cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - October 9, 2008





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin - October 9, 2008
Posted by CN Staff on October 09, 2008 at 14:06:10 PT
Weekly Press Release
Source: NORML
 Health Department Defines Limits For Authorized Medi-Pot Patients October 9, 2008 - Olympia, WAOlympia, WA: State Health Department officials finalized new rules last week establishing limits on the amount of cannabis qualified patients may legally possess and cultivate under state law.
Under the newly approved guidelines, patients may grow up to 15 cannabis plants and/or possess up to 24 ounces of usable marijuana for therapeutic purposes.The plant limits were mandated under legislation enacted last year that called on the Department of Health to "adopt rules defining the quantity of marijuana that could reasonably be presumed to be a 60-day supply for qualifying patients."Patients found to be in possession of amounts greater than those authorized by the Health Department will continue to receive legal protection under the law if they present evidence indicating that they require such amounts to adequately treat their qualifying medical condition.The new limits will take effect on November 2, 2008.For more information, please visit the Washington State Department of Health's website: http://www.doh.wa.gov/hsqa/medical-marijuana/DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7724 NORML Marks 20 Millionth Pot Arrest: Tragic Marijuana Milestone Will Take Place This Friday October 9, 2008 - Washington, DCWashington, DC: Law enforcement will make its 20 millionth marijuana arrest this Friday, October 10th, according to data compiled by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and extrapolated by NORML.The FBI provides annual marijuana arrest data dating back to 1965.“Police have arrested 19.3 million Americans for marijuana violations in the years between 1965 and 2007 - busting a record 872,000 last year alone,” NORML Executive Director Allen St. Pierre said. “At this pace, law enforcement will make their 20 millionth arrest this month, and will begin busting over one million cannabis consumers annually by 2010.”Of those arrested, an estimated 90 percent are charged with minor marijuana possession - not trafficking, cultivation, or sale. Three out of every four arrestees are under 30 years old. “This policy is a tremendous waste of taxpayers' resources; it destroys the lives of millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens, and threatens the personal liberties and freedoms of all Americans,” St. Pierre said. “We've now arrested more American citizens for pot than the entire population of Massachusetts, Michigan, and Oregon combined.”Speaking last month on C-Span, Drug Czar John Walters denied FBI data indicating that hundreds of thousands of Americans are arrested each year for pot violations, claiming: "We didn't arrest 800,000 marijuana users. That's [a] lie."NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano recently responded to the Drug Czar's remarks in the Washington DC publication The Hill in an essay entitled, “How Can We Even Discuss Marijuana Policy When America's Top Drug Cop Won't Even Acknowledge The Facts?” More than 240 readers have commented on NORML's essay. Fewer than five respondents have commented in support of the criminal prohibition of cannabis.To date, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy has not responded to NORML's rebuttal, nor has it issued a retraction for the Drug Czar's statements.For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director. DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7722Marijuana Less Harmful To Health Than Alcohol Or Tobacco, British Think Tank ReportsOctober 9, 2008 - Oxford, United KingdomOxford, United Kingdom: The potential health risks associated with cannabis are less than those associated with alcohol and do not justify the continued criminalization of the plant or its users, according to a report published last week by The Beckley Foundation - an independent British think-tank that analyzes drug use and drug policy."There is no justification for incarcerating an individual for a cannabis possession or use offense, nor for creating a criminal conviction," concludes the report, entitled "Cannabis Policy: Moving Beyond Stalemate."Authors of the report recommend that governments consider enacting legislation to tax and regulate the sale of cannabis, or - at a minimum - to institute administrative 'fine-only' penalties regarding its use."The rationale for severe penalties for possession offenses is weak on both normative and practical grounds," authors state. "In many developed countries a majority of adults born in the past half-century have used cannabis. Control regimes that criminalize users are intrusive on privacy, socially divisive and expensive. … They clearly do harm to the many individuals who are arrested, they abridge individual autonomy and they are often applied unjustly."In an alternative system of regulated availability, market controls such as taxation, minimum age requirements, labeling and potency limits are available to minimize the harms associated with cannabis use."The Beckley Foundation report will be submitted to the United Nations, which will conduct a strategic review of global drug policies next year.For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500. Full text of the Beckley Foundation report. DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=7723Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: October 9, 2008Copyright: 2008 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/CannabisNews NORML Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/NORML.shtml 
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Comment #11 posted by FoM on October 10, 2008 at 09:22:23 PT
Hope
I look at our country as a place for all people. Rich and poor. Sick and well. Old and young. When we cater to just certains portions of the people of our country we fail those who have less in life and that doesn't seem fair to me. Some people just can't make it for many different reasons including health issues.
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Comment #10 posted by Hope on October 10, 2008 at 09:19:55 PT
Taxes
On what? How much? What it's spent on.I've got a lot to think about...and it's enough to churn my stomach. Maybe I'm destroying stomach lining in the quest for an exercised brain.
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Comment #9 posted by Hope on October 10, 2008 at 09:15:18 PT
"all the people not the rich only"
So part of what a good government does is tax and redistribute, to a reasonable degree. It wouldn't take all of everyone's income and divide it evenly among us... but it would take a portion of all for redistribution to the needy. That would be the opposite extreme of collecting no taxes. So government has to collect some taxes.
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Comment #8 posted by Hope on October 10, 2008 at 09:09:30 PT
Government
It's very interesting. It could do a lot of good... or a lot of bad. How does it get to the point where it's doing badly or wrong?We have to have it, I think, because there are so many of us. I still can't get over that "Star" business at the Wikipedia site. That's an analogy that just isn't clicking with me, yet.
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on October 10, 2008 at 08:39:12 PT
Hope
I believe we need a government but it should be for all the people not the rich only. 
