Tenants in subsidized housing can continue to use or grow medical marijuana in their homes for another six months, the Maine State Housing Authority's commissioners decided Tuesday.

The commissioners unanimously voted to put a 180-day moratorium on a policy it enacted last month banning the use, possession and cultivation of medical marijuana in housing subsidized through its Section 8 program.

Despite having decided the issue, which the board had been discussing since June, it allowed additional comments about the policy at its meeting Tuesday.

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Lawyer Mark Dion uses his problem-solving skills in legal conflicts arising from medical marijuana.

A man from a small York County town had his medical marijuana stolen and was getting no satisfaction from the local police, who were skeptical that a burglary had been committed. As a result, he couldn't get his insurance company to cover the loss.

Enter Mark Dion, former cop, former sheriff, now criminal defense attorney. He was able to convince police that the theft was legitimate, clearing the way for his client to get compensation.

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When proponents and users of medical marijuana gathered in Deering Oaks Park Saturday for the Atlantic CannaFest medical cannabis festival, it wasn't the last word in Maine or the Northeast about a form of medicine that advocates say is gaining acceptance.

"It's such a big change in just the past few years even, seeing the wide mix of people openly talking about this and not being afraid of a plant, the communication; more and more people are growing and seeing the actual therapeutic benefits," said Hillary Lister, an advocate for medical marijuana use through Medical Marijuana Caregivers of Maine, a trade association.

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PORTLAND - About 200 people showed up Deering Oaks Park Saturday for the Atlantic CannaFEST.

A reggae band from the Boston area, High Hopes, were performing at the bandstand.

People were lined at the sole food vendor in the park. People were also lined up in front of the booth for High Tech Grower Supply store, picking up free samples of equipment used to grow marijuana hydroponically.

Several politcal candidates are on hand and speakers include Dustin Sulak, a doctor who has offices in Hallowell and Falmouth. Sulak certifies patients and assists them in using marijuana as a medication.

The nearby childen's park at Deering Oaks was filled with children and their parents, many of them unaware of the fesitval.

The festival promotes medical marijuana and protests the high price of state-sanctioned medical marijuana dispensaries.

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A formal study has shown that heavy use can produce permanent loss of critical IQ points.

In a report released online this week by the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of U.S. and British researchers has found that heavy use of marijuana by teenagers and young adults can reduce their IQ scores by as much as 8 points in later life.

No such results were found in people who smoked the same amount of pot but started using the drug later in life, the report said. People who started young also were found to have weaker memory and attention-focusing skills.

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Adolescent pot use can literally be a dumb idea.

A formal study has shown that heavy use can produce permanent loss of critical IQ points.

In a report released online this week by the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of U.S. and British researchers has found that heavy use of marijuana by teenagers and young adults can reduce their IQ scores by as much as 8 points in later life.

No such results were found in people who smoked the same amount of pot but started using the drug later in life, the report said. People who started young also were found to have weaker memory and attention-focusing skills.

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The Rally Will Promote Medical Marijuana and Protest Dispensary Prices, but to City Officials It's Another Day in the Park.

PORTLAND - Visitors to Deering Oaks on Saturday may take in a little more than fresh air.

The park will be the venue for a free medical marijuana rally and festival featuring speakers, music and vendors selling indoor growing equipment.

The Atlantic CannaFEST will run from 1 to 5 p.m. and is expected to draw 200 to 300 people. It will promote medical marijuana and include a high-profile giveaway of pot to low-income patients, to protest the prices at state-sanctioned dispensaries.

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Festival Will Run From 1 to 5 P.M. Saturday and Is Expected to Draw 200 to 300 People, but Pot Smoking Will Not Be Allowed

PORTLAND -- Visitors to Deering Oaks on Saturday may take in a little more than fresh air.

The park will be the venue for a free medical marijuana rally and festival featuring speakers, music and vendors selling indoor growing equipment.

The Atlantic CannaFEST will run from 1 to 5 p.m. and is expected to draw 200 to 300 people. It will promote medical marijuana and include a high-profile giveaway of pot to low-income patients, to protest the prices at state-sanctioned dispensaries.

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The organizer of a Portland event billed as a benefit for low-income and terminal medical marijuana patients will still be required to pay city fees, in spite of an expectation of a First Amendment exemption deferring these fees, officials confirmed Wednesday.

Dismayed, the organizer vowed Wednesday to forge ahead with the festival, saying it's too late to call off the live music, speakers and food offerings.

Atlantic CannaFEST, an event informing the public about Maine's medical marijuana program, remains scheduled for Saturday, Sept. 1, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. in Deering Oaks Park.

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There was a time when it didn't look like enough donors would step forward for Charlie Wynott to meet the city's financial requirements to use Deering Oaks Park for Saturday's Atlantic CannaFEST. The educational medical marijuana event is being run on a shoestring budget.

"They were asking for a deposit and insurance and whatnot," Wynott recalled.

Then, inspiration struck.

"We were actually given the idea through Occupy Maine for the free speech and right to occupy public space amendment to the city code," said the patient and founder of the organization, Atlantic Cannabis, a nonprofit that helps low income and terminal patients to access medical marijuana.

