By James L. Klahr
The Citizens’ Initiative Review recently spent a week hearing from proponents and opponents of Measure 74, which would allow for the establishment of licensed and regulated medical cannabis dispensaries. After a week of examining the measure, the panel of randomly selected, unbiased voters from all across Oregon endorsed the proposal, writing that “Measure 74 creates a safe, compassionate and prompt access program for Oregon medical marijuana patients, introduces regulation, and is financially sound.” Patient advocates are confident that voters who thoroughly study the measure will come to the same conclusion.

Citizens’ Initiative Review members heard from law enforcement officers and from Andrea Barhwell, deputy drug czar under President George W. Bush (and currently a consultant for GW Pharmaceuticals working toward FDA approval for its cannabis-based medicine, Sativex), who contended that marijuana is not a medicine and that Measure 74 leaves too many decisions up to the Oregon Health Authority. The intiative review panelists even read a recent editorial in The Oregonian that criticized the measure as “nothing more or less than a backdoor effort to expand marijuana use” and that questioned why supporters were continuing “the medical marijuana charade.” In the end, the panel did just what Measure 74 advocates have done: They placed the needs of patients first.
While most activists who support medical marijuana also support its legalization for all adults (it should be noted that most herbal remedies are available over the counter), there’s no charade: Those who worked hard to qualify Measure 74 for the ballot and are now working for its passage this November believe that sick and disabled patients who wish to utilize a nontoxic herbal medicine to improve their quality of life should have safe access to cannabis. And since legalization is not on the ballot, Measure 74 should be debated on its own merits.
The Citizens’ Initiative Review panel also heard from several patients, including Measure 74’s co-chief petitioner Alice Ivany, a grandmother who lost an arm in an industrial accident. After registering with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program, Ivany went 17 months without any medical cannabis because of a lack of safe access. She became involved with Measure 74 because she doesn’t want any other patient to go through the same painful wait.
Advocates of Measure 74 believe in the establishment of a nonprofit dispensary program because of patients such as Ivany. They don’t want to see patients denied access to a medicine that provides recognized benefits for many serious conditions, some of which may not respond to other treatments.
Greg Barton, a former Oregon assistant attorney general and current legal counsel for Oregon Green Free, finished the closing argument for Measure 74 proponents at the Citizens’ Initiative Review. Barton, with his experience reviewing state administrative rules and working for Oregon’s chief law enforcement officer, was scheduled to reiterate the regulations established by Measure 74 and the Oregon Health Authority’s ability to competently regulate dispensaries. But instead of sticking to the script, Barton shared his personal story, describing how medical cannabis had improved the health and quality of life for his wife, who has been ill for the past five years. In the end, Barton did the right thing and brought the focus back to the patients.
As we debate Measure 74 and marijuana law reform in general, we need to do the same: Always remember the patients.

The state has added chronic kidney failure to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana is permitted under state law but has rejected petitions to add Alzheimer’s and neuropathic pain.
By Carol M. Ostrom
Seattle Times health reporter
The state has added chronic kidney failure to the list of conditions for which medical marijuana is permitted under state law but has rejected petitions to add Alzheimer’s and neuropathic pain.
In approving chronic kidney failure, the state Medical Quality Assurance Commission said it was convinced that nausea caused by dialysis could be helped by marijuana. But it noted that using marijuana could also jeopardize a renal-failure patient’s eligibility for transplant or have other adverse effects and that patients need to be informed of that when a provider authorizes them to use marijuana legally.
That petition was brought by Kenneth Lachman, a dialysis patient.
For neuropathic pain, the commission concluded that the term is so broad it might include some disorders that would already qualify, and others that don’t. The request to include it was made by Dr. Sunil Aggarwal on behalf of the Cannabis Defense Coalition.
For Alzheimer’s disease, the commission said there was insufficient scientific or anecdotal evidence to support the contention of Kemp LaMunyon Sr., an Eastern Washington medical-marijuana advocate, that it could help prevent the disease in humans.

