Yearly Archives: 2011

Hempstalk 2011 Kicks Off In Portland

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 10, 2011 Culture, Products

Hempstalk 2011

A compelling mix of upbeat music, a cannabis law reform message and a focus on industrial hemp as the answer to many of our practical needs, the seventh annual Portland Hempstalk festival is set for 10 a.m to 9 p.m. Saturday, September 10, and 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday at Kelley Point Park, located at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers.

Co-sponsored by The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation (THCF), Green Leaf Lab and John Lucy, attorney at law, the event is free to attendees of all ages. With more than 40,000 people expected to attend, it will wrap up the summer festival season with a bang, according to organizers.

This year’s Hempstalk will also feature more than 100 vendor booths offering delicious food and irresistible merchandise, and a Hemposium which will feature informational panels on a variety of cannabis and hemp-related topics.

Bummer of a Summer: Weather Halves B.C.’s Pot Crop

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 9, 2011 Global, Growing

RCMP

RCMP officers on Vancouver Island bust an outdoor marijuana grow operation

Wet, cold weather in British Columbia this summer has cut the western Canadian province’s marijuana harvest in half, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Officers have observed “significantly smaller” marijuana plants from aerial and ground searches, according to RCMP spokesman Cpl. Darren Lagan, reports Katie DeRosa at the Victoria Times Colonist. Lagan said the plants were smaller this year because of poor weather at the beginning of the growing season.

Felony Marijuana Charges Dropped Against Wiz Khalifa

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 9, 2011 Culture, News

Stuff Stoners Like

Wiz Khalifa tweeted “Waken… baken… wrist still achin” the morning after his marijuana bust at East Carolina University. All charges against the rapper have now been dismissed.

Rap star Wiz Khalifa has been cleared of felony marijuana charges stemming from his arrest in North Carolina late last year.

On Wednesday, Pitt County District Attorney Clark Everett dropped a felony “drug trafficking” charge against Khalifa, who was arrested on November 8, 2010 after a show on the campus of East Carolina University when police discovered marijuana on his tour bus, reports James Montgomery at MTV.

Khalifa and nine members of his entourage were charged with trafficking, maintaining a vehicle for “sale or storage” of marijuana, and a misdemeanor charge of “drug paraphernalia” possession.

The trafficking charges were in error, according to D.A. Everett, because the amount of cannabis confiscated on the tour bus was 58 grams, only slightly more than two ounces, reports the Greenville Daily Reflector. For marijuana trafficking charges to stick in North Carolina, the threshold is 10 pounds.

There were 10 people in Wiz’s tour bus, according to Everett, and the star paid a “substantial premium fee” to a bail bondsman for covering the $300,000 bond for himself and all members of his entourage so everyone could leave immediately.

Sweet Victory: Medical Marijuana Supporters Block County Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 9, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Courtesy Craig Beresh

Craig Beresh, Randy Welty and Phil Ganong give last-minute instructions and prepare to turn in 26,000 signatures collected in 30 days to reverse the ban on medical marijuana dispensaries in Kern County, California. “We then started the victory party!” Beresh said.

It’s a huge victory for the medical marijuana community in Kern County, California. Cannabis proponents have met the deadline to gather enough signatures to block a county ordinance that would have banned dispensaries.

A ban on storefront sales of medical marijuana, approved by the Kern County Board of Supervisors on August 9, would have gone into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, reports Mark Christian at Turn To 23 in Bakersfield.

Late Thursday afternoon, Kern Citizens For Patient Rights marched to the Kern County Board of Elections to turn in the signatures needed to protest and block the ordinance, about one hour before they were due.

Sex Pot: Marijuana and Sex Are Lots of Fun Together

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 8, 2011 Culture, Products

Amazon

If you’ve smoked very much marijuana and had very much sex, you know they’re both lots of fun, and you know they go together spectacularly well. There’s nothing quite like combining the relaxed sensual enhancement of cannabis and some quality time with a smokin’ partner.

Now there’s a book to help you explore the happy confluence of carnality and cannabis. Sex Pot: The Marijuana Lover’s Guide to Gettin’ It On, by cannabis advice columnist Mamakind, can verbally inspire your imagination the way a joint of Afgoo does conceptually.

