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“April 20th is known as 420; May 3rd (was) this year's Global Marijuana March; and July 1st is Canada Day, but in Vancouver we call it Cannabis Day!”
Why, you ask. First, because the majority of us Canadians believe the consumption of cannabis should be allowed in our country. “According to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies, 53 per cent of respondents support the legalization of marijuana.” And second, because “Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report (has) found.
“The 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used another cannabis product in 2006. The world average is 3.8 per cent.
“In the report, Canada ranks fifth in the world for marijuana use, behind Ghana at 21.5 per cent, Zambia, 17.7 per cent, and Papua New Guinea and Micronesia with 29 per cent each.”
Since the total population of Canada as of 2007 is approximately 33 million, the UN report means that 5.5 million Canadians smoke marijuana on a regular basis.
In honor of this day, and in celebration of our growing community, I decided to do an update to the cannabis information page. The following information has been added to: Happy 420! (almost everything you wanted to know about Ganja).
Enjoy the festivities, after all, it is part of who we are as Canadians.
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Statistics: Canada tokes at 4 times world average: UN - “Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report found. The 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used another cannabis product in 2006. The world average is 3.8 per cent.
“In the report, Canada ranks fifth in the world for marijuana use, behind Ghana at 21.5 per cent, Zambia, 17.7 per cent, and Papua New Guinea and Micronesia with 29 per cent each. Cannabis accounts for the bulk of global drug use, consumed by 160 million people.”
Medical News: Marijuana Contains Anti-Inflammatory That Won't Get You High - “‘Targeting the CB2 receptor could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat diseases like Crohn's disease [inflammation of the intestinal tract], liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, and atherosclerosis,’ said lead study author Jürg Gertsch. Other conditions for which medical marijuana may be beneficial include Multiple Sclerosis, glaucoma, cancer, and chronic pain.”
Education: Drug classification rethink urged - “The designation of drugs in classes A, B and C should be replaced with one more closely reflecting the harm they cause, a committee of MPs has said… The alternative system was prepared by Professor David Nutt, a senior member of the Committee that advises the government on drug classification, and Professor Colin Blakemore - chief Executive of the Medical Research Council. There are three class A drugs in the top five of the system, as well as one Class B and alcohol.”
click to enlarge
“Tobacco is listed as the ninth most harmful drug and cannabis, a class C drug (UK), comes in at number 11. Perhaps most surprising is the presence of two Class A drugs - ecstasy and LSD - in the bottom six. This places them well below tobacco and alcohol and a number of class B and C drugs.”
Medical News and Politics: What Your Government Knows About Cannabis And Cancer -- And Isn't Telling You - “Fortunately, in the past 10 years scientists overseas have generously picked up where U.S. researchers so abruptly left off, reporting that cannabinoids can halt the spread of numerous cancer cells -- including prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and brain cancer. (An excellent paper summarizing much of this research, "Cannabinoids for Cancer Treatment: Progress and Promise," appears in the January 2008 edition of the journal Cancer Research.) A 2006 patient trial published in the British Journal of Cancer even reported that the intracranial administration of THC was associated with reduced tumor cell proliferation in humans with advanced glioblastoma…
“What possible advancements in the treatment of cancer may have been achieved over the past 34 years had U.S. government officials chosen to advance -- rather than suppress -- clinical research into the anti-cancer effects of cannabis? It's a shame we have to speculate; it's even more tragic that the families of Senator Kennedy and thousands of others must suffer while we do.”
Mental Health: Marijuana Anxiety Disorders - “A hundred years ago, a doctor might have recommended marijuana for my condition—or “nervous inquietude” as the U.S. Dispensatory called it in 1854—and to anyone suffering from menstrual cramps, gout, cholera, or migraines. During the nineteenth century, American pharmaceutical companies freely produced cannabis for ailments. But in 1937, Congress criminalized “marihuana” with a tax act. In 1996, when California passed the first state initiative to decriminalize marijuana for treating illness, certain liberal populations, like the People’s Republic of Berkeley, quickly embraced cannabis as a means to ease nausea and other symptoms associated with AIDS, cancer, and treatments for both. Yet it didn’t get any notice in the area of anxiety and depression.
“As my antidepressants were failing me, though, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the fact that whenever I smoked pot with friends (after a soccer game, before a hike), it relaxed me—and the calming effect lasted for days. I returned to marijuana in my mid-twenties as a way to level the emotional extremes Paxil induced, and to avoid talking to another listless doctor who would just give me a new pill. And at least doing business with a Cal student—whose house reeked of too many animals—seemed less likely to land me in jail than a visit to one of the marijuana clubs I kept hearing about. These were the sites of DEA raids, an entirely nerve-racking scenario for someone prone to panic attacks.”