(NaturalNews) The use of hemp seeds in modern foods is relatively commonplace now, but this amazing healthy food has been the source of heated debate in the US since before World War II. Currently many food manufactures are looking for more healthy and wholesome options. Hemp is proving to be a wonderful addition to many different types of foods because both the seed oil and nut are extremely dense with nutrients.
Vegetable oil manufacturers have been lobbying for the inclusion of unhealthy polyunsaturated oils in mainstream foods successfully for the last 70 years. Unfortunately modern civilization has seen an increase of diseases related to the use of these “bad” oils in our foods since then – like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and many metabolic syndromes. Introducing hemp seeds and hemp oil to your diet can only benefit your health in the long run since it is one of the most compact sources of vital nutrients available.
Hemp Hype
Competing for the edge in any market usually includes misinformation and confusion tactics, and in the case of hemp, it has worked. Any hype associated with hemp seeds can also be attributed to the fact that cannabis, a relative of industrial hemp, is on the US Drug Enforcement Agency`s top 10 list of drugs they oversee. They have, and have had, many campaigns against the use of cannabis, so it is understandable that our society is confused on this issue.
Notably, there is an insignificant amount of THC in industrial hemp (the source of drug-related compounds found in cannabis) so using hemp seeds or hemp seed oil in food is technically considered safe by the industrial hemp industry, and has proven to not affect drug tests.
Currently the United States doesn`t allow the growing of industrial hemp, but Canada and many European and Asian countries (China since 1500 AD) have been producing it for commercial use consistently. At this point, importing hemp seeds for use as food and fiber has not been banned in US.
Health Benefits of Hemp
“Overall, hemp`s main nutritional advantage over other seeds lies in the composition of its oil,” according to Gero Leson, D.Env., an environmental scientist and consultant with extensive experience in the food and fiber uses of hemp and other renewable resources.
Hemp seeds have a high quality of protein with a nutritionally complex composition containing 10 essential amino acids in nutritionally significant amounts, making it a complete protein. This protein also has a similar cellular structure to a protein manufactured in human blood, making it easily digestible.
The hemp nut is also rich in the vitamin E complex of tocopherols and tocotrienols and contains many trace minerals. This nutritional profile is significant in the fact that per pound, no other nut or seed provides such a density of beneficial nutrients.
Essential Fatty Acids
The essential fatty acid (EFA) make-up of hemp seed oil is like no other on the market today. No other vegetable or nut oil contains EFAs in this concentration or ratio – high in both omega 6, linoleic acid (LA), and omega 3, alpha-linolenic acids (ALA) specifically.
Because of the wide spread use of processed poly-unsaturated vegetable oils in cooking and frying, foods consumed in the typical western diet contain too much LA and not enough ALA essential fats. According to National Institute of Health studies and reports on the subject, this has been found to be an unhealthy balance, and the addition of good EFAs has proven to help with many modern ailments such as diabetes, heart disease and metabolic syndromes.

Hemp is turning a new leaf. The plant fiber, used to make the sails that took Christopher Columbus’ ships to the New World, is now a building material.

The hemp home was built for $133 per square foot, not including land and excavation costs, at the top of a mountain.

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In Asheville, N.C., a home built with thick hemp walls was completed this summer and two more are in the works.
Dozens of hemp homes have been built in Europe in the past two decades, but they’re new to the United States, says David Madera, co-founder of Hemp Technologies, a company that supplied the mixture of ground-up hemp stalks, lime and water.

The kitchen has clerestory windows for natural daylighting and Energy Star appliances.

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The industrial hemp is imported because it cannot be grown legally in this country — it comes from the same plant as marijuana.
Its new use reflects an increasing effort to make U.S. homes not only energy-efficient but also healthier. Madera and other proponents say hemp-filled walls are non-toxic, mildew-resistant, pest-free and flame-resistant.

The home’s bathroom has efficient lighting and water-conserving plumbing fixtures

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“There is a growing interest in less toxic building materials, says Peter Ashley, director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control.
“The potential health benefits are significant,” he says, citing a recent study of a Seattle public housing complex that saw residents’ health improve after their homes got a green makeover.

A 3,000 square-foot home with thick hemp walls was completed this summer in Asheville, N.C.

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The U.S. government has not taken a “systemic approach” to studying chemicals in homes and instead addresses problems such as asbestos, lead, arsenic and formaldehyde only after people get sick, says Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a private research group.
She says green building so far has focused mostly on the environment, not the health of the people inside.
Ashley agrees that federal attention has been “sporadic,” but says an interagency group began meeting last year to tackle the issue more broadly. He says HUD is funding more research on the health and environmental benefits of eco-friendly homes.
Some green-rating programs, such as the one run by the private U.S. Green Building Council, give points for indoor air quality.
“We are taking the next step in green building,” says Anthony Brenner, a home designer with Push Design who created Asheville’s first hemp home. “We’re trying to develop a system that’s more health-based.”
Brenner says he’s been searching for non-toxic materials because he wants to build a home for his 9-year-old daughter, Bailey, who has a rare genetic disorder that makes her extremely sensitive to chemicals. “We have to keep her away from anything synthetic,” he says, or she’ll have seizures.

