Search Results: feinstein (16)

Photo: Transylvania Phoenix
Dianne Feinstein must be tired of being a senator. She does some really dumb stuff sometimes — like opposing pot legalization.

​Ol’ Di-Fei once again looks a lot like a LINO — Liberal In Name Only.

California’s senior senator, Dianne Feinstein, has lent her voice and support to the effort to defeat Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure on the state’s November ballot, reports John Hoeffel at the Los Angeles Times.

Feinstein, a prominent Democrat who was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, has signed the ballot argument against Prop 19. On Monday, she made a statement through the opposition campaign calling the measure “a jumbled legal nightmare that will make our highways, our workplaces and our communities less safe.”

The flag of New Mexico

It’s for her sick child.

The following is excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Get your free and confidential subscription at WeedWeek.net.

New Mexico mom Nicole Nuñez is suing the state over “arbitrary” supply limits. Nuñez’s eight month old daughter has a seizure disorder. A Michigan judge ruled that seedlings count as plants.

The four Colorado doctors suspended for overprescribing large plant counts will have to go through administrative hearings to try and get their licenses reinstated.  A judge tossed out a lawsuit they filed.

GoldenGatePark.com
San Francisco’s 4/20 celebration typically culminates in Golden Gate Park at Hippie Hill


By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

“People are coming to Haight-Ashbury like the Grateful Dead is back in town,” said longtime resident Jack Rikess. “They’re walking down the street and smoking joints. It’s going to be unreal. This could be the last illegal 4/20 in San Francisco.”
That was the quote I gave to the Sacramento Bee way back in 2010 when asked about living next to Golden Gate Park where San Francisco holds one of the biggest smoke-outs in the nation celebrating April 20th, the traditional marijuana smoker’s holiday.
Back then, I actually thought the marijuana wars were over. The public was having a change of heart and mind, and I thought that marijuana, if not legalized soon, would be decriminalized to the point of equating smoking a joint to the same enforceable penalty as pulling the “Do Not Remove” tag off of a pillow.

FloBeds.com
The victim: Fort Bragg Councilmember and veteran forester Jere Melo was murdered on August 27, 2011 — but not by a marijuana farmer.

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
The sham, the tragedy, is that this press release should have said it all… 
Fort Bragg, CA (PRWEB) January 19, 2012

Along with a group of concerned citizens, Madeleine Melo has formed the Jere Melo Foundation, a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.

When Fort Bragg Councilmember and veteran forester Jere Melo was murdered on August 27th, 2011 the entire community of Fort Bragg, California was in shock. Melo was gunned down while investigating a report of a marijuana grow on private timberlands.

Madeleine, Jere’s widow, wants to put a stop to the violence and environmental damage caused by illegal marijuana grows. “Nobody else should be killed over marijuana,” said Madeleine, “we need to clean up our woods and that’s what Jere tried so hard to do.”

The foundation’s initial focus will be to create public awareness of what JMF Board Chairman Stephen Horner called a situation that has “reached a crisis level.”

A board of directors was appointed and represents various public sectors. The initial board members are:

John Andersen – Area Manager, Mendocino Redwood Company
Maribelle Anderson – Anderson Logging
Dan Catone – Owner, Financial Advisor, Redwood Investments
Stephen Horner – Manager, Campbell Timberland
Roy Kornmeyer – Real Property Appraiser, Mendocino County
Scott Mayberry – Fort Bragg Police Chief
Madeleine Melo – Retired Certified Nurse-Midwife
Lindy Peters – Sports Director and Radio Personality, KUNK
Paul Trouette – Mendocino County Fish and Game commissioner, President of Mendocino County Blacktail Association

About the Jere Melo Foundation
The Jere Melo Foundation (http://www.jeremelo.org) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to educate the community about the need for safety and environmental health in forest lands and open space on public and private property.
As stated above, a foundation in Jere Melo’s name was established by his widow. Sincerely, I wish them the best of luck for their new endeavor.
I just wish that they had told the truth.
While I was on assignment for Toke of the Town covering this story, the L.A. Times had printed the erroneous headline, “Ft. Bragg Councilman Killed in Marijuana Grow!” and continued to print this report that former Ft. Bragg mayor and timber corporation advisor, Jere Melo, was killed while investigating illegal marijuana grow or garden.

