McConnell says hemp would help Kentucky economy


 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) – The push to re-establish industrial hemp in Kentucky has won an endorsement from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Kentucky’s most influential Republican said Thursday that legalizing the versatile crop would be a “positive development” for Kentucky’s economy and farmers. McConnell said he took his stand after discussions with two fellow Kentucky Republicans who support hemp – U.S. Sen. Rand Paul and state Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.
 
Full Article:
http://www.wkyt.com/wymt/home/headlines/McConnell-says-hemp-would-help-Kentucky-economy-189235801.html

County Seizes Mother’s Children, Now Her Car — Because She’s A Medical Marijuana Patient

By 
 
Daisy Bram, a California mother whose children were seized in Butte County last year because of a medical marijuana grow at her home, has now had her three children taken from her by Tehama County officials, and even had her vehicle seized.
When Bram arrived for an appearance in Family Court on Tuesday, officers blocked her 2002 Ford Explorer in the parking lot and told her they were seizing it because “it had been purchased with drug proceeds.”
They have now left the young mother without transportation, while her children are in foster care. In addition, she has been criminally charged in Tehama County.
The three children, who were healthy when they were taken from their mother, now all have bronchitis and are sick, according to Cheri Sicard of the NORML Women’s Alliance, who said she spoke to Bram on Wednesday afternoon.
 
Full Article:
http://tokesignals.com/county-seizes-mothers-children-now-her-car-because-shes-a-medical-marijuana-patient/
 

Alabama House to consider bill to legalize marijuana


Associated Press
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A bill has been pre-filed in the Alabama House that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.
The sponsor, Democratic Rep. Patricia Todd of Birmingham, says legalizing the drug for medical purposes would help cancer patients receiving chemotherapy and others suffering from severe pain. The bill has failed several times, but Todd says her spirits are buoyed because similar bills have recently passed In other states.
 
Full Article:
http://www.wtva.com/news/local/story/Ala-House-to-consider-bill-to-legalize-marijuana/fv0QwgHfQ02YM3q1Di4xpg.cspx
 

Czechs legalise medical marijuana

By SAPA
IOL news aug 14 dagga_jan 22
 
Prague – Czech lawmakers on Wednesday green-lighted marijuana as a legal medicine for use by patients suffering from serious illnesses.
The bill, which must now be signed by the president to take effect, makes the drug legal and available on prescription for patients with cancer, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or psoriasis.
The move was approved by 67 of 74 senators present in the 81-member upper house.
 
Full Article:
http://www.iol.co.za/news/world/czechs-legalise-medical-marijuana-1.1461454#.URC4gx3LdMJ
 

Industrial Hemp Cooperative Gets First Corporate Member

BY CAMPBELL WOOD
Lexington, KY – Patriot Bio Energy recently became the first corporate member of the Kentucky Hemp Growers Cooperative Association, and the company aims to prove that industrial hemp is useful for the coal fields of Kentucky.
Roger Ford, CEO of Patriot, said that by mixing the woody stalk of hemp with coal, polluting emissions can be reduced while maintaining a high Btu value, the measure of heat that drives energy production at coal-fired power plants. There’s also the role industrial hemp crops could play in reclamation of mined coal fields while boosting the region’s economy with manufacturing opportunities. Hemp has a diverse portfolio of products, including paper, fiberboard, horse-bedding, textiles, paint, fuel, and more.
“I have 50 pounds of hemp horse-bedding in storage,” said Ford. The horse bedding came from north of the border where industrial hemp is a legal crop for Canadian farmers.
 
