SB 388 has been introduced by Sen. Morrisette (at the request of the Stormy Ray Foundation) --

NATIONAL NURSES GROUP BACKS MEDICAL MARIJUANA

The American Nurses Association recognizes that patients should have safe access to therapeutic cannabis - marijuana.  The ANA passed such a resolution in 2004 at the request of its Congress on Nursing Practice and Economics and the nursing community supports the resolution overwhelmingly.

Part of the resolution stresses the need for the education of nurses regarding current evidence on therapeutic use of cannabis.  Learn more ...

JAMA Commentary Calls For Marijuana's Rescheduling

Chicago, IL: Cannabis provides therapeutic relief for patients and should be reclassified by the federal government to allow for its legal use as a prescription medicine, according to a commentary in the August 17 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).   "Sound regulation of medical marijuana requires government oversight based on public health, a rigorous research agenda, a private physician-patient relationship, and respect for patients who seek relief from suffering," the commentary states. Click here for more.

NIDA Rejects MAPS/Cal NORML Cannabis Vaporizer Study

Washington, DC: After an 18 month regulatory delay, a scientific protocol to investigate the types of emissions produced by cannabis vaporization (see: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6636 ) has been rejected by NIDA - the National Institute on Drug Abuse.  Visit: http://www.nida.nih.gov/ for more about this agency.   The protocol, submitted to NIDA in February 2004 on behalf of Chemic Laboratories in Massachusetts, sought to purchase 10 grams of marijuana from the agency so that researchers could conduct a chemical assessment of the cannabis vaporization process.   Click here for more.

Marijuana Less Cancerous Than Tobacco

WASHINGTON, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Marijuana is less carcinogenic than tobacco smoke and may even have some anti-cancer properties, new research suggests.   Robert Melamede, chair of biology at the University of Colorado in Boulder, reviewed studies of the illicit drug and published his findings in the Oct. 17 issue of Harm Reduction Journal.   Click here for more.

Marijuana May Spur New Brain Cells

Washington, D.C. -- Scientists said Thursday that marijuana appears to promote the development of new brain cells in rats and have anti-anxiety and anti-depressant effects, a finding that could have an impact on the national debate over medical uses of the drug.   Click here for more.

Cannabinoid Neuroprotective Against Cerebral Infarction, Study Says

Fukuoka, Japan: Administration of the non-psychoactive cannabinoid cannabidiol (CBD) is neuroprotective against cerebral infarction (localized cell death in the brain) in mice, according to clinical trial data published in the May issue of the journal Stroke.

"Treatment of cannabidiol ... significantly reduced the infarct volume ... in mice" in a dose dependent manner, a research team at Fukuoka University's Department of Neuropharmacology concluded.  Authors speculated that CBD "exerts a neuroprotective effect through its anti-oxidant, anti-spasmodic, and anti-emetic activity, [as well as through] vasorelaxation."

Researchers at the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) have previously reported that cannabinoids are neuroprotective in animals against brain damage caused by alcohol and/or stroke.

For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500.  Full text of the study, "Cannabidiol prevents cerebral infarction," is available in the May issue of the journal Stroke.

Angels -vs- Evil California Women Lose Case to Federal Bullies Judges Side with DEA Goons and Pass Buck to Congress in Supreme Court Case.   Women Insist They've No Choice But To Continue Their "Crime".  Click here for details.   Oregon State Attorney General official Statement on Supreme Court Case   OMMP recommences issuing registration cards!   Click here for details.

International View on Medical Cannabis News

News from Bulletins by the Transnational Radical Party [www.radicalparty.org] eBulletins system and LIAFAX, which is hosted by The International Antiprohibitionist League (www.antiprohibitionist.org)

17 MAY 2006
THE UNITED NATIONS
RESEARCH / MARKET STATISTICS
Source: Il velino - The 2005 report of the UN Office for Drug and Organised Crime Control: Thirty-one per cent of world cannabis production and eighty per cent of the cannabis smoked in Europe comes from Morocco and passes through France.

20 MAY 2006
OCEANIA / AUSTRALIA
LAWS
stopdrugwar: - Health minister Christopher Pyne has set up a uniform and very severe code for cannabis prosecutions, adhered to by all the Australian states. For Pyne, cannabis is ‘as dangerous as cocaine and heroin’.  Click > here < for more.

31 MAY 2006
EUROPE / SWITZERLAND
JUSTICE
Neue Zuercher Zeitung - The Federal Supreme Court has decided that a joint does not constitute a fundamental right in the private life of a citizen and is therefore not subject to protection under the European Convention on the Rights of Man. The test case had been brought by a youth who challenged his 2004 conviction for having admitted to cannabis consumption.

7 FEBRUARY 2006
NON-UNION EUROPE / SWITZERLAND
POLITICS
ANSA - The Federal Chancery has officially recognised as valid the signatures collected on 13th January last that demanded a national referendum on the depenalisation of consumption, possession and acquisition of cannabis for personal use. The date for this event has yet to be set.

13 JANUARY 2006
EUROPE / SWITZERLAND
LEGALISATION
ANSA - One hundred and five thousand signatures have been collected –– more than legally enough to ensure that there will be a referendum within two or three years on the legalisation of possession, use and cultivation of cannabis for personal use. This was promoted by groups of experts and politicians drawn from the Centre and the Left.

5th JANUARY 2006
EUROPE / SWITZERLAND
CONSUMPTION
ANSA - Cannabis consumption has doubled in the last ten years, and the average threshold age is down to fourteen yeas and seven months. Just over forty-six per cent of thirteen-to-twenty-nine-year-olds has used cannabis. Source: Swiss Federal Public Health Office (UFSP).

1 FEBRUARY 2006
EUROPE / ALBANIA
POLITICS
Ansa - The mayors and police authorities under whose jurisdiction marijuana cultivation comes to light could be charged with dereliction of duties on the principle that ‘they couldn’t not have known’ –– thus a proposal by the new interior minister, Sokol Olldashi.

13th December 2005
AUSTRIA
CONSUMPTION
Die Presse;   Twenty per cent of the population have used one drug or another some time in their lives. This breaks down into: cannabis 20.1%, ecstasy 3%, amphetamines 2.4%, opiates 0.7%, hallucinogenic mushrooms 2.7%, LSD 1.7%, sniffables 2.4%. Source: Austrian Federal Institute of Public Health.  Click > here < for more.

