Cannabis and cat litter don’t mix

By: 
A marijuana starter plant at a medical marijuana dispensary is shown in Seattle, Wash., in this 2012 file photo.

ANTHONY BOLANTE / REUTERS
 

I saw my pot pals recently.
Two of them are among the many who got letters from the government, the one identifying them as cannabis users and growers.
I’ll tell you what was in those letters in a minute.
First, I want to remind you that Jim has AIDS and uses cannabis to whet his appetite; Stu has chronic arthritis; and Erin broke her back not once, but twice, and she lives in constant pain.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/12/30/cannabis_and_cat_litter_dont_mix_fiorito.html

Ford’s vision of a lightweight hemp composite car realised by automaker Faurecia 75 years on

Jane Denny

 
A hemp-based fibre material which its developers claim weighs up to 25% lighter than standard injection-molded parts is being used in cars three-quarters of a century after Henry Ford unveiled his lightweight hemp car.
Faurecia’s natural fibres for injection process (NAFI) uses in-line compounding to add fibres such as hemp or kenaf to polypropylene to reinforce parts in place of heavier glass.
 
Full Article:
http://www.urethanes-technology-international.com/index.php/content/view/full/23716

Blazing cannabis trail, US states eye tourism surge

Marijuana users in Colorado and Washington are counting down the hours before the western US states become the first to legalize recreational pot shops on January 1.

A visitor from Hawaii smokes a joint as thousands gather to celebrate the state’s medicinal marijuana laws, at Civic Center Park in Denver, Colorado, on April 20, 2012
 

Blazing a trail they hope will be followed in other parts of the United States, cannabis growers and others are also rubbing their hands, while tax collectors are eyeing the revenue the newly-legalized trade will generate.
Enterprising companies are even offering marijuana tours to cash in on tourists expected to be attracted to a Netherlands-style pot culture — including in Colorado’s famous ski resorts.
“Just the novelty alone is bringing people from everywhere,” said Adam Raleigh of cannabis supplier Telluride Bud Co.
“I have people driving in from Texas, Arizona, Utah… to be a part of history.
“Over the last month I have received somewhere between four to six emails a day and five to 10 phone calls a day asking all about the law and when should people plan their ski trip to go along with cannabis,” he added.
 
Full Article:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/world/387155/blazing-cannabis-trail-us-states-eye-tourism-surge

Marijuana acceptance continues to grow among athletes

By Jason Blevins, The Denver Post
Men

Men’s Ski Super Pipe final of Dew Tour in Breckenridge on Friday. December 14, 2012. (Hyoung Chang/The Denver Post)
Anyone who’s ever ridden a double chair or skied up on one of hundreds of lean-to “smoke shacks” in ski area trees knows that marijuana and skiing, and snowboarding, are inextricably linked.
Just don’t ask anyone about it. Especially professional athletes vying for the Winter Olympics, which will debut three new sports at Sochi in February: ski and snowboard slopestyle and ski halfpipe.
“I don’t do drugs.”
“I don’t know anything about that.”
“Next question.”
“I just can’t be quoted talking about that, please.”
Despite the sudden Olympic status of skiing’s and snowboarding’s most freewheeling disciplines, global doping watchdogs are relaxing their stance on marijuana. The World Anti-Doping Agency this past May increased the threshold for a positive marijuana test, raising the amount of measurable THC — marijuana’s psychoactive component — to 150 nanograms per milliliter of urine, a tenfold increase.
 
Full Article:
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_24811855/marijuana-acceptance-continues-grow-among-athletes

Republican Senator From Wyoming Supports Medical Marijuana

by 
senator bruce burns medical marijuana wyoming
Senator Bruce Burns
 
Wyoming is a harsh place when it comes to marijuana. Reefer madness has been alive and well in Wyoming for a long, long time. However, there appears to be some light growing at the end of the tunnel. At least one politician from Wyoming is willing to stand up for what’s right and expressed his support for medical marijuana in Wyoming.
 
Full Article:
http://www.theweedblog.com/republican-senator-from-wyoming-supports-medical-marijuana/

College Student Makes Documentary About Jeff Mizanskey, Missouri Man Serving Life for Pot

By Ray Downs
m
 

Ray Downs
Jeff Mizanskey at the Jefferson City Correctional Center

 
When Eric Sykes, a mass communications senior at SIUE, read the October Daily RFT story about Jeff Mizanskey, the Missouri man doing a life without parole sentence for marijuana, he thought he might have a good subject for his video documentary class. But as he delved into the project, it became more important than just a grade.
“When I first contacted Chris Mizanskey, Jeff Mizanskey’s son, I realized just how real this situation was,” Sykes tells Daily RFT.
In November, Sykes made the trip from Edwardsville to the Jefferson City Correctional Center where Mizanskey has been held for nearly 20 years for an on-camera interview. He was able to speak to Mizanskey and hear his story in person. The next day, Sykes met some of Mizanskey’s family. And although Sykes had never been a proponent of marijuana legalization, this experience convinced him that prohibition laws are a lost cause.
“I have never been one to support the legalization of marijuana until I heard about this case,” Sykes says. “I can truthfully confess that I have never been in the same room with marijuana. Never smoked it and never will, but after meeting these people, however, I feel that we need to decriminalize marijuana. Who are we to sentence someone to die in prison because they were in possession or marijuana? This entire story is just painstakingly wrong.”
 
Full Article:
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2013/12/documentary_jeff_mizanskey_life_for_pot.php