by: Aaron Turpen

A systematic review conducted by The Global Neuroscience Initiative Foundation found that five of six controlled trials reported a reduction in spasticity and an improvement in mobility amongst multiple sclerosis patients using cannabis extracts.

The two researchers, Shaheen Lakhan and Marie Rowland from the Los Angeles-based foundation, searched for trials evaluating cannabis extracts. Specifically, they were looking for extracts known as delta 9 - tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD). Their study was published in the December 2009 issue of BMC Neurology.

huffingtonpost.com

Produced by HuffPost's Eyes & Ears Citizen Journalism Unit.

PAUL ELIAS

SAN FRANCISCO — A unanimous California Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a law that sought to impose limits on the amount of marijuana a medical patient can legally possess.

The California Supreme Court ruled that state lawmakers were wrong to change provisions of the voter-approved Proposition 215. The 1996 measure allowed for patients with a doctor's recommendation to possess an unspecified amount of marijuana.

The Legislature, seeking to give law enforcement guidance on when to make marijuana possession arrests, mandated in 2003 that each patient could have a maximum of 8 ounces of dried marijuana.

online.wsj.com

By ANNA WILDE MATHEWS

Charlene DeGidio never smoked marijuana in the 1960s, or afterward. But a year ago, after medications failed to relieve the pain in her legs and feet, a doctor suggested that the Adna, Wash., retiree try the drug.

Ms. DeGidio, 69 years old, bought candy with marijuana mixed in. It worked in easing her neuropathic pain, for which doctors haven't been able to pinpoint a cause, she says. Now, Ms. DeGidio, who had previously tried without success other drugs including Neurontin and lidocaine patches, nibbles marijuana-laced peppermint bars before sleep, and keeps a bag in her refrigerator that she's warned her grandchildren to avoid.

"It's not like you're out smoking pot for enjoyment or to get high," says the former social worker, who won't take the drug during the day because she doesn't want to feel disoriented. "It's a medicine."

palmbeachpost.com

Smaller type

hempfest.org

Canadian cannabis activist, business owner and philanthropist, Marc Emery, is being prosecuted by the United States Government for selling seeds across the United States border via mail order. Marc Emery is being extradited from Canada to Seattle, Washington, to attend a sentencing hearing. Emery is expected to get a 5 year sentence in a federal prison, as he has nobly accepted a plea bargain in order to have the charges dropped on his two former co-defendants.

As Americans, we need to oppose the political persecution of our Canadian brother, Marc Emery, and let our government and the Canadian government know that nobody should go to prison for pot.

It had been confiscated from a motorist whose attorney convinced a judge that California's medical marijuana law allowed its transport.

latimes.com

By Gerrick Kennedy

With the debate on medical marijuana still at a full boil in Los Angeles, a judge Friday ordered the return of 60 pounds of pot to a man after his attorneys successfully argued that a state law gave him the right to transport it.

Saguro Doven, 33, was initially charged with possession of marijuana for sale and transportation of the drug, a violation of the state's health and safety code.

nbcbayarea.com

Updated 4:30 PM PST

In a sign of medical marijuana's growing acceptance, the Board of Supervisors voted Thursday to solicit advice on the issue from a new task force.

The new environment was on display at Hope Net, a cannabis dispensary in San Francisco's Civic Center neighborhood.

There, precisely at noon, a black iron security door flung open. A steady stream of men filed past the trays of glass smoking pipes, and headed toward a back room. Before a glass counter they browsed plastic bins of pungent marijuana buds, cookies and brownies. A sign on the wall advertises a raffle.

sanmarcosmercury.com

Submitted by Lamar Hankins on Monday, 4 January 2010

Two years ago, when my mother was 88, her health began deteriorating rapidly. She was hospitalized twice before she came home for the last time under the care of hospice. One of her first, and lingering, symptoms was unexplained nausea, which was unabated for about two months. After hospice care began, the hospice nurse, working with advice and supervision from the hospice doctor, began trying to find some drug or combination of drugs to overcome Mother’s nausea. After experimenting with several drugs and combinations to no effect, the nurse finally hit on a successful combination: an anti-nausea drug combined with Marinol.

esciencenews.com

Published: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 - 12:47 in Psychology & Sociology

Teens who frequently listen to music that contains references to marijuana are more likely to use the drug than their counterparts with less exposure to such lyrics, according to a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study online now in the journal Addiction. "Based on an analysis of survey data from 959 ninth-graders, we found that students who listen to music with the most references to marijuana are almost twice as likely to have used the drug than their peers whose musical tastes favor songs less focused on substance use, even after controlling for confounding factors," said Brian Primack, M.D.,Ed.M., M.S., lead author of the study and assistant professor of medicine and pediatrics at Pitt's School of Medicine.