Harvey's Radio Show: Green Power And Wellness – Legal Hemp & Marijuana
by Harvey Wasserman
LEGAL HEMP & MARIJUANA! are celebrated on this landmark Solartopia Green Power & Wellness Show as Harvey is joined by long-time hemp campaigners Anndrea Hermann and Tom Murphy. We celebrate electoral victories in Colorado, Washington State and elsewhere. Then we explore the deep details of legalized hemp, now a half-billion-dollar/year industry in Canada. Based in Manitoba, Anndrea explains the realities of a hemp industry that employs tens of thousands of Canadians for a crop that’s used in food, cleansers, construction, paper, rope, twine and much much more. From Maine, Tom tells us of federal legislation aimed at finally bring the hemp industry back in the US, where it might well outstrip its smokable cousin in terms of revenue and employment. The future of cannabis—industrial and otherwise—is the future of American health, economy and agriculture.
Listen to the full hour
READ THE ARTICLE

Medical Cannabis Amendment certified by Ohio Attorney General
by
The OMCA2012 team is proud to announce that, on January 20, 2012, the Ohio Attorney General certified the Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment of 2012. On January 12, 2012, the OMCA2012 proposed ballot language and summary were submitted to the OAG's office along with 212 petitions containing the signatures of almost 3,000 purported registered Ohio voters, 1,727 of which were deemed valid.
READ THE ARTICLE

Why the marijuana renaissance is here to stay: We are not far from a time when pot will be hailed as a "wonder drug"
by
The following is the text of a speech by Lester Greenspoon, M.D. recently delivered to the 2011 NORML conference.
In 1967, because of my concern about the rapidly growing use of the dangerous drug marijuana, I began my studies of the scientific and medical literature with the goal of providing a reasonably objective summary of the data which underlay its prohibition. Much to my surprise, I found no credible scientific basis for the justification of the prohibition. The assertion that it is a very toxic drug is based on old and new myths. In fact, one of the many exceptional features of this drug is its remarkably limited toxicity. Compared to aspirin, which people are free to purchase and use without the advice or prescription of a physician, cannabis is much safer: there are well over 1000 deaths annually from aspirin in this country alone, whereas there has never been a death anywhere from marijuana. In fact, when cannabis regains its place in the US Pharmacopeia, a status it lost after the passage of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, it will be seen as one of the safest drugs in that compendium. Moreover, it will eventually be hailed as a "wonder drug" just as penicillin was in the 1940s. Penicillin achieved this reputation because it was remarkably non-toxic, it was, once it was produced on an economy of scale, quite inexpensive, and it was effective in the treatment of a variety of infectious diseases. Similarly, cannabis is exceptionally safe, and once freed of the prohibition tariff, will be significantly less expensive than the conventional drugs it replaces while its already impressive medical versatility continues to expand.
READ THE ARTICLE

Persecution of gays and pot smokers
by Paul Krassner, High Times
Now that California’s Prop. 15 has been defeated, the bottom line remains, in the words of author/activist Harvey Wasserman: “The simple truth about America's marijuana prohibition: Any law that allows the easy incarceration of any citizen any time those in power want to do it is the ultimate enemy of democracy. With 800,000 annual arrests over an herb used by tens of millions of Americans, it is the cornerstone of a police state.”
READ THE ARTICLE

George Washington ORDERS all Californians to legalize pot
by "Thomas Paine"
Hello All Californians.
READ THE ARTICLE

Stoned on righteousness
by Robert C. Koehler
It’s not just about us. If Californians legalize marijuana on Nov. 2, maybe Mexico will end its horrific drug war.
READ THE ARTICLE

Letters from prison--UPDATED
by Chris Ryan
[Editor’s Note: Christopher Ryan is a self proclaimed “prisoner of war”--the war on drugs. The Columbus native and long time drug reform activist was arrested in Nebraska for transporting over a 150 pounds of marijuana. The ethics of smuggling that much pot are complex, but Mr. Ryan is a complex man. He simultaneously considers himself a progressive, an anarchist, and a revolutionary. To him, the issues are clear. Marijuana is a relatively safe and arguably beneficial drug, which is outlawed by the government, out of fear and the desire to control. This irrational policy leads to irrational results. The U.S. Department of Justice estimated in 2006 that over a billion dollars are spent every year on incarcerations related to cannabis. An estimated 800,000 are arrested for all pot related offenses. This billion dollars represents a low estimate of over 40,000 cannabis inmates. Ryan is now one of these inmates, imprisoned for acting on his beliefs responding to his perception of an irrational drug policy.
READ THE ARTICLE

Chris the Anarchist sentenced today in Nebraska
by Connie Gadell-Newton
Chris “the Anarchist” Ryan, a long time Central Ohio resident, was sentenced today, Monday April 26, 2010 in Nebraska by Judge Mary C. Gilbride, of the District Court of Nebraska. Chris the Anarchist was sentenced to one to one and a half years in prison. Chris pleaded guilty to felony charges of transporting 154 pounds of marijuana through Nebraska, one of the 36 States that has not yet legalized medical marijuana. Fourteen States have enacted laws legalizing medical marijuana: Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Hawaii, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.
Medical Marijuana
READ THE ARTICLE

Chamomile, comfrey, coltsfoot, and...cannabis: (Or what's wrong with the current Ohio Medical Marijuana bill...)
by Chris Ryan
Cannabis is an herb. It belongs to the same class of commonly used plants as Chamomile, Comfrey, and Coltsfoot, known as herbs, which have a long and distinguished history of industrial, medicinal, and recreational usage dating back to the earliest days of human history. To pretend that cannabis is somehow different than these other plants is to make a major mistake in both classification and characterization.
READ THE ARTICLE

Meet Alex White Plume
by Chris
Alex is the former Tribal President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe of South Dakota. He lives on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation of South Dakota.
READ THE ARTICLE

Recent Hemp Legalization Articles

Why the marijuana renaissance is here to stay: We are not far from a time when pot will be hailed as a "wonder drug"
  June 5, 2011
  

Read Hemp Legalization Articles by Year:
2013 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000