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Over a year ago, Rep. Diane Russell, D-Portland, raised eyebrows when she proposed legislation legalizing marijuana.

Today, Russell -- who's up for re-election in District 120, which includes part of Munjoy Hill -- says she has reintroduced her bill, LD 1453, with hopes of shepherding it through the Maine Legislature in the next session.

Russell, whose "Act to Legalize and Tax Marijuana" failed in 2011, is expected to restoke the legalization debate in 2013. She advocates legalization as a way to rechannel public resources now used to prosecute marijuana users.

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HARMONY -- Attendance was light, but the party rolled on.

Between Thursday and Sunday, about 500 people camped on a grassy field for the 22nd annual Hempstock, a four-day festival of peace, love, music -- and hemp.

Event organizer Don Christen said the goal of the annual party is simple.

"We want to legalize marijuana, period," he said. "People who smoke marijuana are not criminals. The perception of marijuana is distorted."

For the past four years, Christen has hosted the festival on his Carson Hill Road property, called Freedom Field. Originally, the event had been held on a farm in Starks, but the landowner started his own annual pot party and cut Christen out, he said. Since then, attendance at Christen's event has slipped.

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I just finished reading the proposed medical marijuana changes.

Are you kidding me?

The law was voted by the people of Maine. Why is there always someone who doesn't need medical marijuana who is trying to control how it is grown or distributed?

The cost of seeing a doctor who charges $300 for a 10 minute visit and the cost of the medical marijuana are bad enough. So let's make it more expensive so that we who need it can't afford it at all.

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Former soldier Scott Durst will help train drug agents to take down narcotics operations.

Scott Durst has spent the past 30 years fighting drugs in Maine, locking up users, dealers and distributors as part of his job keeping the streets safe in his adopted state.

Now, he's taking that fight to one of the most dangerous and desolate places on Earth, going after some of the worst drugs at their source: Afghanistan.

Durst, a longtime agent with the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency who served as a soldier in Bosnia and Iraq, is leaving Thursday on a mission as a contractor training Afghanistan's drug agents how to infiltrate and take down narcotics operations.

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A legislator who championed amendments to Maine's medical marijuana law as a way to bring it in line with voter intent said she hopes the state doesn't make the same mistakes again.

After a public hearing Monday on a controversial rule making that's now underway, Rep. Deb Sanderson, R-Chelsea, said the state should not implement rules that are more restrictive and divergent from the intent of the citizen's initiative legalizing medical marijuana passed in 2009.

"Hopefully the department will take into serious consideration much of the compelling testimony that was put before them," Sanderson said Tuesday, a day after a hearing in Augusta where a crowd testified about proposed rules regulating medical marijuana.

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AUGUSTA -- Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995, Falmouth resident Kelly Irwin found that marijuana worked better to treat her pain, fatigue and nausea far better than the opiates she was prescribed.

Irwin has successfully grown her own medical marijuana, but she worries she won't be able to do that anymore if legislators approve new regulations on cultivation.

She was one of dozens patients, caregivers and advocates who packed a legislative committee room to overflowing on Monday to complain about proposed requirements for 8-foot fences, motion-activated floodlights, property setbacks and vegetative plant limits.

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AUGUSTA, Maine - Patients who use medical marijuana and their caregivers said Monday that new rules proposed for Maine's medical marijuana program could make it too expensive to grow a plant many depend on to manage pain, nausea and other chronic conditions.

Some who spoke at a public hearing on the rules proposal also questioned whether the state Department of Health and Human Services has the authority to implement such changes without legislative approval.

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Imagine that you have Crohn's disease, terminal cancer or chronic pain from a serious car accident. You've tried all the drugs out there, but they make you nauseated, withdrawn or cause severe headaches.

When you try to stop taking them, you feel anxious and crampy and can't sleep. You're scared because friends have gotten hooked on some of these drugs, and you know someone who died from an overdose.

The one thing that allows you to eat, sleep, or function semi-normally is marijuana.

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President Obama tried again to do the right thing and let states alone to regulate and enforce medical marijuana laws, keeping federal law in place in case they're needed to clean up any danger to the industry. For now it looks like the plan is mostly working. California and Colorado have become perps for federal agents to clean out. I'm a liberal Libertarian and proud of our President and his staff, for in a conservative way are successfully being pro-active before people making too much money get more greedy. I have a license, if you will, to purchase legal marijuana when presenting my recommendation for prescription is up to date. I'm 59 years old and have been buying illegal dope with what-all in it from bikers and poor folk and street vendors, sharing between friends.

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It seemed strange that aging crooner Tony Bennett's first comment on the death of Whitney Houston was a plea for the legalization of now-outlawed drugs. But his point deserves some consideration, despite the fact that no illegal drugs appear to have been involved in Houston's death.

Although she admitted to illegal drug use in the past, and had been treated for it, this time she appears to have overdosed on powerful prescription drugs.

With the autopsy results still weeks away, that account may change as the investigation proceeds, but this is a sad story no matter what develops.

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