YouTube Playlist link

SOW THE SEED GROW THE WEED

Find Kog and a growing list of selected video in Hemp Definition now on NIMBIN TELEVISION

http://nimbintelevision.net/

1. Mexico: Yes weed can.
2. Marijuana Movie Marathon:
3. NTVHD
4. Pot Docs
5. Obama and Rudd on Cannabis

HEMP Party suggests members should vote SEX Party!

‘All we need now is a Rock’n’Roll party!’ joked the HEMP Party President Michael Balderstone yesterday, whilst launching the HEMP Party’s ‘How to Vote’ Card to an enthusiastic crowd at the Nimbin Hemp Embassy.

‘We can and we will leverage our humongously massive power to sway the votes of Australian cannabis users,’ Mr Balderstone quipped: ‘The HEMP Party can be kingmakers!’

‘But we will be benevolent and wise kingmakers. Despite the failure by the Australian Electoral Commission to register our HEMP Party ‘in a manner timely’ we have decided not to challenge the AEC in court and so bring the whole election to a screeching halt!’

‘Instead; today we are launching the 2010 HEMP Party How-To-Vote-Card where we not only provide members with guidance on the best party to vote for: we also provide suggestions on what to wear whilst voting, what to listen to on your IPod, and the best headspace to carry with you into the Polling Station. Also some handy tips on NOT-GETTING-BUSTED due to UNJUST CANNABIS LAWS on the very same day that you cast your ballot.’

‘Why do we want to supply the hundreds of thousands of Australian Cannabis users with this particular information before they vote? Because the Australian Hemp Party advises that - THIS ELECTION IS SIMPLY FAR TOO STRAIGHT -  so all Australians casting a vote in the 2010 poll should: GET STONED & VOTE FOR SEX WHILST LISTENING TO ROCK ‘N ROLL!’

In the 2010 Federal Election the Australian HEMP Party advise their members that the Australian SEX Party has rational and appropriate policies relating to cannabis.

The Australian HEMP Party advises members should number their ballot paper ‘below the line’ and so take control of their own preferences.

A vote ‘above the line’ for the SEX Party will see your preferences exhaust to the Greens and thence to the Labor Party.

WARNING: THIS ELECTION IS SIMPLY FAR TOO STRAIGHT

The HEMP Party ‘life is too short’

How-To-Vote-Card

The HEMP Party suggests members should Vote 1: SEX Party!

Suggestion a: Wear something green when you vote!

Suggestion b: Think something green before you vote!

Suggestion c: Listen to Rock’n’Roll while you vote!

Suggestion d: Vote 1 SEX.

Why do we want to supply the hundreds of thousands of Australian Cannabis users with this particular information before they vote?

The Australian Hemp Party advises that THIS ELECTION IS SIMPLY FAR TOO STRAIGHT - so all Australians casting a vote in the 2010 poll should: GET STONED & VOTE FOR SEX WHILST LISTENING TO ROCK ‘N ROLL!’

In the 2010 Federal Election the Australian HEMP Party advise their members that the Australian SEX Party has rational and appropriate policies relating to cannabis.

The Australian HEMP Party advises that members should number their ballot paper ‘below the line’ and so take control of their own preferences.

A vote ‘above the line’ for the SEX Party will see your preferences exhaust to the Greens and thence to the Labor Party.

WARNING: THIS ELECTION IS SIMPLY FAR TOO STRAIGHT

http://www.sexparty.org.au/

Sex Party wants drug use decriminalised – http://www.sexparty.org.au/index.php/news/asp-news-a-updates/825

1. I wish to join the Party
2. HEMP Party Drive.
3. BIG JOINT SESSION FOR OBAMA AND RUDD
4. Hemp Party policies
5. Web Sites

A Typical Stoner

Episode #1 from the series; “Ten Typical Stoners” new to NIMBIN TELEVISION in Hemp Definition.

http://nimbintelevision.net/

www.youtube.com/NIMBINTELEVISION

1. 4.20 Hi GiRLS: What time is it?
2. NTVHD
3. Nutiva Hemp Oil
4. How Marijuana became legal.
5. Hello world!

