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Crosscurrents

Cannabis News Roundup: May 24, 2013

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OAS calls for flexibility… New health findings… Supreme Court just says no… “Great Gatsby” was a pot dealer… and more!

POLITICS & COURTS

Organization of American States // A report released last week by the OAS calls for members to consider flexibility in their drug laws, adding that legalization of marijuana be considered. Columbia’s President stated, “This document should be known, publicized and analyzed not only in the hemisphere, but worldwide.”

SFGate // Invoking the Americans With Disabilities Act, plaintiffs argued before the US Supreme Court that closure of their local cannabis dispensaries amounted to unequal treatment. This week’sruling by the high court rejected that plea.

SFGate // The editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle calls for the “confusing web of marijuana laws” throughout the state to be straightened out, for everyone’s benefit.

Pacific Sun // A grand jury report issued last Friday calls for the Marin County Board of Supervisors to “respect the will of the voters and the intention of the Compassionate Use Act” and develop “ordinances for medical marijuana dispensaries to operate in the unincorporated areas of the county.”

LA Times // Exactly 135 Los Angeles cannabis dispensaries – those approved before a 2007 moratorium - are authorized to stay open following passage of Prop. D on Tuesday. No one knows how many dispensaries are currently operating; police guess perhaps 700, but the actual number could be significantly higher. Court challenges are expected.

McClatchy // There’s a strong link between marijuana use and criminal behavior, according to the White House director of drug control, Gil Kerlikowske. That statement is based on blood tests of men arrested in five American cities….

Nat’l. Bureau of Economic Research // …But a paper released today says using marijuana may just increase the likelihood of getting caught when committing crimes.

HEALTH

NBC News // Last week we reported that cannabis appears to help people with Type 2 diabetes and Crohn’s disease. Now add certain types of breast cancer to that list, according to the cancer division of the National Institutes of Health.

SFGate // Try THC for your PTSD. That’s the suggestion of a Yale associate professor, who joins other researchers in finding that the main active ingredient of cannabis helps with post traumatic stress disorder, as well as other stress related ailments.

Reporter David Downs has details of the study in his story in this week’s East Bay Express.

IN OTHER NEWS....

Time // The average Colorado cannabis smoker, buying average product, is estimated to spend about $650 annually. Is that a lot? Not when compared to tobacco; a pack-a-day smoker in the state has to cough up nearly $1,900 a year for smokes. Find details here.

Cannabis Culture // The talk is always of champagne and booze when the subject is “The Great Gatsby.” Thisreview points out some period elements of the new film that reek of marijuana, which was legal in Gatsby’s time.

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Crosscurrents