Toke of the Town

Yearly Archives: 2011

Maine Police Bust Portable Marijuana Nursery

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By on Growing, News

Photo: David Learning/Morning Sentinel
Waterville Police Chief Joseph Massey inspects the inside of a self-contained nursery unit, with lights, fans and a watering system, that was confiscated Tuesday night from two men who were pushing it down the street. Police claimed they found marijuana residue inside.

​Police in Waterville, Maine, said they’ve never seen anything like the “portable marijuana nursery” they confiscated from two men pushing it down the street late at night — but it’s actually a quite ordinary “grow closet” of the type easily found, and purchased, on the Internet.

Officers investigated after getting a report from an “alert citizen” — OK, a bored neighborhood housewife — on Tuesday of two men pushing what appeared to be a huge toolbox down the street, making a lot of noise, reports WMTW.
Sgt. Daniel Ames and another officer followed the tracks in the snow from the wheels of the metal unit and found the men near a shed on Green Street (yes, really) with a box that fit the description.
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Supreme Court Looks At Smell-Based Home Searches For Pot

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By on Legislation, News

Photo: britannica.com/Salem News

​Can Police Can Kick Down Your Door If They Smell Pot? Some Justices Think So

Police smelling marijuana coming from behind an apartment door can enter the home without a warrant if they believe the evidence is being destroyed, some U.S. Supreme Court Justices said on Wednesday.
More than 60 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police couldn’t enter a residence without a warrant just because they smelled burning opium, reports Adam Liptak at The New York Times.
On Wednesday, during the argument of a case about what police were entitled to do upon smelling marijuana outside the door of a Kentucky apartment, two justices were concerned that the Court may be ready to eviscerate the 1948 ruling which stemmed from a Seattle case.
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Is Snoop Offering To Endorse L.A. Pot Dispensaries For Cash?

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By on Dispensaries, Products

Photo: Mad Hot Hip Hop
Not fo’ shizzle?

​Los Angeles marijuana dispensaries are abuzz about an email pitch from a company that says — sort of — that a pro-cannabis celebrity endorsement from someone “like Snoop Dogg” could increase business.

Many are wondering if the business proposal is real, reports Dennis Romero at our sister Village Voice Media site LA Weekly — as in, would such a big star really do this for cash?
“I be illing if Snoop is shilling,” commented Brett, the administrator of the “mmjnews” Yahoo! email group.
The vaguely worded email, from someone named Nathan Hill who identifies himself as CEO of a something called Celebrity Green Room, reads (see body the email after the fold):
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Japanese Medical Marijuana Patient Desperate To Stay In U.S.

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By on Global, Medical

Photo: Kenichi Nalita
Kenichi Nalita came to the United States in a fight for his life as a medical cannabis patient battling Crohn’s disease. Now Kenichi’s facing another fight — to be able to stay here. (Yes, Ken tells me the correct spelling of his last name is Nalita.)

​A Japanese medical marijuana patient battling Crohn’s disease, in what he describes as a fight for his life, is desperately trying to gain political/medical asylum in the United States, because his homeland’s government says cannabis is not a medicine.

Kenichi Nalita, the very first medical marijuana user to fight for his rights in Japanese courts, told Toke of the Town that he hopes the U.S. will accept him as a political prisoner seeking asylum, since he can obtain medicinal cannabis in California but not in Japan.
“I’m a patient of Crohn’s disease,” Nalita told us. “And I guess you might know that my disease is able to be taken care of by a couple grams of cannabis per day. It controls my immune system and inflammation, and also helps rebuilding mucous membranes in my bowel.

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Bush Speechwriter Says Pot To Blame For Arizona Shootings

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By on News

Graphic: Jodie Emery

​It’s Reefer Madness all over again as David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush who now has his own conservative political website, claims that last weekend’s tragic events in Tucson, Arizona are a good reason to continue America’s war on marijuana users.

