tagged w/ Bhang
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Tree Of Life
Words and music by Matthew S. Donowick
I wanna tell y’all a little bit about a plant I know that can save the world.
It grows long and tall and has flowers that can make your mind swirl.
It’s a sacred plant with a fiber that is resistant to rain and mold.
It’s the strongest plant fiber known to man, the best rope you’ll ever hold.
Now the pioneers covered up their wagon train with a canvas made of hemp
Washington and Jefferson grew it on their farms and said to make the most of it.
The first stars and stripes were made on hemp the first constitution too.
Its used around the world for fuel fiber oil medicine and food.
If you press its seeds you wont have no need for any other oil,
You can make paints and inks or run your car, grow it back next season it’ll fix the soil.
The most nutritious seed you can put in your mouth with Omega 6 and 3
We can feed the world with the tree of life and live sustainably.
Chorus:
If we cut down all the trees, then we won’t have no air to breath,
Grow a field of hemp instead, you can make your paper, build your house from it. The Goddess plant growing wild and free, livin’ the way we oughta be, gone leave my children a better world than my ancestors left me.
The flowers of the female hemp plant make the best medicines on Earth,
Helps cancer and AIDS patients eat their food, helps those with depression overcome the blues,
Glaucoma, Epilepsy, Nausia, Insomnia, Stress, Neurosis, Psychosis, Pain PMS
All the studies have been done all the doctors agree, but the corporations can’t make money off this plant you see, because its free, it grows from a seed, wild and free like we oughta be.
The future is growin in our backyards.
Chorus
In this modern world we seem to lack a little spirituality,
This one plant can bring us back 10.000 years in history.
To the Shiva Parahanas, The Jesus The Christ, to Buddah, The Pagans, The Goddess, The Light. To commune with all the animals, commune with all the trees, to realize the god I seek is inside me.
Yeah the futures in our hands, we’ve gotta take care of the Earth.
Because the Earth is the mother that gives life birth.
We can end all our pollution with a single green plant and we can start right now, start right now.
Chorus
So you see in this modern day and age, living in the lap of luxury,
There is really only one plant we need to harvest for almost everything.
We can run our cars on clean hempseed oil, run our generators too.
Stop! Wow I can’t believe hemp has so many uses! I say three cheers for Hemp: Hemp hemp Hooray! Hemp Hemp Hooray! Hemp Hemp hooray!Tree Of Life
Words and music by Matthew S. Donowick
I wanna tell y’all a... more
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Back in the early 90’s, William was in a car accident. He sustained whiplash, a couple of herniated discs, and a few broken bones.
Complications from the back injury prompted his physicians to put him on a cascade of lethal pharmaceuticals.
A couple of drugs put him in the hospital, some caused hallucinations, others - uncontrolled body temperature, still others - violent fits. “The anti-depressants basically made me happy I was in pain,” remarked William.
Anti-depressants are routinely doled out to the chronically ill under the premise that, whether the cause or the effect, the patient must be depressed.
William suffered with a migraine that lasted for a year. He would have to lock himself in the bedroom, pull the shades and lay there in the darkness. Often he would cry from the intense pain.
William struggled with prescription narcotics
The drugs that his doctors had him on put him in another world. They robbed him of his short-term memory. The only thing that kept him grounded to reality while he was on prescription meds was the pain.
The only drug that he found that sufficiently relieved the pain was Percocet. But because of its toxicity, physicians will only prescribe it on a limited basis.
Percocet, a narcotic analgesic, is used to treat moderate to moderately severe pain. It contains two drugs - Acetaminophen and Oxycodone. Acetaminophen is used to reduce both pain and fever. Oxycodone, a narcotic analgesic, is used for its calming effect and for pain.
Percocet is known to cause dizziness, light-headedness, nausea, sedation, and vomiting, but most serious is its high tendency for dependence.
William had a friend who asked him if he had ever tried Cannabis. He admitted that he had used Cannabis on occasion recreationally. His friend asked him if he’d ever used it to treat his pain. William realized that when he used Cannabis, he felt better.
He and his friend went out and obtained some “black-market” Cannabis and William began dosing.
That day was the first time that he had control over his pain in 14 months. He cried that day, not because he was in pain, but because he was released from it.
He’ll always have the injuries that he sustained from that car accident long ago. But he’s able to manage his pain now, with Cannabis and physical fitness. He finds that he doesn’t have to dose on a daily basis anymore, but only on the days when the pain is too much. On those days, Cannabis “… does the job for me.” With it, he no longer takes any pharmaceutical meds for pain. Back in the early 90’s, William was in a car accident. He sustained... more
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New Brunswick can become a model for the 21st century, create a vast array of jobs in many sectors, and retain westward fleeing job-seekers by fully embracing hemp farming. Not only could hemp production keep workers in the province, it could also attract new industry and immigrants into the province.
