Browsing: News

Graphic: Reality Catcher
With the demise of I-1068, legalization won’t be happening until at least 2012 in Washington state.

​Sensible Washington, the group which tried to get marijuana legalized in Washington state through Initiative 1068, has fallen just short of the number of petition signatures it needed to get the measure on November’s ballot.

Friday was the deadline for submitting petition signatures to the Washington Secretary of State’s office, and campaign organizers said they will be several thousand names short of the roughly 241,000 needed, reports Andrew Garber at The Seattle Times.
The proposal would have eliminated penalties for persons 18 and older who cultivate, possess, transport, sell, or use marijuana.
Ballot measures in Washington need at least 241,153 valid signatures of registered state voters to make the ballot, and the Secretary of State’s office recommends at least 300,000 as a buffer, to allow for duplicate, illegible and ineligible signatures.

Photo: About Celebrities Picture Gallery
Paris tokes it up last month outside Teddy’s, a popular Hollywood nightclub. Her weed-sucking ways have now gotten her in trouble in South Africa.

​Paris Hilton was arrested Friday in South Africa for possession of marijuana, but a court there has dropped charges against the socialite.

Hilton appeared late Friday in a FIFA World Cup courtroom in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, after being arrested on suspicion of possessing cannabis at a football game between Brazil and the Netherlands, reports Andrew Dampf of The Associated Press.
Neither Hilton nor court officials said anything at her court appearance around midnight local timed. She was quickly led away to another room, according to a reporter on the scene.


Graphic: Earth First

​Proposition 19, the newly numbered Control & Tax Cannabis 2010 initiative to legalize and regulate marijuana in California, would lose if the election was held today — but by a very, very close margin, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The poll found that 48 percent of voters would support legalizing marijuana, with 50 percent opposed. The results fall well within the poll’s margin of error, which is plus or minus four percentage points.

Photo: Denver D.A.’s Office
Joseph Lightfoot is a legally licensed caregiver with all his paperwork in order. But he’s been charged with felony child abuse for growing medical marijuana.

​In what may be a harbinger of a disturbing new tactic on the part of police in targeting legal cultivators of medical marijuana, a Denver couple has been charged with felony child abuse for operating a licensed cannabis grow operation in their home.

Joseph Daniel Lightfoot and Amber Brooke Wildenstein, both 29, were arrested after police noticed the grow operation when they were called to the home on a domestic-violence report from a neighbor earlier this month.
A police investigation found that “it had only been a verbal argument, so no domestic-violence crime had been committed,” said Lynn Kimbrough, spokeswoman for the Denver District Attorney’s Office, reports Michael Roberts at Denver Westword.
Three children, ages 7, 9, and 11, live in the home with the couple.
Because of the presence of the children, Lightfoot and Wildenstein are each facing one count of felony child abuse, according to the district attorney’s office. They were released on $50,000 bond each.

Photo: Beast Elite
Isaac Hilton, 29, will be spending at least 21 months in prison on marijuana and gun charges.

​Former NFL player Isaac HIlton has been sentenced to at least 21 months in prison on marijuana and gun charges in Pennsylvania, reports Michael David Smith at NBC Sports.

Police raided Hilton’s apartment in March 2009, where they said they found 70 bags of marijuana and a 12-gauge Mossburg shotgun.
Police claimed Hilton sold marijuana to a confidential informant from his apartment in January 2009. 
Hilton was prohibited from possessing a firearm because of an armed robbery conviction in South Carolina,according to police.
A seventh-round draft pick of the New York Giants in 2004, Hilton also played briefly for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Carolina Panthers. He also played for the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts.
Last year, he played in the Arena Football League, according to J.M. Gatskie at Football News Now.

Graphic: www.PostThisInc.com

​Washington’s I-1068, a voter initiative which would legalize marijuana in the Evergreen State, is coming down to the wire with a signature deadline looming on Friday, July 2.

