Author: Nick420

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has Tweeted praise towards an unabashed racist who helped make marijuana illegal.

No one is more responsible for marijuana  prohibition than Harry J. Anslinger, a former government official who used racism to make the point that marijuana use should be a crime. When arguing for prohibition, Anslinger made statements such as “reefer makes darkies think they’re as good as white men“, and “marijuana causes white women to seek sexual relations with Negroes”.

Despite this disgusting and blatant racism, the DEA sent out a Tweet yesterday praising the man.

“Harry Anslinger helped bring drug law enforcement into the modern age”, says the Tweet made a little after noon. “He served as head of US drug enforcement for 5 presidents from #Hoover to #Kennedy, retiring in 1962. They end the Tweet with the hashtags “#TBT” and “#ThrowbackThursday”.

Response to the Tweet has shown almost unanimous opposition to it.

“Not one single positive response to this tweet”, responded Harold Carr. “Perhaps y’all should read them and reflect on how this monster is viewed by most sane people.”

The Tweet, and its responses, can be found by clicking here.

 

The post DEA Praises Man Who Once Said Marijuana “Makes Darkies Think They’re as Good as White Men” appeared first on TheJointBlog.

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Sonoma County, California District Attorney Jill Ravitch is directing staff to review and vacate thousands of past convictions for marijuana.

According to an estimate from county officials, 3,000 cases are eligible for either a sentencing reduction or expungement under Ravitch’s new orders. The announcement comes after similar moves were made in Alameda County, San Diego County, and San Francisco.

“Provisions in the state’s 2016 voter-approved marijuana law allow those with past marijuana convictions to petition the court for expungement”, says NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano. “Legislation is pending in the California Assembly, AB 1793, to make this process automatic for anyone with an eligible past cannabis conviction.”

Last month, Seattle city officials publicly announced plans to similarly review and vacate past cannabis convictions. Days later, newly elected Philadelphia D.A. Larry Krasner announced that his office would cease prosecuting marijuana possession offense violations.

The post Sonoma County (CA) District Attorney To Vacate Thousands Of Past Marijuana Convictions appeared first on TheJointBlog.

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On Jan. 4, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a new memo on marijuana-law enforcement that has left many people in legal states confused or worried. The memo rescinded the 2013 Cole Memo, which instructed federal prosecutors to consider their limited resources when contemplating going after sales or cultivation that were legal under state law. Instead, Sessions promised “a return to the rule of law” and “directs all U.S. Attorneys to enforce the laws enacted by Congress and to follow well-established principles when pursuing prosecutions related to marijuana activities.”

In practice, this means that each U.S. Attorney in charge of one of the nation’s 94 judicial districts can set their own policies on marijuana prosecution, ranging from hands-off to aggressive—opening the way to a crackdown on recreational cannabis in the nine jurisdictions where it has been legalized, eight states and Washington, D.C.

Sessions dropped this threat just as California and its many cities were getting their new cannabis-regulation systems going. For the first time in the state’s history, cannabis will be grown, distributed and sold in a highly regulated environment, generating a substantial amount of jobs and tax revenues. All of its biggest cities have already created elaborate licensing systems for medical and non-medical commercial cannabis activity.

Many California politicians criticized Sessions’ move. “We hope the federal government will align itself with the will of, not just Californians, but Americans and not go to a tired playbook of a War on Drugs,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti stated. Garcetti has taken strong pro-cannabis positions, including appointing activist Cat Packer to head the city Department of Cannabis Regulation.

…

According to a new study published by the The American Journal of Medicine, marijuana use doesn’t seem to be harmful to kidneys.

“Our research provides some reassuring evidence suggesting that there is no detrimental effect of infrequent, relatively light use of marijuana on kidney function among healthy adults under age 60,” said lead investigator Dr. Murray Mittleman, professor of epidemiology at Harvard University’s School of Public Health and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“However, our research does not address heavy users, the elderly, or those with pre-existing chronic kidney disease,” said Mittleman in a press release. “Research is needed to evaluate the impact of marijuana use in adults 60 and over, and among those with existing or at risk of developing kidney disease.”

To investigate the effects of marijuana on kidneys, Mittleman’s team analyzed data from nearly 14,000 U.S. adults, ages 18 to 59, who took part in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2007 to 2014.

