Author Steve Elliott ~alapoet~

NBA Stops Testing For Marijuana In The Off-Season

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 9, 2011 Culture, News

LeBron James can’t be bummed out about the news: No testing for pot in the NBA’s off-season

Just because you’re seven feet tall doesn’t have to mean you can’t get higher. The National Basketball Association’s new labor agreement will not test players for marijuana during the off-season. Players will only be tested for performance-enhancing drugs.

The walk-out is all behind us now. And it seems the players were able to get an even better deal under the new NBA labor contract, reports Rena Karefa-Johnson of Buzz:60.

“You’d think after all the walk-out, the last thing the players would want in the off-season is something that would make it go even slower,” Karefa-Johnson said.

Dispensary Asks CA Gov. Brown To Join Marijuana Petition

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

David Downs/East Bay Express

Kevin Reed, The Green Cross: “It’s high time Governor Brown take action to advance meaningful policies”

The Green Cross, San Francisco’s first licensed medical cannabis dispensary, is urging California Governor Jerry Brown to join a federal petition to reschedule marijuana filed by Governors Christine Gregoire (D-WA) and Lincoln Chafee (I-RI).

Since the petition was filed on November 30, Governor Peter Shumlin (D-VT) has signaled he also supports it. All three governors represent states that have adopted laws allowing the use of medical marijuana by qualified patients.

Under the federal Controlled Substances Act, the U.S. government considers marijuana a Schedule I substance, a category reserved for dangerous drugs with a high potential for addiction and no medical value.

Holder: Federal Interference In Medical Marijuana A Low Priority

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Dispensaries, Medical, News

YouTube

Attorney General Eric Holder: “If in fact people are not using he policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that’s not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way.” Or something.

It’s easy to get whiplash trying to keep up with federal medical marijuana policy, and my neck’s hurting again after hearing the latest from Attorney General Eric Holder. Holder on Thursday repeated the support of the Department of Justice for the Ogden Memo, the 2009 policy statement which deprioritized the prosecution of medical marijuana providers who are following state law.

“What we said in the memo we still intend, which is that given the limited resources that we have, and if there are states that have medical marijuana provisions … if in fact people are not using the policy decision that we have made to use marijuana in a way that’s not consistent with the state statute, we will not use our limited resources in that way,” Holder said in his usual convoluted (dare I say tortured?) fashion, reports Lucia Graves at Huffington Post.

Feds To Meet With California’s Ammiano On Marijuana Laws

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

bkusler

California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano: “This is a crisis, and it’s putting patients at risk”

We’re two months into a confusing crackdown by the federal Department of Justice on medical marijuana dispensaries, and California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano is expected to meet soon with the U.S. Attorney’s office.

The private meeting is expected to take place next week between Ammiano (D-S.F.) and federal prosecutor Melinda Haag, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, reports Dan Aiello at The Bar Area Reporter.

The decision by Haag to meet with Ammiano comes just a week after U.S. District Court Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong ruled against three Bay Area medical marijuana dispensaries, one of the dispensary’s patients, and another’s landlord.

“U.S. Attorney Haag’s office has responded to our request and Assemblyman Ammiano will be meeting her sometime next week,” said Quintin Mecke, Ammiano’s communications director.

Participants at the meeting have not been confirmed; “no other elected official[s]” will be there, according to Mecke. “This meeting is on behalf of our office,” he said.

Federal prosecutors have threatened dispensaries with eviction, landlords with property seizures, and both with imprisonment. Scattered raids have been reported, with patient records being seized at one dispensary in Sacramento.

City Government Eyes Toronto’s Cannabis Vapor Lounges

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Culture, Global, News

memoirsofapothead

Hot Box Cafe in Toronto

By Matt Mernagh

Mernagh.ca

Toronto’s bring-your-own marijuana scene has developed with little political resistance — until recently.

A city council item to conduct a comprehensive review of vapour lounges was sneakily passed during budget debate. Now cannabis-friendly establishments that allow people to come in and consume their own pot on-premise are wondering what’s going to happen next. Toronto Police Service have all the tools necessary to shut these places down right now, but haven’t.

