Fire ravages nuclear reactor in Japan following earthquake and tsunami... how can hemp make a difference?

I’ve been glued to the television and internet reports about the unfolding disaster in Japan.  First an 8.9 magnitude earthquake strikes near the island nation, then a tremendous tsunami washes ashore and leaves an estimated 10,000 dead and thousands more missing.  Now the failure of power and back-up cooling units has led to potential meltdowns in the country’s nuclear reactors.

(CleanEnergy.org) As reported in the New York Times today: two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi plant 170 miles north of Tokyo appear to have suffered partial meltdowns and three reactors at the nearby Fukushima Daini plant are dealing with failures in the cooling system. Releases of volatile radioactive elements have occurred, though the exact amounts are not yet known. Reports have stated that radiation levels have exceeded permissible limits and over 200,000 people living around the two nuclear power plants have been evacuated. There are reports that several plant workers have experienced significant radiation exposure, a confirmation that at least one worker has died and more than 160 people outside of the plant are also contaminated with radioactivity. Radioactive cesium has been measured, a sure sign that the nuclear fuel has been damaged.

I’ve been teased by friends and family that no matter what the story is on the news, I can find a way that it ties to marijuana.  This story is no different, though I preface my tie-in by expressing the sincerest condolences for the people of Japan (including Japanese cannabis activists Gomyô, Hannabis, the Hoodie Monks, and Taku) and the horror they’re dealing with and will continue to deal with for months.

We can't grow this to clean up waste sites! Why, some teenager might get high on something closely related to it!

The tie-in between marijuana and Japan can be found in the efforts to clean up the soil following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the Ukraine.

(McGraw-Hill Higher Education) In 1989, three years after the explosion, the Soviet government asked the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to assess the radiological and health situation in the area surrounding the power plant. Among the most significant findings were radioactive emissions and toxic metals–including iodine, cesium-137, strontium, and plutonium–concentrated in the soil, plants, and animals. Such substances are potentially harmful to human health. For example, although iodine tends to disappear within a few weeks of exposure, it can be inhaled or ingested and then accumulated in the thyroid gland, where it delivers high doses of radiation as it decays. Since 1991, the Canadian Nuclear Association has noted a marked increase in the incidence of thyroid cancer in the area surrounding the nuclear accident. Cesium-137, radioactive cesium with a mass number of 137, can enter the food chain and deliver an internal dose of radiation before it is eliminated metabolically.

Getting those toxic and radioactive elements out of the soil is crucial to restoring the ecosystem after a nuclear disaster.  A technique called “phytoremediation” uses certain plants to leech these elements from the soil… guess which one is one of the best at that task?  Good old industrial hemp, cannabis’ non-drug cousin that our government bans because our police are too uneducated to tell the difference.

(Hemp.net) In 1998, Consolidated Growers and Processors (CGP), PHYTOTECH, and the Ukraine’s Institute of Bast Crops began what may be one of the most important projects in history – the planting of industrial hemp for the removal of contaminants in the soil near Chernobyl.

Phytoremediation can be used to remove radioactive elements from soil and water at former weapons producing facilaties. It can also be used to clean up metals, pesticides, solvents, explosives, crude oil, polyaromatic hydrocarbons, and toxins leaching from landfills.

Plants break down or degrade organic pollutants and stabilize metal contaminants by acting as filters or traps. PHYTOTECH is conducting feild trials to improve the phytoextraction of lead, uranium, cesium-137, and strontium-90 from soils and also from water.

“Hemp is proving to be one of the best phyto-remediative plants we have been able to find,” said Slavik Dushenkov, a research scienst with PHYTOTECH. Test results have been promising and CGP, PHYOTECH and the Bast Institute plan full scale trials in the Chernobyl region in the spring of 1999.

This technique of hemp phytoremediation has applications that extend beyond nuclear accident cleanups.  If prohibition on hemp farming were lifted and the industry were allowed to flourish, there could be thousands of new jobs created:

(Damn Interesting) All in all, the field of phytoextraction seems to be one of the most promising in the efforts to clean up the hundreds of thousands of sites worldwide (30,000 in the US alone, according to the EPA), that require hazardous waste treatment. Even if only modestly successful, the use of plants as contaminant removers could reduce cleanup costs considerably. Even more promising, phytoextraction is only one aspect of the whole field of phytoremediation, in which plants are being used not only to remove toxins, but sometimes to break them down (phytotransformation), enhance microbial activity (phytostimulation), or prevent leaching of contaminants in the first place (phytostabalization).

In Belarus, site of the original Chernobyl disaster, they are not only using the hemp to clean up the soil, they’re making money on the processing of that hemp into biofuel!

