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Cannabis growers join Napa Valley Farm Bureau

Two Mendocino County medical-cannabis grow operations have been welcomed into the ranks of the prestigious Napa Valley Farm Bureau—a first for the nearly 100-year-old organization.

Northstone Organics and

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THE STATE

Cannabis growers join Napa Valley Farm Bureau

Two Mendocino County medical-cannabis grow operations have been welcomed into the ranks of the prestigious Napa Valley Farm Bureau—a first for the nearly 100-year-old organization.

Northstone Organics and Napa Valley Marijuana Growers were made members after appearing before the bureau’s membership committee and answering questions, according to news reports. A committee member told reporters the decisions to accept the growers was not an endorsement of medical cannabis, but rather an acknowledgement of cannabis as a legitimate agricultural crop.

The growers join nearly 1,000 other members—most of them grape farmers and dairy ranchers—in promoting and representing the region’s agricultural interests. The Napa Valley Farm Bureau is one of 53 county organizations that operate under the auspices of the California Farm Bureau Federation and the American Farm Bureau Federation.

 

Second state legalization initiative gains ground

Furthering the possibility of Golden State voters gaining multiple chances to legalize cannabis next year, a group of Northern California activists have filed the text of a ballot measure that would lift criminal penalties for growing, possessing or distributing marijuana.

Called the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act, the bill is the second pro-cannabis initiative drive to crop up in California this year. Supporters of the first, the Regulate Cannabis Like Wine initiative, recently received approval to begin gathering signatures to qualify for the November 2012 ballot.

If approved, the Repeal Cannabis Prohibition Act would further allow residents to grow or possess up to three pounds of marijuana without taxation, and charge the state Department of Health with regulating both smoking in public and use by minors.

The initiative drive is being led by Northern California criminal defense attorneys Joe Rogaway, Omar Figueroa and Bill Panzer, Mendocino County medical cannabis activist Pebbles Trippet and Berkeley physician Dr. Frank Lucido.

 

Assembly clears industrial hemp farming bill

A bill that would allow for the industrial cultivation of hemp in the Central Valley and portions of Southern California has cleared the state legislature with overwhelming support.

Senate Bill 676 would establish a pilot program in Imperial, Kern, Kings and San Joaquin counties, allowing farmers to grow hemp for its seed, oil and fiber. The bill was written and introduced by state Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), who previously sponsored legislation that would legalize cannabis. The bill passed both the Assembly and the Senate in September, and now is on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk.

If signed into law, the measure would set a minimum of 5 acres for crops and require identifiable signage and lab analysis reports showing the hemp has low THC content.

More than 55 percent of America’s $400 million hemp market is grown in California.

 

THE NATION

Where cannabis fans go for a new ‘U’

The city that gave us Jimi Hendrix and grunge now brings us another educational institution devoted exclusively to all things marijuana.

The Academy of Cannabis Culture and Technology opened its doors in south Seattle in early September, providing purveyors of the herb a chance to elevate their consciousnesses on more than just a psychotropic level. Students are offered such marijuana-related courses as cultivation, cooking and medicinal uses, lectures on the history of cannabis and prohibition, and classes on such topics as how to comply with Washington’s medical-cannabis laws.

The academy will also house a full-service student lounge and “the most complete library of medical marijuana literature anywhere,” according to a news report.

For more information, visit the academy’s website at www.acctech.org.

 

Cannabis sales illegal, Michigan court rules

In a decision bound to hamper access to medical marijuana in Michigan, an appellate court has ruled the state’s compassionate-use law does not permit “patient-to-patient” sales of cannabis and that cities can shut down shops that engage in such transactions.

The 2008 law that established Michigan’s medical cannabis program makes no mention of how qualified patients—now estimated to number nearly 100,000—might obtain their medicine other than growing it themselves. Scores of cannabis dispensaries and collectives have for years operated in that legal gray zone, including Mount Pleasant’s Compassionate Apothecary—the collective at the heart of the court ruling.

Mount Pleasant officials had ordered the collective—which allows its 345 members to sell medical cannabis to one another for a 20-percent cut—to shut down, declaring it a public nuisance. The collective challenged that decision in court, setting in motion a series of rulings that led to the appellate verdict.

The operators of Compassionate Apothecary and several other Michigan outlets have already announced they will shut down in the wake of the decision. It is not yet clear how the ruling will affect dispensaries operating in cities with established laws regulating pot shops.

 

THE WORLD

Former Canadian Mountie sues over raids

A former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer and his partner have sued both the Mounties and the country’s healthcare agency over two raids that twice destroyed the couple’s medical marijuana crop.

Cam Cavaco, 49, who left the Mounties in 1988 after suffering job-related injuries, and his longtime partner and caregiver Marnie O’Neil, 47, were among the first citizens licensed by Health Canada to grow cannabis for their illnesses, news reports state. Along with injuries, the wheelchair-bound Cavaco has progressive multiple sclerosis, and O’Neil suffers from spina bifida and fibromyalgia.

Their lawsuit alleges that the Mounties twice raided their small grow-op without warrants—once in December 2009, and again eight months later. Both times, the police destroyed the couple’s modest crops, despite a license giving permission to cultivate the plant. No charges were filed as a result of the raids, the lawsuit states.

Cavaco uses about 30 grams of cannabis a day for his illnesses. His lawyer told reporters the Mounties need better training and understanding of the benefits of medical cannabis for patients.

 

Got fat? Try dieting with THC

French researchers have reported a remarkable—even counterintuitive—finding that cannabis use can lead to lower body weight.

The finding, published in the August issue of American Journal of Epidemiology, showed that people who smoked marijuana at least three times a week weighed as much as a third less than people who smoked no cannabis at all. The connection remained strong even after adjusting for age, gender and other health factors, news reports said.

Researchers from Louis Mourier Hospital in Paris analyzed survey data from two groups of Americans, totaling some 52,000 participants. Data revealed that 22 percent of the nonsmokers in the first group were obese, compared to just 14 percent of the cannabis smokers. In the second group, 25 percent of the nonsmokers weighed in as obese, against 17 percent of the cannabis smokers.

In their report, the researchers expressed great surprise at the findings, as it is popularly believed cannabis use goes hand-in-hand with unhealthful snacking or even binge eating.

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