U.S. Forest Service
A federal drug agent prepares to destroy a marijuana crop in Northern California

​You too, Mendo? Say it ain’t so! The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has voted 3-2 to support the use of federal intelligence agencies in the war against marijuana.

The most liberal member of the board of supervisors, Green Party member Dan Hamburg, joined the most libertarian member, Supervisor John Pinches of the American Independent Party to cast the two votes against the “consent calendar” item at Tuesday’s board meeting, reports Jennifer Poole at The Willits News.

​​Both opposed the item asking the board to support California Congressman Mike Thompson’s attempts to involve federal spy agencies in the fight against illegal marijuana cultivation by so-called “international drug trafficking organizations” on public lands.

Michael Montgomery/California Watch
A federal drug agent stands in a marijuana field near Redding. The 2010 raid led to federal charges against 27 people.

​The pattern of the American government using domestic spying on its own citizens — begun after the 9/11 attacks and the PATRIOT Act — may soon be going to a new level. Congress may empower federal intelligence agencies to participate in the struggle against marijuana cultivation in national forests and on other federal land.

One provision in the 2012 intelligence authorization bill calls on James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, to report on how federal spy agencies can help park rangers, fish and wildlife wardens, and other federal agents eradicate cannabis gardens, report Andrew Becker and Michael Montgomery at California Watch.
The bill also directs the top spy to work with federal public land managers to identify intelligence and information-sharing gaps related to drug trafficking. The House passed its version of the bill, HR 1892, in September; it is now before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

All photos: Jack Rikess

Medical Marijuana Activists In San Francisco Challenge the Obama Administration Crackdown; Toke of the Town Was There

By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
Last time we thought it was some sick joke when Obama came to fundraise in San Francisco on April 20, the pot smoker’s holiday, after having changed his stance and began his reversal on medical marijuana in California. 
Today, no one was laughing.

Photo: The Pitch
I’ll have one of each, please.

​While cannabis-infused soft drinks have been around for awhile, a new brand, Canna Cola, seems to have hit a marketing sweet spot, because its February debut in Colorado is getting a ton of media buzz.

Canna Cola is positioning itself as the “light beer” of marijuana drinks, since it has a lower THC content (35 to 65 mg) than other brands currently on the market, according to Scott Riddell of marketers Diavolo Brands, reports Wallace Baine of the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
“It’s got a mild marijuana taste,” Riddell told the Sentinel. “But the taste factor is really negligible compared to some competitors with three times the THC. When you get to that level, you really have a heavy aftertaste.”

Photo: CNN
U.S. agents seized the 6,700 pounds of marijuana, compressed into about 500 bricks, near Falfurrias, Texas on Friday

​U.S. law enforcement seized more than three tons of marijuana from a tanker trailer traveling in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, according to a spokesman from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Special agents seized the cannabis Friday near Falfurrias, Texas, said Ross Feinstein, spokesman for the customs agency, reports Leslie Tripp at CNN.
The pot was packaged in about 500 bricks wrapped in clear cellophane and duct table, Feinstein said. 

Photo: DEA
Michele Leonhart, acting administrator of the DEA, is a Bush-era drug warrior who has overseen raids of legal medical marijuana dispensaries — yet Obama is keeping her on.

​After more than two years as acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Michele Leonhart, who served as deputy DEA administrator during George W. Bush’s presidency, is scheduled to be confirmed by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, November 17.

No friends to medical marijuana patients, Leonhart and her former boss, DEA Administrator Karen Tandy, were responsible for more than 200 paramilitary-style raids on patients and their providers.
As acting DEA administrator, Leonhart has continued to raid dispensaries, growers and medical marijuana testing labs despite a change in federal policy under President Obama.
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