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Hemp Headlines

Brought to you by Cannabis Fantastic

1. NYPD has 7th straight year of marijuana arrest increase, over 50,000 busted for pot
2. Veterans for Weed groups sparks outrage from POW likeness in logo, similarity to Veterans of Foreign Wars acronym
3. Fort Collins lawsuit challenges ban on dispensaries
4. FBI chainsaws through wrong apartment in raid, terrifying mother and toddler
5. Joan Rivers smokes pot on camera in her new reality show

Daily Toker Tunes

Irie Wednesday: Brought to you by NorCalPurps in the California Bay Area

• Winstrong & DJ Jacques – “Free Weed”

Cannabis Science with Dr. Mitch Earleywine

• Israeli study shows promise of cannabinoids in treatment of cancer

Radical Rant

• Big Pharma’s lobbying power shows incentive to oppose medical marijuana in Washington

The benefits if Cannabis keep adding up.  This new discovery along with the anti-cancer effects of cannabis could make this wonderful plant one the most amazing medicinal and natural plants on earth.

The active constituents in marijuana influence the cardiovascular system and hold promise in the management of certain cardiovascular diseases, including arrhythmia (irregular heartbeat) and ischemia, according to a scientific review appearing in the journal Cardiovascular Therapeutics.

Investigators at the Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center in Israel and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston assessed preclinical data on cannabinoids and their role in various cardiovascular pathologies.

They reported: “[T]he endocannabinoid system has a physiological role in the cardiovascular systems. This system is involved in modulating cardiac inflammatory processes, maintaining hemodynamic homeostasis and rhythm control. It is not surprising, therefore, that cannabinoids offers intervention opportunities to alter the course of cardiovascular diseases. Such is the case in ischemic reperfusion injuries, where there is evidence that activating the cannabinoid system may prevent ischemic injuries and arrhythmia. Such is the case in the rhythm control mechanisms, where a few studies indicate potential antiarrhythmic properties for cannabinoids, and such is the case in heart failure.”

Authors concluded, “The evidence of a potential role for cannabinoid in various cardiovascular pathologies, together with the safety data gleaned from various human intervention studies, indicate that now is the time to show efficacy across species and continue toward human trials.”

I exaggerate… but not by much…

(Ha’aretz) Patients who use marijuana for medical purposes must wait six hours after smoking the drug to drive a car, the Health Ministry is set to announce soon.

The effects of THC in the bloodstream have been studied extensively and it’s generally accepted that levels of 5ng/ml of THC in blood roughly corresponds to the impairment one might feel at a 0.05 blood-alcohol level.  Israel considers drivers to be per se impaired at that 0.05 blood-alcohol content.

That 5ng/ml threshold is generally achieved within one, maybe two hours of smoking or vaporizing cannabis.  After that, THC levels drop quickly, as does one’s impairment.  So to ban any medical marijuana patients from driving for six hours after medicating does not match the science and stands only to effectively ban patients from driving at all.

The new regulation will completely prohibit drivers of public or commercial vehicles from smoking the drug for medicinal purposes.

Because if you’re a bus driver, train operator, or trucker, even six hours isn’t long enough to wait before driving.  Your doctor-recommended choice of herbal medicine alone is enough to consider you too much of a risk to the public.  No sir, it’s Vicodin, Percocet, Darvocet, and OxyContin if you’re battling chronic pain.  It’s constipation-inducing drugs for your seizures or spasms and pills you have to swallow for your extreme nausea if you want to keep your driving job.

In recent months, the use of medical marijuana has risen in Israel, according to Health Ministry figures.

Up to now, some 4,000 permits have been given for marijuana use for medical purposes. The mini1stry believes that after final regulations are ironed out for the use of medicinal marijuana, some 40,000 patients in Israel will use the narcotic.

It’s not a narcotic, sorry, it is a cannabinoid.  And only with medical marijuana would the act of increasing tenfold the numbers of patients finding safe, effective, non-toxic relief be considered something to be alarmed about.

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Hemp Headlines

1. Israel improves upon its medical marijuana program
2. New Jersey legislators eager to repeal new more restrictive rules on medical marijuana
3. Rotterdam distributes 15,000 “scratch-n-sniff” marijuana-scented cards to help citizens detect and report illegal marijuana gardens

Daily Toker Tunes

• Electric Tuesday: Groove Junkies – “Far Away (TC Moses)”

NORML Newsmakers

• NORML Founder Keith Stroup reflects on 40 years of reform and the meaning of the 2010 Election

Radical Rant

• Reformers need to realize we can’t “treat it like tomatoes” until we can first “treat it like alcohol”

The Jewish Chronicle

Damsker, a board member of the Jewish Social Policy Action Network in Philadelphia, testified in favor of House Bill 1393. Rabbi Eric Cytrin of Temple Beth El in Harrisburg, a Conservative congregation, also testified that medical marijuana was consistent with Jewish values.

