Plummeting Marijuana Prices Create A Panic In Calif.

For decades, illegal marijuana cultivation has been an economic lifeblood for three counties in northern California known as the Emerald Triangle.

The war on drugs and frequent raids by federal drug agents have helped support the local economy — keeping prices for street sales of pot high and keeping profits rich.

But high times are changing. Legal pot, under the guise of the California's medical marijuana laws, has spurred a rush of new competition. As a result, the wholesale price of pot grown in these areas is plunging.'

Read more...

One for you Big bro!!

Run From The Cure - The Rick Simpson Story

Smoke Medical Pot, Lose Your Second Amendment Gun Rights?

The right of Oregonians to use marijuana for medical reasons and also to obtain concealed handgun permits is being challenged by local sheriffs who say federal law prevents those people from packing heat.

Advocates for the state's medical marijuana law countered Wednesday in the Oregon Court of Appeals that the sheriffs simply don't like the program and are looking for ways to undermine it.

Both sides now are looking to the courts to say definitively whether there's anything to prevent Oregon from issuing the concealed handgun permits to users of medicinal pot.'

Read more...

Smoking Marijuana Does Not Cause Lung Cancer

One in three Americans will be afflicted with cancer, we are told by the government (as if it’s our immutable fate and somehow acceptable). Cancer is the second-leading cause of death in the U.S. and lung cancer the leading killer among cancers.

You’d think it would have been very big news in June 2005 when UCLA medical school professor Donald Tashkin reported that components of marijuana smoke -- although they damage cells in respiratory tissue -- somehow prevent them from becoming malignant. In other words, something in marijuana exerts an anti-cancer effect!

Read more...

California City Taxes Weed to Escape Deficit

Against the backdrop of budget deficits across the Golden State, the Californian city of Oakland votes yes to a proposal to tax the sale of medical marijuana.

Nearly 80 percent of Oakland voters endorsed the idea to make the city the first in the United States to impose taxes on medical marijuana proceeds.

To celebrate the approval, supporters hand-rolled marijuana cigarettes at Oaksterdam University where some students train to work in the marijuana industry.

Read more...

Decriminalize Marijuana

I'm on the phone getting a recipe for hashish butter. Not from my dealer but from Lester Grinspoon, a physician and emeritus professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. And not for a party but for my 9-year-old son, who has autism, anxiety and digestive problems, all of which are helped by the analgesic and psychoactive properties of marijuana. I wouldn't be giving it to my child if I didn't think it was safe.

I came to marijuana while searching for a safer alternative to the powerful antipsychotic drugs, such as Risperdal, that are typically prescribed for children with autism and other behavioral disorders. There have been few studies on the long-term effects of these drugs on a growing child's brain, and in particular autism, a disorder whose biochemical mechanisms are poorly understood. But there is much documentation of the risks, which has caused the Food and Drug Administration to require the highest-level "black box" warnings of possible side effects that include permanent Parkinson's disease-like tremors, metabolic disorders and death. A panel of federal drug experts in 2008 urged physicians to use caution when prescribing these medicines to children, as they are the most susceptible to side effects.

Read more...

Illinois Senate Approves Medical Marijuana Bill

Efforts to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois took a big step forward Wednesday when the state Senate approved a plan to let sick people use pot for relief from diseases like cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

The Illinois Senate voted 30-28 and the bill now goes to the Illinois House. A House committee passed a similar measure earlier this year.

Read more...