http://www.nbclosangeles.com/video/#!/on-air/as-seen-on/Medical-Marijuana-Farmers-Market-Opens-to-Big-Crowds/265844421

by The Associated Press
 
 
Beyond fireworks, American flags and barbecue, be prepared for another sight at Arkansas’ Fourth of July festivals and parades this weekend: Someone asking for signatures.

Supporters of efforts to raise the state’s minimum wage, legalize medical and recreational uses of marijuana and expand alcohol sales are making a last push to gather signatures over the holiday weekend as they near the deadline to submit petitions to the state.

Groups campaigning for the four ballot initiatives said they’re hopeful they’ll be able to turn in more than enough signatures to qualify for the ballot on Monday, and plan to spend the next few days gathering and counting signatures. Dozens of paid workers and volunteers will be fanning out across the state at various events over the weekend.

“To tell you the honest truth, the Fourth of July will either make us or break us,” said Melissa Fults, who heads up Arkansans for Compassionate Care, which hopes to get its initiated act legalizing medical marijuana on the November ballot. “We’re very close, but we’re hopeful the Fourth of July festivities will help get us there.”

The medical marijuana measure is one of two proposed initiated acts vying for a spot on the November ballot. To qualify, supporters will have to submit at least 62,507 signatures from registered voters. Proposed constitutional amendments need at least 78,133 signatures.

Full Article:
http://www.couriernews.com/view/full_story/25387851/article-Campaigns-make-last-push-before-petition-deadline–

By Mariann G. Wizard | The Rag Blog

In a perfect storm for prohibition, the “house of straw” — the credibility of anti-marijuana lies — is the first to fall. Image from uni-paderborn.de.
 
Part 1: House of Straw
America’s long-running and expensive “War on Drugs,” despite claims that it protects citizens from the harms of dangerously addictive drugs, has been most aggressively focused on cannabis (marijuana, hemp; Cannabis sativa).
Cannabis is not physically addictive and has been consumed by humans for thousands of years without any documented deaths from its use alone. To even begin to catalog the harms of prohibition itself would take a book and cannot be undertaken seriously until the war is over.

Cannabis is one of the most variable members of the plant kingdom, capable of expressing many attributes depending on genetics and nurture. Strains of cannabis (hemp) that provided fiber for sails and rope during the American Revolution did not have any psychoactive effects. Until the mid-1930s, cannabis was grown in the U.S. as hemp, primarily for its valuable fiber, but also for its edible, energy-rich seed oil.
Other strains (marijuana, ganja, reefer, etc.), long known in Asia and Africa and imported to the West by Queen Victoria of England’s physician, among others, do have such effects and are valued as medicine and as social lubricants less volatile than alcohol.
 
Full Article:
http://www.theragblog.com/mariann-g-wizard-special-report-the-drug-war-against-the-wind-part-1/#more-15459

by Jeff Munson

 
An ordinance allowing for two medical marijuana dispensaries and facilities allowing for cultivation was approved Thursday in a 4 to 1 vote by the Carson City Board of Supervisors.
 
Full Article:
http://www.carsonnow.org/story/07/03/2014/carson-city-agrees-allow-zoning-medical-marijuana-establishments

Images: Ronald Tilleman via Inhabitat
 

Dutch Studio Marco Vermeulen have created what they are claiming is the “world’s first building with a bio-based façade” in the village of Dinteloord in the Netherlands.

Commissioned by The Horticultural Development Company, the building is a natural gas transfer station with walls clad in bio-resin and hemp fibre-reinforced composite panels.

Full Article:

http://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/news/gas-transfer-station-features-bio-based-facade-emb

Associated Press

 
Gov. Pat McCrory says a new law he signed allowing some physicians to treat epilepsy in North Carolina using an extract from a marijuana plant could also lead to the discovery of other therapies. McCrory signed the hemp oil bill Thursday during an Executive Mansion ceremony.
 
Full Article:
http://www.wfmynews2.com/story/news/local/2014/07/03/governor-nc-signs-hemp-oil-marijuana-extraction-bill-medicinal/12157079/

by Anthony Johnson

 

There are many voices in America that are calling for an end to cannabis prohibition. Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans want to legalize cannabis. Colorado and Washington have already legalized cannabis, and there’s a good chance that Alaska and Oregon could be joining them by the end of the year. But what we really need is reform at the federal level.

At least one federal judge agrees. Richard A. Posner is a judge for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago Law School. Anyone that has gone through law school recently is certainly familiar with Mr. Posner as he is one of the most influential legal minds in the country.

Full Article:

http://www.theweedblog.com/federal-judge-richard-posner-says-its-time-to-legalize-cannabis/

By Jake Ellison

 

The first two-gram package of legal marijuana will be sold in Seattle at noon on Tuesday, says James Lathrop, owner of Cannabis City, which is expected to be the first state-licensed store to open in Seattle.

Who will buy the first package of voter-approved marijuana? Whoever is first in line, Lathrop said. So, if that’s going to be you, you’ll need to show up a little early.

Cannabis City, located at 2733 Fourth Ave S., should be one of 15 to 20 retail outlets licensed by the Liquor Control Board on Monday. Once the store has the license, the owner can seal a deal with a grower — and 24 hours later (a holding time set by the board), stock the shelves with legal weed. That’ll be Tuesday.

Full Article:

http://blog.seattlepi.com/marijuana/2014/07/02/get-ready-to-buy-legal-marijuana-in-seattle-at-high-noon-tuesday/#14194103=8&24345105=0&24789101=4

If people make concentrates with cannabis that is not organic and has pesticides and stuff on it, will that stuff get concentrated, too? Are we ingesting concentrated pesticides?

By Kim Passoth

A push to legalize medical marijuana in Oklahoma has reached the halfway mark.
The deadline to collect more than 155,000 signatures in a 90-day petition drive is in mid-August in order for the issue to be included on the November ballot.
Supporters are confident they will get all the necessary signatures. They told KOCO 5 that they already have half to two-thirds of the signatures needed.
One of the most passionate supporters of the petition drive is a mom from Choctaw.
Amy Bourlon-Hilterbran is desperate to save her son and believes medical marijuana could be a miracle medicine.

Full Article:
http://www.koco.com/news/supporters-confident-medical-marijuana-legalization-will-be-on-ballot/26753264#!7kOy0