Submitted by Peter Ross

 
GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) – Mayor George Heartwell and the majority of the Grand Rapids City Commission joined other public officials Friday in endorsing Proposal 2, a city ballot question that would decriminalize possession of marijuana.
“Gathering around this issue today is simply another example of Grand Rapids perhaps leading the way, but taking risks to getting something done,” said John Logie, the city’s mayor from 1992-2003, and chairman of the Decriminalize G.R. campaign.
He noted how the city enacted a needle exchange program and a drug court during his tenure.   “It’s time, ladies and gentlemen to make another step,” Logie said at a morning news conference.
Joining Logie was George Heartwell, who said a majority of the city commission supports the plan that would make marijuana possession a civil infraction, punishable by up to a $100 fine. Sale of marijuana would still be a crime.
 
Complete article here:
http://grcentral.wzzm13.com/news/news/73353-gr-leaders-support-decriminalizing-pot-chief-doesnt
 

By Steven Short

 
David Nutt is the former chair of the UK Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD). He might still have that post if not for the horses.
In a rational (and non-political) examination of harmful activities, he noted that around ten people die each year in the United Kingdom while riding horses. And there are more than a hundred traffic accidents involving horses annually, some also resulting in death. In the US, Nutt says, there are “approximately 11,500 cases of traumatic head injury each year due to riding.”
Those numbers are easier to come by than the number of people harmed solely by using the club-drug Ecstasy (for reasons he explains), so Nutt made an educated guess of perhaps 2,000 “serious but non-fatal injuries from Ecstasy every year,” a number he says is probably high. Far fewer ailments are linked directly to Ecstasy than those connected to riding horses – and no deaths — yet Ecstasy is categorized as a Class A drug, the most dangerous.
This neutral assessment, while true, was not what Members of Parliament wanted to hear. So after chairing the ACMD for over a decade, Nutt was fired. (He remains president of the British Neuroscience Assn., and a vice president of the European Brain Council, among other posts.) Nutt wrote this book to show that making things illegal is not the only way to deal with them.
The book’s all-inclusive title obviously goes beyond cannabis, which is our interest here. A cleverly titled chapter (“Cannabis, and why did Queen Victoria take it?”) shows the plant has three lives: as a widely used fiber (hemp), as “probably the world’s oldest medicine” (cannabis), and as a pleasure drug (marijuana). It’s now the world’s third most popular recreational substance, according to Nutt, after alcohol and tobacco, both of which are considerably more damaging to people than cannabis, even though it’s the only one that’s illegal.
 
Complete article here:
http://www.kalwnews.org/blogs/stevenshort/2012/09/14/cannabis-news-roundup-book-review-%E2%80%9Cdrugs-without-the-hot-air%E2%80%9D_2140759.h
 

 
Dallas star Larry Hagman has credited pot with helping him beat cancer.
The 80-year-old actor was diagnosed with the disease last year, but he recently declared he is in remission.
Now he has opened up about his health battle, calling cannabis “a medicine” and praising the drug as “much better than alcohol or tobacco and (it) hasn’t killed anyone.”
He is quoted as telling Germany’s Bunte magazine, “The cancer and the chemotherapy really took it out of me. I lost 30 pounds, weighed only 171 pounds. Marijuana actually brought my appetite back.”
 
http://www.ksn.com/entertainment/story/Hagman-Marijuana-is-a-medicine/3AyO8jgQAUO7-aJFRZIQ_g.cspx

 
The Clothes: Indie California office-casual meets Reefer Madness Southwest road trip-inspired prints. Cannabis prints. It’s important to start with that, because they were there, on a white pant suit and crop top/knee-length skirt outfit in the middle of the presentation. It’s weird to think, “Hmm, cannabis leaves are kind of pretty,” but the way Clover Canyon does them, glitterized and Liberace-shiny, deserve some admiration. It looked like they painted cannabis leaves on white, shattered a silver disco ball, and glued all the broken remnants on top to create a mosaic.
 
Complete article here:
http://fashionista.com/2012/09/clover-canyon-spring-2013/

Posted by SamChapman

 

Putting Pressure On Political Candidates Is Very Important For Marijuana Reform

This year has been monumental for political candidates coming out with favorable stances regarding progressive cannabis law reform around the country. I was at a double fundraiser recently for Oregon’s current Attorney General, Ellen Rosenblum and current Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian. After talking with Mr. Avakian for a few minutes I quickly realized how big of an asset he is to the medical cannabis community here in Oregon.
I quickly found out that Brad not only supports Oregons the medical marijuana program, but he has been fighting to protect patients from discrimination for having a medical marijuana card for more than 15 years as a civil rights attorney. (I should mention this kind of information is not hard to find, a simple Google search allows you to start connecting the dots as to why a candidate should endorse legalization. You don’t have to have majored in public policy or political science to make the connections.) In an interview with the Daily Emerald regarding an unfortunate Oregon Supreme Court decision allowing employers to fire medical marijuana patients, Mr. Avakian stated, “As Oregonians, we have always believed strongly in our ability to determine the right public policy within our own borders…That makes today’s decision all the more troubling, because it so seriously undercuts the law that Oregonians put in place, by initiative petition, in 1998.”
In that same article, long-time Oregon cannabis activist John Sajo said, “Just because the Supreme Court gave (employers) the right to fire doesn’t mean employers are going to fire productive workers. We do think this a very unfortunate decision — it ignores state rights, ignores the voters and allows discrimination against patients who find marijuana to be the most effective medicine for treating their ailment.” This isn’t just an issue about marijuana, it’s about civil liberties inside and outside the workplace and Brad Avakian is willing to acknowledge that and stand with the will of the voters.
 
