Rick Simpson: Run From The Cure

 http://www.theweedblog.com/rick-simpson-run-from-the-cure/

Rick Simpson has been providing people with Hemp Oil medicines, at no cost, for about years. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Watch the documentary Run From The Cure to understand more about using cannabis as a cure for cancer and other medical problems!

White House Report Acknowledges Few Scientists Permitted To Assess Cannabis Use In Humans

Posted by Ninja Smoker at 9:02 am on July 22, 2011

http://www.theweedblog.com/white-house-report-acknowledges-few-scientists-permitted-to-assess-cannabis-use-in-humans/

Only fourteen researchers in the United States are legally permitted to conduct research assessing the effect of inhaled cannabis in human subjects, according to data included in the White House’s 2011 National Drug Control Strategy, released last week.

In a section of the report entitled ‘Medical Marijuana,’ the administration states, “In the United States, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has approved 109 researchers to perform bona fide research with marijuana, marijuana extracts, and marijuana derivatives such as cannabidiol and cannabinol.” However, it later clarifies that of these 109 scientists, only fourteen “are approved to conduct research with smoked marijuana on human subjects.”

Among those scientists licensed to work with either cannabis or its constituents — primarily in animal models — most are involved in research to assess the drug’s “abuse potential, physical/psychological effects, [and] adverse effects,” the report stated.

In 2010, a spokesperson for the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) — the federal agency that must approve any US clinical trial involving marijuana – told the New York Times: “[O]ur focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”

Earlier this month, DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart denied a nine-year-old petition seeking to initiate hearings regarding the federal classification of cannabis as a schedule I substance, stating in part, “[T]here are no adequate and well-controlled studies proving efficacy.”

Commenting on the report, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “Only in an environment of absolute criminal prohibition would this or any administration purport to the public that it is acceptable to allow no more than fourteen researchers to clinically study a substance consumed by tens of millions of Americans for therapeutic or recreational purposes. This acknowledgement illustrates once again the administration’s supposed commitment to ‘scientific integrity’ does not apply to cannabis.”

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500 or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director at: paul@norml.org.

Medical Marijuana food truck hits Lakers’ victory parade in LA

Marijuana lollipops for sale on Lakers parade route

June 21, 2010 | 10:52 am

• 

Lakers’ fans cheered Monday during the victory parade in downtown… (Vogel/AP)

In addition to the sales of Lakers paraphernalia and water, some surprising entrepreneurs took to the parade route to sell their wares.

Among them was a mobile truck, Weed World Candies.com, selling marijuana lollipops in hues of orange and blue. (The truck itself is green with a photo mural of young women in bikinis sorting marijuana leaves.)

The assortment included brands of marijuana such as OG Kush and Grand Daddy Perp. The truck’s owner, Bilal Muhammad, said he was recently forced to shut down his store in West Hollywood and had taken his business on the road.

Customers approaching his truck were asked if they had a prescription card allowing them to purchase marijuana and then were handed a free lollipop.

“It’s been working out very well,” he said of business before driving away as police became visible in the distance.

So far, Muhammad was able to work without interruption from police.

– Gale Holland http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/06/marijuana-lollipops-for-sale-on-lakers-parade-route.html

Ron Paul & Hemp for American Farmers:energy efficiency grants

Energy audit [Economist articles in description - Ron Paul mentioned in one] A video consisting of an US Government history lesson about hemp which leads into an argument for hemp and then Ron Paul’s Hemp legislation. Hemp has the potential to be a huge boon for American farmers and the US economy all while helping the environment and improving US security by lowering our reliance on foreign oil…and Ron Paul is the only candidate in favor of legislation to allow American Farmers to grow it. Music Artist – The Whitest Boy Alive Song – Golden Cage (Economist – 6/23/07) Nowadays farmers are banned from growing hemp without a permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which usually refuses to grant one. So many hemp products in America—food, lotions, clothing, paper and so forth—are imported from China or Canada, where farmers have been allowed to grow hemp commercially since 1998. Hemp grows so easily that few pesticides or even fertilisers are needed. “Feral” hemp is said to grow by the roadside in Iowa and Nebraska. Barbara Filippone, owner of a hemp fabric company called Enviro Textiles, says demand has rocketed—sales are growing by 35% a year. Nutiva, a California-based hemp company that sells hemp bars, shakes and oils, saw sales rise from under $1m three years ago to $4.5m last year. “Hemp is the next soy,” predicts John Roulac, Nutiva’s founder. American farmers would love to grow hemp. North Dakota, which in 1999 became the first state to allow industrial hemp …energy saving