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He says a hemp home can be affordable, even though importing hemp makes it more expensive than other building materials, because skilled labor is unnecessary and hemp is so strong that less lumber is needed.
The hemp mixture — typically four parts ground-up hemp to one part lime and one part water — is placed inside 2-foot-by-4-foot wall forms. Once it sets, the forms are removed. Although it hardens to a concrete-like form, wood framing is used for structural support.
“This is like a living, breathing wall,” Madera says. Hemp absorbs carbon dioxide and puts nitrogen into the soil, so it’s good for the environment, he says.
Alex Wilson, executive editor of Environmental Building News, says hemp can be grown with minimal use of chemicals and water. He says it has a midlevel insulating value (R-2 per inch) but is usually installed in a thick enough wall system to make it appropriate for all but the most severe climates.
The mixture, “Tradical Hemcrete,” has not previously been used in U.S. homes, but in 2008 it went into a community center on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Badlands, S.D., as well as a small chapel and pottery studio near Houston, says Mario Machnicki, managing director of American Lime Technology, a Chicago company that imports hemp from the United Kingdom.
Asheville’s second hemp home will be finished in about six weeks, says builder Clarke Snell of the Nauhaus Institute, a non-profit group of designers, engineers, developers and others interested in sustainable urban living.
Snell says the home, which has 16-inch-thick walls, is airtight and energy-efficient. He expects it to meet rigorous Passive House Institute standards, which call for homes to use up to 90% less energy than regular ones.
“On the coldest day in winter, the body heat of 10 people should heat the home,” he says. “We’re basically building a European home.”
Snell says his group will own the 1,750-square-foot house, and its engineer will live there for a couple of years to monitor energy use.
He doesn’t know how much it will cost because, as a prototype, it was built with donations and volunteer labor.
The owners of the first hemp home say it cost $133 a square foot to build, not including land and excavation.
“That’s pretty remarkable” for a custom home in Asheville, which is a pricey area, says Karon Korp, a writer who moved into the house in July.
Korp says she and her husband, Russ Martin wanted primarily an energy-efficient home. They’re not particularly sensitive to chemicals, but they were drawn to Brenner because of his modern aesthetic and green building enthusiasm. She says they’re thrilled their house is made of a renewable, toxic-free material and hope it sets an example for the nation.
“Hemp could replace tobacco if it were legalized,” says Martin, Asheville’s GOP mayor from 1993 to 1997. He says some area tobacco farms have gone bust.
Martin says they have spent less than $100 a month so far to cool the home, which has 3,000 square feet plus a garage. It has 12″ thick walls, Energy Star appliances, dual-flush toilets, high-performance windows and LED lights. Korp says they might add a windmill, because the house sits atop a mountain.
They say they have fantastic views. “We seen the sun rise,” he says. She adds, “and the sun set.”

