San Diego bank welcomes medical cannabis community business

By: Dion Markgraaff
 
 
At the July monthly meeting of San Diego ASA, Angela M. Davies of Home Bank of California came out to say that their family owned and run bank was open to the medical cannabis community. This is a significant sign of the development in the evolution of banking institutions.
 
Read complete article here:
http://nugmag.com/2011/08/san-diego-bank-welcomes-medical-cannabis-community-business/

Check Out Cheeba.com, The ‘Marijuana-Based Search Engine’

by Jay Casteel

 
While medical marijuana is legal in California and several other sites, those online trying to advertise medicinal sticky-icky are “treated like outlaws” to quote L.A. Weekly.
Google isn’t very weed friendly, so how does a supporter of legal marijuana make money online with their website? Through a “marijuana-based search engine” called Cheeba.com.
“While ad networks like Google AdSense seem to flat out ban companies from reaching out the cannabis community, Cheeba is stepping in to give the green light for 420-friendly online advertising,” the company said in a statement to LAWeeky.com.
The company hopes to supply ads that other places won’t … like Google Adsense for example, who was questioned by one webmaster about their practices in serving marijuana related ads, but not allowing a marijuana-related website to serve them.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.ballerstatus.com/2011/08/30/check-out-cheeba-com-the-marijuana-based-search-engine/

Hurricane Irene Could Sprout Bumper Crop Of Magic Mushrooms

 
 
Everyone knows the potential destructive power of hurricanes, but few people are aware that storms like Hurricane Irene encourage growth of psychedelic mushrooms.
Yes, it sounds trippy, but one of the strange aftermaths of a hurricane is an increased amount of mushrooms popping up — especially the psilocybin — or “magic” kind — the ones that cause hallucinations.
According to Dr. Casey Simon, an addiction expert based in Orange County, Calif., hurricanes create the perfect climactic conditions for the mushrooms to grow.
“Mushrooms are spores and they multiply in moisture and are spread by wind,” he told HuffPost Weird News.
Dr. Suneil Jain, a naturopathic physician in Scottsdale, Ariz., goes even further.
“The moisture, humidity, the wind and the temperature during hurricanes is the perfect climate for mushrooms,” he told HuffPost Weird News. “Also, both hurricanes and mushroom growth are associated with new or full moons, so there may be a lunar element as well.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/27/hurricane-irene-mushrooms_n_938423.html

Colombia Supreme Court decriminalizes drugs for personal use

by Travis Mannon

Colombia‘s Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that carrying small doses of drugs is not a punishable offense, torpedoing years of effort by the administration of former President Alvaro Uribe to criminalize the personal possession and consumption of drugs.
According to the court, penalizing the personal use of drugs violates the “free development of personality.”
The court found that Legislative Act No.2, 2009, which banned the personal use of drugs, “implies the nullification of fundamental rights, and it represses and sanctions with the severest punishments (imprisonment) the personal decision to abandon one’s personal health, a choice that corresponds to their own decision and does not infringe on the rights of other members of society.”
According to newspaper El Tiempo, the Supreme Court set the “personal amount” of drugs at 20 grams of marijuana and one gram of cocaine.
 
Read complete article here:
http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18557-colombian-supreme-court-decriminalizes-drugs-for-personal-use.html

Arkansas Medical Marijuana Push Sparks Reaction

By
 

An Arkansas group is already gathering signatures to place a medical marijuana initiative on the November 2012 ballot, and now the effort is sparking a critical reaction from a local Christian conservative “traditional family values” organization. But medical marijuana backers say they have God on their side, too.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]Arkansans for Compassionate Care won approval in April to circulate petitions for the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act. It needs to gather 62,507 valid voter signatures by next July to appear on the November 2012 ballot. The group said it plans to gather double the required number to provide a large cushion in case large numbers of signatures are found to be invalid.
The initiative would allow patients with serious illnesses like cancer, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease, and PTSD whose doctors recommend medical marijuana to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. Patients would obtain marijuana from one of up to 30 state-regulated dispensaries or, if they don’t live near a dispensary, they or a designated caregiver could grow their own. Patients more than five miles from a dispensary could grow up to six plants.
“I’ve talked to dozens and dozens of patients across the state,” the group’s Ryan Denham told Fox 16 TV NewsMonday night. “People that suffer from debilitating medical conditions things like multiple sclerosis, cancer, hepatitis c, and the patients are really kind of just fed up with the fact that they have to break the law to get the medicine their doctor recommends,” he said.
 
Read complete article here:
http://cannabis.hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/08/24/arkansas-medical-marijuana-push-sparks-reaction/

Using Hemp Seed Oil For Horses

Hemp Seed oil and Performance:
 
Dr. Tim Ober, USET veterinarian, conducted a small study in Florida in 2009 on hemp oil for the high performance jumpers. What he found was that hemp oil helped to maintain muscle glycogen reserves, thus reducing muscle glycogen depletion and fatigue.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.dressagedaily.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6534:wellness-wednesday-using-hemp-seed-oil-for-horses&catid=18:wellness-zone&Itemid=427