Cannabis Yields and Dosage

A Guide to the Production and Use of Medical Marijuana. Chris Conrad

Introduction

A common understanding of cannabis could prevent needless arrests and prosecutions, free up law enforcement to focus on serious crime, and save California’s communities millions of dollars. This booklet explains the basics of medical marijuana. Part I gives scientific facts about its uses, dosage and yields. Part II explains the legal setting. Part III offers a model Safe Access Now ordinance for guidelines, and Part IV gives details of several States’ laws. It also includes references and websites for the reader’s use.

The United States government has garnered some very useful research during its decades of experience in producing and providing medical marijuana. Its compassionate IND program has demonstrated that about six pounds of cannabis per year is a safe and effective dosage to alleviate chronic health problems, and also how to estimate garden yields. Ironically, federal law denies medical marijuana as a defense in court.

State law is a separate jurisdiction, however, and a laboratory for medical and legal reforms. Since California voters passed Proposition 215, the 1996 law giving qualified people a legal right to cultivate and possess cannabis for medicine, courts have grappled with an issue left unresolved by the ballot mandate: How much medical marijuana is a reasonable supply?

In 2003, Senate Bill 420 sought to reduce arrests and provide better access by creating a voluntary ID card program, adding new legal protections for collective activities and distribution, and carving out a minimal safe harbor from arrest for qualified people. The amount protected is inadequate for many — eight ounces of dried mature processed flowers of female cannabis plant or the plant conversion plus six mature or 12 immature plants per patient. However, it also empowers doctors, cities, counties and the courts to protect greater amounts. Case law reiterates that those amounts are “a threshold, not a ceiling” and preserves the Prop 215 right to a reasonable supply of cannabis.

It is safest for patients and caregivers to stay within those quantities. Unfortunately, this is not always possible or practical. California patients with chronic ill health and safe access to high quality cannabis strains often smoke three pounds or more of “sinsemilla bud” per patient year, amid a broad range of dosages. Patients who eat cannabis or ingest it in other forms require several times as much raw material as the smoked dosage. Outdoor and indoor growers cultivate with very different garden techniques ranging from a few large plants to scores of much smaller plants.

Data in the federal Drug Enforcement Administration’s Cannabis Yields provides a scientific method that lets patients grow indoors or out in any format they wish, yet makes it easy to gauge the output. Safe Access Now proposes a compromise based on half the IND dosage plus a proportionate canopy area. That equates to a safe harbor per qualified patient of up to three pounds of bud and as many plants as fit within 100 square feet of garden canopy. Be they large or small, if the plants cumulative canopy covers less than that area, the garden is a reasonable size.

This system is simple, yet it works. It eliminates the need to train police to assess complicated medical needs, calculate yields, distinguish male plants from female or immature from mature flowering, determine what part of a crop is usable, or understand consumption, processing or storage. Counting plants is never required. To check compliance, all an officer needs is a scale and tape measure.

This booklet shows how and why those safe harbor guidelines can and should be expanded by localities, doctors, and by the legislature. You can help advance this process.

Whether a patient, physician, policy maker, prosecutor, police officer, or concerned citizen, please take a stand for the principles of reason, compassion and the rule of law.

Download the file above ( cannabisyieldsdosage-rgb.pdf, 1.26MB )

Special thanks to doctors Michael Alcalay MD, David Bearman MD, Philip Denney MD, Jeffrey Hergenrather MD, Claudia Jensen MD, Frank Lucido MD, Tod Mikuriya MD, Ethan Russo MD, and other physicians for review of medical issues; to Eric Sterling and attorneys Joe Elford, Omar Figueroa, William Logan, David Nick, William Panzer, Robert Raich and others for review of legal issues; and to Dr. Michael Baldwin, Andrew Glazier, Richard Muller, my wife Mikki Norris, SAN co-founder Ralph Sherrow, DrugSense, MPP, NORML and others for their help in researching, preparing and publishing this document. For more information on what you can do to help, visit these websites: safeaccessnow.net and chrisconrad.com. Thank you.

Chris Conrad, Court-qualified cannabis expert. Director, Safe Access Now.

CREATIVE XPRESSIONS

PO Box 1716, El Cerrito CA 94530 • www.safeaccessnow.net

© 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 by Chris Conrad. All rights reserved. Fourth updated edition.

NOTICE: This booklet is not a substitute for medical care or legal counsel. It cannot list every law or court decision, but care has been taken to select and characterize key cases. This information is current as of March 1, 2009. Laws and rulings cited are subject to change or reinterpretation at any time.

