(NaturalNews) Experts from different persuasions often argue about the alleged benefits of using marijuana for pain relief, but a new study out of McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) and McGill University (MU) has conclusively found that cannabis, the genus name for marijuana, is better than pharmaceutical drugs at relieving chronic neurological pain, and without all the harmful side effects.
Appearing in the latest issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the study reveals that tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the active ingredient in marijuana that gives it psychoactive and analgesic properties, is linked to relieving chronic pain, improving mood and inducing better sleep in those with severe neurological pain.
Patients who took a single inhalation of marijuana smoke three times a day experienced moderate pain reduction within just a few days. The effects were more pronounced with marijuana containing ten percent THC versus varieties with less than ten percent.
“This is the first trial to be conducted where patients have been allowed to smoke cannabis at home and to monitor their responses, daily,” explained Dr. Mark Ware, lead author of the study, Director of Clinical Research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit at MUHC, assistant professor of anesthesia in McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and neuroscience researcher at the Research Institute of the MUHC.
“The patients we followed suffered from pain caused by injuries to the nervous system…and which was not controlled using standard therapies,” he went on further to say. “This kind of pain occurs more frequently than many people recognize, and there are few effective treatments available. For these patients, medical cannabis is sometimes seen as their last hope.”
For legitimate chronic pain caused by post-traumatic and post-surgical injuries, marijuana can be a safer alternative than prescription medications. As always, though, it is important not to abuse marijuana for non-therapeutic purposes.

Chief justice nominee blocks school drug tests

In a ruling by California’s chief justice nominee, a state appeals court has barred a school district from drug testing all students in extracurricular activities such as choir, the school band and Future Farmers of America. […]
the Third District Court of Appeal in Sacramento said Thursday that the California Constitution’s guarantee of privacy is more protective of individual rights than the U.S. Constitution and may prohibit the drug screening. […]
“The district has not shown a specialized need to target students participating in (the activities) for drug and alcohol testing,” Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said in the 3-0 ruling.
She said there was no evidence of a drug problem among students in programs like choir and Future Farmers of America, and little or no evidence that testing them would serve any useful purpose.

Nice to see a little sanity out there.

rom Bloomberg (NY)
Phil Moffett said Friday he’s willing to “go to the carpet” to legalize the production of industrial hemp in Kentucky. The Louisville businessman voiced support for industrial hemp in a question and answer session with libertarian voters in Lexington on Thursday and again Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. (Link to Story)

by Phillip Smith,
* Ballot Measures
* Medical Marijuana
* News Brief
Voters in Dane County, Wisconsin, the home of Madison, the state’s capital and second largest city, will be asked if they support passage of a state medical marijuana law, and they might not be alone. A city councilman in River Falls last week filed petitions seeking to put the same question on the local ballot in that town of nearly 15,000 in west-central Wisconsin, near the Twin Cities.
In the November 2 election, Dane County, voters will be asked: “Should the Wisconsin Legislature enact legislation allowing residents with debilitating medical conditions to acquire and possess marijuana for medical purposes if supported by their physician?”
The move comes after medical marijuana activists such as Is My Medicine Legal Yet (IMMLY) have spent years trying to get the state legislature to pass a bill, to no avail. It is designed to show legislators they have nothing to fear politically by approving medical marijuana, and to suggest that the opposite could be the case.
The Madison resolution was approved by the Dane County Board in a unanimous voice vote on July 15. The charge was led by east side supervisors John Hendrick and Barbara Vedder, according to a report from IMMLY’s Gary Storck.
“I would just invite all of you to join Representative Vedder to represent our constituents and to represent the opportunity for all of your constituents to vote on this in November and to advise the legislature that they have nothing to fear from the people of Wisconsin if they decide to pass a bill to legalize medical marijuana,” Hendrick told his colleagues before the vote.
And they took him up on it. Now, the city council in River Falls will have the same opportunity, after City Council Member Bob Hughes filed more than 800 signatures last week with the city clerk’s office seeking to put a referendum question with identical language there.
Now, the city attorney will review the referendum question and then submit it to the city council. The council will then vote on whether to add the question to the ballot.
“Some community members contacted me about it and asked if I was willing to help,” Hughes said. It is another step in the process of bringing medical marijuana to Wisconsin, he said.
Fourteen states and the District of Columbia have already approved medical marijuana, although programs are not yet in effect in New Jersey or the District. Arizona will vote on it in November.
Madison, WI
United States

