| I And I Rootz |
Americans for Safe Access (ASA) and a coalition of advocacy and labor groups are staging a demonstration at noon in Sacramento on Wednesday, November 9 to protest the federal government’s escalated attack on California’s medical marijuana laws.
A lively rally of medical marijuana patients and supporters is set to occur in front of the Sacramento federal building and will feature state legislators, advocates, labor and dispensary operators impacted by the recent Department of Justice (DOJ) crackdown in California.
| Melissa Barnes/ABA Journal |
| San Francisco attorney Matt Kumin: “This is a multi pronged, organized effort to get into court and to send a message to the federal government that we need to stop the aggression and sit down and talk reasonably about these issues” |
Lawyers for a growing coalition of Californians including patients, property owners and medical cannabis cooperatives — who suddenly find themselves under attack by the state’s four U.S. Attorneys — will file suit against the federal government, seeking an immediate halt to a statewide crackdown.
The lawsuit will be brought simultaneously in each of the four federal districts in California – San Francisco (Northern), Sacramento (Eastern), Los Angeles (Central) and San Diego (Southern) – where U.S. Attorneys have threatened criminal prosecution of both tenants and landlords where medical cannabis dispensaries exist.
The four U.S. Attorneys have also threatened the landlords with forfeiture of their properties.
A press conference will be held in San Francisco Monday morning to announce the lawsuit.
The lawsuit will seek an immediate order from a federal judge to stop the crackdown on cooperatives, property owners and businesses that support them. (Americans for Safe Access also filed suit last month against the federal government, but did not seek an immediate restraining order.)
“This is multipronged, organized effort to get into court and to send a message to the federal government that we need to stop the aggression and sit down and talk reasonably about these issues,” said San Francisco attorney Matt Kumin, one of the lawyers bringing the federal suit forward.
Many activists are trying to make sense concerning the government’s latest crackdown on medical marijuana. Every other day a 420-friendly bank that does commerce with anyone in the cannabis industry is told to expect heavy audits and loss of deeds unless they join the economic stranglehold on this business the Feds do not approve of. Dispensaries that have operated flawlessly and with the support of the community are being closed by bogus, yet written-in-the-books, zoning laws.
People are losing money trying to stay afloat and to see if it is possible to weather the Fed
s’ stormtrooper tactics. Many are pulling up roots and moving on because the Feds seem to have endless cash when it comes to harassment and bullying tactics.
s’ stormtrooper tactics. Many are pulling up roots and moving on because the Feds seem to have endless cash when it comes to harassment and bullying tactics.
| Welcome To Dopeland |
Talk about timely. Welcome To Dopeland, a small, weird, dark, quirky independent comedy containing some great big ideas, examines the theme of how corporate greed, control and denial continue even in the face of an apocalypse.
The movie, which came out last year with its original title, Everything Must Go, is like a Cheech and Chong road movie crossed with Dr. Strangelove. Two slackers, Mac (Jake Lyall) and Bobby (Ross Turner) are headed for trouble on a quest for drugs after Mac has a really bad day, getting fired from his job and losing his girlfriend.
When Mac asks Bobby to help him find some OxyContin, a string of comic screw-ups ensues, but the comedy turns scary as the biggest screw-up of all — the end of the world — threatens everyone’s capacity for denial.
It’s a buddy movie of sorts, and the interaction between Mac and Bobby is consistently entertaining; both Lyall and Turner are gifted actors, with Turner’s very funny and touching performance, especially, deserving a lot more recognition than it’s gotten.
| Wiki Noticia |
New research suggests that deficits in endocannabinoids — the body’s own substances like those found in marijuana — may contribute to anorexia nervosa and bulimia.
Endocannabinoids are made by the brain, and they affect brain function and chemistry in ways that resemble the effects of cannabis. Marijuana, when used both medicinally and recreationally, is well known to influence appetite, i.e., causing hunger or the “munchies.”
Therefore, deficits in the endocannabinoid system would logically be associated with reduced appetite, reports Rick Nauert, Ph.D., at PsychCentral.
In the new study, reported in Biological Psychiatry, scientists measured the status of the endocannabinoid system indirectly by finding whether there was an increase or decrease in the density of endocannabinoid receptors called the CB1 receptor.
| Legal Medical Marijuana States |
| The tax rate on that marijuana goes from 5 percent to 7 percent as soon as it’s poured in the brownie mix. |
How patients use their medical marijuana affects their tax rate, according to a recent opinion from Maine Revenue Services — and choosing the healthy option of smokeless edibles will result in higher taxes.
After Maine residents approved medical marijuana, lawmakers decided pot sold for medicinal purposes would be subject to the five percent sales tax. But now MRS has issued an opinion that prepared foods such as brownies that include cannabis will be taxed at a higher, seven percent rate, reports Mal Leary of Capitol News Service.
Many patients, advocates and others question the logic — and the legality — of the odd ruling.
| LA Weekly |
Edible cannabis medicine is highly effective and can be engineered to fight specific and highly targeted ailments and symptoms
Treatment Trends
By Ben Reagan
Co-Founder, The C.P.C
Grandma may not smoke a joint to relieve chronic arthritis pain, but she sure does enjoy her pumpkin pie pastry pop that not only tastes great but also provides her with hours of daily, pain-free relief for her hands and fingers. On other days she eats her bacon and cheddar cheese pastry pop.
That does sound yummy, but hold on: a pastry pop?
| Kush Clothing |
Alcohol causes far more damage to users and to society than does the use of marijuana, according to a new study published online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the journal of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.
Researchers at the Imperial College of London looked at “the relative physical, psychological, and social harms of cannabis and alcohol,” reports Paul Armentano at AlterNet. They determined that marijuana smoking, particularly longterm, does some harm to the lungs and circulatory system, and increases certain mental-health risks (which is debatable).
The mobile version of Toke of the Town has gone live, so visitors coming in from smartphones and mobile devices will now see the mobile layout pictured here.
Just because you’re away from your computer is no reason to go without your Toke!
Toke of the Town had already been available on smartphones, of course, but until now it was the regular website, and not the mobile version optimized for smaller screens.
| Joshua Giesegh/PUFMM |
If you live in Florida and you want to vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana on the 2012 ballot, you’d better hope that either House Joint Resolution 353 makes it through the Legislature, or that 646,889 more Floridians sign the People United for Medical Marijuana petition.
PUFMM has gotten 29,922 of the 676,811 valid signatures needed by February 1 to qualify for the ballot, which means they’re only 4.4 percent of the way there, reports Matthew Hendley at Broward Palm Beach New Times.