Disinformation » Cannabis

Will Big Pharma Take Over The American Market For Medical Marijuana?

Pelliciari — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 20:09:52 +0000

If the hundreds of uses for cannabis doesn’t plead the case for its legalization, the money made from its medical industry just might do it. The Washington Independent reports:

The American Independent has previously reported on the growing corporatization of the incipient medical marijuana industry at a time when medical marijuana dispensaries scrabble to hold on to their businesses in the face of a multi-pronged federal crackdown. But there are signs afoot that it just may become ever more corporate if a Big Pharma push to get the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to recognize a cannabis-derived drug is successful.

Last week, British prescription drug manufacturer GW Pharmaceuticals announced a licensing agreement with drug giant Novartis, maker of Ritalin and Excedrin, to begin selling GW’s drug Sativex in markets across Asia, Africa, Oceania and the Middle East. The medication is already available in Britain, where it’s produced and marketed by Bayer, and in Canada and Spain. It’s on the market in those countries as a liquid that patients spray under the tongue and is prescribed primarily for sufferers of multiple sclerosis and cancer.

If the name “Sativex” rings a distant bell, that’s because it’s derived from Cannabis sativa, the scientific name for the plant from which both hemp and marijuana are harvested. It’s an appropriate name because, unlike other cannabinoids produced for recreational and medicinal use (and plagued by side effects not present in natural cannabinoids), Sativex is not a synthetic concoction, but essentially liquefied marijuana. It’s an extract of whole-plant cannabis that includes the psychoactive agent THC as well as cannabidiol (CBD), the chemical thought to be responsible for some of the anti-nausea and cancer-cell-killing effects of medical marijuana.

[Continues at The Washington Independent]

Happy 4/20! Top 5 Marijuana Stories from Disinfo.com

Raymond — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:53:22 +0000

4/20 is a day of fun, activism, and healing for millions of marijuana users throughout the world, so here are five of the dankest cannabis stories we have posted on Disinfo.com. To read all the pot-related stories in our news archive, go here. Does anyone know the origin of 420? If you’ve heard an urban legend about this most baked of numbers, please share…

Top Five Marijuana Stories:

1. Chronic Art: Making Amazing Mosaics From Roach Papers

2. Graham Hancock on Marijuana & Consciousness

3. Don’t Just Smoke a Joint on 4/20, Take Action Against Marijuana Prohibition

4. Marilyn Monroe: Pot Smoker?

5. Californians [Voted] On Legalizing Pot

Inside Oaksterdam University: ‘Where Marijuana Gets You Higher Education’

BananaFamine — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:18:26 +0000

Jason Motlagh writes in TIME:

On the second floor of the downtown campus, a motley group of students listens to a lecture titled “Palliative and Curative Relief Through a Safe and Effective Herbal Medicine.” Not the sexiest of topics on the face of it, but there’s a catch: this is Oaksterdam University, and the medicine being discussed is marijuana. At “America’s first cannabis college,” in Oakland, Calif., the sallow-faced hippy-skater types that one expects to find sit beside middle-aged professionals in business attire, united in their zeal for the pungent green leaf. No one dares speak out of turn, until instructor Paul Armentano, a marijuana-policy expert, cites a news report that U.S. antidrug authorities plan to legalize pot’s active ingredient exclusively for drug companies’ use. “More stinking profits for Big Business,” mumbles a young man wearing a baseball cap. His classmates groan in agreement.

More than 17,000 students have enrolled since Oaksterdam opened in late 2007. The original student body numbered fewer than two dozen people. Most are from the U.S., but others have arrived from as far as Iran and Colombia to get training for the lucrative medical-marijuana industry. The concept itself originated in Amsterdam, where school founder Richard Lee visited a community-focused cannabis college and figured he could do the same in the Bay Area. A professional and transparent approach, he reasoned, could help erode the drug’s stigmas and eventually move the state closer to full legalization. Some alums have taken up his activist mantle, campaigning aggressively last year in favor of a statewide proposition to legalize and tax recreational cannabis. (It failed by an 8-point margin.)