If an American doctor of the late 19th century stepped into a time warp and emerged in 2010, he would be shocked by the multitude of pharmaceuticals that today’s physicians use. But as he pondered this array (and wondered, as I do, whether most are really necessary), he would soon notice an equally surprising omission, and exclaim, “Where’s my Cannabis indica?”
No wonder — the poor fellow would feel nearly helpless without it. In his day, labor pains, asthma, nervous disorders and even colicky babies were treated with a fluid extract of Cannabis indica, also known as “Indian hemp.” (Cannabis is generally seen as having three species — sativa, indica and ruderalis — but crossbreeding is common, especially between sativa and indica.) At least 100 scientific papers published in the 19th century backed up such uses.
Then the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 made possession or transfer of Cannabis illegal in the U.S. except for certain medical and industrial uses, which were heavily taxed. The legislation began a long process of making Cannabis use illegal altogether. Many historians have examined this sorry chapter in American legislative history, and the dubious evidence for Cannabis addiction and violent behavior used to secure the bill’s passage. “Under the Influence: The Disinformation Guide to Drugs” by Preston Peet makes a persuasive case that the Act’s real purpose was to quash the hemp industry, making synthetic fibers more valuable for industrialists who owned the patents.
Meanwhile, as a medical doctor and botanist, my aim has always been to filter out the cultural noise surrounding the genus Cannabis and see it dispassionately: as a plant with bioactivity in human beings that may have therapeutic value. From this perspective, what can it offer us?
As it turns out, a great deal. Research into possible medical uses of Cannabis is enjoying a renaissance. In recent years, studies have shown potential for treating nausea, vomiting, premenstrual syndrome, insomnia, migraines, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, alcohol abuse, collagen-induced arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, bipolar disorder, depression, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sickle-cell disease, sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease and anorexia nervosa.
But perhaps most exciting, cannabinoids (chemical constituents of Cannabis, the best known being tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) may have a primary role in cancer treatment and prevention. A number of studies have shown that these compounds can inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animal models. In part, this is achieved by inhibiting angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels that tumors need in order to grow. What’s more, cannabinoids seem to kill tumor cells without affecting surrounding normal cells. If these findings hold true as research progresses, cannabinoids would demonstrate a huge advantage over conventional chemotherapy agents, which too often destroy normal cells as well as cancer cells.
As long ago as 1975, researchers reported that cannabinoids inhibited the growth of a certain type of lung cancer cell in test tubes and in mice. Since then, laboratory studies have shown that cannabinoids have effects against tumor cells from glioblastoma (a deadly type of brain cancer) as well as those from thyroid cancer¸ leukemia/lymphoma, and skin, uterus, breast, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic and prostate cancers.
So far, the only human test of cannabinoids against cancer was performed in Spain, and was designed to determine if treatment was safe, not whether it was effective. (In studies on humans, such “phase one trials,” are focused on establishing the safety of a new drug, as well as the right dosage.) In the Spanish study, reported in 2006, the dose was administered intracranially, directly into the tumors of patients with recurrent brain cancer. The investigation established the safety of the dose and showed that the compound used decreased cell proliferation in at least two of nine patients studied.
It is not clear that smoking marijuana achieves blood levels high enough to have these anticancer effects. We need more human research, including well-designed studies to find the best mode of administration.
If you want to learn more about this subject, I recommend an excellent documentary film, “What If Cannabis Cured Cancer,” by Len Richmond, which summarizes the remarkable research findings of recent years. Most medical doctors are not aware of this information and its implications for cancer prevention and treatment. The film presents compelling evidence that our current policy on Cannabis is counterproductive.
Another reliable source of information is the chapter on cannabinoids and cancer in “Integrative Oncology” (Oxford University Press, 2009), a textbook I edited with integrative oncologist Donald I. Abrams, M.D. (Learn more about integrative cancer treatment from Dr. Abrams.)
After more than 70 years of misinformation about this botanical remedy, I am delighted that we are finally gaining a mature understanding of its immense therapeutic potential.

By ERIKA LOVLEY
A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.
Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — chaired by Boxer — was stopped by a police officer Tuesday morning when he allegedly tried to “remove and conceal” a leafy green substance from his pocket during a security screening at the Constitution Avenue door of the Hart building around noon, according to a Capitol Police report.
Police confiscated the substance, which later tested positive for marijuana, and Stanley quickly resigned.
“Marcus Stanley is no longer with this office,” Boxer spokesman Zachary Coile told POLITICO. “He submitted his resignation, and Sen. Boxer accepted it because his actions yesterday were wrong and unacceptable.”
Stanley has worked on Capitol Hill since 2007, according to financial disclosure records from Legistorm, and draws a six-figure salary. He has also worked for the Joint Economic Committee.
Marijuana possession has been an ongoing issue on the Capitol grounds, especially since the Capitol Visitor Center opened with additional screening facilities. In the past year and a half, more than a dozen people have been stopped for bringing marijuana into the Capitol complex, along with other drugs, including at least one instance involving cocaine, according to police records.
The legalization of marijuana is a hot issue in Boxer’s senatorial race as well as other California elections. California Democrats have been largely divided over Proposition 19, a ballot question that would legalize marijuana and allow the government to impose taxes on pot. Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have been opposed to the measure.
This is not the first time a member of Boxer’s senior staff has been arrested. Senior policy adviser Jeffrey Rosato, who also worked on the EPW committee, was fired in 2008 after he was arrested and charged with the receipt and distribution of child pornography.
Stanley is the fourth Hill aide to be arrested by Capitol Police this year, according to an analysis by POLITICO.

