Author: Jeannie Herer

Medical marijuana: Taking a legal toke

Jeannie Herer

Irvin Rosenfeld is a hero to any sick person who has ever felt the positive, ultrahealing vibes marijuana has on the body. When he was 10 years old, Rosenfeld was diagnosed with a genetic disease that causes tumors to grow at the ends of the long bones in his body. That’s why doctors had him doped up all the time.
“I was taking all kinds of prescription narcotics as a kid,” the Virginia native recalls. “I had morphine and Azolam. You name it, I had it. But I was totally against illegal drugs. I used to speak to high school kids about the perils of doing illicit substances.”

The federal government deals weed to Irvin Rosenfeld.

Michael McElroy
The federal government deals weed to Irvin Rosenfeld.

So what’s he up to now? It’s shortly before 11 a.m. on a muggy July day, and he’s sitting behind his desk at Fort Lauderdale’s New Bridge Securities, where he is senior vice president of the stock-trading firm. His boss is cool with him smoking the green. On the job! And he can’t be busted!
Rosenfeld says he came to the illuminating realization pot was good for him his senior year in high school. In 1971, his doctor told him warm weather would do him good, so the then-19-year-old cruised down to South Florida and rented a pad at Sunset Apartments on Galloway Road in South Miami. By then, the southern part of the Sunshine State was a freewheeling doper’s paradise. “Most of my neighbors were college students,” he says. “And many of them would be drinking alcohol and smoking pot.”
Naturally, Rosenfeld’s anti-illegal-drug stance made him a buzz-kill. He’d decline invites to smoke grass with neighbors. “After 30 days of saying no, I wasn’t making any friends,” he says. “So one day, I relented and gave it a try.”
Rosenfeld claims he didn’t get high, but something more remarkable took place, something similar to that scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey when the apes wake up to the black monolith and just go bananas. Um, not exactly like that, but it was one of those epiphanic moments that make us humans realize we are very special beings who have the capacity to rationalize and conclude that, hey, smoking some reefer could, like, save our lives. Well, that’s what happened to Rosenfeld.
“I couldn’t sit in one place for more than ten minutes due to the pain caused by my disease,” he continues. “After I took my first hit, I played chess for close to 30 minutes. I didn’t feel any discomfort.”
Being a smart fellow, Rosenfeld studied the history of marijuana. He discovered the drug had been legal in the States from 1860 to 1937, primarily for the treatment of pain. “I began using marijuana off and on to test its effects,” he says. “I reduced my use of heavy narcotics as well.”
A year later, he dropped out of school and returned to Virginia, where he embarked on a mission: He would make the case before the federal government that he should be allowed to have his grass. So with the help of his primary physician, Rosenfeld argued before a panel of 20 doctors assigned by the Food and Drug Administration to hear cases from individuals seeking approval to use marijuana for medical purposes.
It worked. In 1982, Rosenfeld became one of two people in the entire country to get the federal government’s OK to use marijuana. The number grew to nearly 30 until George H. W. Bush’s administration shut down the medical marijuana program in the early ’90s.
Luckily, Rosenfeld and the original dozen patients were grandfathered in and still get their pot from a farm run by the feds at the University of Mississippi. Yeah, the feds grow grass. So every 25 days, he picks up his prescription of approximately 300 marijuana joints in a metal tin.
“I have not had morphine in 20 years,” he says triumphantly. “Smoking marijuana has kept my tumors from growing. I have not had a tumor grow in 30 years. I attribute it to cannabis.”
So now he’s on the pro-medical-marijuana speaking circuit. He recently traveled to Oregon, where he spoke on a panel that included Robert Platshorn, the man who served the longest prison stint in U.S. history (29 years) for marijuana trafficking. “Marijuana is a fantastic medicine,” Rosenfeld says. “Doctors should be allowed to prescribe it nationwide.”
Rosenfeld will toke up right in front of your face. In fact, he tokes every day at work in the parking lot. And his office is in the same building as the Drug Enforcement Administration. Not even the agents inside the complex can mess with him. Cuhrazy, brah!
At 11:15 a.m., he is on one of his four smoke breaks. He reaches into the right breast pocket of his blue short-sleeve dress shirt and pulls out a clear plastic bag containing several joints. He grabs one, places it on his lips, and ignites it. As he takes the first drag, a pungent odor confirms he has just lit a fat Marley. Anybody else would have to hot-box inside his car to sneak a toke.
“When people think of a marijuana smoker, they conjure up images of some hippie pothead,” Rosenfeld says. “They don’t imagine a guy in a suit and tie with a career.”
As he takes his drags, we wonder what government weed smokes like.

Hemp is No Laughing Matter. Seriously.

