Denver City Council Seeks to Restrict The Number of Marijuana Plants Per Household

After having her last regressive idea, the banning of outdoor marijuana consumption on private property, killed like a rabid dog – Jeannie Robb is at it again. According to Forbes.com, the Denver city Council, which on Monday shot down the idea of trying to stop people from smoking weed on their own private property – regardless of how visible it is by the public – is now germinating limits on home cultivation. Her newest idea is a slap in the face to all who voted for amendment 64, by capping the number of marijuana plants that can be cultivated at any household to 12 – despite the number of adults which may reside there.

Conversely, Amendment 64 permits all state residents over the age of 21 to cultivate up to six cannabis plants, “notwithstanding any other provision of law.” It clearly states that doing so “shall not be an offense under Colorado law or the law of any locality,” provided “the growing takes place in an enclosed, lock space, is not conducted openly or publicly, and is not made available for sale.” As Amendment 64 was passed and is now part of Colorado’s state Constitution, it seems unlikely Rob’s brain-dead proposal would hold up in a court of law.

Regurgitating the mindless new aged reefer madness, Rob’s recent epiphany for a 12-plant-per-household limit, are the same tired talking points spewed by the anti-marijuana group, Smart Colorado, which seems pretty dumb.

“The police are very worried about the homegrows and the problems they could cause,” she told the Denver Post. Specifically, she claims to be worried about “fires, pesticide use, the mold, structural damage, children who might be living in these areas, and THC on surface areas.”

Wait…what – THC on surface areas?

She seems to have the idea that marijuana is equivalent to crystal meth – well, it’s not. Regardless of what Smart Colorado, or the highly educated councilwoman understands about the cultivation process, THC is a sticky, resinous substance that is not vomited back into the environment, polluting all around it.

More concisely, any supposed safety concerns Ms. Robb might have about growing 12 plants, would equally apply to 15, or 20 pot plants. Whatever the real issues that may exist can be handled without capriciously contradicting Colorado voters or their new constitutional freedoms.

Source:

http://www.marijuana.com/news/2013/12/denver-city-council-seeks-to-restrict-the-number-of-marijuana-plants-per-household/

Morocco Marijuana Law Reform: The “Kif” Debate Fires Up!

While Algerian lawmakers were apoplectic over the nonstop Moroccan smuggling of hash this past summer, they may soon have more to worry about – as Moroccan lawmakers debate the idea of legalizing cannabis for both medicinal and industrial uses.

According to Middle East Online, Moroccan lawmakers are anticipated to congregate Wednesday for the purpose of debating the legal ramifications and probability of legalizing the cultivation of marijuana – or as it’s locally referred to “Kif.”

“We are organizing a research day in Parliament on Wednesday, on the use of medical kif (marijuana), with Moroccan and international experts,” noted the head of a liberal opposition party, Mehdi Bensaid.

For those that live in the Riff Mountains of northern Morocco, cannabis cultivation has long been a way of life, at least until it was outlawed in the early 1970s, thereby crushing the local economy. Leaving over 90,000 Moroccan families, approximately 760,000 indigent people on the fringes of Moroccan law.

“The idea is to start a debate on that, to see what others experiences in the field can tell us, looking at control – rather than total legalization,” said Bensaid.

Those Moroccan politicians who support the campaign to have their marijuana laws reformed, claim it would elevate the desperately needed financial development in the Riff Mountain region, benefiting cultivators, rather than drug smugglers illegally trafficking the end product at a monumental profit.

Tired of being left in the financial dust of the failing war on drugs, Morocco seeks to join the fast-growing legions of freethinking countries around the world that have modified their outdated and archaic marijuana laws – such as Holland, Spain, Germany, Italy, Britain, Canada, Australia, the US, and the newest member to the club… the Czech Republic.

Source:

http://www.marijuana.com/news/2013/12/morocco-marijuana-law-reform-the-kif-debate-fires-up/

Marijuana may be contaminated with mold, mildew

WEST HAVEN, Conn. -- The microscope at the University of New Haven, set at 10-times magnification, shows a marijuana leaf covered with dozens of tiny bumps. It's mold, and someone, somewhere could be smoking similarly contaminated pot and not have a clue.

Heather Miller Coyle, a forensic botanist and associate professor at the university, says all sorts of nasty things not visible to the naked eye have been found in marijuana - mold, mildew, insect parts, salmonella and E. coli, to name a few.

That's why Coyle and her students earlier this year began developing a new process to detect contaminants in marijuana through DNA profiling and analysis. The aim is to be able to identify potentially harmful substances through a testing method that could make the analysis easier and quicker for labs across the country in the developing industry of marijuana quality control testing.

