The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethics!

[Bocefish]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

The tax is somewhat reasonable now, but you know politicians will fiscally rape and basically extort users with continuously escalating taxes just like they've done to alcohol & tobacco users.

From Denver:

When the governor’s office announced that they expect over $100 million more than previously estimated, it caught attention of lawmakers in Colorado and will most certainly attract attention of lawmakers across the country.

$100 million of unexpected revenue is a very tempting number to put in front of elected officials who have been dealing with shrinking revenues and difficult budgets cuts for several years.

The $100 million figure is also bound to speed up legalization campaigns in other states that have been closely watching Colorado.

I expect that some states thought that legalizing pot would mean Colorado would be taken over by Cheech and Chong wannabes and that Cheetos would be named the official state snack.

But not only has the Centennial State not become home to hordes of Jeff Spicoli lookalikes, but now that we are raking in far more revenue than expected, former foes of pot in other states may change their tunes, and rather quickly.

$100 million could significantly change the budgets for many states. It could mean a change that could keep certain parties in power, or propel new majorities. It’s the kind of number that makes a serious difference.

And while $100 million is somewhat random because it deals with Colorado estimates and our particular situation, that really shouldn’t matter. It’s not the exact number that is the issue. It’s the fact that our state economists were so wrong in the beginning and had to increase those estimates by so much.

To put this into simple terms, when governments release numbers like this, it’s like the announcement of gold being discovered in Rockies for the first time.

But instead of miners rushing to Leadville, lawmakers will be rushing to grow their own gold mines in their own states. And do not be shocked if some national lawmakers begin to take notice soon as well. Money has a way of attracting a lot of attention.

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Who would ever have thought something as simple as MONEY could sway politicians off their moral high-horses.

What I dislike, but would happily live with, since it seems like pot isn't going to be legal around my neighbourhood any decade soon anyway, is the fact that they take the same approach with tax as they have with cigarettes...

The tax might start at 25%, but if it's anything like tobacco they will have NO trouble shafting smokers by increasing their tax burden every year and pointing at the reduction of smokers overall as a good thing and an outcome.

At least 20% off the profit should be diverted from anti-drug education into honest, scientific research on cannabis use and effects - the kind of research that would be a boon to a fledgling industry, a boom to medical science - the kinds of studies that have been disapproved or buried for years by corrupt NIDA and DEA administrations.

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Jamaican study on the effects of cannabis use on pregnant women
The two references used didn't paste and are:
http://www.hightimes.com/read/cannabis- ... nant-women
http://www.nursingcenter.com/lnc/Journa ... _ID=602166

Pregnant Jamaican women seeking relief from nausea and stress often turn to cannabis in the form of a tea or tonic to alleviate their symptoms.
Nearly 40 years ago, Dr. Melanie Dreher was chosen by her professors to go to Jamaica and study the effects of cannabis use on pregnant women and their infants. Dreher lived among the rural people of Jamaica, and discovered that the use of cannabis in daily life is routine. She conducted several community-based studies examining the health and development of Jamaican women and children, and released several reports showing that children born to mothers who use cannabis are better adjusted than children born to mothers who do not use the plant.
Dreher studied 24 Jamaican infants exposed to marijuana in the womb, and 20 infants that were not exposed. She discovered that the culture polices its own cannabis intake, and considers the herb a sacrament. Study results showed no negative impact on the children born to mothers using cannabis; on the contrary, they seemed to excel.
Often, North American studies on cannabis use by pregnant women claim to show that it can result in birth defects and developmental problems; however, those studies do not isolate cannabis use from harmful substances such alcohol and tobacco, or even meth and heroin.
Dreher’s principal funder, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, was not pleased with the results of her field work, and discontinued funding her research. Dreher said in an interview, “It was clear that NIDA was not interested in continuing to fund a study that didn’t produce negative results. I was told not to resubmit. We missed an opportunity to follow the study through adolescence and through adulthood.”
Now the Dean of the College of Nursing at Rush University, Dreher’s field work evolved into her book Women and Cannabis: Medicine, Science and Sociology.
Ref: Cannabis Okay for Pregnant Women? | High Times


Media Review: Women and Cannabis: Medicine, Science, and Sociology
Lenora Marcellus MN, RN, Family & Community Health
December 2005
Volume 28 Number 4
Pages 362 - 363

Women and Cannabis: Medicine, Science, and Sociology by Ethan Russo, Melanie Dreher, and Mary Lynn Mathre. New York: Hawthorn Integrated Healing Press; 2002. 187 pages, softcover, $24.95; hardcover, $39.95.

This book is an edited volume of 11 chapters written with the primary goals of providing a woman's historical perspective of cannabis use, exploring the use of cannabis to treat woman-specific conditions, and considering implications for fertility and maternal-child health. There are 3 editors of this volume, including 2 registered nurses and a neurologist. This volume was also simultaneously published in the Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics in 2002. This was the first academic scientific journal devoted to the study of clinical cannabis, endocannabinoids, and synthetic cannabinoids. Despite being well received, the journal did not develop a wide enough subscription base and subsequently ceased publication in 2004.

