NEW ORLEANS (AP) — An LSU Health Sciences Center researcher has been awarded a $4 million grant for a five-year study on how cannabinoids, the principal psychoactive component of marijuana, can affect HIV patients.
Dr. Patricia Molina will lead a team examining how the substance produces subtle changes in gene activity that can affect how a patient responds to HIV.
The grant was awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the National Institutes of Health.
Molina says the research could lead to new HIV treatment therapies.
http://www.wcsh6.com/news/health/story.aspx?storyid=119952&catid=8

Posted by Bryce Crawford on Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 5:36 AM

If California legalizes marijuana for personal use, prices for the drug could fall from an average of $375 per ounce, to as low as $38 per ounce, says a study from the nonpartisan RAND Drug Policy Research Center, and reported by the Associated Press.
Besides prices, RAND attempted to accurately gauge the financial impact legalized marijuana would have on the state’s economy. The California Board of Equalization has previously estimated an additional $1.4 billion in revenue would be generated if Proposition 19 passes; RAND, however, says the impact could be much greater.

The researchers said legalization could bring substantially more than $1.4 billion in new revenue if California sees an influx of “marijuana tourism” similar to Amsterdam’s, where pot is legally sold at coffee shops, and if out-of-state dealers purchase California cannabis to sell back home.”You would certainly guess that if it’s cheaper to produce it in California legally than to import it from Mexico, it would reduce imports from Mexico,” Jonathan Caulkins, a Carnegie Mellon University who also worked on the study, said. “Presumably, it would decrease them a lot.”

While it’s a non-issue for Coloradans at the moment, its a certainty that rock bottom prices just a few states away would affect the price of local medical marijuana.

A two-year investigation led to the arrests of 14 people on the Big Island in connection with an alleged marijuana growing and distribution network.
The leader of the group has openly said cannabis is a religion for him and that he’s proud to spread what he calls the sacrament. How he did it, though, appears to have run afoul of federal authorities.
Roger Christie of Hilo speaks openly about what he calls his religion — his THC ministry, and of the wealth that has flowed from it.
“The nickname for it is ganja-nomics,” he says on web videos he made promoting his services, “the natural economy that happens when you have freedom and cannabis together.”
He claims a state license to be a wedding minister is his license to provide the drug. For donations of varying amounts The Hawaii Cannabis Ministry based issues a “Religious Use of Marijuana” ID card, ordainment, legal defense kits, and what the founder calls the sacrament — marijuana
“We use cannabis religiously, and you can too,” Christie says. “Raise the level of acceptance for having the blessings of cannabis in our life. I know you want it. I wanted it, I was hungry for it. I got it.”

Thursday he got arrested, along with more than a dozen others, picked up in various locations from Hilo to Honokaa. Drug enforcement agents, sheriffs, county police, immigrations and customs and even postal agents were part of the bust. Sources say 14 people in all were taken into custody.

“They were only after people that they had federal indictments for,” said Nathan Clark, who lives in the THC Ministry building called The Moses Building. “They left all my things alone. They told me I was free to go.”
Clark said he is from Iowa and has been out of jail himself since May 11^th.
“The DEA, it’s one of their last hurrahs in their failed drug war, the war against cannabis,” Clark said.
The suspects were put on a Coast guard c-130 plane bound for Oahu. Authorities declined to comment.
In the past associates of Christie have been arrested as far away as the East Coast. At the time of a high-profile raid in Florida 2 years ago, Christie told KHON2 his religion is a defense against prosecution.
“Everyone in the USA is born into the right to cultivate and to use cannabis,” he said. “Every state in the United States guarantees religious freedom for each of their citizens, and the federal government does, too.”
Christie openly guided his followers about a Hawaii County law directing low-priority for low-quantity marijuana busts.
“There is no more budget for the county police or prosecutors to go after people who are in the misdemeanor amount of cannabis,” Christie claims, “and that’s the 24 plants and 24 ounces.”
And to feed what Christie told KHON2 was a demand that exceeded supply, he developed a system where ministry members could grow pot at home, make a donation of cannabis to the ministry and get a monetary donation in return. Though 14 are now in custody, the ministry boasts more than 60,000 members.
“May your garden grow green and plenty,” Christie says. “We’ll see you at harvest time.”
The U.S. Attorney’s office told KHON2 it plans a press conference about the bust tomorrow.

