Oregon and DC legalize marijuana

Sue Sisley, a primary care physician in Scottsdale, Arizona, recalls the moment she picked up the carefully wrapped package fresh from the delivery truck. Nearly two years after Sisley and her colleagues were awarded a grant to study marijuana as a treatment for 76 military veterans suffering from chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, her shipment of the drug was finally in hand.

But minutes later, as she opened the packets to weigh the drug – as required by the federal Drug Enforcement Administration – her enthusiasm turned to dismay. It didn’t look like marijuana. Most of it looked like green talcum powder.

“It didn’t resemble cannabis. It didn’t smell like cannabis,” Sisley says. What’s more, laboratory testing found that some of the samples were contaminated with mold, while others didn’t match the chemical potency Sisley had requested for the study.

There’s only one source of marijuana for clinical research in the United States. And “they weren’t able to produce what we were asking for,” Sisley says.

LooseGoose wrote:It'll be happening here soon...

Michigan pot legalization push coming ‘very, very soon’

In their newly unveiled budget bill, lawmakers included a provision, known as the Rohrabacher-Farr amendment, that allows states to carry on with crafting their own medical marijuana policies without fear of federal intervention. The bill, which funds the government through the end of September, is expected to pass this week.

LooseGoose wrote:I read this last night and got a laugh out of it.....virtually unthinkable 40 years ago.

Seniors board ‘cannabus’ for trip to medical marijuana dispensary

But putting all beliefs and disputes aside, what everyone can surely agree is that they have transformed a near-derelict building into a staggering work of art. Every single surface has been painted in vibrant patterns of red, blue and green, geometric prisms with mythological creatures, stars and eyes hidden within. At the back wall, two dream-like Dali-esque giants sit cross-legged as if lost in meditation. “It feels like a hallucination,” someone says beside me, eyes careening upwards. It’s like being swallowed by a Pink Floyd album cover. Perhaps most impressive of all is that it was created spontaneously without a sketch or a plan. This was another freebie: they flew Spanish artist Okuda San Miguel over and bought him a bunch of paints, then he started work in one corner and painted whatever he dreamed up until he finished. It took him just six days – he rested on the seventh.

As the service begins we are encouraged to get to know each other: people spark up joints and pass them around. Long wisps of smoke float to the ceiling and cover the congregation in a flowery shroud; splutterings of coughs and giggles, the sharp intake of breath on all sides. There are about 30 of us in all, a mixed bag of misfits ranging from a self-proclaimed pothead granny, whose eyes appear to move independently of each other, to a couple of Harold & Kumar wannabies taking selfies at the altar. And then there’s Lee: a former Bible quiz champion, raised in a strict evangelical Christian home, he has the credentials of a preacher if not the look: bushy hipster beard and long messy hair, dark bags under his eyes and the whiff of old smoke on his shirt. It feels more like the start of an AA meeting than a spiritual encounter. But then he starts to speak.

LANSING — The Board of State Canvassers gave approval Thursday to a new proposed ballot effort to amend the state constitution to fully legalize recreational use of marijuana without taxing the drug.

The proposal from Abrogate Prohibition Michigan of Midland would nullify all laws prohibiting or regulating the use of marijuana and impose no fines, taxes or penalties on its use.

The board voted 4-0 to approve only the form — but not the substance — of the petition, and not before one of the four board members questioned the organizers' intent.

Colleen Pero, a Republican appointee to the board, questioned a provision that would make the change retroactive.

LooseGoose wrote:New marijuana legalization petition gets green light from Board of Canvassers

LANSING — The Board of State Canvassers gave approval Thursday to a new proposed ballot effort to amend the state constitution to fully legalize recreational use of marijuana without taxing the drug.

The proposal from Abrogate Prohibition Michigan of Midland would nullify all laws prohibiting or regulating the use of marijuana and impose no fines, taxes or penalties on its use.

The board voted 4-0 to approve only the form — but not the substance — of the petition, and not before one of the four board members questioned the organizers' intent.

Colleen Pero, a Republican appointee to the board, questioned a provision that would make the change retroactive.

Floyd Robertson wrote:

LooseGoose wrote:New marijuana legalization petition gets green light from Board of Canvassers

I'm all for recreational legalization. I'm also for regulating distribution and taxation. Fines and jail time for you if you're caught selling without a license.

LooseGoose wrote:

Floyd Robertson wrote:I'm all for recreational legalization. I'm also for regulating distribution and taxation. Fines and jail time for you if you're caught selling without a license.

