Yearly Archives: 2011

Rally Tuesday In San Diego To Defend Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 13, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Members of the California Cannabis Coalition invite you to join them in San Diego on Tuesday, October 18 from noon to 2 p.m., for a rally to defend medical marijuana coops and collectives

Attorney General Eric Holder has said he will no longer respect the rights of patients or the laws of California and is prosecuting medical marijuana collectives and cooperatives.

Activists with the California Cannabis Coalition are responding this Tuesday, October 18, with a rally to defend medicinal cannabis, from 12 noon until 2 p.m., in San Diego. The rally will begin at the Civic Center, 1200 Third Avenue, at noon and go from there to the Federal Building, 880 Front Street.

In San Diego, the local U.S. Attorney, Laura Duffy, has issued letters to every medical marijuana collective and their landlords ordering that they cease operation within 45 days, or federal officials will confiscate the buildings in which they reside.

Feds To Go After Newspapers, Radio For Medical Marijuana Ads

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 12, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Veterans Today

Raising worrisome First Amendment issues, U.S. Attorneys are getting ready to go after newspapers, radio stations and other outlets which accept advertising for California’s medical marijuana dispensaries, as the Obama Administration opens up another front in its ongoing war against medicinal cannabis.

After announcing earlier this month that landlords could have their property seized if they rent to dispensaries, the Administration seems to be including media outlets in its threats, as well, reports Michael Montgomery at California Watch.

Marijuana advertising is the next area U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy is “going to be moving onto as part of the enforcement efforts in Southern California,” she said. Duffy, whose district includes San Diego and Imperial counties, said she couldn’t speak for the other three federal prosecutors in the state, but noted they have coordinated their efforts thus far.

Medical Cannabis Is Great For Sports Injuries & Active Lifestyles

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 12, 2011 Medical

SportsxInjury

When you injure yourself playing a sport, why cover up the injury when you can actually start the healing process?

Treatment Trends

By Ben Reagan

Co-Founder, The C.P.C

Weekend warriors, serious athletes, obsessive golfers, all ye with active lifestyles, if you’re reading this article you probably have first-hand experience with the side effects associated with opiate narcotics, analgesics, muscle relaxants, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medications (NSAIDs) typically prescribed for sports injuries or the wear and tear from a lifetime of “staying fit” or “playing hard.”

Take opiates (please), which interrupt pain signaling to the brain by flooding pain receptors with damping effects. The long term effect is a down regulation of endogenous opiate production.

Technically speaking, “this down regulation appears to have cross over effects across the pituitary gland and hypothalamus, triggering something called panhypopituitarism, with symptoms of fatigue, obesity, diabetes, insomnia, depression, GI inhibition and decreased libido often resulting,” according to Dr. Zach Sparer of Green Wellness.

Mother Jailed, Then Released After Baby Tests Positive For Pot

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 12, 2011 News

First Coast News

Nicole Marie Killeen, 24, was jailed after her one-year-old daughter tested positive for marijuana. Charges were dropped on Tuesday.

A Florida mother was jailed on a child neglect charge after her baby tested positive for marijuana, but the charge was dropped on Tuesday.

The one-year-old child of Nicole Marie Killeen, 24, tested “positive for marijuana” at Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Fla., on September 3, according to the Jackonville Sheriff’s Office, reports Jessica Clark at First Coast News.

A sheriff’s deputy went to the home where the mother lives with her daughter. One marijuana plant and cannabis buds were found in a closet, according to the report, and marijuana seeds and a pipe were allegedly found in the kitchen.

Mother & Son Arrested: Growing Hundreds Of Marijuana Plants

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 12, 2011 Growing, News

WHEC

Diane Bielewicz, 61, of Nunda, New York, called police on her son for firing a gun in the house, but wound up going to jail herself for marijuana cultivation.

In what the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is describing as one of the biggest marijuana growing operations they’ve ever seen, a New York mother and son were arrested for cultivating cannabis after the mother called police, saying her son was firing shots inside their home.

Deputies said they were called to the Nunda, N.Y., home of Diane Bielewicz, 61, after her son Joseph Bielewicz, 33, started firing a gun, reports Christine VanTimmeren at WHEC. When deputies got there about 3 a.m. on Tuesday, they said they found “hundreds” of marijuana plants growing inside the home, around the property, and in a state wildlife preserve just off their property.

Besides what they breathlessly described as “one of the most sophisticated growing operations they had ever seen” (Incidentally, ever notice how the cops describe every single busted grow as either “the most sophisticated ever” or “dangerously primitive”? Seems there’s no middle ground with these clowns), officers also found more than 20 weapons including shotguns, rifles and pistols.

