Cannabis News

UN Backs Drug Decriminalization In World Drug Report

2009-06-25T12:20:44Z

In an about face, the United Nations on Wednesday lavishly praised drug decriminalization in its annual report on the state of global drug policy. In previous years, the UN drug czar had expressed skepticism about Portugal’s decriminalization, which removed criminal penalties in 2001 for personal drug possession and emphasized treatment over incarceration. The UN had suggested the policy was in violation of international drug treaties and would encourage “drug tourism.”

But in its 2009 World Drug Report, the UN had little but kind words for Portugal’s radical (by U.S. standards) approach. “These conditions keep drugs out of the hands of those who would avoid them under a system of full prohibition, while encouraging treatment, rather than incarceration, for users. Among those who would not welcome a summons from a police officer are tourists, and, as a result, Portugal’s policy has reportedly not led to an increase in drug tourism,” reads the report. “It also appears that a number of drug-related problems have decreased.”

n its upbeat appraisal of Portugal’s policy, the UN finds itself in agreement with Salon’s Glenn Greenwald.

The report, released at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., also puts to rest concerns that decriminalization doesn’t comply with international treaties, which prevent countries from legalizing drugs.

U.S. Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske is scheduled to appear at the announcement of the report. (He has said “legalization” is not “in my vocabulary.”)

“The International Narcotics Control Board was initially apprehensive when Portugal changed its law in 2001 (see their annual report for that year), but after a mission to Portugal in 2004, it “noted that the acquisition, possession and abuse of drugs had remained prohibited,” and said “the practice of exempting small quantities of drugs from criminal prosecution is consistent with the international drug control treaties,” reads a footnote to the report.

The UN report also dives head first into the debate over full drug legalization. Last year’s World Drug Report ignored the issue entirely, save for a reference to Chinese opium policy in the 19th Century. This year’s report begins with a lengthy rebuttal of arguments in favor of legalization. “Why unleash a drug epidemic in the developing world for the sake of libertarian arguments made by a pro-drug lobby that has the luxury of access to drug treatment?” argues the report.

But the UN also makes a significant concession to backers of legalization, who have long argued that it is prohibition policies that lead to violence and the growth of shadowy, underground networks.

“In the Preface to the report,” reads the press release accompanying the report, “[UN Office of Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria] Costa explores the debate over repealing drug controls. He acknowledges that controls have generated an illicit black market of macro-economic proportions that uses violence and corruption.”

Jack Cole, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and a retired undercover narcotics detective, objected to the report’s classification of current policy as “control.”

“The world’s ‘drug czar,’ Antonio Maria Costa, would have you believe that the legalization movement is calling for the abolition of drug control,” he said. “Quite the contrary, we are demanding that governments replace the failed policy of prohibition with a system that actually regulates and controls drugs, including their purity and prices, as well as who produces them and who they can be sold to. You can’t have effective control under prohibition, as we should have learned from our failed experiment with alcohol in the U.S. between 1920 and 1933.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/06/24/un-backs-drug-decriminali_n_220013.html

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Cannabis Science to file patent for its cannabis processing & drug delivery systems

2009-06-23T15:21:05Z

Cannabis Science Inc, an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis company, announced that patent filings are expected for two of its key innovations.

“The Drug Development Team members recognize the importance of having our first cannabis-based medicine covered, not just by one patent, but by two,” Dr Mary J Ruwart, vice president, Research & Development explained.

“A competitor can sometimes engineer a way around a single patent.

Patenting both the manufacturing process as well as the delivery system virtually guarantees that our product will be immune to ‘invasion’ by a competing company."

Cannabis Science CEO, Steve Kubby, is the inventor who will assign both of his patents to Cannabis Science. “Our new manufacturing process allows for the rapid and uniform harvesting of cannabis ‘trichomes,’ the part of the plant containing the active ingredient, THC,” Kubby told potential investors today. “Just as the cotton gin made cotton harvesting economically feasible, our innovative process will revolutionize trichome harvesting.”

“Having a creative mind like Steve Kubby’s at the helm gives us a competitive advantage,” Dr Robert Melamede, chief scientific officer commented. “The new manufacturing process is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The unique drug delivery system he has designed enhances the stability and uniform absorption of the active ingredient. We expect our first product to outshine the competition with rapid and prolonged blood levels of THC.”

Cannabis Science management has authorized expenditures for patents; the two described above will be the company’s first official filings. “Naturally, Cannabis Science will use both of its discoveries for its own drug production,” chief financial officer, Richard Cowan said. “However, other firms will likely want to license these inventions for their own use as well. Cannabis Science will be able to supply other companies with superior trichome preparations or provide our unique drug delivery systems for other pharmaceutical preparations. The entire industry, the American public, and, of course, Cannabis Science and its investors, will reap the benefits.”

Cannabis Science is at the forefront of medical marijuana research and development. The company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce, and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products.

http://www.pharmabiz.com

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Medical marijuana transforms into big business in Israel

2009-06-22T12:26:11Z

How did Yohai Golan-Gild go from being an organizer of psychedelic drug parties to being a provider of medicinal marijuana in Israel – with the full approval of the Health Ministry?

“The 90s were the golden age of chemicals,” Golan-Gild said. “In every forest clearing there were people taking ecstasy and LSD and dancing themselves silly. People didn’t get married unless pills were promised to the guests. Thousands protested at Rabin Square urging us to ‘give trance a chance.’ There was a feeling that something was about to change. But in Israel, people love to party, but they don’t love paying for it. I lost millions, I collapsed financially, and that is how I found myself in California. Very quickly, I became the owner of three grow houses of medicinal marijuana, until six months ago, when I go a phone call from my American friend Rick Doblin.”

The path taken by Golan-Gild represents the quiet but fascinating revolution that Israeli society has undergone over the last decade. In 1999, the Health Ministry legalized the use of Cannabis, the plant from which marijuana and hashish are derived, for use by patients suffering from serious symptoms such as pain, nausea and loss of appetite.

As the cultivation of the Cannabis plant became legal, the number of patients prescribed medicinal marijuana grew from two in 2000 to more than 700 today. The number is expected to reach 1,200 within three months. Cannabis growing is on the verge of becoming an economic goldmine and entrepreneurs seeking to tap its potential are eyeing the endeavor. The consumption of cannabis products, which was completely forbidden up until ten years ago, is now becoming regulated and may eventually gain the status of any other drug supplied to the general public.

“I issue 40 new prescriptions every month, with an average prescription calling for 100 grams per patient per month,” boasts Dr. Yehuda Baruch, the head of the psychiatric hospital “Abarbanel” in Bat Yam. Baruch is also the Health Ministry’s point man for medicinal marijuana prescriptions.

The aforementioned revolution has not yet been completed, and the use of medicinal marijuana is currently in a sort of twilight zone. It is considered a legitimate medical treatment, under the supervision of the Health Ministry, but is viewed as a “stepson” of sorts. Baruch, the sole provider of prescriptions, is only employed by the ministry part time, and many patients find themselves waiting for him to clear time from his busy Abarbanel schedule to renew their prescriptions.

“Baruch is already causing a bottle neck. What will happen in September when we reach 1,200 patients with prescriptions?” asks Liat Benny (37), a Tel Aviv resident, who suffers from a rare genetic disorder and is prescribed marijuana to ease her symptoms. She has recently established a non-profit organization to promote the use of medicinal marijuana like any other prescription medication.

“Our battle is against an institution mired in prejudice,” she said. “The stigma is that patients who smoke are messed up, or high, but that is not the way we are. The Cannabis, for me, comes in place of other drugs, and it allows me to function. Don’t compare me to a healthy person who smokes.” She added that she has often encountered doctors and nurses at conferences where she’d lectured who responded with giggles and asked to take her picture next to the plant.

Just to be clear, Benny’s complaints are not directed at Baruch. On the contrary – patients laud the Health Ministry and Baruch in particular for smashing the conventional closed-mindedness in regard to the use of medicinal marijuana. Dr. Itay Gur-Ariyeh, the head of pain management at Sheba hospital and the chairman of the Israel Pain Association said that Baruch is on the right track, but that the issue must be completely regulated.

Up to ten plants

The problematic nature of the status of medicinal Cannabis is most evident in its production. The Health Ministry committee that decided to permit the use of medicinal marijuana back in 1999 stipulated that the drug be given only to patients with extreme symptoms, and only in order to ease pain directly stemming from their disease. But the committee had trouble defining how the patients were to obtain the drug, which was not legally grown in Israel at the time.

Thus, until 2005, the prescriptions for medicinal marijuana were given only to ten patients, among them Benny. The ministry allowed them to independently cultivate up to ten Cannabis plants, and to possess up to 200 grams of processed plants (imagine what would happen if your doctor prescribed you a drug and then asked you to produce it yourself).

This was not the only problem. The growing of Cannabis requires some physical work, as well as time. Since the first patients to be prescribed the drug were all terminally ill, this aspect took on an ironic twist, even if not intentionally. The backwards result wasn’t far behind – Yossi Bozaglo, of the first patients to be prescribed marijuana, was tried in 2001 for buying marijuana from a drug dealer. The incident made it very clear that the ministry must take responsibility over providing the drug.

Then “angel face” arrived. That is how the patients call the man, who to this day insists on remaining anonymous, who approached the ministry and offered to provide the Cannabis to the patients. Somewhere in the north, he and his family have been growing the Cannabis with the authorization of the state for the last four years. The availability of the drug, thanks to angel face, greatly increased the number of patients who were prescribed the drug. His grow house holds dozens of plants, all of which bear the names of patients who were treated with Cannabis and have since died.

In a small apartment in Tel Aviv, patients huddle almost daily to get their joints or the raw materials from angel face and the volunteers at the organization he founded, named “Tikkun Olam.” The distribution of these cigarettes, at the improvised “clinic” and with the government’s blessing, is perhaps the most surreal and heartwarming sight to be seen at any medical facility – light years away from the atmosphere at oncology wards at hospitals.

Angel face provides relief for Parkinson’s patients in wheelchairs alongside Crohn’s disease sufferers and cancer victims, who smoke together in the yard. Patients over 70 years old suddenly get up from their chairs and begin to move around. A child suffering from Tourette Syndrome, who was forced to leave her school due to ridicule from her peers, stopped cursing thanks to the drug, went back to school, and is now in a relationship with her first boyfriend. And everyone has a smile on their face. The Cannabis they receive has a much higher concentration of the active ingredient than marijuana sold illegally.

The process of obtaining the authorization to supply marijuana can testify to the quiet revolution. At first, only angel face was permitted to handle the drug and prepare joints. Then, due to the growing demand, Baruch authorized several volunteers to help prepare the drug. Ultimately, the volunteers were given authorization to transport the drug all across the country.

Angel face doesn’t receive any payment from the state for the production of the Cannabis, and the patients don’t pay for it either. However, it is clear to everyone that this cannot continue, in light of the growing demand and the cost of production. “There must be payment,” Dr. Gur-Ariyeh declared. “Who will pay for this – the state, the HMOs or the patients – that’s a different question.” Baruch, as a representative of the Health Ministry, shares Gur-Ariyeh’s opinion and has already begun compiling a financial model.

Medicinal Cannabis – a combination of helpless patients and a drug with a hint of the wild – has sparked the attention of many entrepreneurs. The phone call Yohai Golan-Gild received a year ago was from his American friend, Rick Doblin, the founder of the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, which promotes the use of these substances in medicine and research. When he heard about the revolution underway in Israel, Doblin quickly contacted his friend Golan-Gild, who was in California at the time. Last week, Baruch and other ministry representatives visited the hothouses built by Golan-Gild and his two partners, with an initial investment of NIS 1 million. (They asked not to make public the location of the hothouses, for fear of theft.) They will be the second supplier of medicinal marijuana.

The Health Ministry – which thinks it is impossible to rely on one supplier for a drug that is grown agriculturally and is susceptible to disease or other potential damage – plans to increase the number of authorized medical Cannabis growers to five or six. According to Baruch, this number would grow and supply enough Cannabis to meet the expected demand. At first patients would receive the drug for free, but they will soon be asked to pay for it.

“There are 160 varieties of Cannabis in the world and each one has its own side effects,” said Golan-Gild, adding, with pleasure, “I can suit each patient with his or her type – one that will cause exhaustion, one that will turn you into a ball of energy in the morning and one that will cause a diagonal erection.”

Baruch sees “the potential market in Israel reaching tens of thousands of medicinal Cannabis users, with each one paying NIS 5 or 10 per gram of the drug, or NIS 5,000 to NIS 10,000 per person per year.”

However, Golan-Gild claims that growing one gram of Cannabis costs NIS 15, more than what Baruch expects patients to pay. The difference, he says, would need to be subsidized by the Health Ministry or HMOs, in the same way that they do for drugs included in the public health basket.

The inclusion of Cannabis in the public health basket seems far off, especially considering most HMOs are developing complementary insurance programs, which serve as additional source of income for them and traditionally include more alternative therapies.

In the mean time, Golan-Gild plans to open three “mercy centers,” as he calls them, in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Ra’anana. There patients can not only smoke joints, but also – for an additional fee – participate in yoga and Pilates classes and receive training on how to use the Cannabis properly.

Light years away from all these initiatives, in a small simple Tel Aviv apartment, the “Tikkun Olam” group continues to distribute Cannabis for free and insist that patients must not pay for it out of their own pockets.

Munchies

When Cannabis was approved for medicinal purposes in 1999, it was originally intended for terminal cancer and AIDS patients. Today it is being used in earlier stages of illness and for a wider array of diseases, including Parkinson’s, Tourette Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, chronic pain and shell shock. The medical establishment is also increasingly recognizing Cannabis’ effectiveness in treating illness.

At the Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital’s Bone Marrow Transplantation department, patients including children and babies are treated using drops of oil derived from Cannabis. “It has no side effects and is largely effective in treating patients,” said department chief, Professor Reuven Or. “I would say it is effective in 80 percent of patients, which is a lot.”

Professor Or continued, “It stimulates the appetite and minimizes nausea and vomiting, which is of great importance in Oncology. It also has anti-inflammatory properties, which helps in cases of infection or inflammation caused by radiation. Along with this, Cannabis eases the coping process for patients – it improves their morale and lowers depression, and these are important parameters for patients battling disease.”

Half of the patients being treated with Cannabis are Oncology patients, while about a quarter suffer from chronic pain.

A multipurpose medicine

At age 6, Liat Benny began experiencing pains that would over the years become stronger and spread, until doctors diagnosed her with a rare autoimmune disorder that harms blood vessels, the eyes and joints.

Benny describes the pain she feels every hour of every day as an “insane stabbing sensation.” Three years ago, Benny’s right eye was surgically removed, and while she still has vision in her left eye, she says it is limited and blurry. She has undergone dozens of operations, treatments and hospitalizations, in addition to multiple morphine treatments, but her disease worsened to the point that Benny had to stop working.

Ten years ago, Benny’s father told her about medicinal Cannabis, and three years ago she was introduced to “Tikkun Olam.” Today she is one of the patients authorized by the Health Ministry to use medical marijuana. Benny also lectures on the subject, tries to persuade more doctors to lose their preconceived notions about the drug and increase the number of users.

“I live with interminable pain that reaches level eight to nine (ten is considered the highest pain level),” said Benny.

“Smoking Cannabis allows me to talk to you and sound coherent even if I haven’t slept all night,” she continued. “Cannabis is a multipurpose drug that should be included in the public health basket. Its use significantly decreases the use of other drugs, which is cost-effective for the state. Cannabis improves all patients’ functioning, and we are not just talking about relief from symptoms but also about a certain form of therapy.”

Several weeks ago, Benny established an organization to advance the use of medicinal Cannabis. “I see this as my mission,” she said.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1094284.html

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Cannabis Might Treat Diabetes, Says Top Researcher

2009-06-18T11:18:49Z

LONDON, (Reuters) – Cannabis plant extracts could potentially form the basic ingredients for a market-leading diabetes drug, the scientist who developed a former world-beating treatment for the condition believes.

Professor Mike Cawthorne led the team that developed GlaxoSmithKline’s Avandia, which became the company’s second-biggest selling drug until sales plunged in 2007 after a study linked it to a higher risk of heart attacks.
“I sincerely believe it is possible to improve on it (Avandia), and plant-based medicines could be one way to do that,” he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Cawthorne is collaborating with GW Pharma, a specialist developer of cannabis-based medicines, at a new laboratory dedicated to looking for plant-based treatments for diabetes.

The GW Metabolic Research Laboratory will look the different cannabinoid molecules that have been found within the cannabis plant, as well as range of other plants extracts.

There are 60-70 cannabinoid extracts, though only one of those — THC — has the psychoactive properties traditionally associated with the plant.

The reseachers will conduct preclinical studies to evaluate them all as possible treatments for diabetes, with a view to getting licensing deals if they strike it lucky.

Cawthorne said that the cannabinoid CBD, used along with THC in GW Pharma’s Sativex drug, has been seen to raise levels of ‘good’ cholesterol in animals.

While ‘bad’ cholesterol can build up in the blood vessels and cause strokes or heart attacks, ‘good’ cholesterol is thought to protect against heart attacks.

Chequered History:
Cannabis-related diabetes treatments have a chequered history, with Sanofi-Aventis discontinuing development of its Acomplia obesity drug after European authorities requested that it was withdrawn from sale over fears of psychiatric side effects.

It had been seen as Sanofi’s biggest new drug hope, and the withdrawal dealt a blow to CB1 receptor antagonists — the class of medicines to which Acomplia belonged — in general.

Cawthorne says he is working with actual cannabis extract rather than its synthetic equivalent, giving the basic ingredients of his potential treatments very different pharmaceutical properties.

The centre would look to treat specific symptoms of diabetes, such as non-alcoholic fatty liver or increased energy expenditure, rather than focusing on specific molecules, which is the route the pharmaceutical industry has taken to date.

