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Hempstalk 2011 Kicks Off In Portland

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 10, 2011 Culture, Products

Hempstalk 2011

A compelling mix of upbeat music, a cannabis law reform message and a focus on industrial hemp as the answer to many of our practical needs, the seventh annual Portland Hempstalk festival is set for 10 a.m to 9 p.m. Saturday, September 10, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Kelley Point Park, located at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.

Co-sponsored by The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF), Green Leaf Lab and John Lucy, attorney at law, the event is free to attendees of all ages. With more than 40,000 people expected to attend, it will wrap up the summer festival season with a bang, according to organizers.

This year’s Hempstalk will also feature more than 100 vendor booths offering delicious food and irresistible merchandise, and a Hemposium which will feature informational panels on a variety of cannabis and hemp-related topics.

Three Years, Man! Toke Of The Town Born On This Day In 2009

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 23, 2012 Culture

~ alapoet ~

Toke of the Town editor Steve Elliott celebrating three years of high points and big hits

Three years ago today — actually, three years ago tonight, at 7:08 p.m. Pacific time — my THC-stained fingers hit the “Post” button for the first-ever story on Toke of the Town.

“The good thing about a free marketplace of ideas is,” I wrote, in the first sentence ever to appear on this site, “despite the best efforts of prohibitionists and their fear-mongering propaganda, the truth eventually prevails.”

More than 3,600 stories later — and with hundreds of joints, medibles, and bongloads littering my path — I’m still loving this gig, and judging by pageviews, so are close to half a million of you every month.

Elliott Recommends Pregnant Mothers Smoke Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 10, 2012 Culture, News

When you speak to a cannabis festival audience — as I did Saturday at Hempstalk 2012 in Portland — you’d better have some attention-grabbers to share, since these good folks have typically been hearing speeches about marijuana all day.

One thing that I shared with the sizable crowd was the not-nearly-well-enough-known fact that babies born to mothers who smoke marijuana are both healthier and smarter than those born to women who don’t do any drugs or herbs at all.

The prohibitionists tell us that the smoking of marijuana by pregnant women results in lower birth weights and less intelligent babies. The scientific research tells us that toking mothers have babies that are just as healthy, with birth weights just as normal, as babies born of non-toking mothers.

Deuvall Runs For TX House On Marijuana Legalization Platform

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on February 9, 2012 Legislation, News

John Parr

Clif Deuvall speaks to the crowd at Portland Hempstalk 2011

A Texas man running as an Independent for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives includes ending cannabis prohibition as a prominent point in his campaign.

Clifford “Clif” Deuvall of Waco, a decorated military veteran and longtime community leader in Central Texas, has his sights set on the District 56 seat in the Texas House, and he brings a plethora of experience to the table.

Unlike many other politicians who have shied away from the issue, Deuvall — founder of Waco NORML — proudly supports marijuana legalization, and he can tell you exactly why.

“Prohibition and the disparity associated with it has cost the Texas taxpayers, youth, and families enough,” he said. “Texas prohibition was written capriciously, arbitrarily, and with discriminatory overtones directed toward the Hispanic community.

“A discriminatory-structured law must not remain on the law books of Texas,” Deuvall said.

Video of the Day: Marijuana Tree by Los Marijuanos

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 21, 2011 Culture, Products

Season’s greetings from Los Marijuanos, who’ve released a new video, “Marijuana Tree,” to commemorate the holidaze.
After viewing this festive bit of Kushmas Cheer, which was shot at a secret location in Las Vegas, Toke of the Town had a chance to chat with Ponyboy of Los Marijuanos about the vid, which YouTube apparently considers “mature viewing.”
“It was a blast to make the video thanks to all the volunteers that helped to make it happen,” Ponyboy told us. “You can see the video playing from one of our own websites, www.HempVisionTV.com, as well as on YouTube.”

Hempstead World Music Festival Hits Oregon July 2 – 4

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on June 28, 2011 Culture, Products

One of the biggest cannabis-oriented music events of the year will hit Oregon in early July.