2 JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / BELGIUM
CONSUMPTION
NisNews Bulletin: Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt has expressed ‘great dissatisfaction’ with the decision of Maastricht mayor Gerard Leers to relocate seven of hid city’s ‘coffee shops’ along the Belgian-German border.  Click > here < for more.

12the December 2005
CZECH REPUBLIC
PUBLIC HEALTH
CTK - Czech News Agency;   The government plan to modify exiting laws to permit medically controlled administration of therapeutic cannabis. Source: Vaclav Sebor, speaker of the Health Ministry .  Click > here < for more.

06/09/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / GERMANY
CURIOSITY
SUEDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG Visit www.hanfapotheke.org to order therapeutic cannabis.   ‘It gives an opportunity for relief to seriously ill sufferers who neither have nor desire access to the illegal drug market”, explains Dr. Franjo Grotenhermen.  A 2004 court decision held that cannabis use can be justified by medical necessity.

13/07/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / GERMANY
JUSTICE
FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE ZEITUNG - An appeal to the federal constitutional court asking for confirmation of the right to use marijuana for therapeutic purposes has ended in a non-decision.  The appellant, it was found, should first have exhausted all existing alternatives within medical practice.  Simultaneously the court reconfirmed the 1994 ruling that where neither the harmfulness nor the innocuousness of a substance can be empirically demonstrated, prohibition must prevail in the interest of public health safety.

7-5-2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
PUBLIC HEALTH
Reactions to the announcement by the new Public Health Minister Dr. Livia Turco that she would raise the threshold quantities of cannabis that one person may own without incurring penalties or being automatically classified as a pusher -

- Daniele Capezzone, Radicali Italiani secretary, considers the move a very positive one and expresses the hope that the new government will head toward antiprohibitionism and more damage reduction.

- Donatella Poretti, MP fort he Rosa nel Pugno (Rose in the Fist) Party and member of the Chamber of Deputies Commission on Social Affairs, thinks the announcement is a small step min the right direction. During the first visit of Minister Dr. Turchi to the Commission, Poretti reiterated the need for stopping the catastrophic effects of the Italian law as it now stands.

Un press
28 JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
PUBLIC HEALTH
In a letter to UN Secretary General Kofi Anan, Italian sociologist Guido Blumir, president of the Scientific Committee Libertà e Droga (Freedom and Drugs) asks for the dismissal of UNODC Director Antonio Maria Costa for having mounted world-wide anti-cannabis campaigns based on distortions and lies.

Dire
26 JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
CONSUMPTION
A cannabis 'joint' is the world's most consumed form of drug consumption, says a 2005 report by Italian anti-drug police forces.

6 JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
RESEARCH
NORML - According to a study undertaken by the Biomolecular Institute of Naples and published in the May issue of the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, marijuana inhibits the growth of several types of cancer cells, among them breast and prostate.  Click > here < for more.

19 MAY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
PUBLIC HEALTH
Ansa - The Regional Council of Latium, which includes Rome, has set up a study project for the possible legalisation of personal cultivation of cannabis for therapeutic use.

ITALY
9th MARCH 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
NEW IDEAS
ANSA - By way of protesting against the new Fini Law’s obscurantism, Catholic priest Andrea Gallo, a ‘rolled-up shirtsleeves’ cleric and founder of the waterfront rehab community of San Benedetto al Porto, smoked a joint in the ceremonial chambers of the City of Genoa government.

14-02-2006
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
OLD HABITS
ANSA - Thus goes the night before exams at the University of Bologna, according to a COFIMP study based on a thousand students: see a film, cram until dawn alongside the books and the coffee machine, have sex and/or smoke a joint (twenty-five per cent of the men, fifteen of the women).

28-10-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
PUBLIC HEALTH
ANSA - A serious study has been launched to determine the pain-relieving effectiveness of cannabis among cancer victims.  Forty patients in Turin and Rome will be studied for twenty weeks.  The laws and prevailing cultural prejudices are creating unnecessary obstacles.

16 November 2005
Eighty cancer victims will be admitted to experimental cannabis therapy in Rome’s Polyclinic Umberto I and in Turin’s Molinette Hospital.  In the latter, the project will be under the care of Prof. Antonio Mussa, ex Euro-MP and president of the National Advisory Board for Scientific Matters for the Alleanza Nazionale party.  Giulio Manfredi of the Comitato Nazionale Radicali Italiani asks:  ‘Professor Mussa, how can you possibly sing the praises of cannabis therapy and at the same time support further criminalisation of personal-use cannabis?  How obvious it is that personal-use proibitionism creates prohibition of cannabis therapy!’

17-10-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / ITALY
PUBLIC HEALTH
Ansa; Corriere della sera - In Milan, the person responsible for the conduct of an Onlus that runs a nursing home has been charged with procuring joints of cannabis for a severely ill cancer victim in an effort to relieve his/her suffering.  ‘To forbid the therapeutic use of hashish is cruelty’ says MP Paulo Cento of the Green Party.  ‘Don’t our Carabinieri and anti-drug squads have anything more urgent to attend to?’  asks Radicali Euro-MP Dr.Vittorio Agnoletto, M.D.

25 APRIL 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Independent: - After the American Federal Food and Drug Administration’s declaration that the therapeutic benefits of smoked marijuana are 'not proven scientifically', the stock of the British firm GW Pharmaceuticals, producers of a commercially successful inhalable cannabis-based spray used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, rose by ten per cent.  Click > here < for more.

27 MAY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
LEGALISATION
The Guardian: - Two Labour MPs, Paul Flynn and Brian Iddon, came out in favour of legal therapeutic marijuana at the recent meeting of the Cannabis Education Trust.  Click > here < for more.

17 MAY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION? / UNITED KINGDOM
CURIOSITY
The Guardian: - The new Minister for Drugs, Vernon Coaker, has admitted to smoking marijuana ?once or twice . . . happened at a party, but it wasn?t a pleasant thing.  Click > here < for more.

