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GrowMedical420.com

Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’.
Worth Repeating
​By Ron Marczyk, R.N.
Health Education Teacher (Retired)
Lumír Ondřej Hanuš (left), discoverer of endogenous ligand, anandamide, from brain (1992) and Raphael Mechoulam (right), discoverer of psychoactive compound, (-)-trans-delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, from Cannabis sativa L. (1964). Both compounds bind to the CB1 and 2 cannabinoid receptors in the brain.
This post is dedicated to these two great medical researchers. The fathers of homeostatic cannabinoid based medicine:
 
Lumír Ondřej Hanuš, discoverer of the endogenous ligand, anandamide, from the brain (1992) and Raphael Mechoulam, discoverer of the psychoactive compound, THC, from Cannabis sativa (1964). Both compounds bind to the CB1 and 2 cannabinoid receptors in the brain.
These two men need to be nominated and awarded the 2012  Nobel Prize in medicine for discovering the healing potential of cannabis. Their discoveries will save the human race a great deal of suffering. Thank you for your gift to humanity, gentlemen.
Nobel ballots open this summer!

Marijuana.com
The inevitable crackdown came, not as a result of harmless cannabis nor even of is frisky big brother, LSD — but due to the same, tired old death drugs that have been killing people and destroying lives for generations

Drug Screen of Surfers Could Wipe Out Sport’s Rebellious Image

The mystique of surfing, since its music-fueled rise on the American West Coast during the 1960s, has always had a lot to do with rebellion, with alternatives, with a countercultural image. With the “bushy bushy blonde hair” and the rest of the accoutrements, of course, came marijuana and LSD, drugs of choice for the surfing culture which, unlike traditional narcotics and stimulants, didn’t noticeably reduce the physical abilities of those participating in the sport.
The mystic search to catch the perfect wave became the obsession of many a stoner — but the perfection of the art of surfing was a double-edged sword. It brought with it the inevitable commercialization of the sport, and big-purse surf competitions, along with their attendant product endorsements, became the tail that started wagging the dog. 

The Weed Blog

​Marijuana advocates in Washington state have had a long, hard battle to get as far as they’ve come in the 13 years since voters legalized cannabis for medicinal uses back in 1998. But I-502, a new tax-and-regulate initiative — which appears to have enough signatures to be on the November 2012 ballot — is apparently not a banner under which all legalization proponents are willing to unite.

The widening schism in the Evergreen State’s pot community was on display recently when activists dressed in prison stripes were tossed out of Cataldo Hall at Gonzaga University in Spokane, reports Kevin Graman at The Spokesman-Review.
Travel writer and TV host Rick Steves was there to deliver a speech, and members of the November Coalition, a foundation opposing the Drug War, showed up to express opposition to Steves’ support for I-502.

Martin H. Simon/ABC
ABC’s George Will and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), debate Rep. Barney Frank, (D-Mass.), and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich on the topic “There is Too Much Government in My Life.” “This Week” host Christiane Amanpour is in the middle.

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank got ABC’s This Week off to a great start in the first in a series of big debates that will continue throughout the coming year. Sunday’s topic was whether the government is too big or not, with two advocates on each side, and naturally the conversation made its way to drug legalization.

“In quite a surreal moment,” reports Josh Feldman at Mediaite, “Barney Frank asked George Will his position on marijuana and if it should be legalized.”

Injustice In Seattle
White House Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is lying his ass off.

​The Obama Administration has officially “responded” to the “We The People” online petitions regarding marijuana legalization. Well, kind of — if you’re willing to dignify a bureaucrat mouthing the same old meaningless platitudes by calling that a “response.”

