We all know that marijuana has some medical uses. It has been discussed on Mefi many times before. Earlier this month a group of pharmacists and chemists published a study in which they found that cannabis is a source of antibacterial chemicals for multidrug resistant bacteria. If you are a pharmacists or chemist here is the actual study. A synopsis of the study for everyone else.
posted on Aug 27, 2008 - View this thread

The owner of a California medical marijuana dispensary has been found guilty of violating federal drug laws. [LA Times] FTA: ...jurors had a clear sense that Lynch was not an ordinary street-corner drug dealer, but the fact that he was dispensing medical marijuana didn't matter under federal law. [...] "It was a tough decision for all of us because the state law and the federal law are at odds." Detailed coverage of the trial by Reason TV. Federal raids on California's medical dispensaries were recently featured on MeFi.
posted on Aug 7, 2008 - View this thread

Dr. Kush: The New Yorker takes a detailed look at California's medicinal marijuana dispensary industry.
posted on Jul 25, 2008 - View this thread

The environmental cost of large-scale pot farming
posted on Jul 1, 2008 - View this thread

Graphic epilepsy seizure footage - "[The] piece of footage was shot with the assistance of our friend David, in January 2003, at the repeated insistence of my wife Christine. She wanted to know what happened to her body while she was seizing, and we were under standing orders to catch any footage possible... Upon viewing this footage a few days later, she was shocked and astonished, as one could well imagine."
posted on May 23, 2008 - View this thread

Michael Pollan: Cannabis, Forgetting, and the Botany of Desire. Also, a transcript (pdf).
posted on May 21, 2008 - View this thread

Marijuana harvesting like you've never seen. Brought to you by the same folks that unpacked your iPhone (not really).
posted on May 20, 2008 - View this thread

Last week the second largest US physicians group endorsed medical marijuana. On Friday the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy issued a report which explains why they are wrong.
posted on May 11, 2008 - View this thread

Reefer Madness. The Kingwood teenager's story of decapitating a corpse and using the head to smoke marijuana was so outlandish that at first Houston Police Department senior police officer Jim Adkins did not believe it.
posted on May 9, 2008 - View this thread

Thirty-six years after the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse recommended that "simple possession" of pot be decriminalised, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) has introduced a bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), to remove federal criminal penalties for possession of up to 100 grams (about three-and-a-half ounces) of marijuana and the not-for-profit transfer of up to one ounce (28.3 grams). Drug reform advocates lit up hailed the legislation as "an important step toward bringing federal law into line with scientific fact, practical reality and public opinion." Is America, at long last, having a collective moment of sanity?
posted on Apr 20, 2008 - View this thread

In his effort to shed light on medical marijuana use, comedian Doug Benson documents not smoking pot for 30 days and then smoking pot for 30 days in a row in Super High Me.
posted on Apr 13, 2008 - View this thread

Ten Years in Jail for Selling Lightbulbs
posted on Mar 6, 2008 - View this thread

You may know Rick Steves the Travel Dweeb from his PBS series on European travel tips, which he has leveraged to build a burgeoning tourism business. But the dude's down with the cause(s) , including serving as the host of an ACLU-sponsored program on drug law reform.
posted on Feb 16, 2008 - View this thread

Marijuana vending machines.
posted on Jan 30, 2008 - View this thread

Ricardo Cortés has a new book talked about here and here. Previously, he wrote It's Just a Plant, talked about on O'Reilly and previously here. He also plans to write a children's book about cocaine in the near future.
posted on Jan 10, 2008 - View this thread

Cannabis distributors plead: "Let us pay taxes!"
posted on Nov 6, 2007 - View this thread

Drew Carey defends medical marijuana.
posted on Nov 5, 2007 - View this thread

On the Legalization — or Not — of Marijuana (via - with Pete's response)
posted on Oct 30, 2007 - View this thread

Robin Prosser was a former concert pianist and systems analyst who suffered from an autoimmune disease similar to lupus for over 20 years. The disease left her in constant pain and made her allergic to most pharmaceutical painkillers. Only medical marijuana brought her relief, but last spring the DEA seized her medicine. Unable to cope with the chronic pain any longer, she committed suicide on October 18th. [Via Andrew Sullivan.]
posted on Oct 29, 2007 - View this thread

It's not often one gets one's bong in the scientific literature, let alone one designed to allow you to smoke weed inside an MRI scanner...
posted on Oct 2, 2007 - View this thread

Steal legal marijuana . . . . and they WILL call the police. Emerald Cross of Seattle: Arresting the pain . . . not the patients.
posted on Sep 21, 2007 - View this thread

