Hemp - the straight-laced cousin to marijuana - had been used as a fuel, food, and fiber until the feds banned it as part of the War on Pot starting in the 1930s. But now, California has legalized the production of hemp in the state — if the feds get out of the way, and that's a big if.
A group calling itself the California Cannabis Hemp & Health Initiative received clearance from the California Secretary of State Thursday to circulate a petition to legalize pot at the ballot box in the November 2014 election.
According to the Secretary of State's Office, the CCHI "Decriminalizes marijuana and hemp use, possession, cultivaton, transportation, or distribution. Requires case-by-case review for persons currently charged with or convicted of nonviolent marijuana offenses, for possible sentence modification, amnesty, or immediate release from prison, jail, parole, or probation. Requires case-by-case review of applications to have records of these charges and convictions erased. Requires Legislature to adopt laws to license and tax commercial marijuana sales. Allows doctors to approve or recommend marijuana for patients, regardless of age. Limits testing for marijuana for employment or insurance purposes. Bars state or local aid to enforcement of federal marijuana laws."
An aging drug law reform group is staging a pretty modern publicity stunt right now: The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws is trying to get a pro-marijuana advertisement on international television during the upcoming Super Bowl. The Super Bowl ad will be paid for by Quickbooks-maker Intuit, which is holding a popularity contest for small businesses. The team with the most online votes wins the marketing opportunity of a lifetime.
After the contest was announced, the forty-year-old NORML used its huge online network to begin stuffing ballots, quickly shooting to the lead in Intuit's contest last week.
Has there ever been a bigger example of the failure of pot prohibition than the island nation of Jamaica?
Lawmakers on the island synonymous with Bob Marley and grass again brought up the topic of decriminalizing weed Tuesday, the Associated Press reports.
The idea has been batted about for decades, the AP reports.
The Wall Street Journal's CFO Journal Blog reported Monday that a former Colorado gambling bookkeeper turned medical marijuana bookkeeper is the new chief financial officer of Advanced Cannabis Solutions Inc. Christopher Taylor will oversee Advanced Cannabis Solutions' efforts to use "investment funding to purchase properties where the drug is made or sold, and lease the facilities back to the owners."
A group of die-hard drug warriors who plan to gather Monday for a stop-pot conference in Southern California have decided to move their event because they claim they're worried about supposedly crazed, violent pedophile potheads. According to organizers of the 2013 National Marijuana Policy and Strategy Conference, a planned protest by drug-law reformers "threatens kids and safety."
When former police officer Gregg Daly stood up to speak at the San Leandro City Council meeting this week regarding medical cannabis dispensaries, many pro-marijuana activists feared the worst. Instead, Daly resoundingly endorsed dispensaries in San Leandro and blasted - nay, nuked - the ongoing prohibition of marijuana in this country.
"I am a 16 year resident of San Leandro, a small business owner running an IT consultancy, and I live with my wife and three children in Bay-O-Vista. ... I have extensive law enforcement experience. I was a US Army Military Police sergeant with duties which included working with MPI and the Criminal Investigation Division Command (CIDC) and working undercover in anti-narcotics, anti-terror, and firearm/explosives/weapon investigations. I am also a retired California peace officer, retiring from the Monterey Police Department in 1996. I worked street patrols and was the department’s subject-matter-expert on intoxication and DUIs, not just with alcohol but with pharmaceuticals and recreational drugs as well. ...
"I am a medical marijuana patient and have been for more than five years. Since the city can’t be bothered constructing a properly lit and visible crosswalk, a car ran me down in front of Starbucks on MacArthur. The injuries and subsequent problems are too vast to list, but I’m sure some of you have noticed a large portion of my forehead is missing and horribly scarred. That’s from the accident along with a crushed rib cage, injured spine and neck, and various serious tissue damage. How I survived the accident is unknown to my doctor or my surgeon. I died after emergency surgery and had to be revived. I live in severe pain from this accident. Medical marijuana has been a savior for me. ...
The Seattle Post Intelligencer's Jake Ellison asks Monday "can marijuana culture hold onto [its] bonds, the embrace of the weird, the goofy, the camaraderie of stoners as it becomes — with amazing speed — a commercialized industry?"
The analysis reflects a growing unease among die-hard legalizers who fear Big Marijuana as much as their anti-pot counterparts the Drug Free America foundation and major police lobbies.
The City of San Leandro went forward last night with the approval of at least one medical cannabis dispensary, according to Ashly McGlone, a Bay Area News Group reporter at the city council meeting Monday night.
#sanleandro council tells staff to proceed w/ draft ord allowing dispensaries. Exact number TBD. Zoning changes will go to BZA & planning
— Ashly McGlone (@AshlyReports) September 17, 2013
180-200 degrees Celsius, or 356-392 degrees Fahrenheit. So there. Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.
This information comes courtesy of TheAnswerPage.com, a medical education resource for physicians sponsored by The Massachusetts Medical Society. On Saturday, September 14, the site's "Question of the Day" involved "vaporization — a smokeless delivery system used for cannabis inhalation. Vaporization uses warm air or heat of 180°C to 200°C, rather than a flame, to convert cannabinoids and other compounds found in herbal cannabis into a fine mist that can be inhaled. Since temperatures are far lower, no combustion by-products such as soot or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are produced. Due to their volatility, cannabinoids will vaporize at temperatures of 180°C to 200°C, but will not combust at these temperatures."