 

CURED OF CANCER

Cafe Vale Tudo New Prop 215 Flowers Video

Our new yummy strains!
Come in to check them out at Cafe Vale Tudo
24601 Raymond Way, Suite 9B
Lake Forest, Ca
92630

(949) 454-9227

Open 10 am to 10 pm, 7 days a week

“budgenius”

Graphic: BudGenius

​Artificial-Intelligence Software “BudGenius” Correlates Chemical Analysis with Online Patient Feedback

BudGenius.com, a social networking website and medical marijuana testing laboratory (now there’s a 21st Century combination for you!), says it has developed technology to predict therapeutic effects for thousands of marijuana strains by combining scientific data and crowd-sourced reviews.

Patients throughout California use the online service to select cannabis individually rated for pain relief, sleep aid, anxiety relief, nausea treatment, appetite stimulation, and mood modification. BudGenius says it plans to extend treatment options to target cancer, Parkinson’s disease, and Alzheimer’s within a year.

Patients search online at BudGenius.com to find locally available marijuana treatments that meet their requirements. Patients are also given the option to visit participating dispensaries and review onsite educational materials.

Dispensaries aid medicine selection by displaying BudGenius identification cards alongside each marijuana strain. Each card appears similar to a driver’s license, containing a photo, therapeutic effects matrix, potency ratings, and an expiration date. All cards are sealed with a tamper-proof hologram to ensure authenticity.

“Senior citizens and patients new to cannabis face an uphill battle in sifting through myth and rumor to educate themselves on selecting the proper type of marijuana for their needs,” said Angel Stanz, cofounder and president of BudGenius.com. “With dispensaries carrying a dynamic medicine catalog upwards of 20 products, often changing every two weeks, there is no system in place for caregivers to make a fully informed recommendation to patients.

“BudGenius provides a much-needed solution with a rating system powered by science, crowd-sourced reviews, and an intelligent engine constantly reevaluating data patterns,” Stanz said.

The BudGenius process begins with a gas chromatography analysis to determine the active chemicals contained within each marijuana plant. This produces results in both potency levels and chemical ratios.

Test results are then compared against previous scientific trial data and crowd-sourced reviews that match similar strain properties. Using this information BudGenius produces the most likely effect ratings based upon its gathered information.

In just more than six months of operation, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, according to BudGenius.

“The services that BudGenius has provided lends validation to our craft,” said a representative from Humboldt County Housewives, a select group of northern California gardeners. “We believe that BudGenius is helping pave the way to conscious medical administration.”

While Stanz said he feels BudGenius has set a foundation that could soon begin identifying effective treatments for critical illnesses, he recognizes that there is more work to be done. For instance, BudGenius is only testing for three cannabinoids out of many that exist in marijuana.

“We’re just beginning to scratch the surface of what’s possible,” Stanz said. “Pharmaceuticals and traditional medical research often focus on a micro scale by isolating individual chemicals. However, the marijuana plant is a macro organism with hundreds of interrelated compounds bearing synergistic effects.

“The interrelationships could take decades to discover by following a conventional path,” Stanz said. “We’re harnessed the power of the most valuable resource available — thousands of willing human test subjects.

“By correlating exact chemical ratios with patient observations, we’re in the beginning stages of becoming a Physician’s Desk Reference for available medical marijuana,” Stanz said.

A Pot Taster Speaks: Does ‘The Cough’ Really Mean It’s Good?

Graphic: 187CHUY

By Jed Midnight

Special to Toke of the Town

​ For the past few years I’ve had the privilege and responsibility to be a Cannabis Assessor. It is my task or duty to sample medical marijuana for projective buyers. Thousands of dollars change hands based on my opinion of the herb.

