Discovery Minerals LTD (DSCR)

[MaxPowerLove$Ihub]

http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/19/3950160/nc-house-passes-bill-to-legalize.html

NC House passes bill to legalize medicinal use of hemp oil

RALEIGH — A bill that would allow the medicinal use of an oil extracted from marijuana plants to treat people with drug-resistant epilepsy rushed through the House this week, culminating in a near-unanimous vote on Thursday.

Medical trials underway in other states have shown promising results. Typically, those who have the disorder are children suffering from both frequent seizures and side effects from ineffective drugs.

Rep. Jim Fulghum, a Republican from Raleigh who is a neurosurgeon, said those children spiral into increasingly worsening conditions.

The bill, HB1220, is narrowly written to apply only to these kinds of patients, and House members went out of their way to say it was not a medical marijuana bill. The hemp oil is extremely low in THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.

“The M-word doesn’t even appear in the bill,” sponsor Rep. Pat McElraft, a Republican from Emerald Isle, said.

Rep. Marilyn Avila, a Republican from Raleigh who is a retired chemist, said she opposes medial marijuana legislation, but supported this bill because it is limited to a specific condition for a substance produced in qualified laboratories, isn’t in pill form, and is supervised by specialists.

Even Rep. Larry Pittman, a Republican minister from Concord, stood up to say he supported the bill.

“I’m one of the most hard-nosed, hard-headed conservatives in the place,” Pittman said. “If I can support it, I don’t know why anyone wouldn’t.”

All but two representatives did. Casting votes against it were two first-term Republicans: Rep. Carl Ford of China Grove and Rep. Dana Bumgardner of Gastonia.

Staff writer Craig Jarvis

Environmental regs bill passes House

A list of updates, fixes and mostly minor changes to state environmental regulations passed the House on Thursday and now heads to the Senate, which has passed its own, more far-reaching proposal.

Environmentalists prefer the House version, which was written into Senate Bill 38. But it was a compromise of sometimes conflicting agendas among the representatives.

Rep. Pricey Harrison, a Democrat from Greensboro, praised Republican Reps. Ruth Samuelson of Charlotte and Chuck McGrady of Hendersonville for coming up with a bill that improved on the Senate’s and avoided loosening environmental safeguards too significantly. But she joined 11 Democrats in voting against it, saying it still had troubling provisions.

The main changes to the environmental bill Thursday:

• Removed a provision that would have replaced all current members of the Marine Fisheries Commission.

• Removed a section that would have eased regulation of dairy cattle waste lagoons. Technical questions prompted its removal.

• Restored a requirement that the State Energy Office conduct energy audits of each state agency, but only every two years instead of the current annual audit.

• Requires property owners to disclose to potential buyers any mineral, oil or gas rights prior to an offer of purchase. Current law requires it at the time of the offer. This would affect all real estate sales, not just homeowners.

Staff writer Craig Jarvis

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/06/19/3950160/nc-house-passes-bill-to-legalize.html#storylink=cpy



- Go DSCR