Still, faculty members concede the vast majority of new students are aspiring entrepreneurs with money on their mind. Oakland has some of the country’s laxest drug laws, making it ground zero for the medical-marijuana boom. Small pot clubs abound. In 2009, four legal commercial-scale dispensaries approved by the city council sold some $28 million worth of the drug. The question most frequently asked of instructors? “How much will this plant yield,” says “Big” Mike Parker, a technician in the horticulture lab with a long white beard and fading skull tattoos on his wrists. “This is hard work — you see me sweating,” he adds, tending to his plants under the bluish glow of a metal-halide light. “And if you think you’re gonna get rich, you’re here for the wrong reason.”

For more information, see original article.

Medical Marijuana Is Now A $1.7 Billion Market

Pelliciari — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:41:44 +0000

Medical Marijuana shop in Denver, Colorado. Photo: O'Dea (CC)

The medical marijuana market has had a significant growth this year. With seven states who have opened shop and five more states planned to approve medical marijuana outlets this year, cannabis could save many states’ economies. Medical News Today reports:

Medical marijuana is now a serious $1.7 billion dollar market, according to a new report released this week by an independent financial analysis firm that specializes in new and unique markets. Currently, 24.8 million people are eligible to receive a recommendation and purchase marijuana legally under state laws, and approximately 730,000 people actually do.

Ted Rose, editor of the new State of the Medical Marijuana Market 2011 report, comments:

“Medical marijuana markets are rapidly growing across the country and will reach $1.7 billion this year. We undertook this effort because we noticed a dearth of reliable market information about this politically charged business. Hundreds of businesses exist around the country that cultivate and sell marijuana to customers. Many of these businesses emerged in the wake of the Obama Administration’s decision to deprioritize federal prosecutions of individuals and business complying with state medical marijuana laws. The State of the Medical Marijuana Markets 2011 shows which states represent the most active markets, who is making money, and how are they doing it.”

[Continues at Medical News Today]

Study Finds Cannabis Use ‘Raises Psychosis Risk’?!?

BananaFamine — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:28:29 +0000

I find the word “psychosis” to be rather nondescript. What “reality” do cannabis users lose and is psychosis necessarily negative when the modern condition of life is far from the natural conditions humans evolved to live in?

I believe marijuana leads to getting acquainted with the subconscious, which in turn leads to spiritual discovery.

However, this may cause one to ask questions and reexamine their beliefs and lifestyle, which admittedly can cause distress. This unease with the world and oneself is something one must work through to achieve happiness, as ignorance will not solve the problems at hand.

I find cannabis-induced “psychosis” to be misunderstood. While I believe that there are SOME who have had dangerous or extreme mental distress brought about by use of this substance, I think most of the paranoia surrounding the effects of THC result from users panicking upon finding themselves too far down the rabbit-hole of the subconscious. If one can stay focused and concentrated, cannabis can be a pleasant, mind-opening and ultimately healing experience .What do you think? Sound off in the comments. The BBC reports:

Using cannabis as a teenager or young adult increases the risk of psychosis, a report suggests.

The study published in the British Medical Journal involved tracking 1,900 people over a period of 10 years.

Although the link between cannabis and psychosis is well-established, it had been unclear whether cannabis triggers the disorder.

This research strongly suggests that cannabis use comes first, rather than people taking it for their symptoms.

The research was led by Professor Jim van Os from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and included researchers from the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and the UK.

They excluded anyone who reported cannabis use or pre-existing psychotic symptoms at the start of the study, which took place in Germany.

For more information, see original article.

Dutch Government Pushes Tourist Ban In Cannabis Coffeeshops

Pelliciari — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 01:30:46 +0000

If you’d like to experience Amsterdam’s famous coffee shops, I suggest booking your flight soon. From Reuters:

The Dutch government said on Wednesday it wanted to ban tourists from buying cannabis in “coffee shops,” where hash is on sale legally, as part of a national crackdown on drug use.

The government, which took office last month, has agreed to limit the sale of cannabis to Dutch residents to curb crime linked to its production and trading.

The Netherlands has one of Europe’s most liberal soft drug policies and its coffee shops are a popular tourist attraction, especially in Amsterdam and border cities near Belgium and Germany.

But some cities near the border with Belgium have clamped down on drug tourism, and the Dutch minister for security and justice confirmed Wednesday a wider crackdown after coalition parties agreed to push for a ban in September.

