New Study Hits Home Run

According to Norml, a new study indicates some interesting data regarding the effects of marijuana on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS aka Lou Gehrig’s disease). According to the report:

“Based on the currently available scientific data, it is reasonable to think that cannabis might significantly slow the progression of ALS, potentially extending life expectancy and substantially reducing the overall burden of the disease.”

 Beyond this, I found it interesting that the paper is also quoted saying, "From a pharmacological perspective, cannabis is remarkably safe with realistically no possibility of overdose or frank physical addiction." Which is basically what us in the end prohibition movment have been saying for years.

Montana Newspaper Helps Arsons Find Suitable Targets

Ok I am not one for censorship, my faithful readers (both of you) know this. That being said The Billings Gazette should be ashamed, and should face prosecution for reckless endangerment. On May 10th it was reported that two building which housed medical marijuana dispensaries were firebombed by arsonists and "Not in our town" was spray painted on the windows and doors. So what does the local rag say about the incident, oh sure they report it with the integrity of any other newspaper, but then they go and post a detailed map of every medical dispensary in the region, and worse still they include anyone who has applied for a license to become a dispensary.

I came across this article at our THE Weed Blog, and at first I assumed they were exaggerating, I assure you they were not. Two days after reporting the firebombing the Billings Gazette posted the map knowing full well that someone was targeting these businesses. Sure it can be argued that everything is public domain anyways and the arsonists probably have the list anyways, but seriously, why make it easier?

Did they do anything outright illegal, well depends how you look at it. Did they violate any laws that normally govern newspapers such as publishing private information, copyright infringement, libel, or defamation? No, they didn't however they did put every single person who owned, or applied for a license to run a medical marijuana dispensary, and every employee of a dispensary directly in harms way. This clearly falls under Reckless Endangerment, which in the United states can be a misdemeanor or a felony. In my opinion the paper should be charged with the crime and forced to face the consequences.

Now I am sure the paper will claim (and it would probably be true) that the map had been planned and in the works BEFORE the firebombing. This does not excuse the paper for the crime however, because instead of considering the harm that the map could cause based on the fact that someone was targeting these businesses and stopping the publication of the map they went ahead with it. In reckless endangerment cases intent is not needed, in face the reckless pretty much says "Ok we know you didn't intend to harm anyone, you just didn't care". The fact that no new firebombings have happened since doesn't let them off the hook either, at least not in my books. Just because the terrorists responsible for the firebombings haven't used the information yet doesn't mean they won't, and even if they get caught or if they never bomb another building, the information was still provided for them.

For point of reference I did not link to the Billings Gazette for the simple reason I don't want to drive traffic to their criminal organization. If you feel the need to verify, it is easy enough to do, it took me less then five minutes to verify THE weed blogs' claims.

Marc Goes To Jail

So the government is finally allowing the US to extradite Emery. Sure pot activists are protesting, but its too late for Marc really, he will stand trial.

Now I know, those who read my blog, are probably all for Emery being released, and probably are already doing something to do so. But for those few of you out there who aren't doing anything yet I urge you to take a stand. Cry out for justice.

Is Marc guilty, well quite frankly sure he is. While normally you wouldn't find me arguing for the release of a guilty man, even if I think the crime should not be a crime. The issue I have is that the Canadian government should have refused to extradite Emery. Under the terms of the the Extradition Treaty we have the the United States, the U.S. must meet certain guidelines in order for extradition to be granted, the fact is Marc's case does not fit these guidelines.

In earlier posts I mentioned that really all Canada had to do was charge Emery with the crime give him a slap on the wrist as is standard punishment here, and send him on his way. This would mean that the U.S. could not legally charge Marc with a crime for which he already served time. However this wouldn't really work if the U.S. Government demanded that Emery serve time under the U.S. Judicial system while sentencing was still being carried out.

As I stated earlier Marc's case does not fit the extradition guidelines under the treaty between Canada and the United States of America. The reasons for this are; the arrest is politically motivated, this can be ignored if the crime is violent in nature, but as of yet no one is claiming Marc is a violent offender; the second reason is that in order for an extradition to be carried out the charge must be reviewed to see if it would stick in Canada, since Mr. Emery committed the crimes here in Canada and Canada has refused to charge him then it is apparent, to me at least, that the charges are not sufficient enough to warrant an extradition order.

So what can you do to help free Marc Emery? Go to http://www.cannabisculture.com/v2/articles/4639.html they give you some useful tips.

Me experience using marijuana to treat gout

Ok, I've been offline for a while, I even missed my yearly open letter to the government regarding legalization that I send out every 4/20. Well the reason for my absence was due to an acute gout flare up that kept me from work, well to be honest it kept me from even standing. But it did give me a unique opportunity to test out the pain killer effects of our friend Mary Jane.

Now my experiences are far from a scientific study, and I did not try tinkering with the dose to get different results, nor did I even attempt it even more than once. In short my experience was a failure. Personally I won't be using pot to deal with gout flare up again.

Gout is an arthritic condition in which uric acid crystals form in the joints and cause the joint to become inflamed. Essentially it feels as if there are a million microscopic knives in your joint. To say it is painful is like saying the surface of the sun is a little warm. During the worst of the flare up a slight breeze would be enough to cause excruciating pain.

Knowing that marijuana is supposed to be an excellent pain killer I decided to try it to see if it helped. In this one case it did not help. For those of you who smoke you will understand why I say it did not help in a moment. Often smoking marijuana causes you to feel everything around you with acute intensity, and unfortunately that is what happened to me when I tried to treat my gout pain with weed. I could feel my skin stretching from the swelling of the affected joints, it felt as though each cell was being torn to pieces extremely slowly. When I put any sort of weight on an affected joint I felt as though I could feel each individual tear as the sharp bastard uric acid crystals tore away at the flesh. Instead of dulling the pain it made it possible for me to focus intently on every single aspect of the pain.

