"Pot Is an Anti-Cancer Drug The active ingredient in marijuana appears to target cancerous brain cells for destruction while leaving healthy cells alone, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Complutense University in Madrid, and published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation."
"Obama’s drug czar: Marijuana ‘has no medical benefit’ Even though Kerlikowske’s former city is famously tolerant of marijuana — which is less harmful and less addictive than America’s most popular, legal intoxicant, alcohol — that did not stop America’s new drug czar from demeaning the president’s position on medicinal use, telling a crowd in Fresno, California on Wednesday that marijuana is “dangerous” and “has no medical benefit,” according to The Fresno Bee. He has no medical training and did not qualify his statements with any opinions from medical professionals.
Related:
The Boston Globe Smokes Pot
"California finds pot is a huge cash cow" by Marcus Wohlsen and Lisa Leff, Associated Press
Gee, WTF, Massachusetts?
We are WAY OUT in FRONT when it comes to some issues with our sister state; however, we are LAGGING on THIS?
See: Time For a Smoke Break
SHAME, Massachusetts liberals, Democrats, and Globe.
SHAME!!!!!
SAN FRANCISCO — A drug deal plays out, California-style:
A conservatively dressed courier drives a company-leased Smart Car to an apartment on a weekday afternoon. Erick Alvaro hands over a white paper bag to his 58-year-old customer, who inspects the bag to ensure that everything he ordered over the phone is there.
An eighth-ounce of organic marijuana buds for treating his seasonal allergies? Check. An eighth of a different strain for insomnia? Check. THC-infused lozenges and tea bags? Check and check, with a free herb-laced cookie thrown in as a thank-you gift.
It's a $102 credit-card transaction carried out with the practiced efficiency of a home-delivered pizza — and with just about as much legal scrutiny. More and more, having premium pot delivered to your door in California is not a crime. It is a legitimate business.
Think of the TAX LOOT, you chemically-controlled subsidiaries masquerading as suits.
Since the state became the first to legalize the drug for medicinal use, the weed the federal government puts in the same category as heroin and cocaine has become a major economic force.
That's ANOTHER REASON no one trusts the feds anymore; the BRAZEN LYING (like blowing a bong hit in your face)!!!!
Based on the quantity of marijuana that authorities seized last year, the crop alone was worth an estimated $17 billion or more, dwarfing any other sector of the state's agricultural economy.
And pot also props up local economies, mints millionaires and feeds a thriving industry of startups — stores that sell high-tech marijuana-growing equipment, pot clubs that pay rent and hire workers, chains of for-profit clinics that specialize in medical-marijuana recommendations.
The plant's prominence does not come without costs, some critics say. Marijuana plantations in remote forests cause severe environmental damage. Authorities link the drug to violent crime in otherwise quiet small towns.
We are TIRED of the BULLSHIT, GOVERNMENT!!!!!!!!!!!
Can we MAKE IT (cough, cough), ANY CLEARER (exhale into government's face)!!!!!!!!!!
Still, some lawmakers are pushing for broader legalization as a way to shore up the finances of a state that has teetered on the edge of bankruptcy. The state's top tax collector estimates that taxing marijuana like liquor could bring in more than $1.3 billion annually.
Related: The California "Crisis"
On Tuesday, Oakland will consider a measure to tax the city's four marijuana dispensaries, which the city auditor projects will ring up $17.5 million in sales in 2010. The city faces an $83 million budget shortfall, and it expects the marijuana tax to raise $315,000.
Why does the agenda-pushing, anti-pot paper make it seem like it is not worth it.
Pffft!
I need to smoke a joint because I am getting really pissed off at the paper. They can't even put the ax away for the health of the people (because pot makes you peaceful and reflective?).
Think I'll go stand on the street corner and light up.
With a recent poll showing more than half of Californians supporting legalization, pot advocates believe they will prevail. And they say other states will follow....
And ONCE AGAIN the PEOPLE'S WILL will be IGNORED here by AmeriKan "democracy."
The economic impact is difficult to gauge. Authorities say the largest grows are run by Mexican drug cartels that simply funnel money from forest-raised crops into their bank accounts.
Pfft! The MSM in this country, they are fucking incredible!