Jeannie Herer

by Brian Cronin

Never in my wildest dreams did I suspect that I might take home the “Best Excuse for the Munchies” editor’s pick honors for my work seeking to legalize the cultivation of industrial hemp. I confess that such a feather in my cap gave me a bad case of the giggles.
That said, I believe a few key points were omitted in your efforts to shed light on the issue of industrial hemp:
* Cultivation of industrial hemp is not a half-baked idea.
* It is high time that we as Americans and Idahoans start taking this issue seriously.
* We just need to let legislators hash this out—a joint effort between Democrats and Republicans.
Obviously, I can take a joke and I may have been asking for it by dragging out the frozen hemp based treats during a committee hearing. But the more we laugh about hemp and over emphasize its biological relationship to marijuana, the longer we’ll have to wait before we can take advantage of a domestically grown and remarkably versatile hemp crop potentially worth millions to Idaho farmers.
Is this a fringe issue? Hardly. A Sept. 12 article from USA Today touts the use of hemp in green buildings. A company in North Carolina is starting to build homes using hemp-based walls, conferring the benefits of energy efficiency and environmental health: “Hemp-filled walls are non-toxic, mildew-resistant, pest-free and flame-resistant.” As the green building movement blossoms in this country, it only makes sense that we should have access to a domestic source of hemp, rather than relying on imports.
Our society has been using hemp for centuries for a wide range of applications—everything from the sails and rope used by Christopher Columbus to the paper used for the Declaration of Independence to the fabric covering the Conestoga wagons. Even the first Levis were made out of hemp-based material. And I recently learned that during the restoration of the Idaho Statehouse, workers discovered a hemp fiber binding material inside the columns and underneath the marble panels.
What other plant can yield clean fuel, medicinal products, high-quality protein, lubricating and fuel oils, plastics, building material, clothing and paper? It’s inexplicable that we’ve banned this crop in the United States even as hundreds of U.S. companies are now using it to forge hemp products for which there is a huge demand.
I recognize it is fun to make “pot jokes”—I face the same battle even amongst my colleagues in the Legislature. But as Canadian and European farmers sell hemp to American companies and our own farmers are prohibited from doing so, the joke is on us. And that, dudes, is lame.
Rep. Brian C. Cronin is a Boise Democrat representing District 19.

Hemp produces viable biodiesel

Jeannie Herer

By Christine Buckley Hemp produces viable biodiesel, study finds
Hemp plant.
(PhysOrg.com) — Industrial hemp, which grows in infertile soils, is attractive as a potential source of sustainable diesel fuel.

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Of all the various uses for Cannabis plants, add another, “green” one to the mix.
Researchers at UConn have found that the fiber crop Cannabis sativa, known as industrial hemp, has properties that make it viable and even attractive as a raw material, or feedstock, for producing biodiesel – sustainable made from renewable plant sources.
The plant’s ability to grow in infertile soils also reduces the need to grow it on primary croplands, which can then be reserved for growing food, says Richard Parnas, a professor of chemical, materials, and biomolecular engineering who led the study.
“For sustainable fuels, often it comes down to a question of food versus fuel,” says Parnas, noting that major current biodiesel plants include food crops such as soybeans, olives, peanuts, and rapeseed. “It’s equally important to make fuel from plants that are not food, but also won’t need the high-quality land.”
Industrial hemp is grown across the world, in many parts of Europe and Asia. Fiber from the plant’s stalk is strong, and until the development of synthetic fibers in the 1950s, it was a premier product used worldwide in making rope and clothing.
Today, there are still parts of the world that rely on Cannabis stalks as a primary fiber, mainly because of its ability to grow “like a weed,” without requiring lots of water, fertilizers, or high-grade inputs to flourish. But the seeds, which house the plant’s natural oils, are often discarded. Parnas points out that this apparent waste product could be put to good use by turning it into fuel.
“If someone is already growing hemp,” he says, “they might be able to produce enough fuel to power their whole farm with the oil from the seeds they produce.” The fact that a hemp industry already exists, he continues, means that a hemp biodiesel industry would need little additional investment.
With his graduate student Si-Yu Li and colleagues James Stuart of the Department of Chemistry and Yi Li of the Department of Plant Sciences, Parnas used virgin hemp seed oil to create biodiesel using a standardized process called transesterification. The group then tested the fuel for a suite of characteristics in the Biofuels Testing Laboratory at UConn’s Center for Environmental Science and Engineering.

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The hemp biodiesel showed a high efficiency of conversion – 97 percent of the hemp oil was converted to biodiesel – and it passed all the laboratory’s tests, even showing properties that suggest it could be used at lower temperatures than any biodiesel currently on the market.
Although growing hemp is not legal in the U.S., Parnas hopes that the team’s results will help to spur hemp biodiesel production in other parts of the world. UConn holds a patent on a biodiesel reactor system that could be customized to make biodiesel from a range of sustainable inputs, hemp included.
“Our research data could make buying a reactor system with our technology more attractive,” says Parnas. “If we have data for the production of many different feedstocks, we can tailor the system to meet the company’s needs.”
Parnas, Yi Li, and colleagues Steven Suib of the Department of Chemistry, Fred Carstensen of the Department of Economics, and Harrison Yang of the Department of Natural Resources and the Environment are preparing to build a pilot biodiesel production facility using a two-year, $1.8 million grant from the Department of Energy.
The reactor will be capable of producing up to 200,000 gallons of biodiesel per year, and while this production rate is small in comparison to commercial biodiesel reactors, the main use of the facility will be to test new ways to produce , including catalysts and feedstocks. Ultimately, the team will perform economic analyses on commercializing their methods.
As for other industries that utilize Cannabis plants, Parnas makes a clear distinction between industrial hemp, which contains less than 1 percent psychoactive chemicals in its flowers, and some of its cousins, which contain up to 22 percent. “This stuff,” he points out, “won’t get you high.”

