Cannabis Rx: Cutting Through the Misinformation

If an American doctor of the late 19th century stepped into a time warp and emerged in 2010, he would be shocked by the multitude of pharmaceuticals that today’s physicians use. But as he pondered this array (and wondered, as I do, whether most are really necessary), he would soon notice an equally surprising omission, and exclaim, “Where’s my Cannabis indica?”
No wonder — the poor fellow would feel nearly helpless without it. In his day, labor pains, asthma, nervous disorders and even colicky babies were treated with a fluid extract of Cannabis indica, also known as “Indian hemp.” (Cannabis is generally seen as having three species — sativa, indica and ruderalis — but crossbreeding is common, especially between sativa and indica.) At least 100 scientific papers published in the 19th century backed up such uses.
Then the Marihuana Tax Act of 1937 made possession or transfer of Cannabis illegal in the U.S. except for certain medical and industrial uses, which were heavily taxed. The legislation began a long process of making Cannabis use illegal altogether. Many historians have examined this sorry chapter in American legislative history, and the dubious evidence for Cannabis addiction and violent behavior used to secure the bill’s passage. “Under the Influence: The Disinformation Guide to Drugs” by Preston Peet makes a persuasive case that the Act’s real purpose was to quash the hemp industry, making synthetic fibers more valuable for industrialists who owned the patents.
Meanwhile, as a medical doctor and botanist, my aim has always been to filter out the cultural noise surrounding the genus Cannabis and see it dispassionately: as a plant with bioactivity in human beings that may have therapeutic value. From this perspective, what can it offer us?
As it turns out, a great deal. Research into possible medical uses of Cannabis is enjoying a renaissance. In recent years, studies have shown potential for treating nausea, vomiting, premenstrual syndrome, insomnia, migraines, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, alcohol abuse, collagen-induced arthritis, asthma, atherosclerosis, bipolar disorder, depression, Huntington’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, sickle-cell disease, sleep apnea, Alzheimer’s disease and anorexia nervosa.
But perhaps most exciting, cannabinoids (chemical constituents of Cannabis, the best known being tetrahydrocannabinol or THC) may have a primary role in cancer treatment and prevention. A number of studies have shown that these compounds can inhibit tumor growth in laboratory animal models. In part, this is achieved by inhibiting angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels that tumors need in order to grow. What’s more, cannabinoids seem to kill tumor cells without affecting surrounding normal cells. If these findings hold true as research progresses, cannabinoids would demonstrate a huge advantage over conventional chemotherapy agents, which too often destroy normal cells as well as cancer cells.
As long ago as 1975, researchers reported that cannabinoids inhibited the growth of a certain type of lung cancer cell in test tubes and in mice. Since then, laboratory studies have shown that cannabinoids have effects against tumor cells from glioblastoma (a deadly type of brain cancer) as well as those from thyroid cancer¸ leukemia/lymphoma, and skin, uterus, breast, stomach, colorectal, pancreatic and prostate cancers.
So far, the only human test of cannabinoids against cancer was performed in Spain, and was designed to determine if treatment was safe, not whether it was effective. (In studies on humans, such “phase one trials,” are focused on establishing the safety of a new drug, as well as the right dosage.) In the Spanish study, reported in 2006, the dose was administered intracranially, directly into the tumors of patients with recurrent brain cancer. The investigation established the safety of the dose and showed that the compound used decreased cell proliferation in at least two of nine patients studied.
It is not clear that smoking marijuana achieves blood levels high enough to have these anticancer effects. We need more human research, including well-designed studies to find the best mode of administration.
If you want to learn more about this subject, I recommend an excellent documentary film, “What If Cannabis Cured Cancer,” by Len Richmond, which summarizes the remarkable research findings of recent years. Most medical doctors are not aware of this information and its implications for cancer prevention and treatment. The film presents compelling evidence that our current policy on Cannabis is counterproductive.
Another reliable source of information is the chapter on cannabinoids and cancer in “Integrative Oncology” (Oxford University Press, 2009), a textbook I edited with integrative oncologist Donald I. Abrams, M.D. (Learn more about integrative cancer treatment from Dr. Abrams.)
After more than 70 years of misinformation about this botanical remedy, I am delighted that we are finally gaining a mature understanding of its immense therapeutic potential.

