Marijuana Not 

Linked To Lung 

Cancer When Use Is 

Light Or Moderate,

 Unknown With Heavy Use

As marijuana becomes more accepted -- and in some places, legal -- a UCLA researcher has reexamined the question: does smoking marijuana cause lung cancer?

In the June edition of Annals of the American Thoracic Society, Donald P. Tashkin, MD, emeritus professor of medicine at UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, says that light to moderate marijuana use does not cause increased lung cancer risk and that the verdict is not out on heavy use.

"Findings from a limited number of well-designed epidemiological studies do not suggest an increased risk for the development of either lung or upper airway cancer from light or moderate use, although evidence is mixed concerning possible carcinogenic risks of heavy, long-term use," Tashkin said in a summary of his article.

Marijuana does, however, "cause visible and microscopic injury to the large airways that is consistently associated with an increased likelihood of symptoms of chronic bronchitis that subside after cessation of use," according to Tashkin.

But even heavy marijuana use has "far lower risks for pulmonary complications" than the consequences of tobacco use, Tashkin said.

Tashkin authored a similar paper in 2006 that also found no link between marijuana use and risk of lung cancer.

He's among several researchers who have published recently on the topic of marijuana and cancer. Last year, a pair of scientists at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco found that a compound derived from marijuana could stop metastasis in many kinds of aggressive cancers, potentially altering the fatality of the disease forever.

Earlier this year, Kaiser Permanente researchers found that people who smoke marijuana may be less likely to get bladder cancer than those who smoke cigarettes.

Source -- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/20/marijuana-lung-cancer_n_3474960.html

Feds Move To Snuff Out Medical Marijuana



It must look like a funny lobbying group. Imagine the marijuana industry lobbying Congress on taxes? But more than most industries these days, marijuana needs a bailout. Remember the 2008 auto industry and financial services deals? Remember ‘too big to fail?’

How about too legal to fail? Unlike bailouts, there’s no preferential deal being sought here. The marijuana industry just wants to be treated fairly, to be put on the same footing as every other legal business. Now that we have legalized medical marijuana in 18 states and the District of Columbia can these businesses be run like businesses?

You might think the taxes to be collected would be significant at both state and federal levels. But the tax law discriminates so badly that the industry has had to virtually go underground. And when you add the banking law, banks are reluctant to allow even legal marijuana businesses to open accounts in their institutions.

In fact, some banks can face prosecution, and who wants that? Although more and more states have legalized medical marijuana, including the most recent entrant, Massachusetts, “legal” has become an ambiguous term. The state’s marijuana businesses, like those in all the other states, face legal and tax problems.

Colorado and Washington have even legalized recreational use. There are tax problems there too. Why? Because even legal dispensaries are drug traffickers to the feds. Section 280E of the tax code denies them tax deductions, even for legitimate business costs.

Of all the federal enforcement efforts, taxes hurt most. “The federal tax situation is the biggest threat to businesses and could push the entire industry underground,” the leading trade publication for the marijuana industry reports. One answer is for dispensaries to deduct other expenses distinct from dispensing marijuana.

If a dispensary sells marijuana and is in the separate business of care-giving, the care-giving expenses are deductible. If only 10% of the premises are used to dispense marijuana, most of the rent is deductible. Good record-keeping is essential. See Medical Marijuana Dispensaries Persist Despite Tax Obstacles.

Another idea was presented April 24 at Harvard by Professor Benjamin Leff of American University’s Law School. Professor Leff’s paper carried an unvarnished title: Tax Planning for Marijuana Dealers. It was part of Harvard’s Tax Policy Seminar hosted by Harvard Prof. Stephen Shay. Mr. Leff correctly pointed out the Section 280E Catch 22 and came up with another end run. Marijuana sellers could operate as nonprofit social welfare organizations, he suggested. See Growing the Business: How Legal Marijuana Sellers Can Beat a Draconian Tax.

That way Section 280E shouldn’t apply. A social welfare organization must promote the common good and general welfare of people in its neighborhood or community. Operating businesses in distressed neighborhoods to provide jobs and job-training for residents? That could fit a dispensary nicely.

Congressmen Jared Polis (D-CO) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) have introduced a bill to end the federal prohibition on marijuana and allow it to be taxed. This legislation would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act. That way growers, sellers and users could no longer fear violating federal law.

