| AndrewTaylor/Flickr |
Due to some of the more archaic marijuana laws in the country, the state of Missouri is not necessarily known for producing huge yields of high grade cannabis. As a result, those who want bulk amounts of the good stuff around those parts often tend to get it shipped in from other states, but the consequences can be pretty extreme.
There is an imbecilic group of conservatives currently humping the political landscape of Montana in hopes of persuading the local yokels into outlawing marijuana across the state.
Earlier last week, the collaborative effort between anti-cannabis group Safe Montana and a shifty-eyed car salesman by the name Steve Zabawa won approval from the Secretary of State to begin collecting signatures for their petition, Initiative 174, aimed at banning the use and possession of all Schedule I substances deemed illegal under the Federal Controlled Substances Act — including medical marijuana.
Every day in prisons across the country, inmates are scheming to devise innovative, or disgusting, new ways to smuggle in drugs, phones, and other contraband. Every day, surely some of those attempts get busted, but maybe none quite as ridiculous as what happened this past Sunday in Jackson, Michigan.
When it comes to ridiculous prison smuggling attempts, there is some pretty stiff competition.
| Sczcurki/FlickrCommons |
Sammy Flores Jr. was born in 1971 and given the name of his father, Samuel Flores Sr., who happened to be one of the largest marijuana trafficking kingpins in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Junior was quick to follow in his father’s shady footsteps.
After his father was riddled with bullets by Mexican police at a dusty roadside checkpoint in Guadalajara in the fall of 1985, Flores fell into a life of crime of his own. Just three months after his old man was gunned down, Flores was arrested at the Pittsburgh airport carrying $17,000 in cash and a silenced .22 caliber pistol after having just completed a 205 pound weed sale in the city.
| jlwelsh/FlickrCommons |
| Sign posted at the Ritz Ybor Amphitheater in Tampa, FL |
Matthew Heller is a Florida business owner with a company by the name of HornBlasters. He sells air-horns to folks who feel that their vehicle just needs more horn. He cruises around the Tampa area in a massive blue pickup truck with his company’s name emblazoned on the sides, and his namesake product wired smartly throughout for ultimate horn-honking capabilities.
Mr. Heller likes his horns loud, and his rap music even louder, so one night this past February, he hopped in his big blue truck and made his way over to the local music venue to catch a hip hop concert. Though no doubt confident that the implied threat of an infernal racket of horns going off if any alarm should be sounded would ward off any would-be car thieves, Heller had no idea who might end up snooping around his truck that night.
| AmarandAgasi/FlickrCommons |
Drivers in the state of Washington may have had a strange encounter while stopped at a red light this past weekend. We’ve all probably had the less fortunate approach our idling vehicle and peddle for loose change, or have a guy try to sell a newspaper, or start washing the windshield while we wait. But when is the last time that someone bum-rushed your ride offering to give you $60 to take a brief “survey”?
That is precisely what happened beginning last Friday in Spokane and Yakima counties, and continued throughout the weekend. Government-funded orange-vested survey teams were tasked with bribing Washington motorists to hand over voluntary roadside breath, saliva, and blood samples, in exchange for the prospect of easy money.
| www.weedmaps.com |
Leading up to the statewide California election this past Tuesday, it is probably safe to say that a majority of voters in San Diego did not realize that they were casting ballots either for, or against, safe access to medical marijuana in the city.
There were no particular referendums for reefer, no specific ballot measures for medical marijuana, but the disappointing results in the city’s District Attorney race, and a rightward-shift in the too-powerful City Council, are reportedly the result of low voter turnout.
It was a tough day at the polls for pro-cannabis activists in America’s Finest City. Another in a disheartening string of crushing blows against any legitimacy for medical marijuana in San Diego.
The press used to be so well-respected in this country that they were referred to as “the fourth estate”. In February 1891, Oscar Wilde wrote, “Somebody — was it Burke? — called journalism the fourth estate. That was true at the time no doubt. But at the present moment it is the only estate. It has eaten up the other three…We are dominated by Journalism.”
Today, well over a century later, with the advent of 24-hour cable news stations, AM talk radio hero worship, and the internet, the media holds more power than ever.
As Nassau County police officer Vincent LoGiudice entered the Mineola courtroom in Long Island yesterday, a hallway full of his fellow police officers erupted in a cacophony of applause in support of their colleague.
What did Officer LoGiudice do to earn such powerful show of backing and apparent respect from his co-workers? Well, on April 25th, during a routine traffic stop, officer LoGiudice brutally beat 20-year-old Kyle Howell within an inch of his life, using vicious blows from his knees and police baton to leave the victim with broken bones and a future full of surgeries.
On May 5th, Manitoba Games released a smartphone app by the name of Weed Firm. Less than three weeks later, the app had received over 5000 reviews on iTunes, with an average rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, and had shot to the top of the charts on Apple’s App Store.
An indie game developer finds success in the market, iTunes receives a flood of customers downloading the wildly popular app – win/win, right? Apparently not, since just yesterday Apple pulled Weed Firm from its App Store with no explanation to its fans, or its developers.