High-School Seniors Using Less Synthetic Marijuana, More Real Weed While teens' use of synthetic marijuana is on the decline, their attitudes toward real pot are trending in the opposite direction. Synthetic marijuana-known by such names as K2 and spice-is made of dried plant material sprayed with various chemicals and packaged to look like weed, according to SFGate.com. After being introduced in the U.S. in 2009, an alarming number of emergency-room visits and deaths were tied to use of the drugs. But a report recently released by the National Institutes of Health found that the number of high-school seniors who have tried synthetic marijuana has dropped-from 11 percent of seniors in 2012 to 8 percent in 2013. [continues 55 words]
On a recent weekday afternoon, Tayln Lang greets a visitor to Rocky Mountain Cannabis on Orange Street with a wide smile. The longtime medical marijuana advocate launches into an animated explanation of the drug's ability to ease symptoms that stem from a range of ailments, including HIV, cancer and opiate addiction. "I've seen wonderful, wonderful things happen," he says. It's in part because Lang believes so vehemently in cannabis' healing properties and the importance of providing it to the people most in need that he's taken on the high-profile, yet potentially dangerous, role of managing Rocky Mountain's prominent storefront location. [continues 330 words]
"Colorado will be leaving prohibition behind in the new year," Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, told CNN the other day. 2014 is the year pot officially comes out of the smoky shadow and the Internet is burning up with anticipation. But living in Colorado the past year, you get used to the clash of expectation and reality. The first misunderstandings are fairly simple: Pot did not suddenly replace cigarettes as the smoke of choice in public, which explains why tickets for public pot smoking nearly quadrupled in Boulder since Amendment 64. [continues 449 words]
FORT KENT, Maine - Earlier this month, the possession of marijuana for nonmedical use became legal in Portland. This, and other sporadic discussions about marijuana legalization in Maine, has shifted the focus of an Aroostook County-based organization that works to curb substance abuse among young people. Now, besides teaching youth about the dangers of drunk driving, they are paying more attention to how marijuana can impair motorists when they get behind the wheel. Michelle Plourde Chasse, Community Voices project manager, said in the past, Community Voices and similar groups have focused on alcohol when talking about impaired driving prevention over the past two or three decades. [continues 504 words]
MONTGOMERY (AP) - At some point during last spring's legislative session, the Medical Association of the State of Alabama conducted a survey of physicians on their attitudes toward medical marijuana, apparently at the request of the House Health Committee That much is agreed on between MASA and medical marijuana advocates. They differ on what that survey showed. Over the past week, medical marijuana advocates have been carpet-bombing officials with MASA and the state with form emails urging the release of the survey, which to date has not been publicly released. [continues 621 words]
VANCOUVER - As it turns out, Nov. 6, 2012, was a big day for marijuana laws. Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved initiatives to legalize pot, setting the stage for the regulated production and sale of the drug. Several other jurisdictions in the U.S. have since followed suit. In Canada, the same day two U.S. states were effectively abandoning part of the war on drugs, provisions of a new federal law came into effect that imposed strict mandatory minimums for drug-related crimes, including marijuana production. [continues 599 words]
Former Victoria councillor Philippe Lucas is hoping to cash in on the increasing call for quality control in the lucrative cannabis industry. "What we've got right now is a multibillion-dollar industry. In B. C., the estimate is $ 6 to $ 9 billion with virtually no quality control," said Lucas, a marijuana advocate. Lucas' Victoria-based Compassionate Analytics has just launched two new products to test levels of tetrahydrocannabinol ( THC) and cannabidiol ( CBD) in cannabis. THC is the active ingredient that provides the psycho- active effect ( the high) from marijuana. While it was initially thought that CBD served simply to counter the effects of THC, recent research is showing that it has substantial medicinal qualities. CBD is being seen as promising in the treatment of conditions such as Crohn's disease, posttraumatic stress disorder and multiple sclerosis. [continues 138 words]
There's no shortage of Mounties who volunteer in their community, bless 'em, but do they really need to give their time to whooshing down the ski slopes in uniform while carrying their sidearms? If crime was rampant at the local ski hills, presumably the resort owners would call in the RCMP themselves, or the police supervisors down at the detachment would schedule constables for a few well-timed patrols in an effort to restore order. Sgt. Jeff Campbell of the Lake Louise RCMP detachment predicts this season's volunteer patrol program will grow beyond the 15 officers who spent their time on the slopes last year and move to include more resorts in the Canadian Rockies. Given such resolve and enthusiasm, you'd think crime was rampant, but it turns out that only one drug seizure was made last year, along with several warnings for reckless skiing. [continues 605 words]
VANCOUVER - As it turns out, Nov. 6, 2012, was a big day for marijuana laws. Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved initiatives to legalize pot, setting the stage for the regulated production and sale of the drug. Several other jurisdictions in the U.S. have since followed suit. In Canada, the same day two American states were effectively abandoning part of the war on drugs, provisions of a new federal law came into effect that imposed strict mandatory minimums for drug-related crimes, including marijuana production. [continues 317 words]
VANCOUVER - As it turns out, Nov. 6, 2012, was a big day for marijuana laws. Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved initiatives to legalize pot, setting the stage for the regulated production and sale of the drug. Several other jurisdictions in the U.S. have since followed suit. In Canada, the same day two American states were effectively abandoning part of the war on drugs, provisions of a new federal law came into effect that imposed strict mandatory minimums for drug-related crimes, including marijuana production. [continues 286 words]
VANCOUVER - As it turns out, Nov. 6, 2012, was a big day for marijuana laws. Voters in Colorado and Washington state approved initiatives to legalize pot, setting the stage for the regulated production and sale of the drug. On that same day in Canada, provisions of a new federal law came into effect that imposed strict mandatory minimums for drug related crimes, including marijuana production. The contrast, says University of Victoria professor Susan Boyd, could not have been greater. "This new law and our revived war on drugs in Canada is so contrary to what's going on around the world," says Boyd, who specializes in drug law and drug policy. [continues 165 words]
