California: Assemblyman Introduces Measure To Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Proposal Will Raise Over $1.3 Billion Per Year, State’s Tax Collection Agency Says

San Francisco: State Assemblyman Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation this week to legalize and regulate the commercial production and sale of cannabis for adults age 21 or over. The proposal – Assembly Bill 390: The Marijuana Control, Regulation and Education Act – is the first bill ever to be introduced in the California legislature that seeks to tax and control the sale of cannabis.

Ammiano introduced AB 390 at a press conference Monday. Joining the assemblyman in support of the measure were Betty Yee, Chairwoman of the California Board of Equalization (Taxation), Oakland City Council member Rebecca Kaplan, Orange County Superior Court Judge James P. Gray (retired), and Dale Gieringer, Coordinator of California NORML, which provided legislative text and financial analysis for the bill.

“With the state in the midst of an historic economic crisis, the move toward regulating and taxing marijuana is simply common sense,” Ammiano said. “This legislation would generate much needed revenue for the state, restrict access to only those over 21, end the environmental damage to our public lands from illicit crops, and improve public safety by redirecting law enforcement efforts to more serious crimes. California has the opportunity to be the first state in the nation to enact a smart, responsible public policy for the control and regulation of marijuana.”

Local news anchors from CBS, ABC, NBC, and PBS television covered the press conference. National stories regarding Ammiano’s bill have appeared in USA Today, as well as on Air America and CNN.

As introduced, AB 390 would raise over $1.3 billion in annual revenue by taxing the retail production and sale of marijuana, according to financial estimates provided by the California Board of Equalization. An economic analysis by California NORML estimates that a legal, statewide retail market for cannabis could generate additional revenues totaling some $12 to $18 billion dollars per year.

The noncommercial cultivation of marijuana for personal use – defined as ten plants or fewer – would not be subject to taxation under the proposal. In addition, AB 390 would not alter existing legislation on the use of medicinal cannabis, nor would it impose new taxes or sanctions on the medical cultivation of cannabis.

A recent Zogby poll of 1,053 likely voters, commissioned by California NORML and Oaksterdam University, reported that nearly six out of ten respondents on the west coast favor taxing and legally regulating cannabis like alcohol.

“This bill is a winning proposition for California taxpayers,” Gieringer said. “It’s time that California stops wasting resources trying to enforce marijuana prohibition, and instead realizes the tax benefits derived from a legal, regulated cannabis market.”

For more information, please contact Dale Gieringer, California NORML Coordinator, at (415) 563-5858, or Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org. Additional information on AB 390, as well as contact information for the California Assembly, is available at: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=12758896.

…On the subject of “whether or not to grow more corn for Ethanol production and it’s global impact.

The debate has recently surfaced about whether or not grow more corn for the production of ethanol for fuel to replace petroleum.

I have four points to make on this.

1)  It is ridiculously short-sighted to grow more of anythin we are already growing on what would be called a “mass” scale, especially when it comes to corn. Why? Well, there are 144,000 edible fruits and vegetables on the planet of which FOURTY FOUR are cultivated and distributed on any kind of “grand” scale. WHY ARE WE BEING SO BORING ABOUT THE FOOD WE CHOOSE TO CULTIVATE TO GROW!!?.

2) The two agricultural products produced in the greatest quantity on planet Earth currently, are:

CORN

and

BANANNAS.

It really ought to be RICE

and

Banannas.

Why is It CORN?

Because most of the corn that is grown for food is made into HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

Sugar.

This product is jammed into MOST PROCESSED FOODS.

In the quantities that it exists in our food, it is UNHEALTHY for us and we don’t want it in our food, and a large percentage of us are victimized because do not even know we do not wish to have it in our foods!! It is unhealthy and even toxic.

Eliminate this from the food production chain and divert the corn production to ethanol production.

3) We do not have to use corn for fuel production to make fuel, WHY?

BECAUSE- if you make CELLULOSIC ethanol from the HEMP plant, also known as MARIJUANA, (the kind that does not get you high, though. More like the “leafy NO HIGH” version of pot) the fuel to feed ratio is 95% as compared to anything else you could use (ie. petroleum,corn,sugar,switchgrass, whatever…) which are all at about 45-64%. in the range of less than half.