Complete article here:
http://www.theweedblog.com/how-to-get-your-candidate-to-support-cannabis-reform/

See What A Feral Hemp Field Looks Like

Near Fremont, Nebraska Cannabis TV visited a feral Cannabis Hemp patch with plant breeder Dave West, PhD. Ripe with bowing seed heads, the colors and aromas were enchanting. Dr. Dave points out that the states of Kansas and Nebraska have encouraged farmers to let feral hemp go to seed, as pheasants depend on the tall hemp seedheads sticking out of the snow to make it through the long winters.
 
Complete article and video here:
http://www.theweedblog.com/touring-a-feral-hemp-patch-with-dr-dave-west/

External glands called trichomes manufacture the active ingredients in cannabis: cannabinoids
The California Board of Registered Nursing has approved Continuing Education Credits for nurses attending the $140, six-hour seminar, which “will include an overview of cannabis, the various cannabinoids (endogenous, phyto-cannabinoids and pharmaceutical cannabinoid products) and the newly discovered endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) that is present in all humans. By understanding the ECS, it becomes more clear as to how and why cannabis is a safe and effective medication for a wide array of illnesses and conditions. The nurse’s role in patient care and education regarding the safe use of cannabis, including ingestion methodologies and interactions with prescription opiates, will be discussed. State and federal laws regarding cannabis as medicine will also be presented.”
 
Complete article here:
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/LegalizationNation/archives/2012/09/12/what-nurses-need-to-know-about-the-endocannabinoid-system-and-cannabis
 

Two Nevada lawmakers are hoping to make it easier for qualified patients in the state to obtain medical marijuana, possibly via highly regulated dispensaries.
This week, Assemblyman Steven Brooks said he is teaming up with Assemblyman Tick Segerblom to determine an ideal medical cannabis distribution system in Nevada by analyzing the MMJ infrastructure in other states. Segerblom previously called for a bill that would revise the state’s medical marijuana laws in favor of patients, and Brooks has echoed that request.
The use and possession of medical marijuana is legal in Nevada for people who have received a doctor’s recommendation. However, the law does not allow the existence of dispensaries to distribute marijuana. Instead, patients must grow their own. That’s not ideal – or even possible – for many of the 3,000-plus registered patients in Nevada, making it hard for them to get the medicine they need.
The lawmakers, both Democrats, hope to get a bill up for consideration next year.
This is good news for the medical marijuana industry, which has been boxed out of Nevada even though the state allows MMJ.
 
Complete article here:
http://mmjbusinessdaily.com/2012/09/06/revisions-to-nevada-medical-marijuana-regulations-cannabis-distribution-rules-in-pipeline/
 

By JASON HOPPIN – Santa Cruz Sentinel

While other Wo/Men s Medical Marijuana Alliance members roll marijuana… (DAN COYRO/SENTINEL)
 
DAVENPORT – On Sept. 5, 2002, the country was debating whether to invade Iraq to rid the country of weapons of mass destruction, just as it was bracing for the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. Stocks were still down, but the Oakland A’s had just notched their record 20th straight win.
Early that morning, 30 federal Drug Enforcement Agency-led law enforcement officers stormed the Wo/Men’s Medical Marijuana Alliance, a high-profile collective with a small pot farm outside Davenport, chopping down plants and setting off a furor with lasting impacts on the statewide medical marijuana debate that endures today.
“I just remember waking up at 6:45 a.m., because I heard vehicles in the driveway of the house I was in,” recalled WAMM’s Mike Corral recently, who looked out to see agents carrying a battering ram. “We always knew that there was this possibility of the feds doing something. [But] at the time, we were the darlings of the medical marijuana movement.”
Founders Mike and Valerie Corral were never charged, but the raid spurred a lengthy court case, contributed to local suspicions of federal law enforcement and beatified the Corrals as the spiritual center of the medical marijuana movement. Last week marked the 10th anniversary of the raid, and several key figures reflected on their roles.
“I think that event was one of the most important developments in the growth of understanding about medical marijuana in the country,” said local attorney Ben Rice, part of an all-star legal team that leaped to the Corrals’ defense.
But for a long time, prison was a real possibility. For Valerie Corral, the saga began when she heard boots crossing her porch. She knew who it was before she saw them, but said she was inoculated by calm.
GUN TO HER HEAD
“Something happened when they pushed me to the ground and put a gun to my head,” Corral recalled. “It’s hard to say exactly what it was. I wouldn’t say I felt safe with a gun to my head – I’m not trying to make light or change the image – but there was something that came together and strengthened inside of me.”
 
Complete article here:
http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/localnews/ci_21498592/collective-endurance-decade-later-lasting-impacts-from-famed
 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Pl-B581jms&list=UUvRu7O9wgdhtZMojgUOhnDg&index=5&feature=plcp