Tag: Cannabis

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1999: Bird Food Is a Casualty of the War on Drugs

THE NEW YORK TIMES October 3, 1999 By Christopher S. Wren What do 40,000 pounds of birdseed have in common with America’s war on drugs? Nothing, says Jean Laprise, an Ontario farmer who shipped the birdseed to his American customers, only to have it seized when it crossed the U.S.-Canadian border. Everything, say the U.S. government and its critics, but for altogether different reasons. The birdseed, nearly 20 tons of it, has been locked in a Detroit warehouse since Aug. 9, when it was impounded by the U.S. Customs Service. The reason: the seed consists of sterilized seeds processed from industrial hemp. Laprise has found himself mired in one of the more bizarre episodes of Washington’s campaign to curb illicit drug use. Hemp and marijuana […] Read More

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1996: MARIJUANA – A Medicinal Marvel

Cannabis, or marijuana, has proven medical benefits and few, if any, toxic side-effects. Why, then, has it been a prohibited medicine for over fifty years? Dr Lester Grinspoon interviewed by Jana Ray © 1996 by Jana Ray For further information, contact: c/- B.C. Anti-Prohibition League PO Box 8179 Victoria, British Columbia, V8W 3R8 Canada Extracted from Nexus Magazine, Volume 3, #5 (August-September ’96). PO Box 30, Mapleton Qld 4560 Australia. nexus@peg.apc.org Telephone: +61 (0)7 5442 9280; Fax: +61 (0)7 5442 9381 From our web page at: http://www.peg.apc.org/~nexus/ Medicinal cannabis, also known as medical marijuana, is beginning to receive attention worldwide. Unfortunately, scare tactics and misinformation surrounding the international ‘war on drugs’ continue to dominate in the political and medical arenas, leaving many unwilling or unable to […] Read More

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2013: Bar Fight! The Booze Industry is Furious over Campaigns Saying Weed is Safer than Alcohol

Booze lobbyists are becoming more and more pissed off at marijuana advocates as legalization sweeps the country. Booze lobbyists are becoming more and more pissed off at marijuana as legalization sweeps the country, the National Journal reported. In the buildup to this weeks’ pot victory in Portland, Maine, the Marijuana Policy Project put up signs around the city which read: “I prefer marijuana over alcohol because it doesn’t make me rowdy or reckless,” and “I prefer marijuana over alcohol because it’s less harmful to my body.” In response, the alcohol lobby freaked out. Chris Thorne at the Beer Institute told National Journal that it’s a red herring to compare alcohol to pot.  “We believe it’s misleading to compare marijuana to beer,” he said, “Beer is distinctly different […] Read More

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2013: Despite Resistance, Uruguay Near Passing Landmark Marijuana Laws

Natural Society Here in the U.S., we hold up Colorado and Washington as being models of future marijuana policy. Where they legalizes recreational marijuana, creating regulated and taxed systems, the majority of states are still trying to determine how to implement medicinal pot. In Uruguay, however, lawmakers have taken one big step towards creating a nationwide regulated marijuana industry, and they’ve done it despite the resistance of the people. In Uruguay last month, members of the lower house of parliament passed a bill that could create the world’s first such nationwide regulated marijuana market, on a vote of 50-46. Next the bill will head to upper house later this year where it is expected to pass if the current momentum sustains. The bill will create a system where residents can […] Read More

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Who Masterminded U.S. Pot Prohibition?

Harry Anslinger testified that marijuana induces homicidal mania, but he was just one witness in a strange show trial. Harry Anslinger, the longtime Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, is widely considered the prime mover behind marijuana prohibition. But during the Congressional debate on prohibition in the spring of 1937, Anslinger was just one witness in a strange show trial.  He testified that marijuana induces homicidal mania and so forth, but it was not Anslinger who designed the complicated prohibitive-tax strategy. That maneuver was thought up by the Treasury Department’s top lawyer, Herman Oliphant. Nor was Anslinger called back to refute Dr. William Woodward of the American Medical Association, who made many telling points in opposition to the prohibitive-tax bill. It was Congressman Fred Vinson of […] Read More

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Bubbling Crude

by Susan Maple Henry Ford believed that some day he would “grow automobiles from the soil,” and he also believed that they would be fuelled from plants. He achieved his goal. Popular Mechanics featured Ford’s car in its December 1941 issue. Made of hemp, sisal, wheat straw and resin, the car was ten times stronger than steel. There is an old video clip of the car on the Internet. The car drives up, someone pounds it with a hatchet, and then polishes it to demonstrate there is no damage. Three times, from 1800 to 1937, alcohol was either the prominent fuel, or threatened to take over as the main fuel. Heavy “corporate footprints” stepped in and taxed or prohibited alcohol, because anyone could make alcohol […] Read More