Twenty states and Washington, D.C., now allow medical marijuana with a doctor's recommendation, and Washington state and Colorado have legalized the recreational pot use. Connecticut and Washington state already require testing and other states are doing the same, spawning a testing industry.

"If there's no certification ... it's like saying we don't check our meat for mad cow disease," Coyle said. "That's our goal as a private university, to develop the tools to address or mediate this issue."

A number of labs around the country are testing marijuana for contaminants using different methods, many of which have been around for decades and used to test other plants, including food crops, for harmful substances.

The health effects of marijuana tainted with mold, pesticides and other contaminants aren't clear, said Mason Tvert, a Colorado-based spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. The project was founded in 1995 to lobby for the reduction or elimination of penalties for marijuana use.

"Although we have not seen significant problems with tainted marijuana in the past, we should certainly be taking steps to make sure it's not a problem in the future," Tvert said. "We have never seen a death solely associated with marijuana use. The same certainly can't be said of alcohol and other drugs."

Food and Drug Administration records from 1997-2005 show no cases in which marijuana was the primary suspected cause of death, but the drug was listed as a secondary suspected cause contributing to 279 deaths.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in July that an "epidemic" of synthetic drug use has caused rising numbers of deaths and emergency room visits.

One study released earlier this year, however, found that pesticide residues on cannabis are transferred to inhaled marijuana smoke, possibly posing a "significant toxicological threat." The study was done by The Werc Shop, an independent testing lab for medical cannabis in Pasadena, Calif., and published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Toxicology.

Marijuana can develop mold from an inadequate drying process or poor storage conditions after harvesting. It can also become tainted with E. coli and other dangerous substances by being near farm animals.

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Coyle will be developing a new method for creating DNA profiles of biological contaminants found in marijuana including mold, viruses, fungi and bacteria. The profiles could then be compared with DNA profiles of organisms kept in a database maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information -- a division of the National Institutes of Health.

"What we're trying to do is put the information together in a user-friendly format," Coyle said. "Having some better technology in place is a good thing."

The university's work also will include identifying whether cannabis material is real marijuana or a synthetic version comprising non-marijuana herbs sprayed with THC, the compound that gets users high.

Coyle is aiming to complete the new process by next summer. What happens after that hasn't been determined. The school could patent the process and sell it for a fee to whoever wanted to use it, or could allow its use for free, she said. The school also could establish its own commercial testing lab.

The University of New Haven's work is an extension of the law enforcement-related marijuana DNA profiling the school has done over the past five years under a $100,000 grant from the federal Office of National Drug Control Policy's High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas program. The school created a marijuana DNA profile database that has helped federal authorities determine where illegal pot growers and dealers got their product.

This undated photograph provided by the a University of New Haven, and taken by a microscope set to 10-times magnification, shows a marijuana leaf covered with mold. The school, located in West Haven, Conn., is developing a new method to identify contaminants in marijuana using DNA profiling and analysis. 

Source:

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/marijuana-contaminated-with-mold-mildew/

CBDV Suppresses Seizures, Says New Study

A new study published by the National Institute of Health has found that cannabidivarin (CBDV) – a non-psychoactive compound found naturally in cannabis - can effectively decrease the severity of seizures, and in many instances suppress them entirely.

According to the study’s abstract; “Consistent with previous findings, CBDV significantly decreased PTZ-induced seizure severity (median: 3.25) and increased latency to the first sign of seizure.”

They continue; “Furthermore, there were correlations between reductions of seizure severity and mRNA expression of Fos, Egr1, Arc, Ccl4 and Bdnf in the majority of brain regions in the CBDV+PTZ treated group. When CBDV treated animals were grouped into CBDV responders (criterion: seizure severity ≤3.25) and non-responders (criterion: seizure severity >3.25), PTZ-induced increases of Fos, Egr1, Arc, Ccl4 and Bdnf expression were suppressed in CBDV responders.”

Researchers conclude that; “These results provide the first molecular confirmation of behaviourally observed effects of the non-psychoactive, anticonvulsant cannabinoid, CBDV, upon chemically-induced seizures and serve to underscore its suitability for clinical development.”

The study can be found here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24282673

Source:

http://thejointblog.com/cbdv-suppresses-seizures-says-new-study/

Germany: Berlin Council Votes To Open First Cannabis Cafe

Berlin could soon be enjoying its very own legal marijuana, as the parliament of the trendy and hip Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district voted overwhelmingly in favor of a measure that could see the first legal coffee shop in the country.