Related: Drug Money Saving Banks
Einstein, insanity and the war on drugs
Still, marijuana money from outdoor and indoor plots inevitably flows into local coffers....
Still. Could be, if, may be, yet, however, but....
So fucking sick of seeing THOSE WORDS in a REPORT!!!!!!!!!
I'm sorry, readers, but I'M TIRED of the INSULTS and LIES!!!!!!!!
Screw you locals because the GOVERNMENT runs the BIG OPERATIONS and you might PUT 'EM OUT of BUSINESS if you could GROW YOUR OWN!
Which is not to say there is no legal risk to growing, selling or buying marijuana. Federal laws still apply, and pot dealings not deemed medicinal are considered criminal by the state, where police made about 74,000 pot-related arrests in 2007....
Just wondering why THIS GOT CUT (looking right at it in my printed paper on the desk, arrrghhh!):
Sparky Rose sits in the federal prison in Lompoc, serving a 37-month term. Law enforcement officials insist he is one of many sellers who have used the medical marijuana law as a guise for old-time drug-dealing.....
I'm offended: Kosher Meat Plant Was Israeli Drug Factory
Boston Globe Covers Up Israeli Ecstasy Ring
One-Day Wonder: Israel's Organ Harvesting Operation
The Russian-Israeli Mafia: Off-limits to FBI, US intelligence
Maybe THIS will convince you greedy s***-suckers:
the 9.25 percent state sales tax....
Allen Siegel is 74; he is dying of cancer and wants to try smoking marijuana to ease his pain without knocking him out like prescription drugs do.
Related: America Asleep in the Streets
So his wife, Ina, brought him to the Farmacy for his first visit as a legal pot patient. "You go in there, and they have so many choices," she said. California's "green rush" was spurred by a voter-approved law 13 years ago that authorized patients with a doctor's recommendation to possess and cultivate marijuana for personal use.
Although a dozen other states, including Washington, have adopted similar laws, California is the only one where privately owned pot shops have flourished. Los Angeles County alone has at least 400 dispensaries and delivery services, nearly twice as many outlets as Amsterdam, the Netherlands capital whose coffee shops have been synonymous with free-market marijuana for decades. California's pot dispensaries now have more in common with a corner grocery than a speak-easy. They advertise freely, offering discount coupons and daily specials....
What would happen if marijuana was legal — not just for medical uses, but for all uses?
The world would come to an end, right?
Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, wants the state to tax and regulate all pot as it does alcohol.
And if you are not going to do that, then BAN BOOZE AGAIN!!!!!!
Booze a WAY BIGGER KILLER than WEED!!!!!
State Board of Equalization Chairwoman Betty Yee, a supporter, projects the law would generate $990 million annually through a $50-per-ounce fee for retailers and $392 million in sales taxes. (The state now collects $18 million each year in taxes on medical marijuana.)
Holy shit!!!
No, I'll pass, thanks (cough). Think I'll step outside, too.
Meredith Lintott, Mendocino County's district attorney, argues that big-time growers never would bother filing tax returns. "Legalizing it isn't going to touch the big money," she said.
Then GO GET 'EM!!! Isn't that YOUR JOB, state?
They are truly un-EFFIN'-real with the EXCUSES and LIES!!!!!!!!!
But others predict the black-market business model would fall apart.
And THAT is the KEY!!!!
NO MORE BLACK PROFITS and BLACK OPS for MONEY-LAUNDERING BANKS!!!!!!!!
Large-scale agri-businesses in California's Central Valley would dominate legal marijuana production as they already do bulk wine grapes, advocates argue. Pot prices would fall dramatically, forcing growers to abandon costly clandestine operations that authorities say trash the land and steal scarce water.
So EITHER WAY, staties....!
And legalization, supporters insist, would save state and local governments billions on police, court and prison costs.
And, of course, we CAN'T HAVE THAT in FASCISTA AmeriKa!!!!!!!!!
But others survey California in 2009 and say the cannabis future is now. Richard Lee has parlayed two Oakland dispensaries into a mini-empire that includes a marijuana-lifestyle magazine, a starter-plant nursery and a three-campus marijuana trade school. Oaksterdam University's main campus is a prominent fixture in revitalized downtown Oakland. All without legalization.
