People who use marijuana for medical purposes and those who distribute it should not face federal prosecution, provided they act according to state law, the Justice Department said on Monday in a directive with political and legal implications.

At the same time, the department emphasized that it would continue to pursue those who use the concept of medical marijuana as a ruse for drug trafficking. “Marijuana distribution in the United States remains the single largest source of revenue for the Mexican cartels,” the department said in pledging that prosecuting the makers and sellers of illegal drugs, including marijuana, would remain a “core priority.”

The most affected state is California. That should provide some welcome relief to those in California that use marijuana for medicinal reasons. [New York Times]

Now, tax the marijuana, and use the tax revenue to help finance health care.

October 16 was World Food Day. One billion people suffer from hunger—mostly women and children. More people die of hunger each year than from AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis combined. One child dies every six seconds from hunger related causes. Malnutrition prevents children from reaching their full developmental and cognitive potential. [World Food Day]

The most hunger-ridden region of the world is Africa. But malnourishment is spread around the world in Asia, South America and even into Europe. The incidence of lack of food is rising, affected by the economic situation around the globe. The poor of the world are hardest hit. [Barnacle Grenada.com] The number of undernourished people has been increasing this past decade.

Reverend David Beckmann, president, Bread for the World, noted that in 1980, 17 cents out of every aid dollar from wealthy nations were aimed at developing agriculture and helping poor farmers around the world. It has been declining ever since. “By 2006, it had fallen to less than 4 cents for every dollar,” he said. [Wisconsin AgConnection]

“We have the economic and technical means to make hunger disappear, what is missing is a stronger political will to eradicate hunger forever. Investing in agriculture in developing countries is key as a healthy agricultural sector is essential not only to overcome hunger and poverty but also to ensure overall economic growth and peace and stability in the world,” FAO World Food Programme (WFP) Director-General Jacques Diouf said.

Lack of political will—the same complacency plaguing reformation of the health care system in the United States.

Not only is hunger increasing, so is the world’s population. At each tick of the clock another person is added to the planet — not just births, but births minus deaths. At 140 ticks a minute, that amounts to about 200,000 people a day. [SCTimes] More people, more demand for food. At the current pace, the Earth’s population will swell from the current 6.7 billion inhabitants to 9.5 billion by 2050. The Earth’s resources are being depleted faster than they can be renewed. More than 1 billion people do not have enough water for their basic needs, and that number is expected to increase dramatically if the population growth continues.

Food and water shortage for a billion people.

And what about global warming?

As we all sit, inert, a report was prepared by a team of 30 scientists from the United States, Britain, Denmark, Norway, Canada and Finland and primarily written by Northern Arizona University professor Darrell Kaufman. Its conclusion, that human-caused greenhouse gas emissions over the past several decades have rendered the Arctic region warmer than at any time since 1 B.C., and published by the prestigious journal Science.

Another study released last month was produced by the World Wildlife Federation. It concluded that warming in the Arctic could shift global weather patterns and affect agriculture, forestry and water supplies in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. That “United States” includes us, here in Nevada. [Las Vegas Sun]

A third study was released in April by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of Washington. The study concluded that Arctic sea ice is melting so fast that most of it could be gone in 30 years. With little ice to reflect sunlight back into space, the Arctic Ocean will just get warmer, leading to an acceleration of warming around the world, the study said.

The melting of the Arctic ice cap will lead to drastic changes in global weather and the inundation of highly populated areas as Arctic ice melts. Nevada can help by switching to renewable energy sources reducing greenhouse-gas-emitting power sources.

But nothing will happen without the political will to make it happen.