Government of Canada Investment to Help Hemp Farmers and Processors Reach Full Potential


WINNIPEG, MANITOBA–(Marketwire – Dec. 13, 2010)
The Government of Canada is injecting more than $728,000 to help the hemp industry increase production capacity and make new inroads into the U.S. market. The Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, made the announcement today on behalf of Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.
“Canadian farmers and processors are finding tremendous success with hemp thanks to its many nutritional benefits and wide range of uses in pasta, salad dressings and frozen desserts,” said Minister Toews. “This Government is proud to invest in this growing industry so that farmers can continue to expand their markets and develop more products.”
The Government of Canada investment will support three groups:

  • A $410,000 repayable contribution through the AgriProcessing Initiative for Fresh Hemp Foods to purchase and install new dehulling, oil pressing, and packaging equipment in its new 20,000 square foot state-of-the-art facility.
  • A $300,000 repayable contribution through the AgriProcessing Initiative for Hemp Oil Canada to purchase and install new air classification milling and cold press oil expeller technology.
  • A $18,625 investment through the AgriMarketing program for the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance to enhance its website, hold a strategic planning meeting of its board of directors and take the first steps toward achieving Generally Regarded as Safe status in the U.S.

In 2009, exports of hemp seed and hemp products were valued at more than $8 million, with most exports going to the U.S.

Read complete article here:
http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Government-Canada-Investment-Help-Hemp-Farmers-Processors-Reach-Full-Potential-1368122.htm

Four Men Arrested for Laughing at Cop’s Failed Pot Bust

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Photo: Citizen Arcane

​Four men from Queens, New York are suing the NYPD because they say an angry cop arrested them after another group of men laughed at the cop when he was unable to catch a fleeing marijuana suspect on foot.
The arrests were made after cops approached a group gathered at Rufus King Park in Jamaica, Queens, on the afternoon of August 19, reports John Del Signore at The Gothamist. Police saw someone throw a bag in a garbage can, so they began frisking everyone to check for drugs, and one suspect allegedly told them he’d “smoked all the marijuana.”
Then the guy ran off, with one cop chasing him on foot.
When the cop returned after the guy outran him, he was out of breath, and some spectators at a nearby handball game laughed at the winded officer.
One of the cops allegedly then said, “If you think that’s funny, watch what I do to them,” and arrested the four men.

Photo: DelMundo/New York Daily News
Ishmial Deas (left), Abdul Kabba, and Hasan Allen (right) were arrested and released by police after being held for a total of 31 hours. They have filed a lawsuit.

​The bag that had been thrown in the trash contained 31 glassine envelopes of marijuana, and the four men were charged with its possession.
The men said they were locked up for more than 30 hours by cops seeking revenge on a crowd of men who laughed at the officer after he couldn’t catch the suspect, reports John Marzulli at the New York Daily News.

Read complete article here:
http://www.tokeofthetown.com/2010/12/four_men_arrested_for_laughing_at_cops_failed_pot.php#more

Senate expected to pass medical marijuana resolution, but advocate Diane Riportella, of Egg Harbor Township, will stay home

By SARAH WATSON
Staff Writer pressofAtlanticCity.com 

Diane Riportella did not take pain medication Friday, hoping she could make it through the day. By evening, however, the pain from not being able to move was unbearable, the anxiety and fear inconsolable.
Rather than have her husband Paul give her a few drops of cherry-flavored liquid morphine, the Egg Harbor Township resident instead asked that he light her pipe with medical grade marijuana. Almost instantly, she said, the pain dissipated, her anxiety gone and she felt the will to live come back.
Today, if everything occurs as expected, Diane Riportella will hear that the state Senate passed a resolution that could be the last hurdle in legalizing medical marijuana in New Jersey. Unfortunately, Diane, who is in the final stages of Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, also called ALS, won’t be in Trenton to watch the vote in person.

Read entire article here:
http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/politics/article_162ccf28-064c-11e0-9b01-001cc4c002e0.html

Move over, Big Pharma and Big Oil, Big Marijuana is here

By Daniel Tencer
 
Legalization ‘looking inevitable,’ spokesman says. 
If there’s one group of people who get their way in Washington, it’s lobbyists. 
Now, advocates of marijuana legalization may have a reason to cheer that political reality: They’re getting their own marijuana lobby group. 
And just Big Pharma and Big Oil lobby for greater leeway for their businesses, so too will Big Marijuana push for their industry to be given the freedom to succeed. 

Read complete article here:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/12/big-pharma-big-oil-big-marijuana/

Pot charge against Vietnam veteran illustrates confusion with medical marijuana law

Danielle Salisbury | Jackson Citizen Patriot Danielle Salisbury | Jackson Citizen Patriot

CITIZEN PATRIOT | NICK DENTAMAROGary Muntz is a cancer patient and veteran of the Vietnam War. He was charged with a drug crime for violating the medicinal marijuana law.

First, it was post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by his service in the Vietnam War. Then came two bouts with throat cancer, which left him without a voice box.
Now, 61-year-old Gary Muntz has a new ailment — lymphoma, a slow-moving cancer of the lymph nodes.
He speaks only with the aid of a mechanical device pressed tightly to his neck. Long periods outside his home require a wheelchair, and he often cannot sleep.
Marijuana helps.
It relaxes him, Muntz said. It wards off the nightmares of his childhood, of his time as a paratrooper in Vietnam. It eases pain that sometimes prevents him from getting out of bed.
Michigan voters approved the state’s medical marijuana law for people like Muntz, who has a card authorizing him to use the drug for medicinal purposes, said his lawyer, Robert Gaecke.
“It was designed for people who really are suffering, that you can see, and this guy was it,” Gaecke said.
Muntz, however, was charged with a felony drug crime for violating the law.
His case illustrates the muddle surrounding the 2008 voter-enacted legislation and the uncertainty that police and prosecutors face about how to enforce it.