In fact, medical marijuana enjoys significant support in the Jewish world. In addition to JSPAN, which has a chapter in Pittsburgh, the Union for Reform Judaism adopted a resolution at its 67th General Assembly supporting its use.

The Conservative movement, has yet to endorse medical marijuana but Rabbi Elliot Dorf, one of the movement’s leading scholars has come out in favor, as have several Orthodox rabbis.

“In terms of Judaism, we would see this as part of our charge by God to be compassionate and merciful and respond to our neighbors’ distress,” Cytrin said. “That’s where we’re coming from ultimately.

“There’s no indication in scripture whether this (marijuana) should be legalized or not, but when we think of the commandments to treat our neighbors with kindness, love and compassion, this is one way to do it.”

In supporting medical marijuana, the Reform movement cited several talmudic sources for its stance including this commentary by Maimonides: “God created drugs and compounds and gave us the intelligence necessary to discover their medicinal properties; we must use them in warding off illness and disease. (Mishneh P’sachim 4:9).

In Israel, people with cancer, multiple sclerosis or certain other conditions can apply for a license to receive a free supply of medical marijuana. It is provided by a charitable organization, Tikkun Olam, which supplies it to some 700 patients.

Tikkun Olam is a Hebrew phrase that means, “repairing the world” or “perfecting the world.” I don’t think I can better that as a general comment on this article. Please give your support to House Bill 1393 to give patients in Pennsylvania their deity-given right to use marijuana as medicine.

Knesset outlaws sale of bongs, often used for marijuana consumption – Haaretz – Israel News
The Knesset Law, Constitution and Justice Committee approved on Sunday a law banning the sale of bongs — water pipes often used for the smoking of marijuana.

The law, which was approved in the second and third readings, prohibits the sale and import of apparatuses geared for the production and consumption of illicit drugs. The main objective of the new law is to put an end to the sale of bongs at stores adjacent to educational institutions.

The law stipulates that the punishment for the sale of bongs will not exceed five years incarceration. However, the Knesset committee withdrew the clause that prohibits the possession of paraphernalia used for personal drug use.

Even before the new law was approved, the existing law prohibited the sale and possession of devices used to produce or consume drugs, and even attached a maximum 20 year jail sentence as a penalty to such a crime, but the existing law is difficult to enforce because the courts insist that the device in question contain at least traces of illicit substances.

The new law still awaits approval in the second and third readings before the Knesset plenum.

If you think laws against marijuana are silly, try enforcing one against marijuana paraphernalia.  What, exactly, is the difference between an unused glass bong and a creative glass sculpture?  Under the old law, the glass “art” was paraphernalia once it has marijuana residue on it, but now, it’s illegal if it is “intended” for marijuana smoking.

We’ve seen this in other situations.  An article in this month’s High Times mentions how glass pipe importers have to not drill through the carb on pipes being imported and run a string through the pipe, because if the glass has one hole and is on a string, it’s “jewelry”, but if it has two holes, it is paraphernalia.

I anticipate clever Israeli stoners circumventing this law quite easily – unless Israel plans on making illegal two-liter soda bottles, apples, paper towel tubes, surgical tubing, little plastic bears that contain honey, or any of the myriad assortment of items with which one can fashion a bong.

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2008-05-19

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It’s Monday, May 19th, and it’s 4:20 somewhere in the world. I’m your host, “Radical” Russ Belville.

Don’t forget to your Congress at 202-224-3121, and tell your representative to support Barney Frank’s HR5843 bill that would legalize marijuana for personal use. Ending prohibition starts with you!

For our Political Activism day today, I’ve just got to tell you about my Sunday at the Waterfront in Portland, where me and 75,000 of my friends gathered to hear Senator Barack Obama. Check out the pictures, map, and video on my personal blog at RadicalRuss.com. It’s exhilarating to feel so many people gathered for political change and awareness, and it’s my goal to bring that wave of change toward ending adult marijuana prohibition. It’s time for a change and it starts with you.

Today we start our Political Activism day halfway around the world to New Zealand, where we spoke with New Zealand NORML’s Chris Fowlie about their Global Marijuana March, or as they call it, “J-Day”.