Provided by University of Connecticut (news : web)

Medibles

Jeannie Herer

Shekina Peña, owner of Your Healthy Choice Clinic at 628 E. Michigan Ave., discusses the benefits of feasting on your cannabis

by Andy Balaskovitz

You won’t catch Shekina Peña smoking a joint or a bong, but she is an expert on a wide variety of cannabis-based foods. “Medibles,” from her experience, is an equally enjoyable way to enjoy the benefits of medical marijuana if you don’t smoke.A browse through the medibles section at Your Healthy Choice Clinic features brownies, cookies, banana bread, tea, muffins, butters and apple cider — even cannabis pesto. Some have different strengths, too.
Peña says to be forewarned while cooking at home, because the aroma of cooking crock-pot sized batches of cannabis butter can be quite pungent. When cooking with cannabis-based oils, she recommends using saffron oil, which is safest for allergies. Olive or vegetable oils can be substituted, but when cooking with butter, do not use margarine, she stressed.
Another key point is to cook cannabis-based dishes “low and slow,” so as not to compromise the THC levels in the food. You run that risk cooking at temperatures higher than 212 degrees, she said.
Peña recommends sativa-based foods for a “kick-start” in the morning. For a slow-released body high, she recommends indica-based foods. However, Peña says a majority of medibles are combinations of the two (as are most strains). Hybrids can be effective for patients with Crohn’s disease or anything related to digestive function that leave a “confused high” and are recommended for nighttime use.
Peña studied medicine in Europe and the medibles idea came to her after a visit to Amsterdam about 10 years ago. She is registered with the state Health Department and her food labels comply with the state Cottage Food Laws, she said. She received her Bachelor’s degree in nursing from Lansing Community College and Michigan State University.
Peña´s creativity doesn’t stop there. Your Healthy Choice Clinic also specializes in deep tissue cannabis massages that use pot-based topical oils. Peña says muscles respond within 20 minutes.
“Some of my patients come just for the medibles,” Pena said. “It’s pretty exciting sharing the secrets.”

Prohibition and edicine…

Jeannie Herer

Michigan is one of 14 states to straddle that line

by Andy Balaskovitz

Cannabis. Grass. Marijuana. Ganja. Weed. Pot.
Medicine.
That last descriptor, legitimized by 63 percent of Michigan voters in 2008 and in 13 other states since 1996, has changed the game. Here in the greater Lansing region, perhaps most prominent is the number of businesses that engage in the sale, trade and education of it.
Also prominent are local officials who stand by scratching their heads, moratoriums in place, waiting for the first community to make the leap into regulation despite a supposedly confusing state law.
In the end, though, this law was written for ill citizens who benefit from using cannabis either by inhaling, vaporizing, eating or rubbing it into their skin. It doesn’t go far beyond defining patients and caregivers and the amounts of cannabis they can possess and grow — up to 2.5 ounces of usable product per patient and up to 12 plants per patient, with caregivers allowed up to five patients.
This guide is meant to be a resource for those who legally use medical marijuana and to offer an update on what’s going on in the greater Lansing region, an area establishing itself as a hub for medical marijuana in Michigan.
Enjoy.




A look about town The most common way communities in the area are dealing with the state medical marijuana law, particularly new businesses, is by issuing moratoriums on their existence at least for a few months. However, some are going the zoning ordinance route, while others wait to see who takes the lead.


Charlotte

City Manager Gregg Guetschow said any authorized patients and caregivers who can grow marijuana legally under the state statute will face no problems in Charlotte. However, existing ordinances prohibit any businesses that are illegal under federal law — for example, dispensaries and co-operatives. Guetschow issued an administrative order in June saying so and hasn’t received any inquiries from potential businesses since the law passed.
Delhi Township