Read complete article here:
http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/12/pot_charge_against_vietnam_vet.html

U.S. v. Steele Federal Judge Allows Medical Marijuana Defense


By Thomas
U.S. V Steele is a landmark cannabis case that could change federal medical marijuana law for all 50 states.
This is the first case that any defendant in the United States has been allowed to raise an affirmative medical marijuana defense in federal court.
Cormac J. Carney, is the presiding federal judge in U.S. v Smith. In a courageous and historic ruling he decided that the medical marijuana issues will be heard as testimony. This is the first time this has happened in U.S. history.

Read complete article here:
http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2010/12/11/u-s-v-steele-federal-judge-allowes-medical-marijuana-defense/

Marijuana prohibition seen as overwhelming failure


By Andrew Reynolds
November’s midterm elections included ballot measures in five states that would either legalize or decriminalize marijuana. Even though every measure failed, the results show that a substantial support base for marijuana reform may exist and perhaps is ready to be heard.
In California voters rejected the idea of legalizing and taxing marijuana represented by Proposition 19. However, 46 percent of voters voted in favor of the measure.
Consider the 12 states that have already passed decriminalization legislation, which converts small marijuana-related offenses from criminal offenses to civil infractions or fines.
According to Keene State College Political Science Professor and N.H. State Representative Chuck Weed, throwing marijuana-related offenders in jail for a “victimless crime” is unacceptable.
“It is not unsafe; it hasn’t killed anybody. All of the studies suggest that it’s certainly less addictive than alcohol, less addictive than tobacco. No one has died from overdoses,” Weed said. “Yet, an awful lot of people have their lives ruined because of being thrown in jail, and that isn’t appropriate,” he added.

Read complete article here:
http://www.keeneequinox.com/news/marijuana-prohibition-seen-as-overwhelming-failure-1.2425394?pagereq=1

Release Reverend Roger Christie Immediately : A Formal, Public, International Exercise of “Civilian Demand” for the Rule of Law to be Respected


By Paul J. von Hartmann
This document is intended to serve the public interest through the formal, public, international exercise of “civilian demand” that the First Amendment of our Constitutions, both State and Federal, be obeyed, due process followed, and our “freedom of religion” respected in Hawaii. As the newly elected Governor of Hawaii, Mr. Abercrombie now has the responsibility of defending and enforcing the First Amendment of Constitutions, both State and Federal, which secure Roger Christie’s “freedom of religion” as they secure all of our “god-given, inalienable, natural rights.”
Reverend Roger Christie’s imprisonment is, in essence, an attack on our national security by unobjective, chemically-addicted courts. A counter-productive “drug war” has been waged against Cannabis agriculture because hemp farming competes with the chemical industrial addiction imposed on our society for the past seventy-three years. The world’s most useful agricultural resource has been outlawed because dominant economic interests cannot compete with Cannabis in a free market.
The contemporary crucifixion of Roger Christie in Hawaii is as blatant and obvious a proof of corporate corruption as the crimes of pollution being committed against the Natural Order. From Gulf war atrocities to “drug war” atrocities; from the Exxon Valdez to BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster; from hydraulic “fracking” to the production of radioactive waste, America’s addictions to “Gaiacidal” chemicals and processes is precipitating evermore blatant extremes of self-destructive behavior.
Reverend Christie has been disingenuously accused as a “danger to his community” when it is common knowledge that he has been a loved and widely respected peacemaker in his Big Island community for more than a quarter of a Century. It is criminal that he is being denied bail simply because he has been maliciously characterized by an employee of an unobjective court.
Until Reverend Christie is released, a part of every American remains in prison. The magnitude of injustice in Roger Christie’s being denied due process of law, is measured in the incalculable sacrifice of American patriots who fought to secure the legacy of freedom being violated and disrespected. In truth, there is no true freedom anywhere as long as a man of peace is wrongly imprisoned.
Please show consideration in the form of compassion, leniency, mercy, clemency and active, proportionate appreciation for the good work done by Roger Christie in mitigating the hard drug epidemic in Hawaii. It is well-known that a shortage of ‘pakalolo’ in Hawaii translates into increased hard drug and alcohol abuse, gang violence, crime…
I trust that Mr. Abercrombie’s will recognize the opportunity for true leadership, presented by the polar shifts in medical science, public perceptions and political realities surrounding Cannabis ecology, agriculture, manufacture and trade. As Governor of a State that is being “broiled” by UV-B radiation, I would think that you of all people would recognize the critical “strategic” significance of Cannabis, recognized by seven American Presidents as being “of first necessity.”
A timely response to this “Civilian Demand” is requested, as every day that Roger Christie is robbed of in prison is precious time that is gone forever.
Mahalo! for your vision of a “New Day” for Hawaii. I trust it is one where the bright sunshine of truth and clear rivers of freedom will begin to flow under your leadership and courage.
Paul von Hartmann
California Cannabis Ministry
former Hawaii resident,
Oahu 1958-1960
Maui, 1988-1992
Big Island 1998-1999
http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2010/12/09/release-reverend-roger-christie-immediately-a-formal-public-international-exercise-of-civilian-demand-for-the-rule-of-law-to-be-respected/