The 11 chapters in this book address a wide range of issues related to women and marijuana use. The first chapter, written by Ethan Russo, provides a fascinating historical grounding for the remainder of the chapters. Russo explores historical evidence of marijuana use by women as far back as the seventh century BCE. There is evidence that marijuana has been used throughout time and across cultures in a variety of ways to treat many women's health and reproductive conditions, including difficult childbirth, menstrual disorders, painful breasts, and vomiting of pregnancy. Interestingly, Russo reports that cannabis was still included in the British Pharmaceutical Codex as a treatment of dismenorrhea as recently as 1934. Folk use of cannabis continues to be reported in different cultures around the world. Although not discussed in this chapter, it is interesting to note that in North America the decline in medical use of cannabis was associated with development of propaganda in the early twentieth century that was unsupported by evidence and heavily influenced by Victorian moral standards and prohibitionist values. Marijuana was swept up in the company of cocaine and opioids in the subsequent drug panics and linked to crime, prostitution, and the general decline of American society.

Several of the chapters explore the use of marijuana for the treatment of woman-specific conditions. Bari, Battista, Cartoni, D'Arcangelo, and Maccarrone explain the role of anandamide (AME), an endocannabinoid that naturally appears in the body, in relation to human fertility. They suggest that endocannabinoids may be one component of the hormone system involved in the control of human pregnancy. Curry describes a small underground study of cannabis use as a treatment for hyperemesis gravidarum. The women in this study challenge the medical community for presenting marijuana as an unacceptable treatment alternative when the only other treatment choices that are available are invasive procedures, including intravenous nutrition, tube feeding, medications, or, ultimately, early cesarean sections. Petro reviews research studies related to the use of cannabis for women with multiple sclerosis (MS). Cannabis has been found to be effective in managing many of the common symptoms related to MS, including spasticity, pain, tremor, fatigue, and autonomic dysfunction. She concludes by stating that currently research in this field is limited to case reports or small scale studies and suggests that larger scale clinical studies are needed to provide further information about the use of cannabis for management of MS symptoms. Fried's chapter on the outcomes of marijuana use during pregnancy concludes that after confounding factors such as maternal health, nutrition, and the postnatal environment are taken into account, it is difficult to attribute any negative effects to the marijuana exposure. He does also caution that in some studies older children have demonstrated subtle changes to the cognitive processes of problem solving and attention. However, studies in this field are sparse and difficult to conduct longitudinally.

As many sources related to medical marijuana focus on treatment for general health issues such as chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting and AIDS wasting, it was interesting to read about applications for gender-specific health issues. Although focused on use in women, only a few of the authors address the overlying issues of society's attitudes toward drug use by women. Many of these articles describe the personal conflict that people felt when they knew that cannabis would help them with their symptoms yet forced them to participate in an illegal activity and hide their use from healthcare providers and others who would not approve of their use. This was particularly true for women who were pregnant and at risk of further judgment related to exposure of the fetus to cannabis.

Ultimately, the editors hoped that this collection of articles would stimulate practitioners to consider the potential therapeutic role of marijuana for women's medicine and "at least" promote the consideration of cannabis and cannabinoids for treatment of some clinical conditions. This book is interesting to read and presents an illuminating counterpoint to literature sources that are unwilling to reconsider the potential uses of a substance that has historically been used through the ages, particularly for women's health issues. Evidence related to marijuana use is often presented in a scientific and quantitative way; the studies in this book bring a qualitative and personal perspective to the debate on medical marijuana use. This book would be interesting reading for those practitioners interested in both the history of marijuana use and future potential medical uses of marijuana.

Lenora Marcellus, MN, RN
Instructor, School of Nursing, University of Victoria, CIHR Doctoral Research Trainee, Integrated Mentoring Program in Addictions Research Training, BC Centre of Excellence for Women's Health, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Ref:Nursing Center - Journal Article

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

There's some videos that are accompanying this article that I haven't linked, the article link is:
http://bigbudsmag.com/marijuana-vagina-massage-clit-orgasm-health-Viagra-aphrodisiac

Marijuana Sex Fun:
Marijuana Makes Vaginas Happier & Healthier

Posted by Kim Carlyle

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Putting marijuana into the p**sy creates wild sex, and good health!
(Click to enlarge)
" Vaginas love marijuana, so make them happy…and they’ll make you happy! "

Ask marijuana growers and users what gives them sweet pleasure, and you’ll see marijuana and vaginas at the top of the list!

That’s why I’m writing this series of BigBudsMag.com marijuana sex articles giving you insider details on combining marijuana and sex so you get more pleasure from both.

