420 Use and Health

[truthwolf1]

Is the Rick Simpson cannabis oil something common in MJ medical shops? Michigan?

It seems like a pretty legit story but you have to do the treatment exactly the same way with possibly the same processed oil as he creates it. There might be something special about the extraction method verses others.

Just have a bad feeling about a family member who is going through chemo/radiation right now and possibly a future diagnosis with my mother.

If this really is a option it is my duty to help those or guide them towards this path as a option they might not of been open to earlier.

[Crow]

Is the Rick Simpson cannabis oil something common in MJ medical shops? Michigan?

It seems like a pretty legit story but you have to do the treatment exactly the same way with possibly the same processed oil as he creates it. There might be something special about the extraction method verses others.

Just have a bad feeling about a family member who is going through chemo/radiation right now and possibly a future diagnosis with my mother.

If this really is a option it is my duty to help those or guide them towards this path as a option they might not of been open to earlier.

Yes, there are a few shops here that sell Rick Simpson's oil.

As for Michigan...

The Tri-City Compassion Club in Saginaw is still continuing with the Cannabis Cures Project founded by Buddhabit and Peanutbutter. What is the Cannabis Cures Project? Well its a group of caregivers that work together and donate Rick Simpson oil to a select few patients for free at no cost.

Currently, we are successfully treating a man with prostate cancer and it appears he may be cured by the end of the year, so we are currently interviewing for more patients to assist. The cost of obtaining the Simpson Oil is free of charge; all that we require is that the Patient keep a video log of their progression and that they are registered Medical Marijuana Patients. Please understand we can only help a few at a time.

You can contact me at 989 607 0384 -- Also any caregivers interested helping with this project so we can help more patients, feel free to contact me

I hope this information helps your mother and your other relative find relief.

[truthwolf1]

Seattleite
Thanks a million! man.

[Crow]

Seattleite
Thanks a million! man.

Happy to be of service!

Keep us posted.

[Crow]

California (US)

Marijuana helps grow newspaper business

Could the pot business save local newspapers?


Many newspapers are scaling back staff and trying to turn to other sources of revenue, but one Sacramento newspaper is expanding its business by tapping into an unconventional advertising source.


By recognizing the potential for medical marijuana business advertisements, the Sacramento News and Review is expanding its distribution and hiring more staff, reports Sacramento's KXTV.
The free alternative weekly newspaper has published so many ads that it has started printing 4-20, a new supplement to the paper that advertises more than 60 dispensaries.


The paper's CEO/publisher, Jeff vonKaenel, told the station that other newspapers choose not to include medical marijuana ads for fear of driving away other advertisers.


It seems that alternative weeklies are the papers most benefiting from the medical marijuana advertisements. In October 2010, the New York Times reported that in states like Colorado, California and Montana, "newspapers — particularly alternative weeklies — have rushed to woo marijuana providers" and are being generously rewarded.


But the fight between state and federal law rages on in California, where it's hard to define whether medical marijuana is or isn't legal. William Vizzard, a former Fresno County sheriff and professor of criminal justice at CSU Sacramento, told California Watch, "We've kind of reached a point in California in which we say it's medical marijuana, but the reality is that we've thrown our hands up and just accepted it. It's a very cloudy situation."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43641235...s-us_business/

[Crow]

Connecticut (US)

Connecticut: Marijuana Decriminalization Measure Is Now Law

Democratic Gov. Dan Malloy signed legislation into law on Thursday, June 30 ‘decriminalizing’ the possession of small, personal use amounts of marijuana by adults. The new law, Senate Bill 1014, took effect on Friday, July 1.

Senate Bill 1014 reduces the penalties for the adult possession of up to one-half ounce of marijuana from a criminal misdemeanor (formerly punishable by one year in jail and a $1,000 fine) to a non-criminal infraction, punishable by a $150 fine, no arrest or jail time, and no criminal record. The new law similarly reduces penalties for the possession of marijuana paraphernalia.


Connecticut’s new law is similar to the existing ‘decriminalization’ laws in California, Colorado, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, and Oregon where private, non-medical possession of marijuana is treated as a civil, non-criminal offense.


