Toke Pot

Was just watching the Simpson’s, yeah, yeah I know but still even at my age I still love the cartoon especially todays episode. Basically Homer Simpson gets attacked by shit loads of crows and almost eat out his eyes and the doctor tells him that medical marijuana can help him relieve his pains and then the rest of the show is about Homer smoking pot and being stoned.

Its amazing how medical marijuana has made its way onto a childrens show watched all around the world, is it marijuana marketing to get the word out on what medical marijuana is? Who knows but the show was real dope and although I searched through Youtube and could not find a decent uploaded video I could only find this clip with background music from Afroman, Because I got high!

It has been publicized yesterday that the 56 year old Fort Lauderal stockbroker Irvin Rosenfield smoked his 115,000th joint on the 21st November to help alleviate the pain from multiple congenital cartilaginous exostoses. He has been obtaining cannabis for the last 27 years and I bet you want to know from where? Well from the government since 1982 and this goes to show that the herb should be fully legalized for its benefits and even the government recognises this otherwise they would not have supplied this stockbroker.

Rosenfield has said that without marijuana he would be bed ridden and his quality of life would be very poor or he may even be dead. Rosenfiled wants to use himself as an example for the benefits of marijuana and he sure is a great one.

These a great cases to set an example of how marijuana can benefit people lives and the US is going in the right direction to legalize it however the policies remain unchanged else where in the world.

Is America going to be the next mass version of Amsterdam since California is being dubbed as one already? I have been to Amsterdam and with their liberal laws was one of my best experiences especially on the cannabis front. However there seems to be a trend that shows a switch in policies between say USA and Europe. Where once the use of marijuana was acceptable the laws are changing and where in the US it was unacceptable now slowly is becoming acceptable.

Any way, if the entire USA has legalzied medical marijuana say within 5 years the US will definetly be a hot tourist attraction amongst toker to perhaps make use of any loop holes to smoke the brilliant crop from say the sunny fields of Cali. Loop holes? Well I am sure that many doctors wwill be willing to take some back handers in order to write out certificates for non-ill people and make some serious money off the back of the US Mj boom.

The first signs of the Amsterdam “coffee shops” to appear in the US are found in Portland Oregan with the first shop just opened, Cannabis Cafe. The shop looks just like any other coffee shop in America but behind all the usual items are stacks of jarred marijuana where they can smoke it in the tokers lounge using vapourisers and this has all been possible through the change in policy within the Obama Administration.

Before you book your trip to Cannabis Cafe you cannot simply walk in and get bonged as it is a facilty setup purely for medical marijuana patients and to be registered as one you will first need to be enrolled in Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Programme through a doctore certificate ($100) and then you can Oregon chapter of NORML. NORML will issue a membership card that will give you entry into Cannabis Cafe.

So now you got your card you will probably want to know how much a toke at the cannabis coffee shop will cost? Its FREE! In contrast to California where medical marijuana dispensaries are proftiting from this boom, Oregans plans are to give the marijuana to patients for free through state approved marijuana growers.

So the benefits:

- Terminal ill patients can cut down the number of drugs they take dues to the huge benefits they can obtain from the single herb, Marijuana

- No fear from the Feds doing any raids due to the change in policy from the Obama Admin

- Hope to get rid of Mexican drug cartels

- Eliminate illegitimate businesses solely setting up to first profit from marijuana and secondly help people

New Obama’s policy proves to very good news for medical marijuana users and its dispensaries since the new policy will allow all these legit business and medical users to not be arrested. This give all the users and businesses to operate without the fear of being arrested for visiting state santioned outfits.

I find it quite funny how alot of publishers one day post how marijuana is bad for you and then the following week post how it is good for you. These scientists and news publishers have been doing this for a long time and one example that I can remeber is how they say that chocolate is bad for you and then 6 months later publish how certain chemicals in chocolate can prevent heart disease. The same kind of finding from both ends of the spectrum get published about wine.

You never have these fact published consecutively in short periods of time but perhaps six months later when you have forgotten about then previous news to say it is bad for you.

Any way, this is some research publish by the BBC that I wanted to post quite a while back but only got a chance to do it today. You can view the news on the research here, it summarizes how cannabis can help prevent Osteoporosis and even reverse the process through the 1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1) binding with cannabis to cause bone regeneration.

Probably in a few months time we will have the BBC publishing the opposite but we will have to wait and see. One thing is for sure, these kind of finding are great to help legalize the use of medical marijuana across the world.

If you have not already noticed California seems to be the main focal point from where marijuana will become legalized for everyone, but is it all a dream? Behind the many big headlines being published in many news article that almost give the impression that the legalization of marijuana is not that far away you will also find hidden in the stories the opposite.

Why are all the headlines pointing to California to be the first state to possibly legalize marijuana? Well because all pro-marijuana campaigners are trying to bank on the fact that the state is almost bankrupt and that marijuana is the only solution to help the state to come out of a deficit. Tom Amino has proposed taxing California’s marijuana trade which could raise approximatley $1.3 billion a year and also Arnold Schwarzenegger has suggested that it should be looked at to. These stories are exactly what the current headlines are made of almost selling a dream to all pot smokers but Barrack Obama clears a bit of the smoke by throwing a hammer in the works by saying that all of LA’s 800 marijuana dispensaries are pure commerical operation that are a cover for organized crime making the prospects of legalization a bit more lesser.

With all this commotion of legalizing marijuana for all, if it backfire then it will only leave the people who really need the substance for medical conditions to suffer. Also although legalizing the drug is being fought to help these people with medical conditions the fact that big tobacco companies have come into the picture to sell their products only dampens the possiblity of all this happening. On the one hand you have the people trying to gain access to marijuana without the fear of prosecution (still illegal according to US Federal law) and then you have tobacco companies also wanting to take advantage and make profits possibly countering the good that marijuana has to offer in the first place.

So this month so far has been big headlines with big dreams and small prints being missed to suggest otherwise.