Temple 420 is in trouble. Founded by Craig X. Rubin, (marijuana technical consultant for HBO's "Weeds"), the church gives marijuana to members (in exchange for a suggested donation). Memberships are available for $100 per year. After a poisoning investigation last fall, the LAPD investigated and subsequently raided the church. A judge has ruled that Rubin is not protected under federal law, since he faces state charges.
posted on Aug 3, 2007 - View this thread

An excellent example of the consequences of the Supreme Court's Gonzales v. Raich decision: today the United States House of Representatives voted down a bill which would have prohibited the DEA from targeting State-authorized medical marijuana dispensaries. Almost simultaneously, the DEA raided 10 medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles.
posted on Jul 26, 2007 - View this thread

The Indoor Yield-O-Rama is a scientific look at how much marijuana people can expect to grow under certain conditions. No matter you think about marijuana or your country's drug laws, the level of sophistication in this statistical analysis may surprise you.
posted on Jul 10, 2007 - View this thread

do we click? any questions? ask mary. [possibly NSFW]
posted on Jun 6, 2007 - View this thread

Forbes Magazine Details The Top Ten Most Exotic Kinds of Weed (yes, the puff puff kind) with pricing and lovely pictures but no links to local dispensaries.

PS. Yer favorite weed that's not on the list sucks.
posted on May 2, 2007 - View this thread

RAICH V GONZALES (.pdf) : The Ninth Circuit hold that even if a physician attests that medicinal marijuana (within a State that allows such use) is what keeps a patient alive the patient can be Federally prosecuted on drug charges. (news story)
posted on Mar 14, 2007 - View this thread

Marijuana, the wonder drug. A new study in the journal Neurology is being hailed as unassailable proof that marijuana is a valuable medicine. It is a sad commentary on the state of modern medicine that we still need "proof" of something that medicine has known for 5,000 years.
posted on Mar 2, 2007 - View this thread

Many people want to legalize, regulate, and tax marijuana and other drugs, however, few know that many U.S. states are content simply to tax. In fact, even the federal government wants a share (middle of p. 89 of the PDF), and used tax stamps in early prohibition, but only the states have recently issued issued cool stamps (be sure to click "exhibit"). The point, of course, is not to actually tax the drugs, but to penalize the drug dealers for tax evasion as well as drug sales. They have brought in some money, though. A few interesting state government pages: Conecticut, Nebraska, North Carolina and their tax return form, and Kansas.
posted on Jan 15, 2007 - View this thread

Canada troops battle 10-foot Afghan marijuana plants - Canadian troops fighting Taliban militants in Afghanistan have stumbled across an unexpected and potent enemy -- almost impenetrable forests of marijuana plants 10 feet tall.
posted on Oct 13, 2006 - View this thread

Let The Fun Begin! U.S. uploads anti-drug videos to YouTube, hilarity sure to ensue. [look who they popped]
posted on Sep 18, 2006 - View this thread

From the guy who brought you the Whitewater scandal and the impeachment of President Clinton for lying about oval antics in the Oral Office, a legal push to make the Supreme Court just say no to "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Ken Starr's petition to the Court [PDF] makes clear that Starr believes this is no laughing matter, but a chance for the Court to make a landmark ruling that will give school adminstrators the power to limit student speech: "This case presents the Court with a much-needed opportunity to resolve a sharp conflict among federal courts (and to eliminate confusion on the part of school boards, administrators, teachers, and students) over whether the First Amendment permits regulation of student speech when such speech is advocating or making light of illegal substances."
posted on Aug 28, 2006 - View this thread

Randi Rhodes is the MC at the mainstage at 4:20 Seattle Hemp Fest 2006 I knew you were cool Randi! Also, Dr.Bob Melameda explains why humans need marijuana to fuction properly.
posted on Aug 26, 2006 - View this thread

17 year old kid gets 2 years for selling 20 dollars of pot, enough for 1 joint. The entire town is basically a "No Drug Zone" so they used federal law to give the kid the mandatory 2 years. The Drug Policy Alliance has put together a video that really hits home on the war against the American people.
posted on Aug 22, 2006 - View this thread

The active component of marijuana, 9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), competitively inhibits the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE) as well as prevents AChE-induced amyloid -peptide (A) aggregation, the key pathological marker of Alzheimer's disease.
posted on Aug 18, 2006 - View this thread

American Journal of Cardiology reports that extensive use of marijuana doesn't hurt your cardiovascular system. Remember it also doesn't increase your risk of lung cancer. Previous MeFi
posted on Aug 12, 2006 - View this thread

The worst possible gift for a stoner. Great for hotel lobbies, people with fake cancer, or just a brown thumb who likes the aesthetics of marijuana and visits from the DEA but hates getting high.
posted on Jul 24, 2006 - View this thread

Marijuana doesn't increase your risk of lung cancer. As presented at the American Thoracic Society International Conference today. "Even very heavy, long-term marijuana users who had smoked more than 22,000 joints over a lifetime seemed to have no greater risk than infrequent marijuana users or nonusers."
posted on May 23, 2006 - View this thread

Fox pussies out. Recently a bill passed in mexico legalizing all drugs under certain specified quantities. The bill was promoted By Vincente Fox's party, and came from his offices. However he decided not to sign it under U.S. pressure.

