Toke of the Town

Search Results: busted/ (8)

A Cannabis Christmas Wish… A Marijuana Chanukah Hint

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By on Dispensaries, News
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Sarah Rice/SFGate
Lynnette Shaw ran Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana — the first in the state to be licensed, back in 1997. Now the Feds have shut it down.

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By Jack Rikess
Toke of the Town
Northern California Correspondent
It’s really easy these days to be negative about cannabis. The Feds are waving their guns around like old-time Western town bullies. Playing with the tin-horns and the dandy Easterners alike, making them dance to a tune that we thought was long gone.
They sit outside protecting the saloon, leaning  back in their chairs, keeping the weak and poor in the sight of their weapons, not necessarily to shoot them, just scare ’em a little.
 
In the Golden State, where it must seem that progress burns bright, I mean, how can you complain when you can have your medicine, including edibles and anything else that’s on the menu delivered right to your door? What in the world could those spoiled Californians have to gripe about?
How about the closing of Lynnette Shaw’s Marin Alliance for Medical Marijuana dispensary in Fairfax?  As most know by now, Lynnette’s dispensary was the first to be licensed in California back in ’97. The closure of this landmark is incredibly distressing. 
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WA Senate OKs Marijuana Dispensary Bill, But…

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By on Dispensaries, Legislation

Photo: Smashed Frog
One amendment to SB 5073 would ban print advertising by medical marijuana dispensaries.

​Version Passed By Senate Would Ban Print Advertising By Dispensaries; Law Prof Calls That ‘Clearly Unconstitutional’

The Washington Senate approved a bill Wednesday night which, if approved by the House, would legalize and regulate medical marijuana dispensaries in the state.

The bill, intended to bring the medical marijuana supply chain out of a legal gray area, was approved by senators on a 29-20 vote after lengthy debate, reports Manuel Valdes of The Associated Press. The measure now moves to the House.
Senators approved several amendments to the bill which are opposed by the medical marijuana community, including a troublesome ban on print advertising which would strip dispensaries of their First Amendment right to advertise. Distressingly, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Seattle), author of the bill, introduced that change.
​One University of Washington law professor and First Amendment expert called the proposed ban on print advertising by dispensaries “clearly unconstitutional,” reports Curtis Cartier at Seattle Weekly.
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Washington Might Extend Protections To Marijuana Patients

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By on Legislation, Medical

Artwork: Jimmy Wheeler
The late Jimmy Wheeler, a medical marijuana patient in Washington, created this artwork. Washington patients could finally get the arrest protection they seek if a bill that would do just that passes the Legislature.

​Medical marijuana patients in Washington could have protection from arrest if the Legislature passes a bill reforming the 1998 voter-approved law authorizing use of cannabis for some terminal and debilitating illnesses.

I know what you’re thinking. “Shouldn’t they ALREADY have arrest protection if medical marijuana is legal for them to use?”
Yes. Yes, they should.
Although the law has been in place for more than 12 years, many patients complain they are still harassed by police, said Sen. Jerome Delvin (R-Richland), a co-sponsor of the Senate of the Senate version of the bill, reports Michelle Dupler at the Tri-City Herald.
Delvin pushed for the bill to include a voluntary patient registry that would provide medical marijuana patients a card they can show to police rather than submitting to searches of their homes or property.
“It allows us to know what’s going on out there,” said Delvin, a former Richland police officer who retired in 2006. “It gives law enforcement an easier tool. They can have confidence in the registry. If someone has a card — case closed.”
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Tommy Hilfiger’s Rapper Son Arrested For Marijuana

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By on Culture, News

Photo: Huffington Post
Richard Hilfiger, left, and his famous father, fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger

​Could orange jumpsuits be “in” this season?

Richard Hilfiger, the 20-year-old son of fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, was arrested last weekend in Hollywood for alleged possession of marijuana with intent to sell, reports Josh Grossberg at E! Online.
The wannabe rapper, who goes by the hiphop name “Rich Hil” and has cut tracks with Kid Cudi and Swizz Beatz, was pulled over on Sunset Boulevard by patrolling sheriff’s deputies in Hollywood, according to Los Angeles Sheriff’s Sgt. Shawn Ruda.
Officers found what they claimed was a “huge stash of marijuana” in his car (no amount mentioned), which is apparently why they chose to charge young Hilfiger with a felony intent-to-distribute charge instead of simple possession.
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Activist: Marijuana Patients Still Unprotected By Law In Washington

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Seattle Hempfest
Vivian McPeak: “Patients and providers have already shown we are evenhanded and responsible. Now all we want is to be protected by law.”

​Marijuana activist Vivian McPeak, founder of Seattle Hempfest, has said that patients in the state of Washington are still unprotected by the state’s medical cannabis law, approved by voters in 1998.

“The law does not protect legal patients from home invasion and arrest by police,” McPeak wrote in a letter to the editor published in the March 30 edition of The Seattle Times.
“Flaws in the law make medical marijuana producers criminals,” McPeak said. “If the grower reports theft to police, that grower often gets treated as a criminal.”
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Washington’s Medical Marijuana Law Offers Little Protection To Patients

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By on Legislation, Medical

Graphic: Cannabis Defense Coalition

​Growing marijuana, as challenging as it can be, is the easy part. Figuring out the state law that allows sick people to use pot is a lot harder for Washington patients.

Since Washington voters passed a law in 1998 legalizing medical marijuana for seriously ill patients with their doctor’s recommendation, patients have been frustrated over how to legally get cannabis while following the rules, reports Diana Hefley at the Everett Herald Net.
Police officers, on the other hand, say they are faced with balancing the rights of medical marijuana patients and their duty to enforce the law, which makes pot illegal for everyone else.
The legal haze was evident in the criminal trial of a medical marijuana patient in Snohomish County, Washington in February.
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Medical Marijuana Advocates Accuse L.A. City Attorney Of Entrapment

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By on Legislation, Medical

Photo: Shay Sowden/LAist

​Medical marijuana advocacy group Americans for Safe Access (ASA) responded Tuesday to the Los Angeles City Attorney’s latest effort to shut down registered dispensaries by threatening to intervene in the lawsuits the city filed recently against raided collectives Organica and Holistic Caregivers.

According to ASA, Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich has taken preemptive enforcement action before dispensaries have a chance to comply with the recently adopted regulatory ordinance, which took more than two years to write and pass.
“It’s clear that the City Attorney is attempting to intimidate and close dispensaries before the Los Angeles ordinance even goes into effect,” said ASA Chief Counsel Joe Elford.
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Is The Washington Legislature Really ‘Too Busy’ To Protect Medical Marijuana Patients?

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By on Legislation, Medical

Artwork: Jimmy Wheeler
The late Jimmy Wheeler, a medical marijuana patient in Washington, created this artwork. Now a proposed patient protection bill will be named in his honor.

​As most medical marijuana patients in the state already know, the current medical marijuana law in Washington doesn’t protect patients from search, arrest or prosecution.

The recent Washington Supreme Court ruling in State v. Fry further highlighted how little protection — as in almost none! — the current law gives “legal” patients.
Medical marijuana activists Ken Martin and Steve Sarich of patient advocacy group CannaCare contacted every Senator and Representative in Washington at the beginning of the current 2010 legislative session, attempting to find a sponsor for their new bill that would finally offer legal patients protection from arrest and prosecution.
“We could not find a single sponsor for this bill,” Sarich told Toke of the Town. “Those I actually spoke with told me they were ‘too busy’ this session.”
“This made us curious about what, exactly, these legislators were so busy working on (besides new taxes on just about everything),” Sarich said. “What we found amazed us.”
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