California Union Supports Prop 19, Cannabis Legalization
By: skip
SEIU, California’s biggest and most powerful employee union, has come out in favor of legalizing cannabis. Prop 19, the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010 will be voted on this November by California residents. Polls show a tight vote, but this endorsement could make a big difference if it changes the way people think about cannabis.
"At the very least, the support by the S.E.I.U., which claims over 700,000 members in the state, could make it easier for other groups to rally around the measure. More practically, it means access to the union’s considerable campaign apparatus, which could finance mailings, telephone calls and leaflets."
Views: 8314
ATT FLORIDA!!!! HERE COMES MED MARJ HELP MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!!
By: FZ
RIGHT TO MARIJUANA FOR TREATMENT OF CERTAIN MEDICAL DISEASES AND CONDITIONS.
09-01
Reference:
ARTICLE I, SECTION 28
Summary:
View Full Text (pdf)
THIS PROPOSED AMENDMENT IS DESIGNED TO CREATE A NEW ARTICLE I, SECTION 28 ("Right to Marijuana for Treatment Purposes") OF THE FLORIDA CONSTITUTION SO AS TO PERMIT THE CULTIVATION, PURCHASE, POSSESSION AND USE OF MARIJUANA TO TREAT ALZHEIMER’S, CACHEXIA, CANCER, CHRONIC PAIN, CHRONIC NERVOUS SYSTEM DISORDERS, CROHN’S DISEASE, EPILEPSY AND OTHER SEIZURE DISORDERS, GLAUCOMA, HIV/AIDS, MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS, PARKINSON’S, DISEASES CAUSING MUSCLE SPASTICITY, OR OTHER DISEASES AND CONDITIONS WHEN RECOMMENDED BY A PHYSICIAN.
Sponsor:
People United for Medical Marijuana
Post Office Box 560296
Orlando, FL 32856-
(407) 405-0110
Contact: Kim Russell, Chairperson
Signatures: **Verified Totals are UNOFFICIAL until the Initiative receives certification and a ballot number.
Required for review by Attorney General: 67,683
Required to have initiative on the ballot: 676,811
** Number currently valid: 0
Status: Active
Approval Date: 03/26/2009
Undue Burden:
Made Review:
Attorney General:
Sent to Supreme Court:
Supreme Court Ruling:
SC Ruling Date:
Made Ballot:
Ballot Number: 0
Election Year: 2010
There it is in black and white!!!! The time to act is now!!! We only have till Feb 1, 2010 to get 676,811 petitions filled out and we need all of Florida’s help and support to get this on the ballot in 2010!!!!!!!!
Here is the above’s address: http://election.dos.state.fl.us/initiatives/initdetail.asp?account=50438&seqnum=1
Here’s the petition: http://www.pufmm.org/docs/Medical%20Marijuana%20Petition%20Form.pdf PRINT THIS ON 1 SINGLE PIECE OF PAPER!!!!!!
Here is where to send it : PUFMM P.O. Box 560296 Orlando, FL 32856
And please if you can with the petition send the PUFMM a donation of what ever you can afford, it’s not mandatory but it is appreciated.
Also spread the word!!!!! Let anyone that might even slightly interested know about this!!!!
The top, as you can see is from the Florida state elections website, this is 100% real and verified so.
COME ON FLORIDA LET’S GET THIS ON THE BALLOT AND GET IT APPROVED!!!!!!
Views: 13716
Marijuana Reform #1 question at Obama’s Website!
By: skamikaze
I’m sure some of you know that President-Elect Obama had set up a system for people to ask a question of him and his administration relating to things they will make a priority during the beginning and duration of Obama’s presidency. People were allowed to click a check or x to reply as to whether they approved of the question. The number one question as of the close of voting was this
Quote:
| "Will you consider legalizing marijuana so that the government can regulate it, tax it, put age limits on it, and create millions of new jobs and create a billion dollar industry right here in the U.S.?" |
Additionally 16 of the top 50 questions pertained to the failed drug policy in the US. Most of those questions were about pot. There is a blog post coming in the next few days from the Obama camp. I’m curious to see how they address these questions. I’ll post the blog from Obama’s people as soon as they write it.
Views: 12075
Marijuana and Red Wine Ward Off Alzheimer’s!
