By ROB W. ANDERSON
 
Leon Briggs pointed to a study ordered by a former president as reason why marijuana should be legalized for medical treatments.
“The public needs to be aware of the Virginia study in 1974 ordered by President [Richard] Nixon,” he said. “In that study, researchers at the Medical College of Virginia, who had been funded by the National Institutes of Health to find evidence that marijuana damages the immune system, found instead that THC slowed the growth of three kinds of cancer in mice – lung, breast cancer and virus-induced leukemia.
The DEA quickly shut down the Virginia study and all further cannabis/tumor research, according to Jack Herer, who reported on the events in his book ‘The Emperor Wears No Clothes.’”
 
Full Article:
http://tahlequahdailypress.com/local/x62718132/Many-say-pot-smoking-should-be-legal

Ronna Benjamin

SPECIAL FROM BetterAfter50
 
Finally, there is relief for Massachusetts cancer patients, those in chronic pain, those suffering from HIV-AIDS, severe arthritis, Multiple Sclerosis, Glaucoma and so many other debilitating diseases. With the passage of Question 3 on the November 6 ballot, the Massachusetts voters legalized the use of medical marijuana, “smoking” that question by a two-to-one margin. And it’s about time.
I think I’m starting to feel a headache coming on. It may be a migraine. Did I mention to you that I have a bad back? And everyone knows I am so anxious I don’t sleep very well. Honest. I’m really not faking.
So now that Massachusetts is one of eighteen states (plus the District of Columbia) that have legalized medical marijuana, will we learn how to get a doctor’s prescription from states that have had some experience? In many of those states, doctors prescribe cannabis for such conditions as anxiety, headache, premenstrual syndrome and trouble sleeping. I am told you can even get medical marijuana in California for writers block. HA! I’m so down with that.
Is a new (and perhaps hazier) dawn about to rise over Boston Harbor? Is the Age of Aquarius for Massholes about to begin? Is the home of the Brahmins and the Red Sox, about to become… just a little bit cooler?
Unstuff those shirts, Bostonians, because medical marijuana is coming to a town near you! I am a little disheartened by the thought of how long the summertime lines will be at JP Licks in Newton Center next summer, but otherwise, I’m ready.
I’m ready for Bostonians to cool it up. I’m ready for us to give our Sperry’s to our nieces and nephews in New Hampshire and buy a pair of Birkenstocks. I’m ready to have everyone I know who owns a pair of brown wide-wale cords, a massive LV bag or a headband donate them to their favorite charity and invest in some hemp.
Pretty soon, Boston, it’s going to be all about the pipe and a pizza.
Think of it: Massachusetts in all its glory, but a little more chill. So many things will be just a little bit better. Even driving! I don’t condone driving while high, of course, but just imagine how fun rotaries would be. Can you imagine anyone in Massachusetts saying, “Please sir, pull ahead of me. Take that left — I’m in no hurry.”? And I am quite sure the people who made the road signs calling 128 South AND 95 North the same thing — well, they must have gotten their prescriptions extra early.
I’m ready for drivers to point me in the right direction with their pointer fingers.
I’m ready for Republican and Democratic leaders to smoke some weed and do some meaningful soul searching.
Everything will be better when medical marijuana comes to town. Imagine standing on Comm Ave and watching the Boston Marathon for five hours… Stoned. It wouldn’t be nearly as boring.
Imagine not minding so much when the Yankees beat the crap out of us.
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ronna-benjamin/medical-marijuana_b_2125623.html

BOULDER, Colo. (AP) — The home county of the University of Colorado is the latest to drop pending marijuana possession cases in the wake of a public vote to legalize the drug.
Boulder County District Attorney Stan Garnett told the Daily Camera newspaper Wednesday his office would drop possession cases under an ounce for adults (http://bit.ly/X8NnEf). He said the effect would be minimal because his office already considers marijuana a low priority.
Garnett said overwhelming support in Boulder County for Colorado’s Amendment 64 would make it highly unlikely a jury would ever reach a guilty verdict in any of those cases.
“You’ve seen an end to mere possession cases in Boulder County under my office,” Garnett said.
Full Article:
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/crime/article/Boulder-Co-Colo-prosecutor-dropping-pot-cases-4037638.php

