Long Beach Lesbian & Gay Pride Celebration kicks off the summer Pride season, and the 2012 theme “Pride Links Us Together” is a great way to start things off. This is the 29th annual celebration, which now attracts more than 80,000 participants over Saturday and Sunday alone. The Festival Celebration includes seven large dance areas including a main stage, which has featured musical artists such as Grammy Award Winner Jennifer Hudson, Maya, and India.Arie.
However, this year’s big score? Queen Latifah! That’s right, this is the first time the multi-award-winning artist has performed at a Gay Pride event and she will be singing on the Pride main stage Saturday night.
While the official Pride weekend is May 19 & 20, the party starts Friday night. Check out all the info below.
Excerpt from The Atlantic (May 20, 2012):
Marijuana is nevertheless classified under the Controlled Substances Act as a Schedule One drug. Under the law, drugs placed in that category must meet all of the following criteria (emphasis added):
Critics of the Obama Administration’s drug policy, myself included, have focused on the president’s broken promise about federal raids on medical marijuana dispensaries in jurisdictions where they’re legal. But an even less defensible aspect of Obama’s drug policy is how marijuana is scheduled.
As John Walker points out, the Controlled Substances Act gives the executive branch the power to unilaterally change a drug’s classification: …
John Entwistle notes: This is another good article pounding the drum for rescheduling. Read the whole article at the “Source” link below.
(Source: The Atlantic)
Excerpt from Metro Times (May 16, 2012):
When marijuana is ingested through smoking, some elements of the substance are released into the bloodstream. Most pertinent to this discussion are THC, CBD and a few dozen other cannabinoids. THC is the cannabinoid at the root of marijuana hysteria because it’s the one most directly responsible for the high. Most edible preparations of marijuana involve a process where THC (and probably some other cannabinoids) are infused into butter or oils. Although the Alice B. Toklas recipe called for throwing the plant material directly into a batch of brownies back in the day, marijuana cuisine has moved far beyond that stage.
Here’s where the nuance comes in. THC is only present in the blood for a very limited amount of time that varies based upon factors such as how much was in the marijuana to start with. That can vary from about 2 percent (not very potent) to about 35 percent (what some might refer to as “killer weed”). Other factors include how often a person uses marijuana, and, when it comes to testing, whether it is whole blood or plasma being tested and the sensitivity of the equipment being used.
For most people other than chronic users, the body processes the THC within several hours and turns it into the benign metabolite carboxy THC (THC-COOH). Targowski says that’s two to 12 hours for most people. But everyday users have THC in their systems most of the time — though this does not necessarily mean they are impaired by it all the time.
John Entwistle notes: DUID is the hot issue across the country right now. The Obama Administration has people lobbying in various states to pass state level mandatory blood level based standards for defining drugged driving. This is as stupid as testing for nicotine, cafeine or chamomille or any number of other substances that may or may not be present and have no effect on performance anyways. As medical marijuana users we need to learn everything we can about the chemistry of cannabis metabolism. Writer Larry Gabriel does a wonderful job of simplifying and explaining the fundamentals of how your body eliminates THC and why you should not be busted for that joint you smoked last week. Great research… speaks well for the whole community of Michigan medical cannabis users. Read the whole article at the “source” link below.
And in a related note: Colorado voted down its DUID proposal on Tuesday, May 15th. Read an excellent article about the Colorado Marijuana DUID debate here.
(Source: metrotimes.com)
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Excerpt from The Weed Blog (May 11, 2012):
Initiative 502 has caused a rift in the cannabis reform movement. It never had to be this way. Here are a couple of quick, initial points that should have immediately set off alarms for those who wrote this initiative:
(Source: theweedblog.com)
Excerpt from the Huffington Post (May 10, 2012):
The failed bill’s text reads as follows:
None of the funds made available in this Act to the Department of Justice may be used, with respect to the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington, to prevent such States from implementing their own State laws that authorize the use, distribution, possession, or cultivation of medical marijuana.
Of the 190 Democrats in the House, 134 (more than 70 percent) voted in favor of the bill. Only 29 of the 242 House Republicans (less than 12 percent) did.
[Hit Source button for rest of story]
(Source: The Huffington Post)
[This document was found on the computer of Ecotopia author Ernest Callenbach (1929-2012) after his death.]
To all brothers and sisters who hold the dream in their hearts of a future world in which humans and all other beings live in harmony and mutual support — a world of sustainability, stability, and confidence. A world something like the one I described, so long ago, in Ecotopia and Ecotopia Emerging.
As I survey my life, which is coming near its end, I want to set down a few thoughts that might be useful to those coming after. It will soon be time for me to give back to Gaia the nutrients that I have used during a long, busy, and happy life. I am not bitter or resentful at the approaching end; I have been one of the extraordinarily lucky ones. So it behooves me here to gather together some thoughts and attitudes that may prove useful in the dark times we are facing: a century or more of exceedingly difficult times.
How will those who survive manage it? What can we teach our friends, our children, our communities? Although we may not be capable of changing history, how can we equip ourselves to survive it?
I contemplate these questions in the full consciousness of my own mortality. Being offered an actual number of likely months to live, even though the estimate is uncertain, mightily focuses the mind. On personal things, of course, on loved ones and even loved things, but also on the Big Picture. … (Hit the source button to read the rest…)
(Source: tomdispatch.com)
Excerpt from US News & World report (May 11, 2012):
Holton had been interim U.S. Attorney for Oregon when federal agents executed search warrants on several marijuana farms in the state last fall. That and other actions from his office had irked medical marijuana and pro-legalization activists, including Greig, so Greig posted a message to a listserv of about 300 other activists suggesting that they begin publicly opposing Holton’s candidacy.
Other prominent activists quickly reached out to him, and soon afterward they launched a full-scale attack on Holton, one that has gained the attention of national pro-legalization and medical marijuana activists, several of whom are supporting Holton’s opponent, Ellen Rosenblum. A former Oregon Court of Appeals judge, Rosenblum will face off against him in the Democratic primary next Tuesday. No Republican has entered the race, so the winner of the primary will determine the November outcome. …
(Source: usnews.com)
On Wednesday July 4, 2012 The Rally to Reschedule Marijuana as Medicine & 43rd Annual Smoke-In will take place in front of the White House and on the National Mall in Washington DC. Join medical marijuana activist Dennis Peron and friends as we rally to educate our elected officials and voters, march and demonstrate for our first amendment rights, and the right to choose the medicine we put into our bodies, marijuana. To become a volunteer visit smoke-in.org
The Rally starts at “High Noon” in Lafayette Park (North side of the White House).
Excerpt from KOMONews.com (May 5, 2012):
Sixteen states and the District of Columbia now have medical marijuana laws.
In just Oregon and Washington there are nearly 100,000 medical marijuana patients.
Now this once fringe culture has taken another step towards the mainstream – growers and grower cooperatives can now buy insurance policies to protect their crops and marijuana inventories against losses.
Insurance agent Dan DeChynne is one of the first to sell the pot policies in Oregon and Southwest Washington.
“It covers every kind of possible case; fire, rain, or wind, theft, even raids,” he told KATU On Your Side Investigator Thom Jensen. …
(Source: komonews.com)