Five additional states — Minnesota, Mississippi, Nevada, North Carolina, and Ohio — treat marijuana possession offenses as a fine-only misdemeanor offense. Alaska law imposes no criminal or civil penalty for the private possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults.


Lawmakers in California and Kentucky previously enacted laws this year reducing penalties for marijuana possession.


Additional information on this law will appear in this week’s NORML news update. To receive these e-mail updates free, please sign up here.

[Crow]

United States

Department of Justice Clarification of Medical Marijuana Policy Still Unclear

On Wednesday, without any public announcement, Deputy Attorney General James M. Cole issued a statement reiterating the Obama administration’s promise not to waste federal resources going after medical marijuana patients and their individual caregivers. This is a good start. Unfortunately, the letter goes on to say that it maintains the right to prosecute anyone in the business of cultivating, selling, or distributing marijuana to those patients. According to the letter, compliance with state law is no protection from federal marijuana laws.

When I first heard this, I feared this would be devastating to dispensaries. After sleeping on it, however, I realized the policy is as clear as mud, and it’s hard to know if anything will actually change in practice.

Despite numerous past statements by the president and attorney general that they would not go after businesses that were following state law, the Department of Justice has always had the ability to enforce federal law in medical marijuana states any time they felt like it. The fact that raids subsided in states that had clear regulations in place since the “Ogden Memo” was released in 2009 was a boon for the medical marijuana industry and allowed many patients access to unparalleled products and services. It appears that the scope and scale of some of these businesses has ruffled someone’s feathers.

The new policy (which Cole says is not new at all but simply a restatement of the “Ogden Memo”) doesn’t specify that smaller dispensaries are off-limits, but it specifically mentions the type of huge operations that were planned by Oakland last year as the focus of concern. It does not say where the size cutoff is, which is very disturbing to anyone involved in the industry.

This will certainly have a chilling effect on the types of businesses that open in medical marijuana states (and rest assured, they will continue to open). In this way, it is a huge step back from the Ogden memo.

If the spirit of the Ogden memo was to create a sense of consistency in federal enforcement, to let patients and those who supply their medicine feel safe within their own states, and make states feel confident crafting their own laws to best control medical marijuana, then Cole’s statement is a major reversal.

But is it open season on dispensaries? Probably not.

Just because the DOJ has said that they can and may prosecute anyone involved in medical marijuana distribution, does not mean that they will. If the DOJ is publicly saying that this new statement does not reflect a change in policy, there is no guarantee that they are going to suddenly start prosecuting legitimate businesses in places with clear regulations to determine their compliance with state law – especially in the case of smaller operations. They don’t have the resources for such action now any more than they did in 2009. The general public certainly doesn’t support such actions, and the political ramifications of shutting down thriving, taxpaying businesses in an economic crunch could be disastrous for the administration. It should probably be noted that President Obama’s approval rating is 45%. Support for medical marijuana is 75% nationally.

So what should we do?

We need to take the Obama administration to task. We need to decry the confusion and fear caused by such unclear policy statements. And we must demand that the federal government support safe access to medical marijuana instead of driving patients to the illicit market.

At a time when the entire world is starting to recognize the folly of marijuana prohibition, and the efficacy of marijuana in medicine is being proven more and more often, the administration needs to be moving forward.

This new policy statement is a huge step back, even if it turns out to be merely symbolic.

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[Crow]

United States

Ending Federal Prohibition Update: Sign Our Petition to Representatives Smith and Upton

It has been a few weeks since a bipartisan coalition of legislators introduced HR 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011, into the House of Representatives. This legislation would prohibit the federal government from prosecuting adults who use or possess personal use amounts of marijuana by removing the plant and its primary psychoactive constituent, THC, from the five schedules of the United States Controlled Substances Act of 1970. Similar to the ending of alcohol prohibition, the federal government would get out of the business of arresting responsible marijuana smokers and allow states to set their own policies.

HR 2306 was assigned to both the House Judiciary Committee and the House Committee on Energy and Commerce. The bill currently sits in legislative purgatory and how long it will stay there is entirely dependent on two men. The chairmen of these two committees have thus far refused to schedule the bill for a hearing. Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX), who chairs the Judiciary Committee, has made it clear he has no intentions of hearing the bill. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), who chairs the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, has yet to take a strong public stance.

