Marijuana ‘sprouts’ in Italian parliament
The News Review:
- Marijuana ‘sprouts’ in Italian parliament
- Thieves pinch half-a-ton of cannabis
- Woman who rewarded son with marijuana sentenced to three months.
- Report: 4 foreign students face death penalty for possession of mariju…
- Marijuana’s Memory Effects Tied to Misfiring Brain Cells
- Driver of pickup that hit school bus charged.
Marijuana ‘sprouts’ in Italian parliament
Independent Online – Nov 22, 2006
“There they are – can’t you see them growing?” Francesco Caruso joked, pointing to the flower pots in the courtyard of Montecitorio palace, the parliament where he shocked fellow deputies last week by saying he had planted the illegal crop. Before being elected on a Communist Party ticket at last April’s general election, the 32-year-old was already well known as a radical anti-globalisation activist who often clashed with police in street protests. Caruso says his claim to have planted drugs in parliament was untrue… I was opening a debate in Italy on the necessity of legalising soft drugs,” he told Reuters. The claim – which caused so much uproar that parliament had to be suspended for 10 minutes – was made on the same day that Health Minister Livia Turco doubled the amount of cannabis a person can possess before facing criminal charges. Caruso welcomed the easing of the law, but said it still left cannabis users with the threat of arrest and disputed Turco’s claim that the new limit of one gram of “active ingredient” would be enough for up to 40 joints. “I don’t know where Minister Turco buys her dope, but around my way, weed grows well and it’s not true that 1 000 milligrams (of active ingredient) are 40 joints – it’s two or three. “If you have the misfortune to buy a bit of good quality stuff, you risk six years of prison,” he said. Nearly a third of Italians have tried cannabis, according to a survey quoted by the government, and more than 10 percent have smoked it over the last year. A satirical TV show which tricked 50 parliamentarians into taking a drugs test in October, found 12 had taken cannabis and four cocaine in the previous 36 hours.
Thieves pinch half-a-ton of cannabis
Independent Online – Nov 22, 2006
The thieves stole one-third of the crop from the region’s only legal hemp field near the village of Trin earlier this month, said Rudolf Hartmann, an officer with the anti-drugs squad in the canton of Graubuenden. The dried plants were worth about 30 000 Swiss francs (about R173 000) to the farmer on the open market. Hartmann told the Swiss news agency ATS that the same crop would have a street value of up to five million Swiss francs on the illicit drugs market, in small portions. Authorities had placed the field where the hemp was grown under surveillance, but not the warehouse where the harvest was being dried, the police said… The dried plants were worth about 30 000 Swiss francs (about R173 000) to the farmer on the open market. Hartmann told the Swiss news agency ATS that the same crop would have a street value of up to five million Swiss francs on the illicit drugs market, in small portions. Authorities had placed the field where the hemp was grown under surveillance, but not the warehouse where the harvest was being dried, the police said.
Woman who rewarded son with marijuana sentenced to three months.
Free with registration – America's Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Nov 22, 2006
Woman who rewarded son with marijuana sentenced to three months. | The America’s Intelligence Wire (November, 2006).
Report: 4 foreign students face death penalty for possession of mariju…
Free with registration – America's Intelligence Wire – AccessMyLibrary.com – Nov 22, 2006
Report: 4 foreign students face death penalty for possession of marijuana in Malaysia. | The America’s Intelligence Wire (November, 2006).
Marijuana’s Memory Effects Tied to Misfiring Brain Cells
JoinTogether.org – Nov 22, 2006
20 that David Robbe of Rutgers University and colleagues found that rats given THC — the active ingredient in marijuana — and a synthetic cannabinoid experienced disruptions in the synchronous brain-cell firing that causes memories to be formed. The drugs also slowed brain-wave activity, notably theta and fast-ripple waves but also gamma waves. Theta and gamma waves are believed to be involved in short-term memory formation, while the fast-ripple waves are thought to play a role in moving such memories into long-term storage. At very high doses, the drugs appeared to prevent learning altogether. “Overall, our findings indicate that under the influence of cannabinoids, neurons are liberated from population control,” the researchers wrote in the online version of the journal.
Driver of pickup that hit school bus charged.
Free with registration – Kansas City Star – AccessMyLibrary.com – Nov 22, 2006
4, a pickup crossed a center line and slammed head-on into a Belton school bus, injuring eight students. On Tuesday, prosecutors filed charges that could send the pickup driver to prison. According to the charges filed in Cass County, Lawrence A. Scheide, 49, of Peculiar was under the influence of marijuana and a tranquilizer at the time of the accident. Blood tests confirmed the presence of the drugs, prosecutors said. Scheide now faces eight counts of second-degree assault and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia. The assault charges are class C felonies, each punishable by up to seven years in prison.