By PETER ROPER

About 50 supporters of MediMar Ministries and other area medical marijuana centers came to an informal meeting Wednesday night with several members of City Council, who said they wanted public comment on whether to let city voters decide whether to allow marijuana centers in Pueblo.
What they got were cheers for wanting to hear from the medical marijuana community, but also protests over the city’s decision on June 30 to issue a cease-and-desist order to MediMar, the only center that was openly operating in the city, despite a city moratorium on allowing or licensing such businesses.
Some of the loudest applause came when speakers said the city should repeal that cease-and-desist order. The problem is July 1 was a state deadline for marijuana centers currently in operation to demonstrate they had local government approval; otherwise they would be forced to shut down until a state license is available next year. Although MediMar had a business license, city officials have repeatedly argued that was granted before officials knew it was a marijuana center.
Monday night, council is going to consider an ordinance from Councilwoman Judy Weaver that would let city voters decide on Nov. 2 whether to allow marijuana centers in the city.
Councilman Steve Nawrocki organized Wednesday night’s meeting to hear from interested citizens on that subject and he was joined by Councilmen Leroy Garcia, Ray Aguilera and Chris Kaufman in listening to about 90 minutes of comments. Most of the speakers were people who acknowledged they either used and needed medical marijuana or were involved in operating a center.
Weaver also attended the meeting, sitting in the audience, but left early.
The public comments often echoed each other, with speakers insisting that Colorado voters approved medical marijuana in 2000, and the city’s delay in implementing a licensing process for marijuana centers was depriving patients of the medicine they need.
“Why do you want to vote on medical marijuana again? Do we get to vote on whether people can use (the painkiller) Vicodin?” a woman demanded.
Anita Montoya said she had a “drawer full of prescriptions” that hadn’t helped her medically, but marijuana did. “You’re taking away my ability to get medicine,” she said.
That clearly isn’t the intention of Garcia and Aguilera, who told the crowd that council doesn’t want to deny them access to medical marijuana. Garcia gave a slide show of local growers where the marijuana plants were stashed in closets and backrooms, clearly underground operations that were hazardous to operate.
Garcia’s point was that by licensing and regulating centers, the city would make the process of providing medical marijuana to state-approved people safer and easier to police.
“I like the idea of the city regulating and licensing centers,” he said. “The taxes, the licenses, would all help to legitimize these businesses.”
Nawrocki also emphasized that even if city voters approved a ban on marijuana centers, it would not affect the right of medical marijuana users to grow their own — as provided by the state constitutional amendment.
“Some people are confused. They think that banning centers in the city will ban medical marijuana. It won’t,” he said.
But numerous speakers urged the city to reopen MediMar. One woman said she manages a marijuana center in Pueblo County and said her business has been cleaned out by MediMar patients who can no longer get marijuana at a city center.
Karl Tameler, attorney for MediMar, said the city had accepted the $20,000 in sales tax receipts that MediMar had collected during the first four months of the year — which Tameler suggested was a form of local approval that could allow MediMar to be reopened under the new state law.
“I think you need to reconsider this cease-and-desist order and begin thinking about MediMar as something that is here to stay,” he said.
Not every speaker supported medical marijuana, however. One woman reminded council that several of the speakers represented marijuana centers and that profits were “the elephant in the room that no one is talking about.”
Kaufman also brought the conversation to a halt at the end of the meeting when he thanked everyone for their comments and that he didn’t question their intentions. But then he added that a teen-aged son had just been invited to a party recently “and that medical marijuana had been promised” to the partygoers.
Another ordinance on council’s agenda Monday night would ask voters whether to impose a 4.3 percent sales tax on medical marijuana and its paraphernalia. That idea wasn’t popular either Wednesday night.
“If your loved one needed a medicine to deal with a terminal illness, what would you think about someone wanting to ‘tax the heck out of it?’ ’’ a man asked, referring to comments from council members in support of higher taxes on marijuana.

