Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

Marijuana Legalization Makes Oregon Ballot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 13, 2012 Legislation, News

Campaign For The Restoration and Regulation of Hemp

Late Friday afternoon, the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office certified Initiative 9, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, which will appear as Measure 80 on the Oregon ballot in November.

“Today is an historic day for Oregon and for the national movement for common-sense marijuana policy,” said Paul Stanford, chief petitioner. “Oregon’s long had an independent streak and led the nation on policies that benefit the public good. Regulating marijuana and restoring the hemp industry is in that tradition of independent, pragmatic governance.”

Measure 80, the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, would regulate cannabis (marijuana) for adults 21 years of age and older, with commercial sales only through state-licensed stores. Ninety percent of tax revenue, estimated at more than $140 million annually, would go to the state’s battered general fund.

Get The Greed Out Of The Weed Tour Will Be At DNC

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 13, 2012 Culture, News

GreedOutOfWeed.org

Get The Greed Out Of The Weed, a group of what seems to be incurable optimists is still holding out hope that President Obama will do the right thing when it comes to marijuana policy. In their view, that would mean a “baby steps” approach of rescheduling marijuana from its current ultra-restrictive Schedule I status under the Uniform Controlled Substances Act to the least-restrictive Schedule V.

Get The Greed Out Of The Weed leader, AIDS/HIV activist and medical marijuana pioneer Richard Eastman is a busy man these days. Right after he returns to Washington D.C., for the next stop on the Get The Greed Out Of The Weed Tour on July 22 along with thousands of AIDS/HIV activists for the “Keep The Promise March On Washington,” he will begin planning his protest at the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C.

‘They Should Not Be Allowed To Impede Access To Marijuana’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 13, 2012 News

Jill Stein for President

Jill Stein: “As a medical doctor myself, I am a strong proponent of legalization”

Exclusive Interview: Green Party Presidential Candidate Jill Stein

Jill Stein, the Green Party nominee for President of the United States, has a very clear concept of the mainstream roadblock to marijuana legalization. “We consider marijuana a substance which is dangerous because it is illegal,” she told Toke of the Town in an exclusive interview Friday morning. “But it is, in fact, not dangerous; it is far less a health concern than perfectly legal substances such as tobacco and alcohol.”

When Stein says so, it perhaps carries a little more weight than if your average politician said it; besides being a mother and a housewife, this 1979 Harvard graduate is a medical doctor. And she believes that marijuana prohibition is a really bad idea.

“We think making marijuana illegal increases the public health threat because it forces people to associate with the underground illegal drug culture,” Stein told us. “We are committed to using science in the scheduling of marijuana and hemp, and it’s quite clear that if science is brought to bear on this — it’s supposed to be about health and addiction — marijuana and hemp would not be scheduled substances. We would move quickly to order the DEA to de-schedule marijuana.”

How Marijuana Affects Memory: It’s Not The Neurons

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 13, 2012 Medical, News

SodaHead

Getting mice stoned can actually result in important scientific discoveries. Research published in March in Cell magazine reveal how marijuana impairs working memory, the short-term memory we use to hold on to and process thoughts. The classic example is of the stoner who forgets the point he was making, mid-sentence.

To study exactly how cannabis affects working memory in such a fashion, Giovanni Marsicano of the University of Bordeaux in France and his colleagues removed cannabinoid receptors from neurons in mice, reports Ruth Williams at Scientific American. These receptors are proteins that respond to marijuana’s chief psychoactive ingredient, THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).

The mice whose cannabinoid receptors had been removed from their neurons were just as forgetful as regular mice when given THC; that is to say, they were just as bad at memorizing the position of a hidden platform in a water pool. But when the cannabinoid receptors were removed from astrocytes, a type of glial cells, the mice could find the platform just fine while on THC.

The research reveals that astrocytes have a major role in working memory, with the results suggesting that the role of glia in mental activity has been overlooked. Glial cells were previously viewed as little more than the “glue” which supports neurons.

Study: OxyContin Abuse Deterrent Doubles Heroin Use

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 12, 2012 News

Intervention Services

New England Journal of Medicine: New OxyContin Abuse-Deterrent Formulation Drove Surge in Heroin Use

New Research Indicates Former OxyContin Users Now Using Easier-to-Get Heroin

Drug prohibition does not work. Due to a steady, base-level demand for narcotics, when drug warriors try to stem the tide in one area, it only diverts demand to somewhere else — sometimes making the problem worse.