You already see from our past marijuana sex articles that placing safe, clean marijuana extracts inside the p**sy creates a marijuana Viagra effect—enhanced orgasms for a woman and her sex partner.

In today’s article, you see how “feeding” marijuana to a vagina makes a vagina happier and healthier too.

Start with the fact that marijuana extracted into oils is a creamy topical lubricant that makes sex feel way better.

Now take a look at this article about making marijuana massage oil.

When you gently heat high-quality marijuana in organic sesame oil or other oils, your kind bud’s essential oils, fatty acids, cannabinoids, and terpenoids transfer into the oil.

You get luxurious, nutrients-rich oil that lubricates, moisturizes, medicates, and intoxicates the vagina.

Marijuana compounds transfer through vaginal membranes into the bloodstream…and the woman gets a thrilling sexual high!

And guess what—if you’re making love with a woman whose vagina has been fed marijuana, the oil transfers marijuana compounds into you when you go down on her or have intercourse with her.

It works for heterosexual, bi-sexual and homosexual couples, and also works for masturbation.

Beyond the enhanced sexual ecstasy that vagina marijuana gives a woman, she also gets healthier.

For many centuries, marijuana creams and balms have been known as antibacterial medicines.

Marijuana oils and other marijuana medicines fight against Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), a dangerous infectant that marijuana beats…even though pharmaceutical medicines can’t.

Another way to make a happy vagina (and happy woman) is to prevent pregnancy, thus preventing the vagina from having to be painfully split open by a baby’s head as the baby exits the womb.

So here’s the good news…reliable studies reveal that sperm exposed directly to marijuana swim like they’re high! They’re so stoned that they have a harder time fertilizing an egg, and therefore they’re less likely to create pregnancy.

So, add birth control as another of the benefits of administering marijuana directly into and onto the vagina.

And the marijuana vagina hits just keep on coming.

Marijuana oil delivers essential fatty acids and other compounds that boost the immune system, fight arthritis, ease pain, heal sports injuries, make skin glowing and supple, and reduce cholesterol, inflammation, and pain.

[I’m talking about marijuana infused into a natural oil such as sesame oil…not butane honey oil, or other types of oils extracted with alcohol or butane. Solvent marijuana oils aren’t good for the vagina, although they do get you very very high.]

Not only does marijuana oil make a vagina feel good, marijuana compounds are anti-cancer and anti-tumor.

With reproductive organ infections and cancer as serious health concerns for women of all ages, marijuana in the vagina is more than just sexually pleasurable—it’s life-saving.

You can easily see why feeding marijuana to a vagina is a way to put a smile on a vagina’s face.

Also note that marijuana oil is wonderful as a hair conditioner, skin moisturizer, and anti-irritant.

If you love a smooth, silky, clean-shaven vagina, marijuana oil works to help prevent shaving irritation.

If the woman has a natural bushy vulva, marijuana makes pubic hair shinier, softer, and sexier.

Now that you’re all excited about using marijuana oils and solvent-free extracts to make p***y have more fun, read my other sex marijuana articles (click on the links embedded throughout the article) about making marijuana massage oil, and using marijuana oil and concentrates (like bubblehash) as marijuana Viagra and a vaginal health treatment.

When you apply marijuana oil and extracts to the labia, vulva, clit, pubis, pubic hair, lower crotch, thighs, and deep inside the vagina, you create the ultimate in marijuana aphrodisiac pleasure and increased health…for every vagina you love.

 

[Violet October]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

I have no issue with pot or potsmokers. I am absolutely for legalization, and frequently hang around people high out of their minds.

But I personally don't like it or what it does to my brain, and sometimes I have trouble understanding people who smoke it regularly for reasons other than health benefits (which I definitely believe exist and are important). I find myself unable to think clearly, like my brain suddenly got really tired without actually feeling tired, and that feeling is incredibly uncomfortable to me. It's like the world suddenly got blurry, like I lost my glasses.

I've lately been trying to understand what sort of reaction it has in others' brains in regards to their thought patterns. If it clouds your thoughts, how can you enjoy not thinking clearly? Or does it do different things to your thoughts? I've heard some people say it helps them think *more* clearly, and others say that not thinking is the entire point. Others say it just relaxes their emotions.

I'm mainly just trying to figure out the relationship between enjoyment of pot and the effect it has on thought clarity. Are the two related?

Again - completely not judging here. I adore alcohol and it's not like eight shots of vodka have ever been known to produce an Einstein.

Though that's another thing. I don't understand why I like what alcohol does to my brain, but not pot. I think for me alcohol is like putting on sunglasses in a darkened room, while pot is just losing the glasses you need to drive. I don't know. I'm really confused about this.

What is it like for you? How is thought clarity with alcohol different than thought clarity on pot?

And I'm referring to like... if someone sat you down while you were super drunk/high and then asked you for personal advice on a really complicated and difficult relationship matter? Or asked you to solve a logic problem?

