Colorado Cannabis Convention
Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th Street, Denver, CO 80202
April 2, 2010 - 4:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.,
April 3, 2010 – 10:00 a.m. – 10:00 p.m.
Tickets $15.00 www.cocannabisconvention.com

The state’s first Medical Marijuana Convention is coming to Colorado on Friday, April 2nd and Saturday, April 3rd, 2010 at the Convention Center in downtown Denver. The event promises to provide information about the medical marijuana industry to the public. It will be the “go-to” place to learn about marijuana, and the place for those in the industry to network. No medication at the convention! Every facet of the industry will be represented, with local lawyers, doctors, growers and political speakers on tap. The Hemp Fashion Show will showcase designer hemp clothing, and there will be activities for all ages.

(Eugene, OR) - The existing medical marijuana program in Oregon has been highly successful, but is in many ways less than optimal. I am not personally a medical marijuana user, nor do I have any association with the organizers of the medical marijuana regulation campaign in Oregon. My opinions on these issues are my own, and should not be confused with the proposals of any of the other groups who advocate on these issues.

Medical Marijuana Law Reform

Marijuana is different than other widely used illegal drugs for a number of reasons. Unlike cocaine or methamphetamine, for instance, it has a wide range of legitimate medical uses; it is less prone to abuse, and it has comparatively negligible side effects.

Most importantly, Marijuana can be produced within the State. Marijuana is already produced extensively within the State, although under less than optimal growing conditions. The illegalization of Marijuana makes it impossible to openly sell locally produced Marijuana, and results in highly inefficient production methods.

AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) ? Maine's had a medical marijuana law for more than a decade, but it did not include a way to distribute the pain-easing drug.

A voter-approved law creating marijuana dispensaries and making other changes in Maine's medical marijuana law comes up for public comment Thursday in the Maine Legislature.

The Health and Human Services Committee, which is holding a hearing, will amend the law based on the recommendations of a task force representing law enforcement officials.

Besides nonprofit dispensaries, the bill proposes expanding the list of conditions for which medical marijuana would be allowed and photo identification cards would be required for users.

If the idea of having a marijuana deficiency sounds laughable to you, a growing body of science points at exactly such a possibility. Scientists have known that the active psychoactive compound in marijuana is THC, which is short for tetrahydrocannabinol.

Medical marijuana advocates told the city of Eureka Tuesday night that its ordinance regulating medical marijuana was a good start, but they still had plenty of suggestions.

The city, spearheaded by council members Jeff Leonard and Linda Atkins, held a public workshop to gather input from the public about its new draft ordinance aimed at regulating the cultivation, processing and distribution of medical cannabis in Eureka.

Residents brought up several issues, including product labeling, wattage limits, grow space to site ratio, the installation of sprinklers and the cap on the number of dispensaries.

The ordinance is modeled after Arcata's, which also addressed cannabis on a land-use level. It regulates growing for personal use in residential areas to a 10-foot by 10-foot space, and also provides zoning guidelines for cooperatives and collectives.

About 40 people attended the meeting, and several people prefaced their questions and concerns with kudos to the city for addressing the issue.

”Thank you for being so thoughtful about the patients and taking your time instead of just pushing it through,” said Laura Benedict of the Humboldt Medical Supply.

Good for the handful of state lawmakers who are leaning on the federal government to back off of running raids on those involved in the state’s medical marijuana controversy, but it’s not good enough.

State Senators Chris Romer, a Denver Democrat, and Nancy Spence, an Aurora Republican, wrote to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency to demand that officials there not conduct any further raids while the state sorts out regulating this blossoming and troublesome industry.

The DEA raided the home of a Highlands Ranch man last month after he bragged on a local TV station that he had a few hundred pot plants he was growing for medical marijuana shops and expected to make hundreds of thousands of dollars doing it. That prompted the DEA to swoop in and arrest him, and then brag that the operation of the man and others like him are all illegal. All that after the Obama administration had announced that it would “look the other way” in states like Colorado that had legalized medical marijuana as officials tried to sort out regulations.

The local DEA agent who apparently led the raids, Jeffrey Sweetin, added insult to injury of state residents by telling reporters that he didn’t think marijuana had any medical uses anyway.

LOS ANGELES — James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less.

"I ask kids all the time, and they'll tell you it is easier to get marijuana than a six-pack of beer because that is controlled by the government," he said, noting that drug dealers don't ask for IDs or honor minimum age requirements.

It takes a lot to get some of the state's most conservative lawmakers on board with a Democratic Congressman from the People's Republic of Boulder. But that's just what happened this week.

The unifying cause? None other than Colorado's hot button headline-grabbing medical marijuana debate. In coming together, however, rabble-rousers did so to draw awareness to a much more important cause: telling the federal government to butt out of our legislative process and local communities. On Monday, national media, including the New York Times, started taking note.

