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BERN, Switzerland (AP) - Switzerland’s parliament on Monday blocked a popular initiative to legalize marijuana.
Lawmakers voted 106-70 against the proposal to decriminalize the consumption, possession, purchase and cultivation of cannabis for personal use, which was opened to debate after Swiss citizens’ petition collected more than 100,000 signatures.
The center-right majority said it rejected the proposal
to protect children, while opposition deputies said prohibition was creating more problems than it was solving.
The «no» vote was more pronounced than four years ago, when a similar initiative lost 96-89 in the national council.
Health Minister Pascal Couchepin, a passionate advocate of reform in 2003, presented the seven-member executive branch’s support for the «no» camp Monday, saying an exception for cannabis was not justified.
Couchepin’s remarks came in stark contrast to his argument four years ago that «bans on cannabis and alcohol have always proved a failure.
Socialist deputies and some members of Couchepin’s centrist Radical Party said the ban helped fuel a black market for illegal drugs controlled by mafia-style groups that fail to protect the health of minors. They argued that the state should regulate the market.

Although cannabis remains illegal, authorities in many Swiss cantons (states) largely tolerate possession of the drug in small quantities for personal consumption.
Switzerland is one of the most tolerant European countries on drugs. It runs a heroin program that allows addicts to use the drug at approved centers with heroin paid for by the state health insurance system, on the grounds that addiction is an illness rather than a crime.
Swiss citizens can override the government’s vote by calling a countrywide referendum, and gaining a national majority as well as a majority in over half of Switzerland’s 26 cantons.

BISMARCK, N.D., Dec. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Two North Dakota farmers, who filed a federal lawsuit in June to end the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) ban on commercial hemp farming in the United States and had their case dismissed on November 28, have filed a notice of appeal today in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Lawyers working on behalf of the farmers, Representative David Monson and Wayne Hauge, are appealing a number of issues. In particular, the lower court inexplicably ruled that hemp and marijuana are the "same," as the DEA has contended, and thus failed to properly consider the Commerce Clause argument that the plaintiffs raised — that Congress cannot interfere with North Dakota’s state-regulated hemp program. Scientific evidence clearly shows that industrial hemp, which includes the oilseed and fiber varieties of Cannabis that would have been grown pursuant to North Dakota law, is genetically distinct from the drug varieties of Cannabis and has absolutely no recreational drug effect.
Even though the farmers’ legal battle continues, the lawsuit prompted the DEA to respond to the North Dakota State University (NDSU) application for federal permission to grow industrial hemp for research purposes, which has languished for nearly a decade. University officials, however, say it could cost them more than $50,000 to install 10-foot-high fences and meet other strict DEA requirements such as high-powered lighting. NDSU officials are reviewing the DEA’s proposal, and Vote Hemp is hopeful that an agreement can be reached before planting season gets under way. If an agreement between the DEA and NDSU is reached and ultimately signed, it would pave the way for agricultural hemp research and development in North Dakota. Such research is key to developing varieties of industrial hemp best suited for North Dakota’s climate.
"We are happy this lawsuit is moving forward with an appeal," says Eric Steenstra, President of Vote Hemp, a non-profit organization working to bring industrial hemp farming back to the U.S. "We feel that the lower court’s decision not only overlooks Congress’s original legislative intent, but also fails to stand up for fundamental states’ rights against overreaching federal regulation. Canada grows over 30,000 acres of industrial hemp annually without any law enforcement problems. In our federalist society, it is not the burden of North Dakota’s citizens to ask Congress in Washington, D.C. to clear up its contradictory and confusing regulations concerning Cannabis; it is their right to grow industrial hemp pursuant to their own state law and the United States Constitution," adds Steenstra.
Vote Hemp, the nation’s leading industrial hemp advocacy group, and its supporters are providing financial support for the lawsuit. If it is ultimately successful, states across the nation will be free to implement their own hemp farming laws without fear of federal interference. More on the case can be found at: Vote Hemp: Information: Legal Cases: North Dakota.
Vote Hemp is a national, single-issue, non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and a free market for low-THC industrial hemp and to changes in current law to allow U.S. farmers to once again grow this agricultural crop. More information about hemp legislation and the crop’s many uses may be found at Industrial Hemp Information and Advocacy - Vote Hemp or HIA: Hemp Industries Association: Industrial Hemp Trade Group, Education & Industry Development. BETA SP or DVD Video News Releases featuring footage of hemp farming in other countries are available upon request by contacting Adam Eidinger at 202-744-2671.
Vote Hemp

A team of scientists in London, have categorically disproven the claims of Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani that "marijuana has no use in medicine." Giuliani, on the campaign trail in New Hampshire this week, has stated many times in public, that marijuana has no use to medicine.

At a town hall meeting in New Hampshire earlier in the year, he said, "marijuana has no additive medical benefit of any kind", and he cemented his viewpoint by saying "legalizing medical marijuana is just a pre-cursor to the outright legalization of cannabis, and nothing more."

But scientists from Queen Mary’s School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, have devised a method of harnessing the pain relieving qualities of cannabis, whilst controlling the psychoactive effects of the plant - the "high", disproving the claims of Mayor Giuliani once and for all.

The team of scientists, led by Prof Maurice Elphick and Dr Michaela Egertová, explain in their research paper this week how a new protein called a ‘cannabinoid receptor interactive protein’ mimics the affect of THC.

It does this by suppressing the brain’s cannabinoid receptors.

It ‘fools’ the brain into generating more of the cannabinoids that exist normally, delivering the beneficial effects without getting ’stoned.’

"There has always been a hope that it would be possible to use the effects of the drug medicinally," explained Prof Elphick.

"But as there is only one type of receptor that ‘connects’ with THC, you get the pain relief, but also the ‘high’."

"Now, things have taken a dramatic step forward."

Listen to the experts
Doctors, scientists and medical patients, have long known of the beneficial qualities of the much maligned cannabis plant.

But politicians, law-makers and law-enforcers alike, have simply ignored the findings of the medical experts, as well as the cannabis consuming patients themselves, who have reported a higher quality of life since being able to use marijuana as living medicine.

In light of these new findings from London, it would be a great gesture if one of the Republican candidates so dead set against medical marijuana, (John McCain and Mitt Romney also oppose medical marijuana with every ounce of their being, along with Giuliani), were to recognize this research and admit they were wrong.

Black or Red
Either that, or accept the challenge set by a marijuana reform organization in Washington (Marijuana Policy Project), which offers a legal maximum $10,000 dollar campaign donation to the candidate who proves his own theories on medical marijuana.

So far, only Texas Republican candidate Dr Ron Paul, overtly supports the prescription of medical cannabis.

But with literally millions of cannabis consuming voters eagerly awaiting the presidential primary’s at the start of 08, thats a position which is sure to change.

According to a press release by GW Pharmaceuticals the British company and its Japanese partner Otsuka Pharmaceutical began a phase III study of its cannabis spray Sativex pain-relief medicine for cancer patients. The five-week trial of 336 patients will test whether the drug reduces the pain of patients with advanced cancel who do not respond to opiates. The principal investigator of this study is Dr. Russell K. Portenoy, Chairman of the Department of Pain Medicine and Palliative Care at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City. The study will be conductet in approximately 40 centers primarily in the US. The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the potential role and dose of Sativex in these patients as an adjunct to their pre- existing pain medications.

GW Pharmaceuticals plans to report first findings from the study next year and expects to receive U.S. regulatory approval in 2011. Otsuka has exclusive rights to develop and market Sativex in the U.S. GW Pharmaceuticals estimates, that as much as 40 percent of cancer patients have severe enough pain to warrant a treatment with opiates. Sativex is already approved in Canada for pain relief from advanced cancer and multiple sclerosis.