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Weedist

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
I had the privilege and honor of attending a conference this past week in San Francisco titled, “Cannabis In Medicine.” The symposium brought together all levels of health care workers: Doctors, nurses, researchers and other medical professionals, mostly unfamiliar with marijuana as a medical treatment, gathered in one room to receive straight, sober information. We were treated to the results of data, case studies and clinical trials conducted using cannabis therapy.

Capitol Cannabis Reform Jam 2012

Georgia marijuana activists invite all area supporters to let their voices be heard again on the steps of the Georgia State Capitol. On November 3 at 3 p.m., advocates will hold the third annual Capitol Cannabis Reform Jam 2012 to legalize responsible usage and stop arresting medical marijuana patients, according to Jonathon R. Weaver, founder of Group-Civil Disobedience (Non-Violent).

According to Dean Sines, outreach coordinator for Peachtree NORML (a local affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws), the Jam is one of many events local activists have held on the steps of the Georgia Capitol.
“We have a lot of groups that help put this event together: Peachtree NORML, Georgia Moms For Marijuana, Coalition Against Marijuana Prohibition (CAMP), Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), Georgia State University SSDP, Group-Civil Disobedience, and many others,” Sines told Toke of the Town.

Sharon Letts
Dr. Marion Fry believes that cannabis is good medicine, and that God will save her.

Exclusive Prison Interview:
Dr. Mollie Fry
Story and Photos
by Sharon Letts
It’s been one year and five months since Dr. Marion “Mollie” Fry and her husband, Civil Attorney, Dale Schafer, surrendered to Federal prison for manufacturing and distributing Medical Cannabis in California.
More than six years of litigation and three years of appeals rendered “no defense,” insuring mandatory five year Federal prison terms, respectively.
In 2001 the Fry/Schafer family home located in the hills just north of Sacramento was raided by Federal authority under then President George W. Bush, Jr. during the failed “War on Drugs.” 
Thirty-four plants were confiscated – 20 were infested with spider mites, sitting near a compost pile. 
44 Plants in a Pile
According to Schafer, the couple had never grown more than 44 plants in a given year – well below the 99 plant limit set forth by the State of California for medical use – and never sold a leaf.

Current
Green Party Presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein: “The most important thing we can do to get rid of the health problems associated with marijuana is to legalize it”

Green Party Presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein, at Tuesday night’s third-party debate, did a remarkable thing, for a politician: She told the truth about marijuana.

“As a medical doctor, previously in clinical practice for about 25 years, I can say with a clear understanding of the health impacts, that marijuana is a substance that is dangerous because it is illegal,” Stein said. “It is not illegal because it is dangerous — because it is not dangerous at all!”
“It is well understood that the health impacts of marijuana are mainly the public health and safety impacts from the illegal drug trade associated with marijuana prohibition,” she said. “So the most important thing we can do to get rid of the health problems associated with marijuana is to legalize it.”

NORML UK

Last week, a major independent study called for the decriminalization of cannabis in the United Kingdom. The publication of a six-year study from the UK Drug Policy Commission (UKDPC) likened cannabis use to “moderately risky” gambling or junk food.
The report prompted the BBC’s Sunday Morning Live Show, a weekly topical political news show aired at 10 a.m. every Sunday, to hold a debate on cannabis.
The show included a debate in the studio with journalists and broadcasters Germaine Greer, Peter Hitchens, James O’brien, Gary Parker and contributions via Skype from former government drugs advisor Prof. David Nutt, drugs rehab worker, Gary Parker, and Clark French, a medicinal cannabis user with multiple sclerosis who is also NORML UK’s national spokesperson.
During the show, the BBC ran a viewers poll asking whether cannabis should be decriminalized. The result showed an overwhelming majority in favor, with 69 percent voting yes against only 31 percent who were opposed.
“I was incredibly pleased and excited to be invited on BBC1 this morning for a live debate,” Clark French said. “I had so much to say and so little time to say it, but I am pleased with the points I managed to convey. I hope to build on the current momentum and reach out to more television shows to share my story and campaign for our right to use cannabis as a safer form of medicine and recreation.”

Marijuana Majority

Marijuana Reform Is An Increasingly Mainstream, Majority-Support Position
Site Lets Supporters Tweet Prominent People to Encourage Speaking Out
Just over two weeks before voters in three U.S. states decide on ballot measures to legalize marijuana, a new website launches on Monday that tracks prominent people and organizations speaking out in favor of changing marijuana laws. MarijuanaMajority.com allows visitors to see just how mainstream this debate has become by viewing and sharing visually appealing lists of elected officials, actors, medical organizations and business leaders who support solutions like decriminalizing marijuana possession, allowing medical marijuana or legalizing and regulating marijuana sales for adult use.
In addition to tracking prominent people who have already spoken out, MarijuanaMajority.com has a social component that lets individual supporters play a role in convincing even more opinion leaders to publicly say they favor reform. Visitors to the site will be able to easily send targeted tweets to celebrities and politicians with just a few clicks, encouraging them to speak out and join the Marijuana Majority. Among the initial “Get Out the Quote” targets are Ben Affleck, Mark Cuban, John Cusack, Van Jones, Bill Nye (“The Science Guy”), Shaquille O’Neal, Rihanna and Kanye West.
“At a time when polls show that a majority of Americans support legalizing marijuana and that mega-majorities support allowing medical marijuana or at least decriminalizing possession, it makes no sense whatsoever that so many national politicians look at this issue as some kind of dangerous third rail of politics,” said Tom Angell, founder and chairman of Marijuana Majority.

LUCID Public Relations
Montel Williams supports Issue 5, an initiative on the November 6 general election ballot which would legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas

The medical marijuana battle is heating up in Arkansas, with less than three weeks to go until the general election. A statewide medical marijuana ballot initiative, Issues 5, appears on the November 6 ballot in Arkansas.
An anti-medical marijuana group called the “Arkansas Family Council” has been disseminating misinformation in the state, seeming to believe that since Arkansas is located in the Deep South, nobody will call them on their b.s. Wrong, Arkansas Family Council!
Former talk show host Montel Williams, through his publicist, on Thursday decried a new ad from the Council which is tainted with racist stereotypes.

“This morning we became aware of a TV ad the Arkansas Family Council has put on YouTube, and apparently made a very small ad buy for, in opposition to Issue 5 that features several actors,” said Williams’ publicist, Jonathan Franks. “The one African-American actor was depicted as a criminal drug dealer behind a table with guns.

 

The Stoner Blog

 

Worth Repeating
 
By Ron Marczyk, RN
 
Alcoholism and suicide kill more police officers than on the job violence!
Could substituting marijuana for alcohol use greatly decrease rates of burnout, alcoholism, suicide, depression and divorce, domestic violence and PTSD among the nation’s police officers? Police have on average life expectancies 10 years less than the average person; they also kill themselves at higher rates than the average American.
Marijuana is an exit drug for alcohol abuse and is also “an anti-suicide medicine.”
So why not allow police officers to use the safest recreational drug known to science?

Willamette Week

Clear Channel agrees to remove misleading ads, cites transparency issues
Following a grassroots, online protest by volunteers with Women for Measure 80, advertising company Clear Channel Outdoor has agreed to take down a series of shameful, misleading and fear-mongering anti-marijuana billboards around Portland.
 
At a press conference this morning, Women for Measure 80 coordinator Amanda Rain joined Oregonians for Law Reform and other sensible marijuana-policy advocates to condemn the advertisements, denounce the backers’ scare tactics and call for smart marijuana policies that would effectively protect Oregon’s communities and young people.
 
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