17 MAY 2006 EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM RESEARCH Source: News Medical: - The publication Anaesthesiology: Research undertaken by the Imperial College of London has shown that Cannador, which consists of extracts of cannabis, can be a serious reliever of post-operative pain.? Unlike traditional pain-killers, it has no side-effects.  Click > here < for more.

23 JANUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
CURIOSITY
Daily Mail; Paul McCartney had to promise to quit smoking cannabis in order to marry Heather Mills. In an interview with The Observer she said that he and his first wife Linda used to smoke regularly, and that until recently Paul still took his joint as took a cup of tea, but that she hates the habit and wouldn't marry him if he didn't quit.  Click > here < for more.

The Times;
19 JANUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
POLITICS
Home Secretary Charles Clarke will not reclassify cannabis back into Class B drugs, notwithstanding recent warnings that the substance can cause schizophrenia. But Clarke once again pointed out that two years ago the government failed in not getting the message across that cannabis was both dangerous and illegal.

The Guardian;
14 JANUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
POLITICS
A report by a government investigative commission concludes that although there is some evidence of a connexion between cannabis use and occasional forms of psychotic symptoms, the danger is not sufficiently great to justify the reclassification of cannabis back into the Class B drugs. * * * Source: In Internet Advisory Council on Misuse of Drugs:

The Times:
7th JANUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
OPINIONS
Home Secretary Charles Clarke says that the declassification of cannabis in January 2004 was ‘a duping of the citizenry’. He is worried about reports that seek to establish a connexion between cannabis use and some form of mental illness.

The Independent:
2nd JANUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
JUSTICE
Notwithstanding declassification of cannabis, a weekly average of three users are arrested. This punitive approach of the courts, in spite opf government recommendations, shows that some people are arrested without grounds. Source: The Home Office, published in The Independent.

18/12/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
NEW IDEAS
Ansa - Sting, the ex- Spandau Ballet Gary Kemp, actress Jean Simmons and several MPs have signed an appeal against the government’s intention to re-introduce criminal prosecutions for personal cannabis use. ’It would be a tremendous step backward, incoherent, and a waste of police resources without any benefit to society or public health.

17/12/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Times (London);  The coroner presiding at the inquest of the death of Rene Anderson, a diabetic admitted to the experimental administration of cannabis-based Sativex, says that ‘there is a link between cannabis and the mental and physical health problems that led to the patient’s death.’  Click > here < for more.

12/08/2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
DISCOVERIES
ANSA - A group of government experts led by Sir David King have succeeded in separating the elements in a drug that create the psychoactive effects from those that cause addiction.  This opens the road to 'recreational drugs' that produce the desired effects through neural stimulation without the concomitant dangers.  It will also have to lead to re-examination of existing prohibitionist drug laws.

7th December 2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
PUBLIC HEALTH
Reuters Health;  Cannabis and derivatives, taken over a year, can reduce muscular spasms and other symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis: thus a study by J.P.Zajjicek of the Peninsula Medical School di Plymouth, published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.  Click > here < for more.

15-11-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
BBC - All eighty-five thousand multiple sclerosis sufferers in the U.K. may now benefit from a cannabis-based medicinal prescribed directly by their physicians.  The Home Office has authorised importation of Sativex from Canada.  Click > here < for more.

11-11-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
PUBLIC HEALTH
Telegraph - A study has shown that one half of household animals treated by veterinarians have cannabis in their systems.  Evidently dogs, cats and caged birds inhale the stuff and/or ingest fragments of it.  Moral: Don’t leave joints within reach of pets and children, don’t smoke in front of them.  Click > here < for more.

9th November 2005
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM
PUBLIC HEALTH
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - People suffering from rheumatism can benefit from cannabis, say the physicians experimenting under the supervision of D.Blake at the Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases in Bath.  Click > here < for more.

24 MAY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / FINLAND
LEGALISATION
Adnkronos - All two hundred MPs recently received a cannabis seed in the post, accompanied by an anonymous letter asking for legalisation of cannabis consumption. A study published in 2003 by the European Drug Observatory claimed that about twenty per cent of Finns between ages fifteen and thirty-four admit to having smoked cannabis at least once.

03-09-2006
EUROPEAN UNION / FRANCE
CONSUMPTION
French men and women now smoke less tobacco and drink less alcohol: thus the health ministry’s report for 2005 on a basis of thirty thousand interviews with people between the ages of twelve and seventy-five. But marijuana smoking has gone up, this being ‘the drug most readily available everywhere, anytime’. Over thirty per cent of the interviewees said that they had smoked the stuff ‘at some time in their lives’.

ANSA
3 MAY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / FRANCE
CONSUMPTION - According to Astrid Fontaine, author of the book Double vie: Les drogues et le travail, and Michel Hautefeuille, author of Drogues á la carte, marijuana consumption is on a steady up-curve in the upper-end white-collar working world. Managers, bankers, business leaders and high-level office employees are the newest users.

03-10-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / FRANCE
INVESTIGATIONS - The conclusion of the first serious, scientific study of the relationship of drug use and traffic accidents is proving immensely embarrassing to the government.  Whilst alcohol is a disastrous cause of accidents, cannabis is hardly involved at all, although not completely out of the picture.  Click > here < for more.

17 FEBRUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM - Northern Ireland
Irish Medical News - Among the motions approved by Sinn Fein during its Ard Fheis (17-19th February), one calls for the depenalisation of cannabis for personal use. Another calls on judges to inflict only the minimum sentences allowed in drug-peddling cases.  Click > here < for more.

6 FEBRUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / IRISH REPUBLIC
LEGALISATION
IrishHealth.com: - Two thirds of the readers of IrishHealth.com think that cannabis should be generally legalised –– not just for therapeutic use –– for all people over eighteen.  Click > here < for more.

09-10-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / IRISH REPUBLIC
THERAPEUTIC MARIJUANA
IrelandOn-Line - The National Advisory Committee on Drugs wants to legalise therapeutic marijuana.  Polls show that a majority of citizens support this.  Click > here < for more.

Sunday: 04 JULY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / UNITED KINGDOM –– Scotland
CONSUMPTION
A study by Edinburgh University finds that rich kids smoke more joints than poor kids, a discovery on a par at least with that of soup plates and hot water.  Click > here < for more.