(CannaZine.co.uk) Belarus Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov said: ”We consider ethanol to be one of the most promising and sustainable sources of cheap and nature-friendly energy, and we have several advantages for its production here.

“Belarus is probably the only country in Europe with vast territories which can be used for biomass production, the lands affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe 21 years ago.

The Minister concluded: “The Government of Belarus has declared ethanol a priority topic for energy development, so we are very happy today to see the first steps being taken, in what we are sure will be a successful and large-scale development of ethanol production.”

Greenfield chairwoman Ann McClain said, “Greenfield’s plan to produce bio-ethanol will use land which has been contaminated by radioactive isotopes to cultivate biomass crops for the ethanol distilleries and at the same time, we believe growing the biomass crops will work to clean up the affected areas”.

Japan allows for the farming of industrial hemp, but acquisition of a license to do so is very limited, thanks to the US Government forcing the occupied Japanese to sign onto a Cannabis Control Law in 1948 which, like US law, confuses cultivators of non-drug hemp with those growing medicinal marijuana and consumer cannabis.

(JapanHemp.org) However, the cannabis control law was enacted under GHQ under the United States occupation after World War II in 1948. As a result, an annual license from the prefecture governor was needed to grow hemp . It felt that the farmer was the same as making of the cultivation of hemp the narcotic drug because of the licensing system degree. After that, hemp products of the plant origin disappeared one after another by the spread of the life use goods of the oil origin in postwar days. And the number of farmers who grow hemp has decreased gradually.

The hemp agriculture of Japan was 4049.2 ha the total planted acreage of the fiber harvest and the seed harvest, and a scale of 25,118 people in 1950.  However, the planted acreage in 1996 was only 12.4 ha according to Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry today. Of that 12.0 ha was grown in Tochigi Prefecture, some 50 km north of Tokyo.

There are only 102 hemp farmers now. (From the Ministry of Health and Welfare Pharmaceutical and Medical Safety Bureau Narcotics Division as of January 1, 1999)

At least Japan does have some hemp farmers and laws that will allow them to get started on hemp phytoremediation as soon as possible.  If an American nuclear reactor melted down we’d have to go through all the politics and argument and legislation necessary to repeal a federal prohibition of industrial hemp as a Schedule I drug before we could plant the first non-drug hemp plants to begin saving the land.

Today’s toker tune comes from Fated Lyeno, a hot new group featuring three 20-year-old guys from Wakayama, Japan. Quirky doesn’t begin to describe this trio or its intriguing and rocking blend of emo, melodic punk, and jazz. The cut we’ll hear today is an energetic ditty from the band’s all-English sputnnikland inc/ioda release Get Over Trails.

You can find more of the band’s music on myspace. Also check out the Fated Lyeno website: It’s pretty cool — do note, however, that the text is in Japanese. If you want to buy their music, head to iTunes. But first, hear them right here, right now on NORML Show Live. This is Fated Lyeno and Weed.

Download audio file (Fated Lyeno – Weed.mp3)

Download Link: Secret Stash - Register to access

A government survey indicates that the percentage of people 15 and older who have smoked marijuana increased 2.6-fold between 1995 and 2005, although the overall rate remains relatively low.

Cannabis users formed 1.3 percent of all respondents in a 2005 survey on drug use by the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, up from 0.5 percent in a previous survey in 1995.

Marijuana finished behind organic solvents, including paint thinner, which at a usage rate of 1.5 percent was the most abused type of drug in Japan.

In both the 1995 and 2005 surveys, the percentage of people who said they have taken stimulant drugs stood at 0.3 percent.

Slightly more than 3 percent of the respondents said they have been offered solvents, while 2.4 percent said they have been offered pot and 1.0 percent stimulant drugs.

More Japanese would rather huff paint thinner than smoke pot?  I hope that’s a reflection of the availability of cannabis on the island and not a preference.  That paint thinner can easily kill you and we all know the marijuana will not.  C’mon, Japanese growers!  I call on you to grow more and help save your fellow countrymen from huffing!

Help us end the 21st century prohibition! Join NORML today!

I am now NORML’s National Chapter Outreach Coordinator.  In that capacity, I receive the emails from people all across the country looking to join NORML.  We currently have 64 chapters and 47 campus chapters in 38 states, and 8 international chapters.

I want a NORML chapter in all fifty states, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands.  I want double the number of chapters.  So I really need your help.