The Township set a six-month moratorium Sept. 21 on any businesses related to medical marijuana, Township Supervisor Stewart Goodrich said. “We needed to take a much more serious look. Heaven forbid (state) legislators would want to do anything about it,” he said.
Delta Township The Delta Township Board extended a moratorium on Sept. 7 for six more months on any businesses related to medical marijuana, Township Manager Richard Watkins said. There have been three or four inquiries regarding Lansing’s city limits in relation to the township, but Watkins said he is not aware of any businesses in the township.
DeWitt
A six-month moratorium took effect Sept. 14 on sales or dispensing of medical marijuana within the city, which includes retail stores, residences or any facility where cannabis is purchased. The penalty is a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500 or a maximum 90 days in jail.
DeWitt Township
A scheduled public hearing Monday will address proposed amendments to the township’s home occupation ordinance that would limit one caregiver per dwelling and forbid operations within 1,000 feet of a church, school, daycare or drug rehabilitation center. Caregivers would also need a permit from the township and would be subject to inspection by the Fire Department.
Dimondale

Nothing has been adopted or approved in Dimondale yet, but Village Manager Denise Parisian imagines a moratorium will be placed on “certain activities” as an ordinance is worked out. “We understand medical use is a statutory right,” she said. “We are not looking at anything that will compromise that right.”
East Lansing

East Lansing is considering three different ordinances that regulate homebased businesses (caregivers), central businesses (dispensaries) and one that takes a “Livonia approach” that restricts all cannabis growing in light of federal law. “I don’t think many favor that (last) approach,” City Manager Ted Staton said. A public hearing is scheduled for Oct. 19 to discuss the approaches, Staton said.
Grand Ledge

A moratorium set in May is in place until the end of November on any commercial businesses relating to medical marijuana. Mayor Kalmin Smith said local officials “really don’t know what to,” citing the new law´s vagueness. Smith said the administration and City Council are looking at a “zoning approach,” but it is still early to tell. “Whatever restrictions we have, if they’re significantly different from our neighbors, that will cause confusion,” he said.
Lansing

The City Council passed an ordinance that took effect Sept. 27 that regulates home-based caregivers who conduct business with patients inside their homes. Only one caregiver can operate out of a house if cannabis is sold there, which can’t be within 1,000 feet of any public or private schools, playgrounds, churches or substance abuse rehabilitation centers. No advertising can be placed outside, and any energy use and heat generation that could pose a fire hazard has to be approved by the fire marshal and the Building Safety Office. This ordinance does not address dispensaries or cooperatives.
Lansing Township
A moratorium is in place until May 1, 2011, restricting permits for sales, growing facilities, clubs or any business activities that result in medical marijuana sales.
Township Zoning Administrator Susan Aten said home occupation regulations similar to Lansing’s are being considered “very seriously.”
Mason

City Administrator Marty Colburn said no formal actions have been taken in Mason and that all medical marijuana regulations are in the “discussion phase.” Colburn said he is unaware of any businesses coming up in the city and that outside of the 2008 election, he has heard of no feedback from the public.
Meridian Township
Township Supervisor Susan McGillicuddy wants to see some zoning restrictions or a moratorium in place for anyone growing medical marijuana in the township. “I have brought it up twice to the township board, both times they chose not to act or do anything.” Board meeting minutes show that some members are concerned about the legality of such limitations; meanwhile Meridian Township remains free of any restrictions. “I don’t think that’s the right decision to make,” she said.
Williamston

At a Sept. 27 meeting, the Williamston City Council placed a six-month moratorium on land use permits for the sale or dispensation of medical marijuana in the city.
Williamstown Township
A six-month moratorium on medical marijuana businesses took effect Sept. 7 so the township can address a law that is “proven to be rather vague,” Supervisor Mickey Martin said. The Green Leaf Smokers Club, which made headlines in late May after its owner Fredrick “Wayne” Dagit allegedly stored 74 pounds of cannabis there, is located here. Dagit is facing drug-related charges.




Catching up with the MDCH It started out in April 2009 as a three-person staff to administer medical marijuana applications. The Michigan Department of Community Health’s cannabis division has grown to six fulltime and nine temporary workers, with three more full-timers starting over the next few months. That is on top of two new printers purchased about four months ago that can each print up to 400 cards in one day.
Still, the department struggles with a three-month backlog from the time it takes to approve an application to the time a physical card lands in mailboxes. As of Sept. 24, the Department issued 32,859 applications since April 9, 2009, the day the law took effect.
Celeste Clarkson, who manages the program, said the process is not as simple as going to the mailroom, browsing through an application and printing off a card. From the mailroom, applications are taken to the cash processing office and then sent to the registry program where they are sorted and reviewed for program eligibility and background checks. Then comes the tedious process of data entry.
“That is where the backlog starts,” Clarkson said. The department is still processing applications from July, which is relatively straightforward once data entry is finished and patient information is sent to the printers.
The new hires and printers are geared toward efficiency, but there is still more to be done: The mailroom, cash processing office and the registry program are all in different buildings in Lansing, Clarkson said.

L.A. County officials seize marijuana at Palm Springs collective

Jeannie Herer

Los Angeles County officials seized marijuana at a Palm Springs collective Wednesday as they served search warrants in four counties across Southern California, a sheriff’s captain said.