Politics: Racist 'war on drugs' escalates nationally - “…arrests related to marijuana and other drugs continue to climb nationally. ‘In 2006, those arrests totaled 1.89 million, according to federal data, up from 1.85 million in 2005, and 581,000 in 1980. More than four-fifths of the arrests were for possession rather than the sale or manufacture of drugs. Underscoring law enforcement’s misguided priorities, fully four in 10 of all drug arrests were for marijuana possession.’ (New York Times, May 10)
“More than ‘90 percent of those arrested were Black and Latino males, even though studies show that women and men smoke marijuana roughly in equal rates.’ (New York Times, April 30)…
“A Feb. 29 New York Daily News report found that 88 percent of those who are stopped and searched in the city’s subways are Black or Latino, although they make up only 49 percent of subway riders. In sharp contrast, white commuters, who constitute 36 percent of all subway riders, only make up 8 percent of those subjected to ‘stop-and-frisks.’”
Medical News and Politics: Medical Pot Use Not Associated With “Serious” Side Effects, Study Says - “The medical use of cannabis is not associated with serious negative side effects, according to a meta-analysis published this week in the journal of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ)…
“…investigators ‘did not find a higher incidence rate of serious adverse events associated with medical cannabinoid use.’ Responding to the study, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: ‘Cannabinoids possess a safety profile that is unmatched by virtually every other available prescription drug or over-the-counter medication, including aspirin. To think that almost no serious adverse side effects have been associated with drug's medicinal use over a 30-year period is remarkable. What other medications can make such a claim?’”
Politics: Why the United States has a drug problem, and how to solve America’s drug problem - Our children are not stupid, but they are inquisitive. When they consume cannabis for the first time they realize almost immediately that they have been lied to. Once this lie is exposed then they begin to question everything that we tell them, as they should, since we have lied to them.
Are we out of our minds to so blatantly lie to our children for the benefit of the government and to empower those who are making billions of dollars off the war on drugs? This self-destructive behavior must be stopped.
The United States has a drug problem, not because cannabis is harmful, but because its “War on Drugs” policy is not based on scientific data, nor is it based on protecting our community. It is based on fear and profits.
Politics: War on Drugs is “One of the Most Repressive Aspects in American Life” - “Soros has given away over $6 billion during the past three decades, and is founder and chairman of the Open Society Institute. Although Soros’ philanthropic efforts have focused primarily on promoting democratic governance and human rights in Central and Eastern Europe, he has increasingly supported reform within the United States over the past decade — including the work of the ACLU…
“Soros has been one of the key figures in the movement to reform our nation’s catastrophic drug policies and to end the failed “War on Drugs.” During his talk, Soros stated plainly, “The War on Drugs is one of the most repressive aspects in American life.”
Politics: Top 10 Pot Studies Government Wished it Had Never Funded
1. MARIJUANA DOES HAVE MEDICAL VALUE
2. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 4)
3. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 3)
4. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER, (PART 2)
5. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 1)
6. PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK (PART II: DOES PROHIBITION CAUSE THE "GATEWAY EFFECT"?)
7. PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK (PART I)
8. THE "GATEWAY EFFECT" MAY BE A MIRAGE
9. HEAVY MARIJUANA USE AS A YOUNG ADULT WON’T RUIN YOUR LIFE
10. MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY
I loved the oops’s so I had to put them all in
Educational: Superhighme - “Determined to find out the true effects of marijuana on the human body, stand-up comedian and former Stoner of the Year Doug Benson documents his experience avoiding pot for 30 days and then consuming massive amounts of the drug for 30 days.”
There are many of us who have smoke ganja for a lot longer than 30 consecutive days, or weeks, or even months. You can be the judge of what its effects are based on this blog.
Entertainment: Marijuana Movies: Riding High In Hollywood? - “Pot-centric comedies have become a major cash crop for Hollywood. Between sleeper hits and blockbusters, the genre has generated more than $400 million in domestic box office in the last 10 years, and even more on DVD — following a pattern typical for other genres, like horror flicks and family fare. Stoner roles have launched or resurrected the careers of Oscar winners (Sean Penn, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), movie stars (Matthew McConaughey, Dazed and Confused), and former child actors (Neil Patrick Harris, White Castle). And for better or worse, toking up on screen even seems to have lost some of its shock value.”