Source: Reuters // Reuters
 
* Ruling party presents bill to legalize marijuana sales
* Government to control the market if law passes
By Malena Castaldi
MONTEVIDEO, Nov 14 (Reuters) – Uruguayans will be able to grow marijuana at home or in clubs, but the state will be in charge of the trade from cultivation to sale under a government-led legalization bill presented in Congress on Wednesday.
The use of cannabis and other drugs is already legal in Uruguay, one of Latin America’s safest countries and a trailblazer on liberal lawmaking, but the sale and cultivation of drugs is not.
President Jose Mujica, a former leftist guerrilla fighter, says the proposed law will help undermine smuggling gangs and fight petty crime in a region hit by drugs-related violence. Critics say it risks luring more Uruguayans to harder drugs.
“The idea is to grant licenses for production, distribution, storage and for retail. We haven’t said whether that will be done by the private or public sector, the government will decide that,” said Sebastian Sabini, a ruling party lawmaker who heads a congressional committee on drugs and addiction.
The bill, which the government hopes will become law early next year, says the state will be responsible for managing and regulating the marijuana trade from cultivation to distribution.
Mujica’s allies control both houses of Congress so the bill is expected to pass despite resistance from opposition legislators. It would give Uruguay some of the world’s most permissive legislation on drugs.
 
Full Article:
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/new-law-would-let-uruguayans-grow-marijuana-at-home-in-clubs

By Bruce Kennedy

 
These are heady times for supporters of legalized marijuana as well as those looking to cash in on pot’s growing national acceptance. This month, voters in Washington state and Colorado agreed to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults. And medical marijuana is currently legal in 18 states and Washington D.C.
 
Of course, marijuana remains illegal by federal law. But people involved in what some are calling the “green rush” are still looking at business and investment opportunities in cannabis and its production.
 
And as with nearly all markets, some people are willing to take the risk.
 
“Think of it as another dot.com explosion,” said Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp Inc. (HEMP -4.48%), in a recentpress release.
 
And according to an investor fact sheet for Medical Marijuana Inc. (MJNA +25.00%), the current U.S. medical marijuana industry is estimated at $17 billion, with expectations it could grow up to about $29 billion by 2016.
 
“It was almost unthinkable 10 years ago that you would have legitimate, fully reporting to the SEC companies that were in the nature of pure plays, with positions in the medical marijuana industry,” says Sterling Scott, CEO of Los Angeles-based GrowLife Inc. (PHOT 0.00%), a consortium of companies that sells products for indoor growing.
 
Scott, a former federal regulatory attorney, estimates there are about 10 cannabis-related companies currently being traded as over-the-counter stocks. Most OTCs are relatively small and often new companies that don’t yet meet the requirements to be listed or traded on exchanges like Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.
These are heady times for supporters of legalized marijuana as well as those looking to cash in on pot’s growing national acceptance. This month, voters in Washington state and Colorado agreed to legalize the recreational use of marijuana for adults. And medical marijuana is currently legal in 18 states and Washington D.C.
 
Of course, marijuana remains illegal by federal law. But people involved in what some are calling the “green rush” are still looking at business and investment opportunities in cannabis and its production.
 
And as with nearly all markets, some people are willing to take the risk.
 
“Think of it as another dot.com explosion,” said Bruce Perlowin, CEO of Hemp Inc. (HEMP -4.48%), in a recentpress release.
 
And according to an investor fact sheet for Medical Marijuana Inc. (MJNA +25.00%), the current U.S. medical marijuana industry is estimated at $17 billion, with expectations it could grow up to about $29 billion by 2016.
 
“It was almost unthinkable 10 years ago that you would have legitimate, fully reporting to the SEC companies that were in the nature of pure plays, with positions in the medical marijuana industry,” says Sterling Scott, CEO of Los Angeles-based GrowLife Inc. (PHOT 0.00%), a consortium of companies that sells products for indoor growing.
 
Scott, a former federal regulatory attorney, estimates there are about 10 cannabis-related companies currently being traded as over-the-counter stocks. Most OTCs are relatively small and often new companies that don’t yet meet the requirements to be listed or traded on exchanges like Nasdaq or the New York Stock Exchange.
 
He breaks down these marijuana sector firms into four groups:

• Established companies, like GrowLife, that sell equipment and expendables for the cannabis industry.
• Companies like Medical Marijuana, whose mission, according to its website, is to become the industry’s “premier cannabis and hemp industry innovators.”
• Groups like Hemp Inc. that are looking to develop a legal market for the industrial and commercial use of hemp (which contains only trace amounts of marijuana’s active ingredient) in products such as paper, oils and cloth.
• Companies focused on the clinical, medical use of cannabis in areas such as cancer, inflammation and pain treatment.

