By Ed Wenck

 
Photos by Michelle Craig
The headlines are tremendous:
This Guy Just Used The Indiana Religious Freedom Law To Open A Church Of Cannabis — The Libertarian Republic
Indiana’s Church of Cannabis Growing Like a Weed — U.S. News and World Report
Whoops: Indiana’s anti-gay ‘religious freedom’ act opens the door for the First Church of Cannabis — Raw Story
And most of the stories in print and online include the mug of a dude most Indy residents probably recognize: pot activist and sometime-political candidate Bill Levin. Levin’s shock of white hair and joyfully craggy face first went nationally viral with his City-County Council campaign ad in 2011, a commercial that closed with Bill’s signature tagline:
“One love.”

Levin’s now founded the First Church of Cannabis — it’s one of those unintended consequences of Indiana’s version of the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the law that was eventually “clarified” by the legislature after a massive backlash. Opponents said RFRA was primarily intended to allow businesses to discriminate against a single class of Hoosiers who aren’t protected under Indiana’s broader civil rights statutes: LGBTQ citizens.
Ironically, the Federal version of RFRA in part stemmed from the use of a controlled substance by two Native Americans. The pair were denied unemployment compensation after being fired from their jobs for testing positive for the psychoactive components in peyote, a drug they used in religious ceremonies.
Levin decided to found his church the very day Gov. Mike Pence signed Indiana’s RFRA into law. As theWashington Post reported on March 30, ” Secretary of State Connie Lawson approved the church as a religious corporation with the stated intent ‘to start a church based on love and understanding with compassion for all.'”
 
Full Article:
http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/holy-smoke-bill-levins-first-church-of-cannabis/Content?oid=3116589

Maria Boynton

Participants in the 2015 Sickle Cell Foundation Race and Walk in East Point, Ga (Photo courtesy of the Sickle Cell Foundation of Georgia)
 
Patients with Sickle Cell Disease will be among those covered when Georgia’s medical marijuana bill becomes law. Governor Nathan Deal’s office says that he will sign the bill tomorrow. It would allow patients with sickle cell and 7 other illnesses to bring cannabis oil from other states without fear of prosecution.
 
Full Article:
http://v103.cbslocal.com/2015/04/15/sickle-cell-patients-excited-as-medical-marijuana-bill-is-about-to-become-law-in-georgia/

By Denise Key

GREEN FIELDS – Industrial hemp for feedstock could turn former ag lands into current and future ag lands. Click to enlarge. (Photo Courtesy

 
Kihei — On Wednesday the final two committees of the Hawaii Senate approved a new agricultural bill that provides qualified farmers and ranches funds to offset the high cost of feed for livestock. HB 508 SD1—contains added language that allows farmers to grow industrial hemp for animal feed research. Next week it goes to the senate floor for a vote.
 
Full Article:
http://mauitvnews.com/blog/2015/04/10/hawai%CA%BBi-ag-lands-could-be-green-again-with-industrial-hemp/

By Ricardo Baca, The Cannabist Staff

 
Melissa Etheridge is equal parts musician and activist, and in recent years the singer-songwriter’s activism has expanded to include marijuana legalization.
In June 2014, Etheridge spoke out to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo with an impassioned speech: “As a cancer survivor, I know the ravages of a serious illness, and patients who are suffering deserve access to a medication that can provide them relief,” she said just a few days before a Democratic-led assembly passed medical marijuana legislation in the state.
 
Full Article:
http://www.thecannabist.co/2015/04/09/melissa-etheridge-cannabis/32885/

Debra Borchardt Contributor

 
Today’s major pharmaceutical companies were the original medical marijuana sellers. Eli Lilly, Parke-Davis (now owned by Pfizer) and Squibb of Bristol-Myers Squibb all sold medical marijuana at the turn of the century. In a 1919 medical catalog, these companies listed several cannabis products.
Back then, most medicines were the same – the original generics. So it was up to good marketing and brand recognition to get people to buy one particular company’s drug over another. According to the Antique Cannabis Book, almost 6% of all manufactured drugs at the turn of the century contained cannabis in one form or another. For example, Squibb sold cannabis in powder form, tablets, fluid extracts and tinctures. However, Squibb wasn’t even the leader at the time with only 15 cannabis products in its lineup.
 
Full Article:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/debraborchardt/2015/04/08/pfizer-eli-lilly-were-the-original-medical-marijuana-sellers/

By Ray Stern

Andrew Pielage
 
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in two cases today that prosecutors can’t ban people on parole or probation from using medical marijuana.
Because medical marijuana is a medicine when used under the state’s voter-authorized program, the court stated in its opinions, patients should be allowed to use it — even when conditions of probation ban the consumption of alcohol.
Interestingly, as part of the rulings, the state’s highest court rejected the idea that the Arizona Medical Marijuana Act conflicted with federal law.
 
Full Article:
http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/valleyfever/2015/04/arizona_supreme_court_oks_pot_for_patients_on_probation_says_no_federal_con.php

By Oretha Winston

 

The church is “based on love and understanding with compassion for all” and has cannabis listed as its sacrament.
 
Full Article:
http://atlantadailyworld.com/2015/04/04/first-church-of-cannabis-approved-in-indiana/

WASHINGTON — Just in time for spring planting, hundreds of marijuana lovers in the nation’s capital marked passage of the city’s new pot legalization law Thursday night by getting free seeds at a neighborhood eatery only 10 minutes from the White House.
“I didn’t think I would ever be alive to see something like this happening,” said Holly Dixon, 42, an information technology support specialist from Washington who showed up two hours early to be first in line for the giveaway. She said she grew marijuana when she lived in Atlanta and was eager to try it again. “I kind of know the process.”

By Rebekah Bell

 
Willie Nelson is launching his own brand of weed, which will be called Willie’s Reserve.
The 81-year-old country icon has been a lifelong supporter of cannabis, both on the industrial hemp side and the marijuana side. Michael Bowman, a hemp and pot lobbyist who serves as the forthcoming brand’s spokesperson, tells the Daily Beast that Nelson wants the brand to mirror his enthusiasm for weed.
 
Full Article:
http://tasteofcountry.com/willie-nelson-marijuana/

BY COOPER RUMMELL

 
An Arizona-based psychiatrist and marijuana researcher is moving forward with a controversial cannabis study that could have nationwide implications.
Just months after her termination from the University of Arizona College of Medicine, Dr. Sue Sisley has been given the go-ahead from the federal government for the study and has secured funding as well.
Sisley has faced numerous hurdles in her efforts to study the effects of four marijuana strains on veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder.
 
Full Article:
http://ktar.com/22/1819893/Arizona-medical-marijuana-for-PTSD-study-gets-OK-from-feds