Grass City

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Monday, June 17, 2013

Highs And Lows Of Using Marijuana

(CNN) -- On Tuesday, Colorado and Washington became the first two states to legalize recreational use of marijuana. The referendums come at a time when more than a third of states have approved the cannabis plant for medicinal purposes. Proponents for legalizing marijuana tout its pain-relieving benefits and use by cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiation treatments; opponents stress that science has yet to prove the drug is safe. It's a bit like the fairytale, "Jack and the Beanstalk." This "magic" plant that could help with everything from glaucoma to Lou Gehrig's disease could also contain unknown dangers to our heart, lungs and brain. The real question is, if we legalize marijuana, will we all live happily ever after? The Drug Enforcement Administration lists (PDF) marijuana under the Schedule I category of controlled substances, meaning it has a high potential for abuse, has no currently accepted medical purpose in the United States and is not deemed safe for use. Buzzkill to your IQ score Legalized marijuana: A good idea? Doped-up dogs on the rise 87-year-old busted dealing pot The DEA's stance has made it difficult for scientists to push forward national clinical trials on the drug. In 2009, the American Medical Association urged the government to review marijuana's classification with "the goal of facilitating the conduct of clinical research and development of cannabinoid-based medicines" to no avail. Still, in the last three years, more than 6,000 studies have been published in scientific journals about the cannabis plant, according to NORML, an organization that works to legalize marijuana. Much of the research has focused on the plant's effects on the body's endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system acts like a bridge between mind and body, helping different types of cells communicate with each other. Our bodies make natural cannabinoids, or active chemicals that cause drug-like effects through the body, according to the National Cancer Institute. The main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana -- delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC -- works in the same way as these natural chemicals. Dr. Julie Holland, editor of "The Pot Book," says medicinal cannabis is most often prescribed to combat nausea and stimulate appetite. It is also prescribed to manage chronic pain. The Food and Drug Administration has approved two synthetic cannabinoid drugs for use in patients with extreme nausea: dronabinol and nabilone. Another, Sativex, is undergoing phase III clinical trials in the United States for the treatment of cancer pain. A series of trials published by the University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research in May showed cannabis can help patients suffering from neuropathic pain, commonly caused by degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis or fibromyalgia. Neuropathic pain is also a common side effect of chemotherapy and radiation. Study participants on cannabis reported a 34 to 40% decrease in pain compared to the 17 to 20% decrease seen from patients on a placebo drug. Another study, published in the British Medical Journal in February, found a lower prevalence of Type II diabetes in marijuana users. The researchers hypothesized that cannabis lowers the risk for diabetes due to its immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties. Even with all its potential benefits, cannabis should not be viewed as a harmless substance, NORML says. The drug's active constituents "may produce a variety of physiological and euphoric effects," the organization's website states. "As a result, there may be some populations that are susceptible to increased risks." The National Institute on Drug Abuse says that marijuana causes an increase in heart rate, which could put users at risk for a heart attack or stroke. Marijuana smoke also contains carcinogens similar to tobacco smoke. A 2011 study published in the journal Addiction found marijuana has little long-term effect on learning and memory, according to TIME.com. The study authors followed nearly 2,000 Australian adults, aged 20 to 24, for eight years. They concluded that the adverse impacts of cannabis use (shown in earlier studies) were either related to pre-existing factors or were reversible after even extended periods of use. Yet a similar study out of New Zealand earlier this year showed the opposite may be true for adolescent marijuana users. The New Zealand researchers found that teens who smoked pot heavily (at least four days a week) lost an average of eight IQ points between the ages of 13 and 38. Adults who had smoked as teens tended to show more pronounced deficits in memory, concentration, and overall brainpower in relation to their peers. Kids and teens' brains are still developing, Holland says, which is why they may be more vulnerable to the drug's effects. People with a family history of mental illness are also at a greater risk for seeing the drug's mind-altering effects. A number of studies have linked chronic marijuana use to increased rates of anxiety, depression and schizophrenia, according to DrugAbuse.gov. And a more recent study published in The American Journal of Addictions showed an association between adolescent pot smoking and an increase risk of exhibiting anti-social behavior as an adult. The good news is that marijuana has a low rate of addiction; estimates place it at about 9% of users. And as NORML points out, "the consumption of marijuana -- regardless of quantity or potency -- cannot induce a fatal overdose." Experts say more research is needed to determine the true benefits and long-term side effects of marijuana

