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Medical marijuana refugees: 'This was our only hope'
Did anyone watch this?
https://us.cnn.com/2014/03/10/health/medical-marijuana-refugees/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
Did anyone watch this?
https://us.cnn.com/2014/03/10/health/medical-marijuana-refugees/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
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Al Bumin
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[h=1]Colorado reports $2 million in recreational pot taxes in first month of sales[/h]
https://www.thestar.com/business/20...ional_pot_taxes_in_first_month_of_sales.html#
https://www.thestar.com/business/20...ional_pot_taxes_in_first_month_of_sales.html#
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Commercial medical marijuana growers banking on massive sales
Health Canada's new rules shifting medical marijuana production to businesses take effect April 1.
MediJean has installed a secure vault that will be used as a final holding area for medical marijuana being distributed from the facility in Richmond, B.C.
Long article here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...na-growers-banking-on-massive-sales-1.2591992
Health Canada's new rules shifting medical marijuana production to businesses take effect April 1.
MediJean has installed a secure vault that will be used as a final holding area for medical marijuana being distributed from the facility in Richmond, B.C.
Long article here:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/brit...na-growers-banking-on-massive-sales-1.2591992
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Al Bumin
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An exchange student fell to his death after ingesting marijuana in Colorado - the first death linked to the drug since it was legalised in the US state.
Levy Thamba, 19, plummeted from the balcony of a Denver hotel on 11 March after eating a cannabis-laced cookie.
A post-mortem examination found marijuana intoxication was a factor in the Wyoming student's death.
Colorado became the first US state to legalise recreational use of the drug in January.
Mr Thamba, a native of the Republic of Congo, had reportedly begun taking classes at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, the same month.
Currently, 20 US states as well as Washington, DC allow for the sale of medical marijuana, while Washington state is set to introduce legal sales later this year.
Recently, US President Barack Obama said marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol, while cautioning both were bad decisions.
Nonetheless, he has instructed the Department of Justice to halt prosecutions of banks that do business with cannabis firms.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26860982
Levy Thamba, 19, plummeted from the balcony of a Denver hotel on 11 March after eating a cannabis-laced cookie.
A post-mortem examination found marijuana intoxication was a factor in the Wyoming student's death.
Colorado became the first US state to legalise recreational use of the drug in January.
Mr Thamba, a native of the Republic of Congo, had reportedly begun taking classes at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, the same month.
Currently, 20 US states as well as Washington, DC allow for the sale of medical marijuana, while Washington state is set to introduce legal sales later this year.
Recently, US President Barack Obama said marijuana was no more dangerous than alcohol, while cautioning both were bad decisions.
Nonetheless, he has instructed the Department of Justice to halt prosecutions of banks that do business with cannabis firms.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-26860982
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Stoner said:
Wow. That's mainstream!
/-Thumbs-up::/
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FBI 'could hire hackers on cannabis' to fight cybercrime
The FBI has reportedly said it is "grappling with the question" of whether to hire cybersecurity experts who use cannabis. The US agency's current policy prohibits anyone working for it who has used cannabis in the past three years.
However, its director James Comey has acknowledged that this is complicating its efforts to recruit hacking experts, according to the Wall Street Journal. It said he made the announcement at a conference in New York.
"I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," the newspaper quoted him as saying at the White Collar Crime Institute's annual meeting. It added that when one attendee asked how a cannabis-using friend interested in working for the bureau should now act, Mr Comey replied: "He should go ahead and apply."
Unlike the FBI, the UK's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU)'s vetting policy does not make specific reference to cannabis, but does have a wider anti-drugs rule. "Whilst previous drug taking is not necessarily a barrier to employment provided people are open about it, applicants are told not to apply if they have taken illegal drugs in the preceding 12 months," said a spokeswoman for the National Crime Agency, of which the NCCU is a division. "Before joining all new entrants have to undertake a drugs screening test before appointment is confirmed. "Once employed, individuals are subject to NCA policies including random and intelligence-led 'with cause' substance testing. Certain high-risk posts require individuals to take more regular testing as a role requirement."
One expert thought it was sensible to review such anti-drugs policies. "The sort of hackers that you want to hire tend to be young, the young tend to have bad habits such as smoking marijuana, and over time you'd expect them to do this less," Dr Richard Clayton, from the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, told the BBC. "But equally, I believe the FBI and the National Cyber Crime Unit have more problem recruiting people because of the salaries they pay, which compare poorly with the salaries available in the private industry."
The UK's Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told BBC Two's Newsnight programme in November that the NCCU might hire convicted hackers despite a current ban against recruits with a criminal record. "The conviction would be examined in terms of how long ago it was, how serious it was, what sort of sentence had followed. So I can't rule it out," he said.
But Dr Clayton said he was concerned how this might be implemented. "We like to send out the message that hacking is very bad and that if you get caught it can ruin your life," he said. "But it's a problem if you then say, 'If you get caught we might let you serve a few months in jail and then give you a nice cushy job.' "Perhaps we might want to have some sort of 'we won't hire you until your conviction is at least five years old' sort of policy."
