Yearly Archives: 2011

Maine Slaps Higher Tax On Pot Brownies Than On Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 4, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

The tax rate on that marijuana goes from 5 percent to 7 percent as soon as it’s poured in the brownie mix.

How patients use their medical marijuana affects their tax rate, according to a recent opinion from Maine Revenue Services — and choosing the healthy option of smokeless edibles will result in higher taxes.

After Maine residents approved medical marijuana, lawmakers decided pot sold for medicinal purposes would be subject to the five percent sales tax. But now MRS has issued an opinion that prepared foods such as brownies that include cannabis will be taxed at a higher, seven percent rate, reports Mal Leary of Capitol News Service.

Many patients, advocates and others question the logic — and the legality — of the odd ruling.

Granny’s Little Helper: Medibles Take Stigma From Medical Cannabis

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 3, 2011 Medical

LA Weekly

Edible cannabis medicine is highly effective and can be engineered to fight specific and highly targeted ailments and symptoms

Treatment Trends

By Ben Reagan

Co-Founder, The C.P.C

Grandma may not smoke a joint to relieve chronic arthritis pain, but she sure does enjoy her pumpkin pie pastry pop that not only tastes great but also provides her with hours of daily, pain-free relief for her hands and fingers. On other days she eats her bacon and cheddar cheese pastry pop.

That does sound yummy, but hold on: a pastry pop?

Alcohol Is More Than Twice As Harmful As Marijuana: Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 3, 2011 Medical, News

Kush Clothing

Alcohol causes far more damage to users and to society than does the use of marijuana, according to a new study published online in the Journal of Psychopharmacology, the journal of the British Association of Psychopharmacology.

Researchers at the Imperial College of London looked at “the relative physical, psychological, and social harms of cannabis and alcohol,” reports Paul Armentano at AlterNet. They determined that marijuana smoking, particularly longterm, does some harm to the lungs and circulatory system, and increases certain mental-health risks (which is debatable).

Toke of the Town’s Mobile Version Goes Live

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 3, 2011 News, Products

The mobile version of Toke of the Town has gone live, so visitors coming in from smartphones and mobile devices will now see the mobile layout pictured here.

Just because you’re away from your computer is no reason to go without your Toke!

Toke of the Town had already been available on smartphones, of course, but until now it was the regular website, and not the mobile version optimized for smaller screens.

Florida Medical Marijuana Petition Needs Shitload Of Signatures

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 3, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Joshua Giesegh/PUFMM

If you live in Florida and you want to vote on whether to legalize medical marijuana on the 2012 ballot, you’d better hope that either House Joint Resolution 353 makes it through the Legislature, or that 646,889 more Floridians sign the People United for Medical Marijuana petition.

PUFMM has gotten 29,922 of the 676,811 valid signatures needed by February 1 to qualify for the ballot, which means they’re only 4.4 percent of the way there, reports Matthew Hendley at Broward Palm Beach New Times.

Hemp Fest Returns To Gainesville Saturday After 11 Years

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 3, 2011 Culture, News, Products

Florida Hempfest

Gainesville Hemp Fest, which was made famous when doobie tossers encouraged civil disobedience in 1993 and 1994, is returning this Saturday.

You’ve got to admire the temerity of people who insist upon their rights, even in an unfriendly environment. After 11 long years, Hemp Fest is coming back to Gainesville, Florida at high noon on Saturday.

What used to be an annual celebration of marijuana and a protest for its legalization is being brought back by activist Dennis “Murli” Watkins, who served four months in jail for organizing a “doobie toss” at the event in 1994, reports Chad Smith at The Gainesville Sun.

“Hemp has been cultivated for thousands of years,” Watkins said. “Here it is almost 2012, and we’re still fighting this same stupid battle.”

Watkins would not say whether the “doobie toss” — where someone throws a bunch of joints in the air so that they rain down onto the excited crowd — would also be held.

Police, of course, are curious about that, too.

Legalizing Medical Marijuana Won’t Hurt Kids: Hospital Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 2, 2011 Legislation, News

MarijuanaPictures.com

A new study by Rhode Island Hospital concludes that legalizing medical marijuana in that state did not increase use among youth.

