Cannabis Hemp News

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…

Source: Kenai Peninsula Online Juneau -- Lt. Gov. Loren Leman stopped an initiative drive seeking to decriminalize marijuana, ruling Tuesday that hundreds of signatures collected were not valid. Leman, a former state senator who sponsored a bill in 1999 to turn back the state's medical marijuana laws, said in a statement that the pro-marijuana group will have to begin from scratch to get its measure before voters in 2004. The proposed initiative would have asked voters in the August 2004 primary ballot to decriminalize and regulate marijuana. Backers submitted 484 booklets containing signatures of Alaskans who supported putting the measure on the ballot. But of…

Source: Canadian Press The chief of Ottawa's medical marijuana program has been putting the brakes on a Health Canada proposal that would give needy patients direct access to government dope. A newly released document shows that Cindy Cripps-Prawak has been fighting a proposed policy shift that would deliver government-certified marijuana to chronically ill Canadians. Currently, Health Canada will provide its standardized marijuana only to accredited researchers, who would then dispense it to select patients in clinical trials. Patients not enrolled in such trials can seek federal authorization to possess marijuana to alleviate symptoms - but they have to get the…

International policies on the use and possession of marijuana underwent some major reforms in 2002. Canada and England are leading the way to decriminalization while the United States remains reluctant to accept medicinal uses of the currently illegal drug. Although the issue remains hotly contested, pro-marijuana organizations say they are steadily making ground. Decriminalization, eh? On Dec 9, Justice Minister Martin Cauchon announced Canada could do away with criminal penalties for the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use as early as this spring. This statement came days before the release of a special House of Commons report recommending P…

Source: Stockton Record In California, Prop. 215 was passed in 1996, making it legal for people suffering from AIDS, cancer and other serious diseases to use marijuana if they have a doctor's prescription. But since 9/11, the war on drugs has been subsumed by the war on terrorism. In the last year, with the rationale that the drug trade may fund terrorism, the federal Drug Enforcement Agency has taken action against more than 35 medicinal marijuana patients, cooperatives and providers in California. The most recent incident in September pitted Santa Cruz pot growers Michael and Valerie Corral, who run the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana, against federal ag…

If most parents knew there was a federally funded organization lying to their children about the effects of drug use, they would likely be appalled and seek to have the organization's funding removed. Yet the frightening truth is that such a group exists, operating under the family-friendly monicker, Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA). In its newest line of Public Service Announcements (PSAs), the group equates marijuana use with wrongful death, rape and even murder...crimes that sensible people realize marijuana usage alone would never lead to. Last year, the American public was misled into thinking that every joint they smoked contributed to international ter…

Portland, Ore. -- A quadriplegic Vietnam War veteran sued the U.S. government on Monday, saying the Drug Enforcement Administration illegally seized medical use marijuana he grew under a license from the state of Oregon. The suit filed in federal court on behalf of Leroy Stubblefield, 55, and two of his caregivers, who are also licensed to grow marijuana, is the latest challenge by liberal Oregonians to what they see as a heavy-handed federal government pushing a conservative agenda. "The federal government doesn't tell the state of Oregon what to do and the state doesn't tell the federal government what to do," Stubblefield's attorney Anne Witte said at a press conf…

http://www.green-aid.com/news.htm No Talk of "Medical" to be Allowed in Federal Medical Marijuana Trial of Ed Rosenthal Judge Grants Prosecution Motion to Exclude State Law, City Programs, Federal Immunity Statute Monday, January 13, 2003 - Despite passionate pleas from defense attorney Robert Eye for consideration of the context of marijuana activist and author Ed Rosenthal’s involvement in carrying out the City of Oakland’s program for supplying medicinal marijuana, Federal Judge Charles Breyer ruled in favor of the prosecution’s motion to exclude all discussion of medical issues, the City of Oakland’s marijuana ordinance, California’s Compassionate Use Act legalizi…

Ottawa - Marijuana advocates don't expect the drug to be decriminalized any time soon, despite promises from Justice Minister Martin Cauchon. Skeptics predict Cauchon's promised legislation will die on the order paper, and suggest it is being introduced as a time-buying sop without backing from the prime minister. "There won't be enough time to pass it," said Alan Young, a professor at Osgoode Hall law school, in an interview Monday. "He (Cauchon) knows it's going to die on the order paper." Last month a Commons committee recommended that people be allowed to possess up to 30 grams of marijuana without risking criminal penalties. Cauchon welcomed the recommendation…

Mother caught drug running By BOB WATT Court Reporter January 14, 2003 A mother-of-five found guilty of taking part in an attempt to smuggle nearly 300g of cannabis was sentenced yesterday to four months' jail. Darwin Magistrates Court heard Maurisa Luanna Henwood tried to remove a backpack containing the cannabis when her luggage was about to be searched at a Territory airport. Police found the ``football-sized pack of cannabis'' in the backpack, which Henwood tried to put into a motor vehicle. Magistrate Anthony Gillies, after a hearing in December, found Henwood, 26, of Gray, guilty of possessing a traffickable quantity of cannabis (291.9g) on February 6 las…

About.com The Office of National Drug Control Policy has teamed up with the National District Attorneys Association (NDAA) as part of its escalating war on marijuana. In recent letters sent to every prosecutor in the United States, NDAA president Dan Alsobrooks and the drug czar's Deputy Director for State and Local Affairs, Scott Burns, hoisted the battle flag against pot, signaling prosecutors that they should make the prosecution of marijuana crimes a high priority and urging them to fight efforts to reform the drug laws. While Alsobrooks portrayed the latest push as a matter of public safety, he also made it clear that the effort was inspired by attempts to refo…

Time Magazine The crowd is young, hip and thirsty. But there is plenty of cold beer around and the spirits are, um, high, especially when the word gets out that the brew is made with hemp — marijuana's non- psychoactive cousin. Despite the rowdy comments about getting stoned, this is not a seedy bar in a back alley, but the respected Salon of Taste in Turin, a gourmet fest organized last October by Slow Food, a worldwide organization promoting healthy eating. Here the message in the bottle is that since hemp is rich in nutrients and essential fatty acids, beer containing this fibrous plant is good for what ales you. It is also controversial. The hemp used in the bee…

SierraTimes.com With the onslaught of television commercials now running on the airwaves staring "Nick and Norm" at the dinner table, I wonder why no one has really challenged the notion that the "war on drugs" causes terrorism. Yet it continues unchallenged. A script written to counter it might sound something like this: Two men are sitting at a table in a restaurant, both nicely dressed. Nick, the younger one, begins the dialog. "So, let me get this straight: The drug war supports terrorism. And I should just believe that??" Norm: "yes" "Why?" "Because it's true" "It's true??" "Yes, it's true." "Fine, let's say - hypothetically - I pay taxes" "Let…