By: skip
Researchers at Ohio State University reported that THC, the main psychoactive substance in the cannabis plant, may reduce inflammation in the brain and even stimulate the formation of new brain cells.
They found that administering a THC-like synthetic drug to older rats performed better at a memory test than a control group of non-medicated elderly rodents.
In some of the rats, the drug apparently lowered inflammation in the hippocampus — the region of the brain responsible for short-term memory. It also seems to have stimulated the generation of new brain cells.
In another study done at UCLA, polyphenols, which are found in high concentrations in tea, nuts and berries, as well as cabernets and merlots, were found to inhibit or prevent the buildup of toxic fibers in the brain.
Views: 9382
MJ eases symptoms of ADHD a new study shows.
By: skamikaze
A new study from the Heidelberg University Medical Centre in Heidelberg Germany has published the result from a study that shows that the effects of cannabis ease the symptons of ADHD. It also shows that smoking, or ingesting marijuana also helps people suffering from ADHD to concentrate on their driving which is a problem ( I know, I have been diagnosed with severe ADHD.) Please read and distribute this study to your doctor if you suffer from ADHD or to your parents if you are underage.
The synopsis of the story can be found here
Views: 9519
California Upholds Proposition 215, Strikes Down SB 420 Possession Amounts!!!
By: skip
A state appeals court upheld California’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law Thursday, rejecting two counties’ arguments that allowing patients to use the drug with their doctor’s approval condones violations of federal narcotics laws.
The Fourth District Court of Appeal in San Diego dismissed challenges by San Diego and San Bernardino counties, which objected both to the 1996 marijuana initiative and to recent legislation requiring counties to issue identification cards to users of medical pot.
The cards protect their holders from arrest by state or local police for possessing small amounts of marijuana.
The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the federal government can enforce its drug laws, which ban marijuana use and cultivation, against patients and their suppliers in California and the 11 other states that have legalized medical marijuana under their own laws.
But in Thursday’s ruling, the appeals court said states remain free to decide whether to punish drug users under their own laws.
"The (federal) law does not compel the states to impose criminal penalties for marijuana possession," said Justice Alex McDonald in the 3-0 ruling, which upheld a Superior Court judge’s decision.
"The purpose of the (federal law) is to combat recreational drug use, not to regulate a state’s medical practices."
Besides, McDonald said, the counties’ only obligation under the California law is to process and hand out the ID cards, a requirement that poses no conflict with federal law.
State and local officers can’t arrest marijuana users for violating the federal law, he said, and applications for the medical marijuana cards contain a warning that they provide no shield against federal authorities.
Although the state’s decision to allow medical marijuana use "arguably undermines the goals" of the federal law, McDonald said, county governments are unaffected by any such conflicts and therefore have no right to sue to overturn the entire state law.
San Diego County’s lawyer, Senior Deputy County Counsel Thomas Bunton, said county supervisors may decide by next week whether to appeal to the state Supreme Court. He said a future appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court is also possible.
"We think the court should have found that California’s medical marijuana laws are pre-empted by the federal law," Bunton said. "We think (the ID card law) requires us to issue cards in support of conduct that violates federal law."
Advocacy groups that joined the state in defense of its law said the ruling shows that states are free to chart their own course on medical marijuana.
The decision "provides yet further confirmation that states need not march in lockstep with federal policy," said Adam Wolf, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the National Association for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.
He said the court issued "a stinging rebuke to the misguided attempt of a few rogue counties to undermine the will of California’s voters and the well-being of thousands of sick and dying patients."
In a separate case Thursday, the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento became the second to declare unconstitutional a 2003 state law that limited the amount of marijuana a patient could possess for medical use and remain exempt from prosecution.
The ruling would leave those decisions up to local governments, or to local prosecutors and juries in counties that lacked an official standard. The law, part of the same legislation that established the state-approved identification cards, allowed patients to possess up to 8 ounces of dried marijuana, or up to six mature marijuana plants or 12 immature plants, unless a doctor had recommended greater amounts to meet the patient’s needs.
The Third District Court ruled that the law conflicted with the 1996 medical marijuana initiative, Proposition 215, which set no numerical limits on the amount of marijuana a patient could possess.
