TALLAHASSEE, Fla.- State Sen. Jeff Clemens (D-Lake Worth) introduced a bill Wednesday, that would allow Floridians with debilitating medical conditions to legally obtain and use marijuana if their doctors recommend it.
S.B. 1250, the Cathy Jordan Medical Cannabis Act, would allow patients with certain qualifying medical conditions, or their officially designated caregivers, to privately possess up to four ounces of marijuana and grow up to eight marijuana plants. It would also require the Department of Business and Professional Regulation to license and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries and cultivation facilities. The bill is named in recognition of Cathy Jordan, president of the Florida Cannabis Action Network, who uses marijuana in the treatment of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), often referred to as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.” Police raided Jordan’s home on Monday and seized her medical marijuana after a government employee visiting the home next door saw marijuana plants on her property.
Full Article:
http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2013-02-27/FL-Lawmakers-to-consider-medical-marijuana-bill#.UTAaWaL-fFJ
Category: Cannabis News Corner
‘Weed’ should be legalized in U.S.
HANDOUT / THE CANADIAN PRESS ENLARGE IMAGE
Activists have been struggling to legalize hemp for decades in the United States, but only recently has the issue seemingly caught fire in Congress.
Activists have been struggling to legalize hemp for decades in the United States, but only recently has the issue seemingly caught fire in Congress.
As states of a more liberal bent battle the federal government over the legalization of medical and even recreational marijuana, another cannabis battle has re-emerged in the farm states. But if pot smoking raises troubling moral and safety questions, industrial hemp does not.
Activists have been struggling to legalize hemp for decades in the United States, but only recently has the issue seemingly caught fire in Congress. Last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell signed on to legislation that had for years been championed by Texas Rep. Ron Paul, the former GOP presidential contender, and has now been taken up by his son Rand, the Republican senator from Kentucky. It would remove hemp from the federal government’s list of Schedule 1 controlled substances and make it legal to cultivate the plant.
What’s so hep about hemp? Supporters tout it as a wonder fiber with dozens of potential uses that would find a lucrative market in the United States. But while that may be an exaggeration — hemp is unlikely to become anything more than a specialty crop for a few hundred growers supplying goods to high-end food markets and low-end textile producers — there’s no denying that it’s a highly useful weed. The global market for hemp consists of 25,000 products, according to a report by the Congressional Research Service, including fabric, paper, rope, auto parts and home furnishings. Hemp seed, meanwhile, is an alternative protein source used in a variety of food and beverages, and can be pressed to make body oils, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals.
Full Article:
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Weed-should-be-legalized-in-US-193613621.html
Hemp Bill Clears Hurdle in the Hawaii House
REPORT FROM THE HOUSE MINORITY – The House Finance Committee unanimously passed HB154 HD2, to establish an industrial hemp research pilot program, on Monday, February 25, 2013. A primary focus of the research is phytoremediation, the process by which the hemp plant draws toxins out of the soil and processes them safely through its roots, stalk, branches, and leaves, leaving the soil refreshed and ready for the next crop.
Rep. Cynthia Thielen stands before a hemp crop in France
Full Article:
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/hemp-bill-clears-hurdle-in-the-hawaii-house/123
Oklahoma bill reducing marijuana criminal penalty unanimously passes House committee
Courtesy of okhouse.gov
Criminal penalties for marijuana possession in Oklahoma would be reduced under a bill passed without objection by a House committee.
The House Public Safety Committee voted 14-0 on Wednesday for the bill that would make first and second offenses of marijuana possession a misdemeanor. Under current law, a second offense is a felony punishable by between two and 10 years in prison.
Full Article:
http://www.kjrh.com/dpp/news/political/oklahoma-bill-reducing-marijuana-criminal-penalty-unaimously-passes-house-committee
Meet the Former NASA Scientist Who’s Teaching Coloradans How to Grow Marijuana Legally
JEFFREY ROTTER
Dale J. Chamberlain’s High Altitude School of Hydroponics (HASH) courses are specifically designed to comply with Colorado’s new cannabis law.
High Altitude School of Hydroponics
Even though Colorado passed Constitutional Amendment 64 legalizing the use of marijuana in November, it’s still a crime to sell cannabis in the state. Sure, plenty of charitable Coloradans on Craigslist will accept “donations” for doobie. And others are happy to barter. But what if you don’t have a pair of old shoes to trade for weed? How can one score an ounce of super-frosty Golden Goat in Colorado and not run afoul of the law? Former NASA scientist Dale J. Chamberlain has the answer. He’ll teach you to grow it yourself, at his (acronym alert) High Altitude School of Hydroponics outside Ft. Collins.
Full Article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/meet-the-former-nasa-scientist-whos-teaching-coloradans-how-to-grow-marijuana-legally/273559/
Dale J. Chamberlain’s High Altitude School of Hydroponics (HASH) courses are specifically designed to comply with Colorado’s new cannabis law.
