Marijuana & Cannabis Blog Blog

• Canadian study shows relief for chronic neuropathic pain

  There’s now more scientific evidence for what many patients have known for awhile: Smoking marijuana can ease chronic neuropathic pain and help patients sleep better, according to a team of researchers in Montreal.

  The new study, published Monday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, found that pain intensity among patients decreased with higher-potency marijuana, reports Caroline Alphonso of The Globe and Mail. The study represents an important scientific attempt to determine the medicinal benefits of cannabis.

  Patients suffering from neuropathic pain often use opioid pain medication, antidepressants and local anesthetics, but all of those drugs have limitations, and the side effects of these substances can rival the conditions they are supposed to treat. Unlike “normal” pain, which results from stimulation of pain receptors in the body, neuropathic pain results from damage to or dysfunction of the central or peripheral nervous system, reports Deborah Mitchell at EmaxHealth.

  
  But many politicians and medical personnel have been reluctant to advocate medical marijuana because, even though patients champion its use, there have been calls for more scientific studies.
  

  “Patients have repeatedly made claims that smoked cannabis helps to treat pain, but the issue for me had always been the lack of clinical research to support that claim,” said Dr. Mark Ware, director of clinical research at the Alan Edwards Pain Management Unit of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal. In this small but randomized, controlled trial, “the pain reductions were modest, but significant,” he said. “And it was in people for whom nothing else worked.”

  Twenty-one adults with post-traumatic or post-surgical chronic pain took part in the study. They randomly received marijuana at three different strengths: with a tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) content of 2.5 percent, 6 percent and 9.4 percent, and a placebo. THC is one of the main active ingredients in the cannabis plant.

  
  All of the patients rotated through each of the four dosages, with nine days of no smoking in between.

  Patients smoking the highest potency marijuana (9.4 percent) reported less pain than those smoking samples containing no THC. Patients also reported better sleep and less anxiety, according to the Canadian study.

  On an 11-point scale, the average daily pain intensity was 6.1 for those smoking 9.4 percent THC concentration, compared to 5.4 for those smoking cannabis containing no THC.

  Participants inhaled a single 25-milligram dose through a pipe three times daily for the first five days in each cycle, followed by a nine-day period without marijuana. They continued this for two months, rotating through all three potencies of THC plus the placebo.

  The scientists measured pain intensity using a standard scale, with patients reporting the highest-strength cannabis was the most effective at reducing the pain and allowing them to sleep.

  Patients reported the pain reduction was “modest,” less than one point on an 11-point scale for the strongest marijuana, reports Reuters. Patients reported no overall difference in their mood or “qualify of life.”

  Researchers kept the levels low for two reasons, Ware explained. One was to minimize the psychoactive effects, such as feeling lightheaded, dizzy, detached, nauseous or euphoric. Secondly, because this was a randomized, controlled clinical trial, minimizing the obvious signs of being “high” helped keep participants in the dark about what potency they were smoking.

  Almost certainly, one reason the patients reported only “modest” pain relief with cannabis was that they were allowed only a single hit, three times a day, as part of the study. Patients rarely got high on the single hit they took through a pipe.

  The fact that relief was experienced, even with such tiny doses, speaks to the effectiveness of cannabis therapy in combating pain.

  None of the analgesic doses got plasma levels even halfway to the typical level seen among recreational users, according to the researchers.

  In an accompanying commentary, Dr. Henry McQuay, a professor in the chronic pain unit at Oxford University in England, called the study well-designed, adding that it provides more evidence cannabis can help relieve pain.

  But the unwanted side effects of cannabis can be significant, McQuay said.

  “If you regard each paper like a brick in a wall, we have a number of studies, including this one, that suggest some pain patients are helped by cannabis,” McQuay said. “The usual caveat is, ‘Do the side effects to the nervous system outweigh the benefits, if they have to push the dose?’”

  In his experience working with pain patients, few have seen long-term benefits of smoked cannabis, he said. Most find morphine and other painkillers more effective.

  Side effects are a real problem with using smoked cannabis, Ware said. While recreational users are seeking an altered state of mind, research shows that legitimate medical marijuana users are not looking to get high. Instead, they only want to smoke what they need to reduce their pain so they can work and function more normally.

  Source:CMAJ, The global and Mail, EmaxHealth, Toke of the town, cannabis info.

