Yearly Archives: 2011

N.J. Patients Criticize Overly Strict Medical Marijuana Rules

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Patients in New Jersey have waited more than a year since their medical marijuana law passed, yet still have no safe access

Dozens of medical marijuana patients and advocates vented their frustrations on Monday over New Jersey’s proposed strict rules for the state’s long-delayed medical marijuana program, signed into law more than a year ago by outgoing then-Gov. Jon Corzine.

“You’re getting hammered up there, aren’t ya?” Crohn’s disease patient Stephen Cuspilich of Southampton, N.J., asked state health department officials, reports Susan K. Livio at NJ.com. The officials were holding a legally required hearing on the proposed rules from the administration of Republican Gov. Chris Christie, expected to take effect this summer.

The Christie Administration has repeatedly pushed back implementation of the law, supposedly to “craft rules” for the program. Without the rules in place, patients have no legal access to marijuana. But the proposed rules are far too restrictive, according to many patients and advocates.

CA Dispensaries Can’t Keep Charlie Sheen Pot Strain On Shelves

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Dispensaries, News

Photo: TMZ

“Charlie Sheen” weed will run you $70 an eighth, $400 an ounce at many Los Angeles dispensaries.

Medical marijuana dispensaries in California are selling cannabis with the strain name “Charlie Sheen” in a tribute to the headline-grabbing star.

The Charlie Sheen marijuana, reportedly with a THC content of 23 percent, was flying off the shelves at several shops last week, reports TMZ.

Demand for the new strain was so high that growers were being asked to put in more crops to keep up with the demand, the celebrity website reported.

In a move that couldn’t have hurt sales of Charlie Sheen the marijuana strain, Charlie Sheen the actor defended his increasingly erratic behavior by saying last week, “I am on a drug. It’s called Charlie Sheen.”

U.S. Government Helps Arm Mexican Drug Cartels

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Global, News

Photo: CBS News

ATF Agent John Dodson says he was ordered to let guns get into the hands of Mexican drug cartels

CBS News has uncovered that the U.S. government has actually been allowing thousands of military-style firearms to be smuggled into Mexico “to see where they would end up.” Investigators call the tactic “letting the guns walk.”
The entire operation, which the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) called “Fast and Furious,” was kept secret from Mexico.
“Documents show the inevitable result,” Sharyl Attkisson at CBS News reports. “The guns that ATF let go began showing up at crime scenes in Mexico. And as ATF stood by watching thousands of weapons hit the streets … the Fast and Furious group supervisor noted the escalating Mexican violence.”

Marijuana Patients To L.A. Voters: Vote NO On Measure M

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Graphic: MJ Dispensaries of Southern California

Los Angeles will vote on Tuesday, March 8, on a measure which threatens to increase the cost of an already expensive treatment for medical marijuana patients in the city. Measure M, which is one of 10 ballot measures facing L.A. voters, would increase taxes on medical marijuana by five percent, above and beyond the nearly 10 percent in sales tax which patients already pay.

Patient advocates have come out in opposition to the measure, asking the city to find other sources of revenue and to remove the tax burden from sick people.

“We understand that the city is under a lot of economic stress,” said Don Duncan, California director at Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana group which is strongly opposing Measure M. “But it doesn’t make sense to charge our most vulnerable people more money for the treatment.

Legislature Set To Gut Washington’s Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Jane Meets Jane

The Washington Legislature is on the verge of gutting the state’s medical marijuana law, approved by voters in 1998. It’s time to make a phone call.

Here’s What You Can Do

The Washington Legislature started this session with a very good medical marijuana dispensary bill which would have finally provided safe access and arrest protection for patients, 13 years after voters legalized the medicinal use of cannabis in the state.

You’ll notice I said “started this session,” because the bill is no longer a good thing. In fact, as currently amended, the bill has sadly turned into an enormous negative for the medical marijuana community.

“In its current state, the bill is set to gut our voter-approved medical cannabis law,” said Ben Livingston of the Seattle-based patient advocacy group Cannabis Defense Coalition.

Federal Patient To Fight Montana Medical Marijuana Repeal

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 7, 2011 Legislation, Medical

Photo: Robyn Twomey

Federal medical marijuana patient Irvin Rosenfeld with a tin of 300 government joints, which he’s gotten every 25 days from the government for 28 years.

