Cannabis Connection: A Primer for Jeff Sessions on Marijuana and Opioids

By David Jenison
Cannabis Connection: A Primer for Jeff Sessions on Marijuana and Opioids
 
“I see a line in the Washington Post today that I remember from the ‘80s: ‘Marijuana is a cure for opiate abuse,’” said Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently. ”’Give me a break. This is the kind of argument that’s been made out there to just … [it’s] almost a desperate attempt to defend the harmlessness of marijuana or even its benefits. I doubt that’s true.’”
This is yet another example of why cannabis regulation should be taken out of the hands of law enforcement and put exclusively under the purview of medical professionals. Even the most cursory examination of the evidence suggests that cannabis can likely play a role in pain management and opioid addiction recovery. The same law enforcement agencies that claim cannabis has absolutely no medical value (they really say that) also severely restricts research into its medical benefits since they claim they already know it has none (and they really say that), but consider what evidence researchers have compiled already.
 
Full Article: 
https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/03/cannabis-connection-a-primer-for-jeff-sessions-on.html

Freedom Leaf Exclusive Interview: Eddy Lepp


Eddy Lepp
 
On the morning of August 18 2004, DEA agents raided Eddy’s Medicinal Gardens and Multi-Denominational Chapel of Cannabis and Rastafari in Upper Lake, Calif. They arrested Charles Eddy Lepp, who had been allowing patients to cultivate cannabis for medical purposes on his property; the 24,784 plants confiscated on his 20 acres were clearly visible from State High-way 20. In 1997, he was raided, arrested, charged and acquitted by local and state authorities for doing the same thing. But then the Feds stepped in: Lepp was convicted of federal drug felonies in 2007, and sentenced in 2009 to a 10-year mandatory- minimum prison bid.
Born on May 14, 1952 in La Harpe, Ill., Lepp was raised in Reno, Nev. and served in the U.S. Army’s military intelligence unit in Vietnam from 1969–1972, where he discovered cannabis. Lepp’s epiphany on the medical use of marijuana came in 1987, when his father used it to battle cancer, and then rose in prominence as a marijuana activist in the early 1990s. He and his late wife, Linda Senti, gathered signatures for California’s Proposition 215, and soon after its passage in 1996, Lepp formed the Medicinal Gardens that earned him his first arrest. During his time in prison, Senti passed away, and eight states, including California, legalized the adult use of cannabis. On Dec. 9, Lepp was released from prison into a halfway house in San Francisco, where he began the probationary portion of his sentence. Freedom Leaf spoke with Lepp by phone in January.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.freedomleaf.com/eddy-lepp-interview/

Cannabis prohibition discriminates against elderly

From left, Mikael Aldridge, with parents Beverley and Owen Aldridge.

Beverley Aldridge, centre, with son Mikael, left, and husband Owen, at Parliament today. Photo: RNZ / Chris Bramwell

A Parliamentary select committee is considering a petition from a group of Northland retirees who want cannabis legalised so they can grow it in their gardens.
The spokesperson for the group, Beverley Aldridge, said none of them currently take or grow the drug, but they do want to as they’ve seen their loved ones dying in extreme pain.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/political/326235/cannabis-prohibition-discriminates-‘against-elderly’

CSU-Pueblo awarded 900K for Cannabis Institute

By Laura Wilson
Image result for CSU-Pueblo
 
CSU-Pueblo’s marijuana research efforts continue to grow.
They’re expected to receive another $900,000 from the state for the college’s Institute of Cannabis Research.
The funding was unanimously approved by the Colorado General Assembly Joint Budget Committee.
That first $900,000 came in this past June, so the institute has already been able to get started on some of its medical marijuana research.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.koaa.com/story/34702039/csu-pueblo-awarded-900k-for-cannabis-institute

Mothers in Peru Lead the Fight for Medical Cannabis Legislation

Tyler Koslow

Image result for Medical cannabis
 
Most of us are aware of the growing support for cannabis across the United States and Canada, but the movement is far from confined to North America. Medical and recreationally legal marijuana has also been taking root in South America, from full-scale legalization in Uruguay to decriminalization in Chile.
Now, thanks to a group of caring mothers, medical marijuana may soon find a home in the mountainous and generally conservative country of Peru. Public support has blossomed after a police raid on a makeshift marijuana lab run by women looking to ease the symptoms of their sick children.
Unexpectedly, the “drug bust” ended up amplifying the women’s plight on national television, creating a massive boom in public support. The backlash towards the police raid has pressured President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to set aside outdated drug restriction laws and propose medical cannabis legislation.
 