When questioned, nearly 5,500 of the adults said they had smoked marijuana at least once, but not in the past 30 days, and more than 2,000 said they had smoked marijuana at least once within the last 30 days.

The researchers checked levels of microalbuminuria (an increase in urine albumin, which is a marker for kidney disease), and found no association between past or current marijuana use and worsened kidney function or disease.

The post Marijuana Use Doesn’t Harm Kidneys, Finds Study appeared first on TheJointBlog.

from https://thejointblog.com/marijuana-use-doesnt-harm-kidneys-finds-study/…

A group called Colorado for Psilocybin is attempting to decriminalize the possession of psilocybin (“magic”) mushrooms in Denver.

The group is working to place the Psilocybin Decriminalization Initiative on Denver’s general election ballot. The proposal would decriminalize the possession of up to two ounces of dried mushrooms, or two pounds of uncured mushrooms. Possessing more than this would be a simple citation, with the fee being up to $99 for the first offense. This would be increased by increments of $100 for subsequent offenses; the initiative clarifies that the fine would never be above $999.

“I’m a big believer in cognitive liberty, and so whatever people decide to consume I think is up to them,” says Tyler Williams, who’s co-founder of the Denver chapter of the Psychedelic Club at the University of Colorado Boulder. “I think people should be informed about what they are consuming, and they shouldn’t have to be afraid of going to jail for that.”

Kevin Matthews, who helped draft the initiative, supports decriminalizing magic mushrooms in part due to its medical potential.

“I’m proud to say that psilocybin has had a pretty massive impact on my life,” says Matthews. “I struggled with depression for years, I was diagnosed with major depression as a teenager. It’s helped me tremendously with my own mental health and on top of that, with creativity, and really being able to just explore different aspects of myself, and really get some healing from the inside out”.

Matthews points to a study by Johns Hopkins University that found psilocybin users dealing with cancer-related stress reported lasting positive effects one year later. A New York University study came to similar results. A separate study found that it could provide a potential treatment option for depression.

On the state level, advocates of the California Psilocybin Legalization Initiative (Initiative 17-0024) are aiming to place their magic mushroom legalization initiative on the 2018 general …

Legislation to legalize the use of marijuana was passed  through its first reading in the Israel Knesset (Legislature) today.

The bill, which was passed through its first reading in a unanimous vote, has been spearheaded by Public Security and Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan, who says Israel wants to “reduce the harms of drug usage regularly but avoid as much as possible the criminal stigmatization of average citizens.”

MK Tamar Zandberg (Meretz) said that the passing of the bill marks “another important step on the road to our victory.” She notes that the law is “far from perfect, but it is a foot in the door on the way to a policy of full legalization.”

According to The Jersuael Post, the new bill “focuses on public enforcement: those caught with cannabis in public are subject to various fines: on the first offense, 1000 NIS and 2000 NIS for the second offense. Thereafter, only on the fourth offense, individuals may be subject to criminal proceedings.”

Last month, in a preliminary reading in the Knesset, an amendment to allow the export of medical marijuana passed unanimously. It will need to be passed by the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee before its first reading.

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If you’re like those of us here at Honest Marijuana, you love your pet(s) like a member of the family. We know it’s traumatic when your favorite feline or cherished canine gets sick. That’s why we’ve put together this definitive guide to CBD oil for cats (don’t worry, dog lovers; there’s a guide for you too).

In this article, we’ll answer all your questions about CBD and CBD oil for cats, including:

• What is CBD?
• What is CBD oil?
• What are the benefits of CBD oil for cats?
• How do you administer CBD oil to a cat?
• Where do you get CBD oil for your feline friend?

We’ll also discuss dosage recommendations and what side effects you can expect when using CBD oil for cats. Let’s start our discussion with the most basic question of all: what is CBD?

What Is CBD?

CBD is the common abbreviation for the scientific word cannabidiol (pronounced can-uh-BIH-dee-all). It’s one of a group of chemical compounds known as cannabinoids that are found almost exclusively in the cannabis plant (indica, sativa, and ruderalis).

THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) is the most famous (or infamous) cannabinoid thanks to its psychedelic effects. But CBD is quickly growing in popularity because of its myriad medical benefits. Other cannabinoids of note are:

• CBG (cannabigerol)
• CBL (cannabicyclol)
• CBT (cannabicitran)
• CBN (cannabinol)
• THCV (tetrahydrocannabivarin)
• THCA (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid)

As you can see from that last nine-syllable monster, some of these scientific terms can be pretty hard to say. And who’s got time to work the word “tetrahydrocannabinolic” into their conversation? Not us! That’s why we’ll stick to the abbreviations, thank you very much.