Medical marijuana patients find seeds hard to come by

New Mexico’s approach to medical marijuana is one of the most strictly regulated in the country, but patients here share problems with those in less regulated states when it comes to lawfully obtaining seeds or plants. Currently, New Mexico patients who are authorized to grow their own medical marijuana don’t have many legal ways to buy seeds or starter plants.
About half of the 14 states that allow medical marijuana require individuals or their caregivers to grow the drug privately. But the states say nothing about where those growers are supposed to get the seeds or seedling plants to get started.
It’s been a vexing issue for  New Mexico patients, about half of whom have a license to grow at home. Now the state has proposed a fix to the program that could change that.
New Mexico nonprofit producers aren’t allowed to sell seeds to patients
In New Mexico, authorized nonprofit growers are allowed to have 95 plants at any given time and individual patients can grow the drug at home. There isn’t a provision that allows other individuals to grow the drug at home, to then supply to patients. The law says nothing about how those home growers may acquire seeds or seedling plants, though.
Medical marijuana patient Dave Hall* knows the problem firsthand. He recently had his crop of 12 seedlings and four mature plants wiped out by a powdery white mildew. Since then, he’s tried to search out seedlings for sale but none have been available from non-profits. He could purchase seeds online, which is what he did originally, but they’re expensive and because they’re mailed through the U.S. postal service, he runs the risk that they will be confiscated.
“Growing medical marijuana is much more affordable than purchasing it from nonprofits,” he said, “but the lack of support systems in place to help people learn to grow and to get seedlings or seeds makes it difficult to sustain.”
State recognizes the problem
The seed issue is one of the things that the department is hoping to settle with proposed regulations that will be discussed at a public hearing in Santa Fe on Sept. 30, a spokesman for the New Mexico Department of Health told The Independent Thursday.
The new rule would allow patients who are licensed to grow marijuana for themselves to buy from a nonprofit producer up to 16 seeds every three months.
“It’s a very young program and as it continues to evolve we’re going to look at these kinds of issues and where we can make changes to improve it for all involved,” spokesman Chris Minnick said.
But Hall worries the new rule might not make access to seeds or seedlings easier. He’s afraid the nonprofit producers won’t want to sell seeds or plants, unless other rules are changed also.
Medical marijuana that patients buy directly from nonprofits should be grown without seeds, he said, because the per-ounce cost of the drug is high and seeds add to that weight. For that reason, producers won’t have much of an incentive to set aside a portion of their plant allowance for seed producing plants, he said.
Also, he explained, producers would not want to keep starter plants to sell to patients because once a plant has roots, no matter how small, it is considered part of that 95 plant quota. Producers are unlikely to want to set aside a portion of their plant allowance to sell as seedlings, since a mature plant would yield much more revenue.
In the meantime, patients’ options include purchasing them on the street or through the Internet, he said. And when it comes to purchasing a seedling, the black market is essentially the only option.
New Mexico’s program now has 2,250 active patients, 1,022 of whom are licensed to produce their own supply of medical marijuana.
*Dave Hall is not the real name of this patient, who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of legal issues between state and federal law.

The Future of Publishing is Wood-Free

The publishing world is changing, and whether in a screen or on the shelf, traditional wood-pulp paper must wave farewell.
Writers, and anyone in the publishing industry for that matter, use a lot of paper. This does not bode well for the trees. According to Hardy Green in “Pulpless Fiction” (The Business Week, June 23, 2008) an average of 30 million trees pay the price each year for our reading material. But the real environmental impact of print does not necessarily come from roots and leaves. For starters, transport emissions are surprisingly high from milling to printing to hauling books back and forth between the warehouse and the bookstore. Margo Baldwin, in “Zero-Waste Publishing” (Publishers Weekly, August 14, 2006) calculated that each book releases roughly 8.9 pounds of emission. In 2004, the gross sales of consumer books averaged a total of 188 million pounds of diesel fuel simply through transport. Solutions to this problem are three-tiered. The first tier, already in full force, is through e-publishing. It is relatively easy to do; many e-books require a simple Adobe Reader or Microsoft Player download (that is, if a reader didn’t want to buy a reader such as the Amazon Kindle or B&N Nook). The whole e-publishing industry works as a text-based equivalent of the iTunes impact on music or the Netflix impact on film. But this change is not as easy as it sounds. Jeff Hurst asserts in “e-Publishing” (Scientific Computing & Instrumentation, November 2000) that the academic world is concerned that e-publishing would make peer-reviewing much more difficult because it would allow anyone who wants to publish to do so, whether or not they necessarily should. However, the benefits in this increasingly digital age are pushing e-publishing through. Just the thought of carrying lots of information on small devices sends excited shivers down the spines of the more technical-minded, and the gold star from Mother Nature herself helps the eco-thoughtful to sleep a little better at night. But sadly for the traditional literati, the Kindle does not smell the way a 100-year-old binding does, and the satisfaction of turning pages cannot be matched by a simple scroll-down. The second tier, already implemented yet still kept rather under wraps, is the brain-child of Amazon.com and largely foreign to other booksellers. Amazon buys the books nonreturnable from the warehouse, then marks down excess inventory until it sells. Other major booksellers ship the excess books back to the publisher, often at least half of the original order. If other booksellers were to buy nonreturnable and simply mark down the price after a period of time, not only would they still make a profit off of the discounted books, but they would also save an average of 8.4 million gallons of diesel fuel, up to 30% of their time and the postage that sending the books back and forth would cost (Baldwin). Plus, since at least half these returned books are shipped to a landfill, the waste would drastically diminish. The third tier, which will be the biggest once it becomes more developed, is the development to find alternative methods to paper-making aside from traditional wood-pulp. The conservation of trees is not necessarily an issue, but rather the other elements that are involved in paper-making. There is research pending on more “green” paper, using fibers ranging from the bagasse plant (sugar cane), to kenaf (a long-fiber plant that originated in the East Indes and is grown in the U.S.). Kenaf, for example, can be produced at about half the cost-per-unit of wood pulp. Hemp is even a viable option; it can be recycled seven times, impressive compared to the four times for wood. Jim Motavalli states in “The Paper Chase” (E–The Environmental Magazine, May/June 2004) that hemp is stronger than wood, lasts longer, and the paper made from its pulp is both acid- and chlorine-free after treatments. Fortunately, the publishing industry is already beginning to understand the need for alternative methods of paper-making. Scholastic purchased 22 million pounds of FSC (Forestry Stewardship Council)-certified paper for the printing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the much-anticipated seventh book in the Harry Potter series. This is considered the largest paper purchase for a single book printing. According to Adam Dewitz from PrintCEOBlog, English-printed editions of HPDH saved 197,685 trees and 7.9 million kilograms of greenhouse gases. The eco-paper goes beyond the pulp, however. Mohawk Fine Papers announced itself as one of the top 25 largest purchasers of wind-generated electricity among manufacturing companies in the U.S. This increase, from 60 million to 100 million kWh RECs (renewable energy credits) now makes the company able to completely run both its New York and Ohio operations on completely wind-generated electricity. The future of publishing looks very green on the horizon, and as the Digital Age progresses the written word will see a new light. Whether pushing the button or physically turning the page, trees are on their way out. In their place is a breath of fresh, clean, and pure air, and in their wake is a small footprint