Hemp is truly one of nature's gifts to mankind, but no member of the plant kingdom has ever been so willfully and stubbornly misunderstood. It is generally assumed that hemp became collateral damage in the United States' so-called "war on drugs."
There is compelling evidence, however, that hemp was actually the primary target of the whole "Reefer Madness" hysteria. A number of major U.S. corporations, lumber and pulp barons, and chemical companies stood to lose lucrative market shares because the hemp plant is so useful and versatile. Hemp provides the raw material for bio-fuel, paper, and plastic alternatives, among its many uses. It is time to understand what we have lost, and will continue to lose, if we don't realize the infinite benefits of hemp production.
Since the mid-1930s, about half the world's forests have been cut to make paper. If hemp had not been outlawed, most forests would likely still be standing, providing oxygen for the planet.
Hemp plants provide four times the paper fibre per acre per year than trees do, and can be re-planted yearly. Hemp is naturally resistant to insects and weeds and thrives in New Brunswick. Nearly half of the agricultural chemicals used by the U.S. are applied to cotton crops.
As people continue to become more ecologically aware and responsible, the demand for all types of organic products will increase. Hemp fibre is a naturally organic alternative to cotton. It is much more durable, wears longer, and is resistant to salt - which is why it has been traditionally used to make ropes and sails for ships for thousands of years. In fact, the word "canvas" comes from an Arabic word for hemp.
Henry Ford experimented with utilizing hemp as a bio-fuel source and as an ingredient in a composite material for automobile bodies. In 1941, the Ford Motor Company rolled out an experimental car that was made from hemp. Ford demonstrated this vehicle's durability by beating on the fender with an axe. It bounced off and did not leave even a scratch. Imagine the benefits of a rust-proof, bio-degradable car that runs on hemp bio-fuel.... and where the planet would be today if this had become a reality 70 years ago! Also imagine that petro-chemical companies and many other major U.S. corporations still have a stake in preserving the status quo while they fill their coffers with money spent on over-priced gas, oil, chemicals, fertilizer and consumer goods that are petroleum based. The United States is the only industrialized nation that prohibits the growing of hemp.
In 1937, Popular Science magazine listed more than 25,000 potential uses for the hemp plant, and modern technology has increased this number. The market for organic food and personal care products has exploded. In addition to its many industrial uses, hemp also provides one of nature's most perfect foods in its seed. It contains the essential fatty acids omega 3 and 6 in the proper 3:1 ratio for human health, and provides superior anti-oxidant qualities. Hemp nuts are also one of the world's richest sources of protein, second only to the soybean, and they taste great. Chefs all over the world are using hemp butter, nuts and oil in their kitchens.
Right now, in many N.B. stores, you can buy hemp foods and goods that were produced in other Canadian provinces. The Manitoba Harvest Company is a co-operative that is co-owned by more than 20 farming families. In Ontario, the Cool Hemp Company is producing ice cream and cookies made from hemp seed - desserts that are both good and good for you!New Brunswick can become a model for the 21st century, create a vast array of jobs in... more
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Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader Friday called for an end to the war on non-violent drug offenders in favor of a war on corporate crime.
Nader said that the "so called war on drugs" consumes far too many resources while clogging the courts.
"We pour almost endless resources - roughly $50 billion every year - into catching, trying and incarcerating people who primarily harm themselves," Nader said. "This insane war on drugs damages communities and drains crucial resources from the police, courts and prisons. These resources could be better used to combat serious street and corporate crime."
He added, "Nader/Gonzales would empty prisons of nonviolent drug offenders and fill them up with convicted corporate criminals."
Drug offenses are better addressed as health concerns rather than criminal matters, Nader said.
"As with alcoholics and nicotine addicts, the approach to drug addicts should be rehabilitation, not incarceration," he said. "We don't put nicotine addicts in jail. We don't put alcoholics in jail. They lead to far greater mortality and morbidity than drug addicts."
On the other hand, Nader said, corporate crime costs "hundreds of billions of dollars" every year, kills tens of thousands and injures or sickens hundreds of thousands more.
Special Agent Michael Sanders, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administrations in Washington, vehemently disagreed with Nader's characterization of drug use as a victimless crime.
He pointed out that even marijuana use can have serious long-term health and neurological side effects.
"There is no such thing as a victimless crime," Sanders told RTTNews in an interview. "Somewhere along the line, somebody's going to be paying for it."
Sanders added that even small amounts of marijuana have to come from somewhere, and in many cases that somewhere is the hands of violent drug trafficking organizations.
