Video: ‘Largest Ever’ Marijuana Field Torched In Mexico

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 18, 2011 Global, Growing, News

One of Mexico’s largest-ever seizures of marijuana was torched by the army in El Rosario, Baja California on Friday.

The massive haul went up in smoke three days after Mexican soldiers found a pot plantation covering almost 300 acres, according to the Defense Department, reports Russia Today.

Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition Takes It To The People

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 18, 2011 Legislation, Medical, News

Photo: AMMJC

Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition Co-President Ron Crumpton, right, is interviewed by newspaper reporter Jason Bacaj of The Anniston Star.

State Lawmaker: ‘Good Possibility’ He Will Sponsor A Medical Marijuana Bill In Alabama Legislature

Did you know that the Heart of Dixie stands an excellent chance to become the first medical marijuana state in the Deep South?

The newest Alabama group working to allow marijuana as medicine is taking its message to the people with a series of picnic-style meetings across the state. The Alabama Medical Marijuana Coalition (AMMJC) group’s second event, was held Saturday in Jacksonville at Germania Springs Park.

A crowd that grew to close to 70 people was on hand for the picnic, including a state lawmaker who said there is a “good possibility” that he will sponsor a medical marijuana bill in the Alabama Legislature next year.

At Last! A Handy Visual Reference To Identify Stoners

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2011 Culture

Graphic: rehab-programs.org

If the dude’s long-haired, got a headband on, wearing a tie-dye, shooting a peace sign, and barefooted, he’s probably a damn pothead. Useful info! LOL.

It’s the only way to be sure. Here, my friends, are the tell-tale signs of “marijuana addiction.”

No, man, this isn’t from The Onion. These folks are serious!

Rehab programs nationwide are trying, you gotta give ’em that. And being businesses, they’re always working on new angles to attract new, well, business.

Ex-Mayor Gets 3 Months In Jail For Dealing Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2011 News

Photo: Everett Herald

Floyd “Butch” DeRosia, pictured not long before he resigned as mayor in 2003

The former mayor of Granite Falls, Washington was sentenced on Thursday to three months in jail for dealing marijuana.

Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Halley Hupp recommended a four-month sentence, but Superior Court Judge Richard Okrent knocked a month off that, plus agreed to let former Mayor Floyd “Butch” DeRosia serve his time on work release.

A jury last month convicted DeRosia of two counts of delivery of a controlled substance after a two-day trial. He had faced up to six months in jail.

Israel: Government Debates Future of Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2011 Global, Legislation, Medical

Photo: The Jerusalem Post

The government of Israel is expected to decide on establishing a state agency which would be responsible for authorizing and processing requests for medical cannabis.

Currently, about 6,000 patients receive medical marijuana in Israel, reports Judy Siegel Itzkovich at the The Jerusalem Post. But the number of authorizations could reach 40,000 in five years, according to Dr. Yehuda Baruch, a psychiatrist at the Abarbanel Mental Health Center in Bat Yam who has, for the last two years, single-handedly been responsible for the matter.

Oakland Could Charge $211K A Year For Pot Cultivation Permit

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2011 Dispensaries, Growing, Medical

Photo: Hollywood Grind

Oakland, California’s plan to license and regulate large-scale medical marijuana farms have taken another tentative step forward after several setbacks. Unfortunately, the news isn’t particularly good for smaller growers.

The city’s rules and laws about medicinal cannabis dispensaries have sometimes been controversial, but mostly successful, with four dispensaries in town servicing thousands of patients and enjoying about $28 million in annual sales, reports Sean Maher at the Oakland Tribune.

But City Council members including Desley Brooks have long argued that there is little local control over where those four dispensaries get their marijuana. They have proposed, instead, city-licensed, industrial-scale marijuana grow operations to supply the dispensaries.

S.F. Marijuana Dispensaries Have Only 11 Complaints In 5 Years

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 15, 2011 Dispensaries

Photo: StoptheDrugWar.org

HopeNet smells like a marijuana dispensary. And its bathroom once stopped working for one day in 2008. Yeah, that’s the kind of “complaints” that S.F.’s dispensaries get.

So much for all those police-generated myths about medical marijuana dispensaries spoiling the neighborhood.

Despite Nervous Nellies, most dispensaries are quiet, respectable, and hell, as close to boring as you can come when your shelves are full of weed.

That truth has been highlighted again as an SF Weekly investigation revealed a grand total of only 11 complaints on file from a five-year period, according to documents received from the paper’s public records request, reports Chris Roberts.

The Weekly asked the Department of Public Health, which oversees San Francisco’s dispensary program, for a summary of recent problems with the city’s pot collectives. And of the 11 complaints on record, most of them are distinctly of the trifling variety.

Hempsters Documentary Compellingly Explores A Movement

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 14, 2011 Culture, Products

Graphic: Desert Star Weekly

Going into the documentary Hempsters: Plant The Seed, I was already aware of many of the facts surrounding the hemp plant and its many uses to humanity for food, fiber, pharma and fuel.

But as a good docu tends to do, this film doesn’t just engage your intellect; it touches your heart, too, and that emotional impact took me somewhat by surprise.

The lively documentary, directed by Michael Henning and produced by Diana Oliver, explores the reasons why the United States is the only developed country on Earth that bans the cultivation of industrial hemp.

Due to its relation to marijuana, it is illegal under federal law to grow hemp in the U.S. Hemp is considered a drug under the Controlled Substances Act even though it contains minimal levels — less than one percent — of marijuana’s chief psychoactive ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).

Video of the Day: No Knock Raid

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 14, 2011 Culture, Products

Note: This video contains graphic images of violence and mature language. Viewer discretion is advised.
“No Knock Raid,” written and performed by Toronto-based musician Lindy, is a searing indictment of one of the most aggressive, ubiquitous, and mistaken tactics in the War on Drugs.

Two Different Ohio Groups Pushing For Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on July 14, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Squidoo

Two different groups are moving ahead with plans to put medical marijuana before Ohio voters next year.

Cleveland billionaire Peter Lewis is organizing and funding a medical marijuana ballot issue, while another group has been quietly laying the groundwork for a constitutional amendment, reports Alan Johnson at The Columbus Dispatch.

If approved by voters, the Ohio Medical Cannabis Act of 2012 would establish a regulatory system modeled after the Ohio State Liquor Control system. (OK, that seems a little strange — why would a medicine be controlled by the liquor board?) There would be an Ohio Commission of Cannabis Control, plus a state division and superintendent to run it.

Marijuana purchases would require a doctor’s authorization and would be subject to state and local sales taxes.

Yearly Archives: 2011