An appeals court in Los Angeles reached the same conclusion in May, a ruling that Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office has appealed to the state Supreme Court.
Source: SF Chronicle
Views: 28667
Candidates Positions on Medical Marijuana
By: skip
The following story discusses each candidate’s stated position on medical marijuana.
Ever since California voters became the first in the nation to legalize medical marijuana in 1996, the state has faced unyielding opposition from the federal government, which insists it has the power to prohibit a drug it considers useless and dangerous.
That could all change with the next presidential election.
As the candidates prepare for a May 20 primary in Oregon, one of 12 states with a California-style law, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois has become an increasingly firm advocate of ending federal intervention and letting states make their own rules when it comes to medical marijuana.
His Democratic rival, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, is less explicit, recently softening a pledge she made early in the campaign to halt federal raids in states with medical marijuana laws. But she has expressed none of the hostility that marked the response of her husband’s administration to California’s initiative, Proposition 215.
Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the Republican nominee-in-waiting, has gone back and forth on the issue – promising a medical marijuana patient at one campaign stop that seriously ill patients would never face arrest under a McCain administration, but ultimately endorsing the Bush administration’s policy of federal raids and prosecutions.
Political battles over exempting medical patients from marijuana laws have been fought mostly in statehouses and at ballot boxes since 1996, when California voters repealed state criminal penalties for those who used the drug with their doctor’s approval. But the federal government has played an important role in limiting the scope of those state laws, and their effectiveness over the next four years may be determined by the next president.
Bill Clinton’s position
President Bill Clinton’s administration opposed the California law from the start and won a court case allowing it to shut nonprofit organizations that supplied medical marijuana to members. Clinton’s Justice Department also tried to punish California doctors who recommended marijuana to their patients by revoking their authority to prescribe any drugs, but federal courts backed the doctors.
The Bush administration has gone further, raiding medical marijuana growers and clinics, prosecuting suppliers under federal drug laws after winning a U.S. Supreme Court case, and pressuring commercial property owners to evict marijuana dispensaries by threatening legal action. The administration has also blocked a University of Massachusetts researcher’s attempt to grow marijuana for studies of its medical properties.
Since 2001, federal prosecutors have won convictions in at least 28 California drug cases where defendants claimed they were supplying or using medical marijuana, according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. Prosecutors have filed charges in 22 more cases, and authorities have raided 10 growers or dispensaries without filing charges, the group says.
The presidential candidates haven’t discussed the issue in speeches or debates, but medical marijuana advocates regularly questioned them in Iowa and New Hampshire. The most sweeping changes were proposed by second-tier candidates – Democrats Mike Gravel, Dennis Kucinich and Chris Dodd and Republican Ron Paul called for repealing federal criminal penalties for marijuana – but of the remaining contenders, Obama has been the friendliest to advocates of medical marijuana.
At a November appearance in Audubon, Iowa, Obama recalled that his mother had died of cancer and said he saw no difference between doctor-prescribed morphine and marijuana as pain relievers. He said he would be open to allowing medical use of marijuana, if scientists and doctors concluded it was effective, but only under "strict guidelines," because he was "concerned about folks just kind of growing their own and saying it’s for medicinal purposes."
Obama went a step further in an interview in March with the Mail Tribune newspaper in Medford, Ore. While still expressing qualms about patients growing their own supply or getting it from "mom-and-pop stores," he said it is "entirely appropriate" for a state to legalize the medical use of marijuana, "with the same controls as other drugs prescribed by doctors."
In response to recent questions from The Chronicle about medical marijuana, Obama’s campaign – the only one of the three contenders to reply – endorsed a hands-off federal policy.
"Voters and legislators in the states – from California to Nevada to Maine – have decided to provide their residents suffering from chronic diseases and serious illnesses like AIDS and cancer with medical marijuana to relieve their pain and suffering," said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt.
"Obama supports the rights of states and local governments to make this choice – though he believes medical marijuana should be subject to (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) regulation like other drugs," LaBolt said. He said the FDA should consider how marijuana is regulated under federal law, while leaving states free to chart their own course.
Obama would end DEA raids
LaBolt also said Obama would end U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration raids on medical marijuana suppliers in states with their own laws.
