Two billion year old meteorite from Mars contained marijuana
A meteorite from the planet Mars is giving scientists their first glimpse of extraterrestrial life–and it is shocking everyone. The meteorite sports a fossilized marijuana leaf, as well as some dried plant material. The estimated age of the fossil is almost 2-billion years old.
The strange, greenish meteorite was discovered in Antarctica, about 20 years ago. The martian rock has the scientific name of RUustoned-420-iEyEam, and is about the size of a football. Bored NASA astronomers decided just recently to split the meteorite in half. and take a look inside.
Medical marijuana is becoming a lucrative business in Hawaii
Legal users soared to more than 8,000 over the past decade from 255 in 2001, the program's first year.
$38 million a year, with patients consuming an average of 1 ounce per month at a street price of $400.
It's a burgeoning business for doctors, who charge as much as $300 to certify medical marijuana patients. The consultation typically lasts an hour and often is not covered by medical insurance.
There were 175 physicians licensed to certify medical marijuana patients as of June, up from 35 in 2001, according to the Narcotics Enforcement Division of the state Department of Public Safety.
The state charges a $25 processing fee for a medical marijuana certificate. Patients are required to be certified annually.
Hawaii's medical marijuana law allows patients with a debilitating condition — such as cancer, AIDS, glaucoma, severe pain or nausea — to use the drug if they are certified by a physician registered with the state. It is still illegal to buy marijuana, but patients can grow it legally.
Most polled in Montana prefer to repeal marijuana regulation
A slim majority of Montanans favor repealing the law legalizing medical marijuana, but in response to another question, a much larger percentage support tightening regulations on the industry rather than terminating the law, a new Lee Newspapers poll shows.
When asked whether they would support or oppose repealing the 2004 state law legalizing medical marijuana, 52 percent said they’d support repeal and 38 percent opposed it. Ten percent were undecided.
In response to another question, however, 83 percent of voters said they favor enacting stricter regulation and licensing requirements for medical marijuana in the state. Thirteen percent opposed tightening the law, while 4 percent were undecided.
Two tonnes of cannabis seized in Greece – woah!
Greek authorities have seized nearly two tonnes of cannabis during an operation to dismantle an international ring of Greek and Albanian drug dealers in Attica and Larissa, during which they placed six suspects under arrest.
The raid was carried out on Saturday by the Attica Security drugs squad, working in collaboration with the Attica financial crimes unit (SDOE) drugs department and the U.S. Embassy's Drug Enforcement Administration bureau.
They arrested one Albanian and five Greeks, including the suspected mastermind of the ring, who were in the process of transporting the drugs to western Europe using long-haul trucks for international transport.
The police operation was based on a tip-off about the ring's activities and a three-month investigation that led detectives to the ring's mastermind, who owned a trucking company and other businesses in Larissa, and one of his closest associates.
Cannabis whets appetite for cancer patients
People with advanced cancer said food tasted better when they took the active ingredient in cannabis compared with sugar pills, a small Canadian study showed.
Cancer patients commonly report decreased appetite and changes in their sense of taste and smell that can lead to weight loss, anorexia, a poorer quality of life, and decreased survival, according to several short-term studies.
To explore whether tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) — the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis — actually improves taste and smell perception and appetite, researchers in Montreal and Edmonton tested THC and placebo capsules in 21 adults with cancer. Of these, 11 were randomly assigned to THC and 10 to placebo.
Oregon medical marijuana activists protest new restrictions
Medical-marijuana activists demonstrated at the Capitol on Wednesday, protesting proposed legislation that would put new restrictions on legally permitted medicinal cannabis.
A rally on the Capitol steps drew about 60 participants. Some held signs reading "Cannabis is my friend" and "Don't tread on medicine."
Demonstrators decried a flurry of bills introduced in the 2011 legislative session that seek to narrow participation in the state's 13-year-old medical-marijuana program or enact other changes.
Colorado may impose a legal THC level for driving
The surge of medical marijuana use in Colorado has started another debate in the state Legislature: What constitutes driving while high?
Lawmakers are considering setting a DUI blood-content threshold for marijuana that would make Colorado one of three states with such a provision in statute - and one of the most liberal, according to Rep. Claire Levy, one of the bill's sponsors.
Under the proposal, drivers who test positive for 5 nanograms or more of THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, would be considered too impaired to drive if the substance is present in their blood at the time they're pulled over or within two hours.
Levy, a Democrat from Boulder, said she's gotten resistance from medical marijuana advocates who fear it will restrict patients from using the drug.
"What I've tried to assure the patient advocates is that we're not talking about sobriety checkpoints, we're not talking about dragnets and massive stops," she said. "They're not going to be stopped if they're driving appropriately."
While it's already illegal to drive while impaired by drugs, states have taken different approaches to the issue. Twelve states, including Arizona, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, and Rhode Island, have a zero-tolerance policy for driving with any presence of an illegal substance, said Anne Teigen, policy specialist at the National Conference of State Legislatures. Minnesota has the same policy but exempts marijuana.
The IRS is starting to audit California marijuana dispensaries
The IRS is auditing marijuana dispensaries in California, and advocates have called for a change in federal laws.
The sale of medical marijuana is legal under state law, but illegal under federal law, and cannabis collectives say there is a problem because of the way they are being treated by the IRS.
Tax code 280-E does not allow drug trafficking organizations to deduct business expenses.
"If 280-E were applied strictly, we would not be allowed to deduct our rent, our payroll or any of the other normal and usual expenses that other businesses deduct," said Steve DeAngelo, Harborside Health Center.
Attorney Henry Wykowski is representing various dispensaries that are being audited, and he said 280-E was created in the 80s to go after drug lords, and it should be updated.
Medical Marijuana Clinics Quietly Take Root in Oregon
Since 1998, when medical marijuana use became legal in Oregon, the number of cardholders in the state has swelled.
As of last month, there are over 38,000 legal patients, and the number grows every day.
It's always been and will continue to be a controversial medicine.
But it may be gaining ground, especially in our historically conservative part of the state.
Case in point: Within the past three months, Central Oregon has seen at least five medical marijuana clinics or clubs set up shop here.
And as we found, there was at first, outcry, then indifference -- and now, it seems, acceptance.
Police seize more than 1,500 plants in East Oakland, California marijuana grow-up bust
A report of a burglary in progress Sunday morning at an East Oakland home led to the seizure of a stash of marijuana worth more than $400,000, including 1,500 plants in various stages of growth and bags full of finished product, and the arrest of the resident, police said Monday.
The seizure, one of the largest recently, began about 4:26 a.m. Sunday after police received a call that three men were trying to break into a house in the 2300 block of East 16th Street.
Officers arrived and found that someone had partially pried open a security gate in the rear of the house.
Montana House votes to repeal medical marijuana
State lawmakers are halfway to repealing Montana's medical marijuana law. By a vote of 62-to-37, legislators voted to advance the bill out of the House to the Senate.
House Speaker Mike Milburn says law enforcement can't control the sudden growth of the multi-million dollar industry and its rampant proliferation.
"It's going well beyond what people in Montana thought they were voting for," said Milburn, (R-Cascade). "Lots of support from the community, from the schools, from the law enforcement agencies, even from out of state law enforcement, that you can't control it. You can't put sideboards on it. You can't regulate it when it's gone this far."