“One needs to … not worry too much about the individual targets, but look and see what individual plant-based materials can do to (treat) the whole disease,” he said.

“There really have been relatively few developments in finding new diabetes drug treatments … This new approach might be more productive in answering the unmet clinical need.”

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/8560642/print

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Man who grew cannabis for disabled wife spared prison

2009-06-17T18:02:15Z

A CARER has been spared prison after he grew a lifetime’s supply of cannabis at home as a pain reliever for his disabled wife and to sell.

Judge Michael Stokes, QC, told Kenneth King he was giving him a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years, as an “act of mercy”.

He accepted 35-year-old King provides 24-hour care for his wife, who has a brain injury.

“There are, I accept, circumstances in your life which are not present in the vast majority of those who commit these offences,” he said.

“An immediate prison sentence on you would, I accept, have very serious adverse consequences on your wife and daughter. As an act of mercy, I impose a suspended sentence.”

Nottingham Crown Court heard police found five kilograms of high-strength “skunk” cannabis and just under three kilograms of leaf, valued at up £84,000, at King’s home.

There were weighing scales, re-sealable bags and £2,000 cash in a chest of drawers.

Officers also searched North Farm, Fledborough, near Newark, the home of King’s sub-tenant, Christopher Burgess, 42. The house is about a mile away from King’s Hall Farm Cottage, in Main Street, Ragnall, Newark.

Both men pleaded guilty to producing cannabis and possession of the drug with intent to supply.

Burgess’s crop was on a smaller scale. The judge gave him a six-month sentence, suspended for one year, and ordered him to attend the probation service’s Think First programme.

http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homenews/Man-grew-cannabis-disabled-wife-spared-prison/article-1083940-detail/article.html

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Caribbean urged to look at positive values of marijuana

2009-06-16T22:29:34Z

ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC – Caribbean governments are being urged to allow for the cultivation and exportation of marijuana for medical purposes despite it being an illegal drug in all Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.

“People are always talking about the young men on the streets and blocks who are selling marijuana, but what we need to do is to get them involved in agriculture by encouraging them to plant marijuana for the pharmaceutical market,” said Amsale Maryam of the Association of Developmental Agencies in Jamaica.

She was contributing to the discussion on “Rural Livelihood” as part of the Caribbean Regional Civil Society Consultation, which is being used to prepare the People’s Forum communiqué for the November 27-29 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM).

She told the meeting that, for instance, the cocoa plant is used for purposes other than the production of cocaine.

“By removing the youths from the streets and getting them involve in the cultivating of marijuana, we will not only see a reduction in crime but there will be a reduction in violent activities.

“This is the approach we have to take because marijuana can bring in some serious revenue,” she said, arguing that for too long “ the entire focus has being on the recreational use but its time we get away from that thinking and think beyond, the pharmaceutical industry need marijuana as a major ingredient for medication”.

Barbadian Hermon “Bongo” Lowe said the issue should be placed on the agenda for the CHOGM.

“Ganja (marijuana) is and continues to play a role in the development of the Caribbean and this needs to be discussed.

“I believe that once the right approach is adopted, ganja has the potential the change the outlook for the Caribbean. Not only will it help with creating agricultural and other high paying jobs but we can actually create a huge industry out of this.”

Lowe said he has research on the issue and is satisfied that marijuana can bring significant revenue to the region.

“Marijuana is used in the production of many medicines and that is the market we have to target, not those who are using it for recreational use. The pharmaceutical industry is using the marijuana extracts for all kinds of medicines and we can produce that industry with the raw material,” he added.

The Commonwealth Foundation, in collaboration with the Barbados-based Caribbean Policy Development Centre is hosting the three consultations that are geared towards identifying the impact of the economic and financial crises in the Caribbean, as well as to share information on climate change initiatives.

Delegates from the region will also revisit and propose alternatives to the ideological underpinnings of current models of development and to forge current partnerships based on common goals and complimentary resources, the organisers said.

“This consultation is one of the several civil society consultations, seminars and workshops taking place across the Commonwealth in preparation for the Commonwealth People’s Forum which will form an integral part of the November meeting,” said Seth Lartey, Programme Manager of the Commonwealth Foundation.

http://www.dominicanewsonline.com/all_news/health/6257.html

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Cannabis Science Creates Unique Investment Opportunities

2009-06-16T13:43:22Z

For over thirty years the US administration has under successive Presidents, provided a means for people suffering from painful, debilitating and sometimes terminal medical conditions, to have safe access to medical marijuana, putting to bed once and for all the myth that cannabis has no scientific rights to its claims of being an effective pharmaceutical drug.

Indeed if we listen to our political leaders today, cannabis has absolutely no medical worth, and is a dangerous narcotic which has no use to us as a species as it can ‘kill and maim’.

Cannabis in the United Kingdom
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Gordon Brown even coined the term “lethal” when explaining to the British public why, whist all around the world administrations were making allowances for the use of cannabis, GB PLC was going the other way, increasing the punishments for those caught in possession.

Just one of many unpopular decisions he has made which will undoubtedly come back to haunt him when the UK calls a General Election in around 12 months from now.

Once upon a time any positive comments regarding the efficacy of cannabis as living medicine were limited to a few alternative therapists, perhaps specialising in wholly natural, holistic treatments for the human body and mind.

But recently this stance has been challenged with the glut of respected American organisations such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma society, the American College of Physicians and the Multiple Sclerosis society (amongst many others), who have grown to realise, under the weight of literally thousands of study’s and reports, that cannabis in its many guises, is proving to be an effective treatment for a great many of these conditions.

When you add to this the naturally low toxicity of medical marijuana, doctors and scientists are beginning to recognise the adverse public relations campaign which has been carried out for the past 90 years for exactly what it is.

Nothing more than a propaganda brief designed to protect the financial interests of one or two blue chip industries who feel threatened by the premonition of a new global industrial hemp business like that which is forming in Canada currently, and GB PLC are doing everything they can to suffocate it.

Propaganda Masterclass
To find out exactly what is possible using widescale propaganda we need only to look to the second world war and the Nazi party.

It was Adolf Hitlers Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels who summed up the very essence of propaganda when he said “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Using all means available to the Nazi party Adolf Hitler, who was in total control of every piece of information served up to the German people, was able to control, in a similar vein to how cannabis exposure is controlled today, exactly what information was disseminated in the German press.

How else could a former soldier from Austria who attained the heady rank of ‘Private’, control an entire race which is normally renowned for its teutonic efficiency in everything it does?

It was an effective campaign which facilitated Hitler’s sales pitch for world domination being swallowed hook line and sinker by an unsuspecting German nation and as time passes us by its becoming widely known that, whilst the passionate and charismatic Adolf Hitler was the perfect front man for the Third Reich, the majority of information served to the German people actually came from the office of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels, using tactics and methodology which are still in use today.

You only need to read a British newspaper to see it in all its glory.

As a result the United Kingdom press pack simply refuses to cover any of the positive material relating to cannabis coming from Europe and the United States, in the hope that its people will not get to hear about it. Preferring instead to concentrate on the negative aspect of cannabis use.

Thus the biggest issue for the pioneers in the newly forming medical marijuana industry is not to prove the fact cannabis is an efficient and effective means of treating any number of mental and physical conditions as this has already been proven time and again.

The biggest problem with being at the forefront of an industry serving a public which has been drip fed on a constant stream of lies and adverse publicity (think ‘Reefer Madness’), is setting about untangling this 90 year old web of deceipt, and it takes a brave man to stand up in the public glare and attempt to put this situation to rights.

Steve Kubby
Some would say Steven Wynn Kubby IS that brave man.

In 1968, at the age of 23, he began experiencing symptoms of hypertension and palpitations.

He was diagnosed with malignant pheochromocytoma, a rare, normally terminal form of adrenal cancer.

Kubby underwent surgery to remove tumor’s in 1968, 1975 and 1976.

In 1976, his medical records show that the cancer had metastasised to his liver and beyond and what makes this a truly fantastic story is the fact that all other patients with this diagnosis have had a 100% mortality rate within five years.

His physician, Dr. Vincent DeQuattro, a specialist from the USC School of Medicine, monitored his condition and treated him with conventional therapies, including chemotherapy, until referring him to the Mayo Clinic in 1981 for yet another surgery and radiation therapy.

For the next 25 years, Kubby claimed to control the symptoms of his disease solely by smoking medical marijuana and by maintaining a healthy diet.

His original doctor, an expert on this condition who was shocked to learn he was still alive said, “In some amazing fashion, this medication has not only controlled the symptoms of the pheochromocytoma, but in my view, has arrested its growth.”

Reason enough for a person to have complete blind faith in cannabis when all around him are telling him otherwise.

Cannabis Science Inc.
More recently Steven Kubby has searched out a higher platform from which to inform people of the benefits of using cannabis as medicine, as he pioneers a path out from illegality and onto the world stage with his company Cannabis Science Inc, which you can buy stock in today.

Along with Prof. Robert Melamede, who was until recently chairman of the Biology Department at UC, (University of Colorado), Steve Kubby has created and launched the first company to deal primarily in intellectual properties – patents on products and processes – leaving capital-intensive problems such as regulatory compliance, mass production and marketing to the “old guard” pharmaceutical companies who license those patents.

But what makes Cannabis Science Inc stand apart from the pharmaceutical industry which we know and love, is whilst the existing pharmaceutical industry is heavily geared, by inclination and in terms of infrastructure, toward the development and testing of synthetic compounds, Cannabis Science inc will focus on a relatively new and under-explored niche in the pharmaceutical market: Whole-plant cannabinoid compounds derived from certified organic ingredients.

Its an exciting new market and one which is sure to bloom as the pharmaceutical industry, and the press which is used so blatantly to sell their products realises they can no longer bludgeon global citizens with blizzards of material from the reefer madness era of times gone by.

Whether you personally agree or disagree with the use of cannabis in medicine is of little consequence. The fact is, its doing what Steven Kubby has always said it can do, which makes Cannabis Science Inc one of the most exciting stocks on the market currently, and a hugely worthwhile long term investment.

http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/200906161086/green/eco-news/cannabis-science-creates-unique-investment-opportunities.html

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Can Cannabis-Based Drugs Slow the H1N1 "Swine Flu" Pandemic?

2009-06-15T15:36:16Z

SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic Thursday, raising its pandemic warning from phase 5 to 6, making swine flu the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. Now that H1N1 “Swine Flu” has been elevated to pandemic status, with reports of outbreaks in Asia, the Middle East and Europe, San Francisco, USA-based Cannabis Science Inc. (OTCBB: CBIS) CEO Steven Kubby urges public health officials around the world to “take medical cannabis seriously.”

According to the company, which specializes in cannabis research and development for medical purposes, the world may have at its disposal a means of combating the affects of this deadly disease. Dr. Robert J. Melamede, Director and Chief Science Officer for CSI reports, “Research into use of whole cannabis extracts and multi-cannabinoid compounds has provided the scientific rationale for medical marijuana’s efficacy in treating some of the most troubling diseases mankind now faces, including infectious diseases such as the flu and HIV, autoimmune diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and diabetes, neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, stroke and brain injury, as well as numerous forms of cancer.”

Dr. Melamede went on to say, “The high lethality of some strains of flu can be attributed to the excessive inflammatory response driven by Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF). Endocannabinoids are nature’s way of controlling TNF activity. Phytocannabinoids can mimic the natural endocannabinoids to prevent excessive inflammatory immune responses.”

Upon hearing that WHO had elevated the swine flu to pandemic status, CSI’s CEO Steve Kubby said, “Governments all over the world ought to seriously consider the advantages of medical cannabis.”

On Wednesday, WHO said 74 countries had reported nearly 27,737 cases of swine flu, including 141 deaths. There are over 90 confirmed cases in the United States, with reports of infections in 11 states, and one U.S. fatality, a 23 month old child in Texas. Symptoms include a high fever, body aches, coughing, sore throat and severe respiratory congestion.

Chief Science Officer for CSI Dr. Melamede believes the potential for cannabinoids that naturally prevent excessive inflammatory immune responses is enormous. He stated, “Based upon recent discoveries regarding the role that endocannabinoid system plays in maintaining human health, we may have a unique solution to the looming threat posed by deadly influenza strains that we believe, if implemented, could save millions of lives.”

About Cannabis Science, Inc.

Cannabis Science, Inc. is at the forefront of medical marijuana research and development. The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce, and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products. In sum, we are dedicated to the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treat disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance.

Cannabis Science Inc.
Steven W. Kubby, 888-889-0888
President & CEO
info@cannabisscience.com
www.cannabisscience.com
or
Brokers and Analysts:
Wall Street International
John Campo, 1-410-236-8200

http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20090611005958&newsLang=en

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Croatian Supreme Court Allows Marijuana For Stressed-out War Veteran

2009-06-10T09:43:26Z

Croatia’s supreme court has overthrown on appeal a jail sentence given to a war veteran who used marijuana to calm his nerves, with the court saying that his use of the drug against Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was legitimate.

Technically, what the court did was to declare the man’s use of marijuana a “meaningless act” under Croatian law, which means that he could not be prosecuted.

Identified in Croatian media reports as “KD”, the man was reported to be one of up to 18 000 veterans of the 1991-95 war.

A court in his home town of Virovitica, about 100km east of the capital city Zagreb, sentenced him to jail – in line with common practice in Croatia where courts come down hard on drug consumption – for growing marijuana plants and being in possession of 67.71g of marijuana.

On appeal, the supreme court overturned the jail sentence on June 3 2009, saying that it had taken into consideration “that the defendant suffers from PTSD…marijuana relaxes him and helps him to overcome psychological problems”.

While the ruling is being seen as a precedent in cases of war veterans with PTSD, media reports quoted authorities as saying that strict sentences for drug cultivation, selling and consumption remained in effect.

http://www.sofiaecho.com/2009/06/09/732861_croatian-supreme-court-allows-marijuana-for-stressed-out-war-veteran

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S. Africa: Legalize It, Says Producer

2009-06-09T12:36:50Z

Some Mpumalanga citizens want to see the South African government legalise dagga to accommodate international tourists coming to the country for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

Bushbuckridge music producer, Jerry Hlatshwayo, said it was disturbing that people were only talking about legalising prostitution, which was decriminalised during the German World FIFA World in 2006 to satisfy soccer fans.

“People in Amsterdam have spots where they can freely smoke without fearing arrest. Here in South Africa we put people in jail just because they want to be in touch with nature through ganja (dagga),” said Mndawe.

Hlatshwayo said although he has never used dagga, he has seen its positive effects on musicians who use it during music writing or composition.

He said dagga helped many producers become “maestros” in their own professions, as it stimulated their creativity, taking them to new heights.

Creative after smoking

“I’m naturally talented, so I don’t need weed (dagga) to be creative. But I have seen others become exceedingly creative after smoking. I think we should legalise it for the sake of the tourists, if not for ourselves,” said Hlatshwayo.

He said it would be difficult for people from the Netherlands to visit a country where what was legal in their country was regarded as a criminal act in South Africa. He labelled the criminalisation of dagga “institutionalised hypocrisy”.

“People are allowed to smoke cigarettes when it is clear they are lethal. Why would the law allow a cigarette, which has the potential to kill children who don’t even smoke, and ban a substance that enhances creativity?” he asked.

He said it was “silly to criminalise” things like prostitution and dagga.

“No one should be able to decide whether you drink or smoke. It’s up to you. Of course others will abuse weed as much as some drivers misuse their cars, but this doesn’t make it criminal to drive, does it?” asked Hlatshwayo.

Outspoken Rastafarian Mdu Mndawe said he was a proud dagga smoker, but was sad that he was made to feel like a criminal in South Africa.

“Rastafarians welcome any move to legalise ganja in ‘Mzansi’. The herb is a way of life for Rastafarians, but we feel like slaves because we must hide when we smoke,” said Mndawe.

Decline in the drug trade

He said decriminalising dagga would see a decline in the drug trade because people would be able to plant their own marijuana trees.

The South African Law Reform Commission (SALRC) has called on anyone wanting to have dagga decriminalised to approach them.

“[We have] not been asked by anyone, whether it be the state or a private person, to investigate the possibility of decriminalising marijuana,” said SALRC commissioner Thuli Madonsela, on Friday.

She said if any member of the public asked the commission to conduct such an investigation, the commission would first consider the value of such an investigation and seek approval from the minister of justice and constitutional development.

“[The minister would then] include this investigation in the ministry’s programme. If allowed, it would consider various factors, including the impact of decriminalisation and human rights implications, and advise government accordingly,” she said.

http://www.news24.com/Content/Entertainment/SouthAfrica/1043/0de3f9a1a6e54e168ab51d07dde6796e/08-06-2009%2004-06/Legalise_it_-_says_producer

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British Cannabis Community Weighs Up Challenge For Parliament

2009-06-08T12:58:39Z

In light of the recent changes to the cannabis laws which the United Kingdom is forced to abide by, and the fact many of the principles involved in changing the law are no longer in their jobs, (former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was a prime mover in forcing the law change), there are murmerings within the UK cannabis community which suggest the possibility of challenging Labour in the forthcoming General Elections.

Of course any challenge to the Labour party is sure to reflect on the other main parties too.

“With voters showing their disgust with turn outs in lower numbers than ever before there are only so many votes to be shared around those who choose to stand for election” says Bill Stone, press officer for the British Cannabis Lobby.

“And whilst it may amuse one or two junior MP’s, the thought of ‘a bunch of hippies’ trying to take votes away from the big three” he continued, “the fact is Gordon Brown simply cannot afford to alienate any more British voters and he, as well as the Labour party heirarchy know this only too well”.

Lets face it if the BNP can take seats away from Labour anyone can.

“The fact is” said Stone, “History will pay witness to how many ‘independents’ have brought themselves to office on the back of policies many Prime Ministers would rather had not existed at all”.

