cannabisnews.com: Pot's Got a Shot Pot's Got a Shot Posted by CN Staff on January 22, 2004 at 09:29:10 PT By Dan Levine and Chris Harris Source: Hartford Advocate State Rep. James Abrams (D-Meriden) is expected to once again reintroduce a medical marijuana bill during this year's upcoming legislative session -- one he's proposed in the last three sessions. Progress was made last spring when there was a floor vote on the proposal, which would have legalized the medicinal use of cannabis for victims of debilitating diseases; it was defeated 64 to 79, but Abrams and others considered the drubbing a step forward. During this year's battle, Abrams will get a helping hand from a noble confederate, the Marijuana Policy Project. The Washington, D.C., group, that seeks to decriminalize marijuana for medical and recreational use, has, according to the group's communications director, Bruce Mirken, hired a local lobbyist, to push the proposal to a second house vote, and, with any luck, move it onto the books. "We had reasonable success moving the bill forward last year, and it didn't pass," explains Mirken. "But these things never pass the first year. We're planning to move ahead this year." Still, Mirken says the group's yet to formalize a plan of attack, as "everything in the legislature's in disarray, as the situation with the governor sorts out." The bill, as proposed, would permit patients to cultivate and possess restricted amounts of marijuana. Patients would register with the state Department of Public Safety, so if police were ever to arrest them, the courts would be obligated to dismiss the charge. Mirken says no matter what happens with Rowland during the coming weeks, it'll still be a struggle to find politicians who are warm to this issue, as most "politicians, including Democrats and Liberals, are scared to death of being labeled soft on drugs," he explains. -- Dan Levine and Chris Harris got the Scoop Source: Hartford Advocate (CT)Author: Dan Levine and Chris HarrisPublished: January 22, 2004Copyright: 2004 New Mass. Media, Inc.Contact: editor hartfordadvocate.comWebsite: http://www.hartfordadvocate.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Marijuana Policy Projecthttp://www.mpp.org/House Just Says No To Pot as Rxhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16355.shtmlHouse Rejects Plan To Legalize Medical Marijuana http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16351.shtmlMarijuana Bill Surprises Some With Support http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread16253.shtml Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #21 posted by FoM on March 01, 2004 at 10:43:21 PT Related News Article from The Associated Press Supporters Tout Marijuana Bill (Hartford-AP March 1, 2004 1:00 PM) _ Advocates of a bill to legalize marijuana for medical purposes say support for the measure is growing. State Representative James Abrams, a Meriden Democrat, said today he thinks there are enough votes to pass the bill this year in the House of Representatives. The bill was defeated last year in the House, but Abrams says the proposal has been gaining support each year. Abrams says the bill is not an attempt to legalize marijuana for recreational use. He says it's simply an attempt to keep sick people out of prison. Supporters of the bill say in the past year three-hundred Connecticut physicians have signed a statement of support. Critics say the bill sends a bad message, especially to children. They question wny the state would want to make it legal for a group of citizens to use an illegal substance. State Representative Penny Bacchiochi, a Somers Republican, said today that marijuana helped her late husband during his struggle with bone cancer. Mark Braunstein discussed his experiences using medical marijuana to treat the constant pain he endures from a 1990 spinal cord injury. [ Post Comment ] Comment #20 posted by i420 on January 23, 2004 at 14:52:13 PT FOM Fom try www.freeservers.com you can set up a free site paying only $35 a yr for your domain name or for a couple bucks a month no pop-up ads they have some awsome tools also such as free guestbooks. Below is a link for a site hosted on freeservers. http://ii05.org [ Post Comment ] Comment #19 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 23, 2004 at 08:18:08 PT Fast Company on Newstand From the site:Now available on the newsstand or by subscription. Fast Company 's archives are still available as they always have been. The full content of the current issue is available online approximately 2 weeks after it is available on newsstands, as a courtesy to our subscribers and newsstand buyers. Link:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/ [ Post Comment ] Comment #18 posted by Patrick on January 22, 2004 at 18:01:39 PT Virgil you can thank prohibition again! "The worst thing about the situation with hempfoods is their high cost." Of course you, I, and everyone else that reads this site know this all too well. Prohibition sucks in so many ways it is hard to keep up! Just pointing it out for any health food newbies that might be reading and want an excellent source of omega-3 and can't understand the high cost for something that grows freely in the wild. I have Dr. Weil's cookbook The Healthy Kitchen. Been a fan of his for years. His recipe for a low-fat vanilla shake rocks! [ Post Comment ] Comment #17 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 14:34:14 PT Thanks Dr. Russo Cannabis Researcher in Vancouver. What kind of story will come of this? Dr. Russo has a date with history this Saturday when he speaks on the Schedule 1 classification of cannabis. Something tells me he will be breathing some expensive air during his speech. [ Post Comment ] Comment #16 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 14:33:20 PT Dr. Russo When it is online will you post the link so I can post it? I sure would appreciate it. I'll keep checking the site though because I know you are very busy. [ Post Comment ] Comment #15 posted by Ethan Russo MD on January 22, 2004 at 14:23:24 PT Fast Company Article I am sorry that people have had problems finding this. I got an advanced copy. It should be on newstands shortly. Subsequently, an expanded version, but with fewer pictures, will be posted on the WWW at fastcompany.com [ Post Comment ] Comment #14 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 12:33:23 PT Virgil This is all that is on their web site. You must need to get the magazine to read it more then likely. I have no idea where to get this magazine. We really don't have much around where I live.The Cannabis Conundrum As the founder of a British pharmaceutical company puts it, if it weren't called marijuana there would be an entire biotech business built around this plant. And that's just what's starting to happen (but not for the U.S. drug industry or the American patients these medicines might help). By Bill Breen [ Post Comment ] Comment #13 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 12:28:15 PT Virgil I checked Fast Company web site but couldn't find anything. I will check again. I forgot about the NORML radio show again. That is a very bad time of night for me to stop what I'm doing and listen to a radio program. I hope they put the shows on their web site for those who can't catch it while it's on. [ Post Comment ] Comment #12 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 12:22:08 PT FoM There is a search engine here to see if the name is available and they can register you- http://www.domaindirect.com/index.htmlThere is also https://www.register.comI am disappointed that the article in Fast Company that Dr. Russo mentioned has not been given a summary by anyone. Maybe it will surface in the next few days.The NORML webcast did not get mentioned for the second week in a row. If regulars here do not watch it, then who does. I guess they will have to take advantage of the content on demand ability of the Internet and archive their shows. I would still like to know who was on and the basic subjects. [ Post Comment ] Comment #11 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 11:48:21 PT Dankhank I'll do that. Ron registered Freedomtoexhale.com for me and of course CannabisNews.com which he thought of and developed. This is a web address I thought of that is slightly different but isn't at the same time. I guess because Ron knows how to do it so well I should call him. I'd like to talk to him again anyway. [ Post Comment ] Comment #10 posted by Dankhank on January 22, 2004 at 11:43:12 PT new web address FOM ... I google-searched, a new verb?, your request: register a new web address, and found some good links ...try it ... should be what you need ... [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 11:24:13 PT A Question I have a web address I would like to register and I don't want to bother Ron because he is very busy. Does anyone know how to register a new web address? [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Sam Adams on January 22, 2004 at 11:23:46 PT Dr. Weil Oh yeah, that article was right up my alley. The problem with Western medicine is reflective of the problems with Western culture - too much top-down control, too much standardization, centralization, not enough "think for yourself".Alternative medicine critics love to ridicule "uproven" therapies and techniques. What does not enter their conversation, however, is the long line of crippled, maimed, and dead people from 100 years of Western medicine.How many women had unnecessary hysterectomies? How many women's illnesses were ignored for decades? How many maimed with unnecessary back and other surgeries? How many cancer patients, tortured with toxic therapies right up until their certain deaths? How many poisoned and killed with prescription drugs?I bet all the harm rendered by Dr. Weil's techniques over his whole life wouldn't add up to the harms rendered by the egotists in white coats in one month. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 11:17:35 PT Penalties of pot v worst environmental disaster Justice in America has been turned into injustice by the Inverters. From http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/7767603.htm Good thing the sludge did not have a roach in it.INEZ - An administrative judge in Washington, D.C., has greatly reduced a federal fine for a mining company responsible for what federal regulators in 2000 called the South's worst environmental disaster.What began as a $110,000 fine against Martin County Coal Corp., which leaked 306 million gallons of coal sludge into Eastern Kentucky streams, apparently will wind up costing the company only $5,500. [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 11:11:24 PT A Little News About Dr. Andrew Weil Dr. Andrew Weil -- http://www.drweil.com/ -- director of integrative medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, said the U.S. Supreme Court decision will lead to a change in the classification of marijuana by the Drug Enforcement Administration from a Schedule I drug to Schedule II. Under provisions of the law, Schedule I drugs are not accepted for medical use. Schedule II drugs are found to have medical use. "The federal government has insistently intimidated doctors and organizations trying to supply marijuana, and I think it's great to see the Supreme Court smack them down. Eventually, it will force the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that changes the classification of marijuana," Weil said. Excerpt from This Article: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread17584.shtmlWe Must Stop the War on Medical Marijuana: http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread13053.