PRESS RELEASE - 19th NOVEMBER, 2003

Edition 18.

Cannabis News Items From Around the World

CANNABITS

Website: http://www.forbes.com/forbes/current/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/769

THE ESTIMATED VALUE OF Canada's marijuana production-up to $7 billion-exceeds its farm receipts of both cattle ($5.63 billion) and wheat ($1.73 billion), or the $4.3 billion taken in by forestry and logging. Only oil and gas extraction, worth $15.8 billion, is worth more.

CANADA'S LEGAL farm operators have net margins of 5.5%. An economist in Vancouver's Simon Fraser University figures pot growers have a 72% annual rate of return, after discounting for costs, labor, thefts and arrests.

MARIJUANA HAS BEEN CULTIVATED FOR ITS fiber since at least 8000 B.C. and used as a drug since about 2000 B.C. In Europe it was cultivated for rope, paper and cloth for centuries, with no broad understanding of the plant's psychoactive properties until the 19th century, after Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt.

"CANVAS" IS DERIVED FROM the word "cannabis." Many of the great paintings are on marijuana fibers.

HENRY VIII, AND many New World governors, mandated the growing of hemp (marijuana) for rope. Many farmers resisted because the crop paid poorly and smelled bad as it was curing.

THC IS CONCEN-trated in marijuana's trichomes, which are tiny stalked glands with a stem and a ball-like tip, clustered around the flowers of an unfertilized female plant.

ACCORDING TO A 1999 study by the Institute of Medicine, marijuana addicts 9% of its users. Alcohol addicts 15% of users, heroin, 23% of users, and tobacco, 32% of users.

ONE MARIJUANA cigarette deposits four to five times more tar in the lungs than a tobacco cigarette. Thus, smoking three or four joints is like smoking up to a pack of cigarettes.

MARIJUANA WAS EFFECTIVELY OUTLAWED in the U.S. with the passage of the 1937
Marijuana Tax Act. There are now an estimated 500,000 marijuana arrests in the U.S. each year.

THE MOST RIGOROUS SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE of medical benefits from marijuana use centers on ameliorating the negative effects of cancer chemotherapy, appetite loss associated with AIDS, and to a lesser extent, pain management, multiple sclerosis and glaucoma. As a medicine it is considered limited by the side effect of intoxication.

POT SEEDS ARE nutritious and are often used in bird food.

Sources: Statistics Canada, Professor Stephen Easton; "The Science of Marijuana" by Leslie L. Iverson, Oxford University Press, 2000; "The Big Book of Buds " by Ed Rosenthal, Quick American Archives, 2001.

Suffer From Achy Joints? Come To The Saint John Cannabis Cafe And Light Up

Author: Ron Caldwell
Source: Halifax Herald
Contact: letters@herald.ns.ca
Website: http://www.herald.ns.ca/
Pubdate: Sunday, October 26, 2003

Saint John, N.B. - Like any small-business owner, Jim Wood has dreams of becoming a big-time entrepreneur.

"I can see us becoming a major tourist draw for Saint John," he said in a recent interview. "We could fill every hotel in the city with medicinal marijuana users."

Mr. Wood, 34, and his wife, Lynn, 30, operate the Hemp NB Cannabis Cafe on Canterbury Street.

"We cater to everyone in the marijuana culture," Mr. Wood says.

"If someone is smoking pot recreationally, that's fine with us. If someone needs medical marijuana, we can help there as well."

It's not unusual for customers to be waiting at the door when the Woods arrive for the noon start of their business day.

Customers are welcome to bring their own stash and smoke a joint as long as they buy a coffee or pop at $2 each.

They can relax on the couch or play a game of chess by the front window to pass the time.

Or they can browse through the shop's display of smoking accessories - pipes and cigarette papers, among other items - that are for sale.

The presence of a community police station right across the street might be seen as a deterrent to someone in the marijuana business. Mr. Wood just shrugs it off.

"This is the location we found, and they just happen to be close by," he said. "Sometimes they park their cruiser right outside our door and people take pictures. It's a great photo opportunity."

While an easy truce exists between the shop owners and the police next door, it hasn't always been that way. Police twice laid charges after raids at their old location on King Street last May.

