tagged w/ Ganja
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A 73-year-old Dutch man was astonished to learn from police that the begonias he had lovingly tended on his doorstep concealed a secret marijuana plantation.
"Police officers suddenly noticed marijuana plants sprouting from his begonias," a police spokeswoman in The Hague said on Friday.
The Hague pensioner promised to destroy the marijuana plants, which he believes were planted by local youngsters, while preserving his begonias.
Earlier this month the Dutch government set up a task force to crack down on marijuana cultivation in the country.
I thought weed was legal in Amsterdam?A 73-year-old Dutch man was astonished to learn from police that the begonias he had... more
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A security guard stationed at the Horizon Remand Centre who was caught attempting to smuggle marijuana inside the facility, was sentenced when he appeared in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
Devon Thomas pleaded guilty to possession of marijuana and trafficking marijuana into a penal institution before Resident Magistrate Glen Brown.
The court was told that security officials at the institution observed Thomas behaving in a manner that aroused their suspicions. He was searched and a bag containing a smaller transparent bag with matter resembling marijuana was found.
He reportedly told the guards that he had been asked to deliver the bag and did not check to see what its contents were.
He was ordered to pay $200 or serve seven days for possession, and $500 or 30 days for trafficking the contraband. A security guard stationed at the Horizon Remand Centre who was caught attempting to... more
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CHICAGO — The move to legalize medical marijuana is advancing in the Midwest, with Michigan poised to be the first state between the Rockies and New England to sanction the use of the illegal drug by terminally or seriously ill people.
Michigan voters will decide in November whether to authorize marijuana use, if a doctor determines suffering could be eased by the drug from such diseases as cancer, Crohn's disease, HIV/AIDS, Alzheimer's or hepatitis C.
While years of public opinion polling show opposition to legalizing marijuana, polls and the overwhelming majority of state referendum votes show strong support for medical use of marijuana. At the same time, some physician groups have dropped their resistance to medical marijuana.
The combined effect of public opinion, medical research showing benefits of marijuana in the treatment of some diseases and shifts in attitudes in the medical community has fueled the movement that has seen 12 states adopt medical marijuana laws in the past dozen years.
"We need to get beyond the political debate and into medical terms. That's where the public is," said Dianne Byrum, a former state legislator in Michigan and spokeswoman for the Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care, the Detroit-area
group that turned in 475,000 signatures to earn a spot on the fall ballot.
"This is really about patients and their suffering. ... For them, medical use of marijuana should give them comfort and not the threat of arrest or jail," Byrum said.
There is evidence in the Midwest suggesting political interest. Five Michigan cities already have medical marijuana ordinances. The Minnesota state Senate recently approved a medical marijuana measure, though it died on the House floor. A similar measure died in the Illinois state Senate in the past session. Other measures were debated in Ohio, Wisconsin and Missouri.
Less than four months before the November election, there is no organized opposition to Michigan's binding referendum. The Michigan State Medical Society, the state's arm of the American Medical Association, recently dropped its opposition to medical marijuana and said it will be neutral in the fall campaign.
"We're keeping an open mind that marijuana in limited amounts can help some," said Dr. Michael Sandler, a diagnostic radiologist and president of the Michigan State Medical Society.CHICAGO — The move to legalize medical marijuana is advancing in the Midwest,... more
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Cool fuel pioneers: 16,000 miles of American road and not a drop of gas
By Alexandra Lambrinidis
Australian adventurer and television personality Shaun Murphy came to America to prove that there are alternatives to gasoline and diesel, and the result was a one-of-a-kind “cool fuel” road trip.
An 18-part TV series, Cool fuel Roadtrip debuted this past fall on UPN and follows Murphy, his Jack Russell terrier sidekick Sparky and the Cool fuel crew as they set off on an incredible journey to conquer 16,000 miles of American road using nothing but biodiesel and other fuels. “A Cool fuel is anything besides gasoline,” Murphy explained. “You can grow it, squeeze it, fry it, heat it up or catch it. Heck, you can even eat it!” By using 12 of the coolest fuel sources he could get his hands on, Murphy crossed 30 states on 30 different vehicles including cars, motorcycles, boats and even an airplane in order to tackle the “no gas” challenge.
“The cool thing is most of the fuel we've used is being produced today on American farms,” said Murphy of the different fuels that got him across the country, particularly biodiesel, Murphy’s most precious resource. Able to run in any diesel engine, he took full advantage of biodiesel. He used it to power a boat through the Orcas Islands to the Canadian border. From Los Angeles to San Francisco, Calif., he used it to fuel a 32-foot Hummer H1 stretch limousine that hit 75 miles per hour. For kicks, he took a spin around a track in a 125 mph biodiesel dragster. Whenever Murphy couldn’t find a clean source of electricity to power his electric vehicles, it was biodiesel to the rescue; he’d just plug into a biodiesel-fueled generator for the quick fix that would get him another 40 miles or so down the road.