  
  Filed under: Cannabis News, Cannabis Research, Cannabis Science, medicinal, Smoking Products Tagged: Canada, cannabis, chronic pain, clinical trial, higher potency marijuana, marijuana, medical marijuana, Montreal, nervous system, neuropathic pain, pain relief, post traumatic pain, smoked cannabis, study

• Germany: Lawmakers ready to approve use of medical marijuana

  Medical cannabis will be available in Germany soon, with the center-right coalition preparing to make groundbreaking changes to drug laws, a government health spokeswoman said this week.

  

  A gem of German technology

  Cannabis was illegal throughout Germany until the federal constitutional court decided on 28 April 1994 that people need no longer be prosecuted for possession of soft drugs for personal use. Since then, most German regional governments have tolerated the sale and use of soft drugs.

  In some cities, cannabis supply is now tolerated in a similar way to the Netherlands. In other places the courts still treat possession as an offense. For example, in one state, Schleswig-Holstein, no charges are usually brought for possession of less than 30 g, but in Thuringia people are prosecuted for possessing even tiny amounts.

  In March 1999, Germany’s drug tsar, Christa Nickels, said she considered it sensible to use cannabis products such as marijuana and hashish for therapeutic purposes in medicine.

  With the new law coming, doctors could write prescriptions for cannabis, and pharmacies would be authorised to sell the plant once the law had been adjusted, a member of the junior coalition party, the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), said Monday.

  Marijuana would also be permitted for use as a pain reliever for the terminally ill in hospices and other care facilities, making it a legal part of their emergency pain-relief stocks.

  The new law will end a long-running struggle between German officials, doctors and health insurers over use of the proven herbal therapy for treating the pain stemming from diseases such as cancer and multiple sclerosis.

  According to the International Association for Cannabinoid Medicines (ACM), only 40 patients in the country are currently allowed a medical marijuana prescription – even though law enforcement generally tolerates small amounts for personal use.

  Almost two years ago, the conservative Christian Democrats, the FDP and the center-left Social Democrats all voted against loosening medical cannabis laws. Opponents had warned of the drug’s alleged potential for addiction and doubted its medical benefits.

  Sources: Student BMJ

  The Local

  
  Filed under: Cannabis News, medicinal Tagged: cannabinoid, cannabis, drug tsar, Germany, hashish, law, Legalisation, legalization, medical marijuana, Medicinal cannabis, pain relief, soft drugs

• Mexico former president advocates for drug legalization

  And here’s one more former politician advocating for legalization of drugs!

  It seems that quite a few of them can have a totally different speech once they retire. This double-sided view doesn’t reassure much when you realize these guys have the power, or better to say, they serve it. The organised crime in Mexico has indeed more power than it’s own government when it comes to war.

  Maybe that is the lesson Vincente Fox, former president of Mexico, learned since he left his office. Not even a week after the current president Calderon opened the door for discussions about the legalization of drugs, Fox’s comment on his blog shows his support to such initiative.

  “We should consider legalizing the production, distribution and sale of drugs,” said Fox, who served as president from 2000 to 2006 and is a member of President Calderon’s conservative National Action Party. “Radical prohibition strategies have never worked.”

  “Legalizing in this sense does not mean drugs are good and don’t harm those who consume then,” he wrote. “Rather we should look at it as a strategy to strike at and break the economic structure that allows gangs to generate huge profits in their trade, which feeds corruption and increases their areas of power.”

  According to Fox, the government could tax legalized drug sales to finance programs for reducing addiction and rehabilitating users.

  Fox, who left office with low approval ratings, came under criticism for starting an anti-cartel crackdown aimed at arresting the gangs’ leaders.
  The approach led to power vacuums that fed brutal fighting among rival cartels, bringing violence that has killed more than 28,000 people since Calderon took office.

  Drug violence has damaged “the perception and image of the country, and economic activity, particularly in tourism and foreign investment,” Fox said.
  Mexico already eliminated jail time for possessing small amounts of cannabis, cocaine, heroin, LSD and methamphetamine in 2009, giving it some of the world’s most liberal drug laws.

  Several Latin American countries have decriminalized possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use, but legalization has been slower in coming.

  In his blog, Fox harshly criticized widespread drug violence. “The first responsibility of a government is to provide security for the people and their possessions… today, we find that, unfortunately, the Mexican government is not complying with that responsibility.”

