It’s time to free up our police force to go after actual criminals.
Legalize marijuana, re-prioritize law enforcement resources, and create safer communities.
Monthly Archives: August, 2011
| Photo: Larry “LK” Kirk |
| A year passes like nothing at The World Famous Cannabis Cafe! |
By Charlie Bott
Special to Toke of the Town
Portland, Oregon’s World Famous Cannabis Cafe celebrated the first anniversary at its current location on July 29 and 30. The Cafe officially opened its doors at 322 SE 82nd Avenue in Portland, Oregon, on July 31, 2010.
“When the café opened in November 2009, my dream to create a safe and welcoming place for cardholders to consume their medicine out of public view was realized,” said Madeline Martinez, founder and proprietress of the private club. “Celebrating this anniversary means that we also provide stability for those we serve, and that is important.”
| Photo: The Green Cross |
| From the menu at The Green Cross: SF Ice, an indica cross of Afghan, Northern Lights, Skunk and Shiva. Tested at 18.4 percent THC. |
The Green Cross, first incorporated as a California public benefit nonprofit medical marijuana patient collective in July 2004, is celebrating seven years in San Francisco.
“Since then, The Green Cross has become well known for our safe and discreet delivery service, commitment to social and environmental responsibility, absolute compliance with state and local laws, and generosity to local and national charitable organizations,” said founder and president Kevin Reed.
“In seven years since we first incorporated with the State of California, The Green Cross has experienced its share of ups and downs,” Reed said. “But, with the help of your support, we are proud to be among the city’s best licensed medical cannabis dispensaries.”
| Photo: Miami Herald |
| Jailers wouldn’t call 9-1-1 to help Eric Perez as he lay dying. |
Eric Perez died after suffering all night long, screaming and throwing up.
An 18-year-old Florida man has died after suffering a medical emergency while in jail on a marijuana charge. Records show that Superintendent Anthony Flowers of the Palm Beach Juvenile Detention Center instructed staff not to call 9-1-1 as young Eric Perez lay dying.
Perez, 18, had been screaming and vomiting all night long, but jailers at the Palm Beach Juvenile Detention Center didn’t call 9-1-1 until well after dawn, reports Carol Marbin Miller at the Miami Herald.
A detention center healthcare log shows the youth was not examined by a medical professional until 7:51 a.m. Four minutes later, lockup staff called a “Code White,” meaning the young man’s condition was critical, the log shows.
After the 2003 scandal involving the death of young Omar Paisley, who also died before paramedics could help him, the state had posted signs throughout 22 youth detention centers authorizing guards to call 9-1-1 at the first hint of an emergency.
| Photo: Brian Grimmer |
| Patient activist Brian Grimmer: “Once the dispensary/co-op situation is figured out at the state level, we will work with the city council to begin the process of opening a dispensary in Ellensburg” |
Ellensburg, Washington has joined the short, but growing, list of cities in the Evergreen State which have decided to allow medical marijuana collective gardens.
On Monday night, the city council unanimously adopted an emergency ordinance on the issue to allow patients to grow cannabis collectively for medical use, reports Aaron Hilf at KNDO.
However, the same emergency ordinance which allows collective marijuana gardens also places a six-month moratorium on medical cannabis dispensaries.
The collective marijuana gardens must be indoors and at least 300 feet from schools, along with other zoning regulations.
“We really wanted to be able to move quickly so that if someone did want to come forward there was a framework within the city, an application process within the city, and zoning within the city that allowed them to become a collective,” said Mayor Bruce Tabb.
For an eminently reasonable $25 permit fee, along with a doctor’s medical marijuana authorization, patients in Ellensburg can now get together and grow cannabis for medicinal use.
| Photo: Little Eddy |
| A mass exhale of marijuana smoke at the Unibversity of Colorado Boulder campus at 4:20 p.m., April 20, 2010. UC-Boulder came in fourth on the list. |
California and Colorado dominated the The Princeton Review‘s Top 5 colleges for marijuana use this year, with two entries each.
In the rankings — part of the Review’s “The Best 376 Colleges” survey — Colorado College in Colorado Springs ranked as the #1 pot-smoking school in the United States.
The small private school blazed past the competition in the annual rankings, which The Princeton Review released on Monday.
Colorado College has been a “usual suspect” on the marijuana list for the past few years, said Rob Franek, vice president and publisher of the Review.
| Graphic: Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol |
The effort to legalize marijuana in Colorado in 2012 is kicking into high gear. A former cop and a former judge will be among those collecting signatures in Denver on Wednesday.
Police officers, judges and other criminal justice professionals who once enforced Colorado’s marijuana prohibition laws are now helping to get an initiative to legalize and regulate cannabis onto the state’s 2012 ballot.
This Wednesday a former Denver cop and a former Lafayette judge will participate in a signature-gathering drive to support the new initiative by the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol.
| Photo: Teesha McClam/Dayton Daily News |
| Tonya Davis and other activists are working to get a Constitutional amendment on the Ohio ballot in November 2012 to legalize medical marijuana in the state. Davis said cannabis relieves her symptoms without the problems associated with harsh pharmaceutical narcotics. |
A group favoring the legalization of marijuana for medical uses in Ohio has taken initial steps to place a Constitutional amendment on the ballot in November 2012.
Supporters of the “Ohio Alternative Treatment Amendment” last week submitted 2,143 signatures on petitions to Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine with summary language of the proposed amendment, reports Lynn Hulsey at the Dayton Daily News. DeWine sent the signatures out to local election boards for verification.
The group needs 1,000 valid signatures before DeWine will determine if the amendment summary is a “fair and truthful statement.” It will then be reviewed by the Ohio Ballot Board and Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted.
| Photo: Washington Highways |
| The collectives will be limited to a strip along State Route 525 in Mukilteo |
On a 5-2 vote Monday night, the Mukilteo City Council approved an ordinance allowing collective medical marijuana gardens in the Snohomish County, Washington city.
The move is significant, according to patient activist Philip Dawdy of the Washington Cannabis Association and 4 Evergreen Group, because it makes the city the first in Snohomish County to allow for collective gardens. Other cities in the county, including Everett, Lake Stevens and Marysville, have banned them.
| Photo: City-Data.com |
| Here’s where the big bust went down. (OK, here’s where they caught some half-drunk schlub with a blunt.) |
If you’re in the parking lot of a police station and jail, waiting for a friend who’s visiting an inmate inside, you might want to stifle that impulse to fire up a blunt to help pass the time.
A Texas man learned this valuable life lesson last Monday at about 11 a.m. Our dude in question, who was about halfway through a 40-ounce malt liquor in the South Houston Police Station parking lot, decided it was just a wonderful time to spark up, reports Richard Connelly at Houston Press.
Thing is, it seems lots of cops hang out in police station parking lots. One of the boys in blue happened to walk nearby “and immediately smelled burnt marijuana and the strong smell of alcohol coming from his person.”