How does your brain function, depending on the source of intoxication and the type of thinking involved with the question?

For me, it completely depends on the strain. If I'm smoking/eating/vaping a sativa, then I get this really creative high where I think SO clearly. I can brainstorm amazing ideas for cam, I clean the whole house, I sit on the couch and think about any mental problems I've been facing recently.

And if I'm smoking an indica, it does make my mind -fuzzy, like I'm in a dream or some shit. That's when I sit on the couch with a bag of cheetos watching cartoons and laughing at everything.... or I go right to sleep.

And hybrids.... holy shit. If I'm in the middle of a panic attack, I can take a hit of a hybrid and it immediately just stops. They also get rid of my migraines. Then I can calm the fuck down and relax. And if I smoke a hybrid... I can either clean the whole house or go to sleep. Whichever one I want to do.

(I also LOVE getting high as hell and having intense conversations about things. lol. When I'm high, everything suddenly becomes so important. If I solve a small problem, I feel like I've found the magic answer to the universe.)



When I don't want a crazy high feeling but still want medicinal benefits, I'll eat an edible (a small portion), or drink it in tea with a tincture.

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/03/12/healt ... a-parents/
fucking govt...

Does medical marijuana equal bad parenting?

Napa, California (CNN) -- Shawnee's voice is shrill, quavering -- on the edge of desperate. She clutches her 11-month-old son while trying to comprehend the situation unfolding in front of her.

Her boyfriend -- her child's father, Aaron -- is in handcuffs.

"Why are you doing this?" she pleads with police officers standing on the lawn outside her home.

"Your baby doesn't need to be subjected to marijuana," an officer replies, in an audio recording made by Shawnee on her cell phone.
Shawnee and Aaron say their son is healthy and nurtured.

But she could explain: The couple have legal prescriptions for the marijuana in their home. His is prescribed for anxiety and chronic pain; hers for depression and anxiety.

"I told them we had our cards, our prescriptions," said Shawnee, 27. "They didn't want to see them."

Not long after that exchange, according to police video of the family's encounter, a social worker arrived at the home and decided to place the child in foster care. CNN is not using Shawnee and Aaron's last names or the name of their child because of the ongoing child protection case.

"I was pleading with them, 'Look, you guys, I understand your perception, but we are wonderful parents, hardworking members of our community,'" said Aaron, 34.

"They could not conceive of the fact that you can be a wonderful parent, a decent human being, and medicate with marijuana."


For agencies enlisted to protect children, marijuana in the home has for decades been an invitation for serious speculation about a parent's fitness.

But as the narrative of medical marijuana legalization unfolds across the country, so does a complicated parallel story of patients whose children are being removed to protective custody -- or worse, permanently removed -- ostensibly because of their legal marijuana use. Most medical marijuana legislation does not seem to account for this possibility.

"The judges, the police, CPS (child protective services) have been fighting this war on drugs for so long," said Maria Green, a medical marijuana patient in Lansing, Michigan, whose infant daughter Bree was placed in foster care last year.

"They just can't get it out of their minds that this is an 'evil' drug they have to fight against."

To be sure, each case has unique circumstances, and child welfare officials at both the state and local level do not comment about specific cases while they are in process, or even once they are closed.

Further complicating the picture: While medical marijuana use is legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration classifies the drug as a Schedule I substance with "no currently accepted medical use in the United States" and high potential for abuse.

In cases involving removal of children, medical marijuana found in the home would seem to be barely distinguishable from other Schedule I substances -- such as heroin or ecstasy.

"CPS handles (cases) the same way regardless of what the drug ... is," said Michael Weston, deputy director of public affairs and outreach programs at the California Department of Social Services. "Everything is weighed in reference to, 'Is this a danger to the child? Is there a potential harm to the child? Is this showing signs of abuse or neglect?'"

Minister's daughter: Cannabis is 'a gift from God'

There have been no substantive studies yet to determine how medical marijuana impacts parenting.

There is early data, according to a researcher, suggesting a small increase in child poisonings among medical marijuana patients in states where it is legal. And early epidemiological data draws a link between medical cannabis use and increased corporal punishment and physical abuse -- but not neglect.

"We really don't know what's going on," said Bridget Freisthler, an associate professor in the department of social welfare at UCLA, who studies medical marijuana use among parents.

"We don't know whether (medical marijuana) affects parenting or whether caseworkers need to be concerned when they find out this is happening in the home."

Parents fighting to maintain custody of their children say the mere presence of medical marijuana is an almost reflexive trigger for removal.

They cite scores of anecdotes concentrated in states where medical cannabis is legal -- children removed from homes where cannabis is used or grown; babies testing positive for marijuana at birth and subsequently removed; children removed because mothers breastfed at the same time that they used medical marijuana.

"Marijuana use does not make someone a bad parent," said Sara Arnold, co-founder of the Family Law and Cannabis Alliance. "It should not be the primary or sole basis for any Child Protective Services investigation."

