Search Results: dutton (6)

Trying to pass marijuana legislation in Texas “is akin to trying to clean the Statue of Liberty by licking it,” State Representative Harold Dutton (D-Houston) said in a recent interview with Houston NORML.

Sure, it’s no doubt been tough. But after four more states legalized recreational marijuana on November 8, might Texas be a little more inclined to at least take more baby steps?

Dutton is hoping the answer is yes. Last week, lawmakers filed several key marijuana-reform bills or proposals in the Legislature, ranging from a proposal allowing Texas voters to decide whether weed should be legalized to various bills that decriminalize possessing an ounce or less.

simplecannabis.com

While it might be a longshot, a Texas lawmaker is trying (for the sixth time) to get medical marijuana on the books in the Lone Star State.
State rep. Elliot Naishtat, a democrat from Austin, is sponsoring the bill which would allow for physicians to recommend medical cannabis (called “marihuana” in the bill) for patients with qualifying conditions. Possession of cannabis would be legal so long as a doctor had signed off on it. The bill would also protect physicians from having their licenses stripped for making the recommendation. Otherwise, that’s really all there is to the page-and-a-half long bill. No mention of plant limits, possession limits, or anything like that.

Satire With Samuel

Texas Legislative Black Caucus
Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston) filed the decrim bill

House Bill 184, which would reduce penalties for marijuana possession in Texas, has already been filed and is ready for the Legislature’s upcoming session in January.

The bill, filed by Rep. Harold Dutton (D-Houston), would reduce possession of up to an ounce of marijuana to a Class C misdemeanor, reports Sergio Chapa at ValleyCentral.com. Class C misdemeanors carry no jail time, and are punishable by up to a $500 fine.
“We are under no illusions that full decriminalization is gonna come to Texas anytime soon,” said Josh Schimberg of the Texas chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML). Schimberg said the Austin-based group is pushing for full legalization, but sees HB 184 as a step in the right direction.

The Sentence Salvo

​There are so many books relating, directly and indirectly, to the world of cannabis that it can be tough to know which ones to buy.

With a plethora of volumes on growing, using, concentrating, and cooking with cannabis, as well as tomes related to the culture and lifestyle associated with it, the reader with an adventurous streak can stock a library or fill an e-reader.
But beyond the grow books (I recommend Rosenthal, Cervantes and West) and the basic histories of marijuana (I recommend mine), books which are more about the (counter-) culture surrounding weed rather than weed itself are harder to pigeonhole and, thus, often harder to find.

Here are five of the best books on the culture of marijuana that came to our attention this year.
The Audacity of Dope by sports writer Monte Dutton is unusual in that Dutton has, until now, been well known and celebrated for his spin on NASCAR racing. Dutton’s controversial new novel features a man who becomes a hero against his own wishes.
Riley Mansfield, the lead character, isn’t a conventional hero. He writes songs for a living, smokes pot for recreation and basically just wants to live and let live. But when he foils an apparent terrorist plot he is thrust into the spotlight, which is exactly where he doesn’t want to be.
Suddenly, everyone wants a piece of the marketable new “hero,” including both major political parties. They aren’t willing to take no for an answer, partly because it’s an election year and partly because what happened on the plane may be more complicated than it appears.
Mansfield and his girl Friday, Melissa Franklin, lead the government and the Republicans on a sometimes merry, sometimes painful, sometimes lucky chase. Along the way, they stumble across some unlikely friends — a Democrat strategist, a Rolling Stone writer, a pair of sympathetic FBI agents — and also some ruthless enemies.
Theirs is a love affair of sex, drugs and country-folk set against a backdrop of political scheming, hidden agendas and an unraveling plan to keep control of the government.
The Audacity of Dope by Monte Dutton, Neverland Publishing Company LLC [2011], $16.95

Graphic: Simple Cannabis

​A legislator in Texas has introduced a bill which would reduce penalties for the possession of marijuana.

House Bill 548 [PDF], introduced by Rep. Harold Dutton Jr (D-Houston), would reclassify possession of less than an ounce of marijuana from a Class B misdemeanor to a Class C misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of a $500 fine, reports My Fox Austin.
Possession of two ounces or less, but more than one ounce would remain a Class B misdemeanor.
Currently, possession of up to two ounces of marijuana is a Class B misdemeanor in Texas, with a maximum penalty of six months in jail and/or a $2,000 fine.

Photo: The Baltimore Files

​It’s usually best not to text the sheriff with a marijuana purchase request. That may seem obvious, but a Helena, Montana teen sent a text message last week looking for pot — and instead of contacting the dealer, he hit a wrong humber and accidentally sent the message to Lewis and Clark County Sheriff Leo Dutton.

“Hey Dawg, do you have a $20 I can buy right now?” the text read.
At first, the sheriff thought somebody was just messing with him, but then he realized it was a real request from a cannabis consumer, reports Alana Listoe at the Helena Independent Record.
“I’m thinking, ‘Hey, this is odd,’ ” Dutton said. “I was looking around to see if there was someone outside my window playing a prank.”