New Jersey Senate Unanimously Approves Hemp Legalization Legislation

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new jersey hemp
Courtesy of The Joint Blog
 
New Jersey’s Senate gave unanimous approval today to Senate Bill 3110, a proposal to legalize industrial hemp. A companion measure, Assembly Bill 2415, has already been approved through two committees, and now awaits a full Assembly vote, which could come as soon as this week. If approved through the Assembly, the measure will go to Governor Chris Christie for final consideration.
 
Full Article:
http://www.theweedblog.com/new-jersey-senate-unanimously-approves-hemp-legalization-legislation/

The racist roots of America’s medical marijuana policy

ALTERNET
The racist roots of America's medical marijuana policy
Marijuana buds, including their cost and degree of potency, are shown in a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland, California June 30, 2010. Picture taken June 30, 2010. REUTERS/Robert Galbraith (UNITED STATES – Tags: SOCIETY) (Credit: Reuters)
 
When you look at the facts, it’s clear that racism governs American drug policy. While five times as many white people as black people report using illicit drugs, the U.S. criminal justice system sends blacks to prison for drug offenses at 10 times the rate of whites according to the ACLU.
Unfortunately, racism is nothing new when it comes to substance regulation; it defines the U.S. drug policy paradigm going back almost a century.
Even before alcohol prohibition, the development of the 1914 Harrison Narcotic Act (the first federal law in American history to criminalize the sale of drugs, which in this case was opiates) stemmed from the hatred and oppression of ethnic minority groups by white elites. The Act resulted from the brewing of a perfect political storm.
A massive worldwide recession had left job markets reeling and the first rumblings of the Great War in Europe increased xenophobia at home. Chinese immigrants in particular had flocked to western states to help build infrastructure. The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad left many Chinese-Americans in search of other work in a rapidly shrinking job market, and racial tensions were strained to breaking.
 
Full Article:
http://www.salon.com/2014/01/14/the_racist_roots_of_americas_medical_marijuana_policy_partner/

Legal pot in Louisiana?


 

Chris Miller Reporting

Imagine if you could get a hold of marijuana in Louisiana as easily and legally as going to the corner drug store.  Louisiana lawmakers will soon debate the pros and cons of just such a system.
Would you believe a Louisiana doctor could prescribe you medicinal marijuana right now? Rep. Dalton Honoré (D-Baton Rouge) says the law doesn’t prevent it.
“Well, by state law, it’s already legal,” said Honoré.  “A doctor could write you a prescription, I mean, but you can’t go get it filled!”

Full Article:

The First Senator To Support Legalizing Marijuana? (with Poll)

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Shenna Bellows, ME-Sen candidate.
 
“I’m not gonna win by being overly cautious or afraid of what people think about who I am or what I represent,” Bellows said. “I may win by being bolder and more honest about the change this country needs. So supporting marijuana legalization is being smart on crime because there are real crimes that do harm to our communities, crimes against persons, that we absolutely need to address. And we need to fund our police departments and our local infrastructure. But when we waste government resources in locking nonviolent offenders up and more resources on spying on ordinary Americans, then that is reducing resources available to really focus on those people who would do us real harm.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/01/13/1269427/-The-First-Senator-To-Support-Legalizing-Marijuana-with-Poll

Urgent Need for Hemp – Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette / January 12, 1943

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I found this here:  https://www.facebook.com/IowaHempforVictory
 
