What Are We Mad About, Again?

Ebola came out of nowhere and exploded in the media, and then it disappeared overnight. Then Zika popped up, and that has disappeared as well. Brock Turner was a hot topic for a couple weeks, and then, you guessed it, he vanished. Ryan Lochte was the talk of the town for a little while, but then his fire died down to make way for Colin Kaepernick. (Let me not forget to mention that Feminist garbage heap Jezebel wrote an article about how sexy he is while shitting on him the whole time. Hooray, feminism?)

So, what are we mad about today? Actually, there are two things:

The DEA is starting a new war against Kratom. From the linked article:

Kratom is made from the leaves of Mitragyna speciosa, a Southeast Asian tree related to coffee, and has been consumed in Asia for millennia, typically as a tea or powder. The herb contains alkaloids that appear to activate opioid receptors in the brain and reduce pain. Although most opioids have sedative qualities, low to moderate doses of kratom serve as a mild stimulant.

Kratom has been used by a lot of people for everything from analgesia to anxiety maintenance, and more recently as a tool to help combat opiate withdrawal symptoms. Of course, if there are fewer people using drugs the DEA won’t have anything to make money off of, so that can’t happen. Kratom has also been used recreationally as a mood elevator, and we can’t have that, either. Happy people are less lucrative.

So what do we have? Another leg of the failed drug war that will cost taxpayers money and not do anyone any good. Not to mention, they plan on categorizing it as a Schedule I drug alongside heroin and marijuana, which is supposed to be reserved for the most dangerous substances. Cocaine, oxycontin, and meth are Schedule II for contrast.

Are you tired of throwing your money away, yet? Tired of Big Brother keeping natural remedies from you? If so, sign the petition to keep this from happening.

I’m also pretty upset that Brock Turner is getting out of jail on Friday. You remember him, right? The upstanding athlete that “raped” someone and got away with it? Yeah, that guy. Sentenced to six months for ruining a person’s life, and only did half that time for good behavior. I put raped in quotation marks because of the way our laws are written. As of now, technically, he’s not even a rapist. There’s so much about this case that just screams what the actual fuck, but apparently, it doesn’t matter.

Although Turner was convicted by a unanimous jury, Persky decided his punishment: six months in county jail and three years of probation—far less than the six years prosecutors had asked for, in line with the two-year minimum guideline for each of the three felony counts.

This judge, who said he believes that Turner’s recollection of events was true, also said that a prison sentence would have “a severe impact” and “adverse collateral consequences” on Turner.

So for the next however long you’re upset about Colin Kaepernick expressing his first amendment right in a way that he is legally allowed to, just remember that your misplaced outrage is helping a real monster walk free.