The buying and selling of legal marijuana

By David Harrison, Stateline Staff Writer
Photo illustration by iStock

Last week, Michigan authorities raided three Oakland County marijuana dispensaries, confiscated files and plants and arrested 15 people, charging them with dealing marijuana, among other offenses.The move stunned patients, who are allowed by state law to use the drug legally as long as they have a required state-issued card declaring medical need. But the statute, put on the books by a successful 2008 ballot initiative, says nothing about dispensaries. Instead, it only allows patients to grow their own pot, or to get it from a caregiver who can provide marijuana to no more than five people.
The Oakland County incident highlights a legal conundrum at the heart of many states’ marijuana laws. In seven of the 14 states that allow marijuana use for medical purposes, registered patients are allowed to grow their own supply or designate somebody as their grower. Michigan is one of those states. But the Michigan law is silent on how patients or their providers are supposed to begin growing an otherwise tightly controlled drug.
“The federal law says no [to dispensaries]. The state law says no,” says Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper.
But how are patients and caregivers supposed to get seeds and cuttings or learn how to grow marijuana without a dispensary to guide them?
“Beats the heck out of me,” Cooper says. “These statutes aren’t well written.”
Statutes such as the one in Michigan can present a chicken-and-egg problem: It’s legal for some people to smoke pot, but how they’re supposed to get it is less clear. “It’s a very gray area,” says Michelle Komorn, a Michigan attorney who represents medical marijuana patients. “How do I get started? How do I get seeds?”
In several of these states, entrepreneurs have opened dispensaries even though they are not explicitly permitted under state law. As the Michigan raids show, those dispensaries can find themselves in a tricky legal position. In Colorado, which has similar laws, Governor Bill Ritter this summer signed a bill requiring dispensaries to grow 70 percent of the pot they sell. The law was an effort to rein in the unregulated storefronts that have popped up around the state.
“None of these states have provided clarity in their laws,” says Allen St. Pierre, director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “Almost all parties, including prosecutors and law enforcement, seem to accept the magical quality of how the cannabis seems to arrive at the patient’s home.”
Murky legalities are nothing new when it comes to medical marijuana. Using marijuana with or without a prescription remains illegal under federal law. But a recent memo from the U.S. Justice Department suggests that the Obama administration won’t prosecute marijuana users who are abiding by state laws.
Legal tangles
Fourteen years after California became the first state to allow medical marijuana, states are increasingly confronted with unexpected problems in the rules governing the use and the distribution of the drug.
At first, states looking to allow medical marijuana viewed California as a model to avoid. That was because prescriptions were easy to get, and storefront dispensaries proliferated.
Oregon and Maine seemed to offer more prudent models, because they envisioned that patients would grow their own cannabis or get it from a trusted source, rather than allow storefronts to open. In many of the states that followed this model, people can legally use marijuana but they can’t legally buy it. Instead, they compensate growers for their services, or their labor — a legal distinction that keeps them from running afoul of the law.
Lately, however, the legal tangles surrounding home cultivation have states considering a return to the dispensary model, but with stringent safeguards to prevent retail sites from blossoming out of control.
In New Jersey last year, former Governor Jon Corzine signed one of the nation’s toughest medical marijuana laws. It prohibits home cultivation and allows only six nonprofit distribution centers, all of them tightly regulated by the state.
Medical marijuana also became legal this year in the District of Columbia, where patients will have to obtain it at a city-licensed dispensary. In Maryland, a bill with similar provisions sailed through the state Senate before getting bogged down in the House.
“Politicians now are very hesitant to allow home cultivation,” says St. Pierre. “Whereas that was pretty much what they were attracted to.”
States with existing medical marijuana laws have gone back to tweak them. Rhode Island last year allowed the operation of  “compassion centers” to dispense the drug to patients. In April, Maine enacted legislation that allows up to eight nonprofit dispensaries to operate. But Arkansas, Hawaii, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon, Vermont and Washington still give little or no guidance to patients looking to acquire seeds or cuttings.
In Oregon, a ballot initiative this November will attempt to clarify how plants get into patients’ hands. If approved, Measure 74 will allow dispensaries to open under the watch of the Oregon Health Authority. Jim Klahr, an Oregon medical marijuana advocate, says the measure will allow patients instant access to their medicine, rather than having to wait for their plants to mature. (For Stateline’s guide to this year’s ballot measures, click here.)
Right now, patients gather in informal swap meets to learn how to start cultivating marijuana and to exchange seeds or advice, all the while avoiding direct financial transactions. Oregon’s informal distribution system came under pressure in 2005 when a U.S. Supreme Court decision found that a patient using medical marijuana under California’s law was in violation of federal law. But an opinion from the Oregon Attorney General’s office said that the state’s program could continue despite the court’s ruling.
In Michigan, where a legislative fix seems unlikely, the 15 people arrested in Oakland County are awaiting trial. It takes a supermajority of 75 percent of the Legislature to amend a voter-initiated statute, which means that the confusion there is not likely to go away anytime soon.
“It’s really through the court system that this needs to be clarified,” Komorn says.

