Home » 2014 (Page 21)

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  Italy: Harsh Marijuana Law Dumped

  February 17, 2014 at 9:36 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Hemp, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Italy’s constitutional court on Wednesday struck down the country’s marijuana law which tripled sentences for selling, growing or possessing cannabis. The law has been blamed for prison overcrowding in the country. The court ruled that the law, passed in 2006 by Silvio Berlusconi’s conservative government, was “illegitimate,” without going into details, reports Steve Scherer at MSN News. Some estimates suggest 10,000 people could be released from Italian jails, which are the most overcrowded in the European Union. The prison rights group [...]

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  Wisconsin Gov. Thinks Alcohol Safer Than Pot

  February 16, 2014 at 6:50 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Add Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin to the growing number of prohibitionists taking umbrage with President Obama’s acknowledgment that booze poses greater harms than pot. “I think it’s a big jump between someone having a beer and smoking marijuana,” Walker said, adding that somebody can have “a drink or two” at “a wedding reception,” but that “Most folks with marijuana wouldn’t be sitting around a wedding reception smoking marijuana” — whatever on earth that means. In truth, however, Gov. Walker is correct. Alcohol and marijuana [...]

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  Gov’t Lets Banks, Marijuana Sellers Do Business

  February 15, 2014 at 7:26 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  The Obama administration on Friday gave banks a road map for conducting transactions with legal marijuana sellers so these new businesses can stash away savings, make payroll and pay taxes like any other enterprise. It’s not clear banks will get on board. Guidance issued by the Justice and Treasury departments is the latest step by the federal government toward enabling a legalized marijuana industry to operate in states that approve it. The intent is to make banks feel more comfortable [...]

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  Study Confirms: Marijuana Helps With Multiple Sclerosis

  February 13, 2014 at 6:58 pm / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Smoking marijuana cuts spasticity and pain that’s resistant to conventional treatments in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS), although it does have some cognitive effects as well, a small clinical trial in 2012 unsurprisingly confirmed. Spasticity scores on the modified Ashworth scale dropped by an average 2.74 points more with smoked cannabis than with a placebo, researchers at the University of California San Diego found, reports Crystal Phend at MedPage Today. A difference or two or more points is considered clinically meaningful [...]

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  Meet The Children Who Rely On Marijuana To Survive

  February 13, 2014 at 6:05 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Since he was just a few months old, 10-year-old Zaki Jackson has suffered from a rare form of epilepsy that, at its worst, causes him to have thousands of seizures a day. The seizures, which his mother describes as a “full body electrocution,” render him unable to talk or walk, and sometimes cause him to stop breathing. Over the past decade, his family has tried to combat his syndrome with 17 different pharmaceutical medications, a specialized diet and alternative forms [...]

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  Marijuana May Stop The Spread Of HIV

  February 12, 2014 at 5:54 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Marijuana has long been used to effectively treat symptoms associated with HIV, such as chronic pain and weight loss. But a growing body of research suggests the plant may be able to stop the spread of the disease itself. Adding to these findings is a Louisiana State University study published last week in the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses. For 17 months, scientists administered a daily dose of THC, an active ingredient in cannabis, to monkeys infected with an animal form [...]

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  DC Decriminalizes Weed More Than A Decade After Legalizing Medical Marijuana

  February 11, 2014 at 6:00 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Although medical marijuana has been legalized in Washington, D.C. since 1998, the drug had  never been decriminalized in our nation’s capital until Tuesday, when the D.C. Council passed a measure that decriminalized the possession of small amounts of marijuana. In other words, before Tuesday, any possession of marijuana was punishable by up to six months in jail and a fine of up to $1,000. But now, under the Simple Possession of Small Quantities of Marijuana Decriminalization Amendment Act of 2013, [...]

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  Medical Marijuana Gains Traction in the Deep South

  February 10, 2014 at 5:51 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  Medical marijuana has been a non-starter in recent years in the Deep South, where many Republican lawmakers feared it could lead to widespread drug use and social ills. That now appears to be changing, with proposals to allow a form of medical marijuana gaining momentum in a handful of Southern states. Twenty states and the District of Columbia have legalized medical marijuana, and this year powerful GOP lawmakers in Georgia and Alabama are putting their weight behind bills that would [...]

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  Uruguay’s President Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize for Legalizing Marijuana

  February 9, 2014 at 7:47 am / Cannabis Events, Cannabis News, Cannabis Politics, Cannabis Reviews, Hemp, Marijuana Decriminalization, Marijuana Legalization, Medical Marijuana

  The president of Uruguay has been nominated for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. According to his advocates, José “Pepe” Mujica’s much talked-about marijuana legalization is in fact “a tool for peace and understanding.” For the second year in a row, the Drugs Peace Institute, which has supported Mujica’s marijuana legalization drive since 2012, insisting that the consumption of marijuana should be protected as a human right, has endorsed his candidacy, along with members of Mujica’s leftwing political party the Frente [...]

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