Stand up for states’ rights and civil liberties by joining NORML in telling these two elected officials that we believe HR 2306 is sound public policy that deserves discussion.

Click here to sign our petition and tell Representatives Smith and Upton to schedule HR 2306 for a hearing!

In better news, we are pleased to announce that HR 2306 now has a new co-sponsor! Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) has contacted Barney Frank’s office and declared his intention to co-sponsor this legislation. He explained his support in a letter to a constituent:

Thank you for contacting me about repealing the federal laws prohibiting the possession of marijuana. I appreciate you taking the time to write, and I welcome this opportunity to respond.

I have contacted Representative Barney Frank’s office and requested to be added as a co-sponsor of H.R. 2306, the Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition Act of 2011. I share your concern about the problems associated with marijuana in regards to enforcing drug laws, creating a black market for illegal drugs, and punishing drug users who need treatment. Federal law enforcement should concentrate its efforts on measures that truly protect the public, and I do not believe that prosecuting those found in possession of small amounts of marijuana should be a federal priority.

Law enforcement agents are forced to operate under scarce resources and I believe it is irresponsible to spend those resources prosecuting the personal use of marijuana. Far more pressing problems demand attention. I think marijuana use for non-medical reasons is a bad idea, and I would discourage anyone from using it, but I don’t believe making it a crime has been a useful or just policy.

If you are interested in following a particular piece of legislation through the legislative process, the website hosted by the Library of Congress at http://thomas.loc.gov is extremely helpful. It provides a wealth of information about legislation under consideration in the current Congress as well as bills introduced in earlier sessions. The site is called Thomas to honor President Thomas Jefferson and his belief in public access to the workings of government.

Again, thank you for contacting me. I welcome your views, and look forward to hearing from you in the future.

Source

You can keep up to date on HR 2306 by visiting its Facebook page. If you haven’t done so already, be sure to visit NORML’s Take Action Center and contact your elected officials and encourage them to support HR 2306.

[Crow]

Pennsylvania (US)

Philadelphia: City Saves Millions By Ceasing Criminal Marijuana Prosecutions

The city of Philadelphia saved an estimated $2 million last year by ceasing criminal prosecutions for minor marijuana offenses, according to comments made last week by District Attorney Seth Williams to the Philadelphia Daily News.

In April 2010, Williams publicly announced a citywide policy change whereby law enforcement officials would issue a summons rather than arrest and criminally prosecute minor marijuana offenders. Philadelphia NORML had actively lobbied for the policy change after finding that the city punished minor marijuana violations more severely than many neighboring counties. A February 2010 Philly NORML report also found significant racial disparities in the city’s marijuana prosecutions – noting that African American males comprised an estimated 83 percent of all persons in Philadelphia arrested for minor marijuana possession offenses.


The new enforcement policy took effect in June 2010.


Approximately 4,160 defendants were diverted under the program, called the Small Amount of Marijuana (SAM), during its first year, the Philadelphia Daily News reported. Defendants in the program pay a $200 fine to attend a three-hour drug awareness class. Those who complete the class and pay the fine do not have to appear in criminal court and will not have a criminal record.


Previously, minor (under 30 grams) marijuana possession offenders in Philadelphia were criminally prosecuted with a misdemeanor offense punishable by up to 30 days probation or jail time, a $500 fine, and a criminal record.

“There’s no reason to waste tax dollars on harsh prohibition enforcement,” said Chris Goldstein, media coordinator for Philly NORML and publisher of FreedomIsGreen.com. “Removing the criminal penalties for marijuana possession helps to pay for firefighters, ambulances, and other necessary services. It’s that simple.”

[Crow]

Washington (US)

Seattle may licence and regulate medical pot shops

Left in the lurch by a gubernatorial veto, the Seattle City Council this week will begin attempts to license and regulate the growing medical marijuana industry here.

Earlier this year the state Legislature passed a medical marijuana bill, but Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed most of it. The governor said she worried the legislation put state workers at risk of federal prosecution. Evergreen State voters approved legalizing medical marijuana in 1998. Washington is one of 16 states which allows marijuana use for medical purposes, but the federal government does not recognize any medicinal use for cannabis.