But simply having a medical marijuana card does not mean that that patient is acting responsibly with the medication; nor does the mere presence of marijuana imply lack of safety, according to experts.

"Medical marijuana as a risk factor by itself doesn't mean the child isn't safe," said Michael Piraino, chief executive officer of National CASA for Children, an advocacy group for abused and neglected children. "Most kids have had risk factors but remain safe.

"But how do you put together all these pieces of information, of evidence, that a child is or isn't safe?"

Medical marijuana refugees: 'This was our only hope'

The answers can be as variable as the homes where medical marijuana is used.

Piraino says issues related to medical marijuana use and parenthood have started to come up for his agency, but not yet in a significant way.

He notes that any drug in the home carries risks, including potential lack of attention to children's needs and physical danger stemming from possible ingestion, but that the extent of those risks with medical marijuana is not clear.

Aaron and Shawnee bristle at the ongoing debate about their parenting, and worse, the notion that their use of cannabis could raise concerns about abuse or neglect of their child. They say their son is healthy, happy and nurtured.

What brought police officers to their home in early January, they say, was an anomaly -- a loud argument. The clamor was heard by a neighbor, who called the police.

When officers later entered their home to investigate, they discovered loose marijuana, cannabis oil, and marijuana cigarettes strewn on the desk in the couple's living room. The living room smelled like marijuana. (Aaron says the smell was lingering from the couple medicating the night before, after their son fell asleep.)

"What I want you to understand is your baby doesn't need to be subject to marijuana," said one officer in the police video.

Shawnee responds, "What makes you think he is?"

"Because your house really smelled bad of marijuana," said the officer.

The smell of marijuana, a home in a disarray, medical cannabis that was visible -- albeit out of the boy's reach -- are the roots of the ongoing case against them.

"We would never allow our children to get into our medical marijuana," said Aaron, adding that he believes stigma against the plant is at the heart of his and other cases. "If (law enforcement and CPS) had come in, even if it was a couple of empty beer bottles or a wine bottle, I don't think anybody would have raised an eyebrow.

"I had the impression that we had turned this corner," he added. "That we had moved past that stigma."

"Is the child happy? Is the child loved? Is the child well cared for?" said Arnold, who stressed that she has no specific information about Shawnee and Aaron's case, but views it through the lens of countless other families she's counseled. "Marijuana on a desk does not mean they're abusing or neglecting the child."

Nor does growing and using marijuana, said Green, the Michigan mother whose 6-month-old daughter was removed from her custody for two months last September.

According to Michigan law, both Green and her husband, Steve, are allowed to use cannabis medically -- she to treat multiple sclerosis, her husband to treat epilepsy. And she is allowed to grow a certain number of plants to supply to other patients.

Green says the plants were grown behind a locked door -- the children never had access to them -- and the couple never medicated in front of the children. They kept the marijuana they used locked up.

She says a custody battle with her ex-husband, involving a son from a previous marriage, led CPS to her door, and she says despite the pains they had taken to shield their children from the marijuana, Bree was removed from the home and assigned to protective custody.

A major issue debated during the case: whether marijuana plants grown in the Green home increased the danger of armed robbery and thus posed a serious safety issue for children in the home -- in other words, whether theoretical risk of harm to a child constitutes a serious safety concern.

Green and other advocates say that theoretical, potential risk is not enough.

"I find it very scary that parents can have children taken away for something that's a potential," said Arnold.

Video: Dr. Sanjay Gupta explores politics of pot

As a consequence of Bree's removal, Maria and Steve Green were ordered to stop using medical cannabis. She says she suffered some pain and had to use a walker at intervals, but Steve was worse off. He suffered nine or 10 seizures during the two months Bree spent in foster care.

"You've got these parents having to choose between their medicine and their family," said Arnold. "That's an impossible choice, especially if your medicine makes you functional enough to parent."

Green says that medical marijuana patients may not realize the risk of a run-in with CPS. She advises patients not to become too lax, and to realize that not everyone -- including law enforcement, CPS, and the judicial system -- views the marijuana plant through the same lens.

"Think about what are you doing with the meds, where are you smoking, who is watching your kids when you're smoking or under the influence?" said Green. "Have those things in place."

"My advice to parents is to really go out of your way to make sure (your children) are not exposed to it."

After spending a few days in jail -- and their son spending 12 days in foster care -- Aaron and Shawnee say they now understand.

They are setting aside their views about marijuana as a medical treatment, and view it -- at least temporarily -- as a potential barrier to maintaining their family unit.

That does not ease their confusion about the law, or their conviction that the plant has medicinal value.

"There are families out there ... destroyed over a medicinal plant," said Aaron. "It's baffling."

 

[Paulie Walnuts]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

As a young man I grew some killer shit...I was careless and took too many risks.
:?

