The latest articles on Medicinal Marijuana
Marijuana and Medical Marijuana
Marijuana, whose botanical name is cannabis, has been used by humans for thousands of years. It was classified as an illegal drug by many countries in the 20th century. Over the past two decades, there has been a growing movement to legalize marijuana, primarily for medical purposes.
Medical marijuana use has surged in the 16 states and the District of Columbia that allow its use. But states and cities are also wrestling with the question of what medical marijuana is, or should be.
States say it’s time to rethink medical marijuana
Medical marijuana advocates are hoping state governments can succeed where their efforts have failed by asking federal authorities to reclassify pot as a drug with medical use.
Shortly before Christmas, Colorado became the fourth state to ask the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration to reclassify marijuana as a narcotic in the same league as heavyweight painkillers including oxycodone. The governors of Washington and Rhode Island filed a formal petition with the agency in November, and Vermont signed onto that request shortly afterward.
Quietly, cannabis has in effect been decriminalised in Britain
CANNABOOST plant food is one of the best selling products at the Hydroexpress hydroponics store in Stirchley, a working-class part of Birmingham. The small shop, its windows filled with graffiti-style posters, also sells fertilisers with names like “Nirvana” and “Bud Candy”, alongside strong lights and giant rolls of tin foil to line greenhouses. In one corner, a couple of juicy-looking tomato plants grow in a demonstration set-up. But the youth behind the counter guesses that his customers are “not all growing tomatoes”.
Birmingham now has 58 hydroponics shops, up from 42 just a year ago. Whether aided by the latest plant-growing technology or not, cannabis production is soaring. According to the Association of Chief Police Officers, the number of cannabis factories detected each year increased from around 800 in 2004 to 7,000 in 2010. Birmingham is one of the most fertile areas; West Midlands Police, which set up a Cannabis Disposal Unit in 2010 to tackle the problem, dismantled more than 500 factories last year.
Marijuana-Like Chemical Helps Relieve Coughs-Study
A team of international scientists have discovered why marijuana causes coughing in some asthma patients but not in others in a finding that could lead to better respiratory treatments with fewer side effects.
In a report in the science journal Nature on Wednesday, researchers from Italy, Hungary and the United States identified a cannabis-like chemical in the body called anandamide and showed how it influences the airways in the lungs.
15 Ways to Live and Not Merely Exist
As Jack London once said, “The proper function of man is to live, not to exist.” Far too often we travel through life on autopilot, going through the motions, accepting what is, and having every day pass like the one before it. Everything seems relatively normal and comfortable, except that constant twitch in the back of your mind that’s saying, “It’s time to make some changes.”
Here are 15 simple suggestions for those who want to break free from the mold and truly live more of their life – to experience it and enjoy it to the fullest, instead of settling for a mere existence.
Marijuana Has Less Adverse Effect on Driving Than Alcohol, Tiredness, U.K. Study Says
Crowthorne, Berkshire, United Kingdom: Marijuana appears to have less adverse impact on driving ability than does alcohol, according to findings from a recent study by the U.K.’s Transport Research Laboratory (TRL). The results replicate earlier findings recorded in the U.S., Australia and elsewhere indicating that marijuana intoxication plays a relatively insignificant role in vehicular accidents.
NORML Foundation Director Allen St. Pierre said the results were not surprising. “Study after study shows that marijuana’s slight impairment on psychomotor skills generally falls within the range of safety we accept for prescription medications and other legal, potentially debilitating factors; the findings of this latest inquiry are no different.”
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol
The Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol is the driving force behind a 2012 statewide ballot initiative to end marijuana prohibition and regulate marijuana like alcohol in Colorado. It is a locally based effort being carried out by a broad and growing coalition of activists, organizations, businesses, and professionals throughout the state and across the nation.
The Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act of 2012, which will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 64, makes the adult use of marijuana legal, establishes a system in which marijuana is regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol, and allows for the cultivation of industrial hemp.
Click here to read the full text of the initiative and the question as it will appear on the ballot.
After success passing boiler bill, GOP Rep. Morgan Griffith looks at medical pot
Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.) has been prolific for a freshman, introducing five bills last year and seeing one of them overwhelmingly pass the House. But there is one issue he’d like to tackle that he is hesitant about: medical marijuana.
In Virginia, the medical marijuana law restricts its use to cancer and glaucoma patients, but doctors, due to fear of the Drug Enforcement Administration and a lack of marijuana dispensaries, rarely prescribe it.
Boulder DA asks feds to back off on medical marijuana dispensaries – The Denver Post
Boulder District Attorney Stan Garnett has sent a letter to the top federal prosecutor in Colorado, asking the feds to drop their crack-down on medical-marijuana dispensaries that are abiding by state law.
Cannabis Is “An Effective Treatment” For Cancer Patients, Israeli Study Concludes
Some two-thirds of Israeli cancer patients authorized to use cannabis report long-term, symptomatic improvement from the plant, according to clinical data presented in late January at a conference of the Israeli Oncologists Union and reported this week in several international media outlets.