As California voters prepare to decide in November whether to become the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, a Field Poll reveals that weed already is deeply woven into society.
By Peter Hecht

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — John Wade, 43, a San Francisco commercial lighting specialist, takes a quick hit from a marijuana cigarette on the golf course to steady himself before putting.
Sarika Simmons, 35, of San Diego County, sometimes unwinds after her children are asleep with tokes from a fruit-flavored cigar filled with pot.
And retiree Robert Girvetz, 78, of San Juan Capistrano, recently started anew — replacing his occasional martini with marijuana.
“It’s a little different than I remember,” he says. “A couple of hits — and wooooo … ”
As California voters prepare to decide in November whether to become the first state to legalize marijuana for recreational use, a Field Poll reveals that weed already is deeply woven into society.
Those who use the drug — and their reasons for doing it — may be as diverse as the state itself.
Forty-two percent of adults who described themselves as current users in the July poll said they smoke pot to relieve pain or treat a health condition. Thirty-nine percent use it recreationally, to socialize or have fun with friends.
Sixty percent say marijuana helps them relax or sleep. Twenty-four percent say it stimulates creativity.
Historically, marijuana use in California remains lower than during peak years of the late 1970s. But voters’ approval of Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act — which made the state the first to legalize medical marijuana — is changing the social dynamic, according to poll results and interviews with users in 15 counties.
“It’s certainly likely that post-Proposition 215, it has become more mainstream and the base of users has broadened,” said Craig Reinarman, a University of California, Santa Cruz sociology professor who has studied marijuana in society.
Other measures back the Field Poll findings:
• More than 400,000 Californians use marijuana daily, according to the state Board of Equalization, and residents consume 16 million ounces of weed a year, from legal and illegal sources.
• More than 3.4 million Californians smoked pot in 2008, according to the latest research by the National Survey on Drug Abuse and Health.
And, in the Field Poll, 47 percent of registered voters said they have used marijuana at least once. That exceeds the registration of any political party in the state.
Better than pills?
Marijuana use in California extends well beyond any stoner stereotype.
“I don’t walk around in Bob Marley T-shirts or have a marijuana flag in my room,” said Kyle Printz, 44, a Marin County software engineer.
Printz occasionally smokes pot after writing computer code — “and dealing with zeros and ones all day long.” He said, “It alters your state of mind a bit and does help you relax.”
Deborah Pottle, 56, a disabled former state corrections officer from Modesto, has a physician’s recommendation for marijuana for her back injuries and a precancerous condition. She prefers cannabis in lozenges and brownies and melds pot flakes into spaghetti sauce and high-protein meals.
“I find it better by a longshot than … trying to keep pills down,” said Pottle, who sees marijuana only as a medical remedy — not recreation.
Nationally, more than 100 million Americans have tried marijuana, and 10 states — led by Rhode Island, Vermont and Alaska — have higher per capita use than the Golden State.
But in California, a proliferating industry of medical cannabis dispensaries, offering exotic strains such as “Blue Dream,” “Train Wreck” or “Green Crack,” helps supply a vast market, including many people who never venture inside a pot shop.
According to the state Board of Equalization, California marijuana dispensaries — intended to serve bona fide medical users, including AIDS, cancer and chronic-pain sufferers — produce up to $1.3 billion in marijuana transactions for people reporting a vast range of ills.
“I’m sure there are people who suffer from any number of maladies that seek therapy from marijuana use,” Sacramento County Sheriff John McGinness said. “But for at least as many, I think it’s a ruse for healthy people who enjoy the effects of marijuana.
“That’s how they obtain it without hassle.”
Ngaio Bealum, editor of West Coast Cannabis, a 50,000-circulation lifestyle publication that bills itself as the Sunset magazine of weed, says the dispensary evolution and sophisticated growing techniques are changing California’s pot culture.
But he said illegal marijuana trafficking lives on to satisfy the demand.
“The old-school weed man still exists, but he’s had to step his game up,” Bealum said. “Now when you go to the clubs [dispensaries], you’ve got 50 different kinds” of pot strains. “The weed man now has to offer a few different kinds — and start making brownies, too.”
California decriminalized marijuana use and possession 34 years ago. People caught with less than an ounce face a misdemeanor that carries a $100 fine. Those with medical recommendations now can legally possess up to eight ounces.
Bealum says readily available weed — and the reduced stigma and penalties — make people less wary of consequences.
“As the boomers get older, those guys realized it is really no big deal,” he said. “And the younger kids don’t think it’s a big deal, because their parents used to do it.”
The July Field Poll shows plummeting support for tougher marijuana laws and increased backing for softer penalties. Yet, marijuana arrests continue to rise.
In 2008, California authorities cited 61,388 people on misdemeanor pot offenses and 17,126 for felonies such as illegal trafficking, cultivation or possession for sale. Total arrests were up by nearly one-third since 2003.
Highest in 18-29 group
Marijuana has found niches in the California lifestyle with young people starting their careers, affluent baby boomers and urban professionals.
Californians age 40 to 49 — people who grew up a decade or more removed from the hippie era and the Summer of Love — are most likely to have used marijuana at some point in their lives, the poll showed.
While current use is highest among people between 18 and 29 and earning less than $40,000 a year, pot also is finding a significant foothold among many reaching their prime career earning years.
Steven Keegan, 40, a Los Angeles sporting-goods designer, earns more than $100,000 marketing to Fortune 500 companies. He says he smokes pot before a typical weekend day spent with his girlfriend at the beach.
At bedtime, he relaxes with “Woody Harrelson” — a popular cannabis strain named for the actor, an outspoken booster of marijuana use.
John Wade, who does lighting and production for weddings and corporate events, uses his “one-hitter” — a miniature pipe that looks like a cigarette — to sneak smokes at Giants baseball games, on ski lifts — and on the golf course.
“You don’t want to smoke too much because it can make the game worse,” he said. “But I’ve taken a hit and gone off and had a couple of good holes. I seem to be able to focus on my putting better.”
According to the Field Poll, the overwhelming majority of current pot smokers prefer to use it at home or a friend’s house. Smaller numbers say they enjoy it at parties, concerts or outdoors.
Simmons, of San Marcos, sometimes retreats to a patio to relieve stress once her three daughters are asleep and won’t notice.
“I don’t even like the smell of it on my hands or body,” she said. “I’m very discreet about it.”
Help from her friends
Dawn Sanford, a call-center data-entry worker from Sacramento, said she rarely buys marijuana herself. But she reaches out to friends with a ready supply or a medical recommendation.
Sanford never has seen a physician for a pot referral but suffers occasional panic attacks. Sometimes, she said, she calls a female friend who uses marijuana for anxiety to ask, “Can we do this, please?”
The potential for pot purchased at medical dispensaries to be diverted for recreational use is prompting efforts to prevent patients from reselling or giving away pot.
Purchasers are limited to two ounces a week at Harborside Health Center, which serves 48,000 medical users through its Oakland and San Jose dispensaries. The Oakland outlet alone handles $20 million a year in marijuana transactions, according to the center.
Harborside bans cellphones or money exchanges on dispensary premises. Workers at the facility look for people whose approach — such as buying up particular pot strains or purchasing in multiple quantities — suggest they may be planning to resell it.
“We’ve trained our staff to identify transactions that may be suspicious,” Harborside Director Steve DeAngelo said. “When you have dual markets, one legal and one illegal, existing side-by-side, you’re going to have the issue of diversion.”
Sociologist Reinarman said, “The line that separates recreational use from medical use is blurred” by the infusion of medical pot into California’s popular culture.
“There is no contradiction from people who sometimes use it for pain or sometimes use it for sleep or sometimes use it because it is fun and or stimulates their creativity,” he said.

