BBC– Nearly 60 years ago, a French town was hit by a sudden outbreak of hallucinations, which left five people dead and many seriously ill. For years it was blamed on bread contaminated with a psychedelic fungus – but that theory is now being challenged.

On 16 August 1951, postman Leon Armunier was doing his rounds in the southern French town of Pont-Saint-Esprit when he was suddenly overwhelmed by nausea and wild hallucinations.

“It was terrible. I had the sensation of shrinking and shrinking, and the fire and the serpents coiling around my arms,” he remembers.

Leon, now 87, fell off his bike and was taken to the hospital in Avignon.

He was put in a straitjacket but he shared a room with three teenagers who had been chained to their beds to keep them under control.

“Some of my friends tried to get out of the window. They were thrashing wildly… screaming, and the sound of the metal beds and the jumping up and down… the noise was terrible.

“I’d prefer to die rather than go through that again.”

Over the coming days, dozens of other people in the town fell prey to similar symptoms.

Doctors at the time concluded that bread at one of the town’s bakeries had become contaminated by ergot, a poisonous fungus that occurs naturally on rye.

Biological warfare

That view remained largely unchallenged until 2009, when an American investigative journalist, Hank Albarelli, revealed a CIA document labelled: “Re: Pont-Saint-Esprit and F.Olson Files. SO Span/France Operation file, inclusive Olson. Intel files. Hand carry to Belin – tell him to see to it that these are buried.”

F. Olson is Frank Olson, a CIA scientist who, at the time of the Pont St Esprit incident, led research for the agency into the drug LSD.

David Belin, meanwhile, was executive director of the Rockefeller Commission created by the White House in 1975 to investigate abuses carried out worldwide by the CIA.

Albarelli believes the Pont-Saint-Esprit and F. Olson Files, mentioned in the document, would show – if they had not been “buried” – that the CIA was experimenting on the townspeople, by dosing them with LSD.

Continue reading about the Pont-Saint-Esprit Poisoning: Did the CIA Spread LSD?

Writtnen by Mike Thomson

© BBC, 2010

LA TIMES– With its immigration overhaul effort bogged down in Congress, the Obama administration will deploy up to 1,200 National Guard troops to the violence-plagued Mexican border, officials said Tuesday.

News of the expected deployment came just hours after Obama met with GOP senators over lunch and discussed immigration and other issues on his agenda. Republicans last month wrote to the president asking for a larger National Guard deployment along the border to deal with drug-running and the smuggling of people.

The administration will seek $500 million to pay for the Guard and other border-protection measures. The Guard is expected to focus on efforts against drug trafficking, which has made the border region a murder zone. The troops are not expected to do law enforcement.

The last time the Guard was sent to the border was in 2006, when President George W. Bush sent thousands of troops to handle support issues and to free up U.S. Border Patrol agents.

In an afternoon appearance on the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) called for a renewed effort to bring the border region under control. In televised remarks,  McCain, who had been a leading proponent of immigration overhaul, argued that troops were needed to prevent the human rights violations carried out by smugglers bringing undocumented workers into the U.S.

The dispatch of federal troops comes as the national spotlight has again turned to immigration issues after Arizona passed a law that gives police the power to stop people they suspect of being undocumented workers.

Liberals have vowed to overturn the law, arguing it is unconstitutional. Conservatives, however, have backed the law as needed to secure the borders.

Obama has pushed immigration issues, but his efforts have been rebuffed in this midterm election year. On Tuesday, he told the Republican lawmakers that he needed their help in getting a sweeping overhaul through the Senate.

Obama has repeatedly argued for better border security, a position backed by Mexico President Felipe Calderon, who recently visited the White House.

But Obama has also called for a program targeting employers of undocumented workers and a plan to give those immigrants a path to citizenship after paying penalties.

Written by Michael Muskal, twitter.com/LATimesmuskal

LA TIMES– Los Angeles city prosecutors began notifying 439 medical marijuana dispensaries Tuesday that they must shut down by June 7, when the city’s ordinance to regulate the stores takes effect. It’s the first step in what could be a lengthy and expensive legal battle to regain control over pot sales.

The letters, which were sent to both dispensary operators and property owners, warn that violations of the city’s laws are a misdemeanor and could lead to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Collectives that stay open after the deadline could also face civil penalties of $2,500 a day.

“We’re hopeful that the fact that we’ve given them more than 30 days to comply that a significant number of them will cease operating,” said Asha Greenberg, the assistant city attorney who has handled most of the efforts to close dispensaries.

Los Angeles became the epicenter of the state’s dispensary boom last year, following the Obama administration’s announcement that it would not prosecute medical marijuana stores that adhered to state law. Although the city had a moratorium on new dispensaries, it failed to enforce the ban and hundreds opened with no oversight, triggering complaints from neighborhood activists.

The letters were welcomed by city officials and activists as a sign that the contentious issue, which was first considered by the City Council five years ago, is nearing a resolution.

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