About the author

Chris Conrad is director of Safe Access Now, author of Hemp: Lifeline to the Future and Hemp for Health, and curator of the Hash-Marijuana-Hemp Museum (Amsterdam).

Chris has qualified as a cannabis expert more than 150 times in the California, other State and federal US courts. His recognized cannabis expertise includes issues of hemp, personal use, medical use, dosage, consumption, religious use, cultivation, yields, preparations, pricing, sales and intent.

http://www.chrisconrad.com/

1. iPhone Medical Cannabis Locator App.
2. Cannabis and Glaucoma
3. Dispense with the law
4. Medical Marijuana Girl – at the beach
5. Cannabis Treatment

UNDACUVVA—Journal of the North Coasts longest serving covert. .

Obama is livid. You won’t see it on the news and he is rarely upset, but he was furious at the Dillard for stubbing the hempsters and their big joint out of the Aussie election. He needs allies in his war against the war on drugs.

At first he told everyone to cancel the trip Down Unda, later relenting as he realised she didn’t know, and perhaps it was his duty to fix that. Well, who else now?

Her legendary status with the MPU (Mullers and Packers Union) led him to presume the woman had inhaled, but alas, many of us were fooled. She just organised the daring stoners with their surges of chaotic creativity, feeding off the ideas and visions. So she never died and has no God, of course.

And the MBK (Military Big Knobs) who protect her modest House in Altona amongst other things, are terrified of the “Druggie Greens” getting the balance of power. No discussion is allowed about ending the Drug War.

They talk about Obama like he’s Osama. They hate drugs of any kind unless they carry the GP (Giant Pharmaceutical) stamp of approval. And they watch Nimbin like a hunting hawk, fully aware of how the magic weed they can’t put into a pill leads people away from the consumer path. If only they knew how many pills are out there on the street now, because of their war.

Sick of being busted the new generations laugh at the old hippies endlessly in and out of court with their impossible to hide weedbags. “Pills is ok, normal people use pills now.” I hear it all the time. Weed is outdated and smelly and dirty.

You hear everything Unda on the street. Which is so littered with disrespect now they even issued a new Unda Language Manual which instructs us to maintain levels of streetspeak with “minimum 25% swearing in all conversation“. Such is the crowd us Undas have to hang with to infiltrate these days.

Never will I whinge again about unwashed hippies and their dirty roaches. It was paradise compared to stashing pills in my cheeks which half the time dissolve anyway before I get to spit them out. Way too close to the biggest nightmare of all, the Unda Overdose.

Feeling sick so much of the time and craving our decent weed and not the crap I had to smoke on the street, fortunately the Boss saw my newly developed twitch and put me back on the cameras and computers where even the despised statistics are a relief.

“You’ve been hanging out with the hippies far too long“, is the usual chiding, but these days I notice they’re not so confident.”We may have cleaned most of the hippies off the street in Nimbin but look what we have now,“is the reply they can’t handle. “My favourite joint the Hemp Bar now looks like an extension of the pub.

To blend in there I have to get pissed every day, and #$% remember the $#@ new **% language %#** training, and avoid getting punched for my trouble.”

The return of the twitch, my own personal CRAP meter, has often saved me and there’s no comparison between the warm office with cones of confiscated primo, trawling hair length and beard stats on visitors to Rainbow Lane, and the stress of remembering who you really are in the footpath mire. Mind you we have to take half pay to get off the streets.

The best thing about my high CRAP (Compulsive Risk Assessment Psychosis) reading means I miss the Taser Draw for a month.

Some bright spark in police public relations announced, “we have tested the Taser on our own people and will continue to do so. It is completely safe“.

So every week one birthday is pulled out of one of the Commissioners old hats hanging in head office and all members born on that date, Unda’s included, have to allow the rest of their station to Taser them in front of the others.

Nimbin has never had a birthday drawn out but it’s only a matter of time. The practise has caused many resignations already but the MBK and their FEMA Camps running the show insist on maintaining an element of fear in the culture.

“You may dress like a hippy and behave like a hippy Brenda, while it’s part of your job. But if I ever hear you start thinking like a hippy you’ll be fishfood girl. Got that?” I’ll never forget the Big Boss spraying me after I accidentally called him brother at a bbq.

1. Streetbeat Undacover
2. Unda koala raids.
3. Undacuva Holiday
4. Compulsive Risk Assessment Psychosis
5. UNDACUVA JOURNAL

1. Cannabus – Ideas and Locations
2. Hello world!
3. THC Free Cannabis Industry.
4. Nimbin habitat threatened
5. Nimbin Art Collective.

