Search Results: livingston (33)

Photo: The Washington Apple
Way cooler than your average mayor: Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is reviewing marijuana enforcement policies after the botched raid of a legal patient

​Battering Ram Raid Of Legal Seattle Patient By Machine Gun-Toting Officers Results In Review

Activist Group Invoices City For Cost Of Patient’s Door
Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will sit down Monday with top law enforcement officials to talk about how city police and King County deputies are enforcing marijuana laws.

McGinn, who supports legalizing marijuana, said a recent Seattle police raid in which only two legal medical marijuana plants were found shows the difficulties law enforcement officers face, report Emily Heffter and Sara Jean Green of The Seattle Times.
Seattle Anti-Crime Team officers brandishing machine guns burst through the door of Will Laudanski, a renter who was following state law and city policy on marijuana, according to a Seattle Police Department spokesman. The officers had a search warrant they had obtained after sniffing around Laudanski’s apartment and claiming to smell marijuana.

Cannabis Defense Coalition

​​Responding to increasing outrage over a police raid on a legal, two-plant medical cannabis garden, Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn on Monday announced an executive review of the city’s cannabis enforcement policies.

“It’s not the policy, or the goal, of the city to investigate, arrest and prosecute individuals who possess small amounts of marijuana,” said McGinn. The mayor organized a review panel consisting of the city attorney, police chief, county prosecutor, and a member of the city council.
Starting on Tuesday, November 2, a specific assistant police chief must approve all marijuana search warrants in the city.
Washington is one of 14 states that allow the medical use of cannabis, and Seattle voters directed police to lay off the pot enforcement with the passage of I-75, a “lowest priority” directive, in 2003.
​With a county prosecutor sympathetic to medical marijuana and a city attorney that refuses to pursue pot cases at all, Seattle is seen as a safe haven for medical marijuana patients in Washington.

Photo: Dan MacLennan/Postmedia News
RCMP Const. Alexa Blacklock with the replica grenade, which is actually a cannabis grinder

​​A marijuana grinder made to look like a real hand grenade caused the closure of an entire airport on Vancouver Island Wednesday morning.

The replica grenade, used to grind cannabis for vaporization or smoking, was found inside a passenger’s checked luggage at Campbell River Airport, reports Paul Rudan at the Campbell River Mirror.
“This just shows how a lapse in judgment can have tremendous consequences,” said Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Alexa Blacklock. “The airport was closed for almost four hours, inconveniencing over 40 travelers and personnel getting to connecting flights and destinations.”
“It forced an enormous unnecessary use of resources, including specialized units, fire, police, and security staff,” Blacklock said.
Two men were held and questioned by police. Both were released later than day with no charges expected.

Photo: World of Work

​Starting Thursday, June 10, Washington residents with terminal or debilitating medical conditions will have better access to getting authorized to use medical marijuana, a prominent Democratic legislator has announced.

Washington’s newest improvement on the medical marijuana program expands the number of health care providers who are legally allowed to recommend medical marijuana to patients, according to its sponsor, state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle).
Until now, only medical doctors could legally authorize patients to use cannabis medicinally in Washington State. Senate Bill 5798, Kohl-Welles, now extends the ability to authorize the medical use of marijuana to other licensed health professionals who are authorized to prescribe controlled substances.
Professionals who may now authorize medical marijuana use include naturopathic doctors, advanced registered nurse practitioners, physician assistants and osteopathic physician assistants.

“Many patients rely on medical professionals other than MDs and ODs,” Kohl-Welles said. “To remain committed to Washington voters’ long commitment to medical marijuana for qualifying patients, we must allow additional medical professionals to recommend medical marijuana.”

Photo: Livingston Current
Under Montana law, qualifying patients and caregivers may grow and possess up to six marijuana plants and one dried smokable ounce of cannabis.

​Officers knocked down a Montana man’s door with a battering ram, and once inside, found what they expected — 39 marijuana plants. But they claim that it was only after thousands of dollars in equipment and cannabis were seized and destroyed that they learned Alan Edson is a legal patient, allowed to grow and sell marijuana for medical purposes.