How Does CBD Work On Cats?

Your brain (and ours too) contains specialized neurons known as cannabinoid receptors. These neurons turn on in the presence of the various cannabinoids found in the marijuana plant. So when you smoke a doobie or take a hit from a bong…

According to a new study published by the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology,  marijuana had “a significant favorable effect” on fibromyalgia among all participants.

“Fibromyalgia is a chronic pain syndrome, characterized by chronic musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and mood disturbances”, explains the study’s abstract. “There are nearly no data on the effect of medical cannabis (MC) treatment on patients with fibromyalgia.”

For the study, data was obtained “from the registries of 2 hospitals in Israel (Laniado Hospital and Nazareth Hospital) on patients with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia who were treated with MC.” After obtaining patient consent, demographic, clinical, and laboratory parameters were documented. All the patients “also completed the Revised Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire regarding the period before and after MC treatment.”

Thirty patients were identified, and 26 patients were included in the study. There were 19 female patients, and the mean age of the study group was 37.8 ± 7.6 years. The “mean dosage of MC was 26 ± 8.3 g per month, and the mean duration of MC use was 10.4 ± 11.3 months.” After commencing medical marijuana treatment, “all the patients reported a significant improvement in every parameter on the questionnaire, and 13 patients (50%) stopped taking any other medications for fibromyalgia.” Just eight patients (30%) experienced “very mild adverse effects”.

The study concludes by stating that; “Medical cannabis treatment had a significant favorable effect on patients with fibromyalgia, with few adverse effects.”

The full study can be found by clicking here.

The post Study: Marijuana Effective at Treating Fibromyalgia appeared first on TheJointBlog.

from https://thejointblog.com/study-marijuana-effective-treating-fibromyalgia/…

Mar. 2-5: SSDP International Conference 2018, Embassy Suites Hotel, Baltimore, Md.

Mar. 3-4: THC Fair, Merced County Fair, Merced, Calif.

Mar. 3, 21 & 23: Mary Janes: The Women of Weed screenings; Denver, Colo.; New York, N.Y.; and Nevada City, Calif.

Mar. 5: Medical Cannabis Educational Summit, Harrisburg Area Community College, Harrisburg, Pa.

Mar. 9: Marijuana Paradise premiere, Cascade Theatre, Redding, CA

Mar. 9-11: Spannabis, Fira de Cornellá, Barcelona, Spain

Mar. 12-14: Cannabis Cultivation Conference, Marriott City Center, Oakland, Calif.

Mar. 13-14: The Hemp & Garden Show, Scratchouse, Austin, Tex.

Mar. 17-18: THC Fair, Deschutes County Expo Center, Redmond, Ore.

Mar. 19-20: Cannatech, Trask, Tel Aviv, Israel

Mar. 20: California Cannabis Industry Association Policy Conference, Sheraton Grand Hotel, Sacramento, Calif.

Mar. 20: CannaGather, Galvanize, New York, NY

Mar. 22-24: Marijuana Business Association Opportunity Summit, University of Denver, Denver, Co.

Mar. 24-25: New England Cannabis Convention, …

Georgia’s House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed legislation to expand the state’s medical marijuana program.

The House approved House Bill 764 Wednesday in a 145 to 17 vote, sending it to the Senate for consideration. The measure would allow those with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and  intractable pain to join the state’s Low THC Oil Patient Registry. The registry, established in 2015, allows those with certain medical conditions to legally possess and use up to 20 ounces of low-THC cannabis oil .

If the bill is approved by the Senate, it will be sent to Governor Nathan Deal for consideration; Deal has expressed support for the measure, indicating he would likely sign it into law if given the chance. If the measure does become law, PTSD and intractable pain would join epilepsy, cancer, Parkinson’s disease, ALS, sickle cell anemia, multiple sclerosis, Crohn’s disease and mitochondrial disease as qualifying conditions.

The full text of House Bill 764, which was filed by Representative David Clark, can be found by clicking here.

