| Photo: Westword |
| Full Spectrum Laboratories: Finally, a more detailed analysis of marijuana than, “That’s good shit, man!” |
One of the biggest question marks with the medical marijuana industry is the lack of quality control. As Joel Warner points out at Westword, it’s difficult to know just how potent herbal medicines and edibles are until you use them.
Full Spectrum Laboratories to the rescue. The four-month-old Denver company is making a business of analyzing medical marijuana samples.
Dispensaries are delivering small samples (about 500 milligrams) of the pot they’re getting from growers to Full Spectrum, which uses high-performance liquid chromatography to determine their potency. The tests reveal amounts of THC and other cannabinoids, the active ingredients of cannabis.
The service costs $120 per test, or $60 per test for 40 or more samples.
“Dispensaries are getting all this really cool stuff, but it turns out 80 percent of the edibles aren’t being made properly, so it’s not as active as it could be,” said Bob Winnicki, Full Spectrum’s 35-year-old co-owner.
| Photo: Westword |
| Attorneys Bob Hoban (left) and Rob Corry, joined by patients, speak at a news conference about the CannaMart lawsuit. |
Breaking Update: Judge delays any decision until after Christmas
Medical marijuana advocates say today’s court hearing in Centennial, Colo., could set a big precedent for the future of the state’s booming medical marijuana industry, reports Gene Davis at Denver Daily News.
In October, the City of Centennial revoked the business license of CannaMart after learning the place was a medical marijuana dispensary. Two caregivers and three patients from CannaMart then sued the city, trying to have the decision overturned.
The case could, according to Davis, become a landmark decision on whether Colorado cities can use home rule authority to ban dispensaries from operating within city limits, despite approval of medical marijuana in a voter initiative in 2000.
| Illustration: Joe McGarry |
| Long Beach Police maybe want to join the DEA, since they seem to be enforcing federal laws. |
Police said Tuesday that search warrants were served at 15 dispensaries in and around Long Beach, Calif., last week in connection with an investigation into the “illegal sale of marijuana.”
Specifics of the search warrants are still being kept under wraps, reports Tracy Manzer at the Press-Telegram, but the Long Beach Police Department confirmed Tuesday that 15 search warrants were served and that 17 people were arrested during last week’s sweep.
Both the LBPD and the office of hardline anti-pot crusader, Los Angeles District Attorney Steve Cooley, confirmed last week they were working together on an investigation into “illegal sales of marijuana” at medical marijuana dispensaries.
Sgt. Dina Zapalski, LBPD spokeswoman, said the department wasn’t releasing the names of those arrested because charges have not yet been filed.
| MPP.org |
The Marijuana Policy Project recently hired Kurt A. Gardinier to be the organization’s new director of communications. Gardinier joined MPP earlier this month and officially took the reins from Bruce Mirken Tuesday.
Gardinier is based in MPP’s Washington, D.C., office, and among other things will serve as an MPP spokesperson for radio, newspaper and TV interviews.
“While we will certainly miss Bruce and his exceptional work and character, we are very pleased to welcome Kurt Gardinier to MPP,” said Rob Kampia, executive director and co-founder. “Kurt brings more than a decade’s worth of experience in broadcast media and political advocacy to MPP. This background will undoubtedly play a vital role in promoting MPP’s message about the failure of marijuana prohibition at a very pivotal time in our nation’s history.”
| Photo Courtesy Stoney McStonerson |
| Stoney: “You can save yourself a ton of pain if you just SHINE.” |
Colorado’s Stoney Haze McStonerson is proof that not only can marijuana activists be intelligent and effective — they can also be quite easy on the eyes.
Stoney is many things, but shy isn’t one of them. A determined and influential ambassador for the movement, McStonerson is president and founder of the Colorado Chapter of American Cannabis.
Stoney’s the girl next door, if the girl next door were a beautiful, intelligent stoner.
“I am proud of my life and the wisdom I have gathered along the way,” Stoney told us. “I learned before most of the people I knew that changing who you really are inside to fit into the ‘normal box’ does not work!
“You can save yourself a ton of pain if you just SHINE,” Stoney said. “Whatever, whoever and however is not going to matter in the end if you are happy.”
| Graphic: randazza.wordpress.com |
Dude… sweet. I knew there was something special happening last night when I obliterated those Hostess Cupcakes.
Some interesting research indicates that the active ingredients in marijuana “act directly on taste receptors on the tongue to enhance sweet taste.”
The results show the likely scientific underpinning for the well-known phenomenon of the pot “munchies.”
“Our taste cells may be more involved in regulating our appetites than we had previously known,” said study author Robert Margolskee, M.D., Ph.D., a molecular biologist with the Monell Center.
The Monell Center, based on Philadelphia, collaborated with Kyushu University in Japan on the research, which looked at the effect that endocannabinoids, present in marijuana, have on taste and appetite regulation in mice.
“Endocannabinoids both act in the brain to increase appetite and also modulate taste receptors on the tongue to increase the response to sweets,” said study senior author Yuzo Ninomiya, Ph.D., professor of oral neuroscience in the Graduate School of Dental Sciences and Kyushu University.
| Photo: Lossenelin |
| Industrial hemp being harvested |
Uruguay has pulled into the lead in becoming the first country in South America to authorize the cultivation of industrial hemp, Paula Alvarado reports at Treehugger.com.
The Ministry of Cattle, Agriculture and Fishing has authorized “experimental” cultivation of hemp to take place in October 2010. If results are successful, Uruguay could grant permits to farmers to start growing, according to El Pais.
The location selected for hemp cultivation is a secret. The National Institute for Farming Technology will oversee the pilot project.
| Photo: knoxnews.com |
| “Make sure it’s all there, man.” |
A King County judge has ordered the Washington State Patrol to return nine ounces of medical marijuana to an authorized patient.
During a routine traffic stop, a state trooper smelled Scott Verner’s cannabis, searched his vehicle and seized the medicine, even though Verner showed his medical marijuana paperwork to the officer as required by law.
The trooper told Verner he was allowed to use medical cannabis, but not to transport it by vehicle.
“Congratulations to Cannabis Defense Coalition member Aaron Pelley, the attorney on the Verner case,” said Ben Livingston of the CDC. “Aaron made the news last September after winning the return of over 11 pounds of medical marijuana from the Kent Police.”
| Island Records [1973] |
It’s the latest example of “They needed a scientific study to figure that out?” Displaying a keen grasp of the obvious, a scientific team has “discovered” that teens who listen to music containing references to marijuana are more likely to use the herb than their counterparts with less exposure to such lyrics.
The study, performed at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, is online now in the journal Addiction.
“Based on an analysis of survey data from 959 ninth-graders, we found that students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use, even after controlling for confounding factors,” said Brian Primack, M.D., Ed.M., M.S. (Damn, with all those letters after his name, he must be right.)
| www.norml.org |
Yesterday’s Whittier Daily News carried an extraordinary piece by Frank C. Girardot, senior metro editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group.
The piece was so interesting and so well done that I wanted to share it with you in its entirety, which Frank has graciously given Toke of the Town permission to do.
Frankly, I’m with Frank.
Dear President Obama:
Over the weekend I think I stumbled on a great plan to put people back to work.What I need from you is some stimulus money. Think of it as seed money if you will.I’m going to use it to start a business. And in a matter of months I think the business can be one of the Fortune 500.Tax money generated by this startup can go to work fixing our health care system, our roads and our schools. By some estimates consumers already spend $110 billion a year on the product I plan to sell.