Full Article:
http://bizlex.com/2013/01/industrial-hemp-cooperative-gets-first-corporate-member/

Hemp Gets The Green Light In New Colorado Pot Measure

By EDITOR
With recreational marijuana now legal in Colorado, small-scale pot shops will open up soon in places like Denver and Boulder. But that’s not the only business that could get a boost: Large-scale commercial farmers may also be in line to benefit.
Why? When Colorado voters legalized marijuana last November, they also legalized hemp.
As plants, marijuana and hemp look related, and they are. But while marijuana is bred to get its users high, hemp is all business — grown for food and other everyday uses. Hemp contains very little of the chemical THC, the active ingredient in pot.
That might be news to farmer Michael Bowman’s neighbors. “When they hear that we’re growing hemp, they think we’re growing marijuana,” he says.
Bowman is from Wray, a small town on the eastern Colorado plains. He thinks hemp needs some rehabilitation and that he’s the man to do it.
A Wonder Crop?
Bowman will plant 100 acres of hemp this spring on his 3,000-acre farm, where the winter wind now whips across barren wheat and corn fields.
“We think 100 acres is a good number,” he says. “It’s not a garden plot, and it’s enough to have enough product at the end of the day that we can do something real with it.”
To hear him and other activists tell it, hemp can be used to make just about anything: rope, paper, plastic, clothing, shoe polish, car parts and even dog chew toys — to name just a few of the possibilities.
Bowman says he’ll turn his first crop into an edible oil. “Our goal is really to try to understand: Is this a viable crop? Getting the research and data gathered this year will be a good step one,” he says.
When asked if it’s a political experiment as much as an agricultural one, Bowman says: “It’s probably more of a political experiment at this point.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.wfpl.org/post/hemp-gets-green-light-new-colorado-pot-measure

Colorado prison population declines sharply

By Ann Imse
Colorado Public News
Colorado closed the brand-new Colorado State Penitentiary II last year and now needs to shut down more prisons as the population shrinks.
Colorado closed the brand-new Colorado State Penitentiary II last year and now needs to shut down more prisons as the population shrinks.
 
Colorado’s prison population is diminishing so quickly that the state in the coming 18 months could close two to 10 prisons, depending on which facilities are chosen for closure.

“It looks like the whole system should be shrinking,” said state Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, at a recent legislative hearing.
Colorado already is at 7,500 fewer inmates than it once expected in 2013. It has closed three state prisons and stopped using two private prisons.
 
Full Article:
http://durangoherald.com/article/20130126/NEWS01/130129670/

Kansas state senator introduces medical marijuana bill

Associated Press
TOPEKA, KAN.  –  A Kansas state senator has proposed a medical marijuana bill.
Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kan., has introduced the bill, which would allow Kansas to join 18 states and the District of Columbia in allowing people to use marijuana with a doctor’s order.
The Topeka Capital-Journal reports the measure would allow patients to have up to six ounces of marijuana and grow up to a dozen plants at home.
 
Full Article:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/01/27/kansas-state-senator-introduces-medical-marijuana-bill/

Lights, camera, cannabis

HT Correspondent, Hindustan Times
At KC College, a group of students is well-schooled in cannabis. They know its scientific name (Cannabis Sativa), they know how it is grown (as a cash crop), they know its importance to the local economy and the debate around its trade and consumption.
Distilled and packaged as a 29-minute documentary film, this group’s study of the drug has now won them the first prize at a student film festival.
 
The department of mass media at KC College has an annual filmmaking festival – Roll.Take.Turn – which features films covering various contemporary issues.
The group of 10 students who won the first prize for their film, Goonj worked over a six-month period, digging deep into the fascinating, multi-faceted and charged nature of the debate surrounding a simple weed.
As part of their third year Bachelor of Mass Media (BMM) programme, students are required to choose a particular subject in a particular state, a search that ended with exploring the dynamics of cannabis in Himachal.
The students will screen the film in other cities in the coming months and also enter it for various film festivals.
“Drugs have always been shown in bad light but we wanted to show a plant that has a different side to it as well,” said Adhiraj Bose, 21, the film’s director and editor. “The cannabis plant has become synonymous with charas, but the other aspects aren’t considered. We tried to bring in different points of view.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-news/Mumbai/Lights-camera-cannabis/Article1-1002727.aspx