The post Georgia House Votes to Add PTSD and Intractable Pain to State’s Medical Marijuana Program appeared first on TheJointBlog.

from https://thejointblog.com/georgia-house-votes-add-ptsd-intractable-pain-states-medical-marijuana-program/…

Driving in Oklahoma with Colorado license plates can get you arrested. That’s what happened to Boulder-based cannabis activist and educator Regina Nelson in McAlester on Feb. 18.

“We didn’t speed, we were minding all the traffic rules, but we were driving a rental car with Colorado plates on it,” Nelson, 54, says about being pulled over for allegedly failing to use a turn signal. A search of the vehicle produced several joints, pipes, bags of marijuana and at least one edible.

Nelson, her son Bryan Elliott Laufenbert and fellow cannabis advocate Michael Browning were each charged with felonies for possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute and misdemeanors for possession of drug paraphernalia. Nelson and Browning were also each charged with driving with a suspended license. The trio was released on $5,000 bonds from the Pittsburg County Jail. All three pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Oklahoma has some of the harshest drug laws in the country. Possession of marijuana with intent to distribute can carry up to a life sentence and a $20,000 fine.

…

Drug Policy Alliance executive director Maria McFarland Sánchez-Moreno, a veteran Latin America specialist with Human Rights Watch, tells a grim but also inspiring story in There Are No Dead Here: A Story of Murder and Denial in Colombia (Nation Books). It details the efforts of three courageous Colombians to bring to light official complicity in the reign of paramilitary terror in the country over the past generation.

These three won a measure of success, but at the cost of relentless death threats and assassination attempts. One paid the proverbial ultimate price. Their interlocking tales paint a picture of Colombian officials’ staggering cynicism, especially during the 2002-2010 presidency of Álvaro Uribe, whose administration was thoroughly integrated with the ostensibly illegal right-wing paramilitary networks, even as he denied everything and portrayed himself as a centrist democrat.

The book opens with the figure who became a martyr in the quest for truth—Jesús Maria Valle, an attorney and human-rights defender in the city of Medellín, who was among the first to raise the alarm about the mounting paramilitary violence in the 1990s. Uribe was then governor of the department of Antioquia, where Medellín is located. Valle initially tried to alert him about the violence in rural communities, before determining that the governor’s own anti-guerilla militia force was cooperating with the paras. In 1998, armed men invaded Valle’s office and assassinated him.

Antioquia proved to be a testing ground for the strategy Uribe would apply nationally as president. Iván Velásquez, the prosecutor and jurist who doggedly investigated the Uribe government’s collaboration with paramilitary groups, picked up Valle’s torch. Uribe road-blocked Velásquez every step of the way, launching a media smear campaign against him, while paras operated in the shadows with threats and attacks on his team.

…

President Trump supports the death penalty for drug dealers, according to a report by the respect news outlet Axios.

In Singapore, drug trafficking offenses result in a mandatory death penalty, a law that has drawn the ire of international communities including the United Nations. However, apparently President Trump loves it, and he’s been telling friends for months that the country’s policy is the reason its drug consumption rates are so low.

“He says that a lot,” said a source who’s spoken to Trump at length about the subject. “He says, ‘When I ask the prime minister of Singapore do they have a drug problem [the prime minister replies,] ‘No. Death penalty’.”

According to the report; “He often jokes about killing drug dealers… He’ll say, ‘You know the Chinese and Filipinos don’t have a drug problem. They just kill them.’”

The report notes that:

The post President Trump Supports …

Cannabinoids may prevent both depressive and PTSD-like symptoms following exposure to severe stress, according to a new study being published by the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry.

“Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating condition highly comorbid with depression”, begins the abstract of the study, which was also published by the U.S. National Institute of Health. “The endocannabinoid (eCB) system and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) are suggestively involved in both disorders.” For the study, researchers “examined whether cannabinoids can prevent the long-term depressive-like symptoms induced by exposure to the shock and situational reminders (SRs) model of PTSD.”

Researchers administered a compound meant to mimic the effects of natural cannabinoids in rats two hours after a severe shock. “Cannabinoids prevented the shock/SRs-induced alterations in social recognition memory, locomotion, passive coping, anxiety-like behavior, anhedonia, fear retrieval, fear extinction and startle response as well as the decrease in BDNF levels in the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFC)”, states the study. “Furthermore, significant correlations were found between depressive-like behaviors and BDNF levels in the brain.”