With a bill which would repeal the state’s medical marijuana law already having been passed by the House, the Montana Senate will soon hold hearings on House Bill 161, to repeal the 2004 initiative passed by voters.

Montana’s medical cannabis law was approved in 2004 by a resounding 62 percent of state voters. Despite that, HB 161 was introduced early in the current legislative session by House Speaker Mike Milburn, who ran unopposed in Cascade, Montana.

Milburn’s bill passed the House fueled by “Reefer Madness”-like statements, devoid of fact, according to Hiedi Handford, owner and publisher of Montana Connect.

With the antics of the House, along with another anti-marijuana group called “Safe Community Safe Kids,” Handford said it became quite apparent that big help was needed once again.

“Facts and science are being completely ignored,” Handford said. “Folks just seem to pay attention when they meet and question a federal patient, as so many folks out there still have no idea the federal patients even exist.”

Stoner Photo of the Day: Sensi Star

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 5, 2011 Growing

Photo: Hapee Farmer

Here you go, man. I can only let you have these four colas, but they’ll probably last awhile.

Four colas can mean a whoooole of medicine if Hapee Farmer’s growing ’em.

Professor Gives Up Bid To Grow Marijuana For Medical Research

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 4, 2011 Growing, Medical, News

Jonathan Beller/Boston Magazine

Dr. Lyle Craker, UMass-Amherst: “I’m disappointed mostly because of all the patients who could potentially benefit”

Respected horticulturalist Lyle Craker of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst has been trying for almost a decade to persuade the federal government to let him grow marijuana for medical research. He wanted to learn more about the plant’s medical benefits. But Craker, 70, was over and over again rebuffed, and now he’s finally giving up.

Craker said he saw no end in sight to the legal wrangling, with an appeals process that could run for years or even decades, reports Andrew Miga of The Associated Press. Craker was also frustrated that he never got a hoped-for boost from the Obama Administration.

“I’m disappointed in our system,” he said. “But I’m not disappointed at what we did. I think our efforts have brought the problem to the public eye more. … This is just the first battle in a war.”

Craker, who said he has never smoked marijuana, started his challenge to the government’s monopoly on growing and distributing research cannabis in 2001. One garden at The University of Mississippi is the federal government’s only marijuana-growing facility.

But government-grown pot lacks the potency medical researchers need for breakthroughs, according to Craker. Besides, there isn’t enough of the Ole Miss-grown cannabis available for scientists across the U.S., or even if there is, the government isn’t letting them have it.

‘Mexico’s Bravest Woman’: Police Chief, 20, Seeks U.S. Asylum

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 4, 2011 Global, News

Photo: AFP

Marisol Valles, 20, was the only person in town willing to serve as police chief. Now she is reportedly fleeing to the U.S.

The 20-year-old college student who was called “Mexico’s bravest woman” after she was named police chief of a small Mexican town when nobody else would take the job has reportedly fled and is seeking asylum in the United States.

Marisol Valles “received death threats from a criminal group that wanted to force her to work for them,” a relative told AFP on Thursday. However, an official from the town of Praxedis, which is just across the border from Fort Hancock, Texas, denied that their young police chief was leaving town.

Town Secretary Andres Morales told the El Paso Times that Valles had asked for some personal days off to tend to her child, but is expected to be back at work on Monday, reports CBS News. As for the reports of Valles seeking asylum in the U.S., “Right now, those are rumors,” Morales said. (Note to the credulous: this could be a cover story to throw off her would-be assassins.)

Seattle Protesters Tell Drug Czar: ‘Gil, Get With The Times’

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on March 4, 2011 News

Photo: Chris Egert/KIRO

Marijuana advocates held a protest outside the Seattle Times on Friday as Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske met with the newspaper’s editors. The protesters, holding signs reading “Get With The Times” and “De-Fund The Drug Czar,” said they believe the Drug Czar was sent to change the editorial’s board’s minds.

Kerlikowske asked for the meeting with the editorial board soon after the newspaper called for the legalization of marijuana in a recent editorial, reports KIRO 7.

In an interview with KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Anchor Chris Egert on Friday morning, Kerlikowske denied the White House sent him to Seattle just to speak with the editorial board. He said he was in Seattle for a previously scheduled event.

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