“They proceeded to go through my entire home,” Edson said. “They confiscated and destroyed my legally licensed property and my personal property. They even went through my wife’s underwear drawer,” he said, reports Kim Skornogoski of the Great Falls Tribune.
Similar incidents are probably happening weekly across the state, according to State Narcotics Bureau Chief Mark Long. “If we get a tip that a person is growing plants — whether it’s six plants or 600 — we have to investigate it,” Long claimed.
The Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services licenses medical marijuana patients and providers under state law. But in an all-too-common practice of pot-phobic law enforcement officers acting as if they are qualified to practice medicine, local police officers and sheriff’s deputies claim it’s their job to “make sure those people follow the law,” and they go about “making sure” with what seems close to unhealthy zeal.

Photo: World of Work

​More medical professionals will be allowed to authorize the use of medical marijuana for qualified patients under a measure signed into law by Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire.

Washington’s newest improvement on the medical marijuana program expands the number of health care providers who are legally allowed to recommend medical marijuana to patients.
Gregoire signed the bill Thursday, and it will take effect June 10, reports The Associated Press.
Under previous law, only physicians were authorized to write a recommendation for medical marijuana.
The new measure adds physician assistants, naturopaths, advanced registered nurse practitioners, and osteopathic physician assistants to the list of those who can officially recommend cannabis for patients under Washington’s medical marijuana law.

Photo: Renee Resser
Michael Shane Howard was attacked and killed by robbers who wanted his medical marijuana. While he lay dying, the cops took his plants.

​A Washington medical marijuana patient has died after being attacked by robbers who were after his pot crop. When local police were called to the scene, rather than investigating the assault, they started questioning mortally injured Michael Shane Howard about how many plants he had.

The police told Howard, who had just been clubbed in the head with a crowbar, that the medics would “probably just put a big bandage in his forehead and leave him at the house.”
Two days after the attack, as Howard lay dying, the police called Howard’s good friend and roommate, Renee Resser, and asked when she was going to go visit him in the hospital.
Then while Renee visited Howard at the hospital, she got a call from a friend telling her officers from the Pierce County, Washington Sheriff’s Department were raiding her home.
When Renee rushed home, she was handcuffed and put in the back of a police car for 2-1/2 hours; officers told her it was because she lived in the same residence as Howard, even though his grow operation was outside in a shed.
“They took all his plants and equipment,” Renee said. “It’s so sickening that they are more worried about his meds than finding out who attacked him. His skull was bashed by a crowbar; it seems like they are not even trying to find out who did it. It makes me sick to my stomach!”

Graphic: Emerald Herb

​A bill to expand Washington State’s medical marijuana law cleared the Legislature Thursday, and is headed to the governor’s desk.

Gov. Christine Gregoire is expected to sign SB 5798, which allows naturopathic doctors, nurse practitioners, and advanced physicians’ assistants to recommend the medical use of cannabis to their patients.
The new law will increase patient access to health care professionals willing to authorize medical cannabis.
Because of the conflict between state and federal pot laws, many doctors fear retribution from the federal government and are reluctant to sign medical cannabis paperwork. To comply with the law, many qualifying patients are forced to travel to the city and pay $200 to see a doctor willing to sign a medical marijuana authorization form.

Photo: Church For Compassionate Care
Wayne Dagit: “I’m not serving pot, I’m serving the Lord”

​Wayne Dagit wants to run a place where patrons can belly up to a table, fire up a joint and swap stories and herbal remedies with other patrons.

The Green Leaf Smokers Club, a private club for medical marijuana patients, officially opens today in Williamstown Township, Michigan, reports Scott Davis of Gannett News Service.
Dagit said the club is the first one for marijuana smokers officially launched in Michigan, although there are many reports of underground clubs operating statewide.
“I’m not serving pot, I’m serving the Lord,” said Dagit, 60, who is a founder of the Church for Compassionate Care.
Williamstown Township officials claim they only recently learned of the club’s existence, and they are now investigating whether it’s legal for the club to operate.
At the same time, police claim they are concerned that the club will lead to an increase in “impaired” driving by patrons.

Photo: Ron Crumpton

​​A bill which would increase safe access to medical marijuana by qualifying patients is still alive in the Washington Legislature.

SB 5798 would extend prescriptive authority to legally recommend medical marijuana to naturopathic doctors, physicians’ assistants, and nurse practitioners. All of these positions can write prescriptions under federal law, and should also have the authority to authorize the medical use of marijuana.
The bill passed the House Health Care and Wellness Committee on a vote of 8-4-1. It now moves to the House Rules Committee, chaired by the powerful Frank Chopp, Speaker of the House.
Chopp has been notoriously hostile towards medical marijuana in the past few years, despite the fact that he represents what is considered one of the most politically liberal districts in the state.