Search Results: franklin (80)


Photo: Two Man Gentleman Band

​The Two Man Gentleman Band, “the nation’s finest and rowdiest vaudevillian-swing duo,” has released “Me, I Get High On Reefer,” an instant cannabis classic.
“We sing some drinking songs, and get a lot of free drinks as a result,” The Gents told Toke of the Town. “So, we thought we’d apply the same logic to a reefer tune.  And it worked!”
The song is from the guys’ brand new CD, ¡Dos Amigos, Una Fiesta!, their sixth album, released August 31.
Just a few years ago, The Gentlemen were busking in New York City’s parks and subways. These days, they travel the country playing hundreds of shows per year for growing crowds of fans.
The Gents “prove that making old-fashioned music needn’t be polite or predictable,” according to Time Out New York, deftly balancing lighthearted romps about reefer, wine, boy/girl parties, and chocolate milk with tender ballads of loneliness and fidelity.

Photo: Philly NORML
Neill Franklin, LEAP: “Californians finally have an opportunity to do something about it”

​​​A national group of African-American law enforcement officers has endorsed Proposition 19, the measure on this November’s ballot that would tax and regulate marijuana in California.

The National Black Police Association (NBPA), with more than two dozen chapters across the United States, announced the endorsement in Sacramento, where the organization is holding a national conference, reports Jesse McKinley at The New York Times.
“Prohibition takes a toll on people of color across the country,” said Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which supports Prop 19.
“When I was a cop in Baltimore, and even before then when I was growing up there, I saw with my own eyes the devastating impact these misguided marijuana laws have on our communities and neighborhoods,” Franklin said.

Graphic: LEAP

​Either you support the failed Drug War party line, or your opinion isn’t welcome. That seems to be the policy at a U.S. government-sponsored substance treatment conference in Chicago next week. Innovative solutions like legalization aren’t even allowed at the table.

A group of police officers, judges and prosecutors who support legalizing and regulating drugs is crying foul after a federal agency reneged on a contract that gave the law enforcers a booth to share their anti-prohibition views at the Chicago conference.

After accepting registration payment from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) at first told the police group that its booth was being cancelled at the National Conference on Women, Addiction and Recovery “because of overbooking and space concerns.”

Photo: Philly NORML
Neill Franklin, LEAP: “…We can’t let them get away with claiming that they’ve ended the ‘War On Drugs’ while we continue to arrest 800,000 people a year on marijuana charges alone”

​The Obama Administration released its National Drug Control Strategy on Tuesday, claiming it represents a “balanced new approach” to drug policy that focuses on treatment over enforcement.

However, a group of police officers who support legalization is pointing out that despite the administration’s words, the drug budget dedicates nearly twice as much funding to policing and enforcement as it does to public health and prevention, virtually the same ratio as the previous budget under President Bush.

“The Drug Czar is saying all the right things about ending the ‘War On Drugs’ and enacting a long-overdue balanced strategy focused on a public health approach,” said Neill Franklin, a former Baltimore cop and incoming executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “Unfortunately, the reality of the budget numbers don’t match up to the rhetoric.”

Photo: Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
John Ray Wilson, a multiple sclerosis patient, has been granted $15,000 bail so he can remain free while appealing his five-year prison sentence for growing 17 marijuana plants behind his home

​A Franklin Township, N.J., man who was sent to prison for growing marijuana which he said was used to treat his multiple sclerosis will remain free on $15,000 bail while he appeals his conviction, a Superior Court judge ruled Tuesday.

John Ray Wilson, 37, is serving a five-year sentence for second-degree “drug manufacturing” and third-degree drug possession for growing 17 marijuana plants behind the house he rented, reports Jennifer Golson at The Star-Ledger.

Photo: Robert Sciarrino/The Star-Ledger
John Ray Wilson, a multiple sclerosis patient, is led out of Superior Court after being sentenced to five years in prison for marijuana.

​Two New Jersey lawmakers called on Gov. Chris Christie Wednesday to pardon a man sentenced to five years in prison for growing marijuana to treat his multiple sclerosis.

Senators Raymond Lesniak (D-Union) and Nicholas Scutari (D-Union) asked the governor to commute John Ray Wilson’s sentence to probation, reports James Queally at The Star-Ledger.
The senators called the prison term facing Wilson as “cruel, unusual and unnecessary” in a letter written to the governor March 24. Wilson, 37, of Franklin Township, N.J., was sentenced to prison after he was found guilty of second-degree “marijuana manufacturing” and third-degree drug possession by a jury in December.

Graphic: StoptheDrugWar.org

​The Cato Institute in Washington, D.C., will host a free premiere of the new film 10 Rules For Dealing With Police at noon on Wednesday, March 24.

Produced by the nonprofit group Flex Your Rights and funded in part by the Marijuana Policy Project, the new documentary discusses the constitutional rights of citizens and the proper protocol for dealing with police.
The screening will be followed by comments from Baltimore trial lawyer William “Billy” Murphy, who narrates the film, and retired police Detective Neill Franklin, now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).
Tim Lynch, director of the Cato Institute’s Project on Criminal Justice, will moderate.

Photo: Kathy Johnson/MyCentralJersey
John Wilson, an MS patient, at his sentencing Friday for growing medical marijuana

​A New Jersey man with multiple sclerosis was sentenced Friday to five years in prison for growing marijuana — which he said was for medicinal purposes —  in his back yard.

Wilson, 37, was growing 17 marijuana plants.

Tragically, the sentence handed down to John Wilson is the minimum prison term he could have received under New Jersey law, reports Michael Deak at MyCentralJersey.com.
Wilson’s attorney, James Wronko, said he plans to file a motion to stay the sentence pending an appeal.

Photo: Wellsphere

​The Washington Senate Friday passed a bill that adds physician assistants, nurse practitioners and naturopaths as health care professionals who can authorize medical marijuana. Physicians can already authorize cannabis use for medical purposes in Washington.

Senate Bill 5798 passed by a convincing vote of 37-11, and now goes to the Washington House of Representatives for consideration, reports Michelle Dupler at the Tri City Herald.

Photo: CMMNJ
MS patient John Ray Wilson, left, and a supporter

​In a move that could be huge for the medical marijuana movement, a New Jersey judge reversed course today, allowing a multiple sclerosis patient on trial for growing 17 marijuana plants to testify about his medical condition, Brian Thompson of NBC New York reports.

Although Judge Robert Reed had earlier ruled defendant John Ray Wilson couldn’t present a defense based on medical necessity, Wilson was allowed to mention his MS after multiple conferences among lawyers and the judge.
“I told them [the arresting officers]I was not a drug dealer and I was using the marijuana for my MS,” Wilson was allowed to tell the jury.
“I think it carried weight, even though it was one sentence,” said Chris Goldstein of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey.
No follow up on Wilson’s MS was allowed.
He faces up to 20 years in prison on the “drug manufacturing” charge.
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