|
 
Brian Taylor: Editor-in-
Chief
Circa 1974
30
something year olds were recently talking
on the net. “How is it that
thousands of hippies went to Woodstock
and were enlightened and thousands
more got lost and didn’t make it,
and now all we see is just a few white
haired
ones in the movement?” “Well
grasshopper,” responded the other,
“you see, all
those people went home and got jobs and
raised families and they are now too afraid
of losing the
comforts of the good life they have built
on some stupid cause like peace or pot.”
On the less cynical
side of financial success and independence,
it is nice to know that you can stand
up tall and say “It is
time for a change” and still send
the kids to college.
The
Canadian election will be over by the
time you read this journal. Canadians
will likely have
elected a minority Liberal government
and changes to Canadian marijuana laws
following the election
will once more be back on theagenda in
parliament. The US will be heading for
the polls in November;
the outcome of that election is anyone’s
bet. You can bet on some limited attention
and interest from
the US prohibitionist forces in the re-shaping
of the Canadian marijuana laws, but with
all the other
challenges the US faces, the pro marijuana
ballot initiatives and the continued legal
victories of
medical marijuana patients against federal
interference, this would seem the ideal
time for Canada to
take bold action and follow the Canadian
senate recommendations. Sativex is expected
to be
introduced into Canada in late summer.
In this first phase, the new under the
tongue spray will be
available to a select group of MS patients.
As that old visionary Laurence McKinney
would say, how
can you introduce a medicine made from
a concentrated extract of cannabis and
still continue to vilify
the whole cannabis plant? Don’t
you wish sometimes that hindsight came
earlier.
CHJ
recently ran a picture by an exceptional
graphic artist, Dave Sheridan (see CHJ
May /June page
30). We found out that Dave died in the
80`s of lymphatic cancer. Dave had a clear
vision of the
future, a time when cannabis would again
be a common commodity in the western economy.
His art
showed the optimism of his time, the belief
that this senseless drug war would soon
be ended and the
forces of the market and the art of the
people would shape the look of the cannabis
industry. In
recent months, I have become sensitized
to the cannabis culture, or more accurately
the “counter
culture”. So named, I assume, because
it existed at the same time as, and was
often openly opposed
to the culture of the day. Those who experienced
the epiphany of the 60`s, are now grandmas
and
granddads. That 70`s revival phenomena…
just the grandkids acting out. The couple
on the cover are
a reminder that around the world the use
of cannabis is still part of everyday
life, not a crime, no
license is required, just part of a peaceful
agricultural life.
Brian
McAndrew our production manager has moved
on to new creative adventures in life.
He was a
founding board member of the Cannabis
Health Foundation and one of the founders
of the journal.
Brian spent many long hours over the past
two years making the Journal happen and
giving it the
artistic look he desired.
Thanks and farewell.
Grand
Forks Home and Garden Show
Gord Taylor and Lisa Smith
Letters
to the editor
Your children
know you smoke pot.
About 1989 or so, I started to have a
hard time with the lie. You know,
taking a walk, smoking on the porch, telling
them the little plants you take such good
care of are flowers.
What I began to see as sad, was the fact
that we were raising a generation of children
who were being
taught by example to lie and deceive.
If Mom and Dad smoke pot and lie to me,
then it must be ok from me
to, say, drink and lie to them or have
sex and lie to them. You know, I never
thought this would become a
problem in my life. I thought the laws
would just naturally change as people
awoke to the gentle nature of
the herb. Laws have changed ,they have
become harsher .Oregon state once had
a liberal attitude to pot,
but right now young people are going to
jail for four years for possession of
more than 100 plants of any
age. If I decide to be socially disobedient,
I owe it to myself, my children and my
community to do
something to change the law . I once felt
the power to make this change would come
to my generation in
their forties, I see now it will be later,
in our fifties. The fifties are just around
the corner for many of us.
Hypocrisy is a rot on your soul. Let us
begin to speak out and make our stand.
What we have to win
could pay off the national debt in three
years, what we have to lose is the respect
of our children. Your
children know you smoke !!
Hemp Magick Masque
“softer than an angel’s ass”
Having used the above mentioned product
and having tested the results, I must
disagree with the above
noted assessment. With the cooperation
of the Boundary Hospital laboratory staff
and the good offices
of Dr. Jeanne, through laser technology,
the latest radiographic gadgetry, INR’s
(Internal Normalcy
Ratios) and a dollop of onomatopoeia devoid
of fundamentalist homophobia, we conclusively
determined that my exterior is 33.78 per
cent SOFTER than the ass of the angel
studied. Perhaps the
Ontario study considered the sheathing
of an agnostic angel. Do agnostics have
angels?
Yours truly, Bill Cooper, Grand Forks
,BC
Although I read Cannabis Health
Journal regularly, with great
interest, I assumed that only people with
chronic illnesses would benefit being
treated with marijuana, instead of the
vast array of medications
available at the pharmacies. I now know
better !! During the long, hot (45*C)
summer of last year, I
suffered daily with nausea. The many Travel-Tabs
I swallowed were rejected by my stomach
. It was
suggested that I try a marijuana cigarette.
I am a smoker, and very much enjoy it,
however, the aroma,
which is a concern for me, of the burning
marijuana cigarette was almost intolerable.
I was then offered a
marijuana cookie. When I ate it, my stomach
relaxed and the nausea disappeared. This
relief was
consistently achieved with roughly a quarter
of a cookie 3 – 4 times per day.