WTF people!!!

TIME TO STEP UP TIME TO STEP UP!!!!

CARPE’ DIEM CARPE’ DIEM CARPE’ DIEM

ETHANOL MORE ENVIRONMENTALLY COSTLY THAN GAS & DIESEL

ENN – Some biofuels cause more health problems than petrol and diesel, according to scientists who have calculated the health costs associated with different types of fuel. The study shows that corn-based bioethanol, which is produced extensively in the US, has a higher combined environmental and health burden than conventional fuels. However, there are high hopes for the next generation of biofuels, which can be made from organic waste or plants grown on marginal land that is not used to grow foods. They have less than half the combined health and environmental costs of standard gasoline and a third of current biofuels.

The work adds to an increasing body of research raising concerns about the impact of modern corn-based biofuels.

Several studies last year showed that growing corn to make ethanol biofuels was pushing up the price of food. Environmentalists have highlighted other problems such deforestation to clear land for growing crops to make the fuels. The UK government’s renewable fuels advisors recommended slowing down the adoption of biofuels until better controls were in place to prevent inadvertent climate impacts.

Using computer models developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the researchers found the total environmental and health costs of gasoline are about 71 cents (50p) per gallon, while an equivalent amount of corn-ethanol fuel has associated costs of 72 cents to $1.45, depending on how it is produced.

Marijuana Legalization Questions Top Obama’s ‘Citizen’s Briefing Book’

Washington, DC: Ending the federal prosecution of adults who use cannabis is the most popular public policy issue facing the Obama administration, according to the results of a new poll conducted by Change.gov – the official website of the President’s Transition Team.

More than 125,000 visitors to the site voted on 44,000 specific policy proposals. The leading vote getters are slated to appear in a ‘Citizen’s Briefing Book,’ which will be delivered to the new President imminently.

The public’s demand to “stop imprisoning responsible adult citizens” who use marijuana received more votes than any other issue in the online poll.

A related question calling on the new administration to “stop using federal resources to undermine states’ medicinal marijuana laws” finished in third place.

The Citizens’ Briefing Book poll marks the third time the Obama Transition Team has asked for the public’s input regarding what they perceive to be the most important public policy questions facing America. Questions pertaining to the legalization of marijuana have dominated online voting in each poll, and have twice finished in the #1 position.

A separate poll, conducted last week by Change.org and the Case Foundation, also reported that the legalization of cannabis for personal use is the most popular issue among online voters.

Commenting on the poll results, NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: “This past August House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in a live interview with CNN, called on the public to actively voice their support for marijuana law reform. Since then, Americans have expressed their desire to amend our nation’s antiquated and punitive cannabis laws in unprecedented numbers. In short, the people have spoken. Are Congress and the Barack Obama administration listening?”

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Deputy Director, at: paul@norml.org, or Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.

Proteins change as pot plants clean up soil

[April 1, 2007]

When cannabis hits the headlines it is often in response to the latest cannabis farm that has been unearthed, be it in a remote field in the country or in someone’s roof in the city. Bad press all round for a plant known for its psychoactive properties and misuse, even though it is finding support from individuals and doctors for alleviating the symptoms of many illnesses. But what many people fail to appreciate is that there are other, safer, varieties of Cannabis sativa that bring different qualities to society.

The pot-smoking species is C. sativa subsp. indica, characterised by relatively large amounts of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive component. However, another cultivar, C. sativa subsp. sativa, produces only trace amounts of THC and grows long and tall, with little branching. This form is cultivated for its fibres and is more often known as industrial hemp. It is easy to grow, typically taking 4 months to rise to heights of 3-10 feet, its fast growth negating the need for herbicides.

It has been estimated that hemp is used in more than 25,000 products, including paper, fibreboard, textiles, biodegradable composites, plastics, rope, sails and furniture. Compared with wood chippings, hemp produces at least double the amount of fibre and does not require bleaching or other toxic chemicals.

But Cannabis sativa has one further property that can get careless industrialists and farmers off the hook. It can help to clean up soil that has been contaminated with toxic heavy metals such as cadmium, nickel and copper. Plants grown in soil that has been fouled by industrial effluent, metal-enriched fertilisers or herbicides can absorb metals into their root systems. So, ideally, crops could be grown on contaminated soil, then the fibres harvested for industrial use.

