Cannabis Hemp News

ANNAPOLIS -- Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ® said Thursday that he would sign legislation to legalize medical marijuana, giving new hope to advocates who say the drug can help relieve nausea from chemotherapy and other debilitating conditions. At an unscheduled news conference on his first foray into the governor's State House offices, Ehrlich pointed out that he has long supported legalizing marijuana use for medicinal purposes, and said that "if the bill makes sense," he would sign it into law. With last year's chief medical marijuana advocate, Del. Donald E. Murphy ® of Catonsville, now out of the legislature, a doctor, a nurse and a cancer survivor are among the lawm…

Another Berlin Wall by Pete Brady (16 Jan, 2003) Canadian-US border problems increase I've been contacted by an increasing number of people who asked me to investigate conditions at the US- Canadian border. Many of my correspondents told me they had been turned away and/or harassed at land and air ports of entry going in either direction. These actions have ruined vacations, business trips, family reunions, weddings, and other important activities, and have cost people much money and heartache. Canadians heading south into the US, especially young women, are increasingly being detained, interrogated, strip- searched and otherwise humiliated by US officials. Vehicl…

GW Pharmaceuticals, which has a Home Office licence to produce cannabis-derived medicines, said yesterday that it was on track to launch the first of its products before the end of the year. Geoffrey Guy, executive chairman, said the company hoped to follow up UK approval with similar licences in Continental countries in the near future, but it could be several years before the product is available in the US. "The US likes to go back to first principles," he said. "They want more work and more cost." He said that GW has had discussions with the US drugs regulator, the FDA, and that he was "happy with the way discussions have gone". However, he said the company woul…

US Legislators Renew Calls for Bio-Attack on Illicit Crops (Austin and Hamburg, 17 December) – As the United States prepares to invade Iraq under the banner of destroying that country's alleged biological weapons programs, US legislators are making new threats to use biological weapons in Colombia's civil war. The weapons are pathogenic strains of fungi designed to kill drug crops. Ascendant Republicans in the US House of Representatives, supported by the US Department of State, lead the push. The Sunshine Project is alerting governments and nonprofits that a new effort is required to stop the US from waging biological warfare in Colombia. This effort should include a…

The Temptation of Dr. Weed by Jed Gottlieb The elusive Dr. Sands stands in one of MSU’s many research greenhouses. After a spate of negative publicity, Sands wants to change his image from monster to miracle worker. Through the window of his Montana State University-Bozeman lab, Dr. David Sands can barely be glimpsed. Almost totally obscured by piles of data and stacks of fungus-filled Petri dishes, patches of the 60- something scientist’s cornflower blue Oxford show through. There’s a knock at lab door and a call. “Hello? Dr. Sands?” “Yeah, I’m here,” he responds from his hiding spot, poking out his bald, bespectacled head. Even expecting invited guests, his …

17 indicted in E. Kentucky marijuana roundup By Alan Maimon amaimon@courier-journal.com The Courier-Journal LONDON, Ky. -- A major marijuana roundup in Eastern Kentucky resulted in federal indictments of 17 people accused of cultivating nearly 4,000 plants. U.S. Attorney Greg Van Tatenhove of the Eastern District of Kentucky said the joint federal, state and local investigations announced yesterday show authorities are serious about cracking down on the ''most widely used illicit drug in America.'' ''We're still in the midst of the battle,'' Van Tatenhove said at a news conference on the indictments. The two-day roundup of suspects that ended yesterday resul…

Hilo - No charges have been filed against the three medical marijuana patients arrested six months ago. Police arrested John and Rhonda Robison and their roommate, Kealoha Wells, after seizing 20 marijuana plants and 1.5 ounces of dried marijuana July 8 from their Kalaoa home. The Robisons and Wells were released the same day, pending further investigation. All three are registered with the state Public Safety office to use marijuana for medical purposes. John Robison, 36, and Wells, 31, have acute lymphocytic leukemia, and Rhonda Robison, 31, has a nerve and muscle degenerative disease called Charco Marie Tooth. Deputy Prosecutor Fred Giannini, who is assigned to …

