2012 April

Monthly Archives: April, 2012

Injunction Filed Against UC-Boulder’s 4/20 Ban

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 19, 2012 Culture, News

The University of Colorado at Boulder will be on lockdown this Friday, complete with campus police conducting checkpoints and demanding proper ID from everyone in sight. The reason? Authorities want to finally snuff out the school’s annual pro-pot rally.

Attorney Robert J. Corry, Jr., filed an emergency temporary restraining order in Boulder District Court on Thursday, asking the court to prohibit the University of Colorado at Boulder from closing its campus to the public on 4/20.

The UC-Boulder administration has said they will shut down the entire campus to non-students for the entire day on Friday in order to stop a legal protest that is protected by the First Amendment. Students will be allowed to enter campus only if they show their student ID card.

“What the university is trying to do is kill a fly with a nuclear ICBM,” Corry told The Raw Story‘s Stephen C. Webster on Thursday. “It’s completely overreaching to shut down an entire campus to all members of the public.”

Anti-4/20 Group Calls For Suits & Ties At CU-Boulder Friday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 19, 2012 Culture, News

Marty Caivano/Colorado Daily

A reveler lights up at the 4/20 smoke out on the CU-Boulder campus last year.

The eternal culture battle between the straights and the stoners continues to play itself out as 4/20, the international cannabis holiday, becomes a lightning rod for controversy. The latest iteration of the battle has more than 350 University of Colorado – Boulder students RSVPing to a Facebook event encouraging students to wear a suit and tie to campus and around Boulder on Friday, April 20, to protest the 4/20 smoke out.

That’s right — they want you to pledge your allegiance to a morally, ethically and financially bankrupt system that has spent untold tax dollars, for the past 75 years, arresting millions of people for no better reason than that they choose to use a harmless plant. And they want you to do that by identifying with the overarching, corrupt power structure so strongly that you validate their tottering worldview by donning a suit, the symbol of their drab mindless conformity and hen-hearted unwillingness to rock the boat.

Historic 4/20 in Colorado: Voters Can End Marijuana Prohibition This November

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 19, 2012 Culture, Legislation, News

Vitamin Thick

CU-Boulder regularly holds one of the biggest 4-20 events in the country, but CU administrators have closed the campus to the public and are threatening arrests

CU-Boulder to Close Campus to Visitors, Threatens Arrests

DPA to Urge Reform of Punitive Marijuana Laws in Colorado on 4/20 with Airplane Banner, Full Page Ads and On-the-Ground Presence

April 20, the quasi-official holiday for people who enjoy marijuana, is recognized by millions around the world. This year’s holiday will have a deeper significance for Coloradans as Amendment 64 is on the ballot to tax and regulate marijuana. Amendment 64 decriminalizes marijuana for adults and allows local municipalities and the state to establish a non-medical, regulatory framework for cultivation, distribution and sale.

Sacramento County Medical Marijuana Initiative Would Ensure Safe Access

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 18, 2012 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

CSPARC

Sacramento County, California voters will have an opportunity to get it right on medical cannabis in November. A voter initiative to regulate the medical cannabis industry in the county is halfway to its goal of 80,000-plus signatures, and organizers say they are confident it will qualify for the November ballot.

The Patients Access to Regulated Medical Cannabis Act of 2012 (PARMCA2012) is a voter initiative that will allow for a limited and tightly regulated medical cannabis market that will bring in an estimated $2 million in revenue for Sacramento County.

The Act will allow for one dispensary for every 25,000 residents in the unincorporated County that will be divided amongst Board of Supervisor districts to avoid clustering. The program will tax the businesses at a rate of 4 percent of gross sales on top of normal sales taxes that are paid by dispensaries.

High Times ‘Cuts Ties’… Will Village Voice Even Notice?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 18, 2012 Culture, News

High Times

Rick Cusick, High Times: “Cutting ties” with Village Voice Media. WHAT “ties”?

In a self-serving and hubristic press release on Tuesday, Trans High Corporation, the parent company of High Times magazine, announced that it will, effective immediately, discontinue any advertising or promotional relationship with Village Voice Media due to their continued financial stake in Backpage.com.

Village Voice Media is the corporation which owns Toke of the Town.

High Times claimed it was taking the action “due to their [Village Voice Media’s] continued financial stake in Backpage.com, based on reporting by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and others who credibly accuse the website’s ‘adult services’ classified ads of being allegedly complicit in the advertising of child sex traffickers.”

“While we remain staunch defenders of the First Amendment and free speech in general,” Trans High Corp spokesman and High Times associate publisher Rick Cusick said, “we do not in any way condone such activity as has been alleged by Backpage.com, and this includes advertising in media owned by its parent company.”

