tagged w/ Dagga
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Now this really is a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, I’m thrilled to see that a study documenting the anti-cancer properties of cannabinoids is finally receiving some mainstream media attention.
On the other hand, I’m disappointed that its coverage is limited to a British tabloid that is better known for running anti-pot propaganda like this:
Cannabis killer knifed neighbour 100 times
via Metro.co.uk
A mentally ill man driven to violent frenzies by cannabis was sentenced to life yesterday for stabbing a man 100 times.
… Kashmiri, 50, of Tooting, south London, sexually assaulted the woman at her south London home in June, 2006, and returned five nights later to attack her.
… Kashmiri, whose violent episodes are triggered by cannabis, denied murder but admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
Of course, I’m accustomed to reading “Reefer Madness” in the British press.
But I’m less accustomed to reading “Reefer Madness” when it comes from the mouth of an established medi-pot researcher like Dr. Wai Man Liu.
Cannabis may help the war on cancer
via Metro.co.uk
Cannabis could be used to treat many forms of cancer, new research suggests.
The drug contains an ingredient which slows tumour growth and prevents the reproduction of cancer cells, doctors say.
Its effects are seen in all cancers but particularly in those of the lung and brain, and leukaemia, it is claimed.
But scientists warned against smoking the drug, saying the only safe version was that created in the lab.
Researcher Dr Wai Man Liu said: ‘I’m in no way encouraging people to take up smoking the ganja – there would be more harm than good.’
Previous research has shown cannabis-based medicines can help cancer patients as a painkiller, appetite stimulant and in reducing nausea.
The drug has also long been used by multiple sclerosis and arthritis sufferers to reduce pain.
Its medicinal benefits come from the main active ingredient, THC. The latest research, by St George’s University of London, shows that THC can weaken cancer cells to make traditional chemotherapy more effective.
Dr Liu said: ‘It’s another weapon against the armour of cancer. We are quite close but need to jump through certain hoops. I believe it could be used in two to three years.’
Dr Joanna Owens, from Cancer Research UK, said the latest studies were encouraging but needed to be followed up with more trials. She added: ‘Making cancer cells more vulnerable to chemotherapy or radiotherapy is a great concept but it is still early days.’
Having recently lost friends and family members to cancer, including one to leukemia, I can inform Dr. Liu that such a diagnosis — even when treated with standard radiation and chemotherapy — is a death sentence. For Dr. Liu to advise, with a straight face no less, that these patients would do “more harm than good” by smoking cannabis is a disgrace. Not only can cannabis alleviate cancer patients’ nausea and pain, elevate their mood, and increase their appetite, but also — as Dr. Liu’s own data demonstrates — it may help to alleviate the very disease that’s ravaging their bodies. Nevertheless, I suppose that Dr. Liu would rather have these patients shut up and die than expose the political hypocrisy surrounding criminalizing a plant.
Finally, as for Dr. Liu’s idyllic estimate that his pharmaceutically-approved pot-based anti-cancer drugs will be available in “two to three years,” don’t hold your breath (or, if you already have cancer, try not to die in the interim). I’m sure that these investigators made similar proclamations when they documented pot’s anti-cancer properties — in 1975!
Yet here we are 38 years later and the only ‘progress’ we’ve made on this issue is in the wrong direction — having moved from investigating the plant’s anti-cancer potential in animals to cells in vitro in a petri dish! Thank you Dr. Liu; now kindly get out of my sight.Now this really is a mixed blessing.
On the one hand, I’m thrilled to see... more
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The July 28 issue of The New Yorker includes a subtle, honest, and absorbing account of the gray market created by California's legalization of medical marijuana. Author David Samuels hangs out with a pot-wholesaling buddy for six months and through him meets growers, mules, dispensary operators, and patients. Samuels candidly describes how easy it is to get a doctor's recommendation (he gets one for "anxiety and depression") but at the same time offers reasons to wonder whether that should be considered a problem:
"People are talking about how it's being over-recommended and abused," [a defense attorney specializing in marijuana cases] said. "I mean, big fucking deal. It's not toxic!"...
Like many other dispensary owners I spoke with, Cindy derives particular satisfaction from providing medication to people who suffer from chronic diseases. Although she suspects that there is nothing seriously wrong with many of the young men who come in to buy an eighth of L.A. Confidential, she doesn't regard marijuana as a harmful drug when compared with Xanax, Valium, Prozac, and other pills that are commonly prescribed by physicians to treat vague complaints of anxiety or dysphoria....
Though [a doctor who writes recommendations] was always careful to observe the letter of California state law, he said, "My personal belief is that marijuana is a useful and relatively harmless substance and that adults should be free to choose whether they want to use it or not."
When adults have that freedom, the world that Samuels describes, in which marijuana carries a load of cultural and political baggage that has little to with its intrinsic properties, will no longer exist.The July 28 issue of The New Yorker includes a subtle, honest, and absorbing account... more
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BOSTON -- Conservative political commentator Robert Novak announced Monday he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, less than a week after he struck a pedestrian with his Corvette and drove away.