Politics: Cops & Customs Agents Caught Drug Smuggling - “Following last September's crash of a Gulfstream jet used by the CIA for torture flights that contained 4 tonnes of cocaine, more customs officials and cops have been caught in drug smuggling and drug dealing rackets. Customs supervisor Walter Golembiowski and officer John Ajello face narcotics, bribery and conspiracy charges after they were arrested for helping smuggle drugs and contraband through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.”
“Meanwhile in Texas, Cameron County Constable Saul Ochoa was arrested by the FBI yesterday morning for possession and distribution of marijuana. Ochoa's brother is Justice of the Peace Benny Ochoa III of Port Isabel and his cousin is Port Isabel Police Chief Joel Ochoa.
“‘The grand jury charged Ochoa with possessing five to 10 pounds of marijuana on four different days in May with the intent to distribute. Each of the four counts carries a maximum five years in prison and $250,000 fine,’ according to a Brownsville Herald report.”
Education: Gary Webb on C.I.A. Trafficking of Cocaine - “Gary Webb is the San Jose Mercury News journalist that was run out of his job and blacklisted from the industry for daring to report what he found out. ”
Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered - “We will simply not let the issue drop. How on earth can somebody have two different gunshot wounds and their cause of death still be passed off as suicide?”
Education: Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport - “A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security. Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in…
“‘I knew that using passengers' bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog's ability,’ the officer was quoted as saying. ‘The dogs have always been able to find it before... I became overconfident that it would work.’”
Education: "Don't Talk to the Police" by Officer George Bruch - “George Bruch from the Virginia Beach police department responds to Professor James Duane's presentation on why innocent people should never talk to the police.”
Please note that this video actually made me feel sick, nauseous, however I think it is must viewing since it contains vital information on how to protect ourselves from the police state that we live in.
Music: Cannabis helps me unwind says Violinist Nigel Kennedy - “Nigel Kennedy, the 51 year old orchestral violinist and Birminghams original ‘Aston Villain’ has told how orchestral musicians will often use illicit or prescription drugs to fight off stagefright, and after a long evening playing in front of an audience, he will often unwind by smoking a joint or two.”
Political Medical News: Canadian Medical Marijuana Users Banned from the US; and DNA Samples Taken - “The US is accumulating data on every single person in every possible way and follows their own rules, ignoring any rights we think we might have. That medical marijuana is legal in California has no relevance to them. There is no distinction between marijuana use and heroin addiction to them. Nor is there any distinction between a medical user and a street drug dealer. I was now declared criminally ill despite being legal in every inch of Canada and did not commit any offence on US soil. It has been three months since this has happened, and I am still traumatized by the entire experience but at least able to talk about it.”
Political News: Tough-on-crime policies ineffective, U.S. sentencing expert contends - “The Harper government is embracing tough-on-crime policies even as the United States backs away from similar approaches that have produced record levels of incarceration, huge taxpayer costs and racialized prisons, says an American expert on sentencing policy…
“Mauer's observations are relevant because the federal Tackling Violent Crime Act, which received royal assent on Feb. 28, echoes the punitive approach to crime adopted in the United States in the 1980s…
“The Harper government pushed the bill through even though crime rates in Canada have been falling steadily since the early '90s and are now at their lowest level in 25 years.”
Politics: Free from the Nightmare of Prohibition - “America wasn't a Utopia. But it was quite different from today. For one thing, the violent crime rate was only 15% of what it is today. Gangs didn't rule the cities or neighborhoods, because there was no black market in drugs or alcohol to make gangs profitable. After all, anyone could buy what he wanted cheaply at the corner drug store. And because of the low prices, drug addicts and alcoholics didn't have to steal the money to buy what they craved.
“Just as today, alcohol and drugs were food for tragedy - bringing hardship and ruin to those addicted, and often to their families as well. But before government regulation, the circle of tragedy reached no further than the addict and his immediate family.”
Education: Doug Stanhope on Medicinal Marijuana
Laws: Prospective juror in pot trial caught smoking marijuana - “The 49-year-old Houston woman was one of 20 people in a jury pool in Criminal Court at Law No. 10. Ross said he realized something was wrong when juror No. 2, Mayo, didn't return from a 45-minute break. Before the judge could file a bench warrant for the missing juror, his bailiff got a call from police notifying him that Mayo was being booked on a charge of smoking marijuana outside the criminal courthouse.”
Religion and Politics: Jamaica Explores Legalizing Marijuana - “Jamaica is considering the legalization of marijuana, a drug revered by members of the island's large Rastafarian population who say smoking it is part of their religion.
“A seven-member government commission has been researching possible changes to the Caribbean nation's anti-drug laws, which some police complain are clogging courts and jails with marijuana-related cases, a government official said Friday…
“In 2003, a government commission recommended legalizing marijuana in small amounts for personal use. But lawmakers never acted, saying legalization might entail loss of their country's U.S. anti-drug certification. Countries that lose it face economic sanctions.”
