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Canna-Weird News

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
This is old news but interesting.
Alabama Prison Guard Found Passed Out in Car With Half-Pound of Marijuana
January 7, 2015 0 Comment

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An officer with the Alabama Department of Corrections was arrested in Wetumpka Tuesday after being found passed-out drunk in a McDonald’s parking lot with over eight ounces of marijuana that he allegedly planned to distribute to inmates. Michael Anderson, 28, of Prattville was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with public intoxication and first-degree possession.

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Alabama corrections officer Michael Anderson, who was found with a half-pound of marijuana and a .16 blood alcohol level passed out in a McDonald’s parking lot.
According to Capt. Robert Sliwowski of the Wetumpka Police Department, officers responded to a call at 8 a.m. Tuesday about a suspicious person passed out in a car in the parking lot. Upon arrival, officers found Anderson passed out and intoxicated in his car. Sliwowski said Anderson had an estimated blood alcohol content of 0.16.

“When officers arrived on scene, they arrested him for public intoxication and upon search of the vehicle for impound, they found a half-pound of marijuana in a book bag in his car."
 

grokit

well-worn member
Newly Risen From Yeast: THC

15yeast1-master675.jpg

A form of yeast that was genetically engineered to produce various cannabinoids.

In August, researchers announced they had genetically engineered yeast to produce the powerful painkiller hydrocodone. Now comes the perhaps inevitable sequel: Scientists have created yeasts that can make important constituents of marijuana, including the main psychoactive compound, tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC.

Synthetic versions of THC are available in pill form under brand names like Marinol and Cesamet; they are generally used to treat nausea, vomiting and loss of appetite caused by H.I.V. infection or cancer chemotherapy. Genetically modified yeast could make THC in a cheaper and more streamlined way than traditional chemical synthesis.

Using yeast could also shed light on the clinical usefulness of cannabis-derived compounds. Marijuana is increasingly embraced as medicine, yet there is limited evidence that it is effective against many of the conditions for which it is prescribed. Researchers hoping to separate fact from wishful thinking will need much better access to marijuana’s unique constituents. Modified yeast may provide them.

“This is something that could literally change the lives of millions of people,” said Kevin Chen, the chief executive of Hyasynth Bio, a company working to create yeasts that produce THC and cannabidiol, another marijuana compound of medicinal interest.

In a paper published this month in the journal Biotechnology Letters, biochemists at the Technical University of Dortmund in Germany reported that they had engineered a strain of yeast that produces THC. They also have unpublished data to show they succeeded in creating a yeast strain that can make cannabidiol.

Both yeasts rely on so-called precursor molecules — not simple sugars, which would be ideal — and can produce only small amounts of THC and cannabidiol. But Oliver Kayser, a biochemist at the university, hopes that he can eventually engineer the yeast to replicate the full THC-production pathway and has teamed with THC Pharm of Frankfurt to try to scale the processes for industrial production.

European regulators, he said, are eager for a way to create a steady supply of THC and other cannabinoids without actually cultivating marijuana. “They are in fear that these plants will be grown and will support some illegal farming,” Dr. Kayser said.

The idea is not new. Efforts to get yeast to synthesize THC date back at least eight years, when Japanese scientists published a study detailing how they inserted a gene into Pichia pastoris that coaxed it to secrete an enzyme necessary to produce THC.

But the researchers did not know all of the enzymes used by the marijuana plant to make THC. Over the last decade, with the help of cheaper and faster DNA analysis tools, they have found the key genes.

Dr. Jonathan Page, an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia who helped in these sequencing efforts, set up a company called Anandia Laboratories in part to reproduce substances in cannabis with yeast. His company and Hyasynth Bio, Mr. Chen’s firm, await approval from the Canadian government to engineer their own THC-producing yeast strains.

Dr. Page, who holds patent applications for several of the genes in the THC synthesis pathway, said he anticipated receiving the go-ahead from the authorities this year. Other biotech firms are exploring the idea, including Amyris, a biotech company in Emeryville, Calif., that has used yeast to churn out products ranging from the antimalarial drug artemisinin to a patchouli fragrance.

But all this new biotechnology faces tough competition from the cannabis plant itself. Marijuana has been so carefully bred for so many years that it has become a remarkably efficient producer of THC. Some strains contain more than 30 percent THC content by dry weight.

“Right now, we have a plant that is essentially the Ferrari of the plant world when it comes to producing the chemicalof interest,” Dr. Page said. “Cannabis is hard to beat.”

For this reason, he and his company also hope to use yeast to make chemicals found in trace amounts in cannabis that have shown early promise as potential medicines. These include cannabidivarin, which has prevented seizures in preliminary rodent studies, and tetrahydrocannabivarin, which may be an anti-inflammatory, among other uses.

In late June, Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, spoke at a hearing before a Senate caucus about the potential benefits of cannabidiol, which is being studied for disorders such as epilepsy. Some scientists believe it is the substance that should be prioritized for production in yeast.