On Wednesday at 2 p.m., the City Council's Housing, Human Services, Health and Culture Committee will consider an ordinance from Councilman Nick Licata establishing rules for medical pot shops. They would have to obtain a business license, pay taxes and fees and meet city land use codes.

They would also be subject to the requirements of the city's "Chronic Nuisance Property Law," meaning if there are repeated complaints about activity at the establishments they could face fines or possible closure. The "open use and display of cannabis" would also be prohibited at the dispensaries.

The proposed ordinance also states "The issuance of a business license pursuant... or the issuance of any other permit or license by the City, shall not be deemed as approval or permission from the City of Seattle to engage in any activity deemed illegal under any applicable law, nor shall it constitute a determination by the City that the manufacture, production, processing, possession, transportation, delivery, dispensing, application, or administration of and use of cannabis engaged in by the licensee or permittee is either legal or illegal under state or federal law."

City Councilmembers have said for weeks that they'd have to address the medical marijuana question after state legislative efforts failed. The bill that passed in Olympia was designed to set clearer regulations on medical marijuana use and to establish a licensing system and patient registry to protect qualifying patients, doctors and providers from criminal liability.

Gregoire vetoed provisions of the bill that would have licensed and regulated medical marijuana dispensaries and producers. She also vetoed a provision for a patient registry under the Department of Health.

Seattle's mayor and city attorney and King County's executive and prosecutor had sent a letter to legislative leaders, urging them to pass a compromise version of medical marijuana legislation, but that also went nowhere.

Mayor Mike McGinn, Executive Dow Constantine, City Attorney Pete Holmes and Prosecutor Dan Satterberg have previously said that Gregoire's veto of a previous medical cannabis bill "leaves local governments with no clear path forward as we struggle to balance three priorities: public safety; the need of qualified patients to have safe access to medical marijuana; and law enforcement's need for clarity."

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/local/artic...#ixzz1RwFHsaKj

[Crow]

Ending Marijuana Prohibition Starts With You

Click here to donate through NORML’s secure server.

[BadAxe]

It seems like a pretty legit story but you have to do the treatment exactly the same way with possibly the same processed oil as he creates it. There might be something special about the extraction method verses others.

There is nothing special about the extraction process. He just uses ISO alcohol as his solvent. You can make oil with Butane as well, doesn't change the chemical makeup of the oil in the end, the butane is the solvent, and in the end, its all boiled/evaporated away, just like the ISO. BHO oil though usually comes out hard like candy, not the grease like substabce Rick makes. The darkness of Rick's oil is because the longer the weed soaks in the solvent, the more of the plants chloraphyl that seeps out. But oil is oil is oil. You are just tripping the trichomes from the weed, then boiling/evaporating the solvent away, and you are left with the pure goodness of hte plant.

I like Rick's product because its easy to store in a syringe, and easy to dole out and injest. And as far as treatment, its nothing strict that you have to follow. You just need to injest up to 2 oz of oil over a 2 to 3 month period of time. Starting small, and increasing dosage by a little bit with each passing week. The hardest part is finding a pound of top notch weed needed to make the oil. If you do not grow your own, the top grade stuff is gonna cost you 5 to 6 grand for the pound, which is needed to make the 2 oz of oil.

[Crow]

New York (US)

Marijuana Can’t Kill, But Marijuana Prohibition Certainly Can
(By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director)

Today’s New York Times City Blog features an article about a court settlement between New York City and Jamie Rutkowski. Who is Jamie Rutkowski? Until New York City police decided to arrest her for minor cannabis possession—in a city that is supposed to be issuing civil tickets— locking her up in police detention, creating a health hazard for the young woman with diabetes and ultimately paying her $125,000 in damages, no one knew who she was.

Now, all cannabis consumers in the United States—notably in municipalities and states that have reformed their cannabis laws with decriminalization laws and patient protections for medicinal use—should cite Ms. Rutkowski’s case settlement as precedent against overzealous law enforcement agencies who choose to physically arrest and detain minor cannabis offenders, rather than issue them a civil fine, similar to a speeding or parking ticket.

