A guy in Vero Beach, Florida, have been arrested by the local sheriff. The shariff was called by a McDonald’s cashier, that have just received a weird proposal, to get weed instead of cash for an hamburger. The guy was released and fined 500 dollars. We don’t know if at the end he got his meal or not.

Many people have reported that canadian doctors have increased the dosages of the prescribed marijuana. But why? Given the way that the patiences use to take marijuana, it is necessary that doctor and patience examinate constantly the effects of the therapy. And here comes the surprise, almost all the patience have asked to raise the dosages, for the simple reason that the marijuana sold into the legal circuit is much less powerfull that the one that they were used to grow themselves or to buy at the black market. Official producers have still to learn.

The Oaksterdam University has celebrated this week its first 160 graduates in “Agricultural science of the cultivation of the marijuana”. The deus-ex-machina  of this operation is Richard Lee, formerly a pusher in the Oakland area, that took inspiration from similar project that exist in Amsterdam. Thanks to the proposition 215, in California is possible to grow cannabis if the purpose is to produce medical marijuana and Lee has open his school to give the right technical  and egal knowledge. Different counties regulates the matter in different ways, so each city has a maximum number of plant per person, per cooperative or per company. Lee university teachs not only to grow marijuana at the higher level, but also to deal with the law in the correct way. As a law’s teachers they have hired Chris Conrad and Laurence Lichter. Lee is preparing to open another school in L.A. The full course costs 200 USD, 125 euro. This is their internet address if you want to know more: http://www.oaksterdamuniversity.com/

A few weeks ago,the first marijuana vending machine opened in L.A. These machines supply marijuana to people who are prescribed marijuana for health reasons. First the patience need to get a prescription from a doctor; then the patience is fingeprinted; then a prepaid card is issued, that also contains information about the dosage and type of drug prescribed. Once a patience has a card, whenever he need a new supply, he can access the Anytime Vending Machines. The first one of this machines was positioned at the Herbal Nutrition Centre in Los Angeles. There are strict security measures to avoid that someone else can pickup the presciption, included a live fingerprint scan.

It seems that Marc Emery, Vancouver’s  Prince of Pot, has  agreed to a five-year prison term in a plea bargain over U.S.  marijuana seed-selling charges and money laundering. Emery has faced the prospective of a long (life) enprisonement, and now it seems that he close a deal  with with US authorities to spend 5 years in a Canadian jail. Many Canadian have seen this decision as a matter of indipendence for Canada as country. Emery haven’t even been in USA, and Canadian laws aren’t so strict about cannabis seeds.Before being arrested under request of the USA, Emery was just once fine 2.000$. His tax declaration stated “marijuana seeds vendor”. We have read a beautiful reflection about this case, written by a canadian, have a read here

The war on drug is a term that define an artificial phoenomena created in USA 70 years ago. It has been a failure ever since and it didn’t help one single person on the planet to fight his problem with a substance. The war in Iraq in an artificial  phoenomena too. It has been created in 2003 in violation of the UN conventions, for the only reasonto support the gluttony of the friends of a  president of the country that invaded Iraq. 1937, 2003, 2008 what is changed? Nothing. There is a man that is the only one between all the american candidates that is proposing to leave Iraq instantly, to end the war on drugs instantly, to close the CIA instantly. And what Americans do? Support all the other candidates except him. Like that Barak Obama,that admitted to use weed and coke when he was younger, but that wanna drug users still in jail. Like over 1 million person in this very moment, injail for being drug users. Mostly with black skin, like him. What a squalor!

Industrial hemp is  still considered an illegal drug: it can sound like a joke, in the year 2007, but it’ not like this. This decision comes by a tribunal of a country that is yes civilised, but that has shown now for 80 years all its stupidity in the the so called “war on drugs”. Economical interest against hemp are so strong that in the tribunal a judge can still says nowadays that hemp is a drug because it contains traces of THC. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland dismissed the farmers’ lawsuit against the U.S. government that Wayne Hauge and Dave Monson presented to keep the federal government barred from prosecuting them for growing industrial hemp under state regulations approved last year. This shows once again how strong are the economic reasons at the base of the cannabis prohibition. The government doesn’t care of the public health, just to protect the interest of the lobbies that finances the elections campains. Here it is, the “biggest democracy in the world”.

Canadian troops are operating since a few years in Afghanistan. They have a problem with cannabis, that is now replacing opium field. The Weird part is the don’t have a problem because cannabis is a drug. They have a problem with the plant. The tall cannabis plants grow higher than their vehicles, and talibans use them to  prepare ambushes against them. So they try to burn a few field,even with the help of some diesel fuel but, nothing to do, the plants were really wet. With one exception. “A few plants at the edge of the forest were slightly drier and brown. They caught fire and burnt for a while,” said Gen. Rick Hillier. “Unfortunately, they had one of our rifle sections of 10 men slightly down-wind from that. We couldn’t keep up with the orders for munchies.”

The magazine Forbes is a well known finalcial magazine, and for this reason we were particularly surprised in reading this article. Saabira Chaudhuri explores a few famous cannabis strains, like Haze, Jack Herer, OG Kush, Sour Diesel and a few others. The characters of these plants are introduced in the way usually deserved to the famous wines. For once, no polemics on marijuana or drugs, just a descriptions of how the things are. And in this case, the reality is juicy and it smells and tastes delicious.  It seems that on the American market, these top strains have a price of 25-30 dollars per gram. Nice article btw.

On the Ministry of Cannabis blog, we sometime speak about politic, but, of course, we don’t take the side. Today we wanna speak about mr.Ron Paul, and it’s difficult for us do not appreciate his ideas and his vision of the future. The american president is a weird figure outside US. Only 200 million people on the planet have the right to vote for him, but its influence in the life of every world’s citizen is greater than national government. For these reasons, we greet with respect the choice of mr Paul. Today we wanna link to an interview of him, when he speak about marijuana, medical and non medical, and freedom of choice in general. Now we expect that you win, mr Paul, and put all these beautiful words in practice.