Yearly Archives: 2011

Marijuana Dispensary Owner Says Deputy Extorted Sex

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 31, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Dispensary owner Marcus Searls wants $1 million for each of the 15 times he said he was forced to have sex with a Grays Harbor Sheriff’s deputy.

Dispensary Owner Wants $1 Million For Each Time He Was Forced To Have Sex With Deputy

A man who opened a medical marijuana dispensary in Grays Harbor County, Washington has filed a multimillion-dollar federal claim, alleging that a male sheriff’s deputy threatened him with jail to extort sexual favors.

Marcus Searls of Elma, Washington said the deputy was on duty when some of the sexual encounters took place — and even that the two had sex on the hood of a patrol car. (I think I’d ask $2 million for that time.)

Sheriff: Use Pot Eradication Money To Prevent Gangs Instead

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 31, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: Benton County, Washington

Gotta love Sheriff Steve Keane for speaking truth to power.

‘Put the money where the problem is’

~ Sheriff Steve Keane

From time to time, a public servant says something so obviously true, so resonantly sensible, that it’s startling. Yes, it’s kind of sad that we’re startled by the truth, but it’s also great that there are people out there willing to lay it on the line.

Today’s hero is Steve Keane, sheriff of Benton County, Washington.

In a lunch meeting with Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna, when the subject of controlling gang violence came up, Sheriff Keane told the A.G. it’d be nice if some money set aside for marijuana eradication could be used for gang prevention so they can “put the money where the problem is,” reports Paula Horton of the Tacoma News Tribune.

Black Government Employees Call For End To War On Drugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 31, 2011 Culture, News

Photo: Truth of Success Blog

Retired U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, LEAP: “The war on drugs has put blacks behind bars for drug offenses at more than 10 times the rate of whites”

Group Joins Police Officers In Calling For Legalization

Blacks In Government (BIG), a group representing the interests of African-American government employees at the federal, state, county and municipal levels, overwhelmingly passed a resolution at its national delegates meeting last week calling for an end to the failed and racially biased “War On Drugs.”

The resolution, which will be delivered to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, calls for “alternatives to incarceration that may, in part, include a model to regulate and control the distribution of some drugs.”

The resolution pointed to the words of Maryland State Police Major Neill Franklin and U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, both members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of police, judges, prosecutors and prison wardens who support legalizing and regulating drugs.

BIG and LEAP noted that African Americans constitute 53.5 percent of all persons in prison because of a drug conviction, despite the fact that blacks are no more likely than whites to use drugs.

3-Year State Trooper Study: Marijuana Has An Odor

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 30, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: Alaska Hemp

“Hey, I think I smell something…”

A press release from the Alaska State Troopers proudly unveiled the results of a three-year(!) study which, not shockingly, determined that the odor of marijuana may be associated with the presence of marijuana.

Now, stop it. Maybe Alaska State Troopers (AST) don’t have much to do; I’m sure their lives could use a little more excitement. And they have all those “federally forfeited illegal drug proceeds” to spend on, well, something.

The troopers used the University of Alaska Anchorage (UAA) Justice Center to analyze three years’ worth of marijuana grows which they busted. The study analyzed 200 marijuana grow searches conducted by Alaska State Troopers covering 2006 to 2008.

Cheeba.com Offers Marijuana-Based Search Engine, Ads

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 30, 2011 Products

Graphic: Cheeba.com

They’re calling it the industry’s very first marijuana-based search engine.

Companies looking to target America’s multi-billion dollar marijuana industry have often had a hard time reaching potential customers online, because ad networks like Google AdSense and Facebook have been none too cannabis-friendly.

The big guys have arbitrarily removed ads for supposedly “promoting drug use” or just for featuring an innocent little pot leaf.

Enter Cheeba.com, the latest push from the Medical Cannabis Network (MCN), a marijuana-based search engine which, according to the company, “creates online advertising opportunities never seen before for marijuana-related businesses.

“While ad networks like Google AdSense seem to flat out ban companies from reaching out [to]the cannabis community, Cheeba is stepping in to give the green light for 420-friendly online advertising,” the company said in a Monday press release.

Tupac’s Friends Say They Smoked His Ashes In A Blunt

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 30, 2011 Culture

Graphic: Coolchaser

Rapper in a wrapper: Pac’s friends claim they rolled his ashes into a blunt and smoked him.

Members of The Young Outlawz rolled up Tupac Shakur’s ashes into a blunt and smoked them after the rap legend was murdered in 1996, the reunited group claims.

