Each of us living in this great state knows Alaska offers many things to all residents. We are surrounded by amazing beauty that nearly a million people pay to experience each summer. We each receive an annual dividend from the natural resources developed in the oil fields and we are blessed with neighbors and friends who look out for one another. In Alaska, an ordinary citizen or group of citizens has the ability to decide an issue is so important that every registered voter in the state has the right to express an opinion on the topic. This November's general election ballot includes several such issues. Our Catholic Church teaching requires us to vote with an informed conscience on issues that will affect the greater good. These are my thoughts for consideration on Ballot Measure 2. [continues 606 words]
KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) - According to Jamaica's justice minister, legislation has been drafted to decriminalize marijuana on the island where the drug has been pervasive but prohibited for a century. Mark Golding told reporters that lawmakers should make possession of 2 ounces or less a petty offense before the end of 2014. He also expects decriminalization for religious purposes to be authorized by then, allowing adherents of the homegrown Rastafarian spiritual movement to ritually smoke marijuana, which they consider a "holy herb," without fear of arrest. [continues 286 words]
JAMAICA'S justice minister has said legislation has been drafted to decriminalise marijuana on the Caribbean island where the drug has been pervasive but prohibited for a century. Mark Golding told reporters that parliament should make possession of two ounces or less a petty offence before the end of 2014. He also expects decriminalisation for religious purposes to be authorised by then, allowing adherents of the homegrown Rastafarian spiritual movement to ritually smoke marijuana - which they consider a "holy herb" - without fear of arrest. [continues 417 words]
(AP) - Taking a deep draw on a pipe that glows with burning marijuana, reggae luminary Bunny Wailer gives a satisfied grin through a haze of aromatic smoke in his concrete yard painted in the red, green, gold and black colors identified with his Rastafarian faith. These days the baritone singer from the legendary Wailers, the group he formed in 1963 with late stars Bob Marley and Peter Tosh, has reason to feel good. There is unprecedented traction building in Jamaica to decriminalize pot, meaning the dreadlocked Wailer, 67, and other adherents of Rastafari - a homegrown spiritual movement that considers the drug divine - may soon be able to smoke without fear of arrest. [continues 416 words]
According to Statistics Canada, 20 per cent of youth aged 15 to 24 have used marijuana at least once in the past year and 6.5 per cent have tried one of five illicit drugs, excluding cannabis (cocaine or crack, speed, ecstasy, hallucinogens or heroin). Most freshmen will enter Western with no experience consuming narcotics. It's thus essential that if you do decide to indulge, you at least have some idea of what you're doing. Narcotics can kindle extraordinary experiences but they generally have health drawbacks. The high is only temporary and seeking drugs to escape personal troubles will ultimately prove unrewarding. Narcotics in moderation are a beneficial tool but they are habit-forming - and that's where the trouble starts. [continues 604 words]
The scientist talks to Laurence Phelan about fighting the establishment, battling preconceptions and breaking down egos On a hot evening in June, in a crowded room above a London pub, Dr Robin Carhart-Harris, a research associate in the Centre for Neuropsychopharma-cology at Imperial College, is giving a public talk about his work. He is having to make himself heard over the boozy commotion downstairs, where people are watching Chile put Spain out of the World Cup. But there is a slightly giddy atmosphere in the function room, too, because the doctor's area of research is as exciting as it is taboo: he is investigating the brain effects and potential therapeutic uses of psychedelic drugs. [continues 2697 words]
Chuck Ream takes his cannabis religiously. In fact he's evangelistic about it. "When you get out past your own ego, the teaching plants carry the message of right and wrong just like the Bible," says Ream. "That teaching from the magical plants could be the impetus to save our civilization, to move beyond absolute materialism. It's the only real religion." It's that kind of zeal that led to Ream receiving the High Times Lester Grinspoon Lifetime Achievement Award at the recent Michigan Medical Marijuana Cannabis Cup. It's a great honor, but Ream has bigger ambitions. [continues 1091 words]
In the Bible's book of Genesis, God says: "Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit" ("Lawmen side with pope against legalized weed," June 21). It's confusing then to read that the pope condemns cannabis (marijuana). Humans have been using this relatively safe God-given plant for thousands of years for spiritual and medicinal purposes. So why do the pope and the Catholic Church feel threatened enough by cannabis to believe it's important to continue caging citizens who choose to use the plant? Jesus Christ asks followers to "love one another." But you cannot love someone and cage them at the same time. Make no mistake about it, we should not support caging humans for using what God says is good. - - Stan White, Dillon, Colo. [end]
Stephen F. Gaskin, a professed "hippie priest and freelance rebel rouser" who assembled, preached to and presided over "The Farm," one of the largest and longest-lasting communes born of the counterculture era, died July 1 at his home near the settlement in Summertown, Tenn. He was 79. Douglas Stevenson, who described himself as an unofficial spokesman for the still-extant Farm community, confirmed the death and said he did not know the cause. In his day, Mr. Gaskin was a countercultural celebrity, the figurehead of a commune that seemed to have achieved the critical mass, wherewithal and collective commitment needed to make such a society work when so many others had petered out. [continues 847 words]
We have been working for many years on proving that our approach to the use of psychoactive substances does not work. For decades Canada, the United States and most western countries have valiantly tried to use prohibition and criminalization to control the use and abuse of certain substances. All that has been proven is that this does not work. If prohibition had been working, we would have seen less drug use, fewer associated harms. Nor would illegal markets, organized crime and related violence have flourished. Prohibition has even led to increasing harm to public health from the spread of HIV and hepatitis C. Clearly, the time has come for a new approach. [continues 348 words]