Since just before the turn of the 20th Century there have been almost a hundred independent MP’s elected to Parliament, and amongst that number there are some famous politicians which have graced the House of Commons, as well as some that never did.

The campaigns which transported these MP’s to Parliament are as diverse as the characters themselves.

“Reason enough, for Gordon Brown not to wish to invite any more prospective parliamentary candidates into the fray” said Bill Stone.

Bobby Sands
obby Sands was the leader of the 1981 hunger strike, in which Irish republican prisoners sought to regain Special Category Status. During his strike he was elected as a member of the United Kingdom Parliament as an Anti H-Block/Armagh Political Prisoner candidate.

His ultimate death would result in a new surge of IRA recruitment and activity. The international media coverage brought attention to the hunger strikers, and the Republican movement in general.

Dr Ian Paisley
In the 1970 UK general election, and after serving a period in prison, Ian Paisley was elected the member of Parliament (MP) for the North Antrim constituency which he has retained since then and is now the longest serving MP from Northern Ireland. The following year, 1971 Paisley and Desmond Boal established the most successful and longest lasting of his political movements, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) which replaced his Protestant Unionist Party.

Winstone Churchill
Warlord Winstone Churchill stood as an independent, first without success in a by-election in the Westminster Abbey constituency, and then successfully in the general election of 1924 for Epping. The following year, having won a seat as an independent he formally rejoined the Conservative Party, commenting wryly that “anyone can rat, but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat.

Not long afterwards Churchill would lead Great Britain to victory over the Axis powers in World War Two.

But in the meantime the nation was already at war with a fascist movement. A movement which was brought about by another independent member of Parliament.

Oswald Mosley
Sir Oswald Ernald Mosley, 6th Baronet, was a British politician, known principally as the founder of the British Union of Fascists, (BUF). He was a member of Parliament for Harrow from 1918 to 1923 and for Smethwick from 1926 to 1931.

At the end of World War I Mosley decided to go into politics as a Conservative Member of Parliament, although he was only 21 years old and had not fully developed his political outlook. He was driven by a passionate conviction to avoid any future war and this motivated his career.

Mosley was by this time falling out with the Conservatives over the issue of Irish policy, and the use of the Black and Tans to suppress the Irish population. Eventually he ‘crossed the floor’ and sat as an Independent MP on the opposition side of the House of Commons. A seat he retained against a Conservative challenge in the 1922 and 1923 general elections.

Mosely would later (1936) marry his mistress Diana Guinness, (nee Mitford – one of the celebrated Mitford sisters), at a secret ceremony which took place in the Berlin home of Nazi propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels. Adolf Hitler was one of the guests.

By Diana Mitford, he had two sons: Alexander (b. 1938) and Max Mosley (b. 1940), who is making his own news of late, as president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) among many other reasons.

Of course, back in those dark days before the Internet and social networking, generating from scratch, any kind of support for an independent parliamentary candidate would have been an almost impossible task.

But these days the net savvy prospective candidate can do a lot of his or her campaigning from the comfort of their living rooms, as more and more people use websites like Facebook and Bebo as a central hub of their personal communications.

Media which traditionally, Gordon Brown and the Labour party have failed to perform well on.

“Cannabis campaigners are under absolutely no illusions” Bill Stone told CannaZine News with a knowing smile.

“They know they’re not going to be running for Prime Minister, or a place on the Cabinet”.

“But they also know the UK is full of disgruntled voters who quite frankly are sick to death of MP’s riding the Great British public for all they are worth and they also know how easy it will be to cause some upsets, by diverting votes the Labour party, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are absolutely counting on”.

And at face value Bill Stone makes some valid points. With upwards of 7 million regular cannabis users in the UK, and a great many of them already communicating via the social networks, its fair to assume that if they can be tempted out to vote, there could be more than one or two upsets at the next General Elections.

http://pr.cannazine.co.uk/200906081078/green/eco-news/british-cannabis-community-weighs-up-challenge-for-parliament.html

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Can THC Help Some Schizophrenics?

2009-06-06T21:13:35Z

The surprising finding that THC might help at least a small percentage of schizophrenia patients for whom conventional treatments have failed was reported in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

This is surprising because, as the British government’s Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs reported last year, “there is clear evidence that the use of cannabis may worsen the symptoms of schizophrenia and lead to relapse.” The ACMD —a far more objective body than any U.S. government outfit remotely connected to drug policy—did not consider marijuana to be a significant cause of psychosis in otherwise healthy people; its report reflects a broad consensus that marijuana (and specifically THC) can worsen the prognosis of schizophrenics or those with a genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia.

But doctors at the Rockland Psychiatric Center in Orangeburg, N.Y., reviewing the records of one severely ill patient—a man who was “grossly psychotic, assaultive, disorganized” and not responding to conventional treatment—noticed that he had a history of “calm behavior when he was using marijuana.” So as an experiment, they prescribed THC capsules (dronabinol, brand name Marinol).

“Remarkably,” they write, “he became calm, logical, nonviolent, and cooperative within days and was discharged within weeks.”

They then tried the same thing with five other patients with a similar history—unresponsive to conventional treatments but showing some signs of improvement when they smoked marijuana. Three of these “improved to a clinically significant extent,” one showed no significant change, and one got somewhat worse. That’s a remarkable level of success in chronically ill patients for whom conventional anti-psychotic drugs had failed, “in which success with any intervention might be unlikely.”

The article goes on to lay out some possible explanations, but at this point no one knows for sure why this small group of psychotic patients had an anomalous and positive reaction to THC. What is clear is that the relationship of cannabinoids to schizophrenia is more complex and variable than even many experts—much less anti-marijuana propagandists – have acknowledged.

http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/140476/can_thc_help_some_schizophrenics/

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The Dandy Warhols light up Playboy Mansion

2009-06-06T21:13:19Z

The Dandy Warhols performed at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles last night (June 4) at an event supporting US marijuana legislation reform.

Bauhaus’ David J also spun tunes at the event, which benefited the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), which aims to remove criminal penalties for marijuana use, with a particular emphasis on making marijuana medically available to seriously ill people.

Throughout the evening, people mixed and mingled with Playboy bunnies who were making the rounds of the elaborate grounds. “Seeing my first bunny was like seeing a yeti!” Dandy Warhols frontman Courtney Taylor-Taylor told NME.COM. He added that this was the band’s first visit to Hugh Hefner’s legendary mansion.

Kyle Gass—one half of the Tenacious D duo along with MPP board member Jack Black—kicked off the night with a brief set. MC Fairuza Balk then told the sizeable crowd about the advantages of legalising marijuana, before The Dandy Warhols took the stage for a 40-minute set.

“My plan is that everyone who’s stoned tonight will enjoy it, and those who aren’t will feel like they are,” keyboardist Zia McCabe told the crowd.

Taylor quipped that it would be terrible if the US became like Holland, where marijuana use is legal and “where everyone is educated and rides bikes.”

http://www.nme.com/news/the-dandy-warhols/45151

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Croatia Supreme Court Recognises Marijuana's Medical Benefit

2009-06-05T09:28:21Z

The Croatian Supreme Court has recognised marijuana as a substance effective in helping people deal with so-called post traumatic stress syndrome.

The court has overturned the conviction of a man named as K.D. from the northern town of Virovitica. He was sentenced to three years in prison by the regional court in Virovitica for growing marijuana plants and possessing 67.71 grammes of marijuana.

The daily newspaper Vecernji List has reported that the Supreme Court took into consideration that the man was a war veteran with post traumatic stress syndrome and had grown marijuana only for his personal use.

http://www.croatiantimes.com/index.php?id=4207

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HIV/AIDS Patients Use Marijuana As A Symptom Management Approach

2009-06-02T09:11:56Z

A significant percentage of HIV/AIDS patients use marijuana to alleviate their symptoms, and rate it as effective as prescribed or over the counter (OTC) medicines, says study.

Scientists associated with the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) International HIV/AIDS Nursing Research Network have revealed that patients generally use marijuana as a symptom management approach for anxiety, depression, fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea, and peripheral neuropathy.

They made these findings while examining symptom management and quality of life experiences among those with HIV/AIDS in the US, Africa, and Puerto Rico.

The purpose of their study was to gain a fuller picture of marijuana’s effectiveness and use in this population.

Along with data from a multi-country randomised control clinical trial, the researches used four different evaluation tools to survey demographics, self-care management strategies for six common symptoms experienced by those living with HIV/AIDS, quality of life instrument and reasons for non-adherence to medications.

The researchers found that the participants who used marijuana rated their anxiety significantly lower than those who did not, and that women who used marijuana had more intense nausea symptoms.

For those who use both marijuana and medications for symptom management, antidepressants were considered more effective than marijuana for anxiety and depression, but marijuana was rated more highly than anti-anxiety medications.

The participants who used marijuana were less likely to comply with their regime of anti-retroviral (ARV) medications. But those who used marijuana to target a particular symptom were actually more likely to stick closely to their ARV regimen too.

The researchers say that patterns of how marijuana use interferes with patients’ adherence to medication regimens, along with other drugs, warrant further study.

According to them, data suggest that marijuana is a trigger among those susceptible to psychosis, and is also associated with the risk of suicidal thoughts. But it is not linked to an increased risk of lung cancer.

The question of the use of marijuana for symptom management when legal drugs are available remains a practice and policy issue.

“Given that marijuana may have other pleasant side effects and may be less costly than prescribed or OTC drugs, is there a reason to make it available? These are the political ramifications of our findings. Our data indicate that the use of marijuana merits further inquiry,” says study leader Inge Corless.

The study has been published in the journal Clinical Nursing Research.

http://www.medindia.net/news/HIVAIDS-Patients-Use-Marijuana-As-A-Symptom-Management-Approach-52232-1.htm

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Rotterdam Closes Cannabis Outlets

2009-06-02T09:10:39Z

ixteen ‘coffeeshops’ – the famous Dutch outlets which are allowed to sell cannabis – have been shut down in Rotterdam. The city council says they were closed in line with a new government policy banning the sale of soft drugs from outlets within 250 metres of schools.

The rules are designed to try and discourage youngsters from using marijuana. Rotterdam police say they will be keeping a keen eye on drugs dealers to make sure they do not set up business from home in a bid to circumvent the ban. There are still 45 ‘coffeeshops’ in Rotterdam following the closure of the ones nearest high schools.

The number of ‘coffeeshops’ in the Netherlands is being scaled back. In November last year Amsterdam announced it was closing down 43 premises.
At the same time city mayor Job Cohen insisted the city was standing by its three-decade old policy of tolerating ‘soft drug’ sales.

Cannabis is not legal in the Netherlands, but it can be sold freely in small amounts in the licensed ‘coffeeshops’. Paradoxically, it remains strictly illegal for the coffeeshops to buy in their supplies of cannabis wholesale. Many say this maintains the link between soft drugs and organised crime.

Supporters of the Dutch approach point out that cannabis consumption in the Netherlands is lower than in surrounding European countries, which still operate a purely repressive policy.

http://www.radionetherlands.nl/news/zijlijn/6323101/Rotterdam-closes-cannabis-outlets

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New biologically active compounds from cannabis

2009-06-01T09:11:26Z

Humans have been using cannabis for thousands of years for medical treatments, spiritual purposes, textile manufacturing, and other reasons. In recent history, chemists have isolated many cannabinoids, the metabolites in cannabis sativa, and have described some of their biological activities. For example, some cannabinoids have potent effects on multidrug resistant bacteria and others are effective against pain. The structures of known cannabinoids also inspire chemists to create synthetic chemicals to mimic certain aspects of their function, like pain reduction, while providing a powerful medical effect and avoiding negative side effects.

Although a lot of work that has been done on cannabis, scientists have not identified every cannabinoid, so many research groups are continuing to identify and categorize the chemicals in cannabis. Samir Ross from the University of Mississippi led one such group in the discovery of nine new cannabinoids, and they published the structures and biological activities of these chemicals in an advanced article in the Journal of Natural Products.

The researchers grew plants from high-potency Mexican C. sativa seeds and harvested the whole buds of mature female plants. They performed chemical extraction and purification procedures on the plant material to isolate the nine cannabinoids. They then determined the molecular structures of these new chemicals using a variety of techniques, including 1D and 2D NMR, UV, and HRESIMS (high resolution electron spray ionization mass spectra).

After figuring out the chemical structures, it was crucial to know how useful these molecules might be in terms of medicinal properties. The first good news was that none of the cannabinoids were toxic to cells extracted from African green monkey kidneys, which meant that they have potential as drugs. Upon closer inspection, several of the compounds had respectable biological activities, as well.

Compound 5 had potent antileishmanial activity, which makes it a possible candidate against leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that is spread by the bite of the sandfly. Compound 8 was effective at killing Staphylococcus aureus, a frequent cause of staph infections, and compound 7 had good activity against Candida albicans, a fungus that gives people oral and genital infections. The other cannabinoids weren’t as biologically active, but they all had some drug potential. For insistence, compounds 2 and 6 were mildly affective against MRSA, and compound 1 had some antimalarial activity.

The identification of these biologically relevant cannabinoids will give natural product chemists new ideas for future drugs. Even the less active ones can turn out to be useful, as chemists can make modifications of the structures that are more potent.

Journal of Natural Products, 2009

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/04/new-biologically-active-compounds-from-cannabis.ars

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Marijuana Rivals Mainstream Drugs For Alleviating HIV/AIDS Symptoms

2009-05-30T02:04:47Z

Those in the United States living with HIV/AIDS are more likely to use marijuana than those in Kenya, South Africa or Puerto Rica to alleviate their symptoms, according to a new study published in Clinical Nursing Research, published by SAGE. Those who did use marijuana rate it as effective as prescribed or over the counter (OTC) medicines for the majority of common symptoms, once again raising the issue that therapeutic marijuana use merits further study and consideration among policy makers.

A significant percentage of those with HIV/AIDS use marijuana as a symptom management approach for anxiety, depression, fatigue, diarrhoea, nausea, and peripheral neuropathy. Members of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) International HIV/AIDS Nursing Research Network examined symptom management and quality of life experiences among those with HIV/AIDS in the US, Africa, and Puerto Rico, to gain a fuller picture of marijuana’s effectiveness and use in this population.

With data from a longitudinal, multi-country, multi-site, randomised control clinical trial, the researchers used four different evaluation tools to survey demographics, self-care management strategies for six common symptoms experienced by those living with HIV/AIDS, quality of life instrument and reasons for non-adherence to medications.

Either marijuana use for symptom management is vastly higher in the US, or participants elsewhere chose not to disclose that they use it: nine tenths of study participants who said they used marijuana live in the US. No African participants said they used it, and the remaining ten percent were from Puerto Rico.

The researchers found no differences between marijuana users and nonusers in age, race, and education level, income adequacy, having an AIDS diagnosis, taking ARV medications, or years on ARV medications. But the two groups did differ in that marijuana users had been HIV positive longer, and were more likely to have other medical conditions. Transgender participants were also more likely to use marijuana.

Participants using marijuana as a management strategy were spread fairly consistent across all six symptoms, ranging from a low of 20% for fatigue to a high of 27% for nausea. Prescribed medications were used by 45% of those with fatigue, ranging down to almost 18% of those with neuropathy.

The findings contained nuances when comparing marijuana to other medications. Those who used marijuana rated their anxiety significantly lower than those who did not, and women who used marijuana had more intense nausea symptoms. For those who use both marijuana and medications for symptom management, antidepressants were considered more effective than marijuana for anxiety and depression, but marijuana was rated more highly than anti-anxiety medications. Immodium was better for diarrhoea than marijuana, as were prescribed medications for fatigue. However, marijuana was perceived to be more effective than either prescribed or OTC medications for nausea and neuropathy. However, the differenced in perceived efficacy in all these results were slight.

As found in previous studies, those who used marijuana were less likely to comply with their regime of ARV medications. But perhaps counter-intuitively of the many reasons given for skipping pills, ‘forgetfulness’ was no different in this group than among those who did not use marijuana. Marijuana use is known to contribute to patients’ lack of compliance with ARV drugs, however those who use marijuana to target a particular symptom are actually more likely to stick closely to their ARV regimen too. The researchers point out that of those who used marijuana for their symptoms, it is not known whether they also used the drug for recreation. Patterns of how marijuana use interferes with patients’ adherence to medication regimens, along with other drugs, warrant further study.

The 775 participants were recruited from Kenya, South Africa, two sites in Puerto Rico, and ten sites in the United States. They had on average been diagnosed for a decade – the majority (70%) were taking anti-retroviral (ARV) medications and more than half had other medical conditions alongside HIV/AIDS. It is hard to pinpoint the marijuana use targeted to alleviate symptoms of those other illnesses as distinct from those relating solely to HIV/AIDS.

Data suggest that marijuana is a trigger among those susceptible to psychosis, and is also associated with the risk of suicidal thoughts. However it is not linked to an increased risk of lung cancer (over and above risks associated with smoking it along with tobacco).

The question of the use of marijuana for symptom management when legal drugs are available remains a practice and policy issue.

“Given that marijuana may have other pleasant side effects and may be less costly than prescribed or OTC drugs, is there a reason to make it available?” asks study leader Inge Corless. “These are the political ramifications of our findings. Our data indicate that the use of marijuana merits further inquiry.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/05/090529081627.htm

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Medical Marijuana, Inc Files Provisional Patent Application for Inventory Distribution and Accounting Solution

2009-05-29T12:03:06Z

MARINA DEL REY, CA—05/29/09—Medical Marijuana, Inc (PINKSHEETS: MJNA) announced today that it filed a provisional patent application for its newest invention that delivers an inventory management, supply chain infrastructure and accounting solution to the medical marijuana industry.

Using this improved inventory management, distribution and accounting system, Cannabis Co-Op/Collectives, Distributors and Grow-Ops can accurately track the quantity and value of their inventory at any point in time and adjust their inventory valuation criteria accordingly. The system is based on a “plug-n-play” design that allows a variety of entities and components to “plug in.”