Will city council meddling prompt cops to take a closer examination of their hands off policy?

Colorado Will Ask DEA To Reschedule Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 8, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

Wussup Hater

Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper apparently doesn’t plan to sign a petition from Govs. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island and Chris Gregoire of Washington which asks the federal government to change the classification of marijuana, but Colorado will reportedly file its own request before the end of the year.

Gov. Hickenlooper’s spokesperson told Fox News that the governors have a valid point in pushing the petition, reports Scot Kersgaard at the Colorado Independent.

“The governors in Washington and Rhode Island raise a valid conflict that needs to be resolved,” said Eric Brown, a spokesman for Gov. Hickenlooper. “Colorado law requires that we make a similar ask of the federal government by Jan. 1. We will do that. We will also continue to consult with other governors on the issue and with Colorado’s attorney general before deciding whether anything else will be done.”

NYC Marijuana Arrests Drop Only 13% Since Cops Told To Chill

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2011 News

New York Magazine

The Big Apple is STILL the King of the World for marijuana arrests — even after a 13 percent drop.

Since 1977, possession cases for small amounts of marijuana have been violations in New York — non-arrestable offenses — unless the pot is burning or in plain public view. But despite the existing law, in 2010 one out of every seven arrests in New York City was for marijuana possession “in public view” — even though the vast majority of those arrested did not possess marijuana in public view, as widely reported in The New York Times, WNYC, the Daily News and many other outlets.

These arrests are largely the result of the NYPD stopping and frisking more than half a million mostly young black and Latino men and falsely charging them for marijuana possession “in public view.”

Drug Cops Exposed As Violent, Ineffective Thugs

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2011 News

Kitsap Sun

Now retired, Bremerton cop Roy Alloway was one of WestNET’s top officers. Next month he’s up for sentencing on federal tax fraud and gun dealing charges.

Among defense attorneys, “narcotics officers” have a certain reputation: thuggishly violent goons who enjoy trashing suspects’ homes and bullying children. There’s no better example of why such perceptions exist than the WestNET task force in Washington state.

Reporter Sean Robinson of the Tacoma News Tribune nailed the federally funded task force to the wall in an exposé this week. The well-done piece revealed that the unit, based in Kitsap County and pulling officers from various departments, uses hyper-aggressive tactics and exaggerated claims of effectiveness, reports Nina Shapiro at Seattle Weekly.

Toke of the Town readers may remember that WestNET (West Sound Narcotics Enforcement Team) is the same bunch of wanna-be Rambos who busted into the house of medical marijuana dispensary operator Christine Casey, pulled a gun on her 15-year-old son and took the money from her nine-year-old daughter’s Mickey Mouse Wallet.

Medical Marijuana Ban/Repeal: Long Beach Eyes Third Option

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2011 Dispensaries, Legislation, Medical

LBCA

The fate of the entire American medical marijuana community could depend on decisions made by the City of Long Beach. The recent court ruling of Pack v City of Long Beach could take cannabis medicine away from ailing citizens and lead to lost jobs, lost tax revenue, and increased crime rates.

On Wednesday, December 7, the Long Beach Collective Association (LBCA) submitted amendment language to the mayor, Long Beach City Council, and city attorney, which recommends language that would allow the current ordinance to remain functional under the evolving California law.

This “third option” was drafted by the LBCA’s legal team at the request of Vice Mayor Suja Lowenthal and several other council members at the November 1 council meeting.

Emerald Cup Marijuana Competition Returns To Mendo Saturday

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ on December 7, 2011 Culture, Growing, Products

The Emerald Cup

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

The fabled Emerald Cup is returning to the legendary Mendocino spiritual sanctum, Area 101, this Saturday. As the blurb says, “Proclaimed by Rolling Stone Magazine,’ as the premiere competition in America.'” And they’re not kidding.

The Emerald Cup, “the world’s only outdoor organic cannabis competition,” first lit up on the scene almost a decade ago, with the initial competition bringing in 22 entrees to be judged. Last year, the entries almost reached 150.

But that’s just pot talk. What’s cool about the Emerald Cup? It is so much more than your average medical cannabis bake-off.

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