Change in U.S. Policy Spurs Advocates Abroad In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers this week proposed a new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 1171 words]
In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 1274 words]
United States' Drug Policy Fuels Big Push for Legal Marijuana Worldwide (AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 735 words]
(AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 779 words]
Marijuana Legalization Movement Gains a Lot of Traction Across the Globe Following New Laws in Two States. (AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalize its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Mexico City, the vast metropolis of a country ravaged by horrific cartel bloodshed, lawmakers have proposed a brand new plan to let stores sell the drug. [continues 999 words]
(AP) - In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated pot known as hashish, two leading political parties want to legalise its cultivation, at least for medical and industrial use. And in Argentina, the nation's drug czar, a Catholic priest who has long served in its drug ravaged slums, is calling for a public debate about regulating marijuana. [continues 1650 words]
An Overdose Almost Killed Me. but I Couldn't Make Myself Stop. Ben Cimons, 23, writes of his struggle with the seductive drug that almost killed him. Recently I received an e-mail from my mother with a link to the harrowing tale of a 16-year-old Northern Virginia girl who overdosed on heroin and died, and whose companions had dumped her body. My mom wrote that she found the story "terrifying, because that easily could have been you. I thank God every day that it wasn't, and that you are safe and healthy." [continues 1682 words]
It is said that Mother Nature is no fool. She created the marijuana plant, just like she created the coca plant (cocaine) and opium poppy (morphine). But, then again, Mother Nature created tonsils. On Nov. 6, 2012, the states of Colorado and Washington legalized the recreational use of marijuana, thus taking the great marijuana debate to another level. Prior to that, medicinal use was the discussion of the day. But make no mistake, the transition from medical to recreational was carefully orchestrated years ago by marijuana advocates. By that I mean the transition has come full circle. When marijuana proponents realized long ago that the country was not yet liberal enough to gain any traction on their bandwagon to legalize, they quickly adopted the medicinal angle, playing the humanity card with the notion that once medical use was accepted, then legislating recreational use was just a nine-iron away. [continues 546 words]
Any astute observer of the American sociocultural scene cannot ignore the increasing popular momentum for the realistic, practical acceptance of a broad range of non-violent human behavior, whether it be sexual preference or the decriminalization of the sale, possession and use of marijuana as a "recreational" narcotic, comparable to the use of alcohol. A growing number of states are legalizing weed, and I reflect upon my own experience in another age when I zealously became involved in the drug issue. [continues 887 words]
Part 3 (for part 2 refer to this link, http://www.state-journal.com/citizen%20news/2013/10/25/to-end-marijuana-prohibition-for-responsible-adults-or-not ) Recently in the news, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid embraced medical marijuana, political leaders from other countries are beginning to legalize marijuana and even President Obama stated marijuana is no more dangerous than alcohol along with voiced his support to the states which have legalized it already. (If you've missed that last one here is an article about it, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/19/obama-marijuana-alcohol_n_4627740.html ) [continues 644 words]
A St. John's man suffering from prostate cancer that had metastasized is crediting marijuana oil treatment with putting him on the mend. "It makes me feel 20 years younger, that's what the marijuana oil does," said Paul Morrissey, adding he shovelled snow for three hours during the recent blizzard and blackout with no problems. "There was pretty ferocious wind and snow. I came out of it looking like a walking popsicle. However after all that work and so forth I was in excellent condition. Even without cancer, I wouldn't suspect I'd last that long or do that well." [continues 661 words]
ST. JOHN'S - A St. John's man suffering from prostate cancer that had metastasized is crediting marijuana oil treatment with putting him on the mend. "It makes me feel 20 years younger, that's what the marijuana oil does," said Paul Morrissey, adding he shovelled snow for three hours during the recent blizzard and blackout with no problems. Morrissey's prostate-specific antigen (PSA) blood levels have improved dramatically and there has been some regression in his lymph nodes and abdomen, said his family physician, Dr. Randy Hart, who was given permission to speak about his patient's case. Hart can't say if the unorthodox treatment helped. [continues 458 words]