6 JULY 2006
EUROPE / RUSSIA
LAWS
MosNews: - President Vladimir Putin said in the course of a press conference that marijuana would never be legalised in his country.  Click > here < for more.

17 APRIL 2006
RUSSIA
LEGALISATION
Interfax: - An anonymous source purporting to speak for the Russian Federal Drug Control Service and quoted in Interfax says that Russia will not legalise marijuana. Moscow authorities blocked this May’s pro-marijuana march, as they had done in three previous years.  Click > here < for more.

2 JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / SPAIN
PUBLIC HEALTH
Norml: According to a poll undertaken by the daily El Sur, the number of chronically or terminally ill Spaniards turning to cannabis has lately gone up by twenty per cent.  Click > here < for more.

9 MAY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / SPAIN
LEGALISATION
Spain: - Carmen Moya, the Spanish government’s anti-drug chief, declared that ‘legalisation of cannabis would be totally irresponsible’, and that ‘law-enforcement agencies should protect the health of the population’.  Click > here < for more.

4 JANUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / SPAIN
PUBLIC HEALTH
El Pais:  Ten patients have been selected for an experiment aimed at determining the therapeutic effects of marijuana. Four of these began treatments on 10th December, the others will begin in a few days. They are the first of six hundred participants in this invaluable pioneer project that the Region of Catalonia plans to bring to a conclusion in 2006.  Click > here < for more.

11th December 2005
EUROPEAN UNIONA / SPAIN
STATISTICS
Europa Press;  Five per cent of road accident deaths can be ascribed to cocaine consumption, twice as many as two years ago. Other substances similarly involved are cannabis (1.,8%), amphetamines (0.7%), ecstasy and opiates. Source: Instituto Nacional de ToxicologÌa.  Click > here < for more.

08-11-2005
EUROPEAN UNION / SPAIN - Catalonia
PUBLIC HEALH
AFX News - Canada’s GW Pharmaceuticals will supply Sativex to six hundred sufferers from multiple sclerosis (MS), AIDS, cancer and neuro-vegetative diseases under authorisation and supervision of the Catalan Health Department.  Administration by physicians will evaluate effects, tolerance and the patients’ life quality generally  Click > here < for more.

15 JULY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / THE NETHERLANDS
CONSUMPTION
Liberation The mayor of Venlo in Holland had to reconcile the undesirable behaviour of German marijuana tourists pouring into his town daily with the economic benefits derived from their presence. Solomonic solution: he moved the ‘coffee-shops’ out of town in the direction of the German border.

25 JUNE 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / NETHERLANDS
CULTIVATION
AP - Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner has very emphatically turned down any possibility of allowing legal and large-scale cannabis cultivation.  Click > here < for more.

27 APRIL 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / THE NETHERLANDS
PUBLIC HEALTH
NORML - Source: A study by several researchers at the University of Leyden, published in the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences: Administration of THC by means of the vaporiser called “Volcano” is “safe and efficient”.  Click > here < for more.

2 FEBRUARY 2006
EUROPEAN UNION / NETHERLANDS
NEW IDEAS
Reuters: - The city of Groningen is planning to open a pharmacy for the sale of exclusively high-quality cannabis for therapeutic uses at reasonable prices. The idea is supported by The organisation Medicinal Cannabis Netherlands, which seeks to help seriously ill sufferers to get the very best stuff.  Click > here < for more.

9 JUNE 2006
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
ELECTIONS
The StarPhonix: - The Marijuana Party, who favour legalisation of possession and cultivation, has been officially inscribed among Saskatchewan Province's political parties. This will permit having Marijuana Party candidates stand at the next elections.  Click > here < for more.

6 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA – British Columbia
REPRESSION
CBC - In order to combat illegal marijuana cultivation, township authorities will be authorised to cut electric current from users whose meters register an uncommon increase. Police must serve notice of an impending inspection of the interior of the premises, to take place within forty-eight hours.  Click > here < for more.

6 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
CURIOSITY
The Star - Debut for Cannasat Therapeutics Inc. (CHT), one of the world’s few firms dedicated to research on and development of cannabis-based medicinals and therapeutics. During a pres conference, the firm’s directors admitted that theirs was an all-uphill road.

6 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA – British Columbia
REPRESSION
Cbc: - In order to combat illegal marijuana cultivation, township authorities will be authorised to cut electric current from users whose meters register an uncommon increase. Police must serve notice of an impending inspection of the interior of the premises, to take place within forty-eight hours.  Click > here < for more.

6 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
CURIOSITY
The Star - Debut for Cannasat Therapeutics Inc. (CHT), one of the world’s few firms dedicated to research on and development of cannabis-based medicinals and therapeutics. During a pres conference, the firm’s directors admitted that theirs was an all-uphill road.

4 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
LEGALISATION
Ansa - Canada’s new conservative premier Stephen Harper has no intention of resuming parliamentary discussion about the previous (Liberal) government’s proposal to legalise the possession of small quantities of marijuana for personal use.

14/09/2005
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
PUBLIC HEALTH
ALL HEADLINE NEWS - In 2006, Health Canada will launch a pilot programme of selling marijuana in pharmacies for therapeutic purposes.  This will make Canada the second nation, after Holland, where the substance can be bought openly.  Official statistics say that nine hundred sufferers of serious illnesses are legally using cannabis now.

11/07/2005
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA - Vancouver
PUBLIC HEALTH
VANCOUVER CBC - A new firm, PhytoCan Pharmaceuticals, headquartered on Vancouver Island, have been authorised by Health Canada to produce therapeutic marijuana in liquid form and as a spray.  A year and a half from now they will be ready to subject both products to the laboratory tests required before commercialisation.

24/06/2005
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
PUBLIC HEALTH
USA TODAY - Physicians may freely prescribe Sativex for sufferers from multiple sclerosis.  Sativex is the new the medicinal derived from the marijuana plant that is administered by spraying it under the tongue.  The principal ingredients, THC and CBD, relieve pain without inducing a typical cannabis ‘high’.  Some twenty thousand people in Canada will benefit.