Mr. Novak, 77 years old, fell ill on Cape Cod this weekend while visiting his daughter and was rushed to Brigham and Women's Hospital, where he said he was diagnosed Sunday with the tumor.
"I will be suspending my journalistic work for an indefinite but, God willing, not too lengthy period," Mr. Novak, editor of the Evans-Novak Political Reports, said in the statement released by his publisher, Eagle Publishing.
Mr. Novak has been a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times for decades. His assistant, Kathleen Connolly, told the newspaper that doctors hadn't yet done a biopsy to determine if the tumor was malignant.
She said Mr. Novak was alert and talking in the hospital's intensive care unit. Mr. Novak's office refused further comment to the Associated Press, other than to confirm the comments on the newspaper Web site.
Hospital spokesman Kevin Myron confirmed Mr. Novak was a patient, but said Mr. Novak requested that no further information be released.
Last week, Mr. Novak was given a $50 citation after he struck a homeless man with his black Corvette in downtown Washington. Mr. Novak kept going until he was stopped by a bicyclist, who said the man was splayed on Mr. Novak's windshield.
Mr. Novak is best-known as the longtime co-host of CNN's "Crossfire," where he bumped heads with liberal co-hosts from 1980 to 2005, when he left to join Fox News as an occasional contributor.
Mr. Novak was criticized after he was the first to publicly reveal the name of CIA operative Valerie Plame in a 2003 column. His column came out eight days after Ms. Plame's husband, Joseph Wilson, said the Bush administration had twisted prewar intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Copyright © 2008 Associated PressBOSTON -- Conservative political commentator Robert Novak announced Monday he has been... more
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Mission Statement
Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access is committed to protecting the rights of veteran patients and healthcare professionals by advocating for safe and legal access to marijuana(cannabis) for all appropriate therapeutic uses and to encourage research on marijuana as a treatment alternative.
Goals
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To serve veterans as an educational resource on medical marijuana and access, and to garner their support on the issue.
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To encourage veterans organizations to support veterans’ rights to safely access medical marijuana and to issue policy statements that publicly voice this support.
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To work with prominent national veterans organizations through outreach campaigns that promote more compassionate legislative and administrative policies toward medical marijuana and it’s access.
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To encourage legislation to end federal prohibition of medical marijuana use.
Mission Statement
Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access is committed to protecting... more
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Do you believe marijuana should be legalized in this country?
Yes 79% 16016 votes
No 21% 4130 votes
Total: 20146 votes
2/19/07Do you believe marijuana should be legalized in this country?
Yes 79% 16016... more
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Organizers said the grass-roots campaign to place a marijuana-decriminalization initiative before Joplin voters is not over, after their first attempt at a petition drive fell about 1,000 signatures short.
"It's definitely a workable situation," said Kelly Maddy, president of Sensible Joplin and the Joplin chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "We still feel really good that we have a fighting chance to get this thing on the ballot."
Maddy and a handful of volunteers collected more than 5,600 signatures since September 2007 in an effort to get the decriminalization initiative on the November ballot. The petitions were submitted to City Hall on July 10. The group collected 3,623 signatures from registered Joplin voters, but it still needs an additional 1,033 valid signatures to meet the necessary number to put a proposal before voters.
Maddy said he received the results of the petition review Thursday but has not received a formal report from the city clerk's office.
City Attorney Brian Head said most of the invalid signatures came from unregistered voters.
"The primary issue is there was a large number of people who signed the petition who weren't registered voters or who weren't registered Joplin voters," he said.
City Clerk Barbara Hogelin is expected to present the results of her petition review to the City Council at its regular meeting on Aug. 4. Hogelin was out of the office Thursday.
After the council meeting, Maddy and his organization will have 10 days until Aug. 15 to amass the needed signatures. The city clerk then will have five days to review the petitions.
Maddy said that in addition to canvassers taking up their normal stations at the Joplin Public Library and other places, they will be going door-to-door with voter lists to obtain the signatures. He said the group also has planned a "Signature Surge Day" starting at noon Saturday, Aug. 9, at Par Hill Park.
"We're going to be all over doing our canvassing," he said.
The magic number of signatures is 4,656, or roughly 15 percent of the total number of registered voters in Joplin at the time of the most recent city election, which was in April.
If the group obtains the required number of signatures, the City Council on its own could make the proposal law, but Mayor Gary Shaw has said the panel most likely would defer to the voters on the issue.
Shaw reiterated Thursday that if the petition ultimately is brought before the council, he believes the decision should be left to the voters in Joplin.
"I think if it's thrown in our court, we'll get it on the fall ballot," he said, adding that the city would prefer that date rather than conducting a special election in February. "Just so we don't have to charge our citizens extra for a special election," he said.
THE PROPOSAL
If the city clerk finds that the petitions carry an adequate number of signatures, residents would vote on a proposal that says adults charged with misdemeanor possession of marijuana, which is 35 grams ( 1.225 ounces ) or less, or with possession of marijuana paraphernalia would not be jailed or have to post bond. Those found guilty in municipal court would be subject to a $250 maximum fine.
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake Organizers said the grass-roots campaign to place a marijuana-decriminalization... more
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