William Breathes

Pro-marijuana video playing during NASCAR race this weekend (VIDEO)

By William Breathes on July 26, 2013 News, Say what?

A massive video screen blaring an advertisement will great fans at the Brickyard 400 this weekend. I know that sounds redundant considering all NASCAR consists of is 150 m.p.h. ads for laundry detergent, travel sites and web hosting sites, but it’s not for those products. Nor is it for the biggest NASCAR advertiser: the alcohol industry.
Instead, the huge video screen will be playing an advertisement for marijuana thanks to the Marijuana Policy Project. Specifically: the legalization and regulation of marijuana. It’s all part of their ongoing guerrilla advertising campaign to get people to think about their recreational choices when imbibing.

Marijuana the miracle cure for Crohn’s disease?

By William Breathes on July 26, 2013 Medical, News

William Breathes.

“Take two hits and call me in the morning.”

Crohn’s disease is a autoimmunity deficiency in the gastronomical tract that can cause anything from mild stomach pains to vomiting and in extreme cases, chronic bloody diarrhea. There’s no cure for the disorder but now, researchers in Israel say they’ve found evidence that marijuana causes complete remission of the disease. Check out OC Weekly for more on what many of us already knew to be true.

Arkansas medical marijuana proposal language denied by attorney general

By William Breathes on July 25, 2013 Legislation, Medical, News

A proposed constitutional amendment allowing for medical marijuana in Arkansas was denied by the state attorney general Monday on grounds that the language outlining the specifics of the law was too vague.
“Your proposed ballot title implies that a qualifying patient’s only source of marijuana will be a nonprofit dispensary,” Attorney General Dustin McDaniel wrote in his ruling. “I accordingly assume that you intend for at-home growing by patients to be disallowed, but the proposal’s language does not clearly achieve that result.”

DEA raids 18 4 Seattle-area medical marijuana dispensaries, were they justified?

By William Breathes on July 25, 2013 Dispensaries, News

Update – 2:55 p.m. 7/25/2013: According to the Associated Press, four dispensaries were targeted in raids yesterday, despite claims by one Washington attorney that as many as 18 were on the chopping block.
So far, Seattle Cross, Tacoma Cross, Key Peninsula Cross and Bayside Collective (formerly Lacey Cross) are the four dispensaries identified. All four were also parts of raids in 2011. The feds haven’t officially commented on it, but employees at Bayside Collective say agents told them that the raids were part of a two-year investigation.

Hash oil explosion in Colorado Springs injures woman, hatchet-wielding man

By William Breathes on July 25, 2013 News, Say what?

Wikimedia commons/Simon A. Eugster.

Hash oil explosion stories are becoming frighteningly more common these days, though this one is among the more bizarre we’ve found. Just after noon on Wednesday, a man showed up at a small Colorado Springs motel with severe burns over their body. The hotel staff immediately called the ambulance and the man and a woman he was with who had burns on her legs were taken to hospitals in Colorado Springs and Denver. Around the same time, police were called to a transmission shop nearby where an employee said he got into a fight with a severely burned man wielding a machete and a hatchet.
While nobody is clear on exactly what happened, police say they’ve begun putting the two incidents together and the connection is (unfortunately) hash oil.

Team Hemp House launches drive to build first Colorado house made of hemp products

By William Breathes on July 25, 2013 Hemp, News

Hemp advocate Jason Lauve has a new endeavor: Team Hemp House, the goal of which is to build a hemp demonstration house in Colorado. “The intent is to show that we can use hemp to build the foundation and the walls and the tiles, but also the furnishings in the house, including the food in the fridge,” says Lauve, who’s helped legalize the crop.
There’s a bigger goal, too, he adds: “The Team Hemp House project is the foundation that we need to get the whole industry excited and get it off the ground.” Denver Westword has the full story.

Turkish government seizes three tons of hash in one raid

By William Breathes on July 24, 2013 Global, News, Say what?

William Breathes.

To get three tons of hash, multiply this by about 2.7 million.

Turkish police this week seized more than 15 million marijuana plants over 1,000 acres. And while that’s a staggering number of plants to uproot, the more impressive part of the haul was the three tons of hash police found sitting in a field.
That’s about the same weight as three 1967 VW bugs, a large white rhinoceros, or six right whale testicles.

Colorado Springs to ban retail recreational cannabis sales

By William Breathes on July 24, 2013 Legislation, News

Photo by Chalmers Butterfield/Wikimedia Commons.

The Springs has changed since this photo, but cannabis attitudes have stayed the same.

Colorado’s second-largest city will not be allowing retail recreational marijuana sales, opting instead to ban the industry outright as is allowed under Colorado’s Amendment 64.
The city joins a growing list of about two dozen cities and counties around the Centennial State with cannabis business bans.

New Hampshire becomes 19th 20th state to allow for medical marijuana

By William Breathes on July 24, 2013 Medical, News

New Hampshire state house.

New Hampshire officially became the ~~19th~~ 20th (sorry Maryland, forgot about you for a second) state to allow for medical marijuana Tuesday as Gov. Maggie Hassan finally signed House Bill 573 into law.
The law creates a state-regulated marijuana dispensary program allowing patients to purchase and possess up to two ounces of medical cannabis. Initial drafts would have allowed patients to cultivate their own cannabis, but Hassan pledged to veto the bill if that provision wasn’t removed. Patient growing was out, so the guv signed the bill.

Should marijuana bans for athletes be dropped?

By William Breathes on July 24, 2013 Culture, News

Denver Broncos all-pro linebacker Von Miller is appealing a four-game suspension, reportedly after testing positive for marijuana (and possibly Molly).
When it comes to pot use, however, a number of major sports organizations are amending their policies related to positive tests — and Marijuana Policy Project spokesman and Amendment 64 proponent Mason Tvert believes the NFL and other leagues would be well-advised to do the same. Denver Westword has the full story.

Author William Breathes