The Florida House has passed a bill outlawing the sale of marijuana pipes known as “bongs.”
The House passed the bill (HB 49) on a 112-3 vote Wednesday. That was after approval of an amendment that exempts “briar, meerschaum, clay or corn cob” pipes.
 
Full Article:
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/article/310442/4/Bye-bye-bongs-Fla-bill-to-outlaw-bong-pipes-clears

By FOX 10 News – Staff Report

 
The first licensed medical marijuana dispensary in Phoenix will serve its first customers on Wednesday.
Bloom Sky Train had originally planned to begin serving customers on Saturday, but a computer server run by Arizona Department of Health Services was down and they were unable to sell anything.
The dispensary is located next to Phoenix’s new Sky Train Terminal and the 44th Street light rail station.
 
Full Article:
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/story/22064048/2013/04/24/phoenixs-first-medical-marijuana-dispensary-opens-wednesday

Posted by Jose Lambiet

House Speaker John Boehner’s daughter Lindsay (right), his wife Debbie and youngest daughter Tricia watch a vote in the House (Special to Gossip Extra)
 
The daughter of Republican biggie John Boehner is scheduled to be married May 10 in Delray Beach — to a local yokel with a drug arrest on his record!
Lindsay Boehner, the anti-pot U.S. House Speaker’s eldest daughter, is getting ready to make babies with Jamaica-born construction worker Dominic Lakhan, according the Boca Raton-based National Enquirer.
 

John Boehner, on Meet The Press (NBC Photo)
 
And the 38-year-old groom was once arrested by sheriff’s deputies for — . . . wait for it! . . . — POSSESSION OF MARIJUANA!
 
Full Article:
http://gossipextra.com/2013/04/24/john-boehner-daughter-drugs-marriage-delray-beach-2537/

By GENE JOHNSON
 
SEATTLE — Prosecutors and crime lab scientists say a little-noticed provision in Washington’s new law legalizing recreational marijuana has jeopardized their ability to go after any pot crimes at all, and they’re calling for an immediate fix in the Legislature.
The group is suggesting a change in the legal definition of marijuana, and they have the support of the Seattle lawyer who drafted the initiative.
The problem stems from a part of the law meant to distinguish marijuana from industrial hemp, which is grown for its fiber. The law defines marijuana as having more than 0.3 percent of a certain intoxicating compound, called delta-9 THC.
Scientists with the state crime lab say that often, even potent marijuana can have less than 0.3 percent. It’s only when heated or burned that another compound, THC acid, turns into delta-9 THC and the pot achieves its full potency.
“When you smoke it, it would be very potent, but before that, it would be considered hemp under the law,” said Erik Nielson, standards and accountability manager for the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab’s Forensic Lab Services Bureau.
That means that if people get caught with more than an ounce of marijuana – the amount adults are allowed to have under the law – or if police bust illicit grow operations, prosecutors might not be able to prove the plants or material seized meets the definition of marijuana.

 
Full Article:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2013/04/24/2980876/new-wash-legal-pot-law-jeopardizes.html

By David Edwards

 
Republicans in the North Carolina state Senate on Monday pushed through bill that would strip public benefits like food stamps and job training for people who fail a drug test.
In 35-15 vote largely along party lines, senators passed SB 594. A single Democrat voted for the bill, and no Republicans voted against it.
The bill requires those applying for benefits to pay for their own drug tests. Applicants who test negative would be eligible to have the costs of their tests reimbursed. The policy could cost the state more than $2.1 million.

By CityBeat Staff

A patient decries Tuesday’s raid.
– Photo by David RollandMan, talk about getting dissed. For all the effort San Diego Mayor Bob Filner put into proposing a new way to make storefront medical-marijuana dispensaries legal, and after more than three hours of public testimony on Monday, the City Council essentially ignored Filner’s proposal and reverted to a plan that failed two years ago. Led by Councilmember Marti Emerald, a Democrat, the council told the City Attorney’s office to bring back an ordinance that the council passed—and then rescinded—in 2011, so that it can be used as the template for another try.
But here’s the head-scratcher: The 2011 ordinance was rescinded because advocates for medical marijuana, who thought the proposal made it too hard for many people to get access to the herb, collected enough signatures to put a repeal measure on the ballot, and the council decided to give up rather than pay for an election. Not only is the council going back to that failed effort; it sounds like the council’s planning to make it even more restrictive this time.
What’s going on here? Do council members believe the advocates regret their repeal effort so much that they’ll accept whatever the City Council passes, even if it’s worse than the last one? Do they not care if the advocates collect signatures again? If that happens, is the council prepared to just throw up its hands and move on to the next issue?
City Council President Todd Gloria, who on Monday appeared perplexed and disappointed by his colleague’s direction, has spoken for the entire council in saying that it fully supports the notion of marijuana as medicine. Indeed, several members echoed that sentiment, with Councilmember Scott Sherman, a Republican, even talking sincerely about someone close to him who benefited from marijuana. However, the majority of the council clearly wants to make it difficult for people to get at this medicine.
 