In the 1820s and '30s, a wave of religious revivalism swept the United States, leading to calls for temperance until Maine passed the first state Prohibition law in 1846. By 1906, a new wave of attacks began on the sale of liquor. After the United States entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson instituted a temporary wartime prohibition, and by October 1919, Congress had passed the National Prohibition Act. The Great Depression magnified the tempting potential revenue that liquor represented, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's election spelled the end for Prohibition. All states had abandoned the ban by 1966. [continues 134 words]
Man Busted With Marijuana Says It Is for Religious Purposes Richard L. Chavez, aka "Rasta Ritchi," smokes marijuana as a religious sacrament, and he smokes a lot of it. So when Bernalillo County sheriff's deputies arrived at his home at 4 a.m. two months ago, they discovered upwards of 75 plants - some of which stood more than 12 feet tall in Chavez's South Valley front yard - and more than 8 ounces of pot. They arrested him, and now he's facing felony charges of possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, despite what Chavez claims is his religious right to smoke marijuana as a practice of his faith. [continues 403 words]
Just before dusk, 18 strangers enter a yurt on a Midwestern homestead. Peruvian tapestries decorate the walls of the large, round structure, and rattles stand poised for a ceremony. The participants - professional men and women, ages 35 to 65 - put on comfortable clothing and set up sleeping bags, pillows and blankets. Everyone gets a plastic bucket, cheerfully colored in green, red or blue. "It looks like a big pajama party," jokes the host, Kim. The shaman, a North American who trained in South America for more than a dozen years, takes a seat at the front and leads the group through a conversation about what to expect. [continues 3778 words]
Finding out that contemporary Nashville musicians are including cannabis in their songwriting got me to thinking about how cannabis made its way into popular songs and culture. THC, the active ingredient in cannabis that stimulates the frontal lobe of the brain, which has to do with creativity, among other things, has been a favorite drug among musicians at least dating back to the days when recording began and, I suspect, a lot earlier than that. My first exposure to a drug reference in a song came in 1963 via a relatively innocuous song about growing up. "Puff the Magic Dragon" was written by Peter Yarrow and Leonard Lipton and performed by Peter, Paul & Mary on the 1963 album Moving. I was 16, already a huge PP&M fan, and I identified with the story of Jackie Paper moving away from childhood - "Painted wings and giant rings make way for other toys" - and I would have been blissfully unaware of its so-called cannabis references had I not read about them in national publications. [continues 748 words]
Disperate Agendas but the Same End-Goal I recently spoke with Brandy Zink, chair of the Michigan Chapter of Americans for Safe Access, about the movement to legalize marijuana, when she said, "When marijuana is legal, we're still going to need medical marijuana." That got me to thinking. There are a lot of fronts when it comes to cannabis activism - each of them viable in their own way, yet inseparably intertwined with each other. The most visible fronts are the medical marijuana movement, the push to legalize recreational use of marijuana, the industrial hemp initiative, and efforts to end the drug war and legalize them all. [continues 947 words]
(AP) - California's Napa and Sonoma valleys have their fancy wine tours, and travelers flock to Scotland to sample the fine single-malt whiskeys. But in Jamaica, farmers are offering a different kind of trip for a different type of connoisseur. Call them "ganja" tours: smoky, mystical - and technically illegal - journeys to some of the Caribbean island's hidden cannabis plantations, where pot tourists can sample such strains as "purple kush" and "pineapple skunk." The tours pass through places like Nine Mile, the tiny hometown of legendary reggae musician and famous pot-lover Bob Marley. Here, in Jamaica's verdant central mountains, dreadlocked men escort curious visitors to a farm where deep-green marijuana plants grow out of the reddish soil. Similar tours are offered just outside the western resort town of Negril, where a marijuana mystique has drawn weed-smoking vacationers for decades. [continues 743 words]
Ecclesiastes says there is nothing new under the sun, and while the Bible did not anticipate fluorescent grow lights, its broader point may be well taken as an unidentified company scouts the Hartford area for a facility for growing marijuana indoors in accordance with Connecticut's new law authorizing medical use of the plant. It's not clear why anyone would invest in such an enterprise while federal law on marijuana still conflicts with state law and federal agents could smash up any "medical marijuana" operation. [continues 572 words]
Possession for Medicinal Use Led to Expulsion From Reservation TULALIP - Dennis Boon was a healthy child, he says, until he was hit in the head with a 7-iron. He was 14 years old when he and some other boys were hitting Wiffle golf balls in eighth-grade PE class. Boon's ball rolled away, in front of another boy. Boon saw the boy talking to someone else, so he thought it was safe to reach down and get his ball. [continues 2001 words]
