By Elliott Blackburn

LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) – Time’s slipping away on a deal for iconic U.S. country singer Willie Nelson’s misdemeanor drug charge.
County Judge Becky Dean-Walker said on Friday she wouldn’t sign off on a plea deal that reduced the charge to the same as a speeding ticket.
“I’m not going to be guilty of signing something because someone is a celebrity,” Dean-Walker told Reuters.
Read complete article here:
http://ca.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idCATRE7606HL20110701

Posted by Ninja Smoker

The administration of the non-psychotropic cannabinoid CBD (cannabidiol) induces selective apoptosis in hepatic stellate cells (HSCs), according to preclinical findings reported in the journal Cell Death and Disease. The activation of HSCs is considered to be a key cellular event underlying hepatic fibrogenesis (excessive tissue build up), a condition that can result in liver failure.
Authors reported: “In this study, we find that CBD selectively kills activated HSCs. … We provide a molecular basis of action for CBD and identify CBD as a novel potential therapeutic agent for liver fibrosis.”
They concluded, “These promising findings warrant future investigation evaluating the anti-fibrotic effect of CBD in vivo. The prospect of CBD as a new anti-fibrotic compound is rendered more appealing by the fact that CBD is a non-psychoactive small drug-like molecule already approved for clinical use in many countries.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.theweedblog.com/cannabis-compound-a-promising-treatment-for-liver-fibrosis/

by Phillip Smith

A state judge has blocked some of the most onerous provisions of a new law designed to rein in Montana’s medical marijuana industry from taking effect. But other provisions of the law, which will make life more difficult for patients and providers, are now in effect. 

District Court Judge James Reynolds issued a preliminary injunction late Thursday to block those portions of the law from going into effect hours later. But the rest of the repressive “reform” is in effect as of today.
Reynolds ruled that lawmakers went too far in trying to clamp down. He blocked a provision of the new law that outlawed anyone making money in the business, including growers being compensated for their efforts. He blocked the law’s ban on advertising and promotion of medical marijuana. And he threw out the new law’s provision limiting providers to growing for no more than three patients.
Read complete article here:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/jul/01/montana_judge_blocks_restrictive

Flash Rosenstein

The first time I ever heard of Henry Hemp was about 2 months after I moved to Southern California. I was already abound with unbridled  exuberance having recently discovered Cannabis Planet, a local T.V. show about pot and it’s heads. I told anyone who would listen that L.A. had Elephantitis of the scrotum and immediately fell in love with the new closest metropolis my suburban ass now sat. One particular episode cut to a scene featuring an over caffeinated, wide-eyed, sprightly face donning a foam hemp headdress pointing and shouting at a Cannabis Planet billboard. Initially my thoughts of this barking lunatic were what my father might describe as a schmendrick with a hall of fame case of the shpilkes.  

 
Read complete article here:
http://tokeonthis.wordpress.com/interviews/who-is-henry-hemp/

 by La Vergne Lehmann
Following on from the topic of bamboo last week I thought it might be a good idea to take a look at another – perhaps slightly more controversial potentially environmentally friendly crop.
Environmental Benefits of Hemp – some food for thought!
Industrial hemp has been getting quite a bit of attention around the world for its amazing versatility and environmental benefits. Some companies are turning to hemp in order to make their products more sustainable and eco-friendly in general.
However widespread acceptance of hemp still has a long way to go. Many people are oblivious to the great benefits of hemp. Some (incorrectly) assume that it’s a drug (because of its close association with marijuana). A bit of guilt by association.
Hemp cultivation can provide many benefits for the environment. Also, hemp products can provide further environmental benefits when comparing them to products made from other fibers. So knowing little about hemp as a crop and not much more about the products that can be  made from it – I thought it might be a good idea to check it out.
Here are some of the environmental claims relating to growing hemp:
●   Fast and robust growth: Hemp grows extremely fast and can be grown in any climate, in any agronomic system
●   Little or no herbicides/pesticides required: Hemp can be grown with no (or little) herbicides, fungicides, pesticides, or other biocides.
●   Suppresses weeds: Hemp is a natural weed suppressor due to the fast growth of the canopy. Actually, hemp is a weed. Because it grows so fast and densely, it blocks out sunlight to other weeds that are trying to grow.
●   Improves soil structure: Due to its long roots, hemp replenishes soil with nutrients and nitrogen and helps control erosion of topsoil. Also, once harvested, any residue can act as an eco-friendly manure.
Read complete article here:
http://blogs.abc.net.au/victoria/2011/06/greenspot-environmentally-friendly-hemp.html

