Marijuana Blog

The Colombian government is testing a new tactic to wean addicts of synthetic drugs, a moe that has some people praising the effort while other claiming it’s a dopey idea.

 

In the upcoming weeks, officials in the country's capital, Bogotá, will begin a program giving marijuana to addicts of bazuco -- a cheap form of cocaine made out of drug residue mixed with kerosene and sulfuric acid that gives users a crack-like high and a heroin-like addiction.

 Researchers working on the project hope to help addicts kick their habit by easing them off the harder substance by using marijuana, which they suspect will be less addictive.

 

“I had tried other drugs before that, but the addiction caused by bazuco is truly uncontrollable,” Javier Cortés García, a former addict, told the website InfosurHoy. “The five months I lived on the streets, I couldn’t even remember who I was – all I wanted was bazuco to somehow satisfy the craving – a craving that never ends until the next fix. It’s really like living a nightmare, but you’re wide awake.”

 

 

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com

A new study reported on this week at the annual meeting for the American Association of Cancer Research has found that habitual marijuana consumers have no more increased risk of lung cancer than casual consumers, or those who don’t consume at all. This was found to be true regardless of how many times a day a person consumes cannabis, and regardless of how long they’ve been a consumer.

 

The study included data from six case-control studies conducted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. It included a subject pool of 2,159 lung cancer cases and 2,985 controls – the studies were part of the International Lung Cancer Consortium (ILCCO), an international group of lung cancer researchers.

 

Dr. Zhang of the University of California performed two analyses, one which compared all lung cancer cases and all controls, regardless of current or past tobacco use. Then, the analysis was restricted to those who had never smoked tobacco, which consisted of 370 cancer cases and 1,358 controls. Dr. Zhang also adjusted the models to account for age, sex, etc.. Habitual use was defined as one joint per day, per year.

 

When compared with cannabis smokers who also used tobacco, habitual pot smokers had no significant increase in cancer risk.

 

Read more: http://www.theweedblog.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Several dozen protesters gathered in downtown Berkeley Wednesday afternoon to fight federal action against one of California's oldest medical marijuana dispensaries, targeted for closure by the Justice Department.

 

"The Obama administration's ongoing war against patients is despicable and has to stop," Steph Sherer, executive director of Americans for Safe Access, told the crowd. "This is a mean, vindictive move aimed at shutting down one of the oldest and well-respected dispensaries in the country."

 

U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag on Friday served pot shop Berkeley Patients Group with a lawsuit that attempts to seize the property and ultimately shut the business. Berkeley officials say the dispensary provides significant benefits to the community.

 

"BPG has served as a national model of the not-for-profit, services-based medical cannabis dispensary," Berkeley City Council member Darryl Moore said in a resolution opposing the lawsuit. "They have improved the lives and assisted the end-of-life transitions of thousands of patients; been significant donors to dozens of other organizations in our city; [and] shaped local, state and national policies around medical cannabis."

 

Berkeley Patients Group received a letter from Haag last year, claiming its location within 1,000 feet of a school broke state law. The operation later relocated, and the lawsuit makes no mention of its proximity to schools or violation of specific laws.

 

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com