As an educated, conservative housewife and writer with fibromyalgia, I may not seem a likely medical marijuana candidate. Yet, 15 months ago I went from debilitating pain, migraines, panic attacks, memory issues, depression and exhaustion, to fully functioning in just days.
But Riverside County has been cracking down on dispensaries (“Medical marijuana dispensary raided,” April 4). For a month, I lacked access to medication, reverting to my former agony.
A doctor recommended an FDA-approved drug for $3,000 a year. Its possible side effects include suicidal thoughts, coma and death. I declined.
My current dispensary lacks a sense of safety. Marijuana tincture is difficult to find, so I’m forced to restrict doses.
If people were denied access to popular medicines, there would be an outcry. In desperation, I now expose myself to ridicule, but I want to know how Riverside County will offer safe access to a natural medication mitigating my fibromyalgia symptoms without side effects, addiction, or financial struggle.
I want the public educated about the medicinal value of a plant so stigmatized I can’t advocate it without hearing pothead jokes.
Riverside County, help me out.
Jessica Bradshaw
Lake Elsinore
 
http://www.pe.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor-headlines/20120514-your-views-may-14.ece

 
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/5/11/stop_the_drug_war_mexican_poet

By Kirtley Ceballos
 
With the birth of my first child 10 months ago, this is a very special Mother’s Day for me. It is a time for me to pause and think about the mother I want to be to my little boy as he continues to grow. I plan to take some quiet time to imagine both the joys and challenges that lie ahead.
Looking down the road, I know, like every other parent, that one of the greatest challenges my husband and I will face is the possibility of teen drug, tobacco and alcohol use. Fortunately, as a parent, I have more than a decade before that really becomes an issue. But as a Colorado citizen, I have the opportunity this year to address the subject on a societal level.
In November, the voters in our state will consider Amendment 64, an initiative that would regulate marijuana in a manner similar to alcohol. It would allow adults 21 years of age or older to use and possess a limited amount of marijuana. And it would direct the legislature to impose on excise tax on marijuana, with the proceeds going toward public school construction.
Most importantly, from my perspective as a future parent, the initiative would establish a regulated system for the cultivation and sale of marijuana. This means that marijuana would be sold in stores in which employees would be required to check IDs before conducting any transaction.
Taking the sale of marijuana out of the criminal market and putting it in the hands of state-regulated stores would be a dramatic improvement over the existing system. In fact, if your concern is the health and well-being of teens, it can be argued that we currently have the worst possible marijuana policies.
By keeping marijuana illegal, we are ensuring that the only market for marijuana, aside from the controlled sale of medical marijuana in the state, is the criminal market. One that is easily accessible in any Colorado neighborhood. Therefore, when teens inevitably decide to acquire marijuana, they enter a market where dealers have a financial incentive to turn them on to harder drugs.
In addition, marijuana obtained in the criminal market is completely unregulated and untested. A purchaser, especially a young, novice purchaser, has no idea whether there are any impurities or additives. For those concerned about the potency of marijuana, it is also relevant that underground marijuana is not professionally packaged or labeled.
Most of all, there is the simple fact that drug dealers don’t card.
Read complete article here:
http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_20595598/guest-commentary-mothers-and-marijuana-colorado

 
Hemp is a strong fiberous plant that is grown predominantly in China, but also in many other parts of the world. Environmentally friendly, hemp requires few pesticides or herbicides and is one of the fastest growing plants known. In various forms, hemp can be used as a health food product, fuel, and industrial and commercial applications. The strong fibers can be turned into twine and woven into many different products. For progressive concrete contractors, Hempcrete is a concrete product made from hemp. Green contractors from Austin to Boston are embracing hemp building materials, like hemp insulation. If you think that hemp is hippie stuff, think again. I selected chic home furnishings made from this sustainable material:
Lancaster Rug from Ralph Lauren: The beautiful Lancaster Rug is handknotted in India from hemp and jute fibers. The yarns have been brushed for a soft feel and dyed. The pattern is an interpretation of a classic Persian rug.
Tailor Sofa from Crate and Barrel: Contrary to its classic name and style, the Tailor sofa is made from a hemp fabric and comes in snappy red or stone tan or white. The seat cushions are a soy-based polyfoam with a feather-down blend wrap for comfort.
Read complete article here:
 http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/05/13/designer-picks-hemp-home-furnishings/#ixzz1ujl31A1p

By Drew Guarini

 
Imagine you had a building material that was energy-efficient, non-toxic and resistant to mold, insects and fire. The material may even have a higher R-value, or thermal resistance, than concrete, a claim that is still being investigated. The only problem? The base of the Hempcrete creation is hemp, which comes from the cannabis sativa plant — the same one that produces marijuana, which is a federally banned substance. Because of this, industrial hemp production is illegal in the United States.
Still, the Hempcrete mixture of hemp, lime and water is being used to some extent for construction jobs across America. One of the companies working with Hempcrete isHemp Technologies, a construction company based in North Carolina that is adamant about the advantages of building using Hempcrete. They’ve built homes out of hemp in Hawaii, Texas, Idaho and North Carolina, where they are currently working on a project known as “NauHaus.”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/10/hempcrete-hemp-house_n_1506662.html#s=more225732

• by: MATT McKINNEY

 

