Brash

Drugmaker to test fat-fighting marijuana drug link to original article GW Pharmaceuticals says it has a cannabis-derived treatment to suppress hunger; company plans to start human trials. January 30 2007: 1:41 PM EST LONDON (Reuters) -- Britain's GW Pharmaceuticals Plc said Tuesday it plans to start human trials of an experimental treatment for obesity derived from cannabis. Cannabis is commonly associated with stimulating hunger. Several other companies, including Sanofi-Aventis with Acomplia, are working on new drugs that try to switch off the brain circuits that make people hungry when they smoke it. GW Pharma, however, says it has derived a treatment from cannabis itself that could help suppress hunger. Big Pharma's drug wish list for 2007 "The cannabis plant has 70 different cannabinoids in it, and each has a different effect on the body," GW Managing Director Justin Gover told Reuters. "Some can stimulate your appetite, and some in the same plant can suppress your appetite. It is amazing both scientifically and commercially," he said in a telephone interview. GW said it plans to start clinical trials of the new drug in the second half of this year. Medicines have to pass three stages of tests in humans before being assessed by regulators in a process that takes many years. Sanofi-Aventis' (Charts) Acomplia, which it believes can achieve $3 billion in annual sales, is already on sale in Europe and it is waiting for a U.S. regulatory decision in April. Several other big drug companies also have similar products to Acomplia already in clinical trials. GW is best known for developing Sativex, a treatment derived from cannabis that fights spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients. Sativex, an under-the-tongue spray, has been approved in Canada, but has hit delays with regulators in Britain. GW, which competes with rivals such as AstraZeneca (Charts), submitted Sativex for assessment by several European regulators in September, and hopes to secure approval for the UK, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands in the second half of this year at the earliest, the company said Tuesday. GW said revenue for the year ended Sept. 30 was slightly ahead of expectations at £1.98 million, £1.35 million of which came from Sativex. The firm posted a pre-tax loss of £13.9 million, in line with forecasts. According to a poll of analysts by Reuters Estimates, the loss in 2007 will be £13.5 million. GW's marijuana plants are grown indoors in a secret location in Southern England. "With a U.S. partnering deal and a European approval both expected this year, we remain very comfortable with our Buy recommendation," Investec analyst Ibraheem Mahmood said. GW shares were up almost 5.5 percent, valuing the company at £92.5 million. ------- this is clearly the way to make money from pot Brash

The Hemp Party (Help End Marijuana Prohibition) out of Nimbin. Also my understanding is the Greens are still anti-the-drug-war, not necessary pro-pot but anti-banning it.

Three walk free in cannabis chocolate case Published: 26 January 2007 link to original article Three people who supplied thousands of chocolate bars laced with cannabis to multiple sclerosis sufferers walked free from court today. Mark Gibson, 42, his wife Lezley, 42, who has multiple sclerosis (MS), and Marcus Davies, 36, were each given a nine-month jail term, suspended for two years. All three defendants argued that the drug eased the symptoms of MS and believed they had a defence of medical necessity but this was rejected by a jury last month. Sentencing today at Carlisle Crown Court, Judge John Phillips said he accepted their motives were "altruistic", that they had a genuine desire to help people who were suffering and that no profit was made from the operation. The judge said that current sentencing guidelines substantiated a significant custodial sentence but he accepted there were exceptional circumstances in this case, although he disagreed that a conditional discharge was appropriate. He said: "The conspiracy to supply drugs took place over a number of years in what was a sophisticated operation in which several kilograms of cannabis were distributed." All three were convicted of two counts each of conspiring to supply cannabis throughout 2004 and until February 2005. The "cottage industry" made and supplied 20,000 of the Canna-Biz bars, each containing around 2g (0.07oz) of the drug. The customers made a donation to cover costs and had to provide a medical note confirming their condition. The Gibsons, of Alston, Cumbria, insisted it was a free service and they made no secret of their activity, with advertisements in both the regional and national media. Cumbria Police were also said to have been aware of their operation. Cash receipts totalling £30,000 were seized but Mrs Gibson told officers the money had been ploughed back into production of the bars. Davies, of St Ives, Cambridgeshire, admitted running a website and post office box for the not-for-profit organisation Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis, thc4ms.org, but had denied any involvement in making or posting the chocolates. Before sentence was passed, Andrew Ford, representing Mrs Gibson, said the protracted legal proceedings had taken its toll on his client. He said: "She does not agree with drug use but feels this particular drug was the only medicine that helped her. "This condition will be with her forever. She is in pain every day. "As a result of this case she has unfortunately started a course of anti-depressants." Outside court, Mrs Gibson said she was "very disappointed" at the judge's ruling. She said: "I was devastated when we were found guilty and this decision has broken me again. "I still don't think I've done anything wrong. How can it be wrong to try and help ill people? What kind of Government lets people suffer in this way? "The people that used to use our service are now forced to go to the street dealers and buy contaminated cannabis." The Gibsons added that they were planning to launch an appeal against their conviction.

