visits and (surprise, surprise!) their recently released results show that “marijuana dependence was associated with the lowest rates” of emergency room visits.
NORML’s Paul Armentano has broken down the study here on Alternet:

Among those surveyed, subjects that reported using cannabis were the least likely to report an ED visit (1.71 percent). Respondents who reported lifetime use of heroin, tranquilizers, and inhalants were most likely (18.5 percent, 6.3 percent, and 6.2 percent respectively) to report experiencing one or more ED visits related to their drug use.
Investigators concluded, “[M]arijuana was by far the most commonly used (illicit) drug, but individuals who used marijuana had a low prevalence of drug-related ED visits.”

Paul also points to a recently released RAND study that found California hospitals received only 181 admissions related to marijuana in 2008, compared to an estimated 73,000 such admissions related to alcohol.
This is extremely valuable information in the debate over marijuana prohibition, since opponents of legalization—including the nation’s drug czar—consistently argue that marijuana’s “social costs” are a leading reason why we shouldn’t lift prohibition.
When they make this argument, Gil Kerlikowske and others will always mention the social costs of alcohol without including any supporting evidence to show that marijuana leads to similar results. The reason they don’t cite such evidence, of course, is because they don’t have any. Findings about the extremely low level of emergency room visits for marijuana compared to alcohol and other drugs simply drive another nail into such blissfully ignorant prohibitionist logic.
Oh, and if anyone tries to argue that this situation will somehow change drastically in a regulated marijuana market, consider this: More than 3 million Californians currently use marijuana (at least once) annually, yet fewer than 200 of them end up in the hospital for related reasons.
Kerlikowske and others shy away from stats like these, however, because they are further evidence of marijuana’s high margin of safety—and the insanity behind its prohibition.
http://www.opposingviews.com/i/marijuana-use-rarely-leads-to-emergency-room-study-shows

For far too long, most politicians have operated under the (false) notion that supporting efforts to reform marijuana laws amounted to political suicide. But nowadays–as public support for reform continues to grow at a record pace–there are increasing signs that the movement to end marijuana prohibition is reaching a crucial threshold for victory: Political strategists are beginning to realize that candidates can not only benefit from supporting pro-legalization efforts, but suffer for opposing them.
Already this election season, we have seen two major statewide political groups–the California NAACP and the Washington state Democratic Party–endorse state ballot initiatives that would make marijuana legal for adults.
Then this weekend in San Jose, the California Democratic Party voted to remain neutral on November’s Proposition 19 ballot measure despite widespread internal support, almost entirely out of concern that endorsing legalization would harm the party’s anti-legalization candidates, among them Sen. Barbara Boxer and gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown. Many other Democratic officials have already endorsed the initiative on their own, and the L.A. Times reports, “despite taking a cautious stance, [the Democrats] appeared solidly behind the initiative, cheering and whooping much more raucously for the pro-endorsement speakers.”
Consider the pitch made by just one of those speakers:

Robert Cruickshank, public policy director for the Courage Campaign, which backs progressive causes, called for the vote in an attempt to overturn a party committee’s recommendation to adopt a neutral position. He started by reminding the assembled Democrats that the party’s chairman, former San Francisco state Sen. John Burton, has said pot was the issue that would motivate young voters to go to the polls in this off-year election.
“If we endorse Proposition 19 and take a courageous position to support reform, just as we took courageous positions on same-sex marriage and other contentious issues, we will win the moral argument, we will win Proposition 19 and we will win races in November,” Cruickshank said.