SOLEGEAR offers bioplastics that range from 15 percent to 100 percent natural materials in two different lines – Traverse and Polysole biocomposites.  Traverse contains 15 to 60 percent natural materials and Polysole contains 100 percent natural materials and organic additives.  Both plastics offer a wider range of possible uses than current corn based plastics.
Traverse bioplastic contains either recycled or virgin “conventional plastic (PP, PE, PET, Nylon)”.  The natural base is composed of wood, hemp, bamboo, rice husks, or other natural fibers, all of which are non edible.  Both types can be used for extrusion and injection molding.  Traverse was developed as “a high tensile, durable and sustainable injection mouldable [sic] solution.”  Some of the injected products possible with Traverse are ”toys, automotive parts and consumer goods, with the durability and strength of oil-based alternatives.”  SOLEGEAR considers the Traverse line to be a “transition step” to its 100 percent natural Polysole line.
Polysole bioplastics are made from 100 percent natural fibers and proprietary organic additives.  There are three different grades of Polysole for different levels of plastic production.  These grades of bioplastic are “ENGINEERED, HIGH PERFORMANCE plastic designed for use in the automotive, electronics, pharmaceutical and consumer goods industries.”
The TF grade is thermoplastic resin that can used with normal equipment and “standard operating conditions”.  Like petroleum based plastic, TF can be thermoformed and extruded to produce transparent wraps and cups.  It can be produced in sheets.
LV grade Polysole “was designed specifically for existing PLA processors.“  Rather than being tacky and requiring long cycle times like PLA, Low Viscosity Polysole decreases cycle times and increases efficiency.  Faster more efficient production means cost savings.
The final Polysole grade is XD which stands for Xtra [sic] Durability.  XD can be used for producing products previously thought impossible for PLA.  XD Polysole “creates a material that is stronger, more flexible and able to withstand greater impact stresses.”
All three grades of Polysole are 100 percent biodegradable “after disposal”.  When we say biodegradable we are talking only weeks not months or years.  Other bioplastics can still hang around in landfills for decades after disposal.
Of course the majority of environmentalist would prefer to see Polysole used almost exclusively but some manufacturers are not willing to take that step yet.  Since both of SOLEGEAR’s plastic lines are brand new – just launched in June – it will take a while for manufacturers to feel confident in its flexibility and durability.  The Traverse line offers a transition step for skeptics while still offering a partially natural and recycled solution.
Plastic has been around since 1862 in one form or another and shows no sign of disappearing anytime soon.  Since it is here to stay, transitioning to 100 percent biodegradable plastic for all levels of use is the only way to prevent continued high volumes of plastic trash.

