Prop. 19 raises health concerns about addiction

 Advocates, Health and science, Legalization, Medical marijuana
Oct 102010
 

In 1969, Carol McDonald was 28, married and the mother of two young children, out for an evening of fun with a couple who smoked marijuana. By the end of the evening she was on her way to a 19-year addiction. “Within a few months, I was smoking every day,” said McDonald, a retired bookkeeper, now 69. “I had to smoke before going to work. If something was upsetting, I smoked over it. If there was a celebration, I smoked over it.” People like McDonald may be largely overlooked in the statewide debate over legalizing [...]

Column: Parents can show compassion with Prop. 19

 Advocates, Health and science, Legalization, Marijuana Law, Opinion
Oct 062010
 

Gretchen Burns Bergman is co-founder and executive director of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing), an organization established in San Diego by parents seeking therapeutic alternatives to the War on Drugs. Her column appears in the Huffington Post. =============== Why would a respectable, responsible and caring group of parents want to legalize marijuana? Because we are fed up with the violence and the loss of lives and liberty caused by the war on drugs, which has become a war against our loved ones who use, struggle with, or are addicted to drugs, [...]

Addiction doctors: Don’t ignore health impacts of Prop. 19

 Health and science, Legalization, Medical marijuana, Opinion
Oct 052010
 

Itai Danovitch is an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He is a member of the California Society of Addiction Medicine’s Committee on Public Policy. His guest column on Proposition 19 appears in the Los Angeles Times. ============== In the debate on legalizing marijuana, which Californians will vote on in November in the form of Proposition 19, the health risks of marijuana are often overlooked. Legalizing marijuana will almost certainly lead to a decrease in its price and an increase in its use, according to a recent Rand Corp. study. [...]

Bud’s Blog: Medical cannabis still playing the name game

 Bud's Blog, Cultivation, Dispensaries, Featured Content, Health and science
Oct 012010
 
Bud’s Blog: Medical cannabis still playing the name game

I’m hardly the first one to observe that names like “Green Crack” and “Durban Poison” don’t go hand in hand with good medicine. If first impressions count, and they do, the medipot industry is a teenage boy who shows up on your doorstep in baggy jeans and a “Smoke Weed” T-shirt, hoping to share his “medicine” with your daughter. You can spout off all you want about medical cannabis and its many benefits, but all the good stuff tends to get drowned out because of the names we use. Exhibit A: “God’s Pussy” was the [...]

Synthetic marijuana, salvia join Santa Cruz drug scene

 Business, Health and science, Marijuana News
Aug 302010
 

Bud’s note: Jennifer Squires of the Santa Cruz Sentinel files a “Spice” story that’s more measured and better sourced than similar stories on the subject. It bears mention that “Spice” derives its value from cannabis prohibition laws. ====== SANTA CRUZ — A new synthetic marijuana and the resurgence in popularity of a hallucinogenic drug have police and community leaders worried because both substances are legal and for sale in the Santa Cruz area. “I don’t know enough about this stuff,” Watsonville Police Chief Manny Solano said. “That’s what concerns me.” “Spice” is a relatively new [...]

Humboldt workshop addresses emerging medical marijuana standards

 Business, Cultivation, Health and science, Medical marijuana
Jun 212010
 

With much of the state engaged in discussion over legalization, the local medical marijuana community is taking steps to develop Southern Humboldt into what they hope will be a center for sustainable outdoor medical marijuana grows. Medical marijuana advocates met Saturday night in Garberville to discuss creating health and safety regulations and to encourage education for sustainable growing, the Eureka Times-Standard reports.. The panel discussion ranged from marijuana growing education at 707 Cannabis College, a newly formed institution in Garberville, to a proposed dispensary for the Southern Humboldt Community Hospital, to creating new policy around [...]

Bud’s Blog: Business booming at Medical Cannabis Cup

 Advocates, Bud's Blog, Business, Health and science, Medical marijuana
Jun 202010
 
Bud's Blog: Business booming at Medical Cannabis Cup

If you asked around, which I did Saturday in San Francisco’s Terra, the first Medical Cannabis Cup to be held on U.S. soil was a pretty big deal. So big, in fact, that scores of would-be attendees who patiently stood in line weren’t so patient after they got turned away. (Next year, a bigger venue?) I was one of the last ones to make it past the gates before they got closed, and I was in line for more than two hours. (Sunday afternoon update: Things are much more calm today.) Was the wait worth [...]

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