Looking back I probably needed to increase the dose, that being said, I am not willing to risk experiencing that again.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper Caught Sparking Up

According to the Ottawa Citizen Prime Minister Stephen Harper was arrested last night after a routine traffic stop. During the stop the officer suspected Harper of being under the influence of alcohol, but during a roadside sobriety test it Harper was adamant that he had not had any alcohol but admitted to smoking a joint with Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty in his office before driving home.

We here at Make Marijuana Legal Blog are appauled that our Prime Minister would take such a cavalier attitude towards a controled substance with obvious dangers.

Recommended Reading List

Being an avid reader I thought I'd start a new segment on this blog to recommend various books on marijuana for reading. These would be books recommended to me by others, some I have read some I have not. If you have a book you wish to recommend please feel free to send me an email or make a comment.

Here is my recommendation today:

Mom's Marijuana: Life, Love, and Beeting the Odds is the tale of one mans battle against hodgkin's disease. While it is not particularly relevant to the legalization movement, in fact the author barely touches on the subject, however it is an inspiring tale of a man battling a very deadly foe, and winning. He shares the entire ordeal of his road to a cure in as much detail as you'd ever want without going through the experience yourself and he does it in a manner that keeps you turning the page.

It may seem a little odd to be recommending this book here on this blog, however it seems very relevant in my mind.

Google Adsense

I have some ads on this blog, I am sure you noticed. It's to help fund me keeping this site up, I don't mind admitting I prefer to get paid for my writing on here, I'd love it if blogging became my full time job, but a) I am just not that willing to pimp myself, and b) I like my blogs to have actual information not 98% ads.

I have never found the ads intrusive or that far off topic, so I have never had a reason to question the need for ads. However after writing my latest entry I found something beyond funny. There was an add for www.drugfreeworld.org with a looped image saying "they said marijuana wouldn't lead to harder drugs" then a pause followed by a new screen saying "THEY LIED!". I found the ad so funny I had to go to the site and take a look. I ordered one of their pamphlets. We shall see if its all its cracked up to be. Based on the ad I think it should be amusing. Stay tuned, I will post the details.

Grow ops reaching epidemic

CP24's website posted this amusing article a while back that I have been meaning to address. Apparently Canada has earned the title of "source country" for marijuana. Well duh, no kidding. OPP Commissioner Julian Fantino buys into the US's fanatical approach to drugs stating that "It's a black eye on Canada when you have the United States... refer to us as a source country of marijuana." Well, in response to Commissioner Fantino I say, its a black eye on this country when you have the cops arresting people for using a drug which has less negative long term effects than a diet high in fat.

Fantino is apparently most alarmed at the continued increase of organized crime involved in marijuana production and distribution. "Organized crime will use whoever and will do whatever (to) achieve their goals and objectives, which is to make these obscene profits illegally." Finally this cop says something I can agree with. Organized crime is a bad thing, that gangs continue to profit from marijuana is a bad thing, that violence is used to protect their profits is a bad thing. What I disagree with is Fantino's solution. Fantino want's tougher drug laws in Canada, and he has a hard on for US style war on drugs despite knowing that the war cannot be won.

So who the hell wants to fight a war that cannot be won? Why would Fantino buy into this madness. Why won't he bother to examine the facts. Sure marijuana trade can be one wrought with violence and criminal activity, you know how to solve this, change the law and legalize it.

I know, I know, I have said this a thousand times on this blog but its simple. To take the power out of the hands of organized crime you MUST put them in the hands of someone else. Marijuana use is not going away plain and simple, its not particularly dangerous, so why not just call a cease fire on the users and make it legal and make a regulated distribution system to take the power from the hands of the gangs and put it into the hands of ordinarily law abiding, tax paying citizens? What is the use in persecuting so many people for using a drug that the vast majority of us have at least tried.

Are the gangs going to vanish? No of course not, they will shift to other drugs, but at least cops can focus on what's important and arrest the right people. History has proven again and again that prohibition simply does not work.

Best of Luck to Ganga Gourmet

According to CBS4 in Denver a medicinal marijuana dispensary opened with a twist. Ganga Gourmet is a full service restaurant that serves marijuana laced foods to discerning medical marijuana patients. This is definitely a unique way to provide the marijuana patients with their weed, I wish them the best of luck.

Marijuana and Autism

Good Morning America's website featured a story about a mother who has been giving her child marijuana in order to combat the effects of autism on her son. Her son was losing weight and they could not get him to eat, he was violent and a danger to himself and everyone around him. Marijuana calmed him down and made him want to eat again.

I highly recommend everyone read the article. For an American news program it is surprisingly well balanced, despite some factual errors.

Factual errors:

Statement:

"It can cause psychosis, may lead to schizophrenia."

Truth:

There has been no studies that found any causality links between either psychotic episodes nor schizophrenia and marijuana.

Statement:

"And while marijuana may be available in pill form"

Truth:

THC is available in pill form marketed under names such as marinol, however this is not the same as marijuana. While they did point out this later on in the article to some extent I still felt it was misrepresented as THC does not equal marijuana, THC is just one of the active ingredients of marijuana. And a point they did miss out was the dose of THC is not as easy to control with marinol since each pill is considerably higher dose than you would normally get with a single joint or some pot brownies.