Politics and Economics: Cut cannabis use by selling it at the post office: expert - “Cannabis would be sold legally in post offices in packets that warn against its effects under a proposal outlined by the head of a Sydney drug and alcohol clinic.
“The director of the alcohol and drug service at St Vincent's Hospital, Alex Wodak, said Australia needed to learn from the tobacco industry and the US Prohibition era in coming to terms with his belief that cannabis use would replace cigarette consumption over the next decade. ‘he general principal is that it's not sustainable that we continue to give criminals and corrupt police a monopoly to sell a drug that is soon going to be consumed by more people than tobacco,’he said.”
Health: Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection - “The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer. The new findings ‘were against our expectations,’ said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years…
“Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought.
“‘We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,’ he said. ‘What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.’
“Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous…
“While no association between marijuana smoking and cancer was found, the study findings, presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference this week, did find a 20-fold increase in lung cancer among people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.”
Further information on this story at: The Greatest Story Never Told - “…something in marijuana exerts an anti-cancer effect.”
Economics: £300m cannabis windfall for Dutch - “Cannabis nets the Dutch treasury more than £300 million a year and has become one of the country's top cash crops, new figures show.”
Health: Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study - “Measurements and main results. Exposed and nonexposed neonates were compared at 3 days and 1 month old, using the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, including supplementary items to capture possible subtle effects. There were no significant differences between exposed and nonexposed neonates on day 3. At 1 month, the exposed neonates showed better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach organized states. The neonates of heavy-marijuana-using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability, quality of alertness, irritability, and self-regulation and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers.
“Conclusions. The absence of any differences between the exposed on nonexposed groups in the early neonatal period suggest that the better scores of exposed neonates at 1 month are traceable to the cultural positioning and social and economic characteristics of mothers using marijuana that select for the use of marijuana but also promote neonatal development. Pediatrics 1994;93:254-260; prenatal marijuana exposure, neonatal outcomes, Jamaica, Brazelton scale supplementary items.”
Politics: Police respond to Brown: "Don't criminalise young people who are experimenting" - “In a response to Gordon Brown's expected u-turn on the classification of cannabis in the UK, police chief constables have reportedly indicated that they will not prosecute ‘young people who are experimenting’.
“Instead the police officers have said that they will continue to give a warning for anyone found in possession as well as confiscating their herbs. Under guidance from the Acpo (Association of Chief Police Officers) officers will be told that the ‘The key will be the discretion for officers to strike the right balance,’ but that they should be aware of the greater powers they have available when there are 'aggravating factors.'”
Politics and Economics: Just Say No to Federal Funding For Drug War - “Congress has rubber stamped (yet again) the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, a federal law enforcement grant program that is feeding the war on drugs and fueling racial disparities, police corruption, and civil rights abuses. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously today to renew the controversial but politically popular program. The Senate has already voted to renew the program…
“The most notorious Bryne-funded scandal occurred in Tulia, Texas where dozens of African American residents (representing 16 percent of the town's black population) were arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison, even though the only evidence against them was the uncorroborated testimony of one white undercover officer with a history of lying and racism. The undercover officer worked alone, and had no audiotapes, video surveillance, or eyewitnesses to collaborate his allegations. Suspicions eventually arose after two of the defendants accused were able to produce firm evidence showing they were out of state or at work at the time of the alleged drug buys. Texas Governor Rick Perry eventually pardoned the Tulia defendants (after four years of imprisonment), but these kinds of scandals continue to plague the Byrne grant program.
“Recent scandals in other states include the misuse of millions of dollars in federal grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions based on police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower their charges in exchange for money or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.”
“April 20th is known as 420; May 3rd (was) this year's Global Marijuana March; and July 1st is Canada Day, but in Vancouver we call it Cannabis Day!”
Why, you ask. First, because the majority of us Canadians believe the consumption of cannabis should be allowed in our country. “According to a poll by Angus Reid Strategies, 53 per cent of respondents support the legalization of marijuana.” And second, because “Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report (has) found.
“The 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used another cannabis product in 2006. The world average is 3.8 per cent.
“In the report, Canada ranks fifth in the world for marijuana use, behind Ghana at 21.5 per cent, Zambia, 17.7 per cent, and Papua New Guinea and Micronesia with 29 per cent each.”
Since the total population of Canada as of 2007 is approximately 33 million, the UN report means that 5.5 million Canadians smoke marijuana on a regular basis.
