154 Pounds Of Weed Found In French Mayor's Home, Denmark Closes Pot Street In Christiania After Multiple Shootings & More Cannabis Euro News

12:50 PM ET 04/08/2024

Over the last several years, Europe has become more open-minded about medical and recreational marijuana. Here are some of the latest cannabis developments from France, Denmark, and Poland.

France: 70kg Of Weed Found In Mayor's Home

French mayor Jamilah Habsaoui was arrested with two of her brothers after police seized 70kg (154lbs) of cannabis resin in her house, writes The Barron's.

The mayor of Avallon, which is part of Morvan National Park in the Burgundy region of eastern France, was one of several other targets for police raids following a drug trafficking investigation in the area, according to prosecutor Hugues de Phily.

De Phily added that other parts of the investigation had uncovered 983 grams of cocaine, 7,000 euros ($7,700) in cash, and about 20 gold ingots.

Denmark: Cannabis Street In Christiania Enclave Closed To Stop Weed Sales

The main street in a popular Copenhagen hippie enclave Christiania has been shut down, with police trying to halt cannabis sales and end other criminal activities, writes Reuters.

The Christiania neighborhood has been famous for illegal pot sales for more than 50 years, which was tolerated. However, other criminal activities were also ongoing and things turned dark last August when one person died and four were wounded in a shooting. Now, the residents have decided to clean "Pusher Street," which attracts more than half a million visitors per year.

“We have always said we support free hash but it’s not possible,” Hulda Mader, a spokesperson for Christiania said. “We want the street to be ours again.”

Sophie Hæstorp, Mayor of Copenhagen, told Reuters, “Pusher Street has to die in order for Christiania to live."

Deputy Chief Superintendent Simon Hansen confirmed the police will remain in the area "as long as it is necessary."

Poland’s Medical Marijuana Market Growing Rapidly

According to data by the Center for e-Health, the medical marijuana market in Poland is rapidly growing.

Last year, pharmacies sold more than 4.5 tons of medical cannabis, which is by 3.5 tons more than one year before. Furthermore, in 2023, a total of 276,807 prescriptions for medical cannabis were filled compared to 108,847 in 2022, indicating a growing acceptance of medical marijuana-based treatments for various health conditions.

The majority of medical marijuana prescriptions are not covered by the National Health Fund, noted CannabizEu.

One of the world’s largest cannabis companies recently recognized the market's potential. Curaleaf International, part of cannabis giant Curaleaf Holdings Inc (CURLF) , has expanded in Poland via the acquisition of Can4Med, the country’s pharmaceutical wholesaler specializing in cannabinoid medications.

Boris Jordan, Curaleaf’s executive chairman is a keynote speaker at the Benzinga Cannabis Capital Conference. Come and meet Jordan and a slew of other industry experts and learn why Europe is becoming a hot cannabis market, among other important topics.

https://www.benzinga.com/

>>20706651 #OTD in 1963, 129 men were lost when the USS Thresher (SSN-593) sank during deep dive tests in the AtlanticPN

Why Did the USS Thresher Sink? Finally, the Navy Is Being Forced to Tell Us

The submarine mysteriously went down in 1963, killing everyone on board. Thanks to a lawsuit, we're about to learn why. (looks like the Navy is still hiding the 1,500 pages, I found an article in 2020 they released 300 pages so far)

By Kyle MizokamiPublished: Mar 10, 2020 3:35 PM EST

• A retired U.S. Navy submarine commander sued the Navy to release an official report on the sinking of the USS Thresher—and won.

• Thresher sank in April 1963, lost with all hands, but there has never been an official explanation as to why.

• The loss of Thresher lead to an improved culture of safety in the Navy, and since 1968, the service hasn’t lost a single submarine.

__________

A retired U.S. Navy submarine commander has won a lawsuit forcing the Navy to release its report on what happened to the USS Thresher, a nuclear-powered attack submarine that sank during diving tests in 1963. The loss of the submarine has never been fully explained, and the Navy has never released the report on the sub’s sinking.

