Chronic File Blog

New design, search and more

Greetings. Over the past couple weeks we've been cranking out some new stuff here at chronicfile. The first, and most noticeable, is the design. We changed the green to a more mellow, easier on the eyes green. We also expanded the header for those of you who use wide screens, the flow still works. The second big update is to the search. We updated the algorithm to give you better, more specific results for your search. You can also limit your search to only pictures, albums or journals, but of course you can still include all of them in your search too.

We are always working on stuff here, but if you want to see something added that we don't have yet please let us know in the comments, or email us the suggestion here. Toke on.

Album collaboration has arrived

Starting today, your albums can do so much more. When you create an album you now have the option to add other users as collaborators, which gives them access to add and remove pictures from your album.

To get started, create a new album or view one of your current albums. On your sidebar there will be an option "Share this album"

This is where you decide who has access to your album, and what level of access they have. If your album is private, you can add a user as a viewer which will only let them view your private album, they can't edit it. A collaborator has all the same privileges as a viewer, as well as being able to edit and add pictures to your album. After you have a few people (or just one) added with access to your album, you can easily change their access level, or remove their access all together.

You can see all albums people have shared with you in your profile / albums page (chronicfile.com/users/USER/albums).

So why would you want to let people collaborate on your album? Say you and your friends all had a great 4/20 (I'm sure we all had a great 4/20) and you all took pictures all day long. Each person just has to upload their pictures from the day to Chronicfile then everybody with access to the say "420 pictures" album can add their pictures, then you have one album with all the related pictures in one place, instead of 4-5 different albums. If you have any suggestions on ways to improve on album collaboration just let us know in the comments.

Barney Frank introduces federal marijuana decriminalization bill

Today, Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) introduced a bill, The Personal Use of Marijuana by Responsible Adults Act of 2008, to congress that would decriminalize personal use of marijuana and make legal the use of medical marijuana.

â€œI think it is poor law enforcement to keep on the books legislation that establishes as a crime something which in fact society does not seriously wish to prosecute,â€� Frank said in a statement.

Under this bill, people would be allowed up to 100 grams (3 1/2 ounces) for personal use, however public consumption would be punishable by a $100 fine, the same as most states that have decriminalized it. The cultivation, sale, import and export of marijuana will still be illegal, however a not-for-profit transfer of up to 28 grams would be allowed.

Aaron Houston, a member of the Marijuana Policy Project, says

â€œCongressman Frank's bill represents a major step toward sanity in federal marijuana policy. The decades-long federal war on marijuana protects no one and in fact has ruined countless lives. Most Americans do not believe that simple possession of a small amount of marijuana should be a criminal matter, and it's time Congress listened to the voters."

I couldn't have said it better myself, with a majority of the American people believing that small amounts of marijuana possession should not be a crime, it's about time somebody in congress started listening to the people.

This is a big step in the right direction for marijuana reform, even if the bill doesn't pass it will have brought up the topic among a powerful group of people and might just make them think a little bit, and if more bills similar to these, especially with public backing, come to them, well they can't deny the will of the people for ever... can they?

This bill was co-sponsored by Republican Congressman Ron Paul (TX). Ron Paul is a rebel-republican who is traditionally conservative and believes in freedom for the individual and small government. This gives the Marijuana Decriminalization Bill bi-partisan support from the very beginning.

Barney Frank called his bill the "Make way for serious criminals" act. Here he is on Real Time with Bill Maher talking about this bill last month.

New study confirms marijuana works for pain relief

In a recent study at the University of California at Davis, they showed that marijuana gives a significant relief to those who suffer from a verity of different pain cause by damaged nerves. Just over a year ago a similar study concluded that marijuana helped patients who suffered form other symptoms such as cancer and HIV.

In this study patients were given three different joints containing marijuana with different THC levels(0%, 3.5% and 7%). When patients smoked the joints with THC their pain was significantly reduced and it lasted for over five hours. "This is yet more proof that the American College of Physicians was right that U.S. government policy on medical marijuana is totally divorced from scientific reality," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "Congress needs to act to end the federal war on medical marijuana, but in the meantime states should act on their own to protect medical marijuana patients from arrest, as several states are considering right now."

As Rob said, it's just amazing that with so many studies out that show marijuana is an effective medicine for a wide range of illnesses, and having the American College of Physicians, the second largest group of physicians in the United States, endorse medical marijuana, the government still decides they know best, without knowing anything at all.

Proposals in Colorado for legalizing marijuana causing organized crime? DEA says yes, with no facts to back it up

Jeffrey Sweetin, a DEA special agent, claimed that

"a law to legalize small amounts of marijuana in Denver and a failed state ballot initiative to do the same thing as making Colorado a good market for drugs and organized crime."