Who’s In Charge At UK Cannabis Law Reform Group CLEAR?

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 18, 2012 Culture, Global, News

The World Through My Specs

Peter Reynolds of CLEAR is engaged in a tug-of-war with ex-members of the organization’s Executive Committee

By Denzil White

Special to Toke of the Town

In suit and tie, Peter Reynolds looks more like an extra from the set of Mad Men than like the hairy-headed hippie stereotype of a cannabis activist. He’s definitely not hairy-headed, but when he promised to clean up the image of cannabis campaigning in the UK, few people expected the makeover to result in a beauty only skin deep.

Claiming a background in advertising and public relations, Peter Reynolds won leadership of the Legalise Cannabis Alliance, a small, single-issue political party, then set about changing the name of the party to CLEAR (Cannabis Law Reform) and brought on help to spruce up the party’s website and logo.

Reynolds wrote at the time, “We will build a new and effective brand and campaign. We are reasonable, responsible, respectable members of society from all walks of life and professions.”

Things were looking good; MPs hit Reynolds’ “Friend” button on Facebook and the CLEAR “Comment Warriors” plagued the popular press with pro-cannabis comments on any article reporting a factory raid or medicinal marijuana critique.

Patients’ Group Opposes Privacy Change to MI Medical Marijuana Law

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 18, 2012 Legislation, Medical, News

National Patients Rights Association

The National Patients Rights Association (NPRA), a Michigan-based alliance of leading medical marijuana advocates working to protect patient rights, on Wednesday announced strong opposition to proposed legislative changes to the Michigan Medical Marihuana Act it they said would would directly violate patients’ and caregivers’ civil and constitutional rights, privileges and protections.

Specifically, it opposes Michigan House Bill’s 4851, 4853, and 4856. The NPRA also strongly opposes HB 4834, which is sponsored by Gail Haines.

Under the proposed legislation, the most troubling, HB 4834, will allow officers or security personnel to easily gain access to the registry without a warrant, as is currently required. Patient and caregiver information would no longer be strictly confidential, and their private medical treatment choice will be available to a “near endless” list of authorized officials, according to the group, including security personnel or recreation officers hired by the state or local townships.

Richard Lee, Elected Officials To Announce Oaksterdam Plans

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 17, 2012 Culture, News, Products

Oaksterdam University

Wednesday Press Conference: Richard Lee, Elected Officials, Union, to Announce Future Plans for Oaksterdam University and National Day of Action

Taxpayer Resources Are Wasted Trampling CA Medical Marijuana Laws While City Officials Beg for Help with Gun Violence

National Day of Action on 4/20 Will Pressure Obama on Heels of Historic Discussion About Failed Drug War at Summit of the Americas

Oaksterdam University, which calls itself “the premier cannabis college in the United States,” will announce plans for the future of the school on Wednesday at a press conference.

At the event, founder Richard Lee will discuss his personal plans, as well as the fate of Oaksterdam University, arguably the leading educational institution in the nascent cannabis industry. Other speakers will raise awareness about the waste of valuable community resources.

Obama Administration Increases Drug War Spending Again

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 17, 2012 Legislation, News

StoptheDrugWar.org

Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske (left) and President Obama: “Drug War Autopilot and Co-Autopilot,” according to Phillip Smith at StoptheDrugWar.org

Cops Slam Obama For Same Old ‘Drug War’ Budget

Despite Promises, President Continues To Favor Punishment Over Treatment

The Obama Administration on Tuesday morning released its annual National Drug Control Strategy, detailing the methods and budgets planned to “combat drug use” for fiscal year 2013. The report stresses that more resources need to be spent on addiction treatment and prevention, and that an enforcement-centric “War On Drugs” is unworkable. But in a prime example of political incongruence, the report also shows that budget allocations for law enforcement methods could increase by hundreds of millions of dollars, including military operations on U.S. soil.

Upcoming Comedy ‘Gone To Pot’ Launches $10K Video Contest

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on April 17, 2012 Culture, Products

Gone To Pot

Makers of the upcoming cannabis movie, Gone To Pot — a comedy about two hustlers who inherit a medical marijuana dispensary — have announced a free video contest in which entrants will explain why they like weed.

“The top 10 videos selected will appear in our film and the top three will share $10,000,” Gone To Pot writer/director Marty Keegan told Toke of the Town. “It’s free to enter as many times as you like.”

Celebrity judges of the video contest include legendary comedian Margaret Cho and Academy Award nominated director Peter Bogdanovich, according to Keegan.

Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 … 9 Next