[Continues at Reuters]

Dutch Scratch n’ Sniff Anti-Cannabis Cards

Pelliciari — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:47:54 +0000

Not sure what marijuana smells like? The Dutch authorities have delivered scratch and sniff cards to inform people of what the plant smells like, in hopes that a passerby may catch a whiff of an ‘illegal urban cannabis plantation.’ From BBC News:

About 30,000 Dutch households are to receive marijuana-scented scratch cards in an effort to uncover illegal urban cannabis plantations.

Authorities in Rotterdam and The Hague say they are distributing the cards to help people recognize what cannabis smells like.

The cards also include a number to call to report suspected marijuana-growing.

Dutch authorities turn a blind eye to citizens growing up to five marijuana plants for personal use.

“Citizens must be alerted to the dangers they face as a result of these plantations, and if they become aware of any suspect situations they must report them,” said the spokesman for government-appointed working group to combat cannabis cultivation in the Netherlands, Arnie Loos.

More at BBC News

The Prince Of Pot Is Finally Going To Jail

majestic — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:23:42 +0000

Canadian cannabis advocate Marc Emery, profiled in the disinformation documentary Escape To Canada, has given up fighting against his extradition to the United States. Story from AFP:

Canada’s self-styled “Prince of Pot” rallied supporters on Monday before turning himself in to Canadian authorities to be extradited to the United States to face a five-year jail term.

Marc Emery, 52, is alleged by US prosecutors to have sold more than four million marijuana seeds through the mail via his website. About 75 percent of the seeds went to US customers.

His wife Jodie Emery told AFP her husband expected to be extradited within “days or a week” after exhausting all legal challenges and an appeal for clemency to Canada’s justice minister.

“It?s absolutely devastating to think that I might not see my husband for five years,” she said. “It?s a harsh reality.”

The couple are still holding out hope that Emery may be allowed to serve his sentence in a Canadian jail to be near his family, if Canada’s Public Safety Minister Vic Toews consents.

“We hope to have him transferred here,” she said. Meantime, “I am going to keep busy by running our store and our website online, keeping the cause alive, rallying to bring him back home to Canada.”

Speaking outside the British Columbia Supreme Court before turning himself in, Marc Emery touted his activism to legalize marijuana as “the work of a great Canadian.”…

Legalize Pot? Get Mom Onboard

Raymond — Sun, 09 May 2010 05:15:39 +0000

Pot usage amongst young and middle-aged moms isn’t new and it isn’t a fad. The legalization lobby is smart to target these ladies to help get out the vote. MSNBC reports:

Moms got tougher drunk-driving laws on the books and were directly responsible for passing and then repealing alcohol Prohibition. Now marijuana activists are trying to enlist the nation’s mothers in legalization efforts with a sales pitch that pot is safer than booze.

The nation’s largest marijuana legalization lobby recently started a women’s group. The Moms4Marijuana website draws thousands. And just in time for Mother’s Day, a pot legalization group in Denver has created a pink-carnation web card asking moms to support legalization.

These marijuana moms argue that pot is no worse than alcohol, that teens shouldn’t face jail time for experimenting with it and that marijuana can even help new mothers treat postpartum depression. “I know so many mothers who support this but aren’t willing to come out and say it,” said Sabrina Fendrick, head of the Women’s Alliance at the Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

Marijuana activists say they need more moms to publicly back pot use if they are to succeed with public officials.

[Read more at MSNBC]

Medical Marijuana Legal in Foggy Bottom, on Capitol Hill and all over Washington D.C.

Raymond — Wed, 05 May 2010 05:30:02 +0000

Personally, I hope the smell stinks up the whole rotten town. This article from the Examiner gives more details:

Illustration: Oren neu dag (CC)

One of the biggest expenses the medical marijuana lobby has had to face is the cost getting US Congressmen and Senators out of town for a medical marijuana dispensary tour.

That expense was eliminated today with the unanimous passage of Initiative 59 by the Washington DC Council.

Currently, 14 states have effective medical marijuana laws and more than a dozen others are considering them. In November, South Dakotans will vote on a medical marijuana ballot initiative, and Arizona is expected to have one on the ballot as well. Eighty-one percent of Americans support medical marijuana laws, according to a January ABC News/Washington Post poll.