"There is a lot of violence, a lot of people get killed," Sanders said. "The small amount some ordinary kid has in his pocket, probably some Mexican federal police and possibly U.S. law enforcement died protecting our border [from the traffickers who supplied it]."Independent presidential candidate Ralph Nader Friday called for an end to the war on... more
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Molders of public opinion work in such insidious ways that their actual methods and means usually go unnoticed. While inculcation of propaganda, lies, and disinformation do much of the shaping, simple omission has profound effect—might even be the favorite because it is, after all, nothing. It’s hard to imagine nothing ever accomplishing so much, but consider that for most people under common awareness manipulation, whatever corporate media (CorpoMedia) omits, to a large extent doesn’t exist.
Flag-draped coffins streaming home in the dead of night from our war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan are under media blackout, and so mean as little to most Americans as the actual reasons for the invasions, or even the hideous war crimes themselves. By its nature, omission is all but limitless; its application by CorpoMedia has grown to enormous proportions as celebrities and sports overpower hard news. So this article focuses on omission of—the calculated disappearing of a single thing that for thousands of years has profoundly benefitted the health and well-being of people all over the world, and today offers so much more: Cannabis hemp.Molders of public opinion work in such insidious ways that their actual methods and... more
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The war against marijuana is nothing more than a cleverly orchestrated pantomime which is being choreographed at huge public expense, by the office of John Walters, US drug czar.
Down on the shop floor in Congress, pharmaceutical allies such as Rudi Giuliani, (head-salesman for OxyContin manufacturers Purdue Pharma) hold the highest office, making sure the marijuana issue is kept just where its needed. Simmering beneath the surface of mainstream politics, to be brought out and dusted down as and when the White House press office needs a whipping boy to deflect the press from another foreign-based catastrophy like the war on Iraq.
In the meantime the United States is head & shoulders the largest user of illicit substances in the world, with almost 50% of the population admitting to experimenting with marijuana at some stage in their lives.
Join us on the Canna Zine cannabis forums and have your say on the prescription drugs issue.
Those are big numbers, which should be giving us a big fat message. The US uses pot, and guess what..it likes it..a lot!
In answer to this, federal agents dress up like marine corp soldiers and yomp out into the boondocks in search of cannabis plantations, tearing up entire County's, (Mendocino, Humboldt and other's in the emerald triangle) in their wake. The only difference is these are cops, and come with Macdonald's and Dunkin Donuts fueled stomach's hanging over their webbing belts.
But its a pantomime. An expensive farce.
Whilst all this anti-drug action takes place under the glare of the worlds press, high school kids in the US are filling their pockets from mom & pop's medicine cabinet, with drugs manufactured by the American pharmaceutical industry, and the figures make some truly shocking reading.
For instance, in 2004, there were over 15,000 emergency department (ED) visits by adolescents aged 12 to 17 whose suicide attempts involved drugs.
Almost three quarters of these drug-related suicide attempts were serious enough to merit the patient's admission to the same hospital or transfer to another health care facility.
Pain medications were involved in about half of all the suicide attempts.
Antidepressants or other psychotherapeutic medications, (thats right. The stuff they give us if we are depressed) were involved in over 40 percent of the suicide attempts by adolescents who were admitted to the hospital.
Suicide in adolescence is a major public health problem.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 9 percent of students in public and private high schools in 2003 had attempted suicide in the past year, and 3 percent of students reported needing medical treatment after their suicide attempt.
Given approximately 15.6 million high school students in the United States, this translates to over 1.3 million suicide attempts, thousands of which would have been handled in hospital emergency departments (ED's). Therefore, EDs are an important setting for interventions, as well as for referrals and medical treatment of suicidal adolescents.
This report uses 2004 data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) to examine the outcome (i.e., disposition) of ED visits caused by drug-related suicide attempts by persons aged 12 to 17.
In 2004, there were an estimated 15,299 ED visits associated with drug-related suicide attempts among persons aged 12 to 17 in the United States.
Thats a high number of suicides using prescribed drugs, which should tell us the billions of dollars we've spent so far on the prohibition of marijuana, a substance which never killed a single person, have been a complete and utter waste of money.
Isn't it about time we stopped feeding this money-drain, and spent the money on getting to grips with the real drug problem in the United States?
The war against marijuana is nothing more than a cleverly orchestrated pantomime which... more
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The fallout following Rachel Hoffman's murder is becoming intense. DEA has refused to allow three agents to testify before a grand jury regarding their involvement in the case, resulting in a surprising backlash from the State Attorney's office:
State Attorney Willie Meggs has told the Tallahassee Democrat that his decision to no longer prosecute cases involving the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is, "probably more symbolic than it is substantive, but I am very serious about it."