In what has certainly proven to be a big source of publicity for group’s reunion, The Young Outlawz claimed they based their actions on Pac’s wishes as expressed in the lyrics of one of his songs, reports Peter C. Aitken of the New York Daily News.

Members of the reunited group, originally formed by Tupac after his release from prison in 1995, addressed the long-standing rumors in a new video for VladTV.

“Yeah, it’s definitely true,” said Young Noble, reports the Daily News. “I think it was the night of, we had a little memorial for him, with his mom, his family and shit. We hit the beach, do a lot of the shit he liked on the beach. Some weed, some chicken wings, he loved orange soda and all that kind of shit. Pac loved that shit, so we were giving him our own farewell that night.

“I forgot which one of us came up with it, like we need to go and do that, but we twisted up some of that Great Grandaddy California Kush and mixed the big homie with it,” Young Noble said.

Another member of The Young Outlawz, E.D.I., took credit for the macabre idea.

2 Shootings In 2 Weeks Rock The Mendo Marijuana Community

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 30, 2011 Culture, Growing

Photo: Cal Pot News

Fort Bragg City Councilman Jere Melo was shot to death after finding not a marijuana grow site, but an opium poppy grow site.

“I just wish I could tell the marijuana haters, we’re on your side. This isn’t us. Both of these guys were killed by murderers. People who would kill whether it was because of weed or maybe a fight over a girl.”

~ Mendocino Grower

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

It was Saturday afternoon when I read online that Ft. Bragg councilman and the once mayor, Jere Melo, was shot while exploring a marijuana grow. First reports were Melo and another man had taken multiple shots when a crazed gunman surprised the pair as they were investigating claims for a timber company that they both worked for, that a remote marijuana grow was operating in the area.

Later that night it was confirmed that city councilman Jere Melo was dead at 73. You could tell by the outpouring of the shocked and grieving comments that Melo was a beloved father and husband, respected deeply as local civic leader and a lover of the woods that initially brought him to the area as a forester in the Sixties.

Man Uses Fake Gun To Rob Store Of Fake Pot; Gets Shot In Ass

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 News

Photo: Jack Dillon/NIJ

A Texas man tried to rob a gas station of fake marijuana, using a hammer as his weapon, but the attempt was foiled when he got shot in the ass by another customer.

Dustin Darsp, 35, tried to steal synthetic marijuana known as K2 from a Shell convenience store at about 9:30 Sunday night in San Antonio, reports KSAT. Carrying a small hammer draped in a block cloth or sock — which he attempted to pass off as a gun — he grabbed a box of K2 and hurriedly left the store.

“He carried it as if it was a gun and pointed it at the clerk and the customer,” said San Antonio Police Detective Robert Bernal, reports Jessica Kwong of the San Antonio Express-News. “He wanted them to believe that what he had was a gun.”

Woman Pulls Out Bag Of Weed When Cops Ask For ID

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 News

Photo: Daily Mail

Danielle Ray Shockey, 27, accidentally pulled out a bag of weed when asked by a cop for her ID.

Please keep your weed and your driver’s license in separate locations. A 27-year-old Florida woman was thrown in jail after pulling out a bag of marijuana when police asked for her identification.

Clearwater Police said Danielle Rae Shockey was sitting in a car in the La Quinta Inn parking lot at 3 a.m. Saturday when an officer approached and asked what she was doing, reports Will Hobson at the St. Petersburg Times. She told them she was talking to her boyfriend, and thinking of renting a room.

The officer asked for her ID and police said she reached in her purse and pulled out the card, along with a bag of pot, which she immediately tried to conceal.

It was too late, though. The cop saw it and searched her purse.

Police said the purse also contained painkillers and sedatives: 57 oxycodone pills, seven methadone pills, three Valium and one clonazepam (a muscle relaxer).

Ohio Man Faces 10 Years For Pot-Laced Rice Krispie Treats

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on August 29, 2011 News

Photo: ABC 6 On Your Side

Om nom nom nom.

An Ohio man faces up to 10 years in prison and up to a $20,000 fine after law enforcement officers found 4.5 pounds of marijuana-laced Rice Krispie treats during a traffic crash investigation.

Patrick Altier, 22, of Boardman, Ohio, was charged with possession and trafficking of marijuana, both third-degree felonies, after Ohio State Highway Patrol troops detected a “strong odor of marijuana” on him during the crash investigation in Boardman Township, Mahoning County, on August 25.

During a “probable cause” search of Altier’s vehicle, based on the pot smell, troopers found individually wrapped Rice Krispie-like treats (the photo actually looks like it could be some Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles, and trust me, I’m an expert in such matters).

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