“We had a long-term investigation of a certain organization,” said Los Angeles County sheriff’s Capt. Ralph Ornelas, who oversees the multiagency Marijuana Dispensary Task Force. “Today was a culmination of this investigation where we served 16 search warrants.”
One of the dispensaries searched was The Holistic Collective of Palm Springs, 2235 N. Palm Canyon Drive.
Authorities arrived about 11 a.m. to serve the warrant, said Lt. Joseph B. Nuñez of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s Narcotics Bureau.
“It’s a search warrant for illegally operating dispensaries,” Nuñez said.
By about 2 p.m. Wednesday, authorities had carried at least half a dozen small boxes out of The Holistic Collective.
Ornelas said authorities took marijuana buds and other products made with the substance.
Authorities also searched a dispensary in Riverside, but none of the 11 arrests were made in Riverside County, Ornelas said.
Names of the people arrested were not immediately released.
Ornelas said the dispensaries searched Wednesday in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties were all tied to an organization that operated under various names to make a profit.
“Basically, it’s a money-making organization, not what the Compassionate Use Act was meant to be,” he said.
State law allows qualified patients to collectively grow marijuana for medical purposes but does not allow marijuana to be grown or distributed for a profit.
Palm Springs is the first and, so far, only Coachella Valley city to allow medical marijuana dispensaries, but a city ordinance limits the number and location of dispensaries.
The city filed a complaint against The Holistic Collective in April 2009, saying the business had violated the city’s 2006 moratorium on marijuana dispensaries and that it later operated without the proper permits. The collective legally challenged that ordinance.
Three people who identified themselves as volunteers at the collective but did not give their names said authorities took patient files and personal property during Wednesday’s search, and the disruption would likely keep the collective shuttered for days.
A person reached by phone at the collective said an owner or manager was not immediately available for comment.
An attorney who had represented the collective as it challenged Palm Springs’ dispensary ordinance was also unavailable Wednesday afternoon.
The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office assisted with Wednesday’s operation, and Palm Springs police had a unit on standby in the area at the outset of the search, spokespeople for those agencies said.

Military-Style Marijuana Raid at School Turns up Tomatoes

Jeannie Herer

Police using  military helicopters raided a New Mexico school looking for marijuana growing in a greenhouse last month, but all they found there were a bunch of tomatoes.

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The armed raid on the school containing 11- to 14-year-old students occurred during lunch hour on September 21, according to education director Patricia Pantano.

“We were all as a group eating outside as we usually do, and this unmarked drab green helicopter kept flying over and dropping lower,” Pantano said, reports Tom Sharpe at The Santa Fe New Mexican. “Of course, the kids got all excited. They were telling me that they could see gun barrels outside the helicopter. I was telling them they were exaggerating.”

Pantano, education director of the Camino de Paz Montessori School and Farm in Cuarteles, N.M., said the school has 12 students who participate in farming as a context for learning math and science.
After 15 minutes, the helicopter left, according to Pantano, then five minutes later a state police officer parked a van in the school’s driveway.
Pantano said she asked the officer what was happening, but he would only say he was there to “represent law enforcement.”
Then several other vehicles arrived, and four mean wearing bulletproof vests, but without any visible insignia or uniforms, jumped out and said they wanted to inspect the school’s greenhouses.
Pantano said she then turned the men over to the farm director, Greg Nussbaum.
“As we have nothing to hide, you know, they did the tour and they went in the greenhouses and they found it was tomato plants and so that was the story,” she said.
State police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia claimed he knew nothing about the school incident. But he did admit the Region III Narcotics Task Force — involving state police, county deputies and other law enforcement agencies, plus National Guard helicopters — did conduct raids on “suspected marijuana growers,” presumably including the children’s school, in southern Santa Fe County.
Great use of tax dollars, wouldn’t you say?
Some parents, who declined to be named, said they were concerned about the raid on their children’s school.
Pantano said she did not want to make too big an issue out of the raid, but questioned why such a commotion was necessary when anyone who asked would have been given a tour of the greenhouses — no helicopters necessary.
“We’re sitting here as a teaching staff, always short on money, and we’re thinking, ‘Gosh, all the money it takes to fly that helicopter and hire all those people, it would be bgreat to have this for education.”
The one successful raid during that incredibly expensive week occurred on September 20 when police found a paltry little patch of about 35 marijuana plants on a property on Gold Mine Road near Cerrillos. The plants were spotted from a helicopter and when agents arrived on the ground they noticed “a distinct smell of raw marijuana,” found some plants in a shed and others “in plain view.”
The agents later contacted the resident, Kathrine Moore, whom they claim admitted the marijuana belonged to her. No arrests have been made, according to the police report.
Residents in the Cerrillos and Madrid areas have rightly complained that the helicopter flyovers are scaring livestock, disturbing the peace in rural areas, and resulting in invasions of private property without search warrants.
Marianna Hatten, who runs the High Desert Ranch Bed & Breakfast on Gold Mine Road, said the entire area was subjected to “10 hours of assault” for the grand total of 35 plants.
“I think it would be found illegal to use aerial surveillance from 60 feet when there’s no probably cause,” Hatten said.