22-11-2005
NORTH AMERICA / CANADA
NEW IDEAS - Marijuana use reflects on road safety, so much so that Health Canada has launched a road-safety education campaign with the help of the Canadian Public Health authorities.  This undertaking parallels the Liberal Party proposal to decriminalise the substance.  Click here for more info.

13 JULY 2006
NORTH AMERICA: USA
UPI - Research undertaken by Texas University and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science tends to show that cannabis is an effective pain-killer.  Click here for more info.

10 JULY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
CULTISM
AP - The faithful of Arizona’s ‘Church of Cognizance’ risk gaol for using marijuana in their religious rituals.  Click here for more info.

NORTH AMERICA / USA
CURIOSITY
Radio Ink - The Marijuana Policy Project is on the verge of launching a public relations campaign for the legalisation of marijuana . . . by the expedient of publishing the names of prominent political personages who have smoked a joint or two, among them President Bush, California Governor Schwarzenegger, former vice president Al Gore, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.  Click here for more info.

30 JUNE 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
AP - The House of Representatives has rejected a proposal that would have granted limited exemption for users of therapeutic marijuana from prosecution by the Justice Department.  Click here for more info.

24 JUNE 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) - The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church has unanimously passed a resolution approving of the consumption of therapeutic marijuana on medical prescription.  Click here for more info.

6 JUNE 2006
NORTH AMERICA // USA
RESEARCH
Norml News: According to a study undertaken by the University of Missouri and published in the March-April issue of Missouri Medicine, cannabis consumption reduces the risks of serious accidents, whilst the use of other illegal drugs as well as of alcohol increases them-  Click here for more info.

21 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
Nyt: - The Federal Food and Drug Administration announced on 20th April that 'no serious scientific research supports the therapeutic effects of marijuana', in clear and diametric contradiction of a 1999 study by the National Academy of Sciences. The FFDA report concludes that 'smoking marijuana produces no medical benefit accepted or proven in the United States and is therefore not admitted for medical treatment'.  Click here for more info.

ADUC
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC Health - The federal Food and Drugs Administration is coming under ever more severe criticism for its stance against the therapeutic use of marijuana. Many respected, serious newspapers, as well as a bipartisan group of twenty-four congressmen and -women under the leadership Democrat Maurice Hinchey, condemn the FDA’s report on the alleged medical-therapeutic "ineffectiveness" of cannabis as unscientific and merely politically motivated.  Click here for more info.

23 MAY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
RESEARCH
Source: Adnkronos (Finnish News) - In a study published by UCLA (University of California in Los Angeles): smoking joints does not increase the risk of pulmonary or any other cancer, such as mouth, throat, head, neck and oesophagus.

9 MAY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
Upi: - A study by the Nathan S. Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research and the New York University School of Medicine reports that no differences in cerebral capacity or performance can be shown to exist between people who used marijuana in adolescence and those who didn’t.  Click here for more info.

16 MAY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
Associated Press On 14 May the Food and Drug Administration bestowed its blessings on Cesamet, a synthetic version in pill form of the active ingredient of marijuana produced by Maleant Pharmaceuticals International.  Click here for more info.

16th MARCH 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
LEGALISATION
Source: - A Zogby poll taken for the Norml Foundation. –– Forty-six per cent of interviewees favour cannabis control in the hands of state legislatures, as is the case with alcohol, rather than in federal hands.  Click here for more info.

13-03-2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
SUBSTANCES Norml: Production and availability of marijuana throughout the US are on the increase: thus the annual report of the National Drug Intelligence Center.  Click > here < for more.

23rd FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
RESEARCH
Austin Chronicle - According to a study published by The Harm Reduction Journal, the so-called ‘War on Drugs’ is concentrating ever more on arrests for minor offences related to the possession of marijuana. Such arrests have increased by eighty-two per cent since 1990, at a cost of four billion dollars.  Click > here < for more.

28th FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
ANI - Research undertaken by Dr.Gregory I. Liou, molecular biologist in the Georgia State Medical College, has shown that marijuana could improve vision defects in diabetics. He said that ‘We are studying the effects of cannabinoids in the human body, with particular reference to combating retinal degeneration in diabetes’.  Click > here < for more.

17 FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
LEGALISATION
Norml - The governments of North Dakota, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wisconsin are petitioning the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) for legalisation of industrial hemp cultivation. Such approval would render effective several laws passed by the various state legislatures between 1999 and 2005.  Click > here < for more.

20 FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
JUSTICE
Norml - Increasing the penalties for the possession of marijuana, as foreseen in the proposed House Bill 737, would have a disproportionate impact on people under thirty years of age and would distract police resources from other and far more serious matters –– thus a study by the Norml e Norml Foundation.  Click > here < for more.

Contactmusic.com;
17 JANUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
LEGALISATION
Marie Louise Parker, Golden Globe winner for Best Actress (TV series Weeds, in which she plays a pusher-mother), says that marijuana ought to be legalised.  Click here for more info.

7th JANUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA
PUBLIC HEALTH
UPI; - GW Pharmaceuticals have won Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorisation to begin experiments with Sativex, a cannabis-based medicinal already available in Canada for MS sufferers.  Click here for more info.

15/12/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA
CULTIVATION
Join Together; Marijuana grown under federal programmes for scientific research purposes is of poor quality. Since 1969 it has been legally supplied only by the University of Mississippi. For this reason, several researchers has asked a federal judge for permission to grow a better sort.  Click here for more info.

14/12/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA
CURIOSITY
Asian News International;  - Rock star Melissa Etheridge said that she smoked and inhaled marijuana under medical supervision during her chemotherapy and benefited greatly from it. ‘This ought to be legalised’, she said. ‘I ask myself how that therapy would have been without this help’.  Click here for more info.

06/09/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA
LEGALISATION
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL - Source: Research published by the Marijuana Policy Project.  Kids living in areas where the administration of therapeutic marijuana is legal are at no greater risk than their peers elsewhere.  Moreover, after a decade of rise in marijuana use, the years 200-present show a decline.  Click > here < for more.

17th MARCH 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Portland, Oregon
NEW IDEAS
stopthedrugwar: - The organisation Safer Portland has begun collecting signatures for a referendum that would relieve the city police from having to give top priority to the prosecution of petty cannabis-related crimes committed by adults. If forty-six thousand signatures can be collected by 7th July, the matter will go on the ballot in November.  Click > here < for more.