My expertise is based on many decades of research and the ability to say what is good in one sitting. I’ve been a judge in a few cannabis cups and there are some who know me as an intelligent, sophisticated snob with a strong sense of separating the diggity-dank from the swag on the spot.

And just like Peter Parker found out from Spidey, I know that with great power comes great responsibility.

Today a regular customer enlisted my services. As always, I am brought blindfolded to someplace in the city where anxious gentlemen with dreadlocks imprisoned in wool caps sit with bulging military duffle bags at their sandals as they wait with prospective dispensary buyers for me, the Ganja Taster to arrive.

Photo: Ganjaology.org Permafrost

​ Years ago when I started assisting nervous buyers who were unsure of their senses when so much hinges on snap judgments, I dealt with growers more my age. Now the average seller is in his thirties or younger, the grandson of the typical Northern Cali farmer. They hate me. The looks on their faces say right away, “Why in the fuck do we have to get this old geezer’s opinion. We know we got the Shit!”

While most dispensaries have their own people, there’s a lot of shit floating through the City and let’s just say one’s taste buds can get over run by the quantity and quality of buds we’re seeing. That’s where I come in.

Today was different. Today I looked at some of the best bud I’ve ever seen. From the moment the twisties came off the turkey bags, I could tell I was looking at something different.

It was gnarly. It was crispy. I didn’t need anything extraneous like a magnifying glass or light to see that the trichomes glistened like stacked glass balls on a moonlit night. The coloring was perfect with dark reds wrapped tight around lime-green dense tops. Trimmed and manicured in an asymmetrical pattern allowed the buds to jut out like baby Matterhorn Mountains.

Photo: brainz

AK-47

​I took a hit. I coughed.

One of the seller dudes said the classic hippie retorts, “Smooth, huh?”

That’s what us stoners used to say in the old days when smoking that Mexican rope that we first had in Sixties. After taking a hellacious hit and virtually spitting up a lung, your buddies would taunt you with, ‘Smooth,” while you tried not to lose your cookies.

Today was different. I coughed because I was smoking indoor grown marijuana. After the first drag I said, “This is indoor, right boys?”

I got nothing but big smiles and nodding heads acknowledging validating that the Old Guy might know something after all.

For the most part because of my affection for the part of California called the Emerald Triangle and the philosophies that are involved with that kind of lifestyle, I prefer and have partaken in mostly outdoor grown medicine. More to the point, lately I’ve been partial to rainwater-fed, clean-green grown cannabis. Its part of the slow crawl to the world of organic living that I’m trying to reach. For me, alongside of the food I put into my body, I worry about what I’m smoking.

I am not against indoor marijuana; I grew up in a place where it is winter for nine months out of the year. People will find a way.

All I’m saying that in the last five years, my taste buds have changed and I now can tell the difference between indoor and outdoor. Until today.

The stuff I smoked today was definitely indoor grown, but only the most experience palette is going to be able to tell that. If the sellers were to say it was grown outdoors, by the appearance, density and smell, most buyers would be all over this shit like it came in directly from a field somewhere in Mendo.

Photo: marijuana-seeds.weed.com

Early Misty, grown outdoors

​ But there was that cough. The tell-tale cough that some saw as a sign of its awesomeness. The Cough that becomes like a rodeo ride and you’re a pussy if you fall or try to get off before the bell goes rings. The Cough that says it takes a real man to handle to this shit.

Then after a couple of tokes, I could feel the real ride begin. The roller-coaster ups and downs that many take as being really, really stoned; I took for additives. The juice they add in their gardens to give the buds these days that power-lift that the young connoisseurs are beginning to expect from what they call, boutique bud. The high-end medicine that does exactly what it is supposed to do. Which is to get you higher, more stoned than you’ve ever been.

‘Cause that’s what you want to tell your friends. How good your bud is.

Buds these days are high in THC and will get you higher than anything in the Day did. But is it good?

Do people really know what they’re smoking besides for that fact that they’re getting ripped?

What happens if all stuff that makes you go zoom-zoom is from the deep labs of Monsanto and DuPont and Gro-Master? What if the Ganja Scientists of Green Dank Industries discovered how to make Johnny higher in order to sell that bud?

What happens when you don’t need the Sun anymore?