Since the bottom line here is terrible physical pain, let's start with someone who has spent most of her life in that condition. There are millions like her. Patricia C. is 47 today and lives in California. At the age of 12 she developed scoliosis, and 16 years later, her doctors told her she had the neck and spine of an 80-year-old. A car crash in 1998 left her with additional spinal trauma and a brain injury. Her whole life revolved around pain. She had no appetite, was sunk in depression and prayed to God to release her from her torment. It's not as though medical marijuana shifted Patricia to a bed of roses. "A lot of the time," Patricia C. said recently, "I have t…

Over the past few decades, the United States' love affair with the automobile has become more and more an addiction to the pump as it is anything else. One of the main causes is the rising importance of what was once a niche vehicle: the sport-utility vehicle, or SUV. The auto industry, seizing on the "flavor-of-the-month" status that the Chevrolet Suburban enjoyed, has produced ever larger and less fuel-efficient SUVs. With more and more SUVs on the roads, the need for the pump is greater than ever, to the nation's environmental, social and political detriment. Conservative commentator Arianna Huffington has taken a stand against increasingly unnecessary SUV use, al…

Derided by the White House as "nothing more than a cheap political stunt," marijuana advocates' attempt to hold Office of National Drug Control Policy head John P. Walters' feet to the fire for his overt, taxpayer-funded political campaigning against drug-reform state ballot initiatives bore some small fruit this week. Responding to a formal complaint from backers of the Nevada marijuana legalization measure that received 39 percent of the vote in November, Nevada Secretary of State Dean Heller formally charged the nation's drug czar to issue "a written response to the complaint" by January 27th. The complaint against Walters was filed in early December by the Mariju…

Nevada's secretary of state has asked National Drug Czar John Walters to explain why he hasn't followed the state's campaign contributions and expenditures law. Secretary of State Dean Heller released a letter Wednesday that he sent to Walters, asking the federal official to explain why he has failed to submit legally required information about his efforts to defeat Question 9. Nevada voters in November rejected the ballot question, which would have allowed adults to possess as much as 3 ounces of marijuana in their homes. During the campaign, Walters made three trips to Nevada to speak out against the ballot question, and his Office of National Drug Control ran many…

Marijuana isn't a gateway drug to heroin or cocaine. But neither is it a relatively harmless recreational drug, as many Americans believe. And telling youngsters to ``just say no'' to drugs without examining the facts behind marijuana use in the United States does no one any good. These facts speak out loud and clear in a series of research reports published in the British journal Addiction. Policy makers in Washington should review them carefully before they decide where money should best be spent on the ``war on drugs.'' The ``gateway'' thesis that has long been a basic principle of drug policy in this country was disproved by a study by the private, nonprofit Rand…

Tri-Valley Herald Jury selection began Tuesday for the trial of pro-marijuana author and activist Ed Rosenthal of Oakland, who faces federal drug charges for growing marijuana under the state's medical marijuana law. But evidence of that state law and Oakland's city ordinances will be excluded from his trial under an order U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco issued Monday barring Rosenthal from mounting a defense based on medical issues. The trial begins next Tuesday and is expected to last more than a week. Defense attorneys had hoped to show jurors that California voters in 1996 passed a ballot measure permitting medical marijuana use, and that …

The first stage of a trial for an Oakland marijuana author began in a federal courtroom in San Francisco this morning with the start of jury selection. Edward Rosenthal, 58, is accused of conspiring to grow more than 1,000 marijuana plants, actually growing more than 100 plants, and maintaining premises for marijuana cultivation at a former Oakland warehouse. Rosenthal has written several books about marijuana cultivation as well as a marijuana column for an alternative newspaper. If convicted, he could face a lengthy sentence. The conspiracy charge carries a mandatory 10-year sentence upon conviction. The cultivation charge carries a mandatory five-year term and the…

HARRISONVILLE, MO -- A suspicious accident and a powerful odor coming from the car led to a major drug bust Thursday. It happened shortly after midnight on U.S. Highway 71 in Cass County after the driver of a green Ford fell asleep at the wheel and the car careened off the road. Deputies roused the sleeping driver, who they identified as Kermit Gibbs, 41, of Kentucky. Police said they found more than 100 pounds of pot stashed in his back hatch. The smell, they said, was overwhelming. The marijuana was worth about $75,000. Authorities said he may have been using some of it. They admitted that luck played into the drug bust. They said if Gibbs hadn't fallen asle…