Final cut:
"It's like here's reality, and here's the law," Lee said.
Globe acts like there is STILL a QUESTION!
"Evil weed or useful drug? The pros and cons of medical marijuana" by Judy Foreman | July 13, 2009
Marcy Duda, a former home health aide with four children and two granddaughters, never dreamed she’d be publicly touting the medical benefits of “pot.’’
But marijuana, says the 48-year-old Ware resident, is the only thing that even begins to control the migraine headaches that plague her nine days a month, which she describes as feeling like “hot, hot ice picks in the left side of my head.’’
Duda has always had migraines. But they got much worse 10 years ago after two operations to remove life-threatening aneurysms, weak areas in the blood vessels in her brain. None of the standard drugs her doctors prescribe help much with her post-surgical symptoms, which include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and pain on her left side “as if my body were cut in half.’’
With marijuana, however, “I can at least leave the dark room,’’ she says, “and it makes me eat a lot of food.’’
The culture wars over marijuana, for recreational and medical use, have been simmering for decades, with marijuana (cannabis) still classified (like heroin) as a Schedule I controlled substance by the US government, meaning it has no approved medical use. (There is a government-approved synthetic form of marijuana called Marinol available as a prescription pill for treating nausea, vomiting, and loss of appetite, though advocates of the natural stuff say it is not as effective as smoked pot.)
Some, like David Evans, special adviser to the nonprofit Drug Free America Foundation of St. Petersburg, Fla., applaud the government’s view, saying marijuana has not gone through a rigorous US Food and Drug Administration approval process.
The FDA? If they said it was safe I still wouldn't want it.
But that skepticism frustrates leading marijuana researchers like Dr. Donald Abrams, a cancer specialist at San Francisco General Hospital. “Every day I see people with nausea secondary to chemotherapy, depression, trouble sleeping, pain,’’ he says. “I can recommend one drug [marijuana] for all those things, as opposed to writing five different prescriptions.’’
Beginning to CATCH ON to the POT HATE of the AmeriKan government, world?
The tide seems to be turning in favor of wider medical use of marijuana. The Obama administration announced in March that it will end the Bush administration’s practice of frequently raiding distributors of medical marijuana. Thirteen states, including Vermont, Rhode Island, and Maine, now allow medical use of marijuana, according to Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, which advocates legalization of pot. Last week, however, New Hampshire Governor John Lynch vetoed legislation that would have legalized medical marijuana in that state.
(See next article below)
Research on medical marijuana is hampered by federal regulations that tightly restrict supplies for studies. But there is a growing body of studies, much of it supportive of the drug’s medical usage, though some of it cautionary. Given the intense politics involved, it’s true, as Abrams puts it, that “you can find anything you want in the medical literature about what marijuana does and doesn’t do.’’
With that in mind, here’s an overview of what the research says about the safety and effectiveness of using marijuana to treat various ailments.
Pain: Marijuana has been shown effective against various forms of severe, chronic pain. Some research suggests it helps with migraines, cluster headaches, and the pain from fibromyalgia and irritable bowel syndrome because these problems can be triggered by an underlying deficiency in the brain of naturally-occurring cannabinoids, ingredients in marijuana. Smoked pot also proved better than placebo cigarettes at relieving nerve pain in HIV patients, according to two recent studies by California researchers. Marijuana also seems to be effective against nerve pain that is resistant to opiates.
Cancer: The active ingredients in cannabis have been shown to combat pain, nausea, and loss of appetite in cancer patients, as well as block tumor growth in lab animals, according to a review article in the journal Nature in October 2003. But there’s vigorous debate about whether smoking marijuana increases cancer risk.
Some studies that have looked for a link between cancer risk and marijuana have failed to find one, including a key paper from the University of California-Los Angeles and the University of Southern California published in 2006. “We had hypothesized, based on prior laboratory evidence, including animal studies, that long-term heavy use of marijuana would increase the risk of lung and head and neck cancers,’’ said Hal Morgenstern, a coauthor and an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. “But we didn’t get any evidence of that, once we controlled for confounding factors, especially cigarette smoking.’’
