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http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/16690783.htmQuote
Judge rules government supply of marijuana is inadequate
By Michael Doyle
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)
WASHINGTON - Medical researchers need more marijuana sources because government supplies aren\'t meeting scientific demand, a federal judge has ruled.
In an emphatic but nonbinding opinion, the **** Enforcement Administration\'s own judge is recommending that a University of Massachusetts professor be allowed to grow a legal *** crop. The real winners could be those suffering from painful and wasting diseases, proponents believe.
"The existing supply of marijuana is not adequate," Administrative Law Judge Mary Ellen Bittner ruled.
The federal government\'s 12-acre marijuana plot at the University of Mississippi provides neither the quantity nor quality scientists need, researchers contend. While Bittner didn\'t embrace those criticisms, she agreed that the system for producing and distributing research marijuana is flawed.
"Competition in the manufacture of marijuana for research purposes is inadequate," Bittner determined.
Bittner further concluded that there is "minimal risk of diversion" from a new marijuana source. Making additional supplies available, she stated, "would be in the public interest."
The DEA isn\'t required to follow Bittner\'s 88-page opinion, and the Bush administration\'s anti-**** stance may make it unlikely that the grass-growing rules will loosen. Both sides can now file further information before DEA administrators make their ruling.
"We could still be months away from a final decision," DEA spokesman Garrison Courtney said Tuesday, adding that "obviously, we\'re going to take the judge\'s opinion into consideration."
Still, the ruling is resonating in labs and with civil libertarians.
"(The) ruling is an important step toward allowing medical marijuana patients to get their medicine from a pharmacy just like everyone else," said Allen Hopper, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union.
Based in the California seaside town of Santa Cruz, the ACLU\'s **** Law Reform Project has been representing University of Massachusetts scientist Lyle Craker. Since 2001, Craker has been confronting numerous bureaucratic and legal obstacles in his request for permission to grow research-grade marijuana.
An agronomist with a doctorate from the University of Minnesota, Craker was asked to grow bulk marijuana by a small, five-member group called the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies. The psychedelic studies group wants to research such areas as developing vaporizers that can efficiently deliver *** smoke.
"This ruling is a victory for science, medicine and the public good," Craker said. "I hope that the DEA abides by the decision and grants me the opportunity to do my job unimpeded by **** war politics."
The latest research made public this week indicated that marijuana provided more pain relief for AIDS patients than prescription ***** did. The Bush administration quickly dismissed those findings as a "smokescreen," and it has remained hostile to Craker\'s research efforts.
During the trial, for instance, DEA attorneys secured an admission from Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies head Richard Doblin that he has smoked marijuana regularly since 1971.
"Can you tell us the source of this marijuana?" DEA attorney Brian Bayly asked Doblin, before withdrawing the question under objections.
The DEA originally claimed that it lost Craker\'s research application. Then the agency said that his photocopied follow-up lacked a necessary original signature. After a year, Craker tried again. He then had to wait another year before the DEA started processing the application, in which he proposed to grow about 25 pounds of marijuana in the first year.
Craker sued after the agency rejected his application. That brought his case before Bittner.
She oversaw the trial, which featured witnesses such as former California legislator John Vasconcellos.
"People have a right to know more about what might help them in their suffering and pain or illness, whatever it might be," Vasconcellos testified, in words repeated by Bittner. "The more research, the better."
The University of Mississippi has monopolized government-grade marijuana since 1968. The university also contracts with North Carolina\'s Research Triangle Institute, which runs a machine that can roll up to 1,000 finished marijuana cigarettes in an hour.
The government-grown *** is too "harsh" and filled with stems and seeds, researchers testified.
"The material was of such poor quality, we did not deem it to be representative of medical cannabis," researcher Dr. Ethan Russo said. -
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Quote
Wis. man?s good intentions die by the sword
He breaks into apartment, mistaking **** screams for actual ****
OCONOMOWOC, Wis. - A man said he broke into an apartment with a cavalry sword because he thought he heard a woman being ****, but the sound actually was from a pornographic movie his upstairs neighbor was watching.
?Now I feel stupid,? said James Van Iveren, who has been charged in the case. ?This really is nothing, nothing but a mistake.?
According to a criminal complaint, the neighbor told police that Van Iveren pounded on the door and kicked it open without warning Feb. 12, damaging the frame and lock.
?Where is she?? Van Iveren demanded, thrusting the sword at the neighbor, the complaint said. ?Where is she??
The neighbor told police Van Iveren became increasingly aggressive as he repeated the question, insisting that he had heard a woman being ****. The complaint said that, with the sword pointed at him, the neighbor led Van Iveren throughout the apartment, opening closet doors to prove he was alone.
The neighbor later played for police the part of the DVD he believed Van Iveren heard downstairs.
Van Iveren, 39, of Oconomowoc, was charged with criminal trespass, criminal damage and disorderly conduct, all while using a dangerous weapon, and is due in court March 5. Together, the misdemeanor counts carry a maximum sentence of 33 months in jail.
