Toke of the Town

Yearly Archives: 2011

Bali Forces Rehab For Aussie, 14, For Marijuana Possession

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By on Global, News

AFP/Sonny Tumbelaka
Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty, has been working to secure the release of the 14-year-old boy who was arrested for marijuana, among huge media interest

​The arrest of a 14-year-old Australian boy in Bali for marijuana possession has created a media firestorm. The boy will likely be held in “drug rehabilitation” for up to another month while he waits to learn how and when he will go to trial.

The Australian ambassador to Indonesia said the case is his “top priority,” reports The Conversation, and even Australia’s Prime Minister Julia Gillard telephoned the teen in prison on Sunday, assuring him “everything is being done” to secure his release.
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The Green Cross Responds To Marijuana Dispensary Crackdown

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By on Dispensaries, News

Luke Thomas/Fog City Journal
Founder/president Kevin Reed of The Green Cross: “The Green Cross will act no differently today or tomorrow, than we did a month ago”

​The founder and president of The Green Cross, a medical marijuana delivery service in San Francisco, responded on Monday to the recently announced federal crackdown on cannabis dispensaries, saying the collective “will act no differently today or tomorrow, than we did a month ago.”

“Following the release of the Cole Memo earlier this summer, the United States Department of Justice announced their intention to ‘crack down’ on medical cannabis dispensaries across the state of California,” Reed told members of The Green Cross collective in a Monday email. “At a press conference last Friday in Sacramento, US Attorneys reminded us that federal law prohibits the use and distribution of cannabis for any purpose regardless of state law, and, outlined heightened enforcement techniques tailored for each of California’s US Attorney districts.
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A&E’s Bordertown: Laredo On The Drug War’s Front Lines

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By on Culture, Products

A&E
A small unit, the Laredo Police Department Narcotics Unit takes on dangerous drug cases usually reserved for federal agencies. They seem not to realize that their entire occupation is a moronic waste of everyone’s time and especially of our precious tax dollars, and that at the end of this stupid Drug War they’ll all be flippin’ burgers at McDonald’s.

​Bordertown: Laredo, a new reality show coming up on A&E, is supposed to be a “real-time report” from one of the most violent fronts in America’s so-called “War On Drugs” (which, like all wars, is actually a war on people).

The 10-part series premieres on A&E this Thursday at 10 p.m., and was produced by Al Roker (yep, that weather guy from the Today show).
The show follows a mostly Latino narcotics unit on the U.S.-Mexican border.
Laredo residents have reportedly already voiced their displeasure with the show, which apparently doesn’t portray their city in a very flattering fashion.
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Advocates Outraged By Governor’s Veto Of Hemp Farming Act

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By on Growing, Legislation, News

Bhudeva
Hemp has been grown everywhere for thousands of years. It is only in the last 75 years that is cultivation has been irrationally outlawed in the United States.

​Veto of SB 676 is a Huge Setback for California Farmers, Businesses and the Economy

Vote Hemp, the nation’s leading grassroots hemp advocacy organization, along with industry trade group the Hemp Industries Association (HIA) — both working to revitalize industrial hemp production in the U.S. — expressed “extreme disappointment” on Monday that California Governor Jerry Brown has vetoed SB 676, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act.
After moving smoothly through the California Legislature with bipartisan support, the legislation was vetoed by Gov. Brown. The first hemp bill to land on Brown’s desk, SB 676 is the fourth bill since 2002 in support of hemp farming to pass the California Legislature, but all four met gubernatorial vetoes.
The bill would have established guidelines for farming the oilseed and fiber varieties of hemp, which are used in a myriad of everyday consumer products including food, body care, clothing, paper, auto parts, composites and building materials.
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The Silver Tour: Teaching Seniors About Medical Marijuana

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By on Legislation, Medical, News

Freedom Is Green
The legendary Robert Platshorn served more prison time for a nonviolent marijuana offense than anyone else in U.S. history. Now he’s teaching other seniors about medical marijuana on The Silver Tour.

