Researchers awarded $4.7 million to study effects of marijuana on HIV
In recent time studies have shown that smoking marijuana helps relieve the aching, burning nerve pain associated with HIV. Two teams of researchers from the University of South Florida and University of California are searching for some answers on how to best treat the disease. The experts have been awarded $4.7 million by the National Institutes of Health to examine the effects of THC intake on HIV.
The University of Florida Health Science Center report that the study be five years long to properly determine the changes to immune function and progression of HIV when the substance is abused. Using a technique called systems biology the virologists will study HIV-infected and HIV-free white blood cells specific cellular change relating to active marijuana compounds.
The question is what effect does THC have on the mental problems HIV-infected people experience throughout their lives. Can it slow the dementia? Could it provide therapy for the movement and cognitive problems?
Read more at Medical News Today and at UF's College of Medicine Insider
Cannabis by product helps reduce effects of Parkinson disease medication
Brazilian researchers have tested the positive effects of canabiodiol
Six patients with Parkinson were given during a whole month small doses of "canabiodiol" one of the 400 substances in marijuana, following which encouraging results were confirmed according to scientists from the Riberao Preto Medicine School from the SP University.
"Patients with Parkinson developed improvements in their sleeping alterations, in their psychotic symptoms and could even reduce their trembling" said psychiatrist Jose Alexander Crippa, Neuro-sciences Department professor.
The paper on the discovery was published last November and next year an additional paper with test results on the anxiolytic effects of "canabiodiol" in patients with obsession and compulsion disorders will be released.
Initiative to Legalize Marijuana Headed for the Ballot in 2010
According to a recent article in the L.A. Times, a ballot initiative that, if passed, would legalize marijuana state wide is slated to be put on the 2010 general election ballot.
It would be a substantial breakthrough for California, which was the country's leader in decriminalizing marijuana for individual use and in developing medicinal marijuana.
Thankfully, it would also eliminate the contradictions that currently exist in the law that lead to absurd and incredibly unjust outcomes. I am specifically referring to the drastic difference in penalties for posessing less than an ounce of marijuana and selling less than an ounce of marijuana.
President Obama: Free the Medical Marijuana Researchers!
The War on Drugs continues, four decades after President Richard Nixon commenced hostilities. President Barack Obama--the third president in a row to have used illicit substances in his youth--is no drug warrior. However, he seems unlikely to challenge the disastrous new prohibition.
The president has, however, ended the federal campaign against medical marijuana, ordering administration officials to respect state laws legalizing the drug for medicinal purposes. This policy will grow increasingly important as more states allow use of med-pot (for instance, in November Maine voters legalized medical marijuana dispensaries). Congress should approve legislation introduced by Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), codifying administration policy into law.
Some high times in southern Oregon – Section leads Oregon in medical marijuana cards
In this August 2009 photo provided by the Rogue Area Drug Enforcement Team via The Grants Pass Daily Courier a marijuana grow site in on Allen Creek Road is seen in Grants Pass. Josephine County has hundreds of grow sites for medical marijuana.
‘‘Not Frank’’ doesn’t want his real name getting around. It could cost him his crop, even if it’s behind a 6-foot electric fence. And ‘‘Not Frank’’ isn’t completely legal himself.
Elsewhere, James Bowman says he’s just another farmer, with Tasers, surveillance cameras and pepper spray, after a plot to steal his crop at gunpoint failed.
‘‘Not Frank’’ and Bowman legally raise cannabis under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.
Demand among patients for OMMA cards to get relief from AIDS, glaucoma and other chronic conditions has mushroomed since a 55 percent majority of Oregonians approved the act in 1998.
As of Oct. 1, 23,873 people statewide had cards, a nearly fourfold increase since 2000, according to the Oregon Department of Human Services.
New Jersey Likely Next to Legalize Medical Marijuana — awesome.
New Jersey is poised to become the next state to allow residents to use marijuana, when recommended by a doctor, for relief from serious diseases and medical conditions.
The state Senate has approved the bill and the state Assembly is expected to follow. The legislation would then head to the governor's office for his signature.
Gov. Jon Corzine, the Democrat who lost his re-election bid last month, has indicated he would sign the bill if it reaches his desk before he leaves office in January. It would likely be one of Mr. Corzine's last acts before relinquishing the job to Republican Chris Christie.
Mr. Christie has indicated he would be supportive of such legislation, but had concerns that one draft of a bill he read didn't have enough restrictions, a spokeswoman said.
The bill has been endorsed by the New Jersey Academy of Family Physicians and the New Jersey State Nurses Association.
Miami Herald: Authorities push pot growers out of Boone forest in Kentucky
The point man in the federal government's marijuana eradication program in the central Appalachians is claiming victory in a sprawling Kentucky national forest that once led the nation in pot production, but the illegal crop still is thriving on private lands deeper in the mountain range.
A crackdown has pushed growers off the 700,000 acre Daniel Boone National Forest and onto even more rugged terrain where they're just as unwelcome, said Ed Shemelya, head of marijuana eradication in the Appalachian High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area.
A Talk With Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project
Before we get to my talk with Mr. Mirken, let’s touch on the history of marijuana criminalization in the United States.
1915-1937: Twenty-seven states pass laws prohibiting the use of marijuana. Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, and Montana lead the way.
1937: The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937. At Congressional hearings, Harry Anslinger, Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, stated, “Marihuana is an addictive drug which produces in its users insanity, criminality, and death.” Contrasting testimony came from Dr. William C. Woodward. Dr. Woodward was both a doctor and a lawyer, and served as Chief Counsel to the American Medical Association. He said, “The American Medical Association knows of no evidence that marihuana is a dangerous drug.”
American stockbroker sets record for cannabis consumption with 115,000th joint (and it’s all legal)
An American stockbroker has one of the world’s most prolific cannabis smokers – thanks to a constant supply of the drug to treat a rare bone disease.
Fort Lauderdale stockbroker Irvin Rosenfeld will tomorrow smoke his 115,000th joint - and it’s all legal.
The 56-year-old has been provided with cannabis by the government since 1982, when he became a patient in the Federal Drug Administration’s Investigational New Drug Programme.