Van Iveren said Tuesday that he heard a woman ?screaming for help,? grabbed the sword, bounded up the stairs, kicked in the apartment door and confronted the man who lived there.
?I intended to hold it behind my back and knock. But I froze and instead, what happened happened,? he told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contesting his neighbor?s account, Van Iveren said he didn?t look anywhere in the apartment except the front room, and that he never threatened the neighbor with the sword.
?I had the sword extended. But that was all,? he said.
Van Iveren, who lives with his mother in the downstairs apartment, said he did not call police when he heard the noises because he does not have a telephone. He said he barely knew the upstairs tenant.
Police seized Van Iveren?s sword, which he said was a family heirloom.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17261433/ -
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Quote from: Reuters
BOGOTA - Two clowns were shot and killed by an unidentified gunman during their performance at a traveling circus in the eastern Colombian town of Cucuta, police said Wednesday.
The gunman burst into the Circo del Sol de Cali Monday night and shot the clowns in front of an audience of 20 to 50 people, local police chief Jose Humberto Henao told Reuters. One of the clowns was killed instantly and the second died the next day in hospital.
"The killings had nothing to do with the show the victims were performing at the time of the incident," Henao said in a telephone interview. "We are investigating the motive."
With an entrance fee of under 50 U.S. cents, Circo del Sol de Cali attracts mostly poor Colombians. It pitched it tents in Cucuta, near the border with Venezuela, earlier this month.
"The clowns came out to give their show and then this guy came out shooting them," one audience member told local television. "It was terrible." -
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Just read that one about the man with the sword. I wasn\'t there, and probably don\'t have the full story, but I feel badly for him. It was an honest mistake; he was trying to do a good thing. I think the charges should be dropped.
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Quote from: Reuters
HYDERABAD - A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative.
Rasheeda, 17, said she has filed applications with the police and a local councillor asking them to prevent Lal Haider, 45, from taking her to his home.
Her mother, Nooran said her husband racked up a debt of 10,000 rupees ($151) to Haider playing cards.
"My husband didn\'t have money to pay, and instead he told Lal Haider that he could take Rasheeda when she grows up," she said.
Despite being paid his money last year, she said Haider still insisted the girl should be given to him because of tribal customs.
While both families live in Hyderabad, a city 160 km (100 miles) north of the southern city of Karachi, they belong to the same tribe in Baluchistan province.
The girl\'s uncle, Dur Mohammad said Haider apparently wanted to marry the girl to his son.
Khalid Rajput, a local councillor dealing with the case, said the decision that Rasheeda should be handed over to Haider was taken late last week at a tribal council meeting
"We know some tribal elders from Baluchistan came for the meeting in which the girl\'s family was told to give her as per their customs," he said.
Irfan Bhutto, a police officer in Hyderabad, said Haider had been summoned. "We will ensure the girl does not have to do anything against her will."
Reuters Oddly Enough -
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Quote from: Ed Stoddard
DALLAS (Reuters) - Texas police said on Monday they were shocked by the video recording of a pair of toddlers aged two and five being encouraged to smoke marijuana by their uncle and a friend of his.
Police discovered the video last month as they searched a house in the Texas town of Watauga for stolen goods. Local television station aired the video during the weekend.
"Our investigators are shocked. Many if not all of them are parents themselves and they cannot believe that someone would do this to a child," said Bruce Ure, the director of Watauga\'s department of public safety.
In the recording shown on the local Fox news channel, two young adult males can clearly be seen lighting marijuana cigarettes and encouraging the two baby brothers to puff on them. The faces of the children are blacked out.
Police say the young adults are Vanswan Polty, 18, and Demetris McCoy, 17. McCoy is the toddlers\' uncle.
"The two have been charged with two counts each of injury to a child with bodily injury," Ure said. The charges could land them in prison for up to 10 years.
Ure said the pair had admitted that the substance in question was marijuana. They appeared affected in the recording, in which they are shown laughing and with slurred speech.
Ure said police discovered the video while executing a search warrant on the house related to a burglary case in nearby Fort Worth.
The children\'s mother lives in the house where the recording was made, but local media reported that her sons had been put in the care of child protective services.
The toddlers\' great-grandmother, Shirley Russell, was quoted on Fox as saying that she wanted the boys to come home but was mortified by the situation.
"It\'s very shocking ... I just wish it hadn\'t happened," she told the network.
Watauga is a town of around 24,000 located just outside the city of Fort Worth. -
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:rip: :thumbsdow :slap: :wtf2:
:yack2: :wacko: :finger: :holyshit: :mad: :pukedon: :sadban: :confused: :scared: :no: :pout: :ass:
Dog\'s dinners prove popular in Nigeria -
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Quote from: Yahoo! News
A Dutch daredevil is to tackle the world\'s highest peak wearing just boots, shorts, gloves and a cap, the expedition leader told AFP Wednesday.
Wim Hof, known as the "Iceman," holds nine endurance records and recently ran 21 kilometres (13 miles) barefoot above the Arctic circle in Finland.
Hof claims to have special abilities to withstand freezing temperatures.