Barbara Boxer aide charged with possession of pot

By ERIKA LOVLEY
A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.
Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee — chaired by Boxer — was stopped by a police officer Tuesday morning when he allegedly tried to “remove and conceal” a leafy green substance from his pocket during a security screening at the Constitution Avenue door of the Hart building around noon, according to a Capitol Police report.
Police confiscated the substance, which later tested positive for marijuana, and Stanley quickly resigned.
“Marcus Stanley is no longer with this office,” Boxer spokesman Zachary Coile told POLITICO. “He submitted his resignation, and Sen. Boxer accepted it because his actions yesterday were wrong and unacceptable.”
Stanley has worked on Capitol Hill since 2007, according to financial disclosure records from Legistorm, and draws a six-figure salary. He has also worked for the Joint Economic Committee.
Marijuana possession has been an ongoing issue on the Capitol grounds, especially since the Capitol Visitor Center opened with additional screening facilities. In the past year and a half, more than a dozen people have been stopped for bringing marijuana into the Capitol complex, along with other drugs, including at least one instance involving cocaine, according to police records.
The legalization of marijuana is a hot issue in Boxer’s senatorial race as well as other California elections. California Democrats have been largely divided over Proposition 19, a ballot question that would legalize marijuana and allow the government to impose taxes on pot. Boxer and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have been opposed to the measure.
This is not the first time a member of Boxer’s senior staff has been arrested. Senior policy adviser Jeffrey Rosato, who also worked on the EPW committee, was fired in 2008 after he was arrested and charged with the receipt and distribution of child pornography.
Stanley is the fourth Hill aide to be arrested by Capitol Police this year, according to an analysis by POLITICO.

