Toke of the Town

Yearly Archives: 2011

New Zealand Group Says Yes To Trials Of Medical Cannabis

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By on Global, Medical

Graphic: Greencross Auckland

​Pro-cannabis group Auckland Greencross has endorsed the New Zealand Law Commission’s recommendations that clinical trials of cannabis are undertaken and that bona fide users of medicinal marijuana become exempt from prosecution.

Stephen McIntyre, spokesman for the medical cannabis patients’ support group, on Tuesday said both proposals would find favor with the general public, as two out of three New Zealanders support allowing cannabis for medical use.
“Sixty five percent of submissions to this report — a figure consistent with online polling — favored the establishment of a scheme allowing people suffering from chronic, debilitating or terminal conditions to legally access and use herbal cannabis,” McIntyre said.
“Most medical users of cannabis, alongside the serious condition they’re forced to cope with on a daily basis, have the added stress of finding reliable access to quality medicine from a trustworthy source, compounded by fear of being caught by the police,” McIntyre said.
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Federal Agents Arrest Two Cannabis Advocates In Seattle

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By on Medical, News

Photo: Cannabis Defense Coalition
Activist Phil Mocek of the Cannabis Defense Coalition was assaulted and detained by private security guards and turned over to federal Homeland Security agents, who charged him with obstructing justice.

​Rent-A-Cops Tackle Two Activists And Turn Them Over To The Feds
The United States federal government on Monday arrested two Seattle activists who were attempting to serve a cease and desist order on the Department of Justice in the wake of federal raids on medical cannabis dispensaries last week.
Medical cannabis activists had staged a protest at the federal building in downtown Seattle Monday afternoon. Private security guards indicated that it was a crime to take photographs near the federal building. Phil Mocek, a board member with the Cannabis Defense Coalition, asked for clarification of the policy, and was arrested by federal building security guards, who contacted Homeland Security agents for backup.
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South African Police Raid Dagga Party Headquarters

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By on Global, News

Photo: Tracey Adams/Weekend Argus
Puff Puff Pass: Dagga Party executive committee members Israel Jeneke, Barend Wentzel, Hendrik Fortuin and leader Jeremy Acton last week announced their participation in the political process. Their efforts to participate were rewarded with a police raid on Friday.

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Dagga Party Came From ‘Listening To The Herb’

Photo: IOL News
South African police raid Dagga Party headquarters on Friday, shortly after the organization announced it would be participating in upcoming elections

​Police on Friday raided the home of the leader of the Dagga Party of South Africa shortly after the party announced it was participating in local elections. All the cops found were a few seeds.
Jeremy Acton, whose party is registered in the Langeberg Municipality to contest the May 18 local government elections, said he was not at his Montagu farmhouse when police arrived Friday morning, but they questioned one of his workers and took him to the police station, reports IOL News.
“The took all the pipes and took photographs of my marijuana graphics and a poem I have for meditation,” Acton said.
Acton said he wasn’t sure if a warrant had been issued for his arrest, but he wasn’t planning on returning to Montagu until tomorrow. He said he had already taken his Dagga Party pamphlets to the police in Montagu and explained he was fighting to get cannabis legalized. He said he’d heard the police wanted to stop his efforts.
The Dagga Party wants to legalize the herb and keep South Africa’s “dagga culture” alive, and is participating in the May local elections, a historical first which has generated great media interest and lots of public support.
The idea of forming the Dagga Party came from “listening to the herb,” according to leader Acton.

“By registering our party we made history for the legalization of cannabis in South Africa and by participating in this election we make history every step of the way,” Acton said. “If we win even one council seat in the Municipality, we achieve a beachhead for further efforts to legalize dagga,” Acton said, using the South African slang word for cannabis.
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U.S. Attorney: AZ Medical Pot Law No Shield From Prosecution

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By on Dispensaries, Medical, News

Photo: AZ Capitol Times
U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke: “Even clear and unambiguous compliance with (Arizona Medical Marijuana Act) does not render possession or distribution lawful”

​Arizona’s top federal prosecutor joined the growing chorus of U.S. Attorneys across the country on Monday, saying that the state’s medical marijuana law doesn’t protect patients, growers or sellers from federal prosecution.

U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke, in a threatening letter to Arizona’s health director, claimed his law office “will abide” by a 2009 Department of Justice memo that discourages federal prosecution of medical marijuana patients and providers who are following state law. But he said anyone who possesses or distributes marijuana is still violating federal law, reports Mary K. Reinhart at The Arizona Republic.
Burke’s letter follows the recent pattern of federal prosecutors sending threatening letters to state officials, including governors, attorneys general and others in medical marijuana states. The threats have been underlined by recent federal raids of medical marijuana dispensaries in Washington, Montana and California.
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DEA Will Now Go After Medical Marijuana, Says R.I. Governor

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By on Medical, News

Photo: pbn.com
Gov. Lincoln Chafee, Rhode Island: “Friday’s letter makes it clear DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law”

​After Federal Threats, Gov. Lincoln Chafee Puts Hold On State’s Dispensary Licensing Program

Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee has responded to a threatening letter that U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha delivered last week, and according to the governor, it’s not good news for medical marijuana patients.