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by Virgil on January 22, 2004 at 11:00:15 PT Dr. Andrew Weil I read the article in FoM's link. Some comparison put him second to Dr. Phil, but Dr. Phil is not a medical doctor. In the area of nutrition and medicine, he does not even qualify to be on the list.It does mention Dr. Weil's early beliefs on cannabis of thirty years ago. It also mentions the taking of cod liver oil for omega-3 and the importance that Dr. Weil puts on them. This could easily translate into a recommendation of omega-3 from hempseeds as mercury becomes a thing of concern to any seafood that is on an elevated food chain from the oceans. Actually, it would have to do with the complete package that comes with hempfood. If he would label hempseed as the thing to include in your diet, it would be huge.Hempfoods will be coming because of nutrition. Nobody has commented on the taste of the flour. Hempola says it has a rich, woody taste and is best combined with other grains. I gather hempseed is grain. That distinction is important because of things like 7-grain bread that I prefer to most others. Making it 8-grain might start an numbers race in the nutrition wars.Low carb foods are all the rage. They should be, especially in regards to refined sugars that have no nutritional value. But after sugar, there is processed flour which quickly converts to sugar. On this Dr. Weil would speak of peasant breads where the grains are not so pulverized as to increase the surface area in digestion. Hempfood might not make it big in this country first. Hempola says that the flour is 41% protein and this is hugely significant in a world that is under-nourished by proteins. Hempfoods will be coming to the boomers and the world and even I would eat pancakes of hempseed. The worst thing about the situation with hempfoods is their high cost.Hempfoods are coming because the cream always rises to the top. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 10:50:39 PT afterburner I love Dr. Weil. I was able to get a couple of questions answered by him in a live chat years ago on MSNBC. He's the real deal to me! [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by afterburner on January 22, 2004 at 10:36:14 PT: Integrative Medicine: Alternative & Conventional And if we've been too hardheaded to buy into Weil's prudent approach to healing until just lately, he's forgiven us. All that matters now, he says, is that integrative medicine, which combines both alternative and conventional approaches to maximize the body's natural healing powers, is catching on in a big way.The rising cost of traditional health care is high on the list of reasons that alternative therapies, from acupuncture to herbal remedies, are on the cusp of mainstream acceptance....Integrative medicine is comforting to those of us reluctant to entirely abandon prescription meds in favor of dietary supplements and meditation. And its emphasis on a true partnership between patient and practitioner, in which lifestyle issues such as diet, stress and relationships are considered, is also proving popular to a nation of people increasingly discontent with the five-minute physician consultation."In integrative medicine, we might give a patient with rheumatoid arthritis a whole package of things to do: a change in diet, a dietary supplement, a mind-body technique, an herb, an exercise regimen," Weil says. "Conventional medicine would just give her a prescription for steroids." ...He insists that his philosophy, which in the '70s advocated something called "stoned thinking" (perception based on intuition), hasn't changed much in the past several decades; what has changed is his reception by colleagues and a public leery of HMOs and an impersonal medical industry.... And being well is easier to achieve and maintain than we believe. Weil says that the key to better health is in taking positive control with simple tasks, like learning to prepare healthful food, buying fresh flowers, taking a stress-reducing "news fast" by avoiding newspapers for one day and spending time only with kind people. His prescriptions tend to be for lifestyle changes or items found at the greengrocer: Don't drink tap water. Take vitamins. Mend a broken relationship. Volunteer. Eat more fish. Eat more garlic. Breathe...."In some ways, I regret having used the term 'stoned,' left over from my '60s-era life," Weil says. "It was meant to be provocative--but not about being intoxicated. It's about a different way of perceiving the world that relies on intuition, and using what you see in the world to develop a hypothesis. Of course, doctors are discouraged from using intuition--another unfortunate practice of Western medicine." Dr. Andrew Weil integrates the blessings of conventional medicine with its powerful intervention techniques and alternative medicine with its preventative wellness techniques. I have known others who have experienced both of these blessings and I have experienced them myself. The mind-body split of Western philosophy is enshrined in Western science, medicine (for the body), and psychology (for the mind). Dr. Weil endorsement of intuitive thinking helps to heal this split. He rightly wishes to move beyond the negative connotation of the pejorative term "stoned" in order to allow the on-going integration of medicine to include the healing of the mind-body split as well as the fusion of alternative and conventional medicine. Dr. Weil's work provides a blueprint for a Medical Freedom Amendment. MFA for 2004! [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 10:18:38 PT I Like The Title To This Article from MTV Parsley, Sage, Rosemary And ... Pot: Art Garfunkel Bustedhttp://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1484526/20040122/garfunkel_art.jhtml?headlines=true [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by FoM on January 22, 2004 at 09:37:28 PT Article About Dr. Andrew Weil The Path to Weilness By Robert Pela -- Publication Date: Nov/Dec 2003Summary: Conventional medicine and its indifferent bedside manner have finally pushed Americans into the arms of alternative therapies. Andrew Weil, the father of natural living, has been patiently waiting. http://www.psychologytoday.com/htdocs/prod/PTOArticle/pto-20031028-000003.asp [ Post Comment ] Post Comment