All shipments are tracked via GPS allowing interested and authorized parties to monitor their shipments at any point and time in the supply chain.

Inventory is scanned using a barcode system that produces a highly secure “closed loop” audit trail from the grower to the patient. This feature is attractive to regulators who wish to ensure compliance by all participants in the industry.

Third Party Service Providers such as testing facilities can plug into the supply chain between the Grow-Op and Co-Op/Collective.

Charlie Larsen, President of MJNA, says, “This secure platform will provide industry operators with tools to efficiently purchase, trade, track and value their inventory at any point along the supply chain. This online interconnected distribution network will give all industry participants the ability to more effectively manage their operations and ensure that they are always in full compliance with regulators.”

The MJNA Accounting Inventory Management System and Supply Chain Network provides a Straight Through Processing (STP) environment that will minimize fraud and illicit activities by providing a closed loop audit trail that will identify any and all breaks in the audit trail.

About the Company

Medical Marijuana, Inc (PINKSHEETS: MJNA) is the first public company to recognize the vast and unequaled opportunities that exist in the rapidly expanding Medical Marijuana market. The scientific recognition of marijuana as a powerful medicine has brought marijuana to a new status and opened the door for investment and opportunity.

Safe Harbor: This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements contained in this release that are not historical facts may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain. Actual performance and results may differ materially from that projected or suggested herein due to certain risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, ability to obtain financing and regulatory and shareholder approvals for anticipated actions.

For further details contact:
Bruce Perlowin
Email Contact
http://www.medicalmarijuanainc.com
http://www.twitter.com/medmarijuanainc

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/medical-marijuana-inc-files-provisional,841642.shtml

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Marijuana and cocaine should be legalised, says Latin American drugs commission

2009-05-29T10:35:19Z

Marijuana and cocaine for personal use should be decriminalised because the “war on drugs” has been a disaster, according to some of Latin America’s most powerful politicians and writers.

The current international policy on drugs encourages corruption and violence that is threatening democracy throughout the continent, according to the former president of Brazil, Fernando Enrique Cardoso, who is a co-president of the Latin American commission on drugs and democracy. As well as politicians, the commission includes the writers Mario Vargas Llosa of Peru, and Paulo Coelho of Brazil.

The election of Barack Obama has opened up the best opportunity for decades to address the failure of the “so-called drugs war”, Cardoso told the Guardian today on a visit to London. He said he was hopeful that the international community would acknowledge that the time had come for a “paradigm shift” in the debate on drugs. “The war on drugs has failed in spite of enormous efforts in places like Colombia – the area of coca crops is not reducing,” he said.

The current system of prohibition encouraged corruption among police officers, politicians and even judges. “It poisons the whole system, it undermines democracy,” Cardoso said. “The war on drugs is based on repression … How can people believe in democracy if the rule of law doesn’t work?” Users should be offered treatment rather than jail, he said.

“The starting point has to be the United States,” he said. “Now we have a new American administration, which is much more open-minded than before.” He said he had held talks with the US state department in the later years of the Bush administration and found that, privately, many of the officials there shared his views.

Cardoso said that the changes would have to be co-ordinated. “We need an international convention, otherwise you will have different countries doing different things,” he said. “But the climate is changing for the first time for many years. Even in the US, they recognise we are in deadlock now.” Obama had already made it clear that the idea of a “war on drugs” was not workable. The need for change is urgent, said Cardoso, because of what is happening in Latin America. “There is a very grave situation in Mexico,” he said. “More people are being killed there (through the drugs war) than in Iraq.” He said that it was easier for former presidents who were no longer in office or running for election to speak out on such a controversial issue. He added that ending the war on drugs would be not be a signal that drugs were acceptable but a recognition that current policies had failed.

“You have to show that drugs are harmful, even light drugs, like marijuana – it is better not to use drugs – but tobacco is harmful also yet its use is being reduced by education,” said Cardoso. He added that the vast quantities of money being used to enforce “repressive” policies on drugs could be put into treatment and education. Hundreds of thousands of people were being unnecessarily criminalised and sent to prison, “which are schools of crime.”

The previous UN drugs policy that aimed to eliminate all drug use by this year was ill-conceived, he said. “You can never stop drugs use,” he said, likening it to some of the failed policies in the past over HIV/Aids. “You can’t have zero drugs any more than you can have a zero sex policy but you can have a safe sex policy.” He said that Brazil’s success in halting the HIV/Aids epidemic, which meant promoting the use of condoms in a Catholic country, was an example of how people’s behaviour could be changed by education rather than repression.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/28/legalise-marijuana-drugs-commission

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Research Proves Marijuana is Not a "Gateway Drug"

2009-05-28T20:53:31Z

The surging debate surrounding the legalization of marijuana has brought with it the resurrection of the "gateway theory," which alleges that experimenting with marijuana leads to the use of harder drugs like cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. The gateway debate was reborn last week, thanks to a video of FBI director Robert Mueller testifying before Congress that marijuana should be illegal because it leads to more dangerous drug use.

Although the Mueller video has provoked amusement on pot-friendly websites, the unfortunate reality is that the "gateway drug" stigma continues to present an impediment to the reform of marijuana laws. A new Rasmussen poll found that a large percentage of Americans believe the gateway argument:

The new survey also shows that nearly half of voters (46%) believe marijuana use leads to use of harder drugs. Thirty-seven percent (37%) do not see marijuana as a "gateway" drug.

Revealingly, the percentage who opposed marijuana legalization and the percentage who believed in the gateway theory were identical, both coming in at exactly 46%. As we look for ways to persuade those who remain opposed to marijuana reform, it's clearly in our interest to work towards demolishing the pernicious gateway theory once and for all. Let's take a look at what the data shows.

In 1999, the National Institute on Drug Abuse commissioned a major study on medical marijuana conducted by the venerable Institute of Medicine, which included an examination of marijuana's potential to lead to other drug use. In simple terms, the researchers explained why the gateway theory was unfounded:

Patterns in progression of drug use from adolescence to adulthood are strikingly regular. Because it is the most widely used illicit drug, marijuana is predictably the first illicit drug most people encounter. Not surprisingly, most users of other illicit drugs have used marijuana first. In fact, most drug users begin with alcohol and nicotine before marijuana -- usually before they are of legal age.
…
There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs.

In 2006, the University of Pittsburgh released a more thorough study in which researchers spent 12 years tracking a group of subjects from adolescence into adulthood and documented the initiation and progression of their drug use. The researchers found that the gateway theory was not only wrong, but also harmful to properly understanding and addressing drug abuse:

This evidence supports what’s known as the common liability model, an emerging theory that states the likelihood that someone will transition to the use of illegal drugs is determined not by the preceding use of a particular drug but instead by the user’s individual tendencies and environmental circumstances.

“The emphasis on the drugs themselves, rather than other, more important factors that shape a person’s behavior, has been detrimental to drug policy and prevention programs,” Dr. Tarter said. “To become more effective in our efforts to fight drug abuse, we should devote more attention to interventions that address these issues, particularly to parenting skills that shape the child’s behavior as well as peer and neighborhood environments.”

Of course, the simplest refutation of the gateway theory is the basic fact that most marijuana users just don't use other drugs. As the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reports:

More than 100 million Americans have tried marijuana; 14.4 million Americans are estimated to be "past-month" users. Yet there are only an estimated 2,075,000 "past-month" users of cocaine and 153,000 "past-month" users of heroin. [DrugWarFacts]

Clearly, people who use marijuana overwhelmingly do not move on to other drug use. That's why the number of people who use marijuana will always be more than 10 times greater than the number of people who use cocaine, heroin, etc. The fact that marijuana users rarely become involved in other drug use is right here in front of us.

Unfortunately, there is one important way in which marijuana use can result in exposure to other more dangerous drugs. Laws against marijuana have created an unregulated black market, in which criminals control the supply and may attempt to market more dangerous drugs to people who just want marijuana. As the Journal of the American Medical Association reported in 2003:

Alternatively, experience with and subsequent access to cannabis use may provide individuals with access to other drugs as they come into contact with drug dealers. This argument provided a strong impetus for the Netherlands to effectively decriminalize cannabis use in an attempt to separate cannabis from the hard drug market. This strategy may have been partially successful as rates of cocaine use among those who have used cannabis are lower in the Netherlands than in the United States."

Ironically, the only real gateway that exists is created by marijuana prohibition, yet proponents of harsh marijuana laws cynically cite the damage they've caused as evidence that the drug itself is acutely harmful. It's truly the height of absurdity, yet it persists despite the mountain of categorical data I've outlined above.

The point here isn’t just that marijuana isn’t actually a "gateway drug," but that there really is no such thing as a gateway drug to begin with. The term was invented by hysterical anti-drug zealots for the specific purpose of linking marijuana with harmful outcomes that couldn’t otherwise be established. Everyone knows marijuana is completely non-lethal, but if it leads to sticking needles in your arm, anything's possible. Through repeated use, the term began to stick and we're now confronted with a marijuana legalization debate in which 46% of the country believes an antiquated, widely-refuted fabrication that erroneously renders marijuana as deadly and unpredictable as anything a scared parent can imagine.

It's perfectly typical of the unhinged drug war demagogues that one of their most popular anti-pot propaganda points doesn't even actually have anything to do with pot. Their tireless reliance on such nonsense may go a long way towards explaining why support for legalization is growing faster than ever before.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2009/may/27/research_proves_marijuana_is_not

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Can marijuana keep California from going under?

2009-05-22T10:02:56Z

Recently I watched the high-spirited and hilarious British film, Saving Grace. It tells the story of a Cornwall widow who faces losing her beautiful estate after her indebted husband commits suicide. Her pot-addicted handyman convinces her that the solution is to use her renowned green thumb not to raise exotic flowers to enter into local shows but to cultivate cash generating marijuana plants.

Only a few people get high in Saving Grace before the pot crop goes up in flames, but cash-starved California’s Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger might query whether such an ending was right in the real world. He believes that legalizing one of the U.S.’s largest cash crops for tax revenue for the Golden State and the rest of the country needs a fresh look.

In a poll reported on in February of this year, fifty-eight percent of respondents living on the west coast believed that cannabis should be “taxed and legally regulated like alcohol and cigarettes”. In response to the poll, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Executive Director said, “Public support for replacing the illicit marijuana market with a legally regulated, controlled market similar to alcohol, complete with age restrictions and quality controls, continues to grow, and appears to have achieved majority support on the west coast – where many voters are already familiar with the state-licensed use and, in some cases, sale of medical cannabis.”

While the debate on marijuana use and lost revenue picks up steam yet again, border agents in Arizona expect to seize about 800,000 pound of marijuana with a street value of $1 billion this year. According to reports by National Public Radio, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration estimates this amount to be about 20 percent of what is brought across the Mexican border. Stopping the flow is complicated by the assistance given to drug smugglers by Indians belonging to the Tohono O’odham Indian Nation, which has land on both sides the U.S.-Mexico border. As reported by NPR, one tribal leader noted “You wave five grand in somebody’s face and say, ‘All I want you to do is drive this vehicle from this point to this point, and here’s $5,000 to do it.’ “

Tribal leaders want more money for border patrols and other law enforcement. Governor Schwarzenegger just wants more money before his state’s economy – one of the world’s largest – collapses. What do you think?

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/rachel_ray/blog/2009/05/22/can_marijuana_keep_california_from_going_under_

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GW Pharma files cannabis drug for MS in Europe

2009-05-20T17:12:44Z

Multiple sclerosis drug Sativex filed for European OK

Firm posts maiden first-half profit of 4 mln pounds

Plans to test new cannabinoid medicine for dyslipidaemia

Shares up 8 percent

(Adds comments from R&D head, analyst, latest shares)

By Ben Deighton and Ben Hirschler

LONDON, May 20 (Reuters) – A pioneering cannabis-based medicine for multiple sclerosis from GW Pharmaceuticals (GWP.L) has been filed for approval in Europe, paving the way for its potential approval at the end of 2009 or early in 2010.

Following numerous delays, the submission to regulators in Britain and Spain is a landmark for the British drugmaker, which also announced on Wednesday it had made a maiden net profit of 4.0 million pounds ($6.2 million) in the six months to March 31 from a 4.2 million loss a year ago.

Shares in the company rose 7.6 percent to 85 pence by midday after touching a high of 89.5p.

Clinical trials have shown GW’s drug Sativex, which is sprayed under the tongue, reduces spasticity in multiple sclerosis patients who do not respond adequately to existing therapies.

If it is approved, Sativex will be marketed in Britain by Germany’s Bayer (BAYG.DE) and in the rest of Europe by Spain’s Almirall (ALM.MC).

Following the filings in Britain and Spain, submissions for approval will made in other European countries during 2010.

Further clinical trials need to be completed before the medicine is ready for submission for approval in the United States, where GW’s partner is Otsuka.

Sativex became the world’s first cannabis medicine to win regulatory approval when it was approved in Canada in 2005.

The drug—extracted from marijuana plants grown at secret locations in the English countryside—has been hit by a string of delays in Europe, where GW originally hoped to win approval in 2003.

Despite past disappointments, analysts are hopeful that this time GW will win a green light.

“Since the pivotal trial was designed largely by the regulators we feel there is relatively low risk of a rejection,” said KBC analyst Paul Cuddon.

The spray contains two active cannabinoids, CBD and THC. The latter substance is responsible for the euphoria associated with smoking cannabis.

GW also said it was planning a mid-stage Phase II clinical trial with a new cannabinoid medicine for the treatment of dyslipidaemia, or raised levels of fat in the blood, in type II diabetes patients.

Other potential use for cannabinoid medicines could include treatments for cancer and schizophrenia.

“We’re looking at developing other products from the plant which are not psychoactive … The plant has 60 or 70 of them, many of which have a very interesting pharmacology,” R&D Director Stephen Wright told Reuters.

http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssBiotechnology/idUSLK63796320090520

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Rise In Use Of Drug Tests To Sack Staff Without Redundancy

2009-05-20T08:34:50Z

Employers are increasingly using drug testing to get rid of staff without having to make redundancy payouts, as a way of -cutting costs during the recession, a charity has said.

Release, which focuses on drugs, the law and human rights, reported a four-fold increase in calls to its drugs team about problems with workplace testing in the first three months of 2009 compared with the same period last year.

In the first quarter of 2008, the team received 493 calls, with just 31 ( 6.2% ) related to testing at work. In the first three months of this year, 548 calls were received with 145 ( 26.4% ) about this issue.

In many cases callers have been getting in touch in a state of distress, having been tested for the first time after years in the same job. Often a programme of voluntary redundancies was announced, followed by workplace medicals for the remaining staff, including a drug test.

Sacking employees who test positive for illicit drugs allows employers to avoid making redundancy payouts. Cannabis, which can remain detectable for several weeks after use, is the substance causing the biggest problems for employees.

While drug testing in the workplace has been routine for many years in safety critical jobs, such as driving and machine operation, Release reports that many calls are coming from sectors they had comparatively few dealings with before such as office work, banking and commerce.

Previously the charity received regular calls from employers about how best to support staff with drug problems. These calls have dwindled to almost zero.

The expansion of drug testing into non-traditional areas could breach employees’ human rights and entitlement to a private life, while offering few enhancements to workplace performance, Release said.

Forty per cent of the workforce under 40 have used illicit drugs, according to Frank, the government’s drug awareness campaign. It is unclear how many users are impaired by drugs during working hours.

Frank’s literature states that while some workplaces may benefit from drug testing there are also many drawbacks, such as a negative impact on employer/employee relations.

The independent inquiry into drug testing at work in 2004 said “good management, education and support for staff is more useful, effective and less costly [than drug testing] in dealing with drug problems”.

Concateno, a group of companies that between them have approximately 60% of the UK workplace drug testing market, reported a 13.2% increase in testing between 2007 and 2008. In 2007, 159,000 workplace drug tests were carried out and in 2008, 180,000 tests were done.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/

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Many Candidates In European Parliament Election Support Legalization Of Cannabis

2009-05-20T08:34:19Z

Nearly one in six respondents to a questionnaire put to Finnish candidates in the upcoming elections for the European Parliament say that they could imagine a controlled legalisation of cannabis in the European Union. The questions were put to candidates in the candidate selection engine of the Irc-galleria online community. The candidates were asked to respond to the following proposition “If legislation on intoxicants in the EU were uniform, cannabis should be legalised in a controlled manner, as is the case with alcohol.” The respondents could answer “agree”, “disagree”, and “no significance for me”.

Of the 241 candidates running for the European Parliament in Finland, 164, or 68 per cent responded to the questionnaire. Of those who responded, 26 – just under one in six – felt that cannabis should be legalised in the scenario that was outlined. Candidates giving a positive answer to the cannabis question included Arja Alho (SDP), Jukka Relander (Green), Umayya Abu-Hanna (Green), Atik Ismail (Left Alliance), and Ukko Metsola (Nat. Coalition Party).

Jukka Relander gave his reasons for his positive answer: “It would be important to really get out the message that there is a great difference between soft and hard drugs. This could be one way.” Umayya Abu-Hanna wrote: ”... it has been proven that cannabis is not as harmful as tobacco. Alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis could be bundled in the same legislation on intoxicants”. Atik Ismail is interested in the medical applications of cannabis as a pain medicine. Alho and Metsola did not add any comments to their responses.

Of all of the parties, the candidates of the Finnish Communist Party were the most positive toward cannabis, with seven out of
15 candidates supporting legalisation under the circumstances that were outlined. Among candidates of the Left Alliance responding to the questionnaire, four out of 15 – over one in four – answered yes.