Just this last two weeks, I have received emails from budding activists (pun intended) looking to start NORML Chapters in Colorado, North Carolina, Alaska, Alabama, Florida (Miami), Missouri, Virginia, Idaho, New Hampshire, Kentucky, Mississippi, Vermont, Texas, Nebraska, Wisconsin, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Kansas, as well as four new college chapter inquiries and inquiries from Australia, Japan, Guam, and Mexico (Cuidad Juarez).

I work to put the people in the same state in touch with each other because the hardest thing about forming a NORML Chapter isn’t finding the guy or gal to lead, it’s finding the other four people to form your board.

So Stashers, if you’re in one of the above-named states or countries and you’d like to get on board with a new local chapter, send me an email to stash@norml.org with the subject “Join a Chapter” and I’ll hook you up.

Download the NORML Daily Audio Stash for 2009-02-24

Download audio file (NORML_Daily_AudioStash_2009-02-24.mp3)

Today’s Stash: Dan Linn from Illinois NORML joins us for Government at Work to discuss Illinois HB 2514 and SB 1381, the twin measures to make Illinois the 14th medical marijuana state (call the Illinois reps at 217-782-2000).  It’s like New Jersey, Illinois, and Minnesota are in a race or something.

Jet Baker joins us as a regional Cannabis Correspondent with his report on the Texas NORML reformer’s bootcamp in Austin, or “the ATX, y’all”.

Taku from THC Japan calls in from Tokyo to discuss sumo testing positive for weed, emerging Japanese cannabis culture, and the similarity of Reefer Madness in all languages.  I take it back – I called Taku… what’s the per-minute charge to Japan?

And Rich Hardesty not only provides today’s Daily Toker Tune, he talks to us about his music and getting his song on the Totally Baked DVD.

But what about me?  Glad you asked…

Today I began the day at 6am, following four hours of sleep, following five hours of video editing, following producing yesterday’s Stash.  This was so I could return to the dreaded 7am commute to go all the way across town and through the Tunnel of Prosecutorial Despair* to get to the TV studio for Portland’s CW affiliate.  I was on a point-counterpoint show on marijuana law reform and the episode will air Sunday at 6:30am.  Great time slot, I know.

But that’s not the best part.  The host (good guy) tells me of how he had a local columnist on defending the right of gay people to equal marriage and they could not get a single opponent of marriage rights for gays to come on the show.  So he had collected the talking points of all the local opponents (this was following the marriage rights measure passed by Oregon in 2006) and delivered them against the columnist using Socko, the Family Values Sock Puppet.

You see where I’m going with this?

The funniest part for me was that this studio was not two exits away from where I had my last corporate job as an IT trainer.  When I worked there I had a co-worker named Bill who used to bring, swear to Mary Jane, a sock puppet to work that was called Mr. Socko.  He would use this sock puppet as a threat to students who weren’t paying attention in a software class, as in, “Don’t make me get Mr. Socko.  I’ll have him teach this whole class.”  Occasionally someone would call his bluff and he’d whip out the briefcase, pull out Mr. Socko, use a high-pitched voice, and the fun was on.  Bill was a great trainer, because let me tell you, when you’ve tried to explain the SUM() function in Excel for the thirteenth time in a month to job retraining candidates who, bless their hearts, have as much chance of grasping spreadsheet formulas as I have grasping the repair and maintenance of a combine.

So the host informs me there would be no opponent, as no one from law enforcement, the business community, nor anyone who represents the consistent opponents of medical marijuana in Oregon would dare to appear on camera against a well-informed articulate opponent.  Would I agree to appear with a sock puppet?

I thought about the trouble we have getting our issue taken seriously, but I also thought that, handled correctly, it would be a great opportunity to inform a large audience.  Besides, I’m a big Mr. Socko fan and I had to do it, if only to make a fun story to tell Bill.

The first two segments were me and the host alone.  Good stuff, talking about NORML’s mission, why call it “reform marijuana laws” and not just “legalize”?  (Because “reform” runs the spectrum from lopri intitiatives to decrim to medical to legalize and lots of things in between.)  Yada yada yada.

Then in the second two segments Socko, the Prohibitionist Puppet is introduced.  The host seriously intones that they reached out to numerous opponents and could not get one to come on camera, but that he wished to make sure both sides of the debate were represented.  Then with his hand in a white sock with a gold toe and two buggy red eyes drawn on hastily twenty minutes before, the host asked in a falsetto voice:

SOCKO: “If we legalize marijuana, a so-called ‘soft drug’, that’s going to lead to more abuse of the hard drugs like meth and heroin!”