When a spokesman for the DEA was asked about the lack of evidence for this claim he responded

"I don't think there's any numbers I can give," said DEA media representative Mike Turner about the crime connection to legalization efforts. "It's just that the ongoing cases we're seeing I think reflect the fact that that's what's going on."

So because they say there is organized crime because of legalization proposals, were all just suppose to believe it. No facts or information, just their word. And why would we question them, I know the DEA has always had my best interests at heart. This just seems like a scare tactic to try to convince Colorado residents that any new bills that would easy penalties of marijuana is going to lead to more crime and violence in your neighborhood! Scary!

The executive director of Safer Colorado, Mason Tvert, the foundation that was responsible getting an initiative on the ballot in Denver to legalize up to an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 and older, had a few thoughts on the DEA's baseless claims.

"If the DEA were a student submitting a report on organized crime in Colorado, they'd get a 'D,' assuming they spelled 'DEA' correctly. It is unacceptable for our federal law enforcement agencies to be making such broad and baseless claims without any evidence to support them."

I couldn't agree more. As I said before this is nothing more than scare tactics right before the election.

Michigan will have a medical marijuana initiative on the ballot

When Michigan voters get out to the booths this November, they will have the choice to make marijuana use for medically ill people a reality. The Michigan Coalition for Compassionate Care submitted a petition with over 500,000 signatures to get the Legislature, who had 40 days to act on it before it would go to the people of Michigan for a vote this November. Well those 40 days have passed with no action, so now it goes to the people.

If the people of Michigan decide to pass this into law, anybody with a recommendation from a doctor will be permitted to grow and use their medicine without the fear of being prosecuted. There are currently 5 different cities in Michigan that have adopted medical marijuana laws, however anyone caught is prosecuted under state law where medical marijuana is still illegal.

Michigan is not the only state where this occures. Medical marijuana is legal in the entire state of California, but if the Federal government (DEA) decides to come charge you, they can because growing and using medical marijuana is still illegal under federal law. This makes me wonder why we give cities and states a voice at all. When a small community of people decides that they want to allow their community members to do something, who are you to tell them they're not allowed? That attitude ultimately defeates the purpose of democracy and voting by rendering the opinions of small groups of people, useless.

Two charged with giving child marijuana

Two teenagers (16 and 18) are being charged with, among other things, child endangerment after a video of them getting a child high came to light. The video shows the teens smoking then holding the pipe up to the child's mouth to get the kid to inhale some of the smoke. So, how did the police get their hands on this video? Turns out the teens needed some extra cash so they pawned the video camera, including the video tape of them getting this child high. The pawn shop turned over the video to the police when they realized what was on it. See the video here.

One of the teens, Angel Dailey, is the daughter of Don Dailey, who was allegedly found in his home recently with more than a ton of marijuana and about 4 million dollars in the walls and floors. You would think that Angel would have been a lot more careful about anything marijuana related having her father just been busted with so much. It's things like this that the government will jump all over as another reason marijuana (medical or otherwise) should not be allowed, because that would just open the door to many more incidents like this. Though this isn't true, it's all they need to start scaring people that having marijuana around will lead to child abuse, or something similar.

But if you think back to your childhood, when was the first time you had a sip of your father's beer? Not that it makes it okay, but it's a double-standard to say marijuana leads to child abuse while alcohol leads to ... spousal abuse? Maybe it's time to re-think how we give drugs and alcohol to people and go by maturity level instead of age. Because the substance doesn't matter, it's the people we need to be looking at.

Barcelona approves new medical spray containing cannabis.

After positive results in a 2006-2007 study, Barcelona has made legal, by prescription, a spray containing cannabis. The spray is prescribed to patients who who suffer from conditions such as nausea, cancer or AIDS. I assume since this spray treats the same illnesses as does smoking herb, this is just an alternative to smoking as would be baking it into food.

There is the question of effectiveness as well. As lots of people know, the effects of eating or smoking cannabis can be pretty intense (or effective, depending on how you look at it). Having a spray might not provide as much strength to the patient unless it's used in higher doses. It would also be perfect for people who are not in extreme pain and don't need a high dose, but are still looking for an all-natural alternative.

This is good news for medical marijuana because I believe there is a general negative stereo-type that anything you smoke could be medicine,so having a spray like this can help move cannabis further into the medical industry. What do you think, will having a spray as an option help the medical marijuana movement?

