cannabisnews.com: How Marijuana Got Mainstreamed
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How Marijuana Got Mainstreamed
Posted by CN Staff on November 11, 2010 at 06:34:45 PT
By Andrew Ferguson 
Source: Time Magazine
USA -- Even with a decent supply of high-grade pot in her walk-in freezer, Jenelise Robinson, 35, can scarcely keep up with demand. The growth of her 16-month-old Denver business, Nancy B's Edible Medicine, has come with the explosion in the number of Colorado's medical-marijuana dispensaries, or centers. Coloradans who are recommended by a doctor and approved by the state go to the centers to buy their pot, either in traditional bud form or as an "infused product" like Robinson's lemon bars, which are 100% organic and laced with a marijuana concentrate.
Robinson's loyal customers depend on her to "medicate". Euphemisms like medicine, medicate, caregivers and patients are an important element in the larger movement to bring marijuana use out from the shadows, as advocates say, so it can take its place innocently on Americans' nearly infinite menu of lifestyle preferences, from yachting to survivalism to macrobiotic cooking. So far, the strategy is working. Colorado and 13 other states, along with the District of Columbia, have legalized medical marijuana in the past 14 years. More than a dozen other states are considering the idea. In some parts of California — where marijuana is the biggest cash crop, with total sales of $14 billion annually — medical pot has become such an established part of the commercial base that cities are moving toward taxing it. It's not clear that even political setbacks discourage, much less stop, the mainstreaming of marijuana. Anti-pot forces cheered on Nov. 2 when voters in four states apparently rejected pro-pot ballot initiatives — including California's Prop 19, which would have legalized possession of an ounce (28 g) of pot or less. But by Election Day, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and the state legislature had already rendered Prop 19 moot. A month earlier, he signed a bill that reduced possession of up to an ounce from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. Medical marijuana has helped make all this possible. In a short time, pot has gone from being a prohibited substance to one that is, in many places, widely available if you have an ache or a pain and the patience to fuss with a few forms. This did not take place by accident. In fact, medical marijuana's emergence has many of the attributes of a product rollout. As with any hot commodity, dope is now accorded the same awed regard in some Colorado retail establishments as fine wine, dark chocolate and artisanal cheese. Only now it takes place under the cover of medical care, wellness and pain management. And so what is emerging in many places is a strange, bipolar set of rules: dope is forbidden for everyone but totally O.K. for anyone who is willing to claim a chronic muscle spasm. Does anyone take such farcical distinctions seriously? And can a backlash be far behind?Ferguson is a senior editor at the Weekly Standard. His new book Crazy U: One Dad's Crash Course on Getting His Kid into College will be published in March by Simon & Schuster.Source: Time Magazine (US)Author:  Andrew Ferguson Published: November 11, 2010Copyright: 2010 Time Inc.Contact: letters time.comWebsite: http://www.time.com/time/URL: http://drugsense.org/url/ANtBgtrlCannabisNews Medical Marijuana Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/medical.shtml
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Comment #9 posted by Ras James rsifwh on November 12, 2010 at 16:49:37 PT:
250,000 years Marijuana mainstreamed
I agree with Sam Adams. Marijuana has been mainstreamed for human beings for well over a 100,000 years. How else could we have Cannabinoid recptors in our cerebral cortex that fit perfectly with the THC of Cannabis Sativa; and the one-seed-fruits (called an akene) have all the essential fatty acids necessary for human growth in perfect balance. There is no other plant or animal source in the world that produces THC and no other plant food that has all of the essential fatty acids needed for human growth. Most likely for hundreds of thousands of years man has collected the seeds of wild Cannabis; then our ancestors ate the seeds of Cannabis and threw the remaining buds into their fires...so we (humans) have evolved with marijuana smoke. That is why Cannabis smoke is so healing.We are Homo Cannabinoid Sapiens. No doubt!
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Comment #8 posted by FoM on November 12, 2010 at 11:11:40 PT
Revised Medical Marijuana Rules Remain Restrictive
Today, the District published a revised set of rules and regulations for the city's medical marijuana program, which is set to kick off in earnest in January 2011. But despite the hopes of many, the system being put in place to regulate the growth, sale and use of medical marijuana hasn't gotten any less restrictive.URL: http://dcist.com/2010/11/dc_revises_medical_marijuana_rules.php
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Comment #7 posted by The GCW on November 11, 2010 at 21:27:45 PT
Another law suit
US MI: Wyoming sued for banning medical marijuana, but mayor defends policyPublished: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, in Michigan's, Grand Rapids Press (MI)WYOMING -- A promised legal challenge to the city's decision to ban medical marijuana is now a reality.John Ter Beek, a retired attorney and former Godfrey Lee Board of Education member, said he is licensed to treat his bad back and diabetes pain with marijuana. He filed suit this week in Kent County Circuit Court over Wyoming's intent to prohibit medicinal use of the plant.In the suit, dated Monday, Ter Beek alleges this month's City Council decision tramples the rights of state voters who approved medical marijuana at the polls in 2008. The suit also says the decision violates the second article of the state constitution, which guarantees citizens' right to pass an initiative that amends state law.CONT.http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v10/n922/a01.html?397http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2010/11/wyoming_sued_for_banning_medic.html
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Comment #6 posted by dongenero on November 11, 2010 at 14:48:58 PT
comment #5
This makes me wonder if Walmart cold fire someone like Irv Rosenfeld, who is on the Feds' medical marijuana program?These cases always cite supremacy of federal laws but, as we here at Cannabisnews are aware, the US federal government ships out pounds of pre-rolled joints every month to participants, including Irv Rosenfeld, who are on federal medical marijuana program.Irv Rosenfeld enjoys protection in every scenario from airline travel to lighting up in front of a cop. The Federal government not recognizing medical use of marijuana should not be a valid argument. The Feds DO recognize medical marijuana, they even roll it and ship it to the patients. And they provide complete legal immunity for participants in the program.Take that to court Walmart.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on November 11, 2010 at 14:01:58 PT
Med. Marijuana Lawsuit Against Walmart To Begin
November 11, 2010Michigan -- A lawsuit against Walmart for firing a Battle Creek man for using medical marijuana to help with an inoperable brain tumor despite such usage being legal in Michigan is set to begin on Friday in federal court in Grand Rapids.Joseph Casias uses medical marijuana in full compliance with Michigan law, but Walmart still fired him for a positive test for the drug even though he was the employee of the year in his store just two years earlier. The ACLU is representing him in court.URL: http://michiganmessenger.com/43368/med-marijuana-lawsuit-against-walmart-to-begin
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Comment #4 posted by Sam Adams on November 11, 2010 at 08:39:07 PT
history
I was watching a show on the Sumerians last night, it was fascinating.Some suspect that human civiliation goes back a lot farther. The show was saying they've found evidence of gold mining from 60,000 years ago in Africa. It's quite likely that humans have been breeding and refining cannabis for tens or even hundreds of thousands of years.Speaking of "mainstream"....is that such a great thing in the US today? If you're raising your kids in the "mainstream" way then they're sitting around watching violent movies & videogames all day, eating poorly, getting obese, having a 1 in 3 chance of getting diabetes, drugged up on prescription stimulants, etc, etc.
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Comment #3 posted by museman on November 11, 2010 at 07:56:11 PT
Euphemisms
In the political world, and the 'law 'n order' world, Euphemisms abound.Like the word "Democratic" -what a benign reference for a non-existent situation which in it's harsh reality has nothing at all to do with 'equal representation' but hidden agendas of the power elite, and the continuing dis-empowerment of the masses.Or, "peace officers" -that one merges into an oxymoron.Obviously this person received the same vocabulary training as most SQAKS, who get their information from a monitor or TV screen, public school, and only 'read' what was necessary to complete their 'education' requirements.To "medicate" is to use some form of medicine or HERBs to address a physical or mental condition to alleviate pain or symptoms. Is this guy really telling people that their pain is some kind of pretense to get pot? Yes, that's exactly what he is attempting!Of course, implied in the ignorant display of a lack of language skills of understanding and vocabulary, is the REAL issue of "Self Medicating" -No doctors get to make payments on their million dollar homes, cars, boats, and country club dues, the pharma's would go broke, and the huge tax burden on the private citizen to support those doctors and big pharma suddenly has no purchase, because they aren't playing the game. Insurance companies who depend on their cut would flounder and fail, and it all ultimately would lead to many useless people -in government, and all its sponsored institutions- having to do something of actual value in order to survive.People might take the hint and realize that food grows from seeds, in the ground, and anybody, yes that's right ANYBODY can grow them! Oh what would Safeway do? Wouldn't have to drive cars, and without the big government regulating everything under the sun, and corporate engines disintegrating from the sane and logical trend of self sufficiency, all those hurtling tubes of metal and exhaust would not be putting toxins into our stratosphere, long before the fleurocarbons from ground based internal combustion ever rise high enough. Our Ozone would rebuild, and in about 200 years the water would be safe again, and free from all the carcinogens the city sewage recyclers don't do anything about.And all because a handful of hippies several decades ago discovered cannabis, and made it into a 'main-stream' knowledge and awareness that was never defeated by all the mayhem, suffering, pain, death, and destruction, that the 'benign' (a 'euphemism') government unleashed upon us for daring to be free in a so-called 'free country' (another euphemism). -Of course, it was the Black Jazz musicians in the 30's that broke the first barriers of ignorance that led to the hippies 'discovery' and we owe them much honor and respect for it, but it was the hippies that forced the issue (probably because they were mostly 'white') into 'mainstream' and it is the survivors of those same hippies who stand as bulwarks of change as we finally move into the 21st century.We need some major changes, and at the core, not the surface, of this society.LEGALIZE FREEDOM
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Comment #2 posted by runruff on November 11, 2010 at 07:00:55 PT
 How Marijuana Got Mainstreamed?
I think it started with the Chinese or the Mesopotamians circa BCE 7,000, mainstream that is?
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on November 11, 2010 at 06:50:25 PT
idiot
moronic statements like this are exactly what's led to the current situations in the US - the sick and dying constantly face persecution from the medical system and cannot get adequate pain relief meds:"Only now it takes place under the cover of medical care, wellness and pain management. And so what is emerging in many places is a strange, bipolar set of rules: dope is forbidden for everyone but totally O.K. for anyone who is willing to claim a chronic muscle spasm. Does anyone take such farcical distinctions seriously? And can a backlash be far behind?"this is clearly a guy who's never suffered any kind of chronic medical condition himself.  But then I guess life is all about him isn't it? Screw everyone else. The "me" generation.
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