Little is known about how the Cannabis plant reacts when it takes up excess copper, especially within the proteome. How does it manage this, while still maintaining growth and its normal protein functions? This question has now been addressed by scientists from the University of Piemonte Orientale in Alessandria who have studied the proteome of Cannabis sativa var. Felina 34 grown under copper stress.

Seedlings were planted in a quartz sand-loam-gravel mix that was dosed with 150 ppm copper sulphate. This level is well above the mean world soil copper concentration of 20 ppm, while remaining below that at which serious plant toxicity is observed. After 6 weeks, the copper-treated plants were smaller than control plants, with shorter leaf areas, root lengths and root volumes.

The copper content, determined by ICPMS, doubled in the shoots, but increased 8-fold in the roots compared with controls. This distribution confirmed that copper intake was preferentially localised in the root system in agreement with published work which declared the copper gradient in hemp to be roots > stems > leaves > seeds.

Proteins in the roots were extracted by standard methods and separated by 2D gel electrophoresis. The protein spots that had statistically significant intensity differences from the control gel were selected for in-gel digestion with trypsin for tandem mass spectrometry analysis. Seven proteins were down-regulated, five were up-regulated and two disappeared altogether.

Subsequent identification was not straightforward, since the C. sativa genome has not yet been sequenced. So the researchers, led by senior reporter Maria Cavaletto, used de novo sequencing from the MS/MS spectra then aligned the proteins to database sequences of related organisms. This cross-species protocol was able to identify some of the protein with altered abundances.

Since no new proteins were observed under copper stress, the team concluded that the plant does not evolve a copper-specific mechanism to incorporate the excess metal ions. They proposed a copper-coping mechanism in which the first protein to interact with the copper ions, present as copper(II), was aldo/keto reductase. It acts as a scavenger, reducing copper(II) to copper(I), a process which makes it available for interactions with other proteins such as phytochelatins that bind copper(I). This reductase is an auxin-induced protein, confirming the involvement of auxin as a plant growth regulator handling the excess metal.

Other implicated proteins include the stress proteins formate dehydrogenase, a protein that increases in response to other stresses such as dark, cold and drought, as well as enolase and elicitor-inducible protein. Other implicated proteins are those which confer greater copper resistance and provide an efficient reducing system (thioredoxin peroxidase, peroxidase and cyclophilin) and those which regulate root growth (actin, ribosomal proteins and glycine-rich protein.

This preliminary work will mark a useful basis for future phytoremediation studies, perhaps being used to develop plants for biomonitoring or for the remediation of heavily metal-polluted soil.

Related links:

* Department of Environmental and Life Sciences, University of Piemonte Orientale

http://www.disav.unipmn.it/


* Proteomics 2007, 7, 1121: “Proteomic characterization of copper stress response in Cannabis sativa roots”

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/user/accessdenied?ID=114182347&Act=2138&Code=4717&Page=/cgi-bin/fulltext/114182347/PDFSTART


http://www.spectroscopynow.com/coi/cda/detail.cda;jsessionid=B9527441DE1FE87DF66C0D19CA250C2E?id=16011&type=Feature&chId=10&page=1

THOUSANDS OF INDIAN FARMERS COMMIT SUICIDE AFTER USING GM CROPS

Andrew Malone, Daily Mail, UK – The children were inconsolable. Mute with shock and fighting back tears, they huddled beside their mother as friends and neighbors prepared their father’s body for cremation on a blazing bonfire built on the cracked, barren fields near their home.

As flames consumed the corpse, Ganjanan, 12, and Kalpana, 14, faced a grim future. While Shankara Mandaukar had hoped his son and daughter would have a better life under India’s economic boom, they now face working as slave labor for a few pence a day. Landless and homeless, they will be the lowest of the low. Indian farmer Shankara, respected farmer, loving husband and father, had taken his own life. Less than 24 hours earlier, facing the loss of his land due to debt, he drank a cupful of chemical insecticide.

Unable to pay back the equivalent of two years’ earnings, he was in despair. He could see no way out. There were still marks in the dust where he had writhed in agony. Other villagers looked on – they knew from experience that any intervention was pointless – as he lay doubled up on the ground, crying out in pain and vomiting. . .

