Cannabis Hemp News

A Darwin mayoral candidate has called for drugs to be legalised to turn the city into "Australia's Amsterdam". Stuart Highway, from the controversial lobby group Network Against Prohibition, said drug tourism would attract thousands of tourists from around the world. Mr Highway is one of seven candidates vying for the top job in the Darwin City Council elections on May 29. "If elected I will use my position as lord mayor to accelerate the Network Against Prohibition campaign for the re-legalisation of all drugs," Mr Highway said. "Once this process is complete, it is hoped that Darwin will become Australia's Amsterdam. "Drug tourism will attract thousands of tou…

New South Wales Liberal leader John Brodgen says he does not understand why cannabis for use in a trial to help pain and suffering among terminally ill people would have to be imported from overseas. The Opposition leader has suggested the drug could be grown locally. Premier Bob Carr said that plans for the trial had stalled because of delays with pharmaceutical companies in the UK developing an inhaler, his preferred method of supplying the drug. He has raised the possibility of importing the drug from Canada, where it is already used for medicinal purposes, rather than growing it here. He has written to Prime Minister John Howard, seeking his support. But Mr …

The NSW government has sought federal backing to trial cannabis as a medicinal treatment for people suffering acute pain that cannot be treated with more conventional therapies. NSW Premier Bob Carr has written to Prime Minister John Howard seeking his help in setting up the trial involving HIV, cancer and multiple sclerosis patients. Mr Carr said the Government had no intention of decriminalising cannabis, and other alternatives of accessing cannabis would have to be explored. "NSW is opposed to any scheme which involves growing cannabis in backyards or requiring sick people to buy it on the black market," Mr Carr said. "That means we need to look at the alternat…

Pharmaceutical giant Bayer HealthCare has applied to market a marijuana-based drug in Canada. If approved, it would be the first cannabis-based drug legally available in this country for the relief of debilitating symptoms of multiple sclerosis and severe neuropathic pain. Bayer and GW Pharmaceuticals of Britain announced Tuesday they had filed a new drug submission to Health Canada for Sativex, an oral spray developed by GW Pharmaceuticals and licensed to Bayer. A spokesperson for Health Canada said it typical takes about 18 months for the department's therapeutic products directorate to review and rule on a submission. Bayer's vice-president for public policy a…

Experts and officials from government-sanctioned medical marijuana programmes in The Netherlands, Canada, and the United States will be visiting New Zealand 26-30 May. In recent years, governments around the world have begun re-legalising the use of marijuana (cannabis) by patients with chronic pain and other forms of suffering, such as muscle spasms due to multiple sclerosis, appetite enhancement in patients with terminal conditions, and nausea due to chemotherapy. A parliamentary health select committee recently recommended that New Zealand consider making cannabis-based medicines available to suffering patients. However, no consensus yet exists on how to proceed. …

Australian police could catch criminals by matching traces of pollen on their clothes or body with a crime scene, according to a forensic pollen expert, but only if they take the right samples. The problem was that most police didn't know about forensic applications of palynology, the study of pollen or spores, said Dr Lynne Milne from the University of Western Australia. Milne presented her research at last month's conference of the Australian and New Zealand Forensic Science Society in Wellington, New Zealand. "Pollen are single cells. They are so small people pick them up or leave them at a crime scene. We can tell from soil samples on vehicle tyres or under whe…

SRI Lanka plans to lift a ban on growing cannabis and begin government cultivation of the plant, which is a key ingredient in traditional medicine, a minister was quoted saying today. Indigenous Medicine Minister Tissa Karaliyadde said he hoped to introduce a bill in parliament to allow practitioners of herbal medicine known as ayurveda to grow at least five plants each. The state itself hopes to start cultivation and land has already been earmarked for the pilot project, The Island newspaper quoted Karaliyadde saying. Despite an official ban on cannabis in Sri Lanka, it is easily available on the clandestine market both for traditional healers and smokers. By Col…

Trials of commercial hemp production would continue in NSW despite the limited success of tests underway since 1995, State MP Steve Whan said. But, the NSW government warned anyone interested in growing the crop it contained only low levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana. Mr Whan said that since 1995 when trials were first authorised, there had been 60 separate trials delivering important data on hemp growing and the potential of manufacturing its fibre. He said the government warned that earlier trials had been difficult, producing low yields. The first planting was carried out at Armidale but was never harvested because it performed below expectation…

Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell has weighed in on the marijuana debate, and left no doubt where he stands. Speaking at a conference on legalizing pot Saturday, Campbell said he supports the plan but added it pot were available legally, he would "tax the hell out of it." Campbell said every tax dollar would go to health care, noting that without the pot industry, British Columbia would be in a recession. If pot ever is legalized, don't expect Campbell to spark up. "In fact, I've never even smoked marijuana," the mayor told the conference. "My biggest fear is that I may like it more than cabernet, and then what the hell am I going to do?" Campbell says it's time …

EDMONTON -- Usually, says Don Dickson of the Calgary Real Estate Board, only the Christmas lunch is so well-attended. But last month, 526 real estate agents showed up at one of the board's seminars. The topic? Marijuana grow-ops. "It was pretty amazing," said Mr. Dickson, president of the board. "It's obviously a topic of great concern." Real estate agents aren't the only ones alarmed by the increasing number of quiet, suburban homes being used to grow lucrative crops of high-quality marijuana. No longer solely the concern of law enforcement, the rapid spread of such grow-ops is changing the way agencies from insurers to municipalities do business. "What origin…