mary.jane's blog

Apparently constituents in Michigan will vote on Proposal 1 this November 4th to decide whether they want to join a dozen other US states in enacting medical marijuana laws. (Update: recent polling in Michigan found 66 percent support the marijuana proposal, 25 against and 9 percent not sure).

"3667 pot plants uprooted"

"40,000 pot plants seized"

"35 marijuana grow labs dismantled - worth $14 million"

"police seize more than 4000 pounds of marijuana"

 Here's just a smattering of the marijuana related headlines that came up today (and practically everyday) from establishment newspapers around the country.  Seems like a lot of "reefers" are going to be feeling the pinch thanks to supply and demand!  Keep seizing that weed!  Keep prices up and nobody will want to smoke then!  Go Drug Czar!  Making the world safe from stoners one field at a time.

Right.

I took a few gender studies classes last year in keeping with my self-defined interest of studying history from the bottom up (see Howard Zinn, Staughton Lynd, etc. for deets) and would strongly recommend them to any and every undergraduate planning on having a job in the real world after graduation.

More than anything, these classes gave everyone an arena to bring up specific gender-based grievances, and our prof encouraged us to cite specific examples from our daily lives to discuss in class. Towards the end of the year we read a book titled "Talking from 9 to 5," which discussed differences in language used by males and females in the workplace and how use of this "gendered language" affected how people were viewed by their colleagues.

So there's a new bill in the Ohio State Legislature that would give "fathers" the final say in whether or not an abortion can take place.

 "As written, the bill would ban women from seeking an abortion without written consent from the father of the fetus."

It seems to me like this is a throwback to the days in which a woman couldn't buy a car or get a loan approved without the co-signature of her husband or father.  It also reminds me of the "parental consent" business that minors are subjected to.

Thanks to my google news alerts, I stumbled across this article about how schools in Graves County, KY will be implementing a mandatory drug testing program this fall. Students who want to (1) play sports (2) join a club [marching band] or (3) drive to school must first pass a drug test.

smoking one cannabis joint is as bad as chain smoking up to 5 cigarettes, according to a study published today. except, "the study found that only those who smoked tobacco suffered from the crippling lung disease emphysema."

so...1 joint is as bad as 5 cigarettes - except that cigarettes cause emphysema.

of course, the timing of the release of this new study is also questionable: "the findings come less than a week after researchers said using marijuana increased the risk of developing a psychotic illness such as schizophrenia. the government (of britain) is currently considering whether cannabis should be reclassified as a more serious drug."

A new study conducted in Britain (whose government is currently in the process of re-classifying marijuana as a class C controlled substance, which would increase the legal penalties for possession) found that supposedly marijuana use increases the chance that the user will develop schizophrenia or another psychotic issue later in life.

Dr. Stanley Zammit's study found that "marijuana users had a 41% increased chance of developing psychosis marked by symptoms of hallucinations or delusions later in life..." According to Reuters "the results mean an estimated 800 cases of schizophrenia in the United Kingdom could be prevented each year by ending marijuana consumption."

from mpp.org:

On July 25th, the U.S. House of Representatives defeated an amendment that would have prevented the DEA and the U.S. Justice Department from arresting or prosecuting medical marijuana patients and providers in the 12 states where medical marijuana is legal.