Petulant Police Refuse To ‘Participate In’ Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 22, 2011 Medical, News

Graphic: Chico Police Officers’ Association

Members of the Chico Police Officers’ Association have revealed themselves to be some real grandstanding hot-doggers. These “public servants,” the lowest-paid of whom makes $70,000 a year straight out of your taxpayer pocket, are refusing to do their jobs.

Did you know police officers got to pick which laws they enforce? Did you know these big-bellied buffoons in blue, if they personally disapprove of a law, feel entitled to ignore the damn thing? Hell, maybe we should have all gone into law enforcement, if it’s that cushy a gig.

These drama queens, apparently trying to make some sort of point but mostly just ending up with “we’re a bunch of unprofessional ass-bags,” have sent a letter to Chico, California City Councilman Mark Sorensen stating that under federal law, they cannot be involved in any part of the city’s recent commercial growing and marijuana selling ordinance.

2011 CA Atty. Gen. Marijuana Guidelines Leaked; Read ‘Em Here

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 22, 2011 Growing, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Office of the Attorney General

California Attorney General Kamala Harris

A draft copy of the new 2011 California Attorney General’s guidelines on medical marijuana have been leaked. They are reproduced below in their entirety.

An official release of these guidelines is expected sometime between now and the end of August.

The section on collectives and dispensaries, among others, doesn’t seem to be good news for patients as far as affordable access is concerned; the section seems to limit individual patient options.

“While many advocates argue for ‘safe access’ I want not only ‘safe access’ but ‘affordable access’ and at times I get the impression that ‘affordable access’ is lost in the discussion among many,” commented Brett Stone, who manages the Medical Marijuana News group on Yahoo!, through which he released the draft guidelines.

“A special thanks to Shona Gochenaur of San Francisco’s Axis of Love for uncovering and forwarding this copy to me,” Stone said.

Interview: Legendary Marijuana Activist Pebbles Trippet

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 21, 2011 Culture

Photo: Fred Sternkof

Pebbles Trippet is a quiet hero in Mendo. She’s over 70 and works every day for the cause.

When Mendocino Medical Marijuana Advisory Board member Pebbles Trippet’s car breaks down on the way to an activist meeting, she hitchhikes — and she never says anything to anyone about needing a ride home. She goes way back in the scene and has been there, according to locals, for almost every cannabis event “since the whole thing started.” Toke of the Town‘s own Jack Rikess recently had the honor of chatting with Pebbles on our behalf. ~ Editor

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Even when she’s preachy and almost bullying and dogmatic in her principles, there is something so exquisitely human about Pebbles Trippet, that you’ve just got to love her.

For many outside the Mendocino area Ms. Pebbles Trippet, the consummate steady-Eddy patients’ rights activist, may be an unknown commodity, but I’m sure you’re familiar with the laws that she’s impacted and personally changed.

California Senate Bill 420 expanded and redefined Proposition 215 and gave another face to medical marijuana by allowing collective associations of patients to grow for their own memberships. Prop. 215 allowed for the right to grow, possess, obtain and use cannabis for medicinal purposes.

What you couldn’t do with cannabis was transport it. Yeah, go figure.

Frontline: ‘The Pot Republic’ Airs On PBS July 26 & 29

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 21, 2011 Culture, Growing, News

Photo: Frontline

Mendocino County Sheriff’s Department Sgt. Randy Johnson (left) visits a marijuana farm run by Matt Cohen (right), as featured in “The Pot Republic,” airing July 26 and 29 on PBS.

Frontline is presenting “The Pot Republic,” a report on the effort to legalize marijuana in California, this month on PBS.

While the bulk of cannabis used in the United States used to come across the border from Mexico, Colombia, Canada and elsewhere, more than half of it is now believed to be domestically grown, much of it in California, “where an enormous black market has emerged under the cover of the state’s medical marijuana law,” at least if PBS is to be believed.

With more than a third of the U.S. now experimenting with some form of legalization and decriminalization — and several California counties attempting to openly regulate cannabis production — Frontline and the Center for Investigative Reporting teamed up to take a look at the country’s oldest, largest and most wide-open marijuana market.

