By KYLE WILSON — CNA staff reporter kwilson@crestonnews.com
   
Iowa State Rep. Clel Baudler
 
DES MOINES — Several medical marjuana supporters called for the impeachment of State Rep. Clel Baudler, R-Greenfield, Wednesday during a House Public Safety subcommittee meeting at the state capitol.
Baudler, a former state trooper, wrote in a November newsletter to his constituents that he went to California on vacation, lied about having hemorrhoids and depression and a “doctor” wrote him a prescription for marijuana. Medical marijuana advocates say Baudler acted illegally by providing false information to a doctor.
Read more here:
http://www.crestonnewsadvertiser.com/articles/2011/01/27/r_lt3rwuvwria9k8ffleuikg/index.xml

Legislation filed in the House calls for the state to begin regulating and taxing the sale of marijuana, as well as issuing licenses to growers and vendors.
The bill, brought forward by Rep. Ellen Story, the longtime Amherst Democrat, seeks to immediately remove all criminal and civil penalties for those over 21 who possess or cultivate marijuana for their personal use or for sharing with other adults, according to the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition.
Read complete article here:
http://masslawyersweekly.com/the-docket-blog/2011/01/28/bill-would-regulate-sale-of-pot/

A US firm has announced plans to launch a range of cannabis soft drinks

guaranteed to give you a buzz.

Makers says the drinks, which include a cola, a Dr Pepper–like, a lemonade and a orange flavoured one, will go on sale in February for $10 to $15 each.
Read complete article here:
http://newslite.tv/2011/01/28/canna-cola-marijuana-sodas-to.html

By Paul Liberatore
Marin Independent Journal
 

WHEN YOU THINK of marijuana and rock ‘n’ roll, chances are your head may fill with images of pot smoke in backstage dressing rooms or clouds of pungent sinsemilla rising from the crowd at a Grateful Dead concert.
But now, processed as hemp, good old grass has another new, inventive and legal use in rock music.
A San Rafael company is marketing an ingenious new speaker, called a Tone Tubby, featuring cones made of hemp — as a substitute for paper — for guitar and bass amplifiers.
The cones are the vibrating part of a speaker, and Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, Derek Trucks, Jimmy Herring, Los Lonely Boys, ZZ Top and Warren Haynes are among the rock stars who
In a testimonial, R.E.M.’s Pete Buck says they’ve given him “the coolest, most authentic early ’60s garage band tone. I’m definitely a convert.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_17219282

 
The YouTube generation is speaking, and many of them want to legalize marijuana.  
Changing the nation’s drug laws is dominating the questions submitted by YouTube users in advance of President Obama’s 2:30 p.m. question-and-answer on the video website. 
UPI is reporting that “the top 10 questions all involved ending or changing the government’s war on drugs, legalizing or decriminalizing marijuana and embracing industrial hemp as a “green” initiative to help farmers.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/01/obamas-questions-from-youtube-deal-mostly-with-legalizing-pot/1

Filed under All Nursing Home News

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — A state committee appointed to find cheaper alternatives to prison is proposing reforms to Kentucky’s drug laws.
The task force met Tuesday to discuss a draft of the proposed changes, which included sentencing most people convicted of drug crimes to probation and treatment. A draft bill will be presented Wednesday to a legislative committee.
Read complete article here:
http://www.courierpress.com/news/2011/jan/18/proposal-would-rewrite-many-kentucky-drug-laws/?partner=RSS

by Stephen J. Gertz

Frontispiece portrait of John Taylor,
engraved by Thomas Cockson,
from The Workes of John Taylor (1630).

 
“Sweet sacred Muses, my invention raise
Unto the life, to write great Hempseeds praise…”

Known as “The Water Poet” – his primary source of income derived from his profession as a waterman, the trade of boatmen who ferried passengers across the Thames – his poetry, while far from gemstone, was notable for its diamond wit and keen  observations of the contemporary social and cultural scene.
Of what use is hemp?
“This grain grows to a stalk, whose coat or skin
Good industry doth hatchell twist, and spin,
And for mans best advantage and availes
It makes clothes, cordage, halters, ropes and sailes.”
Taylor enumerates the many manufacturers and trades dependent upon hemp, not the least of which are pharmacy:
“Apothecaries were not worth a pin,
If Hempseed did not bring their commings in;
Oyles, Unguents, Sirrops, Minerals, and Baulmes,
(All nature’s treasures, and th’Almighties almes),
Emplasters, Simples, Compounds, sundry drugs
With Necromanticke names like fearful Bugs,
Fumes, Vomits, purges, that both cures, and kils,
Extractions, conserves, preserves, potions, pils,
Elixirs, simples, compounds, distillations,
Gums in abundance, brought from foreign nations.”
All manner of physical complaint is relieved. “Most serviceable Hempseed but for thee, These helpes for man could not thus scattered be.”

(B.J. Steed, KTHV)

 
(Little Rock, AR) — Activists and a handful of lawmakers hope to push a four page bill through the House legalizing medicinal marijuana by the end of the session.
Arkansas legislators could soon be faced with yet another bill that could change Arkansas law as we know it. The Arkansas Medicinal Cannabis Act of 2011, would allow patients to grow and use cannabis for medical purposes.
But would not intend to change current laws governing duty of care owed to others which means people would be held responsible for choices like operating a vehicle.
“We’re the natural state. This is a natural medication,” says supporter Robert Reed.

Read complete article here:
http://ozarksfirst.com/fulltext?nxd_id=385916

by: Dr. David Jockers