So far initiative sponsors Sensible Washington have about 200,000 signatures, according to KNDO, but a bare minimum of 241,153 is needed to qualify for the ballot.
The state Elections Division urges campaigns to submit at least 300,000 signatures, allowing for a “pad” to cover duplicate or invalid signatures.
Supporters say they “have been getting a lot of petitions back in the mail every day,” according to David Ammons, spokesman for the secretary of state, reports Jordan Schrader at the Tacoma News Tribune.

Photo: The Moscow Times
These deeply bizarre, badly done “cautionary” wax figures of “prominent drug users” are supposed to carry some message (presumably besides “I Suck At Sculpting Wax”). I think that petulant-looking blonde guy is supposed to be Kurt Cobain.

​Governments the world over try the same tired old tricks whenever they want to reduce or eliminate those ever-so-troublesome individual liberties. Yelling “Drugs!” unfortunately remains one of the most popular. Russia’s Drug Czar is doing some tough talk these days, possibly preparing the populace for some brutal, Soviet-style repression in the name of “cracking down on drugs.”

Russia should criminalize drug use, confiscate land used for cannabis cultivation and seal off the Central Asian border to “fight drug trafficking,” according to Viktor Ivanov, head of the Federal Drug Control Service, reports Alexandra Odynova at The Moscow Times.
Got that? Well you’re not gonna believe this. Ivanov, speaking to the State Duma (Russia’s legislative body), also welcomed wide-eyed deputies to a deeply bizarre “cautionary exhibit” of wax figures of “prominent drug users” like Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and John Lennon’s murderer, Mark David Chapman.

Photo: WLTX
Hey, at least Gerard Brower has some friends inside the jail… that is, if he’s been giving them righteous deals.

​One South Carolina jail just got even less fun, as a guard was arrested and charged with trying to smuggle marijuana into the detention center.

Agents with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department arrested Gerard Vincent Brower, 24, in the parking lot of the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center at 6 a.m. Sunday before he went to work, charging him with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute.
Deputies claimed they received information from a tipster that Brower had been taking marijuana inside the jail and dealing it to inmates, reports WLTX. (Sounds to me as if the guy should be getting a humanitarian award.)

Photo: Your Brain On Bliss
Jerry Brown: “I have been on the side of law enforcement for a long time, and you can be sure that we will be together on this November ballot”

​Bonehead move, Moonbeam. Gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown on Tuesday said he does not support legalizing marijuana in California.

Brown’s ill-advised announcement comes as the Golden State prepares to vote on the marijuana issue on November’s ballot, the same ballot voters will use to decide if he will be the next Governor of California, reports The State Column.
Moonbeam didn’t even have a coherent argument against cannabis legalization. In an appalling lapse of logic, the Democratic ex-governor said legalizing pot would open the floodgates for Mexican drug cartels — sort of like arguing that alcohol Prohibition should have been continued to quell the gang violence associated with the illegal booze trade.
“Every year we get more and more marijuana, and every year we find more guys with AK-47s coming out of Mexico going into forests and growing more and more dangerous and losing control,” a confused Brown said.
Marijuana policy reformer Steve Fox quickly pointed out “the idiocy of decrying the involvement of drug cartels in the marijuana trade while opposing a regulated system of distribution.”

Photo: LEX18.com
Julio Garcia, 20, was charged with child endangerment and marijuana possession.

​Two Texas parents are out on bond Wednesday morning after being arrested for giving marijuana to their one-year-old son.

A witness said Julio Garcia, 20, of Grapevine, Texas, was in his apartment smoking pot from a bong, then putting the bong up to the mouth of his 13-month-old son, who was sitting in his lap, according to police.
The mother, 19-year-old Brenda Duran, was also in the room but did not try to intervene, police said, reports Dawn Tongish of The 33 News.
Police took the baby to a local hospital and released him to the custody of his grandparents, according to LEX18.com. The child will reportedly “undergo testing.” He is, of course, expected to be fine.
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