The study concludes; “The findings suggest that cannabinoids may prevent both depressive- and PTSD-like symptoms following exposure to severe stress and that alterations in BDNF levels in the brains’ fear circuit are involved in these effects.”

The full study, conducted by researchers at The Academic College Tel-Aviv-Yaffo and the University of Haifa (both in Israel), can be found by clicking here.

The post Study: Cannabinoids May Prevent Depressive and PTSD-Like Symptoms Following Severe Stress appeared first on TheJointBlog.

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By Aaron A.

Cubicle life wasn’t what a young Jay Fratt saw for himself in 1997.  Production deadlines and endless engineering meetings did not fulfill his desire to be a part of the ever-evolving, independent alternative culture blossoming in the 90s.  He decided the monotony and repetition of the robotic corporate grind, was not for him.  So, Jay quit his 9-5 job in the plastics industry in order to create a different future, one in which he openly and actively pursued his greatest passion, the legalization of industrial hemp.  Thus was born the small hemp themed clothing store which over 20 years would grow and evolve into the oldest alternative pipe & tobacco store in SW Washington State … Smokin Js.

What a long strange trip it’s been!  Smokin Js has grown up as a business during substantial cultural changes in Washington State.  From medical cannabis legalization in 1998 to full recreational cannabis legalization in 2012, Smokin Js has participated in cannabis activism and education in Washington State the entire way.

 

Free Glass and Promotional Fun

The founder of Smokin Js grew up during the birth of the Internet.  Back then you were expected to contribute something to the Internet in trade for asking for something.  Jay has taken this idealistic philosophy to the advertising methods of Smokin Js.

 

• Email List Promotion  

 

Smokin Js has an email list!  Like duh, but they do things a little differently than most.  With each email they send they give something away for free to a random person who opens the email.  Typically during the Christmas and 420 months the prize is sick, or should I say dope af.

Sign up Here

 

• Instagram Photo Contest

 

Yeah Smokin Js is on Instagram.  Proud to have never paid for a service or bought a single follower, Smokin Js is legitimately connected to each person following the company feed.  One …

CBD (cannabidiol) and CBD-rich extracts may provide a potential treatment option for endometrial cancer, according to a new study published by the Journal of Physiology and Biochemistry, and published online by the U.S. National Institute of Health.

“Among a variety of phytocannabinoids, Δ⁹-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are the most promising therapeutic compounds”, begins the study’s abstract. “Besides the well-known palliative effects in cancer patients, cannabinoids have been shown to inhibit in vitro growth of tumor cells. Likewise, the major endocannabinoids (eCBs), anandamide (AEA) and 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG), induce tumor cell death.”

The purpose of the present study “was to characterize cannabinoid elements and evaluate the effect of cannabinoids in endometrial cancer cell viability.” Endometrial cancer is a variety of cancer that begins in the lining of the uterus.

After conducted a series of tests, researchers found that “these data indicate that cannabinoids modulate endometrial cancer cell death. Selective targeting of TPRV1 by AEA, CBD, or other stable analogues may be an attractive research area for the treatment of estrogen-dependent endometrial carcinoma.”

They conclude by stating that; “Our data further support the evaluation of CBD and CBD-rich extracts for the potential treatment of endometrial cancer, particularly, that has become non-responsive to common therapies.”

The full study, conducted by researchers at the Universidade do Porto in Portugal, can be found by clicking here.

The post Study: CBD May Help Treat, and Cause the Death of, Endometrial Cancer appeared first on TheJointBlog.

from https://thejointblog.com/study-cbd-may-help-treat-cause-death-endometrial-cancer/…

This book is powerful, maddening, joyous, sad, romantic, uplifting, humble, honest and true. Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele do a fantastic job telling Khan-Cullers’ amazing and yet all too typical story.

Amazing, because this young, black and queer woman has managed to create a community full of love, respect and activism in a world not created for her. Typical, because the harassment and abuse she and her family have suffered at the hands of overzealous law enforcement officials, underfunded and overwhelmed social programs, and abusive prison authorities happen to black and brown people every day.

When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir (St. Martin’s Press) is not a long read, but it took me a while to finish, mostly because I had to stop occasionally to process and think about the many points the authors make. Like how, in the aftermath of the Columbine shootings in 1999, it wasn’t predominantly white schools like the one she attended that installed metal detectors, even though mass shootings are much rarer in predominantly black schools. Like how the young men in her neighborhood would be terrorized by the cops and strip-searched on suspicion of minor infractions, even though the white weed dealer at her high school had no fear of getting arrested.