by Warren McLaren, Bundanoon, Australia

All Photos: The Hemp Builder
The house you don’t need to render, plaster, paint or insulate. The house with the building material that you can grow on one hectare (2.5 acres) of land. The same building material you can process yourself with standard machinery available at your hardware store. The house whose walls lock away over 110 kg (240 lb) of carbon per cubic metre.
Impressive claims. What is this boastful house made of? Hemp. The whole hemp. We’ve talked before about hemp bales, and even hempcrete. But this appears to be something new.

Two years ago we wrote about Klara Marosszeky‘s ongoing research to produce an easily worked building material based on Australian hemp. At that time she was concentrating her work on the hemp hurd — the pithy centre of the stalk — but that proved too costly to separate from the bast — the tough fibrous sheath of the stalk, in a process known as decortication.
But now it seems Klara has hit on a way to use the whole of the stalk and mix it with lime plaster to create a hemp-based, building masonry material.
When interviewed in the Echo News earlier this year, Klara Marosszeky observed that, “Using hemp masonry to build also means you are using a low embodied energy product because you don’t have to fire them like bricks. You can effectively build a house in four days.”
From what we understand, the hemp/lime mixture is then pressed into formwork, as in-fill between a timber-framed structure. As it hardens it becomes a solid, yet ‘breathable’, insulative, masonry-like wall substrate, such as Klara is leaning against in the next photo.

In order to promote this form of building material Klara has teamed up with Paul Benhaim to offer an electronic book called Build A House Of Hemp. Although the technology behind this new hemp material is no doubt very sound — Klara has been researching this for 10 years, and building her own house with it — the website promoting the book does lean towards the late night infomercial end of the marketing spectrum.
Klara and Paul are also planning to run a series of workshops on the topic, starting with one this week in Byron Bay, NSW. This is expected to be followed by workshops in Canberra, Sydney and Cairns in 2011. It looks as if Boulder, Colorado and Ontario, Canada are also on the workshop tour.
We can only hope this building methodology takes off, and Australia finally has a real economic pipeline for a local hemp agricultural industry.