Ganja yoga combines marijuana and meditation

Following on the barefoot heels of hot yoga, circus yoga and hip hop yoga, cannabis-enhanced classes offer a way to cut through inhibitions
David Silverberg
They chat away breezily between vaporizer tokes, sometimes veering off into conspiracy theories about the government or discussions of the healthiest way to smoke marijuana. Then the 12 yoga lovers extend their arms and breathe deeply. Yoga mats cover the floor. A guitarist strums chords as incense weaves its tendrils across the room.
As the light haze of pot smoke dissipates in the downtown Toronto living room, the ganja yoga session begins.
“When you’re high, you can focus better on your breath,” says Dee Dussault, who runs a monthly session of “cannabis-enhanced yoga” at her home dubbed Follow Your Bliss.
“ Yoga and marijuana, together… It’s like putting salt on your food. It’s just a little enhancement.”— Tanya Pillay
She says smoking marijuana in small doses before a yoga class also makes students more receptive to the poses and philosophies behind the activities. “For some people, it makes them uninhibited and open to the idea of the heart chakra, for example.”
Heart chakras aside, ganja yoga has the THC whiff of being the latest yoga fad, following on the heels of hot yoga, circus yoga, pre- and postnatal yoga, acro yoga (acrobatics), even hip-hop yoga. While cannabis has been deeply entwined with spiritualism over the centuries, some yoga practitioners say that a pure body is ideal for the exercise and that smoking pot could cause an unwieldy imbalance. As one online-forum commenter opined: “Why should we try to purify our body and soul through yoga if we later intoxicate it again with marijuana or other substances?”
Yoga instructor Dee Duss teaches to participants of her “ganja yoga” class, where people smoke marijuana before starting their yoga session at her studio on Grange Ave., Toronto Ontario September 01, 2010.
But Dan Skye, senior editor at New York-based High Times magazine, which tracks marijuana trends, disagrees with yoga purists who believe getting high before a class is detrimental. “Pot is changing medicine; it’s changing recreational habits,” he says. The latest research seems to back up his claim: A recent McGill University study found that cannabis helped alleviate chronic neuropathic pain.
Ms. Dussault remains unfazed. For the past year, she has run ganja yoga out of her home studio as well as at the Hot Box Café in Toronto’s Kensington Market. The class takes place on the last Friday of the month, after work, and she charges $15 for each session. Often, she invites a musician to play some relaxing tunes during the 90 minutes, and she gives out munchies – fruits, nuts, tea – after the class.
Because Ms. Dussault publicizes ganja yoga openly, there is the question of legal repercussions. But she’s quick to say, “No, I’ve never been worried about cops. I think they have bigger fish to fry.”
Among the ground rules at the studio, participants must bring their own pot – and there’s no dealing or mooching. And she makes a point of meeting students before the session “to determine if they want to come just to get stoned.”
Ms. Dussault also encourages participants to fine-tune their yoga skills before embracing ganja yoga. She wants to ensure that people “first experience the true teachings of yoga” and then try ganja yoga to enjoy a different yoga flavour.
Her studio isn’t the only site for cannabis-enhanced yoga. The B.C. Compassion Club Society, a full-service compassion club in Vancouver, offers yoga sessions for those who use medicinal marijuana. Nicole Marcia, the club’s yoga therapist, says she notices that many yoga patrons are “medicated” once they start the session, but for one important reason.
“They need marijuana in order to fight the chronic pain and anxiety they feel,” Ms. Marcia says. She notices that some patients with multiple sclerosis, for instance, are able to “be present” and practise yoga once they’ve gotten high.
“ Marijuana quells those voices in your mind. ”— Melinda Reidl, yoga practitioner
Many pot dispensaries and compassion clubs in California and Colorado – where pot is decriminalized – offer yoga classes, including The Herb Shoppe in Colorado Springs. Qat Carter, who teaches there, says that some of her students prefer to eat marijuana edibles, such as pot brownies, because ingesting cooked pot lengthens the high. “My husband says it helps him increase his body awareness and makes him more relaxed when he does the poses.”
Torontonian Melinda Reidl, 36, enjoys how the marijuana buzz complements the yoga experience. “Marijuana quells those voices in your mind,” she says, adding that ganja yoga encourages more deliberate movements. It’s not a competition to push you to sweat hard, like in some hot yoga studios, Ms. Reidl notes. She calls Ms. Dussault’s sessions “a slow-dub version of yoga.”
Blending a stoned perspective and the precision of yoga could be dangerous, warns Monica Voss, an instructor of 30 years who practises out of Esther Myers Yoga Studio in Toronto. “Some people might not be aware of their body when they’re high and maybe they would injure themselves,” she points out.
She would like to see academic studies done to determine cannabis’s relation with pain release and concentration. That way, yoga practitioners may feel more comfortable recommending this type of yoga combination. “It’s healthy to see all these yoga variations, but buyer beware,” she adds.
But Mr. Skye, who used to work in the fitness industry, says he saw many people smoking before stretching. “I knew a few muscle heads who used to toke up on the gym’s fire escape just before class,” he says.
“I like the idea of smoking pot as a spiritual experience, not just for recreational use,” says Tanya Pillay, 35, who attended her first ganja yoga class in August. “When you take an activity like yoga and take the altered state smoking pot creates, it combines to make the whole greater than the sum of its parts.”
“Yoga and marijuana, together,” Ms. Pillay says, “it’s like putting salt on your food. It’s just a little enhancement.”
Special to The Globe and Mail