But getting federal legislation passed and changing DEA and FDA regulations has been up to the US Congress and the US Senate. For example, the AMA recommended last October to move medical marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II. However because the DEA and FDA regulate that schedule and the set of federal laws around marijuana, technically the 14 states that have enacted the medical marijuana laws are currently in violation of federal laws.

Initiative 59 a 1998 ballot measure that was approved by Washington DC voters was blocked by the Barr Amendment in 1999. Since Washington DC’s budget must be approved by Congress, the ballot measure was not by Congress until the Obama administration passed it this past fall.

[Read more at the Examiner]

Don’t Just Smoke a Joint on 4/20, Take Action Against Marijuana Prohibition

Raymond — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 04:51:40 +0000

From Alternet:

Stand up today with other Americans and get the word out there. This war will end; how soon depends, in part, on you.

April 20th (4/20) has long been associated with marijuana, both marijuana use and marijuana activism. Thousands of Americans will gather on that day at rallies in Boston, Boulder, New York, Santa Cruz, Seattle and other cities. For people who prefer to relax with a joint instead of a beer or martini it’s a time to celebrate. For those who don’t use marijuana it’s a time to stand up in support of their friends, family, and fellow citizens who face arrest for nothing more than what they put into their body. For the Drug Policy Alliance and the drug policy reform movement 4/20 represents something even bigger.

The movement to end marijuana prohibition is very broad, composed of people who love marijuana, people who hate marijuana, and people who don’t have strong feelings about marijuana use one way or the other. We all agree on one thing though – marijuana prohibition is doing more harm than good. It’s wasting taxpayer dollars and police resources, filling our jails and prisons with hundreds of thousands of nonviolent people, and increasing crime and violence in the same way alcohol Prohibition did. Police made more than 750,000 arrests for marijuana possession in 2008 alone. Those arrested were separated from their loved ones, branded criminals, denied jobs, and in many cases prohibited from accessing student loans, public housing and other public assistance.

[Read more at Alternet]

Afghan Farmers Reap Cannabis Harvest Worth £61m

Raymond — Mon, 12 Apr 2010 02:51:56 +0000

From the Independent:

Afghanistan, already the world’s top opium supplier, is now the world’s biggest producer of cannabis, according to United Nations drug experts.

There is large-scale cultivation of the drug in half of the country, resulting in 3,500 tons of hashish worth an estimated £61m annually, according to the first assessment of cannabis in Afghanistan by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. It warns that the threat from the drug needs to be dealt with to deny the Taliban the millions they make in protection taxes paid by farmers and drug smugglers.

The focus on opium has resulted in cannabis being overlooked, according to Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of UNODC. “A concentration of cultivation in the southern part of Afghanistan shows that the Taliban and those insurgents that control the southern parts of the country are not only funding themselves by trafficking opium but also by trafficking cannabis. It’s the same area.”

[Read more at the Independent]

Medical Marijuana Bill Moves Through Maryland Senate In Landslide

Raymond — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 03:54:18 +0000

From the Huffington Post:

The Maryland Senate voted on Saturday to allow patients access to medical marijuana at state-licensed dispensaries. The bill now moves to the state’s lower chamber.

The bill was approved overwhelmingly, with bipartisan support and without objections or discussion, by a 35-12 margin.

Maryland would join 14 other states in legalizing medical marijuana. The neighboring District of Columbia legalized it in a 1998 referendum that was only recently allowed by Congress to go into effect. The District’s city council is writing rules to establish the city’s medical marijuana policy.

Current Maryland law allows defendants charged with pot possession to cite a medical necessity defense. If a judge deems the drug to be beneficial, a maximum hundred dollar civil fine is imposed.

Lawmakers and advocates argued that the law unfairly forced patients to obtain marijuana in the black market. The new law would bring

[Read more at the Huffington Post]

…

The Push to Legalize Marijuana: It’s Real

Raymond — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 03:59:47 +0000

For the past few months, I’ve been posting at least one story each week about the nationwide push to change cannabis laws. The following article does a good job of explaining how this movement goes much farther than previous efforts, and why it is worth reporting on. Am I just getting everyone’s hopes up? Is this a pipe dream, a THC laden pie in the sky? For me, it goes far beyond getting the legal right own something that is easy enough to find right now. It’s about the misery the legal system is causing millions of people each year. Will 2010 be the year America stops eating its young?