For our musical break on Blues Monday we’ve got Julian Fauth, a contemporary bluesman from Toronto, Canada. Cannabis Karri picked out “Roll on In” – is it a tribute to great joint rollers? Stay tuned and find out. (If it is, it ain’t about me. I’m a lousy joint roller.)

To conclude our Stash we welcome back new NORML Dad, Deputy Director Paul Armentano. Our international flavor continues as Paul breaks down research from Israel comparing the driving effects of mild doses of cannabis vs. alcohol on drivers.

We’ve also got another great NORML Pass the Stash contest. This time you could win the uncensored DVD of “Totally Baked”, written by Craig Shoemaker (a guest on the Stash). Bonus for you Stashers: it’s autographed by the Executive Producer, Brian Johnson, the lead singer of AC/DC! No joke, there are even three brand new Brian Johnson songs on the DVD. Listen for details later in the podcast on how you can win.

And remember, if you are a business or non-profit who’d like your message heard on the Daily Audio Stash or the NORML Weekly News, you can advertise with us. We have rates for every budget and a 10% discount for non-profits. Just send us an email at stash ‘at’ norml.org and we’ll have you on the air in no time.

So sit back and relax with a good friend and your favorite strain, it’s time for your NORML Daily Audio Stash.

New anti-drug campaign equates smoking pot with terrorism – Haaretz – Israel News
Israel’s Anti-Drug Authority has launched a new campaign featuring Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, aimed at deterring Israelis from smoking marijuana.As part of the campaign, the authority has published a poster showing the Hezbollah leader emerging genie-like from a bong.

Underneath the image, the poster reads: “Hezbollah is clearly planning to flood Israel with narcotics. Narcotics pose a strategic threat to Israeli society. Whoever uses narcotics is giving a hand to the next terrorist attack.”

The Israeli media last week quoted senior Israeli security sources as saying that Hezbollah is planning to flood Israel with drugs in an effort to harm its citizens.

Police and IDF troops on the same day stopped the largest shipment of pure heroin ever to be intercepted on Israel’s border with Lebanon, a total of 32.5 kilograms, with an estimated street value of NIS 30 million.

Gee, Israel’s only five years behind the US effort to link bongs with bombs and tokin’ with terrorism in an ad campaign that was roundly criticized not only for the idiocy of its message, but for the fact that the ads had the opposite of the intended effect – adults and teens distrust these alarmist messages and rates of use and favorable perceptions of marijuana among teens may actually increase.

Plus, how exactly is it that Hezbollah forces these helpless Israeli citizens to take drugs? Doesn’t there have to be a demand for drugs in order for the so-called “flood” strategy to be effective? I also wonder how much of that pure heroin originated from Afghanistan, where we’ve let the Taliban regain power from the profits of the country’s farmers producing most of the world’s heroin? Wouldn’t it be more strategic to focus on terrorists’ production of heroin than to demonize Israeli pot smokers?

Terrorists are making their money from heroin, not marijuana. Even so, a heroin addict is not to blame for Hezbollah’s profit from drug dealing, prohibition is to blame. If that heroin addict was getting a maintenance dose from a government clinic, there would be less profit for Hezbollah.

Israeli Research Shows Cannabidiol May Slow Alzheimer’s Disease – Inside Israel – Israel News – Arutz Sheva
(IsraelNN.com) The initial findings of a study at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem show that a non-psychoactive component of cannabis, marijuana, may hold out hope for slowing down the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

The research, still at an early stage, indicates that memory loss, the first and primary symptom of Alzheimer’s disease, can be slowed down significantly in mice by cannabidiol.

Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia, affects some 24.3 million people worldwide.

Well, this sure looks promising! But who wants to bet that their idea here is to synthesize cannabis, remove the CBD molecule and process it into a bar-coded, profit-laden pharmaceutical? C’mon, any takers, tokers?

Although the findings look promising, Professor Mechoulam warned that Alzheimer’s patients should not use cannabis itself because THC, the psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, could have the opposite effect and have damaging effects on the memory.

I win. Despite all the studies showing that the only effect on memory caused by THC is while you’re high, and that even the heaviest THC exposure only slightly affects the formation of new memories, he just had to go there, didn’t he?

Mechoulam was the first scientist to isolate the THC component of cannabis and later discovered the first endo-cannabinoid.

Dr. Clive Ballard, director of research for the UK Alzheimer’s Society, called for further research into the use of cannabis as a treatment option, saying, “We need robust clinical trials into the potential benefits of non-psychoactive components of cannabis. It is important for people to note that these treatments are not the same as recreational cannabis use, which can be potentially harmful.”