"They charged an AIDS patient and his helper with possession, and three girls who were sharing a joint were charged with trafficking," Mr. Wood said.

The cases are in the hands of the Crown's office in Fredericton but have not been brought to court.

That doesn't mean police are turning a blind eye to the goings-on at the Cannabis Cafe.

"If he is selling cannabis, he will be charged with trafficking," said Sgt. Pat Bonner of the Saint John police.

But Mr. Wood isn't worried about run-ins with the police.

"If people bring their own pot here to smoke, that's legal," he said. "I'm not breaking any laws by allowing people to get high in my store."

Even though he recently started selling marijuana for medicinal purposes, Mr. Wood doesn't expect problems.

The federal government is moving toward legalizing marijuana for medical use, so "to charge me with doing the same thing would be hypocritical," he said.

To obtain marijuana at the Cannabis Cafe for a medical condition, a customer must present a doctor's certificate or a sworn affidavit signed by a notary public that the drug is required to alleviate any number of medical problems.

There are more than 300 ailments on the list at the shop, from cancer and arthritis to smoking dependency and dandruff, so it would be difficult not to have a medical problem that marijuana would help.

Once the paperwork is cleared, customers can order from the daily specials on the chalkboard behind the counter.

New Brunswick Outdoor, Monster Bud or Purple Poison can be purchased for as little as $10 a gram. One gram could be good for up to five treatments, depending on the patient's condition.

"You can smoke it here or take it home," Mr. Wood said.

Members also get an ID number and a password for security purposes.

With medical marijuana for sale across the counter, the Cannabis Cafe owners expect business to boom.

"I see a huge market from the United States, both as a tourist attraction, and from people seeking medical treatment," Mr. Wood said.

On days when the big cruise ships are in port, its not unusual for more than 200 people to stop by the shop, so word is getting out on the street to a lot of potential customers.

The Cannabis Cafe Web site will soon be posting membership applications online to allow people to become members via the Internet.

"That way, when they come to town, all the paperwork is done. They can just walk in, make their purchase, and light up," Mr. Wood said.

There is one strict rule at the Cannabis Cafe, however. Cigarette smoking is not allowed.

"Cigarette smoke hangs in their air too long," Lynn Wood said. "Pot doesn't linger like tobacco smoke does."

BUSH'S PAINFUL OBSESSION WITH MEDICAL POT

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Oct 2003
Source: Oakland Tribune, The (CA)
Copyright: 2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
Contact: triblet@angnewspapers.com
Website: http://www.oaklandtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/314
Author: Kate Scannell

BUSH'S PAINFUL OBSESSION WITH MEDICAL POT

I have known too many patients who have lived miserably or died painfully to have patience with the Bush administration's intrusive attempts to bar them from discussing medical marijuana with their doctors.

I've seen one too many old men spend their final hours nauseated and vomiting while their distressed and helpless families watched. One too many women with cancer who linger, bone-thin and languid, as their loved ones beg for "something" to make them feel better.

And I, like so many doctors, have witnessed the therapeutic relief that many such patients experience after using marijuana. Their illnesses become less miserable, their difficult deaths are made more tolerable.

And those reasons explain precisely why the federal government's relentless attempts to bar patients from access to medical marijuana constitute both cruel and unusual crimes against us all. They are wrong-headed and politically driven obsessions, not compassionate advisements intended to relieve human suffering.

As a patient, when I'm feeling ill, I don't want John Ashcroft's opinion about the best medical treatment for my condition. When someone I love visits a medical clinic because she is sick to death, I hope that she will be met by a doctor who will give her truthful advice born of experience and a focused dedication to her well being. I pray that she is not met by a federal agent with no clinical skills whose primary allegiance is to a political agenda.

As a doctor, I am stunned by the intensity of the Bush administration's obsession with medical marijuana. It boggles my mind to think that our government officials are spending so much time and money to obstruct the use of a medication that might actually help cancer patients tolerate their
chemotherapy, AIDS patients gain a little weight, glaucoma patients suffer less.

We have yet to see any data from the Feds that explains why medicinal marijuana should be excluded from pharmacy shelves that already contain morphine and codeine -- as well as a host of other drugs for conditions like heart disease or seizures that have longer potential side effect profiles.