  He has a point. It seems that their government provided more for the cartels by wasting money on a lost war rather than for the rest of their population.

  No wonder why the organised crime is known as the octopus, cut a tentacle and it will grow again! Best way is to starve it to death…

  Source: Toke of the Town

  
  Filed under: Legalize, Society and Cannabis Tagged: Calderon, cannabis, cocaine, decriminalisation, drugs, former president, Fox, government, heroin, legalization, marijuana, Mexico, President, violence, war on drugs

• Drug offences and death penalty…

  

  Drug dealer on his way to his execution in China Source: deathpenaltynews.blogspot.com

  An interesting study was released in April this year about the legitimacy of the death penalty being pronounced for drug offenders:

  From Amicus Journal (2010) Issue 21, p 21-28.

  This article provides an in-depth analysis of the international law ramifications of applying the death penalty for drug offences.  It reviews the the ‘most serious crimes’ threshold for the lawful application of capital punishment as established in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  It then explores the question of whether drug offences meet this threshold by examining the issue through the lenses of international human rights law, the domestic legislation in retentionist states, international narcotics control law, international refugee law and international criminal law.  The article  concludes that drug offences do not constitute ‘most serious crimes’, and that executions of people for drug offences violates international human rights law.

  Read the whole article on: A Most Serious Crime – R Lines 2010

  
  Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: analysis, death penalty, drug offence, human rights, international law, legislation, most serious crime

• Oakland legalizes Marijuana Farms

  

  Will this be the future? A project made by Gropech

  Oakland’s City Council late Tuesday adopted regulations permitting industrial-scale marijuana farms, a plan that some small farmers argued would squeeze them out of the industry they helped to build.

  To address concerns from smaller farmers, the council pledged to create regulations on regulating small- and medium-size marijuana farms this year. Council members and proponents of marijuana cultivation regulation viewed the proposal as smart public policy: It would generate revenue, ensure that fire and building codes are enforced, keep neighborhoods safe from robberies, and further position Oakland as the center of the state’s cannabis economy.

  “It’s really important for Oakland to be a vital part of that growth and development for licensed facilities,” said Councilwoman Rebecca Kaplan.

  But many of the folks on the front lines of the young industry say it will change the culture of what they’ve built.

  They say industrial farms will turn a grassroots economy into a corporate one, driving down costs but also eroding the quality of the marijuana, which state voters defined in 1996 as medicine.

  The most influential critic was Steve DeAngelo, owner of Oakland’s Harborside Health Center, the largest medical marijuana dispensary in the nation.

  His dispensary buys from some 500 different growers, meaning Harborside offers about 100 varieties at any time. Permitting only industrial operations would reduce variety, he said.

  “Government should not choose the winners and losers but create a level playing field,” he said. “Some people might prefer mass production, assembly-line cannabis that costs less. Others might prefer cannabis grown by a master gardener in a smaller plot.

  “Let the market sort it out,” he said.

  The regulations will award permits to four indoor marijuana farms. There will be no size limit, but there have been proposals for farms as large as 100,000 square feet – about the size of two football fields.

  DeAngelo said he would prefer farms of various sizes.

  The regulations will require applicants to have a minimum of $3 million worth of insurance, hire security and pay a $211,000 annual permit fee.

  The city will be begin to issue permits in January and will allow the industrial farms to sell only to medical cannabis dispensaries.

  But if state voters pass Prop. 19, a November initiative that would legalize recreational use of marijuana, proponents believe the city would be well situated for the booming industry.

  By regulating certain growers, Oakland also plans to crack down on illegal grows, said Arturo Sanchez, an assistant to the city administrator.

  His comments immediately prompted hissing and booing in the crowd.

  Oakland has long been pushing the boundaries of marijuana legalization.

  In 2004, voters passed Measure Z, declaring marijuana a low concern for law enforcement. In 2009, voters passed Measure F to tax medical cannabis at 1.8 percent.

  The taxation, believed to be the first of its kind in the nation, was a step toward legalization.

