By Natural News

 
The cannabinoid compounds naturally found in many varieties of cannabis, also known more commonly as marijuana, may help children with autism spectrum disorders experience dramatic behavioral improvements, and potentially even full recovery from their symptoms. These are the findings of a new study published in the journal Nature Communications that help reinforce the growing body of evidence which shows that medicinal cannabinoids hold incredible potential in both treating and potentially curing chronic illness.
 
Complete article:
http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/392048/20121008/marijuana-cannabinoids-found-help-combat-autism.htm#.UJcyEW_A_xV

By Derek Rosenfeld

 
At last night’s third-party debate on C-SPAN, Larry King asked the four candidates a question that neither Romney nor Obama has been willing to address: “How does the war on drugs affect Americans?”
Three out of the four candidates agreed the drug war does more harm than good – calling for not just a public health approach to drug policy but also legal regulation of currently-illicit drugs like marijuana.
 
Complete article:
http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/larry-king-hosts-third-party-debate-presidential-candidates-slam-drug-war

By Michael Roberts
 
At 10 a.m. today, just prior to a moms against Amendment 64 event sponsored by opponents of the Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol act, supporters of the measure will be holding a press event of their own — this one highlighting the release of a new report showing that marijuana possession arrests in Colorado fall disproportionately on the young and people of color. We interview a co-author of the study below.
The study, on view below in its entirety, puts its grabbiest stat in its title: “210,000 Marijuana Possession Arrests in Colorado.” Here’s a graphic showing the year-by-year breakdown, which cover the span between 1986 and 2010:

 
And here are what study authors Harry Levine, Jon Gettman and Loren Siegel characterize as their “key findings:”

• Marijuana possession arrests in Colorado increased from 4,000 in 1986 to over 10,000 in 2010, totaling 210,000 arrests over the past 25 years. 
• In the five years from 1986 to 1990, police in Colorado made 19,400 possession arrests. Twenty years later, from 2006 to 2010, police made 55,900 marijuana possession arrests, almost three times as many.
• From 2001 through 2010, Colorado police made 108,000 arrests for possessing marijuana, overwhelmingly of young people. More than two-thirds (69 percent) of those arrested were 25 or younger, 79 percent were 29 or younger, and 86 percent of those arrested were age 34 and younger.
• Whites, mainly young whites, made up 63 percent of those arrested in the last ten years. Blacks and Latinos, also mostly young, were 36 percent of the arrestees.
• Although young African Americans and Latinos use marijuana at lower rates than young whites, in the last ten years police in Colorado arrested Latinos at 1.5 times the rate of whites and arrested blacks at 3.1 times the rate of whites.
• In the last decade, blacks were 3.8 percent of Colorado’s residents, but 10.5 percent of the marijuana arrests. Latinos were 19 percent of the state’s residents, but a quarter (25 percent) of Colorado’s marijuana possession arrests.
• Marijuana possession arrests create criminal records easily found on the Internet by employers, landlords, schools, credit agencies, licensing boards and banks, erecting barriers to education, employment and housing. Marijuana possession arrests do not reduce serious crimes, and they take police from other crime-fighting work.
• Colorado is often said to be a marijuana decriminalization state, but since the 1970s, Colorado law has made possession of small amounts of marijuana a crime, a Class 2 Petty Offense. Failure to appear in court as ordered by a summons is another crime, punishable by six months in jail and a $500 fine.
• In county courts, marijuana possession carries a $100 fine. In municipal courts, however, judges can impose fines of $300 or more, change $50 per month in probation fees, require regular drug testing, and send people to jail for several days if they have used marijuana.

Levine, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York’s Queens College and co-director of the nonprofit Marijuana Arrest Research Project, speaks frankly about the report’s release date.
 
“Of course this is timed to the amendment,” he says from New York. “It helps us to get attention for what we regard as a national scandal. This is what we do: We try to call attention to what we think is a nationwide scandal about marijuana possession arrests and the collateral consequences.”
 
Complete article:
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2012/10/marijuana_arrests_colorado_moral_catastrophe.php

Posted by Johnny Green

 

Join Students For Sensible Drug Policy And Make Phone Calls To Help End Marijuana Prohibition

By Aaron Houston, Executive Director, Students for Sensible Drug Policy
As you may have heard, this November, Coloradans will be voting on Amendment 64, the initiative to regulate marijuana like alcohol. This historic initiative will: make the personal use, possession, and limited home-growing of marijuana legal for adults 21 years of age and older; establish a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol; and allow for the cultivation, processing, and sale of industrial hemp.
 
Complete article:
http://www.theweedblog.com/can-you-make-a-phone-call-to-help-legalize-cannabis/

By Steve Elliott

 
 
Exclusive Prison Interview:
Dr. Mollie Fry

By Steve Elliott

 
Years of hard work by the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition (AMMJC) is starting to pay off.

Posted by Jay Smoker

 
Citizens across the state will gather for cannabis policy reform Thursday, October 25, starting at 3PM. Legalize Louisiana is an unincorporated grassroots education and lobbying effort dedicated to ending the peculiar institution of cannabis prohibition in Louisiana. In New Orleans, those who recognize our inalienable rights to bona-fide medical, religious, industrial, and recreational cannabis use will convene at Lafayette Square.
Similar actions are also scheduled for Lafayette, Lake Charles, and Alexandria. Residents of Baton Rouge are encouraged to visit their employees in the Capitol on this official business.
 
Complete article:
http://www.theweedblog.com/legalize-louisiana-rallies-statewide-for-cannabis-reform/

 
Health food stores, supermarkets, and even big-box retailers in the United States are discovering that consumers are willing to explore the nutritional side of a plant better known for its fiber content and controversy: hemp.

Karen McVeigh in New York

 
A disabled veteran has told an appeals court that the department of veteran affairs policy on medical marijuana has caused him pain and significant economic harm, in a development campaigners say is a positive step in the battle to push for the drug’s reclassification.
Michael Krawitz, one of five plaintiffs involved in a legal case before the court of appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit, told the Guardian that the VA denied him pain treatment after they discovered he had been prescribed medical marijuana while abroad.
He told the court in an affidavit that the withdrawal of care by the department, which has rated him 100% permanently disabled and thus eligible for all medical treatment under its auspices, has meant he now has to travel 130 miles from his home to see a doctor for pain relief.
Krawitz, 49, who is the executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, said: “The bottom line is its unethical to take away someone’s pain treatment. This conflicts with standards of medical care.”
 
Complete article:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/23/medical-marijuana-disabled-veteran-drugs?newsfeed=true