In a perfect illustration of this principle, the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday released research showing that the recent introduction of the reformulated, abuse-deterrent version of OxyContin is linked to increases in heroin use.

In a letter-to-the-editor appearing in the Journal, Theodore Cicero, Ph.D., Matthew Ellis, M.P.E., and Hilary Surratt, Ph.D., wrote, “Our data show that an abuse-deterrent formulation successfully reduced abuse of a specific drug but also generated an unanticipated outcome: replacement of the abuse-deterrent formulation with alternative opioid medications and heroin, a drug that may pose a much greater overall risk to public health than OxyContin.”

Researchers Say Marijuana Useful in Treating Obesity Disorders

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 12, 2012 Medical, News

Marijuana.com

Advocates Applaud Scientific Advances, Decry Federal Interference in Medical Marijuana States

Research currently underway by GW Pharmaceuticals and the University of Buckingham has recently shown that some of the compounds found in marijuana can have a beneficial effect for people suffering from metabolic diseases associated with obesity.

In animal trials, it was discovered that these compounds acted as appetite suppressants, lowered cholesterol, decreased fat buildup, and improved insulin response to sugars. These qualities could be used to reduce the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke associated with obesity, as well as aid in weight management programs.

GW Pharmaceuticals is already working on a variety of marijuana-based drugs for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, cancer pain, and other conditions. Most other research into the medical properties of marijuana has been stalled in the United States, thanks to the policies of the federal government, which discourages medical marijuana research and will only fund studies looking for dangers of cannabis, as opposed to its benefits.

Studies Spanning 12 Years: Medical Marijuana Works

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 12, 2012 Medical, News

Los Angeles Cannabis Clubs

A historic, 12-year experiment in medical marijuana research which brought new science to the debate on the place of cannabis in medicine has found that the herb offers broad benefits for pain control from injuries, HIV, strokes and other conditions.

The Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research — established and funded to the tune of $8.7 million by the California Legislature to answer the question of whether marijuana has any therapeutic value — has now all but completed the most comprehensive studies into pot’s effectiveness ever conducted in the United States, reports Peter Hecht at the Sacramento Bee.

Why Do Clinics Deny Painkillers To Medical Marijuana Patients?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 12, 2012 Medical

Personal Liberty Digest

Should health care facilities have the power to make lifestyle decisions for you — and punish you when your choices don’t measure up to their ideals? More and more hospitals are making exactly those kinds of decisions when it comes to people who choose to use marijuana — even legal patients in medical marijuana states. Apparently, these places don’t mind looking exactly as if they have more loyalty to their Big Pharma benefactors than they do to their own patients.

A new policy at one Alaska clinic — requiring patients taking painkilling medications to be marijuana free — serves to highlight the hypocrisy and cruelty of such rules, which are used at more and more health care facilities, particularly the big corporate chains (the clinic in question is a member of the Banner Health chain).

Tanana Valley Clinic, in Fairbanks, started handing out prepared statements to all chronic pain patients on Monday, said Corinne Leistikow, assistant medical director for family practice at TVC, reports Dorothy Chomicz at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

Largest Dispensary Attacked; Cannabis Industry Wants Answers

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 11, 2012 Dispensaries, News

Aisha

Activists seek clarification from Attorney General Eric Holder on what state are local laws are allegedly being violated by dispensary operators

U.S. Reps. Nadler and Cohen are seeking clarification from the Attorney General about how DOJ determines whether state laws are violated

State-federal medical cannabis conflict intensifies prior to a fundraising visit to Oakland by President Obama on July 23

The National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) is awaiting answers from United States Attorney General Eric Holder related to sworn testimony he provided to the House Judiciary Committee on June 7. On that day, he said that the Department of Justice (DOJ) limits its medical cannabis “enforcement efforts to those individuals [or]organizations that are acting out of conformity with State laws, or, in the case of instances in Colorado, where distribution centers were placed within close proximity to schools.”

World’s Biggest Marijuana Dispensary Targeted By The Feds

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 11, 2012 Dispensaries, News

Eric Wolfe

Steve DeAngelo, executive director of Harborside Health Center, reputedly the world’s largest medical marijuana dispensary, looks over a marijuana display case

The biggest medical marijuana dispensary on earth has been targeted for closure by federal prosecutors in Northern California.

Harborside Health Center, which is reputedly the biggest cannabis collective on the planet, has been threatened with property seizure by U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag’s office, according to spokeswoman Gaynell Rogers, reports The Associated Press.

Employees on Monday found the federal complaints taped to doors at Harborside’s two locations, according to Rogers.

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