The Issue Of Medical Marijuana

Jeannie Herer

To All Of Our Native American Indian Relations, Political Representatives, Religious Teachers, Chiefs, Councilmen and women, Elders, Shamans, Medicine societies, Fortune Seekers and Educators-
According to history books and treaties to date. Somewhere along the line we became Federally recognized. Are all people Federally recognized or just the Native American Indians or when you work for the Federal Government or become Federally incarcerated? We are not recognized as people unless we are Federally recognized. No matter if your from Canada or United States of America
As people of a community or tribe when exactly do we practice our Federal Rights or our recognition? During elections when all politicians need our votes. But when issues arise hands are tied, because we are Federally recognized. By the very same offices we elected in. Is it a privilege or a mockery of our heritage?. Do we as tribes or Councils use and practice our rights as being Federally recognized? I’ve participated in marches every year in the late 60’s and 70’s across the U.S. and Canadian border in Niagara Falls in honor of the Jay Treaty.
I now would like to speak out to all and for all of our Native American People.
This Federal recognition, exactly what is this meaning for Our People, Land and Traditional Cultures?. I myself, feel this Federal is an (excuse the term, expression) a Chinese jump rope. If anyone has ever played Chinese jump rope the competitors can put the rope anywhere they would like and you have to jump it.
There are certain ideas and proposals in regard of Native American Indian issues that are automatically refused because we are Federally recognized. There are tribes that were allowed to build casinos to help the tribes revenue, while others were denied.
To see a future where our elders, council and communities would rather see oil wells and our land have the natural minerals and oils sucked from the Mother Earth. What I’ve witnessed is certain landowners getting prosperity, wealth lining their own pockets only too become failed alcoholics and drug addicts, most not all. How does this help the tribes economy?.
For everyone to be so quick and judgmental about medical marijuana, to refuse the rights to grow and industrialize it to profit our people and the land is unthinkable.
Our ancestors fought centuries to protect the Mother Earth from the natural resources being stripped and drained from the very soil that provides our daily bread and other vitalities to life. To be drilled and have gases and oils on the face of the earth to which there is too much of to where there’s billions of dollars spent on cleanups mishaps and etc.
Understand-Medical Marijuana has been one of the many medicines our ancestors implied for centuries. The difference between the yrs is this, our medicine Shamans only used the medical marijuana when needed. Unlike the people outside our culture are the ones that made it recreational and misused it and misrepresented the medicinal use. Our well respected Shamans did not pass a bag of so called joints or peacepipes filled with Marijuana and stated it’s Friday night here distribute to all Tribal members teenagers elders and whoever wants to party. No! No! No! that is not the way of our people or our medicines, like the land and the people of our medicines are also sacred. This is why, it was not spoken of because only people of the medicine societies were allowed to grow, care for and distribute the medicine to those that were ill and needed the medical marijuana to survive.
Let’s be real – Look what we allowed society to do with Our Sacred Tobacco. Whether it is acknowledged or not this also was worthy for our prayers and healing. But the Federal government overed, capitialized on our tobacco. Down the road theyadded additives, filters etc., which now they are claiming causes cancer.
Today it is a multibillion dollar industry-which spreads to all revenues.
According to the law, we the Federally recognized Native American Indians are the only ones that can legally grow this, or once again shall we again wait for the government to over on the whole idea of us as people can too make a legal and financial contribution too the people of and these countries and communities.
How many times have at one tome or anther a non native told us how lucky we are because we get free education healthcare and land. News flash, not so, we have student loans to pay back, health bills, medicine bills etc.. Sounds Good! But Not So.. There are societies out there that do believe we get everything free.
Our ancestors made use and purpose or our tobacco. I don’t ever remember hearing of our great or grandmothers or fathers dying of cancer, this disease became known in the early 60’s.
There are too many graves of all races because of alcohol, prescription drugs and street drugs. But none that say smoked one too many marijuana cigarettes. If we were to take a walk with a knowledgeable medicine elder through a pharmacy and checked the ingredients I wonder how many of those were plants their elders had used one time or another too heal. Our ancestors planted, cultivated, nourished, picked, preserved and passed down to those worthy and respectful of the medicines.
Instead of rotting our land with oil and gas drills. Let’s cultivate the land the way it was intended for the people of the creator and the mother earth. Let’s heal and cultivate and grow medical marijuana.
I grew up in eastern Canada on a tobacco farm at a very young age watching my elders work. I do have an idea of how the process needs too be from planting, priming, hanging and curing in smoke houses et..
We need to at least took into the whole idea of doing something for ourselves our children, land and the future of our people.
Realize there are doors that will be opened for all. We’re not talking about giving drug dealers business. Were actually putting them out of business.
This type of industry requires educated professional of all different fields from chemists to horticulturists, doctors, lawyers, accountants, receptionists, laborers etc. the list goes on. Job opportunities for the children that we’ve been sending to school to educate them for professional needed jobs.
Before the federals over on the whole industry again! Let’s practice our Federal Rights, Land and Businesses. Our elders please at least seek out education about the medical marijuana issue before totally closing that door.
My mother went back to school after she already obtained her hairdressing license. She continued to further her education, completed college and university graduated to be a teacher to only have gone blind before she could enter a classroom. Before her blindness her and a colleague went to council to ask permission to build a day care. The council than refused. They claimed that mothers were leaving their children too much and this would give them reason to leave them more. The same with the nursing homes, no way, no how was that to be approved. Now look ten yrs or more there’s day cares, nursing homes, radio stations, police, jails etc. on the federally recognized reservations.
The question is are we Federally recognized Native American Indiand gonna let the Mayflower sail by us again, once again enriching themselves with the medicines that were given to us by the creator for healing and medicinal use that will prosper the land, provide jobs and well being of peace of mind. Our land will be useable for centuries to come.
It’s our choice, Federally recognize-RIGHT! My name is Jacqueline L. Nicholas I am a full blood Oneida, Iroquois. My Oneida given name given to me by my greatgrandmother a well respected medicine woman and fortune seeker named me Kuwanhl. Which english meaning is “One Who Speaks the Word”, Wolf Clan.