I found this dosage very
comfortable and it kept me free of the
nausea and vomiting. This spring, when
I badly hurt my back, I
asked for more cookies. This was the first
time in my life and, I’ll be 73
years young next month, that I had
gone to a physician and had an x-ray taken.
After the x-ray, despite the help of two
canes, I had great
difficulty getting from the lying down
position into a sitting or standing position.
Through it all, the
cookies were a tremendous help. In a few
weeks, I felt much better. I no longer
needed the canes or people
to help me move. I now consider myself
to be in tip top shape !! I have been
a smoker for over 50 years,
but when the taxes skyrocketed, I cut
down considerably. I found the less I
smoked, the higher my blood
pressure became. Instead of taking more
and stronger medication, I tried a piece
of cookie daily. You can’t
imagine how surprised and happy I was
to find my blood pressure came down to
an acceptable level and
stayed there as long as I ate my piece
of cookie daily. No more worries about
a stroke !! In closing, I
would like to caution readers that this
is my personal experience with marijuana,
and the effects of cannabis
may be different for others. Ilsa B.,
from BC
by J.P. King
I am one of the “lucky few”
who has the Federal Authorization to possess
marijuana as medicine .
It took 2 1/2 years and I endured every
form of treatment for my conditions (Chronic
Pain Syndrome,
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibro Myalgia
,Hep CTx X2 successfully, and other co-morbidity)
that exist.
Prior to becoming disabled, I worked for
the provincially funded Alcohol and Drug
Agency in West
Vancouver . I was the A&D counselor
for youth and families in West Van. I
had worked in that field
for 14-15 years, prior to that I worked
as a nurses aide with mentally and physically
challenged people.
The reason I have become a reluctant activist
is that I cannot stand to see the suffering
created by the
war on drugs mentality. And it is here
in my hometown.
Yesterday’s paper had a story of
a military style sweep in a neighbourhood
near
my home; they were after “Grow Ops”.
I know that crime is becoming more associated
with marijuana. I’ve
been ripped off by pirates when I was
too ill to do anything about it. But a
military style sweep through a
quiet neighbourhood is foolish. I don’t
trust any policy that puts my tax dollars
or money stolen through
“Profits of Crime” legislation
into military response to drugs, especially
marijuana. The situation is only
justified by keeping marijuana, a harmless
herb and beneficial medicine, illegal.
The profits go to the
capitalist pigs who don’t care who
they hurt. The good cultivators get lumped
in with a criminal element
that grows pot fast, cheap and stony,
but useless as medicine because of the
adulterants. We need to
legalize marijuana now. With the election
on the way, we need to inundate the provincial
capitals and
Ottawa with letters calling for legislation,
not the re-criminalizing Bill C-10.
If the politicians see a lot of letters,
especially if you take the time to write
your own, each letter is viewed
as a block of votes. If enough letters
call for a full legalization, it becomes
an issue that must be addressed.
I have created a template letter that
can be copied in whole or in part and
sent to your representatives. We
tend to be fiercely individualistic people.
Most of us hold strong views about a full
range of issues. I want
to hear them all. Write me, send me your
ideas, grow products, vaporizers, pipes,
papers, cannabis food,
buds, tinctures (non-alcoholic please),
any and all good, safe products that should
be included in a guide
book for medical use. Apotropaic MusicSte
133 – 255, Newport Drive Port
Moody ,BC V3H 5H1 book for
medical use.
 Berwick,
Nova Scotia photo taken by Clifford F.
Wright, MPA ,
courtesy and copyright of Patricia White.
A new registered
non-profit organization is hosting Atlantic
Canada’s first annual Hemp Festival
in the beautiful, bountiful
Annapolis Valley from July 31 –
August 1, 2004 . This Hemp
Festival will be the celebration of a
wonderful, health- giving plant
and a call for our government to abolish
a totally unjust, archaic
law. Although early to reflect a “harvest
theme ”, mid-summer will
find the Annapolis Valley in the midst
of tourism season with
many attractions for people planning a
summer getaway in
Canada’s Ocean Playground.
On a more practical level,
Nova Scotian nights are also more
conducive at this time of year for outdoor
events and camping.
Many of the booked speakers will reflect
the government’s gross
mishandling of the Medical Marijuana Access
Regulations and how
this atrocious situation negatively impacts
on the country’s
chronically ill. Among the speakers are
Jim Wood, owner of the
Cannabis Café, New Brunswick; Patrick
Hardy, federal exemptee who was arrested
in Moncton during Marc
Emery’s Summer of Legalization Tour
for consuming and possessing his legally
prescribed medicine;
Debbie Stultz -Giffin , federal exemptee
and chair of MUMM; and John Cook, Vice
Chair of MUMM and
director of the Cannabis Buyers Club of
Canada, Halifax Outlet. Judith Renaud
, Canadian Chair of
Educators for Sensible Drug Policy will
speak about implementing appropriate drug
reform, including
providing our children with accurate,
current information about drugs in our
education system, thereby
improving student-teacher relationships
and creating safer, happier schools. Bands
for this event have
played in bars and at festivals throughout
the Maritimes and beyond.
