By Pete Guither
 
Maastricht mayor does u-turn over cannabis club membership
 
Locals in Maastricht should no longer have to formally register as marijuana users to buy soft drugs from the city’s cannabis cafes, mayor Onno Hoes said in a letter to councillors on Wednesday. […]
 
At the same time, so few locals have registered as cannabis users that changes need to be made in the way the membership system works. Because locals are reluctant to register, ID and an official council certificate stating where they live should be sufficient to buy marijuana, the mayor is quoted as saying.
Nos says Hoes also hopes this will reduce the number of street dealers who have appeared since the ban was introduced.
 
Complete article here:
http://cannabis.hawaiinewsdaily.com/2012/09/09/netherlands-backing-off-on-restrictions/

Long Beach Municipal Code Chapter 5.89, a city law banning all medical cannabis collectives, was deemed preempted by state law and invalid by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge. In early July, 2012, the Ca. Second District Court of Appeal struck-down Los Angeles County Code section 22.56.196(B), a ban of all collectives similar to LBMC 5.89. In an order dated August 17, 2012, in Victoria Pappas v. City of Long Beach, LASC No. BC484645, Judge James R. Dunn wrote, “LBMC Chapter 5.89 is virtually identical to LACC 22.56.196(B) and is therefore preempted by state law.” Matthew Pappas, attorney for Victoria Pappas, his daughter and plaintiff in the case, said “The Judge’s decision properly reflects the law in California and protects patients like Tori from discriminatory laws like 5.89.” According to Pappas, his daughter was severely injured in an assault last year. After undergoing emergency brain surgery and a lengthy hospital visit, she was prescribed opiate based pain medication. She discontinued use of the opiate-based pain medication and switched to medical cannabis through a licensed doctor recommendation. In the suit, she alleged that the LBMC 5.89 ban prevented her from accessing cannabis medication while patients who use more dangerous drugs like Oxycontin and Lortabs can simply walk into any corner pharmacy without fear of police raids or attacks. Attorney Pappas noted that the judge’s order operates to invalidate Chapter 5.89 and that he will be filing additional motions next week in the case.
 
Complete article here:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/long-beach-city-ban-on-medical-marijuana-found-to-be-preempted-by-ca-state-law-2012-09-08

 
Regulating cannabis use could be the way forward because of the ‘colossal failure’ of the war on drugs, a report says.
The report suggests the establishment of hard-to-get, easy-to-lose licences for the cultivation, wholesale and retail supply of cannabis, including for medicinal use.
Plain packets of the drug would feature warning labels with all advertising and political donations from cannabis companies banned.
The Australia 21 Alternatives to Prohibition report, released on Sunday, is the result of a roundtable in July of 22 experts and young people, canvassing new approaches to drug policy.
Among the report’s authors is the University of Melbourne’s former dean of medicine David Penington, who has proposed decriminalisation for possession and use of cannabis and ecstasy for people 16 and over.
Users would be recorded on a national register and could purchase cannabis from an approved government supplier in regulated amounts.
 
Complete article here:
http://www.skynews.com.au/health/article.aspx?id=793125

By Erik Altieri

 
Judge Richard Posner serves on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago, he also wants marijuana to be legalized.
During a September 6th speech at Elmhurst College, the federal judge lambasted the war on cannabis. “I don’t think we should have a fraction of the drug laws that we have,” proclaimed Posner to loud applause, “I think it’s really absurd to be criminalizing possession or use or distribution of marijuana.”
 
Complete article here:
http://cannabis.hawaiinewsdaily.com/2012/09/07/federal-judge-criminalization-of-marijuana-is-absurd/

Lisa Garber

 
Does marijuana cause cancer? The censorship-happy government’s war on marijuana may be sorely misplaced, especially when considering all the other issues in need of focus. Dr. Sean McAllister of the Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco has spent years researching cannabidiol, a cannabinoid found in cannabis, the plant that flowers marijuana. “Cannabidiol offers hope of a non-toxic therapy that could treat aggressive forms of cancer without any of the painful side effects of chemotherapy,” he says.
 