To which I replied (paraphrasing, I was strangely nervous):

ME: First of all, I want to thank Socko for agreeing to be on this show today.  It is getting difficult to find human beings who will even try to make these anti-marijuana arguments anymore.  Like this ‘gateway theory’ you’re mentioning.  In 1999, the United States government’s own Institute of Medicine reviewed the studies and found that there is no ‘gateway effect’ from marijuana to hard drugs, and that’s been backed up by numerous studies since.  There is nothing about smoking marijuana that either physiologically or psychologically leads one to try other drugs.  

The ‘gateway theory’ is a myth that holds on because people look at meth, cocaine, and heroin addicts and say, “Aha!  They all used marijuana!”  But they never look the other direction, at the millions – one hundred million Americans have tried marijuana in their lives, and so very very few of them ever use, much less become addicted to, any other drugs.  For most, cannabis is a ‘terminus drug’ rather than a ‘gateway drug’.

SOCKO:  I don’t know what that means.

ME:  A ‘terminus drug’, meaning that for most of the people who use marijuana, that’s where their use of drugs stops.  Most don’t go on to other drugs.

This will be on YouTube so when it is available, I will post it here.  I’d much rather debate a human, but so far no human will debate me on camera.  (Yes, because they’re quaking in their boots at the thought of matching wits with a college dropout stoner blogging in his basement wearing sweats and eating Cheetos between bong hits.  You know, like Bill Hicks mentioned, what does it say when they declare a war on drugs and they are losing to the people on drugs?)

Click here to view the embedded video.

At the behest of a sponsor, Michael Phelps has recorded a video apology to the people of China, expressing his remorse over the recently published pictures of him using a marijuana pipe and thanking them for their support and forgiveness.

The 52-second video has been posted on several Web sites in China, and one major Chinese newspaper said the video had been sent directly from the Japanese auto company Mazda, which last month signed Phelps to an endorsement deal believed to be worth more than a million dollars. Phelps was signed to promote Mazda cars in China after his record-breaking eight-gold-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics last summer.

But Mazda apparently decided an apology to the Chinese would suffice. The company issued a statement saying it would continue its sponsorship of Phelps. “His expression of remorse and his determination to make amends, and especially his video apology and expression of thanks to the Chinese people, give us confidence that Phelps can make a healthy return to the pool and have even more brilliant achievements,” the statement said.

I’m sorry, I’ve forgotten — how many gold medals and world records did Michael Phelps win for the nation of China again?  Or Japan?

I had been withholding judgment on Phelps apologies.  I was giving him some leeway, being a 23-year-old young man, being socially awkward from years spent in a pool rather than socializing, being in the unenviable position of having the entire world focused on you as you decide “millions of dollars and set for life” vs. “the fallen-from-grace gold medalist who stood up for pot”.  I’m down for the cause and all, but you throw eight figures at me and I might have to think about it.

But apologizing to the Chinese?!?  A country that censors its internet, aborts its unwanted females, imprisons its religious, and generally represses human rights needs an apology over a photo of a bong-smoking swimmer or its people won’t buy a lousy Japanese car the swimmer endorses?  

Forget it, Phelps, I’m done withholding judgment.  You may be the fastest fish in the water, but out of the pool you’ve got as much spine as a squid.  Your pot smoking isn’t something to be ashamed of, in fact, it was the smartest recreational intoxicant choice you could make.  You’re unquestionably the greatest swimmer ever and your financial future would be secure even if every sponsor dropped you (unlike, say, the thousands losing their jobs over a dirty pee test).  USA Swimming would never have banned you from any real competition; you’re their only household name.  You, unlike anyone else caught smoking pot, were in the most unassailable position to finally say, “I smoke pot and I like it a lot – so what?” and maybe be the little boy who cries out the emperor is naked that finally tips the scales in ending adult marijuana prohibition.

Real men stand up for what they believe.  Real men fight for their sacred honor.  Real men don’t cower and submit for a paycheck when their family’s survival doesn’t depend on it.

Sheesh, do we now have to boycott the companies that kept Phelps because they’re supporting the Judas of Ganja?  ”Is this not the third time thou hast denied me,” said Cannabis?

In the past six months, four wrestlers have been kicked out of the ancient sport for allegedly smoking marijuana, creating the biggest drugs-in-sports scandal that Japan has ever seen.

Although three of the wrestlers who have been expelled from the sport were from Russia, the arrest last week of a 25-year-old Japanese athlete who goes by the ring name of Wakakirin for possession of marijuana has raised concern that use of the drug may be more widespread than originally thought.

More than being simply a drug issue, however, the scandal has been amplified by the fact that it involves one of the world’s oldest and most tradition-bound sports — and one that is solidly rooted in religious purification ritual.