  By  Matthai Kuruvila

  Source: sfgate

  
  Filed under: Cannabis News, Legalize Tagged: cannabis, corporate, culture, growers, Harborside, industrial-scale, industry, legalization, marijuana, marijuana cultivation, marijuana farm, medicine, Oakland, prop.19, recreational use, regulation, Steve De Angelo, tax

• Veterans Affairs makes exception for Medical Marijuana

  

  A veteran who grows his own cannabis for medical purpose

  The Department of Veterans Affairs will formally allow patients treated at its hospitals and clinics to use medical marijuana in states where it is legal, a policy clarification that veterans have sought for several years.

  A department directive, expected to take effect next week, resolves the conflict in veterans facilities between federal law, which outlaws marijuana, and the 14 states that allow medicinal use of the drug, effectively deferring to the states.

  The policy will not permit department doctors to prescribe marijuana. But it will address the concern of many patients who use the drug that they could lose access to their prescription pain medication if caught.

  Under department rules, veterans can be denied pain medications if they are found to be using illegal drugs. Until now, the department had no written exception for medical marijuana.

  This has led many patients to distrust their doctors, veterans say. With doctors and patients pressing the veterans department for formal guidance, agency officials began drafting a policy last fall.

  “When states start legalizing marijuana we are put in a bit of a unique position because as a federal agency, we are beholden to federal law,” said Dr. Robert Jesse, the principal deputy under secretary for health in the veterans department.

  At the same time, Dr. Jesse said, “We didn’t want patients who were legally using marijuana to be administratively denied access to pain management programs.”

  The new, written policy applies only to veterans using medical marijuana in states where it is legal. Doctors may still modify a veteran’s treatment plan if the veteran is using marijuana, or decide not to prescribe pain medicine altogether if there is a risk of a drug interaction. But that decision will be made on a case-by-case basis, not as blanket policy, Dr. Jesse said.

  Though veterans of the Vietnam War were the first group to use marijuana widely for medical purposes, the population of veterans using it now spans generations, said Michael Krawitz, executive director of Veterans for Medical Marijuana Access, which worked with the department on formulating a policy.

  Veterans, some of whom have been at the forefront of the medical marijuana movement, praised the department’s decision. They say cannabis helps soothe physical and psychological pain and can alleviate the side effects of some treatments.

  “By creating a directive on medical marijuana, the V.A. ensures that throughout its vast hospital network, it will be well understood that legal medical marijuana use will not be the basis for the denial of services,” Mr. Krawitz said.

  Although the Obama administration has not embraced medical marijuana, last October, in a policy shift, the Justice Department announced that it would not prosecute people who used or distributed it in states where it was legal.

  Laura Sweeney, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, would not comment spefically on the veterans department policy. “What we have said in the past, and what we have said for a while, is that we are going to focus our federal resources on large scale drug traffickers,” she said. “We are not going to focus on individual cancer patients or something of the like.”

  Many clinicians already prescribe pain medication to veterans who use medical marijuana, as there was no rule explicitly prohibiting them from doing so, despite the federal marijuana laws.

  Advocates of medical marijuana use say that in the past, the patchwork of veterans hospitals and clinics around the country were sometimes unclear how to deal with veterans who needed pain medications and were legally using medical marijuana. The department’s emphasis on keeping patients off illegal drugs and from abusing their medication “gave many practitioners the feeling that they are supposed to police marijuana out of the system,” Mr. Krawitz said.

  “Many medical-marijuana-using veterans have just abandoned the V.A. hospital system completely for this reason,” he said, “and others that stay in the system feel that they are not able to trust that their doctor will be working in their best interests.”

  In rare cases, veterans have been told that they need to stop using marijuana, even if it is legal, or risk losing their prescription medicine, Mr. Krawitz said.

  David Fox, 58, an Army veteran from Pompey’s Pillar, Mont., uses medical marijuana legally to help quiet the pain he experiences from neuropathy, a nerve disorder. But he said he was told this year by a doctor at a veterans’ clinic in Billings that if he did not stop using marijuana, he would no longer get the pain medication he was also prescribed.

  A letter written to Mr. Fox in April from Robin Korogi, the director of the veterans health care system in Montana, explained that the department did not want to prescribe pain medicine in combination with marijuana because there was no evidence that marijuana worked for noncancer patients and because the combination was unsafe.

  “In those states where medical marijuana is legal, the patient will need to make a choice as to which medication they choose to use for their chronic pain,” Ms. Korogi wrote. “However, it is not medically appropriate to expect that a V.A. physician will prescribe narcotics while the patient is taking marijuana.”

