By Brendan Sasso
A proposal to legalize marijuana is the first idea on the White House’s online petition site to gather enough signatures to break the threshold required to receive an official response.
The White House has promised to evaluate and issue a formal response to any idea that receives more than 5,000 signatures within 30 days. Visitors are free to offer their own proposals.
The first proposal to reach that limit asks, “Isn’t it time to legalize and regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol? If not, please explain why you feel that the continued criminalization of cannabis will achieve the results in the future that it has never achieved in the past?”
Currently, the fourth and sixth most popular petitions on the site also advocate legalizing marijuana.
Read complete article here:
http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/183411-marijuana-legalization-first-online-petition-to-require-white-house-response
Category: Cannabis News Corner
Hemp Energy Farming Breakthrough Study –Corroborates Jack Herer’s Assertions
by Norman B (“Deviations from the Norm”)
Hot off the lab table: Five scientists working at Lund University in Sweden on October 31, 2010, published online their findings about the potential of Hemp as an energy crop. The findings support activist Jack Herer’s teachings, that through growing Hemp on a percentage of our available land, our society can switch to completely clean fuel that causes no Global Warming.
Read complete article here:
http://mamamojournal.blogspot.com/2010/11/hemp-energy-farming-breakthrough-study.html#comment-form
Hemp 4 Haiti
“Created to support ongoing disaster relief efforts in Haiti, the Hemp 4 Haiti Project, is focused on providing sustainable, reusable goods and products to the victims of natural disasters. The exterior packaging is crafted from high-quality, hand braided hemp that can be easily unwoven after the non-perishable goods contained within have been consumed. Once unwoven, the hemp has numerous practical applications vital to relief efforts. Fully reusable and sustainable, Hemp 4 Haiti eliminates the waste and environmental pollution that other disaster relief products leave behind.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.thedieline.com/blog/2011/9/22/hemp-4-haiti.html
Roseanne Barr for president? You better believe it!
by Meagan Morris
Yep, the comedian is serious about running for president in 2012, according to an interview she did with Wendy Williams.
“It’s absolutely true,” Barr said when Williams asked if she was running. Her platform? “Legalizing marijuana is first… and hemp. Marijuana is a good medicine and a lot of people know that.”
The audience –full of women — cheered for the veteran sitcom star when she made the announcement.
“I use medical marijuana for my glaucoma and I thank God that I have it,” she continued. “I also will forgive all student loans.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.sheknows.com/entertainment/articles/842245/roseanne-barr-for-president-you-better-believe-it
Cannabis Coffee Shops: Should America Adopt Dutch Marijuana Regulations?
by Carly Schwartz
SAN FRANCISCO — Should Americans be able to buy marijuana in coffee shops?
A new study by U.C. Berkeley Law and Policy Professor Robert MacCoun explores whether the United States would benefit from regulating cannabis like the Dutch. MacCoun examined the effects of the drug on Dutch society over the course of more than 30 years and discovered that America might have a lot to learn from what he dubs “quasi-legalization.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/20/cannabis-coffee-shops-america-dutch_n_972557.html
Governor Brown vetoes restrictive pot shop bill
By Patrick McGreevy, Los Angeles Times
Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday vetoed a bill that would have barred medical marijuana dispensaries within 600 feet of homes, saying it stepped on the powers of cities and counties that already have authority to regulate pot shops.
Read complete article here:
http://articles.latimes.com/2011/sep/22/local/la-me-brown-marijuana-20110922
PTSD Symptoms in Rats, Lessened by Marijuana
by Art Writ
A study from the Haifa University has found out that a timely administration of marijuana could potentially block the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in rats. The said study was carried out by researchers from the psychology department of the said University and was also published in a journal called Neuropsychopharmacology. The research has discovered that rats which were administered with marijuana within a span of 24 hours after a traumatic experience were able to successfully curb any signs or symptoms of PTSD.
Read complete article here:
http://www.healblog.net/health-news/ptsd-symptoms-in-rats-lessened-by-marijuana/
Crime Rises When Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Close
When medical marijuana dispensaries close, crime rises in the surrounding neighborhood when compared to areas where dispensaries are allowed to remain open, according to a new RAND Corporation study. The findings challenge the common wisdom that marijuana dispensaries promote criminal activity.
Studying crime both before and after a large number of dispensaries were shut down in Los Angeles, researchers found that incidents such as break-ins rose in the neighborhoods of closed dispensaries relative to dispensaries allowed to remain open, at least in the short term.
In the blocks with the closed dispensaries, the study observed crime up to 60 percent greater than comparable blocks with open dispensaries, but the effects were not apparent across a wider area.
Read complete article here:
http://www.rand.org/news/press/2011/09/21.html
Treatment of Crohn’s disease with cannabis: an observational study.
CONCLUSIONS:
This is the first report of cannabis use in Crohn’s disease in humans. The results indicate that cannabis may have a positive effect on disease activity, as reflected by reduction in disease activity index and in the need for other drugs and surgery. Prospective placebo-controlled studies are warranted to fully evaluate the efficacy and side effects of cannabis in CD.
See Abstract here:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21910367
Police Harass Federal Medical Marijuana Patient Elvy Musikka – Toke of the Town
By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
 |
| Paul Wellman |
| Federal medical marijuana patient Elvy Musikka holds a tin of joints send to her each month by the U.S. federal government |
Elvy Musikka, one of four surviving patients in the federal medical marijuana program, was detained by Oregon State Police early Thursday morning following a town hall meeting on medical marijuana.
Musikka was detained along with other registered Oregon medical marijuana patients after a state trooper staked out the co-op 45th Parallel and harassed cardholders as they left the building, reports Russ Belville in the Examiner.
Several members of the patient cooperative were detained by the trooper, who issued citations including a $1,000 ticket to a grower for “residue” left behind on an empty pipe by a patient.
Musikka was in town for the 45th Parallel’s Town Hall Meeting, which had occurred earlier Wednesday at the Clarion Hotel. At the hotel, an Oregon State Trooper parked just down the street from the public entrance to the parking lot.
“[I] cannot verify (but strongly suspect) it was the same trooper,” Belville said.
According to 45th Parallel clinic manager Joey Nieves, Musikka, who is in her mid-60s, was detained for more than an hour in a squad car as the ignorant trooper did not believe Musikka’s federal paperwork authorizing her to possess and use her federally produced medical marijuana anywhere in the U.S.
Read complete article here:
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2011/09/police_harass_federal_medical_marijuana_patient_el.php