15/09/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Oregon
JUSTICE
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - The Supreme Court will consider the appeal of a sentence that supported an employer for having fired a worker who was using marijuana for therapeutic purposes in the state or Oregon.  The man was acting under proper authorisation under Oregon law to relive the muscular pains from which he suffered frequently.  Several spot-checks had found him cannabis-positive.

11 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Emeryville, California
JUSTICE
San Francisco Chronicle: - The city of Emeryville was forced to pay fifteen thousand dollars to an ill person who used marijuana for therapeutic purposes because city police had confiscated thirty plants he was growing at home. The town fathers had to come to terms when it was discovered that the confiscated plants had disappeared from police custody.  Click here for more info.

30 APRIL 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Los Angeles, California
LEGALISATION
Norml: - Los Angeles County Council have decided to regulate distribution of cannabis for ten years following the referendum on therapeutic marijuana. Distributors may not be within a thousand feet –– 305 metres –– of schools, youth centres of any sort, churches or parks, must be well illuminated on the outside, and have alarm systems and guard protection. They may supply marijuana also in the form of ‘cookies’ and other edibles. Customers may smoke in loco, but only in separate zones equipped with filter systems.  Click > here < for more.

18th MARCH 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - California
REPRESSION
Centro Costa Times: - Federal agents raided the premises of a firm called Beyond Bomb in Emeryville and Oakland, confiscating thousands of marijuana plants and great quantities of cannabis-spiked sweets and drinks, all prepared for the therapeutic market, as allowed by California law. The situation reflects the conflict between state and federal jurisdiction.  Click > here < for more.

27-10-2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Santa Cruz, California
Ansa - Santa Cruz has become America’s first city with an official bureau for supervising the ‘compassionate’ distribution of therapeutic or medicinal marijuana –– thus the decision of the town council.  Mayor Mike Rotlin is looking into possible collaboration with pharmacies.

28/04/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Alabama
LAWS
AP - A state legislature committee has approved in principle a proposed law that would legalise the therapeutic use of marijuana by chronic sufferers of pain, but the final text is not expected to be approved this year.

Alabamian's for Compassionate Care is an informal network of people working together to enable treatment of the chronically ill and injured in Alabama by allowing them legal access to marijuana for medical treatment, as prescribed by a licensed physician. visit: www.compassionate-care.org for more.  Click > here < for more.

No Reason To Suffer
Blog: US Marijuana Party.  Where does the government get the idea it has the right to know what prescriptions my doctor prescribes for me?  As a sufferer of chronic pain, I have taken many of the drugs listed in a recent article in The News.  There are more I haven't taken because of government interference with a doctor's ability to "doctor" his patients.  Click > here < for more.

26 MARCH 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Alaska
LEGALISATION - The state supreme court has approved of the state law that allows legal possession of four ounces or 112 grammes of marijuana for personal use. Polls show that fifty per cent of citizens agree, forty-seven per cent disagree.  Click > here < for more.

1st MARCH 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Colorado
LEGALISATION
cbs4: - SAFER (Safer Alternatives for Enjoyable Recreation), a group that fought for cannabis legalisation in Denver, will extend its campaign throughout the state. Sixty-eight thousand signatures have been collected for demanding that the issue be included in November’s election.  Click > here < for more.

24/08/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Denver, Colorado
LEGALISATION
HEALTH NEWS - Voters will decide in November on the legalisation of therapeutic marijuana.  The Denver city council has put this issue on the ballot after confirming the required number of signatures on the petition.

02-11-2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Denver, Colorado
LEGALISATION
Associated Press - Fifty-four per cent in favour, forty-six against: thus the result of a referendum that proposes to allow people of age to possess legally one ounce (twenty-eight grammes) of marijuana.  The Marijuana Policy Project hopes that this will lead to similar successes elsewhere.  Click > here < for more.

18-10-2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Colorado
STUDIES
Join Together - "Nicotine causes cancer, but the THC in cannabis could protect smokers from absorbing carcinogens agents in marijuana smoke" –– Robert Melamede, author of a University of Colorado research project.  Click > here < for more.

12 FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Hawaii
PUBLIC HEALTH
Pacific Business News: - Five years after the effective start of the therapeutic-marijuana law, three thousand people are registered as authorised consumers . . . but only eight physicians can see to the needs of eighty cent of these owing to the opposition of the majority of medical personnel.  Click > here < for more.

164 Doctors Can Prescribe Marijuana

Question: I was wondering if you can point me in the direction of two things.  One, how can I contribute to the legalization of medicinal marijuana everywhere?  Second, where can I find a doctor on Oahu who is participating in writing prescriptions to patients (who, of course, meet the requirements under the law) for marijuana use?  Click > here < for more.

18/08/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Hawaii (Honolulu)
PUBLIC HEALTH
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The state’s first clinic for the administration of therapeutic marijuana will open in Honolulu on 7th September under the aegis of the Hemp and Cannabis Foundation of Portland, Oregon.  Choice of this venue was prompted by Hawaii’s lax enforcement of the law that authorises such therapies, but it is difficult to find physicians willing to go along.  To date there are 2,700 authorised candidate patients.

Daily Illini
22 FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Illinois
LEGALISATION The state senate’s Commission for Social Services has approved by a vote of six to five Bill 2568, which legalises the consumption of therapeutic marijuana. This measure must now be approved by the General Assembly.  Click > here < for more.

LAWMAKERS CONSIDER MEDICAL MARIJUANA

BOSTON, 08 Jan 2006 -- Massachusetts could become the fourth New England state to legalize medical marijuana under a plan before state lawmakers

On the heels of Rhode Island's approval last week of medical marijuana use, lawmakers here are pushing a measure, with the support of some North of Boston legislators, that would allow doctors to treat patients with marijuana. Backers say people who suffer from debilitating pain and chronic diseases should be able to gain relief without fear of arrest, something 11 states have approved.  Click > here < for more.

11-8-2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Michigan
Two Medical Marijuana Victories In Michigan
On November 8, 2005, voters in two Michigan cities passed medical marijuana initiatives by dramatic margins, joining the growing national trend of voters who are bypassing legislators and using the ballot box to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest.

