BY FRANCIS MCCABE
LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

With an ever-changing need worldwide for different products over the centuries, agriculture moves on with demand. Some crops, for a variety of reasons, became less favorable to farmers and were not produced in many places; one of the victims was the Hemp plant, a once favorite crop by farmers worldwide due to its diversity of use. Since history has been recorded, hemp has been a popular crop grown by farmers from China across to Europe and Britain. Hemp production was banned in many countries and this resulted in a big gap in the fiber market, so other crops had to be found and cotton seemed to fit the bill.
Originally the issue was related to the psychoactive components of some types of marijuana. Without a clear direction and no way to lawfully distinguish the non-THC hemp from the psychoactive version marijuana there was confusion which caused many governments to ban the production of all types of hemp plants.
Hemp Turned Out to be a Lot More Benevolent than They Realized!
Hemp with a high psychoactive content turned out to be a good treatment for a number of the symptoms of some common disorders; and has not brought about the death and destruction that was once suggested it might. There are a range of other substances that in reality did fill these shoes as evil destroyers, including alcohol and tobacco. When cannabis was banned in the last century, opium, one of the most addictive substances known to man was still legally available!
There is a different view from the medical profession these days.
With government attitudes being changed by better education and research, hemp production is now actively encouraged again. With growing non-THC hemp legalized again, production has risen dramatically. With better research and more modern approaches, there has been much development in the hemp industry consequently this amazingly useful plant can be utilized in eco-friendly and sustainable building materials, plastics, fiber to make clothing and other soft products, and one of the most useful components of the plant – Hempseed.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.eco-business.com/press-releases/new-attitudes-to-hemp-enable-an-agricultural-comeback/

 
The Human Solution  is a non-profit grass-roots organization.  Our members are a diverse coalition of concerned citizens, united in our common goals of supporting medical marijuana defendants, patients, providers, and the community at large.
We attend court hearings, speak publicly at city council and town hall meetings, give classes to educate the public and remove the stigma of medical marijuana, and hold fundraising events with help with defendants’ legal expenses and assist patients in need.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.theweedblog.com/what-is-the-human-solution/

By Colin Leslie Beadon
 
In the Barbados Advocate on Saturday February 25, 2012 the front page headline read: “Take More Risks”.
That headline says it all. The island of Barbados is an advanced one in so many ways, yet there are areas where it falters far behind.
I’ll take on two right here and now:
One: In no other island in the West Indies is there such a lack of fruit trees. It is as though people hate the idea of growing a fruit tree in Barbados. Go into any garden in other islands and you’ll find mango and avocado, oranges, limes, breadfruit, bananas, and usually at least one or two coconuts trees. The coconut trees can be of the dwarf kind, just a few feet tall, but bearing large nuts. In Brunei, I saw coconut trees in gardens about four feet high, with huge nuts touching the ground, so no winds could blow that down and destroy a home.
Two: We are being stupid and backward about the 50 000 highly important and healthful uses of industrial hemp. Hemp-made products are used in just about everything you can think of, including human and animal foods, and fuels.  On top of that, we could get three crops a year, maybe four, instead of just one of sugar. Hemp-made shoes, clothes, and handbags last much, much longer than those made of other products. Hemp is a much stronger, longer lasting product than cotton and it can be mixed with cotton or anything else as a composite.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.barbadosadvocate.com/newsitem.asp?more=letters&NewsID=23118

Michelle Tuzee
LOS ANGELES (KABC) — At 3 years old, Cash Hyde has spent most of his young life battling cancer.
In May 2010, he was diagnosed with a stage 4 brain tumor. Cashy, as he is affectionately called, spent 10 months at a Salt Lake City hospital enduring high-dose chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant.
His tumor was inoperable, inextricably wrapped around his optic nerve.
Cashy’s father, Mike Hyde, said he was so sick, he hadn’t eaten in more than 40 days. He was so sick, he was vomiting eight to 10 times a day and couldn’t lift his head off his pillow.
“They asked us six to seven times if we wanted to quit efforts and just let him go,” said Cashy’s mother, Kalli.
Cashy’s parents made a radical decision. They asked Cashy’s doctors to take him off his anti-nausea and pain medications.
Instead, Cashy’s parents turned to cannabis oil, made from marijuana. It’s a substance that is illegal under federal law.
Kalli Hyde, a registered nurse, and her husband began sneaking the cannabis oil into Cashy’s feeding tube. They did not inform Cashy’s oncologist.
Cashy’s appetite returned. The couple says Cashy slept more and appeared to be in less pain, all of which seemed to help the boy endure the grueling chemotherapy.
“Within 2 weeks time, Cashy was off all those drugs. He was sitting up in bed eating, he was laughing,” the father said. “The doctors and nurses told us that it was a miracle and amazing.”
 