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Grow Big Or Go Home

DENVER – After 15 years as a white-collar “corporate nomad,” Dan Rogers found his new career in the thriving green-collar industry of Colorado, the only state in America with a for-profit medical marijuana market. The equities trader and former investment banker now produces pot breeds “Reclining Buddha” and “Heartland Cream” in a converted printing press warehouse near downtown Denver. In the nation’s most heavily regulated medical cannabis industry, he also works under constant video surveillance. Electronic eyes, required by Colorado’s year-old Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, track packaging of each shipment from Rogers’ warehouse to his four marijuana stores, called Greenwerkz. He submits product manifests and delivery routes for state approval. Still more cameras are recording as marijuana is unpacked and his state- licensed employees sell to state-registered patients. “Everything from seed to sales is on video,” Rogers said. “You need to know where every gram goes, where every plant is.” In Colorado, America’s second-largest medical marijuana market behind California, marijuana capitalism flourishes under strict regulations approved by the state Legislature starting last year. In California, dispensaries handling millions of dollars in transactions are supposed to operate as nonprofits – with medical marijuana users giving “donations” to “reimburse” operators and growers for costs. Colorado stores simply pocket cash as profit. And, under new mandates that stores grow at least 70 percent of the marijuana they sell, weed industrialization is flourishing. It is happening despite U.S. Justice Department warnings over attempted large-scale cultivation in California or suspected medical pot profiteering in other states. In Denver, the marijuana boom grows in old brick buildings and shuttered factories that only five years ago were being converted into artist lofts and live-work spaces for urban professionals. A former truck and tractor parts factory now houses indoor farms for eight marijuana stores. Elsewhere, real estate broker John Wickens has leased a half-million square feet of space to medical pot entrepreneurs – including a 76,000-square-foot cultivation room for one store. “This has helped the city tremendously,” he said. “It steadied commercial real estate. There are buildings with 40,000 square feet sitting empty. Who else is going to take it?” Denver interim city attorney David Broadwell said the city took in $3.5 million in marijuana sales taxes last year and hundreds of thousands in local licensing fees from 300 marijuana stores and other cannabis businesses. Colorado’s medical pot market may be one-sixth of California’s, yet Broadwell said Colorado’s cannabis capitalism took the Golden State model “and put it on steroids.” The industry worries Tom Raynes, a former deputy state attorney general and local prosecutor who heads the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council. He says Colorado pot businesses operate as an “assumption-of-risk industry” – doomed to collapse if the U.S. Justice Department, which considers all marijuana illegal, decides to intervene. “I think they’re inviting the federal battle,” he said. “They’re poking the tiger.” But Tom Massey, a Republican state representative from central Colorado who co-sponsored legislation regulating the industry, holds Colorado up as a national model, one that eased federal concerns by providing meticulous oversight to prevent diversion of medical marijuana to the illegal market. “I think the feds are thinking that as long as we keep it for its intended use, they’re going to turn a blind eye,” he said. source http://www.sanfranciscosentinel.com/?p=149282

