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*Your local laws may vary.

Damn straight!

1) Snoop has always been hooked up.

2) Even if Snoop did need the legizzle shizzle, anyone in the LBC can get a medical MJ note from a doctor and hit one of the legal collective stores, there are at least 30 in Long Beach.

I grew up in Mendocino County.

Measure G passed in 2000. This is a county ordinance that allows for people to grow up to 25 female marijuana plants for personal use (i.e. not for sale) legally.

http://www.canorml.org/news/mendorelse.html

http://stopthedrugwar.org/in_the_trenches/2007/apr/25/amma_press_release_victory_mendo

I'm not sure, but this ordinance seems compatible with the statewide Proposition 215. It is still illegal under federal law, of course.

Most pot growing is still illegal under California Law. Under Prop 215 you can grow pot for personal use provided your doctor has prescribed it.

This must be a troll. Seriously. Anyone who says "they don't want to pop you for looking for weed" is just yanking your chain.

The FBI and DEA, in addition to being unconstitutional agencies, are prime movers behind the War On Some Politically Incorrect Drugs. Here's a list of them slapping people in prison for their weed (this is just recent California cases): http://www.canorml.org/news/fedmmjcases.html

And anyone who thinks there are nests of terrorist cells in the U.S. is also trolling. Syracuse University's TRAC came out with a report this week that says only four terrorist cases *since 9/11* have dealt with allegations of domestic attacks.

Posters like the parent have a greater chance of choking to death on their own bile than dying in a terrorist attack.

That's some really interesting information - I am surprised that the federal rules are as harsh as they are. It looks like the moral is to be charge by state enforcement and not federal.

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/moscone/c hap3.htm

http://www.canorml.org/laws/calmjlaws.html

So in california, smoking a joint in your home (first offense): misdemeanor.
Anything having to do with selling: felony.

That doesn't surprise me.

Looks like it's about the same in Kansas (random sample):
http://www.norml.org/pdf_files/state_penalties/NOR ML_KS_State_Penalties.pdf

One further addition: medical cannabis is sold in easily distinguishable forms that basically range from getting high (for depression from chronic pain) to analgesic with little psychological effect. Further, some of the effects from smoking weak grades of cannabis are caused by the proportion of carbon monoxide, benzene, etc in the partially combusted smoke. A far better technique is the Volcano http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/vaporizerstudy2 .html which passes thermostatically controlled electrically heated air through a container of cannabis, in the vicinity of 470 degrees F. Approximately four to ten times more efficient in effect, and minus the toxic side effects of burning organic matter.

some studies have shown it does more damage to your lungs than smoking a pack of cigarrettes.

To put this in perspective, crack cocaine, oxycodone (aka percoset or oxycontin), methamphetamine (speed) and PCP, are all schedule 2 drugs, which makes it easier to obtain approval to conduct research using them, or approve a new medical application of them. (DEA Drug Scheduling: http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/scheduling.html/)

*Marinol is available in pill form, but it is the synthesis of only one of the active drugs in marijuana smoke, leaving other, potentially useful counterparts out. While I understand the refusal of the FDA to approve of smoke administered drugs, vaporizers eliminate the harms of smoking, and have existed since the 1970s. Recent models such as the "Volcano" eliminate any realistic health objections (evidence: http://www.canorml.org/healthfacts/vaporizerstudy2 .html/ and pictures here: http://www.storz-bickel.com/en_home.htm/ )

Overall, inhalation is a superior delivery mechanism for pain that comes on quickly. This is because ingested marijuana (or Marinol alone) takes some time to be released and will remain in the body for long periods of time, making it ineffective in alleviating flare-ups.

It would be a helpful first step if marijuana were rescheduled given the fact that it does not possess the abuse potential the FDA claims. Marijuana has never been shown to be physically/chemically addicting, unlike all of the schedule 2 drugs I mentioned, as well as tobacco. Furthermore, marijuana doesn't have a significant lethal dose potential, unlike all of the schedule 2 drugs I mentioned, or even alcohol for that matter! It's time we got over our government propaganda induced fear and approve beneficial medical applications as a minimal first step. Our irrational fear hurts those with chronic pain, forcing ordinary people to choose between breaking the law or suffering needlessly.

Re: lethal dose of Marijuana and Alcohol - "There is a major health risk of acute alcohol use that is not shared with cannabis. In large doses alcohol can cause death by asphyxiation, alcohol poisoning, cardiomyopathy and cardiac infarct. There are no recorded cases of overdose fatalities attributed to cannabis, and the estimated lethal dose for humans extrapolated from animal studies is so high that it cannot be achieved by recreational users." (Source: http://www.legalisieren.at/studien/who/comparison. htm/)

...further recognizing that marijuana prohibition, like alcohol prohibition in its heyday, creates more problems then it solves would be icing on the cake. I'm not holding my breath for that one, especially given the White House's historic position and the recent Bush Supreme Court nominee.

-Scott

Classic examples: Legalize marijuana, but make it illegal as hell to drive while intoxicated by marijuana because it's the intoxicated driving that directly injures other people, not the actual intoxication.

A 2002 review of seven separate crash culpability studies involving 7,934 drivers reported, "Crash culpability studies [which attempt to correlate the responsibility of a driver for an accident to his or her consumption of a drug and the level of drug compound in his or her system] have failed to demonstrate that drivers with cannabinoids in the blood are significantly more likely than drug-free drivers to be culpable in road crashes"

There has been a move in the UK to make driving while under the influence of canabis illegal ON TOP of simple possesion, and they had a study comparing the effects of alcohol, canabis and sleep deprivation to justify their new law.

They were dismayed that canabis not only didn't seem to impair driving, but that the test subjects were actually performing better "high" than "sober". Not only that, but sleep deprivation turned out to be much more devastating on driving skills than alcohol intoxication, yet they weren't making a law againts that.

THe exciting thing about this product is that it is small enough and inconspicuous enough to use like a normal cig, but without the smoke.

The current nictone subsitutes (gums and patches) are really expensive, so this could be a much more afordable way to help addicts stop putting gunk in their lungs.