In Ferndale, by a margin of 61% to 39%, voters removed the threat of arrest and jail under city law for seriously ill people who use and grow marijuana with their doctors' recommendations.  In Traverse City, by a margin of 63% to 37%, voters made the prosecution of medical marijuana patients the city's lowest law enforcement priority.   Click here for more.

23rd FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Missouri
LEGALISATION
Columbia Missourian - Following the proposal of a law that would allow physicians to prescribe marijuana to seriously ill patients, the whole debate has flared up again in the House of Representatives. The law currently in effect allows the prescription of opium, cocaine and amethamphetamione, but not marijuana.  Click > here < for more.

8 FEBRUARY 206
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Nevada
LEGALISATION
KVBC.com: - The campaign to legalise marijuana is under way under the aegis of the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana . In November the voters will be asked to say Yea or Nay on the controlled and taxed sale of the stuff to over-twenty-one-year-olds in special stores.  Click > here < for more.

14-10-2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA – New Jersey
THERAPEUTIC MARIJUANA
Join Together - All gubernatorial candidates favour therapeutic administration of marijuana.  ‘When faced with certain realities we must offer every possible medical means’ says Republican Doug Forrester, and his Democratic opponent Jon Corzine echoes it with ‘We must do all we can in aid of the sufferers’.  Click > here < for more.

25 JANUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / UNITED STATES – New Mexico
LAWS
The Associated Press; The State Senate Public Affairs Commission unanimously approved the law that would legalise marijuana consumption by sufferers of serious diseases.  The text must now be approved by two further commissions and requires that the patients be included in a programme set up by the Health Department.  Click > here < for more.

19 JANUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / U.S.A. - New Mexico
POLITICS
The New Mexican; - Governor Bill Richardson, after having spoken at length with ill people, has announced that he will introduce a law legalizing therapeutic marijuana in his next legislative programme. Last year such a measure was defeated in the lower chamber of the Legislature, although it had been passed by the upper one.  Click > here < for more.

12 JANUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - New Mexico
LEGALISATION
Drug Policy News; - The Marijuana Policy Project is asking New Mexico governor Bill Richardson definitely to table for the 2007 legislature a bill for the legalization of therapeutic marijuana. This year only financial matters will be taken up, and such as the governor labels Top Priority.  Click > here < for more.

31 MARCH 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA –– Rhode Island
LEGALISATION
AP: - The state law on therapeutic marijuana, passed in January, became effective on 31st March, after the state Health Department passed the decree actual application to the state Secretary of State. The Medical Marijuana Program will issue an ID document that authorises the bearer to cultivate twelve plants or to buy two and a half ounces –– seventy-one grammes –– of marijuana. Go to:  Click > here < for more on the story.

MARIJUANA NOW LEGAL FOR CHRONICALLY ILL in Rhode Island 5th JANUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA – Rhode Island
LAWS
Ansa - The state Legislature has overridden Governor Don Carcieri’s veto and thus made law of the therapeutic use of marijuana for victims of cancer, AIDS and other painful incurable diseases. This makes Rhode Island the eleventh state (of fifty) to take such a step.

Thu, 05 Jan 2006.   Overriding the governor's veto, the Rhode Island House of Representatives voted 59-13 yesterday to legalize marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Gov. Donald Carcieri vetoed the original bill, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Slater ( D-Providence ), last year, but the Senate overrode the veto before it broke for its summer recess.  The House saved the override vote for yesterday.  Click > here < for more.

29/06/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Rhode Island
LEGALISATION
THE NEW YORK TIMES
The state legislature has passed a law allowing the therapeutic use of marijuana.  Both patients and physicians would have to be registered, and can then be authorised to grow up to twelve plants or to possess seventy grams of marijuana for each type of illness.  But Governor Donald L. Carcieri will probably veto it.

03/09/2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Virginia
LEGALISATION
PRWEB - The Virginia Nurses’ Association, which represents 80,000 persons, recently confirmed support of legalising therapeutic uses of cannabis.  The association is the first of fourteen similar ones to take this position.

18 FEBRUARY 2006
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Washington State
CULTIVATION
Neue Zuercher Zeitung - Illegal marijuana cultivation has become one of the most profitable crop of the state of Washington –– thus the local police authorities, who in 2005 confiscated a hundred and thirty-five thousand seedling plants that had a value of two hundred and seventy million dollars.  Click > here < for more.

MEDICAL POT BILL WILL GET HEARING

Every day for the past 23 years, Irv Rosenfeld has smoked up to a dozen marijuana cigarettes.

On probably every one of those days, someone, somewhere, was arrested for doing the same thing. But the government not only doesn't care about Rosenfeld's drug use; it's been his supplier.

One of just seven remaining patients in the federal government's "compassionate use" program, which provides marijuana for medical uses, Rosenfeld said the drug helps him cope with the excruciating pain caused by an estimated 200 benign bone tumors that daily poke at his muscles and veins.

For more information see also:

Is My Medicine Legal YET? www.wisconsinmedicalsociety.org
(Cannabis - Medicinal): www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm
(Chronic Pain): www.mapinc.org/find?232
(Irvin Rosenfeld): www.mapinc.org/people/Irvin+Rosenfeld
(Gregg Underheim): www.mapinc.org/people/Gregg+Underheim

28-09-2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA - Wisconsin
LEGALISATION
Wisconsin is ready to allow therapeutic use of marijuana.  Even Bush-Republican representative Gregg Underheim is in favour, maintaining that ‘obviously people are way ahead of the politicians in this’.  The Marijuana Policy Project has published a poll in which a majority of citizens of all ages and political preferences approve.   Click > here < for more.

20 APRIL 2006
CENTRAL AMERICA • CARIBBEAN / BERMUDA
PUBLIC HEALTH
The Royal Gazette: The minister for national drug control, Wayne Perinchief, favours depenalising cannabis. He insists on the necessity of considering drug addiction a health matter, not a criminal one.  Click > here < for more.

