Medical Marijuana Debate Heads For Florida Supreme Court

When Floridians choose their next governor in 2014, they might also decide whether to legalize medical marijuana. But the state attorney general and legislative leaders don’t want the question to make it onto ballots as it’s currently written.

Medical marijuana legalization advocates and opponents are readying arguments they’ll make before the state supreme court next month. The high court will rule on whether a proposed constitutional amendment is misleading.

Court filings by Attorney General Pam Bondi and legislative leaders Sen. Don Gaetz (R-Niceville) and Rep. Will Weatherford (R-Wesley Chapel) say the text hides the amendment’s true potential for enabling widespread marijuana use. Anti-drug-abuse groups agree.

“You know, anybody would be able to get this of any age—there’s not an age restriction on it—for any condition that their physician wanted to give it to them for,” says Amy Ronshausen, executive director of the Florida Coalition Alliance of drug-free community groups.

She says her group doesn’t believe smoked marijuana is real medicine anyway.

“When you get your prescription, you go to a pharmacy and you have it filled. And on the bottle, it says when to take it, interactions with other medications, it has warnings,” she says.

Ronshausen says with marijuana, a patient doesn’t know the strength of what they’re getting....(Continue Reading)

Story by news.wfsu.org

Genetically Modified Cannabis Is Popular Among Columbian Farmers

Genetically modified marijuana is becoming popular with some Colombian farmers. According to Agence France-Presse the "enhanced" plants are " more powerful & profitable".

Authorities say with the arrival of genetically modified seeds farmers have had a bigger production of higher quality weed.

One farmer told the AFP that a genetically modified strain known in Europe as 'La Cominera," which is modified in The Netherlands sells for about 10 times the rate of normal pot. 

The owner of a greenhouse near the city of Cali says she sells the modified pot for 100,000 pesos ($54) a kilo (2.2 pounds), which is nearly 10 times more than the price she can get for regular marijuana.

A researcher explains reason this strain is selling for so much is due to the increase in potency. The strain can have around 18% THC (Tetrahydrocannabinol) compared to the strains they normal grow that are around 3-7 percent THC......(Read the full story here)

Story by Cannabis Country

Massachusetts Residents Can Apply For The Medical Marijuana Program In Northampton

If your someone from Massachusetts who can benefit from the use of cannabis and are not sure where to turn to, look no further, we have the information your looking for. To make the process super easy, below we have step by step directions for you.

Massachusetts recently legalized medical marijuana. Unfortunately most residents don't have the first clue as to how to access this new program. I was one of those people at one time. However if you live in Massachusetts, or better yet, Western Mass, I have the perfect place for you to get started with medicinal marijuana.

Northampton Medical Marijuana, A Division of Pedalmed.com has a small office located right in Northampton, Massachusetts. They opened 2 years ago as a “lifestyle medicine” practice providing physician house calls by bicycle for homebound patients.  When the medical marijuana law passed in November 2012 their patients began asking for this medicine and they began studying it.  Northampton Medical Marijuana began writing recommendations for Medical Marijuana in March and were amazed and humbled by the experience.  Not only did they find that marijuana is helpful for many many different conditions, they have literally seen hundreds of patients get their lives back.......(Read the full story here)

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The proposed marijuana tax could generate millions of dollars more than whats needed to regulate cannabis.

Tomorrow is election day, and among the most contentious issues is Proposition AA, which would establish tax rates for recreational marijuana sales. Prop AA opponents say a special sales tax of at least 10 percent, in addition to a 15 percent excise tax (not to mention other state and local taxes), is much too high, while backers believe the figures will guarantee proper regulation and safety.

But what would Prop AA do for state revenues? An online tool offers ammunition for both sides.

We first told you about Backseat Budgeter in 2011. Developed by Engaged Public, a public-policy firm, and Colorado State University's Bighorn Leadership Program, the program is intended to give the citizenry as a whole a better idea about the challenges before legislators when it comes to balancing a budget. Users can develop their own budgets and cut whatever they'd like -- although the program let's them know if their priorities could potentially lead to lawsuits, for example.

What happens when you apply Backbeat Budgeter to Proposition AA?

"If Prop AA passes," according to the folks behind the site, "the revenue from the taxes will be placed into a restricted or 'cash' fund dedicated to covering the state expenses associated with the legalization of recreational marijuana. These expenses include but are not limited to regulation of the industry, public health, and safety.

"In the case that the tax elections in November 2013 are successful, there will be little or no General Fund impact as a result of the legalization of recreational marijuana. In fact, there is a possibility that revenues from the taxes will exceed the cost of regulating the industry."........

Click here to read the full story

Author of this story is Michael Roberts. 

Understanding Cannabis Tinctures

A tincture is an alcohol extract of plant material. As such, understanding the concentration of ingredients is different for a tincture than it is for the plant material. One difference is that alcohol tinctures are rarely heated above the boiling point for ethanol (~60° C = 140° F). At that temperature, it would take quite a long time to convert all of the THC-A (the most prevalent cannabinoid in the plant) into THC (thought to be the most prevalent active ingredient after exposure to high heat, such as in a pipe or vaporizer). Some tincture recipes call for heating the plant material in an oven before making the tincture. Thus, the cannabinoid profile in a tincture depends heavily on the details of how it was made. Steep Hill Halent testing reports show you the whole cannabinoid profile so you know what is there.