USS Thresher was the first of its class, a new type of fast, deep diving attack submarine. The Thresher-class subs used a streamlined hull designed for fast underwater travel. With a torpedo-like hull design and a S5W nuclear reactor, the Thresher class could make 20 knots on the surface and 30 knots underwater—the reverse of World War II-era submarines designed to spend most of their time on the surface. The submarines were 278 feet long, 31 feet wide, and carried Mk. 37 homing torpedoes for use against surface and subsurface targets, SUBROC anti-submarine torpedoes, and sea mines.

On April 9, 1963, the Thresher was 220 miles east of Cape Cod, conducting diving tests.It was the first submarine to use the new HY-80 steel alloy, and the Navy was eager to determinehow deep the new design could safely dive. At 9:13 a.m., while at a depth of 1,300 feet, the submarine radioed the submarine rescue ship USS Skylark, waiting above:

But Thresher never surfaced, and the Navy later found the sub in six pieces on the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. All 129 personnel on board were killed. People have come up with many theories about how the sub sank, including blaming the faulty welds that failed during the tests, shorting out the sub's critical electrical systems and sapping its power.

Capt. Jim Bryant, a retired Navy submarine officer, wanted to see the Navy’s 1,700-page report on the Thresher’s sinking, but the Navy refused to release it. So Bryant, Stars and Stripes reports, sued the Navy, and last month a federal judge ordered the service to release it in 300-page chunks.

The Navy has long been extremely protective of the report. The Navy submarine force is notoriously tight-lipped; submariners say the nickname “the silent service” not only applies to the quiet nature of subs, but the secretive nature of the sub community as a whole.

The service first said it would release the Thresher report in 1998, but released only 19 of 1,700 pages, claiming that keeping it classified was to protect serving submarine crews. The problem with that explanation? The accident happened during normal dive tests. More than 50 years have passed since the sinking, and the submarine’s technology is obsolete.

The loss of the Thresher led to a sea change in the Navy submarine force. After the sinking, the service instituted SUBSAFE, a program that ensures the safe operation of submarines. SUBSAFE monitors the design and construction of new subs to ensure ships can remain watertight and survive accidents at sea. (The Navy lost another submarine, the USS Scorpion, in 1968, but it wasn't built to SUBSAFE standards.)

In 2005, the attack submarine USS San Francisco collided with an underwater seamount at the equivalent of 30 miles an hour—and was still able to sail to Guam for repairs. The culture of safety spawned by SUBSAFE—and indirectly Thresher—is credited for ensuring the San Francisco’s survival.

The Navy will begin releasing the Thresher report in segments on May 15 and will continue until Oct. 15.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a31351061/why-did-uss-thresher-submarine-sink/

>>20707321 (link below to PDF, too big to post)

Navy Declassifies 300 Pages of Probe into 1963 USS Thresher Disaster

Military.com | By Gina Harkins Published September 23, 20201/2

…."I think I'm doing the Navy a favor," Bryant told Military.com this week. "This is a significant historic event … and the reactions were very sound. It's a really good story here for the Navy."

Rear Adm. Bill Houston, director of the Undersea Warfare Division at the Pentagon, told reporters Tuesday that Navy leaders don't believe the newly released Thresher documents "will shed any additional light on her loss." Still, he added, the Navy is committed to releasing additional portions of the report monthly, despite much of it remaining classified.

"This process requires coordination between many organizations, and takes time to be done correctly," Houston said. "But the Navy knows this is the right thing to do." He declined to comment on Bryant's lawsuit prompting the documents' release.

The first batch of documents released this week includes witness and exhibits lists, findings of facts, opinions, recommendations and initial testimony. Families were notified in a letter sent last month from Vice Adm. Daryl Caudle, commander of Naval Submarine Forces, that the Navy was working to declassify the documents and make them public.

"Naval history is important," he said. "And when the technology is no longer of danger to national security – well, I think we should know about it."

How Tragedy Led to Change

The Thresher had just completed a months-long overhaul period when on April 10, 1963 the sub began dive tests off the coast of Massachusetts. It was accompanied by the submarine rescue ship Skylark, which received garbled communications about the Thresher experiencing minor difficulties.

The court of inquiry determined that the Thresher sank due to a piping failure that resulted in a loss of power and the inability to blow ballast tanks quickly enough to avoid sinking==. Houston said this week that the Navy stands by those initial determinations.

Bryant wanted to know more, though, and was unsatisfied with the Navy's original decision to publicly release just 19 of the 1,700 pages of documents from the court of inquiry. It was only after a Freedom of Information Act request failed to shake loose the documents that he took the Navy to court.

The families and the public have a right to know more about the decisions that led up to the accident, he said. In 2018, Bryant wrote a piece for the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings magazine arguing that data showed the Thresher "very likely had already sunk below her 1,300-foot test depth limit when she reported minor difficulties."

"The result," he wrote, "was a hull collapse that could have been avoided with more testing and better planning." Noonis, who said he's read everything he could find publicly on the Thresher, saidhe'd like the Navy to further analyze acoustical recordingsof the Thresher accident that were picked up by the Navy's Sound Surveillance System, known as SOSUS.

Bryant described an analysis Navy Reserve Lt. Bruce Rule provided during 1963 testimony about what the SOSUS picked up on the Thresher's sinking. According to Bryant's April 2020 Proceedings article titled "USS Thresher (SSN-593) Disaster: Ten Questions Our FOIA Lawsuit Hopes to Answer,"Rule's observations reject the Navy's assessment that there was major flooding on the sub before implosion.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/23/navy-declassifies-300-pages-of-probe-1963-uss-thresher-disaster.html

use link to download too big

https://www.secnav.navy.mil/foia/readingroom/HotTopics/THRESHER%20RELEASE/THRESHER%20pg%201-300.pdf

>>20707385

2/2

While Noonis said he'd like to see the Navy take another look at that claim, he isn't holding out much hope – especially since the service isn't releasing the documents by choice. "They were forced to release it," he said."I don't have a lot of faith in the government coming out and changing their conclusion. … Bureaucracies aren't fond of finding fault with themselves."

People who study technology need access to any information available about major accidentsto understand the decisions leading up to them, so they don't repeat the same mistakes, Bryant said this week.

Despite the battle over the documents, though, Bryant credits the Navy with taking important steps in the aftermath of the Thresher tragedy to help prevent other undersea mishaps. That's why he said he wants to see the service share any documents it has that can help others understand what went wrong.

Houston said the Thresher remains a defining event for the submarine service. Every new Navy submariner learns about the vessel.

"From day one, every new submariner checking onboard discusses the impact of Thresher to the submarine force, and the significant improvements that transpired as a result of her loss," he said.

The Navy's Submarine Safety program, known as SUBSAFE, was born out of the Thresher accident. SUBSAFE has "drastically improved quality control and assurance in the fabrication, construction and maintenance of submarines," Houston said.

"Since the program's inception, no SUBSAFE-certified submarines have been lost at sea," he said.

MacMillan said she's grateful the accident led to change, but saidwithout the Navy releasing the full probe, no one can be certain all possible steps have been taken to prevent something similar from happening again.

"Was it the main coolant pump? Was it just a push too fast for a deeper dive in the Cold War?"(Water?) she said. "It really does feel like it's been [more than enough] time to know what really occurred."

Now, as the Navy begins releasing never-before-seen documents on the accident that prompted those changes, Houston said the service must balance being transparent while still protecting information relating to national security.

Bryant said he and his attorney feel the Navy's plan to release about 300 pages connected to the Thresher probe every month is reasonable, but noted they'll be closely monitoring what is held back or redacted. If the Navy refuses to declassify information they feel should be made public, Bryant said,

"We're going to fight them over it."

MacMillan said she hopes the documents being released prove to the public that it's possible to take on powerful organizations that might be reluctant to release information.

Bryant didn't have a stake in the Thresher accident, she said, but fought to do the right thing. "If you work long and hard enough, you can get to the truth," she said. "… As a 6-year-old child kind of still frozen in that time period, I think it's high time that they come up with something."