Sumo wrestlers are expected to live the old-school life of a disciple. They wear their hair in topknots, dress in traditional robes and train in communal “stables.” Their schedules are tightly regulated and the word of their coaches, who are still called “masters,” is absolute and final.

Moving quickly to ease criticism, the Japan Sumo Association, which oversees the professional sport, voted this week to dismiss Wakakirin, whose legal name is Shinichi Suzukawa.

With Wakakirin’s arrest, officials now say they will further beef up doping tests for marijuana and stimulants. Marijuana is not considered a performance-enhancing drug.

Wakakirin reportedly became interested in marijuana after reading about it in magazines and seeing others smoking it at hip-hop clubs.

Hmm… when your sport requires you to be really, really fat, and not move from one spot, couldn’t marijuana be considered a performance-enhancing drug?  See, this is why our Founding Fathers were so wise to institute a separation of church and sport in this country!  ;-)

Japan grappling with cannabis crisis – The Mainichi Daily News
From university students to sumo wrestlers, celebrities and professional sportsmen, the number of cannabis users is on the rise and showing no signs of slowing.

Arrests and reports to prosecutors for marijuana cultivation have risen fourfold over the last 10 years to 192 in 2007, according to the Kinki branch of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare’s Compliance and Narcotics Division.

Cannabis is also known as a gateway drug, since it can lead to the abuse of other substances.

It’s commonly misunderstood that there are no health risks with smoking cannabis. However, Yukihiro Shoyama, professor of pharmaceutical resources at Nagasaki International University, disagrees.

“It’s more carcinogenic than tobacco, so to say there’s no health effect is a big mistake. Repeated use can also cause a motivational syndrome, similar to chronic lethargy, and deterioration of memory.”

During 2007, police apprehended 2,373 suspects on 3,388 cannabis-related charges. Of those, 1,430 people were in their 20s, 184 aged 19 and below and 75 aged 50 and above.

The Cannabis Control Law provides for up to five years’ prison for possession and seven for cultivation, but there is no formal punishment for use. However, the health ministry points out that there have been cases where smoking cannabis with a friend has been construed as joint possession, and that simple usage by no means allows people to escape the penalty.

What’s the Japanese word for “reefer madness”?  

First of all, Professor Shoyama, cannabis has been shown to not lead to increase in head, neck, neck or lung cancers, even among heavy users, and may actually have anti-tumoral properties.  Second, there is no such thing as the “amotivational syndrome”.  Third, cannabis use does not lead to cognitive declines or memory declines and may actually stave off memory problems in old age.  Fourth, cannabis is not a “gateway drug” and no reputable scientist will even spout that nonsense anymore.

Not Even Sumo Immune From Drug Scandal
Two Russian sumo wrestlers tested positive for marijuana use in Japan less than a month after a fellow Russian wrestler was arrested for possession of pot, the country’s association of sumo wrestlers said today.

It’s the first drug scandal in the roughly 2,000 year history of sumo wrestling and the latest in a rising number of marijuana incidents in Japan, a country with harsh penalties for drug offenders.

Nihon Sumo Kyokai, the Japanese sumo wrestlers association, announced today that urine samples of Russian brothers Soslan “Roho” Feliksovich Baradzov and Batraz “Hakurozan” Feliksovich Baradzov showed the presence of marijuana. The news came amid a police investigation of another Russian wrestler, Soslan “Wakanoho” Aleksandrovich Gagloev, who was arrested for illegal use and possession of cannabis last month.

Marijuana-related arrests have been on the rise in Japan in recent years, according to a report compiled by the National Police Agency. Between January and June 2008, police made 1,686 arrests involving marijuana — the highest in history and an increase of 9.1 percent. from the same period in the previous year.

Possession of marijuana is illegal in Japan, punishable by up to five years in prison with forced labor. Foreigners convicted of such crimes can face deportation and a lifetime ban from the country.

However, a loophole in the law allows people to purchase and possess marijuana seeds. A packet of 10 marijuana seeds can be bought online for $80 to $400.

Hold on, I’m still working on that image in my mind of three 500-lb. Russian sumo wrestlers working a bong.  Is there a Qwik-E-Mart large enough to supply the munchies for this toker trio?  Sumo’s got to be the only sport where packing on an extra ten pounds of fat from Doritos and Haagen Dazs is a good thing!

While I don’t agree with banning steroids, at least there is a reasonable case to be made for testing for steroids, as well as stimulants, and that’s the competitive edge cocaine, speed, or ‘roids can give the athlete.  With marijuana, you just can’t make that case.  It is only because marijuana is criminal that these athletes’ careers need to be ruined, not because they’re cheating their sport in any way.