Yearly Archives: 2011

Medical Marijuana Under Attack: Here’s How You Can Fight Back

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Ethan Nadelmann, Drug Policy Alliance: “These lawyers are playing politics with the lives of patients who need medical marijuana to cope with debilitating pain and nausea”

Medical marijuana patients across the country are under attack, according to Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.

“Despite the Obama Administration’s promise to respect state laws, lawyers in the federal government are now threatening to arrest and prosecute people who are legally licensed to grow medical marijuana under state law,” Nadelmann said.

“These ideologues are trying to block sensible regulation — and they’ve already succeeded in Washington State,” Nadelmann said. “We must stop them from erasing all the progress we’ve made and from leaving patients out in the cold.”

Nadelmann is urging all supporters of medical marijuana to write U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to demand that the federal government keep its promise to respect state medical marijuana laws.

Is Rural Arizona Freaking Out Over Medical Marijuana?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: SWOP-USA

Apparently somehow unaware that marijuana is already easily available to practically any young person in America who wants it, one volunteer police officer in Kingman, Arizona, is pulling all kinds of drama-king moves over the coming of legal, medicinal cannabis to his town.

Harley Pettit of Kingman, Arizona says he’s seen young people get in trouble for everything from drugs and alcohol to vandalism. And Harley says that in a small community “with not a lot to do,” the last thing young people need is another way to get into trouble, reports Alyson Zepeda of Cronkite News Service.

And, of course, Harley is worried that’s what this newfangled medical marijuana stuff is going to give them. Well, news flash, Harley — for those of us who aren’t stuck in some king-hell 1950s time warp, young people are already smoking marijuana, they have been for 40 years, and they don’t have to buy it from medical marijuana dispensaries.

Man Throws Marijuana To Prisoner In Court

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 17, 2011 Global, News

Photo: Australian Broadcasting Corporation

A man in the public gallery of the Brisbane Magistrates Court threw marijuana to a prisoner — whom he apparently didn’t know — who was sitting in the criminal dock, an Australian court heard on Tuesday.

The Court of Appeal was delivering its judgment in an application by former journalism student and Department of Foreign Affairs cadet Matthew Scott Bell for a string of convictions, reports Mark Oberhardt at the Queensland Courier Mail.

Flagstaff Nixes Pot Dispensary Next To Pot-Themed Restaurant

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: Jesse Kasten/The Lumberjack

Flagstaff, Arizona’s Cheba Hut is a friendly haven for the high and hungry. But plans to located a medical marijuana dispensary next door have been derailed by city officials.

Aw, man. It would have been so perfect.

Locating a medical marijuana dispensary next to a sandwich shop known for its stoner-friendly atmosphere and its subs named after strains of cannabis? Genius idea, and good for both businesses.

Several ganjapreneurs evidently had the same idea, even going to far as to secure a letter of intent from the landlord to rent them the commercial space next to the Cheba Hut in Flagstaff, Arizona. Cheba Hut markets to stoners, winkingly putting in quotes “Toasted” Subs and featuring “palm trees” in its logo that look quite a bit like cannabis leaves. Oh, and check out alllll that smoke pouring out the chimney.

HDNet ‘World Report’ Looks At Driving While High

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: HDNet

Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET on HDNET “World Report”: DWHigh: Medical Marijuana and Driving

With the number of medical marijuana patients rising, and with 16 states now allowing medicinal cannabis, advocates are fighting against attempts to regulate the amount of THC that can be in your blood while driving.

HDNet “World Report,” in an episode which will debut Tuesday night, May 17, will examine driving while under the influence of medical marijuana.

In Colorado, which has a growing medical marijuana community, the question is, should there be a limit? The Legislature recently defeated a measure which would have limited blood THC levels at five nanograms per millilter (ng/ml). Advocates said the measure was far too strict, and would, in effect, have banned medical marijuana patients from legally driving.

“World Report” puts legal medical marijuana users behind the wheel of a driving simulator and watched them navigate a course, first while sober, then after consuming pot. (Of course, under Colorado’s recently proposed — and unrealistically low — five-nanogram limit, all of the patients would likely be considered “high” even while completely sober, thus making moot the question of impairment.)

Pastor Indicted For Growing Medical Marijuana In Church

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Growing, News

Photo: Ocean State Cannabis

Pastor Erik Johansson: “They killed all our plants in violation of state law”

The pastor of a Rhode Island parish was indicted May 11 on federal charges of conspiracy and cultivating more than 100 marijuana plants — in his church.

Erik Johansson, 48, an ordained minister for Prospect Ministries Inc., was arrested last September after police in Warwick, R.I., executed a search warrant at the church, reports W. Zachary Malinowski at The Providence Journal.

The cops confiscated 183 marijuana plants in several different grow rooms, $565 in cash and other supplies and items used to grow marijuana. Officers said they also discovered an extensive ventilation system to disperse heat and carbon dioxide.

New York Bill Would Reduce Charge For Marijuana Possession

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Legislation, News

Graphic: Animal New York

A shared desire to reduce the penalties for marijuana possession has inspired a rare show of bipartisanship and upstate-downstate agreement in the New York Legislature. A freshman GOP state senator is co-sponsoring a bill with a Democratic Assemblyman to reduce the penalty for public possession of small amounts of marijuana from a misdemeanor to a violation.

According to the cosponsors, many people — especially minorities in New York City — end up getting busted for small amounts if they are stopped by a police officer and told to empty their pockets — at which point the pot possession supposedly becomes “public,” reports Rick Karlin of the Albany Times Union.

Supreme Court Upholds Warrantless Search Based On Pot Smell

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 16, 2011 Legislation, News

Photo: Voice Of Detroit

Step One, knock and announce your presence. Step Two, claim you hear someone “destroying evidence.” Step Three, knock the door down. Voila, no Fourth Amendment protection!

Police who claimed they heard sounds of “evidence being destroyed” after knocking on the door of an apartment that smelled of marijuana were entitled to knock down the door and search the place, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

In an overwhelming 8-1 decision, the Supreme Court upheld the warrantless search of an apartment in Lexington, Kentucky, ruling the search was legal because of “exigent circumstances.” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for the majority. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg cast the lone dissenting vote.

Cannabinophobia: The Timing Makes You Wonder

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 13, 2011 Culture, Legislation, Medical

Photo: Loopy Lettuce

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

Schedule I: A category of drugs not considered legitimate for medical use. Included are heroin, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), and marijuana.

April 14th 1937

Whose bright idea was it to tax it? Is the option still open?

Marihuana Tax Act of 1937

The Act levied a tax equaling roughly one dollar on anyone who dealt commercially in cannabis, hemp, or marijuana. The Act did not itself criminalize the possession or usage of hemp, marijuana, or cannabis. It did include penalty and enforcement provisions to which marijuana, cannabis, or hemp handlers were subject. Violation of these procedures could result in a fine of up to $2,000 and five years’ imprisonment.

Washington Legislator Introduces Medical Cannabis Fixer Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 13, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Pete Kuhns/Seattle Weekly

Washington state Rep. Roger Goodman shows off a stash of his drug of choice: chocolate. Goodman is sponsoring an attempt to fix Washington state’s badly flawed medical marijuana law.

State Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) on Friday introduced a medical cannabis bill in the Washington House of Representatives that would address many of the patient access problems remaining after Governor Christine Gregoire two weeks ago vetoed most of S.B. 5073, which would have legalized dispensaries and provided arrest protection for patients.

Goodman’s bill includes protections for patients and providers, including language giving arrest protection to patients with authorizing paperwork and language decriminalizing medical cannabis dispensaries.

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