16/12/2005
BERMUDA
POLITICS
The Royal Gazette;  The new Drug Control Minister, Wayne Perinchief, favours reviewing the laws on marijuana. He proposes alternatives to gaol, more rehab center and prevention programmes, and severer penalties for those who profit from narcotrafficking.  Click > here < for more.

28 MARCH 2006
CENTRAL AMERICA / MEXICO
LEGALISATION
El Porvenir: - Patricia Mercado, presidential candidate of the Alternativa Socialdemócrata y Campesina, said that it is now essential to initiate serious political discussions about depenalising and legalising drugs, beginning with marijuana.  Click > here < for more.

7th December 2005
NORTH AMERICA / USA
CULTIVATIONS
Bbc;  Mexican producers are growing cannabis in national parks in California, Arizona and Texas. Source: the National Parks Conservation Association, during testimony before the U.S. Congress.   Click > here < for more on the testimony.   Click > here < for more on the story.

4-11-2005
CENTRAL AMERICA / MEXICO
LEGALISATION
Elías Miguel Moreno Brizuela, president of the Senate’s Health and Social Security Commission, announced that the Commission will discuss legalisation of marijuana for therapeutic use.  Click > here < for more.

17th MARCH 2006
SOUTH AMERICA / ARGENTINA
JUSTICE
stopthedrugwar - The federal Court of Appeals has squashed the conviction of a Buenos Aires woman for cannabis possession because she needed it for therapeutic use. The court also ordered re-evaluation of the case in the light of the latest researches on therapeutic cannabis. The essence of the ruling is that the right to health and pain relief must be upheld.

10 JULY 2006
OCEANIA / AUSTRALIA
CONSUMPTION
AAP - Former minister John Herron says tghat marijuana consumption is by now something more for an ageing section of the population, the youngest sectors having been influenced by anti-drug TV spots.  Click > here < for more.

30 JUNE 2006
OCEANIA / AUSTRALIA
POLITICS
Sunday Times: - Donna Faragher, responsible for drug strategies in the opposition shadow cabinet, has demanded greater severity against cannabis because this substance, she maintains, ‘causes many forms of mental illness’.  Click > here < for more.

15/12/2005
OCEANIA / FIJI ISLANDS
CONSUMPTION
Radio New Zealand;  A one-year study of two thousand adolescents between thirteen and fifteen years of age conducted by The National Drugs Council found that sixty-nine per cent had tried kava, a bushy Pacific-islands plant, fifty-one per cent alcohol, forty-two per cent cigarettes, and thirteen per cent cannabis.  Click > here < for more.

13 JULY 2006
OCEANIA / NEW ZEALAND
PUBLIC HEALTH
The National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) has published a poll according to which two out of three New Zealanders favour making marijuana available on medical prescription.

16 JUNE 2006
OCEANIA / THE PHILIPPINES
CULTIVATION
Philippine Daily Inquirer: - The national police force would like to see yacon, a plant belonging to the sunflower family, replace the marijuana plantations in the Cordillera.  Click > here < for more.

OPED: Spice of Life - Cannabis
by: Pjo Taylor, The Statesman (India) < www.thestatesman.net >

Sun, 01 Jan 2006.   Almost a forbidden subject these days, but the stuff has such a long history that I feel justified in touching on the subject.  

The argument nowadays is whether it is a medicine or a harmful addictive drug, and if you go back into historical record you'll find there has always been this dual role, this struggle between good and evil.  Click > here < for more.

14 JUNE 2006
MIDDLE EAST / ISRAEL
RESEARCHES
Jerusalem Post: - Research by Yehoshua Maor of Jerusalem's Hebrew University suggests that cannabigerol, a synthetic derivative of cannabis, is beneficial in the treatment of hypertension  Click > here < for more.

22 JANUARY 2006
AFRICA / MOROCCO
CULTIVATIONS
Morocco Times; - Mohamed Fettal, governor of the northern province of Taounate, has launched a campaign for planting six hundred thousand fruit and olive trees as replacements for cannabis plantations. A similar project is under way in Larache province.  Click > here < for more.

15 APRIL 2006
AFRICA / MOZAMBIQUE
CULTIVATION
Angola Press: - In his annual report to Parliament, Justice Minister Joaquim Madeira came out against the destruction, proposed by several MPs, of cannabis plantations grown by local peasants. The proper solution would be a programme of offering them alternative crops.  Click > here < for more.

3 FEBRUARY 2006
AFRICA / SWAZILAND
NEW IDEAS
IRIN: - ‘The massive hemp production could be used for making building materials’, says Andre du Plessis, an architect who works with the organisation InternAfrics . The Swaziland Council on Smoking, Drugs and Alcohol (COSAD) estimates that seventy per cent of peasant time and labour is dedicated to illegal marijuana production.  Click > here < for more.

International Drug Policy Reform Made Easy With DrugSense/MAP

When Mexican President Vincente Fox bowed to U.S. pressure and refused to sign a bill that would have legalized the personal possession of all drugs, DrugSense was there. When England nearly re-criminalized the adult possession of cannabis, DrugSense was there. When American and Canadian activists, researchers, politicians and drug policy reformers organized a counter-symposium in Montreal to protest the DEA's International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC), DrugSense was there. DrugSense.org/donate.

Whether it's decriminalization efforts in Mexico or Canada, the rejection of drug interdiction funding by Latin America, or ongoing harm reduction efforts in Europe, DrugSense/MAP is there to help organize these international efforts.

For example, they created a Canadian media contact list for the recent IDEC counter-conference in Montreal using their powerful and comprehensive Media Contact on Demand mapinc.org/mcod/. Coverage of this conference was then tracked through their MAP DrugNews Archive of drug-related articles from around the world (drugnews.org), which now tops 164,000 clippings and counting!

In fact, about half of the news articles received and posted by MAP are from outside of the U.S., and DrugSense has been integral in starting up Canadian, German, French, and Dutch versions of its popular Media Awareness Project.

The progress made by other nations toward evidence-based drug policy may represent one of the best tools to push for positive change in the U.S. So, although DrugSense/MAP continues to focus on American drug policy reform, they have long been aware of the importance of assisting reformers all over the world.

But, if DrugSense/MAP is to continue to provide news and services to the international drug policy reform community, and to use international pressure to push for U.S. reform, they need YOUR help right now!

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