Safavieh to launch first green indoor rug line at Fall High Point Market

Source: worldinteriordesignnetwork.com

US-based rug manufacturer Safavieh is set to launch its first sustainable indoor rug line at the High Point Market-Fall 2011, held from 22-27 October 2011.

The collection has been designed by Thom Filicia with every piece reflecting international, ethnic or contemporary undertone. It is formed of 100% natural and fine hemp. The hemp is combed, brushed and softened to offer a coarse woven wool-like appearance. The look is accentuated with gradation and intricate tone layering.

All the rugs of the new collection are hand-crafted in India and are ideal for use in indoor areas. The new rug range is coloured with pure vegetable dyes to provide a host of new earthy shades. It can also be customised in seven patterns to meet individual tastes. A piece with dimensions of 6x9 will be available at a cost of $1199.

Hemp cheese on sale at Borough Market

by London SE1 website team
Source: london-se1.co.uk

Hanfmutschli (which translates as "The Joint") is a cheese produced in the Emmental region of Central Switzerland and now on sale at Borough Market.

Brought to London for the first time, the unique feature of the cheese is the use of hemp in its production.

Made of unpasteurised cows' milk, the cheese is smooth and creamy and the small hemp seeds pop between your teeth like a cross between popcorn kernels and flaxseed.

The texture of Hanfmutschli is semi soft and slightly springy with an interior paste the colour of old ivory, punctuated with hemp seeds. The rind is a soft orange-brown, with the distinctive hemp leaf design on the top surface.

The Joint is just one of the extensive range of artisan cheeses available from Borough Market's newest traders, Jumi. You can find their stall in the Jubilee Market on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Drinkin' Green is Sexy and Delicious!

By Bridget Fonger, Contributor
Source: themortonreport.com

Green Drink of the Day

No one made a green drink sexy until Renee Russo started guzzling them in the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair.

Whether bottled or hand-made by her lover’s cook, they all had a similar When Harry Met Sally effect: “I want what she’s having…”

I have juiced at various periods in my life, but never stuck to it for more than a year or so. I have tasted the store-bought green drinks which I find horrid, like most smoothies of that sort.

I’ve also had periods of smoothie mornings with various powders that were promising to cure my ills. But, now that I am dealing with a health issue, and I’m looking for solutions in all different forms, I thought it was worth trying what Dr. Oz has been long-time touting: a green drink to start your day.

I am in love. Green drinks are delicious and super easy to make. Sure, you can juice a bunch of fruits and veggies, but why not do it the Lazy Way - shove it all in a blender and make a smoothie. You will never believe what is in this smoothie that is pictured:

• Water

• 1 Apple (cored)
• 1 Banana
• 2 Huge Handfuls of Kale
• 2 Huge Handfuls of Spinach
• 1 Teaspoon of Vitamin C
• 1 Scoop of a Powder (to help me with the altitude sickness I always get in Denver - leaving tomorrow) - vitamins, protein, amino acids, etc.
• 1 Tablespoon of Hemp Seeds
• ½ cup of ice (because I like it cold)

Hemp seeds are the latest craze to get up on the platform with flax seed, a long since encouraged addition to our diets. I had never heard of hemp seeds until last week. Don’t get excited, they don’t make you high. But, they are delicious. I had them sprinkled over an avocado with just lemon and salt and I was in heaven. They are loaded with essential fatty acids, including those omegas they are always wanting us to ingest.

Whatever you choose to add to your fruits and veggies, it’s easy. The only work on this one was coring the apple! Throw it all in a blender and whip it up into a smooth, light, refreshing brew. Scrumptious! I change it up every day, throwing in different fruits and veggies, with kale and spinach as my base. I will keep experimenting. Most days I think “That’s the best one yet!”

I have to say I feel amazing when I drink it. And, it has caused me to very easily give up my coffee. The old ritual was wake up and make one pot of French press coffee. The new ritual is going in and whipping up a green drink. I don’t even crave the coffee any more. I was a serious addict! I am not saying I’m never having it again, but I have to say the green drink -- as hard as this is to believe -- gives me a great big jolt. Not the same as caffeine, of course, but a definite boost. 

It’s not that easy “bein’ green,” as our friend Kermit the Frog says, but drinkin’ green is extremely easy. Even better, it’s sexy, because healthy is sexy.