Others have pointed out that marijuana ballot initiatives could help Democratic voter turnout overall as well. Earlier this month, on an apparent “tip from an Obama official,” The Atlantic’s Joshua Green discovered “a few Democratic consultants who have become convinced that ballot initiatives legalizing marijuana, like the one Californians will vote on in November, actually help Democrats in the same way that gay marriage bans were supposed to have helped Republicans.”
This strategy falls short, however, when Democrats fail to support marijuana initiatives. MPP’s Steve Fox has already hypothesized that single-issue California voters who turn out in favor of Proposition 19 could also vote against Brown because of his opposition to the initiative (“Vote Green, Not Brown”). Now the state Democratic Party seems to share that concern.
And it’s not just Democrats who see opportunity in supporting sensible marijuana policies. Right now in Connecticut there is a GOP primary race for the state’s 4th Congressional District, in which two candidates’ opposing views on marijuana policy are emerging as a potential campaign issue. Both candidates–Rick Torres and Rob Merkle–say they have used marijuana in the past, but only one, Torres, favors taxing and regulating the drug. Merkle, whose father prosecuted and sent to jail major drug traffickers, wants it to remain illegal. Torres says that makes Merkle a hypocrite.
The following is an unfortunately buried lede in an otherwise predictable article about feigned “outrage” over the recent finding that Merkle was arrested for marijuana possession more than 10 years ago.

Torres said that what disturbs him about the arrest is that Merkle and his campaign blasted Torres for his stance on marijuana laws. Torres said he favors legalization.
Merkle said he does not — a stance, in light of his arrest and lenient treatment, that Torres said he finds hypocritical.

Whether that difference will benefit either candidate remains to be seen. But with marijuana measures on the ballot this year in California, Arizona, South Dakota, Oregon, and Detroit, and even more expected for 2012, don’t be surprised to read about more candidates trying to court the steadily growing number of voters who no longer support policies that squander law enforcement resources and criminalize otherwise law-abiding adults simply for using a recreational substance that is safer than alcohol.
Politically, it might be in their best interest.

By Mike LaSalle

Legalize it. Tax it. Regulate it. Get over it.

The first purpose of MND has always been to explore the scope and contours of “misandry in popular culture“.
Long-time readers of this website know that misandry comes in many flavors, and that it is part of a larger complex of social ills which can be generally described as feminist postmodernism.
Thus, MND’s coverage of topics as diverse as economics, academic freedom, science, religion, and climate change propaganda all contribute to a larger understanding of the ordinary man’s place in the postmodern world.
As the publisher of MND, I have tried (though not always successfully) to keep my personal opinions and interests separate from this editorial vision. Indeed, my attitude has always been that MND is a tool for dispassionate discovery, not a soapbox for any individual contributor — most especially including myself.
But in recent days, an event has occurred that is both newsworthy and evocative of my personal outrage.
Many MND readers may have already gathered that I have no love for the so-called “war on drugs”. Nor have I used MND for the purpose of supporting my personal interest in seeing this insane “war” summarily discarded upon the ashpile of history.
But the events I am about to describe go beyond my personal feelings. This isn’t just a story about the drug war; it’s a story about liberty, the First Amendment, and the free exercise of religion.
In 2006, long-time readers may recall that I published an article entitled, “The Bicameral Universe: A Theory of Everything in One Blog Post“. I wrote the article after a flash of revelation while I was under the influence of Cannabis.
Whatever any particular person may think of my article, I wrote it as a genuine expression of opinion, having read and thought deeply about the issues of God, man, religion, science, and the Anthropic Principle for many years. The article outlines my personal understanding of God and my place as a free agent in the multiverse.
A year later, in 2007, I moved to the state of Hawai`i, where I met one Reverend Roger Christie, the founder of the Hawai`i Cannabis Ministry. On September 8, 2007, I was ordained as a Cannabis Minister in his church.
For the past 10 years, Rev. Christie has operated the Ministry openly — one might even say “loudly”. The Ministry is located on the second floor of the Moses Building on Kamahameha Ave in downtown Hilo, right across from Hilo Bay. As a matter of fact, everyone in this part of Hawai`i is entirely aware of the THC-Ministry, because of its central location and because of a large banner that has been hanging for years from the second floor window, declaring, “We Use Cannabis Religiously, And You Can Too!”