See complete article and video here:
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news%2Fhealth&id=8564390

Rochester, MN–(ENEWSPF)–March 1, 2012.  Federal officials should reclassify cannabis under federal law and permit “long-stifled research into a potential trove of (the plant’s) therapeutic applications,” according to review published in the February issue of the journal Mayo Clinic Proceedings, a peer-reviewed journal sponsored by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
The review, entitled “Blurred Boundaries: The Therapeutics and Politics of Medical Marijuana,” states: “Bureaucratic hurdles not erected for other potential pharmaceuticals continue to interfere with legitimate cannabis research. The federal government instituted its 1970 ban in the absence of scientific evidence supporting its position. It maintains the ban, despite scientific evidence suggesting that cannabis could have positive effects on the many organ systems endocannabinoid activity modulates.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.enewspf.com/latest-news/health-and-fitness/31309-mayo-clinic-proceedings-bureaucratic-hurdles–interfere-with-legitimate-cannabis-research.html
 

3 Dispensaries have already been chosen

• Field reporting by Steve Nielsen

By Lauren Maschmedt
 

BOZEMAN, Mont. — Montana medical marijuana supporters are campaigning for a new petition drive.
This one would legalize marijuana across the board.
The petition aims to put Constitutional Initiative 110 (CI-110) on the ballot in the 2012 elections.
CI-110 calls for an amendment to the ‘adult rights’ article in the Montana Constitution.
As it stands, the article states adults have the right to purchase, consume or possess alcohol.
Supporters want the article expanded to include marijuana.
It classifies adults as over 18, but of course under federal law, no one can possess alcohol under 21.
Trained petitioner Rick Whatman said the over 21 law would apply to marijuana, rather than allowing it over 18.
“I think with all the support that we have on this initiative, that we should do very well with it” Whatman said.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.nbcmontana.com/news/30584473/detail.html

Unlike Bill Clinton, President Obama admits he inhaled!. “Frequently,” he said. “That was the point.”
People laugh when politicians talk about their drug use. The audience laughed during a 2003 CNN Democratic presidential primary debate when John Kerry, John Edwards and Howard Dean admitted smoking weed.
Yet those same politicians oversee a cruel system that now stages SWAT raids on people’s homes more than 100 times a day. People die in these raids — some weren’t even the intended targets of the police.
Neill Franklin once led such raids. The 33-year Maryland police veteran, now executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, locked up hundreds of people for drugs and felt good about it.
“We really thought that these drugs made people evil,” he told me.
But 10 years ago Franklin decided that drugs — even hard drugs — do much less harm to Americans than does the drugwar.
“Drugs can be — and are in many cases — problematic. But the policies that we have in place to prohibit their use are 10 times more problematic.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2012/02/29/creators_oped

With unemployment rates approaching 23 percent, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal, Spain has unquestionably fallen on tough economic times. However, the resourceful people of one town in Tarragona, in the Iberian country’s northeast, have come up with a solution:
Farming pot.
Rasquera, a town of with a municipal debt of 1.3 million euros, is exploring the idea of growing marijuana on government land to bring in revenue and create jobs, Spanish news agency EFE reports. A nonprofit group, called the Barcelona Association of Cannabis Self-Medication (ABCDA), has offered to pay the town hall 36,000 euros to get the project off the ground, with an annual investment of 550,000 euros for costs that would include land rental and security, according to Basque Radio Television.
The nonprofit ABCDA has around 5,000 members, according to EFE, and would lease the land to work toward its goals of therapy and relaxation.
“Cannabis for self-medication is legal,” an ABCDA member told El Periodico, translated by HuffPost. “We’re talking about staying within the law.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/28/rasquera-marijuana-spain_n_1307598.html?ref=world