Shankara’s crop had failed – twice. Of course, famine and pestilence are part of India’s ancient story. But the death of this respected farmer has been blamed on something far more modern and sinister: genetically modified crops.

Shankara, like millions of other Indian farmers, had been promised previously unheard of harvests and income if he switched from farming with traditional seeds to planting GM seeds instead.

Beguiled by the promise of future riches, he borrowed money in order to buy the GM seeds. But when the harvests failed, he was left with spiraling debts – and no income.

So Shankara became one of an estimated 125,000 farmers to take their own life as a result of the ruthless drive to use India as a testing ground for genetically modified crops.

The crisis, branded the ‘GM Genocide’ by campaigners, was highlighted recently when Prince Charles claimed that the issue of GM had become a ‘global moral question’ – and the time had come to end its unstoppable march.

Speaking by video link to a conference in the Indian capital, Delhi, he infuriated bio-tech leaders and some politicians by condemning ‘the truly appalling and tragic rate of small farmer suicides in India, stemming. . . from the failure of many GM crop varieties’.

Ranged against the Prince are powerful GM lobbyists and prominent politicians, who claim that genetically modified crops have transformed Indian agriculture, providing greater yields than ever before.

What I found was deeply disturbing – and has profound implications for countries, including Britain, debating whether to allow the planting of seeds manipulated by scientists to circumvent the laws of nature. For official figures from the Indian Ministry of Agriculture do indeed confirm that in a huge humanitarian crisis, more than 1,000 farmers kill themselves here each month.

Simple, rural people, they are dying slow, agonising deaths. Most swallow insecticide – a pricey substance they were promised they would not need when they were coerced into growing expensive GM crops.

It seems that many are massively in debt to local money-lenders, having over-borrowed to purchase GM seed.

Pro-GM experts claim that it is rural poverty, alcoholism, drought and ‘agrarian distress’ that is the real reason for the horrific toll.

But, as I discovered during a four-day journey through the epicentre of the disaster, that is not the full story

In one small village I visited, 18 farmers had committed suicide after being sucked into GM debts. In some cases, women have taken over farms from their dead husbands – only to kill themselves as well. . .

The Truth about Marijuana

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This information about MARIJUANA and HUMANS will astound you!

Hypothesis on the symbiosis of humans and the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis.

This paper is dedicated to two of the greatest farmers I know-

My Father Stephen G. Saunders and my Grandfather, James Levi Evans.

This paper points to several key physiological correlations between the chemical components found in the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis, and the chemical components required for the biological functioning of the mammalian species, Homo Sapiens.

The first correllary which bears scrutiny is the correllation between the nutritional requirement for Essential Fatty Acids (EFA) for proper maintenance of brain tissue, skin, and hair, and the chemical composition of the fruit produced by the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis. The essential fatty acid profile of the fruit of the Cannabis Sativa plant contains the full spectrum of essential fatty acids required by humans on a daily basis, perfectly balanced nutritionally down to the tenth of a percent, with nothing added, and nothing left out. This corrollary, when combined with the historical and cultural fact that the fruit of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis has been consumed for food for thousands of years by humans suggests that the consumption of this fruit has played a major role in the formation of the current chemical and physiological structure of the brain, skin and other physiology of humans.

The second correllary can be found by examining the structure and composition of neuro-receptor sites which exist on the surface of the brain of the species Homo Sapiens. The surface of the human brain contains minute areas which are called “neuro-receptor sites” which function to allow chemical compounds to interact with and have an influence in creating and maintaining all of the various chemical “states” of the brain. These receptor sites vary in size and shape, and thus allow various compounds to “lock in” to them, causing various changes in the chemical composition of the brain. Some of these receptor sites are “substance-specific”, which means that they will only allow specific compounds to “lock in” to them. Some receptor sites are susceptible to a phenomenon called “blocking”, which is created by compounds which, when “locked in” to certain receptor sites, create changes in the chemical composition of the human brain by preventing other compounds from “locking in”.

