Search Results: peron (12)

Photo: The Wow Report
Dennis Peron is co-author of Prop 215, which legalized medical marijuana in California

​Dennis Peron, the “father of medical marijuana” who co-authored Proposition 215, the 1996 ballot initiative which legalized medical cannabis in California, has suffered a stroke, reports Joe Eskenazi at SF Weekly.

“That’s why I didn’t give a speech at the Hemp Expo,” Peron, 65, told the Weekly. The cannabis guru and gay rights activist said he suffered the stroke about a month ago and underwent an operation Sunday to “unclog my artery.”
Peron in the 1990s came to serve as a figurehead for the cannabis legalization movement, and was highly influential in the debate in California, thus helping to change the political atmosphere surrounding marijuana in the United States.
A Long Island native, Peron served the Air Force in Vietnam and afterward moved to San Francisco’s Castro District in 1969, where he sold marijuana and ran the Big Top pot supermarket out of his home in the 1970s.
He opened the Church Street Compassion Center in 1993, the very first “pot club” in the United States, which became the legendary San Francisco Cannabis Buyers Club in 1995, a year before Prop 215 legalized medical pot.

He’s not the only one.

Here’s your daily round-up of pot-news, excerpted from the newsletter WeedWeek. Download WeedWeek’s free 2016 election guide here.

Dennis Peron, the celebrated cannabis activist and backer of 1996’s Proposition 215, which legalized MED in California, opposes the state’s coming REC vote. “In 1996, it was like a dark room had been left for so long without any light. I let a little light in. A light of compassion, hope and empowerment. We empowered the patients and the voters and the people that don’t believe marijuana is a crime,” Peron said. “But Prop. 64 will destroy that power that we’ve had for the last 20 years.”

All photos by Sharon Letts

Humboldt Stories
“It’s not Weeds, its real.”
By Sharon Letts
Lewis woke-up, rolled over, and sat up, pushing a half-eaten bag of chips away from the computer screen, knocking an empty can of Rock Star to the living room floor. 
The flashing icon on the screen told him that “Medford Mantis” was ahead again, with “Slayer II” a close third. 
“Take that damn wall down, rat bastard!” 
Peeling a piece of tin foil away from a corner of the window he could see it was light outside, but couldn’t tell if it was early morning or late night.
It took hours to regain his status. When he was satisfied he picked up the bong and fumbled for a lighter that worked.

Medical marijuana patients and supporters will converge on Wednesday, July 4, in the nation’s capitol for the Rally to Reschedule Marijuana as Medicine and 43rd Annual Smoke-In. Oddly, given the fact that the event continues to be labeled a “Smoke-In” after four decades, attendees are being asked not to smoke cannabis.
The event will begin at noon across from the White House at Lafayette Park (located at 16th Street and H Street). Scheduled to appear are medical marijuana pioneer Dennis Peron, Richard Eastman, Kim Quiggle, John Pylka, Miguel Lopez, Julia (curator of petermcwilliams.org) and Wayward Bill at a rally to educate elected officials and voters, march and demonstrate for First Amendment rights, and the right to choose marijuana as medicine.
Demonstrators will tell President Obama, “Keep your promise,” asking him to end the federal raids against state-legalized medical marijuana dispensaries.
The U.S. Marijuana Party, chaired by Wayward Bill, will be holding it’s first annual political convention at the Smoke-In.

SodaHead

​​The love affair between pizza and marijuana is no secret, so Denver-based Sexy Pizza thought it would use this culinary romance to raise funds for a group of law enforcement officials dedicated to reforming failed drug policies in America.

Sexy Pizza has created the “LEAP Pizza,” a Hawaiian-style pie with Canadian bacon, pineapple and mozzarella cheese, which will benefit Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). In tribute to these brave cops who stand dedicated to the marijuana reform movement, Sexy Pizza said it will donate $1 from the purchase of each “LEAP Pizza” to their organization.

Graphic: Ronzio Pizza
It’s the perfect business plan, really. Create surefire repeat customers by delivering pot with the pizza!

​One pepperoni pizza for pick-up; extra pot, please.