Those raids have been the focus of Hillary Clinton’s comments on the issue. At a July campaign event in Manchester, N.H., she told a medical marijuana advocate that she would end the federal raids, according to Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana, which recorded the exchange.
But the candidate was less absolute in a more recent interview with the Willamette Week newspaper in Hillsboro, Ore.
"I don’t think it’s a good use of federal law enforcement resources to be going after people who are supplying marijuana for medicinal purposes," Clinton said in the April 5 interview. But when asked whether she would stop the raids, she replied, "What we should do is prioritize what the DEA should be doing, and that would not be a high priority. There’s a lot of other, more important work that needs to be done."
Clinton has also said she opposes repealing criminal penalties for marijuana, but told advocates in October that the government should conduct more research "into what, if any, medical benefits it has."
McCain has taken a variety of positions, according to comments recorded by medical marijuana advocates.
At an April 2007 campaign kickoff event, when asked if he would end federal raids, he said, "I would let states decide that issue." But less than two months later, he said he would not end the raids. Then, in November, he promised a man who described himself as a seriously ill marijuana patient that he would "do everything in my power" to make sure the man was never arrested for using the drug.
No policy paper
While maintaining that medical experts considered marijuana ineffectual and potentially dangerous, McCain promised at the same November event in New Hampshire to consult with experts and issue an "in-depth policy paper" on the topic within a few days. McCain’s campaign has not responded to media inquiries, and marijuana advocates say the policy paper was never issued.
He was also asked during a November conference call whether the federal government should override the will of the people in states with medical marijuana laws. "Medical marijuana is not something that the, quote, people want," McCain replied.
Bruce Mirken, a spokesman for the advocacy group Marijuana Policy Project, said he remains hopeful that the federal climate will improve, no matter who becomes president.
"All it takes," he said, "is for the Justice Department to say, ‘Leave these states alone.’ "
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Views: 10108
Police Rain on Nimbin’s Mardi Grass
By: skip
Complaints of not enough Marijuana at Festival due to police busts!
Police Search festival goers for drugs during Nimbin’s Mardi Grass Festival.
A POLICE clampdown on cannabis smokers at Nimbin’s annual Mardi Grass festival was allowing it to be taken over by amphetamine and alcohol use, an organiser said.
"The crowd are complaining there’s not enough pot," Mardi Grass parade marshall Graeme Dunstan said of this weekend’s festival.
"There’s too much alcohol and too much speed, which people bring in from outside. The police go for cannabis because it’s easy to spot."
Police have vowed to stamp out drugs in Nimbin. They sent officers from the riot, drug and mounted squads, plus regular officers, as an estimated 20,000 people gathered for a weekend of music, pot smoking and protest to demand the legalisation of cannabis.
"We are seeking to eliminate the supply of prohibited drugs," Richmond Local Area Command acting Superintendent Steve Clarke said on Friday. "We will not tolerate any breaches of any laws."
Michael Balderstone, president of the Nimbin Hemp Embassy, said the Nimbin community was furious about the police’s approach. "You may as well get a stick and poke it in a hornet’s nest. It’s pointless. You can put us in jail for 20 years and you won’t change our opinions."
Police obtained a court order on Friday to close the Nimbin Hemp Bar and Hemp Museum for 72 hours. Police alleged the bar and museum were known drug-dealing premises.
A raid on the museum on April 1 allegedly recovered four kilograms of cannabis. Eight people were charged with drug offences.
Mr Balderstone said the fact that only cannabis was found showed that Nimbin had got rid of its hard drugs problem. "We had ice [crystal methamphetamine] four or five years ago but the community’s worked very hard to get ice out of town," he said.
Police were also enforcing alcohol-free zones at the festival, acting Superintendent Clarke said.
Debbie Guest, owner of the Nimbin Hotel, said the police clampdown had been "huge", with strict enforcement of responsible service of alcohol rules.
"We’ve never had trouble at Mardi Grass," she said. "People come for a good time."
Graham Way, 71, a Nimbin resident for 50 years, said the clampdown was a good thing. "You get harassed going up the street by people peddling drugs," he said.
