Category: Health

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GOP-Controlled House Votes to Block Feds from Interfering in States with Legal Medical Pot

Drug law sanity from a place where usually there is none. The GOP-controlled House showed signs of sanity when it voted early Friday in favor of blocking the federal government from interfering with states that permit the use of medical marijuana. The 219-189 vote came about as the House debated a bill funding the Justice Department‘s budget, AP reported. Conservative GOP Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California, the first state in the country to legalize medical marijuana, was among those behind the amendment, pointing out that, “Public opinion is shifting.”  This is true even among Republicans. A recent Pew Research Center survey found that 61 percent of Republicans support the legalization of medical marijuana. And in general, Pew found nearly three-in-four Americans (72%) believe that efforts […] Read More

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U.S. Blocks Legal Marijuana Growers From Using Federal Irrigation Water

Feds will not allow government water to be used for the growing of a Schedule I controlled substance. Cannabis farms cannot take advantage of water from federal irrigation projects, the U.S. Interior Department announced. The announcement is a major setback for growers in the states of Washington and Colorado, where both recreational and medical marijuana is legal. The Bureau of Reclamation, the branch of the Interior Department that maintains dams, power plants, and canals in 17 western states, reaffirmed that the growers cannot use water supplied through the federal system. The bureau helps provided irrigation water to about 1.2 million acres of land in Colorado and Washington. “As a federal agency, Reclamation is obligated to adhere to federal law in the conduct of its responsibilities […] Read More

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Latinos are Fed Up with the War on Drugs

California’s prisons are outrageously overcrowded, and Latinos say it’s time for drug sentencing reform. A bill that would significantly reform California’s drug sentencing laws is poised for approval in the state Senate, and a new poll showing strong support for sentencing reform among Latino voters could help push it over the top. Senate Bill 1010, the Fair Sentencing Act, would equalize the penalties for sale of crack and powder cocaine. Under current California law, crack offenses are treated more harshly than powder cocaine offenses. The bill would also equalize probation requirements and asset forfeiture rules for offenses involving the two forms of the same drug. Sponsored by Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles), the bill passed the Senate Public Safety Committee last month and the Senate […] Read More

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Corporations Want Control of the Marijuana Industry — Here’s How to Stop It

Putting the growing legal pot business in the hands of for-profit corporations could pose serious and dangerous consequences to the public The standard debate about marijuana legalization has been “Should we, or shouldn’t we?” For better and for worse, the country appears to be moving toward answering that question in the affirmative. The next logical question is, or ought to be, “What sorts of organizations do we want to supply that legal marijuana?” The debate typically skips past that crucial question and presumes that legal cannabis will be produced and sold by for-profit companies—with the government setting some regulatory limits such as restricting access to minors. Colorado and Washington, the two states where voters have already approved legalization, have gone this commercial route. At first […] Read More

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10 Medicinal Weeds That May Grow In Your Backyard

For thousands of years, man has looked to nature to cure disease. In the last decade particularly, medicinal plants have been catapulted into mainstream culture, with the  popularity of plant medicines such as ayahuasca, ibogaine and cannabis making headlines for their powerful healing abilities against some of today’s most prominent illnesses.  However, these plant medicines come with illicit conditions in most countries. The good news is, some of the most common weeds in our backyard yield amazing healing abilities, and they are all legal! Here are ten weeds which possess interesting medicinal properties. (Note: Consult with your health professional before self-medicating with these plants) Chicory (Cichorium intybus), the light blue flower frequently seen along roads, provides the main commercial source of the compound inulin. Patients take inulin to fight high […] Read More

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How Marijuana Legalization in America Is Destroying Mexican Drug Cartel Business

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, Nothing is more amusing (and sad) than when I see some ignorant out of stater commenting about how nightmarish the legalization of marijuana has been for Colorado. The most high-profile and hilarious example of this came from disgraced New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who I have criticized sharply on several occasions, here, here and here. He foolishly spouted some hysterical nonsense last month when he said: “See if you want to live in a major city in Colorado, where there’s head shops popping up on every corner and people flying into your airport just to come and get high. To me, it’s just not the quality of life we want to have here in the state of New […] Read More

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New York’s Pot Arrests Haven’t Slowed Down and Are As Racist as Ever [VIDEO]

New York is on track to arrest 28,600 people for pot possession this year, most of them minorities. New York’s new Democratic mayor Bill de Blasio ran a significant portion of his election campaign on his promise to end the racialized policing practices of his predecessor, Michael Bloomberg. Law enforcement practices under Bloomberg, and Rudolph Giuliani before him, disproportionately targeted poor communities of color and led to the arrests of tens of thousands of people per year for carrying tiny amounts of marijuana. Sadly, the city is currently on track to hit 28,600 marijuana possession arrests under the new de Blasio administration—on par with the average arrests during the Giuliani years. And similar to stats from Bloomberg’s time in office, minorities account for 86 percent of […] Read More

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You Can Have Your Kids Taken Away for Smoking Legal Pot

Marijuana may be legal in Colorado, yet harsh drug war laws still penalize society’s most marginalized women. The following story first appeared on RH Reality Check.  It is no secret that marijuana legalization in Colorado and Washington ushered in internationally unprecedented progressive drug policy in the United States. What is lesser understood, however, is that these new “experimental” reforms do not necessarily peel back all of the many, punitive layers of drug war enforcement. Despite the prevailing notion that the consequences of marijuana prohibition are determined in criminal courts for crimes like possession and sale, some of the harshest punishments are steeped in ever-complicated family law and Child Protective Services (CPS). Well-intentioned marijuana policy reform thus often leaves women, who are more likely to be […] Read More

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How US-Led War on Drugs Devastates Impoverished Farmers and Fails to Slow the Drug Trade

A new report reveals that the 12-year war on drugs in Afghanistan has been a disaster. Afghanistan is the number-one cultivator of opium poppies and exporter of heroin in the world, despite the United States spending $7.5 billion to eradicate the crop, according to a new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan (SIGAR). The report acknowledges that the 12-year war on drugs has failed to free the country of opium poppy production—just the opposite, in fact. Using statistics from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the report found that the amount of land used to cultivate poppy increased 36%, an all-time high. The Afghan government had set a goal of reducing poppy production by 50%. Afghan counter-narcotics agencies work under the […] Read More

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Florida Moves to Legalize Low-THC Medical Marijuana, Is Recreational Pot Next?

Those with cancer and other severe ailments can keep small amounts of low-THC medical pot. Floridians are poised to legalize medical marijuana for some patients, but there’s wide support to legalize it for recreational use as well. If medical marijuana is legalized, it would make Florida the first southern state allow it. Currently, only Colorado and Washington allow recreational use of marijuana. A Quinnipiac University poll shows that 88% of Florida voters said they approve of marijuana for medical use, with only 10% opposing legalization. Moreover, those who responded to the poll said that they would support laws that would allow people to keep small amounts of marijuana for recreational use. Some 53% were in favor, while only 42% were opposed. Among younger voters, legalized recreational […] Read More