If Spain can do it, so can America

Spain has been using cannabis as a way to relieve the pain of chemotherapy for cancer patients. Cannabis is available in a medicine form throughout the Spanish health service for patients being treated with chemotherapy if other drugs fail to be effective. While I'm sure people would prefer all-natural cannabis as a first choice, but at least they are actually trying to help their citizens, not profit off of them at any cost.

The head of the Catalan health service said that a pilot program using cannabis to treat those with multiple sclerosis, cancer, chronic pain and other illnesses had shown that sickness in 67% of the patients in the study had decreased. In the case of patients suffering from anorexia-caquexia associated with Aids up to 53% of these regained their appetites. The number of patients in the study suffering from multiple sclerosis who went from having unbearable pain to suffering tolerable pain went down from 66% to 35% and the number of patients who suffered almost no pain at all increased from 11.40% to 27.70%. And right on the heels of this study comes an endorsement from the American College of Physicians (ACP) for medical marijuana. The ACP shows data backing up the fact that marijuana has medical benefits for people who suffer a wide ranger of illnesses from nausea, vomiting, and chronic pain to cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.

I'm no scientist, but based off of these results I would have to say that cannabis, at a minimum, has the ability to ease people's pain naturally. But when people who can't eat begin eating and living again, that goes beyond just finding just a treatment, this is the right (and sometimes, only) treatment for people. Study after study shows the same results, but in some places ignorance and stupidity have more influence over facts.

But the government can't stop people from using the things that help them, unless they lock you up. So it will only be a matter of time until so many people know that it works that they will demand the government stop prosecuting medical marijuana patients. But for that we need to kill the negative stereotypes about cannabis, and educate people. Ignorance and stupidity can't win forever.

Medical Marijuana: Where the candidates stand.

With the general election only 7 months away, there is a certain excitement in the air about getting rid of Bush and all of his failed policies, among those being the war on drugs. It seems like every day there is some new research out proving that marijuana does have medical benefits from cancer and HIV patients to those with glaucoma or epilepsy, yet the DEA still spends its time busting people just for using medicine... now thats American. Now with the election on the horizon, we have a chance to put somebody into office who understands the medical value of marijuana, so what does your candidate think about medical marijuana? Lets take a look...

Barack Obama
When Barack Obama was asked early on in his campaign if he had ever smoked marijuana, he responded "Yes, and I inhaled... thats the point". So he used to enjoy the occasional recreational toke, but how does he feel about medical marijuana?

"When it comes to medical marijuana, I have more of a practical view than anything else. My attitude is that if it's an issue of doctors prescribing medical marijuana as a treatment for glaucoma or as a cancer treatment, I think that should be appropriate because there really is no difference between that and a doctor prescribing morphine or anything else. I think there are legitimate concerns in not wanting to allow people to grow their own or start setting up mom and pop shops because at that point it becomes fairly difficult to regulate.

So Barack wants to allow doctors who see fit be able to recommend marijuana as a treatment, and the doctors wouldn't have to worry about being prosecuted for making that recommendation.

Hillary Clinton
When Hillary Clinton was asked her opinion on medical marijuana she responded...

"With respect to medical marijuana, you know I think that we have had a lot of rhetoric and the federal government has been very intent upon trying to prevent states from being able to offer that as an option for people who are in pain. I think we should be doing medical research on this. We ought to find what are the elements that claim to be existing in marijuana that might help people who are suffering from cancer and nausea-related treatments. We ought to find that out. I don't think we should decriminalize it, but we ought to do research into what, if any, medical benefits it has."

So Hillary isn't for it or against it, she thinks there needs to be more research done to show that marijuana has medical purposes, which is a better stance than our current guy.

John McCain
When John McCain was asked about medical marijuana on the campaign trail, he gave the following response...

"Every medical expert I know of, including the AMA [American Medical Association], says that there are much more effective and much better treatments for pain than medical marijuana...I still would not support medical marijuana because I don't think that the preponderance of medical opinion in America agrees with [the] assertion that it's the most effective way of treating pain."

His response isn't really surprising considering his age and past, and the fact that he has been called "The second coming of Bush". However, the AMA does support unimpeded research on medical marijuana, as well as other major medical organizations including: The Institute of Medicine, The American Cancer Society; American Medical Association; Australian Commonwealth Department of Human Services and Health; California Medical Association; Federation of American Scientists; Florida Medical Association; and the National Academy of Sciences.

When it's time to vote, remember it's important to vote for your interests, not just your political party. And if doctors can give you morphine and vicodin to help you, there is absolutely no reason your doctor can't give you cannabis to help you as well. Health, and the care of our fellow humans should be the top priority of our government and our health care providers. Money, shouldn't. Please register and vote this November!

So if the elections were held tomorrow, and the only issue was medical marijuana, who would your candidate be?