Made of everything from soybeans to vegetable oil, and increasingly available across the United States, biodiesel was the Cool fuel crew’s lifeblood. "Biodiesel is the single fuel that made the TV production possible,” Murphy explained. “Our production crew charged camera batteries, computers and lights via our biodiesel-powered generator, and our RV, which we lived and produced the TV series in, ran on B100 for 16,000 miles.”
Murphy made use of some more creative fuels as well. Cow manure that produced electricity powered an array of electric bikes. Hempoline (a mix of hemp oil and ethanol) powered a truck that has a helicopter jet turbine for an engine. Fresh beignets and crawfish were fed into the gasifier of a green Hummer. Corn whiskey (100 percent ethanol) powered Murphy through the air across Iowa in a 1982 Mooney 201 airplane. The sun helped him knock off some miles by powering a solar canoe across gator-infested Lake Okeechobee in Florida. Vegetable oil—straight from the fryer—powered Murphy all through Texas.
Cool fuel pioneers: 16,000 miles of American road and not a drop of gas
By... more
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Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study
Melanie C. Dreher, PhD; Kevin Nugent, PhD; and Rebekah Hudgins, MA
Pediatrics, February 1994, Volume 93, Number 2, pp. 254-260.
American Academy of Pediatrics
From the Schools of Nursing, Education, and Public Health, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
Received for publication Sep 21, 1992; accepted Jun 30, 1993.
Reprint requests to (M.D.) School of Nursing, the University of Massachusetts,
111 Arnold House, Amherst, MA 01003.
Pediatrics (ISSN 0031 4005). Copyright © 1994 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
ABSTRACT.
Objective. To identify neurobehavioral effects of prenatal marijuana exposure on neonates in rural Jamaica.
Design. Ethnographic field studies and standardized neurobehavior assessments during the neonatal period.
Setting. Rural Jamaica in heavy-marijuana-using population.
Participants. Twenty-four Jamaican neonates exposed to marijuana prenatally and 20 nonexposed neonates.
Measurements and main results. Exposed and nonexposed neonates were compared at 3 days and 1 month old, using the Brazelton Neonatal Assessment Scale, including supplementary items to capture possible subtle effects. There were no significant differences between exposed and nonexposed neonates on day 3. At 1 month, the exposed neonates showed better physiological stability and required less examiner facilitation to reach organized states. The neonates of heavy-marijuana-using mothers had better scores on autonomic stability, quality of alertness, irritability, and self-regulation and were judged to be more rewarding for caregivers.
Conclusions. The absence of any differences between the exposed on nonexposed groups in the early neonatal period suggest that the better scores of exposed neonates at 1 month are traceable to the cultural positioning and social and economic characteristics of mothers using marijuana that select for the use of marijuana but also promote neonatal development. Pediatrics 1994;93:254-260; prenatal marijuana exposure, neonatal outcomes, Jamaica, Brazelton scale supplementary items. Prenatal Marijuana Exposure and Neonatal Outcomes in Jamaica: An Ethnographic Study... more
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Police need more evidence, state justices say
By LEVI PULKKINEN
P-I REPORTER
Supporters of marijuana decriminalization celebrated Thursday's decision by the state Supreme Court restricting police from arresting passengers simply for being in a car smelling of pot.
Justices were unanimous in the decision to overturn a 29-year-old precedent allowing officers to search or arrest passengers after smelling marijuana near a car. They found that simply being in a car smelling of marijuana isn't enough to outweigh the state constitution's robust privacy protections.
Advocates for drug-law reform cheered the ruling as a long overdue step in the right direction.
"As a general statement, it's a step back from the direction that our government has been going as we're veering into a sort of surveillance society," said Alison Holcomb of the American Civil Liberties Union's Washington chapter. "It strikes me as refreshing that the court has reaffirmed the values that our constitution calls for."
The court's decision will not bar authorities from searching a car because it smells of drugs, the court said. But justices indicated that a drug smell might be stronger evidence supporting arrest if there is only one person in a vehicle.
When it comes to passengers, though, the scent of pot alone doesn't give probable cause to arrest everyone in the car. Officers need additional evidence that each individual broke the law.
"Our cases have strongly and rightfully protected our constitution's protection of individual privacy," Justice Charles Johnson wrote for the court. "The protections ... do not fade away or disappear within the confines of an automobile."Police need more evidence, state justices say
By LEVI PULKKINEN
P-I REPORTER... more
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Part two of our look at Dr. Melanie Dreher’s research into ganja use among Jamaican women.