There go my vacation plans.
posted on May 4, 2006 - View this thread

CU police offer $50 bounty to identify maybe pot smokers.

"Every year on 4/20, students and residents gather on Farrand Field at CU Boulder to defy the authorities and smoke marijuana publicly. This year, the University of Boulder Police Department fought back by taking pictures of as many participants as possible. They have a website with photos up, offering an $50 reward to anyone who positively identifies someone who was photographed." via BoingBoing

Here are 3 local news stories about it: 1, 2, 3. I guess the police want to identify people even if they were not visalby commiting a crime, just so they can bring them in and apply pressure root out the real criminals.

Colorado is home to James Dobson's hyper right-wing Focus on the Family. But Denver and in the west of that state appear to be one of the largest marijuana usage areas in the country (scroll down a bit)

This area seems radically divided. When my family recently visited Colorado Springs we found it very right-wing but when we engaged a rubber boat trip through the Royal George all of our guides were hippie/eco/stoners.

Can anybody explain this in terms of the obvious factions?
posted on Apr 29, 2006 - View this thread

Today, April 7, is the 73rd anniversary of the end of Prohibition, marking the day in 1933 when FDR signed emergency legislation to allow the sale of beer (and reportedly had the first public delivery of beer sent to the White House). Breweries all over America are celebrating Brew Year's Eve. In other news, marijuana prohibition has continued in the US for almost 70 years. There's a Nevada initiative on the ballot this November to end it -- by allowing the legal cultivation and sale of marijuana.
posted on Apr 7, 2006 - View this thread

Pot, boobies and panties in the Alabama Govenors Race Loretta Nall is running for govenor of Alabama on the Marijuana Party ticket and also trying to the the nomination from the Libertarian Party. Her cleavage recently became an issue when a columnist for an Alabama newspaper got huffy because his newspaper ran a picture of her showing cleavage. But that's not all. Ms. Nall was also denied permission to see her brother in jail because she wasn't wearing panties. She tells all about it in her blog.
posted on Mar 24, 2006 - View this thread

Nearly Half of Americans want to let states legally regulate and tax marijuana the way they do liquor and gambling.
Zogby International will pimp there services to just about anyone these days, including NORML for a poll on American's attitudes towards pot. According to the poll 65% of 18-29 year olds and 50% of 50-64 year-olds are cool with weed being legal and controlled like booze. The former slackers of Generation X, 30-49 year-olds, oppose it by 58% and the geezers over 65 oppose it by only 52%.

The pool shows some interesting generational attitudes. Is the 30-49 age group still following Nancy Reagan's "Just Say No" mantra or is this the attitude of parents worried about their kids? I thought these folks were supposed to be the slacker generation, and now they're the strongest opponents to legalization.
posted on Mar 17, 2006 - View this thread

When was the last time your country's minister of Justice expressed his policies in rap form? Here's the Dutch justice minister's Piet Hein Donner's debut on the mic (mp3). [more inside]
posted on Feb 27, 2006 - View this thread

2005 Washington State 10 largest agricultural commodities: (1) Apples, (2) Milk, (3) Wheat, (4) Potatoes, (5) Cattle and calves, (6) Hay, (7) Nursery and greenhouse products, (8) Marijuana, (9) Cherries, (10) Onions.
posted on Feb 17, 2006 - View this thread

Overgrow.com --one of the largest and most comprehensive sites written by and for cannabis growers about cannabis cultivation, complete with user forums and immense photo galleries--along with Heaven's Stairway Seeds (hempqc.com), Cannabisworld.com, and Eurohemp.com have all been shut down, their owners arrested in Canada, and the servers seized. The story hasn't yet made the Canadian news, but it raises many questions about free speech online.
posted on Feb 5, 2006 - View this thread

Reefer Madness Redux. One man's story about how cannabis will RUIN YOUR LIFE. Despite the fact that there's, you know, tons of scientific evidence to the contrary.
posted on Jan 20, 2006 - View this thread

That'll teach 'em. Two 10-year old girls arrested in Florida and suspended from school for possession of... well uhm, parsely, actually.
posted on Nov 29, 2005 - View this thread

Here are three things that can help your brain grow new cells.
It's no wonder college makes you smarter.
posted on Oct 14, 2005 - View this thread

Marc Emery speaks out about his activism, recent arrest and possible extradition to the US. A follow up to this post.
posted on Aug 17, 2005 - View this thread