Support for legalisation among respondents from the True Finns and the Swedish People’s Party was in the range of 20 per cent, and in the Social Democrats and the Greens, the proportion is slightly over 10 per cent. However, the number of candidates is so small that the percentage amounts to two or three supporters of legalisation per party. The Centre Party, the National Coalition Party, and the Independence Party each had one supporter of legalisation. The Christian Democrats were the only party with representation in the Finnish national Parliament with no candidates supporting the proposition. The Seniors’ Party, and the For the Poor Party also had no supporters of legalisation of cannabis among their respondents.

The question was preceded by the following background information: “In Spain, the Czech Republic, and Germany, for instance, there is no punishment for the private use of cannabis. In The Netherlands cannabis is legal, and the state controls its sale. In Finland, the use, possession, cultivation, and sale of cannabis is illegal.” A significant proportion of the candidates of all parties responded to the questionnaire. The ages of the respondents varied between people in their 20s to those in their 70s.

In fact, legislation in The Netherlands is more nuanced than the background information to the survey suggests.

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Many+candidates+in+European+Parliament+election+support+legalisation+of+cannabis/1135246081871

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Nurse sacked for having sex and smoking cannabis with a patient

2009-05-18T13:03:38Z

A nurse has been sacked for having sex with a patient and smoking cannabis with him.

Now the 37-year-old woman faces being struck off the medical register.

She confessed to three days of sex and drugs with the patient, who she met in A& E at the North Devon District Hospital in Barnstaple after he was admitted drunk and unconscious following a family row.
The 44-year-old man blew the whistle on the nurse after she ended the relationship.

He said: “I won’t accept any blame. I think she has brought it all on herself.”

The hospital trust said: “It is up to her professional body to make any decision relating to her as a nurse – but she will never work again at this hospital.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk

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Dutch cannabis cafes become private members clubs

2009-05-18T13:02:58Z

About 30 cannabis-vending coffee shops in the southern Dutch province of Limburg said they would become private members’ clubs from January 1 to eliminate the “nuisance” of drug tourism.

“We will transform the coffee shops from open establishments, accessible by all, to closed establishments of which clients need to be members,” Maastricht mayor Gerd Leers told a press conference in the border town.

The coffee shops will issue membership cards for which the application procedure would take several days.

The measure, to be applied uniformly by all coffee shops in the province, which borders Belgium and Germany, would seek to “discourage the majority of drug tourists,” said the mayor.
“We have been fighting for years against the nuisance brought here by the Belgians, the French and the Germans,” he added.

Some four million foreigners travel to Limburg every year to buy cannabis, according to a municipal official.

From January 1 next year, the province will limit the sale of cannabis in its coffee shops to three grammes per person per day.
Dutch law allows the consumption and possession of up to five grammes of cannabis per individual, but prohibits the cultivation and mass retail of the soft drug.

Some 700 so-called coffee shops country-wide have special licences to sell marijuana but are allowed to keep no more than 500 grammes on site.

Several Dutch municipalities have recently announced plans to close all or part of the coffee shops within their borders, partly to discourage crime and drug tourism.

http://www.macaudailytimesnews.com

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Marijuana chemical may slow multiple sclerosis

2009-05-14T16:22:50Z

In lieu of curing a debilitating disease, the next best thing scientists can do is slow its progression and create better treatments.

Armed with a $1.5 million National Institutes of Health grant, Temple researchers are studying more effective ways to treat multiple sclerosis. And their research utilizes synthetic cannabinoids based on chemicals derived from the marijuana plant.

“A marijuana plant has about 96 different chemicals in it and you might immediately think about those that cause psychological effects,” says researcher Ron F. Tuma, Stewart professor of physiology and associate professor of neurosurgery. “Instead, we’re focusing on a chemical that doesn’t cause psychoactive effects but does affect the immune system.”

Calming the immune system is key to fighting the disease. In multiple sclerosis, or MS, a person’s immune system attacks the central nervous system. Current medications, like corticosteroids, turn off the immune response entirely, leaving an MS sufferer vulnerable to infection.

“MS is a terrible disease and the more rapidly it progresses, the sooner it disables its victims,” says co-researcher Doina Ganea, Earle H. Spaulding chair and professor of microbiology and immunology. “So, if you can slow that down for 10 or 20 years, you can make a significant impact on the patients’ lives.”

Both the marijuana plant and the human body produce cannabinoids, which essentially act through specific receptors on immune cells regulating the immune response. Think of the receptors as “traffic cops” that tell the immune system when to turn on and off, so that the body knows when to fight an infection and when to stand down. But in the case of MS sufferers, those receptors are on alert, and the immune system is in constant attack mode.

Tuma and Ganea theorized they could manipulate a man-made chemical to act as a cannabinoid and control the activation of those immune cells.

Using a compound (O-1996) synthesized by scientists at the Medical College of Virginia and the company Organix, Tuma and Ganea performed animal studies and found that the synthesized chemical affected cannabinoid receptors present primarily on immune cells.

Their early studies showed that the compound had a positive effect on the immune system by calming down the hyperactivity, which significantly reduced damage to the central nervous system. Their findings were published in the March issue of the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology.

But it wasn’t just these two researchers collaborating on this chronic disease. They enlisted the help of fellow researchers in the Center for Substance Abuse and Research (CSAR), including Mary Abood, Ph.D., and Martin Adler, Ph.D., who had already been studying cannabinoids.

“This is a totally new approach to treating this disease, “says Adler, director emeritus and senior advisor for CSAR and Laura H. Carnell professor of pharmacology research. “These cannabinoids hold enormous potential, and that’s encouraging since we’re limited in options when it comes to preventing or reversing MS.”

Adler would know. Not only because he’s a neuropharmacologist, but because members of his family suffer from MS. They are not alone. More than two million people worldwide suffer from the disease, with another two hundred cases diagnosed weekly in this country.

“Our goal is to develop new therapeutic agents in the fight against multiple sclerosis and improve the quality of life for the millions who suffer,” says Tuma.

And both Tuma and Ganea agree that Temple is on the cusp of something big by studying the role of cannabinoids in immune function.

“I know of no other universities in this country that have several principal investigators coming from different directions interested in studying cannabinoids,” says Ganea. “That different expertise is our strength.”

In addition to the four-year NIH grant that begins July 1, the study was funded by a $50,000 seed grant from Temple’s Office of the Provost and a $50,000 bridge grant from the Office for Research and Strategic Initiatives.

http://insciences.org/article.php?article_id=4963

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Ban considered for Spice Gold, herbal high as strong as some skunk cannabis

2009-05-08T09:04:31Z

The government’s drug advisers are to consider next week whether to ban Spice Gold, a herbal smoking mixture that is as strong as some strains of skunk cannabis, and other “legal highs”.

Spice is sold on the internet and in “head shops” as a herbal high and a nicotine-free smoke, and even advertised as an “aromatic potpourri”. It comes packaged in small sealed pouches holding 3g (less than an ounce).

But the former head of the Forensic Science Service’s drugs intelligence unit, Les King, yesterday told a European drugs conference in Lisbon: “Just a few months ago, it was found that a smoking mixture known as Spice was not the innocuous material it purported to be. The claimed constituents, namely various herbs, were a Trojan horse.”

He said that the substance’s real psychoactive constituents were synthetic additives, such as ones that mimic the effects of some of the more powerful active ingredients in cannabis.

King told the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction conference that the Spice Gold smoking mixture had been imported first from China and had been around since 2006. It mostly contained an unidentified herbal matter, sold at about £15.50 for 3g and produced a “cannabis-like” effect. There was also a more powerful type, Spice Diamond, on the market, and similar substances were sold as Yucatan Fire.

King is to give a presentation next week in London to the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, where his colleagues will debate whether to recommend that Spice be banned in Britain.

The move follows a request from the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, to look at the availability and harmfulness of a series of “legal highs” including the herb Salvia divinorum, commonly referred to as magic mint or Mexican sage, which has a naturally occurring psychoactive ingredient. But the advisory council, of which King is a member, will consider Spice first.

The “Trojan horse” properties of Spice were identified only last December by the THC Pharma laboratory in Germany, which is developing medicinal cannabis as synthetic imitations of the plant’s active ingredients. Its research led to Germany and Austria banning Spice in January this year. France decided to take the same action in February.

The first batches of Spice were seized in 2006 in Sweden and Jersey, but analysis failed to find any banned substances within them. Early last year the European monitoring centre’s early warning system, which links police, customs officials and drug specialists around the EU, identified a dozen online distributors – half based in Britain and a third in the Netherlands – who were promoting Spice.

King, in a paper entitled New Drugs Coming Our Way delivered to the monitoring centre’s conference, said that many “designer drugs” had been discovered across the EU since the early 1990s. These were psychotropic substances related to amphetamine and MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, and were predominantly stimulants or hallucinogens. As some of the drugs were banned in some EU states but not others, new law enforcement problems arose until a European-wide “joint action” on new synthetic drugs was developed in 1997 and expanded in 2005.

“The term ‘new’ referred to ‘newly misused’ as in almost all cases the substances had been first synthesised many years ago, often as potential therapeutic agents,” said King. “Since 1997, over 80 substances have been reported via the early warning system.”

He added that in the past few years a much more diverse range of substances had appeared, many of them MDMA-like, or stimulants, or, less commonly, hallucinogens. They included plant products such as Hawaiian Baby Woodrose, Kava and Kratom, unusual stimulants, ecstasy-style drugs such as BZP, which is now banned in four EU countries, and misused medicinal products. They even included Fluorotropacocaine, the first designer drug based on cocaine.

King, who is the UK correspondent for the EU’s early warning system for new drugs, predicted that synthetic drugs would continue to dominate the “legal highs” market and that herbal products would remain relatively uncommon. He suggested the emergence of these novel substances raised questions about how well placed the European authorities were to detect them. “Event the best-equipped labor atories in the EU can struggle to identify new substances, particularly if, as so often happens, neither pure reference mat erials nor analytical data are available. We must ask whether we are forever doomed to be reactive. Can new substances be anticipated?”

He told delegates the answer to his question was that it should be possible to anticipate new substances given a knowledge of the literature and the use of rules.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2009/may/07/spice-gold-herbal-high-drugs

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Poll: Majority of American favour pot legalisation

2009-05-08T09:02:32Z

A slim majority of Americans favour the legalisation, taxing, and regulation of marijuana, according to a new poll released yesterday.

The poll is the first time more than 50% of Americans have favoured legalisation, said Bruce Mirken, communications director of the Marijuana Policy Project, a thinktank that supports decriminalising the drug.

The survey was conducted by Zogby and the O’Leary Report, a conservative publication.

Of the 3,919 American surveyed, 52% favour legalising the drug, while 37% oppose it. The poll advances slightly from one taken last week by ABC News and the Washington Post, in which 46% favour legalisation compared to 52% who oppose.

“This new survey continues the recent trend of strong and growing support for taxing and regulating marijuana and ending the disastrously failed policy of prohibition,” Rob Kampia, Marijuana Policy Project executive director, said in a statement.

Respondents were asked:

Scarce law enforcement and prison resources, a desire to neutralize drug cartels and the need for new sources of revenue have resurrected the topic of legalizing marijuana. Proponents say it makes sense to tax and regulate the drug while opponents say that legalization would lead marijuana users to use other illegal drugs. Would you favor or oppose the government’s effort to legalize marijuana?

The Obama administration said recently it would no longer prosecute medical marijuana providers who are otherwise in compliance with state law, though the president does not favour outright legalisation. In Massachusetts, voters in November decriminalised possession of an ounce or less of the drug. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger recently said the time is right for a debate on marijuana legalisation.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/deadlineusa/2009/may/07/drugspolicy-usa

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Cannabis Science Inc. Reports on Prospective Life Saving Treatments for H1N1 and H5N1 Viruses

2009-05-04T11:28:15Z

Cannabis Science Inc. an emerging pharmaceutical cannabis company, reported today on the current state of development of its whole-cannabis lozenge in response to Homeland Security Administration Secretary Janet Napolitano’s declaration of a public health emergency to deal with the emerging Swine Flu pandemic.

The Company’s non-toxic lozenge has properties that could alleviate many of the symptoms and harmful effects of the H5N1 bird flu and H1N1 swine flu viruses, and has offered its assistance to HSA today in a letter to Secretary Napolitano. The Company has offered to produce up to 1 million doses of its whole-cannabis lozenge, and provide them to HSA for distribution at cost.

Cannabis Science Inc., President & CEO, Steven W. Kubby said, “We have the science and preliminary anecdotal results confirming the anti-inflammatory properties of our new lozenges and indicating they may present an effective and non-toxic treatment for minimizing the symptoms and harm from influenza infections. Our lozenges appear to down-regulate the body’s excessive inflammatory response to the influenza virus, which could reduce the deadly consequences of an infection into something that is more like a common cold. Because of my cancer and diminished auto-immune functions, even common influenza is a deadly threat, and I’ve had incredible symptomatic relief with the lozenge.”

Dr. Robert J. Melamede, Director and Chief Science Officer, stated, “The influenza virus has a unique genetic make up that, in combination with its replicative machinery, has an extraordinary capacity to mutate. As a result, the high lethality of some strains can be attributed to the resulting adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). ARDS is caused by an excessive immune inflammatory response driven by Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) that leads to the death of respiratory epithelial cells and resulting organ failure. Endocannabinoids are nature’s way of controlling TNF activity. Existing peer reviewed publications have shown that phytocannabinoids can prevent this cell death by mimicking the endocannabinoids that nature has selected to prevent excessive inflammatory immune responses.”

Dr. Melamede, who is also a researcher and past Chairman of the Biology Department at the University of Colorado Springs (UCCS), cautioned, “Smoked marijuana will not effectively prevent the excessive inflammatory response, despite delivering the beneficial pharmacological agents, due to the irritating, pro-inflammatory nature of smoke. In fact, I believe it will make things worse and should be avoided by infected individuals.”

Mr. Kubby added, “If a swine or bird flu pandemic emerges—and everyone seems to think that it is just a matter of when, not if—, there is simply no time for the usual bureaucratic process. With emergency government approval, we can legally access the huge supply of medical cannabis available in California to produce millions of life saving doses within a relatively short period of time.”
Dr. Melamede furthermore stated, “Based upon recent discoveries regarding the role that endocannabinoid system plays in maintaining human health, we have a unique solution to the looming threat posed by deadly influenza strains that we believe, if implemented, could save millions of lives. We will strive for an emergency review of our cannabis extract-based lozenge because we believe its availability will prevent many of the deaths associated with the hyper-inflammatory response associated with known lethal strains of the influenza virus. Current anti-influenza medications have a demonstrated decreased effectiveness against some of these lethal variants. Mankind cannot wait for the emergency situation to materialize. We must be proactive in gaining the necessary governmental approvals to test, and pending the outcome of our studies, produce our lozenge.”

Mr. Richard Cowan, Director and CFO, who recently spoke in Mexico City to a conference sponsored by the Mexican Congress, stated, “I believe the Mexican Congress recognizes that doctors should be able to prescribe medical cannabis. We are prepared to work with the government of Mexico to produce similar medical cannabis products to help fight the outbreak there. We look forward to working with Government officials, including Homeland Security, to help advance our treatments for these outbreaks in Mexico, Canada, the USA, and around the world.”

About the H5N1 Bird Flu and H1N1 Swine Flu Strains
The H5N1 bird flu currently has 63% lethality. A swine-derived H1N1 strain was responsible for 20,000,000 influenza associated deaths in 1918 (more than killed by World War I). The current lethal outbreak of swine flu (H1N1) in Mexico has killed over 80 people and infected more than 1,400 others. There are 20 confirmed cases in the United States, with reports of infections in Texas, New York, Ohio, California and Kansas. Additional reports identify possible cases in New Zealand, Canada, Spain, France and Israel. The H1N1 Swine flu is a porcine respiratory disease caused by type A flu viruses. Human cases occur in people who are around pigs, but an infected person can transmit the disease to another person. Symptoms include a high fever, body aches, coughing, sore throat and respiratory congestion.

About Cannabis Science, Inc.
Cannabis Science, Inc. is at the forefront of medical marijuana research and development. The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce, and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products. In sum, we are dedicated to the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treat disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance.

Forward-Looking Statements
This Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934. A statement containing works such as “anticipate,” “seek,” intend,” “believe,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “plan,” or similar phrases may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur. Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company’s reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs. Cannabis Science, Inc. does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements.
SOURCE: Cannabis Science Inc.

Cannabis Science Inc.
Steven W. Kubby, President & CEO, 888-889-0888
info@cannabisscience.com
http://www.cannabisscience.com

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Pot Dispensaries Raise Eyebrows in Venice

2009-04-27T10:07:02Z

The Venice Neighborhood Council recently opened deliberations to form a policy recommendation concerning medical marijuana dispensaries for Los Angeles City Councilmember Bill Rosendahl.

VNC member Challis Macpherson made the motion to open the debate, having received complaints from Venice residents, whom she would not identify, about the number of dispensaries that have taken root in Venice in recent years, despite the moratorium by the City of Los Angeles banning new facilities after November 2007.

Three people associated with The Farmacy, a natural remedies pharmacy that supplies many products including medical marijuana, spoke before the council, urging them not to demonize legitimate medical marijuana dispensaries.

“We’re working with groups to standardize regulation. We’re alarmed at the proliferation of illegal dispensaries in Venice,” Joanna LaForce, a registered pharmacist who works with the Farmacy, told the council. “We are an herbal store that wants to give safe access to its customers.”

The VNC will discuss the topic again at next month’s meeting, take public comment and vote on a statement to send to Rosendahl. However, despite alleged complaints, no opponents of dispensaries stepped up, and when one councilman facetiously asked who approved of the legalization of marijuana, the majority of those in the room raised their hands.

“It’s no secret that the majority of Venice are fans of legalization,” said Mike Newhouse, the president of the VNC. “But it’s good to start the dialogue on the issue.”

According to Rosendahl’s office, 11 new dispensaries have sprung up in Venice under the hardship clause, a loophole that allows dispensaries to apply for an exemption to the moratorium.