Their Marijuana Tax Equity Act would also impose an excise tax on cannabis sales and an annual occupational tax on workers dealing in the growing field of legal marijuana. Whatever happens, it’s good that someone is paying attention to this mess.

Source -- 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2013/06/21/medical-marijuana-feds-use-legal-snafu-to-snuff-it-out/

EXPOCANNABIS MADRID 2013

Expocannabis 9th EDITION 2013

27 - 28 and 29 of September

THE BIGGEST HEMP FESTIVAL IN MADRID: Expocannabis 2013!!!!

Expocannabis will be an excellent show, dealing with a plant named cannabis, traditionally having medicinal values. The Spanish event will be held in its ninth edition, will educate the visitors about the applications of the medicinal plant. The visitors of the show will be able to buy the products and technologies related to the plant. The fair will be held over a period of three days. The show will be organized by Feria Del Canamo Sl, in a very efficient manner. The place, where the show will be held is Madrid. 
Expocannabis promises to be a leading show, where the products related to the sector will be efficiently marketed by the participants among the visitors. The participants will be able to network among the visitors effectively, which will develop their business.
Visitors' ProfileExpocannabis will be a comprehensively organized show, which will be visited by the ayurvedic and herbal medicine sellers, researchers, scientists, students etc. The common public and the key decision makers of the industry will also attend the show.
Exhibitors' ProfileBook a StallFind Suppliers in Spain Expocannabis will be a chief show, which will be participated by the growers, processors, manufacturers, dealers, companies etc, dealing with the cannabis plant products and technologies. The experts of the industry will participate in the show. The exhibits of the show will include new products, nutrient, seeds, growing product and paraphernalia product related to the industry.

http://expocannabis.com/

http://www.biztradeshows.com/trade-events/expo-cannabis-spain.html

Jamen Shively's Plan To Build Pot Brand Makes Weed Activists Nervous

SEATTLE — For the activists who led the effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Washington state last fall, Jamen Shively was one of their biggest fears: an aspiring pot profiteer whose unabashed dreams of building a cannabis empire might attract unwanted attention from the federal government or a backlash that could slow the marijuana reform movement across the country.

With visionary zeal, the 45-year-old former Microsoft manager described his plans to a conference room packed with reporters and supporters last month, saying he was tired of waiting for a green light from the Obama administration, which still hasn't said how it will respond to the legalization of recreational pot in Washington and Colorado. Shively vowed to quickly raise $10 million and eventually build his company, Diego Pellicer, into an international pot powerhouse.

Though he promised a "cautious and measured" expansion, Shively's approach nevertheless contrasted with that of state regulators who want to avoid repeating the national experience with Big Tobacco and Big Alcohol, industries that profited wildly on addiction and abuse. Mark Kleiman, who heads the team hired to be Washington's official marijuana consultant, responded on his blog: "It was inevitable that the legalization of cannabis would attract a certain number of insensate greedheads to the industry."

Shively's ambitions – "We are Big Marijuana," he proclaimed – don't merely raise questions about what marijuana legalization might look like in the long run and whether large corporations will come to dominate. He also risks getting himself indicted.

The Justice Department has said while it doesn't intend to prosecute sick people for using marijuana, it will go after those who try to get rich from commercial sales. It hasn't said yet whether it will sue to block Washington and Colorado from licensing pot growers, processors and stores.

The legalization votes in Washington and Colorado have created a fever for cannabis-related investing, to an extent. Conferences have focused on the parameters for legally investing in "ancillary businesses" – those that supply equipment needed by pot grows, for example – without financing the actual production or distribution of marijuana, which remains illegal under federal law.

Shively isn't skirting the edges of the nascent industry, but diving right in, in a way that few other entrepreneurs are. Some companies that make high-end marijuana-infused products, such as Colorado-based Dixie Elixirs, are planning to make their brands available in other states, but it's not clear anyone else is taking steps to create a pot empire.

"Developing a national brand in an industry in which it is illegal to move the core product across state lines presents some serious logistical challenges," said Betty Aldworth, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association.

Diego Pellicer's business plan estimates $120,000 of pure profit per month, per recreational pot store. Shively said he plans dozens of stores in Washington and Colorado, earning his company the "Starbucks of Pot" nickname.