His website innerfire.nl shows him cross-legged and semi-naked, meditating on ice.
"He will not climb all the way in shorts, only in sections, but we plan to set many new world records," said expedition leader Werner de Jong by telephone from the Netherlands.
For the attempt on the 8,848-metre (29,014 feet) peak, Hof will strip off for climbing, but don clothes while resting, de Jong said.
"He has four extra Sherpas (high altitude mountain guides)," the team leader said. "Overnight and during tea breaks he will wear clothes."
Last May, Lakpa Tharke Sherpa caused a media furore when he claimed to have briefly stripped off on the summit of Everest, considered a holy mountain by Tibetans.
The main season on Everest gets underway in late April and May when a small window between the spring and summer monsoon make climbing Everest most feasible.
Temperatures on the summit during spring range between minus 25 and minus 30 Centigrade. The upper reaches are littered with corpses of climbers who have been killed.
The expedition, which includes four clothed climbers, leaves the Netherlands on April 1 and hopes to make a summit attempt on May 16th, de Jong\'s website says.
Ten mountaineers died last year trying to reach the roof of the world, first summitted by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.
But De Jong is sure that the ascent can be undertaken safely.
"I am the one who will decide when he can continue, and I have enough mountaineering experience," he said.
Hof claims an unexplained ability to control his skin temperature from within and resist frostbite.
"He has trained for years and I am sure that he is the only man in the world who will be able to do this," de Jong said.
Dutch Climber
I would love to see this guy on Everest TV show this upcoming season. -
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He should change the mission to: shorts and wooded clogs for the climb. Perhaps a hat with a feather poking out the back as well.
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Quote from: Reuters Life!
BERLIN - A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chainsawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck.
Police in the eastern town of Sonneberg said on Friday the trained mason measured the single-storey summer house -- which was some 8 meters (26 feet) long and 6 meters wide -- before chainsawing through the wooden roof and walls.
"The man said he was just taking his due," said a police spokesman. "But I don\'t think his wife was too pleased."
After finishing the job, the man picked up his half with the forklift truck and drove to his brother\'s house where he has since been staying.
Reuters Oddly Enough -
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haha this reminds me of an episode of tails from the crypt where this dude married these two twin sisters (somehow neither of the twins knew abt it at first). They eventually realize that their husband has married both of em, so what do they decide to do? Cut him in half with a chainsaw and each keep half. I saw that **** when I was like 6 or something, wierd how it has always stuck in my memory.
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HAHA!
I remember Tales From The Crypt. I also remember the episode you speak of. Nice jogging of the memory, buddy. -
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maybe not so weird but it\'s interesting news. where the upstate kids at
18 minutes ago
Train tank cars explode in upstate N.Y.
ONEIDA, N.Y. - A train carrying liquefied propane derailed Monday morning, setting off an explosion and fire that forced evacuations from this small central New York city and shut down a section of highway.
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The 7 a.m. blast sent a huge fireball into the dawn sky. Thick smoke continued pouring out hours later as about half a dozen propane tanker cars burned, said Police Chief David Meeker. He said the explosion followed the derailment of about 15 of the train\'s 80 cars.
Fire crews fought to keep the flames from spreading to other tanker cars, about half of which carried propane.
"There is danger of further explosions," said Fire Department Lt. Kevin Salerno.
There were no immediate reports of injuries or fatalities.
The derailment occurred in an unpopulated area on Oneida\'s north side. Officials were evacuating an area of about a one-mile radius, covering most of the downtown area of the city of 10,000. Up to 4,000 people live within that area, but the evacuation was mandatory only for homes closest to the blast.
A 23-mile stretch of the state Thruway, which passes within a mile of the explosion, was closed in both directions as a precaution, said Patrick Noonan, a spokesman for the Thruway Authority.
Amtrak suspended service between Syracuse and Albany.
The CSX Corp. train that derailed was headed from Buffalo to Selkirk, just south of Albany, said company spokesman Robert Sullivan. He said the cause of the accident hadn\'t been determined.
Sullivan said that in addition to propane, two cars were carrying hazardous materials. One contained a flammable liquid and the other carried a corrosive, but he had no other details on the materials.
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Associated Press reporter Chris Carola contributed to this report from Albany, N.Y. -
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Quote from: Reuters
AHMEDABAD, India - An Indian woman, despairing over her lover\'s accidental death when he fell down a well soon after their engagement, insisted on ceremonially marrying his corpse just minutes before the cremation.
"It was for just few minutes the girl was dressed as a bride and then as a widow," K.M. Kapadia, a police officer in the town of Anand in western Gujarat state, said on Saturday.
Wedding attendees sat the corpse up by a fire, the traditional center of Hindu wedding ceremonies, and chanted some marriage prayers before cremating the body, police said.
"The girl refused to give away the body of her lover for the cremation till she tied the knot with him," Kapadia said.
The bride\'s parents opposed the marriage but later attended the wedding ceremony and gave their 22-year-old daughter Tulsi Devipujak clothes and utensils as gifts, according to the Hindu tradition.
Woman weds corpse -