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Comment #6 posted by Hope on October 10, 2008 at 08:37:14 PT
Well...
I'm already lost in "The origin of government"."Like stars, cities and states reorganize and energize the smaller objects within their gravitational field."
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Comment #5 posted by Hope on October 10, 2008 at 08:34:00 PT
"Marks 20 Millionth Pot Arrest"
God have mercy. (Not an expletive... a sudden prayer.)
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Comment #4 posted by Hope on October 10, 2008 at 08:31:51 PT
Government
For the "Recreation" and brain cell restoration of it, I'm going to think about government as much as possible today. What are the precepts of good government as opposed to bad government? Why do we have government? Do we need it? What's the history of government in the world?I'm starting here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government#Origin_of_governmentAnyone else want to think about it?I already know, I think, that many of you think we don't need it. I understand that. I've thought it myself before. I still think it could work... to a degree... not having government... but we have the thing... government.... I want to look at it. What is it?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government#Origin_of_government
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Comment #3 posted by HempWorld on October 09, 2008 at 15:47:22 PT
If you have or will have; Cancer or MS and/or many
other debilitating and life threatening diseases; you will die a long and painful death, courtesy of the DEA and John Walters.Especially if you have Cancer or Multiple Sclerosis, there is nothing that can be done with the current state of 'medicine.' And, if, you use medical marijuana, we are authorized and aim to kill you as soon as we get the chance.That is the public health model or rather, an ultra right-wing fascist ideology, that has prevailed over USA in the last 70 years!
On a mission from God!
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Comment #2 posted by HempWorld on October 09, 2008 at 15:27:58 PT
it’s time someone asks John Walters or the DEA?
Thanks Paul!Yes, but unfortunately, these are thick skulled ideologes (thugs) and NOT scientists! We wanted to work with CBD as well and found out many years ago that it was a 'controlled' substance.Research seems to indicate—that cannabis is the cure for cancer and that the US gov't suppressed this information for over 30 years (and continues to do so, and world-wide), then the body count alone will make this the biggest holocaust in recorded history. Virtually all federal drug policy makers of both parties since 1975—including legislators, presidents and the DEA—will be complicit and criminally liable. 
On a mission from God!
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Comment #1 posted by paul armentano on October 09, 2008 at 15:19:00 PT
Is There Anything CBD Can’t Do? 
http://blog.norml.org/2008/10/09/is-there-anything-cbd-cant-do-then-why-is-it-illegal/While the prohibition of cannabis is absurd, the ban on the plant’s non-psychoactive components is even more mind-boggling — particularly when it’s apparent that these compounds possess amazing therapeutic properties. Case in point: cannabidiol (CBD).A just published scientific review by Sao Paulo University (Brazil) researcher Antonio Zuardi reports that there’s been an “explosive increase” of interest in CBD over the past five years. It’s apparent why.“Studies have suggested a wide range of possible therapeutic effects of cannabidiol on several conditions, including Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cerebral ischemia, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, other inflammatory diseases, nausea and cancer,” Zuardi writes. Let’s look at a few of these in detail, shall we?1. Antiepileptic action
“In 1973, a Brazilian group reported that CBD was active in … blocking convulsions produced in experimental animals.”2. Sedative action
“In humans with insomnia, high doses of CBD increased sleep duration compared to placebo.”3. Anxiolytic action
“CBD induce[s] a clear anxiolytic effect and a pattern of cerebral activity compatible with an anxiolytic activity.”4. Antipsychcotic action
“[C]linical studies suggest that CBD is an effective, safe and well-tolerated alternative treatment for schizophrenic patients.”5. Antidystonic action
“CBD … had antidystonic effects in humans when administered along with standard medication to five patients with dystonia, in an open study.”6. Antioxidative action
“It was demonstrated that CBD can reduce hydroperoxide-induced oxidative damage as well as or better than other antioxidants. CBD was more protective against glutamate neurotoxicity than either ascorbate or a-tocopherol, indicating that this drug is a potent antioxidant.”7. Neuroprotective action
“A marked reduction in the cell survival was observed following exposure of cultured rat pheochromocytoma PC12 cells to beta-A peptide. Treatment of the cells with CBD prior to beta-A exposure significantly elevated the cell survival.”8. Antiinflammatory action
“CBD, administered i.p. or orally, has blocked the progression of arthritis.”9. Cardioprotective action
“CBD induces a substantial cardioprotective effect.”10. Action on diabetes
“CBD treatment of NOD (non-obese diabetic) mice before the development of the disease reduced its incidence from 86% in the non-treated control mice to 30% in CBD-treated mice. … It was also observed that administration of CBD to 11-14 week old female NOD mice, which were either in a latent diabetes stage or had initial symptoms of diabetes, ameliorated the manifestations of the disease.”11. Antiemetic action
“The expression of this conditioned retching reaction was completely suppressed by CBD and delta9-THC, but not by ondansetron, [an] antagonist that interferes with acute vomiting.”12. Anticancer action
“A study of the effect of different cannabinoids on eight tumor cell lines, in vitro, has clearly indicated that, of the five natural compounds tested, CBD was the most potent inhibitor of cancer cell growth.”In sum, the past 45 years of scientific study on CBD has revealed the compound to be non-toxic, non-psychoactive, and to possess a multitude of therapeutic properties. Yet, to this day it remains illegal to possess or use (and nearly impossible to study in US clinical trials) simply because it is associated with marijuana.What possible advancements in medical treatment may have been achieved over the past decades had US government officials chosen to advance — rather than inhibit — clinical research into CBD (which, under federal law, remains a Schedule I drug defined as having “no currently accepted medical use”)? Perhaps it’s time someone asks John Walters or the DEA?
http://www.norml.org
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