After barely a month in office, the then-newly elected Mayor of the area, the Green Party’s Monika Hermann, came up with the idea in September to turn her district into a zone free of cannabis laws, akin to Amsterdam’s coffee shops or Copenhagen’s famed Christiania district. 

The idea was born out of a realization that dealing with drug crime in the area’s famous Görlitzer Park was simply too much hassle for authorities, when their time could be better spent tackling hard drugs and organized crime. 

According to Hermann, since the beginning of the year police have raided the park 113 times, detaining 984 people and launching criminal proceedings against 310 people. 

The result of the district parliament’s vote has been turned into an application to be submitted to the Federal Institute for Drugs and Medical Devices. This should turn the infamous Görlitzer Park into a pilot project for marijuana legalization, the Berliner Zeitung reported on Friday, following the Green Party’s Thursday announcement. 

The resulting petition was drawn up in cooperation with various experts, counseling centers and area residents. 

“It's not that I want to create a happy drug country,” Hermann stressed. “But I believe that we can mitigate the problem of drugs in the park by it.” 

She believes that the “ban policy has failed” and that “we must now think of unusual solutions.” 

Although the possession and sale of soft drugs in Germany is still against the law, police leniency towards pot has been on the rise, while steps toward its decriminalization have been taking place since the mid-nineties.

One example of this is that possession of small amounts is no longer considered a criminal offense, while under the new proposed law, possession of as much as 15 grams could result in as little as a slap on the wrist. 

There are grey areas everywhere in the application of the law as well, with the northern part of the country being more relaxed about the drug than the south, although leniency is evident all over. And this is a concern for some of Germany’s more leftist and democratic parties as well, with some of them asserting there are much harder and more dangerous drugs than pot. 

Krezuberg will now seek to iron out the remaining legal issues with marijuana, including questions relating to who will be the distributors and sellers. 

Noteworthy is the fact that according to Article 3 of the Narcotics Act, sufficient public interest has the potential to lead to legalization, provided that reasonable public and scientific evidence is given. 

However, the German authorities don’t seem too thrilled by the idea of a coffee shop operating at Görlitzer Park. 

“Cannabis is not a harmless substance, but holds for many, especially young people significant health risks,” Christina Köhler-Azara, Germany’s Drug Commissioner, stressed. 

The Health Ministry spokeswoman said that a “drug is a drug”, and despite the fact that possession of small amounts of pot is allowed, it still remains forbidden to sell it. 

Source:

http://rt.com/news/marijuana-berlin-shop-opens-462/

Marijuana treatments for autoimmune disorders

Researchers from the University of South Carolina say that tetrahydrocannabinol, the principal constituent of marijuana, may have another medical use - treating those with autoimmune disorders.

Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is known to have analgesic effects so can be used to treat pain. It also aids relaxation and can reduce feelings of nausea and stimulate appetite, making it useful for those undergoing chemotherapy.

Now, a new study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, explores how microRNAs are influenced by THC.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, single-stranded, non-coding RNAs that play a vital role in regulating gene expression. And the authors claim that the ability to alter miRNA expression may be the key to successful treatment for many autoimmune diseases, including multiple sclerosis, arthritis and type 1 diabetes.

The researchers, from the university's School of Medicine, injected mice with THC and analyzed their RNA. Of the 609 miRNAs tested, the researchers identified 13 that were highly altered by the THC.

Stopping gene expression

MiRNAs greatly influence the immune system, acting as "brakes" that target more than 60% of all gene expression. Since miRNAs usually suppress the expression of genes, when a miRNA is over-expressed, the affected gene gets silenced.

But when a miRNA is turned off, the affected gene is expressed at a higher level.

The report states that the regulation of gene expression by miRNAs is thought to be vital in a wide range of biological processes. The authors point to emerging evidence that suggests miRNAs "regulate the development, differentiation and function of a variety of immune cells including myeloid cells."

For this study, the researchers also explored one specific miRNA - miRNA-690 - that was greatly over-expressed by the presence of THC and targets an important protein called C/EBPα. This protein, in turn, triggers myeloid-derived suppressor cells (MDSC), which suppress inflammation.

When the researchers successfully knocked out the miRNA-690, the effect of THC was reversed.

The current study, led by Dr. Venkatesh Hegde, suggests the effects of marijuana may be "a double-edged sword." Its ability to suppresses inflammation provides effective treatment against inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, but that very action may leave the body open and vulnerable to other diseases.