“After horrific shootings, we hear calls for stricter regulation of guns,” he wrote on FrumForum in an idiotic little piece entitled “Did Pot Trigger Giffords Shooting?“
“The Tucson shooting should remind us why we regulate marijuana,” Frum wrote. “Jared Lee Loughner, the man held as the Tucson shooter, has been described by those who know as a ‘pot smoking loner.’ He had two encounters with the law, one for possession of drug paraphernalia.”
But, as pointed out by Stephen C. Webster at The Raw Story, Frum has a tenuous grasp of the facts.
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Federal Request For Michigan Patient Info Raises Privacy Issues

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: MJ Dispensaries of Southern California

​Medical marijuana proponents in Michigan say confidentiality of patient records is at risk if the federal government can obtain state-compiled records as part of a federal witch hunt, I mean “drug investigation.”

“It would set a pretty significant precedent against patient privacy rights,” said Kris Hermes, spokesman for Americans for Safe Access (ASA), reports John Agar of The Grand Rapids Press. “It’s not just a problem in Michigan, it’s all over the country.”

The Michigan state agency that collects confidential medical marijuana patient information will comply with a federal request for access to its records if ordered to do so by a judge, the state said in court filings.

ASA had planned to protest Wednesday morning outside of U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids — where the federal government’s request was to be heard — but the protest was canceled when the hearing was postponed by a last-minute filing from the Michigan Association of Compassion Clubs (MACC).
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Washington Legislature To Debate Expanded Medical Cannabis Law

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Graphic: THC Finder

​A coalition of lawmakers in the Washington House and Senate has introduced legislation seeking to expand the state’s 12-year-old medical marijuana law and create greater legal protections for authorized patients, providers, and caregivers.

Senate Bill 5073 and House Bill 1100 seek to provide state licensing to medical marijuana producers and dispensaries in order to assure that qualified patients “will have access to an adequate, safe, consistent, and secure source of medical quality cannabis.”
The proposed laws do not in any way alter or amend patients’ existing rights to possess up to 24 ounces of marijuana for medical purposes, and cultivate up to 15 cannabis plants.
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AR Legislator: Medical Marijuana Bill Should Be Filed In House

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Arkansans For Medical Cannabis

​​An Arkansas state senator who previously said he expected to file a bill this year to legalize medical marijuana in Arkansas now says the bill should be filed in the state House, not the Senate.

“My thinking at this point is that the bill should probably start at the House end,” said Sen. Randy Laverty (D-Jasper) in the Capitol rotunda, where the group Arkansans for Medical Cannabis was launching a two-day program to promote legalizing marijuana for medicinal uses.
“I think perhaps the bigger challenge will be on the House end,” Laverty said. “Do we [in the Senate]want to devote a lot of time and enter into the fray that will come about naturally because of this kind of controversial legislation if we can’t get it out of House committee?”
Laverty said he’d talked to some House members about the issue, but would not name names, reports John Lyon of the Arkansas News Bureau. The chances of a medical marijuana bill getting through a House committee may vary, depending upon the committee to which it is assigned by the House speaker, according to Laverty.
“My guess would be Public Health” would be the committee most favorably inclined toward it, Laverty said.
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Major Medical Marijuana Reforms Introduced In WA Legislature

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: freepress.net
Washington State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles: “Creating a statutory and regulatory structure for licensing growers and dispensaries will allow us to provide for an adequate, safe, consistent, and secure source of the medicine for qualifying patients”

​New legislation to provide clarity and a stronger legal framework for Washington’s existing medical marijuana laws was introduced in the Legislature on Tuesday.

Senate Bill 5073 and House Bill 1100, introduced by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle and Rep. Jim Moeller (D-Vancouver), would establish a regulatory system for the sale and purchase of medical marijuana by qualifying patients. Current law, established under voter-approved I-692 in 1998, permits patients with specified terminal or debilitating medical conditions to grow medical marijuana for personal use or designate a provider to grow on their behalf.
Under the new bill, the Department of Agriculture would develop regulations through a public rule-making process for growing medical marijuana. Patients would be permitted to buy medical marijuana products from dispensers licensed by the Department of Health or by taking part in a regulated patient collective.
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