Kudos to Ms. Rutkowski and her attorney Joel Berger for 1) challenging the NYC police department’s infamous practice of arresting and detaining for many hours minor cannabis offenders and 2) for making it ironically clear that even an arrest on minor cannabis charges can create serious health concerns whereby an adult who chooses to consume a non-toxic and relatively safe recreational drug like cannabis (or, has the drug recommended to them to consume medically by their physician) can quite literally be placed into a life or death situation.

“They could have killed me over a joint,” Ms. Rutkowski said. “Something needs to be done.”

After thousands of years of human use, there is little-to-no scientific evidence that moderate cannabis use is harmful to the individual consumer or society in the whole. However, there is overwhelming and abundantly clear evidence that Cannabis Prohibition can be deadly for individual consumers, law enforcement personnel and those involved in the currently illegal and untaxed businesses of cultivating, transporting and selling cannabis.

Disgustingly, in a city that, since the late 1970s, is supposed to have true ‘decriminalization’ laws for cannabis possession cases, New York City continues to nearly lead the nation in per capita arrests for simple cannabis possession cases (approximately 43,000 cannabis possession arrests annually; constituting nearly five percent of all annual cannabis arrests nationwide) as well as having one of the most racially imbalanced arrest rates for minorities (approximately nine out of ten cannabis arrests in NYC are made against minorities).

After Diabetic Woman’s Arrest, a $125,000 Settlement
By ADRIANE QUINLAN

Her decision to smoke a marijuana cigarette outside a Manhattan bar where she was attending a bachelorette party landed Jaime Rutkowski in jail, threatened her life and lead to a lawsuit that on Monday yielded $125,000 from the city.

On Oct. 16, Ms. Rutkowski, who has diabetes, said she was thrown to the ground and arrested on charges of possession of marijuana outside a club on Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side.

Stress elevates her blood sugar levels and at the nearby police station house, the blood sugar meter she uses was confiscated. She relied on the meter to determine how much insulin to inject into her system from an insulin pump inserted in her stomach. An overdose could be life-threatening.

The police eventually called for an ambulance more than three hours after Ms. Rutkowski had been taken into custody. Emergency medical technicians found that her sugar level was almost four times the normal level, dangerous enough to take her to Bellevue Hospital Center.

Ms. Rutkowski and her lawyer, Joel Berger, filed a suit against the city and the officers involved in part because they hope it will alert the the Police Department to the needs of diabetic prisoners.

“The settlement is so high because a woman nearly died,” said Mr. Berger.

Mr. Berger also said Ms. Rutkowski’s crime was “trivial.” He added: “Almost any jury was not going to be exactly shocked by the nature of the offense. They’re not going to view this as the crime of the century.”

Ms. Rutkowski was charged with a class-B misdemeanor and received an adjournment in contemplation of dismissal, which means that she was not fined and that after one year her case will be dropped and sealed.

Elizabeth Thomas, a spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department, said, “We believe the settlement is in the best interest of all the parties.”

The Police Department’s aggressive enforcement of marijuana possession laws has led to an increase in arrests for possessing small amounts of the drug. While many of those arrests result in fines but no jail time, they do typically result in spending a night in jail.

“They could have killed me over a joint,” Ms. Rutkowski said. “Something needs to be done.”

Mr. Berger said the police did not have a specific protocol to deal with diabetic patients, something that he believes needs to be addressed. “Police officers need to understand that when they arrest a diabetic, there are potentially life-threatening effects,” he said.

Ms. Rutkowski said she would use money from the settlement to pay student loans and to further her education. A graduate of Temple, where she studied chemistry, she said she’s interested in pursuing a degree as a doctor of veterinary medicine. “I’m going to try and make something good out of a terrible situation,” she said.

[GoVegan]

I have nothing against smoking marijuana but give me a break. The lady can hang out in front of a bar and smoke ganja but getting arrested is stressful for her? It getting arrested is that stressful to her perhaps she should take her smoking hobby within the privacy of her home and not out in public.

[lxskllr]

I have nothing against smoking marijuana but give me a break. The lady can hang out in front of a bar and smoke ganja but getting arrested is stressful for her? It getting arrested is that stressful to her perhaps she should take her smoking hobby within the privacy of her home and not out in public.

I think the point was they jeopardized her life, and caused real physical damage to her body, all so they could be the "big man", and show her who's boss. The weed isn't relevant to the story.