Friday, June 14, 2013

History Of Marijuana

Marijuana, also known as cannabis possesses immense health benefits and has been used as an effective medicine for thousands of years. Throughout the world, various ancient cultures such as Chinese, Greek, Arab, Indian and Native American have relied on cannabis for its medicinal benefits. The earliest known material identified as marijuana was found in an ancient burial site from the Chou Dynasty of early China. Archaeological data reveals that cannabis was first used in Chinese medicine around 3000 B.C. Evidences of medical marijuana have also been found in Egyptian archaeological remains dated as early as the 16th century BC. Marijuana is considered as an excellent medicine for reducing nausea that is associated with various medical condition and treatments including chronic pain and swelling. Cannabis reduces intraocular pressure by 30% for patients suffering from glaucoma. Marijuana was first introduced into the modern world by William Brook O’Shaughnessy, an Irish physician and herbalist of British India. He was the person who experimented with marijuana and wrote the first modern English medical marijuana history. After his findings, medical marijuana became a useful ingredient in many pharmaceutical products in western hemisphere. After the development of medicines for the treatment of pain, the use of marijuana was dropped and thereafter banned by the federal government in 1937. In 1970, doctors started experimenting on medical marijuana again and found that marijuana caused a significant reduction in intraocular pressure within the eye. Between 1970 and 1980, the health departments of several states started experimenting with marijuana. Finally, in 1996,for the first time California approved marijuana for treating cancer, AIDS, chronic pain and other illnesses. In 1997, The Office of National Drug Control Policy commissioned the Institute of Medicine (IOM) to conduct a comprehensive study on the medical efficacy of cannabis. The IOM report recognized that marijuana and its constituents possessed numerous therapeutic properties, including the ability to control pain, nausea, and anxiety. They urged the government to make it available for patients and researchers too for further study. Immediately following the IOM’s report in 1999, the White House promised to support independent research on medical marijuana. In 2001, the regulation on accessing marijuana for medical purpose was first established by Health Canada. They defined two categories of patients who are eligible for access to medical marijuana. First category covers any symptoms associated with the physical ailments like severe pain, multiple sclerosis, and weight loss, severe nausea from cancer or HIV/AIDS infection, arthritis, and epilepsy. Second category is for applicants who have any devastating medical symptom, other than the conditions described in first category. In 2003, the US Health and Human Service Department applied for the patent of medical marijuana cannabis and received the government approval of the same. They filed a patent application for the use of cannabinoids, the active ingredient unique to marijuana and have been used as antioxidants and neuroprotectants. Government found the cannabinoids effective at treating ischemic, autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, neurological problems like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. So far, the United States of America has legalized the use of medical marijuana for 15 states and the District of Columbia followed by Washington DC and today, 60% of Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Medical Marijuana For Your Pet?

More people are using medical marijuana to treat pets for a variety of conditions, ranging from separation anxiety and noise phobia to cancer, according to the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) News. Now, as more states begin to legalize the drug for humans, veterinarians and pet owners are calling for more research into the use and safety of the drug in pets. After using medical marijuana to treat his own chronic back pain, Enest Misko, a 77-year-old from Chatsworth, Calif., decided to use a form of the drug to treat his pet cat, Borzo, who was having difficulty walking. Misko gave the cat a glycerin tincture of marijuana made for pets, and within a few days of taking the drug, Misko said the cat appeared to be pain-free. The drug can be found in licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles. “I don’t get high from (marijuana), but the pain goes away. So I tried it on my cat, my 24-year-old cat, who’s feeling better,” Misko told the JAVMA News. Within the past few years, veterinarians have noticed an uptick in people claiming to use medical marijuana treatments for their pets and some have even begun to experiment with it on their own pets. Dr. Douglas Kramer, a veterinarian in Los Angeles, Calif., who runs a mobile office focused on pain management and palliative care for pets, noted that approximately 300 people have told him they’ve treated their pets with medical marijuana since 2011. Kramer became intrigued by the drug’s potential when his Siberian husky, Nikita, was diagnosed with terminal cancer. “Nikita was wasting away, and she’d stopped eating,” he told JAVMA News. “I’d exhausted every available pharmaceutical pain option, even steroids. At that point, it was a quality of life issue, and I felt like I’d try anything to ease her suffering.” After Kramer began feeding Nikita small amounts of marijuana, the dog’s appetite returned, and she rested more comfortably during her final months. Based on his own reviews of medical marijuana research, Kramer believes the drug may be suitable for use in veterinary patients and that it deserves more attention from the veterinary research community. “I don’t want to come across as being overly in favor of giving marijuana to pets,” Kramer told JAVMA News. “My position is the same as the (American Medical Association’s position). We need to investigate marijuana further to determine whether the case reports I’m hearing are true or whether there’s a placebo effect at work. We also need to know what the risks are.” Other veterinarians note that medical marijuana has the potential to be used in pet treatments but agree that more research needs to be done. Dr. Dawn Boothe, director of the Clinical Pharmacology Laboratory at Auburn University’s College of Veterinary Medicine, said it wouldn’t surprise her to see FDA-approved drugs made from cannabinoid derivatives being used in pets one day. “My gut reaction is they do probably provide some therapeutic effect benefit,” said Boothe. “But, I’m never going to say there’s enough benefit that marijuana should be given to pets. I’m saying there’s enough justification that we need to study it. Source www.foxnews.com

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

How To Safely Make Bubble Hash Safely With No Chemicals - Jorge Cervantes

Whats your experience with using this method? Or do you use another method, let everyone know?

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Monday, June 10, 2013

CannaButter in 7 easy steps.

1.) A large saucepan

2.) A stir spoon

3.) Sticks Of Butter (Its about 1lb. of butter to every ounce of weed so make sure you do the math).