MADISON: What began as an anti-war protest 40 years ago that soon morphed into a cannabis legalization rally will celebrate the beginning of its fifth decade October 1-3, 2010. The Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival has long been a fall ritual in Madison as much as University of Wisconsin Badger Football or Halloween on State St.
Sadly, this year will not be the anticipated celebration of the passage of the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act but yet another call to action as the fight for reefer sanity rages on both in Wisconsin, and much more successfully in other states.
The 40th Annual Harvest Fest will follow the format used in recent years, a Friday evening benefit to kick off the weekend, live music, speakers, informational tabling and vending on Saturday afternoon at the Library Mall at the end of State St., and Sunday’s traditional Parade to the Capitol for a concert and rally.

According to the brand new Harvest Fest website, the 2010 festival will feature a not only some familiar faces but also some new ones. Festival organizer Ben Masel, who has been the driving force behind Harvest Fest for the last 38 years, will be speaking along with Wisconsin colleagues Gary Storck and Jacki Rickert. Their fellow “Medical Marijuana Commando Squad” member, Jim Miller from New Jersey, is also returning.
NORML Founder Keith Stroup, who last spoke at Harvest Fest 35 in 2005, is also on the bill again this year. And a retired judge from California, Judge Jim Gray, will be making his first Harvest Fest appearance this year. Also returning is Mason Tvert, a Colorado activist and the Founder of Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation (SAFER), who spoke at HF 39 last year.

The festival will also feature a great array of homegrown Wisconsin music across a range of genres. Returning favorites include Nama Rupa, Baghdad Scuba Review, Ifdakar and Groovulous Glove with more to be announced. Bands appearing for the first time include Phish tribute band Phun and Milwaukee reggae band, Recalcitrant.
The Friday night event, the 8th Annual IMMLY/Madison NORML Medical Cannabis Benefit, happens at the Frequency at 121 W. Main, a block from the Capitol. Music will be provided by Brok’n Arrow and the Shanahan-Riddiough Band, and as with the prior seven events, will feature the traditional sing along version of the Wisconsin medical cannabis anthem, “Legal Medicine Blues”.
The fact this is the 40th speaks to not only Madison’s place as a cannabis-friendly town as well as the fact that this is also a protest against marijuana prohibition, a protest that will be entering its FIFTH decade this October when number 40 convenes.
Thousands and thousands and thousands of people have attended Harvest Fest over these years. Almost everyone who has lived in Madison has a HF story, even if just from crossing paths with the parade or passing through on the way to a Badger football game. The magic starts again Oct. 1.

