BY CARIMAH TOWNES

 
s the battle to decriminalize — and legalize — weed in the U.S. continues, another country is taking a giant leap towards eliminating its stringent drug laws. In the near future, Ireland will decriminalize marijuana, cocaine, and heroin possession. Medically-supervised injection rooms will also soon be available to drug users, in order to reduce the stigma of addiction.
Ireland is following in the footsteps of countries that have started to tire of the fallout from the war on drugs driven by U.S. policy.
On Monday, during a speech at the London School of Economics, Minister of Drugs Aodhán Ó Ríordáin announced plans to open the injection centers for drug users in Dublin next year. Ríordáin also divulged that the parliamentary committee on Justice, Defence and Equality strongly supports decriminalization across the board, and will work towards making that a reality in 2016.
Calling on a “radical” shift in drug policy, Ríordáin pointed to the public health implications of decriminalization and the extent to which national funds are spent on law enforcement and court efforts to crack down on drug use.
“Too often those with drug problems suffer from stigma, due to a lack of understanding or public education about the nature of addiction. This stigma can be compounded for those who end up with a criminal record due to possession of drugs for their own use,” he said. “Addiction is not a choice, it’s a healthcare issue. This is why I believe it is imperative that we approach our drug problem in a more compassionate and sensitive way.”
 
Full Article:
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/11/04/3718843/ireland-drug-decriminalization/

BY JANET PATTON

Steve Bevan of GenCanna, left, and Andy Graves looked at a hemp plant on Graves’ farm near Winchester. GenCanna moved from Canada to Kentucky. HERALD-LEADER
 
Tucked away off a narrow country road in Clark County, in the middle of a farm, 27 acres of hemp grew all summer. Now, the plants will be harvested and processed.
Kentucky, hailed as a leader by industrial hemp advocates, has grown the hemp. Now the state is working on growing the industry.
“In two years, we’ve come a long way,” said Agriculture Commissioner James Comer, who is now running for Congress. “We’ve proven first of all that it’s not a drug, which was very important for the opposition to realize. And we’ve proven it’s economically viable, or there wouldn’t be 22 companies that have made an investment in the state. … What we’re doing now is working with the companies that want to go to the next step to commercialize the product. ”

by Medicinal Mike Boris

 
Nuglife’s Comedian Medicinal Mike Boris ‘Myself” awarded Tommy Chong the “Lifetime Achievement Canna Belt” and Jeannie Herer the “Activism Canna Belt” live on stage at Las Vegas Hempfest!
The Cannabis Belts were created by Michael Boris to raise awareness to cannabis regulations and those that stand to fight against prohibition. Cannabis activism is a thankless non paying job and it is time that we as a community stop and help educate those around us.
 
Full Article:
http://nugliferadio.com/nugliferadio-awards-tommy-chong-and-jeannie-herer-cannabis-belt-awards/

By Brian Nearing

Hempcrete insulation is applied between the joists in Jim Savage’s renovated 1850s farmhouse in Stuyvesant, Columbia County.
 
As the state takes its first tentative steps to allow growing of hemp, a Hudson Valley entrepreneur is betting that the plant — the non-psychoactive cousin of marijuana — will become a cash crop for an ecologically friendly building material.
Jim Savage is a former Wall Street analyst who lives in a 150-year-old farmhouse in Stuyvesant, Columbia County, that he has insulated in part using so-called “hempcrete” — a slurry-like blend of water, lime and the ground-up, balsa-like interior of the hemp plant.
 
Full Article:
http://www.timesunion.com/tuplus-business/article/Hemp-houses-raise-high-hopes-in-Hudson-Valley-6567143.php
 

Kristy Cameron

 
A local chef is leading Ottawa-Gatineau’s first-ever “Cooking with Cannabis” class on Tuesday night.
As the country braces to discuss the legalization of marijuana with the newly elected Liberal party, National Access Cannabis is hosting the event at Tante Carole restaurant in Chelsea.
 
Full Article:
http://www.cfra.com/news/2015/11/03/local-chef-hosts-cooking-with-cannabis-class-at-chelsea-restaurant

By Connor Bland

Several United States veterans have formed a coalition called Weed for Warriors with a goal to shed light on and fight for veterans’ right to choose cannabis over prescription pills. Many veterans have come forward to support the use of cannabis to treat symptoms of several conditions commonly suffered by those who have served in the military, including post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), pain, anxiety, and depression.
 
Full Article:
https://www.whaxy.com/news/weed-for-warriors-project

By The Associated Press

 
The latest developments in Ohio’s general election as voters decide issues including whether to legalize marijuana (all times EST):

Ballot details

Issue 3: The proposed constitutional amendment would allow adults 21 and older to grow, possess and use pot while making it available for medical use. Home-growers would be limited to four flowering marijuana plants and 8 ounces of usable marijuana at a given time for personal use. Pot sold commercially would have to come from 10 authorized growing sites that are already spoken for.
Issue 2: An initiative by state legislators that seeks to ban monopolies from Ohio’s constitution and specifically targets the designated commercial growing sites in Issue 3.
If both ballot questions are approved by Ohio voters, a court will likely decide the issue.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/11/03/exit-polling-ohio-voters-marijuana-legalization/43219/

John Converse Townsend

 
Cotton. You love it, I love it, but Mother Nature freakin’ hates it.
About 20 million tons of cotton are produced each and every year, making it far and away the world’s most profitable non-food crop. But it’s resource intensive in a big way.
It takes about 20,000 liters of water to produce just one kilogram of cotton. To put that in perspective: The average American drinks about 214 liters of water per year, which means you’d have to live into your early 90s to consume as much water as a single T-shirt or pair of jeans. There’s also the issue of chemicals. A combined 35 percent of the world’s insecticides and pesticides is applied to cotton plants, which grow on less than 3 percent of the crop land on Earth. Runoff can destroy sensitive ecosystems, even if chemicals are “properly applied according to technical instructions.”
Fashion’s dependence on cotton has led to a monocropping problem in India, the world’s second-largest producer of cotton, behind China, and one of the worst environmental offenders in the apparel industry.
But a quick fix might be found in the non-psychoactive plant in the cannabis family, hemp.
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-converse-townsend/goodbye-cotton-hello-hemp_b_8401262.html

By Phillip Smith / AlterNet

Taking advantage of a 2014 Justice Department memo giving Indian tribes a green light to participate in marijuana commerce, as well as a 2014 congressional vote allowing for industrial hemp pilot programs, Wisconsin’s Menominee Tribe earlier this year planted some 30,000 cannabis plants as part of a pilot project with the College of the Menominee Nation.

The DEA says the plants were marijuana plants; the tribe says they were hemp plants. In either case, tribal officials and marijuana reform advocates don’t understand why the grow was raided. Even if it were marijuana, it appears to be an operation well within Justice Department guidelines. And that’s leading to some pointed questions about whether the feds have one standard for the pot-legal states and another for the tribes.
 
Full Article:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/dea-indian-country-marijuana-raid-double-standard