Category: Cannabis News Corner

New Hampshire Hemp Farming: State House Passes Bill Protecting Industrial Hemp

Jeannie Herer
New Hampshire Hemp
DALY CITY, CA – APRIL 18: Leaves of a mature marijuana plant are seenin a display at The International Cannabis and Hemp Expo April 18, 2010 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

CONCORD, N.H. — The New Hampshire House is giving the nod to hemp farmers after passing a bill to protect industrial hemp from being tagged as an illicit drug.
The bill, which passed the House Wednesday without debate, would forbid industrial hemp, a botanical cousin to marijuana, from being listed as a controlled substance. It would only go into effect after the Drug Enforcement Agency certifies that at least two other New England states have adopted such legislation.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/08/new-hampshire-hemp-farming_n_1332027.html?ref=green

Why Can’t You Smoke Pot? Because Lobbyists Are Getting Rich Off of the War on Drugs

Jeannie Herer
Why we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses.

Photo Credit: Theequinest
John Lovell is a lobbyist who makes a lot of money from making sure you can’t smoke a joint. That’s his job. He’s a lobbyist for the police unions in Sacramento, and he is a driving force behind grabbing Federal dollars to shut down the California marijuana industry. I’ll get to the evidence on this important story in a bit, but first, some context.

At some point in the distant past, the war on drugs might have been popular. But not anymore — the polling is clear, but beyond that, the last three Presidents have used illegal drugs. So why do we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses? Well, there are many reasons, but one of them is, of course, money in politics. Corruption. Whatever you want to call it, it’s why you can’t smoke a joint without committing a crime, though of course you can ingest any number of pills or drinks completely within the law.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/154448/why_can%E2%80%99t_you_smoke_pot_because_lobbyists_are_getting_rich_off_of_the_war_on_drugs?page=entire

Hemp promoted as cash crop in Kentucky

Jeannie Herer

FRANKFORT, KY. — Lawmakers have grown somewhat bolder in their push to allow farmers to grow hemp in Kentucky, a Bible-belt state where the issue was once considered politically taboo.
The House Agriculture and Small Business Committee held a hearing Wednesday on two bills that could put Kentucky in position to grow hemp if a federal restriction is lifted. Neither bill was called for a vote.
Most Kentucky political leaders have dismissed the issue in the past because of fears that voters might somehow conclude that they’re also pro-marijuana. But the issue was a centerpiece in last year’s race for agriculture commissioner, which was won decisively by Republican Jamie Comer, a hemp proponent.
Comer said growing industrial hemp would allow expansion of Kentucky farm markets and create jobs in rural communities.
Industrial hemp, a cousin to marijuana, is used to make fuel, cattle feed, textiles, paper, lotion, cosmetics and other products. Though it contains trace amounts of the mind-altering chemical tetrahydrocannabinol that makes marijuana intoxicating, it remains illegal in the United States.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20120307/NEWS01/303070089/Hemp-promoted-cash-crop-Kentucky?odyssey=nav%7Chead

The Medical Marijuana Movement May Be Getting A Senator

Jeannie Herer

WASIM MUKLASHY
Bob Kerrey Marijuana Senator Nebraska
 
In what is shaping up to be another fairly significant victory for the medical marijuana movement, marijuana supporters just might be getting an extremely high-profile voice to help push their cause forward; their first Senator.
Bob Kerrey, who held a seat as a Democratic senator in Nebraska in the 90s, has openly supported legalizing marijuana on several occasions. Perhaps the most public example of his support for marijuana comes from his not-so-secret history of advising Peter Lewis, the founder of Progressive Insurance and a leading backer of pot policy reform efforts.
Kerrey now seems to be enjoying a surge in support as a replacement for retiring Senator Ben Nelson in the Nebraska race.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.kushmagazine.com/news/2187-the-medical-marijuana-movement-may-be-getting-a-senator

Cannabis’ unlikely new crusader: Pat Robertson?