THE HEMP SOLUTION explores the hemp plant’s [Cannabis sativa] fascinating history, its thousands of uses, the economic and cultural forces behind its prohibition, and its modern potential to solve major environmental problems.

HEMP, together with the biotechnologies presented in this film, could revolutionise the planet with a shift from the present unsustainable petro-chemical based economy to a sustainable plant based economy. This highly profitable crop provides paper, textiles, composite materials, fuel, nutritious protein, valuable oil, building products, cosmetics and a useful medicine… if only it were legal…

Well received in theatres around the world, this award winning Australian film also examines this history and controversy around the drug ‘marijuana’, the current ‘war on drugs’ and alternative policy options.

Featuring: Dr Andrew Weil, Dr Lester Grinspoon, Dr Andrew Katelaris, Porf. Peter Dale Scott, Terrence McKenna, Dr Dale Short and more…

Produced and Directed by Sol Ramana Clarke, Co-Produced by David Arvind Condon.

CONSCIOUS LIGHT PRODUCTIONS and VIDEO VISION PRODUCTIONS Copyright 2010

Uploaded to YouTube with the consent. The complete DVD can be found at:

http://thehempsolution.com.au

1. For those who have come in late; Part 2.
2. SUSTAINABILTY MAKES THE CASE FOR HEMP.
3. CANNABIS STIMULUS PACKAGE
4. NIMBIN MEDICINE
5. GROW HEMP

In 2008, police departments in California made more than 60,000 marijuana possession arrests, three times as many as in 1990. The people arrested are disproportionately African Americans1 and Latinos, overwhelmingly young people, especially young men.

In their recent report to the California legislature, Daniel Macallair and Mike Males documented this unprecedented shift by California law enforcement since 1990 – from targeting marijuana manufacturing and sales offenses to targeting low-level marijuana possession offenses.

Since 1990, arrests for nearly every serious crime have declined in California. Yet arrests for possession of marijuana, usually for very small amounts, have tripled. Macallair and Males also documented the racial disparities in California’s marijuana possession arrests as shown in the state’s official criminal justice data.

In 2008, blacks and Latinos made up less than 44% of the state’s population, but together they constituted 56% of the people arrested in California for possessing marijuana.

The data presented here confirm and extend these findings on racial disparities in California’s marijuana possession arrests by drawing on arrest data from the U.S. Government’s FBI Uniform Crime Report and the U.S. Census. The graphs and table in this report use arrest data averaged for five years, 2004 through 2008, showing these racially-skewed or biased arrests for marijuana possession are not a one-year fluke, but a consistent pattern extending over many years.

Although U.S. marijuana use data includes Latinos, the FBI Uniform Crime Report arrest data does not identify Latinos as a distinct group and categorizes nearly all arrests of Latinos as arrests of “whites.”

As a result the graphs, table and discussion in this report focus on the marijuana arrest disparities between whites and blacks, though the FBI’s bundling of Latinos with whites actually underestimates the racial disparities shown here. 

The substantial disparities in marijuana possession arrest rates between whites and blacks cannot be explained by their patterns of marijuana use. As the marijuana use graphs on page 5 show, U.S. government studies consistently find that young blacks use marijuana at lower rates than young whites.

Download the file above ( Targeting_Blacks_for_Marijuana_06_29_10.pdf, 214.76KB )

http://www.drugpolicy.org/

Follow this link to see the complete video; http://fora.tv/2009/09/09/CONNECTIONS_Ethan_Nadelmann_on_Legalizing_Drugs

Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, the leading organization in the United States promoting alternatives to the war on drugs.

1. STATISTICS ARE IMPRESSIVE -
2. Talking Medical Cannabis
3. Killer Herb
4. The Law is the Crime
5. Mexico: Yes weed can.

Nimbin Street Shuffle by Undacuva. From the journal of the North Coasts longest serving covert.

In Canberra they’re comparing Nimbin to Afghanistan . The MBK, Military Big Knobs, are studying the two unwinnable wars as they desperately search for exit strategies for both. Crunch time approaches, decisions have to be made. That’s why you may have seen the Big Brass snooping around the tiny weed village.