The Hempstead World Music Festival 2011 with Toots & The Maytals, Dubtonic Kru, Nikii Davis, Rhythm Culture, Kool Johnny Kool and John Trudell & Bad Dog will directly benefit the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act 2012 and Hempstalk 2011.

Remembering Ben Masel: Activist Changed The Cannabis Debate

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 3, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: StoptheDrugWar.org

By Michael Bachara

Hemp News Correspondent

Lifelong activist Ben Masel died on Saturday after a battle with lung cancer. As the hemp and cannabis community and many others mourn this great loss, we must also remember what Masel spent most of his life fighting for, and continue on the path he helped to blaze.

Over the course of his life, Masel traveled countless miles and spent innumerable hours voicing his ideas and fighting for the rights of his fellows. Even in the face of opposition, he continued to speak out in favor of hemp and cannabis legalization, freedom of speech and the ability of people who take a stand to make a difference.

Masel’s lifelong passion, the Great Midwest Marijuana Harvest Festival in Madison, Wisconsin, began as a marijuana smoke-in in 1971. The Harvest Festival, now marking its 41st year, has a long history of promoting cannabis/hemp legalization and free speech while providing an annual celebration for like-minded people.

1970s Marijuana Smuggler Arrested In Florida Senior Community

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on January 28, 2011 News

Photos: U.S. Marshals Service

Mark Steven Phillips, 62, was arrested in his senior community apartment 31 years after his original arrest in 1979, left.

After being on the run for more than 30 years, a member of the legendary Miami-based “Black Tuna Gang,” a marijuana smuggling operation, was arrested by U.S. Marshals Thursday morning in a senior community in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Mark Steven Phillips, 62, had been a wanted man for more than 30 years after he skipped out on his trial for being a member of an operation accused of smuggling some 500 tons of Colombian cannabis into the United States over a period of 16 months in the 1970s.

However, according to Black Tuna Gang leader Robert Platshorn — who is the longest serving pot prisoner in American history, having himself served almost 30 years in federal prison for smuggling marijuana — Phillips was definitely not the “Marijuana Kingpin” prosecutors and their obedient headline writers are trying to make him out to be.

Presidential Hopeful Gary Johnson: I Smoked Pot 2005-2008

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 6, 2010 Medical, News

Photo: Steve Elliott/Reality Catcher

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson at Portland Hempstalk 2010 in September

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, a likely 2012 Republican presidential candidate, is already known as a supporter of cannabis legalization, and has said he smoked pot during his youth. “I never exhaled,” he joked recently. But now Johnson has admitted publicly for the first time that he smoked marijuana more recently — from 2005 to 2008 — for medicinal purposes.

“It’s not anything I volunteer, but you’re the only person that actually asked about it,” Johnson told reporter John McCormack of The Weekly Standard. “But for luck, I guess, I wasn’t arrested,” said Johnson, who was Governor of New Mexico from 1994 to 2002.

Although marijuana was illegal for medical or any other purposes in New Mexico until 2007, Johnson said he needed cannabis after a 2005 paragliding accident in Hawaii. His sails got snared in a tree, and Johnson fell about 50 feet to the ground, he said, suffering multiple bone fractures.

“In my human experience, it’s the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” Johnson said.

“Rather than using painkillers, which I have used on occasion before, I did smoke pot,” Johnson said, “as a result of having broken my back, blowing out both of my knees, breaking ribs, really taking about three years to recover.”

Ex-N.M. Gov Supports Pot Legalization; Eyes 2012 Presidential Bid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 29, 2010 Legislation, News

Photo: Steve Elliott/Reality Catcher

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson at Portland Hempstalk 2010 in September

Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson could bring the issue of marijuana legalization into the 2012 Republican presidential primary if he decides to run.

“The issue of marijuana legalization is already an attention-getter,” Johnson told Marc Caputo of the St. Petersburg Times after a visit to Florida last week to test the political waters. “And you can’t shy away from it. I have to defend it. I have to defend the position.”

According to Johnson, marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, and arresting and locking up pot smokers costs too much, both in terms of civil liberties and for the taxpayers.

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