Marijuana Legalization Tops White House Petition List

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 17, 2011 Legislation, News

Marijuana legalization is by far the top issue on the White House’s “We the People” site, leaving other online petition requests in the dust, a new review shows.

The top cannabis petition — one of many — has more than 55,000 signatures, 20,000 more than any other issue on the site, Roll Call reported on Monday.

Legalization has been the top issue on the petition site since it launched last month as a way for citizens to lobby for issues that matter the most to them, reports Ambreen Ali.

The White House hasn’t yet responded to the marijuana petition. Judging on his track record, President Obama will either belittle and giggle the issue away, or look serious and mouth meaningless platitudes about “more treatment” and “more research” while continuing to pursue his Administration’s war against both recreational and medical marijuana the people who use it.

CBD: Marijuana Compound Has No High, But Relieves Pain

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 17, 2011 Medical, News

Philly.com

Scientists at Temple University in Philadelphia who are exploring the medical benefits of cannabidiol (CBD), a marijuana compound that does not produce the high associated with THC, have found that it’s effective in helping prevent neuropathic pain.

CBD, the second major cannabinoid in pot after THC, has anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties, but no psychoactive effects, according to the scientists, reports Tom Avril at Philly.com.

In a study using lab mice, CBD showed promise in preventing the kind of neuropathic pain that can result from the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel (sold as the brand-name Taxol, among others).

Mice that were given paclitaxel and also received CBD were much less sensitive to pain than mice that receive only chemo.

California Medical Association Calls For Marijuana Legalization

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 17, 2011 Legislation, News

THC Finder

It’s a breakthrough: The first statewide medical association has endorsed marijuana legalization. The California Medical Association (CMA) on Sunday officially recommended the legalization and regulation of cannabis. The decision was based on a white paper which concluded physicians should have access to better research, which is not possible under current policies.

The paper, available here [PDF], is a thoughtful study and response to an important issue.

CMA said it is the largest physician group in California — and the first statewide medical group — to take this official position.

Protesters At Federal Courthouse Decry Medical Marijuana Raid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 15, 2011 Growing, Medical, News

Jack Rikess

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The ripples of the DEA’s early morning assault in Ukiah reached the Bay Area on Friday. Medical marijuana activists gathered in front of the San Francisco Federal Building to bring awareness to the crack-of-dawn raid Thursday on Mathew Cohen’s collective, Northstone Organics.

A faithful throng of about 40 showed up to show solidarity with the Northern Californian Collective. Shona Gochenaur of Axis of Love, bullhorn in hand, wondered where were the powerful politicians like Nancy Pelosi and Attorney General Kamala Harris who took medical marijuana campaign contributions but are nowhere to be found now. She continually pumped up the protesters while being interviewed by the local media stations.

The chants by the hearty few assembled of “Our Medicine, Our State” and “DEA, Go AWAY,” reverberated around the entrance of the building causing the suits and onlookers to pause as they saunter out for their lunches.

U.K. Rejects Official Advice: Decriminalize All Drug Use

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 14, 2011 Global, News

The Telegraph

Possession of any drug for personal use should be decriminalized. That’s the official recommendation of the U.K. government’s drug advisors as of Thursday night. But the Home Office on Friday quickly rejected the suggestion.

If the proposals had been accepted, tens of thousands of people arrested for drugs from cannabis to heroin would have gotten drug education courses instead of getting punished in the courts, The London Times reported on Friday.

6,800 Marijuana Plants Seized In Unprecedented Sweep In WA

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 14, 2011 Growing, News

NWCN

Officers use a battering ram on a door as they raid one of more than 50 homes included in the marijuana sweep on Thursday

Dozens of indoor marijuana growing operations were raided in Washington state Thursday in a sweep involving hundreds of agents. Investigators said Clark County is one of the biggest pot-growing regions on the West Coast.