He went on to say, "I'm just not going to play that little game with those folks. I don’t need them and if these agencies want to work with them and do their cases with them, that's fine." [Tallahassee Democrat]
Strong words indeed. This sort of vitriol is rarely exchanged between drug warriors and it seems to indicate a drawing of battlelines as we wait to see who'll be held to account for this now-legendary drug war f#%k-up.
Mark R. Trouville, DEA's Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Field Division, predictably blamed his officers' non-compliance on a technicality:
We feel it is important for the public to know that DEA did not refuse to testify before the grand jury in this case. Although notified both verbally and in writing by DEA, the State Attorney’s Office refused to comply with Department of Justice regulations (which have been respected by the Florida Supreme Court) and therefore DEA Agents did not receive authorization to testify before the grand jury. In order to comply, the State Attorney’s Office simply needed to issue a subpoena and provide the local United States Attorney’s Office a summary of the information sought and its relevance to the proceeding.
This is the same guy who once claimed that today's marijuana "will kill you," so he has all the credibility of a drunk frat-boy on April Fool's Day. Thus I lean towards the assumption that DEA is covering its ass, which would explain why State Attorney Meggs is raging pissed.
To be honest though, I'm really not quite sure what the hell is going on here. I don't understand DEA's role in the murder because they won't testify, but in hindsight the fact that Rachel was told to purchase 1,500 pills of ecstasy, 2 ounces of crack cocaine and a gun sure gives the impression that DEA may have been calling the shots. The conspicuously large order Rachel placed had a great deal to do with her cover being blown, so to whatever extent DEA may have been responsible for that, they would be equally responsible for the fatal outcome.
Ultimately, many people made many errors contributing to this horrible event, but we all know that it takes more than a few greedy cops to manufacture a tragedy as compelling and gut-wrenching as this. After the finger-pointing subsides, after a few sacrificial reassignments, re-trainings and procedural revisions, the war that killed Rachel Hoffman will rage on without missing a beat. The culture of threats and manipulation that characterizes modern drug enforcement will remain intact and the mentality that led to Rachel's death will continue to guide police as they take on the drug problem with handcuffs in one hand and a gun in the other.The fallout following Rachel Hoffman's murder is becoming intense. DEA has... more
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Grow Hemp for the War, " says a World War II ad found on the back of a 1943 map of Iowa. More than 60 years down the road, hemp is back, for another type of combat: the one against high energy prices and agri-food multinationals.
Marc Bercier grows hemp on the lower part of a field behind his St-Isidore seed cleaning facility. He's testing 100 varieties and hopes to soon find the right one to produce vegetable oil and market it as a Canadian substitute for virgin olive oil.
"I'm anti-multinationals," Bercier says, standing inside a container housing his new oil press. The German-made press will allow him to extract oil for human consumption from hemp and camiline (false flax) seeds, both very rich in Omega-3s.
The press can also extract oil from soybeans, which can be used as a green fuel. One day, a soybean-burning co-generator will provide all the electricity and heat required to dry grain and operate the Marc Bercier Seed Cleaning Center.
Bercier's tractors and combine could also run on soybean oil. No big company will get rich off his diesel bill anymore.
Like his neighbours that grow cash crops, Bercier is currently enjoying very high grain prices. But along with them have come sharp price increases for farm inputs like fuel, fertilizer, herbicides and pesticides. These products are all controlled by large multinationals, Bercier notes.
Bercier's main business is in itself an everyday combat against the Monsantos and Pioneers (DuPont) of this world, that own the patents over genetically modified (GMO) seeds. Bercier successfully grows and markets non-GMO seeds, competing against much larger feed companies and co-ops that resell GMO seeds and the weed- and pest-control chemicals that come along.
Grain prices could drop again as soon a in a year of two, but high input prices are there to stay, Bercier predicts.
"We can't control much the price we are paid for our farm products, but we can control our farm operating costs," he says. One way of achieving this is to produce your own fuel. Grow Hemp for the War, " says a World War II ad found on the back of a 1943 map... more
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The factory, built in central Estonia, should start working in the coming year.
In the start of next year, the company Perfect Plant OÜ will start building a hemp factory costing EEK 70 million, writes arileht.ee. One of the owners of the company Ago Siiner is still cautions about revealing details: “It’s hard to make precise plans.”
The general goals have, however, been set. This autumn, the equipment of the factory will be ordered, construction will start in the beginning of the coming year, and starting phase begins next autumn. The exact location of the factory hasn’t been decided on yet, but it will most likely be in central Estonia.
The factory will start operating with full capacity in 2009. Full capacity means processing about 15,000 tons of hemp fibre, grown on 1.500 ha of land. In essence, the factory will buy hemp stems from farmers and process them to get the fibre. The fibre, in turn, could be used in many industrial sectors, from manufacturing plastic up to construction materials.
