MJ News for 08/12/2016

[7greeneyes]

url: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2016/...stry-reacts-to-dea-decision-on-marijuana.html

Cannabis industry reacts to DEA decision on marijuana​

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration on Thursday denied requests to stop classifying marijuana as a dangerous drug with no medical use, leaving users and businesses in limbo after many states have legalized it for medical or recreational purposes.

But the DEA did relax certain restrictions on growing marijuana for research purposes.

For decades, marijuana has been listed as a "Schedule I" drug, placing it on par with heroin and LSD.

STU TITUS, CEO of MEDICAL MARIJUANA INC (MJNA.PK), a California maker of hemp oil

"It's unfortunate that we're not going to be able to further legitimize the industry, as I'm sure this will have a negative impact on the ability of these businesses to bank on cannabis industry cash."

GEORGE ANASTASSOV, CEO of AXIM BIOTECHNOLOGIES INC (AXIM.PK), a Manhattan company developing a cannabis-based chewing gum for multiple sclerosis

"This DEA announcement affects the industry very positively. It will weed out the snake oil salesmen from the market. The companies which provide sufficient evidence for efficiency, that is sufficient for drug registration, will be able to move forward in the market and succeed."

JONATHAN TEETERS, director of government affairs for Tradiv, an online wholesale marketplace that connects cannabis cultivators with dispensaries

"Rescheduling could be a Trojan Horse that keeps cannabis in a controlled substance status. This could potentially undermine local efforts to shape medical and recreational regulatory landscapes. This type of move by the federal government ... could make it more difficult to bring cannabis to market."

"Removing cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act may be a much better approach for all parties concerned."

TROY DAYTON, CEO of ARCVIEW GROUP, which links investors to cannabis businesses

"They have their head in the sand. Voters, countless studies, major doctor groups, and millions of patients overwhelmingly recognize the medical applications of cannabis."

"This market is still poised to grow at a 32 percent compound annual growth rate over the coming years because voters understand that cannabis is clearly a medicine that doctors and patients should be able to have as a treatment option."

JOHN KAGIA, executive vice president of industry analytics at cannabis-focused data firm New Frontier

"The industry has seen continued growth despite the federal position that cannabis is a Schedule I substance, so we don't think this is constructively going to impact the continued evolution of the cannabis industry."

 

[Grower13]

:48:

 

[7greeneyes]

URL: https://www.greenrushdaily.com/2016/08/12/cannabis-club-gives-away-free-weed-community-clean/

(COLORADO) CANNABIS CLUB GIVES AWAY FREE WEED AT COMMUNITY CLEAN-UP​

Long Story Short

Over the weekend a cannabis club in Colorado Springs, Colorado organized a park clean up event. The clean up was designed to bring together community service and cannabis. And for people who showed up, the best part of all was that the club gave a free joint to everybody who helped.

The Details

The clean up event was hosted by The Pothole Cannabis Club. The club gave a free joint to any adult 21 years or older who helped pick up trash at a local park called Bancroft Park. It also gave free non-pot themed gifts to people who helped clean up but who were younger than 21.

From what local reports said, it sounds like the entire thing was a huge success. The group of folks who got together to pick up trash bagged more than 100 bags of trash. And to top it all off there was some serious green going around.

This wasn’t the first community clean up put on by The Pothole Cannabis Club. The group has organized a handful of other similar events at other parks throughout Colorado Springs.

Changing Stoner Stereotypes

The project wasn’t only about helping clean up a community park. It was also about changing some of the negative stereotypes about cannabis and cannabis users that continue to persist.

Members of The Pothole Cannabis Club said they organized the event to show people in Colorado Springs that they’re more than just stoner bums.

“They think we are just some stoners that just get high and don’t have no lives or no kids or have any responsibilities. It’s not like that,” said Pothole owner Steve Pacheco.

Colorado is one of only four states that have legalized recreational cannabis. It’s also legal in Washington D.C. Many pot shops and cannabis companies throughout these states have tried to debunk negative myths and stereotypes about cannabis users.

Along with The Pothole Cannabis Club’s most recent event, a group in Denver called Cannabis Can focuses on helping homeless people. Last winter, they worked to raise awareness about homelessness. They also gave away 1,000 joints for free as part of their campaign.

 

[7greeneyes]

URL: https://www.greenrushdaily.com/2016/08/12/cannabis-plants-found-prison-garden/

(AUSTRALIA) FULL-GROWN CANNABIS PLANTS FOUND IN PRISON GARDEN​

Plenty of Time to Grow

Prisoners at Fulham Correctional Center, a state-run prison in Australia, have taken their horticulture program to new heights. Using the prison’s “horticulture training program” as cover, the inmates had successfully grown 28 marijuana plants in the facility’s prison garden before the plants were discovered on Tuesday.

