Yearly Archives: 2011

Photo: Smoking Music
Ras Matthew is a reggae singer from Sacramento, California.

​​Welcome to Room 420, where your instructor is Mr. Ron Marczyk and your subjects are wellness, disease prevention, self actualization, and chillin’. Today’s lesson is solidly on the chillin’ portion of the curriculum.


Worth Repeating
By Ron Marczyk, R.N.

Health Education Teacher (Retired)
Beer is to baseball as marijuana is to music.
It’s always set and setting that puts me in the zone. My nights would not be complete without the music of Ras Matthew.
Ras Matthew is a reggae singer from Sacramento, California. His songs embrace the spiritual healing experience of the herb. You don’t have to be a Rasta to understand his universal message of peace, healing and brotherhood through the ingestion of the sacrament of cannabis.
In the 1930s cannabis was rebranded as “marijuana” to help demonize this substance with racism aimed at Mexicans and black musicians playing their “Satanic” jazz music.  Unfortunately, this misinformation worked, and we are living in a world where cannabis is still seen by some as an evil drug. This is our mission to fix.

Photo: News Junkie Post
Speaker of the House Mike Milburn (R-Cascade) preens as he prepares to accept his nomination as Speaker in the Montana Legislature. One of Milburn’s first acts as Speaker was to call for the repeal of Montana’s medical marijuana law, which would end safe access for patients.

​On an almost entirely party-line vote with Republicans in favor, the Montana House voted again on Saturday to repeal the state’s medical marijuana law, passed by voters in 2004, after a House panel supposedly looked at the repeal measure’s fiscal impacts.

House Bill 161, sponsored by Speaker Mike Milburn (R-Cascade), now faces a final house vote, probably on Monday, before heading to the Montana Senate, reports Charles S. Johnson at the Missoulian.

The House once again voted 63-37 to pass HB 161, with all 63 votes in favor coming from Republicans. All 32 House Democrats and five Republicans voted against repeal.

Graphic: New York Medical Marijuana Society
The National Institute on Drug Abuse: “Our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana”

​Nearly two years ago, the Obama Administration issued its heralded “Scientific Integrity” memorandum which said “Science and the scientific process must inform and guide decisions of my Administration.”

Coming, as pointed out by NORML’s Paul Armentano at AlterNet, just months after the American Medical Association called for “facilitating … clinical research and [the]development of cannabinoid-based medicines,” the memorandum stoked the hopes of pot activists who want to see the commencement of long-overdue human studies into the safety and effectiveness of medical cannabis.
But that was before cold gray reality, also known as the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), weighed in. NIDA, which oversees 85 percent of the world’s research on controlled substances, reaffirmed its longstanding policy of “no medical marijuana” to The New York Times
“As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequencs of marijuana use,” a spokesperson told the Times in 2010. “We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana.”

Photo: Cal Pot News/Corning Observer

​More than seven months after Butte County, California law enforcement coordinated raids on seven marijuana dispensaries, the sheriff’s office claims it is still “investigating” the case, so the District Attorney’s Office has yet to file criminal charges.

A number of dispensary owners have since filed civil cases to have their confiscated money returned, reports Katy Sweeny at the Chico Enterprise-Record.
More than 100 law enforcement officers on June 30, 2010 served search warrants on seven marijuana dispensaries and 11 residences in Chico, Forest Ranch, Magalia and the Sacramento County town of Rio Lindo. The officers stole — I mean, “confiscated” — marijuana, guns, financial records, computers, Proposition 215 verifications, cash, and other items.

Photo: Ed Andrieski/AP
Represenatives Claire Levy (D-Boulder), left, an d Mark Waller (R-Colorado Springs) go over notes on their marijuana DUI bill in the House Chamber at the Capitol in Denver, Colorado, February 18, 2011

​What constitutes driving while high? The medical marijuana boom in Colorado has led to a debate in the Legislature of driving while under the influence of pot.

Lawmakers are looking at setting a DUI blood-content threshold for marijuana that would make Colorado one of only three states with such a law, reports Ivan Moreno at The Associated Press. According to sponsor Rep. Claire Levy (D-Boulder), it would be one of the most liberal.
Drivers who test positive for five nanograms or more of THC, a psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, would be considered too impaired to drive under the proposal if the substance is present in their blood at the time they’re pulled over, or within two hours.