I wish the administration would channel some of that energy towards, say, improving pain control in our debilitated nursing home patients. Or facilitating clinical research trials with medical marijuana so that credible science could replace emotional rhetoric about the drug's efficacy.

IT was heartening that on Oct. 14, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to entertain the Bush administration's latest attempt to silence discussions about medical marijuana between doctors and patients. Specifically, the high court declined to re-examine last year's ruling by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco that said doctors could speak freely with patients about the potential benefits of medical marijuana.

But had the Bush administration gotten its way this time, the federal government would have acquired the authority to punish a doctor who simply advised patients that medical marijuana might relieve their pain and suffering. The Bush administration would have gained the right to slap a
federal offense on that doctor, revoke her ability to write prescriptions, and subject her to criminal prosecution. And in the meantime, while that doctor's prosecution might have given cause for some deluded Washington administrators to raise their glasses in a rabid toast to the war on drugs,
a doctor who had tried to serve her ailing patients with honesty and compassion is sidelined, and her patients are stranded.

We do have a drug problem in this country, but if it's to be solved, reason and clear vision must guide us. The Feds' relentless attacks on physicians who discuss medical marijuana as a potential means of alleviating their patients' suffering smacks of cheap theatrics in a desperate effort to
stage some semblance of a victory in the real war on drugs.

Kate Scannell is an East Bay physician and writer.

U.S. Woman Held In British Columbia On 1972 Drug Charge

Author: Jack Keating
Source: The Province
Contact: provedpg@pacpress.southam.ca
Website: http://www.vancouverprovince.com/
Pubdate: Tuesday, October 28, 2003

The long arm of the law reached back 31 years to nab a middle-aged American wanted on a Canadian marijuana charge from 1972.

Ilene Schecter, a 52-year-old mother of two, was arrested last month trying to enter B.C. at the Peace Arch crossing.

She is in the Burnaby Correctional Centre for Women.

"It was a total shock to us and our children," said her husband Gary Rosenzweig. "It just threw our whole life out of whack.

"We have two children in college right now. She's had no charges. She's lived as a clean citizen, a teacher, a mother, just a normal life."

Schecter was 22 when she was arrested in 1972 at Toronto International Airport with a kilogram of pot. She received a mandatory minimum seven-year prison sentence for importing the drug.

After serving 14 months, Schecter was on a day pass in 1973 and walked away. She's been on the lam ever since.

She and her husband, a drug and alcohol counsellor, had no problems with the law until her past caught up with her on Sept. 18 as they drove to Vancouver from their home near Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

The couple are members of the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, which uses marijuana as its sacrament. Believers say it is as valid and necessary as wine is to Catholics during communion.

The couple were considering moving to Canada so "we could practise our religion a lot more freer knowing that Canada has a much better attitude toward marijuana than the U.S."

Abbotsford lawyer Sarah Rauch, who is representing Schecter, said Schecter is in jail "because she's been detained on a charge from 1972."

NZ opens door for medical cannabis

The Government has opened the way for the legal use of medical cannabis if trials under way in Britain prove it is safe.

In the meantime, Associate Health Minister Jim Anderton ruled out relaxing the law on smoking the drug as a method of self medication.

Mr Anderton issued the Government's response yesterday to the report of a three-year inquiry.

He ruled out legalising cannabis, which was not one of the recommendations of the health committee, adding that would never happen under the present administration.

But he gave the strongest Government support yet for the use of cannabis as a medicine.

British company GW Pharmaceuticals is testing several products including cannabis pills and under-the-tongue sprays which New Zealand's Health Ministry medicines watchdog Medsafe is closely monitoring.

If the drugs met the requirements of the Medicines Act an application could be made to test and market them in New Zealand, Mr Anderton said. "I do not have a problem with that."

Labour MP Steve Chadwick, chairwoman of the health select committee, welcomed the response, saying the recommendation that the Government support medical trials had been unanimous.

She said it would be up to Health Minister Annette King to approve the medical drug and she would ask her what the next step should be.

GW Pharmaceuticals applied for a British product licence for its Sativex brand of cannabis spray in March.

A dose of medical marijuana is expected to cost about $10.