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27499595
The FBI has reportedly said it is "grappling with the question" of whether to hire cybersecurity experts who use cannabis. The US agency's current policy prohibits anyone working for it who has used cannabis in the past three years.
However, its director James Comey has acknowledged that this is complicating its efforts to recruit hacking experts, according to the Wall Street Journal. It said he made the announcement at a conference in New York.
"I have to hire a great workforce to compete with those cybercriminals, and some of those kids want to smoke weed on the way to the interview," the newspaper quoted him as saying at the White Collar Crime Institute's annual meeting. It added that when one attendee asked how a cannabis-using friend interested in working for the bureau should now act, Mr Comey replied: "He should go ahead and apply."
Unlike the FBI, the UK's National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU)'s vetting policy does not make specific reference to cannabis, but does have a wider anti-drugs rule. "Whilst previous drug taking is not necessarily a barrier to employment provided people are open about it, applicants are told not to apply if they have taken illegal drugs in the preceding 12 months," said a spokeswoman for the National Crime Agency, of which the NCCU is a division. "Before joining all new entrants have to undertake a drugs screening test before appointment is confirmed. "Once employed, individuals are subject to NCA policies including random and intelligence-led 'with cause' substance testing. Certain high-risk posts require individuals to take more regular testing as a role requirement."
One expert thought it was sensible to review such anti-drugs policies. "The sort of hackers that you want to hire tend to be young, the young tend to have bad habits such as smoking marijuana, and over time you'd expect them to do this less," Dr Richard Clayton, from the University of Cambridge's Computer Laboratory, told the BBC. "But equally, I believe the FBI and the National Cyber Crime Unit have more problem recruiting people because of the salaries they pay, which compare poorly with the salaries available in the private industry."
The UK's Defence Secretary Philip Hammond told BBC Two's Newsnight programme in November that the NCCU might hire convicted hackers despite a current ban against recruits with a criminal record. "The conviction would be examined in terms of how long ago it was, how serious it was, what sort of sentence had followed. So I can't rule it out," he said.
But Dr Clayton said he was concerned how this might be implemented. "We like to send out the message that hacking is very bad and that if you get caught it can ruin your life," he said. "But it's a problem if you then say, 'If you get caught we might let you serve a few months in jail and then give you a nice cushy job.' "Perhaps we might want to have some sort of 'we won't hire you until your conviction is at least five years old' sort of policy."
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27499595
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Don’t Harsh Our Mellow, Dude
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child.
Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop.
What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out.
Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I’d order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.
But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.
I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing, touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.
It took all night before it began to wear off, distressingly slowly. The next day, a medical consultant at an edibles plant where I was conducting an interview mentioned that candy bars like that are supposed to be cut into 16 pieces for novices; but that recommendation hadn’t been on the label.
I reckoned that the fact that I was not a regular marijuana smoker made me more vulnerable, and that I should have known better. But it turns out, five months in, that some kinks need to be ironed out with the intoxicating open bar at the Mile High Club.
Colorado raked in about $12.6 million the first three months after pot was legalized for adults 21 and over. Pot party planners are dreaming up classy events: the Colorado Symphony just had its first “Classically Cannabis” fund-raiser with joints and Debussy. But the state is also coming to grips with the darker side of unleashing a drug as potent as marijuana on a horde of tourists of all ages and tolerance levels seeking a mellow buzz.
In March, a 19-year-old Wyoming college student jumped off a Denver hotel balcony after eating a pot cookie with 65 milligrams of THC. In April, a Denver man ate pot-infused Karma Kandy and began talking like it was the end of the world, scaring his wife and three kids. Then he retrieved a handgun from a safe and killed his wife while she was on the phone with an emergency dispatcher.
As Jack Healy reported in The Times on Sunday, Colorado hospital officials “are treating growing numbers of children and adults sickened by potent doses of edible marijuana” and neighboring states are seeing more stoned drivers.
“We realized there was a problem because we’re watching everything with the urgency of the first people to regulate in this area,” said Andrew Freedman, the state’s director of marijuana coordination. “There are way too many stories of people not understanding how much they’re eating. With liquor, people understand what they’re getting themselves into. But that doesn’t exist right now for edibles for new users in the market. It would behoove the industry to create a more pleasant experience for people.
“The whole industry was set up for people who smoked frequently. It needs to learn how to educate new users in the market. We have to create a culture of responsibility around edibles, so people know what to expect to feel.”
Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Legislature recently created a task force to come up with packaging that clearly differentiates pot cookies and candy and gummy bears from normal sweets — with an eye toward protecting children — and directed the Department of Revenue to restrict the amount of edibles that can be sold at one time to one person. The governor also signed legislation mandating that there be a stamp on edibles, possibly a marijuana leaf. (Or maybe a stoned skull and bones?)
The state plans to start testing to make sure the weed is spread evenly throughout the product. The task force is discussing having budtenders give better warnings to customers and moving toward demarcating a single-serving size of 10 milligrams. (Industry representatives objected to the expense of wrapping bites of candy individually.)