Life's great inside our new 'hemp house'

By Michael Holder »
Source: hillingdontimes.co.uk

Life-changing: the new home in West Drayton 

A HILLINGDON pensioner is living with his family in a new environmentally-friendly 'hemp home' for people with disabilities.

The house in Mulberry Crescent, West Drayton, was built with Hemcrete, a blend of a lime-based binding and hemp that absorbs CO2 during the manufacturing process.

It has water-heating solar panels, extensive insulation and emits 100% less CO2 than a standard building.

Father-of-four Sharif Omar, 37, who lives in the house with his 79-year-old disabled father, said: “It has changed my life - my whole family is very happy here.

"We worked with Hillingdon Council to make the access better for my father and he can use the garden and other rooms now.

To date, 47 new bespoke borough homes have been created, including several bungalows for people with disabilities.

Cllr Philip Corthorne, cabinet member for social care health and housing, said: “Not only does it use cutting-edge materials and processes to create an environmentally friendly property, it also looks at the specific needs of the resident - something that will ultimately empower them to live as independently as possible."

The project is part of a programme launched by the council in 2008 to redevelop derelict and under-used spaces, previously targeted by vandals, into affordable housing.

How hemp got high: Canadian scientists map the cannabis genome

by Michael Robin
Source: eurekalert.org

A team of Canadian researchers has sequenced the genome of Cannabis sativa, the plant that produces both industrial hemp and marijuana, and in the process revealed the genetic changes that led to the plant's drug-producing properties.

Jon Page is a plant biochemist and adjunct professor of biology at the University of Saskatchewan. He explains that a simple genetic switch is likely responsible for the production of THCA, or tetrahydrocannabinolic acid, the precursor of the active ingredient in marijuana.

"The transcriptome analysis showed that the THCA synthase gene, an essential enzyme in THCA production, is turned on in marijuana, but switched off in hemp," Page says.

Tim Hughes, co-leader of the project, is a professor at the Terrence Donnelly Centre for Cellular and Biomolecular Research and the Department of Molecular Genetics at the University of Toronto. He explains the team compared the potent Purple Kush marijuana variety with 'Finola' hemp, which is grown for seed production. Hemp lacks THCA, but does contain another, non-psychoactive substance called CBDA, or cannabidiolic acid.

"Detailed analysis of the two genomes suggests that domestication, cultivation, and breeding of marijuana strains has caused the loss of the enzyme (CBDA synthase), which would otherwise compete for the metabolites used as starting material in THCA production," Hughes says.

Essentially, this means that over thousands of years of cultivation, hemp farmers selectively bred Cannabis sativa into two distinct strains – one for fibre and seed, and one for medicine. Marijuana has been used medicinally for more than 2,700 years, and continues to be explored for its pharmaceutical potential.

"Plants continue to be a major source of medicines, both as herbal drugs and as pharmaceutical compounds," Page says. "Although more than 20 plant genomes have been published, ranging from major food crops such as rice and corn, to laboratory models like Arabidopsis, this is the first genome of a medicinal plant."

The researchers expect that sequencing the Cannabis sativa genome will help answer basic questions about the biology of the plant as well as furthering development of its myriad applications. These include strains for pharmaceutical production, high-producing industrial hemp plants, and hemp seed varieties to produce high-quality edible oil. Hemp seed oil is rich in omega 6, an essential fatty acid, and its fibre is used in the production of textiles.

###

According to the Canadian Hemp Trade Alliance, about 25,000 acres of the crop were sown in Canada in 2010, much of this in Manitoba. Due to hemp's association with marijuana, farmers need to be licensed through Health Canada to grow the crop. Canadian medicinal marijuana is currently produced under Health Canada contract with Prairie Plant Systems, a biotechnology company based in Saskatoon.

The article describing the research findings, "The draft genome and transcriptome of Cannabis sativa,'" will be published October 20, 2011 in the BioMed Central open access journal Genome Biology available at http://genomebiology.com.

Hemp may not be exciting, but it makes for a lightweight, durable, and sustainable seating option.