Planting Seeds of Support

Jeannie Herer

Lexington, KY – “I’m a farmer, and that’s why I’m here tonight,” said State Senator Joey Pendleton, Hopkinsville-D, speaking at the Lexington Public Library after a showing of a documentary film, The Hemp Revolution, sponsored by the Good Foods Market and Cafe. Pendleton has represented Kentucky’s Third District since 1992, and that district’s economy is largely based on agriculture.
“The time is right for industrial hemp in Kentucky,” he said. On stage with him was Republican gubernatorial candidate Phil Moffet, who has made industrial hemp a major issue in his campaign. Craig Lee, appointed in 2001 to the Industrial Hemp Commission, sat between them.
Pendleton said that, just a few years ago, he would have never thought he would be advocating for the reintroduction of hemp into Kentucky agriculture. Education about hemp, he added, is key. He now sees the potential for a $400 million to $500 million hemp industry in the state.
“I’m for the agriculture end of it, for industry and putting people to work,” he said. “The ethanol plant in Hopkinsville told me that within a week they could be making ethanol from hemp, and we’ve got harvesting equipment in place.”
Hemp, he said, would provide at least twice the amount of ethanol per acre when compared with corn, and it could produce two crops in a year’s cycle. Hemp also has the advantages of growing pesticide-free and leaving a more enriched soil.
Holding up a postcard that had side-by-side images of an industrial hemp fiber crop and a crop of marijuana, Pendleton said, “Anyone who can’t tell the difference between the two doesn’t belong in law enforcement.”
Industrial hemp is grown in tight rows to maximize stalk yield, the part of the plant that is rich in the long bast fibers that line the outside of the stalk and is rich in cellulose in the stalk’s inner hurd. Marijuana or seed crops are grown with more space between them to favor the flourishing of leaves and flowers. Different strains of the same plant, cannabis sativa l., have varying amounts of THC, the psychoactive component. Industrial hemp, whether grown for industry or seed stock, has less than one percent THC, making it a non-drug crop. Marijuana strains of the plant can range from five to 20 percent THC content.
Pendleton has pre-filed a bill containing a plan for the reintroduction of hemp into Kentucky agriculture, should the federal government end its prohibition of industrial hemp cultivation.
“It’s actually the same bill that we had last year,” he said. That bill was titled “An Act Relating to Industrial Hemp,” and it never made it to the floor.
“I think there’s a lot of support there (for industrial hemp) from other members of the Senate,” said Pendleton. “I think if they ever had the opportunity to have a committee hearing and get it to the floor to vote, I think it’d be something we could pass in the Senate.”
State Senator Jimmy Higdon was in the audience that night at the library.
“Kentucky farmers are suffering and looking for alternative crops to tobacco,” Higdon said. “We understand it (hemp) has great potential, but it really needs to be researched.”
He would like to see the University of Kentucky and Kentucky State University conduct research on industrial hemp. He would also like to see the Industrial Hemp Commission, which was formed in 2001, funded and activated.
According to Pendleton, many law enforcement officials in the state, particularly in Western Kentucky, see the potential of industrial hemp farming and would be willing to deal with any enforcement issues. He said he has toured farming communities, speaking about industrial hemp, and was accompanied by a Pennyrile Narcotics Task Force officer, who also voiced support for industrial hemp. In eastern Kentucky, Pendleton said, the view is much dimmer on industrial hemp, and he thinks that’s because hemp may be seen as competition in the energy sector.
Pendleton also has the support of his constituency, which includes many farmers.
“All of them I’ve talked to are very much interested in it (industrial hemp),” said Pendleton. He cited Phillip Garnett, of the 20,000-acre Garnett Farms, the largest farming operation in the region, as having a keen interest in hemp.
Moffet, like Pendleton, never foresaw himself as an advocate for hemp.
“When I got into this race, I had no interest in advocating hemp,” he said. “I got asked about it and started doing research.”
He now sees it as a leadership issue for the governor’s office. “There are 31 countries that have legalized hemp,” he said. “We need to start the fight at the state level and start pushing back (against federal prohibition).”
Outside the library theater, a display table showed an array of products made with hemp: diesel biofuel, particle board, roof shingles, automobile parts, a plastic Frisbee, animal and fish feed, horse bedding, tennis shoes, hats, clothing, cosmetics, shampoo and conditioner, cereal, milk, ice cream, energy bars and nutritional oil.
“This piece right here is a $250,000 piece,” said Lee, holding a molded piece of hemp composite that represented a tremendous investment in research and development. He explained that it was an armrest designed to fit the door of a Chevrolet Luma, part of a project with hemp fibers in Canada in the late 1990s. This harkens back to Henry Ford using hemp and soy in automobiles. He had a vision for the wedding of agriculture and industry. The petrochemical industry came to displace that vision. Now concerns about peak oil, national security in regard to dependence on foreign oil, and the environmental impact of fossil fuels have made plant-based fibers, oils and cellulose more attractive. British car-maker Lotus has reinvigorated Ford’s vision with the Eco Elise, a sports car that uses hemp fiber in body panels, interior door panels and seats.
Kentucky-grown hemp once provided rope and sailcloth for ships and canvas for covered wagons. It was hemp paper upon which the first drafts of the Declaration of Independence were written. Pendleton’s bill will seek to return industrial hemp to Kentucky agriculture in the hope of reinvigorating farms, boosting the state’s economy and adding tax revenues to a strapped state government.