The owner of Ronzio Pizza, a few doors down from the police station in Newport, Rhode Island, was arrested Thursday and charged with possession of marijuana with — you got it — intent to deliver.
After receiving reports from neighbors who live near the pizza parlor that marijuana was being sold there for the past several months, the Newport Police Department started a brave investigation spearheaded by Detective Seth Godek and Detective Mark Matoes, reports Bryan Rourke at The Providence Journal.

Photo: Jack Rikess
Our guy gets the story: Toke of the Town Northern California Correspondent Jack Rikess hard at work doing his research at the 4th Annual S.F. Medical Cannabis Competition on Sunday. By the way, Jack reports there was half a pound of pot in that joint.

​San Francisco’s 4th Annual S.F. Medical Cannabis Competition, The Patient’s Choice, was held Sunday.
Now that Toke of the Town‘s Northern California correspondent, Jack Rikess, has sufficiently recovered from the festivities, here’s his report.
Don’t be too hard on Mr. Rikess. Judges at the competition — including our hard-working correspondent — had to sample more than 50 cannabis strains and products.
Way to take one for the team, Jack! ~ Steve Elliott, Editor
…….
By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
It’s always a good sign when you can smell the party from blocks away.
The day and the weather couldn’t have been more perfect for San Francisco’s 4th Annual S.F. Medical Cannabis Competition, The Patient’s Choice. After some delays including moving the cannabis flavored festivities to a new location at the last moment (due to law enforcement objections), the Bacchanal of Buds went off without a hitch for the red-eyed competition goers.

Stoners Against Prop 19
Dragonfly De La Luz: The smugly self-satisfied new face of cannabis prohibition in California.

​It didn’t take long after the defeat of Proposition 19, which would have taxed and regulated marijuana in California, for the cannabis community to realize that legalization’s ignominious defeat was fueled by the duplicity — some would say outright treachery — of certain greedy, reactionary elements within the community itself. Boycotts against anti-Prop 19 businesses are now being organized.

So-called “Stoners Against Prop 19” — traitors to the movement such as Dennis Peron, Dragonfly De La Luz and J. Craig Canada — whether through stunning ignorance or outright malice, spread disinformation about exactly what the measure would have done.
They busily sowed division, distrust, and fear among a community that should have been united in striving to loosen the death grip of 70+ years of cannabis prohibition.
Offered the opportunity to embrace the future, these reactionary elements formed a fifth column within the medical cannabis community.
For who knows what reasons — maybe the miserly interest of preserving big pot profits? — they shamelessly allied themselves with the law enforcement and prison lobbies, with the Religious Right, and with the same intolerant fundamentalists behind the No On 19 campaign — the very same people, in the case of one statewide organization, that headed up the Proposition 8 anti-gay marriage initiative two years ago.

Graphic: The Portland Mercury

​I know, I know. “It’s all about the money.” But are there no depths to which the anti-Prop 19 people — i.e., a few greedy growers and dispensary owners and their friends in law enforcement — won’t sink?
Just today, I saw that some obnoxious moron calling himself “Rtg Cel” on Facebook had even trumpeted the supposed “dangers” of stoned workers on the job as a reason to vote against Prop 19 legalization.
Surely he knows better. Marijuana users are typically among the safest, most bust-ass, least complaining employees in the workplace.
But what does truth matter, when profits are at stake?
Way to show your true colors, “Rtg Cel.” Way to fall into line with your prohibitionist allies.

Photo: Gregory Bojorquez/LA Weekly
Expo organizer and medical marijuana advocate Richard Eastman, left, talks with Prop 215 co-author Dennis Peron, who is scheduled to speak at the event

​Southern California medical marijuana advocates are spreading the word about cannabis this weekend with a two-day educational event in Long Beach.

The Long Beach, Los Angeles and Orange County Medical Marijuana Exposition and Patients Film Festival (try saying that after taking a bong hit) will happen Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m. each day at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Greater Long Beach, 2017 East 4th Street.
The expo is “an educational event” being held “because of Long Beach being in the center of a heated debate on marijuana,” according to one of the organizers, marijuana advocate Richard Eastman, reports Paul Eakins of the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
“Our goal is to educate the citizens and voters of Long Beach about the positive benefits of medical marijuana,” Eastman said, reports Jonathan Van Dyke at Gazettes.com.
1 2