Mainstream Media Looks At Marijuana Prohibition

January 9th, 2009 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director

Fire Up The Digital Recorders! January Is ‘Marijuana’ Month On The Groove Tube

As if this month was not busy enough with the arrival of Barack Obama to the White House and an ever-growing popular buzz about the need for cannabis law reform all over the media and internet, three major MSM outlets are scheduled to broadcast prime time specials examining aspects of cannabis prohibition.

On Friday, January 16, the venerable NBC news show Dateline has scheduled an hour-long profile of the tragic death of Florida college student Rachel Hoffman. Ms. Hoffman was arrested with cannabis and unfortunately trusted local police to become an undercover informant, which ultimately led to her murder. Her shocking death has forced Florida law enforcement to re-examine the use of confidential informants in drug cases and raised the question publicly about decriminalizing cannabis for adult use.

ABC 20/20 correspondent John Stossel’s investigative unit is going to cast its usually critical eye at government overreach and wasteful spending, this time specifically towards the noted case of medical cannabis provider Charles Lynch. By all media accounts and advanced in his legal defense, Mr. Lynch was operating a ‘Main Street’ medical cannabis dispensary in Santa Barbara, California in compliance with local and state medical cannabis laws. However, the federal government continues to selectively arrest and prosecute medical cannabis providers under federal laws. Mr. Lynch’s appeal for a new trial has been rejected and he now potentially faces a mandatory five-year sentence at an upcoming sentencing hearing. Depending on the editing process, the story will likely broadcast either Friday the 9th or 16th @ 10PM (eastern).

Business network CNBC has produced an one-hour special called Marijuana, Inc. to premiere at 9 pm (eastern), January 22. Fascinated by the multi-billion untaxed, unregulated cannabis business in the United States, notably on the west coast, producers fanned out to interview cultivators, medical cannabis dispensary owners, middle-class cannabis consumers and of course law enforcement.

Lastly, NORML hears whispers of a major piece about cannabis prohibition being researched for publication at America’s largest Sunday newspaper circulation drop-in, Parade.

Best Xmas Tune? Willie and Colbert’s Ode to Weed

By Scott Thill EmailDecember 02, 2008 | 9:36:52 PM

A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All has redefined the holiday special for the new millennium. But it may also have redefined holiday songs for the 21st century as well, especially Willie Nelson and Stephen Colbert’s “Little Dealer Boy.” Think “Little Drummer Boy” 2.0, substitute the phrase “finest gifts” for marijuana, and you’re there.

Or better yet, just check out the video of the entire song at right. It’s a double-exposure romp that might make Jesus blush, if he wasn’t already rumored to have used cannabis himself. After all, as Willie sings in the duet, cannabis is a “plant that smokes more sweetly than either frankincense or myrrh.”

If you like the tune, you’re probably going to love the rest of the bizarro standards found A Colbert Christmas, out now as an iTunes-only digital EP. Heck, you might even dig Toby Keith’s War-On-Christmas shocker “Have I Got a Present For You,” the very track that had me worried that Colbert’s holiday special might suck.

Boy, was I wrong about that.

Meanwhile, “Little Dealer Boy” has caught some flak on Colbert Nation, but I think it is one of the finest Christmas tunes ever laid down. Am I high? Post a comment below and let me know.

Jesus ‘healed using cannabis’

Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties
of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests
that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings.The anointing oil
used by Jesus and his disciples contained an ingredient called kaneh-bosem which has since
been identified as cannabis extract, according to an article by Chris Bennett in the drugs magazine,
High Times, entitled Was Jesus a Stoner? The incense used by Jesus in ceremonies also contained
a cannabis extract, suggests Mr Bennett, who quotes scholars to back his claims.
“There can be little doubt about a role for cannabis in Judaic religion,” Carl Ruck, professor
of classical mythology at Boston University said. Referring to the existence of cannabis in anointing
oils used in ceremonies, he added: “Obviously the easy availability and long-established tradition of
cannabis in early Judaism _ would inevitably have included it in the [Christian] mixtures.”

Mr Bennett suggests those anointed with the oils used by Jesus were “literally drenched
in this potent mixture _ Although most modern people choose to smoke or eat pot, when

its active ingredients are transferred into an oil-based carrier, it can also be absorbed through
the skin”. Quoting the New Testament, Mr Bennett argues that Jesus anointed his disciples
with the oil and encouraged them to do the same with other followers. This could have been
responsible for healing eye and skin diseases referred to in the Gospels.

“If cannabis was one of the main ingredients of the ancient anointing oil _ and receiving
this oil is what made Jesus the Christ and his followers Christians, then persecuting those
who use cannabis could be considered anti-Christ,” Mr Bennett concludes.

California Supreme Court Ruling Limits Medical Marijuana Distribution

California Supreme Court Ruling Limits Medical Marijuana Distribution

November 24th, 2008 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director
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Smelly Money Leads To Major Legal Review Of California’s Medical Marijuana Distribution

In an important legal case decided today that cannabis reform advocates have been waiting on for nearly two years, the California Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants are not entitled to a defense as Proposition 215 (Prop 215) caregivers if their primary role is only to supply marijuana to patients.

“We hold that a defendant whose care-giving consisted principally of supplying marijuana and instructing on its use, and who otherwise only sporadically took some patients to medical appointments, cannot qualify as a primary caregiver under the Act and was not entitled to an instruction on the primary caregiver affirmative defense. We further conclude that nothing in the Legislature’s subsequent 2003 Medical Marijuana Program (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.7 et seq.) alters this conclusion or offers any additional defense on this record. ”

Prop 215 defines primary caregiver to be the “individual designated by the [patient]… who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person.” According to the Court, these words ” imply a caretaking relationship directed at the core survival needs of a seriously ill patient, not just one single pharmaceutical need. ”

The Court concluded, ” a defendant asserting primary caregiver status must prove at a minimum that he or she (1) consistently provided care-giving, (2) independent of any assistance in taking medical marijuana, (3) at or before the time he or she assumed responsibility for assisting with medical marijuana. ”

The Court’s ruling effectively limits the caregiver defense to relatives, personal friends and attendants, nurses, etc. In particular, it excludes its use by medical marijuana “buyers’ clubs,” retail dispensaries and delivery services.

The remaining legal defense for medical marijuana providers is to organize as patient cooperatives and collectives, which are legal under SB 420.

“The Mentch decision highlights the inadequacy of California’s current medical marijuana supply system,” California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer told the Indy Bay News . “The law needs to allow for professional licensed growers, as with other medicinal herbs.”

Amazingly, this case found its way to California’s high court because bank tellers reported Mentch to law enforcement because his cash deposit smelled strongly like cannabis (Mentch was caught with approximately 200 cannabis plants that he believed he was lawfully tending, in compliance with Prop 215, for five medical patients who possessed a physician’s recommendation).

Full text of the People vs. Mentch is found here. Listen to NORML Legal Counsel and founder Keith Stroup on today’s AudioStash talk about the significance of the court ruling and likely implications on how patients can continue to lawfully access medical cannabis.

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