Well damn. I think a pot free for all would be best.

NEW YORK, Oct 27 (Reuters) - Where there is smoke, there tends to be fire, say medical researchers who found frequent marijuana users have about 20 percent more sex than those who abstain.

Stanford University School of Medicine researchers unveiled the link between marijuana and the frequency of sexual intercourse in a study published on Friday in the Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Researchers in California reached their conclusions after a retrospective analysis of data on 50,000 Americans ages 25 to 45, compiled from 2002 to 2015 by the National Survey of Family Growth. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sponsors the survey.

Respondents were asked how many times they have had heterosexual intercourse in the past four weeks and how frequently they have smoked marijuana over the past 12 months, Stanford researchers said in a press release.

Women who were daily pot users had sex an average of 7.1 times during the previous four weeks, compared with 6.0 times reported by those who denied using marijuana in the past year. For men, daily users reported 6.9 times compared with 5.6 for non-users.

gHost Spartan wrote:My buddy's wife gave me some edibles while I was in Phoenix and holy shit they were amazing. Super relaxing, not too much of a high, very low dosage apparently.

YORK – The elderly woman, the second defendant in a case where she and her 80-year-old husband were allegedly transporting $336,000 worth of marijuana they said was intended as Christmas gifts, has not been jailed.

The couple told investigators, according to Lt. Vrbka, that they were traveling from California to Vermont and they intended to give away the marijuana as Christmas presents.

Vrbka said they also told deputies “they didn’t know it was illegal to transport marijuana in Nebraska.”

LooseGoose wrote:Elderly man jailed, his wife only cited in Christmas pot case

YORK – The elderly woman, the second defendant in a case where she and her 80-year-old husband were allegedly transporting $336,000 worth of marijuana they said was intended as Christmas gifts, has not been jailed.

The couple told investigators, according to Lt. Vrbka, that they were traveling from California to Vermont and they intended to give away the marijuana as Christmas presents.

Vrbka said they also told deputies “they didn’t know it was illegal to transport marijuana in Nebraska.”

pulling69 wrote:Who the hell still buys weed by the gram?

Other Teams Pursuing That wrote:Eighths, dogs.

pulling69 wrote:Who the hell still buys weed by the gram?

Cameron wrote:

pulling69 wrote:Who the hell still buys weed by the gram?

For real, you gotta buy in bulk to get the best deals. One of the dispensaries I used to frequent had a buy one, get one half off special last fall. I bought 2 ounces, came out to about $7/gram ($400 total), and it was top shelf stuff.

I got an ounce for $140 once from a dispensary in Lansing, though, and it was the worst shit I ever smoked (they claimed it was Liberty Haze, but it was worse even than the mids I smoked when I first started out). Weak, smelled and tasted terrible, just the absolute worst. They should make kids smoke that to keep them off drugs. That was the first and last time I ever bought something without looking it over thoroughly and giving it a good sniff. Lesson learned (though I should have known better at the time anyway).

In a 2016 poll of Indiana residents, approval for medical marijuana was at 73 percent. In a state struggling, like so many others, with a massive opioid crisis, there’s been no sign that support for legalizing marijuana has waned. A 2012 survey from the Bowen Center of Public Affairs showed that 78 percent of Hoosiers supported taxing marijuana like alcohol and cigarettes, far above the 55 percent who supported then-Governor Mike Pence—a sign that support for marijuana law reform in Indiana is no statistical blip. In fact, according to Canon, it has only gotten stronger, not just in blue bubbles like Bloomington but in rural and suburban communities, too. That’s why, in December, Canon released a web video ad declaring his stance clearly, “Here’s one simple solution that’s long overdue: We need to legalize medical marijuana nationwide.” He even got some international press out of it.

Subsequently, his chief primary opponent, law school professor Liz Watson, instead of criticizing Canon’s position, posted a detailed pro-medical marijuana position on her website to eliminate any daylight between her and Canon on this issue. “In Southern Indiana, we are battling a raging opioid epidemic. The last thing we need is for the federal government to punish people for turning to non-addictive alternatives to opioids,” she told POLITICO Magazine. “We also do not need the federal government restricting study into the medical uses of marijuana. Federal law currently categorizes marijuana as a Schedule 1 narcotic, along with heroin, while oxycodone is Schedule 2. That makes no sense.” Watson’s stance nearly guarantees that no matter who survives the primary to face Republican Hollingsworth in the general, the Democrat in the race will be on the record as in favor of medical marijuana.