Our headline act for this
premiere Hemp Festival is the Terry Edmunds
Band, from Halifax . Terry has played
extensively for the last 30 years from
coast to coast, in Canada and the US ,
doing warm up for musicians
like Joe Cocker, Johnny Winter, the Muddy
Waters Band and Joni Mitchell. He is a
skilled guitarist and
recording artist; in fact, Muddy Waters
has likened Terry Edmunds’s guitar
playing to Johnny Winter and
Eric Clapton. This act is sure to be a
crowd pleaser. Other confirmed bands are
City Fish (an original blend
of blues, rock and country) , Muddy
Creek (original folk/rock), the Blue Marble
Band (60’s and folk with
contemporary rhythms and a solid rock
beat) and the Backroom Blues Band (specializing
in delivering the
best of party/dance music, blues style).
Steve’s Hydroponics Headquarters,
Lower Sackville and
Greenwonder ,Dartmouth are assisting with
band sponsorship . Tickets for the
Hemp Festival will be $25.00
in advance and for MUMM members and $30.00
at the gate. Admission includes a camping
site for one
night. Fox Mountain Campground has complete
facilities, including a canteen, showers
and is wheelchair
accessible. Camping sites include a large
field overlooking the scenic Annapolis
Valley for tenting, and
there are several hundred spots available
for campers requiring electricity. A canteen
is on site, barbequed
hot dogs will be available, full breakfast
(bacon, eggs, hash browns, toast and beverages)
will be prepared
for $5.00 and a barbequed Montreal pork
shoulder roast supper with all the fixings
will be served for $7.50.
Several vendors will be selling memorabilia,
paraphernalia and goods and services (i.e.:
intuitive readings,
chair massage) reflective of the body/mind/
spirit theme. A central campfire will
be available. Adhering to
responsible cannabis consumption, there
will be a zero tolerance policy in place
for alcohol/drug abuse and
violence.
Anyone who would like to set up early
or stay later to partake of the many festivities
occurring in the
Annapolis Valley , or just to relax, put
your feet up and start thinking about
Hemp Festival 2005, additional
camping time will be available. Tenting
only will be $5.00/night and fees for
those requiring hookups will be
$12.00. For additional information: Email:
chair@mumm.ca http://www.wvda.com/en/visitor/
index.php )
Wed,
12 May 2004 Globe and Mail ( Canada )
The world’s first proposed cannabis-laced
prescription drug to relieve pain may
get its start in Canada .
Pharmaceutical giant Bayer announced yesterday
that it has applied to Health Canada for
permission to
market the drug Sativex to those who suffer
from multiple sclerosis and severe neuropathic
pain. The
application was made in conjunction with
the developers of the drug, the pioneering
British firm GW
Pharmaceuticals, which has been growing
about 40,000 pot plants a year at a secret
location in a
government approved research project.
Sativex is a medicinal mouth spray developed
from the major
components of marijuana, including tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).
It would be the first prescription drug
that uses real marijuana extracts and
not a synthesized form,
according to its proponents. GW executive
chairman Geoffrey Guy has said the cannabis-derived
spray will
not get patients high since it is sprayed
under the tongue, rather than smoked or
swallowed. “They see the
benefit without getting stoned.”
Early trials of the drug in Britain showed
that it was a safe and effective
treatment to relieve painful symptoms
of multiple sclerosis. Two weeks ago,
the company announced that it
did not expect British regulators to approve
the drug for use by multiple-sclerosis
patients until much later
in the year. So, in the meantime, Canada
has been asked for permission to market
the drug. About 50,000
Canadians have multiple sclerosis. At
least half of them suffer significant
pain, according to the drug
companies’ statement.
 August
26 through 29 is Planetary Pride’s
6th Annual Cannabis
Festival celebrating the cannabis plant.
The event will be held at a
location just outside Sault Ste Marie,
a 45 minute run from the
Ontario/Michigan border. The Planetary
Pride Hempfest is, in itself, a
Community. We gather, once a year, deep
in the forests of scenic
Northern Ontario and celebrate the Cannabis
plant. Hempfest attracts
people from a wide range of cultural
and ethnic backgrounds from all
corners of North America . One just has
to look around their immediate
campsite to discover new friends from
all over the world. Almost 1,000
citizens attended Hempfest in 2003. The
Hempfest 2004 crew is
planning on 2,000, and because of last
year’s huge success, we have
even added an extra day. Thursday night
is Movie Night, so all the
travelers, and there are hundreds of you,
come in, grab a camp site
and enjoy some movies and the natural
beauty of the area. The
scenery in the Algoma District is breathtaking
and many of the regular
Hempfest Citizens vacation in the area,
both before and after the
festival. The festivities this year include
20+ Bands, guest speakers,
demonstrations on Bubble Hash and the
Volcano, competitions like
Junk Yard Bong Wars, Rolling Contest,
Big Bud Weigh-in. Have fun,
be entertained and meet some of the best
cannabis people from all
over North America . The cost for all
this over 4 days with camping
included is just $25.00 per person or
$35.00 at the gate.
Thursday night is $5.00 plus a can of
food. For more information including the
HEMPFEST SURVIVAL GUIDE visit the festival
at www.hempfest.ca or order tickets by
calling: 1-888-215-8970.
 Review
by Lorraine Langis
This CD-ROM is one of the
most informative products out there for
the beginning
grower. In an easy to use format it covers
everything from ensuring you are getting
mature seeds, cloning, harvest and absolutely
everything in between. There are
recipes, tips on sexing your plants, pictorial
guides, organic and hydroponics growing
info…the list goes on. The pictures
and video clips are well done and the
language
used in the written section is easy to
understand. There are pull-down menus
that allow you to pick and
choose which pieces of information you
want to read or which videos you want
to watch. There are even
links to different sites, so you can become
further educated. If you’ve got
questions, this CD-Rom
probably has the answers! It is truly
a wealth of information at your fingertips.