OXFORD, Miss. — It is the smell — pungent and slightly citrusy — that first greets visitors to Mahmoud ElSohly's office on the University of Mississippi campus.

Next are pictures lining the hallways of the bright green plants ElSohly has spent the past 35 years researching as chief cultivator of the nation's only federally sanctioned marijuana farm.

The University of Mississippi Marijuana Project provides marijuana to licensed researchers around the USA studying the drug under a contract from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

New Jersey's medical marijuana law will not increase marijuana use among teens regardless of what the state's drug-prevention advocates are saying. In fact, once New Jersey implements its medical marijuana law, marijuana use among teens is very likely to decrease.

David Evans, with the Flemington-based Drug Free Schools Coalition, recently said that former Gov. Jon Corzine's administration complicated the message to teens, in part, by approving medical marijuana ("N.J. drug-prevention advocates encourage new administration to address drug policy as national study finds teen drug, alcohol use rising," March 4).

DENVER (AP) — Colorado lawmakers trying to regulate marijuana dispensaries are asking the U.S. attorney general to stop raids of medical marijuana operations.

The group e-mailed the request to Eric Holder on Monday, following up on a letter sent last week.

The lawmakers say the raids are discouraging dispensary operators and medical marijuana patients and growers from working with them on proposed regulations.

The letter was sent by Sens. Chris Romer and Nancy Spence and Reps. Tom Massey and Beth McCann.

A suburban Denver man has been charged with possession in federal court after agents raided his home and found 224 pot plants. Agents have also raided two laboratories that test medical marijuana after their owners applied for drug licenses.

Eureka has unveiled its draft medical marijuana ordinance, meant to regulate the cultivation, possession and distribution of cannabis, and is asking residents to provide their input Tuesday night.

City Manager David Tyson said this meeting, which will be led by City Council members Jeff Leonard and Linda Atkins, allows the city to gather more input on the land use code ordinance that was modeled after the city of Arcata's.

”We've modified the ordinance to fit the needs of Eureka,” Tyson said.

The ordinance is designed to regulate the cultivation of medical cannabis and formation of medical cannabis collectives in Eureka. Tyson emphasized that the ordinance is not intended to interfere with a patient's legal right to marijuana, nor does it criminalize medical cannabis possession or cultivation by specifically defined people, pursuant to state law.

The divisions between the pro- and anti-marijuana crowds at the state House Judiciary Committee meeting were already clear last week when the young man who described himself as a recovering heroin addict approached the microphone.

As the man spoke about marijuana use leading kids to harder drugs and fears that medical marijuana from dispensaries would make it into teenage hands, the lines became even clearer.

Law enforcement officers and treatment counselors in the audience looked on with interest, some nodding their heads. Several members of the marijuana community snickered or exchanged incredulous whispers during the testimony.

In the debate over Colorado's medical-marijuana system, there is no issue that is as sharply divisive as the system's impact on young people.

To many members of the law enforcement community, the growth of the state's medical-marijuana industry is a plague that threatens to increase marijuana use of all kinds among teens and young adults — with disastrous results for the state.

The "Oaksterdam" Initiative is slated to appear on the November 2010 ballot.  It was funded largely by Richard Lee of "Oaksterdam University."  It is becoming increasingly apparent that Lee is a greedy little monopolist that has absolutely no real interest in Marijuana consumers from simply growing their own.  In the fall of 2009 Jack Herer attempted to launch a competing initiative, CCHH, but lack of money and a heart attack in October 2009 derailed his plans.  Jack Herer was vehemently opposed to the "Oaksterdam" Initiative and any "tax and regulate" initiative for that matter.  Just consider what he said minutes before succumbing to a heart attack, during his speech on September 12th, 2009  at Oregon's HempStalk Festival.

A great less than 5-minute weekend activism effort is calling your legislators offices in Madison and leaving a voicemail message of support for the JRMMA. No need to talk to a staffer, simply look up who represents you if you do not already know. Then make the call. Leave a message including that you want them to vote for AB554/SB368 - the Jacki Rickert Medical Marijuana Act. Include your name and contact info so they can verify you are a constituent.
* Find out Who Represents you: http://www.legis.wisconsin.gov/w3asp/waml/waml.aspx

Another quick way to support the JRMMA:

* Send pre-written, editable letter to Legislators: http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=14115736

With voter support of 81% and a broad coalition of endorsers Matt Allen of Mass Patients Advocacy Alliance has announced that two more important organizations have endorsed medical marijuana in Massachusetts.

The Mass. Public Health Association are the most recent to endorse H. 2160 The Massachusetts Medical Marijuana Act, right after the Mass Nurses Association endorsed the bill just last week.