  Mr. Fox was shocked by the decision, he said.

  “I felt literally abandoned,” he said. “I still needed my pain meds. I thought they were supposed to treat you. It was devastating for me.”

  Mr. Fox, who said that at one point he was weaning himself off his pain medication for fear of running out, has held one-man protests in front of the clinic, carrying signs that read “Abandoned by V.A., Refused Treatment.”

  Veterans officials would not comment on specific cases, citing medical privacy laws.

  This month, Dr. Robert A. Petzel, the under secretary for health for the veterans department, sent a letter to Mr. Krawitz laying out the department’s policy. If a veteran obtains and uses medical marijuana in accordance with state law, Dr. Petzel wrote, he should not be precluded from receiving opioids for pain management at a veterans facility.

  Dr. Petzel also said that pain management agreements between clinicians and patients, which are used as guidelines for courses of treatment, “should draw a clear distinction between the use of illegal drugs, and legal medical marijuana.”

  Dr. Jesse, the veterans department official, said that formalizing rules on medical marijuana would eliminate any future confusion and keep patients from being squeezed between state and federal law.

  Steve Fox, director of government relations for the Marijuana Policy Project, which favors the legal regulation of the drug, called the decision historic. “We now have a branch of the federal government accepting marijuana as a legal medicine,” he said.

  But Mr. Fox said he wished the policy had been extended to veterans who lived in states where medical marijuana was not legal.

  He said it was critical that the veterans department make its guidelines clear to patients and medical staff members, something officials said they planned on doing in coming weeks.

  Said Dr. Jesse, “The whole goal of issuing a national policy is to make sure we have uniformity across the system.”

  By: Dan Frosch

  Source: The NY Times

  
  Filed under: Cannabis News, medicinal, Society and Cannabis Tagged: chronic pain, clinicians, doctors, drugs, health care, marijuana, medecine, medical marijuana, medication, national policy, opioids, pain relief, physicians, regulation, V.A, veterans, Veterans Affairs

• Nutrient deficiency: Potassium (K)

  Summary

  Potassium is present throughout plants and is required for all water-related transport activities in plants including opening and closing the stomas. Potassium is also responsible for the plants’ strength and quality and it controls countless other processes such as carbohydrate management.
  The Romans and Etruscans improved the soil with potassium by burning down the local vegetation and this form of slash-and-burn has been employed throughout the world during the last centuries and has resulted in enormous soil erosion. In the thirties, wood ash mixed with stable manure was frequently used in the Netherlands.
  Potassium is a soft, silver-white metal that reacts very violently with water and light in its pure form. 300 million years ago minerals such as potassium, sodium and magnesium became dissolved in the sea due to soil erosion. The seawater evaporated in large sea basins and the salts crystallised. This created the salt formations in Alsace in south-western Germany. Around the turn of the century only table salt was extracted from these formations and the excess potassium salt was discharged into the Rhine. Because of the increasing use of inorganic fertilizers, other minerals such as magnesium, sulphur (Epsom salts), phosphorus and boron are now extracted from these mines as well as table salt and potassium.

  • In the beginning you see a healthy looking, dark green plant with semi-shiny leaves that later become dull.
  • Plants often have more side shoots than is normal and stems remain thinner.
  • The points of the young leaves get grey edges, later turning rust brown, necrotic and they shrivel and curl up.
  • The leaves turn yellow progressing from the edge towards the veins and necrotic, rust brown spots appear in the leaf.
  • The leaves often turn or curl radially in the top, entire leaves become necrotic and they continue to curl and then fall off (old leaves).
  • If it is a severe deficiency the plant will look dull and unhealthy and flowering will be severely inhibited

  Developments in chronological order:

  Symptoms

  A potassium deficiency inhibits evaporation which causes the temperature in the leaves to rise and this burns the cells. This mainly happens on the edges of the leaves where most evaporation normally occurs.
  Note: Dead leaf edges can also be caused by other conditions such as the atmospheric humidity being too high and too much salt!
  This makes it impossible to diagnose a potassium deficiency purely on the basis of external symptoms. Generally speaking, symptoms can be diagnosed as being due to a deficiency when approximately 10% of an element is missing from the plant tissues. The symptoms can be seen above the ground in the form of colour changes and the plant dying back.

