Marijuana is a genus of flowering herb believed to be indigenous to Central Asia, China, and the northwest Himalayas.

Marijuana is edible as a vegetable, smokable as an herb and its oil it a powerful medicinal salve as well.

There are 3 types:

If law enforcement were really concerned about the effects of medical marijuana on traffic they would see that the data shows a nearly 9% decrease in traffic fatalities after enactment of medical marijuana laws, most due to a decrease in legal alcohol consumption.

Clearly, people who have their panties all in a bunch over the use of medical marijuana suffer from a lack of education to the facts. Despite the positive direction being made for Health Freedom in America, law makers are making it virtually impossible for a patient to drive or hold a job.

There are many ailments that medical marijuana has helped treat, prevent and even cure. However, because medical marijuana has natural anti-oxidant qualities it is primarily recognized as a powerful anti-inflammatory and usually recommended for patients who suffer from extreme pain. If you suffer from any of the following conditions, you could benefit from the use of medical marijuana:

It seems Michigan legislators are still bipolar on whether to honor the people’s majority vote to legalize medical marijuana.

Michigan’s Supreme Court ruled to outlaw dispensaries despite overwhelming voter support, which already passed their medical marijuana bill, last November. Meanwhile the Medical Marijuana Provisioning Center Regulation Act (MMPCRA) is being heroically supported by key majority players, insisting on the need to establishment medical marijuana dispensaries.

The Supreme Court of Michigan has made it clear it does not care about the people medical marijuana helps, such as those suffering from extreme pain and patients who are not able to eat.

Since December 2012 people who live in Washington state are allowed to possess marijuana for medical reasons, however dispensaries are not allowed.

But the state of Washington will allow people to grow their own medical marijuana or participate in a collective garden. It’s also interesting to note that only businesses with a liquor license will be able to sell medical marijuana.

For more than 70 years now “pork barrel politics” has weakened the economic, moral and cultural backbone of this country and it’s time we get back on the road to recovery. The term “pork barrel politics” refers to government spending intended to serve special interest supporters of a politician in return for their continued financial support. Typically, “pork” involves funding for government programs whose economic benefits are concentrated in a particular area but whose costs are spread among all taxpayers.

The so-called War on Drugs, as it turns out was nothing but one of the history’s biggest “pork barrel” scams, designed and propagated to suck the American tax payer dry to the bone, while only fattening already fat multi-national corporations. Truth is prohibition only harms society. Lamestream Media only talks about the cost of “drugs to society,” but you never hear about the social and economic costs of prohibition.

History shows prohibition only creates a black market of illegal sales that fuels violence and crime, while big government corruption escalates until only innocent people suffer. The prohibition of medicinal herbs, like cannabis, has only built more for-profit-prisons packed with people who committed “victimless crimes.”

The facts have simply been ignored. New science-based evidence has proven the health benefits of medical marijuana, while economists are exposing the financial pitfalls of prohibiting the hemp industry. Why in the world would you ban an entire natural resource, which offers nothing but good things for the economic wellbeing of society? Simply because fat multi-national corporations control products cannabis and hemp would compete with and they want all the money for themselves.

The federal war on cannabis and hemp started in 1937 and has now lasted more than 4 times longer than the Vietnam War. In 1988 taxpayers paid about $10 billion for prohibition and in 1992 the federal prohibition budget surpassed $15 billion. Obama’s proposed 2013 federal drug budget is nearly $26 billion!!! Even with the staggering federal debt, collapsing dollar and housing crisis, instead of redirecting all this money or at least cutting the Drug War budget, he increased it by 1.6% over fiscal 2012. Where’s it all going?

$61 million goes to local law enforcement, while other beneficiaries of this prohibition policy include the departments of Agriculture, Defense, Education (propaganda), Obamascare, Homeland Security, Justice (DEA), State, and of course the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the drug czar’s office.
On top of all this, hundreds of millions of dollar in increased funding, requested for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is an outrage. Especially considering from 1980 to 2008, the number of people incarcerated in America quadrupled from roughly 500,000 to 2.3 million people.

Today, the US is 5% of the World population and we have 25% of the world’s prisoners. As you can see “Get tough on crime” and “war on drugs” policies are funding for-profit- prisons, spending an additional $700 billion of taxpayer dollars on corrections, plus another $200 billion on prison and jail safety annually, pure “pork.”

Marijuana constitutes almost half of all drug arrests, and between 1990–2002, marijuana accounted for 82% of the increase in the number of drug arrests. In 2004, approximately 12.7% of state prisoners and 12.4% of Federal prisoners were serving time for a marijuana-related offense. Federal and state policies also impose “collateral consequences” on people convicted of drug offenses, such as denial of public benefits or licenses, that are not applicable to those convicted of other types of crime. Not to mention, the $500 to $700 billion in commerce lost due to prohibition of the hemp industry. So you tell me what’s the real cost of “pork barrel policies” that prohibit cannabis and hemp?!

~The Botanical Guru

Funny how the truth always comes out, the famous German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer said it best, “All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident.”

Every type of healing herb has been attacked since the inception of the American Medical Association (AMA) in 1847 when they adopted the first code of medical ethics, and established the first nationwide standards for medical education and the degree of MD. All this was to promote scientific advancement and improve public health. This was based on the Hippocratic Oath, “First Do No Harm.” It is important to note, Hippocrates was considered the father of modern medicine, and many believe the originator of homeopathy from 400 BC. Historically, the practice of medicine depended on the time-tested knowledge of herbalists, energy medicine and homeopathic practitioners. In fact at the turn of the 20th Century 43% of US medical schools taught homeopathy. Not until the AMA began teaching pharmaceutical solutions exclusively, did everything else become a threat to their empire.

Today to get a degree as an MD, you study physiology, chemistry and patient relations. With only about 30% of US medical schools requiring any nutritional education, MDs at best average less than 24 hours of nutritional instruction and zero on herbs. In order for the AMA to launch their medical empire, they set out to eliminate all natural medical sciences, which they saw as competition for their pharmaceutical agenda.

Follow me here – it’s important to understand how policy evolved to give birth to a Western model of “government protected medicine,” which forbids all natural cures. After more than 150 years later we are in the third stage of recognizing truth, first they ridiculed 5000 years of natural medicine, then they violently opposed it with prohibition and finally, it is accepted as being self evident.
Despite the fact that the AMA, CDC and the FDA have suppressed real cures for almost every ailment known to modern society, they persist in controlling Lamestream Media and Capital Hill, to protect a synthetic drug culture that “maintains disease and treat symptoms.”

Ignoring the fact that in 1987 about 85% of pharmaceuticals were derived from plants known to help prevent, treat and cure disease, they still claim its “illegal” for any natural, non-patentable, plant, nutrient or mineral to be used medicinally, which is clearly insane.

The good news is 75% of the world still relies primarily on natural means, most of which is herbal medicine. To show we are approaching the end of “The Chemical Dark Ages,” NBC recently reported that Cannabidiol (CBD) “turns off” the cancer gene involved in breast and other types of cancer. So rather than admit they are wrong, pharmaceutical companies are synthesizing artificial versions of the cannabis and other healing herbs.

The US government still insists cannabis has zero medicinal value, but the US government “owns patent 6630507” for Canninoids as an antioxidant and neuro-protectant, for their medicinal value. My friends, this isn’t a conspiracy, this is current policy and bad policies are made to be changed. Please join our peaceful revolution and help make freedom legal again.

~ The Botanical Guru

Did you know Israel is a world leader in medical cannabis research? As it turns out Delta 9-THC, or delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, was isolated for the first time in 1964, by Raphael Mechoulam and Yechiel Gaoni from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. They analyzed the residue from an ancient holy balm (Shemen Afarshimon) and spiced incense (Ha Ketoret), used in the Holy of Holies (Beit HaMikdash), by the “Most High Priest” when approaching the Ark of the Covenant. This discovery validates most biblical authorities who identify “kaneh bosem,” as one of sacred herbs Moses used to make this holy balm and incense. Who knew cannabis had such rich cultural and religious roots?

“Kaneh bosom” is first mentioned in the Hebrew Old Testament, when in Exodus 30:22-33, Moses is told by God (YHWH) to anoint the main tent (tabernacle) with a blend of oils, containing “kaneh bosem” (cannabis), later mistranslated as calamus in the Greek version. This plant-based balm (Shemen Afarshimon) would forevermore designate holy things from ordinary things.

The original 4 ingredients were to be myrrh, cinnamon, kaneh-bosem, cassia and olive oil; much later another version included 11 spices. This formula was considered so sacred, that if anyone misused it they would be driven away or possibly killed. The fragrance of this ancient incense (Ha Ketoret) was said to be so powerful that as it was being prepared, one could smell it as far away as Jericho, 12 miles to the north of Qumran. It appears these ancient shaman priests preferred kind skunk bud in their mix.

Close inspection of the Old Testament tells us God (YHWH), “came to Moses out of the midst of the cloud” and this cloud came from smoke produced by the ritual burning of incense (Ha Ketoret). Truth is Moses wasn’t the only one to practice capturing the smoke of medicinal herbs in a tent. The ancient Scythians, Semites and Israelites were all in close association, adapting many cultural similarities. Many cultures report conjuring intuitive visions and divine revelations from sacred plants, whether applied topically, inhaled or ingested.

Many experts agree plants play a vital role in the development of medicine and the awakening of consciousness. How ancient people shared these higher cognitive experiences and whether plants acted as catalysts for authentic spiritual awakening or genuine creative insights are not for us to judge, we simply lack sufficient information.

However, leading researchers are discovering the inter-relationship between our DNA molecules and the immediate environment, from subtle energy fields and nutrients, to the influence of the plant kingdom, are considerably deeper than we first suspected.

Bottom line is we still evolve and awaken in relation to our direct experience with this same environment. What if it turns out that, “setting apart,” the sacred and holy things from the ordinary, is the major key to unlocking our deeper, more personal spiritual evolution? You can decide that for yourself, all I can say for sure is, at least now we know why they called them “Most High Priest!”

~ The Botanical Guru

Medical marijuana is one the most amazing medical wonders of the modern and ancient worlds. If there’s such a thing as a medical panacea or “silver bullet” for disease, cannabis would be it. Not one death has ever been contributed to consuming or smoking this kind herb. In the worst case scenario of an “overdose” of cannabinoid kindness, you may have to take a relaxing nap.

Whereas, according to a report by the Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, aspirin (acetaminophen), a “synthetic” form of white willow bark, is the leading cause for calls to Poison Control Centers. Aspirin overdose accounts for more than 56,000 emergency room visits, 2,600 hospitalizations, and an estimated 458 deaths due to acute liver failure each year. Heavily marketed for its safety compared to non-steroidal analgesics (NSAIDS), aspirin produces more than $1,000,000,000 in annual sales for Tylenol products alone. What’s worse is “properly” prescribed and administered “synthetic” drugs kill more than 120,000 Americans annually. To add to the overwhelming carnage of readily available “synthetic” drugs, is the emerging recreational “Legal High” products being sold Over-The-Counter in convenient stores and gas stations all across the country.

Ironically, while pro-drug war advocates and cannabis prohibitionists drag their feet on the legitimate issue of legalizing medical marijuana, an entire generation of kids is being encouraged to smoke a dangerous form of “synthetic weed,” known by the street names “Spice,” “Scooby Snax” or “K2.” Openly advertised as the so-called “legal alternative” to medical marijuana and is often sold as incense or potpourri, however in 41 states it is anything but legal!

In 2010, synthetic marijuana was linked to 11,406 emergency room visits and most of those kids were between the ages of 12 to 17. In December, 2012, the drug landed a 16 year old girl in ICU with multiple strokes. Emily Bauer was pulled off life support on January 6th, 2013, after day 28 of being in a coma. Miraculously she pulled through. Emily is currently blind, partially paralyzed and struggles to even swallow food or speak. Her family started a nonprofit organization called Synthetic Awareness For Emily (S.A.F.E.).

Their goal is to educate families, as well as teachers and doctors, about the dangers and warning signs of synthetic marijuana use.
See https://www.facebook.com/safe4emily maybe sharing this will save someone’s life.

~The Botanical Guru

Cannabis Cup is here! Quick, there’s not much time left to pack your bags for the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Los Angeles- the Super Bowl of medical marijuana. This February 16 -17th is the 2nd Annual High Times LA Medical Cannabis Cup.

Last year, Los Angeles celebrated High Times’ debut Medical Cannabis Cup as a total hemponomic success, launching income generating medical cannabis dispensaries, collectives and hemp-based businesses throughout California.

Now returning for a two day encore performance, High Times’ will be weeding out “the best of the best” Sativa, Indica, Hybrid, edibles, and concentrates into 5 categories rating them all on a scale of 1 to 5. The expo will feature an outdoor medicating area, so don’t be green with envy, bring your California medical marijuana cards. Join us and meet your favorite cannabis celebrities, attend cannabis cultivation and activism seminars, witness the All Star Awards Ceremony and then partake in one of America’s best pot parties featuring musical guests TBA. If you’re over the age of 18, and have an ID, you can attend.
If you were too busy trimming buds and tweaking grow lamps to make it, we do expect you to blaze a trail up to Colorado for the best 420 mile high weekend party on the planet in April.

This April 20 – 21st, the 3rd Annual High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Denver, Colorado will launch sky high at the EXDO Event Center, on 35th street. It’s guaranteed to be the biggest cannabis celebration yet. Come get high with us!

Stay tuned for updates and more medical marijuana event announcements!