By Avinash Rajagopal

Source: metropolismag.com

Two years ago, when the engineers at the German chemicals company BASF invited the designer Werner Aisslinger to work with some new materials they’d developed, they didn’t think that he would choose to pair a water-based binder called Acrodur with hemp fibers. But Aisslinger was convinced of his choice. “You don’t think it is that exciting,” he told them. “But as an outside eye, I see it as the most important new material here.”

The product that Aisslinger finally created out of the hemp-based composite vindicates his choice. Displayed at the exhibition Poetry Happens during this year’s Milan Furniture Fair, the Hemp Chair is a lightweight seat with several interesting properties. “At a wall thickness of five millimeters,” Aisslinger explains, “it is as strong and durable as fiberglass.” But unlike fiberglass, it releases no harmful chemical fumes during the manufacturing process, only water. The material, which is 70 percent natural fiber, comes in square sheets that can be layered and easily molded under heat and pressure.

The form of the chair is a natural extension of the material’s properties. A continuous surface required the least manipulation and was the easiest to manufacture. But it also puts the Hemp Chair in the tradition of the monobloc—a chair type that came out of the earliest attempts by designers like Eero Saarinen, Charles Eames, and Verner Panton to create furniture out of plastic. Of course, the aesthetic is very different from that of the Tulip or Panton chair. “I like that it looks so rough,” Aisslinger says. “It’s not rich, it’s honest.”

Composition: The sheet material consists of more than 70 percent natural fibers, such as hemp and kenaf, bound by a water-based acrylic resin called Acrodur.

Properties: It can be easily molded at temperatures above 200 degrees Celsius, and releases no toxins. After curing, the material is lightweight, durable, and very strong at a thickness of about five millimeters.

Applications: Aisslinger also displayed a modular wall system made out of the same material. Natural-fiber composites are already used in the automotive industry to make door linings, glove compartments, and rear shelves.

The War on Drugs Has Become the War on the American People

By John W. Whitehead

Source: rutherford.org

"On July 29, 2008, my family and I were terrorized by an errant Prince George's County SWAT team. This unit forced entry into my home without a proper warrant, executed our beloved black Labradors, Payton and Chase, and bound and interrogated my mother-in-law and me for hours as they ransacked our belongings… As I was forced to kneel, bound at gun point on my living room floor, I recall thinking that there had been a terrible mistake. However, as I have learned more, I have to understand that what my family and I experience is part of a growing and troubling trend where law enforcement is relying on SWAT teams to perform duties once handled by ordinary police officers."—Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo in testimony before the Maryland Senate

Insisting that the "damage done by drugs is felt far beyond the millions of Americans with diagnosable substance abuse or dependence problems," President Obama has declared October 2011 to be National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. However, while drug abuse and drug-related crimes have unquestionably taken a toll on American families and communities, the government's own War on Drugs has left indelible scars on the population.

Indeed, although the Obama administration has shied away from using the phrase "War on Drugs," its efforts to crack down on illicit drug use—especially marijuana use—have not abated. Just consider—every 19 seconds, someone in the U.S. is arrested for violating a drug law. Every 30 seconds, someone in the U.S. is arrested for violating a marijuana law, making it the fourth most common cause of arrest in the United States.

So far this year, approximately 1,313,673 individuals have been arrested for drug-related offenses. Police arrested an estimated 858,408 persons for marijuana violations in 2009. Of those charged with marijuana violations, approximately 89 percent were charged with possession only. Moreover, since December 31, 1995, the U.S. prison population has grown an average of 43,266 inmates per year, with about 25 percent sentenced for drug law violations.

The foot soldiers in the government's increasingly fanatical war on drugs, particularly marijuana, are state and local police officers dressed in SWAT gear and armed to the hilt. These SWAT teams carry out roughly 50,000 no-knock raids every year in search of illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia. As author and journalist Radley Balko reports, "The vast majority of these raids are to serve routine drug warrants, many times for crimes no more serious than possession of marijuana... Police have broken down doors, screamed obscenities, and held innocent people at gunpoint only to discover that what they thought were marijuana plants were really sunflowers, hibiscus, ragweed, tomatoes, or elderberry bushes. (It's happened with all five.)"