4.20) Marijuana 

5.) Cheesecloth, and some elastics

6.) A couple tupperware containers with lids


Step 1. 

Bring a few cups of water to a boil on the stovetop, it doesn't really matter how much water you use because in the end it will all be seperated, Just make sure the marijuana is always floating about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom of the pan.


Step 2.


When the water is at a boil place the butter in the pan, again it's about 1lb. of butter, 4 sticks, to every ounce of marijuana, so if your using a half ounce of bud thats about 2 sticks of butter. Be sure not to let the butter burn, if it appears to be burning then let melt on a medium setting.

Move the dial to low heat once butter has melted, it should look like this



Step 3.


Now that the butter has melted you can now add the marijuana, Here I used about 5 grams of fresh nug and about 7 grams of vaped bud. Again make sure the stove is now on a low setting.


Stir occasionally, I tend to stir every time the mix starts bubbling.
I usually let the bud simmer for 3 hours, But you can always tell it's done when the top of the mix turns from a really watery consistency to glossy and thick.


Step 4.


While letting the mix simmer, You are now going to need to get the cheesecloth strainer ready, which will also be used to store the cannabutter.

Take two sheets of cheese cloth and fold each one over so they each have two layers, place these over a tupperware container (with the lid off), and secure them there with elastics.

It shoud look like this, I say to make two just incase one container runs out of room.



Step 5.

When the water has turned glossy and thick on top it should look like this


You are now ready to strain the marijuana out of the mix, place your tupperware containers with the cheesecloth lids in the sink and slowly pour the entire mix on top of the cheesecloth like pictured here,


When the saucepan is empty carefully undo the elastic, pick up the cheesecloth from all four sides and squeeze all of the remaining butter out, 


I throw away the marijuana after this, you can try and dry it out, let me know what happens.


Step 6.

Now place the lid on the tupperware and place it in the fridge to sit overnight, You need to do this so the water can seperare from the cannabutter, be patient.


Step 7.

Now that you have awakened in anticipation for your new treat, its time to seperate the waste water!

It should look like this now, The cannabutter on top, the waste water on bottom.


Take the lid off the tuperware and hold it upside down over the sink, place a dish in the sink to catch any cannabutter that may fall, squeeze two sides of the tupperware and the waste water will pour out, once all the water is gone your done! The cannabutter is ready to cook with. 



If you do not wish to cook with it now, you can just place it back in the tupperware, place the lid back on and store it in the fridge.

And be careful, the high from eating "special edibles" is often considered much more intense then inhaling, lasting anywhere from 2-8 hours. Do not attempt to eat too many at first. And I wouldn't recommend driving. Just chill out, and enjoy!

Source
420 Magazine
Creating Cannabis Awareness Since 1993
http://www.420Magazine.com