Each CD-Rom has its own
individual code and is non-transferable
once loaded. Available at cannabishealth.com
$20.00 CDN
by Dana Beal
When the National Institute on Drug Abuse
turned its sights on the mechanism of
cannabinols
and their endogenous analogues such
as anandamide in the brain, they were
disappointed to
find that the dopamine model they relied
on to explain drug abuse and addiction
seemed to let
cannabis off the
hook. The modest uptick in dopamine levels
produced by pot confirmed what
the old hippies saw, marijuana is pleasurable,
but not particularly addictive. More recent
work
tracing the pathways of another neuro-transmitter,
glutamate, has further explicated the
question
of marijuana’s addictiveness. Familiar
to aficionados of cheap Chinese food as
mono-sodium
glutamate (MSG), it performs multiple
functions throughout the brain and the
body involved in long-
term learning and memory and as a kind
of natural stimulant that takes the brakes
off” metabolic
processes, causing everything to burn
hotter.
In 2001 a Swiss researcher, Francois Conquet
, made an interesting discovery with “knock-out”
mice who
had been bio-engineered not to have a
particular glutamate pathway called m
(for messenger) GluR5.
Mice with no mGluR5 could not be trained
to self- inject cocaine. This is highly
significant because
elimination of dopamine transporters and
receptors in other knock-outs still left
them able to be addicted
through cocaine’s rewarding effects
on serotonin. Microdialysis recorded the
same dopamine spikes in
both wild mice and the mGluR5-deficient
ones, but soon after the researchers substituted
intravenous
cocaine for food, the mGluR5 knock-outs
stopped pressing the lever. Their affinities
for food, water, mating
were unaffected; but cocaine could no
longer “fool” the knock-outs
into accepting it as a replacement for
food, water and mating . Cannabis
and Glutamate In Colorado Springs, the
Chairman of the University of
Colorado Biology Department is Bob Melamede
. Dr. Melamede teaches a whole course
on medical
marijuana. Central to his thesis is the
finding that cannabinols and the endogenous
neuro -transmitters
they mimic are glutamate antagonists;
but not the kind of noncompetitive antagaonists
, like ibogaine , that
come along to “plug the hole”
after inonotropic glutamate receptors
have opened up to let minerals
through the cell membrane. Instead,
cannabinols and anandamide act to “
backsignal ” along the
metabotropic glutamate pathways that work
(like mGluR5) through the second messenger
systems and
modulate signals of other neurotransmitters.
What cannabinols do is to tell glutamate-firing
cells to chill
out, to stop firing so much glutamate,
an effect that is necessary whenever
too much glutamate causes cell
processes to burn too hot. Melamede believes
the original evolutionary function of
anandamide was to
control inflammation, and that its role
in the body and nervous system grew as
glutamate came to be used
to do more and more things. Marijuana,
Tobacco, Cancer So beyond the question
of cannabis
addictiveness, an understanding of glutamate
mechanism has important public policy
implications regarding
marijuana, tobacco, and carcinogenesis.
The oftrepeated myth that “one joint
is 3 (or 10) times more
carcinogenic than a cigarette”—based
on the resin content—collapses
upon consideration of the role of
chronic glutamate inflammation of the
linings of the lungs in generating the
free radicals that attack the
DNA of immune cells in these linings.
Like white blood cells, these immune cells
are there to attack
pathogens (the lungs are a big vector
for infection) that come their way. The
truism that cigarettes are more
addictive than heroin becomes a lot easier
to understand when we remember that the
mediating
neurotransmitter of the nicotine high
is glutamate.
Once you acclimate to the nicotine, so
that it no longer makes you sick, its
primary “cascade” effect
is a
quick fix of glutamate, lasting no more
than 5 or 10 minutes, which has the effect
of calming the addict
down while giving them a lift. Typically,
because it potentiates long term memory,
writers use it to finish
articles. In the lining of the lung, however,
nicotine has the perverse effect of putting
the damaged immune
cell into kind of suspended animation,
blocking apoptosis, or cell death. What
happens if you keep a
damaged cell alive while filling it with
free radicals produced by chronic glutamate
inflammation ?
Eventually you get bad genetic code, the
cell goes cancerous and starts migrating
all over the body
spreading that bad code. Which is why
smokers end up with cancer in some of
the strangest places. It has
been estimated that the average New Yorker
breathes in pollutants equivalent to a
pack and a half of
cigarettes every day. But without the
key co-factor of the nicotine, they do
not get lung cancer at anything
like the rate of packand -a-half-a-day
smokers. We all have multiple redundant
natural immunities that block
the sea of crap we breathe from giving
us cancer. Indeed, the crowning blow to
the prohibitionist argument
that burn products, not nicotine, cause
the cancer is the widespread incidence
of cancer of the lip and
gum among people who chew tobacco. There
are no published reports of stomach cancer
from marijuana
brownies. Beyond the reports of direct
cannabis efficacy against certain kinds
of tumors, the mechanism of
action of cannabinols is 180 degrees opposite
of nicotine: anti- glutaminergic , anti-inflammatory.
That is
why cannabis is prescribed for all kinds
of inflammation and auto-immune disease.
So regardless of the
amount of tar or burn products—and
meaning no disrespect to the vaporizer
advocates—with cannabinols
instead of nicotine in the mix there’s
nothing to “turn on” the carcinogens
therein.