Work out the answer to the little village war that on paper should be a cinch, and it may save us in Kandahar . And has my local knowledge been sought after? Flavour of the month if I say so meself. Obama the Magnificent was the catalyst again, writing to the Rudder telling him he wouldn’t come to Oz if they blocked the Hemp Party registration.

Rudder and the Swan had realised Stoners could hold the balance of power if they get elected, or even help another Green Senator get in, so it had to be fixed. And was, until Obama pulled the plug on that little plan. Then the MBK leaked the stats on drug war expenses related to success in the tiny village and the rest is history.

Gillard never minded potheads anyway. She didn’t like losing control herself but loved the company of stoners at university. “They had the best ideas, even if they couldn’t always follow them through.” Her choofing mates taught her early on proper bong etiquette and she was the favoured muller and packer at the parties, running a very tight ship making sure even the most reticent got their share of cones. In her first year at Uni she was made secretary of the all powerful Mullers and Packers Union.

In Canberra she asked me about the Stoner policies. I assured her ‘the hippies will put the environment before investment everytime. They plan on changing the world and believe they have the plant to do it.’ She smiled her monalisa welsh best grinning from ear to ear which reminded me how her homeland grows the best magic mushrooms on the planet. The reason so many great musicians are born there. In one extraordinary day we moved from the Rudders frightened ‘evidence based approval’ needs, to the mystical Gillard country where gnomes are normal and mushrooms on toast for breakfast are not always what they appear to be.

Operation Clean Up Nimbin never missed a beat however and is still in full swing, don’t worry, and the clock is ticking. As you know when you enter the Force everyone else then becomes a criminal waiting to be discovered. We’ve now tagged every person who shopped for groceries in Nimbin in the last two months. Over 10,000 tags. Descriptions, photos, short profiles and points allocated. 5 for long hair, very short 3, beards 3-6 depending on length, barefeet 6, hippy or colouful clothes 2, dreadlocks 4, etc etc…..the computers do it all but because many photos are blurry or too grainy everyone is personally checked by two of our people. Talk about boring, lucky we have the pick of the confiscated weed. Most of the tags come from satellite images which are costing a fortune.

The $14 million spent pulling weeds in Nimbin over the last 3 years will be dwarfed by the cost of “Operation End” in the next 6 months. The vast majority of course, about 85% of the budget, is going on consultants, study missions, reports and recommendations. But the real issue is morale, the same as in Afghanistan . Remembering why we are in the war and how well we are doing is never far away for the troops headspace. Compulsive Risk Assessment Psychosis (CRAP) is the new terror and spreading like an Aussie bushfire in a gale amongst troops on both fronts.

Here in Nimbin the computer imagery is throwing up ridiculously happy level stats with only minor CRAP around Rainbow Lane . Unfortunately one address reached the full alert level, 38 Cullen Street . Most embarrassing for the Boss. I told the Dalai Lama and he said our shocking Karma is building to a crescendo and the guilt burden is crippling some of the young and pretty Undas who seduce and put our youth in the lock up. They are the frontline high risk troops simply taking orders but the cracks appearing are too big to ignore. In the middle of all this the Tourism Authority releases its annual popularity poll and it seems that those forms you fill out as you are leaving the country has the Opera House as the most visited site in Oz, closely followed by a WKNTA (Well Known Nimbin Tourist Attraction.) The figures were buried of course with the MBK catatonic about never ever letting hippies get positive media. It took one hell of a joint session to bring them out of it I can tell you, but nobody else.

Virtually every Unda, Over, Informer and Uniformer is working the machines compiling the reports so the street is a free for all for now, as you may have noticed. Enjoy it while you can because the Gillard factor is coming, and us girls see it all a bit differently, eh girls? For a start she will probably call an early election before the Hempsters get registered. That will fix the cocky hippies and show Obama who’s really in charge.

1. CRAP and the terror of an Unda overdose
2. Talking Medical Cannabis
3. Undacuva Holiday
4. UNDACUVAVATAR:
5. Undacover streetshuffle: August 09

A CONVERSATION WITH

Michelle Rainey

BY JOSHUA LEWIS

They call her the Hostess with the Mostess.

She is The Financial Agent for the B.C. Marijuana Party, The Director of Sales and Marketing for Treating Yourself (a Canadian/U.S. based medical marijuana journal), and she is a truly compassionate Patient-Advocate.

