Cannabis Farmers Market held in Seattle

by KING 5 News
SEATTLE – A couple hundred people lined up Sunday morning to attend the Cannabis Farmers Market at the Little Red Bistro in Seattle.
Attendees weren’t charged if they presented valid ID and were authorized to receive medical marijuana.
Organizer say it was all about safe access to medicinal marijuana.
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http://www.king5.com/news/local/Cannabis-Farmers-Market-held-in-Seattle-117017588.html

Cal State competition tests student research

By DEBORAH SULLIVAN BRENNAN – dbrennan@nctimes.com

With maps, charts and a bag full of hemp-based goodies, Cal State San Marcos political science student Jeff Meintz argued in a student research competition Friday that the forbidden fiber triggered Napoleon’s invasion of Russia.
The campus contest challenged students to present their research findings, and represented the first stage of a statewide competition between all the Cal State universities later this spring. Out of 26 undergraduate and 11 graduate participants, 10 won the chance to join the systemwide competition, said dean of graduate studies Gerardo Gonzalez.
The competition aims to build students’ analytical and interpretive skills, and encourages them to describe their results in clear, conversational language, he said.
“You have to speak to a broad audience and articulate your discoveries in ways folks understand,” he said.
Previous participants have placed first or second in the statewide competition in categories ranging from health, biology and behavioral and social sciences, university spokeswoman Christine Vaughan said in an e-mail.
In his presentation, Meintz argued that French efforts to suppress Russia’s export of hemp to England prompted Napoleon to invade the eastern country, explaining that hemp was essential to maritime uses including rope, masts, food and lantern oil. He said that effort to control the commerce in hemp mirrors contemporary efforts to criminalize its use, saying that many people mistakenly associate it with marijuana.
“There is a historic misperception about the hemp plant among the public,” he said.
To illustrate its utility, he sported hemp shoes and a laptop bag full of hemp string, snacks and skin lotions, acknowledging, “you could call me a hemp advocate, I suppose.”
 
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http://www.nctimes.com/news/local/san-marcos/article_7bd79a61-035e-5044-8e24-9fcdf408f0c1.html

Shoes sprout flowers when planted

 

OAT Shoes are completely biodegradable. When you’re done wearing them, plant them in the backyard and flowers will sprout.

By John Roach
Your old sneakers may smell like something found only in fetid corners of nature, but chances are there’s plenty that’s not natural about them. A pair of Dutch entrepreneurs wants to change that. They’ve created a fully biodegradable shoe that will sprout flowers when planted at the end of their life.
OAT Shoes says their goal is to produce “sneakers that not only look good, but leave no mark on the environment when you throw them out.”
The kicks are made using hemp, cork, bio-cotton, certified biodegradable plastics, chlorine-free bleach and other nontoxic materials. The first batch will come with seeds in their tongues, so that wildflowers will sprout up in commemoration of users’ planted, expired kicks, according to Gizmag.
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http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/02/25/6133009-shoes-sprout-flowers-when-planted

Medical-marijuana skin patch may be marketed in Colorado

The Denver Post
 
 

Medical Marijuana Delivery Systems said Tuesday it has acquired the U.S. patent rights to a medical-marijuana skin patch and seeks to sell it in Colorado. The patent provides Seattle-based MMDS with exclusive rights for development of the patch for trans cut aneous delivery of medical marijuana to humans and animals.
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http://www.denverpost.com/news/marijuana/ci_17456566

The Kestrel is the World’s First Production-Ready Hemp Car

 

By Amy Tokic
 
You can smoke it, you can wear it, you can eat it… and now, you can drive in it. Is there anything you can’t do with hemp?
As it turns out, hemp has a long standing relationship with automakers. Did you know that in 1941, Henry Ford made a car body out of organic fibers that included hemp (we sure didn’t)? Now hemp is making a comeback as the world’s first production-ready biocomposite electric car is set to take off.
The Kestrel is a three-door hatchback, and according to Nathan Armstrong, the president of Motive Industries, Kestrel’s manufacturer, is made of a “hemp composite as strong as the fiberglass in boats, yet incredibly lightweight.”
The lightweight Kestrel tips the scales at 2,500 pounds (including the battery) and its boasts a fuel-efficiency increase of 25 to 30 percent. It’s really a cool process to make the resilient, lightweight compound – hemp stalks are combed and rolled into a mat that is infused with a polymer resin, making it as flexible as the carbon fiber used in racecars.
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http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2011/02/the-kestrel-is-the-worlds-first-production-ready-hemp-car.html

Ammiano Bill: Growing Pot Would No Longer Be Automatic Felony

Thumbnail image for Thumbnail image for California_marijuana.jpg
Turns out, you might not be considered a felon

 By Chris Roberts
​Californians caught growing cannabis without a medical recommendation — and indeed, some marijuana cultivators with medical recommendations — are on their way to becoming felons. Law enforcement has no choice — cultivation is a felony.
Although that could change under a new piece of legislation announced Wednesday morning by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco). Ammiano’s bill — AB 1017, would make marijuana cultivation a “wobbler” — an alternate felony or misdemeanor. But there is a catch: It will be up to the district attorney to decide whether to charge someone with a felony or not.
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http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2011/02/ammiano_pot_growing_felony.php

If the Feds Get Their Way, Big Pharma Could Sell Pot — But Your Dime Bag Would Still Send You to Jail

We should be very wary about the DEA allowing regulation and marketing of pharmaceutical products containing plant-derived THC.

February 22, 2011  |  
 
“Marijuana has no scientifically proven medical value.” So stated the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) on page six of a July 2010 agency white paper, titled “DEA Position on Marijuana.”