The Editors
The War on Drugs, which is celebrating its 40th year, has been a colossal failure. It has curtailed personal freedom, created a violent black market, and filled our prisons. It has also trampled on states’ rights: Sixteen states have legalized “medical marijuana” — which is, admittedly, often code for legalizing pot in general — only to clash with federal laws that ban weed throughout the land.
That last sin is not the War on Drugs’ greatest, but it is not insignificant, either. A bill introduced by Reps. Barney Frank (D., Mass.) and Ron Paul (R., Texas) would remove the federal roadblock to state marijuana reform, and though the Republican House seems almost certain to reject it, the proposal deserves support from across the political spectrum.
Read complete article here:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/270520/right-marijuana-editors

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

For the fourth time in as many days, I steer up the steep, dusty driveway and see the same surly hounds, with ribs protruding and a dangerous glint in their eyes. I close the car door and walk briskly to the front of the house in the 100-degree heat, hoping I don’t get nipped on the heels again, as I did yesterday.  
When Kevin (not his real name) answers the door with a smile on his face, I know he must have good news. Yes, he saw “the guy,” and yes, he was able to hook me up.

I’m not buying illicit narcotics–at least not by my definition, since I’m not looking for hard drugs like meth, coke, or heroin. I’m just trying to find some of the herbal medication recommended by my doctor back in Washington–which always seems to work, but isn’t recognized as medicine here in Alabama, where I’m visiting family. 
After years of becoming accustomed to getting my legal medicinal cannabis from dispensaries in Washington, it feels faintly ridiculous to revert to the black market. But nausea and pain from hepatitis C are strong motivators, which get stronger every day unless I use cannabis. Dignity semi-intact, here I am looking for the remedy.

These young sativa buds were harvested a good three weeks before their peak.

​There’s only one no-name strain to pick from, but at least it’s not the brick Mexican schwag. The cannabis is $110 an ounce. That’s less than half the typical dispensary price in Seattle, but it’s also about half the quality too.

Sentence for influential anaesthesia professor after 12 years of bogus research

Scott S Reuben, the influential Massachusetts anaesthesia professor, who pleaded guilty in February this year to health care fraud after it was discovered that he had been faking research for pharmaceutical companies for 12 years, was sentenced this week to six months in jail plus three years supervised release.
Having received many thousands of dollars in research grants, the former chief of the acute pain unit at Baystate Medical Center published his ‘findings’ in scientific journals such as ‘Anesthesia & Analgesia’. Yet his ‘work’ on post-operative pain management using highly controversial pharmaceutical drugs such as Vioxx and Celebrex had never actually been carried out.
Read complete article here:
http://www.anh-europe.org/news/us-professor-who-faked-pfizer-drug-research-is-jailed-for-6-months

Aggrieved teachers of Ejisu Besease School in the Ejisu-Juaben Municipality of the Ashanti Region have returned to the classrooms after staying out in solidarity with one of their colleagues who was allegedly flogged by the chief of the town.
Their decision to go back to the classroom follows an unqualified apology rendered by the Paramount Chief of Ejisu over the issue.
Teachers in the municipality unanimously decided to boycott classes on Monday June 27 to protest the physical abuse of their colleague by the local chief.
Francis Kattah was subjected to 25 lashes by the chief of the town in the presence of his son and some students for allegedly smoking Indian hemp in public. One of the teachers who participated in the protest, Alexander Amankwa-Adjei told Citi news they are still expecting the local chief to apologise.
Read complete article at:
http://news.peacefmonline.com/education/201106/53012.php