I will state again. I am not against indoor. I am boycotting the High Times Cannabis Cup this month because it allows only indoor grown pot or else, last year’s not so fresh harvest. I digress about High Times. I make that point because I favor the harvest cups that happen in winter that allow for the outdoor growers. You know the ones that have been supplying the country for the last fifty years.

After today, I think I could be for nuclear energy. I might even be able to be talked into voting Republican. I’ve been converted to believe that indoor marijuana is just as good as outdoor.

The only drawback for me is that carcinogenic thing that comes with even the most “organic”sounding chemicals and that subtle cough that feels like brandy going down the wrong pipe.

The young guns who were selling the beautiful bud guaranteed me that one sure-fire way you can tell if the medicine is good, is that it will make you cough.

All good weed makes you cough. Yeah, right.

I think we’re heading to the Age of the McBud.

10 Moments in History Where a Joint would have Helped

http://hailmaryjane.com/10-moments-in-history-where-a-joint-would-have-helped/

This is a Guest Post from our friends over at Weed Maps.

Looking at the past, there are plenty of times when mankind’s problems could have been solved by marijuana. Here are the top 10 events of Western history where a joint would have come in handy.

1. Cain Killing Abel (Old Testament)

According to Genesis, both of Adam and Eve’s sons went out one day to make burnt offerings to God. Cain, a farmer, offered up “the fruit of the ground,” while Abel, a shepherd, provided “the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof.” When Cain saw that The Man Upstairs liked his brother’s sacrifice more than his, he lured Abel into a trap and killed him—history’s first murder. Maybe this didn’t actually happen, but we can’t help but think the world might be a better place if Cain had found a more pleasing plant to burn.

2. The Trial of Socrates (399 BC)

Before the internet or rock and roll, people blamed philosophy for “corrupting the youth.” The upstanding citizens of Athens decided to make an example of Socrates, who went around asking dangerous questions like “Why?” They found him guilty and, according to custom, gave him a chance to beg for mercy. Instead, he told them he was doing them all a favor and demanded free meals for life. If the jury had a little weed, maybe they would’ve seen the humor in it. Instead, more people on the jury voted to execute him than had voted to convict.

3. The Death of Cleitus the Black (328 BC)

Alexander the Great loved parties. If he’d had some weed, these would have been pretty laid back affairs. Sadly, the only bowls at these soirees were full of wine—lots of it. Now, Alexander was violent enough when sober, but he was a real mean drunk. Just ask his best friend, a general named Cleitus, who got into a drunken fight with Alexander one night and ended up with a spear through his chest. Alexander never forgave himself.

4. The Cadaver Synod (897)

Pope Stephen VII must have missed the “forgive your enemies” memo. Upon being elected as God’s Vicar on Earth, he had the rotting corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, dug up, placed on a throne in the middle of Rome’s cathedral, and put on trial. Stephen ranted and raved against the late Formosus for some time before ordering the body’s fingers chopped off and having the body cast into the river. We’re not saying a joint could’ve stopped this, but it sure would have made it funnier.

5. The Council of Clermont (1095)

A couple of centuries later, another Pope, Urban II, called a church gathering at Clermont, France and made the first official call for a crusade against the infidels. But Urban was really less interested in conquering Jerusalem than getting his still half-barbarian subjects to just stop beating the hell out of each other for a while. Pot would’ve done the same job, without causing a thousand years of conflict between East and West.

6. The Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)

In the seventeenth century, Europe suffered from one of the bloodiest wars of all time. The Ottomans invaded the Austrians, who were allied with the Spanish, who went to war with the English, who hated France but allied with them anyway. The Germans fought each other and everyone else. At some point Sweden came out of nowhere and almost conquered everybody. When people weren’t getting killed in battle, they were keeling over from the plague. In short, everything sucked, and we’re sure everybody back then could’ve used a joint.

7. The Beating of Charles Sumner (1856)

When Senator Charles Sumner of Massachusetts delivered a speech insulting a relative of his, South Carolina Congressman Preston Brooks reacted like a true Southern gentleman—by beating Sumner senseless with a cane on the floor of the Senate. This incident didn’t exactly help relations between North and South in the years leading up to the Civil War. A joint might have calmed Brooks down, or at least done something for Sumner’s pain.