Jeannie Herer

Caitlin Donohue

Praying for legalization?
File this one under #OKsure: Televangelist and all-around dubious individual Pat Robertson has come out in support of the decriminalization of marijuana.
Of course, it’s all the liberals’ fault. Robertson made the following comments on the March 1 episode of the 700 Club. (Many thanks to Tom Angell of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition  for providing us with the link fest, lookit this hilarious retraction  his network posted when Robertson made similar comments in December!)
Even though these prisoners may have been sentenced by some court for some offense, should they be behind bars? Here’s the thing, we have over 3,000 – the number must be much higher than that, but over 3,000 federal crimes.
And every time the liberals pass a bill, I don’t care what it involves! They stick criminal sanctions on it. They don’t feel that there’s any way that people are going to keep a wall unless they can put them in jail. And so we have the jails that are filled with people who are white collar criminals and I’ve became sort of a hero of the hippie culture I guess when I said I think we ought to decriminalize the possession of marijuana.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.sfbg.com/politics/2012/03/06/cannabis-unlikely-new-crusader-pat-robertson

Substance Abuse During Pregnancy Not Linked To Poor Academic Achievements

Jeannie Herer

BY SORIN PEDALANO

 
The on-line journal of Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies  has recently published the results of a new study conducted by a team of researchers from Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health along with Boston Medical center. This study shows that intrauterine exposure to cocaine, tobacco and marijuana does not affect the children’s academic achievement test scores. On the other hand, children exposed to alcohol during their mother’s pregnancy, with no evidence of fetal alcohol syndrome, received lower test scores especially in math, reasoning and spelling.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.doctortipster.com/8367-substance-abuse-during-pregnancy-not-linked-to-poor-academic-achievements.html

New Mexico – Gov. Martinez OKs bill creating medical marijuana fund

Jeannie Herer

By Milan Simonich / msimonich@tnmnp.com

Gov. Susana Martinez, Republican, of New Mexico
SANTA FE — Neither Ripley nor countless New Mexico residents would believe it, but Republican Gov. Susana Martinez signed a marijuana bill on Monday.
Martinez, who was a prosecutor for 25 years, spent half her lifetime fighting the war on drugs.
She took office as governor after the state already had a law permitting marijuana to be used for select medicinal purposes. Now Martinez has signed Senate Bill 240, creating a medical cannabis fund to cover the program’s costs.
Producers of marijuana for medical treatment pay the state fees of $10,000 to $30,000 a year, said Sen. Cisco McSorley, who sponsored the bill.
Rather than the money going into the state’s general spending account, it will be maintained by the Department of Health as a specific fund to pay for administration of the medical marijuana program.
“It means the few New Mexico taxpayers who objected to their money going toward the medical marijuana program no longer have to worry,” said McSorley, D-Albuquerque.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.lcsun-news.com/las_cruces-news/ci_20107815/gov-martinez-oks-bill-creating-medical-marijuana-fund

High Hopes for Medical Marijuana Bill This Year

Jeannie Herer

by Christine Stuart
 

The Judiciary Committee will hear testimony Wednesday on a bill  to allow people with debilitating medical conditions to use marijuana legally.
The nearly-perennial proposal wasn’t introduced by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy this year, but lawmakers believe it has a good chance of passing.
“It’s gotten though the committee the last several years,” Judiciary Committee Co-Chairman Gerald Fox III said Friday.
Currently, 16 states and Washington D.C.  legalize small amounts of marijuana for patients with debilitating conditions, such as cancer,  HIV/AIDS, glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.ctnewsjunkie.com/ctnj.php/archives/entry/high_hopes_for_medical_marijuana_bill_this_year

Michigan can now print 4,000 medical marijuana cards a day

Jeannie Herer
File image of marijuana from the Associated Press.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The state of Michigan has ordered a new printer that will allow it to produce 4,000 medical marijuana cards a day.
Rae Ramsdell, who oversees the program, says 40,000 people who don’t have cards have been given a tamper-proof letter to show they’re qualified to use marijuana for medicinal purposes.
More than 131,000 people have been approved for marijuana. Thousands more serve as caregivers, who are allowed to grow marijuana for up to five people.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.wzzm13.com/news/article/202630/2/State-can-now-print-4000-medical-marijuana-cards-a-day