Recent developments in Oregon have proven positive for medical marijuana advocates throughout the state.
On June 16, the Oregon Court of Appeals agreed with a previous ruling regarding the ability of medical marijuana cardholders to carry concealed weapons permits.
Jackson County Sheriff Mike Winters had denied such a permit to a medical marijuana patient in 2008. That decision was challenged, and Jackson County Circuit Court Judge Mark Shiveley ruled that Winters did not have the legal grounds for the denial. Shiveley’s decision was upheld.
The ruling was applauded by John Sajo, director of Voter Power, a statewide organization that advocates for the rights of medical marijuana patients.
“We were confident that the courts would rule that way, and they did,” Sajo said. “The sheriff was trying to deny concealed carry permits for patients, and that was a tortured interpretation of the laws involved.”
Melissa Fritts, clinic director for Rogue River Herbal Pain Management Center, said that Winters’ decision to deny the concealed carry permits was improper.
“It’s just like saying that someone with a prescription for Vicodin or Percocet can’t have a concealed weapon,” Fritts said.
Also on June 16, the Oregon Board of Pharmacy voted to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule II controlled substance. Fritts said that action should benefit the medical marijuana patients that she serves.
“In my opinion, it takes some of the stigma off of medical marijuana and marijuana in general,” she said.
Sajo said that the move was a “largely symbolic act,” because the Medical Marijuana Act, approved by Oregon voters in November 1998, bypassed the pharmacy board. He added that it was “unfortunate” that the substance was only moved down to Schedule II.
“It’s very likely that the decision to go only to Schedule II will be appealed,” Sajo said. “The appeal likely will take many years of making its way through the court system. In the end, marijuana will be placed on a less-restrictive schedule, because science calls for it.”
The pharmacy board’s decision to reclassify marijuana was the result of a law passed by the Legislature.
Friday, July 2 was the deadline for initiative sponsors to submit signatures to the Secretary of State’s office for verification in order to place the measures on the Nov. 2 general election ballot. Medical marijuana advocates turned in signatures in support of Initiative 28, which would establish a statewide system for dispensaries where patients could receive their supplies.
Sajo said that he is “very confident” that supporters of the initiative gathered enough valid signatures to bring it to a vote. He said that the measure will have many benefits for thousands of Oregon’s medical marijuana patients.
“Basically, it will fix the problems with the medical marijuana law,” Sajo said. “It will give patients more choices about how they obtain their medicine.”
The Secretary of State’s office has 30 days to verify the signatures, but Sajo said that Voter Power expects to know by the middle of July if the initiative will qualify for the ballot.
If voters approve the measure in November, Sajo said, patients will be able to grow their own marijuana, designate a grower or go to dispensaries.
“Having a stable, reliable supply of medicine should make it easier for doctors to qualify more patients and have more predictable outcomes,” Sajo said.
The initiative also would create a program for indigent patients, he added, and authorizes the state health department to research medical marijuana for quality control standards.
Fritts said that there are other upsides to approving the initiative.
“It would allow patients who don’t have the knowledge, access or resources to grow their own medicine a legal and convenient way to access medication,” he said. “Also, it would bring a lot of money to the state.”
Sajo said that Voter Power and other similar organizations plan to ramp up their efforts between now and Nov. 2 to ensure that the initiative becomes law.
“We will raise as much money as we can and try really hard to win the election,” he stated. “We are confident that Oregon voters will vote in this improvement to the Medical Marijuana Act.
“Oregonians understand that marijuana is medicine, and patients ought to be able to get it,” Sajo opined.
http://www.illinois-valley-news.com/archive/2010/07/07/medical_mj/

http://24hourhiphop.com/article.php?id=7301

THOMAS TOWNSHIP — Less than a week after he organized a protest outside the Saginaw County Courthouse, the Thomas Township home John F. Roberts, 49, a medical marijuana patient and caregiver, was raided by federal drug enforcement agents.

Roberts said he was near the rear of his multiple-acre property when unmarked cars pulled up to the gravel shoulder of the road in front of his home and agents exited their vehicles with guns drawn.

Roberts said he was handcuffed near a hammock, less than 10 yards from a pile of various protest signs left over after a Friday protest rally. A green poster on top read: “Please learn the law.”

Behind the mound of signs were some children’s toys and a large shed where Roberts had been growing marijuana with his fiancee, Stephanie Whisman, 38, who is also a caretaker and lives at the home.

This isn’t the first time law enforcement has raided the home.

Roberts and his fiancee haven’t been charged since agents and Saginaw County sheriff’s deputies first raided their home April 15 — the same day the home of Saginaw Township resident and medical marijuana user Edwin W. Boyke, 64, was searched, his grow equipment destroyed and property and product was seized, much of which was later returned after Boyke agreed to pay $5,000 for its release.

The couple says law enforcement is unfairly targeting them.

Whisman said she was arrested the day of the protest for a several-year-old outstanding city tax bill that was originally $26, before interest and penalties. She said it cost $550 to be bonded out of the Saginaw County Jail.