Our last issue featured an interview with Dr Melanie Dreher, a highly-respected academician and researcher who is probably the world’s foremost authority on ganja use in Jamaica. That interview contained a general overview of Dreher’s 25 years of Jamaican research, while this article will explore what she found out about uses of ganja by Jamaican women and children.
Dreher’s research is interesting and relevant because it challenges the prevailing notion that all drug use during pregnancy is bad for children. Ironically, some of Dreher’s findings suggest that ganja use by mothers during pregnancy, and by their children after birth, might actually be good for children.
Such findings contradict earlier studies. A study conducted in Ottawa during the 1980’s allegedly found that moderate marijuana use (an average of seven joints per week) by mothers during pregnancy caused negative effects in their newborns. These effects included higher levels of irritability, increased tremors and startles, and poorer habituation to light.
Other studies have purported to find similar problems, but Dreher notes that such studies suffer from the same problems that most marijuana studies suffer from. These problems include incorrect assumptions of cause and effect, failure to account for use of other drugs (such as tobacco, alcohol, and cocaine), and unequal comparisons between users from differing socioeconomic groups and lifestyles.
Dreher’s studies largely eliminated such problems by studying “lower-income” women from rural villages in southeastern Jamaica. Dreher selected ganja-using women and compared their children’s health and adjustment with the children of women who had not used ganja during pregnancy. The women chosen were matched by age, health, and economic and educational status, to minimize the effects of class and environmental differences.
Instead of conducting dehumanized scientific research, Dreher chose an anthropological approach which combines solid statistical data with ethnographic observation and interaction. Dreher and her team of researchers became part of the communities they studied, and were given access to the private lives of their subjects. Thus, she was able to determine how and why Jamaican women used ganja, and also to gauge the interactions of ganja with culture, schools and the country’s legal system.Part two of our look at Dr. Melanie Dreher’s research into ganja use among... more
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Angry telephone calls started coming in to the state Department of Public Safety almost as soon as the June 27 issue of the Hawai'i Tribune-Herald hit the streets.
Advertisement
A front-page article on medical marijuana mentioned that the department had provided a database with patient names and addresses, the locations of their plants, their certificate numbers, and their prescribing doctors.
The breach of privacy was an inadvertent mistake, and the newspaper did not name any of the patients, but many were alarmed because the information is like providing a roadmap for a stash of legal pot.Angry telephone calls started coming in to the state Department of Public Safety... more
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Austria's parliament, for the nation’s medical and scientific purposes, has adopted a new bill allowing the cultivation of cannabis. This will, of course, be under the Health Ministry's control.
The bill, approved by parliament during a late-night session Wednesday, will give the health and food safety agency AGES the exclusive right in Austria to grow the plant, which is otherwise categorized as a drug.
Michael Bach, president of the Austrian pain studies association OeSG, welcomed the new legislation, saying: "Any initiative that makes it possible to develop and provide new drugs for pain therapy is welcome."
"Substances drawn from cannabis have been used for medical purposes more and more in the last few years," he added.
Possession of or dealing in cannabis incurs a 6-month prison sentence in Austria. Austria's parliament, for the nation’s medical and scientific purposes, has... more
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The Netherlands, with its permissive marijuana laws, may be known as the cannabis capital of the world. But a survey published this month in PLoS Medicine, a journal of the Public Library of Science, suggests that the Dutch don't actually experiment with pot as much as one would expect. Despite tougher drug policies in this country, Americans were twice as likely to have tried marijuana than the Dutch, according to the survey. In fact, Americans were more likely to have tried marijuana or cocaine than people in any of the 16 other countries, including France, Spain, South Africa, Mexico and Colombia, that the survey covered.The Netherlands, with its permissive marijuana laws, may be known as the cannabis... more
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Interviews at the Playboy Mansion with celebrities and musicians regarding medical marijuana. Kat Von D, LA Ink, Perry Farrell, Jane's Addiction, Jackie Martling, Adrianne Curry, Margaret Cho, Scott Kirkland, Crystal Method, Christopher "Kid" Ried, Kid 'N Play, House Party, Bernie Ellis, Rob Kampia. The Marijuana Policy Project.Interviews at the Playboy Mansion with celebrities and musicians regarding medical... more
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Officials say they have uncovered 260 tons of marijuana in a massive drug bust in southern Afghanistan.
The drugs are estimated to be worth more than $400 million and were BURNED on site.
British Capt. Mike Finney, a NATO spokesman, confirms that amount was found and says a trench some 6 feet deep had been dug out by a bulldozer and filled with bags of marijuana. The trench was covered by foliage to camouflage it.
Officials say they have uncovered 260 tons of marijuana in a massive drug bust in... more
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Cannabis, weed, blow, whatever you want to call it!
Here is a selection of cannabis pictures being seized from homes, factories and fields around the world.Cannabis, weed, blow, whatever you want to call it!
Here is a selection of cannabis... more
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