Marijuana, Alcohol, Accidents - The final
bit of confusion that can be cleared up
here is the widespread
fallacy, based on the outdated notion
marijuana works like alcohol, that pot
is a major cause of accidents.
Once again, mechanism of action confirms
the epidemiological studies that already
show people drive, if
anything, more safely on cannabis. Where
cannabis has its very own receptors, alcohol
works by
unleashing a flood of endorphins in response
to major trauma caused by ethanol stripping
the myelin
sheaths of the nerve cells. From there
the addictive process is straightforward,
with the endorphins
engendering a dopamine spike, which eventually
locks in the mGluR5 pathway and so on.
But while the
trauma is occurring, and you’re
drunk, you ability to function is severely
damaged in a way that just
doesn’t happen with a mild glutamate
antagonist working through its own specific
set of receptors.
Considered from the public health standpoint,
cannabis is more often than not a replacement
for alcohol
and other drugs. When cannabis use goes
up, alcohol use goes down. And because
the cannabis effect is
NOT incapacitating like alcohol intoxication
(every single study to date shows no significant
impairment of
driving, for instance) the effect of the
substitution of cannabis is the saving
of lives. Economists Frank
Chaloupka and Adit Laixuthai , at the
University of Illinois at Chicago , estimate
that cannabis
decriminalization would reduce youth
traffic fatalities by 5.5 per cent, youth
drinking rates by eight per
cent and binge-drinking rates by five
per cent. Other evidence suggests we would
see similar declines in
emergency-room drug and alcohol cases.
Tobacco, Marijuana, Harm Reduction
Harm reduction approaches to cannabis
have focused heretofore on the market
separation of cannabis and
other illegal drugs. According to Dutch
government facts-sheets, out of the total
population of 727,000,
Amsterdam has around 5,100 hard-drug users.
The primary thrust of policy is to discourage
the use of
drugs, and to combat the trade in drugs.
The authorities also seek to minimize
the risks incurred by drug
users and to reduce as far as possible
the nuisance factor for the general public
. In the context of use,
Amsterdam ’s drug policy differentiates
between hard and soft drugs, i.e.: cannabis
is available, but at
locations where no other illicit substances
may be sold, and this “market separation”
is strictly enforced. Of
some 5,100 hard-drug users, around 2000
are of Dutch origin, with some 1,350 having
roots in former
colony of Surinam , the Netherlands Antilles
and Morocco . Around 1,750 users come
from other European
countries, mainly Germany and Italy .
The total number of hard-drug users is
steadily decreasing, while
their average age is rising, from 26.8
years in 1981 to 39 years in 1999. In
the same period the total number
of drug users under 22 years of age dropped
from 14.4 percent to 1.6%. The singular
flaw of the Dutch
system from the standpoint of nicotine
carcinogenesis is the almost universal
practice of smoking cannabis
mixed with tobacco a habit that totally
undermines the health benefits of smoking
pure cannabis. It will be
a hard habit to break, considering the
basic chemistry involved. Combining nicotine’s
glutamate agonist
effect with pot’s glutamate antagonism
offers the benefits of a kind of “speedball”:
cutting back on the
“stoned” effect of the cannabidiol
without interfering with the initial THC-induced
melatonin rush—the
high.** But the seeds of change are contained
within the almost 90% switch from ashish
to hydro by
Dutch consumers during the last decade.
Without the need for tobacco to make a
hash joint, better tasting
bud—plus the ever-growing popular
consciousness of tobacco’s dangers—
may in the end be enough to
change European tastes. This changeover
can and should be augmented by all the
publicity tools of a full-
fledged public health campaign, with slogans
like “Pure Pot Tastes Even Better!”
A better understanding of
the mechanism of marijuana as a glutamate
antagonist versus the licit glutamate
agonists , alcohol and
nicotine, raises the interesting prospect
of the next logical step for our worldwide
movement being not
strictly medical, but public heath marijuana.
In a generation or less, all carrots and
sticks of public health
policy may be enlisted in a conscious
effort to REPLACE alcohol and cigarettes
with a marijuana
monoculture, and to REMOVE all cannabis
opponents from any role in setting that
policy. The benefits of
saving up to 600,000 lives a year from
cancer and auto accidents in the U.S.
alone will make the switchover
well worth it! ** I will explain the health
benefits of melatonin supplements for
regular cannabis users in
my next article. Dana Beal, organized
the first marijuana protests during the
summer of love, 1967. He was a
founding member and chief theoretician
of the Youth International Party, started
the YIPster Times after the
Miami Convention protests in 1972 and
crusaded for marijuana legalization in
the 70’s. He collaborated with
Tom Forcade , founder of High Times, changed
the name of the paper to Overthrow in
1979, started Rock
Against Racism in December 1980, he initiated
an Ibogaine project with Howard Lots in
an effort to make
this addiction interrupter available to
addicts everywhere. He published the Yippie
anthology, Blacklisted
News in 1983, advocated medical marijuana
for AIDS patients in 1986, joined ACT
UP in 1988, pushed
Ibogaine through ACT UP and NIDA until
he was unmasked as a medical marijuana
activist after a short
prison stint in ‘93, co-founded
Cures not Wars, started NYC Medical Marijuana
Buyers’ Club with Johann
Moore in 1995. Beal published the Ibogaine
Story with Paul DeRienzo in January, 1997.