Perfect Plant has been buying and selling hemp seeds in Estonia for years already. Even before the new factory is finished, the company hopes to start pressing oil from hemp at the level of small manufacturers.The factory, built in central Estonia, should start working in the coming year.
In... more
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On Monday Peter Herrera told 7NEWS that he did not expect his brother Alexander to survive and a few hours later, he did pass away at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. He had been on life support since Sunday night after a police man shot the construction worker once to the back of the head. Today the police remain tightlipped about the shooting but told 7NEWS that the police man who pulled the trigger has been interdicted pending the outcome of an internal investigation. Other reports to us suggest he is not presently on interdiction.
The police would not reveal the name of their fellow officer but he has been identified to 7NEWS as Dixon Polonio, attached to the Patrol Branch. And while he is under investigation, the Police Department is under pressure to produce a credible response after a dubious and offensive release sent out yesterday. A police release issued yesterday reported that at 11:20 on Sunday night, Herrera was seen drunk, and carrying a handgun near the Swing Bridge. The official story is that one of the officers fired a shot and Herrera then jumped into the water. He was later detained and police say that’s when they noticed the injury to his head - the injury of course was the gunshot wound the officers had inflicted.
Like we said, a story that does raise many questions about competence and truthfulness, and the police topped it off by saying that Herrera would be charged after being released from the hospital. That’s what they said about a man with a bullet from a police weapon lodged in his brain. And more disturbing are accounts by witnesses which suggest that the shooting was unjustified.
Today as the Herrera family gets ready to lay their loved one to rest they maintain that they will not rest until whoever is responsible is brought to justice. According to the family what troubles them is that their brother was shot in the back while he was in the water not on land. They are also disturbed at the report that he was taken to the police station, not the hospital. They further maintain that their brother from all accounts was not armed with any weapon but the only thing he had in his hands at the time was marijuana and that is why he probably ran when he saw the police.On Monday Peter Herrera told 7NEWS that he did not expect his brother Alexander to... more
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TOKYO (AP) — Police investigations of marijuana use have surged this year in Japan, the result in part of the easy availability of seeds on the Internet for home cultivation, authorities said Thursday, raising concerns in a country long considered immune from the drug abuse problems of Europe and the United States.
The number of marijuana cases handled by police in the first half of the year rose 12 percent from the same period last year to 1,202, the National Police Agency said in a report. At that rate, the number of cases will reach an all-time high this year, passing the 2,288 recorded in 2006.
While the number is still very low compared to many other countries, it rose more quickly than cases involving amphetamines and other synthetic stimulants, which have long been the most popular illegal drugs in Japan.
Police reported 6,216 stimulant drug cases in the first six months of this year.
A major factor in the jump in marijuana cases was an increase in small-scale growing for private use, said a National Police spokesman who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
Japanese law prohibits the growing or possession of marijuana for recreational drug use, but seeds are excluded and are readily available on the Internet. Sites generally state that they are selling the seeds only for research, food or collecting.
There has also been a sharp increase in Japanese books and Internet sites that describe how to grow and prepare marijuana, the police spokesman said.
The police report also said organized crime was involved in some of the increased marijuana cases. Japanese gangsters have long been linked to illegal drugs.
A number of high-profile marijuana cases have recently been featured in the media.
Last month, a government worker was arrested on charges of growing marijuana in a specially equipped room in his home in western Japan. He reportedly told police he mainly used the drug with his wife and had bought his seeds online.
In May, Tokyo customs punished officers who lost track of a package of marijuana resin that had been slipped into a random traveler's luggage to test drug sniffer dogs. The package was recovered the next day.
Marijuana is frequently grown in Japan for non-drug purposes. Hemp-based fabrics have long been used in traditional clothing. Hemp growing for medical use and research is also allowed with a permit. TOKYO (AP) — Police investigations of marijuana use have surged this year in... more
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BLOOMINGTON -- Melissa Daugherty came to court Friday prepared to go to prison on charges that she possessed 7 pounds of marijuana, but instead she went home after a judge reversed her earlier conviction.
Judge Kevin Fitzgerald agreed with arguments from defense lawyer Mark Johnson that evidence at a June 11 bench trial was insufficient to prove Daugherty knew that a package delivered to her Fuller Court home contained the large batch of marijuana. Fitzgerald ruled against Daugherty at the bench trial.
Daugherty faced up to 14 years in prison at Friday’s sentencing hearing.
“I told her there was a 90 percent chance she would be going to prison,” Johnson said after the reversal.
In his original ruling finding the 28-year-old woman guilty, Fitzgerald said he did not believe Daugherty could have missed the strong marijuana smell emitted by the package.
Johnson argued in his post-trial motion that a Chicago postal inspector was the only person who detected the odor from the box that originated in Arizona.