The chemical compound manufactured by the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis that sometimes has a psychoactive effect on the brain chemistry of humans called TetraHydraCannabinol (THC) consists of a particular formation of a compound called Cannabinol which is also manufactured naturally by the body to aid in the proper functioning of the cornea of the human eye, and support the ability of the human eye to discern the difference between lines and shapes. This compound has a neuro-receptor site in the network of neuro-receptor sites found on the surface of the brain of humans which is “substance specific” which is to say that no other chemical compounds are able to “lock in” to these receptor sites.

The surface of the brain of humans contains more of these “substance specific” neuro-receptor sites THAN RECEPTORS FOR ALL OTHER CHEMICAL COMPUNDS PUT TOGETHER.

The arrangement of these “substance specific” neuro-receptor sites for Cannibinoids across the surface of the human brain has been scientifically described as “ubiquitous”. Ubiquitous is defined scientifically as “the state of being everywhere at the same time”.

A symbiosis between the two species which would influence this level of chemical integration would require many tens of thousands of years of consumption of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis by humans to create such an enormous influence on the physiological structure of the brain of the species.

While virtually every creature on the planet has “substance specific” neuro-receptor sites for TetraHydraCannabinol (THC) and other Cannibinoids, the mammalian species Homo Sapiens has the unique condition of being capable of ingesting and utilizing TetraHydraCannabinol (THC) in such enormous capacities over all other chemical substances which influence the functioning of the brain of the species.

The Cannabinoids are found on the leaves and flowers of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis, as well as inside the fruit or “seeds”. The Cannabinoids are ingested by humans and delivered to the brain by consumption of the seeds/fruit as food. The Cannabinoids are also delivered to the brain by consumption of the leaves and flowers of the plant by burning and breathing the resultant smoke, or eating the leaves and flowers. The latter methods, which use the leaves and flowers create a psychotropic/psychoactive effect on the brain.

In examining the use for the Cannibinoids in the physiology of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis, we find that the plant manufactures the compound for use as a filter that blocks the upper end of the spectrum of light of the sun known as “ultraviolet” or UV light.

The TetraHydraCannabinol (THC) is a protective shield for the plant against UV radiation. In light of these empirical facts, this paper demonstrates proof of species symbiosis between humans and the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis, predicated upon scientific proof which answers the following questions:

  1. a) Does the deprivation of the full and balanced spectrum of Essential Fatty Acids delivered by the fruit/seeds of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis from the nutritional diet of humans create adverse effects on the health of the species?

Correllations between the historical date of the political prohibition of the fruit/seeds for use as a food source in the United States, and the ensuing decline in the use of the fruit/seeds as a food source throughout the rest of the world due to martial enforcement, AND the rise of aberrative forms of disease and illness cannot be overlooked.

  1. b) Does the effect of filling the “ubiquitous” numbers of “substance specific” neuro-receptor sites for TetraHydraCannabinol (THC) and other Cannibinoids located on the surface of the brain of humans create for this brain, as it does for the leaves and flowers of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis the effect of blocking or screening the brain and it’s brainwave activity from the effects of the radiation of Ultraviolet (UV) light?

Current commercial research and development into the use of THC as an effective ingredient in the manufacture of sunscreen for human skin suggests that it’s function in the substance specific neuro-receptor sites on the surface of the human brain, acts for the brainwave activity of the human brain in a similar capacity.

  1. c) While the consumption of the leaves and flowers of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis by humans through oral ingestion and smoking has been a part of human culture as far back as recorded history, is the sudden and sharp rise in the chronic smoking of the leaves and flowers of the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis by humans a symptom of malnutrition due to insufficient consumption of the seeds/fruit of the same plant, which would, as a staple in the diet of humans provide enough quantities of non-psychoactive/ psychotropic cannabinoids to the brain, in addition to the vital, balanced profile of Essential Fatty Acids delivered by the seeds/fruit of the plant?

Closing Comments:

While there are many, many additional corollaries which support the hypothesis of symbiosis between humans and the plant species’ Cannabis Sativa, Indica, and other hybrid strains of Cannabis, this paper focuses on physiological and biological data and ensuing questions and call for research outlined above.

Stephen H. Saunders is a researcher and media developer who can be contacted at majik@majik.org ©2002 Stephen H. Saunders

 

 

Stephen H. Saunders is a researcher and media developer who can be contacted at majik@majik.org

2002 Stephen H. Saunders