Dana was part of
the Wheelchair Walk for Medical Marijuana
from Boston to D.C. in fall 1997, brought
Ibogaine to U.K. in
1998, initiated the Million Marijuana
March in 1999 and co-sponsored First International
Ibogaine
Conference at NYU in November, 99.
At a time when his peers
were dropping acid and dropping out, rising
from out of the conservative
wasteland of massachusetts, came a self
made new age business man with the spirit
and
beliefs of the counterculture and the
entrepreneurial wisdom of a Harvard grad.
In the mid 60s Laurence O. McKinney had
already started a three-state chain of
summer surfboard shops.
In 1969, he received an MBA from Harvard
Business School .
His firststartup,
an educational publishing firm, gave him
extensive experience in most forms of
media
from print to the first videocassette
drug education instruction used by the
military.
During the next thirty years he founded
and managed a number of other small firms
that
developed and introduced to the marketplace
products ranging from award winning curricula
to
better appliances.
Founded in 1970 by McKinney and Richard
Hawkins, the Media Engineering Corp. and
the Creative
Learning Group introduced America to drug
education. Their curricula offered a straightforward
approach
to youth in language that young people
could understand and identify with. The
program rejected fear
tactics, encouraged an open and honest
dialogue and offered an intellectual and
balanced scientific
analysis of a wide range of drugs and
their effects on the user. The program
focused on the underlying
motional problems faced by persons of
any age that lead to drug experimentation
and to abuse. The
curricula came in kits containing teaching
aids, manuals, books demonstrations ,
audio tapes and slides.
The program was widely embraced and financially
successful. McKinney received critical
acclaim from the
likes of William F. Buckley Jr. of the
New York Post, who in August 1970 wrote,
“ I rejoice that some of the
brilliance of Mr. McKinney should have
come up with a program so artful, informed
and ingenious.” 
Only a month later, on his yacht the Cyrano
and outside the three-
mile limit Buckley actually tried marijuana,
and has argued for better
laws since that time. The Creative Learning
Group was praised by
the U.S. Government , and its materials
were used in every state, as
well as the US Navy and Army. Then, in
one of his last moves
President Nixon created the D.E.A. and
withdrew all government
funding for school drug education Only
the Drug War DARE
program was now allowed . By this time,
McKinney , working with
U.S. Govt. marijuana farm founder Dr.
Norman Doorenbos, had
founded the Cannabis Institute of America
(CIA) to research the
patent to control THC in cannabis. The
C.I.A. was founded the
same year as NORML, and by 1973 was publishing
Cannabis Rx,
The Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics.
The first research journal
dedicated to cannabis, it was also the
first to report the appetite-
stimulating effects of cannabis and boasted
a board of leading
scientists. All the drug abuse materials,
as well as early copies of
Cannabis Rx can be seen at McKinney ’s
website ThinkAboutIt.org.
By 1980, McKinney had obtained the first
cannabis improvement patent. Building
thousands of dollars of
research into a $29.95 appliance called
“The Maximizer ”, the company
sold 6,000 of them with huge High
Times double page ads in six months. Then
the “Anti- Paraphernalia”
laws decimated the business. It was
still the first patented device that was
guaranteed to improve cannabis, and was
used by the Mayo Clinic
as well as many happy customers. The Maximizer
remains a legend in America . Author Bill
Novak used
McKinney as a major source for the book
High Culture during this period. He’s
mentioned seventeen times
in the book. At this point, McKinney took
some time off , spending time living in
India and Nepal , meeting
among others the Dalai Lama and Mother
Theresa. In 1985 the U.S. had legalized
THC to make it possible
for Marinol to be released for chemotherapy
nausea. Ironically, cannabis seeds McKinney
sent to Dr.
Doorenbos in 1970 became the basis of
the original medical cannabis strains.
Then, in 1975 it was
McKinney who connected medical cannabis
pioneer Robert Randall to his UCLA doctors
who created the
first U.S. “medical cannabis”
program. McKinney was at the center of
both events. Now he realized the
patent could also be used to purify THC
from cannabis in India where it was legal
for encapsulation and
consumption in the US . The giant Perdue
Pharma drug company was willing to back
him. The drug
company’s original owner, Dr. Robert
Sackler , had once been a subscriber to
Cannabis Rx. Everything was
working out. So McKinney then founded
the first legal cannabis company in the
world, appropriately titled
The Cannabis Corporation of America .
In a stroke of genius, he gave a free
share to each of his Harvard MBA 1969
classmates. A third registered
their shares, giving McKinney 200 millionaire
” stockholders”. After printing
the first Annual Report (see
end of story) he was able to raise $150,000
to start work creating high THC strains
for cloning and
extraction. CCA, as it was called , was
operating years before HortaPharm was
started in Amsterdam , and a
full decade before GW Pharmaceuticals.
McKinney knew all the Hortapharm founders
and he has spoken
with Geoffrey Guy. McKinney says, however,
that if there is any chance cannabis should
be legally
regulated in the U.S. he would be able
to raise $100 million in a week from some
of the most respected
financial institutions in the States.
I asked McKinney about the publicly traded
marijuana company,
Amigula .McKinney was highly skeptical
of the company and it’s CEO, since
the Cannabis Corporation
had done the same work twenty years earlier
and he knew exactly the expertise required.