 
The mother of a man who says he was given drugs by a police officer as part of a statewide training program said she suspects it was more than marijuana, as the police officer allegedly claimed.
Christin Olivier said she watched a video of her 20-year-old son, Forest, taken shortly after his encounter with the officer and that his behavior was too jumpy to be the result of marijuana alone.
“We still have no idea what my son was given,” said Olivier, who lives in Minneapolis.
Olivier’s question was just one of many to arise this week after the state Department of Public Safety launched a criminal probe against a Hutchinson officer, placed a state trooper on leave and suspended the state’s Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) program, a staple of law enforcement training that’s been around for 20 years.
The allegation that officers were distributing drugs, first made by local Occupy Minnesota protesters in Minneapolis and initially denied by state law enforcement officials, was given new life this week after an officer came forward with similar allegations, according to the state Department of Public Safety. The DRE program itself has come under fire elsewhere from criminal defense attorneys questioning its science, and a court in Maryland two months threw out such tests, saying they were unreliable.
A spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety said Friday that the investigation continues. The spokesman left open the possibility that the investigation could grow to include more than the two officers facing allegations that they were present when drugs were handed out.
Watching the investigation will be Minneapolis City Council Member Cam Gordon, who spoke publicly about the DRE program after he was approached by the mother of one of the test subjects. Gordon said he’s been left with a series of questions: How did the officers get the drugs? How many officers were involved? How long has this gone on?
“From the accounts that I heard it just seemed like this was the normal way that they were doing it,” he said. “Nothing said to me, ‘Oh, this was just a one-time, freakish incident.'”
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.startribune.com/local/151213325.html?page=all&prepage=2&c=y#continue

By SIMON OWENS

 
Meeting Jim Greig, you wouldn’t guess he’s a prominent member of Oregon’s medical marijuana activist community.
The 62-year-old suffers from Ankylosing Spondylitis, a severe form of rheumatoid arthritis. Greig was diagnosed with the disease in the 1980s when he was 38. At the time he ran an advertising agency, helping to put on more than 150 shows for singers such as Alice Cooper, Tom Petty, and Peter Gabriel. As a self-employed individual, he hadn’t bothered to buy health insurance, so when his knee began to give out repeatedly he was forced to pay out-of-pocket to visit emergency rooms.
“It started in my right knee, and in six months it spread to my other knee,” he says. “I went from a crutch to a double crutch to a wheelchair within about six to eight months.” He’s been confined to a wheelchair ever since. He estimates that he is bedridden “80 to 90 percent of the time.” Blind in one eye, Greig speaks in a deep, gravely voice, pausing every few moments to catch his breath.
Greig began using marijuana to alleviate his pain sometime around 1995. “It’s a great relief,” he says. “Cannabis will relax you in ways that no opiate will, and will make it seem like the pain is less intense. Because of it I can do half the amount of opiates and feel better doing it.”
He became part of the medical marijuana rights movement when he moved back to Oregon from California in 2004. For the last seven years he has organized the Eugene chapter of the Global Marijuana March, a worldwide event that takes place in hundreds of cities. He’s been a board member of the Voter Power Foundation, a medical marijuana activism organization, for about five years. Two years ago, he co-directed a political action committee that advocated for Measure 74, an Oregon ballot initiative that would have permitted the creation of privately-owned, non-profit medical marijuana dispensaries. The measure failed in 2010.
[Marijuana Growers Moving to Suburbia]
It’s no surprise then that Greig knew who Dwight Holton was when Holton announced earlier this year he was running for Oregon Attorney General to replace departing Democrat John Kroger. Holton had been interim U.S. Attorney for Oregon when federal agents executed search warrants on several marijuana farms in the state last fall. That and other actions from his office had irked medical marijuana and pro-legalization activists, including Greig, so Greig posted a message to a listserv of about 300 other activists suggesting that they begin publicly opposing Holton’s candidacy.
Other prominent activists quickly reached out to him, and soon afterward they launched a full-scale attack on Holton, one that has gained the attention of national pro-legalization and medical marijuana activists, several of whom are supporting Holton’s opponent, Ellen Rosenblum. A former Oregon Court of Appeals judge, Rosenblum will face off against him in the Democratic primary next Tuesday. No Republican has entered the race, so the winner of the primary will determine the November outcome.
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/05/11/why-the-oregon-attorney-general-race-has-national-implications-for-marijuana-laws
 

POSTED BY ALEX WOODWARD

 
An event note, per Legalize Louisiana: “Do not bring any illegal substance to this rally.”
Grassroots marijuana reform campaign Legalize Louisiana has organized a series of statewide rallies  tomorrow, from New Orleans to Shreveport. The group’s statement is as follows:
 

The group demands policies creating safe and free access to cannabis medicine, for the promotion of human health in Louisiana; industrial hemp should be utilized to boost our state’s economy and the health of her ecosystems; that personal use should be decriminalized, and that commercial use should be taxed and regulated, which will create justice where there is now abuse, and, simultaneously, reduce Louisiana’s world-record incarceration rates. That religious use of cannabis is an inalienable right protected by our state and federal constitutions, by the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, and that our justice system professionals are oath-bound to realize the letter and the spirit of these most high an sacred laws.

 
The group, headed by Louisiana native Donnie Griffith, has been campaigning in the state since 2009. Griffith says he was inspired to start the campaign after living in Los Angeles under its relaxed marijuana laws. Following the rallies, Griffith says he plans to tour the state with Legalize Louisiana and register the campaign as a nonprofit organization. The rallies also serve as an opportunity to “encourage people to vote and get active” in promoting reform, he says. Legalize Louisiana’s Facebook page  is nearing 6,000 “likes.”
Louisiana’s National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws chapters are defunct, however there’s an active student-run chapter  at Tulane University. (Read more about Louisiana and New Orleans’ marijuana laws in Gambit.)
 
Read complete article here:
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/blogofneworleans/archives/2012/05/11/legalize-louisiana-rallies-for-marijuana-reform-tomorrow