At the May 30 news conference, Shively announced Diego's first corporate deal – an arrangement with a Seattle medical marijuana company called the Northwest Patient Resource Center. He said Diego would be starting in the medical marijuana market in Washington and Colorado, and then transitioning some dispensaries to recreational pot stores once the states begin issuing licenses.

Shively said the arrangement was "not in violation of either federal or state law," but it was troubling enough to one of the dispensary company owners that he's walking away from the deal – and the company he helped found – because he fears it puts everyone involved at risk of federal prosecution.

"I'm not an activist. I'm just a businessman," said the part-owner, Thomas Jun, a 42-year-old father of three. "I can't afford to do any federal time."

According to Shively, Diego Pellicer has acquired the option to buy Northwest Patient Resource Center, but does not actually own it. That's what gives Diego Pellicer some protection and allows it to position itself for the time when more states legalize pot and Congress changes federal laws, he said. No marijuana will be moved interstate.

"We don't touch cannabis. We don't have ownership of cannabis," he said. "It's not a perfect insulation or buffer, but it's the best possible mechanism that we can come up with."

Through his lawyer, Douglas Hiatt, Jun provided the AP with internal company documents, including a draft of the $1.6 million agreement dated May 30. The deal directs monthly payments of up to $50,000 from Diego be used to "to further develop and enhance NWPRC's customer locations and to otherwise grow its business as currently conducted." Former federal prosecutors say that could be seen as a conspiracy to violate federal law.

"It certainly would make me nervous to be involved in anything like this," said Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School-Los Angeles and a former assistant U.S. attorney.

Shively called the draft provided to AP "an obsolete document," but declined to provide further details. He also declined to discuss a $10,000 check he wrote to the dispensary company May 27.

The deal highlights the tension between the varying degrees of acceptance of marijuana by the states and the outright prohibition by the federal government, which makes banking and other business functions problematic. For example, beyond the growing and sale of marijuana constituting federal crimes, the movement of money related to marijuana sales likely constitutes money laundering.

Dixie Elixirs won't be directly involved in the growing, processing or sale of pot in multiple states, said Tripp Keber, its managing director. Instead, it will license its technical know-how and recipes to people in Washington or elsewhere who want to produce products under the Dixie Elixirs brand – and try to avoid the attention of federal prosecutors by adhering to state laws.

"Big public federal indictments are going to do the industry a disservice," Keber said.

If Shively's model is endorsed by the regulators writing rules for Washington's pot industry, "then we would be increasing the risk of intervention by the federal government," said Alison Holcomb, the Seattle lawyer who drafted Washington's law.

Shively said investors are advised that the company and those involved could face federal prosecution. A copy of Diego's business plan includes 11 bullet points listing risks the company faces. None specifically suggests those involved could be prosecuted.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/17/jamen-shively-pot-brand-weed-activists_n_3455326.html?utm_hp_ref=business

2013-s Biggest Cannabis Law Reform Victories (So Far)

Nearly halfway through 2013 and it’s already been an incredible, unprecedented year for cannabis law reform. Things are moving at an incredibly fast pace all across the globe, and there’s not even the slightest indication that it’ll slow down until cannabis prohibition is put to an effective end.

Here’s a list, in no particular order, of some of the biggest and most impactful victories so far this year.

• Colorado now has a regulated and taxed recreational cannabis market.

In 2012, Colorado voters approved Amendment 64, making legal cannabis a constitutional right. In addition to legalizing the possession and private cultivation of cannabis, the amendment legalized recreational retail outlets, with regulations handled by the state’s legislature.

In 2013, these regulations – from a governor-appointed task force to the governor’s recent signing of multiple cannabis regulation bills - have been ironed out in a surprisingly effective manner. Work is still left to be done, but enough of a framework has been established that cannabis retail outlets can open, operate and supply cannabis to the masses by next spring.

Even better, the regulations aren’t terrible. Not everything is ideal, but nothing incredibly strict was implemented, cannabis tourism is authorized, residents can grow up to 6 tax-free plants, penalties for minors were reduced to be analogous to a minor in possession of alcohol, etc..

Washington isn’t far behind, and they’re currently formulating their own regulations, but Colorado is clearly the example state that will lead the way for future reform. Everyone’s watching.

• 2013 has been one of, if not the best, year ever in terms of positive cannabis research.

A plethora of cannabis-related scientific research has been released this year, with the majority of the studies being the most comprehensive ever released on the connection between cannabis and that particular condition.