Wanted by the DEA on trumped up changes of manufacturing marijuana, conspiracy, seed sales and money laundering. Her name is Michelle Rainey and she has managed to balance all of this on her plate while surviving Crohn’s Disease and Cancer.

MCJ: Hello Michelle, this is Josh with Medical Cannabis Journal. How are you doing this afternoon?

MR: I am fantastic, thank you very much.

MCJ: Awesome. I Just wanted to start off by saying thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Could you please provide our readers out there with a little bit of background leading up to your trial and recent sentencing?

MR: In the year 2000 I started to work for Marc Emery and we both formed the British Columbia Marijuana Party. From there we did quite a few other projects which were of course funded by Marc Emery’s Emery Direct Seed Business which I actually ran for a period of time up until 2005 when the U.S. Government and the DEA came up to Canada. They decided to arrest Marc, myself and another fellow by the name Greg Williams. They charged us with three different counts one was conspiracy, the other was money laundering and another charge of manufacturing. On April 20th of this Year I pleaded Guilty to 1 count of manufacturing and I took a Plea- Agreement on July 17th, 2009 for two years of probation. Marc has not pled guilty yet. He will be doing that; apparently from what I’m told, September 21st. I have been told that he is also facing, not the same sentencing but rather the same charge of one count of manufacturing marijuana and that was due to all of my good diligence and hard work in negotiating for the past few years for myself. Once I was able to negotiate for myself then Greg Williams was allowed to have the same sentence as me. Marc will not get the same sentence, but Marc will be… I’m sure and I’m praying that Marc will not have to spend to much time in Jail.

MCJ: Yes we are all praying for that as well. I really hope that he does not have to spend to much time in a U.S. prison. That would be terrible. Hopefully he can get out and back home to Canada as soon as possible if he pleads guilty. How do you feel about your particular sentence being reduced to two years of probation? I’m sure you must be satisfied with your sentence because you were looking at hard time in a foreign country and I know that you have said before a prison sentence would actually be a Death Sentence.

MR: Josh, I can’t even begin to tell you how grateful I am that the District Attorney Todd Greenburg was very compassionate in regards to my situation and he completely understood that I had quit a ten-year professional banking career in Canada to advocate marijuana legalization for medicinal reasons.

I do believe in recreational but responsible recreational use. Just like with anything, whether it be alcohol or pharmaceuticals it has to be responsible use but regardless of that, I am very grateful that Mr. Greenburg understood that I have Crohn’s Disease

as well as cancer and took that into account and at the same time decided to give me the compassion that I needed in Healing My situation with this battle with cancer for the past year.

MCJ: I am so glad that you’re not serving time in prison because you are not a criminal Michelle.

MR: It First started with a thirty-year sentence and that was four years ago.

I was able to negotiate it down to a six month sentence for myself, then from six months to three months and all the way down to a two-year probation.

MCJ: You are very lucky that you got your sentence reduced to two years of probation. A thirty year sentence would be ridiculous.

MR: Its beyond lucky. At the same time extradition is 99.99% concrete in Canada. Anybody that is up for extradition… I am now one of the 0.01% that has not been extradited. I have made history, not only personally but as a Female in this Country. Just for that reason alone.

MCJ: Wow that’s wonderful. We will probably be reading about you in all of the history books… As a patient and advocate for medical marijuana, what would you was the most significant moment in your life?

MR: Well that is a question that I never have been asked before actually.

MCJ: I will take that as a compliment.

MR: I guess that is because there have been so many profound moments, that I can’t pin-point the very one. For me putting together seventy-nine candidates and seventy-nine districts for the British Columbia Marijuana Party (BCMP) in 2000; being the Financial-Agent as well as a candidate. That was a huge moment in my life’s history as well as for Marc. We worked extremely hard during that campaign we put 1/2 Million Dollars of the Emery Direct Seed money into that. Made History because the Province of B.C. Had never had a political party that was capable of putting all the candidates in, and in one year… So that I will say, is a Hudge Profound moment in my life. It just showed the world and brought the awareness and attention to cannabis prohibition in a different aspect politically and the power of politics. We’ve got 3.5% almost 4% of the vote and that was a substantial part of the vote. We also used Former President Ronald Regan’s Tour Bus.

MCJ: That’s great.