Full Article:
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/sandiego/article-11713-san-diego-city-counc.html

by Beth Buczynski 

 
 
Back when I was hanging around skate parks, pretending to be cool, grip tape was as common as hoodies and Airwalk shoes. Skaters use this sandpaper-like material to provide more traction. A properly taped skateboard stays closer to the feet while busting a flip trick, and keeps feet from slipping off during the more nuanced floor tricks.
But now I feel proud, because even skaters are beginning to shun grip tape for a more eco-friendly alternative made from hemp. Australian skating outfit Ramshackel uses marijuana’s benign cousin to weave a more durable alternative that treads lightly on the planet.
 
Full Article:
http://www.earthtechling.com/2013/04/skateboarders-replace-grip-tape-with-hemp-carpet/

By Chris Roberts

Anna Latino

 
First it was a cough. Then it was bronchitis. Then it was time to say goodbye to Michelle Aldrich.

And she couldn’t get high.
In the fall of that year — a bad time for the local marijuana movement, as the federalJustice Department began shutting down hundreds of California medical cannabis dispensaries — Aldrich went in to see a series of doctors for what she thought was a flu that just refused to go away.
After six weeks of progressively worse diagnoses — flu became bronchitis, which became pneumonia — a CT scan revealed the cause behind the “heat” she felt in the middle of her chest. A tumor, “poorly-differentiated non-small cell adenocarcinoma.” In other words, stage 3 lung cancer.
Lung cancer is a killer, with nearly 70 percent of new cases resulting in deaths, according to statistics published by theNational Cancer Institute. “I thought I was going to die,” Aldrich says from her Marina District apartment. But she didn’t. And now, she is busy telling anyone who will listen that, along with diet and chemotherapy, a concoction of highly concentrated cannabis oil eliminated her cancer in less than four months.
 

 
Full Article:
http://www.sfweekly.com/2013-04-24/news/key-words-cannabis-oil-cure-cancer-constance-finley/

State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan says he is considering the possibility of allowing state-owned enterprises to manage cannabis farmlands for health purposes, including for curing cancer and heart disease.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/04/24/minister-considers-state-firm-cannabis-farming.html

JEFF EDELSTEIN

When it comes to New Jersey’s marijuana laws, Gov. Chris Christie is trying to have his cake and eat it too, and he’s not even stoned.

But Ed “NJWEEDMAN” Forchion? Well, yeah, he’s stoned, obviously, but it’s not stopping him from pointing out the state’s pot laws seem to be written by a “Catch-22” devotee.

In a nutshell: Marijuana is a Schedule I drug in New Jersey. Under state law, a drug is Schedule I if, among other things, it “has no accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.”

Well, last I checked, California was part of the United States. Same with Colorado, Arizona, Maine and another 14 states where medical marijuana laws exist. Or course, since January 18, New Jersey is also one of those states that recognizes marijuana as medicine.

So the cake metaphor? It fits. New Jersey has criminal marijuana laws   stating    pot is the worst of the worst when it comes to drugs because it has no accepted medical value, and yet also has another law stating marijuana has oodles of accepted   medical value   .

Forchion has noticed this ridiculousness, and filed a legal brief in Evesham on Friday to challenge it. Why Evesham? It’s the same town where he was arrested last week for holding a pair of joints. He was a passenger in car that had a headlight out. Somehow, he got searched. This is how things go when you’re the Weedman.

 
Full Article:
http://www.trentonian.com/article/20130423/OPINION03/130429887/jeff-edelstein-marijuana-laws-in-nj-under-chris-christie-make-the-weedman-see-double#full_story