by Benjamin R. Young

 
You might be surprised by what we’re about to say: the most tight-lipped, conservative and controlling country in the world is also a weed-smoker’s paradise. Despite the North Korean government’s deadly serious stance on the use and distribution of hard drugs like crystal meth (which has its own inauspicious legacy in the North), marijuana is reportedly neither classified illegal or in any way policed. The herb of the bohemian and free is not even considered a drug. As a result, it’s the discerning North Korean gentleman’s roll-up of choice, suggesting that for weed smokers at least, North Korea might just be paradise after all.
NK NEWS receives regular reports from visitors returning from North Korea, who tell us of marijuana plants growing freely along the roadsides, from northern port town Chongjin, right down to the streets of Pyongyang, where it is smoked freely and its sweet scent often catches your nostrils unannounced.
 
Full Article:
http://www.nknews.org/2013/01/struggle-is-the-enemy-weed-is-the-remedy-the-truth-about-marijuana-in-north-korea/

By Laura McCallister, Multimedia Producer – email

 
State Sen. David Haley, D-4, has introduced a bill that would allow Kansans with debilitating medical conditions to obtain and use marijuana without fear of arrest.
S.B. 9 would allow patients with certain qualifying conditions, who have received recommendations from their physicians, to privately possess up to six ounces of marijuana and grow up to 12 marijuana plants in their homes. It also calls on the Kansas Department of Public Health to regulate and license medical marijuana compassion centers to provide medicine to qualified patients. The department would be able to limit the number of centers in any particular area.
“Kansas is a conservative state, but this is not a conservative or liberal issue,” Haley said in a press release. “This is a public safety issue. Many of the opioids and other narcotics these patients take now carry serious side effects and cause thousands of accidental overdose deaths every year. Marijuana, like any medication, is not harmless, but its side effects are milder, and it has never caused a fatal overdose. The bottom line is this is the right thing to do.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.kctv5.com/story/20597568/state-senator-introduces-medical-marijuana-bill-to-kansas-senate
 

Adam Taylor

Stephanie T. Kleine-Ahlbrandt
 
There is no taboo around pot smoking in the country – many North Koreans know the drug exists and have smoked it. In North Korea, the drug goes by the name of ip tambae or “leaf tobacco.” It is reported to be especially popular amongst young soldiers in the North Korean military – rather than getting hooked on tar & nicotine like their contemporaries in the West, they fraternize without fear of repercussion by lighting up king-sized doobies during down time on the military beat.
 
Full Article:
http://www.businessinsider.com/north-koreas-and-marijuana-2013-1

By Steve Raabe
The Denver Post

Lynda Parker, from left, of Agricultural Hemp Initiative, James McVaney, director of McVaney & Associates Ltd., and Erik Hunter, engineer of Hemp Cleans, visit CannLabs in Denver and view a hemp plant. Proponents of hemp say it is going to become a big industry.(Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)
 
Passage of Amendment 64 has given life to a group of zealous enthusiasts who can barely contain their passion for the leafy green substance.
No, not pot. The fanatics get their kicks from buzz-free hemp.
A genetic cousin to marijuana, hemp is a look-alike plant with one key difference. It contains almost no THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that makes users high.
But what hemp lacks in THC, it makes up for by being a remarkable workhorse of industrial utility. From auto bodies to textile fibers to nutrition bars — even as a cleaner of toxic contamination — hemp struts its stuff.
Boosters say hemp is poised to become a big industry in Colorado because Amendment 64 allows its legal cultivation pending legislative authorization.
Lynda Parker’s eyes light up, the all-natural way, when she talks about it.
“My friends tell me I’m too evangelical,” says the retired Dex saleswoman. “But there’s hardly a problem in the world that can’t be solved with hemp.”
She ticks off an abbreviated list, just a tantalizing hint, of the practical applications.
“Hemp is food, animal feed, fiber, fuel, shelter,” she says. “It cleans the air, the water, the soil. Hemp could be enormous for Colorado because we’re the first state to legalize it.”
Hemp’s most common uses are food products derived from seeds and seed oil. Fiber from the stalks of hemp plants are used in clothing and industrial applications, including as a strengthening agent in concrete.
Full Article:
http://www.denverpost.com/recommended/ci_22368156

by Dan Erusha – MTN News

 
A long-time advocate medical marijuana passed away this weekend. Lori Burnam, who was in her 60’s suffered from glaucoma and used cannabis to keep her symptoms in check.
She worked for the legalization of medical marijuana since the legislation was first proposed, and would travel across the state from her home in Hamilton to testify in support of the cause.
 
Full Article:
http://www.kxlf.com/news/long-time-mt-medical-marijuana-backer-passes-away/

Roi Mandel
 
Will the Ale Yarok party ‘out’ pot-smoking politicians? The Ale Yarok (Green Leaf) liberal party has threatened to reveal the names of 18 Knesset candidates, all in realistic slots in their respective parties, who have or still smoke marijuanarecreationally but oppose legalizing the drug.
“We will expose the hypocrisy. Candidates must admit (to smoking) and explain why they find it okay to tarnish the good name of cannabis smokers with a criminal file, but not their own,” the party said Sunday.
 
Full Article:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4331979,00.html

By Reuters

 
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner declared an end on Thursday to the city’s legal war on medical pot with a letter to city authorities ordering civil prosecutors to “stop the crackdown on marijuana dispensaries.”

 
Filner, a Democrat who was sworn in December 1, said in the letter sent to the police chief, city attorney and the city’s Neighborhood Code Compliance Department that such shops could still be scrutinized for other code violations like any other business.
“Until we have a new set of regulations for medical marijuana distribution, I have asked the Neighborhood Code Compliance Department and the Police Department to temporarily halt all prosecutions of city zoning code violations when it comes to medical marijuana dispensaries,” Filner said in a statement.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/14508/san-diego-mayor-orders-end-to-war-on-medical-marijuana-dispensaries/
 

By KENNY COLSTON

 
The push to legalize industrial hemp in Kentucky has picked up another major supporter.
The state’s largest business group, the Kentucky Chamber, announced Friday that it supports hemp as a crop for oil and fiber.
 
Full Article:
http://wkyufm.org/post/kentucky-chamber-commerce-joins-hemp-supporters

By Dennis Romero

 
Valerie Ann Okun, a Southern California woman, is getting her pot back from the Arizona cops who seized it.
Yay!
 
Full Article:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/01/valerie_okun_marijuana_back_yuma_arizona_court_ruling.php

On Monday, January 7, Chief Federal Magistrate Maria-Elena James ruled in favor of Harborside Health Center (HHC), and denied motions by Harborside’s landlords asking the court to order an immediate halt of medical cannabis sales at their properties. Judge James also declined to grant a motion from the City of Oakland to immediately enjoin the federal government’s legal efforts to close Harborside, but scheduled a hearing later this month to hear further arguments in the City of Oakland’s lawsuit released in a highly significant, 17-page opinion.
Full Article:
http://www.virtual-strategy.com/2013/01/08/federal-judge-says-nations-medical-cannabis-model-harborside-health-center-can-stay-open