By Mamakind
Flying the pot-friendly skies just got a little easier, now that it’s been confirmed that Health Canada-licensed medicinal cannabis consumers are able to legally consume marijuana both in the airports while waiting for their flights and while on the plane during the flight.
At the end of May 2011, as a license-holder, I took it upon myself to clear up any ambiguities in regards to where and when I’m able to medicate.
Up until this point, we could only speculate as to what exactly the policies were of the corporations and agencies we deal with when we choose air travel. At various times, cardholders have been hassled going through security, as CATSA (Canadian Air Transport Security Authority) agents haven’t been trained to recognize either the MMAR card or paper licenses. The old policy stood that even if the cannabis is legal, if it’s found amongst your carry-on items, a report would have to be made, sometimes involving police stationed in the airport – and it could take up to a good twenty minutes to work through the process. Often insensitive agents pull out bags of medicine to display for the entire security area, remarking at the scent and/or asking what strain it is. After the last time this happened to me, the CATSA representative for Calgary International Airport suggested that I file a complaint in order to get the policy changed.
“Believe me, our agents would much rather just see the card and wave you through without the hassle, so if enough complaints are made, the policy can be changed.”

Whether or not there were several complaints, my complaint was voiced and heard and so I was contacted by a CATSA representative this week, informing me that the policy is indeed changing and that a memo to that effect will be circulated nationwide within the month. This memo/newsletter will explain to CATSA agents about the new policy of recognizing MMAR cards/paper licenses (pictures of the cards will be provided to them) and explain that filing a report when they come across one isn’t necessary. There will be special notes made regarding the professional, courteous conduct required when an agent does come across marijuana; this medicine is to be treated as they would any other prescription medication. Agents don’t pull out your Viagra and comment on it, so therefore, the same should be true for your pot.
So now that we know we can bring our meds with us through security, what about consuming them in the airport? That’s the bailiwick of each individual airport authority, so I called the two airports I was dealing with, YYC (Calgary) and YYZ (Toronto). I asked both if there was any reason why I wouldn’t be able to use my vaporizer once I’m past security and they said, “As long as you can find a plug…”
This left the last piece of the puzzle: could I vape on the plane itself?
Read complete article here:
http://www.theweedblog.com/canada-allows-vaporizers-on-planes-and-in-airports/

By Eric W. Dolan

Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said he would support the legalization of medical marijuana after experiencing months of intensive cancer treatment.
“Until you’ve experienced chemo, you can’t describe exactly how it feels,” he said Thursday on KSL Newsradio’s Doug Wright Show. “It’s kind of like having the flu because you ache all over. But it’s worse than that… Everything feels awful.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.opednews.com/populum/linkframe.php?linkid=133067

The two thought they were doing the people of Long Beach a favor. Then they became targets in the city’s weird war on weed

 
By NICK SCHOU
Joe Byron and Joe Grumbine face each other as the two sit on opposite sides of a booth table at Egg Heaven, the popular Long Beach breakfast eatery that the towering, ruddy-complexioned Byron—this morning wearing a somewhat-pained smile—has owned for the past 17 years. Grumbine is shorter, with wavy shoulder-length hair, and is wearing a billowy, white, button-down shirt that has a green ribbon with a red cross pinned to it, the symbol of his medical-marijuana activist group, the Human Solution. Both men poke at their eggs as they struggle to make sense of the fact they’re talking to a reporter about something that, while apparently illegal for them to do, isn’t illegal for a bunch of other people to do. That, at least, seems to be the moral of the Kafkaesque riddle that has become their lives, one that tends to put a dent in one’s appetite and makes one’s brain hurt even if one has had a few cups of coffee.
On June 17, Byron and Grumbine will be put on trial at the Long Beach Courthouse of Los Angeles Superior Court for dispensing medical marijuana to members of their cannabis collective—that is, they sold the pot to qualified patients who showed up at their storefront and presented valid California driver’s licenses and legitimate recommendations from licensed physicians saying they were medical-marijuana patients whose right to obtain and smoke cannabis is protected under state law. The only problem: The patients in question turned out to be undercover police officers who were part of a major operation aimed at taking Byron and Grumbine out of the medical-marijuana trade and sending them to prison. If convicted of selling marijuana, each man faces seven years in state prison.
Read complete article here:
http://www.ocweekly.com/2011-06-09/news/joe-byron-joe-grumbine-egg-heaven-long-beach-medical-marijuana/

By Daily Mail Reporter

Smoking in retirement: Mr Schwartz, a great-grandfather of three, is a stroke sufferer who smokes the drug to alleviate debilitating nausea

 
One of the largest retirement communities in the United States has lit up the national debate over medical marijuana use in Southern California.
Laguna Woods Village, located in one of the most conservative and wealthiest California counties, is a vast 18,000-person gated community that is home to roughly 150 cannabis-smoking senior citizens.

Joe Schwartz, a 90-year-old great-grandfather of three, is one of them.   As a World War II vet and stroke sufferer
Mr Schwartz is part of the Laguna Woods Village medical marijuana collective operating in one of the largest retirement communities in the United States.
The experimental group mirrors a nationwide trend of more senior citizens turning to marijuana – whether legal or not – to ease aches and pains of aging.