In honor of this day, and in celebration of our growing community, I decided to do an update to the cannabis information page. The following information has been added to: Happy 420! (almost everything you wanted to know about Ganja).
Enjoy the festivities, after all, it is part of who we are as Canadians.
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Statistics: Canada tokes at 4 times world average: UN - “Canadians use marijuana at four times the world average, making Canada the leader of the industrialized world in cannabis consumption, a recent United Nations report found. The 2007 World Drug Report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime says that 16.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 to 64 smoked marijuana or used another cannabis product in 2006. The world average is 3.8 per cent.
“In the report, Canada ranks fifth in the world for marijuana use, behind Ghana at 21.5 per cent, Zambia, 17.7 per cent, and Papua New Guinea and Micronesia with 29 per cent each. Cannabis accounts for the bulk of global drug use, consumed by 160 million people.”
Medical News: Marijuana Contains Anti-Inflammatory That Won't Get You High - “‘Targeting the CB2 receptor could be a therapeutic strategy to prevent or treat diseases like Crohn's disease [inflammation of the intestinal tract], liver cirrhosis, osteoarthritis, and atherosclerosis,’ said lead study author Jürg Gertsch. Other conditions for which medical marijuana may be beneficial include Multiple Sclerosis, glaucoma, cancer, and chronic pain.”
Education: Drug classification rethink urged - “The designation of drugs in classes A, B and C should be replaced with one more closely reflecting the harm they cause, a committee of MPs has said… The alternative system was prepared by Professor David Nutt, a senior member of the Committee that advises the government on drug classification, and Professor Colin Blakemore - chief Executive of the Medical Research Council. There are three class A drugs in the top five of the system, as well as one Class B and alcohol.”
click to enlarge
“Tobacco is listed as the ninth most harmful drug and cannabis, a class C drug (UK), comes in at number 11. Perhaps most surprising is the presence of two Class A drugs - ecstasy and LSD - in the bottom six. This places them well below tobacco and alcohol and a number of class B and C drugs.”
Medical News and Politics: What Your Government Knows About Cannabis And Cancer -- And Isn't Telling You - “Fortunately, in the past 10 years scientists overseas have generously picked up where U.S. researchers so abruptly left off, reporting that cannabinoids can halt the spread of numerous cancer cells -- including prostate cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, pancreatic cancer, and brain cancer. (An excellent paper summarizing much of this research, "Cannabinoids for Cancer Treatment: Progress and Promise," appears in the January 2008 edition of the journal Cancer Research.) A 2006 patient trial published in the British Journal of Cancer even reported that the intracranial administration of THC was associated with reduced tumor cell proliferation in humans with advanced glioblastoma…
“What possible advancements in the treatment of cancer may have been achieved over the past 34 years had U.S. government officials chosen to advance -- rather than suppress -- clinical research into the anti-cancer effects of cannabis? It's a shame we have to speculate; it's even more tragic that the families of Senator Kennedy and thousands of others must suffer while we do.”
Mental Health: Marijuana Anxiety Disorders - “A hundred years ago, a doctor might have recommended marijuana for my condition—or “nervous inquietude” as the U.S. Dispensatory called it in 1854—and to anyone suffering from menstrual cramps, gout, cholera, or migraines. During the nineteenth century, American pharmaceutical companies freely produced cannabis for ailments. But in 1937, Congress criminalized “marihuana” with a tax act. In 1996, when California passed the first state initiative to decriminalize marijuana for treating illness, certain liberal populations, like the People’s Republic of Berkeley, quickly embraced cannabis as a means to ease nausea and other symptoms associated with AIDS, cancer, and treatments for both. Yet it didn’t get any notice in the area of anxiety and depression.
“As my antidepressants were failing me, though, I couldn’t help but pay attention to the fact that whenever I smoked pot with friends (after a soccer game, before a hike), it relaxed me—and the calming effect lasted for days. I returned to marijuana in my mid-twenties as a way to level the emotional extremes Paxil induced, and to avoid talking to another listless doctor who would just give me a new pill. And at least doing business with a Cal student—whose house reeked of too many animals—seemed less likely to land me in jail than a visit to one of the marijuana clubs I kept hearing about. These were the sites of DEA raids, an entirely nerve-racking scenario for someone prone to panic attacks.”