If you want to
know all about liquid chromatography to
separate cannabinoids, chat him up. As
the only legitimate
pharmaceutical corporation involved with
cannabis, McKinney and his company were
one of four parties in
the historic 1985-86 D.E.A. medical marijuana
hearings. This is where, he feels, he
made the greatest
contribution. With NORML lawyer Kevin
Zeese (now Ralph Nader’s campaign
manager) being regularly
admonished by Judge Young and Robert Randall
represented by a pro-bono lawyer who was
legally and
actually blind, McKinney had hired a top
drug lawyer. As a result, the D.E.A. judge
ordered the de-
criminalization of cannabis based largely
on McKinney’s arguments, not those
of NORML or ACT.
President Reagan’s appointee rejected
his own judge, but the defense, often
called the Olsen Defense,
remains the best legal argument. In a
nutshell, McKinney demonstrated that THC
from a test tube and THC
from a plant were identical molecules.
This made cannabis simply a raw material
in the production of a legal
drug - THC. As sesame oil and gelatine
capsules were food products, in legalizing
THC, the agency had
effectively legalized cannabis into Schedule
2 as a necessary precursor of legal THC.
This totally
confounded the drug agency because it
meant that the moment THC from cannabis
was sold , no matter
how pure, cannabis would become legal.
The drug agency informed Perdue Pharma
that they would be
forced to test every-single-other-molecule
in the plant before they could get cannabis-based
THC legal.
Perdue Pharma dropped out and made Oxycontin
. At the same time, Bill Novak gave McKinney
the rights
to re-publish High Culture, which is why
it is still available at Amazon.com or
directly from McKinney ’s
site (see end of story). In many ways
McKinney , being the first at so many
cannabis landmarks, should
have ended up with either fame or fortune.
People have made money in hemp, in their
institutes, in
publishing, and in pharmaceuticals. Instead,
without the backing of a pharmaceutical
firm, there was no real
future. He re-named
the company Cambridge Pharmaceutical Laboratories.
It still exists selling natural skin
products at OilofTara.com but there is
no connection to cannabis. In fact, aside
from membership in ICRS,
the high-tech International Cannabis Research
Society, McKinney doesn’t have much
involvement with the
cannabis movement these days.Laurence
now lives with his wife Suki who, in 1997,
began designing
websites with him. As their businesses
expanded she became bookkeeper and clerk,
maintaining several
company sites, creating and producing
surveys and communications documents,
exhibits, and marketing
pieces. Recently, they created the on-line
catalog for Harvard merchandise, EverythingHarvard.com.
Over
7,500 Harvard alumni visit each month,
assuring McKinney of a very influential
audience if he ever decides
to revive his Cannabis Corporation. The
couple lives in Arlington ,Massachusetts
, only four miles up the
street from Harvard, where McKinney got
all his degrees. In 1994, he published
a groundbreaking book,
Neurotheology , the study of the interface
between religion and the mind. Well reviewed
by Arthur C.
Clarke (2001 Space Odyssey), the Dalai
Lama, and dozens of others, it was (as
usual) ahead of the curve,
predicting and explaining many global
problems in terms of the clash of cultures.
He still chats with Lester
Grinspoon (who was on the Cannabis Rx
board), Dr. Tod Mikuriya (who was on the
Cannabis Corporation
board), Robert Connell
Clark and “K” – the
grow-room genius of the West Coast. After
a three year study
by a local hospital,
which demonstrated that he had the best
lungs of the study group, he believes
his 40
year relationship with the plant demonstrates
that it doesn’t take a vaporizer,
just common sense, to keep
ahead of the cannabis curve.
SPECIAL FOR OUR READERS
McKinney has agreed to release onto the
“cannabis collectibles” market
both the 4-color
Cannabis Corporation annual report for
1986, the VMW (Veterans of the Marijuana
Wars) posters, extra
CCA stock certificates, and Bill Novak’s
High Culture – all at a special
set of pages.
Go to ThinkAboutIt.org/hc/items.htm
by help@thc4ms.org
Thc4ms is a Medi -weed Co-operative based
in the UK that produces cannabis chocolate
bars free of
charge for Multiple Sclerosis sufferers.
All that is required to be accepted as
a recipient of cannabis
chocolate is a doctor’s note confirming
diagnosis of MS. A weekly supply of Canna
-biz chocolate will be
sent upon request. Thc4ms was originally
founded in 1993 following a chance meeting
of several MS
sufferers who appeared on The Kilroy Show.Thc4ms
is a self help group, working along side
groups such
as Alliance for Cannabis Therapeutics
(ACT) run by our good friend Clare Hodges,
a fellow MS sufferer.
Thc4ms works as a first point of contact
for MS sufferers who wish to use cannabis
as a medicine, but
who have no access to it. Time after time
the same two questions were being asked,
“Where can I buy
some cannabis?” and “I have
some cannabis in a pot in my cupboard
that so and so gave me, but I do not
know what to do with it?” Through
networking with other Medi -weed co-ops,
such as The Medicinal
Marijuana Cooperative (MMCO) founded by
Colin Davies and the Free Medical Marijuana
Foundation
(FMMF) Glastonbury and, more recently,
The Herb Connection (Chris Baldwin) and
Tony’s Holistic Centre
( Kingscross , London), Thc4ms are able
to direct the MS sufferer to the Medi
-weed co-op most suited to
that patient’s needs.
During this time, members of Thc4ms became
aware of the work of Biz Ivol of Orkney,
also an MS sufferer.
Biz was producing cannabis laced chocolate
bars for her friend, Bill Reeves, an MS
sufferer who lives on
the next island. Bill wished to use cannabis
as a medicine, but did not want to smoke.
