By Paul Gattis | pgattis@al.com

 
 
CULLMAN, Alabama – Christopher Butts, executive director of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, remains in a Cullman County jail after being arrested Saturday and charged with trafficking marijuana.
Ronda Crawford of the Cullman County sheriff’s department said today that Butts, 42, and three other people were arrested at rural home on County Road 821 southwest of Cullman.
A child who was at the home with the four adults at the time of the arrests was turned over to the department of human resources, Cullman County Sheriff Mike Rainey said. Arrangements were made for the child to stay with family members, Rainey said.
About 35 marijuana plants as well as some buds were seized when the arrests were made, Rainey said.
Full Article:
http://blog.al.com/breaking/2013/12/head_of_alabama_medical_mariju.html
 
President and Executive Director of the Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition, Chris Butts, has worked tirelessly for over a decade as an advocate for medical marijuana in the state of Alabama. He is currently being held at the Cullman County Detention Center on a $1 MILLION bond!
He and his family are in desperate need of your help! They have set up an account to raise money for his defense fund. No amount is too small- it all adds up! If you are able, please donate through Paypal using the following email address: chrisbuttsfund@gmail.com or at any Wells Fargo branch:
Chris Butts Donation Fund:
Routing # 062000080 , Acct # 6720190567
You can also write or send a card- He would LOVE to hear from you!
Christopher Butts
A214
c/o Cullman Co. Detention
1900 Beech Ave SW
Cullman, AL 35055
https://www.facebook.com/AMMJC

By Steve Muratore, Safer Arizona

Look for like-minded activists wearing these t-shirts,come out and take a stand for FREEDOM.
 
Cannabis activists working to put the Safer Arizona citizens initiative, to legalize marijuana possession and use, on the 2014 general election ballot will gather at the Arizona State Capitol for an “End Marijuana Prohibition Demonstration,” on Monday, January 13, 2014 from 9 am until 11 am.
The Capitol is located at 1700 West Washington St. in Phoenix. Public parking is available at Wesley Bolin Plaza, on the east side of 17th Avenue; or just off of 19th Avenue on the west side of the executive tower.
 
Full Article:
http://thejointblog.com/end-marijuana-prohibition-demonstration-phoenix-arizona/?fb_action_ids=716345395057345&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%5B272462719576009%5D&action_type_map=%5B%22og.likes%22%5D&action_ref_map=%5B%5D

By Inés Acosta

“We are making history: Uruguay approves the regulation of marijuana” reads this poster by an advocacy group that lobbied for state regulation and control of marijuana. Credit: Courtesy Proderechos.
 
The price of marijuana to be sold in authorised pharmacies has not yet been set. Collazo estimates that the price per gram should be between 1.00 and 1.50 dollars – the current cost of illegal cannabis.
 
Full Article:
http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/01/next-step-uruguay-competitive-quality-marijuana/
 

By Gerry Georgatos

 
During the last few years it became my personal witness how broken justice is in this nation when I came across Indonesian children in Australian adult jails. In campaigning for the freedom of these children I went to every agency in Australia and ultimately to the Prime Minister. No-one wanted to know, and everyone was prepared to pass the buck.
I confronted Prime Minister Julia Gillard about the fact that there were Indonesian children in our adult prisons. She froze – in silence, maintaining that attrition.
People should never be considered as expendable. Only those who have something to hide run from the truth.
Ms Corby has been treated by the Australian Government as if she is expendable, just as were the Indonesian children I came across, many of whom we have since freed.
It is time the Australian Government began in sincerity its duty to Schapelle Corby – in that they commit to her release from prison, even if it means owning up to their own horrid mistakes, to shameful conduct, to various complicity, to the fact that the 4.1 kilos of marijuana were probably planted in Ms Corby’s luggage by corrupted individuals – within transit – within Customs. In recent times, Australian Customs officers have been exposed as the middlepersons in drugs trafficking.
 
Full Article:
http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=633928

By Scott Gacek

 
 
HARRISBURG, PA — A comprehensive bill to allow the use of medical marijuana in Pennsylvania is expected to be filed Monday by Senators Daylin Leach, a Democrat, and Mike Folmer, a Republican.
Intentions to introduce bi-partisan bill, the Governor Raymond Shafer Compassionate Use of Medical Cannabis Act, was announced late last year.  The bill has received input from lawmakers, healthcare professionals, parents, patients, activists from local and national marijuana law reform organizations, and medical marijuana industry professionals from other states, including Colorado.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thedailychronic.net/2014/27131/pennsylvania-medical-marijuana-bill-filed-monday/

ANNIKA SMETHURST

 
Cheri O’Connell with daughter Tara and son Sean. Source: News Limited
 

Victorian mum Cheri O’Connell spoke out about the benefits of liquid marijuana, which she says saved her epileptic daughter who was only given months to live.
“These issues in terms of approving medications are issues for the Therapeutic Goods Administration under the Federal Government,” Dr Napthine said.
“They base their decisions on the best medical advice and science. That’s the way these decisions ought to be based and I support that process.”
Eight-year-old Tara was having up to 60 seizures a day but has made a miraculous recovery since her mother , Cheri started giving her liquid cannabis made in Nimbin.
 
Full Article:
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/desperate-parents-turn-to-medical-marijuana-in-lastditch-effort-to-improve-their-childrens-lives/story-fni0fit3-1226799787147

JOE DOLCE

Lester Grinspoon
 
Last week the New York Times columnist David Brooks wrote a piece,“Weed Been There, Done That,” which slammed the legalization of marijuana in Colorado and other states and labeled users stupid at worst and indolent at best. Among other criticisms, he wrote that cannabis is “not a particularly uplifting form of pleasure and should be discouraged more than encouraged.”
In making his case, Brooks cited long-debunked research and relied on old stereotypes that serious scholars discredited decades ago. One of the leading thinkers on the topic is Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Harvard psychiatrist and author of the 1971 classic, Marihuana Reconsidered, an exhaustive study of the scientific, medical, cultural and legal arguments against the plant. That book stripped away the myths, lies and distortions surrounding cannabis and sparked an enormous debate in this country and around the world. Joe Dolce spoke to the doctor, who is 85, from his home in Newton, Massachusetts.
 
Full Article:
http://www.mademan.com/dr-lester-grinspoon-on-david-brooks-weed-been-there-done-that/

Erin Cox | The Baltimore Sun

By Steve Fox

(Alex Nabaum for The Washington Post)
 

By NICK SCHWARTZ