Last month the University of the West Indies hosted a three-day Cannabis Conference at its Mona campus, co-sponsored by UWI and the Cannabis Commercial and Medicinal Research Task Force (CCMRTF). Scientists and researchers from several countries addressed the likely economic implications of decriminalization, as well as the drug's sacramental uses in Rastafarian culture, and the commercial exploitation of its unquestioned medicinal benefits. Building on the Jamaican government's earlier gestures towards decriminalization, the conference ended with a 12-point roadmap that could, with sufficient political will, produce new legislation within a year. When Caricom leaders gather in Antigua next month they may wish to consider similar policies. [continues 432 words]
In a city such as Guelph it would be considered sacrilege and of the highest order of judgment to castigate the sacred herb, the magical marijuana. The blessed substance is in wide use in these parts, and is considered wholesome, harmless and beneficial. It is capable of curing-or at least soothing-everything from arthritis to depression, and helps the mind solve the greatest of the impenetrable mysteries. This may all be nonsense, a result of the drug's influence on the way the brain thinks about the drug. Drugs influence how one thinks. [continues 572 words]
The News Journal Begins A Three-Day Special Report On Heroin's Impact In Delaware And Across The Nation. Delaware's Heroin Crisis Delaware has for years lost a dozen residents each month to overdoses of booze and drugs, including prescription drugs such as Percocet. During the past eight months that number has risen to 15, and there's a high probability that heroin laced with the powerful painkiller fentanyl is killing more people. The average age of the deceased is 41.3, but many have yet to hit their 30th birthday. In each case a family is shattered - be it rich or poor, suburban, inner city or rural, black, white or brown. [continues 1864 words]
Weekly Narcotics Anonymous meeting being offered at Burin hospital Stacey Johnson (not her real name) was in her mid-20s when she decided to attend a Narcotics Anonymous meeting for the first time. "I remember exactly what I was wearing, and I remember exactly where I sat, and I was just waiting, trying to find the differences, any reason for me not to feel like I was part of this group," she told The Southern Gazette last week. She stuck around for about two months but said ultimately she "just wasn't sick enough." [continues 801 words]
Scientology-Linked Notions Discredited by State in '05 Narconon is back in California public schools. The Scientology-linked antidrug program visited classrooms freely for years until 2005, when medical experts and the state Department of Education determined it was promoting bogus science. The alarm went up a decade ago after The Chronicle revealed that Narconon's antidrug messages to students were based not on medical evidence, according to the experts, but on the practices of Scientology. Narconon officials say the program is secular and that a firewall exists between it and the Church of Scientology. In fact, the connection to the religion was not readily apparent, a public school teacher told The Chronicle. [continues 2309 words]
Growers Must Lobby for Fair Regs, Lawyer Says A prominent San Francisco civil rights attorney told a gathering of medical cannabis cultivators in Laytonville Monday, May 19, that they must lobby the California Legislature immediately to ensure that a medical marijuana-licensing bill now making its way through the Legislature is fair to farmers, patients and dispensaries. Attorney Matt Kumin also predicted that by November 2016 a voter initiative on the state ballot could give voters the opportunity to pass a "recreational" use law allowing the commercial distribution, cultivation, and production of cannabis products for all adult use, not limited to medical. [continues 1251 words]
Just three weeks ago, a Rock Island County coalition named CAUSE organized a prescription drug take-back event. About 438 pounds of the drugs were collected on April 26 at three sites: Milan, Rock Island and Silvis, according to Tammy Muerhoff, superintendent of the Rock Island County Regional Office of Education in Moline. Muerhoff and her staff are in CAUSE, the Coalition Advocating for Underage Substance Elimination. She and other city and county officials involved in various prevention efforts gathered Wednesday at Centre Station in Moline for a media event organized by Prevention First. [continues 568 words]
Protests Bring Results but 'Still Work to Be Done', Reports Florence Kerr. Legal highs may have been effectively banned by the Government but a Tokoroa woman who started a nationwide campaign against the drugs is not resting. Julie King is short in stature - 1.52m tall - but this Kiwi battler has fought her demons and won. Until May last year the mother of four held herself captive in her bedroom for two years, suffering from bipolar disorder - a condition that causes people to swing between being manic and being depressed. [continues 479 words]
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Social media has been buzzing for weeks with jokes about how, this year, Easter Sunday shares the calendar with the pot-lover's highest holiday: April 20, or 420 in stoner lingo. Pot-smokers have long celebrated on the date by lighting up for reasons not quite clear. Yet amid the online cracks about worshipping a "higher" power, tutorials on how to make a joint shaped like a cross and photos of Easter baskets piled with pot-filled eggs, a handful of churches nationwide are using the unfortunate coincidence to make much bigger points. [continues 713 words]
In 1971, President Nixon, declaring "War on Drugs," requested congress to pass and fund legislation titled "Drug Abuse Prevention and Control" for the "... prevention of new addicts and the rehabilitation of those addicted." Legislators, to "prevent new addicts," focused on stemming the flow of drugs." But now, 43 years and billions of dollars later, recent Journal Times articles demonstrate drugs continue to flow. A man (24) and two women (26 and 29) went to prison for committing crimes to support their addiction to heroin. Deputies confiscated 19 pounds of marijuana and over $30,000 worth of heroin during two traffic stops. [continues 160 words]