94 Kamehameha Ave, Hilo, HI.

There is nothing subterranean in the way this Ministry was operated. The Ministry has existed as a transparent part of this community for many years. In fact, in 2008, Roger Christie ran for mayor of the County of Hawai`i as a Cannabis activist. I ought to know: I was a campaign advisor and webmaster. I attended campaign strategy meetings, and was present when Roger registered with the county as an official Mayoral candidate in the Summer of 2008.
Needless to say, we were not successful in getting Rev. Christie elected to the highest office in Hawai`i County, but it was sure fun to try.
Over the past two years, Rev. Christie has continued to operate the Hawai`i Cannabis Ministry openly, and the Ministry banner has continued to fly above Hilo Bay for all to see.
But on July 8, 2010, everything changed. On that day, the DEA along with a dozen other government agencies descended on the Ministry offices and arrested Reverend Christie, along with 13 members of his flock, charging them with a slew of federal drug trafficking crimes.
Details of the arrest have been documented by the Associated Press and by other local news organizations.
At this time, Reverend Christie is being held without bail in a federal detention center in Honolulu. He has been appointed a public defender, and his trial has been set for September 8, 2010.
Since the arrest, I have contacted our local chapter of the ACLU in an attempt to garner their interest in defending Rev. Christie and the other 13 members of the Ministry currently under federal indictment.
For my part, while I am a member of the Ministry and have an interest in pro-Cannabis political activism, I am not now, nor have I ever been involved in the production or distribution of Cannabis. I am an activist, a writer, a thinker. But I have no problem defending the idea that smoking Cannabis is a legitimate spiritual activity that can bring practitioners closer to God and the ultimate meanings of life.
Having said all of this, I can no longer stand idly by while my pastor — a man I know to be genuine, simple and honest — is arrested and railroaded by an out-of-control federal authority.
Going forward, this publication will lend its support to the defeat of this irrational war on Cannabis, and will expose the damage it has caused to innocent men and women everywhere.
Mike LaSalle
Publisher, MensNewsDaily.com
***UPDATE*** August 19, 2010.
In July, Roger Christie was denied bail by two federal judges in Honolulu, on the grounds that he was a “danger to the community”. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed the earlier ruling.
On August 18, several hundred people gathered in downtown Hilo for a rally and march to protest Christie’s incarceration.
“Christie a pacifist who is no threat to our community is denied bail,” one man commented.  ”Christie is a political prisoner.  He is a threat to the war on marijuana and all its corrupt sponsors, but he is no threat to the community.”
Christie’s trial has been rescheduled to April 26, 2011. The Court has ordered that he will be held at the Honolulu Federal Detention Center without bond until trial.
Case documents are available here.
Hundreds March for Jailed Marijuana Activist Rev. Roger Christie
Christie’s trial gets delayed 7 months
Hawaii State Resumes Marijuana Eradication on Big Island

MADISON: Wisconsin is often said to be a progressive state, but the state’s policies on marijuana have actually been nothing but regressive for more than three decades.
But, there was a time when state leaders were actually willing to initiate a statewide discussion on the laws prohibiting cannabis and even talk about taxation and regulation as with tobacco or alcohol. 35 years ago this summer, the state actually held a series of public hearings on Wisconsin marijuana laws. The results, coming at a time when medical use was barely on the radar, were amazingly progressive.
The hearings were set in motion by the findings of a commission appointed by President Richard M. Nixon to look at marijuana laws. Nixon thought his that former Pennsylvania Gov. Raymond Shafer, who he chose to lead the committee, would produce a report supporting Nixon’s “war on drugs” and support his escalation of the war on cannabis.
Instead, The Report of the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse – Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding found the opposite. An angry Nixon rejected the report, but it led to passage of marijuana decriminalization laws in 11 states, as well as debate and discussion of the criminalization of cannabis and its effects on society all over the nation.
The Wisconsin hearings, conducted by the Controlled Substance Board’s “Special Committee on Marijuana Laws,” produced a “Final Report to the Controlled Substances Board,” issued in October 1975, and titled, “SHOULD WISCONSIN REVISE ITS MARIJUANA LAWS?”
The introduction of the report gives this background on the origin of the idea:

At its February 6, 1975 meeting, the Wisconsin Council on Drug Abuse decided that a statewide series of public hearings should be held on the issue of whether Wisconsin should revise its marijuana laws. However since the council meets quarterly, it requested the Wisconsin Controlled Substances Board, which meets monthly, to actually conduct the hearings. At the March 26, 1975 meeting, the board appointed a Special Committee on Wisconsin’s Marijuana Laws to plan and conduct the hearings. Accordingly, the Committee adopted the following schedule of hearings”

It went on to note a schedule beginning June 9, 1975 at Winnebago and concluding in Milwaukee on September 11, 1975.

