BY VANCOUVER SUN
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Hugh Lakeland, a mechanic and service station owner by trade looks over some of his 10 acres of commercial hemp. Lakeland was one of the first to obtain a license to cultivate hemp in B.C. from Health Canada. Paper, textiles and building materials come from the fibre and the seeds are produced for oil and food products.

Photograph by: Don MacKinnon, VANCOUVER SUN

 
Hemp:
• A term reserved for low tetrahydrocannabinol varieties of the plant Cannabis sativa. Of about 2,000 cannabis plants varieties known, about 90 per cent contain only low-grade THC and are most useful for their fibre, seeds and medicinal or psychoactive oils. Hemp is one of the earliest domesticated plants known.
• Hemp is used for industrial purposes including paper, textiles, clothing, biodegradable plastics, construction (as with Hemcrete and insulation), body products, health food and bio-fuel. Hemp is legally grown in many countries across the world including Spain, China, Japan, Korea, France, North Africa and Ireland.
• Hemp is one of the faster growing biomasses known,producing up to 25 tonnes of dry matter per hectare per year. About one tonne of bast fibre and 2–3 tonnes of core material can be decorticated from 3–4 tonnes of good quality, dry retted straw.
• Hemp is environmentally friendly, requiring few pesticides and no herbicides. It has been called a carbon-negative raw material.
 
Complete article:
http://www.vancouversun.com/Hemp+Bamboo+cutting+edge+sustainable+fabrics/7412469/story.html
 

ERIN FERGUS

 
Hemp is used for more than marijuana products, sustainable clothing and thick ropes.
It has been used as food in China for 6,000 years when the Chinese began cultivating the wild Cannabis sativa plant in central Asia. Hemp was popular for its nutritional value even before soy foods, and the nutty-flavored seed can be used in the forms of oil and butter as well.
What makes the hemp seed a powerhouse?
A standard serving size of three tablespoons provides 11 grams of protein, approximately 25 percent of the daily value, for only 170 calories. The protein is highly digestible, so it should cause less bloating than other protein supplements, and it contains all the essential amino acids that must be consumed through food.
One serving also supplies 50 percent of the daily value for phosphorus and magnesium, 25 percent of the daily value for zinc and 15 percent of the daily value for iron.
 
Complete article:
http://www.thisdishisvegetarian.com/2012/10/all-about-hemp-seeds.html

by Johnny Green

 

Support The Walk To End Alzheimer’s, Team Hope Through Cannabis, And Texas NORML

Please join Team Hope through Cannabis (THC) and the Texas NORML Senior Alliance on October 27th in Austin, TX to walk/roll the in support of the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Various properties in marijuana have shown immense potential in halting, even reversing, the effects of this devastating disease. Patients and their families should be allowed to explore ALL treatment options, especially those that offer so much hope and possibility.
 
Complete article:
http://www.theweedblog.com/walk-to-end-alzheimers-with-team-hope-through-cannabis-and-texas-norml/

By Steve Elliott

 
Here’s some great news: It’s getting harder and harder for hapless, overwhelmed prosecutors to get a marijuana conviction in the United States — even when the amount in question is a pound, and the charges are distribution, not simple possession.

By Logan Nakyanzi Pollard

 

By Kelsey Cline

 
Medical marijuana has been an incredibly controversial topic for years. Many government officials believe that because marijuana is perceived as addictive, it should stay illegal in the U.S.
On Nov. 6, Arkansans will be able to vote on Issue Five, otherwise known as the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Question, to ultimately decide if Arkansas should legalize marijuana for medical use.
Whether or not you personally would benefit from medical marijuana, it is an important decision to make nonetheless.
If Arkansas legalizes marijuana, the national government would be one step closer to saving up to $13.7 billion per year by not having to enforce the current prohibition on the drug and adding a tax at the rates similar to alcohol and tobacco, according to the Huffington Post.
More than 300 economists have signed the petition to call these startling facts to attention. The economic benefits of medical marijuana legalization have pushed the government and the citizens alike to take another look at the problem.
 
Complete article:
http://www.uatrav.com/2012/10/17/more-medical-marijuana-please/comment-page-1/

by Max Brantley

 
Talk show host Montel Williamswill have a news conference at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the State Capitol to endorse the medical marijuana initiative on this year’s ballot. He has multiple sclerosis and uses “medicinal cannabis” to treat symptoms. Maybe the Family Council and the Arkansas Baptist Convention can pull a Gomer Pyle and make a citizen’s arrest while he’s in town. This is a moral issue, see, and pain relief is not a valid purpose for use of a naturally occurring plant. Or so the good Christians have told us.
 
Complete article:
http://www.arktimes.com/ArkansasBlog/archives/2012/10/17/the-montel-williams-marijuana-open-line

By Marijuana Policy Project

 
A medical marijuana grower in Ellsworth, Maine received a pleasant surprise on Saturday: a marijuana delivery from the police. Thomas Davis, a state-licensed medical marijuana caregiver and grower, lost 17 marijuana plants from his greenhouse in a burglary on Wednesday night.
The thief, 32-year-old Aaron Pert, was arrested soon afterward and charged with offenses including marijuana possession, burglary, and theft. He confessed to breaking into the greenhouse and stealing the plants and led the police to the location where he had hidden the majority of the stash.
However, the police delayed returning the marijuana to Davis for two days, concerned that they might be violating federal law, which makes all marijuana possession, cultivation, and distribution criminal offenses.
According to Ellsworth police lieutenant Harold Page, this was the first case in the state in which marijuana had been stolen from a licensed medical marijuana provider, so the police department consulted with the Maine DEA as well as the state’s attorney general as to whether they should return the plants. Ellsworth Police Chief John DeLeo stated on Monday that as far as he was concerned, returning the plants was legal.
 
Complete article:
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/drug-law/maine-police-support-state-law-return-patient-s-medicine

By Steve Elliott

 
‘Zac is willing to go down if he must, but it is going to be after a fight.’

By Chris Roberts

 
Keeping marijuana under the government’s list of most controlled, most dangerous substances is easy for the Drug Enforcement Administration — all the federal drug warriors have to do is deny researchers access to the plant, then claim that there’s insufficient research to determine that cannabis has benefits.
That “circular game of gotcha” continued Tuesday morning, but at least advocates of marijuana’s medical benefits enjoyed a change of venue — and a significant one. An appeal seeking to reschedule marijuana from the panoply of the world’s most dangerous drugs is now in federal judges’ hands, following oral arguments in Americans for Safe Access’s lawsuit against the DEA in Washington, DC, Tuesday.

Win or lose, the rescheduling lawsuit is a milestone in the marijuana movement. Still, there’s a few points to consider: The lawsuit won’t make cannabis legal, but rather lessillegal. And, perhaps unfairly, the deck’s stacked against ASA, since the federal government doesn’t have to prove that cannabis is harmful. Instead, ASA has to prove that it is NOT harmful.
 
Complete article:
http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2012/10/marijuana_scheduling_lawsuit_f.php