Full Article: 
https://www.merryjane.com/news/mothers-in-peru-lead-fight-for-medical-marijuana

Georgia mother’s journey to the front lines of marijuana advocacy

By Adam Kincaid / For the AJC

 
Janea Cox, her husband Brian, their 7-year-old daughter Haleigh and their chocolate Lab Kala left their Forsyth home in December 2016 for their semi-annual trip to Colorado. They flew into Denver and made their way toward Colorado Springs in a rental car, squeezing the three of them, a wheelchair and the dog into the small, four-door sedan. A handicap-equipped van would have been better, but the economy ride was what they could afford.
The family checked into a budget hotel and went to sleep; not that they ever sleep well, or for very long. Young Haleigh was up through the night, as usual. She has epilepsy so severe she requires constant oversight. For most of her life, her young brain hasn’t been seizure-free long enough to develop normally. So she gets around in a wheelchair, receives nourishment through a feeding tube and is barely able to communicate. Haleigh is a prisoner in her own body.
She also has type one diabetes. Kala is a service dog specially trained to check blood sugar levels by smell and alert handlers of spikes — to do what Haleigh cannot do for herself, to speak out when she needs help.
These family trips are not fun. They stretch the Coxes to their financial limit. And they take everything Janea and Brian have just to get to the offices of the Flowering Hope Foundation, where botanist Jason Cranford dispenses his specially formulated cannabis oil, Haleigh’s Hope, named after his special client. Janea believes it is the only thing that has kept her daughter alive.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.myajc.com/lifestyles/haleigh-hope/zQktGMyUAaozLeTp79YMKP/

Cork Mum’s second epic walk to access cannabis for her sick child

BY ALISON BOUGH
Cork Mum's second epic walk to access cannabis for her sick child
 

Cork mum Vera Twomey has embarked on a second 155 mile walk from Cork to Dublin in a bid to get Health Minister Simon Harris to allow her daughter access medicinal cannabis.

Vera’s seven-year-old daughter Ava Barry has a drug-resistant form of epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome which can cause her to have up to twenty seizures a day. The heartbroken mum-of-four, from Aghabullogue, has led a high-profile campaign for legislation that will allow Ava to get a prescription for medicinal marijuana, which she says will reduce her daughter’s seizures by ninety percent.
Speaking to HerFamily this morning Vera said that she is still awaiting a response from the Health Minister,

“I’m just outside Mitchelstown at the moment, it’s very wet and miserable. We haven’t heard anything from Simon Harris or the HSE.
I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t have to. I have four children and I’ve had to walk out on them. Ava is seven, Sophia is five, Michael is four, and my youngest Elvera-Mae is only two.
No mother should have to leave their family to get legislative change but there has been no justice for my child.”

 
Full Article: 
https://www.herfamily.ie/news/cork-mums-second-epic-walk-access-cannabis-sick-child-252187

Senator Tick Segerblom Wants Cannabis Stores in Las Vegas by Summer

ED MURRIETA
Image result for Tick Segerblom
 
Nevada voters passed adult-use legalization back in November. According to Question 2, the state’s retail market doesn’t have to open until 2018. But state Sen. Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas) wants to speed up the process. Earlier this week he introduced measures that would open up the state’s retail market by mid-2017, and allow the licensing of cannabis lounges. If Segerblom’s legislation prevails, what’s happened in Amsterdam for the past 50 years will become the future of cannabis tourism in Las Vegas and across the Silver State into the 21st century.
 
Full Article: 
https://www.leafly.com/news/politics/tick-segerblom-wants-cannabis-stores-las-vegas-summer

Encourage Your Members of Congress to Join the Congressional Cannabis Caucus

By Johnny Green
Congressional meetingWill you support the first ever Congressional Cannabis Caucus?
 
Last year was the biggest year in the history of cannabis reform. The 2016 Election victories brought the total number of legal adult-use states to 8 (and Washington D.C.).
The total number of states that have legalized cannabis for medical purposes is now up to 28 (and Washington D.C.) according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
According to Vote Hemp, 31 states have legalized hemp pilot programs and/or for research purposes. The momentum for reform has never been greater.
But there are still a lot of issues facing consumers and industry members today, despite recent victories. Cannabis consumers still face discrimination in the workplace and when looking for housing.
People are still sitting in prison for cannabis only offenses. The cannabis industry still desperately needs 280E tax reform, asset forfeiture reform, and adequate access to banking.
Reform at the federal level is going to be vital to the future of the cannabis movement, which is not going to be easy given the fact that the current Congress is controlled by conservatives, and the White House is full of longtime cannabis opponents. But there is help on the way.
Roughly two months ago news broke that members of Congress would be banding together to create the first ever ‘Congressional Cannabis Caucus.’
 
Full Article: 
https://www.learngreenflower.com/articles/378/encourage-your-members-of-congress-to-join-the-congressional-cannabis-caucus

Gov. Kate Brown to Trump: Hands off Oregon legal pot biz

Andrew Selsky, Associated Press , KGW

(Photo: Josh Edelson / AFP / Getty Images)
 
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown says the federal government should leave the state’s legal marijuana industry alone. Brown says that if the Trump administration makes a move against legalized recreational marijuana, it would be going against its own goals such as improving the economy, creating jobs and giving states more say in policies.
In an interview, Brown said, “Let our people grow these jobs.”
 
Full Article: 
http://www.kgw.com/news/politics/gov-kate-brown-to-trump-hands-off-oregon-legal-pot-biz/417099989