Cannabis News

By on Jun 07, 2012 with Comments

At last, Connecticut takes the plunge and partially legalizes medical marijuana

Jonathan Benson, staff writer
(NaturalNews) Legislation that allows certain medical patients to access marijuana for medicinal use has been signed into law in Connecticut, making the Constitution State the 17th in the nation to at least partially deregulate marijuana for medical use. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy has officially signed into law H.B. 5389, An Act Concerning the Palliative Use of Marijuana, which permits state-registered patients or their caregivers with doctor approval to access marijuana from state-regulated dispensaries.

According to the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP), the timeline of the bill’s approval has been short, with the Connecticut House of Representatives having approved the bill in a 96-51 vote on April 25, and the state Senate following suit with a 21-13 vote of approval on May 6. On May 31, Gov. Malloy officially signed the bill into law.

“For years, we’ve heard from so many patients with chronic diseases who undergo treatments like chemotherapy or radiation and are denied the palliative benefits that medical marijuana would provide,” said Governor Malloy in a statement. “With careful regulation and safeguards, this law will allow a doctor and a patient to decide what is in that patient’s best interest.”

Set to go into effect on October 1, 2012, H.B. 5389 will permit dispensaries to obtain marijuana from licensed producers, producers who will be required to pay a fee to the state of nearly $25,000. Only patients with certain debilitating conditions, which include cancer, glaucoma, HIV, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries causing spasticity, epilepsy, wasting Crohn’s disease and PTSD will be eligible to receive marijuana under the program.

Though the legislation is considered to be the most restrictive among all the states that have passed medical marijuana measures, it is still a step in the right direction. Eventually, it is hoped that Connecticut and many other states will end their needless prohibition of marijuana and fully legalize the natural plant for everyone.

Denver panel moves outdoor medical pot ad ban measure to city council

By Tegan Hanlon
The Denver Post

Denver’s medical marijuana dispensaries may have fewer places to set up sign-twirlers come later this summer.

The Businesses, Workforce & Sustainability Committee voted today to move an ordinance to City Council that would ban outdoor medical marijuana advertising close to schools.

The council could also consider a citywide ban without the school-area limitation.

“I really feel it’s rather dumb,” Councilwoman Jeanne Faatz said about the outdoor advertising. “They’re creating a firestorm of opposition for their industry.”

Colorado’s main medical marijuana lobby originally pushed Council to ban outdoor advertising in efforts to legitimize the industry.

“We believe the industry should target its advertisements to the 2 percent of Coloradans who are medical marijuana patients,” said Michael Elliot , the executive director of the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, a trade association representing more than 50 businesses.

On June 18 , Council will hold the first reading and public hearing for the more narrow ordinance that bans sign flippers, exterior business signs, hand bills and leaflets within 1,000 feet of any school, child care center, park or recreation center. Council expects a second reading in mid-July.

Councilwoman Debbie Ortega said she drafted the ordinance — which was met with support by all but the head of the committee — in efforts to “protect our kids.”

“I don’t know how we pick out one industry,” Councilman Charlie Brown said, the only member who did not vote in favor of the ordinance.

Brown noted that the city should treat the marijuana industry like all other businesses, and he said he felt the ordinance limited free speech.

Councilman Christopher Herndon said he’s drafting a citywide ordinance.

Shawn Colemen , the executive director of the Cannabis Business Alliance who worked with Ortega and other medical-marijuana groups to draft the ordinance, said he does not support a citywide ban not tied to schools, and would rather see the industry self-regulate.

“It needs to happen within a community,” Colemen said.

Mainstream Media Peddles Tired Cannabis Cancer Myth

Keelan Balderson, Contributor
Activist Post

In an extremely deceptive piece in the Independent and several of the UK papers today, The British Lung Foundation have been allowed to peddle a long-debunked myth that smoking cannabis poses a lung cancer risk, going as far as claiming it poses a higher risk than smoking the Government’s cash cow tobacco. This is in stark contrast to easily obtainable scientific evidence that cannabis actually inhibits many cancers, including lung tumors.

Without citing any evidence whatsoever, Dame Helena Shovelton, BLF chief executive is quoted as saying:

Young people in particular are smoking cannabis unaware that each cannabis cigarette they smoke increases their chances of developing lung cancer by as much as an entire packet of 20 tobacco cigarettes.

This is an increase on their previous baseless claim that 3 joints are equal to 20 cigarettes.

Nonetheless, even on the face of it these statements are ridiculous. Unless they’ve been treated with obscene amounts of pesticides, Marijuana buds that are hand rolled by weed smokers are a far-cry from the mass-produced chemical, poison, preservative filled and radioactive packs of cigarettes bought from the shops.

Cannabis simply does not contain the arm-long list of dangerous cancer causing additives that cigarettes do. Dr. Melamede from the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs, USA, writes that although cannabis smoke and tobacco smoke are chemically very similar, evidence suggests that their effects are very different and that cannabis smoke is less carcinogenic than tobacco smoke [1].

The obvious question to ask is if the BLF’s claims are true where are all the deaths? A widely cited report by the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit states that there are at least 3 million cannabis smokers in the UK [2], and the general consensus is that there are about 9 million tobacco smokers [3].

National mortality statistics note that around 100,000 people die each year from illnesses directly linked to smoking cigarettes [4]. 42,800 are from smoking-related cancers, 30,600 from cardiovascular disease and 29,100 die slowly from emphysema and other chronic lung diseases [5].

So what amount of deaths are linked to smoking cannabis? None!

There are zero reported deaths linked to smoking cannabis each year. While it’s possible there are some here and there, they don’t make any recognized list and are clearly not on the scale of tobacco-related deaths. If there were lots of deaths linked to cannabis, don’t you think the likes of the Independent would have reported such facts in their article? Instead they focus on fear-mongering statements that have no basis in reality.

At one time the Daily Mail ran with the headline Cannabis ‘kills 30,000 a year’, but rather than sourcing the deaths directly, it was simply a math sum of how many pot smokers should be dying each year if cannabis is as bad or worse than tobacco, not that 30,000 were actually proven to be dying each year.

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