About 300 local, state and federal offices executed search warrants at more than 50 homes, reports David Krough of NWCN. Several arrests were reportedly also made in other states, leading the cops to around 150 pounds of processed cannabis at various locations in Clark County.

Marijuana: Why The Feds Are Afraid Of Cali 2012

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 14, 2011 Culture, Legislation, News

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

California NORML estimates that there are somewhere between 750,000 to 1.25 million medical marijuana patients registered in California. If President Obama and his Justice Department have their way, that’s a potential of a million or more new criminals to go after. Hell, most of us have given our names and addresses to the California Health Department. That should cut down on some of the bureaucratic bullshit in finding us.

We weren’t hiding. That was supposed to be the point.

Notoriously Dirty Drug Cop Admits To Illegal Gun Sales

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 13, 2011 News

Josh Farley/Kitsap Sun

Portrait of the Asshole as an Old Man: Drug cop Roy Alloway terrorized Washington medical marijuana patients for years. Now he’s pleaded guilty to federal charges of illegal gun sales, and could go to prison for up to five years.

Every now and then, karma gets it right.

A former police narcotics officer indicted after a federal investigation into illegal gun dealing at Western Washington gun shows pleaded guilty on Wednesday. He faces up to five years in prison, and is scheduled for sentencing on January 20.

Roy Alloway, a 56-year-old retired cop from Port Orchard, was indicted in May by a federal grand jury in Seattle along with three other men, reports Levi Pulkkinen at the Seattle P.I. Alloway was the biggest alleged gun dealer indicted, but the same sting also targeted another man purported to have sold a gun which was used to kill a Seattle police officer.

Alloway, a longtime Bremerton undercover narcotics detective, was infamous for his boorish behavior on the job with the Bremerton Police Department — especially when dealing with medical marijuana patients, with whom he had a deservedly horrible reputation. He pleaded guilty to illegally operating as a gun dealer and to income tax fraud.

The officer was so despised among Washington’s medical marijuana patients that a strain of medical marijuana was ironically named after him in retaliation for his being a raging asshole.

His 10 years with the West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team (WestNET) made him a well-known officer around the state, particularly for his work in marijuana eradication, reports the Kitsap Sun, Alloway’s hometown newspaper.

Ex-NYPD Detective: Police Plant Drugs On Innocent People

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 13, 2011 News

hating it magazine

Former NYPD Detective Testifies That Police Regularly Plant Drugs On Innocent People To Meet Arrest Quotas

A former NYPD narcotics detective testified on Wednesday that he regularly saw police plant drugs on innocent people as a way to meet arrest quotas. Stephen Anderson is testifying under cooperation with prosecutors after he was busted for planting cocaine on four men in a bar in Queens.

“It was something I was seeing a lot of, whether it was from supervisors or undercovers and even investigators,” Anderson said.

Anderson worked in the Queens and Brooklyn South narcotics squads and was called to the stand at Detective Jason Arbeeny’s bench trial to show that illegal conduct such as planting drugs on innocent people wasn’t limited to a single squad, reports John Marzuli at Rude Bwoy Blog.

Breaking: DEA Raiding Medical Marijuana Grow In Mendocino

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 13, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, News

Northstone Organics

This was the beautiful cannabis garden at Northstone Organics on August 3. As you read this, federal DEA agents are destroying these plants, and patients are going without the medicine they need.

Federal agents are reportedly raiding the garden of Northstone Organics, a pioneering participant in Mendocino County, California’s innovative “zip-tie” program to license medical marijuana gardens.

Mendocino County’s zip tie program, overseen by Sheriff Tom Allman, allows legal medicinal growers to purchase zip ties from the county to designate their plants as legal.

California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer denounced the raid as a “shameful and despicable” attack on California’s most successful legally regulated marijuana cultivation program.

“The DEA is doing nothing but encouraging lawlessness and disobedience to the law,” Gieringer said. “This is a victory for the Mexican cartels.”

Yearly Archives: 2011