Deputies Arrest 84-Year-Old Running Marijuana Grow House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 21, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: WTSP

Some of the plants seized from the home of 84-year-old Bernardino Gonzalez. Of course, asshole cops couldn’t resist going ahead and mutilating the plants, just to prove what macho ass-bags they are.

An 84-year-old Florida man faces drug-trafficking charges after Sarasota County, Florida sheriff’s deputies busted into his home and claimed they found 60 marijuana plants in what they described as an “elaborate” grow house.

Members of the Special Investigations unit conducted surveillance on the home, wasting untold thousands of taxpayer dollars in the process, after a butt-insky deputy responding to an unrelated call in the neighborhood claimed he smelled the odor of cannabis coming from the area.

The Sheriff’s Office claims it pinpointed the smell as coming from a home in Island Date Street and were able to get a search warrant, reports Beau Zimmer at WTSP.

Washington: 5 Indicted In Federal Medical Marijuana Crackdown

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 21, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: KREM.com

Charles Wright was one of the five men federally indicted Wednesday in a federal crackdown on medical marijuana in Spokane, Washington

A federal grand jury has indicted five medical marijuana dispensary owners in and near Spokane, Washington. On Wednesday, a laundry list of federal marijuana charges, including distributing and selling near an elementary school, were announced in the indictments.

Four of those indicted consist of two two-man owner teams from two separate Spokane dispensaries, while the fifth person indicted was allegedly cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants in Loon Lake, Washington.

Farmer’s Market Brings Patients And Cannabis Together

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 21, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical

Patients in the Olympia, Washington area, south of Seattle, are lucky enough to have an excellent farmer’s market providing the best in cannabis, edibles, topicals and concentrates from a variety of caregiver tables.

Medical Marijuana Supporters Get 2,000 Signatures In One Week

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 20, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Eliza Wiley/Helena Independent Record

Senator Dave Wanzenreid (D-Missoula) spoke Tuesday in the secretary of state’s office to announce the Initiative Referendum 124 petition campaign by Patients For Reform – Not Repeal.

It only took a week to get 2,000 Montanans to sign petitions to let voters in 2012 decide the fate of the restrictive medical marijuana law passed by their state Legislature this year, backers of the referendum said on Tuesday.

A group called Patients For Reform – Not Repeal has launched a statewide campaign trying to get enough voter signatures to place Senate Bill 423 on the ballot next year, reports Charles S. Johnson at the Billings Gazette.

If the group reaches an additional level of signatures by September 30, the law will be suspended until voters decide in November 2012 whether to keep or reject it.

The referendum is part of a three-pronged attack by medical marijuana supporters and patients. On another front, the Montana Cannabis Industry Association, along with other groups, has mounted a court challenge to the law’s constitutionality.

Missouri Group Works To Legalize Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 20, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: Show-Me Cannabis

Petitions have been filed with the Missouri secretary of state’s office, and it could be the first step toward the legalization of marijuana — if it attracts enough support.

Show-Me Cannabis, an initiative organized by Missourians and businesses that believe marijuana prohibition is a failed policy, filed two petitions with the secretary of state this month, reports Kim Norvell at the St. Joseph News-Press. One of the petitions would amend Missouri’s constitution, while the other would involve a change in statutes.

Former Cop Seeks Out Marijuana Grows For Landlords

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 20, 2011 Global, Growing, News

Photo: CTV

Brian Gladstone, Griffin Security: “The only way to be certain is to go inside and have a look, but this gives the landlord a reason to go have a look”

A former Canadian Mountie in British Columbia is offering a controversial new service designed to help landlords tell if their tenants are cultivating indoor marijuana gardens.

Brian Goldstone of Griffin Security uses infrared cameras to detect unusual amounts of heat inside a home from the outside, reports Brent Shearer at CTV News. He wants landlords to hire him to search for marijuana operations on their properties.

Yearly Archives: 2011