Rev Nancy Harris: My Religious-Use of Marijuana Trial Starts Monday in Hilo

By Reverend Nancy Harris

 
Greetings in the Name of Haile Selassie I,
As you probably know, I have been facing criminal charges for quite some time. My feeling about the situation is this: I am being charged for being the president of the board of Sacred Truth Mission, a church which recognizes the Holy Cannabis plant as sacrament.
This all started with an intrusion on church property that happened on February 15, 2007. The intruders claimed to be police but showed no identification to Christopher Carpenter, who was the only member present when they barged into our Sacred Sanctuary. He called me, and I called 911, because calling 911 is what you’re supposed to do when you’re being trespassed upon. I headed to the church, but the 911 officer got there first.
The intruders turned out to be infamous rogue cop John Weber and his cronies, who showed identification after being confronted by the 911 officer. John Weber and crew searched the property, arrested me, got a search warrant, gathered evidence and trashed the church. In that order. Six months later, on the testimony of John Weber, I was indicted for commercial promotion of marijuana, paraphernalia, and possession. The claims were enormously inflated, of course, and carry huge penalties. The sentence for “commercial promotion of marijuana” is 20 years in prison.
In the four and a half years since the raid, quite a number of rights that I had been taught to believe I am entitled to as an American citizen have been violated. From the Bill of Rights, the 1st–the right to my religious practice and free speech and freedom of assembly, 2nd–the right to bear arms (although this one is moot for me personally); 4th–the right to be free of unreasonable search and seizure, 5th–the right to due process of law; 6th–the right to speedy trial and to confront witnesses, 8th–the right to be free of cruel and unusual punishment, 9th–inalienable rights; and 10th–the rights retained by the people; have all been violated during the pre-trial process.
 
Read complete article here:
http://hawaiinewsdaily.com/2011/08/rev-nancy-harris-my-religious-use-of-marijuana-trial-starts-monday-in-hilo/

What symptoms do patients treat with medicinal cannabis?

, Salt Lake City Medical Marijuana Examiner

 
One question the 2011 Medical Marijuana Survey (sponsored by Legalize Utah) queried which received some of the most detailed responses was” “Do you use Medical Marijuana to treat any physical or psychological conditions and if so, which conditions”.
The first responses were “To treat Asperger’s syndrome” while the next response indicated “For severe Anxiety and Depression.
Glaucoma, chronic pain and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder all respond to treatment, according to the survey.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.examiner.com/medical-marijuana-in-salt-lake-city/what-symptoms-do-patients-treat-with-medicinal-cannabis

Second CA Marijuana Legalization Initiative Filed

by Phillip Smith
 

 
And then there were two. A group of Northern California attorneys, activists, and at least one prominent medical marijuana doctor Friday filed the text for a second marijuana legalization initiative aimed at the 2012 in Sacramento Friday.
The 753-word initiative, the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act, simply does what the title suggests: It would repeal all sections of California law imposing criminal penalties for pot possession, cultivation, or distribution for adults. The state Department of Health would be charged with regulating public smoking and pot use by minors, which would remain illegal. Driving while impaired would still be illegal, and providing pot to a minor would result in a charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Anyone possessing, growing or otherwise involved with less than three pounds of pot would face no taxes. The Department of Public Health would have 180 days to come up with regulations for cannabis commerce.
 
Read complete article here:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/2011/aug/22/second_ca_marijuana_legalization

The Windowfarm, Made With Crowd-Sourced Advice – Q&A

By Steven Kurutz
Britta Riley grew up on a ranch in Texas, so after four years of living in a one-bedroom apartment overlooking an airshaft, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, she felt deprived of nature. She decided to try growing food indoors, and three years ago began reading about hydroponic systems. “I got to visit some hydroponic growers and nerd out with them, and figured out how to reverse-engineer it for the personal scale,” said Ms. Riley, 34.

Robert Wright for The New York Times

Britta Riley helped develop the Windowfarm, a hydroponic system for indoor use that delivers liquid nutrients to plant roots.

Robert Wright for The New York Times

 

Robert Wright for The New York Times

 

Along with a partner, Rebecca Bray, she developed the Windowfarm, a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption with plastic water bottles, hoses and an air pump that can be hung in an apartment window to grow herbs and vegetables. Like other hydroponic systems, it delivers liquid nutrients directly to the roots of the plants. Ms. Riley, a Web developer, also built a site where she posted instructions and invited people to refine the design, a decentralized process she refers to as “R&D.I.Y.”
More than 20,000 people now belong to the Windowfarm online community, and Ms. Riley and her new business partners (Ms. Bray has since left) are building a 14-foot-tall Windowfarm for the 21C Museum Hotel in Louisville, Ky., which will harvest the crops for its restaurant. She recently spoke to a reporter at her storefront office in Williamsburg, where a Windowfarm with chives, spinach and Romaine lettuce faces the street.
How does the system work, in layman’s terms?
The air pump makes a bubble, and on top of the bubble, a little bit of water is captured that contains the liquid nutrient solution. As the bubble rises to the top of the column of bottles, the solution then trickles down through the plants’ root systems and is recaptured at the bottom. So each one is its own liquid loop.
Aren’t marijuana growers into the same kind of hydroponics?
The difference between us and pot growers is all of the stuff designed for pot growers is way expensive.
Why?
Companies are capitalizing on the idea that these guys really want to have dank bud. Also, pot growers don’t want anyone to see what they’re doing, so they’re usually growing in these dark rooms. We’re growing this stuff in our windows.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/garden/the-windowfarm-made-with-crowd-sourced-advice-qa.html?src=tp&smid=fb-share