Search Results: oaksterdam university (38)

KTVU
Proud storm troopers: Cocky federal agents outside Oaksterdam University on Monday morning

“Confirmed RAID currently happening at Oaksterdam University – DEA and IRS. Please come show support, bring signs, get the word out. 1600 Broadway and 1776 Broadway Oakland!”Sacramento Americans for Safe Access (Facebook status update, 8:20 a.m.)


Oakland’s Oaksterdam University, famed as the first and probably biggest institution of cannabis education, was taken over by federal agents on Monday morning.
Toke of the Town was able to confirm reports Monday morning that owner Richard Lee had at first been detained in his apartment by federal agents. He was reportedly released around 10 a.m.
Officers wearing U.S. Marshals, Internal Revenue Service and Drug Enforcement Administration jackets swarmed over the Oakland medical marijuana teaching facility at the corner of 16th Street and Broadway before 8 p.m. Monday morning, reports NBC Bay Area. Yellow “crime scene” tape was keeping everyone away.

Narfolaxer
Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee is fully separating himself from the school and his other cannabis-affiliated businesses

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Two weeks and a few days after the Federal Government raided Richard Lee’s world in Oakland, showing the Cannabis World who’s boss, Oaksterdam is back.
At a mid-morning press conference held in the last remaining quarters left to the University, Richard Lee officially stepped down as the school’s dean to pursue drug policy reform, on a national level, full-time. Dale Sky Jones, Oaksterdam’s executive chancellor, will continue the University’s commitment of quality training for the cannabis industry, as per Richard’s mission statement.  

Oaksterdam University

Wednesday Press Conference: Richard Lee, Elected Officials, Union, to Announce Future Plans for Oaksterdam University and National Day of Action
Taxpayer Resources Are Wasted Trampling CA Medical Marijuana Laws While City Officials Beg for Help with Gun Violence
National Day of Action on 4/20 Will Pressure Obama on Heels of Historic Discussion About Failed Drug War at Summit of the Americas
Oaksterdam University, which calls itself “the premier cannabis college in the United States,” will announce plans for the future of the school on Wednesday at a press conference.
At the event, founder Richard Lee will discuss his personal plans, as well as the fate of Oaksterdam University, arguably the leading educational institution in the nascent cannabis industry. Other speakers will raise awareness about the waste of valuable community resources.

California 90420

California 90420 Offers An In-Depth Look Inside Oaksterdam University, Opens On 4/20

Oaksterdam University Was Recently Raided by Federal Agents
Each year, marijuana enthusiasts and activists around the country gather to celebrate 4/20 as a holiday. This year, a new documentary entitled California 90420 will be released on 4/20 in more than 50 theaters nationwide, making it one the widest theatrical releases ever for a marijuana-related documentary.  
90420 focuses on the rapidly open and growing marijuana trade in California, which is setting precedent for the rest of the nation. The film explores the burgeoning ‘above ground’ industry through the eyes of four, 20-something characters whose real lives are caught up in the changing green landscape. This groundbreaking feature documentary is directed by Dean Shull, one of the guys that brought you the hit comedy, Waiting

Jack Rikess
Oaksterdam founder Richard Lee at Tuesday’s protest in San Francisco against Monday’s federal raids in Oakland

Less than a week after federal agents raided cannabis training center Oaksterdam University, seizing property, marijuana plants, bank accounts, student records and computers, legendary founder Richard Lee has decided to quit the business.

Lee, 49, who the SF Weekly‘s Erin Sherbert calls “the most visible pot legalization advocate in the state,” told John Hoeffel of the Los Angeles Times that after 20 years, he decided it’s time for others to take over. He added that he’s concerned he could be facing federal drug charges after Monday’s raids of his university, his dispensary (Blue Sky Coffee Shop) and his home.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” Lee said on Thursday. “Over 20 years … I kind of feel like I’ve done my time. It’s time for others to take over.”
“I never wanted to be the quote unquote leader of the legalization movement,” Lee told the Times. “I saw myself as just one small soldier in a big war. But I look at it as a battlefield promotion.”

SF Weekly

After federal agents swept across a formerly down-on-its-luck area of downtown Oakland, raiding the businesses owned by ganjapreneur Richard Lee which had revitalized the community, officials connected with Lee’s flagship Oaksterdam University vowed the cannabis college would reopen on Wednesday.

U.S. Marshals and agents from the IRS and DEA on Monday morning raided all of the downtown businesses connected to Lee, including Oaksterdam, the medical marijuana dispensary Coffeeshop Blue Sky, and a plant nursery connected to the dispensary, reports Chris Roberts at SF Weekly.

