BURNING SHIVA: Cannabis Historian Dr. Mike Aldrich

Burning Shiva returns to pot tv – Host Chris Bennett talks to Dr. Mike Aldrich, who has been studying the history of Cannabis and Folklore for close to 50 years. Like a whimsical wizard of weedlore, Aldrich takes us on a fascinating and entertaining tour of cannabis culture and history in India, the Mid East, ancient Greece, Africa, China, ancient Scythia and more. Produced by Mark Klokeid, kush.ca and urbanshaman.net . Filmed by James Woods. Directed and Edited by Chris Bennett. For more on Cannabis History check out forbiddenfruitpublishing.com
 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=axCTG_zaRZ4

‘Everything should be made from hemp’ – even guitars

BY DAVID SHERMAN

‘Everything should be made from hemp’ – even guitars

Boyd Pellow and Stewart Burrows are partners in Canadian Hemp Guitars.Photograph by: Marie-France Coallier , The Gazette

 
MONTREAL – Stewart Burrows spends most nights in pubs, playing cover tunes till 3 a.m., give or take, then driving back to the Châteauguay Valley. Waiting for him are his wife and three kids, and 20 heads of cattle from which he sells aged beef; $700 for 100 pounds.
“Playing music is how I pay the bills,” he says.
And he has a guitar workshop from where he makes ostensibly the world’s only true hemp guitar.
 
Full Article:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/business/Everything+should+made+from+hemp+even+guitars/9027904/story.html

Hemp-seed muesli led to ACT drug-driving charge: Laws under fire

A saliva swab that tests for drugs in drivers.
A saliva swab that tests for drugs in drivers. Photo: Ken Irwin
The ACT’s new drug-driving laws have come under fire after a senior public servant who ate a breakfast muesli containing hemp seeds was dragged through a nine-month court battle.
The 2011 laws raised immediate concerns from lawyers and civil libertarians for their zero-tolerance approach, which criminalises even the smallest trace of drugs found in a driver’s system.
Fears were raised that the laws, designed for road safety, ignored the actual impairment level of a driver and threatened to snare Canberrans who had accidentally or innocently ingested drugs.
That approach differs to drink- driving laws, where drivers are allowed to consume a legal minimum because it does not impair their ability to drive.
Full Article:
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act-news/hempseed-muesli-led-to-act-drugdriving-charge-laws-under-fire-20131011-2vegn.html

Historic hemp harvest wraps up with the help of 45 volunteers from six states

By Melanie Asmar
hemp.harvest.cannabis.camera.565x208.jpg
 
Last week, we told you about the beginning of America’s first hemp harvest in more than fifty years, which started in late September in southeastern Colorado. This past weekend, that harvest continued with 45 volunteers from six different states, who converged on grower Ryan Loflin’s 55-acre hemp plot to finish hand-harvesting his historic plants.
 
Full Article:
http://blogs.westword.com/latestword/2013/10/historic_hemp_harvest_colorado.php

Hemp crop on the Hauraki Plains

Grant Paton – Sustainable soils – Environmental Fertilisers Ltd
 
This summer we decided to trial growing a hemp crop on some very flogged out maize ground.
This soil is marine clay and had been experiencing diminishing maize crop yields and returns during the last five years to the point where the land owner wasn’t prepared to risk (financially) another crop of green feed maize.
So after a few home brew rums we came up with a lease agreement and plan.
With a Reams soil test and a Lismore soil test results in hand we applied a 14 tonne per ha fertiliser mix of 10 tonne/ha of compost and 4 tonnes/ha of minerals, comprised of paramagnetic rock dust, soil force, gypsum, trace mineral microbial feeds and microbial inoculations (Bio-Vam, 10/25 and Combo-12).
After obtaining a growing license for hemp we proceeded to plant and learn.
We finally harvested the crop, dried the seed and have harvested 750kg/ha of seed.
 
Full Article:
http://www.sunlive.co.nz/blogs/5305-hemp-crop-on-hauraki-plains.html

The war on drugs is a costly fiasco – Richard Branson

A sign with a DEA badge is shown. Reuters
 

By SIR RICHARD BRANSON | 10/8/13 10:25 PM EDT
As the eyes of the world watch the U.S. government shutdown, leaving as many as 800,000 of its employees without pay, I find myself dumbstruck that one of the agencies that is still showing up for work is the Drug Enforcement Administration. The agents of the DEA are described as “essential” employees going about their daily business of fighting the global war on drugs. And yet, as a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, it is clear to me and many others that the war on drugs is failing and is also costing the U.S. taxpayer more than $50 billion a year. How can this possibly make economic sense at a time of such financial uncertainty? The answer: It doesn’t.

Full Article:
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/opinion-richard-branson-war-on-drugs-costly-fiasco-98010.html

Kentucky is in the running for a hemp processing plant

 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky is in the running to land a hemp processing plant.  There’s just one problem — growing hemp is illegal.
 
A Canadian company is considering Kentucky as a possible site because of its central location and hemp growing heritage.  Kentucky lawmakers passed a bill earlier this year to allow the crop to be reintroduced, but only if the federal government lifts its ban.
 
Full Article and Video:
http://www.wdrb.com/story/23648820/kentucky-is-in-the-running-for-a-hemp-processing-plant

Medical-Pot Edibles Are Legal, but Prosecutors and Cops Aren’t Backing Off

By Ray Stern
A cannabis-infused cookie

Mjpresson
A cannabis-infused cookie
Uncle Herb’s medical-marijuana dispensary, tucked away near pine trees in an industrial area of south Payson, has the homey feel of a country store. Red brick and wood trim accent the interior. T-shirts and other products hang in a gift area near the two bars displaying pale green cannabis buds in glass cake stands. The small commercial kitchen, visible from the bud-tending area through a large window, is modern. So is the kitchen’s special helper — a six-foot-tall collection of stainless-steel canisters, flexible hoses, and gauges that the staff calls “Wall-E.”
Roughly similar to models advertised for $25,000 or more on websites, Wall-E’s a botanical extraction machine that can pump out hash oil all day long, converting pounds of cannabis flowers (a.k.a. buds) into ounces of dark goo loaded with THC, marijuana’s main active ingredient. The super-potent paste gets added to Uncle Herb’s growing takeout menu of medicinal food and drink products sold to qualified patients: ice cream push-ups, brownies, cookies, jars of honey, and other “medibles,” all infused with a precisely measured amount of the concentrate.
 
Full Article:
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/2013-10-10/news/medical-pot-edibles-arizona/

California – New Effort to Legalize Marijuana and Hemp

by MATT KETTMANN (CONTACT)
Berton “Buddy” Duzy

Berton “Buddy” Duzy
Though California was the first state to legalize medical marijuana with the passage of Proposition 215 in 1996, voters have had a harder time agreeing on whether recreational use of the drug should be allowed. In 2010, such a proposition was narrowly defeated at the polls, and in 2012 — when voters in Colorado and Washington legalized it — none of the six separate measures proposed by various factions of the Golden State’s marijuana movement could gather enough signatures to qualify for the ballot.
California’s next chance will be November 2014, and the only proposed legislation currently moving toward that ballot is the California Cannabis Hemp Initiative, which was approved for signature gathering by Sacramento in late September. Other initiatives could feasibly come out of the woodwork in the weeks to come — there were rumors of some medical cannabis collective owners working on something — but the CCHI is the only one filed in time to enjoy the full 150 days allowed to collect the nearly 505,000 signatures required by the February 24 deadline.
 
Full Article:
http://www.independent.com/news/2013/oct/09/new-effort-legalize-marijuana-and-hemp/?on