Take the case of Philip Cobbs, an unassuming 53-year-old African-American man who cares for his blind, deaf 90-year-old mother and lives on a 39-acre tract of land that's been in his family since the 1860s. Cobbs is the latest in a long line of Americans to find themselves swept up in the government's zealous pursuit of marijuana. On July 26, 2011, while spraying the blueberry bushes near his Virginia house, Cobbs noticed a black helicopter circling overhead. After watching the helicopter for several moments, Cobbs went inside to check on his mother. By the time he returned outside, several unmarked police SUVs had driven onto his property, and police in flak jackets, carrying rifles and shouting unintelligibly, had exited the vehicles and were moving toward him.

Although the officers insisted they had sighted marijuana plants growing on Cobbs' property (they claimed to find two spindly plants growing in the wreckage of a fallen oak tree), their real objective was clear—to search Cobbs' little greenhouse, which he had used that spring to start tomato plants, cantaloupes, and watermelons, as well as asters and hollyhocks. The search of the greenhouse turned up nothing more than used tomato seedling containers. Incredibly, police had not even bothered to secure a warrant before embarking on their raid of Cobbs' property—part of a routine sweep of the countryside in search of pot-growing operations that had to cost taxpayers upwards of $25,000, at the very least.

Thankfully for Cobbs, no one was hurt during the warrantless raid on his property. However, that is not the case for many Americans who find themselves on the wrong end of a SWAT team raid in search of marijuana. For example, on May 5, 2011, a SWAT team kicked open the door of ex-Marine Jose Guerena's home during a drug raid and opened fire. Thinking his home was being invaded by criminals, Guerena told his wife and child to hide in a closet, grabbed a gun and waited in the hallway to confront the intruders. He never fired his weapon. In fact, the safety was still on his gun when he was killed. The SWAT officers, however, not as restrained, fired 70 rounds of ammunition at Guerena—23 of those bullets made contact. Guerena had had no prior criminal record, and the police found nothing illegal in his home.

Tragically, Jose Guerena is far from the only innocent casualty in the government's War on Drugs. Botched SWAT team raids have resulted in the loss of countless lives, including children and the elderly. Usually, however, the first to be shot are the family dogs. As Balko reports:

When police in Fremont, California, raided the home of medical marijuana patient Robert Filgo, they shot his pet Akita nine times. Filgo himself was never charged. Last October [2005] police in Alabama raided a home on suspicion of marijuana possession, shot and killed both family dogs, then joked about the kill in front of the family. They seized eight grams of marijuana, equal in weight to a ketchup packet. In January [2006] a cop en route to a drug raid in Tampa, Florida, took a short cut across a neighboring lawn and shot the neighbor's two pooches on his way. And last May [2005], an officer in Syracuse, New York, squeezed off several shots at a family dog during a drug raid, one of which ricocheted and struck a 13-year-old boy in the leg. The boy was handcuffed at gunpoint at the time.

Clearly, something must be done. There was a time when communities would have been up in arms over a botched SWAT team raid resulting in the loss of innocent lives. Unfortunately, today, we are increasingly coming to accept the use of SWAT teams by law enforcement agencies for routine drug policing and the high incidence of error-related casualties that accompanies these raids.

What's more, the government is providing incentives to the SWAT teams carrying out these raids through federal grants such as the Edward Byrne memorial grants and the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) grants. As David Borden, the Executive Director of Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet), pointed out, "The exact details on how Byrne and COPS grants are distributed has not been studied, at least not to my knowledge, but an examination of grant applications by one of my colleagues found that they overwhelmingly focus on the number of arrests made, particularly drug arrests. Byrne grants also fund the purchase of equipment for SWAT teams."

Unfortunately, while few of these raids even make the news, they are happening more and more frequently. As Borden notes, "In 1980 there were fewer than 3,000 reported SWAT raids. Now, the number is believed to be over 50,000 per year…About 3/4 of these are drug raids, perhaps more by now, the vast majority of them low-level." Balko's research reinforces this phenomenon. Based on more than a year's worth of research and culled only from documented SWAT team incidents, Balko cites "40 cases in which a completely innocent person was killed. There are dozens more in which nonviolent offenders (recreational pot smokers, for example…) or police officers were needlessly killed. There are nearly 150 cases in which innocent families, sometimes with children, were roused from their beds at gunpoint, and subjected to the fright of being apprehended and thoroughly searched at gunpoint. There are other cases in which a SWAT team seems wholly inappropriate, such as the apprehension of medical marijuana patients, many of whom are bedridden."

