"Hemp and straw are great sources of materials as they have an incredibly low carbon footprint. Craig White, director of ModCell (another company involved) had this to say about the project: “It is unacceptable that 27 per cent of CO2 emissions currently come from the energy we use in our homes, it is just as unacceptable to continue to emit CO2 through the energy we use to make them. If we are completely serious about being “carbon free” we need to rethink the design of our buildings on a large scale."
Santa Cruz, CA. – The Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM), would like to voice our concern with the upcoming medical marijuana dispensary ban.
On Thursday, November 19, 2009, the Santa Cruz Planning Commission will hear testimony and discuss the medical marijuana dispensary ban. This will have drastic impacts on patients in Santa Cruz.
In the ordinance, the total number of dispensaries allowed in Santa Cruz would be set to two, the two that are currently operating near Harvey West Park. Presently, the dispensaries are unable to meet the demand for affordable medicine. Limiting the number of dispensaries without creating an avenue for the development of low cost collectives, eliminates competition and in effect creates a financial snare for patients who are forced to pay the high prices or who are pushed into the black market.
We support the dispensary model as long as it is tempered by competition and compassion.
We all know that a lot of people are harmed by prohibition, but who benefits? Strangely enough, some of the biggest beneficiaries are the bootleggers. Sure, they take a big risk, but black marketeers don't have to pay taxes, they're protected from foreign competition, and they benefit from artificially inflated prices. Talk about protectionism.
What kind of message would an honest American Marijuana Growers Association have for us? "Thank you for your support of marijuana prohibition and buy American pot!"
When you think of the world's most prolific pot smokers, certain names come to mind: Snoop, Cheech and Chong, Willie Nelson.
How about Irvin Rosenfeld?
The 56-year-old Fort Lauderdale stockbroker will put his name among the greats when he sets a world record tomorrow for weed consumption while lighting up his 115,000th joint.
During World War II, citizens responded by volunteering as air raid wardens, auxiliary police and firefighters or at their local USO and American Red Cross units. People also grew victory gardens and conducted war bond, scrap metal and blood drives. Many, like Arnold Taylor, were also involved in the manufacture of war machinery or agriculture that supported the war effort.
Taylor, who is featured in the exhibit for his war role under agricultural deferment, recalls the deferments qualification process. “All of the farm boys, we went to Louisville for examinations ... . The old doctor found out we were farmers. He raised Cain and said ‘You all, get the so-and-so out of here and go home,’ ” Taylor said.
Deferments during WWII were given to farmers, in part, based on the acreage they had in production. At the time, the Taylors farmed some 600 acres in Henderson County and grew hemp for the war effort, Taylor said.
September 1861 was a hopeful time for the Confederacy. General Sterling Price had defeated a large Union force at Wilson's Creek in southwest Missouri and now marched through central Missouri gathering recruits. At the river town of Lexington he found a Union force under Col. James Mulligan defending the stone building of the Masonic College on a hill overlooking town. Mulligan had built earthworks all around the hill. Price's inexperienced troops had trouble taking this tough position until they hit on the idea of lining up bales of hemp, the local cash crop, and rolling them uphill as a mobile wall. Bales of weed are apparently bulletproof and as the fort became hemmed in Mulligan had no choice but to surrender. This early rebel victory proved short lived, and soon Price had to retreat to Arkansas in the face of superior forces.
Health-related costs per user are eight times higher for drinkers than they are for those who use cannabis, and are more than 40 times higher for tobacco smokers, according to a report published in the British Columbia Mental Health and Addictions Journal.
In a laudable nod to the obvious, members of the California Medical Association's (CMA) House of Delegates have endorsed a resolution stating that the criminal prohibition of marijuana is a "failed public health policy."
A state senator says that legalizing or lessening criminal penalties for marijuana may be one way to curb overcrowding in Arkansas' prisons.A state senator says that legalizing or lessening criminal penalties for marijuana may... more
Honestly, we're surprised that this doesn't already exist: Tribudesign, a young Lebanese firm, has secured a distributor for White, which is basically a bong that looks like an iPod.
Maybe bong is too cavalier a word. It's supposed to be a hookah, and it's going to be distributed by Airdiem, a Parisian company that appears to specialize in high-end Persian smokers.
White is made of a palette that includes stainless steel, acrylic, and leather, and that's more healthful because those materials are easier to clean and would thus produce less marijuana resin carcinogenic tobacco soot. Its slim design also makes it easily stashable. And if that isn't enough, you can just throw it next to your computer in a pinch, and pray that the cops mistake it for a USB drive.
“Hemp for Victory” (1942). The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) created the 16-minute film “Hemp for Victory” to show farmers how to successfully cultivate cannibas plants for use in the manufacture of wartime cordage. The film offers an examination of everything you ever wanted to know about growing hemp. The film was only shown during 1942 – it literally disappeared after the war, when the federal ban on growing hemp took effect again. For years, the USDA insisted that no such movie ever existed. But in May 1989, a trio of tenacious advocates for legalizing marijuana – Jack Herer, Maria Farrow and Carl Packard – combed the Library of Congress' motion picture and filmstrips records in Washington and the USDA library at Bettsville, Maryland, to locate evidence the film existed. They later found a print and donated it to the Library of Congress.
Five medical marijuana dispensaries in Dana Point are appealing an Orange County Superior Court ruling ordering them to turn over records -- including client lists -- to the city as part of an investigation into dispensary operations.
Marijuana use among Dutch citizens is lower than the European average, according to survey data published last week in a report by the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA).
The American Medical Association has changed its policy on medical marijuana, urging the federal government to review the drug's status as a top-tier controlled dangerous substance.
Guthrie says that while adding “Alice” to his current setlists are an anomaly, he has not tired of the tune and enjoys improvising new lyrics when the band does play the number live. (On his newly released “Tales Of ’69” live album, Guthrie stretches the tune out for 32 minutes to include Lyndon Johnson and a large marijuana cigarette.) Guthrie also performed at the original Woodstock festival and was featured in the documentary and on the soundtrack album. Guthrie still cherishes the impact that the concert, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in August, had.
Marijuana has long been classified as a dangerous drug with no medical benefits. But thanks in part to the work of a University of Washington medical student, a major medical association this week urged the federal government to reconsider.