 
Read complete article here:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2000963/The-150-pot-smoking-pensioners-sparking-medical-marijuana-debate.html
 

By Kathy Ochiai | Email the author

In her Laguna Canyon studio, Laguna Beach artist and designer Michelle Hutchinson proudly holds up a bikini she has created from hemp-based fabric. She excitedly explains why hemp material is so much better to use for a bikini than other fabrics.
“Because hemp is anti-microbial, it doesn’t allow for bacterial growth,” says Hutchinson. “It doesn’t get ‘funky’ after a day at the beach. It’s porous, so it dries more quickly on a clothes line or in a drier. This uses less energy. Every time you wash hemp, it gets softer. Feel how soft this is!”
Chris Boucher, Laguna Beach resident and owner of Hempsteads International, is on hand delivering fabric to Hutchinson in her studio. He supplies Hutchinson with material for her creations.
His company’s products include T-shirts, fabrics, clothing, hemp protein, seeds, oil and body care items. He imports fair trade hemp fabrics from China, as well as products and clothing made from organically grown plants.
“This means,” says Boucher, “that the plants are grown without the use of pesticides and herbicides, and that the fabric producers and clothing manufacturers receive a fair price.” 
Boucher got his start in the surf and beach clothing industry 15 years ago in Costa Mesa. Hutchinson has made clothing for festivals, including the Sawdust Festival, for the same amount of time. Both of them saw the beach apparel industry “vanish” from Southern California.
“Seventy per cent of the apparel industry,” says Hutchinson, “has been outsourced to China.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://lagunabeach.patch.com/articles/laguna-beach-residents-provide-hemp-products-question-the-illegality-of-growing-hemp#c

By Alan Travis

Dame Judi Dench, Sting and Sir Richard Branson are among those who have signed an open letter to David Cameron urging that possession of drugs be decriminalised. Photograph: Jockmans/Rex Features

 

By JONATHAN M. KATZ Associated Press
The global war on drugs has failed and governments should explore legalizing marijuana and other controlled substances, according to a commission that includes former heads of state, a former U.N. secretary-general and a business mogul.
A new report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy argues that the decades-old “global war on drugs has failed, with devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world.” The 24-page paper will be released Thursday.
“Political leaders and public figures should have the courage to articulate publicly what many of them acknowledge privately: that the evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that repressive strategies will not solve the drug problem, and that the war on drugs has not, and cannot, be won,” the report said.
The 19-member commission includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and former U.S. official George P. Schultz, who held cabinet posts under U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon. Others include former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, former presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, writers Carlos Fuentes and Mario Vargas Llosa, U.K. business mogul Richard Branson and the current prime minister of Greece.

Instead of punishing users who the report says “do no harm to others,” the commission argues that governments should end criminalization of drug use, experiment with legal models that would undermine organized crime syndicates and offer health and treatment services for drug-users in need.
Read complete article here:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13738792&sms_ss=facebook&at_xt=4de6e2bfb94f6f18%2C0

Cannabidiol

5/25/2011 – Cannabidiol (CBD) is a non-psychotropic compound found in the Cannabis plant that is currently being exploited by researchers for its therapeutic properties. CBD is usually the second most abundant compound found in the plant.
A research team devoted to studying the effects of Cannabidiol (CBD) on the immune system has made a series of breakthroughs that may have uncovered a mechanism of CBD’s actions (Kozela 2009, Rimmerman 2011, Juknat 2011). The team may have discovered the specific genes responsible for some of CBD’s therapeutic effects. This type of research could be a big leap forward.
Previously the same team had shown that CBD can effectively treat the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis in mice. This is in agreement with earlier research published by other labs throughout the world.
This collective body of research demonstrates that CBD that is isolated from the plant (as well as Cannabis preparations containing CBD) have been shown to ameliorate the symptoms of multiple sclerosis in animal models and clinical trials. The effects of CBD on disease progression include decreased inflammation, neuronal protection, and decreased immune cell activity.
In other words, this is even more science that shows how CBD from natural cannabis plants works to treat MS in animals and humans.
Read complete article here:
http://www.freedomisgreen.com/cbd-in-marijuana-treats-ms-alters-cholesterol-metabolism/

By Skip Wenz
Hemp is a versatile, robust and, in the U.S., vastly underused source of fiber. It’s underused here because it’s illegal to grow industrial hemp, which has been confused with its cousin the marijuana plant, though it’s grown commercially in virtually every other country in the world. (Industrial hemp has no pharmacological properties.)
Hemp’s main potential is as a softwood substitute. Proponents of hemp paneling believe that hemp’s long strands make it the ideal fiber for all types of engineered wood products. Some foreign growers claim that hemp’s biomass yield is four times that of plantation softwoods.
It is legal to manufacture products from imported hemp, and a variety of attractive medium-density hemp fiberboards are available in the U.S.
Read complete article here:
http://helenair.com/lifestyles/health-med-fit/article_4ad15a62-8696-11e0-a330-001cc4c03286.html