Despite the government's current fanaticism about marijuana, America has not always been at war over the cannabis plant. In fact, in 1619, all farmers of the Jamestown colony were required to grow cannabis for rope and other military purposes. Over the next 200 years, a variety of laws required hemp harvesting. In some cases, landowners could be imprisoned for neglecting their duty to grow hemp. Oftentimes, a surplus of hemp could be used as legal tender, even for paying taxes. In 1850, there were 8,327 hemp plantations in the U.S.

It was only later, during the early 20th century, that the government embarked on an all-out assault on marijuana, largely due to corporate business considerations that favored the production of cotton over hemp and racist policies that tied Hispanics and blacks to marijuana use. For example, even though blacks only account for 15% of the drug using population (with whites making up a growing part of the market), the vast majority of drug arrests and convictions affect black drug users. Incredibly, more than 70% of prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses are black or Latino.

The time has come to put an end to the government's racially-weighted, militant war on marijuana. It is a failed, costly and misguided program that has cost the country billions. As critics rightly point out, the war on marijuana has also resulted in a massive increase in incarceration rates. According to Joe Klein, writing forTime, "We spend $68 billion per year on corrections, and one-third of those being corrected are serving time for nonviolent drug crimes. We spend about $150 billion on policing and courts, and 47.5% of all drug arrests are marijuana-related."

Worse, the government's War on Drugs seems to have actually exacerbated the drug problems in this country, funding criminal syndicates and failing to restrict its availability or discourage its use. Indeed, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health revealed that as recently as 2005, 58% of the public found marijuana readily available, with 50% of 12 to 17 year olds declaring it easy to get.

A growing number of legal scholars, including Bruce Fein, who served as a high-ranking Justice Department official during the Reagan administration, are calling to end the prohibition on marijuana and treat it like alcohol by regulating and taxing it at the state level. Their rationale is that instead of allowing marijuana to flourish as a profitable black market crop, it should be taxed and regulated in a manner similar to tobacco and alcohol, which many in the medical community believe to be far more harmful than marijuana. Not only would that lessen violent criminal activity associated with the manufacture and sale of marijuana, but it would also provide an economic boost to ailing state and federal coffers. As it now stands, marijuana is the United States' largest cash crop (it brought in an estimated $35 billion in 2005), with a third of this production coming from California where it is the state's largest cash crop.

Recently, over 500 economists led by Nobel Laureate George Akerlof, Daron Acemoglu of MIT, and Howard Margolis of the University of Chicago, signed an open letter to the President, Congress, State Governors, and State Legislatures expounding the immense economic benefits of legalization. They pointed out that if marijuana sales were taxed at the same level as cigarettes and alcohol, the government would make up to $6.2 billion annually. Additionally, a repeal of the prohibition of marijuana would save federal, state, and local governments an estimated $7.7 billion annually by ending the need for enforcement of drug laws.

Acknowledging the medical benefits of marijuana, especially for those who suffer from Alzheimer's, HIV/AIDS, and multiple sclerosis, 16 states as well as the District of Columbia have also legalized it for medicinal purposes. Most recently, the California Medical Association, which represents more than 35,000 physicians statewide, called for the legalization and regulation of the plant.

As always, the special interests have a lot to say in these matters, and it's particularly telling that those lobbying hard to keep the prohibition on marijuana include law enforcement officials and alcoholic beverage producers. However, when the war on drugs—a.k.a. the war on the American people—becomes little more than a thinly veiled attempt to keep SWAT teams employed and special interests appeased, it's time to revisit our drug policies and laws. As Professors Eric Blumenson and Eva Nilson recognize:

During the 25 years of its existence, the "War on Drugs" has transformed the criminal justice system, to the point where the imperatives of drug law enforcement now drive many of the broader legislative, law enforcement, and corrections policies in counterproductive ways. One significant impetus for this transformation has been the enactment of forfeiture laws which allow law enforcement agencies to keep the lion's share of the drug-related assets they seize. Another has been the federal law enforcement aid program, revised a decade ago to focus on assisting state anti-drug efforts. Collectively these financial incentives have left many law enforcement agencies dependent on drug law enforcement to meet their budgetary requirements, at the expense of alternative goals such as the investigation and prosecution of non-drug crimes, crime prevention strategies, and drug education and treatment.