Politics: Racist 'war on drugs' escalates nationally - “…arrests related to marijuana and other drugs continue to climb nationally. ‘In 2006, those arrests totaled 1.89 million, according to federal data, up from 1.85 million in 2005, and 581,000 in 1980. More than four-fifths of the arrests were for possession rather than the sale or manufacture of drugs. Underscoring law enforcement’s misguided priorities, fully four in 10 of all drug arrests were for marijuana possession.’ (New York Times, May 10)
“More than ‘90 percent of those arrested were Black and Latino males, even though studies show that women and men smoke marijuana roughly in equal rates.’ (New York Times, April 30)…
“A Feb. 29 New York Daily News report found that 88 percent of those who are stopped and searched in the city’s subways are Black or Latino, although they make up only 49 percent of subway riders. In sharp contrast, white commuters, who constitute 36 percent of all subway riders, only make up 8 percent of those subjected to ‘stop-and-frisks.’”
Medical News and Politics: Medical Pot Use Not Associated With “Serious” Side Effects, Study Says - “The medical use of cannabis is not associated with serious negative side effects, according to a meta-analysis published this week in the journal of the Canadian Medical Association (CMAJ)…
“…investigators ‘did not find a higher incidence rate of serious adverse events associated with medical cannabinoid use.’ Responding to the study, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: ‘Cannabinoids possess a safety profile that is unmatched by virtually every other available prescription drug or over-the-counter medication, including aspirin. To think that almost no serious adverse side effects have been associated with drug's medicinal use over a 30-year period is remarkable. What other medications can make such a claim?’”
Politics: Why the United States has a drug problem, and how to solve America’s drug problem - Our children are not stupid, but they are inquisitive. When they consume cannabis for the first time they realize almost immediately that they have been lied to. Once this lie is exposed then they begin to question everything that we tell them, as they should, since we have lied to them.
Are we out of our minds to so blatantly lie to our children for the benefit of the government and to empower those who are making billions of dollars off the war on drugs? This self-destructive behavior must be stopped.
The United States has a drug problem, not because cannabis is harmful, but because its “War on Drugs” policy is not based on scientific data, nor is it based on protecting our community. It is based on fear and profits.
Politics: War on Drugs is “One of the Most Repressive Aspects in American Life” - “Soros has given away over $6 billion during the past three decades, and is founder and chairman of the Open Society Institute. Although Soros’ philanthropic efforts have focused primarily on promoting democratic governance and human rights in Central and Eastern Europe, he has increasingly supported reform within the United States over the past decade — including the work of the ACLU…
“Soros has been one of the key figures in the movement to reform our nation’s catastrophic drug policies and to end the failed “War on Drugs.” During his talk, Soros stated plainly, “The War on Drugs is one of the most repressive aspects in American life.”
Politics: Top 10 Pot Studies Government Wished it Had Never Funded
1. MARIJUANA DOES HAVE MEDICAL VALUE
2. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 4)
3. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 3)
4. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER, (PART 2)
5. OOPS, MARIJUANA MAY PREVENT CANCER (PART 1)
6. PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK (PART II: DOES PROHIBITION CAUSE THE "GATEWAY EFFECT"?)
7. PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK (PART I)
8. THE "GATEWAY EFFECT" MAY BE A MIRAGE
9. HEAVY MARIJUANA USE AS A YOUNG ADULT WON’T RUIN YOUR LIFE
10. MARIJUANA USE HAS NO EFFECT ON MORTALITY
I loved the oops’s so I had to put them all in
Educational: Superhighme - “Determined to find out the true effects of marijuana on the human body, stand-up comedian and former Stoner of the Year Doug Benson documents his experience avoiding pot for 30 days and then consuming massive amounts of the drug for 30 days.”
There are many of us who have smoke ganja for a lot longer than 30 consecutive days, or weeks, or even months. You can be the judge of what its effects are based on this blog.
Entertainment: Marijuana Movies: Riding High In Hollywood? - “Pot-centric comedies have become a major cash crop for Hollywood. Between sleeper hits and blockbusters, the genre has generated more than $400 million in domestic box office in the last 10 years, and even more on DVD — following a pattern typical for other genres, like horror flicks and family fare. Stoner roles have launched or resurrected the careers of Oscar winners (Sean Penn, Fast Times at Ridgemont High), movie stars (Matthew McConaughey, Dazed and Confused), and former child actors (Neil Patrick Harris, White Castle). And for better or worse, toking up on screen even seems to have lost some of its shock value.”
Politics: Cops & Customs Agents Caught Drug Smuggling - “Following last September's crash of a Gulfstream jet used by the CIA for torture flights that contained 4 tonnes of cocaine, more customs officials and cops have been caught in drug smuggling and drug dealing rackets. Customs supervisor Walter Golembiowski and officer John Ajello face narcotics, bribery and conspiracy charges after they were arrested for helping smuggle drugs and contraband through New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport.”