In the state I am in, it is still very illegal, but they are discussing the medical aspect of it all so thats good. I have developed a lot of chronic pains and issues, and also an old seizure disorder that has not bothered me BUT they took me off of an old drug I had taken for years, as it causes damage to brain and nerves and liver.
And they want me to take LYRICA... I said fuck you and your pharmaceutical rep, that shit is bad news.

Good old pot will fix all my problems but my state is not there yet.... soon I hope.

I will have a garden planted before the fucking ink is dry on the bill. :dance: I'll sleep like a baby and prevent that high seizure probability issues all in one tasty double fudge brownie.
ray:

I was a good pot farmer, I look forward to it again when the risk isnt a pack of stormtroopers seizing my home/farm and possessions and giving me a 20 year vacation with a 300# cell mate named Bubba.

The Genie is out of the bottle, its only a matter of time.
If not, I can move. I hear Colorado is a beautiful place to retire.

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Well perhaps by far the most significant thing yet is this, because it presumably opens FEDERAL medical resesearch. That inevitably leads to descheduling from a schedule 1 drug - that in turn means defiance and the dismantling and reorganization of the UNODC and the 1961 UN convention on drug control.

This US-led worldwide convention is standing in the way of legalization worldwide. Uruguay was recently castigated by the UNODC for acting against the convention through legalization.

Quite rightly President Mujica pointed out that other nations seem to flout conventions when they wish also.

Anyway, here's there court ruling article, it's a victory for veterans and others suffering from depression and PTSD. This battle with NIDA has been going on for FIFTEEN YEARS!!

http://www.thestate.com/2014/03/17/3331606/marijuana-study-in-veterans-wins.html

Marijuana study in veterans wins federal backing

By MATTHEW PERRONE

AP Health WriterMarch 17, 2014

WASHINGTON — The federal government has signed off on a long-delayed study looking at marijuana as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder, a development that drug researchers are hailing as a major shift in U.S. policy.

The Department of Health and Human Services' decision surprised marijuana advocates who have struggled for decades to secure federal approval for research into the drug's medical uses.

The proposal from the University of Arizona was long ago cleared by the Food and Drug Administration, but researchers had been unable to purchase marijuana from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The agency's Mississippi research farm is the only federally-sanctioned source of the drug.

In a letter last week, HHS cleared the purchase of medical marijuana by the studies' chief financial backer, the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which supports medical research and legalization of marijuana and other drugs.

"MAPS has been working for over 22 years to start marijuana drug development research, and this is the first time we've been granted permission to purchase marijuana from NIDA," the Boston-based group said in a statement. The federal government has never before approved medical research involving smoked or vaporized marijuana, according to MAPS.

A spokesman for the group said organizers have called off a protest over the stalled study that was planned for later this year.

While more than 1 million Americans currently take medical marijuana — usually for chronic pain — rigorous medical research into the drug's effects has been limited, in part due to federal restrictions.

Marijuana remains a Schedule I substance under the federal government's Controlled Substance Act. That means the drug is considered a high-risk for abuse with no accepted medical applications.

In the past NIDA has focused its research on the risks of drug abuse and addiction, turning away researchers interested in studying the potential benefits of illegal substances.

Even with the latest green light from the Health and Human Services department, MAPS and the University of Arizona Professor Suzanne Sisley must still get approval from the Drug Enforcement Administration, though they expect that clearance to come more quickly.

Sisley's study will measure the effects of five different potencies of smoked or vaporized marijuana in treating symptoms of PTSD in 50 veterans.

The Veterans Administration estimates between 11 and 20 percent of soldiers who served in the recent Iraq and Afghanistan wars have PTSD, which can cause anxiety, flashbacks, depression and sleep deprivation. About 7.7 million American adults are estimated to have the disorder.

Physicians have long speculated that marijuana could be used to calm parts of the brain linked to overstimulation and anxiety, though little formal research has been conducted.

The American Medical Association has called for a change in marijuana's classification to make it easier for research to be conducted. The current classification prevents physicians from even prescribing it in states where medical use is permitted. Instead, they can only recommend it to patients who can then buy it through a government-approved dispensary in most states.

Parents of children with epilepsy have petitioned lawmakers in several states to grant access to a strain of medical marijuana known as "Charlotte's Web," which contains low amounts of the drug's active ingredient, THC. Available in liquid form in Colorado, the strain is believed to be effective in controlling seizures in children, though the Institute of Medicine and the American Medical Association have said more research needs to be done

 

[Jupiter551]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Marijuana Medicine's Near-Miraculous Healing Powers Require the Whole Plant—Not Just One Oil Extract
AlterNet / By Martin A. Lee
March 23, 2014

CBD-only laws are a pretext to extend marijuana prohibition under the guise of 'protecting the children.'