MR: Which caused a lot of flak and the BBC covered it, CNN covered it. It was just absolutely phenomenal and there has been other moments. Like when I was able to get my Possession and Grow License. I was finally validated by my physician that medical marijuana had saved my life. I had not used pharmaceuticals in fourteen years and had been surgery free. That was of course a profound moment and finally it was recognized that it worked. I could actually go on but I will leave you with those two.

MCJ: No problem, that was a great answer. What does becoming federally exempt for medical marijuana in Canada entail? How exactly do you go about doing that in Canada?

MR: Well, in Canada, it’s federally illegal. There is a program and there are 33 pages that Health Canada requires you to fill out. The information that you have to give of course is all about your personal life which comes down to your health, home security issues and if you are going to grow yourself or if you’re going to purchase… the purchasing process is a gray area because a lot of the pot that Health Canada is offering through the program is only one strain and it has been grown for the past ten years in an old mineshaft in Manitoba.

MCJ: That doesn’t sound very good, or safe, for that matter.

MR: No! Because the whole area surrounding the mine shaft has been irradiated.

MCJ: Irradiated?

MR: Its called the Film Flam Flop and there is a lot of history surrounding that situation, especially to us patients. Like I said, it’s kind of a gray area. A lot of people would prefer to grow themselves or patients will appoint somebody to grow it for them. Sometimes they will get it from compassion clubs across Canada. Compassion clubs run in a gray zone in Canada. They are not legal.

MCJ: Is it similar to the United States in that it is illegal federally, but legal within participating states?

MR: No, they are not legal at all. Compassion clubs fall under a society. The police and the communities tolerate them as long as they’re run safely and all the paperwork has been done. There is an application process when you go to a compassion club; your doctor must acknowledge the fact that you are going, if the compassion club is run under that gray area, the police tend to not raid them here in Canada like they do in the United States. There seems to be an abundance of problems when it comes to raids with your dispensaries but here in Canada our raids are limited.

MCJ: I wasn’t aware of that, I am so wrapped up with what goes on here in my home state of California. Do you think that there will ever be an end to the drug-war and do you see a light at the end of the tunnel?

MR: Yes I do actually. I am 38 years old now. I turned 38 in June, and when I first started out in marijuana-activism, after quitting my bank career, it was very bleak. That was in 1999/ 2000. There wasn’t as much attention placed on it. Now after ten years every single day there is news about marijuana. Every single day, politicians and law enforcement officials, your neighbors and business owners are recognizing the fact that marijuana does not kill anybody! That cannabis is a somewhat harmless substance that can help people medicinally. It can also help a community financially if it was legalized. This has been something that has been discussed many times now, considering we have had a global economic crisis and so many countries are failing economically that if you do decide to tax or regulate marijuana, that money can be fueled right back into the economy that it so desperately needs. It can aid in healthcare reform, education, and to refinancing people’s homes. It’s a sad situation when you have a majority of Americans who have a huge debt due to healthcare. The surgeries I’ve had here in Canada for my cancer recently; I’ve had three of them, for a very life-threatening cancer. They would have cost me six figures if I didn’t have the Health Care that I do in Canada. I am very fortunate that I do though. Very fortunate. Sadly, in your country the U.S., the health –care system has failed and a lot of people have been marginalized and the solution would be ‘Yes to legalize’ and tax the hell out of the pot.

MCJ: I agree.

MR: There are so many people buying cigarettes, tobacco and paying tax on that, they’ll be buying pot and paying the tax on that; refuel the economy. Mexico has had a huge problem with gang warfare: 8000 people died within a period of a year or less. There is a lot of ex-presidents and ex-leaders of countries. Whether its Bolivia, Mexico, or even Canada and the United States have all discussed the fact that its time to look into ending the drug war and the waste of money involved.

MCJ: It sounds like you are grateful for Health Canada?

MR: I am, because I married an American man five-years ago and I am very proud of that. My husband was born and raised in Chicago. He has given me an education, even though I did do research before I was ever married to him. Now I have a better understanding of the system in the United States I have a better understanding of the infrastructure, a better understanding of how the political-system works. Just from him alone, and I am grateful for that. In Canada we take care of our people and we should be taking care of them even better then we are. I am hoping that maybe somehow we can set an example in the U.S. for that very reason.

MCJ: I do as well, Michelle. Can you tell us a little more about your husband, Jeff Tek?

MR: Well he was born in Chicago worked for many years in the heating and air industry. He came to Canada to be with me five years ago. He’s a successful journalist now and a successful photographer and writes for a variety of magazines and Jef also helps me with my garden.

