The nation’s largest automobile club says six states that allow marijuana use have legal tests for driving while impaired by the drug that have no scientific basis, and it’s calling for scrapping those laws.
The study commissioned by AAA’s safety foundation said it’s not possible to set a blood-test threshold for THC, the chemical in marijuana that makes people high, that can reliably determine impairment. Yet the laws in five of the six states automatically presume a driver is guilty if they test higher for THC than the blood threshold, and not guilty if they test lower.
Full Article:
http://www.khq.com/story/31931532/study-no-scientific-basis-for-laws-on-marijuana-and-driving
Category: Cannabis News Corner
Vacant California prison could be turned into cannabis production site
By Oscar Pascual
As thousands of people have served unfair sentences for marijuana possession, one California prison might actually be used to grow pot.
The city of Coalinga is currently reviewing a proposal to transform the currently vacant Claremont Custody Center into a manufacturing center for marijuana cultivation and cannabis oil production, the Fresno Bee reports.
The city council voted 4-1 in April to prepare an ordinance to allow commercial cannabis cultivation at the former prison. The decision was made after officials fielded a proposal from a California-based cannabis oil company called Ocean Grown Extracts, who hope to turn the empty 77,000 square-foot prison into a massive growing operation.
The move could effectively bring in millions annually in tax payments and hundreds of job opportunities, both of which would bring Coalinga up from their diminishing crude oil and prison industries. Located in Fresno County, oil-related jobs have fallen over 20 percent since January 2015.
Full Article:
http://blog.sfgate.com/smellthetruth/2016/05/09/vacant-california-prison-could-be-turned-into-cannabis-production-site/
Hemp is two shades of green
By BRENDA S. EDWARDS
Hemp has been a crop in Kentucky since 1775 — 17 years before Kentucky became the first state west of the Appalachian Mountains.
This area became the nation’s leading hemp-producing state in the mid-19th century with peak production of 40,000 tons in 1950, according to the state Department of Agriculture website.
Hemp production declined after the Civil War and almost all of the nation’s hemp was grown in the Bluegrass region of Kentucky.
Federal legislation passed in 1938 outlawed production of hemp. The U.S. production began again during World War II as part of the war efforts, but fell again after the war and ended in 1958.
First crop raised in Danville
Archibald McNeil, one of the first settlers here, has been credited with raising the first crop on the banks of Clark’s Creek in Danville, according to an article in The Kentucky Advocate’s 100th edition in June 1965.
‘Free the weed’: Cannabis supporters protest globally for relaxation of marijuana laws
The Global Marijuana March has taken place this weekend as cannabis supporters from around the world gathered in 829 cities in 72 countries to put pressure on their governments to legalize the drug.
Full Article:
https://www.rt.com/news/342287-marijuana-march-legalize-protest/
Hemp houses are smoking hot in eco-design
Louise Loik | Bowen Island Undercurrent
The first prototype tiny hemp house, built by HNB in Alberta in 2014. Above: A hemp house can fit into almost any setting. photos supplied by Hempcrete.ca Photo by hempcrete.ca
Cannabis is big news these days, and 15 years ago, Jayeson Hendyrsan was already using it in mass amounts – in the industrial hemp version.
Hendyrsan has been building homes with hemp, a non-narcotic strain of cannabis. “I was a bit naive when I started out,” says Hendyrsan. “I heard that the police in town were burning marijuana they’d seized from drug dealers,” he continues, recalling that he went up and asked if he could have the stalks assuming that they would be similar enough to the industrial hemp he was bringing from Alberta. “The cops looked at me like I was joking when I told them I wanted to build a house with it.”
Not surprisingly, he didn’t get the hemp. The kind of hemp that he uses in construction is the same kind that was being used extensively in fabric manufacturing prior to the arrival of synthetic fabric, and specifically, polyester. Hemp oil and hemp seeds are mainstream products in grocery stores and for industrial uses, though hemp houses aren’t quite so common.
The attraction to the material for Hendyrsan is that it is strong, enduring, and ecologically logical and cost effective.
“This is very inexpensive relative to other construction,” says Kim Brooks, Hempcrete CEO. She and Hendyrsan live in their second Bowen Island Hempcrete home whose thick walls are rich in mineral-based colours, from cinnamon to saffron to sage and blue. The two will be hosting a two-week intensive building workshop May 9-20 on location.