“The Department of Justice previously indicated that it would not focus its limited resources on doctors and their sick patients who prescribe and use marijuana if such use was permitted by state law,” Gov. Chafee correctly pointed out. “This position was interpreted by some states as giving them latitude to authorize medical marijuana cultivation and distribution programs.
“Friday’s letter makes it clear DOJ will now pursue certain commercial cultivation and distribution of medical marijuana, even if such cultivation and distribution is permitted by state law,” Chafee said (emphasis added).
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Washington Medical Marijuana Patients Protest Federal Raids

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By on Dispensaries, News

Photo: Zazzle

​A coalition of medical marijuana patients from around Washington state will gather in Seattle and Spokane on Monday to demonstrate against the Obama Administration’s use of federal agents to raid medical marijuana dispensaries in the state. According to the activists, the raids are in violation of the Administration’s own written policy stating they they would not use federal resources to conduct raids in states with medical marijuana laws.

Protesters will gather in Seattle and Spokane at 1 p.m. on Monday. The protest in Seattle will be in front of the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building, 915 Second Avenue, downtown. Protesters will also gather in Spokane at the Thomas Foley Federal Courthouse, 920 Riverside, Spokane, also at 1 p.m.
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Lawmen Join Rally Protesting Prison For Marijuana Patients

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By on Medical, News

Graphic: LPP

​An organization made up of retired and disabled members of the law enforcement community — which provides support to medical marijuana patients and caregivers — is joining with other medical marijuana advocacy organizations in front of the federal courthouse in Sacramento, California at noon on Monday to protest the imprisonment of Dr. Mollie Fry and Dale Schafer.
 
“Doc Fry and Dale Schafer are dedicated patient advocates that don’t belong in prison,” said Nate Bradley, executive director of Lawmen Protecting Patients.
“The federal government needs to stop wasting what little resources they have on prosecuting and imprisoning the medical marijuana community,” Bradley said. “The federal government should focus on putting actual criminals in in prison, like rapists and child molesters.”
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Obama Administration Threatens R.I. Over Medical Marijuana

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: NBC 10 News
Governor Lincoln Chafee received a threatening letter today from Rhode Island U.S. Attorney Peter Neronha.

​Add Rhode Island to the list of states that have received threatening letters from the federal government on the issue of medical marijuana in recent weeks.

Significantly, the Rhode Island letter — delivered to Governor Lincoln Chafee’s office on Friday — unlike all of the other recent U.S. Attorney letters to medical marijuana states, does NOT begin with a line like “In response to your inquiry…”
“That likely means that this legal advice was not solicited by the Rhode Island government, marking an escalation in the feds’ aggressiveness on this issue,” media relations director Tom Angell at Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) told Toke of the Town Friday evening.
To date, U.S. Attorneys have only weighed in with threat letters after being contacted by state and local officials.
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Governor Fails To Lead On Medical Marijuana; Vetoes Bill

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation, News

Photo: Online Athens
Hen-hearted Washington Governor Christine Gregoire: “I cannot take the chance that state employees will be prosecuted”

​Citing supposed concerns about arrest of state employees (which has never happened in any medical marijuana state), Washington Governor Christine Gregoire on Friday vetoed almost all the significant portions of a bill which would have expanded safe access to cannabis and arrest protection for patients in the state.

“We cannot provide protection to one group of people — patients and providers — by subjecting another group of people — state employees — to arrest and prosecution,” Governor Gregoire told reporters at a 2:30 p.m. news conference on Friday.
“As governor whose number one priority is the well being of this state, I cannot take the chance that state employees would be prosecuted,” she said, even as she made sure that seriously ill patients would continue to be prosecuted. “What would you tell them if they are?”
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More Mystery Marijuana Mailed To Pennsylvania

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By on News

Graphic: Delaware County Daily Times

​It’s raining weed, man. Another unexpected five-pound delivery of marijuana has been left at the front door of an Upper Darby, Pennsylvania resident, according to police.

The package, shipped by the U.S. Postal Service, was left at a home on the first block of South Keystone Street, which — get this — is located directly behind the Upper Darby police station, reports the Delaware County News Network.
The resident, 27, reportedly told police she did not recognize the Arizona return address on the box, but she opened it anyway because she was expecting a delivery from Babies-R-Us. The woman immediately called police upon seeing the contents, according to reports.
“I was on my way home and I seen my mailman,” the woman said, reports Linda Reilly at the Delaware County Times. “The package was on the top step and my husband picked it up. I didn’t know the name on the box and was suspicious, but I was waiting for baby clothes I ordered from Babies-R-Us and opened it.”
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