The 8 public hearing sites:
Winnebago
Green Bay
Wausau
La Crosse
Superior
Eau Claire
Madison
Milwaukee

By the time the hearing reached Madison on September 10, 1975, support was strong with many state leaders strongly in favor:
Decriminalization supporters included:

Gov. Patrick Lucey and his Council on Drug Abuse
Attorney General Bronson La Follette
Assistant Atty. Gen. John William Calhoun
Wisconsin Controlled Substances Board
U. S. Senator Gaylord Nelson (D-WI), (who sponsored federal decriminalization legislation with 4 other senators)
State Rep. David C. Clarenbach (D-Madison)
Milwaukee County District Attorney Michael McCann
Madison Police Chief David Couper
UW Sociology Prof. Gerald Marwell, who did research for the 1971 National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse (Shafer Commission).
UW Dean of Students Paul Ginsberg
Judie LaForme of the UW Drug Information Center
ACLU leader William Gorham Rice
http://www.examiner.com/x-30194-Madison-NORML-Examiner~y2010m7d20-35-years-ago-this-summer-State-held-hearings-asking-Should-Wisconsin-Revise-Its-Marijuana-Laws

By: Michael Whitney Monday

Medical Marijuana Dispensary (Chuck “Caveman” Coker via Flickr)

Oregon voters will decide in November if the state should have medical marijuana dispensaries in the spirit of California and Colorado. A ballot initiative, known as I-28, would legalize nonprofit medical marijuana dispensaries to sell marijuana to card-carrying patients. According to Oregon Business, the initiative barely qualified for November’s ballot.

The Secretary of State’s office has announced that I-28, the medical marijuana dispensary initiative, has qualified for the November 2 ballot.
Organizers of the I-28 campaign turned in 130,702 signatures, 85,848 of which turned out to be valid, narrowly exceeding the required number of 82,769 valid signatures. A separate campaign to legalize marijuana and sell it through state-run liquor stores went nowhere.
The idea behind I-28 is to allow people to set up nonprofit dispensaries for selling marijuana to people holding medical marijuana cards. The system would be overseen by the state health department.
Such a system would almost certainly result in a gold rush to tap into the growing market for legal weed, which has been lucratively exploited in California and Colorado. Marijuana is the nation’s largest cash crop, and any move to update regulations controlling how it is grown and sold will create opportunities within Oregon’s already sizable marijuana business. Just because an operation is a nonprofit doesn’t mean it can’t bring in big money. The dispensaries also would bring new revenue into state government from license fees.
http://elections.firedoglake.com/2010/07/19/oregon-to-vote-on-medical-marijuana-dispensaries-in-november/

(CANVAS STAFF REPORTS) – Canada’s first Medical Marijuana & Hemp Expo was held in Toronto this past weekend and was expected to draw up to 30,000 people. It was billed as “the first expo promoting the respectable and responsible use of marijuana as medicine.”
Organizers said the expo was not just about getting high, but about informing the public of the benefits of medical cannabis.
“We’re not trying to promote: ‘Come down to the convention centre and get stoned.’ This isn’t what it’s all about,” expo organizer Marco Renda told the CBC . “This is about educating yourself on the benefits of cannabis as medicine.”
“There have been other marijuana events in Canada and while they may have served a purpose for awareness, none of them have focused solely on the people with the most to gain medically from cannabis – the patients whose suffering is eased by the responsible use of the plant,” Renda also told the Toronto Sun “I don’t think anyone denies that some people have a real need for the benefits of medical marijuana.”
While marijuana was not available on the site, people with a license for medical marijuana were encouraged to bring their own stashes and try out a wide variety of vaporizers, which are devices that help smokers more easily inhale the cannabis.
Marijuana seeds and pipes were also available for purchase.
Canada allows the medical use of marijuana, although there’s a lengthy process involved in obtaining legal clearance.
Show manager Jim Mahon argued that marijuana has been proven to help people cope with a variety of illnesses ranging from migraines to multiple sclerosis.
Admitted “pot-head” Stephen Hayes was excited to check out the expo.
“I’m really into this kind of stuff. It is interesting to see what is here and it is just a fun day,” Hayes told the Toronto Sun. “Smoking should be legal because it helps relax you. If alcohol is legal then why not weed?”
http://www.myfoxphoenix.com/dpps/news/marijuana-expo-promotes-health-benefits-dpgoh-20100719-fc_8728631