Following on the barefoot heels of hot yoga, circus yoga and hip hop yoga, cannabis-enhanced classes offer a way to cut through inhibitions
David Silverberg
They chat away breezily between vaporizer tokes, sometimes veering off into conspiracy theories about the government or discussions of the healthiest way to smoke marijuana. Then the 12 yoga lovers extend their arms and breathe deeply. Yoga mats cover the floor. A guitarist strums chords as incense weaves its tendrils across the room.
As the light haze of pot smoke dissipates in the downtown Toronto living room, the ganja yoga session begins.
“When you’re high, you can focus better on your breath,” says Dee Dussault, who runs a monthly session of “cannabis-enhanced yoga” at her home dubbed Follow Your Bliss.
“ Yoga and marijuana, together… It’s like putting salt on your food. It’s just a little enhancement.”— Tanya Pillay
She says smoking marijuana in small doses before a yoga class also makes students more receptive to the poses and philosophies behind the activities. “For some people, it makes them uninhibited and open to the idea of the heart chakra, for example.”
Heart chakras aside, ganja yoga has the THC whiff of being the latest yoga fad, following on the heels of hot yoga, circus yoga, pre- and postnatal yoga, acro yoga (acrobatics), even hip-hop yoga. While cannabis has been deeply entwined with spiritualism over the centuries, some yoga practitioners say that a pure body is ideal for the exercise and that smoking pot could cause an unwieldy imbalance. As one online-forum commenter opined: “Why should we try to purify our body and soul through yoga if we later intoxicate it again with marijuana or other substances?”
Yoga instructor Dee Duss teaches to participants of her “ganja yoga” class, where people smoke marijuana before starting their yoga session at her studio on Grange Ave., Toronto Ontario September 01, 2010.
But Dan Skye, senior editor at New York-based High Times magazine, which tracks marijuana trends, disagrees with yoga purists who believe getting high before a class is detrimental. “Pot is changing medicine; it’s changing recreational habits,” he says. The latest research seems to back up his claim: A recent McGill University study found that cannabis helped alleviate chronic neuropathic pain.
Ms. Dussault remains unfazed. For the past year, she has run ganja yoga out of her home studio as well as at the Hot Box Café in Toronto’s Kensington Market. The class takes place on the last Friday of the month, after work, and she charges $15 for each session. Often, she invites a musician to play some relaxing tunes during the 90 minutes, and she gives out munchies – fruits, nuts, tea – after the class.
Because Ms. Dussault publicizes ganja yoga openly, there is the question of legal repercussions. But she’s quick to say, “No, I’ve never been worried about cops. I think they have bigger fish to fry.”
Among the ground rules at the studio, participants must bring their own pot – and there’s no dealing or mooching. And she makes a point of meeting students before the session “to determine if they want to come just to get stoned.”
Ms. Dussault also encourages participants to fine-tune their yoga skills before embracing ganja yoga. She wants to ensure that people “first experience the true teachings of yoga” and then try ganja yoga to enjoy a different yoga flavour.
Her studio isn’t the only site for cannabis-enhanced yoga. The B.C. Compassion Club Society, a full-service compassion club in Vancouver, offers yoga sessions for those who use medicinal marijuana. Nicole Marcia, the club’s yoga therapist, says she notices that many yoga patrons are “medicated” once they start the session, but for one important reason.
“They need marijuana in order to fight the chronic pain and anxiety they feel,” Ms. Marcia says. She notices that some patients with multiple sclerosis, for instance, are able to “be present” and practise yoga once they’ve gotten high.
“ Marijuana quells those voices in your mind. ”— Melinda Reidl, yoga practitioner
Many pot dispensaries and compassion clubs in California and Colorado – where pot is decriminalized – offer yoga classes, including The Herb Shoppe in Colorado Springs. Qat Carter, who teaches there, says that some of her students prefer to eat marijuana edibles, such as pot brownies, because ingesting cooked pot lengthens the high. “My husband says it helps him increase his body awareness and makes him more relaxed when he does the poses.”
Torontonian Melinda Reidl, 36, enjoys how the marijuana buzz complements the yoga experience. “Marijuana quells those voices in your mind,” she says, adding that ganja yoga encourages more deliberate movements. It’s not a competition to push you to sweat hard, like in some hot yoga studios, Ms. Reidl notes. She calls Ms. Dussault’s sessions “a slow-dub version of yoga.”
Blending a stoned perspective and the precision of yoga could be dangerous, warns Monica Voss, an instructor of 30 years who practises out of Esther Myers Yoga Studio in Toronto. “Some people might not be aware of their body when they’re high and maybe they would injure themselves,” she points out.
She would like to see academic studies done to determine cannabis’s relation with pain release and concentration. That way, yoga practitioners may feel more comfortable recommending this type of yoga combination. “It’s healthy to see all these yoga variations, but buyer beware,” she adds.
But Mr. Skye, who used to work in the fitness industry, says he saw many people smoking before stretching. “I knew a few muscle heads who used to toke up on the gym’s fire escape just before class,” he says.
“I like the idea of smoking pot as a spiritual experience, not just for recreational use,” says Tanya Pillay, 35, who attended her first ganja yoga class in August. “When you take an activity like yoga and take the altered state smoking pot creates, it combines to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
“Yoga and marijuana, together,” Ms. Pillay says, “it’s like putting salt on your food. It’s just a little enhancement.”
Special to The Globe and Mail