Gotta love the young Aussie passion for narco-tourism

I found this story on hempseed milk, a Canadian product similar to soy milk over at Slashfood dot com Hemp milk to debut in Canada On a side note the following link takes you to their green eggs & ham Green Eggs & Ham

I emailed the Embassy at Nimbin and they will mention it to him when hes next

I was at Cannabis Culture Forums (Canada) and noted that His Serene Highness, the Prince of Pot, Mark Emery, is trying to find a photo of Mr Till (presumably for some sort of story - in Cannabis Culture Magazine?), can anyone help?

Just heard an ad on the ABC about a show coming up on our favourite topic: Summer Science RADIO NATIONAL ABCRadio National: Highlights for the week ahead. Sunday 14 January, 5pm (Repeated Tuesday 16 January, 1pm) Marijuana – the myths and misconceptions Just how much harm does cannabis do to the brain, can it cause schizophrenia, how addictive is it, is it more or less harmful than alcohol and can it be an effective painkiller? On our panel to discuss these questions are psychiatrist David Castle, pharmacologist Iain McGregor and science writer Elizabeth Finkel, and the forum is hosted by Wilson Da Silva

further to this story, as reported on ITV, a bit of a case of 'I am Sparticus ... no, I AM SPARTICUS' Cannabis couple were not alone in conspiracy 08 January 2007, 11:22 Mark and Lezley Gibbon from Alston weren't alone in their conspiracy to supply cannabis laced chocolate. That's according to the Legalise Alliance. They say 60 people have written statements to the Chief Crown Prosecutor saying they conspired with the Therapeutic Help from Cannabis for Multiple Sclerosis group. The couple are due for sentencing later this month.

OK here is the Brash recommendation: This is my 'Old Faithful' - my favourite pipe, now nearly 10 years old. A standard little brass dry pipe that cost only a couple of dollars. The hole at the bottom of the bowl is slowly getting larger - often when I clean it out small amounts of brass get ground away. To counter this I put a small pebble in the the base - preventing ash from slipping through. I used to swear by bongs, but due to my immune system I was getting repeated cases of bronchitis (or bong-chitis as my wag of a doctor called it). A lung specialist who I was sent to said if I "wasn't going to give up pot , at least give up the bong." I took his advice and from an average of 6 cases of bronchitis a year(requiring anti-biotic intervention), to last year I only needed intervention once - a huge improvement. The doc gave the reasons as thus: • Bongs encourage over-inflation of the lungs - a major cause of emphysema • Pneumo-irritants in smoke from bongs goes right down to the base of the lungs - a potential cause of pneumonia • As for the 'filtering' in waterpipes in general - he claimed that as the smoke comes through in large bubbles, much of it is completely unfiltered. His recommendation was shallow inhalation of reefer or dry pipe with definitely NO TOBACCO. He also said it was very important to clean the pipe regularly (every two or three smokes) keeping tar to a minimum. He thought it sensible for all people (not just the immuno-comprimised) to give up the bong. I don't mean to preach but his advice worked for me and didn't reduce the pleasure I get from my favourite medicine.

Last year the USA's Federal courts overruled the States rights to allow medical cannabis - they basically said Cannabis has no medical properties. BUT for many years the federal government has been growing and suppling a handfull of patients with tins of up to 300 pre-rolled reefers. youTUBE: Interview with George McMahon - federal pot patient