(Comment: I know why I remember this, the Thresher was built of General Dynamics Ship building in Groton, CT we lived down the road from it, and it’s directly on the Thames, they launch the ships from there. It was a very big deal for many days, my Dad was in the Navy, he was always on his boat. Tore everyone up)

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/09/23/navy-declassifies-300-pages-of-probe-1963-uss-thresher-disaster.html

They never stop giving these hypocrites awards, do they?

Former Defense Secretary Mattis Accepts Inaugural Foley Award for Distinguished Public ServiceApril 10, 2024

In accepting the first Thomas S. Foley Award for Distinguished Public Service, former Secretary of Defense and retired general James Mattis on Tuesdaycalled on those in the audience to reject political division and cynicism for this country.(OMG this guy aided and abetted political division & cynicism)

"I trust some of you young folks in the audience will leave tonight refusing to adopt the childish practices you see too often on our television screens. Rather, resolving to embrace the courage, the conviction, the civility and the dignity of Tom Foley," Mattis said during the award presentation by Washington State University's Foley Institute . The award was given at the John J. Hemmingson Center on the Gonzaga University campus.

Before retiring in 2013, Mattis served over 40 years in the United States military, including as a general at the highest levels in the U.S. Marine Corps. Mattis was called back into service as Secretary of Defense under former President Donald Trump. He later resigned and broke from Trump in the lead-up to the 2020 election.

Mattis is also a native son of Washington, having been born in Pullman and graduated from Central Washington University. In accepting the award, Mattis said he hoped he was a good steward for the legacy of Tom Foley, whom he called "one of the finest citizens our state ever produced." The only Speaker of the House from Washington state, the late Congressman served 30 years. A member of the Democratic Party, Foley was Speaker from 1989 to 1995.

Mattis called Foley the "quintessential American patriot," who put his country before his party and his personal interest. He specifically cited Foley's roll in shepherding the Americans with Disabilities Act through Congress in the 1990s. "You see this same theme in him looking at people who are left behind on the margins of our society and bringing them inside and giving them a level playing field," he said.

In Mattis' view, Foley was also an example of a public servant who actively seeks to work with those opposed to him. Calling such bipartisanship a "lost art" in today's politics, Mattis hopes he is a representative of that same ethos." Tom Foley had a worldview that just one generation ago dominated America. It is amazing and can even be a bit discouraging, though, to see how much our political climate has degraded in the past year," he said.

In introducing the general, inventor and entrepreneurEd Schweitzerof Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories saidMattis had "earned a reputation for technical brilliance and humility." "It's fitting and proper that General Mattis, a man who has dedicated his life to public service into protecting and defending the values of democracy and our Constitution, should be the first recipient," Schweitzer said.

More than his military career,Schweitzer pointed to when Mattis spoke out against President Trump amid civil unrest seen in 2020. At the time, Mattis called Trump "the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people." (Oh, you mean this political division Mattis?)

"There was a time when our country felt divided, angry, hopeless. Many of our political leaders use their platforms to inflame tensions. Others remained silent and said nothing at all. General Mattis spoke out in support of national unity and civil liberties," Schweitzer said at the ceremony.

Mattis only referred to his former boss indirectly. Praising the late 5th district Congressman,Mattis said Foley did not "whine like a baby" and contest the result when losing his seat in 1994 by a mere 4,000 votes — an oblique reference to Trump's debunked election fraud claims.

At the center of Mattis' message was for Americans to reject disunity. Speaking at news conference before the event, Mattis also declined to provide his opinion on the possibility his former boss may win the presidency again this fall. Asked what a Trump victory would mean for the country, Mattis said that retired generals should also "retire their tongues" when it comes to politics.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/04/10/former-defense-secretary-james-mattis-accepts-wsus-inaugural-thomas-s-foley-award-distinguished.html

>>20707434

MIC gets more arms when more American's are tracked and spied on apparently…KEK, but might be true. who knows

>>20707530

you know what I hate,I hate every Congress leaders. Western Leaders etc.that ignore the crimes against civilians on Russian territories, it's constant by of Kiev, Zelensky. NO ONE==, not even the UN mentions it or does anything about it. It's sick and their KARMA when it comes will be huge.