Yet only four months after the agency committed its “no medical pot” stance to print, it announced its intent to allow for the regulation and marketing of pharmaceutical products containing plant-derived THC — the primary psychoactive ingredient in cannabis.

But don’t for a second believe the DEA has experienced a sudden change of heart regarding patients’ use of the marijuana plant — use that is now legal under state law in 15 states and the District of Columbia (although recently approved laws in Arizona, New Jersey, and Washington, DC still await implementation). Despite growing public support for medical marijuana legalization, America’s top anti-drug agency remains resolute that these hundreds of thousands of medi-pot patients are no more than common criminals, and their herbal remedy of choice is nothing more than the “Devil’s weed.”

It’s not public pressure that’s motivating the agency to consider rescheduling an organic cannabinoid for the first time since the creation of the U.S. Controlled Substances Act of 1970. (Under this act, all prescription drugs are classified as schedule II, III, IV, or IV controlled substances, while all illicit substances are categorized as schedule I drugs.) And it’s not the recent publication of a series of FDA-approved “gold standard” clinical trials affirming the plant’s safety and efficacy that’s prompting the agency into action. (The DEA has so far refused to acknowledge these studies even exist.) Rather, the agency’s sudden call for regulatory change is inspired by far more politically influential forces: The DEA is responding to the demands of Big Pharma.

 
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http://www.alternet.org/drugs/150009?page=1

Cannabis ingredient can help cancer patients regain their appetites and sense of taste


The active ingredient in cannabis can improve the appetites and sense of taste in cancer patients, according to a new study published online in the cancer journal, Annals of Oncology [1] today.
Loss of appetite is common among cancer patients [2], either because the cancer itself or its treatment affects the sense of taste and smell, leading to decreased enjoyment of food. This, in turn, can lead to weight loss, anorexia, a worse quality of life and decreased survival; therefore, finding effective ways of helping patients to maintain a good diet and consume enough calories is an important aspect of their treatment.
Researchers in Canada ran a small pilot study from May 2006 to December 2008 in 21 adult patients with any advanced cancer (except brain cancer) who had been eating less as a result of their illness for two weeks or more. All were either being treated with chemotherapy or had been in the past. The patients were randomly assigned to receive medication from a pharmacist in a double-blind manner, which meant that neither the patients nor the doctors knew which treatment they were receiving. Eleven patients received oral capsules containing delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) – the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis – and eight patients were assigned to the control group to receive placebo capsules. The active capsules contained 2.5mg of THC and the patients took them once a day for the first three days, twice a day thereafter, and they had the option to increase their dose up to a maximum of 20mg a day if they wished; however, most followed the dosing protocol, with three patients in both groups increasing their dose to three times a day. The treatment ran for 18 days.
From patient answers to questionnaires conducted before, during and at the end of the trial, the researchers found that the majority (73%) of THC-treated patients reported an increased overall appreciation of food compared with patients receiving placebo (30%) and more often stated that study medication “made food taste better” (55%) compared with placebo (10%).
The majority of THC-treated patients (64%) had increased appetite, three patients (27%) showed no change, and one patient’s data was incomplete. No THC-treated patients showed a decrease in appetite. By contrast, the majority of patients receiving placebo had either decreased appetite (50%) or showed no change (20%).
Although there was no difference in the total number of calories consumed by both groups, the THC-treated patients tended to increase the proportion of protein that they ate, and 55% reported that savoury foods tasted better, whereas no patients in the placebo group reported an increased liking for these foods. (Cancer patients often find that meat smells and tastes unpleasant and, therefore, they eat less of it).
In addition, THC-treated patients reported better quality of sleep and relaxation than in the placebo group.
Dr Wendy Wismer (PhD), associate professor at the University of Alberta (Edmonton, Canada), who led the study, said: “This is the first randomised controlled trial to show that THC makes food taste better and improves appetites for patients with advanced cancer, as well as helping them to sleep and to relax better. Our findings are important, as there is no accepted treatment for chemosensory alterations experienced by cancer patients. We are excited about the possibilities that THC could be used to improve patients’ enjoyment of food.
“Decreased appetite and chemosensory alterations can be caused by both cancer and its treatment; untreated tumours cause loss of appetite, and by itself, chemotherapy also causes loss of appetite. In any individual patient, some part of both of these effects is usually present.
“It’s very important to address these problems as both appetite loss and alterations to taste and smell lead to involuntary weight loss and reduce an individual’s ability to tolerate treatment and to stay healthy in general. Additionally, the social enjoyment of eating is greatly reduced and quality of life is affected. For a long time everyone has thought that nothing could be done about this. Indeed, cancer patients are often told to ‘cope’ with chemosensory problems by eating bland, cold and odourless food. This may well have the result of reducing food intake and food enjoyment.”
Read complete article here:
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-02/esfm-cic021811.php

Call for Release of Moroccan Marijuana, Human Rights Activist

by Phillip Smith
Last week, Moroccan human rights activist, denouncer of corruption, and marijuana legalization advocate Chakib El-Khayari began his third year in prison for “offending the Moroccan state.” El-Khayari, president of the Human Rights Association of the Rif region in Morocco has been jailed since February 17, 2009, and now, European drug reform activists and international human rights groups are calling for his release.

Chaikh El-Khayari, Two Years in Jail (Image courtesy ENCOD)

El-Khayari, who is also known for defending the rights of the Amazigh people and African migrants passing through en route to Europe, aroused the ire of the Moroccan state for declaring to the press that the Moroccan military and police are collaborating in the trafficking of hashish to Europe. In 2008, he also took the path-breaking step of initiating a national debate on the legalization of industrial hemp and medical marijuana.
Read complete article here:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/feb/21/call_release_moroccan_marijuana