Thc4ms was
producing herbal cannabis and giving it
away to a small group of MS sufferers
in emergency situations
only (i.e.: their normal route of supply
had exhausted) and began to send herbal
cannabis to Biz so she
could produce the cannabis chocolate bars.
Thc4ms also started making small amounts
of their own Canna
-choc, and distributed it free of charge,
to MS sufferers who were worried about
smoking. Unfortunately,
Biz was raided by the Northern Constabulary
in 2001, after a local Police Constable
decided to act after
reading about Biz’s activities in
a national newspaper. Upon hearing of
Biz’s plight, THC4MS immediately
increased production of Canna -choc so
the service could continue uninterrupted.
The case against Biz
Ivol was dropped in June 2003, after it
was decided Biz was not fit enough to
stand trial, thus denying her
a court victory. She had pled not guilty
to all charges against her. Following
the collapse of her trial,
Thc4ms decided to rename Canna -choc to
Canna -Biz in her honour . The media became
aware of our work
and articles began appearing in the national
press. The numbers of MS sufferers who
wished to try Canna
-choc increased rapidly. It was decided
that the product needed to look more professional.
Chocolate
moulds and melting pans were imported
from Belgium , food grade wrapping was
sourced and labels
printed listing the ingredients, thus
complying with food regulations. It was
not long before it became
apparent the service could not be sustained
without help from the wider cannabis community.
Thc4ms
decided to appeal to the UK home grower
for help in maintaining a supply of canna
-choc to MS sufferers.
Most home growers when asked will say
they grow their own for two reasons: to
save money and to
escape the stress of having to score from
a dealer. When the crop is harvested many
home growers end
up with an excess of cannabis and have
several options for disposing of the surplus
produce. Once self
sufficient, many home growers, do not
wish to ventureback into the illicit market
to sell their surplus, and
prefer instead to donate the surplus to
Thc4ms. Thc4ms regularly appeals on the
internet message boards
such as www.uk420.com and other cannabis
related magazines requesting donations
of surplus herbal
cannabis. Slowly the donations from growers
began to arrive. To date, Thc4ms has now
helped over 1,200
Multiple Sclerosis sufferers with regular
supplies of Canna -choc, and continues
to send out supplies on a
weekly basis to those MS patients who
request it.
Cash donations and volunteer support maintain,
stamps and envelopes and enables the purchase
of
chocolate and other consumables. If you
are a home grower and wish to donate herbal
cannabis so our
work can continue or require further information,
please contact us by e-mail. All major
benefactors are
invited to oversee the production run.
We look forward to hearing from you. Many
thanks.
For more information, contact: help@thc4ms.org
ENERGY: Middle aged and older individuals
who eat at least four measuring tablespoons
of Hemp Hearts
each morning, usually raw on fruit or
oatmeal, notice increased, long-lasting
energy. Many individuals
comment that they are more productive
and much less affected by stress. APPETITE:
Except for those with
diabetes and other conditions which require
individuals to eat more frequently, most
of our customers
report that they are not yet hungry at
lunch time—often only slightly hungry
at two o’clock in the
afternoon. Those who are overweight can
quite easily limit themselves to a pot
of tea for lunch and a large
salad without dressing in the early evening,
losing up to one pound per day. Because
those who eat Hemp
Hearts in quantity every morning are nutritionally
satisfied, they have less difficulty avoiding
foods made
with sugar, flour, potatoes, pasta and
rice and they are less inclined to regain
lost weight. DIGESTION:
Customers report efficient digestive systems
without sluggishness and they seem able
to derive much more
benefit from less food. Because Hemp Hearts
are so easily digested , customers claim
that Hemp Hearts
have cured or reduced the effects of chronic
problems of the digestive system. There
are no known
allergies to Hemp Hearts. Because they
are a well-balanced source of all required
proteins and all essential
fats as well as most vitamins and enzymes,
Hemp Hearts are of special benefit to
those who are unable to
eat gluten, lactose , sugar, fish, nuts,
meat and other common foods. CLINICAL
STUDIES: Analysis
indicates that Hemp Hearts are unmatched
in nature for their balance of all required
proteins and essential
fats as well as most vitamins and enzymes.
Analysis also indicates that these beneficial
nutrients are
concentrated in Hemp Hearts without sugar
and with only minimal quantities of carbohydrates
and
saturated fats. Many clinical studies
associate excessive quantities of sugar,
saturated fats and
carbohydrates with chronic disease. Other
studies indicate that hemp products reduce
inflammation and
improve circulation, factors of primary
importance in the cure and prevention
of many diseases.
A large percentage of older customers
have selected Hemp Hearts in desperation
because of failing health.
and within three months report significant
improvements in cholesterol and blood
pressure. Diabetics,
especially, report that circulation improves.
Pain and inflammation, characteristic
of arthritis and many
chronic diseases, are often much reduced.
Health care professionals are using Hemp
Hearts to achieve
great results.
HEMP HEARTS COMPARISON WITH OTHER FOODS
*Contains more required amino acids (proteins)
than milk, meat or eggs. *Is a complete
protein source—much more balanced
& digestible than Soy
products. *Contains about 47% oil, 78%
of which is omega 3 & 6—the
essential fats. *Contains all the
essential or omega fats required for human
health. *Contains several times more omega
3 essential fat than
any fish.
*Provides more energy than energy bars—without
their sugar and with much less saturated
fat. *Is
suitable for those unable to eat gluten,
sugar, milk, nuts & meat.
*Is perfect for those troubled with constipation
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