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Assistant Editor / Co-moderator: Terence Nuzum
Established A.D. 2000, March 19. Now in our eleventh calendar year!
Number 551 (Vol. 11, No. 42). This edition is for the week of October 11--17, 2010.
High Now comes word that it's more than just a hunch I had. Lawsuits started years ago against Ticketmaster's embedded "fees" have mushroomed and been cleared for class-action status.
The California lawsuit, which was filed in 2003, challenges Ticketmaster's "Order Processing Fee" and the fee it charges customers who opt for UPS Delivery on its website for all online ticket purchases made by U.S. residents between October 21, 1999 and May 31, 2010.
The central argument is that Ticketmaster's "processing fees" have little or nothing to do with processing anything and are merely tacked on to the purchase price of tickets to do nothing but line the fat wallets of TM.
If you've attended a concert over the past ten years or so, you, in all likelihood, bought the tickets from Ticketmaster and may be entitled to cash refunds of some sort!
The non-jury trial begins January 26, 2011.
Not admitting that Ye Olde Editor actually smoked pot---or maybe smoked, but didn't inhale (coff coff ahem)--- but politically, I always advocated legalization as a way to stem drug-related crime and derive a new tax revenue.
That little bit of politics having been said...
A new and legal "herbal incense" is being marketed under a varierty of names, but is all the rage among the stoner set as not only a legal alternative to marijuana, but one that is actually several orders of magnitude more potent. And....you can pick it up at many convenience stores and gas stations (though not in any 7-Elevens in my area---yet).
Called K2, Spice, Red Magic, Smoke XXXX, Diesel, Serenity, and Blueberry Meditation, is quite expensive and it is labeled an "incense" but the prime ingredient -- JWH-018 -- is basically a synthetic form of THC, the main compound in pot givng the "high", only up to 100 times more powerful.
It is banned already in several states (though not in Florida), and doesn't even require age-restriction purchase.
What is being publicized is this is the kind of product already extremely popular with those obligated to passing piss tests. The new substance does not show up on tests because at this time it is not a controlled substance. Unfortunately, many young people have wound up in the hospital already with complications from overdosing from the potent new smoke toy.
So...when lawmakers start their expected hysterics over this, you can further expect a new chapter to the drug war to go along with it. To be fair, no legitimate tests have been conducted on the drug's effects or side-effects to determine any dangers, so we're admittedly in uncharted waters here.
I myself think it would be wise to at least age-restrict this. Otherwise, the states should not be so quick to abolish this new form of sales tax revenue.
TICKETMASTER FACES CLASS-ACTION LAWSUIT
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2010
What a coincidence. Ye Olde Editor was speaking just yesterday with co-editor Dark Tez regarding a possible reason concerts were not selling out big venues being due to Ticketmaster's questionable pricing policies. (My original postulate simply being that prices were too goddamned high.)
As submitted by PCR writers, compiled by Chris Woods
GROWING UP FANBOY: HALLOWEEN, NEW YORK STYLE
From 2008, Chris Woods' memories of Halloween while growing up in New York.
K2 "HEBAL INCENSE" THE NEW MARIJUANA
POSTED BY NOLAN B. CANOVA, TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2010
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