Know The Law (UK) - (this means YOU!!!)

Cannabis is illegal; it's a Class C drug (soon to be class B).

If you’re caught with cannabis the police will always take action.

If you’re caught with even a small amount of cannabis on you, you could be arrested. What the police will do depends on the circumstances and how old you are.

Usually, you’ll get a warning and the police will confiscate the drug.

Use your head! The police are more likely to arrest you if: you are blatantly smoking in public and/or have been caught with cannabis before.

If you continue to break the law, you can end up with a criminal record. It could also affect whether you can go on holiday to some countries.

The maximum penalty for possession is two years in prison plus an unlimited fine.

In the eyes of the law, this includes giving drugs to friends.

People who grow cannabis in their homes or carry large amounts on them also risk being charged with intent to supply.

The maximum penalty for supply is 14 years in prison plus an unlimited fine.

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Marijuana Herbal Cookbook.

Tom Flowers.

The Marijuana Herbal Cookbook contains the most accurate and up to date information on cooking with cannabis - more than 50 mind-bending, tasty recipes using marijuana. Both medical and recreational users will appreciate the "hands on", step-by-step approach to getting marijuana ready for cooking, as well as the valuable information on making extracts and concentrates or your own marijuana medicines. In addition, it tells readers how marijuana can be added to your favorite recipes or even to packaged foods from the grocery store. The last chapters deal with preparation for medical use, and guidelines for treating various illnesses.

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How to Grow Marijuana Indoors for Medicinal Use.

G. W. Carver.

The first chapter of this book explains the history and political repression marijuana, and some of its medical applications. The rest of the book is a very well-presented growing guide, packed with quality diagrams and colour photos.

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Cooking With Cannabis.

Adam Gottlieb.

"The effects here will be less pronounced during the initial stages than those from smoking. But as the minutes progress, the "hash eater's" high may become far more overwhelming than anything that the smoker has ever experienced. This may be furthered by the fact that the eater does not get the same immediate signals which tell the smoker that he has had enough. So when he finally comes on, he may really come on-and still keep coming on."

"For any and all the above reasons, ingested cannabis is often more hallucinogenic than the smoke."

"One may eat ten times too much and still be eating more before the first effects of the high have even arrived. If he does so, he may eventually lose consciousness for anywhere from 12 to 48 hours, depending upon how much was taken."

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Cannabis Alchemy.

D. Gold.

This is an excellent little book full of practical and technical information including sections on how to prepare cannabis oil, enhance potency and make hashish.

Here is one to get your head around - Isomerization: This method is out of "Dr. Atomic's Marijuana Multiplier," one of those early 70's doper pamphlets. This process assumes you have pure hash oil to begin with.

"Dissolve the hash oil in absolute ethanol or pure methanol in the ratio of one gram extract to ten grams solvent. There must be no water in this solution, as the next step is the addition of one drop of 100% sulfuric acid per gram of extract. Add the acid slowly, drop by drop, stirring slowly and completely, with a long glass stirring rod. Place a Pyrex pot containing the extract-alcohol-acid solution into the refluxing apparatus and reflux for two hours. The acid will not evaporate and will remain in the Pyrex pot. Allow to cool. Take the cooled solution, pour with an equal volume of water and 1/2 volume of petroleum ether into the ether-extraction apparatus (separation funnel). Allow to settle, and drain the ether extract layer. This leaves an ether-extract-acid mix from which the acid must be purged. To accomplish this, pour the ether-extract-solution into four volumes of 5% sodium bicarbonate solution (1 gram bicarbonate. in 20 grams of water). This will neutralize the acid, releasing CO2 and leaving a solution of sodium sulphate. Allow this to settle into layers, and then drain the ether-extract layer. Mix the ether-extract solution with an equal volume of pure water and let it separate. Drain off the ether-extract layer. Evaporate the ether and what remains is hash oil in which all of the cannabinoids have been converted into THC."

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Cooking With Ganja.

Eric.

An excellent, informative and good value cannabis cookbook.

Written and published by Eric, "Cooking with Ganja" is an original English cookbook that teaches all you need to know about cooking grass and hash. Clearly written, with no beating around the bush, this is Ganja cookery at its best.

"Cooking with Ganja" first originated in 1994, from an old idea, many scribbled recipes and the continual requests of friends for Eric's special recipes. The results have to be tried to be believed!!!