Complete article here:
http://naturalsociety.com/does-marijuana-cause-cancer-research-yes/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+naturalsocietyblog+%28Natural+Society%29

By MARK WOLFE

 
THE youngest of my three daughters was born around the same time I became a card-carrying medical cannabis patient. Even though I was only 44, I’d been suffering from occasional back pain. I also suffered bouts of stress, compounded by anxiety. The causes were unknown, but there seemed to be a correlation with work deadlines and flying coach with three children under the age of 5. Sometimes it got so bad I had trouble falling asleep at night, leaving me groggy and irritable.
So, in 2010, I resolved to seek medical help. I received a thorough physical examination from my CannaMeddoctor, who checked not only my pulse but my blood pressure as well. Examining the results, he concluded that I would benefit enormously from a cannabis-based treatment regimen and recommended that I use a brownie-based form of the drug to avoid the lung irritation associated with other modes of dose administration. I soon had in my possession a shiny, state-sanctioned medical marijuana ID card, gaining me free access to the city’s expanding array of quasi-legal cannabis dispensaries.
After two years of treatment, I can state unequivocally that I feel much better about pretty much everything. Sure, my back still hurts, but I’m cool with it.
But the best part is an amazing off-label benefit I call Parental Attention Surplus Syndrome.
 
 
Complete article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/08/opinion/how-pot-helps-parenting.html?_r=0

 
EUGENE, Ore. (AP) – The University of Oregon is implementing random drug testing of all its athletes, following a media report earlier this year that estimated from 40 to 60 percent of the football team smoked marijuana.
 
Complete article here:
http://www.kolotv.com/sports/headlines/Oregon-Begins-Random-Drug-Testing-168851516.html

On Wednesday, 57-year-old Levin man Billy McKee was found guilty in the Palmerston North District Court on four charges of selling cannabis and one of cultivation.
Libertarianz Spokesman on Drugs, Dr. Richard Goode, described it as a day of shame for the New Zealand police and their political masters in the Beehive.
“The job of the police is to prosecute criminals, not to persecute amputees. McKee lost a leg below the knee when a drunk driver deliberately rammed his motorbike decades ago. Since then, he has suffered constant pain from nerve damage to the stump. Now he uses medicinal cannabis – it’s the only thing that works.”
Goode quotes McKee: “If I could get medication from my doctor that worked for me then I’d just use it … but the medication I get from the doctor makes me really, really sick.”
 
Complete article here:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PO1209/S00091/nz-police-brutalising-the-sick.htm

Jacob Sullum

 
Today a federal judgesentenced Tom Daubert, a Montana medical marijuana activist, to five years of probation rather than the six and a half to eight years in prison sought by prosecutors. Daubert, the subject of the new documentary Code of the West, is co-founder of Montana Cannabis, a chain of dispensaries with a grow operation in Helena that was raided by the feds in March 2011. He pleaded guilty last April to a single charge of conspiracy to maintain drug-involved premises, which was punishable by up to 20 years in prison but did not carry a mandatory minimum sentence.
“I do not believe this case warrants imprisonment,” said U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen, citing “unique” factors, including the fact that Daubert had left Montana Cannabis before the raid and had lobbied for stricter regulation of dispensaries. Although Daubert would not have been allowed to discuss the legal status of medical marijuana in Montana during a federal trial, Christensen seems to have taken into account the fact that he openly provided the drug to patients in compliance with state law. The Missoulian notes that Daubert “routinely conducted greenhouse tours for lawmakers and law enforcement officers.”
 
Complete article here:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/09/06/montana-medical-marijuana-provider-gets

 
By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Trail of blood on Phyllis Loquasto’s stairs after her beloved dog “Duke” was shot by WayneNET Task Force officers
Information Liberation
 
Hacktivist Collective Responds To Drug Raid In Which 75-Year-Old Forced To Lie On Floor At Gunpoint As Her Dog Was Executed