Postal Inspector Jeffrey Gunther testified that the package he handled on May 23, 2007, contained an odor he described as “a cross of marijuana and fabric dryer sheets.”
Authorities confirmed the package contained drugs before resealing it and allowing it to be delivered to Bloomington.
No police officers or experts connected with the case testified about a strong odor from the package.
After an hour of surveillance outside Daugherty’s home, officers seized the unopened package. According to Johnson, a device attached to the package by police that would signal when the package was opened did not activate.
Mozel Palmer, a man who was described by Johnson as a remote acquaintance of Daugherty, sent the package under a fictitious name, authorities said. Palmer faces unrelated drug charges in federal court in Peoria.
Johnson said Wednesday that his client was “shocked and extremely elated” at the judge’s ruling.
“Hard work and intelligent judges protect the individual who finds himself in the courtroom and society as a whole,” said Johnson.BLOOMINGTON -- Melissa Daugherty came to court Friday prepared to go to prison on... more
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It now appears that the entire raid on Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo may have been illegal. Last week, police stormed Calvo's home without knocking, shot and killed his two black labs, and questioned him and his mother-in-law at gunpoint over a delivered package of marijuana that police now concede may have been intended for someone else.
The Washington Post reports that the police didn't even bother to get a no-knock warrant, which means the tactics they used were illegal:
A Prince George's police spokesman said last week that a Sheriff's Office SWAT team and county police narcotics officers were operating under such a [no-knock] warrant when they broke down the door of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo, shooting and killing his black Labrador retrievers.
But a review of the warrant indicates that police neither sought nor received permission from Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrup to enter without knocking. Northrup found probable cause to suspect that drugs might be in the house and granted police a standard search warrant.
"There's nothing in the four corners of the warrant saying anything about the Calvos being a threat to law enforcement," said Calvo's attorney, Timothy Maloney. "This was a lawless act by law enforcement."
Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has given the police leeway to disregard the knock-and-announce requirement. In June 2006, the Court ruled in Hudson v. Michigan that evidence seized in raids in which police fail to properly observe the knock-and-announce rule isn't subject to the Exclusionary Rule. Justice Scalia assured us that there's a "new professionalism" taking root in police departments across the country today, rendering the Exclusionary Rule in such cases unnecessary. It now appears that the entire raid on Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo may... more
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SMOKING hash or marijuana may not be the healthiest way to do it, but taking substances similar to those found in cannabis might one day help to treat colon cancer.
Raymond DuBois and colleagues at the University of Texas, Houston, discovered that a key receptor for cannabinoids - compounds similar to the active ingredient of cannabis - is turned off in most types of human colon cancer cells. Similarly, mice genetically engineered to develop colon tumours developed more of them if the receptor, called CB1, was knocked out (Cancer Research, DOI: 10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-08-0896). What's more, tumours shrank when the genetically engineered mice were injected with a cannabinoid.
One suggestion is that lack of CB1 encourages tumour growth because the receptor normally interacts with cannabinoids made by the body to prompt cells to die. This opens up a possible two-step treatment for colon cancer. First, switch CB1 back on using decitibine, a drug already approved for use in humans which DuBois and his team showed stops blockage of the receptor in human colon cancer cells. Then give the patient cannabinoids to activate CB1.
The research also casts a shadow on the weight-loss drug rimonabant. The drug suppresses appetite by blocking CB1, which is involved in hunger as well as tumour growth. DuBois suggests that anyone on the drug be screened for colon cancer.
From issue 2668 of New Scientist magazine, 06 August 2008, page 17SMOKING hash or marijuana may not be the healthiest way to do it, but taking... more
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Let’s do an experiment. Access in your mind everything you are wearing and what it’s made out of. Now think about the last time you bathed. What kind of soap did you use? Look at the paper you’re reading these words on. What is it made out of? Finally, what did you eat today? Was it organic and healthy? Did you answer “hemp” for any of these questions? If you did, kudos to you for saving the planet by just being yourself—you’re a remarkable environmentalist. We at Vote Hemp, a non-profit hemp advocacy group, salute your conscious consumer choices. You deserve a tax cut for all the savings to the planet’s ecosystems you are generating.
Oh, you’re not eating, wearing and bathing in hemp? Well that’s cool, because if you’re reading this, you can make a change to green your life today.
If you are having a hard time answering any of the questions above, you’re not alone. The vast majority of Americans are consuming unhealthy, synthetic products every day. While more people want a greener lifestyle, chances are that you’re wearing at least some petrochemical-based clothing (or cotton sprayed with chemical pesticides), you bathed in petroleum-based detergent soaps, the paper in your hand came from trees, and the food you ate wasn’t as nutritious as it could have been.
