Humboldt California is known for it’s biggest export. High grade marijuana.

In the biggest pot bust in Humboldt County history, authorities seized more than 134,000 marijuana plants worth an estimated $469 million, law enforcement officials said.

The plants, ranging from one to three feet tall, were discovered on federal and private timberland along the county’s eastern edge north of Dinsmore, according to the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Department.

The plants, which were spotted during surveillance flights, were eradicated over the past week by county, state and federal officers.

No arrests were made during the raid, but investigators believe a Mexican drug cartel was behind the massive growing operation.

An international group of researchers from Germany, Israel, Italy, Switzerland and the U.S. has found that administering a substance found in the cannabis plant can help the body’s natural protective system alleviate an allergic skin disease (allergic contact dermatitis), Allergic contact dermatitis is caused by reaction to something that directly contacts the skin.

“Many different substances (allergens) can cause allergic contact dermatitis. Usually these substances cause no trouble for most people, but if the skin is sensitive or allergic to the substance, any exposure will produce a rash, which may become very severe. Allergic contact dermatitis affects about 5 percent of men and 11% of women in industrialized countries and is one of the leading causes for occupational diseases.”

An article describing the work of the international research group, led by Dr Andreas Zimmer from the University of Bonn, was published recently in the journal Science. The article deals with alleviating allergic skin disease through what is called the endocannabinoid system. Among the members of the group is Prof. Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem School of Pharmacy.

From BBC:

A man has been shown leniency after explaining he was growing cannabis to use the drug to tackle a genital itch.

Gregor Spalding admitted cultivating the drug at his home in Blairgowrie.

Perth Sheriff Court heard the 30-year-old was arrested in April after police picked up the crop’s smell while at his home looking for someone else.

Sentence was deferred for six months for Spalding to be of good behaviour. He was assured that if he maintained this he would be treated “leniently”.

Relieving pain

The court was told his “amateurish attempt” to cultivate cannabis was provoked by chronic pain he had suffered for three years.

Spalding said prescription medicine had failed to tackle pain caused by constant itching around his genitals.

He had decided to try using the drug as a painkiller, after reading about it on the internet, and wanted to grow cannabis himself, instead of buying it from a drug dealer.

His doctor wrote a letter to the court confirming Spalding had suffered chronic pain from an itching condition known as pruritus for three years.

The doctor added: “It is quite reasonable that he thought cannabis might help his condition as there have been reports in the press of cannabis relieving pain in multiple sclerosis and other conditions.”

The court heard Spalding had not been in trouble with the authorities before and had now been referred to Dundee’s Ninewells Hospital.

Sheriff Derek Livingston said: “It does strike me that this isn’t a case where someone is growing the plant to supply it to others.

“It was a stupid amateurish attempt. I am prepared to give you a chance. As long as it remains proscribed, you cannot grow cannabis plants in your house.”

The rescheduling of cannabis in the United States is the proposed removal of cannabis from a Schedule 1 of the Controlled Substances Act, which is one of the most tightly restricted category of drugs. The effort to reschedule cannabis has been underway since the 1970s.

From wikipedia:

Former director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Jon Gettman has argued that marijuana does not fit each of the three statutory criteria for Schedule I. Gettman believes that “high potential for abuse” means that a drug has a potential for abuse similar to that of heroin or cocaine.[1] Gettman argues further that since laboratory animals do not self-administer marijuana, and because marijuana’s toxicity is less than that of heroin or cocaine, marijuana lacks the high abuse potential required for inclusion in Schedule I or II.

Gettman also contends: “The acceptance of cannabis’ medical use by eight [now thirteen] states since 1996 and the experiences of patients, doctors, and state officials in these states establish marijuana’s accepted medical use in the United States.”[2] Specifically, Alaska, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington have enacted legislation allowing the medical use of marijuana by their citizens.[3] A minimum of 35,000 patients are currently using medical marijuana legally in these states, and over 2,500 different physicians have recommended it for use by their patients.[4]

In his petition, Gettman also argues that marijuana is an acceptably safe medication. He notes that a 1999 Institute of Medicine report found that “except for the harms associated with smoking, the adverse effects of marijuana use are within the range of effects tolerated for other medications.” He points out that there are a number of delivery routes that were not considered by the Institute, such as transdermal, sublingual, and even rectal administration, in addition to vaporizers, which release marijuana’s active ingredients into the air without burning the plant matter.[5]

A study published in the March 1, 1990 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences stated that “there are virtually no reports of fatal cannabis overdose in humans” and attributed this safety to the low density of cannabinoid receptors in areas of the brain controlling breathing and the heart.[6][7] Gettman claims that the discovery of the cannabinoid receptor system in the late 1980s revolutionized scientific understanding of cannabis’ effects and provided further evidence that it does not belong in Schedule I.

More: Cannabis Rescheduling in the United States