“It’s like the wild west out there,” LaForce, the Farmacy’s pharmacist, said. “It gives a bad name to those operating correctly who are not about the profits.”

The Los Angeles City Council passed the moratorium in September 2007 to prevent the establishment of new facilities as they crafted a comprehensive policy toward dispensaries. As of yet, no such ordinance has been approved.

In the meantime, the City of Los Angeles, which governs the neighborhood of Venice, does not have an official policy toward medical marijuana facilities. Instead, dispensaries fall into the category of retail, which means that a dispensary can open up shop in any store front zoned for retail use without review by the city.

This is not the case for liquor stores, for example, which must apply for conditional use permits and are more heavily regulated by the city.

Residents of Venice do not seem overly concerned about the presence of medical marijuana in their community. However, those that approve of it fall into two distinct camps over how it should be regulated, like a retail location or like a liquor store with a conditional use permit.

“Dispensaries shouldn’t be limited,” said Phillip Ballon, a Venice resident. “Should pharmacies be limited? The only difference is that one sells man-made drugs. Marijuana is natural, it’s given to us by God.”

Others don’t mind the dispensaries, but think their numbers should be limited and obtrusion into the community minimized.

“I don’t care, I just expect them to keep it at a certain level,” said Ingrid Boon, a Venice resident. “Don’t flaunt it in people’s faces, it’s like anything else.”

Santa Monica does not allow medical marijuana dispensaries under its current zoning code. The issue was brought before the Santa Monica City Council in 2007 and, in a split vote, the council decided not to alter its code to allow dispensaries.

Santa Monica opted to sidestep the issue for a number of reasons, said City Councilmember Richard Bloom. Federal raids had grown more frequent over the course of the Bush administration. Some landlords had been contacted and told that their properties might be forfeit if they allowed federally illegal drugs to be sold there.

Another issue involved access. There are 50 medical marijuana dispensaries within 10 miles of Santa Monica, according to an information item drafted by city planners.

“The case at that time was made by proponents that it was difficult to access medical marijuana and frankly I didn’t find that credible because I could drive by places that were just slightly outside of Santa Monica city limits,” said Bloom. “It didn’t seem that they were so far out of the way that they would inconvenience anybody who needed those services.”

A final issue was the aesthetics of Santa Monica, Bloom said. Marijuana dispensaries are accompanied with security guards with painted and barred windows.

“From a design perspective, that kind of commercial exterior really doesn’t have a place in Santa Monica,” Bloom said.

Although elements of federal prosecution have changed under the Obama administration, which has stated that it will not pursue medical marijuana for uses allowed under state law, the other issues are sufficient to table the topic for the time being.

“Given the experience of our neighbors in Venice, I’m not sure why we would want them here,” Bloom said.

http://www.smdp.com/Articles-c-2009-04-24-52915.113116_Pot_dispensaries_raise_eyebrows_in_Venice.html

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Cannabis Kills All Known Germs..Dead..including MRSA superbug

2009-04-25T21:13:44Z

he increase in MRSA infection in UK hospitals is a growing concern for both doctors and patients alike, but according to an American based company an effective, cannabis-based disinfectant is available to fight the super-bug.

MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a type of bacteria which has become increasingly resistant to antibiotics. MRSA infection has become increasingly difficult to treat, and can lead to death.

The number of cases of MRSA has been rising sharply – from 2,422 in 1997 in England and Wales, to 7,684 in 2003/4 in England alone. Official figures show that about 15% of reported MRSA cases result in death.

Disinfectant – A Huge Market

UK Children of the 70’s and the 80’s will be well familiar with the famous Domestos bleach TV adverts which ran for a couple of decades.

Domestos..Kills all known germs..Dead!

Much as they do today, animated germs and bugs ran riot across our screens (and down our toilet bowls), and the unbeatable bleach product would swing in as our saviour, and that of our families and young children.

Today, disinfectant is a huge consumer market, which sees shoppers spending millions of pounds sterling every year on liquid for the toilet, for the kitchen sink, and of course, the new generation of bleach/disinfectant wipes and sprays, used to protect our families from cross-contamination on the kitchen work-tops and food preparation areas.

If only we could kill germs and bugs as efficiently in our hospitals, right? Well apparently we can, according to a study which says Cannabis has shown “Exceptional” antibacterial activity against MRSA.

But the truth is no-one wants us to know about it. At the behest of a government which is dead set against any positive news regarding cannabis being released for general consumption, the press simply refuses to tell us about it.

But thankfully thats not the case in America.

Cannabis Science Inc

Dr. Robert Melamede, PhD., Director and Chief Science Officer for American based Cannabis Science Inc, reported recently on the current state of research into the use of natural plant cannabinoids to reduce the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA), and the prospects for development of topical whole-cannabis treatments.

According to studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association and by the Center for Disease Control in 2007, MRSA is responsible for more than 18,500 hospital-stay related deaths each year, and increased direct healthcare costs of as much as $9.7 billion.

“Infectious diseases such as the flu and HIV, autoimmune diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and diabetes”.

Amazingly this also includes neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, stroke and brain injury, as well as numerous forms of cancer.

“One common element of these diseases”, continues Dr Melamede, “is that patients often suffer extended hospital stays, risking development of various Staphyloccus infections including MRSA”.

“A topical, whole-cannabis treatment for these infections is a functional complement to our cannabis extract-based lozenge.”

Investigators at Italy’s Universita del Piemonte Orientale and Britain’s University of London, School of Pharmacy reported in the Journal of Natural Products that five cannabinoids – THC, CBD, CBG, CBC, and CBN - “showed potent antibacterial activity” and “exceptional” antibacterial activity against two epidemic MRSA occurring in UK hospitals.

The authors concluded: “Although the use of cannabinoids as systemic antibacterial agents awaits rigorous clinical trials, … their topical application to reduce skin colonization by MRSA seems promising. … Cannabis sativa … represents an interesting source of antibacterial agents to address the problem of multidrug resistance in MRSA and other pathogenic bacteria.”

But as was mentioned at the start of this article, for some reason the British government, backed up by the press, would rather we never got hear about it. Now why would that be do you think?

http://cannazine.co.uk/cannabis-news/united-kingdom/cannabis-kills-all-known-germs..dead..including-mrsa-superbug.html

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Cannabis Compounds Reduce Multi-Drug Resistant Infections

2009-04-25T21:12:39Z

Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTCBB: GFON). Dr. Robert Melamede, PhD., Director and Chief Science Officer, reported to the Board on the current state of research into the use of natural plant cannabinoids to reduce the spread of drug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphyloccus aureus (MRSA), and the prospects for development of topical whole-cannabis treatments.

Dr. Melamede stated, “Research into use of whole cannabis extracts and multi-cannabinoid compounds has provided the scientific rationale for medical marijuana’s efficacy in treating some of the most troubling diseases mankind now faces, including infectious diseases such as the flu and HIV, autoimmune diseases such as ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease), multiple sclerosis, arthritis, and diabetes, neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, stroke and brain injury, as well as numerous forms of cancer.

One common element of these diseases is that patients often suffer extended hospital stays, risking development of various Staphyloccus infections including MRSA.
A topical, whole-cannabis treatment for these infections is a functional complement to our cannabis extract-based lozenge.”

About Cannabis Science, Inc.

Cannabis Science, Inc. is at the forefront of medical marijuana research and development.

The Company works with world authorities on phytocannabinoid science targeting critical illnesses, and adheres to scientific methodologies to develop, produce, and commercialize phytocannabinoid-based pharmaceutical products.

In sum, we are dedicated to the creation of cannabis-based medicines, both with and without psychoactive properties, to treat disease and the symptoms of disease, as well as for general health maintenance.

Forward-Looking Statements

his Press Release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Act of 1934.

A statement containing works such as “anticipate,” “seek,” intend,” “believe,” “plan,” “estimate,” “expect,” “project,” “plan,” or similar phrases may be deemed “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

Some or all of the events or results anticipated by these forward-looking statements may not occur.

Factors that could cause or contribute to such differences include the future U.S. and global economies, the impact of competition, and the Company’s reliance on existing regulations regarding the use and development of cannabis-based drugs.

Cannabis Science, Inc. does not undertake any duty nor does it intend to update the results of these forward-looking statements.

Cannabis Science Inc.
Steven W. Kubby, 888-889-0888
President & CEO
info@cannabisscience.com
www.cannabisscience.com

http://cannazine.co.uk/cannabis-news/united-kingdom/cannabis-compounds-reduce-multi-drug-resistant-infections.html

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The Herbal Remedy: Teens Use Cannabis For Relief, Not Recreation, Study Finds

2009-04-23T09:49:53Z

When legal therapies let them down, some teens turn to cannabis. A new study, published in BioMed Central’s open access journal Substance Abuse, Treatment, Prevention and Policy suggests that around a third of teens who smoke cannabis on a regular basis use it as a medication, rather than as a means of getting high.

Joan Bottorff worked with a team of researchers from the University of British Columbia, funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, to conduct in-depth interviews with 63 cannabis-using adolescents. Of these, 20 claimed that they used cannabis to relieve or manage health problems. Bottorff said, “Marijuana is perceived by some teens to be the only available alternative for those experiencing difficult health problems when legitimate medical treatments have failed or when they lack access to appropriate health care”.

The most common complaints recorded were emotional problems (including depression, anxiety and stress), sleep difficulties, problems with concentration and physical pain. The teens’ experiences with the medical system were uniformly negative. The authors said, “Youth who reported they had been prescribed drugs such as Ritalin, Prozac or sleeping pills, stopped using them because they did not like how these drugs made them feel or found them ineffective. For these kids, the purpose of smoking marijuana was not specifically about getting high or stoned”.

The authors emphasize that the unmet medical needs of these teens are of key importance in these findings. In contrast to the unpleasant side effects of prescribed medications and long, ineffective legal therapies, cannabis provided these adolescents with immediate relief for a variety of health concerns. Of course, cannabis isn’t completely harmless, but as one of the respondents noted, “It’s not good for you, but then again, neither is McDonald’s and a lot of other things”.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090422191724.htm

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Devolving classification for drugs 'would be problematic'

2009-04-22T08:48:08Z

MINISTERIAL proposals for a separate Scottish classification of drugs were dismissed yesterday by one of the country’s leading anti-drug experts.
Professor Neil McKeganey, director of the Centre for Drug Misuse Research at Glasgow University, said creation of different classifications north and south of the border would lead to “major problems for justice”.

He was responding to a submission from the Scottish Government to the Calman Commission, which is examining the devolution settlement.

The Scottish Government called for drugs policy to be devolved, allowing ministers to set drugs policy in Scotland based on local conditions and problems. But Professor McKeganey said: ” If you are arguing for two systems, you are arguing a case that will lead ultimately to a divergence between how drugs are classified in England and Scotland.

“That would create major problems for justice. Someone using cannabis in Dumfries and Galloway would receive a different penalty to the person using the same drug just south of the Border. That creates the potential for confusion. I think we should have a national drug classification system, but one that is contributed to by Scottish ministers, who at present are largely spectators.”

A Scottish Government spokes-man insisted that any changes to the classification of drugs in Scotland would be done only on the advice of experts.

He added: “It is a statement of fact to say devolving drugs classification allows the possibility of different decisions being reached in Scotland – that applies to any policy issue currently reserved to Westminster. All decisions on drugs classification would be based upon expert advice from a range of professionals.”

http://news.scotsman.com/politics/Devolving-classification-for-drugs-.5184524.jp

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Human Brains Make Their Own 'Marijuana'

2009-04-21T21:16:02Z

U.S. and Brazilian scientists have discovered that the brain manufactures proteins that act like marijuana at specific receptors in the brain itself. This discovery may lead to new marijuana-like drugs for managing pain, stimulating appetite, and preventing marijuana abuse.

“Ideally, this development will lead to drugs that bind to and activate the THC receptor, but are devoid of the side effects that limit the usefulness of marijuana,” said Lakshmi A. Devi of the Department of Pharmacology and Systems Therapeutics at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and one of the senior researchers involved in the study. “It would be helpful to have a drug that activated or blocked the THC receptor, and our findings raise the possibility that this will lead to effective drugs with fewer side effects.”

Scientists made their discovery by first extracting several small proteins, called peptides, from the brains of mice and determining their amino acid sequence. The extracted proteins were then compared with another peptide previously known to bind to, but not activate, the receptor (THC) affected by marijuana. Out of the extracted proteins, several not only bound to the brain’s THC receptors, but activated them as well.

“The War on Drugs has hit very close to home,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. “Last year, scientists found that our skin makes its own marijuana-like substance. Now, we see that our brain has been making proteins that act directly on the marijuana receptors in our head. The next step is for scientists to come up with new medicines that eliminate the nasty side of pot—a better joint, so to speak.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090420151240.htm

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Canada, America and the UK: Mixed Fortunes of Hemp

2009-04-17T13:35:21Z

Whilst Canadian company Manitoba Harvest announces new investments to take advantage of a booming market for its hemp nutritional products, British hemp producer “Hemcore” has been put into administration, and during a period in which the United Kingdom is looking for answers to the increasing levels of CO2 in the environment, isn’t it about time our government stepped up to the plate and rescued the Great British hemp industry?

April 14th was a big day in the eyes of the Canadian hemp industry. It was the day a venture capitalist called Avrio Ventures pledged a big money investment into what is quite literally, Canada’s fastest growing industry.

That industry is hemp. A plant which in under six months from seed to harvest, will offer a better return for the farmer as well as a more beneficial and nutricious food source than most any other crop.

Avrio Ventures is a venture capital firm that supports the development of Canadian commercialization and growth stage industrial bio-products, nutraceutical ingredients and food technology companies into world-class organizations. And its no surprise these companies, often called guardian angels in Europe, are looking into hemp as the next big return on investments.

Andrew Lahde
Indeed hedge-fund manager Andrew Lahde, a man with a blistering 833% return on his investment portfolio, spoke out recently, as he stepped down from fund management just prior to the economic crash the world finds itself basking in currently.

In case you’re wondering, Lahde is the man who betted against the American sub-prime financial markets.

Whilst all the experts were investing heavily in the more risky sub-prime sector, Lahde bucked the trend and successfully predicted the financial crash which all but destroyed the global banking system, and in doing so, and as a result of some ballsy spread-betting, he was the man who made a pretty penny out of financial disaster.

Before he left the financial industry for good he published a letter in the Wall Street journal explaining his reasons for departing the markets. In the letter he launched a scathing attack on the American financial industry which as Mr Lahde so eloquently explained is controlled not by Wall Street or the FT indexes, but by US Congress, and vice-versa.

He also explained where the next lucrative investments were to be found. Information you would have had to pay him for just twelve months ago.

“I would like to bring attention to an alternative food and energy source. You won’t see it included in British Petroleum’s, “Feel good. We are working on sustainable solutions,” television commercials, nor is it mentioned in similar commercials created and produced by ADM, (Archer Daniels Midland Company).”

Mr Lahde then went on to point out some of the historical uses humanity has found for the much-maligned hemp plant.

“Hemp has been used for at least 5,000 years for cloth and food”.

“As well” he continued, “As just about everything that is produced from petroleum products”.

“So,why is this innocuous plant illegal”? he asked. “Is it a gateway drug”?

“No, that would be alcohol, which is so heavily advertised in this country”.

“My only conclusion as to why it is illegal, is that Corporate America, which owns Congress, would rather sell you Paxil, Zoloft, Xanax and other addictive drugs, than allow you to grow a plant in your home without some of the profits going into their coffers.”

“This policy is ludicrous”.

“It has surely contributed to our dependency on foreign energy sources. Our policies have other countries literally laughing at our stupidity, most notably Canada, as well as several European nations (both Eastern and Western).”

“Although you would not know this by paying attention to U.S. media sources though, as they tend not to elaborate on who is laughing at the United States this week.”

In closing, Mr Lahde made a heartfelt plea to the United States, and its a plea the rest of the world would do well to heed.

“Please people, let’s stop the rhetoric and start thinking about how we can truly become self-sufficient. Grow Hemp”.

About Hemp

Hemp foods and functional foods containing hemp-derived nutraceuticals are among the hottest categories in the natural products industry.

According to research by the natural products market information company SPINS, from 2007 to 2008 sales of hempmilk grew 162%, shelled hemp seed rose 44% and hemp protein powders increased 21%.

Foods such as hemp, which provide Omega-3 Essential Fatty Acids (EFAs) are big news right now, because medical evidence demonstrating their health benefits continues to grow.

Health-savvy consumers are also finding that in addition to being a nutritional powerhouse, hemp foods have a great flavor and gourmet appeal.

Hemp Nutrition

utrition experts are backing hemp due to its balanced concentration of Omega-3 and Omega-6 Essential Fatty Acids, strong digestible protein profile, plentiful fiber, and abundance of vitamins and minerals.
Hemp foods are the richest vegetable source of Omega 3 & 6.

Hemp also contains all of the essential amino acids and has an overall protein content that is comparable to soy beans and higher than that found in nuts, other seeds, meats, dairy products, fish and poultry.
Hemp foods offer potential benefits associated with the prevention or attenuation of many of the leading health conditions that challenge people in North America and further afield, including diabetes, cancer, lupus, asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, hormone imbalance, depression and hypertension.

The role of essential fatty acids in human growth and development, as well as their role in diseases like coronary heart disease, are hot research areas.

April 14th 2009 – The United Kingdom

On the same day as Manitoba Harvest announced a major inward investment, the UK’s largest hemp grower and processor Hemcore was also in the news, but for quite different reasons.

Whilst Mike Fatta and his Canadian ‘Manitoba Harvest’ brand had focused on the nutritional benefits of hemp, Hemcore, a British company which started out in 1993 as a consortium of 20 farmers looking for new pastures, had looked at other possible outlets for their newly planted hemp harvests.