​Almost every time a poll is taken on public levels of support for medical marijuana, one of the groups most resistant to the idea is one that stands to gain the most from it: senior citizens. If we, as a community, can find a way to educate seniors on the health benefits and palliative qualities of medicinal cannabis, it will be a huge step towards achieving the numbers it will take to legalize medical marijuana on the federal level. Seniors are known as the most powerful voting bloc in the nation, and they always show up at the polls.

That’s where the legendary Robert Platshorn, the Black Tuna himself, comes in. Platshorn — who started as a pitchman, became one of the biggest marijuana smugglers of the 1970s, and then spent almost 30 years in federal prison — has taken on the job of informing his fellow senior citizens about the health benefits of cannabis.
The Silver Tour is the only organization reaching out to seniors about medical marijuana, according to Platshorn, and its work consists of informing them on ways to organize, petition and contact their local politicians to demand legal, safe access to medicinal cannabis.
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Obama Breaks Promise To Respect Medical Marijuana Laws

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By on Dispensaries, News

Zazzle

​On Friday, four U.S. Attorneys in California announced a new federal policy in the state which would be counter to the Obama Administration’s long-held policy of not interfering in state medical marijuana laws.
The new policy will target collectives operating within 1,000 feet of schools or parks, despite the fact that local zoning ordinances have often allowed collectives to operate as long as they were more than 600 feet from schools. It may also be used against providers who distribute in excess of a certain amount, whether or not those providers were acting in full compliance with state and local law.
 
“The Obama administration has lost its way on medical marijuana and is about to seriously anger millions of Americans,” said Aaron Smith, executive director of the National Cannabis Industry Association. “For some inexplicable reason, they have suddenly decided to target providers who are faithfully complying with state and local laws and pay their taxes.
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Dutch Decide To Treat ‘Strong Marijuana’ As A Hard Drug

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By on Dispensaries, Global, Legislation

Peter Lunk
If that joint Dutch blogger Peter Lunk is smoking contains more than 15 percent THC, he just became a “hard drug user” according to official Dutch policy. Insanity abounds.

​About half the cannabis sold in the Netherlands just got banned — because it’s too good. According to the Dutch government, that joint of White Widow you’re smoking is just as bad as heroin or meth. And if they catch you smoking weed they think is “too good,” they can throw you into drug rehab for it.

The Dutch have been a source of both exhilaration and exasperation with their hard-to-pin-down cannabis policies for the past 40 years. Often held up as a model of tolerance by those in less-permissive countries, they actually have some serious perception problems of their own.

A couple of those have come to light recently, first with a move afoot (and gaining ground) to ban foreigners from “coffee shops” in the Netherlands, which sell marijuana and hashish to customers under an odd policy of “official tolerance” wherein cannabis is still officially illegal.
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DOJ Subsidizing Cali Gangs With Dispensary Shutdown: MPP

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Prison Inmate Penpal
They’re probably celebrating the new Obama Administration policy toward medical marijuana dispensaries.

​U.S. Attorneys Announce That Dispensaries In California Must Close
In a press conference Friday, all four U.S. Attorneys in California announced that the Obama Administration will no longer ignore dispensaries and will actively prosecute many commercial operations.
The attorneys said they will concentrate on criminal prosecution and asset forfeiture against the landlords of medical marijuana dispensaries or cultivation centers, and threaten action against certain commercial organizations.
Multiple businesses throughout the state have been given 45 days to close down.
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Your Government: Busting Potheads Since 1937

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By on Culture

Law Firm Blog

​By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent

None of this is true. It takes place in an office in a big nondescript government building, someplace where obedient, bored American people work and make lots of money arresting other Americans. We now go to a conversation already in progress.
Jack: I would like to speak to the person in charge of busting potheads.
Receptionist: He’s at the bar…
Jack: I’ll wait…
[Three hours later]
PICOBP: C’mon in, mind if I smoke?
Jack: Smoke what? 
PICOBP: Cigarettes? What else is there?
Jack: That’s why I’m here.
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