City officials could not be reached Tuesday evening to comment on the arrest.

Roberts and Whisman said, under the state law passed in November of 2008, they may possess 132 plants and a little more than one and a half pounds of “usable marijuana,” based on the 10 patients they said they care for — five each — and Roberts’ individual patient allotment.

Roberts said he felt nauseous and on the edge of having an anxiety attack as he took a walk around a mown trail that leads through a wooded area behind the growing shed.

He said he was working up his nerve to look inside.

“I may lose everything I own,” Roberts said. “I’m terrified, utterly terrified.”

On his attorney’s advice, Roberts wouldn’t discuss specifically what agents seized, but said they had less than what state law allows. Agents confiscated about $10,000 in growing equipment, Roberts said.

“They came in, and even the cops were there, they said the medical did not matter,” Roberts said. “They will not recognize medical marijuana.”

The DEA could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.

Thomas Township police supported federal agents with the raid.

Whisman said the agents plan to take the evidence before a federal judge to secure arrest warrants for herself and Roberts.

“We live in fear,” Roberts said. “This is America?

“I don’t think so anymore. I don’t know what this country is. I really don’t.”

Spending day after day in fields of cannabis, one can come up with some pretty offbeat ideas—like making houses out of hemp.
But Dr Susanna Wilkerson has great visions for a plant often maligned for its association with drug use.
The founder of Australian company Pure Delight Hemp says the fibrous plant could replace trees as a source of the world’s paper. Its seeds are nothing short of a super food and it can decontaminate vast tracts of land, including nuclear wastelands.

Hemp has more uses and is more sustainable than any single plant on the planet

And, yes, it can be used to create a building material, called “hempcrete”, which is six times more insulating than concrete for heat and sound. It is also lighter, non-toxic and fire resistant, she says.
In fact, the Canadian-born naturopath believes that hemp is the answer to a sustainable future. From her property in north Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands, she produces hemp to make cosmetics, food, fuel, paper, textiles and now buildings.
Hemp has more uses and is more sustainable than any single plant on the planet,” Dr Wilkerson told The Epoch Times. “It is the obvious solution for pretty much every ecological situation we’ve got. That includes global warming, soil degradation, deforestation and bad farming, including the problems associated with animal farming.”
Cannabis sativa is the longest and strongest known fibre in the plant world. Since the invention of paper about 2000 years ago, hemp has been used to make the finest and most enduring of papers. In 1611, the King James Bible was printed on hemp in Britain, as was America’s Declaration of Independence in 1776.
Levi jeans were originally made from recycled hemp sail cloth. Before the US 1937 Marijuana Tax Act, 70 per cent of all rope, twine and cordage was made from hemp.

