Graphic: The Katy Capsule
Massachusetts’ 2008 decrim law, approved by voters, specifies a $100 fine for marijuana. But it doesn’t specify what to do if folks don’t pay their tickets.

​Massachusetts’ new law decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana has left some local law enforcement officers dazed and confused, reports Aaron Gouveia of the Cape Cod Times.

Police officers for the past 18 months have been issuing the new $100 non-criminal citations to people caught with less than an ounce of pot. But when people don’t pay their fine, officials aren’t sure exactly what to do.

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.


Photo: Robert Platshorn
Robert Platshorn, the Black Tuna, brought a million pounds of Colombian gold to American shores.

​If you were an American pothead in the 1970s, you probably smoked some of Robert Platshorn’s weed. His organization brought in tons of fine Colombian when it was considered some of the best pot in the world. And that’s the reason Platshorn later became the longest serving marijuana prisoner in U.S. history, doing 29 years inside the federal prison system.

Much of the primo Colombian flooding the U.S. marijuana market in the late 70s could be traced back to the Black Tuna Gang, a major smuggling ring which once brought 500 tons of pot into the United States over a 16-month period.
I remember well the sweet, potent buds of Santa Marta Gold that were available in 1977 and 1978. Possessed of a soaring sativa high and mind-blowing expansion in the lungs, this ‘lombo weed became the gold standard of connoisseur pot to a generation of appreciative stoners. To this day, I think of Colombian weed every time I hear Rush or Blue Öyster Cult.


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.

Photo: Daily Mail
British MS patients have waited 11 years for Sativex, a cannabis-based oral spray. Now many of them still won’t get it.

​Doctors in southern England have been told not to prescribe a new cannabis-based drug developed for multiple sclerosis patients, reports the BBC.

Sativex, an oral spray which had taken 11 years to develop, was licensed for medical use in the United Kingdom last week.
But unaccountably, 10 primary care trusts have told physicians not to give the treatment, which is designed to reduce pain, claiming it is not effective.
The MS Society charity called the decision “arbitrary and disappointing” and said it would fight against it. It said the decision could affect hundreds of patients.

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.
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