One scene describes police coming into Khan-Cullors’ home without a warrant to arrest her activist boyfriend. He hadn’t broken any laws. How did the cops know where he was? His name wasn’t on the lease. It reminded me of when Chicago police assassinated 21-year-old Black Panther Party leader Fred Hampton, in 1969. How many young activists are targeted before they even really get started?

…

By Stephen M.

Marijuana consumption – a controversial topic that divides people into two categories, those that are pro and those that are against it. Although it still remains illegal in many countries and states around the globe, cannabis has been proven repeatedly to bring amazing benefits, health wise. If the topic is rather unfamiliar to you, learning a few insights might help you decide if smoking, vaping or utilizing cannabis in other ways is something that you should consider doing. Here are the benefits of cannabis that you might not be aware of:

Relives stress – combats anxiety and depression

Anxiety and depression mainly triggered by a high level of stress have become aggravating problems for people nowadays. If you are confronted with issues of this kind yourself, it can be difficult to find solutions that can actually provide you with effective and noticeable results. Well, cannabin’s hybrids, such as Gorilla Glue 4 cannabis strain can actually help you effectively fight against depression and anxiety, showing results even after the first usage. Because it gives you the chance to truly unwind and obtain a deeper relaxation, you can reduce your stress level considerably. The recreational use of marijuana might appeal to you, but being able to combat issues such as anxiety and depression, which are lowering your quality of lie, are certainly prospects that will make you think more about this possibility.

Fighting insomnia

Dealing with insomnia or unrestful sleep can affect your work performance and other sectors of your life. Finding the root of the problem is often difficult, and instead of resorting to certain medications that come with a long list of potential side effects, choosing the cannabis alternative is far safer. If you discuss with marijuana consumers, they will be able to tell you how much this weed has managed to help them in this department. Sleeping peacefully will no longer be a problem for you.…

After a government shutdown lasting only a few hours, Congress passed yet another temporary spending bill on Friday that will keep medical marijuana patients and providers safe for a little while longer. The bill includes the amendments that has been part of the spending budget since 2014, which prevents the Department of Justice from spending resources to prosecute people or businesses that are in compliance with state laws. This deal is set to expire on March 23.

Congress will need to pass another spending bill before then in order to continue keeping state medical marijuana programs safe. In the event of a government shutdown, there will be nothing to stop federal prosecutors from targeting medical marijuana programs around the country.

However, supportive lawmakers are using the temporary reprieves to push for even more comprehensive protections, including amendments that would extend protections to businesses in the adult-use market.

Please contact your lawmakers and ask them to support state marijuana protections in the final spending bill.

 

The post Federal Spending Deal Keeps Medical Marijuana Protections in Place… For Another Few Weeks appeared first on MPP Blog.

from https://blog.mpp.org/prohibition/federal-spending-deal-keeps-medical-marijuana-protections-place-another-weeks/…

When Rick Steves isn’t touring Europe or writing and producing travel guides, he’s trying to legalize marijuana. The PBS host and NORML board member visited Washington to speak with members of Congress on Feb. 13.

After a press conference attended by NORML’s Keith Stroup and the Marijuana Policy Project’s Don Murphy, Steves went to briefings with House and Senate reps. The Congressional Cannabis Caucus, a bipartisan organization founded in 2017 by Reps Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Jared Polis (D-Colo.), Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) and Don Young (R-Alaska), organized the House briefing.

His next stops were Maryland and Delaware, where he called on the state legislatures to regulate cannabis.

“I’m not for pot,” he told Freedom Leaf. “I’m for common sense. I’m anti-legislating morality and anti-incarceration.”

RELATED: Celebrities Bringing Cannabis Brands to the Market

Steves contributed $50,000 to Maine’s Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in 2016, and helped legalization efforts in his home state of Washington by donating $350,000 in support of Initiative 502 in 2012. He also supported the passage of Measure 91 in Oregon in 2014.

“What I do is a …

CBD is the unsung hero of the cannabis plant, while the psychoactive THC takes the spotlight. Shira Adler dispels myths about cannabidiol and highlights its many benefits in The ABC’s of CBD: The Essential Guide for Parents (And Regular Folks Too).