The Difference Between Hemp and Marijuana

However, in the early 1900s, prohibition of cannabis began due to recreational drug use. Hemp and the drug marijuana are from the same cannabis family, but according to Dr David West, who holds a PhD in Plant Breeding from the University of Minnesota, they are as different as opium poppies and common garden poppies.
“Many believe that by legalising hemp, they are legalising marijuana. Yet in more than two dozen other countries, governments have accepted the distinction between the two types of Cannabis and, while continuing to penalise the growing of marijuana, have legalised the growing of industrial hemp,” he wrote in a research paper on the topic.
Marijuana strains are high in the psychoactive cannabinoid THC and low in the antipsychoactive cannabinoid CBD. Conversely, other variants are high in CBD and low in THC, and it is these that are known as industrial hemp.
Nowadays, commercial growers generally need a licence stipulating the use of varieties that have virtually no drug content, but the damage to the plant’s reputation has taken a long time to heal.
Dr Wilkerson believes those days are behind us. Her company is producing hemp paper samples in Tasmania with the hope of eventually eliminating old growth forest harvesting. By removing one of the key sources of deforestation, hemp could play a major part in reducing global warming.
“There is not a single reason why another tree should be felled for paper pulp,” she said. “It’s ludicrous and environmentally irresponsible at the highest level.”
The plant could also replace thirsty crops like cotton, without the use of chemicals and with much less impact on the soil.
It can also used as a “mop-up crop” for sewerage treatment, with one acre capable of absorbing 10 million litres of effluent, while at the same time producing 18 tonnes of fibre. It has even been used to decontaminate the Chernobyl nuclear disaster site.
And nutritionally, the balance of omega oils in the hemp seed is the closest to the ratio needed by humans, with the added bonus of high contents of protein, minerals and vitamins.
For more information on industrial hemp, please visit Dr Wilkerson’s website at www.puredelighthemp.com.au .
BENEFITS OF HEMP
• Compared with trees, one acre of hemp produces four times as much pulp over a 20-year growing period
• Hemp is 77 per cent cellulose (compared with 30 per cent in wood pulp)
• Hemp contains only 4 per cent lignin, while wood pulp has up to 60 per cent, which must be broken down using chemicals
• Barely any toxic effluent is produced from hemp paper mills (compared with dioxins and organo-chlorines from wood pulp paper mills)
• Hemp is disease resistant so requires few pesticides, no herbicides and little fertiliser
• It is a natural weed suppressant and its long taproot stops soil erosion
• Hemp can be grown easily in most soils and a variety of climates
• In only 14 weeks, one hectare of hemp can produce enough material to build an average-sized house.
• During the growing period, this crop absorbs 18 tonnes of carbon dioxide, making hempcrete a carbon negative building material

The 100 Mile House Industrial Hemp Project is up and running again, as a student co-ordinator has been hired and a test plot has been seeded.
Project manager Erik Eising was in 100 Mile last week to meet with Horse Lake resident Robin Diether who was hired as the project student co-ordinator on June 30.
Eising says they had numerous applications for the student co-ordinator position and Diether was the one who stood out for the four-person selection panel.
Diether has already started maintenance and observation work on the test plot and will have numerous tasks to perform throughout the growing season.
These include providing producer support and project co-ordination, agronomic research and testing as well as co-ordination and liaison with a university partner, including green construction material development.
He will also construct a portable industrial hemp demonstration building, co-ordinate and host a green building symposium and field day, and help with fibre-processing activities.
Eising says all of this will be done in a team environment that also includes a local 100 Mile House Industrial Hemp producer group that was formed in January.
“We’ll also be doing producer group development and crop production field days, during which present and past producer group members as well as those interested in production will visit this year’s production areas.”
These folks will be given detailed information on varieties, fertilization, field preparation and marketing options, he says, adding this will help them get ready for next year’s production season.
Eising says the production area extends from 100 Mile in the south to Vanderhoof in the north and all are under the banner of the 100 Mile Industrial Hemp Project.
He’s also excited about the Green Building Symposium that will be held in 100 Mile. Eising explains that industrial hemp can be integrated into the construction industry.
“In combination with a binder, you can use hemp core to create non-structural walls and the fibre can be used for insulation.”
Eising was in 100 Mile last month to seed the test plot. It’s a countrywide varietal test program, he explains, and the only one in British Columbia.
“This year, we are testing five varieties and we’re replicating each variety four times to establish reliable results. We have 20 test plots and each one is six by 20 feet.”
Noting 2009 was a horrible year for growing, he says some of last year’s producers haven’t planted this year but remain with the producer group. However, two others have come on board.
“Some of the fields were not well prepared last year, so we’re really focusing on the varietal test plots and the fields on the producers’ side to get people interested and making them aware of how to have successful crop production for the future.”
Last year, there was some government funding for the project, but because it was a terrible growing year, they didn’t use all of the grant money.
Eising says they asked for, and received, an extension so they could use
the leftover funding this year.
Noting producers received funding last year, he says they are “on their own” this year.
“We’re now focusing our efforts on producer group development and our test plots, so we get better information on what varieties are best suited for 100 Mile House area.
http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_cariboo/100milefreepress/news/97901229.html