Photo: The Oklahoman
Young mother heads to prison: Patricia Spottedcrow, 25, entered the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, Oklahoma, three days before Christmas.

​An Oklahoma mother has been taken away from her four young children and her husband, and is now serving 10 years in prison for selling $31 worth of marijuana.

Patricia Marilyn Spottedcrow, 25, entered the Eddie Warrior Correctional Center in Taft, Okla., three days before Christmas, reports Ginnie Graham at NewsOK.
“I’m nervous … because it’s prison … people I don’t know,” Spottedcrow said. “People said you don’t get too comfortable here or you’ll be here longer. Don’t make too many friends. Come and do your time and get out.”
“Never in a million years did I think I’d be here 10 years,” she said.

Photo: Polly Cooper
Want!!!

​Toke of the Town‘s sister Village Voice Media blog, the Phoenix New Times, is gettin’ nice and ready for implementation of Prop 203, Arizona’s medical marijuana law, with “Baked,” a new series that will appear on New Times’ food blog, Chow Bella.

“There is a stigma associated with marijuana use,” writes “Polly Cooper” (a pseudonym for an accomplished local baker) at New Times. “The lazy video gamer and those damn, dirty hippies, burning one and trying to wax philosophical. There are examples everywhere, and I’m sure everyone knows at least someone who fits a stereotype. The most destructive part of this stigma is that it can prevent those who may benefit from its therapeutic aspects from even asking about it.”
“And for those of you on board, I’m going to tell you how to make concoctions and tinctures, as well as give you some wonderful tips, recipes, and ideas that can help either you or a loved one in pain,” “Cooper” writes. “You never know when the time will come when you are sitting beside your mother, father, aunt, sister, best friend, or lover, watching the meds not work and feeling helpless because there is nothing you can do. This blog’s for you.”

Graphic: Fred Noland/SF Weekly

​When San Francisco narcotics officers showed up at a Castro District home early on the morning of January 11, they had a search warrant for “proceeds” from an illegal marijuana grow.

But the SFPD and federal DEA officers didn’t find any cannabis cash at that address, one of six raided simultaneously that morning, reports Chris Roberts at SF Weekly.
Instead, they found Clark Freshman, a UC Hastings law professor and the main consultant to the TV show Lie To Me.
Freshman was handcuffed while in his bathrobe as agents searched, despite his insistence that they had the wrong place and were breaking the law.
“I told them to call the judge and get their warrant updated,” Freshman said. “They just laughed at me — I guess that’s why they’re called pigs.”
Soon the porcine police may be defendants, in addition to douche bags. Freshman, who is furious about the incident, has pledged to sue the DEA and the SFPD for unlawful search and seizure of his home.

Kansas Medical Cannabis Network

​Lawmakers on Monday introduced the Kansas Compassion and Care Act, which would make growing, selling, buying and smoking marijuana for medicinal purposes legal under state law.

“Legalizing medical marijuana in the state will not only allow those with debilitating conditions an alternative to pharmaceutical drugs, but will also help lower the amount of people that have to turn to the black market to obtain their medicine,” said Kyle Norton, director of Johnson County NORML.

House Bill 2330 has been referred to the House Committee on Health and Human Services for consideration and debate. Under this measure, patients with certain debilitating conditions would be able to use medical cannabis without fear of reprisal under state law, reports JoCo NORML.
The bill would also protect patients’ rights as employees, tenants, and parents. A patient registry system would be established, along with nonprofit care centers and a board to oversee the entire program.

Photo: WAFF
Scott Burgert, left, and Bradley Jones allegedly sneaked 48 pounds of pot out of the police station over a three-day period in January.

​Only Four Pounds Recovered

Two Alabama men who were working on renovations at the Florence Police Station are in jail after they were accused of taking 48 pounds of marijuana from the evidence locker.

Scott Raymond Burgert, 45, and Bradley Thomas Jones, 40, both of Florence, Alabama, are both charged with first-degree theft of property and trafficking marijuana, Florence Police Chief Rick Singleton said, reports Tom Smith at the Florence Times Daily.
The two men were part of a construction crew which was remodeling the first floor of the police department.
1 102 103 104 105 106 121