Research published by a French group this year and by Kaiser Permanente, a California-based HMO, in 1997 came to a similar conclusion.
But a state health agency in California, the first state to legalize marijuana for medical use in 1996, recently declared pot smoke (though not the plant itself) a carcinogen because it has some of the same harmful substances as tobacco smoke. The active ingredient in marijuana can increase the risk for Kaposi’s sarcoma, a common cancer in HIV/AIDS patients, Harvard researchers reported in the journal Cancer Research in August 2007. And British researchers reported in May 2009 in Chemical Research in Toxicology that laboratory experiments showed that pot smoke can damage DNA, suggesting it might cause cancer.
The federal government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse says that it is “not yet determined’’ whether marijuana increases the risk for lung and other cancers.
Yeah, and LORD HELP US if it would actually HELP PEOPLE!
Anything that might actual help you stay alive, this government opposes.
"Study: Smoking Pot Doesn't Cause Cancer--It May Prevent It! Smoking Cannabis Does Not Cause Cancer Of Lung or Upper Airways, Tashkin Finds; Data Suggest Possible Protective Effect"
It's a CULTURE of DEATH country!!!
Related: The Ron Paul Platform: Personal Freedom
Also see: How Will the Feds React to New State's Rights Industrial Hemp Growing Laws?
I'm not hopeful....
Respiratory problems: Smoking one marijuana joint has similar adverse effects on lung function as 2.5 to 5 cigarettes, according to a New Zealand study published in Thorax in July 2007. A small Australian study published in Respirology in January 2008 showed that pot smoking can lead to one type of lung disease 20 years earlier than tobacco smoking.
BULL-SCITTE!!!
Addictive potential: The National Institute on Drug Abuse says “repeated use could lead to addiction,’’ adding that some heavy users experience withdrawal symptoms such as irritability and sleep loss if they stop suddenly.
MONEY does the same thing only WORSE!
Mental effects: Cannabis may increase the risk of psychotic disorders, according to a 2002 study in the American Journal of Epidemiology. And the national drug abuse agency warns that “heavy or daily use of marijuana affects the parts of the brain that control memory, attention, and learning.’’ A study of 15 heavy pot smokers published in June 2008 in the Archives of General Psychiatry showed loss of tissue in two areas of the brain, the hippocampus and amygdala, regions that are rich in receptors for marijuana and that are important for memory and emotion, respectively.
This from a bunch of lying psychopaths!
And you thought it was the weed making you giggle, readers!
Vaporizing vs. smoking: The push now among proponents of medical marijuana is toward inhaling the vapor, not smoking. Vaporizing is a safe and effective way of getting THC, the active ingredient, into the bloodstream and does not result in inhalation of toxic carbon monoxide, as smoking does, according to a study by Abrams published in 2007 in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.
Vaporizing? WTF does that mean?
Oh, USE a BONG so the DIRTY POISONS are FILTERED OUT!!!!!!!!!
Bottom line: From a purely medical, not political, point of view, my take is that if I had medical problems that other medications did not help and that marijuana might, I’d try it - in vaporized form.
Just as Marcy Duda does. “You use it as you need it. You can be normal. You can function,’’ she says. “I don’t get high. I get by.’’
--more--"But that will NEVER STOP PIN-HEADED POLITICIANS!
"NH governor vetoes medicinal marijuana bill" by Holly Ramer, Associated Press Writer | July 10, 2009
CONCORD, N.H. --Gov. John Lynch vetoed legislation Friday that would have made New Hampshire the 14th state to legalize marijuana use by severely ill people, citing concerns over distribution and cultivation.
So much for "PROGRESSIVE" New England!
They SIGN the GAY S*** but not this!!!
No wonder they are hated and we are angry!!!
I better smoke another joint and calm down!
Related: Hawaii: Gov. Linda Lingle gives medical marijuana patients zero respect with veto of study bill
I'll bet they got good weed.
Lawmakers had made extensive changes to the bill in hopes of winning over Lynch, who had been critical from the start. But the governor said Friday that the bill still has too many defects....
Like the gray matter in his skull.
The bill passed the House 232-108 last month and the Senate 14-10....
--more--"