Yearly Archives: 2011

Elderly Man Who Grew Pot For Cancer-Stricken Wife Is Jailed

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 Growing, Medical

Photo: WOIO

Gary Burton, 69, was sentenced to 60 days in jail because he grew marijuana for his cancer-stricken wife.

A 69-year-old Ohio man who grew marijuana to help his cancer-stricken wife was sentenced to jail on Friday morning.

Gary Burton was given 60 days behind bars for growing two cannabis plants in Chippewa Lake, Ohio, reports WOIO.

He will also serve 30 days’ house arrest and will be forced to undergo drug testing for two years.

Burton said he was growing the plants for medicinal purposes, to help ease his wife’s pain due to her breast cancer treatments.

WA Group To Legislature: Hands Off Medical Marijuana Patients!

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Cannabis Defense Coalition

Washington state’s medical marijuana bill — that is, the small portions that were signed into law April 29 under Governor Christine Gregoire’s partial veto — represents a “tragic setback for Washington State medical cannabis patients and providers,” according to Seattle-based advocacy group the Cannabis Defense Coalition.

“With the partial veto, Governor Gregoire carved out a patchwork of legal language to deny the protections of our law to many qualifying patients and providers, as well as to outlaw grey-market dispensaries that have operated for nearly 15 years in Washington State,” the CDC wrote on its website. Washington’s voters approved medical marijuana back in 1998, but a licensed system of legal distribution has never been set up, nor have patients ever been given arrest protection.

Fourth Marijuana Conviction Gets Louisiana Man Life In Prison

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 9, 2011 News

Graphic: Hermes Press

A 35-year-old man was sentenced to life in prison last week for his fourth marijuana conviction under Louisiana’s repeat-offender law.

Cornell Hood II had gotten probation after his first three marijuana offenses in New Orleans, but when he moved near Slidell, in the St. Tammany Parish, his fourth such conviction sent him away for the rest of his life, reports Ramon Antonio Vargas of the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

State Judge Raymond S. Childress sentenced Hood in his courtroom on Covington, Louisiana, on Thursday. A jury on February 15 had found the defendant guilty of attempting to possess and distribute marijuana at his Slidell home, according to court records.

Hood had moved from eastern New Orleans to the Slidell area after his third marijuana conviction, for distribution and possession with intent to distribute, on December 18, 2009, in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. He received a suspended five-year prison sentence and five years’ of probation for each count, which was exactly the same penalty he’d gotten in that court after pleading guilty to possessing and intending to distribute marijuana about five years earlier, on February 22, 2005.

Delaware Very Close To Legalizing Medical Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 6, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: THC Finder

We’re close, brothers and sisters. Very close.

The Delaware House on Thursday approved a bill legalizing medical marijuana in the state, and the Senate approved the original measure back in March. But the House added two changes that must now be approved by the Senate before the measure can become law.

The bill would allow people 18 and older with qualifying medical conditions to have up to six ounces of cannabis after getting a doctor’s written recommendation, reports the Associated Press.

WA Governor Says She Likes New Medical Marijuana Bill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 6, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Overoll

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire: “I’ve indicated to the senator I’m a go, but you’ve got to get the other ‘four corners’ to say they’re a go as well”

Washington Governor Christine Gregoire on Thursday gave a thumbs-up to the new medical marijuana proposal being developed in the state Senate. The new measure is the offspring of the legislation the governor gutted last week.

Medical marijuana has been legal in Washington since voters approved it in 1998, but patients still don’t have arrest protection or safe access, which SB 5073 would have fixed.

According to Gregoire, Sen. Jeanne Kohlp-Welles’s latest bill is “absolutely mindful” of the reason for the governor’s “partial veto” of 5073 (which removed almost all useful portions of the original bill): her supposed concern that state employees might be prosecuted for administering a medical marijuana program, reports Jordan Schrader at the Tacoma News Tribune. (Cannabis advocates have pointed out that state employees have never been prosecuted by the federal government for carrying out a state medical marijuana program in the 15 states which have legalized medicinal cannabis.)

Medical Marijuana Fails Again In Illinois House

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 6, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Photo: David Reis

The floor of the Illinois House of Representatives. The House failed to pass a medical marijuana law on Thursday.

For the second time in 2011, the Illinois House on Thursday defeated a bill which would have legalized medical marijuana for seriously ill patients in the state.

The measure failed with 61 “no” votes, 53 “yes” votes and four “present.” House Bill 30 needed 60 “yes” votes to pass, reports Andy Brownfield at The State Journal-Register.

The bill “is not about drugs, it is not about marijuana, it’s about health care,” said sponsor Rep. Lou Lang (D-Chicago). It will “help people who can’t get out of bed because they’re too doped up on morphine or oxycontin,” he said.

All Healing, No High: Dispensary Offers High-CBD Pot Strains

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 6, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical

Photo: Elemental Wellness

The high-CBD Harlequin strain, above, tested at 3.83 percent THC and 5.59 percent CBD.

Elemental Wellness, a San Jose medical marijuana collective, has a solution for patients who need the healing power of cannabis but don’t want the psychoactive effects: strains with high cannabidiol (CBD) content.

Medical marijuana is known as an effective treatment for many ailments, but it’s also known as a psychoactive agent. For people who could benefit from the medicinal properties, but need to stay alert and focused, San Jose, California dispensary Elemental Wellness has good news: high CBD strains that deliver the benefits without the buzz.

The most powerful medicinal compound in cannabis is tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), shown to be helpful for a range of diseases including glaucoma, multiple sclerosis, chronic pain, and side effects of chemotherapy and AIDS treatment such as nausea and loss of appetite.

Hawaii Marijuana Dispensary Bill Snuffed Out

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 5, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: J. Kalani English

Sen. Kalani English: “I took this up because I saw people who were suffering”

The latest attempt to set up a medical marijuana dispensary system in Hawaii — more than a decade after the state legalized cannabis for medicinal use — was snuffed out in committee this week on Oahu.

East Maui Sen. Kalani English had said the bill had a “really good chance of passing,” pointing out that it would generate needed revenue and give patients safe access to medicine, reports Jacob Shafer at Maui Time.

“I took this up because I saw people who were suffering, sometimes in the last months of their life,” English said.

Medical marijuana has been legal since 2000 in Hawaii, with an act removing state-level criminal penalties on the use, possession and cultivation by patients who have a signed statement from their physician affirming they suffer from a debilitating condition and that the “potential benefits of medical use of marijuana would likely outweigh the health risks.”

Senate Bill 1458 would have created a limited, five-year pilot program for medical marijuana dispensaries providing safe access to authorized patients. The proposal would have started the dispensary program in an unspecified county of Hawaii.

U.S. Attorney Issues Vermont Marijuana Dispensary Warning

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on May 5, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Graphic: Potspot 411

Vermont on Wednesday joined the growing list of medical marijuana states which have received threatening letters from federal prosecutors regarding state licensing of cannabis dispensaries and grow operations.

Disturbingly, the latest letter — from U.S. Attorney Tristram Coffin — is yet another overt attempt to influence pending legislation, this time a bill which would legalize and license medical marijuana dispensaries in Vermont.

“I really had every intention of voting for this bill until this morning,” said Rep. Patti Komline (R-Dorset), reports Terri Hallenbeck at the Burlington Free Press. “The letter impressed me.”

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