Steele Smith is the central figure in what could be the most significant Federal Marijuana case in US history, the first allowing a medical defense based on State law.
A Medical Marijuana patient and his wife face ten years in Federal prison in a fight to uphold the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, States’ rights allowing safe, legal access to medical marijuana.
The story of a patient diagnosed with a rare disease, embroiled in a fight for his life and the rights of medical marijuana patients nationwide.
The following is a timeline of events that led to Orange County residents Steele and Theresa Smith’s battle with the federal government over medical marijuana:
Summer 2001: Steele Smith – husband, entrepreneur and owner of an Orange County marketing company for 14 years — suddenly doubles over with excruciating pain and finds himself in an emergency room. It’s his first of several such visits over the next four months. Each time, emergency room doctors can’t figure out what’s wrong, so they prescribe him pain meds. Steele loses 40 pounds. Finally, a rare-diseases doctor orders an invasive scope that finds 11 ulcers in Steele’s duodenum – between the stomach and upper intestines.
The disease is called Zollinger-Ellison (Z-E) – it’s so rare that the doctor, who’d practiced for over 50 years – shakes Mr. Smith’s hand and says he’s the doctor’s first patient ever to have the condition. Steele is prescribed high levels of the newest and strongest acid-reducer known as Protonix. Due to the gut-wrenching pain, the doctor further prescribes high doses of morphine and sends him to a ‘pain’ doctor for a follow-up morphine regimen.
Mid-2004: Steele and his wife, Theresa, begin to realize that Steele has become terribly addicted to morphine. Following research on the internet and many phone calls, the couple decides to rapid-detox Steele, a procedure that nearly kills him. He spends several days in ICU, while most patients walk out of the hospital after a day or two – not in ICU. As it turns out, he isn’t completely detoxed due to the high levels of opiates he had been ingesting – the rapid-detox failed to work. Over the next year and a half, the couple tries over and over to detox Steele on their own, but it doesn’t work. The Smiths search the Internet and discovered a new detoxification drug known as Suboxin. With the help of a certified physician, Steele begins to use Suboxin and over several weeks of this specialized drug therapy became drug-free.
Steele is still experiencing pain and nausea and, therefore, cannot function completely – nor can he eat. About his time, the couple begin to gather information about Proposition 215, Senate Bill 420 and Health & Safety Code 11362.5 – the state’s Medical Marijuana Program. Steele is given a medical-cannabis recommendation and then obtained his medicine from one of the many L.A. dispensaries. This was a second miracle drug for Steele: Medical marijuana took away his pain and nausea, enabled him to eat and to become healthy once again.
No dispensaries exist in Orange County at this time, so over the next few months and several visits to L.A. dispensaries, Steele and Theresa decide to open a small collective, California Compassionate Caregivers (C3), to assist patients. They open their home to local medical-cannabis patients and begin to grow cannabis for safe access. The next few months pass in a whirlwind as, over the next few months, OC patients seeking safe access find C3 — the patient base reaches over 1,000 by 2006.
Also at this time, officers with the Placentia Police Department pay a visit to Steele and Theresa’s apartment and seize 18 plants, patient records, 4 pounds of medical marijuana, a small amount of concentrate and $1,000 in cash — no charges are filed at that time. Steele tries on several occasions to contact the Placentia officers that had seized C3’s property, however they refused to return anything to him. He then consults an attorney and the two decided that they should file a lawsuit against the City of Placentia to return to him all that was confiscated. It seems that the city of Placentia is unhappy with the lawsuit filed and so elevate the case to a federal level. This causes Mr. Smith to lose standing in civil court.
Nov. 1, 2007: At approximately 6 a.m., federal agents raid the Smith’s two homes using paramilitary-style tactics – several officers wearing masks and dressed from head to toe in black break down the front door and hold the couple (who moments earlier were asleep in their bed) at gunpoint. A fire extinguisher is sprayed at their two dogs — one dog dies four days later. The officers then begin to destroy the home while they look for guns, drugs, or anything else that could incriminate the Smiths. The couples’ home is completely ransacked and the front door broken down, left wide open for any and all of the public to take furniture and belongings at will. At the same time, the police go to C3’s medical dispensary located a few miles away and proceed to confiscate 2 pounds of medical marijuana and a small amount of concentrate – again, leaving this door open to the public to take anything left.
Steele, Theresa and two other defendants, from the second grow-house; Alex Valentine, a 21 year old patient with Elephant-man’s syndrome and thirty surgeries by his twentieth birthday, and Dennis La Londe, a friend of a friend and homeless man that was given a bed only three weeks prior, would be incarcerated and spend most of the next year in the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles – a maximum security, level-five Federal prison. The four defendants were charged with conspiracy to manufacture or grow medical marijuana and are facing ten years each in a Federal Penitentiary for said “crime”.
Theresa is released after 60 days on $200,000 bond – her dying mother’s home and two signatures, while all three of the other defendants languished in federal prison for nearly a year. After 10 months, Steele is finally released back to his wife, an electronic ankle bracelet attached to him for the next year. All four defendants currently report to federal pre-trial services officers regularly until trial.
April 2010: The Honorable Cormac J. Carney, who presides over this case, rules that the medical marijuana issue will be heard as testimony – the first time in a federal court in U.S. history. The case has been continued over a dozen times; Click here for the current trial/rally date.
For more information, please contact:
Theresa Smith
2166 W. Broadway, #100
Anaheim, CA 92804-2446
714-865-5335
theresasmith.steelescase@gmail.com
http://www.steelescase.org/