Former Narcotics Agent: It's Time To Call Off The War On Drugs

Jeannie Herer

Russ Jones, who has spent more than 30 years fighting the War On Drugs, has something to say about his life’s work: it is a complete failure that should be ended.

“The U.S. over the last four decades has spent $1 trillion of our tax dollars, made 38 million nonviolent drug arrests and quadrupled our prison population,” Jones said, reports columnist Tom Barnidge of the Contra Costa Times. “And the rate of addiction today, 1.3 percent, is the same as it was in 1970, when we started.”
Jones, 64, spoke to the Martinez Rotary Club last week on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a volunteer organization of 15,000 former judges, prosecutors, federal agents and police officers working for the end of drug prohibition.
He wasn’t specifically promoting California’s Prop 19, which would legalize marijuana in the state, but he said he welcomed any advancement toward the larger goal of legalizing and regulating all controlled substances.

Jones said he began to question the War On Drugs while working undercover on setting up major drug busts. He still has copies of the front-page newspaper headlines.
“The district attorney would announce that a major blow had been dealt to the drug network,” Jones said. “Then what would follow is some new drug dealer would take the old dealer’s place.”
The same pattern was repeated so often that narcotics officers winced whenever the district attorney claimed a “victory” over drugs, according to Jones.
“When I arrested a rapist or robber, the community was safer,” Jones said. “When I arrested a drug dealer, all I did was create a job opening.”
One of the unintended consequences of shutting down local dealers, according to Jones, was to create a void into which moved much larger, better-organized operations.
But then again, unintended consequences are a common product of the War On Drugs.
When amphetamines were outlawed, Jones said, users learned to cook up methamphetamines, which are far more potent. Because cocaine is water soluble, requiring special packaging that is difficult to get past authorities, dealers came up with the derivative crack in smaller, easier-to-hide “rocks.” Those smaller, cheaper portions made it affordable in poor communities, Jones said.
Jones reminds everyone that you can be against drugs and still favor drug law reform. He wants addicts to receive professional treatment and education, recognizing abuse as a health concern, not a matter for law enforcement.
“Doctors should be allowed to prescribe drugs to addicts, who can take their prescription to a clinic where they can get a pharmaceutical-grade dose administered by a health clinician,” Jones said. “When habitual users start going to clinics, you put violent drug dealers out of business, and addicts don’t commit crimes to support their habit.”
He cited as an example clinics in Switzerland, where heroin is dispensed to addicts. Deaths by overdose have been reduced by 50 percent, drug crimes by 60 percent.
To those who doubt the effectiveness of public education, Jones pointed to cigarette smoking. “With education, we reduced the use of tobacco in this country from 42 percent to 17 percent, and we did that without firing one shot or kicking in any doors,” he said.
While the Drug War is a moral and ideological issue for some, for others it’s just a matter of money, according to Jones.
He said the DEA, with a $2.6 billion annual budget and nearly 11,000 employees, would be out of work without illegal drugs.
Local law enforcement agencies would lose fat “anti-drug” federal grants, as well.
Privately operated, for-profit prisons, whose revenues are based on occupancy, would wind up with empty beds.
“A lot of people have their fingers in the bowl of money tied up in the Drug War complex,” Jones said.