Another difference is in the percent (%) of ingredients in tinctures vs the raw material. For example: If a patient consumes 1⁄2 gram (g) of dried plant material with 10% of a particular ingredient in the plant, then the amount of that ingredient consumed would be 50 milligrams (mg):

Mass of dried plant material consumed:

0.5 g = 500 mg

10% of that mass is active ingredient:

500 mg x 10/100 = 50 mg

A tincture made from that plant material would probably not have a concentration as high as 10%, however. That’s because liquids are much more dense (heavier per unit volume) than dried plant material. Let’s assume that the consumer wants to ingest the same amount of the active ingredient as above: 50 mg, by drinking 3 milliliters (mL) of tincture – about one medium dropper full. Well, 3 mL of ethanol tincture has a mass of ~2.4 g. If 2.4 g (3 mL) of tincture contains 50 mg of active ingredient, then that concentration is 2%.

Volume of tincture = 3 mL

Density of ethanol = 0.789 g/mL

Mass of 3 mL of tincture:

 3 mL x 0.789 g/mL 2.4 g = 2,400 mg

 

Percent of tincture that is active ingredient:

(50 mg / 2,400 mg) x 100% = 2.08%

Thus, 3 mL of a 2.08% tincture delivers the same dose of active ingredient as 0.5 g of dried plant material that is 10% in the active ingredient. Another way that this information is presented is in terms of “mg/mL” – that is, if a tincture is reported to contain 16 mg per mL, it is about 2% in active ingredient.

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Study Shows Marijuana Compounds Can Kill Some Cancer Cells

A scientist in the United Kingdom has found that compounds derived from marijuana can kill cancerous cells found in people with leukemia, a form of cancer that is expected to cause an estimated 24,000 deaths in the United States this year.

"Cannabinoids have a complex action; it hits a number of important processes that cancers need to survive," study author Dr. Wai Liu, an oncologist at the University of London's St. George medical school, told The Huffington Post. "For that reason, it has really good potential over other drugs that only have one function. I am impressed by its activity profile, and feel it has a great future, especially if used with standard chemotherapies."

Liu's study was recently published in the journal Anticancer Research. It was supported by funding from GW Pharmaceuticals, which already makes a cannabis-derived drug used to treat spasticity caused by multiple sclerosis.

The study looked at the effects of six different non-psychoactive cannabinoids -- compounds derived from marijuana that do not cause the "high" associated with its THC ingredient -- when applied alone, and in combination, to leukemia cells. Cannabinoids displayed a "diverse range of therapeutic qualities" that "target and switch off" pathways that allow cancers to grow, Liu told U.S. News & World Report.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Liu stressed that that his research was built around the testing of the six purified cannabinoid forms -- not traditional cannabis oil, which Liu described as "crude" in comparison and generally containing 80-100 different cannabinoids. "We do not really know which are the ones that will be anticancer and those that may be harmful," Liu said.

During the study, Liu and his team grew leukemia cells in a lab and cultured them with increasing doses of the six pure cannabinoids, both individually and in combination with each other. His study says the six cannabinoids were CBD (Cannabidiol), CBDA (Cannabidiolic acid), CBG (Cannbigerol), CBGA (Cannabigerolic acid), CBGV (Cannabigevarin) and CBGVA (Cannabigevaric acid). Liu and his team then assessed the viability of the leukemia cells and determined whether or not the cannabinoids destroyed the cells or stopped them from growing.

You can read the full story here

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Ireland Ready To Legalize Cannabis

 Ireland is ready to legalize marijuana according to Roscommon TD Luke Ming Flanagan, who published his Cannabis Regulation Bill 2013

Mr. Flanagan estimates legalizing cannabis could generate up to  €300 million through tax revenues and the freeing up of resources. Although Flanagan stresses it is just a estimate and its impossible to know for sure, its still saving Ireland a lot of money. “If cannabis is legalised, we can make a shopping list out of the amount of money which legalising cannabis will save this country,” said the TD. 

 These savings could, he said, lead to the reversal of the recent Budget cuts including cuts to the bereavement grant, cuts to young people’s social welfare payments and the abolition of the telephone allowance. 

The Bill, which is due to be debated in the Dáil on November 5th and 6th, would, if passed:

• regulate cannabis for recreational and medical use

• allow for home cultivation up to a maximum of six cannabis plant

• allow for the personal possession of up to one ounce of cannabis

• allow for the setting up of “Cannabis Social Clubs” which would allow up to 50 club members to cultivate up to 300 plants for not-for-profit use

• set up a “cannabis regulation authority” to regulate the cultivation, sale, labelling, advertising and marketing of cannabis

• see tax revenue from cannabis fund drug addiction services, medical research and juvenile education courses on drugs.

•  include a requirement that the Minister for Justice and Minister for Agriculture to examine the feasibility of the safe regulation and controlled use of cannabis...... 

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