Lead authors Drs. Prakash and Mitzi Nagarkatti have studied how marijuana can alter immune functions and inflammation for over a decade. They were the first to show that marijuana components trigger MDSC to suppress inflammation.

Dr. Mitzi Nagarkatti, chair of the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at USC's School of Medicine, says the latest study demonstrates that understanding how to control microRNA expression holds tremendous potential for new medical breakthroughs.

She explains:

"MicroRNA therapeutics is an important, rapidly growing area with major pharmaceutical companies getting into this discovery and development. While our study identifies the molecular mechanism of immune-altering effects of marijuana, select microRNA identified here could serve as important molecular targets to manipulate MDSC activity in cancer and inflammatory diseases."

This is not the first study to herald the medicinal qualities of marijuana. Medical News Today reported last month that chemicals within the plant may protect the body against multiple sclerosis.

Written by Belinda Weber

Source:

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/269432.php

A Proper Vacuum Oven Is Vital To The BHO Extraction Process

(by  Johnny Green)

Butane Hash Oil’s Quality Is Largely Determined By The Quality Of Vacuum Oven Used During The Purging Process

The popularity level of butane hash oil (BHO) is growing exponentially. BHO (or ‘dabs’) has been around for a long time, but in the last five years it seems like everyone I know is either consuming BHO for the first time, or consuming it more, or they making it themselves. I have a handful of friends that I would consider to be true BHO experts. My criteria for BHO expert is simple – if my mouth salivates when I think about your BHO, you are an expert.

If you are a BHO fan, you have likely seen quite a bit of low grade BHO. It’s grey in color, tastes awful, and makes you say things like ‘is this safe to consume?’ While there are many factors that determine the quality of BHO, one of the largest contributing factors is the quality of vacuum oven being used during the purging process. Almost anyone can get quality pre-run these days, and almost everyone can blast properly. However, if people don’t have a proper vacuum oven for purging their product, there is so much undesirable material left behind that it ruins the BHO.

A lot of rookie BHO makers that I know have really cheap BHO vacuum ovens, or no ovens at all. The ones that do have ovens have cheap BHO vacuum ovens that they got off of the internet from E-bay or Craigslist that are made in China. I understand that starting out can be expensive, but skimping on your BHO vacuum oven only hurts your product and reputation in the long run. And as more and more BHO makers step up their equipment, you will be left behind.

The BHO consumer is becoming pickier every day, and they will only consume BHO that has been properly purged using a high quality BHO vacuum oven. I know I’m picky when it comes to BHO; pickier than I am with flower. If you make BHO, and you are trying to take your BHO to the next level, make sure you have a quality BHO vacuum oven.

I recently toured a facility where they make BHO vacuum ovens, at a company named Cascade Tek. Unlike cheap BHO vacuum ovens that are made in China, these are made in the United States, right in my home state of Oregon. Unlike other vacuum ovens that were designed with other purposes in mind, these vacuum ovens were designed with BHO extraction in mind. The result from using their oven is an end product that is better than anything else I’ve ever consumed before. More about their vacuum ovens below, courtesy of their website:

The Most Effective Turnkey Solution for BHO Extraction

Since 1992 we have been building vacuum ovens and understand the specific challenges associated with production-scale, high-volume BHO Extraction.

Why Use A Vacuum Oven?

Large-Scale Extraction.  The key to thorough solvent extraction is surface area.  You need to have considerable surface area to off-gas solvents like butane.  Our smallest vacuum oven, (TVO-2) offers over four square feet of processing shelf space.  Processes in a tank or vat are extremely inefficient and will produce incomplete purging of the product.  The TVO-2′s three solid shelves accommodate multiple Pyrex dishes and vacuum allowd the extraction at uniform low temps.

Temperature Uniformity.  The most difficult temperature range to control is just close to ambient.  Vacuum ovens control low temps evenly.  Anything other than a vacuum oven can produce hot spots and temp spikes that can destroy microceuticals and ruin your product.

Why a Chemical Duty Vacuum Pump?

Butane Ruins Pumps.  Chemical duty pumps offer the flexibility of using a trap to collect Butane for reuse and /or disposal or exhausting to a safe location.  Oil sealed pumps require use of a foreline trap because utane will destroy the internal workings of the pump.  Chemical duty pumps are not destroyed by butane and eliminate the need for a foreline trap.

The Ideal Pressure.  The ultimate pressure of the pump we recommend is 1.5 torr.  Any lower vacuum and substances like Delta 9 THC will “boil off” and that’s bad.

Source: 

http://www.theweedblog.com/a-proper-vacuum-oven-is-vital-to-the-bho-extraction-process/