  Developement:

  

  • In the beginning you see a healthy looking, dark green plant with semi-shiny leaves that later become dull.
  • Plants often have more side shoots than is normal and stems remain thinner.
  • The points of the young leaves get grey edges, later turning rust brown, necrotic and they shrivel and curl up.
  • The leaves turn yellow progressing from the edge towards the veins and necrotic, rust brown spots appear in the leaf.
  • The leaves often turn or curl radially in the top, entire leaves become necrotic and they continue to curl and then fall off (old leaves).
  • If it is a severe deficiency the plant will look dull and unhealthy and flowering will be severely inhibited!

  Possible causes of potassium deficiency

  The causes for a cannabis plant to lack potassium can be grouped in three category:

  • Insufficient or incorrect fertilisation
  • The cultivation is on soil that fixes calcium.
  • Excessive ‘table salt’(sodium) in the root environment.

  What should you do?

  • Go to the shop for expert advice. They specialise in this crop and have the right products available. Properly prepared fertilizer contains enough potassium.
  • Rinse the growing medium well with clean water if the EC in is too high.
  • You can add potassium yourself, the easiest method being inorganically by dissolving 5 – 10 gr of potassium nitrate in 10 litres of water. With acidic growing mediums you can add extra potassium bicarbonate or caustic potash (5 ml in 10 litres water).
  • You can also add potassium organically by adding a watery solution of wood ash, chicken manure or semi-liquid manure but be careful to avoid burning. Grape and vine extracts also contain a lot of potassium.

  Warning: Adding potassium too enthusiastically can lead to salt damage, calcium and magnesium deficiencies and acidification of the root environment!

  
  Filed under: general growing info Tagged: cannabis, cultivation, deficiency, dull leaves, fertilisation, grow tips, growing cannabis, insufficence, leaf, leaves curling, more side shoots, necrotic, potassium, symptoms, thinner stem

• Smoking ban? On tobacco yes, Cannabis… not!

  

  Forbidden to toke, 50€ fine... could this become a common sign in California?

  Finally, someplace gets it right when it comes to smoking.

  Medical marijuana will not be subject to the smoking ban adopted by the Sebastopol City Council on Tuesday — at least for the time being.

  The council unanimously(!) voted to remove medical marijuana from the proposed ordinance and focus only on the use of tobacco after a series of speakers, several of whom said they used cannabis for medical purposes, expressed fears that the ordinance would interfere with their legal use of pot.

  The ordinance had originally included cannabis, as well as a number of other substances, including crack cocaine, reports George Snyder at Sonoma West Times & News.

  The council decided to focus on tobacco alone at the suggestion of council member Linda Kelley as a way to allow medical marijuana users to not become entangled in potential legal issues outlined by City Attorney Larry McLaughlin.

  In addition, although recreational pot use is not currently legal, that could change with Prop 19, which would legalize cannabis for adults, on the November ballot, McLaughlin said.

  By limiting the focus of the smoking ordinance on the effects of nicotine and tobacco smoke, the council was told, the ordinance could sidestep the marijuana issue.

  The council could, perhaps in six months or a year, revisit the marijuana exemption to see if complains about pot smoke indicated a problem, suggested council member Larry Robinson, who had long pushed adoption of the smoking ordinance.

  “The point is not to infringe on the rights of people in their home, but to protect others in their homes,” Robinson said.

  The city had been working since 2008 to make the smoking ordinance more comprehensive, according to City Manager Jack Griffin.

  “The city has already established smoking bans in public parks and playgrounds,” Griffin said. “The proposed ordinance significantly increases the city’s smoking regulations to include a number of additional locations, most notably multi-family dwelling units.”

  Current regulations focus on outlawing smoking in public places including retail stores, restaurants, banks, offices, theaters, auditoriums and other businesses.

  The biggest change in the proposed ordinance would ban smoking in apartments (“multi-family dwelling units”), as well as in unenclosed apartment complex common areas except designated smoking areas.

  The ordinance would require each lease or rental agreement in apartment complexes to contain provisions outlining the new rules.

  Single-family homes would not be affected by the ordinance.

  Source: Toke of the Town

  
  Filed under: Cannabis News, medicinal, Society and Cannabis Tagged: California, cannabis, legalize, marijuana, medical marijuana, ordinance, pot, prop.19, sebastopol, smoking ban, tobacco

• The EU back the ban on coffee shops for tourists

  Its name may be synonymous with European unity ‑ but increasingly its coffee shops are not.

