By Tom McKay
If you live in Kansas, better teach your kids to “just say no” when the teachers tell them to.
After an elementary school student in Garden City told anti-drug counselors they were wrong about marijuana, the school got the local police officers to search the student’s residence. When they found a small amount of weed, the kid was transferred to state custody.
Full Article:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YUEdytQ6FHc
By Ed Wenck
Photos by Michelle Craig
The headlines are tremendous:
This Guy Just Used The Indiana Religious Freedom Law To Open A Church Of Cannabis — The Libertarian Republic
Indiana’s Church of Cannabis Growing Like a Weed — U.S. News and World Report
Whoops: Indiana’s anti-gay ‘religious freedom’ act opens the door for the First Church of Cannabis — Raw Story
And most of the stories in print and online include the mug of a dude most Indy residents probably recognize: pot activist and sometime-political candidate Bill Levin. Levin’s shock of white hair and joyfully craggy face first went nationally viral with his City-County Council campaign ad in 2011, a commercial that closed with Bill’s signature tagline:
“One love.”
Levin’s now founded the First Church of Cannabis — it’s one of those unintended consequences of Indiana’s version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the law that was eventually “clarified” by the legislature after a massive backlash. Opponents said RFRA was primarily intended to allow businesses to discriminate against a single class of Hoosiers who aren’t protected under Indiana’s broader civil rights statutes: LGBTQ citizens.
Ironically, the Federal version of RFRA in part stemmed from the use of a controlled substance by two Native Americans. The pair were denied unemployment compensation after being fired from their jobs for testing positive for the psychoactive components in peyote, a drug they used in religious ceremonies.
Levin decided to found his church the very day Gov. Mike Pence signed Indiana’s RFRA into law. As theWashington Post reported on March 30, ” Secretary of State Connie Lawson approved the church as a religious corporation with the stated intent ‘to start a church based on love and understanding with compassion for all.'”
Full Article:
http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/holy-smoke-bill-levins-first-church-of-cannabis/Content?oid=3116589
Maria Boynton
Participants in the 2015 Sickle Cell Foundation Race and Walk in East Point, Ga (Photo courtesy of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia)
Patients with Sickle Cell Disease will be among those covered when Georgia’s medical marijuana bill becomes law. Governor Nathan Deal’s office says that he will sign the bill tomorrow. It would allow patients with sickle cell and 7 other illnesses to bring cannabis oil from other states without fear of prosecution.
Full Article:
http://v103.cbslocal.com/2015/04/15/sickle-cell-patients-excited-as-medical-marijuana-bill-is-about-to-become-law-in-georgia/
By Denise Key
Kihei — On Wednesday the final two committees of the Hawaii Senate approved a new agricultural bill that provides qualified farmers and ranches funds to offset the high cost of feed for livestock. HB 508 SD1—contains added language that allows farmers to grow industrial hemp for animal feed research. Next week it goes to the senate floor for a vote.
Full Article:
http://mauitvnews.com/blog/2015/04/10/hawai%CA%BBi-ag-lands-could-be-green-again-with-industrial-hemp/
By , The Cannabist Staff
Melissa Etheridge is equal parts musician and activist, and in recent years the singer-songwriter’s activism has expanded to include marijuana legalization.
In June 2014, Etheridge spoke out to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with an impassioned speech: “As a cancer survivor, I know the ravages of a serious illness, and patients who are suffering deserve access to a medication that can provide them relief,” she said just a few days before a Democratic-led assembly passed medical marijuana legislation in the state.
Full Article:
http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/04/09/melissa-etheridge-cannabis/32885/
Debra Borchardt Contributor
Today’s major pharmaceutical companies were the original medical marijuana sellers. Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis (now owned by Pfizer) and Squibb of Bristol-Myers Squibb all sold medical marijuana at the turn of the century. In a 1919 medical catalog, these companies listed several cannabis products.
Back then, most medicines were the same – the original generics. So it was up to good marketing and brand recognition to get people to buy one particular company’s drug over another. According to the Antique Cannabis Book, almost 6% of all manufactured drugs at the turn of the century contained cannabis in one form or another. For example, Squibb sold cannabis in powder form, tablets, fluid extracts and tinctures. However, Squibb wasn’t even the leader at the time with only 15 cannabis products in its lineup.
Full Article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/debraborchardt/2015/04/08/pfizer-eli-lilly-were-the-original-medical-marijuana-sellers/
By Ray Stern
Andrew Pielage
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in two cases today that prosecutors can’t ban people on parole or probation from using medical marijuana.
Because medical marijuana is a medicine when used under the state’s voter-authorized program, the court stated in its opinions, patients should be allowed to use it — even when conditions of probation ban the consumption of alcohol.
Interestingly, as part of the rulings, the state’s highest court rejected the idea that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act conflicted with federal law.
Full Article:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2015/04/arizona_supreme_court_oks_pot_for_patients_on_probation_says_no_federal_con.php
By
The church is “based on love and understanding with compassion for all” and has cannabis listed as its sacrament.
Full Article:
http://atlantadailyworld.com/2015/04/04/first-church-of-cannabis-approved-in-indiana/