Photo Credit: Yarygin / Shutterstock.com

A version of this article was originally published on the Pediatric Cannabis Therapy website.
Ever since marijuana was banned by the federal government in the 1930s, proponents of prohibition have insisted that cannabis must remain illegal to protect America’s children. “Protecting the children” continues to be the calculated cornerstone of anti-marijuana propaganda, the cynical centerpiece of the war on drugs.

How ironic, then, that today thousands of families in the United States are desperately seeking cannabis remedies to protect their children from deadly diseases. The erstwhile “Assassin of Youth” has become the savior for kids with catastrophic seizure disorders and other life-threatening conditions.

Drawn by the near-miraculous healing power of oil extracted from the marijuana plant, families have been flocking to Colorado and other cannabis-friendly states, where they hope to find a remedy that helps their children, some of whom suffer a hundred seizures a day.

Parents are reporting a dramatic reduction in seizures — often 50 to 90 percent — when their children are given oral extracts rich in cannabidiol (CBD), a nonpsychoactive cannabis component; these extracts are low in THC, the compound that causes the high marijuana is famous for.

For every family that has uprooted and moved to Colorado, many more have chosen to stay home and lobby local officials in an effort to change state law so they might access an essential medicine. Their poignant pleas are having an impact. Politicians from both parties have been rushing to approve bills that would legalize marijuana for therapeutic purposes in such unlikely places as Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, Nebraska, South Carolina, Oklahoma, and Utah.

However, there’s a catch: The bills under consideration will only allow the use of CBD-rich oil extracts with hardly any THC. Apparently marijuana is still the evil weed to many lawmakers, but somehow certain parts of the plant are good — and now they’re claiming the good parts aren’t actually marijuana!

According to this political pretzel logic, marijuana gets you high, but CBD-rich marijuana doesn’t get you high; therefore, CBD-rich marijuana is not marijuana.

“This is not medical marijuana. It’s just an oil derived from that plant,” according to Wisconsin GOP state representative John Spiros, a former police officer who voted to approve CBD-only legislation. Gage Froerer, a Utah state legislator, weighed in with similar rhetorical gimmickry about CBD: “It’s not a drug. It’s not medical marijuana.”

Last week, Alabama became the first state to approve a CBD-only legislation.

During the notorious vote that outlawed cannabis in America in 1937, a befuddled U.S. Congressman asked House Majority Leader Sam Rayburn from Texas, “What is this bill about?” Rayburn replied, “It has something to do with a thing called marijuana. I think it is a narcotic of some kind.” Still clueless more than seven decades later, influential state lawmakers are claiming that the CBD-only legislation they favor has something to do with a thing called “not marijuana.”

Promoted by impassioned parents, do-gooders, and entrepreneurs with a financial interest in seeing such laws pass, CBD-only legislation has triggered a serious controversy within the medical marijuana community. Some see it as a key first step, a viable tactic for cracking open the prohibitionist door in states governed by retro pols and religious zealots.

Others are less sanguine about the prospect of CBD-only laws. “CBD-only legalization is like being half pregnant. It doesn’t make sense,” says Garyn Angel, founder of Magical Butter, a homemaker’s device for extracting cannabis oil. Angel, who is not enamored of efforts to legalize only low THC concentrates, has provided financial assistance to poor families so they could join the CBD children’s crusade to Colorado.

“We need many kinds of cannabis, not just the CBD-dominant strains,” says Arizona Dr. Suzanne Sisley, who recently testified before state lawmakers in Kentucky and Minnesota about medical marijuana’s potential for helping veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Nearly four years earlier, Sisley had gotten FDA approval to investigate whether medical marijuana, including a CBD-rich strain, could be an effective treatment for PTSD. But her research was blocked by the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA), which would not allow access to cannabis for therapeutic studies. Last week, NIDA finally relentedand approved Sisley’s PTSD study, but approval from the DEA is still required.

Apparently no physicians in Minnesota or Kentucky were willing to speak on the record in favor of medicinal cannabis, so Dr. Sisley flew in from Arizona at the behest of the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which has lobbied for legalizing medical marijuana in several states.

Two competing bills are being considered by Minnesota lawmakers — a broader, more inclusive initiative supported by the MPP and a CBD-only measure that would restrict patient access to non-smokable cannabis oil extracts with negligible amounts of THC. Both bills made it past the first House committee, but no less than nine other committees have to sign off on medical marijuana legislation before it reaches the Minnesota House floor for a full vote.

Polls show huge support for medical marijuana in Minnesota (where selling cannabis to a teenager was once punishable by up to 40 years in prison). Many Minnesota residents are using marijuana, albeit illegally, to assuage chronic pain, stimulate appetite, quell seizures, and offset the awful side effects of chemotherapy. But elected officials in the North Star state seem more attuned to law enforcement opinion, which opposes medical marijuana in its natural, leafy form, than public opinion, which is overwhelmingly pro-choice with respect to cannabis therapeutics.

Sisley could tell which way the wind was blowing as hitherto anti-marijuana politicians lined up to jump on board the CBD-only bandwagon.