Mardi Grass events include the Hemp Olympix, including a plantathlon, bong throwing and joint rolling.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
This follows upon the invasion on April Fools Day of Nimbin by an army of police including Sydney Riot Police in a raid on a few peaceful businesses. It’s becoming apparent that the people of Nimbin are now some pawn in a political game as they hardly found anything worth busting with only two cannabis related arrests coming out of it. Read about the April Fool’s bust here.
Views: 24110
Canadian Marijuana Church Seized
By: skip
Church of the Universe leaders imprisoned
by Al Sweeney, CHCH News
Perhaps the most well known marijuana activists in our region are going to jail.
"The Church of the Universe" on Barton street is now under new management.
It’s been seized by the government. The two reverends who sold marijuana here as a sacrament in their church, have started serving prison terms.
Police took over the building late Friday afternoon following a court order by a judge, and the judge came down hard.
He sentenced Michael Baldasaro to two years for selling marijuana, and he gave Walter Tucker a year in jail.
The two men lived in their church, and this case made history in Hamilton. It’s the first time that a residence has been seized and will eventually be sold off under the drug law.
"So now we’re inspecting the premises, seized property management is here, they’re the people that are going to manage the property (during) the forfeiture process, just here to ensure the property’s secure, make sure there’s nothing of value in the property that could go missing, change the locks, board the property up make sure it’s secure.
This will send the message that if you’re going to carry on trafficking in drugs, growing drugs, in your premise or residence, it can be forfeited as offence-related property."
-Bob MacDonald, Hamilton Police
Now one of the aspects of this case is Baldasaro and Tucker are well-known in Hamilton. They may have been selling an illegal drug but they were friendly and very well-liked by a lot of people. They said they sold marijuana out of compassion to help people.
But the judge didn’t buy their church argument.
He said the church was actually a marijuana convenience store, run like a prohibition-era speakeasy, disguised as a church.
The two reverends being characters, there was a very touching scene in court as this case came to an end. Baldasaro as we said got two years in jail, Tucker got one year. But Tucker asked the judge to give him two years as well so that he could spend the time with his friend. The judge ignored his request.
As the reverends were led away to start serving their jail terms, they called out ‘bless you’ to the court. They say they’re also going to be appealing.
Views: 9228
Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act
By: skip
WASHINGTON, DC – April 18 – Congressional Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced the "Medical Marijuana Patient Protection Act," HR 5842, yesterday, a bill co-sponsored by Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Sam Farr (D-CA), Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), and Ron Paul (R-TX). The act would change federal policy on medical marijuana in a number of ways. Specifically, HR 5842 would reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I drug, which cannot be prescribed, to a Schedule II drug, which would recognize the medical value of marijuana and create a regulatory framework for the FDA to begin a drug approval process for marijuana. The act would also prevent interference by the federal government in any local or state run medical marijuana program.
Similar versions of HR 5842 have been introduced in prior Congressional terms, but have never made it out of committee. "It’s time that the federal government take this issue seriously," said Caren Woodson, Government Affairs Director with Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nationwide medical marijuana advocacy group working with Mr. Frank and other Members of Congress to change federal policy. "By disregarding marijuana’s medical efficacy, and undermining efforts to implement state laws, the federal government is willfully placing hundreds of thousands of sick Americans in harms way."
In addition to rescheduling marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA), HR 5842 would provide protection from the CSA and the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) for qualified patients and caregivers in states that have legalized the use of medical marijuana. Specifically, the act prevents the CSA and FDCA from prohibiting or restricting: (1) a physician from prescribing or recommending marijuana for medical use, (2) an individual from obtaining, possessing, transporting within their state, manufacturing, or using marijuana in accordance with their state law, (3) an individual authorized under State law from obtaining, possessing, transporting within their state, or manufacturing marijuana on behalf of an authorized patient, or (4) an entity authorized under local or State law to distribute medical marijuana to authorized patients from obtaining, possessing, or distributing marijuana to such authorized patients.
In December, U.S. House Judiciary Chair John Conyers stated publicly his concern about the tactics being used by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and promised oversight hearings. Since then, several California mayors have written to Conyers expressing their support for hearings, including the mayors of San Francisco, Oakland, West Hollywood, and Santa Cruz. Opposition to federal interference in state medical marijuana laws has also come from multiple city councils, members of the California Board of Equalization and the state legislature, as well as New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson.
Views: 5369