Woman Busted After Trying To Find Weed On Craigslist

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 12, 2011 News

KOB Eyewitness News 4

Aw, MAN… I coulda hooked her up nice. Anamicka Dave was arrested after posting an ad on Craigslist looking for pot.

Here’s how not to find weed: A New Mexico woman was arrested after police said she put an ad up on Craigslist trying to buy marijuana.

Anamicka Dave, 29, of Albuquerque, was charged after undercover officers posing as pot dealers (I’d like to have seen their “disguises”) arranged to meet her through text messages, reports Joe Bartels at KOB Eyewitness News 4.

Dave’s Craigslist ad in the “Casual Encounters” section noted that she was new to town and “looking for Mary Jane.”

The ad was so blatant, Roswell Police Sgt. Ty Sharpe said he had to make sure it wasn’t posted by another undercover officer.

“I was really surprised that someone would actually put on there they were looking for weed — an actually illegal product — to the fact that I called my boss to make sure it wasn’t one of our guys trying to do a reverse sting,” Sharpe said.

Obama Called ‘From First To Worst’ On Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 11, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

MPP

After presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged to stop interfering with state medical marijuana laws in states where the medicinal use of cannabis has been legalized, advocates were hopeful that they could at last concentrate on getting medicine safely to patients, rather than worry about federal raids.

That hope was nice while it lasted, but is quickly evaporating now that the Administration is pursuing a multi-front war on medicinal cannabis providers and, by extension, the patients who count on dispensaries for safe access.

Marijuana Policy Project Executive Director Rob Kampia in a Sunday editorial in the Huffington Post noted the turnaround, saying “over the past eight months [Obama] has become arguably the worst president in U.S. history regarding medical marijuana.”

Marijuana Crackdown By Obama: Yes, It’s Big Pharma

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 11, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Federal prosecutors in the Obama Administration are going after medical marijuana dispensaries. How are pharmaceutical companies involved? Some leaders in this movement will actually tell you they aren’t; be very careful in whom you believe.

As pointed out on The Young Turks, this crackdown is nothing more than a process of eliminating the competition for Big Pharma. GW Pharmaceutical and other manufacturers want to take over the marijuana market with products like Sativex, a liquid extract of cannabis that contains both THC and CBD.

The Sky Is Falling! Or, Marijuana Leaf-Shaped Candy Exists.

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 11, 2011 Culture, News, Products

Kalan LP

Hey man, pass the bag.

You’d think it was some sort of sugar-coated apocalypse to hear some drama-addicted folks making a brouhaha about the marijuana-shaped candies that are now available.

Never mind the fact that you can’t get high on ’em. Just the very fact that they’re shaped (sort of) like the leaves of that evil cannabis plant is enough to get some (bored? angry? neurotic?) parents all in a lather.

The candy part of the ring is shaped like a marijuana leaf. The packaging shows a joint-smoking, peace sign-shooting hippie type and has the word “Legalize” on it.

The “Ring Pots Pot Shaped Ring Candy” and “Pothead Lollipops” are distributed to retail stores by novelty supply company Kalan LP, based in a Philadelphia suburb named Lansdowne, reports Amanda St. Amand of the St. Louis Post-Disptach.

RAND Removes Its Own Pro-Marijuana Dispensary Study

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on October 11, 2011 Dispensaries, News

RAND Corporation

If your science upsets the powers that be — like, for instance, rabidly anti-marijuana Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich — then obviously there’s something wrong with science, not with the powers that be.

Report Comes Down After Heavy Pressure From L.A. City Attorney’s Office — But It’s Still Available For You To Read: See Link At End Of Article

A September report from the RAND Corporation showing that crime rates went up in neighborhoods where medical marijuana dispensaries were forced to close created lots of media interest and comment — and it apparently made someone very uncomfortable.

In a highly unusual move for RAND, as of Tuesday morning, the report is no longer available on its site.

Los Angeles Times

Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich’s office was “vocal” in its criticism of last month’s RAND report showing that crime went up in neighborhoods when dispensaries were shut down — so RAND took their own report off their website.

Toke of the Town asked RAND why the report “has been withdrawn pending further review.”

“We took a fresh look at the study based in part upon questions raised by some folks following publication,” responded Warren Robak of RAND Corporation’s media relations department.

“We are continuing our review of the study and have now decided that while the review is pending, we should remove the report from circulation,” Robak wrote.

“The L.A. City Attorney’s Office has been the organization most vocal in its criticism of the study, questioning its methods and conclusions,” Robak told me after I asked who, exactly, was “raising questions.”

Why, exactly, a city attorney should have input on the results of a scientific study is a question we should all be asking at this point.

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