Green Party justice spokesman Nandor Tanczos said the Government's response was positive for sufferers of diseases such as multiple sclerosis who wanted relief from pain and nausea.

But the result was not so good for Greg Soar, who has HIV and used the illegal drug now. He told The Dominion Post it relieved nausea caused by other drugs but it was expensive and difficult to obtain.

"Every time I vomit, I ask why is my Government doing this to me?"

The Government chose not to recommend that the Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs give priority to looking at the classification of the drug as the committee suggested.

Nor did Mr Anderton believe the justice select committee should examine the drug's legality as the health committee recommended.

Other recommendations, such as to beef up education around minimising harm from the drug, were already being dealt with by other initiatives, Mr Anderton said.

United Future leader Peter Dunne, who made not decriminalising cannabis a condition of his party's support for the Government, said he was comfortable with the idea of clinical trials.

"What is not acceptable is the position that 'I get relief from smoking a joint therefore it should be legal'."

National's health spokeswoman Lynda Scott had wanted suicide victims tested for cannabis to investigate any link between the drug and depression.

The Government says that would be up to a new regime being developed for coroners.

Dr Scott said drug education was not adequate.

Taking the High Road: Cannabis & Driving

Author: Paul Recher
Pubdate: 1-11-2003
http://www.nrg.com.au/~recher

A local study of long term, chronic marijuana smokers revealed the amazing data that unanimously over one hundred potheads believed they drove their car safer when stoned than not stoned.

This can only mean one of two things. Either we are witnessing a collective delusion whereby they feel they are safer drivers but are not. This in itself is fascinating as it would be a thoroughly unique case of mass psychiatric delusion. Or as outrageous as it might seem a person actually drives safer high on cannabis than being straight.

For perspective’s sake, there are many mind altering drugs: i.e. tranquillisers, anti-cyclic depressants, stimulants, opiates (30mg. codeine per Panadeine Forte) that are not considered to impair motoring ability to such an extent that one is prohibited from driving under their influence.

There have been many controlled experiments that at the very least demonstrate no statistically significant correlation between THC intoxication, cannabis’s active ingredient, and automobile accidents.

Studies by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Pathology @ Monash University; the US Department of Transportation National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Forensic Science, Dept. for Admin. & Info. Services, Adelaide; UK Dept of the Environment, Transport and the Regions all bear evidence that marijuana does not play an adverse role in car and traffic safety.

Only one pronounced negative impact was cited: “Cannabis significantly affected only one criterion, known as tracking ability. Volunteers found it more difficult to hold a constant speed and follow the middle of the road accurately while driving around a figure-of-eight loop.”

Adelaide University Professor Jack Maclean, director of the road accident research unit said, "I can say that there are some quite distinguished researchers who are going through incredible contortions to try and prove that marijuana has to be a problem. It has been impossible to prove marijuana affects driving adversely. There is no doubt marijuana affects performance but it may be it affects it in a favourable way by reducing risk-taking."

In several studies doped up drivers actually performed better than the unstoned participants. Research by the Australian Drugs Foundation found that cannabis was the only drug tested that decreased the relative risk of having an accident. Fatigue, followed by alcohol, are, by far, the number one and two factors contributing to motor vehicle accidents. All other drugs combined including pharmaceuticals, not just marijuana, are a distant third. The cultural assumption that driving under the influence of cannabis is a negative has more to due with our drug prejudices than any scientific data.

It appears that whatever the impact on motor coordination by marijuana, any impairment is more than compensated for by the more cautiously aware driving behaviour. As the potheads stated, they drive slower stoned. Slower driving results in less accidents. Speed Kills, Slow Saves. If it should be proven once and for all that THC enhanced driving is safer than driving without a THC high, should it become mandatory for all drivers to be stoned? After all, the issue is safety first!

AUSTRALIAN DRUG CONSUMPTION

23/10/2003
AUSTRALIA : CONSUMPTION
THE AGE (Canberra)

It has been established that by the end of 2003, 750,000 ecstasy pills will have been swallowed by ninety thousand people in Sydney alone. One Australian in three admits to having used marijuana. The deadliest drug remains tobacco, which kills twenty thousand people a year, compared to five hundred heroin deaths.

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS!