cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- October 21, 2004
NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- October 21, 2004
Posted by CN Staff on October 21, 2004 at 16:47:18 PT
Weekly Press Release
Source: NORML
Body's Own Cannabis System May Combat High Blood PressureOctober 21, 2004 - Bethesda, MD, USABethesda, MD: Endocannabinoids (naturally occurring chemicals in the body that mimic marijuana's cannabinoids) play a role in cardiovascular regulation in hypertension, and may offer "novel therapeutic strategies" in the treatment of high blood pressure, according to clinical findings published this month in the journal Circulation.
Researchers from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) found that "endocannabinoids tonically suppress cardiac contractility in hypertension and ... can normalize blood pressure" in animals.Previous research conducted in Britain on the endogenous cannabinoid anandamide found that it relaxed blood vessels, which can reduce blood pressure by allowing blood to flow more freely."Targeting the endocannabinoid system offers novel therapeutic strategies in the treatment of hypertension," the NIH researchers concluded.For more information, please contact Paul Armentano, NORML Senior Policy Analyst, at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6308Britain: Parliament Rejects Call To Make Pot Immediately Available By Prescription October 21, 2004 - London, United KingdomLondon, United Kingdom: Members of Parliament rejected a motion last week that sought to immediately legalize the use of smoked cannabis for medical purposes. Fifty MPs had signed on in support of the motion, which would have rescheduled cannabis so that physicians could prescribe it."Let patients make their own informed decisions whether the risks from the only relief from their excruciating pain represents a greater threat to their health and well-being than the disease from which they suffer," Labor MP Peter Bradley said. "Who are we, as politicians, to stand between people suffering torments that we cannot imagine and the medicines that they need to make their lives tolerable?"Nevertheless, Parliament rejected the motion, calling it "wholly premature" to reschedule cannabis when pharmaceutically-produced cannabis extracts (trade name: Sativex) are presently being evaluated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).In clinical trials, Sativex has been shown to alleviate pain and other symptoms associated with Multiple Scelrosis, and may play a role in slowing the disease's progression. However, in May the MHRA requested additional clinical trial data on Sativex before they would make a determination on it's safety or efficacy.Junior Home Office Minister Caroline Flint said that she would schedule a meeting imminently with the British Under-Secretary of Health to investigate whether it would be possible to "fast-track" Sativex's evaluation process . If the MHRA authorizes the use of cannabis extracts, Parliament is expected to follow suit and legalize Sativex as a prescription drug.For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre or Paul Armentano of the NORML Foundation at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6309Drug Laws Must Promote Public Health, Not Criminalization, African American Coalition Demands October 21, 2004 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: Drug prohibition and the rigid enforcement of criminal drug laws are causing "irreparable harm to the African American community and do not advance public safety," the leaders of several African American professional organizations announced this week at a press conference to mark the launch of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition (NAADCP).The coalition, which is co-chaired by former Baltimore mayor Kurt Schmoke and former National Bar Association president Clyde Bailey Sr., announced that it plans to host a series of nationwide seminars "to spark a national dialogue on the need to approach addictions to drugs as a public health problem first, and a criminal problem second." The coalition also intends to put "a spotlight on drug law enforcement activities that have a disproportionate impact on African Americans, other ethnic minorities, and the poor."At the end of the year 2000, 791,600 African American men were behind bars - with drug-related offenses the most common reason for incarceration - compared to 603,032 enrolled in a college or university, Bailey said. By contrast, in 1980, African American men in colleges and universities outnumbered those in prison by a ratio of more than 3 to 1."Our purpose, individually and collectively, is to address the urgent need to redefine our nation's drug policies and laws which have been documented to be a woeful failure nationwide because they have too often over-emphasized criminal sanctions rather than therapeutic sentencing," Bailey concluded.Coalition members include the National Bar Association; Howard University School of Law; the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc.; the National Association of Black Law Enforcement Executives; the National Medical Association; the National Association of Black Social Workers; and the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, among others.For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director, at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=6307Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: October 21, 2004Copyright: 2004 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- Oct. 14, 2004http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19644.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- Oct. 07, 2004 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread19611.shtml
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Comment #17 posted by ekim on October 22, 2004 at 18:48:03 PT
where is the AARP mag on Med Cannabis
hey Kapt good writer thanks for link can you ask drugwar.com to add this site to lower right hand section maybe Cnc will add their site to here.
i have wondered when J K will give Dennis Kucinich the nod for head of HHS. see the replay as many are asked into hearing rooms to reinact the failed Drug War just like JK did many moons ago. if anyone is living in MI and feels that Cannabis is helping them in any way --please come to Ann Arbor Sun 24 at 12 noon to 2 for a state wide meeting of all interested humans for saving the plant.
info on www.aammi.org Leap-- Law enforcement against prohibition -- www.leap.cc welcomes former Leos to speak about reform. if ever is a time that one can do so much to change now is the time, like many are called but we know the rest.
http://www.thehia.org
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on October 22, 2004 at 10:37:06 PT
dr slider
I posted the snipped article from USA Today and I'm comment 6 but I didn't say how I felt about the article. I'm sure I am just not understanding what you meant but I am against drug testing.
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Comment #15 posted by FoM on October 22, 2004 at 09:28:06 PT
One More Thought
One more thing I thought of and wanted to add. Cannabis has been put in the same category as hard drugs. As soon as a politician says I am for Cannabis they jump on that person and say you want Heroin or Meth or Cocaine legalized. We are not fighting on CNews for all drugs but for cannabis reform but the drug warriors know they can't win if they don't put them all together. That's why coming out for reforming Cannabis laws is such a hard thing for a mainstream politician to do. Look what happend to Governor Gary Johnson. He came out for marijuana and then he made a big mistake and allowed himself to be cornered about Heroin. We know how they hammered him when he did that.
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Comment #14 posted by FoM on October 22, 2004 at 08:53:45 PT
kaptinemo
I read the article but I don't understand it. Kerry won't be for Cannabis but he will think outside the box concerning the laws surrounding it if elected. Bush doesn't think outside the box. If I were Kerry in this heated race for the presidency I wouldn't say anything to give the right wing ammunition. It's using common sense to me.
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Comment #13 posted by The GCW on October 22, 2004 at 07:24:58 PT
They don't care if You're sick,
or if You are 9 years old in 3rd grade.(I wonder if these kids are black or brown?)US FL: Elementary Students Face Charges After Bags of Marijuana Found http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n1492/a10.html?397"Three third-graders in Orange County, Fla., face possible felony drug charges after they were caught with bags of marijuana at school,..."(They mention, "bags of drugs" but they only had bags with plants... Is that brainwashing; indoctrinating that the superplant is not a plant at all, but a drug? Does the media, by portraying cannabis as DRUG, help support caging those 3rd graders and labeling them felons?)
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Comment #12 posted by 13th step on October 22, 2004 at 07:06:32 PT
Bush's cousin says roughly the same things..
Bush said..."Individual states have the right to make a decision until the federal government has made an alternative one, and we don't have the information to make that, period," Kerry said.Hmm, sounds familiar. Think cousin will lie & do what Bush did?
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Comment #11 posted by kaptinemo on October 22, 2004 at 04:20:57 PT:
The word is getting out, though
It's been pointed out here for many years that the numbers of American cannabists register in the tens of millions, comprising a bloc of voters that, with sufficient motivation, can easily sway any election. When calls on Websites like this one went out to visit the Kerry Website and list offers of support, THOUSANDS of visits resulted, and the traffic level was the greatest it had been for that site. But it soon became evident that the Kerry people were either being gently (and foolishly) dismissive - or they had become frightened of publicly admitting just how much potential this group had...and were concerned that acknowledging our presence (and political value) would endanger their support from other groups. Hence this gingerly tendered statement by Mr. Kerry about MMJ.Jules Siegel has written a scathing editorial at http://www.drugwar.com/siegelkerrydrugs.shtm which points to this and other aspects of the election, such as the importance of who gets to appoint judges. It's well worth the read.
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Comment #10 posted by kaptinemo on October 22, 2004 at 03:38:04 PT:
Kerry still leaves himself an 'out'
*"Individual states have the right to make a decision until the federal government has made an alternative one, and we don't have the information to make that, period," Kerry said.*Too much of an out for my taste. The man has to have his feet nailed to the floor like any pol, and even then he'll try to flap his arms and fly away.And I recall all too well what one supposed State's Righter said before the (S)election, and what he did afterwards. I don't trust either of them. When it comes down to it, the old saying of "I'm from Missouri!" (the "Show Me" State).Show us, Mr. Kerry, that your minions running your Website did indeed realize that the largest traffic on it came from reformers. If you get the nod, then show us with deeds matching words.
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Comment #9 posted by dr slider on October 22, 2004 at 00:38:06 PT:
re. comment #6
If anyone is deluded into thinking otherwise I envy your naivette, but that is a clear shot over the bow. "Zero tolerance" laws are exactly as they sound, tyrannical (for a definition of tyranny check the Lincoln bedroom).
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Comment #8 posted by ekim on October 21, 2004 at 21:58:41 PT
real films with real people needed to educate
It's a felony under Ohio law to possess, much less use, cocaine," Sams says. "Yet we had to spend thousands of dollars on these experts to extrapolate back to the time of the accident to prove (Hamrick) had enough cocaine in his system that he shouldn't be driving."i hope that Kerry gets asked that question. you have 25% of the American people living in States that have oked the med use and the Windy City given out tickets last time i heard Mr. Daley had over 2 million. what does that do the the percentage of US. when a profiteer moans about spending money and effort on experts to extrapolate ----that is the way we protect each other. to deny this is to strip our child form his or her rights before they are able to fight for them.
http://www.leap.cc/events
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Comment #7 posted by siege on October 21, 2004 at 20:50:26 PT
!!!
National African American Drug Policy Coalition (NAADCP).
The coalition also intends to put "a spotlight on drug law enforcement activities that have a disproportionate impact on African Americans, other ethnic minorities, and the poor." I hope it is reflected in there Vote come Nov.2,04
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Comment #6 posted by FoM on October 21, 2004 at 20:46:30 PT
Article from USA Today on Drugged Driving
Growing Danger: Drugged Driving October 21, 2004Ohio Highway Patrol Trooper Leonard Gray had stopped to direct traffic around a jackknifed truck in December 2002 when a car, traveling about 50 mph, hit him. Gray, 53, was flipped into the air, his head crashed into the car's windshield and he landed — unconscious, with his legs broken and head bloodied — on the pavement. The driver who hit Gray, 61-year-old Ronald Hamrick, had been convicted of drug possession previously and had cocaine in his system when he was tested seven hours after the accident, Hocking County assistant prosecutor David Sams says.If Hamrick had been drinking alcohol and had registered a blood-alcohol level of 0.08%, the case against him would have been open and shut, Sams says: aggravated vehicular assault, with drunken driving as a factor in the charge. But Ohio, like most states, has no legal standard for determining what level of drugs in a person's system makes him too impaired to drive. The lack of such a guideline often makes it difficult for prosecutors to prove cases of "drugged driving."In Gray's case, Sams spent several months reconstructing the crash and getting analyses from drug specialists to show that Hamrick had been impaired by cocaine. Eventually, it worked: Hamrick pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicular assault in September and will be sentenced today. He faces up to five years in prison."It's a felony under Ohio law to possess, much less use, cocaine," Sams says. "Yet we had to spend thousands of dollars on these experts to extrapolate back to the time of the accident to prove (Hamrick) had enough cocaine in his system that he shouldn't be driving."More than 1.5 million people were arrested in the USA last year for driving drunk. Police departments and public health specialists estimate that at least as many people drive under the influence of drugs each year — and rarely are prosecuted for it.Now, in an effort that is similar to the movement that began inspiring anti-drunken-driving laws a quarter-century ago, a growing number of government and law enforcement officials are pressing for laws that target drugged driving.Congress, encouraged by White House anti-drug czar John Walters, is considering proposals that would use the lure of federal transportation money to push states to adopt what Sams wants in Ohio: "zero-tolerance" laws that would make it a crime for anyone to drive with any amount of illicit drugs in their system. Snipped:Complete Article: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-10-21-cover-drugged-driving_x.htm
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Comment #5 posted by John Tyler on October 21, 2004 at 20:25:28 PT
Drug laws etc.
Washington, DC: Drug prohibition and the rigid enforcement of criminal drug laws are causing "irreparable harm to the African American community and do not advance public safety," the leaders of several African American professional organizations announced this week at a press conference to mark the launch of the National African American Drug Policy Coalition (NAADCP).
I'm glad to see the black leaders are finally waking up to the fact that drug prohibition was initated precisely to cause "irreparable harm to the African American community". That was their purpose. You didn't really think it was for your protection did you?
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Comment #4 posted by siege on October 21, 2004 at 18:43:40 PT
Prince Charles rekindles cannabis debate
The Prince of Wales has sparked further debate about the legalisation of cannabis after he asked a multiple sclerosis sufferer if she had tried the drug to relieve pain.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/241685.stm
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on October 21, 2004 at 17:32:09 PT
Related Portion of Article from KGW-TV
John Kerry: Feds Must Stay Out of Ore. LawsOctober 21, 2004KGW-TV, Portland, ORBy Abe Estimada, kgw.com StaffJohn Kerry said he would leave Oregon's controversial medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws alone and blasted President George Bush for deepening budget deficits.The Democratic presidential candidate took a short break from the campaign trail to speak to Northwest NewsChannel 8 on Thursday. Kerry's message was heavy on states' rights themes and domestic issues such as education and health care.Northwest NewsChannel 8 has asked President Bush to speak, but his campaign has said it is unable to meet the request.The federal government shouldn't interfere with medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws crafted and approved by Oregonians, he said. These laws have come under legal challenge by U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft."Individual states have the right to make a decision until the federal government has made an alternative one, and we don't have the information to make that, period," Kerry said.Complete Article: http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_102104_news_kerry_kgw.f845fc7.html
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Comment #2 posted by Dark Star on October 21, 2004 at 17:05:24 PT
Parliamentary Debate
Please see: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm041014/debtext/41014-31.htm and the follow-on: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmhansrd/cm041014/debtext/41014-32.htm
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on October 21, 2004 at 17:00:07 PT
Just a Note
I read where Kerry told Bush to leave Oregon alone as far assisted suicide and medical marijuana. I can't get the link to work on the article but I will keep looking for an article to post.***Kerry Would Keep Federal Gov't Out of Oregon LawsJohn Kerry would leave Oregon’s controversial medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws alone and blasted President George Bush for deepening budget ... http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_102104_news_kerry_kgw.f845fc7.html
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