Wednesday passed the first draft of a bill that seeks to legalize illicit crops.
The initiative calls for the decriminalization of growing plants such as coca, marijuana and opium poppies in the country.
Representative Hugo Velasquez Jaramillo, who proposed the bill, explained that although the cultivation of plants would be legal under the new legislation, the processing and trafficking of drugs would remain subject to criminal sentencing.
According to Velazquez, congress cannot move forward with the “failed drug policy pursued by the governments of Colombia and the United States.”
“The important thing is that we have the opportunity to listen to congressmen from [drug] producing regions and hear from different government officials, not just those in opposition [of the bill] with Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Esguerra,” he said.
Velazquez also reminded the government that drug crop legalization is an agricultural issue as well as a legal matter.
Minister of Justice Juan Carlos Esguerra reiterated that the government is staunchly opposed to the proposed legislation, saying this is a “turning point in the fight against drugs” and it is not yet time to make a policy change.
“It’s not the time to anticipate a set of rules on this issue (…) this cannot work like the Lone Ranger,” he added.
Obama agency rules Pepsi's use of aborted fetal cells in soft drinks constitutes 'ordinary business operations'
The Obama Administration has given its blessing to PepsiCo to continue utilizing the services of a company that produces flavor chemicals for the beverage giant using aborted human fetal tissue. LifeSiteNews.com reports that the Obama Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) has decided that PepsiCo's arrangement with San Diego, Cal.-based Senomyx, which produces flavor enhancing chemicals for Pepsi using human embryonic kidney tissue, simply constitutes "ordinary business operations."
The issue began in 2011 when the non-profit group Children of God for Life (CGL) first broke the news about Pepsi's alliance with Senomyx, which led to massive outcry and a worldwide boycott of Pepsi products. At that time, it was revealed that Pepsi had many other options at its disposal to produce flavor chemicals, which is what its competitors do, but had instead chosen to continue using aborted fetal cells -- or as Senomyx deceptively puts it, "isolated human taste receptors" (http://www.naturalnews.com).
A few months later, Pepsi' shareholders filed a resolution petitioning the company to "adopt a corporate policy that recognizes human rights and employs ethical standards which do not involve using the remains of aborted human beings in both private and collaborative research and development agreements." But the Obama Administration shut down this 36-page proposal, deciding instead that Pepsi's used of aborted babies to flavor its beverage products is just business as usual, and not a significant concern.
"We're not talking about what kind of pencils PepsiCo wants to use -- we are talking about exploiting the remains of an aborted child for profit," said Debi Vinnedge, Executive Director of CGL, concerning the SEC decision. "Using human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) to produce flavor enhancers for their beverages is a far cry from routine operations!"
To be clear, the aborted fetal tissue used to make Pepsi's flavor chemicals does not end up in the final product sold to customers, according to reports -- it is used, instead, to evaluate how actual human taste receptors respond to these chemical flavorings. But the fact that Pepsi uses them at all when viable, non-human alternatives are available illustrates the company's blatant disregard for ethical and moral concerns in the matter.
Back in January, Oklahoma Senator Ralph Shortey proposed legislation to ban the production of aborted fetal cell-derived flavor chemicals in his home state. If passed, S.B. 1418 would also reportedly ban the sale of any products that contain flavor chemicals derived from human fetal tissue, which includes Pepsi products as well as products produced by Kraft and Nestle (http://www.naturalnews.com).
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