~ February Newsletter ~ Public Lands For The People ~

Hello Folks,

Here we are in a new year with a new government settling into place in Washington DC, and a new set of challenges in front of us. Yes, it is great that our new President is pro-American business and willing to do what he can (which is a lot!), to Make America Great Again, But ‘We The People’ still need to do our part and be actively involved in the process. You can’t sit back and expect that everyone else will get it done. We The People have spoken and We The People must act on our convictions. It’s time to stay involved, write letters to your Congressmen and Senators and make phone calls. A hand written letter is worth thousands of form letters! There are still fights in progress such as the Eagle Mountain land annex where the National Park Service is working hand in hand with BLM to take 22,000 acres of mineral rich land into the National Park to be locked away. Get involved and write letters. The comment period closes Feb. 16th  Eagle Mountain National Park Land Annex Comments PageEven in a national emergency where our enemies refuse to sell us any rare earth minerals that are crucial to our national defense, once locked in the National Park, the minerals may as well not exist. Even if the land could be moved back into Public Domain, it would takes years to develop the mines so as to be useful in the defense of our nation.

We have an update to our dredge lawsuits here in California. It appears Judge Ochoa has for the second time cancelled the upcoming hearing on the CEQA and “one subject” motions, this time pushing the hearing out to July 12, 2017.

You all may recall that these motions were initially to be heard in January 2016, then stayed on account of the Rinehart case, then set for April 21st 2017, then cancelled at Judge Ochoa’s instance and moved to May 12th 2017. Although we are very confident that we can get the CEQA process and the 2012 regulations thrown out due to the faulty science and violations of the process by the State of California, that won’t get us back in the water dredging due to the water board permitting process lumped on by the legislature.

We do have a solution that will remove all states from regulating unreasonably on Federally managed lands and give the power back to the MMAC affiliated mining districts.

We are working feverishly to get new legislation in place that will put more teeth in the 1872 Mining Law for the miners. This must happen within the next 2 years while the Republican majority is in place. Do your part to help us Take It Back And Keep It! Renew your supporting membership in PLP and make a donation above your normal membership to help us make the extra push supporting the Mining District revival under the expert guidance of the Minerals and Mining Advisory Council! The power of the mining districts is beginning to be realized in Congress. Our advisors were in DC for the inauguration. Joe Martori, Clark Pearson and Scott Harn, all MMAC advisors are in Washington DC right now for a rigorous week of work on our behalf to get our Federal legislation through and signed by President Trump!  You can read the bill here:  House Resolution from the Minerals and Mining Advisory Council.

PLP volunteers will be set up at the big Quartzite, Arizona Gold and Mineral show Feb. 10-12, so come out and show your support! We will have gold bags for sale, a panning area, PLP T-shirts, expert prospecting advice, Challenge Cards, PLP bumper stickers  and speaking at the show. We are excited to be there! Find out all about the show here: https://quartzsitegoldshowcom.wordpress.com/

Though our membership voted in new By-Laws last year which we are now operating under, the Board Members that resigned last July are still having their charade meetings, pretending to be PLP Board Members at Keene Engineering’s office. We are saddened to announce that because of these actions, by GPAA’s request, PLP will not be allowed to set up at any of their events until GPAA is satisfied that the Board dispute has been resolved. As far as we are concerned, the dispute was resolved when the PLP Membership overwhelmingly approved the new By-Laws last fall.  We will miss so many of you we consider our friends at these shows, but will keep in touch other ways like through our newsletters, website, new shows we’ve never worked at before, and “out there” in the gold fields.

We are continuing to fight for miner’s rights, and are still Plaintiffs in the two dredging cases in San Bernardino. Your board of directors are all volunteer! Please help us help the mining community by renewing membership and making an extra donation.

Until next time, Let’s Keep Taking it Back while we Make Mining and Multiple Use Public Land Great Again!

Ron Kliewer

President

Source:  Public Lands For The People

Medical Marijuana Supporters Use Super Bowl As Platform

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HOUSTON – Supporters of medical marijuana are using the Super Bowl as a platform to urge the NFL and the federal government to lift prohibitions against the use of cannabis.

They contend marijuana should have a place in sports medicine as a natural alternative to opiates for treatment of injuries.

Currently, if an NFL player tests positive for cannabis, he can be fined, suspended or banished from the league.

Among those on the panel were former New Olreans Saints player Kyle Turley, who said he became addicted to opiods prescribed to him for injuries sustained as a college and professional player.

“Cannabis is not a cure-all for severe pain and all these real bad, horrific injuries, but you can deal with it better and you don’t get addicted, and you can walk away from this, like walking away from drinking coffee or Coke, or even pizza,” Turley said. “It just takes some willpower. I know what it’s like to come off heavy prescription medication. That was not fun.”

Turley was part of the panel at an event put on at the Revention Music Center called the “Cannibis in Professional Sports Symposium.”

The event was sponsored by Vapen, a company that produces marijuana extracts and inhalers.

Copyright 2017 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.

Hell Froze Over!!! Maybe

I woke up yesterday morning the same as I do every day about 10 am and wandered out to the kitchen to fire up the coffee pot. As I was passing by the dining room table I glanced, as I do every morning, at the daily paper laying face up with the headlines easy to read. What caught my eye wasn’t the headline for the day but a teaser line at the top corner of the paper placed there to guide the reader to the story on a following page.

What I read on page two caused me to stop and consider if something I had heard and even said over the years had come true.

HELL HATH FROZEN OVER!!!

Yes for a moment or two I figured it to be true because the teaser headline read “Maryland Looks To Legalize POT”

I read the story and it turns out people really are waking up to the potential of legal cannabis. It’s pretty much the same as legalized gambling. It’s good for everybody on many different levels.

Maryland is in the process of setting up its medical cannabis program and it is happening at a snail’s pace. People like myself wait patiently while the lawmakers and politicians drag their feet taking years to set up what took Colorado weeks to figure out. How to create and market legal weed.

How much pain does one have to be in to be considered “chronic” pain and what exactly does that term mean ?

Let me take a few minutes to explain my version of “chronic” pain.

When I was eight years old I fell through the ice on a small stream and almost froze to death. That was my introduction to pain that is explained these days with numbers. You know… the 1 to 10 scale anyone with chronic pain can relate to. It was the first time a Dr. ask me to describe my pain with a number. After I thawed out my number was an 8 in most places and a 10 in my hands and feet.

My next major source of lifetime pain came from a fifty foot fall I took when I was twenty. I bounced 3 times on the way down from a perch on a carnival ride I was working on, breaking something else important every time I bounced. More on all of these stories coming soon in a book.

The last big event that left me with a lifetime of miserable nerve pain was the direct hit I took from a bolt of lightning in 2001 which left me smoking and dead for 10 minutes in the remote camp my wife and I were in. It is true each of these events is a huge story by its self but for now I am sharing them to give my readers an idea of the amount of pain I endure 24 hours a day, 365 days a year so far.

Chronic pain is only one of many medical reasons people use cannabis and THC in one form or another. I would type the meds off my fingers to make a full list and I’m not even sure anyone knows everything to make such a list. The point is it is huge and growing every day.

Maryland is joining a growing list of states that have wised up to the fact that the money available to be made in taxes, research, marketing, and consumption are enormous and it is about time the citizens of Maryland enjoy the benefits of all that money and the free use of cannabis like the other five or six states that have had the gumption to go full-blown legal.

In closing I think it is safe to say that Hell is still fairly warm and “FREED WEED” is about to be a reality in more places including the Free state of Maryland.

Here is the full story from the Washington Post.

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Maryland Lawmakers Push For Recreational Pot

 

Wishing They Would JUST DO IT!!!

Marijuana would be legalized, regulated and taxed similarly to alcohol under legislation Maryland lawmakers plan to introduce this week. “Now is the time to join other states and move toward a sensible system of regulation and taxation,” said Senator Richard Madaleno (D) at a Monday press conference. Madaleno announced two forthcoming Senate bills; one would…

via Maryland Marijuana Legalization Bill Announced — TheJointBlog

Study: Cannabinoids May Treat Persistent Inflammatory Pain

by Anthony Martinelli

Activation of the CB2 (cannabinoid type 2) receptor – something done naturally through the consumption of cannabinoids – may treat persistent inflammatory pain.