With 68 pages packed with fantastic recipes, the book includes mouth-watering sweets like "Chocolate Orange Cake" and "Creamy Hash Fudge", or savoury delights such as "Mama's Sauce" for your favourite pasta dishes or "Ganja Crisps" for those munchy attacks! What’s more, it relays all the relevant knowledge you need - weights and measures, oven temperatures and a guide to eating amounts - to cook with grass and hash. It covers U.S. measures too!

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The Hemp Cookbook.

Todd Dalotto. (Healing Arts Press).

In THE HEMP COOKBOOK, Todd Dalotto serves up a tantalizing smorgasbord of recipes that combine the unique nutritional advantages of hemp seed with other vitamin-and mineral-rich foods, creating one of the healthiest and most original cookbooks ever offered. From hearty breakfasts of Hemp Pancakes to gourmet dinners of Vegan Cannabis Stuffed Shells and holiday toasts with rich and creamy Hemp Nog, Dalotto has produced a book that will be welcomed by hempsters and mainstream cooks alike. With chapters providing complete nutritional information on hemp seed, a culinary history of cannabis around the world, a listing of sources for hemp foods, and instructions for creating your own hemp oils, flours, milks, and butters, THE HEMP COOKBOOK is the first and last word on cannabis cuisine.

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Harvest Green.

Ian Bayram

Well organised information including how to cultivate 9-18 ounces of sensimilla every eight weeks.

The preface states "The book's prime function is to show the reader how it is guaranteed to produce a perfect Sensi garden every 8 weeks." (author's emphasis), although the tone is that of improving the technique of persons who have already tried, with limited success, to grow marijuana.

Chapter 1 (what is marijuana) documents the cannabis life-cycle, and the processes and pitfalls involved in gaining experience as a grower.

Chapter 2 deals with lighting requirements, with sections on electric gardens, and the light spectrum.

Chapter 3 starts with the equipment needed for indoor growing.

Chapter 4 starts by discussing seed selection, including Dutch hybrids such as Skunk, Northern Lights, Shiva Shanti and Red Hair.

Chapter 5 - the first section gives advice on the construction of a growers box.

Chapter 6 covers drying techniques, and problems with pest such as insects and plant disorders.

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Marijuana: The Forbidden Medicine.

Lester Grinspoon. James Bakalar. (Yale University Press).

Dr. Lester Grinspoon, Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard University has been one of the most outspoken of his profession regarding the medical persecution of cannabis. Also author of ‘Marijuana Reconsidered’.

In this important and timely book, two eminent researchers describe the medical benefits of marijuana, explain why its use has been forbidden, and argue for its full legalization to make it available to all patients who need it. Highly praised when it was first published in 1993, the book has been expanded to include new examples of the ways that marijuana alleviates symptoms of cancer chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis, glaucoma, AIDS, and depression, as well as symptoms of such less common disorders as Crohn`s disease, diabetic gastro paresis, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