Best-known for treating inflammation, CBD’s properties range from antibacterial to anti-nausea and anti-convulsive. Adler traces CBD to 8,000 BCE, when hemp was cultivated in East Asia, and then to the American Revolution, when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were the country’s most famous hemp farmers.

Adler uses “cannabis” to denote the marijuana cultivar of the cannabis plant and distinguish it from hemp, and is quick to explain that “CBD can be derived from both cannabis and hemp plants. Hemp doesn’t flower and cannabis does.” She further delineates that “far less THC exists in the hemp plant” and, in a comical discussion about CB1 and CB2 receptors in the brain, compares the body’s endocannabinoid system to the Oompa-Loompas and a set of bowling pins.

RELATED: FDA Warns Four CBD Companies About Making Medical Claims

Although there’s a heavy dose …

According to data released by Colorado’s Department of Revenue, there was $1.51 billion in legal marijuana and marijuana products sold in 2017.

The $1.51 billion sold is an increase over the $1.3 billion sold in 2016. In 2015 there was $995 million sold, and in 2014 – the first year of legal sales – $683 million in marijuana was sold.

According to the new data, which was released today, there was $1.09 billion in recreational marijuana sold in 2017. As for medical marijuana, licensed dispensaries sold $416 million worth. These sales resulted in roughly $250 million in new taxes for Colorado.

In Washington State – which legalized marijuana in the same election as Colorado – at least $1.2 billion in legal marijuana was sold in 2017, though data for November and December isn’t available yet. Based on current trends, the state will end with just shy of $1.5 billion sold for the year, closely mirroring Colorado’s total.

In both states those 21 and older can purchase up to an ounce of marijuana from a licensed marijuana retail outlet, while also being allowed to purchase marijuana products such as edibles and tinctures.

The post Over $1.5 Billion in Legal Marijuana Sold in Colorado in 2017 appeared first on TheJointBlog.

from https://thejointblog.com/1-5-billion-legal-marijuana-sold-colorado-2017/…

According to a new Fox News Poll, a large majority of voters in the United States favor legalizing marijuana.

The poll found that 59% of voters support marijuana legalization, up from 51% in 2015, and 46% in 2013. The polling shows that just 32% of voters oppose marijuana legalization, down from 49% in 2013. Millennials (72%) have the highest level of support, followed by Gen Xers (60%) and baby boomers (52%).

“This is a massive shift in opinion over a very short period. As more states legalize marijuana without the negative consequences opponents have warned about, support will likely continue to increase,” says Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, who conducts the Fox News Poll with Daron Shaw, his Republican counterpart.

Two-thirds of Democrats (68%) and independents (67%) favor legalization. Republicans split 46% to 46% (in 2015, 59% of Republicans were against it).

Majorities of very conservative voters (61%) and white evangelical Christians (53%) oppose legalization. However, opposition among those groups is down 14 and 16 points, respectively, from five years ago.

“When you look at the growing percentage of people who say they support legalizing marijuana, especially among those under 30 years of age, it’s obvious why the Democrats are anxious to get pot initiatives on the ballot in statewide elections,” says Shaw.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,002 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from January 21-23, 2018. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

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While such esteemed authors as Stephen Davis and the late Timothy White penned terrific biographies of Robert Nesta Marley, no writer is more knowledgeable about the Reggae King than Roger Steffens. It took him many years, but he finally completed his book: So Much Things to Say: The Oral History of Bob Marley (W. W. Norton).

Steffens is curator of the world’s largest reggae archives, which bursts the seams of his modest Echo Park bungalow in Los Angeles. The Vietnam veteran and photographer/archivist/historian has been an obsessive fan since he was mesmerized by a 1973 Rolling Stone review of the Wailers’ Catch a Fire. The next day, he watched the seminal Jimmy Cliff film, The Harder They Come, which cemented his lifelong obsession with reggae.

The author has created a reggae Rashomon in telling Marley’s story through more than 75 different interviews that frequently contradict each another. You won’t learn too much about Marley’s personal life or his series of relationships, though there’s plenty of input from Cindy Breakspeare, the former Miss World and mother of Marley’s son Damian, who Bob famously holed up with in London after the attempt on his life in Kingston in 1976.

RELATED: Review of Bob Marley and the Wailers’ Live! (Deluxe Edition)

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