8. The Treaty of Versailles (1919)

The negotiations ending World War I were notoriously tense. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson wanted to go easy on defeated Germany, but the other winners weren’t having it. The resulting treaty left the Germans hungry for revenge, planting the seeds for World War II years later. America at this time was already starting to outlaw cannabis. That’s too bad—if Wilson had brought some along, maybe his allies would’ve been in a better mood.

9. The Kennedy-Nixon Debates (1960)

Suave, good-looking JFK made short work of Tricky Dick Nixon in America’s first televised presidential debates. Nixon, people said, came across on camera as shifty, nervous, and uncomfortable. We wonder what could’ve loosened him up? On the other hand, Nixon was paranoid enough already. We can only wonder what Nixon would have thought of medical marijuana.

10. The Monica Lewinsky Scandal (1998)

Let’s just say that if Bill Clinton hadn’t given up pot, he might’ve kept some around in the Oval Office to smoke when things got tough. In that case, maybe he wouldn’t have been so desperate to improve the taste of his cigars.

750,000 MMJ Patients in CA

Medical Marijuana Patients Number 750,000 In California

Graphic: MJ Dispensaries of Southern California

Retail Market Is $1.5 Billion To $4.5 Billion Per Year

​There are now more than 750,000 medical marijuana patients in California, representing two percent of the population according to the most recent data, estimates California NORML. At the high end, an estimate of more than 1,125,000 patients, or three percent of the population, is consistent with the data.

This represents a substantial increase from Cal NORML‘s earlier estimates of 300,000 in 2007, 150,000 in 2005, and 75,000 in 2004, but is in line with registration rates in other comparable states that enjoy similar wide access to medical cannabis clinics and dispensaries.

The exact number of patients in California is uncertain, because patients aren’t required to register in the Golden State. Under Prop 215, California’s medical marijuana law, patients need only a physician’s recommendation to be legal.

Just a tiny fraction of the California’s medical marijuana population is enlisted in the state’s voluntary ID card program, which issued just 12,659 cards in 2009-2010. Therefore, California’s patient numbers must be estimated from other sources.

Among the most salient sources of data are medical marijuana registries in Colorado and Montana, which report patient rates of 2.5 percent and 3.0 percent, respectively.

Because California’s law is older and has more liberal inclusion criteria than in other states, usage there is likely to be higher, according to Cal NORML.

Photo: CannaCentral

Dale Gieringer, Cal NORML: “The data show that medical marijuana users are becoming an increasingly important constituency”

​ Despite this, there is no evidence that liberal access to medical marijuana has spurred overall marijuana use in California. According to U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) data, the total number of cannabis users in the state, including non-medical ones, amounts to 6.7 percent of the population (2.5 million) within the past month, or 11.3 percent (4.1 million) within the past year.

This places California only slightly above the national average in marijuana use (6.0 percent monthly and 10.4 percent yearly), and below several states with tougher marijuana laws.

Use of cannabis by California school youth has declined since Proposition 215 passed, according to data from the Attorney General’s Survey of Student Drug Use in California. The increase in medical marijuana use therefore appears to reflect a tendency for existing users to “go medical,” rather than the enlistment of new users.

The total retail value of medical marijuana consumed in California can be estimated at between $1.5 billion and $4.5 billion per year, assuming a market of 2 percent to 3 percent of the population, with average use of 0.5 to 1 gram per day, and an average cost of $320 per ounce.

“Marijuana’s popularity can be explained by its low toxicity, pleasant effects, and remarkably wide range of therapeutic uses, over 250 of which have been reported,” Cal NORML said in a press release.

By far the leading application is chronic pain, which accounts for the majority of all recommendations. Studies by California’s Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research have shown that marijuana is particularly effective for neuropathic pain, an otherwise difficult to treat condition that afflicts up to 7 to 8 percent of the population.

Patients who use marijuana for pain commonly report significant reductions in their use of other medications, in particular prescription opiates.

“The data show that medical marijuana users are becoming an increasingly important constituency,” said California NORML Director Dale Gieringer. “It is time for the federal government to stop ignoring the facts and recognize their right to medicine.”