By Scott Gacek

 
PHILADELPHIA, PA — Final preparations by marijuana reform activists in Philadelphia are underway for Smoke Down Prohibition VII, the seventh in a series of monthly protests held at Independence National Historic Park.
After six successful rallies, The Panic Hour and Philly NORML, joint organizers of the event, will return to Independence National Historic Park, home of the Liberty Bell, to peacefully protest cannabis prohibition starting on July 26.
Unlike previous editions of Smoke Down Prohibition, which were one-day demonstrations, this event begins at 4:20 pm on a Friday, and taking a page from last year’s Occupy movement, will continue for as long as necessary — even if it stretches for days, weeks, or months.
 

Full Article:
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2013/24648/philadelphia-activists-brace-for-smoke-down-prohibition-vii/

by kellzzy

 
Cannabis oil has literally changed my life for the better. This is my story.
A year ago I found out I had breast cancer – a lump the size of a R5 coin on my left breast. I was 35 years old, a new mother and completely unprepared for the news that I had cancer.
When I received the results, I was at home alone with my 18 month old daughter. I didn’t quite know what to do, so I bundled her into a pram and we went out for a walk on a nearby farm. It was a beautiful day, far too beautiful to be dying of cancer.
 
Full Article:
http://kitchencures.wordpress.com/2013/07/15/cannabis-oil-and-me/

With news stories and opinion pieces popping up daily about medical marijuana legalization, dad Brandon Krenzler and his 7-year-old daughter, MyKayla Comstock, appeared on HuffPost Live this week to discuss what happens when a minor needs the drug. MyKayla has Leukemia and started taking it shortly after she was diagnosed.
 
Full Article and Video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/18/medical-marijuana-for-kids_n_3612839.html

Jojo Newby

CHILL, IT’S ALL GOOD: Peter Cuming and Eshana Bragg outside their Maclean home, which will soon be extended with walls built with hemp, sand and lime.
 
“We were looking for a building material that would be really sustainable; that actually had something special about it.”
Ms Bragg said the hemp, sand and lime mixture provided good sound, heat and cold insulation.
The hemp is the consistency of chaff and cures and sets like concrete when mixed with sand and lime and a few other special ingredients.
Over time, as the walls cure, the hemp walls absorb carbon dioxide.
“It’s like the perfect building material to help stop climate change,” said Ms Bragg.
 
Full Article:
http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/news/hemp-for-a-healthy-home/1949372/

by Julia Peterson

 
Right after college I started working at a medical marijuana doctor’s office in San Francisco’s SOMA district. I did patient intakes, where I asked intrusive questions to strangers about their medical histories, their medical records, and why they wanted to use medical marijuana.
I met elderly people with chronic pain and veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I met the kind of people whose endearing stories have won the sympathy of 18 states where medical marijuana is legal.
I also met the patients who the medical marijuana movement rarely highlights—patients under 18. I mostly hated my job, but meeting those 15-, 16- and 17-year-olds and their parents made me really proud of where I worked.
Moms and dads who brought in their teenage children were easy to spot in the waiting room. They all looked the same, they clutched thick stacks of medical records to their chests, their eyes darting around the room, wondering who’s judging them. They downloaded the intake form off our website and neatly typed out the answers, which almost nobody does.
 
Full Article:
http://www.ladybud.com/2013/07/17/teenagers-the-medical-marijuana-patients-you-dont-hear-about/

RUN FROM THE CURE: The Rick Simpson Story – A Film by Christian Laurette. The original independent film that started a global shift in the way we view cancer medicine.

Project Summary

Hi. My name is Christian Laurette. I am the Producer/Director of RUN FROM THE CURE: The Rick Simpson Story, the FREE Internet documentary that shows you how to rid your body of diseases and illnesses such as cancers and many many others, while avoiding the dangers of cancer-causing treatments like chemotherapy and radiations… using only ingested, vapourized, and/or topical applications of cannabis oil medicine.
The campaign to raise this funding is crucial to my producing the film to its full potential, complete with science gurus and healed patients… we’ll explore how cannabis kills cancers and restores normal body functions from diseased states of being, and we’ll look at why our world governments and cancer societies have ignored their own research in favor of eliminating the most medicinal plant on earth from medicine.
The implications of such a healing plant reach all the way around the world. The list of healing applications of cannabis oil for disease seems to grow by the day. Please help me plant a seed that will grow forever on the World Wide Web. Help me to help the next mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, grandchild, nephew, aunt, uncle, coworker, friend… to live on and tell their true stories of survival using this miracle plant extract.
“Cannabis isn’t illegal because it makes you high… it is illegal because it makes you well.” – Christian Laurette
 
Read the rest here:
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/run-from-the-cure-2-documentary-film

by TheJointBlog

 
A new study published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology has found that delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – one of the prime compounds in cannabis – can potentially stop organ transplant rejections from taking place.
 
Full Article:
http://thejointblog.com/new-study-cannabis-may-prevent-organ-transplants-from-being-rejected/
 

By Paul Joncich

 
LAS VEGAS — Twelve years after Nevada voters approved medical marijuana, the state is finally getting the mechanisms in place to sell it.
By the time the dispensaries open in the Silver State, the number of Nevadans carrying medical marijuana cards is expected to increase more than tenfold.
Entrepreneurs looking to cash in are coming out of the woodwork.
State Sen. Tick Segerblom said he’s getting call after call from people eager to get into Nevada’s medical marijuana business.
 
Full Article:
http://www.8newsnow.com/story/22845360/nevada-preparing-way-for-medical-pot-shops

By Dennis Romero

LA Weekly

 
Marijuana advocates are taking their cause for legalization all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, they announced today.
The group Americans for Safe Access said it would challenge a U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit decision turning down its argument that marijuana should be downgraded from a federal “schedule I” outlaw drug:
ASA said it filed a “petition for writ of certiorari,” essentially an appeal, with the U.S. Supreme Court today that could prod the high court to consider whether marijuana is indeed among the nation’s most dangerous, most unusable drugs.
The court does not have to consider the case. If it doesn’t, the lower court’s ruling would stand.
Schedule 1 is reserved for those hardcore substances like heroin that have no business in a doctor’s office. Even cocaine, which has some medical uses despite its tough street punishments, is not a schedule 1 drug.
A downgrade of marijuana would quasi-legalize it on a federal level, essentially, opening it up to limited medical uses.
 
Full Article:
http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2013/07/marijuana_supreme_court_suit_asa_schedule_1.php

Nick Dial

 
Despite the fact that voters in Arizona passed Proposition 203 in 2010 in favor of medical marijuana, there continues to be a push by those opposed. I often read statements from the opposition that simply don’t stand up to objective scrutiny. I am a former police officer who is now disabled. While I appreciate all opinions, I feel it’s paramount that debate be based on facts and logic and not simple emotion fueled by ideology.
When working as a police officer, you get used to the concept of putting emotions aside and going where facts lead you, and this is no different. As a sufferer of Crohn’s disease, I take notice when people feel the need to dictate to me and my fellow Americans how we should handle our health.
Full Article:
http://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2013/07/15/arizona-medical-marijuana-program-a-product-of-lies/