Because those products are not organic, biodegradable, or sustainable, they negatively impact the environment long after we are through with them and make it harder for people to have a healthy diet.
The big question in the media this year has been how to be a consumer and not destroy ourselves and the planet at the same time. How do we feed, clothe, and house a rapidly multiplying global population organically and sustainably? How do we print paper and not sacrifice forests? How do we get easily digestible protein and nutritious omega-3 essential fatty acids (EFAs) into our diets without eating meat or fish?
Cannabis, perhaps the most versatile plant known to humans, has been grown for thousands of years to make everything from durable fabric, nutritious food, and a plethora of environmentally friendly products. Because nearly everything can be made out of hemp and none of the plant goes to waste, it’s the crop America needs to grow if we are to maximize our farmland while reducing pressure to cultivate and chop down all our remaining wild places.
Yet in America, farmers will be sent to jail if they grow hemp, which today is legally imported into the U.S. at a value of $330 million a year.
It’s not a surprise that the media and major corporations have recently figured out that the answer to creating many needed environmental improvements in our lives can be found in hemp. Hemp is not grown in the U.S. because the federal government continues to ban it, along with its cousin, marijuana. Essentially, our greener future is on hold because of a 51-year-old irrational fear held by politicians in Washington, DC which says that if we legalized hemp, children will be corrupted and smoke even more pot than they already do. Should we settle for the next president irrationalizing that a healthy hemp breakfast cereal eaten by an eco-conscious child wearing hemp clothing that is durable and biodegradable is justification for a war on farmers and our economy?
So are you ready to do something about this? Then it’s time to make conscious decisions about how and where you spend your money.
With more hemp products in the marketplace than ever before, it is possible to be a consumer without contributing to ground water pollution from pesticides or discarded formaldehyde-treated plywood. A discarded hemp fiber board is 100 percent biodegradable and renewable every year. Paper, auto parts and building materials are just a few of the innovative uses of hemp stalks that now must be imported from other countries such as Canada, China, and Germany.Let’s do an experiment. Access in your mind everything you are wearing and what... more
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Of interest, cannabinoids seem to be selective antitumoral compounds as they can kill tumor cells without significantly affecting the viability of their non-transformed counterparts. On the basis of these preclinical findings a pilot clinical study of ∆ 9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme has recently been run. The fair safety profile of THC, together with its possible growth-inhibiting action on tumor cells, may set the basis for future trials aimed at evaluating the potential antitumoral activity of cannabinoids.Of interest, cannabinoids seem to be selective antitumoral compounds as they can kill... more
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Researchers in Spain have discovered that a cannabis extract makes brain tumors shrink by halting the growth of blood vessels that supply the tumors with life. Cannabis has chemicals called cannabinoids, these are the chemicals that could effectively starve tumors to death, say the researchers.
The study was carried out at the Complutense University, Madrid, Spain.
The team used mice to demonstrate that the cannabinoids block vessel growth.
You can read about this latest research in the journal Cancer Research.
Apparently, the procedure is also effective in humans.
The Spanish team, led by Dr Manuel Guzm�n, wanted to see whether they could prevent glioblastoma multiforme cancer from growing by cutting off its blood supply. Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the most difficult cancers to treat - it seldom responds to any medical intervention, such as radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.
The scientists knew that cannabinoids will block the growth of blood vessels (to tumors) in mice - they wanted to find out whether the same thing would happen with humans.
The mice were given a cancer similar to the human brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme). The mice were then given cannabinoids and the genes examined.
The genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumors through the production of a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) had their activity reduced.
Cannabinoids halt VEGF production by producing Ceramide. Ceramide controls cell death.
Dr Guzm�n said: "As far as we know, this is the first report showing that ceramide depresses VEGF pathway by interfering with VEGF production."
They then wanted to see if this would also happen with humans.
They selected two patients who had glioblastoma multiforme and had not responded to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. The scientists took samples from them before and after treating them with a cannabinoids solution - this was administered directly into the tumor.
Amazingly, both patients experienced reduced VEGF levels in the tumor as a result of treatment with cannabinoids.
The researchers said that the results were encouraging. In order to be sure about their findings they need to carry out a larger study, they said.
Dr Guzm�n said "The present findings provide a novel pharmacological target for cannabinoid-based therapies." Researchers in Spain have discovered that a cannabis extract makes brain tumors shrink... more
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The Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Md. was the target of a drug raid Wednesday after a package containing several pounds of marijuana was shipped to his home, according to police.
Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo is still reeling after a team of heavily armed sheriff deputies burst into his home Wednesday.
"It was an explosion followed immediately by gunfire," said Calvo.
The deputies bound the mayor and fired shots, killing the Calvo's two black Labradors. Calvo tearfully expressed his love for his "good dogs" while showing ABC 7 reporter Brad Bell, exactly where they were shot by a Prince George's county sheriff.
