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The News
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Canadian Politicians Present Thousands of Signatures In Support of Marc Emery |
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Posted by smkrider
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Tuesday, 16 March 2010 04:18 |
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 CANNABIS CULTURE - Members of Parliament from the Liberal, New Democratic, and Conservative Parties of Canada presented petitions today to the House of Commons with over 12,000 signatures asking the Minister of Justice to stop the extradition of marijuana activist Marc Emery.
In a show of cross-party MP support rarely seen in the House, Scott Reid (Conservative), Libby Davies (NDP), and Ujjal Dosanjh (Liberal) stood in succession and asked Conservative Minister of Justice Rob Nicholson to refuse to sign extradition orders sending Emery, a Vancouver entrepreneur and well-known activist, to the United States for a 5-year prison term.
Conservative MP Scott Reid: "I'm presenting a petition today, quite a large petition as you can see from the pile on the table beside me, regarding Marc Emery, the leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party, who is facing deportation to the United States. The petitioners draw the attention of Parliament to a number of pertinent facts, I won't go through all of them but I think some are relevant here. Marc Emery's activities, the ones for which he is being extradited involve selling viable seeds, viable marijuana seeds, over the Internet. It's worth noting that these activities were approved by Health Canada's referral of medical marijuana patients to his seed bank. It is worth noting as well that courts in ruling on this subject, Canadian courts have ruled that a $200 fine is an appropriate punishment for this kind of activity as opposed to extradition to a country where he can face potentially life imprisonment. Finally it is worth noting that, under the Extradition Act, the petitioners point out, the Canadian Minister of Justice shall refuse to surrender a person when that surrender could involve unjust or undue or oppressive actions by the country to which he being extradited."
NDP MP Libby Davies: "I too have a very big stack of petitions to present, about 4000 petitions, along with other colleagues in the House who have received a similar number, and these are petitions from Canadians across the country who draw to our attention a matter of great urgency concerning the US call for extradition of Mr. Marc Emery as we've heard just earlier. Many dedicated individuals have collected approximately 12,000 petitions reflecting a strong belief that Mr. Emery or any Canadian should not face harsh punishment in the US for selling cannabis seeds on the Internet when it is not worthy of prosecution in Canada. The petitioners call on Parliament to make it clear to the Minister of Justice that such an extradition should be opposed. I am very pleased to present this; I think it is a very strong reflection of Canadians' views on this matter and we hope that the Parliament of Canada will act on this, and certainly the Minister of Justice will take this into account."
Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh: "I join my previous two colleagues with respect to this petition regarding Marc Emery. I believe there is a certain degree of unfairness that is inherent in the process that has been used to deal with him, and these petitions urge the Minister, the Attorney General, to not surrender Marc Emery to the United States for extradition. While I come from British Columbia, a former attorney general and former Premier of British Columbia, I have certain sympathies with Mr. Emery, not because of what he did, but because I believe that the process that was used to arrest him and punish him wouldn't have been done in the case of Canadian authorities wanting to arrest him and punish him, and I believe that because of that unfairness, the Minister of Justice is urged by the petitioner to take another look at it."
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24 States’ Laws Open to Attack After Campaign Finance Ruling |
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Posted by smkrider
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Saturday, 23 January 2010 18:18 |
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Published: January 22, 2010
In Wisconsin, conservative and pro-business groups said Friday that they were considering a lawsuit to block a proposed law that would ban corporate spending during political campaigns.
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Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle
The site of a proposed Meijer store in Acme Township, Mich. A township board faced a recall election after blocking the plan.
The latest on President Obama, his administration and other news from Washington and around the nation. Join the discussion.
Jan-Michael Stump/Traverse City Record-Eagle
Meijer Inc. was suspected of illegally funneling tens of thousands of dollars to groups involved in the recall effort.
In Kentucky and Colorado, lawmakers looked for provisions in their state constitutions that may need to be rewritten. And in Texas, lawyers for Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, said the pending state campaign finance case against him should be thrown out.
A day after the United States Supreme Court ruled that the federal government may not ban political spending by corporations or unions in candidate elections, officials across the country were rushing to cope with the fallout, as laws in 24 states were directly or indirectly called into question by the ruling.
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Last Updated on Saturday, 23 January 2010 18:20 |
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Chemicals in Marijuana May Fight MRSA |
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Posted by smkrider
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 19:50 |
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Study Shows Cannabinoids May Be Useful Against Drug-Resistant Staph Infections
By Caroline Wilbert
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By Louise Chang, MD
Latest Infectious Disease News
Sept. 4, 2008 — Chemicals in marijuana may be useful in fighting MRSA, a kind of staph bacterium that is resistant to certain antibiotics.