They settled on building and construction, animal bedding and the automotive industry. Industries which almost 2 decades ago must have looked lucrative and ripe for the picking.

But after what can only be put down to poor management, the Hemcore brand never made the transition from niche, fringe product, into a mainstream juggernaut as it has in Canada. And regardless of the fact the hemp plant sequesters literally billions of tonnes of CO2 from the environment as it grows, making Canada a true world leader in ecological industrial practices.

Meanwhile, just down the road in the United States, US Congress uses the Drug Enforcement Agency to keep hemp outlawed and as such, out of reach for a US agri-industry which is suffering just like the rest of us.

In the meantime, a more eco-savvy US public is clamouring to buy everything the Canadian hemp industry can produce, creating a market which is worth almost as much as America spends to keep hemp outlawed.

And this is the reason Canada is laughing at the United States.

Which all begs the question. Why is the United Kingdom not involved in this newly emerging global industry?

Instead of quite literally making hay while the sun shines, our own fledgling hemp industry is being choked back by a government which, in a similar vein as the United States, is not controlled by democracy and freedom of choice.

Its controlled by blue-chip corporations which pick up the pieces from the mis-management of government.

A government which thinks nothing of spending trillions of pounds sterling to keep hemp outlawed, at the behest of a petroleum industry, a pharmaceutical industry and an alcohol industry which stand to be hit the hardest when (and it is a when, not an if) hemp is eventually brought into the mainstream markets.

Realistically this isn’t going to happen anytime soon, but whilst you wait for more and more Canadian sourced hemp products to appear on the shelves of your favourite supermarket, do some google search’s into the nutritional benefits of hemp, and then ask your elected representative why we are not as a nation, growing hemp wholesale, to feed to our children.

God knows they deserve it.

http://cannazine.co.uk/hemp/hemp-products/canada-america-and-the-uk-mixed-fortunes-of-hemp.html

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New Biologically Active Compounds From Cannabis

2009-04-08T23:45:54Z

After figuring out the chemical structures, it was crucial to know how useful these molecules might be in terms of medicinal properties. The first good news was that none of the cannabinoids were toxic to cells extracted from African green money kidneys, which meant that they have potential as drugs. Upon closer inspection, several of the compounds had respectable biological activities, as well.

http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/04/new-biologically-active-compounds-from-cannabis.ars

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Good to meet you Kevin Ecclestone

2009-04-05T16:50:49Z

I’m currently trying to find an alternative way of living my life. I was recently made redundant from my job as a regional manager and now find myself musing on the possibility of an existence outside of the corporate world.

I started reading the Guardian for the business pages. The Guardian discusses the human responsibilities of business and offers a critique. The coverage of the financial situation has been fantastic – I’d go so far as to say it’s the led the way.

The current greed in our society is reminiscent of the Thatcher years. I actually think the way our society encourages aspiration in everybody can be quite negative. Some people just want a quiet life, so why make them feel they need three vehicles and several holidays a year?

I attend a lot of festivals and find the scene really relaxing. That’s an alternative way of living. I went snowboarding in Spain recently, and came across a little bar on a mountain. It got me thinking about bars in strange places, and I’m considering getting a bus and turning it into a restaurant and bar which I can take round the festivals.

For the last five years, I have gone to Glastonbury with my daughter Holly. My partner Cath won’t have anything to do with it, so she’ll book a holiday. Meanwhile, Holly and I live like reprobates, staying up until 5am and sleeping all day. You’ve got to let kids have freedom. Holly’s 14, and she’s one of the most well-balanced people I know.

I also believe cannabis should be legal – although I don’t think children should be allowed to do it. Generally, though, I think recreational drugs like cannabis and ecstasy do less harm than alcohol, and legalising them would allow proper control. Until then you drive people who otherwise live a legal life into contact with the underworld.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2009/apr/04/good-to-meet-you-kevin-ecclestone

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Active Component Of Marijuana Has Anti-cancer Effects, Study Suggests

2009-04-05T16:33:30Z

Guillermo Velasco and colleagues, at Complutense University, Spain, have provided evidence that suggests that cannabinoids such as the main active component of marijuana (THC) have anticancer effects on human brain cancer cells.

In the study, THC was found to induce the death of various human brain cancer cell lines and primary cultured human brain cancer cells by a process known as autophagy.

Consistent with the in vitro data, administration of THC to mice with human tumors decreased tumor growth and induced the tumor cells to undergo autophagy. As analysis of tumors from two patients with recurrent glioblastoma multiforme (a highly aggressive brain tumor) receiving intracranial THC administration showed signs of autophagy, the authors suggest that cannabinoid administration may provide a new approach to targeting human cancers.

Cannabinoid action induces autophagy-mediated cell death through stimulation of ER stress in human glioma cells.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/04/090401181217.htm

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Discovery Of Mechanism That Processes A 'THC' Type Brain Compound May Lead To New Medicines For Pain, Addiction

2009-03-26T08:41:13Z

Dale Deutsch, Ph.D., Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Stony Brook University and colleagues discovered a new molecular mechanism for the processing of endocannabinoids, brain compounds similar to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, and essential in physiological processes such as pain, appetite, and memory.

Reported online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the finding could pave the way for new medicines for pain, addiction, appetite control and other disorders.

Dr. Deutsch and colleagues in the Departments of Biochemistry and Cell Biology (Martin Kaczocha) and Neurobiology and Behavior (Sherrye Glaser, Ph.D.) are the first to successfully identify two known fatty acid binding proteins (FABPs) that carry the endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA), a neurotransmitter, from the cell membrane to interior of the cell where it is destroyed. This identification enabled the research team to inhibit FABPs in various laboratory experiments and thereby reduce AEA breakdown inside cells. In their study, “Identification of intracellular carriers for the endocannabinoid anandamide,” the researchers report that they decreased the breakdown of AEA in some instances by approximately 50 percent.

“Inhibiting FABPs could potentially raise the levels of AEA in the brain’s synapses,” says Dr. Deutsch. “Naturally occurring AEA levels have been shown to curb pain without the negative side effects, such as motor coordination problems, from molecules like THC. Therefore, it makes sense to target AEA for therapeutic purposes.”

He emphasizes that their groundbreaking discovery of the role of FABPs in transporting this class of neurotransmitters may prove to be a crucial step in developing novel drug targets for endocannabinoids by way of inhibiting FABPs. In support of the research, The State University of New York (SUNY) Stony Brook Office of Technology Licensing and Industry Relations (OTLIR) has filed U.S. Patent applications comprising the discovery.

The OTLIR manages all intellectual property matters for the SUNY Research Foundation. In actively marketing this unlicensed technology created by Dr. Deutsch, the Stony Brook OTLIR welcomes commercial entities interested in partnering with the University. The licensing agent for the project is Adam DeRosa of the OTLIR.

The breakdown of AEA requires two factors. First, there needs to be a mechanism for transporting AEA to the location where it is inactivated because AEA is a fatty compound and thus unable to move inside the watery cellular environment. Second, the cell must express an enzyme called FAAH, which controls the breakdown and inactivation of AEA. In the laboratory, the researchers coaxed a nonneuronal cell type (COS-7) to express FAAH. These FAAH-expressing COS-7 cells were able to break down AED efficiently, indicating that the intracellular AEA transport mechanism was already present and operation in these cells. The researchers identified these carriers as two separate FABPs.

Dr. Deutsch believes that because a transporter for the AEA class of neurotrasmitters had never been discovered until the Stony Brook findings, continued research may explain many unanswered questions about AEA. Future research may uncover more knowledge about AEA transport, as well as the entire role these neurotransmitters play in pain, inflammation, appetite control, addiction, and perhaps other physiological processes related to many human disorders.

The research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090325190342.htm

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Police keep hemp museum conditionally open

2009-03-25T07:33:16Z

Police say the doors of Nimbin’s Hemp Museum can remain open during this year’s Mardi Grass festival only if it can guarantee there will be no drug trade inside.

Richmond local area commander Superintendent Bruce Lyons says he does not want to see any criminal behaviour inside the museum this year.

Superintendent Lyons says police are in negotiations with the owners of the museum and the Crown solicitor’s office.

“To ensure there are proper security measures placed in the museum so it can continue to be open – I’m hoping that those negotiations are fruitful and that the museum can remain open, but it can only remain open if we eliminate the drug trade from the museum,” he said.

http://www.abc.net.au

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Alcohol Far Worse than Marijuana for Adolescent Brain

2009-03-24T08:22:14Z

SAN DIEGO

Chronic marijuana use by adolescents may subtly impair certain neurocognitive skills, but this impairment is far less severe than the adverse effects associated with the use of alcohol, according to a review published in the January issue of the scientific journal Clinical EEG and Neuroscience.

Investigators at San Diego State University and the University of California at San Diego wrote:

“Recent research has indicated that adolescent substance users show abnormalities on measures of brain functioning, which is linked to changes in neurocognition over time.

“Abnormalities have been seen in brain structure volume, white matter quality, and activation to cognitive tasks, even in youth with as little as one to two years of heavy drinking and consumption levels of 20 drinks per month, especially if [more than] four or five drinks are consumed on a single occasion.

“Heavy marijuana users show some subtle anomalies too, but generally not the same degree of divergence from demographically similar non-using adolescents.”

By contrast, studies have demonstrated that marijuana use by adults, even chronic use, is seldom associated with any long-term residual impact in cognitive skills.

Commenting on the UCSD/UCSD study, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “This review affirms once again that cannabis, though not harmless, poses far less risk to the consumer than does alcohol. Given this premise, it is counterintuitive that our state and federal laws embrace the use of booze while stigmatizing and criminally prohibiting the use of marijuana by adults.”

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/research-alcohol-far-worse-than-marijuana-for-adolescent-brain

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While a shepherd watched his flock by night...

2009-03-21T12:01:44Z

Medicinal purposes are one thing, but marijuana received an unexpected recreational endorsement when Italy’s highest court ruled that an Italian shepherd’s smoking habit could be justified because he only had sheep for company.

The 45-year-old shepherd was caught with marijuana in his car as he was setting off for an extended period with his flock in the mountains of Alto Adige, in the far north of the country. Police found 38 grams (about 1.3 ounces) in the car, and the shepherd, identified only as Giorgio D., was convicted of possession. But upholding an appeal against the verdict, the Court of Cassation ruled that the shepherd was justified in possessing this small quantity of the drug on account of “the long and solitary period” he was about to spend “in the countryside and the mountains, due to the migration of his flock of sheep”.

It is not the first time that Italy’s most senior judges have chosen to smile indulgently at the smoking of marijuana in unusual contexts. Last July, the court overturned the conviction of a Rastafarian, Giuseppe G., as it concluded that the drug “was a possible conveyor to a psychophysical state connected to contemplative prayer ? in the belief that the sacred herb grew on the tomb of Solomon, acquiring its potency from that wise king”.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-wellbeing/health-news/while-a-shepherd-watched-his-flock-by-night-1650377.html

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Coffee Shop Trial a Test for Dutch Drug Policies

2009-03-19T10:13:29Z

The Dutch have long been known for their liberal drug policies. Recently, though, cities and prosecutors have been cracking down on the so-called “coffee shops” that sell marijuana. In one potentially precedent-setting case, laws against organized crime are being used in an effort to convict a shop owner.

Law enforcement officials in the Netherlands are seeking to prosecute the owners and employees of one of the country’s largest “coffee shops” in a case that could have a huge impact on drug policies in the country.

If Meddy Willemsen, the owner of the mega coffee shop Checkpoint in the city of Terneuzen, is convicted of encouraging illegal cannabis cultivation and running an organized supply chain, it could allow prosecutors to convict other coffee shop owners and workers on charges that are usually used against gangs and organized crime networks.

The trial promises to focus attention on the paradox at the heart of Dutch drug policies: Cannabis can be sold to consumers in amounts not exceeding 5 grams per person, but large-scale cultivation and bulk-buying of the drug is prohibited. Thus, cannabis and hashish are allowed to leave the coffee shop through the front door, but are not allowed to be delivered to the backdoor.

The contradictory policy has recently come under fire from all sides of the political spectrum. The conservative Christian Democrats’ parliamentary leader, Pieter van Geel, recently proposed a blanket prohibition on soft drugs. His proposal came on the heels of a decision by two towns on the Belgian border to shut down their coffee shops to ward off the nuisance created by drug tourists.

By contrast, mayors from other municipalities say it is time to make provisions for the wholesale supply of soft drug retailers.

André Becker, the lawyer representing Checkpoint, says that regardless of the verdict, his client’s trial will set a national precedent. “If the court accepts the prosecutor’s reasoning, it would have great consequences,” Beckers says.

Coffee shops are permitted to stock up to 500 grams of cannabis on their premises. Before it was forcibly closed by police in May 2008, however, Checkpoint had routinely sold 10 kilograms of weed to 3,000 customers every day. If Willemsen is convicted, the €28 million ($36.4 million) he allegedly earned between January 2006 and May 2008 could be considered criminal assets.

Peter Tak, a professor of criminal law at the University of Amsterdam, says there is a “substantial” chance that the court will rule in favor of the prosecution. According to Tak, the operation of coffee shops has always been against the letter of the law, though the businesses have long been tolerated by the Dutch government. The Dutch “opium laws” sanction the use of drugs, not their large-scale purchase or cultivation. “Actually, I am surprised that this is the first time that the authorities have tried to prosecute against coffee shops,” Tak says.

Still, the court could also rule in favor of Willemsen if it reasons that the state’s sanctioning and regulation of small-scale drug transactions implies an acceptance of the larger-scale cultivation and transportation of those drugs.

Even before charges were filed against Willemsen, the country had been considering making changes to its drug policies. The Netherlands’ current government coalition agreed at its inception to discourage coffee shops in border areas. The politicians argued that the country’s drug tolerance policies were intended for local users and not for the—mostly Belgian and French—drug tourists.

Previous efforts to ward off drug tourists have had mixed results. A judge struck down an attempt by the city of Maastricht to restrict drug purchases to Dutch nationals. The towns of Bergen op Zoom and Roosendaal have shut down all eight of their coffee shops to keep away rowdy visitors.

Other cities are hoping to avoid prohibition. Indeed, the municipality of Eindhoven is encouraging the opening of more coffee shops in order to prevent the arrival of mega-coffee shops like Checkpoint.

http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/0,1518,614047,00.html

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Skunk: Kids think the strong stuff is the best stuff

2009-03-18T13:17:07Z

As the row over smoking skunk by British teenagers grows, we trace the history of super-potent cannabis and its effects.

There was a furore last week when the novelist Julie Myerson wrote about evicting her teenage son for his “skunk addiction”. She justified it by saying that Britain needed to wake up to the “emergency out there called skunk”.
Myerson’s outburst may have seemed slightly hysterical to anyone whose rite of passage included smoking a joint at some hazy point in the past, yet everything about skunk is more powerful than what came before. Its strength and its pervasiveness were cited by the Government as its reasons for raising cannabis back to a Class B drug in January.

Skunk has created a new domestic drugs industry, making millions for illegal farmers – mainly Vietnamese immigrants – on Britain’s industrial estates, and it has done so in an astonishingly short time. Police seizures show that it accounted for barely 10 per cent of the cannabis sold here in the late 1990s; last year it was 80 per cent.

What struck me, talking to teenagers in the course of writing this piece, was the sheer rapidity of this transformation. I’m in my thirties, yet what young people now regard as “normal” cannabis was unheard of in this country a decade ago. “Skunk is horribly strong – you can practically feel your brain cells knocking off,” says Ben, a 19-year-old student. “But it wasn’t that we asked for it. Growing up in rural Herefordshire, it was all we could get.”

Say the word “skunk” to teenagers and they may nod their heads, while politicians will shake their heads. Only a few brave ones will then whisper:
“What exactly is skunk?” One public health study tried to ask teenagers about their skunk use but concluded that “it was unclear what people surveyed understood the term skunk to mean … it is a confusing picture”.

To see that picture clearly through the fug, it is necessary to rewind the clock several decades.

In the 1970s there was a moral panic in America over teenagers smoking pot. At the time, the majority was imported Mexican Cannabis sativa plants, so, during the summer of 1975, blue-and-white American helicopters buzzed low over the Mexican marijuana fields, destroying the crops with toxic salt. At the time, President Ford thought that he had found a clever way to stop American teenagers from smoking “wacky baccy”. Moral panic over.

Yet that giant weedkilling operation didn’t have quite the effect that the President was hoping for.

When the US Government sprayed the Mexican marijuana fields, imports dropped almost overnight. This, coupled with ever-increasing border controls, meant that dealers had to look to home-grown plants. But there was a problem: Cannabis sativa cannot withstand frost and won’t flower reliably north of the 30th parallel. Furthermore, the plants are tall and hence difficult to conceal from the police.

The breakthrough for pot-smokers came when enterprising hippies returned from their travels with seeds from the variety of cannabis native to Afghanistan and India, Cannabis indica. Previously, few people had cared for the taste of Cannabis indica, but it was hardy and small. When Cannabis sativa was crossed with Cannabis indica, the industrial-scale home-grown market was born. And so, too, was skunk.

Steven Hager, a Sixties counterculture survivor and former editor-in-chief of High Times, a New York-based magazine that strongly advocates legalising cannabis, says that the new hybrid cannabis was nicknamed skunk because of its unmistakably pungent smell: “The first seed company to breed indica into sativa was the Sacred Seed Company of northern California. Its most popular strain was called Skunk#1 – it is still one of the most circulated strains in the world.”

Since then, the production of hybrid cannabis has become a high-tech industry and, with estimated earnings of almost $50 billion (£36 billion) a year, easily America’s biggest cash crop. This is what the British refer to as skunk. It has been the norm in America since the 1980s, although Americans refer to it by a variety of other names.

In the past, Britain’s cannabis market was dominated by cannabis resin (“hash”) smuggled in mainly from the wild-growing cannabis sativa in Morocco. With the rising risk and cost of smuggling through ever-tighter border controls, though, by the late 1990s British criminals were copying the booming American industry: growing the “Cannabis sativa x indica” themselves.