  Moves by the Dutch border town of Maastricht to ban foreigners from its marijuana cafes have been upheld by the European court, in a rare contravention of EU laws governing free markets and free movement of people.

  In response to what it terms an influx of hordes of weed-seeking tourists, mainly from Belgium and France, Maastricht decided to limit admission to coffee shops to Dutch residents only. Every day, some 4,000 tourists in search of the perfect smoke enter Maastricht, according to the major of the town. Some 70% of the town’s coffee-shop customers come from across the border.

  Marc Josemans, owner and chairman of the Association of Official Maastricht Coffee Shops, brought a legal challenge before the Dutch council of state, arguing that a ban contravenes European legislation on free movement and free trade in goods and services within the EU. The council asked the European court of justice for its interpretation of EU law, which it will then employ in its ruling expected at the end of this year.

  In his finding, the EU court’s advocate general, Yve Bot, said that narcotics do not count as regular goods because they are against the law. “Narcotics, including cannabis, are not goods like others and their sale does not benefit from the freedoms of movement guaranteed by European Union law, inasmuch as their sale is unlawful,” he said.

  He did add however that in cases of their medical or scientific use, marijuana does “come under internal market rules”.

  The court said that Maastricht was right to view drug tourism as “a genuine and sufficiently serious threat to public order”, and thus the restriction of foreigners from coffee shops “constitutes a measure necessary to protect the residents of the municipality from trouble”.

  The finding concluded by saying that backpackers descending upon the Netherlands for a weekend of exuberance and oblivion endangered the European Union’s security. “Drug tourism, in so far as it conceals, in actual fact, international trade in narcotics and fuels organised criminal activities, threatens even the European Union’s internal security,” it said.

  Author: Leigh Phillips

  Source: The Guardian

  
  Filed under: Cannabis News Tagged: cannabis, coffeeshops, drug tourism, EU, European Court, foreigners, law, Maastricht, marijuana, narcotics, policy, public order, security, trade

• UK: Can the politics bail on scientific advise?

  “All too often governments make political policy choices rather than evidence-based ones. This approach has caused deep consternation among the scientific community in the UK, where a schism now exists between the government and its scientific advisers.
  The trouble started last October after David Nutt, chair of the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD), was sacked for publicly speaking out against the government’s decision to ignore the ACMD’s advice on cannabis.

  In November, the scientific community, though understandably angry at the way in which the government had treated a respected scientific adviser, decided to respond in a constructive manner. 90 senior scientists, scientific advisers, and Sense about Science—an independent charity promoting good science for the public—drafted a set of principles on the treatment of scientific advice and sent them to the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown. The principles fall under three themes: academic freedom to express views openly without restriction, independence of operation, and proper consideration of advice by ministers. The code enshrined what scientific advice to government should be—independent of political interference and ideology.
  How did the government respond? It redrafted the principles to suit its agenda. Most notably, the government dropped academic freedom as a principle and inserted “trust and respect”. Under this heading it states that: “The government and its scientific advisers should work together to reach a shared position, and neither should act to undermine mutual trust.” However, asking scientific advisers to collude with government to reach a “shared position” on policies would undermine the independence of scientific advice. Essentially, these revisions represent an attempt by government to avoid any future public dissent from its scientific advisers.

  The government must now listen to the concerns that have been raised over its version of the principles and revise them accordingly. Doing so will restore the confidence of both the scientific community and the public in ministerial policy making. It will also help to repair the damaged relationship that exists between the government and its scientific advisers.”

  This is what the Lancet wrote about the issue in February this year. Since then, a new government has been formed out of a coalition between the Tory (conservatives) and the Lib-Dem.

  But yet, nothing has been done to ensure independent scientific advice to be considered by the parliament.

  It looks like ex Prime Minister G. Brown left the draft in a secure place or that the new government has other more important issues (?!)

  Source: The Lancet

  
  Filed under: Society and Cannabis Tagged: academic freedom, ACMD, advice, advisers, agenda, cannabis, confidence, consideration, David Nutt, evidence, government, independance of operation, parliament, policy choices, political, principles, public dissent, redrafted, scientific community, scientists