It took a team of sniffer dogs to discover the plants, which the prisoners had been growing right under guards’ noses. The plants, some nearly two feet tall, were initially found out on Tuesday this week, and the drug canines found more spread out across prison grounds on Wednesday.

It’s unknown how many prisoners were involved in the cannabis growing operation, or what consequences they will face for their actions. The situation has reportedly been handed over to police. One suspect has been identified so far. He’s a prisoner, and not someone involved in the horticultural training program.

An Embarrassing Blunder

Australian authorities are scratching their heads over the incident. They want to know how such a relatively large crop of marijuana could have been grown despite searches and supervision by correctional officers.

The Corrections Commissioner Jan Shuard told reporters on Tuesday that the oversight was an unacceptable blunder. Fulham Prison is a large facility with sprawling grounds, but Shuard isn’t ready to accept that as an excuse.

“It’s embarrassing,” she said on Australia’s morning news program, 3AW Mornings. “I am concerned about it.”

At Fulham Correctional Center, prisoners are responsible for maintaining prison grounds. It appears that they utilized this advantage along with their horticultural training to grow the contraband plants.

Fulham officials are currently conducting an investigation. The situation is raising further questions about what happens inside jails across the state.

No Small Crop

The cannabis crop was discovered in the Fulham Prison garden, which is a medium security prison owned and operated by the Corrections multinational company GeoGroup. The relatively looser security at this facility is one reason prisoners were able to grow such a large crop undetected.

The 28 or more plants, averaging 24 inches in height, would have produced a significant quantity of cannabis. Currently, officials are speculating that the plants were grown from seeds smuggled inside the prison walls.

Officials are still trying to determine what the prisoners planned to do with their crop. Did the inmates plan to smuggle the cannabis outside the prison gates, or were they hoping to use their crop inside the jail?

Australia’s Stance on Cannabis

It was on February 24 of this year, 2016 when Australia decided to legalize cannabis for medical use at the federal level. Politicians and advocates are still fighting to decriminalize and legalize recreational marijuana.

While the inmates involved in the cannabis grow were likely incarcerated on charges unrelated to marijuana, the fact that they were growing contraband substances inside the jail will likely lead to punitive consequences.

 

[7greeneyes]

URL: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/medical-marijuana-home-growing-law-1.3716860

(Canada) Medical marijuana patients can grow 'limited amount' of cannabis at home under new laws​

Canadian medical marijuana patients can grow their own cannabis or get someone to grow it for them under new, expanded rules that come into effect later this month, Health Canada announced Thursday.

Patients approved for medical marijuana will be able to register with Health Canada to grow a "limited" amount of cannabis for their own medical purposes.

"If an individual wants to produce a limited amount of cannabis for his/her own medical purposes, he/she must submit an application to register with Health Canada," said a department background document.

"An original medical document from the health-care practitioner must be provided and the application must include information such as the location of where cannabis will be produced and stored."

They can also designate someone else to grow it for them, for instance if they're not healthy enough to grow their own, granted the other person passes a background check showing they haven't been convicted of a drug offence in the last 10 years and aren't growing for more than two people, themselves included.

The third option is getting it from one of 34 Health Canada-approved producers — the only legal source under the current laws.

Health Canada officials said in a technical briefing Thursday afternoon this "limited amount" people can grow at their home will be linked to the daily amount of cannabis a patient is prescribed.

For example, someone prescribed a gram a day could grow two plants outdoors or five plants indoors to be able to supply themselves, Health Canada said, since plants grown outdoors yield more supply than indoor plants.

The seeds and plants would come from these licensed producers, who could sell an interim supply of cannabis to people as they wait for their homegrown supply to be ready.

The new rules come into effect on Aug. 24.

New rules meet court deadline

A Federal Court judge earlier this year struck down the former Conservative government's 2013 law requiring medical marijuana patients to get their cannabis from licensed producers instead of growing their own.

Judge Michael Phelan said in his Feb. 24 decision those rules that "limited a patient to a single government-approved contractor and eliminated the ability to grow one's own marijuana or choose one's own supplier" restricted patient liberties under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

He gave the federal government six months to come up with new rules.

Phelan also ruled that around 28,000 patients who had been allowed to keep growing their own medical marijuana under a 2014 injunction could continue until these new rules are in place.

Health Canada said Thursday the injunction won't be lifted until it is confident it can handle these thousands of patients coming into the new regulatory system.

The ruling came after a court challenge from four B.C. residents who argued the law was unconstitutional and took away affordable access to medicine.