This Week: Why Does the Government Want to Shut Up Brian Epis?; Industrial Hemp Farming Act Introduced in Senate; Olympics Bring Marijuana Issue to Forefront; German Study Affirms Cannabis Relieves Pain; Cannabis Use Associated with Superior Cognitive Function in Bipolar Patients; Medical Marijuana on Nov Ballot in Arkansas; Marijuana Minister Remains in Jail Over 2 Years Awaiting Trial;  Congresswoman Barbara Lee Fights Back Against the War on Weed; The Caravan of Peace; and more!

Note: This week’s photo is from Cheri’s appearance on Fox 11, Los Angeles’ Midday Sunday Show with host Tony Valdez.  If you are in the LA area you can watch live on Sunday August 11 at 9AM (despite the Midday title) on Channel 11.  Cheri and Tony discuss marijuana issues for the entire half hour.

MEDICAL

Cannabis Use Associated with Superior Cognitive Function in Bipolar Patients – Bipolar patients with a history of cannabis use demonstrate superior neurocogitive performance compared to patients with no history of use, according to clinical data published online in the journal Psychiatry Research.

German Study Affirms Cannabis Relieves Pain — Cannabis-based medications have been demonstrated to relieve pain, and can be useful for patients whose symptoms aren’t adequately alleviated by conventional treatment, according to a paper in a peer-reviewed German medical journal.  The symptoms shown to have been alleviated by marijuana-based medicines include muscle spasms, nausea and vomiting resulting from chemotherapy, loss of appetite in HIV/AIDS patients, and neuropathic pain.

10 Health Benefits That Legitimize Marijuana Legalization — Several studies, some published as recently as a few months ago, have shown that marijuana can  be good for your health, and could help treat conditions better than the solutions being cooked up in the labs.

POLITICS/LEGAL

Why Does the Government Want to Shut Up Brian Epis? — Recently, a remarkable resolution was reached on a federal medical marijuana case involving Bryan Epis, a California cannabis club operator, under which Epis had to agree not to be involved in marijuana activism.

Congresswoman Barbara Lee Fights Back Against the War on Weed — Last Thursday, Oakland Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D) introduced a bill that would prohibit the Justice Department from using asset forfeiture laws against the landlords of state-legal medical marijuana clubs, according to Americans for Safe Access.

New Jersey Medical Marijuana Program Open to Patients  – The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act reached reached a major milestone on Thursday when the New Jersey Department of Health and Human Services opened the patient registration process. Doctors who are treating qualifying patients will then be able to enter those patients into the patient registration system.Those patients can then apply for the registration cards that will allow them to purchase medical marijuana at one of the state’s Alternative Treatment Centers. New Jersey’s medical marijuana law unfortunately doesn’t allow home cultivation by patients.

Medical Marijuana on Nov Ballot in Arkansas — The group Arkansas for Compassionate Care (ACC) will travel to Little Rock next week to submit approximately 130,000 signatures, more than double the 62,000 needed to qualify, putting medical marijuana up for a vote in November.

Marijuana Minister Remains in Jail Over 2 Years Awaiting Trial – Roger Christie, the man who claims he’s a pakalolo preacher whose religion is marijuana, tried unsuccessfully for a sixth time Tuesday to be released from custody while he’s awaiting a federal trial.  Two years ago, the federal government charged Christie with leading a major pot growing, processing and distribution operation. He’s been held without bail at the federal detention center in Honolulu ever since.

Can the Caravan of Peace End the War on Drugs? – A new peace movement to end the US-sponsored drug war begins with buses rolling and feet marching from the Tijuana–San Diego border on August 12 through twenty-five US cities to Washington, DC, in September.  Named the Caravan for Peace, the trek is intended to put human faces and names on the estimated 60,000 dead, 10,000 disappeared and 160,000 displaced people in Mexico since 2006, when the US Drug Enforcement Agency, Pentagon and the CIA supported the escalation of the Mexican armed forces.

The Top 5 Special Interest groups Lobbying to Keep Marijuana Illegal – Last year, over 850,000 people in America were arrested for marijuana-related crimes. Despite public opinion, the medical community, and human rights experts all moving in favor of relaxing marijuana prohibition laws, little has changed in terms of policy.  The folks at Republic Report think it’s worth showing that there are entrenched interest groups that are spending large sums of money to keep our broken drug laws on the books.

The War on Weed Turns to Public Employees – A letter from the American Civil Liberties Union of San Diego to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy last Thursday called attention to one of the stranger new tactics in the Obama administration’s war on medical marijuana.  The ACLU’s letter called on Duffy to retract a recent statement in which she seemed to indicate that local government employees who issue land use licenses to medical marijuana collectives might be next in line for federal criminal prosecution.

INTERNATIONAL

Cannabis Farmers Block Roads to Protect Crop in Lebanon — Families formed human shields and built rock walls to protect illegal marijuana crops in Yammouneh from security forces, Abdel Rahim Shalha reports. The Lebanese interior minister later visited the area to suggest alternative crops in a move to negotiate an end to the crisis.

HEMP

Industrial Hemp Farming Act Introduced in Senate — Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)  introduced S. 3501 the Senate companion bill to H.R. 1831, The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2011 last Thursday. If passed the bill will remove Federal restrictions on the cultivation of industrial hemp, the non‐drug oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis.

SPORTS

Olympics Bring Marijuana Issue to Forefront – Olympic judoka Nicholas Delpopolo was thrown out of the London Games after failing a drug test he blamed on inadvertently eating food baked with marijuana, which has brought the issue of marijuana and sports to the forefront again.