Taimapedia:Current events
From Taimapedia
Welcome to the Taimapedia current events page, where users can read, post, and discuss the latest news stories involving 420chan, drugs, or anything closely related to either.
Note: If you find an interesting article, just go ahead and post it! Don't worry about formatting, someone else can come along and clean it up later.
Contents |
[edit] Cannabis and Health (AKA weed is good for you)
[edit] Weed improves neurocognivity in bipolar and schizophrenic subjects
Institute of Psychiatry, University of Oslo:
"The findings suggest that cannabis use may be related to improved neurocognition in bipolar disorder and compromised neurocognition in schizophrenia. The results need to be replicated in independent samples, and may suggest different underlying disease mechanisms in the two disorders."
[edit] Cannabanoids help fight MRSA superbug
"Everything points towards these compounds having been evolved by the plants as antimicrobial defenses that specifically target bacterial cells," says Gibbons. "But the actual mechanism by which they kill the bugs is still a mystery. We've tested whether the cannabinoids affect common antibiotic targets like fatty acid synthesis or the [DNA-bending enzyme] DNA gyrase, but they don't. I really cannot hazard a guess how they do it, but their high potency as antibiotics suggests there must be a very specific mechanism. Appendino and Gibbons say that cannabinoids could quickly be developed as treatments for skin infections, provided the nonpsychoactive varieties are used. "The most practical application of cannabinoids would be as topical agents to treat ulcers and wounds in a hospital environment, decreasing the burden of antibiotics," says Appendino."
[edit] Long-term study shows weed does not cause schizophrenia
Keele University, Uinted Kingdom:
"A recent systematic review concluded that cannabis use increases risk of psychotic outcomes independently of confounding and transient intoxication effects. Furthermore, a model of the association between cannabis use and schizophrenia indicated that the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia would increase from 1990 onwards. The model is based on three factors: a) increased relative risk of psychotic outcomes for frequent cannabis users compared to those who have never used cannabis between 1.8 and 3.1, b) a substantial rise in UK cannabis use from the mid-1970s and c) elevated risk of 20 years from first use of cannabis. This paper investigates whether this has occurred in the UK by examining trends in the annual prevalence and incidence of schizophrenia and psychoses, as measured by diagnosed cases from 1996 to 2005. Retrospective analysis of the General Practice Research Database (GPRD) was conducted for 183 practices in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The study cohort comprised almost 600,000 patients each year, representing approximately 2.3% of the UK population aged 16 to 44. Between 1996 and 2005 the incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia and psychoses were either stable or declining. Explanations other than a genuine stability or decline were considered, but appeared less plausible. In conclusion, this study did not find any evidence of increasing schizophrenia or psychoses in the general population from 1996 to 2005."
[edit] Marijuana May Protect Against Brain Damage From Binge Drinking
University of California, San Diego:
"Significant between group differences were found in FA (fractional anisotropy) in eight white matter regions (ps ≤ .016) between the binge drink-only group and controls, including superior corona radiata, inferior longitudinal fasciculus, inferior fronto-occipital fasciculus, and superior longitudinal fasciculus. Interestingly, in 4 of these same regions, binge drinkers who are also heavy marijuana users had higher FA than binge drinkers who did not use marijuana (ps < .05). MD did not differ between groups."
[edit] Drug Legalization
[edit] American Medical Association pushes for re-evalutation of marijuana's legal status
November 10th, 2009
via MPP.org — In a move considered historic by supporters of medical marijuana, the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates today adopted a new policy position calling for the review of marijuana’s status as a Schedule I drug in the federal Controlled Substances Act. The old language in Policy H-95.952 had previously recommended that “marijuana be retained in Schedule I,” which groups marijuana with drugs such as heroin, LSD and PCP that are deemed to have no accepted medical uses and to be unsafe for use even under medical supervision.
...
Drugs listed in Schedule II, for which medical use is permitted with strict controls, include cocaine, morphine and methamphetamine. A pill containing THC, the component responsible for marijuana’s “high,” is classed in Schedule III, whose looser requirements allow phoned-in prescriptions."
[edit] US government promises to stop prosecuting Medical Marijuana users and providers
October 19th, 2009
Washington DC, USA — The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.
Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws."
[edit] Argentina OKs Personal-use Marijuana
August 25, 2009
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — "Argentina's Supreme Court ruled Tuesday it is unconstitutional to punish an adult for private use of marijuana as long as it doesn't harm anyone else. The unanimous ruling makes Argentina the second Latin American country in the past four days to allow personal use of a formerly illegal drug."
[edit] ¡MEXICO DECRIMINALIZES PERSONAL USE WEED, LSD!
August 22, 2009
MEXICO CITY, Mexico — "Mexico enacted a controversial law Thursday decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs while encouraging free government treatment for drug dependency. The law sets out maximum "personal use" amounts for drugs, also including LSD and methamphetamine. People detained with those quantities will no longer face criminal prosecution when the law goes into effect Friday."
[edit] Drug Prohibition
[edit] Dump your bong water, it now counts towards posession weight
October 22, 2009
"The Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that police can include the entire weight of bong water that tests positive for the presence of a drug when computing the amount of drug possession."
ffffuuuuuu..
[edit] Fresno Judge temporarily shuts down 9 medical marijuana collectives
October 7th 2009
FRESNO, California — "In a series of court actions starting in mid-August, city officials sought to close the dispensaries for violating a zoning ordinance requiring them to comply with both a state law that allows them and a federal law that does not.
...
Simpson's ruling said the city had not shown that "the landlords knew or should have known of the zoning violations," or that the city had formally asked them to take action against the dispensaries. But the ruling also rejected a key defense claim -- that because state laws permit medical marijuana use, local governments can't use their zoning ordinances or other methods to ban them."
[edit] Florida man arrested, held 3 months for breath mints
August 19th, 2009
KISSIMMEE, Florida, USA — "May was pulled over for an expired tag on his car. When the officer walked up to him, he noticed something white in May's mouth. May said it was breath mints, but the officer thought it was crack cocaine.
"He took them out of my mouth and put them in a baggy and locked me up [for] possession of cocaine and tampering with evidence," May explained.
The officer claimed he field-tested the evidence and it tested positive for drugs. The officer said he saw May buying drugs while he was stopped at an intersection. He also stated in his report May waived his Miranda rights and voluntarily admitted to buying drugs"
[edit] 30,000 pot plants seized near California fire
August 18, 2009
SANTA BARBARA, CA — Some 30,000 marijuana plants were seized from a pot farm run for a Mexican drug cartel in a remote corner of a national forest charred by an 88,000-acre (35.6 hectare) wildfire, California officials said on Tuesday.
A crop of 30,000 cannabis plants, some 6 feet tall, were found growing on the side of a mountain, where the pot farmers had diverted a nearby stream to provide irrigation, Sugars said. Most of the plants survived the fire, he said.
Authorities said 2009 has so far been a banner year for pot eradication by the Forest Service and the sheriff's department in Santa Barbara County, where more than 250,000 plants with a street value of about $675 million have been seized. In late July, authorities ripped up 113,000 plants near the area where the latest fire began, Sugars said.