High Altitude School of Hydroponics
Even though Colorado passed Constitutional Amendment 64 legalizing the use of marijuana in November, it’s still a crime to sell cannabis in the state. Sure, plenty of charitable Coloradans on Craigslist will accept “donations” for doobie. And others are happy to barter. But what if you don’t have a pair of old shoes to trade for weed? How can one score an ounce of super-frosty Golden Goat in Colorado and not run afoul of the law? Former NASA scientist Dale J. Chamberlain has the answer. He’ll teach you to grow it yourself, at his (acronym alert) High Altitude School of Hydroponics outside Ft. Collins.
Full Article:
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/02/meet-the-former-nasa-scientist-whos-teaching-coloradans-how-to-grow-marijuana-legally/273559/
Parrish couple cultivated medical marijuana for 10 years before this week’s bust
By ELIZABETH JOHNSON — ejohnson@bradenton.com
MANATEE — For 10 years, Cathy Jordan and her husband, Robert, have grown her medicine of choice in the backyard at their Parrish home.
Cathy Jordan began regularly smoking cannabis to curb her symptoms since 1989, three years after she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, reducing her pharmaceutical medications from nine to one. Jordan, like most people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), was expected to live three to five years with the condition. It’s been 27.
“I’m asking for my right to life,” Cathy Jordan said. “It’s life or death for me. I don’t have a way to live. You can’t just offer people a way to die.”
Her supply of South African Power Plant Plus, a Sativa and Indica blended strain of marijuana, was seized Monday afternoon. Detectives from the Manatee Coun
ty Sheriff’s Special Investigations Division confiscated two mature plants and 21 seedlings after receiving a complaint that marijuana was being grown at the home.
Dave Bristow, sheriff’s office spokesman, said the office rarely deals in cases of medicinal marijuana, and was unsure if the more than 20 plants found was normal. The Jordans say it is.
“It’s not greed, it’s need,” Robert Jordan said. “It takes so long to mature, you have to have some ready to use and some to replace it.”
The Jordans usually grow a crop in the winter to get Cathy Jordan through the summer months. Cathy Jordan starts her morning with a cup of coffee, then one or two rolled joints before having breakfast. She will have another joint after dinner or before bed, depending on how she feels.
The cannabis acts as a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant and appetite enhancer. It’s also clears her bronchial tubes of phlegm, which often causes fatal suffocation of people with ALS.
“It is literally saving her life,” Robert Jordan said.
Cathy Jordan began regularly smoking cannabis to curb her symptoms since 1989, three years after she was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s Disease, reducing her pharmaceutical medications from nine to one. Jordan, like most people with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), was expected to live three to five years with the condition. It’s been 27.
“I’m asking for my right to life,” Cathy Jordan said. “It’s life or death for me. I don’t have a way to live. You can’t just offer people a way to die.”
Her supply of South African Power Plant Plus, a Sativa and Indica blended strain of marijuana, was seized Monday afternoon. Detectives from the Manatee Coun
ty Sheriff’s Special Investigations Division confiscated two mature plants and 21 seedlings after receiving a complaint that marijuana was being grown at the home.
Dave Bristow, sheriff’s office spokesman, said the office rarely deals in cases of medicinal marijuana, and was unsure if the more than 20 plants found was normal. The Jordans say it is.
“It’s not greed, it’s need,” Robert Jordan said. “It takes so long to mature, you have to have some ready to use and some to replace it.”
The Jordans usually grow a crop in the winter to get Cathy Jordan through the summer months. Cathy Jordan starts her morning with a cup of coffee, then one or two rolled joints before having breakfast. She will have another joint after dinner or before bed, depending on how she feels.
The cannabis acts as a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory, anti-depressant and appetite enhancer. It’s also clears her bronchial tubes of phlegm, which often causes fatal suffocation of people with ALS.
“It is literally saving her life,” Robert Jordan said.
Full Article:
Federal Bill Would Legalize Medical Marijuana
A bipartisan group of 13 U.S. House members on Monday introduced the States’ Medical Marijuana Patients Protection Act, allowing medical marijuana patients and businesses to access and distribute cannabis without federal interference in states that have voted to legalize pot to relieve pain and suffering.
Full Article:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2013/02/25/medical-marijuana-bill-introduced-in-congress/
Poll: 7 in 10 back Florida medical-marijuana plan, enough to possibly affect governor’s race
BY MARC CAPUTO MCAPUTO@MIAMIHERALD.COM
As many as seven in 10 Florida voters support a state constitutional amendment legalizing medical marijuana – more than enough to ensure passage and possibly affect the governor’s race — according to a new poll from a group trying to put the measure on the 2104 ballot.
Medical pot’s sky-high approval cuts across party and demographic lines, with Republican support the lowest at a still-strong 56 percent, the poll conducted for People United for Medical Marijuana, or PUFMM, shows.
Full Article:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/02/25/3253273/poll-7-in-10-back-fl-medical-marijuana.html
‘Not Guilty’ in Craigslist Pot Case
A Nevada County jury has found a man accused of selling medical marijuana on Craigslist ‘not guilty’. 54 year-old Ronald Hansen was acquitted of three charges–possession of marijuana for sale, cultivation of marijuana, and sale or transportation of marijuana. District Attorney Cliff Newell says he’s surprised by the verdict…
Full Article:
http://knco.com/not-guilty-in-craigslist-pot-case/