Synthetic marijuana product starting to gain notice in California

 Business, Law Enforcement, Pot-pourri
May 032010
 

Sitting behind a glass case on the counter of Less Smoke Shop on Eureka Way in Redding is a marijuana alternative that is potent, won’t show up on drug tests and is perfectly legal. It’s called Black Mamba. Sold in round, quarter-ounce, clear plastic containers, the substance looks similar to the dried herbs Aunt Molly would stir into her spaghetti sauce, Amanda Winters reports in the Redding Record-Searchlight. But officials say the herbal blend has the power to increase blood pressure, cause paranoia, agitation, hallucinations and get users very, very high. In the Midwest, where [...]

Harborside program explores cannabis use as ‘harm reduction’ for addicts

 Collectives, Medical marijuana, Pot-pourri
Apr 232010
 

East Bay residents are enrolling in twelve-step-like classes that use cannabis to quit heroin, pills, cigarettes, alcohol, and other addictive substances, defying decades of Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous tradition. Even though NA and AA both mandate abstinence from all illegal drugs, that one-size fits all approach doesn’t work for all addicts, says Harm Reduction Clinical Consultant Jennifer Janichek. For the last six weeks, Janichek, along with two other clinicians, have been running pro-cannabis mental health and addiction services for a handful of people out of the Harborside Health Center in Oakland. The free mental [...]

California testing labs help ensure quality of medical-grade marijuana

 Business, Dispensaries, Medical marijuana
Apr 062010
 

OAKLAND – The mere existence of the Steep Hill Lab presents a pointed question: How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of thousands of medical pot users in California? How safe is the marijuana provided to hundreds of thousands of medical pot users in California? The Oakland laboratory, started in 2008 by two former growers, has tested 12,000 pot samples to assure marijuana businesses that their product isn’t tainted by dangerous toxic molds or pesticides. Nearly 50 medical marijuana dispensaries and pot-growing networks contract with the lab, California’s most renowned cannabis testing location, “Weed [...]

Social worker: Marijuana legalization will worsen California’s drug problem

 Advocates, Dispensaries, Initiatives, Legalization, Medical marijuana, Opinion
Apr 062010
 

Clark Williams is the 2010 Social Worker of the Year for Santa Clara County. He wrote this guest opinion column for the San Jose Mercury-News. =============== Proponents of the decriminalization of marijuana have succeeded in placing the “Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010″ on the November ballot. If passed by voters, people 21 and older would be permitted to possess, grow and transport marijuana, and local governments would be allowed to regulate and tax its sale and production. As a social worker and public health advocate who has dedicated his life’s work to [...]

Smoke it if you got it? Not for smokeless marijuana advocate in Humboldt

 Advocates, Collectives, Cultivation, Dispensaries, Medical marijuana, Pot-pourri
Mar 242010
 

April 20, which is something akin to the 4th of July for pot smokers, is inspiring an interesting pitch in the legendary California marijuana patch of Humboldt County. That’s the day when Mariellen Jurkovich, director of the Humboldt Patient Resource Center, a marijuana-growing dispensary in the college town of Arcata, will be out telling people not to smoke weed. Jurkovich is an activist for smokeless marijuana consumption, Peter Hecht writes in his Weed Wars blog for the Sacramento Bee. So she will be present at Arcata’s Redwood Park, where hundreds of people are expected gather [...]

Research: Cannabis use during pregnancy can impair fetal growth

 Pot-pourri
Jan 252010
 

As reported here by Reuters Health, women who smoke marijuana during pregnancy may impair their baby’s growth and development in the womb, a new study suggests. Poor fetal growth and reduced head circumference at birth are linked to an increased risk of problems with thinking, memory and behavior in childhood. Cigarette smoking during pregnancy is known to impair fetal growth, but studies on the potential effects of marijuana have been inconclusive. For the new study, researchers in the Netherlands followed more than 7,000 pregnant women, 3 percent of whom acknowledged smoking marijuana at least during [...]

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