“My kids put rocks and batteries in their mouths,” said Bob Eschino, the owner of Incredibles, which makes candy and serves up chocolate and strawberry fountains. “If I put a marijuana leaf on a piece of chocolate, they’ll still put it in their mouths.”
He argues that, since pot goodies leave the dispensary in childproof packages, it is the parents’ responsibility to make sure their kids don’t get hold of it.
“Somebody suggested we just make everything look like a gray square so it doesn’t look appealing. Why should the whole industry suffer just because less than 5 percent of people are having problems with the correct dosing?”
Does he sound a little paranoid?
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/...-dude.html?smid=tw-NYTimesDowd&seid=auto&_r=2
The caramel-chocolate flavored candy bar looked so innocent, like the Sky Bars I used to love as a child.
Sitting in my hotel room in Denver, I nibbled off the end and then, when nothing happened, nibbled some more. I figured if I was reporting on the social revolution rocking Colorado in January, the giddy culmination of pot Prohibition, I should try a taste of legal, edible pot from a local shop.
What could go wrong with a bite or two? Everything, as it turned out.
Not at first. For an hour, I felt nothing. I figured I’d order dinner from room service and return to my more mundane drugs of choice, chardonnay and mediocre-movies-on-demand.
But then I felt a scary shudder go through my body and brain. I barely made it from the desk to the bed, where I lay curled up in a hallucinatory state for the next eight hours. I was thirsty but couldn’t move to get water. Or even turn off the lights. I was panting and paranoid, sure that when the room-service waiter knocked and I didn’t answer, he’d call the police and have me arrested for being unable to handle my candy.
I strained to remember where I was or even what I was wearing, touching my green corduroy jeans and staring at the exposed-brick wall. As my paranoia deepened, I became convinced that I had died and no one was telling me.
It took all night before it began to wear off, distressingly slowly. The next day, a medical consultant at an edibles plant where I was conducting an interview mentioned that candy bars like that are supposed to be cut into 16 pieces for novices; but that recommendation hadn’t been on the label.
I reckoned that the fact that I was not a regular marijuana smoker made me more vulnerable, and that I should have known better. But it turns out, five months in, that some kinks need to be ironed out with the intoxicating open bar at the Mile High Club.
Colorado raked in about $12.6 million the first three months after pot was legalized for adults 21 and over. Pot party planners are dreaming up classy events: the Colorado Symphony just had its first “Classically Cannabis” fund-raiser with joints and Debussy. But the state is also coming to grips with the darker side of unleashing a drug as potent as marijuana on a horde of tourists of all ages and tolerance levels seeking a mellow buzz.
In March, a 19-year-old Wyoming college student jumped off a Denver hotel balcony after eating a pot cookie with 65 milligrams of THC. In April, a Denver man ate pot-infused Karma Kandy and began talking like it was the end of the world, scaring his wife and three kids. Then he retrieved a handgun from a safe and killed his wife while she was on the phone with an emergency dispatcher.
As Jack Healy reported in The Times on Sunday, Colorado hospital officials “are treating growing numbers of children and adults sickened by potent doses of edible marijuana” and neighboring states are seeing more stoned drivers.
“We realized there was a problem because we’re watching everything with the urgency of the first people to regulate in this area,” said Andrew Freedman, the state’s director of marijuana coordination. “There are way too many stories of people not understanding how much they’re eating. With liquor, people understand what they’re getting themselves into. But that doesn’t exist right now for edibles for new users in the market. It would behoove the industry to create a more pleasant experience for people.
“The whole industry was set up for people who smoked frequently. It needs to learn how to educate new users in the market. We have to create a culture of responsibility around edibles, so people know what to expect to feel.”
Gov. John Hickenlooper and the Legislature recently created a task force to come up with packaging that clearly differentiates pot cookies and candy and gummy bears from normal sweets — with an eye toward protecting children — and directed the Department of Revenue to restrict the amount of edibles that can be sold at one time to one person. The governor also signed legislation mandating that there be a stamp on edibles, possibly a marijuana leaf. (Or maybe a stoned skull and bones?)
The state plans to start testing to make sure the weed is spread evenly throughout the product. The task force is discussing having budtenders give better warnings to customers and moving toward demarcating a single-serving size of 10 milligrams. (Industry representatives objected to the expense of wrapping bites of candy individually.)
“My kids put rocks and batteries in their mouths,” said Bob Eschino, the owner of Incredibles, which makes candy and serves up chocolate and strawberry fountains. “If I put a marijuana leaf on a piece of chocolate, they’ll still put it in their mouths.”
He argues that, since pot goodies leave the dispensary in childproof packages, it is the parents’ responsibility to make sure their kids don’t get hold of it.
“Somebody suggested we just make everything look like a gray square so it doesn’t look appealing. Why should the whole industry suffer just because less than 5 percent of people are having problems with the correct dosing?”
Does he sound a little paranoid?
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/04/...-dude.html?smid=tw-NYTimesDowd&seid=auto&_r=2