“I’m running into this blockade everywhere I go,” said Sisley. “CBD-oil bills are popping up in nearly every state that is examining medical marijuana legislation. And it’s making it much more difficult to pass comprehensive legislation that can address a wide range of conditions. I tried to explain to the legislators that a CBD-only law would benefit a narrow segment of the patient population. The vast majority of patients need access to a broader spectrum of whole plant marijuana remedies. Even pediatric patients need more options.”

The case of Jayden David, a child stricken with Dravet’s Syndrome, is instructive. In 2011, five-year-old Jayden, who had been on 22 pills per day, was given a CBD-infused tincture, which his father obtained from the Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland. The CBD remedy worked wonders. For the next several months the boy with intractable epilepsy was largely seizure-free. Featured on national television, the story of Jayden’s transformation was the first broadcast that drew attention to the remarkable medicinal properties of cannabidiol.

But the story doesn’t end there. In due course, it became evident to Jason David, Jayden’s devoted father, that sometimes his son responded better when more THC was added to the cannabis solution. If Jayden lived in a state with a CBD-only law rather than cutting edge California, he’d be out of luck, unable to legally access the medicine that keeps him alive. Many pediatric epilepsy patients would not be well served by CBD-only legislation. Nor would cancer patients, chronic pain suffers, and people with Alzheimer’s and autoimmune disorders.

Scientific research has established that CBD and THC interact synergistically and potentiate each other’s therapeutic effects. And marijuana contains several hundred other compounds, including flavonoids, terpenes, and dozens of minor cannabinoids in addition to CBD and THC. Each of these compounds has particular healing attributes, but when combined they create what scientists refer to as an “entourage effect,” so that the therapeutic impact of the whole plant exceeds the sum of its parts. Therein lies the basic fallacy of the CBD-only position.

When we launched Project CBD four years ago, I thought the serendipitous rediscovery of CBD-rich cannabis would be the nail in the coffin of marijuana prohibition. I didn’t anticipate that CBD-only laws would serve as a pretext to extend marijuana prohibition — under the guise, once again, of protecting the children.
Ref:Marijuana Medicine's Near-Miraculous Healing Powers Require the Whole Plant
Welcome to Pediatric Cannabis Therapy
Nov 25 2013 12:03 PM | MamaHen

Hello and welcome to Pediatric Cannabis Therapy! My name is Rebecca Brown and I am the founder of Pediatric Cannabis Therapy. My journey began almost two years ago when I started treating my then 14 year old son who has Dravet syndrome with a high CBD low THC ratio medical cannabis. I reached out to other parents in the Dravet community who were also treating their children with cannabis and the Pediatric Cannabis Therapy facebook group was born. We started with 6 parents but have grown to a staggering 3300 members and are growing daily. The need for the website became very clear as more and more people were looking for information regarding the therapeutic application of cannabis in the pediatric community.

The goal of this website is to provide an informational hub for caregivers, the medical community and the public regarding the therapeutic use of medical cannabis in the treatment of childhood illnesses. We will provide updates and articles on the latest research and news that is happening around the medical cannabis community, as well as share testimonials from parents and caregivers who have already started this journey. We will continue to work hard to build partnerships with other cannabis conscious groups as we strive to increase awareness about the many benefits of cannabis treatment. We plan to continue our outreach efforts hoping to build a community that brings both education and support to the Pediatric Cannabis Therapy Community.

Here is my story printed in the Detroit News May 2012 by Paul Egan.

Ref: Welcome to Pediatric Cannabis Therapy - Welcome to Pediatric Cannabis Therapy - Articles - Articles - Pediatric Cannabis Therapy

 

[PunkInDrublic]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Weed holiday yo, I think its like Easter or something too.

 

[MayaEden]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

I love this forum, finally people more educated than me on this subject! You have nooo idea how ignorant people are about this where I live.
Thanks Jupiter for all that information and links. I read some of it but I'm saving this thread to read more later!

Violet October mentioned strains and the different effects. Where I live, most of the time I have no idea which strain I just got so it's always a shot in the dark haha. I shit you not one day I found a small baggie of brown weed (didnt even know it was possible) in my balcony. It was funny because I had just ran out, it was like weed literally fell from the sky xD.

 

[Brad]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Weed holiday yo, I think its like Easter or something too.

Some of us celebrate Passover so pass some over so I can celebrate.
:-D

 

[PunkInDrublic]

Re: The 4/20 Thread: Weed, Counterculture, Politics and Ethi

Pax stopped working earlier and needed to use something else and figured it was a good time to get all the paraphernalia into one room instead of having it all over the house and this was just from one room in the basement.
lmao kinda embarrassing but I did find some neat stuff, ain't burned some Nag Champa in forever. Bout to vape, roll some blunts of barely vaped herb and watch some wrasslin. Might even take a hit or two out of that gross looking bong.