Lead author Esther Choo, M.D., an emergency medicine physician with Rhode Island Hospital, said the study was performed to gauge the impact of medical marijuana legalization in the state in 2006, reports GoLocalProv.

Choo and her coauthors compared trends in adolescent cannabis use between Rhode Island and Massachusetts using a self-report called the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance System. The team included surveys completed between 1997 and 2009 in their study.

Based on their analysis of 32,570 students, they found that while marijuana use was common throughout the study period, there were no statistically significant differences in marijuana use between states in any year.

“Our study did not find increases in adolescent marijuana use related to Rhode Island’s 2006 legalization of medical marijuana; however, additional research may follow future trends as medical marijuana in Rhode Island and other states becomes more widely used,” Choo said.

NAW’s Thorny Rose: Legalization Measure Gets $300K Infusion

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 2, 2011 Legislation, News

Profile Kiss

Washington state medical marijuana patients and advocates find themselves in an odd position this year. New Approach Washington’s I-502, a legalization initiative, is doing quite well gathering voter signatures, and just received a major cash infusion. But every rose has its thorn: The happiness activists would otherwise feel about expanded access to cannabis is tempered by concern at the harsh DUI provisions contained in the measure, as well as the prohibitions on home cultivation and on possession of more than one ounce at the time.

The ACLU-backed initiative is getting $100,000 this week from philanthropist Harriet Bullitt, and it expects to have $200,000 more from Progressive Insurance Chairman Peter Lewis, who has already given $50,000 to NAW, reports Gene Johnson at The Associated Press.

I-502 would remove criminal penalties for possession of up to an ounce for people 21 and older. Marijuana would be sold in state-licensed stores under the auspices of the Washington Liquor Control Board, and taxed at 25 percent.

NAW has two months left in which to collect enough signatures to qualify for the November 2012 ballot, but seems to be sitting pretty in that regard. With more than 180,000 signatures already gathered, principally by paid workers from California, I-502 needs 241,000 valid voter sigs to qualify, reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly.

CA Lt. Gov. Newsom, Ex-NM Gov. Johnson Headline Drug Policy Reform Conference Nov. 3

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 2, 2011 News

LA Weekly

California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom will join former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson, NAACP director Alice Huffman and more than 1,000 drug policy experts and health care professionals to kick off the opening plenary at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference

California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson and California NAACP director Alice Huffman will headline the opening plenary session at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference on Thursday, November 3 at 9:30 a.m.

In the past decade, voters and legislators have enacted more than 150 drug policy reforms on issues ranging from medical marijuana to treatment-instead-of-incarceration for nonviolent drug law violations.

Building on the momentum from these victories, Newsom, Johnson, Huffman, Mexican poet and movement leader Javier Sicilia, and travel writer Rick Steves will join more than 1,000 drug policy experts, health care and drug treatment professionals, a half-dozen elected officials, law enforcement, students, and formerly incarcerated people from around the country and across the world to promote alternatives to the failed War On Drugs.

Activist Claims Marijuana Prohibition To End November 5

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on November 1, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Time 4 Hemp

Richard Brumfield claims cannabis prohibition will end November 5, and that he’ll be in charge of all legal production in America. Dude has a healthy sense of self, at least; not so sure about his grip on reality, though.

Richard Brumfield, a medical marijuana activist from California, is in a unique position — that is, if you believe him. Brumfield claims not only that he is in direct communication with the White House and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, but also that — oh yeah by the way — marijuana prohibition ends on November 5. Did I mention he’d be in charge of all production?

One might rightly ask why the mercurial Brumfield, who vehemently opposed California’s marijuana legalization measure Prop 19 in 2010, would be anointed to be in possession of such important information, rather than, say, letting President Obama or maybe Drug Czar Kerlikowske announce it.

But Brumfield, who if nothing else seems to have quite a healthy ego, insists on his Facebook page and elsewhere that he is the “newly appointed Chief Clinical Director of the IAMB/TbT group” (whatever that is), and further, that clinical trials of medicinal cannabis will begin on November 5, according to a press release from pot podcast Time 4 Hemp.

If Brumfield is to be believed, he has the blessings of both the White House and Vice President Joe Biden (yeah, he even included ol’ Joe in his claims), “along with the support of many organizations such as the National Institute of Health, R.E.A.D.[Editor’s note: ??], and NIDA.”

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