Ed Andrieski/AP

A few months back, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office created a new category: “Processed plant matter for medicinal purposes, namely medical marijuana.”
That set off a rush of new trademark applications from people in the 14 states where sales of medical marijuana is legal.
But there’s this central tension that keeps coming up with medical marijuana: Despite those state laws, it’s still a federal crime to sell the drug.
So officials at the trademark office changed their minds last week and decided to kill the medical marijuana category, the WSJ reports today.
But as of this morning, searching for medical marijuana on the patent office website still turned up dozens of trademark applications submitted before the office got rid of the category.
Some of the names seem so well-established that it’s hard to imagine someone could have gotten a trademark, even if the patent office had let the category stand. (Somebody wanted to trademark “Chronic.”) Other names are less familiar — “420 Honey,” for example.
Here’s a list of some of the marijuana trademarks people tried to register:

• Chronic
• IslandSweetSkunk
• 420 Honey
• Beingkind
• RutBud
• Emerald Triangle Bud
• Bubba Kush
• Panama Gold
• OG Kush
• Red Bud
• Delta 9
• Purple Haze
• Albino Rhino
• Diesel
• Maui Wowie
• Thaistick
• Panama Red
• Acapulco Gold

More of our coverage on trademarks: Read our post on Subway’s effort to trademark “footlong.” And listen to the podcast where we try to trademark “Money Honey.”
http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010/07/19/128616585/from-acapulco-gold-to-alino-rhino-the-marijuana-trademark-land-rush

While the chemical community celebrated Perkin’s discovery, Mozaffer ed Din, who became Shah of Persia in 1900, was no fan of the novel synthetics. Indeed, one of his first edicts was to prohibit the use of aniline dyes for the famed Persian rugs. All such dyes were to be seized and publicly burned. Penalties for their use included jail time and fines equal to double the value of the merchandise.
Sounds like a curious edict. Why did the Persian ruler care about how carpets were dyed? Because carpets are an integral part of Persian culture, having been woven into the fabric of Persian society for more than 2,500 years.
Persian carpets are regarded as the finest in the world, and the shah believed that this reputation was about to be compromised by the introduction of synthetic dyes. And there was quite a reputation to be concerned about, perhaps best exemplified by what is regarded to be the most magnificent rug in the world, the “Ardabil Carpet,” woven for Shah Tahmasp in the 16th century. On display in London’s Victoria and Albert museum, this silk and wool carpet features 10 different colours and more than 26
million hand-tied knots! Its unique design has fostered endless copies, including one that adorned Hitler’s office in Berlin.
While Mozaffer ed Din may have stalled the use of synthetic dyes, he was unable to stop the march of time. By the 1920s, a new class of synthetics, known as the chrome dyes, had been developed. The critical component was sodium dichromate, used as a mordant. Mordants are chemicals added to a dye solution to forge a strong link between the fabric and the dye, producing long-lasting colours that can compete with the natural dyes.
Today, most Persian rugs are made with chrome dyes, although there are still some villages where carpets with natural dyes are being produced. Connoisseurs value these highly because no two are alike. Indeed, it may well be the beauty of such rugs that inspired the association with magical properties.
The most magical of all the rugs, The Pazyryk Carpet, is now one of the prized exhibits at St. Petersburg’s Hermitage museum. It is securely locked in a glass case. Definitely a no-fly zone. But people who had sat on the rug before it was placed in the Siberian tomb may have flown. Beside the carpet, the archeologists found some pipes and a supply of hemp seeds.
http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/ancient+carpet+magic+bugs+plants/3292509/story.html