Full Article:
http://www.bowenislandundercurrent.com/business/hemp-houses-are-smoking-hot-in-eco-design-1.2249116
This car is made out of cannabis hemp
This sports convertible brings new meaning to “high-performance” vehicle.
Made from the chassis of a Mazda, the car is made from cannabis hemp – and is touted as possibly leading the charge in making carbon-neutral vehicles, Barcroft Media reported.
Bruce Michael Dietzen from Florida, the mastermind behind the “green machine,” hopes his environmentally friendly car will weed out the taboo behind the cannabis plant.
“Cannabis hemp is still considered a dangerous drug according to the government. It’s considered as dangerous as heroin or cocaine – it’s insane!” he said. “This green machine is made from three plies of woven hemp, making it lighter than cars made from fiberglass.”
And with a body at least 10 times more dent-resistant than steel, the car wouldn’t need as much of a fix after an accident.
“The body of the car uses about 100 pounds of woven hemp,” he noted.
Full Article:
http://nypost.com/2016/05/06/this-car-is-made-out-of-cannabis-hemp/
Marijuana, Not Monoculture: How to Make Your Pot Crop Sustainable
Photo Credit: Wiki Media Commons
Full Article:
http://www.alternet.org/drugs/marijuana-not-monoculture-how-make-pot-crop-sustainable
We need earthquake retrofits fast.
Rong-Gong Lin IIContact Reporter
Hempcrete foundation walls are up to seven times stronger than those made of concrete, half as light and three times as elastic. This superior strength and flexibility means that hemp foundations are resistant to stress-induced cracking and breaking, even in earthquake-prone areas. It’s fireproof, too.
San Andreas fault ‘locked, loaded and ready to roll’ with big earthquake, expert says
This simulation by the Southern California Earthquake Center shows the shaking that could be felt by Los Angeles during a possible magnitude 8 earthquake on the San Andreas fault. (SCEC)
Southern California’s section of the San Andreas fault is “locked, loaded and ready to roll,” a leading earthquake scientist said Wednesday at the National Earthquake Conference in Long Beach.
The San Andreas fault is one of California’s most dangerous, and is the state’s longest fault. Yet for Southern California, the last big earthquake to strike the southern San Andreas was in 1857, when a magnitude 7.9 earthquake ruptured an astonishing 185 miles between Monterey County and the San Gabriel Mountains near Los Angeles.
It has been quiet since then — too quiet, said Thomas Jordan, director of the Southern California Earthquake Center.
Full Article:
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-san-andreas-fault-earthquake-20160504-story.html
Desert Hot Springs marijuana startup aims to produce 10 thousand pounds of pot monthly
Tom Tucker, CBS Local 2 Morning Anchor, thomas.tucker@cbslocal2.com
Artist’s rendering of new 10 acre “Pineapple Park” cannabis cultivation complex planned for Desert Hot Springs.
A Los Angeles-based cannabis company is poised to “rake in the green” at their new operation in Desert Hot Springs.
The company, Pineapple Express, Inc., is one of several new business ventures in the city, looking to capitalize on the booming demand for medicinal marijuana. They’re also betting that California voters will approve recreational pot use in November.
The company is part of a wave of investors and entrepreneurs flocking to Desert Hot Springs, in the wake of voters approving local ordinances, which allow the city to tax the sale of medicinal marijuana, and tax the cultivation of cannabis.
Pineapple Express CEO Matthew Feinstein says his company will eventually occupy 10 buildings in Desert Hot Springs at a complex called “Pineapple Park”.
Full Article:
http://www.kesq.com/news/desert-hot-springs-marijuana-startup-aims-to-produce-10-thousand-pounds-of-pot-monthly/39354774
‘Marijuana Tampon’ Might Be the End of Your Period Cramps
Photo Credit: Shutterstock / Teri Virbickis
Period cramps suck and can turn some women’s menstruation into a monthly encounter with severe and intense pain. According to the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, at least half of all women who get their periods experience one or two days of cramping, and while women try lots of ways to relieve the issue, from Midol to acupuncture and beyond, not everything works for everyone, making almost any new proposed solution worth investigation. Enter Foria Relief, a THC-infused suppository that’s come to be known as the “weed tampon.” The company says it won’t get you—or your vagina—high, but it might be the cure for what menstrually ails you.
Full Article: