Create Change in Global food Policies by SAVING YOURSELF through the Power of Choice

Green Giant frozen vegetables are from China and so are most of Europe ‘s Best.

Arctic Gardens are OK.

Never buy the grocery store garlic unless it is clearly marked “from USA ” or Canada , the other stuff is grown in people poop (even worse than chicken poop). China is the largest producer of garlic in the world. U.S. Is next.

Buy only local honey, much honey is shipped in in huge containers from
China and re-packed here.
Cold-FX is grown and packed in China and is full of fecal bacteria. Doesn’t work anyway, big scam.
If the country of origin is not clearly marked beware…if produce, ask an employee. Watch out for packages which state “prepared for”, “packed by” or “imported by”. I don’t understand the lack of mandatory labelling. Especially the produce.

The country of origin should be clearly shown on the item in the store.
I go to the local farmers markets in season and keep a wary eye open the rest of the year.

Please read this very carefully, and read to the very bottom. Its important for all of us.

How is it possible to ship food from China cheaper than having it
Produced in the U.S. Or Canada? Always buy locally. Buy organic.

FOR EXAMPLE THE “OUR FAMILY” BRAND OF THE MANDARIN ORANGES SAYS RIGHT ON THE CAN FROM CHINA.SO FOR A FEW MORE CENTS BUY THE LIBERTY brand.

GOLD BRAND OR THE DOLE IS FROM CALIFORNIA.
Beware, Costco sells canned peaches & pears in a plastic jar that come from China.

ALL “HIGH LINER” AND MOST OTHER FROZEN FISH PRODUCTS COME FROM CHINA OR INDONESIA .. THE PACKAGE MAY SAY “PACIFIC SALMON” ON THE FRONT,
BUT LOOK FOR THE SMALL PRINT. MOST OF THESE PRODUCTS COME FROM FISH FARMS IN THE ORIENT WHERE THERE ARE NO REGULATIONS ON WHAT IS FED TO THESE FISH.

(Recently a Montreal Gazette had an article by the Canadian Gov’t how Chinese feed the fish: They suspend chicken wire crates over the fish ponds, and the fish feed on chicken shxxt.

If you search the internet what the chinese feed their fish you’ll be alarmed, e.g.. Growth hormones, expired anti-biotic from humans, and never buy any type of fish or shellfish that comes from these countries:Vietnam, China, Philippines.

Check this out personally. I did..

Stienfeld’s Pickles are made in India – just as bad!!!

Another example was in canned mushrooms. No-Name brand came from Indonesia.
Also check those little fruit cups. They used to be made in Canada in the Niagara region until about 2 years ago….They are now packaged in China !

While the Chinese export inferior and even toxic products, dangerous toys and goods to be sold in North American markets, the media wrings its hands and criticizes the Obama Administration and the Harper Government for perceived errors. Yet 70% of North Americans believe that the trading privileges afforded to the Chinese should be suspended!! Well, duh. Why do you need the government to suspend trading privileges?

SIMPLY DO IT YOURSELF CANADA & U.S. !!

Simply look on the bottom of every product you buy, and if it says
‘Made in China ‘ or ‘PRC’ (and that now includes Hong Kong ), simply choose another product, or none at all. You will be amazed at how dependent you are on Chinese products, and you will be equally amazed at what you can do without.

THINK ABOUT THIS,

If 200 million North Americans refuse to buy just $20 each of Chinese goods, that’s a billion dollar trade imbalance resolved in our favour…fast!! The downside? Some Canadian/American businesses will feel a temporary pinch from having foreign stockpiles of inventory.

Just one month of trading losses will hit the Chinese for 8%, of their North American exports. Then they will at least have to ask themselves if the benefits of their arrogance and lawlessness were worth it.

DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CHINA-PERIOD

ALL THEIR HOME GOODS-TOYS-BUILDING MATERIALS- I, E, CHINESE DRYWALL- CONTAIN TOXINS THAT ARE DEADLY TO YOUR HEALTH.
FACT;
ALL THE FOODS, CANNED OR JARED, AS WELL AS THE FISH/MEATS/POULTRY/PRODUCE–(FRUITS & VEGETABLES) SHIPPED OUT CONTAIN TOXINS.
ALL THEIR CLOTHING SHIPPED OUT CONTAINS TOXINS & LEAD.
ALL THEIR GLASS PRODUCTS LIKE PLATES AND DRINKING CUPS SHIPPED OUT CONTAIN TOXINS & LEAD.
ALL THEIR PLASTIC PRODUCTS SHIPPED OUT CONTAINS TOXINS & LEAD.
ALL THEIR STAINLESS STEEL PRODUCTS LIKE POTS, PANS ARE NOT 100% STAINLESS STEEL-THEY CONTAIN LEAD. COOKING WITH THESE POTS, PANS AND USING THEIR PLATS, KNIVES, FORKS, AND SPOONS IS DANGEROUS TO YOUR HEALTH.

START NOW and don’t stop.

Send this to everybody you know. Let’s show them that we are intelligent, and NOBODY can take us for granted.

Mushrooms Prevent Breast Cancer

mush

If you like mushrooms this is your lucky day. If you like to wash them down with a little green tea you’ve hit the jack pot. Scientists found that women consuming at least a third of an ounce of fresh mushrooms every day were 64 per cent less likely to develop a breast cancer. The study, carried out in China, also showed women who combined a mushroom diet with regular consumption of green tea saw an even greater benefit. The risk among women in this group was reduced by almost 90 per cent. Some researchers point out that the Chinese study does not prove that mushrooms prevent cancer even though there is evidence that mushrooms can kill cancer cells in vitro. However HFA members know that it may be a long time (never) before Big Pharma will spend a billion dollars to prove to the FDA that something you can buy at your grocery store is going prevent or cure disease.

Click here for more information >>>
http://blogs.healthfreedomalliance.org/eating-mushrooms-daily-cuts-breast-cancer-risk/

Startling New Evidence That The ‘Swine Flu’ Pandemic Is Man-Made!

Wake up people! Wake up! In the 1917 Russian Bolshevik revolution, something like 40 million people (mainly Christians) died. In the 1966-69 Chinese Cultural revolution, an estimated 60 million people lost their lives. This coming pogrom of the sheeple will be no less severe. The Illuminati mass culling, depopulation plan is going into overdrive. Don’t be surprise if 50 million people lose their lives. This is about Satanic blood sacrifice. Please wake up and spread the news! See also :

History of Bird Flu and the Illuminati Depopulation Agenda by Dr. True Ott
Flashback: Homeless People Die After Bird Flu Vaccine Trial in Poland
Plans for Mass Graves Confirmed: Government Surveying Cemetery Readiness for Flu Outbreak
Top Epidemiologist Slams Swine Flu Fear-Mongering
Maj. Gen. Albert Stubblebine III & Dr. Rima E. Laibow: Dangerous Vaccines, Corrupt Big Pharma, Eugenics Depopulation and the Coming Forced/Mandatory Vaccination!
Baxter Files Swine Flu Vaccine Patent A Year Ahead Of Outbreak
Live Avian Flu Virus Placed in Baxter Vaccine Materials Sent to 18 Countries
US government gives Baxter, Novartis legal immunity in advance for any injury and death caused by H1N1 vaccine this autumn
Belgium Health Minister passes law allowing use of police for forced mass vaccination
The Pentagon’s Alarming Project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine!

Startling New Evidence That The ‘Swine Flu’ Pandemic Is Man-Made!

Draw your own conclusions! Dr A. True Ott writes :

PRIMARY MOTIVE
The Primary Motive behind this alleged criminal activity is also the primary cause of most murders in the world today, and that motivation is simply: BIG MONEY. Billions of Dollars of windfall profits from government contracts worldwide, as a matter of fact.

I will provide evidence that will show that Novartis Pharmaceuticals of Basel, Switzerland has conspired with corrupt “scientists” at the U.S. Army Institute of Pathology  Ft. Detrick, Maryland, to create a “novel” strain of weaponized “influenza” virus by means of “reverse engineering” the deadly 1918 killer strain  which strain was maliciously and surreptitiously released upon the world in March and April of 2009 for the primary purpose of creating a panic-stricken world-wide demand for Novartis vaccine material.

The evidence will also clearly show that the Novartis vaccine material is in reality designed to facilitate the further mutation of the pandemic into more lethal waves of increasingly virulent and deadly disease, rather than to curtail and limit the existing outbreak. The evidence will show that Novartis is willingly being used, (and extremely well-paid) to facilitate the edicts of the global elite’s Club of Rome; which edicts clearly call for a massive and sudden depopulation of certain segments of the earth’s human population.

PRIMARY EVIDENCE
To realize such windfall profits on an engineered, global flu pandemic, detailed covert planning must take place of course. Patents protecting the proprietary flu vaccine must be applied for and secured before the pandemic virus is released in order to minimize the competition and maximize the profit potentials. In a biological attack of this nature, timing is extremely critical.

Indeed, the evidence is clear  Novartis applied for just such a patent on Nov. 4, 2005, and the U.S. Patent Office accepted this application and granted US 20090047353A1 for a “Split Influenza Vaccine with Adjuvants” on February 19, 2009. …..

With this patent now secured, the conspirators were now free to create the demand for their “novel” split influenza vaccine by releasing a “novel” split-influenza (combining multiple viruses) pandemic virus from a weapons lab test-tube into unsuspecting human hosts. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/17/AR2009061703271.html

The so-called “Swine Flu” grabbing headlines today is actually a recombinant, or “split-influenza” virus consisting of A-strain Bird-Flu (H5N1), Swine Flu (H1N1) and multiple strains of human flu (H3N2). Likewise, the 1918 Killer Flu that killed untold millions of people was a recombinant or “split-influenza” virus composed of Bird flu, Swine Flu, and multiple strains of human flu.

CRIMINAL TIMELINE
The criminal timeline begins in 1997, when Dr. Jeffrey Taubenberger assembled a team of geneticists and microbiologists to analyze the genome structure, and then to REPRODUCE (i.e. reverse engineer) what is arguably one of the most deadly viral structures the world has ever been cursed with  the 1918 killer flu virus. According to numerous published stories and reports, Taubenberger and his team utilized super-computers to map the complex RNA and DNA structures of the killer virus, then utilized human plasmids to successfully re-create the 1918 killer. Taubenberger completed his work in early 2005, then immediately left the employ of the U.S. Army at Ft. Detrick to take a much more lucrative position with the National Institutes of Health. His new focus was to create a VACCINE against the very same 1918 killer flu that he and his team had, just months earlier, successfully “reverse engineered” and created.

This researcher is very confident that a focused criminal investigation would likely reveal prima facia evidence that Taubenberger was in reality working for Novartis while employed with the N.I.H.  and was quite likely the primary author of Novartis’ Nov. 6, 2005 “provisional” patent application. On page 2, paragraph 32 of the patent publication we read, quote: “The influenza virus [that the ‘invention vaccine’ is designed to protect against] may be a reassortant strain, and may have been obtained by reverse genetics techniques. Reverse genetics techniques allow influenza viruses with desired genome segments to be prepared in vitro using plasmids.” The remnant of the paragraph then goes into very specific detail as to the actual mechanics of how the pandemic virus was actually created by Taubenberger’s Ft. Detrick team. At the very least, the author of the patent application had to have studied Taubenberger’s various published reports on his work at Detrick, for the wording and science is virtually verbatim.

Furthermore, this paragraph is even more damning by the words “may have been obtained”. Who “obtained” this virus and for what reason was it “obtained”? Keep in mind the CDC and HHS would have Americans believe that the pandemic viral outbreak is totally a “natural” occurrence if so then how could Novartis have such an incredible advance knowledge to the point of developing a vaccine with such absolutely PERFECT TIMING???

WHO EXACTLY IS “NOVARTIS”??
Novartis International AG is simply the world’s largest, multi-national pharmaceutical company with over $53 Billion USD revenue generated in 2008. It’s headquarters is located in Basel, Switzerland, home of the vaunted “Swiss Guards” who provide all security measures for the Vatican and the Club of Rome. The company logo symbolizes the “eternal flame” of the Illuminati “enlightened ones”. Dig into Novartis International AG’s long history, and one finds that it began as a component of the infamous I.G. Farben combine, which in turn was primarily responsible for the rise of Adolph Hitler and the German/Austrian Third Reich.

Dig a bit deeper and you find that Novartis also wholly owns a company called Sandoz  which was the inventor of LSD and other strong hallucinogenic “truth” drugs, and was the supplier of LSD to the CIA allowing them to scale new heights with their covert “MK ULTRA” mind control experiments. Documents released to U.S. Congressional investigators in 1977 show that Sandoz Labs had arranged for certain Nazi scientists to gain new identities in Allen Dulles’ CIA at the conclusion of WWII. This was accomplished under a secret extraction program called “Operation Paper Clip”.

The address listed on the Novartis Patent applications is a P.O. Box in Emeryville, California. Up until the summer of 2005, this Emeryville California address belonged to Chiron Inc.  the world’s second-largest INFLUENZA VACCINE MANUFACTURER. Chiron was doing very well, with reported sales of $357 million in fiscal 2002. Chiron’s sales nearly doubled, peaking at a whopping $678 million in 2003  and it was mostly due to the marketing and sale of FLU VACCINE CONTRACTS to the federal government. Novartis, which owned much of Chiron’s stock, was very pleased, until disaster struck in 2004 — the entire year’s stock of flu vaccine was found to be contaminated and was condemned.

Stock values plummeted on the news. With the stock at a historic low, Novartis quickly purchased the remainder of Chiron’s stock and began immediately to work on the massive “novel pandemic flu” vaccine that they somehow knew would soon have worldwide demand  especially if they controlled the exclusive patent they could effectively “corner the pandemic flu vaccine market”!!

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/09/02/BUGULEGTV61.DTL&type=business

OTHER CRIMINAL ACTIVITIES
I would submit that killing tens of thousands of innocent humans via the systemic creation of a “pandemic” in order to make billions of dollars is vile enough, but there is also evidence that there is an even more heinous hidden agenda at work here, and it is spelled GENOCIDE.

It is no mystery that Adolph Hitler advocated the elevation of a Nordic “Master Race” that would rule the world in a “New Order of the Ages” called the “Third Reich”. Sadly, not all of the EUGENIC/GENOCIDAL National Socialists were executed at Nuremburg.

In reality, the elite financiers that actually dictated the agenda to Hitler, merely went underground, willing to bide their time until their godless agenda to liquidate BILLIONS of people could be successfully implemented.

The evidence that the Novartis-controlled “Pandemic Vaccine” may well be a tool of mass genocide, is actually quite overwhelming. At this point, some readers may scoff and ask: “Why would any company want to kill off their customers?” The answer is that these “customers” control large blocks of assets and equity. As Kissinger’s “NSSM-200″ report outlines, the “spoils” of genocide include controlling large tracts of land and mineral assets. This is secondary, of course, to their warped dream of creating a Utopian World Order with only 500 million “worthy” humans allowed to share in it.

WHAT’S THE EVIDENCE?
While George H.W. Bush was busy saving the world from the evil dictator Saddam Hussein in 1991, pursuant to his U.N. speech to create a “new world order” an agenda for an “Initiative for Eco-92 Earth Charter” elitist meeting happened to fall into honest, Christian hands. This agenda basically reiterated the genocide outlined in Henry Kissinger’s infamous NSSM-200 report of 1974, and called for “the immediate reduction of world population.” The entire report can be downloaded at:

http://www.theforbiddenknowledge.com/hardtruth/cobden_club.htm

My extensive research shows that by 1992, the massive death rate of AIDS had simply not materialized to the Elite’s satisfaction, and a more efficient mass killer had to be engineered in order to fulfill the edicts cut into the “Georgia Guidestones”. Evidence shows that like the 2009 “Novel” Flu Virus the HIV virus was also engineered and manufactured in the labs of Ft. Detrick.

In 1969, during a House Appropriations Committee hearing, the Defense Department’s Biological Warfare (BW) division at Ft. Detrick requested funds to develop, through complex gene-splicing (i.e. genetic engineering) a “novel” new disease that would both be resistant to, and break down a victim’s immune system. The Congressional Record reads:

“Within the next 5 to 10 years it would probably be possible to make a new infective micro-organism which could differ in certain important respects from any known disease-causing organisms. Most important of these is that it might be refractory to the immunological and therapeutic processes upon which we depend to maintain our relative freedom from infectious diseases.”

The funds for this “Dr. Strangelove” project were somehow approved. AIDS “magically” appeared within the requested time frame, and of course, just happens to exhibit the exact characteristics specified by the Ft. Detrick scientists.

Three years later, in 1972, the fledgling World Health Organization (WHO) published a very similar proposal to the one submitted to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee in 1969. The WHO proposed that: “An attempt should be made to ascertain whether viruses can in fact exert selective effects on immune function, e.g., by …affecting T cell function as opposed to B cell function. The possibility should also be looked into that the immune response to the virus itself may be impaired if the infecting virus damages more or less selectively the immune cells responding to the viral antigens.” (Bulletin of the W.H.O., vol. 47, p 257- 274.) This is a “textbook” clinical description of the function of the HIV/AIDS virus.

The W.H.O. shortly thereafter begins a massive “smallpox vaccination” program in Africa in 1975. Within two years, millions of smallpox vaccines are provided by Novartis et. al, under U.N.I.C.E.F. funding. A decade later, it is determined by independent journalists in the U.K. that the incidence of AIDS infections’ MAPPED AND GRAPHED EPICENTERS in Africa coincided exactly with the locations of the W.H.O. smallpox vaccination program centers in the mid-1970’s (Source, The London Times, May 11, 1987). Some 14,000 Haitians then on UN ‘humanitarian missions’ to Central Africa were also vaccinated in this campaign, and soon contracted HIV. Personnel actually conducting the vaccinations of the Haitians maintain they had been completely unaware that the vaccine was anything other than a routine shot.

In 1987, Dr. Hilleman, head of all vaccine production of Merck Pharmaceuticals stunned the world with his public admissions that the mass vaccination campaigns of the 1950s and ’60s likely caused thousands of cancer deaths each year. This was due to the presence of a cancer-causing virus that contaminated the first polio vaccine, according to Dr. Hilleman. Known as SV40, the virus originated from dead monkeys whose kidney cells were used to culture the first Salk vaccines. Doctors estimate that the virus was injected into tens of millions during the vaccination campaigns, including several million in Canada, before being detected and screened out in 1963. Those born between 1941 and 1961 are thought to be most at risk of having been infected with SV40, and are estimated to have a 300% greater chance of developing cancer. According to Hilleman MERCK KNEW THE VACCINES WERE INFECTED WITH SV40, but distributed them anyway. See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edikv0zbAlU

Furthermore, research doctors in New Orleans reported in 1963 that a percentage of the Salk polio vaccines were found to have attenuated, (live) viruses, which actually CAUSED tens of thousands of polio cases during the 1950’s.

Following the successful liberation of Kuwait in Operation Desert Storm, hundreds of thousands of victorious American troops are suddenly stricken with a wide variety of auto-immune disorders that doctors named the Gulf War Syndrome, (GWS). After a decade of medical investigation, the culprit is finally determined to be an ingredient in the anthrax vaccinations mandatorily given to the troops. This offending “adjuvant” is a synthetic material known as squalene  aka, oil-in-water adjuvant. Writer and Gulf War correspondent Gary Matsumoto documents this entire, tragic saga in his seminal book, “Vaccine-A”. See www.vaccine-a.com.

Understanding these historical facts is very important for this reason: Those that ignore history are doomed to repeat it. This is doubly true when it comes to blindly accepting a “novel” mass vaccination for a weaponized, “reverse engineered” virus.

The historical record is very clear  attenuated, live viruses in vaccines SPREAD the disease very effectively. When combined with SQUALENE ADJUVANT  the virus becomes many times more potent and lethal. When given to CHILDREN IN SCHOOLS, millions of “typhoid Matts and Marys” will be spreading the disease exponentially.

Chillingly, the Novartis patent for the “novel pandemic flu” declares that “African green monkey kidney cells” will be used for the “viral growth substrate”  i.e. the carrier medium. (Page 3, paragraph 0037) We also see that “oil-in-water” squalene-based adjuvants will also be included (page 8  0098) but most incredible of all, because this is a “recombinant” and “novel” split vaccine, it is deemed necessary to include fragments of attenuated viruses (i.e. live pathogens) in the vaccine medium.

On July 13, 2009, the W.H.O. sanctioned this lunacy by declaring: “In view of the anticipated limited vaccine availability at global level and the potential need to protect against “drifted” strains of virus, it is recommended that promoting production and use of vaccines such as those that are formulated with oil-in-water adjuvants and live attenuated influenza vaccines is important.”

http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/notes/h1n1_vaccine_20090713/en/index.html

In conclusion and summation, it should be evident that the “2009 Swine Flu” could just as easily be called the “Bird Flu”  because it is as much H5N1 (bird flu) as H1N1 (pig flu.) Novartis knew this in 2005 when it received hundreds of millions of dollars from Mike Leavitt’s HHS to develop and patent the “bird flu” vaccine. I publicly charge that Novartis had advance knowledge of this “combination” because they had been in consultation with Jeffrey Taubenberger for years.

It is further evident that Novartis’ patent provides for “influenza vaccine kits” to be provided to other pharmaceutical manufacturers as well. These “kits” are the basic raw ingredients needed for the other companies to build their own vaccines under their own label.

In 2005, this “jobbing” of separate ingredients by multiple companies would never have been allowed because of the legal liability issues involved. However, in 2009, all liabilities for death and disability from faulty or contaminated vaccines have been stripped away. Any wrongful death or disability lawsuits against Novartis or any other company will today be summarily dismissed.

Novartis today has carte blanche blanket immunity for their actions  and any large pharmaceutical company who so desires, can join them at the feeding troughs just by paying millions for their “kits”.  If this isn’t the pinnacle of criminality, then I don’t know what is.

Novartis, if this “novel split vaccine” is so wonderful and safe, why do you require such blanket protection from litigation?

BRAIN CANCER AND MARIJUANA

Web MD – The active chemical in marijuana promotes the death of brain cancer cells by essentially helping them feed upon themselves, researchers in Spain report. Guillermo Velasco and colleagues at Complutense University in Spain have found that the active ingredient in marijuana, THC, causes brain cancer cells to undergo a process called autophagy. Autophagy is the breakdown of a cell that occurs when the cell essentially self-digests. . . The findings appear in the April 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Ganja from my garden

Thoughts on the word CONSTITUTION

The word ‘constitution’ literally means ‘health’.

The powerful thing about our nation and therefore our business economy is our Nation’s Collective Constitution, preserved and protected by an “organ” of law. It is tied to two other powerful “organs” or Documents/contracts, The Writ of Habeas Corpus, and the Magna Carta. This combination literally binds the laws that govern where our health an energy can go to the laws of physics, keeping us and our ‘Constitution’ in harmony with Nature and each other.

The last few years of living with out them connected has shown all of us how quickly chaos can creep in to our lives.

Personally committing to a level of breathing and connecting to how that makes me gain energy and move energetic and physical junk from my body, when I conciously connect to the breathing like when I am riding my bike or doing kundalini yoga.
then the other side is sitting super still and thinking of nothing and breathing… that has been instrumental in giving me clarity and focus and healing.
Also my whole world changed when I quit eating meat which was hard as I was raised on farms in Northern Michigan where people eat alot of wild animal meat in their diets!!!
Since I have stopped eating meat 16 years ago now, I have an incredible amount of energy and resistance to illness ( I do not get sick anymore even when my family or friends are sick..) I know it comes from not eating all the extra antibiotics that are in marketed meat that comes from flesh and not veggies.

Hope this is helpful to everyone.

Headlines of the Week:

1) Bush’s Environmental Legacy on GMOs

2) Chemical Used on Crops Could Make You Fat

3) How to Survive a Government Raid on Your Farm

4) Don’t Just Mourn the Climate Crisis, Escalate the Activism

5) A Message for Climate Change Negotiators: Small Farmers Key to Combating Climate Change

Let OCA sift through the media smog and bring you the top new and analysis of the day. The OCA website has 20 or more news articles posted each day, and a library of over 40,000 articles covering issues including health, justice, food and farming, politics, and the environment. Bookmark OrganicConsumers.org

Victory of the Week: FDA Finally Admits Mercury Fillings May Damage Your Health


After years of pressure from scientists, citizen groups and health advocates, the FDA has posted a statement to its website that is nothing less than a watershed event in oral hygiene history (it’s actually quite a bit more exciting than that may sound). Although the FDA has previously adamantly denied any and all scientific evidence pointing to negative health impacts from mercury fillings, the FDA has now posted the following to its website: “Dental amalgams contain mercury, which may have neurotoxic effects on the nervous systems of developing children and fetuses…Pregnant women and persons who may have a health condition that makes them more sensitive to mercury exposure, including individuals with existing high levels of mercury bioburden, should not avoid seeking dental care, but should discuss options with their health practitioner.”

Learn more

California Supreme Court Ruling Limits Medical Marijuana Distribution

California Supreme Court Ruling Limits Medical Marijuana Distribution

November 24th, 2008 By: Allen St. Pierre, NORML Executive Director
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Smelly Money Leads To Major Legal Review Of California’s Medical Marijuana Distribution

In an important legal case decided today that cannabis reform advocates have been waiting on for nearly two years, the California Supreme Court ruled that criminal defendants are not entitled to a defense as Proposition 215 (Prop 215) caregivers if their primary role is only to supply marijuana to patients.

“We hold that a defendant whose care-giving consisted principally of supplying marijuana and instructing on its use, and who otherwise only sporadically took some patients to medical appointments, cannot qualify as a primary caregiver under the Act and was not entitled to an instruction on the primary caregiver affirmative defense. We further conclude that nothing in the Legislature’s subsequent 2003 Medical Marijuana Program (Health & Saf. Code, § 11362.7 et seq.) alters this conclusion or offers any additional defense on this record. ”

Prop 215 defines primary caregiver to be the “individual designated by the [patient]… who has consistently assumed responsibility for the housing, health, or safety of that person.” According to the Court, these words ” imply a caretaking relationship directed at the core survival needs of a seriously ill patient, not just one single pharmaceutical need. ”

The Court concluded, ” a defendant asserting primary caregiver status must prove at a minimum that he or she (1) consistently provided care-giving, (2) independent of any assistance in taking medical marijuana, (3) at or before the time he or she assumed responsibility for assisting with medical marijuana. ”

The Court’s ruling effectively limits the caregiver defense to relatives, personal friends and attendants, nurses, etc. In particular, it excludes its use by medical marijuana “buyers’ clubs,” retail dispensaries and delivery services.

The remaining legal defense for medical marijuana providers is to organize as patient cooperatives and collectives, which are legal under SB 420.

“The Mentch decision highlights the inadequacy of California’s current medical marijuana supply system,” California NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer told the Indy Bay News . “The law needs to allow for professional licensed growers, as with other medicinal herbs.”

Amazingly, this case found its way to California’s high court because bank tellers reported Mentch to law enforcement because his cash deposit smelled strongly like cannabis (Mentch was caught with approximately 200 cannabis plants that he believed he was lawfully tending, in compliance with Prop 215, for five medical patients who possessed a physician’s recommendation).

Full text of the People vs. Mentch is found here. Listen to NORML Legal Counsel and founder Keith Stroup on today’s AudioStash talk about the significance of the court ruling and likely implications on how patients can continue to lawfully access medical cannabis.