From The Atlantic:

You may have heard there’s a push to legalize marijuana in California. You may not have heard that it’s for real.

Voting ballots in California this November will contain an initiative to legalize, tax, and regulate the sale of marijuana to adults 21 and older, and while this may sound like something that has no chance, whatsoever, of ever becoming law, the thing is: it actually might.

The organized campaign around this initiative is called Tax Cannabis, and it’s the brainchild of marijuana entrepreneur Richard Lee. “Marijuana entrepreneur” sounds highly illegal, but, in California, where medical pot is sold unobstructed by the feds, it’s not: Lee founded Oaksterdam University, a school that teaches how to grow marijuana and run a marijuana business, as chronicled by Josh Green in The Atlantic last April.

This was not, mind you, originally an effort of the national marijuana policy establishment, per se. According to conventional wisdom on initiatives like this one, 2012 would be a better year to dedicate resources to a marijuana legalization campaign: it’s a presidential election year, and younger and marginal voters–voters who could be more sympathetic to legalizing pot–will come out to vote, whereas fewer people vote in the midterms. People who vote in midterms are more engaged in the process–if pollsters label respondents as “likely voters,” then the midterm turnout is made up of are even likelier voters than the electorate in presidential years–the type of people who might not, typically, support an initiative like this one. So, much like in California’s gay-marriage movement, there was some hesitation over whether 2010 was the right year to do this.

[Read more at The Atlantic]

Doctors Recommend Medical Marjiuana for Minors with ADHD in California

Raymond — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 20:16:38 +0000

From NYDailyNews.com:

Hey, hyperactive kids, in California you can get stoned — legally. California doctors are now recommending marijuana to children diagnosed with attention hyperactivity disorder, Sphere reports.

Since 2004, California has given out more than 36,000 medical marijuana cards. The number of these cards going to children - it appears that all of the known cases are teenagers – is not known, as doctors are not required to report medical marijuana cases.

However, experts say medical marijuana cards going to minors are on the rise. Parents must accompany children under 18 requesting medical marijuana to this doctor’s appointment, the New York Times reports.

Even with this precaution, the fact that children can get medical marijuana is creating quite a controversy.

[Read more at NYDailyNews.com]

First U.S. Marijuana Cafe Opens in Portland

Raymond — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:10:26 +0000

From Reuters:

The United States’ first marijuana cafe opened on Friday, posing an early test of the Obama administration’s move to relax policing of medical use of the drug.The Cannabis Cafe in Portland, Oregon, is the first to give certified medical marijuana users a place to get hold of the drug and smoke it — as long as they are out of public view — despite a federal ban.

“This club represents personal freedom, finally, for our members,” said Madeline Martinez, Oregon’s executive director of NORML, a group pushing for marijuana legalization.

“Our plans go beyond serving food and marijuana,” said Martinez. “We hope to have classes, seminars, even a Cannabis Community College, based here to help people learn about growing and other uses for cannabis.”

The cafe — in a two-story building which formerly housed a speak-easy and adult erotic club Rumpspankers — is technically a private club, but is open to any Oregon residents who are NORML members and hold an official medical marijuana card.

Members pay $25 per month to use the 100-person capacity cafe. They don’t buy marijuana, but get it free over the counter from “budtenders”. Open 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., it serves food but has no liquor license.

There are about 21,000 patients registered to use marijuana for medical purposes in Oregon. Doctors have prescribed marijuana for a host of illnesses, including Alzheimer’s, diabetes, multiple sclerosis and Tourette’s syndrome.

[Read more at Reuters]

Three More UK Drugs Advisers Resign

Raymond — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:32:48 +0000

From BBC News:

Three more government advisers have resigned after the home secretary’s sacking of his chief drugs adviser Prof David Nutt, the BBC has learned.

Dr John Marsden, Dr Ian Ragan and Dr Simon Campbell have quit the Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs after two others left earlier this month.

Members of the council had met Alan Johnson seeking reassurance that their independence would not be compromised.

Mr Johnson dismissed Prof Nutt for “crossing a line” into politics.

BBC home affairs editor Mark Easton said the absence of certain experts on the council meant it was “stymied” and effectively was now unable to operate under its current constitution.

[Read more at BBC News]