For example; a group from Neuroscience Research Australiahas conducted promising early research indicating that cannabis may reverse the symptoms of dementia, multiple studies have been released – including one published in theAmerican Journal of Medicine - which have found that cannabis may combat diabetes, and numerous other studies have found that cannabis may reverse or effectively combat the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Crohn’s disease, bladder cancer, HIV and brain damage.

• Legislative and political victories continue to mount.

This year alone, the state legislature for four states – Colorado, California, Vermont and Kentucky – have approved measures legalizing hemp cultivation. In Colorado, licensed hemp production could begin as soon as this year, as their law has been signed by the governor and isn’t contingent on a change in federal law.

Just weeks ago in Rhode Island, the possession of up to an ounce of cannabis became no longer a criminal offense thanks to recently approved legislation.

In Vermont, a measure was recently signed by the governor decriminalizing small amounts of cannabis.

In New York, their full Assembly has recently approved a measure decriminalizing the public display of cannabis. The Assembly also approved a measure legalizing medical cannabis, a measure that’s expected to pass the Senate, according to the bill’s prime sponsor.

In Nevada, the state’s governor has just signed a bill legalizing medical cannabis dispensaries throughout the state.

In Illinois, the state’s legislature has approved a medical cannabis legalization measure – it currently sits on the governor’s desk for consideration. The same is true for New Hampshire.

Although the law is far from perfect, Maryland became the 19th medical marijuana state by passing legislation to allow certain academic centers to distribute cannabis to qualified patients.

In France, a decree has just been approved which legalizes cannabis medicines such as teas, sprays and capsules.

In Israel, the number of doctors authorized to prescribe medical cannabis has more than doubled.

In the Czech Republic, it’s now legal for pharmacies to distribute medical cannabis to qualified patients.

Etc., etc.!

• Politicians are beginning to take hemp and cannabis legalization seriously.

In April, Oregon’s House Judiciary Committee became one of the only legislative state committees in U.S. history to approve of the legalization of marijuana - they did so on a 6 to 3 vote: the measure would allow for the possession of up to 24 ounces and 6 plants, and would legalize state-licensed retail outlets. The proposal hasn’t moved forward since its vote in April, but it’s still alive, and advocates have filed legalization initiatives aimed at the 2014 ballot to push lawmakers to act.

Lawmakers in numerous other states – including Maine, New York and Ohio – have been working to pass legalization legislation as well. Multiple elected officials - such as California’s Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom - have come out in favor of legalization, urging other politicians to do the same.

On top of this, the two most legislatively powerful Republicans in the U.S. – Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and House Majority Leader John Boehner – are now working towards hemp legalization. Boehner has only recently indicated that he’ll work towards its passage, but McConnell has been actively pushing for it, including being one of the prime sponsors on federal legislation to end hemp prohibition.

Although much work is left to be done, it’s clear that we’re at a breaking point. Cannabis legalization is nothing less than inevitable.

-

There are many victories that have occurred in 2013 that we didn’t list – we know we missed a lot – but taking a glance at the ones mentioned-above, it’s absolutely clear that it’s been an excellent year for cannabis law reform.

We couldn’t be more excited to see the progress that will be made in the coming year.

Source: The Joint Blog

Marijuana May Improve Stamina, Rejuvenate Brain Says Study

Contrary to the warnings about its ill effects, marijuana may actually have some benefits, including improving stamina and removing damaged brain cells.

This was suggested in a new study by Andras Biokei-Gorzo at the Institute of Molecular Psychiatry at the University of Bonn in Germany.
But lest people think of marijuana as a wonder drug, Biokei-Gorzo also cautioned that more studies about their therapeutic effects may be needed, saying clinical evidence of their efficacy is "either inconclusive or still missing."
"In preclinical models of neurodegenerative disorders, cannabinoids show beneficial effects, but the clinical evidence regarding their efficacy as therapeutic tools is either inconclusive or still missing," Biokey-Gorzo said.
An article on Collective Evolution said the study suggested the activation of the brain’s cannabinoid system triggers the release of antioxidants, which act as a cleansing mechanism.
Such a process may remove damaged cells and improve the efficiency of mitochondria, the energy source that powers cells, it added.

Read the entire article at http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/312937/scitech/science/marijuana-may-improve-stamina-rejuvenate-brain-study

Source : http://www.cannabisculture.com/

Friday M i x