Posted by Phillip Smith [1], August 24, 2011 | Oregon marijuana legalization activists are working on three different initiatives aimed at the November 2012 ballot -- but are also offering assurances about unity and working together. Activists in Oregon are serious about legalizing marijuana. There are currently three different marijuana legalization initiative campaigns aimed at the November 2012 ballot underway there and, this year, there are signs the state's fractious marijuana community is going to try to overcome sectarian differences and unify so that the overarching goal -- freeing the weed -- can be attained.

The three initiatives are in varying stages of advancement, with one already engaged in signature-gathering, one just approved for a ballot title, and the third trying to obtain the 1,000 signatures necessary to be granted a ballot title and be approved for signature-gathering. The initiative currently furthest down the path toward the ballot box, is the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act of 2012 [8] (Initiative Petition #9), sponsored by veteran activist and medical marijuana entrepreneur Paul Stanford. It would allow adult Oregonians to possess and grow their own marijuana. It would allow Oregon farmers to grow hemp. And it would license Oregon farmers to grow marijuana to be sold at state-licensed pot stores. An earlier version of OCTA failed to make the ballot last year.   Learn more >>>

Posted June 9, 2011 | Fees for registering with the Oregon Medical Marijuana Program will double, from $100 per year to $200 per year, due to a Budget Bill that passed out of the Joint Ways and Means Committee and into the main chambers late Wednesday. The increase in fees was included in one of the over 30 bills that the Committee “barreled through” on Wednesday. Sen. Doug Whitsett, R-Klamath Falls, objected to the lack of scrutiny over the bills, stating, “It's unacceptable to get this kind of information with no time to study it.”   Learn more >>>

Posted March 29, 2011 12:47PM PST | The National Cancer Institute (NCI) softened its stance on medical marijuana efficacy this month, while the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) called for an end to marijuana treatments in states where they are legal. A mid-month change to the NCI's Cannabis and Cannabinoids PDQ pages said, "Cannabinoids may have benefits in the treatment of cancer-related side effects." A separate page stated that, "In the practice of integrative oncology, the health care provider may recommend medicinal Cannabis not only for symptom management but also for its possible direct antitumor effect."   Learn more >>>

March 26, 2011 | (CNN) — Elvy Musikka, 71, of Eugene, Oregon, says the post office lost something that could cost her more than just a buzz. She could lose her eyesight. Six metal tins packed with medical marijuana joints –1,800 in all — are in transit somewhere with her name on it. That’s enough for up to 10 potent smokes a day for six months.

It’s a prescription she receives twice a year to treat her glaucoma.

“I just don’t know what to do,” Musikka said.

Musikka says she’s one of four remaining patients getting pot for free as part of a federal government program called Compassionate Use Protocol, developed in the 1980s. Her attorney says the cannabis is grown in a government lab at the University of Mississippi.

“It relaxes the eye so whatever excess fluid can get through, ” Mussika said.

She usually flies back to Miami, her former home, to pick up the pot from her eye specialist at the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute. But this time, the medicine was delayed, and she had to fly home without it. Her attorney, Norman Kent of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, accepted the pot for her and shipped it as next-day delivery through the U.S. Postal Service on March 17.

It never arrived at Musikka’s Oregon home.   Learn more >>>

LAPD reports 250%-265% retail markup at Los Angeles dispensaries

By "Radical" Russ Belville: NORML Outreach Coordinator on January 28, 2011 | (LA Weekly) Despite the protestations of numerous medical weed store owners, who regularly gripe that they're just making ends meet, Los Angeles Police Department found a detailed list of the hefty profits made on different marijuana strains sold at three pot shops owned by the same man, Richard Khoury. Over 50 Los Angeles Police Department narcotics detectives and officers served search warrants today on Alternative Care Collective, 420 Discount Collective and Encino Discount Collective in the San Fernando Valley after neighbors complained about people selling pot to teenagers outside the locations.

Khoury, a 30-year-old former construction worker, bought a gram of Obama Kush for $10.71 from a pot vendor, then sold it to his patients for $37.50. That's a whopping profit of $26.79! Another strain, OG Skywalker, cost Khoury $10.49, and he sold it for $37.77 - a more than respectable return of $27.28.   Read more ... <<<

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