Commission continues work on medical marijuana dispensaries ordinance
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
CLEARLAKE – Another public hearing on proposed rules for medical marijuana dispensaries in the city of Clearlake yielded further refinements, pointed to possible trouble spots and raised additional questions.
The Clearlake Planning Commission held a lengthy public hearing at its Dec. 15 meeting to discuss the proposed medical marijuana ordinance, which has been in the works since earlier this year.
Two days later, on Dec. 17, the Clearlake City Council would vote during a special morning meeting to
extend for another 10 months and 15 days a temporary moratorium on the opening of new dispensaries in the city limits, while the ordinance governing them is worked out.
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County issues medical marijuana IDs
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
San Diego County has received 260 applications for medical marijuana ID cards since it launched the program in July, according to county health officials.
Nearly half the applications were from people ages 31-50, according to data provided by the county. A quarter of the applicants lived in North County, most of them in Carlsbad.
All of the applicants paid $166 for the card, which identifies them as legitimate medical marijuana patients entitled to carry up to 8 ounces of pot.
The county implemented the program this past summer after it lost a long legal struggle challenging the state law that required counties to provide the ID cards. The law does not require medical marijuana patients to have a card.
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Tags: marijuana ID
R.I. lawmakers to consider loosening marijuana laws
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
PROVIDENCE – A Senate commission will soon explore whether Rhode Island should decriminalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana and tax the drug, a path recently taken by Massachusetts.
Commission members are exploring several questions that suggest an underlying skepticism with criminalizing marijuana, including whether existing prohibitions have decreased drug use, caused corruption among law enforcement officials, and resulted in violence. The panel will present its findings early next year.
Commission member Nick Horton, a policy researcher for OpenDoors, which works to reintegrate criminal offenders into society, said presidential candidates have admitted using marijuana but people in his Providence neighborhood still get jailed for it. “That double standard does more harm than good to our justice system,’’ he said.
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Tags: RI marijuana legislation
February trial set in marijuana case
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
WINCHESTER — A Winchester father and son arrested last August after police allegedly saw marijuana plants growing in their apartment through an open window facing Main Street have received a Feb. 10 trial date in Randolph Superior Court.
Glenn E. Younker, 51, is charged with maintaining a common nuisance, a Class D felony carrying a standard 18-month prison term, and possession of marijuana, a misdemeanor.
His son, Jeremiah J. Younker, 24, faces the same charges as his father, and is also charged with possession of a narcotic drug, a Class D felony. Authorities said they found six oxycodone pills in the younger Younker’s bedroom.
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Tags: marijuana trial, Winchester
Medicinal marijuana offers nothing but benefits
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
The trial of John Wilson earlier this month highlighted the need for the New Jersey Legislature to pass a law legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana.
Wilson is a middle-aged Franklin (Somerset) resident who was brought to trial in Superior Court in Somerville by the state attorney general’s office on serious charges of growing marijuana on property he rented in the township. Wilson was facing 20 years in state prison on a first-degree charge of operating a drug maunufacturing facility.
Wilson was acquitted of that charge, but was found guilty of lesser charges of growing marijuana and possession of psilocybin mushrooms. He will be sentenced on Feb. 5.
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Tags: marijuana benefits
Marijuana ‘Munchies’ May Be Rooted in Biology
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
THURSDAY, Dec. 24 (HealthDay News) — New research sheds some light on the “munchies” — the desire that pot smokers sometimes have to eat lots of food.
THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, is similar to substances known as endocannabinoids, which are produced in the brain and body and enhance the perception of sweet foods, researchers say.
“Our taste cells may be more involved in regulating our appetites than we had previously known,” said Dr. Robert Margolskee, a molecular biologist at Monell Chemical Senses Center and co-author of a new study, in a statement. “Better understanding of the driving forces for eating and overeating could lead to interventions to stem the burgeoning rise in obesity and related diseases.”
Endocannabinoids “both act in the brain to increase appetite and also modulate taste receptors on the tongue to increase the response to sweets,” study senior author Yuzo Ninomiya, a professor of oral neuroscience at Kyushu University in Japan, said in a statement.
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That joint? It’s all in the name of research
Dec 27, 2009 Online Issue
Franco bullwhips a 25-foot-long plastic bag through the air, snapping it behind 
him, sending the tail sailing over his head. The bag looks like a balloon-animal anaconda and he’s the half-magician / half-matador who makes it dance. He’s certainly got the crowd’s attention. They watch as the plastic snake grows in length, slowly filling with smoky mist, the freshly vaporized essence of the 2008 and current Cannabis Cup winner, Super Lemon Haze.
Franco is one of the legendary Strain Hunters, an A-team of globe-trotting cannabis breeders who seek out rare landrace strains of marijuana. They’ve made expeditions to Malawi and India searching for pure plant genetics, marijuana strains unaffected by hybridization or cross-pollination. If it was a tomato, we’d call it heirloom.
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Tags: Franco