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Marco Renda

Trials and Tribulations on using Marijuana as my medicine legally

My name is Marco Renda and I have been licensed to grow and use marijuana as my medicine since 2003. It wasn’t easy getting my license as a matter of fact it took me 3 years just to find a doctor who was willing to sign the Health Canada forms. At the time when I was applying for my medical marijuana license you needed 2 doctors to sign the necessary forms. My battle began in 2001 when I joined a group of 6 med patients who were filing a class action lawsuit against the Canadian Government. It was through this court case that I met 2 compassionate doctors through 1 of the patients in the lawsuit who were willing to sign my forms for Health Canada. Since day 1 and up to TODAY dealing with the beaucrats at Health Canada is no picnic. These beaucrats take their sweet time in returning phone calls; I have waited over 1 week for a return phone call even though the call center states that your call will be returned within 48 hours. It takes a minimum of 8 weeks to process any paperwork and they state that if you call them while they are working on your file then it can delay your file even further. If you move or need to increase your dosage you have to submit your current card to Health Canada before they will even start to work on your file. You also need to reapply each year even though there is NO CURE for your ailments; this is a waste of time for the patient, the doctor and not to mention a waste of tax payers hard earned funds. Now getting an increase in dosage isn’t easy either as the beaurocrats at Health Canada have NO medical background or training. These folks will call your doctor and tell them that they are prescribing too much and that the average dosage is between 3 – 5 grams per day. Now I have been at 16 grams per day for over 4 years now and when my doctor agreed to increase the dosage to 26 grams per day Barry Jones from Health Canada who has NO medical training or background convinced my doctor to resign my form for just the 16 grams per day, as a matter of fact he went as far as to try and get my doctor to LOWER the dosage to just 5 grams. After several months my doctor decided to make another call to Health Canada to discuss my file as he wanted to make sure that it was ok for him to make the increase, on March 19, 2008 my doctor faxed the paperwork to Health Canada for 26 grams per day. This exemption expired 3 months later. I tried to get this exemption extended to no avail. Due to my Dr. falling ill I wasn’t able to send in my paperwork until the day before my exemption expired. I was then informed by Health Canada that my Dr. had forgotten to put down my specialist name so there would be a further delay. I must say that I did my best to get all the missing details to Health Canada and low and behold 2 weeks later I have my new exemption in hand. So it makes you wonder why they keep telling us that they need 8 weeks to process a renewal. Some folks may think WOW 26 grams per day IS a lot of marijuana to consume, but if you think about it, it really isn’t. You see I just don’t smoke or vaporize my marijuana I also eat it. I prefer hash over bud so I make my own hash using water and ice. It takes 1 pound of marijuana to get between half ounce to an ounce of hash. There are a few patients in Canada who have a prescription for more than I do and I know of 1 patient that has a permit for 56 grams per day. Not too long ago a survey was done to see just how many people living in Canada who use marijuana as medicine (and there are over 1 million people that use this is as their medicine), yet there are only approx 2,700 patients who have received their permit from Health Canada. It kind of makes you wonder what these beaurocrats do all day at Health Canada if it takes them 8 weeks to process the paperwork that is sent in.


For those patients who are unable to grow their own medical marijuana they have a choice of either finding a designated grower or they can purchase their medical marijuana from Health Canada. Patients who have a grow permit are allowed to grow just for themselves but they are allowed to grow with 2 other patients in the same location. The rule about a grower only being able to grow for themselves goes against the court ruling in our case against Health Canada. In a recent case in criminal court where a group of 30 patients were having their medicine grown at a HUGE warehouse the judge ruled in favour of the growers so they were found NOT GUILTY. The crown has decided to appeal the judge’s decision so this case is still before the courts. The following is the time line on how medical marijuana became legal in Canada. In 1999 Health Canada initiated a centralized federal medicinal cannabis program in response to an Ontario court challenge. This 1998 court case focused on Jim Wakeford, a person living with HIV/AIDS who faced cannabis possession and cultivation charges for attempting to grow a supply of medical cannabis to treat symptoms of his condition. The Ontario Superior Court recognized his legal right to access cannabis without fear of arrest, and instructed Health Canada to create a process allowing for legal access to this medicine. Health Canada responded by pointing to existing legislation – Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) – that would grant qualified applicants a federal exemption from the section of the CDSA addressing cannabis possession (Wakeford v. the Queen, 1999). The following year, the Ontario Court of Appeals heard the case of a man named Terry Parker, who had been charged with cannabis possession and cultivation while growing a personal supply to alleviate symptoms of his epilepsy. The appellate court struck down the Section 56 program as unconstitutional when it was revealed that the process was not subject to regulatory oversight and instead granted total discretion to approve or reject potential applicants to the Health Minister. The court also struck down Section 4 of the CDSA as it relates to cannabis possession for all Canadians, but suspended the ruling for one year in order to allow the government time to introduce fair and appropriate regulations enabling access to medicinal cannabis for those with a legitimate medical need (Parker v. the Queen, 2000). As a result of these legal challenges, the constitutional validity of Canada's drug control regulations is now legally dependent on the existence of a working federal medicinal cannabis program. Since these initial developments Health Canada has created the Marihuana Medical Access Division (or MMAD, formerly known as the Office of Cannabis Medical Access, or OCMA) to act as the governing body overseeing the implementation of the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (MMAR), which replaced the "Section 56" exemption process in 2001. On January 9th of 2003 – in a ruling stemming from a lawsuit initiated by medicinal cannabis users and suppliers – the Ontario Supreme Court upheld the right for patients to have access to a safe, legal source of cannabis and once again found the federal program unconstitutional for creating what provincial judge Lederman called the "illusion of access." The court gave the government until July 9th of the same year to put forward a legal supplier for medical users authorized under the Marijuana Medical Access Regulations (Hitzig v. the Queen 2003).

On the eve of July 8th 2003, with the announcement that Health Canada would soon accept written requests by federally- registered users for the cannabis being grown under contract by Prairie Plant Systems (PPS), Canada became the second nation in the world to put in place a system for access to medical cannabis through a centralized, government- administered program (the first was the U.S. Investigational New Drug (IND) program, which began supplying cannabis in 1979, but ceased taking applications in 1989). However, this did not save Health Canada's program from being found constitutionally deficient later that year. On October 7th, the Ontario Court of Appeals declared five specific sections of the MMAR invalid, including the restrictions on production that prevented compassion clubs from operating as legal entities: [161] We have earlier described the ineffectiveness of the DPL (Designed Production License) provisions of the MMAR to ensure a licit supply to [federal license] holders. That ineffectiveness appears to stem very largely from two prohibitions in the MMAR. First, a DPL holder cannot be remunerated for growing marihuana and supplying it to the ATP holder. Second, a DPL holder cannot grow marihuana for more than one ATP holder nor combine his or her growing with more than two other DPL holders. These barriers effectively prevent the emergence of lawfully sanctioned "compassion clubs" or any other efficient form of supply to ATP holders. (Hitzig v Canada, 2003) Although the Ontario Court of Appeals decision immediately struck down these five barriers, on December 17th, 2003 Health Canada re-instated the limits on production verbatim, defending their actions by suggesting that: ‘...these limits on the production of marihuana are necessary to maintain control over distribution of an unapproved drug product, which has not yet been demonstrated to comply with the requirements of the FDA/FDR; minimize the risk of diversion of marihuana for non-medical use; be consistent with the obligations imposed on Canada as a signatory to the United Nations' Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs...’; and maintain an approach that is consistent with movement toward a supply model whereby marihuana for medical purposes would be subject to product standards, produced under regulated conditions; and distributed through pharmacies... To date, a program allowing for pharmacy-based access to medical cannabis has yet to be implemented, and by reinstating the regulations that the Ontario Court of Appeals had recently struck down, Health Canada once again brought this program into questionable constitutional standing. Despite ongoing controversy surrounding the administration of the federal medical cannabis policy, Canadians overwhelmingly support its use. According to the Project Canada Survey Series conducted by sociologist Reginald Bibby since 1975, recent polling indicates that 93% of Canadians support the legal medical use of cannabis.

For the past 3 years I have been travelling throughout Europe promoting my publication “Treating Yourself “in hopes of educating the uninformed. Through my travels I noticed that marijuana is tolerated but not legal in various parts of Spain, Italy, Germany, Holland, Switzerland and the UK. Now Holland, Italy and I believe Spain has a medical marijuana policy but what I would to see is that ALL European countries have the same medical marijuana program in place with certain Canadian program features i.e. Photo ID renewed every 5 yrs similar to a passport, Patients allowed to either grower their own medical marijuana or be allowed to delegate a grower / caregiver. I would like to see that medical marijuana patients be allowed to travel with their medicine to ALL Countries that allow the use of medical marijuana without any legal implications.

Patients are allowed to travel with pharmaceutical drugs so why not medical marijuana? I know that the best medical marijuana strain for my ailments wasn’t always available at these various countries and so I had to just make do with what was available. The best scenario of course would be to just LEGALIZE marijuana across the board and charge a fee / tax to allow folks to grow their own.

Marijuana should be taxed just as wine and spirits and all money raised from these taxes go towards health and education.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me at weedmaster@treatingyourself.com

Take Care and Peace

Marco Renda
Federal Exemptee
Publisher & Editor in Chief
Treating Yourself
The Alternative Medicine Journal

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Outdoor Grower

Feed your Medicinal Greens!

…okay. This is the moment some of you have been waiting for…whether the stuff in the compost bin is actually ready to use yet…You can do this by making sure your compost is dark brown and smells nice and earthy. It should also be slightly moist and have a crumbly texture.

Just a word of warning here…It probably won't look like the neat compost you buy in the shops and it's very likely that yours will still have twigs and newspaper in it!

Don't worry... it's still perfectly good to use! Simply sift out any larger bits and return them to your compost bin.

Your fresh compost is nutrient-rich food for your outdoor/indoor garden and will help improve soil structure, maintain moisture levels and keep your soils pH balance in check while helping suppress plant disease. Your homemade compost has everything your plants need, including nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium and it will help better soils that are very acidic or alkaline. Compost improves your soil's condition and your plants and flowers will love it!

Spread up to a 5cm layer of compost over the existing soil. Worms will quickly like getting to work mixing it in for you! Otherwise you can dig your finished compost into the soil prior to planting.