Mamakind shows the kind of good-humored, laugh-out-loud funny, accepting approach that is just what the love doctor ordered, and her slightly stoned style would be great fun to read even if it weren’t about my two favorite subjects, hemp and humpin’.

Drug Cartels Rapidly Gaining Ground In U.S.: Justice Department

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 8, 2011 Global, News

LEAP

Terry Nelson, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: “It is really no surprise to me that our prohibition policy isn’t helping to achieve any reduction in drug trafficking”

A newly released report from the U.S. Department of Justice shows that Mexican drug cartels are rapidly gaining ground inside the United States, despite extensive efforts by the government to crack down on trafficking.

In light of the findings, a group of Border Patrol agents, police officers and judges is saying it is time to legalize and regulate drugs in order to defund the cartels that make so much money from the illicit drug market.

“As someone who has fought on the front lines of the failed ‘war on drugs’ for decades it is really no surprise to me that our prohibition policy isn’t helping to achieve any reduction in drug trafficking,” said Terry Nelson, a board member for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and a retired U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent.

“We should have learned this lesson decades ago with alcohol prohibition, but let’s hope that the data in this new government report helps more members of Congress and Obama administration officials to realize that their ‘drug war’ strategy is an abysmal failure and that it’s time for a new direction,” Nelson said.

Drug Czar Sends Mixed Messages On Marijuana Policy

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 8, 2011 News

LIFE

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske claimed on Thursday that the regulation of alcohol, tobacco and prescription drugs has not worked, so regulation of marijuana could not be expected to work, either

The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) on Thursday announced the latest results of the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. As is their annual custom, the federal officials used the event — and the survey itself — as an opportunity to decry the use of marijuana in the United States.

“What we saw today was just more of the same stale old rhetoric and exaggerations about marijuana use,” said Morgan Fox, communications manager for the Marijuana Policy Project (MPP). “The analysis SAMHSA included with the National Survey on Drug Use and Health seeks to blame what they claim is a significant increase in teen marijuana use on relaxed perceptions of harm, caused by the ongoing discussion of marijuana reform, particularly medical marijuana.

Drug Treatment Doc Arrested For Attempted Rape of 10-Year-Old

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 8, 2011 News

KOMO News

Addiction counselor David Scratchley is accused of attempting to rape a 10-year-old boy

David Scratchley, a “Christian drug-treatment manager” based in Seattle, has been arrested and charged with attempted rape of a child in the first degree and communication with a minor for immoral purposes. He is being held in the King County Jail on $1 million bail, and is scheduled for arraignment on September 21.

Scratchley, 52, presents himself as an expert on such topics as “power parenting” and “treatment options for addicted teens,” subjects that he has addressed in both books and in online videos, reports Nina Shapiro at Seattle Weekly.

Missouri Technical College Begins Mandatory Drug Testing

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 7, 2011 News

The Gilmer Free Press

I know it’s the “Show Me” state, but this is ridiculous. A state technical college in central Missouri has begun what could be the most extensive drug testing policy at a public college or university in the United States.

The demand that students provide urine specimens for drug testing welcomed new enrollees at Linn State Technical College, a two-year school with about 1,200 students, reports Alan Scher Zagier at the Huffington Post.

More limited drug testing of college and high school students — say, of student athletes, or at private colleges — has been consistently upheld by courts at both the federal and state levels. But Linn State’s testing of the general student body appears unprecedented.

VH1 Documentary Delves Into History of Crack Cocaine

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on September 7, 2011 Culture, News, Products

VH1

Twenty-five years after crack cocaine ravaged American cities, a new VH1 Rock Doc explores how the drug also transformed popular culture, especially hip-hop. The latest addition to the Emmy-winning franchise, “Planet Rock: The Story of Hip Hop and the Crack Generation” premieres Sunday, September 18 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on VH1.

Narrated and executive produced by Ice-T, “Planet Rock” is the first documentary to focus specifically on the connections between crack and hip-hop. Based primarily on the first-person accounts of four famous dealers turned rappers, the film also widens its lens at times to show how crack changed America culturally, socially and politically.

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