Sunday, June 9, 2013

Five Myths About Legalizing Marijuana


With 16 states having decriminalized or legalized cannabis for non-medical use and eight more heading toward some kind of legalization, federal prohibition’s days seem numbered. You might wonder what America will look like when marijuana is in the corner store and at the farmers market. In three years spent researching that question, I found some ideas about the plant that just don’t hold up.
1. If pot is legal, more people will use it.
As drug policy undergoes big changes, I’ve been watching rates of youth cannabis use with interest. As it is for most fathers, the well-being of my family is the most important thing in my life. Whether you like the plant or not, as with alcohol, only adults should be allowed to partake of intoxicating substances. But youth cannabis use is near its highest level ever in the United States. When I spoke at a California high school recently and asked, “Who thinks cannabis is easier to obtain than alcohol?,” nearly every hand shot up.
In Portugal, by contrast, youth rates fell from 2002 to 2006, after all drugs were legalized there in 2001. Similarly, a 2011 Brown University-led study of middle and high school students in Rhode Island found no increases in adolescent use after the state legalized medical marijuana in 2006.
As for adult use, the numbers are mixed. A 2011 University of California at Berkeley study, for example, showed a slight increase in adult use with de facto legalization in the Netherlands (though the rate was still lower than in the United States). Yet that study and one in 2009 found Dutch rates to be slightly lower than the European average. When the United States’ 40-year-long war on marijuana ends, the country is not going to turn into a Cheech and Chong movie. It is, however, going to see the transfer of as much as 50 percent of cartel profits to the taxable economy.
2. Law enforcement officials oppose legalization.
It is true that many law enforcement lobby groups don’t want to end America’s most expensive war (which has cost $1 trillion and counting), but that’s because they’re the reason it’s so expensive. In 2010, two-thirds of federal spending on the drug war, $10 billion, went toward law enforcement and interdiction.
But law enforcement rank and file know the truth about the drug war’s profligate and ineffective spending, says former Los Angeles deputy police chief Stephen Downing, one of 5,000 public safety professionals who make up the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. “Most law enforcers find it difficult not to recognize the many harms caused by our current drug laws,” he wrote to me in an e-mail. Those harms include, according to a new ACLU report, marijuana-possession arrests that are skewed heavily toward minorities.
Since marijuana prohibition drives the drug war, these huge costs would end when federal cannabis law changes. Sheriff Tom Allman in Mendocino County, Calif., helped permit, inspect and protect local cannabis farmers in 2010 and 2011. When I asked him why, he said: “This county has problems: domestic violence, meth, poverty. Marijuana isn’t even in the top 10. I want it off the front pages so I can deal with the real issues.”
3. Getting high would be the top revenue generator for the cannabis plant.
I called both of my U.S. senators’ offices to support inserting a provision into this year’s farm bill to legalize hemp for domestic cultivation. Based on my research on industrial cannabis, commonly called hemp, I’m staggered by the potential of this plant, which is not the variety you smoke.
In Canada, where 90 percent of the crop is bought by U.S. consumers, the government researches the best varieties for its hemp farmers, rather than refusing to issue them permits, as the United States tends to do. In a research facility in Manitoba, I saw a tractor whose body was made entirely of hemp fiber and binding. BMW and Dodgeuse hemp fibers in their door panels, and homes whose insulation and wall paneling are made partially of hemp represent a fast-growing trend in the European construction industry.
Jack Noel, who co-authored a 2012 industrial hemp task force report for the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, says that “within 10 years of the end of the war on drugs, we’ll see a $50 billion domestic hemp industry.” That’s bigger than the $40 billion some economists predict smoked cannabis would bring in.
Foods such as cereal and salad dressing are the biggest U.S. markets for hemp today, but industrial cannabis has the brightest future in the energy sector, where a Kentucky utility is planning to grow hemp for biomass energy.
4. Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol would control the legal cannabis industry.
In 1978, the Carter administration changed alcohol regulations to allow for microbreweries. Today the craft-beer market is worth $10.2 billion annually. The top-shelf cannabis farmers in California’s Emerald Triangle realize this potential. “We’re creating an international brand, like champagne and Parmigiano cheese,” says Tomas Balogh, co-founder of the Emerald Growers Association in Humboldt, Calif. Get ready for the bud and breakfast.
When America’s 100 million cannabis aficionados (17 million regular partakers) are freed from dealers, some are going to pick up a six-pack of joints at the corner store before heading to a barbecue, and others are going to seek out organically grown heirloom strains for their vegetable dip.
As Balogh puts it: “When people ask me if the small farmer or the big corporation will benefit from the end of prohibition, I say, ‘Both.’ The cannabis industry is already decentralized and farmer-owned. It’s up to consumers to keep it that way.” So Big Alcohol might control the corner store, but not the fine-wine shop or the farmers’ market.
5. In the heartland, legalization is a political nonstarter.
President Obama, in an interview last December, for the first time took seriously a question about the legalization of cannabis. He said that he didn’t yet support it but that he had “bigger fish to fry” than harassing Colorado and Washington.
In Colorado in 2012, 40 percent of Republican voters chose to legalize cannabis, and a greater share of Coloradans voted for legalization than voted for Obama.
In Arizona, a pretty conservative and silver state, 56 percent of those in a poll last month supported regulating cannabis for personal use. Maybe fiscal conservatives know about the $35 billion in annual nationwide tax savings that ending prohibition would bring. In Illinois, 63 percent of voters support medicinal marijuana, and they’re likely to get it. Even 60 percent of Kentuckians favor medical cannabis.
I’m not surprised. I live in a conservative valley in New Mexico. Yet as a woman in line at the post office recently told me: “It’s pills that killed my cousin. Fightin’ pot just keeps those dang cartels in business.”
Doug Fine is the author of “Too High to Fail: Cannabis and the New Green Economic Revolution,” in which he followed one legal medicinal cannabis plant from farm to patient.
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Author: Doug Fine
Published: June 7, 2013
Copyright: 2013 Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com