According to sources, the deputies armed with a warrant were acting on behalf of a drug squad for Prince George's County Police. Detectives had learned that a box containing more than 30 pounds of marijuana had been shipped from Arizona and was addressed to Calvo's wife at their Berwyn Heights address.
After the Calvo's brought, unknowingly they claim, the package into their home Tuesday evening, the waiting officers moved in. The Calvo's said the box wasn't even opened when the officers stormed into their residence.
When asked if he is a drug dealer, Calvo said, "Of course not!" The mayor said he has no idea where the marijuana came from.
Neither Calvo, his wife nor her mother, who also lives in the home, have been arrested or charged with anything. Police said the investigation remains open.
The Calvo's insisted the investigation shouldn't involve them, saying the event was very traumatic to deal with. "We have to heal," said Calvo.The Mayor of Berwyn Heights, Md. was the target of a drug raid Wednesday after a... more
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The Malibu City Council on Monday approved an ordinance limiting the number of dispensaries in Malibu to two, with PCH Collective and Green Angel getting the first opportunity to apply for conditional-use permits to be the city's two medical marijuana facilities.
There was no previous city law on marijuana dispensaries. The council was presented with two ordinance proposals on Monday, one to ban all medical marijuana facilities within Malibu, and the other to allow three dispensaries in the city. All council members said three would be too many.
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"We have limited resources with our code enforcement and these are facilities that we are going to want to look at very closely and keep track of," City Councilmember Sharon Barovsky said. "And with our resources, I would hate to see more than two."
The ordinance must be approved on a second reading at an Aug. 11 meeting and then will go into effect 30 days afterward. A number of regulations were approved for the dispensaries, including buffers from schools and requirements for security. The businesses must obtain conditional-use permits to operate. The existing dispensaries have 90 days to apply for one without competition.
The council heard from several medical marijuana users and advocates prior to its vote. The speakers urged the council not to choose the option to ban the facilities. Steven Berkowitz, an attorney for PCH Collective, read a note from a neighbor praising the facility as not being a nuisance.
Kerry Fried, a medical marijuana user who has cancer, said PCH Collective is clean and safe.
"It is very safe and secure," she said. "There are very normal people who go through there. I think there is a huge myth around medical marijuana that needs to be dispelled."
Councilmember John Sibert spoke about two relatives with cancer who, when they were alive, could only be relieved of pain with marijuana.The Malibu City Council on Monday approved an ordinance limiting the number of... more
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A three-year battle between a Burlington restaurateur and a medical marijuana smoker is going to court.
Ted Kindos, owner of Gator Ted's Tap and Grill on Guelph Line, agreed last spring to settle with Steve Gibson rather than spend an estimated $60,000 on eight days of an extended Ontario Human Rights Commission tribunal.
Now, he fears allowing Gibson to smoke marijuana at the restaurant will threaten his liquor licence.
Gibson took Gator Ted's to the commission in 2005 after Kindos told him not to smoke marijuana outside the doorway of the family restaurant and sports bar.
Kindos wants the Superior Court of Ontario to declare provincial laws banning marijuana from licensed establishments overrules Gibson's right to smoke marijuana there.
No date has been set yet for the hearing.
"I changed my mind," Kindos said last night about any settlement with Gibson.
He would not sign off on a deal paying Gibson $2,000 for mental anguish and requiring Kindos to post a sign saying the restaurant accommodated customers with medical marijuana exemptions as well as institute-appropriate training for staff.
Kindos said he chose not to sign because he got a letter from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario -- which regulates the Liquor Licence Act -- telling him marijuana on the premises would endanger his liquor licence.
"So we're going to court," Kindos said.
"We did not settle. We'll let the court decide the issue."
Gibson, who suffered a neck injury in 1989 that prevents him from working, uses legally prescribed marijuana to manage pain.
The Burlington father of two -- who does not smoke marijuana in his home but retreats to a backyard smokehouse built by friends -- says the restaurant discriminated against him because Kindos told him to leave the spot outside where tobacco smokers are allowed to light up.
Gibson said last night he is confident he will win the case when it gets to Superior Court.
Although he plans to represent himself, he said a lawyer will be present representing the Ontario Human Rights Commission.
"(Kindos) changed his mind on the settlement because he thinks it's (to be decided) on a technicality," Gibson said.
But, Gibson added, it is his understanding the Ontario Human Rights Commission's rulings supercede other Ontario laws unless specifically excluded.
"I think I won the case (the first time) and now he can go to a higher level and I am confident," he said. "I don't have any worries."
jburman@thespec.com
905-526-2469A three-year battle between a Burlington restaurateur and a medical marijuana smoker... more
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