Using your compost as mulch is also a great idea, as nutes will seep into the soil slowly. A layer of 5cm should do the trick. Make sure that you leave a gap around any soft stemmed plants.

Adding mulch after it has rained will help keep the moisture in the soil as well, meaning less watering!

And don’t forget your other plants either – they too will benefit from the goodness of your natural and organic compost.

Give your potted plants and containers an extra boost by removing the top few centimetres of existing soil and adding your freshly made compost.

Your plants and any new plants from seeds will enjoy the additional nutrients and minerals that your compost enriched potting mixture contains, and outdoor container plants will love it too.

About a third of the mix should be compost, slightly less when you are planting seeds. The reason for this is that home made compost is too strong to use on its own for planting into.

...healthier herbs and vegetables

Compost is excellent for growing herbs such as basil, chives, parsley, mint and medicinal greens.

Simply crumble it around the base of the plants for healthier, leafier herbs.

Life can feel so rewarding at times!!!

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Cannabinoid may provide a valid target in the search for new treatments for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia and cannabis is under the spotlight again…

According to the Dept. of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Cologne, Germany, the endogenous cannabinoid system has recently been shown of particular importance in the pathophysiology of acute schizophrenia. It interacts with various neurotransmitter systems in the central nervous system including the dopaminergic and glutamatergic system leaving researchers of the opinion there is some experimental and clinical evidence that herbal cannabinoid compounds may have antipsychotic properties.

Based on these confounders the researchers designed a four week, double-blind, controlled clinical trial on the effects of purified cannabidiol, a major compound of herbal cannabis, in acute schizophrenia and schizophreniform psychosis compared to the antipsychotic "Amisulpride".

The antipsychotic properties of both drugs were the primary target of the study. Furthermore, side-effects and anxiolytic capabilities of both treatment strategies were investigated.

Cannabidiol significantly reduced psychopathological symptoms of acute psychosis after both, week two and four, when compared to the initial status. There was no statistical difference of this effect to the control condition. In contrast, Cannabidiol revealed significantly less side effects when compared to amisulpride.

This phase II clinical trial on the effects of Cannabidiol in acute schizophrenia and schizophreniform psychosis raises evidence for its antipsychotic properties that exceeds by far the evidence from open observations available up to now. Furthermore, it raises evidence that the endogenous cannabinoid system may provide a valid target in the search for new treatments for schizophrenia.

The scientists say the drug only seems to affect people who are genetically predisposed to getting schizophrenia.

The authors of the report wrote "It is therefore advisable that youngsters with a family history of schizophrenia and patients with a schizophrenic disorder be discouraged from using cannabis."

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Availability of Sativex for healthcare professionals and individuals.

The American Alliance For Medical Cannabis

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The 64 Billion dollar question - Should marijuana be a medical option?

http://medicalmarijuana.procon.org
This site presents in a simple, nonpartisan pro-con format, responses to the core question "Should marijuana be a medical option?" But please note - They do not provide referrals to, or recommendations of marijuana dispensaries, cannabis clubs, physicians, or attorneys although they do reference them on this website.

As the title of the web-site would suggest – its all about the pro’s and con’s – here is their one-minute overview of the argument:

‘PRO: Proponents for the legal use of medical marijuana argue that marijuana has "accepted medical use in treatment in the US," and that it would easily meet the FDA criteria over "whether a new product's benefits to users will outweigh its risks." Marijuana, they claim, is a safe and effective treatment for dozens of conditions, such as cancer, AIDS, multiple sclerosis, pain, migraines, glaucoma, and epilepsy. Proponents say that thousands of yearly deaths from legal prescription drugs could be prevented if medical marijuana were legal.

CON: Opponents of medical marijuana argue that marijuana has not been FDA-approved because it is too dangerous to use, and that various FDA-approved drugs make the use of marijuana unnecessary. Marijuana, they claim, is addictive, leads to harder drug use, injures the lungs, harms the immune system, damages the brain, interferes with fertility, impairs driving ability, and sends the wrong message to kids. They say that medical marijuana is a front for drug legalization, and that people who claim medical uses are actually using it for recreational pleasure.’

Medical Marijuana is Legal in Canada.

www.medicalmarihuana.ca
This website provides you the information on how to apply to possess, use, grow and sell marihuana in compliance with Health Canada's guidelines.

It’s full of Canadian News Articles and more, like joining the constitutional challenge to the gov't program.