MCJ: I noticed while watching your YouTube channel that you are always trimming and harvesting some very kind-looking Afghani Bullrider. What is it about that particular strain that works for you?

MR: It provides a lot of necessary relief for my symptoms of Crohn’s Disease and Cancer. The Crohn’s I have had a terrible time with since I was a teenager and I’ve had 2 surgeries for it. The drugs didn’t work, neither did the surgeries. I found that my body was rejecting the necessary pharmaceuticals whether it was steroids to Tylenol 3 for pain suppression. None of it worked, but I started an experiment using marijuana when I was about 23 or 24 years old. I successfully weaned myself off of the pharmaceuticals, took away the nausea, the pain and was able to function, not to mention work fulltime. I have used a few strains over the years one was called Williams Wonder which I found to be phenomenal but I lost that strain years ago, sadly.

MCJ: I hate it when that happens!

MR: Yes, and then the Afghani Bullrider came to me 5 years ago and it has been a strain that has saved my life. I cannot even begin to describe the necessity of it as well as what the components are. It is a cross between Sativa and Indica so it allows me to function as well as suppress the pain and that is extremely important. I have a lot of spasms in my intestinal track due to Crohn’s Disease. I don’t take any of the pharmaceuticals. I have chronic diarrhea and I will have it the rest of my life. I eat and a couple hours later, I am in the bathroom. The nausea is very bad as well. I have never been pregnant but when I hear women talk about morning sickness… I have that feeling 24 hours a day. Seven days a week. So I am very fortunate that the marijuana combats that as well.

MCJ: With the Afghani Bullrider is it more of a Sativa or Indica?

MR: Half! Yes the Afghani is Afghani and the Bullrider is a Shiva Skunk we figured out.

MCJ: Interesting. Well you have had a lot of great answers to my questions. Is there anything that you would like to add before we conclude?

MR: I’d like to mention that I put together from the past year and a half my Medicinal Cannabis Education Package that which hasn’t been done yet. You know the pharmaceutical companies will give you a whole package with samples as well as pamphlets concerning there new drug and the affects of it. So there is nothing like that in the U.S. or here in Canada. Not that I am allowed to give out any samples which I cannot do, but what I have done is I have taken those 33 pages of the Health Canada Forms. I have also taken 4 pages of beneficial information which are books and websites that verify cannabis’s therapeutic value and also a list of other websites that are related to cannabis as well as the American College of Physicians paper that they recently published which states, “That they believe in marijuana’s therapeutic value. There are 12,400 in that college in America that agrees with the therapeutic value. So it is a package that I have been sending out to people who want to either be educated about the medicinal value of cannabis or who need help getting a legal exemption in Canada. I have facilitated over 100 legal exemptions now and I have sent out 1000 of these packages. Whether it was to politicians whether it’s to other countries that would try to emulate something similar to that whether its police officers and neighbors the list goes on… I wouldn’t mind having mentioned that seeing how it is an important part of what I do it voluntarily.

Helping patients get there exemption as well as advocating.

MCJ: Awesome.

MR: There are so many people that are doing so many wonderful things. That is another thing I’d like to say: there are great activists out there who not only work full-time, they volunteer fulltime like myself and we are all trying to make a difference in a very positive way, I feel we all have a voice and its important that we are able to defend ourselves with courage and respect.

MCJ: Most definitely. Michelle, you are an inspiration to us all here a MCJ. I personally follow everything that you do and it is so important for the world at large to hear your story. On behalf of, MCJ, our readers and myself thank you for taking the time to do this interview. It was a pleasure talking with you.

MR: Thank you, I appreciate that so much.

MCJ: Take care, Michelle.

MR: All right, you, too. Goodbye, Josh.

http://medicalcannabisjournal.net/

Here are some websites to check if you would like to learn more about Michelle Rainey:

www.MichelleRainey.com

www.youtube.com/michellerainey

www.twitter.com/michellerainey

www.myspace.com/michellerainey

www.treatingyourself.com

www.pot-tv.com

www.cannabisculture.com

Medicinal Therapy

1. Pot Seed Martyr’s Global 4:20.
2. From ENCOD to Malaysia.
3. Targeting Blacks for Marijuana
4. NCPIC -National Cannabis People’s Information Centre
5. BIG JOINT SESSION FOR OBAMA AND RUDD