“Meanwhile in Texas, Cameron County Constable Saul Ochoa was arrested by the FBI yesterday morning for possession and distribution of marijuana. Ochoa's brother is Justice of the Peace Benny Ochoa III of Port Isabel and his cousin is Port Isabel Police Chief Joel Ochoa.
“‘The grand jury charged Ochoa with possessing five to 10 pounds of marijuana on four different days in May with the intent to distribute. Each of the four counts carries a maximum five years in prison and $250,000 fine,’ according to a Brownsville Herald report.”
Education: Gary Webb on C.I.A. Trafficking of Cocaine - “Gary Webb is the San Jose Mercury News journalist that was run out of his job and blacklisted from the industry for daring to report what he found out. ”
Evidence Begins To Indicate Gary Webb Was Murdered - “We will simply not let the issue drop. How on earth can somebody have two different gunshot wounds and their cause of death still be passed off as suicide?”
Education: Cannabis blunder at Tokyo airport - “A customs officer hid a package of the banned substance in a side pocket of a randomly chosen suitcase in order to test airport security. Sniffer dogs failed to detect the cannabis and the officer could not remember which bag he had put it in…
“‘I knew that using passengers' bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog's ability,’ the officer was quoted as saying. ‘The dogs have always been able to find it before... I became overconfident that it would work.’”
Education: "Don't Talk to the Police" by Officer George Bruch - “George Bruch from the Virginia Beach police department responds to Professor James Duane's presentation on why innocent people should never talk to the police.”
Please note that this video actually made me feel sick, nauseous, however I think it is must viewing since it contains vital information on how to protect ourselves from the police state that we live in.
Music: Cannabis helps me unwind says Violinist Nigel Kennedy - “Nigel Kennedy, the 51 year old orchestral violinist and Birminghams original ‘Aston Villain’ has told how orchestral musicians will often use illicit or prescription drugs to fight off stagefright, and after a long evening playing in front of an audience, he will often unwind by smoking a joint or two.”
Political Medical News: Canadian Medical Marijuana Users Banned from the US; and DNA Samples Taken - “The US is accumulating data on every single person in every possible way and follows their own rules, ignoring any rights we think we might have. That medical marijuana is legal in California has no relevance to them. There is no distinction between marijuana use and heroin addiction to them. Nor is there any distinction between a medical user and a street drug dealer. I was now declared criminally ill despite being legal in every inch of Canada and did not commit any offence on US soil. It has been three months since this has happened, and I am still traumatized by the entire experience but at least able to talk about it.”
Political News: Tough-on-crime policies ineffective, U.S. sentencing expert contends - “The Harper government is embracing tough-on-crime policies even as the United States backs away from similar approaches that have produced record levels of incarceration, huge taxpayer costs and racialized prisons, says an American expert on sentencing policy…
“Mauer's observations are relevant because the federal Tackling Violent Crime Act, which received royal assent on Feb. 28, echoes the punitive approach to crime adopted in the United States in the 1980s…
“The Harper government pushed the bill through even though crime rates in Canada have been falling steadily since the early '90s and are now at their lowest level in 25 years.”
Politics: Free from the Nightmare of Prohibition - “America wasn't a Utopia. But it was quite different from today. For one thing, the violent crime rate was only 15% of what it is today. Gangs didn't rule the cities or neighborhoods, because there was no black market in drugs or alcohol to make gangs profitable. After all, anyone could buy what he wanted cheaply at the corner drug store. And because of the low prices, drug addicts and alcoholics didn't have to steal the money to buy what they craved.
“Just as today, alcohol and drugs were food for tragedy - bringing hardship and ruin to those addicted, and often to their families as well. But before government regulation, the circle of tragedy reached no further than the addict and his immediate family.”
Education: Doug Stanhope on Medicinal Marijuana
Laws: Prospective juror in pot trial caught smoking marijuana - “The 49-year-old Houston woman was one of 20 people in a jury pool in Criminal Court at Law No. 10. Ross said he realized something was wrong when juror No. 2, Mayo, didn't return from a 45-minute break. Before the judge could file a bench warrant for the missing juror, his bailiff got a call from police notifying him that Mayo was being booked on a charge of smoking marijuana outside the criminal courthouse.”
Religion and Politics: Jamaica Explores Legalizing Marijuana - “Jamaica is considering the legalization of marijuana, a drug revered by members of the island's large Rastafarian population who say smoking it is part of their religion.
“A seven-member government commission has been researching possible changes to the Caribbean nation's anti-drug laws, which some police complain are clogging courts and jails with marijuana-related cases, a government official said Friday…
“In 2003, a government commission recommended legalizing marijuana in small amounts for personal use. But lawmakers never acted, saying legalization might entail loss of their country's U.S. anti-drug certification. Countries that lose it face economic sanctions.”