Whatever worries people may have about skunk, air miles is not one of them – most of our cannabis is now grown here, mainly by Vietnamese gangs.

“Indoor cultivation has spread to the UK and other parts of Europe, which is why cannabis flowers are becoming more prevalent than hash in many places,” says Hager. “Indoor growing can be very profitable, since cannabis grows on trees and sells for the price of gold.”

In Britain this new type of cannabis – dry, mossy, green buds – was called skunk to distinguish it from the dark blocks of resin that came before. This is what the one in five 16 to 24-year-olds who smoke marijuana are almost certainly smoking.

Growers are now focused on increasing the strength of the “high”, which depends on the concentration of a chemical called tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). One way to do this is to select plants that are naturally more potent; another is to use lights to mimic the effect of autumn on the female plant. This causes it to produce more resin in a last-ditch attempt to pollinate itself before winter – and the resin is what makes it stronger.

David Crane, founder of the cannabis campaign organisation The Hempire, describes this trend as “largely demand-led”. He adds: “Inexperienced kids think that strong stuff is the best stuff. They want to prove themselves. There is no one they trust to say ‘no, the gentler stuff is nicer’. And it takes a certain type of confidence to say to a dealer ‘This isn’t really working’.”

Boys, it seems, are particularly keen on trying to outdo each other by coping with greater strengths of the drug – as they might with alcohol or curry. “Boys like to boast about the strength of their skunk,” says 18-year-old Katie.

Duncan, 27, a part-time drug dealer for two years, also characterises skunk use as a male-dominated pastime. “It suddenly became more available in 1999 or 2000. It was what everyone wanted,” he says. “The side-effects weren’t really seen as a downside back then.

“For a lot of people it’s about the strength. It was older brothers and mates’ older brothers who introduced us – it’s that way for everyone. I was 13. Smoking it is definitely a boy thing, I don’t really know why. It goes hand-in-hand with computer games and sitting around.

“Skunk is definitely a young thing, too. I deal to people of my own age and everyone now is specifically asking not for skunk. They are people with kids and jobs who just want to have a smoke. Once you’re out of uni and have to hold down a job, you get sick of it – and you need to be able to get out of bed in the morning.”

Another incentive for dealers is cost. “An ounce of hash or weed sells for about £40,” says Barry, a 28-year-old dealer. “An ounce of good-quality home-grown skunk will fetch anything between £180 and £200.”

The strength has certainly increased, but not as much as some media reports have suggested. In an analysis of drugs seized in Britain last year, Home Office scientists found that the old-fashioned Moroccan resin had a mean THC concentration of 6 per cent, while skunk was 16 per cent – rather like drinking a large glass of wine rather than a small glass of sherry. Its potency, they said, was not increasing year on year.

Some, like Steven Hager, argue that the stronger cannabis is, the healthier it is “because it means you’ll smoke less and have fewer health issues due to inhaling smoke”. Whether teenagers regulate their intake in that way is unclear.

Finally, the scientists also found that British skunk had, compared with resin, very low levels of a chemical called cannabidiol. This has sedative properties, and experts such as Professor Robin Murray, a consultant psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry and leading researcher into the effects of cannabis on mental health, have suggested that it could even work as an antipsychotic.

“We know that there is an increased risk of psychosis in people who use the old-fashioned type of cannabis,” he says, “but no study has yet taken into account the change in cannabis composition. Our clinical impression is that our patients choose to use the stronger varieties, in the same way that a typical alcoholic is not drinking shandy but prefers vodka or whisky. The average psychotic cannabis user is more likely to use skunk.”

One preliminary study compared cannabis users with just THC in their hair samples – typical of skunk use – and those with both CBD and THC, which showed that they were smoking old-fashioned cannabis. Those with just THC were more likely to show psychotic symptoms. Another preliminary study showed that CBD seemed to have some effect when given as an antipsychotic, and could even block the effects of THC.

“Probably CBD is not harmful and may actually ameliorate the effects of THC,” says Professor Murray. “The problem is that the general population’s interest in this goes far beyond any funded research.”

It is not yet entirely clear what effect high does of TCH without the restraining effect of CBD will have on a generation of British teenagers. If this is the last unknown, it is the most worrying one.

What would you do if you found your child was smoking skunk?

Dr Marta DiForti

MD MRCPsych, psychiatrist at the Institute of Psychiatry

“If I found out my child was smoking skunk instead of cannabis, I would worry in the same way that I would if I discovered they were drinking whisky instead of beer. We know about the risks of cannabis – the effect on cognitive performance, learning and memory, and liability to psychotic experiences and becoming very suspicious and paranoid. It is likely that skunk has the same effects, but worse. But cannabis is not a monster. Like cigarettes, it is issues of frequency, duration and potency. It’s a matter of public education.”

Martin Barnes

chief executive, Drugscope

“Parents or carers should inform themselves about the drug and try to keep the lines of communication open. While it’s important not to overstate fears about skunk, all forms of cannabis are harmful and pose risks to physical and mental health. Its harm to mental health has been widely reported, and sometimes exaggerated, in the media. But there has been less attention drawn to other more common problems that cannabis use may cause for young people, such as the lethargic feeling. While cannabis is a harmful drug, it is important to recognise, without being complacent, that most users do not come to any significant harm.”

David Potter CBiol MIBiol

CMIOSH, botanist and cannabis expert

“Skunk is no way as damaging as many of the other drugs out there, such as cocaine and the hallucinogenics, but I would be concerned, especially about a young person smoking it. There is the health risk but also the effect that it has on lifestyle, the apathy it seems to induce. It takes away their motivation, which will be a concern for a child’s education. The message I get is that it helps you to relax and feel chilled, but young people have also said that they sit on their own smoking it and play their Nintendos.”

Dr Paul Broks

MSc, DPhil, CPsychol,neuropsychologist

“I would err on the side of caution. There is still not enough known about skunk but the evidence suggests that it can trigger psychotic symptoms in susceptible individuals. Before skunk came on the scene lots of people were cavalier about cannabis, me included. Now there are signs that the active ingredient, THC, may be intrinsically harmful, raising suspicions about milder forms of the drug. I’d be concerned if my children were heavy skunk users.”

Dr Tim Williams

MB ChB, MRCPsych, clinical lecturer in addiction psychiatry, University of Bristol

“Don’t panic. If you look at the areas we use to measure addiction, such as control over use, desire, tolerance and withdrawal, skunk is not addictive. There is also no hard evidence that it is a ‘gateway’ drug – so it doesn’t mean they will move on to harder drugs. It’s a peculiarity of the UK that cannabis is smoked with tobacco. The risks associated with that are well documented. I would ask the young person lots of questions about it – what they are using, how, in what environments, and what they get out of it. Drug users can block out all the negatives of what they do, and you can use the conversation to get them to see them.”

http://cannazine.co.uk/cannabis-news/united-kingdom/skunk-kids-think-the-strong-stuff-is-the-best-stuff.html

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Coping with the cannabis fall-out

2009-03-09T12:30:17Z

Does smoking joints seriously damage your teenage child’s health? Dr Mark Porter investigates

It’s only natural for parents to become anxious at the mere suggestion that their offspring may be dabbling with cannabis, but these days sensible parents should assume that they are.

If your teenager hasn’t tried cannabis,

and one in four admits to having done so by 15, I’ll wager that he or she is mixing with others who have.

So how worried should you be? If you suspect your son or daughter may be using cannabis occasionally – at parties for instance – don’t overreact.

Keep calm and express your concern. For most it’s a passing phase from which they will emerge unscathed.

If they are smoking occasionally at home, that suggests heavier use.

This may be more risky, particularly in young teenagers who are most vulnerable to mental health issues such as schizophrenia.

Physically it’s still unlikely to be harming them, though cannabis is just as damaging to the lungs, and probably more so, than tobacco. Never let them use cannabis in your home; it sends the wrong message.

If they are openly smoking cannabis at home, you have an issue. This suggests heavy use, which can lead to problems including lung damage, (three to four joints a day is the equivalent of 20 cigarettes a day), serious mental illness (a one in 15 risk in those who smoke at least a joint a day), and addiction (one heavy user in ten experiences withdrawal effects if they try to stop).

But the most common problem is the apathy that comes with being stoned – apathy that few teenagers can afford in their academic careers. Time for expert help.

http://www.drmarkporter.co.uk

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/expert_advice/article5853580.ece

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Cannabis Industry Shows 'Green Shoots' of Growth

2009-03-09T12:29:25Z

There can be little doubt. If an industry was ever in need of a large portion of positive public relations, the cannabis industry is it.

At this stage its probably worth answering the glaringly obvious question which will have manifested as a result of the first paragraph. The question?

“How can there be an industry when the commodity we refer to is illegal?” And its the answer to this question which throws up a world of opportunities for the frustrated hedge-fund manager looking for an industry to get rich on in these times of global economic catastrophe.

Because the fact is its only the cannabis which is illegal. Therefore any trade in cannabis is setting you up for a long stretch.

Upto 5 years for possession, and a head-spinning 14 years for dealing the class B drug in the UK under the new cannabis laws which were implemented on January 26th 2009.

In the meantime there are literally hundreds of small business’s which have been set up in the last four years since the original reclassification back in 2004, who are going to be forced out of a world-wide trade which is worth millions of pounds every year, and whether you or I like it or not.

Head-Shops
Head-shops are often seen as the sole domain of the cannabis smoking hippy. They will regularly be seen with coat hangers filled with T-shirts embellished with gaudy, hippy, trippy designs and motif’s displaying aging rock legends like MotorHead. Led Zeppelin or AC/DC. Which paradoxically, creates something of a stereo-typical image of your average cannabis smoker, and whilst there’s no doubting one or two cannabis users could well do with a trim and a shave, its by no means an exclusive for this demographic.

Visiting the London Hemp Expo which ran for three days in London recently, it came as quite a shock to see what a large cross section of society has an interest in cannabis and hemp issues. The Canna Zine cannabis news portal spoke to business men and women who had travelled across continents to be there.

Grow Shops
Hydroponic growing has been a science which seems to come in fits & starts. Everytime a mention is made in the news regarding the Epcott Center in America and their wonderful hydroponic gardens there comes a warm feeling of anticipation as I wait for hydroponics – “The science of growing plants without soil”, to be hailed as the next bleached denim or sliced bread.

Unfortunately it never seems to come, and I often wonder whether the obvious attraction of hydroponics by cannabis growers sometimes works against the very industry itself.

I’ve often wondered just what it would take to bring hydroponics into the lives of more of the general public. As there’s no doubt its a spectacular and explosive way to grow your own produce, and regardless of whether you consume that produce in a green salad, or a cigarette paper.

So much so in fact, there’s a formula already in place which could bring hydroponics to more of the population. Its very simple and straightforward, and if you are a hydroponics wholesaler or manufacturer, and you would like to know more feel free to get in touch.

In the meantime the hydroponic industry spends so much time trying to distance itself from growing cannabis it ends up upsetting a huge percentage of the market it would really like to talk to. What a head-job!!

But here’s the thing.

As soon as 1 single person is legally entitled to grow or to consume cannabis, by way of a government who is perhaps starting to consider the cannabis vote suddenly has some clout, there will be business’s created to supply that market.

And that day is now!

As things stand currently, over 25% of the United States (pop 303 million) have legal access to cannabis, as well as umpteen European states I could mention, with Holland, and the successes they’ve experienced as a result of a liberal policy on cannabis the shining star in the bunch.

Registering far fewer drug users admitting to using cannabis in their lives (19%) as opposed to 45% and 38%, for the United States and United Kingdom respectively. And these figures, according to a poll by the United Nations on behalf of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

So its quite clear. A liberal policy towards cannabis and its users, really does reduce user-figures in the long-term and brings associated crime down by removing cannabis users from the daily “to-do” list for our nations police force. Hopefully leaving them to fight the drugs which can actually kill people the first time they experiement with it?

Moving the classification of cannabis will play absolutely no part in whether people decide to experiment with cannabis or not. To be honest not a single person I know, has told me they intend to give up cannabis, and quite a few have said they intend to smoke more as a result of it seeming “twice as much fun”.

In the meantime thousands of head shops and grow shops across the nation will pretend to have nothing to do with the cannabis users, and the cannabis growers of the nation. Which is a real shame because for those that take the time to look, they will see that if a cannabis grower needs a bag of compost or some pots. He’ll buy them, and regardless of what the current economic forecast is.

The fact is while every single economic measure points to a global downturn of cataclysmic proportions, there are still multi-billion dollar deals going down. We just dont get to hear about them. If an industry was seen to be performing too well whilst the rest of the world is in shambles, it might cause the cry, “The natives are revolting,” when people start to ask how that can be?

No matter how you look at it the world needs drugs. Its been announced only in the last few days that GlaxoSmithKline have recently bought up a Belgian competitors interests in what were termed “emerging markets”. So the markets don’t even exist, and Glaxo have paid out £486 million to be in on the ground floor just in case they do.

In the same period its been announced the worlds largest drugs maker, Pfizer, looks set to acquire competitor Wyeth, in a deal likely to be worth as much as $60bn (€47bn).

A combination which would create a drugmaker with annual sales of more than $70bn, and best-selling medicines that include Pfizer’s cholesterol pill Lipitor, the world’s top-selling medicine with $12.7bn in 2007 sales, and Wyeth’s Prevnar vaccine against pneumonia.

How important are such deals to entire countries? They’re huge.

The two pharmaceutical firms are major employers in Ireland. Pfizer employs over 2,000 people there, while Wyeth employs over 3,000 at five different locations. Both firms have signaled relatively small job cuts here over the past few months.

Showing once and for all that whilst the pharmaceutical drugs industry is enjoying rare growth at this time, its an absolute certainty that the illicit drugs manufacturers are enjoying a similar boost in trade, as people attempt to forget just what a hole its government has left them in.

The facts remain the same. Cannabis is a lot less dangerous than either alcohol or tobacco. And yet these two substances continue to kill tens of thousands of our friends, our relatives and our neighbours every single day.

In the meantime, cannabis, which has a truly remarkeable safety record, continues to be outlawed. And it just doesn’t make sense.
Clearly the drugs laws are not achieving what they’re meant to achieve. So they must be changed.

The act of decriminalising cannabis would create a market almost overnight, that would go a long way to shoring up the leaks which the old lady of Threadneedle Street seems to have sprung of late, and whilst making access to cannabis a government responsibility is far from the ideal situation for all concerned, it does go someway towards dismantling the trade in illicit cannabis, which the police would have so much more trouble in dealing with, without the use of informants in the community.

The trade in cannabis continues and regardless of what the Home Secretary or the prime Minister think, say or want. And whilst both may know this to be true, they will never acknowledge it in public.

Isn’t it about time we followed Canada’s lead and embraced the whole “Hemp” culture again?

The way the world is currently, on an environmental, an ecological and an economic level, heaven only knows some radical solutions are needed in answer to what are some quite radical problems. Something needs to change.

Simply rehashing the same old anti-drug mantra’s isn’t going to be allowed in President Barack Obama’s reign.

Polticians; You have been warned.

Red Dragon
CannaZine Cannabis News
http://cannazine.co.uk

C For Cannabis on F For Facebook
A new facebook group called “C For Cannabis ” has been set up to present information which has been gathered from around the world, in locations which support medical marijuana, to show what a truly beneficial move the decriminalisation of cannabis actually would be once the Daily Mail and its hullaballoo dies down.

The laws concerning cannabis were changed with absolutely no public consultation so please, join us on C For Cannabis, and register your interest in forcing government to bring about evidencial, science based drugs policies which actually reflect the danger to society each individual drug poses, and not how much tax revenue the government can make.

No one is saying cannabis is a harmless, inert substance, but a superpower such as the UK should be able to differentiate by now, between lies and deceipt, and giving the British public common sense drugs policies.

And if its struggling to do so, perhaps its time for a new government to tackle the drug scourge?

See you there? Click the link to join C For Cannabis

http://cannazine.co.uk/cannabis-news/united-kingdom/cannabis-industry-shows-green-shoots-of-growth.html

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Inhaled Marijuana Kills Headaches, Journal Reports

2009-03-07T22:14:22Z

Inhaling cannabis completely relieved the pain associated with cluster headaches, according to a case study published in the journal Headache.

Neurologists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York reported that a 19-year-old patient with a cyclical pattern of cluster headaches responded favorably to smoked cannabis. The patient lacked responsiveness to numerous traditional treatments – including prednisone, sumatriptan (trade name: Imitrex), and oxycodone – but did report, “Marijuana use at the onset of his headaches consistently brought complete relief within five minutes of inhalation for each attack.”

Investigators reported that the patient also received relief from the administration of five-milligram doses of synthetic oral THC (dronanabinol). They wrote, “[D]ronabinol was substituted for marijuana for acute treatment of his cluster headaches; dronabinol consistently provided dramatic relief within five to fifteen minutes of ingestion.”

Researchers concluded, “We present a patient with cluster headache who was refractory to multiple acute and preventive medications, but successfully aborted his attacks with recreational marijuana use. ... The beneficial effect may be related to the high concentration of cannabinoid receptors in the hypothalamus, which has been implicated as a site of dysfunction in neuroimaging studies of patients with cluster headache.”

In 2007, investigators at Italy’s University of Perugia, Department of Public Health, reported that patients with chronic migraines possessed “significantly lower” levels of the endogenous cannabinoids anandamide and 2-arachidonylglycerol (2-AG) in their platelets compared to age-matched controls.”

These data support the potential involvement of a dysfunctioning of the endocannabinoid and serotonergic systems in the pathology of chronic migraine and medication-overuse headaches,” they concluded.

http://www.opposingviews.com/articles/research-inhaled-marijuana-kills-headaches-journal-reports

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