 
Full Article:
http://money.msn.com/investment-advice/article.aspx?post=55419f1f-b43b-4c51-847f-0242c46b2a7d
 

Doug Bandow

(Photo credit: Torben Bjørn Hansen)
 
The most important vote on November 6 was not reelecting Barack Obama as president. It was legalizing marijuana in Colorado and Washington. Drug prohibition is the latest addition to the endangered species list. The fight over drug policy will go on for a long-time. But the Drug War is ending.
For decades the federal and state governments have enforced a reprise of Prohibition. The authorities have used increasing violence to suppress the age-old desire of tens of millions of Americans to alter their mental states. But the government has failed: almost half of the teen through adult population has used marijuana.
Many of society’s leaders were drug consumers in their youth. In fact, the last three presidents—the commanders-in-chief of the multi-billion dollar Drug War—used (though maybe not inhaled!) the same substances. If kids today belong in jail for smoking pot, so did Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama.
 
Full Article: 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dougbandow/2012/11/12/the-most-important-november-6-election-americans-voted-to-end-the-war-on-drugs/

 
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer says passing hemp legislation will be his top priority in the next session of the state General Assembly.
Comer, a farmer himself, touted hemp’s potential as he presided Wednesday over the first meeting of Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission in a decade.
 
Full Article:
http://www.wkyt.com/news/headlines/Ag-Commissioner-Passing-hemp-legislation-top-priority–179333131.html?ref=131

Mike Riggs

 
State legislators in Rhode Island and Maine will announce bills tomorrow to legalize recreationalmarijuana, a spokesperson for the Marijuana Policy Project announced today.
Rhode Island Rep. Edith Ajello and Maine Rep. Diane Russell will hold a conference call tomorrow with the Marijuana Policy Project to announce the legislation.
 
Full Article:
http://reason.com/blog/2012/11/14/state-legislators-in-rhode-island-and-ma

Laurel Dewey
I talked to a lot of older cannabis users when I researched my novel, Betty’s (Little Basement Garden). The average age of those who puffed or ingested cannabis was about 55 years old and while most of them were imbibing for medicinal purposes, there was a good percentage that enjoyed cannabis purely for recreational purposes. In fact, some of them liked it so much, they made a conscious choice to give up alcohol entirely in favor of the herb.
I found that idea quite curious and talked at length with those who made this unique lifestyle change. I wanted to know what compelled them to make their decision and each of them had a different reason. Several of the people told me that cannabis had been their “exit drug” (i.e., they used the herb to wean themselves off sleep aids, anti-depressants and, yes, booze.) One 58-year-old Conservative woman commented that she’d tried to quit both sleep aids and her nightly two glasses of red wine cold turkey but then suffered two “excruciating” nights of sleeplessness. After eating half a cannabis cookie her daughter made for her, she slept like a rock and woke up refreshed without the usual hangover and drugged feeling. She told me from that night onward, she decided that cannabis was more enjoyable, worked better than her pills or nightcap to prompt sleep and, as she put it, “produced a centered feeling” the following day.
 
Full Article:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/laurel-dewey/marijuana-vs-alcohol_b_2110727.html

Dennie Quill, Columnist
When I wrote last week’s column about the growing commercial importance of marijuana in America, I sort of anticipated that Oregon, Colorado and Washington would have voted to legalise recreational use by adults. The results are in: Indeed, Colorado and Washington voted ‘yes’.
So could this vote signal a turning point in America’s 40-year war on drugs? At least four leaders of ganja-producing countries in the region believe it definitely will.
The leaders of Mexico, Honduras, Belize and Costa Rica held a press conference in Mexico City on Monday in reaction to the yes vote in Colorado and Washington. They want the Organisation of American States (OAS) to consider the implication of the vote, and also called on the UN General Assembly to convene a special session on drug prohibition by 2015.
Note, please, that Belize is a CARICOM nation, and while it has stepped up to the microphone with friends in the region, its sister nations have kept very quiet on these developments in the United States.
Then United States President Richard Nixon declared a war on drugs in 1971, spending billions on the effort and creating new elite narcotics agencies to carry on the fight. But despite this, five years later, then Governor Jimmy Carter campaigned for the presidency on a platform of decriminalising marijuana and easing criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce of marijuana. Of course, Carter won the election in 1976 and took office in January 1977.
 
Full Article:
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20121114/cleisure/cleisure2.html