FREE BREE: State officials remove 7 month old Bree Green from her home.

By Charmie Gholson

The Michigan Medical Marihuana Act was passed with overwhelming support in 2008. Specific protections were written into that voter-initiated law to protect families from removing children from the homes of caregivers and patients who register with the State.

Five years after the enactment of our law, Michigan Child Protective Services  (CPS) continues to unjustly remove children from the homes of state sanctioned medical marijuana patients and caregivers.

VGIP- Up Coming Elections, Cannabis Camp and Michigan’s State of Flux

By Ben Horner

This November, voters in Lansing, Ferndale and Jackson will decide on removing penalties for possession or transfer of an ounce or less of marijuana, despite numerous attacks from state and local authorities.

CANNABIS HAS “TURNED THE CORNER” NEW HOLDER/GUPTA OPINIONS ARE “GAMECHANGERS”

Chuck Ream

We knew that we would win in the end - but it often seemed like “the end” was far away. Now we feel victory coming. The center of gravity has shifted; developments come fast.

With the newly altered opinion of United States Attorney General Eric Holder and the conversion (with apology) by CNN correspondent and neurologist Dr. Sanjay Gupta the forces of cannabis law reform can see “light at the end of the tunnel” for the first time.

As “icing on the cake” we have:

* Republican leader John McCain saying “Maybe we should just legalize. I respect the will of the people”. And, 

*U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy held hearings of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Sept 10 about marijuana and said pot law enforcement is a “bad use of our limited law enforcement dollars” and “The federal government ought to respect” state marijuana laws.

United States Attorney General Eric Holder informed the governors of Washington and Colorado that the Department of Justice would take a "trust but verify approach" to the state laws, (and is reserving its right to file a preemption lawsuit at a later date).

October Book Report by Chuck Ream

“Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine” by Lester Grinspoon and James Bakalar, (1993), (sixth in a series on the most important books about cannabis).  By Chuck Ream

The great doctor Lester Grinspoon; associate professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University (retired) has done more than any other physician to publicize the value of medical marijuana.

 The agony of his young son taught Dr. Grinspoon about cannabis.

“Danny was first given the diagnosis of acute lymphatic Leukemia in July 1967; he was ten years old”.  Side effects from the chemotherapy that Dr. Grinspoon’s son received were uncontrollable. “He would start to vomit shortly after treatment and continue retching for up to eight hours. He vomited in the car as we drove home, and on arriving he had to lie in bed with his head over a bucket on the floor. Still I was shocked when Betsy (his wife) suggested that we find cannabis for Danny.” “I dismissed the idea.”

Oooohhhhh Canada

By: Erikush Growski

There has been some bad winds blowing across the stinky Detroit River. Canada’s Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and his conservative right-winged agenda, has now pushed through new restrictions on Canada’s medical marijuana patients. They will not be allowed to grow for themselves anymore. In addition, the current government licensed facility in Manitoba which supplied patients who could not grow for themselves, is being closed. This new change is to be in effect April 1, 2014.

Canada, as small as it’s population is, has more than 30,000 medical marijuana patients who are now left with few options to obtain the much needed medication. Apparently, the plan of the administration is to license local facilities to grow and dispense marijuana. Very little has been said as to where these will be and how accessible.

It is ascertained by Canadians that marijuana for medical use will become much to expensive to obtain and use as a treatment for the average/lower income Canadian. The concern stated by the government is that too much overage is being sold on the black market and patients are growing more than needed and selling it to non-patients. So the government’s solution is to take growing rights away and make it too expensive to obtain for those in need?

I am saddened by this as Canada, in many ways, is more progressive than the U.S. A movement in this direction is a win for law enforcement agencies (more money in fees, fines, and arrests!), but a blow for the average bloke caught up in this political mess. The newly-licensed facilities will supposedly be highly monitored and regulated. However, instead of using tax dollars for that, just require any grower to submit to inspections and pay for them; which in turn would require them to be within proper limits and in compliance with all fire safety codes. That must be too simple a solution than to deny patients medication and develop a new sector of government. Poor Canadians. Your bacon is really ham and your medical marijuana program is really bullshit.

 

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FREE THE WEED 30 by John Sinclair

Highest greetings from Amsterdam. I’m happy to report all sorts of positive activity on the marijuana legalization front this month, from the decision of the South American nation of Uruguay to legalize weed for all citizens to the call by New York City Comptroller John Liu—a candidate for mayor this fall—to legalize medical marijuana and allow adults to possess an ounce of pot for recreational use, measures that he reckons would pump more than $400 million into the city’s coffers.

As Larry Gabriel reported in the Metro Times a couple of weeks ago, Uruguay’s General Assembly passed a bill that would legalize growing, selling and possessing the plant. The measure still has to pass the Senate and be signed by President José Mujica, but “it would seem there’s no contest there,” Gabriel says, “as the Senate is reportedly more in favor of the legislation than the General Assembly—and Mujica proposed it in the first place.”

HempMedsPX Exhibiting at Michigan Medical Marijuana Conference

(Via NASDAQ) 

Company Will Exhibit Cannabidiol (CBD) Products at State's Medical Cannabis Conference in Ann Arbor From August 23-25, 2013

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 19, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Medical Marijuana Inc. (OTC Pink:MJNA) is pleased to inform shareholders and the general public that HempMedsPX—the master distributor and contracted marketing company for the Medical Marijuana, Inc. corporate portfolio—will be attending and exhibiting at the Michigan Medical Marijuana ConferenceAugust 23-25 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

"This conference will introduce HempMedsPX to the Michigan medical cannabis market," said Charles Vest, Director of Communications for HempMedsPX. "We will have the opportunity to showcase all current hemp-based products under the HempMedsPX umbrella and establish distribution networks throughout the state.