This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories

Why do I feel like I just keep writing the same stories of law enforcement venality over and over again? More crooked jail guards, more sticky-fingered cops, more cops on the take, and another pervert power-tripper cop. Let’s get to it:
too much cash can corrupt cops
In Graceville, Florida, a prison guard was arrested last Friday for trying to smuggle pot into the prison. Graceville Correctional Facility guard Brandon Sikora, 21, is charged with attempting to introduce contraband into a secure facility and possession of more than 20 grams of marijuana with intent to distribute. He went down in a sting after agreeing to meet a police informant, who gave him half a pound of marijuana to carry into the prison and $2,000 for his efforts. He’s now suspended from his job, too.
In Riviera Beach, Florida, a Riviera Beach police officer was fired August 26 over allegations he had a relationship with violent drug dealers. Officer Nathan Gordon had been on administrative leave since July while the department’s Internal Affairs Division investigates. He is now accused of providing the home addresses of fellow officers to drug gang enforcers. No word yet on any possible criminal charges.
In San Antonio, Texas, a San Antonio police officer was arrested August 31 for allegedly sexually abusing a young woman he pulled over and found had a small amount of marijuana and a pipe. Officer James McClure is charged with official oppression and is out on a $3,500 bond. McLure allegedly made the victim follow him to business center, where he strip searched her, groped her, and gave her pot back. The victim also claims McClure asked her for her phone number and called her for a date after a previous stop. He is on indefinite suspension.
In Milwaukee, a former Milwaukee police officer and state drug agent was sentenced September 2 to six months of house arrest after being caught stealing money in an FBI sting. Johnny Santiago was arrested in March after being filmed pocketing $1,100 of $17,000 found by him and other police officers during a drug investigation. He was working as a drug agent for the state Department of Justice at the time.
In Atlanta, a former Atlanta police officer pleaded guilty September 2 to federal charges after getting caught in a sting where the drug dealers he thought he was protecting were actually undercover FBI agents. Lucius Solomon III, 31, was charged in March with attempting to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine and possessing a firearm while participating in multiple cocaine sales. In the plea bargain, the gun charge was dropped. The nine-year veteran is now out on bail awaiting sentencing.

Hemp partnering boosts green building benefits

A recent teleconference officially announced an industrial hemp partnership between the District of 100 Mile House and The Alternate Village at the University of Manitoba (U of M).
The announcement follows an earlier meeting held in Winnipeg where district and The Alternate Village representatives explored potential opportunities for working together to develop and demonstrate hemp-based products for green-building applications.
At the 100 Mile meeting, district attendees included administrator Roy Scott, planner Joanne Doddridge and Coun. Mel Torgerson. 100 Mile House Industrial Hemp Pilot Project student co-ordinator Robin Diether and steering committee members Garry Babcock, Jim Dunsmuir and Ken Meville joined them.
Said Douglas Buchanan, acting dean of engineering: “On behalf of the university and the faculty of engineering, we are very pleased and are fully supportive of these types of ventures between business, public funding and R&D [research and development].”
100 Mile House has been looking toward much-needed economic diversification for some time now, explained Torgerson, and the hemp project will allow two avenues of opportunity, namely the green-building industry and industrial-hemp processing.
“With the partnering of the university, we’ll be much further ahead and, hopefully, we can advance this project. I think we are [currently] in the seventh year and now would be the prime time to move forward.”
Attending the meeting remotely were Industrial Hemp Pilot Project manager Erik Eising, industrial hemp producer group chair David Zirnhelt as well as university representatives, Buchanan and Kris Dick, associate professor of biosystems engineering and director of The Alternate Village.
The two groups will share research information and demonstration methods regarding sustainable building technology, Dick says, which will include results from a test building that will be constructed at The Alternate Village.
They also discussed how the non-structural walls of the test building would be constructed of hempcrete, a product made by combining the hemp hurd – the part of the plant left once the fibre is removed – with a binder.
Eising explained that after its extensive efforts to research a variety of related information, and with no hemp-fibre processors located in the United States and only a few minor operations in Canada, the District of 100 Mile House has now branded itself as the Canadian knowledge centre for industrial hemp fibre processing.
“With all the activities that we have undertaken, we have an extensive network, not only in B.C. and [elsewhere] in Western Canada but also including Eastern Canada and stretching out into Asia and Europe,” said Eising.
The green building opportunities of industrial hemp have already been put into practical use in several houses in Canada, including one on Saltspring Island, Eising said, adding there is a huge market in the U.S. to tap into.
The 100 Mile House Industrial Hemp Pilot Project has a Green Building symposium slated for this fall, during which various practical and sustainable aspects and potential uses will be explored and demonstrated.

Marijuana Smokers Gather In Mexico, Demand Legalization

With much of the nation in the throes of a bloody drug war against violent cartels, more than 200 people gathered Sunday in a Mexico City park to smoke marijuana and demand its legalization.

The activists braved pouring rain to rally on the popular tourist drag of the Alameda to have a smoke-in protesting marijuana’s illegal status in Mexico, reports AFP.
Mexico is among a handful of Latin American countries that allow for possession of small “personal use” amounts of marijuana and other drugs.
The limit for marijuana is five grams, between an eighth and a quarter-ounce. Amounts greater than than can still get you jailed and/or fined.

mexico 295.jpeg
Photo: NDTV
Many smoke-in participants smoked out of pipes decorated with skulls, said to allude to traditional pre-European cultures, as music played and a legalization petition was circulated.
Support for legalizing marijuana in Mexico has grown, especially among left wing parties, as a way to curb gang-related violence that has resulted in about 28,000 deaths in the past four years.
Vicente Fox, who led the Conservative party of current President Felipe Calderon when Fox was president of Mexico from 2000-2006, has repeatedly voiced his support for pot legalization.

Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz Among "100 Women Of Weed"

Opinion by NORML
(September 06, 2010) in Society / Drug Law

As the issue of cannabis legalization heats up so too does the discussion of women and cannabis use. At this week’s national NORML conference in Portland (Oregon) there is a panel ‘Women, Cannabis and Respect’ hosted by the NORML Women’s Alliance.
Via Jerri Merritt’s very popular TalkLeft: A leading Canadian magazine for marijuana reform, Skunk, has devoted its current issue to “lady legalizers.” Among the features: “The Top 100 Women of Weed.”
Thanks to Skunk for including me in the list. The list is pretty impressive with some names that surprised me: Arianna Huffington, Barbra Streisand, actress Kate Hudson and clothing designer Stella McCartney.
The list is heavier on activists, actresses and singers than attorneys, which makes me even more appreciative to be included. Examples: [See More Below….]
Mary Louise Parker, Alanis Morrisette, Bette Midler, Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz, Melissa Etheridge, and Francis McDormand.
Also making the cut: My good pals Anita Thompson (Owl Farm, where I am headed for Labor Day Weekend, rock star editor Shelby Sadler and conservative activist and Denver attorney, Jessica Correy, who is on the same floor as me and the TL kid in our new office digs.
For women who want to get more involved in legalization efforts, I recommend the NORML Women’s Alliance.
The NORML Women’s Alliance is a nonpartisan coalition of prominent, educated, successful, geographical diverse and high-profile professional women who believe that marijuana prohibition is a self-destructive and hypocritical policy that undermines the American family, sends a mixed and false message to our young people, and destroys the cherished principles of personal liberty and local self-government.
Marijuana prohibition makes the difficult job of parenting even more difficult by the state and federal governments not actually controlling marijuana use, cultivation or distribution–notably by American youth.
These diverse women will bring a contemporary approach to the public policy debate, and will proudly represent the interests of modern, mainstream women who believe that the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition far outweigh any repercussions from marijuana consumption itself.
The NORML Women present a core group of national spokeswomen ready to interact with the public and the media on the important issue of marijuana legalization.
Allen St.Pierre, NORML’s outstanding Executive Director, has this to say about the Women’s Alliance:
“The prominent role of women in the effort to end marijuana prohibition is pivotal, necessary, and long overdue. According to recent national opinion polls by Gallup and others, the dramatic rise in the public’s support of marijuana law reform is being driven primarily by an increase in support among America’s women. The NORML Women’s Alliance will bring a contemporary approach to the public policy debate, and will proudly represent the interests of modern, mainstream women who believe that the negative consequences of marijuana prohibition far outweigh any repercussions from marijuana consumption itself.”
NORML’s Women’s Alliance was founded in January, 2010. I am one of its charter members. It’s goals:
— The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that the fiscal priorities of marijuana prohibition are wasting billions of dollars on a failed policy.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance believes that marijuana prohibition violates states’ rights, and improperly expands the reach of government into the families and personal lives of otherwise law-abiding citizens.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance advocates for an open, honest conversation about marijuana with America’s youth that is void of all propaganda and misleading information.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance endorses the science-based evidence regarding the therapeutic applications of medical marijuana as well as the continuation of research into the subject.
— The NORML Women’s Alliance strongly opposes the sexual exploitation and objectification of women in pot-culture and business marketing.
You can get additional information about the Women’s Alliance here. If this is your issue, come and join us as we contribute our time and ideals to making a long-held dream for many, particularly those suffering from chronic pain, come true.
As Grace Slick would say, “It’s a new dawn.
From Celebstoner’s write up of the 100 Women of Weed:

Canada’s leading pot magazine has devoted its latest issue to lady legalizers, distaff danksters, gorgeous growers and just about everything female, including cannabis of course. According to Skunk, these are the most “influential women of the cannabis world.” (Note that the list skews heavily towards Canadian activists and actually includes 114 women.)
In alphabetical order:
Carolyn “Mountain Girl” Adams – ex-wife of Jerry Garcia
Rebecca Ambrose – Vancouver Seed Bank
Elena Babescu – Romanian President’s daughter*
Drew Barrymore – actress
Lynn Belle-Isle – Canadian AIDS Society
Joan Bello – author of The Benefits of Marijuana
Sarah Bergeron – activist
Hilary Black – BC Compassion Club Society
Natalie Bouchard – activist
Bong Pixie – Toronto Hash Mob
Dr. Susan Boyd – author
Sarah Cannon – activist
Rielle Capler – Canadians for Safe Access
Tamara Cartwright – Southern Alberta Cannabis Club
Danni Cherish – activist
Loretta Clark – activist
Shelby Chong – comedienne, wife of Tommy Chong
Valerie Corral – WAMM
Jessica Corry – attorney
Cathy Couch – activist
Adrienne Curry – model
Joy Davies – City Councilor, Grand Forks, B.C.
Libby Davies – member of Canadian Parliament
Dragonfly de la Luz – writer
Dora Dempster – Vancouver Medicinal Cannabis
Cameron Diaz – actress
Sarah Diesel – Oaksterdam University
Barbara Douglas – federal medical-cannabis patient
Melanie Dreher – editor
Ann Druyan – NORML board member, wife of Carl Sagan
Barabara Ehrenreich – NORML advisory board member, author
Jodi Emery – Cannabis Culture, wife of Marc Emery
Eva Ends – SAFER
Melissa Etheridge – musician
Anna Faris – actress
Debbie Fagin – Calgary 420
Vycki Fleming – activist
Megan Fox – actress
Toni Fox – activist
Dr. Esther Fride – scientist (RIP)
Ann Genovy – activist
Debby Goldsberry – Berkeley Patients Group
Crystal Guess – activist
Shirley Halperin – author of Pot Culture
Deb Harper – DrugSense
Hemptress December – activist
Jeannie Herer – wife of Jack Herer
Kate Hudson – actress
Ariana Huffington – Huffington Post, DPA honorary board member
Mila Jansen – Ice-o-later
Jasmin – breeder
Debbie Jeffries – activist
Dr. Claudia Jensen – researcher (RIP)
Mari Kane – publisher
Jane Klein – Quick Trading Co., wife of Ed Rosenthal
Lisa Mamakind Kirkland – Skunk
Stephanie Landa – Landa Prison Outreach
Kay Lee – activist
Kathy Lewis – Oregon NORML
Sarah Lovering – MPP
Tara Lyons – Canadian SSDP
Kristen Mann – activist
Alison Margolin – L.A.’s Dopest Attorney
Rita Marley – singer, wife of Bob Marley
Jean Marlowe – WONPR
Madeline Martinez – NORML board member
Mary Lynn Mathre – Patients Out of Time
Stella McCartney – fashion designer, daughter of Paul McCartney
Cher Ford McCollough – WONPR
Francis McDormand – actress
Jeralyn Merritt – attorney
Bette Midler – singer, actress, activist
Cheryl Miller – patient activist (RIP)
Corinne Millet – federal medical-cannabis patient
Alanis Morissette – musician, actress on Weeds
Elvy Musikka – federal medical-cannabis patient
MzJill – breeder
Loretta Nall – Alabama Compassionate Care
Mikki Norris – West Coast Leaf
Mary Louise-Parker – actress, star of Weeds
Puff Mama – medibles baker
Gayle Quin – CBCC
Angel McClarey Raich – medical-cannabis patient
Michelle Rainey – Treating Yourself
Mary Jane “Brownie Mary” Rathbun – medibles baker (RIP)
Judith Renaud – EFSDP
Stephanie Ritch – activist
Vanessa Rivers – model
Danna Rosek – activist
Marjorie Russell – attorney
Pauline Saban – WONPR (RIP)
Shelby Sadler – NORML Women’s Alliance
Sarah Saiger – Bambu
Tian Scherer – model
Nicole Seguin – WhyProhibition
Steph Sherer – ASA
Cheryl Shuman – Beverly Hills Cannabis Club
Sarah Silverman -comedienne, actress
McKenna Stephens – Marijuana Radio
Kristen Stewart – actress
Barbara Streisand – singer, actress
Sarah Strongarm – writer
Nadine Strossen – ACLU
Debbie Stultz-Giffin – MUMM
The WeedGeezs – breeders
Anita Thompson – wife of Hunter S. Thompson
Alice B. Toklas – brownie baker (RIP)
Pebble Tribbett – activist
Jennifer Valley – Stoney Girl Gardens
Watermelon – model, medibles baker
Karen Watson – entrepreneur
Sita Von Windheim – Green Harvest
April Yaroslausky – Edmonton 420
Dr. Lynn Zimmer – sociologist, author of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts (RIP)
* have no idea why she’s on the list
These “women of weed” were omitted from the list:
Mischa Barton – stoner starlet
Ani DiFranco – musician, MPP advisory board member
Dr. Jocelyn Elders – former Surgeon General, MPP advisory board member, DPA honorary board member
Sabrina Fendrick – NORML
Paris Hilton – stoner starlet
Dr. Julie Holland – editor of The Pot Book
Ellen Komp – California NORML
Natasha “Vaporella” Lewin – High Times
Mishka – French activist
Mae “Grandma Marijuana” Nutt – activist (RIP)
Michelle Phillips – singer, MPP advisory board member
Amy Poehler – comedienne, actress
Marsha Rosenbaum – DPA
Susan Sarandon – actress, MPP advisory board member
Deborah Small – Break the Chains