This is according to new research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, and published online by the U.S. National Institute of Health.

For the study, researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University examined how a cannabinoid receptor agonist (meant to mimic the effects of natural cannabinoids) effected “persistent inflammation induced by complete Freund’s adjuvant (CFA)”.

According to researchers; “Our data provide evidence that CB2 receptor function emerges in the RVM [rostral ventromedial medulla; a relay in the descending pain modulatory system and an important site of endocannabinoid modulation of pain] in persistent inflammation and that selective CB2 receptor agonists may be useful for treatment of persistent inflammatory pain.”

According to the study’s significant statement:

“These studies demonstrate that endocannabinoid signaling to CB1 and CB2 receptors in adult rostral ventromedial medulla is altered in persistent inflammation. The emergence of CB2 receptor function in the rostral ventromedial medulla provides additional rationale for the development of CB2 receptor-selective agonists as useful therapeutics for chronic inflammatory pain.

The full text and abstract of this study can be found by clicking here.

This study joins a list of dozens that have shown that cannabinoids can treat and prevent inflammation, including one released just last month in the FASEB Journal which found that cannabis may treat chronic inflammation.

Source:  The Joint Blog

Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary to Run for Prime Minister of Canada, Supports Marijuana Legalization

Billionaire investor Kevin O’Leary has spent years gaining notoriety as a mainstay member of ABC’s Shark Tank. Prior to that he spent eight years on the Canadian version of the show, Dragon’s Den. Now O’Leary wants to be the Prime Minister of Canada.

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In an announcement that might draw deja vu to Donald Trump’s announcement (both are billionaire reality stars running on a conservative platform), O’Leary says he is running for leadership of Canada’s Conservative Party in an effort to take over the role of Prime Minister from Justin Trudeau. Trudeau is up for reelection in 2019.

“I am the only one that can defeat Trudeau,” O’Leary, 62, stated on Facebook. O’Leary believes that Trudeau is placing a huge amount of debt upon the country, which he says he has ideas to fix (ideas he has yet to release).

Breaking with the Conservative Party, O’Leary is actually a supporter of legalizing marijuana, something that Trudeau campaigned on (but has yet to follow through with).

In a recent interview with Business Insider, O’Leary stated; “This is like the end of prohibition. It’s going to be a remarkable opportunity. The cashflow in Colorado is three times what they thought it was going to be. They did the right thing by legalizing it and it’s now a huge cash crop. People should not be going to jail for marijuana. This is substance that’s been used by humans for thousands of years. It’s stupid what we’ve done to it, and I think it has to be federally legal.”

Also in breaking with the Conservative Party, O’Leary says he’s a supporter of LGBT rights and assisted suicide, among other progressive causes.

Source: The Joint Blog

First Things First…

My name is Oro Cas and I thought it was time to start writing. My style of writing and what I share here may not be “the norm” here on Word Press but I have never really been normal so here goes…

To fill this space on a regular basis I have decided to share not only stories and tales of my life but also a slew of pictures and videos, along with many things I talk about and share on social media.

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Take for instance this lovely piece of art I found on FB this morning. I think this picture is worth more like millions of words instead of a thousand.

The so-called war on drugs was a totally failure that cost the American taxpayers trillions of dollars over the years. The results we have today from that war are depicted above in what some would call a very exaggerated way but for anyone who has found themselves in a similar situation as the one above then the level of exaggeration falls noticeably.

I have been involved with cannabis in one form or another since my first toke on a joint at the age of 14. That’s a story for another day but my point is I am a walking library on the subject and most things associated with it.

I want to cover all topics I find important at the age of 55 and I think some of those topics may surprise some of you, but that’s the whole idea here. As stated before, there will be pictures, videos, and lots of stories as I try to make this little space happen so stay tuned… I’m just getting warmed up…

more later…