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske chose to respond to eight petitions regarding cannabis law reform with one blanket response. Speaking of which, ol’ Gil tried to put a wet blanket on the grass-fire that is the legalization movement, but it turns out all he could do is blow smoke.
Conventional wisdom dictates that when you have to make a press release, but really want it to get as little media attention as possible, you release it late on a Friday — which is exactly what the White House has done with this one. That way, all the top-line reporters have gone home or are bar-hopping by the time the release hits, and it has Saturday and Sunday to blow over before the week’s regular news cycle resumes Monday morning.
Kerlikowske, required by law as director of the ONDCP to oppose marijuana legalization, is either completely unaware that history has passed him by, or is pointedly ignoring the obvious. His refusal to even meaningfully engage with drug policy reform advocates shows that worse than being useless, he is an intentional obstruction — a willing part of the problem.

Addiction Inbox

​The sad tradition of inaccurate, sensationalistic cannabis reporting continues in the United Kingdom’s tabloid press. Deeply clueless reporter Tamara Cohen at the Daily Mail plumbed new depths of silliness on Tuesday with the breathless headline: One cannabis joint ‘can bring on schizophrenia’ as well as damaging memory.


Never mind that, even as cannabis usage rates have skyrocketed, the ratio of schizophrenics in the population has remained constant at one or two percent for the past 60 years. Never mind that no human beings were involved in the tests, and never mind that no marijuana was used, either.

Photo: Alaska Hemp
“Hey, I think I smell something…”

​A press release from the Alaska State Troopers proudly unveiled the results of a three-year(!) study which, not shockingly, determined that the odor of marijuana may be associated with the presence of marijuana.

Now, stop it. Maybe Alaska State Troopers (AST) don’t have much to do; I’m sure their lives could use a little more excitement. And they have all those “federally forfeited illegal drug proceeds” to spend on, well, something.
The troopers used the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Justice Center to analyze three years’ worth of marijuana grows which they busted. The study analyzed 200 marijuana grow searches conducted by Alaska State Troopers covering 2006 to 2008.

Graphic: Seattle Weekly

​Tomorrow night at 7, I’ll be onstage in Seattle with seven other panelists to discuss what’s next for marijuana in Washington State.

The event, sponsored by Seattle Weekly and KCTS 9, is called “Toke Signals: The Future of Marijuana in Washington State.”
And there’s still time to submit questions for the panel, reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly.
The forum will be at KCTS 9’s studio near Seattle Center and will feature:
• John McKay: Former U.S. Attorney and Seattle University Law Professor who prosecuted Marc Emery
• Rick Steves: Author, PBS travel correspondent and marijuana law reform advocate
• Steve Elliott: Seattle Weekly’s Toke Signals” medical marijuana dispensary review columnist and Toke of the Town blog editor

Photo: Douglas Hiatt
Douglas Hiatt: “It is not legalization, and it is going to criminalize patients in this state”

​The New Approach Washington initiative, which has gained financial support and big backers for relaxing Washington state’s marijuana laws, is not real cannabis legalization, according to Seattle-based activist/attorney Douglas Hiatt of Sensible Washington.

“It is not legalization, and it is going to criminalize patients in this state,” Hiatt told Toke of the Town Monday afternoon of New Approach Washington. “They’re using polling to justify their positions, saying we have a ‘nervous public,’ and that we have to win at all costs.”
The New Approach Washington initiative would authorize the Washington State Liquor Control Board to regulate the production and distribution of marijuana for sale to adults 21 and older through state-licensed stores. A new marijuana excise tax would be earmarked for prevention, research, education and health care. State and local retail sales taxes would be directed to the general fund and location budgets.

Photo: Jesse Pearson
Dude! I knew it!

​Connecticut state Senator Toni Boucher doesn’t like medical marijuana, and she seems proud of herself for trying to stop it in her state, according to a press release her office sent out on Thursday.

According to the breathless (and almost entirely brainless) release, Sen. Boucher “valiantly tried to stop a medical marijuana bill from getting out of the Finance Revenue and Bonding Committee.” See there? Trying to stop seriously ill patients from getting the only medicine that helps is “valiant” now, get it?