“I wonder why anybody should try to get yeast to produce THC,” said Raphael Mechoulam, who with a colleague identified THC as the active substance in cannabis in 1964. “Cannabidiol production is a different story. Its production from plants is a bit complicated.” And, he added, “demand for it is growing.”

Still, it’s an enormous challenge to modify yeast to synthesize THC or cannabidiol from raw materials like sugar; the current strains in Dr. Kayser’s laboratory are capable of only the final stage of the synthesis. Ultimately, biochemists may need to insert more than a dozen genes into the yeast.

“At one level, you can say that nothing limits you but your imagination,” said Dr. Pamela Silver, a professor of systems biology at Harvard Medical School. But, she added, “This is actually really hard.”

One proposal that remains off the table: designing yeast to help brew THC-infused beer.

“People keep asking about it,” Mr. Chen said. “But there’s bigger potential there than just making a beer.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/15/science/newly-risen-from-yeast-thc.html
 

grokit

well-worn member
So this is kind of messed up, the staffer with the weed gets lumped in with the creeps.
Of course it was ~300 lbs. of :leaf::spliff:


Child porn and drugs see five UN staff fired

Four United Nations staff shared child pornography on work email accounts, an internal report from the agency said.

All four were sacked, while another member of staff was fired for transporting 173kg of marijuana in an official vehicle.

The five cases happened between 1 July 2014 and 30 June 2015, the report said.

The UN report does not include information on any criminal charges brought against the former staff.

The four staff sacked for possession of child pornography were dismissed under "misuse of United Nations information and communications technology", the report said.

The report details disciplinary actions for misconduct and criminal behaviour involving the UN secretariat's 41,000 staff. It does not specify where the former staff were stationed, or when they were dismissed.

Any cases involving criminal conduct were referred to authorities in the staff member's country, a spokesman for the UN, Farhan Haq, said on Friday.

"While the United Nations can and does follow up with member states, the national authorities concerned have the sole prerogative in determining what, if any, investigations or proceedings are initiated against the individuals," he said.

He said those authorities would decide whether to provide any further information to the UN.

The report also listed other cases of misconduct and the actions taken. A staff member who stored pornography involving adults was disciplined with demotion and a ban on promotion for two years.

Another, responsible for security screening at an airport, had their employment terminated after taking $2,200 (£1,440) from the luggage of a passenger on a UN flight.

The report details a number of dismissals relating to a staff protest at a peacekeeping mission, in which one UN staff member "disarmed a military officer".

Others at the same protest "improperly restricted" movement of people and vehicles, "intimidated and/or physically assaulted" people, damaged a UN vehicle, and allowed journalists on-site without authorisation, the report said.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-34683472
 

Nesta

Well-Known Member
One Way for McDonald’s to Improve Business: Sell Drugs
-One location in France had a drive-through marijuana business.

"McDonald's earned back a smidgen of interest in its failing brand with all-day breakfast, but let's be honest here: The Golden Arches could use another selling point. A location in France, outside Lyon,was allegedly running a thriving drive-through marijuana business on the sly that involved eight or nine flagrant multitaskers — lower fries into vat here, roll doobies on the counter there.

According to local paper Le Progrès, it was apparently a straightforward operation. Customers would send a text, pay at the drive-through window undetected, and leave with dime bags instead of burgers (or, hey, maybe both). One employee said, "They were cutting up the weed, weighing it, and bagging it at the salad bar." In addition, this group was allegedly throwing late-night ragers fueled by booze and drugs inside the restaurant. More law-abiding employees eventually ratted them out to management."
 

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
Using A Tragedy To Spread Reefer Madness Is Disgraceful
Posted by Johnny Green at 8:15 AM on December 2, 2015Ending Marijuana Prohibition


Robert L. Dear Jr. is a monster. Mr. Dear was the individual that recently shot up a Planned Parenthood in Colorado, killing three people and wounding 9 others. The event was a tragedy to say the least. By all measures, Robert is a disturbed person who suffers from mental problems. There is nothing else that people should be pointing to as the cause for his actions. However, that hasn’t stopped marijuana opponent Christine Tatum from suggesting that ‘marijuana psychosis’ was the cause of his rampage. Per Westword: As we noted in our coverage of the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack,

Read More
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member

grokit

well-worn member
:freak:
What was that?
I couldn't hear you over the
cacophony in my cranium :spliff:


Marijuana's THC May Increase 'Noise' in Your Brain
December 15, 2015 07:02pm ET

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Leaves of the marijuana plant

Marijuana's main psychoactive compound, THC, may increase random neural activity — or neural noise — in the brain, according to a new study.

In the study, researchers gave THC to study participants through an IV, and found that the participants showed increased levels of random neural noise after the compound was administered. The participants also experienced a brief increase in such symptoms as having disorganized thoughts, and alterations in their perceptions of reality, the researchers found. These symptoms are associated with what researchers call psychosis — a condition that involves losing touch with the real word.

"At doses roughly equivalent to half or a single joint, [THC] produced psychosis-like effects and increased neural noise in humans,” senior study author Dr. Deepak Cyril D’Souza, a professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, said in a statement.

The new results suggest that the psychosis-like effects that some people experience from smoking marijuana "may be related to neural noise, which disrupts the brain’s normal information processing," lead study author Jose Cortes-Briones, a postdoctoral associate in psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, said in a statement.

In the study, the researchers administered THC or a placebo intravenously to 24 people on three separate days, a week apart from each other. On each of the three days, the participants received either a placebo or THC in one of the two doses: 0.015 milligrams per kilogram of their body weight, or twice that amount, 0.03 mg/kg.

The researchers observed what happened in the participants' brains after they were given THC or a placebo by having them wear electroencephalogram (EEG) caps with electrodes during the experiments.

When the researchers looked at the electrical activity in the participants' brains, they saw that the level of neural noise in their brains was higher when they were given THC, compared to when they were given the placebo. [11 Odd Facts About Marijuana]

This increased neural noise may interfere with other signals that transmit information in the brain, the researchers said.

more:
http://www.livescience.com/53108-ma...ural-noise.html?cmpid=NL_LS_weekly_2015-12-16

:buzz:
 

Nesta

Well-Known Member
The NY Times recommends the Magic Flight Launch Box:

"...Though I’ve since taken it out to state parks, numerous bars, a sculpture garden and a hotel rooftop, the Launch Box spent its first few months at home, in a drawer, a few steps away from my office. Over time, it began making afternoon sojourns to my desk. These sessions took place once a week or so, at times when I needed to compile to-do lists, tidy up or try to untangle some gnarled project.

Marijuana, I found, is a fine office drug. Not only is it more healthful than the ubiquitous conference-table bottle of Knob Creek, it’s also a sharper creative spur. It makes work feel more like a rapturous Frisbee game, less like an assembly line. Solo brainstorms take on an almost yeast-like generativity. And contrary to popular notions from the end of the last century, much of what bubbles up is worth keeping.

One of the wisest things I’ve read about cannabis was written by an anonymous ‘‘Mr. X’’ in the 1971 book ‘‘Marihuana Reconsidered.’’ While meticulously cataloging how pot enhanced his life as a 30-something professional, X wrote that ‘‘the devastating insights achieved when high are real insights.’’ They can survive the state of mind that caused them to arise. The difficulty is how to capture a bit of this precious ore. You will need a notebook and some mental pruning shears, to avoid chasing down every dopamine-inspired tangent. ‘‘Ten even more interesting ideas or images have to be lost in the effort of recording one,’’ is how X put it.

When X wrote his essay, cannabis use was, like the length of your hair, a political statement, a litmus test for all kinds of establishment proprieties. X’s anonymity is an artifact of that time, and so are his essay’s moments of defensive apology, as if enjoyment alone were not enough to legitimize his smoking. X died in 1996. His identity was exposed three years later, by an old friend, Lester Grinspoon, who wrote the book the essay appears in. X, it turned out, was Carl Sagan. The celebrated astronomer and public champion of scientific inquiry was also an avid pothead. Sagan said he used some of his marijuana-derived insights in his books and lectures…"
 

chris 71

Well-Known Member
i just finished watching the entire first season 13 episodes of , COSMOS : A spacetime odyssey with Neil deGrasse Tyson . a follow up to Carl Sagan's Cosmos .
a absolutely eye opening experience . i would have to say the best documentary series i have ever seen . and iv seen a lot . i would recommend to everyone . i will defiantly be checking out Cosmos very shortly .

its funny the article just above Nesta's post talks about this noise in the brain caused by thc . at first read it may appear that this noise could only be detrimental to the poor old human noggin . seeing as it kinda looks like psychosis , on there measuring , do dads , and devices .
but then to read mr x 's take on his personnel experience's , and then to find out who this mr x was is refreshing to say the least .
this noise as they say .. maybe they could handle a little of this " noise " in there little noggins as well . might help to see the noise as the music that they seem to be missing seeing with there measuring .
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member
Hilarious Twitter responses to classical cellist's 113-pound Oregon pot bust

Before recreational pot's legalization in Oregon, getting nabbed with that much weed would have been a felony. But Huckaby, 33, faces only misdemeanor charges after being stopped for going 39 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone near Bly.
Best response:

Sadly, the recidivism rate for Julliard-trained criminals is high.

He'll be Bach.
 

macbill

Oh No! Mr macbill!!
Staff member

CarolKing

Singer of songs and a vapor connoisseur
Waka Flocka Flame isn’t cutting back on his weed intake. The rapper says that he still plans to stay stoned all day on 4/20, the unofficial marijuana holiday that is celebrated by cannabis fans everywhere. This comes just days after Waka was nearly hospitalized for what he thought was a weed overdose. The rapper called for paramedics w...

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Waka Flocka Flame Weed Overdose: Rapper Eats Too Many Edibles, Calls For Paramedics In Seattle
Waka Flocka Flame isn’t cutting back on his weed intake. The rapper says that he still plans to stay stoned all day on 4/20, the unofficial marijuana holiday
INQUISITR.COM

Edit
I debated whether or not to put this in the other thread regarding Washington State cannabis.
 
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