| Photo: KVOA.com |
| Mexican marijuana smugglers ingeniously devised a cannabis catapult to launch their payload over the border. |
Yearly Archives: 2011
| Graphic: AP/CBS |
A coalition of House lawmakers has reintroduced legislation that would legalize and regulate the “production, distribution and sale” of marijuana to adults in Washington state.
House Bill 1550 allows for the state-authorized cultivation and distribution of cannabis and marijuana-related products. It is similar to HB 2401, which in 2010 didn’t make it past the Committee on Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness.
A state fiscal analysis of the measure estimates that regulating and taxing marijuana sales could yield some $300 million in new revenue per biennium, while also reallocating an estimated $25 million annually in law enforcement costs.
| Photo: YouTube |
| Dr. Donald Tashkin of UCLA conducted the largest-ever study of marijuana’s effect on the lungs. His team found that not only was cannabis not associated with lung cancer, but that it possibly even exerts a protective effect against it. |
Fellow Tokers, meet Ron Marczyk, who’ll be bringing to your attention stories from the cannabis archives that are “Worth Repeating.”
Often, as stories are churned through the media’s 24-hour news cycle, good information flashes by and is lost. We aim to help correct that with “Worth Repeating,” which will cover important cannabis stories that you may have missed.
Ron is a retired health education teacher who taught health ed and psych (drug/sex ed) to high school students for 20 years. He is an R.N. (emergency room) M.S. in cardiac rehab, and worked as a New York City Police officer for two years.
| Photo: The White House |
| President Obama: “I think this is an entirely legitimate topic for debate” |
President Says We Need To Shift To Public Health Focus, But His Budgets Haven’t Done That
President Barack Obama on Thursday called drug legalization “an entirely legitimate topic for debate,” but quickly added “I am not in favor of legalization.”
The President then went on to say that he sees “drug abuse” as a public health issue and that a shifting of resources is required, away from the traditional approach of incarcerating nonviolent drug offenders.
Obama’s remarks are the first time in history that a U.S. president has called drug legalization a topic “worthy of debate.”
The president made the remarks during the YouTube-hosted “Your Interview With the President,” for which at least the top 100 vote-getting questions dealt with marijuana laws or drug policy.
It was evident that Obama had heard the chorus of protest which greeted his last response to YouTube viewers on marijuana legalization, in which he had laughed off the issue and dismissively said “I don’t know what that says about our online audience.”
Many activists had expected the president would continue his practice of blithely ignoring the marijuana policy questions, despite their overwhelming and enduring popularity with the very demographic which voted him into office.
“The President talks a good game about shifting resources and having a balanced, public health-oriented approach, but it doesn’t square with the budgets he’s submitted to Congress,” said Neill Franklin, a retired Baltimore narcotics cop and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of cops, judges, and prosecutors who support legalizing and regulating drugs.
A video question about legalizing drugs from a former deputy sheriff has come in first place in YouTube’s “Your Interview With the President” competition, where users submitted and voted on questions to be posed to President Barack Obama.
Obama is scheduled to answer the top-voted questions today, Thursday, January 27, at 2:30 pm EST in an interview that will be streamed live online at http://www.youtube.com/askobama.
| Photo: Sergio Vidal |
| “I have a feeling that at any moment I will be summoned by the police.” Author Sergio Vidal holds “Cannabis Medicinal,” the first marijuana grow book ever published in Brazil |
Exclusive Interview: Author/Activist Sergio Vidal
In a sure sign that attitudes toward cannabis are changing worldwide, the first-ever cannabis grow book has been published in Brazil — and it may well be the first grow book printed in the Portuguese language.
Cannabis Medicinal author Sergio Vidal, a marijuana activist, told Toke of the Town that just the discussion of weed — let alone its use and possession — is surrounded by taboos, legal prohibitions, and repression.
“We are a young democracy,” Vidal told us. “We lived in a military dictatorship for many years in the 1960s and 70s. Our Constitution is only 22 years old. And the drug laws are a reflection of this dictatorial period.”
According to Vidal, Brazil’s drug laws include one article that criminalizes conduct “encouraging the use of drugs,” which means you can be arrested for simply advocating the legalization of cannabis. That makes me realize how well we have it here in the States, where more than a year of Toke of the Town has resulted in zero police interference.
“Events such as the Marijuana March have been considered criminal in many cities,” Vidal told us. “The law has been used on several occasions to criminalize social movements for legalization.”
| Graphic: ReLegalize Indiana |
An Indiana state senator is asking a question she hopes could spur debate over sentencing laws, and possibly save the state millions of dollars in the process: Should marijuana be legalized?
Sen. Karen Tallian (D-Portage) is sponsoring a bill that would direct the criminal law and sentencing study committee to examine Indiana’s marijuana laws next summer and come up with recommendations, reports Deanna Martin of the Associated Press.
“We need to think about this,” Tallian said. “We’re cutting essential services out of the budget now, and it may not make sense to spend millions of dollars prosecuting marijuana cases.”
Senate Corrections Committee Chairman Brent Steele (R-Bedford) said he would give Tallian’s proposal a legislative hearing, despite the fact that Democrats are badly outnumbered in the Senate. He said the study could help lawmakers decide if they should explore the issue, but noted that “even in California,” a proposal to legalize marijuana failed. (Yes, it’s coming true, as we predicted: The failure of Prop 19 is now being used as a talking point by prohibitionists.)
| Photo: dipity |
| Priorities? Opening a medical marijuana dispensary in San Diego costs more to license than opening 17 strip clubs or 27 massage parlors. |
Since You Don’t Have Enough Money — Or A Legal Spot — To Open A Medical Marijuana Dispensary In San Diego County, Maybe You Should Consider The Sex Trade Instead
In a move seen as continuing their notorious hostility to implementation of California’s medical marijuana law, approved by voters 15 years ago, the San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an $11,017 annual fee to open medicinal cannabis dispensaries in the county’s unincorporated areas. They also further restricted where the shops can open, resulting in a “de facto ban,” according to activists.
Supervisors Ron Roberts and Greg Cox said the fee — which, surprise, surprise, will go to the Sheriff’s Department — appeared “high,” reports Chris Nichols of the North County Times.
They’re right about that. In fact, it’s the highest annual fee charged to any Sheriff’s Department-regulated business in the county.
| Photo: KPAX.com |
A Montana plan to issue DUI tickets for those under the influence of “dangerous drugs” while driving was rejected Tuesday in a legislative committee amid concerns there is no valid test for determining impairment.
The measure was one piece of the drunken driving reform working its way through the Montana Legislature, reports Matt Gouras of The Associated Press.
Another, larger reform initiative that would require repeat drunk driving offenders to undergo twice-daily breath tests at their own expense was unanimously endorsed Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee and will go to the full House.
| Graphic: Cafe Press |
A bill has once again been introduced to the Washington Legislature which would legalize marijuana and allow it to be sold in state liquor stores.
State Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson of Seattle, who compared current cannabis laws to alcohol Prohibition, introduced the bill, reports The Associated Press. According to Dickerson, it’s time to take marijuana out of the hands of criminals, regulate it, and tax it like alcohol.
Dickerson introduced a similar bill last year, but never made it out of committee when the House Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee, after holding the first-ever legislative hearing on marijuana legalization in Washington, voted it down.
The bill also calls for the state to license marijuana growers.
Critics, of course, claim the bill would “increase marijuana use among teens,” as if they don’t already smoke it, and “could lead to harder drug use,” which is, of course, the already-discredited Gateway Theory.
Predictably, Attorney General Rob McKenna’s office, notorious for fighting marijuana reform, lost no time in saying it will oppose the bill.