Cannabis Hemp News

Marijuana is not what it used to be. The Woodstock-era weed smoked by legions of baby boomers has morphed in recent years into a drug whose potency has more than tripled. And that has ignited a debate about whether America's most commonly used illict drug, a substance tried by an increasingly younger audience, has grown more dangerous. Public safety and health experts worry that many of the Bay Staters who voted two weeks ago in a nonbinding referendum to decriminalize pot were unaware of the drug's dramatic change and its potential to harm unsuspecting new users, particularly teens. ``I am sure voters are reaching back to the 1970s and saying, `Weed, it wasn't tha…

An estimated nine million Americans a year drive while under the influence of illegal drugs, but efforts to identify, arrest and treat them have been hampered by the weakness of state laws and, until recently, a lack of quick and reliable drug tests, a new report says. The report, issued yesterday by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, calls on states to adopt criminal laws setting strict standards on the presence of drugs in a driver's body, just as they use blood alcohol content to determine that a driver is intoxicated. At present, eight states have laws, almost all passed in the last few years, that make it i…

It might be a bit tacky to suggest that Steven Epstein, Esq., of Georgetown, was riding "high" after last Tuesday's vote in more than a dozen area communities in favor of decriminalizing marijuana. Let's just say he was pleased. Very pleased. Not that he, or anybody else, will be allowed to go one toke over, or even under, the line on Main Street after the first of the year. The vote was only advisory. And even if that advice became state law, you still couldn't smoke a joint with the same freedom you can drink a beer. Pot would remain illegal. You just wouldn't get hauled off to jail for using it. Still, a 2-1 vote in favor of making the use and possession of smal…

Source: Guardian Unlimited It's been coming. The news that cannabis is more dangerous than tobacco, reported by the British Lung Foundation yesterday, should not really have come as a surprise to anyone. That it has shocked quite a lot of people is just another example of how the drug policy in this country doesn't add up. According to the research, smoking three "reefers" a day does as much damage to the lungs as a whole fat pack of 20 cigarettes. This is because, on average, joint smokers mix tobacco with weed, smoke it without a filter, and inhale more deeply and for longer than cigarette smokers. Next thing you know they will be telling us that smoking drugs w…

Last week, voters in San Francisco passed an initiative prompting city officials to study the logistics of growing and dispensing medical marijuana to qualifying patients. Such a measure, approved in the birthplace of the Grateful Dead, psychedelic culture and the Summer of Love, probably isn't so surprising. In reality, though, the concept of letting certain patients obtain medical marijuana has support in all corners of the country -- including Louisiana. As we reported in last week's cover story -- "The Best Medicine?" -- six state legislatures and three Louisiana governors approved medical-marijuana laws between the years 1978 and 1991 in our state Capitol -- whi…

Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal The man who tried to make Nevada the first state with legal marijuana said there was one overriding reason that Nevada voters rejected Question 9. Her name was Sandy Thompson. Billy Rogers, leader of Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement, said his organization could not explain away the tragic Aug. 9 death of Las Vegas Sun columnist and executive Sandy Thompson. She was killed when a car driven by 21-year-old John Simbrat slammed into her vehicle, which was stopped at a Las Vegas stoplight. Simbrat had been smoking marijuana and has pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of a controlled substance. He will be sentenced in…

Source: Austin Chronicle In a 36-page opinion delivered Oct. 29, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a permanent injunction preventing the U.S. government from threatening doctors with a loss of prescription-writing privileges if they discuss the use of medical marijuana with their patients. The feds' appeal had sought to remove a 1997 injunction prohibiting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration from investigating or revoking doctor licenses based solely on a doctor's discussion or recommendation of marijuana use. But, a three-member panel of the 9th Circuit ruled the DEA policy was unconstitutional and left the ban in place. "The government's policy…

Source: Tahlequah Daily Press The hopes of activists trying to soften anti-marijuana laws across the country went up in smoke Tuesday night, as drug reform measures were turned down in Nevada, Arizona and Ohio. Wealthy backers who had succeeded in easing access to marijuana for medical uses sought to go a step further and lessen the penalties for its use in general. Many voters apparently drew a distinction between the two ideas. Early polls had made advocates optimistic. The measures were heavily financed by three billionaire philanthropists - George Soros, John Sperling and Peter Lewis - as part of a broader effort to roll back the federal war on drugs. Durin…

US Mulls Pot Law Ballot Posted by CN Staff on November 04, 2002 at 16:01:41 PT By Marc Lavine in Los Angeles Source: Australian More than three decades after the start of the pot-powered hippie revolution, voters in six US states will vote Tuesday on the still-smouldering issue of whether to ease laws on marijuana use. Years after European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Portugal decriminalised the drug, many Americans are fuming over fresh local proposals to legalise marijuana sales of under certain circumstances. "The United States looks increasingly isolated on the issue of marijuana," said Peter Reuter, a professor of law and crimino…

Source: Register-Guard Drug enforcement officers raided the home and garden of a medical marijuana grower this week and seized two guns and 20 pounds of harvested marijuana, a police spokeswoman said Thursday. The grower, Sharon Place, wasn't home at the time of the raid and has not been charged with any crime. The Oregon Medical Marijuana Act allows a medical marijuana cardholder to grow three mature, or budding plants, and four immature plants at a time. Three ounces of dried marijuana is the legal limit. Place grows medical marijuana for herself, her two teen-age sons and another cardholder. The Interagency Narcotics Enforcement Team searched Place's McKenzie…

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n1932/a10.html Newshawk: M & M Family Pubdate: Sun, 13 Oct 2002 Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand) Copyright: 2002 New Zealand Herald Contact: letters@herald.co.nz Website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300 Author: Jan Corbett GETTING SOFT ON DOPE, OR JUST TAKING THE SOFT OPTION? Talking to Tom Claunch on the telephone makes you think immediately of Bill Clinton. First there is the seductive southern drawl. Then the rapturous descriptions of Queenstown, where he is holidaying. And lastly the topic: cannabis - although we're not here to find out if he has in fact inhaled. Yet i…

Court rules the sweet smell of dope smoke isn't probable cause for arrest in Texas........ An friend emailed this media story..... Oct. 24, 2002, 12:19PM Judges throw out odor-based drug bust... By JANET ELLIOTT Copyright 2002 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau AUSTIN -- Where there's smoke, there may not be fire, the Court of Criminal Appeals concluded Wednesday in ruling that the odor of marijuana didn't give Abilene police officers probable cause to enter a home. "The odor of marijuana, standing alone, does not authorize a warrantless search and seizure in a home," wrote Judge Charles Holcomb in a 6-3 opinion. "This case is about the right of citizens to b…