Researchers in Italy and the U.K. tested five major marijuana chemicals called cannabinoids on different strains of MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus). All five showed germ-killing activity against the MRSA strains in lab tests. Some synthetic cannabinoids also showed germ-killing capability. The scientists note the cannabinoids kill bacteria in a different way than traditional antibiotics, meaning they might be able to bypass bacterial resistance.
At least two of the cannabinoids don't have mood-altering effects, so there could be a way to use these substances without creating the high of marijuana.
MRSA, like other staph infections, can be spread through casual physical contact or through contaminated objects. It is commonly spread from the hands of someone who has it. This could be in a health care setting, though there have also been high-profile cases of community-acquired MRSA.
It is becoming more common for healthy people to get MRSA, which is often spread between people who have close contact with one another, such as members of a sports team. Symptoms often include skin infections, such as boils. MRSA can become serious, particularly for people who are weak or ill.
In the study, published in the Journal of Natural Products, researchers call for further study of the antibacterial uses of marijuana. There are "currently considerable challenges with the treatment of infections caused by strains of clinically relevant bacteria that show multi-drug resistance," the researchers write. New antibacterials are urgently needed, but only one new class of antibacterial has been introduced in the last 30 years. "Plants are still a substantially untapped source of antimicrobial agents," the researchers conclude.
SOURCES: Appendino, G. Journal of Natural Products, 2008; vol 71: pp 1427-1430. News release, American Chemical Society.
©2008 WebMD, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
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**Much thanks to my daughter for forwarding this information to me!
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Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Unlimited Funds from Corporations in Elections |
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Posted by smkrider
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 19:36 |
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"On January 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that corporations are entitled to spend unlimited funds in our elections. The First Amendment was never intended to protect corporations"...
The above is a quote from http://freespeechforpeople.org
"American citizens have repeatedly amended the Constitution to defend democracy when the Supreme Court acts in collusion with democracy's enemies, whether they are slavemasters, states imposing poll taxes on voters, or the opponents of woman suffrage. Today, the Court has enthroned corporations, permitting them not only all kinds of special economic rights but now, amazingly, moving to grant them the same political rights as the people. This is a moment of high danger for democracy so we must act quickly to spell out in the Constitution what the people have always understood: that corporations do not enjoy the political and free speech rights that belong to the people of the United States." - Professor Jamin Raskin, constitutional law expert at American University's Washington College of Law and Maryland state senator
Our new Government is pronounced "Plutocracy" - Government of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. It is unfathomable to me that such a thing can happen in a "Democratic" Government. I have said before that the only way to save the country from Corporations is to take away their corporate tax returns. This would effectively iliminate the corporation as it stands today, and return the economy to the people at large. The "Middle Class" Americans have been effectively removed from the economic system. We have become split between those that have a sustainable income and the "slaves" of the State. Those people who will have no opportunity for a living wage, and are working for the dire necessities of life. Evidently, the Corporation has won the election! Not the President. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporations en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporatism
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Last Updated on Thursday, 21 January 2010 19:39 |
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Louisville Bound Flight diverted to PA |
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Posted by smkrider
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Thursday, 21 January 2010 19:32 |
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(CNN) -- An Orthodox Jewish man apparently preparing to pray prompted authorities to divert a Louisville, Kentucky-bound US Airways Express plane Thursday.
FBI spokesman J.J. Klaver said there appeared to be no threat from the man, who was described as wearing something on his head that included leather pieces. The description appeared to match that of tefillin, or phylacteries, which Orthodox Jewish men wear during prayer.
The flight had taken off from New York's LaGuardia Airport, the FBI said, and was diverted to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Transportation Security Administration said it was notified of what it called a disruptive passenger on Flight 3079, operated by Chautauqua Airlines, around 8:30 a.m. ET, and the plane landed without incident at Philadelphia International Airport about 20 minutes later.
US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant said the diversion was a "security precaution" for the 50-seat ERJ 145.
It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on board. Earlier, Durrant said the flight had been evacuated, but the TSA did not offer any details on whether that had occurred.
TSA and law enforcement officials met the flight, interviewed the passenger and did a security sweep of the plane without finding anything of concern, the agency said.
CNN's Evan Buxbaum contributed to this report.
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Copyright © 2010 U.S. Marijuana Party of Kentucky. All Rights Reserved.
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The News