Oaksterdam History
Richard Lee: “Medical cannabis prohibition is unjust and counterproductive”

Cannabis icon Richard Lee, in one of his first statements since the raid on Oaksterdam University, has endorsed the Ohio Medical Cannabis Amendment. 
“Can you imagine seeing your life’s work raided and seized?” Lee asked in a telephone interview. “Many patients like me can.”
At age 27, while working as a lighting technician, Lee fell off a scaffold and broke his back. A paraplegic, he must now use a wheelchair. Standard prescription pills didn’t ease the pain, but medical cannabis did.

Photo: Steve Elliott ~alapoet~
Guru of Ganja Ed Rosenthal at Hempfest last weekend. Ed will be leading a medical cannabis cultivation seminar tonight (Wednesday, August 24) in Seattle.

​Ed Rosenthal, the Guru of Ganja and author of The Marijuana Grower’s Handbook, the official course book for Oaksterdam University, will lead a ganja growing seminar tonight in Seattle.

The indoor medical cannabis cultivation seminar, presented by Northern Waters Patients Network, will benefit the Seattle-based Cannabis Defense Coalition.
Attend this class and learn the terminology of the indoor gardener: seed germination, clones and cloning, hydro, N-P-K balance, pH, light cycles, begging, flowering, pruning and trichomes are just a few of the terms you’ll be using correctly after a session with Ed.
Rosethal will present a comprehensive overview of cultivation. Gardeners at all levels, new or advanced, will find tips and techniques to save time, labor and energy. The seminar will include Q&A time with “Ask Ed.”
Rosenthal starts at the basics and takes you through the entire process of how to grow a personal indoor garden — with little or no experience required. You will learn what equipment to use, how to care for plants, the different stages of plant growth, and how to harvest beautiful buds.

Graphic: Budhoe

​Organized labor and California’s burgeoning marijuana industry are coming together for what is believed to be the very first time, after 100 employees at Oaksterdam University turned in their union cards and joined the 26,000-member Local 5 of the United Food and Commercial Workers, school and union officials confirmed Wednesday, reports Chris Roberts at the SF Appeal.

Oaksterdam, which includes a cannabis dispensary and plant nursery, as well as cultivation classes, is also the force behind California’s legalization initiative, Tax Cannabis 2010, through the deep pockets of founder and owner Richard Lee, who has given nearly $1.3 million to the ballot measure.

Politicians have not caught up with public opinion. 

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

A new poll found that for the first time, Republicans narrowly favor legalizing marijuana, 45% to 42%. Last week, however, Republicans voted against including support for MED in their party platform. As far as I saw, the plant went unmentioned at the convention.

Hillary Clinton named Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) as her running mate. Speaking at a high school in April, Kaine said he favors “drastic changes in sentencing laws…[but] wouldn’t vote for a law at the federal or state level that would decriminalize marijuana.” Kaine has a NORML rating of F.

Donald Trump has a NORML rating of C+Hillary Clinton gets a B+Libertarian Gary Johnson scores an A+.

Leafly meets Ann Lee, founder of Republicans Against Marijuana Prohibition (RAMP). Lee, 86, attended the GOP convention as an alternate in the Texas delegation. Her son Richard Lee founded the trade school Oaksterdam University in Oakland.

Decriminalization appears to have support from the Texas Association of Business and  bipartisan support in the Texas legislature. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) opposes legalization.

Marijuana.com digs up that the DEA has reduced the size of its 2017 cannabis order from last year. This hints, the piece suggests, that the agency will not reschedule. The DEA gets its weed from a facility at the University of Mississippi, the only federally legal grow in the country.

Fifty-one percent of voters oppose Massachusetts’ REC initiative and 41% percent support. The numbers are similar in Arizona.

An Arizona judge will hear cannabis-opponents in a case that could block the upcoming REC vote. They argue that the 100-word petition voters signed didn’t adequately explain the effects of legalization. Plaintiffs include Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery (R), Phoenix’s lead prosecutor.

Last year, before a weed convention in Phoenix, Montgomery offered “An aside, just a polite warning to folks traveling here…I can’t confirm or deny whether or not local or federal law enforcement may be on hand in an undercover capacity. So welcome to Phoenix, enjoy your stay, but be careful.”

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) opposes the state’s MED initiative. In Wisconsin, a poll found that REC legalization has 59% support. Activists are collecting signatures for a MED initiative in Oklahoma.

Florida’s first CBD dispensary opens this week. The state is expected to vote on MED in November.

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