If the print is too small for you to read, this is what it says:
Mason City (Iowa) Globe Gazette / January 12, 1943:
To the Farmers of Cerro Gordo and other north central Iowa counties
HEMP is a war crop for Iowa. If you’ll raise a few acres of HEMP in 1943, it will make you money and you will help save the lives of our boys in the armed services.
You know…the production of war crops is as essential a contribution to the national war effort as the production of planes and tanks. Much has been asked of the Iowa farmer, and he has responded willingly to the call. Acreage adjustments have been called for, along with increases in the livestock population. Now the farmers of this area, comprising 15 or so north-central counties, have been asked, in addition, to grow at least 60,000 acres of a wholly new crop, HEMP.
PLANTINGS HAVE BEEN MADE
The production of HEMP in the United States has become a war necessity. There is an urgent need for large quantities of HEMP for the manufacture of rope and other types of cordage for the Army, Navy, Merchant Marine and essential civilian uses. The source of abaca, the hard fiber ordinarily used in making rope, has been cut off, due to the war, and HEMP is the best known substitute. HEMP fiber is extremely strong and not only makes satisfactory rope but also is in great demand for the preparation of special threads and twines.
SOILS FOR GROWING HEMP
Although Hemp is known to grow on a wide variety of soils, the dark, fertile prairie soils, such as we have here, are considered best for the production of high yields of good grade fiber. The climate here is also ideal for HEMP raising.
WILL PURCHASE HEMP STRAW
Commodity Credit agrees to purchase all HEMP straw delivered to the local mill by the grower at the following prices:
$50 per ton for class 1 straw
$40 per ton for class 2 straw
$35 per ton for class 3 straw
$30 per ton for class 4 straw
Grading of straw is to be done by persons approved by Commodity Credit in accordance with classes and regulations to be established. Commodity Credit agrees to stack the HEMP straw at the local mill.
COMPLETE CHANGE IN FACTORIES
Many entire factories, located throughout the United States, have had to cease the production of peacetime goods, and are now making articles of war. A complete change of production. But, farmers of this community have not been asked to shift their entire crops. Your government is asking you to raise HEMP on less than 2 per cent of your crop land, or less than 4 per cent of your corn ground, and to use less than 10 per cent of your land for all war crops. To do this may be considered a sacrifice. If so, it is a very small one compared to the many sacrifices our boys are making on the various battle fronts.
MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE
The farmers of Cerro Gordo and other north-central Iowa counties may want more information about HEMP raising. You may want to know about seedbed preparation, date of seeding, kind of seed and how obtained, harvesting, yields, income per acre, and so forth. Such information and more, too, can be had. Just see your Township AAA committeeman, or go the County office. In Mason City the County AAA office is at 222 Second Street Northeast – one-half block west of the post office.
TERRIBLE THINGS HAPPENING
A global war is waging. Terrible things are happening all over the world. Men are dying. Women and children are starving. Why? Because there are evil people in the world, men who call themselves the Axis. And it’s our job to make them stop – to see that they never trouble the world again. That’s what this war is all about.
To do our job we’ve go to knock out the Axis. And a lot of us men would like to do it with our fists…or our own guns. We can’t all do that. There’s other work that Uncle Sam wants us to do. So let’s help knock out the Axis with that work. Farmers…you can help do it by raising ten or so acres of HEMP in1943. Every acre is a nail in Hitler’s coffin. Every acre of HEMP will help blow the Jap off this earth. And by raising HEMP you are not only patriotic, but you can raise it at a good profit to yourself.
AS ABOUT HEMP RAISING
Now, see your Township AAA committeeman or go to your County AAA office right away. Ask about HEMP raising…and be sure to grow a few acres in 1943.

Sentenced To Life In Prison For Selling Marijuana

saki.knafo@huffingtonpost.com
politics
 
Even as pot shops rake in millions in Colorado, and the possibility grows of the drug becoming legal in as many as a dozen other states, a handful of Americans are serving life sentences for selling marijuana.
At least 25 people have been condemned to live out their days behind bars because they were involved in the marijuana trade, according to The Human Solution, a pot advocacy group. Some played relatively small roles in larger distribution rings and got life sentences in part because they refused to plead guilty and testify against associates. Others held positions of power in major trafficking organizations.
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/marijuana-lifers_n_4578030.html

The Make-A-Kush Foundation – Kids, Cancer, and Medical Marijuana

By Krishna Andavolu
big-dream
 
“The Big Big Dream,” a drawing by Mykayla Comstock, an eight-year-old leukemia patient who takes massive doses of THC to treat her disease. She keeps a staple-bound journal of her dreams.
 
“Friday the 13th, [January] 2012, was the day we got told that she had a mass in her chest the size of a basketball,” Brandon Krenzler, her stepfather, told me. “Her oncologist said that the chemotherapy wasn’t doing what it was supposed to. They were going to recommend us to start considering full-body radiation and a bone-marrow transplant. So we gave her her first dose of cannabis oil. Six days later, it was in full remission.”
 
Full Article:
http://www.vice.com/read/the-make-a-kush-foundation-0000198-v21n1
 

School Drug Tests Don’t Work, but ‘Positive Climate’ Might

ScienceDaily: Your source for the latest research news
and science breakthroughs -- updated daily
 
School drug testing does not deter teenagers from smoking marijuana, but creating a “positive school climate” just might, according to research reported in the January issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.
 
Full Article:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140113100612.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29