Politics and Economics: Cut cannabis use by selling it at the post office: expert - “Cannabis would be sold legally in post offices in packets that warn against its effects under a proposal outlined by the head of a Sydney drug and alcohol clinic.
“The director of the alcohol and drug service at St Vincent's Hospital, Alex Wodak, said Australia needed to learn from the tobacco industry and the US Prohibition era in coming to terms with his belief that cannabis use would replace cigarette consumption over the next decade. ‘he general principal is that it's not sustainable that we continue to give criminals and corrupt police a monopoly to sell a drug that is soon going to be consumed by more people than tobacco,’he said.”
Health: Study Finds No Cancer-Marijuana Connection - “The largest study of its kind has unexpectedly concluded that smoking marijuana, even regularly and heavily, does not lead to lung cancer. The new findings ‘were against our expectations,’ said Donald Tashkin of the University of California at Los Angeles, a pulmonologist who has studied marijuana for 30 years…
“Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous. Tashkin said that while he still believes marijuana is potentially harmful, its cancer-causing effects appear to be of less concern than previously thought.
“‘We hypothesized that there would be a positive association between marijuana use and lung cancer, and that the association would be more positive with heavier use,’ he said. ‘What we found instead was no association at all, and even a suggestion of some protective effect.’
“Federal health and drug enforcement officials have widely used Tashkin's previous work on marijuana to make the case that the drug is dangerous…
“While no association between marijuana smoking and cancer was found, the study findings, presented to the American Thoracic Society International Conference this week, did find a 20-fold increase in lung cancer among people who smoked two or more packs of cigarettes a day.”
Further information on this story at: The Greatest Story Never Told - “…something in marijuana exerts an anti-cancer effect.”
Economics: £300m cannabis windfall for Dutch - “Cannabis nets the Dutch treasury more than £300 million a year and has become one of the country's top cash crops, new figures show.”
Health: Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study - “Measurements and main results. Exposed and nonexposed neonates were compared at 3 days and 1 month old, using the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, including supplementary items to capture possible subtle effects. There were no significant differences between exposed and nonexposed neonates on day 3. At 1 month, the exposed neonates showed better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach organized states. The neonates of heavy-marijuana-using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability, quality of alertness, irritability, and self-regulation and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers.
“Conclusions. The absence of any differences between the exposed on nonexposed groups in the early neonatal period suggest that the better scores of exposed neonates at 1 month are traceable to the cultural positioning and social and economic characteristics of mothers using marijuana that select for the use of marijuana but also promote neonatal development. Pediatrics 1994;93:254-260; prenatal marijuana exposure, neonatal outcomes, Jamaica, Brazelton scale supplementary items.”
Politics: Police respond to Brown: "Don't criminalise young people who are experimenting" - “In a response to Gordon Brown's expected u-turn on the classification of cannabis in the UK, police chief constables have reportedly indicated that they will not prosecute ‘young people who are experimenting’.
“Instead the police officers have said that they will continue to give a warning for anyone found in possession as well as confiscating their herbs. Under guidance from the Acpo (Association of Chief Police Officers) officers will be told that the ‘The key will be the discretion for officers to strike the right balance,’ but that they should be aware of the greater powers they have available when there are 'aggravating factors.'”
Politics and Economics: Just Say No to Federal Funding For Drug War - “Congress has rubber stamped (yet again) the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program, a federal law enforcement grant program that is feeding the war on drugs and fueling racial disparities, police corruption, and civil rights abuses. The U.S. House Judiciary Committee voted unanimously today to renew the controversial but politically popular program. The Senate has already voted to renew the program…
“The most notorious Bryne-funded scandal occurred in Tulia, Texas where dozens of African American residents (representing 16 percent of the town's black population) were arrested, prosecuted and sentenced to decades in prison, even though the only evidence against them was the uncorroborated testimony of one white undercover officer with a history of lying and racism. The undercover officer worked alone, and had no audiotapes, video surveillance, or eyewitnesses to collaborate his allegations. Suspicions eventually arose after two of the defendants accused were able to produce firm evidence showing they were out of state or at work at the time of the alleged drug buys. Texas Governor Rick Perry eventually pardoned the Tulia defendants (after four years of imprisonment), but these kinds of scandals continue to plague the Byrne grant program.
“Recent scandals in other states include the misuse of millions of dollars in federal grant money in Kentucky and Massachusetts, false convictions based on police perjury in Missouri, and making deals with drug offenders to drop or lower their charges in exchange for money or vehicles in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio, and Wisconsin.”
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