Found this opinion piece that relates to the original story: The Stupidest Drug Stories of the Week International reefer madness!!!! By Jack Shafer (Slate - www.slate.com) Posted Thursday, Jan. 4, 2007, at 5:17 PM ET article link If a financial reporter botches a story about municipal bonds, Wall Street traders will lynch him. If a sportswriter misstates the infield fly rule, the bleacher bums will visit his office and puke on him. But because no organized constituency monitors drug journalism, journalists who file thoroughly uninformed articles on the topic get away with it again and again. The latest examples of rotten drug journalism to be reviewed in this column come from the Associated Press(AP) and Reuters. On Dec. 19, AP moved a 720-word story titled "Mexican Soldiers Swarm Drug Plantations, Find Hybrid Marijuana Plant." Detailing efforts to eradicate a "new high-yield hybrid marijuana" in the tropical mountains of Michoacan, AP makes the herb sound like the Dracula of the plant world. It can't be killed with pesticides and if cut down grows back unless you uproot it. Known as "Colombians" and first seen "about two years ago," the plants mature in just two months and can be cultivated 12 months a year. (The International Herald Tribune's Web site ran the longest version of the AP story.) The only named source about the Michoacan supergrass is Mexican Army Gen. Manuel Garcia, who spoke to a "handful of media outlets allowed to accompany soldiers on a daylong raid of some 70 marijuana fields," AP reports. The general goes on to claim that "These plants have been genetically improved." Now, it could be that somewhere in Transylvania—or even Medellín—a depraved count has labored in his laboratory to perfect Dracuweed and seeded the tropics with it. But I can't locate anybody in the scientific community who has heard of this exotic cannabis. If the "Colombians" hybrid marijuana (doesn't AP mean "Colombian"?) has been around for two years, you would expect that another news organization might have written about it. Yet my Nexis, Factiva, and Google searches come up empty. Could it be that there is nothing extraordinary about this variety of pot? A "new high-yield hybrid" that is "genetically improved" sounds scientific, even coming out of the mouth of a Mexican general. But what does it really mean? Hybrids are created whenever planters crossbreed varieties of a plant or between species, and by definition the successful ones are "genetically improved." The corn you eat is probably hybrid, as are your soybeans and tomatoes. And there's nothing "new" about hybrid marijuana. For a half century or longer, marijuana cultivators around the world have aggressively crossbred plants to improve yield (tons per acre) and potency (more THC per ounce). Should we be impressed with the supergrass's high yield? AP reports that "traffickers can now produce as much marijuana on a plot the size of a football field as they used to harvest from four or five hectares (10 to 12 acres)." Oddly, the article doesn't say how many pounds that one acre produces, making the high-yieldness of variety impossible to verify. A football field—exclusive of its two end zones—covers a little over an acre. If AP is saying that growers now produce as much pot planting the hybrid on one acre as they once did planting conventional marijuana (whatever that is) on 10 acres, I say, so what? Why attribute the higher yield to the hybrid alone? Smaller plots of most crops outyield larger plots because planters tend to extend more TLC to each plant under cultivation, whether the plant is marijuana or tomatoes. One clue that TLC—and not an exotic hybrid—should deserve credit for higher yields in the Mexican plantation can be found in the long version of the AP article. Not every newspaper carried AP's paragraph about some of the raided plots having "sophisticated irrigation systems with sprinklers, pumps and thousands of yards (meters) of tubing." Irrigated plots tend to produce greater yields than nonirrigated plots, a fact mankind has appreciated for 4,000 years. If the Michoacan pot farmers are irrigating their small plots, surely they're pruning the plants more aggressively than they did the plants on their larger plantations in order to produce more THC-drenched flowers. Finally, Gen. Garcia alleges that the Dracuweed is resistant to herbicide, although he doesn't say which herbicide. As every farmer and cultivator of weed-free lawns knows, plants develop resistance to herbicides via natural selection, without any guidance from breeders. If growers have deliberately bred a herbicide-resistant plant or exploited one that they discovered, I'd love AP to get a botanist—as opposed to a Mexican general—to confirm it. Likewise, if these plants reach maturation more quickly than other varieties, I'd like a scientist to say so. I await the AP follow-up. Proof that AP has no monopoly on stupid pot stories came in October, when Reuters ran its piece about marijuana in Afghanistan. Datelined Ottawa, the story reports that Canadian troops battling Taliban forces "have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy—almost impenetrable patches of 10-foot-tall marijuana plants." Gen. Rick Hillier claims the Taliban fighters use the plants as cover, and that efforts to burn the crops with white phosphorous and diesel have failed. Well, knock me over with a dirty bong! To begin with, finding 10-foot-tall marijuana plants in a country like Afghanistan isn't any more shocking than stumbling upon 10-foot-tall corn plants in Nebraska. As for impenetrability, I suspect the average Nebraska corn field is as impassable to troops as the average marijuana farm in Afghanistan. But what of the failure of white phosphorous and diesel to make ash of the Afghan marijuana forest? You couldn't incinerate a green corn field with those fuels, so why expect to take out a green marijuana field with them? If the Canadians really wanted to show the Taliban they're serious about marijuana eradication, they should have called in a napalm strike. ****** Thanks to reader John McCloskey, who forwarded the Mexican pot story to me, and to associate professor George Weiblen of the University of Minnesota's Department of Plant Biology for his expertise. Send stupid drug stories of this or any week to slate.pressbox@gmail.com. (E-mail may be quoted by name unless the writer stipulates otherwise. Permanent disclosure: Slate is owned by the Washington Post Co.)

Hi Alison, Thanks for the insight into the struggle in Canada. I often look to you Canadians as inspiration. The picture painted in our newspapers differs from the reality of Medi-Pot patients you tell us about in your blog. While Canada is much more advanced on the law reform road than Australia, it disturbs me that legitimate patients are still being arrested. Looking forward to reading more posts from you in the future. Cheers

My father was a VERY conservative bloke, a pillar of society, but even he used to say "Once a copper - always a copper"

For those with a broadband conection Link to video interview with aforementioned copper My favoutite quote: 'the first recorded case of prohibition was in the Garden of Eden and that didn't work, Adam and Eve ate the fruit.'